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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III)
+       A Tale
+
+Author: G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2012 [EBook #39531]
+Last Updated: December 12, 2017
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMUGGLER: (VOL'S I-III) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (Oxford University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=q_QDAAAAQAAJ
+     (Oxford University)
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER:
+
+
+
+                                A Tale
+
+
+
+                       BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+                 "DARNLEY," "DE L'ORME," "RICHELIEU,"
+
+                              ETC. ETC.
+
+
+
+                          IN THREE VOLUMES.
+
+
+                               VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+                 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
+                                1845.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             DEDICATION.
+
+                              *   *   *
+
+                                  TO
+
+                   THE HON. CHARLES EWAN LAW, M.P.
+
+                         RECORDER OF LONDON,
+
+                            ETC. ETC. ETC.
+
+                              *   *   *
+
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+It would be almost superfluous to assure you of my esteem and regard;
+but feelings of personal friendship are rarely assigned as the sole
+motives of a dedication. The qualities, however, which command public
+respect, and the services which have secured it to you in so high a
+degree, must appear a sufficient motive for offering you this slight
+tribute, in the eyes not only of those who know and love you in the
+relations of private life, but of all the many who have marked your
+career, either as a lawyer, alike eminent in learning and in
+eloquence, or as a just, impartial, clear-sighted, and yet merciful
+judge.
+
+You will willingly accept the book, I know, for the sake of the
+author; though, perhaps, you may have neither time nor inclination to
+read it. Accept the dedication, also, I beg, as a sincere testimony of
+respect from one who, having seen a good deal of the world, and
+studied mankind attentively, is not easily induced to reverence or won
+to regard.
+
+When you look upon this page, it will probably call to your mind some
+very pleasant hours, which would doubtless have been as agreeable if I
+had not been there. As I write it, it brings up before my eyes many a
+various scene, of which you and yours were the embellishment and the
+light. At all events, such memories must be pleasant to us both; for
+they refer to days almost without a shadow, when the magistrate and
+the legislator escaped from care and thought, and the laborious man of
+letters cast away his toil.
+
+In the following pages you will find more than one place depicted, as
+familiar to your remembrance as to mine; and if I have taken some
+liberties with a few localities, stolen a mile or two off certain
+distances, or deprived various hills and dales of their due
+proportions, these faults are of a species of petty larceny, on which
+I do not think you will pass a severe sentence, and I hope the public
+will imitate your lenity.
+
+I trust that no very striking errors will meet your eye, for I believe
+I have given a correct picture of the state of society in this good
+county of Kent as it existed some eighty or ninety years ago; and, in
+regard to the events, if you or any of my readers should be inclined
+to exclaim,--"This incident is not probable!" I have an answer ready,
+quite satisfactory to myself, whatever it may be to others; namely,
+that "the improbable incident" is true. All the more wild, stirring,
+and what may be called romantic parts of the tale, are not alone
+_founded_ upon fact, but are facts; and the narrative owes me nothing
+more than a gown owes to a sempstress--namely, the mere sewing of it
+together with a very common-place needle and thread. In short, a few
+characters thrown in for relief, a little love, a good deal of
+landscape, and a few tiresome reflections, are all that I have added
+to a simple relation of transactions well known to many in this part
+of the country as having actually happened, a generation or two ago.
+Among these recorded incidents are the attack of Goudhurst Church by
+the smugglers, its defence by the peasantry, the pursuit, and defeat
+of the free-traders of those days by the Dragoons, the implication of
+some persons of great wealth in the most heinous parts of the
+transaction, the visit of Mowle, the officer, in disguise, to the
+meeting-place of his adversaries, his accidental detection by one of
+them, and the bold and daring man[oe]uvre of the smuggler, Harding, as
+related near the close of the work. Another incident, but too sadly
+true--namely, the horrible deed by which some of the persons taking a
+chief part in the contraband trade called down upon themselves the
+fierce enmity of the peasantry--I have but lightly touched upon, for
+reasons you will understand and appreciate. But it is some
+satisfaction to know that there were just judges in those days, as
+well as at present, and that the perpetrators of one of the most
+brutal crimes on record suffered the punishment they so well merited.
+
+Happily, my dear sir, a dedication, in these days, is no compliment;
+and therefore I can freely offer, and you receive it, as a true and
+simple expression of high respect and regard,
+
+                     From yours faithfully,
+
+                                 G. P. R. JAMES.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THE SMUGGLER
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It is wonderful what improvements have taken place in clocks and
+watches during the last half-century; how accurately the escapements
+are constructed, how delicately the springs are formed, how easily the
+wheels move, and what good time they keep. After all, society is but a
+clock, a very complicated piece of mechanism; and it, too, has
+undergone, in many countries, the same improvements that have taken
+place in the little ticking machines that we put in our pockets, or
+those greater indicators of our progress towards eternity that we hang
+upon our walls. From the wooden clock, with its weight and catgut, to
+the exquisite chronometer which varies only by a second or two in the
+course of the year, what a vast advance! and between even a period
+which many still living can remember, and that in which I now write,
+what a change has taken place in the machinery and organization of the
+land in which we dwell!
+
+In the times which I am about to depict, though feudal ages were gone,
+though no proud barons ruled the country round from castle and
+stronghold, though the tumultuous times of the great rebellion had
+also passed away, and men in buff and bandolier no longer preached, or
+fought, or robbed, or tyrannized under the name of law and liberty,
+though the times of the second Charles and the second James, William
+and Mary, and good Queen Anne, falling collars, and hats and plumes,
+and floating wigs and broad-tailed coats, were all gone--bundled away
+into the great lumber-room of the Past--still, dear reader, there was
+a good deal of the wooden clock about the mechanism of society.
+
+One of the parts in which rudeness of construction and coarseness of
+material were most apparent, was in the Customs system of the country,
+and in the impediments which it met with. The escapement was anything
+but fine. Nowadays we do things delicately. If we wish to cheat the
+government, we forge Exchequer bills, or bribe landing-waiters and
+supervisors, or courteously insinuate to a superior officer that a
+thousand pounds is not too great a mark of gratitude for enabling us
+to pocket twenty thousand at the expense of the Customs. If we wish to
+cheat the public, there is chalk for our milk, grains of paradise for
+our beer, sago and old rags for our sugar, lime for our linen, and
+devils' dust to cover our backs. Chemistry and electricity, steam and
+galvanism, all lend their excellent aid to the cheat, the swindler,
+and the thief; and if a man is inclined to keep himself within
+respectable limits, and deceive himself and others at the same time
+with perfect good faith and due decorum, are there not hom[oe]opathy,
+hydropathy, and mesmerism?
+
+In the days I speak of it was not so. There was a grander roughness
+and daringness about both our rogues and our theorists. None but a
+small villain would consent to be a swindler. We had more robbers than
+cheats; and if a man chose to be an impostor, it was with all the
+dignity and decision of a Psalmanazor, or a bottle conjuror. Gunpowder
+and lead were the only chemical agents employed; a bludgeon was the
+animal magnetism most in vogue, and your senses and your person were
+attacked and knocked down upon the open road without having the heels
+of either delicately tripped up by some one you did not see.
+
+Still this difference was more apparent in the system of smuggling
+than in anything else, and the whole plan, particulars, course of
+action, and results were so completely opposed to anything that is, or
+can be in the present day--the scenes, the characters, the very
+localities have so totally changed, that it may be necessary to pause
+a moment before we go on to tell our tale, in order to give some sort
+of description of the state of the country bordering on the sea-coast,
+at the period to which I allude.
+
+Scarcely any one of the maritime counties was in those days without
+its gang of smugglers; for if France was not opposite, Holland was not
+far off; and if brandy was not the object, nor silk, nor wine, yet tea
+and cinnamon, and hollands, and various East India goods, were things
+duly estimated by the British public, especially when they could be
+obtained without the payment of Custom-house dues. But besides the
+inducements to smuggling which the high price that those dues imposed
+upon certain articles, held out, it must be remembered that various
+other commodities were totally prohibited, and, as an inevitable
+consequence, were desired and sought for more than any others. The
+nature of both man and woman, from the time of Adam and Eve down to
+the present day, has always been fond of forbidden fruit; and it
+mattered not a pin whether the goods were really better or worse, so
+that they were prohibited, men would risk their necks to get them. The
+system of prevention also was very inefficient, and a few scattered
+Custom-House officers, aided by a cruiser here or there upon the
+coast, had an excellent opportunity of getting their throats cut or
+their heads broken, or of making a decent livelihood by conniving at
+the transactions they were sent down to stop, as the peculiar
+temperament of each individual might render such operations pleasant
+to him. Thus, to use one of the smugglers' own expressions--a
+_roaring_ trade in contraband goods was going on along the whole
+British coast, with very little let or hindrance.
+
+As there are land-sharks and water-sharks, so were there then (and so
+are there now) land-smugglers and water-smugglers. The latter brought
+the objects of their commerce, either from foreign countries or from
+foreign vessels, and landed them on the coast--and a bold, daring,
+reckless body of men they were; the former, in gangs, consisting
+frequently of many hundreds, generally well mounted and armed,
+conveyed the commodities so landed into the interior, and distributed
+them to others, who retailed them as occasion required. Nor were these
+gentry one whit less fearless, enterprising, and lawless than their
+brethren of the sea.
+
+We have not yet done, however, with all the ramifications of this vast
+and magnificent league, for it extended itself, in the districts where
+it existed, to almost every class of society. Each tradesman smuggled
+or dealt in smuggled goods; each public house was supported by
+smugglers, and gave them in return every facility possible; each
+country gentleman on the coast dabbled a little in the interesting
+traffic; almost every magistrate shared in the proceeds or partook of
+the commodities. Scarcely a house but had its place of concealment,
+which would accommodate either kegs or bales, or human beings, as the
+case might be; and many streets in sea-port towns had private passages
+from one house to another, so that the gentleman inquired for by the
+officers at No. 1 was often walking quietly out of No. 20, while they
+were searching for him in vain. The back of one street had always
+excellent means of communication with the front of another; and the
+gardens gave exit to the country with as little delay as possible.
+
+Of all counties, however, the most favoured by nature and by art for
+the very pleasant and exciting sport of smuggling, was the county of
+Kent; its geographical position, its local features, its variety of
+coast, all afforded it the greatest advantages; and the daring
+character of the natives on the shores of the Channel was sure to turn
+those advantages to the purposes in question. Sussex, indeed, was not
+without its share of facilities, nor did the Sussex men fail to
+improve them; but they were so much farther off from the opposite
+coast, that the commerce--which we may well call the regular
+trade--was, at Hastings, Rye, and Winchelsea, in no degree to be
+compared to that which was carried on from the North Foreland to
+Romney Hoy.
+
+At one time, the fine level of "The Marsh," a dark night and a fair
+wind, afforded a delightful opportunity for landing a cargo and
+carrying it rapidly into the interior; at another time, Sandwich Flats
+and Pevensey Bay presented a harbour of refuge, and a place of repose
+to kegs innumerable and bales of great value; at another period, the
+cliffs round Folkestone and near the South Foreland, saw spirits
+travelling up by paths which seemed inaccessible to mortal foot; and
+at another, the wild and broken ground at the back of Sandgate was
+traversed by long trains of horses, escorting or carrying every
+description of contraband articles.
+
+The interior of the country was not less favourable to the traffic
+than the coast: large masses of wood, numerous gentlemen's parks,
+hills and dales tossed about in wild confusion; roads such as nothing
+but horses could travel, or men on foot, often constructed with felled
+trees or broad stones laid side by side; wide tracts of ground, partly
+copse and partly moor, called in that county "minnisses;" and a long
+extent of the Weald of Kent, through which no high way existed, and
+where such thing as coach or carriage was never seen, offered the land
+smugglers opportunities of carrying on their transactions with the
+degree of secrecy and safety which no other county afforded. Their
+numbers, too, were so great, their boldness and violence so notorious,
+their powers of injuring or annoying so various, that even those who
+took no part in their operations were glad to connive at their
+proceedings, and at times to aid in concealing their persons or their
+goods. Not a park, not a wood, not a barn, did not at some period
+afford them a refuge when pursued, or become a depository for their
+commodities; and many a man, on visiting his stable or his cart-shed
+early in the morning, found it tenanted by anything but horses or
+wagons. The churchyards were frequently crowded at night by other
+spirits than those of the dead, and not even the church was exempted
+from such visitations.
+
+None of the people of the county took notice of, or opposed these
+proceedings; the peasantry laughed at, or aided, and very often got a
+good day's work, or, at all events, a jug of genuine hollands from the
+friendly smugglers; the clerk and the sexton willingly aided and
+abetted, and opened the door of vault, or vestry, or church, for the
+reception of the passing goods; the clergyman shut his eyes if he saw
+tubs or stone jars in his way; and it is remarkable what good brandy
+punch was generally to be found at the house of the village pastor.
+The magistrates of the county, when called upon to aid in pursuit of
+the smugglers, looked grave, and swore in constables very slowly;
+despatched servants on horseback to see what was going on, and ordered
+the steward or the butler to "_send the sheep to the wood_," an
+intimation that was not lost upon those for whom it was intended. The
+magistrates and officers of seaport towns were in general so deeply
+implicated in the trade themselves, that smuggling had a fairer chance
+than the law, in any case that came before them, and never was a more
+hopeless enterprise undertaken, in ordinary circumstances, than that
+of convicting a smuggler, unless captured in flagrant delict.
+
+Were it only our object to depict the habits and manners of these
+worthy people, we might take any given part of the seaward side of
+Kent that we chose for particular description, for it was all the
+same. No railroads had penetrated through the country then; no coast
+blockade was established; even martello-towers were unknown; and in
+the general confederacy or understanding which existed throughout the
+whole of the county, the officers found it nearly a useless task to
+attempt to execute their duty. Nevertheless, as it is a tale I have to
+tell, not a picture to paint, I may as well dwell for a few minutes
+upon the scene of the principal adventures about to be related. A long
+range of hills, varying greatly in height and steepness, runs nearly
+down the centre of the county of Kent, throwing out spurs or
+buttresses in different directions, and sometimes leaving broad and
+beautiful valleys between. The origin or base, if we may so call it,
+of this range is the great Surrey chain of hills; not that it is
+perfectly connected with that chain, for in many places a separation
+is found, through which the Medway, the Stour, and several smaller
+rivers wind onward to the Thames or to the sea; but still the general
+connexion is sufficiently marked, and from Dover and Folkestone, by
+Chart, Lenham, Maidstone, and Westerham on the one side, and Barham,
+Harbledown, and Rochester on the other, the road runs generally over a
+long line of elevated ground, only dipping down here and there to
+visit some town or city of importance which has nested itself in one
+of the lateral valleys, or strayed out into the plain.
+
+On the northern side of the county, a considerable extent of flat
+ground extends along the bank and estuary of the Thames from Greenwich
+to Sandwich and Deal. On the southern side, a still wider extent lies
+between the high-land and the borders of Sussex. This plain or valley
+as perhaps it may be called, terminates at the sea by the renowned
+flat of Romney Marsh. Farther up, somewhat narrowing as it goes, it
+takes the name of the Weald of Kent, comprising some very rich land
+and a number of small villages, with one or two towns of no very great
+importance. This Weald of Kent is bordered all along by the southern
+side of the hilly range we have mentioned; but strange to say,
+although a very level piece of ground was to be had through this
+district, the high road perversely pursued its way up and down the
+hills, by Lenham and Charing, till it thought fit to descend to
+Ashford, and thence once more make its way to Folkestone. Thus a great
+part of the Weald of Kent was totally untravelled; and at one village
+of considerable size, which now hears almost hourly the panting and
+screaming steam-engine whirled by, along its iron course, I have
+myself seen the whole population of the place turn out to behold the
+wonderful phenomenon of a coach-and-four, the first that was ever
+beheld in the place. Close to the sea the hills are bare enough; but
+at no great distance inland, they become rich in wood, and the Weald,
+whether arable or pasture, or hop-garden or orchard, is so divided
+into small fields by numerous hedgerows of fine trees, and so
+diversified by patches of woodland, that, seen at a little distance up
+the hill--not high enough to view it like a map--it assumes, in the
+leafy season, almost the look of a forest partially cleared.
+
+Along the southern edge, then, of the hills we have mentioned, and in
+the plainer valley that stretches away from their feet, among the
+woods, and hedgerows, and villages, and parks which embellish that
+district, keeping generally in Kent, but sometimes trespassing a
+little upon the fair county of Sussex, lies the scene of the tale
+which is to follow, at a period when the high calling, or vocation, of
+smuggling was in its most palmy days. But, ere I proceed to conduct
+the reader into the actual locality where the principal events here
+recorded really took place, I must pause for an instant in the
+capital, to introduce him to one or two travelling companions.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+It was in the gray of the morning--and very gray, indeed, the morning
+was, with much more black than white in the air, much more of night
+still remaining in the sky than of day appearing in the east--when,
+from the old Golden Cross, Charing Cross, or rather from the low and
+narrow archway which, at that time, gave exit from its yard into the
+open street exactly opposite the statue of King Charles, issued forth
+a vehicle which had not long lost the name of diligence, and assumed
+that of stage-coach. Do not let the reader delude himself into the
+belief that it was like the stage-coach of his own recollections in
+any other respect than in having four wheels, and two doors, and
+windows. Let not fancy conjure up before him flat sides of a bright
+claret colour, and a neat boot as smooth and shining as a looking
+glass, four bays, or browns, or greys, three-parts blood, and a
+coachman the pink of all propriety. Nothing of the kind was there. The
+vehicle was large and roomy, capable of containing within, at least,
+six travellers of large size. It was hung in a somewhat straggling
+manner upon its almost upright springs, and was elevated far above any
+necessary pitch. The top was decorated with round iron rails on either
+side; and multitudinous were the packages collected upon the space so
+enclosed; while a large cage-like instrument behind contained one or
+two travellers, and a quantity of parcels. The colour of the sides was
+yellow, but the numerous inscriptions which they bore in white
+characters left little of the groundwork to be seen; for the name of
+every place at which the coach stopped was there written for the
+convenience of travellers who might desire to visit any town upon the
+road; so that each side seemed more like a leaf out of a topographical
+dictionary of the county of Kent than anything else. Underneath
+the carriage was a large wicker basket, or cradle, also filled with
+trunk-mails, and various other contrivances for holding the goods and
+chattels of passengers; and the appearance of the whole was as
+lumbering and heavy as that of a hippopotamus. The coachman mounted on
+the box was a very different looking animal even from our friend Mr.
+Weller, though the inimitable portrait of that gentleman is now, alas,
+but a record of an extinct creature! However, as we have little to do
+with the driver of the coach, I shall not pause to give a long account
+of his dress or appearance; and, only noticing that the horses before
+him formed as rough and shambling a team of nags as ever were seen,
+shall proceed to speak of the travellers who occupied the interior of
+the vehicle.
+
+Although, as we have seen, the coach would have conveniently contained
+six, it was now only tenanted by three persons. The first, who had
+entered at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, was a tall, thin, elderly
+gentleman, dressed with scrupulous care and neatness. His linen and
+his neckcloth were as white as snow, his shoes, his silk stockings,
+his coat, his waistcoat, and his breeches as black as jet; his hat was
+in the form of a Banbury cake; the buckles in his shoes and at his
+knees were large and resplendent; and a gold-headed cane was in his
+hand. To keep him from the cold, he had provided himself with a
+garment which would either serve for a cloak or a coat, as he might
+find agreeable, being extensive enough for the former, and having
+sleeves to enable it to answer the purpose of the latter. His hair and
+eyebrows were as white as driven snow, but his eyes were still keen,
+quick, and lively. His colour was high, his teeth were remarkably
+fine, and the expression of his countenance was both intelligent and
+benevolent, though there was a certain degree of quickness in the turn
+of the eyes, which, together with a sudden contraction of the brow
+when anything annoyed him, and a mobility of the lips, seemed to
+betoken a rather hasty and irascible spirit.
+
+He had not been in the coach more than a minute and a half--but was
+beginning to look at a huge watch which he drew from his fob, and to
+"pish" at the coachman for being a minute behind his time--when he was
+joined by two other travellers of a very different appearance and age
+from himself. The one who entered first was a well-made, powerful man,
+who might be either six-and-twenty or two-and-thirty. He could not
+well be younger than the first of those two terms, for he had all the
+breadth and vigorous proportions of fully-developed manhood. He could
+not be well older than the latter, for not a trace of passing years,
+no wrinkle, no furrow, no grayness of hair, no loss of any youthful
+grace was apparent. Although covered by a large rough coat, then
+commonly called a wrap-rascal, of the coarsest materials and the
+rudest form, there was something in his demeanour and his look which
+at once denoted the gentleman. His hat, too, his gloves, and his
+boots, which were the only other parts of his dress that the loose
+coat we have mentioned suffered to be seen, were all not only good,
+but of the best quality. Though his complexion was dark, and his skin
+bronzed almost to a mahogany colour by exposure to sun and wind, the
+features were all fine and regular, and the expression high toned, but
+somewhat grave, and even sad. He seated himself quietly in the corner
+of the coach, with his back to the horses; and folding his arms upon
+his broad chest, gazed out of the window with an abstracted look,
+though his eyes were turned towards a man with a lantern who was
+handing something up to the coachman. Thus the old gentleman on the
+opposite side had a full view of his countenance, and seemed, by the
+gaze which he fixed upon it, to study it attentively.
+
+The second of the two gentlemen I have mentioned entered immediately
+after the first, and was about the same age, but broader in make, and
+not quite so tall. He was dressed in the height of the mode of that
+day; and, though not in uniform, bore about him several traces of
+military costume, which were, indeed, occasionally affected by the
+dapper shopmen of that period, when they rode up Rotten Row or walked
+the Mall, but which harmonized so well with his whole appearance and
+demeanour, as to leave no doubt of their being justly assumed. His
+features were not particularly good, but far from ugly, his complexion
+fair, his hair strong and curly; and he would have passed rather for a
+handsome man than otherwise, had not a deep scar, as if from a
+sabre-wound, traversed his right cheek and part of his upper lip. His
+aspect was gay, lively, and good-humoured, and yet there were some
+strong lines of thought about his brow, with a slightly sarcastic turn
+of the muscles round the corner of his mouth and nostrils. On
+entering, he seated himself opposite the second traveller, but without
+speaking to him, so that the old gentleman who first tenanted the
+coach could not tell whether they came together or not; and the moment
+after they had entered, the door was closed, the clerk of the inn
+looked at the way-bill, the coachman bestowed two or three strokes of
+his heavy whip on the flanks of his dull cattle, and the lumbering
+machine moved heavily out, and rolled away towards Westminster Bridge.
+
+The lights which were under the archway had enabled the travellers to
+see each other's faces, but when once they had got into the street,
+the thickness of the air, and the grayness of the dawn, rendered
+everything indistinct, except the few scattered globe lamps which
+still remained blinking at the sides of the pavement. The old
+gentleman sunk back in his corner, wrapped his cloak about him for a
+nap, and was soon in the land of forgetfulness. His slumbers did not
+continue very long, however; and when he woke up at the Loompit Hill,
+he found the sky all rosy with the beams of the rising sun, the
+country air light and cheerful, and his two companions talking
+together in familiar tones. After rousing himself, and putting down
+the window, he passed about five minutes either in contemplating the
+hedges by the roadside, all glittering in the morning dew, or in
+considering the faces of his two fellow-travellers, and making up his
+mind as to their characters and qualities. At the end of that time, as
+they had now ceased speaking, he said--
+
+"A beautiful day, gentlemen. I was sure it would be so when we set
+out."
+
+The darker and the graver traveller made no reply, but the other
+smiled good-humouredly, and inquired--
+
+"May I ask by what you judged, for to me the morning seemed to promise
+anything but fine weather?"
+
+"Two things--two things, my dear sir," answered the gentleman in
+black. "An old proverb and a bad almanack."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the other. "I should have thought it a very good
+almanack if it told me to a certainty what sort of weather it would
+be."
+
+"Ay, but how did it tell me?" rejoined the elderly traveller, leaning
+his hand upon the gold head of his cane. "It declared we should have
+torrents of rain. Now, sir, the world is composed of a great mass of
+fools with a small portion of sensible men, who, like a little
+quantity of yeast in a large quantity of dough, make the dumpling not
+quite so bad as it might be. Of all the fools that I ever met with,
+however, the worst are scientific fools, for they apply themselves to
+tell all the other fools in the world that of which they themselves
+know nothing, or at all events very little, which is worse. I have
+examined carefully, in the course of a long life, how to deal with
+these gentry, and I find that if you believe the exact reverse of any
+information they give you, you will be right nine hundred and
+ninety-seven times out of a thousand. I made a regular calculation of
+it some years ago; and although at first sight it would seem that the
+chances are equal, that these men should be right or wrong, I found
+the result as I have stated, and have acted upon it ever since in
+perfect security. If they trusted to mere guess work, the chances
+might, perhaps, be equal, but they make such laborious endeavours to
+lead themselves wrong, and so studiously avoid everything that could
+lead them right, that the proportion is vastly against them."
+
+"If such be their course of proceeding, the result will be naturally
+as you say," answered the gentleman to whom he spoke; "but I should
+think that as the variations of the weather must proceed from natural
+causes constantly recurring, observation and calculation might arrive
+at some certainty regarding them."
+
+"Hold the sea in the hollow of your hand," cried the old gentleman,
+impatiently; "make the finite contain the infinite; put twenty
+thousand gallons into a pint pot,--and when you have done all that,
+then calculate the causes that produce rain to-day and wind to-morrow,
+or sunshine one day and clouds the next. Men say the same cause
+acting under the same circumstances will always produce the same
+effect--good; I grant that, merely for the sake of argument. But I
+contend that the same effect may be produced by a thousand causes or
+more. A man knocks you down; you fall: that's the effect produced by
+one cause; but a fit of apoplexy may make you fall exactly in the same
+way. Then apply the cause at the other end if you like, and trip your
+foot over a stone, or over some bunches of long grass that mischievous
+boys have tied across the path--down you come, just as if a
+quarrelsome companion had tapped you on the head. No, no, sir; the
+only way of ascertaining what the weather will be from one hour to
+another is by a barometer. That's not very sure, and the best I know
+of is a cow's tail, or a piece of dried seaweed. But these men of
+science, they do nothing but go out mare's-nesting from morning till
+night, and a precious number of horses' eggs they have found!"
+
+Thus commenced a conversation which lasted for some time, and in which
+the younger traveller seemed to find some amusement, plainly
+perceiving, what the reader has already discovered, that his elderly
+companion was an oddity. The other tenant of the coach made no
+observation, but remained with his arms folded on his chest, sometimes
+looking out of the window, sometimes gazing down at his own knee in
+deep thought. About ten miles from town the coach passed some led
+horses, with the grooms that were conducting them; and, as is natural
+for young men, both the old gentleman's fellow-travellers put their
+heads to the window, and examined the animals with a scrutinizing eye.
+
+"Fine creatures, fine creatures--horses!" said the gentleman in black.
+
+"Those are very fine ones," answered the graver of the two young men;
+"I think I never saw better points about any beast than that black
+charger."
+
+"Ay, sir; you are a judge of horse-flesh, I suppose," rejoined the old
+gentleman; "but I was speaking of horses in the abstract. They are
+noble creatures indeed; and as matters have fallen out in this world,
+I can't help thinking that there is a very bad arrangement, and that
+those at the top of the tree should be a good way down. If all
+creatures had their rights, man would not be the cock of the walk, as
+he is now--a feeble, vain, self-sufficient, sensual monkey, who has no
+farther advantages over other apes than being able to speak and cook
+his dinner."
+
+"May I ask," inquired the livelier of the two young men, "what is the
+gentlemanly beast you would put over his head?"
+
+"A great many--a great many," replied the other. "Dogs,
+horses--elephants, certainly; I think elephants at the top. I am not
+sure how I would class lions and tigers, who decidedly have one
+advantage over man, that of being stronger and nobler beasts of prey.
+He is only at the head of the tribe Simia, and should be described by
+naturalists as the largest, cunningest, and most gluttinous of
+baboons."
+
+The gay traveller laughed aloud; and even his grave companion smiled,
+saying, drily, "On my life, I believe there's some truth in it."
+
+"Truth, sir!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "It's as true as we are
+living. How dare man compare himself to a dog? an animal with greater
+sagacity, stronger affections, infinitely more honour and honesty, a
+longer memory, and a truer heart. I would not be a man if I could be a
+dog, I can assure you."
+
+"Many a man leads the life of a dog," said the gay traveller. "I'm
+sure I have, for the last five or six years."
+
+"If you have led as honest a life, sir," rejoined the old man, "you
+may be very proud of it."
+
+What the other would have answered cannot be told, for at that moment
+the coach stopped to change horses, which was an operation in those
+days, occupying about a quarter of an hour, and the whole party got
+out and went into the little inn to obtain some breakfast; for between
+London and Folkestone, which was to be the ultimate resting-place of
+the vehicle, two hours and a half, upon the whole, were consumed with
+breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper. Thus any party of travellers
+proceeding together throughout the entire journey, had a much better
+opportunity of becoming thoroughly acquainted with each other than
+many a man has before marriage with the wife he takes to his bosom.
+
+Though the conversation of the old gentleman was, as the reader has
+perceived, somewhat morose and misanthropical, he showed himself very
+polite and courteous at the breakfast table, made the tea, carved the
+ham, and asked every man if he took cream and sugar. What wonderful
+things little attentions are--how they smooth down our asperities and
+soften us to one another! The two younger gentlemen had looked upon
+their elderly companion merely as that curious compound which we have
+before mentioned--an oddity, and which, like a pinch of strong snuff,
+stimulates us without being very pleasant; but now they began to think
+him a very nice old gentleman, and even the graver of the pair
+conversed with him almost cheerfully for the short space of time their
+meal occupied. When they had finished, and paid the score, the whole
+party walked out together to the front of the house, where they found
+a poor beggar woman with a child in her arms. Each gave her something,
+but the elderly man stopped to inquire farther, and the others walked
+up and down for a few minutes, till the coachman, who was making
+himself comfortable by the absorption of his breakfast, and the horses
+who were undergoing the opposite process in the application of their
+harness, at length made their appearance. The two younger gentlemen
+turned their eyes from time to time, as they walked, to their elderly
+friend, who seemed to be scolding the poor woman most vehemently. His
+keen black eyes sparkled, his brow contracted, he spoke with great
+volubility, and demonstrated somewhat largely with the forefinger of
+his right hand. What were their internal comments upon this conduct
+did not appear; but both were a good deal surprised to see him, in the
+end, put his hand into his breeches pocket, draw forth a piece of
+money--it was not silver for it was yellow, and it was not copper for
+it was too bright--and slip it quietly into the poor woman's palm. He
+next gave a quiet, almost a timid glance around, to see if any one
+were looking, and then stepped rapidly into the coach, as if he were
+ashamed of what he had done. During all this proceeding he had taken
+no notice of his two companions, nor at all listened to what they were
+talking of; but as they entered the vehicle, while the horses were
+being put to, the one said to the other, "I think you had better do
+so, a great deal. It is as well to have the _carte du pays_ before one
+commences operations."
+
+"Well," replied the other, "you take the lead, Edward. The wound is
+still painful, though it is an old one."
+
+What they were talking of their companion could not tell; but it
+excited, in some degree, his curiosity; and the manners of his two
+companions had, to say the truth, pleased him, though he was one of
+those men who, with very benevolent feelings at the bottom, are but
+little inclined to acknowledge that they are well pleased with
+anything or with anybody. For a moment or two all parties were silent;
+but the elderly gentleman was the first to begin, saying, in a more
+placable and complimentary tone than he was in general accustomed to
+use, "I hope I am to have the pleasure of your society, gentlemen, to
+the end of my journey?"
+
+"I rather think we shall be your companions as far as you go," replied
+the gayer of the two young men, "for we are wending down to the far,
+wild parts of Kent; and it is probable you will not go beyond
+Folkestone, unless, indeed, you are about to cross the seas."
+
+"Not I," exclaimed the old gentleman--"I have crossed the seas enough
+in my day, and never intend to set my foot out of my own country
+again, till four stout fellows carry me to the churchyard. No, no;
+you'll journey beyond me a long way, for I am only going to a little
+place called Harbourne, some distance on the Sussex side of
+Folkestone: a place quite out of the world, with no bigger a town near
+it than Cranbrook, and where we see the face of a human creature above
+the rank of a farmer, or a smuggler about once in the year--always
+excepting the parson of the parish."
+
+"Then you turn off from Maidstone?" said the graver traveller, looking
+steadfastly in his face.
+
+"No, I don't," replied the other. "Never, my dear sir, come to
+conclusions where you don't know the premises. I go, on the contrary,
+to Ashford, where I intend to sleep. I am there to be joined by a
+worthy brother of mine, and then we return together to Cranbrook. You
+are quite right, indeed, that my best and straightest road would be,
+as you say, from Maidstone; but we can't always take the straightest
+road in this world, though young men think they can, and old men only
+learn too late that they cannot."
+
+"I have good reason to know the fact," said the gayer of his two
+fellow travellers; "I myself am going to the very same part of the
+country you mention, but have to proceed still farther out of my way;
+for I must visit Hythe and Folkestone first."
+
+"Indeed, indeed!" exclaimed their elderly friend. "Do you know any
+body in that part of Kent?--Have you ever been there before?"
+
+"Never," replied the other; "nor have I ever seen the persons I am
+going to see. What sort of a country is it?"
+
+"Bless the young man's life!" exclaimed the gentleman in black, "does
+he expect me to give him a long picturesque description of St.
+Augustine's Lathe? If you wish to know my opinion of it, it is as wild
+and desolate a part of the world as the backwoods of America, and the
+people little better than American savages. You'll find plenty of
+trees, a few villages, some farm-houses, one or two gentlemen's
+seats--they had better have called them stools--a stream or two, a
+number of hills and things of that kind; and your humble servant, who
+would be very happy to see you, if you are not a smuggler, and are
+coming to that part of the country."
+
+"I shall not fail to pay my respects to you," replied the gentleman to
+whom he spoke; "but I must first know who I am to inquire for."
+
+"Pay your respect where it is due, my dear sir," rejoined the other.
+"You can't tell a whit whether I deserve any respect or not. You'll
+find out all that by and by. As to what I am called, I could give you
+half a dozen names. Some people call me the Bear, some people the
+Nabob, some the Misanthrope; but my real name--that which I am known
+by at the post-office--is Mr. Zachary Croyland, brother of the man who
+has Harbourne House: a younger brother too, by God's blessing--and a
+great blessing it is."
+
+"It is lucky when every man is pleased with his situation," answered
+his young acquaintance. "Most elder brothers thank God for making them
+such, and I have often had cause to do the same."
+
+"It's the greatest misfortune that can happen to a man," exclaimed the
+old gentleman, eagerly. "What are elder brothers, but people who are
+placed by fate in the most desperate and difficult circumstances.
+Spoilt and indulged in their infancy, taught to be vain and idle and
+conceited from the cradle, deprived of every inducement to the
+exertion of mind, corrupted by having always their own way, sheltered
+from all the friendly buffets of the world, and left, like a pond in a
+gravel pit, to stagnate or evaporate without stirring. Nine times out
+of ten from mere inanition they fall into every sort of vice; forget
+that they have duties as well as privileges, think that the slice of
+the world that has been given to them is entirely at their own
+pleasure and disposal, spend their fortunes, encumber their estates,
+bully their wives and their servants, indulge their eldest son till he
+is just such a piece of unkneaded dough as themselves, kick out their
+younger sons into the world without a farthing, and break their
+daughters' hearts by forcing them to marry men they hate. That's what
+elder brothers are made for; and to be one, I say again, is the
+greatest curse that can fall upon a man. But come, now I have told you
+my name, tell me yours. That's but a fair exchange you know, and no
+robbery, and I hate going on calling people 'sir' for ever."
+
+"Quite a just demand," replied the gentleman whom he addressed, "and
+you shall immediately have the whole particulars. My name is Digby, a
+poor major in his Majesty's ---- regiment of Dragoons, to whom the two
+serious misfortunes have happened of being born an eldest son, and
+having a baronetcy thrust upon him."
+
+"Couldn't be worse--couldn't be worse!" replied the old gentleman,
+laughing. "And so you are Sir Edward Digby! Oh yes. I can tell you,
+you are expected, and have been so these three weeks. The whole
+matter's laid out for you in every house in the country. You are to
+marry every unmarried woman in the hundred. The young men expect you
+to do nothing but hunt foxes, course hares, and shoot partridges from
+morning till night; and the old men have made up their minds that you
+shall drink port, claret, or madeira, as the case may be, from night
+till morning. I pity you--upon my life, I pity you. What between love
+and wine and field sports, you'll have a miserable time of it! Take
+care how you speak a single word to any single woman! Don't even smile
+upon Aunt Barbara, or she'll make you a low curtsey, and say 'You must
+ask my brother about the settlement, my dear Edward.' Ha, ha, ha!" and
+he laughed a long, merry, hearty peal, that made the rumbling vehicle
+echo again. Then putting the gold-headed cane to his lips, he turned a
+sly glance upon the other traveller, who was only moved to a very
+faint smile by all the old gentleman's merriment, asking, "Does this
+gentleman come with you?--Are you to be made a martyr of too, sir? Are
+you to be set running after foxes all day, like a tiger on horseback,
+and to have sheep's eyes cast at you all the evening, like a man in
+the pillory pelted with eggs? Are you bound to imbibe a butt of claret
+in three weeks? Poor young men--poor young men! My bowels of
+compassion yearn towards you."
+
+"I shall fortunately escape all such perils," replied he whom he had
+last addressed--"I have no invitation to that part of the country."
+
+"Come, then, I'll give you one," said the old gentleman; "if you like
+to come and stay a few days with an old bachelor, who will neither
+make you drunk nor make you foolish, I shall be glad to see you."
+
+"I am not very likely to get drunk," answered the other, "as an old
+wound compels me to be a water drinker. Foolish enough I may be, and
+may have been; but, I am sure, that evil would not be increased by
+frequenting your society, my dear sir."
+
+"I don't know--I don't know, young gentleman," said Mr. Croyland:
+"every man has his follies, and I amongst the rest as goodly a
+bag-full as one could well desire. But you have not given me an
+answer; shall I see you? Will you come with your friend, and take up
+your abode at a single man's house, while Sir Edward goes and charms
+the ladies."
+
+"I cannot come with him, I am afraid," replied the young gentleman,
+"for I must remain with the regiment some time; but I will willingly
+accept your invitation, and join him in a week or two."
+
+"Oh you're in the same regiment, are you?" asked Mr. Croyland; "it's
+not a whole regiment of elder sons, I hope?"
+
+"Oh no," answered the other, "I have the still greater misfortune of
+being an only son; and the greater one still, of being an orphan."
+
+"And may I know your style and denomination?" said Mr. Croyland.
+
+"Oh, Osborn, Osborn!" cried Sir Edward Digby, before his friend could
+speak, "Captain Osborn of the ---- Dragoons."
+
+"I will put that down in my note-book," rejoined the old gentleman.
+"The best friend I ever had was named Osborn. He couldn't be your
+father, though, for he had no children, poor fellow! and was never
+married, which was the only blessing Heaven ever granted him, except a
+good heart and a well-regulated mind. His sister married my old
+schoolfellow, Leyton--but that's a bad story, and a sad story, though
+now it's an old story, too."
+
+"Indeed!" said Sir Edward Digby; "I'm fond of old stories if they are
+good ones."
+
+"But, I told you this was a bad one, Sir Ned," rejoined the old
+gentleman sharply; "and as my brother behaved very ill to poor Leyton,
+the less we say of it the better. The truth is," he continued, for he
+was one of those who always refuse to tell a story, and tell it after
+all, "Leyton was rector of a living which was in my brother's gift. He
+was only to hold it, however, till my youngest nephew was of age to
+take it; but when the boy died--as they both did sooner or
+later--Leyton held the living on, and thought it was his own, till one
+day there came a quarrel between him and my brother, and then Robert
+brought forward his letter promising to resign when called upon, and
+drove him out. I wasn't here then; but I have heard all about it
+since, and a bad affair it was. It should not have happened if I had
+been here, for Bob has a shrewd eye to the nabob's money, as well he
+may, seeing that he's----but that's no business of mine. If he chooses
+to dribble through his fortune, Heaven knows how, I've nothing to do
+with it! The two poor girls will suffer."
+
+"What, your brother has two fair daughters then, has he?" demanded Sir
+Edward Digby. "I suppose it is under the artillery of their glances I
+am first to pass; for, doubtless, you know I am going to your
+brother's."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know--I know all about it!" replied Mr. Croyland. "They
+tell me everything as in duty bound--that's to say, everything they
+don't wish to conceal. But I'm consulted like an oracle upon all
+things unimportant; for he that was kicked out with a sixpence into
+the wide world, has grown a wonderful great man since the sixpence has
+multiplied itself. As to your having to pass under the artillery of
+the girls' glances, however, you must take care of yourself; for you
+might stand a less dangerous fire, I can tell you, even in a field of
+battle. But I'll give you one warning for your safeguard. You may make
+love to little Zara as long as you like--think of the fools calling
+her Zara! Though she'll play a pretty game of picquet with you, you
+may chance to win it; but you must not dangle after Edith, or you will
+burn your fingers. She'll not have you, if you were twenty baronets,
+and twenty majors of Dragoons into the bargain. She has got some of
+the fancies of the old uncle about her, and is determined to die an
+old maid, I can see."
+
+"Oh, the difficulty of the enterprise would only be a soldier's reason
+for undertaking it!" said Sir Edward Digby.
+
+"It wont do--it wont do;" answered Mr. Croyland, laughing; "you may
+think yourself very captivating, very conquering, quite a look-and-die
+man, as all you people in red jackets fancy yourselves, but it will be
+all lost labour with Edith, I can tell you."
+
+"You excite all the martial ardour in my soul!" exclaimed Digby, with
+a gay smile; "and if she be not forty, hump-backed, or one eyed, by
+the fates you shall see what you shall see."
+
+"Forty!" cried Mr. Croyland; "why she's but two-and-twenty, man!--a
+great deal straighter than that crouching wench in white marble they
+call the 'Venus de Medici,' and with a pair of eyes, that, on my life,
+I think would have made me forswear celibacy, if I had found such
+looking at me, any time before I reached fifty!"
+
+"Do you hear that, Osborn?" cried Sir Edward Digby. "Here's a fine
+field for an adventurous spirit. I shall have the start of you, my
+friend; and in the wilds of Kent, what may not be done in ten days or
+a fortnight?"
+
+His companion only answered by a melancholy smile; and the
+conversation went on between the old gentleman and the young baronet
+till they reached the small town of Lenham, where they stopped again
+to dine. There, however, Mr. Croyland drew Sir Edward Digby aside, and
+inquired in a low tone, "Is your friend in love?--He looks mighty
+melancholy."
+
+"I believe he is," replied Digby. "Love's the only thing that can make
+a man melancholy; and when one comes to consider all the attractions
+of a squaw of the Chippeway Indians, it is no wonder that my friend is
+in such a hopeless case."
+
+The old gentleman poked him with his finger, and shook his head with a
+laugh, saying--"You are a wag, young gentleman--you are a wag; but it
+would be a great deal more reasonable, let me tell you, to fall in
+love with a Chippeway squaw, in her feathers and wampam, than with one
+of these made-up madams, all paint and satin, and tawdry bits of
+embroidery. In the one case you might know something of what your love
+is like; in the other, I defy you to know anything about her; and,
+nine times out of ten, what, a man marries is little better than a
+bale of tow and whalebone, covered over with the excrement of a
+silkworm. Man's a strange animal; and one of the strangest of all his
+proceedings is, that of covering up his own natural skin with all
+manner of contrivances derived from every bird, beast, fish, and
+vegetable, that happens to come in his way. If he wants warmth, he
+goes and robs a sheep of its great coat; he beats the unfortunate
+grass of the field, till he leaves nothing but shreds, to make himself
+a shirt; he skins a beaver, to cover his head; and, if he wants to be
+exceedingly fine, he pulls the tail of an ostrich, and sticks the
+feather in his hat. He's the universal mountebank, depend upon it,
+playing his antics for the amusement of creation, and leaving nothing
+half so ridiculous as himself."
+
+Thus saying, he turned round again, and joined Captain Osborn, in
+whom, perhaps, he took a greater interest than even in his livelier
+companion. It might be that the associations called up by the name
+were pleasant to him, or it might be that there was something in his
+face that interested him, for certainly that face was one which seemed
+to become each moment more handsome as one grew familiar with it.
+
+When, after dinner, they re-entered the vehicle, and rolled away once
+more along the high road, Captain Osborn took a greater share in the
+conversation than he had previously done; and remarking that Mr.
+Croyland had put, as a condition, upon his invitation to Sir Edward,
+that he should not be a smuggler, he went on to observe, "You seem to
+have a great objection to those gentry, my dear sir; and yet I
+understand your county is full of them."
+
+"Full of them!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland--"it is running over with them.
+They drop down into Sussex, out into Essex, over into Surrey; the
+vermin are more numerous than rats in an old barn. Not that, when a
+fellow is poor, and wants money, and can get it by no other
+means,--not that I think very hard of him when he takes to a life of
+risk and adventure, where his neck is not worth sixpence, and his gain
+is bought by the sweat of his brow. But your gentleman smuggler is my
+abomination--your fellow that risks little hut an exchequer process,
+and gains ten times what the others do, without their labour or their
+danger. Give me your bold, brave fellow, who declares war and fights
+it out, There's some spirit in him."
+
+"Gentlemen smugglers!" said Osborn; "that seems to me to be a strange
+sort of anomaly. I was not aware that there were such things."
+
+"Pooh! the country is full of them," cried Mr. Croyland. "It is not
+here that the peasant treads upon the kybe of the peer; but the
+smuggler treads upon the country gentlemen. Many a merchant who never
+made a hundred pounds by fair trade, makes thousands and hundreds of
+thousands by cheating the Customs. There is not a man in this part of
+the country who does not dabble in the traffic more or less. I've no
+doubt all my brandied cherries are steeped in stuff that never paid
+duty; and if you don't smuggle yourself, your servants do it for you.
+But I'll tell you all about it," and he proceeded to give them a true
+and faithful exposition of the state of the county, agreeing in all
+respects with that which has been furnished to the reader in the first
+chapter of this tale.
+
+His statement and the various conversation, which arose from different
+parts of it, occupied the time fully, till the coach, as it was
+growing dark, rolled into Ashford. There Mr. Croyland quitted his two
+companions, shaking them each by the hand with right goodwill; and
+they pursued their onward course to Hythe and Folkestone, without any
+farther incident worthy of notice.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+At Hythe, to make use of a very extraordinary though not uncommon
+expression, the coach stopped to sup--not that the coach itself ate
+anything, for, on the contrary, it disgorged that which it had already
+taken in; but the travellers who descended from it were furnished with
+supper, although the distance to Folkestone might very well have
+justified them in going on to the end of their journey without any
+other pabulum than that which they had already received. But two or
+three things are to be taken into consideration. The distance from
+London to Folkestone is now seventy-one miles. It was longer in those
+days by several more, besides having the disadvantage of running up
+and down over innumerable hills, all of which were a great deal more
+steep than they are in the present day. The journey, which the
+travellers accomplished, was generally considered a feat both of
+difficulty and danger, and the coach which performed that feat in one
+day, was supposed to deserve right well the name which it had assumed,
+of "The Phenomenon." Before it began to run, seventy-one miles in
+seventeen hours was considered an impracticable journey for anything
+but a man on horseback, and when first the coach appeared upon the
+road, the towns-people and villagers turned out in multitudes, with
+admiration and wonder, not unmixed with dread, to see the rapid rate
+at which it went--very nearly six miles an hour! The old diligence,
+which had preceded it, had slept one night, and sometimes two, upon
+the road; and, in its first vain struggles with its more rapid
+successor, it had actually once or twice made the journey in
+two-and-twenty hours. To beat off this pertinacious rival, the
+proprietor of the stage had been obliged to propitiate the inn-keepers
+of various important towns, by dividing his favours amongst them; and
+thus the traveller was forced to wait nearly one hour at Hythe, during
+which he might sup if he liked, although he was only about five miles
+from Folkestone.
+
+The supper room of the inn was vacant when the two officers of
+Dragoons entered, but the table, covered with its neat white cloth,
+and all the preparations for a substantial meal, together with a
+bright fire sparkling in the grate, rendered its aspect cheerful and
+reviving after a long and tedious journey, such as that which had just
+been accomplished. Sir Edward Digby looked round well pleased, turned
+his back to the fire, spoke to the landlord and his maid about supper,
+and seemed disposed to enjoy himself during the period of his stay. He
+ordered, too, a pint of claret, which he was well aware was likely to
+be procured in great perfection upon the coast of Kent. The landlord
+in consequence conceived a high respect for him, and very much
+undervalued all the qualities of his companion, who, seating himself
+at the table, leaned his head upon his hand, and fell into deep
+thought, without giving orders for anything. The host, with his
+attendant star, disappeared from the room to procure the requisites
+for the travellers' meal, and Sir Edward Digby immediately took
+advantage of their absence to say, "Come, come, my dear Colonel, shake
+this off. I think all that we have lately heard should have tended to
+revive hope, and to give comfort. During all the six years that we
+have been more like brothers than friends, I have never seen you so
+much cast down as now, when you are taking the field under the most
+favourable circumstances, with name, station, reputation, fortune, and
+with the best reason to believe those true whom you had been taught to
+suppose false."
+
+"I cannot tell, Digby," replied his companion; "we shall hear more ere
+long, and doubt is always well nigh as painful as the worst certainty.
+Besides, I am returning to the scenes of my early youth--scenes
+stored, it is true, with many a sweet and happy memory, but full also
+of painful recollections. Those memories themselves are but as an
+inscription on a tomb, where hopes and pleasures, the bright dreams of
+youth, the ardent aspirations of first true love, the sweet
+endearments of a happy home, the treasured caresses of the best of
+mothers, the counsels, the kindness, the unvarying tenderness of the
+noblest and highest minded of fathers, all lie buried. There may be a
+pleasure in visiting that tomb, but it is a melancholy one; and when I
+think that it was for me--that it was on my account, my father
+suffered persecution and wrong, till a powerful mind, and a vigorous
+frame gave way, there is a bitterness mingled with all my remembrances
+of these scenes, from which I would fain clear my heart. I will do so,
+too, but it will require some solitary thought, some renewed
+familiarity with all the objects round, to take off the sharpness of
+the first effect. You, go on to Folkestone and see that all is right
+there, I will remain here and wait for the rest. As soon as you have
+ascertained that everything is prepared to act in case we are called
+upon--which I hope may not be the case, as I do not like the
+service--you may betake yourself to Harbourne House, making me a
+report as you pass. When I have so distributed the men that we can
+rapidly concentrate a sufficient number upon any spot where they may
+be required, I will come on after you to our good old friend's
+dwelling. There you can see me, and let me know what is taking place."
+
+"I think you had better not let him know who you really are," replied
+Sir Edward Digby, "at least till we have seen how the land lies."
+
+"I do not know--I will think of it," answered the other gentleman,
+whom for the present we shall continue to call Osborn, though the
+learned reader has already discovered that such was not his true name.
+"It is evident," he continued, "that old Mr. Croyland does not
+remember me, although I saw him frequently when he was in England for
+a short time, some six or seven years before he finally quitted India.
+However, though I feel I am much changed, it is probable that many
+persons will recognise me whenever I appear in the neighbourhood of
+Cranbrook, and he might take it ill, that he who was so good and true
+a friend both to my uncle and my father, should be left in ignorance.
+Perhaps it would be better to confide in him fully, and make him aware
+of all my views and purposes."
+
+"Under the seal of confession, then," said his friend; "for he is
+evidently a very talkative old gentleman. Did you remark how he once
+or twice declared he would not tell a story, that it was no business
+of his, and then went on to tell it directly."
+
+"True, such was always his habit," answered Osborn; "and his oddities
+have got somewhat exaggerated during the last twelve years; but he's
+as true and faithful as ever man was, and nothing would induce him to
+betray a secret confided to him."
+
+"You know best," replied the other; but the entrance of the landlord
+with the claret, and the maid with the supper, broke off the
+conversation, and there was no opportunity of renewing it till it was
+announced that the horses were to, and the coach was ready. The two
+friends then took leave of each other, both coachman and host being
+somewhat surprised to find that one of the travellers was about to
+remain behind.
+
+When, however, a portmanteau, a sword-case, and a large trunk, or mail
+as it was then called, had been handed out of the egregious boot,
+Osborn walked into the inn once more, and called the landlord to him.
+"I shall, most likely," he said, "take up my quarters with you for
+some days, so you will be good enough to have a bed room prepared for
+me. You must also let me have a room, however small, where I can read,
+and write, and receive any persons who may come to see me, for I have
+a good deal of business to transact."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir--I understand," replied the host, with a knowing
+elevation of one eye-brow and a depression of the other, "Quite snug
+and private. You shall have a room at the back of the house with two
+doors, so that they can come in by the one, and go out through the
+other, and nobody know anything about it."
+
+"I rather suspect you mistake," answered the guest, with a smile, "and
+for fear you should say anything, under an error, that you might be
+sorry for afterwards, let me tell you at once that I am an officer of
+Dragoons, and that the business I speak of is merely regimental
+business."
+
+The host's face grew amazingly blank; for a smuggler in a large way
+was, in his estimation, a much more valuable and important guest than
+an officer in the army, even had he been Commander-in-Chief of the
+forces; but Osborn proceeded to relieve his mind from some of its
+anxieties by saying: "You will understand that I am neither a spy nor
+an informer, my good friend, but merely come here to execute whatever
+orders I may receive from government as a military man. I tell you who
+I am at once, that you may, as far as possible, keep from my sight any
+of those little transactions which I am informed are constantly taking
+place on this coast. I shall not, of course, step over the line of my
+duty, which is purely military, to report anything I see; but still I
+should not like that any man should say I was cognizant of proceedings
+contrary to the interests of the government. This hint, however, I
+doubt not, will be enough."
+
+"Sir, you are a gentleman," said the host, "and as a nod is as good as
+a wink to a blind horse, I shall take care you have no annoyance. You
+must wait a little for your bed-room though, for we did not know you
+were going to stay; but we will lose no time getting it ready. Can I
+do anything else to serve you, sir?"
+
+"I think not," replied Osborn. "But one thing will be necessary. I
+expect five horses down to-morrow, and there must be found stabling
+for them, and accommodation for the servants."
+
+The landlord, who was greatly consoled by these latter proofs of his
+guest's opulence and importance, was proceeding to assure him that all
+manner of conveniences, both for horse and man were to be found at his
+inn, when the door of the room opened, and a third person was added to
+the party within. The moment the eye of the traveller by the coach
+fell upon him, his face lighted up with a well pleased smile, and he
+exclaimed, "Ah, my good friend, is that you?--I little expected to
+find you in this part of Kent. What brought you hither, after our long
+voyage?"
+
+"The same that brought you," answered the other: "old memories and
+loved associations."
+
+But before we proceed to notice what was Osborn's reply, we must,
+though very unwilling to give long descriptions either of personal
+appearance or of dress, pause to notice briefly those of the stranger
+who had just entered.
+
+He had originally been a tall man, and probably a powerful one, but he
+now stooped considerably, and was extremely thin. His face had no
+colour in it, and even the lips were pale, but yet the hue was not
+cadaverous, or even what could be called sickly. The features were
+generally small and fine, except the eyes, which were large and
+bright, with a sort of brilliant but unsafe fire in them, and that
+peculiar searching and intense gaze when speaking to any one, which is
+common to people of strong imaginations, who try to convey to others
+more than they actually say. His forehead, too, was high and grand,
+but wrinkled over with the furrows of thought and care; and on the
+right side was a deep indentation, with a gash across it, as if the
+skull had been driven in by a blow. His hair, which was long and thin,
+was milk white, and though his teeth were fine, yet the wrinkles of
+his skin, the peculiar roughness of the ear, and the shrivelled hand,
+all bore testimony of an advanced age. Yet, perhaps, he might be
+younger than he looked, for the light in that eager eye plainly spoke
+one of those quick, anxious, ever labouring spirits which wear the
+frame by the internal emotions, infinitely more rapidly and more
+destructively than any of the external events and circumstances of
+life. One thing was very peculiar about him--at least, in this
+country--for on another continent such a peculiarity might have called
+for no attention. On either cheek, beginning just behind the external
+corner of the eye, and proceeding in a graceful wave all along the
+cheek bone, turning round, like an acanthus leaf, at the other
+extremity upon the cheek itself, was a long line of very minute blue
+spots, with another, and another, and another beneath it, till the
+whole assumed the appearance of a rather broad arabesque painted in
+blue upon his face. His dress in other respects (if this tattooing
+might be called a part of his dress) though coarse in texture was
+good. The whole, too, was black, except where the white turned-down
+collar of his shirt appeared between his coat and his pale brownish
+skin. His shoes were large and heavy like those used by the countrymen
+in that part of the county, and in them he wore a pair of silver
+buckles, not very large, but which in their peculiar form and
+ornaments, gave signs of considerable antiquity. Though bent, as we
+have said, thin, and pale, he seemed active and energetic. All his
+motions were quick and eager, and he grasped the hand which Osborn
+extended to him, with a warmth and enthusiasm very different from the
+ordinary expression of common friendship.
+
+"You mistake," said the young gentleman, in answer to his last
+observation. "It was not old memories and loved associations which
+brought me here at all, Mr. Warde. It was an order from the
+commander-in-chief. Had I not received it, I should not have visited
+this place for years--if ever!"
+
+"Yes, yes, you would," replied the old man; "you could not help
+yourself. It was written in the book of your fate. It was not to be
+avoided. You were drawn here by an irresistible impulse to undergo
+what you have to undergo, to perform that which is assigned you, and
+to do and suffer all those things which are written on high."
+
+"I wonder to hear _you_ speaking in terms so like those of a fatalist,"
+answered Osborn--"you whom I have always heard so strenuously assert
+man's responsibility for all his actions, and scoff at the idea of his
+excusing himself on the plea of his predestination."
+
+"True, true," answered the old man whom he called
+Warde,--"predestination affords him no excuse for aught that is wrong,
+for though it be an inscrutable mystery how those three great facts
+are to be reconciled, yet certain it is that Omniscience cannot be
+ignorant of that which will take place, any more than of that which
+has taken place; that everything which God foreknows, must take place,
+and has been pre-determined by his will, and that yet--as every man
+must feel within himself--his own actions depend upon his volition,
+and if they be evil he alone is to blame. The end is to come,
+Osborn--the end is to come when all will be revealed--and doubt not
+that it will be for God's glory. I often think," he continued in a
+less emphatic tone, "that man with his free will is like a child with
+a plaything. We see the babe about to dash it against the wall in mere
+wantonness, we know that he will injure it--perhaps break it to
+pieces--perhaps hurt himself with it in a degree; we could prevent it,
+yet we do not, thinking perhaps that it will be a lesson--one of
+those, the accumulation of which makes experience, if not wisdom. At
+all events the punishment falls upon him; and, if duly warned, he has
+no right to blame us for that which his own will did, though we saw
+what he would do, and could have prevented him from doing so. We are
+all spoilt children, Osborn, and remain so to the end, though God
+gives us warning enough,--but here comes my homely meal."
+
+At the same moment the landlord brought in a dish of vegetables, some
+milk and some pottage, which he placed upon the table, giving a shrewd
+look to the young officer, but saying to his companion, "There, I have
+brought what you ordered, sir; but I cannot help thinking you had
+better take a bit of meat. You had nothing but the same stuff this
+morning, and no dinner that I know of."
+
+"Man, I never eat anything that has drawn the breath of life," replied
+Warde. "The first of our race brought death into the world and was
+permitted to inflict it upon others, for the satisfaction of his own
+appetites; but it was a permission, and not an injunction--except for
+sacrifice. I will not be one of the tyrants of the whole creation; I
+will have no more of the tiger in my nature than is inseparable from
+it; and as to gorging myself some five or six times a day with
+unnecessary food--am I a swine, do you think, to eat when I am not
+hungry, for the sole purpose of devouring? No, no, the simplest food,
+and that only for necessity, is best for man's body and his mind. We
+all grow too rank and superfluous."
+
+Thus saying, he approached the table, said a short grace over that
+which was set before him, and then sitting down, ate till he was
+satisfied, without exchanging a word with any one during the time that
+he was thus engaged. It occupied less than five minutes, however, to
+take all that he required, and then starting up suddenly, he thanked
+God for what he had given him, took up his hat and turned towards the
+door.
+
+"I am going out, Osborn," he said, "for my evening walk. Will you come
+with me?"
+
+"Willingly for half an hour," answered the young officer, and, telling
+the landlord as he passed that he would be back by the time that his
+room was ready, he accompanied his eccentric acquaintance out into the
+streets of Hythe, and thence, through some narrow walks and lanes, to
+the sea-shore.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The sky was clear and bright; the moonlight was sleeping in dream-like
+splendour upon the water, and the small waves, thrown up by the tide
+more than the wind, came rippling along the beach like a flood of
+diamonds. All was still and silent in the sky, and upon the earth; and
+the soft rustle of the waters upon the shore seemed but to say "Hush!"
+as if nature feared that any louder sound should interrupt her calm
+repose. To the west, stretched out the faint low line of coast towards
+Dungeness; and to the east, appeared the high cliffs near Folkestone
+and Dover--grey and solemn; while the open heaven above looked down
+with its tiny stars and lustrous moon upon the wide extended sea,
+glittering in the silver veil cast over her sleeping bosom from on
+high.
+
+Such was the scene presented to the eyes of the two wanderers when
+they reached the beach, a little way on the Sandgate side of Hythe,
+and both paused to gaze upon it for several minutes in profound
+silence.
+
+"This is indeed a night to walk forth upon the sands," said the young
+officer at length. "It seems to me, that of all the many scenes from
+which man can derive both instruction and comfort, in the difficulties
+and troubles of life, there is none so elevating, so strengthening, as
+that presented by the sea shore on a moonlight night. To behold that
+mighty element, so full of destructive and of beneficial power, lying
+tranquilly within the bound which God affixed to it, and to remember
+the words, 'Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther, and here shall
+thy proud waves be stopped,' affords so grand an illustration of his
+might, so fine a proof of the truth of his promises, that the heart
+must be hard indeed and the mind dull, not to receive confirmation of
+faith, and encouragement in hope."
+
+"More, far more, may man receive," replied his companion, "if he be
+but willing; but that gross and corrupt insect refuses all
+instruction, and though the whole universe holds out blessings, still
+chooses the curse. Where is there a scene whence man may not receive
+benefit? What spot upon the whole earth has not something to speak to
+his heart, if he would but listen? In his own busy passions, however,
+and in his own fierce contentions, in his sordid creeping after gain,
+in his trickery and his knavery, even in his loves and pleasures, man
+turns a deaf ear to the great voice speaking to him; and the only
+scene of all this earth which cannot benefit the eye that looks upon
+it, is that in which human beings are the chief actors. There all is
+foulness, or pitifulness, or vice; and one, to live in happiness, and
+to take the moral of all nature to his heart, should live alone with
+nature. I will find me out such a place, where I can absent myself
+entirely, and contemplate nought but the works of God without the
+presence of man, for I am sick to death of all that I have seen of him
+and his, especially in what is called a civilized state."
+
+"You have often threatened to do so, Warde," answered the young
+officer, "but yet methinks, though you rail at him, you love man too
+much to quit his abodes entirely. I have seen you kind and considerate
+to savages of the most horrible class; to men whose daily practice
+it is to torture with the most unheard of cruelty the prisoners
+whom they take in battle; and will you have less regard for other
+fellow-creatures, because they are what you call civilized?"
+
+"The savage is at least sincere," replied his companion. "The want of
+sincerity is the great and crowning vice of all this portion of the
+globe. Cruel the wild hunters may be, but are they more cruel than the
+people here? Which is the worst torment, a few hours' agony at the
+stake, singing the war-song, all ended by a blow of a hatchet, or long
+years of mental torture, when every scorn and contumely, every bitter
+injustice, every cruel bereavement that man can inflict or suffer, is
+piled upon your head, till the load becomes intolerable. Then, too, it
+is done in a smooth and smiling guise. The civilized fiend looks
+softly upon you while he wounds you to the heart--makes a pretext of
+law, and justice, and equity--would have you fancy him a soft good
+man, while there is no act of malevolence and iniquity that he does
+not practise. The savage is true, at all events. The man who fractured
+my skull with a blow of his tomahawk, made no pretence of friendship
+or of right. He did it boldly, as an act customary with his people,
+and would have led me to the stake and danced with joy to see me
+suffering, had I not been rescued. He was sincere at least: but how
+would the Englishman have served me? He would have wrung my heart with
+pangs insupportable, and all the time have talked of his great grief
+to afflict me, of the necessity of the case, of justice being on his
+side, and of a thousand other vain and idle pretexts, but aggravating
+the act by mocking me with a show of generosity."
+
+"I fear my excellent friend that you have at some time suffered sadly
+from man's baseness," said Osborn; "but yet I think you are wrong to
+let the memory thereof affect you thus. I, too, have suffered, and
+perhaps shall have to suffer more; but yet I would not part with the
+best blessings God has given to man, as you have done, for any other
+good."
+
+"What have I parted with that I could keep?" asked the other, sharply:
+"what blessings? I know of none!"
+
+"Trust--confidence," replied his young companion. "I know you will say
+that they have been taken from you; that you have not thrown them
+away, that you have been robbed of them. But have you not parted with
+them too easily? Have you not yielded at once, without a struggle to
+retain what I still call the best blessings of God? There are many
+villains in the world--I know it but too well; there are many knaves.
+There are still more cold and selfish egotists, who, without
+committing actual crimes or injuring others, do good to none; but
+there are also many true and upright hearts, many just, noble, and
+generous men; and were it a delusion to think so, I would try to
+retain it still."
+
+"And suffer for it in the hour of need, in the moment of the deepest
+confidence," answered Warde. "If you must have confidence, place it in
+the humble and the low, in the rudest and least civilized--ay, in the
+very outcasts of society--rather than in the polished and the courtly,
+the great and high. I would rather trust my life, or my purse, to the
+honour of the common robber, and to his generosity, than to the very
+gentlemanly man of fashion and high station. Now, if, as you say, you
+have not come down hither for old associations, you must be sent to
+hunt down honester men than those who sent you--men who break boldly
+through an unjust and barbarous system, which denies to our land the
+goods of another, and who, knowing that the very knaves who devised
+that system, did it but to enrich themselves, stop with a strong hand
+a part of the plunder on the way--or, rather, insist at the peril of
+their lives, on man's inherent right to trade with his neighbours, and
+frustrate the roguish devices of those who would forbid to our land
+the use of that produced by another."
+
+Osborn smiled at his companion's defence of smuggling, but replied, "I
+can conceive a thousand reasons, my good friend, why the trade in
+certain things should be totally prohibited, and a high duty for the
+interests of the state be placed on others. But I am not going to
+argue with you on all our institutions; merely this I will say, that
+when we entrust to certain men the power of making laws, we are bound
+to obey those laws when they are made; and it were but candid and just
+to suppose that those who had made them, after long deliberation, did
+so for the general good of the whole."
+
+"For their own villanous ends," answered Warde--"for their own selfish
+interests. The good of the whole!--what is it in the eyes of any of
+these law-givers but the good of a party?"
+
+"But do you not think," asked the young officer, "that we ourselves,
+who are not law-givers, judge their actions but too often under the
+influence of the very motives we attribute to them? Has party no share
+in our own bosoms? Has selfishness--have views of our own interests,
+in opposition either to the interests of others or the general weal,
+no part in the judgment that we form? Each man carps at that which
+suits him not, and strives to change it, without the slightest care
+whether, in so doing, he be not bringing ruin on the heads of
+thousands. But as to what you said just now of my being sent hither to
+hunt down the smuggler, such is not the case. I am sent to lend my aid
+to the civil power when called upon to do so--but nothing more; and we
+all know that the civil power has proved quite ineffective in stopping
+a system, which began by violation of a fiscal law, and has gone on to
+outrages the most brutal, and the most daring. I shall not step beyond
+the line of my duty, my good friend; and I will admit that many of
+these very misguided men themselves, who are carrying on an illegal
+traffic in this daring manner, fancy themselves justified by such
+arguments as you have just now used--nay, more, I do believe that
+there are some men amongst them of high and noble feelings, who never
+dream that they are dishonest in breaking a law that they dislike. But
+if we break one law thus, why should we keep any?--why not add robbery
+and murder if it suits us?
+
+"Ay, there _are_ high minded and noble men amongst them," answered
+Warde, not seeming to heed the latter part of what his companion said,
+"and there stands one of them. He has evil in him doubtless; for he is
+a man and an Englishman; but I have found none here who has less, and
+many who have more. Yet were that man taken in pursuing his
+occupation, they would imprison, exile, perhaps hang him, while a
+multitude of knaves in gilded coats, would be suffered to go on
+committing every sin, and almost every crime, unpunished--a good man,
+an excellent man, and yet a smuggler."
+
+The young officer knew it was in vain to reason with him, for in the
+frequent intercourse they had held together, he had perceived that,
+with many generous and noble feelings, with a pure heart, and almost
+ascetic severity of life, there was a certain perversity in the course
+of Mr. Warde's thoughts, which rendered it impossible to turn them
+from the direction which they naturally took. It seemed as if by long
+habit they had channelled for themselves so deep a bed, that they
+could never be diverted thence; and consequently, without replying at
+first, he merely turned his eyes in the direction which the other
+pointed out, trying to catch sight of the person of whom he spoke.
+They were now on the low sandy shore which runs along between the town
+of Hythe and the beautiful little watering place of Sandgate. But it
+must be recollected, that at the time I speak of, the latter place
+displayed no ornamental villas, no gardens full of flowers, almost
+touching on the sea, and consisted merely of a few fishermen's, or
+rather smuggler's, huts, with one little public house, and a
+low-browed shop, filled with all the necessities that the inhabitants
+might require. Thus nothing like the mass of buildings which the
+watering place now can boast, lay between them and the Folkestone
+cliffs; and the whole line of the coast, except at one point, where
+the roof of a house intercepted the view, was open before Osborn's
+eyes; yet neither upon the shore itself, nor upon the green upland,
+which was broken by rocks and bushes, and covered by thick dry grass,
+could he perceive anything resembling a human form. A minute after,
+however, he thought he saw something move against the rugged
+background, and the next moment, the head and shoulders of a man
+rising over the edge of the hill caught his eyes, and as his companion
+walked forward in silence, he inquired,
+
+"Have you known him long, or is this one of your sudden judgments, my
+good friend?"
+
+"I knew him when he was a boy and a lad," answered Wilmot, "I know him
+now that he is a man--so it is no sudden judgment. Come, let us speak
+with him, Osborn," and he advanced rapidly, by a narrow path, up the
+side of the slope.
+
+Osborn paused a single instant, and then followed, saying, "Be upon
+your guard, Warde; and remember how I am circumstanced. Neither commit
+me nor let him commit himself."
+
+"No, no, fear not," answered his friend, "I am no smuggler, young
+man;" and he strode on before, without pausing for further
+consultation. As they climbed the hill, the figure of the man of whom
+they had been speaking became more and more distinct, while walking up
+and down upon a flat space at the top of the first step or wave of
+ground; he seemed to take no notice of their approach. When they came
+nearer still, he paused, as if waiting for their coming; and the moon
+shining full upon him, displayed his powerful form, standing in an
+attitude of easy grace, with the arms folded on the chest, and the
+head slightly bent forward. He was not above the middle height; but
+broad in the shoulders, and long in the arms; robust and strong--every
+muscle was round and swelling, and yet not heavy; for there was the
+appearance of great lightness and activity in his whole figure,
+strangely combined with that of vigour and power. His head was small,
+and well set upon his shoulders; and the very position in which he
+stood, the firm planting of his feet on the ground, the motionless
+crossing of his arm upon his breast, all seemed to argue to the mind
+of Osborn--and he was one not unaccustomed to judge of character by
+external signs--a strong and determined spirit, well fitted for the
+rough and adventurous life which he had undertaken.
+
+"Good night, Harding," said Mr. Warde, as they came up to the spot
+where he stood. "What a beautiful evening it is!"
+
+"Goodnight, sir," answered the man, in a civil tone, and with a voice
+of considerable melody. "It is indeed a beautiful evening, though
+sometimes I like to see the cloudy sky, too."
+
+"And yet I dare say you enjoy a walk by the bright sea, in the calm
+moonlight, as much as I do," rejoined Mr. Warde.
+
+"Ay, that I do, sir," replied the smuggler. "That's what brought me
+out to-night, for there's nothing else doing; but I should not rest
+quiet, I suppose, in my bed, if I did not take my stroll along the
+downs or somewhere, and look over the sea, while she lies panting in
+the moonbeams. She's a pretty creature, and I love her dearly. I
+wonder how people can live inland."
+
+"Oh, there are beautiful scenes enough inland," said Osborn, joining
+in the conversation; "both wild and grand, and calm and peaceful."
+
+"I know there are, sir, I know there are," answered the smuggler,
+gazing at him attentively, "and if ever I were to live away from the
+beach, I should say, give me the wild and grand, for I have seen many
+a beautiful place inland, especially in Wales; but still it always
+seems to me as if there was something wanting when the sea is not
+there. I suppose it is natural for an Englishman."
+
+"Perhaps it is," rejoined Osborn, "for certainly when Nature rolled
+the ocean round us, she intended us for a maritime people. But to
+return to what you were saying, if I could choose my own abode, it
+should be amongst the calm and peaceful scenes, of which the eye never
+tires, and amongst which the mind rests in repose."
+
+"Ay, if it is repose one is seeking," replied the smuggler, with a
+laugh, "well and good. Then a pleasant little valley, with trees and a
+running stream, and a neat little church, and the parsonage, may do
+well enough. But I dare say you and I, sir, have led very different
+lives, and so have got different likings. I have always been
+accustomed to the storm and the gale, to a somewhat adventurous life,
+and to have that great wide sea before my eyes for ever. You, I dare
+say, have been going on quietly and peacefully all your days, perhaps
+in London, or in some great town, knowing nothing of hardships or of
+dangers; so that is the reason you love quiet places."
+
+"Quite the reverse!" answered Osborn, with a smile--"mine has been
+nothing but a life of peril and danger, and activity, as far as it
+hitherto has gone. From the time I was eighteen till now, the battle
+and the skirmish, the march and the retreat, with often the hard
+ground for my bed, as frequently the sky for my covering, and at best
+a thin piece of canvas to keep off the blast, have been my lot, but it
+is that very fact that makes me long for some repose, and love scenes
+that give the picture of it to the imagination, if not the reality to
+the heart. I should suppose that few men who have passed their time
+thus, and known from youth to manhood nothing but strife and hourly
+peril, do not sooner or later desire such tranquillity."
+
+"I don't know, sir," said the smuggler; "it maybe so, and the time may
+come with me; but yet I think habits one is bred to, get such a hold
+of the heart that we can't do without them. I often fancy I should
+like a month's quiet, too; but then I know before the month was out I
+should long to be on the sea again."
+
+"Man is a discontented creature," said Warde,--"not even the bounty of
+God can satisfy him. I do not believe that he would even rest in
+heaven, were he not wearied of change by the events of this life. Well
+may they say it is a state of trial."
+
+"I hope I shall go to heaven, too," rejoined the smuggler; "but I
+should like a few trips first; and I dare say, when I grow an old man,
+and stiff and rusty, I shall be well contented to take my walk here in
+the sunshine, and talk of days that are gone; but at present, when one
+has life and strength, I could no more sit and get cankered in
+idleness than I could turn miller. This world's not a place to be
+still in; and I say, Blow wind, and push off the boat."
+
+"But one may have activity enough without constant excitement and
+peril," answered Osborn.
+
+"I don't know that there would be half the pleasure in it," replied
+the smuggler, laughing--"that we strive for, that we love. Everything
+must have its price, and cheap got is little valued. But who is this
+coming?" he continued, turning sharply round before either of his
+companions heard a sound.
+
+The next moment, however, steps running up the face of the bank were
+distinguished, and in another minute a boy of twelve or thirteen,
+dressed in a sailor's jacket, came hurrying up to the smuggler, and
+pulled his sleeve, saying, in a low voice, "Come hither--come hither;
+I want to speak to you."
+
+The man took a step apart, and bending down his head listened to
+something which the boy whispered in his ear. "I will come--I will
+come directly," he said, at length, when the lad was done. "Run on and
+tell him, little Starlight; for I must get home first for a minute.
+Good night, gentlemen," he continued, turning to Mr. Warde and his
+companion, "I must go away for a longer walk;" and, without farther
+adieu, he began to descend the bank, leaving the two friends to take
+their way back to Hythe, conversing, as they went, much in the same
+strain as that in which they had indulged while coming thither,
+differing in almost every topic, but yet with some undefinable link of
+sympathy between them, which nevertheless owed its origin, in the old
+man's breast, to very different feelings from those which were
+experienced by his younger companion.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+There was an old house, built in a style which acquired the mint-mark
+of fashion of about the reign of George the First, and was considered
+by those of the English, or opposite party, to be peculiarly well
+qualified for the habitation of Hanover rats. It stood at a little
+distance from the then small hamlet of Harbourne, and was plunged into
+one of the southern apertures of the wood of that name, having its
+gardens and pleasure-grounds around it, with a terrace and a lawn
+stretching out to the verge of a small parish road, which passed at
+the distance of somewhat less than a quarter of a mile from the
+windows. It was all of red brick, and looked square and formal enough,
+with the two wings projecting like the a-kimbo arms of some untamed
+virago, straight and resolute as a redoubt. The numerous windows,
+however, with very tolerable spaces between them; the numerous
+chimneys, with every sort of form and angle; the numerous doors, of
+every shape and size, and the square precision of the whole, bespoke
+it a very capacious building, and the inside justified fully the idea
+which the mind of a traveller naturally formed from the outside. It
+was, in truth, a roomy, and in some cases a very convenient abode; but
+it was laid out upon a particular plan, which it may not be amiss to
+write down, for the practical instruction of the reader unlearned in
+such edifices.
+
+In the centre of the ground-floor was a large hall of a cruciform
+shape, each of the limbs being about fifteen feet wide. The two
+shorter arms of the cross stretched from side to side of the building
+in its width; the two longer from end to end of its length. The
+southern termination of the shorter arms was the great hall-door; the
+northern arm, which formed the passage between the various ranges of
+offices, extended to a door at the back, opening into a court-yard
+surrounded by coach-houses, stables, cow-sheds, pig-sties, and
+hen-roosts. But the offices, and the passage between them, were shut
+off from the main hall and the rest of the mansion by double doors;
+and the square of fifteen feet in the centre of the hall was, to the
+exent of about two-thirds of the whole, occupied by a large,
+low-stepped, broad-ballustraded oaken staircase. The eastern and
+western limbs of the cross afforded the means of communicating with
+various rooms,--such as library, dining-room, drawing-room,
+music-room, magistrate's-room, gentleman's-room, and billiard-room,
+with one or two others to which no name had been applied. Many of
+these rooms had doors which led into the one adjacent; but this was
+not invariably the case, for from the main corridor branched off
+several little passages, separating in some instances one chamber from
+the other, and leading out upon the terrace by the smaller doors which
+we have noticed above. What was the use of these passages and doors
+nobody was ever able to divine, and it remains a mystery to the
+present day, which I shall not attempt to solve by venturing any
+hypothesis upon so recondite a subject. The second floor above was
+laid out much in the same way as the one below, except that one of the
+limbs of the cross was wanting, the space over the great door being
+appropriated to a very tolerable bed-room. From this floor to the
+other, descended two or three staircases, the principal one being the
+great open flight of steps which I have already mentioned; and the
+second, or next in importance, being a stone staircase, which reached
+the ground between the double doors, that shut out the main hall from
+the offices.
+
+Having thus given some idea of the interior of the building, I will
+only pause to notice, that, at the period I speak of, it had one very
+great defect. It was very much out of repair,--not, indeed, of that
+sort of substantial repair which is necessary to comfort, but of that
+pleasant repair which is agreeable to the eye. It was well and solidly
+built, and was quite wind and water tight; but although the builders
+of the day in which it was erected were, as every one knows,
+peculiarly neat in their brick-work, yet Time would have his way even
+with their constructions, and he had maliciously chiselled out the
+pointing from between the sharp, well-cut bricks, scraped away the
+mortar from the stone copings, and cracked and blistered the painting
+of the wood-work. This labour of his had not only given a venerable,
+but also a somewhat dilapidated appearance to the mansion; and some
+green mould, with which he had taken the pains to dabble all the white
+parts of the edifice, did not decrease the look of decay.
+
+Sweeping round from the parish road that we have mentioned was a
+branch, leading by the side of the lawn, and a gentle ascent up to the
+terrace and to the great door, and carriages on arriving passed along
+the whole front of the house by the western angle before they reached
+the court-yard behind. But from that courtyard there were various
+other means of exit. One to the kitchen garden, one to two or three
+other courts, and one into the wood which came within fifty yards of
+the enclosure; for, to use the ordinary romance phrase, Harbourne
+House was literally "bosomed in wood." The windows, however, and the
+front, commanded a fine view of a rich and undulating country,
+plentifully garnished with trees, but still, for a considerable
+distance, exposed to the eye, from the elevated ground upon which the
+mansion was placed. A little hamlet was seen at the distance of about
+two miles in front--I rather suspect it was Kenchill--and to the
+eastward the house looked over the valley towards the high ground by
+Woodchurch and Woodchurch Beacon, catching a blue line which probably
+was Romney Marsh. Between, Woodchurch, however, and itself, was seen
+standing out, straight and upright, a very trim-looking white
+dwelling, flanked by some pleasant groves, and to the west were seen
+one or two gentlemen's seats scattered about over the face of the
+country. Behind, nothing of course was to be seen but tree-tops,
+except from the window of one of the attics, whence the housemaid
+could descry Biddenden Windmill and the top of Biddenden Church.
+Harbourne Wood was indeed, at that time, very extensive, joining on to
+the large piece of woodland, from which it is now separated, and
+stretching out as far as that place with an unpleasant name, called
+Gallows Green. The whole of this space, and a considerable portion of
+the cultivated ground around, was within the manor of the master of
+the mansion, Sir Robert Croyland, of Harbourne, the elder brother of
+that Mr. Zachary Croyland, whom we have seen travelling down into Kent
+with two companions in the newly established stage-coach.
+
+About four days after that memorable journey, a traveller on
+horseback, followed by a servant leading another horse, and with a
+portmanteau behind him, rode up the little parish road we have
+mentioned, took the turning which led to the terrace, and drew in his
+bridle at the great door of Harbourne House. I would describe him
+again, but I have already given the reader so correct and accurate a
+picture of Sir Edward Digby, that he cannot make any mistake. The only
+change which had taken place in his appearance since he set out from
+London, was produced by his being now dressed in a full military
+costume; but nevertheless the eyes of a fair lady, who was in the
+drawing-room and had a full view of the terrace, conveyed to her mind,
+as she saw him ride up, the impression that he was a very handsome man
+indeed. In two minutes more, which were occupied by the opening of the
+door and sundry directions given by the young baronet to his servant,
+Sir Edward Digby was ushered into the drawing-room, and advanced with
+a frank, free, military air, though unacquainted with any of the
+persons it contained. As his arrival about that hour was expected, the
+whole family of Harbourne House was assembled to receive him; and
+before we proceed farther, we may as well give some account of the
+different persons of whom the little circle was composed.
+
+The first whom Sir Edward's eyes fell upon was the master of the
+mansion, who had risen, and was coming forward to welcome his guest.
+Sir Robert Croyland, however, was so different a person from his
+brother, in every point, that the young officer could hardly believe
+that he had the baronet before him. He was a large, heavy-looking man,
+with good features and expressive eyes, but sallow in complexion, and
+though somewhat corpulent, having that look of loose, flabby obesity,
+which is generally an indication of bad health. His dress, though
+scrupulously clean and in the best fashion of the time, fitted him
+ill, being too large even for his large person; and the setting of the
+diamond ring which he wore upon his hand was scarcely more yellow than
+the hand itself. On his face he bore a look of habitual thought and
+care, approaching moroseness, which even the smile he assumed on Sir
+Edward's appearance could not altogether dissipate. In his tone,
+however, he was courtly and kind, though perhaps a little pompous,
+expressed his delight at seeing his old friend's son in Harbourne
+House, shook him warmly by the hand, and then led him ceremoniously
+forward to introduce him to his sister, Mrs. Barbara Croyland, and his
+two daughters.
+
+The former lady might very well have had applied to her Fielding's
+inimitable description of the old maid. Her appearance was very
+similar, her station and occupation much the same; but nevertheless,
+in all essential points, Mrs. Barbara Croyland was a very different
+person from the sister of Squire Allworthy. She was a kind-hearted
+soul as ever existed; gentle in her nature, anxious to do the very
+best for every body, a little given to policy for the purpose of
+accomplishing that end, and consequently, nine times out of ten,
+making folks very uncomfortable in order to make them comfortable, and
+doing all manner of mischief for the purpose of setting things right.
+No woman ever had a more perfect abnegation of self than Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, in all things of great importance. She had twice missed a
+very good opportunity of marriage, by making up a match between one
+who was quite ready to be her own lover and one of her female friends,
+for whom he cared very little. She had lent the whole of her own
+private fortune, except a small annuity, which by some chance had been
+settled upon her, to her brother Sir Robert, without taking any
+security whatsoever for principal or interest; and she was always
+ready, when there was anything in her purse, to give it away to the
+worthy or unworthy--rather, indeed, preferring the latter, from a
+conviction that they were more likely to be destitute of friends than
+those who had some claim upon society.
+
+Nevertheless Mrs. Barbara Croyland was not altogether without that
+small sort of selfishness which is usually termed vanity. She was
+occasionally a little affronted and indignant with her friends, when
+they disapproved of her spoiling their whole plans with the intention
+of facilitating them. She knew that her design was good; and she
+thought it very ungrateful in the world to be angry when her good
+designs produced the most opposite results to those which she
+intended. She was fully convinced, too, that circumstances were
+perversely against her; and yet for her life she could not refrain
+from trying to make those circumstances bend to her purpose,
+notwithstanding all the nips on the knuckles she received; and she had
+still some scheme going on, which, though continually disappointed,
+rose up Hydra-like, with a new head springing out as soon as the other
+was cut off. As it was at her suggestion, and in favour of certain
+plans which she kept deep in the recesses of her own bosom, that Sir
+Robert Croyland had claimed acquaintance with Sir Edward Digby on the
+strength of an old friendship with his father, and had invited him
+down to Harbourne House immediately on the return of his regiment to
+England, it may well be supposed that Miss Barbara received him with
+her most gracious smiles--which, to say the truth, though the face was
+wrinkled with age, and the complexion not very good, were exceedingly
+sweet and benignant, springing from a natural kindness of heart,
+which, if guided by a sounder discretion, would have rendered her one
+of the most amiable persons on the earth.
+
+After a few words of simple courtesy on both parts, Sir Edward turned
+to the other two persons who were in the room, where he found metal
+more attractive--at least, for the eyes. The first to whom he was
+introduced was a young lady, who seemed to be about one-and-twenty
+years of age, though she had in fact just attained another year; and
+though Sir Robert somewhat hurried him on to the next, who was
+younger, the keen eye of the young officer marked enough to make him
+aware that, if so cold and so little disposed to look on a lover as
+her uncle had represented, she might well become a very dangerous
+neighbour to a man with a heart not well guarded against the power of
+beauty. Her hair, eyes, and eyelashes were almost black, and her
+complexion of a clear brown, with the rose blushing faintly in the
+cheek; but the eyes were of a deep blue. The whole form of the head,
+the fall of the hair, the bend of the neck from the shoulders, were
+all exquisitely symmetrical and classical, and nothing could be more
+lovely than the line of the brow and the chiselled cutting of the
+nose. The upper lip, small and delicately drawn, the under lip full
+and slightly apart, shewing the pearl-like teeth beneath; the turn of
+the ear, and the graceful line in the throat, might all have served as
+models for the sculptor or the painter; for the colouring was as rich
+and beautiful as the form; and when she rose and stood to receive him,
+with the small hand leaning gently on the arm of the chair, he thought
+he had never seen anything more graceful than the figure, or more
+harmonious than its calm dignity, with the lofty gravity of her
+countenance. If there was a defect in the face, it was perhaps that
+the chin was a little too prominent, but yet it suited well with the
+whole countenance and with its expression, giving it decision without
+harshness, and a look of firmness, which the bright smile that
+fluttered for a moment round the lips, deprived of everything that was
+not gentle and kind. There was soul, there was thought, there was
+feeling, in the whole look; and Digby would fain have paused to see
+those features animated in conversation. But her father led him on,
+after a single word of introduction, to present him to his younger
+daughter, who, with some points of resemblance, offered a strange
+contrast to her sister. She, too, was very handsome, and apparently
+about two years younger; but hers was the style of beauty which,
+though it deserves a better name, is generally termed pretty. All the
+features were good, and the hair exceedingly beautiful; but the face
+was not so oval, the nose perhaps a little too short, and the lips too
+sparkling with smiles to impress the mind, at first sight, so much as
+the countenance of the other. She seemed all happiness; and in looking
+to the expression and at her bright blue eyes, as they looked out
+through the black lashes, like violets from a clump of dark leaves, it
+was scarcely possible to fancy that she had ever known a touch of care
+or sorrow, or that one of the anxieties of life had ever even brushed
+her lightly with its wing. She seemed the flower just opening to the
+morning sunshine--the fruit, before the bloom had been washed away by
+one shower. Her figure, too, was full of young grace; her movements
+were all quicker, more wild and free than her sister's; and as she
+rose to receive Sir Edward Digby, it was more with the air of an old
+friend than a new acquaintance. Indeed, she was the first of the
+family who had seen him, for hers were the eyes which had watched his
+approach from the window, so that she felt as if she knew him better
+than any of them.
+
+There was something very winning in the frank and cordial greeting
+with which she met him, and in an instant it had established a sort of
+communication between them which would have taken hours, perhaps days,
+to bring about with her sister. As Sir Edward Digby did not come there
+to fall in love, he would fain have resisted such influences, even at
+the beginning; and perhaps the words of old Mr. Croyland had somewhat
+put him upon his guard. But it was of no use being upon his guard;
+for, fortify himself as strongly as he would, Zara went through all
+his defences in an instant; and, seeming to take it for granted that
+they were to be great friends, and that there was not the slightest
+obstacle whatever to their being perfectly familiar in a ladylike and
+gentleman-like manner, of course they were so in five minutes, though
+he was a soldier who had seen some service, and she an inexperienced
+girl just out of her teens. But all women have a sort of experience of
+their own; or, if experience be not the right name, an intuition in
+matters where the other sex is concerned, which supplies to them very
+rapidly a great part of that which long converse with the world
+bestows on men. Too true that it does not always act as a safeguard to
+their own hearts--true that it does not always guide them right in
+their own actions,--but still it does not fail to teach them the best
+means of winning where they wish to win; and if they do not succeed,
+it is far more frequently that the cards which they hold are not good,
+than that they play the game unskilfully.
+
+Whether Sir Robert Croyland had or had not any forethought in his
+invitation of Sir Edward Digby, and, like a prudent father, judged
+that it would be quite as well his youngest daughter should marry a
+wealthy baronet, he was too wise to let anything like design appear;
+and though he suffered the young officer to pursue his conversation
+with Zara for two or three minutes longer than he had done with her
+sister, he soon interposed, by taking the first opportunity of telling
+his guest the names of those whom he had invited to meet him that day
+at dinner.
+
+"We shall have but a small party," he said, in a somewhat apologetic
+tone, "for several of our friends are absent just now; but I have
+asked my good and eccentric brother Zachary to meet you to-day, Sir
+Edward; and also my excellent neighbour, Mr. Radford, of Radford
+Hall--a very superior man indeed under the surface, though the manner
+may be a little rough. His son, too, I trust will join us;" and he
+glanced his eye towards Edith, whose face grew somewhat paler than it
+had been before. Sir Robert instantly withdrew his gaze; but the look
+of both father and daughter had not been lost upon Digby; and he
+replied--"I have the pleasure of knowing your brother already, Sir
+Robert. We were fellow-travellers as far as Ashford, four or five days
+ago. I hope he is well."
+
+"Oh, quite well--quite well," answered the baronet; "but as odd as
+ever--nay odder, I think, for his expedition to London. That which
+seems to polish and soften other men, but renders him rougher and more
+extraordinary. But he was always very odd--very odd indeed, even as a
+boy."
+
+"Ay, but he was always kind-hearted, brother Robert," observed Miss
+Barbara; "and though he may be a little odd, he has been in odd
+places, you know--India and the like; and besides, it does not do to
+talk of his oddity, as you are doing always, for if he heard of it, he
+might leave all his money away."
+
+"He is only odd, I think," said Edith Croyland, "by being kinder and
+better than other men."
+
+Sir Edward Digby turned towards her with a warm smile, replying--"So
+it struck me, Miss Croyland. He is so good and right-minded himself,
+that he is at times a little out of patience with the faults and
+follies of others--at least, such was my impression, from all I saw of
+him."
+
+"It was a just one," answered the young lady, "and I am sure, Sir
+Edward, the more you see of him the more you will be inclined to
+overlook the oddities for the sake of the finer qualities."
+
+It seemed to Sir Edward Digby that the commendations of Sir Robert
+Croyland's brother did not seem the most grateful of all possible
+sounds to the ears of the Baronet, who immediately after announced
+that he would have the pleasure of conducting his young guest to his
+apartments, adding that they were early people in the country, their
+usual dinner-hour being four o'clock, though he found that the
+fashionable people of London were now in the habit of dining at
+half-past four. Sir Edward accordingly followed him up the great
+oaken staircase to a very handsome and comfortable room, with a
+dressing-room at the side, in which he found his servant already
+busily employed in disburdening his bags and portmanteau of their
+contents.
+
+Sir Robert paused for a moment--to see that his guest had everything
+which he might require, and then left him. But the young baronet did
+not proceed immediately to the business of the toilet, seating himself
+before the window of the bed-room, and gazing out with a thoughtful
+expression, while his servant continued his operations in the next
+room. From time to time the man looked in as if he had something to
+say, but his master continued in a reverie, of which it may be as well
+to take some notice. His first thought was, "I must lay out the plan
+of my campaign; but I must take care not to get my wing of the army
+defeated while the main body is moving up to give battle. On my life,
+I'm a great deal too good-natured to put myself in such a dangerous
+position for a friend. The artillery that the old gentleman spoke of
+is much more formidable than I expected. My worthy colonel did not use
+so much of love's glowing colours in his painting as I supposed; but
+after all, there's no danger; I am proof against all such shots, and I
+fancy I must use little Zara for the purpose of getting at her
+sister's secrets. There can be no harm in making a little love to her,
+the least little bit possible. It will do my pretty coquette no harm,
+and me none either. It may be well to know how the land lies, however;
+and I dare say that fellow of mine has made some discoveries already;
+but the surest way to get nothing out of him is to ask him, and so I
+must let him take his own way."
+
+His thoughts then turned to another branch of the same subject; and he
+went on pondering rather than thinking for some minutes more. There is
+a state of mind which can scarcely be called thought; for thought is
+rapid and progressive, like the flight of a bird, whether it be in the
+gyrations of the swallow, or the straightforward course of the rook;
+but in the mode or condition of which I speak, the mind seems rather
+to hover over a particular object, like the hawk eyeing carefully that
+which is beneath it; and this state can no more be called thought than
+the hovering of the hawk can be called flight. Such was the occupation
+of Sir Edward Digby, as I have said, for several minutes, and then he
+went on to his conclusions. "She loves him still," he said to himself;
+"of that I feel sure. She is true to him still, and steadfast in her
+truth. Whatever may have been said or done has not been hers, and that
+is a great point gained; for now, with station, rank, distinction, and
+competence at least, he presents himself in a very different position
+from any which he could assume before; and unless on account of some
+unaccountable prejudice, the old gentleman can have no objection. Oh,
+yes, she loves him still, I feel very sure! The calm gravity of that
+beautiful face has only been written there so early by some deep and
+unchanged feeling. We never see the sparkling brightness of youth so
+shadowed but by some powerful and ever-present memory, which, like the
+deep bass notes of a fine instrument, gives a solemn tone even to the
+liveliest music of life. She can smile, but the brow is still grave:
+there is something underneath it; and we must find out exactly what
+that is. Yet I cannot doubt; I am sure of it. Here, Somers! are not
+those things ready yet? I shall be too late for dinner."
+
+"Oh, no, sir;" replied the man, coming in, and putting up the back of
+his hand to his head, in military fashion. "Your honour wont be too
+late. The great bell rings always half-an-hour before, then Mr.
+Radford is always a quarter-of-an-hour behind his time."
+
+"I wonder who Mr. Radford is!" said Sir Edward Digby, as if speaking
+to himself. "He seems a very important person in the county."
+
+"I can tell you, sir," said the man, "he is or was the richest person
+in the neighbourhood, and has got Sir Robert quite under his thumb,
+they say. He was a merchant, or a shopkeeper, the butler told me, in
+Hythe. But there was more money came in than ever went through his
+counting-house, and what between trading one way or another, he got
+together a great deal of riches, bought this place here in the
+neighbourhood, and set up for a gentleman. His son is to be married to
+Miss Croyland, they say; but the servants think that she hates him,
+and fancy that he would himself rather have her sister."
+
+The latter part of this speech was that which interested Sir Edward
+Digby the most; but he knew that there was a certain sort of
+perversity about his servant, which made him less willing to answer a
+distinct question than to volunteer any information; and therefore he
+fixed upon another point, inquiring, "What do you mean, Somers, by
+saying that he is, or was, the richest man in the country?"
+
+"Why, sir, that is as it may be," answered the man; "but one thing is
+certain--Miss Croyland has three times refused to marry this young
+Radford, notwithstanding all her father could say; and as for the
+young gentleman himself, why he's no gentleman at all, going about
+with all the bad characters in the county, and carrying on his
+father's old trade, like a highwayman. It has not quite answered so
+well though, for they say old Radford lost fully fifty thousand pounds
+by his last venture, which was run ashore somewhere about Romney Hoy.
+The boats were sunk, part of the goods seized, and the rest sent to
+the bottom. You may be sure he's a dare-devil, however, for whenever
+the servants speak of him, they sink their voice to a whisper, as if
+the fiend were at their elbow."
+
+Sir Edward Digby was very well inclined to hear more; but while the
+man was speaking, the bell he had mentioned, rang, and the young
+baronet, who had a certain regard for his own personal appearance,
+hastened to dress and to descend to the drawing-room.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+It is sometimes expedient in telling a tale of this kind, to introduce
+the different personages quietly to the reader one after the other,
+and to suffer him to become familiar with them separately, before they
+are all brought to act together, that he may have a clear and definite
+notion of their various characters, dispositions, and peculiarities,
+and be enabled to judge at once of the motives by which they are
+actuated, when we recite the deeds that they perform.
+
+Having twice or thrice mentioned one of the prominent persons in this
+history, without having brought him visibly upon the scene, (as, in
+the natural course of events, I must very soon do,) I shall now follow
+the plan above mentioned; and, in order to give the reader a distinct
+notion of Mr. Radford, his character and proceedings, will beg those
+who have gone on with me thus far, to step back with me to the same
+night, on which Mr. Warde and his young friend met the smuggler in his
+evening walk along the heights.
+
+Not very far from the town of Hythe, not very far from the village of
+Sandgate, are still to be found the ruins of an ancient castle, which,
+by various deeds that have been performed within its walls, has
+acquired a name in English history. The foundation of the building is
+beyond our records; and tradition, always fond of the marvellous,
+carries back the period when the first stone was laid to the times of
+the Roman invaders of Great Britain. Others supposed that it was
+erected by the Saxons, but, as it now stands, it presents no trace of
+the handiwork of either of those two races of barbarians, and is
+simply one of those strongholds constructed by the Normans, or their
+close descendants, either to keep their hold of a conquered country,
+or to resist the power both of tyrannical monarchs and dangerous
+neighbours. Various parts of the building are undoubtedly attributable
+to the reign of Henry II.; and if any portion be of an earlier date,
+of which I have some doubts, it is but small; but a considerable part
+is, I believe, of a still later epoch, and in some places may be
+traced the architecture common in the reign of Edward III. and of his
+grandson. The space enclosed within the outer walls is very extensive,
+and numerous detached buildings, chapels, halls, and apparently a
+priory, are still to be found built against those walls themselves, so
+that it is probable that the castle in remote days gave shelter to
+some religious body, which is rendered still more likely from the fact
+of Saltwood Castle and its manor having formerly appertained to the
+church and see of Canterbury.
+
+Many a remarkable scene has undoubtedly passed in the courts and halls
+of that now ruined building, and it is even probable that there the
+dark and dreadful deed, which, though probably not of his contriving,
+embittered the latter life of the second Henry, was planned and
+determined by the murderers of Thomas à Becket. With such deeds,
+however, and those ancient times, we have nothing here to do; and at
+the period to which this tale refers, the castle, though in a much
+more perfect state than at present, was already in ruins. The park,
+which formerly surrounded it, had been long thrown open and divided
+into fields; but still the character which its formation had given to
+the neighbouring scenery had not passed away; and the rich extent of
+old pasture, the scattered woods and clumps of trees, the brawling
+brook, here and there diverted from its natural course for ornament or
+convenience,--all bespoke the former destination of the ground, for
+near a mile around on every side, when magnificent Archbishop
+Courtenay held the castle of Saltwood as his favourite place of
+residence.
+
+Though, as I have said, grey ruin had possession of the building, yet
+the strength of its construction had enabled it in many parts to
+resist the attacks of time; and the great keep, with its two lofty
+gate towers and wide-spreading hall, was then but very little decayed.
+Nevertheless, at that period no one tenanted the castle of Saltwood
+but an old man and his son, who cultivated a small portion of ground
+in the neighbourhood; and their dwelling was confined to three rooms
+in the keep, though they occupied several others by their implements
+of husbandry, occasionally diversified with sacks of grain, stores of
+carrots and turnips, and other articles of agricultural produce. Thus,
+every night, for a short time, lights were to be seen in Saltwood
+Castle, but all the buildings except the keep, were utterly neglected,
+and falling rapidly into a state of complete dilapidation.
+
+It was towards this building, on the night I speak of, that the
+smuggler took his way, about a quarter of an hour after having
+suddenly broken off his conversation with Mr. Warde and the young
+officer. He walked on with a quick, bold, careless step, apparently
+without much thought or consideration of the interview to which he was
+summoned. He paused, indeed, more than once, and looked around him;
+but it was merely to gaze at the beauty of the scenery, for which he
+had a great natural taste. It is no slight mistake to suppose that the
+constant intercourse with, and opportunity of enjoying the beauties of
+nature, diminish in any degree the pleasures that we thence derive.
+The direct contrary is the case. Every other delight, everything that
+man has contrived or found for himself, palls upon the taste by
+frequent fruition; but not so with those sources of pleasure which are
+given us by God himself; and the purer and freer they are from man's
+invention, the more permanent are they in their capability of
+bestowing happiness, the more extensive seems their quality of
+satisfying the ever-increasing desires of the spirit within us. Were
+it not so, the ardent attachment which is felt by those who have been
+born and brought up in the midst of fine and magnificent scenery to
+the place of their nativity, could not exist; and it will always be
+found that, other things being equal, those who live most amongst the
+beauties of nature, are those who most appreciate them.
+
+Many a beautiful prospect presented itself to the smuggler, as he
+walked on by the light of the moon. At one place, the woods swept
+round him and concealed the rest of the country from his eyes; but
+then the moonbeams poured through the branches, or streamed along the
+path, and every now and then, between the old trunks and gnarled
+roots, he caught a sight of the deeper parts of the woodland, sleeping
+in the pale rays. At another, issuing forth upon the side of the hill,
+the leafy wilderness lay beneath his feet with the broad round summit
+of some piece of high ground, rising dark and flat above; and at some
+distance further, he suddenly turned the angle of the valley, and had
+the tall grey ruin of Saltwood full before him, with the lines of the
+trees and meadows sweeping down into the dell, and the bright sky,
+lustrous with the moonlight, extended broad and unclouded behind.
+Shortly after, he came to the little stream, rushing in miniature
+cascades between its hollow banks, and murmuring with a soft and
+musical voice amongst the roots of the shrubs, which here and there
+hid it from the beams.
+
+He paused but a moment or two, however, at any of these things, and
+then walked on again, till at length he climbed the road leading up to
+the castle, and passed through the arch-way of the gate. Of the
+history of the place he knew nothing, but from vague traditions heard
+in his boyhood; and yet, when he stood amongst those old grey walls,
+with the high towers rising before him, and the greensward, covering
+the decay of centuries, beneath his feet, he could not help feeling a
+vague impression of melancholy, not unmingled with awe, fall upon him.
+In the presence of ancient things, the link between all mortality
+seems most strongly felt. We perceive our association with the dead
+more strongly. The character and habits of thought of the person, of
+course, render it a more distinct or obscure perception; but still we
+all have it. With some, it is as I have before called it, an
+impression that we must share the same decay, meet the same fate, fall
+into the same tomb as those who have raised or produced the things
+that we behold; for every work of man is but a tombstone, if it be
+read aright. But with others, an audible voice speaks from the grey
+ruin and the ancient church, from the dilapidated houses where our
+fathers dwelt or worshipped, and says to every one amongst the living,
+"As they were, who built us, so must you be. They enjoyed, and hoped,
+and feared, and suffered. So do you. Where are they gone, with all
+their thoughts? Where will you go, think you never so highly? All
+down, down, to the same dust, whither we too are tending. We have seen
+these things, for ages past, and we shall see more."
+
+I mean not to say that such was exactly the aspect under which those
+ruins presented themselves to the eye of the man who now visited them.
+The voice that spoke was not so clear; but yet it was clear enough to
+make him feel thoughtful if not sad; and he paused to gaze up at the
+high keep, as the moon shone out upon the old stone-work, showing
+every loophole and casement. He was not without imagination in a
+homely way, and, following the train of thought which the sight of the
+castle at that hour suggested, he said to himself, "I dare say many a
+pretty girl has looked out of that window to talk to her lover by the
+moonlight; and they have grown old, and died like other folks."
+
+How long he would have gone on in this musing mood I cannot tell, but
+just at that moment the boy who had come down to the beach to call
+him, appeared from the old doorway of the chapel, and pointing to one
+of the towers in the wall, whispered--"He's up there, waiting for
+you."
+
+"Well, then, you run home, young Starlight," replied the smuggler.
+"I'll be after you in a minute, for he can't have much to say, I
+should think. Off with you! and no listening, or I'll break your head,
+youngster."
+
+The boy laughed, and ran away through the gate; and his companion
+turned towards the angle which he had pointed out. Approaching the
+wall, he entered what might have been a door, or perhaps a window
+looking in upon the court, and communicating with one of those
+passages which led from tower to tower, with stairs every here and
+there leading to the battlements. He was obliged to bow his head as he
+passed; but after climbing a somewhat steep ascent, where the broken
+steps were half covered with rubbish, he emerged upon the top of the
+wall, where many a sentinel had kept his weary watch in times long
+past. At a little distance in advance, standing in the pale moonlight,
+was a tall, gaunt figure, leaning against a fragment of one of the
+neighbouring towers; and Harding did not pause to look at the
+splendour of the view below, though it might well, with its world of
+wood and meadow, bounded by the glistening sea, have attracted eyes
+less fond of such scenes than his; but on he walked, straight towards
+the person before him, who, on his part, hurried forward to meet him,
+whenever the sound of his step broke upon the ear.
+
+"Good night, Harding," said Mr. Radford, in a low but still harsh
+tone; "what a time you have been. It will be one o'clock or more
+before I get back."
+
+"Past two," answered the smuggler, bluntly; "but I came as soon as I
+could. It is not much more than half an hour since I got your
+message."
+
+"That stupid boy has been playing the fool, then," replied the other;
+"I sent him----"
+
+"Oh, he's not stupid," interrupted the smuggler; "and he's not given
+to play the fool either. More like to play the rogue. But what's the
+business now, sir? There's no doing anything on such nights as these."
+
+"I know that--I know that," rejoined Radford. "But this will soon
+change. The moon will be dwindled down to cheese-paring before many
+days are over, and the barometer is falling. It is necessary that we
+should make all our arrangements beforehand, Harding, and have
+everything ready. We must have no more such jobs as the last two."
+
+"I had nothing to do with them," rejoined the smuggler. "You chose
+your own people, and they failed. I do not mean to say it was their
+fault, for I don't think it was. They lost as much, for them, as you
+did; and they did their best, I dare say; but still that is nothing to
+me. I've undertaken to land the cargo, and I will do it, if I live. If
+I die, there's nothing to be said, you know; but I don't say I'll ever
+undertake another of the sort. It does not answer, Mr. Radford. It
+makes a man think too much, to know that other people have got so much
+money staked on such a venture."
+
+"Ay, but that is the very cause why every one should exert himself,"
+answered his companion. "I lost fifty thousand pounds by the last
+affair, twenty by the other; but I tell you, Harding, I have more than
+both upon this, and if this fail----"
+
+He paused, and did not finish the sentence; but he set his teeth hard,
+and seemed to draw his breath with difficulty.
+
+"That's a bad plan," said the smuggler--"a bad plan, in all ways. You
+wish to make up all at one run: and so you double the venture: but you
+should know by this time, that one out of four pays very well, and we
+have seldom failed to do one out of two or three; but the more money
+people get the more greedy they are of it; so that because you put
+three times as much as enough on one freight, you must needs put five
+times on the other, and ten times on the third, risking a greater loss
+every time for a greater gain. I'll have to do with no more of these
+things. I'm contented with little, and don't like such great
+speculations."
+
+"Oh, if you are afraid," cried Mr. Radford, "you can give it up! I
+dare say we can find some one else to land the goods."
+
+"As to being afraid, that I am not," answered Harding; "and having
+undertaken the run, I'll do it. I'm not half so much afraid as you
+are: for I've not near so much to lose--only my life or liberty and
+three hundred pounds. But still, Mr. Radford, I do not like to think
+that if anything goes wrong you'll be so much hurt; and it makes a man
+feel queer. If I have a few hundreds in a boat, and nothing to lose
+but myself and a dozen of tubs, I go about it as gay as a lark and as
+cool and quiet as a dogfish; but if anything were to go wrong now, why
+it would be----"
+
+"Ruin--utter ruin!" said Mr. Radford.
+
+"I dare say it would," rejoined the smuggler; "but, nevertheless, your
+coming down here every other day, and sending for me, does no good,
+and a great deal of harm. It only teazes me, and sets me always
+thinking about it, when the best way is not to think at all, but just
+to do the thing and get it over. Besides, you'll have people noticing
+your being so often down here, and you'll make them suspect something
+is going on."
+
+"But it is necessary, my good fellow," answered the other, "that we
+should settle all our plans. I must have people ready, and horses and
+help, in case of need."
+
+"Ay, that you must," replied the smuggler, thoughtfully. "I think you
+said the cargo was light goods."
+
+"Almost all India," said Radford, in return. "Shawls and painted
+silks, and other things of great value but small bulk. There are a few
+bales of lace, too; but the whole will require well nigh a hundred
+horses to carry it, so that we must have a strong muster."
+
+"Ay, and men who fight, too," rejoined Harding. "You know there are
+Dragoons down at Folkestone?"
+
+"No!--when did they come?" exclaimed Hadford, eagerly. "That's a bad
+job--that's a bad job! Perhaps they suspect already. Perhaps some of
+those fellows from the other side have given information, and these
+soldiers are sent down in consequence--I shouldn't wonder, I shouldn't
+wonder."
+
+"Pooh--nonsense, Mr. Radford!" replied Harding; "you are always so
+suspicious. Some day or another you'll suspect me."
+
+"I suspect everybody," cried Radford, vehemently, "and I have good
+cause. I have known men do such things, for a pitiful gain, as would
+hang them, if there were any just punishment for treachery."
+
+Harding laughed, but he did not explain the cause of his merriment,
+though probably he thought that Mr. Radford himself would do many a
+thing for a small gain, which would not lightly touch his soul's
+salvation. He soon proceeded, however, to reply, in a grave
+tone--"That's a bad plan, Mr. Radford. No man is ever well served by
+those whom he suspects. He had better never have anything to do with a
+person he doubts; so, if you doubt me, I'm quite willing to give the
+business up, for I don't half like it."
+
+"Oh, no!" said Radford, in a smooth and coaxing tone, "I did not mean
+you, Harding; I know you too well for as honest a fellow as ever
+lived; but I do doubt those fellows on the other side, and I strongly
+suspect they peached about the other two affairs. Besides, you said
+something about Dragoons, and we have not had any of that sort of
+vermin here for a year or more."
+
+"You frighten yourself about nothing," answered Harding. "There is but
+a troop of them yet, though they say more are expected. But what good
+are Dragoons? I have run many a cargo under their very noses, and hope
+I shall live to run many another. As to stopping this traffic, they
+are no more good than so many old women!"
+
+"But you must get it all over before the rest come," replied Mr.
+Radford, in an argumentative manner, taking hold of the lappel of his
+companion's jacket; "there's no use of running more risk than needful.
+And you must remember that we have a long way to carry the goods after
+they are landed. Then is the most dangerous time."
+
+"I don't know that," said Harding; "but, however, you must provide for
+that, and must also look out for _hides_[1] for the things. I wont
+have any of them down with me; and when I have landed them safely,
+though I don't mind giving a help to bring them a little way inland, I
+wont be answerable for anything more."
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 1: It may be as well to explain to the uninitiated reader,
+that the secret places where smugglers conceal their goods after
+landing, are known by the name of "Hides."]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+"No, no; that's all settled," answered his companion; "and the hides
+are all ready, too. Some can come into my stable, others can be
+carried up to the willow cave. Then there's Sir Robert's great barn."
+
+"Will Sir Robert consent?" asked Harding, in a doubtful tone. "He
+would never have anything to do with these matters himself, and was
+always devilish hard upon us. I remember he sent my father to gaol ten
+years ago, when I was a youngster."
+
+"He must consent," replied Radford, sternly. "He dare as soon refuse
+me as cut off his right hand. I tell you, Harding, I have got him in a
+vice; and one turn of the lever will make him cry for mercy when I
+like. But no more of him. I shall use his barn as if it were my own;
+and it is in the middle of the wood, you know, so that it's out of
+sight. But even if it were not for that, we've got many another place.
+Thank Heaven, there are no want of hides in this county!"
+
+"Ay, but the worst of dry goods, and things of that kind," rejoined
+the smuggler, "is that they spoil with a little wet, so that one can't
+sink them in a cut or canal till they are wanted, as one can do with
+tubs. Who do you intend to send down for them? That's one thing I must
+know."
+
+"Oh, whoever comes, my son will be with them," answered Mr. Radford.
+"As to who the others will be, I cannot tell yet. The Ramleys,
+certainly, amongst the rest. They are always ready, and will either
+fight or run, as it may be needed."
+
+"I don't much like them," replied Harding; "they are a bad set. I wish
+they were hanged, or out of the country; for, as you say, they will
+either fight, or run, or peach, or anything else that suits them: one
+just as soon as another."
+
+"Oh, no fear of that--no fear of that!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, in a
+confident tone, which seemed somewhat strange to the ears of his
+companion, after the suspicions he had heard him so lately express;
+but the other instantly added, in explanation, "I shall take care that
+they have no means of peaching, for I will tell them nothing about it,
+till they are setting off with fifty or sixty others."
+
+"That's the best way, and the only way with such fellows as that,"
+answered Harding; "but if you tell nobody, you'll find it a hard job
+to get them all together."
+
+"Only let the day be fixed," said Mr. Radford; "and I'll have all
+ready--never fear."
+
+"That must be your affair," replied Harding; "I'm ready whenever you
+like. Give me a dark night and a fair wind, and my part of the job is
+soon done."
+
+"About this day week, I should think," said Mr. Radford. "The moon
+will be nearly out by that time."
+
+"Not much more than half," replied the smuggler; "and as we have got
+to go far,--for the ship, you say, will not stand in,--we had better
+have the whole night to ourselves. Even a bit of a moon is a bad
+companion on such a trip; especially when there is so much money
+risked. No, I think you had better give me three days more: then there
+will be wellnigh nothing left of her, and she wont rise till three or
+four. We can see what the weather's like, too, about that time; and I
+can come up, and let you know. But if you'll take my advice, Mr.
+Radford, you'll not be coming down here any more, till it's all over
+at least. There's no good of it, and it may do mischief."
+
+"Well, now it's all settled, I shall not need to do so," rejoined the
+other; "but I really don't see, Harding, why you should so much wish
+me to stay away."
+
+"I'll tell you why, Mr. Radford," said Harding, putting his hands into
+the pockets of his jacket, "and that very easily. Although you have
+become a great gentleman, and live at a fine place inland, people
+haven't forgot when you kept a house and a counting-house too, in
+Hythe, and all that used to go on in those days; and though you are a
+magistrate, and go out hunting and shooting, and all that, the good
+folks about have little doubt that you have a hankering after the old
+trade yet, only that you do your business on a larger scale than you
+did then. It's but the other day, when I was in at South's, the
+grocer's, to talk to him about some stuff he wanted, I heard two men
+say one to the other, as they saw you pass, 'Ay, there goes old
+Radford. I wonder what he's down here for!' 'As great an old smuggler
+as ever lived,' said the other; 'and a pretty penny he's made of it.
+He's still at it, they say; and I dare say he's down here now upon
+some such concern.' So you see, sir, people talk about it, and that's
+the reason why I say that the less you are here the better."
+
+"Perhaps it is--perhaps it is," answered Mr. Radford, quickly; "and as
+we've now settled all we can settle, till you come up, I'll take
+myself home. Good night, Harding--good night!"
+
+"Good night, sir," answered Harding, with something like a smile upon
+his lip; and finding their way down again to the court below, they
+parted.
+
+"I don't like that fellow at all," said Mr. Radford to himself, as he
+walked away upon the road to Hythe, where he had left his horse; "he's
+more than half inclined to be uncivil. I'll have nothing more to do
+with him after this is over."
+
+Harding took his way across the fields towards Sandgate, and perhaps
+his thoughts were not much more complimentary to his companion than
+Mr. Radford's had been to him; but in the meantime, while each
+followed his separate course homeward, we must remain for a short
+space in the green, moonlight court of Saltwood Castle. All remained
+still and silent for about three minutes; but then the ivy, which at
+that time had gathered thickly round the old walls, might be seen to
+move in the neighbourhood of a small aperture in one of the ruined
+flanking towers of the outer wall, to which it had at one time
+probably served as a window, though all traces of its original form
+were now lost. The tower was close to the spot where Mr. Radford and
+his companion had been standing; and although the aperture we have
+mentioned looked towards the court, joining on to a projecting wall in
+great part overthrown, there was a loop-hole on the other side,
+flanking the very parapet on which they had carried on their
+conversation.
+
+After the ivy had moved for a moment, as I have said, something like a
+human head was thrust out, looking cautiously round the court. The
+next minute a broad pair of shoulders appeared, and then the whole
+form of a tall and powerful man, who, after pausing for an instant on
+the top of the broken wall, used its fragments as a means of descent
+to the ground below. Just as he reached the level of the court, one of
+the loose stones which he had displaced as he came down, rolled after
+him and fell at his side; and, with a sudden start at the first sound,
+he laid his hand on the butt of a large horse-pistol stuck in a belt
+round his waist. As soon as he perceived what it was that had alarmed
+him, he took his hand from the weapon again, and walked out into the
+moonlight; and thence, after pacing quietly up and down for two or
+three minutes, to give time for the two other visitors of the castle
+to get to a distance, he sauntered slowly out through the gate. He
+then turned under the walls towards the little wood which at that time
+occupied a part of the valley; opposite to which he stood gazing for
+about five minutes. When he judged all safe, he gave a whistle, upon
+which the form of a boy instantly started out from the trees, and came
+running across the meadow towards him.
+
+"Have you heard all, Mr. Mowle?" asked the boy in a whisper, as soon
+as he was near.
+
+"All that they said, Little Starlight," replied the other. "They
+didn't say enough; but yet it will do; and you are a clever little
+fellow. But come along," he added, laying his hand on the boy's
+shoulder, "you shall have what I promised you, and half-a-crown more;
+and if you go on, and tell me all you find out, you shall be well
+paid."
+
+Thus saying, he walked on with the boy towards Hythe, and the scenery
+round Saltwood resumed its silent solitude again.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+To a very hungry man, it matters not much what is put upon the table,
+so that it be eatable; but with the intellectual appetite the case is
+different, and every one is anxious to know who is to be his
+companion, or what is to be in his book. Now, Sir Edward Digby was
+somewhat of an epicure in human character; and he always felt as great
+a curiosity to enjoy any new personage brought before him, as the more
+ordinary epicure desires to taste a new dish. He was equally refined,
+too, in regard to the taste of his intellectual food. He liked a good
+deal of flavour, but not too much: a soupçon of something, he did not
+well know what, in a man's demeanour gave it great zest, as a soupçon
+of two or three condiments so blended in a salmi as to defy analysis
+must have charmed Vatel; and, to say the truth, the little he had seen
+or heard of the house in which he now was, together with his knowledge
+of some of its antecedents, had awakened a great desire for a farther
+taste of its quality.
+
+When he went down stairs, then, and opened the dining-room door, his
+eye naturally ran round in search of the new guests. Only two,
+however, had arrived, in the first of whom he recognised Mr. Zachary
+Croyland. The other was a venerable looking old man, in black, whom he
+could not conceive to be Mr. Radford, from the previous account which
+he had heard of that respectable gentleman's character. It turned out,
+however, that the person before him--who had been omitted by Sir
+Robert Croyland in the enumeration of his expected visitors--was the
+clergyman of the neighbouring village; and being merely a plain, good
+man, of very excellent sense, but neither, rich noble, nor thrifty,
+was nobody in the opinion of the baronet.
+
+As soon as Sir Edward Digby appeared, Mr. Zachary Croyland, with his
+back tall, straight, and stiff as a poker, advanced towards him, and
+shook him cordially by the hand. "Welcome, welcome, my young friend,"
+he said; "you've kept your word, I see; and that's a good sign of any
+man, especially when he knows that there's neither pleasure, profit,
+nor popularity to be gained by so doing; and I'm sure there's none of
+either to be had in this remote corner of the world. You have some
+object, of course, in coming among us; for every man has an object;
+but what it is I can't divine."
+
+"A very great object indeed, my dear sir," replied the young officer,
+with a smile; "I wish to cultivate the acquaintance of an old friend
+of my father's--your brother here, who was kind enough to invite me."
+
+"A very unprofitable sort of plant to cultivate," answered Mr.
+Croyland, in a voice quite loud enough to be heard by the whole room.
+"It wont pay tillage, I should think; but you know your own affairs
+best. Here, Edith, my love, I must make you better acquainted with my
+young fellow-traveller. Doubtless, he is perfectly competent to talk
+as much nonsense to you as any other young man about town, and has
+imported, for the express benefit of the young ladies in the country,
+all the sweet things and pretty speeches last in vogue. But he can, in
+his saner moments, and if you just let him know that you are not quite
+a fool, bestow upon you some small portion of common sense, which he
+has picked up, Heaven knows how!--He couldn't have it by descent; for
+he is an eldest son, and that portion of the family property is always
+reserved for the younger children."
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland, who found that her brother Zachary was riding
+his horse somewhat hard, moved across the room--with the superfluity
+of whalebone which she had in her stays crackling at every step, as if
+expressly to attract attention--and, laying her hand on Mr. Croyland's
+arm, she whispered--"Now do, brother, be a little civil and kind.
+There's no use of hurting people's feelings; and, if Robert hasn't as
+much sense as you, there's no use you should always be telling him
+so."
+
+"Pish! nonsense! "cried Mr. Croyland, "Hold your tongue, Bab. You're a
+good soul as ever lived, but a great fool into the bargain. So don't
+meddle. I should think you had burnt your fingers enough with it by
+this time."
+
+"And I'm sure you're a good soul, too, if you would but let people
+know it," replied Mrs. Barbara, anxious to soften and keep down all
+the little oddities and asperities of her family circle in the eyes of
+Sir Edward Digby.
+
+But she only showed them the more by so doing; for Mr. Croyland was
+not to be caught by honey; and, besides, the character which she, in
+her simplicity, thought fit to attribute to him, was the very last
+upon the face of the earth which he coveted. Every man has his vanity;
+and it is an imp that takes an infinite variety of different forms,
+frequently the most hideous or the most absurd. Now Mr. Croyland's
+vanity lay in his oddity and acerbity. There was nothing on earth
+which he considered so foolish as good-nature; and he was heartily
+ashamed of the large portion with which Heaven had endowed him.
+
+"I a good soul!" he exclaimed. "Let me tell you, Bab, you are very
+much mistaken in that, as in every other thing you say or do. I am
+nothing more nor less than a very cross, ill-tempered old man; and you
+know it quite well, if you wouldn't be a hypocrite."
+
+"Well, I do believe you are," said the lady, with her own particular
+vanity mortified into a state of irritation, "and the only way is to
+let you alone."
+
+While this conversation had been passing between brother and sister,
+Sir Edward Digby, taking advantage of the position in which they
+stood, and which masked his own operations from the rest of the party,
+bent down to speak a few words to Edith, who, whatever they were,
+looked up with a smile, faint and thoughtful indeed, but still
+expressing as much cheerfulness as her countenance ever showed. The
+topic which he spoke upon might be commonplace, but what he said was
+said with grace, and had a degree of originality in it, mingled with
+courtliness and propriety of expression, which at once awakened
+attention and repaid it. It was not strong beer--it was not strong
+spirit--but it was like some delicate kind of wine, which has more
+power than the fineness of the flavour suffers to be apparent at the
+first taste.
+
+Their conversation was not long, however; for by the time that the
+young gentleman and lady had exchanged a few sentences, and Mr.
+Croyland had finished his discussion with his sister, the name of Mr.
+Radford was announced; and Sir Edward Digby turned quickly round to
+examine the appearance of the new comer. As he did so, however, his
+eye fell for a moment upon the countenance of Edith Croyland, and he
+thought he remarked an expression of anxiety not unmingled with pain,
+till the door closed after admitting a single figure, when a look of
+relief brightened her face, and she gave a glance across the room to
+her sister. The younger girl instantly rose; and while her father was
+busy receiving Mr. Radford with somewhat profuse attention, she
+gracefully crossed the room, and seating herself by Edith, laid her
+hand upon her sister's, whispering something to her with a kindly
+look.
+
+Sir Edward Digby marked it all, and liked it; for there is something
+in the bottom of man's heart which has always a sympathy with
+affection; but he, nevertheless, did not fail to take a complete
+survey of the personage who entered, and whom I must now present to
+the reader, somewhat more distinctly than I could do by the moonlight.
+Mr. Richard Radford was a tall, thin, but large-boned man, with dark
+eyes and overhanging shaggy brows, a hook nose, considerably depressed
+towards the point, a mouth somewhat wide, and teeth very fine for his
+age, though somewhat straggling and sharklike. His hair was very
+thick, and apparently coarse; his arms long and powerful; and his
+legs, notwithstanding the meagreness of his body, furnished with very
+respectable calves. On the whole, he was a striking but not a
+prepossessing person; and there was a look of keenness and cupidity,
+we might almost say voracity, in his eye, with a bend in the brow,
+which would have given the observer an idea of great quickness of
+intellect and decision of character, if it had not been for a certain
+degree of weakness about the partly opened mouth, which seemed to be
+in opposition to the latter characteristic. He was dressed in the
+height of the mode, with large buckles in his shoes and smaller ones
+at his knees, a light dress-sword hanging not ungracefully by his
+side, and a profusion of lace and embroidery about his apparel.
+
+Mr. Radford replied to the courtesies of Sir Robert Croyland
+with perfect self-possession--one might almost call it
+self-sufficiency--but with no grace and some stiffness. He was then
+introduced, in form, to Sir Edward Digby, bowing low, if that could be
+called a bow, which was merely an inclination of the rigid spine, from
+a perpendicular position to an angle of forty-five with the horizon.
+The young officer's demeanour formed a very striking contrast with
+that of his new acquaintance, not much in favour of the latter; but he
+showed that, as Mr. Croyland had predicated of him, he was quite
+prepared to say a great many courteous nothings in a very civil and
+obliging tone. Mr. Radford declared himself delighted at the honour of
+making his acquaintance, and Sir Edward pronounced himself charmed at
+the opportunity of meeting him. Mr. Radford hoped that he was going to
+honour their poor place for a considerable length of time, and Sir
+Edward felt sure that the beauty of such scenery, and the delights of
+such society, would be the cause of much pain to him when he was
+compelled to tear himself away.
+
+A low but merry laugh from behind them, caused both the gentlemen to
+turn their heads; and they found the sparkling eyes of Zara Croyland
+fixed upon them. She instantly dropped her eye-lids, however, and
+coloured a little, at being detected. It was evident enough that she
+had been weighing the compliments she heard, and estimating them at
+their right value, which made Mr. Radford look somewhat angry, but
+elicited nothing from Sir Edward Digby but a gay glance at the
+beautiful little culprit, which she caught, even through the thick
+lashes of her downcast eyes, and which served to reassure her.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland himself was displeased; but Zara was in a degree a
+spoiled child, and had established for herself a privilege of doing
+what she liked, unscolded. To turn the conversation, therefore, Sir
+Robert, in a tone of great regard, inquired particularly after his
+young friend, Richard, and said, he hoped that they were to have the
+pleasure of seeing him.
+
+"I trust so--I trust so, Sir Robert," replied Mr. Radford; "but you
+know I am totally unacquainted with his movements. He had gone away
+upon some business, the servants told me; and I waited as long as I
+could for him; but I did not choose to keep your dinner, Sir Robert;
+and if he does not choose to come in time, the young dog must go
+without.--Pray do not stop a moment for him."
+
+"Business!" muttered Mr. Croyland--"either cheating the king's
+revenue, or making love to a milkmaid, I'll answer for him;" but the
+remark passed unnoticed, for Sir Robert Croyland, who was always
+anxious to drown his brother's somewhat too pertinent observations,
+without giving the nabob any offence, was loudly pressing Mr. Radford
+to let them wait for half an hour, in order to give time for the young
+gentleman's arrival.
+
+His father, however, would not hear of such a proceeding; and the bell
+was rung, and dinner ordered. It was placed upon the table with great
+expedition; and the party moved towards the dining-room. Mr. Radford
+handed in the baronet's sister, who was, to say the truth, an enigma
+to him; for he himself could form no conception of her good-nature,
+simplicity, and kindness, and consequently thought that all the
+mischief she occasionally caused, must originate in well-concealed
+spite, which gave him a great reverence for her character. Sir Edward
+Digby, notwithstanding a hint from Sir Robert to take in his youngest
+daughter, advanced to Miss Croyland, and secured her, as he thought,
+for himself; while the brother of the master of the house followed
+with the fair Zara, leaving the clergyman and Sir Robert to come
+together. By a man[oe]uvre on the part of Edith, however, favoured by
+her father, but nearly frustrated by the busy spirit of her aunt, Miss
+Croyland got placed between Sir Robert and the clergyman, while the
+youngest daughter of the house was seated by Sir Edward Digby, leaving
+a chair vacant between herself and her worthy parent for young
+Radford, when he should arrive.
+
+All this being arranged, to the satisfaction of everybody but Sir
+Edward Digby, grace was said, after a not very decent hint from Sir
+Robert Croyland, that it ought not to be too long; and the dinner
+commenced with the usual attack upon soup and fish. It must not be
+supposed, however, because we have ventured to say that the
+arrangement was not to the satisfaction of Sir Edward Digby, that the
+young baronet was at all disinclined to enjoy his pretty little
+friend's society nearer than the opposite side of the table. Nor must
+it be imagined that his sage reflections, in regard to keeping himself
+out of danger, had at all made a coward of the gallant soldier. The
+truth is, he had a strong desire to study Edith Croyland: not on
+account of any benefit which that study could be of to himself, but
+with other motives and views, which, upon the whole, were very
+laudable. He wished to see into her mind, and, by those slight
+indications which were all he could expect her to display--but which,
+nevertheless, to a keen observer, often tell a history better than a
+whole volume of details--to ascertain some facts, in regard to which
+he took a considerable interest. Being somewhat eager in his way, and
+not knowing how long he might find it either convenient or safe to
+remain in his present quarters, he had determined to commence the
+campaign as soon as possible; but, frustrated in his first attack, he
+determined to change his plan of operations, and besiege the fair Zara
+as one of the enemy's outworks. He accordingly laughed and talked with
+her upon almost every subject in the world during the first part of
+dinner, skilfully leading her up to the pursuits of her sister and
+herself in the country, in order to obtain a clear knowledge of their
+habits and course of proceeding, that he might take advantage of it at
+an after-period, for purposes of his own.
+
+The art of conversation, when properly regarded, forms a regular
+system of tactics, in which, notwithstanding the various man[oe]uvres
+of your adversary, and the desultory fire kept up by indifferent
+persons around, you still endeavour to carry the line of advance in
+the direction that you wish, and to frustrate every effort to turn it
+towards any point that may not be agreeable to you, rallying it here,
+giving it a bend there; presenting a sharp angle at one place, an
+obtuse one at another; and raising from time to time a barrier or a
+breastwork for the purpose of preventing the adverse force from
+turning your flank, and getting into your rear.
+
+But the mischief was, in the present instance, that Sir Edward Digby's
+breastworks were too low for such an active opponent as Zara Croyland.
+They might have appeared a formidable obstacle in the way of a
+scientific opponent; but with all the rash valour of youth, which is
+so frequently successful where practice and experience fail, she
+walked straight up, and jumped over them, taking one line after
+another, till Sir Edward Digby found that she had nearly got into the
+heart of his camp. It was all so easy and natural, however, so gay and
+cheerful, that he could not feel mortified, even at his own want of
+success; and though five times she darted away from the subject, and
+began to talk of other things, he still renewed it, expatiating upon
+the pleasures of a country life, and upon how much more rational, as
+well as agreeable it was, when compared to the amusements and whirl of
+the town.
+
+Mr. Zachary Croyland, indeed, cut across them often, listening to what
+they said and sometimes smiling significantly at Sir Edward Digby, or
+at other times replying himself to what either of the two thought fit
+to discourse upon. Thus, then, when the young baronet was descanting
+sagely of the pleasures of the country, as compared with those of the
+town, good Mr. Croyland laughed merrily, saying, "You will soon have
+enough of it, Sir Edward; or else you are only deceiving that poor
+foolish girl; for what have you to do with the country?--you, who have
+lived the best part of your life in cities, and amongst their
+denizens. I dare say, if the truth were told now, you would give a
+guinea to be walking up the Mall, instead of sitting down here, in
+this old, crumbling, crazy house, speaking courteous nonsense to a
+pretty little milkmaid."
+
+"Indeed, my dear sir, you are very much mistaken," replied Sir Edward,
+gravely. "You judge all men by yourself; and because you are fond of
+cities, and the busy haunts of men, you think I must be so too."
+
+"I fond of cities and the busy haunts of men!" cried Mr. Croyland, in
+a tone of high indignation; but a laugh that ran round the table, and
+in which even the worthy clergyman joined, shewed the old gentleman
+that he had been taken in by Sir Edward's quietly-spoken jest; and at
+the same time his brother exclaimed, still laughing, "He hit you
+fairly there, Zachary. He has found out the full extent of your love
+for your fellow-creatures already."
+
+"Well, I forgive him, I forgive him!" said Mr. Croyland, with more
+good humour than might have been expected. "I had forgotten that I had
+told him, four or five days ago, my hatred for all cities, and
+especially for that great mound of greedy emmets, which,
+unfortunately, is the capital of this country. I declare I never go
+into that vast den of iniquity, and mingle with the stream of
+wretched-looking things that call themselves human, which all its
+doors are hourly vomiting forth, but they put me in mind of the white
+ants in India, just the same squalid-looking, active, and voracious
+vermin as themselves, running over everything that obstructs them,
+intruding themselves everywhere, destroying everything that comes in
+their way, and acting as an incessant torment to every one within
+reach. Certainly, the white ants are the less venemous of the two
+races, and somewhat prettier to look at; but still there's a wonderful
+resemblance."
+
+"I don't at all approve of your calling me a milkmaid, uncle," said
+Zara, shaking her small delicate finger at Mr. Croyland, across the
+table. "It's very wrong and ungrateful of you. See if ever I milk your
+cow for you again!"
+
+"Then I'll milk it myself, my dear," replied Mr. Croyland, with a
+good-humoured smile at his fair niece.
+
+"You cannot, you cannot!" cried Zara. "Fancy, Sir Edward, what a
+picture it made when one day I went over to my uncle's, and found him
+with a frightful-looking black man, in a turban whom he brought over
+from Heaven knows where, trying to milk a cow he had just bought, and
+neither of them able to manage it. My uncle was kneeling upon his
+cocked hat, amongst the long grass, looking, as he acknowledges, like
+a kangaroo; the cow had got one of her feet in the pail, kicking most
+violently; and the black man with a white turban round his head, was
+upon both his knees before her, beseeching her in some heathen
+language to be quiet. It was the finest sight I ever saw, and would
+have made a beautiful picture of the Worship of the Cow, which is, as
+I am told, customary in the country where both the gentlemen came
+from."
+
+"Zara, my dear--Zara!" cried Mrs. Barbara, who was frightened to death
+lest her niece should deprive herself of all share in Mr. Croyland's
+fortune. "You really should not tell such a story of your uncle."
+
+But the worthy gentleman himself was laughing till the tears ran down
+his cheeks. "It's quite true--it's quite true!" he exclaimed, "and she
+did milk the cow, though we couldn't. The ill-tempered devil was as
+quiet as a lamb with her, though she is so vicious with every male
+thing, that I have actually been obliged to have a woman in the
+cottage within a hundred yards of the house, for the express purpose
+of milking her."
+
+"That's what you should have done at first," said Mr. Radford, putting
+down the fork with which he had been diligently devouring a large
+plateful of fish. "Instead of having nothing but men about you, you
+should have had none but your coachman and footman, and all the rest
+women."
+
+"Ay, and married my cook-maid," replied Mr. Croyland, sarcastically.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland looked down into his plate with a quivering lip
+and a heavy brow, as if he did not well know whether to laugh or be
+angry. The clergyman smiled, Mr. Radford looked furious, but said
+nothing, and Mrs. Barbara exclaimed, "Oh, brother, you should not say
+such things! and besides, there are many cook-maids who are very nice,
+pretty, respectable people."
+
+"Well, sister, I'll think of it," said Mr. Croyland, drily, but with a
+good deal of fun twinkling in the corners of his eyes.
+
+It was too much for the light heart of Zara Croyland; and holding down
+her head, she laughed outright, although she knew that Mr. Radford had
+placed himself in the predicament of which her uncle spoke, though he
+had been relieved of the immediate consequence for some years.
+
+What would have been the result is difficult to say; for Mr. Radford
+was waxing wroth; but at that moment the door was flung hastily open,
+and a young gentleman entered, of some three or four-and-twenty years
+of age, bearing a strong resemblance to Mr. Radford, though
+undoubtedly of a much more pleasant and graceful appearance. He was
+well dressed, and his coat, lined with white silk of the finest
+texture, was cast negligently back from his chest, with an air of
+carelessness which was to be traced in all the rest of his apparel.
+Everything he wore was as good as it could be, and everything became
+him; for he was well formed, and his movements were free and even
+graceful; but everything seemed to have been thrown on in a hurry, and
+his hair floated wild and straggling round his brow, as if neither
+comb nor brush had touched it for many hours. It might have been
+supposed that this sort of disarray proceeded from haste when he found
+himself too late and his father gone; but there was an expression of
+reckless indifference about his face which led Sir Edward Digby to
+imagine that this apparent negligence was the habitual characteristic
+of his mind, rather than the effect of any accidental circumstance.
+His air was quite self-possessed, though hurried; and a flashing
+glance of his eye round the table, resting for a moment longer on Sir
+Edward Digby than on any one else, seemed directed to ascertain
+whether the party assembled was one that pleased him, before he chose
+to sit down to the board with them. He made no apology to Sir Robert
+Croyland for being too late, but shook hands with him in return for
+the very cordial welcome he met with, and then seated himself in the
+vacant chair, nodding to Miss Croyland familiarly, and receiving a
+cold inclination of the head in return. One of the servants inquired
+if he would take soup and fish; but he replied, abruptly, "No; bring
+me fish. No soup--I hate such messes."
+
+In the meantime, by one of those odd turns which sometimes take place
+in conversation, Mr. Croyland, the clergyman, and Mr. Radford himself
+were once more talking together: the latter having apparently overcome
+his indignation at the nabob's tart rejoinder, in the hope and
+expectation of saying something still more biting to him in return.
+Like many a great general, however, he had not justly appreciated the
+power of his adversary as compared with his own strength. Mr.
+Croyland, soured at an early period of life, had acquired by long
+practice and experience a habit of repartee when his prejudices or his
+opinions (and they are very different things) were assailed, which was
+overpowering. A large fund of natural kindness and good humour formed
+a curious substratum for the acerbity which had accumulated above it,
+and his love of a joke would often shew itself in a hearty peal of
+laughter, even at his own expense, when the attack upon him was made
+in a good spirit, by one for whom he had any affection or esteem. But
+if he despised or disliked his assailant, as was the case with Mr.
+Radford, the bitterest possible retort was sure to be given in the
+fewest possible words.
+
+In order to lead away from the obnoxious subject, the clergyman
+returned to Mr. Croyland's hatred of London, saying, not very
+advisedly perhaps, just as young Mr. Radford entered, "I cannot
+imagine, my dear sir, why you have such an animosity to our
+magnificent capital, and to all that it contains, especially when we
+all know you to be as beneficent to individuals as you are severe upon
+the species collectively."
+
+"My dear Cruden, you'll only make a mess of it," replied Mr. Croyland.
+"The reason why I do sometimes befriend a poor scoundrel whom I happen
+to know, is because it is less pleasant for me to see a rascal suffer
+than to do what's just by him. I have no will and no power to punish
+all the villany I see, otherwise my arm would be tired enough of
+flogging, in this county of Kent. But I do not understand why I should
+be called upon to like a great agglomeration of blackguards in a city,
+when I can have the same diluted in the country. Here we have about a
+hundred scoundrels to the square mile; in London we have a hundred to
+the square yard."
+
+"Don't you think, sir, that they may be but the worse scoundrels in
+the country because they are fewer?" demanded Mr. Radford.
+
+"I am beginning to fancy so," answered Mr. Croyland, drily, "but I
+suppose in London the number makes up for the want of intensity."
+
+"Well, it's a very fine city," rejoined Mr. Radford; "the emporium of
+the world, the nurse of arts and sciences, the birth-place and the
+theatre of all that is great and majestic in the efforts of human
+intellect."
+
+"And equally of all that is base and vile," answered his opponent; "it
+is the place to which all smuggled goods naturally tend, Radford.
+Every uncustomed spirit, every prohibited ware, physical and
+intellectual, there finds its mart; and the chief art that is
+practised is to cheat as cleverly as may be--the chief science
+learned, is how to defraud without being detected. We are improving in
+the country, daily--daily; but we have not reached the skill of London
+yet. Men make large fortunes in the country in a few years by merely
+cheating the Customs; but in London they make large fortunes in a few
+months by cheating everybody."
+
+"So they do in India," replied Mr. Radford, who thought he had hit the
+tender place.
+
+"True, true!" cried Mr. Croyland; "and then we go and set up for
+country gentlemen, and cheat still. What rogues we are, Radford!--eh?
+I see you know the world. It is very well for me to say, I made all my
+money by curing men, not by robbing them. Never you believe it, my
+good friend. It is not in human nature, is it? No, no! tell that to
+the marines. No man ever made a fortune but by plunder, that's a
+certain fact."
+
+The course of Sir Robert Croyland's dinner-party seemed to promise
+very pleasantly at this juncture; but Sir Edward Digby, though
+somewhat amused, was not himself fond of sharp words, and had some
+compassion upon the ladies at the table. He therefore stepped in; and,
+without seeming to have noticed that there was anything passing
+between Mr. Radford and the brother of his host, except the most
+delicate courtesies, he contrived, by some well-directed questions in
+regard to India, to give Mr. Croyland an inducement to deviate from
+the sarcastic into the expatiative; and having set him cantering upon
+one of his hobbies, he left him to finish his excursion, and returned
+to a conversation which had been going on between him and the fair
+Zara, in somewhat of a low tone, though not so low as to show any
+mutual design of keeping it from the ears of those around. Young
+Radford had in the meantime been making up for the loss of time
+occasioned by his absence at the commencement of dinner, and he seemed
+undoubtedly to have a prodigious appetite. Not a word had passed from
+father to son, or son to father; and a stranger might have supposed
+them in no degree related to each other. Indeed, the young gentleman
+had hitherto spoken to nobody but the servant; and while his mouth was
+employed in eating, his quick, large eyes were directed to every face
+round the table in succession, making several more tours than the
+first investigating glance, which I have already mentioned, and every
+time stopping longer at the countenance of Sir Edward Digby than
+anywhere else. He now, however, seemed inclined to take part in that
+officer's conversation with the youngest Miss Croyland, and did not
+appear quite pleased to find her attention so completely engrossed by
+a stranger. To Edith he vouchsafed not a single word; but hearing the
+fair lady next to him reply to something which Sir Edward Digby had
+said. "Oh, we go out once or twice almost every day; sometimes on
+horseback; but more frequently to take a walk," he exclaimed, "Do you,
+indeed, Miss Zara?--why, I never meet you, and I am always running
+about the country. How is that, I wonder?"
+
+Zara smiled, and replied, with an arch look, "Because fortune
+befriends us, I suppose, Mr. Radford;" but then, well knowing that he
+was not one likely to take a jest in good part, she added--"we don't
+go out to meet anybody, and therefore always take those paths where we
+are least likely to do so."
+
+Still young Radford did not seem half to like her reply; but,
+nevertheless, he went on in the same tone, continually interrupting
+her conversation with Sir Edward Digby, and endeavouring, after a
+fashion not at all uncommon, to make himself agreeable by preventing
+people from following the course they are inclined to pursue. The
+young baronet rather humoured him than otherwise, for he wished to see
+as deeply as possible into his character. He asked him to drink wine
+with him; he spoke to him once or twice without being called upon to
+do so; and he was somewhat amused to see that the fair Zara was a good
+deal annoyed at the encouragement he gave to her companion on the left
+to join in their conversation.
+
+He was soon satisfied, however, in regard to the young man's mind and
+character. Richard Radford had evidently received what is called a
+good education, which is, in fact, no education at all. He had been
+taught a great many things; he knew a good deal; but that which really
+and truly constitutes education was totally wanting. He had not
+learned how to make use of that which he had acquired, either for his
+own benefit or for that of society. He had been instructed, not
+educated, and there is the greatest possible difference between the
+two. He was shrewd enough, but selfish and conceited to a high degree,
+with a sufficient portion of pride to be offensive, with sufficient
+vanity to be irritable, with all the wilfulness of a spoiled child,
+and with that confusion of ideas in regard to plain right and wrong,
+which is always consequent upon the want of moral training and
+over-indulgence in youth. To judge from his own conversation, the
+whole end and aim of his life seemed to be excitement; he spoke of
+field sports with pleasure; but the degree of satisfaction which he
+derived from each, appeared to be always in proportion to the danger,
+the activity, and the fierceness. Hunting he liked better than
+shooting, shooting than fishing, which latter he declared was only
+tolerable because there was nothing else to be done in the spring of
+the year. But upon the pleasures of the chase he would dilate largely,
+and he told several anecdotes of staking a magnificent horse here, and
+breaking the back of another there, till poor Zara turned somewhat
+pale, and begged him to desist from such themes.
+
+"I cannot think how men can be so barbarous," she said. "Their whole
+pleasure seems to consist in torturing poor animals or killing them."
+
+Young Radford laughed. "What were they made for?" he asked.
+
+"To be used by man, I think, not to be tortured by him," the young
+lady replied.
+
+"No torture at all," said her companion on the left. "The horse takes
+as much pleasure in running after the hounds as I do, and if he breaks
+his back, or I break my neck, it's our own fault. We have nobody to
+thank for it but ourselves. The very chance of killing oneself gives
+additional pleasure; and, when one pushes a horse at a leap, the best
+fun of the whole is the thought whether he will be able by any
+possibility to clear it or not. If it were not for hunting, and one or
+two other things of the sort, there would be nothing left for an
+English gentleman, but to go to Italy and put himself at the head of a
+party of banditti. That must be glorious work!"
+
+"Don't you think, Mr. Radford," asked Sir Edward Digby, "that active
+service in the army might offer equal excitement, and a more
+honourable field?"
+
+"Oh, dear no!" cried the young man. "A life of slavery compared with a
+life of freedom; to be drilled and commanded, and made a mere machine
+of, and sent about relieving guards and pickets, and doing everything
+that one is told like a school-boy! I would not go into the army for
+the world. I'm sure if I did I should shoot my commanding officer
+within a month!"
+
+"Then I would advise you not," answered the young baronet, "for after
+the shooting there would be another step to be taken which would not
+be quite so pleasant."
+
+"Oh, you mean the hanging," cried young Radford, laughing; "but I
+would take care they should never hang me; for I could shoot myself as
+easily as I could shoot him; and I have a great dislike to
+strangulation. It's one of the few sorts of death that would not
+please me."
+
+"Come, come, Richard!" said Sir Robert Croyland, in a nervous and
+displeased tone; "let us talk of some other subject. You will frighten
+the ladies from table before the cloth is off."
+
+"It is very odd," said young Radford, in a low voice, to Sir Edward
+Digby, without making any reply to the master of the house--"it is
+very odd, how frightened old men are at the very name of death, when
+at the best they can have but two or three years to live."
+
+The young officer did not reply, but turned the conversation to other
+things; and the wine having been liberally supplied, operated as it
+usually does, at the point where its use stops short of excess, in
+"making glad the heart of man;" and the conclusion of the dinner was
+much more cheerful and placable than the commencement.
+
+The ladies retired within a few minutes after the desert was set upon
+the table; and it soon became evident to Sir Edward Digby, that the
+process of deep drinking, so disgracefully common in England at that
+time, was about to commence. He was by no means incapable of bearing
+as potent libations as most men; for occasionally, in those days, it
+was scarcely possible to escape excess without giving mortal offence
+to your entertainer; but it was by no means either his habit or his
+inclination so to indulge, and for this evening especially he was
+anxious to escape. He looked, therefore, across the table to Mr.
+Croyland for relief; and that gentleman, clearly understanding what he
+meant, gave him a slight nod, and finished his first glass of wine
+after dinner. The bottles passed round again, and Mr. Croyland took
+his second glass; but after that he rose without calling much
+attention: a proceeding which was habitual with him. When, however,
+Sir Edward Digby followed his example, there was a general outcry.
+Every one declared it was too bad, and Sir Robert said, in a somewhat
+mortified tone, that he feared his wine was not so good as that to
+which his guest had been accustomed.
+
+"It is only too good, my dear sir," replied the young baronet,
+determined to cut the matter short, at once and for ever. "So good,
+indeed, that I have been induced to take two more glasses than I
+usually indulge in, and I consequently feel somewhat heated and
+uncomfortable. I shall go and refresh myself by a walk through your
+woods."
+
+Several more efforts were made to induce him to stay; but he was
+resolute in his course; and Mr. Croyland also came to his aid,
+exclaiming, "Pooh, nonsense, Robert! let every man do as he likes.
+Have not I heard you, a thousand times, call your house Liberty Hall?
+A pretty sort of liberty, indeed, if a man must get beastly drunk
+because you choose to do so!"
+
+"I do not intend to do any such thing, brother," replied Sir Robert,
+somewhat sharply; and in the meanwhile, during this discussion, Sir
+Edward Digby made his escape from the room.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+On entering the drawing-room, towards which Sir Edward Digby
+immediately turned his steps, he found it tenanted alone by Mrs.
+Barbara Croyland, who sat in the window with her back towards the
+door, knitting most diligently, with something pinned to her knee. As
+it was quite beyond the good lady's conception that any body would
+ever think of quitting the dining-room so early but her younger
+brother, no sooner did she hear a step than, jumping at conclusions as
+she usually did, she exclaimed aloud, "Isn't he a nice young man,
+brother Zachary? I think it will do quite well, if that----"
+
+Sir Edward Digby would have given a great deal to hear the conclusion
+of the sentence; but his honour was as bright as his sword; and he
+never took advantage of a mistake. "It is not your brother, Mrs.
+Croyland," he said; and then Mrs. Barbara starting up with a face like
+scarlet, tearing her gown at the same time by the tug she gave to the
+pin which attached her work to her knee, he added, with the most
+benevolent intentions, "I think he might have been made a very nice
+young man, if he had been properly treated in his youth. But I should
+imagine he was very wild and headstrong now."
+
+Mrs. Barbara stared at him with a face full of wonder and confusion;
+for her own mind was so completely impressed with the subject on which
+she had begun to speak, that she by no means comprehended the turn
+that he intended to give it, but thought that he also was talking of
+himself, and not of young Radford. How it would have ended, no mere
+mortal can tell; for when once Mrs. Barbara got into a scrape, she
+floundered most awfully. Luckily, however, her brother was close
+enough behind Sir Edward Digby to hear all that passed, and he entered
+the room while the consternation was still fresh upon his worthy
+sister's countenance.
+
+After gazing at her for a moment, with a look of sour merriment, Mr.
+Croyland exclaimed, "There! hold your tongue, Bab; you can't get your
+fish out of the kettle without burning your fingers!--Now, my young
+friend," he continued, taking Sir Edward Digby by the arm, and drawing
+him aside, "if you choose to be a great fool, and run the risk of
+falling in love with a pretty girl, whom my sister Barbara has
+determined you shall marry, whether you like it or not, and who
+herself, dear little soul, has no intention in the world but of
+playing you like a fish till you are caught, and then laughing at you,
+you will find the two girls walking in the wood behind the house, as
+they do every day. But if you don't like such amusement, you can stay
+here with me and Bab, and be instructed by her in the art and mystery
+of setting everything to wrongs with the very best intentions in the
+world."
+
+"Thank you, my dear sir," replied Sir Edward, smiling, "I think I
+should prefer the fresh air; and, as to the dangers against which you
+warn me, I have no fears. The game of coquetry can be played by two."
+
+"Ay, but woe to him who loses!" said Mr. Croyland, in a more serious
+tone. "But go along with you--go along! You are a rash young man; and
+if you will court your fate, you must."
+
+The young baronet accordingly walked away, leaving Mrs. Barbara to
+recover from her confusion as she best might, and Mr. Croyland to
+scold her at his leisure, which Sir Edward did not in the slightest
+degree doubt he would do. It was a beautiful summer's afternoon in the
+end of August, the very last day of the month, the hour about a
+quarter to six, so that the sun had nearly to run a twelfth part of
+his course before the time of his setting. It was warm and cheerful,
+too, but with a freshness in the air, and a certain golden glow over
+the sky, which told that it was evening. Not wishing exactly to pass
+before the dining-room windows, Sir Edward endeavoured to find his way
+out into the wood behind the house by the stable and farm yards; but
+he soon found himself in a labyrinth from which it was difficult to
+extricate himself, and in the end was obliged to have recourse to a
+stout country lad, who was walking up towards the mansion, with a
+large pail of milk tugging at his hand, and bending in the opposite
+direction to balance the load. Right willingly, however, the youth set
+down the pail; and, leaving it to the tender mercies of some pigs, who
+were walking about in the yard and did not fail to inquire into the
+nature of its contents, he proceeded to show the way through the
+flower and kitchen gardens, by a small door in the wall, to a path
+which led out at once amongst the trees.
+
+Now, Sir Edward Digby had not the slightest idea of which way the two
+young ladies had gone; and it was by no means improbable that, if he
+were left without pilotage in going and returning, he might lose his
+way in the wood, which, as I have said, was very extensive. But all
+true lovers are fond of losing their way; and as he had his sword by
+his side, he had not the slightest objection to that characteristic of
+an Amadis, having in reality a good deal of the knight-errant about
+him, and rather liking a little adventure, if it did not go too far.
+His adventures, indeed, were not destined that night to be very
+remarkable; for, following the path about a couple of hundred yards,
+he was led directly into a good, broad, sandy road, in which he
+thought it would be impossible to go astray. A few clouds that passed
+over the sky from time to time cast their fitful and fanciful shadows
+upon the way; the trees waved on either hand; and, with a small border
+of green turf, the yellow path pursued its course through the wood,
+forming a fine but pleasant contrast in colour with the verdure of all
+the other things around. As he went on, too, the sky overhead, and the
+shades amongst the trees, began to assume a rosy hue as the day
+declined farther and farther; and the busy little squirrels, as
+numerous as mice, were seen running here and there up the trees and
+along the branches, with their bright black eyes staring at the
+stranger with a saucy activity very little mingled with fear. The
+young baronet was fond of such scenes, and fond of the somewhat grave
+musing which they very naturally inspire; and he therefore went on,
+alternately pondering and admiring, and very well contented with his
+walk, whether he met with his fair friends or not. Sir Edward, indeed,
+would not allow himself to fancy that he was by any means very anxious
+for Zara's company, or for Miss Croyland's either--for he was not in
+the slightest hurry either to fall in love or to acknowledge it to
+himself even if he were. With regard to Edith, indeed, he felt himself
+in no possible danger; for had he continued to think her, as he had
+done at first, more beautiful than her sister--which by this time he
+did not--he was still guarded in her case by feelings, which, to a man
+of his character, were as a triple shield of brass, or anything a
+great deal stronger.
+
+He walked on, however, and he walked on; not, indeed, with a very slow
+pace, but with none of the eager hurry of youth after beauty; till at
+length, when he had proceeded for about half an hour, he saw
+cultivated fields and hedgerows at the end of the road he was
+pursuing, and soon after came to the open country, without meeting
+with the slightest trace of Sir Robert Croyland's daughters.
+
+On the right hand, as he issued out of the wood, there was a small but
+very neat and picturesque cottage, with its little kitchen-garden and
+its flower-garden, its wild roses, and its vine.
+
+"I have certainly missed them," said Sir Edward Digby to himself, "and
+I ought to make the best use of my time, for it wont do to stay here
+too long. Perhaps they may have gone into the cottage. Girls like
+these often seek an object in their walk, and visit this poor person
+or that;" and thus thinking, he advanced to the little gate, went into
+the garden, and knocked with his knuckles at the door of the house. A
+woman's voice bade him come in; and, doing so, he found a room, small
+in size, but corresponding in neatness and cleanliness with the
+outside of the place. It was tenanted by three persons--a middle-aged
+woman, dressed as a widow, with a fine and placid countenance, who was
+advancing towards the door as he entered; a very lovely girl of
+eighteen or nineteen, who bore a strong resemblance to the widow; and
+a stout, powerful, good-looking man, of about thirty, well dressed,
+though without any attempt at the appearance of a station above the
+middle class, with a clean, fine, checked shirt, having the collar
+cast back, and a black silk handkerchief tied lightly in what is
+usually termed a sailor's knot. The two latter persons were sitting
+very close together, and the girl was smiling gaily at something her
+companion had just said.
+
+"Two lovers!" thought the young baronet; but, as that was no business
+of his, he went on to inquire of the good woman of the house, if she
+had seen some young ladies pass that way; and having named them, he
+added, to escape scandal, "I am staying at the house, and am afraid,
+if I do not meet with them, I shall not easily find my way back."
+
+"They were here a minute ago, sir," replied the widow, "and they went
+round to the east. They will take the Halden road back, I suppose. If
+you make haste, you will catch them easily."
+
+"But which is the Halden road, my good lady?" asked Sir Edward Digby;
+and she, turning to the man who was sitting by her daughter, said, "I
+wish you would shew the gentleman, Mr. Harding."
+
+The man rose cheerfully enough--considering the circumstances--and led
+the young baronet with a rapid step, by a footpath that wound round
+the edge of the wood, to another broad road about three hundred yards
+distant from that by which the young officer had come. Then, pointing
+with his hand, he said, "There they are, going as slow as a Dutch
+butter-tub. You can't miss them, or the road either: for it leads
+straight on."
+
+Sir Edward Digby thanked him, and walked forward. A few rapid steps
+brought him close to the two ladies, who--though they looked upon
+every part of the wood as more or less their home, and consequently
+felt no fear--turned at the sound of a footfall so near; and the
+younger of the two smiled gaily, when she saw who it was.
+
+"What! Sir Edward Digby!" she exclaimed. "In the name of all that is
+marvellous, how did you escape from the dining-room? Why, you will be
+accused of shirking the bottle, cowardice, and milksopism, and crimes
+and misdemeanours enough to forfeit your commission."
+
+She spoke gaily; but Sir Edward Digby thought that the gaiety was not
+exactly sterling; for when first she turned, her face had been nearly
+as grave as her sister's. He answered, however, in the same tone, "I
+must plead guilty to all such misdemeanours; but if they are to be
+rewarded by such pleasure as that of a walk with you, I fear I shall
+often commit them."
+
+"You must not pay us courtly compliments, Sir Edward," said Miss
+Croyland, "for we poor country people do not understand them. I hope,
+however, you left the party peaceable: for it promised to be quite the
+contrary at one time, and my uncle and Mr. Radford never agree."
+
+"Oh, quite peaceable, I can assure you," replied Digby. "I retreated
+under cover of your uncle's movements. Perhaps, otherwise, I might not
+have got away so easily. He it was who told me where I should find
+you."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Miss Croyland, in a tone of surprise; and then,
+casting down her eyes, she fell into thought. Her sister, however,
+carried on the conversation in her stead, saying, "Well, you are the
+first soldier, Sir Edward, I ever saw, who left the table before
+night."
+
+"They must have been soldiers who had seen little service, I should
+think," replied the young officer; "for a man called upon often for
+active exertion, soon finds the necessity of keeping any brains he has
+got as clear as possible, in case they should be needed. In many
+countries where I have been, too, we could get no wine to drink, even
+if we wanted it. Such was the case in Canada, and in some parts of
+Germany."
+
+"Have you served in Canada?" demanded Miss Croyland suddenly, raising
+her eyes to his face with a look of deep interest.
+
+"Through almost the whole of the war." replied Sir Edward Digby,
+quietly, without noticing, even by a glance, the change of expression
+which his words had produced. He then paused for a moment, as if
+waiting for some other question; but both Miss Croyland and her sister
+remained perfectly silent, and the former turned somewhat pale.
+
+As he saw that neither of his two fair companions were likely to carry
+the conversation a step further, the young officer proceeded, in a
+quiet and even light tone--"This part of the country," he continued,
+"is always connected in my mind with Canada; and, indeed, I was glad
+to accept your father's invitation at once, when he was kind enough to
+ask me to his house; for, in addition to the pleasure of making his
+personal acquaintance, I longed to see scenes which I had often heard
+mentioned with all the deep affection and delight which only can be
+felt by a fine mind for the spot in which our brighter years are
+passed."
+
+The younger girl looked to her sister, but Edith Croyland was deadly
+pale, and said nothing; and Zara inquired in a tone to which she too
+evidently laboured to give the gay character of her usual demeanour,
+"Indeed, Sir Edward! May I ask who gave you such a flattering account
+of our poor country? He must have been a very foolish and prejudiced
+person--at least, so I fear you must think, now you have seen it."
+
+"No, no!--oh, no!" cried Digby, earnestly, "anything but that. I had
+that account from a person so high-minded, so noble, so full of every
+generous quality of heart, and every fine quality of mind, that I was
+quite sure, ere I came here, I should find the people whom he
+mentioned, and the scenes which he described, all that he had stated;
+and I have not been disappointed, Miss Croyland."
+
+"But you have not named him, Sir Edward," said Zara; "you are very
+tantalizing. Perhaps we may know him, and be sure we shall love him
+for his patriotism."
+
+"He was an officer in the regiment to which I then belonged." answered
+the young baronet, "and my dearest friend. His name was Leyton--a most
+distinguished man, who had already gained such a reputation, that, had
+his rank in the army admitted it, none could have been more desired to
+take the command of the forces when Wolfe fell on the heights of
+Abraham. He was too young, however, and had too little interest to
+obtain that position.--Miss Croyland, you seem ill. Let me give you my
+arm."
+
+Edith bowed her head quietly, and leaned upon her sister, but answered
+not a word; and Zara gave a glance to Sir Edward Digby which he read
+aright. It was a meaning, a sort of relying and imploring look, as if
+she would have said, "I beseech you, say no more; she cannot bear it."
+And the young officer abruptly turned the conversation, observing,
+"The day has been very hot, Miss Croyland. You have walked far, and
+over-fatigued yourself."
+
+"It is nothing--it is nothing," answered Edith, with a deep-drawn
+breath; "it will be past in a moment, Sir Edward. I am frequently
+thus."
+
+"Too frequently," murmured Zara, gazing at her sister; and Sir Edward
+Digby replied, "I am sure, if such be the case, you should consult
+some physician."
+
+Zara shook her head with a melancholy smile, while her sister walked
+on, leaning upon her arm in silence, with her eyes bent towards the
+ground, as if in deep thought. "I fear that no physician would do her
+good," said the younger lady, in a low voice; "the evil is now
+confirmed."
+
+"Nay," replied Digby, gazing at her, "I think I know one who could
+cure her entirely."
+
+His look said more than his words; and Zara fixed her eyes upon his
+face for an instant with an inquiring glance. The expression then
+suddenly changed to one of bright intelligence, and she answered, "I
+will make you give me his name to-morrow, Sir Edward. Not now--not
+now! I shall forget it."
+
+Sir Edward Digby was not slow in taking a hint; and he consequently
+made no attempt to bring the conversation back to the subject which
+had so much affected Miss Croyland; but lest a dead silence should too
+plainly mark that he saw into the cause of the faintness which had
+come over her, he went on talking to her sister; and Zara soon
+resumed, at least to all appearance, her own light spirits again. But
+Digby had seen her under a different aspect, which was known to few
+besides her sister; and to say the truth, though he had thought her
+sparkling frankness very charming, yet the deeper and tenderer
+feelings which she had displayed towards Edith were still more to his
+taste.
+
+"She is not the light coquette her uncle represents her," he thought,
+as they walked on: "there is a true and feeling heart beneath--one
+whose affections, if strongly excited and then disappointed, might
+make her as sad and cheerless as this other poor girl."
+
+He had not much time to indulge either in such meditations or in
+conversation with his fair companion; for, when they were within about
+a mile of the house, old Mr. Croyland was seen advancing towards them
+with his usual brisk air and quick pace.
+
+"Well, young people, well," he said, coming forward, "I bring the
+soberness of age to temper the lightness of youth."
+
+"Oh, we are all very sober, uncle," replied Zara. "It is only those
+who stay in the house drinking wine who are otherwise."
+
+"I have not been drinking wine, saucy girl," answered Mr. Croyland;
+"but come, Edith, I want to speak with you; and, as the road is too
+narrow for four, we'll pair off, as the rascals who ruin the country
+in the House of Commons term it. Troop on, Miss Zara. There's a
+gallant cavalier who will give you his arm, doubtless, if you will ask
+it."
+
+"Indeed I shall do no such thing," replied the fair lady, walking on;
+and, while Edith and her uncle came slowly after, Sir Edward Digby and
+the youngest Miss Croyland proceeded on their way, remaining silent
+for some minutes, though each, to say the truth, was busily thinking
+how the conversation which had been interrupted might best be renewed.
+It was Zara who spoke first, however, looking suddenly up in her
+companion's face with one of her bright and sparkling smiles, and
+saying, "It is a strange house, is it not, Sir Edward? and we are a
+strange family?"
+
+"Nay, I do not see that," replied the young officer. "With every new
+person whose acquaintance we make, we are like a traveller for the
+first time in a foreign country, and must learn the secrets of the
+land before we can find our way rightly."
+
+"Oh, secrets enough here!" cried Zara. "Every one has his secret but
+myself. I have none, thank God! My good father is full of them; Edith,
+you see, has hers; my uncle is loaded with one even now, and eager to
+disburden himself; but my aunt's are the most curious of all, for they
+are everlasting; and not only that, but though most profound, they are
+sure to be known in five minutes to the whole world. Try to conceal
+them how she may, they are sure to drop out before the day is over;
+and, whatever good schemes she may have against any one, no defence is
+needed, for they are sure to frustrate themselves.--What are you
+laughing at, Sir Edward? Has she begun upon you already?"
+
+"Nay, not exactly upon me," answered Sir Edward Digby. "She certainly
+did let drop some words which showed me, she had some scheme in her
+head, though whom it referred to, I am at a loss to divine."
+
+"Nay, nay, now you are not frank," cried the young lady. "Tell me this
+moment, if you would have me hold you good knight and true! Was it me
+or Edith that it was all about? Nay, do not shake your head, my good
+friend, for I will know, depend upon it; and if you do not tell me, I
+will ask my aunt myself----"
+
+"Nay, for Heaven's sake, do not!" exclaimed Sir Edward. "You must not
+make your aunt think that I am a tell-tale."
+
+"Oh, I know--I know!" exclaimed the fair girl, clapping her hands
+eagerly--"I can divine it all in a minute. She has been telling you
+what an excellent good girl Zara Croyland is, and what an admirable
+wife she would make, especially for any man moving in the highest
+society, and hinting, moreover, that she is fond of military men, and,
+in short, that Sir Edward Digby could not do better. I know it all--I
+know it all, as well as if I had heard it! But now, my dear sir," she
+continued, in a graver tone, "put all such nonsense out of your head,
+if you would have us such good friends as I think we may be. Leave my
+dear aunt's schemes to unravel and defeat themselves, or only think of
+them as a matter of amusement, and do not for a moment believe that
+Zara Croyland has either any share in them, or any design of
+captivating you or any other man whatsoever; for I tell you fairly,
+and at once, that I never intend--that nothing would induce me--no,
+not if my own dearest happiness depended upon it--to marry, and leave
+poor Edith to endure all that she may be called upon to undergo. I
+will talk to you more about her another time; for I think that you
+already know something beyond what you have said to-day; but we are
+too near the house now, and I will only add, that I have spoken
+frankly to Sir Edward Digby, because I believe, from all I have seen
+and all I have heard, that he is incapable of misunderstanding such
+conduct."
+
+"You do me justice, Miss Croyland," replied the young officer, much
+gratified; "but you have spoken under a wrong impression in regard to
+your aunt. I did not interrupt you, for what you said was too
+pleasing, too interesting not to induce me to let you go on; but I can
+assure you that what I said was perfectly true, and that though some
+words which your aunt dropped accidentally showed me that she had some
+scheme on foot, she said nothing to indicate what it was."
+
+"Well, never mind it," answered the young lady. "We now understand
+each other, I trust; and, after this, I do not think you will easily
+mistake me, though, if what I suppose is true, I may have to do a
+great many extraordinary things with you, Sir Edward--seek your
+society when you may not be very willing to grant it, consult you,
+rely upon you, confide in you in a way that few women would do, except
+with a brother or an acknowledged lover, which I beg you to understand
+you are on no account to be; and I, on my part, will promise that I
+will not misunderstand you either, nor take anything that you may do,
+at my request, for one very dear to me," (and she gave a glance over
+her shoulder towards her sister, who was some way behind,) "as
+anything but a sign of your having a kind and generous heart. So now
+that's all settled."
+
+"There is one thing, Miss Croyland," replied Digby, gravely, "that you
+will find very difficult to do, though you say you will try it,
+namely, to seek my society when I am unwilling to give it."
+
+"Nay, nay, I will have no such speeches," cried Zara Croyland, "or I
+have done with you! I never could put any trust in a man who said
+civil things to me."
+
+"What, not if he sincerely thought them?" demanded her companion.
+
+"Then I would rather he continued to think them without speaking
+them," answered the young lady. "If you did but know, Sir Edward, how
+sickened and disgusted a poor girl in the country soon gets with
+flattery that means nothing, from men who insult her understanding by
+thinking that she can be pleased with such trash, you would excuse me
+for being rude and uncivilized enough to wish never to hear a smooth
+word from any man whom I am inclined to respect."
+
+"Very well," answered the young baronet, laughing, "to please you, I
+will be as brutal as possible, and if you like it, scold you as
+sharply as your uncle, if you say or do anything that I disapprove
+of."
+
+"Do, do!" cried Zara; "I love him and esteem him, though he does not
+understand me in the least; and I would rather a great deal have his
+conversation, sharp and snappish as it seems to be, than all the honey
+or milk and water of any of the smart young men in the neighbourhood.
+But here we are at the house; and only one word more as a warning, and
+one word as a question; first, do not let any of my good aunt's
+schemes embarrass you in anything you have to do or say. Walk straight
+through them as if they did not exist. Take your own course, without,
+in the least degree, attending to what she says for or against."
+
+"And what is the question?" demanded Sir Edward, as they were now
+mounting the steps to the terrace.
+
+"Simply this," replied the fair lady,--"are you not acquainted with
+more of Edith's history than the people here are aware of?"
+
+"I am," answered Digby; "and to see more of her, to speak with her for
+a few minutes in private, if possible, was the great object of my
+coming hither."
+
+"Thanks, thanks!" said Zara, giving him a bright and grateful smile.
+"Be guided by me, and you shall have the opportunity. But I must speak
+with you first myself, that you may know all. I suppose you are an
+early riser?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" replied Sir Edward; but he added no more; for at that
+moment they were overtaken by Edith and Mr. Croyland; and the whole
+party entered the house together.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+There is a strange similarity--I had nearly called it an
+affinity--between the climate of any country and the general character
+of its population; and there is a still stronger and more commonly
+remarked resemblance between the changes of the weather and the usual
+course of human life. From the atmosphere around us, and from the
+alterations which affect it, poets and moralists both, have borrowed a
+large store of figures; and the words, clouds, and sunshine, light
+breezes, and terrible storms, are terms as often used to express the
+variations in man's condition as to convey the ideas to which they
+were originally applied. But it is the affinity between the climate
+and the people of which I wish to speak. The sunny lightness of the
+air of France, the burning heat of Italy and Spain, the cold dullness
+of the skies of Holland, contrast as strongly with the climate in
+which we live, as the characters of the several nations amongst
+themselves; and the fiercer tempests of the south, the more foggy and
+heavy atmosphere of the north, may well be taken as some compensation
+for the continual mutability of the weather in our own most changeable
+air. The differences are not so great here as in other lands. We
+escape, in general, the tornado and the hurricane, we know little of
+the burning heat of summer, or the intense cold of winter, as they are
+experienced in other parts of the world; but at all events, the
+changes are much more frequent; and we seldom have either a long lapse
+of sunny days, or a long continued season of frost, without
+interruption. So it is, too, with the people. Moveable and fluctuating
+as they always are, seeking novelty, disgusted even with all that is
+good as soon as they discover that it is old, our laws, our
+institutions, our very manners are continually undergoing some change,
+though rarely, very rarely indeed, is it brought about violently and
+without due preparation. Sometimes it will occur, indeed, both morally
+and physically, that a great and sudden alteration takes place, and a
+rash and vehement proceeding will disturb the whole country, and seem
+to shake the very foundations of society. In the atmosphere, too,
+clouds and storms will gather in a few hours, and darken the whole
+heaven.
+
+The latter was the case during the first night of Sir Edward Digby's
+stay at Harbourne House. The evening preceding, as well as the day,
+had been warm and sunshiny; but about nine o'clock the wind suddenly
+chopped round to the southward, and when Sir Edward woke on the
+following morning, as he usually did, about six, he found a strong
+breeze blowing and rattling the casements of the room, and the whole
+atmosphere loaded with a heavy sea-mist filled with saline particles,
+borne over Romney Marsh to the higher country, in which the house was
+placed.
+
+"A pleasant day for partridge-shooting," he thought, as he rose from
+his bed; "what variations there are in this climate." But
+nevertheless, he opened the window and looked out, when, somewhat to
+his surprise, he saw fifteen or sixteen horses moving along the road,
+heavily laden, with a number of men on horseback following, and eight
+or ten on foot driving the weary beasts along. They were going
+leisurely enough; there was no affectation of haste or concealment;
+but yet all that the young officer had heard of the county and of the
+habits of its denizens, led him naturally to suppose that he had a
+gang of smugglers before him, escorting from the coast some contraband
+goods lately landed.
+
+He had soon a more unpleasant proof of the lawless state of that part
+of England; for as he continued to lean out of the window, saying to
+himself, "Well, it is no business of mine," he saw two or three of the
+men pause; and a moment after, a voice shouted--"Take that, old
+Croyland, for sending me to gaol last April."
+
+The wind bore the sounds to his ear, and made the words distinct; and
+scarcely had they been spoken, when a flash broke through the misty
+air, followed by a loud report, and a ball whizzed through the window,
+just above his head, breaking one of the panes of glass, and lodging
+in the cornice at the other side of the room.
+
+"Very pleasant!" said Sir Edward Digby to himself; but he was a
+somewhat rash young man, and he did not move an inch, thinking--"the
+vagabonds shall not have to say they frightened me."
+
+They shewed no inclination to repeat the shot, however, riding on at a
+somewhat accelerated pace; and as soon as they were out of sight,
+Digby withdrew from the window, and began to dress himself. He had not
+given his servant, the night before, any orders to call him at a
+particular hour; but he knew that the man would not be later than
+half-past six; and before he appeared, the young officer was nearly
+dressed.
+
+"Here, Somers," said his master, "put my gun together, and have
+everything ready if I should like to go out to shoot. After that I've
+a commission for you, something quite in your own way, which I know
+you will execute capitally."
+
+"Quite ready, sir," said the man, putting up his hand to his head.
+"Always ready to obey orders."
+
+"We want intelligence of the enemy, Somers," continued his master.
+"Get me every information you can obtain regarding young Mr. Radford,
+where he goes, what he does, and all about him."
+
+"Past, present, or to come, sir?" demanded the man.
+
+"All three," answered his master. "Everything you can learn about him,
+in short--birth, parentage, and education."
+
+"I shall soon have to add his last dying speech and confession, I
+think, sir," said the man; "but you shall have it all before
+night--from the loose gossip of the post-office down to the full,
+true, and particular account of his father's own butler. But bless my
+soul, there's a hole through the window, sir."
+
+"Nothing but a musket-ball, Somers," answered his master, carelessly.
+"You've seen such a thing before, I fancy."
+
+"Yes, sir, but not often in a gentleman's bedroom," replied the man.
+"Who could send it in here, I wonder?"
+
+"Some smugglers, I suppose they were," replied Sir Edward, "who took
+me for Sir Robert Croyland, as I was leaning out of the window, and
+gave me a ball as they passed. I never saw a worse shot in my life;
+for I was put up like a target, and it went a foot and a half above my
+head. Give me those boots, Somers;" and having drawn them on, Sir
+Edward Digby descended to the drawing-room, while his servant
+commented upon his coolness, by saying, "Well, he's a devilish fine
+young fellow, that master of mine, and ought to make a capital general
+some of these days!"
+
+In the drawing-room, Sir Edward Digby found nobody but a pretty
+country girl in a mob-cap sweeping out the dust; and leaving her to
+perform her functions undisturbed by his presence, he sauntered
+through a door which he had seen open the night before, exposing part
+of the interior of a library. That room was quite vacant, and as the
+young officer concluded that between it and the drawing-room must lie
+the scene of his morning's operations, he entertained himself with
+taking down different books, looking into them for a moment or two,
+reading a page here and a page there, and then putting them up again.
+He was in no mood, to say the truth, either for serious study or light
+reading. Gay would not have amused him; Locke would have driven him
+mad.
+
+He knew not well why it was, but his heart beat when he heard a step
+in the neighbouring room. It was nothing but the housemaid, as he was
+soon convinced, by her letting the dustpan drop and making a terrible
+clatter. He asked himself what his heart could be about, to go on in
+such a way, simply because he was waiting, in the not very vague
+expectation of seeing a young lady, with whom he had to talk of some
+business, in which neither of them were personally concerned.
+
+"It must be the uncertainty of whether she will come or not," he
+thought; "or else the secrecy of the thing;" and yet he had, often
+before, had to wait with still more secrecy and still more
+uncertainty, on very dangerous and important occasions, without
+feeling any such agitation of his usually calm nerves. She was a very
+pretty girl, it was true, with all the fresh graces of youth about
+her, light and sunshine in her eyes, health and happiness on her
+cheeks and lips, and
+
+
+             "La grace encore plus belle que la beauté"
+
+
+in every movement. But then, they perfectly understood each other;
+there was no harm, there was no risk, there was no reason why they
+should not meet.
+
+Did they perfectly understand each other? Did they perfectly
+understand themselves? It is a very difficult question to answer; but
+one thing is very certain--that, of all things upon this earth, the
+most gullible is the human heart; and when it thinks it understands
+itself best, it is almost always sure to prove a greater fool than
+ever.
+
+Sir Edward Digby did not altogether like his own thoughts; and
+therefore, after waiting for a quarter of an hour, he walked out into
+one of the little passages, which we have already mentioned, running
+from the central corridor towards a door or window in the front,
+between the library and what was called the music-room. He had not
+been there a minute when a step--very different from that of the
+housemaid--was heard in the neighbouring room; and, as the officer was
+turning thither, he met the younger Miss Croyland coming out, with a
+bonnet--or hat, as it was then called,--hanging on her arm by the
+ribbons.
+
+She held out her hand, frankly, towards him, saying, in a low tone,
+"You must think this all very strange, Sir Edward, and perhaps very
+improper. I have been taxing myself about it all night; but yet I was
+resolved I would not lose the opportunity, trusting to your generosity
+to justify me, when you hear all."
+
+"It requires no generosity, my dear Miss Croyland," replied the young
+baronet; "I am already aware of so much, and see the kind and deep
+interest you take in your sister so clearly, that I fully understand
+and appreciate your motives."
+
+"Thank you--thank you," replied Zara, warmly; "that sets my mind at
+rest. But come out upon the terrace. There, seen by all the world, I
+shall not feel as if I were plotting;" and she unlocked the glass door
+at the end of the passage. Sir Edward Digby followed close upon her
+steps; and when once fairly on the esplanade before the house, and far
+enough from open doors and windows not to be overheard, they commenced
+their walk backwards and forwards.
+
+It was quite natural that both should be silent for a few moments; for
+where there is much to say, and little time to say it in, people are
+apt to waste the precious present--or, at least, a part--in
+considering how it may best be said. At length the lady raised her
+eyes to her companion's face, with a smile more melancholy and
+embarrassed than usually found place upon her sweet lips, asking, "How
+shall I begin, Sir Edward?--Have you nothing to tell me?"
+
+"I have merely to ask questions," replied Digby; "yet, perhaps that
+may be the best commencement. I am aware, my dear Miss Croyland, that
+your sister has loved, and has been as deeply beloved as woman ever
+was by man. I know the whole tale; but what I seek now to learn is
+this--does she or does she not retain the affection of her early
+youth? Do former days and former feelings dwell in her heart as still
+existing things? or are they but as sad memories of a passion passed
+away, darkening instead of lighting the present,--or perhaps as a tie
+which she would fain shake off, and which keeps her from a brighter
+fate hereafter?"
+
+He spoke solemnly, earnestly, with his whole manner changed; and Zara
+gazed in his face eagerly and inquiringly as he went on, her face
+glowing, but her look becoming less sad, till it beamed with a warm
+and relieved smile at the close. "I was right, and she was wrong"--she
+said, at length, as if speaking to herself. "But to answer your
+question, Sir Edward Digby," she continued, gravely. "You little know
+woman's heart, or you would not put it--I mean the heart of a true and
+unspoiled woman, a woman worthy of the name. When she loves, she loves
+for ever--and it is only when death or unworthiness takes from her him
+she loves, that love becomes a memory. You cannot yet judge of Edith,
+and therefore I forgive you for asking such a thing; but she is all
+that is noble, and good, and bright; and Heaven pardon me, if I almost
+doubt that she was meant for happiness below--she seems so fitted for
+a higher state!"
+
+The tears rose in her eyes as she spoke; but Sir Edward feared
+interruption, and went on, asking, somewhat abruptly perhaps, "What
+made you say, just now, that you were right and she was wrong?"
+
+"Because she thought that he was dead, and that you came to announce
+it to her," Zara replied. "You spoke of him in the past, you always
+said, 'he was;' you said not a word of the present."
+
+"Because I knew not what were her present feelings," answered Digby.
+"She has never written--she has never answered one letter. All his
+have been returned in cold silence to his agents, addressed in her own
+hand. And then her father wrote to----"
+
+"Stay, stay!" cried Zara, putting her hand to her head--"addressed in
+her own hand? It must have been a forgery! Yet, no--perhaps not. She
+wrote to him twice; once just after he went, and once in answer to a
+message. The last letter I gave to the gardener myself, and bade him
+post it. That, too, was addressed to his agent's house. Can they have
+stopped the letters and used the covers?"
+
+"It is probable," answered Digby, thoughtfully. "Did she receive none
+from him?"
+
+"None--none," replied Zara, decidedly. "All that she has ever heard of
+him was conveyed in that one message; but she doubted not, Sir Edward.
+She knew him, it seems, better than he knew her."
+
+"Neither did he doubt her," rejoined her companion, "till circumstance
+after circumstance occurred to shake his confidence. Her own father
+wrote to him--now three years ago--to say that she was engaged, by her
+own consent, to this young Radford, and to beg that he would trouble
+her peace no more by fruitless letters."
+
+"Oh, Heaven!" cried Zara, "did my father say that?"
+
+"He did," replied Sir Edward. "And more: everything that poor Leyton
+has heard since his return has confirmed the tale. He inquired, too
+curiously for his own peace--first, whether she was yet married; next,
+whether she was really engaged; and every one gave but one account."
+
+"How busy they have been!" said Zara, thoughtfully. "Whoever said it,
+it is false, Sir Edward; and he should not have doubted her more than
+she doubted him."
+
+"She, you admit, had one message," answered Digby; "he had none; and
+yet he held a lingering hope--trust would not altogether be crushed
+out. Can you tell me the tenour of the letters which she sent?"
+
+"Nay, I did not read them," replied his fair companion; "but she told
+me that it was the same story still: that she could not violate her
+duty to her parent; but that she should ever consider herself pledged
+and plighted to him beyond recall, by what had passed between them."
+
+"Then there is light at last," said Digby, with a smile. "But what is
+this story of young Radford? Is he, or is he not, her lover? He seemed
+to pay her little attention,--more, indeed, to yourself."
+
+The gay girl laughed. "I will tell you all about it," she answered.
+"Richard Radford is not her lover. He cares as little about her as
+about the Queen of England, or any body he has never seen; and, as you
+say, he would perhaps pay me the compliment of selecting me rather
+than Edith, if there was not a very cogent objection: Edith has forty
+thousand pounds settled upon herself by my mother's brother, who was
+her godfather; I have nothing, or next to nothing--some three or four
+thousand pounds, I believe; but I really don't know. However, this
+fortune of my poor sister's is old Radford's object; and he and my
+father have settled it between them, that the son of the one should
+marry the daughter of the other. What possesses my father, I cannot
+divine; for he must condemn old Radford, and despise the young one;
+but certain it is that he has pressed Edith, nearly to cruelty, to
+give her hand to a man she scorns and hates--and presses her still. It
+would be worse than it is, I fear, were it not for young Radford
+himself, who is not half so eager as his father, and does not wish to
+hurry matters on.--I may have some small share in the business," she
+continued, laughing again, but colouring at the same time; "for, to
+tell the truth, Sir Edward, having nothing else to do, and wishing to
+relieve poor Edith as much as possible, I have perhaps foolishly,
+perhaps even wrongly, drawn this wretched young man away from her
+whenever I had an opportunity. I do not think it was coquetry, as my
+uncle calls it--nay, I am sure it was not; for I abhor him as much as
+any one; but I thought that as there was no chance of my ever being
+driven to marry him, I could bear the infliction of his conversation
+better than my poor sister."
+
+"The motive was a kind one, at all events," replied Sir Edward Digby;
+"but then I may firmly believe that there is no chance whatever of
+Miss Croyland giving her hand to Richard Radford?"
+
+"None--none whatever," answered his fair companion. But at that point
+of their conversation one of the windows above was thrown up, and the
+voice of Mrs. Barbara was heard exclaiming--"Zara, my love, put on
+your hat; you will catch cold if you walk in that way, with your hat
+on your arm, in such a cold, misty morning!"
+
+Miss Croyland looked up, nodding to her aunt; and doing as she was
+told, like a very good girl as she was. But the next instant she said,
+in a low tone, "Good Heaven! there is his face at the window! My
+unlucky aunt has roused him by calling to me; and we shall not be long
+without him."
+
+"Who do you mean?" asked the young officer, turning his eyes towards
+the house, and seeing no one.
+
+"Young Radford," answered Zara. "Did you not know that they had to
+carry him to bed last night, unable to stand? So my maid told me; and
+I saw his face just now at the window, next to my aunt's. We shall
+have little time, Sir Edward, for he is as intrusive as he is
+disagreeable; so tell me at once what I am to think regarding poor
+Harry Leyton. Does he still love Edith? Is he in a situation to enable
+him to seek her, without affording great, and what they would consider
+reasonable, causes of objection?"
+
+"He loves her as deeply and devotedly as ever," replied Sir Edward
+Digby; "and all I have to tell him will but, if possible, increase
+that love. Then as to his situation, he is now a superior officer in
+the army, highly distinguished, commanding one of our best regiments,
+and sharing largely in the late great distribution of prize-money.
+There is no position that can be filled by a military man to which he
+has not a right to aspire; and, moreover, he has already received,
+from the gratitude of his king and his country, the high honour----"
+
+But he was not allowed to finish his sentence; for Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, who was most unfortunately matutinal in her habits, now came
+out with a shawl for her fair niece, and was uncomfortably civil to
+Sir Edward Digby, inquiring how he had slept, whether he had been warm
+enough, whether he liked two pillows or one, and a great many other
+questions, which lasted till young Radford made his appearance at the
+door, and then, with a pale face and sullen brow, came out and joined
+the party on the terrace.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Barbara--now that she had done as much mischief as
+possible--"I'll just go in and make breakfast, as Edith must set out
+early, and Mr. Radford wants to get home to shoot."
+
+"Edith set off early?" exclaimed Zara; "why, where is she going, my
+dear aunt?"
+
+"Oh, I have just been settling it all with your papa, my love,"
+replied Mrs. Barbara. "I thought she was looking ill yesterday, and so
+I talked to your uncle last night. He said he would be very glad to
+have her with him for a few days; but as he expects a Captain Osborn
+before the end of the week, she must come at once; and Sir Robert says
+she can have the carriage after breakfast, but that it must be back by
+one."
+
+Zara cast down her eyes, and the whole party, as if by common consent,
+took their way back to the house. As they passed in, however, and
+proceeded towards the dining-room, where the table was laid for
+breakfast, Zara found a moment to say to Sir Edward Digby, in a low
+tone, "Was ever anything so unfortunate! I will try to stop it if I
+can."
+
+"Not so unfortunate as it seems," answered the young baronet, in a
+whisper; "let it take its course. I will explain hereafter."
+
+"Whispering! whispering!" said young Radford, in a rude tone, and with
+a sneer curling his lip.
+
+Zara's cheek grew crimson; but Digby turned upon him sharply,
+demanding, "What is that to you, sir? Pray make no observations upon
+my conduct, for depend upon it I shall not tolerate any insolence."
+
+At that moment, however, Sir Robert Croyland appeared; and whatever
+might have been Richard Radford's intended reply, it was suspended
+upon his lips.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Before I proceed farther with the events of that morning, I must
+return for a time to the evening which preceded it. It was a dark and
+somewhat dreary night, when Mr. Radford, leaving his son stupidly
+drunk at Sir Robert Croyland's, proceeded to the hall door to mount
+his horse; and as he pulled his large riding-boots over his shoes and
+stockings, and looked out, he regretted that he had not ordered his
+carriage. "Who would have thought," he said, "that such a fine day
+would have ended in such a dull evening?"
+
+"It often happens, my dear Radford," replied Sir Robert Croyland, who
+stood beside him, "that everything looks fair and prosperous for a
+time; then suddenly the wind shifts, and a gloomy night succeeds."
+
+Mr. Radford was not well-pleased with the homily. It touched upon that
+which was a sore subject with him at that moment; for, to say the
+truth, he was labouring under no light apprehensions regarding the
+result of certain speculations of his. He had lately lost a large sum
+in one of these wild adventures--far more than was agreeable to a man
+of his money-getting turn of mind; and though he was sanguine enough,
+from long success, to embark, like a determined gambler, a still
+larger amount in the same course, yet the first shadow of reverse
+which had fallen upon him, brought home and applied to his own
+situation the very commonplace words of Sir Robert Croyland; and he
+began to fancy that the bright day of his prosperity might be indeed
+over, and a dark and gloomy night about to succeed.
+
+As we have said, therefore, he did not at all like the baronet's
+homily; and, as very often happens with men of his disposition, he
+felt displeased with the person whose words alarmed him. Murmuring
+something, therefore, about its being "a devilish ordinary
+circumstance indeed," he strode to the door, scarcely wishing the
+baronet good night, and mounted a powerful horse, which was held ready
+for him. He then rode forward, followed by two servants on horseback,
+proceeding slowly at first, but getting into a quicker pace when he
+came upon the parish road, and trotting on hard along the edge of
+Harbourne Wood. He had drunk as much wine as his son; but his hard and
+well-seasoned head was quite insensible to the effects of strong
+beverages, and he went on revolving all probable contingencies,
+somewhat sullen and out of humour with all that had passed during the
+afternoon, and taking a very unpromising view of everybody and
+everything.
+
+"I've a notion," he thought, "that old scoundrel Croyland is playing
+fast and loose about his daughter's marriage with my son. He shall
+repent it if he do; and if Dick does not make the girl pay for all her
+airs and coldness when he's got her, he's no son of mine. He seems as
+great a fool as she is, though, and makes love to her sister without a
+penny, never saying a word to a girl who has forty thousand pounds.
+The thing shall soon be settled one way or another, however. I'll have
+a conference with Sir Robert on Friday, and bring him to book. I'll
+not be trifled with any longer. Here we have been kept more than four
+years waiting till the girl chooses to make up her mind, and I'll not
+stop any longer. It shall be, yes or no, at once."
+
+He was still busy with such thoughts when he reached the angle of
+Harbourne Wood, and a loud voice exclaimed, "Hi! Mr. Radford!"
+
+"Who the devil are you?" exclaimed that worthy gentleman, pulling in
+his horse, and at the same time putting his hand upon one of the
+holsters, which every one at that time carried at his saddle bow.
+
+"Harding, sir," answered the voice--"Jack Harding; and I want to speak
+a word with you."
+
+At the same time the man walked forward; and Mr. Radford immediately
+dismounting, gave his horse to the servants, and told them to lead him
+quietly on till they came to Tiffenden. Then pausing till the sound of
+the hoofs became somewhat faint, he asked, with a certain degree of
+alarm, "Well, Harding, what's the matter? What has brought you up in
+such a hurry to-night?"
+
+"No great hurry, sir," answered the smuggler, "I came up about four
+o'clock; and finding that you were dining at Sir Robert's, I thought I
+would look out for you as you went home, having something to tell you.
+I got an inkling last night, that, some how or another, the people
+down at Hythe have some suspicion that you are going to try something,
+and I doubt that boy very much."
+
+"Indeed! indeed!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, evidently under great
+apprehension. "What have they found out, Harding?"
+
+"Why, not much, I believe," replied the smuggler; "but merely that
+there's something in the wind, and that you have a hand in it."
+
+"That's bad enough--that's bad enough," repeated Mr. Radford. "We must
+put it off, Harding. We must delay it, till this has blown by."
+
+"No, I think not, sir," answered the smuggler. "It seems to me, on the
+contrary, that we ought to hurry it; and I'll tell you why. You see,
+the wind changed about five, and if I'm not very much mistaken, we
+shall have a cloudy sky and dirty weather for the next week at least.
+That's one thing; but then another is this, the Ramleys are going to
+make a run this very night. Now, I know that the whole affair is
+blown; and though they may get the goods ashore they wont carry them
+far. I told them so, just to be friendly; but they wouldn't listen,
+and you know their rash way. Bill Ramley answered, they would run the
+goods in broad daylight, if they liked, that there was not an officer
+in all Kent who would dare to stop them. Now, I know that they will be
+caught to-morrow morning, somewhere up about your place. I rather
+think, too, your son has a hand in the venture; and if I were you, I
+would do nothing to make people believe that it wasn't my own affair
+altogether. Let them think what they please; and then they are not so
+likely to be on the look-out."
+
+"I see--I see," cried Mr. Radford. "If they catch these fellows, and
+think that this is my venture, they will never suspect another. It's a
+good scheme. We had better set about it to-morrow night."
+
+"I don't know," answered Harding. "That cannot well be done, I should
+think. First, you must get orders over to the vessel to stand out to
+sea; then you must get all your people together, and one half of them
+are busy upon this other scheme, the Ramleys and young Chittenden, and
+him they call the major, and all their parties. You must see what
+comes of that first; for one half of them may be locked up before
+to-morrow night.
+
+"That's unfortunate, indeed!" said Mr. Radford, thoughtfully.
+
+"One must take a little ill luck with plenty of good luck," observed
+Harding; "and it's fortunate enough for you that these wild fellows
+will carry through this mad scheme, when they know they are found out
+before they start. Besides, I'm not sure that it is not best to wait
+till the night after, or, may be, the night after that. Then the news
+will have spread, that the goods have been either run and hid away, or
+seized by the officers. In either case, if you manage well, they will
+think that it is your venture; and the fellows on the coast will be
+off their guard--especially Mowle, who's the sharpest of them all."
+
+"Oh, I'll go down to-morrow and talk to Mowle myself," replied Mr.
+Radford. "It will be well worth my while to give him a hundred guineas
+to wink a bit."
+
+"Don't try it--don't try it!" exclaimed Harding, quickly. "It will do
+no good, and a great deal of harm. In the first place, you can do
+nothing with Mowle. He never took a penny in his life."
+
+"Oh, every man has his price," rejoined Mr. Radford, whose opinion of
+human nature, as the reader may have perceived, was not particularly
+high. "It's only because he wants to be bid up to. Mr. Mowle thinks
+himself above five or ten pounds; but the chink of a hundred guineas
+is a very pleasant sound."
+
+"He's as honest a fellow as ever lived," answered Harding, "and I tell
+you plainly, Mr. Radford, that if you offered him ten times the sum,
+he wouldn't take it. You would only shew him that this venture is not
+your grand one, without doing yourself the least good. He's a fair,
+open enemy, and lets every one know that, as long as he's a
+riding-officer here, he will do all he can against us."
+
+"Then he must be knocked on the head," said Mr. Radford, in a calm and
+deliberate tone; "and it shall be done, too, if he meddles with my
+affairs."
+
+"It will not be I who do it," replied Harding; "unless we come hand to
+hand together. Then, every man must take care of himself; but I should
+be very sorry, notwithstanding; for he's a straightforward, bold
+fellow, as brave as a lion, and with a good heart into the bargain. I
+wonder such an honest man ever went into such a rascally service."
+
+The last observation of our friend Harding may perhaps sound strangely
+to the reader's ears; but some allowance must be made for professional
+prejudices, and it is by no means too much to say that the smugglers
+of those days, and even of a much later period, looked upon their own
+calling as highly honest, honourable, and respectable, regarding the
+Customs as a most fraudulent and abominable institution, and all
+connected with it more or less in the light of a band of swindlers and
+knaves, leagued together for the purpose of preventing honest men from
+pursuing their avocations in peace. Such were the feelings which
+induced Harding to wonder that so good a man as Mowle could have
+anything to do with the prevention of smuggling; for he was so
+thoroughly convinced he was in the right himself, that he could not
+conceive how any one could see the case in any other point of view.
+
+"Ay," answered Mr. Radford, "that is a wonder, if he is such a good
+sort of man; but that I doubt. However, as you say it would not do to
+put oneself in his power, I'll have him looked after, and in the
+meanwhile, let us talk of the rest of the business. You say the night
+after to-morrow, or the night after that! I must know, however; for
+the men must be down. How are we to arrange that?"
+
+"Why, I'll see what the weather is like," was Harding's reply. "Then I
+can easily send up to let you know--or, what will be better still, if
+you can gather the men together the day after to-morrow, in the
+different villages not far off the coast, and I should find it the
+right sort of night, and get out to sea, they shall see a light on the
+top of Tolsford Hill, as soon as I am near in shore again. That will
+serve to guide them and puzzle the officers. Then let them gather, and
+come down towards Dymchurch, where they will find somebody from me to
+guide them."
+
+"They shall gather first at Saltwood," said Mr. Radford, "and then
+march down to Dymchurch. But how are we to manage about the ship?"
+
+"Why, you must send an order," answered Harding, "for both days, and
+let your skipper know that if he does not see us the first, he will
+see us the second."
+
+"You had better take it down with you at once," replied Mr. Radford,
+"and get it off early to-morrow. If you'll just come up to my house,
+I'll write it for you in a minute."
+
+"Ay, but I'm not going home to-night," said the smuggler; "I can have
+a bed at Mrs. Clare's; and I'm going to sleep there, so you can send
+it over when you like in the morning, and I'll get it off in time."
+
+"I wish you would not go hanging about after that girl, when we've got
+such serious business in hand," exclaimed Mr. Radford, in a sharp
+tone; but the next moment he added, with a sudden change of voice, "It
+doesn't signify to-night, however. There will be time enough; and they
+say you are going to marry her, Harding. Is that true?"
+
+"I should say, that's my business," replied Harding, bluntly, "but
+that I look upon it as an honour, Mr. Radford, that she's going to
+marry me; for a better girl does not live in the land, and I've known
+her a long while now, so I'm never likely to think otherwise."
+
+"Ay, I've known her a long time, too," answered Mr. Radford--"ever
+since her poor father was shot, and before; and a very good girl I
+believe she is. But now that you are over here, you may as well wait
+and hear what comes of these goods. Couldn't you just ride over to the
+Ramleys to-morrow morning--there you'll hear all about it."
+
+Harding laughed, but replied the next moment, in a grave tone, "I
+don't like the Ramleys, sir, and don't want to have more to do with
+them than I can help. I shall hear all about it soon enough, without
+going there."
+
+"But I sha'n't," answered Mr. Radford.
+
+"Then you had better send your son, sir," rejoined Harding. "He's
+oftener there than I am, a great deal.--Well, the matter is all
+settled, then. Either the night after to-morrow, or the night after
+that, if the men keep a good look-out, they'll see a light on Tolsford
+Hill. Then they must gather as fast as possible at Saltwood, and come
+on with anybody they may find there. Good night, Mr. Radford."
+
+"Good night, Harding--good night," said Mr. Radford, walking on; and
+the other turning his steps back towards Harbourne, made his way, by
+the first road on the right, to the cottage where we have seen him in
+the earlier part of the day.
+
+It was a pleasant aspect that the cottage presented when he went in,
+which he did without any of the ceremonies of knocking at the door or
+ringing the bell; for he was sure of a welcome. There was but one
+candle lighted on the table, for the dwellers in the place were poor;
+but the room was small, and that one was quite sufficient to shew the
+white walls and the neat shelves covered with crockery, and with
+one or two small prints in black frames. Besides, there was the
+fire-place, with a bright and cheerful, but not large fire; for
+though, in the month of September, English nights are frequently cold
+and sometimes frosty, the weather had been as yet tolerably mild.
+Nevertheless, the log of fir at the top blazed high, and crackled
+amidst the white and red embers below, and the flickering flame, as it
+rose and fell, caused the shadows to fall more vaguely or distinctly
+upon the walls, with a fanciful uncertainty of outline, that had
+something cheerful, yet mysterious in it.
+
+The widow was bending over the fire, with her face turned away, and
+her figure in the shadow. The daughter was busily working with her
+needle, but her eyes were soon raised--and they were very beautiful
+eyes--as Harding entered. A smile, too, was upon her lips; and though
+even tears may be lovely, and a sad look awaken deep and tender
+emotions, yet the smile of affection on a face we love is the
+brightest aspect of that bright thing the human countenance. It is
+what the sunshine is to the landscape, which may be fair in the rain
+or sublime in the storm, but can never harmonize so fully with the
+innate longing for happiness which is in the breast of every one, as
+when lighted up with the rays that call all its excellence and all its
+powers into life and being.
+
+Harding sat down beside the girl, and took her hand in his, saying,
+"Well, Kate, this day three weeks, then, remember?"
+
+"My mother says so," answered the girl, with a cheek somewhat glowing,
+"and then, you know, John, you are to give it up altogether. No more
+danger--no more secrets?"
+
+"Oh, as for danger," answered Harding, laughing, "I did not say that,
+love. I don't know what life would be worth without danger. Every man
+is in danger all day long; and I suppose that we are only given life
+just to feel the pleasure of it by the chance of losing it. But no
+dangers but the common ones, Kate. I'll give up the trade, as you have
+made me promise; and I shall have enough by that time to buy out the
+whole vessel, in which I've got shares, and what between that and the
+boats, we shall do very well. You put me in mind, with your fears, of
+a song that wicked boy, little Starlight, used to sing. I learned it
+from hearing him: a more mischievous little dog does not live; but he
+has got a sweet pipe."
+
+"Sing it, John--sing it!" cried Kate; "I love to hear you sing, for it
+seems as if you sing what you are thinking."
+
+"No, I wont sing it," answered Harding, "for it is a sad sort of song,
+and that wont do when I am so happy."
+
+"Oh, I like sad songs!" said the girl; "they please me far more than
+all the merry ones."
+
+"Oh, pray sing it, Harding!" urged the widow; "I am very fond of a
+song that makes me cry."
+
+"This wont do that," replied the smuggler; "but it is sadder than some
+that do, I always think. However, I'll sing it, if you like;" and in a
+fine, mellow, bass voice, to a very simple air, with a flattened third
+coming in every now and then, like the note of a wintry bird, he went
+on:--
+
+
+                                SONG.
+
+                    "Life's like a boat,
+                          Rowing--rowing
+                     Over a bright sea,
+                     On the waves to float,
+                          Flowing--flowing
+                     Away from her lea.
+
+                    "Up goes the sheet!
+                          Sailing--sailing,
+                     To catch the rising breeze,
+                     While the winds fleet,
+                          Wailing--wailing,
+                     Sigh o'er the seas.
+
+                    "She darts through the waves,
+                          Gaily--gaily,
+                     Scattering the foam.
+                     Beneath her, open graves,
+                          Daily--daily,
+                     The blithest to entomb.
+
+                    "Who heeds the deep,
+                          Yawning--yawning
+                     For its destined prey,
+                     When from night's dark sleep,
+                          Dawning--dawning,
+                     Wakens the bright day?
+
+                    "Away, o'er the tide!
+                          Fearless--fearless
+                     Of all that lies beneath;
+                     Let the waves still hide,
+                          Cheerless--cheerless,
+                     All their stores of death.
+
+                    "Stray where we may,
+                          Roaming--roaming
+                     Either far or near,
+                     Death is on the way,
+                          Coming--coming--
+                     Who's the fool to fear?"
+
+
+The widow did weep, however, not at the rude song, though the voice
+that sung it was fine, and perfect in the melody, but at the
+remembrances which it awakened--remembrances on which she loved to
+dwell, although they were so sad.
+
+"Ay, Harding," she said, "it's very true what your song says. Whatever
+way one goes, death is near enough; and I don't know that it's a bit
+nearer on the sea than anywhere else."
+
+"Not a whit," replied Harding; "God's hand is upon the sea as well as
+upon the land, Mrs. Clare; and if it is his will that we go, why we
+go; and if it is his will that we stay, he doesn't want strength to
+protect us."
+
+"No, indeed," answered Mrs. Clare; "and it's that which comforts me,
+for I think that what is God's will must be good. I'm sure, when my
+poor husband went out in the morning, six years ago come the tenth of
+October next, as well and as hearty as a man could be, I never thought
+to see him brought home a corpse, and I left a lone widow with my poor
+girl, and not knowing where to look for any help. But God raised me up
+friends where I least expected them."
+
+"Why you had every right to expect that Sir Robert would be kind to
+you, Mrs. Clare," rejoined Harding, "when your husband had been in his
+service for sixteen or seventeen years."
+
+"No, indeed, I hadn't," said the widow; "for Sir Robert was always, we
+thought, a rough, hard master, grumbling continually, till my poor man
+could hardly bear it; for he was a free-spoken man, as I dare say you
+remember, Mr. Harding, and would say his mind to any one, gentle or
+simple."
+
+"He was as good a soul as ever lived," answered Harding; "a little
+rash and passionate, but none the worse for that."
+
+"Ay, but it was that which set the head keeper against him," answered
+the widow, "and he set Sir Robert, making out that Edward was always
+careless and insolent; but he did his duty as well as any man, and
+knowing that, he didn't like to be found fault with. However, I don't
+blame Sir Robert; for since my poor man's death he has found out what
+he was worth; and very kind he has been to me, to be sure. The
+cottage, and the garden, and the good bit of ground at the back, and
+twelve shillings a-week into the bargain, have we had from him ever
+since."
+
+"Ay, and I am sure nothing can be kinder than the two young ladies,"
+said Kate; "they are always giving me something; and Miss Edith taught
+me all I know. I should have been sadly ignorant if it had not been
+for her--and a deal of trouble I gave her."
+
+"God bless her!" cried Harding, heartily. "She's a nice young lady, I
+believe, though I never saw her but twice, and then she looked very
+sad."
+
+"Ay, she has cause enough, poor thing!" said Mrs. Clare. "Though I
+remember her as blithe as the morning lark--a great deal gayer than
+Miss Zara, gay as she may be."
+
+"Ay, I know--they crossed her love," answered Harding; "and that's
+enough to make one sad. Though I never heard the rights of the story."
+
+"Oh, it was bad enough to break her heart, poor thing!" replied Mrs.
+Clare. "You remember young Leyton, the rector's son--a fine, handsome,
+bold lad as ever lived, and as good as he was handsome. Well, he was
+quite brought up with these young ladies, you know--always up at the
+Hall, and Miss Edith always down at the Rectory; and one would have
+thought Sir Robert blind or foolish, not to fancy that two such young
+things would fall in love with each other; and so they did, to be
+sure. Many's the time I've seen them down here, in this very cottage,
+laughing and talking, and as fond as a pair of doves--for Sir Robert
+used to let them do just whatever they liked, and many a time used to
+send young Harry Leyton to take care of Miss Croyland, when she was
+going out to walk any distance; so, very naturally, they promised
+themselves to each other; and one day--when he was twenty and she just
+sixteen--they got a Prayer-Book at the Rectory, and read over the
+marriage ceremony together, and took all the vows down upon their
+bended knees. I remember it quite well, for I was down at the Rectory
+that very day helping the housekeeper; and just as they had done old
+Mr. Leyton came in, and found them somewhat confused, and the book
+open between them. He would know what it was all about, and they told
+him the truth. So then he was in a terrible taking; and he got Miss
+Croyland under his arm and went away up to Sir Robert directly, and
+told him the whole story without a minute's delay. Every one thought
+it would end in being a match; for though Sir Robert was very angry,
+and insisted that Harry Leyton should be sent to his regiment
+immediately--for he was then just home for a bit, on leave--he did not
+show how angry he was at first, but very soon after he turned Mr.
+Leyton out of the living, and made him pay, I don't know what, for
+dilapidations; so that he was arrested and put in prison--which broke
+his heart, poor man, and he died!"
+
+Harding gave Sir Robert Croyland a hearty oath; and Mrs. Clare
+proceeded to tell her tale, saying--"I did not give much heed to the
+matter then; for it was just at that time that my husband was killed,
+and I could think of nothing else; but when I came to hear of what was
+going on, I found that Sir Robert had promised his daughter to this
+young Radford----"
+
+"As nasty a vermin as ever lived," said Harding.
+
+"Well, she wont have him, I'm sure," continued the widow, "for it has
+been hanging off and on for these six years. People at first said it
+was because they were too young. But I know that she has always
+refused, and declared that nothing should ever drive her to marry him,
+or any one else; for the law might say what it liked, but her own
+heart and her own conscience, told her that she was Harry Leyton's
+wife, and could not be any other man's, as long as he was living.
+Susan, her maid, heard her say so to Sir Robert himself; but he still
+keeps teasing her about it, and tells everybody she's engaged to young
+Radford."
+
+"He'll go the devil," said Harding; "and I'll go to bed, Mrs. Clare,
+for I must be up early to-morrow, to get a good many things to rights.
+God bless you Kate, my love! I dare say I shall see you before I
+go--for I must measure the dear little finger!" And giving her a
+hearty kiss, Harding took a candle, and retired to the snug room that
+had been prepared for him.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+We must change the scene for a while, not only to another part of the
+county of Kent, but to very different people from the worthy Widow
+Clare and the little party assembled at her cottage. We must pass over
+the events of the night also, and of the following morning up to the
+hour of nine, proposing shortly to return to Harbourne House, and
+trace the course of those assembled there. The dwelling into which we
+must now introduce the reader, was a large, old-fashioned Kentish
+farm-house, not many miles on the Sussex side of Ashford. It was
+built, as many of these farm-houses still are, in the form of a cross,
+presenting four limbs of strongly constructed masonry, two stories
+high, with latticed windows divided into three partitions, separated
+by rather neatly cut divisions of stone. Externally it had a strong
+Harry-the-Eighth look about it, and probably had been erected in his
+day, or in that of one of his immediate successors, as the residence
+of some of the smaller gentry of the time. At the period I speak of,
+it was tenanted by a family notorious for their daring and licentious
+life, and still renowned in county tradition for many a fierce and
+lawless act. Nevertheless, the head of the house, now waxing somewhat
+in years, carried on, not only ostensibly but really, the peaceable
+occupation of a Kentish farmer. He had his cows and his cattle, and
+his sheep and his pigs; he grew wheat and barley, and oats and
+turnips; had a small portion of hop-ground, and brewed his own beer.
+But this trade of farming was only a small part of his employment,
+though, to say the truth, he had given himself up more to it since his
+bodily powers had declined, and he was no longer able to bear the
+fatigue and exertion which the great strength of his early years had
+looked upon as sport. The branch of his business which he was most
+fond of was now principally entrusted to his two sons; and two strong,
+handsome daughters, which made the number of his family amount to
+four, occasionally aided their brothers, dressed in men's clothes, and
+mounted upon powerful horses, which they managed as well as any grooms
+in the county.
+
+The reader must not think that, in this description, we are exercising
+indiscreetly our licence for dealing in fiction. We are painting a
+true picture of the family of which we speak, as they lived and acted
+some eighty or eighty-five years ago.
+
+The wife of the farmer had been dead ten or twelve years; and her
+children had done just what they liked ever since; but it must be
+admitted, that, even if she had lived to superintend their education,
+we have no reason to conclude their conduct would have been very
+different from what it was. We have merely said that they had done as
+they pleased ever since her death, because during her life she had
+made them do as she pleased, and beat them, or, as she herself termed
+it, "basted" them heartily, if they did not. She was quite capable of
+doing so too, to her own perfect satisfaction, for probably few arms
+in all Kent were furnished with more sinewy muscles or a stouter fist
+than hers could boast. It was only upon minor points of difference,
+however, that she and her children ever quarrelled; for of their
+general course of conduct she approved most highly; and no one was
+more ready to receive packets of lace, tea, or other goods under her
+fostering care, or more apt and skilful in stopping a tub of spirits
+from "talking," or of puzzling a Custom-House officer when force was
+not at hand to resist him.
+
+She was naturally of so strong a constitution, and so well built a
+frame, that it is wonderful she died at all; but having caught cold
+one night, poor thing!--it is supposed, in setting fire to a
+neighbouring farm-house, the inmates of which were suspected of having
+informed against her husband--her very strength and vigour gave a
+tendency to inflammation, which speedily reduced her very low. A
+surgeon, who visited the house in fear and trembling, bled her
+largely, and forbade the use of all that class of liquids which she
+was accustomed to imbibe in considerable quantities; and for three or
+four days the fear of death made her follow his injunctions. But at
+the end of that period, when the crisis of the disease was imminent,
+finding herself no better, and very weak, she declared that the doctor
+was a fool, and ought to have his head broken, and directed the maid
+to bring her the big green bottle out of the corner cupboard. To this
+she applied more than once, and then beginning to get a little
+riotous, she sent for her family to witness how soon she had cured
+herself. Sitting up in her bed, with a yellow dressing-gown over her
+shoulders, and a gay cap overshadowing her burning face, she sung them
+a song in praise of good liquor--somewhat panting for breath, it must
+be owned--and then declaring that she was "devilish thirsty," which
+was probably accurate to the letter, she poured out a large glass from
+the big green bottle, which happened to be her bed-fellow for the
+time, and raised it to her lips. Half the contents went down her
+throat; but, how it happened I do not know, the rest was spilt upon
+the bed clothes, and good Mrs. Ramley fell back in a doze, from which
+nobody could rouse her. Before two hours were over she slept a still
+sounder sleep, which required the undertaker to provide against its
+permanence.
+
+The bereaved widower comforted himself after a time. We will not say
+how many hours it required to effect that process. He was not a
+drunken man himself; for the passive participle of the verb to "drink"
+was not often actually applicable to his condition. Nevertheless,
+there was a great consumption of hollands in the house during the next
+week; and, if it was a wet funeral that followed, it was not with
+water, salt or fresh.
+
+There are compensations for all things; and if Ramley had lost his
+wife, and his children a mother, they all lost also a great number of
+very good beatings, for, sad to say, he who could thrash all the
+country round, submitted very often to be thrashed by his better half,
+or at all events underwent the process of either having his head made
+closely acquainted with a candlestick, or rendered the means of
+breaking a platter. After that period the two boys grew up into as
+fine, tall, handsome, dissolute blackguards as one could wish to look
+upon; and for the two girls, no term perhaps can be found in the
+classical authors of our language; but the vernacular supplies an
+epithet particularly applicable, which we must venture to use. They
+were two _strapping wenches_, nearly as tall as their brothers, full,
+rounded, and well formed in person, fine and straight cut in features,
+with large black shining eyes, a well-turned foot and ancle, and, as
+was generally supposed, the invincible arm of their mother.
+
+We are not here going to investigate or dwell upon the individual
+morality of the two young ladies. It is generally said to have been
+better in some respects than either their ordinary habits, their
+education, or their language would have led one to expect; and,
+perhaps being very full of the stronger passions, the softer ones had
+no great dominion over them.
+
+There, however, they sat at breakfast on the morning of which we have
+spoken, in the kitchen of the farm-house, with their father seated at
+the head of the table. He was still a great, tall, raw-boned man, with
+a somewhat ogre-ish expression of countenance, and hair more white
+than grey. But there were four other men at the table besides himself,
+two being servants of the farm, and two acknowledged lovers of the
+young ladies--very bold fellows as may well be supposed; for to marry
+a she-lion or a demoiselle bear would have been a light undertaking
+compared to wedding one of the Miss Ramleys. They seemed to be upon
+very intimate terms with those fair personages, however, and perhaps
+possessed as much of their affection as could possibly be obtained;
+but still the love-making seemed rather of a feline character, for the
+caresses, which were pretty prodigal, were mingled with--we must not
+say interrupted by--a great deal of grumbling and growling, some
+scratching, and more than one pat upon the side of the head, which did
+not come with the gentleness of the western wind. The fare upon the
+table consisted neither of tea, coffee, cocoa, nor any other kind of
+weak beverage, but of beef and strong beer, a diet very harmonious
+with the appearance of the persons who partook thereof. It was
+seasoned occasionally with roars of laughter, gay and not very
+delicate jests, various pieces of fun, which on more than one occasion
+went to the very verge of an angry encounter, together with a good
+many blasphemous oaths, and those testimonies of affection which I
+have before spoken of as liberally bestowed by the young ladies upon
+their lovers in the shape of cuffs and scratches. The principal topic
+of conversation seemed to be some adventure which was even then going
+forward, and in which the sons of the house were taking a part. No
+fear, no anxiety, however, was expressed by any one, though they
+wondered that Jim and Ned had not yet returned.
+
+"If they don't come soon they won't get much beef, Tom, if you swallow
+it at that rate," said the youngest Miss Ramley to her sweetheart;
+"you've eaten two pounds already, I'm sure."
+
+The young gentleman declared that it was all for love of her, but that
+he hadn't eaten half so much as she had, whereupon the damsel became
+wroth, and appealed to her father, who, for his part, vowed, that,
+between them both, they had eaten and swilled enough to fill the big
+hog-trough. The dispute might have run high, for Miss Ramley was not
+inclined to submit to such observations, even from her father; but,
+just as she was beginning in good set terms, which she had learnt from
+himself, to condemn her parent's eyes, the old man started up,
+exclaiming, "Hark! there's a shot out there!"
+
+"To be sure," answered one of the lovers. "It's the first of
+September, and all the people are out shooting."
+
+Even while he was speaking, however, several more shots were heard,
+apparently too many to proceed from sportsmen in search of game, and
+the next moment the sound of horses' feet could be heard running quick
+upon the road, and then turning into the yard which lay before the
+house.
+
+"There they are!--there they are!" cried half-a-dozen voices; and, all
+rushing out at the front door, they found the two young men with
+several companions, and four led horses, heavily laden. Jim, the elder
+brother, with the assistance of one of those who accompanied him, was
+busily engaged in shutting the two great wooden gates which had been
+raised by old Ramley some time before--nobody could tell why--in place
+of a five-barred gate, which, with the tall stone wall, formerly shut
+out the yard from the road. The other brother, Edward, or Ned Ramley,
+as he was called, stood by the side of his horse, holding his head
+down over a puddle; and, for a moment, no one could make out what he
+was about. On his sister Jane approaching him, however, she perceived
+a drop of blood falling every second into the dirty water below, and
+exclaimed, "How hast thou broken thy noddle, Ned?"
+
+"There, let me alone, Jinny," cried the young man, shaking off the
+hand she had laid upon his arm, "or I shall bloody my toggery. One of
+those fellows has nearly cracked my skull, that's all; and he'd have
+done it, too, if he had but been a bit nearer. This brute shied just
+as I was firing my pistol at him, or he'd never have got within arm's
+length. It's nothing--it's but a scratch.--Get the goods away; for
+they'll be after us quick enough. They are chasing the major and his
+people, and that's the way we got off."
+
+One of the usual stories of the day was then told by the rest--of how
+a cargo had been run the night before, and got safe up into the
+country: how, when they thought all danger over, they had passed
+before old Bob Croyland's windows, and how Jim had given him a shot as
+he stood at one of them; and then they went on to say that, whether it
+was the noise of the gun, or that the old man had sent out to call the
+officers upon them, they could not tell; but about three miles further
+on, they saw a largish party of horse upon their right. Flight had
+then become the order of the day; but, finding that they could not
+effect it in one body, they were just upon the point of separating,
+Ned Ramley declared, when two of the riding officers overtook them,
+supported by a number of dragoons. Some firing took place, without
+much damage, and, dividing into three bodies, the smugglers scampered
+off, the Ramleys and their friends taking their way towards their own
+house, and the others in different directions. The former might have
+escaped unpursued, it would seem, had not the younger brother, Ned,
+determined to give one of the dragoons a shot before he went: thus
+bringing on the encounter in which he had received the wound on his
+head.
+
+While all this was being told to the father, the two girls, their
+lovers, the farm-servants, and several of the men, hurried the
+smuggled goods into the house, and raising a trap in the floor of the
+kitchen--contrived in such a manner that four whole boards moved up at
+once on the western side of the room--stowed the different articles
+away in places of concealment below, so well arranged, that even if
+the trap was discovered, the officers would find nothing but a vacant
+space, unless they examined the walls very closely.
+
+The horses were then all led to the stable; and Edward Ramley, having
+in some degree stopped the bleeding of his wound, moved into the
+house, with most of the other men. Old Ramley and the two
+farm-servants, however, remained without, occupying themselves in
+loading a cart with manure, till the sound of horses galloping down
+was heard, and somebody shook the gates violently, calling loudly to
+those within to open "in the King's name."
+
+The farmer instantly mounted upon the cart, and looked over the wall;
+but the party before the gates consisted only of five or six dragoons,
+of whom he demanded, in a bold tone, "Who the devil be you, that I
+should open for you? Go away, go away, and leave a quiet man at
+peace!"
+
+"If you don't open the gates, we'll break them down," said one of the
+men.
+
+"Do, if you dare," answered old Ramley, boldly; "and if you do, I'll
+shoot the best of you dead.--Bring me my gun, Tom.--Where's your
+warrant, young man? You are not an officer, and you've got none with
+you, so I shan't let any boiled lobsters enter my yard, I can tell
+you."
+
+By this time he was provided with the weapon he had sent for; and one
+of his men, similarly armed, had got into the cart beside him. The
+appearance of resistance was rather ominous, and the dragoons were
+well aware that if they did succeed in forcing an entrance, and blood
+were spilt, the whole responsibility would rest upon themselves, if no
+smuggled goods should be found, as they had neither warrant nor any
+officer of the Customs with them.
+
+After a short consultation, then, he who had spoken before, called to
+old Ramley, saying, "We'll soon bring a warrant. Then look to
+yourself;" and, thus speaking, he rode off with his party. Old Ramley
+only laughed, however, and turned back into the house, where he made
+the party merry at the expense of the dragoons. All the men who had
+been out upon the expedition were now seated at the table, dividing
+the beef and bread amongst them, and taking hearty draughts from the
+tankard. Not the least zealous in this occupation was Edward Ramley,
+who seemed to consider the deep gash upon his brow as a mere scratch,
+not worth talking about. He laughed and jested with the rest; and when
+they had demolished all that the board displayed, he turned to his
+father, saying, not in the most reverent tone, "Come, old fellow,
+after bringing our venture home safe, I think you ought to send round
+the true stuff: we've had beer enough. Let's have some of the
+Dutchman."
+
+"That you shall, Neddy, my boy," answered the farmer, "only I wish you
+had shot that rascal you fired at. However, one can't always have a
+steady aim, especially with a fidgetty brute like that you ride;" and
+away he went to bring the hollands, which soon circulated very freely
+amongst the party, producing, in its course, various degrees of mirth
+and joviality, which speedily deviated into song. Some of the ditties
+that were sung were good, and some of them very bad; but almost all
+were coarse, and the one that was least so was the following:--
+
+
+                                SONG.
+
+      "It's wonderful, it's wonderful, is famous London town,
+                       With its alleys
+                       And its valleys,
+                     And its houses up and down;
+       But I would give fair London town, its court, and all its
+           people,
+       For the little town of Biddenden, with the moon above
+           the steeple.
+
+      "It's wonderful, it's wonderful, to see what pretty faces
+                       In London streets
+                       A person meets
+                     In very funny places;
+       But I wouldn't give for all the eyes in London town one sees,
+       A pair, that by the moonlight, looks out beneath the trees.
+
+      "It's wonderful, in London town, how soon a man may hold,
+                       By art and sleight,
+                       Or main and might,
+                     A pretty sum of gold;
+       Yet give me but a pistol, and one rich squire or two,
+       A moonlight night, a yellow chaise, and the high road will do."
+
+
+This was not the last song that was sung; but that which followed was
+interrupted by one of the pseudo-labourers coming in from the yard, to
+say that there was a hard knocking at the gate.
+
+"I think it is Mr. Radford's voice," added the man, "but I'm not sure;
+and I did not like to get up into the cart to look."
+
+"Run up stairs to the window, Jinny!" cried old Ramley, "and you'll
+soon see."
+
+His daughter did, on this occasion, as she was bid, and soon called
+down from above, "It's old Radford, sure enough; but he's got two men
+with him!"
+
+"It's all right, if he's there," said Jim Ramley; and the gates were
+opened in a minute, to give that excellent gentleman admission.
+
+Now, Mr. Radford, it must be remembered, was a magistrate for the
+county of Kent; but his presence created neither alarm nor confusion
+in the house of the Ramleys; and when he entered, leaving his men in
+the court for a minute, he said, with a laugh, holding the father of
+that hopeful family by the arm, "I've come to search, and to stop the
+others. Where are the goods?"
+
+"Safe enough," answered the farmer. "No fear--no fear!"
+
+"But can we look under the trap?" asked Mr. Radford, who seemed as
+well acquainted with the secrets of the place as the owner thereof.
+
+"Ay, ay!" replied the old man. "Don't leave 'em too long--that's all."
+
+"I'll go down myself," said Radford; "they've got scent of it, or I
+wouldn't find it out."
+
+"All right--all right!" rejoined the other, in a low voice; and the
+magistrate, raising his tone, exclaimed, "Here, Clinch and Adams--you
+two fools! why don't you come in? They say there is nothing here; but
+we must search. We must not take any man's word; not to say that I
+doubt yours, Mr. Ramley; but it is necessary, you know."
+
+"Oh, do what you like, sir," replied the farmer. "I don't care!"
+
+A very respectable search was then commenced, and pursued from room to
+room--one of the men who accompanied Mr. Radford, and who was an
+officer of the Customs, giving old Ramley a significant wink with his
+right eye as he passed, at which the other grinned. Indeed, had the
+whole matter not been very well understood between the great majority
+of both parties, it would have been no very pleasant or secure task
+for any three men in England to enter the kitchen of that farm-house
+on such an errand. At length, however, Mr. Radford and his companions
+returned to the kitchen, and the magistrate thought fit to walk
+somewhat out of his way towards the left-hand side of the room, when
+suddenly stopping, he exclaimed, in a grave tone, "Hallo! Ramley,
+what's here? These boards seem loose!"
+
+"To be sure they are," answered the farmer; "that's the way to the old
+beer cellar. But there's nothing in it, upon my honour!"
+
+"But we must look, Ramley, you know," said Mr. Radford. "Come, open
+it, whatever it is!
+
+"Oh, with all my heart," replied the man; "but you'll perhaps break
+your head. That's your fault, not mine, however,"--and, advancing to
+the side of the room, he took a crooked bit of iron from his
+pocket--not unlike that used for pulling stones out of a horse's
+hoofs--and insinuating it between the skirting-board and the floor,
+soon raised the trap-door of which we have spoken before.
+
+A vault of about nine feet deep was now exposed, with the top of a
+ladder leading into it; and Mr. Radford ordered the men who were with
+him to go down first. The one who had given old Ramley the wink in
+passing, descended without ceremony; but the other, who was also an
+officer, hesitated for a moment.
+
+"Go down--go down, Clinch!" said Mr. Radford. "You _would_ have a
+search, and so you shall do it thoroughly."
+
+The man obeyed, and the magistrate paused a moment to speak with the
+smuggling farmer, saying, in a low voice, "I don't mind their knowing
+I'm your friend, Ramley. Let them think about that as they like.
+Indeed, I'd rather that they did see we understand each other; so give
+me a hint if they go too far; I'll bear it out."
+
+Thus saying, he descended into the cellar, and old Ramley stood gazing
+down upon the three from above, with his gaunt figure bending over the
+trap-door. At the end of a minute or two he called down, "There--that
+ought to do, I'm sure! We can't be kept bothering here all day!"
+
+Something was said in a low tone by one of the men below; but then the
+voice of Mr. Radford was heard, exclaiming, "No, no; that will do!
+We've had enough of it! Go up, I say! There's no use of irritating
+people by unreasonable suspicions, Mr. Clinch. Is it not quite enough,
+Adams? Are you satisfied!"
+
+"Oh! quite, sir," answered the other officer; "there's nothing but bare
+walls and an empty beer barrel."
+
+The next moment the party began to reappear from the trap, the officer
+Clinch coming up first, with a grave look, and Mr. Radford and the
+other following, with a smile upon their faces.
+
+"There, all is clear enough," said Mr. Radford; "so you, gentlemen,
+can go and pursue your search elsewhere. I must remain here to wait
+for my son, whom I sent for to join me with the servants, as you know;
+not that I feared any resistance from you, Mr. Ramley; but smuggling
+is so sadly prevalent now-a-days, that one must be on one's guard, you
+know."
+
+A horse laugh burst from the whole party round the table; and in the
+midst of it the two officers retired into the yard, where, mounting
+their horses, they opened the gates and rode away.
+
+As soon as they were gone, Mr. Radford shook old Ramley familiarly by
+the hand, exclaiming, "This is the luckiest thing in the world, my
+good fellow! If I can but get them to accuse me of conniving at this
+job, it will be a piece of good fortune which does not often happen to
+a man."
+
+Ramley, as well he might, looked a little confounded; but Mr. Radford
+drew him aside, and spoke to him for a quarter of an hour, in a voice
+raised hardly above a whisper. Numerous laughs, and nods, and signs of
+mutual understanding passed between them; and the conversation ended
+by Mr. Radford saying, aloud, "I wonder what can keep Dick so long; he
+ought to have been here before now! I sent over to him at eight; and
+it is past eleven."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+We will now, by the reader's good leave, return for a short time to
+Harbourne House, where the party sat down to breakfast, at the
+inconveniently early hour of eight. I will not take upon myself to say
+that it might not be a quarter-of-an-hour later, for almost everything
+is after its time on this globe, and Harbourne House did not differ in
+this respect from all the rest of the world. From the face of young
+Radford towards the countenance of Sir Edward Digby shot some very
+furious glances as they took their places at the breakfast-table; but
+those looks gradually sunk down into a dull and sullen frown, as they
+met with no return. Sir Edward Digby, indeed, seemed to have forgotten
+the words which had passed between them as soon as they had been
+uttered; and he laughed, and talked, and conversed with every one as
+gaily as if nothing had happened. Edith was some ten minutes behind
+the rest at the meal, and seemed even more depressed than the night
+before; but Zara had reserved a place for her at her own side; and
+taking the first opportunity, while the rest of the party were busily
+talking together, she whispered a few words in her ear. Sir Edward
+Digby saw her face brighten in a moment, and her eyes turn quickly
+towards himself; but he took no notice; and an interval of silence
+occurring the next moment, the conversation between the two sisters
+was interrupted.
+
+During breakfast, a servant brought in a note and laid it on the
+side-board, and after the meal was over, Miss Croyland retired to her
+own room to make ready for her departure. Zara was about to follow;
+but good Mrs. Barbara, who had heard some sharp words pass between the
+two gentlemen, and had remarked the angry looks of young Radford, was
+determined that they should not quarrel without the presence of
+ladies, and consequently called her youngest niece back, saying, in a
+whisper, "Stay here, my dear. I have a particular reason why I want
+you not to go."
+
+"I will be back in a moment, my dear aunt," replied Zara; but the
+worthy old lady would not suffer her to depart; and the butler
+entering at that moment, called the attention of Richard Radford to
+the note which had been brought in some half-an-hour before, and which
+was, in fact, a sudden summons from his father.
+
+The contents seemed to give him no great satisfaction; and, turning to
+the servant, he said, "Well, tell them to saddle my horse, and bring
+him round;" and as he spoke, he directed a frowning look towards the
+young baronet, as if he could scarcely refrain from shewing his anger
+till a fitting opportunity occurred for expressing it.
+
+Digby, however, continued talking lightly with Zara Croyland, in the
+window, till the horse had been brought round, and the young man had
+taken leave of the rest of the party. Then sauntering slowly out of
+the room, he passed through the hall door, to the side of Richard
+Radford's horse, just as the latter was mounting.
+
+"Mr. Radford," he said, in a low tone, "you were pleased to make an
+impertinent observation upon my conduct, which led me to tell you what
+I think of yours. We were interrupted; but I dare say you must wish
+for further conversation with me. You can have it when and where you
+please."
+
+"At three o'clock this afternoon, in the road straight from the back
+of the house," replied young Radford, in a low, determined tone,
+touching the hilt of his sword.
+
+Sir Edward Digby nodded, and then turning on his heel, walked coolly
+into the house.
+
+"I am sure, Sir Edward," cried Mrs. Barbara, as soon as she saw him,
+while Zara fixed her eyes somewhat anxiously upon his countenance--"I
+am sure you and Mr. Radford have been quarrelling."
+
+"Oh no, my dear madam," replied Sir Edward Digby; "nothing of the
+kind, I can assure you. Our words were very ordinary words, and
+perfectly civil, upon my word. We had no time to quarrel."
+
+"My dear Sir Edward," said Sir Robert Croyland, "you must excuse me
+for saying it, I must have no such things here. I am a magistrate for
+this county, and bound by my oath to keep the peace. My sister tells
+me that high words passed between you and my young friend Radford
+before breakfast?"
+
+"They were very few, Sir Robert," answered Digby, in a careless tone;
+"he thought fit to make an observation upon my saying a few words to
+your daughter, here, in a low tone, which I conceive every gentleman
+has a right to do to a fair lady. I told him, I thought his conduct
+insolent; and that was all that passed. I believe the youth has got a
+bad headache from too much of your good wine, Sir Robert; therefore, I
+forgive him. I dare say, he'll be sorry enough for what he said,
+before the day is over; and if he is not, I cannot help it."
+
+"Well, well, if that's all, it is no great matter!" replied the master
+of the house; "but here comes round the carriage; run and call Edith,
+Zara."
+
+Before the young lady could quit the room, however, her sister
+appeared; and the only moment they obtained for private conference was
+at the door of the carriage, after Edith had got in, and while her
+father was giving some directions to the coachman. No great
+information could be given or received, indeed, for Sir Robert
+returned to the side of the vehicle immediately, bade his daughter
+good-bye, and the carriage rolled away.
+
+As soon as it was gone, Sir Edward Digby proposed, with the permission
+of Sir Robert Croyland, to go out to shoot; for he did not wish to
+subject himself to any further cross-examination by the ladies of the
+family, and he read many inquiries in fair Zara's eyes, which he
+feared might be difficult to answer. Retiring, then, to put on a more
+fitting costume, while gamekeepers and dogs were summoned to attend
+him, he took the opportunity of writing a short letter, which he
+delivered to his servant to post, giving him, at the same time, brief
+directions to meet him near the cottage of good Mrs. Clare, about
+half-past two, with the sword which the young officer usually wore
+when not on military service. Those orders were spoken in so ordinary
+and commonplace a tone that none but a very shrewd fellow would have
+discovered that anything was going forward different from the usual
+occurrences of the day; but Somers was a very shrewd fellow; and in a
+few minutes--judging from what he had observed while waiting on his
+master during dinner on the preceding day--he settled the whole matter
+entirely to his own satisfaction, thinking, according to the
+phraseology of those times, "Sir Edward will pink him--and a good
+thing too; but it will spoil sport here, I've a notion."
+
+As he descended to the hall, in order to join the keepers and their
+four-footed coadjutors, the young baronet encountered Mrs. Barbara and
+her niece; and he perceived Zara's eyes instantly glance to his
+sword-belt, from which he had taken care to remove a weapon that could
+only be inconvenient to him in the sport he was about to pursue. She
+was not so easily to be deceived as her father; but yet the absence of
+the weapon usually employed in those days, as the most efficacious for
+killing a fellow-creature, put her mind at ease, at least for the
+present; and, although she determined to watch the proceedings of the
+young baronet during the two or three following days--as far, at
+least, as propriety would permit--she took no further notice at the
+moment, being very anxious to prevent her good aunt from interfering
+more than necessary in the affairs of Sir Edward Digby.
+
+Mrs. Barbara, indeed, was by no means well pleased that Sir Edward was
+going to deprive her schemes of the full benefit which might have
+accrued from his passing the whole of that day unoccupied, with Zara,
+at Harbourne House, and hinted significantly that she trusted if he
+did not find good sport he would return early, as her niece was very
+fond of a ride over the hills, only that she had no companion.
+
+The poor girl coloured warmly, and the more so as Sir Edward could not
+refrain from a smile.
+
+"I trust, then, I shall have the pleasure of being your companion
+to-morrow, Miss Croyland," he said, turning to the young lady. "Why
+should we not ride over, and see your excellent uncle and your sister?
+I must certainly pay my respects to him; and if I may have the honour
+of escorting you, it will give double pleasure to my ride."
+
+Zara Croyland was well aware that many a matter, which if treated
+seriously may become annoying--if not dangerous, can be carried
+lightly off by a gay and dashing jest: "Oh, with all my heart," she
+said; "only remember, Sir Edward, we must have plenty of servants with
+us, or else all the people in the country will say that you and I are
+going to be married; and as I never intend that such a saying should
+be verified, it will be as well to nip the pretty little blossom of
+gossip in the bud."
+
+"It shall be all exactly as you please," replied the young officer,
+with a low bow and a meaning smile; but at the very same moment, Mrs.
+Barbara thought fit to reprove her niece, wondering how she could talk
+so sillily; and Sir Edward took his leave, receiving his host's
+excuses, as he passed through the hall, for not accompanying him on
+his shooting expedition.
+
+"The truth is, my dear sir," said Sir Robert Croyland, "that I am now
+too old and too heavy for such sports."
+
+"You were kind enough to tell me, this is Liberty Hall," replied the
+young baronet, "and you shall see, my dear sir, that I take you at
+your word, both in regard to your game and your wine, being resolved,
+with your good permission, and for my own health, to kill your birds
+and spare your bottles."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," answered the master of the mansion--"you shall
+do exactly as you like;" and with this licence, Sir Edward set out
+shooting, with tolerable success, till towards two o'clock, when,
+quite contrary to the advice and opinion of the gamekeepers--who
+declared that the dogs would have the wind with them in that
+direction, and that as the day was now hot, the birds would not lie a
+minute--he directed his course towards the back of Harbourne Wood,
+finding, it must be confessed, but very little sport. There,
+apparently fatigued and disgusted with walking for a mile or two
+without a shot, he gave his gun to one of the men, and bade him take
+it back to the house, saying, he would follow speedily. As soon as he
+had seen them depart, he tracked round the edge of the wood, towards
+Mrs. Clare's cottage, exactly opposite to which he found his trusty
+servant, provided as he had directed.
+
+Sir Edward then took the sword and fixed it in his belt, saying, "Now,
+Somers, you may go!"
+
+"Certainly, sir," replied the man, touching his hat with a look of
+hesitation; but he added, a minute after, "you had better let me know
+where it's to be, sir, in case----"
+
+"Well," rejoined Sir Edward Digby, with a smile, "you are an old
+soldier and no meddler, Somers; so that I will tell you, 'in
+case,'--that the place is in a straight line between this and
+Harbourne House. So now, face about to the right, and go back by the
+other road."
+
+The man touched his hat again, and walked quickly away, while the
+young officer turned his steps up the road which he had followed
+during the preceding evening in pursuit of the two Miss Croylands. It
+was a good broad open way, in which there was plenty of fencing room,
+and he thought to himself as he walked on, "I shall not be sorry to
+punish this young vagabond a little. I must see what sort of skill he
+has, and if possible wound him without hurting him much. If one could
+keep him to his bed for a fortnight, we should have the field more
+clear for our own campaign; but these things must always be a chance."
+
+Thus meditating, and looking at his watch to see how much time he had
+to spare, Major Sir Edward Digby walked on till became within sight of
+the garden wall and some of the out-buildings of Harbourne House. The
+reader, if he has paid attention, will remember that the road did not
+go straight to the back of the house itself: a smaller path, which led
+to the right, conducting thither; but as the gardens extended for
+nearly a quarter of a mile on that side, it followed the course of the
+wall to the left to join the parish road which ran in front of the
+mansion, leaving the green court, as it was called, or lawn, and the
+terrace, on the right hand.
+
+As there was no other road in that direction, Sir Edward Digby felt
+sure that he must be on the ground appointed, but yet, as is the case
+in all moments of expectation, the time seemed so long, that when he
+saw the brick-work he took out his watch again, and found there were
+still five minutes to spare. He accordingly turned upon his steps,
+walking slowly back for about a quarter of a mile, and then returned,
+looking sharply out for his opponent, but seeing no one. He was now
+sure that the time must be past; but, resolved to afford young Radford
+every opportunity, he said to himself, "Watches may differ, and
+something may have detained him. I will give him a full half hour, and
+then if he does not come I shall understand the matter."
+
+As soon, then, as he saw the walls once more, he wheeled round and
+re-trod his steps, then looked at his watch, and found that it was a
+quarter past three. "Too bad!" he said,--"too bad! The fellow cannot
+be coward, too, as well as blackguard. One turn more, and then I've
+done with him." But as he advanced on his way towards the house, he
+suddenly perceived the flutter of female garments before him, and
+saying to himself, "This is awkward!" he gazed round for some path, in
+order to get out of the way for a moment, but could perceive none. The
+next instant, coming round a shrub which started forward a little
+before the rest of the trees, he saw the younger Miss Croyland
+advancing with a quick step, and, he could not help thinking, with a
+somewhat agitated air. Her colour was heightened, her eyes eagerly
+looking on; but, as soon as she saw him, she slackened her pace, and
+came forward in a more deliberate manner.
+
+"Oh, Sir Edward!" she said, in a calm, sweet tone, "I am glad to see
+you. You have finished your shooting early, it seems."
+
+"Why, the sport was beginning to slacken," answered Sir Edward Digby.
+"I had not had a shot for the last half hour, and so thought it best
+to give it up."
+
+"Well then, you shall take a walk with me," cried Zara, gaily. "I am
+just going down to a poor friend of ours, called Widow Clare, and you
+shall come too."
+
+"What! notwithstanding all your sage and prudent apprehensions in
+regard to what people might say if we were seen alone together!"
+exclaimed Sir Edward Digby, with a smile.
+
+"Oh! I don't mind that," answered Zara. "Great occasions, you know,
+Sir Edward, require decisive measures; and I assuredly want an escort
+through this terrible forest, to protect me from all the giants and
+enchanters it may contain."
+
+Sir Edward Digby looked at his watch again, and saw that it wanted but
+two minutes to the half hour.
+
+"Oh!" said Zara, affecting a look of pique, "if you have some
+important appointment, Sir Edward, it is another affair--only tell me
+if it be so?"
+
+Sir Edward Digby took her hand in his: "I will tell you, dear lady,"
+he replied, "if you will first tell me one thing, truly and
+sincerely--What brought you here?"
+
+Zara trembled and coloured; for with the question put in so direct a
+shape, the agitation, which she had previously overcome, mastered her
+in turn, and she answered, "Don't, don't, or I shall cry."
+
+"Well, then, tell me at least if I had anything to do with it?" asked
+the young baronet.
+
+"Yes, you had!" replied Zara; "I can't tell a falsehood. But now, Sir
+Edward, don't, as most of you men would do, suppose that it's from any
+very tender interest in you, that I did this foolish thing. It was
+because I thought--I thought, if you were going to do what I imagined,
+it would be the very worst thing in the world for poor Edith."
+
+"I shall only suppose that you are all that is kind and good,"
+answered Digby--perhaps a little piqued at the indifference which she
+so studiously assumed; "and even if I thought, Miss Croyland, that you
+did take some interest in my poor self, depend upon it, I should not
+be inclined to go one step farther in the way of vanity than you
+yourself could wish. I am not altogether a coxcomb. But now tell me,
+how you were led to suspect anything?"
+
+"Promise me first," said Zara, "that this affair shall not take place.
+Indeed, indeed, Sir Edward, it must not, on every account!"
+
+"There is not the slightest chance of any such thing," replied Sir
+Edward Digby. "You need not be under the slightest alarm."
+
+"What! you do not mean to say," she exclaimed, with her cheeks glowing
+and her eyes raised to his face, "that you did not come here to fight
+him?"
+
+"Not exactly," answered Sir Edward Digby, laughing; "but what I do
+mean to say, my dear young lady, is, that our friend is half an hour
+behind his time, and I am not disposed to give him another opportunity
+of keeping me waiting."
+
+"And if he had been in time," cried Zara, clasping her hands together
+and casting down her eyes, "I should have been too late."
+
+"But tell me," persisted Sir Edward Digby, "how you heard all this.
+Has my servant, Somers, been indiscreet?"
+
+"No, no," replied Zara; "no, I can assure you! I saw you go out in
+your shooting dress, and without a sword. Then I thought it was all
+over, especially as you had the gamekeepers with you; but some time
+ago I found that your servant had gone out, carrying a sword under his
+arm, and had come straight up this road. That made me uneasy. When the
+gamekeepers came back without you, I was more uneasy still; but I
+could not get away from my aunt for a few minutes. When I could,
+however, I got my hat and cloak, and hurried away, knowing that you
+would not venture to fight in the presence of a woman. As I went out,
+all my worst fears were confirmed by seeing your servant come back
+without the sword; and then--not very well knowing, indeed, what I was
+to say or do--I hurried on as fast as possible. Now you have the whole
+story, and you must come away from this place."
+
+"Very willingly," answered the young officer; adding, with a smile,
+"which way shall we go, Miss Croyland? To Widow Clare's?"
+
+"No, no!" answered Zara, blushing again. "Do not tease me. You do not
+know how soon, when a woman is agitated, she is made to weep. My
+father is out, indeed," she added, in a gayer tone, "so that I should
+have time to bathe my eyes before dinner, which will be half an hour
+later than usual; but I should not like my aunt to tell him that I
+have been taking a crying walk with Sir Edward Digby."
+
+"Heaven forbid that I should ever give you cause for a tear!" answered
+the young baronet; and then, with a vague impression that he was doing
+something very like making love, he added, "but let us return to the
+house, or perhaps we may have your aunt seeking us."
+
+"The most likely thing in the world," replied Zara; and taking their
+way back, they passed through the gardens and entered the house by one
+of the side doors.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+It was a custom of those days, I believe, not altogether done away
+with in the present times, for magistrates to assemble in petty
+sessions, or to meet at other times for the dispatch of any
+extraordinary business, in tavern, public-house, or inn--a custom more
+honoured in the breach than the observance, except where no other
+place of assembly can be found. It thus happened that, on the day of
+which we have been speaking, some half-dozen gentlemen, all justices
+of the peace for the county of Kent, were gathered together in a
+good-sized room of the inn, at the little town of * * * * * . There
+was a table drawn across the room, at which was placed the
+magistrates' clerk, with sundry sheets of paper before him, several
+printed forms, and two books, one big and the other little. The
+magistrates themselves, however, were not seated in due state and
+dignity, but, on the contrary, were in general standing about and
+talking together, some looking out of the window into the street, some
+leaning with their backs against the table and the tails of their
+coats turned over their hands, while one occupied an arm-chair placed
+sideways at the board, with one knee thrown over the other--a
+favourite position which he could not have assumed had he sat with his
+face to the table.
+
+The latter was Sir Robert Croyland, who had been sent for in haste by
+his brother justices, to take part in their proceedings relative to a
+daring act of smuggling which had just been perpetrated. Sir Robert
+would willingly have avoided giving his assistance upon this occasion;
+but the summons had been so urgent that he could not refuse going; and
+he was now not a little angry to find that there were more than
+sufficient justices present to make a quorum, and to transact all the
+necessary business. Some one, however, it would seem, had--as usual in
+all county arrangements--been very busy in pressing for as full an
+attendance as possible; and those who knew the characters of the
+gentlemen assembled might have perceived that the great majority of
+them were not very well qualified to sit as judges upon a case of this
+nature, as almost every one was under suspicion of leaning towards the
+side of the smugglers, most of them having at some time engaged more
+or less in the traffic which they were called upon to stop. Sir Robert
+Croyland was the least objectionable in this point of view; for he had
+always borne a very high name for impartiality in such matters, and
+had never had anything personally to do with the illicit traffic
+itself. It is probable, therefore, that he was sent for to give a mere
+show of justice to the proceedings; for Mr. Radford was expected to be
+there; and it was a common observation of the county gentlemen, that
+the latter could now lead Sir Robert as he liked. Mr. Radford, indeed,
+had not yet arrived, though two messengers had been despatched to
+summon him; the answer still being that he had gone over towards
+Ashford. Sir Robert, therefore, sat in the midst--not harmonizing much
+in feeling with the rest, and looking anxiously for his friend's
+appearance, in order to obtain some hint as to how he was to act.
+
+At length, a considerable noise was heard in the streets below, and a
+sort of constable door-keeper presented himself, to inform the
+magistrates that the officers and dragoons had arrived, bringing in
+several prisoners. An immediate bustle took place, the worshipful
+gentlemen beginning to seat themselves, and one of them--as it is
+technically termed--moving Sir Robert into the chair. In order to shew
+that this was really as well as metaphysically done, Sir Robert
+Croyland rose, sat down again, and wheeled himself round to the table.
+A signal was then given to the constable; and a rush of several
+persons from without was made into the temporary justice room, which
+was at once nearly filled with custom-house officers, soldiers,
+smugglers, and the curious of the village.
+
+Amongst the latter portion of the auditory,--at least, so he supposed
+at first,--Sir Robert Croyland perceived his young friend, Richard
+Radford; and he was in the act of beckoning him to come up to the
+table, in order to inquire where his father was, and how soon he would
+return, when one of the officers of the Customs suddenly thrust the
+young gentleman out of the way, exclaiming, "Stand farther back! What
+are you pushing forward for? Your turn will come soon enough, I
+warrant."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland was confounded; and for a moment or two he sat
+silent in perplexity and surprise. Not that he ever entertained a
+doubt of old Mr. Radford still nourishing all the propensities of his
+youth; nor that he was not well aware they had formed part of the
+inheritance of the son; but there were certain considerations of some
+weight which made Sir Robert feel that it would have been better for
+him to be in any other spot of the habitable globe than that where he
+was at the moment. Recovering himself, however, after a brief pause of
+anxious indecision, he made a sign to the constable door-keeper, and
+whispered to him, as soon as the man reached his side, to inquire into
+the cause of Mr. Richard Radford's being there. The man was shrewd and
+quick, and while half the magistrates were speaking across the table
+to half the officers and some of the dragoons, he went and returned to
+and from the other side of the room, and then whispered to the
+baronet, "For smuggling, sir--caught abetting the others--his name
+marked upon some of the goods!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland was not naturally a brilliant man. Though hasty in
+temper in his early days, he had always been somewhat obtuse in
+intellect; but this was a case of emergency; and there is no greater
+sharpener of the wits than necessity. In an instant, he had formed his
+plan to gain time, which was his great object at that moment; and,
+taking out his watch, he laid it on the table, exclaiming aloud,
+"Gentlemen! gentlemen! a little regularity, if you please. My time is
+precious. I have an important engagement this afternoon, and I----"
+
+But his whole scheme had nearly been frustrated by the impetuosity of
+young Radford himself, who at once pushed through officers and
+soldiers, saying, "And so have I, Sir Robert, a very important
+engagement this afternoon. I claim to be heard as speedily as
+possible."
+
+Sir Robert, however, was determined to carry his point, and to avoid
+having aught to do with the case of his young friend, even at the risk
+of giving him offence and annoyance. "Stand back, sir!" he said. "In
+this court, there is no friendship or favour. You will have attention
+in turn, but not before. Mr. Mowle, bring forward the prisoners one
+after the other, as near as possible, in the order of--the order
+of--of their capture," he added, at length, after hesitating for a
+moment to consider whether it was or was not probable that young
+Radford had been amongst those last taken; "and let all the others be
+removed, under guard, into the next room."
+
+"Wont that make it a long affair, Sir Robert?" asked Mr. Runnington, a
+neighbouring squire.
+
+"Oh dear, no!" replied the chairman; "by regularity we shall save
+time. Do as you are directed, Mowle!"
+
+Young Radford showed a strong disposition to resist, or, at least, to
+protest against this arrangement; but the officer to whom the baronet
+had spoken, treated the prisoner with very little reverence; and he,
+with the rest of the gang, was removed from the room, with the
+exception of three, one of whom, with a smart cockade in his hat, such
+as was worn at that time by military men in undress, swaggered up to
+the table with a bold air, as if he were about to address the
+magistrates.
+
+"Ah, major, is that you?" asked a gentleman on Sir Robert's right,
+known in the country by the name of Squire Jollyboat, though his
+family being originally French, his real appellation was Jollivet.
+
+"Oh yes, squire," answered the prisoner, in a gay, indifferent tone,
+"here I am. It is long since I have had the pleasure of seeing your
+worship. I think you were not on the bench the last time I was
+committed, or I should have fared better."
+
+"I don't know that, major," replied the gentleman; "on the former
+occasion I gave you a month, I think."
+
+"Ay, but the blackguards that time gave me two," rejoined the major.
+
+"Because it was the second offence," said Squire Jollyboat.
+
+"The second! Lord bless you, sir!" answered the major, with a look of
+cool contempt; and turning round with a wink to his two companions,
+they all three laughed joyously, as if it were the finest joke in the
+world.
+
+It might not be very interesting to the reader were we to give in
+detail the depositions of the various witnesses upon a common case of
+smuggling in the last century, or to repeat all the various arguments
+which were bandied backwards and forwards between the magistrates,
+upon the true interpretation of the law, as expressed in the 9th
+George II., cap. 35. It was very evident, indeed, to the officers of
+Customs, to the serjeant of dragoons, and even to the prisoners
+themselves, that the worthy justices were disposed to take as
+favourable a view of smuggling transactions as possible. But the law
+was very clear; the case was not less so; Mowle, the principal riding
+officer, was a straightforward, determined, and shrewd man; and
+although Sir Robert Croyland, simply with a view of protracting the
+investigation till Mr. Radford should arrive, started many questions
+which he left to the other magistrates to settle, yet in about half an
+hour the charge of smuggling, with riot, and armed resistance to the
+Custom-House officers, was clearly made out against the major and his
+two companions; and as the act left no discretion in such a case, the
+resistance raising the act to felony, all three were committed for
+trial, and the officers bound over to prosecute.
+
+The men were then taken away, laughing and jesting; and Sir Robert
+Croyland looked with anxiety for the appearance of the next party; but
+two other men were now introduced without Richard Radford; and the
+worthy baronet was released for the time. The case brought forward
+against these prisoners differed from that against those who preceded
+them, inasmuch as no resistance was charged. They had simply been
+found aiding and abetting in the carriage of the smuggled goods, and
+had fled when they found themselves pursued by the officers, though
+not fast enough to avoid capture. The facts were speedily proved, and,
+indeed, much more rapidly than suited the views of Sir Robert
+Croyland. He therefore raised the question, when the decision of the
+magistrates was about to be pronounced, whether this was the first or
+the second offence, affecting some remembrance of the face of one of
+the men. The officers, also, either really did recollect, or pretended
+to do so, that the person of whom he spoke had been convicted before;
+but the man himself positively denied it, and defied them to bring
+forward any proof. A long discussion thus commenced, and before it was
+terminated the baronet was relieved by the appearance of Mr. Radford
+himself, who entered booted and spurred, and covered with dust, as if
+just returned from a long ride.
+
+Shaking hands with his brother magistrates, and especially with Sir
+Robert Croyland, he was about to seat himself at the end of that
+table, when the baronet rose, saying, "Here, Radford, you had better
+take my place, as I must positively get home directly, having
+important business to transact."
+
+"No, no, Sir Robert," replied that respectable magistrate, "we cannot
+spare you in this case, nor can I take that place. My son, I hear, is
+charged with taking part in this affair; and some sharp words have
+been passing between myself and that scoundrel of a fellow called
+Clinch, the officer, who applied to me for aid in searching the
+Ramleys' house. When I agreed to go with him, and found out a very
+snug place for hiding, he was half afraid to go down; and yet, since
+then, he has thought fit to insinuate that I had something to do with
+the run, and did not conduct the search fairly."
+
+The magistrates looked round to each other and smiled; and Radford
+himself laughed heartily, very much as if he was acting a part in a
+farce, without any hope or expectation of passing off his zeal in the
+affair, upon his fellow magistrates, as genuine. Mowle, the officer,
+at the same time turned round, and spoke a few words to two men who
+had followed Mr. Radford into the room, one of whom shrugged his
+shoulders with a laugh, and said nothing, and the other replied
+eagerly, but in a low tone.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, however, urged the necessity of his going, put
+his watch in his pocket, and buttoned up his coat. But Mr. Radford,
+assuming a graver air and a very peculiar tone, replied, "No, no, Sir
+Robert; you must stay, indeed. We shall want you. Your known
+impartiality will give weight to our decisions, whatever they may be."
+
+The baronet sat down again, but evidently with so much unwillingness,
+that his brethren marvelled not a little at this fresh instance of the
+influence which Mr. Radford exerted over his mind.
+
+"Who is the next prisoner, Mr. Mowle?" demanded Sir Robert Croyland,
+as soon as he had resumed his seat.
+
+"Mr. Richard Radford, I suppose, sir," said Mowle; "but these two men
+are not disposed of."
+
+"Well, then," said Mr. Jollivet, who was very well inclined to
+commence a career of lenity, "as no proof has been given that this is
+the second offence, I think we must send them both for a month. That
+seems to me the utmost we can do."
+
+The other magistrates concurred in this decision; and the prisoners
+were ordered to be removed; but ere they went, the one against whom
+the officers had most seriously pressed their charge, turned round
+towards the bench, exclaiming, in a gay tone, "Thank you, Squire
+Jollyboat. Your worship shall have a chest of tea for this, before I'm
+out a fortnight."
+
+A roar of laughter ran round the magistrates--for such matters were as
+indecently carried on in those days, on almost all occasions, as they
+sometimes are now; and in a moment or two after, young Radford was
+brought in, with a dark scowl upon his brow.
+
+"How is this, Dick?" cried his father. "Have you been dabbling in a
+run, and suffered yourself to be caught?"
+
+"Let these vagabonds make their accusation, and bring their
+witnesses," replied the young man, sullenly, "and then I'll speak for
+myself."
+
+"Well, your worships," said Mowle, coming forward, "the facts are
+simply these: I have long had information that goods were to be run
+about this time, and that Mr. Radford had some share in the matter.
+Last night, a large quantity of goods were landed in the Marsh, though
+I had been told it was to be near about Sandgate, or between that and
+Hythe, and was consequently on the look-out there. As soon as I got
+intimation, however, that the run had been effected, I got together as
+many men as I could, sent for a party of dragoons from Folkestone,
+and, knowing pretty well which way they would take, came across by
+Aldington, Broadoak and Kingsnorth, and then away by Singleton Green,
+towards Four-Elms, where, just under the hill, we came upon those two
+men who have just been convicted, and two others, who got off. We
+captured these two, and three horse-loads they had with them, for
+their beasts were tired, and they had lagged behind. There were two or
+three chests of tea, and a good many other things, and all of them
+were marked, just like honest bales of goods, 'Richard Radford,
+Esquire, Junior.' As we found, however, that the great party was on
+before, we pursued them as far as Rouse-end, where we overtook them
+all; but there they scattered, some galloping off towards Gouldwell,
+as if they were going to the Ramleys; some towards Usherhouse, and
+some by the wood towards Etchden. Four or five of the dragoons pushed
+after those running for Gouldwell, but I and the rest stuck to the
+main body, which went away towards the wood, and who showed fight.
+There was a good deal of firing amongst the trees, but not much damage
+done, except to my horse, who was shot in the shoulder. But just as we
+were chasing them out of the wood, up came Mr. Richard Radford, who
+was seen for a minute speaking to one of the men who were running, and
+riding along beside him for some way. He then turned, and came up to
+us, and tried to stop us as we were galloping after them, asking what
+the devil we were about, and giving us a great deal of bad language. I
+didn't mind him, but rode on, knowing we could take him at any time;
+but Mr. Birchett, the other chief officer, who had captured the major
+a minute or two before, got angry, and caught him by the collar,
+charging him to surrender, when he instantly drew his sword, and
+threatened to run him through. One of the dragoons, however, knocked
+it out of his hand, and then he was taken. This affray in the middle
+of the road enabled the greater part of the rest to get off; and we
+only captured two more horses and one man."
+
+Several of the other officers, and the dragoons, corroborated Mowle's
+testimony; and the magistrates, but especially Sir Robert Croyland,
+began to look exceedingly grave. Mr. Radford, however, only laughed,
+turning to his son, and asking, "Well, Dick! what have you to say to
+all this?"
+
+Richard Radford, however, merely tossed up his head, and threw back
+his shoulders, without reply, till Sir Robert Croyland addressed him,
+saying, "I hope, Mr. Radford, you can clear yourself of this charge,
+for you ought to know that armed resistance to the King's officers is
+a transportable offence."
+
+"I will speak to the magistrates," replied young Radford, "when I can
+speak freely, without all these people about me. As to the goods they
+mention, marked with my name, I know nothing about them."
+
+"Do you wish to speak with the magistrates alone?" demanded old Mr.
+Radford.
+
+"I must strongly object to any such proceeding," exclaimed Mowle.
+
+"Pray, sir, meddle with what concerns you," said old Radford, turning
+upon him fiercely, "and do not pretend to dictate here. You gentlemen
+are greatly inclined to forget your place. I think that the room had
+better be cleared of all but the prisoner, Sir Robert."
+
+The baronet bowed his head; Squire Jollivet concurred in the same
+opinion; and, though one or two of the others hesitated, they were
+ultimately overruled, and the room was cleared of all persons but the
+magistrates and the culprit.
+
+Scarcely was this done, when, with a bold free air, and contemptuous
+smile, young Radford advanced to the side of the table, and laid his
+left hand firmly upon it; then, looking round from one to another, he
+said, "I will ask you a question, worshipful gentlemen.--Is there any
+one of you, here present, who has never, at any time, had anything to
+do with a smuggling affair?--Can you swear it upon your oaths?--Can
+you, sir?--Can you? Can you?"
+
+The magistrates to whom he addressed himself, looked marvellously
+rueful, and replied not; and at last, turning to his father, he said,
+"Can you, sir? though I, methinks, need hardly ask the question."
+
+"No, by Jove, Dick, I can't!" replied his father, laughing. "I wish to
+Heaven you wouldn't put such awful interrogatories; for I believe, for
+that matter, we are all in the same boat."
+
+"Then I refuse," said young Radford, "to be judged by you. Settle the
+matter as you like.--Get out of the scrape as you can; but don't
+venture to convict a man when you are more guilty than he is himself.
+If you do, I may tell a few tales that may not be satisfactory to any
+of you."
+
+It had been remarked, that, in putting his questions, the young
+gentleman had entirely passed Sir Robert Croyland; and Mr. Jollivet
+whispered to the gentleman next him, "I think we had better leave him
+and Sir Robert to settle it, for I believe the baronet is quite clear
+of the scrape."
+
+But Mr. Radford had overheard, and he exclaimed, "No, no; I think the
+matter is quite clear how we must proceed. There's not the slightest
+proof given that he knew anything about these goods being marked with
+his name, or that it was done by his authority. He was not with the
+men either, who were carrying the goods; and they were going quite
+away from his own dwelling. He happened to come there accidentally,
+just when the fray was going on. That I can prove, for I sent him a
+note this morning, telling him to join me at Ashford as fast as
+possible."
+
+"I saw it delivered myself," said Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+"To be sure," rejoined Mr. Radford; "and then, as to his talking to
+the smugglers when he did come up, I dare say he was telling them to
+surrender, or not to resist the law. Wasn't it so, Dick?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," answered Richard Radford, boldly. "I told them to
+be off as fast as they could. But I did tell them not to fire any
+more. That's true enough!"
+
+"Ay, to be sure," cried Mr. Radford. "He was trying to persuade them
+not to resist legitimate authority."
+
+Almost all the magistrates burst into a fit of laughter; but, no way
+disconcerted, worthy Mr. Radford went on saying--"While he was doing
+this, up comes this fellow, Birchett, and seizes him by the collar;
+and, I dare say, he abused him into the bargain."
+
+"He said I was a d--d smuggling blackguard myself," said young
+Radford.
+
+"Well, then, gentlemen, is it at all wonderful that he drew his
+sword?" demanded his respectable father. "Is every gentleman in the
+county to be ridden over, rough-shod, by these officers and their
+dragoons, and called 'd--d smuggling blackguards,' when they are
+actually engaged in persuading the smugglers not to fire? I promise
+you, my son shall bring an action against that fellow, Birchett, for
+an assault. It seems to me that the case is quite clear."
+
+"It is, at all events, rendered doubtful," said Sir Robert Croyland,
+"by what has been suggested. I think the officers had better now be
+recalled; and, by your permission, I will put a few questions to
+them."
+
+In a very few minutes the room was, once more, nearly filled, and the
+baronet addressed Mowle, in a grave tone, saying--"A very different
+view of this case has been afforded us, Mr. Mowle, from that which you
+gave just now. It is distinctly proved, and I myself can in some
+degree testify to the fact, that Mr. Radford was on the spot
+accidentally, having been sent for by his father to join him at
+Ashford----"
+
+"At the Ramleys', I suppose you mean, sir," observed Mowle, drily.
+
+"No, sir; at Ashford," rejoined Mr. Radford; and Sir Robert Croyland
+proceeded to say:
+
+"The young gentleman also asserts that he was persuading the smugglers
+to submit to lawful authority, or, at all events, not to fire upon
+you. Was there any more firing after he came up?"
+
+"No; there was not," answered Mowle. "They all galloped off as hard as
+they could."
+
+"Corroborative proof of his statement," observed Sir Robert, solemnly.
+"The only question, therefore, remaining, seems to be, as to whether
+Mr. Radford, junior, had really anything to do with the placing of his
+name upon the goods. Now, one strong reason for supposing such not to
+be the case is, that they were not found near his house, or going
+towards it, but the contrary."
+
+"Why, he's as much at home in the Ramleys' house as at his own," said
+a voice from behind; but Sir Robert took no notice, and proceeded to
+inquire--"Have you proof, Mr. Mowle, that he authorized any one to
+mark these goods with his name?"
+
+Mr. Radford smiled; and Mowle, the officer, looked a little puzzled.
+At length, however, he answered--"No, I can't say we have, Sir Robert;
+but one thing is very certain, it is not quite customary to ask for
+such proof in this stage of the business, and in the cases of inferior
+men."
+
+"I am sorry to hear it," replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a dignified
+and sententious tone, "for it is quite necessary that in all cases the
+evidence should be clear and satisfactory to justify the magistrates
+in committing any man to prison, even for trial. In this instance
+nothing is proved, and not even a fair cause for suspicion made out.
+Mr. Radford was there accidentally; the goods were going in a
+different direction from his house; he was seized, we think upon
+insufficient grounds, while endeavouring to dissuade the smugglers
+from resisting the king's officers and troops; and though we may judge
+his opposition imprudent, it was not wholly unjustifiable. The
+prisoner is therefore discharged."
+
+"The goods were going to the Ramleys," said the man, Clinch, who now,
+emboldened by the presence of several other officers, spoke loud and
+decidedly. "Here are two or three of the dragoons, who can swear that
+they followed a party of the smugglers nearly to the house, and had
+the gates shut in their face when they came up; and I can't help
+saying, that the search of the house by Mr. Radford was not conducted
+as it ought to have been. The two officers were left without, while he
+went in to speak with old Ramley, and there were a dozen of men, or
+more, in the kitchen."
+
+"Pooh! nonsense, fellow!" cried Mr. Radford, interrupting him with a
+laugh; "I did it for your own security."
+
+"And then," continued Clinch, "when we had gone down into the
+concealed cellar below, which was as clear a _hide_ for smuggled goods
+as ever was seen, he would not let me carry out the search, though I
+found that two places at the sides were hollow, and only covered with
+boards."
+
+"Why, you vagabond, you were afraid of going down at all!" said Mr.
+Radford. "Where is Adams? He can bear witness of it."
+
+"Clinch didn't seem to like it much, it must be confessed," said
+Adams, without coming forward; "but, then, the place was so full of
+men, it was enough to frighten one."
+
+"I wasn't frightened," rejoined Mr. Radford.
+
+"Because it was clear enough that you and the Ramleys understood each
+other," answered Clinch, boldly.
+
+"Pooh--pooh, nonsense!" said Squire Jollivet. "You must not talk such
+stuff here, Mr. Clinch. But, however that may be, the prisoner is
+discharged; and now, as I think we have no more business before us, we
+may all go home; for it's nearly five o'clock, and I, for one, want my
+dinner."
+
+"Ay, it is nearly five o'clock," said young Radford, who had been
+standing with his eyes cast down and his brow knit; "and you do not
+know what you have all done, keeping me here in this way."
+
+He added an oath, and then flung out of the room, passing through the
+crowd of officers and others, in his way towards the door, without
+waiting for his father, who had risen with the rest of the
+magistrates, and was preparing to depart.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland and Mr. Radford descended the stairs of the inn
+together; and at the bottom, Mr. Radford shook the baronet heartily by
+the hand, saying, loud enough to be heard by everybody. "That was
+admirably well done, Sir Robert! Many thanks--many thanks."
+
+"None to me, my dear sir," answered Sir Robert Croyland. "It was but
+simple justice;" and he turned away to mount his horse.
+
+"Very pretty justice, indeed!" said Mowle, in a low voice, to the
+sergeant of dragoons; "but I can't help fancying there's something
+more under this than meets the eye. Mr. Radford isn't a gentleman who
+usually laughs at these matters so lightly. But if he thinks to cheat
+me, perhaps he may find himself mistaken."
+
+In the meantime the baronet hastened homewards, putting his horse into
+a quick pace, and taking the nearest roads through the woods, which
+were then somewhat thickly scattered over that part of Kent. He had no
+servant with him; and when at about two miles from his own house, he
+passed through a wild and desolate part of the country, near what is
+now called Chequer Tree, he looked on before and around him on every
+side, somewhat anxiously, as if he did not much admire the aspect of
+the place.
+
+He pushed on, however, entered the wood, and rode rapidly down into a
+deep dell, which may still be seen in that neighbourhood, though its
+wild and gloomy character is now almost altogether lost. At that time,
+tall trees grew up round it on either hand, leaving, in the hollow, a
+little patch of about half an acre, filled with long grass and some
+stunted willows, while the head of a stream bubbling up in their
+shade, poured on its clear waters through a fringe of sedges and
+rushes towards some larger river.
+
+The sun had yet an hour or two to run before his setting; but it was
+only at noon of a summer's day that his rays ever penetrated into that
+gloomy and secluded spot; and towards the evening it had a chilly and
+desolate aspect, which made one feel as if it were a place debarred
+for ever of the bright light of day. The green tints of spring, or the
+warmer brown of autumn, seemed to make no difference, for the shades
+were always blue, dull and heavy, mingling with the thin filmy mist
+that rose up from the plashy ground on either side of the road.
+
+A faint sort of shudder came over Sir Robert Croyland, probably from
+the damp air; and he urged his horse rapidly down the hill without any
+consideration for the beast's knees. He was spurring on towards the
+other side, as if eager to get out of it, when a voice was heard from
+amongst the trees, exclaiming, in a sad and melancholy tone, "Robert
+Croyland! Robert Croyland! what look you for here?"
+
+The baronet turned on his saddle with a look of terror and anguish;
+but, instead of stopping, he dug his spurs into the horse's sides, and
+gallopped up the opposite slope. As if irresistibly impelled to look
+at that which he dreaded, he gazed round twice as he ascended, and
+each time beheld, standing in the middle of the road, the same figure,
+wrapped in a large dark cloak, which he had seen when first the voice
+caught his ear. Each time he averted his eyes in an instant, and
+spurred on more furiously than ever. His accelerated pace soon carried
+him to the top of the hill, where he could see over the trees; and in
+about a quarter of an hour, he reached Halden, when he began to check
+his horse, and reasoned with himself on his own sensations. There was
+a great struggle in his mind; but ere he arrived at Harbourne House he
+had gained sufficient mastery over himself to say, "What a strange
+thing imagination is!"
+
+
+
+                            END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+       T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos-street, Covent-garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER:
+
+
+
+                                A Tale
+
+
+
+                       BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+                 "DARNLEY," "DE L'ORME," "RICHELIEU,"
+
+                              ETC. ETC.
+
+
+
+                          IN THREE VOLUMES.
+
+
+                               VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+                 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
+                                1845.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+What a varying thing is the stream of life! How it sparkles and
+glitters! Now it bounds along its pebbly bed, sometimes in sunshine,
+and sometimes in shade; sometimes sporting round all things, as if its
+essence were merriment and brightness; sometimes flowing solemnly on,
+as if it were derived from Lethe itself. Now it runs like a liquid
+diamond along the meadow; now it plunges in fume and fury over the
+rock; now it is clear and limpid, as youth and innocence can make it;
+now it is heavy and turbid, with the varying streams of thought and
+memory that are ever flowing into it, each bringing its store of
+dulness and pollution as it tends towards the end. Its voice, too,
+varies as it goes; now it sings lightly as it dances on; now it roars
+amidst the obstacles that oppose its way; and now it has no tone but
+the dull low murmur of exhausted energy.
+
+Such is the stream of life! yet, perhaps, few of us would wish to
+change our portion of it for the calm regularity of a canal--even if
+one could be constructed without locks and floodgates upon it to hold
+in the pent-up waters of the heart till they are ready to burst
+through the banks.
+
+Life was in its sparkling aspect with Zara Croyland and Sir Edward
+Digby, when they set out on horseback for the house of old Mr.
+Croyland, cantering easily along the roads of that part of the
+country, which, in the days I speak of, were soft and somewhat sandy.
+Two servants followed behind at a discreet distance; and lightly
+passing over hill and dale, with all the loveliness of a very bright
+portion of our fair land stretched out around them, the young lady and
+her companion drew in, through the eyes, fresh sensations of happiness
+from all the lovely things of nature. The yellow woods warmed their
+hearts; the blue heaven raised their thoughts; the soft air refreshed
+and cheered all their feelings; and, when a passing cloud swept over
+the sky, it only gave that slight shadowy tone to the mind, which
+wakens within us the deep, innate, and elevating movements of the
+spirit, that seem to connect the aspect of God's visible creation,
+with a higher and a purer state of being. Each had some spring of
+happiness in the heart fresh opened; for, to the fair girl who went
+bounding along through that gay world, the thought that she was
+conveying to a dear sister tidings of hope, was in itself a joy; and
+to her companion a new subject of contemplation was presenting itself,
+in the very being who accompanied him on the way--a subject quite
+untouched and novel, and, to a man of his character and disposition, a
+most interesting one.
+
+Sir Edward Digby had mingled much with the world; he had seen many
+scenes of different kinds; he had visited various countries, the most
+opposite to each other; he had frequented courts, and camps, and
+cities; and he had known and seen a good deal of woman, and of
+woman's heart; but he had never yet met any one like Zara Croyland.
+The woman of fashion and of rank in all the few modifications of
+character that her circumstances admit--for rank and fashion are sadly
+like the famous bed of the robber of Attica, on which all men are cut
+down or stretched out to a certain size,--was well known to him, and
+looked upon much in the light of an exotic plant, kept in an
+artificial state of existence, with many beauties and excellences,
+perhaps, mingling with many deformities and faults, but still weakened
+and deprived of individuality by long drilling in a round of
+conventionalities. He had seen, too, the wild Indian, in the midst of
+her native woods, and might have sometimes admired the free grace and
+wild energy of uncultivated and unperverted nature; but he was not
+very fond of barbarism, and though he might admit the existence of
+fine qualities, even in a savage, yet he had not been filled with any
+great enthusiasm in favour of Indian life, from what he had seen in
+Canada. The truth is, he had never been a very dissolute, or, as it is
+termed, a very gay man--he was not sated and surfeited with the vices
+of civilization, and consequently was not inclined to seek for new
+excitement in the very opposite extreme of primeval rudeness.
+
+Most of the gradations between the two, he had seen at different
+periods and in different lands; but yet in her who now rode along
+beside him, there was something different from any. It was not a want,
+but a combination of the qualities he had remarked in others. There
+was the polish and the cultivation of high class and finished
+training, with a slight touch of the wildness and the originality of
+the fresh unsophisticated heart. There was the grace of education, and
+the grace of nature; and there seemed to be high natural powers of
+intellect, uncurbed by artificial rules, but supplied with materials
+by instruction.
+
+All this was apparent; but the question with him was, as to the heart
+beneath, and its emotions. He gazed upon her as they went on--when she
+was not looking that way--he watched her countenance, the habitual
+expression of the features, and the varying expression which every
+emotion produced. Her face seemed like a bright looking-glass, which a
+breath will dim, and a touch will brighten; but there is so much
+deceit in the world, and every man who has mingled with that world
+must have seen so much of it, and every man, also, has within himself
+such internal and convincing proofs of our human nature's fondness for
+seeming, that we are all inclined--except in very early youth--to
+doubt the first impression, to inquire beyond the external appearance,
+and to inquire if the heart of the fruit corresponds with the beauty
+of the outside.
+
+He asked himself what was she really?--what was true, and what was
+false, in that bright and sparkling creature? Whether, was the gaiety
+or the sadness the real character of the mind within? or whether the
+frequent variation from the one to the other--ay, and from energy to
+lightness, from softness to firmness, from gentleness to vigour--were
+not all the indications of a character as various as the moods which
+it assumed.
+
+Sir Edward Digby was resolved not to fall in love, which is the most
+dangerous resolution that a man can take: for it is seldom, if ever,
+taken, except in a case of great necessity--one of those hasty
+outworks thrown up against a powerful enemy, which are generally taken
+in a moment and the cannon therein turned against ourselves.
+
+Nevertheless, he had resolved, as I have said, not to fall in love;
+and he fancied that, strengthened by that resolution, he was quite
+secure. It must not be understood, indeed, that Sir Edward Digby never
+contemplated marriage. On the contrary, he thought of it as a remote
+evil that was likely to fall upon him some day, by an inevitable
+necessity. It seemed a sort of duty, indeed, to transmit his name, and
+honours, and wealth to another generation; and as duties are not
+always very pleasant things, he, from time to time, looked forward to
+the execution of his, in this respect, in a calm, philosophical,
+determined manner. Thirty-five, he thought, would be a good time to
+marry; and when he did so, he had quite made up his mind to do it with
+the utmost deliberation and coolness. It should be quite a _mariage de
+raison_. He would take it as a dose of physic--a disagreeable thing,
+to be done when necessary, but not a minute before; and in the
+meantime, to fall in love, was quite out of the question.
+
+No, he was examining and investigating and contemplating Zara
+Croyland's character, merely as a matter of interesting speculation;
+and a very dangerous speculation it was, Sir Edward Digby! I don't
+know which was most perilous, that, or your resolution.
+
+It is very strange, he never recollected that, in no other case in his
+whole career, had he found it either necessary to take such a
+resolution, or pleasant to enter into such a speculation. If he had,
+perhaps he might have begun to tremble for himself. Nor did he take
+into the calculation the very important fact that Zara Croyland was
+both beautiful and pretty--two very different things, reader, as you
+will find, if you examine. A person may be very pretty without being
+the least beautiful, or very beautiful without being the least pretty;
+but when those two qualities are both combined, and when, in one girl,
+the beauty of features and of form that excites admiration, is joined
+with that prettiness of expression, and colouring, and arrangement
+that wakens tenderness and wins affection, Lord have mercy upon the
+man who rides along with her through fair scenes, under a bright sky!
+
+Digby did not at all find out, that he was in the most dangerous
+situation in the world; or, if some fancy ever came upon him, that he
+was not quite safe, it was but as one of those vague impressions of
+peril that float for a single instant over the mind when we are
+engaged in any very bold and exciting undertaking, and pass away again
+as fast.
+
+Far from guarding himself at all, Sir Edward Digby went on in his
+unconsciousness, laying himself more and more open to the enemy. In
+pursuit of his scheme of investigation, he proceeded, as they rode
+along, to try the mind of his fair companion in a thousand different
+ways; and every instant he brought forth some new and dangerous
+quality. He found that, in the comparative solitude in which she
+lived, she had had time for study as well as thought, and had acquired
+far more, and far more varied stores of information, than was common
+with the young women of her day. It was not alone that she could read
+and spell--which a great many could not, in those times,--but she had
+read a number of different works upon a number of different subjects;
+knew as much of other lands, and of the habits of other people, as
+books could give, and was tastefully proficient in the arts that
+brighten life, even where their cultivation is not its object.
+
+Thus her conversation had always something new about it. The very
+images that suggested themselves to her mind were derived from such
+numerous sources, that it kept the fancy on the stretch to follow her
+in her flights, and made their whole talk a sort of playful chase,
+like that of one bird after another in the air. Now she borrowed a
+comparison for something sensible to the eye from the sweet music that
+charms the ear--now she found out links of association between the
+singing of the birds and some of the fine paintings that she had seen
+or heard of--now combined a bright scene, or a peculiar moment of
+happiness, with the sweet odours of the flowers or the murmur of the
+stream. With everything in nature and art she sported, apparently
+unconscious; and often, too, in speaking of the emotions of the heart
+or the thoughts of the mind, she would, with a bright flash of
+imagination, cast lights upon those dark and hidden things, from
+objects in the external world, or from the common events of life.
+
+Eagerly Digby led her on--pleased, excited, entertained himself; but
+in so doing he produced an effect which he had not calculated upon. He
+made a change in her feelings towards himself. She had thought him a
+very agreeable man from the first; she had seen that he was a
+gentleman by habit, and divined that he was so by nature; but now she
+began to think that he was a very high-toned and noble-minded man,
+that he was one worthy of high station and of all happiness--she did
+not say--of affection, nor let the image of love pass distinctly
+before her eyes. There might be a rosy cloud in the far sky wherein
+the god was veiled; but she did not see him--or, was it that she would
+not? Perhaps it was so; for woman's heart is often as perverse and
+blind, in these matters, as man's. But one thing is clear, no two
+people can thus pour forth the streams of congenial thought and
+feeling--to flow on mingling together in sweet communion--for any
+great length of time, without a change of their sensations towards
+each other; and, unless the breast be well guarded by passion for
+another, it is not alone that mind with mind is blended, but heart
+with heart.
+
+Though the distance was considerable,--that is to say, some three or
+four miles, and they made it more than twice as long by turning up
+towards the hills, to catch a fine view of the wooded world below, on
+whose beauty Zara expatiated eloquently,--and though they talked of a
+thousand different subjects, which I have not paused to mention here,
+lest the detail should seem all too tedious, yet their ride passed
+away briefly, like a dream. At length, coming through some green
+lanes, overhung by young saplings and a crown of brambles and other
+hedge-row shrubs--no longer, alas, in flower--they caught sight of the
+chimneys of a house a little way farther on, and Zara said, with a
+sigh, "There is my uncle's house."
+
+Sir Edward Digby asked himself, "Why does she sigh?" and as he did so,
+felt inclined to sigh, too; for the ride had seemed too short, and had
+now become as a pleasant thing passed away. But then he thought, "We
+shall enjoy it once again as we return;" and he took advantage of
+their slackened pace to say, "As I know you are anxious to speak with
+your sister, Miss Croyland, I will contrive to occupy your uncle for a
+time, if we find him at home. I fear I shall not be able to obtain an
+opportunity of talking with her myself on the subjects that so deeply
+interest her, as at one time I hoped to do; but I am quite sure, from
+what I see of you, that I may depend upon what you tell me, and act
+accordingly."
+
+As if by mutual consent, they had avoided, during their expedition of
+that morning, the subject which was, perhaps, most in the thoughts of
+each; but now Zara checked her horse to a slow walk, and replied,
+after a moment's thought, "I should think, if you desire it, you could
+easily obtain a few minutes' conversation with her at my uncle's.--I
+only don't know whether it may agitate her too much or not. Perhaps
+you had better let me speak with her first, and then, if she wishes
+it, she will easily find the means. You may trust to me, indeed, Sir
+Edward, in Edith's case, though I do not always say exactly what I
+mean about myself. Not that I have done otherwise with you; for,
+indeed, I have neither had time nor occasion; but with the people that
+occasionally come to the house, sometimes it is necessary, and
+sometimes I am tempted, out of pure perversity, to make them think me
+very different from what I am. It is not always with those that I hate
+or despise either, but sometimes with people that I like and esteem
+very much. Now, I dare say poor Harry Leyton has given you a very sad
+account of me?"
+
+"No, indeed," answered Sir Edward Digby; "you do him wrong; I have not
+the least objection to tell you exactly what he said."
+
+"Oh, do--do!" cried Zara; "I should like to hear very much, for I am
+afraid I used to tease him terribly."
+
+"He said," replied Digby, "that when last he saw you, you were a gay,
+kind-hearted girl of fourteen, and that he was sure, if I spoke to you
+about him, you would tell me all that I wanted to know with truth and
+candour."
+
+"That was kind of him," said Zara, with some emotion, "that was very
+kind. I am glad he knows me; and yet that very candour, Sir Edward,
+some people call affectation, and some impudence. I am afraid that
+those who know much of the world never judge rightly of those who know
+little of it. Sincerity is a commodity so very rare, I am told, in the
+best society, that those who meet with it never believe that they have
+got the genuine article."
+
+"I know a good deal of the world," replied the young baronet, "but
+yet, my dear Miss Croyland, I do not think that I have judged you
+wrongly;" and he fell into thought.
+
+The next moment they turned up to the house of old Mr. Croyland; and
+while the servants were holding the horses, and Zara, with the aid of
+Sir Edward Digby, dismounting at the door, they saw, to her horror and
+consternation, a large, yellow coach coming down the hill towards the
+house, which she instantly recognised as her father's family vehicle.
+
+"My aunt, my aunt, upon my life!" exclaimed Zara, with a rueful shake
+of the head. "I must speak one word with Edith before she comes; so
+forgive me, Sir Edward," and she darted into the house, asking a black
+servant, in a shawl turban and a long white gown, where Miss Croyland
+was to be found.
+
+"She out in de garden, pretty missy," replied the man; and Zara ran on
+through the vestibule before her. Unfortunately, vestibules will have
+doors communicating with them, which, I have often remarked, have an
+unhappy propensity to open when any one is anxious to pass by them
+quietly. It was so in the present instance: roused from a reverie by
+the ringing of the bell, and the sound of voices without, Mr. Croyland
+issued forth just at the moment when Zara's light foot was carrying
+her across to the garden; and catching her by the arm, he detained
+her, asking, "What brought you here, saucy girl, and whither are you
+running so fast?"
+
+Now Zara, though she was not good Mr. Zachary's favourite, had a very
+just appreciation of her uncle's character, and knew that the simple
+truth was less dangerous with him than with nine hundred and
+ninety-nine persons out of a thousand in civilized society. She,
+therefore, replied at once. "Don't stop me, uncle, there's a good man!
+I came to speak a few words to Edith, and wish to speak them before my
+aunt arrives."
+
+"What! plot and counterplot, I will warrant!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland,
+freeing her arm. "Well, get you gone, you graceless monkey! Ha! who
+have we here? Why, my young friend, the half-bottle man! Are you one
+of the plotters too, Sir Edward?"
+
+"Oh, I am a complete master in the art of domestic strategy, I assure
+you," answered the young officer, "and I propose--having heard what
+Miss Croyland has just said--that we take up a position across these
+glass doors, in order to favour her operations. We can then impede
+the advance of Mrs. Barbara's corps, by throwing forward the
+light-infantry of small-talk, assure her it is a most beautiful day,
+tell her that the view from the hill is lovely, and that the slight
+yellowness of September gives a fine warmth to the green foliage--with
+various other pieces of information which she does not desire--till
+the man[oe]uvres in our rear are complete."
+
+"Ah, you are a sad knave," replied Mr. Zachary Croyland, laughing,
+"and, I see, are quite ready to aid the young in bamboozling the old."
+
+But, alas, the best schemed campaign is subject to accidental
+impediments in execution, which will often deprive it of success!
+Almost as Mr. Croyland spoke, the carriage rolled up; and not small
+was the horror of the master of the house, to see riding behind it, on
+a tall grey horse, no other than young Richard Radford. Sir Edward
+Digby, though less horrified, was not well pleased; but it was Mr.
+Croyland who spoke, and that in rather a sharp and angry tone,
+stepping forward, at the same time, over the threshold of his door:
+"Mr. Radford," he said--"Mr. Radford, I am surprised to see you! You
+must very well know, that although I tolerate, and am obliged to
+tolerate, a great many people whom I don't approve, at my brother's
+house, your society is not that which I particularly desire."
+
+Young Radford's eyes flashed, but, for once in his life, he exercised
+some command over himself. "I came here at your sister's suggestion,
+sir," he said.
+
+"Oh, Barbara, Barbara! barbarous Barbara!" exclaimed Mr. Zachary
+Croyland, shaking his head at his sister, who was stepping out of the
+carriage. "The devil himself never invented an instrument better
+fitted to torment the whole human race, than a woman with the best
+intentions in the world."
+
+"Why, my dear brother," said Mrs. Barbara, with the look of a martyr,
+"you know quite well that Robert wishes Mr. Radford to have the
+opportunity of paying his addresses to Edith, and so I proposed----"
+
+"He shan't have the opportunity here, by Vishnoo!" cried the old
+gentleman.
+
+"To say the truth," said Mr. Radford, interposing, "such was not my
+object in coming hither to-day. I wished to have the honour of saying
+a few words to a gentleman I see standing behind you, sir, which was
+also the motive of my going over to Harbourne House. Otherwise, well
+knowing your prejudices, I should not have troubled you; for, I can
+assure you, that _your_ company is not particularly agreeable to
+_me_."
+
+"If mine is what you want, sir," replied Sir Edward Digby, stepping
+forward and passing Mr. Croyland, "it is very easily obtained; but, as
+it seems you are not a welcome guest here, perhaps we had better walk
+along the lane together."
+
+"A less distance than that will do," answered Richard Radford,
+throwing the bridle of his horse to one of the servants, and taking
+two or three steps away from the house.
+
+"Oh, Zachary, my dear brother, do interfere!" exclaimed Mrs. Barbara.
+"I forgot they had quarrelled yesterday morning, and unfortunately let
+out that Sir Edward was here. There will be a duel, if you don't stop
+them."
+
+"Not I," cried Mr. Croyland, rubbing his hands; "it's a pleasure to
+see two fools cut each other's throats. I'd lay any wager--if I ever
+did such a thing as lay wagers at all--that Digby pricks him through
+the midriff. There's a nice little spot at the end of the garden quite
+fit for such exercises."
+
+Mr. Zachary Croyland was merely playing upon his sister's
+apprehensions, as the best sort of punishment he could inflict for the
+mischief she had brought about; but he never had the slightest idea
+that Sir Edward Digby and young Radford would come to anything like
+extreme measures in his sister's presence, knowing the one to be a
+gentleman, and mistakenly believing the other to be a coward. The
+conversation of the two who had walked away was not of long duration:
+nor, for a time, did it appear very vehement. Mr. Radford said
+something, and the young Baronet replied; Mr. Radford rejoined, and
+Digby answered the rejoinder. Then some new observation was made by
+the other, which seemed to cause Sir Edward to look round to the
+house, and, seeing Mr. Croyland and his sister still on the step, to
+make a sign for young Radford to follow to a greater distance. The
+latter, however, planted the heel of his boot tight in the gravel, as
+if to give emphasis to what he said, and uttered a sentence in a
+louder tone, and with a look so fierce, meaning, and contemptuous,
+that Mr. Croyland saw the matter was getting serious, and stepped
+forward to interfere.
+
+In an instant, however, Sir Edward Digby, apparently provoked beyond
+bearing, raised the heavy horsewhip which he had in his hand, and laid
+it three or four times, with great rapidity, over Mr. Radford's
+shoulders. The young man instantly dropped his own whip, drew his
+sword, and made a fierce lunge at the young officer's breast. The
+motion was so rapid, and the thrust so well aimed, that Digby had
+barely time to put it aside with his riding-whip, receiving a wound in
+his left shoulder as he did so. But the next moment his sword was also
+out of the sheath, and, after three sharp passes, young Radford's
+blade was flying over the neighbouring hedge, and a blow in the face
+from the hilt of Sir Edward Digby's weapon brought him with his knee
+to the ground.
+
+The whole of this scene passed as quick as lightning; and I have not
+thought fit to interrupt the narration for the purpose of recording,
+in order, the four, several, piercing shrieks with which Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland accompanied each act of the drama. The first, however, was
+loud enough to call Zara from the garden, even before she had found
+her sister; and she came up to her aunt's side just at the moment that
+young Radford was disarmed, and then struck in the face by his
+opponent.
+
+Slightly heated, Sir Edward gazed at him with his weapon in his hand;
+and the young lady, clasping her hands, exclaimed aloud, "Hold, Sir
+Edward! Sir Edward! for Heaven's sake!"
+
+Sir Edward Digby turned round with a faint smile, thrust his sword
+back into the sheath, and, without bestowing another word on his
+adversary, walked slowly back to the door of the house, and apologized
+to Mrs. Barbara for what had occurred, saying, "I beg you ten thousand
+pardons, my dear madam, for treating you to such a sight as this; but
+I can assure you it is not my seeking. That person, who failed to keep
+an appointment with me yesterday, thought fit twice just now to call
+me coward; and as he would not walk to a little distance, I had no
+resource but to horsewhip him where I stood."
+
+"Pity you didn't ran him through the liver!" observed Mr. Croyland.
+
+While these few words were passing, young Radford rose slowly, paused
+for an instant to gaze upon the ground, and then, gnawing his lip,
+approached his horse's side. There is, perhaps, no passion of the
+human heart more dire, more terrible than impotent revenge, or more
+uncontrollable in its effect upon the human countenance. The face of
+Richard Radford, handsome as it was in many respects, was at the
+moment when he put his foot into the stirrup and swung himself up to
+the saddle, perfectly frightful, from the fiend-like expression of
+rage and disappointment that it bore. He felt that he was
+powerless--for a time, at least; that he had met an adversary greatly
+superior to himself, both in skill and strength; and that he had
+suffered not only defeat but disgrace, before the eyes of a number of
+persons whom his own headstrong fury had made spectators of a scene so
+painful to himself. Reining his horse angrily back to clear him of the
+carriage, he shook his fist at Sir Edward Digby, exclaiming, "Sooner
+or later, I will have revenge!" Then, striking the beast's flank with
+his spurs, he turned and galloped away.
+
+Digby had, as we have seen, addressed his apologies to Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland; but after hearing, with a calm smile, his vanquished
+opponent's empty threat, he looked round to the fair companion of his
+morning's ride, and saw her standing beside her uncle, with her cheek
+very pale and her eyes cast down to the ground.
+
+"Do not be alarmed. Miss Croyland," he said, bending down his head,
+and speaking in a low and gentle tone. "This affair can have no other
+results. It is all over now."
+
+Zara raised her eyes to his face, but, as she did so, turned more pale
+than before; and pointing to his arm--where the cloth of his coat was
+cut through, and the blood flowing down over his sleeve and dropping
+from the ruffle round his wrist--she exclaimed, "You are hurt, Sir
+Edward! Good Heaven! he has wounded you!"
+
+"A scratch--a scratch," said Digby; "a mere nothing. A
+pocket-handkerchief tied round it, will soon remedy all the mischief
+he has done, though not all he intended."
+
+"Oh! come in--come in, and have it examined!" cried Zara, eagerly.
+
+The rest of the party gathered round, joined, just at that moment, by
+Edith from the garden; and Mr. Croyland, tearing the coat wider open,
+looked at the wound with more experienced eyes, saying, "Ah, a flesh
+wound! but in rather an awkward place. Not as wide as a church door,
+nor as deep as a draw-well, as our friend has it; but if it had been
+an inch and a half to the right, it would have divided the subclavian
+artery--and then, my dear sir, 'it would have done.' This will get
+well soon. But come, Sir Neddy, let us into the house; and I will do
+for you what I haven't done for ten or twelve years--_id est_, dress
+your wound myself: and mind, you must not drink any wine to-night."
+
+The whole party began to move into the house, Sir Edward Digby keeping
+as near the two Miss Croylands as possible, and laying out a little
+plan in his head for begging the assistance of Mrs. Barbara while his
+wound was dressed, and sending the two young ladies out of the room to
+hold their conference together. He was, however, destined to be
+frustrated here also. To Zara Croyland, it had been a day of unusual
+excitement; she had enjoyed, she had been moved, she had been agitated
+and terrified, and she was still under much greater alarm than perhaps
+was needful, both regarding Sir Edward Digby's wound and the threat
+which young Radford had uttered. She felt her head giddy and her heart
+flutter as if oppressed; but she walked on steadily enough for four or
+five steps, while her aunt, Mrs. Barbara, was explaining to Edith, in
+her own particular way, all that had occurred. But just when the old
+lady was saying--"Then, whipping out his sword in an instant, he
+thrust at Sir Edward's breast, and I thought to a certainty he was run
+through--" Zara sunk slowly down, caught by her sister as she fell,
+and the hue of death spread over her face.
+
+"Fainted!" cried Mr. Croyland. "I wish to Heaven, Bab, you would hold
+your tongue! I will tell Edith about it afterwards. What's the use of
+bringing it all up again before the girl's mind, when the thing's done
+and over? There, let her lie where she is; the recumbent position is
+the right thing. Bring a cushion out of the drawing-room, Edith, my
+love, and ask Baba for the hartshorn drops. We'll soon get her better;
+and then the best thing you can do, Bab, is to put her into the
+carriage, take her home again, and hold your tongue to my brother
+about this foolish affair--if anything can hold a woman's tongue. I'll
+plaster up the man's arm, and then, like many another piece of damaged
+goods, he'll be all right--on the outside at least."
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland followed devoutly one part of her brother's
+injunctions. As soon as Zara was sufficiently recovered, she hurried
+her to the carriage, without leaving her alone with Edith for one
+moment; and Sir Edward Digby, having had his wound skilfully dressed
+by Mr. Zachary Croyland's own hands, thanked the old gentleman
+heartily for his care and kindness, mounted his horse, and rode back
+to Harbourne House.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+We must now return to the town of Hythe, and to the little room in the
+little inn, which that famous borough boasted as its principal
+hostelry, at the period of our tale. It was about eleven o'clock at
+night, perhaps a few minutes earlier; and in that room was seated a
+gentleman, whom we have left for a long time, though not without
+interest in himself and his concerns. But, as in this wayfaring world
+we are often destined for weeks, months--ay, and long years--to quit
+those whom we love best, and to work for their good in distant scenes,
+with many a thought given to them, but few means of communication; so,
+in every picture of human life which comprises more than one
+character, must we frequently leave those in whom we are most
+interested, while we are tracing out the various remote cords and
+pulleys of fate, by which the fabric of their destiny is ultimately
+reared.
+
+The gentleman, then, who had been introduced to Mr. Croyland as
+Captain Osborne, was seated at a table, writing. A number of papers,
+consisting of letters, accounts, and several printed forms, unfilled
+up, were strewed upon the table around, which was moreover encumbered
+by a heavy sword and belt, a large pair of thick buckskin gloves, and
+a brace of heavy silver-mounted pistols. He looked pale and somewhat
+anxious; but nevertheless he went on, with his fine head bent, and
+the light falling from above upon his beautifully cut classical
+features--sometimes putting down a name, and adding a sum in figures
+opposite--sometimes, when he came to the bottom of the page, running
+up the column with rapidity and ease, and then inscribing the sum
+total at the bottom.
+
+It was perhaps, rather an unromantic occupation that the young officer
+was employed in; for it was evident that he was making up, with steady
+perseverance, some rather lengthy accounts; and all his thoughts
+seemed occupied with pounds, shillings, and pence. It was not so,
+indeed, though he wished it to be so; but, if the truth must be
+spoken, his mind often wandered afar; and his brain seemed to have got
+into that state of excitement, which caused sounds and circumstances
+that would at any other time have passed without notice, to trouble
+him and disturb his ideas on the present occasion.
+
+There had been a card and punch club in one of the neighbouring rooms.
+The gentlemen had assembled at half-past six or seven, had hung up
+their wigs upon pegs provided for the purpose, and had made a great
+deal of noise in coming in and arranging themselves. There was then
+the brewing of the punch, the lighting of the pipes, and the laughing
+and jesting to which those important events generally give rise, at
+the meeting of persons of some importance in a country town; and then
+the cards were produced, and a great deal of laughing and talking, as
+usual, succeeded, in regard to the preliminaries, and also respecting
+the course of the game.
+
+There had been no slight noise, also, in the lower regions of the inn,
+much speaking, and apparently some merriment; and, from all these
+things put together--to say nothing of, every now and then, the
+pleasures of a comic song, given by one of the parties above or
+below--the young officer had been considerably disturbed, and had been
+angry with himself for being so. His thoughts, too, would wander,
+whether he liked it or not.
+
+"Digby must have seen her," he said to himself, "unless she be absent;
+and surely he must have found some opportunity of speaking with
+herself or her sister by this time. I wonder I have not heard from
+him. He promised to write as soon as he had any information; and he is
+not a man to forget. Well, it is of no use to think of it;" and he
+went on--"five and six are eleven, and four are fifteen, and six are
+twenty-one."
+
+At this interesting point of his calculation, a dragoon, who was
+stationed at the door, put his head into the room, and said, "Mr.
+Mowle, sir, wants to speak to you."
+
+"Let him come in," answered the officer; and, laying down his pen, he
+looked up with a smile. "Well, Mr. Mowle!" he continued, "what news do
+you bring? Have you been successful?"
+
+"No very good news, and but very little success, sir," answered the
+officer of customs, taking a seat to which the other pointed. "We have
+captured some of their goods, and taken six of the men, but the
+greater part of the cargo, and the greatest villain of them all, have
+been got off."
+
+"Ay, how happened that?" asked the gentleman to whom he spoke. "I gave
+you all the men you required; and I should certainly have thought you
+were strong enough."
+
+"Oh yes, sir, that was not what we lacked," answered Mowle, in a
+somewhat bitter tone; "but I'll tell you what we did want--honest
+magistrates, and good information. Knowing the way they were likely to
+take, I cut straight across the country by Aldington, Kingsnorth, and
+Singleton-green, towards Four Elms----"
+
+"It would have been better, I should think, to go on by Westhawk,"
+said the young officer; "for though the road is rather hilly, you
+would by that means have cut them off, both from Singleton, Chart
+Magna, and Gouldwell, towards which places, I think you said, they
+were tending.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the officer of Customs, "but we found, on the
+road, that we were rather late in the day, and that our only chance
+was by hard riding. We came up with four of them, however, who had
+lagged behind, about Four Elms. Two of these we got, and all their
+goods; and, from the information they gave, we galloped on as hard as
+we could to Rousend."
+
+"Did you take the road, or across the country?" demanded the young
+officer.
+
+"Birchett would take the road," answered Mowle.
+
+"He was wrong--he was quite wrong," replied the other. "If you had
+passed by Newstreet, then straight over the fields and meadows, up to
+the mill, you would have had them in a trap. They could not have
+reached Chart, or New Purchase, or Gouldwell, or Etchden, without your
+catching them; and if they had fallen back, they must have come upon
+the men I stationed at Bethersden, with whom was Adams, the officer."
+
+"Why, you seem to know the country, sir," said his companion, with
+some surprise, "as if you had lived in it all your days."
+
+"I do know it very well," answered the officer of dragoons; "and you
+must be well aware that what I say is right. It was the shortest way,
+too, and presents no impediments but a couple of fences, and a ditch."
+
+"All very true, sir," answered Mowle, "and so I told Birchett; but
+Adams had gone off for another officer, and is very little use to us
+himself.--There's no trusting him, sir.--However, we came up with them
+at Rousend, but there, after a little bit of a tussle, they
+separated;" and he went on to give his account of the affray with the
+smugglers, nearly in the same words which he had employed when
+speaking to the magistrates, some six or seven hours before. His
+hearer listened with grave attention; but when Mowle came to mention
+the appearance of Richard Radford, and his capture, the young
+officer's eyes flashed, and his brow knit; and as the man went on to
+describe the self-evident juggle which had been played, to enable the
+youth to evade the reach of justice, he rose from the table, and
+walked once or twice hastily up and down the room. Then, seating
+himself again, to all appearance as calm as before, he said, "This is
+too bad, Mr. Mowle, and shall be reported."
+
+"Ay, sir; but you have not heard the worst," answered Mowle. "These
+worthy justices thought fit to send the five men whom they had
+committed, off to gaol in a wagon, with three or four constables to
+guard them, and of course you know what took place."
+
+"Oh, they were all rescued, of course!" replied the officer.
+
+"Before they got to Headcorn," said Mowle. "But the whole affair was
+arranged by Mr. Radford; for these fellows say themselves, that it is
+better to work for him at half price, than for any one else, because
+he always stands by his own, and will see no harm come to them. If
+this is to go on, sir, you and I may as well leave the county."
+
+"It shall not go on," answered the officer; "but we must have a little
+patience, my good friend. Long impunity makes a man rash. This worthy
+Mr. Radford seems to have become so already; otherwise, he would never
+have risked carrying so large a venture across the country in open
+day----"
+
+"I don't think that, in this, he was rash at all, sir," answered
+Mowle, lowering his tone, and speaking in a whisper; "and if you will
+listen for a moment, I'll tell you why. My belief is, that the whole
+of this matter is but a lure to take us off the right scent; and I
+have several reasons for thinking so. In the first place, the run was
+but a trifling affair, as far as I can learn--not worth five hundred
+pounds. I know that what we have got is not worth a hundred; and it
+has cost me as good a horse as I ever rode in my life. Now from all I
+hear, the cargo that Mr. Radford expects is the most valuable that
+ever was run from Dungeness Point to the North Foreland. So, if my
+information is correct, and I am sure it----"
+
+"Who did you get it from?" demanded the officer, "if the question is a
+fair one."
+
+"Some such questions might not be," answered Mowle, "but I don't mind
+answering this, Colonel. I got it from Mr. Radford himself.--Ay, sir,
+you may well look surprised; but I heard him, with my own ears, say
+that it was worth at least seventy thousand pounds. So you see my
+information is pretty good. Now, knowing this, as soon as I found out
+what value was in this lot, I said to myself, this is some little spec
+of young Radford's own. But when I came to consider the matter, I
+found, that must be a mistake too; for the old man helped the Ramleys
+out of their scrape so impudently, and took such pains to let it be
+well understood that he had an interest in the affair, that I felt
+sure there was some motive at the bottom, sir. In all these things, he
+has shown himself from a boy, as cautious as he is daring, and that's
+the way he has made such a power of money. He's not a man to appear
+too much in a thing, even for his son's sake, if he has not some
+purpose to answer; and, depend upon it, I'm right, when I say that
+this run was nothing but a trap, or a blind as they call it, to make
+us think--in case we've got any information of the great venture--that
+the thing is all over. Why did they choose the day, when they might
+have done it all at night? Why did Mr. Radford go on laughing with the
+magistrates, as if it was a good joke? No, no, sir, the case is clear
+enough: they are going to strike their great stroke sooner than we
+supposed; and this is but a trifle."
+
+"But may you not have made some mistake in regard to Mr. Radford's
+words?" demanded the young officer. "I should think it little likely
+that so prudent a man, as you represent him to be, would run so great
+a risk for such a purpose."
+
+"I made no mistake," answered Mowle; "I heard the words clear enough;
+and, besides, I've another proof. The man who is to run the goods for
+him, had nothing to do with this affair. I've got sharp eyes upon him;
+and though he was away from home the other night, he was not at sea.
+That I've discovered. He was up in the county, not far from Mr.
+Radford's own place, and most likely saw him, though that I can't find
+out. However, sir, I shall hear more very soon. Whenever it is to be
+done, we shall have sharp work of it, and must have plenty of men."
+
+"My orders are to assist you to the best of my power," said the young
+officer, "and to give you what men you may require; but as I have been
+obliged to quarter them in different places, you had better give me as
+speedy information of what force you are likely to demand, and on what
+point you wish them to assemble, as you can."
+
+"Those are puzzling questions, Colonel," replied Mowle. "I do not
+think the attempt will be made to-night; for their own people must be
+all knocked up, and they cannot bring down enough to carry as well as
+run--at least, I think not. But it will probably be made to-morrow, if
+they fancy they have lulled us; and that fancy I shall take care to
+indulge, by keeping a sharp look out, without seeming to look out at
+all. As to the point, that is what I cannot tell. Harding will start
+from the beach here; but where he will land is another affair; and the
+troops are as likely to be wanted twenty miles down the coast, or
+twenty miles up, as anywhere else. I wish you would give me a general
+order for the dragoons to assist me wherever I may want them."
+
+"That is given already, Mr. Mowle," answered the officer; "such are
+the commands we have received; and even the non-commissioned officers
+are instructed, on the very first requisition made by a chief officer
+of Customs, to turn out and aid in the execution of the law. Wherever
+any of the regiment are quartered, you will find them ready to
+assist."
+
+"Ay, but they are so scattered, sir," rejoined Mowle, "that it may be
+difficult to get them together in a hurry."
+
+"Not in the least," replied Osborne; "they are so disposed that I can,
+at a very short notice, collect a sufficient force, at any point, to
+deal with the largest body of smugglers that ever assembled."
+
+"You may, perhaps, sir, but I cannot," answered the Custom-House
+officer; "and what I wish is, that you would give them a general order
+to march to any place where I require them, and to act as I shall
+direct."
+
+"Nay, Mr. Mowle," said the other, shaking his head, "that, I am
+afraid, cannot be. I have no instructions to such effect; and though
+the military power is sent here, to assist the civil, it is not put
+under the command of the civil. I do not conceal from you that I do
+not like the service; but that shall only be a motive with me for
+executing my duty the more vigorously; and you have but to give me
+intimation of where you wish a force collected, and it shall be done
+in the shortest possible time."
+
+Mowle did not seem quite satisfied with this answer; and after
+musing for a few minutes, he replied, "But suppose I do not know
+myself--suppose it should be fifteen or twenty miles from Hythe, and I
+myself, on the spot, how am I to get the requisition sent to you--and
+how are you to move your men to the place where I may want
+them--perhaps, farther still?".
+
+"As to my moving my men, you must leave that to me," answered the
+young officer; "and as to your obtaining the information, and
+communicating it, I might reply, that _you_ must look to that; but as
+I sincerely believe you to be a most vigilant and active person, who
+will leave no means unemployed to obtain intelligence, I will only
+point out, in the first place, that our best efforts sometimes fail,
+but that we may always rest at ease, when we have used our best; and,
+in the second, I will suggest to you one or two means of ensuring
+success. Wherever you may happen to find that the landing of these
+goods is intended, or wherever you may be when it is effected, you
+will find within a circle of three miles, several parties of dragoons,
+who, on the first call, will render you every aid. With them, upon the
+system I have laid down for them, you will be able to keep your
+adversaries in check, delay their operations, and follow them up. Your
+first step, however, should be, to send off a trooper to me with all
+speed, charging him, if verbally, with as short and plain a message as
+possible--first, stating the point where the 'run,' as you call it,
+has been effected; and secondly, in what direction, to the best of
+your judgment, the enemy--that is to say, the smugglers--are marching.
+If you do that, and are right in your conjecture, they shall not go
+far without being attacked. If you are wrong, as any man may be, in
+regard to their line of retreat, they shall not be long unpursued. But
+as to putting the military under the command of the Customs, as I said
+before, I have no orders to that effect, and do not think that any
+such will ever be issued. In the next place, in order to obtain the
+most speedy information yourself, and to ensure that I shall be
+prepared, I would suggest that you direct each officer on the coast,
+if a landing should be effected in his district, first, to call for
+the aid of the nearest military party, and then to light a beacon on
+the next high ground. As soon as the first beacon is lighted, let the
+next officer on the side of Hythe, light one also, and, at the same
+time, with any force he can collect, proceed towards the first. Easy
+means may be found to transmit intelligence of the route of the
+smugglers to the bodies coming up; and, in a case like the present, I
+shall not scruple to take the command myself, at any point where I may
+be assured formidable resistance is likely to be offered."
+
+"Well, sir, I think the plan of the beacons is a good one," answered
+Mowle, "and it would be still better, if there were any of the coast
+officers on whom we could depend; but a more rascally set of mercenary
+knaves does not exist. Not one of them who would not sell the whole of
+the King's revenue for a twenty pound or so; and, however clear are
+the orders they receive, they find means to mistake them. But I will
+go and write the whole down, and have it copied out for each station,
+so that if they do not choose to understand, it must be their own
+fault. I am afraid, however, that all this preparation will put our
+friends upon their guard, and that they will delay their run till they
+can draw us off somewhere else."
+
+"There is some reason for that apprehension," replied the young
+officer, thoughtfully. "You imagine, then, that it is likely to take
+place to-morrow night, if we keep quiet?"
+
+"I have little doubt of it," replied Mowle; "or if not, the night
+after.--But I think it will be to-morrow. Yes, they won't lose the
+opportunity, if they fancy we are slack; and then the superintendent
+chose to fall sick to-day, so that the whole rests with me, which will
+give me enough to do, as they are well aware."
+
+"Well, then," replied the gentleman to whom he spoke, "leave the
+business of the beacons to me. I will give orders that they be lighted
+at every post, as soon as application is made for assistance. You will
+know what it means when you see one; and, in the meantime, keep quite
+quiet--affect a certain degree of indifference, but not too much, and
+speak of having partly spoiled Mr. Radford's venture.--Do you think he
+will be present himself?"
+
+"Oh, not he--not he!" answered Mowle. "He is too cunning for that, by
+a hundred miles. In any little affair like this of to-day, he might
+not, perhaps, be afraid of showing himself--to answer a purpose; but
+in a more serious piece of business, where his brother justices could
+not contrive to shelter him, and where government would certainly
+interfere, he will keep as quiet and still as if he had nought to do
+with it. But I will have him, nevertheless, before long; and then all
+his ill-gotten wealth shall go, even if we do not contrive to
+transport him."
+
+"How will you manage that?" asked the young officer; "if he abstains
+from taking any active part, you will have no proof, unless, indeed,
+one of those he employs should give evidence against him, or inform
+beforehand for the sake of the reward."
+
+"They wont do that," said Mowle, thoughtfully, "they wont do
+that.--I do not know how it is, sir," he continued, after a moment's
+pause, "but the difference between the establishment of the Customs
+and the smugglers is a very strange one; and I'll tell you what it is:
+there is not one of these fellows who run goods upon the coast, or
+carry them inland, who will, for any sum that can be offered, inform
+against their employers or their comrades; and there's scarce a
+Custom-House officer in all Kent, that, for five shillings, would not
+betray his brother or sell his country. The riding officers are
+somewhat better than the rest; but these fellows at the ports think no
+more of taking a bribe to shut their eyes than of drinking a glass of
+rum. Now you may attempt to bribe a smuggler for ever--not that I ever
+tried; for I don't like to ask men to sell their own souls; but
+Birchett has, often. I cannot well make out the cause of this
+difference; but certainly there is such a spirit amongst the smugglers
+that they wont do a dishonest thing, except in their own way, for any
+sum. There are the Ramleys, even--the greatest blackguards in Europe,
+smugglers, thieves, and cut-throats--but they wont betray each other.
+There is no crime they wont commit but that; and that they would
+sooner die than do; while we have a great many men amongst us, come of
+respectable parents, well brought up, well educated, who take money
+every day to cheat their employers."
+
+"I rather suspect that it is the difference of consequences in the two
+cases," answered Osborne, "which makes men view the same act in a
+different way. A Custom-House officer who betrays his trust, thinks
+that he only brings a little loss upon a government which can well
+spare it--he is not a bit the less a rogue for that, for honesty makes
+no such distinctions--but the smuggler who betrays his comrade or
+employer, must be well aware that he is not only ruining him in purse,
+but bringing on him corporeal punishment."
+
+"Ay, sir, but there's a spirit in the thing," said Mowle, shaking his
+head; "the very country people in general love the smugglers, and help
+them whenever they can. There's not a cottage that will not hide them
+or their goods; scarce a gentleman in the county who, if he finds all
+the horses out of his stable in the morning, does not take it quietly,
+without asking any more questions; scarce a magistrate who does not
+give the fellows notice as soon as he knows the officers are after
+them. The country folks, indeed, do not like them so well as they did;
+but they'll soon make it up."
+
+"A strange state, certainly," said the officer of dragoons; "but what
+has become of the horses you mention, when they are thus found
+absent?"
+
+"Gone to carry goods, to be sure," answered Mowle. "But one thing is
+very clear, all the country is in the smugglers' favour, and I cannot
+help thinking that the people do not like the Custom's dues, that they
+don't see the good of them, and are resolved to put them down."
+
+"Ignorant people, and, indeed, all people, do not like taxation of any
+kind," replied Osborne; "and every class objects to that tax which
+presses on itself, without the slightest regard either for the
+necessity of distributing the burdens of the country equally, or any
+of the apparently minute but really important considerations upon
+which the apportionment has been formed. However, Mr. Mowle, we have
+only to do our duty according to our position--you to gain all the
+information that you can--I to aid you, to the best of my ability, in
+carrying the law into effect."
+
+"From the smugglers themselves, little is the information I can get,
+sir," answered Mowle, returning to the subject from which their
+conversation had deviated, "and often I am obliged to have recourse to
+means I am ashamed of. The principal intelligence I receive is from a
+boy who offered himself one day--the little devil's imp--and
+certainly, by his cunning, and by not much caring myself what risks I
+run, I have got some very valuable tidings. But the little vagabond
+would betray me, or anyone else, to-morrow. He is the grandson of an
+old hag who lives at a little hut just by Saltwood, who puts him up to
+it all; and if ever there was an old demon in the world she is one.
+She is always brewing mischief, and chuckling over it all the time, as
+if it were her sport to see men tear each other to pieces, and to make
+innocent girls as bad as she was herself, and as her own daughter was,
+too,--the mother of this boy. The girl was killed by a chance shot,
+one day, in a riot between the smugglers and the Customs people; and
+the old woman always says it was a smuggler's shot. Oh! I could tell
+you such stories of that old witch."
+
+The stories of Mr. Mowle, however, were cut short by the entrance of a
+servant carrying a letter, which the young officer took and opened
+with a look of eager anxiety. The contents were brief; but they seemed
+important, for various were the changes which came over his fine
+countenance while he read them. The predominant expression, however,
+was joy, though there was a look of thoughtful consideration--perhaps
+in a degree of embarrassment, too, on his face; and as he laid the
+letter down on the table, and beat the paper with his fingers, gazing
+up into vacancy, Mowle, judging that his presence was not desired,
+rose to retire.
+
+"Stay a moment. Mr. Mowle--stay a moment," said Osborne. "This letter
+requires some consideration. It contains a call to a part of Kent some
+fifteen or sixteen miles distant; but as it is upon private business,
+I must not let that interfere with my public duty. You say that this
+enterprise of Mr. Radford's is likely to be put in execution to-morrow
+night."
+
+"I cannot be sure, colonel," answered the officer: "but I think there
+is every chance of it."
+
+"Then I must return before nightfall to-morrow," replied the
+gentleman, with a sigh.
+
+"Your presence will be very necessary, sir," said the Custom-House
+officer. "There is not one of your officers who seems up to the
+business, except Major Digby and yourself. All the rest are such fine
+gentlemen that one can't get on with them."
+
+"Let me consider for a moment," rejoined the other; but Mowle went on
+in the same strain, saying, "Then, sir, if you were to be absent all
+to-morrow, I might get very important information, and not be able to
+give it to you, nor arrange anything with you either."
+
+Osborne still meditated with a grave brow for some time. "I will
+write," he said, at length. "It will be better--it will be only just
+and honourable. I will write instead of going to-morrow, Mr. Mowle;
+and if this affair should not take place to-morrow night, as you
+suppose, I will make such arrangements for the following day--on which
+I must go over to Woodchurch--as will enable you to communicate with
+me without delay, should you have any message to send. At all events,
+I will return to Hythe before night. Now good evening;" and while
+Mowle made his bow and retired, the young officer turned to the letter
+again, and read it over with glistening eyes.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+I wonder if the reader ever wandered from Saltwood Castle back to the
+good old town of Hythe, on a fine summer's day, with a fair companion,
+as full of thought and mind as grace and beauty, and with a dear child
+just at the age when all the world is fresh and lovely--and then
+missed his way, and strayed--far from the track--towards Sandgate,
+till dinner was kept waiting at the inn, and the party who would not
+plod on foot, were all tired and wondering at their friend's delay!--I
+wonder if the reader ever did all this. I have--and a very pleasant
+thing it is to do. Yes, all of it, reader. For, surely, to go from
+waving wood to green field, and from green field to hill-side and wood
+again, and to trace along the brook which we know must lead to the
+sea-shore, with one companion of high soul, who can answer thought for
+thought, and another in life's early morning, who can bring back
+before your eyes the picture of young enjoyment--ay, and to know that
+those you love most dearly and esteem most highly, are looking for
+your coming, with a little anxiety, not even approaching the bounds of
+apprehension, is all very pleasant indeed.
+
+You, dear and excellent lady, who were one of my companions on the
+way, may perhaps recollect a little cottage--near the spot where we
+sprung a solitary partridge--whither I went to inquire the shortest
+road to Hythe. That cottage was standing there at the period of which
+I now write; and at the bottom of that hill, amongst the wood, and
+close by the little stream nearly where the foot-bridge now carries
+the traveller over dryshod, was another hut, half concealed by the
+trees, and covered over with well nigh as much moss and houseleek as
+actual thatch.
+
+It has been long swept away, as well as its tenants; and certainly a
+wretched and ill-constructed place it was. Would to Heaven that all
+such were gone from our rich and productive land, and that every
+labourer, in a country which owes so much to the industry of her
+children, had a dwelling better fitted to a human being! But, alas,
+many such still exist! and it is not always, as it was in this case,
+that vice is the companion of misery. This is no book of idle twaddle,
+to represent all the wealthy as cold, hard, and vicious, and the poor
+all good, forbearing, and laborious; for evil is pretty equally
+distributed through all classes--though, God knows, the rich, with all
+their opportunities, ought to shew a smaller proportion of wickedness,
+and the poor might perhaps be expected, from their temptations, to be
+worse than they are! Still it is hard to think that many as honest a
+man as ever lived--ay, and as industrious a man, too--returns, after
+his hard day's toil, to find his wife and children, well nigh in
+starvation, in such a place as I am about to describe--and none to
+help them.
+
+The hut--for it did not deserve the name of cottage--was but of one
+floor, which was formed of beaten clay, but a little elevated above
+the surrounding soil. It contained two rooms. The one opened into what
+had been a garden before it, running down nearly to the brookside; and
+the other communicated with the first, but had a door which gave exit
+into the wood behind. Windows the hut had two, one on either side; but
+neither contained more than two complete panes of glass. The spaces,
+where glass had once been, were now filled up in a strange variety of
+ways. Here was a piece of board nailed in; there a coarse piece of
+cloth kept out the wind; another broken pane was filled up with paper;
+and another, where some fragments of the original substance remained,
+was stopped with an old stocking stuffed with straw. In the garden, as
+it was still called, appeared a few cabbages and onions, with more
+cabbage-stalks than either, and a small patch of miserable potatoes.
+But weeds were the most plentiful of all, and chickweed and groundsel
+enough appeared there to have supplied a whole forest of singing
+birds. It had been once fenced in, that miserable garden; but the wood
+had been pulled down and burned for firing by its present tenants, or
+others as wretched in circumstances as themselves; and nought remained
+but a strong post here and there, with sometimes a many-coloured rag
+of coarse cotton fluttering upon some long, rusty nail, which had
+snatched a shred from passing poverty. Three or four stunted
+gooseberry bushes, however, marked out the limit on one side; a path
+ran in front between the garden and the brook; and on the other side
+there was a constant petty warfare between the farmer and the
+inhabitant of the hovel as to the possession of the border-land; and
+like a great and small state contending, the more powerful always
+gained some advantage in despite of right, but lost perhaps as much by
+the spiteful incursions of the foe, as if he had yielded the contested
+territory.
+
+On the night of which I speak--the same on which Mowle visited the
+commanding officer of the dragoons at Hythe--the cottage itself, the
+garden, and all the squalid-looking things about the place, were
+hidden in the deep darkness which had again fallen over the earth as
+soon as night had fallen. The morning, it may be remembered--it
+was the same on which Sir Edward Digby had been fired at by the
+smugglers--had been somewhat cold and foggy; but about eleven, the day
+had brightened, and the evening had been sultry. No sooner, however,
+did the sun reach the horizon than mists began to rise, and before
+seven o'clock the whole sky was under cloud and the air filled with
+fog. He must have been well acquainted with every step of the country
+who could find his way from town to town. Nevertheless, any one who
+approached Galley Ray's cottage, as it was called, would, at the
+distance of at least a hundred yards, have perceived something to lead
+him on; for a light, red as that of a baleful meteor, was streaming
+through the two glazed squares of the window into the misty air,
+making them look like the eyes of some wild animal in a dark forest.
+
+We must pause here, however, for a moment, to explain to the reader
+who Galley Ray was, and how she acquired the first of her two
+appellations, which certainly was not that which she had received at
+her baptism. Galley Ray, then, was the old woman of whom Mr. Mowle had
+given that favourable account, which may be seen in the last chapter;
+and, to say the truth, he had but done her justice. Her name was
+originally Gillian Ray; but, amongst a number of corrupt associates,
+with whom her early life was spent, the first of the two appellations
+was speedily transformed to Gilly or Gill. Some time afterwards--when
+youth began to wane, and whatever youthful graces she possessed were
+deviating into the virago qualities of the middle age--while watching
+one night the approach of a party of smugglers, with whom she had some
+intimacy, she perceived three or four Custom-House officers coming
+down to launch a galley, which they had upon the beach, for the
+purpose of cutting off the free-traders. But Gilly Ray instantly
+sprang in, and with the boat-hook set them all at defiance, till they
+threatened to launch her into the sea, boat and all.
+
+It is true, she was reported to have been drunk at the time; but her
+daring saved the smugglers, and conveyed her for two months to jail,
+whence, as may be supposed, she returned not much improved in her
+morals. One of those whom she had befriended in the time of need,
+bestowed on her the name of Galley, by an easy transition from her
+original prænomen; and it remained by her to the last day of her life.
+
+The reader has doubtless remarked, that amongst the lawless and the
+rash, there is a certain fondness for figures of speech, and that
+tropes and metaphors, simile and synecdoche, are far more prevalent
+amongst them than amongst the more orderly classes of society. Whether
+it is or not, that they wish to get rid of a precise apprehension of
+their own acts, I cannot say; but certain it is, that they do indulge
+in such flowers of rhetoric, and sometimes, in the midst of humour,
+quaintness, and even absurdity, reach the point of wit, and at times
+soar into the sublime. Galley Ray had, as we have seen, one daughter,
+whose fate has been related; and that daughter left one son, who,
+after his reputed father, one Mark Nightingale, was baptized
+Nightingale Ray. His mother, and after her death his grandmother, used
+to call him Little Nighty and Little Night; but following their
+fanciful habits, the smugglers who used to frequent the house found
+out an association between "Night Ray" and the beams of the bright and
+mystical orbs that shine upon us from afar; and some one gave him the
+name of Little Starlight, which remained with him, as that of Galley
+had adhered to his grandmother. The cottage or hut of the latter,
+then, beamed with an unwonted blaze upon the night I have spoken of,
+till long after the hour when Mowle had left the inn where his
+conference with the young officer had taken place. But let not the
+reader suppose that this illumination proceeded from any great expense
+of wax or oil. Only one small tallow candle, stuck into a long-necked,
+square-sided Dutch bottle, spread its rays through the interior of the
+hovel, and that was a luxury; but in the fireplace blazed an immense
+pile of mingled wood and driftcoal; and over it hung a large hissing
+pot, as huge and capacious as that of the witches in Macbeth, or of
+the no less famous Meg Merrilies. Galley Ray, however, was a very
+different person in appearance from the heroine of "Guy Mannering;"
+and we must endeavour to call up her image as she stood by the
+fire-side, watching the cauldron and a kettle which stood close to it.
+
+The red and fitful light flashed upon no tall, gaunt form, and lighted
+up no wild and commanding features. There was nothing at all poetical
+in her aspect: it was such as may be seen every day in the haunts of
+misery and vice. Originally of the middle height, though once strong
+and upright, she had somewhat sunk down under the hand of Time, and
+was now rather short than otherwise. About fifty she had grown fat and
+heavy; but fifteen years more had robbed her flesh of firmness and her
+skin of its plumped out smoothness; and though she had not yet reached
+the period when emaciation accompanies decrepitude, her muscles were
+loose and hanging, her face withered and sallow. Her hair, once as
+black as jet, was now quite grey, not silver--but with the white
+greatly predominating over the black. Yet, strange to say, her eyes
+were still clear and bright, though small, and somewhat red round the
+lids; and, stranger still, her front teeth were white as ivory,
+offering a strange contrast to the wrinkled and yellow skin. Her look
+was keen; but there was that sort of habitual jocularity about it,
+which in people of her caste is often partly assumed--as an ever ready
+excuse for evading a close question, or covering a dangerous
+suggestion by a jest--and partly natural, or at least springing from a
+fearful kind of philosophy, gained by the exhaustion of all sorts of
+criminal pleasures, which leaves behind, too surely, the impression
+that everything is but a mockery on earth. Those who have adopted that
+philosophy never give a thought beyond this world. Her figure was
+somewhat bowed, and over her shoulders she had the fragments of a
+coarse woollen shawl, from beneath which appeared, as she stirred the
+pot, her sharp yellow elbows and long arms. On her head she wore a
+cap, which had remained there, night and day, for months; and, thrust
+back from her forehead, which was low and heavy, appeared the
+dishevelled grey hair, while beneath the thick and beetling brows came
+the keen eyes, and a nose somewhat aquiline and depressed at the
+point.
+
+Near her, on the opposite side of the hearth, was the boy whom the
+reader has already seen, and who has been called little Starlight;
+and, even at that late hour, for it was near midnight, he seemed as
+brisk and active as ever. Night and day, indeed, appeared to him the
+same; for he had none of the habits of childhood. The setting sun
+brought no drowsiness to his eyelids: mid-day often found him sleeping
+after a night of watchfulness and activity. The whole course of his
+existence and his thoughts had been tainted: there was nothing of
+youth either in his mind or his ways. The old beldam called him, and
+thought him, the shrewdest boy that ever lived; but, in truth, she had
+left him no longer a boy, in aught but size and looks. Often--indeed
+generally--he would assume the tone of his years, for he found it
+served his purpose best; but he only laughed at those who thought him
+a child, and prided himself on the cunning of the artifice.
+
+There might be, it is true, some lingering of the faults of youth, but
+that was all. He was greedy and voracious, loved sweet things as well
+as strong drink, and could not always curb the truant and erratic
+spirit of childhood; but still, even in his wanderings there was a
+purpose, and often a malevolence. He would go to see what one person
+was about; he would stay away because another wanted him. It may be
+asked, was this natural wickedness?--was his heart so formed
+originally? Oh no, reader; never believe such things. There are
+certainly infinite varieties of human character; and I admit that the
+mind of man is not the blank sheet of paper on which we can write what
+we please, as has been vainly represented. Or, if it be, the
+experience of every man must have shown him, that that paper is of
+every different kind and quality--some that will retain the finest
+line, some that will scarce receive the broadest trace. But still
+education has immense power for good or evil. By education I do not
+mean teaching. I mean that great and wonderful process by which,
+commencing at the earliest period of infancy--ay, at the mother's
+breast--the raw material of the mind is manufactured into all the
+varieties that we see. I mean the sum of every line with which the
+paper is written as it passes from hand to hand. That is education;
+and most careful should we be that, at an early period, nought should
+be written but good, for every word once impressed is well nigh
+indelible.
+
+Now what education had that poor boy received? The people of the
+neighbouring village would have said a very good one; for there was
+what is called a charity school in the neighbourhood, where he had
+been taught to read and write, and cast accounts. But this was
+_teaching_, not _education_. Oh, fatal mistake! when will Englishmen
+learn to discriminate between the two? His education had been at
+home--in that miserable hut--by that wretched woman--by her companions
+in vice and crime! What had all the teaching he had received at the
+school done for him, but placed weapons in the hand of wickedness? Had
+education formed any part of the system of the school where he was
+instructed--had he been taught how best to use the gifts that were
+imparted--had he been inured to regulate the mind that was stored--had
+he been habituated to draw just conclusions from all he read, instead
+of merely being taught to read, that would have been in some degree
+education, and it might have corrected, to a certain point, the darker
+schooling he received at home. Well might the great philosopher, who
+in some things most grossly misused the knowledge he himself
+possessed, pronounce that "Knowledge is power;" but, alas, he forgot
+to add, that it is power _for good or evil!_ That poor child had been
+taught that which to him might have been either a blessing or a bane;
+but all his real education had been for evil; and there he stood,
+corrupted to the heart's core.
+
+"I say, Mother Ray," he exclaimed, "that smells cursed nice--can't you
+give us a drop before the coves come?"
+
+"No, no, you young devil," replied the old woman with a grin, "one
+can't tell when they'll show their mugs at the door; and it wouldn't
+do for them to find you gobbling up their stuff. But bring me that big
+porringer, and we'll put by enough for you and me. I've nimmed one
+half of the yellow-boy they sent, so we'll have a quart of moonshine
+to-morrow to help it down."
+
+"I could get it very well down without," answered little Starlight,
+bringing her a large earthen pot, with a cracked cover, into which she
+ladled out about half a gallon of the soup.
+
+"There, take and put that far under the bed in t'other room," said the
+old woman, adding several expletives of so peculiar and unpleasant a
+character, that I must omit them; and, indeed, trusting to the
+reader's imagination, I shall beg leave to soften, as far as possible,
+the terms of both the boy and his grandmother for the future, merely
+premising, that when conversing alone together, hardly a sentence
+escaped their lips without an oath or a blasphemy.
+
+Little Starlight soon received the pot from the hands of his worthy
+ancestress, and conveyed it into the other room, where he stayed so
+long that she called him to come forth, in what, to ordinary ears,
+would have seemed the most abusive language, but which, on her lips,
+was merely the tone of endearment. He had waited, indeed, to cool the
+soup, in order to steal a portion of the stolen food; but finding that
+he should be detected if he remained longer, he ventured to put his
+finger in to taste it. The result was that he scalded his hand; but he
+was sufficiently Spartan to utter no cry or indication of pain; and he
+escaped all inquiry; for the moment after he had returned, the door
+burst violently open, and some ten or twelve men came pouring in,
+nearly filling the little room.
+
+Various were their garbs, and strangely different from each other were
+they in demeanour as well as dress. Some were clad in smock-frocks,
+and some in sailors' jackets; some looked like respectable tradesmen,
+some were clothed in a sort of fanciful costume of their own, smacking
+a little of the brigand; and one appeared in the ordinary riding-dress
+of a gentleman of that period; but all were well armed, without much
+concealment of the pistols, which they carried about them in addition
+to the sword that was not uncommonly borne by more than one class in
+England at that time. They were all young men except one or two; and
+three of the number bore evident marks of some recent affray. One had
+a broad strip of plaster all the way down his forehead, another had
+his upper lip terribly cut, and a third--the gentleman, as I am bound
+to call him, as he assumed the title of Major--had a patch over his
+eye, from beneath which appeared several rings of various colours,
+which showed that the aforesaid patch was not merely a means of
+disguise.
+
+They were all quite familiar with Galley Ray and her grandson; some
+slapped her on the shoulder; some pulled her ear; some abused her
+horribly in jocular tones; and all called upon her eagerly to set
+their supper before them, vowing that they had come twenty miles since
+seven o'clock that night, and were as hungry as fox-hunters.
+
+To each and all Galley Ray had something to say in their own
+particular way. To some she was civil and coaxing, addressed them as
+"gentlemen," and to others slang and abusive, though quite in good
+humour, calling them, "you blackguards," and "you varmint," with
+sundry other delectable epithets, which I shall forbear to transcribe.
+
+To give value to her entertainment, she of course started every
+objection and difficulty in the world against receiving them, asking
+how, in the name of the fiend, they could expect her to take in so
+many? where she was to get porringers or plates for them all? and
+hoping heartily that such a troop weren't going to stay above half an
+hour.
+
+"Till to-morrow night, Galley, my chicken," replied the Major. "Come,
+don't make a fuss. It must be so, and you shall be well paid. We shall
+stay in here to-night; and to-morrow we shall take to cover in the
+wood; but young Radford will come down some time in the day, and then
+you must send up little Starlight to us, to let me know."
+
+The matter of the supper was soon arranged to their contentment. Some
+had tea-cups, and some saucers; some had earthen pans, some wooden
+platters. Two were honoured with china plates; and the large pot being
+taken off the fire, and set on the ground in the midst of them, each
+helped himself, and went on with his meal. A grand brewing of smuggled
+spirits and water then commenced; and a number of horn cups were
+handed round, not enough, indeed, for all the guests; but each vessel
+was made to serve two or three; and the first silence of hunger being
+over, a wild, rambling, and desultory conversation ensued, to which
+both Galley Ray and her grandson lent an attentive ear.
+
+The Major said something to the man with the cut upon his brow, to
+which the other replied, by condemning his own soul, if he did not
+blow Harding's brains out--if it were true. "But, I don't believe it,"
+he continued. "He's no friend of mine; but he's not such a blackguard
+as to peach."
+
+"So I think; but Dick Radford says he is sure he did," answered the
+Major; "Dick fancies that he's jealous of not having had yesterday's
+job too, and that's why he spoiled it. We know he was up about that
+part of the country on the pretence of his seeing his Dolly; but
+Radford says he went to inform, and that he'll wring his liver out, as
+soon as this job of his father's is over."
+
+A torrent of blasphemies poured forth by almost every person present
+followed, and they all called down the most horrid condemnation on
+their own heads, if they did not each lend a hand to punish the
+informer. In the midst of this storm of big words, Galley Ray put her
+mouth to the Major's ear, saying, "I could tell young Radford how he
+could wring his heart out, and that's better than his liver. There's
+no use of trying to kill him, for he doesn't care two straws about
+that. Sharp steel and round lead are what he looks for every day. But
+I could show you how to plague him worse."
+
+"Why, you old brute," replied the Major, "you're a friend of his!--But
+you may tell him, if you like. We have all sworn it, and we'll do it;
+only hold your tongue till after to-morrow night, or I'll cure your
+bacon for you."
+
+"I'm no friend of his," cried Galley Ray. "The infernal devil, wasn't
+it he that shot my girl, Meg? Ay, ay, I know he says he didn't, and
+that he didn't fire a pistol that day, but kept all to the cutlash;
+but he did, I'm sure, and a-purpose too; for didn't he turn to, that
+morning, and abuse her like the very dirt under his feet, because she
+came, a little in liquor, down to his boat-side?--Ay, I'll have my
+revenge--I've been looking for it long, but now it's a-coming--it's
+a-coming very fast; and afore I've done with him, I'll wring him out
+like a wet cloth, till he's not got one pleasure left in his whole
+carcase, nor one thing to look to, for as long as he may live!--Ay,
+ay, he thinks an old woman nothing; but he shall see--he shall see;"
+and the beldam wagged her frightful head backwards and forwards with a
+look of well-contented malice that made it more horrible than ever.
+
+"What an old devil!" cried the Major, glancing round the table with a
+look of mock surprise; and then they all burst into a roar of laughter
+which shook the miserable hovel in which they sat.
+
+"Come, granny, give us some more lush, and leave off preaching," cried
+Ned Ramley, the man with the cut upon his brow. "You can tell it all
+to Dick Radford, to-morrow; for he's fond of cutting up people's
+hearts."
+
+"But how is it--how is it?" asked the Major. "I should like to hear."
+
+"Ay, but you shan't hear all," answered Galley Ray. "Let Dick do his
+part, and I'll do mine, so we'll both have our revenge; but I know one
+thing, if I were a gentleman, and wanted a twist at Jack Harding, I'd
+get his Kate away from him. She's a light-hearted lass, and would
+listen to a gentleman, I dare say; but, however, I'll have her away
+some way, and then kick her out into Folkestone streets, to get her
+bread like many a better woman than herself."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense!" said Ned Ramley--"that's all stuff. Harding is going
+to marry her; and she knows better than to play the fool."
+
+"Ay," answered the old woman, with a look of spite, "I shouldn't
+wonder if Harding spoiled this job for old Radford, too."
+
+"Not he!" cried Ramley, "he would pinch himself there, old tiger; for
+his own pay depends upon it."
+
+"Ay, upon landing the stuff safely," answered the old woman, with a
+grin, "but not upon getting it clear up into the Weald. He may have
+both, Neddy, my dear--he may have both pays; first for landing and
+then for peaching. Play booty for ever!--that's the way to make money;
+and who knows but you may get another crack of your own pretty skull,
+or have your brains sent flying out, like the inside of an egg against
+the pillory."
+
+"By the fiend, he had better not," said Ned Ramley, "for there will be
+some of us left, at all events, to pay him."
+
+"Come, speak out, old woman," cried another of the men; "have you or
+your imp there got any inkling that the Custom House blackguards have
+nosed the job. If we find they have, and you don't tell, I'll send you
+into as much thick loam as will cover you well, I can tell you;" and
+he added a horrible oath to give force to his words.
+
+"Not they, as yet," answered the beldam, "of that I am quite sure; for
+as soon as the guinea and the message came, I went down to buy the
+beef, and mutton, and the onions; and there I saw Mowle talking to
+Gurney the grocer, and heard him say that he had spoiled Mr. Radford's
+venture this morning, for one turn at least; and after that, I sent
+down little Nighty there, to watch him and his cronies; and they all
+seemed very jolly, he said, when he came back half an hour ago, and
+crowing like so many young cocks, as if they had done a mighty deal.
+Didn't they, my dear?"
+
+"Ay, that they did, Granny," replied the boy, with a look of
+simplicity; "and when I went to the tap of the Dragon to get
+twopennorth, I heard the landlord say that Mowle was up with the
+dragoon Colonel, telling him all about the fine morning's work they
+had made."
+
+"Devilish fine, indeed!" cried Ned Ramley. "Why they did not get one
+quarter of the things; and if we can save a third, that's enough to
+pay very well, I can tell them."
+
+"No, no! they know nothing as yet," continued the old woman, with a
+sapient shake of the head; "I can't say what they may hear before
+to-morrow night; but, if they do hear anything, I know where it will
+come from--that's all. People may be blind if they like; but I'm not,
+that's one thing."
+
+"No, no! you see sharp enough, Galley Ray," answered the Major. "But
+hark, is not that the sound of a horse coming down?"
+
+All the men started up; and some one exclaimed, "I shouldn't wonder if
+it were Mowle himself.--He's always spying about."
+
+"If it is, I'll blow his brains out," said Ned Ramley, motioning to
+the rest to make their way into the room behind.
+
+"Ay, you had best, I think, Neddy," said Galley Ray, in a quiet,
+considerate tone, answering his rash threat as coolly as if she had
+been speaking of the catching of a trout. "You'll have him here all
+snug, and may never get such another chance. 'Dead men tell no tales,'
+Neddy. But, get back--'tis a horse, sure enough! You can take your own
+time, if you go in there."
+
+The young man retreated; and bending down her lips to the boy's ear,
+the old witch inquired in a whisper, "Is t'other door locked, and the
+window fast?"
+
+"Yes," said the boy, in the same tone; "and the key hid in the
+sacking."
+
+"Then if there are enough to take 'em," murmured Gaily Ray to
+herself--"take 'em they shall!--If there's no one but Mowle, he must
+go--that's clear. Stretch out that bit o' sail, boy, to catch the
+blood."
+
+But before the boy could obey her whisper, the door of the hut was
+thrown open; and instead of Mowle there appeared the figure of Richard
+Radford.
+
+"Here, little Starlight!" he cried, "hold my horse--why, where are all
+the men? Have they not come?"
+
+The old woman arranged her face in an instant into the sweetest smile
+it was capable of assuming, and replied, instantly, "Oh dear, yes:
+bless your beautiful face, Mr. Radford, but we didn't expect you
+to-night, and thought it was some of the Custom-House blackguards when
+we heard the horse. Here, Neddy!--Major!--It's only Mr. Radford."
+
+Ere she had uttered the call, the men, hearing a well-known voice,
+were entering the room again; and young Radford shook hands with
+several of them familiarly, congratulating the late prisoners on their
+escape.
+
+"I found I couldn't come to-morrow morning," he said, "and so I rode
+down to-night. It's all settled for to-morrow, and by this time
+Harding's at sea. He'll keep over on the other side till the sun is
+low; and we must be ready for work by ten, though I don't think he'll
+get close in before midnight."
+
+"Are you quite sure of Harding, Mr. Radford?" asked the Major. "I
+thought you had doubts of him about this other venture."
+
+"Ay, and so I have still," answered Richard Radford, a dark scowl
+coming over his face, "but we must get this job over first. My father
+says, he will have no words about it, till this is all clear, and
+after that I may do as I like. Then, Major, then----"
+
+He did not finish the sentence; but those who heard him knew very well
+what he meant; and the Major inquired, "But is he quite safe in this
+business? The old woman thinks not."
+
+Young Radford mused with a heavy brow for a minute or two, and then
+replied, after a sudden start, "But it's no use now--he's at sea by
+this time; and we can't mend it. Have you heard anything certain of
+him, Galley Ray?"
+
+"No, nothing quite for certain, my beauty," said the old woman; "but
+one thing I know: he was seen there upon the cliffs, with two strange
+men, a-talking away at a great rate; and that was the very night he
+saw your father, too; but that clear little cunning devil, my boy,
+Nighty--he's the shrewdest lad that ever lived--found it all out."
+
+"What did he find out?" demanded young Radford, sharply.
+
+"Why, who the one was, he could never be sure," answered the
+beldam--"a nasty-looking ugly brute, all tattooed in the face, like a
+wild Indian; but the other was the colonel of dragoons--that's
+certain, so Nighty says--he is the shrewdest boy that----"
+
+Richard Radford and his companions gazed at each other with very
+meaning and very ill-satisfied looks; but the former, at length, said,
+"Well, we shall see--we shall see! and if he does, he shall rue it. In
+the meantime, Major, what we must do is, to have force enough to set
+them, dragoons and all, at defiance. My father has got already a
+hundred men, and I'll beat up for more to-morrow.--I can get fifty or
+sixty out of Sussex. We'll all be down with you early. The soldiers
+are scattered about in little parties, so they can never have very
+many together; and the devil's in it, if we can't beat a handful of
+them."
+
+"Give us a hundred men," said Ned Ramley, "and we'll beat the whole
+regiment of them."
+
+"Why, there are not to be found twenty of them together in any one
+place," answered young Radford, "except at Folkestone, and we shan't
+have the run within fifteen or sixteen miles of that; so we shall
+easily do for them; and I should like to give those rascals a
+licking."
+
+"Then, what's to be done with Harding?" asked Ned Ramley.
+
+"Leave him to me--leave him to me, Ned," replied the young gentleman,
+"I'll find a way of settling accounts with him."
+
+"Why, the old woman was talking something about it," said the Major.
+"Come, speak up, old brute!--What is it you've got to say?"
+
+"Oh, I'll tell him quietly when he's a going," answered Galley Ray.
+"It's no business of yours, Major."
+
+"She hates him like poison," said the Major, in a whisper, to young
+Radford; "so that you must not believe all she says about him."
+
+The young man gave a gloomy smile, and then, after a few words more,
+unceremoniously turned the old woman out of her own hovel, telling her
+he would come and speak to her in a moment. As soon as the hut was
+clear of her presence, he proceeded to make all his final arrangements
+with the lawless set who were gathered together within.
+
+"I thought that Harding was not to set off till to-morrow morning,"
+said one of the more staid-looking of the party, at length; "I wonder
+your father lets him make such changes, Mr. Radford--it looks
+suspicious, to my thinking."
+
+"No, no; it was by my father's own orders," said young Radford;
+"there's nothing wrong in that. I saw the note sent this evening; so
+that's all right. By some contrivance of his own, Harding is to give
+notice to one of the people on Tolsford Hill, when he is well in land
+and all is safe; and then we shall see a fire lighted on the top,
+which is to be our signal, to gather down on the beach. It's all right
+in that respect, at least.
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," answered the other; "and now, as all is
+settled, had you not better take a glass of grog before you go."
+
+"No, no," replied the young man, "I'll keep my head cool for
+to-morrow; for I've got a job to do in the morning that may want a
+clear eye and a steady hand."
+
+"Well, then, good luck to you!" said Ned Ramley, laughing; and with
+this benediction, the young gentleman opened the cottage door.
+
+He found Galley Ray holding his horse alone; and, as soon as she saw
+him, she said, "I've sent the boy away, Mr. Radford, because I wanted
+to have a chat with you for a minute, all alone, about that
+blackguard, Harding;" and sinking her voice to a whisper, she
+proceeded for several minutes, detailing her own diabolical notions,
+of how young Radford might best revenge himself on Harding, with a
+coaxing manner, and sweet tone, which contrasted strangely and
+horribly, both with the words which she occasionally used, and the
+general course of her suggestions. Young Radford sometimes laughed,
+with a harsh sort of bitter, unpleasant merriment, and sometimes asked
+questions, but more frequently remained listening attentively to what
+she said.
+
+Thus passed some ten minutes, at the end of which time, he exclaimed,
+with an oath, "I'll do it!" and then, mounting his horse, he rode away
+slowly and cautiously, on account of the thick fog and the narrow and
+stony road.
+
+No sooner was he gone, than little Starlight crept out from between
+the cottage and a pile of dried furze-bushes, which had been cast down
+on the left of the hut--at once affording fuel to the inhabitants, and
+keeping out the wind from a large crack in the wall, which penetrated
+through and through, into the room where young Radford had been
+conversing with the smugglers.
+
+"Did you hear them, my kiddy?" asked the old woman, as soon as the boy
+approached her.
+
+"Every word, Mother Ray," answered little Starlight. "But, get in,
+get in, or they will be thinking something; and I'll tell you all
+to-morrow."
+
+The old woman saw the propriety of his suggestion; and, both entering
+the hovel, the door was shut. With it, I may close a scene, upon which
+I have been obliged to pause longer than I could have wished.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The man who follows a wolf goes straight on after him till he rides
+him down; but, in chasing a fox, it is always expedient and fair to
+take across the easiest country for your horse or for yourself, to
+angle a field, to make for a slope when the neighbouring bank is too
+high, to avoid a clay fallow, or to skirt a shaking moss. Very
+frequently, however, one beholds an inexperienced sportsman (who does
+not well know the country he is riding, and sees the field broken up
+into several parties, each taking its own course after the hounds)
+pause for several minutes, not knowing which to follow. Such is often
+the case with the romance writer also, when the broken nature of the
+country over which his course lies, separates his characters, and he
+cannot proceed with all of them at once.
+
+Now, at the present moment, I would fain follow the smugglers to the
+end of their adventure; but, in so doing, dear reader, I should (to
+borrow a shred of the figure I have just used) get before my hounds;
+or, in other words, I should too greatly violate that strict
+chronological order which is necessary in an important history like
+the present. I must, therefore, return, by the reader's good leave, to
+the house of Mr. Zachary Croyland, almost immediately after Sir Edward
+Digby had ridden away, on the day following young Radford's recently
+related interview with the smugglers, at which day--with a sad
+violation of the chronological order I have mentioned above--I had
+already arrived, as the reader must remember, in the first chapter of
+the present volume.
+
+Mr. Croyland then stood in the little drawing-room, fitted up
+according to his own peculiar notions, where Sir Edward's wound had
+been dressed; and Edith, his niece, sat at no great distance on one of
+the low ottomans, for which he had an oriental predilection. She was a
+little excited, both by all that she had witnessed, and all that she
+had not; and her bright and beautiful eyes were raised to her uncle's
+face, as she inquired, "How did all this happen? You said you would
+tell me when they were gone."
+
+Mr. Croyland gazed at her with that sort of parental tenderness which
+he had long nourished in his heart towards her; and certainly, as she
+sat there, leaning lightly upon her arm, and with the sunshine falling
+upon her beautiful form, her left hand resting upon her knee, and one
+small beautiful foot extended beyond her gown, he could not help
+thinking her the loveliest creature he had ever beheld in his life,
+and asking himself--"Is such a being as that, so full of grace in
+person, and excellence in mind, to be consigned to a rude, brutal
+bully, like the man who has just met with deserved chastisement at my
+door?"
+
+He had just begun to answer her question, thinking how he might best
+do so without inflicting more pain upon her than necessary, when the
+black servant I have mentioned entered the drawing-room, saying, "A
+man want to speak to you, master."
+
+"A man!" cried Mr. Croyland, impatiently. "What man? I don't want any
+man! I've had enough of men for one morning, surely, with those two
+fools fighting just opposite my house!--What sort of a man is it?"
+
+"Very odd man, indeed, master," answered the Hindoo. "Got great blue
+pattern on him's face. Strange looking man. Think him half mad," and
+he made a deferential bow, as if submitting his judgment to that of
+his master.
+
+"Well, I like odd men," exclaimed Mr. Croyland. "I like strange men
+better than any others. I'm not sure I do not like them a _leetle_
+mad--not too much, not too much, you know, Edith, my dear! Not
+dangerous; just mad enough to be pleasant, but not furious or
+obstreperous.--Where have you put him?"
+
+"In de library, master," replied the man; "and he begin taking down
+the books directly."
+
+"High time I should go and see, who is so studiously inclined," said
+Mr. Croyland; "or he may not only take down the books, but take them
+away. That wouldn't do, you know, Edith, my dear--that wouldn't do.
+Without my niece and my books, what would become of me? I don't intend
+to lose either the one or the other. So that you are never to marry,
+my love; mind that, you are never to marry!"
+
+Edith smiled faintly--very faintly indeed; but for the world she would
+not have made her uncle feel that he had touched upon a tender point.
+"I do not think I ever shall, my dear uncle," she answered; and
+saying, "That's a good girl!" the old gentleman hurried out of the
+room to see his unknown visitor.
+
+Edith remained for some time where she was, in deep and even painful
+thoughts. All that she had learnt from her sister, since Zara's
+explanation with Sir Edward Digby, amounted but to this, that he whom
+she had so deeply loved--whom she still loved so deeply--was yet
+living. Nothing more had reached her; and, though hope, the fast
+clinger to the last wreck of probability, yet whispered that he might
+love her still--that she might not be forgotten--that she might not be
+abandoned, yet fear and despondency far predominated, and their hoarse
+tones nearly drowned the feeble whisper of a voice which once had been
+loud and gay in her heart.
+
+After meditating, then, for some minutes, she rose and left the
+drawing-room, passing, on her way to the stairs, the door of the
+library to which her uncle had previously gone. She heard him talking
+loud as she went along; but the sounds were gay, cheerful, and
+anything but angry; and another voice was answering, in mellower
+tones, somewhat melancholy, indeed, but still not sad. Going rapidly
+by, this was all she distinguished; but after she reached her own
+room, which was nearly above the library, the murmur of the voices
+still rose up for more than an hour, and at length Mr. Croyland and
+his guest came out, and walked through the vestibule to the door.
+
+"God bless you, Harry--God bless you!" said Mr. Croyland, with an
+appearance of warmth and affection which Edith had seldom known him to
+display towards any one; "if you wont stay, I can't help it. But mind
+your promise--mind your promise! In three or four days, you know;" and
+with another cordial farewell they parted.
+
+When the stranger was gone, however, Mr. Croyland remained standing in
+the vestibule for several minutes, gazing down upon the floor-cloth,
+and murmuring to himself various broken sentences, from time to time.
+"Who'd have thought it," he said; "thirty years come Lady-day next,
+since we saw each other!--But this isn't quite right of the boy: I
+will scold him--I will frighten him, too. He shouldn't deceive--nobody
+should deceive--it's not right. But after all, in love and war, every
+stratagem is fair, they say; and I'll work for him, that I will. Here,
+Edith, my love," he continued, calling up the stairs, for he had heard
+his niece's light foot above, "come, and take a walk with me, my dear:
+it will do us both good."
+
+Edith came down in a moment, with a hat (or bonnet) in her hand; and
+although Mr. Croyland affected, on most occasions, to be by no means
+communicative, yet there was in his whole manner, and in the
+expression of his face, quite sufficient to indicate to his niece,
+that he was labouring under the pressure of a secret, which was not a
+very sad or dark one.
+
+"There, my dear!" he exclaimed, "I said just now that I would not have
+you marry; but I shall take off the restriction. I will not prohibit
+the banns--only in case you should wish to marry some one I don't
+approve. But I've got a husband for you--I've got a husband for you,
+better than all the Radfords that ever were christened; though, by the
+way, I doubt whether these fellows ever were christened at all--a set
+of unbelieving, half-barbarous sceptics. I do not think, upon my
+conscience, that old Radford believes in anything but the existence of
+his own individuality."
+
+"But who is the husband you have got for me?" demanded Edith, forcing
+herself to assume a look of gaiety which was not natural to her. "I
+hope he's young, handsome, rich, and agreeable."
+
+"All, all!" cried Mr. Croyland. "Those are absolute requisites in a
+lady's estimation, I know. Never was such a set of grasping monkeys as
+you women. Youth, beauty, riches, and a courtly air--you must have
+them all, or you are dissatisfied; and the ugliest, plainest, poorest
+woman in all Europe, thinks that she has every right to a ph[oe]nix
+for her companion--an angel--a demi-god. But you shall see--you shall
+see; and in the true spirit of a fond parent, if you do not see with
+my eyes, hear with my ears, and understand with my understanding--why,
+I'll disinherit you.--But who the mischief is this, now?" he
+continued, looking out at the door--"another man on horseback, upon my
+life, as if we had not had enough of them already. Never, since I have
+been in this county of Kent, has my poor, quiet, peaceable door been
+besieged in this manner before."
+
+"It's only a servant with a note, my dear uncle," said Edith.
+
+"Ah, something more on your account," cried Mr. Croyland. "It's all
+because you are here. Baba, Baba! see what that fellow wants!--It's
+not your promised husband, my dear, so you need not eye him so
+curiously."
+
+"Oh, no!" answered Edith, smiling. "I took it for granted that my
+promised husband, as you call him, was to be this same odd,
+strange-looking gentleman, who has been with you for the last hour."
+
+"Pooh--no!" cried Mr. Croyland; "and yet, my lady, I can tell you, you
+could not do better in some respects, for he's a very good man--a very
+excellent man indeed, and has the advantage of being a _leetle_ mad,
+as I said before--that is, he's wise enough not to care what fools
+think of him. That's what is called being mad now-a-days. Who is it
+from, Baba?
+
+"Didn't say, master," answered the Indian, who had just handed him a
+note. "He wait an answer."
+
+"Oh, very well!" answered Mr. Croyland. "He may get a shorter one than
+he expects. I've no time to be answering notes. People in England
+spend one half of their lives in writing notes that mean nothing, and
+the other half in sealing them. Why can't the fools send a message?"
+
+While he had been thus speaking, the worthy old gentleman had been
+adjusting the spectacles to his nose, and walking with his usual brisk
+step to the window in the passage, against which he planted his back,
+so that the light might fall over his shoulder upon the paper; but as
+he read, a great change came over his countenance.
+
+"Ah, that's right!--That's well!--That's honest," he said: "I see what
+he means, but I'll let him speak out himself. Walk into the garden,
+Edith, my love, till I answer this man's note. Baba, bid the fellow
+wait for a moment," and stepping into the library, Mr. Croyland sought
+for a pen that would write, and then scrawled, in a very rude and
+crooked hand, which soon made the paper look like an ancient Greek
+manuscript, a few lines, to the beauty of which he added the effect of
+bad blotting-paper. Then folding his note up, he sealed and addressed
+it, first reading carefully over again the epistle which he had just
+received, and with which it may be as well to make the reader
+acquainted, though I shall abstain from looking into Mr. Croyland's
+answer till it reaches its destination. The letter which the servant
+had brought was to the following effect:
+
+"The gentleman who had the pleasure of travelling with Mr. Croyland
+from London, and who was introduced to him by the name of Captain
+Osborn, was about to avail himself of Mr. Croyland's invitation, when
+some circumstances came to his knowledge, which seem to render it
+expedient that he should have a few minutes' conversation with Mr.
+Croyland before he visits his house. He is at present at Woodchurch,
+and will remain there till two o'clock, if it is convenient for Mr.
+Croyland to see him at that place to-day.--If not, he will return to
+Woodchurch to-morrow, towards one, and will wait for Mr. Croyland till
+any hour he shall appoint."
+
+"There! give that to the gentleman's servant," said Mr. Croyland; and
+then depositing his spectacles safely in their case, he walked out
+into the garden to seek Edith.
+
+The servant, in the meanwhile, went at a rapid pace, over pleasant
+hill and dale, till he reached the village of Woodchurch, and stopped
+at a little public-house, before the door of which stood three
+dragoons, with their horses' bridles over their arms. As speedily as
+possible, the man entered the house, and walked up stairs, where he
+found his master talking to a man, covered with dust from the road.
+
+"Mr. Mowle should have given me farther information," the young
+officer said, looking at a paper in his hand. "I could have made my
+combinations here as well as at Hythe."
+
+"He sent me off in a great hurry, sir," answered the man; "but I'll
+tell him what you say."
+
+"Stay, stay!" said the officer, holding out his hand to his servant
+for the note which he had brought. "I will tell you more in a minute,
+and breaking open the seal, he read Mr. Croyland's epistle, which was
+to the following effect.
+
+"Mr. Croyland presents his compliments to Captain Osborn, and has had
+the honour of receiving his letter, although he cannot conceive why
+Captain Osborn should wish to speak with him at Woodchurch, when he
+could so easily speak with him in his own house, yet Mr. Croyland is
+Captain Osborn's very humble servant, and will do as he bids him. As
+it is now past one o'clock, as it would take half-an-hour to get Mr.
+Croyland's carriage ready, and an hour to reach Woodchurch, and as it
+is some years since Mr. Croyland has got upon the back of anything but
+an ass, or a hobby-horse,--having moreover no asses at hand with the
+proper proportion of legs, though many, deficient in number--it is
+impossible for him to reach Woodchurch by the time stated to-day. He
+will be over at that place, however, by two o'clock to-morrow, and
+hopes that Captain Osborn will be able to return with him, and spend a
+few days in an old bachelor's house."
+
+The young officer's face was grave as he read the first part of the
+letter, but it relaxed into a smile towards the end. He then gave,
+perhaps, ten seconds to thought; after which, rousing himself
+abruptly, he turned to the dusty messenger from Hythe, and fixing a
+somewhat searching glance upon the man's face, he said--"Tell Mr.
+Mowle that I will be over with him directly, and as the troops, it
+seems, will be required on the side of Folkestone, he must have
+everything prepared on his part; for we shall have no time to spare."
+
+The man bowed with a stolid look, and withdrew; and after he had left
+the room, the officer remained silent for a moment or two, looking out
+of the window till he saw him mount his horse and depart. Then,
+descending in haste to the inn door, he gave various orders to the
+dragoons, who were there waiting. To one they were, "Ride off to
+Folkestone as fast as you can go, and tell Captain Irby to march
+immediately with his troop to Bilsington, which place he must reach
+before two o'clock in the morning." To another: "You gallop off to
+Appledore, and bid the sergeant there bring his party down to Brenzet
+Corner, in the Marsh, and put himself under the orders of Cornet
+Joyce." To the third: "You, Wood, be off to Ashford, and tell
+Lieutenant Green to bring down all his men as far as Bromley Green,
+taking up the party at Kingsnorth. Let him be there by three; and
+remember, these are private orders. Not a word to any one."
+
+The men sprang into the saddle, as soon as the last words were spoken,
+and rode away in different directions; and, after bidding his servant
+bring round his horse, the young officer remained standing at the door
+of the inn, with his tall form erect, his arms crossed upon his chest,
+and his eyes gazing towards Harbourne House. He was in the midst of
+the scenes where his early days had been spent. Every object around
+him was familiar to his eye: not a hill, not a wood, not a church
+steeple or a farm house, but had its association with some of those
+bright things which leave a lustre in the evening sky of life, even
+when the day-star of existence has set. There were the pleasant hours
+of childhood, the sports of boyhood, the dreams of youth, the love of
+early manhood. The light that memory cast upon the whole might not be
+so strong and powerful, might not present them in so real and definite
+a form, as in the full day of enjoyment; but there is a great
+difference between that light of memory, when it brightens a period of
+life that may yet renew the joys which have passed away for a time,
+and when it shines upon pleasures gone for ever. In the latter case it
+is but as the moonlight--a reflected beam, without the warmth of
+fruition or the brilliancy of hope; but in the former, it is as the
+glow of the descending sun, which sheds a purple lustre through the
+vista of the past, and gives a promise of returning joy even as it
+sinks away. He stood, then, amongst the scenes of his early years,
+with hope refreshed, though still with the remembrance of sorrows
+tempering the warmth of expectation, perhaps shading the present. It
+wanted, indeed, but some small circumstance, by bearing afar, like
+some light wind, the cloud of thought, to give to all around the
+bright hues of other days; and that was soon afforded. He had not
+remained there above two or three minutes when the landlord of the
+public-house came out, and stood directly before him.
+
+"Oh, I forgot your bill, my good fellow," said the young officer.
+"What is my score?"
+
+"No, sir, it is not that," answered the man, "but I think you have
+forgotten me. I could not let you go, however, without just asking you
+to shake hands with me, though you are a great gentleman now, and I am
+much what I was."
+
+The young officer gazed at him for a moment, and let his eye run over
+the stout limbs and portly person of the landlord, till at length he
+said, in a doubtful tone, "Surely, you cannot be young Miles, the son
+of my father's clerk?"
+
+"Ay, sir, just the same," replied the host; "but young and old, we
+change, just as women do their names when they marry. Not that six or
+seven years have made me old either; but I was six and twenty when you
+went away, and as thin as a whipping post; now I'm two and thirty, and
+as fat as a porker. That makes a wonderful difference, sir. But I'm
+glad you don't forget old times."
+
+"Forget them, Miles!" said the young officer, holding out his hand to
+him, "oh no, they are too deeply written in my heart ever to be
+blotted out! I thought I was too much changed myself for any one to
+remember me, but those who were most dear to me. What between the
+effects of time and labour, sorrow and war, I hardly fancied that any
+one in Kent would know me. But you are changed for the better, I for
+the worse. Yet I am very glad to see you, Miles; and I shall see you
+again to-morrow; for I am coming back here towards two o'clock. In the
+meantime, you need not say you have seen me; for I do not wish it to
+be known that I am here, till I have learned a little of what
+reception I am likely to have."
+
+"Oh, I understand, sir--I understand," replied the landlord; "and if
+you should want to know how the land lies, I can always tell you; for
+you see, I have the parish-clerks' club, which meets here once a week;
+and then all the news of the country comes out; and besides, many a
+one of them comes in here at other times, to have a gossip with old
+Rafe Miles's son, so that I hear everything that goes on in the county
+almost as soon as it is done; and right glad shall I be to tell you
+anything you want to know, just for old times' sake; when you used to
+go shooting snipes by the brooks, and I used to come after for the
+sport--that is to say, anything about your own people; not about the
+smugglers, you know; for they say you are sent here to put them down;
+and I should not like to peach, even to you. I heard that some great
+gentleman had come down--a Sir Harry Somebody. But I little thought it
+was you, till I saw you just now standing looking so melancholy
+towards Harbourne, and thinking, I dare say, of the old house at
+Tiffenden."
+
+"Indeed I was," answered the young officer, with a sigh. "But as to
+the smugglers, my good friend, I want no information. I am sent down
+with my regiment merely to aid the civil power, which seems totally
+incompetent to stop the daring outrages that are every day committed.
+If this were suffered to go on, all law, not only regarding the
+revenue, but even that affecting the protection of life and property,
+would soon be at an end."
+
+"That it would, sir," answered the landlord; "and it's well nigh at an
+end already, for that matter."
+
+"Well," continued the officer, "though the service is not an agreeable
+one, and I think, considering all things, might have been entrusted to
+another person, yet I have but to obey; and consequently, being here,
+am ready whenever called upon to support the officers, either of
+justice or the revenue, both by arms and by advice. But I have no
+other duty to perform, and indeed would rather not have any
+information regarding the proceedings of these misguided men, except
+through the proper channels. If I had the absolute command of the
+district, with orders to put down smuggling therein, it might be a
+different matter; but I have not."
+
+"Ay, I thought there was a mistake about it," replied Miles; "but here
+is your horse, sir. I shall see you to-morrow, then?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the officer; and having paid his score, he
+mounted and rode away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The colonel of the dragoon regiment rode into Hythe coolly and calmly,
+followed by his servant; for though, to say the truth, he had pushed
+his horse very fast for some part of the way, he judged it expedient
+not to cause any bustle in the town by an appearance of haste and
+excitement. It was customary in those days for officers in the army in
+active service, even when not on actual duty, to appear in their
+regimental uniform; but this practice the gentleman in question had
+dispensed with since he left London, on many motives, both public and
+personal; and though he wore the cockade--at that time the sign and
+symbol of a military man, or of one who affected that position, yet he
+generally appeared in plain clothes, except when any large body of the
+troops were gathered together.
+
+At the door of the inn where he had fixed his headquarters, and in the
+passage leading from it into the house, were a number of private
+soldiers and a sergeant; and amongst them appeared Mr. Mowle, the
+Custom-House officer, waiting the arrival of the commander of the
+dragoons. As the latter dismounted, Mowle advanced to his side, saying
+something in a low voice. The young officer looked at the sky, which
+was still glowing bright with the sun, which had about an hour and
+a-half to run ere it reached the horizon.
+
+"In an hour, Mr. Mowle," replied the officer: "there will be time
+enough. Make all your own arrangements in the meanwhile."
+
+"But, sir, if you have to send to Folkestone?" said Mowle. "You
+misunderstood me, I think."
+
+"No, no," answered the colonel, "I did not. You misunderstood me. Come
+back in an hour.--If you show haste or anxiety, you will put the enemy
+on his guard."
+
+After having said these few words in a low tone, he entered the house,
+gave some orders to the soldiers, several of whom sauntered away
+slowly to their quarters, as if the business of the day were over; and
+then, proceeding to his own room, he rang the bell and ordered dinner.
+
+"I thought there was a bit of a bustle, sir?" said the landlord,
+inquiringly, as he put the first dish upon the table.
+
+"Oh dear, no," replied the colonel. "Did you mean about these men who
+have escaped?"
+
+"I didn't know about what, colonel," answered the landlord, "but
+seeing Mr. Mowle waiting for you----"
+
+"You thought it must be about them," added the officer; "but you are
+mistaken, my good friend. There is no bustle at all. The men will,
+doubtless, soon be taken, one after the other, by the constables. At
+all events, that is an affair with which I can have nothing to do."
+
+The landlord immediately retreated, loaded with intelligence, and
+informed two men who were sipping rum-and-water in the tap-room, that
+Mowle had come to ask the colonel to help in apprehending "the Major"
+and others who had been rescued, and that the colonel would have
+nothing to do with it.
+
+The men finished their grog much more rapidly than they had begun it,
+and then walked out of the house, probably to convey the tidings
+elsewhere. Now, the town of Hythe is composed, as every one knows, of
+one large and principal street nearly at the bottom of the hill, with
+several back streets--or perhaps lanes we might call them--running
+parallel to the first, and a great number of shorter ones running up
+and down the hill, and connecting the principal thoroughfare with
+those behind it. Many--nay, I might say most--of the houses in the
+main street had, at the time I speak of, a back as well as a front
+entrance. They might sometimes have even more than one; for there were
+trades carried on in Hythe, as the reader has been made aware, which
+occasionally required rapid and secret modes of exit. Nor was the
+house in which the young commander of dragoons resided without its
+conveniences in this respect; but it happened that Mowle, the officer,
+was well acquainted with all its different passages and contrivances;
+and consequently he took advantage, on his return at the end of an
+hour, of one of the small lanes, which led him by a back way into the
+inn. Then ascending a narrow staircase without disturbing anybody, he
+made his way to the room he sought, where he found the colonel of the
+regiment quietly writing some letters after his brief meal was over.
+
+"Well, Mr. Mowle!" said the young officer, folding up, and sealing the
+note he had just concluded--"now, let me hear what you have
+discovered, and where you wish the troops to be."
+
+"I am afraid, sir, we have lost time," answered Mowle; "for I can't
+tell at what time the landing will take place."
+
+"Not before midnight," replied his companion; "there is no vessel in
+sight, and, with the wind at this quarter, they can't be very quick in
+their movements."
+
+"Why, probably not before midnight, sir," answered Mowle; "but there
+are not above fifty of your men within ten miles round, and if you've
+to send for them to Folkestone and Ashford, and out almost to
+Staplehurst, they will have no time to make ready and march; and the
+fellows will be off into the Weald before we can catch them."
+
+The young officer smiled: "Then you think fifty men will not be
+enough?" he asked.
+
+"Not half enough," answered Mowle, beginning to set down his companion
+as a person of very little intellect or energy--"why, from what I
+hear, there will be some two or three hundred of these fellows down,
+to carry the goods after they are run, and every one of them equal to
+a dragoon, at any time."
+
+"Well, we shall see!" said the young officer, coolly. "You are sure
+that Dymchurch is the place?"
+
+"Why, somewhere thereabouts, sir; and that's a long way off," answered
+Mowle; "so if you have any arrangements to make, you had better make
+them."
+
+"They are all made," replied the colonel; "but tell me, Mr. Mowle,
+does it not frequently take place that, when smugglers are pursued in
+the marsh, they throw their goods into the cuts and canals and creeks
+by which it is intersected."
+
+"To be sure they do, sir," exclaimed the officer; "and they'll do that
+to a certainty, if we can't prevent them landing; and, if we attack
+them in the Marsh----"
+
+"To prevent them landing," said the gentleman, "seems to me impossible
+in the present state of affairs; and I do not know whether it would be
+expedient, even if we could. Your object is to seize the goods, both
+for your own benefit and that of the state, and to take as many
+prisoners as possible. Now, from what you told me yesterday, I find
+that you have no force at sea, except a few miserable boats----"
+
+"I sent off for the revenue cruiser this morning, sir," answered
+Mowle.
+
+"But she is not come," rejoined the officer; "and, consequently, must
+be thrown out of our combinations. If we assemble a large force at any
+point of the coast, the smugglers on shore will have warning. They may
+easily find means of giving notice of the fact to their comrades at
+sea--the landing may be effected at a different point from that now
+proposed, and the goods carried clear off before we can reach them. It
+seems to me, therefore, better for you to let the landing take place
+quietly. As soon as it has taken place, the beacons will be lighted by
+my orders; the very fact of a signal they don't understand will throw
+the smugglers into some confusion; and they will hurry out of the
+Marsh as fast as possible----"
+
+"But suppose they separate, and all take different roads," said Mowle.
+
+"Then all, or almost all, the different parties will be met with and
+stopped," replied the officer.
+
+"But your men cannot act without a requisition from the Customs, sir,"
+answered Mowle, "and they are so devilish cautious of committing
+themselves----"
+
+"But I am not," rejoined the colonel; "and every party along the whole
+line has notice that the firing of the beacons is to be taken as a
+signal that due requisition has been made, and has orders also to stop
+any body of men carrying goods that they may meet with. But I do not
+think that these smugglers will separate at all, Mr. Mowle. Their only
+chance of safety must seem to them--not knowing how perfectly prepared
+we are--to lie in their numbers and their union. While acting
+together, their numbers, it appears from your account, would be
+sufficient to force any one post opposed to them, according to the
+arrangements which they have every reason to believe still exist; and
+they will not throw away that chance. It is, therefore, my belief that
+they will make their way out of the Marsh in one body. After that,
+leave them to me. I will take the responsibility upon myself."
+
+"Very well, colonel--very well!" said Mowle; "if you are ready without
+my knowing anything about it, all the better. Only the fellow I sent
+you brought back word something about Folkestone."
+
+"That was merely because I did not like the man's look," replied the
+young officer, "and thought you would understand that a message sent
+you in so public a manner, upon a business which required secrecy,
+must not be read in its direct sense."
+
+"Oh, I see, colonel--I see," cried the officer of Customs; "it was
+stupid enough not to understand. All my people are ready, however; and
+if we could but discover the hour the run is to be made, we should
+have a pretty sure game of it."
+
+"Cannot the same person who gave you so much intelligence, give you
+that also?" asked his companion.
+
+"Why, no; either the imp can't, or he wont," said Mowle. "I had to pay
+him ten pounds for what tidings I got, for the little wretch is as
+cunning as Satan."
+
+"Are you sure the intelligence was correct?" demanded the officer of
+dragoons.
+
+"Oh yes, sir," replied Mowle. "His tidings have always been quite
+right; and besides, I've the means of testing this myself; for he told
+me where they are to meet--at least a large party of them--before
+going down to the shore. I've a very great mind to disguise myself,
+and creep in among them."
+
+"A very hazardous experiment, I should think," said the colonel; "and
+I do not see any object worth the risk."
+
+"Why, the object would be to get information of the hour," answered
+Mowle. "If we could learn that, some time before, we could have
+everything ready, and have them watched all through the Marsh."
+
+"Well, you must use your own judgment in that particular!" answered
+the young officer; "but I tell you, I am quite prepared myself; and
+such a large body as you have mentioned cannot cross a considerable
+extent of country without attracting attention."
+
+"Well, I'll see, sir--I'll see," answered Mowle; "but had I not better
+send off two or three officers towards Dymchurch, to give your men
+notice as soon as the goods are landed?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," answered the colonel. "There's a party at New Romney,
+and a party at Burmarsh. They both have their orders, and as soon as
+they have intimation, will act upon them. I would have enough men
+present, if I were you, to watch the coast well, but with strict
+orders to do nothing to create alarm."
+
+Some minor arrangements were then entered into, of no great importance
+to the tale; and Mowle took his leave, after having promised to give
+the colonel the very first intimation he received of the farther
+proceedings of the smugglers.
+
+The completion of his own arrangements took the Custom-House officer
+half an hour more, and at the end of that time he returned to his own
+dwelling, and sat down for a while, to think over the next step. He
+felt a strong inclination to visit the meeting place of the smugglers
+in person. He was, as we have shown, a man of a daring and adventurous
+disposition, strong in nerve, firm in heart, and with, perhaps, too
+anxious a sense of duty. Indeed, he was rather inclined to be rash
+than otherwise, from the apprehension of having anything like fear
+attributed to him in the execution of the service he had undertaken;
+but still he could not shut his eyes to the fact that the scheme he
+meditated was full of peril to himself. The men amongst whom he
+proposed to venture were lawless, sanguinary, and unscrupulous; and,
+if discovered, he had every reason to believe that his life would be
+sacrificed by them without the slightest hesitation or remorse. He was
+their most persevering enemy; he had spared them on no occasion; and
+although he had dealt fairly by them, yet many of those who were
+likely to be present, had suffered severe punishment at his
+instigation and by his means. He hesitated a little, and called to
+mind what the colonel had said regarding the hazard of the act, and
+the want of sufficient object; but then, suddenly starting up, he
+looked forward with a frowning brow, exclaiming, "Why, hang it, I'm
+not afraid! I'll go, whatever befals me. It's my duty not to leave any
+chance for information untried. That young fellow is mighty cool about
+the business; and if these men get off, it shall not be any fault of
+mine."
+
+Thus saying, he lighted a candle, and went into an adjoining room,
+where, from a large commode, filled with a strange medley of different
+dresses and implements, he chose out a wagoner's frock, a large pair
+of leathern leggings, or gaiters, and a straw hat, such as was very
+commonly used at that time amongst the peasantry of England. After
+gazing at them for a moment or two, and turning them over once or
+twice, he put them on, and then, with a pair of sharp scissors, cut
+away, in a rough and unceremonious fashion, a considerable quantity of
+his black hair, which was generally left rough and floating. High up
+over his neck, and round his chin, he tied a large blue handkerchief,
+and when thus completely accoutred, gave himself a glance in the
+glass, saying, "I don't think I should know myself."
+
+He seemed considerably reassured at finding himself so completely
+disguised; and then looking at his watch, and perceiving that the hour
+named for the meeting was approaching, he put a brace of pistols in
+his breast, where they could be easily reached through the opening in
+front of the smock-frock.
+
+He had already reached the door, when something seemed to strike
+him; and saying to himself--"Well, there's no knowing what may
+happen!--it's better to prepare against anything," he turned back to
+his sitting-room, and wrote down on a sheet of paper:
+
+
+"Sir,--I am gone up to see what they are about. If I should not be
+back by eleven, you may be sure they have caught me, and then you must
+do your best with Birchett and the others. If I get off, I'll call in
+as I come back, and let you know.
+
+             "Sir, your very obedient servant,
+
+                              "William Mowle."
+
+
+As soon as this was done, he folded the note up, addressed, and sealed
+it; and then, blowing the light out, he called an old female servant
+who had lived in his house for many years, and whom he now directed to
+carry the epistle to the colonel of dragoons who was up at the inn,
+adding that she was to deliver it with her own hand.
+
+The old woman took it at once; and knowing well, how usual it was for
+the Custom-House officers to disguise their persons in various ways,
+she took no notice of the strange change in Mr. Mowle's appearance,
+though it was so complete that it could not well escape her eyes, even
+in the darkness which reigned throughout the house.
+
+This having been all arranged, and the maid on her way to convey the
+letter, Mowle himself walked slowly forward through the long narrow
+lanes at the back of the town, and along the path up towards Saltwood.
+It was dusk when he set out, but not yet quite dark; and as he went,
+he met two people of the town, whom he knew well, but who only replied
+to the awkward nod of the head which he gave them, by saying, "Good
+night, my man," and walked on, evidently unconscious that they were
+passing an acquaintance.
+
+As he advanced, however, the night grew darker and more dark; and a
+fog began to rise, though not so thick as that of the night before.
+Mowle muttered to himself, as he observed it creeping up the hill from
+the side of the valley, "Ay, this is what the blackguards calculated
+upon, and they are always sure to be right about the weather; but it
+will serve my turn as well as theirs;" and on he went in the direction
+of the castle, keeping the regular road by the side of the hill, and
+eschewing especially the dwelling of Galley Ray and her grandson.
+
+Born in that part of the country, and perfectly well prepared, both to
+find his way about every part of the ruins, and to speak the dialect
+of the county in its broadest accent, if he should be questioned, the
+darkness was all that he could desire; and it was with pleasure that
+he found the obscurity so deep that even he could not see the large
+stones which at that time lay in the road, causing him to stumble more
+than once as he approached the castle. He was in some hope, indeed, of
+reaching the ruins before the smugglers began to assemble, and of
+finding a place of concealment whence he could overhear their sayings
+and doings; but in this expectation, he discovered, as he approached
+the walls, that he should be disappointed; for in the open road
+between the castle and the village, he found a number of horses tied,
+and two men watching. He trudged on past them, however, with a slow
+step and a slouching gait; and when one of the men called out, "Is
+that you, Jack?" he answered, "Ay, ay!" without stopping.
+
+At the gate of the court he heard a good many voices talking within;
+and, it must be acknowledged, that, although as brave a man as ever
+lived, he was not without a strong sense of the dangers of his
+situation. But he suffered it not to master him in the least; and
+advancing resolutely, he soon got the faint outline of several groups
+of men--amounting in the whole to about thirty--assembled on the green
+between the walls and the keep. Walking resolutely up to one of these
+little knots, he looked boldly amongst the persons it comprised as if
+seeking for somebody. Their faces could scarcely be distinguished; but
+the voices of one or two who were talking together, showed him that
+the group was a hazardous one, as it contained several of the most
+notorious smugglers of the neighbourhood, who had but too good cause
+to be well acquainted with his person and his tongue. He went on,
+consequently, to the next little party, which he soon judged, from the
+conversation he overheard, to be principally composed of strangers.
+One man spoke of how they did those things in Sussex, and told of how
+he had aided to haul up, Heaven knows how many bales of goods over the
+bare face of the cliff between Hastings and Winchelsea. Judging,
+therefore, that he was here in security, the officer attached himself
+to this group, and, after a while, ventured to ask, "Do ye know what's
+to be the hour, about?"
+
+The man he spoke to answered "No!" adding that, they could not tell
+anything "till the gentleman came." This, however, commenced a
+conversation, and Mowle was speedily identified with that group,
+which, consisting entirely of strangers, as he had supposed, did not
+mingle much with the rest. Every one present was armed; and he found
+that though some had come on foot like himself, the greater part had
+journeyed on horseback. He had a good opportunity also of learning
+that, notwithstanding every effort made by the Government, the system
+of smuggling was carried on along the coast to a much greater extent
+than even he himself had been aware of. Many of his brother officers
+were spoken of in high terms of commendation, which did not sound very
+satisfactory to his ears; and many a hint for his future operations,
+he gained from the gossip of those who surrounded him.
+
+Still time wore on, and he began to be a little uneasy lest he should
+be detained longer than the hour which he had specified in his note to
+the colonel of dragoons. But at length, towards ten o'clock, the quick
+tramping of a number of horses were heard, and several voices
+speaking; and a minute after, five or six and twenty men entered the
+grass court, and came up hastily to the rest.
+
+"Now, are you all ready?" cried a voice, which Mowle instantly
+recognised as that of young Radford.
+
+"Yes, we've been waiting these two hours," answered one of those in
+the group which the officer had first approached; "but you'll never
+have enough here, sir."
+
+"Never you mind that," rejoined Richard Radford, "there are eighty
+more at Lympne, and a good number down at Dymchurch already,
+with plenty of horses. Come, muster, muster, and let us be off,
+for the landing will begin at one, and we have a good long way to
+go.--Remember, every one," he continued, raising his voice, "that
+the way is by Butter's Bridge, and then down and along the shore. If
+any one takes the road by Burmarsh he will fall in with the dragoons.
+Troop off, my men, troop off. You Ned, and you Major, see that the
+court is quite cleared; we must have none lagging behind."
+
+This precaution did not at all disconcert our good friend Mowle, for
+he judged that he should very easily find the means of detaching
+himself from the rest, at the nearest point to Hythe; and accordingly
+he walked on with the party he had joined, till they arrived at the
+spot where they had seen the horses tied. There, however, the greater
+part mounted, and the others joined a different body, which Mowle was
+well aware was not quite so safe; for acting as the chief thereof, and
+looking very sharply after his party too, was no other than our friend
+the Major. Mowle now took good care to keep silence--a prudent step,
+which was enjoined upon them all by Mr. Radford and some others, who
+seemed to have the direction of the affair. But notwithstanding every
+care, the tread of so many men and so many horses made a considerable
+noise; and just as they were passing a small cottage, not a quarter of
+a mile from Saltwood, the good dame within opened the door to see what
+such a bustle could be about. As she did so, the light from the
+interior fell full upon Mowle's face, and the eyes of the Major,
+turned towards the door at the same moment, rested upon him for an
+instant, and were then withdrawn. It were vain to say, that the worthy
+officer felt quite as comfortable at that moment as if he had been in
+his own house; but when no notice was taken, he comforted himself with
+the thought that his disguise had served him well, and trudged on with
+the rest, without showing any hesitation or surprise. About half a
+mile farther lay the turning which he proposed to take to reach Hythe;
+and he contrived to get over to the left side of the party, in order
+to drop off in that direction unperceived. When he was within ten
+steps of it, however, and was congratulating himself that the party,
+having scattered a little, gave him greater facilities for executing
+his scheme, an arm was familiarly thrust through his own, and a pair
+of lips, close to his ear, said in a low, but very distinct tone, "I
+know you--and if you attempt to get off, you are a dead man! Continue
+with the party, and you are safe. When the goods are landed and gone,
+you shall go; but the least suspicious movement before, shall bring
+twenty bullets into your head. You did me a good turn yesterday
+morning before the Justices, in not raking up old offences; and I am
+willing to do you a good turn now; but this is all I can do for you."
+
+Mowle turned round, well knowing the voice, nodded his head, and
+walked on with the rest in the direction of Lympne.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Towards half-past ten o'clock at night, the Inn at Hythe was somewhat
+quieter than it had been on the evening before. This was not a punch
+club night; there was no public dinner going forward; a great many
+accustomed guests were absent, and the house was left nearly vacant of
+all visitors, except the young commandant of the dragoons, his two or
+three servants, and three stout-looking old soldiers, who had come in
+about ten, and taken possession of the tap-room, in their full
+uniform, scaring away, as it would seem, a sharp-looking man, who had
+been previously drinking there in solitude, only cheered by the
+occasional visits and brief conversation of the landlord. The officer
+himself was up stairs in his room, with a soldier at his door, as
+usual, and was supposed by all the household to be busy writing; but,
+in the meanwhile, there was a good deal of bustle in the stables; and
+about a quarter before eleven, the ostler came in, and informed the
+landlord, that they were saddling three of the colonel's horses, and
+his two grooms' horses.
+
+"Saddling three!" cried the host; "why, he can't ride three horses at
+once, anyhow; and where can he be going to ride to-night? I must run
+and see if I can pump it out of the fellows;" and away he walked
+to the stables, where he found the men--two grooms, and two
+helpers--busily engaged in the occupation which the ostler had stated.
+
+"Ah," said the landlord, "so there is something going on to-night?"
+
+"Not that I know of," answered the head groom. "Tie down that holster,
+Bill. The thongs are loose--don't you see?"
+
+"Oh, but there must be something in the wind," rejoined the landlord,
+"the colonel wouldn't ride out so late else."
+
+"Lord bless you!" replied the man, "little you know of his ways. Why,
+sometimes he'll have us all up at two or three in the morning, just to
+visit a post of perhaps twenty men. He's a smart officer, I can tell
+you; and no one must be caught napping in his regiment, that's
+certain."
+
+"But you have saddled three horses for him!" said the landlord,
+returning to his axiom; "and he can't ride three at once, any how."
+
+"Ay, but who can tell which he may like to ride?" rejoined the groom,
+"we shan't know anything about that, till he comes into the stable,
+most likely."
+
+"And where is he going to, to-night?" asked the landlord.
+
+"We can't tell that he's going anywhere," answered the man; "but if he
+does, I should suppose it would be to Folkestone. The major is away on
+leave, you know; and it is just as likely as not, that he'll go over
+to see that all's right there."
+
+The worthy host was not altogether satisfied with the information he
+received; but as he clearly saw that he should get no more, he
+retired, and went into the tap, to try the dragoons, without being
+more successful in that quarter than he had been in the stables.
+
+In the meantime, his guest up stairs had finished his letters--had
+dressed himself in uniform--armed himself, and laid three brace of
+pistols, charged, upon the table, for the holsters of his saddles; and
+then taking a large map of the county, he leaned over it, tracing the
+different roads, which at that time intersected the Weald of Kent. Two
+or three times he took out his watch; and as the hour of eleven drew
+near, he began to feel considerable alarm for the fate of poor Mowle.
+
+"If they discover him, they will murder him, to a certainty," he
+thought; "and I believe a more honest fellow does not live.--It was a
+rash and foolish undertaking. The measures I have adopted could not
+fail.--Hark! there is the clock striking. We must lose no more time.
+We may save him yet, or at all events, avenge him." He then called the
+soldier from the door, and sent off a messenger to the house of the
+second officer of Customs, named Birchett, who came up in a few
+minutes.
+
+"Mr. Birchett," said the colonel, "I fear our friend Mowle has got
+himself into a scrape;" and he proceeded to detail as many of the
+circumstances as were necessary to enable the other to comprehend the
+situation of affairs; and ended by asking, "Are you prepared to act in
+Mr. Mowle's absence?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," answered Birchett. "Mowle did not tell me the
+business; but he said, I must have my horse saddled. He was always a
+close fellow, and kept all the intelligence to himself."
+
+"In this case it was absolutely necessary," replied the colonel; "but
+without any long explanations, I think you had better ride down
+towards Dymchurch at once, with all the men you can trust, keeping as
+sharp a look-out as you can on the coast, and sending me information
+the moment you receive intelligence that the run has been effected. Do
+not attempt to attack the smugglers without sufficient force; but
+despatch two men by different roads, to intimate the fact to me at
+Aldington Knowle, where I shall be found throughout the night."
+
+"Ay, sir," answered the officer, "but suppose the fellows take along
+by Burmarsh, and so up to Hardy Pool. They will pass you, and be off
+into the country before anything can be done."
+
+"They will be stopped at Burmarsh," replied the colonel; "orders have
+been given to barricade the road at nightfall, and to defend the
+hamlet against any one coming from the sea. I shall establish another
+post at Lympne as I go. Leave all that to me."
+
+"But you must have a requisition, sir, or I suppose you are not
+authorized to act," said the officer. "I will get one for you in a
+minute."
+
+"I have one," answered the Colonel, laying hand on the papers before
+him; "but even were it not so, I should act on my own responsibility.
+This is no ordinary case, Mr. Birchett. All you have to do is to ride
+off towards Dymchurch as fast as you can, to give me notice that the
+smugglers have landed their goods as soon as you find that such is the
+case, and to add any information that you can gain respecting the
+course they have taken. Remember, not to attack them unless you find
+that you have sufficient force, but follow and keep them in sight as
+far as you can."
+
+"It's such a devilish foggy night, sir," said Birchett.
+
+"It will be clearer inland," replied the young officer; "and we shall
+catch them at day break. We can only fail from want of good
+information; so see that I have the most speedy intelligence. But
+stay--lest anything should go wrong, or be misunderstood with regard
+to the beacons, you may as well, if you have men to spare, send off as
+you pass, after the run has been effected, to the different posts at
+Brenzet, at Snave, at Ham Street, with merely these words, 'The goods
+are landed. The smugglers are at such a place.' The parties will act
+upon the orders they have already received. Now away, and lose no
+time!"
+
+The riding officer hurried off, and the colonel of the regiment
+descended to the court-yard. In three minutes more the sound of a
+trumpet was heard in the streets of Hythe, and in less than ten, a
+party of about thirty dragoons were marching out of the town towards
+Lympne. A halt for about five minutes was made at the latter place,
+and the small party of soldiers was diminished to about half its
+number. Information, too, was there received, from one of the
+cottagers, of a large body of men (magnified in his account into three
+or four hundred) having gone down into the marshes about half an hour
+before; but the commanding officer made no observation in reply, and
+having given the orders he thought necessary, rode on towards
+Aldington. The fog was thick in all the low ground, but cleared away a
+good deal upon the more elevated spots; and as they were rising one of
+the hills, the Serjeant who was with the party exclaimed, "There is
+something very red up there, sir! It looks as if there were a beacon
+lighted up, if we could see it for the fog."
+
+The young officer halted for a moment, looked round, and then rode on
+till he reached the summit of the hill, whence a great light, clearly
+proceeding from a beacon, was discovered to the north-east.
+
+"That must be near Postling," he said. "We have no party there. It
+must be some signal of their own." And as he rode on, he thought, "It
+is not impossible that poor Mowle's rashness may have put these men on
+their guard, and thus thwarted the whole scheme. That is clearly some
+warning to their boats."
+
+But ere a quarter of an hour more had passed, he saw the probability
+of still more disastrous effects, resulting from the lighting of the
+beacon on Tolsford Hill; for another flame shot up, casting a red
+glare through the haze from the side of Burmarsh, and then another and
+another, till the dim air seemed all tinged with flame.
+
+"An unlucky error," he said to himself. "Serjeant Jackson should have
+known that we have no party in that quarter; and the beacons were only
+to be lighted, from the first towards Hythe. It is very strange how
+the clearest orders are sometimes misunderstood."
+
+He rode on, however, at a quick pace, till he reached Aldington
+Knowle, and had found the highest ground in the neighbourhood, whence,
+after pausing for a minute or two to examine the country, as marked
+out by the various fires, he dispatched three of the dragoons in
+different directions, with orders to the parties in the villages round
+to disregard the lights they saw, and not to act upon the orders
+previously given, till they received intimation that the smugglers
+were on the march.
+
+It was now about midnight, and during nearly two hours the young
+officer remained stationed upon the hill without any one approaching,
+or any sound breaking the stillness of the night but the stamping of
+the horses of his little force and the occasional clang of the
+soldiers' arms. At the end of that period, the tramp of horse coming
+along the road at a quick pace from the side of Hythe, was heard by
+the party on the more elevated ground at a little distance from the
+highway. There was a tightening of the bridle and a movement of the
+heel amongst the men, to bring their chargers into more regular line;
+but not a word was said, and the colonel remained in front, with his
+arms crossed upon his chest and his rein thrown down, while what
+appeared from the sound to be a considerable body of cavalry, passed
+before him. He could not see them, it is true, from the darkness of
+the night; but his ear recognised in a moment the jingling of the
+dragoons' arms, and he concluded rightly, that the party consisted of
+the company which he had ordered from Folkestone down to Bilsington.
+As soon as they had gone on, he detached a man to the next cross road
+on the same side, with orders, if he perceived any body of men coming
+across from the side of the Marsh, to ride forward at once to the
+officer in command at Bilsington, and direct him to move to the north,
+keeping the Priory wood on the right, till he reached the cross-roads
+at the corner, and wait there for further orders. The beacons had by
+this time burnt out; and all remained dark and still for about half an
+hour more, when the quick galloping of a horse was heard coming from
+the side of the Marsh. A pause took place as soon as the animal
+reached the high road, as if the rider had halted to look for some one
+he had expected; and--dashing down instantly through the gate of the
+field, which had been opened by the dragoons to gain the highest point
+of ground--the young officer exclaimed, "Who goes there?"
+
+"Ah, colonel, is that you?" cried the voice of Birchett. "They are
+coming up as fast as they can come, and will pass either by Bilsington
+or Bonnington. There's a precious lot of them--I never saw such a
+number gathered before. Mowle's gone, poor fellow, to a certainty; for
+we've seen nothing of him down there."
+
+"Nor I either," answered the young officer, with a sigh. "I hope you
+have left men to watch them, Mr. Birchett."
+
+"Oh yes, sir," replied the officer. "I thought it better to come up
+myself, than trust to any other. But I left Clinch and the rest there,
+and sent off, as you told me, to all your posts."
+
+"You are sure they will come by Bilsington or Bonnington, and not
+strike off by Kitsbridge, towards Ham Street or Warehorn?" demanded
+the young officer.
+
+"If they do, they'll have to turn all the way back," answered
+Birchett; "for I saw them to the crossing of the roads, and then came
+across by Sherlock's Bridges and the horse-road to Hurst."
+
+"And are you quite sure," continued the colonel, "that your messengers
+will reach the parties at Brenzet or Snave?"
+
+"Quite, sir," answered the Custom-House officer; "for I did not send
+them off till the blackguards had passed, and the country behind was
+clear."
+
+"That was judicious; and we have them," rejoined the young officer. "I
+trust they may take by Bonnington; but it will be necessary to
+ascertain the fact. You shall go down, Mr. Birchett, yourself, with
+some of the troopers, and reconnoitre. Go as cautiously as possible;
+and if you see or hear them passing, fall back quietly. If they do not
+appear in reasonable time, send me intelligence. You can calculate the
+distances better than I can."
+
+"I believe they will go by Bonnington," said the Customs officer; "for
+it's much shorter, and I think they must know of your party at
+Bilsington; though, to be sure, they could easily force that, for it
+is but a sergeant's guard."
+
+"You are mistaken," answered the colonel.
+
+"Captain Irby is there with his troop; and, together with the parties
+moving up, on a line with the smugglers from the Marsh, he will have a
+hundred and fifty men, either in Bilsington, or three miles in his
+rear. Nevertheless, we must give him help, in case they take that
+road; so you had better ride down at once, Mr. Birchett."
+
+And, ordering three of the privates to accompany the Custom-House
+officer, with renewed injunctions to caution and silence, he resumed
+his position on the hill, and waited in expectation of the result.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The cottages round Dymchurch, and the neighbourhood of the Gut, as it
+is called, showed many a cheerful light about eleven o'clock, on the
+night of which we have just been speaking; and, as the evening had
+been cold and damp, it seemed natural enough to the two officers of
+Customs stationed in the place--or at least they chose to think
+so--that the poor people should have a fire to keep them warm. If they
+had judged it expedient to go forth, instead of remaining in the house
+appropriated to them, they might indeed have discovered a fragrant
+odour of good Hollands, and every now and then a strong smell of
+brandy, issuing from any hovel door that happened to open as they
+passed. But the two officers did not judge it expedient to go forth;
+for it was late, they were warm and comfortable where they were, a
+good bowl of punch stood before them, and one of them, as he ladled
+out the exhilarating liquor to the other, remarked, with philosophical
+sagacity, "It's such a foggy night, who the deuce could see anything
+on the water even if they went to look for it?"
+
+The other laughed, with a meaning wink of his eye, and perfectly
+agreed in the justice of his companion's observation. "Well, we must
+go out, Jim, about twelve," he said, "just to let old Mowle see that
+we are looking about; but you can go down to High Nook, and I can
+pretend I heard something suspicious in the Marsh, farther up.
+Otherwise, we shall be broke, to a certainty."
+
+"I don't care, if I am broke," answered the other. "I've got all that
+I want now, and can set up a shop."
+
+"Well, I should like to hold on a little longer," replied his more
+prudent companion; "and besides, if they found us out, they might do
+worse than discharge us."
+
+"But how the deuce should they find us out?" asked the other. "Nobody
+saw me speak to the old gentleman; and nobody saw you. I didn't: nor
+did you see me. So we can say nothing, and nobody else can say
+anything--I shan't budge."
+
+"Well, I shall!" said the other. "'Tis but a walk; and you know quite
+well, Jim, that if we keep to the westward, it's all safe."
+
+It was evident to the last speaker that his comrade had drunk quite
+enough punch; but still they went on till the bowl was finished; and
+then, the one going out, the other did not choose to remain, but
+issued forth also, cursing and growling as he went. The murmur of a
+good many voices to the eastward of Dymchurch saluted their ears the
+moment they quitted the house; but that sound only induced them to
+hasten their steps in the opposite direction.
+
+The noise which produced this effect upon the officers, had also been
+heard by another person, who was keeping his solitary watch on the low
+shore, three or four hundred yards from the village; and to him it was
+a pleasant sound. He had been on the look-out there for nearly two
+hours; and no sight had he seen, nor sound had he heard, but the water
+coming up as the tide made, and every now and then driving him further
+back to avoid the ripple of the wave. Two or three minutes after, a
+step could be distinguished; and some one gave a whistle.
+
+The watcher whistled in return; and the next instant he was joined by
+another person, somewhat taller than himself, who inquired, "Have you
+heard anything of them yet?"
+
+"No, sir," answered the man, in a respectful tone. "Everything has
+been as still and as sleepy as an old woman's cat."
+
+"Then what the devil's the meaning of these fires all over the
+country?" asked young Radford; for he it was who had come down.
+
+"Fires, sir?" said the man. "Why they were to light one upon Tolsford
+Hill, when Harding sent up the rockets; but I have heard of none but
+that, and have seen none at all."
+
+"Why, they are blazing all over the country," cried young Radford,
+from Tolsford to Dungeness. "If it's any of our people that have done
+it, they must be mad."
+
+"Well, if they have lighted the one at Tolsford,"' answered the man,
+"we shall soon have Tom Hazlewood down to tell us more; for he was to
+set off and gallop as fast as possible, whenever he saw anything."
+
+Young Radford made no reply, but stood musing in silence for two or
+three minutes; and then starting, he exclaimed, "Hark! wasn't that a
+cheer from the sea?"
+
+"I didn't hear it," answered the man; "but I thought I heard some one
+riding."
+
+Young Radford listened; but all seemed still for a moment, till,
+coming upon harder ground, a horse's feet sounded distinctly.
+
+"Tom Hazlewood, I think," cried Radford. "Run up, and see, Bill!"
+
+"He'll come straight down here, sir," replied the man; "he knows where
+to find me." And almost as he spoke, a man on horseback galloped up,
+saying, "They must be well in shore now."
+
+"Who the devil lighted all those fires?" exclaimed young Radford. "Why
+they will alarm the whole country!"
+
+"I don't know, sir," answered the man on horseback; "I lighted the one
+at Tolsford, but I've nothing to do with the others, and don't know
+who lighted them."
+
+"Then you saw the rockets?" demanded the young gentleman.
+
+"Quite clear, sir," replied Hazlewood; "I got upon the highest point
+that I could find, and kept looking out over the sea, thinking I
+should see nothing; for though it was quite clear up so high, and the
+stars shining as bright as possible, yet all underneath was like a
+great white cloud rolled about; but suddenly, as I was looking over
+this way, I saw something like a star shoot up from the cloud and
+burst into a thousand bright sparks, making quite a blaze all round
+it; and then came another, and then another. So, being quite sure that
+it was Jack Harding at sea, I ran down as hard as I could to where I
+had left Peter by the pile of wood and the two old barrels, and taking
+the candle out of his lantern, thrust it in. As soon as it was in a
+blaze, I got outside my horse and galloped down; for he could not be
+more than two or three miles out when I saw the rockets."
+
+"Then he must be close in now," answered Richard Radford; "and we had
+better get all the men down, and spread out."
+
+"There will be time enough, sir, I should think," observed the man on
+foot, "for he'll get the big boats in, as near as he can, before he
+loads the little ones."
+
+"I will fire a pistol, to let him know where we are," answered young
+Radford; and drawing one from his belt, he had cocked it, when the man
+on foot stopped him, saying, "There are two officers in Dymchurch, you
+know, sir, and they may send off for troops."
+
+"Pooh--nonsense!" replied Richard Radford, firing the pistol in the
+air; "do you think we would have left them there, if we were not sure
+of them?"
+
+In somewhat less than a minute, a distinct cheer was heard from the
+sea; and at the sound of the pistol, a crowd of men and horses, which
+in the mist and darkness seemed innumerable, began to gather down upon
+the shore, as near to the water's edge as they could come. A great
+many lanterns were produced, and a strange and curious sight it was to
+see the number of wild-looking faces which appeared by that dim,
+uncertain light.
+
+"Ned Ramley!" cried young Radford.
+
+"Here I am, sir," answered a voice close at hand.
+
+"Where's the Major?"
+
+"Major! Major!" shouted Ramley.
+
+"Coming," answered a voice at some distance. "Stand by him, and do as
+I told you!"
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Richard Radford, as the Major came up.
+
+"Oh, nothing, sir!" replied the other; "only a man I found larking
+about. He says he's willing to help; but I thought it best to set a
+watch upon him, as I don't know him."
+
+"That was right," said the young gentleman. "But, hark!--there are the
+oars!" And the sound of the regular sweep, and the shifting beat of
+the oar against the rowlocks, was distinctly heard by all present.
+Some of the men waded down into the water, there being very little sea
+running, and soon, through the mist, six boats of a tolerable size
+could be seen pulling hard towards the land. In another moment, amidst
+various cries and directions, they touched the shore. Several men
+jumped out of each into the water, and a number of the party which had
+come down to meet them, running in, caught hold of the ropes that were
+thrown out of the boats, and with marvellous rapidity they were drawn
+up till they were high and dry.
+
+"Ah, Harding, is that you?" said young Radford, addressing the
+smuggler, who had been steering the largest boat. "This is capitally
+managed. You are even earlier than I expected; and we shall get far
+into the country before daylight."
+
+"We were obliged to use the sweeps, sir," said Harding, bluntly; "but
+don't let's talk. Get the things out, and load the horses; for we
+shall have to make two more trips back to the luggers before they are
+all cleared."
+
+Everything was now bustle and activity; a number of bales and packages
+were taken out of the boats and placed upon the horses in one way or
+another, not always the most convenient to the poor animals; and as
+soon as Harding had made Mr. Radford count the number of the articles
+landed, the boats were launched off again to some larger vessels,
+which it seems were lying out at a little distance, though
+indiscernible in the fog.
+
+Harding himself remained ashore; and turning to one or two of those
+about him, he asked, "What was all that red blaze I saw half over the
+country?"
+
+"None of us can tell," answered young Radford. "The moment the fire at
+Tolsford was lighted, a dozen more were flaming up, all along to
+Dungeness."
+
+"That's devilish strange!" said Harding. "It does not look well.--How
+many men have you got with you, Mr. Radford?"
+
+"Why, well nigh upon two hundred," answered Ned Ramley, for his
+comrade.
+
+"Ah, then you'll do," answered Harding, with a laugh; "but still you
+won't be the worse for some more. So I and some of the lads will see
+you safe across the Marsh. The Customs have got nothing at sea about
+here; so the boats will be safe enough."
+
+"Thank you, Harding--thank you, Jack;" said several of the voices.
+"Once out of the Marsh, with all these ditches and things, and we
+shall do very well. How far are the luggers off?"
+
+"Not a hundred fathom," answered Harding. "I would have run them
+ashore if there had been any capstan here to have drawn them up. But
+they wont be a minute, so have every thing ready. Move off those
+horses that are loaded, a bit, my lads, and bring up the others."
+
+Harding's minute, however, extended to nearly ten, and then the boats
+were again perceived approaching, and the same process was followed as
+before. The third trip was then made with equal success and ease. Not
+the slightest difficulty occurred, not the slightest obstruction was
+offered; the number of packages was declared to be complete, the
+horses were all loaded, and the party began to move off in a long
+line, across the Marsh, like a caravan threading the mazes of the
+desert.
+
+Leaving a few men with the boats that were ashore, Harding and the
+rest of the seamen, with Mr. Radford, and several of his party,
+brought up the rear of the smugglers, talking over the events which
+had taken place, and the course of their farther proceedings. All
+seemed friendly and good-humoured; but there is such a thing as
+seeming, even amongst smugglers, and if Harding could have seen the
+real feelings of some of his companions towards him, it is very
+probable that he would not have given himself the trouble to accompany
+them on the way.
+
+"I will pay you the money when I get to Bonnington," said young
+Radford, addressing his companion. "I can't very well get at it till I
+dismount."
+
+"Oh, there's no matter for that, sir," replied the smuggler. "Your
+father can pay me some other time.--But what are you going to
+Bonnington for? I should have thought your best way would have been by
+Bilsington, and so straight into the Weald. Then you would have had
+the woods round about you the greater part of the way; or I don't know
+that I might not have gone farther down still, and so by Orleston."
+
+"There's a party of dragoons at Bilsington," said young Radford, "and
+another at Ham Street."
+
+"Ay, that alters the case," answered the smuggler; "but they are all
+so scattered about and so few, I should think they could do you no
+great harm. However, it will be best for you to go by Bonnington, if
+you are sure there are no troops there."
+
+"If there are, we must fight: that's all," answered young Radford; and
+so ended the conversation for the time. One of those pauses of deep
+silence succeeded, which--by the accidental exhaustion of topics and
+the recurrence of the mind to the thoughts suggested by what has just
+passed--so frequently intervene in the conversation even of great
+numbers, whether occupied with light or serious subjects. How often do
+we find, amidst the gayest or the busiest assembly, a sudden stillness
+pervade the whole, and the ear may detect a pin fall. In the midst of
+the silence, however, Harding laid his hand upon young Radford's
+bridle, saying, in a low voice, "Hark! do you not hear the galloping
+of horses to the east there?"
+
+The young man, on the first impulse, put his hand to his holster; but
+then withdrew it, and listened. "I think I do," he answered; "but now
+it has stopped."
+
+"You are watched, I suspect," said Harding; "they did not seem many,
+however, and may be afraid to attack you. If I were you, I would put
+the men into a quicker pace; for these fellows may gather as they
+go.--If you had got such things with you as you could throw into the
+cuts, it would not much matter; for you could fight it out here, as
+well as elsewhere; but, if I understood your father rightly, these
+goods would all be spoiled, and so the sooner you are out of the Marsh
+the better. Then you will be safe enough, if you are prudent. You may
+have to risk a shot or two; but that does not much matter."
+
+"And what do you call prudent, Harding?" asked young Radford, in a
+wonderfully calm tone, considering his vehement temperament, and the
+excitement of the adventure in which he was engaged; "how would you
+have me act, when I do get out of the Marsh?"
+
+"Why, that seems clear enough," replied the smuggler. "I would send
+all the goods and the men on foot, first, keeping along the straight
+road between the woods; and then, with all those who have got horses,
+I would hang behind a quarter of a mile or so, till the others had
+time to get on and disperse to the different hides, which ought to be
+done as soon as possible. Let a number drop off here, and a number
+there--one set to the willow cave, close by Woodchurch hill, another
+to the old Priory in the wood, and so on: you still keeping behind,
+and facing about upon the road, if you are pursued. If you do that,
+you are sure to secure the goods, or by far the greater part of them."
+
+The advice was so good--as far as young Radford knew of the condition
+of the country, and the usual plan of operations which had hitherto
+been pursued by the Customs in their pursuit of smugglers--that he
+could offer no reasonable argument against it; but when prejudice has
+taken possession of a man's mind, it is a busy and skilful framer of
+suspicions; and he thought within his own breast, though he did not
+speak his intentions aloud, "No! Hang me if I leave the goods till I
+see them safe housed. This fellow may want to ruin us, by separating
+us into small parties."
+
+The rest of the party had, by this time, resumed their conversation;
+and both Radford and Harding well knew that it would be vain to
+attempt to keep them quiet; for they were a rash and careless set,
+inclined to do everything with dash and swagger; and although, in the
+presence of actual and apparent danger, they could be induced to
+preserve some degree of order and discipline, and to show some
+obedience to their leaders, yet as soon as the peril had passed away,
+or was no longer immediately before their eyes, they were like
+schoolboys in the master's absence, and careless of the consequences
+which they did not see. Twice Harding said, in a low voice, "I hear
+them again to the east, there!" and twice young Radford urged his men
+to a quicker pace; but many of them had come far; horses and men were
+tired; every one considered that, as the goods were safely landed, and
+no opposition shown, the battle was more than half won; and all forgot
+the warning of the day before, as man ever forgets the chastisements
+which are inflicted by Heaven for his good, and falls the next day
+into the very same errors, for the reproof of which they were sent.
+
+"Now," said Harding, as they approached the spot where the Marsh road
+opened upon the highway to Bonnington, "spread some of your men out on
+the right and left, Mr. Radford, to keep you clear in case the enemy
+wish to make an attack. Your people can easily close in, and follow
+quickly, as soon as the rest have passed."
+
+"If they do make an attack," thought young Radford, "your head shall
+be the first I send a ball through;" but the advice was too judicious
+to be neglected; and he accordingly gave orders to Ned Ramley and the
+Major, with ten men each, to go one or two hundred yards on the road
+towards Bilsington on the one hand, and Hurst on the other, and see
+that all was safe. A little confusion ensued, as was but natural in so
+badly disciplined a body; and in the meanwhile the laden horses
+advanced along the road straight into the heart of the country, while
+Richard Radford, with the greater part of his mounted men, paused to
+support either of his parties in case of attack. He said something in
+a low voice regarding the money, to Harding, who replied abruptly,
+"There--never mind about that; only look out, and get off as quickly
+as you can. You are safe enough now, I think; so good night."
+
+Thus saying, he turned, and with the six or eight stout fellows who
+accompanied him, trod his way back into the Marsh. What passed through
+young Radford's brain at that moment it may be needless to dwell upon;
+but Harding escaped a peril that he little dreamed of, solely by the
+risk of ruin to the whole scheme which a brawl at that spot and moment
+must have entailed.
+
+The men who had been detached to the right, advanced along the road to
+the distance specified, proceeding slowly in the fog, and looking
+eagerly out before. "Look out," said Ned Ramley, at length, to one of
+his companions, taking a pistol from his belt at the same time, "I see
+men on horseback there, I think."
+
+"Only trees in the fog," answered the other.
+
+"Hush!" cried Ramley, sharply; but the other men were talking
+carelessly, and whether it was the sound of retreating horses or not,
+that he heard, he could not discover. After going on about three
+hundred yards, Ned Ramley turned, saying, "We had better go back now,
+and give warning; for I am very sure those were men I saw."
+
+The other differed with him on that point; and, on rejoining Richard
+Radford, they found the Major and his party just come back from the
+Bilsington road, but with one man short. "That fellow," said the
+Major, "has taken himself off. I was sure he was a spy, so we had
+better go on as fast as possible. We shall have plenty of time before
+he can raise men enough to follow."
+
+"There are others to the east, there," replied Ned Ramley. "I saw two
+or three, and there is no time to be lost, I say, or we shall have the
+whole country upon us. If I were you, Mr. Radford, I'd disperse in as
+small numbers as possible whenever we get to the Chequer-tree; and
+then if we lose a few of the things, we shall keep the greater
+part--unless, indeed, you are minded to stand it out, and have a fight
+upon the Green. We are enough to beat them all, I should think."
+
+"Ay, Ned, that is the gallant way," answered Richard Radford; "but we
+must first see what is on before. We must not lose the goods, or risk
+them; otherwise nothing would please me better than to drub these
+dragoons; but in case it should be dark still when they come near
+us--if they do at all--we'll have a blow or two before we have done, I
+trust. However, let us forward now, for we must keep up well with the
+rest."
+
+The party moved on at a quick pace, and soon overtook the train of
+loaded horses, and men on foot, which had gone on before. Many a time
+a glance was given along the road behind, and many a time an attentive
+ear was turned listening for the sound of coming horse; but all was
+still and silent; and winding on through the thick woods, which at
+that time overspread all the country in the vicinity of their course,
+and covered their line of advance right and left, they began to lose
+the sense of danger, and to suppose that the sounds which had been
+heard, and the forms which had been seen, were but mere creations of
+the fancy.
+
+About two miles from the border of Romney Marsh, the mist grew
+lighter, fading gradually away as the sea air mingled with the clearer
+atmosphere of the country. At times a star or two might be seen above;
+and though at that hour the moon gave no light, yet there was a
+certain degree of brightening in the sky which made some think they
+had miscalculated the hour, and that it was nearer the dawn than they
+imagined, while others contended that it was produced merely by the
+clearing away of the fog. At length, however, they heard a distant
+clock strike four. They were now at a spot where three or four roads
+branch off in different directions, at a distance of not more than
+half-a-mile from Chequer-tree, having a wide extent of rough,
+uncultivated land, called Aldington Freight, on their right, and part
+of the Priory wood on their left; and it yet wanted somewhat more than
+an hour to the actual rising of the sun. A consultation was then held;
+and, notwithstanding some differences of opinion, it was resolved to
+take the road by Stonecross Green, where they thought they could get
+information from some friendly cottagers, and thence through Gilbert's
+Wood towards Shaddoxhurst. At that point, they calculated that they
+could safely separate in order to convey the goods to the several
+_hides_, or places of concealment, which had been chosen beforehand.
+
+At Stonecross Green, they paused again, and knocked hard at a cottage
+door, till they brought forth the sleepy tenant from his bed. But the
+intelligence gained from him was by no means satisfactory; he spoke of
+a large party of dragoons at Kingsnorth, and mentioned reports which
+had reached him of a small body having shown itself, at Bromley Green,
+late on the preceding night; and it was consequently resolved, after
+much debate, to turn off before entering Gilbert's Wood, and, in some
+degree retreading their steps towards the Marsh, to make for
+Woodchurch beacon and thence to Redbrook Street. The distance was thus
+rendered greater, and both men and horses were weary; but the line of
+road proposed lay amidst a wild and thinly inhabited part of the
+country, where few hamlets or villages offered any quarters for the
+dragoons. They calculated, too, that having turned the dragoons who
+were quartered at Bilsington, they should thus pass between them and
+those at Kingsnorth and Bromley Green: and Richard Radford, himself,
+was well aware that there were no soldiers, when he left that part of
+the country, in the neighbourhood of High Halden or Bethersden. This
+seemed, therefore, the only road that was actually open before them;
+and it was accordingly taken, after a general distribution of spirits
+amongst the men, and of hay and water to the horses. Still their
+progress was slow, for the ground became hilly in that neighbourhood,
+and by the time they arrived at an elevated spot, near Woodchurch
+Beacon, whence they could see over a wide extent of country round, the
+grey light of the dawn was spreading rapidly through the sky, showing
+all the varied objects of the fair and beautiful land through which
+they wandered.
+
+But it is now necessary to turn to another personage in our history,
+of whose fate, for some time, we have had no account.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+We left our friend, Mr. Mowle, in no very pleasant situation; for
+although the generosity of the Major, in neither divulging the
+discovery he had made, to the rest of the smugglers, nor blowing the
+brains of the intruder out upon the spot, was, perhaps, much more than
+could be expected from a man in his situation and of his habits, yet
+it afforded no guarantee whatsoever to the unfortunate Custom-House
+officer, that his life would not be sacrificed on the very first
+danger or alarm. He also knew, that if such an accident were to happen
+again, as that which had at first displayed his features to one of
+those into whose nocturnal councils he had intruded, nothing on earth
+could save him; for amongst the gang by whom he was surrounded, were a
+number of men who had sworn to shed his blood on the very first
+opportunity.
+
+He walked along, therefore, as the reader may well conceive, with the
+feeling of a knife continually at his throat; and a long and weary
+march it seemed to him, as, proceeding by tortuous ways and zig-zag
+paths, the smugglers descended into Romney Marsh, and advanced
+rapidly towards Dymchurch. Mowle was, perhaps, as brave and daring a
+man as any that ever existed; but still the sensation of impending
+death can never be very pleasant to a person in strong health, and
+well-contented with the earth on which he is placed; and Mowle felt
+all the disagreeable points in his situation, exactly as any other man
+would do. It would not be just to him, however, were we not to state,
+that many other considerations crossed his mind, besides that of his
+own personal safety. The first of these was his duty to the department
+of government which he served; and many a plan suggested itself for
+making his escape here or there, in which he regarded the apprehension
+of the smugglers, and the seizure of the goods that they were going to
+escort into the country, fully as much as his own life.
+
+His friend the Major, however, took means to frustrate all such plans,
+and seemed equally careful to prevent Mr. Mowle from effecting his
+object, and to guard against his being discovered by the other
+smugglers. At every turn and corner, at the crossing of every stream
+or cut, the Major was by his side; and yet once or twice he whispered
+a caution to him to keep out of the way of the lights, more especially
+as they approached Dymchurch. When they came near the shore, and a
+number of men with lanterns issued forth to aid them from the various
+cottages in the vicinity, he told Mowle to keep back with one party,
+consisting of hands brought out of Sussex, who were stationed in the
+rear with a troop of the horses. But at the same time Mowle heard his
+compassionate friend direct two of the men to keep a sharp eye upon
+him, as he was a stranger, of whom the leaders were not quite sure,
+adding an injunction to blow his brains out at once, if he made the
+slightest movement without orders.
+
+In the bustle and confusion which ensued, during the landing of the
+smuggled goods and the loading of the horses, Mowle once or twice
+encouraged a hope that something would favour his escape. But the two
+men strictly obeyed the orders they had received, remained close to
+his side during more than an hour and a half, which was consumed upon
+the beach, and never left him till he was rejoined by the Major, who
+told him to march on with the rest.
+
+"What's to come of this?" thought Mowle, as he proceeded, "and what can
+the fellow intend to do with me?--If he drags me along with them till
+daylight, one half of them will know me; and then the game's up--and
+yet he can't mean me harm, either. Well, I may have an opportunity of
+repaying him some day."
+
+When the party arrived at Bonnington, however, and, as we have already
+stated, two small bodies were sent off to the right and left, to
+reconnoitre the ground on either side, Mowle was one of those selected
+by the Major to accompany him on the side of Bilsington. But after
+having gone to the prescribed distance, without discovering anything
+to create suspicion, the worthy field-officer gave the order to
+return; and contriving to disentangle Mowle from the rest, he
+whispered in his ear, "Off with you as fast as you can, and take back
+by the Marsh, for if you give the least information, or bring the
+soldiers upon us, be you sure that some of us will find means to cut
+your throat.--Get on, get on fast!" he continued aloud, to the other
+men. "We've no time to lose;" and Mowle, taking advantage of the hurry
+and confusion of the moment, ran off towards Bilsington as fast as his
+legs could carry him.
+
+"He's off!" cried one of the men. "Shall I give him a shot?"
+
+"No--no," answered the Major, "it will only make more row. He's more
+frightened than treacherous, I believe. I don't think he'll peach."
+
+Thus saying, he rejoined the main body of the smugglers, as we have
+seen; and Mowle hurried on his way without pause, running till he was
+quite out of breath. Now, the Major, in his parting speech to Mowle,
+though a shrewd man, had miscalculated his course, and mistaken the
+person with whom he had to deal. Had he put it to the Custom-House
+officer, as a matter of honour and generosity, not to inform against
+the person who had saved his life, poor Mowle would have been in a
+situation of great perplexity; but the threat which had been used,
+relieved him of half the difficulty. Not that he did not feel a
+repugnance to the task which duty pointed out--not that he did not ask
+himself, as soon as he had a moment to think of anything, "What ought
+I to do? How ought I to act?" But still the answer was, that his duty
+and his oath required him immediately to take steps for the pursuit
+and capture of the smugglers; and when he thought of the menace he
+said to himself, "No, no; if I don't do what I ought, these fellows
+will only say that I was afraid."
+
+Having settled the matter in his own mind, he proceeded to execute his
+purpose with all speed, and hurried on towards Bilsington, where he
+knew there was a small party of dragoons, proposing to send off
+messengers immediately to the colonel of the regiment and to all the
+different posts around. It was pitch dark, so that he did not perceive
+the first houses of the hamlet, till he was within a few yards of
+them; and all seemed still and quiet in the place. But after having
+passed the lane leading to the church, Mowle heard the stamping of
+some horses' feet, and the next instant a voice exclaimed, "Stand! who
+goes there?"
+
+'"A friend!" answered Mowle. "Where's the sergeant?"
+
+"Here am I," replied another voice. "Who are you?
+
+"My name is Mowle," rejoined our friend, "the chief officer of Customs
+at Hythe."
+
+"Oh, come along, Mr. Mowle; you are just the man we want," said the
+sergeant, advancing a step or two. "Captain Irby is up here, and would
+be glad to speak with you."
+
+Mowle followed in silence, having, indeed, some occasion to set his
+thoughts in order, and to recover his breath. About sixty or seventy
+yards farther on, a scene broke upon him, which somewhat surprised
+him; for, instead of a dozen dragoons at the most, he perceived, on
+turning the corner of the next cottage, a body of at least seventy or
+eighty men, as well as he could calculate, standing each beside his
+horse, whose breath was seen mingling with the thick fog, by the light
+of a single lantern held close to the wall of the house which
+concealed the party from the Bonnington Road. Round that lantern were
+congregated three or four figures, besides that of the man who held
+it; and, fronting the approach, was a young gentleman,[2] dressed in
+the usual costume of a dragoon officer of that period. Before him
+stood another, apparently a private of the regiment; and the light
+shone full upon the faces of both, showing a cold, thoughtful, and
+inquiring look upon the countenance of the young officer, and anxious
+haste upon that of the inferior soldier.
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 2: It will be seen that I have represented all my officers
+as young men, even up to the very colonel of the regiment; but it must
+be remembered, that, in those days, promotion in the service was
+regulated in a very different manner from the present system. I
+remember a droll story, of a visitor at a nobleman's house, inquiring
+of the butler what was the cause of an obstreperous roaring he heard
+up stairs, when the servant replied, "Oh, sir, it is nothing but the
+little general crying for his pap."]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+"Here is Mr. Mowle, the chief officer, captain," said the sergeant, as
+they advanced.
+
+"Ha, that is fortunate!" replied Captain Irby. "Now we shall get at
+the facts, I suppose. Well, Mr. Mowle, what news?"
+
+"Why, sir, the cargo is landed," exclaimed Mowle, eagerly; "and the
+smugglers passed by Bonnington, up towards Chequer-tree, not twenty
+minutes ago."
+
+"So this man says," rejoined Captain Irby, not the least in the world
+in haste. "Have you any fresh orders from the colonel?"
+
+"No, sir; he said all his orders were given when last I saw him,"
+replied the officer of Customs; "but if you move up quick towards
+Chequer-tree, you are sure to overtake them."
+
+"How long is it since you saw Sir Henry?" demanded Captain Irby,
+without appearing to notice Mowle's suggestion.
+
+"Oh, several hours ago," answered the Custom-House agent, somewhat
+provoked at the young officer's coolness. "I have been kept prisoner
+by the smugglers since ten o'clock--but that is nothing to the
+purpose, sir. If you would catch the smugglers, you have nothing for
+it but to move up to Chequer-tree after them; and that is what I
+require you to do."
+
+"I have my orders," answered the captain of the troop, with a smile at
+the impetuous tone of the Custom-House officer, "and if you bring me
+none later, those I shall obey, Mr. Mowle."
+
+"Well, sir, you take the responsibility upon yourself, then," said
+Mowle; "I have expressed my opinion, and what I require at your
+hands."
+
+"The responsibility will rest where it ought," replied Captain Irby,
+"on the shoulders of him whom I am bound to obey. For your opinion I
+am obliged to you, but it cannot be followed; and as to what you
+require, I am under superior authority, which supersedes your
+requisition."
+
+He then said a word or two to one of the men beside him, who
+immediately proceeded to the body of men behind; but all that Mowle
+could hear was "Snave" and "Brenzet," repeated once or twice, with
+some mention of Woodchurch and the road by Red Brooke Street. The
+order was then given to mount, and march; and Mowle remarked that four
+troopers rode off at a quick pace before the rest.
+
+"Now, Mr. Mowle, we shall want you with us if you please," said
+Captain Irby, in a civil tone. "Where is your horse?"
+
+"Horse!--I have got none;" answered the officer of Customs, a good
+deal piqued; "did I not say that I have been a prisoner with the
+smugglers for the last five hours? and as to my going with you, sir, I
+see no use I can be of, if you do not choose to do what I require, or
+follow my advice."
+
+"Oh, the greatest--the greatest!" replied the young officer, without
+losing his temper for an instant, "and as to a horse, we will soon
+supply you."
+
+An order was immediately given; and in three minutes the horse of a
+dragoon officer, fully caparisoned, was led up to Mowle's side, who,
+after a moment's hesitation, mounted, and rode on with the troop. It
+must not be denied that he was anything but satisfied, not alone
+because he thought that he was not treated with sufficient
+deference--although, having for years been accustomed to be obeyed
+implicitly by the small parties of dragoons which had been previously
+sent down to aid the Customs, it did seem to him very strange that his
+opinions should go for nought--but also because he feared that the
+public service would suffer, and that the obstinacy, as he called it,
+of the young officer, would enable the smugglers to escape. Still more
+was his anxiety and indignation raised, when he perceived the slow
+pace at which the young officer proceeded, and that instead of taking
+the road which he had pointed out, the party kept the Priory Wood on
+the right hand, bearing away from Chequer-tree, to which he had
+assured himself that Richard Radford and his party were tending.
+
+He saw that many precautions were taken, however, which, attributing
+them at first to a design of guarding against surprise, he thought
+quite unnecessary. Two dragoons were thrown forward at a considerable
+distance before the head of the troop; a single private followed about
+twenty yards behind them; two more succeeded, and then another, and
+last came Captain Irby himself, keeping Mr. Mowle by his side. From
+time to time a word was passed down from those who led the advance,
+not shouted--but spoken in a tone only loud enough to be heard by the
+trooper immediately behind; and this word, for a considerable way, was
+merely "All clear!"
+
+At length, just at the end of the Priory Wood, where a path, coming
+from the east, branched off towards Aldington Freight, and two roads
+went away to the north and west, the order to halt was given, to the
+surprise and consternation of Mr. Mowle, who conceived that the escape
+of the smugglers must be an inevitable result. At length a new word
+was passed from the head of the line, which was, "On before." But
+still the captain of the troop gave no command to march, and the
+soldiers sat idle on their horses for a quarter of an hour longer.
+Mowle calculated that it must now be at least half past four or five
+o'clock. He thought he perceived the approach of day; and though, in
+discontented silence, he ventured to say no more, he would have given
+all he had in the world to have had the command of the troop for a
+couple of hours. His suspense and anxiety were brought to an end at
+length; for just as he was assured, by the greyness of the sky, that
+the sun would soon rise, a trooper came dashing down the right-hand
+path at full speed, and Captain Irby spurred on to meet him. What
+passed between them Mowle could not hear; but the message was soon
+delivered, the soldier rode back to the east, by the way he came, and
+the order to march was immediately given. Instead, however, of taking
+the road to Stonecross, the troop directed its course to the west, but
+at a somewhat quicker pace than before. Still a word was passed back
+from the head of the line; and, after a short time, the troop was put
+into a quick trot, Captain Irby sometimes endeavouring to lead his
+companion into general conversation upon any indifferent subject, but
+not once alluding to the expedition on which they were engaged. Poor
+Mowle was too anxious to talk much. He did not at all comprehend the
+plan upon which the young officer was acting; but yet he began to see
+that there was some plan in operation, and he repeated to himself more
+than once, "There must be something in it, that's clear; but he might
+as well tell me what it is, I think."
+
+At length he turned frankly round to his companion, and said, "I see
+you are going upon some scheme, Captain. I wish to Heaven you would
+tell me what it is; for you can't imagine how anxious I am about this
+affair."
+
+"My good friend," replied Captain Irby, "I know no more of the matter
+than you do; so I can tell you nothing about it. I am acting under
+orders; and the only difference between you and I is, that you, not
+being accustomed to do so, are always puzzling yourself to know what
+it all means, while I, being well drilled to such things, do not
+trouble my head about it; but do as I am told, quite sure that it will
+all go right."
+
+"Heaven send it!" answered Mowle; "but here it is broad day-light, and
+we seem to be going farther and farther from our object every minute."
+
+As if in answer to his last observation, the word was again passed
+down from the front, "On, before!" and Captain Irby immediately halted
+his troop for about five minutes. At the end of that time, the march
+was resumed, and shortly after the whole body issued out upon the side
+of one of the hills, a few miles from Woodchurch.
+
+The sun was now just risen--the east was glowing with all the hues of
+early day--the mist was dispersed or left behind in the neighbourhood
+of the Marsh; and a magnificent scene, all filled with golden light,
+spread out beneath the eyes of the Custom-House officer. But he had
+other objects to contemplate much more interesting to him than the
+beauties of the landscape. About three-quarters of a mile in advance,
+and in the low ground to the north-west of the hill on which he stood,
+appeared a dark, confused mass of men and horses, apparently directing
+their course towards Tiffenden; and Mowle's practised eye instantly
+perceived that they were the smugglers. At first sight he thought,
+"They may escape us yet:" but following the direction in which Captain
+Irby's glance was turned, he saw, further on, in the open fields
+towards High Halden, a considerable body of horse, whose regular line
+at once showed them to be a party of the military. Then turning
+towards the little place on his left, called Cuckoo Point, he
+perceived, at the distance of about a mile, another troop of dragoons,
+who must have marched, he thought, from Brenzet and Appledore.
+
+The smugglers seemed to become aware, nearly at the same moment, of
+the presence of the troops on the side of High Halden; for they were
+observed to halt, to pause for a minute or two, then re-tread their
+steps for a short distance, and take their way over the side of the
+hill, as if tending towards Plurenden or Little Ingham.
+
+"You should cut them off, sir--you should cut them off!" cried Mowle,
+addressing Captain Irby, "or, by Jove, they'll be over the hill above
+Brook Street; and then we shall never catch them, amongst all the
+woods and copses up there. They'll escape, to a certainty!"
+
+"I think not, if I know my man," answered Captain Irby, coolly; "and,
+at all events, Mr. Mowle, I must obey my orders.--But there he comes
+over the hill; so that matter's settled. Now let them get out if they
+can.--You have heard of a rat-trap, Mr. Mowle?"
+
+Mowle turned his eyes in the direction of an opposite hill, about
+three-quarters of a mile distant from the spot where he himself stood,
+and there, coming up at a rapid pace, appeared an officer in a plain
+grey cloak, with two or three others in full regimentals, round him,
+while a larger body of cavalry than any he had yet seen, met his eyes,
+following their commander about fifty yards behind, and gradually
+crowning the summit of the rise, where they halted. The smugglers
+could not be at more than half a mile's distance from this party, and
+the moment that it appeared, the troops from the side of High Halden
+and from Cuckoo Point began to advance at a quick trot, while Captain
+Irby descended into the lower ground more slowly, watching, with a
+small glass that he carried in his hand, the motions of all the other
+bodies, when the view was not cut off by the hedge-rows and copses, as
+his position altered. Mowle kept his eyes upon the body of smugglers,
+and upon the dragoons on the opposite hill, and he soon perceived a
+trooper ride down from the latter group to the former, as if bearing
+them some message.
+
+The next instant, there was a flash or two, as if the smugglers had
+fired upon the soldier sent to them; and then, retreating slowly
+towards a large white house, with some gardens and shrubberies and
+various outbuildings around it, they manifested a design of occupying
+the grounds with the intention of there resisting the attack of the
+cavalry. A trooper instantly galloped down, at full speed, towards
+Captain Irby, making him a sign with his hand as he came near; and the
+troop with whom Mowle had advanced instantly received the command to
+charge, while the other, from the hill, came dashing down with
+headlong speed towards the confused multitude below.
+
+The smugglers were too late in their man[oe]uvre. Embarrassed with a
+large quantity of goods and a number of men on foot; they had not time
+to reach the shelter of the garden walls, before the party of dragoons
+from the hill was amongst them. But still they resisted with fierce
+determination, formed with some degree of order, gave the troopers a
+sharp discharge of firearms as they came near, and fought hand to hand
+with them, even after being broken by their charge.
+
+The greater distance which Captain Irby had to advance, prevented his
+troop from reaching the scene of strife for a minute or two after the
+others; but their arrival spread panic and confusion amongst the
+adverse party; and after a brief and unsuccessful struggle, in the
+course of which, one of the dragoons was killed, and a considerable
+number wounded, nothing was thought of amongst young Radford's band,
+but how to escape in the presence of such a force. The goods were
+abandoned--all those men who had horses were seen galloping over the
+country in different directions; and if any fugitive paused, it was
+but to turn and fire a shot at one of the dragoons in pursuit. Almost
+every one of the men on foot was taken ere half an hour was over; and
+a number of those on horseback were caught and brought back, some
+desperately wounded. Several were left dead, or dying, on the spot
+where the first encounter had taken place; and amongst the former,
+Mowle, with feelings of deep regret, almost approaching remorse,
+beheld, as he rode up towards the colonel of the regiment, the body of
+his friend, the Major, shot through the head by a pistol-ball. Men of
+the Custom-House officer's character, however, soon console themselves
+for such things; and Mowle, as he rode on, thought to himself, "After
+all, it's just as well! He would only have been hanged--so he's had an
+easier death."
+
+The young officer in the command of the regiment of dragoons was
+seated on horseback, upon the top of a little knoll, with some six or
+seven persons immediately around him, while two groups of soldiers,
+dismounted, and guarding a number of prisoners, appeared a little in
+advance. Amongst those nearest to the Colonel, Mowle remarked his
+companion, Birchett, who was pointing, with a discharged pistol,
+across the country, and saying, "There he goes, sir, there he goes!
+I'll swear that is he, on the strong grey horse. I fired at him--I'm
+sure I must have hit him."
+
+"No, you didn't, sir," answered a sergeant of dragoons, who was busily
+tying a handkerchief round his own wounded arm. "Your shot went
+through his hat."
+
+The young officer fixed his eyes keenly upon the road leading to
+Harbourne, where a man, on horseback, was seen galloping away, at full
+speed, with four or five of the soldiers in pursuit.
+
+"Away after him, Sergeant Miles," he said; "take straight across the
+country, with six men of Captain Irby's troop. They are fresher. If
+you make haste you will cut him off at the corner of the wood; or if
+he takes the road through it, in order to avoid you, leave a couple of
+men at Tiffenden corner, and round by the path to the left. The
+distance will be shorter for you, and you will stop him at Mrs.
+Clare's cottage--a hundred guineas to any one who brings him in."
+
+His orders were immediately obeyed; and, without noticing Mowle, or
+any one else, the colonel continued to gaze after the little party of
+dragoons, as, dashing on at the utmost speed of their horses, they
+crossed an open part of the ground in front, keeping to the right hand
+of the fugitive, and threatening to cut him off from the north side of
+the country, towards which he was decidedly tending. Whether, if he
+had been able to proceed at the same rate at which he was then going,
+they would have been successful in their efforts or not, is difficult
+to say; for his horse, though tired, was very powerful, and chosen
+expressly for its fleetness. But in a flight and pursuit like that,
+the slightest accident will throw the advantage on the one side or the
+other; and unfortunately for the fugitive, his horse stumbled, and
+came upon its knees. It was up again in a moment, and went on, though
+somewhat more slowly; and the young officer observed, in a low tone,
+"They will have him.--It is of the utmost importance that he should be
+taken.--Ah! Mr. Mowle, is that you? Why, we have given you up for
+these many hours. We have been successful, you see; and yet, but half
+successful either, if their leader gets away.--You are sure of the
+person, Mr. Birchett?"
+
+"Perfectly, sir," answered the officer of Customs. "I was as near to
+him, at one time, as I am now to you; and Mr. Mowle here, too, will
+tell you I know him well."
+
+"Who,--young Radford?" asked Mowle. "Oh yes, that we all do; and
+besides, I can tell you, that is he on the grey horse, for I was along
+with him the greater part of last night." And Mowle proceeded to
+relate succinctly all that had occurred to him from ten o'clock on the
+preceding evening.
+
+The young officer, in the meanwhile, continued to follow the soldiers
+with his eyes, commenting, by a brief word or two, on the various
+turns taken by the pursuit.
+
+"He is cut off," he said, in a tone of satisfaction; "the troops, from
+Halden, will stop him there.--He is turning to the left, as if he
+would make for Tenterden.--Captain Irby, be so good as to detach a
+corporal, with as many men as you can spare, to cut him off by Gallows
+Green--on the left-hand road, there. Bid them use all speed. Now he's
+for Harbourne again! He'll try to get through the wood; but Miles will
+be before him."
+
+He then applied himself to examine the state of his own men and the
+prisoners, and paid every humane attention to both, doing the best
+that he could for their wounds, in the absence of surgical assistance,
+and ordering carts to be procured from the neighbouring farms, to
+carry those most severely injured into the village of Woodchurch. The
+smuggled goods he consigned to the charge of the Custom-House
+officers, giving them, however, a strong escort, at their express
+desire; although, he justly observed, that there was but little chance
+of any attempt being made by the smugglers to recover what they had
+lost.
+
+"I shall now, Mr. Mowle," he continued, "proceed to Woodchurch, and
+remain there for a time, to see what other prisoners are brought in,
+and make any farther arrangements that may be necessary; but I shall
+be in Hythe, in all probability, before night. The custody of the
+prisoners I shall take upon myself for the present, as the civil power
+is evidently not capable of guarding them."
+
+"Well, sir, you have made a glorious day's work of it," answered
+Mowle, "that I must say; and I'm sure if you like to establish your
+quarters, for the morning, at Mr. Croyland's there, on just before, he
+will make you heartily welcome; for he hates smugglers as much as any
+one."
+
+The young officer shook his head, saying, "No, I will go to
+Woodchurch."
+
+But he gazed earnestly at the house for several minutes, before he
+turned his horse towards the village; and then, leaving the minor
+arrangements to be made by the inferior officers, he rode slowly and
+silently away.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+We must turn, dear reader, to other persons and to other scenes, but
+still keep to that eventful day when the smugglers, who had almost
+fancied themselves lords of Kent, first met severe discomfiture at the
+hands of those sent to suppress their illicit traffic. Many small
+parties had before been defeated, it is true; many a cargo of great
+value, insufficiently protected, had been seized. Such, indeed, had
+been the case with the preceding venture of Richard Radford; and such
+had been, several times, the result of overweening confidence; but the
+free-traders of Kent had still, more frequently, been successful in
+their resistance of the law; and they had never dreamed that in great
+numbers, and with every precaution and care to boot, they could be
+hemmed in and overpowered, in a country with every step of which they
+were well acquainted. They had now, however, been defeated, as I have
+said, for the first time, in a complete and conclusive manner, after
+every precaution had been taken, and when every opportunity had been
+afforded them of trying their strength with the dragoons, as they had
+often boastfully expressed a wish to do.
+
+But we must now leave them, and turn to the interior of the house near
+which the strife took place. Nay, more, we must enter a fair lady's
+chamber, and watch her as she lies, during the night of which we have
+already given so many scenes, looking for awhile into her waking
+thoughts and slumbering dreams; for that night passed in a strange
+mingling of sleepless fancies and of drowsy visions.
+
+Far from me to encourage weak and morbid sensibilities, or to
+represent life as a dream of sickly feelings, or a stage for the
+action of ill-regulated passions;--it is a place of duty and of
+action, of obedience to the rule of the one great guide, of endeavour,
+and, alas, of trial!--But still human beings are not mere machines:
+there is still something within this frame-work of dust and ashes,
+besides, and very different from, the bones and muscles, the veins and
+nerves, of which it is composed; and Heaven forbid that it should not
+be so! There are still loves and affections, sympathies and regards,
+associations and memories, and all the linked sweetness of that
+strange harmonious whole, where the spirit and the matter, the soul
+and the body, blended in mysterious union, act on each other, and
+reciprocate, by every sense and every perception, new sources of pain
+or of delight. The forms and conventionalities of society, the habits
+of the age in which we live, the force of education, habit, example,
+may, in very many cases, check the outward show of feeling, and in
+some, perhaps, wear down to nothing the reality. But still how many a
+bitter heart-ache lies concealed beneath the polished brow and smiling
+lip; how many a bright aspiration, how many a tender hope, how many a
+passionate throb, hides itself from the eyes of others--from the
+foreigners of the heart--under an aspect of gay merriment or of cold
+indifference. The silver services of the world are all, believe me,
+but of plated goods, and the brightest ornaments that deck the table
+or adorn the saloon but of silver-gilt.
+
+Could we--as angels may be supposed to do--stand by the bed-side of
+many a fair girl who has been laughing through an evening of apparent
+merriment, and look through the fair bosom into the heart beneath, see
+all the feelings that thrill therein, or trace even the visions that
+chequer slumber, what should we behold? Alas! how strange a contrast
+to the beaming looks and gladsome smiles which have marked the course
+of the day. How often would be seen the bitter repining; the weary
+sickness of the heart; the calm, stern grief; the desolation; the
+despair--forming a black and gloomy background to the bright seeming
+of the hours of light. How often, in the dream, should we behold "the
+lost, the loved, the dead, too many, yet how few," rise up before
+memory in those moments, when not only the shackles and the handcuffs
+of the mind, imposed by the tyrant uses of society, are cast off, but
+also when the softer bands are loosened, which the waking spirit
+places upon unavailing regrets and aspirations all in vain--in those
+hours, when memory, and imagination, and feeling are awake, and when
+judgment, and reason, and resolution are all buried in slumber. Can it
+be well for us thus to check the expression of all the deeper feelings
+of the heart--to shut out all external sympathies--to lock within the
+prison of the heart its brightest treasures like the miser's gold, and
+only to give up to them the hours of solitude and of slumber?--I know
+not; and the question, perhaps, is a difficult one to solve: but such,
+however, are the general rules of society; and to its rules we are
+slaves and bondsmen.
+
+It was to her own chamber that Edith Croyland usually carried her
+griefs and memories; and even in the house of her uncle, though she
+was aware how deeply he loved her, she could not, or she would not,
+venture to speak of her sensations as they really arose.
+
+On the eventful day of young Radford's quarrel with Sir Edward Digby,
+Edith retired at the sober hour at which the whole household of Mr.
+Croyland usually sought repose; but there, for a considerable time,
+she meditated as she had often meditated before, on the brief
+intelligence she had received on the preceding day. "He is living,"
+she said to herself: "he is in England, and yet he seeks me not! But
+my sister says he loves me still!--It is strange, it is very strange.
+He must have greatly changed. So eager, so impetuous as he used to be,
+to become timid, cautious, reserved,--never to write, never to
+send.--And yet why should I blame him? What has he not met with from
+mine, if not from me? What has his love brought upon himself and his?
+The ruin of his father--a parent's suffering and death--the
+destruction of his own best prospects--a life of toil and danger, and
+expulsion from the scenes in which his bright and early days were
+spent!--Why should I wonder that he does not come back to a spot where
+every object must be hateful to him?--why should I wonder that he does
+not seek me, whose image can never be separated from all that is
+painful and distressing to him in memory? Poor Henry! Oh, that I could
+cheer him, and wipe away the dark and gloomy recollections of the
+past."
+
+Such were some of her thoughts ere she lay down to rest; and they
+pursued her still, long after she had sought her pillow, keeping her
+waking for some hours. At length, not long before daybreak, sleep took
+possession of her brain; but it was not untroubled sleep. Wild and
+whirling images for some time supplied the place of thought; but they
+were all vague, and confused, and undefined for a considerable length
+of time after sleep had closed her eyes, and she forgot them as soon
+as she awoke. But at length a vision of more tangible form presented
+itself, which remained impressed upon her memory. In it, the events of
+the day mingled with those both of the former and the latter years,
+undoubtedly in strange and disorderly shape, but still bearing a
+sufficient resemblance to reality to show whence they were derived.
+The form of young Radford, bleeding and wounded, seemed before her
+eyes; and with one hand clasped tightly round her wrist, he seemed to
+drag her down into a grave prepared for himself. Then she saw Sir
+Edward Digby with a naked sword in his hand, striving in vain to cut
+off the arm that held her, the keen blade passing through and through
+the limb of the phantom without dissevering it from the body, or
+relaxing its hold upon herself. Then the figure of her father stood
+before her, clad in a long mourning cloak, and she heard his voice
+crying, in a dark and solemn tone, "Down, down, both of you, to the
+grave that you have dug for me!" The next instant the scene was
+crowded with figures, both on horseback and on foot. Many a
+countenance which she had seen and known at different times was
+amongst them; and all seemed urging her on down into the gulf before
+her; till suddenly appeared, at the head of a bright and glittering
+troop, he whom she had so long and deeply loved, as if advancing at
+full speed to her rescue. She called loudly to him; she stretched out
+her hand towards him, and onward he came through the throng till he
+nearly reached her. Then in an instant her father interposed again and
+pushed him back. All became a scene of disarray and confusion, as if a
+general battle had been taking place around her. Swords were drawn,
+shots were fired, wounds were given and received; there were cries of
+agony and loud words of command, till at length, in the midst, her
+lover reached her; his arms were cast round her; she was pressed to
+his bosom; and with a start, and mingled feelings of joy and terror,
+Edith's dream came to an end.
+
+Daylight was pouring into her room through the tall window; but yet
+she could hardly persuade herself that she was not dreaming still; for
+many of the sounds which had transmitted such strange impressions to
+her mind, still rang in her ears. She heard shots and galloping horse,
+and the loud word of command; and after pausing for an instant or two,
+she sprang up, cast something over her, and ran to the window.
+
+It was a bright and beautiful morning; and the room which she occupied
+looked over Mr. Croyland's garden wall to the country beyond. But
+underneath that garden wall was presented a scene, such as Edith had
+never before witnessed. Before her eyes, mingled in strange confusion
+with a group of men who, from their appearance, she judged to be
+smugglers, were a number of the royal dragoons; and, though pistols
+were discharged on both sides, and even long guns on the part of the
+smugglers, the use of fire-arms was too limited to produce sufficient
+smoke to obscure the view. Swords were out, and used vehemently; and
+on running her eye over the mass before her, she saw a figure that
+strongly brought back her thoughts to former days. Directing the
+operations of the troops, seldom using the sword which he carried in
+his own hand, yet mingling in the thickest of the fray, appeared a
+tall and powerful young man, mounted on a splendid charger, but only
+covered with a plain grey cloak.
+
+The features she could scarcely discern; but there was something in
+the form and in the bearing, that made Edith's heart beat vehemently,
+and caused her to raise her voice to Heaven in murmured prayer. The
+shots were flying thick: one of them struck the sun-dial in the
+garden, and knocked a fragment off; but still she could not withdraw
+herself from the window; and with eager and anxious eyes she continued
+to watch the fight, till another body of dragoons swept up, and the
+smugglers, apparently struck with panic, abandoned resistance, and
+were soon seen flying in every direction over the ground.
+
+One man, mounted on a strong grey horse, passed close beneath the
+garden wall; and in him Edith instantly recognised young Richard
+Radford. That sight made her draw back again for a moment from the
+window, lest he should recognise her; but the next instant she looked
+out again, and then beheld the officer whom she had seen commanding
+the dragoons, stretching out his hand and arm in the direction which
+the fugitive had taken, as if giving orders for his pursuit. She
+watched him with feelings indescribable, and saw him more than once
+turn his eyes towards the house where she was, and gaze on it long and
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Can he know whose dwelling this is?" she asked herself; "can he know
+who is in it, and yet ride away?" But so it was. After he had remained
+on the ground for about half an hour, she saw him depart, turning his
+horse's head slowly towards Woodchurch; and Edith withdrew from the
+window, and wept.
+
+Her eyes were dry, however, and her manner calm, when she went down to
+breakfast; and she heard unmoved, from her uncle, the details of the
+skirmish which had taken place between the smugglers and the military.
+
+"This must be a tremendous blow to them," said Mr. Croyland; "the
+goods are reported to be of immense value, and the whole of them are
+stated to have been run by that old infernal villain, Radford. I am
+glad that this has happened, trebly--_felix ter et amplius_, my dear
+Edith; first, that a trade which enriches scoundrels to the detriment
+of the fair and lawful merchant, has received nearly its death-blow;
+secondly, that these audacious vagabonds, who fancied they had all the
+world at their command, and that they could do as they pleased in
+Kent, have been taught how impotent they are against a powerful hand
+and a clear head; and, thirdly, that the most audacious vagabond of
+them all, who has amassed a large fortune by defiance of the law, and
+by a system which embodies cheatery with robbery--I mean robbery of
+the revenue with cheatery of the lawful merchant--has been the person
+to suffer. I have heard a great deal of forcing nations to abate their
+Customs dues, by smuggling in despite of them; but depend upon it,
+whoever advocates such a system is--I will not say, either a rogue or
+a fool, as some rash and intemperate persons might say--but a man with
+very queer notions of morals, my dear. I dare say, the fellows firing
+awoke you, my love. You look pale, as if you had been disturbed."
+
+Edith replied, simply, that she had been roused by the noise, but did
+not enter into any particulars, though she saw, or fancied she saw, an
+inquiring look upon her uncle's face as he spoke.
+
+During the morning many were the reports and anecdotes brought in by
+the servants, regarding the encounter, which had taken place so close
+to the house; and all agreed that never had so terrible a disaster
+befallen the smugglers. Their bands were quite broken up, it was said,
+their principal leaders taken or killed, and the amount of the
+smuggled goods which--with the usual exaggeration of rumour--was
+raised to three or four hundred thousand pounds, was universally
+reported to be the loss of Mr. Radford. His son had been seen by many
+in command of the party of contraband traders; and it was clear that
+he had fled to conceal himself, in fear of the very serious
+consequences which were likely to ensue.
+
+Mr. Croyland rubbed his hands: "I will mark this day in the calendar
+with a white stone!" he said. "Seldom, my dear Edith, very seldom, do
+so many fortunate circumstances happen together; a party of atrocious
+vagabonds discomfited and punished as they deserve; the most audacious
+rogue of the whole stripped of his ill-gotten wealth; and a young
+ruffian, who has long bullied and abused the whole county, driven from
+that society in which he never had any business. This young officer,
+this Captain Osborn, must be a very clever, as well as a very gallant
+fellow."
+
+"Captain Osborn!" murmured Edith; "were they commanded by Captain
+Osborn?"
+
+"Yes, my dear," answered the old gentleman; "I saw him myself over the
+garden wall. I know him, my love; I have been introduced to him.
+Didn't you hear me say, he is coming to spend a few days with me?"
+
+Edith made no reply; but somewhat to her surprise, she heard her
+uncle, shortly after, order his carriage to be at the door at
+half-past twelve. He gave his fair niece no invitation to accompany
+him; and Edith prepared to amuse herself during his absence as
+best she might. She calculated, indeed, upon that which, to a
+well-regulated mind, is almost always either a relief or a pleasure,
+though too often a sad one: the spending of an hour or two in solitary
+thought. But all human calculations are vain; and so were those of
+poor Edith Croyland. For the present, however, we must leave her to
+her fate, and follow her good uncle, Zachary, on his expedition to
+Woodchurch, whither, as doubtless the reader has anticipated, his
+steps, or rather those of his coach horses, were turned, just as the
+hands of the clock in the vestibule pointed to a quarter to one.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+During the whole forenoon of the 3rd of September, the little village
+of Woodchurch presented a busy and bustling, though, in truth, it
+could not be called a gay scene. The smart dresses of the dragoons,
+the number of men and horses, the soldiers riding quickly along the
+road from time to time, the occasional sound of the trumpet, the
+groups of villagers and gaping children, all had an animating effect;
+but there was, mingled with the other sights which the place
+presented, quite a sufficient portion of human misery, in various
+forms, to sadden any but a very unfeeling heart. For some time after
+the affray was over, every ten minutes, was seen to roll in one of the
+small, narrow carts of the country, half filled with straw, and
+bearing a wounded man, or at most, two. In the same manner, several
+corpses, also, were carried in; and the number of at least fifty
+prisoners, in separate detachments, with hanging hands and pinioned
+arms, were marched slowly through the street to the houses which had
+been marked out as affording the greatest security.
+
+The good people of Woodchurch laughed and talked freely with the
+dragoons, made many inquiries concerning the events of the skirmish,
+and gave every assistance to the wounded soldiers; but it was remarked
+with surprise, by several of the officers, that they showed no great
+sympathy with the smugglers, either prisoners or wounded--gazed upon
+the parties who were brought in with an unfriendly air, and turning
+round to each other, commented, in low tones, with very little
+appearance of compassion.
+
+"Ay, that's one of the Ramleys' gang," said the stout blacksmith of
+the place, to his friend and neighbour, the wheelwright, as some ten
+or twelve men passed before them with their wrists tied.
+
+"And that fellow in the smart green coat is another," rejoined the
+wheelwright; "he's the man who, I dare say, ham-stringed my mare,
+because I wouldn't let them have her for the last run."
+
+"That's Tom Angel," observed the blacksmith; "he's to be married to
+Jinny Ramley, they say."
+
+"He'll be married to a halter first, I've a notion," answered the
+wheelwright, "and then instead of an angel he'll make a devil! He's
+one of the worst of them, bad as they all are. A pretty gaol delivery
+we shall have at the next 'Sizes!"
+
+"A good county delivery, too," replied the blacksmith; "as men have
+been killed, it's felony, that's clear: so hemp will be dear, Mr.
+Slatterly."
+
+By the above conversation the feelings of the people of Woodchurch
+towards the smugglers, at that particular time, may be easily divined;
+but the reader must not suppose that they were influenced alone by the
+very common tendency of men's nature to side with the winning party;
+for such was not altogether the case, though, perhaps, they would not
+have ventured to show their dislike to the smugglers so strongly, had
+they been more successful. As long as the worthy gentlemen, who had
+now met with so severe a reverse, had contented themselves with merely
+running contraband articles--even as long as they had done nothing
+more than take a man's horse for their own purposes, without his
+leave, or use his premises, whether he liked it or not, as a place of
+concealment for their smuggled goods, they were not only indifferent,
+but even friendly; for man has always a sufficient portion of the
+adventurer at his heart to have a fellow feeling for all his brethren
+engaged in rash and perilous enterprises. But the smugglers had grown
+insolent and domineering from long success; they had not only felt
+themselves lords of the county, but had made others feel it often in
+an insulting, and often in a cruel and brutal manner. Crimes of a very
+serious character had been lately committed by the Ramleys and others,
+which, though not traced home by sufficient evidence to satisfy the
+law, were fixed upon them by the general voice of the people; and the
+threats of terrible vengeance which they sometimes uttered against all
+who opposed them, and the boastful tone in which they indulged, when
+speaking of their most criminal exploits, probably gained them credit
+for much more wickedness than they really committed.
+
+Thus their credit with the country people was certainly on the decline
+when they met with the disaster which has been lately recorded; and
+their defeat and dispersion was held by the inhabitants of Woodchurch
+as an augury of better times, when their women would be able to pass
+from village to village, even after dusk, in safety and free from
+insult, and their cattle might be left out in the fields all night,
+without being injured, either by wantonness, or in lawless uses. It
+will be understood, that in thus speaking, I allude alone to the land
+smugglers, a race altogether different from their fellow labourers of
+the sea, whom the people looked upon with a much more favourable eye,
+and who, though rash and daring men enough, were generally a good
+humoured free-hearted body, spending the money that they had gained at
+the peril of their lives or their freedom, with a liberal hand and in
+a kindly spirit.
+
+Almost every inhabitant of Woodchurch had some cause of complaint
+against the Ramleys' gang; and, to say the truth, Mr. Radford himself
+was by no means popular in the county. A selfish and a cunning man is
+almost always speedily found out by the lower classes, even when he
+makes an effort to conceal it. But Mr. Radford took no such trouble;
+for he gloried in his acuteness; and if he had chosen a motto, it
+probably would have been "Every man for himself." His selfishness,
+too, took several of the most offensive forms. He was ostentatious; he
+was haughty; and, on the strength of riches acquired, every one knew
+how, he looked upon himself as a very great man, and treated all the
+inferior classes, except those of whom he had need, to use their own
+expression, "as dirt under his feet." All the villagers, therefore,
+were well satisfied to think that he had met with a check at last; and
+many of the good folks of Woodchurch speculated upon the probability
+of two or three, out of so great a number of prisoners, giving such
+evidence as would bring that worthy gentleman within the gripe of the
+law.
+
+Such were the feelings of the people of that place, as well as those
+of many a neighbouring village; and the scene presented by the captive
+and wounded smugglers, as they were led along, was viewed with
+indifference by some, and with pleasure by others. Two or three of the
+women, indeed, bestowed kindly attention upon the wounded men, moved
+by that beautiful compassion which is rarely if ever wanting, in a
+female heart; but the male part of the population took little share,
+if any, in such things, and were quite willing to aid the soldiers in
+securing the prisoners, till they could be marched off to prison.
+
+The first excitement had subsided before noon, but still, from time to
+time, some little bustle took place--a prisoner was caught and brought
+in, and carried to the public house where the colonel had established
+himself--an orderly galloped through the street--messengers came and
+went; and four or five soldiers, with their horses ready saddled,
+remained before the door of the inn, ready, at a moment's notice, for
+any event. The commanding officer did not appear at all beyond the
+doors of his temporary abode; but continued writing, giving orders,
+examining the prisoners, and those who brought them, in the same room
+which he had entered when first he arrived. As few of the people of
+the place had seen him, a good deal of curiosity was excited by his
+quietness and reserve. It was whispered amongst the women, that he was
+the handsomest man ever seen; and the men said he was a very fine
+fellow, and ought to be made a general of. The barmaid communicated to
+her intimate friends, that when he took off his cloak, she had seen a
+star upon the breast of his coat; and that her master seemed to know
+more of him, if he liked to tell; but the landlord was as silent as a
+mouse.
+
+These circumstances, however, kept up a little crowd before the
+entrance of the inn, consisting of persons anxious to behold the hero
+of the day; and just at the hour of two, the carriage of Mr. Croyland
+rolled in, through the people, at the usual slow and deliberate pace
+to which that gentleman accustomed his carriage horses.
+
+The large heavy door of the large heavy vehicle, was opened by the two
+servants who accompanied it; and out stepped Mr. Croyland, with his
+back as straight and stiff as a poker, and his gold-headed cane in his
+hand. The landlord, at the sight of an equipage, which he well knew,
+came out in haste, bowing low, and welcoming Mr. Croyland in the
+hearty good old style. The nabob himself unbent a little to his friend
+of the inn, and after asking him how he did, and bestowing a word or
+two on the state of the weather, proceeded to say, "And now, Miles, I
+wish to speak a word or two with Captain Osborn, who is in your house,
+I believe."
+
+"No, Mr. Croyland," replied the landlord, looking at the visitor with
+some surprise, "the captain is not here. He is down at Nelly South's,
+and his name's not Osborn, either, but Irby."
+
+"Then, who the deuce have you got here, with all these soldiers about
+the door?" demanded Mr. Croyland.
+
+"The colonel of the regiment, sir," answered Miles; "there has only
+been one captain here all day; and that's Captain Irby."
+
+"Not right of the lad--not right of the lad!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland,
+rather testily; "no one should keep a man waiting, especially an old
+man, and more especially still, a cross old man. But I'll come in and
+stop a bit; for I want to see the young gentleman. Where the devil did
+he go to, I wonder, after the skirmish?--Halloo, you sir, corporal!
+Pray, sir, what's your officer's name?"
+
+The man put up his hand in military fashion, and, with a strong
+Hibernian accent, demanded, "Is it the colonel you're inquiring about,
+sir? Why, then, his name is Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton,
+Knight of the Bath--and mighty cold weather it was, too, when he got
+the Bath; so I didn't envy him his ducking."
+
+"Oh ho!" said Mr. Croyland, putting his finger sagaciously to the side
+of his nose; "be so good as to send up that card to Lieutenant-Colonel
+Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath, and tell him that the gentleman
+whose appellation it bears is here, inquiring for one Captain Osborn
+whom he once saw."
+
+The corporal took the card himself to the top of the stairs, and
+delivered the message, with as much precision as his intellect could
+muster, to some person who seemed to be waiting on the outside of a
+door above. "Why, you fool!" cried a voice, immediately, "I told you,
+if Mr. Croyland came, to show him up. Sir Henry will see him." And
+immediately a servant, in plain clothes, descended to perform his
+function himself.
+
+"Very grand!" murmured Mr. Croyland, as he followed.
+
+The door above was immediately thrown open, and his name announced;
+but, walking slowly, he had not entered the room before the young
+officer, who has more than once been before the reader's eyes, was
+half across the floor to meet him. He was now dressed in full uniform;
+and certainly a finer or more commanding-looking man had seldom, if
+ever, met Mr. Croyland's view. Advancing with a frank and pleasant
+smile, he led him to the arm-chair which he had just occupied--it was
+the only one in the room--and, after thanking him for his visit,
+turned to the servant, and bade him shut the door.
+
+"I am in some surprise, and in some doubt, Sir Henry," said Mr.
+Croyland, with his sharp eyes twinkling a little. "I came here to see
+one Captain Osborn; and I find a gentleman very like him, in truth,
+but certainly a much smarter looking person, whom I am told is
+Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath, &c. &c. &c.;
+and yet he seems to look upon old Zachary Croyland as a friend, too."
+
+"He does, from his heart, I can assure you, Mr. Croyland," replied the
+young officer; "and I trust you will ever permit him to do so. But if
+it becomes us to deceive no man, it becomes us still more not to
+deceive a friend; and on that account it was I asked your presence
+here, to explain to you one or two circumstances which I thought it
+but just you should know, before I ventured to present myself at your
+house."
+
+"Pray speak, Sir Henry," replied Mr. Croyland--"I am all ears."
+
+The young officer paused for a moment, and a shadow came over his
+brow, as if something painful passed through his mind; but then, with
+a slight motion of his hand, as if he would have waved away unpleasant
+thoughts, he said, "I must first tell you, my dear sir, that I am the
+son of the Reverend Henry Leyton, whom you once knew, and the nephew
+of that Charles Osborn, with whom you were also intimately
+acquainted."
+
+"The dearest friend I ever had in the world," replied Mr. Croyland,
+blowing his nose violently.
+
+"Then I trust you will extend the same friendship to his nephew," said
+the colonel.
+
+"I don't know--I don't know," answered Mr. Croyland; "that must depend
+upon circumstances. I'm a very crabbed, tiresome old fellow, Sir
+Henry; and my friendships are not very sudden ones. But I have patted
+your head many a time when you were a child, and that's something.
+Then you are very like your father, and a little like your uncle,
+that's something more: so we may get on, I think. But what have you
+got to say more? and what in the name of fortune made you call
+yourself Captain Osborn, to an old friend of your family like myself?"
+
+"I did not do so, if you recollect," replied the young officer. "It
+was my friend Digby who gave me that name; and you must pardon me, if,
+on many accounts, I yielded to the trick; for I was coming down here
+on a difficult service--one that I am not accustomed to, and do not
+like; and I was very desirous of seeing a little of the country, and
+of learning something of the habits of the persons with whom I had to
+deal, before I was called upon to act."
+
+"And devilish well you did act when you set about it," cried Mr.
+Croyland. "I watched you this morning over the wall, and wondered a
+little that you did not come on to my house at once."
+
+"It is upon that subject that I must now speak," said Sir Henry
+Leyton, taking a grave tone, "and I must touch upon many painful
+subjects in the past. Just when I was about to write to you, Mr.
+Croyland, to say that I would come, in accordance with your kind
+invitation, I learned that your niece, Miss Croyland, is staying at
+your house. Now, I know not whether you have been informed, that long
+ago----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know all about that," answered Mr. Croyland, quickly.
+"There was a great deal of love and courting, and all that sort of boy
+and girl's stuff."
+
+"It must be man and woman's stuff now, Mr. Croyland," replied the
+young officer, "for I must tell you fairly and at once, I love her as
+deeply, as truly as ever. Years have made no difference; other scenes
+have made no change. The same as I went, in every thought and feeling,
+I have returned; and I can never think of her without emotion, which I
+can never speak to her without expressing."
+
+"Indeed--indeed!" said Mr. Croyland, apparently in some surprise.
+"That does make some difference."
+
+"That is what I feared," continued Sir Henry Leyton. "Your brother
+disapproved of our engagement. In consequence of it, he behaved to my
+father in a way--on which I will not dwell. You would not have behaved
+in such a way, I know; and although I should think any means
+justifiable, to see your niece when in her father's mansion, to tell
+her how deeply I love her still, and to ask her to sacrifice fortune
+and everything to share a soldier's fate, yet I did not think it would
+be right or honourable, to come into the house of a friend under a
+feigned name, and seek his niece--for seek her I should wherever I
+found her--when he might share the same views as his brother, or at
+all events think himself bound to support them. In short, Mr.
+Croyland, I knew that when you were aware of my real name and of my
+real feelings, it would make a difference, and a great one."
+
+"Not the difference you think, Harry," replied the old gentleman,
+holding out his hand to him; "but quite the reverse.--I'll tell you
+what, young man, I think you a devilish fine, high-spirited,
+honourable fellow, and the only one I ever saw whom I should like to
+marry my Edith. So don't say a word more about it. Come and dine with
+me to-day, as soon as you've got all this job over. You shall see her;
+you shall talk to her; you shall make all your arrangements together;
+and if there's a post-chaise in the country, I'll put you in and shut
+the door with my own hands. My brother is an old fool, and worse than
+an old fool, too--something very like an old rogue--at least, so he
+behaved to your father, and not much better to his own child; but I
+don't care a straw about him, and never did; and I never intend to
+humour one of his whims."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton pressed the old gentleman's hand in his, with much
+emotion; for the prospect seemed brightening to him, and the dark
+clouds which had so long overshadowed his course appeared to be
+breaking away. He had been hitherto like a traveller on a strong and
+spirited horse, steadfastly pursuing his course, and making his way
+onward, with vigour and determination, but with a dark and threatening
+sky over head, and not even a gleam of hope to lead him on.
+Distinction, honours, competence, command, he had obtained by his own
+talents and his own energies; he was looked up to by those below him,
+by his equals, even by many of his superiors. The eyes of all who knew
+him turned towards him as to one who was destined to be a leading man
+in his day. Everything seemed fair and smiling around him, and no eye
+could see the cloud that overshadowed him but his own. But what to him
+were honours, or wealth, or the world's applause, if the love of his
+early years were to remain blighted for ever? and in the tented field,
+the city, or the court, the shadow had still remained upon his heart's
+best feelings, not checking his energies, but saddening all his
+enjoyments. How often is it in the world, that we thus see the bright,
+the admired, the powerful, the prosperous, with the grave hue of
+painful thoughts upon the brow, the never unmingled smile, the lapses
+of gloomy meditation, and ask ourselves, "What is the secret sorrow in
+the midst of all this success? what is the fountain of darkness that
+turns the stream of sunshine grey? what the canker-worm that preys
+upon so bright a flower?" Deep, deep in the recesses of the heart, it
+lies gnawing in silence; but never ceasing, and never satisfied. Now,
+however, there was a light in the heavens for him; and whether it was
+as one of those rays that sometimes break through a storm, and then
+pass away, no more to be seen till the day dies in darkness; or
+whether it was the first glad harbinger of a serene evening after a
+stormy morning, the conclusion of this tale must show.
+
+"I'll tell you something, my dear boy," continued Mr. Croyland,
+forgetting that he was speaking to the colonel of a dragoon regiment,
+and going back at a leap to early days. "Your father was my old
+school-fellow and dear companion; your uncle was the best friend I
+ever had, and the founder of my fortune; for to his interest I owe my
+first appointment to India--ay, and to his generosity the greater part
+of my outfit and my passage. To them I am indebted for everything, to
+my brother for nothing; and I look upon you as a relation much more
+than upon him; so I have no very affectionate motives for
+countenancing or assisting him in doing what is not right. I'll tell
+you something more, too, Harry; I was sure that you would do what is
+honourable and right--not because you have got a good name in the
+world; for I am always doubtful of the world's good names, and,
+besides, I never heard the name of Sir Harry Leyton till this blessed
+day--but because you were the son of one honest man and the nephew of
+another, and a good wild frank boy too. So I was quite sure you would
+not come to my house under a false name, when my niece was in it,
+without, at all events, letting me into the secret; and you have
+justified my confidence, young man."
+
+"I would not have done such a thing for the world," replied the young
+officer; "but may I ask, then, my dear Mr. Croyland, if you recognised
+me in the stage coach? for it must be eighteen or nineteen years since
+you saw me."
+
+"Don't call me Mr. Croyland," said the old gentleman, abruptly; "call
+me Zachary, or Nabob, or Misanthrope, or Bear, or anything but that.
+As to your question, I say, no. I did not recognise you the least in
+the world. I saw in your face something like the faces of old friends,
+and I liked it on that account. But as for the rest of the matter,
+there's a little secret, my boy--a little bit of a puzzle. By one way
+or another--it matters not what--I had found out that Captain Osborn
+was my old friend Leyton's son; but till I came here to-day, I had no
+notion that he was colonel of the regiment, and a Knight of the Bath,
+to boot, as your corporal fellow took care to inform me. I thought you
+had been going under a false name, perhaps, all this time, and fancied
+I should find Captain Osborn quite well known in the regiment. I had a
+shrewd notion, too, that you had sent for me to tell the secret; but I
+was determined to let you explain yourself without helping you at all;
+for I'm a great deal fonder of men's actions than their words, Harry."
+
+"Is it fair to ask, who told you who I was?" asked Sir Henry Leyton.
+"My friend Digby has some----"
+
+"No, no," cried Mr. Croyland; "it wasn't that good, rash, rattle-pate,
+coxcomb of a fellow, who is only fit to be caged with little Zara; and
+then they may live together very well, like two monkeys in a show-box.
+No, he had nothing to do with it, though he has been busy enough since
+he came here, shooting partridges, and fighting young Radfords, and
+all that sort of thing."
+
+"Fighting young Radfords!" exclaimed Sir Henry Leyton, suddenly
+grasping the sheath of his sword with his right hand. "He should not
+have done that--at least, without letting me know."
+
+"Why, he knew nothing about it himself," replied Mr. Croyland, "till
+the minute it took place. The young vagabond followed him to my house;
+so I civilly told my brother's pet that I didn't want to see him; and
+he walked away with your friend Digby just across the lawn in front of
+the house, when, after a few minutes of pleasant conversation, the
+baronet applies me a horsewhip, with considerable unction and
+perseverance, to the shoulders of Richard Radford, Esquire, junior;
+upon which out come the pinking-irons, and in the course of the
+scuffle, Sir Edward receives a little hole in the shoulder, and Mr.
+Radford is disarmed and brought upon his knee, with a very unpleasant
+and ungentleman-like bump upon his forehead, bestowed, with hearty
+good-will, by the hilt of Master Digby's sword. Well, when he had got
+him there, instead of quietly poking a hole through him, as any man of
+common sense would have done, your friend lets him get up again, and
+ride away, just as a man might be supposed to pinch a Cobra that had
+bit him, by the tail, and then say, 'Walk off, my friend.' However, so
+stands the matter; and young Radford rode away, vowing all sorts of
+vengeance. He'll have it, too, if he can get it; for he's as spiteful
+as a baboon; so I hope you've caught him, as he was with these
+smuggling vagabonds, that's certain."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton shook his head. "He has escaped, I am sorry to say,"
+he replied. "How, I cannot divine; for I took means to catch him that
+I thought were infallible. All the roads through Harbourne Wood were
+guarded, but yet in that wood, all trace of him was lost. He left his
+horse in the midst of it, and must have escaped by some of the
+by-paths."
+
+"He's concealed in my brother's house, for a hundred guineas!" cried
+Mr. Croyland. "Robert's bewitched, to a certainty; for nothing else
+but witchcraft could make a man take an owl for a cock pheasant. Oh
+yes! there he is, snug in Harbourne House, depend upon it, feeding
+upon venison and turbot, and with a magnum of claret and two bottles
+of port to keep him comfortable--a drunken, beastly, vicious brute! A
+cross between a wolf and a swine, and not without a touch of the fox
+either--though the first figure is the best; for his father was the
+wolf, and his mother the sow, if all tales be true."
+
+"He cannot be in Harbourne House, I should think," replied the
+colonel, "for my dragoons searched it, it seems, violating the laws a
+little, for they had no competent authority with them; and besides he
+would not have put himself within Digby's reach, I imagine."
+
+"Then he's up in a tree, roosting in the day, like a bird of prey,"
+rejoined Mr. Croyland, in his quick way. "It's very unlucky he has
+escaped--very unlucky indeed."
+
+"At all events," answered the young officer, "thus much have we
+gained, my dear friend: he dare not shew himself in this county for
+years. He was seen, by competent witnesses, at the head of these
+smugglers, taking an active part with them in resistance to lawful
+authority. Blood has been shed, lives have been sacrificed, and a
+felony has been committed; so that if he is wise, and can manage it,
+he will get out of England. If he fail of escaping, or venture to show
+himself, he will grace the gallows, depend upon it."
+
+"Heaven be praised!" cried Mr. Croyland. "Give me the first tidings,
+when it is to happen, Harry, that I may order four horses, and hire a
+window. I would not have him hanged without my seeing it for a hundred
+pounds."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton smiled faintly, saying, "Those are sad sights, my
+dear sir, and we have too many of them in this county; but you have
+not told me, from whom you received intimation that Captain Osborn and
+Henry Osborn Leyton were the same person."
+
+"That's a secret--that's a secret, Hal," answered Mr. Croyland. "So
+now tell me when you'll come.--You'll be over to-night. I suppose, or
+have time and wisdom tamed the eagerness of love?"
+
+"Oh no, my dear sir," answered Leyton; "but I have still some business
+to settle here, and have promised to be in Hythe to-night. Before I
+go, however, I will ride over for an hour or two, for, till I have
+seen that dear girl again, and have heard her feelings and her wishes
+from her own lips, my thoughts will be all in confusion. I shall be
+calmer and more reasonable afterwards."
+
+"Much need!" answered Mr. Croyland. "But now I must leave you. I
+shan't say a word about it all, till you come; for preparing people's
+minds is all nonsense. It is only drawing them out upon the rack of
+expectation, which leaves them bruised and crushed, with no power to
+resist whatever is to come afterwards.--But don't be long, Harry, for
+remember that delays are dangerous."
+
+Leyton promised to set out as soon as one of his messengers, whom he
+expected every instant, had returned; and going down with Mr.
+Croyland, to the door of his carriage, he bade him adieu, and watched
+him as he drove away, gratifying the eyes of the people of Woodchurch
+with a view of his fine person, as he stood uncovered at the door. In
+the meantime, Mr. Croyland took his way slowly back towards his own
+dwelling.
+
+What had happened there during his absence, we shall see presently.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+All things have their several stages; and, without a knowledge of the
+preceding one it is impossible to judge accurately of any event which
+is the immediate subject of our contemplation. The life of every one,
+the history of the whole world that we inhabit, is but a regular drama
+with its scenes and acts, each depending for its interest upon that
+which preceded. I therefore judge it necessary, before going on to
+detail the events which took place in Mr. Croyland's house during his
+absence to visit the dwelling of his brother, and give some account of
+that which produced them. On the same eventful morning, then, of which
+we have spoken so much already, the inhabitants of Harbourne House
+slept quietly during the little engagement between the smugglers and
+the dragoons, unaware that things of great importance to their little
+circle were passing at no great distance. I have mentioned the
+inhabitants of Harbourne House; but perhaps it would have been more
+proper to have said the master, his family, and his guest; for a
+number of the servants were up; the windows were opened; and the wind,
+setting from Woodchurch, brought the sound of firearms thence. The
+movement of the troops from the side of High Halden was also remarked
+by one of the housemaids and a footman, as the young lady was leaning
+out of one of the windows with the young gentleman by her side. In a
+minute or two after they perceived, galloping across the country, two
+or three parties of men on horseback, as if in flight and pursuit.
+Most of these took to the right or left, and were soon lost to the
+sight; but at length one solitary horseman came on at a furious speed
+towards Harbourne House, with a small party of dragoons following him
+direct at a couple of hundred yards' distance, while two or three of
+the soldiery were seen scattered away to the right, and a somewhat
+larger body appeared moving down at a quick pace to the left, as if to
+cut the fugitive off at Gallows Green.
+
+The horse of the single rider seemed tired and dirty; and he was
+himself without a hat; but nevertheless, they pushed on with such
+rapidity, that a few seconds, from the time when they were first seen,
+brought steed and horseman into the little parish road which I have
+mentioned as running in front of the house, and passing round the
+grounds into the wood. As the fugitive drew near, the maid exclaimed,
+with a sort of a half scream, "Why, Lord ha' mercy, Matthew, it's
+young Mr. Radford!"
+
+"To be sure it is," answered the footman; "didn't you see that before,
+Betsy? There's a number of the dragoons after him, too. He's been up
+to some of his tricks, I'll warrant."
+
+"Well, I hope he wont come in here, at all events," rejoined the maid,
+"for I shouldn't like it, if we were to have any fighting in the
+house."
+
+"I shall go and shut the hall door," said the footman, drily--Richard
+Radford not having ingratiated himself as much with the servants as he
+had done with their master. But this precaution was rendered
+unnecessary; for the young man showed no inclination to enter the
+house, but passing along the road with the rapidity of an arrow, was
+soon lost in the wood, without even looking up towards the house of
+Sir Robert Croyland. Several of the dragoons followed him quickly; but
+two of them planted themselves at the corner of the road, and remained
+there immovable.
+
+The maid then observed, that she thought it high time the gentlefolks
+should be called; and she proceeded to execute her laudable purpose,
+taking care that tidings of what she had seen concerning Mr. Radford
+should be communicated to Sir Robert Croyland, to Zara, and to the
+servant of Sir Edward Digby, who again carried the intelligence to his
+master. The whole house was soon afoot; and Sir Robert was just out of
+his room in his dressing-gown, when three of the soldiers entered the
+mansion, expressing their determination to search it, and declaring
+their conviction that the smuggler whom they had been pursuing had
+taken refuge there.
+
+In vain Sir Robert Croyland remonstrated, and inquired if they had a
+warrant; in vain the servants assured the dragoons that no person had
+entered during the morning. The Serjeant who was at their head,
+persisted in asserting that the fugitive must have come in there, just
+when he was hid from his pursuers by the trees, assigning as a reason
+for this belief, that they had found his horse turned loose not a
+hundred yards from the house. They accordingly proceeded to execute
+their intention, meeting with no farther impediment till they reached
+the room of Sir Edward Digby, who, though he did not choose to
+interfere, not being on duty himself, warned the serjeant that he must
+be careful of what he was doing, as it appeared that he had neither
+magistrate, warrant, nor Custom-House officer with him.
+
+The serjeant, however, who was a bold and resolute fellow, and
+moreover a little heated and excited by the pursuit, took the
+responsibility upon himself, saying that he was fully authorized by
+Mr. Birchett to follow, search for, and apprehend one Richard Radford,
+and that he had the colonel's orders, too. Certainly, not a nook or
+corner of Harbourne House did he leave unexamined before he retired,
+grumbling and wondering at his want of success.
+
+Previous to his going, Sir Edward Digby charged him with a message to
+the colonel, which proved as great an enigma to the soldier as the
+escape of Richard Radford. "Tell him," said the young baronet, "that I
+am ready to come down if he wants me; but that if he does not, I think
+I am quite as well where I am."
+
+The breakfast passed in that sort of hurried and desultory
+conversation which such a dish of gossip as now poured in from all
+quarters usually produces, when served up at the morning meal. Sir
+Robert Croyland, indeed, looked ill at ease, laughed and jested in an
+unnatural and strained tone upon smugglers and smuggling, and
+questioned every servant that came in for further tidings. The reports
+that he thus received were as full of falsehood and exaggeration as
+all such reports generally are. The property captured was said to be
+immense. Two or three hundred smugglers were mentioned as having been
+taken, and a whole legion of them killed. Some had made confession,
+and clearly proved that the whole property was Mr. Radford's; and some
+had fought to the last, and killed an incredible number of the
+soldiers. To believe the butler, who received his information from the
+hind, who had his from the shepherd, the man called the Major, before
+he died, had absolutely breakfasted on dragoons, as if they had been
+prawns; but all agreed that never had such a large body of contraband
+traders been assembled before, or suffered such a disastrous defeat,
+in any of their expeditions.
+
+Sir Edward Digby gathered from the whole account, that his friend had
+been fully successful, that the smugglers had fought fiercely, that
+blood had been shed, and that Richard Radford, after having taken an
+active part in the affray, was now a fugitive, and, as the young
+baronet fancied, never to appear upon the stage again. But still Sir
+Robert Croyland did not seem by any means so well pleased as might
+have been wished; and a dark and thoughtful cloud would frequently
+come over his heavy brow, while a slight twitching of his lip seemed
+to indicate that anxiety had as great a share in his feelings as
+mortification.
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland amused herself, as usual, by doing her best to
+tease every one around her, and by saying the most malapropos things
+in the world. She spoke with great commiseration of "the poor
+smugglers:" every particle of her pity was bestowed upon them. She
+talked of the soldiers as if they had been the most fierce and
+sanguinary monsters in Europe, who had attacked, unprovoked, a party
+of poor men that were doing them no harm; till Zara's glowing cheek
+recalled to her mind, that these very blood-thirsty dragoons were Sir
+Edward Digby's companions and friends; and then she made the
+compliment more pointed by apologizing to the young baronet, and
+assuring him that she did not think for a moment he would commit such
+acts. Her artillery was next turned against her brother; and, in a
+pleasant tone of raillery, she joked him upon the subject of young Mr.
+Radford, and of the search the soldiers had made, looking with a
+meaning smile at Zara, and saying, "She dared say, Sir Robert could
+tell where he was, if he liked."
+
+The baronet declared, sharply and truly, that he knew nothing about
+the young man; but Mrs. Barbara shook her head and nodded, and looked
+knowing, adding various agreeable insinuations of the same kind as
+before--all in the best humour possible--till Sir Robert Croyland was
+put quite out of temper, and would have retorted violently, had he not
+known that to do so always rendered the matter ten times worse. Even
+poor Zara did not altogether escape; but, as we are hurrying on to
+important events, we must pass over her share of infliction.
+
+The conclusion of Mrs. Barbara's field-day was perhaps the most signal
+achievement of all. Breakfast had come to an end, though the meal had
+been somewhat protracted; and the party were just lingering out a few
+minutes before they rose, still talking on the subject of the skirmish
+of that morning, when the good lady thought fit to remark--"Well, we
+may guess for ever; but we shall soon know more about it, for I dare
+say we shall have Mr. Radford over here before an hour is gone, and he
+must know if the goods were his."
+
+This seemed to startle--nay, to alarm Sir Robert Croyland. He looked
+round with a sharp, quick turn of his head, and then rose at once,
+saying, "Well, whether he comes or not, I must go out and see about a
+good many things. Would you like to take a ride, Sir Edward Digby, or
+what will you do?"
+
+"Why, I think I must stay here for the present," replied the young
+baronet; "I may have a summons unexpectedly, and ought not to be
+absent."
+
+"Well, you will excuse me, I know," answered his entertainer. "I must
+leave my sister and Zara to amuse you for an hour or two, till I
+return."
+
+Thus saying, and evidently in a great bustle, Sir Robert Croyland
+quitted the room and ordered his horse. But just as the three whom he
+had left in the breakfast-room were sauntering quietly towards the
+library--Sir Edward Digby calculating by the way how he might best get
+rid of Mrs. Barbara, in order to enjoy the fair Zara's company
+undisturbed--they came upon the baronet at the moment when he was
+encountered by one of his servants bringing him some unpleasant
+intelligence. "Please, Sir Robert," said the man, with a knowing wink
+of the eye, "all the horses are out."
+
+"Out!" cried the baronet, with a look of fury and consternation. "What
+do you mean by out, fellow?"
+
+"Why, they were taken out of the stable last night, sir," replied the
+man. "I dare say you know where they went; and they have not come back
+again yet."
+
+"Pray, have mine been taken also?" demanded Sir Edward Digby, very
+well understanding what sort of an expedition Sir Robert Croyland's
+horses had gone upon.
+
+"Oh dear, no, sir!" answered the man; "your servant keeps the key of
+that stable himself, sir."
+
+The young baronet instantly offered his host the use of one of his
+steeds, which was gratefully accepted by Sir Robert Croyland, who,
+however, thought fit to enter into an exculpation of himself, somewhat
+tedious withal, assuring his guest that the horses had been taken
+without his approbation or consent, and that he had no knowledge
+whatsoever of the transaction in which they were engaged.
+
+Sir Edward Digby professed himself quite convinced that such was the
+case, and in order to relieve his host from the embarrassment which he
+seemed to feel, explained that he was already aware that the Kentish
+smugglers were in the habit of borrowing horses without the owner's
+consent.
+
+In our complicated state of society, however, everything hinges upon
+trifles. We have made the watch so fine, that a grain of dust stops
+the whole movement; and the best arranged plans are thrown out by the
+negligence, the absence, or the folly of a servant, a friend, or a
+messenger. Sir Edward Digby's groom could not be found for more than a
+quarter of an hour: when he was, at length, brought to light, the
+horse had to be saddled. An hour had now nearly elapsed since the
+master of the house had given orders for his own horse to be brought
+round immediately: he was evidently uneasy at the delay, peevish,
+restless, uncomfortable; and in the end, he said he would mount at the
+back door, as it was the nearest and the most convenient. He even
+waited in the vestibule; but suddenly he turned, walked through the
+double doors leading to the stable-yard, and said he heard the horse
+coming up.
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland had, in the meantime, amused herself and her
+niece in the library, with the door open; and sometimes she worked a
+paroquet, in green, red, and white silk embroidery--a favourite
+occupation for ladies in her juvenile days--and sometimes she gazed
+out of the window, or listened to the conversation of her brother and
+his guest in the vestibule. At the very moment, however, when Sir
+Robert was making his exit by the doors between the principal part of
+the house and the offices, Mrs. Barbara called loudly after him,
+"Brother Robert!--Brother Robert!--Here is Mr. Radford coming."
+
+The baronet turned a deaf ear, and shut the door. He would have locked
+it, too, if the evasion would not have then been too palpable. But
+Mrs. Barbara was resolved that he should know that Mr. Radford was
+coming; and up she started, casting down half-a-dozen cards of silk.
+Zara tried to stop her; for she knew her father, and all the signs and
+indications of his humours; but her efforts were in vain. Mrs. Barbara
+dashed past her, rushed through both doors, leaving them open behind
+her, and caught her brother's arms just as the horse, which he had
+thought fit to hear approach a little before it really did so, was led
+up slowly from the stables to the back door of the mansion.
+
+"Robert, here is Mr. Radford!" said Mrs. Barbara, aloud. "I knew you
+would like to see him."
+
+The baronet turned his head, and saw his worthy friend, through the
+open doors, just entering the vestibule. To the horror and surprise of
+his sister, he uttered a low but bitter curse, adding, in tones quite
+distinct enough to reach her ear, "Woman, you have ruined me!"
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Mrs. Barbara; "why, I thought----"
+
+"Hush! silence!" said Sir Robert Croyland, in a menacing tone; "not
+another word, on your life;" and turning, he met Mr. Radford with the
+utmost suavity, but with a certain degree of restraint which he had
+not time to banish entirely from his manner.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Radford!" he exclaimed, shaking him, too, heartily by the
+hand, "I was just going out to inquire about some things of
+importance;" and he gazed at him with a look which he intended to be
+very significant of the inquiries he had proposed to institute. But
+his glance was hesitating and ill-assured; and Mr. Radford replied,
+with the coolest and most self-possessed air possible, and with a
+firm, fixed gaze upon the baronet's countenance.
+
+"Indeed, Sir Robert!" he said, "perhaps I can satisfy you upon some
+points; but, at all events, I must speak with you for a few minutes
+before you go. Good morning, Sir Edward Digby: have you had any sport
+in the field?--I will not detain you a quarter of an hour, my good
+friend. We had better go into your little room."
+
+He led the way thither as he spoke; and Sir Robert Croyland followed
+with a slow and faltering step. He knew Richard Radford; he knew what
+that calm and self-possessed manner meant. He was aware of the
+significance of courteous expressions and amicable terms from the man
+who called him his good friend; and if there was a being upon earth,
+on whose head Sir Robert Croyland would have wished to stamp as on a
+viper's, it was the placid benign personage who preceded him.
+
+They entered the room in which the baronet usually sat in a morning to
+transact his business with his steward, and to arrange his affairs;
+and Sir Robert carefully shut the door behind him, trying, during the
+one moment that his back was turned upon his unwelcome guest, to
+compose his agitated features into the expression of haughty and
+self-sufficient tranquillity which they usually wore.
+
+"Sit down, Radford," he said--"pray sit down, if it be but for ten
+minutes;" and he pointed to the arm-chair on the other side of the
+table.
+
+Mr. Radford sat down, and leaned his head upon his hand, looking in
+the baronet's face with a scrutinizing gaze. If Sir Robert Croyland
+understood him well, he also understood Sir Robert Croyland, heart and
+mind--every corporeal fibre--every mental peculiarity. He saw clearly
+that his companion was terrified; he divined that he had wished to
+avoid him; and the satisfaction that he felt at having caught him just
+as he was going out, at having frustrated his hope of escape, had a
+pleasant malice in it, which compensated for a part of all that he had
+suffered during that morning, as report after report reached him of
+the utter annihilation of his hopes of immense gain, the loss of a
+ruinous sum of money, and the danger and narrow escape of his son. He
+had not slept a wink during the whole of the preceding night; and he
+had passed the hours in a state of nervous anxiety which would have
+totally unmanned many a strong-minded man when his first fears were
+realized. But Mr. Radford's mind was of a peculiar construction:
+apprehension he might feel, but never, by any chance, discouragement.
+All his pain was in anticipation, not in endurance. The moment a blow
+was struck, it was over: his thoughts turned to new resources; and, in
+reconstructing schemes which had been overthrown, in framing new ones,
+or pursuing old ones which had slumbered, he instantly found comfort
+for the past. Thus he seemed as fresh, as resolute, as unabashed by
+fortune's late frowns, as ever; but there was a rankling bitterness,
+an eager, wolf-like energy in his heart, which sprung both from angry
+disappointment and from the desperate aspect of his present fortune;
+and such feelings naturally communicated some portion of their
+acerbity to the expression of his countenance, which no effort could
+totally banish.
+
+He gazed upon Sir Robert Croyland, then with a keen and inquiring
+look, not altogether untinged with that sort of pity which amounts to
+scorn; and, after a momentary pause, he said, "Well, Croyland, you
+have heard all, I suppose!"
+
+"No, not all--not all, Radford," answered the baronet, hesitating; "I
+was going out to inquire."
+
+"I can save you the trouble, then," replied Mr. Radford, drily. "I am
+ruined. That is to say, in the two last ventures I have lost
+considerably more than a hundred thousand pounds."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland waved his head sadly, saying, "Terrible, terrible!
+but what can be done?"
+
+"Oh, several things," answered Mr. Radford, "and that is what I have
+come to speak to you about, because the first must rest with you, my
+excellent good friend."
+
+"But where is your son, poor fellow?" asked the baronet, eager to
+avoid, as long as possible, the point to which their conversation was
+tending. "They tell me he was well nigh taken; and, after there has
+been blood shed, that would have been destruction. Do you know they
+came and searched this house for him?"
+
+"No, I had not heard of that, Croyland," replied Mr. Radford; "but he
+is near enough, well enough, and safe enough to marry your fair
+daughter."
+
+"Ay, yes," answered Sir Robert; "that must be thought of, and----."
+
+"Oh dear, no!" cried the other, interrupting him; "it has been thought
+of enough already, Croyland--too much, perhaps; now, it must be done."
+
+"Well, I will go over to Edith at once," said the baronet, "and I will
+urge her, by every inducement. I will tell her, that it is her duty,
+that it is my will, and that she must and shall obey."
+
+Mr. Radford rose slowly off his seat, crossed over the rug to the
+place where Sir Robert Croyland was placed; and, leaning his hand upon
+the arm of the other's chair, he bent down his head, saying in a low
+but very clear voice and perfectly distinct words, "Tell her, her
+father's life depends upon it!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland shrank from him, as if an asp had approached his
+cheek; and he turned deadly pale. "No, Radford--no," he replied, in a
+faltering and deprecatory tone; "you cannot mean such a horrible
+thing. I will do all that I can to make her yield--I will, indeed--I
+will insist--I will----"
+
+"Sir Robert Croyland," said Mr. Radford, sternly and slowly, "I will
+have no more trifling. I have indulged you too long. Your daughter
+must be my son's wife before he quits this country--which must be the
+case for a time, till we can get this affair wiped out by our
+parliamentary influence. Her fortune must be his, she must be his
+wife, I say, before four days are over.--Now, my good friend," he
+continued, falling back, in a degree, into his usual manner, which had
+generally a touch of sarcastic bitterness in it when addressing his
+present companion, "what means you may please to adopt to arrive at
+this desirable result I cannot tell; but as the young lady has shown
+an aversion to the match, not very flattering to my son----"
+
+"Is it not his own fault?" cried Sir Robert Croyland, roused to some
+degree of indignation and resistance--"has he ever, by word or deed,
+sought to remove that reluctance? Has he wooed her as woman always
+requires to be wooed? Has he not rather shown a preference to her
+sister, paid her all attention, courted, admired her?"
+
+"Pity you suffered it, Sir Robert," answered Radford; "but permit me,
+in your courtesy, to go on with what I was saying. As the young lady
+has shown this unfortunate reluctance, I anticipate no effect from
+your proposed use of parental authority. I believe your requests and
+your commands will be equally unavailing; and, therefore, I say, tell
+her, her father's life depends upon it; for I will have no more
+trifling, Sir Robert--no more delay--no more hesitation. It must be
+settled at once--this very day. Before midnight, I must hear that she
+consents, or you understand!--and consent she will, if you but employ
+the right means. She may show herself obstinate, undutiful, careless
+of your wishes and commands; but I do not think that she would like to
+be the one to tie a halter round her father's neck, or to bring what I
+think you gentlemen of heraldry and coat-armour call a cross-patonce
+into the family-bearing--ha, ha, ha!--Do you, Sir Robert?"
+
+The unhappy gentleman to whom he spoke covered his eyes with his hand;
+but, from beneath, his features could be seen working with the
+agitation of various emotions, in which rage, impotent though it might
+be, was not without its share. Suddenly, however, a gleam of hope
+seemed to shoot across his mind; he withdrew his hand; he looked up
+with some light in his eyes. "A thought has struck me, Radford," he
+said; "Zara--we have talked of Zara--why not substitute her for Edith?
+Listen to me--listen to me. You have not heard all."
+
+Mr. Radford shook his head. "It cannot be done," he replied--"it is
+quite out of the question."
+
+"Nay, but hear!" exclaimed the baronet. "Not so much out of the
+question as you think. Look at the whole circumstances, Radford. The
+great obstacle with Edith, is that unfortunate engagement with young
+Leyton. She looks upon herself as his wife; she has told me so a
+thousand times; and I doubt even the effect of the terrible course
+which you urge upon me so cruelly."
+
+Mr. Radford's brow had grown exceedingly dark at the very mention of
+the name of Leyton; but he said nothing, and, as if to keep down the
+feelings that were swelling in his heart, set his teeth hard in his
+under lip. Sir Robert Croyland saw all these marks of anger, but went
+on--"Now, the case is different with Zara. Your son has sought her,
+and evidently admires her; and she has shown herself by no means
+unfavourable towards him. Besides, I can do with her what I like.
+There is no such obstacle in her case; and I could bend her to my will
+with a word--Yes, but hear me out. I know what you would say: she has
+no fortune; all the land that I can dispose of is mortgaged to the
+full--the rest goes to my brother, if he survives me.--True, all very
+true!--But, Radford, listen--if I can induce my brother to give Zara
+the same fortune which Edith possesses--if this night I can bring
+it you under his own hand, that she shall have fifty thousand
+pounds?--You shake your head; you doubt that he will do it; but I can
+tell you that he would willingly give it, to save Edith from your son.
+I am ready to pledge you my word, that you shall have that engagement,
+under his own hand, this very night, or that Edith shall become your
+son's wife within four days. Let us cast aside all idle
+circumlocution. It is Edith's fortune for your son, that you require.
+You can care nothing personally which of the two he marries. As for
+him, he evidently prefers Zara. She is also well inclined to him. I
+can--I am sure I can--offer you the same fortune with her. Why should
+you object?"
+
+Mr. Radford had resumed his seat, and with his arms folded on his
+chest, and his head bent, had remained in a listening posture. But
+nothing that he heard seemed to produce any change in his countenance;
+and when Sir Robert Croyland had concluded, he rose again, took a step
+towards him, and replied, through his shut teeth, "You are mistaken,
+Sir Robert Croyland--it is not fortune alone I seek.--It is
+revenge!--There, ask me no questions, I have told you my determination.
+Your daughter Edith shall be my son's wife within four days, or Maidstone
+jail, trial, and execution, shall be your lot. The haughty family of
+Croyland shall bear the stain of felony upon them to the last
+generation; and your daughter shall know--for if you do not tell her,
+I will--that it is her obstinacy which sends her father to the
+gallows. No more trifling--no more nonsense! Act, sir, as you think
+fit; but remember, that the words--once passed my lips--can never be
+recalled; that the secret I have kept buried for so many years, shall
+to-morrow morning be published to the whole world, if to-night you do
+not bring me your daughter's consent to what I demand. I am using no
+vain threats, Sir Robert Croyland," he continued, resuming a somewhat
+softened tone, "and I do not urge you to this without some degree of
+regret. You have been very kind and friendly; you have done me good
+service on several occasions; and it will be with great regret that I
+become the instrument of your destruction. But still every man has a
+conscience of some kind. Even I am occasionally troubled with qualms;
+and I frequently reproach myself for concealing what I am bound to
+reveal. It is a pity this marriage was not concluded long ago, for
+then, connected with you by the closest ties; I should have felt
+myself more justified in holding my tongue. Now, however, it is
+absolutely necessary that your daughter Edith should become my son's
+wife. I have pointed out the means which I think will soonest bring it
+to bear; and if you do not use them, you must abide the consequences.
+But mark me--no attempt at delay, no prevarication, no hesitation! A
+clear, positive, distinct answer this night by twelve o'clock, or you
+are lost!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland had leaned his arms upon the table, and pressed
+his eyes upon his arms. His whole frame shook with emotion, and the
+softer, and seemingly more kindly words of the man before him, were
+even bitterer to him than the harsher and the fiercer. Though he did
+not see his face, he knew that there was far more sarcasm than
+tenderness in them. He had been his slave--his tool, for years--his
+tool through the basest and most unmanly of human passions--fear; and
+he felt, not only that he was despised, but that at that moment
+Radford was revelling in contempt. He could have got up and stabbed
+him where he stood; for he was naturally a passionate and violent man.
+But fear had still the dominion; and after a bitter struggle with
+himself, he conquered his anger, and gave himself up to the thought of
+meeting the circumstances in which he was placed, as best he might. He
+was silent for several moments, however, after Mr. Radford had ceased
+speaking; and then, looking up with an anxious eye and quivering lip,
+he said, "But how is it possible, Radford, that the marriage should
+take place in four days? The banns could not be published; and even if
+you got a licence, your son could not appear at church within the
+prescribed hours, without running a fatal risk."
+
+"We will have a special licence, my good friend," answered Mr.
+Radford, with a contemptuous smile. "Do not trouble yourself about
+that. You will have quite enough to do with your daughter, I should
+imagine, without annoying yourself with other things. As to my son, I
+will manage his part of the affair; and he can marry your daughter in
+your drawing-room, or mine, at an hour when there will be no eager
+eyes abroad. Money can do all things; and a special licence is not so
+very expensive but that I can afford it, still. My drawing-room will
+be best; for then we shall be all secure."
+
+"But, Radford--Radford!" said Sir Robert Croyland, "if I do--if I
+bring Edith at the time appointed--if she become your son's wife--you
+will give me up that paper, that fatal deposition?"
+
+"Oh, yes, assuredly," replied Mr. Radford, with an insulting smile; "I
+can hand it over to you as part of the marriage settlement. You need
+not be the least afraid!--and now, I think I must go; for I have
+business to settle as well as you."
+
+"Stay, stay a moment, Radford," said the baronet, rising and coming
+nearer to him. "You spoke of revenge just now. What is it that you
+mean?"
+
+"I told you to ask no questions," answered the other, sharply.
+
+"But at least tell me, if it is on me or mine that you seek revenge!"
+exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland. "I am unconscious of ever having
+injured or offended you in any way."
+
+"Oh dear, no," replied Mr. Radford. "You have nothing to do with
+it--no, nor your daughter either, though she deserves a little
+punishment for her ill-treatment to my son. No, but there is one on
+whom I will have revenge--deep and bitter revenge, too! But that is my
+affair; and I do not choose to say more. You have heard my
+resolutions; and you know me well enough, to be sure that I will keep
+my word. So now go to your daughter, and manage the matter as you
+judge best; but if you will take my advice, you will simply ask her
+consent, and make her fully aware that her father's life depends upon
+it; and now good-by, my dear friend. Good luck attend you on your
+errand; for I would a great deal rather not have any hand in bringing
+you, where destiny seems inclined to lead you very soon."
+
+Thus saying, he turned and quitted the room; and Sir Robert Croyland
+remained musing for several minutes, his thoughts first resting upon
+the last part of their conversation. "Revenge!" he said; "he must mean
+my brother; and it will be bitter enough, to him, to see Edith married
+to this youth. Bitter enough to me, too; but it must be done--it must
+be done!"
+
+He pressed his hand upon his heart, and then went out to mount his
+horse; but pausing in the vestibule, he told the butler to bring him a
+glass of brandy. The man hastened to obey; for his master's face was
+as pale as death, and he thought that Sir Robert was going to faint.
+But when the baronet had swallowed the stimulating liquor, he walked
+to the back door with a quick and tolerably steady step, mounted, and
+rode away alone.
+
+Before I follow him, though anxious to do so as quickly as possible, I
+must say a few words in regard to Mr. Radford's course. After he had
+reached the parish road I have mentioned,--on which one or two
+dragoons were still visible, slowly patrolling round Harbourne
+Wood,--the man who had exercised so terrible an influence upon poor
+Sir Robert Croyland turned his horse's head upon the path which led
+straight through the trees towards the cottage of Widow Clare. His
+face was still dark and cloudy; and, trusting to the care and
+sure-footedness of his beast, he went on with a loose rein and his
+eyes bent down towards his saddle-bow, evidently immersed in deep
+thought. When he had got about two-thirds across the wood, he started
+and turned round his head; for there was the sound of a horse's feet
+behind, and he instantly perceived a dragoon following him, and
+apparently keeping him in sight. Mr. Radford rode on, however, till he
+came out not far from the gate of Mrs. Clare's garden, when he saw
+another soldier riding slowly round the wood. With a careless air,
+however, and as if he scarcely perceived these circumstances, he
+dismounted, buckled the rein of his bridle slowly over the palings of
+the garden, and went into the cottage, closing the door after him. He
+found the widow and her daughter busily employed with the needle,
+making somewhat smarter clothes than those they wore on ordinary
+occasions. It was poor Kate's bridal finery.
+
+Mrs. Clare instantly rose, and dropped a low curtsey to Mr. Radford,
+who had of late years frequently visited her cottage, and occasionally
+contributed a little to her comfort, in a kindly and judicious manner.
+Sometimes he had sent her down a load of wood, to keep the house warm;
+sometimes he had given her a large roll of woollen cloth, a new gown
+for her daughter or herself, or a little present of money. But Mr.
+Radford had his object: he always had.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Clare!" said Mr. Radford, in as easy and quiet a tone as
+if nothing had happened to agitate his mind or derange his plans; "so,
+my pretty little friend, Kate, is going to be married to worthy Jack
+Harding, I find."
+
+Kate blushed and held down her head, and Mrs. Clare assented with a
+faint smile.
+
+"There has been a bad business of it this morning, though," said Mr.
+Radford, looking in Mrs. Clare's face; "I dare say you've heard all
+about it--over there, in the valley by Woodchurch and Redbrook
+Street."
+
+Mrs. Clare looked alarmed; and Kate forgot her timidity, and
+exclaimed--"Oh! is he safe?"
+
+"Oh, yes, my dear," answered Mr. Radford, in a kindly tone; "you need
+not alarm yourself. He was not in it, at all. I don't say he had no
+share in running the goods; for that is pretty well known, I believe;
+and he did his part of the work well; but the poor fellows who were
+bringing up the things, by some folly, or mistake, I do not know
+which, got in amongst the dragoons, were attacked, and nearly cut to
+pieces."
+
+"Ay, then, that is what the soldiers are hanging about here for," said
+Mrs. Clare.
+
+"It's a sad affair for me, indeed!" continued Mr. Radford,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I am truly sorry to hear that, sir!" exclaimed Mrs. Clare, "for you
+have been always very kind to me."
+
+"Well, my good lady," replied her visitor, "perhaps you may now be
+able to do me a kindness in return," said Mr. Radford. "To tell you
+the truth, my son was in this affray. He made his escape when he found
+that they could not hold their ground; and it is for him that the
+soldiers are now looking--at least, I suspect so. Perhaps you may be
+able to give a little help, if he should be concealed about here?"
+
+"That I will," said Widow Clare, "if it cost me one of my hands!"
+
+"Oh, there will be no danger!" answered Mr. Radford; "I only wish you,
+in case he should be lying where I think he is, to take care that he
+has food till he can get away. It might be better for Kate here, to go
+rather than yourself; or one could do it at one time, and the other at
+another. With a basket on her arm, and a few eggs at the top, Kate
+could trip across the wood as if she were going to Harbourne House.
+You could boil the eggs hard, you know, and put some bread and other
+things underneath. Then, at the place where I suppose he is, she could
+quietly put down the basket and walk on."
+
+"But you must tell me where he is, sir," answered Mrs. Clare.
+
+"Certainly," replied Mr. Radford--"that is to say, I can tell you
+where I think he is. Then, when she gets near it, she can look round
+to see if there's any one watching, and if she sees no one, can say
+aloud--'Do you want anything?' If he's there he'll answer; and should
+he send any message to me, one of you must bring it up. I shan't
+forget to repay you for your trouble."
+
+"Oh dear, sir, it isn't for that," said Mrs. Clare--"Kate and I will
+both be very glad, indeed, to show our gratitude for your kindness. It
+is seldom poor people have the opportunity; and I am sure, after good
+Sir Robert Croyland, we owe more to you than to any body."
+
+"Sir Robert has been kind to you, I believe, Mrs. Clare!" replied Mr.
+Radford, with a peculiar expression of countenance. "Well he may be!
+He has not always been so kind to you and yours."
+
+"Pray, sir, do not say a word against Sir Robert!" answered the widow;
+"though he sometimes used to speak rather cross and angrily in former
+times, yet since my poor husband's death, nothing could be more kind
+than he has been. I owe him everything, sir."
+
+"Ay, it's all very well, Mrs. Clare," replied Mr. Radford, shaking his
+head with a doubtful smile--"it's all very well! However, I do not
+intend to say a word against Sir Robert Croyland. He's my very good
+friend, you know; and it's all very well.--Now let us talk about the
+place where you or Kate are to go; but, above all things, remember
+that you must not utter a word about it to any one, either now or
+hereafter; for it might be the ruin of us all if you did."
+
+"Oh, no--not for the world, sir!" answered Mrs. Clare; "I know such
+places are not to be talked about; and nobody shall ever hear anything
+about it from us."
+
+"Well, then," continued Mr. Radford, "you know the way up to Harbourne
+House, through the gardens. There's the little path to the right; and
+then, half way up that, there's one to the left, which brings you to
+the back of the stables. It goes between two sandy banks, you may
+recollect; and there's a little pond with a willow growing over it,
+and some bushes at the back of the willow. Well, just behind these
+bushes there is a deep hole in the bank, high enough to let a man
+stand upright in it, when he gets a little way down. It would make a
+famous _hide_ if there were a better horse-path up to it, and
+sometimes it has been used for small things such as a man can carry on
+his back. Now, from what I have heard, my boy Richard must be in
+there; for his horse was found, it seems, not above two or three
+hundred yards from the house, broken-knee'd and knocked-up. If any one
+should follow you as you go, and make inquiries, you must say that you
+are going to the house; for there is a door there in the wall of the
+stable-yard--though that path is seldom, if ever used now; but, if
+there be nobody by, you can just set down the basket by the stump of
+the willow, and ask if he wants anything more. If he doesn't answer,
+speak again, and try at all events to find out whether he's there or
+not, so that I may hear."
+
+"Oh, I know the place, quite well!" said Mrs. Clare. "My poor husband
+used to get gravel there. But when do you think I had better go, sir?
+for if the dragoons are still lingering about, a thousand to one but
+they follow me, and, more likely still, may follow Kate; so I shall go
+myself to night, at all events."
+
+"You had better wait till it is duskish," answered Mr. Radford; "and
+then they'll soon lose sight of you amongst the trees; for they can't
+go up there on horseback, and if they stop to dismount you can easily
+get out of their way. Let me have any message you may get from
+Richard; and don't forget, either, if Harding comes up here, to tell
+him I want to speak with him very much. He'll be sorry enough for this
+affair when he hears of it, for the loss is dreadful!"
+
+"I'm sure he will, sir," said Kate Clare; "for he was talking about
+something that he had to do, and said it would half kill him, if he
+did not get it done safely."
+
+"Ay, he's a very good fellow," answered Mr. Radford, "and you shall
+have a wedding-gown from me, Kate.--Look out of the window, there's a
+good girl, and see if any of those dragoons are about."
+
+Kate did as he bade her, and replied in the negative; and Mr. Radford,
+after giving a few more directions, mounted his horse and rode away,
+muttering as he went--"Ay, Master Harding, I have a strong suspicion
+of you; and I will soon satisfy myself. They must have had good
+information, which none could give but you, I think; so look to
+yourself, my friend. No man ever injured me yet who had not cause to
+repent it."
+
+Mr. Radford forgot that he no longer possessed such extensive means of
+injuring others as he had formerly done; but the bitter will was as
+strong as ever.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+The house of Mr. Zachary Croyland was not so large or ostentatious in
+appearance as that of his brother; but, nevertheless, it was a very
+roomy and comfortable house; and as he was naturally a man of fine
+taste--though somewhat singular in his likings and dislikings, as well
+in matters of art as in his friendships, and vehement in favour of
+particular schools, and in abhorrence of others--his dwelling was
+fitted up with all that could refresh the eye or improve the mind. A
+very extensive and well-chosen library covered the walls of one room,
+in which were also several choice pieces of sculpture; and his
+drawing-room was ornamented with a valuable collection of small
+pictures, into which not one single Dutch piece was admitted. He was
+accustomed to say, when any connoisseur objected to the total
+exclusion of a very fine school--"Don't mention it--don't mention it;
+I hate it in all its branches and all its styles. I have pictures for
+my own satisfaction, not because they are worth a thousand pounds
+apiece. I hate to see men represented as like beasts as possible; or
+to refresh my eyes with swamps and canals; or, in the climate of
+England, which is dull enough of all conscience, to exhilarate myself
+with the view of a frozen pond and fields, as flat as a plate, covered
+with snow, while half-a-dozen boors, in red night-caps and red noses,
+are skating away in ten pairs of breeches--looking, in point of shape,
+exactly like hogs set upon their hind legs. It's all very true the
+artist may have shown very great talent; but that only shows him to be
+the greater fool for wasting his talents upon such subjects."
+
+His collection, therefore, consisted almost entirely of the Italian
+schools, with a few Flemish, a few English, and one or two exquisite
+Spanish pictures. He had two good Murillos and a Velasquez, one or two
+fine Vandykes, and four sketches by Rubens of larger pictures. But he
+had numerous landscapes, and several very beautiful small paintings of
+the Bolognese school; though that on which he prided himself the most,
+was an exquisite Correggio.
+
+It was in this room that he left his niece Edith when he set out for
+Woodchurch; and, as she sat--with her arm fallen somewhat listlessly
+over the back of the low sofa, the light coming in from the window
+strong upon her left cheek, and the rest in shade, with her rich
+colouring and her fine features, the high-toned expression of soul
+upon her brow, and the wonderful grace of her whole form and
+attitude--she would have made a fine study for any of those dead
+artists whose works lived around her.
+
+She heard the wheels of the carriage roll away; but she gave no
+thought to the question of whither her uncle had gone, or why he took
+her not with him, as he usually did. She was glad of it, in fact; and
+people seldom reason upon that with which they are well pleased. Her
+whole mind was directed to her own situation, and to the feelings
+which the few words of conversation she had had with her sister had
+aroused. She thought of him she loved, with the intense, eager longing
+to behold him once more--but once, if so it must be--which perhaps
+only a woman's heart can fully know. To be near him, to hear him
+speak, to trace the features she had loved, to mark the traces of
+Time's hand, and the lines that care and anxiety, and disappointment
+and regret, she knew must be busily working--oh, what a boon it would
+be! Then her mind ran on, led by the light hand of Hope, along the
+narrow bridge of association, to ask herself--if it would be such
+delight to see him and to hear him speak--what would it be to soothe,
+to comfort, to give him back to joy and peace!
+
+The dream was too bright to last, and it soon faded. He was near her,
+and yet he did not come; he was in the same land, in the same
+district; he had gazed up to the house where she dwelt; if he had
+asked whose it was, the familiar name--the name once so dear--must
+have sounded in his ear; and yet he did not come. A few minutes of
+time, a few steps of his horse, would have brought him to where she
+was; but he had turned away,--and Edith's eyes filled with tears.
+
+She rose and wiped them off, saying, "I will think of something else;"
+and she went up and gazed at a picture. It was a Salvator Rosa--a fine
+painting, though not by one of the finest masters. There was a rocky
+scene in front, with trees waving in the wind of a fierce storm, while
+two travellers stood beneath a bank and a writhing beech tree,
+scarcely seeming to find shelter even there from the large grey
+streams of rain that swept across the foreground. But, withal, in the
+distance were seen some majestic old towers and columns, with a gleam
+of golden light upon the edge of the sky; and Hope, never wearying of
+her kindly offices, whispered to Edith's heart, "In life, as in that
+picture, there may be sunshine behind the storm."
+
+Poor Edith was right willing to listen; and she gave herself up to the
+gentle guide. "Perhaps," she thought, "his duty might not admit of his
+coming, or perhaps he might not know how he would he received. My
+father's anger would be sure to follow such a step. He might think
+that insult, injury, would be added. He might imagine even, that I am
+changed," and she shook her head, sadly. "Yet why should he not," she
+continued, "if I sit here and think so of him? Who can tell what
+people may have said?--Who can tell even what falsehoods may have been
+spread? Perhaps he's even now thinking of me. Perhaps he has come into
+this part of the country to make inquiries, to see with his own eyes,
+to satisfy himself. Oh, it must be so--it must be so!" she cried,
+giving herself up again to the bright dream. "Ay, and this Sir Edward
+Digby, too, he is his dear friend, his companion, may he not have sent
+him down to investigate and judge? I thought it strange at the time,
+that this young officer should write to inquire after my father's
+family, and then instantly accept an invitation; and I marked how he
+gazed at that wretched young man and his unworthy father. Perhaps he
+will tell Zara more, and I shall hear when I return. Perhaps he has
+told her more already. Indeed, it is very probable, for they had a
+long ride together yesterday;" and poor Edith began to feel as anxious
+to go back to her father's house as she had been glad to quit it. Yet
+she saw no way how this could be accomplished, before the period
+allotted for her stay was at an end; and she determined to have
+recourse to a little simple art, and ask Mr. Croyland to take her over
+to Harbourne, on the following morning, with the ostensible purpose of
+looking for some article of apparel left behind, but, in truth, to
+obtain a few minutes' conversation with her sister.
+
+There are times in the life of almost every one--at least, of every
+one of feeling and intellect--when it seems as if we could meditate
+for ever: when, without motion or change, the spirit within the
+earthly tabernacle could pause and ponder over deep subjects of
+contemplation for hour after hour, with the doors and windows of the
+senses shut, and without any communication with external things. The
+matter before us may be any of the strange and perplexing relations of
+man's mysterious being; or it may be some obscure circumstance of our
+own fate--some period of uncertainty and expectation--some of those
+Egyptian darknesses which from time to time come over the future, and
+which we gaze on half in terror, half in hope, discovering nothing,
+yet speculating still. The latter was the case at that moment with
+Edith Croyland; and, as she revolved every separate point of her
+situation, it seemed as if fresh wells of thought sprung up to flow on
+interminably.
+
+She had continued thus during more than half an hour after her uncle's
+departure, when she heard a horse stop before the door of the house,
+and her heart beat, though she knew not wherefore. Her lover might
+have come at length, indeed; but if that dream crossed her mind it was
+soon swept away; for the next instant she heard her father's voice,
+first inquiring for herself, and then asking, in a lower tone, if his
+brother was within. If Edith had felt hope before, she now felt
+apprehension; for during several years no private conversation had
+taken place between her father and herself without bringing with it
+grief and anxiety, harsh words spoken, and answers painful for a child
+to give.
+
+It seldom happens that fear does not go beyond reality; but such was
+not the case in the present instance; for Edith Croyland had to
+undergo far more than she expected. Her father entered the room where
+she sat, with a slow step and a stern and determined look. His face
+was very pale, too; his lips themselves seemed bloodless, and the
+terrible emotions which were in his heart showed themselves upon his
+countenance by many an intelligible but indescribable sign. As soon as
+Edith saw him, she thought, "He has heard of Henry's return to this
+country. It is that which has brought him;" and she nerved her heart
+for a new struggle; but still she could scarcely prevent her limbs
+from shaking, as she rose and advanced to meet her parent.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland drew her to him, and kissed her tenderly enough;
+for, in truth, he loved her very dearly: and then he led her back to
+the sofa, and seated himself beside her.
+
+"How low these abominable contrivances are," he said; "I do wish that
+Zachary would have some sofas that people can sit upon with comfort,
+instead of these beastly things, only fit for a Turkish harem, or a
+dog-kennel."
+
+Edith made no reply; for she waited in dread of what was to follow,
+and could not speak of trifles. But her father presently went on,
+saying, "So, my brother is out, and not likely to return for an hour
+or two!--Well, I am glad of it, Edith; for I came over to speak with
+you on matters of much moment."
+
+Still Edith was silent; for she durst not trust her voice with any
+reply. She feared that her courage would give way at the first words,
+and that she should burst into tears, when she felt sure that all the
+resolution she could command, would be required to bear her safely
+through. She trusted, indeed, that, as she had often found before, her
+spirit would rise with the occasion, and that she should find powers
+of resistance within her in the time of need, though she shrank from
+the contemplation of what was to come.
+
+"I have delayed long, Edith," continued Sir Robert Croyland, after a
+pause, "to press you upon a subject in regard to which it is now
+absolutely necessary you should come to a decision;--too long, indeed;
+but I have been actuated by a regard for your feelings, and you owe me
+something for my forbearance. There can now, however, be no further
+delay. You will easily understand, that I mean your marriage with
+Richard Radford."
+
+Edith raised her eyes to her father's face, and, after a strong
+effort, replied, "My decision, my dear father, has, as you know, been
+long made. I cannot, and I will not, marry him--nothing on earth shall
+ever induce me!"
+
+"Do not say that, Edith," answered Sir Robert Croyland, with a bitter
+smile; "for I could utter words, which, if I know you rightly, would
+make you glad and eager to give him your hand, even though you broke
+your heart in so doing. But before I speak those things which will
+plant a wound in your bosom for life, that nothing can heal or
+assuage, I will try every other means. I request you--I intreat you--I
+command you, to marry him! By every duty that you owe me--by all the
+affection that a child ought to feel for a father, I beseech you to do
+so, if you would save me from destruction and despair!"
+
+"I cannot! I cannot!" said Edith, clasping her hands. "Oh! why should
+you drive me to such painful disobedience? In the first place, can I
+promise to love a man that I hate, to honour and obey one whom I
+despise, and whose commands can never be for good? But still more, my
+father,--you must hear me out, for you force me to speak--you force me
+to tear open old wounds, to go back to times long past, and to recur
+to things bitter to you and to me. I cannot marry him, as I told you
+once before; for I hold myself to be the wife of another."
+
+"Folly and nonsense!" cried Sir Robert Croyland, angrily, "you are
+neither his wife, nor he your husband. What! the wife of a man who has
+never sought you for years--who has cast you off, abandoned you, made
+no inquiry for you?--The marriage was a farce. You read a ceremony
+which you had no right to read, you took vows which you had no power
+to take. The law of the land pronounces all such engagements mere
+pieces of empty foolery!"
+
+"But the law of God," replied Edith, "tells us to keep vows that we
+have once made. To those vows, I called God to witness with a true and
+sincere heart; and with the same heart, and the same feelings, I will
+keep them! I did wrong, my father--I know I did wrong--and Henry did
+wrong too; but by what we have done we must abide; and I dare not, I
+cannot be the wife of another."
+
+"But, I tell you, you shall!" exclaimed her father, vehemently. "I
+will compel you to be so; I will over-rule this obstinate folly, and
+make you obedient, whether you choose it or not."
+
+"Nay, nay--not so!" cried Edith. "You could not do, you would not
+attempt, so cruel a thing!"
+
+"I will, so help me Heaven!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+"Then, thank Heaven," answered his daughter, in a low but solemn
+voice, "it is impossible! In this country, there is no clergyman who
+would perform the ceremony contrary to my expressed dissent. If I
+break the vows that I have taken, it must be my own voluntary act; for
+there is not any force that can compel me so to do; and I call Heaven
+to witness, that, even if you were to drag me to the altar, I would
+say, No, to the last!"
+
+"Rash, mad, unfeeling girl!" cried her father, starting up, and gazing
+upon her with a look in which rage, and disappointment, and perplexity
+were all mingled.
+
+He stood before her for a moment in silence, and then strode
+vehemently backwards and forwards in the room, with his right hand
+contracting and expanding, as if grasping at something. "It must be
+done!" he said, at length, pressing his hand upon his brow; "it must
+be done!" and then he recommenced his silent walk, with the shadows of
+many emotions coming over his countenance.
+
+When he returned to Edith's side again, the manner and the aspect of
+Sir Robert Croyland were both changed. There was an expression of deep
+sorrow upon his countenance, of much agitation, but considerable
+tenderness; and, to his daughter's surprise, he took her hand in his,
+and pressed it affectionately.
+
+"Edith," he said, after a short interval of silence, "I have
+commanded, I have insisted, I have threatened--but all in vain. Yet,
+in so doing, I have had in view to spare you even greater pain than
+could be occasioned by a father's sternness. My very love for you, my
+child, made me seem wanting in love. But now I must inflict the
+greater pain. You require, it seems, inducements stronger than
+obedience to a father's earnest commands, and you shall have them,
+however terrible for me to speak and you to hear. I will tell you all,
+and leave you to judge."
+
+Edith gazed at him in surprise and terror. "Oh, do not--do not, sir!"
+she said; "do not try to break my heart, and put my duty to you in
+opposition to the fulfilment of a most sacred vow--in opposition to
+all the dictates of my own heart and my own conscience."
+
+"Edith, it must be done," replied Sir Robert Croyland. "I have urged
+you to a marriage with young Richard Radford. I now tell you solemnly
+that your father's life depends upon it."
+
+Edith clasped her hands wildly together, and gazed, for a moment, in
+his face, without a word, almost stupified with horror. But Sir Robert
+Croyland had deceived her, or attempted to deceive her, on the very
+same subject they were now discussing, more than once already. She
+knew it; and of course she doubted; for those who have been once false
+are never fully believed--those who have been once deceived are always
+suspicious of those who have deceived them, even when they speak the
+truth. As thought and reflection came back after the first shock,
+Edith found much cause to doubt: she could not see how such a thing
+was possible--how her refusal of Richard Radford could affect her
+father's life; and she replied, after a time, in a hesitating tone,
+"How can that be?--I do not understand it.--I do not see how----"
+
+"I will tell you," replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a low and
+peculiarly-quiet voice, which had something fearful in it to his
+daughter's ear. "It is a long story, Edith; but you must hear it all,
+my child. You shall be your father's confidant--his only one. You
+shall share the secret, dreadful as it is, which has embittered his
+whole existence, rendered his days terrible, his nights sleepless, his
+bed a couch of fire."
+
+Edith trembled in every limb; and Sir Robert, rising, crossed over and
+opened the door of the drawing-room, to see that there were none of
+the servants near it. Then closing it again, he returned to her side,
+and proceeded, holding her hand in his: "You must have remarked," he
+said, "and perhaps often wondered, my dear child, that Mr. Radford, a
+man greatly below myself in station, whose manners are repulsive and
+disagreeable, whose practices I condemn and reprobate, whose notions
+and principles I abhor, has exercised over me for many years an
+influence which no other person possesses, that he has induced me to
+do many things which my better sense and better feelings disapproved,
+that he has even led me to consent that my best-loved daughter should
+become the wife of his son, and to urge her to be so at the expense of
+all her feelings. You have seen all this, Edith, and wondered. Is it
+not so?"
+
+"I have, indeed," murmured Edith. "I have been by no means able to
+account for it."
+
+"Such will not be the case much longer, Edith," replied Sir Robert
+Croyland. "I am making my confession, my dear child; and you shall
+hear all. I must recur, too, to the story of young Leyton. You know
+well that I liked and esteemed him; and although I was offended, as I
+justly might be, at his conduct towards yourself, and thought fit to
+show that I disapproved, yet at first, and from the first, I
+determined, if I saw the attachment continue and prove real and
+sincere, to sacrifice all feelings of pride, and all considerations of
+fortune, and when you were of a fit age, to confirm the idle ceremony
+which had passed between you, by a real and lawful marriage."
+
+"Oh, that was kind and generous of you, my dear father. What could
+make you change so suddenly and fatally? You must have seen that the
+attachment was true and lasting; you must have known that Henry was in
+every way calculated to make your daughter happy."
+
+"You shall hear, Edith--you shall hear," replied her father. "Very
+shortly after the event of which I have spoken, another occurred, of a
+dark and terrible character, only known to myself and one other. I was
+somewhat irritable at that time. My views and prospects with regard to
+yourself were crossed; and although I had taken the resolution I have
+mentioned, vexation and disappointment had their effect upon my mind.
+Always passionate, I gave way more to my passion than I had ever done
+before; and the result was a fatal and terrible one. You may remember
+poor Clare, the gamekeeper. He had offended me on the Monday morning;
+and I had used violent and angry language towards him before his
+companions, threatening to punish him in a way he did not expect. On
+the following day, we went out again to shoot--he and I alone
+together--and, on our way back, we passed through a little wood, which
+lies----"
+
+"Oh, stop--stop!" cried Edith, covering her eyes with her hands. "Do
+not tell me any more!"
+
+Her father was not displeased to see her emotion, for it answered his
+purpose. Yet, it must not be supposed that the peculiar tone and
+manner which he assumed, so different from anything that had been seen
+in his demeanour for years, was affected as a means to an end. Such
+was not the case. Sir Robert Croyland was now true, in manner and in
+words, though it was the first time that he had been entirely so for
+many years. There had been a terrible struggle before he could make up
+his mind to speak; but yet, when he did begin, it was a relief to him,
+to unburthen the overloaded breast, even to his own child. It softened
+him; it made his heart expand; it took the chain off long-imprisoned
+feelings, and gave a better spirit room to make its presence felt. He
+did not forget his object, indeed. To save himself from a death of
+horror, from accusation, from disgrace, was still his end; but the
+means by which he proposed to seek it were gentler. He even wavered in
+his resolution: he fancied that he could summon fortitude to leave the
+decision to Edith herself, and that if that decision were against him,
+would dare and bear the worst. But still he was pleased to see her
+moved; for he thought that she could never hear the whole tale, and
+learn his situation fully, without rushing forward to extricate him;
+and he went on--"Nay, Edith, now the statement has been begun, it must
+be concluded," he said. "You would hear, and you must hear all. You
+know the wood I speak of, I dare say--a little to the left of Chequer
+Tree?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" murmured Edith, "where poor Clare was found."
+
+The baronet nodded his head: "It was there, indeed," he said. "We went
+down to see if there were any snipes, or wild fowl, in the bottom. It
+is a deep and gloomy-looking dell, with a pond of water and some
+rushes in the hollow, and a little brook running through it, having
+tall trees all around, and no road but one narrow path crossing it. As
+we came down, I thought I saw the form of a man move amongst the
+trees; and I fancied that some one was poaching there. I told Clare to
+go round the pond and see, while I watched the road. He did not seem
+inclined to go, saying, that he had not remarked anybody, but that the
+people round about said the place was haunted. I had been angry with
+him the whole morning, and a good deal out of humour with many things;
+so I told him to go round instantly, and not make me any answer. The
+man did so, in a somewhat slow and sullen humour, I thought, and
+returned sooner than I fancied he ought to do, saying that he could
+see no trace of any one. I was now very angry, for I fancied he
+neglected his duty. I told him that he was a liar, that I had
+perceived some one, whom he might have perceived as well, and that my
+firm belief was, he was in alliance with the poachers, and deserved to
+be immediately discharged. 'Well, Sir Robert,' he said, 'in regard to
+discharging me, that is soon settled. I will not stay another day in
+your service, after I have a legal right to go. As to being a liar, I
+am none; and as to being in league with the poachers, if you say so,
+you yourself lie!' Such were his words, or words to that effect. I got
+furious at his insolence, though perhaps, Edith--perhaps I provoked it
+myself--at least, I have thought so since. However, madly giving way
+to rage, I took my gun by the barrel to knock him down. A struggle
+ensued; for he caught hold of the weapon in my hand; and how I know
+not, but the gun went off, and Clare fell back upon the turf. What
+would I not have done then, to recal every hasty word I had spoken!
+But it was in vain. I stooped over him; I spoke to him; I told him how
+sorry I was for what had happened. But he made no answer, and pressed
+his hand upon his right side, where the charge had entered. I was mad
+with despair and remorse. I knew not where to go, or what to do. The
+man was evidently dying; for his face had grown pale and sharp; and
+after trying to make him speak, and beseeching him to answer one word,
+I set off running as fast as I could towards the nearest village for
+assistance. As I was going, I saw a man on horseback, riding sharply
+down towards the very place. He was at some distance from me; but I
+easily recognised Mr. Radford, and knew that he must pass by the spot
+where the wounded man lay. I comforted myself with thinking that Clare
+would get aid without my committing myself; and I crept in amongst the
+trees at the edge of the wood, to make sure that Mr. Radford saw him,
+and to watch their proceedings. Quietly and stealthily finding my way
+through the bushes, I came near; and then I saw that Radford was
+kneeling by Clare's side with an inkhorn in his hand, which, with his
+old tradesmanlike-habits, he used always at that time to carry about
+him. He was writing busily, and I could hear Clare speak, but could
+not distinguish what he said. The state of my mind, at that moment, I
+cannot describe. It was more like madness than any thing else. Vain
+and foolish is it, for any man or any body of men, to argue what would
+be their conduct in trying situations which they have never been
+placed in. It is worse than folly for them to say, what would
+naturally be another man's conduct in any circumstances; for no man
+can tell another's character, or understand fully all the fine shades
+of feeling or emotion that may influence him. The tale I am telling
+you now, Edith, is true--too true, in all respects. I was very wrong,
+certainly; but I was not guilty of the man's murder. I never intended
+to fire: I never tried to fire; and yet, perhaps, I acted, afterwards,
+as if I had been guilty, or at all events in a way that was well
+calculated to make people believe I was so. But I was mad at the
+time--mad with agitation and grief--and every man, I believe, in
+moments of deep emotion is mad, more or less. However, I crept out of
+the wood again, and hastened on, determined to leave the man to the
+care of Mr. Radford, but with all my thoughts wild and confused, and
+no definite line of conduct laid out for myself. Before I had gone a
+mile, I began to think what a folly I had committed, that I should
+have joined Radford at once; that I should have been present to hear
+what the man said, and to give every assistance in my power, although
+it might be ineffectual, in order to stanch the blood and save his
+life. As soon as these reflections arose, I determined, though late,
+to do what I should have done at first; and, turning my steps, I
+walked back at a quick pace. Ere I got half way to the top of the hill
+which looks down upon the wood, I saw Radford coming out again on
+horseback; but I went on, and met him. As soon as he beheld me he
+checked his horse, which was going at a rapid rate, and when I came
+near, dismounted to speak with me. We were then little more than
+common acquaintances, and I had sometimes dealt hardly with him in his
+different transactions; but he spoke in a friendly tone, saying, 'This
+is a sad business, Sir Robert; but if you will take my advice you will
+go home as quickly as you can, and say nothing to any one till you see
+me. I will be with you in an hour or so. At present I must ride up to
+Middle Quarter, and get down men to carry home the body.' With a
+feeling I cannot express, I asked, if he were dead, then. He nodded
+his head significantly, and when I was going to put further questions,
+he grasped my hand, saying, 'Go home, Sir Robert--go home. I shall say
+nothing about the matter to any one, till I see you, except that I
+found him dying in the wood. His gun was discharged,' he continued,
+'so there is no proof that he did not do it himself!' Little did I
+know what a fiend he was, into whose power I was putting myself."
+
+"Oh, Heaven!" cried Edith, who had been listening with her head bent
+down till her whole face was nearly concealed, "I see it all, now! I
+see it all!"
+
+"No, dear child," replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a voice sad and
+solemn, but wonderfully calm, "you cannot see it all; no, nor one
+thousandth part of what I have suffered. Even the next dreadful three
+hours--for he was fully that time ere he came to Harbourne--were full
+of horror, inconceivable to any one but to him who endured them. At
+length, he made his appearance; calm, grave, self-possessed, with
+nought of his somewhat rude and blustering manner, and announced, with
+an affectation of feeling to the family, that poor Clare, my keeper,
+had been found dying with a wound in his side."
+
+"I recollect the day, well!" said Edith, shuddering.
+
+"Do you not remember, then," said Sir Robert Croyland, "that he and I
+went into my writing-room--that awful room, which well deserves the
+old prison name of the room of torture! We were closeted there for
+nearly two hours; and all he said I cannot repeat. His tone, however,
+was the most friendly in the world. He professed the greatest interest
+in me and in my situation; and he told me that he had come to see me
+before he said a word to any one, because he wished to take my opinion
+as to how he was to proceed. It was necessary, he said, that I should
+know the facts, for, unfortunately they placed me in a very dangerous
+situation, which he was most anxious to free me from; and then he went
+on to tell me, that when he had come up, poor Clare was perfectly
+sensible, and had his speech distinctly. 'As a magistrate,' he
+continued, 'I thought it right immediately to take his dying
+deposition, for I saw that he had not many minutes to live. Here it
+is,' he said, showing his pocket-book; 'and, as I luckily always have
+pen and ink with me, I knelt down, and wrote his words from his own
+lips. He had strength enough to sign the paper; and, as you may see,
+there is the mark of blood from his own hand, which he had been
+pressing on his side.' I would fain have taken the paper, but he would
+not let me, saying, that he was bound to keep it; and then he went on,
+and read the contents. In it, the unfortunate man charged me most
+wrongfully with having shot him in a fit of passion; and, moreover, he
+said that he had been sure, beforehand, that I would do it, as I had
+threatened him on the preceding day, and there were plenty of people
+who could prove it."
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!" cried Edith.
+
+"It was false, as I have a soul to be saved!" cried Sir Robert
+Croyland. "But Mr. Radford then went on, and, shrugging his shoulders,
+said, that he was placed in a very delicate and painful situation, and
+that he did not really know how to act with regard to the deposition.
+'Put it in the fire!' I exclaimed--'put it in the fire!' But he said,
+'No; every man must consider himself in these things, Sir Robert. I
+have my own character and reputation to think of--my own duty. I risk
+a great deal, you must recollect, by concealing a thing of this kind.
+I do not know that I don't put my own life in danger; for this is
+clear and conclusive evidence against you, and you know, what it is to
+be accessory in a case of murder!' I then told him my own story,
+Edith; and he said, that made some difference, indeed. He was sure I
+would tell him the truth; but yet he must consider himself in the
+matter; and he added hints which I could not mistake, that his
+evidence was to be bought off. I offered anything he pleased to name,
+and the result was such as you may guess. He exacted that I should
+mortgage my estate, as far as it could be mortgaged, and make over the
+proceeds to him, and that I should promise to give your hand to his
+son. I promised anything, my child; for not only life and death, but
+honour or disgrace, were in the balance. If he had asked my life, I
+would have held my throat to the knife a thousand times sooner than
+have made such sacrifices. But to die the death of a felon, Edith--to
+be hanged--to writhe in the face of a grinning and execrating
+multitude--to have my name handed down in the annals of crime, as the
+man who had been executed for the murder of his own servant,--I could
+not bear that, my child; and I promised anything! He kept the paper,
+he said, as a security; and, at first, it was to be given to me, to do
+with it as I liked--when the money coming from the mortgage was
+secretly made over to him; but then, he said, that he had lost one
+great hold, and must keep it till the marriage was completed: for by
+this time the coroner's inquest was over, and he had withheld the
+deposition, merely testifying that he had found the man at the point
+of death in the wood, and had gone as fast as possible for assistance.
+The jury consisted of his tenants and mine, and they were easily
+satisfied; but the fiend who had me in his power was more greedy; and,
+by the very exercise of his influence, he seemed to learn to enjoy it.
+Day after day, month after month, he took a pleasure in making me do
+things that were abhorrent to me. It changed my nature and my
+character. He forced me to wink at frauds that I detested; and every
+year he pressed for the completion of your marriage with his son. Your
+coldness, your dislike, your refusal would, long ere this, have driven
+him into fury, I believe, if Richard Radford had been eager for your
+hand himself. But now, Edith--now, my child, he will hear of no more
+delay. He is ruined in fortune, disappointed in his expectations, and
+rendered fierce as a hungry beast by some events that have taken place
+this morning. He has just now been over at Harbourne, and used threats
+which I know, too well, he will execute. He it was, himself, who told
+me to inform you, that if you did not consent, your father's life
+would be the sacrifice!"
+
+"Oh, Heaven!" cried Edith, covering her eyes with her hands, "at
+least, give me time to think.--Surely, his word cannot have such
+power: a base, notorious criminal himself, one who every day violates
+the law, who scoffs at his own oaths, and holds truth and honour but
+as names--surely his word will be nothing against Sir Robert
+Croyland's."
+
+"His word is nothing, would be nothing," replied her father,
+earnestly; "but that deposition, Edith! It is that which is my
+destruction. Remember, that the words of a dying man, with eternity
+and judgment close before his eyes, are held by the law more powerful
+than any other kind of evidence; and, besides, there are those still
+living, who heard the rash threat I used. Suspicion once pointed at
+me, a thousand corroborative circumstances would come forth to prove
+that the tale I told of parting with the dead man, some time before,
+was false, and that very fact would condemn me. Cast away all such
+hopes, Edith--cast away all such expectations. They are vain!--vain!
+Look the truth full in the face, my child. This man has your father's
+life entirely and totally in his power, and ask yourself, if you will
+doom me to death."
+
+"Oh, give me time--give me time!" cried Edith, wringing her hands.
+"Let me but think over it till to-morrow, or next day."
+
+"Not an hour ago," replied Sir Robert Croyland, "he swore, by
+everything he holds sacred, that if before twelve to-night, he did not
+receive your consent----"
+
+"Stay, stay!" cried Edith, eagerly, placing her hand upon her brow.
+"Let me think--let me think. It is but money that he wants--it is but
+the pitiful wealth my uncle left me. Let him take it, my father!" she
+continued, laying her hand upon Sir Robert's arm, and gazing brightly
+in his face, as if the light of hope had suddenly been renewed. "Let
+him take it all, every farthing. I would sooner work as a hired
+servant in the fields for my daily bread, with the only comfort of
+innocence and peace, than break my vows, and marry that bad man. I
+will sign a promise this instant that he shall have all."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland threw his arms round her, and looked up to Heaven,
+as if imploring succour for them both. "My sweet child!--My dear
+child!" he said, with the tears streaming down his cheeks. "But I
+cannot leave you even this generous hope. This man has other designs.
+I offered--I promised to give Zara to his son, and to ensure to her,
+with my brother's help, a fortune equal to your own. But he would not
+hear of it. He has other views, my Edith. You must know all--you must
+see all as it really is. He will keep his word this very night! If
+before twelve, he do not receive your consent, the intimation of the
+fatal knowledge he possesses will be sent to those who will not fail
+to track it through every step, as the bloodhound follows his prey. He
+is a desperate man, Edith, and will keep his word, bringing down ruin
+upon our heads, even if it overwhelm himself also."
+
+Edith Croyland paused without reply for several minutes, her beautiful
+face remaining pale, with the exception of one glowing spot in the
+centre of her cheek. Her eyes were fixed upon the ground; and her lips
+moved, but without speech. She was arguing in her own mind the case
+between hope and despair; and the terrible array of circumstances on
+every side bewildered her. Delay was her only refuge; and looking up
+in her father's face, she said, "But why is he so hasty? Why cannot he
+wait a few hours longer? I will fix a time when my answer shall be
+given--it shall be shortly, very shortly--this time to-morrow. Surely,
+surely, in so terrible a case, I may be allowed a few hours to
+think--a short, a very short period, to decide."
+
+"He will admit of no more than I have said," answered Sir Robert
+Croyland: "it is as vain to entreat him, as to ask the hangman to
+delay his fatal work. He is hard as iron, without feeling, without
+heart. His reasons, too, are specious, my dear child. His son, it
+seems, has taken part this morning in a smuggling affray with the
+troops--blood has been shed--some of the soldiers have been
+killed--all who have had a share therein are guilty of felony; and it
+has become necessary that the young man should be hurried out of the
+country without delay. To him such a flight is nothing: he has no
+family to blacken with the record of crime--he has no honourable name
+to stain--his means are all prepared; his flight is easy, his escape
+secure; but his father insists that you shall be his bride before he
+goes, or he gives your father up, not to justice, but to the
+law--which in pretending to administer justice, but too often commits
+the very crimes it seems to punish. Four short days are all that he
+allows; and then you are to be that youth's bride."
+
+"What! the bride of a felon!" cried Edith, her spirit rising for a
+moment--"of one stained with every vice and every crime--to vow
+falsely that I will love him whom I must ever hate--to break all my
+promises to one I must ever love--to deceive, prove false and forsworn
+to the noble and the true, and give myself to the base, the lawless,
+and the abhorred! Oh, my father--my father! is it possible that you
+can ask such a thing?"
+
+The fate of Sir Robert Croyland and his daughter hung in the balance.
+One harsh command, one unkind word, with justice and truth on her
+side, and feebleness and wrong on his, might have armed her to resist;
+but the old man's heart was melted. The struggle that he witnessed in
+his child was, for a moment--remark, only for a moment--more terrible
+than that within his own breast. There was something in the innocence
+and truth, something in the higher attributes of the passions called
+into action in her breast, something in the ennobling nature of the
+conflicting feelings of her heart--the filial tenderness, the
+adherence to her engagements, the abhorrence of the bad, the love of
+the good, the truth, the honour, and the piety, all striving one with
+the other, that for a time made the mean passion of fear seem small
+and insignificant. "I do not ask you, my child," he said--"I do not
+urge you--I ask, I urge you no more! The worst bitterness is past. I
+have told my own child the tale of my sorrows, my folly, my weakness,
+and my danger. I have inflicted the worst upon you, Edith, and on
+myself; and I leave it to your own heart to decide. After your
+generous, your noble offer, to sacrifice your property and leave
+yourself nothing, for my sake, it were cruel--it were, indeed, base,
+to urge you farther. To avoid this, dreadful disclosure, to shelter
+you and myself from such horrible details, I have often been stern,
+and harsh, and menacing.--Forgive me, Edith, but it is past! You now
+know what is on the die; and it is your own hand casts it. Your
+father's life, the honour of your family, the high name we have ever
+borne--these are to be lost and won. But I urge it not--I ask it not.
+You only must and can decide."
+
+Edith, who had risen, stood before him, pale as ashes, with her hands
+clasped so tight that the blood retreated from her fingers, where they
+pressed against each other, leaving them as white as those of the
+dead--her eyes fixed, straining, but sightless, upon the ground. All
+that she saw, all that she knew, all that she felt, was the dreadful
+alternative of fates before her. It was more than her frame could
+bear--it was more than almost any human heart could endure. To condemn
+a father to death, to bring the everlasting regret into her heart, to
+wander, as if accurst, over the earth, with a parent's blood crying
+out for vengeance! It was a terrible thought indeed. Then again, she
+remembered the vows that she had taken, the impossibility of
+performing those that were asked of her, the sacrifice of the innocent
+to the guilty, the perjury that she must commit, the dark and dreadful
+future before her, the self-reproach that stood on either hand to
+follow her through life! She felt as if her heart was bursting; and
+the next moment, all the blood seemed to fly from it, and leave it
+cold and motionless. She strove to speak--her voice was choked; but
+then, again, she made an effort; and a few words broke forth,
+convulsively--"To save you, my father, I would do anything," she
+cried. "I _will_ do anything--but----"
+
+She could not finish; her sight failed her; her heart seemed crushed;
+her head swam; the colour left her lips; and she fell prone at her
+father's feet, without one effort to save herself.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland's first proceeding was, to raise her and lay her
+on the sofa; but before he called any one, he gazed at her a moment or
+two in silence. "She has fainted," he said. "Poor child!--Poor girl!"
+But then came another thought: "She said she would do anything," he
+murmured; "her words were, 'I will'--It is surely a consent."
+
+He forgot--he heeded not--he would not heed, that she had added,
+"But----"
+
+"Yes, it was a consent," he repeated; "it must have been a consent. I
+will hasten to tell him. If we can but gain a few days, it is
+something. Who can say what a few days may bring? At all events, it is
+a relief.--It will obtain the delay she wished--I will tell him.--It
+must have been a consent;" and calling the servants and Edith's own
+maid, to attend upon her, he hastened out of the house, fearful of
+waiting till her senses returned, lest other words should snatch from
+him the interpretation he chose to put upon those which had gone
+before. In an instant, however, he returned, went into the library,
+and wrote down on a scrap of paper:--
+
+"Thanks, dearest Edith!--thanks! I go in haste to tell Mr. Radford the
+promise you have given."
+
+Then hurrying out again, he put the paper, which he had folded up,
+into the hands of the groom, who held his horse. "That for Miss
+Croyland," he said, "when she has quite recovered; but not before;"
+and, mounting with speed, he rode away as fast as he could go.
+
+
+
+                           END OF VOL. II.
+
+
+       T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos-street, Covent-garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER:
+
+
+
+                                A Tale
+
+
+
+                       BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+                 "DARNLEY," "DE L'ORME," "RICHELIEU,"
+
+                              ETC. ETC.
+
+
+
+                          IN THREE VOLUMES.
+
+
+                              VOL. III.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+                 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
+                                1845.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was two o'clock when Sir Robert Croyland left his daughter; and
+Edith, with the aid of her maid, soon recovered from the swoon into
+which she had fallen. At first she hardly knew where she was, or what
+had taken place. All seemed strange to her; for she had never fainted
+before; and though she had more than once seen her sister in the state
+in which she herself had just been, yet she did not apply what she had
+witnessed in others to explain her own sensations.
+
+When she could rise from the sofa, where her father had laid her, and
+thought and recollection returned, Edith's first inquiry was for Sir
+Robert; and the servant's answer that he had been gone a quarter of an
+hour, was at first a relief. But Edith sat and pondered for a while,
+applying herself to call to mind all the last words which had been
+spoken. As she did so, a fear came over her--a fear that her meaning
+might have been mistaken. "No!" she murmured, at length--"no! I said,
+_but_--he must have heard it.--I cannot break those vows--I dare not;
+I would do anything to save him--oh, yes, doom myself to wretchedness
+for life; but I cannot, unless Henry gives me back my promise.--Poor
+Henry! what right have I to make him suffer too?--Yet does he
+suffer?--But a father's life--a father's life! That must not be the
+sacrifice!--Leave me, Caroline--I am better now!" she continued aloud;
+"it is very foolish to faint in this way. It never happened to me
+before."
+
+"Oh dear, Miss Edith! it happens to every one now and then," said the
+maid, who had been in her service long; "and I am sure all Sir Robert
+said to you to-day, was enough to make you."
+
+"Good heaven!" cried Edith; in alarm, "did you hear?"
+
+"I could not help hearing a part, Miss Edith," answered the maid; "for
+in that little room, where I sit to be out of the way of all the black
+fellows, one hears very plain what is said here. There was once a
+door, I believe, and it is only just covered over."
+
+For a moment, Edith sat mute in consternation; but at length demanded,
+"What did you hear? Tell me all, Caroline--every word, if you would
+ever have me regard you more."
+
+"Oh, it was not much, Miss!" replied the maid; "I heard Sir Robert
+twice say, his life depended on it--and I suppose he meant, on your
+marrying young Mr. Radford. Then he seemed to tell you a long story;
+but I did not hear the whole of that; for I did not try, I can assure
+you, Miss Edith; and then I heard you say, 'To save you, my father, I
+would do anything--I _will_ do anything, but--' and then you stopped
+in the middle, because I suppose you fainted."
+
+Edith put her hands before her eyes and thought, or tried to think;
+for her ideas were still in sad confusion. "Leave me now, Caroline,"
+she said; "but, remember, I expect that no part of any conversation
+you have overheard between me and my father, will ever be repeated."
+
+"Oh dear, no, Miss Edith," replied the woman, "I would not on any
+account;" and she left the room.
+
+We all know of what value are ordinary promises of secrecy, even in
+the best society, as it is called. Nine times out of ten, there is one
+dear friend to whom everything is revealed; and that dear friend has
+others; and at each remove, the bond of secrecy is weaker and more
+weak, till the whole world is made a hearer of the tale. Now Edith's
+maid was a very discreet person; and when she promised not to reveal
+what she had heard, she only proposed to herself, to tell it to one
+person in the world. Nor was that person her lover, or her friend, or
+her fellow-servant; nor was she moved by the spirit of gossip, but
+really and truly by a love for her young lady, which was great, and by
+a desire to serve her. Thus, she thought, as soon as she had shut the
+door, "I will tell it to Miss Zara, though; for it is but right that
+she should know how they are driving her sister to marry a man she
+hates, as well she may. Miss Zara is active and quick, and may find
+some means of helping her."
+
+The maid had not been gone a minute, when she returned with the short
+note which Sir Robert Croyland had left; and as she handed it to her
+young mistress, she watched her countenance eagerly. But Edith took
+it, read it, and gazed upon the paper without a word.
+
+"Pray, Miss Edith," said the maid, "are you likely to want me soon;
+for I wish to go up to the village for something?"
+
+"No, Caroline--no," answered Edith, with an absent air; "I shall not
+want you;" and she remained standing with the paper in her hand, and
+her eyes fixed upon it.
+
+The powers by which volition acts upon the mind, and in what volition
+really consists, are mysteries which have never yet, that I have seen,
+been explained. Yet certain it is, that there is something within us
+which, when the intellectual faculties seem, under the pressure of
+circumstances, to lose their functions, can by a great effort compel
+them to return to their duty, rally them, and array them, as it were,
+against the enemy by whom they have been routed. Edith Croyland made
+the effort, and succeeded. She had been taken by surprise, and
+overcome; but now she collected all the forces of her mind, and
+prepared to fight the battle over again. In a few minutes, she became
+calm, and applied herself to consider fully her own situation. There
+were filial duty and tenderness on one side--love and a strong vow on
+the other. "He has gone to tell Mr. Radford that I have consented,"
+was her first distinct thought, "but his having mistaken me, must not
+make me give that consent when it is wrong. Were it myself alone, I
+would sacrifice all for him--I could but die--a few hours of misery
+are not much to bear--I have borne many. But I am bound--Good God!
+what an alternative!"
+
+But I will not follow her thoughts: they can easily be conceived. She
+was left alone, with no one to counsel, with no one to aid her. The
+fatal secret she possessed was a bar to asking advice from any one.
+Buried in her own bosom, the causes of her conduct, the motives upon
+which she acted, must ever be secret, whatever course she pursued.
+Agony was on either hand. She had to choose between two terrible
+alternatives: on the one hand a breach of all her engagements, a few
+years, a few weeks, perhaps, of misery, and an early death--for such
+she knew must be her fate: and, on the other, a life, with love
+certainly to cheer it, but poisoned by the remembrance that she had
+sacrificed her father. Yet Edith now thought firmly, weighed,
+considered all.
+
+She could come to no determination. Between two such gulfs, she shrank
+trembling from either.
+
+The clock in the hall, with its clear, sharp bell, struck three; and
+the moment after, the quick sound of horses' feet was heard. "Can it
+be my father?" she thought. "No! he has not had time--unless he has
+doubted;" but while she asked herself the question, the horses stopped
+at the door, the bell rang; and she went on to say to herself,
+"perhaps it is Zara. That would be a comfort indeed, though I cannot
+tell her--I must not tell her all."
+
+The old Hindoo opened the door, saying "Missy, a gentleman want to see
+you--very fine gentleman."
+
+Edith could not speak; but she bowed her head, and the servant,
+receiving that token as assent, turned to some one behind him and
+said, "Walk in, sir."
+
+For a moment or two, Edith did not raise her eyes, and her lips moved.
+She heard a step in the room, that made her heart flutter; she heard
+the door shut; but yet for an instant she remained with her head bent,
+and her hands clasped together. Then she looked up. Standing before
+her, and gazing intently upon her, was a tall handsome man, dressed in
+the splendid uniform of the dragoons of that time, and with a star
+upon his left breast--a decoration worn by persons who had the right
+to do so, more frequently in those days than at the present time. But
+it was to the face that Edith's eyes were turned--to the countenance
+well known and deeply loved. Changed though it was--grave where it had
+been gay, pale where it had been florid, sterner in the lines, once so
+full of gentle youth--still all the features were there, and the
+expression too, though saddened, was the same.
+
+He gazed on her with a look full of tenderness and love; and their
+eyes met. On both of them the feelings of other years seemed to rush
+with overpowering force. The interval which had since occurred, for a
+moment, was annihilated; the heart went back with the rapid wing of
+Memory, to the hours of joy that were gone; and Leyton opened wide his
+arms, exclaiming, "Edith! Edith!"
+
+She could not resist. She had no power to struggle. Love, stronger
+than herself, was master; and, starting up, she cast herself upon his
+bosom, and there wept.
+
+"Dear, dear girl!" he said, "then you love me still,--then Digby's
+assurance is true--then you have not forgotten poor Harry Leyton--then
+his preserving hope, his long endurance, his unwavering love, his
+efforts, his success, have not been all in vain!--Dear, dear Edith!
+This hour repays me for all--for all. Dangers and adversities, and
+wounds, and anguish of body and of mind, and sleepless nights, and
+days of bitter thought--I would endure them all. All?--ay, tenfold
+all--for this one hour!" and he pressed her closer and closer to his
+heart.
+
+"Nay, Harry--nay," cried Edith, still clinging to him; "but hear me,
+hear me--or if you speak such words of tenderness, you will break my
+heart, or drive me mad."
+
+"Good heaven!" exclaimed Leyton, unclasping his arms, "what is it that
+you say? Edith--my Edith--my own, my vowed, my bride! But now, you
+seemed to share the joy you gave,--to love, as you are loved; and
+now----"
+
+"I do love you--oh! I do love you!" cried Edith, vehemently; "add not
+a doubt of that to all I suffer. Ever, ever have I loved you, without
+change, without thought of change. But yet--but yet--. I may have
+fancied that you have forgotten me--I may have thought it strange that
+you did not write--that my letters remained unanswered; but still I
+loved, still I have been true to you."
+
+"I did write, my Edith. I received no letters," said Leyton, sadly;
+"we have both been wronged, my dear girl. My letters were returned in
+a cover directed in your own hand: but that trick I understand--that I
+see through. Oh, do not let any one deceive you again, beloved girl!
+You have been my chief--I might say my only thought; for the memory of
+you has mingled with every other idea, and made the whole your own. In
+the camp and in the field, I have endured and fought for Edith; in the
+council and in the court, I have struggled and striven for her; she
+has been the end and object of every effort, the ruling power of my
+whole mind. And now, Edith--now your soldier has returned to you. He
+has won every step towards the crowning reward of his endeavours; he
+has risen to competence, to command, to some honour in the service of
+his country; and he can proudly say to her he loves, Cast from you the
+fortune for which men dared to think I sought you--come to your lover,
+come to your husband, as dowerless as he was when they parted us; and
+let all the world see and know, that it was your love, not your
+wealth, I coveted--this dear hand, that dear heart, not base gold,
+that I desired. Oh, Edith, in Heaven's name, cast me not now headlong
+down from the height of hope and joy to which you have raised me, for
+fear a heart and spirit, too long depressed, should never find
+strength to rise again."
+
+Edith staggered back and sank down upon the sofa, covering her eyes,
+and only murmuring--"I do love you, Harry, beyond life itself.--Oh,
+that I were dead!--oh, that I were dead!"
+
+There was a terrible struggle in Henry Leyton's bosom. He could not
+understand the agitation that he witnessed; had it borne anything like
+the character of joy, even of surprise, all would have been clear; but
+it was evidently very different. It was joy overborne by sorrow. It
+was evidently a struggle of love with some influence, perhaps not
+stronger, yet terrible in its effect. He was a man of quick decision
+and strong resolution--qualities not always combined; and he overcame
+himself in a moment. He saw that he was loved--still deeply, truly
+loved; and that was a great point. He saw that Edith was grieved to
+the soul--he saw that he himself could not feel more intensely the
+anguish she inflicted than she did, that she was wringing her own
+heart while she was wringing his, and felt a double pang; and that was
+a strong motive for calmness, if not for fortitude. Her last words, "I
+wish I were dead!" restored him fully to himself; and following her to
+the sofa, he seated himself beside her, gently took her hand in his,
+and pressed his lips upon it.
+
+"Edith," he said--"my own dear Edith, let us be calm! Thank you, my
+beloved, for one moment of happiness, the first I have known for
+years; and now let us talk, as quietly as may be, of anything that may
+have arisen which should justly cause Henry Leyton's return to make
+Edith Croyland wish herself dead. Your uncle will not be long ere he
+arrives; I left him on the road; and it is by his full consent that I
+am here."
+
+"Oh no, Harry--no!" said Edith, turning at first to his comment on her
+words, "it is not your return that makes me wish myself dead; but it
+is, that circumstances--dark and terrible circumstances--which were
+only made known to me an hour before your arrival, have turned all the
+joy, the pure, the almost unmixed joy, that I should have felt at
+seeing you again, into a well of bitterness. It is that I cannot, that
+I dare not explain to you those circumstances--that you will think me
+wrong, unkind--fickle, perhaps,--perhaps even mad, in whatsoever way I
+may act."
+
+"But surely you can say something, dear Edith," said her lover; "you
+can give some hint of the cause of all I see. You tell me in one
+breath that you love me still, yet wish you were dead; and show
+evidently that my coming has been painful to you."
+
+"No, no, Harry," she answered, mournfully, "do not say so. Painful to
+me?--oh, no! It would be the purest joy that ever I yet knew, were it
+not that--But why did you not come earlier, Harry? Why, when your
+horse stood upon that hill, did you not turn his head hither? Would
+that you had, would that you had! My fate would have been already
+decided. Now it is all clouds and darkness. I knew you instantly. I
+could see no feature; I could but trace a figure on horseback, wrapped
+in a large cloak; but the instinct of love told me who it was. Oh! why
+did you not come then?"
+
+"Because it would have been dishonest, Edith," answered Leyton,
+gravely. "Your uncle had been my father's friend, my uncle's friend.
+In a kindly manner he invited me here some time ago, as a perfect
+stranger, under the name of Captain Osborn. You were not here then;
+and I thought I could not in honour come under his roof, when I found
+you were here, without telling him who I really was. He appointed this
+day to meet me at Woodchurch at two; and I dared not venture, after
+all that has passed between your family and mine, to seek you in his
+dwelling, ere I had seen and explained myself to him. I knew you were
+here: I gazed up at these windows with a yearning of the heart that
+nearly overcame my resolution----"
+
+"I saw you gaze, Harry," answered Edith; "and I say still, would that
+you had come.--Yet you were right.--It might have saved me much
+misery; but you were right. And now listen to the fate that is before
+me--to the choice I have to make, as far as I can explain it--and yet
+what words can I use?--But it must be done. I must not leave anything
+unperformed, that can prevent poor Edith Croyland from becoming an
+object of hatred and contempt in Henry Leyton's eyes. Little as I can
+do to defend myself, I must do it."
+
+She paused, gazed up on high for a moment, and then laid her hand upon
+his.
+
+"Henry, I do love you," she said. "Nay, more, I am yours, plighted to
+you by bonds I cannot and I dare not break--vows, I mean, the most
+solemn, as well as the ties of long affection. Yet, if I wed you, I am
+miserable for life. Self-reproach, eternal self-reproach--the most
+terrible of all things--to which no other mental or corporeal pain can
+ever reach, would prey upon my heart for ever, and bear me down into
+the grave. Peace--rest, I should have none. A voice would be for ever
+howling in my ear a name that would poison sleep, and make each waking
+moment an hour of agony. I can tell you no more on this side of the
+question; but so it is. It seems fated that I should bring misery one
+way or another upon him who is dearest to me."
+
+"I cannot comprehend," exclaimed Leyton, in surprise. "Your father has
+heard, I suppose, that I am here, and has menaced you with his curse."
+
+"Oh, no!" answered Edith; "far from it. He was here but now; he spoke
+of you, Henry, as you deserve. He told me how he had loved you and
+esteemed you in your young days; how, though angry at first at our
+rash engagement, he would have consented in the end; but--there was a
+fatal 'but,' Henry--an impediment not to be surmounted. I must not
+tell you what it is--I cannot, I dare not explain. But listen to what
+he said besides. You have heard one part of the choice; hear the
+other: it is to wed a man whom I abhor--despise--contemn--whose very
+look is fearful to me; to ask you to give me back the vows I plighted,
+in order--in order," and she spoke very low, "that I may sacrifice
+myself for my father, that I may linger out a few weeks of
+wretchedness, and then sink into the grave, which is now my only
+hope."
+
+"And do you ask me, Edith?" inquired Leyton, in a sad and solemn
+tone--"do you, Edith Croyland, really and truly ask me to give you
+back those vows? Speak, beloved--speak; for my heart is well nigh
+bursting."
+
+He paused, and she was silent; covering her eyes with her hands, while
+her bosom heaved, as if she were struggling for breath. "No, no, no,
+Harry!" she cried, at length, as if the effort were vain, "I cannot, I
+cannot! Oh, Harry, Harry! I wish that I were dead!" and, casting her
+arms round his neck, she wept upon his breast again.
+
+Henry Leyton drew her closer to him with his left arm round her waist;
+but pressed his right hand on his brow, and gazed on vacancy. Both
+remained without speaking for a time; but at length he said, in a
+voice more calm than might have been expected, "Let us consider this
+matter, Edith. You have been terrified by some means; a tale has
+been told you, which has agitated and alarmed you, which has overcome
+your resolution, that now has endured more than six years, and
+doubtless that tale has been well devised.--Are you sure that it is
+true?--Forgive this doubt in regard to one who is near and dear to
+you; but when such deceits have been practised, as those which we know
+have been used to delude us, I must be suspicious.--Are you sure that
+it is true, I say?
+
+"Too true, too true!"' answered Edith, shaking her head,
+mournfully--"that tale explains all, too,--even those deceits you
+mention. No, no, it is but too true--it could not be feigned--besides,
+I remember so many things, all tending to the same. It is true--I
+cannot doubt it."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton paused, and twice began to speak, but twice stopped,
+as if the words he was about to utter, cost him a terrible struggle to
+speak. At length he said, "And the man, Edith--the man they wish you
+to marry--who is he?"
+
+"Ever the same," answered Edith, bending down her head, and her cheek,
+which had been as pale as death, glowing like crimson--"the same,
+Richard Radford."
+
+"What! a felon!" exclaimed Leyton, turning round, with his brows bent;
+"a felon, after whom my soldiers and the officers of justice are now
+hunting through the country! Sir Robert Croyland must be mad! But I
+tell you, Edith, that man shall never stand within a church again,
+till it be the chapel of the gaol. Let him make his peace with Heaven;
+for if he be caught--and caught he shall be--there is no mercy for him
+on earth. But surely there must be some mistake. You cannot have
+understood your father rightly, or he cannot know----"
+
+"Oh! yes, yes!" replied Edith; "he knows all; and it is the same. Ay,
+and within four days, too--that he may take me with him in his
+flight."
+
+"Ere four days be over," answered her lover, sternly, "he shall no
+more think of bridals."
+
+"And what will become of my father, then!" said Edith, gazing steadily
+down upon the ground. "It is I--I that shall have done it. Alas, alas!
+which way shall I turn?"
+
+There was something more than sorrow in her countenance; there was
+anguish--almost agony; and Sir Henry Leyton was much moved. "Turn to
+me, Edith," he said; "turn to him who loves you better than life; and
+there is no sacrifice that he will not make for you, but his honour.
+Tell me, have you made any promise?--have you given your father your
+consent?"
+
+"No," answered Edith, eagerly; "no, I have not. He took my words as
+consent, though ere they were half finished, the horror and pain of
+all I heard overcame me, and I fainted. But I did not consent,
+Harry--I could not consent, without your permission.--Oh, Harry, aid
+and support me!"
+
+"Listen to me, my beloved," replied Leyton; "wealth, got by any means,
+is this man's object. I gather from what you say, that your father has
+some cause to dread him--give up to him this much-coveted fortune--let
+him take it--ay, and share Henry Leyton's little wealth. I desire
+nothing but yourself."
+
+"Alas, Henry, it is all in vain!" answered Edith; "I have offered it--I
+knew your noble, generous heart. I knew that wealth would make no
+difference to him I loved, and offered to resign everything. My
+father, even before he came hither, offered him my sister--offered to
+make her the sacrifice, as she is bound by no promises, and to give
+her an equal portion; but it was all refused."
+
+"Then there is some other object," said her lover; "some object that
+may, perhaps, tend even to more misery than you dream of, Edith.
+Believe me, my beloved--oh! believe me, did I but see how I could
+deliver you--were I sure that any act of mine would give you peace, no
+sacrifice on my part would seem too great. At present, however, I see
+nothing clearly--all is darkness and shadow around. I know not, that
+if I give you back your promise, and free you from your vow, that I
+shall not be contributing to make you wretched. How, then, am I to
+act? You are sure, dear one, that you have not consented?"
+
+"Quite sure," answered Edith; "and it so happened, that there was one
+who heard my words as well as my father. He, indeed, took them as
+consent, and hurried away to Mr. Radford, without giving me time to
+recover and say more. Read that, Harry," and she put the note her
+father had left into his hands.
+
+"It is fortunate you were heard by another," replied Leyton. "Hark!
+there is your uncle's carriage coming.--Four days, did he say--four
+days? Well, then, dear Edith, will you trust in me? Will you leave
+your fate in the hands of one who will do anything on earth for your
+happiness?--and will you never doubt, though you may be kept in
+suspense, that I will so act as to deliver you, if I can, without
+bringing ruin on your father."
+
+"It is worse than ruin," answered Edith, with the tears rolling down
+her cheeks--"it is death. But I will trust to you, Henry--I will trust
+implicitly. But tell me how to act--tell me what I am to do."
+
+"Leave this matter as it is," answered her lover, hearing Mr.
+Croyland's carriage stop at the door;--"your father has snatched too
+eagerly at your words. Perhaps he has done so to gain time; but, at
+all events, the fault is his, not yours. If he speaks to you on the
+subject, you must tell the truth, and say you did not consent; but in
+everything else be passive--let him do with you what he will--take you
+to the altar, if he so pleases; but there must be the final struggle,
+Edith. There you must boldly and aloud refuse to wed a man you cannot
+love. There let the memory of your vows to me be ever present with
+you. It may seem cruel; but I exact it for your own sake. In the
+meantime, take means to let me know everything that happens, be it
+small or great--cast off all reserve towards Digby; tell him all,
+everything that takes place; tell your sister, too, or any one who can
+bear me the tidings. I shall be nearer than you think."
+
+"Oh, Heaven, how will this end!" cried Edith, putting her hand in
+his--"God help me, Harry--God help me!"
+
+"He will, dear girl," answered Leyton--"I feel sure he will. But
+remember what I have said. Fail not to tell Digby, or Zara, or any one
+who can bear the tidings to me, everything that occurs, every word
+that is spoken, every step that is taken. Think nothing too trifling.
+But there is your uncle's voice in the passage. Can you not inform him
+of that which you think yourself bound not to tell me? I mean the
+particulars of your father's situation."
+
+"No; oh no!" replied Edith--"I dare tell no one, especially not my
+uncle. Though kind, and generous, and benevolent, yet he is hasty, and
+he might ruin all. Dared I tell any one on earth, Henry, it would be
+you; and if I loved you before--oh, how I must love you now, when
+instead of the anger, or even heat, which I expected you to display,
+you have shown yourself ready to sacrifice all for one who is hardly
+worthy of you."
+
+Leyton pressed her to his bosom, and replied, "Real love is unselfish,
+Edith. I tell you, dearest, that I die if I lose you; yet, Edith
+Croyland shall never do what is wrong for Henry Leyton's sake. If in
+the past we did commit an error, if I should not have engaged you by
+vows without your parent's consent--though God knows that error has
+been bitterly visited on my head!--I am still ready to make atonement
+to the best of my power; but I will not consent that you should be
+causelessly made miserable, or sacrifice yourself and me, without
+benefit to any one. Trust to me, Edith--trust to me."
+
+"I will, I will!" answered Edith Croyland; "who can I trust to else?"
+
+Mr. Croyland was considerate; and knowing that Sir Henry Leyton was
+with his niece--for his young friend had passed him on the road--he
+paused for a moment in the vestibule, giving various orders and
+directions, in order to afford them a few minutes more of private
+conversation. When he went in, he was surprised to find Edith's face
+full of deep grief, and her eyes wet with tears, and still more when
+Leyton, after kissing her fair cheek, advanced towards him, saying, "I
+must go, my dear friend, nor can I accept your kind invitation to stay
+here to-night. But I am about to show myself a bold man, and ask you
+to give me almost the privilege of a son--that is, of coming and
+going, for the four or five next days, at my own will, and without
+question."
+
+"What's all this?--what's all this?" cried Mr. Croyland; "a lovers'
+quarrel?--Ha, Edith? Ha, Harry?"
+
+"Oh, no," answered Edith, giving her uncle her hand; "there never can
+be a quarrel between me and Henry Leyton."
+
+"Well, then, what is it all?" exclaimed Mr. Croyland, turning
+from one to the other. "Mystery--mystery! I hate mystery, Harry
+Leyton.--However, you shall have your privilege; the doors shall be
+open. Come--go--do what you like. But if you are not a great fool, you
+will order over a post-chaise and four this very night, put her in,
+and be off for Gretna Green. I'll give you my parental benediction."
+
+"I am afraid, my dear sir," answered Leyton, "that cannot be. Edith
+has told me various things since I saw her, which require to be dealt
+with in a different way. I trust, that in whatever I do, my conduct
+will be such as to give you satisfaction; and whether the result be
+fortunate or otherwise, I shall never, till the last hour of life,
+forget the kindness you have shown me. And now, my dear sir, adieu for
+the present, for I have much to do this night."
+
+Thus saying, he shook the old gentleman's hand, and departed with a
+heavy heart and anxious mind. During his onward ride, his heart did
+not become lighter; his mind was only more burdened with cares. As
+long as he was in Edith's presence, he had borne up and struggled
+against all that he felt; for he saw that she was already overwhelmed
+with grief, and he feared to add to it; but now his thoughts were all
+confusion. With incomplete information--in circumstances the most
+difficult--anxious to save her he loved, even at any sacrifice on his
+own part, yet seeing no distinct means of acting in any direction
+without danger to her--he looked around him in vain for any resource;
+or, if he formed a plan one moment, he rejected it the next. He knew
+Edith's perfect truth, he knew the quiet firmness and power of her
+mind too well to doubt one tittle of that which she had stated; and
+though at first sight he thought the proofs he possessed of Mr.
+Radford's participation in the late smuggling transaction were quite
+sufficient to justify that person's immediate arrest, and proposed
+that it should take place immediately, yet the next moment he
+recollected what might be the result to Sir Robert Croyland, and
+hesitated how to act. Then, again, he turned his eyes to the
+circumstances in which Edith's father was placed, and asked himself,
+what could be the mystery which so terribly overshadowed him? Edith
+had said that his life was at stake; and Leyton tortured his
+imagination in vain to find some explanation of such a fact.
+
+"Can he have been deceiving her?" he asked himself more than once. But
+then, again, he answered, "No, it must be true! He can have no
+ordinary motive in urging her to such a step; his whole character, his
+whole views are against it. Haughty and ostentatious, there must be
+some overpowering cause to make him seek to wed his daughter to a low
+ruffian--the son of an upstart, who owed his former wealth to fraud,
+and who is now, if all tales be true, nearly bankrupt,--to wed Edith,
+a being of grace, of beauty, and of excellence, to a villain like
+this--a felon and a fugitive--and to send her forth into the wide
+world, to share the wanderings of a man she hates! The love of life
+must be a strange thing in some men. One would have thought that a
+thousand lives were nothing to such a sacrifice. Yet, the tale must be
+true; this old man must have Sir Robert's life in his power. But
+how--how? that is the question. Perhaps Digby can discover something.
+At all events, I must see him without delay."
+
+In such thoughts, Sir Henry Leyton rode on fast to Woodchurch,
+accomplishing in twenty minutes that which took good Mr. Croyland with
+his pampered horses, more than an hour to perform; and springing from
+his charger at the door of the inn, he was preparing to go up and
+write to Sir Edward Digby, when Captain Irby, on the one hand, and his
+own servant on the other, applied for attention.
+
+"Mr. Warde is up stairs, sir," said the servant; "he has been waiting
+about half an hour."
+
+But Leyton turned to the officer, asking, "What is it, Captain Irby?"
+
+"Two or three of the men, sir, who have been taken," replied Captain
+Irby, "have expressed a wish to make a statement. One of them is badly
+wounded, too; but I did not know how to act till you arrived, as we
+had no magistrate here."
+
+"Was it quite voluntary?" demanded the young officer; "no inducements
+held out--no questions asked?"
+
+"Quite voluntary, sir," answered the other. "They sent to ask for you;
+and when I went, in your absence, they told me what it was they
+desired; but I refused to take the deposition till you arrived, for
+fear of getting myself into a scrape."
+
+"It must be taken," replied the colonel. "Of whatever value it may be
+judged hereafter, we must not refuse it when offered. I will come to
+them in a moment, Irby;" and entering the house, but without going up
+stairs, he wrote a few lines, in the bar, to Sir Edward Digby,
+requesting to see him without delay. Then, calling his servant, he
+said, "Tell Mr. Warde I will be with him in a few minutes; after
+which, mount yourself, and carry this note over to Harbourne House, to
+Sir Edward Digby. Give it into his own hand; but remember, it is my
+wish that you should not mention my name there at all. Do you know the
+place?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the man; and, leaving him to fulfil his errand,
+the colonel returned to the door of the house, to accompany Captain
+Irby.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+We mast now return for a time to Harbourne House, where, after Sir
+Robert Croyland's departure, his guest had endeavoured in vain, during
+the whole morning, to obtain a few minutes' private conversation with
+the baronet's youngest daughter. Now, it was not in the least degree,
+that Mrs. Barbara's notions of propriety interfered to prevent the two
+young people from being alone together; for, on the contrary, Mrs.
+Barbara was a very lenient and gentle-minded person, and thought
+it quite right that any two human beings who were likely to fall in
+love with each other, should have every opportunity of doing so, to
+their hearts' content. But it so happened, from a sort of fatality
+which hung over all her plans, that whenever she interfered with
+anything,--which, indeed, she always did, with everything she could
+lay her hands upon,--the result was sure to be directly the contrary
+to that which she intended. It might be, indeed, that she did not
+always manage matters quite judiciously, that she acted without
+considering all the circumstances of the case; and undoubtedly it
+would have been quite as well if she had not acted at all when she was
+not asked.
+
+In the present instance, when she had remained in the drawing-room
+with her niece and Sir Edward, for near half an hour after her brother
+had departed, it just struck her that they might wish to be alone
+together; for she had made up her mind by this time, that the young
+officer's visit was to end in a love affair; and, as the very best
+means of accomplishing the desired object, instead of going to speak
+with the housekeeper, or to give orders to the dairy-maid, or to talk
+to the steward,--as any other prudent, respectable, and well-arranged
+aunt would have done--she said to her niece, as if a sudden thought
+had occurred to her, "I don't think Sir Edward Digby has ever seen the
+library. Zara, my dear, you had better show it to him. There are some
+very curious books there, and the manuscript in vellum, with all the
+kings' heads painted."
+
+Zara felt that it was rather a coarse piece of work which her aunt had
+just turned out of hand; and being a little too much susceptible of
+ridicule, she did not like to have anything to do with it, although,
+to say the truth, she was very anxious herself for the few minutes
+that Mrs. Barbara was inclined to give her.
+
+"Oh, I dare say, my dear aunt," she replied, "Sir Edward Digby does
+not care anything about old books!--I don't believe they have been
+opened for these fifty years."
+
+"The greater the treasure, Miss Croyland," answered the young officer;
+"I can assure you nothing delights me more than an old library; so I
+think I shall go and find it out myself, if you are not disposed to
+show it to me."
+
+Zara Croyland remembered, with a smile, that Sir Edward Digby had met
+with no great difficulty in finding it out for himself on a previous
+occasion. She rose, however, with her colour a little heightened; for
+his invitation was a very palpable one, and she did not know what
+conclusions her aunt might be pleased to draw, or to insinuate to
+others; and, leading the way towards the library, she opened the door,
+expecting to find the room untenanted. There, however, before her
+eyes, standing opposite to a book-case, with a large folio volume of
+divinity in his hand, stood the clergyman of the parish; and he
+instantly turned round his head, with spectacles on nose, and advanced
+to pay his respects to Miss Croyland and Sir Edward Digby. Now, the
+clergyman was a very worthy man; but he had one of those
+peculiarities, which, if peculiarities were systematically classed,
+would be referred to the bore genus. He was frequently unaware of when
+people had had enough of him; and consequently on the present
+occasion--after he had informed Zara, that finding that her father was
+out, he had taken the liberty of walking into the library to look at a
+book he wanted--he put back that book, and attacked Sir Edward Digby,
+totis viribus, upon the state of the weather, the state of the
+country, and the state of the smugglers. The later topic, as it was
+the predominant one in every man's mind at that moment, and in that
+part of the country, occupied him rather longer than a sermon, though
+his parishioners occasionally thought his sermons quite sufficiently
+extensive for any sleep-resisting powers of the human frame to
+withstand; and then, when Sir Edward and Zara, forgetting, in the
+interest which they seemed to take in his discourse, that they had
+come into the library to look at the books, walked out upon the
+terrace, he walked out with them; and as they turned up and down, he
+turned up and down also, for full an hour.
+
+Zara could almost have cried in the end; but, as out of the basest
+refuse of our stable-yards, grow the finest flowers of our gardens, so
+good is ever springing up from evil; and in the end the worthy
+clergyman gave his two companions the first distinct account which
+they had received of the dispersion of Mr. Radford's band of
+smugglers, and of the eager pursuit of young Radford which was taking
+place throughout the country. Thus passed the morning, with one event
+or other of little consequence, presenting obstacles to any free
+communication between two people, who were almost as desirous of some
+private conversation as if they had been lovers.
+
+A little before three o'clock, however, Zara Croyland who had been
+looking out of the window, suddenly quitted the drawing-room; and Sir
+Edward Digby, who maintained his post, was left to entertain Mrs.
+Barbara, which he did to the best of his abilities. He was still in
+full career, a little enjoying, to say sooth, some of the good lady's
+minor absurdities, when Zara re-entered the room with a quick step,
+and a somewhat eager look. Her fair cheek was flushed too; and her
+face had in it that sort of determined expression which often betrays
+that there has been a struggle in the mind, as to some step about to
+be taken, and that victory has not been achieved without an effort.
+
+"Sir Edward Digby," she said, in a clear and distinct tone, "I want to
+speak with you for a few moments, if you please."
+
+Mrs. Barbara looked shocked, and internally wondered that Zara could
+not have made some little excuse for engaging Sir Edward in private
+conversation.
+
+"She might have asked him to go and see a flower, or offered to play
+him a tune on the harpsichord, or taken him to look at the dovecot, or
+anything," thought Mrs. Barbara.
+
+The young officer, however, instantly started up, and accompanied his
+fair inviter towards the library, to which she led the way with a
+hurried and eager step.
+
+"Let us come in here!" she said, opening the door; but the moment she
+was within, she sank into a chair and clasped her hands together.
+
+Sir Edward Digby shut the door, and then advanced towards her, a good
+deal surprised and somewhat alarmed by the agitation he saw her
+display. She did not speak for a moment, as if completely overpowered,
+and feeling for her more deeply than he himself knew, her companion
+took her hand and tried to soothe her, saying, "Be calm--be calm, my
+dear Miss Croyland! You know you can trust in me, and if I can aid you
+in any way, command me."
+
+"I know not what to do, or what to say," cried Zara; "but I am sure,
+Sir Edward, you will find excuses for me; and therefore I will make
+none--though I may perhaps seem somewhat bold in dealing thus with one
+whom I have only known a few days."
+
+"There are circumstances which sometimes make a few days equal to many
+years," replied Sir Edward Digby. "It is so, my dear young lady, with
+you and I. Therefore, without fear or hesitation, tell me what it is
+that agitates you, and how I can serve you. I am not fond of making
+professions; but if it be in human power, it shall be done."
+
+"I know not, whether it can be done or not," said Zara; "but if not,
+there is nothing but ruin and desolation for two people, whom we both
+love. You saw my father set out this morning. Did you remark the
+course he took? It was over to my uncle's, for I watched him from the
+window. He passed back again some time ago, but then struck off
+towards Mr. Radford's. All that made me uneasy; but just now, I saw
+Edith's maid coming up towards the house; and eager for tidings, I
+hurried away.--Good Heavens, what tidings she has borne me!"
+
+"They must be evil ones, I see," answered Digby; "but I trust not such
+as to preclude all chance of remedying what may have gone wrong. When
+two or three people act together zealously, dear lady, there are very
+few things they cannot accomplish."
+
+"Yes, but how to explain!" exclaimed Zara; "yet I must be short; for
+otherwise my aunt will be in upon us. Now, Sir Edward Digby," she
+continued, after thinking for a moment, "I know you are a man of
+honour--I am sure you are; and I ask you to pledge me that honour,
+that you will never reveal to any one what I am going to tell you; for
+I know not whether I am about to do right or wrong--whether, in trying
+to save one, I may not be bringing down ruin upon others. Do you give
+me your honour?"
+
+"Most assuredly!" answered her companion. "I will never repeat a word
+that you say, unless with your permission, on my honour!"
+
+"Well, then," replied Zara, in a faint voice, "Mr. Radford has my
+father's life in his power. How, I know not--how, I cannot tell. But
+so it is; and such are the tidings that Caroline has just brought us.
+Mr. Radford's conference with him this morning was not for nothing.
+Immediately after, he went over to Edith; he told her some tale which
+the girl did not distinctly hear; but, it seems, some paper which Mr.
+Radford possesses was spoken of, and the sum of the whole matter was,
+that my poor, sweet sister was told, if she did not consent, within
+four days, to marry that hateful young man, she would sacrifice her
+father's life. He left her fainting, and has ridden over to bear her
+consent to Mr. Radford."
+
+"But, did she consent?" exclaimed Sir Edward Digby, in surprise and
+consternation--"Did she really yield?"
+
+"No--no!" answered Zara, "she did not! The girl said she heard her
+words, and they were not in truth a consent. But my father chose to
+take them as such, and left her even before she recovered."
+
+I have already shown the effect of the same account upon Sir Henry
+Leyton, with all the questions which it suggested to his mind; and the
+impression produced upon his friend, as a man of sense and a man of
+the world, were so similar, that it may be needless to give any
+detailed statement of his first observations or inquiries. Zara soon
+satisfied him, however, that the tale her father had told, was not a
+mere device to frighten Edith into a compliance with his wishes; and
+then came the question, What was to be done?
+
+"It is, in truth, a most painful situation in which your sister is
+placed," said Digby, after some consideration; "but think you that
+this man, this Radford, cannot be bought off? Money must be to him--if
+he be as totally ruined as people say--the first consideration; and I
+know Leyton so well, that I can venture to promise nothing of that
+kind shall stand in the way, if we can but free your sister from the
+terrible choice put before her."
+
+Zara shook her head sadly, saying, "No; that hope is vain!--The girl
+tells me," she added, with a faint smile, which was quickly succeeded
+by a blush, "that she heard my father say, he had offered me--poor me!
+to Richard Radford, with the same fortune as Edith, but had been
+refused."
+
+"And would you have consented?" demanded Sir Edward Digby, in a more
+eager tone than he had yet used.
+
+"Nay," replied Zara, "that has nought to do with the present question.
+Suffice it, that this proves that gold is not his only object."
+
+"Nay, but answer me," persevered her companion; "would you have
+consented? It may have much to do with the question yet." He fixed his
+eyes gravely upon her face, and took the fair, small hand, that lay
+upon the arm of the chair, in his.--It was something very like making
+love, and Zara felt a strange sensation at her heart; but she turned
+away her face, and answered, with a very pale cheek, "I would die for
+my father, Sir Edward; but I could not wed Richard Radford."
+
+Sir Edward raised her hand to his lips, and pressed them on it. "I
+thought so!" he said--"I thought so! And now, heart, and mind, and
+hand, and spirit, to save your sister, Zara! I have hunted many a fox
+in my day, and I don't think the old one of Radford Hall will escape
+me. The greatest difficulty is, not to compromise your father in any
+way; but that shall be cared for, too, to the very best of my power,
+be assured. Henceforth, dear lady, away with all reserve between us.
+While I am in this house, it will be absolutely necessary for you to
+communicate with me freely, and probably very often. Have no
+hesitation; have no scruple as to hour, or manner, or means. Trust to
+my honour as you have trusted this day; and you shall never find it
+fail you. I will enter into such explanations with my servant, Somers,
+in regard to poor Leyton, as will make him think it nothing strange,
+if you send him for me at any time. He is as discreet as a privy
+councillor; and you must, therefore, have no hesitation."
+
+"I will not," answered Zara; "for I would do anything to save my
+sister from such a fate; and I do believe you will not think--you will
+not imagine----"
+
+She paused in some confusion; and Sir Edward Digby answered, with a
+smile--but a kindly and a gentlemanly one, "Let my imagination do as
+it will, Zara. Depend upon it, it shall do you no wrong; and believe
+me when I say, that I can hardly feel so much pain at these
+circumstances as I otherwise might, since they bring me into such near
+and frequent communication with you."
+
+"Hush, hush!" she answered, somewhat gravely; "I can think of nothing
+now but my poor sister; and you must not, Sir Edward, by one
+compliment, or fine speech--nay, nor by one kind speech either," she
+added, laying her hand upon his arm, and looking up in his face, with
+a glowing cheek--"for I know you mean it as kind--you must not,
+indeed, throw any embarrassment over an intercourse, which is
+necessary at present, and which is my only hope and resource, in the
+circumstances in which we are placed. So now tell me what you are
+going to do; for you seemed, but now, as if you were about to set out
+somewhere."
+
+"I am going to Woodchurch instantly," replied Digby. "Sir Henry Leyton
+must be there still----"
+
+"Sir Henry Leyton!" exclaimed Zara; "then he has, indeed, been a
+successful campaigner."
+
+"Most successful, and most deservedly so," answered his friend. "No
+man but Wolfe won more renown; and if he can but gain this battle,
+Leyton will have all that he desires on earth. But I will not stay
+here, skirmishing on the flanks, dear lady, while the main body is
+engaged. I will ride over as fast as possible, see Leyton, consult
+with him, and be back, if possible, by dinner time. If not, you must
+tell your father not to wait for me, as I was suddenly called away on
+business."
+
+"But how shall I know the result of your expedition?" demanded Zara;
+"we shall be surrounded, I fear, by watchful eyes."
+
+"We must trust to fortune and our own efforts to afford us some means
+of communication," replied Digby. "But remember, dearest lady, that
+for this great object, you have promised to cast away all reserve. For
+the time, at least, you must look upon Edward Digby as a brother, and
+treat him as such."
+
+"That I will!" answered the fair girl, heartily; and Digby, leaving
+her to explain their conduct to her aunt as she best might, ordered
+his horse, and rode away towards Woodchurch, in haste.
+
+Pulling in his rein at the door of the little inn, he inquired which
+was Sir Henry Leyton's room, and was directed up stairs; but on
+opening the door of the chamber which had been pointed out, he found
+no one in it, but the somewhat strange-looking old man, whom we have
+once before seen with Leyton, at Hythe.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Warde, you here!" exclaimed Sir Edward Digby. "Leyton told me
+you were in England. But where is he? I have business of some
+importance to talk with him upon;" and as he spoke, he shook the old
+man's hand warmly.
+
+"I know you have," answered Mr. Warde, gazing upon him--"at least, I
+can guess that such is the case.--So have I; and doubtless the subject
+is the same."
+
+"Nay, I should think not," refilled Digby; "mine refers only to
+private affairs."
+
+The old man smiled; and that sharp featured, rude countenance assumed
+an expression of indescribable sweetness: "Mine is the same," he said.
+"You come to speak of Edith Croyland--so do I."
+
+"Indeed!" cried his companion, a good deal surprised; "you are a
+strange being, Mr. Warde. You seem to learn men's secrets, whether
+they will or not."
+
+"There is nothing strange on earth, but man's blindness," answered the
+other; "everything is so simple, when once explained, that its
+simplicity remains the only marvel.--But here he comes. Let me
+converse with him first. Then, when he is aware of all that I know,
+you shall have my absence, or my presence, as it suits you."
+
+While he was speaking, the voice of Henry Leyton was heard below, and
+then his step upon the stairs; and, before Digby could answer, he was
+in the room. His face was grave, but not so cloudy as it had been when
+he returned to Woodchurch, half-an-hour before. He welcomed Mr. Warde
+frankly, and cordially; but turned immediately to Sir Edward Digby,
+saying, "You have been quick indeed, Digby. I could not have conceived
+that my letter had reached you."
+
+"I got no letter," answered Digby; "perhaps it missed me on the way;
+for, the corn being down, I came straight across the country."
+
+"It matters not--it matters not," answered Leyton; "so you are
+here--that is enough. I have much to say to you, and that of immediate
+importance."
+
+"I know it already," answered Digby. "But here is our good friend,
+Warde, who seems to have something to say to you on the same subject."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton turned towards the old man with some surprise. "I
+think Digby must be mistaken," he said, "for though, I am aware, from
+what you told me some little time ago, that you have been in this part
+of the country before, yet it must have been long ago, and you can
+know nothing of the events which have affected myself since."
+
+The old man smiled, and shook his head. "I know more than you
+imagine," he answered. "It is, indeed, long since first I was in this
+land; but not so long since I was here last; and all its people and
+its things, its woods, its villages, its hills, are as familiar to
+me--ay, more so than to you. Of yourself, Leyton, and your fate, I
+also know much--I might say I know all; for certainly I know more than
+you do, can do more than you are able to do, will do more than you
+can. To show you what I know; I will give you a brief summary of your
+own history--at least, that part of it, of which you think I know
+nothing. Young, eager, and impatient, you were thrown constantly into
+the society of one, good, beautiful, gentle, and true. You had much
+encouragement from those who should not have given it, unless they had
+the intention of continuing it to the end. You loved, and were
+beloved; and then, in the impatience of your boyish ardour, you bound
+Edith Croyland to yourself, without her parent's knowledge and
+consent, by vows which, whatever human laws may say, are indissoluble
+by the law of Heaven; and therein you did wrong. It was a great
+error.--Do I say right?"
+
+"It was, indeed," answered Sir Henry Leyton, casting down his eyes
+sternly on the ground--"it was, indeed."
+
+"More--I will tell you more," continued Mr. Warde; "you have bitterly
+repented it, and bitterly suffered for it. You are suffering even
+now."
+
+"Not for it," replied the young officer--"not for it. My sufferings
+are not consequences of my fault."
+
+"You are wrong," answered the old man; "wrong, as you will find. But I
+will go on, and tell you what you have done this day. Those who have
+behaved ill to you have been punished likewise; and their punishment
+is working itself out, but sweeping you in within its vortex. You have
+been over to see Edith Croyland. She has told you her tale. You have
+met in love, and parted in sorrow.--Is it not so? And now you know not
+which way to turn for deliverance."
+
+"It is so, indeed, my good friend," said Leyton, sadly; "but how you
+have discovered all this, I cannot divine."
+
+"That has nought to do with the subject," answered Warde. "Now tell
+me, Leyton, tell me--and remember you are dearer to me than you
+know--are you prepared to make atonement for your fault? The only
+atonement in your power--to give back to Edith the vows she plighted,
+to leave her free to act as she may judge best. I have marked you
+well, as you know, for years. I have seen you tried as few men,
+perhaps, are tried; and you have come out pure and honest. The last
+trial is now arrived; and I ask you here, before your friend, your
+worldly friend, if you are ready to act honestly still, and to annul
+engagements that you had no right to contract?"
+
+"I am," answered Sir Henry Leyton; "I am, if----"
+
+"Ay, if! There is ever an 'if'  when men would serve their own
+purposes against their conscience," said Mr. Warde, sternly.
+
+"Nay, but hear me, my good friend," replied the young officer. "I have
+every respect for you. Your whole character commands it and deserves
+it, as well as your profession; but, at the same time, though I may
+think fit to answer you candidly, in matters where I would reject any
+other man's interference, yet I must shape my answer as I think
+proper, and rule my conduct according to my own views. You must,
+therefore, hear me out. I say that I am ready to give back to Edith
+Croyland the vows she plighted me, to set her free from all
+engagements, to leave her, as far as possible, as if she had never
+known Henry Leyton, whatever pang it may cost me--_if_ it can be
+proved to me that by so doing I have not given her up to misery, as
+well as myself. My own wretchedness I can bear--I have borne it long,
+cheered by one little ray of hope. I can bear it still, even though
+that light go out; but to know that by any act of mine--however
+seemingly generous, or, as you term it, honest--I had yielded her up
+to a life of anguish, that I could not bear. Show me that this will
+not be the case; and, as I have said before, I am ready to make the
+sacrifice, if it cost me life. Nay, more: I returned hither prepared,
+if at the last, and with every effort to avert it, I found that
+circumstances of which I know not the extent, rendered the keeping of
+her vows to me more terrible in its consequences than her union with
+another, however hateful he may be,--I came hither prepared, I say, in
+such a case, to set her free; and I will do it!"
+
+The old man took both his hands, and gazed on him with a look of glad
+satisfaction. "Honest to the last," he said--"honest to the last! The
+resolution to do this, is as good as the deed; for I know you are not
+one to fail where you have resolved.--But those who might exact the
+sacrifice are not worthy of it. Your willingness has made the
+atonement, Leyton; and I will deliver you from your difficulty."
+
+"You, Mr. Warde!" exclaimed Sir Edward Digby; "I cannot suppose that
+you really have the power; or, perhaps, after all, you do not know the
+whole circumstances."
+
+"Hush, hush, young man!" answered Warde, with a wave of the hand; "I
+know all, I see all, where you know little or nothing. You are a good
+youth, as the world goes--better than most of your bad class and
+station; but these matters are above you. Listen to me, Leyton. Did
+not Edith tell you that her father had worked upon her, by fears for
+his safety--for his honour--for his life, perhaps?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," exclaimed Leyton, eagerly, and with a ray of hope
+beginning to break upon him. "Was the tale not true, then?"
+
+"I guessed so," answered the old man. "I was sure that would be the
+course at last. Nevertheless, the tale he told was true--too true. It
+was forced from him by circumstances. Yet, I have said I will deliver
+you from your difficulty; and I will. Pursue your own course; as you
+have commenced, go on to the end. I ask you not now to give Edith back
+her promises. Nay, I tell you, that her misery, her wretchedness--ay,
+tenfold more than any you could suffer--would be the consequence, if
+you did so. Let her go on firmly in her truth to the last; but tell
+her, that deliverance will come. Now I leave you; but, be under no
+doubt. Your course is clear; do all you can by your own efforts to
+save her; but it is I who must deliver her in the end."
+
+Without any further farewell, he turned and left the room; and Sir
+Henry Leyton and his friend remained for a minute or two in thought.
+
+"His parting advice is the best," said Digby, at length; "and
+doubtless you will follow it, Leyton; but, of course, you will not
+trust so far to the word of a madman, as to neglect any means that may
+present themselves."
+
+"He is not mad," answered Leyton, shaking his head. "When first he
+joined us in Canada, before the battle of Quebec, I thought as you do;
+but he is not mad, Digby. There are various shades of reason; and
+there may be a slight aberration in his mind from the common course of
+ordinary thought. He may be wrong in his reasonings, rash in his
+opinions, somewhat overexcited in imagination; but that is not
+madness. His promises give me hope, I will confess; but still I will
+act as if they had not been made. Now let us speak of our plans; and
+first tell me what has taken place at Harbourne; for you seem to know
+all the particulars already, which I sent for you to communicate,
+though how you learned them I cannot divine."
+
+"Oh, my dear Leyton, if I were to tell you all that has happened,"
+replied Sir Edward Digby, "I should have to go on as long as a
+Presbyterian minister, or a popular orator. I had better keep to the
+point;" and he proceeded to relate to his friend the substance of the
+conversation which had last taken place between himself and Zara.
+
+"It is most fortunate," answered Leyton, "that dear girl has thus
+become acquainted with the facts; for Edith would not have told her,
+and now we have some chance of obtaining information of all that
+occurs, which must be our great security. However--since I returned, I
+have obtained valuable information, which puts good Mr. Radford's
+liberty, if not his life, in my power. Three of the men whom we have
+taken, distinctly state that he sent them upon this expedition
+himself--armed, and mounted them; and therefore he is a party to the
+whole transaction. I have sent off a messenger to Mowle, the
+officer--as faithful and as true a fellow as ever lived--begging him
+to bring me up, without a moment's delay, a magistrate in whom he can
+trust; for one of the men is at the point of death, and all the
+justices round this place are so imbued with the spirit of smuggling,
+that I do not choose the depositions to be taken by them. I have
+received and written down the statements made, before witnesses; and
+the men have signed them; but I have no power in this case to
+administer an oath. As soon as the matter is in more formal train, I
+shall insist upon the apprehension of Mr. Radford, whatever be the
+consequences to Sir Robert Croyland; for here my duty to the country
+is concerned, and the very powers with which I am entrusted, render it
+imperative upon me so to act."
+
+"If you can catch him--if you can catch him!" replied Sir Edward
+Digby. "But be sure, my dear Leyton, if he once discovers that you
+have got such a hold upon him, he will take care to render that matter
+difficult. You may find it troublesome, also, to get a magistrate to
+act as you desire; for they are all of the same leaven; and I fancy
+you have no power to do anything yourself except in aid and support of
+the civil authorities. You must be very careful, too, not to exceed
+your commission, where people might suspect that personal feelings are
+concerned."
+
+"Personal feelings shall not bias me, Digby, even in the slightest
+degree," replied his friend. "I will act towards Mr. Radford, exactly
+as I would towards any other man who had committed this offence; and,
+as to the imputation of motives, I can well afford to treat such
+things with contempt. Were I, indeed, to act as I wish, I should not
+pursue this charge against the chief offender, in order not to bring
+down his vengeance suddenly upon Sir Robert Croyland's head, or should
+use the knowledge I possess merely to impose silence upon him through
+fear. But my duty is plain and straightforward; and it must be done.
+As to my powers, they are more extensive than you suppose. Indeed, I
+would have sooner thrown up my commission, than have undertaken a
+service I disliked, without sufficient authority to execute it
+properly. Thus, if no magistrate could be found to act as I might
+require, I would not scruple, with the aid of any officer of Customs,
+or even without, to apprehend this man on my own responsibility. But I
+think we shall easily find one who will do his duty."
+
+"At all events," replied Sir Edward Digby, "you had better be
+cautious, my dear Leyton. If you are not too quick in your movements,
+you may perhaps trap the old bird and the young one together; and that
+will be a better day's sport than if you only got a single shot."
+
+"Heaven send it may be before these fatal four days are over!"
+answered Leyton; "for then the matter will be decided and Edith
+delivered."
+
+"Why, if you were to catch the young one, it would be sufficient for
+that object," said his friend.
+
+But Leyton shook his head. "I fear not," he replied; "yet that purpose
+must not be neglected. Where he has concealed himself I cannot divine.
+It would seem certain that he never got out of Harbourne Wood, unless,
+indeed, it was by some of the bye-paths; and in that case, he surely
+must have been seen. I will have it searched, to-morrow, from end to
+end."
+
+In the same strain the conversation proceeded for half-an-hour more,
+without any feasible plan of action having been decided upon, and with
+no further result than the arrangement of means for frequent and
+private communication. It was settled, indeed, that Leyton should fix
+his head-quarters at Woodchurch, and that two or three of the dragoons
+should be billeted at a small public-house on the road to Harbourne.
+To them any communication from Sir Edward Digby was to be conveyed by
+his servant, Somers, for the purpose of being forwarded to Woodchurch.
+Such matters being thus arranged, as far as circumstances admitted,
+the two friends parted; and Digby rode back to Harbourne House, which
+he reached, as may be supposed, somewhat later than Sir Robert
+Croyland's dinner-hour.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+About six o'clock on the evening of the same day, the cottage of Mrs.
+Clare was empty. The good widow herself stood at the garden gate, and
+looked up the road into the wood, along which the western sun was
+streaming low. After gazing for a moment in that direction, she turned
+her eyes to the left, and then down the edge of the wood, which
+stretched along in a tolerably even line till it reached the farther
+angle. The persevering dragoons were patrolling round it still; and
+Mrs. Clare murmured to herself, "How will he ever get out, if they
+keep such a watch?"
+
+She was then going into the cottage again, when a hurried step caught
+her ear, coming apparently from the path which led from the side of
+Halden to the back of the house, and thence round the little garden
+into the road.
+
+"That sounds like Harding's step," thought the widow; and her ear had
+not deceived her. In another minute, she beheld him turn the corner of
+the fence and come towards her; but there was a heated and angry look
+upon his face, which she had never seen there before; and--although
+she had acted for the best, and not without much consideration, in
+sending Kate upon Mr. Radford's commission, and not going herself--she
+feared that her daughter's lover might not be well pleased his bride
+should undertake such a task. As he came near, the symptoms of anger
+were more apparent still. There was the cloudy brow, the flashing eye,
+the hurried and impetuous walk, which she had often seen in her own
+husband--a man very similar in character to him who now approached
+her--when irritated by harsh words; and Widow Clare prepared to do all
+she could to soothe him ere Kate's return.
+
+But Harding did not mention her he loved, demanding, while yet at some
+distance, "Where is Mr. Radford, Mrs. Clare?"
+
+"He is not here, Mr. Harding," replied the widow; "he has not been
+here since the morning. But what makes you look so cross, Harding? You
+seem angry."
+
+"And well I may be," answered Harding, with an oath. "What do you
+think they have set about?--That I informed against them, and betrayed
+them into the hands of the dragoons: when, they know, I saw them safe
+out of the Marsh; and it must have been their own stupidity, or the
+old man's babbling fears, that ruined them--always trusting people
+that were sure to be treacherous, and doubting those he knew to be
+honest. But I'll make him eat his words, or cram them down his throat
+with my fist."
+
+"Why, he spoke quite kindly of you this morning, Harding," said the
+widow; "there must be some mistake."
+
+"Mistake!" cried the smuggler, sharply; "there is no mistake.--It is
+all over Hythe and Folkestone already; and every one says that it came
+from him. Can you not tell me where he is gone?--Which way did he
+turn?"
+
+"Towards his own house," replied Mrs. Clare; "but you had better come
+in, Harding, and get yourself cool before you go to him. You will
+speak angrily now, and mischief may come of it. I am sure there is
+some mistake."
+
+"I" will not sit down till I have made him own it," answered the
+smuggler. "Perhaps he is up at Harbourne. I'll go there. Where is
+Kate, Mrs. Clare?"
+
+"She has gone towards Harbourne House," said the widow, not choosing,
+in the excited state of his feelings, to tell him her daughter's
+errand; "but she will be back in one minute, if you will but come in."
+
+"No," he replied; "I will come back by-and-by. Perhaps I shall meet
+her as I go;" and he was turning towards the wood, when suddenly, at
+the spot where the road entered amongst the trees, the pretty figure
+of Kate Clare, as trim, and neat, and simple as a wild flower,
+appeared walking slowly back towards the cottage. But she was not
+alone. By her side was a tall, handsome young man, dressed in full
+military costume, with his heavy sword under his arm, and a star upon
+his breast. He was bending down, talking to his fair companion with a
+friendly air, and she was answering him with a gay smile.
+
+A pang shot through Harding's bosom: the first that ever the poor girl
+had caused; nor, indeed, would he have felt it then, had he not been
+irritated; for his was a frank and confiding heart, open as the day,
+in which that foul and dangerous guest, Suspicion, usually could find
+no lurking place. At first he did not recognise, in the glittering
+personage before his eyes, the grave, plain-looking stranger, who, a
+week or two before, had conversed with him for a few minutes on the
+cliffs near Sandgate; but he saw, as the two came on, that Kate raised
+her eyes; and as soon as she perceived him standing by her mother, a
+look of joy lighted up her face, which made him murmur to himself,
+"I'm a fool!"
+
+The stranger, too, saw him; but it made no change in his demeanour;
+and the next moment, to Harding's surprise, the officer came forward
+somewhat more quickly, and took Widow Clare by the hand, saying, with
+a grave smile, "Do you not know me, Mrs. Clare?"
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" cried the widow, drawing back and gazing at him,
+"Can it be you, sir?"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" he answered. "Why, Kate here knew me directly, though
+she was but ten or eleven, I think, when I went away."
+
+"Oh, that was because you were always so fond of her, Mr. Henry,"
+replied Widow Clare. "Gracious! how you are changed!"
+
+Harding was talking to Kate while these few words passed, but he heard
+them; nor did he fail to remark that two mounted dragoons, one leading
+a horse by the rein, followed the young officer from the wood. He now
+recognised him also; and by his dress perceived the rank he held in
+the army, though Mrs. Clare called him "Mr. Henry."
+
+"Yes, I am changed, indeed!" replied Leyton, to the widow's last
+remark, "in body and health, Mrs. Clare, but not in heart, I can
+assure you; and as I was obliged to visit this wood, I resolved I
+would not be so near you without coming in to see how you were going
+on, with your pretty Kate here."
+
+"My pretty Kate, very soon!" said Harding, aloud; and the young
+officer turned suddenly round, and looked at him more attentively than
+before.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Harding!" he exclaimed, "is that you? We have met before,
+though perhaps you don't remember me."
+
+"Oh yes, I do, sir," replied the smuggler, drily. "But I must go,
+Kate;" and he added, in a low tone, "I shall be back by-and-by."
+
+Thus saying, he walked away; but before he had taken ten steps, Leyton
+followed, and took him by the arm. "What do you want with me, sir?"
+asked the smuggler, turning sharply round, and putting his hand in the
+bosom of his coat.
+
+"Hush!" replied the young officer; "I seek no harm to you--merely
+one word. For Heaven's sake, Harding, quit this perilous life of
+yours!--at least, before you marry that poor girl--if I have
+understood you rightly, that you are about to marry her. I speak as a
+friend."
+
+"Thank you, sir!" answered the smuggler, "I dare say you mean it kind;
+but it was hardly fair of you, either, to come and talk with me upon
+the cliff, if you are, as I suppose, the Sir Henry Leyton all the
+folks are speaking about."
+
+"Why, my good friend, my talking with you did you no harm," replied
+the young officer; "you cannot say that I led you to speak of anything
+that could injure either you or others. Besides, I have nothing to do
+with you gentlemen of the sea, though I may with your friends on land.
+But take the advice of one well disposed towards you; and, above all,
+do not linger about this place at present, for it is a dangerous
+neighbourhood for any one who has had a share in the late
+transactions."
+
+"That advice I shall take, at all events," answered Harding, bluntly;
+"and perhaps the other too, for I am sick of all this!" And thus
+saying, he walked away, passing close by the two dragoons, who offered
+no obstruction.
+
+In the meanwhile Leyton, returning to Widow Clare and her daughter,
+went into the cottage, and talked to them, for a few minutes, of old
+days. Gradually, however, he brought the conversation round to the
+inhabitants of Harbourne House, and asked if either the widow or Kate
+ever went up there.
+
+"Oh, Kate goes twice every day, sir," said Mrs. Clare, "for we have
+all the finest of the poultry to keep down here. But are you not going
+there yourself, Mr. Henry?"
+
+"Alas, no!" answered Leyton, with a sigh. "Those days have gone by,
+Mrs. Clare; and I am now a stranger where I was once loved."
+
+"Don't say so, sir," replied the widow, "don't say so! For, I am sure,
+where you were best loved of all, there you are best loved still."
+
+"That I believe," answered Leyton; "but, at all events, I am not going
+there at present; and if Kate would do me a service, she would, the
+first time she sees Miss Zara Croyland alone, tell her, that if ever
+she rides or walks out along the road by the Chequers, she will find
+an old friend by the way."
+
+"Miss Zara, sir, did you say?" asked Widow Clare.
+
+"Yes, mother--yes," cried Kate; "you forget Miss Edith is not there
+now; she is down at Mr. Croyland's."
+
+"But remember, Kate," continued Leyton, "I do not wish my name
+mentioned to many persons in the house. Indeed, it will be better not
+to speak of me at all to any one but Zara. It must be soon known that
+I am here, it is true; but I wish to let events take their course till
+then. And now, Mrs. Clare, good evening. I shall see you again some
+day soon; and you must let me know when Kate's wedding-day is fixed."
+
+The mother looked at her daughter with a smile, and Kate blushed and
+laughed. "It is to be this day week, sir," answered Mrs. Clare.
+
+Leyton nodded his head, saying, "I will not forget," and, mounting his
+horse at the door, rode away.
+
+"Now, did you find him, Kate?" asked Mrs. Clare, in a low tone, the
+moment Sir Henry Leyton was gone.
+
+"Oh yes," replied her daughter; "the dragoons did not follow me, as
+you thought they would, mother; and I set down the basket close to the
+willow. At first he did not answer when I asked if he wanted anything;
+but when I spoke again, he said, 'No. A thousand thanks for what you
+have brought;' and he spoke kind and civilly. Then, just as I was
+going away, he said, 'Kate, Kate! let me know when the soldiers are
+gone.--If you could bring me a woman's dress, I could easily get
+away.' I should not be afraid of going any more, mother," the girl
+continued; "for he seems quite changed by his misfortune, and not rude
+and jesting as he always used to be, whenever I saw him before."
+
+The idea of the woman's clothes seemed to strike Mrs. Clare very much;
+and the good widow and her daughter set their wits to work, to
+consider how all that was necessary could be procured; for a very
+serious impediment thrust itself in the way of either mother or child
+lending him a suit of their own apparel. Neither of them were very
+tall women; and though young Radford was himself not above the middle
+height, yet Kate's gown would not have fallen further than half way
+down his leg; and the poor girl laughed merrily, to think of what a
+figure he would make dressed in her garments. It would have been the
+old story of the wolf in sheep's clothing, assuredly.
+
+"If we could but accomplish it, and enable him to escape," thought
+Mrs. Clare, "especially after Harding has just been up here, it would
+show Mr. Radford, clearly enough, that John had nothing to do with
+informing against him." But the question, of where fitting apparel was
+to be procured, still remained unsettled, till Kate suggested, that
+perhaps her aunt's, at Glassenbury, might do. "She is very tall,"
+continued the girl, "and I am sure she would lend them to me; for she
+and my uncle have always been so kind. Suppose I walk over early
+to-morrow, and ask her."
+
+Now the little farm which Mrs. Clare's brother held, was somewhat more
+than seven miles off, on the other side of Cranbrook. But still, what
+is the exertion which woman will not make for a fellow-creature in
+distress; and Mrs. Clare determined that she would rise betimes, and
+go to William Harris's herself, certain of a kind reception and ready
+consent from those who had always displayed towards her, in adversity,
+the feelings of affection, which the more worldly-minded generally
+shower upon prosperity alone.
+
+It was far for her daughter to walk, she thought; and besides, Harding
+might come, and it would not do for Kate to be absent. Thus had she
+settled it in her own mind, when Mr. Radford entered the cottage to
+inquire after his son.
+
+High were the praises that he bestowed upon Kate and Mrs. Clare, for
+their kindness; and he expressed his warm approval of their little
+scheme. Nevertheless, he turned the matter in his mind, in order to
+see whether he could not save Mrs. Clare the trouble of going nearly
+to Goudhurst, by obtaining the necessary articles of female apparel
+somewhere else. His own women servants, however, were all short and
+stout; the only other persons whom he could think of, as at all
+approaching his son in height, he did not choose to trust; and
+therefore it was, at length, determined that the original plan should
+be followed. But the worthy gentleman laid strict injunctions upon
+Mrs. Clare, to be early in her proceedings, as he feared much, from
+all he had gathered, that the wood might be more strictly searched, in
+the course of the following day.
+
+When this was settled, and Mr. Radford had expressed his thanks, more
+than once, Mrs. Clare thought it a good opportunity of turning the
+conversation to Harding; and she asked Mr. Radford if he had seen him,
+adding, "He has gone to look for you, sir, and seems very quick and
+angry, because the people down about his place have got a report that
+he informed about the run; and he fancies you have said so."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense, Mrs. Clare, I never said anything of the kind!"
+replied Mr. Radford. "It is a story put about by the Custom-House
+officers themselves, just to cover the persons from whom they had the
+information. But we shall discover them some day, and pay them
+handsomely. Tell Harding not to mind what people say, for I never
+thought of such a thing."
+
+"That I will, sir," replied the widow; "for I'm sure it will set his
+mind at rest.--You must know very well, sir, that he's as honest a man
+as ever lived."
+
+"To be sure--to be sure," answered Mr. Radford, with great warmth of
+manner; "no one knows that better than I do, Mrs. Clare."
+
+But whether Mr. Radford really felt the warmth which he assumed, may
+be another question. His seemings were not always the best indications
+of his real sentiments; and when he left Mrs. Clare's cottage, after
+all had been arranged, his first thought was, "We will reckon with Mr.
+Harding by-and-by.--The account is not made up yet."
+
+Before I proceed to other scenes, it may be as well to go on with the
+part assigned in this history to Mrs. Clare and her daughter, at
+least, till the morning of the following day. About eight o'clock at
+night, Harding returned, still irritable and discontented, having
+failed to find Mr. Radford. The account, however, which the widow gave
+of her conversation with that gentleman, soothed him a good deal; but
+he would not stay the night, as he had done before, saying that he
+must absolutely be at home as soon as possible, and would return,
+perhaps, the next day, or, at all events, the day after.
+
+"I must do the best I can, Mrs. Clare," he continued, "to help these
+fellows out of the scrape they've run into. Two or three of them are
+good men enough; and, as they risk their necks if they are taken, I
+should like to get them down, and give them a passage to the other
+side. So you see I shall be going about here a good deal, for the next
+four or five days, and will look in, from time to time, to see you and
+my dear little Kate."
+
+"But are you going to walk all the way back to-night, John?" asked
+Kate, as he rose to depart.
+
+"No, my love," he answered, "I've got a horse up at Plurendon; but the
+beast cast a shoe as I was coming, and I was obliged to leave him at
+the blacksmith's."
+
+No sooner was Harding gone, than a little kindly contest rose between
+mother and daughter, as to which should go over to Glassenbury; but
+Mrs. Clare persisted, against all her child's remonstrances; and, in
+order that they might rise before daylight, both retired to bed early,
+and slept calmly and peacefully, unknowing what the morrow, to which
+they both looked anxiously forward, was to bring. The sun was yet some
+way below the horizon, when Mrs. Clare set out; but she met with no
+impediment, and, walking on stoutly, arrived, at an early hour, at a
+little farm-house, inhabited by her brother. She found farmer Harris
+and his wife, with their two sons and Mrs. Harris's nephew (three
+stout, good humoured, young men) seated at their breakfast; and warm
+and joyful was the reception of Aunt Clare; one joking her upon Kate's
+approaching marriage; another declaring Jack Harding, whom they all
+knew, was a capital fellow; and all striving to make her comfortable,
+and pressing her to partake of their morning meal.
+
+Every one of the party was eager to obtain some information from her,
+who lived so much nearer to the spot, in regard to the late
+discomfiture of the smugglers, although none seemed to take any great
+interest in them, all declaring that the Ramleys, and their gang, were
+the pest of the country, and that young Dick Radford was not a bit
+better. Such opinions, regarding that young gentleman, acted as a
+warning to Mrs. Clare, not to mention the object of the loan she came
+to solicit; and when, after having rested about twenty minutes, she
+preferred her petition to Mrs. Harris, it was readily granted by the
+tall farmer's wife, although not without some expression of curiosity,
+as to what her sister-in-law could want a dress of hers for.
+
+"Kate or I will bring it back to-night or to-morrow morning," replied
+Mrs. Clare, "and I'll tell you what we want it for, at the wedding,
+which, remember, is to be yesterday week."
+
+"Ay, we will all come down with white favours, and our best buckles,"
+said young William, the farmer's eldest son; "and I'll have a kiss of
+the bride."
+
+A gown and cloak of Mrs. Harris's, having been brought down--they were
+not her best--and neatly folded up in a shawl-handkerchief, Mrs. Clare
+set forward on her way home, hurrying her steps as much as possible,
+lest any untoward event should prevent the execution of her scheme. A
+stout country woman, accustomed to exercise, the widow accomplished
+the walk in as short a time as possible; yet it was nine o'clock
+before she reached the cottage, and she instantly dispatched her
+daughter to the "hide" in the wood, with the clothes folded up in as
+small a space as possible, and laid in the bottom of a basket, covered
+over with eggs.
+
+The only difficulty was, in regard to a bonnet; and, after earnest
+consultation between mother and child, it was determined that, as Mrs.
+Clare's head was somewhat larger than Kate's, her bonnet should be put
+over her daughter's, which was easily accomplished. Both were of
+straw, and both were plain enough; but, to conceal the contrivance
+from the eyes of any one whom Kate might meet, Mrs. Clare pinned a
+small piece of lace--which had been bought for the wedding--into the
+inside of her own bonnet, remarking, that it would do to hide young
+Mr. Radford's face a bit.
+
+Furnished with all that was needful, and having had the instructions
+which Mr. Radford had left, repeated carefully to her, by her mother,
+fair Kate Clare set out upon her expedition, passing one of the
+dragoons, who were still patrolling round the wood, near the place
+where the road entered it. The man said something to her, as she went
+by, but did not attempt to follow; and Kate walked on, looking behind
+her, from time to time, till she was satisfied that her proceedings
+were unwatched. Then, hurrying on, with a quicker step, she turned to
+the path, which led to the back of the gardens of Harbourne House, and
+approached the old willow, and the brushwood which covered the place
+where Richard Radford was concealed.
+
+"Mr. Radford," she said, as soon as she was quite close, "Mr. Radford!
+Here is what you wanted. Take it as fast as you can."
+
+"Is there any one near but you, Kate?" asked the voice of Richard
+Radford.
+
+"Oh, no!" she replied; "but the soldiers are still on the outside of
+the wood watching."
+
+"I know that," rejoined the voice again, "for I saw them last night,
+when I tried to get out. But are you sure that none of them followed
+you, Kate?"
+
+"Oh, quite sure," she answered, "for I looked behind all the way!"
+
+"Well, stay and help me to put the things on," said Richard Radford,
+issuing forth from behind the bushes, like a snake out of its hole.
+Kate Clare willingly agreed to help him, and while the gown and the
+cloak were thrown over his other clothes, told him all that his father
+had said, desiring him not to come up to Radford Hall till he heard
+more; but to go down to the _lone house_, near Iden Green, where he
+would find one or two friends already collected.
+
+"Why, these are never your own clothes, Kate!" said young Radford, as
+she pinned on the gown for him. "They fit as if they were made for
+me."
+
+"Not at the back," answered Kate, laughing, "I cannot get the gown to
+meet there; but that will be covered up by the cloak, so it does not
+matter.--No, they are my aunt's, at Glassenbury; and you must let me
+have them back, Mr. Radford, as soon as ever you have got to Iden
+Green; for my mother has promised to return them to-night."
+
+"I don't know howl shall get them back, Kate," answered Richard
+Radford; "for none of our people will like to venture up here. Can't
+you come down and fetch them? It is not much out of your way."
+
+"No, I can't do that," answered Kate, who did not altogether like
+going to the lone house she had mentioned; "but you can send them down
+to Cranbrook, at all events; and there they can be left for me, at
+Mrs. Tims's shop. They'll be quite safe; and I will call for them
+either to-night or to-morrow morning."
+
+"Well, I will do that, my love," replied Richard Radford, taking the
+bonnet and putting it on his head.
+
+"Very well, sir," answered Kate, not well pleased with the epithet he
+had bestowed upon her, and taking a step to move away, "I will call
+for them there."
+
+But young Radford threw his arm round her waist, saying, "Come, Kate!
+I must have a kiss before you go.--You give plenty to Harding, I dare
+say."
+
+"Let me go, sir!" cried Kate Clare, indignantly. "You are a base,
+ungrateful young man!"
+
+But young Radford did not let her go. He took the kiss she struggled
+against, by force; and he was proceeding to farther insult, when Kate
+exclaimed, "If you do not let me go, I will scream till the soldiers
+are upon you.--They are not far."
+
+She spoke so loud, that her very tone excited his alarm; and he
+withdrew his arm from her waist, but still held her hand tight,
+saying, "Come, come, Kate! Nonsense, I did not mean to offend you! Go
+up to Harbourne House, there's a good girl, and stay as long as you
+can there, till I get out of the wood."
+
+"You do offend me--you do offend me!" cried Kate Clare, striving to
+withdraw her hand from his grasp.
+
+"Will you promise to go up to Harbourne, then?" said Richard Radford,
+"and I will let you go."
+
+"Yes, yes," answered Kate, "I will go;" and the moment her hand was
+free, she darted away, leaving the basket she had brought behind her.
+
+As soon as she was gone, Richard Radford cursed her for a saucy jade,
+as if the offence had been hers, not his; and then taking up the
+basket, he threw it, eggs and all, together with his own hat, into the
+deep hole in the sandbank. Advancing along the path till he reached
+the open road, he hurried on in the direction of Widow Clare's
+cottage. Of a daring and resolute disposition--for his only virtue was
+courage--he thought of passing the soldiers, as a good joke rather
+than a difficult undertaking; but still recollecting the necessity of
+caution, as he came near the edge of the wood he slackened his pace,
+tried to shorten his steps, and assumed a more feminine demeanour.
+When he was within a couple of hundred yards of the open country, he
+saw one of the dragoons slowly pass the end of the road and look up;
+and, on issuing forth from the wood, he perceived that the man had
+paused, and was gazing back. But at that distance, the female garments
+which he wore deceived the soldier; and he was suffered to walk on
+unopposed towards Iden Green.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Sir Robert Croyland himself did not return to Harbourne House, till
+the hands of the clock pointed out to every one that went through the
+hall, that it was twenty minutes past the usual dinner hour; and,
+though he tried to be as expeditious as he could, he was yet fully ten
+minutes longer in dressing than usual. He was nervous; he was
+agitated; all the events of that day had shaken and affected him; he
+was angry with his servant; and several times he gave the most
+contradictory orders. Although for years he had been undergoing a slow
+and gradual change, under the painful circumstances in which he had
+been placed, and had, from the gay, rash, somewhat noisy and
+overbearing country gentleman, dwindled down into the cold, silent,
+pompous, and imperative man of family, yet the alteration during that
+day had been so great and peculiar that the valet could not help
+remarking it, and wondering if his master was ill.
+
+Sir Robert tried to smoothe his look and compose his manner for the
+drawing-room, however; and when he entered, he gazed round for Sir
+Edward Digby, observing aloud: "Why, I thought soldiers were more
+punctual. However, as it happens, to-day I am glad Sir Edward is not
+down."
+
+"Down!" cried Mrs. Barbara, who had a grand objection to dinners being
+delayed; "why, he is out; but you could expect no better; for
+yesterday you were so long that the fish was done to rags; so I
+ordered it not to be put in till he made his appearance."
+
+"I told you, my dear aunt, that he said he might not be back before
+dinner," replied her niece, "and, therefore, it will be vain to wait
+for him. He desired me to say so, papa."
+
+"Oh yes! Zara knows all about it," said Mrs. Barbara, with a shrewd
+look; "they were talking together for ten minutes in the library; and
+I cannot get her to tell me what it was about."
+
+It is, indeed, conscience that makes cowards of us all; and had the
+fair girl's conversation with her new friend been on any other subject
+than that to which it related--had it been about love, marriage, arms,
+or divinity, she would have found no difficulty in parrying her aunt's
+observations, however mal-à-propos they might have been. At present,
+however, she was embarrassed by doubts of the propriety of what she
+was doing, more especially as she felt sure that her father would be
+inquisitive and suspicious, if the tale the maid had told was true.
+Acting, however, as she not unfrequently did, in any difficulty, she
+met Mrs. Barbara's inuendoes at once, replying, "Indeed I shall not
+say anything about it to any one, my dear aunt. I will manage some
+matters for myself; and the only thing I shall repeat is Sir Edward's
+last dying speech, which was to the effect, that he feared he might be
+detained till after our dinner hour, but would be back as soon as ever
+he could, and trusted my father would not wait."
+
+"Do you know where he is gone, and why?" asked Sir Robert Croyland, in
+a much quieter tone than she expected. But poor Zara was still puzzled
+for an answer; and, as her only resource, she replied vaguely,
+"Something about some of the smugglers, I believe."
+
+"Then had he any message or intelligence brought him?" inquired Sir
+Robert Croyland.
+
+"I do not know--Oh, yes, I believe he had," replied his daughter,
+in a hesitating tone and with a cheek that was beginning to grow red.
+"He spoke with one of the soldiers at the corner of the road, I
+know;--and, oh yes, I saw a man ride up with a letter."
+
+"That was after he was gone," observed Mrs. Barbara; but Sir Robert
+paid little attention, and, ringing, ordered dinner to be served.
+Could we see into the breasts of others, we should often save
+ourselves a great deal of unnecessary anxiety. Zara forgot that
+her father was not as well aware that Sir Edward Digby was
+Leyton's dearest friend, as she was; but, in truth, all that he
+concluded--either from the pertinent remarks of Mrs. Barbara or from
+Zara's embarrassment--was, that the young baronet had been making a
+little love to his daughter, which, to say sooth, was a consummation
+that Sir Robert Croyland was not a little inclined to see.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour more, the dinner was announced; and the
+master of the house, his sister, and Zara, sat down together. Hardly
+had the fish and soup made any progress, when the quick canter of Sir
+Edward Digby's horse put his fair confidante out of her anxiety; and,
+in a few minutes after, he appeared himself, and apologized gracefully
+to his host, for having been too late. "You must have waited for me, I
+fear," he added, "for it is near an hour after the time; but I thought
+it absolutely necessary, from some circumstances I heard, to go over
+and see my colonel before he returned to Hythe, and then I was
+detained."
+
+"Pray, who does command your regiment?" asked Mrs. Barbara. But Sir
+Edward Digby was, at that moment, busily engaged in taking his seat by
+Zara's side; and he did not hear. The lady repeated the question when
+he was seated; but then he replied, "No, I thank you, my dear madam,
+no soup to-day--a solid meal always after a hard ride; and I have
+galloped till I have almost broken my horse's wind.--By the way, Sir
+Robert, I hope you found my bay a pleasant goer. I have only ridden
+him twice since I bought him, though he cost two hundred guineas."
+
+"He is well worth the money," replied the Baronet--"a very powerful
+animal--bore me like a feather, and I ride a good weight."
+
+"Have your own horses come back?" asked the young officer, with a
+laugh.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland answered in the negative, adding, "And that
+reminds me I must write to my brother, to let Edith have his carriage
+to-morrow, to bring her back; for mine are gone--coach-horses, and
+all."
+
+"Edith, to-morrow!" exclaimed Mrs. Barbara, in surprise; "why, I
+thought she was going to stay four or five days."
+
+"She is coming back to-morrow, Bab," replied Sir Robert, sharply; and
+instantly turned the conversation.
+
+During the rest of the evening, Sir Edward Digby remained very
+constantly by fair Zara's side; and, moreover, he paid her most
+particular attention, in so marked a manner, that both Sir Robert
+Croyland and Mrs. Barbara thought matters were taking their course
+very favourably. The father busied himself in writing a letter and one
+or two notes, which he pronounced to be of consequence--as, indeed,
+they really were--while the aunt, worked diligently and discreetly at
+embroidering, not interrupting the conference of her niece and their
+guest above ten times in a minute. Sir Edward, indeed, kept himself
+within all due and well-defined rules. He never proceeded beyond what
+a great master of the art has pronounced to be "making love"--"a
+course of small, quiet, attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so
+vague as to be misunderstood." Strange to say, Zara was very much
+obliged to him for following such a course, as it gave an especially
+good pretext for intimacy, for whispered words and quiet conversation,
+and even for a little open seeking for each other's society, which
+would have called observation, if not inquiry, upon them, had not her
+companion's conduct been what it was. She thought fit to attribute it,
+in her own mind, entirely to his desire of communicating to her,
+without attracting notice, whatever he had learned, that could in any
+way affect her sister's fate; and she judged it a marvellous good
+device that they should appear for the time as lovers, with full
+powers on both parts to withdraw from that position whenever it suited
+them. Poor girl! she knew not how far she was entangling herself.
+
+Sir Edward Digby, in the meanwhile, took no alarming advantage of his
+situation. The whispered word was almost always of Edith or of Leyton.
+He never spoke of Zara herself, or of himself, or of his own feelings;
+not a word could denote to her that he was making love, though his
+whole demeanour had very much that aspect to those who sat and looked
+on. Oh, those who sit and look on, what a world they see! and what a
+world they don't see! Ever more than those who play the game, be they
+shrewd as they may: ever less than the cards would show, were they
+turned up. By fits and snatches, he communicated to his fair
+companion, while he was playing with this ball of gold thread, or
+winding and unwinding that piece of crimson silk, as much of what had
+passed between himself and Sir Henry Leyton, as he thought necessary;
+and then he asked her to sing--as her aunt had given him a quiet hint
+that her niece did sometimes do such a thing--saying, in a low tone,
+while he preferred the request, "Pray, go on with the song, though I
+may interrupt you sometimes with questions, not quite relevant to the
+subject."
+
+"I understand--I quite understand," answered Zara; but it may be a
+question whether that sweet girl really quite understood either
+herself or him. It is impossible that any two free hearts, can go on
+long, holding such intimate and secret communion, on subjects deeply
+interesting to both, without being drawn together by closer bonds,
+than perhaps they fancy can ever be established between them--unless
+there be something inherently repulsive on one part or the other.
+Propinquity is certainly much, in the matter of love; but there are
+circumstances, not rarely occurring in human life, which mightily
+abridge the process; and such are--difficulties and dangers
+experienced together--a common struggle for a common object--but more
+than all--mutual and secret communion with, and aid of each other in
+things of deep interest. The confidence that is required, the
+excitement of imagination, the unity of effort, and of purpose, the
+rapid exercise of mind to catch the half-uttered thought, the enforced
+candour from want of time, which admits of no disguise or
+circumlocution, the very mystery itself--all cast that magic chain
+around those so circumstanced, within which they can hardly escape
+from the power of love. Nine times out of ten, they never try; and,
+however Zara Croyland might feel, she rose willingly enough to sing,
+while Sir Edward Digby leaned over her chair, as she sat at the
+instrument, which in those days supplied the place of that which is
+now absurdly enough termed in England, a piano. Her voice, which was
+fine though not very powerful, wavered a little as she began, from
+emotions of many kinds. She wished to sing well; but she sang worse
+than she might have done; yet quite well enough to please Sir Edward
+Digby, though his ear was refined by art, and good by nature.
+Nevertheless, though he listened with delight, and felt the music
+deeply, he forgot not his purpose, and between each stanza asked some
+question, obtaining a brief reply. But I will not so interrupt the
+course of an old song, and will give the interrogatory a separate
+place:
+
+
+                           THE LADY'S SONG.
+
+      "Oh! there be many, many griefs,
+         In this world's sad career,
+       That shun the day, that fly the gaze,
+         And never, never meet the ear.
+
+       But what is darkest--darkest of them all?
+         The pang of love betray'd?--
+       The hopes of youth all fleeting by--
+         Spring flowers that early, early fade?
+
+       But there are griefs--ay, griefs as deep:
+         The friendship turn'd to hate--
+       And, deeper still--and deeper still,
+         Repentance come too late!--too late!
+
+       The doubt of those we love; and more
+         The rayless, dull despair,
+       When trusted hearts are worthless found,
+         And all our dreams are air--but air.
+
+       Deep in each bosom's secret cell,
+         The hermit-sorrows lie;
+       And thence--unheard on earth--they raise
+         The voice of prayer on high--on high.
+
+       Oh! there be many, many griefs,
+         In this world's sad career,
+       That shun the day, that fly the gaze,
+         And, never, never meet the ear."
+
+
+Thus sang the lady; and one of her hearers, at least, was delighted
+with the sweet voice, and the sweet music, and the expression which
+she gave to the whole. But though he listened with deep attention,
+both to words and tones, as long as her lips moved, yet, when the mere
+instrumental part of the music recommenced, which was the case between
+every second and third stanza--and the symphonetic parts of every song
+were somewhat long in those days--he instantly remembered the object
+with which he had first asked her to sing, (little thinking that such
+pleasure would be his reward;) and bending down his head, as if he
+were paying her some lover-like compliment on her performance, he
+asked her quietly, as I have said before, a question or two, closely
+connected with the subject on which both their minds were at that
+moment principally bent.
+
+Thus, at the first pause, he inquired--"Do you know--did you ever see,
+in times long past, a gentleman of the name of Warde--a clergyman--a
+good and clever man, but somewhat strange and wild?"
+
+"No," answered Zara, looking down at the keys of the harpsichord; "I
+know no one of that name;" and she recommenced the song.
+
+When her voice again ceased, the young officer seemed to have thought
+farther; and he asked, in the same low tone, "Did you ever know a
+gentleman answering that description--his features must once have been
+good--somewhat strongly marked, but fine and of an elevated
+expression, with a good deal of wildness in the eye, but a peculiarly
+bland and beautiful smile when he is pleased--too remarkable to be
+overlooked or forgotten?"
+
+"Can you be speaking of Mr. Osborn?" asked Zara, in return. "I barely
+recollect him in former days; but I and Edith met him about ten days
+ago; and he remembered and spoke to her."
+
+The song required her attention; and though she would fain have played
+the symphony over again, she was afraid her father would remark it,
+and went on to sing the last two stanzas. As soon as she had
+concluded, however, she said, in a low, quick voice, "He is a very
+extraordinary man."
+
+"Can you give me any sign by which I should know him?" asked Digby.
+
+"He has now got a number of blue lines traced on his face," answered
+Zara; "he went abroad to preach to the savages, I have heard. He is a
+good man, but very eccentric."
+
+At the same moment the voice of her father was raised, saying, "I
+wish, my dear, you would not sing such melancholy things as that.
+Cannot you find something gayer? I do not like young ladies singing
+such dull ditties, only fit for sentimental misses of the true French
+school."
+
+What was the true French school of his day, I cannot tell. Certainly,
+it must have been very different from the present.
+
+"Perhaps Sir Edward will sing something more cheerful himself?"
+answered Zara.
+
+"Oh, I am a very bad musician," replied the young officer; "I cannot
+even accompany myself. If you will, and have any of the few things I
+know, I shall be very happy.--In everything, one can but try," he
+added, in a low voice, "still hoping for the best."
+
+Zara looked over her collection of music with him; and at last she
+opened one song which was somewhat popular in those times, though it
+has long fallen into well-merited oblivion. "Can you venture to sing
+that?" she asked, pointing to the words rather than the music; "it is
+quite a soldier's song."
+
+Sir Edward Digby read the first line; and thinking he observed a
+double meaning in her question, he answered, "Oh, yes, that I will, if
+you will consent to accompany me."
+
+Zara smiled, and sat down to the instrument again; and the reader must
+judge from the song itself whether the young officer's conjecture that
+her words had an enigmatical sense was just or not.
+
+
+                         THE OFFICER'S SONG.
+
+      "A star is still beaming
+         Beyond the grey cloud;
+       Its light rays are streaming,
+         With nothing to shroud;
+       And the star shall be there
+         When the clouds pass away;
+       Its lustre unchanging,
+         Immortal its ray.
+
+      "'Tis the guide of the true heart,
+         In field, or on sea;
+       'Tis the hope of the slave,
+         And the trust of the free;
+       The light of the lover,
+         Whatever assail;
+       The strength of the honest,
+         That never can fail.
+
+      "Waft, waft, thou light wind,
+         From the peace-giving ray,
+       The vapours of sorrow,
+         That over it stray;
+       And let it pour forth,
+         All unshrouded and bright,
+       That those who now mourn,
+         May rejoice in its light."
+
+
+"God grant it!" murmured the voice of Sir Robert Croyland. Zara said,
+"Amen," in her heart; and in a minute or two after, her father rose,
+and left the room.
+
+During the rest of the evening, nothing very important occurred in
+Harbourne House. Mrs. Barbara played her usual part, and would
+contribute to Sir Edward Digby's amusement in a most uncomfortable
+manner. The following morning, too, went by without any incident of
+importance, till about ten o'clock, when breakfast just being over,
+and Zara having been called from the room by her maid, Sir Robert's
+butler announced to his master, that the groom had returned from Mr.
+Croyland's.
+
+"Where is the note?" demanded his master, eagerly.
+
+"He has not brought one, Sir Robert," replied the servant, "only a
+message, sir, to say that Mr. Croyland is very sorry he cannot spare
+the horses to-day, as they were out a long way yesterday."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland started up in a state of fury not at all becoming.
+He stamped, he even swore. But we have got rid of a great many of the
+vices of those times; and swearing was so common at the period I speak
+of, that it did not even startle Mrs. Barbara. Her efforts, however,
+to soothe her brother, only served to irritate him the more; and next
+he swore at her, which did surprise her mightily.
+
+He then fell into a fit of thought, which ended in his saying aloud,
+"Yes, that must be the way. It is his business, and so----" But
+Sir Robert did not conclude the sentence, retiring to his own
+sitting-room, and there writing a letter.
+
+When he had done, he paused and meditated, his mind rambling over many
+subjects, though still occupied intensely with only one. "I am a most
+unfortunate man," he thought. "Nothing since that wretched day has
+ever gone right with me. Even trifles combine to frustrate everything
+I attempt. Would I had died many years ago! Poor Edith--poor girl--she
+must know more sorrow still, and yet it must be done, or I am
+lost!--If that wretched youth had been killed in that affray
+yesterday, it would have all been over. Was there no bullet that could
+find him?--and yet, perhaps, it might not have had the effect.--No,
+no; there would have been some new kind of demand from that greedy,
+craving scoundrel.--May there not be such even now? Will he give up
+that fatal paper?--He shall--by Heaven, he shall!--But I must send the
+letter. Sir Edward Digby will think this all very strange. How
+unfortunate, that it should have happened just when he was here. Would
+to Heaven I had any one to consult with! But I am lone, lone indeed.
+My wife, my sons, my friends,--gone, gone, all gone! It is very sad;"
+and after having mused for several minutes more, he rang the bell,
+gave the servant who appeared the letter which he had just written,
+and directed him to take it over to Mr. Radford's as soon as possible.
+
+Returning to the room which he had previously left--without bestowing
+one word upon Mrs. Barbara, whom he passed in the corridor, Sir
+Robert Croyland entered into conversation with Sir Edward Digby, and
+strove--though with too evident an effort--to appear careless and
+unconcerned.
+
+In the meantime, however, we must notice what was passing in the
+corridor; for it was of some importance, though, like many other
+important things, it was transacted very quietly.
+
+Mrs. Barbara had overheard Sir Robert's directions to the servant; and
+she had seen the man--as he went away to get ready the pony, which was
+usually sent in the morning to the post--deposit the note he had
+received upon an antique piece of furniture--a large marble table,
+with great sprawling gilt legs--which stood in the hall, close to the
+double doors that led to the offices.
+
+Now, Mrs. Barbara was one of the most benevolent people upon earth:
+she literally overflowed with the milk of human kindness; and, if a
+few drops of that same milk occasionally spotted the apron of her
+morality, which we cannot help acknowledging was sometimes the case,
+she thought, as a great many other people do of a great many other
+sins, that "there was no great harm in it, if the motive was good."
+This was one of those cases and occasions when the milk was beginning
+to run over. She had a deep regard for her brother: she would have
+sacrificed her right hand for him; and she was quite sure that
+something very sad had happened to vex him, or he never would have
+thought of swearing _at her_. She would have done, she was ready to
+do, anything in the world, to help him; but how could she help him,
+without knowing what he was vexed about? It is wonderful how many
+lines the devil always has out, for those who are disposed to take a
+bait. Something whispered to Mrs. Barbara, as she gazed at the letter,
+"The whole story is in there!" Ah, Mrs. Barbara, do not take it up,
+and look at the address!--It is dangerous--very dangerous.
+
+But Mrs. Barbara did take it up, and looked at the address--and then
+at the two ends. It was folded as a note, unfortunately; and she
+thought--"There can be no harm, I'm sure--I won't open it--though I've
+seen him open Edith's letters, poor thing!--I shall hear the man pull
+back the inner door, and can put it down in a minute. Nobody else can
+see me here; and if I could but find out what is vexing him, I might
+have some way of helping him; I'm sure I intend well."
+
+All this argumentation in Mrs. Barbara's mind took up the space of
+about three seconds; and then the note, pressed between two fingers in
+the most approved fashion, was applied as a telescope to her eye, to
+get a perspective view of the cause of her brother's irritation. I
+must make the reader a party to the transaction, I am afraid, and let
+him know the words which Mrs. Barbara read:--
+
+"My dear Radford," the note began--"As misfortune would have it, all
+my horses have been taken out of the stable, and have not been brought
+back. I fear that they have fallen into other hands than those that
+borrowed them; and my brother Zachary has one of his crabbed moods
+upon him, and will not lend his carriage to bring Edith back. If your
+horses have not gone as well as mine, I should feel particularly
+obliged by your sending them down here, to take over my coach to
+Zachary's and bring Edith back; for I do not wish her to stay there
+any longer, as the marriage is to take place so soon. If you can come
+over to-morrow, we can settle whether it is to be at your house or
+here--though I should prefer it here, if you have no objection."
+
+There seemed to be a few words more; but it took Mrs. Barbara longer
+to decipher the above lines, in the actual position of the note, than
+it might have done, had the paper been spread out fair before her; so
+that, just as she was moving it a little, to get at the rest, the
+sound of the farther of the two doors being thrown open, interrupted
+her proceedings; and, laying down the letter quickly, she darted away,
+full of the important intelligence which she had acquired.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+There are periods in the life of some men, when, either by a
+concatenation of unfortunate events, or by the accumulated
+consequences of their own errors, the prospect on every side becomes
+so clouded, that there is no resource for them, but to shut their eyes
+to the menacing aspect of all things, and to take refuge in the moral
+blindness of thoughtless inaction, against the pressure of present
+difficulties. "I dare not think," is the excuse of many a man, for
+continuing in the same course of levity which first brought
+misfortunes upon him; but such is not always the case with those who
+fly to wretched merriment in the hour of distress; and such was not
+the case with Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+He had thought for long years, till his very heart sickened at the
+name of reflection. He had looked round for help, and had found none.
+He had tried to discover some prospect of relief; and all was
+darkness. The storm he had long foreseen was now bursting upon his
+head; it was no longer to be delayed; it was not to be warded off. His
+daughter's misery, or his own destruction, was the only choice before
+him; and he was resolved to think no more--to let events take their
+course, and to meet them as he best might.
+
+But to resolve is one thing--to execute, another; and Edith's father
+was not a man who could keep such a determination long. He might
+indeed, for a time, cease to think of all the painful particulars of
+his situation; but there will ever come moments when thought is forced
+even upon the thoughtless, and events will arise, to press reflection
+upon any heart. His efforts were, at first, very successful. After he
+had despatched the letter to Mr. Radford, he had said, "I must really
+pay my visitor some attention. It will serve to occupy my mind, too.
+Anything to escape from the torturing consideration of questions,
+which must ever be solved in wretchedness." And when he returned to
+Sir Edward Digby, his conversation was particularly gay and cheerful.
+It first turned to the unpleasant fact of the abstraction of all his
+horses; but he now spoke of it in a lighter and less careful manner
+than before.
+
+"Doubtless," he said, "they have been taken without leave, as usual,
+by the smugglers, to use for their own purposes. It is quite a common
+practice in this county; and yet we all go on leaving our stable-doors
+open, as if to invite all who pass to enter, and choose what they
+like. Then, I suppose, they have been captured with other spoil, in
+the strife of yesterday morning, and are become the prize of the
+conquerors; so that I shall never see them again."
+
+"Oh, no!" answered the young officer, "they will be restored, I am
+quite sure, upon your identifying them, and proving that they were
+taken, without your consent, by the smugglers. I shall go over to
+Woodchurch by-and-by; and if you please, I will claim them for you."
+
+"It is scarcely worth while," replied the baronet; "I doubt that I
+shall ever get them back. These are little losses which every man in
+this neighbourhood must suffer, as a penalty for remaining in a half
+savage part of the country.--What are you disposed to do this morning,
+Sir Edward? Do you again walk the stubbles?"
+
+"I fear it 'would be of little use," answered Digby; "there has been
+so much galloping lately, that I do not think a partridge has been
+left undisturbed in its furrow; and the sun is too high for much
+sport."
+
+"Well, then, let us walk in the garden for a little," said Sir Robert;
+"it is curious, in some respects, having been laid out long before
+this house was built, antiquated as it is."
+
+Sir Edward Digby assented, but looked round for Zara, as he certainly
+thought her society would be a great addition to her father's. She had
+not yet returned to the room, however; and Sir Robert, as if he
+divined his young companion's feelings, requested his sister to tell
+her niece, when she came, that he and their guest were walking in the
+garden. "It is one of her favourite spots, Sir Edward," he continued,
+as they went out, "and many a meditative hour she spends there; for,
+gay as she is, she has her fits of thought, too."
+
+The young baronet internally said, "Well she may, in this house!" but
+making a more civil answer to his entertainer, he followed him to the
+garden; and so well and even cheerfully did Sir Robert Croyland keep
+up the conversation, so learnedly did he descant upon the levelling
+and preservation of turf in bowling-greens, and upon the clipping of
+old yew-trees--both before and after Zara joined them--that Digby
+began to doubt, notwithstanding all he had heard, whether he could
+really have such a load upon his heart as he himself had stated to
+Edith, and to fancy that, after all, it might be a stratagem to drive
+her to compliance with his wishes.
+
+A little incident, of no great moment in the eyes of any one but a
+very careful observer of his fellow-men--and Digby was far more so
+than he seemed--soon settled the doubt. As they were passing under an
+old wall of red brick--channelled by time and the shoots of pears and
+peaches--which separated the garden from the different courts, a door
+suddenly opened behind them, just after they had passed it; and while
+Sir Edward's eyes were turned to the face of the master of the house,
+Sir Robert's ear instantly caught the sound, and his cheek became as
+pale as ashes.
+
+"There is some dark terror there!" thought the young officer; but,
+turning to Zara, he finished the sentence he had been uttering, while
+her father's coachman, who was the person that had opened the door,
+came forward to say that one of the horses had returned.
+
+"Returned!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland; "has been brought back, I
+suppose you mean?"
+
+"Ay, Sir Robert," replied the man; "a fellow from the lone house by
+Iden Green brought him; and in a sad state the poor beast is. He's got
+a cut, like with a knife, all down his shoulder."
+
+"Your dragoon swords are sharp, Sir Edward," said the old baronet,
+gaily, to his guest; "however, I will go and see him myself, and
+rejoin you here in a minute."
+
+"I am so glad to have a moment alone," cried Zara, as soon as her
+father was gone, "that you must forgive me if I use it directly. I am
+going to ask you a favour, Sir Edward. You must take me a ride, and
+lend me a horse. I have just had a message from poor Harry Leyton; he
+wishes to see me, but I am afraid to go alone, with so many soldiers
+about."
+
+"Are they such terrible animals?" asked her companion, with a smile,
+adding, however, "I shall be delighted, if your father will consent;
+for I have already told him that I am going to Woodchurch this
+afternoon."
+
+"Oh! you must ask me yourself, Sir Edward," replied Zara, "quite in a
+civil tone; and then when you see that I am willing, you must be very
+pressing with my father--quite as if you were a lover; and he will not
+refuse you.--I'll bear you harmless, as I have heard Mr. Radford say;"
+she added, with a playful smile that was quickly saddened.
+
+"You shall command for the time," answered Digby, as gaily; "perhaps
+after that, I may take my turn, sweet lady. But I have a good deal to
+say to you, too, which I could not fully explain last night."
+
+"As we go--as we go," replied Zara; "my father will be back directly,
+otherwise I would tell you a long story about my aunt, who has
+evidently got some great secret which she is all impatience to
+divulge. If I had stayed an hour with her, I might have arrived at it;
+but I was afraid of losing my opportunity here.--Oh, that invaluable
+thing, opportunity! Once lost, what years of misery does it not
+sometimes leave behind.--Would to Heaven that Edith and Leyton had run
+away with each other when they were about it.--We should all have been
+happier now."
+
+"And I should never have known you," replied Digby. Zara smiled, and
+shook her head, as if saying, "That is hardly fair;" but Sir Robert
+Croyland was seen coming up the walk; and she only replied, "Now do
+your _devoir_, gallant knight, and let me see if you do it zealously."
+
+"I have been trying in your absence, my dear sir," said Digby, rather
+maliciously, as the baronet joined them, "to persuade your fair
+daughter to run away with me. But she is very dutiful, and will not
+take such a rash step, though the distance is only to Woodchurch,
+without your consent. I pray you give it; for I long to mount her on
+my quietest horse, and see her try her skill in horsemanship again."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland looked grave; and ere the words were half spoken,
+Sir Edward Digby felt that he had committed an error in his game; for
+he was well aware that when we have a favour to ask, we should not
+call up, by speech or look, in the mind of the person who is to grant
+it, any association having a contrary tendency.
+
+"I am afraid that I have no servant whom I could send with you, Sir
+Edward," replied her father; "one I have just dispatched to some
+distance, and you know I am left without horses, for this poor beast
+just come back, is unfit. Neither do I think it would be altogether
+consistent with decorum, for Zara to go with you quite alone."
+
+Sir Edward Digby mentally sent the word decorum back to the place from
+whence it came; but he was resolved to press his point; and when Zara
+replied, "Oh, do let me go, papa!" he added, "My servant can accompany
+us, to satisfy propriety, Sir Robert; and you know I have quartered
+three horses upon you. Then, as I find the fair lady is somewhat
+afraid of a multitude of soldiers, I promise most faithfully not even
+to dismount in Woodchurch, but to say what I have to say, to the
+officer in command there, and then canter back over the country."
+
+"Who is the officer in command?" asked Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+Zara drew her breath quick, but Sir Edward Digby avoided the dangerous
+point. "Irby has one troop there," he replied; "and there are parts of
+two others. When I have made interest enough here," he continued, with
+a half bow to Zara, "I shall beg to introduce Irby to you, Sir Robert;
+you will like him much, I think. I have known him long."
+
+"Pray invite him to dinner while he stays," said Sir Robert Croyland;
+"it will give me much pleasure to see him."
+
+"Not yet--not yet!" answered Digby, laughing; "I always secure my own
+approaches first."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland smiled graciously, and, turning to Zara, said,
+"Well, my dear, I see no objection, if you wish it. You had better go
+and get ready."
+
+Zara's cheek was glowing, and she took her father at the first word;
+but when she was gone, Sir Robert thought fit to lecture his guest a
+little, upon the bad habit of spoiling young ladies which he seemed to
+have acquired. He did it jocularly, but with his usual pompous and
+grave air; and no one would have recognised in the Sir Robert Croyland
+walking in the garden, the father whom we have lately seen humbled
+before his own child. There is no part of a man's character which he
+keeps up so well to the world as that part which is not his own. The
+assertion may seem to be a contradiction in terms; but there is no
+other way of expressing the sense clearly; and whether those terms be
+correct or not, will depend upon whether character is properly innate
+or accumulated.
+
+Sir Edward Digby answered gaily, for it was his object to keep his
+host in good humour at least, for the time. He denied the possibility
+of spoiling a lady, while he acknowledged his propensity to attempt
+impossibilities in that direction; and at the same time, with a good
+grace, and a frankness, real yet assumed--for his words were true,
+though they might not have been spoken just then, under any other
+circumstances--he admitted that, of all people whom he should like to
+spoil, the fair being who had just left them was the foremost. The
+words were too decided to be mistaken. Sir Edward Digby was evidently
+a gentleman, and known to be a man of honour. No man of honour trifles
+with a woman's affections; and Sir Robert Croyland, wise in this
+instance if not in others, did as all wise fathers would do, held his
+tongue for a time that the matter might cool and harden, and then
+changed the subject.
+
+Digby, however, had grown thoughtful. Did he repent what he had said?
+No, certainly not. He wished, indeed, that he had not been driven to
+say it so soon; for there were doubts in his own mind whether Zara
+herself were altogether won. She was frank, she was kind, she trusted
+him, she acted with him; but there was at times a shade of reserve
+about her, coming suddenly, which seemed to him as a warning. She had
+from the first taken such pains to ensure that her confidence--the
+confidence of circumstances--should not be misunderstood; she had
+responded so little to the first approaches of love, while she had
+yielded so readily to those of friendship, that there was a doubt in
+his mind which made him uneasy; and, every now and then, her uncle's
+account of her character rung in his ear, and made him think--"I have
+found this artillery more dangerous than I expected."
+
+What a pity it is that uncles will not hold their tongues!
+
+At length, he bethought him that it would be as well to order the
+horses, which was accordingly done; and some time before they were
+ready, the fair girl herself appeared, and continued walking up and
+down the garden with her father and their guest, looking very lovely,
+both from excitement, which gave a varying colour to her cheek, and
+from intense feelings, which, denied the lips, looked out with deeper
+soul from the eyes.
+
+"I think, Zara," said Sir Robert Croyland, when it was announced that
+the horses and the servant were ready, "that you took Sir Edward to
+the north, when you went over to your uncle's. You had better,
+therefore, in returning--for I know, in your wild spirits, when once
+on horseback, you will not be contented with the straight road--you
+had better, I say, come by the southwest."
+
+"Oh, papa, I could never learn the points of the compass in my life!"
+answered Zara, laughing; "I suppose that is the reason why, as my aunt
+says, I steer so ill."
+
+"I mean--by the lower road," replied her father; and he laid such
+emphasis on the words, that Zara received them as a command.
+
+They mounted and set out, much to the surprise of Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, who saw them from the window, and thence derived her first
+information of their intended expedition; for Zara was afraid of her
+aunt's kindnesses, and never encountered them when she could help it.
+When they were a hundred yards from the house, the conversation began;
+but I will not enter into all the details; for at first they related
+to facts with which the reader is already well acquainted. Sir Edward
+Digby told her at large, all that had passed between himself and
+Leyton on the preceding day, and Zara, in return, informed him of the
+message she had received from his friend, and how it had been
+conveyed. Their minds then turned to other things, or rather to other
+branches of the same subjects; and, what was to be done? was the next
+question; for hours were flying--the moment that was to decide the
+fate of the two beings in whom each felt a deep though separate
+interest, was approaching fast; and no progress had apparently been
+made.
+
+Zara's feelings seemed as much divided as Edith's had been. She shrank
+from the thought, that her sister, whom she loved with a species of
+adoration, should sacrifice herself on any account to such a fate as
+that which must attend the wife of Richard Radford. She shrank also,
+as a young, generous woman's heart must ever shrink, from the thought
+of any one wedding the abhorred, and separating for ever from the
+beloved; but then, when she came to turn her eyes towards her father,
+she trembled for him as much as for Edith; and, with her two hands
+resting on the pommel of the saddle, she gazed down in anxious and
+bitter thought.
+
+"I know not your father as well as you do, my dear Miss Croyland,"
+said her companion, at length, as he marked these emotions; "and
+therefore I cannot tell what might be his conduct under particular
+circumstances." Zara suddenly raised her eyes, and fixed them on his
+face; but Digby continued. "I do not speak of the past, but of the
+future. I take it for granted--not alone as a courtesy, but from all I
+have seen--that Sir Robert Croyland cannot have committed any act,
+that could justly render him liable to danger from the law."
+
+"Thank you--thank you!" said Zara, dropping her eyes again; "you judge
+rightly, I am sure."
+
+"But at the same time," he proceeded, "it is clear that some
+unfortunate concurrence of circumstances has placed him either really,
+or in imagination, in Mr. Radford's power. Now, would he but act a
+bold and decided part--dare the worst--discountenance a bad man and a
+villain--even, if necessary, in his magisterial capacity, treat him as
+he deserves--he would take away the sting from his malice. Any
+accusation this man might bring would have _enmity_ too strongly
+written upon it, to carry much weight; and all the evidence in favour
+of your father would have double force."
+
+"He cannot--he will not," answered Zara, sadly, "unless he be actually
+driven. I know no more than you, Sir Edward, how all this has
+happened; but I know my father, and I know that he shrinks from
+disgrace more than death. An accusation, a public trial, would kill
+him by the worst and most terrible kind of torture. Mr. Radford, too,
+has wound the toils round him completely--that I can see. He could say
+that Sir Robert Croyland has acted contrary to all his own principles,
+at his request; and he could point to the cause. He could say that Sir
+Robert Croyland suddenly became, and has been for years the most
+intimate friend and companion of a man he scorned and avoided;
+and he could assert that it was because the proud man was in the
+cunning man's power. If, for vengeance, he chooses to avow his own
+disgrace--and what is there not Mr. Radford would avow to serve his
+ends?--believe me, he has my father in a net, from which it will be
+difficult to disentangle him."
+
+They both fell into thought again; but Zara did not sink in Digby's
+estimation, from the clear and firm view which she took of her
+father's position.
+
+"Well," he said, at length, "let us wait, and hear what poor Leyton
+has to tell you. Perhaps he may have gained some further insight, or
+may have formed some plan; and now, Zara, let us for a moment speak of
+ourselves. You see, to-day, I have been forced to make love to you."
+
+"Too much," said Zara, gravely. "I am sure you intended it for the
+best; but I am sorry it could not be avoided."
+
+"And yet it is very pleasant," answered Digby, half jestingly, half
+seriously.
+
+Zara seemed agitated: "Do not, do not!" she replied; "my mind is too
+full of sad things, to think of what might be pleasant or not at
+another time;" and she turned a look towards him, in which kindness,
+entreaty, and seriousness were all so blended, that it left him in
+greater doubt than ever, as to her sensations. "Besides," she added,
+the serious predominating in her tone, "consider what a difference one
+rash word, on either part, may make between us. Let me regard you, at
+least for the present, as a friend--or a brother, as you once said,
+Digby; let me take counsel with you, seek your advice, call for your
+assistance, without one thought or care to shackle or restrain me. In
+pity, do; for you know not how much I need support."
+
+"Then I am most ready to give it, on your own terms, and in your own
+way," answered Digby, warmly; but, immediately afterwards, he fell
+into a reverie, and in his own mind thought--"She is wrong in her
+view; or indifferent towards me. With a lover to whom all is
+acknowledged, and with whom all is decided, she would have greater
+confidence, than with a friend, towards whom the dearest feelings of
+the heart are in doubt. This must be resolved speedily, but not now;
+for it evidently agitates her too much.--Yet, after all, in that
+agitation is hope."
+
+Just as his meditations had reached this point, they passed by the
+little public house of the Chequers, then a very favourite sign in
+England, and especially in that part of the country; and in five
+minutes after, they perceived a horseman on the road, riding rapidly
+towards them.
+
+"There is Leyton," said Sir Edward Digby, as he came somewhat nearer;
+but Zara gazed forward with surprise, at the tall, manly figure,
+dressed in the handsome uniform of the time, the pale but noble
+countenance, and the calm commanding air. "Impossible!" she cried.
+"Why, he was a gay, slight, florid, young man."
+
+"Six or seven years ago," answered Digby; "but that, my dear Miss
+Croyland, is Sir Henry Leyton, depend upon it."
+
+Now, it may seem strange that Edith should have instantly recognised,
+even at a much greater distance, the man whom her sister did not,
+though the same period had passed since each had seen him; but, it
+must be remembered, that Edith was between two and three years older
+than Zara; and those two or three years, at the time of life which
+they had reached when Leyton left England, are amongst the most
+important in a woman's life--those when new feelings and new thoughts
+arise, to impress for ever, on the woman's heart, events and persons
+that the girl forgets in an hour.
+
+Leyton, however, it certainly was; and when Zara could see his
+features distinctly, she recalled the lines. Springing from his horse
+as soon as he was near, her sister's lover cast the bridle of his
+charger over his arm, and, taking the hand she extended to him, kissed
+it affectionately: "Oh, Zara, how you are changed!" he said. "But so
+am I; and you have gained, whilst I have lost. It is very kind of you
+to come thus speedily."
+
+"You could not doubt, Leyton, that I would, if possible," answered
+Zara; "but all things are much changed in our house, as well as
+ourselves; and that wild liberty which we formerly enjoyed, of running
+whithersoever we would, is sadly abridged now. But what have you to
+say, Leyton? for I dare not stay long."
+
+Digby was dropping behind, apparently to speak to his servant for a
+moment; but Leyton called to him, assuring him that he had nothing to
+say, which he might not hear.
+
+"Presently, presently," answered Zara's companion; and leaving them
+alone, he rode up to good Mr. Somers, who, with his usual discretion,
+had halted, as they halted, at a very respectful distance. The young
+officer seemed to give some orders, which were rather long, and then
+returned at a slow pace. In the meantime, the conversation of Leyton
+and Zara had gone on; but his only object, it appeared, was to see
+her, and to entreat her to aid and support his Edith in any trial she
+might be put to. "I spent a short period of chequered happiness with
+her last night," he said; "and she then told me, dear Zara, that she
+was sure her father would send for her in the course of this day. If
+such be the case, keep with her always as far as possible; bid her
+still remember Harry Leyton; bid her resist to the end; and assure her
+that he will come to her deliverance ultimately. Were it myself alone,
+I would sacrifice anything, and set her free; but when I know that, by
+so doing, I should make her wretched for ever--that her own heart
+would be broken, and nothing but an early death relieve her, I cannot
+do it, Zara--no one can expect it."
+
+"Perhaps not--perhaps not, Leyton;" answered Zara, with the tears in
+her eyes; "but yet--my father! However, I cannot advise--I cannot even
+ask anything. All is so dark and perplexed, I am lost!"
+
+"I am labouring now, dear Zara," replied the young officer, "to find
+or devise means of rendering his safety sure. Already I have the power
+to crush the bad man in whose grasp he is, and render his testimony,
+whatever it may be, nearly valueless. At all events, the only course
+before us, is that which I have pointed out; and while Digby is with
+you, you can never want the best and surest counsel and assistance.
+You may confide in him fully, Zara. I have now known him many years;
+and a more honourable and upright man, or one of greater talent, does
+not live."
+
+There was something very gratifying to Zara in what he said of his
+friend; and had she been in a mood to scrutinize her own feelings
+accurately, the pleasure that she experienced in hearing such words
+spoken of Sir Edward Digby--the agitated sort of pleasure--might have
+given her an insight into her own heart. As it was, it only sent a
+passing blush into her cheek, and she replied, "I am sure he is all
+you say, Harry; and indeed, it is to his connivance that I owe my
+being able to come hither to-day. These smugglers took away all my
+father's horses; and I suppose, from what I hear, that some of them
+have been captured by your men."
+
+"If such is the case they shall be sent back," replied Leyton; "for I
+am well aware that the horses being found with the smugglers, is no
+proof that they were therewith the owner's consent. To-morrow, I trust
+to be able to give you a further insight into my plans, for I am
+promised some information of importance to-night; and perhaps, even
+before you reach home, I shall have put a bar against Mr. Richard
+Radford's claims to Edith, which he may find insurmountable."
+
+As he was speaking, Sir Edward Digby returned, quickening his horse's
+pace as he came near, and pointing with his hand. "You have got a
+detachment out, I see, Leyton," he said--"Is there any new affair
+before you?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied the Colonel, "it is merely Irby and a part of his
+troop, whom I have despatched to search the wood, for I have certain
+intelligence that the man we are seeking is concealed there."
+
+"They may save themselves the trouble," replied Zara, shaking her
+head; "for though he was certainly there all yesterday, he made his
+escape this morning."
+
+Leyton hit his lip, and his brow grew clouded. "That is unfortunate,"
+he said, "most unfortunate!--I do not ask you how you know, Zara; but
+are you quite sure?"
+
+"Perfectly," she answered--"I would not deceive you for the world,
+Leyton; and I only say what I have said, because I think that, if you
+do search the wood, it may draw attention to your being in this
+neighbourhood, which as yet is not known at Harbourne, and it may
+embarrass us very much."
+
+"I am not sure, Leyton," said Sir Edward Digby, "that as far as your
+own purposes are concerned, it might not be better to seem, at all
+events, to withdraw the troops, or at least a part of them, from this
+neighbourhood. Indeed, though I have no right to give you advice upon
+the subject, I think also it might be beneficial in other respects,
+for as soon as the smugglers think you gone, they will act with more
+freedom."
+
+"I propose to do so, to-morrow," replied the colonel; "but I have some
+information already, and expect more, upon which I must act in the
+first place. It will be as well, however, to stop Irby's party, if
+there is no end to be obtained by their proceedings."
+
+He then took leave of Zara and his friend, mounted his horse, and rode
+back to meet the troop that was advancing; while Zara and Sir Edward
+Digby, after following the same road up to the first houses of
+Woodchurch, turned away to the right, and went back to Harbourne, by
+the small country road which leads from Kennardington to Tenterden.
+
+Their conversation, as they went, would be of very little interest to
+the reader; for it consisted almost altogether of comments upon
+Leyton's changed appearance, and discussions of the same questions of
+doubt and difficulty which had occupied them before. They went slowly,
+however; and when they reached the house it did not want much more
+than three quarters of an hour to the usual time of dinner. Sir Robert
+Croyland they found looking out of the glass-door, which commanded a
+view towards his brother's house, and his first question was, which
+way they had returned. Sir Edward Digby gave an easy and unconcerned
+reply, describing the road they had followed, and comparing it,
+greatly to its disadvantage, with that which they had pursued on their
+former expedition.
+
+"Then you saw nothing of the carriage, Zara?" inquired her father. "It
+is very strange that Edith has not come back."
+
+"No, we saw no carriage of any kind; but a carrier's cart," replied
+the young lady. "Perhaps if Edith did not know you were going to send,
+she might not be ready."
+
+This reason, however, did not seem to satisfy Sir Robert Croyland; and
+after talking with him for a few minutes more as he stood, still
+gazing forth over the country, Zara and Digby retired to change their
+dress before dinner; and the latter received a long report from his
+servant of facts which will be shown hereafter. The man was
+particularly minute and communicative, because his master asked him no
+questions, and suffered him to tell his tale his own way. But that
+tale fully occupied the time till the second bell rang, and Digby
+hurried down to dinner.
+
+Still, Miss Croyland had not returned; and it was evident that Sir
+Robert Croyland was annoyed and uneasy. All the suavity and
+cheerfulness of the morning was gone; for one importunate source of
+care and thought will always carry the recollection back to others;
+and he sat at the dinner table in silence and gloom, only broken by
+brief intervals of conversation, which he carried on with a laborious
+effort.
+
+Just as Mrs. Barbara rose to retire, however, the butler re-entered
+the room, announcing to Sir Robert Croyland that Mr. Radford had
+called, and wished to speak with him. "He would not come in, sir,"
+continued the man, "for he said he wanted to speak with you alone, so
+I showed him into the library."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland instantly rose, but looked with a hesitating
+glance at his guest, while Mrs. Barbara and Zara retired from the
+room.
+
+"Pray, do not let me detain you, Sir Robert," said the young officer;
+"I have taken as much wine as I ever do, and will go and join the
+ladies in the drawing-room."
+
+The customs of the day required that the master of the house should
+press the bottle upon his guest; and Sir Robert Croyland did not fail
+to do so. But Digby remained firm, and, to settle the question, walked
+quietly to the door and entered the drawing-room. There, he found Zara
+seated; but Mrs. Barbara was standing near the table, and apparently
+in a state, for which the English language supplies but one term, and
+that not a very classical one. I mean, she was in a _fidget_.
+
+The reader is aware that the library of Harbourne House was adjacent
+to the drawing-room, and that there was a door between them. It was a
+thick, solid, oaken door, however, such as shut out the wind in the
+good old times; and, moreover, it fitted very close. Thus, though the
+minute after Sir Edward had entered the room, a low murmur, as of
+persons speaking somewhat loud, was heard from the library, not a
+single syllable could be distinguished; and Mrs. Barbara looked at the
+keyhole, with a longing indescribable. After about thirty seconds'
+martyrdom, Mrs. Barbara quitted the room: Zara, who knew her aunt,
+candidly trusting, that she had gone to put herself out of temptation;
+and Sir Edward Digby never for a moment imagining, that she could have
+been in any temptation at all. It may now be necessary, however, to
+follow Sir Robert Croyland to the library, and to reveal to the reader
+all that Mrs. Barbara was so anxious to learn.
+
+He found Mr. Radford, booted and spurred, standing, with his tall,
+bony figure, in as easy an attitude as it could assume, by the
+fire-place; and the baronet's first question was, "In the name of
+Heaven, Radford, what has become of Edith?--Neither she nor the
+carriage have returned."
+
+"Oh, yes, the carriage has, half an hour ago!" replied Mr. Radford;
+"and I met the horses going back as I came.--Didn't you get my message
+which I sent by the coachman?"
+
+"No, I must have been at dinner," answered Sir Robert Croyland, "and
+the fools did not give it to me."
+
+"Well, it is no great matter," rejoined Mr. Radford, in the quietest
+possible tone. "It was only to say that I was coming over, and would
+explain to you all about Miss Croyland."
+
+"But where is she? Why did she not come?" demanded her father, with
+some of the old impetuosity of his youth.
+
+"She is at my house," answered the other, deliberately; "I thought it
+would be a great deal better, Croyland, to bring her there at once, as
+you left to me the decision of where the marriage was to be. She could
+be quite as comfortable there as here. My son will be up to-morrow;
+and the marriage can take place quietly, without any piece of work.
+Now, here it would be difficult to manage it; for, in the first place,
+it would be dangerous for my son. You have got a stranger in the
+house, and a whole heap of servants, who cannot be trusted. I have
+arranged everything for the marriage, and for their going off quietly
+on their little tour. We shall soon get a pardon for this affair with
+the dragoons; and that will be all settled."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland had remained mute; not with any calm or tranquil
+feelings, but with indignation and astonishment. "Upon my life and
+soul," he cried, "this is too bad! Do you mean to say, sir, that you
+have ventured, without my knowledge or consent, to change my
+daughter's destination, and take her to your house when I wished her
+to be brought here?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," replied Mr. Radford, with the most perfect calmness.
+
+"Well then, sir," exclaimed the baronet, irritated beyond all
+endurance--"I have to tell you, that you have committed a gross,
+insolent, and unjustifiable act; and I have to insist that she be
+brought back here this very night."
+
+"Nay, my dear friend--nay," replied Mr. Radford, in a half jeering
+tone. "These are harsh words that you use; but you must hear me first,
+before I pay any attention to them."
+
+"I want to hear nothing, sir," cried Sir Robert Croyland, his anger
+still carrying him forward. "But if you do not send her back to her
+own home, I will get horses over from Tenterden, and bring her
+myself.--Her slavery has not yet commenced, Mr. Radford."
+
+"I shall not be able to bring her over," answered Mr. Radford, still
+maintaining the same provoking coolness; "because, in case of her
+return, I should be obliged to use my horses myself, to lay certain
+important facts, which we both know of, before a brother magistrate."
+
+He paused, and Sir Robert Croyland winced. But still indignation was
+uppermost for the time; and rapidly as lightning the thoughts of
+resistance passed through his mind. "This man's conduct is too bad,"
+he said to himself. "After such a daring act as this, with his
+character blackened by so many stains, and so clear a case of revenge,
+the magistrates will surely hardly listen to him." But as he continued
+to reflect, timidity--the habitual timidity of many years--began to
+mingle with and dilute his resolution; and Mr. Radford, who knew him
+to the very heart, after having suffered him to reflect just long
+enough to shake his firmness, went on in a somewhat different tone,
+saying, "Come, Sir Robert! don't be unreasonable; and before you
+quarrel irretrievably with an old friend, listen quietly to what he
+has got to say."
+
+"Well, sir, well," said Sir Robert Croyland, casting himself into a
+chair--"what is it you have got to say?"
+
+"Why, simply this, my dear friend," answered Mr. Radford, "that you
+are not aware of all the circumstances, and therefore cannot judge yet
+whether I have acted right or wrong. You and I have decided, I think,
+that there can no longer be any delay in the arrangement of our
+affairs. I put it plainly to you yesterday, that it was to be now or
+never; and you agreed that it should be now. You brought me your
+daughter's consent in the afternoon; and so far the matter was
+settled. I don't want to injure you; and if you are injured, it is
+your own fault--"
+
+"But I gave no consent," said Sir Robert Croyland, "that she should be
+taken to your house. The circumstances--the circumstances, Mr.
+Radford!"
+
+"Presently, presently," replied his companion. "I take it for
+granted, that, when you have pledged yourself to a thing, you are
+anxious to accomplish it. Now I tell you, there was no sure way of
+accomplishing this, but that which I have taken. Do you know who is
+the commander of this dragoon regiment which is down here?--No. But I
+do. Do you know who is the man, who, like a sub-officer of the
+Customs, attacked our friends yesterday morning, took some fifty of
+them prisoners, robbed me of some seventy thousand pounds, and is now
+hunting after my son, as if he were a fox?--No. But I do; and I will
+tell you who he is.--One Harry Leyton, whom you may have heard
+of--now, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath,
+forsooth!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland gazed upon him in astonishment; but, whatever were
+his other sensations, deep grief and bitter regret mingled with them,
+when he thought that circumstances should ever have driven or tempted
+him to promise his daughter's hand to a low, dissolute, unprincipled
+villan, and to put a fatal barrier between her and one whom he had
+always known to be generous, honorable, and high principled, and who
+had now gained such distinction in the service of his country. He
+remained perfectly silent, however; and the expression of surprise and
+consternation which his countenance displayed, was misinterpreted by
+Mr. Radford to his own advantage.
+
+"Now, look here, Sir Robert," he continued; "if your daughter were in
+your house, you could not help this young man having some
+communication with her. He has already been over at your brother's,
+and has seen her, I doubt not. Here, then, is your fair daughter Miss
+Zara, your guest Sir Edward Digby--his intimate friend, I dare
+say--all your maids and half your men servants, even dear Mrs. Barbara
+herself, with her sweet meddling ways, would all be ready to fetch and
+carry between the lovers. In short, our whole plans would be
+overturned; and I should be compelled to do that which would be very
+disagreeable to me, and to strike at this upstart Henry Leyton through
+the breast of Sir Robert Croyland. In my house, he can have no access
+to her; and though some mischief may already have been done, yet it
+can go no further."
+
+"Now I understand what you mean by revenge," said the baronet, in a
+low tone, folding his hands together.--"Now I understand."
+
+"Well, but have I judged rightly or wrongly?" demanded Mr. Radford.
+
+"Rightly, I suppose," said Sir Robert Croyland, sadly. "It can't be
+helped;--but poor Edith, how does she bear it?"
+
+"Oh, very well," answered Mr. Radford, quietly. "She cried a little at
+first, and when she found where they were going, asked the coachman
+what he meant. It was my coachman, you know, not yours; and so he
+lied, like a good, honest fellow, and said you were waiting for her at
+my house. I was obliged to make up a little bit of a story too, and
+tell her you knew all about it; but that was no great harm; for I was
+resolved, you should know all about it, very soon."
+
+"Lied like a good honest fellow!" murmured Sir Robert Croyland, to
+himself. "Well," he continued, aloud, "at all events I must come over
+to-morrow, and try to reconcile the poor girl to it."
+
+"Do so, do so," answered Mr. Radford; "and in the meantime, I must be
+off; for I've still a good deal of work to do to-night. Did you see,
+they have withdrawn the dragoons from the wood? They knew it would be
+of no use to keep them there. So now, good night--that's all settled."
+
+"All settled, indeed," murmured Sir Robert Croyland as Mr. Radford
+left him; and for nearly half an hour after, he continued sitting in
+the library, with his hands clasped upon his knee, exactly in the same
+position.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Sir Edward Digby did not take advantage of the opportunity which Mrs.
+Barbara's absence afforded him. This may seem extraordinary conduct in
+a good soldier and quick and ready man; but he had his reasons for it.
+Not that he was beginning to hesitate, as some men do, when--after
+having quite made up their minds--they begin to consider all the
+perils of their situation, and retreat, without much regard for their
+own consistency, or the feelings of the other persons interested. But,
+no--Digby justly remembered that what he had to say might require some
+time, and that it might produce some agitation. Moreover, he
+recollected that there are few things so disagreeable on earth, as
+being interrupted at a time when people's eyes are sparkling or in
+tears, when the cheek is flushed or deadly pale; and as he knew not
+when Mrs. Barbara might return, and certainly did not anticipate that
+she would be long absent, he resolved to wait for another opportunity.
+
+When he found minute after minute slip by, however, he began to repent
+of his determination; and certainly, although the word love never
+passed his lips, something very like the reality shone out in his
+eyes. Perhaps, had Zara been in any of her usual moods, more serious
+words might have followed. Had she been gay and jesting, or calm and
+thoughtful, a thousand little incidents might have led on naturally to
+the unfolding of the heart of each. But, on the contrary, she was
+neither the one nor the other. She was evidently anxious,
+apprehensive, ill at ease; and though she conversed rationally enough
+for a person whose mind was in such a state, yet she frequently turned
+her eyes towards the door of the adjoining room, from which the sound
+of her father's voice and that of Mr. Radford might still be heard.
+
+Sir Edward Digby endeavoured to gain her attention to himself, as much
+with a view to withdraw it from unpleasant subjects as anything else;
+and it was very natural that--with one so fair and so excellent, one
+possessing so much brightness, in spite of a few little spots--it was
+natural that his tone should become tenderer every minute. At length,
+however, she stopped him, saying, "I am very anxious just now. I fear
+there is some mischief going on there, which we cannot prevent, and
+may never know. Edith's absence is certainly very strange; and I fear
+they may foil us yet."
+
+In a minute or two after, Mrs. Barbara Croyland returned, but in such
+a flutter that she spoilt her embroidery, which she snatched up to
+cover her agitation, dropped her finest scissars, and broke the point
+off, and finally ran the needle into her finger, which, thereupon,
+spotted the silk with blood. She gave no explanation indeed of all
+this emotion, but looked several times at Zara with a meaning glance;
+and when, at length, Sir Robert Croyland entered the drawing-room, his
+whole air and manner did not tend to remove from his daughter's mind
+the apprehension which his sister's demeanour had cast over it.
+
+There is a general tone in every landscape which it never entirely
+loses; yet how infinite are the varieties which sunshine and cloud and
+storm, and morning, evening, and noon, bring upon it; and thus with
+the expression and conduct of every man, although they retain certain
+distinctive characteristics, yet innumerable are the varieties
+produced by the moods, the passions, and the emotions of the mind. Sir
+Robert Croyland was no longer irritably thoughtful; but he was stern,
+gloomy, melancholy. He strove to converse, indeed; but the effort was
+so apparent, the pain it gave him so evident, that Sir Edward Digby
+felt, or fancied, that his presence was a restraint. He had too much
+tact, however, to show that he imagined such to be the case; and he
+only resolved to retire to his own room as soon as he decently could.
+He was wrong in his supposition, indeed, that his host might wish to
+communicate something privately to Zara, or to Mrs. Barbara. Sir
+Robert had nothing to tell; and therefore the presence of Sir Edward
+Digby was rather agreeable to him than not, as shielding him from
+inquiries, which it might not have suited him to answer. He would have
+talked if he could, and would have done his best to make his house
+agreeable to his young guest; but his thoughts still turned, with all
+the bitterness of smothered anger, to the indignity he had suffered;
+and he asked himself, again and again, "Will the time ever come, when
+I shall have vengeance for all this?"
+
+The evening passed gloomily, and in consequence slowly; and at length,
+when the clock showed that it still wanted a quarter to ten, Digby
+rose and bade the little party good night, saying that he was somewhat
+tired, and had letters to write.
+
+"I shall go to bed too," said Sir Robert Croyland, ringing for his
+candle. But Digby quitted the room first; and Zara could not refrain
+from saying, in a low tone, as she took leave of her father for the
+night, and went out of the room with him, "There is nothing amiss with
+Edith, I trust, my dear father?"
+
+"Oh dear, no!" answered Sir Robert Croyland, with as careless an air
+as he could assume. "Nothing at all, but that she does not come home
+to-night, and perhaps may not to-morrow."
+
+Still unsatisfied, Zara sought her own room; and when her maid had
+half performed her usual functions for the night, she dismissed her,
+saying, that she would do the rest herself. When alone, however, Zara
+Croyland did not proceed to undress, but remained thinking over all
+the events of the day, with her head resting on her hand, and her eyes
+cast down. The idea of Edith and her fate mingled with other images.
+The words that Digby had spoken, the increasing tenderness of his tone
+and manner, came back to memory, and made her heart flutter with
+sensations unknown till then. She felt alarmed at her own feelings;
+she knew not well what they were; but still she said to herself at
+every pause of thought--"It is all nonsense!--He will go away and
+forget me; and I shall forget him! These soldiers have always some
+tale of love for every woman's ear. It is their habit--almost their
+nature." Did she believe her own conclusions? Not entirely; but she
+tried to believe them; and that was enough for the present.
+
+Some minutes after, however, when a light knock was heard at the door,
+she started almost as if some one had struck her; and Fancy, who is
+always drawing upon improbability, made her believe, for an instant,
+that it might be Digby. She said, "Come in," however, with tolerable
+calmness; and the next instant, the figure of her aunt presented
+itself, with eagerness in her looks and importance in her whole air.
+
+"My dear child!" she said, "I did not know whether your maid was gone;
+but I am very happy she is, for I have something to tell you of very
+great importance indeed. What do you think that rascal Radford has
+done?" and as she spoke, she sank, with a dignified air, into a chair.
+
+"I really can't tell, my dear aunt," replied Zara, not a little
+surprised to hear the bad epithet which her aunt applied to a
+gentleman, towards whom she usually displayed great politeness. "I am
+sure he is quite capable of anything that is bad."
+
+"Ah, he is very much afraid of me, and what he calls my sweet meddling
+ways," said the old lady; "but, perhaps, if I had meddled before, it
+might have been all the better. I am sure I am the very last to
+meddle, except when there is an absolute occasion for it, as you well
+know, my dear Zara."
+
+The last proposition was put in some degree as a question; but Zara
+did not think fit to answer it, merely saying, "What is it, my dear
+aunt?--I am all anxiety and fear regarding Edith."
+
+"Well you may be, my love," said Mrs. Barbara; and thereupon she
+proceeded to tell Zara, how she had overheard the whole conversation
+between Mr. Radford and her brother, through the door of the library,
+which opened into the little passage, that ran between it and the
+rooms beyond. She did not say that she had put her ear to the keyhole;
+but that Zara took for granted, and indeed felt somewhat like an
+accomplice, while listening to secrets which had been acquired by such
+means.
+
+Thus almost everything that had passed in the library--with a few very
+short variations and improvements, but with a good deal of comment,
+and a somewhat lengthy detail--was communicated by Mrs. Barbara to her
+niece; and when she had done, the old lady added, "There, my dear, now
+go to bed and sleep upon it; and we will talk it all over in the
+morning, for I am determined that my niece shall not be treated in
+such a way by any vagabond smuggler like that. Dear me! one cannot
+tell what might happen, with Edith shut up in his house in that way.
+Talk of my meddling, indeed! He shall find that I will meddle now to
+some purpose! Good night, my dear love--good night!" But Mrs. Barbara
+stopped at the door, to explain to Zara that she had not told her
+before, "Because, you know," said the good lady, "I could not speak of
+such things before a stranger, like Sir Edward Digby; and when he was
+gone, I didn't dare say anything to your father. Think of it till
+to-morrow, there's a dear girl, and try and devise some plan."
+
+"I will," said Zara--"I will;" but as soon as her aunt had
+disappeared, she clasped her hands together, exclaiming, "Good Heaven!
+what plan can I form? Edith is lost! They have her now completely in
+their power. Oh, that I had known this before Sir Edward Digby went to
+sleep. He might have gone over to Leyton to-morrow, early; and they
+might have devised something together. Perhaps he has not gone to rest
+yet. He told me to throw off all restraint, to have no ceremony in
+case of need. Leyton told me so, too--that I might trust in him--that
+he is a man of honour. Oh, yes, I am sure he is a man of honour! but
+what will he think?--He promised he would think no harm of anything I
+might be called upon to do; and I promised I would trust him. I will
+go! He can speak to me in the passage. No one sleeps near, to
+overhear. But I will knock softly; for though he said he had letters
+to write, he may have gone to bed by this time."
+
+Leaving the lights standing where they were, Zara cast on a long
+dressing-gown, and crept quietly out into the passage, taking care not
+to pull the door quite to. All was silent in the house; not a sound
+was heard; and with her heart beating as if it would have burst
+through her side, she approached Sir Edward Digby's door;--but there
+she paused. Had she not paused, but gone on at once, and knocked, all
+would have been well; for, so far from being in bed, he was sitting
+calmly reading. But ladies' resolutions, and men's, are made of very
+much the same materials. The instant her foot stopped, her whole host
+of woman's feelings crowded upon her, and barred the way. First, she
+thought of modesty, and propriety, and decency; and then, though she
+might have overcome the whole of that squadron for Edith's sake, the
+remembrance of many words that Digby had spoken, the look, the tone,
+the manner, all rose again upon her memory. She felt that he was a
+lover; and putting her hand to her brow, she murmured--"I cannot; no,
+I cannot. Had he been only a friend, I would.--I will see him early
+to-morrow. I will sit up all night, that I may not sleep, and miss the
+opportunity; but I cannot go to-night;" and, returning as quietly to
+her own chamber as she had come thence, she shut the door and locked
+it. She had never locked it in her life before; and she knew not why
+she did it.
+
+Then, drawing the arm-chair to the hearth, Zara Croyland trimmed the
+fire, wrapped herself up as warmly as she could; and putting out one
+of the candles, that she might not be left in darkness by both being
+burnt out together, she took up a book, and began to read. From time
+to time, during that long night, her eyes grew heavy, and she fell
+asleep; but something always woke her. Either her own thoughts
+troubled her in dreams, or else the book fell out of her hand, or the
+wind shook the window, or the cold chill that precedes the coming
+morning disturbed her; and at length she looked at her watch, and,
+finding it past five o'clock, she congratulated herself at having
+escaped the power of the drowsy god, and, dressing in haste, undrew
+the curtains, and looked out by the light of the dawning day. When she
+saw the edge of the sun coming up, she said to herself, "He is often
+very early. I will go down." But, bethinking herself that no time was
+to be lost, she hurried first to her maid's room, and waking her, told
+her to see Sir Edward Digby's servant, as soon as he rose, and to bid
+him inform his master that she wanted to speak with him in the
+library. "Speak not a word of this to any one else, Eliza," she said;
+and then, thinking it necessary to assign some reason for her conduct,
+she added, "I am very anxious about my sister; her not coming home
+yesterday alarms me, and I want to hear more."
+
+"Oh dear! you needn't frighten yourself, Miss Zara," replied the
+maid--"I dare say there's nothing the matter."
+
+"But I cannot help frightening myself," replied Zara; and going down
+into the library, she unclosed one of the shutters.
+
+The maid was very willing to gratify her young lady, for Zara was a
+favourite with all; but thinking from the look of the sky, that it
+would be a long time before the servant rose, and having no such
+scruples as her mistress, she went quietly away to his room, and
+knocked at his door, saying, "I wish you would get up, Mr. Somers--I
+want to speak with you."
+
+Zara remained alone for twenty minutes in the library, or not much
+more, and then she heard Digby's step in the passage. There was a good
+deal of alarm and surprise in his look when he entered; but his fair
+companion's tale was soon told; and that sufficiently explained her
+sudden call for his presence. He made no comment at the moment, but
+replied, "Wait for me here one instant. I will order my horse, and be
+back directly."
+
+He was speedily by her side again; and then, taking her hand in his,
+he said, "I wish I had known this, last night.--You need not have been
+afraid of disturbing me, for I was up till nearly one."
+
+Zara smiled: "You do not know," she answered, "how near I was to your
+door, with the intention of calling you."
+
+"And why did you not?" asked Digby, eagerly. "Nay, you must tell me,
+why you should hesitate when so much was at stake."
+
+"I can but answer, because my heart failed me," replied Zara. "You
+know women's hearts are weak foolish things."
+
+"Nay," said Digby, "you must explain further.--Why did your heart fail
+you? Tell me, Zara. I cannot rest satisfied unless you tell me."
+
+"Indeed, there is no time now for explanation," she replied, feeling
+that her admission had drawn her into more than she had anticipated;
+"your horse will soon be here--and--and there is not a moment to
+lose."
+
+"There is time enough for those who will," answered Digby, in a
+serious tone; "you promised me that you would not hesitate, whenever
+necessity required you to apply to me for counsel or aid--you have
+hesitated, Zara. Could you doubt me--could you be apprehensive--could
+you suppose that Edward Digby would, in word, deed, or thought, take
+advantage of your generous confidence?"
+
+"No, no--oh, no!" answered Zara, warmly, blushing, and trembling at
+the same time, "I did not--I could not, after all you have done--after
+all I have seen. No, no; I thought you would think it strange--I
+thought----"
+
+"Then you supposed I would wrong you in thought!" he replied, with
+some mortification in his manner; "you do not know me yet."
+
+"Oh yes, indeed I do," she answered, feeling that she was getting
+further and further into difficulties; and then she added, with one of
+her sudden bursts of frankness, "I will tell you how it was--candidly
+and truly. Just as I was at your door, and about to knock, the memory
+of several things you had said--inadvertently, perhaps--crossed my
+mind; and, though I felt that I could go at any hour to consult a
+friend in such terrible circumstances, I could not--no, I could not do
+so with a--with one--You see what harm you have done by such fine
+speeches!"
+
+She thought, that by her last words, she had guarded herself securely
+from any immediate consequences of this unreserved confession; but she
+was mistaken. She merely hurried on what might yet have rested for a
+day or two.
+
+Sir Edward Digby took her other hand also, and held it gently yet
+firmly, as if he was afraid she should escape from him. "Zara," he
+said, "dear Zara, I have done harm, by speaking too much, or not
+enough. I must remedy it by the only means in my power.--Listen to me
+for one moment, for I cannot go till all is said. You must cast off
+this reserve--you must act perfectly freely with me; I seek to bind
+you by no engagement--I will bear my doubt; I will not construe
+anything you do, as an acceptance of my suit; but you must know--nay,
+you do know, you do feel, that I am your lover. It was doubt of your
+own sensations towards me, that made you hesitate--it was fear that
+you should commit yourself, to that which you might, on consideration,
+be indisposed to ratify.--You thought that I might plead such
+confidence as a tacit promise; and that made you pause. But hear me,
+as I pledge myself--upon my honour, as a gentleman--that if you act
+fearlessly and freely, in the cause in which we are both engaged--if
+you confide in me--trust in me, and never hesitate to put yourself, as
+you may think, entirely in my power, I will never look upon anything
+as plighting you to me in the slightest degree, till I hear you say
+the words, 'Digby, I am yours'--if ever that happy day should come. In
+the meantime, however, to set you entirely free from all apprehension
+of what others may say, I hold myself bound to you by every promise
+that man can make; and this very day I will ask your father's
+approbation of my suit. But I am well aware, though circumstances have
+shown me in a marvellous short time, that your heart and mind is equal
+to your beauty, yet it is not to be expected that such a being can be
+won in a few short days, and that I must wait in patience--not without
+hope, indeed, but with no presumption. By your conduct, at least, I
+shall know, whether I have gained your esteem.--Your love, perhaps,
+may follow; and now I leave you, to serve your sister and my friend,
+to the best of my power."
+
+Thus saying, he raised her hand to his lips, kissed it, and moved
+towards the door.
+
+There was a sad struggle in Zara's breast; but as he was laying his
+hand upon the lock to open it, she said, "Digby--Digby--Edward!"
+
+He instantly turned, and ran towards her; for her face had become very
+pale. She gave him her hand at once, however, "Kind, generous man!"
+she said, "you must not go without hearing my answer. Such a pledge
+cannot be all on one part. I am yours, Digby, if you wish it; yet know
+me better first before you answer--see all my faults, and all my
+failings. Even this must show you how strange a being I am--how unlike
+other girls--how unlike perhaps, the woman you would wish to call your
+wife!----"
+
+"Wish it!" answered Digby, casting his arm round her, "from my
+heart--from my very soul, Zara. I know enough, I have seen enough, for
+I have seen you in circumstances that bring forth the bosom's inmost
+feelings; and though you are unlike others--and I have watched many in
+their course--that very dissimilarity is to me the surpassing charm.
+They are all art, you are all nature--ay, and nature in its sweetest
+and most graceful form; and I can boldly say, I never yet saw woman
+whom I should desire to call my wife till I saw you. I will not wait,
+dear girl; but, pledged to you as you are pledged to me, will not
+press this subject further on you, till your sister's fate is sealed.
+I must, indeed, speak with your father at once, that there may be no
+mistake, no misapprehension; but till all this sad business is
+settled, we are brother and sister, Zara; and then a dearer bond."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes--brother and sister!" cried Zara, clinging to him at a
+name which takes fear from woman's heart, "so will we be, Edward; and
+now all my doubts and hesitations will be at an end. I shall never
+fear more to seek you when it is needful."
+
+"And my suit will be an excuse and a reason to all others, for free
+interviews, and solitary rambles, and private conference, and every
+dear communion," answered Digby, pleased, and yet almost amazed at the
+simplicity with which she lent herself to the magic of a word, when
+the heart led her.
+
+But Zara saw he was a little extending the brother's privilege; and
+with a warm cheek but smiling lip, she answered, "There, leave me now;
+I see you are learned in the art of leading on from step to step. Go
+on your way, Edward; and, oh! be kind to me, and do not make me feel
+this new situation too deeply at first. There, pray take away your
+arm; none but a father's or a sister's has been there before; and it
+makes my heart beat, as if it were wrong."
+
+But Digby kept it where it was for a moment or two longer, and gave a
+few instants to happiness, in which she shared, though it agitated
+her. "Nay, go," she said, at length, in a tone of entreaty, "and I
+will lie down and rest for an hour; for I have sat up all night by the
+fire, lest I should be too late.--You must go, indeed. There is your
+horse upon the terrace; and we must not be selfish, but remember poor
+Edith before we think of our own happiness."
+
+There was a sweet and frank confession in her words that pleased Digby
+well; and leaving her with a heart at rest on his own account, he
+mounted his horse and rode rapidly away towards the quarters of Sir
+Henry Leyton.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The reader has doubtless remarked--for every reader who peruses a book
+to any purpose must remark everything, inasmuch as the most important
+events are so often connected with insignificant circumstances, that
+the one cannot be understood without the other--the reader has
+doubtless remarked, that Mr. Radford, on leaving Sir Robert Croyland,
+informed his unhappy victim, that he had still a good deal of business
+to do that night. Now, during the day he had--as may well be judged
+from his own statement of all the preparations he had already
+made--done a great deal of very important business; but the details of
+his past proceedings I shall not enter into, and only beg leave to
+precede him by a short time, to the scene of those farther operations
+which he had laid out as the close of that evening's labours. It is to
+the lone house, as it was called, near Iden Green, that I wish to
+conduct my companions, and a solitary and gloomy looking spot it was,
+at the time I speak of. All that part of the country is now very
+thickly inhabited: the ground bears nearly as large a population as it
+can support; and though there are still fields, and woods, and
+occasional waste places, yet no such events could now happen as those
+which occurred eighty or a hundred years ago, when one might travel
+miles, in various parts of Kent, without meeting a living soul. The
+pressure of a large population crushes out the bolder and more daring
+sorts of crime, and leaves small cunning to effect, in secret, what
+cannot be accomplished openly, under the police of innumerable eyes.
+
+But it was not so in those days; and the lone house near Iden Green,
+whatever it was originally built for, had become the refuge and the
+lurking-place of some of the most fierce and lawless men in the
+country. It was a large building, with numerous rooms and passages;
+and it had stables behind it, but no walled courtyard; for the close
+sweeping round of the wood, a part of which still exists in great
+beauty, was a convenience on which its architect seemed to have
+calculated. Standing some way off the high road, and about half a mile
+from Collyer Green, it was so sheltered by trees that, on whichever
+side approached, nothing could be seen but the top of the roof and
+part of a garret-window, till one was within a short distance of the
+edifice. But that garret-window had its advantages; for it commanded a
+view over a great part of the country, on three sides, and especially
+gave a prospect of the roads in the neighbourhood.
+
+The building was not a farm-house, for it had none of the requisites;
+it could not well be a public-house, though a sign swung before it;
+for the lower windows were boarded up, and the owner or tenant
+thereof, if any traveller whom he did not know, stopped at his
+door--which was, indeed, a rare occurrence--told him that it was all a
+mistake, and cursing the sign, vowed he would have it cut down.
+Nevertheless, if the Ramleys, or any of their gang, or, indeed, any
+members of a similar fraternity, came thither, the doors opened as if
+by magic; and good accommodation for man and horse was sure to be
+found within.
+
+It was also remarked, that many a gentleman in haste went in there,
+and was never seen to issue forth again till he appeared in quite a
+different part of the country; and, had the master of the house lived
+two or three centuries earlier, he might on that very account have
+risked the fagot, on a charge of dealing with the devil. As it was, he
+was only suspected of being a coiner; but in regard to that charge,
+history has left no evidence, pro or con.
+
+It was in this house, however, on the evening of the day subsequent to
+the discomfiture of the smugglers, that six men were assembled in a
+small room at the back, all of whom had, more or less, taken part in
+the struggle near Woodchurch. The two younger Ramleys were there, as
+well as one of the principal members of their gang, and two other men,
+who had been long engaged in carrying smuggled goods from the coast,
+as a regular profession; but who were, in other respects, much more
+respectable persons than those by whom they were surrounded. At the
+head of the table, however, was the most important personage of the
+whole: no other than Richard Radford himself, who had joined his
+comrades an hour or two before. The joy and excitement of his escape
+from the wood, the temporary triumph which he had obtained over the
+vigilance of the soldiery, and the effect produced upon a disposition
+naturally bold, reckless, and daring, by the sudden change from
+imminent peril to comparative security, had all raised his spirits to
+an excessive pitch; and, indeed, the whole party, instead of seeming
+depressed by their late disaster, appeared elevated with that wild and
+lawless mirth, which owns no tie or restraint, reverences nothing
+sacred or respectable. Spirits and water were circulating freely
+amongst them; and they were boasting of their feats in the late
+skirmish, or commenting upon its events, with many a jest and many a
+falsehood.
+
+"The Major did very well, too," said Ned Ramley, "for he killed one of
+the dragoons, and wounded another, before he went down himself, poor
+devil!"
+
+"Here's to the Major's ghost!" cried young Radford, "and I'll try to
+give it satisfaction by avenging him. We'll have vengeance upon them
+yet, Ned."
+
+"Ay, upon all who had any concern in it," answered Jim Ramley, with a
+meaning look.
+
+"And first upon him who betrayed us," rejoined Richard Radford; "and I
+will have it, too, in a way that shall punish him more than if we
+flogged him to death with horse-whips, as the Sussex men did to Chater
+at the Flying Bull, near Hazlemere."
+
+The elder of the two Ramleys gave a look towards the men who were at
+the bottom of the table; and Richard Radford, dropping his voice,
+whispered something to Ned Ramley, who replied aloud, with an oath,
+"I'd have taken my revenge, whatever came of it."
+
+"No, no," answered Radford, "the red-coats were too near. However,
+all's not lost that's delayed. I wonder where that young devil, little
+Starlight's gone to. I sent him three hours ago to Cranbrook with the
+clothes, and told him to come back and tell me if she passed. She'll
+not go now, that's certain; for she would be in the dark. Have you any
+notion, Ned, how many men we could get together in case of need?"
+
+"Oh, fifty or sixty!" said one of the men from the bottom of the
+table, who seemed inclined to have his share in the conversation, as
+soon as it turned upon subjects with which he was familiar; "there are
+seven or eight hid away down at Cranbrook, and nine or ten at
+Tenterden, with some of the goods, too."
+
+"Ah, that's well!" answered young Radford; "I thought all the goods
+had been taken."
+
+"Oh, dear no," replied Jim Ramley, "we've got a thousand pounds' worth
+in this house, and I dare say double as much is scattered about in
+different hides. The light things were got off; but they are the most
+valuable."
+
+"I'll tell you what, my men," cried young Radford, "as soon as these
+soldiers are gone down to the coast again, we'll all gather together,
+and do some devilish high thing, just to show them that they are not
+quite masters of the country yet. I've a great mind to burn their inn
+at Woodchurch, just for harbouring them. If we don't make these
+rascally fellows fear us, the trade will be quite put down in the
+county."
+
+"I swear," exclaimed Ned Ramley, with a horrible blasphemy, "that if I
+can catch any one who has peached, even if it be but by one word, I
+will split his head like a lobster."
+
+"And I, too!" answered his brother; and several others joined in the
+oath.
+
+The conversation then took another turn; and while it went on
+generally around the table, young Radford spoke several times in a low
+voice to the two who sat next to him, and the name of Harding was more
+than once mentioned. The glass circulated very freely also; and
+although none of them became absolutely intoxicated, yet all of them
+were more or less affected by the spirits, when the boy, whom we have
+called Little Starlight, crept quietly into the room, and approached
+Mr. Radford.
+
+"She's not come, sir," he said; "I waited a long while, and then went
+and asked the old woman of the shop, telling her that I was to be sure
+and see that Kate Clare got the bundle; but she said that she
+certainly wouldn't come to-night."
+
+"That's a good boy," said young Radford. "Go and tell the people to
+bring us some candles; and then I'll give you a glass of Hollands for
+your pains. It's getting infernally dark," he continued, "and as
+nothing more is to be done to-day, we may as well make a night of it."
+
+"No, no," answered one of the men at the bottom of the table, "I've
+had enough, and I shall go and turn in."
+
+Nobody opposed him; and he and his companion soon after left them. A
+smile passed round amongst the rest as soon as the two had shut the
+door.
+
+"Now those puny fellows are gone," said Jim Ramley, "we can say what
+we like. First, let us talk about the goods, Mr. Radford, for I don't
+think they are quite safe here. They had better be got up to your
+father's as soon as possible, for if the house were to be searched, we
+could get out into the wood, but they could not."
+
+"Hark!" said young Radford; "there's some one knocking hard at the
+house door, I think."
+
+"Ay, trust all that to Obadiah," said Ned Ramley. "He wont open the
+door till he sees who it is."
+
+The minute after, however, old Mr. Radford stood amongst them; and he
+took especial care not to throw any damp upon their spirits, but
+rather to encourage them, and make light of the late events. He sat
+down for a few minutes by his son, took a glass of Hollands and water,
+and then whispered to his hopeful heir that he wanted to speak with
+him for a minute. The young man instantly rose, and led the way out
+into the room opposite, which was vacant.
+
+"By Heaven, Dick, this is an awkward job!" said his father; "the loss
+is enormous, and never to be recovered."
+
+"The things are not all lost," answered Richard Radford. "A great
+quantity of the goods are about the country. There's a thousand
+pounds' worth, they say, in this house."
+
+"We must have them got together as fast as possible," said Mr.
+Radford, "and brought up to our place. All that is here had better be
+sent up about three o'clock in the morning."
+
+"I'll bring them up myself," replied his son.
+
+"No, no, no!" said Mr. Radford; "you keep quiet where you are, till
+to-morrow night."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense," answered the young man; "I'm not at all
+afraid.--Very well--very well, they shall come up, and I'll follow
+to-morrow night, if you think I can be at the Hall in safety."
+
+"I don't intend you to be long at the Hall," answered Mr. Radford:
+"you must take a trip over the sea, my boy, till we can make sure of a
+pardon for you. There! you need not look so blank. You shan't go
+alone. Come up at eleven o'clock; and you will find Edith Croyland
+waiting to give you her hand, the next day.--Then a post-chaise and
+four, and a good tight boat on the beach, and you are landed in France
+in no time. Everything is ready--everything is settled; and with her
+fortune, you will have enough to live like a prince, till you can come
+back here."
+
+All this intelligence did not seem to give Richard Radford as much
+satisfaction as his father expected. "I would rather have had little
+Zara, a devilish deal!" he replied.
+
+"Very likely," answered his father, with his countenance changing, and
+his brow growing dark; "but that wont do, Dick. We have had enough
+nonsense of all sorts; and it must now be brought to an end. It's not
+the matter of the fortune alone; but I am determined that both you and
+I shall have revenge."
+
+"Revenge!" said his son; "I don't see what revenge has to do with
+that."
+
+"I'll tell you," answered old Mr. Radford, in a low tone, but bitter
+in its very lowness. "The man who so cunningly surrounded you and the
+rest yesterday morning, who took all my goods, and murdered many of
+our friends, is that very Harry Leyton, whom you've heard talk of. He
+has come down here on purpose to ruin you and me, if possible, and to
+marry Edith Croyland; but he shall never have her, by----," and he
+added a fearful oath which I will not repeat.
+
+"Ay, that alters the case," replied Richard Radford, with a demoniacal
+smile; "oh, I'll marry her and make her happy, as the people say. But
+I'll tell you what--I'll have my revenge, too, before I go, and upon
+one who is worse than the other fellow--I mean the man who betrayed us
+all."
+
+"Who is that?" demanded the father.
+
+"Harding," answered young Radford--"Harding."
+
+"Are you sure that it was he?" asked the old gentleman; "I have
+suspected him myself, but I have no proof."
+
+"But I have," replied his son: "he was seen several nights before, by
+little Starlight, talking for a long while with this very Colonel of
+Dragoons, upon the cliff. Another man was with him, too--most likely
+Mowle; and then, again, yesterday evening, some of these good fellows
+who were on the look-out to help me, saw him speaking to a dragoon
+officer at Widow Clare's door; so he must be a traitor, or they would
+have taken him."
+
+"Then he deserves to be shot," said old Radford, fiercely; "but take
+care, Dick: you had better not do it yourself. You'll find him
+difficult to get at, and may be caught."
+
+"Leave him to me--leave him to me," answered his hopeful son; "I've a
+plan in my head that will punish him better than a bullet. But the
+bullet he shall have, too; for all the men have sworn that they will
+take his blood; but that can be done after I'm gone."
+
+"But what's your plan, my boy?" asked old Mr. Radford.
+
+"Never mind, never mind!" answered Richard, "I'll find means to
+execute it.--I only wish those dragoons were away from Harbourne
+Wood."
+
+"Why, they are," exclaimed his father, laughing. "They were withdrawn
+this afternoon, and a party of them, too, marched out of Woodchurch,
+as if they were going to Ashford. I dare say, by this time to-morrow
+night, they will be all gone to their quarters again."
+
+"Then it's all safe!" said his son; and after some more conversation
+between the two--and various injunctions upon the part of the old man,
+as to caution and prudence, upon the part of the young one, they
+parted for the time. Young Radford then rejoined his companions, and
+remained with them till about one o'clock in the morning, when the
+small portion of smuggled goods which had been saved, was sent off,
+escorted by two men, towards Radford Hall, where they arrived safely,
+and were received by servants well accustomed to such practices. They
+consisted of only one horse-load, indeed, so that the journey was
+quickly performed; and the two men returned before five. Although
+Richard Radford had given his father every assurance that he would
+remain quiet, and take every prudent step for his own concealment, his
+very first acts showed no disposition to keep his word. Before eight
+o'clock in the morning, he, the two Ramleys, and one or two other men,
+who had come in during the night, were out amongst the fields and
+woods, "reconnoitring," as they called it; but, with a spirit in their
+breasts, which rendered them ready for any rash and criminal act that
+might suggest itself. Thus occupied, I shall for the present leave
+them, and show more of their proceedings at a future period.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Having now led the history of a great part of the personages in our
+drama up to the same point of time, namely, the third morning after
+the defeat of the smugglers, we may as well turn to follow out the
+course of Sir Edward Digby, on a day that was destined to be eventful
+to all the parties concerned. On arriving at Woodchurch, he found a
+small body of dragoons, ready mounted, at the door of the little inn,
+and two saddled horses, held waiting for their riders. Without
+ceremony, he entered, and went up at once to Leyton's room, where he
+found him, booted and spurred to set out, with Mowle the officer
+standing by him, looking on, while Sir Henry placed some papers in a
+writing-desk, and locked them up.
+
+The young commander greeted his friend warmly; and then, turning to
+the officer of Customs, said, "If you will mount, Mr. Mowle, I will be
+down with you directly;" and as soon as Mowle, taking the hint,
+departed, he continued, in a quick tone, but with a faint smile upon
+his countenance, "I know your errand, Digby, before you tell it. Edith
+has been transferred to the good charge and guidance of Mr. Radford;
+but that has only prepared me to act more vigorously than ever. My
+scruples on Sir Robert Croyland's account are at an end.--Heaven and
+earth! Is it possible that a man can be so criminally weak, as to give
+his child up--a sweet, gentle girl like that--to the charge of such a
+base unprincipled scoundrel!"
+
+"Nay, nay, we must do Sir Robert justice," answered Digby. "It was
+done without his consent--indeed, against his will; and, a more
+impudent and shameless piece of trickery was never practised. You must
+listen for one moment, Leyton, though you seem in haste;" and he
+proceeded to detail to him, as succinctly as possible, all that had
+occurred between Mr. Radford and Edith's father on the preceding
+evening, stating his authority, and whence Zara had received her
+information.
+
+"That somewhat alters the case, indeed;" answered Leyton; "but it must
+not alter my conduct. I am, indeed, in haste, Digby, for I hope, ere
+two or three hours are over, to send the young scoundrel, for whose
+sake all this is done, a prisoner to the gaol. Mowle has somehow got
+information of where he is--from undoubted authority, he says; and we
+are away to Iden Green, in consequence. We shall get more information
+by the way; and I go with the party for a certain distance, in order
+to be at hand, in case of need; but, as it does not do for me, in my
+position, to take upon me the capture of half-a-dozen smugglers, the
+command of the party will rest with Cornet Joyce. We will deal with
+Mr. Radford, the father, afterwards. But, in the meantime, Digby, as
+your information certainly gives a different view of the case, from
+that which I had before taken, you will greatly oblige me if you can
+contrive to ride over to Mr. Croyland's, and see if you can find Mr.
+Warde there. Beg him to let me have the directions he promised, by
+four o'clock to-day; and if you do not find him, leave word to that
+effect, with Mr. Croyland himself."
+
+"You seem to place great faith in Warde," said Sir Edward Digby,
+shaking his head.
+
+"I have cause--I have cause, Digby," answered his friend. "But I must
+go, lest this youth escape me again."
+
+"Well, God speed you, then," replied Digby. "I will go to Mr. Croyland
+at once, and can contrive, I dare say, to get back to Harbourne by
+breakfast time. It is not above two or three miles round, and I will
+go twenty, at any time, to serve you, Leyton."
+
+Sir Edward Digby found good Mr. Zachary Croyland walking about in his
+garden, in a state of irritation indescribable. He, also, was aware,
+by this time, of what had befallen his niece; and such was his
+indignation, that he could scarcely find it in his heart to be even
+commonly civil to any one. On Sir Edward Digby delivering his message,
+as he found that Mr. Warde was not there, the old gentleman burst
+forth, exclaiming, "What have I to do with Warde, sir, or your friend
+either, sir?--Your friend's a fool! He might have walked out of that
+door with Edith Croyland in his hand; and that's no light prize, let
+me tell you; but he chose to be delicate, and gentlemanly, and all
+that sort of stupidity, and you see what has come of it. And now,
+forsooth, he sends over to ask advice and directions from Warde. Well,
+I will tell the man, if I see him--though Heaven only knows whether
+that will be the case or not."
+
+"Sir Henry Leyton seems to place great confidence in Mr. Warde,"
+replied Digby, "which I trust may be justified."
+
+Mr. Croyland looked at him sharply, for a moment, from under his
+cocked hat, and then exclaimed, "Pish! you are a fool, young
+man.--There, don't look so fierce. I've given over fighting for these
+twenty years; and, besides--you wouldn't come to the duello with
+little Zara's uncle, would you? Ha, ha, ha!--Ha, ha, ha!--Ha, ha, ha!"
+and he laughed immoderately, but splenetically enough at the same
+time. "But I ought to have put my meaning as a question, not as a
+proposition," he continued. "Are you such a fool as not to know the
+difference between an odd man and a madman, an eccentric man and a
+lunatic? If so, you had better get away as fast as possible; for you
+and I are likely soon to fall out. I understand what you mean about
+Warde, quite well; but I can tell you, that if you think Warde mad,
+I'm quite as mad as he is, only that his oddities lie all on the side
+of goodness and philanthropy, and mine now and then take a different
+course. But get you gone--get you gone; you are better than the rest
+of them, I believe. I do hope and trust you'll marry Zara; and then
+you'll plague each other's souls, to my heart's content."
+
+He held his hand out as he spoke; and Digby shook it, laughing
+good-humouredly; but, ere he had taken ten steps towards the
+door of the house, through which he had to pass before he could
+mount his horse, Mr. Croyland called after him, "Digby, Digby!--Sir
+Eddard!--Eldest son! I say,--how could you be such a fool as not to
+run that fellow through the stomach when you had him at your feet? You
+see what a quantity of mischief has come of it. You are all fools
+together, you soldiers, I think;--but it's true, a fool does as well
+as anything else to be shot at.--How's your shoulder? Better, I
+suppose."
+
+"I have not thought of it for the last two days," replied Digby.
+
+"Well, that will do," said Mr. Croyland. "Cured by the first
+intention. There, you may go: I don't want you. Only, pray tell my
+brother, that I think him as great a rascal as old Radford.--He'll
+know how much that means.--One's a weak rascal, and the other's a
+strong one; that's the only difference between them; and Robert may
+fit on which cap he likes best."
+
+Digby did not think it necessary to stop to justify Sir Robert
+Croyland in his brother's opinion; but, mounting his horse, he rode
+back across the country towards Harbourne as fast as he could go. He
+reached the house before the usual breakfast hour; but he found that
+everybody there had been an early riser as well as himself; the table
+was laid ready for breakfast; and Sir Robert Croyland was waiting in
+the drawing-room with some impatience in his looks.
+
+"I think I am not too late, Sir Robert," said Digby, taking out his
+watch, and bowing with a smile to Zara and Mrs. Barbara.
+
+"No, oh dear, no, my young friend," replied the baronet; "only in such
+a house as this, breakfast is going on all the morning long; and I
+thought you would excuse me, if I took mine a little earlier than
+usual, as I have got some way to go this morning."
+
+This was said as they were entering the breakfast-room; but Sir Edward
+Digby replied, promptly, "I must ask you to spare me five minutes
+before you go, Sir Robert, as I wish to speak with you for a short
+time."
+
+His host looked uneasy; for he was in that nervous and agitated state
+of mind, in which anything that is not clear and distinct seems
+terrible to the imagination, from the consciousness that many
+ill-defined calamities are hanging over us. He said, "Certainly,
+certainly!" however, in a polite tone; but he swallowed his breakfast
+in haste; and the young officer perceived that his host looked at
+every mouthful he took, as if likely to procrastinate the meal. Zara's
+face, too, was anxious and thoughtful; and consequently he hurried his
+own breakfast as fast as possible, knowing that the signal to rise
+would be a relief to all parties.
+
+"If you will come into my little room, Sir Edward," said the master of
+the house, as soon as he saw that his guest was ready, "I shall be
+very happy to hear what you have to say."
+
+Sir Edward Digby followed in silence; and, to tell the truth, his
+heart beat a good deal, though it was not one to yield upon slight
+occasions.
+
+"I will not detain you a moment, Sir Robert," he said, when they had
+entered, and the door was shut, "for what I have to say will be easily
+answered. I am sensible, that yesterday my attention to your youngest
+daughter must have been remarked by you, and, indeed, my manner
+altogether must have shown you, and herself also, that I feel
+differently towards her and other women. I do not think it would be
+right to continue such conduct for one moment longer, without your
+approbation of my suit; and I can only further say, that if you grant
+me your sanction, I feel that I can love her deeply and well, that I
+will try to make her happy to the best of my power, and that my
+fortune is amply sufficient to maintain her in the station of life in
+which she has always moved, and to make such a settlement upon her as
+I trust will be satisfactory to you. I will not detain you to
+expatiate upon my feelings; but such is a soldier's straightforward
+declaration, and I trust you will countenance and approve of my
+addressing her."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland shook him warmly by the hand. "'My dear Sir
+Edward," he said, "you are your father's own son--frank, candid, and
+honourable. He was one of the most gentlemanly and amiable men I ever
+knew; and it will give me heartfelt pleasure to see my dear child
+united to his son. But--indeed, I must deal with you as candidly----"
+He hesitated for a moment or two, and then went on--"Perhaps you think
+that circumstances here are more favourable than they really are.
+Things may come to your knowledge--things may have to be
+related--Zara's fortune will be----"
+
+Sir Edward Digby saw that Sir Robert Croyland was greatly embarrassed;
+and for an instant--for love is a very irritable sort of state, at
+least for the imagination, and he was getting over head and ears in
+love, notwithstanding all his good resolutions--for an instant, I say,
+he might think that Zara had been engaged before, and that Sir Robert
+was about to tell him, that it was not the ever-coveted, first
+freshness of the heart he was to possess in her love, even if it were
+gained entirely. But a moment's thought, in regard to her father's
+situation, together with the baronet's last words, dispelled that
+unpleasant vision, and he replied, eagerly, "Oh, my dear sir, that can
+make no difference in my estimation. If I can obtain her full and
+entire love, no external circumstance whatsoever can at all affect my
+views.--I only desire her hand."
+
+"No external circumstances whatsoever!" said Sir Robert Croyland,
+pausing on the words. "Are you sure of your own firmness, Sir Edward
+Digby? If her father were to tell you he is a ruined man--if he had
+many circumstances to relate which might make it painful to you to
+connect yourself with him--I do not say that it is so; but if it
+were?"
+
+"Rather an awkward position!" thought Sir Edward Digby; but his mind
+was fully made up; and he replied, without hesitation, "It would still
+make no difference in my eyes, Sir Robert. I trust that none of these
+terrible things are the case, for your sake; but I should despise
+myself, if, with enough of my own, I made fortune any ingredient in my
+considerations, or if I could suffer my love for a being perfectly
+amiable in herself, to be affected by the circumstances of her
+family."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland wrung his hand hard; and Digby felt that it was a
+sort of compact between them. "I fear I must go," said Zara's father,
+"and therefore I cannot explain more; but it is absolutely necessary
+to tell you that all my unmortgaged property is entailed, and will go
+to my brother, that Edith's fortune is totally independent, and that
+Zara has but a tithe of what her sister has."
+
+"Still I say, as I said before," replied Digby, "that nothing of that
+kind can make any difference to me; nor will I ever suffer any
+consideration, not affecting your daughter personally--and I beg this
+may be clearly understood--to make any change in my views. If I can
+win her love--her entire, full, hearty love--with your sanction, she
+is mine. Have I that sanction. Sir Robert?"
+
+"Fully, and from my heart," replied Sir Robert Croyland, with the
+unwonted tears coursing over his cheeks. "Go to her, my dear
+friend--go to her, and make what progress you may, with my best
+wishes. This is indeed a great happiness--a great relief!"
+
+Thus saying, he followed Sir Edward Digby out of the room; and,
+mounting a new horse which had been brought up from his bailiff's, he
+rode slowly and thoughtfully away. As he went, a faint hope--nay, it
+could hardly be called a hope--a vague, wild fancy of explaining his
+whole situation to Sir Edward Digby, and gaining the blessed relief of
+confidence and counsel, arose in Sir Robert Croyland's breast.
+
+Alas! what an unhappy state has been brought about by the long
+accumulation of sin and deceit which has gathered over human society!
+that no man can trust another fully! that we dare not confide our
+inmost thoughts to any! that there should be a fear--the necessity for
+a fear--of showing the unguarded heart to the near and dear! that
+every man should--according to the most accursed axiom of a corrupt
+world--live with his friend as if he were one day to be his enemy. Oh,
+truths and honour, and sincerity! oh, true Christianity! whither are
+ye gone? Timidity soon banished such thoughts from the breast of Sir
+Robert Croyland, though there was something in the whole demeanour of
+his daughter's lover which showed him that, if ever man was to be
+trusted, he might trust there; and had he known how deeply Digby was
+already acquainted with much that concerned him, he might perhaps have
+gone one step farther, and told him all. As it was, he rode on, and
+soon gave himself up to bitter thoughts again.
+
+In the meantime. Sir Edward Digby returned to Zara and Mrs. Barbara in
+the drawing-room, with so well satisfied a look, that it was evident
+to both, his conversation with Sir Robert had not referred to any
+unpleasant subject, and had not had any unpleasant result. He excited
+the elder lady's surprise, however, and produced some slight agitation
+in the younger, by taking Zara by the hand, and in good set terms of
+almost formal courtesy, requesting a few minutes' private audience.
+Her varying colour, and her hesitating look, showed her lover that she
+apprehended something more unpleasant than he had to say; and he
+whispered, as they went along towards the library, "It is nothing--it
+is nothing but to tell you what I have done, and to arrange our plan
+of campaign."
+
+Zara looked up in his face with a glad smile, as if his words took
+some terror from her heart; and as soon as he was in the room, he let
+go her hand, and turned the key in such a manner in the door, that the
+key-hole could not serve the purpose of a perspective glass, even if
+it might that of an ear-trumpet.
+
+"Forgive me, dear Zara," he said, "if I take care to secure our
+defences; otherwise, as your good aunt is perfectly certain that I am
+about to fall on my knees, and make my declaration, she might be
+seized with a desire to witness the scene, not at all aware that it
+has been performed already. But not to say more," he continued, "on a
+subject on which you have kindly and frankly set a lover's heart at
+rest, let me only tell you that your father has fully sanctioned my
+suit, which I know, after what you have said, will not be painful to
+you to hear."
+
+"I was sure he would," answered Zara; "not that he entered into any of
+my aunt's castles in the air, or that he devised my schemes, Digby;
+but, doubtless, he wishes to see a fortuneless girl well married, and
+would have been content with a lover for her, who might not have
+suited herself quite so well. You see I deal frankly with you, Digby,
+still; and will do so both now and hereafter, if you do not check me."
+
+"Never, never will I!" answered Sir Edward Digby; "it was so you first
+commanded my esteem, even before my love; and so you will always keep
+it."
+
+"Before your love?" said Zara, in an unwontedly serious tone; "your
+love is very young yet, Digby; and sometimes I can hardly believe all
+this to be real.--Will it last? or will it vanish away like a dream,
+and leave me waking, alone and sorrowful?"
+
+"And yours for me, Zara?" asked her lover; but then, he added,
+quickly, "no, I will not put an unfair question: and every question is
+unfair that is already answered in one's own heart. Yours will, I
+trust, remain firm for me--so mine, I know, will for you, because we
+have seen each other under circumstances which have called forth the
+feelings, and displayed fully all the inmost thoughts which years of
+ordinary intercourse might not develop. But now, dear Zara, let us
+speak of our demeanour to each other. It will, perhaps, give us
+greater advantage if you treat me--perhaps, as a favoured, but not yet
+as an accepted lover. I will appear willingly as your humble slave and
+follower, if you will, now and then, let me know in private that I am
+something dearer; and by keeping up the character with me, which has
+gained you your uncle's commendation as a fair coquette, you may,
+perhaps, reconcile Mrs. Barbara to many things, which her notions of
+propriety might interfere with, if they were done as between the
+betrothed."
+
+"I fear I shall manage it but badly, Digby," she answered. "It was
+very easy to play the coquette before, when no deeper feelings were
+engaged, when I cared for no one, when all were indifferent to me. It
+might be natural to me, then; but I do not think I could play the
+coquette with the man I loved. At all events, I should act the part
+but badly, and should fancy he was always laughing at me in his heart,
+and triumphing over poor Zara Croyland, when he knew right well that
+he had the strings of the puppet in his hand. However, I will do my
+best, if you wish it; and I do believe, from knowing more of this
+house than you do, that your plan is a good one. The airs I have given
+myself, and the freedom I have taken, have been of service both to
+myself and Edith--to her in many ways, and to myself in keeping from
+me all serious addresses from men I could not love.--Yours is the
+first proposal I have ever had, Digby; so do not let what my uncle has
+said, make you believe that you have conquered a queen of hearts, who
+has set all others at defiance."
+
+"No _gentleman_ was ever refused by a _lady_," answered Digby, laying
+a strong emphasis on each noun-substantive.
+
+"So, then, you were quite sure, before you said a word!" cried Zara,
+laughing. "Well, that is as frank a confession as any of my own! And
+yet you might have been mistaken; for esteeming you as I did, and
+circumstanced as I was, I would have trusted you as much, Digby, if
+you had been merely a friend."
+
+"But you would not have shown me the deeper feelings of your heart
+upon other indifferent subjects," replied her lover.
+
+Zara blushed, and looked down; then suddenly changed the course of
+conversation, saying, "But you have not told me what Leyton thought of
+all this, and what plans you have formed. What is to be done? Was he
+not deeply grieved and shocked?"
+
+Sir Edward Digby told her all that had passed, and then added, "I
+intend now to send out my servant, Somers, to reconnoitre. He shall
+waylay Leyton on his return, and bring me news of his success. If this
+youth be safely lodged in gaol, his pretensions are at an end, at
+least for the present; but if he again escape, I think, ere noon
+to-morrow, I must interfere myself. I have now a better right to do so
+than I have hitherto had; and what I have heard from other quarters
+will enable me to speak boldly--even to your father, dear one--without
+committing either you or Edith."
+
+Zara paused and thought; but all was still dark on every side, and she
+could extract no ray of light from the gloom. Digby did not fail (as,
+how could a lover neglect?) to try to lead her mind to pleasanter
+themes; and he did so in some degree. But we have been too long
+eaves-dropping upon private intercourse, and we will do so no more.
+The rest of the day passed in that mingled light and shade, which has
+a finer interest than the mere broad sunshine, till the return of Sir
+Robert Croyland, when the deep sadness that overspread his countenance
+clouded the happiness of all the rest.
+
+Shortly after, Zara saw her lover's servant ride up the road, at
+considerable speed; and as it wanted but half-an-hour to dinner-time,
+Digby, who marked his coming also, retired to dress. When he returned
+to the drawing-room, there was a deeper and a sterner gloom upon his
+brow than the fair girl had ever seen; but her father and aunt were
+both present, and no explanation could take place. After dinner, too,
+Sir Robert Croyland and his guest returned to the drawing-room
+together; and though the cloud was still upon Digby's countenance, and
+he was graver than he had ever before appeared, yet she whom he loved
+could gain no tidings. To her he was still all tenderness and
+attention; but Zara could not play the part she had undertaken; and
+often her eyes rested on his face, with a mute, sad questioning, which
+made her aunt say to herself, "Well, Zara is in love at last!"
+
+Thus passed a couple of hours, during which not above ten words were
+uttered by Sir Robert Croyland. At length, lights were brought in,
+after they had been for some time necessary; and at the end of about
+ten minutes more, the sound of several horses coming at a quick pace
+was heard. The feet stopped at the great door, the bell rang, and
+voices sounded in the hall. The tones of one, deep, clear, and mellow,
+made both Zara and her father start; and in a minute after, the butler
+entered--he was an old servant--saying, in a somewhat embarrassed
+manner, "Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, sir, wishes to speak with you
+immediately on business of importance."
+
+"Who--who?" demanded Sir Robert, "Sir Henry Leyton!--Well, well, take
+him in somewhere!"
+
+He rose from his chair, but staggered perceptibly for a moment; then,
+overcoming the emotion that he could not but feel, he steadied himself
+by the arm of his chair, and left the room. Zara gazed at Digby, and
+he at her he loved; but this night Mrs. Barbara thought fit to sit
+where she was; and Digby, approaching Zara's seat, bent over her,
+whispering, "Leyton has a terrible tale to tell; but not affecting
+Edith. She is safe.--What more he seeks, I do not know."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+After parting with Sir Edward Digby at Woodchurch, Henry Leyton had
+ridden on at a quick pace to Park-gate, and thence along the high
+road, to Cranbrook. He himself was habited in the undress of his
+regiment, though with pistols at his saddle, and a heavy sword by his
+side. One of his servants followed him similarly accoutred, and an
+orderly accompanied the servant, while by the young officer's side
+appeared our good friend Mr. Mowle, heavily armed, with the somewhat
+anomalous equipments of a riding officer of Customs in those days. At
+a little distance behind this first group, came Cornet Joyce, and his
+party of dragoons; and in this order they all passed through
+Cranbrook, about nine o'clock; but a quarter of a mile beyond the
+little town they halted, and Mowle rode on for a short way alone, to
+the edge of Hangley Wood, which was now close before them. There he
+dismounted, and went in amongst the trees; but he was not long absent,
+for in less than five minutes he was by the colonel's side again.
+"All's right, sir," he said, "the boy assures me that they were all
+there still, at six this morning, and that their captain, Radford,
+does not move till after dark, to-night. So now we shall have the
+worst fellows amongst them--the two Ramleys and all."
+
+"Well, then," answered Leyton, "you had better go on at once with the
+party, keeping through the wood. I will remain behind, coming on
+slowly; and if wanted, you will find me somewhere in the Hanger.
+Cornet Joyce has his orders in regard to surrounding the house; but of
+course he must act according to circumstances."
+
+No more words were needed: the party of dragoons moved on rapidly,
+with Mowle at their head; and Leyton, after pausing for a few minutes
+on the road, dismounted, and giving his rein to the servant, walked
+slowly on into the wood, telling the two men who accompanied him, to
+follow. There was, at that time, as there is now, I believe, a broad
+road through Hangley Wood, leading into the cross-road from Biddenden
+to Goudhurst; but at that period, instead of being tolerably straight
+and good, it was very tortuous, rough, and uneven. Along this forest
+path, for so it might be called, the dragoons had taken their way, at
+a quick trot; and by it their young colonel followed, with his arms
+crossed upon his chest, and his head bent down, in deep and anxious
+meditation. The distance across the wood at that part is nearly a
+mile; and when he had reached the other side, Leyton turned upon his
+steps again, passed his servant and the orderly, and walked slowly on
+the road back to Cranbrook. The two men went to the extreme verge of
+the wood, and looked out towards Iden Green for a minute or two before
+they followed their officer, so that in the turnings of the road, they
+were out of sight by the time he had gone a quarter of a mile.
+
+Leyton's thoughts were busy, as may be well supposed; but at length
+they were suddenly interrupted by loud, repeated, and piercing
+shrieks, apparently proceeding from a spot at some distance before
+him. Darting on, with a single glance behind, and a loud shout to call
+the men up, he rushed forward along the road, and the next instant
+beheld a sight which made his blood boil with indignation. At first,
+he merely perceived a girl, struggling in the hands of some five or
+six ruffians, who were maltreating her in the most brutal manner; but
+in another instant, as, drawing his sword, he rushed forward, he
+recognised--for it can scarcely be said, he saw--poor Kate Clare. With
+another loud shout to his men to come up, he darted on without pause
+or hesitation; but his approach was observed--the ruffians withdrew
+from around their victim; and one of them exclaimed, "Run, run! the
+dragoons are coming!"
+
+"D--me! give her a shot before you go," cried another, "or she'll
+peach."
+
+"Let her," cried young Radford--"but here goes;" and, turning as he
+hurried away, he deliberately fired a pistol at the unhappy girl, who
+was starting up wildly from the ground. She instantly reeled and fell,
+some seconds before Leyton could reach her; for he was still at the
+distance of a hundred yards.
+
+All this had taken place in an inconceivably short space of time; but
+the next minute, the panic with which the villains had been seized
+subsided a little. One turned to look back--another turned--they
+beheld but one man on the road; and all the party were pausing, when
+Leyton reached poor Kate Clare, and raised her in his arms. It might
+have fared ill with him had he been alone; but just at that moment the
+orderly appeared at the turn, coming up at the gallop, with the young
+officer's servant behind him; and not doubting that a large party was
+following, Radford and his companions fled as fast as they could.
+
+"On after them, like lightning!" cried Leyton, as the men came up.
+"Leave the horse, leave the horse, and away! Watch them wherever they
+go, especially the man in the green coat! Take him if you can--shoot
+him dead if he resist. Ah, my poor girl!" he cried, with the tears
+rising in his eyes, "this is sad, indeed!--Where has he wounded you?"
+
+"There," said Kate, faintly, taking away her hand, which was pressed
+upon her right side; "but that was his kindest act.--Thank God, I am
+dying!"
+
+"Nay, nay," answered Leyton, "I trust not!" But the blood poured
+rapidly out, staining all her dress, which was torn and in wild
+disorder, and so rapidly did it flow, that Leyton clearly saw her
+words would probably prove too true. "Who was that villain?" he cried;
+"I will punish him if there be justice on earth!"
+
+"Don't you know him?" said Kate, her voice growing more and more low.
+"I thought you were seeking him--Richard Radford."
+
+"The atrocious scoundrel!" said Leyton; and drawing his handkerchief
+from his breast, he tied it tightly over her side, trying, though he
+saw it was nearly in vain, to stanch the blood, while at the same time
+he supported her against his knee with one arm thrown round her waist.
+Poor Kate closed her eyes with a faint shudder; and for a moment
+Leyton thought she was dead. She appeared to be reviving again,
+however, when a loud voice, not far distant, exclaimed, "Ha,--halloo!
+What the devil is this?"
+
+Leyton looked suddenly up--for his eyes had been bent upon the poor
+girl's face for several minutes--and then beheld, hurrying up the road
+with a look of fury in his countenance, Kate's promised husband,
+Harding. With a violent oath the man rushed on, exclaiming, "Kate,
+what is all this?--Villain, have you misused the girl?"
+
+"Hush, hush!" cried Leyton, with a stern gesture of his hand; "she is
+dying!--I would have saved her if I could; but alas, I came too late!"
+
+The whole expression of Harding's countenance changed in an instant.
+Grief and terror succeeded to rage; and, catching her franticly in his
+arms, he exclaimed--"Kate, Kate, speak to me!--Tell me, who has done
+this?"
+
+"I can tell you," answered Leyton--"Richard Radford."
+
+While he was speaking, Kate Clare opened her eyes again, and gazed on
+Harding's face, moving her right hand faintly round and placing it
+upon his.
+
+"Give me that handkerchief from your neck," said Leyton; "if we can
+stop the blood, we may save her, yet. I have seen very bad wounds
+recovered from----"
+
+"No, no!" said Kate Clare; "thank God, I am dying--I would rather
+die!--Harding, I am not in fault--they caught me in the wood--oh, they
+treated me horribly. Mr. Radford said it was revenge--God forgive him,
+God forgive him! But I would rather die thus in your arms--do not try
+to stop it--it is all in vain."
+
+Leyton and Harding still persisted, however, and bound another
+handkerchief tight over the wound, in some degree diminishing the
+stream of blood, but yet, not stopping it entirely.
+
+"Let us carry her to some house," cried Leyton, "and then send for
+assistance. See! her lips are not so pale."
+
+"I will carry her," cried Harding, raising her in his powerful arms.
+
+"To my aunt's, then--to my aunt's, Harding," murmured Kate; "I would
+sooner die there than in any other place." And on Harding sped,
+without reply, while Leyton, sheathing his sword, which he had cast
+down, followed him, inquiring, "Is it far?"
+
+"But a step, sir," answered the smuggler. "Pray, come with us.--This
+must be avenged."
+
+"It shall," replied Leyton, sternly; "but I must stay here for a
+minute or two, till you can send somebody to me, to take my place, and
+let my men know where I am when they return."
+
+Harding nodded his head, and then turned his eyes upon the face of the
+poor girl whom he bore in his arms, hurrying on without a moment's
+pause, till he was lost to the young officer's sight.
+
+It is needless to describe the feelings of a high-minded and noble man
+like Leyton, when left alone to meditate over the horrible outrage
+which had been committed under his very eyes. He gave way to no burst
+of indignation, indeed, but with a frowning brow walked back upon the
+road, caught his horse without difficulty, and mounting, remained
+fixed near the spot where poor Kate had received her death-wound, like
+a soldier upon guard. In less than ten minutes, a lad ran up, saying,
+"Mr. Harding sent me, sir."
+
+"Well, then, walk up and down here, my good boy," replied Leyton,
+"till some one comes to inquire for me. If it should be a servant, or
+a single soldier, send him down to the place which you came from, and
+wait where you are till a larger party of dragoons come up, when you
+must tell them the same--to go down to me there. If the party come
+first, wait for the servant and the soldier."
+
+Having given these directions, he was turning away, but paused again
+to inquire his way to the place where Harding was; and then pointing
+to a bundle that lay upon the road, he said--"You had better bring
+that with you."
+
+Following the boy's direction, as soon as he issued out of the wood,
+Sir Henry Leyton turned through a little field to the left; and seeing
+a small farm-house at some distance before him, he leaped his horse
+over two fences to abridge the way. Then riding into the farm-yard, he
+sprang to the ground, looking round for some one to take his charger.
+Several men of different ages were running about with eagerness and
+haste in their faces. Horses were being led forth from the stable;
+guns were in the hands of several; and one of them--a fine, tall,
+powerful young fellow--exclaimed, as soon as he saw Leyton--"We will
+catch them, sir--we will catch them! and by----they shall be hanged as
+high as Haman for hurting the poor dear girl. Here, take his honour's
+horse, Bill."
+
+"Is she still living?" asked Leyton.
+
+"Oh dear, yes, sir!" cried the young man; "she seemed somewhat better
+for what mother gave her."
+
+"Well, then," rejoined the young officer, "if you are going to search
+for these scoundrels, gallop up to the wood as fast as you can; you
+will find my servant and a trooper watching. They will give you
+information of which way the villains are gone. I will join you in a
+minute or two with a stronger force."
+
+"Oh, sir, we shall do--we shall do," cried William Harris; "we will
+raise the whole county as we go, and will hunt them down like foxes.
+Do they think that our sisters and our wives are to be ill-used and
+murdered by such scum as they are?" and at the same time he sprang
+upon his horse's back. Leyton turned towards the house, but met the
+old farmer himself coming out with a great cavalry sword in his hand,
+and the butt end of a pistol sticking out of each pocket. "Quick,
+quick! to your horses!" he cried, "they shall rue the day--they shall
+rue the day!--Ah, sir, go in," he continued, seeing Leyton; "she is
+telling my wife and Harding all about it; but I can't stop to hear.--I
+will have that young Radford's blood, if I have a soul to be saved!"
+
+"Better take him alive, and hand him over to justice," said Leyton,
+going into the house.
+
+"D----n him, I'll kill him like a dog!" cried the farmer; and mounting
+somewhat less nimbly than his son, he put himself at the head of the
+whole party assembled, and rode fast away towards Hangley Wood.
+
+In the meantime, Leyton entered the kitchen of the farm; but it was
+quite vacant. Voices, however, were heard speaking above, and he
+ventured to go up and enter the room. Three or four women were
+assembled there round good Mrs. Harris's own bed, on which poor Kate
+Clare was stretched, with Harding on his knees beside her, and her
+hand in his, the hot tears of man's bitterest agony, coursing each
+other down his bronzed and weather-beaten cheek.
+
+"There, there!" said Mrs. Harris; "don't take on so, Harding--you only
+keep down her spirits. She might do very well, if she would but take
+heart. You see she is better for the cordial stuff I gave her."
+
+Harding made no reply; but Kate Clare faintly shook her head; and
+Leyton, after having gazed on the sad scene for a moment, with bitter
+grief and indignation in his heart, drew back, thinking that his
+presence would only be a restraint to Kate's family and friends. He
+made a sign, however, to one of the women before he went, who followed
+him out of the room.
+
+"I merely wish to tell you," he said, in a low voice, when the woman
+joined him at the top of the stairs, "that I am going back to the
+wood, to aid in the pursuit of these villains; for I can be of no use
+here, and may be there. If any of my people come, tell them where to
+find me; bid them follow me instantly, and stop every man on foot they
+see quitting the wood, till he gives an account of himself.--But had
+you not better send for a surgeon?"
+
+"One is sent for, sir," replied the woman; "but I think she is not so
+bad as she was.--I'll take care and tell your people. I do hope they
+will catch them, for this is _too_ bad."
+
+Without more words Leyton went down, remounted his horse, and galloped
+back towards the edge of the wood. The news of what had happened,
+however, seemed to have spread over the country with the speed of
+lightning; for he saw four or five of the peasantry on horseback,
+already riding in the same direction across the fields. Two stout
+farmers joined him as he went, and both were already full of the story
+of poor Kate Clare. Rage and indignation were universal amongst the
+people; but as usual on such occasions, one proposed one plan, and
+another the other, so that by want of combination in their operations,
+all their resolution and eagerness were likely to be fruitlessly
+employed.
+
+Leyton knew that it was of little use to argue on such points with
+undisciplined men; and his only trust was in the speedy arrival of the
+soldiers from Iden Green. When he reached the edge of the wood,
+however, with his two companions, they came upon farmer Harris's
+party, now swelled to twelve or thirteen men; and at the same moment
+his own servant rode round, exclaiming, as soon as he saw his master,
+"They are still in the wood, sir, if they have not come out this way.
+They dispersed so that we could not follow them on horseback, and we
+galloped out by different ways to watch."
+
+"They haven't come here," cried Farmer Harris, "or we should have seen
+them. So now we have them safe enough."
+
+"Ride off towards Iden Green," said Leyton to the servant, "and direct
+Cornet Joyce to bring down his men at the gallop to the edge of the
+copse. Let him dismount twelve on the north side of the wood, and,
+with all the farm-servants and country people he can collect, sweep
+it down, while the rest of the mounted men advance, on a line, on
+either side.--Stay, I will write;" and tearing a leaf out of his
+pocket-book, he put down his orders in pencil.
+
+The man had just galloped away, when the young farmer, William Harris,
+shouted, "There they go--there they go! After them!--after them! Tally
+ho!" and instantly set spurs to his horse. All the rest but Leyton
+followed at full speed; but he paused, and, directing his eyes along
+the edge of the wood, clearly saw, at the distance of somewhat more
+than half a mile, three men, who seemed to have issued forth from
+amongst the trees, running across the fields as fast as they could go.
+It would seem that they had not been aware of the numbers collected to
+intercept them, till they had advanced too far to retreat; but
+they had got a good start; the country was difficult for any but
+well-trained horses; and darting on, they took their way towards
+Goudhurst, passing within a hundred yards of the spot where the victim
+of their horrid barbarity lay upon the bed of death.
+
+Taking the narrow paths, leaping the stiles and gates, they at first
+seemed to gain upon the mass of peasantry who followed them, though
+their pursuers were on horseback and they on foot. But, well knowing
+the country, the farmers spread out along the small bridle-roads; and,
+while the better mounted horsemen followed direct across the fields,
+the others prepared to cut off the ruffians on the right and left.
+Gradually a semi-circle, enclosing them within its horns, was thus
+formed; and all chance of escape by flight was thus cut off.
+
+In this dilemma, the three miscreants made straight towards a
+farm-house at which they occasionally received hospitality in their
+lawless expeditions, and which bears the name of "Smuggler Farm" to
+this day; but they knew not that all hearts had been raised against
+them by their late atrocities, and that the very tenant of the farm
+himself was now one of the foremost in pursuit. Rushing in, then, with
+no farther ceremony than casting the door open, they locked and barred
+it, just as some of the peasantry were closing in upon them; and then,
+hurrying to the kitchen, where the farmer's wife, his sister, and a
+servant was collected, Ned Ramley, who was the first, exclaimed, "Have
+you no hide, good dame?"
+
+"Hide!" replied the stout farmer's wife, eyeing him askance--"not for
+such villains as you! Give me the spit, Madge; I've a great mind to
+run him through." Ned Ramley drew a pistol from his pocket; but at
+that moment the window was thrown up, the back door of the house was
+cast open, and half-a-dozen of the stout yeomanry rushed in. The
+smugglers saw that resistance would be vain; but still they resisted;
+and though, in the agitation of the moment, Ned Ramley's pistol was
+discharged innocuously, he did not fail to aim it at the head of young
+William Harris, who was springing towards him. The stout farmer,
+however, instantly levelled him with the ground by a thundering blow
+upon the head; and the other two men, after a desperate struggle, were
+likewise taken and tied.
+
+"Lucky for you it was me, and not my father, Master Ramley," said
+William Harris. "He'd have blown your brains out; but you're only
+saved to be hanged, anyhow.--Ay, here he comes!--Stop, stop, old
+gentleman! he's a prisoner; don't you touch him.--Let the law have the
+job, as the gentleman said."
+
+"Oh, you accursed villain--oh, you hellish scoundrel," cried old
+Harris, kept back with difficulty by his son and the rest. "You were
+one of the foremost of them. But where is the greatest villain of them
+all?--where's that limb of the devil, young Radford?--I will have him!
+Let me go, Will--I will have him, I say!"
+
+Ned Ramley laughed aloud: "You wont, though," he answered, bitterly;
+"he's been gone this half hour, and will be at the sea, and over the
+sea, before you can catch him.--You may do with me what you like, but
+he's safe enough."
+
+"Some one ride off and tell the officer what he says!" cried the
+farmer. But when the intelligence was conveyed to Sir Henry Leyton, he
+was already aware that some of the men must have made their escape
+unobserved; for his servant had met Cornet Joyce and the party of
+dragoons by the way, and with the aid of a number of farm servants
+from Iden Green and its neighbourhood, the wood had been searched with
+such strictness, that the pheasants, which were at that time numerous
+there, had flown out in clouds, as if a battue had been going on. He
+mistrusted Ned Ramley's information, however; knowing that the
+hardened villain would find a sort of pride in misleading the pursuers
+of young Radford, even though taken himself. Riding quickly across to
+the farm, then, together with Mowle and the Cornet, he interrogated
+the men separately, but found they were all in the same story, from
+which they varied not in the least--that Richard Radford had crept out
+by the hedges near the wood, and had gone first to a place where a
+horse was in waiting for him, and thence would make straight to the
+sea-side, where a boat was already prepared. Instant measures to
+prevent him from executing this plan now became necessary; and Leyton
+directed the Cornet to hasten away as fast as possible in pursuit,
+sending information from Woodchurch to every point of the coast where
+the offender was likely to pass, spreading out his men so as to cover
+all the roads to the sea, and only leaving at the farm a sufficient
+guard to secure the prisoners.
+
+On hearing the latter part of this order, however, Farmer Harris
+exclaimed, "No, no, sir; no need of that. We've taken them, and we'll
+keep them safe enough. I'll see these fellows into prison myself--ay,
+and hanged too, please God! and we'll guard them sure, don't you be
+afraid."
+
+Leyton looked to Mowle, saying, "I must abide by your decision, Mr.
+Mowle." But the officer answered: "Oh, you may trust them, sir, quite
+safely, after all I hear has happened. But I think, Mr. Harris, you
+had better have just a few men to help you. You've got no place to
+keep them here; and they must be taken before a magistrate first,
+before they can be committed."
+
+"Oh, we'll keep them safe enough," replied the farmer. "We'll put them
+in Goudhurst church, till we can send them off, and, in the meantime,
+I'll have them up before Squire Broughton. My son's a constable, so
+they are in proper hands."
+
+"Very well," answered Leyton; "in this case I have no right to
+interfere; but, of course, you are responsible for their safe
+custody."
+
+"I say, Mowle," cried Ned Ramley, in his usual daring manner, "bid
+them give me something to drink, for I'm devilish thirsty; and I'll
+give you some information, if you will."
+
+Mowle obtained some beer for him, and then demanded, "Well, what is
+it, Ned?"
+
+"Why, only this," said Ned Ramley, after they had held the beer to his
+lips, and he had taken a deep draught--"you will have your brains
+blown out, before ten days are over."
+
+"I am not afraid," replied Mowle, laughing.
+
+"That's right," answered Ned Ramley. "But it will happen; for fifty of
+us have sworn it. We have had our revenge of your spy, Harding; and we
+have only you to settle with now."
+
+"Harding!" cried Mowle. "He's no spy of mine.--It was not he that
+peached, you young scoundrel; it was one of those whom you trusted
+more than him."
+
+"Ah, well," answered Ned Ramley, indifferently; "then he'll have a
+sore heart to-night, that he didn't work for. But you'll have your
+turn yet, Mr. Mowle, so look that you make good use of your brains,
+for they wont be long in your skull."
+
+"You are a hardened villain," said Sir Henry Leyton. "You had better
+march them off as fast as you can, my good friends; take them before a
+magistrate; and above all things, get them to prison ere nightfall, or
+we may have another rescue."
+
+"No fear, no fear!" answered Farmer Harris. "To rescue a smuggler is
+one thing--I never liked to see them taken myself--but bloodthirsty
+villains like these, that would ill use a poor, dear, good girl, and
+murder her in cold blood,--why, there is not a man in the county would
+not help to hang them. But I wish, sir, you would go yourself, and see
+and stop that other great villain. If he isn't hanged too, I don't
+think I shall ever rest in my bed again."
+
+"I will do my best, depend upon it," replied Leyton; "but I must
+first, Mr. Harris, go to your house, and see the state of that poor
+girl. I have known her since she was a child, and feel for her almost
+as if she were a sister."
+
+"Thank you, sir--thank you!" cried old Harris, shaking him by the
+hand. "There, boys," he continued, dashing away the tears from his
+eyes--"make a guard, and take these blackguards off in the middle of
+you. We'll have them up to Squire Broughton's at once; and then I must
+go back, too."
+
+On his way to the farm, Leyton desired Mowle to return to Woodchurch,
+and to wait for him there, taking every step that he might think
+necessary, with the aid of Captain Irby. "I will not be long," he
+added.
+
+"Pray don't, sir," rejoined Mowle; "for we have other business to do
+to-night;" and, sinking his voice to a whisper, he added, "I've got
+the information I wanted, sir. A part of the goods are certainly at
+Radford Hall, and if we can seize them there, that, with the
+deposition of the men at Woodchurch, will bring him in for the whole
+offence."
+
+"I shall, very likely, overtake you by the way," replied Leyton. "But,
+at all events, I shall be there before four."
+
+Most such calculations are vain, however. Leyton turned aside to the
+Harris's farm, where he found poor Kate Clare sinking rapidly. The
+curate of the parish had been sent for, and, by his advice, Mr.
+Broughton, the magistrate, who had entered the house but two or three
+minutes before Leyton himself. Though her voice now scarcely rose
+above a whisper, she made her dying declaration with clearness and
+accuracy. It is not necessary here to give any of the details; but, as
+she concluded, she turned her faint and swimming eyes towards Leyton,
+saying, "That gentleman, who has always been such a good friend to me
+and mine, can tell you more, sir, for he came up to my help, just as
+they shot me."
+
+The magistrate raised his eyes, and inquired, in a low tone, "Who is
+he?"
+
+"Sir Henry Leyton," replied the poor girl, loud enough for that
+officer to hear; and thinking that she asked for him, he approached
+nearer, and stood by Harding's side. Kate raised her hand a little
+from the bedclothes, as if she would have given it to him; and he took
+it kindly in his, speaking some words of comfort.
+
+"Thank you, sir--thank you, for all your kindness," said Kate. "I am
+glad you have come, that I may wish you good-bye, and ask you to be
+kind to poor Harding, too. It will soon be over now; and you had
+better all leave me. Not you, Harding--not you.--You must close my
+eyes, as my poor mother is not here."
+
+A groan burst from the stout seaman's breast; and giving way to all
+his feelings, he sobbed like a child. According to her desire, Leyton
+and Mr. Broughton retired from the room; and the young officer
+informed the magistrate, that the prisoners who had been taken were
+waiting for examination at his house.
+
+"We shall want your evidence, Sir Henry," said the magistrate. "It is
+absolutely necessary, if, as I understand, you were eye-witness to the
+murder."
+
+Leyton saw the propriety of the magistrate's demand, and he yielded
+immediately. But the investigation was prolonged by several
+circumstances; and, what between the time that it took up, and that
+which had been previously spent in the pursuit of the murderers, it
+was past three o'clock before Leyton mounted his horse at Mr.
+Broughton's door. He paused for an instant at the gate of the Harris's
+farm-yard, where a girl was standing with tears in her eyes; but
+before he could ask any question, she replied to that which was rising
+to his lips. "She is gone, sir," said the girl--"she is gone. She did
+not last half-an-hour after you were here."
+
+With a sad heart, Leyton rode on, passing at a quick pace through
+Harbourne Wood, and not trusting himself to stop at Mrs. Clare's
+cottage. The windows, however, were closed; and the young officer
+concluded from that circumstance, that the tidings of her daughter's
+fate must by this time have reached the childless widow. Not far
+beyond her gate, he was met by Sir Edward Digby's servant; but eager
+to arrive at Woodchurch, Leyton did not stop to speak with him, and
+Somers, turning his horse with the orderly and his old companion,
+Leyton's servant, gleaned what information he could from them as he
+went.
+
+Notwithstanding all the speed he could use, however, it was half-past
+four before Leyton reached Woodchurch; and, on inquiring for Mr.
+Warde, he found that gentleman had called, but gone away again, saying
+he would return in an hour.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Such as we have described in the last chapter, were the fatal events
+to which Sir Edward Digby had alluded in the few words he had spoken
+to Zara Croyland; and it may be needless to explain to the reader,
+that he had learned the tale from his servant just before he came down
+to dinner.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, as we have shown, after some agitation and
+hesitation, quitted the drawing-room to meet,--the first time for many
+years--the son of a man, whom, at the instigation of others, he had
+cruelly persecuted. He paused as soon as he got into the passage,
+however, to summon courage, and to make up his mind as to the
+demeanour which he should assume--always a vain and fruitless task;
+for seldom, if ever, do circumstances allow any man to maintain the
+aspect which he has predetermined to affect. Sir Robert Croyland
+resolved to be cold, stately, and repulsive--to treat Sir Henry Leyton
+as a perfect stranger, and if he alluded to their former intimacy, to
+cut the conversation short by telling him that, as all the feelings of
+those days were at an end, he did not wish to revive their memory in
+any shape. He did not calculate, indeed, upon the peculiar state of
+Leyton's mind, at the moment--nay, nor even upon the effect of his
+former favourite's personal appearance upon himself; and when he
+entered the library and saw the tall, powerful, dignified-looking man,
+the pale, thoughtful, stern countenance, and the haughty air, he felt
+all his predeterminations vain.
+
+Leyton, on his part, had done the same as Sir Robert Croyland, and in
+setting out from Woodchurch had made up his mind to see in the man he
+went to visit, nothing but Edith's father--to treat him kindly,
+gently, and with compassion for his weakness, rather than anger at his
+faults; but as he rode along, and conversed with one who accompanied
+him thither, the memory of much that Sir Robert Croyland had done in
+former days, came painfully back upon him, and combining with his
+treatment of Edith, raised up bitter and indignant feelings that he
+could have wished to quell. The scenes which he had passed through
+that day, too, had given a tone of sternness to his mind which was not
+usual; and the few minutes he had waited in the library, when every
+moment seemed of value, added impatience to his other sensations.
+
+The baronet entered as firmly as he could, bowing his head and
+motioning coldly to a chair. But Leyton did not sit down, gazing for
+an instant on the countenance of Sir Robert, struck and astonished by
+the change that he beheld. That steadfast gaze was painful to its
+object, and sank his spirit still farther; but Leyton, the moment
+after, began to speak; and the well-known tones of his clear, mellow
+voice, awakened the recollection of the days when they were once
+pleasant to hear.
+
+"Sir Robert Croyland," he said, "I have come to you on business of
+importance, in which it is necessary for you to act immediately in
+your magisterial capacity."
+
+"I have no clerk with me, sir," answered the baronet, in a hesitating
+manner; "at this late hour, it is not usual, except under
+circumstances----"
+
+"The circumstances admit of no delay, Sir Robert Croyland," replied
+Leyton. "As the nearest magistrate, I have applied to you in the first
+instance; and have done so for many other reasons besides your being
+the nearest magistrate."
+
+"Well, sir, what is your application?" demanded Edith's father. "I
+wish, indeed, you had applied to somebody else, at this time of night;
+but I will do my duty--oh, yes, I will do my duty."
+
+"That is all that is required, sir," answered the young officer. "My
+application is for a warrant to search the house of one Richard
+Radford; and I have to tender you, on oath, information that
+customable goods, which have been introduced without the payment
+of duty, are concealed on his premises.--One moment more, if you
+please--I have also to apply to you, upon similar evidence, for a
+warrant to search his house for his son, Richard Radford, charged with
+murder; and, in the end, if you would allow me to advise you, you
+would instantly mount your horse, and superintend the search
+yourself."
+
+There was a marked and peculiar emphasis on the last few words, which
+Sir Robert Croyland did not understand. The manner was not agreeable
+to him; but it was scarcely perhaps to be expected that it should be;
+for there had been nothing in his own, to invite that kindly candour,
+which opens heart to heart. All that had of late years passed between
+him and Sir Henry Leyton, had been of a repulsive kind. For one
+youthful error, he had not only repelled and shut his house against
+the son, but he had persecuted, ruined, and destroyed the father, who
+had no part in that fault. Every reason too, which he had given, every
+motive he had assigned, for his anger at Henry Leyton's pretensions to
+Edith's hand, he had set at nought, or forgotten in the case of him
+whom he had chosen for her husband. Even now, although his manner was
+wavering and timid, it was cold and harsh; and it was a hard thing for
+Henry Leyton to assume the tone of kindness towards Sir Robert
+Croyland, or to soften his demeanour towards him, with all the busy
+memories of the past and the feelings of the present thronging upon
+him, on his first return to the house where he had spent many happy
+days in youth. I am painting a man, and nothing more; and he could
+not, and did not overcome the sensations of human nature.
+
+His words did not please Sir Robert Croyland, but they somewhat
+alarmed him. Everything that was vague in his present situation,
+did produce fear; but after a moment's thought, he replied,
+coldly, "Oh dear no, sir, I do not see that it is at all necessary I
+should go myself. I really think the application altogether
+extraordinary, seeing that it comes from, I am led to imagine, the
+lieutenant-colonel, commanding the ---- regiment of dragoons,
+quartered in this district, who has no primary power, or authority, or
+even duty in such affairs; but can only act as required by the
+officers of Customs, to whom he is so far subordinate.--But still I am
+ready to receive the informations tendered, and then shall decide in
+regard to my own conduct, as the case may require."
+
+"You are wrong in all respects, but one, Sir Robert Croyland,"
+answered Leyton, at once; "I am empowered to act very differently from
+any officer who has been in command here before me. If my powers are
+beyond that which the law authorizes, those who gave them are
+responsible to their country; but, for an extraordinary case,
+extraordinary means are requisite; and as I require of you nothing but
+what the law requires, I shall not pause to argue, whether I am
+exactly the proper person to make the application. It might easily be
+made by another, who is without: but I have reasons for what I am
+doing--and reasons, believe me," he added, after a moment's pause and
+reflection, "not unfriendly to Sir Robert Croyland."
+
+Again his words and manner were peculiar. Sir Robert Croyland began to
+feel some apprehension lest he might push his coldness too far. But he
+did not see how he could change his tone; and he was proceeding, with
+the same distant reserve, to repeat that he was ready to receive the
+information in a formal manner, when Leyton suddenly interrupted him,
+after a severe struggle with himself.
+
+"Sir Robert Croyland," he said, "let us speak as friends. Let griefs
+and complaints on both sides be forgotten for the moment; let us bury,
+for the time, seven years in oblivion. Look upon me, if it be but for
+a few minutes, as the Henry Leyton you knew before anything arose to
+produce one ill feeling between us; for, believe me, I come to you
+with kindly sentiments. Your own fate hangs in the balance at this
+hour. I would decide it favourably for you, if you would let me.
+But--you must shake off doubt and timidity; you must act boldly and
+decidedly, and all will be well."
+
+"I do not understand what you mean, sir," cried Sir Robert Croyland,
+astonished at his change of tone, and without time to collect his
+ideas, and calculate the probabilities. "My fate!--How can you affect
+my fate?"
+
+"More than you are aware," answered Leyton; "even now I affect your
+fate, by giving you the choice of at once proceeding in the line of
+your duty, against a bad man who has overruled your better nature, too
+long,--by allowing you to conduct the search, which must be instituted
+either by yourself or others.--In one word, Sir Robert Croyland, I
+know all; and would serve you, if you would let me."
+
+"You know all!" exclaimed Edith's father, in a dull, gloomy tone--"you
+know all! she has told you, then! That explains it--that shows how she
+retracted her consent--how she was willing to-day to sacrifice her
+father. You have seen her--you have taught her her part!--Yes, she has
+betrayed her parent's confidence."
+
+Leyton could bear no more. Himself, he could have heard slandered
+calmly; but he could not hear such words of her he loved: "It is
+false!" he said; "she did not betray your confidence! She told me no
+more than was needful to induce me to release her from bonds she was
+too faithful and true to break. From her I have heard nothing
+more--but from others I have heard all; and now, Sir Robert Croyland,
+you have chosen your part, I have but to call in those who must lay
+the required information. Our duty must be done, whatever be the
+consequences; and as you reject the only means of saving yourself from
+much grief--though, I trust, not the danger you apprehend--we must act
+without you;" and he rose and walked towards the door.
+
+"Stay, Leyton--stay!" cried Sir Robert Croyland, catching him eagerly
+by the arm--"yet a moment--yet a moment. You say you know all. Do you
+know all?--all?--everything?"
+
+"All!--everything!" answered Leyton, firmly; "every word that was
+spoken--every deed that was done--more than you know yourself."
+
+"Then, at least, you know I am innocent," said the old man.
+
+A calm but grave serenity took the place, on Sir Henry Leyton's
+countenance, of the impetuous look with which he had last spoken.
+"Innocent," he said, "of intentional murder; but not innocent of rash
+and unnecessary anger; and, oh! Sir Robert Croyland--if I must say
+it--most culpable in the consequences which you have suffered to flow
+from one hasty act. Mark me; and see the result!--Your own dear child,
+against your will, is in the hands of a man whom you hate and abhor.
+You are anxious to make her the wife of a being you condemn and
+despise! The child of the man that your own hand slew, is now lying a
+corpse, murdered by him to whom you would give your daughter! Your own
+life is----"
+
+"What, Kate!--Kate Clare!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland, with a
+sudden change coming over his countenance--"murdered by Richard
+Radford!"
+
+"By his own hand, after the most brutal usage," replied Leyton.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland sprang to the bell, and rang it violently, then
+threw open the door and called aloud--"My horse!--my horse!--saddle my
+horse!--If it cost me land and living, life and honour, she shall be
+avenged!" he added, turning to Leyton, and raising his head erect, the
+first time for many years. "It is over--the folly, and the weakness,
+and crime, are at an end. I have been bowed and broken; but there is a
+spark of my former nature yet left. I vowed to God in Heaven, that I
+would ever protect and be a father to that child, as an atonement--as
+some--some compensation, however small; and I will keep my vow."
+
+"Oh! Sir Robert," cried Leyton, taking his hand and pressing it in
+his, "be ever thus, and how men will love and venerate you!"
+
+The barrier was broken down--the chain which had so long bound him was
+cast away; and Sir Robert returned Leyton's grasp with equal warmth.
+"Harry," he said, "I have done you wrong; but I will do so no more. I
+was driven--I was goaded along the road to all evil, like a beast
+driven to the slaughter. But you have done wrong, too, young
+man--yours was the first offence."
+
+"It was," answered Leyton--"I own it--I did do wrong; and I will make
+no excuse, though youth, and love as true as ever man felt, might
+afford some. But let me assure you, that I have been willing to make
+reparation--I have been willing to sacrifice all the brightest hope of
+years to save you, even now. I assured Edith that I would, when she
+told me the little she could venture to tell; but it was her misery
+that withheld me--it was the life-long wretchedness, to which she was
+doomed if I yielded, that made me resist. Nothing else on earth should
+have stopped me; but now, Sir Robert, the prospect is more clear for
+you."
+
+"Nay, do not speak of that," replied Sir Robert Croyland; "I will
+think of it no more--I have now chosen my path; and I will pursue it,
+without looking at the consequences to myself. Let them come when they
+must come; for once in life, I will do what is just and right."
+
+"And by so doing, my dear sir, you will save yourself," answered
+Leyton. "Moved by revenge--with no doubt whatsoever of his
+motive--after a concealment of six years, this base man's accusation
+will be utterly valueless. Your bare statement of the real
+circumstances will be enough to dissipate every cloud. I shall require
+that all his papers be seized; and I have many just reasons for
+wishing that they should be in your hands."
+
+"I understand you, Harry, and I thank you," said Sir Robert Croyland;
+"but with my present feelings I would not----"
+
+"You do not understand me fully, Sir Robert," replied Leyton. "I wish
+you only to act as you will find just, right, and honourable, and wait
+for the result. It will be, or I am much mistaken, more favourable to
+you, personally, than you imagine. Now, as you have decided on the
+true and upright course, let us lose no time in carrying it into
+execution. I will call in the men who have to lay the information; and
+when you have received it, I will place before you depositions which
+will justify the most vigorous measures against both father and son.
+In regard to the latter, I must act under your authority in my
+military capacity, as I have no civil power there; but in regard to
+the former, I am already called upon, by the officers of the revenue,
+to aid them in entering his house by force, and searching it
+thoroughly."
+
+"Call them in, Harry--call them in!" replied Sir Robert Croyland;
+"every man is justified by the law in apprehending a murderer. But you
+shall have full authority.--Kate Clare!--How could this have
+happened?"
+
+"I will explain, as we ride on," answered Leyton, going to the door;
+and speaking to one of the servants who was standing in the hall, he
+added, "Desire Mr. Mowle to walk in, and bring the boy with him."
+
+In another minute, Mowle entered the room with another man, holding by
+the arm the boy Ray, whom the smugglers had chosen to denominate
+Little Starlight. He came, apparently, unwillingly; for though ever
+ready, for money, to spy and to inform secretly, he had a great
+abhorrence of being brought publicly forward; and when on coming to
+Mowle that evening with more information--he was detained and told he
+must go before a magistrate, he had made every possible effort to
+escape.
+
+He was now somewhat surprised, on being brought forward after Mowle
+had laid the information, to find that he was not questioned upon any
+point affecting the smuggling transactions which had lately taken
+place, as the evidence upon that subject was sufficient without his
+testimony. But in regard to the proceedings of young Radford, and to
+the place where he was concealed, he was interrogated closely. It was
+all in vain, however. To obtain a straightforward answer from him was
+impossible; and although Mowle repeated distinctly that the boy had
+casually said, the murderer of poor Kate Clare had gone to his
+father's house, Little Starlight lied and prevaricated at every word,
+and impudently, though not unskilfully attempted to put another
+meaning on his previous admission.
+
+As time was wearing away, however, Sir Henry Leyton, at length,
+interposed--"I think it is unnecessary, Sir Robert," he said, "to push
+this inquiry further at present. As the whole house and premises must
+be searched on other grounds, we shall discover the villain if he is
+there. Mr. Mowle and I have adopted infallible means, I think, to
+prevent his escaping from any point of the coast; and the magistrates
+at every port were this evening furnished with such information that,
+if they act with even a moderate degree of ability, he must be taken."
+
+"Besides, sir," rejoined Mowle, "the frigate has come round; and she
+will take care that, with this wind, not a boat big enough to carry
+him over shall get out. We had better set out, your worship, if you
+please; for if old Radford gets an inkling of what is going on, he
+will double upon us some way."
+
+"I am quite ready," said Sir Robert Croyland. "I will call my clerk to
+accompany us as we go, in case of any further proceedings being
+necessary. We must pass through the village where he lives."
+
+With a firm step he moved towards the door; and, strange as it may
+seem, though for six years, while supposing he was taking the only
+means of self-preservation, he had lived in constant terror and
+anxiety, he felt no fear, no trepidation now, when he had determined
+to do what was right at every personal risk. An enfeebling spell
+seemed to have been taken off his mind; and the lassitude of doubt and
+indecision was gone. But such is almost always the result, even upon
+the nerves of our corporeal frame, of a strong effort of mental
+energy. It is one thing certainly to resolve, and another to do; but
+the very act of resolution, if it be sincerely exerted, affords a
+degree of vigour, which is sure to produce as great results as the
+means at our disposal can accomplish. Energetic determination will
+carry men through things that seem impossible, as a bold heart will
+carry them over Alps, that, viewed from their base, appear
+insurmountable.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland did not venture into the drawing-room before he
+went; but he told the butler, who was waiting in the hall, to inform
+Sir Edward Digby and the family that he had been called away on
+business, and feared he should not return till a late hour; and having
+left this message, he went out upon the terrace. He found there a
+number of persons assembled, with some twenty or thirty of the
+dragoons. Five or six officers of the Customs were present, besides
+Mowle; but the darkness was too great to admit of their faces being
+seen; and Sir Robert Croyland mounted without speaking to any one. Sir
+Henry Leyton paused for an instant to give orders, that the boy should
+be taken back to Woodchurch, and kept there under a safe guard. He
+then spoke a few words to Digby's servant, Somers, and springing on
+his horse placed himself at Sir Robert Croyland's side.
+
+The night was as dark as either of the two which had preceded it; the
+same film of cloud covered the sky; not a star was to be seen; the
+moon was far below the horizon; and slowly the whole party moved on,
+two and two abreast, through the narrow lanes and tortuous roads of
+that part of the country. It halted for a minute in the nearest
+village, while Sir Robert Croyland stopped at his clerk's house, and
+directed him to follow as fast as possible to Mr. Radford's; and then,
+resuming their march, the dragoons, and those who accompanied them,
+wound on for between four or five miles further, when, as they turned
+the angle of a wood, some lights, apparently proceeding from the
+windows of a house half way up a gentle slope, were seen shining out
+in the midst of the darkness.
+
+"Halt!" said Sir Henry Leyton; and before he proceeded to give his
+orders, for effectually surrounding the house and grounds of Mr.
+Radford, he gazed steadfastly for a moment or two upon the building
+which contained her who was most dear to him, and whose heart he well
+knew was at that moment wrung with the contention of many a painful
+feeling. "I promised her I would bring her aid, dear girl," he
+thought, "and so I have.--Thanks be to God, who has enabled me!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, too, gazed--with very different feelings, it is
+true, but still with a stern determination that was not shaken in the
+least. It seemed, when he thought of Kate Clare, that he was atoning
+to the spirit of the father, by seeking to avenge the child; and the
+whole tale of her wrongs and death, which he had heard from Leyton, as
+they came, had raised the desire of so doing almost to an enthusiasm.
+Human passions and infirmities, indeed, will mingle with our best
+feelings; and as he gazed upon Mr. Radford's house, and remembered all
+that he had endured for the last six years, he said to himself, with
+some bitterness, "That man shall now taste a portion of the same cup
+he has forced upon others."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton woke from his reverie sooner than his companion; and
+turning his horse, he spoke for a few moments with Mowle, somewhat
+longer with another person wrapped in a dark horseman's coat behind,
+and then gave various distinct orders to the dragoons, who immediately
+separated into small parties, and, taking different roads, placed
+themselves in such positions as to command every approach to the
+house. Then riding forward with Sir Robert Croyland, the officers of
+Customs, and one or two soldiers, he turned up the little avenue which
+led from the road, consulting with Edith's father as he went. At about
+a couple of hundred yards from the house he paused, turning his head
+and saying to Mowle, "You had better, I think, all dismount; and,
+making fast the horses, get behind the nearest laurels and evergreens,
+while Sir Robert and I ride on alone, and ask admission quietly. When
+the door is opened, you can come up and make yourselves masters of the
+servants till the search is over. I do not anticipate any resistance;
+but if the young man be really here, it may be made."
+
+He then rode on with the baronet at a quicker pace, the noise of their
+horses' feet, as they trotted on and approached the great doors,
+covering the sound of the movements of the party they left behind.
+
+The house, to which the actual possessor had given the name of Radford
+Hall, was an old-fashioned country mansion, and presented, like many
+another building at that time, several large, iron hooks, standing out
+from the brickwork on each side of the doorway, on which it was
+customary for visitors on horseback to hang their rein while they rang
+the bell, or till a servant could be called to take them to the
+stable. Sir Robert Croyland was acquainted with this peculiarity
+of the house, though Leyton was not, and he whispered to his
+companion--"Let us hook up our horses, before we ring."
+
+This was accordingly done; and then taking the long iron handle
+of the bell, Leyton pulled it gently. A minute or two after, a step
+sounded in the hall, and a servant appeared--a stout, red-faced,
+shrewd-looking fellow, who at first held the great door only half
+open. As soon, however, as he saw Sir Robert Croyland's face, he threw
+it back, replying, in answer to the baronet's question as to whether
+Mr. Radford was at home, "Yes, Sir Robert, he has been home this
+hour."
+
+Leyton had stood back, and, in the darkness, the man did not see him,
+or took him for a groom; but when the young officer advanced, and the
+uniform of the dragoon regiment became apparent, Mr. Radford's servant
+suddenly stretched his hand towards the door again, as if about to
+throw it violently to. But Leyton's strong grasp was on his shoulder
+in a moment. "You are my prisoner," he said, in a low tone; "not a
+word--not a syllable, if you would not suffer for it. No harm will
+happen to you, if you are only quiet."
+
+At the same moment, Mowle and the rest came running across the lawn,
+and, giving the man into their hands, Leyton entered the house with
+Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+About an hour before the event took place, which we have last related,
+Edith Croyland sat in a small drawing-room at the back of Mr.
+Radford's house, in which she had been kept captive--for we may well
+use that term--ever since her removal from Mr. Croyland's. Her first
+day had been spent in tears and indignation; for immediately after her
+arrival, on finding that her father was not really there, she became
+convinced that she had been deceived, and naturally doubted that it
+was with his consent she had been removed. Nor had Mr. Radford's
+manner at all tended to do away with this impression. He laughed at
+her remonstrances and indignation, treated her tears with cold
+indifference, and told his servants, before her face, that she was on
+no account to be suffered to go out, or to see any one but Sir Robert
+Croyland. In other respects, he treated her well--did all in his power
+to provide for her comfort; and, as his whole establishment was
+arranged upon a scale of luxury and extravagance rarely met with in
+the old country houses of the gentry of that time, none of the
+materials of that which is commonly called comfort were wanting.
+
+But it was the comfort of the heart which Edith required, and did not
+find. Mr. Radford handed her down to dinner himself, and with as much
+ceremonious politeness as he could show, seated her at the end of his
+ostentatious table: but Edith did not eat. She retired at night to the
+downy bed prepared for her: but Edith did not sleep. Thus passed the
+first day and the morning of the second; and when, about noon, Sir
+Robert Croyland arrived, he found her pale and wan with anxiety and
+watching; and he left her paler still; for he resisted all her
+entreaties to take her thence; and her last hope of relief was gone.
+
+He had spoken kindly--tenderly, indeed; he had even shed tears; but
+his mind at the time of his visit was still in a state of suspense,
+irritated by injuries and insult, but not yet roused by indignation to
+dare the worst that Mr. Radford could do; and, though he heard her
+express her determination never to marry Richard Radford unless set
+free from her vows to Henry Leyton, without remonstrance, only begging
+her to keep that resolution secret till the last moment, yet, with the
+usual resource of weakness, he sought to postpone the evil hour by
+seeming to enter into all his enemy's views.
+
+Thus had passed Edith's time; and it is unnecessary to enter into a
+more detailed account of her thoughts and feelings previous to the
+period we have mentioned--namely, one hour before the arrival of her
+father and Henry Leyton at the door of the house. She was sitting,
+then, in that small back drawing-room, with her fair cheek leaning on
+her hand, her eyes bent down upon the table, and her mind busy with
+the present and the future. "It is foolish," she thought, "thus to
+alarm myself. No harm can happen. They dare not show me any violence;
+and no clergyman in England will venture to proceed with the service
+against my loud dissent. My uncle, and Leyton too, must soon hear of
+this, and will interfere.--I will not give way to such terrors any
+more."
+
+As she thus meditated, she heard a rapid step upon the great stairs;
+and the next moment Mr. Radford entered--booted, spurred, and dusty,
+as from a journey, and with a heavy horsewhip in his hand. His face
+betrayed more agitation than she had ever seen it display. There
+was a deep line between his brows, as if they had been long bent into
+such a frown, that they could not readily be smoothed again. His long
+upper-lip was quivering with a sort of impatient vehemence that would
+not be restrained; and his eye was flashing, as if under the influence
+of some strong passion.
+
+"Well, Miss Croyland," he said, throwing his horsewhip down upon the
+table, and casting himself into a chair, "I hope they have made you
+comfortable during my absence?"
+
+Edith merely bowed her head, without reply.
+
+"Well, that's civil!" cried Mr. Radford; "but I think every body is
+going mad, and so it is no wonder that women do! Miss Croyland, I have
+a piece of news for you--there's going to be a wedding in our house,
+to-night!"
+
+Still Edith was silent, and looked towards the fire.
+
+"I tell you of the fact," continued Mr. Radford, "because it may be
+necessary for you to make some little preparation for your journey. I
+don't know whether you hear or not; but you are to be married to my
+son, to-night. It is now nine; the clergyman and Richard will be here
+by eleven; and the marriage will take place half an hour before
+twelve. So you have two hours and a half to prepare."
+
+"You are mistaken altogether, Mr. Radford," replied Edith, in as firm
+a tone as she could assume. "It is not my intention to marry your son
+at all. I have often told you so--I now repeat it."
+
+"You do, do you!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, giving her a furious glance
+across the table; "then I will tell you something, young woman. Your
+consent was given to your father; and I will have no trifling
+backwards and forwards. Circumstances have arisen to-day--curses be
+upon them all!--which render it necessary that the marriage should
+take place four-and-twenty hours before it was first fixed, and it
+shall take place, by----!" and he added a terrible oath.
+
+"You will find it will not take place, Mr. Radford," replied Edith, in
+the same tone as before, "for, in the first place, I never did
+consent. My father left me fainting, without waiting to hear what I
+had to say, or he would not have so deceived himself."
+
+"Then he shall die the death of a felon," cried Mr. Radford, "and you
+yourself shall be the person to put the rope round his neck."
+
+"Whatever be the consequences, I shall be firm," replied Edith; "but
+at the same time, let me tell you, I do not believe you have the power
+you suppose. You may bring a false accusation--an accusation you know
+to be false; but such things are never so well prepared but they are
+discovered at last; and so it will be in your case."
+
+"A false accusation!" exclaimed Mr. Radford vehemently--"an accusation
+I know to be false! I'll soon show you that, girl;" and starting up
+from his seat, he hurried out of the room.
+
+Contrary to Edith's expectation, Mr. Radford was absent for a long
+time; but when he returned he had several papers in his hand, some
+apparently freshly written, and one which bore the yellow marks of
+age. His face was stern and resolute, but displayed less excitement
+than when he left her. He entered with a slow step, leaving the door
+partly open behind him, seated himself, and gazed at her for a moment,
+then spread out the small yellow paper on the table, but held his hand
+tight upon the lower part, as if he feared she might snatch it up and
+destroy it.
+
+"There, look at that, Miss Croyland!" he said; "you spoke of false
+accusations; look at that, and be ashamed of bringing them yourself."
+
+Edith gave a glance towards it with a sensation of awe, but did not
+attempt to read it. Her eye rested upon the words, "Deposition
+of--" and upon a stain of blood at the bottom of the page, and she
+turned away with a shudder. "I have heard of it before," she answered,
+"yet every word in it may be false."
+
+"False, or not false," replied Mr. Radford, "it sends your father to
+gaol to-morrow, and to the gallows a month after--if you do not
+instantly sign that!" and he laid another freshly written page open
+before her.
+
+Edith took it in her hand, and read--"I hereby consent and promise,
+when called upon, to marry Richard Radford, junior, Esquire, the son
+of Richard Radford, of Radford Hall."
+
+"You have your choice, Miss Croyland," continued her persecutor, in a
+low and bitter tone, "either to save your father, or to put him to
+death with your own hands; for I swear, by all that I hold sacred,
+that if you do not instantly sign that paper--ay, and fulfil its
+engagement, I will send off this deposition to the bench of
+magistrates, with the letter I have just written, giving an account of
+all the circumstances, and explaining how, out of weak kindness and
+friendship for Sir Robert Croyland, I have been prevailed upon to keep
+back the information until now. Do not deceive yourself, and think
+that his fortune or his station will save him. A peer of the realm has
+been hanged before now for the murder of his own servant. Neither must
+you suppose that upon that deposition alone rests the proof of his
+guilt. There was other evidence given at the Coroner's inquest, all
+bearing upon the same point, which requires but this light, to be made
+plain. The threats your father previously used, the falsehoods he told
+regarding where he had been--all these things can be proved, for I
+have taken care to preserve that evidence."
+
+"That was like a friend, indeed!" murmured Edith; "but such are the
+friendships of the world."
+
+"I am acting like a friend to you, Miss Croyland," rejoined Mr.
+Radford, apparently neither touched nor hurt by her words, "in letting
+you see clearly your father's situation, while I give you the
+opportunity of saving him if you will. Do as you please--there is the
+paper. Sign it if you like; but sign it quickly; for this night brings
+all tergiversation to an end. I will have no more of it; and five
+minutes decides your father's life or death. Do not say I do it. It is
+you. His pardon is before you. You have nothing to do but to put your
+name. If you do not, you sign his death warrant!"
+
+"Five minutes!" said Edith, with her heart beating violently.
+
+"Ay, five minutes," answered Mr. Radford, who saw, from the wild look
+of her beautiful eyes, and the ashy paleness of her cheek and lips,
+how powerfully he had worked upon her--"five minutes, no longer;" and
+he laid his watch upon the table. Then, turning somewhat
+ostentatiously to a small fixed writing-desk, which stood near, he
+took up a stick of sealing-wax, and laid it down beside the letter he
+had written, as if determined not to lose a moment beyond the period
+he had named.
+
+Edith gazed upon the paper for an instant, agitated and trembling
+through her whole frame; but her eye fell upon the name of Richard
+Radford. His image rose up before her, recalling all the horror that
+she felt whenever he was in her presence; then came the thought of
+Leyton, and of her vows to him yet uncancelled. "Richard Radford!" she
+said to herself--"Richard Radford!--marry him--vow that I will love
+him--call God to witness, when I know I shall abhor him more and
+more--when I love another? I cannot do it--I will not do it!" and she
+pushed the paper from her, saying, aloud, "No, I will not sign it!"
+
+"Very well," said Mr. Radford--"very well. Your parent's blood be upon
+your head;" and he proceeded to fold up slowly the deposition he had
+shown her, in the letter he had written. But he stopped in the midst;
+and then, abandoning the calm, low tone, and stern but quiet demeanour
+which he had lately used, he started up, striking the table violently
+with his hand, and exclaiming, in a loud and angry tone, "Wretched,
+miserable girl, dare you bring upon your head the guilt of parricide?
+What was the curse of Cain to that? How will you bear the day of your
+father's trial--ay, how bear the day of his death--the lingering agony
+of his imprisonment--the public shame of the court of justice--the
+agony of the gallows and the cord?--the proud Sir Robert Croyland
+become the gaze of hooting boys, the spectacle of the rude multitude,
+expiring, through his daughter's fault, by the hand of the common
+hangman! Ay, think of it all, for in another minute it will be too
+late! Once gone from my hand, this paper can never be recalled."
+
+Edith uttered a faint cry; but at the same moment a voice behind Mr.
+Radford said, "Nor can it, now!" and Sir Robert Croyland himself laid
+his hand upon the papers.
+
+Mr. Radford turned round fiercely, and was darting forward to seize
+them from him; but he was held back by a more powerful arm; and the
+baronet went on, in a voice grave and sad, but firm and strong--"Sir
+Henry Leyton," he said, "I give these papers into your hands to do
+with exactly as you may think right, as a man of honour, a gentleman,
+and a respecter of the law. I ask not to hold them for one moment."
+
+"Do not struggle, sir,--do not struggle!" cried Leyton, holding Mr.
+Radford fast by the collar--"you are a prisoner."
+
+"A prisoner!" exclaimed Mr. Radford. "What! in my own house--a
+magistrate!"
+
+"Anywhere, sir," answered Leyton; "and for the time, you are a
+magistrate no longer.--Ho! without there!--send some one in!"
+
+Edith had sunk down in her seat; for she knew not whether to rejoice
+or grieve. The first feeling undoubtedly was joy; but the next was
+bitter apprehension for her father. At first she covered her eyes with
+her hands; for she thought to hear the terrible truth proclaimed
+aloud; but when she looked up, Sir Robert Croyland's face was so calm,
+so resolute, so unlike what it had ever appeared of late years, that
+fear gave way to surprise, and surprise began to verge into hope. As
+that bright flame arose again in her heart, she started up, and cast
+herself upon her father's bosom, murmuring, while the tears flowed
+rapidly from her eyes, "Are you safe--are you safe?"
+
+"I know not, my dear child," replied Sir Robert Croyland; "but I am
+now doing my duty, and that gives me strength."
+
+In the meantime, a dragoon had appeared at the door, and as soon as
+Mr. Radford beheld him, he exclaimed, "This is a base and infamous
+plot to defeat the ends of justice. I understand it all: the military
+power called in, right willingly, I have no doubt, to take away the
+documents which prove that felon's guilt. But this shall be bitterly
+repaid, and I hold you responsible, sir, for the production of these
+papers."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Radford," replied Leyton, with a calm smile, "I will
+be responsible. But as you object to the military power, we will hand
+you over to the civil. Hart," he continued, speaking to the soldier,
+"call up Mowle or Birchett, or any of the other officers, and let them
+bring one of the constables with them, for this is not purely a case
+for the Customs. Then tell Serjeant Shaw to bring on his men from the
+back, as I directed, seeing that nothing--not an inch of ground, not a
+shed, not a tool-house, remains unexamined."
+
+"Of what am I accused, sir, that you dare to pursue such a course in
+my house?" demanded Mr. Radford.
+
+"Of murder, sir," replied Sir Henry Leyton.
+
+"Murder!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, and then burst into an affected
+laugh.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the young officer; "and you may find it not so
+much a jest as you suppose; for though the law, in consequence of the
+practices of yourself and others, has slept long ineffective, it is
+not dead. I say for murder! as an accessory before the fact, to the
+armed resistance of lawful authority, in which his majesty's subjects
+have been killed in the execution of their duty; and as an accessory
+after the fact, in harbouring and comforting the actual culprits,
+knowing them to be such."
+
+Mr. Radford's countenance fell; for he perceived that the matter was
+much more serious than he at first supposed. He trusted, indeed, from
+the laxity with, which the law had lately been carried into execution,
+that he might escape from the gravest part of the charge; but still,
+if Sir Henry Leyton was in a condition to prove the participation of
+which he accused him, in the crimes that had been committed, nothing
+short of transportation for life could be anticipated. But he had
+other sources of anxiety. His wretched son, he expected to present
+himself every minute; and well aware of the foul deed which Richard
+Radford had that morning perpetrated, and of his person having been
+recognised, he was perfectly certain, that his apprehension would take
+place. He would have given worlds to speak for a single instant with
+one of his own servants; but none of them appeared; and while these
+thoughts were passing rapidly through his brain, the officer Birchett
+entered the room with a constable, and several other persons followed
+them in. He was startled from his reverie, however, by Sir Henry
+Leyton's voice demanding--"Have you brought handcuffs, constable?"
+
+"Oh, ay, sir," answered the man, "I've got the bracelets."
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Radford," said Birchett; "we have hold of you at
+last, I fancy."
+
+Mr. Radford was silent, and the young officer demanded, "Have you
+found anything else, Birchett?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, plenty," answered Birchett, "and besides the run goods,
+things enough to prove all the rest even if we had not proof
+sufficient before--one of your own dragoon's swords, sir, that must
+have been snatched up from some poor fellow who was killed. Corporal
+Hart says, he thinks it belonged to a man named Green."
+
+"Well, there is your prisoner," replied Leyton,--"you and the
+constable must take care that he be properly secured. No unnecessary
+harshness, I beg; but you know how rescue is sometimes attempted, and
+escape effected. You had better remove him to another room; for we
+must have all the papers and different articles of smuggled goods
+brought hither."
+
+"I protest against the whole of this proceeding," exclaimed Mr.
+Radford, on whom the constable was now unceremoniously fixing a pair
+of handcuffs, "and I beg every body will take notice of my protest.
+This person, who is, I suppose, a military officer, is quite going
+beyond his duty, and acting as if he were a civil magistrate."
+
+"I am acting under the orders and authority of a magistrate, sir,"
+replied Sir Henry Leyton, "and according to my instructions.--Dear
+Edith," he continued, crossing over to her, and taking her hand as she
+still clung to her father; for all that I have described had taken
+place with great rapidity--"you had better go into another room till
+this is over. We shall have some papers to examine, and I trust
+another prisoner before the search is finished.--Had she not better
+retire, Sir Robert?"
+
+But Mr. Radford raised his voice again, as the constable was moving
+him towards the door, exclaiming, "At all events, I claim my right to
+witness all these extraordinary proceedings. It is most unjust and
+illegal for you to seize and do what you will with my private papers,
+in my absence."
+
+"It is a very common occurrence," said Sir Henry Leyton, "in criminal
+cases like your own."
+
+"Let him remain--let him remain!" said Sir Robert Croyland. "He can
+but interrupt us a little.--Oh, here is the clerk at last!--Now,
+Edith, my love, you had better go; these are no scenes for you."
+
+Leyton took her by the hand, and led her to the door, bending down his
+head and whispering as he went, "Be under no alarm, dear girl. All
+will go well."
+
+"Are you sure, Harry--are you sure?" asked Edith, gazing anxiously in
+his face.
+
+"Certain," he replied; "your father's decision has saved him."
+
+As he spoke, there was a violent ringing at the bell; and Mr. Radford
+said to himself, "It is that unhappy boy; he will be taken, to a
+certainty." But the next instant, he thought, "No--no, he would never
+come to the front door. It must be some more of their party."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, in the meantime, seated himself at the end of the
+table, and handed over a number of papers, which Leyton had given him
+at his own house, to the clerk, who, by his direction, seated himself
+near. "I have no objection, Mr. Radford," he said, turning to the
+prisoner, "that you should hear read, if you desire it, the
+depositions on which I have granted a warrant for your apprehension,
+and, at the requisition of the officers of Customs, have authorized
+your premises to be searched for the smuggled goods, a part of which
+has been found upon them. The depositions are those of a man named
+George Jones, since dead, and of Michael Scalesby, and Edward
+Larchant, at present in the hands of justice; and the information is
+laid by John Mowle and Stephen Birchett."
+
+At the recital of the names of several of the men whom he himself had
+furnished with arms and directions, Mr. Radford's heart sunk; but the
+moment after, a gleam of bitter satisfaction sprang up in his breast,
+as the door opened, and Mr. Zachary Croyland entered, exclaiming,
+"How's this--how's this? I came to take a dove out of a hawk's nest,
+and here I find the dogs unearthing a fox."
+
+"I am very glad you are come, sir," replied Mr. Radford, before any
+one else could speak; "for, though you are the brother of that person
+sitting there, you are a man of honour, and an honest man----"
+
+"More than I can say for you, Radford," grumbled Mr. Croyland.
+
+"And, moreover, a magistrate for this county," continued Mr. Radford.
+
+"I never act--I never act!" cried the old gentleman. "I never have
+acted; I never will act."
+
+"But in this case I shall insist upon your acting," said the prisoner;
+"for your brother, who is now proceeding thus virulently against me,
+does it to shield himself from a charge of murder, which he knew I was
+about to bring against him."
+
+"Fiddlesticks' ends!" cried Mr. Croyland. "This is what people call
+turning the tables, I think. But it wont succeed with me, my good
+friend. I am an old bird--a very old bird, indeed--and I don't like
+chaff at all, Radford. If you have any charge to make against my
+brother, you must make it where you are going. I'll have nothing to do
+with it. I always knew him to be a fool; but never suspected him of
+being anything else."
+
+"At all events," said Mr. Radford, in a gloomy tone, "since simple
+justice is denied me at all hands, I require that the papers which
+have been seized in this house, be placed in proper hands, and duly
+authenticated. The important evidence of the crime of which I charge
+him, has been given by your brother, sir, to one who has but too great
+an interest, I believe, to conceal or destroy it. I say it boldly,
+those papers are not safe in the keeping of Sir Henry Leyton; and I
+demand that they be given up, duly marked by the clerk, and signed by
+myself, and some independent person."
+
+Leyton's eyes flashed for a moment, at the insinuation which the
+prisoner threw out; but he overcame his anger instantly, and took the
+papers which had been handed him, from his pocket, saying, "I will
+most willingly resign these documents, whatever they may be. Mr.
+Croyland, this person seems to wish that you should keep them, rather
+than myself; but here is another paper on the table, which may throw
+some light upon the whole transaction;" and he took up the written
+promise, which Mr. Radford had been urging Edith to sign--and on which
+his own eyes had been fixed during the last few minutes--and handed
+it, with the rest, to her uncle.
+
+"Stay, stay a moment!" said Mr. Croyland, putting on his spectacles.
+"I will be responsible for the safe keeping of nothing of which I do
+not know the contents;" and he proceeded to read aloud the engagement
+to wed Richard Radford, which Edith had rejected. "Ay, a precious
+rascally document, indeed!" said the old gentleman, when he had
+concluded; "written in the hand of the said Richard Radford, Esq.,
+senior, and which, I suppose, Miss Croyland refused to sign under any
+threats. Be so good as to put your name on that, at the back, Mr.
+Clerk. I will mark it, too, that there be no mistake."
+
+"And now, sir, since you have read the one, will you be good enough to
+read the other?" exclaimed Mr. Radford, with a triumphant smile.
+"Even-handed justice, if you please, Mr. Zachary Croyland; the
+enclosure first, then the letter, if you will. I see there are a
+multitude of persons present; I beg they will all attend."
+
+"I will read it certainly," replied Mr. Croyland, drawing one of the
+candles somewhat nearer. "It seems to be somewhat indistinct."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland leaned his head upon his hand, and covered his
+eyes; and several persons pressed forward, to hear what seemed of
+importance--in the eyes of the prisoner, at least.
+
+Mr. Croyland ran over the writing, as a preliminary to reading it
+aloud; but, as he did so, his countenance fell, and he paused and
+hesitated. The next moment, however, he exclaimed, "No, hang it! It
+shall be read--'The deposition of William Clare, now lying at the
+point of death, and with the full assurance that he has not many
+minutes to live, made before Richard Radford, Esquire, J. P.; this
+24th day of September, in the year of grace 17--;" and he proceeded to
+read, with a voice occasionally wavering indeed, but in general firm
+and clear, the formal setting forth of the same tale which the reader
+has heard before, in the statement of Sir Robert Croyland to his
+daughter.
+
+His brother paused, and held the paper in his hand for a moment after
+he had done, while Leyton, who had been standing close beside him,
+bore a strange, almost sarcastic smile upon his lip, which strongly
+contrasted with the sad and solemn expression of Mr. Croyland's
+countenance.
+
+"What is this great red blot just below the man's name?" asked the old
+gentleman, at length, looking to Mr. Radford.
+
+"That, sir," replied the prisoner, in a calm, grave tone, which had
+much effect upon the hearers, "is the poor fellow's own blood, as I
+held him up to sign the declaration. He had been pressing his right
+hand upon the wound, and where it rested on the paper it gave that
+bloody witness to the authenticity of the document."
+
+There was something too fine in the reply, and Mr. Croyland repeated,
+"Bloody witness!--authenticity of the document!"
+
+But Leyton stretched out his hand, saying, "Will you allow me to look
+at the paper, Mr. Croyland?" and then added, as soon as he received
+it, "Can any one tell me whether William Clare was left-handed?"
+
+"No!" replied Sir Robert Croyland, suddenly raising his head--"no, he
+was not.--Why do you ask?"
+
+"That I can answer for," said the constable, coming forward, "for he
+carved the stock of a gun for me; and I know he never used his left
+hand when he could use his right one."
+
+"Why do you ask, Harry?--why do you ask?" exclaimed Mr. Croyland.
+
+"Because, my dear sir," answered Leyton, aloud and clear, "this is the
+print of the thumb of a man's right hand. To have made it at all, he
+must have held the paper with his right, while he signed with his
+left, and even then, he could have done it with difficulty, as it is
+so near the signature, that his fingers would not have room to move;"
+and as he ended, he fixed his eyes sternly on Mr. Radford's face.
+
+The prisoner's countenance had changed several times while Sir Henry
+Leyton spoke, first becoming fiery red, then deadly pale, then red
+again.
+
+"However it happened, so it was," he said, doggedly.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland, sharply, "your evidence will fetch
+what it is worth!--I hope, clerk, you have got down Mr. Radford's
+statement."
+
+"He has written the same down here, your worship," replied the man,
+pointing to the letter in which the deposition had been enclosed, and
+which, having been cast down by Mr. Zachary, had been busily read by
+the clerk.
+
+"Well, then, we will read that too," observed the old gentleman.
+"Silence there!" he continued; for there was a good deal of noise at
+the side of the room, as the different persons present conversed over
+the events that were passing; "but first, we had better docket this
+commodity which we have just perused. Mr. Clerk, will you have the
+goodness to sign it also--on the back?"
+
+"Stay," said a voice from behind the rest, "let me sign it first;" and
+the man who had accompanied Leyton thither, wrapped in the dark
+horseman's coat, advanced between Mr. Croyland and the clerk.
+
+"Any one that likes--any one that likes," answered the former. "Ah, is
+that you, my old friend?"
+
+Both Mr. Radford and Sir Robert Croyland gazed, with looks of surprise
+not unmingled with more painful feelings, on the countenance of Mr.
+Warde, though each doubted his identity with one whom they had known
+in former years. But, without noticing any one, the strange-looking
+old man took the paper from the clerk, dipped the pen in the ink, and,
+in a bold, free hand, wrote some words upon the back.
+
+"Ha, what is this?" cried Mr. Croyland, taking the paper, and
+reading--"An infamous forgery--Henry Osborn!"
+
+"Villain, you are detected!" cried the person who has been called Mr.
+Warde. "I wrote from a distant land to warn you, that I was present
+when you knelt by William Clare--that I heard all--that I heard you
+try to prompt the dying man to an accusation he would not make--that I
+saw you stain the paper with his blood--ay, and sign it, too, after
+life had quitted him--I wrote to warn you; for I suspected you, from
+all I heard of your poor tool's changed conduct; and I gave you due
+notice, that if you ceased not, the day of retribution would arrive.
+It is come; and I am here, though you thought me dead! All your shifts
+and evasions are at an end. There is no collusion here--there is no
+personal interest. I have not conversed with that weak man for many
+years--and he it was who persecuted my sister's husband unto death!"
+
+"At his suggestion--from his threats!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland,
+pointing with his hand to Mr. Radford.
+
+"Take me away," said the prisoner, turning to the constable--"I am
+faint--I am sick--take me away!"
+
+Mr. Croyland nodded his head; and, supported by the constable and
+Birchett, Mr. Radford was led into the adjoining room.
+
+The scene that followed is indescribable. It was all confusion; every
+one spoke at once; some strove to make themselves heard above the
+rest; some seemed little to care whether they were heard or not; if
+any man thought he could fix another's attention, he tried to converse
+with him apart--many fixed upon the person nearest; but one or two
+endeavoured to make others hear across the room; and all order and
+common form were at an end.
+
+I have said every one spoke; but I should have made one exception. Sir
+Robert Croyland talked eagerly with his brother, and said a few low
+words to Mr. Osborn; but Leyton remained profoundly silent for several
+minutes. The din of many voices did not seem to disturb him; the
+strange turn that events had taken, appeared to produce no surprise;
+but he remained fixed to the same spot, with his eyes bent upon the
+table, and his mind evidently absent from all that was passing round.
+It was the abstraction of profound emotion; the power which the heart
+sometimes exercises over the mind, in withdrawing all its perceptions
+and its operative faculties from external things, to fix them
+concentrated upon some great problem within. At length, however, a
+sense of higher duties made him shake off the thoughts of his own fate
+and situation--of the bright and glorious hopes that were rising out
+of the previous darkness, like the splendour of the coming star after
+a long night--of the dreams of love and joy at length--of the growing
+light of "trust in the future," still faintly overshadowed by the dark
+objects of the past. With a quick start, as if he had awakened from
+sleep, he looked round, and demanded of one of the soldiers, many of
+whom were in the room, "Have you found the person accused--Richard
+Radford, I mean--has any one been taken in the premises and the house,
+besides the servants?"
+
+"Yes, sir, a person just arrived in a post-chaise," replied the
+sergeant.
+
+"We must have order, Sir Robert," continued Leyton, his powerful voice
+rising above the din; "there is much more to be done! Clear the room
+of your men, sergeant. They are not wanted here--but stay, I will
+speak with Mr. Haveland;" and he went out, followed by the sergeant
+and some half-dozen of the dragoons, who had accompanied their
+non-commissioned officer into the room.
+
+Leyton soon returned; but the precautions he had gone to enforce were
+vain. The person who had arrived in the chaise, proved to be a
+somewhat disreputable clergyman from a distant parish. Young Richard
+Radford was not taken; another fate awaited him. A man, indeed, on
+horseback, was seen to approach the grounds of Radford Hall towards
+eleven o'clock; but the lights, that were apparent through many
+windows, seemed to startle him, as he rode along the road. He paused
+for a moment, and gazed, and then advanced more slowly; but the
+eagerness of the small guard at that point, perhaps, frustrated their
+object, for it is not certain to this day who the person was. When he
+again halted, and seemed to hesitate, they dashed out after him; but
+instantly setting spurs to his horse, he galloped off into the woods;
+and knowing the country better than they did, he was soon lost to
+their pursuit.
+
+In the meantime, the result of the search in Mr. Radford's house was
+made known, in a formal manner, to the party assembled in the small
+drawing-room. Abundant evidence was found of his having been
+implicated in all the most criminal parts of the late smuggling
+transactions; and the business of the night concluded, by an order to
+remand him, to be brought before the bench of magistrates on the
+following day; for Sir Robert Croyland declined to commit him on his
+own responsibility.
+
+"He has preferred a charge against me," he said, in the same firm tone
+he had lately assumed--"let us see whether he will sustain it
+to-morrow."
+
+Before all was concluded, it was near midnight; and then every one
+rose to depart. Mr. Croyland eagerly asked for Edith, saying he would
+convey her home in his carriage; but Leyton interposed, replying, "We
+will bring her to you in a moment, my dear friend.--Sir Robert, it may
+be as well that you and I should seek Miss Croyland alone. I think I
+saw her maid below."
+
+"Certainly," answered her father, "let us go, my dear Henry, for it is
+growing very late."
+
+Mr. Croyland smiled, saying, "Well, well, so be it;" and the other two
+left the room. They found Edith, after some search, seated in the
+dining hall. She looked pale and anxious; but the expression of
+Leyton's face relieved her of her worst apprehensions--not that it was
+joyful; for there was a touch of sadness in it; but she knew that his
+aspect could not be such, if her father's life were in any real
+danger.
+
+Leyton advanced towards her at once, even before her father, took her
+hand in his, and kissed it tenderly. "I told you, dearest Edith," he
+said, "that I would bring you aid; and I have, thank God, been able to
+redeem that promise; but now I have another task to perform. Your
+father's safety is placed beyond doubt--his innocence made clear; and
+your happiness, beloved one, is not sacrificed. The chance of
+endangering that happiness was the only cause of my not doing what,
+perhaps, you desired for his sake--what I do now. Sir Robert Croyland,
+I did wrong in years long past--in boyhood and the intemperance of
+youthful love and hope--by engaging your daughter to myself by vows,
+which she has nobly though painfully kept. As an atonement to you, as
+a satisfaction to my own sense of right, I now, as far as in me lies,
+set her free from those engagements, leaving to her own self how she
+will act, and to you how you will decide. Edith, beloved, you are
+free, as far as I can make you so; and, Sir Robert, I ask your
+forgiveness for the wrong act I once committed."
+
+Edith Croyland turned somewhat pale, and looked at her father
+earnestly; but Sir Robert did not answer for a moment.--Was it that he
+hesitated?--No; but there was an oppressive weight at his heart, when
+he thought of all that he had done--all that he had inflicted, not
+only on the man before him, but on others guiltless of all offence,
+which seemed almost to stop its beating. But at length, he took
+Edith's hand and put it in Leyton's, saying, in a low, tremulous
+voice, "She is yours, Henry--she is yours; and, oh, forgive the father
+for the daughter's sake!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+There was a solitary light in an upstairs window of Farmer Harris's
+house; and, by its dim ray, sat Harding the smuggler, watching the
+inanimate form of her upon whom all the strong affections of his heart
+had been concentrated. No persuasions could induce him to entrust "the
+first watch," as he called it, to others; and there he sat, seldom
+taking his eyes from that pale but still beautiful countenance, and
+often stooping over to print a kiss upon the cold and clay-like
+forehead of the dead. His tears were all shed: he wept not--he spoke
+not; but the bitterness which has no end was in his heart, and, with a
+sleepless eye, he watched through the livelong night. It was about
+three o'clock in the morning, when a hard knocking was heard at the
+door of the farm; and, without a change of feature, Harding rose and
+went down in the dark. He unlocked the door, and opened it, when a
+hand holding a paper was thrust in, and instantly withdrawn, as
+Harding took the letter.
+
+"What is this?" he said; but the messenger ran away without reply; and
+the smuggler returned to the chamber of death.
+
+The paper he had taken was folded in the shape of a note, but neither
+sealed nor addressed; and, without ceremony, Harding opened it, and
+read. It was written in a free, good hand, which he recognised at
+once, with rage and indignation all the more intense because he
+restrained them within his own breast. He uttered not a word; his face
+betrayed, only in part, the workings of strong passion within him. It
+is true, his lip quivered a little, and his brow became contracted,
+but it soon relaxed its frown; and, without oath or comment--though
+very blasphemous expletives were then tolerated in what was called the
+best society, and were prevalent amongst all the inferior classes,--he
+proceeded to read the few lines which the letter contained, and which
+something--perhaps the emotions he felt--had prevented him from seeing
+distinctly at first.
+
+The epistle was, as we have seen, addressed to no one, and was drawn
+up, indeed, more in the form of a general notice than anything else.
+Many, of nearly the same import, as was afterwards discovered, had
+been delivered at various farm-houses in the neighbourhood; but, as
+all were in substance the same, one specimen will suffice.
+
+"We give you to know," so the letter ran, "that, unless Edward Ramley
+and his two comrades are set free before daylight to-morrow, we will
+come to Goudhurst, and burn the place. Neither man, woman, nor child,
+shall escape. We are many--more than you think--and you know we will
+keep our word. So look to it, if you would escape--
+
+                                  "Vengeance!"
+
+
+Harding approached the bed, with the letter in his hand, gazed
+steadfastly upon the corpse for several minutes, and then, without a
+word, quitted the room. He went straight to the chamber which Farmer
+Harris and his wife now occupied, and knocked sharply at the door,
+exclaiming, "Harris--Harris! I want to speak with you!"
+
+The good farmer was with difficulty roused; for though no man felt
+more warmly, or, indeed, more vehemently, yet the corporeal had its
+full share with the mental; and when the body was fatigued with more
+than its ordinary portion of labour, the mind did not keep the whole
+being waking. At length, however, he came out, still drowsy, and
+taking the letter, gazed on it by the light of the candle, "with lack
+lustre eye!" But Harding soon brought him to active consciousness, by
+saying, "They threaten to burn the village, Harris, unless the
+murderers be suffered to escape. I am going up to the church, where
+they are kept.--Wake some one to sit up-stairs.--I will die before a
+man of them goes out."
+
+"And so will I," cried Harris; "let me see--let me see! My heart's
+asleep still, but I'll soon wake up. Why, where the mischief did this
+come from?" and he read the letter over again, with more comprehension
+of its contents. When he had done, he swore vehemently, "They shall
+find that the men of Goudhurst can match them," he cried; "but we must
+set about it quick, Harding, and call up all the young men.--They will
+come, that is certain; for the devil himself has not their impudence;
+but they must be well received when they do come. We'll give them a
+breakfast, Harding, they shan't forget. It shall be called the
+Goudhurst breakfast, as long as men can remember. Stay, I'll just put
+on my coat, and get out the gun and the pistols--we shall want as many
+of those things as we can muster. I'll be back in a minute."
+
+From that hour till five o'clock, the little village of Goudhurst was
+all alive. Intimation of the danger was sent to all the neighbouring
+farmers; every labouring man was roused from his bed with directions
+to meet the rest in the church-yard; and there, as the sky became
+grey, a busy scene was displayed, some sixty stout men being assembled
+before the porch, most of them armed with old muskets or fowling
+pieces. Amongst those to whom age or habitual authority assigned the
+chief place, an eager consultation went on as to their proceedings;
+and though there was, as is generally the case in such meetings, a
+great difference upon many points, yet three acts were unanimously
+decided upon; first, to send all the women and children out of the
+village--next, to despatch a messenger to Woodchurch for military
+aid--and, next, to set about casting bullets immediately, as no shot
+larger than slugs were to be found in the place.
+
+The reader will probably ask, with a look of surprise, "Is this a
+scene in North America, where settlers were daily exposed to the
+incursions of the savages?"--and he may add, "This could not have
+happened in England!" But I beg to say, this happened in the county of
+Kent, less than a century ago; and persons are still living, who
+remember having been sent with the women and children out of the
+village, that the men might not be impeded by fear for those they
+loved, while defending the spot on which they were born.
+
+A fire of wood was speedily lighted by some of the men in the
+church-yard; others applied themselves, with what moulds could be
+procured, to the casting of ball; others, again, woke the still
+slumbering inhabitants of the cottages and houses round, and warned
+the women to remove to the neighbouring farms, and the men to come and
+join their friends at the rendezvous; and a few of the best instructed
+proceeded to arrange their plan of defence, barricading the gates of
+the cemetery, and blocking up a stile, which at that time led from the
+right hand wall, with an old grave-stone, against which they piled up
+a heap of earth.
+
+The vestry, in which the prisoners had been confined--after having
+been brought from Mr. Broughton's at too late an hour to convey them
+to gaol--was luckily protected by strong iron bars over the windows,
+and a heavy plated door between it and the church; and the old tower
+of the building afforded a strong point in the position of the
+villagers, which they flattered themselves could not easily be forced.
+
+"How many men do you think they can muster, Harding?" asked Farmer
+Harris, when their first rude preparations were nearly complete.
+
+"I can but guess," answered the smuggler; "perhaps two hundred. They
+had more than that in the Marsh, of whom I hear some fifty were taken
+or killed; but a good many were not there, who may, and will be here
+to-day--old Ramley for one, I should think."
+
+"Then we had better get into the church when they come," replied the
+farmer; "they cannot force us there till the soldiers come."
+
+"Did you send for them?" asked Harding.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the farmer, "half-an-hour ago. I sent the young
+boy, who would be of no good here, on the pony; and I told him to let
+Sir Robert know, as he passed; for I thought the soldiers might not
+meddle if they had not a magistrate with them."
+
+"Very well," replied Harding, and set himself to work away again.
+
+Six o'clock was now past, seven approached and went by; the hand of
+the dial moved half-way on to eight, and yet nothing indicated the
+approach of the smugglers. In a few minutes after, however, the sound
+of horses' feet galloping was heard; and a young man, who had been
+placed in the belfry to look out, shouted down to those below, "Only
+two!" and the next moment a horseman in military half dress, with a
+servant behind him, rode up at speed to the principal entrance of the
+church-yard.
+
+"I am come to help you, my men," cried Sir Edward Digby, springing to
+the ground, and giving his rein to his servant--"Will you let us in to
+your redoubt? The dragoons will soon be over; I sent your messenger
+on."
+
+"Perhaps, sir, you may have your trouble for your pains, after all,"
+answered young Harris, opening the gate, to let Digby and his horses
+in; "the fellows have not shown themselves, and very likely wont
+come."
+
+"Oh, yes, they will," said the young baronet, advancing amongst
+them, and looking round on every side, "I saw a long line of men on
+horseback moving over the hill as I came. Put the horses under cover
+of that shed, Somers. You should cut down those thick bushes near the
+wall. They will conceal their movements.--Have you any axes?"
+
+"Here is one," cried a young man, and immediately he set to work,
+hewing down the shrubs and bushes to which Digby pointed.
+
+In the meantime, the young officer ran over the groups with his eye,
+calculating their numbers, and at length he said: "You had better
+confine yourselves to defending the church--you are not enough to meet
+them out here. I counted a hundred and fifty, and there may be more.
+Station your best marksmen at the windows and on the roof of the
+tower, and put a few stout resolute fellows to guard the door in case
+these scoundrels get nearer than we wish them. As we all act upon our
+own responsibility, however, we had better be cautious, and abstain
+from offensive measures, till they are absolutely necessary for the
+defence of ourselves and the security of the prisoners. Besides, if
+they are kept at bay for some time, the dragoons will take them in
+flank, and a good number may be captured."
+
+"We can deal with them ourselves," said the voice of Harding, in a
+stern tone. He had been standing by, listening, in grave silence, with
+a gun in his hand, which he had borrowed at farmer Harris's; and now,
+as soon as he had spoken, he turned away, walked into the church, and
+climbed to the roof of the tower. There, after examining the priming
+of the piece, he seated himself coolly upon the little parapet, and
+looked out over the country. The moment after, his voice was heard,
+calling from above--"They are coming up, Harris!--Tell the officer."
+
+Sir Edward Digby had, in the meantime, advanced to the gates to
+insure that they were securely fastened; but he heard what Harding
+said, and turning his head, exclaimed--"Go into the church; and
+garnish the windows with marksmen, as I said! I will be with you in a
+moment.--Here, Somers, help me here for a moment. They will soon pull
+this down;" and he proceeded calmly to fasten the barricade more
+strongly. Before he had accomplished this to his satisfaction, men on
+horseback were seen gathering thick in the road, and on the little
+open space in front; but he went on without pausing to look at them,
+till a loud voice exclaimed--"What are you about there?--Do you intend
+to give the men up, or not?"
+
+Sir Edward Digby then raised his head, and replied: "Certainly
+not!--Oh, Mr. Richard Radford--you will have the goodness to remark
+that, if you advance one step towards these gates, or attempt to pass
+that wall, you will be fired on from the church."
+
+While he was speaking, he took a step back, and then walked slowly
+towards the building, making his servant go first; but half-way
+thither he paused, and turning towards the ruffians congregated at a
+little distance from the wall, he added aloud, addressing Richard
+Radford--"You had better tell your gang what I say, my good friend,
+for they will find we will keep our word."
+
+As he spoke, some one from the mass fired a pistol at him; but the
+ball did not take effect, and Digby raised his hand, waving to those
+in the church not to fire, and at the same time hurrying his pace a
+little till he had passed the door and ordered it to be shut.
+
+"They have now fair warning," he said to one of the young Harris's,
+who was on guard at the door; "but I will go up above and call to you
+when I think anything is necessary to be done.--Remember, my good
+fellows, that some order must be kept; and as you cannot all be at the
+windows, let those who must stand back, load while the rest fire."
+
+Thus saying, he mounted to the top of the tower with a quick step, and
+found Harding and five others on the roof. The horsemen in front of
+the church, were all gathered together at a little distance, and
+seemed in eager consultation; and amongst them the figures of young
+Radford and the two Ramleys, father and son, were conspicuous from the
+vehement gestures that they made--now pointing to the top of the
+tower, now to the wall of the churchyard.
+
+"I think we could bring a good many down as they stand now," said
+young William Harris, moving his gun towards his shoulder, as if the
+inclination to fire were almost irresistible.
+
+"Stay--stay! not yet," replied Sir Edward Digby; "let it be clearly in
+our own defence. Besides, you must remember these are but fowling
+pieces. At that distance, few shots would tell."
+
+"One shall tell, at least, before this day is over," said Harding, who
+had remained seated, hardly looking at the party without. "Something
+tells me, I shall have vengeance this day."
+
+"Hallo! they are going to begin!" cried another man; and the same
+moment, the gang of miscreants spread out, and while some advanced on
+horseback towards the wall, at least fifty, who were armed with guns,
+dismounted and aimed deliberately at the tower and the windows.
+
+"Down with your heads behind the parapet!" cried Digby, though he did
+not follow the caution himself; "no use of exposing your lives
+needlessly. Down--down, Harding!"
+
+But Harding sat where he was, saying, bitterly, "They'll not hit
+me.--I know it--they've done worse already." As he spoke, a single gun
+was fired, and then a volley, from the two sides of the churchyard
+wall. One of the balls whizzed close by Sir Edward Digby's head, and
+another struck the parapet near Harding; but neither were touched, and
+the stout seaman did not move a muscle.
+
+"Now up, and give it them back!" exclaimed Digby; and, speaking down
+the trap that led to the stairs, he called to those below, "Fire now,
+and pick them off!--Steadily--steadily!" he continued, addressing his
+companions on the roof, who were becoming somewhat too much excited.
+"Make every shot tell, if you can--a good aim--a good aim!"
+
+"Here goes for one!" cried William Harris, aiming at Jim Ramley, and
+hitting him in the thigh; and instantly, from the roof and the windows
+of the church, blazed forth a sharp fire of musketry, which apparently
+was not without severe effect; for the men who had dismounted were
+thrown into great confusion, and the horsemen who were advancing
+recoiled, with several of their horses plunging violently.
+
+The only one on the roof who did not fire was Harding, and he remained
+with his gun resting on the parapet beside him, gazing, with a stern,
+dark brow, upon the scene.
+
+"There are three down," cried one of the men, "and a lot of horses!"
+
+But Richard Radford was seen gesticulating vehemently; and at length
+taking off his hat, he waved it in the air, shouting, so loud that his
+words reached those above, "I will show you the way, then; let every
+brave man follow me!" And as he spoke he struck his spurs into his
+horse's sides, galloped on, and pushed his beast at the low wall of
+the churchyard.
+
+The animal, a powerful hunter, which had been sent to him by his
+father the day before, rose to the leap as if with pride. But just
+then, Harding raised his gun, aimed steadily, and pulled the trigger.
+The smoke for a moment obscured Digby's view; but the instant after he
+saw Richard Radford falling headlong from the saddle, and his shoulder
+striking the wall as the horse cleared it. The body then fell over,
+bent up, with the head leaning against a tombstone and the legs upon
+an adjoining grave.
+
+"There!--that's done!" said Harding; and laying down the gun again, he
+betook himself quietly to his seat upon the parapet once more.
+
+"The dragoons! the dragoons!" cried a young man from the other side of
+the tower. But ere he spoke, the gang of villains were already in
+retreat, several galloping away, and the rest wavering.
+
+Loading as fast as they could, the stout yeomanry in the church
+continued firing from the windows and from the roof, accelerating the
+movements of their assailants, who seemed only to pause for the
+purpose of carrying off their wounded companions. Sir Edward Digby,
+however, ran round to the opposite side of the tower, and, clearly
+seeing the advance of some cavalry from the side of Cranbrook--though
+the trees prevented him from ascertaining their numbers--he bade the
+rest follow, and ran down into the body of the church.
+
+"Now out, and after them!" he exclaimed; "we may make some prisoners!"
+But as soon as the large wooden doors were thrown back and the
+peasantry were seen pouring forth, old Ramley, who was amongst the
+last that lingered, turned his horse and galloped away, his companions
+following as fast as they could. Four men were found on the outside of
+the churchyard wall, of whom two were living; but Sir Edward Digby
+advanced with several others to the spot where Richard Radford was
+lying. He did not appear to have moved at all since he fell; and on
+raising his head, which had fallen forward on his chest as he lay
+propped up by the gravestone, a dark red spot in the centre of the
+forehead, from which a small quantity of blood had flowed down over
+his eyes and cheeks, told how fatally true the shot had gone to the
+mark.
+
+When he had gazed on him for a moment, Digby turned round again, to
+look for Harding; but the man who had slain him, did not approach the
+corpse of Richard Radford; and Digby perceived him standing near a low
+shed, which at that time encumbered the churchyard of Goudhurst, and
+under which the young baronet's horses had been placed. Thither the
+strong hunter, which Radford had been riding, had trotted as soon as
+his master fell; and Harding had caught it by the bridle, and was
+gazing at it with a thoughtful look.
+
+The last time Sir Edward Digby had seen him, before that morning, he
+was in high happiness by the side of poor Kate Clare; and when the
+young officer looked at him, as he stood there, with a sort of dull
+despair in his whole aspect, he could not but feel strong and painful
+sympathy with him, in his deep grief.
+
+"Mr. Harding," he said, approaching him, "the unhappy man is quite
+dead."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," answered Harding, "dead enough, I am sure. I hope he
+knew whose hand did it."
+
+"I am sorry to give you any further pain or anxiety, at this moment,"
+continued Digby, sinking his voice, "but I have heard that you are
+supposed to have taken some part in landing the goods which were
+captured the other day. For aught we know, there may be information
+lodged against you; and probably there will be some officer of Customs
+with the troop that is coming up. Would it not be better for you to
+retire from this scene for a little?"
+
+"Thank you, sir,--thank you! That is kind!" answered Harding. "Life's
+a load to me; but a prison is another thing. I would have given any of
+those clumsy fellows a hundred guineas to have shot me as I sat there
+but no man shall ever take me, and clap me up in a cell. I could not
+bear that; and my poor Kate lying dead there, too!--I'll go, as you
+say."
+
+But before he could execute his purpose, a small party of dragoons,
+commanded by a lieutenant, with Birchett, the riding officer, and two
+or three of his companions, came up at a trot, and poured through the
+gate of the churchyard, which was now open.
+
+Sir Edward Digby advanced at once towards them--if the truth must be
+told, to cover Harding's retreat; but Birchett's quick, shrewd eye had
+run round the place in an instant; and, before the young baronet had
+taken two steps along the path, he cried, "Why, there is Harding! Stop
+him!--stop him! We have information against him. Don't let him pass!"
+
+"I _will_ pass, though," cried Harding, leaping at once upon the back
+of Richard Radford's horse. "Now, stop me if you can!" and striking it
+with his heel, he turned the animal across the churchyard, taking an
+angle, away from the dragoons. Birchett spurred after him in a moment;
+and the other officers followed; but the soldiers did not move.
+Passing close by the spot where young Radford lay, as the officers
+tried to cut him off from the gate, Harding cried, with a wild and
+bitter laugh, "He is a good leaper, I know!" and instantly pushed his
+horse at the wall.
+
+The gallant beast took it at once, and dashed away with its rider
+along the road. The officers of Customs dared not trust their own
+cattle with the same feat; but Birchett exclaimed, in a loud and
+imperative tone, turning to the lieutenant of dragoons, "I require
+your aid in capturing that man. He is one of the most daring smugglers
+on the whole coast. We can catch him easily, if we are quick."
+
+"I do not know that I am authorized," said the lieutenant, not well
+pleased with the man's manner; "where no armed resistance is
+apprehended, I doubt if----"
+
+"But there may be resistance, sir," replied Birchett, vehemently; "he
+is gone to join his comrades.--Well, the responsibility be on your
+head! I claim your aid! Refuse it or not, as you shall think fit.--I
+claim and require it instantly!"
+
+"What do you think, sir?" asked the young officer, turning to Digby.
+
+"Nay, I am not in command here," answered the other; "you know your
+orders."
+
+"To give all lawful aid and assistance," said the lieutenant. "Well,
+take a Serjeant's guard, Mr. Birchett."
+
+In haste, the men were drawn out, and followed: Birchett leading them
+furiously on the pursuit; but ere they had quitted the churchyard,
+Harding was half-a-mile upon the road; and that was all he desired.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+There was a large lugger lying off at no great distance from the
+beach, near Sandgate, and a small boat, ready for launching, on the
+shore. At the distance of two or three miles out, might be seen a
+vessel of considerable size, and of that peculiar rig and build which
+denoted, to nautical eyes, that there lay a king's vessel. She was,
+indeed, a frigate of inferior class, which had been sent round to
+co-operate with the Customs, in the suppression of the daring system
+of smuggling, which, as we have shown, was carried on in Romney Marsh,
+and the neighbouring country. By the lesser boat, upon the shore,
+stood four stout fellows, apparently employed in making ready to put
+off; and upon the high ground above, was seen a single officer of
+Customs, walking carelessly to and fro, and apparently taking little
+heed of the proceedings below. Some movements might be perceived on
+board the ship; the sails, which had been furled, now began to flutter
+in the wind, which was blowing strong; and it seemed evident that the
+little frigate was about to get under weigh. The lugger, however,
+remained stationary; and the men near the boat continued their labours
+for nearly an hour after they seemed in reality to have nothing more
+to do.
+
+At length, however, coming at a furious pace, down one of the narrow
+foot-paths from the high ground above, which led away towards Cheriton
+and Newington, was seen a horseman, waving his hand to those below,
+and passing within fifty yards of the officer of Customs. The sailors,
+who were standing by the boat, instantly pushed her down to the very
+verge of the water; the officer hallooed after the bold rider, but
+without causing him to pause for an instant in his course; and down,
+at thundering speed, across the road, and over the sand and shingle,
+Harding, the smuggler, dashed on, till the horse that bore him stood
+foaming and panting beside the boat. Instantly springing out of the
+saddle, he cast the bridle on the tired beasts neck, and jumped into
+the skiff, exclaiming, "Shove her off!"
+
+"Arn't there some more, Jack?" asked one of the men.
+
+"None but myself," replied Harding, "and me they shan't catch.--Shove
+her off, I say--you'll soon see who are coming after!"
+
+The men obeyed at once; the boat was launched into the water; and
+almost at the same instant, the party of dragoons in pursuit appeared
+upon the top of the rise, followed, a moment after, by Birchett, and
+another officer of the Customs. The vehement and angry gestures of the
+riding officer indicated plainly enough that he saw the prey had
+escaped him; but while the dragoons and his fellow officer made their
+way slowly down the bank, to the narrow road which at that time ran
+along the beach, he galloped off towards a signal-post, which then
+stood upon an elevated spot, not far from the place where the
+turnpike, on the road between Sandgate and Folkestone, now stands. In
+a few minutes various small flags were seen rapidly running up to the
+top of the staff; and, as speedily as possible afterwards, signals of
+the same kind were displayed on board the frigate.
+
+In the meantime, however, Harding and his party had rowed rapidly
+towards the lugger, the sails of which were already beginning to fill;
+and in less than two minutes she was scudding through the water as
+fast as the wind would bear her. But the frigate was also under weigh;
+and, to both experienced and inexperienced eyes, it seemed that the
+bold smuggler had hardly one chance of escape. Between Dungeness
+Point, and the royal vessel, there appeared to be no space for any of
+those daring man[oe]uvres by which the small vessels, engaged in the
+contraband trade, occasionally eluded the pursuit of their larger and
+more formidable opponents; but Harding still pursued his course,
+striving to get into the open sea, before the frigate could cut him
+off.
+
+Bending under the press of sail, the boat rushed through the waves,
+with the uptide running strong against her, and the spray dashing over
+her from stem to stern; but still, as she took an angle, though an
+acute one, with the course of the frigate, the latter gained upon her
+every moment, till at length a shot, whistling across her bows, gave
+her the signal to bring to. It is needless to tell the reader, that
+signal received no attention; but, still steered with a firm hand, and
+carrying every stitch of canvas she could bear, the lugger pursued her
+way. A minute had scarcely passed, ere flash and report came again
+from the frigate, and once more a ball whistled by. Another and
+another followed; but, no longer directed across the lugger's bows,
+they were evidently aimed directly at her; and one of them passed
+through the foresail, though without doing any farther damage. The
+case seemed so hopeless, not only to those who watched the whole
+proceeding from the shore, but to most of those who were in the
+lugger, that a murmured consultation took place among the men; and
+after two or three more shots had been fired, coming each time nearer
+and nearer to their flying mark, one of the crew turned to Harding,
+who had scarcely uttered a word since he entered the boat, and said,
+"Come, sir, I don't think this will do.--We shall only get ourselves
+sunk for no good.--We had better douse."
+
+Harding looked sternly at him for a moment without reply; and a
+somewhat bitter answer rose to his lips. But he checked himself, and
+said, at length, "There's no use sacrificing your lives. You've got
+wives and children--fathers and mothers. I have no one to care for
+me.--Get into the boat, and be off. Me they shall never catch, dead or
+alive; and if I go to the bottom, it's the best berth for me now.
+Here, just help me reeve these tiller-ropes that I may take shelter
+under the companion; and then be off as fast as you can."
+
+The men would fain have remonstrated; but Harding would hear nothing;
+and, covering himself as much as he could from the aim of small arms
+from the vessel, he insisted that the whole of his crew should go and
+leave him.
+
+A short pause in the lugger's flight was observable from the shore;
+and everybody concluded that she had struck. The row-boat, filled with
+men, was seen to pull off from her, and the large heavy sails to flap
+for an instant in the wind. But then her course was altered in a
+moment; the sails filled again with the full breeze; and going like a
+swallow over the waves, she dashed on towards the frigate, and,
+passing her within pistol-range immediately after, shot across upon
+her weather-bow.
+
+A cloud of smoke ran all along the side of the frigate, as this bold
+and extraordinary man[oe]uvre was executed. The faint report of small
+arms was wafted by the wind to the shore, as well as the sound of
+several cannon; but still, whether Harding was wounded or not wounded,
+living or dead, his gallant boat dashed steadily on, and left the
+frigate far behind, apparently giving up the chase, as no longer
+presenting any chance of success. On, on, went the lugger, diminishing
+as it flew over the waves, till at length, to the eyes even of those
+who watched from the heights, its dark, tanned sails grouped
+themselves into one small speck, and were then lost to the sight.
+
+The after-fate of that adventurous man, who thus, single and unaided,
+trusted himself to the wide waves, is wrapped in obscurity. The writer
+of these pages, indeed, did once see a stern-looking old man of the
+same name, who had returned some few years before from distant
+lands--no one well knew whence--to spend the last few years of a life,
+which had been protracted considerably beyond the ordinary term of
+human existence, in a seaport not very far from Folkestone. The
+conversation of the people of the place pointed him out as one who had
+done extraordinary deeds, and seen strange sights; but whether he was,
+indeed, the Harding of this tale or not, I cannot say. Of one thing,
+however, the reader may be certain, that in all the statements
+regarding the smuggler's marvellous escape, the most scrupulous
+accuracy has been observed, and that every fact is as true as any part
+of history, and a great deal more so than most.
+
+Having now disposed of one of our principal characters, let me take
+the reader gently by the hand, and lead him back to Harbourne House.
+The way is somewhat long, but still, not more than a stout man can
+walk without fatigue upon a pleasant morning; and it lies, too,
+amongst sweet and interesting scenes--which, to you and me, dear
+reader, are, I trust, embellished by some of the charms of
+association.
+
+It was about six days after the attack, upon the church at Goudhurst,
+when a great number of those personages with whom it has been
+necessary to make the reader acquainted, were assembled in the
+drawing-room of Sir Robert Croyland's mansion. One or two, indeed,
+were wanting, even of the party which might have been expected there,
+but their absence shall be accounted for hereafter. The baronet
+himself was seated in the arm-chair, which he generally occupied more
+as a mark of his state and dignity, than for comfort and convenience.
+In the present instance, however, he seemed to need support, for he
+leaned heavily upon the arm of the chair, and appeared languid and
+feeble. His face was very pale, his lips somewhat livid; and yet,
+though suffering evidently under considerable corporeal debility,
+there was a look of mental relief in his eyes, and a sweet placidity
+about his smile, that no one had seen on his countenance for many
+years.
+
+Mrs. Barbara was, as usual, seated at her everlasting embroidery; and
+here we may as well mention a fact which we omitted to mention before,
+but which some persons may look upon as indicative of her mental
+character--namely, that the embroidery, though it had gone on all her
+life, by no means proceeded in an even course of progression. On the
+contrary, to inexperienced eyes, it seemed as if no sooner was a
+stitch put in than it was drawn out again, the point of the needle
+being gently thrust under the loop of the thread, and then the arm
+extended with an even sweep, so as to withdraw the silk from its hole
+in the canvas. Penelope's web was nothing to Mrs. Barbary Croyland's
+embroidery; for the queen of Ithaca only undid what she had previously
+done, every night; and Aunt Bab undid it every minute. On the present
+occasion, she was more busy in the retroactive process than ever, not
+only pulling out the silk she had just put in, but a great deal more;
+so that the work of the last three days, was in imminent danger of
+total destruction.
+
+Mr. Zachary Croyland never sat down when he could stand; for there was
+about him, a sort of mobility and activity of spirits, which always
+inclined him to keep his body ready for action. He so well knew that,
+when seated, he was incessantly inclined to start up again, that
+probably he thought it of little use to sit down at all; and
+consequently he was even now upon his feet, midway between his brother
+and his sister, rubbing his hands, and giving a gay, but cynical
+glance from one to the other.
+
+In a chair near the window, with his wild, but fine eye gazing over
+the pleasant prospect which the terrace commanded, and apparently
+altogether absent in mind from the scene in the drawing-room, was
+seated Mr. Osborn; and not far from Mr. Croyland stood Sir Henry
+Leyton, in an ordinary riding-dress, with his left hand resting on the
+hilt of his sword, speaking in an easy, quiet tone to Sir Robert
+Croyland; and nearly opposite to him was Edith, with her arm resting
+on the table, and her cheek supported on her hand. Her face was still
+pale, though the colour had somewhat returned; and the expression was
+grave, though calm. Indeed, she never recovered the gay and sparkling
+look which had characterized her countenance in early youth; but the
+expression had gained in depth and intensity more than it had lost in
+brightness; and then, when she did smile, it was with ineffable
+sweetness: a gleam of sunshine upon the deep sea. Her eyes were fixed
+upon her lover; and those who knew her well could read in them
+satisfaction, love, hope--nay, more than hope--a pride, the only pride
+that she could know--that he whom she had chosen in her girlhood, to
+whom she had remained true and faithful through years of sorrow and
+unexampled trial, had proved himself in every way worthy of her first
+affection and her long constancy.
+
+But where was Zara?--where Sir Edward Digby? for neither of them were
+present at the time. From the laws of attraction between different
+terrestrial bodies, we have every reason to infer that Digby and Zara
+were not very far apart. However, they had been somewhat eccentric
+in their orbits; for Zara had gone out about a couple of hours
+before--Digby being then absent, no one knew where--upon a charitable
+errand, to carry consolation and sympathy to the cottage of poor Mrs.
+Clare, whose daughter had been committed to the earth the day before.
+How it happened, Heaven only knows, but certain it is, that at the
+moment I now speak of, she and Digby were walking home together,
+towards Harbourne House, while his servant led his horse at some
+distance behind.
+
+Before they reached the house, however, a long conversation had taken
+place between the personages in the drawing-room, of which I shall
+only give the last few sentences.
+
+"It is true, Harry, it is true," said Sir Robert Croyland, in reply to
+something just spoken by Leyton; "and we have both things to forgive;
+but you far more than I have; and as you have set me an example of
+doing good for evil, and atoning, by every means, for a slight error,
+I will not be backward to do the same, and to acknowledge that I have
+acted most wrongly towards you--for which may Heaven forgive me, as
+you have done. I have small means of atoning for much that is past;
+but to do so, as far as possible: freely, and with my full consent,
+take the most valuable thing I have to give--my dear child's
+hand,--nay, hear me yet a moment. I wish your marriage to take place
+as soon as possible. I have learned to doubt of time, and never to
+trust the future. Say a week--a fortnight, Edith; but let it be
+speedily. It is my wish--let me say, for the last time, it is my
+command."
+
+"But, brother Robert," exclaimed Mrs. Barbara, ruining her embroidery
+irretrievably in the agitation of the moment, "you know it can't be so
+very soon; for there are all the dresses to get ready, and the
+settlements to be drawn up, and a thousand things to buy; and our
+cousins in Yorkshire must be informed, and----"
+
+"D--n our cousins in Yorkshire!" exclaimed Mr. Zachary Croyland. "Now,
+my dear Bab, tell me candidly, whether you have or have not any nice
+little plan ready for spoiling the whole, and throwing us all into
+confusion again. Don't you think you could just send Edith to visit
+somebody in the small-pox? or get Harry Leyton run through in a duel?
+or some other little comfortable consummation, which may make us all
+as unhappy as possible?"
+
+"Really, brother Zachary, I don't know what you mean," said Mrs.
+Barbara, looking the picture of injured innocence.
+
+"I dare say not, Bab," answered Mr. Croyland; "but I understand what
+you mean; and I tell you it shall not be. Edith shall fix the day; and
+as a good child, she will obey her father, and fix it as early as
+possible. When once fixed, it shall not be changed or put off, on any
+account or consideration whatever, if my name's Croyland. As for the
+dresses, don't you trouble your head about that; I'll undertake the
+dresses, and have them all down from London by the coach. Give me the
+size of your waist, Edith, upon a piece of string, and your length
+from shoulder to heel, and leave all the rest to me. If I don't dress
+her like a Mahommedan princess, may I never hear _Bismillah_ again."
+
+Edith smiled, but answered, "I don't think it will be at all
+necessary, my dear uncle, to put you to the trouble; and I do not
+think it would answer its purpose if you took it."
+
+"But I will have my own way," said Mr. Croyland--"you are my pet; and
+all the matrimonial arrangements shall be mine. If you don't mind, and
+say another word, I'll insist upon being bridesmaid too; for I can
+encroach in my demands, I can tell you, as well as a lady, or a prime
+minister."
+
+As he spoke, the farther progress of the discussion was interrupted by
+the entrance of Zara, followed by Sir Edward Digby. Her colour was a
+little heightened, and her manner somewhat agitated; but she shook
+hands with her uncle and Leyton, neither of whom she had seen before
+during that morning; and then passing by her father, in her way
+towards Edith, she whispered a word to him as she went.
+
+"What, what!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland, turning suddenly round
+towards Digby, with a look of alarm, and pressing his left hand upon
+his side, "she says you have something important to tell me, Sir
+Edward.--Pray speak! I have no secrets from those who are around me."
+
+"I am sure, what I have to say will shock all present!" replied Sir
+Edward Digby, gravely; "but the fact is, I heard a report this
+morning, from my servant, that Mr. Radford had destroyed himself last
+night in prison; and I rode over as fast as I could, to ascertain if
+the rumour was correct. I found that it was but too accurate, and that
+the unhappy man terminated a career of crime, by the greatest that he
+could commit."
+
+"Well, there's one rascal less in the world--that's some comfort,"
+said Mr. Zachary Croyland; "I would rather, indeed, he had let some
+one else hang him, instead of doing it himself; for I don't approve of
+suicide at all--it's foolish, and wicked, and cowardly. Still, nothing
+else could be expected from such a man--but what's the matter with
+you, Robert? you seem ill--surely, you can't take this man's death
+much to heart?"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland did not reply, but made a faint sign to open the
+window, which was immediately done; and he revived under the influence
+of the air.
+
+"I will go out for a few minutes," he said, rising; and Edith,
+instantly starting up, approached to go with him. He would not suffer
+her, however--"No, my child," he replied to her offer, "no: you can
+understand what I feel; but I shall be better presently. Stay here,
+and let all this be settled; and remember, Edith, name the earliest
+day possible--arrange with Zara and Digby. Theirs can take place at
+the same time."
+
+Thus saying, he went out, and was seen walking slowly to and fro upon
+the terrace, for some minutes after. In the meanwhile, the war had
+commenced between Mr. Zachary Croyland and his younger niece. "Ah,
+Mrs. Madcap!" he exclaimed, "so I hear tales of you. The coquette has
+been caught at length! You are going to commit matrimony; and as birds
+of a feather flock together, the wild girl and the wild boy must
+pair."
+
+With her usual light, graceful step, and with her usual gay and
+brilliant smile, Zara left Sir Edward Digby's side, and crossing over
+to her uncle, rested both her hands upon his arm, while he stood as
+erect and stiff as a finger post, gazing down upon her with a look of
+sour fun, But in Zara's eyes, beautiful and beaming as they were,
+there was a look of deeper feeling than they usually displayed when
+jesting, as was her wont, with Mr. Croyland.
+
+"Well, Chit," he said, "well, what do you want?--a new gown, or a
+smart hat, or a riding-whip, with a tiger's head in gold at the top?"
+
+"No, my dear uncle," she answered, "but I want you not to tease me,
+nor to laugh at me, nor to abuse me, just now. For once in my life, I
+feel that I must be serious; and I think even less teasing than
+ordinary might be too much for me. Perhaps, one time or another, you
+may find out that poor Zara's coquetry was more apparent than real,
+and that though she had an object, it was a better one than you, in
+your benevolence, were disposed to think."
+
+An unwonted drop swam in her eyes as she spoke; and Mr. Croyland gazed
+down upon her tenderly for a moment. Then throwing his arms round her,
+he kissed her cheek--"I know it, my dear," he said--"I know it. Edith
+has told me all; and she who has been a kind, good sister, will, I am
+sure, be a kind, good wife. Here, take her away, Digby. A better girl
+doesn't live, whatever I may have said. The worst of it is, she is a
+great deal too good for you, or any other wild, harem-scarem fellow.
+But stay--stay," he continued, as Digby came forward, laughing, and
+took Zara's hand; "here's something with her; for, as I am sure you
+will be a couple of spendthrifts, it is but fit that you should have
+something to set out upon."
+
+Mr. Croyland, as he spoke, put his hand into the somewhat wide and
+yawning pocket of his broad-tailed coat, and produced his pocket-book,
+from which he drew forth a small slip of paper.
+
+Digby took it, and looked at it, but instantly held it out again to
+Mr. Croyland, saying, "My dear sir, it is quite unnecessary. I claim
+nothing but her hand; and that is mine by promises which I hope will
+not be very long ere they are fulfilled."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense!" cried Mr. Croyland, putting away the paper with
+the back of his hand; "did ever any one see such a fool?--I tell you,
+Sir Edward Digby, I'm as proud a man as you are, and you shall not
+marry my niece without receiving the same portion as her sister
+possesses. I hate all eldest sons, as you well know; and I don't see
+why eldest daughters should exist either. I'll have them all equal. No
+differences here. I've made up to Zara, the disparity which one fool
+of an uncle thought fit to put between her and Edith. Such was always
+my intention; and moreover, let it clearly be understood, that when
+you have put this old carrion under ground, what I leave is to be
+divided between them--all equal, all equal--co-heiresses, of Zachary
+Croyland, Esq., surnamed the Nabob, alias the Misanthrope--and then,
+if you like it, you may each bear in your arms a crow rampant, on an
+escutcheon of pretence."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, my dear uncle," answered Edith Croyland, while
+Zara's gay heart was too full to let her speak--"thank you for such
+thought of my sweet sister; for, indeed, to me, during long years of
+sorrow and trouble, she has been the spirit of consolation, comfort,
+strength--even hope."
+
+Poor Zara was overpowered; and she burst into tears. It seemed as if
+all the feelings, which for the sake of others she had so long
+suppressed--all the emotions, anxieties, and cares which she had
+conquered or treated lightly, in order to give aid and support to
+Edith, rushed upon her at once in the moment of joy, and overwhelmed
+her.
+
+"Why, what's the foolish girl crying about?" exclaimed Mr. Croyland;
+but then, drawing her kindly to him, he added, "Come, my dear, we will
+make a truce, upon the following conditions--I wont tease you any
+more; and you shall do everything I tell you. In the first place,
+then, wipe your eyes, and dry up your tears; for if Digby sees how red
+your cheeks can look, when you've been crying, he may find out that
+you are not quite such a Venus as he fancies just now--There, go
+along!" and he pushed her gently away from him.
+
+While this gayer conversation had been going on within, Mr. Osborn had
+passed through the glass doors, and was walking slowly up and down
+with Sir Robert Croyland. The subject they spoke upon must have been
+grave; for there was gloom upon both their faces when they returned.
+
+"I know it," said Sir Robert Croyland to his companion as they entered
+the room; "I am quite well aware of it; it is that which makes me urge
+speed."
+
+"If such be your view," replied Mr. Osborn, "you are right, Sir
+Robert; and Heaven bless those acts, which are done under such
+impressions."
+
+The party in the drawing-room heard no more; and, notwithstanding the
+kindly efforts of Mrs. Barbara, and a thousand little impediments,
+which, "with the very best motives in the world," she created or
+discovered, all the arrangements for the double marriage were made
+with great promptitude and success. At the end of somewhat less than a
+fortnight, without any noise or parade, the two sisters stood together
+at the altar, and pledged their troth to those they truly loved. Sir
+Robert Croyland seemed well and happy; for during the last few days
+previous to the wedding, both his health and spirits had apparently
+improved. But, ere a month was over, both his daughters received a
+summons to return, as speedily as possible, to Harbourne House. They
+found him on the bed of death, with his brother and Mr. Osborn sitting
+beside him. But their father greeted them with a well-contented smile,
+and reproved their tears in a very different tone from that which he
+had been generally accustomed to use.
+
+"My dear children," he said, in a feeble voice, "I have often longed
+for this hour; and though life has become happier now, I have, for
+many weeks, seen death approaching, and have seen it without regret. I
+did not think it would have been so slow; and that was the cause of my
+hurrying your marriage; for I longed to witness it with my own eyes,
+yet was unwilling to mingle the happiness of such a union, with the
+thought that it took place while I was in sickness and danger. My
+brother will be a father to you, I am sure, when I am gone; but still
+it is some satisfaction to know that you have both better protectors,
+even here on earth, than he or I could be. I trust you are happy; and
+believe me, I am not otherwise--though lying here with death before
+me."
+
+Towards four o'clock on the following day, the windows of Harbourne
+House were closed; and, about a week after, the mortal remains of Sir
+Robert Croyland were conveyed to the family vault in the village
+church. Mr. Croyland succeeded to the estates and title of his
+brother; but he would not quit the mansion which he himself had built,
+leaving Mrs. Barbara, with a handsome income, which he secured to her,
+to act the Lady Bountiful of Harbourne House.
+
+The fate of Edith and Zara we need not farther trace. It was such as
+might be expected from the circumstances in which they were now
+placed. We will not venture to say that it was purely happy; for when
+was ever pure and unalloyed happiness found on earth? There were
+cares, there were anxieties, there were griefs, from time to time: for
+the splendid visions of young imagination may be prophetic of joys
+that shall be ours, if we deserve them in our trial here, but are
+never realized within the walls of our mortal prison, and recede
+before us, to take their stand for ever beyond the portals of the
+tomb. But still they were as happy as human beings, perhaps, ever
+were; for no peculiar pangs or sufferings were destined to follow
+those which had gone before; and in their domestic life, having chosen
+well and wisely, they found--as every one will find, who judges upon
+such grounds--that love, when it is pure, and high, and true, is a
+possession, to the brightness of which even hope can add no sweetness,
+imagination no splendour that it does not in itself possess.
+
+The reader may be inclined to ask the after fate of some of the other
+characters mentioned in this work. In regard to many of them, I must
+give an unsatisfactory reply. What became of most, indeed, I do not
+know. The name of Mowle, the officer of Customs, is still familiar to
+the people of Hythe and its neighbourhood. It is certain that Ramley
+and one of his sons were hanged; but the rest of the records of that
+respectable family are, I fear, lost to the public. Little Starlight
+seems to have disappeared from that part of the country, for some
+time; and in truth, I have no certainty that the well-known
+pickpocket, Night Ray, who was transported to Botany Bay, some
+thirty years after the period of this tale, and was shot in an attempt
+to escape, was the same person whose early career is here recorded.
+But of one thing the reader maybe perfectly certain, that--whatever
+was the fortune which attended any of the persons I have
+mentioned--whether worldly prosperity, or temporary adversity befel
+them--the real, the solid good, the happiness of spirit, was awarded
+in exact proportion to each, as their acts were good, and their hearts
+were pure.
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+       T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos Street, Covent Garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
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+<title>The Smuggler: A Tale. Vols. I-III.</title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III)
+       A Tale
+
+Author: G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2012 [EBook #39531]
+Last Updated: December 12, 2017
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMUGGLER: (VOL'S I-III) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (Oxford University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br>
+<br>
+1. Page scan source:<br>
+<br>
+http://books.google.com/books?id=q_QDAAAAQAAJ<br>
+(Oxford University)</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<br>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_ded" href="#div1_ded">DEDICATION.</a></h4>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="div1Ref_0" href="#div1_0">VOLUME I</a>.</h3>
+<br>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01">CHAPTER I.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02">CHAPTER II.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03">CHAPTER III.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04">CHAPTER IV.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05">CHAPTER V.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06">CHAPTER VI.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07">CHAPTER VII.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h4>
+
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09">CHAPTER IX.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10">CHAPTER X.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_11" href="#div1_11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_12" href="#div1_12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_13" href="#div1_13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h4>
+
+<br>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_0" href="#div2_0">VOLUME II.</a></h4>
+<br>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_01" href="#div2_01">CHAPTER I.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_02" href="#div2_02">CHAPTER II.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_03" href="#div2_03">CHAPTER III.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_04" href="#div2_04">CHAPTER IV.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_05" href="#div2_05">CHAPTER V.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_06" href="#div2_06">CHAPTER VI.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_07" href="#div2_07">CHAPTER VII.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_08" href="#div2_08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h4>
+
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_09" href="#div2_09">CHAPTER IX.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_10" href="#div2_10">CHAPTER X.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_11" href="#div2_11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div2Ref_12" href="#div2_12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h4>
+
+
+<br>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_0" href="#div3_0">VOLUME III.</a></h4>
+<br>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_01" href="#div3_01">CHAPTER I.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_02" href="#div3_02">CHAPTER II.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_03" href="#div3_03">CHAPTER III.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_04" href="#div3_04">CHAPTER IV.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_05" href="#div3_05">CHAPTER V.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_06" href="#div3_06">CHAPTER VI.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_07" href="#div3_07">CHAPTER VII.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_08" href="#div3_08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h4>
+
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_09" href="#div3_09">CHAPTER IX.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_10" href="#div3_10">CHAPTER X.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_11" href="#div3_11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_12" href="#div3_12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div3Ref_13" href="#div3_13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h4>
+
+
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<h1>THE SMUGGLER:</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>A Tale</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.</h2>
+
+<h5>AUTHOR OF<br>
+
+&quot;DARNLEY,&quot; &quot;DE L'ORME,&quot; &quot;RICHELIEU,&quot;<br>
+
+ETC. ETC.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>IN THREE VOLUMES.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="div1_0" href="#div1Ref_0">VOL. I.</a></h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>LONDON:</h4>
+<h3>SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.</h3>
+<h4>1845.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_ded" href="#div1Ref_ded">DEDICATION.</a></h2>
+<br>
+<hr class="W10">
+<br>
+<h5>TO</h5>
+
+<h2>THE HON<sup style="font-size:10pt">BLE</sup> CHARLES EWAN LAW, M.P.</h2>
+
+<h4>RECORDER OF LONDON,</h4>
+
+<h4>ETC. ETC. ETC.</h4>
+<br>
+<hr class="W10">
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="continue"><span class="sc">My Dear Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It would be almost superfluous to assure you of my esteem and regard;
+but feelings of personal friendship are rarely assigned as the sole
+motives of a dedication. The qualities, however, which command public
+respect, and the services which have secured it to you in so high a
+degree, must appear a sufficient motive for offering you this slight
+tribute, in the eyes not only of those who know and love you in the
+relations of private life, but of all the many who have marked your
+career, either as a lawyer, alike eminent in learning and in
+eloquence, or as a just, impartial, clear-sighted, and yet merciful
+judge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">You will willingly accept the book, I know, for the sake of the
+author; though, perhaps, you may have neither time nor inclination to
+read it. Accept the dedication, also, I beg, as a sincere testimony of
+respect from one who, having seen a good deal of the world, and
+studied mankind attentively, is not easily induced to reverence or won
+to regard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When you look upon this page, it will probably call to your mind some
+very pleasant hours, which would doubtless have been as agreeable if I
+had not been there. As I write it, it brings up before my eyes many a
+various scene, of which you and yours were the embellishment and the
+light. At all events, such memories must be pleasant to us both; for
+they refer to days almost without a shadow, when the magistrate and
+the legislator escaped from care and thought, and the laborious man of
+letters cast away his toil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the following pages you will find more than one place depicted, as
+familiar to your remembrance as to mine; and if I have taken some
+liberties with a few localities, stolen a mile or two off certain
+distances, or deprived various hills and dales of their due
+proportions, these faults are of a species of petty larceny, on which
+I do not think you will pass a severe sentence, and I hope the public
+will imitate your lenity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">I trust that no very striking errors will meet your eye, for I believe
+I have given a correct picture of the state of society in this good
+county of Kent as it existed some eighty or ninety years ago; and, in
+regard to the events, if you or any of my readers should be inclined
+to exclaim,--&quot;This incident is not probable!&quot; I have an answer ready,
+quite satisfactory to myself, whatever it may be to others; namely,
+that &quot;the improbable incident&quot; is true. All the more wild, stirring,
+and what may be called romantic parts of the tale, are not alone
+<i>founded</i> upon fact, but are facts; and the narrative owes me nothing
+more than a gown owes to a sempstress--namely, the mere sewing of it
+together with a very common-place needle and thread. In short, a few
+characters thrown in for relief, a little love, a good deal of
+landscape, and a few tiresome reflections, are all that I have added
+to a simple relation of transactions well known to many in this part
+of the country as having actually happened, a generation or two ago.
+Among these recorded incidents are the attack of Goudhurst Church by
+the smugglers, its defence by the peasantry, the pursuit, and defeat
+of the free-traders of those days by the Dragoons, the implication of
+some persons of great wealth in the most heinous parts of the
+transaction, the visit of Mowle, the officer, in disguise, to the
+meeting-place of his adversaries, his accidental detection by one of
+them, and the bold and daring man&#339;uvre of the smuggler, Harding, as
+related near the close of the work. Another incident, but too sadly
+true--namely, the horrible deed by which some of the persons taking a
+chief part in the contraband trade called down upon themselves the
+fierce enmity of the peasantry--I have but lightly touched upon, for
+reasons you will understand and appreciate. But it is some
+satisfaction to know that there were just judges in those days, as
+well as at present, and that the perpetrators of one of the most
+brutal crimes on record suffered the punishment they so well merited.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Happily, my dear sir, a dedication, in these days, is no compliment;
+and therefore I can freely offer, and you receive it, as a true and
+simple expression of high respect and regard,</p>
+<br>
+<p style="text-indent:20%">From yours faithfully,</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:40%">G. P. R. JAMES.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE SMUGGLER</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It is wonderful what improvements have taken place in clocks and
+watches during the last half-century; how accurately the escapements
+are constructed, how delicately the springs are formed, how easily the
+wheels move, and what good time they keep. After all, society is but a
+clock, a very complicated piece of mechanism; and it, too, has
+undergone, in many countries, the same improvements that have taken
+place in the little ticking machines that we put in our pockets, or
+those greater indicators of our progress towards eternity that we hang
+upon our walls. From the wooden clock, with its weight and catgut, to
+the exquisite chronometer which varies only by a second or two in the
+course of the year, what a vast advance! and between even a period
+which many still living can remember, and that in which I now write,
+what a change has taken place in the machinery and organization of the
+land in which we dwell!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the times which I am about to depict, though feudal ages were gone,
+though no proud barons ruled the country round from castle and
+stronghold, though the tumultuous times of the great rebellion had
+also passed away, and men in buff and bandolier no longer preached, or
+fought, or robbed, or tyrannized under the name of law and liberty,
+though the times of the second Charles and the second James, William
+and Mary, and good Queen Anne, falling collars, and hats and plumes,
+and floating wigs and broad-tailed coats, were all gone--bundled away
+into the great lumber-room of the Past--still, dear reader, there was
+a good deal of the wooden clock about the mechanism of society.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One of the parts in which rudeness of construction and coarseness of
+material were most apparent, was in the Customs system of the country,
+and in the impediments which it met with. The escapement was anything
+but fine. Nowadays we do things delicately. If we wish to cheat the
+government, we forge Exchequer bills, or bribe landing-waiters and
+supervisors, or courteously insinuate to a superior officer that a
+thousand pounds is not too great a mark of gratitude for enabling us
+to pocket twenty thousand at the expense of the Customs. If we wish to
+cheat the public, there is chalk for our milk, grains of paradise for
+our beer, sago and old rags for our sugar, lime for our linen, and
+devils' dust to cover our backs. Chemistry and electricity, steam and
+galvanism, all lend their excellent aid to the cheat, the swindler,
+and the thief; and if a man is inclined to keep himself within
+respectable limits, and deceive himself and others at the same time
+with perfect good faith and due decorum, are there not hom&#339;opathy,
+hydropathy, and mesmerism?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the days I speak of it was not so. There was a grander roughness
+and daringness about both our rogues and our theorists. None but a
+small villain would consent to be a swindler. We had more robbers than
+cheats; and if a man chose to be an impostor, it was with all the
+dignity and decision of a Psalmanazor, or a bottle conjuror. Gunpowder
+and lead were the only chemical agents employed; a bludgeon was the
+animal magnetism most in vogue, and your senses and your person were
+attacked and knocked down upon the open road without having the heels
+of either delicately tripped up by some one you did not see.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still this difference was more apparent in the system of smuggling
+than in anything else, and the whole plan, particulars, course of
+action, and results were so completely opposed to anything that is, or
+can be in the present day--the scenes, the characters, the very
+localities have so totally changed, that it may be necessary to pause
+a moment before we go on to tell our tale, in order to give some sort
+of description of the state of the country bordering on the sea-coast,
+at the period to which I allude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scarcely any one of the maritime counties was in those days without
+its gang of smugglers; for if France was not opposite, Holland was not
+far off; and if brandy was not the object, nor silk, nor wine, yet tea
+and cinnamon, and hollands, and various East India goods, were things
+duly estimated by the British public, especially when they could be
+obtained without the payment of Custom-house dues. But besides the
+inducements to smuggling which the high price that those dues imposed
+upon certain articles, held out, it must be remembered that various
+other commodities were totally prohibited, and, as an inevitable
+consequence, were desired and sought for more than any others. The
+nature of both man and woman, from the time of Adam and Eve down to
+the present day, has always been fond of forbidden fruit; and it
+mattered not a pin whether the goods were really better or worse, so
+that they were prohibited, men would risk their necks to get them. The
+system of prevention also was very inefficient, and a few scattered
+Custom-House officers, aided by a cruiser here or there upon the
+coast, had an excellent opportunity of getting their throats cut or
+their heads broken, or of making a decent livelihood by conniving at
+the transactions they were sent down to stop, as the peculiar
+temperament of each individual might render such operations pleasant
+to him. Thus, to use one of the smugglers' own expressions--a
+<i>roaring</i> trade in contraband goods was going on along the whole
+British coast, with very little let or hindrance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As there are land-sharks and water-sharks, so were there then (and so
+are there now) land-smugglers and water-smugglers. The latter brought
+the objects of their commerce, either from foreign countries or from
+foreign vessels, and landed them on the coast--and a bold, daring,
+reckless body of men they were; the former, in gangs, consisting
+frequently of many hundreds, generally well mounted and armed,
+conveyed the commodities so landed into the interior, and distributed
+them to others, who retailed them as occasion required. Nor were these
+gentry one whit less fearless, enterprising, and lawless than their
+brethren of the sea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">We have not yet done, however, with all the ramifications of this vast
+and magnificent league, for it extended itself, in the districts where
+it existed, to almost every class of society. Each tradesman smuggled
+or dealt in smuggled goods; each public house was supported by
+smugglers, and gave them in return every facility possible; each
+country gentleman on the coast dabbled a little in the interesting
+traffic; almost every magistrate shared in the proceeds or partook of
+the commodities. Scarcely a house but had its place of concealment,
+which would accommodate either kegs or bales, or human beings, as the
+case might be; and many streets in sea-port towns had private passages
+from one house to another, so that the gentleman inquired for by the
+officers at No. 1 was often walking quietly out of No. 20, while they
+were searching for him in vain. The back of one street had always
+excellent means of communication with the front of another; and the
+gardens gave exit to the country with as little delay as possible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Of all counties, however, the most favoured by nature and by art for
+the very pleasant and exciting sport of smuggling, was the county of
+Kent; its geographical position, its local features, its variety of
+coast, all afforded it the greatest advantages; and the daring
+character of the natives on the shores of the Channel was sure to turn
+those advantages to the purposes in question. Sussex, indeed, was not
+without its share of facilities, nor did the Sussex men fail to
+improve them; but they were so much farther off from the opposite
+coast, that the commerce--which we may well call the regular
+trade--was, at Hastings, Rye, and Winchelsea, in no degree to be
+compared to that which was carried on from the North Foreland to
+Romney Hoy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At one time, the fine level of &quot;The Marsh,&quot; a dark night and a fair
+wind, afforded a delightful opportunity for landing a cargo and
+carrying it rapidly into the interior; at another time, Sandwich Flats
+and Pevensey Bay presented a harbour of refuge, and a place of repose
+to kegs innumerable and bales of great value; at another period, the
+cliffs round Folkestone and near the South Foreland, saw spirits
+travelling up by paths which seemed inaccessible to mortal foot; and
+at another, the wild and broken ground at the back of Sandgate was
+traversed by long trains of horses, escorting or carrying every
+description of contraband articles.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The interior of the country was not less favourable to the traffic
+than the coast: large masses of wood, numerous gentlemen's parks,
+hills and dales tossed about in wild confusion; roads such as nothing
+but horses could travel, or men on foot, often constructed with felled
+trees or broad stones laid side by side; wide tracts of ground, partly
+copse and partly moor, called in that county &quot;minnisses;&quot; and a long
+extent of the Weald of Kent, through which no high way existed, and
+where such thing as coach or carriage was never seen, offered the land
+smugglers opportunities of carrying on their transactions with the
+degree of secrecy and safety which no other county afforded. Their
+numbers, too, were so great, their boldness and violence so notorious,
+their powers of injuring or annoying so various, that even those who
+took no part in their operations were glad to connive at their
+proceedings, and at times to aid in concealing their persons or their
+goods. Not a park, not a wood, not a barn, did not at some period
+afford them a refuge when pursued, or become a depository for their
+commodities; and many a man, on visiting his stable or his cart-shed
+early in the morning, found it tenanted by anything but horses or
+wagons. The churchyards were frequently crowded at night by other
+spirits than those of the dead, and not even the church was exempted
+from such visitations.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">None of the people of the county took notice of, or opposed these
+proceedings; the peasantry laughed at, or aided, and very often got a
+good day's work, or, at all events, a jug of genuine hollands from the
+friendly smugglers; the clerk and the sexton willingly aided and
+abetted, and opened the door of vault, or vestry, or church, for the
+reception of the passing goods; the clergyman shut his eyes if he saw
+tubs or stone jars in his way; and it is remarkable what good brandy
+punch was generally to be found at the house of the village pastor.
+The magistrates of the county, when called upon to aid in pursuit of
+the smugglers, looked grave, and swore in constables very slowly;
+despatched servants on horseback to see what was going on, and ordered
+the steward or the butler to &quot;<i>send the sheep to the wood</i>,&quot; an
+intimation that was not lost upon those for whom it was intended. The
+magistrates and officers of seaport towns were in general so deeply
+implicated in the trade themselves, that smuggling had a fairer chance
+than the law, in any case that came before them, and never was a more
+hopeless enterprise undertaken, in ordinary circumstances, than that
+of convicting a smuggler, unless captured in flagrant delict.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Were it only our object to depict the habits and manners of these
+worthy people, we might take any given part of the seaward side of
+Kent that we chose for particular description, for it was all the
+same. No railroads had penetrated through the country then; no coast
+blockade was established; even martello-towers were unknown; and in
+the general confederacy or understanding which existed throughout the
+whole of the county, the officers found it nearly a useless task to
+attempt to execute their duty. Nevertheless, as it is a tale I have to
+tell, not a picture to paint, I may as well dwell for a few minutes
+upon the scene of the principal adventures about to be related. A long
+range of hills, varying greatly in height and steepness, runs nearly
+down the centre of the county of Kent, throwing out spurs or
+buttresses in different directions, and sometimes leaving broad and
+beautiful valleys between. The origin or base, if we may so call it,
+of this range is the great Surrey chain of hills; not that it is
+perfectly connected with that chain, for in many places a separation
+is found, through which the Medway, the Stour, and several smaller
+rivers wind onward to the Thames or to the sea; but still the general
+connexion is sufficiently marked, and from Dover and Folkestone, by
+Chart, Lenham, Maidstone, and Westerham on the one side, and Barham,
+Harbledown, and Rochester on the other, the road runs generally over a
+long line of elevated ground, only dipping down here and there to
+visit some town or city of importance which has nested itself in one
+of the lateral valleys, or strayed out into the plain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the northern side of the county, a considerable extent of flat
+ground extends along the bank and estuary of the Thames from Greenwich
+to Sandwich and Deal. On the southern side, a still wider extent lies
+between the high-land and the borders of Sussex. This plain or valley
+as perhaps it may be called, terminates at the sea by the renowned
+flat of Romney Marsh. Farther up, somewhat narrowing as it goes, it
+takes the name of the Weald of Kent, comprising some very rich land
+and a number of small villages, with one or two towns of no very great
+importance. This Weald of Kent is bordered all along by the southern
+side of the hilly range we have mentioned; but strange to say,
+although a very level piece of ground was to be had through this
+district, the high road perversely pursued its way up and down the
+hills, by Lenham and Charing, till it thought fit to descend to
+Ashford, and thence once more make its way to Folkestone. Thus a great
+part of the Weald of Kent was totally untravelled; and at one village
+of considerable size, which now hears almost hourly the panting and
+screaming steam-engine whirled by, along its iron course, I have
+myself seen the whole population of the place turn out to behold the
+wonderful phenomenon of a coach-and-four, the first that was ever
+beheld in the place. Close to the sea the hills are bare enough; but
+at no great distance inland, they become rich in wood, and the Weald,
+whether arable or pasture, or hop-garden or orchard, is so divided
+into small fields by numerous hedgerows of fine trees, and so
+diversified by patches of woodland, that, seen at a little distance up
+the hill--not high enough to view it like a map--it assumes, in the
+leafy season, almost the look of a forest partially cleared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Along the southern edge, then, of the hills we have mentioned, and in
+the plainer valley that stretches away from their feet, among the
+woods, and hedgerows, and villages, and parks which embellish that
+district, keeping generally in Kent, but sometimes trespassing a
+little upon the fair county of Sussex, lies the scene of the tale
+which is to follow, at a period when the high calling, or vocation, of
+smuggling was in its most palmy days. But, ere I proceed to conduct
+the reader into the actual locality where the principal events here
+recorded really took place, I must pause for an instant in the
+capital, to introduce him to one or two travelling companions.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was in the gray of the morning--and very gray, indeed, the morning
+was, with much more black than white in the air, much more of night
+still remaining in the sky than of day appearing in the east--when,
+from the old Golden Cross, Charing Cross, or rather from the low and
+narrow archway which, at that time, gave exit from its yard into the
+open street exactly opposite the statue of King Charles, issued forth
+a vehicle which had not long lost the name of diligence, and assumed
+that of stage-coach. Do not let the reader delude himself into the
+belief that it was like the stage-coach of his own recollections in
+any other respect than in having four wheels, and two doors, and
+windows. Let not fancy conjure up before him flat sides of a bright
+claret colour, and a neat boot as smooth and shining as a looking
+glass, four bays, or browns, or greys, three-parts blood, and a
+coachman the pink of all propriety. Nothing of the kind was there. The
+vehicle was large and roomy, capable of containing within, at least,
+six travellers of large size. It was hung in a somewhat straggling
+manner upon its almost upright springs, and was elevated far above any
+necessary pitch. The top was decorated with round iron rails on either
+side; and multitudinous were the packages collected upon the space so
+enclosed; while a large cage-like instrument behind contained one or
+two travellers, and a quantity of parcels. The colour of the sides was
+yellow, but the numerous inscriptions which they bore in white
+characters left little of the groundwork to be seen; for the name of
+every place at which the coach stopped was there written for the
+convenience of travellers who might desire to visit any town upon the
+road; so that each side seemed more like a leaf out of a topographical
+dictionary of the county of Kent than anything else. Underneath
+the carriage was a large wicker basket, or cradle, also filled with
+trunk-mails, and various other contrivances for holding the goods and
+chattels of passengers; and the appearance of the whole was as
+lumbering and heavy as that of a hippopotamus. The coachman mounted on
+the box was a very different looking animal even from our friend Mr.
+Weller, though the inimitable portrait of that gentleman is now, alas,
+but a record of an extinct creature! However, as we have little to do
+with the driver of the coach, I shall not pause to give a long account
+of his dress or appearance; and, only noticing that the horses before
+him formed as rough and shambling a team of nags as ever were seen,
+shall proceed to speak of the travellers who occupied the interior of
+the vehicle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Although, as we have seen, the coach would have conveniently contained
+six, it was now only tenanted by three persons. The first, who had
+entered at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, was a tall, thin, elderly
+gentleman, dressed with scrupulous care and neatness. His linen and
+his neckcloth were as white as snow, his shoes, his silk stockings,
+his coat, his waistcoat, and his breeches as black as jet; his hat was
+in the form of a Banbury cake; the buckles in his shoes and at his
+knees were large and resplendent; and a gold-headed cane was in his
+hand. To keep him from the cold, he had provided himself with a
+garment which would either serve for a cloak or a coat, as he might
+find agreeable, being extensive enough for the former, and having
+sleeves to enable it to answer the purpose of the latter. His hair and
+eyebrows were as white as driven snow, but his eyes were still keen,
+quick, and lively. His colour was high, his teeth were remarkably
+fine, and the expression of his countenance was both intelligent and
+benevolent, though there was a certain degree of quickness in the turn
+of the eyes, which, together with a sudden contraction of the brow
+when anything annoyed him, and a mobility of the lips, seemed to
+betoken a rather hasty and irascible spirit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had not been in the coach more than a minute and a half--but was
+beginning to look at a huge watch which he drew from his fob, and to
+&quot;pish&quot; at the coachman for being a minute behind his time--when he was
+joined by two other travellers of a very different appearance and age
+from himself. The one who entered first was a well-made, powerful man,
+who might be either six-and-twenty or two-and-thirty. He could not
+well be younger than the first of those two terms, for he had all the
+breadth and vigorous proportions of fully-developed manhood. He could
+not be well older than the latter, for not a trace of passing years,
+no wrinkle, no furrow, no grayness of hair, no loss of any youthful
+grace was apparent. Although covered by a large rough coat, then
+commonly called a wrap-rascal, of the coarsest materials and the
+rudest form, there was something in his demeanour and his look which
+at once denoted the gentleman. His hat, too, his gloves, and his
+boots, which were the only other parts of his dress that the loose
+coat we have mentioned suffered to be seen, were all not only good,
+but of the best quality. Though his complexion was dark, and his skin
+bronzed almost to a mahogany colour by exposure to sun and wind, the
+features were all fine and regular, and the expression high toned, but
+somewhat grave, and even sad. He seated himself quietly in the corner
+of the coach, with his back to the horses; and folding his arms upon
+his broad chest, gazed out of the window with an abstracted look,
+though his eyes were turned towards a man with a lantern who was
+handing something up to the coachman. Thus the old gentleman on the
+opposite side had a full view of his countenance, and seemed, by the
+gaze which he fixed upon it, to study it attentively.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The second of the two gentlemen I have mentioned entered immediately
+after the first, and was about the same age, but broader in make, and
+not quite so tall. He was dressed in the height of the mode of that
+day; and, though not in uniform, bore about him several traces of
+military costume, which were, indeed, occasionally affected by the
+dapper shopmen of that period, when they rode up Rotten Row or walked
+the Mall, but which harmonized so well with his whole appearance and
+demeanour, as to leave no doubt of their being justly assumed. His
+features were not particularly good, but far from ugly, his complexion
+fair, his hair strong and curly; and he would have passed rather for a
+handsome man than otherwise, had not a deep scar, as if from a
+sabre-wound, traversed his right cheek and part of his upper lip. His
+aspect was gay, lively, and good-humoured, and yet there were some
+strong lines of thought about his brow, with a slightly sarcastic turn
+of the muscles round the corner of his mouth and nostrils. On
+entering, he seated himself opposite the second traveller, but without
+speaking to him, so that the old gentleman who first tenanted the
+coach could not tell whether they came together or not; and the moment
+after they had entered, the door was closed, the clerk of the inn
+looked at the way-bill, the coachman bestowed two or three strokes of
+his heavy whip on the flanks of his dull cattle, and the lumbering
+machine moved heavily out, and rolled away towards Westminster Bridge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The lights which were under the archway had enabled the travellers to
+see each other's faces, but when once they had got into the street,
+the thickness of the air, and the grayness of the dawn, rendered
+everything indistinct, except the few scattered globe lamps which
+still remained blinking at the sides of the pavement. The old
+gentleman sunk back in his corner, wrapped his cloak about him for a
+nap, and was soon in the land of forgetfulness. His slumbers did not
+continue very long, however; and when he woke up at the Loompit Hill,
+he found the sky all rosy with the beams of the rising sun, the
+country air light and cheerful, and his two companions talking
+together in familiar tones. After rousing himself, and putting down
+the window, he passed about five minutes either in contemplating the
+hedges by the roadside, all glittering in the morning dew, or in
+considering the faces of his two fellow-travellers, and making up his
+mind as to their characters and qualities. At the end of that time, as
+they had now ceased speaking, he said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A beautiful day, gentlemen. I was sure it would be so when we set
+out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The darker and the graver traveller made no reply, but the other
+smiled good-humouredly, and inquired--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I ask by what you judged, for to me the morning seemed to promise
+anything but fine weather?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Two things--two things, my dear sir,&quot; answered the gentleman in
+black. &quot;An old proverb and a bad almanack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; exclaimed the other. &quot;I should have thought it a very good
+almanack if it told me to a certainty what sort of weather it would
+be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but how did it tell me?&quot; rejoined the elderly traveller, leaning
+his hand upon the gold head of his cane. &quot;It declared we should have
+torrents of rain. Now, sir, the world is composed of a great mass of
+fools with a small portion of sensible men, who, like a little
+quantity of yeast in a large quantity of dough, make the dumpling not
+quite so bad as it might be. Of all the fools that I ever met with,
+however, the worst are scientific fools, for they apply themselves to
+tell all the other fools in the world that of which they themselves
+know nothing, or at all events very little, which is worse. I have
+examined carefully, in the course of a long life, how to deal with
+these gentry, and I find that if you believe the exact reverse of any
+information they give you, you will be right nine hundred and
+ninety-seven times out of a thousand. I made a regular calculation of
+it some years ago; and although at first sight it would seem that the
+chances are equal, that these men should be right or wrong, I found
+the result as I have stated, and have acted upon it ever since in
+perfect security. If they trusted to mere guess work, the chances
+might, perhaps, be equal, but they make such laborious endeavours to
+lead themselves wrong, and so studiously avoid everything that could
+lead them right, that the proportion is vastly against them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If such be their course of proceeding, the result will be naturally
+as you say,&quot; answered the gentleman to whom he spoke; &quot;but I should
+think that as the variations of the weather must proceed from natural
+causes constantly recurring, observation and calculation might arrive
+at some certainty regarding them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hold the sea in the hollow of your hand,&quot; cried the old gentleman,
+impatiently; &quot;make the finite contain the infinite; put twenty
+thousand gallons into a pint pot,--and when you have done all that,
+then calculate the causes that produce rain to-day and wind to-morrow,
+or sunshine one day and clouds the next. Men say the same cause
+acting under the same circumstances will always produce the same
+effect--good; I grant that, merely for the sake of argument. But I
+contend that the same effect may be produced by a thousand causes or
+more. A man knocks you down; you fall: that's the effect produced by
+one cause; but a fit of apoplexy may make you fall exactly in the same
+way. Then apply the cause at the other end if you like, and trip your
+foot over a stone, or over some bunches of long grass that mischievous
+boys have tied across the path--down you come, just as if a
+quarrelsome companion had tapped you on the head. No, no, sir; the
+only way of ascertaining what the weather will be from one hour to
+another is by a barometer. That's not very sure, and the best I know
+of is a cow's tail, or a piece of dried seaweed. But these men of
+science, they do nothing but go out mare's-nesting from morning till
+night, and a precious number of horses' eggs they have found!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus commenced a conversation which lasted for some time, and in which
+the younger traveller seemed to find some amusement, plainly
+perceiving, what the reader has already discovered, that his elderly
+companion was an oddity. The other tenant of the coach made no
+observation, but remained with his arms folded on his chest, sometimes
+looking out of the window, sometimes gazing down at his own knee in
+deep thought. About ten miles from town the coach passed some led
+horses, with the grooms that were conducting them; and, as is natural
+for young men, both the old gentleman's fellow-travellers put their
+heads to the window, and examined the animals with a scrutinizing eye.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fine creatures, fine creatures--horses!&quot; said the gentleman in black.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Those are very fine ones,&quot; answered the graver of the two young men;
+&quot;I think I never saw better points about any beast than that black
+charger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, sir; you are a judge of horse-flesh, I suppose,&quot; rejoined the old
+gentleman; &quot;but I was speaking of horses in the abstract. They are
+noble creatures indeed; and as matters have fallen out in this world,
+I can't help thinking that there is a very bad arrangement, and that
+those at the top of the tree should be a good way down. If all
+creatures had their rights, man would not be the cock of the walk, as
+he is now--a feeble, vain, self-sufficient, sensual monkey, who has no
+farther advantages over other apes than being able to speak and cook
+his dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I ask,&quot; inquired the livelier of the two young men, &quot;what is the
+gentlemanly beast you would put over his head?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A great many--a great many,&quot; replied the other. &quot;Dogs,
+horses--elephants, certainly; I think elephants at the top. I am not
+sure how I would class lions and tigers, who decidedly have one
+advantage over man, that of being stronger and nobler beasts of prey.
+He is only at the head of the tribe Simia, and should be described by
+naturalists as the largest, cunningest, and most gluttinous of
+baboons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gay traveller laughed aloud; and even his grave companion smiled,
+saying, drily, &quot;On my life, I believe there's some truth in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Truth, sir!&quot; exclaimed the old gentleman. &quot;It's as true as we are
+living. How dare man compare himself to a dog? an animal with greater
+sagacity, stronger affections, infinitely more honour and honesty, a
+longer memory, and a truer heart. I would not be a man if I could be a
+dog, I can assure you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Many a man leads the life of a dog,&quot; said the gay traveller. &quot;I'm
+sure I have, for the last five or six years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you have led as honest a life, sir,&quot; rejoined the old man, &quot;you
+may be very proud of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What the other would have answered cannot be told, for at that moment
+the coach stopped to change horses, which was an operation in those
+days, occupying about a quarter of an hour, and the whole party got
+out and went into the little inn to obtain some breakfast; for between
+London and Folkestone, which was to be the ultimate resting-place of
+the vehicle, two hours and a half, upon the whole, were consumed with
+breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper. Thus any party of travellers
+proceeding together throughout the entire journey, had a much better
+opportunity of becoming thoroughly acquainted with each other than
+many a man has before marriage with the wife he takes to his bosom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Though the conversation of the old gentleman was, as the reader has
+perceived, somewhat morose and misanthropical, he showed himself very
+polite and courteous at the breakfast table, made the tea, carved the
+ham, and asked every man if he took cream and sugar. What wonderful
+things little attentions are--how they smooth down our asperities and
+soften us to one another! The two younger gentlemen had looked upon
+their elderly companion merely as that curious compound which we have
+before mentioned--an oddity, and which, like a pinch of strong snuff,
+stimulates us without being very pleasant; but now they began to think
+him a very nice old gentleman, and even the graver of the pair
+conversed with him almost cheerfully for the short space of time their
+meal occupied. When they had finished, and paid the score, the whole
+party walked out together to the front of the house, where they found
+a poor beggar woman with a child in her arms. Each gave her something,
+but the elderly man stopped to inquire farther, and the others walked
+up and down for a few minutes, till the coachman, who was making
+himself comfortable by the absorption of his breakfast, and the horses
+who were undergoing the opposite process in the application of their
+harness, at length made their appearance. The two younger gentlemen
+turned their eyes from time to time, as they walked, to their elderly
+friend, who seemed to be scolding the poor woman most vehemently. His
+keen black eyes sparkled, his brow contracted, he spoke with great
+volubility, and demonstrated somewhat largely with the forefinger of
+his right hand. What were their internal comments upon this conduct
+did not appear; but both were a good deal surprised to see him, in the
+end, put his hand into his breeches pocket, draw forth a piece of
+money--it was not silver for it was yellow, and it was not copper for
+it was too bright--and slip it quietly into the poor woman's palm. He
+next gave a quiet, almost a timid glance around, to see if any one
+were looking, and then stepped rapidly into the coach, as if he were
+ashamed of what he had done. During all this proceeding he had taken
+no notice of his two companions, nor at all listened to what they were
+talking of; but as they entered the vehicle, while the horses were
+being put to, the one said to the other, &quot;I think you had better do
+so, a great deal. It is as well to have the <i>carte du pays</i> before one
+commences operations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; replied the other, &quot;you take the lead, Edward. The wound is
+still painful, though it is an old one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What they were talking of their companion could not tell; but it
+excited, in some degree, his curiosity; and the manners of his two
+companions had, to say the truth, pleased him, though he was one of
+those men who, with very benevolent feelings at the bottom, are but
+little inclined to acknowledge that they are well pleased with
+anything or with anybody. For a moment or two all parties were silent;
+but the elderly gentleman was the first to begin, saying, in a more
+placable and complimentary tone than he was in general accustomed to
+use, &quot;I hope I am to have the pleasure of your society, gentlemen, to
+the end of my journey?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I rather think we shall be your companions as far as you go,&quot; replied
+the gayer of the two young men, &quot;for we are wending down to the far,
+wild parts of Kent; and it is probable you will not go beyond
+Folkestone, unless, indeed, you are about to cross the seas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not I,&quot; exclaimed the old gentleman--&quot;I have crossed the seas enough
+in my day, and never intend to set my foot out of my own country
+again, till four stout fellows carry me to the churchyard. No, no;
+you'll journey beyond me a long way, for I am only going to a little
+place called Harbourne, some distance on the Sussex side of
+Folkestone: a place quite out of the world, with no bigger a town near
+it than Cranbrook, and where we see the face of a human creature above
+the rank of a farmer, or a smuggler about once in the year--always
+excepting the parson of the parish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you turn off from Maidstone?&quot; said the graver traveller, looking
+steadfastly in his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I don't,&quot; replied the other. &quot;Never, my dear sir, come to
+conclusions where you don't know the premises. I go, on the contrary,
+to Ashford, where I intend to sleep. I am there to be joined by a
+worthy brother of mine, and then we return together to Cranbrook. You
+are quite right, indeed, that my best and straightest road would be,
+as you say, from Maidstone; but we can't always take the straightest
+road in this world, though young men think they can, and old men only
+learn too late that they cannot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have good reason to know the fact,&quot; said the gayer of his two
+fellow travellers; &quot;I myself am going to the very same part of the
+country you mention, but have to proceed still farther out of my way;
+for I must visit Hythe and Folkestone first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, indeed!&quot; exclaimed their elderly friend. &quot;Do you know any
+body in that part of Kent?--Have you ever been there before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never,&quot; replied the other; &quot;nor have I ever seen the persons I am
+going to see. What sort of a country is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bless the young man's life!&quot; exclaimed the gentleman in black, &quot;does
+he expect me to give him a long picturesque description of St.
+Augustine's Lathe? If you wish to know my opinion of it, it is as wild
+and desolate a part of the world as the backwoods of America, and the
+people little better than American savages. You'll find plenty of
+trees, a few villages, some farm-houses, one or two gentlemen's
+seats--they had better have called them stools--a stream or two, a
+number of hills and things of that kind; and your humble servant, who
+would be very happy to see you, if you are not a smuggler, and are
+coming to that part of the country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall not fail to pay my respects to you,&quot; replied the gentleman to
+whom he spoke; &quot;but I must first know who I am to inquire for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pay your respect where it is due, my dear sir,&quot; rejoined the other.
+&quot;You can't tell a whit whether I deserve any respect or not. You'll
+find out all that by and by. As to what I am called, I could give you
+half a dozen names. Some people call me the Bear, some people the
+Nabob, some the Misanthrope; but my real name--that which I am known
+by at the post-office--is Mr. Zachary Croyland, brother of the man who
+has Harbourne House: a younger brother too, by God's blessing--and a
+great blessing it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is lucky when every man is pleased with his situation,&quot; answered
+his young acquaintance. &quot;Most elder brothers thank God for making them
+such, and I have often had cause to do the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It's the greatest misfortune that can happen to a man,&quot; exclaimed the
+old gentleman, eagerly. &quot;What are elder brothers, but people who are
+placed by fate in the most desperate and difficult circumstances.
+Spoilt and indulged in their infancy, taught to be vain and idle and
+conceited from the cradle, deprived of every inducement to the
+exertion of mind, corrupted by having always their own way, sheltered
+from all the friendly buffets of the world, and left, like a pond in a
+gravel pit, to stagnate or evaporate without stirring. Nine times out
+of ten from mere inanition they fall into every sort of vice; forget
+that they have duties as well as privileges, think that the slice of
+the world that has been given to them is entirely at their own
+pleasure and disposal, spend their fortunes, encumber their estates,
+bully their wives and their servants, indulge their eldest son till he
+is just such a piece of unkneaded dough as themselves, kick out their
+younger sons into the world without a farthing, and break their
+daughters' hearts by forcing them to marry men they hate. That's what
+elder brothers are made for; and to be one, I say again, is the
+greatest curse that can fall upon a man. But come, now I have told you
+my name, tell me yours. That's but a fair exchange you know, and no
+robbery, and I hate going on calling people 'sir' for ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite a just demand,&quot; replied the gentleman whom he addressed, &quot;and
+you shall immediately have the whole particulars. My name is Digby, a
+poor major in his Majesty's ---- regiment of Dragoons, to whom the two
+serious misfortunes have happened of being born an eldest son, and
+having a baronetcy thrust upon him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Couldn't be worse--couldn't be worse!&quot; replied the old gentleman,
+laughing. &quot;And so you are Sir Edward Digby! Oh yes. I can tell you,
+you are expected, and have been so these three weeks. The whole
+matter's laid out for you in every house in the country. You are to
+marry every unmarried woman in the hundred. The young men expect you
+to do nothing but hunt foxes, course hares, and shoot partridges from
+morning till night; and the old men have made up their minds that you
+shall drink port, claret, or madeira, as the case may be, from night
+till morning. I pity you--upon my life, I pity you. What between love
+and wine and field sports, you'll have a miserable time of it! Take
+care how you speak a single word to any single woman! Don't even smile
+upon Aunt Barbara, or she'll make you a low curtsey, and say 'You must
+ask my brother about the settlement, my dear Edward.' Ha, ha, ha!&quot; and
+he laughed a long, merry, hearty peal, that made the rumbling vehicle
+echo again. Then putting the gold-headed cane to his lips, he turned a
+sly glance upon the other traveller, who was only moved to a very
+faint smile by all the old gentleman's merriment, asking, &quot;Does this
+gentleman come with you?--Are you to be made a martyr of too, sir? Are
+you to be set running after foxes all day, like a tiger on horseback,
+and to have sheep's eyes cast at you all the evening, like a man in
+the pillory pelted with eggs? Are you bound to imbibe a butt of claret
+in three weeks? Poor young men--poor young men! My bowels of
+compassion yearn towards you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall fortunately escape all such perils,&quot; replied he whom he had
+last addressed--&quot;I have no invitation to that part of the country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, then, I'll give you one,&quot; said the old gentleman; &quot;if you like
+to come and stay a few days with an old bachelor, who will neither
+make you drunk nor make you foolish, I shall be glad to see you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not very likely to get drunk,&quot; answered the other, &quot;as an old
+wound compels me to be a water drinker. Foolish enough I may be, and
+may have been; but, I am sure, that evil would not be increased by
+frequenting your society, my dear sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know--I don't know, young gentleman,&quot; said Mr. Croyland:
+&quot;every man has his follies, and I amongst the rest as goodly a
+bag-full as one could well desire. But you have not given me an
+answer; shall I see you? Will you come with your friend, and take up
+your abode at a single man's house, while Sir Edward goes and charms
+the ladies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot come with him, I am afraid,&quot; replied the young gentleman,
+&quot;for I must remain with the regiment some time; but I will willingly
+accept your invitation, and join him in a week or two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh you're in the same regiment, are you?&quot; asked Mr. Croyland; &quot;it's
+not a whole regiment of elder sons, I hope?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh no,&quot; answered the other, &quot;I have the still greater misfortune of
+being an only son; and the greater one still, of being an orphan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And may I know your style and denomination?&quot; said Mr. Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Osborn, Osborn!&quot; cried Sir Edward Digby, before his friend could
+speak, &quot;Captain Osborn of the ---- Dragoons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will put that down in my note-book,&quot; rejoined the old gentleman.
+&quot;The best friend I ever had was named Osborn. He couldn't be your
+father, though, for he had no children, poor fellow! and was never
+married, which was the only blessing Heaven ever granted him, except a
+good heart and a well-regulated mind. His sister married my old
+schoolfellow, Leyton--but that's a bad story, and a sad story, though
+now it's an old story, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; said Sir Edward Digby; &quot;I'm fond of old stories if they are
+good ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, I told you this was a bad one, Sir Ned,&quot; rejoined the old
+gentleman sharply; &quot;and as my brother behaved very ill to poor Leyton,
+the less we say of it the better. The truth is,&quot; he continued, for he
+was one of those who always refuse to tell a story, and tell it after
+all, &quot;Leyton was rector of a living which was in my brother's gift. He
+was only to hold it, however, till my youngest nephew was of age to
+take it; but when the boy died--as they both did sooner or
+later--Leyton held the living on, and thought it was his own, till one
+day there came a quarrel between him and my brother, and then Robert
+brought forward his letter promising to resign when called upon, and
+drove him out. I wasn't here then; but I have heard all about it
+since, and a bad affair it was. It should not have happened if I had
+been here, for Bob has a shrewd eye to the nabob's money, as well he
+may, seeing that he's----but that's no business of mine. If he chooses
+to dribble through his fortune, Heaven knows how, I've nothing to do
+with it! The two poor girls will suffer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, your brother has two fair daughters then, has he?&quot; demanded Sir
+Edward Digby. &quot;I suppose it is under the artillery of their glances I
+am first to pass; for, doubtless, you know I am going to your
+brother's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, I know--I know all about it!&quot; replied Mr. Croyland. &quot;They
+tell me everything as in duty bound--that's to say, everything they
+don't wish to conceal. But I'm consulted like an oracle upon all
+things unimportant; for he that was kicked out with a sixpence into
+the wide world, has grown a wonderful great man since the sixpence has
+multiplied itself. As to your having to pass under the artillery of
+the girls' glances, however, you must take care of yourself; for you
+might stand a less dangerous fire, I can tell you, even in a field of
+battle. But I'll give you one warning for your safeguard. You may make
+love to little Zara as long as you like--think of the fools calling
+her Zara! Though she'll play a pretty game of picquet with you, you
+may chance to win it; but you must not dangle after Edith, or you will
+burn your fingers. She'll not have you, if you were twenty baronets,
+and twenty majors of Dragoons into the bargain. She has got some of
+the fancies of the old uncle about her, and is determined to die an
+old maid, I can see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, the difficulty of the enterprise would only be a soldier's reason
+for undertaking it!&quot; said Sir Edward Digby.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It wont do--it wont do;&quot; answered Mr. Croyland, laughing; &quot;you may
+think yourself very captivating, very conquering, quite a look-and-die
+man, as all you people in red jackets fancy yourselves, but it will be
+all lost labour with Edith, I can tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You excite all the martial ardour in my soul!&quot; exclaimed Digby, with
+a gay smile; &quot;and if she be not forty, hump-backed, or one eyed, by
+the fates you shall see what you shall see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forty!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland; &quot;why she's but two-and-twenty, man!--a
+great deal straighter than that crouching wench in white marble they
+call the 'Venus de Medici,' and with a pair of eyes, that, on my life,
+I think would have made me forswear celibacy, if I had found such
+looking at me, any time before I reached fifty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you hear that, Osborn?&quot; cried Sir Edward Digby. &quot;Here's a fine
+field for an adventurous spirit. I shall have the start of you, my
+friend; and in the wilds of Kent, what may not be done in ten days or
+a fortnight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His companion only answered by a melancholy smile; and the
+conversation went on between the old gentleman and the young baronet
+till they reached the small town of Lenham, where they stopped again
+to dine. There, however, Mr. Croyland drew Sir Edward Digby aside, and
+inquired in a low tone, &quot;Is your friend in love?--He looks mighty
+melancholy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe he is,&quot; replied Digby. &quot;Love's the only thing that can make
+a man melancholy; and when one comes to consider all the attractions
+of a squaw of the Chippeway Indians, it is no wonder that my friend is
+in such a hopeless case.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old gentleman poked him with his finger, and shook his head with a
+laugh, saying--&quot;You are a wag, young gentleman--you are a wag; but it
+would be a great deal more reasonable, let me tell you, to fall in
+love with a Chippeway squaw, in her feathers and wampam, than with one
+of these made-up madams, all paint and satin, and tawdry bits of
+embroidery. In the one case you might know something of what your love
+is like; in the other, I defy you to know anything about her; and,
+nine times out of ten, what, a man marries is little better than a
+bale of tow and whalebone, covered over with the excrement of a
+silkworm. Man's a strange animal; and one of the strangest of all his
+proceedings is, that of covering up his own natural skin with all
+manner of contrivances derived from every bird, beast, fish, and
+vegetable, that happens to come in his way. If he wants warmth, he
+goes and robs a sheep of its great coat; he beats the unfortunate
+grass of the field, till he leaves nothing but shreds, to make himself
+a shirt; he skins a beaver, to cover his head; and, if he wants to be
+exceedingly fine, he pulls the tail of an ostrich, and sticks the
+feather in his hat. He's the universal mountebank, depend upon it,
+playing his antics for the amusement of creation, and leaving nothing
+half so ridiculous as himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he turned round again, and joined Captain Osborn, in
+whom, perhaps, he took a greater interest than even in his livelier
+companion. It might be that the associations called up by the name
+were pleasant to him, or it might be that there was something in his
+face that interested him, for certainly that face was one which seemed
+to become each moment more handsome as one grew familiar with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When, after dinner, they re-entered the vehicle, and rolled away once
+more along the high road, Captain Osborn took a greater share in the
+conversation than he had previously done; and remarking that Mr.
+Croyland had put, as a condition, upon his invitation to Sir Edward,
+that he should not be a smuggler, he went on to observe, &quot;You seem to
+have a great objection to those gentry, my dear sir; and yet I
+understand your county is full of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Full of them!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland--&quot;it is running over with them.
+They drop down into Sussex, out into Essex, over into Surrey; the
+vermin are more numerous than rats in an old barn. Not that, when a
+fellow is poor, and wants money, and can get it by no other
+means,--not that I think very hard of him when he takes to a life of
+risk and adventure, where his neck is not worth sixpence, and his gain
+is bought by the sweat of his brow. But your gentleman smuggler is my
+abomination--your fellow that risks little but an exchequer process,
+and gains ten times what the others do, without their labour or their
+danger. Give me your bold, brave fellow, who declares war and fights
+it out. There's some spirit in him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gentlemen smugglers!&quot; said Osborn; &quot;that seems to me to be a strange
+sort of anomaly. I was not aware that there were such things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh! the country is full of them,&quot; cried Mr. Croyland. &quot;It is not
+here that the peasant treads upon the kybe of the peer; but the
+smuggler treads upon the country gentlemen. Many a merchant who never
+made a hundred pounds by fair trade, makes thousands and hundreds of
+thousands by cheating the Customs. There is not a man in this part of
+the country who does not dabble in the traffic more or less. I've no
+doubt all my brandied cherries are steeped in stuff that never paid
+duty; and if you don't smuggle yourself, your servants do it for you.
+But I'll tell you all about it,&quot; and he proceeded to give them a true
+and faithful exposition of the state of the county, agreeing in all
+respects with that which has been furnished to the reader in the first
+chapter of this tale.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His statement and the various conversation, which arose from different
+parts of it, occupied the time fully, till the coach, as it was
+growing dark, rolled into Ashford. There Mr. Croyland quitted his two
+companions, shaking them each by the hand with right goodwill; and
+they pursued their onward course to Hythe and Folkestone, without any
+farther incident worthy of notice.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">At Hythe, to make use of a very extraordinary though not uncommon
+expression, the coach stopped to sup--not that the coach itself ate
+anything, for, on the contrary, it disgorged that which it had already
+taken in; but the travellers who descended from it were furnished with
+supper, although the distance to Folkestone might very well have
+justified them in going on to the end of their journey without any
+other pabulum than that which they had already received. But two or
+three things are to be taken into consideration. The distance from
+London to Folkestone is now seventy-one miles. It was longer in those
+days by several more, besides having the disadvantage of running up
+and down over innumerable hills, all of which were a great deal more
+steep than they are in the present day. The journey, which the
+travellers accomplished, was generally considered a feat both of
+difficulty and danger, and the coach which performed that feat in one
+day, was supposed to deserve right well the name which it had assumed,
+of &quot;The Phenomenon.&quot; Before it began to run, seventy-one miles in
+seventeen hours was considered an impracticable journey for anything
+but a man on horseback, and when first the coach appeared upon the
+road, the towns-people and villagers turned out in multitudes, with
+admiration and wonder, not unmixed with dread, to see the rapid rate
+at which it went--very nearly six miles an hour! The old diligence,
+which had preceded it, had slept one night, and sometimes two, upon
+the road; and, in its first vain struggles with its more rapid
+successor, it had actually once or twice made the journey in
+two-and-twenty hours. To beat off this pertinacious rival, the
+proprietor of the stage had been obliged to propitiate the inn-keepers
+of various important towns, by dividing his favours amongst them; and
+thus the traveller was forced to wait nearly one hour at Hythe, during
+which he might sup if he liked, although he was only about five miles
+from Folkestone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The supper room of the inn was vacant when the two officers of
+Dragoons entered, but the table, covered with its neat white cloth,
+and all the preparations for a substantial meal, together with a
+bright fire sparkling in the grate, rendered its aspect cheerful and
+reviving after a long and tedious journey, such as that which had just
+been accomplished. Sir Edward Digby looked round well pleased, turned
+his back to the fire, spoke to the landlord and his maid about supper,
+and seemed disposed to enjoy himself during the period of his stay. He
+ordered, too, a pint of claret, which he was well aware was likely to
+be procured in great perfection upon the coast of Kent. The landlord
+in consequence conceived a high respect for him, and very much
+undervalued all the qualities of his companion, who, seating himself
+at the table, leaned his head upon his hand, and fell into deep
+thought, without giving orders for anything. The host, with his
+attendant star, disappeared from the room to procure the requisites
+for the travellers' meal, and Sir Edward Digby immediately took
+advantage of their absence to say, &quot;Come, come, my dear Colonel, shake
+this off. I think all that we have lately heard should have tended to
+revive hope, and to give comfort. During all the six years that we
+have been more like brothers than friends, I have never seen you so
+much cast down as now, when you are taking the field under the most
+favourable circumstances, with name, station, reputation, fortune, and
+with the best reason to believe those true whom you had been taught to
+suppose false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot tell, Digby,&quot; replied his companion; &quot;we shall hear more ere
+long, and doubt is always well nigh as painful as the worst certainty.
+Besides, I am returning to the scenes of my early youth--scenes
+stored, it is true, with many a sweet and happy memory, but full also
+of painful recollections. Those memories themselves are but as an
+inscription on a tomb, where hopes and pleasures, the bright dreams of
+youth, the ardent aspirations of first true love, the sweet
+endearments of a happy home, the treasured caresses of the best of
+mothers, the counsels, the kindness, the unvarying tenderness of the
+noblest and highest minded of fathers, all lie buried. There may be a
+pleasure in visiting that tomb, but it is a melancholy one; and when I
+think that it was for me--that it was on my account, my father
+suffered persecution and wrong, till a powerful mind, and a vigorous
+frame gave way, there is a bitterness mingled with all my remembrances
+of these scenes, from which I would fain clear my heart. I will do so,
+too, but it will require some solitary thought, some renewed
+familiarity with all the objects round, to take off the sharpness of
+the first effect. You, go on to Folkestone and see that all is right
+there, I will remain here and wait for the rest. As soon as you have
+ascertained that everything is prepared to act in case we are called
+upon--which I hope may not be the case, as I do not like the
+service--you may betake yourself to Harbourne House, making me a
+report as you pass. When I have so distributed the men that we can
+rapidly concentrate a sufficient number upon any spot where they may
+be required, I will come on after you to our good old friend's
+dwelling. There you can see me, and let me know what is taking place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think you had better not let him know who you really are,&quot; replied
+Sir Edward Digby, &quot;at least till we have seen how the land lies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know--I will think of it,&quot; answered the other gentleman,
+whom for the present we shall continue to call Osborn, though the
+learned reader has already discovered that such was not his true name.
+&quot;It is evident,&quot; he continued, &quot;that old Mr. Croyland does not
+remember me, although I saw him frequently when he was in England for
+a short time, some six or seven years before he finally quitted India.
+However, though I feel I am much changed, it is probable that many
+persons will recognise me whenever I appear in the neighbourhood of
+Cranbrook, and he might take it ill, that he who was so good and true
+a friend both to my uncle and my father, should be left in ignorance.
+Perhaps it would be better to confide in him fully, and make him aware
+of all my views and purposes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Under the seal of confession, then,&quot; said his friend; &quot;for he is
+evidently a very talkative old gentleman. Did you remark how he once
+or twice declared he would not tell a story, that it was no business
+of his, and then went on to tell it directly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, such was always his habit,&quot; answered Osborn; &quot;and his oddities
+have got somewhat exaggerated during the last twelve years; but he's
+as true and faithful as ever man was, and nothing would induce him to
+betray a secret confided to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know best,&quot; replied the other; but the entrance of the landlord
+with the claret, and the maid with the supper, broke off the
+conversation, and there was no opportunity of renewing it till it was
+announced that the horses were to, and the coach was ready. The two
+friends then took leave of each other, both coachman and host being
+somewhat surprised to find that one of the travellers was about to
+remain behind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When, however, a portmanteau, a sword-case, and a large trunk, or mail
+as it was then called, had been handed out of the egregious boot,
+Osborn walked into the inn once more, and called the landlord to him.
+&quot;I shall, most likely,&quot; he said, &quot;take up my quarters with you for
+some days, so you will be good enough to have a bed room prepared for
+me. You must also let me have a room, however small, where I can read,
+and write, and receive any persons who may come to see me, for I have
+a good deal of business to transact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, sir--I understand,&quot; replied the host, with a knowing
+elevation of one eye-brow and a depression of the other, &quot;Quite snug
+and private. You shall have a room at the back of the house with two
+doors, so that they can come in by the one, and go out through the
+other, and nobody know anything about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I rather suspect you mistake,&quot; answered the guest, with a smile, &quot;and
+for fear you should say anything, under an error, that you might be
+sorry for afterwards, let me tell you at once that I am an officer of
+Dragoons, and that the business I speak of is merely regimental
+business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The host's face grew amazingly blank; for a smuggler in a large way
+was, in his estimation, a much more valuable and important guest than
+an officer in the army, even had he been Commander-in-Chief of the
+forces; but Osborn proceeded to relieve his mind from some of its
+anxieties by saying: &quot;You will understand that I am neither a spy nor
+an informer, my good friend, but merely come here to execute whatever
+orders I may receive from government as a military man. I tell you who
+I am at once, that you may, as far as possible, keep from my sight any
+of those little transactions which I am informed are constantly taking
+place on this coast. I shall not, of course, step over the line of my
+duty, which is purely military, to report anything I see; but still I
+should not like that any man should say I was cognizant of proceedings
+contrary to the interests of the government. This hint, however, I
+doubt not, will be enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir, you are a gentleman,&quot; said the host, &quot;and as a nod is as good as
+a wink to a blind horse, I shall take care you have no annoyance. You
+must wait a little for your bed-room though, for we did not know you
+were going to stay; but we will lose no time getting it ready. Can I
+do anything else to serve you, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think not,&quot; replied Osborn. &quot;But one thing will be necessary. I
+expect five horses down to-morrow, and there must be found stabling
+for them, and accommodation for the servants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord, who was greatly consoled by these latter proofs of his
+guest's opulence and importance, was proceeding to assure him that all
+manner of conveniences, both for horse and man were to be found at his
+inn, when the door of the room opened, and a third person was added to
+the party within. The moment the eye of the traveller by the coach
+fell upon him, his face lighted up with a well pleased smile, and he
+exclaimed, &quot;Ah, my good friend, is that you?--I little expected to
+find you in this part of Kent. What brought you hither, after our long
+voyage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The same that brought you,&quot; answered the other: &quot;old memories and
+loved associations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But before we proceed to notice what was Osborn's reply, we must,
+though very unwilling to give long descriptions either of personal
+appearance or of dress, pause to notice briefly those of the stranger
+who had just entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had originally been a tall man, and probably a powerful one, but he
+now stooped considerably, and was extremely thin. His face had no
+colour in it, and even the lips were pale, but yet the hue was not
+cadaverous, or even what could be called sickly. The features were
+generally small and fine, except the eyes, which were large and
+bright, with a sort of brilliant but unsafe fire in them, and that
+peculiar searching and intense gaze when speaking to any one, which is
+common to people of strong imaginations, who try to convey to others
+more than they actually say. His forehead, too, was high and grand,
+but wrinkled over with the furrows of thought and care; and on the
+right side was a deep indentation, with a gash across it, as if the
+skull had been driven in by a blow. His hair, which was long and thin,
+was milk white, and though his teeth were fine, yet the wrinkles of
+his skin, the peculiar roughness of the ear, and the shrivelled hand,
+all bore testimony of an advanced age. Yet, perhaps, he might be
+younger than he looked, for the light in that eager eye plainly spoke
+one of those quick, anxious, ever labouring spirits which wear the
+frame by the internal emotions, infinitely more rapidly and more
+destructively than any of the external events and circumstances of
+life. One thing was very peculiar about him--at least, in this
+country--for on another continent such a peculiarity might have called
+for no attention. On either cheek, beginning just behind the external
+corner of the eye, and proceeding in a graceful wave all along the
+cheek bone, turning round, like an acanthus leaf, at the other
+extremity upon the cheek itself, was a long line of very minute blue
+spots, with another, and another, and another beneath it, till the
+whole assumed the appearance of a rather broad arabesque painted in
+blue upon his face. His dress in other respects (if this tattooing
+might be called a part of his dress) though coarse in texture was
+good. The whole, too, was black, except where the white turned-down
+collar of his shirt appeared between his coat and his pale brownish
+skin. His shoes were large and heavy like those used by the countrymen
+in that part of the county, and in them he wore a pair of silver
+buckles, not very large, but which in their peculiar form and
+ornaments, gave signs of considerable antiquity. Though bent, as we
+have said, thin, and pale, he seemed active and energetic. All his
+motions were quick and eager, and he grasped the hand which Osborn
+extended to him, with a warmth and enthusiasm very different from the
+ordinary expression of common friendship.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You mistake,&quot; said the young gentleman, in answer to his last
+observation. &quot;It was not old memories and loved associations which
+brought me here at all, Mr. Warde. It was an order from the
+commander-in-chief. Had I not received it, I should not have visited
+this place for years--if ever!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, you would,&quot; replied the old man; &quot;you could not help
+yourself. It was written in the book of your fate. It was not to be
+avoided. You were drawn here by an irresistible impulse to undergo
+what you have to undergo, to perform that which is assigned you, and
+to do and suffer all those things which are written on high.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wonder to hear <i>you</i> speaking in terms so like those of a fatalist,&quot;
+answered Osborn--&quot;you whom I have always heard so strenuously assert
+man's responsibility for all his actions, and scoff at the idea of his
+excusing himself on the plea of his predestination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, true,&quot; answered the old man whom he called
+Warde,--&quot;predestination affords him no excuse for aught that is wrong,
+for though it be an inscrutable mystery how those three great facts
+are to be reconciled, yet certain it is that Omniscience cannot be
+ignorant of that which will take place, any more than of that which
+has taken place; that everything which God foreknows, must take place,
+and has been pre-determined by his will, and that yet--as every man
+must feel within himself--his own actions depend upon his volition,
+and if they be evil he alone is to blame. The end is to come,
+Osborn--the end is to come when all will be revealed--and doubt not
+that it will be for God's glory. I often think,&quot; he continued in a
+less emphatic tone, &quot;that man with his free will is like a child with
+a plaything. We see the babe about to dash it against the wall in mere
+wantonness, we know that he will injure it--perhaps break it to
+pieces--perhaps hurt himself with it in a degree; we could prevent it,
+yet we do not, thinking perhaps that it will be a lesson--one of
+those, the accumulation of which makes experience, if not wisdom. At
+all events the punishment falls upon him; and, if duly warned, he has
+no right to blame us for that which his own will did, though we saw
+what he would do, and could have prevented him from doing so. We are
+all spoilt children, Osborn, and remain so to the end, though God
+gives us warning enough,--but here comes my homely meal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the same moment the landlord brought in a dish of vegetables, some
+milk and some pottage, which he placed upon the table, giving a shrewd
+look to the young officer, but saying to his companion, &quot;There, I have
+brought what you ordered, sir; but I cannot help thinking you had
+better take a bit of meat. You had nothing but the same stuff this
+morning, and no dinner that I know of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Man, I never eat anything that has drawn the breath of life,&quot; replied
+Warde. &quot;The first of our race brought death into the world and was
+permitted to inflict it upon others, for the satisfaction of his own
+appetites; but it was a permission, and not an injunction--except for
+sacrifice. I will not be one of the tyrants of the whole creation; I
+will have no more of the tiger in my nature than is inseparable from
+it; and as to gorging myself some five or six times a day with
+unnecessary food--am I a swine, do you think, to eat when I am not
+hungry, for the sole purpose of devouring? No, no, the simplest food,
+and that only for necessity, is best for man's body and his mind. We
+all grow too rank and superfluous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he approached the table, said a short grace over that
+which was set before him, and then sitting down, ate till he was
+satisfied, without exchanging a word with any one during the time that
+he was thus engaged. It occupied less than five minutes, however, to
+take all that he required, and then starting up suddenly, he thanked
+God for what he had given him, took up his hat and turned towards the
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am going out, Osborn,&quot; he said, &quot;for my evening walk. Will you come
+with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willingly for half an hour,&quot; answered the young officer, and, telling
+the landlord as he passed that he would be back by the time that his
+room was ready, he accompanied his eccentric acquaintance out into the
+streets of Hythe, and thence, through some narrow walks and lanes, to
+the sea-shore.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The sky was clear and bright; the moonlight was sleeping in dream-like
+splendour upon the water, and the small waves, thrown up by the tide
+more than the wind, came rippling along the beach like a flood of
+diamonds. All was still and silent in the sky, and upon the earth; and
+the soft rustle of the waters upon the shore seemed but to say &quot;Hush!&quot;
+as if nature feared that any louder sound should interrupt her calm
+repose. To the west, stretched out the faint low line of coast towards
+Dungeness; and to the east, appeared the high cliffs near Folkestone
+and Dover--grey and solemn; while the open heaven above looked down
+with its tiny stars and lustrous moon upon the wide extended sea,
+glittering in the silver veil cast over her sleeping bosom from on
+high.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Such was the scene presented to the eyes of the two wanderers when
+they reached the beach, a little way on the Sandgate side of Hythe,
+and both paused to gaze upon it for several minutes in profound
+silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is indeed a night to walk forth upon the sands,&quot; said the young
+officer at length. &quot;It seems to me, that of all the many scenes from
+which man can derive both instruction and comfort, in the difficulties
+and troubles of life, there is none so elevating, so strengthening, as
+that presented by the sea shore on a moonlight night. To behold that
+mighty element, so full of destructive and of beneficial power, lying
+tranquilly within the bound which God affixed to it, and to remember
+the words, 'Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther, and here shall
+thy proud waves be stopped,' affords so grand an illustration of his
+might, so fine a proof of the truth of his promises, that the heart
+must be hard indeed and the mind dull, not to receive confirmation of
+faith, and encouragement in hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;More, far more, may man receive,&quot; replied his companion, &quot;if he be
+but willing; but that gross and corrupt insect refuses all
+instruction, and though the whole universe holds out blessings, still
+chooses the curse. Where is there a scene whence man may not receive
+benefit? What spot upon the whole earth has not something to speak to
+his heart, if he would but listen? In his own busy passions, however,
+and in his own fierce contentions, in his sordid creeping after gain,
+in his trickery and his knavery, even in his loves and pleasures, man
+turns a deaf ear to the great voice speaking to him; and the only
+scene of all this earth which cannot benefit the eye that looks upon
+it, is that in which human beings are the chief actors. There all is
+foulness, or pitifulness, or vice; and one, to live in happiness, and
+to take the moral of all nature to his heart, should live alone with
+nature. I will find me out such a place, where I can absent myself
+entirely, and contemplate nought but the works of God without the
+presence of man, for I am sick to death of all that I have seen of him
+and his, especially in what is called a civilized state.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have often threatened to do so, Warde,&quot; answered the young
+officer, &quot;but yet methinks, though you rail at him, you love man too
+much to quit his abodes entirely. I have seen you kind and considerate
+to savages of the most horrible class; to men whose daily practice
+it is to torture with the most unheard of cruelty the prisoners
+whom they take in battle; and will you have less regard for other
+fellow-creatures, because they are what you call civilized?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The savage is at least sincere,&quot; replied his companion. &quot;The want of
+sincerity is the great and crowning vice of all this portion of the
+globe. Cruel the wild hunters may be, but are they more cruel than the
+people here? Which is the worst torment, a few hours' agony at the
+stake, singing the war-song, all ended by a blow of a hatchet, or long
+years of mental torture, when every scorn and contumely, every bitter
+injustice, every cruel bereavement that man can inflict or suffer, is
+piled upon your head, till the load becomes intolerable. Then, too, it
+is done in a smooth and smiling guise. The civilized fiend looks
+softly upon you while he wounds you to the heart--makes a pretext of
+law, and justice, and equity--would have you fancy him a soft good
+man, while there is no act of malevolence and iniquity that he does
+not practise. The savage is true, at all events. The man who fractured
+my skull with a blow of his tomahawk, made no pretence of friendship
+or of right. He did it boldly, as an act customary with his people,
+and would have led me to the stake and danced with joy to see me
+suffering, had I not been rescued. He was sincere at least: but how
+would the Englishman have served me? He would have wrung my heart with
+pangs insupportable, and all the time have talked of his great grief
+to afflict me, of the necessity of the case, of justice being on his
+side, and of a thousand other vain and idle pretexts, but aggravating
+the act by mocking me with a show of generosity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I fear my excellent friend that you have at some time suffered sadly
+from man's baseness,&quot; said Osborn; &quot;but yet I think you are wrong to
+let the memory thereof affect you thus. I, too, have suffered, and
+perhaps shall have to suffer more; but yet I would not part with the
+best blessings God has given to man, as you have done, for any other
+good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What have I parted with that I could keep?&quot; asked the other, sharply:
+&quot;what blessings? I know of none!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Trust--confidence,&quot; replied his young companion. &quot;I know you will say
+that they have been taken from you; that you have not thrown them
+away, that you have been robbed of them. But have you not parted with
+them too easily? Have you not yielded at once, without a struggle to
+retain what I still call the best blessings of God? There are many
+villains in the world--I know it but too well; there are many knaves.
+There are still more cold and selfish egotists, who, without
+committing actual crimes or injuring others, do good to none; but
+there are also many true and upright hearts, many just, noble, and
+generous men; and were it a delusion to think so, I would try to
+retain it still.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And suffer for it in the hour of need, in the moment of the deepest
+confidence,&quot; answered Warde. &quot;If you must have confidence, place it in
+the humble and the low, in the rudest and least civilized--ay, in the
+very outcasts of society--rather than in the polished and the courtly,
+the great and high. I would rather trust my life, or my purse, to the
+honour of the common robber, and to his generosity, than to the very
+gentlemanly man of fashion and high station. Now, if, as you say, you
+have not come down hither for old associations, you must be sent to
+hunt down honester men than those who sent you--men who break boldly
+through an unjust and barbarous system, which denies to our land the
+goods of another, and who, knowing that the very knaves who devised
+that system, did it but to enrich themselves, stop with a strong hand
+a part of the plunder on the way--or, rather, insist at the peril of
+their lives, on man's inherent right to trade with his neighbours, and
+frustrate the roguish devices of those who would forbid to our land
+the use of that produced by another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Osborn smiled at his companion's defence of smuggling, but replied, &quot;I
+can conceive a thousand reasons, my good friend, why the trade in
+certain things should be totally prohibited, and a high duty for the
+interests of the state be placed on others. But I am not going to
+argue with you on all our institutions; merely this I will say, that
+when we entrust to certain men the power of making laws, we are bound
+to obey those laws when they are made; and it were but candid and just
+to suppose that those who had made them, after long deliberation, did
+so for the general good of the whole.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For their own villanous ends,&quot; answered Warde--&quot;for their own selfish
+interests. The good of the whole!--what is it in the eyes of any of
+these law-givers but the good of a party?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But do you not think,&quot; asked the young officer, &quot;that we ourselves,
+who are not law-givers, judge their actions but too often under the
+influence of the very motives we attribute to them? Has party no share
+in our own bosoms? Has selfishness--have views of our own interests,
+in opposition either to the interests of others or the general weal,
+no part in the judgment that we form? Each man carps at that which
+suits him not, and strives to change it, without the slightest care
+whether, in so doing, he be not bringing ruin on the heads of
+thousands. But as to what you said just now of my being sent hither to
+hunt down the smuggler, such is not the case. I am sent to lend my aid
+to the civil power when called upon to do so--but nothing more; and we
+all know that the civil power has proved quite ineffective in stopping
+a system, which began by violation of a fiscal law, and has gone on to
+outrages the most brutal, and the most daring. I shall not step beyond
+the line of my duty, my good friend; and I will admit that many of
+these very misguided men themselves, who are carrying on an illegal
+traffic in this daring manner, fancy themselves justified by such
+arguments as you have just now used--nay, more, I do believe that
+there are some men amongst them of high and noble feelings, who never
+dream that they are dishonest in breaking a law that they dislike. But
+if we break one law thus, why should we keep any?--why not add robbery
+and murder if it suits us?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, there <i>are</i> high minded and noble men amongst them,&quot; answered
+Warde, not seeming to heed the latter part of what his companion said,
+&quot;and there stands one of them. He has evil in him doubtless; for he is
+a man and an Englishman; but I have found none here who has less, and
+many who have more. Yet were that man taken in pursuing his
+occupation, they would imprison, exile, perhaps hang him, while a
+multitude of knaves in gilded coats, would be suffered to go on
+committing every sin, and almost every crime, unpunished--a good man,
+an excellent man, and yet a smuggler.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer knew it was in vain to reason with him, for in the
+frequent intercourse they had held together, he had perceived that,
+with many generous and noble feelings, with a pure heart, and almost
+ascetic severity of life, there was a certain perversity in the course
+of Mr. Warde's thoughts, which rendered it impossible to turn them
+from the direction which they naturally took. It seemed as if by long
+habit they had channelled for themselves so deep a bed, that they
+could never be diverted thence; and consequently, without replying at
+first, he merely turned his eyes in the direction which the other
+pointed out, trying to catch sight of the person of whom he spoke.
+They were now on the low sandy shore which runs along between the town
+of Hythe and the beautiful little watering place of Sandgate. But it
+must be recollected, that at the time I speak of, the latter place
+displayed no ornamental villas, no gardens full of flowers, almost
+touching on the sea, and consisted merely of a few fishermen's, or
+rather smuggler's, huts, with one little public house, and a
+low-browed shop, filled with all the necessities that the inhabitants
+might require. Thus nothing like the mass of buildings which the
+watering place now can boast, lay between them and the Folkestone
+cliffs; and the whole line of the coast, except at one point, where
+the roof of a house intercepted the view, was open before Osborn's
+eyes; yet neither upon the shore itself, nor upon the green upland,
+which was broken by rocks and bushes, and covered by thick dry grass,
+could he perceive anything resembling a human form. A minute after,
+however, he thought he saw something move against the rugged
+background, and the next moment, the head and shoulders of a man
+rising over the edge of the hill caught his eyes, and as his companion
+walked forward in silence, he inquired,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you known him long, or is this one of your sudden judgments, my
+good friend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew him when he was a boy and a lad,&quot; answered Wilmot, &quot;I know him
+now that he is a man--so it is no sudden judgment. Come, let us speak
+with him, Osborn,&quot; and he advanced rapidly, by a narrow path, up the
+side of the slope.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Osborn paused a single instant, and then followed, saying, &quot;Be upon
+your guard, Warde; and remember how I am circumstanced. Neither commit
+me nor let him commit himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no, fear not,&quot; answered his friend, &quot;I am no smuggler, young
+man;&quot; and he strode on before, without pausing for further
+consultation. As they climbed the hill, the figure of the man of whom
+they had been speaking became more and more distinct, while walking up
+and down upon a flat space at the top of the first step or wave of
+ground; he seemed to take no notice of their approach. When they came
+nearer still, he paused, as if waiting for their coming; and the moon
+shining full upon him, displayed his powerful form, standing in an
+attitude of easy grace, with the arms folded on the chest, and the
+head slightly bent forward. He was not above the middle height; but
+broad in the shoulders, and long in the arms; robust and strong--every
+muscle was round and swelling, and yet not heavy; for there was the
+appearance of great lightness and activity in his whole figure,
+strangely combined with that of vigour and power. His head was small,
+and well set upon his shoulders; and the very position in which he
+stood, the firm planting of his feet on the ground, the motionless
+crossing of his arm upon his breast, all seemed to argue to the mind
+of Osborn--and he was one not unaccustomed to judge of character by
+external signs--a strong and determined spirit, well fitted for the
+rough and adventurous life which he had undertaken.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good night, Harding,&quot; said Mr. Warde, as they came up to the spot
+where he stood. &quot;What a beautiful evening it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Goodnight, sir,&quot; answered the man, in a civil tone, and with a voice
+of considerable melody. &quot;It is indeed a beautiful evening, though
+sometimes I like to see the cloudy sky, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet I dare say you enjoy a walk by the bright sea, in the calm
+moonlight, as much as I do,&quot; rejoined Mr. Warde.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, that I do, sir,&quot; replied the smuggler. &quot;That's what brought me
+out to-night, for there's nothing else doing; but I should not rest
+quiet, I suppose, in my bed, if I did not take my stroll along the
+downs or somewhere, and look over the sea, while she lies panting in
+the moonbeams. She's a pretty creature, and I love her dearly. I
+wonder how people can live inland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, there are beautiful scenes enough inland,&quot; said Osborn, joining
+in the conversation; &quot;both wild and grand, and calm and peaceful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know there are, sir, I know there are,&quot; answered the smuggler,
+gazing at him attentively, &quot;and if ever I were to live away from the
+beach, I should say, give me the wild and grand, for I have seen many
+a beautiful place inland, especially in Wales; but still it always
+seems to me as if there was something wanting when the sea is not
+there. I suppose it is natural for an Englishman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps it is,&quot; rejoined Osborn, &quot;for certainly when Nature rolled
+the ocean round us, she intended us for a maritime people. But to
+return to what you were saying, if I could choose my own abode, it
+should be amongst the calm and peaceful scenes, of which the eye never
+tires, and amongst which the mind rests in repose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, if it is repose one is seeking,&quot; replied the smuggler, with a
+laugh, &quot;well and good. Then a pleasant little valley, with trees and a
+running stream, and a neat little church, and the parsonage, may do
+well enough. But I dare say you and I, sir, have led very different
+lives, and so have got different likings. I have always been
+accustomed to the storm and the gale, to a somewhat adventurous life,
+and to have that great wide sea before my eyes for ever. You, I dare
+say, have been going on quietly and peacefully all your days, perhaps
+in London, or in some great town, knowing nothing of hardships or of
+dangers; so that is the reason you love quiet places.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite the reverse!&quot; answered Osborn, with a smile--&quot;mine has been
+nothing but a life of peril and danger, and activity, as far as it
+hitherto has gone. From the time I was eighteen till now, the battle
+and the skirmish, the march and the retreat, with often the hard
+ground for my bed, as frequently the sky for my covering, and at best
+a thin piece of canvas to keep off the blast, have been my lot, but it
+is that very fact that makes me long for some repose, and love scenes
+that give the picture of it to the imagination, if not the reality to
+the heart. I should suppose that few men who have passed their time
+thus, and known from youth to manhood nothing but strife and hourly
+peril, do not sooner or later desire such tranquillity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know, sir,&quot; said the smuggler; &quot;it maybe so, and the time may
+come with me; but yet I think habits one is bred to, get such a hold
+of the heart that we can't do without them. I often fancy I should
+like a month's quiet, too; but then I know before the month was out I
+should long to be on the sea again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Man is a discontented creature,&quot; said Warde,--&quot;not even the bounty of
+God can satisfy him. I do not believe that he would even rest in
+heaven, were he not wearied of change by the events of this life. Well
+may they say it is a state of trial.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope I shall go to heaven, too,&quot; rejoined the smuggler; &quot;but I
+should like a few trips first; and I dare say, when I grow an old man,
+and stiff and rusty, I shall be well contented to take my walk here in
+the sunshine, and talk of days that are gone; but at present, when one
+has life and strength, I could no more sit and get cankered in
+idleness than I could turn miller. This world's not a place to be
+still in; and I say, Blow wind, and push off the boat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But one may have activity enough without constant excitement and
+peril,&quot; answered Osborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know that there would be half the pleasure in it,&quot; replied
+the smuggler, laughing--&quot;that we strive for, that we love. Everything
+must have its price, and cheap got is little valued. But who is this
+coming?&quot; he continued, turning sharply round before either of his
+companions heard a sound.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next moment, however, steps running up the face of the bank were
+distinguished, and in another minute a boy of twelve or thirteen,
+dressed in a sailor's jacket, came hurrying up to the smuggler, and
+pulled his sleeve, saying, in a low voice, &quot;Come hither--come hither;
+I want to speak to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man took a step apart, and bending down his head listened to
+something which the boy whispered in his ear. &quot;I will come--I will
+come directly,&quot; he said, at length, when the lad was done. &quot;Run on and
+tell him, little Starlight; for I must get home first for a minute.
+Good night, gentlemen,&quot; he continued, turning to Mr. Warde and his
+companion, &quot;I must go away for a longer walk;&quot; and, without farther
+adieu, he began to descend the bank, leaving the two friends to take
+their way back to Hythe, conversing, as they went, much in the same
+strain as that in which they had indulged while coming thither,
+differing in almost every topic, but yet with some undefinable link of
+sympathy between them, which nevertheless owed its origin, in the old
+man's breast, to very different feelings from those which were
+experienced by his younger companion.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">There was an old house, built in a style which acquired the mint-mark
+of fashion of about the reign of George the First, and was considered
+by those of the English, or opposite party, to be peculiarly well
+qualified for the habitation of Hanover rats. It stood at a little
+distance from the then small hamlet of Harbourne, and was plunged into
+one of the southern apertures of the wood of that name, having its
+gardens and pleasure-grounds around it, with a terrace and a lawn
+stretching out to the verge of a small parish road, which passed at
+the distance of somewhat less than a quarter of a mile from the
+windows. It was all of red brick, and looked square and formal enough,
+with the two wings projecting like the a-kimbo arms of some untamed
+virago, straight and resolute as a redoubt. The numerous windows,
+however, with very tolerable spaces between them; the numerous
+chimneys, with every sort of form and angle; the numerous doors, of
+every shape and size, and the square precision of the whole, bespoke
+it a very capacious building, and the inside justified fully the idea
+which the mind of a traveller naturally formed from the outside. It
+was, in truth, a roomy, and in some cases a very convenient abode; but
+it was laid out upon a particular plan, which it may not be amiss to
+write down, for the practical instruction of the reader unlearned in
+such edifices.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the centre of the ground-floor was a large hall of a cruciform
+shape, each of the limbs being about fifteen feet wide. The two
+shorter arms of the cross stretched from side to side of the building
+in its width; the two longer from end to end of its length. The
+southern termination of the shorter arms was the great hall-door; the
+northern arm, which formed the passage between the various ranges of
+offices, extended to a door at the back, opening into a court-yard
+surrounded by coach-houses, stables, cow-sheds, pig-sties, and
+hen-roosts. But the offices, and the passage between them, were shut
+off from the main hall and the rest of the mansion by double doors;
+and the square of fifteen feet in the centre of the hall was, to the
+exent of about two-thirds of the whole, occupied by a large,
+low-stepped, broad-ballustraded oaken staircase. The eastern and
+western limbs of the cross afforded the means of communicating with
+various rooms,--such as library, dining-room, drawing-room,
+music-room, magistrate's-room, gentleman's-room, and billiard-room,
+with one or two others to which no name had been applied. Many of
+these rooms had doors which led into the one adjacent; but this was
+not invariably the case, for from the main corridor branched off
+several little passages, separating in some instances one chamber from
+the other, and leading out upon the terrace by the smaller doors which
+we have noticed above. What was the use of these passages and doors
+nobody was ever able to divine, and it remains a mystery to the
+present day, which I shall not attempt to solve by venturing any
+hypothesis upon so recondite a subject. The second floor above was
+laid out much in the same way as the one below, except that one of the
+limbs of the cross was wanting, the space over the great door being
+appropriated to a very tolerable bed-room. From this floor to the
+other, descended two or three staircases, the principal one being the
+great open flight of steps which I have already mentioned; and the
+second, or next in importance, being a stone staircase, which reached
+the ground between the double doors, that shut out the main hall from
+the offices.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having thus given some idea of the interior of the building, I will
+only pause to notice, that, at the period I speak of, it had one very
+great defect. It was very much out of repair,--not, indeed, of that
+sort of substantial repair which is necessary to comfort, but of that
+pleasant repair which is agreeable to the eye. It was well and solidly
+built, and was quite wind and water tight; but although the builders
+of the day in which it was erected were, as every one knows,
+peculiarly neat in their brick-work, yet Time would have his way even
+with their constructions, and he had maliciously chiselled out the
+pointing from between the sharp, well-cut bricks, scraped away the
+mortar from the stone copings, and cracked and blistered the painting
+of the wood-work. This labour of his had not only given a venerable,
+but also a somewhat dilapidated appearance to the mansion; and some
+green mould, with which he had taken the pains to dabble all the white
+parts of the edifice, did not decrease the look of decay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sweeping round from the parish road that we have mentioned was a
+branch, leading by the side of the lawn, and a gentle ascent up to the
+terrace and to the great door, and carriages on arriving passed along
+the whole front of the house by the western angle before they reached
+the court-yard behind. But from that courtyard there were various
+other means of exit. One to the kitchen garden, one to two or three
+other courts, and one into the wood which came within fifty yards of
+the enclosure; for, to use the ordinary romance phrase, Harbourne
+House was literally &quot;bosomed in wood.&quot; The windows, however, and the
+front, commanded a fine view of a rich and undulating country,
+plentifully garnished with trees, but still, for a considerable
+distance, exposed to the eye, from the elevated ground upon which the
+mansion was placed. A little hamlet was seen at the distance of about
+two miles in front--I rather suspect it was Kenchill--and to the
+eastward the house looked over the valley towards the high ground by
+Woodchurch and Woodchurch Beacon, catching a blue line which probably
+was Romney Marsh. Between, Woodchurch, however, and itself, was seen
+standing out, straight and upright, a very trim-looking white
+dwelling, flanked by some pleasant groves, and to the west were seen
+one or two gentlemen's seats scattered about over the face of the
+country. Behind, nothing of course was to be seen but tree-tops,
+except from the window of one of the attics, whence the housemaid
+could descry Biddenden Windmill and the top of Biddenden Church.
+Harbourne Wood was indeed, at that time, very extensive, joining on to
+the large piece of woodland, from which it is now separated, and
+stretching out as far as that place with an unpleasant name, called
+Gallows Green. The whole of this space, and a considerable portion of
+the cultivated ground around, was within the manor of the master of
+the mansion, Sir Robert Croyland, of Harbourne, the elder brother of
+that Mr. Zachary Croyland, whom we have seen travelling down into Kent
+with two companions in the newly established stage-coach.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">About four days after that memorable journey, a traveller on
+horseback, followed by a servant leading another horse, and with a
+portmanteau behind him, rode up the little parish road we have
+mentioned, took the turning which led to the terrace, and drew in his
+bridle at the great door of Harbourne House. I would describe him
+again, but I have already given the reader so correct and accurate a
+picture of Sir Edward Digby, that he cannot make any mistake. The only
+change which had taken place in his appearance since he set out from
+London, was produced by his being now dressed in a full military
+costume; but nevertheless the eyes of a fair lady, who was in the
+drawing-room and had a full view of the terrace, conveyed to her mind,
+as she saw him ride up, the impression that he was a very handsome man
+indeed. In two minutes more, which were occupied by the opening of the
+door and sundry directions given by the young baronet to his servant,
+Sir Edward Digby was ushered into the drawing-room, and advanced with
+a frank, free, military air, though unacquainted with any of the
+persons it contained. As his arrival about that hour was expected, the
+whole family of Harbourne House was assembled to receive him; and
+before we proceed farther, we may as well give some account of the
+different persons of whom the little circle was composed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The first whom Sir Edward's eyes fell upon was the master of the
+mansion, who had risen, and was coming forward to welcome his guest.
+Sir Robert Croyland, however, was so different a person from his
+brother, in every point, that the young officer could hardly believe
+that he had the baronet before him. He was a large, heavy-looking man,
+with good features and expressive eyes, but sallow in complexion, and
+though somewhat corpulent, having that look of loose, flabby obesity,
+which is generally an indication of bad health. His dress, though
+scrupulously clean and in the best fashion of the time, fitted him
+ill, being too large even for his large person; and the setting of the
+diamond ring which he wore upon his hand was scarcely more yellow than
+the hand itself. On his face he bore a look of habitual thought and
+care, approaching moroseness, which even the smile he assumed on Sir
+Edward's appearance could not altogether dissipate. In his tone,
+however, he was courtly and kind, though perhaps a little pompous,
+expressed his delight at seeing his old friend's son in Harbourne
+House, shook him warmly by the hand, and then led him ceremoniously
+forward to introduce him to his sister, Mrs. Barbara Croyland, and his
+two daughters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The former lady might very well have had applied to her Fielding's
+inimitable description of the old maid. Her appearance was very
+similar, her station and occupation much the same; but nevertheless,
+in all essential points, Mrs. Barbara Croyland was a very different
+person from the sister of Squire Allworthy. She was a kind-hearted
+soul as ever existed; gentle in her nature, anxious to do the very
+best for every body, a little given to policy for the purpose of
+accomplishing that end, and consequently, nine times out of ten,
+making folks very uncomfortable in order to make them comfortable, and
+doing all manner of mischief for the purpose of setting things right.
+No woman ever had a more perfect abnegation of self than Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, in all things of great importance. She had twice missed a
+very good opportunity of marriage, by making up a match between one
+who was quite ready to be her own lover and one of her female friends,
+for whom he cared very little. She had lent the whole of her own
+private fortune, except a small annuity, which by some chance had been
+settled upon her, to her brother Sir Robert, without taking any
+security whatsoever for principal or interest; and she was always
+ready, when there was anything in her purse, to give it away to the
+worthy or unworthy--rather, indeed, preferring the latter, from a
+conviction that they were more likely to be destitute of friends than
+those who had some claim upon society.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nevertheless Mrs. Barbara Croyland was not altogether without that
+small sort of selfishness which is usually termed vanity. She was
+occasionally a little affronted and indignant with her friends, when
+they disapproved of her spoiling their whole plans with the intention
+of facilitating them. She knew that her design was good; and she
+thought it very ungrateful in the world to be angry when her good
+designs produced the most opposite results to those which she
+intended. She was fully convinced, too, that circumstances were
+perversely against her; and yet for her life she could not refrain
+from trying to make those circumstances bend to her purpose,
+notwithstanding all the nips on the knuckles she received; and she had
+still some scheme going on, which, though continually disappointed,
+rose up Hydra-like, with a new head springing out as soon as the other
+was cut off. As it was at her suggestion, and in favour of certain
+plans which she kept deep in the recesses of her own bosom, that Sir
+Robert Croyland had claimed acquaintance with Sir Edward Digby on the
+strength of an old friendship with his father, and had invited him
+down to Harbourne House immediately on the return of his regiment to
+England, it may well be supposed that Miss Barbara received him with
+her most gracious smiles--which, to say the truth, though the face was
+wrinkled with age, and the complexion not very good, were exceedingly
+sweet and benignant, springing from a natural kindness of heart,
+which, if guided by a sounder discretion, would have rendered her one
+of the most amiable persons on the earth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After a few words of simple courtesy on both parts, Sir Edward turned
+to the other two persons who were in the room, where he found metal
+more attractive--at least, for the eyes. The first to whom he was
+introduced was a young lady, who seemed to be about one-and-twenty
+years of age, though she had in fact just attained another year; and
+though Sir Robert somewhat hurried him on to the next, who was
+younger, the keen eye of the young officer marked enough to make him
+aware that, if so cold and so little disposed to look on a lover as
+her uncle had represented, she might well become a very dangerous
+neighbour to a man with a heart not well guarded against the power of
+beauty. Her hair, eyes, and eyelashes were almost black, and her
+complexion of a clear brown, with the rose blushing faintly in the
+cheek; but the eyes were of a deep blue. The whole form of the head,
+the fall of the hair, the bend of the neck from the shoulders, were
+all exquisitely symmetrical and classical, and nothing could be more
+lovely than the line of the brow and the chiselled cutting of the
+nose. The upper lip, small and delicately drawn, the under lip full
+and slightly apart, shewing the pearl-like teeth beneath; the turn of
+the ear, and the graceful line in the throat, might all have served as
+models for the sculptor or the painter; for the colouring was as rich
+and beautiful as the form; and when she rose and stood to receive him,
+with the small hand leaning gently on the arm of the chair, he thought
+he had never seen anything more graceful than the figure, or more
+harmonious than its calm dignity, with the lofty gravity of her
+countenance. If there was a defect in the face, it was perhaps that
+the chin was a little too prominent, but yet it suited well with the
+whole countenance and with its expression, giving it decision without
+harshness, and a look of firmness, which the bright smile that
+fluttered for a moment round the lips, deprived of everything that was
+not gentle and kind. There was soul, there was thought, there was
+feeling, in the whole look; and Digby would fain have paused to see
+those features animated in conversation. But her father led him on,
+after a single word of introduction, to present him to his younger
+daughter, who, with some points of resemblance, offered a strange
+contrast to her sister. She, too, was very handsome, and apparently
+about two years younger; but hers was the style of beauty which,
+though it deserves a better name, is generally termed pretty. All the
+features were good, and the hair exceedingly beautiful; but the face
+was not so oval, the nose perhaps a little too short, and the lips too
+sparkling with smiles to impress the mind, at first sight, so much as
+the countenance of the other. She seemed all happiness; and in looking
+to the expression and at her bright blue eyes, as they looked out
+through the black lashes, like violets from a clump of dark leaves, it
+was scarcely possible to fancy that she had ever known a touch of care
+or sorrow, or that one of the anxieties of life had ever even brushed
+her lightly with its wing. She seemed the flower just opening to the
+morning sunshine--the fruit, before the bloom had been washed away by
+one shower. Her figure, too, was full of young grace; her movements
+were all quicker, more wild and free than her sister's; and as she
+rose to receive Sir Edward Digby, it was more with the air of an old
+friend than a new acquaintance. Indeed, she was the first of the
+family who had seen him, for hers were the eyes which had watched his
+approach from the window, so that she felt as if she knew him better
+than any of them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something very winning in the frank and cordial greeting
+with which she met him, and in an instant it had established a sort of
+communication between them which would have taken hours, perhaps days,
+to bring about with her sister. As Sir Edward Digby did not come there
+to fall in love, he would fain have resisted such influences, even at
+the beginning; and perhaps the words of old Mr. Croyland had somewhat
+put him upon his guard. But it was of no use being upon his guard;
+for, fortify himself as strongly as he would, Zara went through all
+his defences in an instant; and, seeming to take it for granted that
+they were to be great friends, and that there was not the slightest
+obstacle whatever to their being perfectly familiar in a ladylike and
+gentleman-like manner, of course they were so in five minutes, though
+he was a soldier who had seen some service, and she an inexperienced
+girl just out of her teens. But all women have a sort of experience of
+their own; or, if experience be not the right name, an intuition in
+matters where the other sex is concerned, which supplies to them very
+rapidly a great part of that which long converse with the world
+bestows on men. Too true that it does not always act as a safeguard to
+their own hearts--true that it does not always guide them right in
+their own actions,--but still it does not fail to teach them the best
+means of winning where they wish to win; and if they do not succeed,
+it is far more frequently that the cards which they hold are not good,
+than that they play the game unskilfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Whether Sir Robert Croyland had or had not any forethought in his
+invitation of Sir Edward Digby, and, like a prudent father, judged
+that it would be quite as well his youngest daughter should marry a
+wealthy baronet, he was too wise to let anything like design appear;
+and though he suffered the young officer to pursue his conversation
+with Zara for two or three minutes longer than he had done with her
+sister, he soon interposed, by taking the first opportunity of telling
+his guest the names of those whom he had invited to meet him that day
+at dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We shall have but a small party,&quot; he said, in a somewhat apologetic
+tone, &quot;for several of our friends are absent just now; but I have
+asked my good and eccentric brother Zachary to meet you to-day, Sir
+Edward; and also my excellent neighbour, Mr. Radford, of Radford
+Hall--a very superior man indeed under the surface, though the manner
+may be a little rough. His son, too, I trust will join us;&quot; and he
+glanced his eye towards Edith, whose face grew somewhat paler than it
+had been before. Sir Robert instantly withdrew his gaze; but the look
+of both father and daughter had not been lost upon Digby; and he
+replied--&quot;I have the pleasure of knowing your brother already, Sir
+Robert. We were fellow-travellers as far as Ashford, four or five days
+ago. I hope he is well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, quite well--quite well,&quot; answered the baronet; &quot;but as odd as
+ever--nay odder, I think, for his expedition to London. That which
+seems to polish and soften other men, but renders him rougher and more
+extraordinary. But he was always very odd--very odd indeed, even as a
+boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but he was always kind-hearted, brother Robert,&quot; observed Miss
+Barbara; &quot;and though he may be a little odd, he has been in odd
+places, you know--India and the like; and besides, it does not do to
+talk of his oddity, as you are doing always, for if he heard of it, he
+might leave all his money away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is only odd, I think,&quot; said Edith Croyland, &quot;by being kinder and
+better than other men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby turned towards her with a warm smile, replying--&quot;So
+it struck me, Miss Croyland. He is so good and right-minded himself,
+that he is at times a little out of patience with the faults and
+follies of others--at least, such was my impression, from all I saw of
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was a just one,&quot; answered the young lady, &quot;and I am sure, Sir
+Edward, the more you see of him the more you will be inclined to
+overlook the oddities for the sake of the finer qualities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It seemed to Sir Edward Digby that the commendations of Sir Robert
+Croyland's brother did not seem the most grateful of all possible
+sounds to the ears of the Baronet, who immediately after announced
+that he would have the pleasure of conducting his young guest to his
+apartments, adding that they were early people in the country, their
+usual dinner-hour being four o'clock, though he found that the
+fashionable people of London were now in the habit of dining at
+half-past four. Sir Edward accordingly followed him up the great
+oaken staircase to a very handsome and comfortable room, with a
+dressing-room at the side, in which he found his servant already
+busily employed in disburdening his bags and portmanteau of their
+contents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert paused for a moment--to see that his guest had everything
+which he might require, and then left him. But the young baronet did
+not proceed immediately to the business of the toilet, seating himself
+before the window of the bed-room, and gazing out with a thoughtful
+expression, while his servant continued his operations in the next
+room. From time to time the man looked in as if he had something to
+say, but his master continued in a reverie, of which it may be as well
+to take some notice. His first thought was, &quot;I must lay out the plan
+of my campaign; but I must take care not to get my wing of the army
+defeated while the main body is moving up to give battle. On my life,
+I'm a great deal too good-natured to put myself in such a dangerous
+position for a friend. The artillery that the old gentleman spoke of
+is much more formidable than I expected. My worthy colonel did not use
+so much of love's glowing colours in his painting as I supposed; but
+after all, there's no danger; I am proof against all such shots, and I
+fancy I must use little Zara for the purpose of getting at her
+sister's secrets. There can be no harm in making a little love to her,
+the least little bit possible. It will do my pretty coquette no harm,
+and me none either. It may be well to know how the land lies, however;
+and I dare say that fellow of mine has made some discoveries already;
+but the surest way to get nothing out of him is to ask him, and so I
+must let him take his own way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His thoughts then turned to another branch of the same subject; and he
+went on pondering rather than thinking for some minutes more. There is
+a state of mind which can scarcely be called thought; for thought is
+rapid and progressive, like the flight of a bird, whether it be in the
+gyrations of the swallow, or the straightforward course of the rook;
+but in the mode or condition of which I speak, the mind seems rather
+to hover over a particular object, like the hawk eyeing carefully that
+which is beneath it; and this state can no more be called thought than
+the hovering of the hawk can be called flight. Such was the occupation
+of Sir Edward Digby, as I have said, for several minutes, and then he
+went on to his conclusions. &quot;She loves him still,&quot; he said to himself;
+&quot;of that I feel sure. She is true to him still, and steadfast in her
+truth. Whatever may have been said or done has not been hers, and that
+is a great point gained; for now, with station, rank, distinction, and
+competence at least, he presents himself in a very different position
+from any which he could assume before; and unless on account of some
+unaccountable prejudice, the old gentleman can have no objection. Oh,
+yes, she loves him still, I feel very sure! The calm gravity of that
+beautiful face has only been written there so early by some deep and
+unchanged feeling. We never see the sparkling brightness of youth so
+shadowed but by some powerful and ever-present memory, which, like the
+deep bass notes of a fine instrument, gives a solemn tone even to the
+liveliest music of life. She can smile, but the brow is still grave:
+there is something underneath it; and we must find out exactly what
+that is. Yet I cannot doubt; I am sure of it. Here, Somers! are not
+those things ready yet? I shall be too late for dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, sir;&quot; replied the man, coming in, and putting up the back of
+his hand to his head, in military fashion. &quot;Your honour wont be too
+late. The great bell rings always half-an-hour before, then Mr.
+Radford is always a quarter-of-an-hour behind his time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wonder who Mr. Radford is!&quot; said Sir Edward Digby, as if speaking
+to himself. &quot;He seems a very important person in the county.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can tell you, sir,&quot; said the man, &quot;he is or was the richest person
+in the neighbourhood, and has got Sir Robert quite under his thumb,
+they say. He was a merchant, or a shopkeeper, the butler told me, in
+Hythe. But there was more money came in than ever went through his
+counting-house, and what between trading one way or another, he got
+together a great deal of riches, bought this place here in the
+neighbourhood, and set up for a gentleman. His son is to be married to
+Miss Croyland, they say; but the servants think that she hates him,
+and fancy that he would himself rather have her sister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The latter part of this speech was that which interested Sir Edward
+Digby the most; but he knew that there was a certain sort of
+perversity about his servant, which made him less willing to answer a
+distinct question than to volunteer any information; and therefore he
+fixed upon another point, inquiring, &quot;What do you mean, Somers, by
+saying that he is, or was, the richest man in the country?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, sir, that is as it may be,&quot; answered the man; &quot;but one thing is
+certain--Miss Croyland has three times refused to marry this young
+Radford, notwithstanding all her father could say; and as for the
+young gentleman himself, why he's no gentleman at all, going about
+with all the bad characters in the county, and carrying on his
+father's old trade, like a highwayman. It has not quite answered so
+well though, for they say old Radford lost fully fifty thousand pounds
+by his last venture, which was run ashore somewhere about Romney Hoy.
+The boats were sunk, part of the goods seized, and the rest sent to
+the bottom. You may be sure he's a dare-devil, however, for whenever
+the servants speak of him, they sink their voice to a whisper, as if
+the fiend were at their elbow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby was very well inclined to hear more; but while the
+man was speaking, the bell he had mentioned, rang, and the young
+baronet, who had a certain regard for his own personal appearance,
+hastened to dress and to descend to the drawing-room.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It is sometimes expedient in telling a tale of this kind, to introduce
+the different personages quietly to the reader one after the other,
+and to suffer him to become familiar with them separately, before they
+are all brought to act together, that he may have a clear and definite
+notion of their various characters, dispositions, and peculiarities,
+and be enabled to judge at once of the motives by which they are
+actuated, when we recite the deeds that they perform.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having twice or thrice mentioned one of the prominent persons in this
+history, without having brought him visibly upon the scene, (as, in
+the natural course of events, I must very soon do,) I shall now follow
+the plan above mentioned; and, in order to give the reader a distinct
+notion of Mr. Radford, his character and proceedings, will beg those
+who have gone on with me thus far, to step back with me to the same
+night, on which Mr. Warde and his young friend met the smuggler in his
+evening walk along the heights.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Not very far from the town of Hythe, not very far from the village of
+Sandgate, are still to be found the ruins of an ancient castle, which,
+by various deeds that have been performed within its walls, has
+acquired a name in English history. The foundation of the building is
+beyond our records; and tradition, always fond of the marvellous,
+carries back the period when the first stone was laid to the times of
+the Roman invaders of Great Britain. Others supposed that it was
+erected by the Saxons, but, as it now stands, it presents no trace of
+the handiwork of either of those two races of barbarians, and is
+simply one of those strongholds constructed by the Normans, or their
+close descendants, either to keep their hold of a conquered country,
+or to resist the power both of tyrannical monarchs and dangerous
+neighbours. Various parts of the building are undoubtedly attributable
+to the reign of Henry II.; and if any portion be of an earlier date,
+of which I have some doubts, it is but small; but a considerable part
+is, I believe, of a still later epoch, and in some places may be
+traced the architecture common in the reign of Edward III. and of his
+grandson. The space enclosed within the outer walls is very extensive,
+and numerous detached buildings, chapels, halls, and apparently a
+priory, are still to be found built against those walls themselves, so
+that it is probable that the castle in remote days gave shelter to
+some religious body, which is rendered still more likely from the fact
+of Saltwood Castle and its manor having formerly appertained to the
+church and see of Canterbury.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Many a remarkable scene has undoubtedly passed in the courts and halls
+of that now ruined building, and it is even probable that there the
+dark and dreadful deed, which, though probably not of his contriving,
+embittered the latter life of the second Henry, was planned and
+determined by the murderers of Thomas à Becket. With such deeds,
+however, and those ancient times, we have nothing here to do; and at
+the period to which this tale refers, the castle, though in a much
+more perfect state than at present, was already in ruins. The park,
+which formerly surrounded it, had been long thrown open and divided
+into fields; but still the character which its formation had given to
+the neighbouring scenery had not passed away; and the rich extent of
+old pasture, the scattered woods and clumps of trees, the brawling
+brook, here and there diverted from its natural course for ornament or
+convenience,--all bespoke the former destination of the ground, for
+near a mile around on every side, when magnificent Archbishop
+Courtenay held the castle of Saltwood as his favourite place of
+residence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Though, as I have said, grey ruin had possession of the building, yet
+the strength of its construction had enabled it in many parts to
+resist the attacks of time; and the great keep, with its two lofty
+gate towers and wide-spreading hall, was then but very little decayed.
+Nevertheless, at that period no one tenanted the castle of Saltwood
+but an old man and his son, who cultivated a small portion of ground
+in the neighbourhood; and their dwelling was confined to three rooms
+in the keep, though they occupied several others by their implements
+of husbandry, occasionally diversified with sacks of grain, stores of
+carrots and turnips, and other articles of agricultural produce. Thus,
+every night, for a short time, lights were to be seen in Saltwood
+Castle, but all the buildings except the keep, were utterly neglected,
+and falling rapidly into a state of complete dilapidation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was towards this building, on the night I speak of, that the
+smuggler took his way, about a quarter of an hour after having
+suddenly broken off his conversation with Mr. Warde and the young
+officer. He walked on with a quick, bold, careless step, apparently
+without much thought or consideration of the interview to which he was
+summoned. He paused, indeed, more than once, and looked around him;
+but it was merely to gaze at the beauty of the scenery, for which he
+had a great natural taste. It is no slight mistake to suppose that the
+constant intercourse with, and opportunity of enjoying the beauties of
+nature, diminish in any degree the pleasures that we thence derive.
+The direct contrary is the case. Every other delight, everything that
+man has contrived or found for himself, palls upon the taste by
+frequent fruition; but not so with those sources of pleasure which are
+given us by God himself; and the purer and freer they are from man's
+invention, the more permanent are they in their capability of
+bestowing happiness, the more extensive seems their quality of
+satisfying the ever-increasing desires of the spirit within us. Were
+it not so, the ardent attachment which is felt by those who have been
+born and brought up in the midst of fine and magnificent scenery to
+the place of their nativity, could not exist; and it will always be
+found that, other things being equal, those who live most amongst the
+beauties of nature, are those who most appreciate them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Many a beautiful prospect presented itself to the smuggler, as he
+walked on by the light of the moon. At one place, the woods swept
+round him and concealed the rest of the country from his eyes; but
+then the moonbeams poured through the branches, or streamed along the
+path, and every now and then, between the old trunks and gnarled
+roots, he caught a sight of the deeper parts of the woodland, sleeping
+in the pale rays. At another, issuing forth upon the side of the hill,
+the leafy wilderness lay beneath his feet with the broad round summit
+of some piece of high ground, rising dark and flat above; and at some
+distance further, he suddenly turned the angle of the valley, and had
+the tall grey ruin of Saltwood full before him, with the lines of the
+trees and meadows sweeping down into the dell, and the bright sky,
+lustrous with the moonlight, extended broad and unclouded behind.
+Shortly after, he came to the little stream, rushing in miniature
+cascades between its hollow banks, and murmuring with a soft and
+musical voice amongst the roots of the shrubs, which here and there
+hid it from the beams.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused but a moment or two, however, at any of these things, and
+then walked on again, till at length he climbed the road leading up to
+the castle, and passed through the arch-way of the gate. Of the
+history of the place he knew nothing, but from vague traditions heard
+in his boyhood; and yet, when he stood amongst those old grey walls,
+with the high towers rising before him, and the greensward, covering
+the decay of centuries, beneath his feet, he could not help feeling a
+vague impression of melancholy, not unmingled with awe, fall upon him.
+In the presence of ancient things, the link between all mortality
+seems most strongly felt. We perceive our association with the dead
+more strongly. The character and habits of thought of the person, of
+course, render it a more distinct or obscure perception; but still we
+all have it. With some, it is as I have before called it, an
+impression that we must share the same decay, meet the same fate, fall
+into the same tomb as those who have raised or produced the things
+that we behold; for every work of man is but a tombstone, if it be
+read aright. But with others, an audible voice speaks from the grey
+ruin and the ancient church, from the dilapidated houses where our
+fathers dwelt or worshipped, and says to every one amongst the living,
+&quot;As they were, who built us, so must you be. They enjoyed, and hoped,
+and feared, and suffered. So do you. Where are they gone, with all
+their thoughts? Where will you go, think you never so highly? All
+down, down, to the same dust, whither we too are tending. We have seen
+these things, for ages past, and we shall see more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">I mean not to say that such was exactly the aspect under which those
+ruins presented themselves to the eye of the man who now visited them.
+The voice that spoke was not so clear; but yet it was clear enough to
+make him feel thoughtful if not sad; and he paused to gaze up at the
+high keep, as the moon shone out upon the old stone-work, showing
+every loophole and casement. He was not without imagination in a
+homely way, and, following the train of thought which the sight of the
+castle at that hour suggested, he said to himself, &quot;I dare say many a
+pretty girl has looked out of that window to talk to her lover by the
+moonlight; and they have grown old, and died like other folks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">How long he would have gone on in this musing mood I cannot tell, but
+just at that moment the boy who had come down to the beach to call
+him, appeared from the old doorway of the chapel, and pointing to one
+of the towers in the wall, whispered--&quot;He's up there, waiting for
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, you run home, young Starlight,&quot; replied the smuggler.
+&quot;I'll be after you in a minute, for he can't have much to say, I
+should think. Off with you! and no listening, or I'll break your head,
+youngster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy laughed, and ran away through the gate; and his companion
+turned towards the angle which he had pointed out. Approaching the
+wall, he entered what might have been a door, or perhaps a window
+looking in upon the court, and communicating with one of those
+passages which led from tower to tower, with stairs every here and
+there leading to the battlements. He was obliged to bow his head as he
+passed; but after climbing a somewhat steep ascent, where the broken
+steps were half covered with rubbish, he emerged upon the top of the
+wall, where many a sentinel had kept his weary watch in times long
+past. At a little distance in advance, standing in the pale moonlight,
+was a tall, gaunt figure, leaning against a fragment of one of the
+neighbouring towers; and Harding did not pause to look at the
+splendour of the view below, though it might well, with its world of
+wood and meadow, bounded by the glistening sea, have attracted eyes
+less fond of such scenes than his; but on he walked, straight towards
+the person before him, who, on his part, hurried forward to meet him,
+whenever the sound of his step broke upon the ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good night, Harding,&quot; said Mr. Radford, in a low but still harsh
+tone; &quot;what a time you have been. It will be one o'clock or more
+before I get back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Past two,&quot; answered the smuggler, bluntly; &quot;but I came as soon as I
+could. It is not much more than half an hour since I got your
+message.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That stupid boy has been playing the fool, then,&quot; replied the other;
+&quot;I sent him----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, he's not stupid,&quot; interrupted the smuggler; &quot;and he's not given
+to play the fool either. More like to play the rogue. But what's the
+business now, sir? There's no doing anything on such nights as these.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know that--I know that,&quot; rejoined Radford. &quot;But this will soon
+change. The moon will be dwindled down to cheese-paring before many
+days are over, and the barometer is falling. It is necessary that we
+should make all our arrangements beforehand, Harding, and have
+everything ready. We must have no more such jobs as the last two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had nothing to do with them,&quot; rejoined the smuggler. &quot;You chose
+your own people, and they failed. I do not mean to say it was their
+fault, for I don't think it was. They lost as much, for them, as you
+did; and they did their best, I dare say; but still that is nothing to
+me. I've undertaken to land the cargo, and I will do it, if I live. If
+I die, there's nothing to be said, you know; but I don't say I'll ever
+undertake another of the sort. It does not answer, Mr. Radford. It
+makes a man think too much, to know that other people have got so much
+money staked on such a venture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but that is the very cause why every one should exert himself,&quot;
+answered his companion. &quot;I lost fifty thousand pounds by the last
+affair, twenty by the other; but I tell you, Harding, I have more than
+both upon this, and if this fail----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, and did not finish the sentence; but he set his teeth hard,
+and seemed to draw his breath with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's a bad plan,&quot; said the smuggler--&quot;a bad plan, in all ways. You
+wish to make up all at one run: and so you double the venture: but you
+should know by this time, that one out of four pays very well, and we
+have seldom failed to do one out of two or three; but the more money
+people get the more greedy they are of it; so that because you put
+three times as much as enough on one freight, you must needs put five
+times on the other, and ten times on the third, risking a greater loss
+every time for a greater gain. I'll have to do with no more of these
+things. I'm contented with little, and don't like such great
+speculations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, if you are afraid,&quot; cried Mr. Radford, &quot;you can give it up! I
+dare say we can find some one else to land the goods.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As to being afraid, that I am not,&quot; answered Harding; &quot;and having
+undertaken the run, I'll do it. I'm not half so much afraid as you
+are: for I've not near so much to lose--only my life or liberty and
+three hundred pounds. But still, Mr. Radford, I do not like to think
+that if anything goes wrong you'll be so much hurt; and it makes a man
+feel queer. If I have a few hundreds in a boat, and nothing to lose
+but myself and a dozen of tubs, I go about it as gay as a lark and as
+cool and quiet as a dogfish; but if anything were to go wrong now, why
+it would be----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ruin--utter ruin!&quot; said Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I dare say it would,&quot; rejoined the smuggler; &quot;but, nevertheless, your
+coming down here every other day, and sending for me, does no good,
+and a great deal of harm. It only teazes me, and sets me always
+thinking about it, when the best way is not to think at all, but just
+to do the thing and get it over. Besides, you'll have people noticing
+your being so often down here, and you'll make them suspect something
+is going on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is necessary, my good fellow,&quot; answered the other, &quot;that we
+should settle all our plans. I must have people ready, and horses and
+help, in case of need.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, that you must,&quot; replied the smuggler, thoughtfully. &quot;I think you
+said the cargo was light goods.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Almost all India,&quot; said Radford, in return. &quot;Shawls and painted
+silks, and other things of great value but small bulk. There are a few
+bales of lace, too; but the whole will require well nigh a hundred
+horses to carry it, so that we must have a strong muster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, and men who fight, too,&quot; rejoined Harding. &quot;You know there are
+Dragoons down at Folkestone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!--when did they come?&quot; exclaimed Hadford, eagerly. &quot;That's a bad
+job--that's a bad job! Perhaps they suspect already. Perhaps some of
+those fellows from the other side have given information, and these
+soldiers are sent down in consequence--I shouldn't wonder, I shouldn't
+wonder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh--nonsense, Mr. Radford!&quot; replied Harding; &quot;you are always so
+suspicious. Some day or another you'll suspect me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I suspect everybody,&quot; cried Radford, vehemently, &quot;and I have good
+cause. I have known men do such things, for a pitiful gain, as would
+hang them, if there were any just punishment for treachery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding laughed, but he did not explain the cause of his merriment,
+though probably he thought that Mr. Radford himself would do many a
+thing for a small gain, which would not lightly touch his soul's
+salvation. He soon proceeded, however, to reply, in a grave
+tone--&quot;That's a bad plan, Mr. Radford. No man is ever well served by
+those whom he suspects. He had better never have anything to do with a
+person he doubts; so, if you doubt me, I'm quite willing to give the
+business up, for I don't half like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no!&quot; said Radford, in a smooth and coaxing tone, &quot;I did not mean
+you, Harding; I know you too well for as honest a fellow as ever
+lived; but I do doubt those fellows on the other side, and I strongly
+suspect they peached about the other two affairs. Besides, you said
+something about Dragoons, and we have not had any of that sort of
+vermin here for a year or more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You frighten yourself about nothing,&quot; answered Harding. &quot;There is but
+a troop of them yet, though they say more are expected. But what good
+are Dragoons? I have run many a cargo under their very noses, and hope
+I shall live to run many another. As to stopping this traffic, they
+are no more good than so many old women!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you must get it all over before the rest come,&quot; replied Mr.
+Radford, in an argumentative manner, taking hold of the lappel of his
+companion's jacket; &quot;there's no use of running more risk than needful.
+And you must remember that we have a long way to carry the goods after
+they are landed. Then is the most dangerous time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know that,&quot; said Harding; &quot;but, however, you must provide for
+that, and must also look out for <i>hides</i><a name="div4Ref_01" href="#div4_01"><sup>[1]</sup></a> for the things. I wont
+have any of them down with me; and when I have landed them safely,
+though I don't mind giving a help to bring them a little way inland, I
+wont be answerable for anything more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no; that's all settled,&quot; answered his companion; &quot;and the hides
+are all ready, too. Some can come into my stable, others can be
+carried up to the willow cave. Then there's Sir Robert's great barn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will Sir Robert consent?&quot; asked Harding, in a doubtful tone. &quot;He
+would never have anything to do with these matters himself, and was
+always devilish hard upon us. I remember he sent my father to gaol ten
+years ago, when I was a youngster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He must consent,&quot; replied Radford, sternly. &quot;He dare as soon refuse
+me as cut off his right hand. I tell you, Harding, I have got him in a
+vice; and one turn of the lever will make him cry for mercy when I
+like. But no more of him. I shall use his barn as if it were my own;
+and it is in the middle of the wood, you know, so that it's out of
+sight. But even if it were not for that, we've got many another place.
+Thank Heaven, there are no want of hides in this county!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but the worst of dry goods, and things of that kind,&quot; rejoined
+the smuggler, &quot;is that they spoil with a little wet, so that one can't
+sink them in a cut or canal till they are wanted, as one can do with
+tubs. Who do you intend to send down for them? That's one thing I must
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, whoever comes, my son will be with them,&quot; answered Mr. Radford.
+&quot;As to who the others will be, I cannot tell yet. The Ramleys,
+certainly, amongst the rest. They are always ready, and will either
+fight or run, as it may be needed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't much like them,&quot; replied Harding; &quot;they are a bad set. I wish
+they were hanged, or out of the country; for, as you say, they will
+either fight, or run, or peach, or anything else that suits them: one
+just as soon as another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no fear of that--no fear of that!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford, in a
+confident tone, which seemed somewhat strange to the ears of his
+companion, after the suspicions he had heard him so lately express;
+but the other instantly added, in explanation, &quot;I shall take care that
+they have no means of peaching, for I will tell them nothing about it,
+till they are setting off with fifty or sixty others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's the best way, and the only way with such fellows as that,&quot;
+answered Harding; &quot;but if you tell nobody, you'll find it a hard job
+to get them all together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only let the day be fixed,&quot; said Mr. Radford; &quot;and I'll have all
+ready--never fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That must be your affair,&quot; replied Harding; &quot;I'm ready whenever you
+like. Give me a dark night and a fair wind, and my part of the job is
+soon done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;About this day week, I should think,&quot; said Mr. Radford. &quot;The moon
+will be nearly out by that time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not much more than half,&quot; replied the smuggler; &quot;and as we have got
+to go far,--for the ship, you say, will not stand in,--we had better
+have the whole night to ourselves. Even a bit of a moon is a bad
+companion on such a trip; especially when there is so much money
+risked. No, I think you had better give me three days more: then there
+will be wellnigh nothing left of her, and she wont rise till three or
+four. We can see what the weather's like, too, about that time; and I
+can come up, and let you know. But if you'll take my advice, Mr.
+Radford, you'll not be coming down here any more, till it's all over
+at least. There's no good of it, and it may do mischief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, now it's all settled, I shall not need to do so,&quot; rejoined the
+other; &quot;but I really don't see, Harding, why you should so much wish
+me to stay away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll tell you why, Mr. Radford,&quot; said Harding, putting his hands into
+the pockets of his jacket, &quot;and that very easily. Although you have
+become a great gentleman, and live at a fine place inland, people
+haven't forgot when you kept a house and a counting-house too, in
+Hythe, and all that used to go on in those days; and though you are a
+magistrate, and go out hunting and shooting, and all that, the good
+folks about have little doubt that you have a hankering after the old
+trade yet, only that you do your business on a larger scale than you
+did then. It's but the other day, when I was in at South's, the
+grocer's, to talk to him about some stuff he wanted, I heard two men
+say one to the other, as they saw you pass, 'Ay, there goes old
+Radford. I wonder what he's down here for!' 'As great an old smuggler
+as ever lived,' said the other; 'and a pretty penny he's made of it.
+He's still at it, they say; and I dare say he's down here now upon
+some such concern.' So you see, sir, people talk about it, and that's
+the reason why I say that the less you are here the better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps it is--perhaps it is,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, quickly; &quot;and as
+we've now settled all we can settle, till you come up, I'll take
+myself home. Good night, Harding--good night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good night, sir,&quot; answered Harding, with something like a smile upon
+his lip; and finding their way down again to the court below, they
+parted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't like that fellow at all,&quot; said Mr. Radford to himself, as he
+walked away upon the road to Hythe, where he had left his horse; &quot;he's
+more than half inclined to be uncivil. I'll have nothing more to do
+with him after this is over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding took his way across the fields towards Sandgate, and perhaps
+his thoughts were not much more complimentary to his companion than
+Mr. Radford's had been to him; but in the meantime, while each
+followed his separate course homeward, we must remain for a short
+space in the green, moonlight court of Saltwood Castle. All remained
+still and silent for about three minutes; but then the ivy, which at
+that time had gathered thickly round the old walls, might be seen to
+move in the neighbourhood of a small aperture in one of the ruined
+flanking towers of the outer wall, to which it had at one time
+probably served as a window, though all traces of its original form
+were now lost. The tower was close to the spot where Mr. Radford and
+his companion had been standing; and although the aperture we have
+mentioned looked towards the court, joining on to a projecting wall in
+great part overthrown, there was a loop-hole on the other side,
+flanking the very parapet on which they had carried on their
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After the ivy had moved for a moment, as I have said, something like a
+human head was thrust out, looking cautiously round the court. The
+next minute a broad pair of shoulders appeared, and then the whole
+form of a tall and powerful man, who, after pausing for an instant on
+the top of the broken wall, used its fragments as a means of descent
+to the ground below. Just as he reached the level of the court, one of
+the loose stones which he had displaced as he came down, rolled after
+him and fell at his side; and, with a sudden start at the first sound,
+he laid his hand on the butt of a large horse-pistol stuck in a belt
+round his waist. As soon as he perceived what it was that had alarmed
+him, he took his hand from the weapon again, and walked out into the
+moonlight; and thence, after pacing quietly up and down for two or
+three minutes, to give time for the two other visitors of the castle
+to get to a distance, he sauntered slowly out through the gate. He
+then turned under the walls towards the little wood which at that time
+occupied a part of the valley; opposite to which he stood gazing for
+about five minutes. When he judged all safe, he gave a whistle, upon
+which the form of a boy instantly started out from the trees, and came
+running across the meadow towards him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you heard all, Mr. Mowle?&quot; asked the boy in a whisper, as soon
+as he was near.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All that they said, Little Starlight,&quot; replied the other. &quot;They
+didn't say enough; but yet it will do; and you are a clever little
+fellow. But come along,&quot; he added, laying his hand on the boy's
+shoulder, &quot;you shall have what I promised you, and half-a-crown more;
+and if you go on, and tell me all you find out, you shall be well
+paid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he walked on with the boy towards Hythe, and the scenery
+round Saltwood resumed its silent solitude again.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">To a very hungry man, it matters not much what is put upon the table,
+so that it be eatable; but with the intellectual appetite the case is
+different, and every one is anxious to know who is to be his
+companion, or what is to be in his book. Now, Sir Edward Digby was
+somewhat of an epicure in human character; and he always felt as great
+a curiosity to enjoy any new personage brought before him, as the more
+ordinary epicure desires to taste a new dish. He was equally refined,
+too, in regard to the taste of his intellectual food. He liked a good
+deal of flavour, but not too much: a soupçon of something, he did not
+well know what, in a man's demeanour gave it great zest, as a soupçon
+of two or three condiments so blended in a salmi as to defy analysis
+must have charmed Vatel; and, to say the truth, the little he had seen
+or heard of the house in which he now was, together with his knowledge
+of some of its antecedents, had awakened a great desire for a farther
+taste of its quality.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he went down stairs, then, and opened the dining-room door, his
+eye naturally ran round in search of the new guests. Only two,
+however, had arrived, in the first of whom he recognised Mr. Zachary
+Croyland. The other was a venerable looking old man, in black, whom he
+could not conceive to be Mr. Radford, from the previous account which
+he had heard of that respectable gentleman's character. It turned out,
+however, that the person before him--who had been omitted by Sir
+Robert Croyland in the enumeration of his expected visitors--was the
+clergyman of the neighbouring village; and being merely a plain, good
+man, of very excellent sense, but neither, rich noble, nor thrifty,
+was nobody in the opinion of the baronet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As soon as Sir Edward Digby appeared, Mr. Zachary Croyland, with his
+back tall, straight, and stiff as a poker, advanced towards him, and
+shook him cordially by the hand. &quot;Welcome, welcome, my young friend,&quot;
+he said; &quot;you've kept your word, I see; and that's a good sign of any
+man, especially when he knows that there's neither pleasure, profit,
+nor popularity to be gained by so doing; and I'm sure there's none of
+either to be had in this remote corner of the world. You have some
+object, of course, in coming among us; for every man has an object;
+but what it is I can't divine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A very great object indeed, my dear sir,&quot; replied the young officer,
+with a smile; &quot;I wish to cultivate the acquaintance of an old friend
+of my father's--your brother here, who was kind enough to invite me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A very unprofitable sort of plant to cultivate,&quot; answered Mr.
+Croyland, in a voice quite loud enough to be heard by the whole room.
+&quot;It wont pay tillage, I should think; but you know your own affairs
+best. Here, Edith, my love, I must make you better acquainted with my
+young fellow-traveller. Doubtless, he is perfectly competent to talk
+as much nonsense to you as any other young man about town, and has
+imported, for the express benefit of the young ladies in the country,
+all the sweet things and pretty speeches last in vogue. But he can, in
+his saner moments, and if you just let him know that you are not quite
+a fool, bestow upon you some small portion of common sense, which he
+has picked up, Heaven knows how!--He couldn't have it by descent; for
+he is an eldest son, and that portion of the family property is always
+reserved for the younger children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara Croyland, who found that her brother Zachary was riding
+his horse somewhat hard, moved across the room--with the superfluity
+of whalebone which she had in her stays crackling at every step, as if
+expressly to attract attention--and, laying her hand on Mr. Croyland's
+arm, she whispered--&quot;Now do, brother, be a little civil and kind.
+There's no use of hurting people's feelings; and, if Robert hasn't as
+much sense as you, there's no use you should always be telling him
+so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pish! nonsense! &quot;cried Mr. Croyland, &quot;Hold your tongue, Bab. You're a
+good soul as ever lived, but a great fool into the bargain. So don't
+meddle. I should think you had burnt your fingers enough with it by
+this time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I'm sure you're a good soul, too, if you would but let people
+know it,&quot; replied Mrs. Barbara, anxious to soften and keep down all
+the little oddities and asperities of her family circle in the eyes of
+Sir Edward Digby.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But she only showed them the more by so doing; for Mr. Croyland was
+not to be caught by honey; and, besides, the character which she, in
+her simplicity, thought fit to attribute to him, was the very last
+upon the face of the earth which he coveted. Every man has his vanity;
+and it is an imp that takes an infinite variety of different forms,
+frequently the most hideous or the most absurd. Now Mr. Croyland's
+vanity lay in his oddity and acerbity. There was nothing on earth
+which he considered so foolish as good-nature; and he was heartily
+ashamed of the large portion with which Heaven had endowed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I a good soul!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;Let me tell you, Bab, you are very
+much mistaken in that, as in every other thing you say or do. I am
+nothing more nor less than a very cross, ill-tempered old man; and you
+know it quite well, if you wouldn't be a hypocrite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I do believe you are,&quot; said the lady, with her own particular
+vanity mortified into a state of irritation, &quot;and the only way is to
+let you alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While this conversation had been passing between brother and sister,
+Sir Edward Digby, taking advantage of the position in which they
+stood, and which masked his own operations from the rest of the party,
+bent down to speak a few words to Edith, who, whatever they were,
+looked up with a smile, faint and thoughtful indeed, but still
+expressing as much cheerfulness as her countenance ever showed. The
+topic which he spoke upon might be commonplace, but what he said was
+said with grace, and had a degree of originality in it, mingled with
+courtliness and propriety of expression, which at once awakened
+attention and repaid it. It was not strong beer--it was not strong
+spirit--but it was like some delicate kind of wine, which has more
+power than the fineness of the flavour suffers to be apparent at the
+first taste.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Their conversation was not long, however; for by the time that the
+young gentleman and lady had exchanged a few sentences, and Mr.
+Croyland had finished his discussion with his sister, the name of Mr.
+Radford was announced; and Sir Edward Digby turned quickly round to
+examine the appearance of the new comer. As he did so, however, his
+eye fell for a moment upon the countenance of Edith Croyland, and he
+thought he remarked an expression of anxiety not unmingled with pain,
+till the door closed after admitting a single figure, when a look of
+relief brightened her face, and she gave a glance across the room to
+her sister. The younger girl instantly rose; and while her father was
+busy receiving Mr. Radford with somewhat profuse attention, she
+gracefully crossed the room, and seating herself by Edith, laid her
+hand upon her sister's, whispering something to her with a kindly
+look.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby marked it all, and liked it; for there is something
+in the bottom of man's heart which has always a sympathy with
+affection; but he, nevertheless, did not fail to take a complete
+survey of the personage who entered, and whom I must now present to
+the reader, somewhat more distinctly than I could do by the moonlight.
+Mr. Richard Radford was a tall, thin, but large-boned man, with dark
+eyes and overhanging shaggy brows, a hook nose, considerably depressed
+towards the point, a mouth somewhat wide, and teeth very fine for his
+age, though somewhat straggling and sharklike. His hair was very
+thick, and apparently coarse; his arms long and powerful; and his
+legs, notwithstanding the meagreness of his body, furnished with very
+respectable calves. On the whole, he was a striking but not a
+prepossessing person; and there was a look of keenness and cupidity,
+we might almost say voracity, in his eye, with a bend in the brow,
+which would have given the observer an idea of great quickness of
+intellect and decision of character, if it had not been for a certain
+degree of weakness about the partly opened mouth, which seemed to be
+in opposition to the latter characteristic. He was dressed in the
+height of the mode, with large buckles in his shoes and smaller ones
+at his knees, a light dress-sword hanging not ungracefully by his
+side, and a profusion of lace and embroidery about his apparel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford replied to the courtesies of Sir Robert Croyland
+with perfect self-possession--one might almost call it
+self-sufficiency--but with no grace and some stiffness. He was then
+introduced, in form, to Sir Edward Digby, bowing low, if that could be
+called a bow, which was merely an inclination of the rigid spine, from
+a perpendicular position to an angle of forty-five with the horizon.
+The young officer's demeanour formed a very striking contrast with
+that of his new acquaintance, not much in favour of the latter; but he
+showed that, as Mr. Croyland had predicated of him, he was quite
+prepared to say a great many courteous nothings in a very civil and
+obliging tone. Mr. Radford declared himself delighted at the honour of
+making his acquaintance, and Sir Edward pronounced himself charmed at
+the opportunity of meeting him. Mr. Radford hoped that he was going to
+honour their poor place for a considerable length of time, and Sir
+Edward felt sure that the beauty of such scenery, and the delights of
+such society, would be the cause of much pain to him when he was
+compelled to tear himself away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A low but merry laugh from behind them, caused both the gentlemen to
+turn their heads; and they found the sparkling eyes of Zara Croyland
+fixed upon them. She instantly dropped her eye-lids, however, and
+coloured a little, at being detected. It was evident enough that she
+had been weighing the compliments she heard, and estimating them at
+their right value, which made Mr. Radford look somewhat angry, but
+elicited nothing from Sir Edward Digby but a gay glance at the
+beautiful little culprit, which she caught, even through the thick
+lashes of her downcast eyes, and which served to reassure her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland himself was displeased; but Zara was in a degree a
+spoiled child, and had established for herself a privilege of doing
+what she liked, unscolded. To turn the conversation, therefore, Sir
+Robert, in a tone of great regard, inquired particularly after his
+young friend, Richard, and said, he hoped that they were to have the
+pleasure of seeing him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I trust so--I trust so, Sir Robert,&quot; replied Mr. Radford; &quot;but you
+know I am totally unacquainted with his movements. He had gone away
+upon some business, the servants told me; and I waited as long as I
+could for him; but I did not choose to keep your dinner, Sir Robert;
+and if he does not choose to come in time, the young dog must go
+without.--Pray do not stop a moment for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Business!&quot; muttered Mr. Croyland--&quot;either cheating the king's
+revenue, or making love to a milkmaid, I'll answer for him;&quot; but the
+remark passed unnoticed, for Sir Robert Croyland, who was always
+anxious to drown his brother's somewhat too pertinent observations,
+without giving the nabob any offence, was loudly pressing Mr. Radford
+to let them wait for half an hour, in order to give time for the young
+gentleman's arrival.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His father, however, would not hear of such a proceeding; and the bell
+was rung, and dinner ordered. It was placed upon the table with great
+expedition; and the party moved towards the dining-room. Mr. Radford
+handed in the baronet's sister, who was, to say the truth, an enigma
+to him; for he himself could form no conception of her good-nature,
+simplicity, and kindness, and consequently thought that all the
+mischief she occasionally caused, must originate in well-concealed
+spite, which gave him a great reverence for her character. Sir Edward
+Digby, notwithstanding a hint from Sir Robert to take in his youngest
+daughter, advanced to Miss Croyland, and secured her, as he thought,
+for himself; while the brother of the master of the house followed
+with the fair Zara, leaving the clergyman and Sir Robert to come
+together. By a man&#339;uvre on the part of Edith, however, favoured by
+her father, but nearly frustrated by the busy spirit of her aunt, Miss
+Croyland got placed between Sir Robert and the clergyman, while the
+youngest daughter of the house was seated by Sir Edward Digby, leaving
+a chair vacant between herself and her worthy parent for young
+Radford, when he should arrive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All this being arranged, to the satisfaction of everybody but Sir
+Edward Digby, grace was said, after a not very decent hint from Sir
+Robert Croyland, that it ought not to be too long; and the dinner
+commenced with the usual attack upon soup and fish. It must not be
+supposed, however, because we have ventured to say that the
+arrangement was not to the satisfaction of Sir Edward Digby, that the
+young baronet was at all disinclined to enjoy his pretty little
+friend's society nearer than the opposite side of the table. Nor must
+it be imagined that his sage reflections, in regard to keeping himself
+out of danger, had at all made a coward of the gallant soldier. The
+truth is, he had a strong desire to study Edith Croyland: not on
+account of any benefit which that study could be of to himself, but
+with other motives and views, which, upon the whole, were very
+laudable. He wished to see into her mind, and, by those slight
+indications which were all he could expect her to display--but which,
+nevertheless, to a keen observer, often tell a history better than a
+whole volume of details--to ascertain some facts, in regard to which
+he took a considerable interest. Being somewhat eager in his way, and
+not knowing how long he might find it either convenient or safe to
+remain in his present quarters, he had determined to commence the
+campaign as soon as possible; but, frustrated in his first attack, he
+determined to change his plan of operations, and besiege the fair Zara
+as one of the enemy's outworks. He accordingly laughed and talked with
+her upon almost every subject in the world during the first part of
+dinner, skilfully leading her up to the pursuits of her sister and
+herself in the country, in order to obtain a clear knowledge of their
+habits and course of proceeding, that he might take advantage of it at
+an after-period, for purposes of his own.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The art of conversation, when properly regarded, forms a regular
+system of tactics, in which, notwithstanding the various man&#339;uvres
+of your adversary, and the desultory fire kept up by indifferent
+persons around, you still endeavour to carry the line of advance in
+the direction that you wish, and to frustrate every effort to turn it
+towards any point that may not be agreeable to you, rallying it here,
+giving it a bend there; presenting a sharp angle at one place, an
+obtuse one at another; and raising from time to time a barrier or a
+breastwork for the purpose of preventing the adverse force from
+turning your flank, and getting into your rear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the mischief was, in the present instance, that Sir Edward Digby's
+breastworks were too low for such an active opponent as Zara Croyland.
+They might have appeared a formidable obstacle in the way of a
+scientific opponent; but with all the rash valour of youth, which is
+so frequently successful where practice and experience fail, she
+walked straight up, and jumped over them, taking one line after
+another, till Sir Edward Digby found that she had nearly got into the
+heart of his camp. It was all so easy and natural, however, so gay and
+cheerful, that he could not feel mortified, even at his own want of
+success; and though five times she darted away from the subject, and
+began to talk of other things, he still renewed it, expatiating upon
+the pleasures of a country life, and upon how much more rational, as
+well as agreeable it was, when compared to the amusements and whirl of
+the town.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Zachary Croyland, indeed, cut across them often, listening to what
+they said and sometimes smiling significantly at Sir Edward Digby, or
+at other times replying himself to what either of the two thought fit
+to discourse upon. Thus, then, when the young baronet was descanting
+sagely of the pleasures of the country, as compared with those of the
+town, good Mr. Croyland laughed merrily, saying, &quot;You will soon have
+enough of it, Sir Edward; or else you are only deceiving that poor
+foolish girl; for what have you to do with the country?--you, who have
+lived the best part of your life in cities, and amongst their
+denizens. I dare say, if the truth were told now, you would give a
+guinea to be walking up the Mall, instead of sitting down here, in
+this old, crumbling, crazy house, speaking courteous nonsense to a
+pretty little milkmaid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, my dear sir, you are very much mistaken,&quot; replied Sir Edward,
+gravely. &quot;You judge all men by yourself; and because you are fond of
+cities, and the busy haunts of men, you think I must be so too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I fond of cities and the busy haunts of men!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland, in
+a tone of high indignation; but a laugh that ran round the table, and
+in which even the worthy clergyman joined, shewed the old gentleman
+that he had been taken in by Sir Edward's quietly-spoken jest; and at
+the same time his brother exclaimed, still laughing, &quot;He hit you
+fairly there, Zachary. He has found out the full extent of your love
+for your fellow-creatures already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I forgive him, I forgive him!&quot; said Mr. Croyland, with more
+good humour than might have been expected. &quot;I had forgotten that I had
+told him, four or five days ago, my hatred for all cities, and
+especially for that great mound of greedy emmets, which,
+unfortunately, is the capital of this country. I declare I never go
+into that vast den of iniquity, and mingle with the stream of
+wretched-looking things that call themselves human, which all its
+doors are hourly vomiting forth, but they put me in mind of the white
+ants in India, just the same squalid-looking, active, and voracious
+vermin as themselves, running over everything that obstructs them,
+intruding themselves everywhere, destroying everything that comes in
+their way, and acting as an incessant torment to every one within
+reach. Certainly, the white ants are the less venemous of the two
+races, and somewhat prettier to look at; but still there's a wonderful
+resemblance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't at all approve of your calling me a milkmaid, uncle,&quot; said
+Zara, shaking her small delicate finger at Mr. Croyland, across the
+table. &quot;It's very wrong and ungrateful of you. See if ever I milk your
+cow for you again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I'll milk it myself, my dear,&quot; replied Mr. Croyland, with a
+good-humoured smile at his fair niece.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You cannot, you cannot!&quot; cried Zara. &quot;Fancy, Sir Edward, what a
+picture it made when one day I went over to my uncle's, and found him
+with a frightful-looking black man, in a turban whom he brought over
+from Heaven knows where, trying to milk a cow he had just bought, and
+neither of them able to manage it. My uncle was kneeling upon his
+cocked hat, amongst the long grass, looking, as he acknowledges, like
+a kangaroo; the cow had got one of her feet in the pail, kicking most
+violently; and the black man with a white turban round his head, was
+upon both his knees before her, beseeching her in some heathen
+language to be quiet. It was the finest sight I ever saw, and would
+have made a beautiful picture of the Worship of the Cow, which is, as
+I am told, customary in the country where both the gentlemen came
+from.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zara, my dear--Zara!&quot; cried Mrs. Barbara, who was frightened to death
+lest her niece should deprive herself of all share in Mr. Croyland's
+fortune. &quot;You really should not tell such a story of your uncle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the worthy gentleman himself was laughing till the tears ran down
+his cheeks. &quot;It's quite true--it's quite true!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;and she
+did milk the cow, though we couldn't. The ill-tempered devil was as
+quiet as a lamb with her, though she is so vicious with every male
+thing, that I have actually been obliged to have a woman in the
+cottage within a hundred yards of the house, for the express purpose
+of milking her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's what you should have done at first,&quot; said Mr. Radford, putting
+down the fork with which he had been diligently devouring a large
+plateful of fish. &quot;Instead of having nothing but men about you, you
+should have had none but your coachman and footman, and all the rest
+women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, and married my cook-maid,&quot; replied Mr. Croyland, sarcastically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland looked down into his plate with a quivering lip
+and a heavy brow, as if he did not well know whether to laugh or be
+angry. The clergyman smiled, Mr. Radford looked furious, but said
+nothing, and Mrs. Barbara exclaimed, &quot;Oh, brother, you should not say
+such things! and besides, there are many cook-maids who are very nice,
+pretty, respectable people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, sister, I'll think of it,&quot; said Mr. Croyland, drily, but with a
+good deal of fun twinkling in the corners of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was too much for the light heart of Zara Croyland; and holding down
+her head, she laughed outright, although she knew that Mr. Radford had
+placed himself in the predicament of which her uncle spoke, though he
+had been relieved of the immediate consequence for some years.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What would have been the result is difficult to say; for Mr. Radford
+was waxing wroth; but at that moment the door was flung hastily open,
+and a young gentleman entered, of some three or four-and-twenty years
+of age, bearing a strong resemblance to Mr. Radford, though
+undoubtedly of a much more pleasant and graceful appearance. He was
+well dressed, and his coat, lined with white silk of the finest
+texture, was cast negligently back from his chest, with an air of
+carelessness which was to be traced in all the rest of his apparel.
+Everything he wore was as good as it could be, and everything became
+him; for he was well formed, and his movements were free and even
+graceful; but everything seemed to have been thrown on in a hurry, and
+his hair floated wild and straggling round his brow, as if neither
+comb nor brush had touched it for many hours. It might have been
+supposed that this sort of disarray proceeded from haste when he found
+himself too late and his father gone; but there was an expression of
+reckless indifference about his face which led Sir Edward Digby to
+imagine that this apparent negligence was the habitual characteristic
+of his mind, rather than the effect of any accidental circumstance.
+His air was quite self-possessed, though hurried; and a flashing
+glance of his eye round the table, resting for a moment longer on Sir
+Edward Digby than on any one else, seemed directed to ascertain
+whether the party assembled was one that pleased him, before he chose
+to sit down to the board with them. He made no apology to Sir Robert
+Croyland for being too late, but shook hands with him in return for
+the very cordial welcome he met with, and then seated himself in the
+vacant chair, nodding to Miss Croyland familiarly, and receiving a
+cold inclination of the head in return. One of the servants inquired
+if he would take soup and fish; but he replied, abruptly, &quot;No; bring
+me fish. No soup--I hate such messes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, by one of those odd turns which sometimes take place
+in conversation, Mr. Croyland, the clergyman, and Mr. Radford himself
+were once more talking together: the latter having apparently overcome
+his indignation at the nabob's tart rejoinder, in the hope and
+expectation of saying something still more biting to him in return.
+Like many a great general, however, he had not justly appreciated the
+power of his adversary as compared with his own strength. Mr.
+Croyland, soured at an early period of life, had acquired by long
+practice and experience a habit of repartee when his prejudices or his
+opinions (and they are very different things) were assailed, which was
+overpowering. A large fund of natural kindness and good humour formed
+a curious substratum for the acerbity which had accumulated above it,
+and his love of a joke would often shew itself in a hearty peal of
+laughter, even at his own expense, when the attack upon him was made
+in a good spirit, by one for whom he had any affection or esteem. But
+if he despised or disliked his assailant, as was the case with Mr.
+Radford, the bitterest possible retort was sure to be given in the
+fewest possible words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In order to lead away from the obnoxious subject, the clergyman
+returned to Mr. Croyland's hatred of London, saying, not very
+advisedly perhaps, just as young Mr. Radford entered, &quot;I cannot
+imagine, my dear sir, why you have such an animosity to our
+magnificent capital, and to all that it contains, especially when we
+all know you to be as beneficent to individuals as you are severe upon
+the species collectively.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Cruden, you'll only make a mess of it,&quot; replied Mr. Croyland.
+&quot;The reason why I do sometimes befriend a poor scoundrel whom I happen
+to know, is because it is less pleasant for me to see a rascal suffer
+than to do what's just by him. I have no will and no power to punish
+all the villany I see, otherwise my arm would be tired enough of
+flogging, in this county of Kent. But I do not understand why I should
+be called upon to like a great agglomeration of blackguards in a city,
+when I can have the same diluted in the country. Here we have about a
+hundred scoundrels to the square mile; in London we have a hundred to
+the square yard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't you think, sir, that they may be but the worse scoundrels in
+the country because they are fewer?&quot; demanded Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am beginning to fancy so,&quot; answered Mr. Croyland, drily, &quot;but I
+suppose in London the number makes up for the want of intensity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, it's a very fine city,&quot; rejoined Mr. Radford; &quot;the emporium of
+the world, the nurse of arts and sciences, the birth-place and the
+theatre of all that is great and majestic in the efforts of human
+intellect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And equally of all that is base and vile,&quot; answered his opponent; &quot;it
+is the place to which all smuggled goods naturally tend, Radford.
+Every uncustomed spirit, every prohibited ware, physical and
+intellectual, there finds its mart; and the chief art that is
+practised is to cheat as cleverly as may be--the chief science
+learned, is how to defraud without being detected. We are improving in
+the country, daily--daily; but we have not reached the skill of London
+yet. Men make large fortunes in the country in a few years by merely
+cheating the Customs; but in London they make large fortunes in a few
+months by cheating everybody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So they do in India,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, who thought he had hit the
+tender place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, true!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland; &quot;and then we go and set up for
+country gentlemen, and cheat still. What rogues we are, Radford!--eh?
+I see you know the world. It is very well for me to say, I made all my
+money by curing men, not by robbing them. Never you believe it, my
+good friend. It is not in human nature, is it? No, no! tell that to
+the marines. No man ever made a fortune but by plunder, that's a
+certain fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The course of Sir Robert Croyland's dinner-party seemed to promise
+very pleasantly at this juncture; but Sir Edward Digby, though
+somewhat amused, was not himself fond of sharp words, and had some
+compassion upon the ladies at the table. He therefore stepped in; and,
+without seeming to have noticed that there was anything passing
+between Mr. Radford and the brother of his host, except the most
+delicate courtesies, he contrived, by some well-directed questions in
+regard to India, to give Mr. Croyland an inducement to deviate from
+the sarcastic into the expatiative; and having set him cantering upon
+one of his hobbies, he left him to finish his excursion, and returned
+to a conversation which had been going on between him and the fair
+Zara, in somewhat of a low tone, though not so low as to show any
+mutual design of keeping it from the ears of those around. Young
+Radford had in the meantime been making up for the loss of time
+occasioned by his absence at the commencement of dinner, and he seemed
+undoubtedly to have a prodigious appetite. Not a word had passed from
+father to son, or son to father; and a stranger might have supposed
+them in no degree related to each other. Indeed, the young gentleman
+had hitherto spoken to nobody but the servant; and while his mouth was
+employed in eating, his quick, large eyes were directed to every face
+round the table in succession, making several more tours than the
+first investigating glance, which I have already mentioned, and every
+time stopping longer at the countenance of Sir Edward Digby than
+anywhere else. He now, however, seemed inclined to take part in that
+officer's conversation with the youngest Miss Croyland, and did not
+appear quite pleased to find her attention so completely engrossed by
+a stranger. To Edith he vouchsafed not a single word; but hearing the
+fair lady next to him reply to something which Sir Edward Digby had
+said. &quot;Oh, we go out once or twice almost every day; sometimes on
+horseback; but more frequently to take a walk,&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;Do you,
+indeed, Miss Zara?--why, I never meet you, and I am always running
+about the country. How is that, I wonder?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara smiled, and replied, with an arch look, &quot;Because fortune
+befriends us, I suppose, Mr. Radford;&quot; but then, well knowing that he
+was not one likely to take a jest in good part, she added--&quot;we don't
+go out to meet anybody, and therefore always take those paths where we
+are least likely to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still young Radford did not seem half to like her reply; but,
+nevertheless, he went on in the same tone, continually interrupting
+her conversation with Sir Edward Digby, and endeavouring, after a
+fashion not at all uncommon, to make himself agreeable by preventing
+people from following the course they are inclined to pursue. The
+young baronet rather humoured him than otherwise, for he wished to see
+as deeply as possible into his character. He asked him to drink wine
+with him; he spoke to him once or twice without being called upon to
+do so; and he was somewhat amused to see that the fair Zara was a good
+deal annoyed at the encouragement he gave to her companion on the left
+to join in their conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was soon satisfied, however, in regard to the young man's mind and
+character. Richard Radford had evidently received what is called a
+good education, which is, in fact, no education at all. He had been
+taught a great many things; he knew a good deal; but that which really
+and truly constitutes education was totally wanting. He had not
+learned how to make use of that which he had acquired, either for his
+own benefit or for that of society. He had been instructed, not
+educated, and there is the greatest possible difference between the
+two. He was shrewd enough, but selfish and conceited to a high degree,
+with a sufficient portion of pride to be offensive, with sufficient
+vanity to be irritable, with all the wilfulness of a spoiled child,
+and with that confusion of ideas in regard to plain right and wrong,
+which is always consequent upon the want of moral training and
+over-indulgence in youth. To judge from his own conversation, the
+whole end and aim of his life seemed to be excitement; he spoke of
+field sports with pleasure; but the degree of satisfaction which he
+derived from each, appeared to be always in proportion to the danger,
+the activity, and the fierceness. Hunting he liked better than
+shooting, shooting than fishing, which latter he declared was only
+tolerable because there was nothing else to be done in the spring of
+the year. But upon the pleasures of the chase he would dilate largely,
+and he told several anecdotes of staking a magnificent horse here, and
+breaking the back of another there, till poor Zara turned somewhat
+pale, and begged him to desist from such themes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot think how men can be so barbarous,&quot; she said. &quot;Their whole
+pleasure seems to consist in torturing poor animals or killing them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Young Radford laughed. &quot;What were they made for?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be used by man, I think, not to be tortured by him,&quot; the young
+lady replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No torture at all,&quot; said her companion on the left. &quot;The horse takes
+as much pleasure in running after the hounds as I do, and if he breaks
+his back, or I break my neck, it's our own fault. We have nobody to
+thank for it but ourselves. The very chance of killing oneself gives
+additional pleasure; and, when one pushes a horse at a leap, the best
+fun of the whole is the thought whether he will be able by any
+possibility to clear it or not. If it were not for hunting, and one or
+two other things of the sort, there would be nothing left for an
+English gentleman, but to go to Italy and put himself at the head of a
+party of banditti. That must be glorious work!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't you think, Mr. Radford,&quot; asked Sir Edward Digby, &quot;that active
+service in the army might offer equal excitement, and a more
+honourable field?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, dear no!&quot; cried the young man. &quot;A life of slavery compared with a
+life of freedom; to be drilled and commanded, and made a mere machine
+of, and sent about relieving guards and pickets, and doing everything
+that one is told like a school-boy! I would not go into the army for
+the world. I'm sure if I did I should shoot my commanding officer
+within a month!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I would advise you not,&quot; answered the young baronet, &quot;for after
+the shooting there would be another step to be taken which would not
+be quite so pleasant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you mean the hanging,&quot; cried young Radford, laughing; &quot;but I
+would take care they should never hang me; for I could shoot myself as
+easily as I could shoot him; and I have a great dislike to
+strangulation. It's one of the few sorts of death that would not
+please me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, come, Richard!&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, in a nervous and
+displeased tone; &quot;let us talk of some other subject. You will frighten
+the ladies from table before the cloth is off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is very odd,&quot; said young Radford, in a low voice, to Sir Edward
+Digby, without making any reply to the master of the house--&quot;it is
+very odd, how frightened old men are at the very name of death, when
+at the best they can have but two or three years to live.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer did not reply, but turned the conversation to other
+things; and the wine having been liberally supplied, operated as it
+usually does, at the point where its use stops short of excess, in
+&quot;making glad the heart of man;&quot; and the conclusion of the dinner was
+much more cheerful and placable than the commencement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ladies retired within a few minutes after the desert was set upon
+the table; and it soon became evident to Sir Edward Digby, that the
+process of deep drinking, so disgracefully common in England at that
+time, was about to commence. He was by no means incapable of bearing
+as potent libations as most men; for occasionally, in those days, it
+was scarcely possible to escape excess without giving mortal offence
+to your entertainer; but it was by no means either his habit or his
+inclination so to indulge, and for this evening especially he was
+anxious to escape. He looked, therefore, across the table to Mr.
+Croyland for relief; and that gentleman, clearly understanding what he
+meant, gave him a slight nod, and finished his first glass of wine
+after dinner. The bottles passed round again, and Mr. Croyland took
+his second glass; but after that he rose without calling much
+attention: a proceeding which was habitual with him. When, however,
+Sir Edward Digby followed his example, there was a general outcry.
+Every one declared it was too bad, and Sir Robert said, in a somewhat
+mortified tone, that he feared his wine was not so good as that to
+which his guest had been accustomed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is only too good, my dear sir,&quot; replied the young baronet,
+determined to cut the matter short, at once and for ever. &quot;So good,
+indeed, that I have been induced to take two more glasses than I
+usually indulge in, and I consequently feel somewhat heated and
+uncomfortable. I shall go and refresh myself by a walk through your
+woods.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Several more efforts were made to induce him to stay; but he was
+resolute in his course; and Mr. Croyland also came to his aid,
+exclaiming, &quot;Pooh, nonsense, Robert! let every man do as he likes.
+Have not I heard you, a thousand times, call your house Liberty Hall?
+A pretty sort of liberty, indeed, if a man must get beastly drunk
+because you choose to do so!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not intend to do any such thing, brother,&quot; replied Sir Robert,
+somewhat sharply; and in the meanwhile, during this discussion, Sir
+Edward Digby made his escape from the room.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">On entering the drawing-room, towards which Sir Edward Digby
+immediately turned his steps, he found it tenanted alone by Mrs.
+Barbara Croyland, who sat in the window with her back towards the
+door, knitting most diligently, with something pinned to her knee. As
+it was quite beyond the good lady's conception that any body would
+ever think of quitting the dining-room so early but her younger
+brother, no sooner did she hear a step than, jumping at conclusions as
+she usually did, she exclaimed aloud, &quot;Isn't he a nice young man,
+brother Zachary? I think it will do quite well, if that----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby would have given a great deal to hear the conclusion
+of the sentence; but his honour was as bright as his sword; and he
+never took advantage of a mistake. &quot;It is not your brother, Mrs.
+Croyland,&quot; he said; and then Mrs. Barbara starting up with a face like
+scarlet, tearing her gown at the same time by the tug she gave to the
+pin which attached her work to her knee, he added, with the most
+benevolent intentions, &quot;I think he might have been made a very nice
+young man, if he had been properly treated in his youth. But I should
+imagine he was very wild and headstrong now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara stared at him with a face full of wonder and confusion;
+for her own mind was so completely impressed with the subject on which
+she had begun to speak, that she by no means comprehended the turn
+that he intended to give it, but thought that he also was talking of
+himself, and not of young Radford. How it would have ended, no mere
+mortal can tell; for when once Mrs. Barbara got into a scrape, she
+floundered most awfully. Luckily, however, her brother was close
+enough behind Sir Edward Digby to hear all that passed, and he entered
+the room while the consternation was still fresh upon his worthy
+sister's countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After gazing at her for a moment, with a look of sour merriment, Mr.
+Croyland exclaimed, &quot;There! hold your tongue, Bab; you can't get your
+fish out of the kettle without burning your fingers!--Now, my young
+friend,&quot; he continued, taking Sir Edward Digby by the arm, and drawing
+him aside, &quot;if you choose to be a great fool, and run the risk of
+falling in love with a pretty girl, whom my sister Barbara has
+determined you shall marry, whether you like it or not, and who
+herself, dear little soul, has no intention in the world but of
+playing you like a fish till you are caught, and then laughing at you,
+you will find the two girls walking in the wood behind the house, as
+they do every day. But if you don't like such amusement, you can stay
+here with me and Bab, and be instructed by her in the art and mystery
+of setting everything to wrongs with the very best intentions in the
+world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, my dear sir,&quot; replied Sir Edward, smiling, &quot;I think I
+should prefer the fresh air; and, as to the dangers against which you
+warn me, I have no fears. The game of coquetry can be played by two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but woe to him who loses!&quot; said Mr. Croyland, in a more serious
+tone. &quot;But go along with you--go along! You are a rash young man; and
+if you will court your fate, you must.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young baronet accordingly walked away, leaving Mrs. Barbara to
+recover from her confusion as she best might, and Mr. Croyland to
+scold her at his leisure, which Sir Edward did not in the slightest
+degree doubt he would do. It was a beautiful summer's afternoon in the
+end of August, the very last day of the month, the hour about a
+quarter to six, so that the sun had nearly to run a twelfth part of
+his course before the time of his setting. It was warm and cheerful,
+too, but with a freshness in the air, and a certain golden glow over
+the sky, which told that it was evening. Not wishing exactly to pass
+before the dining-room windows, Sir Edward endeavoured to find his way
+out into the wood behind the house by the stable and farm yards; but
+he soon found himself in a labyrinth from which it was difficult to
+extricate himself, and in the end was obliged to have recourse to a
+stout country lad, who was walking up towards the mansion, with a
+large pail of milk tugging at his hand, and bending in the opposite
+direction to balance the load. Right willingly, however, the youth set
+down the pail; and, leaving it to the tender mercies of some pigs, who
+were walking about in the yard and did not fail to inquire into the
+nature of its contents, he proceeded to show the way through the
+flower and kitchen gardens, by a small door in the wall, to a path
+which led out at once amongst the trees.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now, Sir Edward Digby had not the slightest idea of which way the two
+young ladies had gone; and it was by no means improbable that, if he
+were left without pilotage in going and returning, he might lose his
+way in the wood, which, as I have said, was very extensive. But all
+true lovers are fond of losing their way; and as he had his sword by
+his side, he had not the slightest objection to that characteristic of
+an Amadis, having in reality a good deal of the knight-errant about
+him, and rather liking a little adventure, if it did not go too far.
+His adventures, indeed, were not destined that night to be very
+remarkable; for, following the path about a couple of hundred yards,
+he was led directly into a good, broad, sandy road, in which he
+thought it would be impossible to go astray. A few clouds that passed
+over the sky from time to time cast their fitful and fanciful shadows
+upon the way; the trees waved on either hand; and, with a small border
+of green turf, the yellow path pursued its course through the wood,
+forming a fine but pleasant contrast in colour with the verdure of all
+the other things around. As he went on, too, the sky overhead, and the
+shades amongst the trees, began to assume a rosy hue as the day
+declined farther and farther; and the busy little squirrels, as
+numerous as mice, were seen running here and there up the trees and
+along the branches, with their bright black eyes staring at the
+stranger with a saucy activity very little mingled with fear. The
+young baronet was fond of such scenes, and fond of the somewhat grave
+musing which they very naturally inspire; and he therefore went on,
+alternately pondering and admiring, and very well contented with his
+walk, whether he met with his fair friends or not. Sir Edward, indeed,
+would not allow himself to fancy that he was by any means very anxious
+for Zara's company, or for Miss Croyland's either--for he was not in
+the slightest hurry either to fall in love or to acknowledge it to
+himself even if he were. With regard to Edith, indeed, he felt himself
+in no possible danger; for had he continued to think her, as he had
+done at first, more beautiful than her sister--which by this time he
+did not--he was still guarded in her case by feelings, which, to a man
+of his character, were as a triple shield of brass, or anything a
+great deal stronger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He walked on, however, and he walked on; not, indeed, with a very slow
+pace, but with none of the eager hurry of youth after beauty; till at
+length, when he had proceeded for about half an hour, he saw
+cultivated fields and hedgerows at the end of the road he was
+pursuing, and soon after came to the open country, without meeting
+with the slightest trace of Sir Robert Croyland's daughters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the right hand, as he issued out of the wood, there was a small but
+very neat and picturesque cottage, with its little kitchen-garden and
+its flower-garden, its wild roses, and its vine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have certainly missed them,&quot; said Sir Edward Digby to himself, &quot;and
+I ought to make the best use of my time, for it wont do to stay here
+too long. Perhaps they may have gone into the cottage. Girls like
+these often seek an object in their walk, and visit this poor person
+or that;&quot; and thus thinking, he advanced to the little gate, went into
+the garden, and knocked with his knuckles at the door of the house. A
+woman's voice bade him come in; and, doing so, he found a room, small
+in size, but corresponding in neatness and cleanliness with the
+outside of the place. It was tenanted by three persons--a middle-aged
+woman, dressed as a widow, with a fine and placid countenance, who was
+advancing towards the door as he entered; a very lovely girl of
+eighteen or nineteen, who bore a strong resemblance to the widow; and
+a stout, powerful, good-looking man, of about thirty, well dressed,
+though without any attempt at the appearance of a station above the
+middle class, with a clean, fine, checked shirt, having the collar
+cast back, and a black silk handkerchief tied lightly in what is
+usually termed a sailor's knot. The two latter persons were sitting
+very close together, and the girl was smiling gaily at something her
+companion had just said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Two lovers!&quot; thought the young baronet; but, as that was no business
+of his, he went on to inquire of the good woman of the house, if she
+had seen some young ladies pass that way; and having named them, he
+added, to escape scandal, &quot;I am staying at the house, and am afraid,
+if I do not meet with them, I shall not easily find my way back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They were here a minute ago, sir,&quot; replied the widow, &quot;and they went
+round to the east. They will take the Halden road back, I suppose. If
+you make haste, you will catch them easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But which is the Halden road, my good lady?&quot; asked Sir Edward Digby;
+and she, turning to the man who was sitting by her daughter, said, &quot;I
+wish you would shew the gentleman, Mr. Harding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man rose cheerfully enough--considering the circumstances--and led
+the young baronet with a rapid step, by a footpath that wound round
+the edge of the wood, to another broad road about three hundred yards
+distant from that by which the young officer had come. Then, pointing
+with his hand, he said, &quot;There they are, going as slow as a Dutch
+butter-tub. You can't miss them, or the road either: for it leads
+straight on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby thanked him, and walked forward. A few rapid steps
+brought him close to the two ladies, who--though they looked upon
+every part of the wood as more or less their home, and consequently
+felt no fear--turned at the sound of a footfall so near; and the
+younger of the two smiled gaily, when she saw who it was.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! Sir Edward Digby!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;In the name of all that is
+marvellous, how did you escape from the dining-room? Why, you will be
+accused of shirking the bottle, cowardice, and milksopism, and crimes
+and misdemeanours enough to forfeit your commission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She spoke gaily; but Sir Edward Digby thought that the gaiety was not
+exactly sterling; for when first she turned, her face had been nearly
+as grave as her sister's. He answered, however, in the same tone, &quot;I
+must plead guilty to all such misdemeanours; but if they are to be
+rewarded by such pleasure as that of a walk with you, I fear I shall
+often commit them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must not pay us courtly compliments, Sir Edward,&quot; said Miss
+Croyland, &quot;for we poor country people do not understand them. I hope,
+however, you left the party peaceable: for it promised to be quite the
+contrary at one time, and my uncle and Mr. Radford never agree.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, quite peaceable, I can assure you,&quot; replied Digby. &quot;I retreated
+under cover of your uncle's movements. Perhaps, otherwise, I might not
+have got away so easily. He it was who told me where I should find
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; exclaimed Miss Croyland, in a tone of surprise; and then,
+casting down her eyes, she fell into thought. Her sister, however,
+carried on the conversation in her stead, saying, &quot;Well, you are the
+first soldier, Sir Edward, I ever saw, who left the table before
+night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They must have been soldiers who had seen little service, I should
+think,&quot; replied the young officer; &quot;for a man called upon often for
+active exertion, soon finds the necessity of keeping any brains he has
+got as clear as possible, in case they should be needed. In many
+countries where I have been, too, we could get no wine to drink, even
+if we wanted it. Such was the case in Canada, and in some parts of
+Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you served in Canada?&quot; demanded Miss Croyland suddenly, raising
+her eyes to his face with a look of deep interest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Through almost the whole of the war.&quot; replied Sir Edward Digby,
+quietly, without noticing, even by a glance, the change of expression
+which his words had produced. He then paused for a moment, as if
+waiting for some other question; but both Miss Croyland and her sister
+remained perfectly silent, and the former turned somewhat pale.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he saw that neither of his two fair companions were likely to carry
+the conversation a step further, the young officer proceeded, in a
+quiet and even light tone--&quot;This part of the country,&quot; he continued,
+&quot;is always connected in my mind with Canada; and, indeed, I was glad
+to accept your father's invitation at once, when he was kind enough to
+ask me to his house; for, in addition to the pleasure of making his
+personal acquaintance, I longed to see scenes which I had often heard
+mentioned with all the deep affection and delight which only can be
+felt by a fine mind for the spot in which our brighter years are
+passed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The younger girl looked to her sister, but Edith Croyland was deadly
+pale, and said nothing; and Zara inquired in a tone to which she too
+evidently laboured to give the gay character of her usual demeanour,
+&quot;Indeed, Sir Edward! May I ask who gave you such a flattering account
+of our poor country? He must have been a very foolish and prejudiced
+person--at least, so I fear you must think, now you have seen it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no!--oh, no!&quot; cried Digby, earnestly, &quot;anything but that. I had
+that account from a person so high-minded, so noble, so full of every
+generous quality of heart, and every fine quality of mind, that I was
+quite sure, ere I came here, I should find the people whom he
+mentioned, and the scenes which he described, all that he had stated;
+and I have not been disappointed, Miss Croyland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you have not named him, Sir Edward,&quot; said Zara; &quot;you are very
+tantalizing. Perhaps we may know him, and be sure we shall love him
+for his patriotism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He was an officer in the regiment to which I then belonged.&quot; answered
+the young baronet, &quot;and my dearest friend. His name was Leyton--a most
+distinguished man, who had already gained such a reputation, that, had
+his rank in the army admitted it, none could have been more desired to
+take the command of the forces when Wolfe fell on the heights of
+Abraham. He was too young, however, and had too little interest to
+obtain that position.--Miss Croyland, you seem ill. Let me give you my
+arm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith bowed her head quietly, and leaned upon her sister, but answered
+not a word; and Zara gave a glance to Sir Edward Digby which he read
+aright. It was a meaning, a sort of relying and imploring look, as if
+she would have said, &quot;I beseech you, say no more; she cannot bear it.&quot;
+And the young officer abruptly turned the conversation, observing,
+&quot;The day has been very hot, Miss Croyland. You have walked far, and
+over-fatigued yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is nothing--it is nothing,&quot; answered Edith, with a deep-drawn
+breath; &quot;it will be past in a moment, Sir Edward. I am frequently
+thus.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Too frequently,&quot; murmured Zara, gazing at her sister; and Sir Edward
+Digby replied, &quot;I am sure, if such be the case, you should consult
+some physician.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara shook her head with a melancholy smile, while her sister walked
+on, leaning upon her arm in silence, with her eyes bent towards the
+ground, as if in deep thought. &quot;I fear that no physician would do her
+good,&quot; said the younger lady, in a low voice; &quot;the evil is now
+confirmed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay,&quot; replied Digby, gazing at her, &quot;I think I know one who could
+cure her entirely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His look said more than his words; and Zara fixed her eyes upon his
+face for an instant with an inquiring glance. The expression then
+suddenly changed to one of bright intelligence, and she answered, &quot;I
+will make you give me his name to-morrow, Sir Edward. Not now--not
+now! I shall forget it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby was not slow in taking a hint; and he consequently
+made no attempt to bring the conversation back to the subject which
+had so much affected Miss Croyland; but lest a dead silence should too
+plainly mark that he saw into the cause of the faintness which had
+come over her, he went on talking to her sister; and Zara soon
+resumed, at least to all appearance, her own light spirits again. But
+Digby had seen her under a different aspect, which was known to few
+besides her sister; and to say the truth, though he had thought her
+sparkling frankness very charming, yet the deeper and tenderer
+feelings which she had displayed towards Edith were still more to his
+taste.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is not the light coquette her uncle represents her,&quot; he thought,
+as they walked on: &quot;there is a true and feeling heart beneath--one
+whose affections, if strongly excited and then disappointed, might
+make her as sad and cheerless as this other poor girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had not much time to indulge either in such meditations or in
+conversation with his fair companion; for, when they were within about
+a mile of the house, old Mr. Croyland was seen advancing towards them
+with his usual brisk air and quick pace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, young people, well,&quot; he said, coming forward, &quot;I bring the
+soberness of age to temper the lightness of youth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, we are all very sober, uncle,&quot; replied Zara. &quot;It is only those
+who stay in the house drinking wine who are otherwise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not been drinking wine, saucy girl,&quot; answered Mr. Croyland;
+&quot;but come, Edith, I want to speak with you; and, as the road is too
+narrow for four, we'll pair off, as the rascals who ruin the country
+in the House of Commons term it. Troop on, Miss Zara. There's a
+gallant cavalier who will give you his arm, doubtless, if you will ask
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed I shall do no such thing,&quot; replied the fair lady, walking on;
+and, while Edith and her uncle came slowly after, Sir Edward Digby and
+the youngest Miss Croyland proceeded on their way, remaining silent
+for some minutes, though each, to say the truth, was busily thinking
+how the conversation which had been interrupted might best be renewed.
+It was Zara who spoke first, however, looking suddenly up in her
+companion's face with one of her bright and sparkling smiles, and
+saying, &quot;It is a strange house, is it not, Sir Edward? and we are a
+strange family?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, I do not see that,&quot; replied the young officer. &quot;With every new
+person whose acquaintance we make, we are like a traveller for the
+first time in a foreign country, and must learn the secrets of the
+land before we can find our way rightly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, secrets enough here!&quot; cried Zara. &quot;Every one has his secret but
+myself. I have none, thank God! My good father is full of them; Edith,
+you see, has hers; my uncle is loaded with one even now, and eager to
+disburden himself; but my aunt's are the most curious of all, for they
+are everlasting; and not only that, but though most profound, they are
+sure to be known in five minutes to the whole world. Try to conceal
+them how she may, they are sure to drop out before the day is over;
+and, whatever good schemes she may have against any one, no defence is
+needed, for they are sure to frustrate themselves.--What are you
+laughing at, Sir Edward? Has she begun upon you already?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, not exactly upon me,&quot; answered Sir Edward Digby. &quot;She certainly
+did let drop some words which showed me, she had some scheme in her
+head, though whom it referred to, I am at a loss to divine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, nay, now you are not frank,&quot; cried the young lady. &quot;Tell me this
+moment, if you would have me hold you good knight and true! Was it me
+or Edith that it was all about? Nay, do not shake your head, my good
+friend, for I will know, depend upon it; and if you do not tell me, I
+will ask my aunt myself----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, for Heaven's sake, do not!&quot; exclaimed Sir Edward. &quot;You must not
+make your aunt think that I am a tell-tale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I know--I know!&quot; exclaimed the fair girl, clapping her hands
+eagerly--&quot;I can divine it all in a minute. She has been telling you
+what an excellent good girl Zara Croyland is, and what an admirable
+wife she would make, especially for any man moving in the highest
+society, and hinting, moreover, that she is fond of military men, and,
+in short, that Sir Edward Digby could not do better. I know it all--I
+know it all, as well as if I had heard it! But now, my dear sir,&quot; she
+continued, in a graver tone, &quot;put all such nonsense out of your head,
+if you would have us such good friends as I think we may be. Leave my
+dear aunt's schemes to unravel and defeat themselves, or only think of
+them as a matter of amusement, and do not for a moment believe that
+Zara Croyland has either any share in them, or any design of
+captivating you or any other man whatsoever; for I tell you fairly,
+and at once, that I never intend--that nothing would induce me--no,
+not if my own dearest happiness depended upon it--to marry, and leave
+poor Edith to endure all that she may be called upon to undergo. I
+will talk to you more about her another time; for I think that you
+already know something beyond what you have said to-day; but we are
+too near the house now, and I will only add, that I have spoken
+frankly to Sir Edward Digby, because I believe, from all I have seen
+and all I have heard, that he is incapable of misunderstanding such
+conduct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do me justice, Miss Croyland,&quot; replied the young officer, much
+gratified; &quot;but you have spoken under a wrong impression in regard to
+your aunt. I did not interrupt you, for what you said was too
+pleasing, too interesting not to induce me to let you go on; but I can
+assure you that what I said was perfectly true, and that though some
+words which your aunt dropped accidentally showed me that she had some
+scheme on foot, she said nothing to indicate what it was.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, never mind it,&quot; answered the young lady. &quot;We now understand
+each other, I trust; and, after this, I do not think you will easily
+mistake me, though, if what I suppose is true, I may have to do a
+great many extraordinary things with you, Sir Edward--seek your
+society when you may not be very willing to grant it, consult you,
+rely upon you, confide in you in a way that few women would do, except
+with a brother or an acknowledged lover, which I beg you to understand
+you are on no account to be; and I, on my part, will promise that I
+will not misunderstand you either, nor take anything that you may do,
+at my request, for one very dear to me,&quot; (and she gave a glance over
+her shoulder towards her sister, who was some way behind,) &quot;as
+anything but a sign of your having a kind and generous heart. So now
+that's all settled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is one thing, Miss Croyland,&quot; replied Digby, gravely, &quot;that you
+will find very difficult to do, though you say you will try it,
+namely, to seek my society when I am unwilling to give it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, nay, I will have no such speeches,&quot; cried Zara Croyland, &quot;or I
+have done with you! I never could put any trust in a man who said
+civil things to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, not if he sincerely thought them?&quot; demanded her companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I would rather he continued to think them without speaking
+them,&quot; answered the young lady. &quot;If you did but know, Sir Edward, how
+sickened and disgusted a poor girl in the country soon gets with
+flattery that means nothing, from men who insult her understanding by
+thinking that she can be pleased with such trash, you would excuse me
+for being rude and uncivilized enough to wish never to hear a smooth
+word from any man whom I am inclined to respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well,&quot; answered the young baronet, laughing, &quot;to please you, I
+will be as brutal as possible, and if you like it, scold you as
+sharply as your uncle, if you say or do anything that I disapprove
+of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do, do!&quot; cried Zara; &quot;I love him and esteem him, though he does not
+understand me in the least; and I would rather a great deal have his
+conversation, sharp and snappish as it seems to be, than all the honey
+or milk and water of any of the smart young men in the neighbourhood.
+But here we are at the house; and only one word more as a warning, and
+one word as a question; first, do not let any of my good aunt's
+schemes embarrass you in anything you have to do or say. Walk straight
+through them as if they did not exist. Take your own course, without,
+in the least degree, attending to what she says for or against.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what is the question?&quot; demanded Sir Edward, as they were now
+mounting the steps to the terrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Simply this,&quot; replied the fair lady,--&quot;are you not acquainted with
+more of Edith's history than the people here are aware of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am,&quot; answered Digby; &quot;and to see more of her, to speak with her for
+a few minutes in private, if possible, was the great object of my
+coming hither.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, thanks!&quot; said Zara, giving him a bright and grateful smile.
+&quot;Be guided by me, and you shall have the opportunity. But I must speak
+with you first myself, that you may know all. I suppose you are an
+early riser?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes!&quot; replied Sir Edward; but he added no more; for at that
+moment they were overtaken by Edith and Mr. Croyland; and the whole
+party entered the house together.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">There is a strange similarity--I had nearly called it an
+affinity--between the climate of any country and the general character
+of its population; and there is a still stronger and more commonly
+remarked resemblance between the changes of the weather and the usual
+course of human life. From the atmosphere around us, and from the
+alterations which affect it, poets and moralists both, have borrowed a
+large store of figures; and the words, clouds, and sunshine, light
+breezes, and terrible storms, are terms as often used to express the
+variations in man's condition as to convey the ideas to which they
+were originally applied. But it is the affinity between the climate
+and the people of which I wish to speak. The sunny lightness of the
+air of France, the burning heat of Italy and Spain, the cold dullness
+of the skies of Holland, contrast as strongly with the climate in
+which we live, as the characters of the several nations amongst
+themselves; and the fiercer tempests of the south, the more foggy and
+heavy atmosphere of the north, may well be taken as some compensation
+for the continual mutability of the weather in our own most changeable
+air. The differences are not so great here as in other lands. We
+escape, in general, the tornado and the hurricane, we know little of
+the burning heat of summer, or the intense cold of winter, as they are
+experienced in other parts of the world; but at all events, the
+changes are much more frequent; and we seldom have either a long lapse
+of sunny days, or a long continued season of frost, without
+interruption. So it is, too, with the people. Moveable and fluctuating
+as they always are, seeking novelty, disgusted even with all that is
+good as soon as they discover that it is old, our laws, our
+institutions, our very manners are continually undergoing some change,
+though rarely, very rarely indeed, is it brought about violently and
+without due preparation. Sometimes it will occur, indeed, both morally
+and physically, that a great and sudden alteration takes place, and a
+rash and vehement proceeding will disturb the whole country, and seem
+to shake the very foundations of society. In the atmosphere, too,
+clouds and storms will gather in a few hours, and darken the whole
+heaven.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The latter was the case during the first night of Sir Edward Digby's
+stay at Harbourne House. The evening preceding, as well as the day,
+had been warm and sunshiny; but about nine o'clock the wind suddenly
+chopped round to the southward, and when Sir Edward woke on the
+following morning, as he usually did, about six, he found a strong
+breeze blowing and rattling the casements of the room, and the whole
+atmosphere loaded with a heavy sea-mist filled with saline particles,
+borne over Romney Marsh to the higher country, in which the house was
+placed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A pleasant day for partridge-shooting,&quot; he thought, as he rose from
+his bed; &quot;what variations there are in this climate.&quot; But
+nevertheless, he opened the window and looked out, when, somewhat to
+his surprise, he saw fifteen or sixteen horses moving along the road,
+heavily laden, with a number of men on horseback following, and eight
+or ten on foot driving the weary beasts along. They were going
+leisurely enough; there was no affectation of haste or concealment;
+but yet all that the young officer had heard of the county and of the
+habits of its denizens, led him naturally to suppose that he had a
+gang of smugglers before him, escorting from the coast some contraband
+goods lately landed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had soon a more unpleasant proof of the lawless state of that part
+of England; for as he continued to lean out of the window, saying to
+himself, &quot;Well, it is no business of mine,&quot; he saw two or three of the
+men pause; and a moment after, a voice shouted--&quot;Take that, old
+Croyland, for sending me to gaol last April.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The wind bore the sounds to his ear, and made the words distinct; and
+scarcely had they been spoken, when a flash broke through the misty
+air, followed by a loud report, and a ball whizzed through the window,
+just above his head, breaking one of the panes of glass, and lodging
+in the cornice at the other side of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very pleasant!&quot; said Sir Edward Digby to himself; but he was a
+somewhat rash young man, and he did not move an inch, thinking--&quot;the
+vagabonds shall not have to say they frightened me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They shewed no inclination to repeat the shot, however, riding on at a
+somewhat accelerated pace; and as soon as they were out of sight,
+Digby withdrew from the window, and began to dress himself. He had not
+given his servant, the night before, any orders to call him at a
+particular hour; but he knew that the man would not be later than
+half-past six; and before he appeared, the young officer was nearly
+dressed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here, Somers,&quot; said his master, &quot;put my gun together, and have
+everything ready if I should like to go out to shoot. After that I've
+a commission for you, something quite in your own way, which I know
+you will execute capitally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite ready, sir,&quot; said the man, putting up his hand to his head.
+&quot;Always ready to obey orders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We want intelligence of the enemy, Somers,&quot; continued his master.
+&quot;Get me every information you can obtain regarding young Mr. Radford,
+where he goes, what he does, and all about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Past, present, or to come, sir?&quot; demanded the man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All three,&quot; answered his master. &quot;Everything you can learn about him,
+in short--birth, parentage, and education.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall soon have to add his last dying speech and confession, I
+think, sir,&quot; said the man; &quot;but you shall have it all before
+night--from the loose gossip of the post-office down to the full,
+true, and particular account of his father's own butler. But bless my
+soul, there's a hole through the window, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing but a musket-ball, Somers,&quot; answered his master, carelessly.
+&quot;You've seen such a thing before, I fancy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, sir, but not often in a gentleman's bedroom,&quot; replied the man.
+&quot;Who could send it in here, I wonder?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Some smugglers, I suppose they were,&quot; replied Sir Edward, &quot;who took
+me for Sir Robert Croyland, as I was leaning out of the window, and
+gave me a ball as they passed. I never saw a worse shot in my life;
+for I was put up like a target, and it went a foot and a half above my
+head. Give me those boots, Somers;&quot; and having drawn them on, Sir
+Edward Digby descended to the drawing-room, while his servant
+commented upon his coolness, by saying, &quot;Well, he's a devilish fine
+young fellow, that master of mine, and ought to make a capital general
+some of these days!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the drawing-room, Sir Edward Digby found nobody but a pretty
+country girl in a mob-cap sweeping out the dust; and leaving her to
+perform her functions undisturbed by his presence, he sauntered
+through a door which he had seen open the night before, exposing part
+of the interior of a library. That room was quite vacant, and as the
+young officer concluded that between it and the drawing-room must lie
+the scene of his morning's operations, he entertained himself with
+taking down different books, looking into them for a moment or two,
+reading a page here and a page there, and then putting them up again.
+He was in no mood, to say the truth, either for serious study or light
+reading. Gay would not have amused him; Locke would have driven him
+mad.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He knew not well why it was, but his heart beat when he heard a step
+in the neighbouring room. It was nothing but the housemaid, as he was
+soon convinced, by her letting the dustpan drop and making a terrible
+clatter. He asked himself what his heart could be about, to go on in
+such a way, simply because he was waiting, in the not very vague
+expectation of seeing a young lady, with whom he had to talk of some
+business, in which neither of them were personally concerned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It must be the uncertainty of whether she will come or not,&quot; he
+thought; &quot;or else the secrecy of the thing;&quot; and yet he had, often
+before, had to wait with still more secrecy and still more
+uncertainty, on very dangerous and important occasions, without
+feeling any such agitation of his usually calm nerves. She was a very
+pretty girl, it was true, with all the fresh graces of youth about
+her, light and sunshine in her eyes, health and happiness on her
+cheeks and lips, and</p>
+<div class="poem2">
+<p class="t0">
+&quot;La grace encore plus belle que la beauté&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">in every movement. But then, they perfectly understood each other;
+there was no harm, there was no risk, there was no reason why they
+should not meet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Did they perfectly understand each other? Did they perfectly
+understand themselves? It is a very difficult question to answer; but
+one thing is very certain--that, of all things upon this earth, the
+most gullible is the human heart; and when it thinks it understands
+itself best, it is almost always sure to prove a greater fool than
+ever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby did not altogether like his own thoughts; and
+therefore, after waiting for a quarter of an hour, he walked out into
+one of the little passages, which we have already mentioned, running
+from the central corridor towards a door or window in the front,
+between the library and what was called the music-room. He had not
+been there a minute when a step--very different from that of the
+housemaid--was heard in the neighbouring room; and, as the officer was
+turning thither, he met the younger Miss Croyland coming out, with a
+bonnet--or hat, as it was then called,--hanging on her arm by the
+ribbons.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She held out her hand, frankly, towards him, saying, in a low tone,
+&quot;You must think this all very strange, Sir Edward, and perhaps very
+improper. I have been taxing myself about it all night; but yet I was
+resolved I would not lose the opportunity, trusting to your generosity
+to justify me, when you hear all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It requires no generosity, my dear Miss Croyland,&quot; replied the young
+baronet; &quot;I am already aware of so much, and see the kind and deep
+interest you take in your sister so clearly, that I fully understand
+and appreciate your motives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you--thank you,&quot; replied Zara, warmly; &quot;that sets my mind at
+rest. But come out upon the terrace. There, seen by all the world, I
+shall not feel as if I were plotting;&quot; and she unlocked the glass door
+at the end of the passage. Sir Edward Digby followed close upon her
+steps; and when once fairly on the esplanade before the house, and far
+enough from open doors and windows not to be overheard, they commenced
+their walk backwards and forwards.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was quite natural that both should be silent for a few moments; for
+where there is much to say, and little time to say it in, people are
+apt to waste the precious present--or, at least, a part--in
+considering how it may best be said. At length the lady raised her
+eyes to her companion's face, with a smile more melancholy and
+embarrassed than usually found place upon her sweet lips, asking, &quot;How
+shall I begin, Sir Edward?--Have you nothing to tell me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have merely to ask questions,&quot; replied Digby; &quot;yet, perhaps that
+may be the best commencement. I am aware, my dear Miss Croyland, that
+your sister has loved, and has been as deeply beloved as woman ever
+was by man. I know the whole tale; but what I seek now to learn is
+this--does she or does she not retain the affection of her early
+youth? Do former days and former feelings dwell in her heart as still
+existing things? or are they but as sad memories of a passion passed
+away, darkening instead of lighting the present,--or perhaps as a tie
+which she would fain shake off, and which keeps her from a brighter
+fate hereafter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He spoke solemnly, earnestly, with his whole manner changed; and Zara
+gazed in his face eagerly and inquiringly as he went on, her face
+glowing, but her look becoming less sad, till it beamed with a warm
+and relieved smile at the close. &quot;I was right, and she was wrong&quot;--she
+said, at length, as if speaking to herself. &quot;But to answer your
+question, Sir Edward Digby,&quot; she continued, gravely. &quot;You little know
+woman's heart, or you would not put it--I mean the heart of a true and
+unspoiled woman, a woman worthy of the name. When she loves, she loves
+for ever--and it is only when death or unworthiness takes from her him
+she loves, that love becomes a memory. You cannot yet judge of Edith,
+and therefore I forgive you for asking such a thing; but she is all
+that is noble, and good, and bright; and Heaven pardon me, if I almost
+doubt that she was meant for happiness below--she seems so fitted for
+a higher state!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The tears rose in her eyes as she spoke; but Sir Edward feared
+interruption, and went on, asking, somewhat abruptly perhaps, &quot;What
+made you say, just now, that you were right and she was wrong?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because she thought that he was dead, and that you came to announce
+it to her,&quot; Zara replied. &quot;You spoke of him in the past, you always
+said, 'he was;' you said not a word of the present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because I knew not what were her present feelings,&quot; answered Digby.
+&quot;She has never written--she has never answered one letter. All his
+have been returned in cold silence to his agents, addressed in her own
+hand. And then her father wrote to----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, stay!&quot; cried Zara, putting her hand to her head--&quot;addressed in
+her own hand? It must have been a forgery! Yet, no--perhaps not. She
+wrote to him twice; once just after he went, and once in answer to a
+message. The last letter I gave to the gardener myself, and bade him
+post it. That, too, was addressed to his agent's house. Can they have
+stopped the letters and used the covers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is probable,&quot; answered Digby, thoughtfully. &quot;Did she receive none
+from him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;None--none,&quot; replied Zara, decidedly. &quot;All that she has ever heard of
+him was conveyed in that one message; but she doubted not, Sir Edward.
+She knew him, it seems, better than he knew her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Neither did he doubt her,&quot; rejoined her companion, &quot;till circumstance
+after circumstance occurred to shake his confidence. Her own father
+wrote to him--now three years ago--to say that she was engaged, by her
+own consent, to this young Radford, and to beg that he would trouble
+her peace no more by fruitless letters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Heaven!&quot; cried Zara, &quot;did my father say that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He did,&quot; replied Sir Edward. &quot;And more: everything that poor Leyton
+has heard since his return has confirmed the tale. He inquired, too
+curiously for his own peace--first, whether she was yet married; next,
+whether she was really engaged; and every one gave but one account.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How busy they have been!&quot; said Zara, thoughtfully. &quot;Whoever said it,
+it is false, Sir Edward; and he should not have doubted her more than
+she doubted him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She, you admit, had one message,&quot; answered Digby; &quot;he had none; and
+yet he held a lingering hope--trust would not altogether be crushed
+out. Can you tell me the tenour of the letters which she sent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, I did not read them,&quot; replied his fair companion; &quot;but she told
+me that it was the same story still: that she could not violate her
+duty to her parent; but that she should ever consider herself pledged
+and plighted to him beyond recall, by what had passed between them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then there is light at last,&quot; said Digby, with a smile. &quot;But what is
+this story of young Radford? Is he, or is he not, her lover? He seemed
+to pay her little attention,--more, indeed, to yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gay girl laughed. &quot;I will tell you all about it,&quot; she answered.
+&quot;Richard Radford is not her lover. He cares as little about her as
+about the Queen of England, or any body he has never seen; and, as you
+say, he would perhaps pay me the compliment of selecting me rather
+than Edith, if there was not a very cogent objection: Edith has forty
+thousand pounds settled upon herself by my mother's brother, who was
+her godfather; I have nothing, or next to nothing--some three or four
+thousand pounds, I believe; but I really don't know. However, this
+fortune of my poor sister's is old Radford's object; and he and my
+father have settled it between them, that the son of the one should
+marry the daughter of the other. What possesses my father, I cannot
+divine; for he must condemn old Radford, and despise the young one;
+but certain it is that he has pressed Edith, nearly to cruelty, to
+give her hand to a man she scorns and hates--and presses her still. It
+would be worse than it is, I fear, were it not for young Radford
+himself, who is not half so eager as his father, and does not wish to
+hurry matters on.--I may have some small share in the business,&quot; she
+continued, laughing again, but colouring at the same time; &quot;for, to
+tell the truth, Sir Edward, having nothing else to do, and wishing to
+relieve poor Edith as much as possible, I have perhaps foolishly,
+perhaps even wrongly, drawn this wretched young man away from her
+whenever I had an opportunity. I do not think it was coquetry, as my
+uncle calls it--nay, I am sure it was not; for I abhor him as much as
+any one; but I thought that as there was no chance of my ever being
+driven to marry him, I could bear the infliction of his conversation
+better than my poor sister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The motive was a kind one, at all events,&quot; replied Sir Edward Digby;
+&quot;but then I may firmly believe that there is no chance whatever of
+Miss Croyland giving her hand to Richard Radford?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;None--none whatever,&quot; answered his fair companion. But at that point
+of their conversation one of the windows above was thrown up, and the
+voice of Mrs. Barbara was heard exclaiming--&quot;Zara, my love, put on
+your hat; you will catch cold if you walk in that way, with your hat
+on your arm, in such a cold, misty morning!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Croyland looked up, nodding to her aunt; and doing as she was
+told, like a very good girl as she was. But the next instant she said,
+in a low tone, &quot;Good Heaven! there is his face at the window! My
+unlucky aunt has roused him by calling to me; and we shall not be long
+without him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who do you mean?&quot; asked the young officer, turning his eyes towards
+the house, and seeing no one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Young Radford,&quot; answered Zara. &quot;Did you not know that they had to
+carry him to bed last night, unable to stand? So my maid told me; and
+I saw his face just now at the window, next to my aunt's. We shall
+have little time, Sir Edward, for he is as intrusive as he is
+disagreeable; so tell me at once what I am to think regarding poor
+Harry Leyton. Does he still love Edith? Is he in a situation to enable
+him to seek her, without affording great, and what they would consider
+reasonable, causes of objection?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He loves her as deeply and devotedly as ever,&quot; replied Sir Edward
+Digby; &quot;and all I have to tell him will but, if possible, increase
+that love. Then as to his situation, he is now a superior officer in
+the army, highly distinguished, commanding one of our best regiments,
+and sharing largely in the late great distribution of prize-money.
+There is no position that can be filled by a military man to which he
+has not a right to aspire; and, moreover, he has already received,
+from the gratitude of his king and his country, the high honour----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But he was not allowed to finish his sentence; for Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, who was most unfortunately matutinal in her habits, now came
+out with a shawl for her fair niece, and was uncomfortably civil to
+Sir Edward Digby, inquiring how he had slept, whether he had been warm
+enough, whether he liked two pillows or one, and a great many other
+questions, which lasted till young Radford made his appearance at the
+door, and then, with a pale face and sullen brow, came out and joined
+the party on the terrace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; said Mrs. Barbara--now that she had done as much mischief as
+possible--&quot;I'll just go in and make breakfast, as Edith must set out
+early, and Mr. Radford wants to get home to shoot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edith set off early?&quot; exclaimed Zara; &quot;why, where is she going, my
+dear aunt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I have just been settling it all with your papa, my love,&quot;
+replied Mrs. Barbara. &quot;I thought she was looking ill yesterday, and so
+I talked to your uncle last night. He said he would be very glad to
+have her with him for a few days; but as he expects a Captain Osborn
+before the end of the week, she must come at once; and Sir Robert says
+she can have the carriage after breakfast, but that it must be back by
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara cast down her eyes, and the whole party, as if by common consent,
+took their way back to the house. As they passed in, however, and
+proceeded towards the dining-room, where the table was laid for
+breakfast, Zara found a moment to say to Sir Edward Digby, in a low
+tone, &quot;Was ever anything so unfortunate! I will try to stop it if I
+can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not so unfortunate as it seems,&quot; answered the young baronet, in a
+whisper; &quot;let it take its course. I will explain hereafter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whispering! whispering!&quot; said young Radford, in a rude tone, and with
+a sneer curling his lip.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara's cheek grew crimson; but Digby turned upon him sharply,
+demanding, &quot;What is that to you, sir? Pray make no observations upon
+my conduct, for depend upon it I shall not tolerate any insolence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At that moment, however, Sir Robert Croyland appeared; and whatever
+might have been Richard Radford's intended reply, it was suspended
+upon his lips.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Before I proceed farther with the events of that morning, I must
+return for a time to the evening which preceded it. It was a dark and
+somewhat dreary night, when Mr. Radford, leaving his son stupidly
+drunk at Sir Robert Croyland's, proceeded to the hall door to mount
+his horse; and as he pulled his large riding-boots over his shoes and
+stockings, and looked out, he regretted that he had not ordered his
+carriage. &quot;Who would have thought,&quot; he said, &quot;that such a fine day
+would have ended in such a dull evening?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It often happens, my dear Radford,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland, who
+stood beside him, &quot;that everything looks fair and prosperous for a
+time; then suddenly the wind shifts, and a gloomy night succeeds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford was not well-pleased with the homily. It touched upon that
+which was a sore subject with him at that moment; for, to say the
+truth, he was labouring under no light apprehensions regarding the
+result of certain speculations of his. He had lately lost a large sum
+in one of these wild adventures--far more than was agreeable to a man
+of his money-getting turn of mind; and though he was sanguine enough,
+from long success, to embark, like a determined gambler, a still
+larger amount in the same course, yet the first shadow of reverse
+which had fallen upon him, brought home and applied to his own
+situation the very commonplace words of Sir Robert Croyland; and he
+began to fancy that the bright day of his prosperity might be indeed
+over, and a dark and gloomy night about to succeed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As we have said, therefore, he did not at all like the baronet's
+homily; and, as very often happens with men of his disposition, he
+felt displeased with the person whose words alarmed him. Murmuring
+something, therefore, about its being &quot;a devilish ordinary
+circumstance indeed,&quot; he strode to the door, scarcely wishing the
+baronet good night, and mounted a powerful horse, which was held ready
+for him. He then rode forward, followed by two servants on horseback,
+proceeding slowly at first, but getting into a quicker pace when he
+came upon the parish road, and trotting on hard along the edge of
+Harbourne Wood. He had drunk as much wine as his son; but his hard and
+well-seasoned head was quite insensible to the effects of strong
+beverages, and he went on revolving all probable contingencies,
+somewhat sullen and out of humour with all that had passed during the
+afternoon, and taking a very unpromising view of everybody and
+everything.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I've a notion,&quot; he thought, &quot;that old scoundrel Croyland is playing
+fast and loose about his daughter's marriage with my son. He shall
+repent it if he do; and if Dick does not make the girl pay for all her
+airs and coldness when he's got her, he's no son of mine. He seems as
+great a fool as she is, though, and makes love to her sister without a
+penny, never saying a word to a girl who has forty thousand pounds.
+The thing shall soon be settled one way or another, however. I'll have
+a conference with Sir Robert on Friday, and bring him to book. I'll
+not be trifled with any longer. Here we have been kept more than four
+years waiting till the girl chooses to make up her mind, and I'll not
+stop any longer. It shall be, yes or no, at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was still busy with such thoughts when he reached the angle of
+Harbourne Wood, and a loud voice exclaimed, &quot;Hi! Mr. Radford!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who the devil are you?&quot; exclaimed that worthy gentleman, pulling in
+his horse, and at the same time putting his hand upon one of the
+holsters, which every one at that time carried at his saddle bow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Harding, sir,&quot; answered the voice--&quot;Jack Harding; and I want to speak
+a word with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the same time the man walked forward; and Mr. Radford immediately
+dismounting, gave his horse to the servants, and told them to lead him
+quietly on till they came to Tiffenden. Then pausing till the sound of
+the hoofs became somewhat faint, he asked, with a certain degree of
+alarm, &quot;Well, Harding, what's the matter? What has brought you up in
+such a hurry to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No great hurry, sir,&quot; answered the smuggler, &quot;I came up about four
+o'clock; and finding that you were dining at Sir Robert's, I thought I
+would look out for you as you went home, having something to tell you.
+I got an inkling last night, that, some how or another, the people
+down at Hythe have some suspicion that you are going to try something,
+and I doubt that boy very much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed! indeed!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford, evidently under great
+apprehension. &quot;What have they found out, Harding?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, not much, I believe,&quot; replied the smuggler; &quot;but merely that
+there's something in the wind, and that you have a hand in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's bad enough--that's bad enough,&quot; repeated Mr. Radford. &quot;We must
+put it off, Harding. We must delay it, till this has blown by.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I think not, sir,&quot; answered the smuggler. &quot;It seems to me, on the
+contrary, that we ought to hurry it; and I'll tell you why. You see,
+the wind changed about five, and if I'm not very much mistaken, we
+shall have a cloudy sky and dirty weather for the next week at least.
+That's one thing; but then another is this, the Ramleys are going to
+make a run this very night. Now, I know that the whole affair is
+blown; and though they may get the goods ashore they wont carry them
+far. I told them so, just to be friendly; but they wouldn't listen,
+and you know their rash way. Bill Ramley answered, they would run the
+goods in broad daylight, if they liked, that there was not an officer
+in all Kent who would dare to stop them. Now, I know that they will be
+caught to-morrow morning, somewhere up about your place. I rather
+think, too, your son has a hand in the venture; and if I were you, I
+would do nothing to make people believe that it wasn't my own affair
+altogether. Let them think what they please; and then they are not so
+likely to be on the look-out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see--I see,&quot; cried Mr. Radford. &quot;If they catch these fellows, and
+think that this is my venture, they will never suspect another. It's a
+good scheme. We had better set about it to-morrow night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know,&quot; answered Harding. &quot;That cannot well be done, I should
+think. First, you must get orders over to the vessel to stand out to
+sea; then you must get all your people together, and one half of them
+are busy upon this other scheme, the Ramleys and young Chittenden, and
+him they call the major, and all their parties. You must see what
+comes of that first; for one half of them may be locked up before
+to-morrow night.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's unfortunate, indeed!&quot; said Mr. Radford, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One must take a little ill luck with plenty of good luck,&quot; observed
+Harding; &quot;and it's fortunate enough for you that these wild fellows
+will carry through this mad scheme, when they know they are found out
+before they start. Besides, I'm not sure that it is not best to wait
+till the night after, or, may be, the night after that. Then the news
+will have spread, that the goods have been either run and hid away, or
+seized by the officers. In either case, if you manage well, they will
+think that it is your venture; and the fellows on the coast will be
+off their guard--especially Mowle, who's the sharpest of them all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I'll go down to-morrow and talk to Mowle myself,&quot; replied Mr.
+Radford. &quot;It will be well worth my while to give him a hundred guineas
+to wink a bit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't try it--don't try it!&quot; exclaimed Harding, quickly. &quot;It will do
+no good, and a great deal of harm. In the first place, you can do
+nothing with Mowle. He never took a penny in his life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, every man has his price,&quot; rejoined Mr. Radford, whose opinion of
+human nature, as the reader may have perceived, was not particularly
+high. &quot;It's only because he wants to be bid up to. Mr. Mowle thinks
+himself above five or ten pounds; but the chink of a hundred guineas
+is a very pleasant sound.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He's as honest a fellow as ever lived,&quot; answered Harding, &quot;and I tell
+you plainly, Mr. Radford, that if you offered him ten times the sum,
+he wouldn't take it. You would only shew him that this venture is not
+your grand one, without doing yourself the least good. He's a fair,
+open enemy, and lets every one know that, as long as he's a
+riding-officer here, he will do all he can against us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he must be knocked on the head,&quot; said Mr. Radford, in a calm and
+deliberate tone; &quot;and it shall be done, too, if he meddles with my
+affairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It will not be I who do it,&quot; replied Harding; &quot;unless we come hand to
+hand together. Then, every man must take care of himself; but I should
+be very sorry, notwithstanding; for he's a straightforward, bold
+fellow, as brave as a lion, and with a good heart into the bargain. I
+wonder such an honest man ever went into such a rascally service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last observation of our friend Harding may perhaps sound strangely
+to the reader's ears; but some allowance must be made for professional
+prejudices, and it is by no means too much to say that the smugglers
+of those days, and even of a much later period, looked upon their own
+calling as highly honest, honourable, and respectable, regarding the
+Customs as a most fraudulent and abominable institution, and all
+connected with it more or less in the light of a band of swindlers and
+knaves, leagued together for the purpose of preventing honest men from
+pursuing their avocations in peace. Such were the feelings which
+induced Harding to wonder that so good a man as Mowle could have
+anything to do with the prevention of smuggling; for he was so
+thoroughly convinced he was in the right himself, that he could not
+conceive how any one could see the case in any other point of view.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, &quot;that is a wonder, if he is such a good
+sort of man; but that I doubt. However, as you say it would not do to
+put oneself in his power, I'll have him looked after, and in the
+meanwhile, let us talk of the rest of the business. You say the night
+after to-morrow, or the night after that! I must know, however; for
+the men must be down. How are we to arrange that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, I'll see what the weather is like,&quot; was Harding's reply. &quot;Then I
+can easily send up to let you know--or, what will be better still, if
+you can gather the men together the day after to-morrow, in the
+different villages not far off the coast, and I should find it the
+right sort of night, and get out to sea, they shall see a light on the
+top of Tolsford Hill, as soon as I am near in shore again. That will
+serve to guide them and puzzle the officers. Then let them gather, and
+come down towards Dymchurch, where they will find somebody from me to
+guide them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They shall gather first at Saltwood,&quot; said Mr. Radford, &quot;and then
+march down to Dymchurch. But how are we to manage about the ship?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you must send an order,&quot; answered Harding, &quot;for both days, and
+let your skipper know that if he does not see us the first, he will
+see us the second.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You had better take it down with you at once,&quot; replied Mr. Radford,
+&quot;and get it off early to-morrow. If you'll just come up to my house,
+I'll write it for you in a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but I'm not going home to-night,&quot; said the smuggler; &quot;I can have
+a bed at Mrs. Clare's; and I'm going to sleep there, so you can send
+it over when you like in the morning, and I'll get it off in time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish you would not go hanging about after that girl, when we've got
+such serious business in hand,&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford, in a sharp
+tone; but the next moment he added, with a sudden change of voice, &quot;It
+doesn't signify to-night, however. There will be time enough; and they
+say you are going to marry her, Harding. Is that true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should say, that's my business,&quot; replied Harding, bluntly, &quot;but
+that I look upon it as an honour, Mr. Radford, that she's going to
+marry me; for a better girl does not live in the land, and I've known
+her a long while now, so I'm never likely to think otherwise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, I've known her a long time, too,&quot; answered Mr. Radford--&quot;ever
+since her poor father was shot, and before; and a very good girl I
+believe she is. But now that you are over here, you may as well wait
+and hear what comes of these goods. Couldn't you just ride over to the
+Ramleys to-morrow morning--there you'll hear all about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding laughed, but replied the next moment, in a grave tone, &quot;I
+don't like the Ramleys, sir, and don't want to have more to do with
+them than I can help. I shall hear all about it soon enough, without
+going there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I sha'n't,&quot; answered Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you had better send your son, sir,&quot; rejoined Harding. &quot;He's
+oftener there than I am, a great deal.--Well, the matter is all
+settled, then. Either the night after to-morrow, or the night after
+that, if the men keep a good look-out, they'll see a light on Tolsford
+Hill. Then they must gather as fast as possible at Saltwood, and come
+on with anybody they may find there. Good night, Mr. Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good night, Harding--good night,&quot; said Mr. Radford, walking on; and
+the other turning his steps back towards Harbourne, made his way, by
+the first road on the right, to the cottage where we have seen him in
+the earlier part of the day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a pleasant aspect that the cottage presented when he went in,
+which he did without any of the ceremonies of knocking at the door or
+ringing the bell; for he was sure of a welcome. There was but one
+candle lighted on the table, for the dwellers in the place were poor;
+but the room was small, and that one was quite sufficient to shew the
+white walls and the neat shelves covered with crockery, and with
+one or two small prints in black frames. Besides, there was the
+fire-place, with a bright and cheerful, but not large fire; for
+though, in the month of September, English nights are frequently cold
+and sometimes frosty, the weather had been as yet tolerably mild.
+Nevertheless, the log of fir at the top blazed high, and crackled
+amidst the white and red embers below, and the flickering flame, as it
+rose and fell, caused the shadows to fall more vaguely or distinctly
+upon the walls, with a fanciful uncertainty of outline, that had
+something cheerful, yet mysterious in it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The widow was bending over the fire, with her face turned away, and
+her figure in the shadow. The daughter was busily working with her
+needle, but her eyes were soon raised--and they were very beautiful
+eyes--as Harding entered. A smile, too, was upon her lips; and though
+even tears may be lovely, and a sad look awaken deep and tender
+emotions, yet the smile of affection on a face we love is the
+brightest aspect of that bright thing the human countenance. It is
+what the sunshine is to the landscape, which may be fair in the rain
+or sublime in the storm, but can never harmonize so fully with the
+innate longing for happiness which is in the breast of every one, as
+when lighted up with the rays that call all its excellence and all its
+powers into life and being.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding sat down beside the girl, and took her hand in his, saying,
+&quot;Well, Kate, this day three weeks, then, remember?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My mother says so,&quot; answered the girl, with a cheek somewhat glowing,
+&quot;and then, you know, John, you are to give it up altogether. No more
+danger--no more secrets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, as for danger,&quot; answered Harding, laughing, &quot;I did not say that,
+love. I don't know what life would be worth without danger. Every man
+is in danger all day long; and I suppose that we are only given life
+just to feel the pleasure of it by the chance of losing it. But no
+dangers but the common ones, Kate. I'll give up the trade, as you have
+made me promise; and I shall have enough by that time to buy out the
+whole vessel, in which I've got shares, and what between that and the
+boats, we shall do very well. You put me in mind, with your fears, of
+a song that wicked boy, little Starlight, used to sing. I learned it
+from hearing him: a more mischievous little dog does not live; but he
+has got a sweet pipe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sing it, John--sing it!&quot; cried Kate; &quot;I love to hear you sing, for it
+seems as if you sing what you are thinking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I wont sing it,&quot; answered Harding, &quot;for it is a sad sort of song,
+and that wont do when I am so happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I like sad songs!&quot; said the girl; &quot;they please me far more than
+all the merry ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, pray sing it, Harding!&quot; urged the widow; &quot;I am very fond of a
+song that makes me cry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This wont do that,&quot; replied the smuggler; &quot;but it is sadder than some
+that do, I always think. However, I'll sing it, if you like;&quot; and in a
+fine, mellow, bass voice, to a very simple air, with a flattened third
+coming in every now and then, like the note of a wintry bird, he went
+on:--</p>
+<div class="poem2">
+<br>
+<p class="t8"><b>SONG.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;Life's like a boat,
+<p class="t4">Rowing--rowing</p>
+<p class="t0">Over a bright sea,<br>
+On the waves to float,</p>
+<p class="t4">Flowing--flowing</p>
+<p class="t0">Away from her lea.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;Up goes the sheet!</p>
+<p class="t4">Sailing--sailing,</p>
+<p class="t0">To catch the rising breeze,<br>
+While the winds fleet,</p>
+<p class="t4">Wailing--wailing,</p>
+<p class="t0">Sigh o'er the seas.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;She darts through the waves,</p>
+<p class="t4">Gaily--gaily,</p>
+<p class="t0">Scattering the foam.<br>
+Beneath her, open graves,</p>
+<p class="t4">Daily--daily,</p>
+<p class="t0">The blithest to entomb.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;Who heeds the deep,</p>
+<p class="t4">Yawning--yawning</p>
+<p class="t0">For its destined prey,<br>
+When from night's dark sleep,</p>
+<p class="t4">Dawning--dawning,</p>
+<p class="t0">Wakens the bright day?</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;Away, o'er the tide!</p>
+<p class="t4">Fearless--fearless</p>
+<p class="t0">Of all that lies beneath;<br>
+Let the waves still hide,</p>
+<p class="t4">Cheerless--cheerless,</p>
+<p class="t0">All their stores of death.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;Stray where we may,</p>
+<p class="t4">Roaming--roaming</p>
+<p class="t0">Either far or near,<br>
+Death is on the way,</p>
+<p class="t4">Coming--coming--</p>
+<p class="t0">Who's the fool to fear?&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">The widow did weep, however, not at the rude song, though the voice
+that sung it was fine, and perfect in the melody, but at the
+remembrances which it awakened--remembrances on which she loved to
+dwell, although they were so sad.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, Harding,&quot; she said, &quot;it's very true what your song says. Whatever
+way one goes, death is near enough; and I don't know that it's a bit
+nearer on the sea than anywhere else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a whit,&quot; replied Harding; &quot;God's hand is upon the sea as well as
+upon the land, Mrs. Clare; and if it is his will that we go, why we
+go; and if it is his will that we stay, he doesn't want strength to
+protect us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, indeed,&quot; answered Mrs. Clare; &quot;and it's that which comforts me,
+for I think that what is God's will must be good. I'm sure, when my
+poor husband went out in the morning, six years ago come the tenth of
+October next, as well and as hearty as a man could be, I never thought
+to see him brought home a corpse, and I left a lone widow with my poor
+girl, and not knowing where to look for any help. But God raised me up
+friends where I least expected them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why you had every right to expect that Sir Robert would be kind to
+you, Mrs. Clare,&quot; rejoined Harding, &quot;when your husband had been in his
+service for sixteen or seventeen years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, indeed, I hadn't,&quot; said the widow; &quot;for Sir Robert was always, we
+thought, a rough, hard master, grumbling continually, till my poor man
+could hardly bear it; for he was a free-spoken man, as I dare say you
+remember, Mr. Harding, and would say his mind to any one, gentle or
+simple.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He was as good a soul as ever lived,&quot; answered Harding; &quot;a little
+rash and passionate, but none the worse for that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but it was that which set the head keeper against him,&quot; answered
+the widow, &quot;and he set Sir Robert, making out that Edward was always
+careless and insolent; but he did his duty as well as any man, and
+knowing that, he didn't like to be found fault with. However, I don't
+blame Sir Robert; for since my poor man's death he has found out what
+he was worth; and very kind he has been to me, to be sure. The
+cottage, and the garden, and the good bit of ground at the back, and
+twelve shillings a-week into the bargain, have we had from him ever
+since.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, and I am sure nothing can be kinder than the two young ladies,&quot;
+said Kate; &quot;they are always giving me something; and Miss Edith taught
+me all I know. I should have been sadly ignorant if it had not been
+for her--and a deal of trouble I gave her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God bless her!&quot; cried Harding, heartily. &quot;She's a nice young lady, I
+believe, though I never saw her but twice, and then she looked very
+sad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, she has cause enough, poor thing!&quot; said Mrs. Clare. &quot;Though I
+remember her as blithe as the morning lark--a great deal gayer than
+Miss Zara, gay as she may be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, I know--they crossed her love,&quot; answered Harding; &quot;and that's
+enough to make one sad. Though I never heard the rights of the story.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, it was bad enough to break her heart, poor thing!&quot; replied Mrs.
+Clare. &quot;You remember young Leyton, the rector's son--a fine, handsome,
+bold lad as ever lived, and as good as he was handsome. Well, he was
+quite brought up with these young ladies, you know--always up at the
+Hall, and Miss Edith always down at the Rectory; and one would have
+thought Sir Robert blind or foolish, not to fancy that two such young
+things would fall in love with each other; and so they did, to be
+sure. Many's the time I've seen them down here, in this very cottage,
+laughing and talking, and as fond as a pair of doves--for Sir Robert
+used to let them do just whatever they liked, and many a time used to
+send young Harry Leyton to take care of Miss Croyland, when she was
+going out to walk any distance; so, very naturally, they promised
+themselves to each other; and one day--when he was twenty and she just
+sixteen--they got a Prayer-Book at the Rectory, and read over the
+marriage ceremony together, and took all the vows down upon their
+bended knees. I remember it quite well, for I was down at the Rectory
+that very day helping the housekeeper; and just as they had done old
+Mr. Leyton came in, and found them somewhat confused, and the book
+open between them. He would know what it was all about, and they told
+him the truth. So then he was in a terrible taking; and he got Miss
+Croyland under his arm and went away up to Sir Robert directly, and
+told him the whole story without a minute's delay. Every one thought
+it would end in being a match; for though Sir Robert was very angry,
+and insisted that Harry Leyton should be sent to his regiment
+immediately--for he was then just home for a bit, on leave--he did not
+show how angry he was at first, but very soon after he turned Mr.
+Leyton out of the living, and made him pay, I don't know what, for
+dilapidations; so that he was arrested and put in prison--which broke
+his heart, poor man, and he died!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding gave Sir Robert Croyland a hearty oath; and Mrs. Clare
+proceeded to tell her tale, saying--&quot;I did not give much heed to the
+matter then; for it was just at that time that my husband was killed,
+and I could think of nothing else; but when I came to hear of what was
+going on, I found that Sir Robert had promised his daughter to this
+young Radford----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As nasty a vermin as ever lived,&quot; said Harding.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, she wont have him, I'm sure,&quot; continued the widow, &quot;for it has
+been hanging off and on for these six years. People at first said it
+was because they were too young. But I know that she has always
+refused, and declared that nothing should ever drive her to marry him,
+or any one else; for the law might say what it liked, but her own
+heart and her own conscience, told her that she was Harry Leyton's
+wife, and could not be any other man's, as long as he was living.
+Susan, her maid, heard her say so to Sir Robert himself; but he still
+keeps teasing her about it, and tells everybody she's engaged to young
+Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He'll go the devil,&quot; said Harding; &quot;and I'll go to bed, Mrs. Clare,
+for I must be up early to-morrow, to get a good many things to rights.
+God bless you Kate, my love! I dare say I shall see you before I
+go--for I must measure the dear little finger!&quot; And giving her a
+hearty kiss, Harding took a candle, and retired to the snug room that
+had been prepared for him.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_11" href="#div1Ref_11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">We must change the scene for a while, not only to another part of the
+county of Kent, but to very different people from the worthy Widow
+Clare and the little party assembled at her cottage. We must pass over
+the events of the night also, and of the following morning up to the
+hour of nine, proposing shortly to return to Harbourne House, and
+trace the course of those assembled there. The dwelling into which we
+must now introduce the reader, was a large, old-fashioned Kentish
+farm-house, not many miles on the Sussex side of Ashford. It was
+built, as many of these farm-houses still are, in the form of a cross,
+presenting four limbs of strongly constructed masonry, two stories
+high, with latticed windows divided into three partitions, separated
+by rather neatly cut divisions of stone. Externally it had a strong
+Harry-the-Eighth look about it, and probably had been erected in his
+day, or in that of one of his immediate successors, as the residence
+of some of the smaller gentry of the time. At the period I speak of,
+it was tenanted by a family notorious for their daring and licentious
+life, and still renowned in county tradition for many a fierce and
+lawless act. Nevertheless, the head of the house, now waxing somewhat
+in years, carried on, not only ostensibly but really, the peaceable
+occupation of a Kentish farmer. He had his cows and his cattle, and
+his sheep and his pigs; he grew wheat and barley, and oats and
+turnips; had a small portion of hop-ground, and brewed his own beer.
+But this trade of farming was only a small part of his employment,
+though, to say the truth, he had given himself up more to it since his
+bodily powers had declined, and he was no longer able to bear the
+fatigue and exertion which the great strength of his early years had
+looked upon as sport. The branch of his business which he was most
+fond of was now principally entrusted to his two sons; and two strong,
+handsome daughters, which made the number of his family amount to
+four, occasionally aided their brothers, dressed in men's clothes, and
+mounted upon powerful horses, which they managed as well as any grooms
+in the county.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reader must not think that, in this description, we are exercising
+indiscreetly our licence for dealing in fiction. We are painting a
+true picture of the family of which we speak, as they lived and acted
+some eighty or eighty-five years ago.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The wife of the farmer had been dead ten or twelve years; and her
+children had done just what they liked ever since; but it must be
+admitted, that, even if she had lived to superintend their education,
+we have no reason to conclude their conduct would have been very
+different from what it was. We have merely said that they had done as
+they pleased ever since her death, because during her life she had
+made them do as she pleased, and beat them, or, as she herself termed
+it, &quot;basted&quot; them heartily, if they did not. She was quite capable of
+doing so too, to her own perfect satisfaction, for probably few arms
+in all Kent were furnished with more sinewy muscles or a stouter fist
+than hers could boast. It was only upon minor points of difference,
+however, that she and her children ever quarrelled; for of their
+general course of conduct she approved most highly; and no one was
+more ready to receive packets of lace, tea, or other goods under her
+fostering care, or more apt and skilful in stopping a tub of spirits
+from &quot;talking,&quot; or of puzzling a Custom-House officer when force was
+not at hand to resist him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was naturally of so strong a constitution, and so well built a
+frame, that it is wonderful she died at all; but having caught cold
+one night, poor thing!--it is supposed, in setting fire to a
+neighbouring farm-house, the inmates of which were suspected of having
+informed against her husband--her very strength and vigour gave a
+tendency to inflammation, which speedily reduced her very low. A
+surgeon, who visited the house in fear and trembling, bled her
+largely, and forbade the use of all that class of liquids which she
+was accustomed to imbibe in considerable quantities; and for three or
+four days the fear of death made her follow his injunctions. But at
+the end of that period, when the crisis of the disease was imminent,
+finding herself no better, and very weak, she declared that the doctor
+was a fool, and ought to have his head broken, and directed the maid
+to bring her the big green bottle out of the corner cupboard. To this
+she applied more than once, and then beginning to get a little
+riotous, she sent for her family to witness how soon she had cured
+herself. Sitting up in her bed, with a yellow dressing-gown over her
+shoulders, and a gay cap overshadowing her burning face, she sung them
+a song in praise of good liquor--somewhat panting for breath, it must
+be owned--and then declaring that she was &quot;devilish thirsty,&quot; which
+was probably accurate to the letter, she poured out a large glass from
+the big green bottle, which happened to be her bed-fellow for the
+time, and raised it to her lips. Half the contents went down her
+throat; but, how it happened I do not know, the rest was spilt upon
+the bed clothes, and good Mrs. Ramley fell back in a doze, from which
+nobody could rouse her. Before two hours were over she slept a still
+sounder sleep, which required the undertaker to provide against its
+permanence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The bereaved widower comforted himself after a time. We will not say
+how many hours it required to effect that process. He was not a
+drunken man himself; for the passive participle of the verb to &quot;drink&quot;
+was not often actually applicable to his condition. Nevertheless,
+there was a great consumption of hollands in the house during the next
+week; and, if it was a wet funeral that followed, it was not with
+water, salt or fresh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There are compensations for all things; and if Ramley had lost his
+wife, and his children a mother, they all lost also a great number of
+very good beatings, for, sad to say, he who could thrash all the
+country round, submitted very often to be thrashed by his better half,
+or at all events underwent the process of either having his head made
+closely acquainted with a candlestick, or rendered the means of
+breaking a platter. After that period the two boys grew up into as
+fine, tall, handsome, dissolute blackguards as one could wish to look
+upon; and for the two girls, no term perhaps can be found in the
+classical authors of our language; but the vernacular supplies an
+epithet particularly applicable, which we must venture to use. They
+were two <i>strapping wenches</i>, nearly as tall as their brothers, full,
+rounded, and well formed in person, fine and straight cut in features,
+with large black shining eyes, a well-turned foot and ancle, and, as
+was generally supposed, the invincible arm of their mother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">We are not here going to investigate or dwell upon the individual
+morality of the two young ladies. It is generally said to have been
+better in some respects than either their ordinary habits, their
+education, or their language would have led one to expect; and,
+perhaps being very full of the stronger passions, the softer ones had
+no great dominion over them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There, however, they sat at breakfast on the morning of which we have
+spoken, in the kitchen of the farm-house, with their father seated at
+the head of the table. He was still a great, tall, raw-boned man, with
+a somewhat ogre-ish expression of countenance, and hair more white
+than grey. But there were four other men at the table besides himself,
+two being servants of the farm, and two acknowledged lovers of the
+young ladies--very bold fellows as may well be supposed; for to marry
+a she-lion or a demoiselle bear would have been a light undertaking
+compared to wedding one of the Miss Ramleys. They seemed to be upon
+very intimate terms with those fair personages, however, and perhaps
+possessed as much of their affection as could possibly be obtained;
+but still the love-making seemed rather of a feline character, for the
+caresses, which were pretty prodigal, were mingled with--we must not
+say interrupted by--a great deal of grumbling and growling, some
+scratching, and more than one pat upon the side of the head, which did
+not come with the gentleness of the western wind. The fare upon the
+table consisted neither of tea, coffee, cocoa, nor any other kind of
+weak beverage, but of beef and strong beer, a diet very harmonious
+with the appearance of the persons who partook thereof. It was
+seasoned occasionally with roars of laughter, gay and not very
+delicate jests, various pieces of fun, which on more than one occasion
+went to the very verge of an angry encounter, together with a good
+many blasphemous oaths, and those testimonies of affection which I
+have before spoken of as liberally bestowed by the young ladies upon
+their lovers in the shape of cuffs and scratches. The principal topic
+of conversation seemed to be some adventure which was even then going
+forward, and in which the sons of the house were taking a part. No
+fear, no anxiety, however, was expressed by any one, though they
+wondered that Jim and Ned had not yet returned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If they don't come soon they won't get much beef, Tom, if you swallow
+it at that rate,&quot; said the youngest Miss Ramley to her sweetheart;
+&quot;you've eaten two pounds already, I'm sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young gentleman declared that it was all for love of her, but that
+he hadn't eaten half so much as she had, whereupon the damsel became
+wroth, and appealed to her father, who, for his part, vowed, that,
+between them both, they had eaten and swilled enough to fill the big
+hog-trough. The dispute might have run high, for Miss Ramley was not
+inclined to submit to such observations, even from her father; but,
+just as she was beginning in good set terms, which she had learnt from
+himself, to condemn her parent's eyes, the old man started up,
+exclaiming, &quot;Hark! there's a shot out there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure,&quot; answered one of the lovers. &quot;It's the first of
+September, and all the people are out shooting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Even while he was speaking, however, several more shots were heard,
+apparently too many to proceed from sportsmen in search of game, and
+the next moment the sound of horses' feet could be heard running quick
+upon the road, and then turning into the yard which lay before the
+house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There they are!--there they are!&quot; cried half-a-dozen voices; and, all
+rushing out at the front door, they found the two young men with
+several companions, and four led horses, heavily laden. Jim, the elder
+brother, with the assistance of one of those who accompanied him, was
+busily engaged in shutting the two great wooden gates which had been
+raised by old Ramley some time before--nobody could tell why--in place
+of a five-barred gate, which, with the tall stone wall, formerly shut
+out the yard from the road. The other brother, Edward, or Ned Ramley,
+as he was called, stood by the side of his horse, holding his head
+down over a puddle; and, for a moment, no one could make out what he
+was about. On his sister Jane approaching him, however, she perceived
+a drop of blood falling every second into the dirty water below, and
+exclaimed, &quot;How hast thou broken thy noddle, Ned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, let me alone, Jinny,&quot; cried the young man, shaking off the
+hand she had laid upon his arm, &quot;or I shall bloody my toggery. One of
+those fellows has nearly cracked my skull, that's all; and he'd have
+done it, too, if he had but been a bit nearer. This brute shied just
+as I was firing my pistol at him, or he'd never have got within arm's
+length. It's nothing--it's but a scratch.--Get the goods away; for
+they'll be after us quick enough. They are chasing the major and his
+people, and that's the way we got off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One of the usual stories of the day was then told by the rest--of how
+a cargo had been run the night before, and got safe up into the
+country: how, when they thought all danger over, they had passed
+before old Bob Croyland's windows, and how Jim had given him a shot as
+he stood at one of them; and then they went on to say that, whether it
+was the noise of the gun, or that the old man had sent out to call the
+officers upon them, they could not tell; but about three miles further
+on, they saw a largish party of horse upon their right. Flight had
+then become the order of the day; but, finding that they could not
+effect it in one body, they were just upon the point of separating,
+Ned Ramley declared, when two of the riding officers overtook them,
+supported by a number of dragoons. Some firing took place, without
+much damage, and, dividing into three bodies, the smugglers scampered
+off, the Ramleys and their friends taking their way towards their own
+house, and the others in different directions. The former might have
+escaped unpursued, it would seem, had not the younger brother, Ned,
+determined to give one of the dragoons a shot before he went: thus
+bringing on the encounter in which he had received the wound on his
+head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While all this was being told to the father, the two girls, their
+lovers, the farm-servants, and several of the men, hurried the
+smuggled goods into the house, and raising a trap in the floor of the
+kitchen--contrived in such a manner that four whole boards moved up at
+once on the western side of the room--stowed the different articles
+away in places of concealment below, so well arranged, that even if
+the trap was discovered, the officers would find nothing but a vacant
+space, unless they examined the walls very closely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The horses were then all led to the stable; and Edward Ramley, having
+in some degree stopped the bleeding of his wound, moved into the
+house, with most of the other men. Old Ramley and the two
+farm-servants, however, remained without, occupying themselves in
+loading a cart with manure, till the sound of horses galloping down
+was heard, and somebody shook the gates violently, calling loudly to
+those within to open &quot;in the King's name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The farmer instantly mounted upon the cart, and looked over the wall;
+but the party before the gates consisted only of five or six dragoons,
+of whom he demanded, in a bold tone, &quot;Who the devil be you, that I
+should open for you? Go away, go away, and leave a quiet man at
+peace!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you don't open the gates, we'll break them down,&quot; said one of the
+men.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do, if you dare,&quot; answered old Ramley, boldly; &quot;and if you do, I'll
+shoot the best of you dead.--Bring me my gun, Tom.--Where's your
+warrant, young man? You are not an officer, and you've got none with
+you, so I shan't let any boiled lobsters enter my yard, I can tell
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By this time he was provided with the weapon he had sent for; and one
+of his men, similarly armed, had got into the cart beside him. The
+appearance of resistance was rather ominous, and the dragoons were
+well aware that if they did succeed in forcing an entrance, and blood
+were spilt, the whole responsibility would rest upon themselves, if no
+smuggled goods should be found, as they had neither warrant nor any
+officer of the Customs with them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After a short consultation, then, he who had spoken before, called to
+old Ramley, saying, &quot;We'll soon bring a warrant. Then look to
+yourself;&quot; and, thus speaking, he rode off with his party. Old Ramley
+only laughed, however, and turned back into the house, where he made
+the party merry at the expense of the dragoons. All the men who had
+been out upon the expedition were now seated at the table, dividing
+the beef and bread amongst them, and taking hearty draughts from the
+tankard. Not the least zealous in this occupation was Edward Ramley,
+who seemed to consider the deep gash upon his brow as a mere scratch,
+not worth talking about. He laughed and jested with the rest; and when
+they had demolished all that the board displayed, he turned to his
+father, saying, not in the most reverent tone, &quot;Come, old fellow,
+after bringing our venture home safe, I think you ought to send round
+the true stuff: we've had beer enough. Let's have some of the
+Dutchman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That you shall, Neddy, my boy,&quot; answered the farmer, &quot;only I wish you
+had shot that rascal you fired at. However, one can't always have a
+steady aim, especially with a fidgetty brute like that you ride;&quot; and
+away he went to bring the hollands, which soon circulated very freely
+amongst the party, producing, in its course, various degrees of mirth
+and joviality, which speedily deviated into song. Some of the ditties
+that were sung were good, and some of them very bad; but almost all
+were coarse, and the one that was least so was the following:--</p>
+<div class="poem1">
+<br>
+<p class="t16"><b>SONG.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;It's wonderful, it's wonderful, is famous London town,</p>
+<p class="t12">With its alleys<br>
+And its valleys,</p>
+<p class="t10">And its houses up and down;</p>
+<p class="t0" style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em">But I would give fair London town, its court, and all its
+people,</p>
+<p class="t0" style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em">For the little town of Biddenden, with the moon above
+the steeple.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;It's wonderful, it's wonderful, to see what pretty faces</p>
+<p class="t12">In London streets<br>
+A person meets</p>
+<p class="t10">In very funny places;</p>
+<p class="t0" style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em">But I wouldn't give for all the eyes in London town one sees,</p>
+<p class="t0" style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em">A pair, that by the moonlight, looks out beneath the trees.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;It's wonderful, in London town, how soon a man may hold,</p>
+<p class="t12">By art and sleight,<br>
+Or main and might,</p>
+<p class="t10">A pretty sum of gold;</p>
+<p class="t0" style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em">Yet give me but a pistol, and one rich squire or two,</p>
+<p class="t0" style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em">A moonlight night, a yellow chaise, and the high road will do.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">This was not the last song that was sung; but that which followed was
+interrupted by one of the pseudo-labourers coming in from the yard, to
+say that there was a hard knocking at the gate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think it is Mr. Radford's voice,&quot; added the man, &quot;but I'm not sure;
+and I did not like to get up into the cart to look.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Run up stairs to the window, Jinny!&quot; cried old Ramley, &quot;and you'll
+soon see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His daughter did, on this occasion, as she was bid, and soon called
+down from above, &quot;It's old Radford, sure enough; but he's got two men
+with him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It's all right, if he's there,&quot; said Jim Ramley; and the gates were
+opened in a minute, to give that excellent gentleman admission.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now, Mr. Radford, it must be remembered, was a magistrate for the
+county of Kent; but his presence created neither alarm nor confusion
+in the house of the Ramleys; and when he entered, leaving his men in
+the court for a minute, he said, with a laugh, holding the father of
+that hopeful family by the arm, &quot;I've come to search, and to stop the
+others. Where are the goods?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Safe enough,&quot; answered the farmer. &quot;No fear--no fear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But can we look under the trap?&quot; asked Mr. Radford, who seemed as
+well acquainted with the secrets of the place as the owner thereof.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, ay!&quot; replied the old man. &quot;Don't leave 'em too long--that's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll go down myself,&quot; said Radford; &quot;they've got scent of it, or I
+wouldn't find it out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All right--all right!&quot; rejoined the other, in a low voice; and the
+magistrate, raising his tone, exclaimed, &quot;Here, Clinch and Adams--you
+two fools! why don't you come in? They say there is nothing here; but
+we must search. We must not take any man's word; not to say that I
+doubt yours, Mr. Ramley; but it is necessary, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, do what you like, sir,&quot; replied the farmer. &quot;I don't care!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A very respectable search was then commenced, and pursued from room to
+room--one of the men who accompanied Mr. Radford, and who was an
+officer of the Customs, giving old Ramley a significant wink with his
+right eye as he passed, at which the other grinned. Indeed, had the
+whole matter not been very well understood between the great majority
+of both parties, it would have been no very pleasant or secure task
+for any three men in England to enter the kitchen of that farm-house
+on such an errand. At length, however, Mr. Radford and his companions
+returned to the kitchen, and the magistrate thought fit to walk
+somewhat out of his way towards the left-hand side of the room, when
+suddenly stopping, he exclaimed, in a grave tone, &quot;Hallo! Ramley,
+what's here? These boards seem loose!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure they are,&quot; answered the farmer; &quot;that's the way to the old
+beer cellar. But there's nothing in it, upon my honour!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But we must look, Ramley, you know,&quot; said Mr. Radford. &quot;Come, open
+it, whatever it is!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, with all my heart,&quot; replied the man; &quot;but you'll perhaps break
+your head. That's your fault, not mine, however,&quot;--and, advancing to
+the side of the room, he took a crooked bit of iron from his
+pocket--not unlike that used for pulling stones out of a horse's
+hoofs--and insinuating it between the skirting-board and the floor,
+soon raised the trap-door of which we have spoken before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A vault of about nine feet deep was now exposed, with the top of a
+ladder leading into it; and Mr. Radford ordered the men who were with
+him to go down first. The one who had given old Ramley the wink in
+passing, descended without ceremony; but the other, who was also an
+officer, hesitated for a moment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go down--go down, Clinch!&quot; said Mr. Radford. &quot;You <i>would</i> have a
+search, and so you shall do it thoroughly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man obeyed, and the magistrate paused a moment to speak with the
+smuggling farmer, saying, in a low voice, &quot;I don't mind their knowing
+I'm your friend, Ramley. Let them think about that as they like.
+Indeed, I'd rather that they did see we understand each other; so give
+me a hint if they go too far; I'll bear it out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he descended into the cellar, and old Ramley stood gazing
+down upon the three from above, with his gaunt figure bending over the
+trap-door. At the end of a minute or two he called down, &quot;There--that
+ought to do, I'm sure! We can't be kept bothering here all day!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Something was said in a low tone by one of the men below; but then the
+voice of Mr. Radford was heard, exclaiming, &quot;No, no; that will do!
+We've had enough of it! Go up, I say! There's no use of irritating
+people by unreasonable suspicions, Mr. Clinch. Is it not quite enough,
+Adams? Are you satisfied!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! quite, sir,&quot; answered the other officer; &quot;there's nothing but bare
+walls and an empty beer barrel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next moment the party began to reappear from the trap, the officer
+Clinch coming up first, with a grave look, and Mr. Radford and the
+other following, with a smile upon their faces.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, all is clear enough,&quot; said Mr. Radford; &quot;so you, gentlemen,
+can go and pursue your search elsewhere. I must remain here to wait
+for my son, whom I sent for to join me with the servants, as you know;
+not that I feared any resistance from you, Mr. Ramley; but smuggling
+is so sadly prevalent now-a-days, that one must be on one's guard, you
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A horse laugh burst from the whole party round the table; and in the
+midst of it the two officers retired into the yard, where, mounting
+their horses, they opened the gates and rode away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As soon as they were gone, Mr. Radford shook old Ramley familiarly by
+the hand, exclaiming, &quot;This is the luckiest thing in the world, my
+good fellow! If I can but get them to accuse me of conniving at this
+job, it will be a piece of good fortune which does not often happen to
+a man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ramley, as well he might, looked a little confounded; but Mr. Radford
+drew him aside, and spoke to him for a quarter of an hour, in a voice
+raised hardly above a whisper. Numerous laughs, and nods, and signs of
+mutual understanding passed between them; and the conversation ended
+by Mr. Radford saying, aloud, &quot;I wonder what can keep Dick so long; he
+ought to have been here before now! I sent over to him at eight; and
+it is past eleven.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_12" href="#div1Ref_12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">We will now, by the reader's good leave, return for a short time to
+Harbourne House, where the party sat down to breakfast, at the
+inconveniently early hour of eight. I will not take upon myself to say
+that it might not be a quarter-of-an-hour later, for almost everything
+is after its time on this globe, and Harbourne House did not differ in
+this respect from all the rest of the world. From the face of young
+Radford towards the countenance of Sir Edward Digby shot some very
+furious glances as they took their places at the breakfast-table; but
+those looks gradually sunk down into a dull and sullen frown, as they
+met with no return. Sir Edward Digby, indeed, seemed to have forgotten
+the words which had passed between them as soon as they had been
+uttered; and he laughed, and talked, and conversed with every one as
+gaily as if nothing had happened. Edith was some ten minutes behind
+the rest at the meal, and seemed even more depressed than the night
+before; but Zara had reserved a place for her at her own side; and
+taking the first opportunity, while the rest of the party were busily
+talking together, she whispered a few words in her ear. Sir Edward
+Digby saw her face brighten in a moment, and her eyes turn quickly
+towards himself; but he took no notice; and an interval of silence
+occurring the next moment, the conversation between the two sisters
+was interrupted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During breakfast, a servant brought in a note and laid it on the
+side-board, and after the meal was over, Miss Croyland retired to her
+own room to make ready for her departure. Zara was about to follow;
+but good Mrs. Barbara, who had heard some sharp words pass between the
+two gentlemen, and had remarked the angry looks of young Radford, was
+determined that they should not quarrel without the presence of
+ladies, and consequently called her youngest niece back, saying, in a
+whisper, &quot;Stay here, my dear. I have a particular reason why I want
+you not to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will be back in a moment, my dear aunt,&quot; replied Zara; but the
+worthy old lady would not suffer her to depart; and the butler
+entering at that moment, called the attention of Richard Radford to
+the note which had been brought in some half-an-hour before, and which
+was, in fact, a sudden summons from his father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The contents seemed to give him no great satisfaction; and, turning to
+the servant, he said, &quot;Well, tell them to saddle my horse, and bring
+him round;&quot; and as he spoke, he directed a frowning look towards the
+young baronet, as if he could scarcely refrain from shewing his anger
+till a fitting opportunity occurred for expressing it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Digby, however, continued talking lightly with Zara Croyland, in the
+window, till the horse had been brought round, and the young man had
+taken leave of the rest of the party. Then sauntering slowly out of
+the room, he passed through the hall door, to the side of Richard
+Radford's horse, just as the latter was mounting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Radford,&quot; he said, in a low tone, &quot;you were pleased to make an
+impertinent observation upon my conduct, which led me to tell you what
+I think of yours. We were interrupted; but I dare say you must wish
+for further conversation with me. You can have it when and where you
+please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At three o'clock this afternoon, in the road straight from the back
+of the house,&quot; replied young Radford, in a low, determined tone,
+touching the hilt of his sword.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby nodded, and then turning on his heel, walked coolly
+into the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sure, Sir Edward,&quot; cried Mrs. Barbara, as soon as she saw him,
+while Zara fixed her eyes somewhat anxiously upon his countenance--&quot;I
+am sure you and Mr. Radford have been quarrelling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh no, my dear madam,&quot; replied Sir Edward Digby; &quot;nothing of the
+kind, I can assure you. Our words were very ordinary words, and
+perfectly civil, upon my word. We had no time to quarrel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Sir Edward,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, &quot;you must excuse me
+for saying it, I must have no such things here. I am a magistrate for
+this county, and bound by my oath to keep the peace. My sister tells
+me that high words passed between you and my young friend Radford
+before breakfast?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They were very few, Sir Robert,&quot; answered Digby, in a careless tone;
+&quot;he thought fit to make an observation upon my saying a few words to
+your daughter, here, in a low tone, which I conceive every gentleman
+has a right to do to a fair lady. I told him, I thought his conduct
+insolent; and that was all that passed. I believe the youth has got a
+bad headache from too much of your good wine, Sir Robert; therefore, I
+forgive him. I dare say, he'll be sorry enough for what he said,
+before the day is over; and if he is not, I cannot help it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, well, if that's all, it is no great matter!&quot; replied the master
+of the house; &quot;but here comes round the carriage; run and call Edith,
+Zara.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before the young lady could quit the room, however, her sister
+appeared; and the only moment they obtained for private conference was
+at the door of the carriage, after Edith had got in, and while her
+father was giving some directions to the coachman. No great
+information could be given or received, indeed, for Sir Robert
+returned to the side of the vehicle immediately, bade his daughter
+good-bye, and the carriage rolled away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As soon as it was gone, Sir Edward Digby proposed, with the permission
+of Sir Robert Croyland, to go out to shoot; for he did not wish to
+subject himself to any further cross-examination by the ladies of the
+family, and he read many inquiries in fair Zara's eyes, which he
+feared might be difficult to answer. Retiring, then, to put on a more
+fitting costume, while gamekeepers and dogs were summoned to attend
+him, he took the opportunity of writing a short letter, which he
+delivered to his servant to post, giving him, at the same time, brief
+directions to meet him near the cottage of good Mrs. Clare, about
+half-past two, with the sword which the young officer usually wore
+when not on military service. Those orders were spoken in so ordinary
+and commonplace a tone that none but a very shrewd fellow would have
+discovered that anything was going forward different from the usual
+occurrences of the day; but Somers was a very shrewd fellow; and in a
+few minutes--judging from what he had observed while waiting on his
+master during dinner on the preceding day--he settled the whole matter
+entirely to his own satisfaction, thinking, according to the
+phraseology of those times, &quot;Sir Edward will pink him--and a good
+thing too; but it will spoil sport here, I've a notion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he descended to the hall, in order to join the keepers and their
+four-footed coadjutors, the young baronet encountered Mrs. Barbara and
+her niece; and he perceived Zara's eyes instantly glance to his
+sword-belt, from which he had taken care to remove a weapon that could
+only be inconvenient to him in the sport he was about to pursue. She
+was not so easily to be deceived as her father; but yet the absence of
+the weapon usually employed in those days, as the most efficacious for
+killing a fellow-creature, put her mind at ease, at least for the
+present; and, although she determined to watch the proceedings of the
+young baronet during the two or three following days--as far, at
+least, as propriety would permit--she took no further notice at the
+moment, being very anxious to prevent her good aunt from interfering
+more than necessary in the affairs of Sir Edward Digby.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara, indeed, was by no means well pleased that Sir Edward was
+going to deprive her schemes of the full benefit which might have
+accrued from his passing the whole of that day unoccupied, with Zara,
+at Harbourne House, and hinted significantly that she trusted if he
+did not find good sport he would return early, as her niece was very
+fond of a ride over the hills, only that she had no companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The poor girl coloured warmly, and the more so as Sir Edward could not
+refrain from a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I trust, then, I shall have the pleasure of being your companion
+to-morrow, Miss Croyland,&quot; he said, turning to the young lady. &quot;Why
+should we not ride over, and see your excellent uncle and your sister?
+I must certainly pay my respects to him; and if I may have the honour
+of escorting you, it will give double pleasure to my ride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara Croyland was well aware that many a matter, which if treated
+seriously may become annoying--if not dangerous, can be carried
+lightly off by a gay and dashing jest: &quot;Oh, with all my heart,&quot; she
+said; &quot;only remember, Sir Edward, we must have plenty of servants with
+us, or else all the people in the country will say that you and I are
+going to be married; and as I never intend that such a saying should
+be verified, it will be as well to nip the pretty little blossom of
+gossip in the bud.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It shall be all exactly as you please,&quot; replied the young officer,
+with a low bow and a meaning smile; but at the very same moment, Mrs.
+Barbara thought fit to reprove her niece, wondering how she could talk
+so sillily; and Sir Edward took his leave, receiving his host's
+excuses, as he passed through the hall, for not accompanying him on
+his shooting expedition.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The truth is, my dear sir,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, &quot;that I am now
+too old and too heavy for such sports.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You were kind enough to tell me, this is Liberty Hall,&quot; replied the
+young baronet, &quot;and you shall see, my dear sir, that I take you at
+your word, both in regard to your game and your wine, being resolved,
+with your good permission, and for my own health, to kill your birds
+and spare your bottles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, certainly,&quot; answered the master of the mansion--&quot;you shall
+do exactly as you like;&quot; and with this licence, Sir Edward set out
+shooting, with tolerable success, till towards two o'clock, when,
+quite contrary to the advice and opinion of the gamekeepers--who
+declared that the dogs would have the wind with them in that
+direction, and that as the day was now hot, the birds would not lie a
+minute--he directed his course towards the back of Harbourne Wood,
+finding, it must be confessed, but very little sport. There,
+apparently fatigued and disgusted with walking for a mile or two
+without a shot, he gave his gun to one of the men, and bade him take
+it back to the house, saying, he would follow speedily. As soon as he
+had seen them depart, he tracked round the edge of the wood, towards
+Mrs. Clare's cottage, exactly opposite to which he found his trusty
+servant, provided as he had directed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward then took the sword and fixed it in his belt, saying, &quot;Now,
+Somers, you may go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, sir,&quot; replied the man, touching his hat with a look of
+hesitation; but he added, a minute after, &quot;you had better let me know
+where it's to be, sir, in case----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; rejoined Sir Edward Digby, with a smile, &quot;you are an old
+soldier and no meddler, Somers; so that I will tell you, 'in
+case,'--that the place is in a straight line between this and
+Harbourne House. So now, face about to the right, and go back by the
+other road.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man touched his hat again, and walked quickly away, while the
+young officer turned his steps up the road which he had followed
+during the preceding evening in pursuit of the two Miss Croylands. It
+was a good broad open way, in which there was plenty of fencing room,
+and he thought to himself as he walked on, &quot;I shall not be sorry to
+punish this young vagabond a little. I must see what sort of skill he
+has, and if possible wound him without hurting him much. If one could
+keep him to his bed for a fortnight, we should have the field more
+clear for our own campaign; but these things must always be a chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus meditating, and looking at his watch to see how much time he had
+to spare, Major Sir Edward Digby walked on till became within sight of
+the garden wall and some of the out-buildings of Harbourne House. The
+reader, if he has paid attention, will remember that the road did not
+go straight to the back of the house itself: a smaller path, which led
+to the right, conducting thither; but as the gardens extended for
+nearly a quarter of a mile on that side, it followed the course of the
+wall to the left to join the parish road which ran in front of the
+mansion, leaving the green court, as it was called, or lawn, and the
+terrace, on the right hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As there was no other road in that direction, Sir Edward Digby felt
+sure that he must be on the ground appointed, but yet, as is the case
+in all moments of expectation, the time seemed so long, that when he
+saw the brick-work he took out his watch again, and found there were
+still five minutes to spare. He accordingly turned upon his steps,
+walking slowly back for about a quarter of a mile, and then returned,
+looking sharply out for his opponent, but seeing no one. He was now
+sure that the time must be past; but, resolved to afford young Radford
+every opportunity, he said to himself, &quot;Watches may differ, and
+something may have detained him. I will give him a full half hour, and
+then if he does not come I shall understand the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As soon, then, as he saw the walls once more, he wheeled round and
+re-trod his steps, then looked at his watch, and found that it was a
+quarter past three. &quot;Too bad!&quot; he said,--&quot;too bad! The fellow cannot
+be coward, too, as well as blackguard. One turn more, and then I've
+done with him.&quot; But as he advanced on his way towards the house, he
+suddenly perceived the flutter of female garments before him, and
+saying to himself, &quot;This is awkward!&quot; he gazed round for some path, in
+order to get out of the way for a moment, but could perceive none. The
+next instant, coming round a shrub which started forward a little
+before the rest of the trees, he saw the younger Miss Croyland
+advancing with a quick step, and, he could not help thinking, with a
+somewhat agitated air. Her colour was heightened, her eyes eagerly
+looking on; but, as soon as she saw him, she slackened her pace, and
+came forward in a more deliberate manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Sir Edward!&quot; she said, in a calm, sweet tone, &quot;I am glad to see
+you. You have finished your shooting early, it seems.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, the sport was beginning to slacken,&quot; answered Sir Edward Digby.
+&quot;I had not had a shot for the last half hour, and so thought it best
+to give it up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well then, you shall take a walk with me,&quot; cried Zara, gaily. &quot;I am
+just going down to a poor friend of ours, called Widow Clare, and you
+shall come too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! notwithstanding all your sage and prudent apprehensions in
+regard to what people might say if we were seen alone together!&quot;
+exclaimed Sir Edward Digby, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! I don't mind that,&quot; answered Zara. &quot;Great occasions, you know,
+Sir Edward, require decisive measures; and I assuredly want an escort
+through this terrible forest, to protect me from all the giants and
+enchanters it may contain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby looked at his watch again, and saw that it wanted but
+two minutes to the half hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh!&quot; said Zara, affecting a look of pique, &quot;if you have some
+important appointment, Sir Edward, it is another affair--only tell me
+if it be so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby took her hand in his: &quot;I will tell you, dear lady,&quot;
+he replied, &quot;if you will first tell me one thing, truly and
+sincerely--What brought you here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara trembled and coloured; for with the question put in so direct a
+shape, the agitation, which she had previously overcome, mastered her
+in turn, and she answered, &quot;Don't, don't, or I shall cry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, tell me at least if I had anything to do with it?&quot; asked
+the young baronet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you had!&quot; replied Zara; &quot;I can't tell a falsehood. But now, Sir
+Edward, don't, as most of you men would do, suppose that it's from any
+very tender interest in you, that I did this foolish thing. It was
+because I thought--I thought, if you were going to do what I imagined,
+it would be the very worst thing in the world for poor Edith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall only suppose that you are all that is kind and good,&quot;
+answered Digby--perhaps a little piqued at the indifference which she
+so studiously assumed; &quot;and even if I thought, Miss Croyland, that you
+did take some interest in my poor self, depend upon it, I should not
+be inclined to go one step farther in the way of vanity than you
+yourself could wish. I am not altogether a coxcomb. But now tell me,
+how you were led to suspect anything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Promise me first,&quot; said Zara, &quot;that this affair shall not take place.
+Indeed, indeed, Sir Edward, it must not, on every account!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is not the slightest chance of any such thing,&quot; replied Sir
+Edward Digby. &quot;You need not be under the slightest alarm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! you do not mean to say,&quot; she exclaimed, with her cheeks glowing
+and her eyes raised to his face, &quot;that you did not come here to fight
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not exactly,&quot; answered Sir Edward Digby, laughing; &quot;but what I do
+mean to say, my dear young lady, is, that our friend is half an hour
+behind his time, and I am not disposed to give him another opportunity
+of keeping me waiting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if he had been in time,&quot; cried Zara, clasping her hands together
+and casting down her eyes, &quot;I should have been too late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But tell me,&quot; persisted Sir Edward Digby, &quot;how you heard all this.
+Has my servant, Somers, been indiscreet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; replied Zara; &quot;no, I can assure you! I saw you go out in
+your shooting dress, and without a sword. Then I thought it was all
+over, especially as you had the gamekeepers with you; but some time
+ago I found that your servant had gone out, carrying a sword under his
+arm, and had come straight up this road. That made me uneasy. When the
+gamekeepers came back without you, I was more uneasy still; but I
+could not get away from my aunt for a few minutes. When I could,
+however, I got my hat and cloak, and hurried away, knowing that you
+would not venture to fight in the presence of a woman. As I went out,
+all my worst fears were confirmed by seeing your servant come back
+without the sword; and then--not very well knowing, indeed, what I was
+to say or do--I hurried on as fast as possible. Now you have the whole
+story, and you must come away from this place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very willingly,&quot; answered the young officer; adding, with a smile,
+&quot;which way shall we go, Miss Croyland? To Widow Clare's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no!&quot; answered Zara, blushing again. &quot;Do not tease me. You do not
+know how soon, when a woman is agitated, she is made to weep. My
+father is out, indeed,&quot; she added, in a gayer tone, &quot;so that I should
+have time to bathe my eyes before dinner, which will be half an hour
+later than usual; but I should not like my aunt to tell him that I
+have been taking a crying walk with Sir Edward Digby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven forbid that I should ever give you cause for a tear!&quot; answered
+the young baronet; and then, with a vague impression that he was doing
+something very like making love, he added, &quot;but let us return to the
+house, or perhaps we may have your aunt seeking us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The most likely thing in the world,&quot; replied Zara; and taking their
+way back, they passed through the gardens and entered the house by one
+of the side doors.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_13" href="#div1Ref_13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a custom of those days, I believe, not altogether done away
+with in the present times, for magistrates to assemble in petty
+sessions, or to meet at other times for the dispatch of any
+extraordinary business, in tavern, public-house, or inn--a custom more
+honoured in the breach than the observance, except where no other
+place of assembly can be found. It thus happened that, on the day of
+which we have been speaking, some half-dozen gentlemen, all justices
+of the peace for the county of Kent, were gathered together in a
+good-sized room of the inn, at the little town of * * * * * . There
+was a table drawn across the room, at which was placed the
+magistrates' clerk, with sundry sheets of paper before him, several
+printed forms, and two books, one big and the other little. The
+magistrates themselves, however, were not seated in due state and
+dignity, but, on the contrary, were in general standing about and
+talking together, some looking out of the window into the street, some
+leaning with their backs against the table and the tails of their
+coats turned over their hands, while one occupied an arm-chair placed
+sideways at the board, with one knee thrown over the other--a
+favourite position which he could not have assumed had he sat with his
+face to the table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The latter was Sir Robert Croyland, who had been sent for in haste by
+his brother justices, to take part in their proceedings relative to a
+daring act of smuggling which had just been perpetrated. Sir Robert
+would willingly have avoided giving his assistance upon this occasion;
+but the summons had been so urgent that he could not refuse going; and
+he was now not a little angry to find that there were more than
+sufficient justices present to make a quorum, and to transact all the
+necessary business. Some one, however, it would seem, had--as usual in
+all county arrangements--been very busy in pressing for as full an
+attendance as possible; and those who knew the characters of the
+gentlemen assembled might have perceived that the great majority of
+them were not very well qualified to sit as judges upon a case of this
+nature, as almost every one was under suspicion of leaning towards the
+side of the smugglers, most of them having at some time engaged more
+or less in the traffic which they were called upon to stop. Sir Robert
+Croyland was the least objectionable in this point of view; for he had
+always borne a very high name for impartiality in such matters, and
+had never had anything personally to do with the illicit traffic
+itself. It is probable, therefore, that he was sent for to give a mere
+show of justice to the proceedings; for Mr. Radford was expected to be
+there; and it was a common observation of the county gentlemen, that
+the latter could now lead Sir Robert as he liked. Mr. Radford, indeed,
+had not yet arrived, though two messengers had been despatched to
+summon him; the answer still being that he had gone over towards
+Ashford. Sir Robert, therefore, sat in the midst--not harmonizing much
+in feeling with the rest, and looking anxiously for his friend's
+appearance, in order to obtain some hint as to how he was to act.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At length, a considerable noise was heard in the streets below, and a
+sort of constable door-keeper presented himself, to inform the
+magistrates that the officers and dragoons had arrived, bringing in
+several prisoners. An immediate bustle took place, the worshipful
+gentlemen beginning to seat themselves, and one of them--as it is
+technically termed--moving Sir Robert into the chair. In order to shew
+that this was really as well as metaphysically done, Sir Robert
+Croyland rose, sat down again, and wheeled himself round to the table.
+A signal was then given to the constable; and a rush of several
+persons from without was made into the temporary justice room, which
+was at once nearly filled with custom-house officers, soldiers,
+smugglers, and the curious of the village.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Amongst the latter portion of the auditory,--at least, so he supposed
+at first,--Sir Robert Croyland perceived his young friend, Richard
+Radford; and he was in the act of beckoning him to come up to the
+table, in order to inquire where his father was, and how soon he would
+return, when one of the officers of the Customs suddenly thrust the
+young gentleman out of the way, exclaiming, &quot;Stand farther back! What
+are you pushing forward for? Your turn will come soon enough, I
+warrant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland was confounded; and for a moment or two he sat
+silent in perplexity and surprise. Not that he ever entertained a
+doubt of old Mr. Radford still nourishing all the propensities of his
+youth; nor that he was not well aware they had formed part of the
+inheritance of the son; but there were certain considerations of some
+weight which made Sir Robert feel that it would have been better for
+him to be in any other spot of the habitable globe than that where he
+was at the moment. Recovering himself, however, after a brief pause of
+anxious indecision, he made a sign to the constable door-keeper, and
+whispered to him, as soon as the man reached his side, to inquire into
+the cause of Mr. Richard Radford's being there. The man was shrewd and
+quick, and while half the magistrates were speaking across the table
+to half the officers and some of the dragoons, he went and returned to
+and from the other side of the room, and then whispered to the
+baronet, &quot;For smuggling, sir--caught abetting the others--his name
+marked upon some of the goods!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland was not naturally a brilliant man. Though hasty in
+temper in his early days, he had always been somewhat obtuse in
+intellect; but this was a case of emergency; and there is no greater
+sharpener of the wits than necessity. In an instant, he had formed his
+plan to gain time, which was his great object at that moment; and,
+taking out his watch, he laid it on the table, exclaiming aloud,
+&quot;Gentlemen! gentlemen! a little regularity, if you please. My time is
+precious. I have an important engagement this afternoon, and I----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But his whole scheme had nearly been frustrated by the impetuosity of
+young Radford himself, who at once pushed through officers and
+soldiers, saying, &quot;And so have I, Sir Robert, a very important
+engagement this afternoon. I claim to be heard as speedily as
+possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert, however, was determined to carry his point, and to avoid
+having aught to do with the case of his young friend, even at the risk
+of giving him offence and annoyance. &quot;Stand back, sir!&quot; he said. &quot;In
+this court, there is no friendship or favour. You will have attention
+in turn, but not before. Mr. Mowle, bring forward the prisoners one
+after the other, as near as possible, in the order of--the order
+of--of their capture,&quot; he added, at length, after hesitating for a
+moment to consider whether it was or was not probable that young
+Radford had been amongst those last taken; &quot;and let all the others be
+removed, under guard, into the next room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wont that make it a long affair, Sir Robert?&quot; asked Mr. Runnington, a
+neighbouring squire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, no!&quot; replied the chairman; &quot;by regularity we shall save
+time. Do as you are directed, Mowle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Young Radford showed a strong disposition to resist, or, at least, to
+protest against this arrangement; but the officer to whom the baronet
+had spoken, treated the prisoner with very little reverence; and he,
+with the rest of the gang, was removed from the room, with the
+exception of three, one of whom, with a smart cockade in his hat, such
+as was worn at that time by military men in undress, swaggered up to
+the table with a bold air, as if he were about to address the
+magistrates.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, major, is that you?&quot; asked a gentleman on Sir Robert's right,
+known in the country by the name of Squire Jollyboat, though his
+family being originally French, his real appellation was Jollivet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes, squire,&quot; answered the prisoner, in a gay, indifferent tone,
+&quot;here I am. It is long since I have had the pleasure of seeing your
+worship. I think you were not on the bench the last time I was
+committed, or I should have fared better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know that, major,&quot; replied the gentleman; &quot;on the former
+occasion I gave you a month, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but the blackguards that time gave me two,&quot; rejoined the major.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because it was the second offence,&quot; said Squire Jollyboat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The second! Lord bless you, sir!&quot; answered the major, with a look of
+cool contempt; and turning round with a wink to his two companions,
+they all three laughed joyously, as if it were the finest joke in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It might not be very interesting to the reader were we to give in
+detail the depositions of the various witnesses upon a common case of
+smuggling in the last century, or to repeat all the various arguments
+which were bandied backwards and forwards between the magistrates,
+upon the true interpretation of the law, as expressed in the 9th
+George II., cap. 35. It was very evident, indeed, to the officers of
+Customs, to the serjeant of dragoons, and even to the prisoners
+themselves, that the worthy justices were disposed to take as
+favourable a view of smuggling transactions as possible. But the law
+was very clear; the case was not less so; Mowle, the principal riding
+officer, was a straightforward, determined, and shrewd man; and
+although Sir Robert Croyland, simply with a view of protracting the
+investigation till Mr. Radford should arrive, started many questions
+which he left to the other magistrates to settle, yet in about half an
+hour the charge of smuggling, with riot, and armed resistance to the
+Custom-House officers, was clearly made out against the major and his
+two companions; and as the act left no discretion in such a case, the
+resistance raising the act to felony, all three were committed for
+trial, and the officers bound over to prosecute.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men were then taken away, laughing and jesting; and Sir Robert
+Croyland looked with anxiety for the appearance of the next party; but
+two other men were now introduced without Richard Radford; and the
+worthy baronet was released for the time. The case brought forward
+against these prisoners differed from that against those who preceded
+them, inasmuch as no resistance was charged. They had simply been
+found aiding and abetting in the carriage of the smuggled goods, and
+had fled when they found themselves pursued by the officers, though
+not fast enough to avoid capture. The facts were speedily proved, and,
+indeed, much more rapidly than suited the views of Sir Robert
+Croyland. He therefore raised the question, when the decision of the
+magistrates was about to be pronounced, whether this was the first or
+the second offence, affecting some remembrance of the face of one of
+the men. The officers, also, either really did recollect, or pretended
+to do so, that the person of whom he spoke had been convicted before;
+but the man himself positively denied it, and defied them to bring
+forward any proof. A long discussion thus commenced, and before it was
+terminated the baronet was relieved by the appearance of Mr. Radford
+himself, who entered booted and spurred, and covered with dust, as if
+just returned from a long ride.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Shaking hands with his brother magistrates, and especially with Sir
+Robert Croyland, he was about to seat himself at the end of that
+table, when the baronet rose, saying, &quot;Here, Radford, you had better
+take my place, as I must positively get home directly, having
+important business to transact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no, Sir Robert,&quot; replied that respectable magistrate, &quot;we cannot
+spare you in this case, nor can I take that place. My son, I hear, is
+charged with taking part in this affair; and some sharp words have
+been passing between myself and that scoundrel of a fellow called
+Clinch, the officer, who applied to me for aid in searching the
+Ramleys' house. When I agreed to go with him, and found out a very
+snug place for hiding, he was half afraid to go down; and yet, since
+then, he has thought fit to insinuate that I had something to do with
+the run, and did not conduct the search fairly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The magistrates looked round to each other and smiled; and Radford
+himself laughed heartily, very much as if he was acting a part in a
+farce, without any hope or expectation of passing off his zeal in the
+affair, upon his fellow magistrates, as genuine. Mowle, the officer,
+at the same time turned round, and spoke a few words to two men who
+had followed Mr. Radford into the room, one of whom shrugged his
+shoulders with a laugh, and said nothing, and the other replied
+eagerly, but in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland, however, urged the necessity of his going, put
+his watch in his pocket, and buttoned up his coat. But Mr. Radford,
+assuming a graver air and a very peculiar tone, replied, &quot;No, no, Sir
+Robert; you must stay, indeed. We shall want you. Your known
+impartiality will give weight to our decisions, whatever they may be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet sat down again, but evidently with so much unwillingness,
+that his brethren marvelled not a little at this fresh instance of the
+influence which Mr. Radford exerted over his mind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is the next prisoner, Mr. Mowle?&quot; demanded Sir Robert Croyland,
+as soon as he had resumed his seat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Richard Radford, I suppose, sir,&quot; said Mowle; &quot;but these two men
+are not disposed of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; said Mr. Jollivet, who was very well inclined to
+commence a career of lenity, &quot;as no proof has been given that this is
+the second offence, I think we must send them both for a month. That
+seems to me the utmost we can do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other magistrates concurred in this decision; and the prisoners
+were ordered to be removed; but ere they went, the one against whom
+the officers had most seriously pressed their charge, turned round
+towards the bench, exclaiming, in a gay tone, &quot;Thank you, Squire
+Jollyboat. Your worship shall have a chest of tea for this, before I'm
+out a fortnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A roar of laughter ran round the magistrates--for such matters were as
+indecently carried on in those days, on almost all occasions, as they
+sometimes are now; and in a moment or two after, young Radford was
+brought in, with a dark scowl upon his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How is this, Dick?&quot; cried his father. &quot;Have you been dabbling in a
+run, and suffered yourself to be caught?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let these vagabonds make their accusation, and bring their
+witnesses,&quot; replied the young man, sullenly, &quot;and then I'll speak for
+myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, your worships,&quot; said Mowle, coming forward, &quot;the facts are
+simply these: I have long had information that goods were to be run
+about this time, and that Mr. Radford had some share in the matter.
+Last night, a large quantity of goods were landed in the Marsh, though
+I had been told it was to be near about Sandgate, or between that and
+Hythe, and was consequently on the look-out there. As soon as I got
+intimation, however, that the run had been effected, I got together as
+many men as I could, sent for a party of dragoons from Folkestone,
+and, knowing pretty well which way they would take, came across by
+Aldington, Broadoak and Kingsnorth, and then away by Singleton Green,
+towards Four-Elms, where, just under the hill, we came upon those two
+men who have just been convicted, and two others, who got off. We
+captured these two, and three horse-loads they had with them, for
+their beasts were tired, and they had lagged behind. There were two or
+three chests of tea, and a good many other things, and all of them
+were marked, just like honest bales of goods, 'Richard Radford,
+Esquire, Junior.' As we found, however, that the great party was on
+before, we pursued them as far as Rouse-end, where we overtook them
+all; but there they scattered, some galloping off towards Gouldwell,
+as if they were going to the Ramleys; some towards Usherhouse, and
+some by the wood towards Etchden. Four or five of the dragoons pushed
+after those running for Gouldwell, but I and the rest stuck to the
+main body, which went away towards the wood, and who showed fight.
+There was a good deal of firing amongst the trees, but not much damage
+done, except to my horse, who was shot in the shoulder. But just as we
+were chasing them out of the wood, up came Mr. Richard Radford, who
+was seen for a minute speaking to one of the men who were running, and
+riding along beside him for some way. He then turned, and came up to
+us, and tried to stop us as we were galloping after them, asking what
+the devil we were about, and giving us a great deal of bad language. I
+didn't mind him, but rode on, knowing we could take him at any time;
+but Mr. Birchett, the other chief officer, who had captured the major
+a minute or two before, got angry, and caught him by the collar,
+charging him to surrender, when he instantly drew his sword, and
+threatened to run him through. One of the dragoons, however, knocked
+it out of his hand, and then he was taken. This affray in the middle
+of the road enabled the greater part of the rest to get off; and we
+only captured two more horses and one man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Several of the other officers, and the dragoons, corroborated Mowle's
+testimony; and the magistrates, but especially Sir Robert Croyland,
+began to look exceedingly grave. Mr. Radford, however, only laughed,
+turning to his son, and asking, &quot;Well, Dick! what have you to say to
+all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Richard Radford, however, merely tossed up his head, and threw back
+his shoulders, without reply, till Sir Robert Croyland addressed him,
+saying, &quot;I hope, Mr. Radford, you can clear yourself of this charge,
+for you ought to know that armed resistance to the King's officers is
+a transportable offence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will speak to the magistrates,&quot; replied young Radford, &quot;when I can
+speak freely, without all these people about me. As to the goods they
+mention, marked with my name, I know nothing about them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you wish to speak with the magistrates alone?&quot; demanded old Mr.
+Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must strongly object to any such proceeding,&quot; exclaimed Mowle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, sir, meddle with what concerns you,&quot; said old Radford, turning
+upon him fiercely, &quot;and do not pretend to dictate here. You gentlemen
+are greatly inclined to forget your place. I think that the room had
+better be cleared of all but the prisoner, Sir Robert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet bowed his head; Squire Jollivet concurred in the same
+opinion; and, though one or two of the others hesitated, they were
+ultimately overruled, and the room was cleared of all persons but the
+magistrates and the culprit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scarcely was this done, when, with a bold free air, and contemptuous
+smile, young Radford advanced to the side of the table, and laid his
+left hand firmly upon it; then, looking round from one to another, he
+said, &quot;I will ask you a question, worshipful gentlemen.--Is there any
+one of you, here present, who has never, at any time, had anything to
+do with a smuggling affair?--Can you swear it upon your oaths?--Can
+you, sir?--Can you? Can you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The magistrates to whom he addressed himself, looked marvellously
+rueful, and replied not; and at last, turning to his father, he said,
+&quot;Can you, sir? though I, methinks, need hardly ask the question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, by Jove, Dick, I can't!&quot; replied his father, laughing. &quot;I wish to
+Heaven you wouldn't put such awful interrogatories; for I believe, for
+that matter, we are all in the same boat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I refuse,&quot; said young Radford, &quot;to be judged by you. Settle the
+matter as you like.--Get out of the scrape as you can; but don't
+venture to convict a man when you are more guilty than he is himself.
+If you do, I may tell a few tales that may not be satisfactory to any
+of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It had been remarked, that, in putting his questions, the young
+gentleman had entirely passed Sir Robert Croyland; and Mr. Jollivet
+whispered to the gentleman next him, &quot;I think we had better leave him
+and Sir Robert to settle it, for I believe the baronet is quite clear
+of the scrape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Mr. Radford had overheard, and he exclaimed, &quot;No, no; I think the
+matter is quite clear how we must proceed. There's not the slightest
+proof given that he knew anything about these goods being marked with
+his name, or that it was done by his authority. He was not with the
+men either, who were carrying the goods; and they were going quite
+away from his own dwelling. He happened to come there accidentally,
+just when the fray was going on. That I can prove, for I sent him a
+note this morning, telling him to join me at Ashford as fast as
+possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I saw it delivered myself,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure,&quot; rejoined Mr. Radford; &quot;and then, as to his talking to
+the smugglers when he did come up, I dare say he was telling them to
+surrender, or not to resist the law. Wasn't it so, Dick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a bit of it,&quot; answered Richard Radford, boldly. &quot;I told them to
+be off as fast as they could. But I did tell them not to fire any
+more. That's true enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, to be sure,&quot; cried Mr. Radford. &quot;He was trying to persuade them
+not to resist legitimate authority.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Almost all the magistrates burst into a fit of laughter; but, no way
+disconcerted, worthy Mr. Radford went on saying--&quot;While he was doing
+this, up comes this fellow, Birchett, and seizes him by the collar;
+and, I dare say, he abused him into the bargain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He said I was a d--d smuggling blackguard myself,&quot; said young
+Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, gentlemen, is it at all wonderful that he drew his
+sword?&quot; demanded his respectable father. &quot;Is every gentleman in the
+county to be ridden over, rough-shod, by these officers and their
+dragoons, and called 'd--d smuggling blackguards,' when they are
+actually engaged in persuading the smugglers not to fire? I promise
+you, my son shall bring an action against that fellow, Birchett, for
+an assault. It seems to me that the case is quite clear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is, at all events, rendered doubtful,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland,
+&quot;by what has been suggested. I think the officers had better now be
+recalled; and, by your permission, I will put a few questions to
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In a very few minutes the room was, once more, nearly filled, and the
+baronet addressed Mowle, in a grave tone, saying--&quot;A very different
+view of this case has been afforded us, Mr. Mowle, from that which you
+gave just now. It is distinctly proved, and I myself can in some
+degree testify to the fact, that Mr. Radford was on the spot
+accidentally, having been sent for by his father to join him at
+Ashford----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At the Ramleys', I suppose you mean, sir,&quot; observed Mowle, drily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, sir; at Ashford,&quot; rejoined Mr. Radford; and Sir Robert Croyland
+proceeded to say:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The young gentleman also asserts that he was persuading the smugglers
+to submit to lawful authority, or, at all events, not to fire upon
+you. Was there any more firing after he came up?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; there was not,&quot; answered Mowle. &quot;They all galloped off as hard as
+they could.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Corroborative proof of his statement,&quot; observed Sir Robert, solemnly.
+&quot;The only question, therefore, remaining, seems to be, as to whether
+Mr. Radford, junior, had really anything to do with the placing of his
+name upon the goods. Now, one strong reason for supposing such not to
+be the case is, that they were not found near his house, or going
+towards it, but the contrary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, he's as much at home in the Ramleys' house as at his own,&quot; said
+a voice from behind; but Sir Robert took no notice, and proceeded to
+inquire--&quot;Have you proof, Mr. Mowle, that he authorized any one to
+mark these goods with his name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford smiled; and Mowle, the officer, looked a little puzzled.
+At length, however, he answered--&quot;No, I can't say we have, Sir Robert;
+but one thing is very certain, it is not quite customary to ask for
+such proof in this stage of the business, and in the cases of inferior
+men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry to hear it,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a dignified
+and sententious tone, &quot;for it is quite necessary that in all cases the
+evidence should be clear and satisfactory to justify the magistrates
+in committing any man to prison, even for trial. In this instance
+nothing is proved, and not even a fair cause for suspicion made out.
+Mr. Radford was there accidentally; the goods were going in a
+different direction from his house; he was seized, we think upon
+insufficient grounds, while endeavouring to dissuade the smugglers
+from resisting the king's officers and troops; and though we may judge
+his opposition imprudent, it was not wholly unjustifiable. The
+prisoner is therefore discharged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The goods were going to the Ramleys,&quot; said the man, Clinch, who now,
+emboldened by the presence of several other officers, spoke loud and
+decidedly. &quot;Here are two or three of the dragoons, who can swear that
+they followed a party of the smugglers nearly to the house, and had
+the gates shut in their face when they came up; and I can't help
+saying, that the search of the house by Mr. Radford was not conducted
+as it ought to have been. The two officers were left without, while he
+went in to speak with old Ramley, and there were a dozen of men, or
+more, in the kitchen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh! nonsense, fellow!&quot; cried Mr. Radford, interrupting him with a
+laugh; &quot;I did it for your own security.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And then,&quot; continued Clinch, &quot;when we had gone down into the
+concealed cellar below, which was as clear a <i>hide</i> for smuggled goods
+as ever was seen, he would not let me carry out the search, though I
+found that two places at the sides were hollow, and only covered with
+boards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you vagabond, you were afraid of going down at all!&quot; said Mr.
+Radford. &quot;Where is Adams? He can bear witness of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Clinch didn't seem to like it much, it must be confessed,&quot; said
+Adams, without coming forward; &quot;but, then, the place was so full of
+men, it was enough to frighten one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wasn't frightened,&quot; rejoined Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because it was clear enough that you and the Ramleys understood each
+other,&quot; answered Clinch, boldly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh--pooh, nonsense!&quot; said Squire Jollivet. &quot;You must not talk such
+stuff here, Mr. Clinch. But, however that may be, the prisoner is
+discharged; and now, as I think we have no more business before us, we
+may all go home; for it's nearly five o'clock, and I, for one, want my
+dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, it is nearly five o'clock,&quot; said young Radford, who had been
+standing with his eyes cast down and his brow knit; &quot;and you do not
+know what you have all done, keeping me here in this way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He added an oath, and then flung out of the room, passing through the
+crowd of officers and others, in his way towards the door, without
+waiting for his father, who had risen with the rest of the
+magistrates, and was preparing to depart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland and Mr. Radford descended the stairs of the inn
+together; and at the bottom, Mr. Radford shook the baronet heartily by
+the hand, saying, loud enough to be heard by everybody. &quot;That was
+admirably well done, Sir Robert! Many thanks--many thanks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;None to me, my dear sir,&quot; answered Sir Robert Croyland. &quot;It was but
+simple justice;&quot; and he turned away to mount his horse.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very pretty justice, indeed!&quot; said Mowle, in a low voice, to the
+sergeant of dragoons; &quot;but I can't help fancying there's something
+more under this than meets the eye. Mr. Radford isn't a gentleman who
+usually laughs at these matters so lightly. But if he thinks to cheat
+me, perhaps he may find himself mistaken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime the baronet hastened homewards, putting his horse into
+a quick pace, and taking the nearest roads through the woods, which
+were then somewhat thickly scattered over that part of Kent. He had no
+servant with him; and when at about two miles from his own house, he
+passed through a wild and desolate part of the country, near what is
+now called Chequer Tree, he looked on before and around him on every
+side, somewhat anxiously, as if he did not much admire the aspect of
+the place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He pushed on, however, entered the wood, and rode rapidly down into a
+deep dell, which may still be seen in that neighbourhood, though its
+wild and gloomy character is now almost altogether lost. At that time,
+tall trees grew up round it on either hand, leaving, in the hollow, a
+little patch of about half an acre, filled with long grass and some
+stunted willows, while the head of a stream bubbling up in their
+shade, poured on its clear waters through a fringe of sedges and
+rushes towards some larger river.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sun had yet an hour or two to run before his setting; but it was
+only at noon of a summer's day that his rays ever penetrated into that
+gloomy and secluded spot; and towards the evening it had a chilly and
+desolate aspect, which made one feel as if it were a place debarred
+for ever of the bright light of day. The green tints of spring, or the
+warmer brown of autumn, seemed to make no difference, for the shades
+were always blue, dull and heavy, mingling with the thin filmy mist
+that rose up from the plashy ground on either side of the road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A faint sort of shudder came over Sir Robert Croyland, probably from
+the damp air; and he urged his horse rapidly down the hill without any
+consideration for the beast's knees. He was spurring on towards the
+other side, as if eager to get out of it, when a voice was heard from
+amongst the trees, exclaiming, in a sad and melancholy tone, &quot;Robert
+Croyland! Robert Croyland! what look you for here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet turned on his saddle with a look of terror and anguish;
+but, instead of stopping, he dug his spurs into the horse's sides, and
+gallopped up the opposite slope. As if irresistibly impelled to look
+at that which he dreaded, he gazed round twice as he ascended, and
+each time beheld, standing in the middle of the road, the same figure,
+wrapped in a large dark cloak, which he had seen when first the voice
+caught his ear. Each time he averted his eyes in an instant, and
+spurred on more furiously than ever. His accelerated pace soon carried
+him to the top of the hill, where he could see over the trees; and in
+about a quarter of an hour, he reached Halden, when he began to check
+his horse, and reasoned with himself on his own sensations. There was
+a great struggle in his mind; but ere he arrived at Harbourne House he
+had gained sufficient mastery over himself to say, &quot;What a strange
+thing imagination is!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>END OF VOL. I.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos-street, Covent-garden.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE SMUGGLER:</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>A Tale</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.</h2>
+
+<h5>AUTHOR OF<br>
+
+&quot;DARNLEY,&quot; &quot;DE L'ORME,&quot; &quot;RICHELIEU,&quot;<br>
+
+ETC. ETC.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>IN THREE VOLUMES.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3><a name="div2_0" href="#div2Ref_0">VOL. II.</a></h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>LONDON:</h4>
+<h3>SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.</h3>
+<h4>1845.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE SMUGGLER.</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<h2><a name="div2_01" href="#div2Ref_01">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">What a varying thing is the stream of life! How it sparkles and
+glitters! Now it bounds along its pebbly bed, sometimes in sunshine,
+and sometimes in shade; sometimes sporting round all things, as if its
+essence were merriment and brightness; sometimes flowing solemnly on,
+as if it were derived from Lethe itself. Now it runs like a liquid
+diamond along the meadow; now it plunges in fume and fury over the
+rock; now it is clear and limpid, as youth and innocence can make it;
+now it is heavy and turbid, with the varying streams of thought and
+memory that are ever flowing into it, each bringing its store of
+dulness and pollution as it tends towards the end. Its voice, too,
+varies as it goes; now it sings lightly as it dances on; now it roars
+amidst the obstacles that oppose its way; and now it has no tone but
+the dull low murmur of exhausted energy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Such is the stream of life! yet, perhaps, few of us would wish to
+change our portion of it for the calm regularity of a canal--even if
+one could be constructed without locks and floodgates upon it to hold
+in the pent-up waters of the heart till they are ready to burst
+through the banks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Life was in its sparkling aspect with Zara Croyland and Sir Edward
+Digby, when they set out on horseback for the house of old Mr.
+Croyland, cantering easily along the roads of that part of the
+country, which, in the days I speak of, were soft and somewhat sandy.
+Two servants followed behind at a discreet distance; and lightly
+passing over hill and dale, with all the loveliness of a very bright
+portion of our fair land stretched out around them, the young lady and
+her companion drew in, through the eyes, fresh sensations of happiness
+from all the lovely things of nature. The yellow woods warmed their
+hearts; the blue heaven raised their thoughts; the soft air refreshed
+and cheered all their feelings; and, when a passing cloud swept over
+the sky, it only gave that slight shadowy tone to the mind, which
+wakens within us the deep, innate, and elevating movements of the
+spirit, that seem to connect the aspect of God's visible creation,
+with a higher and a purer state of being. Each had some spring of
+happiness in the heart fresh opened; for, to the fair girl who went
+bounding along through that gay world, the thought that she was
+conveying to a dear sister tidings of hope, was in itself a joy; and
+to her companion a new subject of contemplation was presenting itself,
+in the very being who accompanied him on the way--a subject quite
+untouched and novel, and, to a man of his character and disposition, a
+most interesting one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby had mingled much with the world; he had seen many
+scenes of different kinds; he had visited various countries, the most
+opposite to each other; he had frequented courts, and camps, and
+cities; and he had known and seen a good deal of woman, and of
+woman's heart; but he had never yet met any one like Zara Croyland.
+The woman of fashion and of rank in all the few modifications of
+character that her circumstances admit--for rank and fashion are sadly
+like the famous bed of the robber of Attica, on which all men are cut
+down or stretched out to a certain size,--was well known to him, and
+looked upon much in the light of an exotic plant, kept in an
+artificial state of existence, with many beauties and excellences,
+perhaps, mingling with many deformities and faults, but still weakened
+and deprived of individuality by long drilling in a round of
+conventionalities. He had seen, too, the wild Indian, in the midst of
+her native woods, and might have sometimes admired the free grace and
+wild energy of uncultivated and unperverted nature; but he was not
+very fond of barbarism, and though he might admit the existence of
+fine qualities, even in a savage, yet he had not been filled with any
+great enthusiasm in favour of Indian life, from what he had seen in
+Canada. The truth is, he had never been a very dissolute, or, as it is
+termed, a very gay man--he was not sated and surfeited with the vices
+of civilization, and consequently was not inclined to seek for new
+excitement in the very opposite extreme of primeval rudeness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Most of the gradations between the two, he had seen at different
+periods and in different lands; but yet in her who now rode along
+beside him, there was something different from any. It was not a want,
+but a combination of the qualities he had remarked in others. There
+was the polish and the cultivation of high class and finished
+training, with a slight touch of the wildness and the originality of
+the fresh unsophisticated heart. There was the grace of education, and
+the grace of nature; and there seemed to be high natural powers of
+intellect, uncurbed by artificial rules, but supplied with materials
+by instruction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All this was apparent; but the question with him was, as to the heart
+beneath, and its emotions. He gazed upon her as they went on--when she
+was not looking that way--he watched her countenance, the habitual
+expression of the features, and the varying expression which every
+emotion produced. Her face seemed like a bright looking-glass, which a
+breath will dim, and a touch will brighten; but there is so much
+deceit in the world, and every man who has mingled with that world
+must have seen so much of it, and every man, also, has within himself
+such internal and convincing proofs of our human nature's fondness for
+seeming, that we are all inclined--except in very early youth--to
+doubt the first impression, to inquire beyond the external appearance,
+and to inquire if the heart of the fruit corresponds with the beauty
+of the outside.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He asked himself what was she really?--what was true, and what was
+false, in that bright and sparkling creature? Whether, was the gaiety
+or the sadness the real character of the mind within? or whether the
+frequent variation from the one to the other--ay, and from energy to
+lightness, from softness to firmness, from gentleness to vigour--were
+not all the indications of a character as various as the moods which
+it assumed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby was resolved not to fall in love, which is the most
+dangerous resolution that a man can take: for it is seldom, if ever,
+taken, except in a case of great necessity--one of those hasty
+outworks thrown up against a powerful enemy, which are generally taken
+in a moment and the cannon therein turned against ourselves.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nevertheless, he had resolved, as I have said, not to fall in love;
+and he fancied that, strengthened by that resolution, he was quite
+secure. It must not be understood, indeed, that Sir Edward Digby never
+contemplated marriage. On the contrary, he thought of it as a remote
+evil that was likely to fall upon him some day, by an inevitable
+necessity. It seemed a sort of duty, indeed, to transmit his name, and
+honours, and wealth to another generation; and as duties are not
+always very pleasant things, he, from time to time, looked forward to
+the execution of his, in this respect, in a calm, philosophical,
+determined manner. Thirty-five, he thought, would be a good time to
+marry; and when he did so, he had quite made up his mind to do it with
+the utmost deliberation and coolness. It should be quite a <i>mariage de
+raison</i>. He would take it as a dose of physic--a disagreeable thing,
+to be done when necessary, but not a minute before; and in the
+meantime, to fall in love, was quite out of the question.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No, he was examining and investigating and contemplating Zara
+Croyland's character, merely as a matter of interesting speculation;
+and a very dangerous speculation it was, Sir Edward Digby! I don't
+know which was most perilous, that, or your resolution.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It is very strange, he never recollected that, in no other case in his
+whole career, had he found it either necessary to take such a
+resolution, or pleasant to enter into such a speculation. If he had,
+perhaps he might have begun to tremble for himself. Nor did he take
+into the calculation the very important fact that Zara Croyland was
+both beautiful and pretty--two very different things, reader, as you
+will find, if you examine. A person may be very pretty without being
+the least beautiful, or very beautiful without being the least pretty;
+but when those two qualities are both combined, and when, in one girl,
+the beauty of features and of form that excites admiration, is joined
+with that prettiness of expression, and colouring, and arrangement
+that wakens tenderness and wins affection, Lord have mercy upon the
+man who rides along with her through fair scenes, under a bright sky!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Digby did not at all find out, that he was in the most dangerous
+situation in the world; or, if some fancy ever came upon him, that he
+was not quite safe, it was but as one of those vague impressions of
+peril that float for a single instant over the mind when we are
+engaged in any very bold and exciting undertaking, and pass away again
+as fast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Far from guarding himself at all, Sir Edward Digby went on in his
+unconsciousness, laying himself more and more open to the enemy. In
+pursuit of his scheme of investigation, he proceeded, as they rode
+along, to try the mind of his fair companion in a thousand different
+ways; and every instant he brought forth some new and dangerous
+quality. He found that, in the comparative solitude in which she
+lived, she had had time for study as well as thought, and had acquired
+far more, and far more varied stores of information, than was common
+with the young women of her day. It was not alone that she could read
+and spell--which a great many could not, in those times,--but she had
+read a number of different works upon a number of different subjects;
+knew as much of other lands, and of the habits of other people, as
+books could give, and was tastefully proficient in the arts that
+brighten life, even where their cultivation is not its object.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus her conversation had always something new about it. The very
+images that suggested themselves to her mind were derived from such
+numerous sources, that it kept the fancy on the stretch to follow her
+in her flights, and made their whole talk a sort of playful chase,
+like that of one bird after another in the air. Now she borrowed a
+comparison for something sensible to the eye from the sweet music that
+charms the ear--now she found out links of association between the
+singing of the birds and some of the fine paintings that she had seen
+or heard of--now combined a bright scene, or a peculiar moment of
+happiness, with the sweet odours of the flowers or the murmur of the
+stream. With everything in nature and art she sported, apparently
+unconscious; and often, too, in speaking of the emotions of the heart
+or the thoughts of the mind, she would, with a bright flash of
+imagination, cast lights upon those dark and hidden things, from
+objects in the external world, or from the common events of life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Eagerly Digby led her on--pleased, excited, entertained himself; but
+in so doing he produced an effect which he had not calculated upon. He
+made a change in her feelings towards himself. She had thought him a
+very agreeable man from the first; she had seen that he was a
+gentleman by habit, and divined that he was so by nature; but now she
+began to think that he was a very high-toned and noble-minded man,
+that he was one worthy of high station and of all happiness--she did
+not say--of affection, nor let the image of love pass distinctly
+before her eyes. There might be a rosy cloud in the far sky wherein
+the god was veiled; but she did not see him--or, was it that she would
+not? Perhaps it was so; for woman's heart is often as perverse and
+blind, in these matters, as man's. But one thing is clear, no two
+people can thus pour forth the streams of congenial thought and
+feeling--to flow on mingling together in sweet communion--for any
+great length of time, without a change of their sensations towards
+each other; and, unless the breast be well guarded by passion for
+another, it is not alone that mind with mind is blended, but heart
+with heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Though the distance was considerable,--that is to say, some three or
+four miles, and they made it more than twice as long by turning up
+towards the hills, to catch a fine view of the wooded world below, on
+whose beauty Zara expatiated eloquently,--and though they talked of a
+thousand different subjects, which I have not paused to mention here,
+lest the detail should seem all too tedious, yet their ride passed
+away briefly, like a dream. At length, coming through some green
+lanes, overhung by young saplings and a crown of brambles and other
+hedge-row shrubs--no longer, alas, in flower--they caught sight of the
+chimneys of a house a little way farther on, and Zara said, with a
+sigh, &quot;There is my uncle's house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby asked himself, &quot;Why does she sigh?&quot; and as he did so,
+felt inclined to sigh, too; for the ride had seemed too short, and had
+now become as a pleasant thing passed away. But then he thought, &quot;We
+shall enjoy it once again as we return;&quot; and he took advantage of
+their slackened pace to say, &quot;As I know you are anxious to speak with
+your sister, Miss Croyland, I will contrive to occupy your uncle for a
+time, if we find him at home. I fear I shall not be able to obtain an
+opportunity of talking with her myself on the subjects that so deeply
+interest her, as at one time I hoped to do; but I am quite sure, from
+what I see of you, that I may depend upon what you tell me, and act
+accordingly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As if by mutual consent, they had avoided, during their expedition of
+that morning, the subject which was, perhaps, most in the thoughts of
+each; but now Zara checked her horse to a slow walk, and replied,
+after a moment's thought, &quot;I should think, if you desire it, you could
+easily obtain a few minutes' conversation with her at my uncle's.--I
+only don't know whether it may agitate her too much or not. Perhaps
+you had better let me speak with her first, and then, if she wishes
+it, she will easily find the means. You may trust to me, indeed, Sir
+Edward, in Edith's case, though I do not always say exactly what I
+mean about myself. Not that I have done otherwise with you; for,
+indeed, I have neither had time nor occasion; but with the people that
+occasionally come to the house, sometimes it is necessary, and
+sometimes I am tempted, out of pure perversity, to make them think me
+very different from what I am. It is not always with those that I hate
+or despise either, but sometimes with people that I like and esteem
+very much. Now, I dare say poor Harry Leyton has given you a very sad
+account of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, indeed,&quot; answered Sir Edward Digby; &quot;you do him wrong; I have not
+the least objection to tell you exactly what he said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, do--do!&quot; cried Zara; &quot;I should like to hear very much, for I am
+afraid I used to tease him terribly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He said,&quot; replied Digby, &quot;that when last he saw you, you were a gay,
+kind-hearted girl of fourteen, and that he was sure, if I spoke to you
+about him, you would tell me all that I wanted to know with truth and
+candour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was kind of him,&quot; said Zara, with some emotion, &quot;that was very
+kind. I am glad he knows me; and yet that very candour, Sir Edward,
+some people call affectation, and some impudence. I am afraid that
+those who know much of the world never judge rightly of those who know
+little of it. Sincerity is a commodity so very rare, I am told, in the
+best society, that those who meet with it never believe that they have
+got the genuine article.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know a good deal of the world,&quot; replied the young baronet, &quot;but
+yet, my dear Miss Croyland, I do not think that I have judged you
+wrongly;&quot; and he fell into thought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next moment they turned up to the house of old Mr. Croyland; and
+while the servants were holding the horses, and Zara, with the aid of
+Sir Edward Digby, dismounting at the door, they saw, to her horror and
+consternation, a large, yellow coach coming down the hill towards the
+house, which she instantly recognised as her father's family vehicle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My aunt, my aunt, upon my life!&quot; exclaimed Zara, with a rueful shake
+of the head. &quot;I must speak one word with Edith before she comes; so
+forgive me, Sir Edward,&quot; and she darted into the house, asking a black
+servant, in a shawl turban and a long white gown, where Miss Croyland
+was to be found.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She out in de garden, pretty missy,&quot; replied the man; and Zara ran on
+through the vestibule before her. Unfortunately, vestibules will have
+doors communicating with them, which, I have often remarked, have an
+unhappy propensity to open when any one is anxious to pass by them
+quietly. It was so in the present instance: roused from a reverie by
+the ringing of the bell, and the sound of voices without, Mr. Croyland
+issued forth just at the moment when Zara's light foot was carrying
+her across to the garden; and catching her by the arm, he detained
+her, asking, &quot;What brought you here, saucy girl, and whither are you
+running so fast?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now Zara, though she was not good Mr. Zachary's favourite, had a very
+just appreciation of her uncle's character, and knew that the simple
+truth was less dangerous with him than with nine hundred and
+ninety-nine persons out of a thousand in civilized society. She,
+therefore, replied at once. &quot;Don't stop me, uncle, there's a good man!
+I came to speak a few words to Edith, and wish to speak them before my
+aunt arrives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! plot and counterplot, I will warrant!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland,
+freeing her arm. &quot;Well, get you gone, you graceless monkey! Ha! who
+have we here? Why, my young friend, the half-bottle man! Are you one
+of the plotters too, Sir Edward?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I am a complete master in the art of domestic strategy, I assure
+you,&quot; answered the young officer, &quot;and I propose--having heard what
+Miss Croyland has just said--that we take up a position across these
+glass doors, in order to favour her operations. We can then impede
+the advance of Mrs. Barbara's corps, by throwing forward the
+light-infantry of small-talk, assure her it is a most beautiful day,
+tell her that the view from the hill is lovely, and that the slight
+yellowness of September gives a fine warmth to the green foliage--with
+various other pieces of information which she does not desire--till
+the man&#339;uvres in our rear are complete.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, you are a sad knave,&quot; replied Mr. Zachary Croyland, laughing,
+&quot;and, I see, are quite ready to aid the young in bamboozling the old.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But, alas, the best schemed campaign is subject to accidental
+impediments in execution, which will often deprive it of success!
+Almost as Mr. Croyland spoke, the carriage rolled up; and not small
+was the horror of the master of the house, to see riding behind it, on
+a tall grey horse, no other than young Richard Radford. Sir Edward
+Digby, though less horrified, was not well pleased; but it was Mr.
+Croyland who spoke, and that in rather a sharp and angry tone,
+stepping forward, at the same time, over the threshold of his door:
+&quot;Mr. Radford,&quot; he said--&quot;Mr. Radford, I am surprised to see you! You
+must very well know, that although I tolerate, and am obliged to
+tolerate, a great many people whom I don't approve, at my brother's
+house, your society is not that which I particularly desire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Young Radford's eyes flashed, but, for once in his life, he exercised
+some command over himself. &quot;I came here at your sister's suggestion,
+sir,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Barbara, Barbara! barbarous Barbara!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Zachary
+Croyland, shaking his head at his sister, who was stepping out of the
+carriage. &quot;The devil himself never invented an instrument better
+fitted to torment the whole human race, than a woman with the best
+intentions in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, my dear brother,&quot; said Mrs. Barbara, with the look of a martyr,
+&quot;you know quite well that Robert wishes Mr. Radford to have the
+opportunity of paying his addresses to Edith, and so I proposed----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He shan't have the opportunity here, by Vishnoo!&quot; cried the old
+gentleman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To say the truth,&quot; said Mr. Radford, interposing, &quot;such was not my
+object in coming hither to-day. I wished to have the honour of saying
+a few words to a gentleman I see standing behind you, sir, which was
+also the motive of my going over to Harbourne House. Otherwise, well
+knowing your prejudices, I should not have troubled you; for, I can
+assure you, that <i>your</i> company is not particularly agreeable to
+<i>me</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If mine is what you want, sir,&quot; replied Sir Edward Digby, stepping
+forward and passing Mr. Croyland, &quot;it is very easily obtained; but, as
+it seems you are not a welcome guest here, perhaps we had better walk
+along the lane together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A less distance than that will do,&quot; answered Richard Radford,
+throwing the bridle of his horse to one of the servants, and taking
+two or three steps away from the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Zachary, my dear brother, do interfere!&quot; exclaimed Mrs. Barbara.
+&quot;I forgot they had quarrelled yesterday morning, and unfortunately let
+out that Sir Edward was here. There will be a duel, if you don't stop
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not I,&quot; cried Mr. Croyland, rubbing his hands; &quot;it's a pleasure to
+see two fools cut each other's throats. I'd lay any wager--if I ever
+did such a thing as lay wagers at all--that Digby pricks him through
+the midriff. There's a nice little spot at the end of the garden quite
+fit for such exercises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Zachary Croyland was merely playing upon his sister's
+apprehensions, as the best sort of punishment he could inflict for the
+mischief she had brought about; but he never had the slightest idea
+that Sir Edward Digby and young Radford would come to anything like
+extreme measures in his sister's presence, knowing the one to be a
+gentleman, and mistakenly believing the other to be a coward. The
+conversation of the two who had walked away was not of long duration:
+nor, for a time, did it appear very vehement. Mr. Radford said
+something, and the young Baronet replied; Mr. Radford rejoined, and
+Digby answered the rejoinder. Then some new observation was made by
+the other, which seemed to cause Sir Edward to look round to the
+house, and, seeing Mr. Croyland and his sister still on the step, to
+make a sign for young Radford to follow to a greater distance. The
+latter, however, planted the heel of his boot tight in the gravel, as
+if to give emphasis to what he said, and uttered a sentence in a
+louder tone, and with a look so fierce, meaning, and contemptuous,
+that Mr. Croyland saw the matter was getting serious, and stepped
+forward to interfere.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In an instant, however, Sir Edward Digby, apparently provoked beyond
+bearing, raised the heavy horsewhip which he had in his hand, and laid
+it three or four times, with great rapidity, over Mr. Radford's
+shoulders. The young man instantly dropped his own whip, drew his
+sword, and made a fierce lunge at the young officer's breast. The
+motion was so rapid, and the thrust so well aimed, that Digby had
+barely time to put it aside with his riding-whip, receiving a wound in
+his left shoulder as he did so. But the next moment his sword was also
+out of the sheath, and, after three sharp passes, young Radford's
+blade was flying over the neighbouring hedge, and a blow in the face
+from the hilt of Sir Edward Digby's weapon brought him with his knee
+to the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The whole of this scene passed as quick as lightning; and I have not
+thought fit to interrupt the narration for the purpose of recording,
+in order, the four, several, piercing shrieks with which Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland accompanied each act of the drama. The first, however, was
+loud enough to call Zara from the garden, even before she had found
+her sister; and she came up to her aunt's side just at the moment that
+young Radford was disarmed, and then struck in the face by his
+opponent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Slightly heated, Sir Edward gazed at him with his weapon in his hand;
+and the young lady, clasping her hands, exclaimed aloud, &quot;Hold, Sir
+Edward! Sir Edward! for Heaven's sake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby turned round with a faint smile, thrust his sword
+back into the sheath, and, without bestowing another word on his
+adversary, walked slowly back to the door of the house, and apologized
+to Mrs. Barbara for what had occurred, saying, &quot;I beg you ten thousand
+pardons, my dear madam, for treating you to such a sight as this; but
+I can assure you it is not my seeking. That person, who failed to keep
+an appointment with me yesterday, thought fit twice just now to call
+me coward; and as he would not walk to a little distance, I had no
+resource but to horsewhip him where I stood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pity you didn't ran him through the liver!&quot; observed Mr. Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While these few words were passing, young Radford rose slowly, paused
+for an instant to gaze upon the ground, and then, gnawing his lip,
+approached his horse's side. There is, perhaps, no passion of the
+human heart more dire, more terrible than impotent revenge, or more
+uncontrollable in its effect upon the human countenance. The face of
+Richard Radford, handsome as it was in many respects, was at the
+moment when he put his foot into the stirrup and swung himself up to
+the saddle, perfectly frightful, from the fiend-like expression of
+rage and disappointment that it bore. He felt that he was
+powerless--for a time, at least; that he had met an adversary greatly
+superior to himself, both in skill and strength; and that he had
+suffered not only defeat but disgrace, before the eyes of a number of
+persons whom his own headstrong fury had made spectators of a scene so
+painful to himself. Reining his horse angrily back to clear him of the
+carriage, he shook his fist at Sir Edward Digby, exclaiming, &quot;Sooner
+or later, I will have revenge!&quot; Then, striking the beast's flank with
+his spurs, he turned and galloped away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Digby had, as we have seen, addressed his apologies to Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland; but after hearing, with a calm smile, his vanquished
+opponent's empty threat, he looked round to the fair companion of his
+morning's ride, and saw her standing beside her uncle, with her cheek
+very pale and her eyes cast down to the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not be alarmed. Miss Croyland,&quot; he said, bending down his head,
+and speaking in a low and gentle tone. &quot;This affair can have no other
+results. It is all over now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara raised her eyes to his face, but, as she did so, turned more pale
+than before; and pointing to his arm--where the cloth of his coat was
+cut through, and the blood flowing down over his sleeve and dropping
+from the ruffle round his wrist--she exclaimed, &quot;You are hurt, Sir
+Edward! Good Heaven! he has wounded you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A scratch--a scratch,&quot; said Digby; &quot;a mere nothing. A
+pocket-handkerchief tied round it, will soon remedy all the mischief
+he has done, though not all he intended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! come in--come in, and have it examined!&quot; cried Zara, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The rest of the party gathered round, joined, just at that moment, by
+Edith from the garden; and Mr. Croyland, tearing the coat wider open,
+looked at the wound with more experienced eyes, saying, &quot;Ah, a flesh
+wound! but in rather an awkward place. Not as wide as a church door,
+nor as deep as a draw-well, as our friend has it; but if it had been
+an inch and a half to the right, it would have divided the subclavian
+artery--and then, my dear sir, 'it would have done.' This will get
+well soon. But come, Sir Neddy, let us into the house; and I will do
+for you what I haven't done for ten or twelve years--<i>id est</i>, dress
+your wound myself: and mind, you must not drink any wine to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The whole party began to move into the house, Sir Edward Digby keeping
+as near the two Miss Croylands as possible, and laying out a little
+plan in his head for begging the assistance of Mrs. Barbara while his
+wound was dressed, and sending the two young ladies out of the room to
+hold their conference together. He was, however, destined to be
+frustrated here also. To Zara Croyland, it had been a day of unusual
+excitement; she had enjoyed, she had been moved, she had been agitated
+and terrified, and she was still under much greater alarm than perhaps
+was needful, both regarding Sir Edward Digby's wound and the threat
+which young Radford had uttered. She felt her head giddy and her heart
+flutter as if oppressed; but she walked on steadily enough for four or
+five steps, while her aunt, Mrs. Barbara, was explaining to Edith, in
+her own particular way, all that had occurred. But just when the old
+lady was saying--&quot;Then, whipping out his sword in an instant, he
+thrust at Sir Edward's breast, and I thought to a certainty he was run
+through--&quot; Zara sunk slowly down, caught by her sister as she fell,
+and the hue of death spread over her face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fainted!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland. &quot;I wish to Heaven, Bab, you would hold
+your tongue! I will tell Edith about it afterwards. What's the use of
+bringing it all up again before the girl's mind, when the thing's done
+and over? There, let her lie where she is; the recumbent position is
+the right thing. Bring a cushion out of the drawing-room, Edith, my
+love, and ask Baba for the hartshorn drops. We'll soon get her better;
+and then the best thing you can do, Bab, is to put her into the
+carriage, take her home again, and hold your tongue to my brother
+about this foolish affair--if anything can hold a woman's tongue. I'll
+plaster up the man's arm, and then, like many another piece of damaged
+goods, he'll be all right--on the outside at least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara Croyland followed devoutly one part of her brother's
+injunctions. As soon as Zara was sufficiently recovered, she hurried
+her to the carriage, without leaving her alone with Edith for one
+moment; and Sir Edward Digby, having had his wound skilfully dressed
+by Mr. Zachary Croyland's own hands, thanked the old gentleman
+heartily for his care and kindness, mounted his horse, and rode back
+to Harbourne House.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_02" href="#div2Ref_02">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">We must now return to the town of Hythe, and to the little room in the
+little inn, which that famous borough boasted as its principal
+hostelry, at the period of our tale. It was about eleven o'clock at
+night, perhaps a few minutes earlier; and in that room was seated a
+gentleman, whom we have left for a long time, though not without
+interest in himself and his concerns. But, as in this wayfaring world
+we are often destined for weeks, months--ay, and long years--to quit
+those whom we love best, and to work for their good in distant scenes,
+with many a thought given to them, but few means of communication; so,
+in every picture of human life which comprises more than one
+character, must we frequently leave those in whom we are most
+interested, while we are tracing out the various remote cords and
+pulleys of fate, by which the fabric of their destiny is ultimately
+reared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentleman, then, who had been introduced to Mr. Croyland as
+Captain Osborne, was seated at a table, writing. A number of papers,
+consisting of letters, accounts, and several printed forms, unfilled
+up, were strewed upon the table around, which was moreover encumbered
+by a heavy sword and belt, a large pair of thick buckskin gloves, and
+a brace of heavy silver-mounted pistols. He looked pale and somewhat
+anxious; but nevertheless he went on, with his fine head bent, and
+the light falling from above upon his beautifully cut classical
+features--sometimes putting down a name, and adding a sum in figures
+opposite--sometimes, when he came to the bottom of the page, running
+up the column with rapidity and ease, and then inscribing the sum
+total at the bottom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was perhaps, rather an unromantic occupation that the young officer
+was employed in; for it was evident that he was making up, with steady
+perseverance, some rather lengthy accounts; and all his thoughts
+seemed occupied with pounds, shillings, and pence. It was not so,
+indeed, though he wished it to be so; but, if the truth must be
+spoken, his mind often wandered afar; and his brain seemed to have got
+into that state of excitement, which caused sounds and circumstances
+that would at any other time have passed without notice, to trouble
+him and disturb his ideas on the present occasion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There had been a card and punch club in one of the neighbouring rooms.
+The gentlemen had assembled at half-past six or seven, had hung up
+their wigs upon pegs provided for the purpose, and had made a great
+deal of noise in coming in and arranging themselves. There was then
+the brewing of the punch, the lighting of the pipes, and the laughing
+and jesting to which those important events generally give rise, at
+the meeting of persons of some importance in a country town; and then
+the cards were produced, and a great deal of laughing and talking, as
+usual, succeeded, in regard to the preliminaries, and also respecting
+the course of the game.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There had been no slight noise, also, in the lower regions of the inn,
+much speaking, and apparently some merriment; and, from all these
+things put together--to say nothing of, every now and then, the
+pleasures of a comic song, given by one of the parties above or
+below--the young officer had been considerably disturbed, and had been
+angry with himself for being so. His thoughts, too, would wander,
+whether he liked it or not.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Digby must have seen her,&quot; he said to himself, &quot;unless she be absent;
+and surely he must have found some opportunity of speaking with
+herself or her sister by this time. I wonder I have not heard from
+him. He promised to write as soon as he had any information; and he is
+not a man to forget. Well, it is of no use to think of it;&quot; and he
+went on--&quot;five and six are eleven, and four are fifteen, and six are
+twenty-one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this interesting point of his calculation, a dragoon, who was
+stationed at the door, put his head into the room, and said, &quot;Mr.
+Mowle, sir, wants to speak to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let him come in,&quot; answered the officer; and, laying down his pen, he
+looked up with a smile. &quot;Well, Mr. Mowle!&quot; he continued, &quot;what news do
+you bring? Have you been successful?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No very good news, and but very little success, sir,&quot; answered the
+officer of customs, taking a seat to which the other pointed. &quot;We have
+captured some of their goods, and taken six of the men, but the
+greater part of the cargo, and the greatest villain of them all, have
+been got off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, how happened that?&quot; asked the gentleman to whom he spoke. &quot;I gave
+you all the men you required; and I should certainly have thought you
+were strong enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes, sir, that was not what we lacked,&quot; answered Mowle, in a
+somewhat bitter tone; &quot;but I'll tell you what we did want--honest
+magistrates, and good information. Knowing the way they were likely to
+take, I cut straight across the country by Aldington, Kingsnorth, and
+Singleton-green, towards Four Elms----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It would have been better, I should think, to go on by Westhawk,&quot;
+said the young officer; &quot;for though the road is rather hilly, you
+would by that means have cut them off, both from Singleton, Chart
+Magna, and Gouldwell, towards which places, I think you said, they
+were tending.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, sir,&quot; replied the officer of Customs, &quot;but we found, on the
+road, that we were rather late in the day, and that our only chance
+was by hard riding. We came up with four of them, however, who had
+lagged behind, about Four Elms. Two of these we got, and all their
+goods; and, from the information they gave, we galloped on as hard as
+we could to Rousend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you take the road, or across the country?&quot; demanded the young
+officer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Birchett would take the road,&quot; answered Mowle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He was wrong--he was quite wrong,&quot; replied the other. &quot;If you had
+passed by Newstreet, then straight over the fields and meadows, up to
+the mill, you would have had them in a trap. They could not have
+reached Chart, or New Purchase, or Gouldwell, or Etchden, without your
+catching them; and if they had fallen back, they must have come upon
+the men I stationed at Bethersden, with whom was Adams, the officer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you seem to know the country, sir,&quot; said his companion, with
+some surprise, &quot;as if you had lived in it all your days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do know it very well,&quot; answered the officer of dragoons; &quot;and you
+must be well aware that what I say is right. It was the shortest way,
+too, and presents no impediments but a couple of fences, and a ditch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All very true, sir,&quot; answered Mowle, &quot;and so I told Birchett; but
+Adams had gone off for another officer, and is very little use to us
+himself.--There's no trusting him, sir.--However, we came up with them
+at Rousend, but there, after a little bit of a tussle, they
+separated;&quot; and he went on to give his account of the affray with the
+smugglers, nearly in the same words which he had employed when
+speaking to the magistrates, some six or seven hours before. His
+hearer listened with grave attention; but when Mowle came to mention
+the appearance of Richard Radford, and his capture, the young
+officer's eyes flashed, and his brow knit; and as the man went on to
+describe the self-evident juggle which had been played, to enable the
+youth to evade the reach of justice, he rose from the table, and
+walked once or twice hastily up and down the room. Then, seating
+himself again, to all appearance as calm as before, he said, &quot;This is
+too bad, Mr. Mowle, and shall be reported.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, sir; but you have not heard the worst,&quot; answered Mowle. &quot;These
+worthy justices thought fit to send the five men whom they had
+committed, off to gaol in a wagon, with three or four constables to
+guard them, and of course you know what took place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, they were all rescued, of course!&quot; replied the officer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Before they got to Headcorn,&quot; said Mowle. &quot;But the whole affair was
+arranged by Mr. Radford; for these fellows say themselves, that it is
+better to work for him at half price, than for any one else, because
+he always stands by his own, and will see no harm come to them. If
+this is to go on, sir, you and I may as well leave the county.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It shall not go on,&quot; answered the officer; &quot;but we must have a little
+patience, my good friend. Long impunity makes a man rash. This worthy
+Mr. Radford seems to have become so already; otherwise, he would never
+have risked carrying so large a venture across the country in open
+day----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't think that, in this, he was rash at all, sir,&quot; answered
+Mowle, lowering his tone, and speaking in a whisper; &quot;and if you will
+listen for a moment, I'll tell you why. My belief is, that the whole
+of this matter is but a lure to take us off the right scent; and I
+have several reasons for thinking so. In the first place, the run was
+but a trifling affair, as far as I can learn--not worth five hundred
+pounds. I know that what we have got is not worth a hundred; and it
+has cost me as good a horse as I ever rode in my life. Now from all I
+hear, the cargo that Mr. Radford expects is the most valuable that
+ever was run from Dungeness Point to the North Foreland. So, if my
+information is correct, and I am sure it----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who did you get it from?&quot; demanded the officer, &quot;if the question is a
+fair one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Some such questions might not be,&quot; answered Mowle, &quot;but I don't mind
+answering this, Colonel. I got it from Mr. Radford himself.--Ay, sir,
+you may well look surprised; but I heard him, with my own ears, say
+that it was worth at least seventy thousand pounds. So you see my
+information is pretty good. Now, knowing this, as soon as I found out
+what value was in this lot, I said to myself, this is some little spec
+of young Radford's own. But when I came to consider the matter, I
+found, that must be a mistake too; for the old man helped the Ramleys
+out of their scrape so impudently, and took such pains to let it be
+well understood that he had an interest in the affair, that I felt
+sure there was some motive at the bottom, sir. In all these things, he
+has shown himself from a boy, as cautious as he is daring, and that's
+the way he has made such a power of money. He's not a man to appear
+too much in a thing, even for his son's sake, if he has not some
+purpose to answer; and, depend upon it, I'm right, when I say that
+this run was nothing but a trap, or a blind as they call it, to make
+us think--in case we've got any information of the great venture--that
+the thing is all over. Why did they choose the day, when they might
+have done it all at night? Why did Mr. Radford go on laughing with the
+magistrates, as if it was a good joke? No, no, sir, the case is clear
+enough: they are going to strike their great stroke sooner than we
+supposed; and this is but a trifle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But may you not have made some mistake in regard to Mr. Radford's
+words?&quot; demanded the young officer. &quot;I should think it little likely
+that so prudent a man, as you represent him to be, would run so great
+a risk for such a purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I made no mistake,&quot; answered Mowle; &quot;I heard the words clear enough;
+and, besides, I've another proof. The man who is to run the goods for
+him, had nothing to do with this affair. I've got sharp eyes upon him;
+and though he was away from home the other night, he was not at sea.
+That I've discovered. He was up in the county, not far from Mr.
+Radford's own place, and most likely saw him, though that I can't find
+out. However, sir, I shall hear more very soon. Whenever it is to be
+done, we shall have sharp work of it, and must have plenty of men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My orders are to assist you to the best of my power,&quot; said the young
+officer, &quot;and to give you what men you may require; but as I have been
+obliged to quarter them in different places, you had better give me as
+speedy information of what force you are likely to demand, and on what
+point you wish them to assemble, as you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Those are puzzling questions, Colonel,&quot; replied Mowle. &quot;I do not
+think the attempt will be made to-night; for their own people must be
+all knocked up, and they cannot bring down enough to carry as well as
+run--at least, I think not. But it will probably be made to-morrow, if
+they fancy they have lulled us; and that fancy I shall take care to
+indulge, by keeping a sharp look out, without seeming to look out at
+all. As to the point, that is what I cannot tell. Harding will start
+from the beach here; but where he will land is another affair; and the
+troops are as likely to be wanted twenty miles down the coast, or
+twenty miles up, as anywhere else. I wish you would give me a general
+order for the dragoons to assist me wherever I may want them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is given already, Mr. Mowle,&quot; answered the officer; &quot;such are
+the commands we have received; and even the non-commissioned officers
+are instructed, on the very first requisition made by a chief officer
+of Customs, to turn out and aid in the execution of the law. Wherever
+any of the regiment are quartered, you will find them ready to
+assist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but they are so scattered, sir,&quot; rejoined Mowle, &quot;that it may be
+difficult to get them together in a hurry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not in the least,&quot; replied Osborne; &quot;they are so disposed that I can,
+at a very short notice, collect a sufficient force, at any point, to
+deal with the largest body of smugglers that ever assembled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may, perhaps, sir, but I cannot,&quot; answered the Custom-House
+officer; &quot;and what I wish is, that you would give them a general order
+to march to any place where I require them, and to act as I shall
+direct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, Mr. Mowle,&quot; said the other, shaking his head, &quot;that, I am
+afraid, cannot be. I have no instructions to such effect; and though
+the military power is sent here, to assist the civil, it is not put
+under the command of the civil. I do not conceal from you that I do
+not like the service; but that shall only be a motive with me for
+executing my duty the more vigorously; and you have but to give me
+intimation of where you wish a force collected, and it shall be done
+in the shortest possible time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mowle did not seem quite satisfied with this answer; and after
+musing for a few minutes, he replied, &quot;But suppose I do not know
+myself--suppose it should be fifteen or twenty miles from Hythe, and I
+myself, on the spot, how am I to get the requisition sent to you--and
+how are you to move your men to the place where I may want
+them--perhaps, farther still?&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As to my moving my men, you must leave that to me,&quot; answered the
+young officer; &quot;and as to your obtaining the information, and
+communicating it, I might reply, that <i>you</i> must look to that; but as
+I sincerely believe you to be a most vigilant and active person, who
+will leave no means unemployed to obtain intelligence, I will only
+point out, in the first place, that our best efforts sometimes fail,
+but that we may always rest at ease, when we have used our best; and,
+in the second, I will suggest to you one or two means of ensuring
+success. Wherever you may happen to find that the landing of these
+goods is intended, or wherever you may be when it is effected, you
+will find within a circle of three miles, several parties of dragoons,
+who, on the first call, will render you every aid. With them, upon the
+system I have laid down for them, you will be able to keep your
+adversaries in check, delay their operations, and follow them up. Your
+first step, however, should be, to send off a trooper to me with all
+speed, charging him, if verbally, with as short and plain a message as
+possible--first, stating the point where the 'run,' as you call it,
+has been effected; and secondly, in what direction, to the best of
+your judgment, the enemy--that is to say, the smugglers--are marching.
+If you do that, and are right in your conjecture, they shall not go
+far without being attacked. If you are wrong, as any man may be, in
+regard to their line of retreat, they shall not be long unpursued. But
+as to putting the military under the command of the Customs, as I said
+before, I have no orders to that effect, and do not think that any
+such will ever be issued. In the next place, in order to obtain the
+most speedy information yourself, and to ensure that I shall be
+prepared, I would suggest that you direct each officer on the coast,
+if a landing should be effected in his district, first, to call for
+the aid of the nearest military party, and then to light a beacon on
+the next high ground. As soon as the first beacon is lighted, let the
+next officer on the side of Hythe, light one also, and, at the same
+time, with any force he can collect, proceed towards the first. Easy
+means may be found to transmit intelligence of the route of the
+smugglers to the bodies coming up; and, in a case like the present, I
+shall not scruple to take the command myself, at any point where I may
+be assured formidable resistance is likely to be offered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, sir, I think the plan of the beacons is a good one,&quot; answered
+Mowle, &quot;and it would be still better, if there were any of the coast
+officers on whom we could depend; but a more rascally set of mercenary
+knaves does not exist. Not one of them who would not sell the whole of
+the King's revenue for a twenty pound or so; and, however clear are
+the orders they receive, they find means to mistake them. But I will
+go and write the whole down, and have it copied out for each station,
+so that if they do not choose to understand, it must be their own
+fault. I am afraid, however, that all this preparation will put our
+friends upon their guard, and that they will delay their run till they
+can draw us off somewhere else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is some reason for that apprehension,&quot; replied the young
+officer, thoughtfully. &quot;You imagine, then, that it is likely to take
+place to-morrow night, if we keep quiet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have little doubt of it,&quot; replied Mowle; &quot;or if not, the night
+after.--But I think it will be to-morrow. Yes, they won't lose the
+opportunity, if they fancy we are slack; and then the superintendent
+chose to fall sick to-day, so that the whole rests with me, which will
+give me enough to do, as they are well aware.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; replied the gentleman to whom he spoke, &quot;leave the
+business of the beacons to me. I will give orders that they be lighted
+at every post, as soon as application is made for assistance. You will
+know what it means when you see one; and, in the meantime, keep quite
+quiet--affect a certain degree of indifference, but not too much, and
+speak of having partly spoiled Mr. Radford's venture.--Do you think he
+will be present himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, not he--not he!&quot; answered Mowle. &quot;He is too cunning for that, by
+a hundred miles. In any little affair like this of to-day, he might
+not, perhaps, be afraid of showing himself--to answer a purpose; but
+in a more serious piece of business, where his brother justices could
+not contrive to shelter him, and where government would certainly
+interfere, he will keep as quiet and still as if he had nought to do
+with it. But I will have him, nevertheless, before long; and then all
+his ill-gotten wealth shall go, even if we do not contrive to
+transport him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How will you manage that?&quot; asked the young officer; &quot;if he abstains
+from taking any active part, you will have no proof, unless, indeed,
+one of those he employs should give evidence against him, or inform
+beforehand for the sake of the reward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They wont do that,&quot; said Mowle, thoughtfully, &quot;they wont do
+that.--I do not know how it is, sir,&quot; he continued, after a moment's
+pause, &quot;but the difference between the establishment of the Customs
+and the smugglers is a very strange one; and I'll tell you what it is:
+there is not one of these fellows who run goods upon the coast, or
+carry them inland, who will, for any sum that can be offered, inform
+against their employers or their comrades; and there's scarce a
+Custom-House officer in all Kent, that, for five shillings, would not
+betray his brother or sell his country. The riding officers are
+somewhat better than the rest; but these fellows at the ports think no
+more of taking a bribe to shut their eyes than of drinking a glass of
+rum. Now you may attempt to bribe a smuggler for ever--not that I ever
+tried; for I don't like to ask men to sell their own souls; but
+Birchett has, often. I cannot well make out the cause of this
+difference; but certainly there is such a spirit amongst the smugglers
+that they wont do a dishonest thing, except in their own way, for any
+sum. There are the Ramleys, even--the greatest blackguards in Europe,
+smugglers, thieves, and cut-throats--but they wont betray each other.
+There is no crime they wont commit but that; and that they would
+sooner die than do; while we have a great many men amongst us, come of
+respectable parents, well brought up, well educated, who take money
+every day to cheat their employers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I rather suspect that it is the difference of consequences in the two
+cases,&quot; answered Osborne, &quot;which makes men view the same act in a
+different way. A Custom-House officer who betrays his trust, thinks
+that he only brings a little loss upon a government which can well
+spare it--he is not a bit the less a rogue for that, for honesty makes
+no such distinctions--but the smuggler who betrays his comrade or
+employer, must be well aware that he is not only ruining him in purse,
+but bringing on him corporeal punishment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, sir, but there's a spirit in the thing,&quot; said Mowle, shaking his
+head; &quot;the very country people in general love the smugglers, and help
+them whenever they can. There's not a cottage that will not hide them
+or their goods; scarce a gentleman in the county who, if he finds all
+the horses out of his stable in the morning, does not take it quietly,
+without asking any more questions; scarce a magistrate who does not
+give the fellows notice as soon as he knows the officers are after
+them. The country folks, indeed, do not like them so well as they did;
+but they'll soon make it up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A strange state, certainly,&quot; said the officer of dragoons; &quot;but what
+has become of the horses you mention, when they are thus found
+absent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gone to carry goods, to be sure,&quot; answered Mowle. &quot;But one thing is
+very clear, all the country is in the smugglers' favour, and I cannot
+help thinking that the people do not like the Custom's dues, that they
+don't see the good of them, and are resolved to put them down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ignorant people, and, indeed, all people, do not like taxation of any
+kind,&quot; replied Osborne; &quot;and every class objects to that tax which
+presses on itself, without the slightest regard either for the
+necessity of distributing the burdens of the country equally, or any
+of the apparently minute but really important considerations upon
+which the apportionment has been formed. However, Mr. Mowle, we have
+only to do our duty according to our position--you to gain all the
+information that you can--I to aid you, to the best of my ability, in
+carrying the law into effect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From the smugglers themselves, little is the information I can get,
+sir,&quot; answered Mowle, returning to the subject from which their
+conversation had deviated, &quot;and often I am obliged to have recourse to
+means I am ashamed of. The principal intelligence I receive is from a
+boy who offered himself one day--the little devil's imp--and
+certainly, by his cunning, and by not much caring myself what risks I
+run, I have got some very valuable tidings. But the little vagabond
+would betray me, or anyone else, to-morrow. He is the grandson of an
+old hag who lives at a little but just by Saltwood, who puts him up to
+it all; and if ever there was an old demon in the world she is one.
+She is always brewing mischief, and chuckling over it all the time, as
+if it were her sport to see men tear each other to pieces, and to make
+innocent girls as bad as she was herself, and as her own daughter was,
+too,--the mother of this boy. The girl was killed by a chance shot,
+one day, in a riot between the smugglers and the Customs people; and
+the old woman always says it was a smuggler's shot. Oh! I could tell
+you such stories of that old witch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stories of Mr. Mowle, however, were cut short by the entrance of a
+servant carrying a letter, which the young officer took and opened
+with a look of eager anxiety. The contents were brief; but they seemed
+important, for various were the changes which came over his fine
+countenance while he read them. The predominant expression, however,
+was joy, though there was a look of thoughtful consideration--perhaps
+in a degree of embarrassment, too, on his face; and as he laid the
+letter down on the table, and beat the paper with his fingers, gazing
+up into vacancy, Mowle, judging that his presence was not desired,
+rose to retire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay a moment. Mr. Mowle--stay a moment,&quot; said Osborne. &quot;This letter
+requires some consideration. It contains a call to a part of Kent some
+fifteen or sixteen miles distant; but as it is upon private business,
+I must not let that interfere with my public duty. You say that this
+enterprise of Mr. Radford's is likely to be put in execution to-morrow
+night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot be sure, colonel,&quot; answered the officer: &quot;but I think there
+is every chance of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I must return before nightfall to-morrow,&quot; replied the
+gentleman, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your presence will be very necessary, sir,&quot; said the Custom-House
+officer. &quot;There is not one of your officers who seems up to the
+business, except Major Digby and yourself. All the rest are such fine
+gentlemen that one can't get on with them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me consider for a moment,&quot; rejoined the other; but Mowle went on
+in the same strain, saying, &quot;Then, sir, if you were to be absent all
+to-morrow, I might get very important information, and not be able to
+give it to you, nor arrange anything with you either.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Osborne still meditated with a grave brow for some time. &quot;I will
+write,&quot; he said, at length. &quot;It will be better--it will be only just
+and honourable. I will write instead of going to-morrow, Mr. Mowle;
+and if this affair should not take place to-morrow night, as you
+suppose, I will make such arrangements for the following day--on which
+I must go over to Woodchurch--as will enable you to communicate with
+me without delay, should you have any message to send. At all events,
+I will return to Hythe before night. Now good evening;&quot; and while
+Mowle made his bow and retired, the young officer turned to the letter
+again, and read it over with glistening eyes.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_03" href="#div2Ref_03">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">I wonder if the reader ever wandered from Saltwood Castle back to the
+good old town of Hythe, on a fine summer's day, with a fair companion,
+as full of thought and mind as grace and beauty, and with a dear child
+just at the age when all the world is fresh and lovely--and then
+missed his way, and strayed--far from the track--towards Sandgate,
+till dinner was kept waiting at the inn, and the party who would not
+plod on foot, were all tired and wondering at their friend's delay!--I
+wonder if the reader ever did all this. I have--and a very pleasant
+thing it is to do. Yes, all of it, reader. For, surely, to go from
+waving wood to green field, and from green field to hill-side and wood
+again, and to trace along the brook which we know must lead to the
+sea-shore, with one companion of high soul, who can answer thought for
+thought, and another in life's early morning, who can bring back
+before your eyes the picture of young enjoyment--ay, and to know that
+those you love most dearly and esteem most highly, are looking for
+your coming, with a little anxiety, not even approaching the bounds of
+apprehension, is all very pleasant indeed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">You, dear and excellent lady, who were one of my companions on the
+way, may perhaps recollect a little cottage--near the spot where we
+sprung a solitary partridge--whither I went to inquire the shortest
+road to Hythe. That cottage was standing there at the period of which
+I now write; and at the bottom of that hill, amongst the wood, and
+close by the little stream nearly where the foot-bridge now carries
+the traveller over dryshod, was another hut, half concealed by the
+trees, and covered over with well nigh as much moss and houseleek as
+actual thatch.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It has been long swept away, as well as its tenants; and certainly a
+wretched and ill-constructed place it was. Would to Heaven that all
+such were gone from our rich and productive land, and that every
+labourer, in a country which owes so much to the industry of her
+children, had a dwelling better fitted to a human being! But, alas,
+many such still exist! and it is not always, as it was in this case,
+that vice is the companion of misery. This is no book of idle twaddle,
+to represent all the wealthy as cold, hard, and vicious, and the poor
+all good, forbearing, and laborious; for evil is pretty equally
+distributed through all classes--though, God knows, the rich, with all
+their opportunities, ought to shew a smaller proportion of wickedness,
+and the poor might perhaps be expected, from their temptations, to be
+worse than they are! Still it is hard to think that many as honest a
+man as ever lived--ay, and as industrious a man, too--returns, after
+his hard day's toil, to find his wife and children, well nigh in
+starvation, in such a place as I am about to describe--and none to
+help them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The hut--for it did not deserve the name of cottage--was but of one
+floor, which was formed of beaten clay, but a little elevated above
+the surrounding soil. It contained two rooms. The one opened into what
+had been a garden before it, running down nearly to the brookside; and
+the other communicated with the first, but had a door which gave exit
+into the wood behind. Windows the hut had two, one on either side; but
+neither contained more than two complete panes of glass. The spaces,
+where glass had once been, were now filled up in a strange variety of
+ways. Here was a piece of board nailed in; there a coarse piece of
+cloth kept out the wind; another broken pane was filled up with paper;
+and another, where some fragments of the original substance remained,
+was stopped with an old stocking stuffed with straw. In the garden, as
+it was still called, appeared a few cabbages and onions, with more
+cabbage-stalks than either, and a small patch of miserable potatoes.
+But weeds were the most plentiful of all, and chickweed and groundsel
+enough appeared there to have supplied a whole forest of singing
+birds. It had been once fenced in, that miserable garden; but the wood
+had been pulled down and burned for firing by its present tenants, or
+others as wretched in circumstances as themselves; and nought remained
+but a strong post here and there, with sometimes a many-coloured rag
+of coarse cotton fluttering upon some long, rusty nail, which had
+snatched a shred from passing poverty. Three or four stunted
+gooseberry bushes, however, marked out the limit on one side; a path
+ran in front between the garden and the brook; and on the other side
+there was a constant petty warfare between the farmer and the
+inhabitant of the hovel as to the possession of the border-land; and
+like a great and small state contending, the more powerful always
+gained some advantage in despite of right, but lost perhaps as much by
+the spiteful incursions of the foe, as if he had yielded the contested
+territory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the night of which I speak--the same on which Mowle visited the
+commanding officer of the dragoons at Hythe--the cottage itself, the
+garden, and all the squalid-looking things about the place, were
+hidden in the deep darkness which had again fallen over the earth as
+soon as night had fallen. The morning, it may be remembered--it
+was the same on which Sir Edward Digby had been fired at by the
+smugglers--had been somewhat cold and foggy; but about eleven, the day
+had brightened, and the evening had been sultry. No sooner, however,
+did the sun reach the horizon than mists began to rise, and before
+seven o'clock the whole sky was under cloud and the air filled with
+fog. He must have been well acquainted with every step of the country
+who could find his way from town to town. Nevertheless, any one who
+approached Galley Ray's cottage, as it was called, would, at the
+distance of at least a hundred yards, have perceived something to lead
+him on; for a light, red as that of a baleful meteor, was streaming
+through the two glazed squares of the window into the misty air,
+making them look like the eyes of some wild animal in a dark forest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">We must pause here, however, for a moment, to explain to the reader
+who Galley Ray was, and how she acquired the first of her two
+appellations, which certainly was not that which she had received at
+her baptism. Galley Ray, then, was the old woman of whom Mr. Mowle had
+given that favourable account, which may be seen in the last chapter;
+and, to say the truth, he had but done her justice. Her name was
+originally Gillian Ray; but, amongst a number of corrupt associates,
+with whom her early life was spent, the first of the two appellations
+was speedily transformed to Gilly or Gill. Some time afterwards--when
+youth began to wane, and whatever youthful graces she possessed were
+deviating into the virago qualities of the middle age--while watching
+one night the approach of a party of smugglers, with whom she had some
+intimacy, she perceived three or four Custom-House officers coming
+down to launch a galley, which they had upon the beach, for the
+purpose of cutting off the free-traders. But Gilly Ray instantly
+sprang in, and with the boat-hook set them all at defiance, till they
+threatened to launch her into the sea, boat and all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It is true, she was reported to have been drunk at the time; but her
+daring saved the smugglers, and conveyed her for two months to jail,
+whence, as may be supposed, she returned not much improved in her
+morals. One of those whom she had befriended in the time of need,
+bestowed on her the name of Galley, by an easy transition from her
+original prænomen; and it remained by her to the last day of her life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reader has doubtless remarked, that amongst the lawless and the
+rash, there is a certain fondness for figures of speech, and that
+tropes and metaphors, simile and synecdoche, are far more prevalent
+amongst them than amongst the more orderly classes of society. Whether
+it is or not, that they wish to get rid of a precise apprehension of
+their own acts, I cannot say; but certain it is, that they do indulge
+in such flowers of rhetoric, and sometimes, in the midst of humour,
+quaintness, and even absurdity, reach the point of wit, and at times
+soar into the sublime. Galley Ray had, as we have seen, one daughter,
+whose fate has been related; and that daughter left one son, who,
+after his reputed father, one Mark Nightingale, was baptized
+Nightingale Ray. His mother, and after her death his grandmother, used
+to call him Little Nighty and Little Night; but following their
+fanciful habits, the smugglers who used to frequent the house found
+out an association between &quot;Night Ray&quot; and the beams of the bright and
+mystical orbs that shine upon us from afar; and some one gave him the
+name of Little Starlight, which remained with him, as that of Galley
+had adhered to his grandmother. The cottage or hut of the latter,
+then, beamed with an unwonted blaze upon the night I have spoken of,
+till long after the hour when Mowle had left the inn where his
+conference with the young officer had taken place. But let not the
+reader suppose that this illumination proceeded from any great expense
+of wax or oil. Only one small tallow candle, stuck into a long-necked,
+square-sided Dutch bottle, spread its rays through the interior of the
+hovel, and that was a luxury; but in the fireplace blazed an immense
+pile of mingled wood and driftcoal; and over it hung a large hissing
+pot, as huge and capacious as that of the witches in Macbeth, or of
+the no less famous Meg Merrilies. Galley Ray, however, was a very
+different person in appearance from the heroine of &quot;Guy Mannering;&quot;
+and we must endeavour to call up her image as she stood by the
+fire-side, watching the cauldron and a kettle which stood close to it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The red and fitful light flashed upon no tall, gaunt form, and lighted
+up no wild and commanding features. There was nothing at all poetical
+in her aspect: it was such as may be seen every day in the haunts of
+misery and vice. Originally of the middle height, though once strong
+and upright, she had somewhat sunk down under the hand of Time, and
+was now rather short than otherwise. About fifty she had grown fat and
+heavy; but fifteen years more had robbed her flesh of firmness and her
+skin of its plumped out smoothness; and though she had not yet reached
+the period when emaciation accompanies decrepitude, her muscles were
+loose and hanging, her face withered and sallow. Her hair, once as
+black as jet, was now quite grey, not silver--but with the white
+greatly predominating over the black. Yet, strange to say, her eyes
+were still clear and bright, though small, and somewhat red round the
+lids; and, stranger still, her front teeth were white as ivory,
+offering a strange contrast to the wrinkled and yellow skin. Her look
+was keen; but there was that sort of habitual jocularity about it,
+which in people of her caste is often partly assumed--as an ever ready
+excuse for evading a close question, or covering a dangerous
+suggestion by a jest--and partly natural, or at least springing from a
+fearful kind of philosophy, gained by the exhaustion of all sorts of
+criminal pleasures, which leaves behind, too surely, the impression
+that everything is but a mockery on earth. Those who have adopted that
+philosophy never give a thought beyond this world. Her figure was
+somewhat bowed, and over her shoulders she had the fragments of a
+coarse woollen shawl, from beneath which appeared, as she stirred the
+pot, her sharp yellow elbows and long arms. On her head she wore a
+cap, which had remained there, night and day, for months; and, thrust
+back from her forehead, which was low and heavy, appeared the
+dishevelled grey hair, while beneath the thick and beetling brows came
+the keen eyes, and a nose somewhat aquiline and depressed at the
+point.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Near her, on the opposite side of the hearth, was the boy whom the
+reader has already seen, and who has been called little Starlight;
+and, even at that late hour, for it was near midnight, he seemed as
+brisk and active as ever. Night and day, indeed, appeared to him the
+same; for he had none of the habits of childhood. The setting sun
+brought no drowsiness to his eyelids: mid-day often found him sleeping
+after a night of watchfulness and activity. The whole course of his
+existence and his thoughts had been tainted: there was nothing of
+youth either in his mind or his ways. The old beldam called him, and
+thought him, the shrewdest boy that ever lived; but, in truth, she had
+left him no longer a boy, in aught but size and looks. Often--indeed
+generally--he would assume the tone of his years, for he found it
+served his purpose best; but he only laughed at those who thought him
+a child, and prided himself on the cunning of the artifice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There might be, it is true, some lingering of the faults of youth, but
+that was all. He was greedy and voracious, loved sweet things as well
+as strong drink, and could not always curb the truant and erratic
+spirit of childhood; but still, even in his wanderings there was a
+purpose, and often a malevolence. He would go to see what one person
+was about; he would stay away because another wanted him. It may be
+asked, was this natural wickedness?--was his heart so formed
+originally? Oh no, reader; never believe such things. There are
+certainly infinite varieties of human character; and I admit that the
+mind of man is not the blank sheet of paper on which we can write what
+we please, as has been vainly represented. Or, if it be, the
+experience of every man must have shown him, that that paper is of
+every different kind and quality--some that will retain the finest
+line, some that will scarce receive the broadest trace. But still
+education has immense power for good or evil. By education I do not
+mean teaching. I mean that great and wonderful process by which,
+commencing at the earliest period of infancy--ay, at the mother's
+breast--the raw material of the mind is manufactured into all the
+varieties that we see. I mean the sum of every line with which the
+paper is written as it passes from hand to hand. That is education;
+and most careful should we be that, at an early period, nought should
+be written but good, for every word once impressed is well nigh
+indelible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now what education had that poor boy received? The people of the
+neighbouring village would have said a very good one; for there was
+what is called a charity school in the neighbourhood, where he had
+been taught to read and write, and cast accounts. But this was
+<i>teaching</i>, not <i>education</i>. Oh, fatal mistake! when will Englishmen
+learn to discriminate between the two? His education had been at
+home--in that miserable hut--by that wretched woman--by her companions
+in vice and crime! What had all the teaching he had received at the
+school done for him, but placed weapons in the hand of wickedness? Had
+education formed any part of the system of the school where he was
+instructed--had he been taught how best to use the gifts that were
+imparted--had he been inured to regulate the mind that was stored--had
+he been habituated to draw just conclusions from all he read, instead
+of merely being taught to read, that would have been in some degree
+education, and it might have corrected, to a certain point, the darker
+schooling he received at home. Well might the great philosopher, who
+in some things most grossly misused the knowledge he himself
+possessed, pronounce that &quot;Knowledge is power;&quot; but, alas, he forgot
+to add, that it is power <i>for good or evil!</i> That poor child had been
+taught that which to him might have been either a blessing or a bane;
+but all his real education had been for evil; and there he stood,
+corrupted to the heart's core.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I say, Mother Ray,&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;that smells cursed nice--can't you
+give us a drop before the coves come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no, you young devil,&quot; replied the old woman with a grin, &quot;one
+can't tell when they'll show their mugs at the door; and it wouldn't
+do for them to find you gobbling up their stuff. But bring me that big
+porringer, and we'll put by enough for you and me. I've nimmed one
+half of the yellow-boy they sent, so we'll have a quart of moonshine
+to-morrow to help it down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I could get it very well down without,&quot; answered little Starlight,
+bringing her a large earthen pot, with a cracked cover, into which she
+ladled out about half a gallon of the soup.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, take and put that far under the bed in t'other room,&quot; said the
+old woman, adding several expletives of so peculiar and unpleasant a
+character, that I must omit them; and, indeed, trusting to the
+reader's imagination, I shall beg leave to soften, as far as possible,
+the terms of both the boy and his grandmother for the future, merely
+premising, that when conversing alone together, hardly a sentence
+escaped their lips without an oath or a blasphemy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Little Starlight soon received the pot from the hands of his worthy
+ancestress, and conveyed it into the other room, where he stayed so
+long that she called him to come forth, in what, to ordinary ears,
+would have seemed the most abusive language, but which, on her lips,
+was merely the tone of endearment. He had waited, indeed, to cool the
+soup, in order to steal a portion of the stolen food; but finding that
+he should be detected if he remained longer, he ventured to put his
+finger in to taste it. The result was that he scalded his hand; but he
+was sufficiently Spartan to utter no cry or indication of pain; and he
+escaped all inquiry; for the moment after he had returned, the door
+burst violently open, and some ten or twelve men came pouring in,
+nearly filling the little room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Various were their garbs, and strangely different from each other were
+they in demeanour as well as dress. Some were clad in smock-frocks,
+and some in sailors' jackets; some looked like respectable tradesmen,
+some were clothed in a sort of fanciful costume of their own, smacking
+a little of the brigand; and one appeared in the ordinary riding-dress
+of a gentleman of that period; but all were well armed, without much
+concealment of the pistols, which they carried about them in addition
+to the sword that was not uncommonly borne by more than one class in
+England at that time. They were all young men except one or two; and
+three of the number bore evident marks of some recent affray. One had
+a broad strip of plaster all the way down his forehead, another had
+his upper lip terribly cut, and a third--the gentleman, as I am bound
+to call him, as he assumed the title of Major--had a patch over his
+eye, from beneath which appeared several rings of various colours,
+which showed that the aforesaid patch was not merely a means of
+disguise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were all quite familiar with Galley Ray and her grandson; some
+slapped her on the shoulder; some pulled her ear; some abused her
+horribly in jocular tones; and all called upon her eagerly to set
+their supper before them, vowing that they had come twenty miles since
+seven o'clock that night, and were as hungry as fox-hunters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To each and all Galley Ray had something to say in their own
+particular way. To some she was civil and coaxing, addressed them as
+&quot;gentlemen,&quot; and to others slang and abusive, though quite in good
+humour, calling them, &quot;you blackguards,&quot; and &quot;you varmint,&quot; with
+sundry other delectable epithets, which I shall forbear to transcribe.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To give value to her entertainment, she of course started every
+objection and difficulty in the world against receiving them, asking
+how, in the name of the fiend, they could expect her to take in so
+many? where she was to get porringers or plates for them all? and
+hoping heartily that such a troop weren't going to stay above half an
+hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Till to-morrow night, Galley, my chicken,&quot; replied the Major. &quot;Come,
+don't make a fuss. It must be so, and you shall be well paid. We shall
+stay in here to-night; and to-morrow we shall take to cover in the
+wood; but young Radford will come down some time in the day, and then
+you must send up little Starlight to us, to let me know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The matter of the supper was soon arranged to their contentment. Some
+had tea-cups, and some saucers; some had earthen pans, some wooden
+platters. Two were honoured with china plates; and the large pot being
+taken off the fire, and set on the ground in the midst of them, each
+helped himself, and went on with his meal. A grand brewing of smuggled
+spirits and water then commenced; and a number of horn cups were
+handed round, not enough, indeed, for all the guests; but each vessel
+was made to serve two or three; and the first silence of hunger being
+over, a wild, rambling, and desultory conversation ensued, to which
+both Galley Ray and her grandson lent an attentive ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Major said something to the man with the cut upon his brow, to
+which the other replied, by condemning his own soul, if he did not
+blow Harding's brains out--if it were true. &quot;But, I don't believe it,&quot;
+he continued. &quot;He's no friend of mine; but he's not such a blackguard
+as to peach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So I think; but Dick Radford says he is sure he did,&quot; answered the
+Major; &quot;Dick fancies that he's jealous of not having had yesterday's
+job too, and that's why he spoiled it. We know he was up about that
+part of the country on the pretence of his seeing his Dolly; but
+Radford says he went to inform, and that he'll wring his liver out, as
+soon as this job of his father's is over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A torrent of blasphemies poured forth by almost every person present
+followed, and they all called down the most horrid condemnation on
+their own heads, if they did not each lend a hand to punish the
+informer. In the midst of this storm of big words, Galley Ray put her
+mouth to the Major's ear, saying, &quot;I could tell young Radford how he
+could wring his heart out, and that's better than his liver. There's
+no use of trying to kill him, for he doesn't care two straws about
+that. Sharp steel and round lead are what he looks for every day. But
+I could show you how to plague him worse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you old brute,&quot; replied the Major, &quot;you're a friend of his!--But
+you may tell him, if you like. We have all sworn it, and we'll do it;
+only hold your tongue till after to-morrow night, or I'll cure your
+bacon for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'm no friend of his,&quot; cried Galley Ray. &quot;The infernal devil, wasn't
+it he that shot my girl, Meg? Ay, ay, I know he says he didn't, and
+that he didn't fire a pistol that day, but kept all to the cutlash;
+but he did, I'm sure, and a-purpose too; for didn't he turn to, that
+morning, and abuse her like the very dirt under his feet, because she
+came, a little in liquor, down to his boat-side?--Ay, I'll have my
+revenge--I've been looking for it long, but now it's a-coming--it's
+a-coming very fast; and afore I've done with him, I'll wring him out
+like a wet cloth, till he's not got one pleasure left in his whole
+carcase, nor one thing to look to, for as long as he may live!--Ay,
+ay, he thinks an old woman nothing; but he shall see--he shall see;&quot;
+and the beldam wagged her frightful head backwards and forwards with a
+look of well-contented malice that made it more horrible than ever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What an old devil!&quot; cried the Major, glancing round the table with a
+look of mock surprise; and then they all burst into a roar of laughter
+which shook the miserable hovel in which they sat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, granny, give us some more lush, and leave off preaching,&quot; cried
+Ned Ramley, the man with the cut upon his brow. &quot;You can tell it all
+to Dick Radford, to-morrow; for he's fond of cutting up people's
+hearts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But how is it--how is it?&quot; asked the Major. &quot;I should like to hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but you shan't hear all,&quot; answered Galley Ray. &quot;Let Dick do his
+part, and I'll do mine, so we'll both have our revenge; but I know one
+thing, if I were a gentleman, and wanted a twist at Jack Harding, I'd
+get his Kate away from him. She's a light-hearted lass, and would
+listen to a gentleman, I dare say; but, however, I'll have her away
+some way, and then kick her out into Folkestone streets, to get her
+bread like many a better woman than herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh, nonsense!&quot; said Ned Ramley--&quot;that's all stuff. Harding is going
+to marry her; and she knows better than to play the fool.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay,&quot; answered the old woman, with a look of spite, &quot;I shouldn't
+wonder if Harding spoiled this job for old Radford, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not he!&quot; cried Ramley, &quot;he would pinch himself there, old tiger; for
+his own pay depends upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, upon landing the stuff safely,&quot; answered the old woman, with a
+grin, &quot;but not upon getting it clear up into the Weald. He may have
+both, Neddy, my dear--he may have both pays; first for landing and
+then for peaching. Play booty for ever!--that's the way to make money;
+and who knows but you may get another crack of your own pretty skull,
+or have your brains sent flying out, like the inside of an egg against
+the pillory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By the fiend, he had better not,&quot; said Ned Ramley, &quot;for there will be
+some of us left, at all events, to pay him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, speak out, old woman,&quot; cried another of the men; &quot;have you or
+your imp there got any inkling that the Custom House blackguards have
+nosed the job. If we find they have, and you don't tell, I'll send you
+into as much thick loam as will cover you well, I can tell you;&quot; and
+he added a horrible oath to give force to his words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not they, as yet,&quot; answered the beldam, &quot;of that I am quite sure; for
+as soon as the guinea and the message came, I went down to buy the
+beef, and mutton, and the onions; and there I saw Mowle talking to
+Gurney the grocer, and heard him say that he had spoiled Mr. Radford's
+venture this morning, for one turn at least; and after that, I sent
+down little Nighty there, to watch him and his cronies; and they all
+seemed very jolly, he said, when he came back half an hour ago, and
+crowing like so many young cocks, as if they had done a mighty deal.
+Didn't they, my dear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, that they did, Granny,&quot; replied the boy, with a look of
+simplicity; &quot;and when I went to the tap of the Dragon to get
+twopennorth, I heard the landlord say that Mowle was up with the
+dragoon Colonel, telling him all about the fine morning's work they
+had made.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Devilish fine, indeed!&quot; cried Ned Ramley. &quot;Why they did not get one
+quarter of the things; and if we can save a third, that's enough to
+pay very well, I can tell them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no! they know nothing as yet,&quot; continued the old woman, with a
+sapient shake of the head; &quot;I can't say what they may hear before
+to-morrow night; but, if they do hear anything, I know where it will
+come from--that's all. People may be blind if they like; but I'm not,
+that's one thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no! you see sharp enough, Galley Ray,&quot; answered the Major. &quot;But
+hark, is not that the sound of a horse coming down?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All the men started up; and some one exclaimed, &quot;I shouldn't wonder if
+it were Mowle himself.--He's always spying about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If it is, I'll blow his brains out,&quot; said Ned Ramley, motioning to
+the rest to make their way into the room behind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, you had best, I think, Neddy,&quot; said Galley Ray, in a quiet,
+considerate tone, answering his rash threat as coolly as if she had
+been speaking of the catching of a trout. &quot;You'll have him here all
+snug, and may never get such another chance. 'Dead men tell no tales,'
+Neddy. But, get back--'tis a horse, sure enough! You can take your own
+time, if you go in there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man retreated; and bending down her lips to the boy's ear,
+the old witch inquired in a whisper, &quot;Is t'other door locked, and the
+window fast?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said the boy, in the same tone; &quot;and the key hid in the
+sacking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then if there are enough to take 'em,&quot; murmured Gaily Ray to
+herself--&quot;take 'em they shall!--If there's no one but Mowle, he must
+go--that's clear. Stretch out that bit o' sail, boy, to catch the
+blood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But before the boy could obey her whisper, the door of the hut was
+thrown open; and instead of Mowle there appeared the figure of Richard
+Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here, little Starlight!&quot; he cried, &quot;hold my horse--why, where are all
+the men? Have they not come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old woman arranged her face in an instant into the sweetest smile
+it was capable of assuming, and replied, instantly, &quot;Oh dear, yes:
+bless your beautiful face, Mr. Radford, but we didn't expect you
+to-night, and thought it was some of the Custom-House blackguards when
+we heard the horse. Here, Neddy!--Major!--It's only Mr. Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ere she had uttered the call, the men, hearing a well-known voice,
+were entering the room again; and young Radford shook hands with
+several of them familiarly, congratulating the late prisoners on their
+escape.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I found I couldn't come to-morrow morning,&quot; he said, &quot;and so I rode
+down to-night. It's all settled for to-morrow, and by this time
+Harding's at sea. He'll keep over on the other side till the sun is
+low; and we must be ready for work by ten, though I don't think he'll
+get close in before midnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you quite sure of Harding, Mr. Radford?&quot; asked the Major. &quot;I
+thought you had doubts of him about this other venture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, and so I have still,&quot; answered Richard Radford, a dark scowl
+coming over his face, &quot;but we must get this job over first. My father
+says, he will have no words about it, till this is all clear, and
+after that I may do as I like. Then, Major, then----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not finish the sentence; but those who heard him knew very well
+what he meant; and the Major inquired, &quot;But is he quite safe in this
+business? The old woman thinks not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Young Radford mused with a heavy brow for a minute or two, and then
+replied, after a sudden start, &quot;But it's no use now--he's at sea by
+this time; and we can't mend it. Have you heard anything certain of
+him, Galley Ray?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, nothing quite for certain, my beauty,&quot; said the old woman; &quot;but
+one thing I know: he was seen there upon the cliffs, with two strange
+men, a-talking away at a great rate; and that was the very night he
+saw your father, too; but that clear little cunning devil, my boy,
+Nighty--he's the shrewdest lad that ever lived--found it all out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What did he find out?&quot; demanded young Radford, sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, who the one was, he could never be sure,&quot; answered the
+beldam--&quot;a nasty-looking ugly brute, all tattooed in the face, like a
+wild Indian; but the other was the colonel of dragoons--that's
+certain, so Nighty says--he is the shrewdest boy that----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Richard Radford and his companions gazed at each other with very
+meaning and very ill-satisfied looks; but the former, at length, said,
+&quot;Well, we shall see--we shall see! and if he does, he shall rue it. In
+the meantime, Major, what we must do is, to have force enough to set
+them, dragoons and all, at defiance. My father has got already a
+hundred men, and I'll beat up for more to-morrow.--I can get fifty or
+sixty out of Sussex. We'll all be down with you early. The soldiers
+are scattered about in little parties, so they can never have very
+many together; and the devil's in it, if we can't beat a handful of
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give us a hundred men,&quot; said Ned Ramley, &quot;and we'll beat the whole
+regiment of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, there are not to be found twenty of them together in any one
+place,&quot; answered young Radford, &quot;except at Folkestone, and we shan't
+have the run within fifteen or sixteen miles of that; so we shall
+easily do for them; and I should like to give those rascals a
+licking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, what's to be done with Harding?&quot; asked Ned Ramley.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave him to me--leave him to me, Ned,&quot; replied the young gentleman,
+&quot;I'll find a way of settling accounts with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, the old woman was talking something about it,&quot; said the Major.
+&quot;Come, speak up, old brute!--What is it you've got to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I'll tell him quietly when he's a going,&quot; answered Galley Ray.
+&quot;It's no business of yours, Major.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She hates him like poison,&quot; said the Major, in a whisper, to young
+Radford; &quot;so that you must not believe all she says about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man gave a gloomy smile, and then, after a few words more,
+unceremoniously turned the old woman out of her own hovel, telling her
+he would come and speak to her in a moment. As soon as the hut was
+clear of her presence, he proceeded to make all his final arrangements
+with the lawless set who were gathered together within.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought that Harding was not to set off till to-morrow morning,&quot;
+said one of the more staid-looking of the party, at length; &quot;I wonder
+your father lets him make such changes, Mr. Radford--it looks
+suspicious, to my thinking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no; it was by my father's own orders,&quot; said young Radford;
+&quot;there's nothing wrong in that. I saw the note sent this evening; so
+that's all right. By some contrivance of his own, Harding is to give
+notice to one of the people on Tolsford Hill, when he is well in land
+and all is safe; and then we shall see a fire lighted on the top,
+which is to be our signal, to gather down on the beach. It's all right
+in that respect, at least.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'm glad to hear it,&quot; answered the other; &quot;and now, as all is
+settled, had you not better take a glass of grog before you go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; replied the young man, &quot;I'll keep my head cool for
+to-morrow; for I've got a job to do in the morning that may want a
+clear eye and a steady hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, good luck to you!&quot; said Ned Ramley, laughing; and with
+this benediction, the young gentleman opened the cottage door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He found Galley Ray holding his horse alone; and, as soon as she saw
+him, she said, &quot;I've sent the boy away, Mr. Radford, because I wanted
+to have a chat with you for a minute, all alone, about that
+blackguard, Harding;&quot; and sinking her voice to a whisper, she
+proceeded for several minutes, detailing her own diabolical notions,
+of how young Radford might best revenge himself on Harding, with a
+coaxing manner, and sweet tone, which contrasted strangely and
+horribly, both with the words which she occasionally used, and the
+general course of her suggestions. Young Radford sometimes laughed,
+with a harsh sort of bitter, unpleasant merriment, and sometimes asked
+questions, but more frequently remained listening attentively to what
+she said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus passed some ten minutes, at the end of which time, he exclaimed,
+with an oath, &quot;I'll do it!&quot; and then, mounting his horse, he rode away
+slowly and cautiously, on account of the thick fog and the narrow and
+stony road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No sooner was he gone, than little Starlight crept out from between
+the cottage and a pile of dried furze-bushes, which had been cast down
+on the left of the hut--at once affording fuel to the inhabitants, and
+keeping out the wind from a large crack in the wall, which penetrated
+through and through, into the room where young Radford had been
+conversing with the smugglers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you hear them, my kiddy?&quot; asked the old woman, as soon as the boy
+approached her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Every word, Mother Ray,&quot; answered little Starlight. &quot;But, get in,
+get in, or they will be thinking something; and I'll tell you all
+to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old woman saw the propriety of his suggestion; and, both entering
+the hovel, the door was shut. With it, I may close a scene, upon which
+I have been obliged to pause longer than I could have wished.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_04" href="#div2Ref_04">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The man who follows a wolf goes straight on after him till he rides
+him down; but, in chasing a fox, it is always expedient and fair to
+take across the easiest country for your horse or for yourself, to
+angle a field, to make for a slope when the neighbouring bank is too
+high, to avoid a clay fallow, or to skirt a shaking moss. Very
+frequently, however, one beholds an inexperienced sportsman (who does
+not well know the country he is riding, and sees the field broken up
+into several parties, each taking its own course after the hounds)
+pause for several minutes, not knowing which to follow. Such is often
+the case with the romance writer also, when the broken nature of the
+country over which his course lies, separates his characters, and he
+cannot proceed with all of them at once.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now, at the present moment, I would fain follow the smugglers to the
+end of their adventure; but, in so doing, dear reader, I should (to
+borrow a shred of the figure I have just used) get before my hounds;
+or, in other words, I should too greatly violate that strict
+chronological order which is necessary in an important history like
+the present. I must, therefore, return, by the reader's good leave, to
+the house of Mr. Zachary Croyland, almost immediately after Sir Edward
+Digby had ridden away, on the day following young Radford's recently
+related interview with the smugglers, at which day--with a sad
+violation of the chronological order I have mentioned above--I had
+already arrived, as the reader must remember, in the first chapter of
+the present volume.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland then stood in the little drawing-room, fitted up
+according to his own peculiar notions, where Sir Edward's wound had
+been dressed; and Edith, his niece, sat at no great distance on one of
+the low ottomans, for which he had an oriental predilection. She was a
+little excited, both by all that she had witnessed, and all that she
+had not; and her bright and beautiful eyes were raised to her uncle's
+face, as she inquired, &quot;How did all this happen? You said you would
+tell me when they were gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland gazed at her with that sort of parental tenderness which
+he had long nourished in his heart towards her; and certainly, as she
+sat there, leaning lightly upon her arm, and with the sunshine falling
+upon her beautiful form, her left hand resting upon her knee, and one
+small beautiful foot extended beyond her gown, he could not help
+thinking her the loveliest creature he had ever beheld in his life,
+and asking himself--&quot;Is such a being as that, so full of grace in
+person, and excellence in mind, to be consigned to a rude, brutal
+bully, like the man who has just met with deserved chastisement at my
+door?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had just begun to answer her question, thinking how he might best
+do so without inflicting more pain upon her than necessary, when the
+black servant I have mentioned entered the drawing-room, saying, &quot;A
+man want to speak to you, master.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A man!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland, impatiently. &quot;What man? I don't want any
+man! I've had enough of men for one morning, surely, with those two
+fools fighting just opposite my house!--What sort of a man is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very odd man, indeed, master,&quot; answered the Hindoo. &quot;Got great blue
+pattern on him's face. Strange looking man. Think him half mad,&quot; and
+he made a deferential bow, as if submitting his judgment to that of
+his master.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I like odd men,&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland. &quot;I like strange men
+better than any others. I'm not sure I do not like them a <i>leetle</i>
+mad--not too much, not too much, you know, Edith, my dear! Not
+dangerous; just mad enough to be pleasant, but not furious or
+obstreperous.--Where have you put him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In de library, master,&quot; replied the man; &quot;and he begin taking down
+the books directly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;High time I should go and see, who is so studiously inclined,&quot; said
+Mr. Croyland; &quot;or he may not only take down the books, but take them
+away. That wouldn't do, you know, Edith, my dear--that wouldn't do.
+Without my niece and my books, what would become of me? I don't intend
+to lose either the one or the other. So that you are never to marry,
+my love; mind that, you are never to marry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith smiled faintly--very faintly indeed; but for the world she would
+not have made her uncle feel that he had touched upon a tender point.
+&quot;I do not think I ever shall, my dear uncle,&quot; she answered; and
+saying, &quot;That's a good girl!&quot; the old gentleman hurried out of the
+room to see his unknown visitor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith remained for some time where she was, in deep and even painful
+thoughts. All that she had learnt from her sister, since Zara's
+explanation with Sir Edward Digby, amounted but to this, that he whom
+she had so deeply loved--whom she still loved so deeply--was yet
+living. Nothing more had reached her; and, though hope, the fast
+clinger to the last wreck of probability, yet whispered that he might
+love her still--that she might not be forgotten--that she might not be
+abandoned, yet fear and despondency far predominated, and their hoarse
+tones nearly drowned the feeble whisper of a voice which once had been
+loud and gay in her heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After meditating, then, for some minutes, she rose and left the
+drawing-room, passing, on her way to the stairs, the door of the
+library to which her uncle had previously gone. She heard him talking
+loud as she went along; but the sounds were gay, cheerful, and
+anything but angry; and another voice was answering, in mellower
+tones, somewhat melancholy, indeed, but still not sad. Going rapidly
+by, this was all she distinguished; but after she reached her own
+room, which was nearly above the library, the murmur of the voices
+still rose up for more than an hour, and at length Mr. Croyland and
+his guest came out, and walked through the vestibule to the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God bless you, Harry--God bless you!&quot; said Mr. Croyland, with an
+appearance of warmth and affection which Edith had seldom known him to
+display towards any one; &quot;if you wont stay, I can't help it. But mind
+your promise--mind your promise! In three or four days, you know;&quot; and
+with another cordial farewell they parted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the stranger was gone, however, Mr. Croyland remained standing in
+the vestibule for several minutes, gazing down upon the floor-cloth,
+and murmuring to himself various broken sentences, from time to time.
+&quot;Who'd have thought it,&quot; he said; &quot;thirty years come Lady-day next,
+since we saw each other!--But this isn't quite right of the boy: I
+will scold him--I will frighten him, too. He shouldn't deceive--nobody
+should deceive--it's not right. But after all, in love and war, every
+stratagem is fair, they say; and I'll work for him, that I will. Here,
+Edith, my love,&quot; he continued, calling up the stairs, for he had heard
+his niece's light foot above, &quot;come, and take a walk with me, my dear:
+it will do us both good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith came down in a moment, with a hat (or bonnet) in her hand; and
+although Mr. Croyland affected, on most occasions, to be by no means
+communicative, yet there was in his whole manner, and in the
+expression of his face, quite sufficient to indicate to his niece,
+that he was labouring under the pressure of a secret, which was not a
+very sad or dark one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, my dear!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;I said just now that I would not have
+you marry; but I shall take off the restriction. I will not prohibit
+the banns--only in case you should wish to marry some one I don't
+approve. But I've got a husband for you--I've got a husband for you,
+better than all the Radfords that ever were christened; though, by the
+way, I doubt whether these fellows ever were christened at all--a set
+of unbelieving, half-barbarous sceptics. I do not think, upon my
+conscience, that old Radford believes in anything but the existence of
+his own individuality.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But who is the husband you have got for me?&quot; demanded Edith, forcing
+herself to assume a look of gaiety which was not natural to her. &quot;I
+hope he's young, handsome, rich, and agreeable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All, all!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland. &quot;Those are absolute requisites in a
+lady's estimation, I know. Never was such a set of grasping monkeys as
+you women. Youth, beauty, riches, and a courtly air--you must have
+them all, or you are dissatisfied; and the ugliest, plainest, poorest
+woman in all Europe, thinks that she has every right to a ph&#339;nix
+for her companion--an angel--a demi-god. But you shall see--you shall
+see; and in the true spirit of a fond parent, if you do not see with
+my eyes, hear with my ears, and understand with my understanding--why,
+I'll disinherit you.--But who the mischief is this, now?&quot; he
+continued, looking out at the door--&quot;another man on horseback, upon my
+life, as if we had not had enough of them already. Never, since I have
+been in this county of Kent, has my poor, quiet, peaceable door been
+besieged in this manner before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It's only a servant with a note, my dear uncle,&quot; said Edith.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, something more on your account,&quot; cried Mr. Croyland. &quot;It's all
+because you are here. Baba, Baba! see what that fellow wants!--It's
+not your promised husband, my dear, so you need not eye him so
+curiously.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no!&quot; answered Edith, smiling. &quot;I took it for granted that my
+promised husband, as you call him, was to be this same odd,
+strange-looking gentleman, who has been with you for the last hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh--no!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland; &quot;and yet, my lady, I can tell you, you
+could not do better in some respects, for he's a very good man--a very
+excellent man indeed, and has the advantage of being a <i>leetle</i> mad,
+as I said before--that is, he's wise enough not to care what fools
+think of him. That's what is called being mad now-a-days. Who is it
+from, Baba?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Didn't say, master,&quot; answered the Indian, who had just handed him a
+note. &quot;He wait an answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, very well!&quot; answered Mr. Croyland. &quot;He may get a shorter one than
+he expects. I've no time to be answering notes. People in England
+spend one half of their lives in writing notes that mean nothing, and
+the other half in sealing them. Why can't the fools send a message?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While he had been thus speaking, the worthy old gentleman had been
+adjusting the spectacles to his nose, and walking with his usual brisk
+step to the window in the passage, against which he planted his back,
+so that the light might fall over his shoulder upon the paper; but as
+he read, a great change came over his countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, that's right!--That's well!--That's honest,&quot; he said: &quot;I see what
+he means, but I'll let him speak out himself. Walk into the garden,
+Edith, my love, till I answer this man's note. Baba, bid the fellow
+wait for a moment,&quot; and stepping into the library, Mr. Croyland sought
+for a pen that would write, and then scrawled, in a very rude and
+crooked hand, which soon made the paper look like an ancient Greek
+manuscript, a few lines, to the beauty of which he added the effect of
+bad blotting-paper. Then folding his note up, he sealed and addressed
+it, first reading carefully over again the epistle which he had just
+received, and with which it may be as well to make the reader
+acquainted, though I shall abstain from looking into Mr. Croyland's
+answer till it reaches its destination. The letter which the servant
+had brought was to the following effect:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The gentleman who had the pleasure of travelling with Mr. Croyland
+from London, and who was introduced to him by the name of Captain
+Osborn, was about to avail himself of Mr. Croyland's invitation, when
+some circumstances came to his knowledge, which seem to render it
+expedient that he should have a few minutes' conversation with Mr.
+Croyland before he visits his house. He is at present at Woodchurch,
+and will remain there till two o'clock, if it is convenient for Mr.
+Croyland to see him at that place to-day.--If not, he will return to
+Woodchurch to-morrow, towards one, and will wait for Mr. Croyland till
+any hour he shall appoint.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There! give that to the gentleman's servant,&quot; said Mr. Croyland; and
+then depositing his spectacles safely in their case, he walked out
+into the garden to seek Edith.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servant, in the meanwhile, went at a rapid pace, over pleasant
+hill and dale, till he reached the village of Woodchurch, and stopped
+at a little public-house, before the door of which stood three
+dragoons, with their horses' bridles over their arms. As speedily as
+possible, the man entered the house, and walked up stairs, where he
+found his master talking to a man, covered with dust from the road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Mowle should have given me farther information,&quot; the young
+officer said, looking at a paper in his hand. &quot;I could have made my
+combinations here as well as at Hythe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He sent me off in a great hurry, sir,&quot; answered the man; &quot;but I'll
+tell him what you say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, stay!&quot; said the officer, holding out his hand to his servant
+for the note which he had brought. &quot;I will tell you more in a minute,
+and breaking open the seal, he read Mr. Croyland's epistle, which was
+to the following effect.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Croyland presents his compliments to Captain Osborn, and has had
+the honour of receiving his letter, although he cannot conceive why
+Captain Osborn should wish to speak with him at Woodchurch, when he
+could so easily speak with him in his own house, yet Mr. Croyland is
+Captain Osborn's very humble servant, and will do as he bids him. As
+it is now past one o'clock, as it would take half-an-hour to get Mr.
+Croyland's carriage ready, and an hour to reach Woodchurch, and as it
+is some years since Mr. Croyland has got upon the back of anything but
+an ass, or a hobby-horse,--having moreover no asses at hand with the
+proper proportion of legs, though many, deficient in number--it is
+impossible for him to reach Woodchurch by the time stated to-day. He
+will be over at that place, however, by two o'clock to-morrow, and
+hopes that Captain Osborn will be able to return with him, and spend a
+few days in an old bachelor's house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer's face was grave as he read the first part of the
+letter, but it relaxed into a smile towards the end. He then gave,
+perhaps, ten seconds to thought; after which, rousing himself
+abruptly, he turned to the dusty messenger from Hythe, and fixing a
+somewhat searching glance upon the man's face, he said--&quot;Tell Mr.
+Mowle that I will be over with him directly, and as the troops, it
+seems, will be required on the side of Folkestone, he must have
+everything prepared on his part; for we shall have no time to spare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man bowed with a stolid look, and withdrew; and after he had left
+the room, the officer remained silent for a moment or two, looking out
+of the window till he saw him mount his horse and depart. Then,
+descending in haste to the inn door, he gave various orders to the
+dragoons, who were there waiting. To one they were, &quot;Ride off to
+Folkestone as fast as you can go, and tell Captain Irby to march
+immediately with his troop to Bilsington, which place he must reach
+before two o'clock in the morning.&quot; To another: &quot;You gallop off to
+Appledore, and bid the sergeant there bring his party down to Brenzet
+Corner, in the Marsh, and put himself under the orders of Cornet
+Joyce.&quot; To the third: &quot;You, Wood, be off to Ashford, and tell
+Lieutenant Green to bring down all his men as far as Bromley Green,
+taking up the party at Kingsnorth. Let him be there by three; and
+remember, these are private orders. Not a word to any one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men sprang into the saddle, as soon as the last words were spoken,
+and rode away in different directions; and, after bidding his servant
+bring round his horse, the young officer remained standing at the door
+of the inn, with his tall form erect, his arms crossed upon his chest,
+and his eyes gazing towards Harbourne House. He was in the midst of
+the scenes where his early days had been spent. Every object around
+him was familiar to his eye: not a hill, not a wood, not a church
+steeple or a farm house, but had its association with some of those
+bright things which leave a lustre in the evening sky of life, even
+when the day-star of existence has set. There were the pleasant hours
+of childhood, the sports of boyhood, the dreams of youth, the love of
+early manhood. The light that memory cast upon the whole might not be
+so strong and powerful, might not present them in so real and definite
+a form, as in the full day of enjoyment; but there is a great
+difference between that light of memory, when it brightens a period of
+life that may yet renew the joys which have passed away for a time,
+and when it shines upon pleasures gone for ever. In the latter case it
+is but as the moonlight--a reflected beam, without the warmth of
+fruition or the brilliancy of hope; but in the former, it is as the
+glow of the descending sun, which sheds a purple lustre through the
+vista of the past, and gives a promise of returning joy even as it
+sinks away. He stood, then, amongst the scenes of his early years,
+with hope refreshed, though still with the remembrance of sorrows
+tempering the warmth of expectation, perhaps shading the present. It
+wanted, indeed, but some small circumstance, by bearing afar, like
+some light wind, the cloud of thought, to give to all around the
+bright hues of other days; and that was soon afforded. He had not
+remained there above two or three minutes when the landlord of the
+public-house came out, and stood directly before him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I forgot your bill, my good fellow,&quot; said the young officer.
+&quot;What is my score?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, sir, it is not that,&quot; answered the man, &quot;but I think you have
+forgotten me. I could not let you go, however, without just asking you
+to shake hands with me, though you are a great gentleman now, and I am
+much what I was.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer gazed at him for a moment, and let his eye run over
+the stout limbs and portly person of the landlord, till at length he
+said, in a doubtful tone, &quot;Surely, you cannot be young Miles, the son
+of my father's clerk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, sir, just the same,&quot; replied the host; &quot;but young and old, we
+change, just as women do their names when they marry. Not that six or
+seven years have made me old either; but I was six and twenty when you
+went away, and as thin as a whipping post; now I'm two and thirty, and
+as fat as a porker. That makes a wonderful difference, sir. But I'm
+glad you don't forget old times.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forget them, Miles!&quot; said the young officer, holding out his hand to
+him, &quot;oh no, they are too deeply written in my heart ever to be
+blotted out! I thought I was too much changed myself for any one to
+remember me, but those who were most dear to me. What between the
+effects of time and labour, sorrow and war, I hardly fancied that any
+one in Kent would know me. But you are changed for the better, I for
+the worse. Yet I am very glad to see you, Miles; and I shall see you
+again to-morrow; for I am coming back here towards two o'clock. In the
+meantime, you need not say you have seen me; for I do not wish it to
+be known that I am here, till I have learned a little of what
+reception I am likely to have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I understand, sir--I understand,&quot; replied the landlord; &quot;and if
+you should want to know how the land lies, I can always tell you; for
+you see, I have the parish-clerks' club, which meets here once a week;
+and then all the news of the country comes out; and besides, many a
+one of them comes in here at other times, to have a gossip with old
+Rafe Miles's son, so that I hear everything that goes on in the county
+almost as soon as it is done; and right glad shall I be to tell you
+anything you want to know, just for old times' sake; when you used to
+go shooting snipes by the brooks, and I used to come after for the
+sport--that is to say, anything about your own people; not about the
+smugglers, you know; for they say you are sent here to put them down;
+and I should not like to peach, even to you. I heard that some great
+gentleman had come down--a Sir Harry Somebody. But I little thought it
+was you, till I saw you just now standing looking so melancholy
+towards Harbourne, and thinking, I dare say, of the old house at
+Tiffenden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed I was,&quot; answered the young officer, with a sigh. &quot;But as to
+the smugglers, my good friend, I want no information. I am sent down
+with my regiment merely to aid the civil power, which seems totally
+incompetent to stop the daring outrages that are every day committed.
+If this were suffered to go on, all law, not only regarding the
+revenue, but even that affecting the protection of life and property,
+would soon be at an end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That it would, sir,&quot; answered the landlord; &quot;and it's well nigh at an
+end already, for that matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; continued the officer, &quot;though the service is not an agreeable
+one, and I think, considering all things, might have been entrusted to
+another person, yet I have but to obey; and consequently, being here,
+am ready whenever called upon to support the officers, either of
+justice or the revenue, both by arms and by advice. But I have no
+other duty to perform, and indeed would rather not have any
+information regarding the proceedings of these misguided men, except
+through the proper channels. If I had the absolute command of the
+district, with orders to put down smuggling therein, it might be a
+different matter; but I have not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, I thought there was a mistake about it,&quot; replied Miles; &quot;but here
+is your horse, sir. I shall see you to-morrow, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly,&quot; answered the officer; and having paid his score, he
+mounted and rode away.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_05" href="#div2Ref_05">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The colonel of the dragoon regiment rode into Hythe coolly and calmly,
+followed by his servant; for though, to say the truth, he had pushed
+his horse very fast for some part of the way, he judged it expedient
+not to cause any bustle in the town by an appearance of haste and
+excitement. It was customary in those days for officers in the army in
+active service, even when not on actual duty, to appear in their
+regimental uniform; but this practice the gentleman in question had
+dispensed with since he left London, on many motives, both public and
+personal; and though he wore the cockade--at that time the sign and
+symbol of a military man, or of one who affected that position, yet he
+generally appeared in plain clothes, except when any large body of the
+troops were gathered together.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the door of the inn where he had fixed his headquarters, and in the
+passage leading from it into the house, were a number of private
+soldiers and a sergeant; and amongst them appeared Mr. Mowle, the
+Custom-House officer, waiting the arrival of the commander of the
+dragoons. As the latter dismounted, Mowle advanced to his side, saying
+something in a low voice. The young officer looked at the sky, which
+was still glowing bright with the sun, which had about an hour and
+a-half to run ere it reached the horizon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In an hour, Mr. Mowle,&quot; replied the officer: &quot;there will be time
+enough. Make all your own arrangements in the meanwhile.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, sir, if you have to send to Folkestone?&quot; said Mowle. &quot;You
+misunderstood me, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; answered the colonel, &quot;I did not. You misunderstood me. Come
+back in an hour.--If you show haste or anxiety, you will put the enemy
+on his guard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After having said these few words in a low tone, he entered the house,
+gave some orders to the soldiers, several of whom sauntered away
+slowly to their quarters, as if the business of the day were over; and
+then, proceeding to his own room, he rang the bell and ordered dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought there was a bit of a bustle, sir?&quot; said the landlord,
+inquiringly, as he put the first dish upon the table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, no,&quot; replied the colonel. &quot;Did you mean about these men who
+have escaped?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I didn't know about what, colonel,&quot; answered the landlord, &quot;but
+seeing Mr. Mowle waiting for you----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You thought it must be about them,&quot; added the officer; &quot;but you are
+mistaken, my good friend. There is no bustle at all. The men will,
+doubtless, soon be taken, one after the other, by the constables. At
+all events, that is an affair with which I can have nothing to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord immediately retreated, loaded with intelligence, and
+informed two men who were sipping rum-and-water in the tap-room, that
+Mowle had come to ask the colonel to help in apprehending &quot;the Major&quot;
+and others who had been rescued, and that the colonel would have
+nothing to do with it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men finished their grog much more rapidly than they had begun it,
+and then walked out of the house, probably to convey the tidings
+elsewhere. Now, the town of Hythe is composed, as every one knows, of
+one large and principal street nearly at the bottom of the hill, with
+several back streets--or perhaps lanes we might call them--running
+parallel to the first, and a great number of shorter ones running up
+and down the hill, and connecting the principal thoroughfare with
+those behind it. Many--nay, I might say most--of the houses in the
+main street had, at the time I speak of, a back as well as a front
+entrance. They might sometimes have even more than one; for there were
+trades carried on in Hythe, as the reader has been made aware, which
+occasionally required rapid and secret modes of exit. Nor was the
+house in which the young commander of dragoons resided without its
+conveniences in this respect; but it happened that Mowle, the officer,
+was well acquainted with all its different passages and contrivances;
+and consequently he took advantage, on his return at the end of an
+hour, of one of the small lanes, which led him by a back way into the
+inn. Then ascending a narrow staircase without disturbing anybody, he
+made his way to the room he sought, where he found the colonel of the
+regiment quietly writing some letters after his brief meal was over.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Mr. Mowle!&quot; said the young officer, folding up, and sealing the
+note he had just concluded--&quot;now, let me hear what you have
+discovered, and where you wish the troops to be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am afraid, sir, we have lost time,&quot; answered Mowle; &quot;for I can't
+tell at what time the landing will take place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not before midnight,&quot; replied his companion; &quot;there is no vessel in
+sight, and, with the wind at this quarter, they can't be very quick in
+their movements.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, probably not before midnight, sir,&quot; answered Mowle; &quot;but there
+are not above fifty of your men within ten miles round, and if you've
+to send for them to Folkestone and Ashford, and out almost to
+Staplehurst, they will have no time to make ready and march; and the
+fellows will be off into the Weald before we can catch them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer smiled: &quot;Then you think fifty men will not be
+enough?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not half enough,&quot; answered Mowle, beginning to set down his companion
+as a person of very little intellect or energy--&quot;why, from what I
+hear, there will be some two or three hundred of these fellows down,
+to carry the goods after they are run, and every one of them equal to
+a dragoon, at any time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, we shall see!&quot; said the young officer, coolly. &quot;You are sure
+that Dymchurch is the place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, somewhere thereabouts, sir; and that's a long way off,&quot; answered
+Mowle; &quot;so if you have any arrangements to make, you had better make
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They are all made,&quot; replied the colonel; &quot;but tell me, Mr. Mowle,
+does it not frequently take place that, when smugglers are pursued in
+the marsh, they throw their goods into the cuts and canals and creeks
+by which it is intersected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure they do, sir,&quot; exclaimed the officer; &quot;and they'll do that
+to a certainty, if we can't prevent them landing; and, if we attack
+them in the Marsh----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To prevent them landing,&quot; said the gentleman, &quot;seems to me impossible
+in the present state of affairs; and I do not know whether it would be
+expedient, even if we could. Your object is to seize the goods, both
+for your own benefit and that of the state, and to take as many
+prisoners as possible. Now, from what you told me yesterday, I find
+that you have no force at sea, except a few miserable boats----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I sent off for the revenue cruiser this morning, sir,&quot; answered
+Mowle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But she is not come,&quot; rejoined the officer; &quot;and, consequently, must
+be thrown out of our combinations. If we assemble a large force at any
+point of the coast, the smugglers on shore will have warning. They may
+easily find means of giving notice of the fact to their comrades at
+sea--the landing may be effected at a different point from that now
+proposed, and the goods carried clear off before we can reach them. It
+seems to me, therefore, better for you to let the landing take place
+quietly. As soon as it has taken place, the beacons will be lighted by
+my orders; the very fact of a signal they don't understand will throw
+the smugglers into some confusion; and they will hurry out of the
+Marsh as fast as possible----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But suppose they separate, and all take different roads,&quot; said Mowle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then all, or almost all, the different parties will be met with and
+stopped,&quot; replied the officer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But your men cannot act without a requisition from the Customs, sir,&quot;
+answered Mowle, &quot;and they are so devilish cautious of committing
+themselves----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I am not,&quot; rejoined the colonel; &quot;and every party along the whole
+line has notice that the firing of the beacons is to be taken as a
+signal that due requisition has been made, and has orders also to stop
+any body of men carrying goods that they may meet with. But I do not
+think that these smugglers will separate at all, Mr. Mowle. Their only
+chance of safety must seem to them--not knowing how perfectly prepared
+we are--to lie in their numbers and their union. While acting
+together, their numbers, it appears from your account, would be
+sufficient to force any one post opposed to them, according to the
+arrangements which they have every reason to believe still exist; and
+they will not throw away that chance. It is, therefore, my belief that
+they will make their way out of the Marsh in one body. After that,
+leave them to me. I will take the responsibility upon myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, colonel--very well!&quot; said Mowle; &quot;if you are ready without
+my knowing anything about it, all the better. Only the fellow I sent
+you brought back word something about Folkestone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was merely because I did not like the man's look,&quot; replied the
+young officer, &quot;and thought you would understand that a message sent
+you in so public a manner, upon a business which required secrecy,
+must not be read in its direct sense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I see, colonel--I see,&quot; cried the officer of Customs; &quot;it was
+stupid enough not to understand. All my people are ready, however; and
+if we could but discover the hour the run is to be made, we should
+have a pretty sure game of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Cannot the same person who gave you so much intelligence, give you
+that also?&quot; asked his companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, no; either the imp can't, or he wont,&quot; said Mowle. &quot;I had to pay
+him ten pounds for what tidings I got, for the little wretch is as
+cunning as Satan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you sure the intelligence was correct?&quot; demanded the officer of
+dragoons.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes, sir,&quot; replied Mowle. &quot;His tidings have always been quite
+right; and besides, I've the means of testing this myself; for he told
+me where they are to meet--at least a large party of them--before
+going down to the shore. I've a very great mind to disguise myself,
+and creep in among them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A very hazardous experiment, I should think,&quot; said the colonel; &quot;and
+I do not see any object worth the risk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, the object would be to get information of the hour,&quot; answered
+Mowle. &quot;If we could learn that, some time before, we could have
+everything ready, and have them watched all through the Marsh.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, you must use your own judgment in that particular!&quot; answered
+the young officer; &quot;but I tell you, I am quite prepared myself; and
+such a large body as you have mentioned cannot cross a considerable
+extent of country without attracting attention.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I'll see, sir--I'll see,&quot; answered Mowle; &quot;but had I not better
+send off two or three officers towards Dymchurch, to give your men
+notice as soon as the goods are landed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Undoubtedly,&quot; answered the colonel. &quot;There's a party at New Romney,
+and a party at Burmarsh. They both have their orders, and as soon as
+they have intimation, will act upon them. I would have enough men
+present, if I were you, to watch the coast well, but with strict
+orders to do nothing to create alarm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some minor arrangements were then entered into, of no great importance
+to the tale; and Mowle took his leave, after having promised to give
+the colonel the very first intimation he received of the farther
+proceedings of the smugglers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The completion of his own arrangements took the Custom-House officer
+half an hour more, and at the end of that time he returned to his own
+dwelling, and sat down for a while, to think over the next step. He
+felt a strong inclination to visit the meeting place of the smugglers
+in person. He was, as we have shown, a man of a daring and adventurous
+disposition, strong in nerve, firm in heart, and with, perhaps, too
+anxious a sense of duty. Indeed, he was rather inclined to be rash
+than otherwise, from the apprehension of having anything like fear
+attributed to him in the execution of the service he had undertaken;
+but still he could not shut his eyes to the fact that the scheme he
+meditated was full of peril to himself. The men amongst whom he
+proposed to venture were lawless, sanguinary, and unscrupulous; and,
+if discovered, he had every reason to believe that his life would be
+sacrificed by them without the slightest hesitation or remorse. He was
+their most persevering enemy; he had spared them on no occasion; and
+although he had dealt fairly by them, yet many of those who were
+likely to be present, had suffered severe punishment at his
+instigation and by his means. He hesitated a little, and called to
+mind what the colonel had said regarding the hazard of the act, and
+the want of sufficient object; but then, suddenly starting up, he
+looked forward with a frowning brow, exclaiming, &quot;Why, hang it, I'm
+not afraid! I'll go, whatever befals me. It's my duty not to leave any
+chance for information untried. That young fellow is mighty cool about
+the business; and if these men get off, it shall not be any fault of
+mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he lighted a candle, and went into an adjoining room,
+where, from a large commode, filled with a strange medley of different
+dresses and implements, he chose out a wagoner's frock, a large pair
+of leathern leggings, or gaiters, and a straw hat, such as was very
+commonly used at that time amongst the peasantry of England. After
+gazing at them for a moment or two, and turning them over once or
+twice, he put them on, and then, with a pair of sharp scissors, cut
+away, in a rough and unceremonious fashion, a considerable quantity of
+his black hair, which was generally left rough and floating. High up
+over his neck, and round his chin, he tied a large blue handkerchief,
+and when thus completely accoutred, gave himself a glance in the
+glass, saying, &quot;I don't think I should know myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He seemed considerably reassured at finding himself so completely
+disguised; and then looking at his watch, and perceiving that the hour
+named for the meeting was approaching, he put a brace of pistols in
+his breast, where they could be easily reached through the opening in
+front of the smock-frock.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had already reached the door, when something seemed to strike
+him; and saying to himself--&quot;Well, there's no knowing what may
+happen!--it's better to prepare against anything,&quot; he turned back to
+his sitting-room, and wrote down on a sheet of paper:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir,--I am gone up to see what they are about. If I should not be
+back by eleven, you may be sure they have caught me, and then you must
+do your best with Birchett and the others. If I get off, I'll call in
+as I come back, and let you know.</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:5%">&quot;Sir, your very obedient servant,</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:30%">&quot;<span class="sc">William Mowle</span>.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">As soon as this was done, he folded the note up, addressed, and sealed
+it; and then, blowing the light out, he called an old female servant
+who had lived in his house for many years, and whom he now directed to
+carry the epistle to the colonel of dragoons who was up at the inn,
+adding that she was to deliver it with her own hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old woman took it at once; and knowing well, how usual it was for
+the Custom-House officers to disguise their persons in various ways,
+she took no notice of the strange change in Mr. Mowle's appearance,
+though it was so complete that it could not well escape her eyes, even
+in the darkness which reigned throughout the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This having been all arranged, and the maid on her way to convey the
+letter, Mowle himself walked slowly forward through the long narrow
+lanes at the back of the town, and along the path up towards Saltwood.
+It was dusk when he set out, but not yet quite dark; and as he went,
+he met two people of the town, whom he knew well, but who only replied
+to the awkward nod of the head which he gave them, by saying, &quot;Good
+night, my man,&quot; and walked on, evidently unconscious that they were
+passing an acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he advanced, however, the night grew darker and more dark; and a
+fog began to rise, though not so thick as that of the night before.
+Mowle muttered to himself, as he observed it creeping up the hill from
+the side of the valley, &quot;Ay, this is what the blackguards calculated
+upon, and they are always sure to be right about the weather; but it
+will serve my turn as well as theirs;&quot; and on he went in the direction
+of the castle, keeping the regular road by the side of the hill, and
+eschewing especially the dwelling of Galley Ray and her grandson.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Born in that part of the country, and perfectly well prepared, both to
+find his way about every part of the ruins, and to speak the dialect
+of the county in its broadest accent, if he should be questioned, the
+darkness was all that he could desire; and it was with pleasure that
+he found the obscurity so deep that even he could not see the large
+stones which at that time lay in the road, causing him to stumble more
+than once as he approached the castle. He was in some hope, indeed, of
+reaching the ruins before the smugglers began to assemble, and of
+finding a place of concealment whence he could overhear their sayings
+and doings; but in this expectation, he discovered, as he approached
+the walls, that he should be disappointed; for in the open road
+between the castle and the village, he found a number of horses tied,
+and two men watching. He trudged on past them, however, with a slow
+step and a slouching gait; and when one of the men called out, &quot;Is
+that you, Jack?&quot; he answered, &quot;Ay, ay!&quot; without stopping.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the gate of the court he heard a good many voices talking within;
+and, it must be acknowledged, that, although as brave a man as ever
+lived, he was not without a strong sense of the dangers of his
+situation. But he suffered it not to master him in the least; and
+advancing resolutely, he soon got the faint outline of several groups
+of men--amounting in the whole to about thirty--assembled on the green
+between the walls and the keep. Walking resolutely up to one of these
+little knots, he looked boldly amongst the persons it comprised as if
+seeking for somebody. Their faces could scarcely be distinguished; but
+the voices of one or two who were talking together, showed him that
+the group was a hazardous one, as it contained several of the most
+notorious smugglers of the neighbourhood, who had but too good cause
+to be well acquainted with his person and his tongue. He went on,
+consequently, to the next little party, which he soon judged, from the
+conversation he overheard, to be principally composed of strangers.
+One man spoke of how they did those things in Sussex, and told of how
+he had aided to haul up, Heaven knows how many bales of goods over the
+bare face of the cliff between Hastings and Winchelsea. Judging,
+therefore, that he was here in security, the officer attached himself
+to this group, and, after a while, ventured to ask, &quot;Do ye know what's
+to be the hour, about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man he spoke to answered &quot;No!&quot; adding that, they could not tell
+anything &quot;till the gentleman came.&quot; This, however, commenced a
+conversation, and Mowle was speedily identified with that group,
+which, consisting entirely of strangers, as he had supposed, did not
+mingle much with the rest. Every one present was armed; and he found
+that though some had come on foot like himself, the greater part had
+journeyed on horseback. He had a good opportunity also of learning
+that, notwithstanding every effort made by the Government, the system
+of smuggling was carried on along the coast to a much greater extent
+than even he himself had been aware of. Many of his brother officers
+were spoken of in high terms of commendation, which did not sound very
+satisfactory to his ears; and many a hint for his future operations,
+he gained from the gossip of those who surrounded him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still time wore on, and he began to be a little uneasy lest he should
+be detained longer than the hour which he had specified in his note to
+the colonel of dragoons. But at length, towards ten o'clock, the quick
+tramping of a number of horses were heard, and several voices
+speaking; and a minute after, five or six and twenty men entered the
+grass court, and came up hastily to the rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, are you all ready?&quot; cried a voice, which Mowle instantly
+recognised as that of young Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, we've been waiting these two hours,&quot; answered one of those in
+the group which the officer had first approached; &quot;but you'll never
+have enough here, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never you mind that,&quot; rejoined Richard Radford, &quot;there are eighty
+more at Lympne, and a good number down at Dymchurch already,
+with plenty of horses. Come, muster, muster, and let us be off,
+for the landing will begin at one, and we have a good long way to
+go.--Remember, every one,&quot; he continued, raising his voice, &quot;that
+the way is by Butter's Bridge, and then down and along the shore. If
+any one takes the road by Burmarsh he will fall in with the dragoons.
+Troop off, my men, troop off. You Ned, and you Major, see that the
+court is quite cleared; we must have none lagging behind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This precaution did not at all disconcert our good friend Mowle, for
+he judged that he should very easily find the means of detaching
+himself from the rest, at the nearest point to Hythe; and accordingly
+he walked on with the party he had joined, till they arrived at the
+spot where they had seen the horses tied. There, however, the greater
+part mounted, and the others joined a different body, which Mowle was
+well aware was not quite so safe; for acting as the chief thereof, and
+looking very sharply after his party too, was no other than our friend
+the Major. Mowle now took good care to keep silence--a prudent step,
+which was enjoined upon them all by Mr. Radford and some others, who
+seemed to have the direction of the affair. But notwithstanding every
+care, the tread of so many men and so many horses made a considerable
+noise; and just as they were passing a small cottage, not a quarter of
+a mile from Saltwood, the good dame within opened the door to see what
+such a bustle could be about. As she did so, the light from the
+interior fell full upon Mowle's face, and the eyes of the Major,
+turned towards the door at the same moment, rested upon him for an
+instant, and were then withdrawn. It were vain to say, that the worthy
+officer felt quite as comfortable at that moment as if he had been in
+his own house; but when no notice was taken, he comforted himself with
+the thought that his disguise had served him well, and trudged on with
+the rest, without showing any hesitation or surprise. About half a
+mile farther lay the turning which he proposed to take to reach Hythe;
+and he contrived to get over to the left side of the party, in order
+to drop off in that direction unperceived. When he was within ten
+steps of it, however, and was congratulating himself that the party,
+having scattered a little, gave him greater facilities for executing
+his scheme, an arm was familiarly thrust through his own, and a pair
+of lips, close to his ear, said in a low, but very distinct tone, &quot;I
+know you--and if you attempt to get off, you are a dead man! Continue
+with the party, and you are safe. When the goods are landed and gone,
+you shall go; but the least suspicious movement before, shall bring
+twenty bullets into your head. You did me a good turn yesterday
+morning before the Justices, in not raking up old offences; and I am
+willing to do you a good turn now; but this is all I can do for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mowle turned round, well knowing the voice, nodded his head, and
+walked on with the rest in the direction of Lympne.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_06" href="#div2Ref_06">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Towards half-past ten o'clock at night, the Inn at Hythe was somewhat
+quieter than it had been on the evening before. This was not a punch
+club night; there was no public dinner going forward; a great many
+accustomed guests were absent, and the house was left nearly vacant of
+all visitors, except the young commandant of the dragoons, his two or
+three servants, and three stout-looking old soldiers, who had come in
+about ten, and taken possession of the tap-room, in their full
+uniform, scaring away, as it would seem, a sharp-looking man, who had
+been previously drinking there in solitude, only cheered by the
+occasional visits and brief conversation of the landlord. The officer
+himself was up stairs in his room, with a soldier at his door, as
+usual, and was supposed by all the household to be busy writing; but,
+in the meanwhile, there was a good deal of bustle in the stables; and
+about a quarter before eleven, the ostler came in, and informed the
+landlord, that they were saddling three of the colonel's horses, and
+his two grooms' horses.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Saddling three!&quot; cried the host; &quot;why, he can't ride three horses at
+once, anyhow; and where can he be going to ride to-night? I must run
+and see if I can pump it out of the fellows;&quot; and away he walked
+to the stables, where he found the men--two grooms, and two
+helpers--busily engaged in the occupation which the ostler had stated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah,&quot; said the landlord, &quot;so there is something going on to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not that I know of,&quot; answered the head groom. &quot;Tie down that holster,
+Bill. The thongs are loose--don't you see?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, but there must be something in the wind,&quot; rejoined the landlord,
+&quot;the colonel wouldn't ride out so late else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lord bless you!&quot; replied the man, &quot;little you know of his ways. Why,
+sometimes he'll have us all up at two or three in the morning, just to
+visit a post of perhaps twenty men. He's a smart officer, I can tell
+you; and no one must be caught napping in his regiment, that's
+certain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you have saddled three horses for him!&quot; said the landlord,
+returning to his axiom; &quot;and he can't ride three at once, any how.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but who can tell which he may like to ride?&quot; rejoined the groom,
+&quot;we shan't know anything about that, till he comes into the stable,
+most likely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And where is he going to, to-night?&quot; asked the landlord.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We can't tell that he's going anywhere,&quot; answered the man; &quot;but if he
+does, I should suppose it would be to Folkestone. The major is away on
+leave, you know; and it is just as likely as not, that he'll go over
+to see that all's right there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The worthy host was not altogether satisfied with the information he
+received; but as he clearly saw that he should get no more, he
+retired, and went into the tap, to try the dragoons, without being
+more successful in that quarter than he had been in the stables.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, his guest up stairs had finished his letters--had
+dressed himself in uniform--armed himself, and laid three brace of
+pistols, charged, upon the table, for the holsters of his saddles; and
+then taking a large map of the county, he leaned over it, tracing the
+different roads, which at that time intersected the Weald of Kent. Two
+or three times he took out his watch; and as the hour of eleven drew
+near, he began to feel considerable alarm for the fate of poor Mowle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If they discover him, they will murder him, to a certainty,&quot; he
+thought; &quot;and I believe a more honest fellow does not live.--It was a
+rash and foolish undertaking. The measures I have adopted could not
+fail.--Hark! there is the clock striking. We must lose no more time.
+We may save him yet, or at all events, avenge him.&quot; He then called the
+soldier from the door, and sent off a messenger to the house of the
+second officer of Customs, named Birchett, who came up in a few
+minutes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Birchett,&quot; said the colonel, &quot;I fear our friend Mowle has got
+himself into a scrape;&quot; and he proceeded to detail as many of the
+circumstances as were necessary to enable the other to comprehend the
+situation of affairs; and ended by asking, &quot;Are you prepared to act in
+Mr. Mowle's absence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, sir,&quot; answered Birchett. &quot;Mowle did not tell me the
+business; but he said, I must have my horse saddled. He was always a
+close fellow, and kept all the intelligence to himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In this case it was absolutely necessary,&quot; replied the colonel; &quot;but
+without any long explanations, I think you had better ride down
+towards Dymchurch at once, with all the men you can trust, keeping as
+sharp a look-out as you can on the coast, and sending me information
+the moment you receive intelligence that the run has been effected. Do
+not attempt to attack the smugglers without sufficient force; but
+despatch two men by different roads, to intimate the fact to me at
+Aldington Knowle, where I shall be found throughout the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, sir,&quot; answered the officer, &quot;but suppose the fellows take along
+by Burmarsh, and so up to Hardy Pool. They will pass you, and be off
+into the country before anything can be done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They will be stopped at Burmarsh,&quot; replied the colonel; &quot;orders have
+been given to barricade the road at nightfall, and to defend the
+hamlet against any one coming from the sea. I shall establish another
+post at Lympne as I go. Leave all that to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you must have a requisition, sir, or I suppose you are not
+authorized to act,&quot; said the officer. &quot;I will get one for you in a
+minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have one,&quot; answered the Colonel, laying hand on the papers before
+him; &quot;but even were it not so, I should act on my own responsibility.
+This is no ordinary case, Mr. Birchett. All you have to do is to ride
+off towards Dymchurch as fast as you can, to give me notice that the
+smugglers have landed their goods as soon as you find that such is the
+case, and to add any information that you can gain respecting the
+course they have taken. Remember, not to attack them unless you find
+that you have sufficient force, but follow and keep them in sight as
+far as you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It's such a devilish foggy night, sir,&quot; said Birchett.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It will be clearer inland,&quot; replied the young officer; &quot;and we shall
+catch them at day break. We can only fail from want of good
+information; so see that I have the most speedy intelligence. But
+stay--lest anything should go wrong, or be misunderstood with regard
+to the beacons, you may as well, if you have men to spare, send off as
+you pass, after the run has been effected, to the different posts at
+Brenzet, at Snave, at Ham Street, with merely these words, 'The goods
+are landed. The smugglers are at such a place.' The parties will act
+upon the orders they have already received. Now away, and lose no
+time!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The riding officer hurried off, and the colonel of the regiment
+descended to the court-yard. In three minutes more the sound of a
+trumpet was heard in the streets of Hythe, and in less than ten, a
+party of about thirty dragoons were marching out of the town towards
+Lympne. A halt for about five minutes was made at the latter place,
+and the small party of soldiers was diminished to about half its
+number. Information, too, was there received, from one of the
+cottagers, of a large body of men (magnified in his account into three
+or four hundred) having gone down into the marshes about half an hour
+before; but the commanding officer made no observation in reply, and
+having given the orders he thought necessary, rode on towards
+Aldington. The fog was thick in all the low ground, but cleared away a
+good deal upon the more elevated spots; and as they were rising one of
+the hills, the Serjeant who was with the party exclaimed, &quot;There is
+something very red up there, sir! It looks as if there were a beacon
+lighted up, if we could see it for the fog.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer halted for a moment, looked round, and then rode on
+till he reached the summit of the hill, whence a great light, clearly
+proceeding from a beacon, was discovered to the north-east.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That must be near Postling,&quot; he said. &quot;We have no party there. It
+must be some signal of their own.&quot; And as he rode on, he thought, &quot;It
+is not impossible that poor Mowle's rashness may have put these men on
+their guard, and thus thwarted the whole scheme. That is clearly some
+warning to their boats.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But ere a quarter of an hour more had passed, he saw the probability
+of still more disastrous effects, resulting from the lighting of the
+beacon on Tolsford Hill; for another flame shot up, casting a red
+glare through the haze from the side of Burmarsh, and then another and
+another, till the dim air seemed all tinged with flame.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An unlucky error,&quot; he said to himself. &quot;Serjeant Jackson should have
+known that we have no party in that quarter; and the beacons were only
+to be lighted, from the first towards Hythe. It is very strange how
+the clearest orders are sometimes misunderstood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He rode on, however, at a quick pace, till he reached Aldington
+Knowle, and had found the highest ground in the neighbourhood, whence,
+after pausing for a minute or two to examine the country, as marked
+out by the various fires, he dispatched three of the dragoons in
+different directions, with orders to the parties in the villages round
+to disregard the lights they saw, and not to act upon the orders
+previously given, till they received intimation that the smugglers
+were on the march.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was now about midnight, and during nearly two hours the young
+officer remained stationed upon the hill without any one approaching,
+or any sound breaking the stillness of the night but the stamping of
+the horses of his little force and the occasional clang of the
+soldiers' arms. At the end of that period, the tramp of horse coming
+along the road at a quick pace from the side of Hythe, was heard by
+the party on the more elevated ground at a little distance from the
+highway. There was a tightening of the bridle and a movement of the
+heel amongst the men, to bring their chargers into more regular line;
+but not a word was said, and the colonel remained in front, with his
+arms crossed upon his chest and his rein thrown down, while what
+appeared from the sound to be a considerable body of cavalry, passed
+before him. He could not see them, it is true, from the darkness of
+the night; but his ear recognised in a moment the jingling of the
+dragoons' arms, and he concluded rightly, that the party consisted of
+the company which he had ordered from Folkestone down to Bilsington.
+As soon as they had gone on, he detached a man to the next cross road
+on the same side, with orders, if he perceived any body of men coming
+across from the side of the Marsh, to ride forward at once to the
+officer in command at Bilsington, and direct him to move to the north,
+keeping the Priory wood on the right, till he reached the cross-roads
+at the corner, and wait there for further orders. The beacons had by
+this time burnt out; and all remained dark and still for about half an
+hour more, when the quick galloping of a horse was heard coming from
+the side of the Marsh. A pause took place as soon as the animal
+reached the high road, as if the rider had halted to look for some one
+he had expected; and--dashing down instantly through the gate of the
+field, which had been opened by the dragoons to gain the highest point
+of ground--the young officer exclaimed, &quot;Who goes there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, colonel, is that you?&quot; cried the voice of Birchett. &quot;They are
+coming up as fast as they can come, and will pass either by Bilsington
+or Bonnington. There's a precious lot of them--I never saw such a
+number gathered before. Mowle's gone, poor fellow, to a certainty; for
+we've seen nothing of him down there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor I either,&quot; answered the young officer, with a sigh. &quot;I hope you
+have left men to watch them, Mr. Birchett.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes, sir,&quot; replied the officer. &quot;I thought it better to come up
+myself, than trust to any other. But I left Clinch and the rest there,
+and sent off, as you told me, to all your posts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are sure they will come by Bilsington or Bonnington, and not
+strike off by Kitsbridge, towards Ham Street or Warehorn?&quot; demanded
+the young officer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If they do, they'll have to turn all the way back,&quot; answered
+Birchett; &quot;for I saw them to the crossing of the roads, and then came
+across by Sherlock's Bridges and the horse-road to Hurst.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And are you quite sure,&quot; continued the colonel, &quot;that your messengers
+will reach the parties at Brenzet or Snave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite, sir,&quot; answered the Custom-House officer; &quot;for I did not send
+them off till the blackguards had passed, and the country behind was
+clear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was judicious; and we have them,&quot; rejoined the young officer. &quot;I
+trust they may take by Bonnington; but it will be necessary to
+ascertain the fact. You shall go down, Mr. Birchett, yourself, with
+some of the troopers, and reconnoitre. Go as cautiously as possible;
+and if you see or hear them passing, fall back quietly. If they do not
+appear in reasonable time, send me intelligence. You can calculate the
+distances better than I can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe they will go by Bonnington,&quot; said the Customs officer; &quot;for
+it's much shorter, and I think they must know of your party at
+Bilsington; though, to be sure, they could easily force that, for it
+is but a sergeant's guard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken,&quot; answered the colonel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Captain Irby is there with his troop; and, together with the parties
+moving up, on a line with the smugglers from the Marsh, he will have a
+hundred and fifty men, either in Bilsington, or three miles in his
+rear. Nevertheless, we must give him help, in case they take that
+road; so you had better ride down at once, Mr. Birchett.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And, ordering three of the privates to accompany the Custom-House
+officer, with renewed injunctions to caution and silence, he resumed
+his position on the hill, and waited in expectation of the result.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_07" href="#div2Ref_07">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The cottages round Dymchurch, and the neighbourhood of the Gut, as it
+is called, showed many a cheerful light about eleven o'clock, on the
+night of which we have just been speaking; and, as the evening had
+been cold and damp, it seemed natural enough to the two officers of
+Customs stationed in the place--or at least they chose to think
+so--that the poor people should have a fire to keep them warm. If they
+had judged it expedient to go forth, instead of remaining in the house
+appropriated to them, they might indeed have discovered a fragrant
+odour of good Hollands, and every now and then a strong smell of
+brandy, issuing from any hovel door that happened to open as they
+passed. But the two officers did not judge it expedient to go forth;
+for it was late, they were warm and comfortable where they were, a
+good bowl of punch stood before them, and one of them, as he ladled
+out the exhilarating liquor to the other, remarked, with philosophical
+sagacity, &quot;It's such a foggy night, who the deuce could see anything
+on the water even if they went to look for it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other laughed, with a meaning wink of his eye, and perfectly
+agreed in the justice of his companion's observation. &quot;Well, we must
+go out, Jim, about twelve,&quot; he said, &quot;just to let old Mowle see that
+we are looking about; but you can go down to High Nook, and I can
+pretend I heard something suspicious in the Marsh, farther up.
+Otherwise, we shall be broke, to a certainty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't care, if I am broke,&quot; answered the other. &quot;I've got all that
+I want now, and can set up a shop.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I should like to hold on a little longer,&quot; replied his more
+prudent companion; &quot;and besides, if they found us out, they might do
+worse than discharge us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But how the deuce should they find us out?&quot; asked the other. &quot;Nobody
+saw me speak to the old gentleman; and nobody saw you. I didn't: nor
+did you see me. So we can say nothing, and nobody else can say
+anything--I shan't budge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I shall!&quot; said the other. &quot;'Tis but a walk; and you know quite
+well, Jim, that if we keep to the westward, it's all safe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was evident to the last speaker that his comrade had drunk quite
+enough punch; but still they went on till the bowl was finished; and
+then, the one going out, the other did not choose to remain, but
+issued forth also, cursing and growling as he went. The murmur of a
+good many voices to the eastward of Dymchurch saluted their ears the
+moment they quitted the house; but that sound only induced them to
+hasten their steps in the opposite direction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The noise which produced this effect upon the officers, had also been
+heard by another person, who was keeping his solitary watch on the low
+shore, three or four hundred yards from the village; and to him it was
+a pleasant sound. He had been on the look-out there for nearly two
+hours; and no sight had he seen, nor sound had he heard, but the water
+coming up as the tide made, and every now and then driving him further
+back to avoid the ripple of the wave. Two or three minutes after, a
+step could be distinguished; and some one gave a whistle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The watcher whistled in return; and the next instant he was joined by
+another person, somewhat taller than himself, who inquired, &quot;Have you
+heard anything of them yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, sir,&quot; answered the man, in a respectful tone. &quot;Everything has
+been as still and as sleepy as an old woman's cat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then what the devil's the meaning of these fires all over the
+country?&quot; asked young Radford; for he it was who had come down.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fires, sir?&quot; said the man. &quot;Why they were to light one upon Tolsford
+Hill, when Harding sent up the rockets; but I have heard of none but
+that, and have seen none at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, they are blazing all over the country,&quot; cried young Radford,
+from Tolsford to Dungeness. &quot;If it's any of our people that have done
+it, they must be mad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, if they have lighted the one at Tolsford,&quot;' answered the man,
+&quot;we shall soon have Tom Hazlewood down to tell us more; for he was to
+set off and gallop as fast as possible, whenever he saw anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Young Radford made no reply, but stood musing in silence for two or
+three minutes; and then starting, he exclaimed, &quot;Hark! wasn't that a
+cheer from the sea?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I didn't hear it,&quot; answered the man; &quot;but I thought I heard some one
+riding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Young Radford listened; but all seemed still for a moment, till,
+coming upon harder ground, a horse's feet sounded distinctly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tom Hazlewood, I think,&quot; cried Radford. &quot;Run up, and see, Bill!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He'll come straight down here, sir,&quot; replied the man; &quot;he knows where
+to find me.&quot; And almost as he spoke, a man on horseback galloped up,
+saying, &quot;They must be well in shore now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who the devil lighted all those fires?&quot; exclaimed young Radford. &quot;Why
+they will alarm the whole country!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know, sir,&quot; answered the man on horseback; &quot;I lighted the one
+at Tolsford, but I've nothing to do with the others, and don't know
+who lighted them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you saw the rockets?&quot; demanded the young gentleman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite clear, sir,&quot; replied Hazlewood; &quot;I got upon the highest point
+that I could find, and kept looking out over the sea, thinking I
+should see nothing; for though it was quite clear up so high, and the
+stars shining as bright as possible, yet all underneath was like a
+great white cloud rolled about; but suddenly, as I was looking over
+this way, I saw something like a star shoot up from the cloud and
+burst into a thousand bright sparks, making quite a blaze all round
+it; and then came another, and then another. So, being quite sure that
+it was Jack Harding at sea, I ran down as hard as I could to where I
+had left Peter by the pile of wood and the two old barrels, and taking
+the candle out of his lantern, thrust it in. As soon as it was in a
+blaze, I got outside my horse and galloped down; for he could not be
+more than two or three miles out when I saw the rockets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he must be close in now,&quot; answered Richard Radford; &quot;and we had
+better get all the men down, and spread out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There will be time enough, sir, I should think,&quot; observed the man on
+foot, &quot;for he'll get the big boats in, as near as he can, before he
+loads the little ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will fire a pistol, to let him know where we are,&quot; answered young
+Radford; and drawing one from his belt, he had cocked it, when the man
+on foot stopped him, saying, &quot;There are two officers in Dymchurch, you
+know, sir, and they may send off for troops.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh--nonsense!&quot; replied Richard Radford, firing the pistol in the
+air; &quot;do you think we would have left them there, if we were not sure
+of them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In somewhat less than a minute, a distinct cheer was heard from the
+sea; and at the sound of the pistol, a crowd of men and horses, which
+in the mist and darkness seemed innumerable, began to gather down upon
+the shore, as near to the water's edge as they could come. A great
+many lanterns were produced, and a strange and curious sight it was to
+see the number of wild-looking faces which appeared by that dim,
+uncertain light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ned Ramley!&quot; cried young Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here I am, sir,&quot; answered a voice close at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where's the Major?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Major! Major!&quot; shouted Ramley.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Coming,&quot; answered a voice at some distance. &quot;Stand by him, and do as
+I told you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What's the matter?&quot; demanded Richard Radford, as the Major came up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, nothing, sir!&quot; replied the other; &quot;only a man I found larking
+about. He says he's willing to help; but I thought it best to set a
+watch upon him, as I don't know him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was right,&quot; said the young gentleman. &quot;But, hark!--there are the
+oars!&quot; And the sound of the regular sweep, and the shifting beat of
+the oar against the rowlocks, was distinctly heard by all present.
+Some of the men waded down into the water, there being very little sea
+running, and soon, through the mist, six boats of a tolerable size
+could be seen pulling hard towards the land. In another moment, amidst
+various cries and directions, they touched the shore. Several men
+jumped out of each into the water, and a number of the party which had
+come down to meet them, running in, caught hold of the ropes that were
+thrown out of the boats, and with marvellous rapidity they were drawn
+up till they were high and dry.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Harding, is that you?&quot; said young Radford, addressing the
+smuggler, who had been steering the largest boat. &quot;This is capitally
+managed. You are even earlier than I expected; and we shall get far
+into the country before daylight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We were obliged to use the sweeps, sir,&quot; said Harding, bluntly; &quot;but
+don't let's talk. Get the things out, and load the horses; for we
+shall have to make two more trips back to the luggers before they are
+all cleared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Everything was now bustle and activity; a number of bales and packages
+were taken out of the boats and placed upon the horses in one way or
+another, not always the most convenient to the poor animals; and as
+soon as Harding had made Mr. Radford count the number of the articles
+landed, the boats were launched off again to some larger vessels,
+which it seems were lying out at a little distance, though
+indiscernible in the fog.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding himself remained ashore; and turning to one or two of those
+about him, he asked, &quot;What was all that red blaze I saw half over the
+country?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;None of us can tell,&quot; answered young Radford. &quot;The moment the fire at
+Tolsford was lighted, a dozen more were flaming up, all along to
+Dungeness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's devilish strange!&quot; said Harding. &quot;It does not look well.--How
+many men have you got with you, Mr. Radford?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, well nigh upon two hundred,&quot; answered Ned Ramley, for his
+comrade.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, then you'll do,&quot; answered Harding, with a laugh; &quot;but still you
+won't be the worse for some more. So I and some of the lads will see
+you safe across the Marsh. The Customs have got nothing at sea about
+here; so the boats will be safe enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, Harding--thank you, Jack;&quot; said several of the voices.
+&quot;Once out of the Marsh, with all these ditches and things, and we
+shall do very well. How far are the luggers off?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a hundred fathom,&quot; answered Harding. &quot;I would have run them
+ashore if there had been any capstan here to have drawn them up. But
+they wont be a minute, so have every thing ready. Move off those
+horses that are loaded, a bit, my lads, and bring up the others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding's minute, however, extended to nearly ten, and then the boats
+were again perceived approaching, and the same process was followed as
+before. The third trip was then made with equal success and ease. Not
+the slightest difficulty occurred, not the slightest obstruction was
+offered; the number of packages was declared to be complete, the
+horses were all loaded, and the party began to move off in a long
+line, across the Marsh, like a caravan threading the mazes of the
+desert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leaving a few men with the boats that were ashore, Harding and the
+rest of the seamen, with Mr. Radford, and several of his party,
+brought up the rear of the smugglers, talking over the events which
+had taken place, and the course of their farther proceedings. All
+seemed friendly and good-humoured; but there is such a thing as
+seeming, even amongst smugglers, and if Harding could have seen the
+real feelings of some of his companions towards him, it is very
+probable that he would not have given himself the trouble to accompany
+them on the way.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will pay you the money when I get to Bonnington,&quot; said young
+Radford, addressing his companion. &quot;I can't very well get at it till I
+dismount.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, there's no matter for that, sir,&quot; replied the smuggler. &quot;Your
+father can pay me some other time.--But what are you going to
+Bonnington for? I should have thought your best way would have been by
+Bilsington, and so straight into the Weald. Then you would have had
+the woods round about you the greater part of the way; or I don't know
+that I might not have gone farther down still, and so by Orleston.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There's a party of dragoons at Bilsington,&quot; said young Radford, &quot;and
+another at Ham Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, that alters the case,&quot; answered the smuggler; &quot;but they are all
+so scattered about and so few, I should think they could do you no
+great harm. However, it will be best for you to go by Bonnington, if
+you are sure there are no troops there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If there are, we must fight: that's all,&quot; answered young Radford; and
+so ended the conversation for the time. One of those pauses of deep
+silence succeeded, which--by the accidental exhaustion of topics and
+the recurrence of the mind to the thoughts suggested by what has just
+passed--so frequently intervene in the conversation even of great
+numbers, whether occupied with light or serious subjects. How often do
+we find, amidst the gayest or the busiest assembly, a sudden stillness
+pervade the whole, and the ear may detect a pin fall. In the midst of
+the silence, however, Harding laid his hand upon young Radford's
+bridle, saying, in a low voice, &quot;Hark! do you not hear the galloping
+of horses to the east there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man, on the first impulse, put his hand to his holster; but
+then withdrew it, and listened. &quot;I think I do,&quot; he answered; &quot;but now
+it has stopped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are watched, I suspect,&quot; said Harding; &quot;they did not seem many,
+however, and may be afraid to attack you. If I were you, I would put
+the men into a quicker pace; for these fellows may gather as they
+go.--If you had got such things with you as you could throw into the
+cuts, it would not much matter; for you could fight it out here, as
+well as elsewhere; but, if I understood your father rightly, these
+goods would all be spoiled, and so the sooner you are out of the Marsh
+the better. Then you will be safe enough, if you are prudent. You may
+have to risk a shot or two; but that does not much matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what do you call prudent, Harding?&quot; asked young Radford, in a
+wonderfully calm tone, considering his vehement temperament, and the
+excitement of the adventure in which he was engaged; &quot;how would you
+have me act, when I do get out of the Marsh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, that seems clear enough,&quot; replied the smuggler. &quot;I would send
+all the goods and the men on foot, first, keeping along the straight
+road between the woods; and then, with all those who have got horses,
+I would hang behind a quarter of a mile or so, till the others had
+time to get on and disperse to the different hides, which ought to be
+done as soon as possible. Let a number drop off here, and a number
+there--one set to the willow cave, close by Woodchurch hill, another
+to the old Priory in the wood, and so on: you still keeping behind,
+and facing about upon the road, if you are pursued. If you do that,
+you are sure to secure the goods, or by far the greater part of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The advice was so good--as far as young Radford knew of the condition
+of the country, and the usual plan of operations which had hitherto
+been pursued by the Customs in their pursuit of smugglers--that he
+could offer no reasonable argument against it; but when prejudice has
+taken possession of a man's mind, it is a busy and skilful framer of
+suspicions; and he thought within his own breast, though he did not
+speak his intentions aloud, &quot;No! Hang me if I leave the goods till I
+see them safe housed. This fellow may want to ruin us, by separating
+us into small parties.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The rest of the party had, by this time, resumed their conversation;
+and both Radford and Harding well knew that it would be vain to
+attempt to keep them quiet; for they were a rash and careless set,
+inclined to do everything with dash and swagger; and although, in the
+presence of actual and apparent danger, they could be induced to
+preserve some degree of order and discipline, and to show some
+obedience to their leaders, yet as soon as the peril had passed away,
+or was no longer immediately before their eyes, they were like
+schoolboys in the master's absence, and careless of the consequences
+which they did not see. Twice Harding said, in a low voice, &quot;I hear
+them again to the east, there!&quot; and twice young Radford urged his men
+to a quicker pace; but many of them had come far; horses and men were
+tired; every one considered that, as the goods were safely landed, and
+no opposition shown, the battle was more than half won; and all forgot
+the warning of the day before, as man ever forgets the chastisements
+which are inflicted by Heaven for his good, and falls the next day
+into the very same errors, for the reproof of which they were sent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now,&quot; said Harding, as they approached the spot where the Marsh road
+opened upon the highway to Bonnington, &quot;spread some of your men out on
+the right and left, Mr. Radford, to keep you clear in case the enemy
+wish to make an attack. Your people can easily close in, and follow
+quickly, as soon as the rest have passed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If they do make an attack,&quot; thought young Radford, &quot;your head shall
+be the first I send a ball through;&quot; but the advice was too judicious
+to be neglected; and he accordingly gave orders to Ned Ramley and the
+Major, with ten men each, to go one or two hundred yards on the road
+towards Bilsington on the one hand, and Hurst on the other, and see
+that all was safe. A little confusion ensued, as was but natural in so
+badly disciplined a body; and in the meanwhile the laden horses
+advanced along the road straight into the heart of the country, while
+Richard Radford, with the greater part of his mounted men, paused to
+support either of his parties in case of attack. He said something in
+a low voice regarding the money, to Harding, who replied abruptly,
+&quot;There--never mind about that; only look out, and get off as quickly
+as you can. You are safe enough now, I think; so good night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he turned, and with the six or eight stout fellows who
+accompanied him, trod his way back into the Marsh. What passed through
+young Radford's brain at that moment it may be needless to dwell upon;
+but Harding escaped a peril that he little dreamed of, solely by the
+risk of ruin to the whole scheme which a brawl at that spot and moment
+must have entailed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men who had been detached to the right, advanced along the road to
+the distance specified, proceeding slowly in the fog, and looking
+eagerly out before. &quot;Look out,&quot; said Ned Ramley, at length, to one of
+his companions, taking a pistol from his belt at the same time, &quot;I see
+men on horseback there, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only trees in the fog,&quot; answered the other.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush!&quot; cried Ramley, sharply; but the other men were talking
+carelessly, and whether it was the sound of retreating horses or not,
+that he heard, he could not discover. After going on about three
+hundred yards, Ned Ramley turned, saying, &quot;We had better go back now,
+and give warning; for I am very sure those were men I saw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other differed with him on that point; and, on rejoining Richard
+Radford, they found the Major and his party just come back from the
+Bilsington road, but with one man short. &quot;That fellow,&quot; said the
+Major, &quot;has taken himself off. I was sure he was a spy, so we had
+better go on as fast as possible. We shall have plenty of time before
+he can raise men enough to follow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are others to the east, there,&quot; replied Ned Ramley. &quot;I saw two
+or three, and there is no time to be lost, I say, or we shall have the
+whole country upon us. If I were you, Mr. Radford, I'd disperse in as
+small numbers as possible whenever we get to the Chequer-tree; and
+then if we lose a few of the things, we shall keep the greater
+part--unless, indeed, you are minded to stand it out, and have a fight
+upon the Green. We are enough to beat them all, I should think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, Ned, that is the gallant way,&quot; answered Richard Radford; &quot;but we
+must first see what is on before. We must not lose the goods, or risk
+them; otherwise nothing would please me better than to drub these
+dragoons; but in case it should be dark still when they come near
+us--if they do at all--we'll have a blow or two before we have done, I
+trust. However, let us forward now, for we must keep up well with the
+rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The party moved on at a quick pace, and soon overtook the train of
+loaded horses, and men on foot, which had gone on before. Many a time
+a glance was given along the road behind, and many a time an attentive
+ear was turned listening for the sound of coming horse; but all was
+still and silent; and winding on through the thick woods, which at
+that time overspread all the country in the vicinity of their course,
+and covered their line of advance right and left, they began to lose
+the sense of danger, and to suppose that the sounds which had been
+heard, and the forms which had been seen, were but mere creations of
+the fancy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">About two miles from the border of Romney Marsh, the mist grew
+lighter, fading gradually away as the sea air mingled with the clearer
+atmosphere of the country. At times a star or two might be seen above;
+and though at that hour the moon gave no light, yet there was a
+certain degree of brightening in the sky which made some think they
+had miscalculated the hour, and that it was nearer the dawn than they
+imagined, while others contended that it was produced merely by the
+clearing away of the fog. At length, however, they heard a distant
+clock strike four. They were now at a spot where three or four roads
+branch off in different directions, at a distance of not more than
+half-a-mile from Chequer-tree, having a wide extent of rough,
+uncultivated land, called Aldington Freight, on their right, and part
+of the Priory wood on their left; and it yet wanted somewhat more than
+an hour to the actual rising of the sun. A consultation was then held;
+and, notwithstanding some differences of opinion, it was resolved to
+take the road by Stonecross Green, where they thought they could get
+information from some friendly cottagers, and thence through Gilbert's
+Wood towards Shaddoxhurst. At that point, they calculated that they
+could safely separate in order to convey the goods to the several
+<i>hides</i>, or places of concealment, which had been chosen beforehand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At Stonecross Green, they paused again, and knocked hard at a cottage
+door, till they brought forth the sleepy tenant from his bed. But the
+intelligence gained from him was by no means satisfactory; he spoke of
+a large party of dragoons at Kingsnorth, and mentioned reports which
+had reached him of a small body having shown itself, at Bromley Green,
+late on the preceding night; and it was consequently resolved, after
+much debate, to turn off before entering Gilbert's Wood, and, in some
+degree retreading their steps towards the Marsh, to make for
+Woodchurch beacon and thence to Redbrook Street. The distance was thus
+rendered greater, and both men and horses were weary; but the line of
+road proposed lay amidst a wild and thinly inhabited part of the
+country, where few hamlets or villages offered any quarters for the
+dragoons. They calculated, too, that having turned the dragoons who
+were quartered at Bilsington, they should thus pass between them and
+those at Kingsnorth and Bromley Green: and Richard Radford, himself,
+was well aware that there were no soldiers, when he left that part of
+the country, in the neighbourhood of High Halden or Bethersden. This
+seemed, therefore, the only road that was actually open before them;
+and it was accordingly taken, after a general distribution of spirits
+amongst the men, and of hay and water to the horses. Still their
+progress was slow, for the ground became hilly in that neighbourhood,
+and by the time they arrived at an elevated spot, near Woodchurch
+Beacon, whence they could see over a wide extent of country round, the
+grey light of the dawn was spreading rapidly through the sky, showing
+all the varied objects of the fair and beautiful land through which
+they wandered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it is now necessary to turn to another personage in our history,
+of whose fate, for some time, we have had no account.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_08" href="#div2Ref_08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">We left our friend, Mr. Mowle, in no very pleasant situation; for
+although the generosity of the Major, in neither divulging the
+discovery he had made, to the rest of the smugglers, nor blowing the
+brains of the intruder out upon the spot, was, perhaps, much more than
+could be expected from a man in his situation and of his habits, yet
+it afforded no guarantee whatsoever to the unfortunate Custom-House
+officer, that his life would not be sacrificed on the very first
+danger or alarm. He also knew, that if such an accident were to happen
+again, as that which had at first displayed his features to one of
+those into whose nocturnal councils he had intruded, nothing on earth
+could save him; for amongst the gang by whom he was surrounded, were a
+number of men who had sworn to shed his blood on the very first
+opportunity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He walked along, therefore, as the reader may well conceive, with the
+feeling of a knife continually at his throat; and a long and weary
+march it seemed to him, as, proceeding by tortuous ways and zig-zag
+paths, the smugglers descended into Romney Marsh, and advanced
+rapidly towards Dymchurch. Mowle was, perhaps, as brave and daring a
+man as any that ever existed; but still the sensation of impending
+death can never be very pleasant to a person in strong health, and
+well-contented with the earth on which he is placed; and Mowle felt
+all the disagreeable points in his situation, exactly as any other man
+would do. It would not be just to him, however, were we not to state,
+that many other considerations crossed his mind, besides that of his
+own personal safety. The first of these was his duty to the department
+of government which he served; and many a plan suggested itself for
+making his escape here or there, in which he regarded the apprehension
+of the smugglers, and the seizure of the goods that they were going to
+escort into the country, fully as much as his own life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His friend the Major, however, took means to frustrate all such plans,
+and seemed equally careful to prevent Mr. Mowle from effecting his
+object, and to guard against his being discovered by the other
+smugglers. At every turn and corner, at the crossing of every stream
+or cut, the Major was by his side; and yet once or twice he whispered
+a caution to him to keep out of the way of the lights, more especially
+as they approached Dymchurch. When they came near the shore, and a
+number of men with lanterns issued forth to aid them from the various
+cottages in the vicinity, he told Mowle to keep back with one party,
+consisting of hands brought out of Sussex, who were stationed in the
+rear with a troop of the horses. But at the same time Mowle heard his
+compassionate friend direct two of the men to keep a sharp eye upon
+him, as he was a stranger, of whom the leaders were not quite sure,
+adding an injunction to blow his brains out at once, if he made the
+slightest movement without orders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the bustle and confusion which ensued, during the landing of the
+smuggled goods and the loading of the horses, Mowle once or twice
+encouraged a hope that something would favour his escape. But the two
+men strictly obeyed the orders they had received, remained close to
+his side during more than an hour and a half, which was consumed upon
+the beach, and never left him till he was rejoined by the Major, who
+told him to march on with the rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What's to come of this?&quot; thought Mowle, as he proceeded, &quot;and what can
+the fellow intend to do with me?--If he drags me along with them till
+daylight, one half of them will know me; and then the game's up--and
+yet he can't mean me harm, either. Well, I may have an opportunity of
+repaying him some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the party arrived at Bonnington, however, and, as we have already
+stated, two small bodies were sent off to the right and left, to
+reconnoitre the ground on either side, Mowle was one of those selected
+by the Major to accompany him on the side of Bilsington. But after
+having gone to the prescribed distance, without discovering anything
+to create suspicion, the worthy field-officer gave the order to
+return; and contriving to disentangle Mowle from the rest, he
+whispered in his ear, &quot;Off with you as fast as you can, and take back
+by the Marsh, for if you give the least information, or bring the
+soldiers upon us, be you sure that some of us will find means to cut
+your throat.--Get on, get on fast!&quot; he continued aloud, to the other
+men. &quot;We've no time to lose;&quot; and Mowle, taking advantage of the hurry
+and confusion of the moment, ran off towards Bilsington as fast as his
+legs could carry him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He's off!&quot; cried one of the men. &quot;Shall I give him a shot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No--no,&quot; answered the Major, &quot;it will only make more row. He's more
+frightened than treacherous, I believe. I don't think he'll peach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he rejoined the main body of the smugglers, as we have
+seen; and Mowle hurried on his way without pause, running till he was
+quite out of breath. Now, the Major, in his parting speech to Mowle,
+though a shrewd man, had miscalculated his course, and mistaken the
+person with whom he had to deal. Had he put it to the Custom-House
+officer, as a matter of honour and generosity, not to inform against
+the person who had saved his life, poor Mowle would have been in a
+situation of great perplexity; but the threat which had been used,
+relieved him of half the difficulty. Not that he did not feel a
+repugnance to the task which duty pointed out--not that he did not ask
+himself, as soon as he had a moment to think of anything, &quot;What ought
+I to do? How ought I to act?&quot; But still the answer was, that his duty
+and his oath required him immediately to take steps for the pursuit
+and capture of the smugglers; and when he thought of the menace he
+said to himself, &quot;No, no; if I don't do what I ought, these fellows
+will only say that I was afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having settled the matter in his own mind, he proceeded to execute his
+purpose with all speed, and hurried on towards Bilsington, where he
+knew there was a small party of dragoons, proposing to send off
+messengers immediately to the colonel of the regiment and to all the
+different posts around. It was pitch dark, so that he did not perceive
+the first houses of the hamlet, till he was within a few yards of
+them; and all seemed still and quiet in the place. But after having
+passed the lane leading to the church, Mowle heard the stamping of
+some horses' feet, and the next instant a voice exclaimed, &quot;Stand! who
+goes there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">'&quot;A friend!&quot; answered Mowle. &quot;Where's the sergeant?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here am I,&quot; replied another voice. &quot;Who are you?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My name is Mowle,&quot; rejoined our friend, &quot;the chief officer of Customs
+at Hythe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, come along, Mr. Mowle; you are just the man we want,&quot; said the
+sergeant, advancing a step or two. &quot;Captain Irby is up here, and would
+be glad to speak with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mowle followed in silence, having, indeed, some occasion to set his
+thoughts in order, and to recover his breath. About sixty or seventy
+yards farther on, a scene broke upon him, which somewhat surprised
+him; for, instead of a dozen dragoons at the most, he perceived, on
+turning the corner of the next cottage, a body of at least seventy or
+eighty men, as well as he could calculate, standing each beside his
+horse, whose breath was seen mingling with the thick fog, by the light
+of a single lantern held close to the wall of the house which
+concealed the party from the Bonnington Road. Round that lantern were
+congregated three or four figures, besides that of the man who held
+it; and, fronting the approach, was a young gentleman,<a name="div4Ref_02" href="#div4_02"><sup>[2]</sup></a> dressed in
+the usual costume of a dragoon officer of that period. Before him
+stood another, apparently a private of the regiment; and the light
+shone full upon the faces of both, showing a cold, thoughtful, and
+inquiring look upon the countenance of the young officer, and anxious
+haste upon that of the inferior soldier.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here is Mr. Mowle, the chief officer, captain,&quot; said the sergeant, as
+they advanced.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ha, that is fortunate!&quot; replied Captain Irby. &quot;Now we shall get at
+the facts, I suppose. Well, Mr. Mowle, what news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, sir, the cargo is landed,&quot; exclaimed Mowle, eagerly; &quot;and the
+smugglers passed by Bonnington, up towards Chequer-tree, not twenty
+minutes ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So this man says,&quot; rejoined Captain Irby, not the least in the world
+in haste. &quot;Have you any fresh orders from the colonel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, sir; he said all his orders were given when last I saw him,&quot;
+replied the officer of Customs; &quot;but if you move up quick towards
+Chequer-tree, you are sure to overtake them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How long is it since you saw Sir Henry?&quot; demanded Captain Irby,
+without appearing to notice Mowle's suggestion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, several hours ago,&quot; answered the Custom-House agent, somewhat
+provoked at the young officer's coolness. &quot;I have been kept prisoner
+by the smugglers since ten o'clock--but that is nothing to the
+purpose, sir. If you would catch the smugglers, you have nothing for
+it but to move up to Chequer-tree after them; and that is what I
+require you to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have my orders,&quot; answered the captain of the troop, with a smile at
+the impetuous tone of the Custom-House officer, &quot;and if you bring me
+none later, those I shall obey, Mr. Mowle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, sir, you take the responsibility upon yourself, then,&quot; said
+Mowle; &quot;I have expressed my opinion, and what I require at your
+hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The responsibility will rest where it ought,&quot; replied Captain Irby,
+&quot;on the shoulders of him whom I am bound to obey. For your opinion I
+am obliged to you, but it cannot be followed; and as to what you
+require, I am under superior authority, which supersedes your
+requisition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He then said a word or two to one of the men beside him, who
+immediately proceeded to the body of men behind; but all that Mowle
+could hear was &quot;Snave&quot; and &quot;Brenzet,&quot; repeated once or twice, with
+some mention of Woodchurch and the road by Red Brooke Street. The
+order was then given to mount, and march; and Mowle remarked that four
+troopers rode off at a quick pace before the rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, Mr. Mowle, we shall want you with us if you please,&quot; said
+Captain Irby, in a civil tone. &quot;Where is your horse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Horse!--I have got none;&quot; answered the officer of Customs, a good
+deal piqued; &quot;did I not say that I have been a prisoner with the
+smugglers for the last five hours? and as to my going with you, sir, I
+see no use I can be of, if you do not choose to do what I require, or
+follow my advice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, the greatest--the greatest!&quot; replied the young officer, without
+losing his temper for an instant, &quot;and as to a horse, we will soon
+supply you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An order was immediately given; and in three minutes the horse of a
+dragoon officer, fully caparisoned, was led up to Mowle's side, who,
+after a moment's hesitation, mounted, and rode on with the troop. It
+must not be denied that he was anything but satisfied, not alone
+because he thought that he was not treated with sufficient
+deference--although, having for years been accustomed to be obeyed
+implicitly by the small parties of dragoons which had been previously
+sent down to aid the Customs, it did seem to him very strange that his
+opinions should go for nought--but also because he feared that the
+public service would suffer, and that the obstinacy, as he called it,
+of the young officer, would enable the smugglers to escape. Still more
+was his anxiety and indignation raised, when he perceived the slow
+pace at which the young officer proceeded, and that instead of taking
+the road which he had pointed out, the party kept the Priory Wood on
+the right hand, bearing away from Chequer-tree, to which he had
+assured himself that Richard Radford and his party were tending.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He saw that many precautions were taken, however, which, attributing
+them at first to a design of guarding against surprise, he thought
+quite unnecessary. Two dragoons were thrown forward at a considerable
+distance before the head of the troop; a single private followed about
+twenty yards behind them; two more succeeded, and then another, and
+last came Captain Irby himself, keeping Mr. Mowle by his side. From
+time to time a word was passed down from those who led the advance,
+not shouted--but spoken in a tone only loud enough to be heard by the
+trooper immediately behind; and this word, for a considerable way, was
+merely &quot;All clear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At length, just at the end of the Priory Wood, where a path, coming
+from the east, branched off towards Aldington Freight, and two roads
+went away to the north and west, the order to halt was given, to the
+surprise and consternation of Mr. Mowle, who conceived that the escape
+of the smugglers must be an inevitable result. At length a new word
+was passed from the head of the line, which was, &quot;On before.&quot; But
+still the captain of the troop gave no command to march, and the
+soldiers sat idle on their horses for a quarter of an hour longer.
+Mowle calculated that it must now be at least half past four or five
+o'clock. He thought he perceived the approach of day; and though, in
+discontented silence, he ventured to say no more, he would have given
+all he had in the world to have had the command of the troop for a
+couple of hours. His suspense and anxiety were brought to an end at
+length; for just as he was assured, by the greyness of the sky, that
+the sun would soon rise, a trooper came dashing down the right-hand
+path at full speed, and Captain Irby spurred on to meet him. What
+passed between them Mowle could not hear; but the message was soon
+delivered, the soldier rode back to the east, by the way he came, and
+the order to march was immediately given. Instead, however, of taking
+the road to Stonecross, the troop directed its course to the west, but
+at a somewhat quicker pace than before. Still a word was passed back
+from the head of the line; and, after a short time, the troop was put
+into a quick trot, Captain Irby sometimes endeavouring to lead his
+companion into general conversation upon any indifferent subject, but
+not once alluding to the expedition on which they were engaged. Poor
+Mowle was too anxious to talk much. He did not at all comprehend the
+plan upon which the young officer was acting; but yet he began to see
+that there was some plan in operation, and he repeated to himself more
+than once, &quot;There must be something in it, that's clear; but he might
+as well tell me what it is, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At length he turned frankly round to his companion, and said, &quot;I see
+you are going upon some scheme, Captain. I wish to Heaven you would
+tell me what it is; for you can't imagine how anxious I am about this
+affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My good friend,&quot; replied Captain Irby, &quot;I know no more of the matter
+than you do; so I can tell you nothing about it. I am acting under
+orders; and the only difference between you and I is, that you, not
+being accustomed to do so, are always puzzling yourself to know what
+it all means, while I, being well drilled to such things, do not
+trouble my head about it; but do as I am told, quite sure that it will
+all go right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven send it!&quot; answered Mowle; &quot;but here it is broad day-light, and
+we seem to be going farther and farther from our object every minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As if in answer to his last observation, the word was again passed
+down from the front, &quot;On, before!&quot; and Captain Irby immediately halted
+his troop for about five minutes. At the end of that time, the march
+was resumed, and shortly after the whole body issued out upon the side
+of one of the hills, a few miles from Woodchurch.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sun was now just risen--the east was glowing with all the hues of
+early day--the mist was dispersed or left behind in the neighbourhood
+of the Marsh; and a magnificent scene, all filled with golden light,
+spread out beneath the eyes of the Custom-House officer. But he had
+other objects to contemplate much more interesting to him than the
+beauties of the landscape. About three-quarters of a mile in advance,
+and in the low ground to the north-west of the hill on which he stood,
+appeared a dark, confused mass of men and horses, apparently directing
+their course towards Tiffenden; and Mowle's practised eye instantly
+perceived that they were the smugglers. At first sight he thought,
+&quot;They may escape us yet:&quot; but following the direction in which Captain
+Irby's glance was turned, he saw, further on, in the open fields
+towards High Halden, a considerable body of horse, whose regular line
+at once showed them to be a party of the military. Then turning
+towards the little place on his left, called Cuckoo Point, he
+perceived, at the distance of about a mile, another troop of dragoons,
+who must have marched, he thought, from Brenzet and Appledore.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The smugglers seemed to become aware, nearly at the same moment, of
+the presence of the troops on the side of High Halden; for they were
+observed to halt, to pause for a minute or two, then re-tread their
+steps for a short distance, and take their way over the side of the
+hill, as if tending towards Plurenden or Little Ingham.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You should cut them off, sir--you should cut them off!&quot; cried Mowle,
+addressing Captain Irby, &quot;or, by Jove, they'll be over the hill above
+Brook Street; and then we shall never catch them, amongst all the
+woods and copses up there. They'll escape, to a certainty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think not, if I know my man,&quot; answered Captain Irby, coolly; &quot;and,
+at all events, Mr. Mowle, I must obey my orders.--But there he comes
+over the hill; so that matter's settled. Now let them get out if they
+can.--You have heard of a rat-trap, Mr. Mowle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mowle turned his eyes in the direction of an opposite hill, about
+three-quarters of a mile distant from the spot where he himself stood,
+and there, coming up at a rapid pace, appeared an officer in a plain
+grey cloak, with two or three others in full regimentals, round him,
+while a larger body of cavalry than any he had yet seen, met his eyes,
+following their commander about fifty yards behind, and gradually
+crowning the summit of the rise, where they halted. The smugglers
+could not be at more than half a mile's distance from this party, and
+the moment that it appeared, the troops from the side of High Halden
+and from Cuckoo Point began to advance at a quick trot, while Captain
+Irby descended into the lower ground more slowly, watching, with a
+small glass that he carried in his hand, the motions of all the other
+bodies, when the view was not cut off by the hedge-rows and copses, as
+his position altered. Mowle kept his eyes upon the body of smugglers,
+and upon the dragoons on the opposite hill, and he soon perceived a
+trooper ride down from the latter group to the former, as if bearing
+them some message.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next instant, there was a flash or two, as if the smugglers had
+fired upon the soldier sent to them; and then, retreating slowly
+towards a large white house, with some gardens and shrubberies and
+various outbuildings around it, they manifested a design of occupying
+the grounds with the intention of there resisting the attack of the
+cavalry. A trooper instantly galloped down, at full speed, towards
+Captain Irby, making him a sign with his hand as he came near; and the
+troop with whom Mowle had advanced instantly received the command to
+charge, while the other, from the hill, came dashing down with
+headlong speed towards the confused multitude below.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The smugglers were too late in their man&#339;uvre. Embarrassed with a
+large quantity of goods and a number of men on foot; they had not time
+to reach the shelter of the garden walls, before the party of dragoons
+from the hill was amongst them. But still they resisted with fierce
+determination, formed with some degree of order, gave the troopers a
+sharp discharge of firearms as they came near, and fought hand to hand
+with them, even after being broken by their charge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The greater distance which Captain Irby had to advance, prevented his
+troop from reaching the scene of strife for a minute or two after the
+others; but their arrival spread panic and confusion amongst the
+adverse party; and after a brief and unsuccessful struggle, in the
+course of which, one of the dragoons was killed, and a considerable
+number wounded, nothing was thought of amongst young Radford's band,
+but how to escape in the presence of such a force. The goods were
+abandoned--all those men who had horses were seen galloping over the
+country in different directions; and if any fugitive paused, it was
+but to turn and fire a shot at one of the dragoons in pursuit. Almost
+every one of the men on foot was taken ere half an hour was over; and
+a number of those on horseback were caught and brought back, some
+desperately wounded. Several were left dead, or dying, on the spot
+where the first encounter had taken place; and amongst the former,
+Mowle, with feelings of deep regret, almost approaching remorse,
+beheld, as he rode up towards the colonel of the regiment, the body of
+his friend, the Major, shot through the head by a pistol-ball. Men of
+the Custom-House officer's character, however, soon console themselves
+for such things; and Mowle, as he rode on, thought to himself, &quot;After
+all, it's just as well! He would only have been hanged--so he's had an
+easier death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer in the command of the regiment of dragoons was
+seated on horseback, upon the top of a little knoll, with some six or
+seven persons immediately around him, while two groups of soldiers,
+dismounted, and guarding a number of prisoners, appeared a little in
+advance. Amongst those nearest to the Colonel, Mowle remarked his
+companion, Birchett, who was pointing, with a discharged pistol,
+across the country, and saying, &quot;There he goes, sir, there he goes!
+I'll swear that is he, on the strong grey horse. I fired at him--I'm
+sure I must have hit him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, you didn't, sir,&quot; answered a sergeant of dragoons, who was busily
+tying a handkerchief round his own wounded arm. &quot;Your shot went
+through his hat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer fixed his eyes keenly upon the road leading to
+Harbourne, where a man, on horseback, was seen galloping away, at full
+speed, with four or five of the soldiers in pursuit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Away after him, Sergeant Miles,&quot; he said; &quot;take straight across the
+country, with six men of Captain Irby's troop. They are fresher. If
+you make haste you will cut him off at the corner of the wood; or if
+he takes the road through it, in order to avoid you, leave a couple of
+men at Tiffenden corner, and round by the path to the left. The
+distance will be shorter for you, and you will stop him at Mrs.
+Clare's cottage--a hundred guineas to any one who brings him in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His orders were immediately obeyed; and, without noticing Mowle, or
+any one else, the colonel continued to gaze after the little party of
+dragoons, as, dashing on at the utmost speed of their horses, they
+crossed an open part of the ground in front, keeping to the right hand
+of the fugitive, and threatening to cut him off from the north side of
+the country, towards which he was decidedly tending. Whether, if he
+had been able to proceed at the same rate at which he was then going,
+they would have been successful in their efforts or not, is difficult
+to say; for his horse, though tired, was very powerful, and chosen
+expressly for its fleetness. But in a flight and pursuit like that,
+the slightest accident will throw the advantage on the one side or the
+other; and unfortunately for the fugitive, his horse stumbled, and
+came upon its knees. It was up again in a moment, and went on, though
+somewhat more slowly; and the young officer observed, in a low tone,
+&quot;They will have him.--It is of the utmost importance that he should be
+taken.--Ah! Mr. Mowle, is that you? Why, we have given you up for
+these many hours. We have been successful, you see; and yet, but half
+successful either, if their leader gets away.--You are sure of the
+person, Mr. Birchett?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perfectly, sir,&quot; answered the officer of Customs. &quot;I was as near to
+him, at one time, as I am now to you; and Mr. Mowle here, too, will
+tell you I know him well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who,--young Radford?&quot; asked Mowle. &quot;Oh yes, that we all do; and
+besides, I can tell you, that is he on the grey horse, for I was along
+with him the greater part of last night.&quot; And Mowle proceeded to
+relate succinctly all that had occurred to him from ten o'clock on the
+preceding evening.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer, in the meanwhile, continued to follow the soldiers
+with his eyes, commenting, by a brief word or two, on the various
+turns taken by the pursuit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is cut off,&quot; he said, in a tone of satisfaction; &quot;the troops, from
+Halden, will stop him there.--He is turning to the left, as if he
+would make for Tenterden.--Captain Irby, be so good as to detach a
+corporal, with as many men as you can spare, to cut him off by Gallows
+Green--on the left-hand road, there. Bid them use all speed. Now he's
+for Harbourne again! He'll try to get through the wood; but Miles will
+be before him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He then applied himself to examine the state of his own men and the
+prisoners, and paid every humane attention to both, doing the best
+that he could for their wounds, in the absence of surgical assistance,
+and ordering carts to be procured from the neighbouring farms, to
+carry those most severely injured into the village of Woodchurch. The
+smuggled goods he consigned to the charge of the Custom-House
+officers, giving them, however, a strong escort, at their express
+desire; although, he justly observed, that there was but little chance
+of any attempt being made by the smugglers to recover what they had
+lost.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall now, Mr. Mowle,&quot; he continued, &quot;proceed to Woodchurch, and
+remain there for a time, to see what other prisoners are brought in,
+and make any farther arrangements that may be necessary; but I shall
+be in Hythe, in all probability, before night. The custody of the
+prisoners I shall take upon myself for the present, as the civil power
+is evidently not capable of guarding them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, sir, you have made a glorious day's work of it,&quot; answered
+Mowle, &quot;that I must say; and I'm sure if you like to establish your
+quarters, for the morning, at Mr. Croyland's there, on just before, he
+will make you heartily welcome; for he hates smugglers as much as any
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer shook his head, saying, &quot;No, I will go to
+Woodchurch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But he gazed earnestly at the house for several minutes, before he
+turned his horse towards the village; and then, leaving the minor
+arrangements to be made by the inferior officers, he rode slowly and
+silently away.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_09" href="#div2Ref_09">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">We must turn, dear reader, to other persons and to other scenes, but
+still keep to that eventful day when the smugglers, who had almost
+fancied themselves lords of Kent, first met severe discomfiture at the
+hands of those sent to suppress their illicit traffic. Many small
+parties had before been defeated, it is true; many a cargo of great
+value, insufficiently protected, had been seized. Such, indeed, had
+been the case with the preceding venture of Richard Radford; and such
+had been, several times, the result of overweening confidence; but the
+free-traders of Kent had still, more frequently, been successful in
+their resistance of the law; and they had never dreamed that in great
+numbers, and with every precaution and care to boot, they could be
+hemmed in and overpowered, in a country with every step of which they
+were well acquainted. They had now, however, been defeated, as I have
+said, for the first time, in a complete and conclusive manner, after
+every precaution had been taken, and when every opportunity had been
+afforded them of trying their strength with the dragoons, as they had
+often boastfully expressed a wish to do.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But we must now leave them, and turn to the interior of the house near
+which the strife took place. Nay, more, we must enter a fair lady's
+chamber, and watch her as she lies, during the night of which we have
+already given so many scenes, looking for awhile into her waking
+thoughts and slumbering dreams; for that night passed in a strange
+mingling of sleepless fancies and of drowsy visions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Far from me to encourage weak and morbid sensibilities, or to
+represent life as a dream of sickly feelings, or a stage for the
+action of ill-regulated passions;--it is a place of duty and of
+action, of obedience to the rule of the one great guide, of endeavour,
+and, alas, of trial!--But still human beings are not mere machines:
+there is still something within this frame-work of dust and ashes,
+besides, and very different from, the bones and muscles, the veins and
+nerves, of which it is composed; and Heaven forbid that it should not
+be so! There are still loves and affections, sympathies and regards,
+associations and memories, and all the linked sweetness of that
+strange harmonious whole, where the spirit and the matter, the soul
+and the body, blended in mysterious union, act on each other, and
+reciprocate, by every sense and every perception, new sources of pain
+or of delight. The forms and conventionalities of society, the habits
+of the age in which we live, the force of education, habit, example,
+may, in very many cases, check the outward show of feeling, and in
+some, perhaps, wear down to nothing the reality. But still how many a
+bitter heart-ache lies concealed beneath the polished brow and smiling
+lip; how many a bright aspiration, how many a tender hope, how many a
+passionate throb, hides itself from the eyes of others--from the
+foreigners of the heart--under an aspect of gay merriment or of cold
+indifference. The silver services of the world are all, believe me,
+but of plated goods, and the brightest ornaments that deck the table
+or adorn the saloon but of silver-gilt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Could we--as angels may be supposed to do--stand by the bed-side of
+many a fair girl who has been laughing through an evening of apparent
+merriment, and look through the fair bosom into the heart beneath, see
+all the feelings that thrill therein, or trace even the visions that
+chequer slumber, what should we behold? Alas! how strange a contrast
+to the beaming looks and gladsome smiles which have marked the course
+of the day. How often would be seen the bitter repining; the weary
+sickness of the heart; the calm, stern grief; the desolation; the
+despair--forming a black and gloomy background to the bright seeming
+of the hours of light. How often, in the dream, should we behold &quot;the
+lost, the loved, the dead, too many, yet how few,&quot; rise up before
+memory in those moments, when not only the shackles and the handcuffs
+of the mind, imposed by the tyrant uses of society, are cast off, but
+also when the softer bands are loosened, which the waking spirit
+places upon unavailing regrets and aspirations all in vain--in those
+hours, when memory, and imagination, and feeling are awake, and when
+judgment, and reason, and resolution are all buried in slumber. Can it
+be well for us thus to check the expression of all the deeper feelings
+of the heart--to shut out all external sympathies--to lock within the
+prison of the heart its brightest treasures like the miser's gold, and
+only to give up to them the hours of solitude and of slumber?--I know
+not; and the question, perhaps, is a difficult one to solve: but such,
+however, are the general rules of society; and to its rules we are
+slaves and bondsmen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was to her own chamber that Edith Croyland usually carried her
+griefs and memories; and even in the house of her uncle, though she
+was aware how deeply he loved her, she could not, or she would not,
+venture to speak of her sensations as they really arose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the eventful day of young Radford's quarrel with Sir Edward Digby,
+Edith retired at the sober hour at which the whole household of Mr.
+Croyland usually sought repose; but there, for a considerable time,
+she meditated as she had often meditated before, on the brief
+intelligence she had received on the preceding day. &quot;He is living,&quot;
+she said to herself: &quot;he is in England, and yet he seeks me not! But
+my sister says he loves me still!--It is strange, it is very strange.
+He must have greatly changed. So eager, so impetuous as he used to be,
+to become timid, cautious, reserved,--never to write, never to
+send.--And yet why should I blame him? What has he not met with from
+mine, if not from me? What has his love brought upon himself and his?
+The ruin of his father--a parent's suffering and death--the
+destruction of his own best prospects--a life of toil and danger, and
+expulsion from the scenes in which his bright and early days were
+spent!--Why should I wonder that he does not come back to a spot where
+every object must be hateful to him?--why should I wonder that he does
+not seek me, whose image can never be separated from all that is
+painful and distressing to him in memory? Poor Henry! Oh, that I could
+cheer him, and wipe away the dark and gloomy recollections of the
+past.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Such were some of her thoughts ere she lay down to rest; and they
+pursued her still, long after she had sought her pillow, keeping her
+waking for some hours. At length, not long before daybreak, sleep took
+possession of her brain; but it was not untroubled sleep. Wild and
+whirling images for some time supplied the place of thought; but they
+were all vague, and confused, and undefined for a considerable length
+of time after sleep had closed her eyes, and she forgot them as soon
+as she awoke. But at length a vision of more tangible form presented
+itself, which remained impressed upon her memory. In it, the events of
+the day mingled with those both of the former and the latter years,
+undoubtedly in strange and disorderly shape, but still bearing a
+sufficient resemblance to reality to show whence they were derived.
+The form of young Radford, bleeding and wounded, seemed before her
+eyes; and with one hand clasped tightly round her wrist, he seemed to
+drag her down into a grave prepared for himself. Then she saw Sir
+Edward Digby with a naked sword in his hand, striving in vain to cut
+off the arm that held her, the keen blade passing through and through
+the limb of the phantom without dissevering it from the body, or
+relaxing its hold upon herself. Then the figure of her father stood
+before her, clad in a long mourning cloak, and she heard his voice
+crying, in a dark and solemn tone, &quot;Down, down, both of you, to the
+grave that you have dug for me!&quot; The next instant the scene was
+crowded with figures, both on horseback and on foot. Many a
+countenance which she had seen and known at different times was
+amongst them; and all seemed urging her on down into the gulf before
+her; till suddenly appeared, at the head of a bright and glittering
+troop, he whom she had so long and deeply loved, as if advancing at
+full speed to her rescue. She called loudly to him; she stretched out
+her hand towards him, and onward he came through the throng till he
+nearly reached her. Then in an instant her father interposed again and
+pushed him back. All became a scene of disarray and confusion, as if a
+general battle had been taking place around her. Swords were drawn,
+shots were fired, wounds were given and received; there were cries of
+agony and loud words of command, till at length, in the midst, her
+lover reached her; his arms were cast round her; she was pressed to
+his bosom; and with a start, and mingled feelings of joy and terror,
+Edith's dream came to an end.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Daylight was pouring into her room through the tall window; but yet
+she could hardly persuade herself that she was not dreaming still; for
+many of the sounds which had transmitted such strange impressions to
+her mind, still rang in her ears. She heard shots and galloping horse,
+and the loud word of command; and after pausing for an instant or two,
+she sprang up, cast something over her, and ran to the window.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a bright and beautiful morning; and the room which she occupied
+looked over Mr. Croyland's garden wall to the country beyond. But
+underneath that garden wall was presented a scene, such as Edith had
+never before witnessed. Before her eyes, mingled in strange confusion
+with a group of men who, from their appearance, she judged to be
+smugglers, were a number of the royal dragoons; and, though pistols
+were discharged on both sides, and even long guns on the part of the
+smugglers, the use of fire-arms was too limited to produce sufficient
+smoke to obscure the view. Swords were out, and used vehemently; and
+on running her eye over the mass before her, she saw a figure that
+strongly brought back her thoughts to former days. Directing the
+operations of the troops, seldom using the sword which he carried in
+his own hand, yet mingling in the thickest of the fray, appeared a
+tall and powerful young man, mounted on a splendid charger, but only
+covered with a plain grey cloak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The features she could scarcely discern; but there was something in
+the form and in the bearing, that made Edith's heart beat vehemently,
+and caused her to raise her voice to Heaven in murmured prayer. The
+shots were flying thick: one of them struck the sun-dial in the
+garden, and knocked a fragment off; but still she could not withdraw
+herself from the window; and with eager and anxious eyes she continued
+to watch the fight, till another body of dragoons swept up, and the
+smugglers, apparently struck with panic, abandoned resistance, and
+were soon seen flying in every direction over the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One man, mounted on a strong grey horse, passed close beneath the
+garden wall; and in him Edith instantly recognised young Richard
+Radford. That sight made her draw back again for a moment from the
+window, lest he should recognise her; but the next instant she looked
+out again, and then beheld the officer whom she had seen commanding
+the dragoons, stretching out his hand and arm in the direction which
+the fugitive had taken, as if giving orders for his pursuit. She
+watched him with feelings indescribable, and saw him more than once
+turn his eyes towards the house where she was, and gaze on it long and
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can he know whose dwelling this is?&quot; she asked herself; &quot;can he know
+who is in it, and yet ride away?&quot; But so it was. After he had remained
+on the ground for about half an hour, she saw him depart, turning his
+horse's head slowly towards Woodchurch; and Edith withdrew from the
+window, and wept.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her eyes were dry, however, and her manner calm, when she went down to
+breakfast; and she heard unmoved, from her uncle, the details of the
+skirmish which had taken place between the smugglers and the military.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This must be a tremendous blow to them,&quot; said Mr. Croyland; &quot;the
+goods are reported to be of immense value, and the whole of them are
+stated to have been run by that old infernal villain, Radford. I am
+glad that this has happened, trebly--<i>felix ter et amplius</i>, my dear
+Edith; first, that a trade which enriches scoundrels to the detriment
+of the fair and lawful merchant, has received nearly its death-blow;
+secondly, that these audacious vagabonds, who fancied they had all the
+world at their command, and that they could do as they pleased in
+Kent, have been taught how impotent they are against a powerful hand
+and a clear head; and, thirdly, that the most audacious vagabond of
+them all, who has amassed a large fortune by defiance of the law, and
+by a system which embodies cheatery with robbery--I mean robbery of
+the revenue with cheatery of the lawful merchant--has been the person
+to suffer. I have heard a great deal of forcing nations to abate their
+Customs dues, by smuggling in despite of them; but depend upon it,
+whoever advocates such a system is--I will not say, either a rogue or
+a fool, as some rash and intemperate persons might say--but a man with
+very queer notions of morals, my dear. I dare say, the fellows firing
+awoke you, my love. You look pale, as if you had been disturbed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith replied, simply, that she had been roused by the noise, but did
+not enter into any particulars, though she saw, or fancied she saw, an
+inquiring look upon her uncle's face as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During the morning many were the reports and anecdotes brought in by
+the servants, regarding the encounter, which had taken place so close
+to the house; and all agreed that never had so terrible a disaster
+befallen the smugglers. Their bands were quite broken up, it was said,
+their principal leaders taken or killed, and the amount of the
+smuggled goods which--with the usual exaggeration of rumour--was
+raised to three or four hundred thousand pounds, was universally
+reported to be the loss of Mr. Radford. His son had been seen by many
+in command of the party of contraband traders; and it was clear that
+he had fled to conceal himself, in fear of the very serious
+consequences which were likely to ensue.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland rubbed his hands: &quot;I will mark this day in the calendar
+with a white stone!&quot; he said. &quot;Seldom, my dear Edith, very seldom, do
+so many fortunate circumstances happen together; a party of atrocious
+vagabonds discomfited and punished as they deserve; the most audacious
+rogue of the whole stripped of his ill-gotten wealth; and a young
+ruffian, who has long bullied and abused the whole county, driven from
+that society in which he never had any business. This young officer,
+this Captain Osborn, must be a very clever, as well as a very gallant
+fellow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Captain Osborn!&quot; murmured Edith; &quot;were they commanded by Captain
+Osborn?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, my dear,&quot; answered the old gentleman; &quot;I saw him myself over the
+garden wall. I know him, my love; I have been introduced to him.
+Didn't you hear me say, he is coming to spend a few days with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith made no reply; but somewhat to her surprise, she heard her
+uncle, shortly after, order his carriage to be at the door at
+half-past twelve. He gave his fair niece no invitation to accompany
+him; and Edith prepared to amuse herself during his absence as
+best she might. She calculated, indeed, upon that which, to a
+well-regulated mind, is almost always either a relief or a pleasure,
+though too often a sad one: the spending of an hour or two in solitary
+thought. But all human calculations are vain; and so were those of
+poor Edith Croyland. For the present, however, we must leave her to
+her fate, and follow her good uncle, Zachary, on his expedition to
+Woodchurch, whither, as doubtless the reader has anticipated, his
+steps, or rather those of his coach horses, were turned, just as the
+hands of the clock in the vestibule pointed to a quarter to one.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_10" href="#div2Ref_10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">During the whole forenoon of the 3rd of September, the little village
+of Woodchurch presented a busy and bustling, though, in truth, it
+could not be called a gay scene. The smart dresses of the dragoons,
+the number of men and horses, the soldiers riding quickly along the
+road from time to time, the occasional sound of the trumpet, the
+groups of villagers and gaping children, all had an animating effect;
+but there was, mingled with the other sights which the place
+presented, quite a sufficient portion of human misery, in various
+forms, to sadden any but a very unfeeling heart. For some time after
+the affray was over, every ten minutes, was seen to roll in one of the
+small, narrow carts of the country, half filled with straw, and
+bearing a wounded man, or at most, two. In the same manner, several
+corpses, also, were carried in; and the number of at least fifty
+prisoners, in separate detachments, with hanging hands and pinioned
+arms, were marched slowly through the street to the houses which had
+been marked out as affording the greatest security.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The good people of Woodchurch laughed and talked freely with the
+dragoons, made many inquiries concerning the events of the skirmish,
+and gave every assistance to the wounded soldiers; but it was remarked
+with surprise, by several of the officers, that they showed no great
+sympathy with the smugglers, either prisoners or wounded--gazed upon
+the parties who were brought in with an unfriendly air, and turning
+round to each other, commented, in low tones, with very little
+appearance of compassion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, that's one of the Ramleys' gang,&quot; said the stout blacksmith of
+the place, to his friend and neighbour, the wheelwright, as some ten
+or twelve men passed before them with their wrists tied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And that fellow in the smart green coat is another,&quot; rejoined the
+wheelwright; &quot;he's the man who, I dare say, ham-stringed my mare,
+because I wouldn't let them have her for the last run.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's Tom Angel,&quot; observed the blacksmith; &quot;he's to be married to
+Jinny Ramley, they say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He'll be married to a halter first, I've a notion,&quot; answered the
+wheelwright, &quot;and then instead of an angel he'll make a devil! He's
+one of the worst of them, bad as they all are. A pretty gaol delivery
+we shall have at the next 'Sizes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A good county delivery, too,&quot; replied the blacksmith; &quot;as men have
+been killed, it's felony, that's clear: so hemp will be dear, Mr.
+Slatterly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By the above conversation the feelings of the people of Woodchurch
+towards the smugglers, at that particular time, may be easily divined;
+but the reader must not suppose that they were influenced alone by the
+very common tendency of men's nature to side with the winning party;
+for such was not altogether the case, though, perhaps, they would not
+have ventured to show their dislike to the smugglers so strongly, had
+they been more successful. As long as the worthy gentlemen, who had
+now met with so severe a reverse, had contented themselves with merely
+running contraband articles--even as long as they had done nothing
+more than take a man's horse for their own purposes, without his
+leave, or use his premises, whether he liked it or not, as a place of
+concealment for their smuggled goods, they were not only indifferent,
+but even friendly; for man has always a sufficient portion of the
+adventurer at his heart to have a fellow feeling for all his brethren
+engaged in rash and perilous enterprises. But the smugglers had grown
+insolent and domineering from long success; they had not only felt
+themselves lords of the county, but had made others feel it often in
+an insulting, and often in a cruel and brutal manner. Crimes of a very
+serious character had been lately committed by the Ramleys and others,
+which, though not traced home by sufficient evidence to satisfy the
+law, were fixed upon them by the general voice of the people; and the
+threats of terrible vengeance which they sometimes uttered against all
+who opposed them, and the boastful tone in which they indulged, when
+speaking of their most criminal exploits, probably gained them credit
+for much more wickedness than they really committed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus their credit with the country people was certainly on the decline
+when they met with the disaster which has been lately recorded; and
+their defeat and dispersion was held by the inhabitants of Woodchurch
+as an augury of better times, when their women would be able to pass
+from village to village, even after dusk, in safety and free from
+insult, and their cattle might be left out in the fields all night,
+without being injured, either by wantonness, or in lawless uses. It
+will be understood, that in thus speaking, I allude alone to the land
+smugglers, a race altogether different from their fellow labourers of
+the sea, whom the people looked upon with a much more favourable eye,
+and who, though rash and daring men enough, were generally a good
+humoured free-hearted body, spending the money that they had gained at
+the peril of their lives or their freedom, with a liberal hand and in
+a kindly spirit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Almost every inhabitant of Woodchurch had some cause of complaint
+against the Ramleys' gang; and, to say the truth, Mr. Radford himself
+was by no means popular in the county. A selfish and a cunning man is
+almost always speedily found out by the lower classes, even when he
+makes an effort to conceal it. But Mr. Radford took no such trouble;
+for he gloried in his acuteness; and if he had chosen a motto, it
+probably would have been &quot;Every man for himself.&quot; His selfishness,
+too, took several of the most offensive forms. He was ostentatious; he
+was haughty; and, on the strength of riches acquired, every one knew
+how, he looked upon himself as a very great man, and treated all the
+inferior classes, except those of whom he had need, to use their own
+expression, &quot;as dirt under his feet.&quot; All the villagers, therefore,
+were well satisfied to think that he had met with a check at last; and
+many of the good folks of Woodchurch speculated upon the probability
+of two or three, out of so great a number of prisoners, giving such
+evidence as would bring that worthy gentleman within the gripe of the
+law.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Such were the feelings of the people of that place, as well as those
+of many a neighbouring village; and the scene presented by the captive
+and wounded smugglers, as they were led along, was viewed with
+indifference by some, and with pleasure by others. Two or three of the
+women, indeed, bestowed kindly attention upon the wounded men, moved
+by that beautiful compassion which is rarely if ever wanting, in a
+female heart; but the male part of the population took little share,
+if any, in such things, and were quite willing to aid the soldiers in
+securing the prisoners, till they could be marched off to prison.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The first excitement had subsided before noon, but still, from time to
+time, some little bustle took place--a prisoner was caught and brought
+in, and carried to the public house where the colonel had established
+himself--an orderly galloped through the street--messengers came and
+went; and four or five soldiers, with their horses ready saddled,
+remained before the door of the inn, ready, at a moment's notice, for
+any event. The commanding officer did not appear at all beyond the
+doors of his temporary abode; but continued writing, giving orders,
+examining the prisoners, and those who brought them, in the same room
+which he had entered when first he arrived. As few of the people of
+the place had seen him, a good deal of curiosity was excited by his
+quietness and reserve. It was whispered amongst the women, that he was
+the handsomest man ever seen; and the men said he was a very fine
+fellow, and ought to be made a general of. The barmaid communicated to
+her intimate friends, that when he took off his cloak, she had seen a
+star upon the breast of his coat; and that her master seemed to know
+more of him, if he liked to tell; but the landlord was as silent as a
+mouse.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">These circumstances, however, kept up a little crowd before the
+entrance of the inn, consisting of persons anxious to behold the hero
+of the day; and just at the hour of two, the carriage of Mr. Croyland
+rolled in, through the people, at the usual slow and deliberate pace
+to which that gentleman accustomed his carriage horses.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The large heavy door of the large heavy vehicle, was opened by the two
+servants who accompanied it; and out stepped Mr. Croyland, with his
+back as straight and stiff as a poker, and his gold-headed cane in his
+hand. The landlord, at the sight of an equipage, which he well knew,
+came out in haste, bowing low, and welcoming Mr. Croyland in the
+hearty good old style. The nabob himself unbent a little to his friend
+of the inn, and after asking him how he did, and bestowing a word or
+two on the state of the weather, proceeded to say, &quot;And now, Miles, I
+wish to speak a word or two with Captain Osborn, who is in your house,
+I believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Mr. Croyland,&quot; replied the landlord, looking at the visitor with
+some surprise, &quot;the captain is not here. He is down at Nelly South's,
+and his name's not Osborn, either, but Irby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, who the deuce have you got here, with all these soldiers about
+the door?&quot; demanded Mr. Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The colonel of the regiment, sir,&quot; answered Miles; &quot;there has only
+been one captain here all day; and that's Captain Irby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not right of the lad--not right of the lad!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland,
+rather testily; &quot;no one should keep a man waiting, especially an old
+man, and more especially still, a cross old man. But I'll come in and
+stop a bit; for I want to see the young gentleman. Where the devil did
+he go to, I wonder, after the skirmish?--Halloo, you sir, corporal!
+Pray, sir, what's your officer's name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man put up his hand in military fashion, and, with a strong
+Hibernian accent, demanded, &quot;Is it the colonel you're inquiring about,
+sir? Why, then, his name is Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton,
+Knight of the Bath--and mighty cold weather it was, too, when he got
+the Bath; so I didn't envy him his ducking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh ho!&quot; said Mr. Croyland, putting his finger sagaciously to the side
+of his nose; &quot;be so good as to send up that card to Lieutenant-Colonel
+Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath, and tell him that the gentleman
+whose appellation it bears is here, inquiring for one Captain Osborn
+whom he once saw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The corporal took the card himself to the top of the stairs, and
+delivered the message, with as much precision as his intellect could
+muster, to some person who seemed to be waiting on the outside of a
+door above. &quot;Why, you fool!&quot; cried a voice, immediately, &quot;I told you,
+if Mr. Croyland came, to show him up. Sir Henry will see him.&quot; And
+immediately a servant, in plain clothes, descended to perform his
+function himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very grand!&quot; murmured Mr. Croyland, as he followed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door above was immediately thrown open, and his name announced;
+but, walking slowly, he had not entered the room before the young
+officer, who has more than once been before the reader's eyes, was
+half across the floor to meet him. He was now dressed in full uniform;
+and certainly a finer or more commanding-looking man had seldom, if
+ever, met Mr. Croyland's view. Advancing with a frank and pleasant
+smile, he led him to the arm-chair which he had just occupied--it was
+the only one in the room--and, after thanking him for his visit,
+turned to the servant, and bade him shut the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am in some surprise, and in some doubt, Sir Henry,&quot; said Mr.
+Croyland, with his sharp eyes twinkling a little. &quot;I came here to see
+one Captain Osborn; and I find a gentleman very like him, in truth,
+but certainly a much smarter looking person, whom I am told is
+Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath, &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c.;
+and yet he seems to look upon old Zachary Croyland as a friend, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He does, from his heart, I can assure you, Mr. Croyland,&quot; replied the
+young officer; &quot;and I trust you will ever permit him to do so. But if
+it becomes us to deceive no man, it becomes us still more not to
+deceive a friend; and on that account it was I asked your presence
+here, to explain to you one or two circumstances which I thought it
+but just you should know, before I ventured to present myself at your
+house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray speak, Sir Henry,&quot; replied Mr. Croyland--&quot;I am all ears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer paused for a moment, and a shadow came over his
+brow, as if something painful passed through his mind; but then, with
+a slight motion of his hand, as if he would have waved away unpleasant
+thoughts, he said, &quot;I must first tell you, my dear sir, that I am the
+son of the Reverend Henry Leyton, whom you once knew, and the nephew
+of that Charles Osborn, with whom you were also intimately
+acquainted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The dearest friend I ever had in the world,&quot; replied Mr. Croyland,
+blowing his nose violently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I trust you will extend the same friendship to his nephew,&quot; said
+the colonel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know--I don't know,&quot; answered Mr. Croyland; &quot;that must depend
+upon circumstances. I'm a very crabbed, tiresome old fellow, Sir
+Henry; and my friendships are not very sudden ones. But I have patted
+your head many a time when you were a child, and that's something.
+Then you are very like your father, and a little like your uncle,
+that's something more: so we may get on, I think. But what have you
+got to say more? and what in the name of fortune made you call
+yourself Captain Osborn, to an old friend of your family like myself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did not do so, if you recollect,&quot; replied the young officer. &quot;It
+was my friend Digby who gave me that name; and you must pardon me, if,
+on many accounts, I yielded to the trick; for I was coming down here
+on a difficult service--one that I am not accustomed to, and do not
+like; and I was very desirous of seeing a little of the country, and
+of learning something of the habits of the persons with whom I had to
+deal, before I was called upon to act.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And devilish well you did act when you set about it,&quot; cried Mr.
+Croyland. &quot;I watched you this morning over the wall, and wondered a
+little that you did not come on to my house at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is upon that subject that I must now speak,&quot; said Sir Henry
+Leyton, taking a grave tone, &quot;and I must touch upon many painful
+subjects in the past. Just when I was about to write to you, Mr.
+Croyland, to say that I would come, in accordance with your kind
+invitation, I learned that your niece, Miss Croyland, is staying at
+your house. Now, I know not whether you have been informed, that long
+ago----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, I know all about that,&quot; answered Mr. Croyland, quickly.
+&quot;There was a great deal of love and courting, and all that sort of boy
+and girl's stuff.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It must be man and woman's stuff now, Mr. Croyland,&quot; replied the
+young officer, &quot;for I must tell you fairly and at once, I love her as
+deeply, as truly as ever. Years have made no difference; other scenes
+have made no change. The same as I went, in every thought and feeling,
+I have returned; and I can never think of her without emotion, which I
+can never speak to her without expressing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed--indeed!&quot; said Mr. Croyland, apparently in some surprise.
+&quot;That does make some difference.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is what I feared,&quot; continued Sir Henry Leyton. &quot;Your brother
+disapproved of our engagement. In consequence of it, he behaved to my
+father in a way--on which I will not dwell. You would not have behaved
+in such a way, I know; and although I should think any means
+justifiable, to see your niece when in her father's mansion, to tell
+her how deeply I love her still, and to ask her to sacrifice fortune
+and everything to share a soldier's fate, yet I did not think it would
+be right or honourable, to come into the house of a friend under a
+feigned name, and seek his niece--for seek her I should wherever I
+found her--when he might share the same views as his brother, or at
+all events think himself bound to support them. In short, Mr.
+Croyland, I knew that when you were aware of my real name and of my
+real feelings, it would make a difference, and a great one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not the difference you think, Harry,&quot; replied the old gentleman,
+holding out his hand to him; &quot;but quite the reverse.--I'll tell you
+what, young man, I think you a devilish fine, high-spirited,
+honourable fellow, and the only one I ever saw whom I should like to
+marry my Edith. So don't say a word more about it. Come and dine with
+me to-day, as soon as you've got all this job over. You shall see her;
+you shall talk to her; you shall make all your arrangements together;
+and if there's a post-chaise in the country, I'll put you in and shut
+the door with my own hands. My brother is an old fool, and worse than
+an old fool, too--something very like an old rogue--at least, so he
+behaved to your father, and not much better to his own child; but I
+don't care a straw about him, and never did; and I never intend to
+humour one of his whims.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Henry Leyton pressed the old gentleman's hand in his, with much
+emotion; for the prospect seemed brightening to him, and the dark
+clouds which had so long overshadowed his course appeared to be
+breaking away. He had been hitherto like a traveller on a strong and
+spirited horse, steadfastly pursuing his course, and making his way
+onward, with vigour and determination, but with a dark and threatening
+sky over head, and not even a gleam of hope to lead him on.
+Distinction, honours, competence, command, he had obtained by his own
+talents and his own energies; he was looked up to by those below him,
+by his equals, even by many of his superiors. The eyes of all who knew
+him turned towards him as to one who was destined to be a leading man
+in his day. Everything seemed fair and smiling around him, and no eye
+could see the cloud that overshadowed him but his own. But what to him
+were honours, or wealth, or the world's applause, if the love of his
+early years were to remain blighted for ever? and in the tented field,
+the city, or the court, the shadow had still remained upon his heart's
+best feelings, not checking his energies, but saddening all his
+enjoyments. How often is it in the world, that we thus see the bright,
+the admired, the powerful, the prosperous, with the grave hue of
+painful thoughts upon the brow, the never unmingled smile, the lapses
+of gloomy meditation, and ask ourselves, &quot;What is the secret sorrow in
+the midst of all this success? what is the fountain of darkness that
+turns the stream of sunshine grey? what the canker-worm that preys
+upon so bright a flower?&quot; Deep, deep in the recesses of the heart, it
+lies gnawing in silence; but never ceasing, and never satisfied. Now,
+however, there was a light in the heavens for him; and whether it was
+as one of those rays that sometimes break through a storm, and then
+pass away, no more to be seen till the day dies in darkness; or
+whether it was the first glad harbinger of a serene evening after a
+stormy morning, the conclusion of this tale must show.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll tell you something, my dear boy,&quot; continued Mr. Croyland,
+forgetting that he was speaking to the colonel of a dragoon regiment,
+and going back at a leap to early days. &quot;Your father was my old
+school-fellow and dear companion; your uncle was the best friend I
+ever had, and the founder of my fortune; for to his interest I owe my
+first appointment to India--ay, and to his generosity the greater part
+of my outfit and my passage. To them I am indebted for everything, to
+my brother for nothing; and I look upon you as a relation much more
+than upon him; so I have no very affectionate motives for
+countenancing or assisting him in doing what is not right. I'll tell
+you something more, too, Harry; I was sure that you would do what is
+honourable and right--not because you have got a good name in the
+world; for I am always doubtful of the world's good names, and,
+besides, I never heard the name of Sir Harry Leyton till this blessed
+day--but because you were the son of one honest man and the nephew of
+another, and a good wild frank boy too. So I was quite sure you would
+not come to my house under a false name, when my niece was in it,
+without, at all events, letting me into the secret; and you have
+justified my confidence, young man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I would not have done such a thing for the world,&quot; replied the young
+officer; &quot;but may I ask, then, my dear Mr. Croyland, if you recognised
+me in the stage coach? for it must be eighteen or nineteen years since
+you saw me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't call me Mr. Croyland,&quot; said the old gentleman, abruptly; &quot;call
+me Zachary, or Nabob, or Misanthrope, or Bear, or anything but that.
+As to your question, I say, no. I did not recognise you the least in
+the world. I saw in your face something like the faces of old friends,
+and I liked it on that account. But as for the rest of the matter,
+there's a little secret, my boy--a little bit of a puzzle. By one way
+or another--it matters not what--I had found out that Captain Osborn
+was my old friend Leyton's son; but till I came here to-day, I had no
+notion that he was colonel of the regiment, and a Knight of the Bath,
+to boot, as your corporal fellow took care to inform me. I thought you
+had been going under a false name, perhaps, all this time, and fancied
+I should find Captain Osborn quite well known in the regiment. I had a
+shrewd notion, too, that you had sent for me to tell the secret; but I
+was determined to let you explain yourself without helping you at all;
+for I'm a great deal fonder of men's actions than their words, Harry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it fair to ask, who told you who I was?&quot; asked Sir Henry Leyton.
+&quot;My friend Digby has some----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; cried Mr. Croyland; &quot;it wasn't that good, rash, rattle-pate,
+coxcomb of a fellow, who is only fit to be caged with little Zara; and
+then they may live together very well, like two monkeys in a show-box.
+No, he had nothing to do with it, though he has been busy enough since
+he came here, shooting partridges, and fighting young Radfords, and
+all that sort of thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fighting young Radfords!&quot; exclaimed Sir Henry Leyton, suddenly
+grasping the sheath of his sword with his right hand. &quot;He should not
+have done that--at least, without letting me know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, he knew nothing about it himself,&quot; replied Mr. Croyland, &quot;till
+the minute it took place. The young vagabond followed him to my house;
+so I civilly told my brother's pet that I didn't want to see him; and
+he walked away with your friend Digby just across the lawn in front of
+the house, when, after a few minutes of pleasant conversation, the
+baronet applies me a horsewhip, with considerable unction and
+perseverance, to the shoulders of Richard Radford, Esquire, junior;
+upon which out come the pinking-irons, and in the course of the
+scuffle, Sir Edward receives a little hole in the shoulder, and Mr.
+Radford is disarmed and brought upon his knee, with a very unpleasant
+and ungentleman-like bump upon his forehead, bestowed, with hearty
+good-will, by the hilt of Master Digby's sword. Well, when he had got
+him there, instead of quietly poking a hole through him, as any man of
+common sense would have done, your friend lets him get up again, and
+ride away, just as a man might be supposed to pinch a Cobra that had
+bit him, by the tail, and then say, 'Walk off, my friend.' However, so
+stands the matter; and young Radford rode away, vowing all sorts of
+vengeance. He'll have it, too, if he can get it; for he's as spiteful
+as a baboon; so I hope you've caught him, as he was with these
+smuggling vagabonds, that's certain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Henry Leyton shook his head. &quot;He has escaped, I am sorry to say,&quot;
+he replied. &quot;How, I cannot divine; for I took means to catch him that
+I thought were infallible. All the roads through Harbourne Wood were
+guarded, but yet in that wood, all trace of him was lost. He left his
+horse in the midst of it, and must have escaped by some of the
+by-paths.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He's concealed in my brother's house, for a hundred guineas!&quot; cried
+Mr. Croyland. &quot;Robert's bewitched, to a certainty; for nothing else
+but witchcraft could make a man take an owl for a cock pheasant. Oh
+yes! there he is, snug in Harbourne House, depend upon it, feeding
+upon venison and turbot, and with a magnum of claret and two bottles
+of port to keep him comfortable--a drunken, beastly, vicious brute! A
+cross between a wolf and a swine, and not without a touch of the fox
+either--though the first figure is the best; for his father was the
+wolf, and his mother the sow, if all tales be true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He cannot be in Harbourne House, I should think,&quot; replied the
+colonel, &quot;for my dragoons searched it, it seems, violating the laws a
+little, for they had no competent authority with them; and besides he
+would not have put himself within Digby's reach, I imagine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he's up in a tree, roosting in the day, like a bird of prey,&quot;
+rejoined Mr. Croyland, in his quick way. &quot;It's very unlucky he has
+escaped--very unlucky indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At all events,&quot; answered the young officer, &quot;thus much have we
+gained, my dear friend: he dare not shew himself in this county for
+years. He was seen, by competent witnesses, at the head of these
+smugglers, taking an active part with them in resistance to lawful
+authority. Blood has been shed, lives have been sacrificed, and a
+felony has been committed; so that if he is wise, and can manage it,
+he will get out of England. If he fail of escaping, or venture to show
+himself, he will grace the gallows, depend upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven be praised!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland. &quot;Give me the first tidings,
+when it is to happen, Harry, that I may order four horses, and hire a
+window. I would not have him hanged without my seeing it for a hundred
+pounds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Henry Leyton smiled faintly, saying, &quot;Those are sad sights, my
+dear sir, and we have too many of them in this county; but you have
+not told me, from whom you received intimation that Captain Osborn and
+Henry Osborn Leyton were the same person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's a secret--that's a secret, Hal,&quot; answered Mr. Croyland. &quot;So
+now tell me when you'll come.--You'll be over to-night. I suppose, or
+have time and wisdom tamed the eagerness of love?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh no, my dear sir,&quot; answered Leyton; &quot;but I have still some business
+to settle here, and have promised to be in Hythe to-night. Before I
+go, however, I will ride over for an hour or two, for, till I have
+seen that dear girl again, and have heard her feelings and her wishes
+from her own lips, my thoughts will be all in confusion. I shall be
+calmer and more reasonable afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Much need!&quot; answered Mr. Croyland. &quot;But now I must leave you. I
+shan't say a word about it all, till you come; for preparing people's
+minds is all nonsense. It is only drawing them out upon the rack of
+expectation, which leaves them bruised and crushed, with no power to
+resist whatever is to come afterwards.--But don't be long, Harry, for
+remember that delays are dangerous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton promised to set out as soon as one of his messengers, whom he
+expected every instant, had returned; and going down with Mr.
+Croyland, to the door of his carriage, he bade him adieu, and watched
+him as he drove away, gratifying the eyes of the people of Woodchurch
+with a view of his fine person, as he stood uncovered at the door. In
+the meantime, Mr. Croyland took his way slowly back towards his own
+dwelling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What had happened there during his absence, we shall see presently.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_11" href="#div2Ref_11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">All things have their several stages; and, without a knowledge of the
+preceding one it is impossible to judge accurately of any event which
+is the immediate subject of our contemplation. The life of every one,
+the history of the whole world that we inhabit, is but a regular drama
+with its scenes and acts, each depending for its interest upon that
+which preceded. I therefore judge it necessary, before going on to
+detail the events which took place in Mr. Croyland's house during his
+absence to visit the dwelling of his brother, and give some account of
+that which produced them. On the same eventful morning, then, of which
+we have spoken so much already, the inhabitants of Harbourne House
+slept quietly during the little engagement between the smugglers and
+the dragoons, unaware that things of great importance to their little
+circle were passing at no great distance. I have mentioned the
+inhabitants of Harbourne House; but perhaps it would have been more
+proper to have said the master, his family, and his guest; for a
+number of the servants were up; the windows were opened; and the wind,
+setting from Woodchurch, brought the sound of firearms thence. The
+movement of the troops from the side of High Halden was also remarked
+by one of the housemaids and a footman, as the young lady was leaning
+out of one of the windows with the young gentleman by her side. In a
+minute or two after they perceived, galloping across the country, two
+or three parties of men on horseback, as if in flight and pursuit.
+Most of these took to the right or left, and were soon lost to the
+sight; but at length one solitary horseman came on at a furious speed
+towards Harbourne House, with a small party of dragoons following him
+direct at a couple of hundred yards' distance, while two or three of
+the soldiery were seen scattered away to the right, and a somewhat
+larger body appeared moving down at a quick pace to the left, as if to
+cut the fugitive off at Gallows Green.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The horse of the single rider seemed tired and dirty; and he was
+himself without a hat; but nevertheless, they pushed on with such
+rapidity, that a few seconds, from the time when they were first seen,
+brought steed and horseman into the little parish road which I have
+mentioned as running in front of the house, and passing round the
+grounds into the wood. As the fugitive drew near, the maid exclaimed,
+with a sort of a half scream, &quot;Why, Lord ha' mercy, Matthew, it's
+young Mr. Radford!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure it is,&quot; answered the footman; &quot;didn't you see that before,
+Betsy? There's a number of the dragoons after him, too. He's been up
+to some of his tricks, I'll warrant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I hope he wont come in here, at all events,&quot; rejoined the maid,
+&quot;for I shouldn't like it, if we were to have any fighting in the
+house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall go and shut the hall door,&quot; said the footman, drily--Richard
+Radford not having ingratiated himself as much with the servants as he
+had done with their master. But this precaution was rendered
+unnecessary; for the young man showed no inclination to enter the
+house, but passing along the road with the rapidity of an arrow, was
+soon lost in the wood, without even looking up towards the house of
+Sir Robert Croyland. Several of the dragoons followed him quickly; but
+two of them planted themselves at the corner of the road, and remained
+there immovable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The maid then observed, that she thought it high time the gentlefolks
+should be called; and she proceeded to execute her laudable purpose,
+taking care that tidings of what she had seen concerning Mr. Radford
+should be communicated to Sir Robert Croyland, to Zara, and to the
+servant of Sir Edward Digby, who again carried the intelligence to his
+master. The whole house was soon afoot; and Sir Robert was just out of
+his room in his dressing-gown, when three of the soldiers entered the
+mansion, expressing their determination to search it, and declaring
+their conviction that the smuggler whom they had been pursuing had
+taken refuge there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In vain Sir Robert Croyland remonstrated, and inquired if they had a
+warrant; in vain the servants assured the dragoons that no person had
+entered during the morning. The Serjeant who was at their head,
+persisted in asserting that the fugitive must have come in there, just
+when he was hid from his pursuers by the trees, assigning as a reason
+for this belief, that they had found his horse turned loose not a
+hundred yards from the house. They accordingly proceeded to execute
+their intention, meeting with no farther impediment till they reached
+the room of Sir Edward Digby, who, though he did not choose to
+interfere, not being on duty himself, warned the serjeant that he must
+be careful of what he was doing, as it appeared that he had neither
+magistrate, warrant, nor Custom-House officer with him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The serjeant, however, who was a bold and resolute fellow, and
+moreover a little heated and excited by the pursuit, took the
+responsibility upon himself, saying that he was fully authorized by
+Mr. Birchett to follow, search for, and apprehend one Richard Radford,
+and that he had the colonel's orders, too. Certainly, not a nook or
+corner of Harbourne House did he leave unexamined before he retired,
+grumbling and wondering at his want of success.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Previous to his going, Sir Edward Digby charged him with a message to
+the colonel, which proved as great an enigma to the soldier as the
+escape of Richard Radford. &quot;Tell him,&quot; said the young baronet, &quot;that I
+am ready to come down if he wants me; but that if he does not, I think
+I am quite as well where I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The breakfast passed in that sort of hurried and desultory
+conversation which such a dish of gossip as now poured in from all
+quarters usually produces, when served up at the morning meal. Sir
+Robert Croyland, indeed, looked ill at ease, laughed and jested in an
+unnatural and strained tone upon smugglers and smuggling, and
+questioned every servant that came in for further tidings. The reports
+that he thus received were as full of falsehood and exaggeration as
+all such reports generally are. The property captured was said to be
+immense. Two or three hundred smugglers were mentioned as having been
+taken, and a whole legion of them killed. Some had made confession,
+and clearly proved that the whole property was Mr. Radford's; and some
+had fought to the last, and killed an incredible number of the
+soldiers. To believe the butler, who received his information from the
+hind, who had his from the shepherd, the man called the Major, before
+he died, had absolutely breakfasted on dragoons, as if they had been
+prawns; but all agreed that never had such a large body of contraband
+traders been assembled before, or suffered such a disastrous defeat,
+in any of their expeditions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby gathered from the whole account, that his friend had
+been fully successful, that the smugglers had fought fiercely, that
+blood had been shed, and that Richard Radford, after having taken an
+active part in the affray, was now a fugitive, and, as the young
+baronet fancied, never to appear upon the stage again. But still Sir
+Robert Croyland did not seem by any means so well pleased as might
+have been wished; and a dark and thoughtful cloud would frequently
+come over his heavy brow, while a slight twitching of his lip seemed
+to indicate that anxiety had as great a share in his feelings as
+mortification.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara Croyland amused herself, as usual, by doing her best to
+tease every one around her, and by saying the most malapropos things
+in the world. She spoke with great commiseration of &quot;the poor
+smugglers:&quot; every particle of her pity was bestowed upon them. She
+talked of the soldiers as if they had been the most fierce and
+sanguinary monsters in Europe, who had attacked, unprovoked, a party
+of poor men that were doing them no harm; till Zara's glowing cheek
+recalled to her mind, that these very blood-thirsty dragoons were Sir
+Edward Digby's companions and friends; and then she made the
+compliment more pointed by apologizing to the young baronet, and
+assuring him that she did not think for a moment he would commit such
+acts. Her artillery was next turned against her brother; and, in a
+pleasant tone of raillery, she joked him upon the subject of young Mr.
+Radford, and of the search the soldiers had made, looking with a
+meaning smile at Zara, and saying, &quot;She dared say, Sir Robert could
+tell where he was, if he liked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet declared, sharply and truly, that he knew nothing about
+the young man; but Mrs. Barbara shook her head and nodded, and looked
+knowing, adding various agreeable insinuations of the same kind as
+before--all in the best humour possible--till Sir Robert Croyland was
+put quite out of temper, and would have retorted violently, had he not
+known that to do so always rendered the matter ten times worse. Even
+poor Zara did not altogether escape; but, as we are hurrying on to
+important events, we must pass over her share of infliction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The conclusion of Mrs. Barbara's field-day was perhaps the most signal
+achievement of all. Breakfast had come to an end, though the meal had
+been somewhat protracted; and the party were just lingering out a few
+minutes before they rose, still talking on the subject of the skirmish
+of that morning, when the good lady thought fit to remark--&quot;Well, we
+may guess for ever; but we shall soon know more about it, for I dare
+say we shall have Mr. Radford over here before an hour is gone, and he
+must know if the goods were his.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This seemed to startle--nay, to alarm Sir Robert Croyland. He looked
+round with a sharp, quick turn of his head, and then rose at once,
+saying, &quot;Well, whether he comes or not, I must go out and see about a
+good many things. Would you like to take a ride, Sir Edward Digby, or
+what will you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, I think I must stay here for the present,&quot; replied the young
+baronet; &quot;I may have a summons unexpectedly, and ought not to be
+absent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, you will excuse me, I know,&quot; answered his entertainer. &quot;I must
+leave my sister and Zara to amuse you for an hour or two, till I
+return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, and evidently in a great bustle, Sir Robert Croyland
+quitted the room and ordered his horse. But just as the three whom he
+had left in the breakfast-room were sauntering quietly towards the
+library--Sir Edward Digby calculating by the way how he might best get
+rid of Mrs. Barbara, in order to enjoy the fair Zara's company
+undisturbed--they came upon the baronet at the moment when he was
+encountered by one of his servants bringing him some unpleasant
+intelligence. &quot;Please, Sir Robert,&quot; said the man, with a knowing wink
+of the eye, &quot;all the horses are out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Out!&quot; cried the baronet, with a look of fury and consternation. &quot;What
+do you mean by out, fellow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, they were taken out of the stable last night, sir,&quot; replied the
+man. &quot;I dare say you know where they went; and they have not come back
+again yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, have mine been taken also?&quot; demanded Sir Edward Digby, very
+well understanding what sort of an expedition Sir Robert Croyland's
+horses had gone upon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, no, sir!&quot; answered the man; &quot;your servant keeps the key of
+that stable himself, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young baronet instantly offered his host the use of one of his
+steeds, which was gratefully accepted by Sir Robert Croyland, who,
+however, thought fit to enter into an exculpation of himself, somewhat
+tedious withal, assuring his guest that the horses had been taken
+without his approbation or consent, and that he had no knowledge
+whatsoever of the transaction in which they were engaged.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby professed himself quite convinced that such was the
+case, and in order to relieve his host from the embarrassment which he
+seemed to feel, explained that he was already aware that the Kentish
+smugglers were in the habit of borrowing horses without the owner's
+consent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In our complicated state of society, however, everything hinges upon
+trifles. We have made the watch so fine, that a grain of dust stops
+the whole movement; and the best arranged plans are thrown out by the
+negligence, the absence, or the folly of a servant, a friend, or a
+messenger. Sir Edward Digby's groom could not be found for more than a
+quarter of an hour: when he was, at length, brought to light, the
+horse had to be saddled. An hour had now nearly elapsed since the
+master of the house had given orders for his own horse to be brought
+round immediately: he was evidently uneasy at the delay, peevish,
+restless, uncomfortable; and in the end, he said he would mount at the
+back door, as it was the nearest and the most convenient. He even
+waited in the vestibule; but suddenly he turned, walked through the
+double doors leading to the stable-yard, and said he heard the horse
+coming up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara Croyland had, in the meantime, amused herself and her
+niece in the library, with the door open; and sometimes she worked a
+paroquet, in green, red, and white silk embroidery--a favourite
+occupation for ladies in her juvenile days--and sometimes she gazed
+out of the window, or listened to the conversation of her brother and
+his guest in the vestibule. At the very moment, however, when Sir
+Robert was making his exit by the doors between the principal part of
+the house and the offices, Mrs. Barbara called loudly after him,
+&quot;Brother Robert!--Brother Robert!--Here is Mr. Radford coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet turned a deaf ear, and shut the door. He would have locked
+it, too, if the evasion would not have then been too palpable. But
+Mrs. Barbara was resolved that he should know that Mr. Radford was
+coming; and up she started, casting down half-a-dozen cards of silk.
+Zara tried to stop her; for she knew her father, and all the signs and
+indications of his humours; but her efforts were in vain. Mrs. Barbara
+dashed past her, rushed through both doors, leaving them open behind
+her, and caught her brother's arms just as the horse, which he had
+thought fit to hear approach a little before it really did so, was led
+up slowly from the stables to the back door of the mansion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Robert, here is Mr. Radford!&quot; said Mrs. Barbara, aloud. &quot;I knew you
+would like to see him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet turned his head, and saw his worthy friend, through the
+open doors, just entering the vestibule. To the horror and surprise of
+his sister, he uttered a low but bitter curse, adding, in tones quite
+distinct enough to reach her ear, &quot;Woman, you have ruined me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good gracious!&quot; cried Mrs. Barbara; &quot;why, I thought----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush! silence!&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, in a menacing tone; &quot;not
+another word, on your life;&quot; and turning, he met Mr. Radford with the
+utmost suavity, but with a certain degree of restraint which he had
+not time to banish entirely from his manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Mr. Radford!&quot; he exclaimed, shaking him, too, heartily by the
+hand, &quot;I was just going out to inquire about some things of
+importance;&quot; and he gazed at him with a look which he intended to be
+very significant of the inquiries he had proposed to institute. But
+his glance was hesitating and ill-assured; and Mr. Radford replied,
+with the coolest and most self-possessed air possible, and with a
+firm, fixed gaze upon the baronet's countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, Sir Robert!&quot; he said, &quot;perhaps I can satisfy you upon some
+points; but, at all events, I must speak with you for a few minutes
+before you go. Good morning, Sir Edward Digby: have you had any sport
+in the field?--I will not detain you a quarter of an hour, my good
+friend. We had better go into your little room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He led the way thither as he spoke; and Sir Robert Croyland followed
+with a slow and faltering step. He knew Richard Radford; he knew what
+that calm and self-possessed manner meant. He was aware of the
+significance of courteous expressions and amicable terms from the man
+who called him his good friend; and if there was a being upon earth,
+on whose head Sir Robert Croyland would have wished to stamp as on a
+viper's, it was the placid benign personage who preceded him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They entered the room in which the baronet usually sat in a morning to
+transact his business with his steward, and to arrange his affairs;
+and Sir Robert carefully shut the door behind him, trying, during the
+one moment that his back was turned upon his unwelcome guest, to
+compose his agitated features into the expression of haughty and
+self-sufficient tranquillity which they usually wore.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sit down, Radford,&quot; he said--&quot;pray sit down, if it be but for ten
+minutes;&quot; and he pointed to the arm-chair on the other side of the
+table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford sat down, and leaned his head upon his hand, looking in
+the baronet's face with a scrutinizing gaze. If Sir Robert Croyland
+understood him well, he also understood Sir Robert Croyland, heart and
+mind--every corporeal fibre--every mental peculiarity. He saw clearly
+that his companion was terrified; he divined that he had wished to
+avoid him; and the satisfaction that he felt at having caught him just
+as he was going out, at having frustrated his hope of escape, had a
+pleasant malice in it, which compensated for a part of all that he had
+suffered during that morning, as report after report reached him of
+the utter annihilation of his hopes of immense gain, the loss of a
+ruinous sum of money, and the danger and narrow escape of his son. He
+had not slept a wink during the whole of the preceding night; and he
+had passed the hours in a state of nervous anxiety which would have
+totally unmanned many a strong-minded man when his first fears were
+realized. But Mr. Radford's mind was of a peculiar construction:
+apprehension he might feel, but never, by any chance, discouragement.
+All his pain was in anticipation, not in endurance. The moment a blow
+was struck, it was over: his thoughts turned to new resources; and, in
+reconstructing schemes which had been overthrown, in framing new ones,
+or pursuing old ones which had slumbered, he instantly found comfort
+for the past. Thus he seemed as fresh, as resolute, as unabashed by
+fortune's late frowns, as ever; but there was a rankling bitterness,
+an eager, wolf-like energy in his heart, which sprung both from angry
+disappointment and from the desperate aspect of his present fortune;
+and such feelings naturally communicated some portion of their
+acerbity to the expression of his countenance, which no effort could
+totally banish.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He gazed upon Sir Robert Croyland, then with a keen and inquiring
+look, not altogether untinged with that sort of pity which amounts to
+scorn; and, after a momentary pause, he said, &quot;Well, Croyland, you
+have heard all, I suppose!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, not all--not all, Radford,&quot; answered the baronet, hesitating; &quot;I
+was going out to inquire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can save you the trouble, then,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, drily. &quot;I am
+ruined. That is to say, in the two last ventures I have lost
+considerably more than a hundred thousand pounds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland waved his head sadly, saying, &quot;Terrible, terrible!
+but what can be done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, several things,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, &quot;and that is what I have
+come to speak to you about, because the first must rest with you, my
+excellent good friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But where is your son, poor fellow?&quot; asked the baronet, eager to
+avoid, as long as possible, the point to which their conversation was
+tending. &quot;They tell me he was well nigh taken; and, after there has
+been blood shed, that would have been destruction. Do you know they
+came and searched this house for him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I had not heard of that, Croyland,&quot; replied Mr. Radford; &quot;but he
+is near enough, well enough, and safe enough to marry your fair
+daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, yes,&quot; answered Sir Robert; &quot;that must be thought of, and----.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, no!&quot; cried the other, interrupting him; &quot;it has been thought
+of enough already, Croyland--too much, perhaps; now, it must be done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I will go over to Edith at once,&quot; said the baronet, &quot;and I will
+urge her, by every inducement. I will tell her, that it is her duty,
+that it is my will, and that she must and shall obey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford rose slowly off his seat, crossed over the rug to the
+place where Sir Robert Croyland was placed; and, leaning his hand upon
+the arm of the other's chair, he bent down his head, saying in a low
+but very clear voice and perfectly distinct words, &quot;Tell her, her
+father's life depends upon it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland shrank from him, as if an asp had approached his
+cheek; and he turned deadly pale. &quot;No, Radford--no,&quot; he replied, in a
+faltering and deprecatory tone; &quot;you cannot mean such a horrible
+thing. I will do all that I can to make her yield--I will, indeed--I
+will insist--I will----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Robert Croyland,&quot; said Mr. Radford, sternly and slowly, &quot;I will
+have no more trifling. I have indulged you too long. Your daughter
+must be my son's wife before he quits this country--which must be the
+case for a time, till we can get this affair wiped out by our
+parliamentary influence. Her fortune must be his, she must be his
+wife, I say, before four days are over.--Now, my good friend,&quot; he
+continued, falling back, in a degree, into his usual manner, which had
+generally a touch of sarcastic bitterness in it when addressing his
+present companion, &quot;what means you may please to adopt to arrive at
+this desirable result I cannot tell; but as the young lady has shown
+an aversion to the match, not very flattering to my son----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it not his own fault?&quot; cried Sir Robert Croyland, roused to some
+degree of indignation and resistance--&quot;has he ever, by word or deed,
+sought to remove that reluctance? Has he wooed her as woman always
+requires to be wooed? Has he not rather shown a preference to her
+sister, paid her all attention, courted, admired her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pity you suffered it, Sir Robert,&quot; answered Radford; &quot;but permit me,
+in your courtesy, to go on with what I was saying. As the young lady
+has shown this unfortunate reluctance, I anticipate no effect from
+your proposed use of parental authority. I believe your requests and
+your commands will be equally unavailing; and, therefore, I say, tell
+her, her father's life depends upon it; for I will have no more
+trifling, Sir Robert--no more delay--no more hesitation. It must be
+settled at once--this very day. Before midnight, I must hear that she
+consents, or you understand!--and consent she will, if you but employ
+the right means. She may show herself obstinate, undutiful, careless
+of your wishes and commands; but I do not think that she would like to
+be the one to tie a halter round her father's neck, or to bring what I
+think you gentlemen of heraldry and coat-armour call a cross-patonce
+into the family-bearing--ha, ha, ha!--Do you, Sir Robert?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The unhappy gentleman to whom he spoke covered his eyes with his hand;
+but, from beneath, his features could be seen working with the
+agitation of various emotions, in which rage, impotent though it might
+be, was not without its share. Suddenly, however, a gleam of hope
+seemed to shoot across his mind; he withdrew his hand; he looked up
+with some light in his eyes. &quot;A thought has struck me, Radford,&quot; he
+said; &quot;Zara--we have talked of Zara--why not substitute her for Edith?
+Listen to me--listen to me. You have not heard all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford shook his head. &quot;It cannot be done,&quot; he replied--&quot;it is
+quite out of the question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, but hear!&quot; exclaimed the baronet. &quot;Not so much out of the
+question as you think. Look at the whole circumstances, Radford. The
+great obstacle with Edith, is that unfortunate engagement with young
+Leyton. She looks upon herself as his wife; she has told me so a
+thousand times; and I doubt even the effect of the terrible course
+which you urge upon me so cruelly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford's brow had grown exceedingly dark at the very mention of
+the name of Leyton; but he said nothing, and, as if to keep down the
+feelings that were swelling in his heart, set his teeth hard in his
+under lip. Sir Robert Croyland saw all these marks of anger, but went
+on--&quot;Now, the case is different with Zara. Your son has sought her,
+and evidently admires her; and she has shown herself by no means
+unfavourable towards him. Besides, I can do with her what I like.
+There is no such obstacle in her case; and I could bend her to my will
+with a word--Yes, but hear me out. I know what you would say: she has
+no fortune; all the land that I can dispose of is mortgaged to the
+full--the rest goes to my brother, if he survives me.--True, all very
+true!--But, Radford, listen--if I can induce my brother to give Zara
+the same fortune which Edith possesses--if this night I can bring
+it you under his own hand, that she shall have fifty thousand
+pounds?--You shake your head; you doubt that he will do it; but I can
+tell you that he would willingly give it, to save Edith from your son.
+I am ready to pledge you my word, that you shall have that engagement,
+under his own hand, this very night, or that Edith shall become your
+son's wife within four days. Let us cast aside all idle
+circumlocution. It is Edith's fortune for your son, that you require.
+You can care nothing personally which of the two he marries. As for
+him, he evidently prefers Zara. She is also well inclined to him. I
+can--I am sure I can--offer you the same fortune with her. Why should
+you object?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford had resumed his seat, and with his arms folded on his
+chest, and his head bent, had remained in a listening posture. But
+nothing that he heard seemed to produce any change in his countenance;
+and when Sir Robert Croyland had concluded, he rose again, took a step
+towards him, and replied, through his shut teeth, &quot;You are mistaken,
+Sir Robert Croyland--it is not fortune alone I seek.--It is
+revenge!--There, ask me no questions, I have told you my determination.
+Your daughter Edith shall be my son's wife within four days, or Maidstone
+jail, trial, and execution, shall be your lot. The haughty family of
+Croyland shall bear the stain of felony upon them to the last
+generation; and your daughter shall know--for if you do not tell her,
+I will--that it is her obstinacy which sends her father to the
+gallows. No more trifling--no more nonsense! Act, sir, as you think
+fit; but remember, that the words--once passed my lips--can never be
+recalled; that the secret I have kept buried for so many years, shall
+to-morrow morning be published to the whole world, if to-night you do
+not bring me your daughter's consent to what I demand. I am using no
+vain threats, Sir Robert Croyland,&quot; he continued, resuming a somewhat
+softened tone, &quot;and I do not urge you to this without some degree of
+regret. You have been very kind and friendly; you have done me good
+service on several occasions; and it will be with great regret that I
+become the instrument of your destruction. But still every man has a
+conscience of some kind. Even I am occasionally troubled with qualms;
+and I frequently reproach myself for concealing what I am bound to
+reveal. It is a pity this marriage was not concluded long ago, for
+then, connected with you by the closest ties; I should have felt
+myself more justified in holding my tongue. Now, however, it is
+absolutely necessary that your daughter Edith should become my son's
+wife. I have pointed out the means which I think will soonest bring it
+to bear; and if you do not use them, you must abide the consequences.
+But mark me--no attempt at delay, no prevarication, no hesitation! A
+clear, positive, distinct answer this night by twelve o'clock, or you
+are lost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland had leaned his arms upon the table, and pressed
+his eyes upon his arms. His whole frame shook with emotion, and the
+softer, and seemingly more kindly words of the man before him, were
+even bitterer to him than the harsher and the fiercer. Though he did
+not see his face, he knew that there was far more sarcasm than
+tenderness in them. He had been his slave--his tool, for years--his
+tool through the basest and most unmanly of human passions--fear; and
+he felt, not only that he was despised, but that at that moment
+Radford was revelling in contempt. He could have got up and stabbed
+him where he stood; for he was naturally a passionate and violent man.
+But fear had still the dominion; and after a bitter struggle with
+himself, he conquered his anger, and gave himself up to the thought of
+meeting the circumstances in which he was placed, as best he might. He
+was silent for several moments, however, after Mr. Radford had ceased
+speaking; and then, looking up with an anxious eye and quivering lip,
+he said, &quot;But how is it possible, Radford, that the marriage should
+take place in four days? The banns could not be published; and even if
+you got a licence, your son could not appear at church within the
+prescribed hours, without running a fatal risk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will have a special licence, my good friend,&quot; answered Mr.
+Radford, with a contemptuous smile. &quot;Do not trouble yourself about
+that. You will have quite enough to do with your daughter, I should
+imagine, without annoying yourself with other things. As to my son, I
+will manage his part of the affair; and he can marry your daughter in
+your drawing-room, or mine, at an hour when there will be no eager
+eyes abroad. Money can do all things; and a special licence is not so
+very expensive but that I can afford it, still. My drawing-room will
+be best; for then we shall be all secure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Radford--Radford!&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, &quot;if I do--if I
+bring Edith at the time appointed--if she become your son's wife--you
+will give me up that paper, that fatal deposition?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, assuredly,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, with an insulting smile; &quot;I
+can hand it over to you as part of the marriage settlement. You need
+not be the least afraid!--and now, I think I must go; for I have
+business to settle as well as you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, stay a moment, Radford,&quot; said the baronet, rising and coming
+nearer to him. &quot;You spoke of revenge just now. What is it that you
+mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I told you to ask no questions,&quot; answered the other, sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But at least tell me, if it is on me or mine that you seek revenge!&quot;
+exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland. &quot;I am unconscious of ever having
+injured or offended you in any way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, no,&quot; replied Mr. Radford. &quot;You have nothing to do with
+it--no, nor your daughter either, though she deserves a little
+punishment for her ill-treatment to my son. No, but there is one on
+whom I will have revenge--deep and bitter revenge, too! But that is my
+affair; and I do not choose to say more. You have heard my
+resolutions; and you know me well enough, to be sure that I will keep
+my word. So now go to your daughter, and manage the matter as you
+judge best; but if you will take my advice, you will simply ask her
+consent, and make her fully aware that her father's life depends upon
+it; and now good-by, my dear friend. Good luck attend you on your
+errand; for I would a great deal rather not have any hand in bringing
+you, where destiny seems inclined to lead you very soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he turned and quitted the room; and Sir Robert Croyland
+remained musing for several minutes, his thoughts first resting upon
+the last part of their conversation. &quot;Revenge!&quot; he said; &quot;he must mean
+my brother; and it will be bitter enough, to him, to see Edith married
+to this youth. Bitter enough to me, too; but it must be done--it must
+be done!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He pressed his hand upon his heart, and then went out to mount his
+horse; but pausing in the vestibule, he told the butler to bring him a
+glass of brandy. The man hastened to obey; for his master's face was
+as pale as death, and he thought that Sir Robert was going to faint.
+But when the baronet had swallowed the stimulating liquor, he walked
+to the back door with a quick and tolerably steady step, mounted, and
+rode away alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before I follow him, though anxious to do so as quickly as possible, I
+must say a few words in regard to Mr. Radford's course. After he had
+reached the parish road I have mentioned,--on which one or two
+dragoons were still visible, slowly patrolling round Harbourne
+Wood,--the man who had exercised so terrible an influence upon poor
+Sir Robert Croyland turned his horse's head upon the path which led
+straight through the trees towards the cottage of Widow Clare. His
+face was still dark and cloudy; and, trusting to the care and
+sure-footedness of his beast, he went on with a loose rein and his
+eyes bent down towards his saddle-bow, evidently immersed in deep
+thought. When he had got about two-thirds across the wood, he started
+and turned round his head; for there was the sound of a horse's feet
+behind, and he instantly perceived a dragoon following him, and
+apparently keeping him in sight. Mr. Radford rode on, however, till he
+came out not far from the gate of Mrs. Clare's garden, when he saw
+another soldier riding slowly round the wood. With a careless air,
+however, and as if he scarcely perceived these circumstances, he
+dismounted, buckled the rein of his bridle slowly over the palings of
+the garden, and went into the cottage, closing the door after him. He
+found the widow and her daughter busily employed with the needle,
+making somewhat smarter clothes than those they wore on ordinary
+occasions. It was poor Kate's bridal finery.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Clare instantly rose, and dropped a low curtsey to Mr. Radford,
+who had of late years frequently visited her cottage, and occasionally
+contributed a little to her comfort, in a kindly and judicious manner.
+Sometimes he had sent her down a load of wood, to keep the house warm;
+sometimes he had given her a large roll of woollen cloth, a new gown
+for her daughter or herself, or a little present of money. But Mr.
+Radford had his object: he always had.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Mrs. Clare!&quot; said Mr. Radford, in as easy and quiet a tone as
+if nothing had happened to agitate his mind or derange his plans; &quot;so,
+my pretty little friend, Kate, is going to be married to worthy Jack
+Harding, I find.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Kate blushed and held down her head, and Mrs. Clare assented with a
+faint smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There has been a bad business of it this morning, though,&quot; said Mr.
+Radford, looking in Mrs. Clare's face; &quot;I dare say you've heard all
+about it--over there, in the valley by Woodchurch and Redbrook
+Street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Clare looked alarmed; and Kate forgot her timidity, and
+exclaimed--&quot;Oh! is he safe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, my dear,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, in a kindly tone; &quot;you need
+not alarm yourself. He was not in it, at all. I don't say he had no
+share in running the goods; for that is pretty well known, I believe;
+and he did his part of the work well; but the poor fellows who were
+bringing up the things, by some folly, or mistake, I do not know
+which, got in amongst the dragoons, were attacked, and nearly cut to
+pieces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, then, that is what the soldiers are hanging about here for,&quot; said
+Mrs. Clare.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It's a sad affair for me, indeed!&quot; continued Mr. Radford,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am truly sorry to hear that, sir!&quot; exclaimed Mrs. Clare, &quot;for you
+have been always very kind to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, my good lady,&quot; replied her visitor, &quot;perhaps you may now be
+able to do me a kindness in return,&quot; said Mr. Radford. &quot;To tell you
+the truth, my son was in this affray. He made his escape when he found
+that they could not hold their ground; and it is for him that the
+soldiers are now looking--at least, I suspect so. Perhaps you may be
+able to give a little help, if he should be concealed about here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That I will,&quot; said Widow Clare, &quot;if it cost me one of my hands!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, there will be no danger!&quot; answered Mr. Radford; &quot;I only wish you,
+in case he should be lying where I think he is, to take care that he
+has food till he can get away. It might be better for Kate here, to go
+rather than yourself; or one could do it at one time, and the other at
+another. With a basket on her arm, and a few eggs at the top, Kate
+could trip across the wood as if she were going to Harbourne House.
+You could boil the eggs hard, you know, and put some bread and other
+things underneath. Then, at the place where I suppose he is, she could
+quietly put down the basket and walk on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you must tell me where he is, sir,&quot; answered Mrs. Clare.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly,&quot; replied Mr. Radford--&quot;that is to say, I can tell you
+where I think he is. Then, when she gets near it, she can look round
+to see if there's any one watching, and if she sees no one, can say
+aloud--'Do you want anything?' If he's there he'll answer; and should
+he send any message to me, one of you must bring it up. I shan't
+forget to repay you for your trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, sir, it isn't for that,&quot; said Mrs. Clare--&quot;Kate and I will
+both be very glad, indeed, to show our gratitude for your kindness. It
+is seldom poor people have the opportunity; and I am sure, after good
+Sir Robert Croyland, we owe more to you than to any body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Robert has been kind to you, I believe, Mrs. Clare!&quot; replied Mr.
+Radford, with a peculiar expression of countenance. &quot;Well he may be!
+He has not always been so kind to you and yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, sir, do not say a word against Sir Robert!&quot; answered the widow;
+&quot;though he sometimes used to speak rather cross and angrily in former
+times, yet since my poor husband's death, nothing could be more kind
+than he has been. I owe him everything, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, it's all very well, Mrs. Clare,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, shaking his
+head with a doubtful smile--&quot;it's all very well! However, I do not
+intend to say a word against Sir Robert Croyland. He's my very good
+friend, you know; and it's all very well.--Now let us talk about the
+place where you or Kate are to go; but, above all things, remember
+that you must not utter a word about it to any one, either now or
+hereafter; for it might be the ruin of us all if you did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no--not for the world, sir!&quot; answered Mrs. Clare; &quot;I know such
+places are not to be talked about; and nobody shall ever hear anything
+about it from us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; continued Mr. Radford, &quot;you know the way up to Harbourne
+House, through the gardens. There's the little path to the right; and
+then, half way up that, there's one to the left, which brings you to
+the back of the stables. It goes between two sandy banks, you may
+recollect; and there's a little pond with a willow growing over it,
+and some bushes at the back of the willow. Well, just behind these
+bushes there is a deep hole in the bank, high enough to let a man
+stand upright in it, when he gets a little way down. It would make a
+famous <i>hide</i> if there were a better horse-path up to it, and
+sometimes it has been used for small things such as a man can carry on
+his back. Now, from what I have heard, my boy Richard must be in
+there; for his horse was found, it seems, not above two or three
+hundred yards from the house, broken-knee'd and knocked-up. If any one
+should follow you as you go, and make inquiries, you must say that you
+are going to the house; for there is a door there in the wall of the
+stable-yard--though that path is seldom, if ever used now; but, if
+there be nobody by, you can just set down the basket by the stump of
+the willow, and ask if he wants anything more. If he doesn't answer,
+speak again, and try at all events to find out whether he's there or
+not, so that I may hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I know the place, quite well!&quot; said Mrs. Clare. &quot;My poor husband
+used to get gravel there. But when do you think I had better go, sir?
+for if the dragoons are still lingering about, a thousand to one but
+they follow me, and, more likely still, may follow Kate; so I shall go
+myself to night, at all events.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You had better wait till it is duskish,&quot; answered Mr. Radford; &quot;and
+then they'll soon lose sight of you amongst the trees; for they can't
+go up there on horseback, and if they stop to dismount you can easily
+get out of their way. Let me have any message you may get from
+Richard; and don't forget, either, if Harding comes up here, to tell
+him I want to speak with him very much. He'll be sorry enough for this
+affair when he hears of it, for the loss is dreadful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'm sure he will, sir,&quot; said Kate Clare; &quot;for he was talking about
+something that he had to do, and said it would half kill him, if he
+did not get it done safely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, he's a very good fellow,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, &quot;and you shall
+have a wedding-gown from me, Kate.--Look out of the window, there's a
+good girl, and see if any of those dragoons are about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Kate did as he bade her, and replied in the negative; and Mr. Radford,
+after giving a few more directions, mounted his horse and rode away,
+muttering as he went--&quot;Ay, Master Harding, I have a strong suspicion
+of you; and I will soon satisfy myself. They must have had good
+information, which none could give but you, I think; so look to
+yourself, my friend. No man ever injured me yet who had not cause to
+repent it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford forgot that he no longer possessed such extensive means of
+injuring others as he had formerly done; but the bitter will was as
+strong as ever.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div2_12" href="#div2Ref_12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The house of Mr. Zachary Croyland was not so large or ostentatious in
+appearance as that of his brother; but, nevertheless, it was a very
+roomy and comfortable house; and as he was naturally a man of fine
+taste--though somewhat singular in his likings and dislikings, as well
+in matters of art as in his friendships, and vehement in favour of
+particular schools, and in abhorrence of others--his dwelling was
+fitted up with all that could refresh the eye or improve the mind. A
+very extensive and well-chosen library covered the walls of one room,
+in which were also several choice pieces of sculpture; and his
+drawing-room was ornamented with a valuable collection of small
+pictures, into which not one single Dutch piece was admitted. He was
+accustomed to say, when any connoisseur objected to the total
+exclusion of a very fine school--&quot;Don't mention it--don't mention it;
+I hate it in all its branches and all its styles. I have pictures for
+my own satisfaction, not because they are worth a thousand pounds
+apiece. I hate to see men represented as like beasts as possible; or
+to refresh my eyes with swamps and canals; or, in the climate of
+England, which is dull enough of all conscience, to exhilarate myself
+with the view of a frozen pond and fields, as flat as a plate, covered
+with snow, while half-a-dozen boors, in red night-caps and red noses,
+are skating away in ten pairs of breeches--looking, in point of shape,
+exactly like hogs set upon their hind legs. It's all very true the
+artist may have shown very great talent; but that only shows him to be
+the greater fool for wasting his talents upon such subjects.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His collection, therefore, consisted almost entirely of the Italian
+schools, with a few Flemish, a few English, and one or two exquisite
+Spanish pictures. He had two good Murillos and a Velasquez, one or two
+fine Vandykes, and four sketches by Rubens of larger pictures. But he
+had numerous landscapes, and several very beautiful small paintings of
+the Bolognese school; though that on which he prided himself the most,
+was an exquisite Correggio.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was in this room that he left his niece Edith when he set out for
+Woodchurch; and, as she sat--with her arm fallen somewhat listlessly
+over the back of the low sofa, the light coming in from the window
+strong upon her left cheek, and the rest in shade, with her rich
+colouring and her fine features, the high-toned expression of soul
+upon her brow, and the wonderful grace of her whole form and
+attitude--she would have made a fine study for any of those dead
+artists whose works lived around her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She heard the wheels of the carriage roll away; but she gave no
+thought to the question of whither her uncle had gone, or why he took
+her not with him, as he usually did. She was glad of it, in fact; and
+people seldom reason upon that with which they are well pleased. Her
+whole mind was directed to her own situation, and to the feelings
+which the few words of conversation she had had with her sister had
+aroused. She thought of him she loved, with the intense, eager longing
+to behold him once more--but once, if so it must be--which perhaps
+only a woman's heart can fully know. To be near him, to hear him
+speak, to trace the features she had loved, to mark the traces of
+Time's hand, and the lines that care and anxiety, and disappointment
+and regret, she knew must be busily working--oh, what a boon it would
+be! Then her mind ran on, led by the light hand of Hope, along the
+narrow bridge of association, to ask herself--if it would be such
+delight to see him and to hear him speak--what would it be to soothe,
+to comfort, to give him back to joy and peace!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The dream was too bright to last, and it soon faded. He was near her,
+and yet he did not come; he was in the same land, in the same
+district; he had gazed up to the house where she dwelt; if he had
+asked whose it was, the familiar name--the name once so dear--must
+have sounded in his ear; and yet he did not come. A few minutes of
+time, a few steps of his horse, would have brought him to where she
+was; but he had turned away,--and Edith's eyes filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She rose and wiped them off, saying, &quot;I will think of something else;&quot;
+and she went up and gazed at a picture. It was a Salvator Rosa--a fine
+painting, though not by one of the finest masters. There was a rocky
+scene in front, with trees waving in the wind of a fierce storm, while
+two travellers stood beneath a bank and a writhing beech tree,
+scarcely seeming to find shelter even there from the large grey
+streams of rain that swept across the foreground. But, withal, in the
+distance were seen some majestic old towers and columns, with a gleam
+of golden light upon the edge of the sky; and Hope, never wearying of
+her kindly offices, whispered to Edith's heart, &quot;In life, as in that
+picture, there may be sunshine behind the storm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Poor Edith was right willing to listen; and she gave herself up to the
+gentle guide. &quot;Perhaps,&quot; she thought, &quot;his duty might not admit of his
+coming, or perhaps he might not know how he would he received. My
+father's anger would be sure to follow such a step. He might think
+that insult, injury, would be added. He might imagine even, that I am
+changed,&quot; and she shook her head, sadly. &quot;Yet why should he not,&quot; she
+continued, &quot;if I sit here and think so of him? Who can tell what
+people may have said?--Who can tell even what falsehoods may have been
+spread? Perhaps he's even now thinking of me. Perhaps he has come into
+this part of the country to make inquiries, to see with his own eyes,
+to satisfy himself. Oh, it must be so--it must be so!&quot; she cried,
+giving herself up again to the bright dream. &quot;Ay, and this Sir Edward
+Digby, too, he is his dear friend, his companion, may he not have sent
+him down to investigate and judge? I thought it strange at the time,
+that this young officer should write to inquire after my father's
+family, and then instantly accept an invitation; and I marked how he
+gazed at that wretched young man and his unworthy father. Perhaps he
+will tell Zara more, and I shall hear when I return. Perhaps he has
+told her more already. Indeed, it is very probable, for they had a
+long ride together yesterday;&quot; and poor Edith began to feel as anxious
+to go back to her father's house as she had been glad to quit it. Yet
+she saw no way how this could be accomplished, before the period
+allotted for her stay was at an end; and she determined to have
+recourse to a little simple art, and ask Mr. Croyland to take her over
+to Harbourne, on the following morning, with the ostensible purpose of
+looking for some article of apparel left behind, but, in truth, to
+obtain a few minutes' conversation with her sister.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There are times in the life of almost every one--at least, of every
+one of feeling and intellect--when it seems as if we could meditate
+for ever: when, without motion or change, the spirit within the
+earthly tabernacle could pause and ponder over deep subjects of
+contemplation for hour after hour, with the doors and windows of the
+senses shut, and without any communication with external things. The
+matter before us may be any of the strange and perplexing relations of
+man's mysterious being; or it may be some obscure circumstance of our
+own fate--some period of uncertainty and expectation--some of those
+Egyptian darknesses which from time to time come over the future, and
+which we gaze on half in terror, half in hope, discovering nothing,
+yet speculating still. The latter was the case at that moment with
+Edith Croyland; and, as she revolved every separate point of her
+situation, it seemed as if fresh wells of thought sprung up to flow on
+interminably.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had continued thus during more than half an hour after her uncle's
+departure, when she heard a horse stop before the door of the house,
+and her heart beat, though she knew not wherefore. Her lover might
+have come at length, indeed; but if that dream crossed her mind it was
+soon swept away; for the next instant she heard her father's voice,
+first inquiring for herself, and then asking, in a lower tone, if his
+brother was within. If Edith had felt hope before, she now felt
+apprehension; for during several years no private conversation had
+taken place between her father and herself without bringing with it
+grief and anxiety, harsh words spoken, and answers painful for a child
+to give.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It seldom happens that fear does not go beyond reality; but such was
+not the case in the present instance; for Edith Croyland had to
+undergo far more than she expected. Her father entered the room where
+she sat, with a slow step and a stern and determined look. His face
+was very pale, too; his lips themselves seemed bloodless, and the
+terrible emotions which were in his heart showed themselves upon his
+countenance by many an intelligible but indescribable sign. As soon as
+Edith saw him, she thought, &quot;He has heard of Henry's return to this
+country. It is that which has brought him;&quot; and she nerved her heart
+for a new struggle; but still she could scarcely prevent her limbs
+from shaking, as she rose and advanced to meet her parent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland drew her to him, and kissed her tenderly enough;
+for, in truth, he loved her very dearly: and then he led her back to
+the sofa, and seated himself beside her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How low these abominable contrivances are,&quot; he said; &quot;I do wish that
+Zachary would have some sofas that people can sit upon with comfort,
+instead of these beastly things, only fit for a Turkish harem, or a
+dog-kennel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith made no reply; for she waited in dread of what was to follow,
+and could not speak of trifles. But her father presently went on,
+saying, &quot;So, my brother is out, and not likely to return for an hour
+or two!--Well, I am glad of it, Edith; for I came over to speak with
+you on matters of much moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still Edith was silent; for she durst not trust her voice with any
+reply. She feared that her courage would give way at the first words,
+and that she should burst into tears, when she felt sure that all the
+resolution she could command, would be required to bear her safely
+through. She trusted, indeed, that, as she had often found before, her
+spirit would rise with the occasion, and that she should find powers
+of resistance within her in the time of need, though she shrank from
+the contemplation of what was to come.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have delayed long, Edith,&quot; continued Sir Robert Croyland, after a
+pause, &quot;to press you upon a subject in regard to which it is now
+absolutely necessary you should come to a decision;--too long, indeed;
+but I have been actuated by a regard for your feelings, and you owe me
+something for my forbearance. There can now, however, be no further
+delay. You will easily understand, that I mean your marriage with
+Richard Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith raised her eyes to her father's face, and, after a strong
+effort, replied, &quot;My decision, my dear father, has, as you know, been
+long made. I cannot, and I will not, marry him--nothing on earth shall
+ever induce me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not say that, Edith,&quot; answered Sir Robert Croyland, with a bitter
+smile; &quot;for I could utter words, which, if I know you rightly, would
+make you glad and eager to give him your hand, even though you broke
+your heart in so doing. But before I speak those things which will
+plant a wound in your bosom for life, that nothing can heal or
+assuage, I will try every other means. I request you--I intreat you--I
+command you, to marry him! By every duty that you owe me--by all the
+affection that a child ought to feel for a father, I beseech you to do
+so, if you would save me from destruction and despair!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot! I cannot!&quot; said Edith, clasping her hands. &quot;Oh! why should
+you drive me to such painful disobedience? In the first place, can I
+promise to love a man that I hate, to honour and obey one whom I
+despise, and whose commands can never be for good? But still more, my
+father,--you must hear me out, for you force me to speak--you force me
+to tear open old wounds, to go back to times long past, and to recur
+to things bitter to you and to me. I cannot marry him, as I told you
+once before; for I hold myself to be the wife of another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Folly and nonsense!&quot; cried Sir Robert Croyland, angrily, &quot;you are
+neither his wife, nor he your husband. What! the wife of a man who has
+never sought you for years--who has cast you off, abandoned you, made
+no inquiry for you?--The marriage was a farce. You read a ceremony
+which you had no right to read, you took vows which you had no power
+to take. The law of the land pronounces all such engagements mere
+pieces of empty foolery!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the law of God,&quot; replied Edith, &quot;tells us to keep vows that we
+have once made. To those vows, I called God to witness with a true and
+sincere heart; and with the same heart, and the same feelings, I will
+keep them! I did wrong, my father--I know I did wrong--and Henry did
+wrong too; but by what we have done we must abide; and I dare not, I
+cannot be the wife of another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, I tell you, you shall!&quot; exclaimed her father, vehemently. &quot;I
+will compel you to be so; I will over-rule this obstinate folly, and
+make you obedient, whether you choose it or not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, nay--not so!&quot; cried Edith. &quot;You could not do, you would not
+attempt, so cruel a thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will, so help me Heaven!&quot; exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, thank Heaven,&quot; answered his daughter, in a low but solemn
+voice, &quot;it is impossible! In this country, there is no clergyman who
+would perform the ceremony contrary to my expressed dissent. If I
+break the vows that I have taken, it must be my own voluntary act; for
+there is not any force that can compel me so to do; and I call Heaven
+to witness, that, even if you were to drag me to the altar, I would
+say, No, to the last!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rash, mad, unfeeling girl!&quot; cried her father, starting up, and gazing
+upon her with a look in which rage, and disappointment, and perplexity
+were all mingled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stood before her for a moment in silence, and then strode
+vehemently backwards and forwards in the room, with his right hand
+contracting and expanding, as if grasping at something. &quot;It must be
+done!&quot; he said, at length, pressing his hand upon his brow; &quot;it must
+be done!&quot; and then he recommenced his silent walk, with the shadows of
+many emotions coming over his countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he returned to Edith's side again, the manner and the aspect of
+Sir Robert Croyland were both changed. There was an expression of deep
+sorrow upon his countenance, of much agitation, but considerable
+tenderness; and, to his daughter's surprise, he took her hand in his,
+and pressed it affectionately.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edith,&quot; he said, after a short interval of silence, &quot;I have
+commanded, I have insisted, I have threatened--but all in vain. Yet,
+in so doing, I have had in view to spare you even greater pain than
+could be occasioned by a father's sternness. My very love for you, my
+child, made me seem wanting in love. But now I must inflict the
+greater pain. You require, it seems, inducements stronger than
+obedience to a father's earnest commands, and you shall have them,
+however terrible for me to speak and you to hear. I will tell you all,
+and leave you to judge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith gazed at him in surprise and terror. &quot;Oh, do not--do not, sir!&quot;
+she said; &quot;do not try to break my heart, and put my duty to you in
+opposition to the fulfilment of a most sacred vow--in opposition to
+all the dictates of my own heart and my own conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edith, it must be done,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland. &quot;I have urged
+you to a marriage with young Richard Radford. I now tell you solemnly
+that your father's life depends upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith clasped her hands wildly together, and gazed, for a moment, in
+his face, without a word, almost stupified with horror. But Sir Robert
+Croyland had deceived her, or attempted to deceive her, on the very
+same subject they were now discussing, more than once already. She
+knew it; and of course she doubted; for those who have been once false
+are never fully believed--those who have been once deceived are always
+suspicious of those who have deceived them, even when they speak the
+truth. As thought and reflection came back after the first shock,
+Edith found much cause to doubt: she could not see how such a thing
+was possible--how her refusal of Richard Radford could affect her
+father's life; and she replied, after a time, in a hesitating tone,
+&quot;How can that be?--I do not understand it.--I do not see how----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will tell you,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a low and
+peculiarly-quiet voice, which had something fearful in it to his
+daughter's ear. &quot;It is a long story, Edith; but you must hear it all,
+my child. You shall be your father's confidant--his only one. You
+shall share the secret, dreadful as it is, which has embittered his
+whole existence, rendered his days terrible, his nights sleepless, his
+bed a couch of fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith trembled in every limb; and Sir Robert, rising, crossed over and
+opened the door of the drawing-room, to see that there were none of
+the servants near it. Then closing it again, he returned to her side,
+and proceeded, holding her hand in his: &quot;You must have remarked,&quot; he
+said, &quot;and perhaps often wondered, my dear child, that Mr. Radford, a
+man greatly below myself in station, whose manners are repulsive and
+disagreeable, whose practices I condemn and reprobate, whose notions
+and principles I abhor, has exercised over me for many years an
+influence which no other person possesses, that he has induced me to
+do many things which my better sense and better feelings disapproved,
+that he has even led me to consent that my best-loved daughter should
+become the wife of his son, and to urge her to be so at the expense of
+all her feelings. You have seen all this, Edith, and wondered. Is it
+not so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have, indeed,&quot; murmured Edith. &quot;I have been by no means able to
+account for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Such will not be the case much longer, Edith,&quot; replied Sir Robert
+Croyland. &quot;I am making my confession, my dear child; and you shall
+hear all. I must recur, too, to the story of young Leyton. You know
+well that I liked and esteemed him; and although I was offended, as I
+justly might be, at his conduct towards yourself, and thought fit to
+show that I disapproved, yet at first, and from the first, I
+determined, if I saw the attachment continue and prove real and
+sincere, to sacrifice all feelings of pride, and all considerations of
+fortune, and when you were of a fit age, to confirm the idle ceremony
+which had passed between you, by a real and lawful marriage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, that was kind and generous of you, my dear father. What could
+make you change so suddenly and fatally? You must have seen that the
+attachment was true and lasting; you must have known that Henry was in
+every way calculated to make your daughter happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall hear, Edith--you shall hear,&quot; replied her father. &quot;Very
+shortly after the event of which I have spoken, another occurred, of a
+dark and terrible character, only known to myself and one other. I was
+somewhat irritable at that time. My views and prospects with regard to
+yourself were crossed; and although I had taken the resolution I have
+mentioned, vexation and disappointment had their effect upon my mind.
+Always passionate, I gave way more to my passion than I had ever done
+before; and the result was a fatal and terrible one. You may remember
+poor Clare, the gamekeeper. He had offended me on the Monday morning;
+and I had used violent and angry language towards him before his
+companions, threatening to punish him in a way he did not expect. On
+the following day, we went out again to shoot--he and I alone
+together--and, on our way back, we passed through a little wood, which
+lies----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, stop--stop!&quot; cried Edith, covering her eyes with her hands. &quot;Do
+not tell me any more!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her father was not displeased to see her emotion, for it answered his
+purpose. Yet, it must not be supposed that the peculiar tone and
+manner which he assumed, so different from anything that had been seen
+in his demeanour for years, was affected as a means to an end. Such
+was not the case. Sir Robert Croyland was now true, in manner and in
+words, though it was the first time that he had been entirely so for
+many years. There had been a terrible struggle before he could make up
+his mind to speak; but yet, when he did begin, it was a relief to him,
+to unburthen the overloaded breast, even to his own child. It softened
+him; it made his heart expand; it took the chain off long-imprisoned
+feelings, and gave a better spirit room to make its presence felt. He
+did not forget his object, indeed. To save himself from a death of
+horror, from accusation, from disgrace, was still his end; but the
+means by which he proposed to seek it were gentler. He even wavered in
+his resolution: he fancied that he could summon fortitude to leave the
+decision to Edith herself, and that if that decision were against him,
+would dare and bear the worst. But still he was pleased to see her
+moved; for he thought that she could never hear the whole tale, and
+learn his situation fully, without rushing forward to extricate him;
+and he went on--&quot;Nay, Edith, now the statement has been begun, it must
+be concluded,&quot; he said. &quot;You would hear, and you must hear all. You
+know the wood I speak of, I dare say--a little to the left of Chequer
+Tree?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes!&quot; murmured Edith, &quot;where poor Clare was found.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet nodded his head: &quot;It was there, indeed,&quot; he said. &quot;We went
+down to see if there were any snipes, or wild fowl, in the bottom. It
+is a deep and gloomy-looking dell, with a pond of water and some
+rushes in the hollow, and a little brook running through it, having
+tall trees all around, and no road but one narrow path crossing it. As
+we came down, I thought I saw the form of a man move amongst the
+trees; and I fancied that some one was poaching there. I told Clare to
+go round the pond and see, while I watched the road. He did not seem
+inclined to go, saying, that he had not remarked anybody, but that the
+people round about said the place was haunted. I had been angry with
+him the whole morning, and a good deal out of humour with many things;
+so I told him to go round instantly, and not make me any answer. The
+man did so, in a somewhat slow and sullen humour, I thought, and
+returned sooner than I fancied he ought to do, saying that he could
+see no trace of any one. I was now very angry, for I fancied he
+neglected his duty. I told him that he was a liar, that I had
+perceived some one, whom he might have perceived as well, and that my
+firm belief was, he was in alliance with the poachers, and deserved to
+be immediately discharged. 'Well, Sir Robert,' he said, 'in regard to
+discharging me, that is soon settled. I will not stay another day in
+your service, after I have a legal right to go. As to being a liar, I
+am none; and as to being in league with the poachers, if you say so,
+you yourself lie!' Such were his words, or words to that effect. I got
+furious at his insolence, though perhaps, Edith--perhaps I provoked it
+myself--at least, I have thought so since. However, madly giving way
+to rage, I took my gun by the barrel to knock him down. A struggle
+ensued; for he caught hold of the weapon in my hand; and how I know
+not, but the gun went off, and Clare fell back upon the turf. What
+would I not have done then, to recal every hasty word I had spoken!
+But it was in vain. I stooped over him; I spoke to him; I told him how
+sorry I was for what had happened. But he made no answer, and pressed
+his hand upon his right side, where the charge had entered. I was mad
+with despair and remorse. I knew not where to go, or what to do. The
+man was evidently dying; for his face had grown pale and sharp; and
+after trying to make him speak, and beseeching him to answer one word,
+I set off running as fast as I could towards the nearest village for
+assistance. As I was going, I saw a man on horseback, riding sharply
+down towards the very place. He was at some distance from me; but I
+easily recognised Mr. Radford, and knew that he must pass by the spot
+where the wounded man lay. I comforted myself with thinking that Clare
+would get aid without my committing myself; and I crept in amongst the
+trees at the edge of the wood, to make sure that Mr. Radford saw him,
+and to watch their proceedings. Quietly and stealthily finding my way
+through the bushes, I came near; and then I saw that Radford was
+kneeling by Clare's side with an inkhorn in his hand, which, with his
+old tradesmanlike-habits, he used always at that time to carry about
+him. He was writing busily, and I could hear Clare speak, but could
+not distinguish what he said. The state of my mind, at that moment, I
+cannot describe. It was more like madness than any thing else. Vain
+and foolish is it, for any man or any body of men, to argue what would
+be their conduct in trying situations which they have never been
+placed in. It is worse than folly for them to say, what would
+naturally be another man's conduct in any circumstances; for no man
+can tell another's character, or understand fully all the fine shades
+of feeling or emotion that may influence him. The tale I am telling
+you now, Edith, is true--too true, in all respects. I was very wrong,
+certainly; but I was not guilty of the man's murder. I never intended
+to fire: I never tried to fire; and yet, perhaps, I acted, afterwards,
+as if I had been guilty, or at all events in a way that was well
+calculated to make people believe I was so. But I was mad at the
+time--mad with agitation and grief--and every man, I believe, in
+moments of deep emotion is mad, more or less. However, I crept out of
+the wood again, and hastened on, determined to leave the man to the
+care of Mr. Radford, but with all my thoughts wild and confused, and
+no definite line of conduct laid out for myself. Before I had gone a
+mile, I began to think what a folly I had committed, that I should
+have joined Radford at once; that I should have been present to hear
+what the man said, and to give every assistance in my power, although
+it might be ineffectual, in order to stanch the blood and save his
+life. As soon as these reflections arose, I determined, though late,
+to do what I should have done at first; and, turning my steps, I
+walked back at a quick pace. Ere I got half way to the top of the hill
+which looks down upon the wood, I saw Radford coming out again on
+horseback; but I went on, and met him. As soon as he beheld me he
+checked his horse, which was going at a rapid rate, and when I came
+near, dismounted to speak with me. We were then little more than
+common acquaintances, and I had sometimes dealt hardly with him in his
+different transactions; but he spoke in a friendly tone, saying, 'This
+is a sad business, Sir Robert; but if you will take my advice you will
+go home as quickly as you can, and say nothing to any one till you see
+me. I will be with you in an hour or so. At present I must ride up to
+Middle Quarter, and get down men to carry home the body.' With a
+feeling I cannot express, I asked, if he were dead, then. He nodded
+his head significantly, and when I was going to put further questions,
+he grasped my hand, saying, 'Go home, Sir Robert--go home. I shall say
+nothing about the matter to any one, till I see you, except that I
+found him dying in the wood. His gun was discharged,' he continued,
+'so there is no proof that he did not do it himself!' Little did I
+know what a fiend he was, into whose power I was putting myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Heaven!&quot; cried Edith, who had been listening with her head bent
+down till her whole face was nearly concealed, &quot;I see it all, now! I
+see it all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, dear child,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a voice sad and
+solemn, but wonderfully calm, &quot;you cannot see it all; no, nor one
+thousandth part of what I have suffered. Even the next dreadful three
+hours--for he was fully that time ere he came to Harbourne--were full
+of horror, inconceivable to any one but to him who endured them. At
+length, he made his appearance; calm, grave, self-possessed, with
+nought of his somewhat rude and blustering manner, and announced, with
+an affectation of feeling to the family, that poor Clare, my keeper,
+had been found dying with a wound in his side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I recollect the day, well!&quot; said Edith, shuddering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you not remember, then,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, &quot;that he and I
+went into my writing-room--that awful room, which well deserves the
+old prison name of the room of torture! We were closeted there for
+nearly two hours; and all he said I cannot repeat. His tone, however,
+was the most friendly in the world. He professed the greatest interest
+in me and in my situation; and he told me that he had come to see me
+before he said a word to any one, because he wished to take my opinion
+as to how he was to proceed. It was necessary, he said, that I should
+know the facts, for, unfortunately they placed me in a very dangerous
+situation, which he was most anxious to free me from; and then he went
+on to tell me, that when he had come up, poor Clare was perfectly
+sensible, and had his speech distinctly. 'As a magistrate,' he
+continued, 'I thought it right immediately to take his dying
+deposition, for I saw that he had not many minutes to live. Here it
+is,' he said, showing his pocket-book; 'and, as I luckily always have
+pen and ink with me, I knelt down, and wrote his words from his own
+lips. He had strength enough to sign the paper; and, as you may see,
+there is the mark of blood from his own hand, which he had been
+pressing on his side.' I would fain have taken the paper, but he would
+not let me, saying, that he was bound to keep it; and then he went on,
+and read the contents. In it, the unfortunate man charged me most
+wrongfully with having shot him in a fit of passion; and, moreover, he
+said that he had been sure, beforehand, that I would do it, as I had
+threatened him on the preceding day, and there were plenty of people
+who could prove it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, how dreadful!&quot; cried Edith.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was false, as I have a soul to be saved!&quot; cried Sir Robert
+Croyland. &quot;But Mr. Radford then went on, and, shrugging his shoulders,
+said, that he was placed in a very delicate and painful situation, and
+that he did not really know how to act with regard to the deposition.
+'Put it in the fire!' I exclaimed--'put it in the fire!' But he said,
+'No; every man must consider himself in these things, Sir Robert. I
+have my own character and reputation to think of--my own duty. I risk
+a great deal, you must recollect, by concealing a thing of this kind.
+I do not know that I don't put my own life in danger; for this is
+clear and conclusive evidence against you, and you know, what it is to
+be accessory in a case of murder!' I then told him my own story,
+Edith; and he said, that made some difference, indeed. He was sure I
+would tell him the truth; but yet he must consider himself in the
+matter; and he added hints which I could not mistake, that his
+evidence was to be bought off. I offered anything he pleased to name,
+and the result was such as you may guess. He exacted that I should
+mortgage my estate, as far as it could be mortgaged, and make over the
+proceeds to him, and that I should promise to give your hand to his
+son. I promised anything, my child; for not only life and death, but
+honour or disgrace, were in the balance. If he had asked my life, I
+would have held my throat to the knife a thousand times sooner than
+have made such sacrifices. But to die the death of a felon, Edith--to
+be hanged--to writhe in the face of a grinning and execrating
+multitude--to have my name handed down in the annals of crime, as the
+man who had been executed for the murder of his own servant,--I could
+not bear that, my child; and I promised anything! He kept the paper,
+he said, as a security; and, at first, it was to be given to me, to do
+with it as I liked--when the money coming from the mortgage was
+secretly made over to him; but then, he said, that he had lost one
+great hold, and must keep it till the marriage was completed: for by
+this time the coroner's inquest was over, and he had withheld the
+deposition, merely testifying that he had found the man at the point
+of death in the wood, and had gone as fast as possible for assistance.
+The jury consisted of his tenants and mine, and they were easily
+satisfied; but the fiend who had me in his power was more greedy; and,
+by the very exercise of his influence, he seemed to learn to enjoy it.
+Day after day, month after month, he took a pleasure in making me do
+things that were abhorrent to me. It changed my nature and my
+character. He forced me to wink at frauds that I detested; and every
+year he pressed for the completion of your marriage with his son. Your
+coldness, your dislike, your refusal would, long ere this, have driven
+him into fury, I believe, if Richard Radford had been eager for your
+hand himself. But now, Edith--now, my child, he will hear of no more
+delay. He is ruined in fortune, disappointed in his expectations, and
+rendered fierce as a hungry beast by some events that have taken place
+this morning. He has just now been over at Harbourne, and used threats
+which I know, too well, he will execute. He it was, himself, who told
+me to inform you, that if you did not consent, your father's life
+would be the sacrifice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Heaven!&quot; cried Edith, covering her eyes with her hands, &quot;at
+least, give me time to think.--Surely, his word cannot have such
+power: a base, notorious criminal himself, one who every day violates
+the law, who scoffs at his own oaths, and holds truth and honour but
+as names--surely his word will be nothing against Sir Robert
+Croyland's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;His word is nothing, would be nothing,&quot; replied her father,
+earnestly; &quot;but that deposition, Edith! It is that which is my
+destruction. Remember, that the words of a dying man, with eternity
+and judgment close before his eyes, are held by the law more powerful
+than any other kind of evidence; and, besides, there are those still
+living, who heard the rash threat I used. Suspicion once pointed at
+me, a thousand corroborative circumstances would come forth to prove
+that the tale I told of parting with the dead man, some time before,
+was false, and that very fact would condemn me. Cast away all such
+hopes, Edith--cast away all such expectations. They are vain!--vain!
+Look the truth full in the face, my child. This man has your father's
+life entirely and totally in his power, and ask yourself, if you will
+doom me to death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, give me time--give me time!&quot; cried Edith, wringing her hands.
+&quot;Let me but think over it till to-morrow, or next day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not an hour ago,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland, &quot;he swore, by
+everything he holds sacred, that if before twelve to-night, he did not
+receive your consent----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, stay!&quot; cried Edith, eagerly, placing her hand upon her brow.
+&quot;Let me think--let me think. It is but money that he wants--it is but
+the pitiful wealth my uncle left me. Let him take it, my father!&quot; she
+continued, laying her hand upon Sir Robert's arm, and gazing brightly
+in his face, as if the light of hope had suddenly been renewed. &quot;Let
+him take it all, every farthing. I would sooner work as a hired
+servant in the fields for my daily bread, with the only comfort of
+innocence and peace, than break my vows, and marry that bad man. I
+will sign a promise this instant that he shall have all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland threw his arms round her, and looked up to Heaven,
+as if imploring succour for them both. &quot;My sweet child!--My dear
+child!&quot; he said, with the tears streaming down his cheeks. &quot;But I
+cannot leave you even this generous hope. This man has other designs.
+I offered--I promised to give Zara to his son, and to ensure to her,
+with my brother's help, a fortune equal to your own. But he would not
+hear of it. He has other views, my Edith. You must know all--you must
+see all as it really is. He will keep his word this very night! If
+before twelve, he do not receive your consent, the intimation of the
+fatal knowledge he possesses will be sent to those who will not fail
+to track it through every step, as the bloodhound follows his prey. He
+is a desperate man, Edith, and will keep his word, bringing down ruin
+upon our heads, even if it overwhelm himself also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith Croyland paused without reply for several minutes, her beautiful
+face remaining pale, with the exception of one glowing spot in the
+centre of her cheek. Her eyes were fixed upon the ground; and her lips
+moved, but without speech. She was arguing in her own mind the case
+between hope and despair; and the terrible array of circumstances on
+every side bewildered her. Delay was her only refuge; and looking up
+in her father's face, she said, &quot;But why is he so hasty? Why cannot he
+wait a few hours longer? I will fix a time when my answer shall be
+given--it shall be shortly, very shortly--this time to-morrow. Surely,
+surely, in so terrible a case, I may be allowed a few hours to
+think--a short, a very short period, to decide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He will admit of no more than I have said,&quot; answered Sir Robert
+Croyland: &quot;it is as vain to entreat him, as to ask the hangman to
+delay his fatal work. He is hard as iron, without feeling, without
+heart. His reasons, too, are specious, my dear child. His son, it
+seems, has taken part this morning in a smuggling affray with the
+troops--blood has been shed--some of the soldiers have been
+killed--all who have had a share therein are guilty of felony; and it
+has become necessary that the young man should be hurried out of the
+country without delay. To him such a flight is nothing: he has no
+family to blacken with the record of crime--he has no honourable name
+to stain--his means are all prepared; his flight is easy, his escape
+secure; but his father insists that you shall be his bride before he
+goes, or he gives your father up, not to justice, but to the
+law--which in pretending to administer justice, but too often commits
+the very crimes it seems to punish. Four short days are all that he
+allows; and then you are to be that youth's bride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! the bride of a felon!&quot; cried Edith, her spirit rising for a
+moment--&quot;of one stained with every vice and every crime--to vow
+falsely that I will love him whom I must ever hate--to break all my
+promises to one I must ever love--to deceive, prove false and forsworn
+to the noble and the true, and give myself to the base, the lawless,
+and the abhorred! Oh, my father--my father! is it possible that you
+can ask such a thing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The fate of Sir Robert Croyland and his daughter hung in the balance.
+One harsh command, one unkind word, with justice and truth on her
+side, and feebleness and wrong on his, might have armed her to resist;
+but the old man's heart was melted. The struggle that he witnessed in
+his child was, for a moment--remark, only for a moment--more terrible
+than that within his own breast. There was something in the innocence
+and truth, something in the higher attributes of the passions called
+into action in her breast, something in the ennobling nature of the
+conflicting feelings of her heart--the filial tenderness, the
+adherence to her engagements, the abhorrence of the bad, the love of
+the good, the truth, the honour, and the piety, all striving one with
+the other, that for a time made the mean passion of fear seem small
+and insignificant. &quot;I do not ask you, my child,&quot; he said--&quot;I do not
+urge you--I ask, I urge you no more! The worst bitterness is past. I
+have told my own child the tale of my sorrows, my folly, my weakness,
+and my danger. I have inflicted the worst upon you, Edith, and on
+myself; and I leave it to your own heart to decide. After your
+generous, your noble offer, to sacrifice your property and leave
+yourself nothing, for my sake, it were cruel--it were, indeed, base,
+to urge you farther. To avoid this, dreadful disclosure, to shelter
+you and myself from such horrible details, I have often been stern,
+and harsh, and menacing.--Forgive me, Edith, but it is past! You now
+know what is on the die; and it is your own hand casts it. Your
+father's life, the honour of your family, the high name we have ever
+borne--these are to be lost and won. But I urge it not--I ask it not.
+You only must and can decide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith, who had risen, stood before him, pale as ashes, with her hands
+clasped so tight that the blood retreated from her fingers, where they
+pressed against each other, leaving them as white as those of the
+dead--her eyes fixed, straining, but sightless, upon the ground. All
+that she saw, all that she knew, all that she felt, was the dreadful
+alternative of fates before her. It was more than her frame could
+bear--it was more than almost any human heart could endure. To condemn
+a father to death, to bring the everlasting regret into her heart, to
+wander, as if accurst, over the earth, with a parent's blood crying
+out for vengeance! It was a terrible thought indeed. Then again, she
+remembered the vows that she had taken, the impossibility of
+performing those that were asked of her, the sacrifice of the innocent
+to the guilty, the perjury that she must commit, the dark and dreadful
+future before her, the self-reproach that stood on either hand to
+follow her through life! She felt as if her heart was bursting; and
+the next moment, all the blood seemed to fly from it, and leave it
+cold and motionless. She strove to speak--her voice was choked; but
+then, again, she made an effort; and a few words broke forth,
+convulsively--&quot;To save you, my father, I would do anything,&quot; she
+cried. &quot;I <i>will</i> do anything--but----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She could not finish; her sight failed her; her heart seemed crushed;
+her head swam; the colour left her lips; and she fell prone at her
+father's feet, without one effort to save herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland's first proceeding was, to raise her and lay her
+on the sofa; but before he called any one, he gazed at her a moment or
+two in silence. &quot;She has fainted,&quot; he said. &quot;Poor child!--Poor girl!&quot;
+But then came another thought: &quot;She said she would do anything,&quot; he
+murmured; &quot;her words were, 'I will'--It is surely a consent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He forgot--he heeded not--he would not heed, that she had added,
+&quot;But----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it was a consent,&quot; he repeated; &quot;it must have been a consent. I
+will hasten to tell him. If we can but gain a few days, it is
+something. Who can say what a few days may bring? At all events, it is
+a relief.--It will obtain the delay she wished--I will tell him.--It
+must have been a consent;&quot; and calling the servants and Edith's own
+maid, to attend upon her, he hastened out of the house, fearful of
+waiting till her senses returned, lest other words should snatch from
+him the interpretation he chose to put upon those which had gone
+before. In an instant, however, he returned, went into the library,
+and wrote down on a scrap of paper:--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, dearest Edith!--thanks! I go in haste to tell Mr. Radford the
+promise you have given.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then hurrying out again, he put the paper, which he had folded up,
+into the hands of the groom, who held his horse. &quot;That for Miss
+Croyland,&quot; he said, &quot;when she has quite recovered; but not before;&quot;
+and, mounting with speed, he rode away as fast as he could go.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>END OF VOL. II.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos-street, Covent-garden.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE SMUGGLER:</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>A Tale</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.</h2>
+
+<h5>AUTHOR OF<br>
+
+&quot;DARNLEY,&quot; &quot;DE L'ORME,&quot; &quot;RICHELIEU,&quot;<br>
+
+ETC. ETC.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>IN THREE VOLUMES.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<h3><a name="div3_0" href="#div3Ref_0">VOL. III.</a></h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>LONDON:</h4>
+<h3>SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.</h3>
+<h4>1845.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE SMUGGLER.</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_01" href="#div3Ref_01">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was two o'clock when Sir Robert Croyland left his daughter; and
+Edith, with the aid of her maid, soon recovered from the swoon into
+which she had fallen. At first she hardly knew where she was, or what
+had taken place. All seemed strange to her; for she had never fainted
+before; and though she had more than once seen her sister in the state
+in which she herself had just been, yet she did not apply what she had
+witnessed in others to explain her own sensations.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When she could rise from the sofa, where her father had laid her, and
+thought and recollection returned, Edith's first inquiry was for Sir
+Robert; and the servant's answer that he had been gone a quarter of an
+hour, was at first a relief. But Edith sat and pondered for a while,
+applying herself to call to mind all the last words which had been
+spoken. As she did so, a fear came over her--a fear that her meaning
+might have been mistaken. &quot;No!&quot; she murmured, at length--&quot;no! I said,
+<i>but</i>--he must have heard it.--I cannot break those vows--I dare not;
+I would do anything to save him--oh, yes, doom myself to wretchedness
+for life; but I cannot, unless Henry gives me back my promise.--Poor
+Henry! what right have I to make him suffer too?--Yet does he
+suffer?--But a father's life--a father's life! That must not be the
+sacrifice!--Leave me, Caroline--I am better now!&quot; she continued aloud;
+&quot;it is very foolish to faint in this way. It never happened to me
+before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, Miss Edith! it happens to every one now and then,&quot; said the
+maid, who had been in her service long; &quot;and I am sure all Sir Robert
+said to you to-day, was enough to make you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heaven!&quot; cried Edith; in alarm, &quot;did you hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I could not help hearing a part, Miss Edith,&quot; answered the maid; &quot;for
+in that little room, where I sit to be out of the way of all the black
+fellows, one hears very plain what is said here. There was once a
+door, I believe, and it is only just covered over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment, Edith sat mute in consternation; but at length demanded,
+&quot;What did you hear? Tell me all, Caroline--every word, if you would
+ever have me regard you more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, it was not much, Miss!&quot; replied the maid; &quot;I heard Sir Robert
+twice say, his life depended on it--and I suppose he meant, on your
+marrying young Mr. Radford. Then he seemed to tell you a long story;
+but I did not hear the whole of that; for I did not try, I can assure
+you, Miss Edith; and then I heard you say, 'To save you, my father, I
+would do anything--I <i>will</i> do anything, but--' and then you stopped
+in the middle, because I suppose you fainted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith put her hands before her eyes and thought, or tried to think;
+for her ideas were still in sad confusion. &quot;Leave me now, Caroline,&quot;
+she said; &quot;but, remember, I expect that no part of any conversation
+you have overheard between me and my father, will ever be repeated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, no, Miss Edith,&quot; replied the woman, &quot;I would not on any
+account;&quot; and she left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">We all know of what value are ordinary promises of secrecy, even in
+the best society, as it is called. Nine times out of ten, there is one
+dear friend to whom everything is revealed; and that dear friend has
+others; and at each remove, the bond of secrecy is weaker and more
+weak, till the whole world is made a hearer of the tale. Now Edith's
+maid was a very discreet person; and when she promised not to reveal
+what she had heard, she only proposed to herself, to tell it to one
+person in the world. Nor was that person her lover, or her friend, or
+her fellow-servant; nor was she moved by the spirit of gossip, but
+really and truly by a love for her young lady, which was great, and by
+a desire to serve her. Thus, she thought, as soon as she had shut the
+door, &quot;I will tell it to Miss Zara, though; for it is but right that
+she should know how they are driving her sister to marry a man she
+hates, as well she may. Miss Zara is active and quick, and may find
+some means of helping her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The maid had not been gone a minute, when she returned with the short
+note which Sir Robert Croyland had left; and as she handed it to her
+young mistress, she watched her countenance eagerly. But Edith took
+it, read it, and gazed upon the paper without a word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, Miss Edith,&quot; said the maid, &quot;are you likely to want me soon;
+for I wish to go up to the village for something?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Caroline--no,&quot; answered Edith, with an absent air; &quot;I shall not
+want you;&quot; and she remained standing with the paper in her hand, and
+her eyes fixed upon it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The powers by which volition acts upon the mind, and in what volition
+really consists, are mysteries which have never yet, that I have seen,
+been explained. Yet certain it is, that there is something within us
+which, when the intellectual faculties seem, under the pressure of
+circumstances, to lose their functions, can by a great effort compel
+them to return to their duty, rally them, and array them, as it were,
+against the enemy by whom they have been routed. Edith Croyland made
+the effort, and succeeded. She had been taken by surprise, and
+overcome; but now she collected all the forces of her mind, and
+prepared to fight the battle over again. In a few minutes, she became
+calm, and applied herself to consider fully her own situation. There
+were filial duty and tenderness on one side--love and a strong vow on
+the other. &quot;He has gone to tell Mr. Radford that I have consented,&quot;
+was her first distinct thought, &quot;but his having mistaken me, must not
+make me give that consent when it is wrong. Were it myself alone, I
+would sacrifice all for him--I could but die--a few hours of misery
+are not much to bear--I have borne many. But I am bound--Good God!
+what an alternative!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But I will not follow her thoughts: they can easily be conceived. She
+was left alone, with no one to counsel, with no one to aid her. The
+fatal secret she possessed was a bar to asking advice from any one.
+Buried in her own bosom, the causes of her conduct, the motives upon
+which she acted, must ever be secret, whatever course she pursued.
+Agony was on either hand. She had to choose between two terrible
+alternatives: on the one hand a breach of all her engagements, a few
+years, a few weeks, perhaps, of misery, and an early death--for such
+she knew must be her fate: and, on the other, a life, with love
+certainly to cheer it, but poisoned by the remembrance that she had
+sacrificed her father. Yet Edith now thought firmly, weighed,
+considered all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She could come to no determination. Between two such gulfs, she shrank
+trembling from either.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The clock in the hall, with its clear, sharp bell, struck three; and
+the moment after, the quick sound of horses' feet was heard. &quot;Can it
+be my father?&quot; she thought. &quot;No! he has not had time--unless he has
+doubted;&quot; but while she asked herself the question, the horses stopped
+at the door, the bell rang; and she went on to say to herself,
+&quot;perhaps it is Zara. That would be a comfort indeed, though I cannot
+tell her--I must not tell her all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old Hindoo opened the door, saying &quot;Missy, a gentleman want to see
+you--very fine gentleman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith could not speak; but she bowed her head, and the servant,
+receiving that token as assent, turned to some one behind him and
+said, &quot;Walk in, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment or two, Edith did not raise her eyes, and her lips moved.
+She heard a step in the room, that made her heart flutter; she heard
+the door shut; but yet for an instant she remained with her head bent,
+and her hands clasped together. Then she looked up. Standing before
+her, and gazing intently upon her, was a tall handsome man, dressed in
+the splendid uniform of the dragoons of that time, and with a star
+upon his left breast--a decoration worn by persons who had the right
+to do so, more frequently in those days than at the present time. But
+it was to the face that Edith's eyes were turned--to the countenance
+well known and deeply loved. Changed though it was--grave where it had
+been gay, pale where it had been florid, sterner in the lines, once so
+full of gentle youth--still all the features were there, and the
+expression too, though saddened, was the same.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He gazed on her with a look full of tenderness and love; and their
+eyes met. On both of them the feelings of other years seemed to rush
+with overpowering force. The interval which had since occurred, for a
+moment, was annihilated; the heart went back with the rapid wing of
+Memory, to the hours of joy that were gone; and Leyton opened wide his
+arms, exclaiming, &quot;Edith! Edith!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She could not resist. She had no power to struggle. Love, stronger
+than herself, was master; and, starting up, she cast herself upon his
+bosom, and there wept.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear, dear girl!&quot; he said, &quot;then you love me still,--then Digby's
+assurance is true--then you have not forgotten poor Harry Leyton--then
+his preserving hope, his long endurance, his unwavering love, his
+efforts, his success, have not been all in vain!--Dear, dear Edith!
+This hour repays me for all--for all. Dangers and adversities, and
+wounds, and anguish of body and of mind, and sleepless nights, and
+days of bitter thought--I would endure them all. All?--ay, tenfold
+all--for this one hour!&quot; and he pressed her closer and closer to his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, Harry--nay,&quot; cried Edith, still clinging to him; &quot;but hear me,
+hear me--or if you speak such words of tenderness, you will break my
+heart, or drive me mad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heaven!&quot; exclaimed Leyton, unclasping his arms, &quot;what is it that
+you say? Edith--my Edith--my own, my vowed, my bride! But now, you
+seemed to share the joy you gave,--to love, as you are loved; and
+now----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do love you--oh! I do love you!&quot; cried Edith, vehemently; &quot;add not
+a doubt of that to all I suffer. Ever, ever have I loved you, without
+change, without thought of change. But yet--but yet--. I may have
+fancied that you have forgotten me--I may have thought it strange that
+you did not write--that my letters remained unanswered; but still I
+loved, still I have been true to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did write, my Edith. I received no letters,&quot; said Leyton, sadly;
+&quot;we have both been wronged, my dear girl. My letters were returned in
+a cover directed in your own hand: but that trick I understand--that I
+see through. Oh, do not let any one deceive you again, beloved girl!
+You have been my chief--I might say my only thought; for the memory of
+you has mingled with every other idea, and made the whole your own. In
+the camp and in the field, I have endured and fought for Edith; in the
+council and in the court, I have struggled and striven for her; she
+has been the end and object of every effort, the ruling power of my
+whole mind. And now, Edith--now your soldier has returned to you. He
+has won every step towards the crowning reward of his endeavours; he
+has risen to competence, to command, to some honour in the service of
+his country; and he can proudly say to her he loves, Cast from you the
+fortune for which men dared to think I sought you--come to your lover,
+come to your husband, as dowerless as he was when they parted us; and
+let all the world see and know, that it was your love, not your
+wealth, I coveted--this dear hand, that dear heart, not base gold,
+that I desired. Oh, Edith, in Heaven's name, cast me not now headlong
+down from the height of hope and joy to which you have raised me, for
+fear a heart and spirit, too long depressed, should never find
+strength to rise again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith staggered back and sank down upon the sofa, covering her eyes,
+and only murmuring--&quot;I do love you, Harry, beyond life itself.--Oh,
+that I were dead!--oh, that I were dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a terrible struggle in Henry Leyton's bosom. He could not
+understand the agitation that he witnessed; had it borne anything like
+the character of joy, even of surprise, all would have been clear; but
+it was evidently very different. It was joy overborne by sorrow. It
+was evidently a struggle of love with some influence, perhaps not
+stronger, yet terrible in its effect. He was a man of quick decision
+and strong resolution--qualities not always combined; and he overcame
+himself in a moment. He saw that he was loved--still deeply, truly
+loved; and that was a great point. He saw that Edith was grieved to
+the soul--he saw that he himself could not feel more intensely the
+anguish she inflicted than she did, that she was wringing her own
+heart while she was wringing his, and felt a double pang; and that was
+a strong motive for calmness, if not for fortitude. Her last words, &quot;I
+wish I were dead!&quot; restored him fully to himself; and following her to
+the sofa, he seated himself beside her, gently took her hand in his,
+and pressed his lips upon it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edith,&quot; he said--&quot;my own dear Edith, let us be calm! Thank you, my
+beloved, for one moment of happiness, the first I have known for
+years; and now let us talk, as quietly as may be, of anything that may
+have arisen which should justly cause Henry Leyton's return to make
+Edith Croyland wish herself dead. Your uncle will not be long ere he
+arrives; I left him on the road; and it is by his full consent that I
+am here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh no, Harry--no!&quot; said Edith, turning at first to his comment on her
+words, &quot;it is not your return that makes me wish myself dead; but it
+is, that circumstances--dark and terrible circumstances--which were
+only made known to me an hour before your arrival, have turned all the
+joy, the pure, the almost unmixed joy, that I should have felt at
+seeing you again, into a well of bitterness. It is that I cannot, that
+I dare not explain to you those circumstances--that you will think me
+wrong, unkind--fickle, perhaps,--perhaps even mad, in whatsoever way I
+may act.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But surely you can say something, dear Edith,&quot; said her lover; &quot;you
+can give some hint of the cause of all I see. You tell me in one
+breath that you love me still, yet wish you were dead; and show
+evidently that my coming has been painful to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no, Harry,&quot; she answered, mournfully, &quot;do not say so. Painful to
+me?--oh, no! It would be the purest joy that ever I yet knew, were it
+not that--But why did you not come earlier, Harry? Why, when your
+horse stood upon that hill, did you not turn his head hither? Would
+that you had, would that you had! My fate would have been already
+decided. Now it is all clouds and darkness. I knew you instantly. I
+could see no feature; I could but trace a figure on horseback, wrapped
+in a large cloak; but the instinct of love told me who it was. Oh! why
+did you not come then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because it would have been dishonest, Edith,&quot; answered Leyton,
+gravely. &quot;Your uncle had been my father's friend, my uncle's friend.
+In a kindly manner he invited me here some time ago, as a perfect
+stranger, under the name of Captain Osborn. You were not here then;
+and I thought I could not in honour come under his roof, when I found
+you were here, without telling him who I really was. He appointed this
+day to meet me at Woodchurch at two; and I dared not venture, after
+all that has passed between your family and mine, to seek you in his
+dwelling, ere I had seen and explained myself to him. I knew you were
+here: I gazed up at these windows with a yearning of the heart that
+nearly overcame my resolution----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I saw you gaze, Harry,&quot; answered Edith; &quot;and I say still, would that
+you had come.--Yet you were right.--It might have saved me much
+misery; but you were right. And now listen to the fate that is before
+me--to the choice I have to make, as far as I can explain it--and yet
+what words can I use?--But it must be done. I must not leave anything
+unperformed, that can prevent poor Edith Croyland from becoming an
+object of hatred and contempt in Henry Leyton's eyes. Little as I can
+do to defend myself, I must do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She paused, gazed up on high for a moment, and then laid her hand upon
+his.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Henry, I do love you,&quot; she said. &quot;Nay, more, I am yours, plighted to
+you by bonds I cannot and I dare not break--vows, I mean, the most
+solemn, as well as the ties of long affection. Yet, if I wed you, I am
+miserable for life. Self-reproach, eternal self-reproach--the most
+terrible of all things--to which no other mental or corporeal pain can
+ever reach, would prey upon my heart for ever, and bear me down into
+the grave. Peace--rest, I should have none. A voice would be for ever
+howling in my ear a name that would poison sleep, and make each waking
+moment an hour of agony. I can tell you no more on this side of the
+question; but so it is. It seems fated that I should bring misery one
+way or another upon him who is dearest to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot comprehend,&quot; exclaimed Leyton, in surprise. &quot;Your father has
+heard, I suppose, that I am here, and has menaced you with his curse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no!&quot; answered Edith; &quot;far from it. He was here but now; he spoke
+of you, Henry, as you deserve. He told me how he had loved you and
+esteemed you in your young days; how, though angry at first at our
+rash engagement, he would have consented in the end; but--there was a
+fatal 'but,' Henry--an impediment not to be surmounted. I must not
+tell you what it is--I cannot, I dare not explain. But listen to what
+he said besides. You have heard one part of the choice; hear the
+other: it is to wed a man whom I abhor--despise--contemn--whose very
+look is fearful to me; to ask you to give me back the vows I plighted,
+in order--in order,&quot; and she spoke very low, &quot;that I may sacrifice
+myself for my father, that I may linger out a few weeks of
+wretchedness, and then sink into the grave, which is now my only
+hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And do you ask me, Edith?&quot; inquired Leyton, in a sad and solemn
+tone--&quot;do you, Edith Croyland, really and truly ask me to give you
+back those vows? Speak, beloved--speak; for my heart is well nigh
+bursting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, and she was silent; covering her eyes with her hands, while
+her bosom heaved, as if she were struggling for breath. &quot;No, no, no,
+Harry!&quot; she cried, at length, as if the effort were vain, &quot;I cannot, I
+cannot! Oh, Harry, Harry! I wish that I were dead!&quot; and, casting her
+arms round his neck, she wept upon his breast again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Henry Leyton drew her closer to him with his left arm round her waist;
+but pressed his right hand on his brow, and gazed on vacancy. Both
+remained without speaking for a time; but at length he said, in a
+voice more calm than might have been expected, &quot;Let us consider this
+matter, Edith. You have been terrified by some means; a tale has
+been told you, which has agitated and alarmed you, which has overcome
+your resolution, that now has endured more than six years, and
+doubtless that tale has been well devised.--Are you sure that it is
+true?--Forgive this doubt in regard to one who is near and dear to
+you; but when such deceits have been practised, as those which we know
+have been used to delude us, I must be suspicious.--Are you sure that
+it is true, I say?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Too true, too true!&quot;' answered Edith, shaking her head,
+mournfully--&quot;that tale explains all, too,--even those deceits you
+mention. No, no, it is but too true--it could not be feigned--besides,
+I remember so many things, all tending to the same. It is true--I
+cannot doubt it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Henry Leyton paused, and twice began to speak, but twice stopped,
+as if the words he was about to utter, cost him a terrible struggle to
+speak. At length he said, &quot;And the man, Edith--the man they wish you
+to marry--who is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ever the same,&quot; answered Edith, bending down her head, and her cheek,
+which had been as pale as death, glowing like crimson--&quot;the same,
+Richard Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! a felon!&quot; exclaimed Leyton, turning round, with his brows bent;
+&quot;a felon, after whom my soldiers and the officers of justice are now
+hunting through the country! Sir Robert Croyland must be mad! But I
+tell you, Edith, that man shall never stand within a church again,
+till it be the chapel of the gaol. Let him make his peace with Heaven;
+for if he be caught--and caught he shall be--there is no mercy for him
+on earth. But surely there must be some mistake. You cannot have
+understood your father rightly, or he cannot know----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! yes, yes!&quot; replied Edith; &quot;he knows all; and it is the same. Ay,
+and within four days, too--that he may take me with him in his
+flight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ere four days be over,&quot; answered her lover, sternly, &quot;he shall no
+more think of bridals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what will become of my father, then!&quot; said Edith, gazing steadily
+down upon the ground. &quot;It is I--I that shall have done it. Alas, alas!
+which way shall I turn?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something more than sorrow in her countenance; there was
+anguish--almost agony; and Sir Henry Leyton was much moved. &quot;Turn to
+me, Edith,&quot; he said; &quot;turn to him who loves you better than life; and
+there is no sacrifice that he will not make for you, but his honour.
+Tell me, have you made any promise?--have you given your father your
+consent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; answered Edith, eagerly; &quot;no, I have not. He took my words as
+consent, though ere they were half finished, the horror and pain of
+all I heard overcame me, and I fainted. But I did not consent,
+Harry--I could not consent, without your permission.--Oh, Harry, aid
+and support me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Listen to me, my beloved,&quot; replied Leyton; &quot;wealth, got by any means,
+is this man's object. I gather from what you say, that your father has
+some cause to dread him--give up to him this much-coveted fortune--let
+him take it--ay, and share Henry Leyton's little wealth. I desire
+nothing but yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alas, Henry, it is all in vain!&quot; answered Edith; &quot;I have offered it--I
+knew your noble, generous heart. I knew that wealth would make no
+difference to him I loved, and offered to resign everything. My
+father, even before he came hither, offered him my sister--offered to
+make her the sacrifice, as she is bound by no promises, and to give
+her an equal portion; but it was all refused.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then there is some other object,&quot; said her lover; &quot;some object that
+may, perhaps, tend even to more misery than you dream of, Edith.
+Believe me, my beloved--oh! believe me, did I but see how I could
+deliver you--were I sure that any act of mine would give you peace, no
+sacrifice on my part would seem too great. At present, however, I see
+nothing clearly--all is darkness and shadow around. I know not, that
+if I give you back your promise, and free you from your vow, that I
+shall not be contributing to make you wretched. How, then, am I to
+act? You are sure, dear one, that you have not consented?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite sure,&quot; answered Edith; &quot;and it so happened, that there was one
+who heard my words as well as my father. He, indeed, took them as
+consent, and hurried away to Mr. Radford, without giving me time to
+recover and say more. Read that, Harry,&quot; and she put the note her
+father had left into his hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is fortunate you were heard by another,&quot; replied Leyton. &quot;Hark!
+there is your uncle's carriage coming.--Four days, did he say--four
+days? Well, then, dear Edith, will you trust in me? Will you leave
+your fate in the hands of one who will do anything on earth for your
+happiness?--and will you never doubt, though you may be kept in
+suspense, that I will so act as to deliver you, if I can, without
+bringing ruin on your father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is worse than ruin,&quot; answered Edith, with the tears rolling down
+her cheeks--&quot;it is death. But I will trust to you, Henry--I will trust
+implicitly. But tell me how to act--tell me what I am to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave this matter as it is,&quot; answered her lover, hearing Mr.
+Croyland's carriage stop at the door;--&quot;your father has snatched too
+eagerly at your words. Perhaps he has done so to gain time; but, at
+all events, the fault is his, not yours. If he speaks to you on the
+subject, you must tell the truth, and say you did not consent; but in
+everything else be passive--let him do with you what he will--take you
+to the altar, if he so pleases; but there must be the final struggle,
+Edith. There you must boldly and aloud refuse to wed a man you cannot
+love. There let the memory of your vows to me be ever present with
+you. It may seem cruel; but I exact it for your own sake. In the
+meantime, take means to let me know everything that happens, be it
+small or great--cast off all reserve towards Digby; tell him all,
+everything that takes place; tell your sister, too, or any one who can
+bear me the tidings. I shall be nearer than you think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Heaven, how will this end!&quot; cried Edith, putting her hand in
+his--&quot;God help me, Harry--God help me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He will, dear girl,&quot; answered Leyton--&quot;I feel sure he will. But
+remember what I have said. Fail not to tell Digby, or Zara, or any one
+who can bear the tidings to me, everything that occurs, every word
+that is spoken, every step that is taken. Think nothing too trifling.
+But there is your uncle's voice in the passage. Can you not inform him
+of that which you think yourself bound not to tell me? I mean the
+particulars of your father's situation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; oh no!&quot; replied Edith--&quot;I dare tell no one, especially not my
+uncle. Though kind, and generous, and benevolent, yet he is hasty, and
+he might ruin all. Dared I tell any one on earth, Henry, it would be
+you; and if I loved you before--oh, how I must love you now, when
+instead of the anger, or even heat, which I expected you to display,
+you have shown yourself ready to sacrifice all for one who is hardly
+worthy of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton pressed her to his bosom, and replied, &quot;Real love is unselfish,
+Edith. I tell you, dearest, that I die if I lose you; yet, Edith
+Croyland shall never do what is wrong for Henry Leyton's sake. If in
+the past we did commit an error, if I should not have engaged you by
+vows without your parent's consent--though God knows that error has
+been bitterly visited on my head!--I am still ready to make atonement
+to the best of my power; but I will not consent that you should be
+causelessly made miserable, or sacrifice yourself and me, without
+benefit to any one. Trust to me, Edith--trust to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will, I will!&quot; answered Edith Croyland; &quot;who can I trust to else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland was considerate; and knowing that Sir Henry Leyton was
+with his niece--for his young friend had passed him on the road--he
+paused for a moment in the vestibule, giving various orders and
+directions, in order to afford them a few minutes more of private
+conversation. When he went in, he was surprised to find Edith's face
+full of deep grief, and her eyes wet with tears, and still more when
+Leyton, after kissing her fair cheek, advanced towards him, saying, &quot;I
+must go, my dear friend, nor can I accept your kind invitation to stay
+here to-night. But I am about to show myself a bold man, and ask you
+to give me almost the privilege of a son--that is, of coming and
+going, for the four or five next days, at my own will, and without
+question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What's all this?--what's all this?&quot; cried Mr. Croyland; &quot;a lovers'
+quarrel?--Ha, Edith? Ha, Harry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; answered Edith, giving her uncle her hand; &quot;there never can
+be a quarrel between me and Henry Leyton.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, what is it all?&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland, turning
+from one to the other. &quot;Mystery--mystery! I hate mystery, Harry
+Leyton.--However, you shall have your privilege; the doors shall be
+open. Come--go--do what you like. But if you are not a great fool, you
+will order over a post-chaise and four this very night, put her in,
+and be off for Gretna Green. I'll give you my parental benediction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am afraid, my dear sir,&quot; answered Leyton, &quot;that cannot be. Edith
+has told me various things since I saw her, which require to be dealt
+with in a different way. I trust, that in whatever I do, my conduct
+will be such as to give you satisfaction; and whether the result be
+fortunate or otherwise, I shall never, till the last hour of life,
+forget the kindness you have shown me. And now, my dear sir, adieu for
+the present, for I have much to do this night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he shook the old gentleman's hand, and departed with a
+heavy heart and anxious mind. During his onward ride, his heart did
+not become lighter; his mind was only more burdened with cares. As
+long as he was in Edith's presence, he had borne up and struggled
+against all that he felt; for he saw that she was already overwhelmed
+with grief, and he feared to add to it; but now his thoughts were all
+confusion. With incomplete information--in circumstances the most
+difficult--anxious to save her he loved, even at any sacrifice on his
+own part, yet seeing no distinct means of acting in any direction
+without danger to her--he looked around him in vain for any resource;
+or, if he formed a plan one moment, he rejected it the next. He knew
+Edith's perfect truth, he knew the quiet firmness and power of her
+mind too well to doubt one tittle of that which she had stated; and
+though at first sight he thought the proofs he possessed of Mr.
+Radford's participation in the late smuggling transaction were quite
+sufficient to justify that person's immediate arrest, and proposed
+that it should take place immediately, yet the next moment he
+recollected what might be the result to Sir Robert Croyland, and
+hesitated how to act. Then, again, he turned his eyes to the
+circumstances in which Edith's father was placed, and asked himself,
+what could be the mystery which so terribly overshadowed him? Edith
+had said that his life was at stake; and Leyton tortured his
+imagination in vain to find some explanation of such a fact.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can he have been deceiving her?&quot; he asked himself more than once. But
+then, again, he answered, &quot;No, it must be true! He can have no
+ordinary motive in urging her to such a step; his whole character, his
+whole views are against it. Haughty and ostentatious, there must be
+some overpowering cause to make him seek to wed his daughter to a low
+ruffian--the son of an upstart, who owed his former wealth to fraud,
+and who is now, if all tales be true, nearly bankrupt,--to wed Edith,
+a being of grace, of beauty, and of excellence, to a villain like
+this--a felon and a fugitive--and to send her forth into the wide
+world, to share the wanderings of a man she hates! The love of life
+must be a strange thing in some men. One would have thought that a
+thousand lives were nothing to such a sacrifice. Yet, the tale must be
+true; this old man must have Sir Robert's life in his power. But
+how--how? that is the question. Perhaps Digby can discover something.
+At all events, I must see him without delay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In such thoughts, Sir Henry Leyton rode on fast to Woodchurch,
+accomplishing in twenty minutes that which took good Mr. Croyland with
+his pampered horses, more than an hour to perform; and springing from
+his charger at the door of the inn, he was preparing to go up and
+write to Sir Edward Digby, when Captain Irby, on the one hand, and his
+own servant on the other, applied for attention.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Warde is up stairs, sir,&quot; said the servant; &quot;he has been waiting
+about half an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Leyton turned to the officer, asking, &quot;What is it, Captain Irby?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Two or three of the men, sir, who have been taken,&quot; replied Captain
+Irby, &quot;have expressed a wish to make a statement. One of them is badly
+wounded, too; but I did not know how to act till you arrived, as we
+had no magistrate here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Was it quite voluntary?&quot; demanded the young officer; &quot;no inducements
+held out--no questions asked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite voluntary, sir,&quot; answered the other. &quot;They sent to ask for you;
+and when I went, in your absence, they told me what it was they
+desired; but I refused to take the deposition till you arrived, for
+fear of getting myself into a scrape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It must be taken,&quot; replied the colonel. &quot;Of whatever value it may be
+judged hereafter, we must not refuse it when offered. I will come to
+them in a moment, Irby;&quot; and entering the house, but without going up
+stairs, he wrote a few lines, in the bar, to Sir Edward Digby,
+requesting to see him without delay. Then, calling his servant, he
+said, &quot;Tell Mr. Warde I will be with him in a few minutes; after
+which, mount yourself, and carry this note over to Harbourne House, to
+Sir Edward Digby. Give it into his own hand; but remember, it is my
+wish that you should not mention my name there at all. Do you know the
+place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, sir,&quot; replied the man; and, leaving him to fulfil his errand,
+the colonel returned to the door of the house, to accompany Captain
+Irby.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_02" href="#div3Ref_02">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">We mast now return for a time to Harbourne House, where, after Sir
+Robert Croyland's departure, his guest had endeavoured in vain, during
+the whole morning, to obtain a few minutes' private conversation with
+the baronet's youngest daughter. Now, it was not in the least degree,
+that Mrs. Barbara's notions of propriety interfered to prevent the two
+young people from being alone together; for, on the contrary, Mrs.
+Barbara was a very lenient and gentle-minded person, and thought
+it quite right that any two human beings who were likely to fall in
+love with each other, should have every opportunity of doing so, to
+their hearts' content. But it so happened, from a sort of fatality
+which hung over all her plans, that whenever she interfered with
+anything,--which, indeed, she always did, with everything she could
+lay her hands upon,--the result was sure to be directly the contrary
+to that which she intended. It might be, indeed, that she did not
+always manage matters quite judiciously, that she acted without
+considering all the circumstances of the case; and undoubtedly it
+would have been quite as well if she had not acted at all when she was
+not asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the present instance, when she had remained in the drawing-room
+with her niece and Sir Edward, for near half an hour after her brother
+had departed, it just struck her that they might wish to be alone
+together; for she had made up her mind by this time, that the young
+officer's visit was to end in a love affair; and, as the very best
+means of accomplishing the desired object, instead of going to speak
+with the housekeeper, or to give orders to the dairy-maid, or to talk
+to the steward,--as any other prudent, respectable, and well-arranged
+aunt would have done--she said to her niece, as if a sudden thought
+had occurred to her, &quot;I don't think Sir Edward Digby has ever seen the
+library. Zara, my dear, you had better show it to him. There are some
+very curious books there, and the manuscript in vellum, with all the
+kings' heads painted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara felt that it was rather a coarse piece of work which her aunt had
+just turned out of hand; and being a little too much susceptible of
+ridicule, she did not like to have anything to do with it, although,
+to say the truth, she was very anxious herself for the few minutes
+that Mrs. Barbara was inclined to give her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I dare say, my dear aunt,&quot; she replied, &quot;Sir Edward Digby does
+not care anything about old books!--I don't believe they have been
+opened for these fifty years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The greater the treasure, Miss Croyland,&quot; answered the young officer;
+&quot;I can assure you nothing delights me more than an old library; so I
+think I shall go and find it out myself, if you are not disposed to
+show it to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara Croyland remembered, with a smile, that Sir Edward Digby had met
+with no great difficulty in finding it out for himself on a previous
+occasion. She rose, however, with her colour a little heightened; for
+his invitation was a very palpable one, and she did not know what
+conclusions her aunt might be pleased to draw, or to insinuate to
+others; and, leading the way towards the library, she opened the door,
+expecting to find the room untenanted. There, however, before her
+eyes, standing opposite to a book-case, with a large folio volume of
+divinity in his hand, stood the clergyman of the parish; and he
+instantly turned round his head, with spectacles on nose, and advanced
+to pay his respects to Miss Croyland and Sir Edward Digby. Now, the
+clergyman was a very worthy man; but he had one of those
+peculiarities, which, if peculiarities were systematically classed,
+would be referred to the bore genus. He was frequently unaware of when
+people had had enough of him; and consequently on the present
+occasion--after he had informed Zara, that finding that her father was
+out, he had taken the liberty of walking into the library to look at a
+book he wanted--he put back that book, and attacked Sir Edward Digby,
+totis viribus, upon the state of the weather, the state of the
+country, and the state of the smugglers. The later topic, as it was
+the predominant one in every man's mind at that moment, and in that
+part of the country, occupied him rather longer than a sermon, though
+his parishioners occasionally thought his sermons quite sufficiently
+extensive for any sleep-resisting powers of the human frame to
+withstand; and then, when Sir Edward and Zara, forgetting, in the
+interest which they seemed to take in his discourse, that they had
+come into the library to look at the books, walked out upon the
+terrace, he walked out with them; and as they turned up and down, he
+turned up and down also, for full an hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara could almost have cried in the end; but, as out of the basest
+refuse of our stable-yards, grow the finest flowers of our gardens, so
+good is ever springing up from evil; and in the end the worthy
+clergyman gave his two companions the first distinct account which
+they had received of the dispersion of Mr. Radford's band of
+smugglers, and of the eager pursuit of young Radford which was taking
+place throughout the country. Thus passed the morning, with one event
+or other of little consequence, presenting obstacles to any free
+communication between two people, who were almost as desirous of some
+private conversation as if they had been lovers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A little before three o'clock, however, Zara Croyland who had been
+looking out of the window, suddenly quitted the drawing-room; and Sir
+Edward Digby, who maintained his post, was left to entertain Mrs.
+Barbara, which he did to the best of his abilities. He was still in
+full career, a little enjoying, to say sooth, some of the good lady's
+minor absurdities, when Zara re-entered the room with a quick step,
+and a somewhat eager look. Her fair cheek was flushed too; and her
+face had in it that sort of determined expression which often betrays
+that there has been a struggle in the mind, as to some step about to
+be taken, and that victory has not been achieved without an effort.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Edward Digby,&quot; she said, in a clear and distinct tone, &quot;I want to
+speak with you for a few moments, if you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara looked shocked, and internally wondered that Zara could
+not have made some little excuse for engaging Sir Edward in private
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She might have asked him to go and see a flower, or offered to play
+him a tune on the harpsichord, or taken him to look at the dovecot, or
+anything,&quot; thought Mrs. Barbara.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young officer, however, instantly started up, and accompanied his
+fair inviter towards the library, to which she led the way with a
+hurried and eager step.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let us come in here!&quot; she said, opening the door; but the moment she
+was within, she sank into a chair and clasped her hands together.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby shut the door, and then advanced towards her, a good
+deal surprised and somewhat alarmed by the agitation he saw her
+display. She did not speak for a moment, as if completely overpowered,
+and feeling for her more deeply than he himself knew, her companion
+took her hand and tried to soothe her, saying, &quot;Be calm--be calm, my
+dear Miss Croyland! You know you can trust in me, and if I can aid you
+in any way, command me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know not what to do, or what to say,&quot; cried Zara; &quot;but I am sure,
+Sir Edward, you will find excuses for me; and therefore I will make
+none--though I may perhaps seem somewhat bold in dealing thus with one
+whom I have only known a few days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are circumstances which sometimes make a few days equal to many
+years,&quot; replied Sir Edward Digby. &quot;It is so, my dear young lady, with
+you and I. Therefore, without fear or hesitation, tell me what it is
+that agitates you, and how I can serve you. I am not fond of making
+professions; but if it be in human power, it shall be done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know not, whether it can be done or not,&quot; said Zara; &quot;but if not,
+there is nothing but ruin and desolation for two people, whom we both
+love. You saw my father set out this morning. Did you remark the
+course he took? It was over to my uncle's, for I watched him from the
+window. He passed back again some time ago, but then struck off
+towards Mr. Radford's. All that made me uneasy; but just now, I saw
+Edith's maid coming up towards the house; and eager for tidings, I
+hurried away.--Good Heavens, what tidings she has borne me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They must be evil ones, I see,&quot; answered Digby; &quot;but I trust not such
+as to preclude all chance of remedying what may have gone wrong. When
+two or three people act together zealously, dear lady, there are very
+few things they cannot accomplish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but how to explain!&quot; exclaimed Zara; &quot;yet I must be short; for
+otherwise my aunt will be in upon us. Now, Sir Edward Digby,&quot; she
+continued, after thinking for a moment, &quot;I know you are a man of
+honour--I am sure you are; and I ask you to pledge me that honour,
+that you will never reveal to any one what I am going to tell you; for
+I know not whether I am about to do right or wrong--whether, in trying
+to save one, I may not be bringing down ruin upon others. Do you give
+me your honour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most assuredly!&quot; answered her companion. &quot;I will never repeat a word
+that you say, unless with your permission, on my honour!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; replied Zara, in a faint voice, &quot;Mr. Radford has my
+father's life in his power. How, I know not--how, I cannot tell. But
+so it is; and such are the tidings that Caroline has just brought us.
+Mr. Radford's conference with him this morning was not for nothing.
+Immediately after, he went over to Edith; he told her some tale which
+the girl did not distinctly hear; but, it seems, some paper which Mr.
+Radford possesses was spoken of, and the sum of the whole matter was,
+that my poor, sweet sister was told, if she did not consent, within
+four days, to marry that hateful young man, she would sacrifice her
+father's life. He left her fainting, and has ridden over to bear her
+consent to Mr. Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, did she consent?&quot; exclaimed Sir Edward Digby, in surprise and
+consternation--&quot;Did she really yield?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No--no!&quot; answered Zara, &quot;she did not! The girl said she heard her
+words, and they were not in truth a consent. But my father chose to
+take them as such, and left her even before she recovered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">I have already shown the effect of the same account upon Sir Henry
+Leyton, with all the questions which it suggested to his mind; and the
+impression produced upon his friend, as a man of sense and a man of
+the world, were so similar, that it may be needless to give any
+detailed statement of his first observations or inquiries. Zara soon
+satisfied him, however, that the tale her father had told, was not a
+mere device to frighten Edith into a compliance with his wishes; and
+then came the question, What was to be done?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is, in truth, a most painful situation in which your sister is
+placed,&quot; said Digby, after some consideration; &quot;but think you that
+this man, this Radford, cannot be bought off? Money must be to him--if
+he be as totally ruined as people say--the first consideration; and I
+know Leyton so well, that I can venture to promise nothing of that
+kind shall stand in the way, if we can but free your sister from the
+terrible choice put before her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara shook her head sadly, saying, &quot;No; that hope is vain!--The girl
+tells me,&quot; she added, with a faint smile, which was quickly succeeded
+by a blush, &quot;that she heard my father say, he had offered me--poor me!
+to Richard Radford, with the same fortune as Edith, but had been
+refused.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And would you have consented?&quot; demanded Sir Edward Digby, in a more
+eager tone than he had yet used.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay,&quot; replied Zara, &quot;that has nought to do with the present question.
+Suffice it, that this proves that gold is not his only object.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, but answer me,&quot; persevered her companion; &quot;would you have
+consented? It may have much to do with the question yet.&quot; He fixed his
+eyes gravely upon her face, and took the fair, small hand, that lay
+upon the arm of the chair, in his.--It was something very like making
+love, and Zara felt a strange sensation at her heart; but she turned
+away her face, and answered, with a very pale cheek, &quot;I would die for
+my father, Sir Edward; but I could not wed Richard Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward raised her hand to his lips, and pressed them on it. &quot;I
+thought so!&quot; he said--&quot;I thought so! And now, heart, and mind, and
+hand, and spirit, to save your sister, Zara! I have hunted many a fox
+in my day, and I don't think the old one of Radford Hall will escape
+me. The greatest difficulty is, not to compromise your father in any
+way; but that shall be cared for, too, to the very best of my power,
+be assured. Henceforth, dear lady, away with all reserve between us.
+While I am in this house, it will be absolutely necessary for you to
+communicate with me freely, and probably very often. Have no
+hesitation; have no scruple as to hour, or manner, or means. Trust to
+my honour as you have trusted this day; and you shall never find it
+fail you. I will enter into such explanations with my servant, Somers,
+in regard to poor Leyton, as will make him think it nothing strange,
+if you send him for me at any time. He is as discreet as a privy
+councillor; and you must, therefore, have no hesitation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will not,&quot; answered Zara; &quot;for I would do anything to save my
+sister from such a fate; and I do believe you will not think--you will
+not imagine----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She paused in some confusion; and Sir Edward Digby answered, with a
+smile--but a kindly and a gentlemanly one, &quot;Let my imagination do as
+it will, Zara. Depend upon it, it shall do you no wrong; and believe
+me when I say, that I can hardly feel so much pain at these
+circumstances as I otherwise might, since they bring me into such near
+and frequent communication with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, hush!&quot; she answered, somewhat gravely; &quot;I can think of nothing
+now but my poor sister; and you must not, Sir Edward, by one
+compliment, or fine speech--nay, nor by one kind speech either,&quot; she
+added, laying her hand upon his arm, and looking up in his face, with
+a glowing cheek--&quot;for I know you mean it as kind--you must not,
+indeed, throw any embarrassment over an intercourse, which is
+necessary at present, and which is my only hope and resource, in the
+circumstances in which we are placed. So now tell me what you are
+going to do; for you seemed, but now, as if you were about to set out
+somewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am going to Woodchurch instantly,&quot; replied Digby. &quot;Sir Henry Leyton
+must be there still----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Henry Leyton!&quot; exclaimed Zara; &quot;then he has, indeed, been a
+successful campaigner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most successful, and most deservedly so,&quot; answered his friend. &quot;No
+man but Wolfe won more renown; and if he can but gain this battle,
+Leyton will have all that he desires on earth. But I will not stay
+here, skirmishing on the flanks, dear lady, while the main body is
+engaged. I will ride over as fast as possible, see Leyton, consult
+with him, and be back, if possible, by dinner time. If not, you must
+tell your father not to wait for me, as I was suddenly called away on
+business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But how shall I know the result of your expedition?&quot; demanded Zara;
+&quot;we shall be surrounded, I fear, by watchful eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We must trust to fortune and our own efforts to afford us some means
+of communication,&quot; replied Digby. &quot;But remember, dearest lady, that
+for this great object, you have promised to cast away all reserve. For
+the time, at least, you must look upon Edward Digby as a brother, and
+treat him as such.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That I will!&quot; answered the fair girl, heartily; and Digby, leaving
+her to explain their conduct to her aunt as she best might, ordered
+his horse, and rode away towards Woodchurch, in haste.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Pulling in his rein at the door of the little inn, he inquired which
+was Sir Henry Leyton's room, and was directed up stairs; but on
+opening the door of the chamber which had been pointed out, he found
+no one in it, but the somewhat strange-looking old man, whom we have
+once before seen with Leyton, at Hythe.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Mr. Warde, you here!&quot; exclaimed Sir Edward Digby. &quot;Leyton told me
+you were in England. But where is he? I have business of some
+importance to talk with him upon;&quot; and as he spoke, he shook the old
+man's hand warmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know you have,&quot; answered Mr. Warde, gazing upon him--&quot;at least, I
+can guess that such is the case.--So have I; and doubtless the subject
+is the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, I should think not,&quot; refilled Digby; &quot;mine refers only to
+private affairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man smiled; and that sharp featured, rude countenance assumed
+an expression of indescribable sweetness: &quot;Mine is the same,&quot; he said.
+&quot;You come to speak of Edith Croyland--so do I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; cried his companion, a good deal surprised; &quot;you are a
+strange being, Mr. Warde. You seem to learn men's secrets, whether
+they will or not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is nothing strange on earth, but man's blindness,&quot; answered the
+other; &quot;everything is so simple, when once explained, that its
+simplicity remains the only marvel.--But here he comes. Let me
+converse with him first. Then, when he is aware of all that I know,
+you shall have my absence, or my presence, as it suits you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While he was speaking, the voice of Henry Leyton was heard below, and
+then his step upon the stairs; and, before Digby could answer, he was
+in the room. His face was grave, but not so cloudy as it had been when
+he returned to Woodchurch, half-an-hour before. He welcomed Mr. Warde
+frankly, and cordially; but turned immediately to Sir Edward Digby,
+saying, &quot;You have been quick indeed, Digby. I could not have conceived
+that my letter had reached you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I got no letter,&quot; answered Digby; &quot;perhaps it missed me on the way;
+for, the corn being down, I came straight across the country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It matters not--it matters not,&quot; answered Leyton; &quot;so you are
+here--that is enough. I have much to say to you, and that of immediate
+importance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it already,&quot; answered Digby. &quot;But here is our good friend,
+Warde, who seems to have something to say to you on the same subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Henry Leyton turned towards the old man with some surprise. &quot;I
+think Digby must be mistaken,&quot; he said, &quot;for though, I am aware, from
+what you told me some little time ago, that you have been in this part
+of the country before, yet it must have been long ago, and you can
+know nothing of the events which have affected myself since.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man smiled, and shook his head. &quot;I know more than you
+imagine,&quot; he answered. &quot;It is, indeed, long since first I was in this
+land; but not so long since I was here last; and all its people and
+its things, its woods, its villages, its hills, are as familiar to
+me--ay, more so than to you. Of yourself, Leyton, and your fate, I
+also know much--I might say I know all; for certainly I know more than
+you do, can do more than you are able to do, will do more than you
+can. To show you what I know; I will give you a brief summary of your
+own history--at least, that part of it, of which you think I know
+nothing. Young, eager, and impatient, you were thrown constantly into
+the society of one, good, beautiful, gentle, and true. You had much
+encouragement from those who should not have given it, unless they had
+the intention of continuing it to the end. You loved, and were
+beloved; and then, in the impatience of your boyish ardour, you bound
+Edith Croyland to yourself, without her parent's knowledge and
+consent, by vows which, whatever human laws may say, are indissoluble
+by the law of Heaven; and therein you did wrong. It was a great
+error.--Do I say right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was, indeed,&quot; answered Sir Henry Leyton, casting down his eyes
+sternly on the ground--&quot;it was, indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;More--I will tell you more,&quot; continued Mr. Warde; &quot;you have bitterly
+repented it, and bitterly suffered for it. You are suffering even
+now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not for it,&quot; replied the young officer--&quot;not for it. My sufferings
+are not consequences of my fault.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are wrong,&quot; answered the old man; &quot;wrong, as you will find. But I
+will go on, and tell you what you have done this day. Those who have
+behaved ill to you have been punished likewise; and their punishment
+is working itself out, but sweeping you in within its vortex. You have
+been over to see Edith Croyland. She has told you her tale. You have
+met in love, and parted in sorrow.--Is it not so? And now you know not
+which way to turn for deliverance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is so, indeed, my good friend,&quot; said Leyton, sadly; &quot;but how you
+have discovered all this, I cannot divine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That has nought to do with the subject,&quot; answered Warde. &quot;Now tell
+me, Leyton, tell me--and remember you are dearer to me than you
+know--are you prepared to make atonement for your fault? The only
+atonement in your power--to give back to Edith the vows she plighted,
+to leave her free to act as she may judge best. I have marked you
+well, as you know, for years. I have seen you tried as few men,
+perhaps, are tried; and you have come out pure and honest. The last
+trial is now arrived; and I ask you here, before your friend, your
+worldly friend, if you are ready to act honestly still, and to annul
+engagements that you had no right to contract?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am,&quot; answered Sir Henry Leyton; &quot;I am, if----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, if! There is ever an 'if' when men would serve their own
+purposes against their conscience,&quot; said Mr. Warde, sternly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, but hear me, my good friend,&quot; replied the young officer. &quot;I have
+every respect for you. Your whole character commands it and deserves
+it, as well as your profession; but, at the same time, though I may
+think fit to answer you candidly, in matters where I would reject any
+other man's interference, yet I must shape my answer as I think
+proper, and rule my conduct according to my own views. You must,
+therefore, hear me out. I say that I am ready to give back to Edith
+Croyland the vows she plighted me, to set her free from all
+engagements, to leave her, as far as possible, as if she had never
+known Henry Leyton, whatever pang it may cost me--<i>if</i> it can be
+proved to me that by so doing I have not given her up to misery, as
+well as myself. My own wretchedness I can bear--I have borne it long,
+cheered by one little ray of hope. I can bear it still, even though
+that light go out; but to know that by any act of mine--however
+seemingly generous, or, as you term it, honest--I had yielded her up
+to a life of anguish, that I could not bear. Show me that this will
+not be the case; and, as I have said before, I am ready to make the
+sacrifice, if it cost me life. Nay, more: I returned hither prepared,
+if at the last, and with every effort to avert it, I found that
+circumstances of which I know not the extent, rendered the keeping of
+her vows to me more terrible in its consequences than her union with
+another, however hateful he may be,--I came hither prepared, I say, in
+such a case, to set her free; and I will do it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man took both his hands, and gazed on him with a look of glad
+satisfaction. &quot;Honest to the last,&quot; he said--&quot;honest to the last! The
+resolution to do this, is as good as the deed; for I know you are not
+one to fail where you have resolved.--But those who might exact the
+sacrifice are not worthy of it. Your willingness has made the
+atonement, Leyton; and I will deliver you from your difficulty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You, Mr. Warde!&quot; exclaimed Sir Edward Digby; &quot;I cannot suppose that
+you really have the power; or, perhaps, after all, you do not know the
+whole circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, hush, young man!&quot; answered Warde, with a wave of the hand; &quot;I
+know all, I see all, where you know little or nothing. You are a good
+youth, as the world goes--better than most of your bad class and
+station; but these matters are above you. Listen to me, Leyton. Did
+not Edith tell you that her father had worked upon her, by fears for
+his safety--for his honour--for his life, perhaps?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, indeed,&quot; exclaimed Leyton, eagerly, and with a ray of hope
+beginning to break upon him. &quot;Was the tale not true, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I guessed so,&quot; answered the old man. &quot;I was sure that would be the
+course at last. Nevertheless, the tale he told was true--too true. It
+was forced from him by circumstances. Yet, I have said I will deliver
+you from your difficulty; and I will. Pursue your own course; as you
+have commenced, go on to the end. I ask you not now to give Edith back
+her promises. Nay, I tell you, that her misery, her wretchedness--ay,
+tenfold more than any you could suffer--would be the consequence, if
+you did so. Let her go on firmly in her truth to the last; but tell
+her, that deliverance will come. Now I leave you; but, be under no
+doubt. Your course is clear; do all you can by your own efforts to
+save her; but it is I who must deliver her in the end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without any further farewell, he turned and left the room; and Sir
+Henry Leyton and his friend remained for a minute or two in thought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;His parting advice is the best,&quot; said Digby, at length; &quot;and
+doubtless you will follow it, Leyton; but, of course, you will not
+trust so far to the word of a madman, as to neglect any means that may
+present themselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is not mad,&quot; answered Leyton, shaking his head. &quot;When first he
+joined us in Canada, before the battle of Quebec, I thought as you do;
+but he is not mad, Digby. There are various shades of reason; and
+there may be a slight aberration in his mind from the common course of
+ordinary thought. He may be wrong in his reasonings, rash in his
+opinions, somewhat overexcited in imagination; but that is not
+madness. His promises give me hope, I will confess; but still I will
+act as if they had not been made. Now let us speak of our plans; and
+first tell me what has taken place at Harbourne; for you seem to know
+all the particulars already, which I sent for you to communicate,
+though how you learned them I cannot divine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, my dear Leyton, if I were to tell you all that has happened,&quot;
+replied Sir Edward Digby, &quot;I should have to go on as long as a
+Presbyterian minister, or a popular orator. I had better keep to the
+point;&quot; and he proceeded to relate to his friend the substance of the
+conversation which had last taken place between himself and Zara.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is most fortunate,&quot; answered Leyton, &quot;that dear girl has thus
+become acquainted with the facts; for Edith would not have told her,
+and now we have some chance of obtaining information of all that
+occurs, which must be our great security. However--since I returned, I
+have obtained valuable information, which puts good Mr. Radford's
+liberty, if not his life, in my power. Three of the men whom we have
+taken, distinctly state that he sent them upon this expedition
+himself--armed, and mounted them; and therefore he is a party to the
+whole transaction. I have sent off a messenger to Mowle, the
+officer--as faithful and as true a fellow as ever lived--begging him
+to bring me up, without a moment's delay, a magistrate in whom he can
+trust; for one of the men is at the point of death, and all the
+justices round this place are so imbued with the spirit of smuggling,
+that I do not choose the depositions to be taken by them. I have
+received and written down the statements made, before witnesses; and
+the men have signed them; but I have no power in this case to
+administer an oath. As soon as the matter is in more formal train, I
+shall insist upon the apprehension of Mr. Radford, whatever be the
+consequences to Sir Robert Croyland; for here my duty to the country
+is concerned, and the very powers with which I am entrusted, render it
+imperative upon me so to act.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you can catch him--if you can catch him!&quot; replied Sir Edward
+Digby. &quot;But be sure, my dear Leyton, if he once discovers that you
+have got such a hold upon him, he will take care to render that matter
+difficult. You may find it troublesome, also, to get a magistrate to
+act as you desire; for they are all of the same leaven; and I fancy
+you have no power to do anything yourself except in aid and support of
+the civil authorities. You must be very careful, too, not to exceed
+your commission, where people might suspect that personal feelings are
+concerned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Personal feelings shall not bias me, Digby, even in the slightest
+degree,&quot; replied his friend. &quot;I will act towards Mr. Radford, exactly
+as I would towards any other man who had committed this offence; and,
+as to the imputation of motives, I can well afford to treat such
+things with contempt. Were I, indeed, to act as I wish, I should not
+pursue this charge against the chief offender, in order not to bring
+down his vengeance suddenly upon Sir Robert Croyland's head, or should
+use the knowledge I possess merely to impose silence upon him through
+fear. But my duty is plain and straightforward; and it must be done.
+As to my powers, they are more extensive than you suppose. Indeed, I
+would have sooner thrown up my commission, than have undertaken a
+service I disliked, without sufficient authority to execute it
+properly. Thus, if no magistrate could be found to act as I might
+require, I would not scruple, with the aid of any officer of Customs,
+or even without, to apprehend this man on my own responsibility. But I
+think we shall easily find one who will do his duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At all events,&quot; replied Sir Edward Digby, &quot;you had better be
+cautious, my dear Leyton. If you are not too quick in your movements,
+you may perhaps trap the old bird and the young one together; and that
+will be a better day's sport than if you only got a single shot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven send it may be before these fatal four days are over!&quot;
+answered Leyton; &quot;for then the matter will be decided and Edith
+delivered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, if you were to catch the young one, it would be sufficient for
+that object,&quot; said his friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Leyton shook his head. &quot;I fear not,&quot; he replied; &quot;yet that purpose
+must not be neglected. Where he has concealed himself I cannot divine.
+It would seem certain that he never got out of Harbourne Wood, unless,
+indeed, it was by some of the bye-paths; and in that case, he surely
+must have been seen. I will have it searched, to-morrow, from end to
+end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the same strain the conversation proceeded for half-an-hour more,
+without any feasible plan of action having been decided upon, and with
+no further result than the arrangement of means for frequent and
+private communication. It was settled, indeed, that Leyton should fix
+his head-quarters at Woodchurch, and that two or three of the dragoons
+should be billeted at a small public-house on the road to Harbourne.
+To them any communication from Sir Edward Digby was to be conveyed by
+his servant, Somers, for the purpose of being forwarded to Woodchurch.
+Such matters being thus arranged, as far as circumstances admitted,
+the two friends parted; and Digby rode back to Harbourne House, which
+he reached, as may be supposed, somewhat later than Sir Robert
+Croyland's dinner-hour.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_03" href="#div3Ref_03">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">About six o'clock on the evening of the same day, the cottage of Mrs.
+Clare was empty. The good widow herself stood at the garden gate, and
+looked up the road into the wood, along which the western sun was
+streaming low. After gazing for a moment in that direction, she turned
+her eyes to the left, and then down the edge of the wood, which
+stretched along in a tolerably even line till it reached the farther
+angle. The persevering dragoons were patrolling round it still; and
+Mrs. Clare murmured to herself, &quot;How will he ever get out, if they
+keep such a watch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was then going into the cottage again, when a hurried step caught
+her ear, coming apparently from the path which led from the side of
+Halden to the back of the house, and thence round the little garden
+into the road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That sounds like Harding's step,&quot; thought the widow; and her ear had
+not deceived her. In another minute, she beheld him turn the corner of
+the fence and come towards her; but there was a heated and angry look
+upon his face, which she had never seen there before; and--although
+she had acted for the best, and not without much consideration, in
+sending Kate upon Mr. Radford's commission, and not going herself--she
+feared that her daughter's lover might not be well pleased his bride
+should undertake such a task. As he came near, the symptoms of anger
+were more apparent still. There was the cloudy brow, the flashing eye,
+the hurried and impetuous walk, which she had often seen in her own
+husband--a man very similar in character to him who now approached
+her--when irritated by harsh words; and Widow Clare prepared to do all
+she could to soothe him ere Kate's return.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Harding did not mention her he loved, demanding, while yet at some
+distance, &quot;Where is Mr. Radford, Mrs. Clare?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is not here, Mr. Harding,&quot; replied the widow; &quot;he has not been
+here since the morning. But what makes you look so cross, Harding? You
+seem angry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And well I may be,&quot; answered Harding, with an oath. &quot;What do you
+think they have set about?--That I informed against them, and betrayed
+them into the hands of the dragoons: when, they know, I saw them safe
+out of the Marsh; and it must have been their own stupidity, or the
+old man's babbling fears, that ruined them--always trusting people
+that were sure to be treacherous, and doubting those he knew to be
+honest. But I'll make him eat his words, or cram them down his throat
+with my fist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, he spoke quite kindly of you this morning, Harding,&quot; said the
+widow; &quot;there must be some mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mistake!&quot; cried the smuggler, sharply; &quot;there is no mistake.--It is
+all over Hythe and Folkestone already; and every one says that it came
+from him. Can you not tell me where he is gone?--Which way did he
+turn?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Towards his own house,&quot; replied Mrs. Clare; &quot;but you had better come
+in, Harding, and get yourself cool before you go to him. You will
+speak angrily now, and mischief may come of it. I am sure there is
+some mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I&quot; will not sit down till I have made him own it,&quot; answered the
+smuggler. &quot;Perhaps he is up at Harbourne. I'll go there. Where is
+Kate, Mrs. Clare?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She has gone towards Harbourne House,&quot; said the widow, not choosing,
+in the excited state of his feelings, to tell him her daughter's
+errand; &quot;but she will be back in one minute, if you will but come in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; he replied; &quot;I will come back by-and-by. Perhaps I shall meet
+her as I go;&quot; and he was turning towards the wood, when suddenly, at
+the spot where the road entered amongst the trees, the pretty figure
+of Kate Clare, as trim, and neat, and simple as a wild flower,
+appeared walking slowly back towards the cottage. But she was not
+alone. By her side was a tall, handsome young man, dressed in full
+military costume, with his heavy sword under his arm, and a star upon
+his breast. He was bending down, talking to his fair companion with a
+friendly air, and she was answering him with a gay smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A pang shot through Harding's bosom: the first that ever the poor girl
+had caused; nor, indeed, would he have felt it then, had he not been
+irritated; for his was a frank and confiding heart, open as the day,
+in which that foul and dangerous guest, Suspicion, usually could find
+no lurking place. At first he did not recognise, in the glittering
+personage before his eyes, the grave, plain-looking stranger, who, a
+week or two before, had conversed with him for a few minutes on the
+cliffs near Sandgate; but he saw, as the two came on, that Kate raised
+her eyes; and as soon as she perceived him standing by her mother, a
+look of joy lighted up her face, which made him murmur to himself,
+&quot;I'm a fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stranger, too, saw him; but it made no change in his demeanour;
+and the next moment, to Harding's surprise, the officer came forward
+somewhat more quickly, and took Widow Clare by the hand, saying, with
+a grave smile, &quot;Do you not know me, Mrs. Clare?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gracious Heaven!&quot; cried the widow, drawing back and gazing at him,
+&quot;Can it be you, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, indeed!&quot; he answered. &quot;Why, Kate here knew me directly, though
+she was but ten or eleven, I think, when I went away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, that was because you were always so fond of her, Mr. Henry,&quot;
+replied Widow Clare. &quot;Gracious! how you are changed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding was talking to Kate while these few words passed, but he heard
+them; nor did he fail to remark that two mounted dragoons, one leading
+a horse by the rein, followed the young officer from the wood. He now
+recognised him also; and by his dress perceived the rank he held in
+the army, though Mrs. Clare called him &quot;Mr. Henry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I am changed, indeed!&quot; replied Leyton, to the widow's last
+remark, &quot;in body and health, Mrs. Clare, but not in heart, I can
+assure you; and as I was obliged to visit this wood, I resolved I
+would not be so near you without coming in to see how you were going
+on, with your pretty Kate here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My pretty Kate, very soon!&quot; said Harding, aloud; and the young
+officer turned suddenly round, and looked at him more attentively than
+before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Mr. Harding!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;is that you? We have met before,
+though perhaps you don't remember me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes, I do, sir,&quot; replied the smuggler, drily. &quot;But I must go,
+Kate;&quot; and he added, in a low tone, &quot;I shall be back by-and-by.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he walked away; but before he had taken ten steps, Leyton
+followed, and took him by the arm. &quot;What do you want with me, sir?&quot;
+asked the smuggler, turning sharply round, and putting his hand in the
+bosom of his coat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush!&quot; replied the young officer; &quot;I seek no harm to you--merely
+one word. For Heaven's sake, Harding, quit this perilous life of
+yours!--at least, before you marry that poor girl--if I have
+understood you rightly, that you are about to marry her. I speak as a
+friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, sir!&quot; answered the smuggler, &quot;I dare say you mean it kind;
+but it was hardly fair of you, either, to come and talk with me upon
+the cliff, if you are, as I suppose, the Sir Henry Leyton all the
+folks are speaking about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, my good friend, my talking with you did you no harm,&quot; replied
+the young officer; &quot;you cannot say that I led you to speak of anything
+that could injure either you or others. Besides, I have nothing to do
+with you gentlemen of the sea, though I may with your friends on land.
+But take the advice of one well disposed towards you; and, above all,
+do not linger about this place at present, for it is a dangerous
+neighbourhood for any one who has had a share in the late
+transactions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That advice I shall take, at all events,&quot; answered Harding, bluntly;
+&quot;and perhaps the other too, for I am sick of all this!&quot; And thus
+saying, he walked away, passing close by the two dragoons, who offered
+no obstruction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meanwhile Leyton, returning to Widow Clare and her daughter,
+went into the cottage, and talked to them, for a few minutes, of old
+days. Gradually, however, he brought the conversation round to the
+inhabitants of Harbourne House, and asked if either the widow or Kate
+ever went up there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Kate goes twice every day, sir,&quot; said Mrs. Clare, &quot;for we have
+all the finest of the poultry to keep down here. But are you not going
+there yourself, Mr. Henry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alas, no!&quot; answered Leyton, with a sigh. &quot;Those days have gone by,
+Mrs. Clare; and I am now a stranger where I was once loved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't say so, sir,&quot; replied the widow, &quot;don't say so! For, I am sure,
+where you were best loved of all, there you are best loved still.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That I believe,&quot; answered Leyton; &quot;but, at all events, I am not going
+there at present; and if Kate would do me a service, she would, the
+first time she sees Miss Zara Croyland alone, tell her, that if ever
+she rides or walks out along the road by the Chequers, she will find
+an old friend by the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Zara, sir, did you say?&quot; asked Widow Clare.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, mother--yes,&quot; cried Kate; &quot;you forget Miss Edith is not there
+now; she is down at Mr. Croyland's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But remember, Kate,&quot; continued Leyton, &quot;I do not wish my name
+mentioned to many persons in the house. Indeed, it will be better not
+to speak of me at all to any one but Zara. It must be soon known that
+I am here, it is true; but I wish to let events take their course till
+then. And now, Mrs. Clare, good evening. I shall see you again some
+day soon; and you must let me know when Kate's wedding-day is fixed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The mother looked at her daughter with a smile, and Kate blushed and
+laughed. &quot;It is to be this day week, sir,&quot; answered Mrs. Clare.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton nodded his head, saying, &quot;I will not forget,&quot; and, mounting his
+horse at the door, rode away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, did you find him, Kate?&quot; asked Mrs. Clare, in a low tone, the
+moment Sir Henry Leyton was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes,&quot; replied her daughter; &quot;the dragoons did not follow me, as
+you thought they would, mother; and I set down the basket close to the
+willow. At first he did not answer when I asked if he wanted anything;
+but when I spoke again, he said, 'No. A thousand thanks for what you
+have brought;' and he spoke kind and civilly. Then, just as I was
+going away, he said, 'Kate, Kate! let me know when the soldiers are
+gone.--If you could bring me a woman's dress, I could easily get
+away.' I should not be afraid of going any more, mother,&quot; the girl
+continued; &quot;for he seems quite changed by his misfortune, and not rude
+and jesting as he always used to be, whenever I saw him before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The idea of the woman's clothes seemed to strike Mrs. Clare very much;
+and the good widow and her daughter set their wits to work, to
+consider how all that was necessary could be procured; for a very
+serious impediment thrust itself in the way of either mother or child
+lending him a suit of their own apparel. Neither of them were very
+tall women; and though young Radford was himself not above the middle
+height, yet Kate's gown would not have fallen further than half way
+down his leg; and the poor girl laughed merrily, to think of what a
+figure he would make dressed in her garments. It would have been the
+old story of the wolf in sheep's clothing, assuredly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If we could but accomplish it, and enable him to escape,&quot; thought
+Mrs. Clare, &quot;especially after Harding has just been up here, it would
+show Mr. Radford, clearly enough, that John had nothing to do with
+informing against him.&quot; But the question, of where fitting apparel was
+to be procured, still remained unsettled, till Kate suggested, that
+perhaps her aunt's, at Glassenbury, might do. &quot;She is very tall,&quot;
+continued the girl, &quot;and I am sure she would lend them to me; for she
+and my uncle have always been so kind. Suppose I walk over early
+to-morrow, and ask her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now the little farm which Mrs. Clare's brother held, was somewhat more
+than seven miles off, on the other side of Cranbrook. But still, what
+is the exertion which woman will not make for a fellow-creature in
+distress; and Mrs. Clare determined that she would rise betimes, and
+go to William Harris's herself, certain of a kind reception and ready
+consent from those who had always displayed towards her, in adversity,
+the feelings of affection, which the more worldly-minded generally
+shower upon prosperity alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was far for her daughter to walk, she thought; and besides, Harding
+might come, and it would not do for Kate to be absent. Thus had she
+settled it in her own mind, when Mr. Radford entered the cottage to
+inquire after his son.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">High were the praises that he bestowed upon Kate and Mrs. Clare, for
+their kindness; and he expressed his warm approval of their little
+scheme. Nevertheless, he turned the matter in his mind, in order to
+see whether he could not save Mrs. Clare the trouble of going nearly
+to Goudhurst, by obtaining the necessary articles of female apparel
+somewhere else. His own women servants, however, were all short and
+stout; the only other persons whom he could think of, as at all
+approaching his son in height, he did not choose to trust; and
+therefore it was, at length, determined that the original plan should
+be followed. But the worthy gentleman laid strict injunctions upon
+Mrs. Clare, to be early in her proceedings, as he feared much, from
+all he had gathered, that the wood might be more strictly searched, in
+the course of the following day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When this was settled, and Mr. Radford had expressed his thanks, more
+than once, Mrs. Clare thought it a good opportunity of turning the
+conversation to Harding; and she asked Mr. Radford if he had seen him,
+adding, &quot;He has gone to look for you, sir, and seems very quick and
+angry, because the people down about his place have got a report that
+he informed about the run; and he fancies you have said so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh, nonsense, Mrs. Clare, I never said anything of the kind!&quot;
+replied Mr. Radford. &quot;It is a story put about by the Custom-House
+officers themselves, just to cover the persons from whom they had the
+information. But we shall discover them some day, and pay them
+handsomely. Tell Harding not to mind what people say, for I never
+thought of such a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That I will, sir,&quot; replied the widow; &quot;for I'm sure it will set his
+mind at rest.--You must know very well, sir, that he's as honest a man
+as ever lived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure--to be sure,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, with great warmth of
+manner; &quot;no one knows that better than I do, Mrs. Clare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But whether Mr. Radford really felt the warmth which he assumed, may
+be another question. His seemings were not always the best indications
+of his real sentiments; and when he left Mrs. Clare's cottage, after
+all had been arranged, his first thought was, &quot;We will reckon with Mr.
+Harding by-and-by.--The account is not made up yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before I proceed to other scenes, it may be as well to go on with the
+part assigned in this history to Mrs. Clare and her daughter, at
+least, till the morning of the following day. About eight o'clock at
+night, Harding returned, still irritable and discontented, having
+failed to find Mr. Radford. The account, however, which the widow gave
+of her conversation with that gentleman, soothed him a good deal; but
+he would not stay the night, as he had done before, saying that he
+must absolutely be at home as soon as possible, and would return,
+perhaps, the next day, or, at all events, the day after.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must do the best I can, Mrs. Clare,&quot; he continued, &quot;to help these
+fellows out of the scrape they've run into. Two or three of them are
+good men enough; and, as they risk their necks if they are taken, I
+should like to get them down, and give them a passage to the other
+side. So you see I shall be going about here a good deal, for the next
+four or five days, and will look in, from time to time, to see you and
+my dear little Kate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But are you going to walk all the way back to-night, John?&quot; asked
+Kate, as he rose to depart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, my love,&quot; he answered, &quot;I've got a horse up at Plurendon; but the
+beast cast a shoe as I was coming, and I was obliged to leave him at
+the blacksmith's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No sooner was Harding gone, than a little kindly contest rose between
+mother and daughter, as to which should go over to Glassenbury; but
+Mrs. Clare persisted, against all her child's remonstrances; and, in
+order that they might rise before daylight, both retired to bed early,
+and slept calmly and peacefully, unknowing what the morrow, to which
+they both looked anxiously forward, was to bring. The sun was yet some
+way below the horizon, when Mrs. Clare set out; but she met with no
+impediment, and, walking on stoutly, arrived, at an early hour, at a
+little farm-house, inhabited by her brother. She found farmer Harris
+and his wife, with their two sons and Mrs. Harris's nephew (three
+stout, good humoured, young men) seated at their breakfast; and warm
+and joyful was the reception of Aunt Clare; one joking her upon Kate's
+approaching marriage; another declaring Jack Harding, whom they all
+knew, was a capital fellow; and all striving to make her comfortable,
+and pressing her to partake of their morning meal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Every one of the party was eager to obtain some information from her,
+who lived so much nearer to the spot, in regard to the late
+discomfiture of the smugglers, although none seemed to take any great
+interest in them, all declaring that the Ramleys, and their gang, were
+the pest of the country, and that young Dick Radford was not a bit
+better. Such opinions, regarding that young gentleman, acted as a
+warning to Mrs. Clare, not to mention the object of the loan she came
+to solicit; and when, after having rested about twenty minutes, she
+preferred her petition to Mrs. Harris, it was readily granted by the
+tall farmer's wife, although not without some expression of curiosity,
+as to what her sister-in-law could want a dress of hers for.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Kate or I will bring it back to-night or to-morrow morning,&quot; replied
+Mrs. Clare, &quot;and I'll tell you what we want it for, at the wedding,
+which, remember, is to be yesterday week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, we will all come down with white favours, and our best buckles,&quot;
+said young William, the farmer's eldest son; &quot;and I'll have a kiss of
+the bride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A gown and cloak of Mrs. Harris's, having been brought down--they were
+not her best--and neatly folded up in a shawl-handkerchief, Mrs. Clare
+set forward on her way home, hurrying her steps as much as possible,
+lest any untoward event should prevent the execution of her scheme. A
+stout country woman, accustomed to exercise, the widow accomplished
+the walk in as short a time as possible; yet it was nine o'clock
+before she reached the cottage, and she instantly dispatched her
+daughter to the &quot;hide&quot; in the wood, with the clothes folded up in as
+small a space as possible, and laid in the bottom of a basket, covered
+over with eggs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The only difficulty was, in regard to a bonnet; and, after earnest
+consultation between mother and child, it was determined that, as Mrs.
+Clare's head was somewhat larger than Kate's, her bonnet should be put
+over her daughter's, which was easily accomplished. Both were of
+straw, and both were plain enough; but, to conceal the contrivance
+from the eyes of any one whom Kate might meet, Mrs. Clare pinned a
+small piece of lace--which had been bought for the wedding--into the
+inside of her own bonnet, remarking, that it would do to hide young
+Mr. Radford's face a bit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Furnished with all that was needful, and having had the instructions
+which Mr. Radford had left, repeated carefully to her, by her mother,
+fair Kate Clare set out upon her expedition, passing one of the
+dragoons, who were still patrolling round the wood, near the place
+where the road entered it. The man said something to her, as she went
+by, but did not attempt to follow; and Kate walked on, looking behind
+her, from time to time, till she was satisfied that her proceedings
+were unwatched. Then, hurrying on, with a quicker step, she turned to
+the path, which led to the back of the gardens of Harbourne House, and
+approached the old willow, and the brushwood which covered the place
+where Richard Radford was concealed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Radford,&quot; she said, as soon as she was quite close, &quot;Mr. Radford!
+Here is what you wanted. Take it as fast as you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is there any one near but you, Kate?&quot; asked the voice of Richard
+Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no!&quot; she replied; &quot;but the soldiers are still on the outside of
+the wood watching.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know that,&quot; rejoined the voice again, &quot;for I saw them last night,
+when I tried to get out. But are you sure that none of them followed
+you, Kate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, quite sure,&quot; she answered, &quot;for I looked behind all the way!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, stay and help me to put the things on,&quot; said Richard Radford,
+issuing forth from behind the bushes, like a snake out of its hole.
+Kate Clare willingly agreed to help him, and while the gown and the
+cloak were thrown over his other clothes, told him all that his father
+had said, desiring him not to come up to Radford Hall till he heard
+more; but to go down to the <i>lone house</i>, near Iden Green, where he
+would find one or two friends already collected.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, these are never your own clothes, Kate!&quot; said young Radford, as
+she pinned on the gown for him. &quot;They fit as if they were made for
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not at the back,&quot; answered Kate, laughing, &quot;I cannot get the gown to
+meet there; but that will be covered up by the cloak, so it does not
+matter.--No, they are my aunt's, at Glassenbury; and you must let me
+have them back, Mr. Radford, as soon as ever you have got to Iden
+Green; for my mother has promised to return them to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know howl shall get them back, Kate,&quot; answered Richard
+Radford; &quot;for none of our people will like to venture up here. Can't
+you come down and fetch them? It is not much out of your way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I can't do that,&quot; answered Kate, who did not altogether like
+going to the lone house she had mentioned; &quot;but you can send them down
+to Cranbrook, at all events; and there they can be left for me, at
+Mrs. Tims's shop. They'll be quite safe; and I will call for them
+either to-night or to-morrow morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I will do that, my love,&quot; replied Richard Radford, taking the
+bonnet and putting it on his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, sir,&quot; answered Kate, not well pleased with the epithet he
+had bestowed upon her, and taking a step to move away, &quot;I will call
+for them there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But young Radford threw his arm round her waist, saying, &quot;Come, Kate!
+I must have a kiss before you go.--You give plenty to Harding, I dare
+say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me go, sir!&quot; cried Kate Clare, indignantly. &quot;You are a base,
+ungrateful young man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But young Radford did not let her go. He took the kiss she struggled
+against, by force; and he was proceeding to farther insult, when Kate
+exclaimed, &quot;If you do not let me go, I will scream till the soldiers
+are upon you.--They are not far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She spoke so loud, that her very tone excited his alarm; and he
+withdrew his arm from her waist, but still held her hand tight,
+saying, &quot;Come, come, Kate! Nonsense, I did not mean to offend you! Go
+up to Harbourne House, there's a good girl, and stay as long as you
+can there, till I get out of the wood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do offend me--you do offend me!&quot; cried Kate Clare, striving to
+withdraw her hand from his grasp.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you promise to go up to Harbourne, then?&quot; said Richard Radford,
+&quot;and I will let you go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; answered Kate, &quot;I will go;&quot; and the moment her hand was
+free, she darted away, leaving the basket she had brought behind her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As soon as she was gone, Richard Radford cursed her for a saucy jade,
+as if the offence had been hers, not his; and then taking up the
+basket, he threw it, eggs and all, together with his own hat, into the
+deep hole in the sandbank. Advancing along the path till he reached
+the open road, he hurried on in the direction of Widow Clare's
+cottage. Of a daring and resolute disposition--for his only virtue was
+courage--he thought of passing the soldiers, as a good joke rather
+than a difficult undertaking; but still recollecting the necessity of
+caution, as he came near the edge of the wood he slackened his pace,
+tried to shorten his steps, and assumed a more feminine demeanour.
+When he was within a couple of hundred yards of the open country, he
+saw one of the dragoons slowly pass the end of the road and look up;
+and, on issuing forth from the wood, he perceived that the man had
+paused, and was gazing back. But at that distance, the female garments
+which he wore deceived the soldier; and he was suffered to walk on
+unopposed towards Iden Green.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_04" href="#div3Ref_04">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland himself did not return to Harbourne House, till
+the hands of the clock pointed out to every one that went through the
+hall, that it was twenty minutes past the usual dinner hour; and,
+though he tried to be as expeditious as he could, he was yet fully ten
+minutes longer in dressing than usual. He was nervous; he was
+agitated; all the events of that day had shaken and affected him; he
+was angry with his servant; and several times he gave the most
+contradictory orders. Although for years he had been undergoing a slow
+and gradual change, under the painful circumstances in which he had
+been placed, and had, from the gay, rash, somewhat noisy and
+overbearing country gentleman, dwindled down into the cold, silent,
+pompous, and imperative man of family, yet the alteration during that
+day had been so great and peculiar that the valet could not help
+remarking it, and wondering if his master was ill.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert tried to smoothe his look and compose his manner for the
+drawing-room, however; and when he entered, he gazed round for Sir
+Edward Digby, observing aloud: &quot;Why, I thought soldiers were more
+punctual. However, as it happens, to-day I am glad Sir Edward is not
+down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Down!&quot; cried Mrs. Barbara, who had a grand objection to dinners being
+delayed; &quot;why, he is out; but you could expect no better; for
+yesterday you were so long that the fish was done to rags; so I
+ordered it not to be put in till he made his appearance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I told you, my dear aunt, that he said he might not be back before
+dinner,&quot; replied her niece, &quot;and, therefore, it will be vain to wait
+for him. He desired me to say so, papa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes! Zara knows all about it,&quot; said Mrs. Barbara, with a shrewd
+look; &quot;they were talking together for ten minutes in the library; and
+I cannot get her to tell me what it was about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It is, indeed, conscience that makes cowards of us all; and had the
+fair girl's conversation with her new friend been on any other subject
+than that to which it related--had it been about love, marriage, arms,
+or divinity, she would have found no difficulty in parrying her aunt's
+observations, however mal-à-propos they might have been. At present,
+however, she was embarrassed by doubts of the propriety of what she
+was doing, more especially as she felt sure that her father would be
+inquisitive and suspicious, if the tale the maid had told was true.
+Acting, however, as she not unfrequently did, in any difficulty, she
+met Mrs. Barbara's inuendoes at once, replying, &quot;Indeed I shall not
+say anything about it to any one, my dear aunt. I will manage some
+matters for myself; and the only thing I shall repeat is Sir Edward's
+last dying speech, which was to the effect, that he feared he might be
+detained till after our dinner hour, but would be back as soon as ever
+he could, and trusted my father would not wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you know where he is gone, and why?&quot; asked Sir Robert Croyland, in
+a much quieter tone than she expected. But poor Zara was still puzzled
+for an answer; and, as her only resource, she replied vaguely,
+&quot;Something about some of the smugglers, I believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then had he any message or intelligence brought him?&quot; inquired Sir
+Robert Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know--Oh, yes, I believe he had,&quot; replied his daughter,
+in a hesitating tone and with a cheek that was beginning to grow red.
+&quot;He spoke with one of the soldiers at the corner of the road, I
+know;--and, oh yes, I saw a man ride up with a letter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was after he was gone,&quot; observed Mrs. Barbara; but Sir Robert
+paid little attention, and, ringing, ordered dinner to be served.
+Could we see into the breasts of others, we should often save
+ourselves a great deal of unnecessary anxiety. Zara forgot that
+her father was not as well aware that Sir Edward Digby was
+Leyton's dearest friend, as she was; but, in truth, all that he
+concluded--either from the pertinent remarks of Mrs. Barbara or from
+Zara's embarrassment--was, that the young baronet had been making a
+little love to his daughter, which, to say sooth, was a consummation
+that Sir Robert Croyland was not a little inclined to see.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In about a quarter of an hour more, the dinner was announced; and the
+master of the house, his sister, and Zara, sat down together. Hardly
+had the fish and soup made any progress, when the quick canter of Sir
+Edward Digby's horse put his fair confidante out of her anxiety; and,
+in a few minutes after, he appeared himself, and apologized gracefully
+to his host, for having been too late. &quot;You must have waited for me, I
+fear,&quot; he added, &quot;for it is near an hour after the time; but I thought
+it absolutely necessary, from some circumstances I heard, to go over
+and see my colonel before he returned to Hythe, and then I was
+detained.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, who does command your regiment?&quot; asked Mrs. Barbara. But Sir
+Edward Digby was, at that moment, busily engaged in taking his seat by
+Zara's side; and he did not hear. The lady repeated the question when
+he was seated; but then he replied, &quot;No, I thank you, my dear madam,
+no soup to-day--a solid meal always after a hard ride; and I have
+galloped till I have almost broken my horse's wind.--By the way, Sir
+Robert, I hope you found my bay a pleasant goer. I have only ridden
+him twice since I bought him, though he cost two hundred guineas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is well worth the money,&quot; replied the Baronet--&quot;a very powerful
+animal--bore me like a feather, and I ride a good weight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have your own horses come back?&quot; asked the young officer, with a
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland answered in the negative, adding, &quot;And that
+reminds me I must write to my brother, to let Edith have his carriage
+to-morrow, to bring her back; for mine are gone--coach-horses, and
+all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edith, to-morrow!&quot; exclaimed Mrs. Barbara, in surprise; &quot;why, I
+thought she was going to stay four or five days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is coming back to-morrow, Bab,&quot; replied Sir Robert, sharply; and
+instantly turned the conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During the rest of the evening, Sir Edward Digby remained very
+constantly by fair Zara's side; and, moreover, he paid her most
+particular attention, in so marked a manner, that both Sir Robert
+Croyland and Mrs. Barbara thought matters were taking their course
+very favourably. The father busied himself in writing a letter and one
+or two notes, which he pronounced to be of consequence--as, indeed,
+they really were--while the aunt, worked diligently and discreetly at
+embroidering, not interrupting the conference of her niece and their
+guest above ten times in a minute. Sir Edward, indeed, kept himself
+within all due and well-defined rules. He never proceeded beyond what
+a great master of the art has pronounced to be &quot;making love&quot;--&quot;a
+course of small, quiet, attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so
+vague as to be misunderstood.&quot; Strange to say, Zara was very much
+obliged to him for following such a course, as it gave an especially
+good pretext for intimacy, for whispered words and quiet conversation,
+and even for a little open seeking for each other's society, which
+would have called observation, if not inquiry, upon them, had not her
+companion's conduct been what it was. She thought fit to attribute it,
+in her own mind, entirely to his desire of communicating to her,
+without attracting notice, whatever he had learned, that could in any
+way affect her sister's fate; and she judged it a marvellous good
+device that they should appear for the time as lovers, with full
+powers on both parts to withdraw from that position whenever it suited
+them. Poor girl! she knew not how far she was entangling herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby, in the meanwhile, took no alarming advantage of his
+situation. The whispered word was almost always of Edith or of Leyton.
+He never spoke of Zara herself, or of himself, or of his own feelings;
+not a word could denote to her that he was making love, though his
+whole demeanour had very much that aspect to those who sat and looked
+on. Oh, those who sit and look on, what a world they see! and what a
+world they don't see! Ever more than those who play the game, be they
+shrewd as they may: ever less than the cards would show, were they
+turned up. By fits and snatches, he communicated to his fair
+companion, while he was playing with this ball of gold thread, or
+winding and unwinding that piece of crimson silk, as much of what had
+passed between himself and Sir Henry Leyton, as he thought necessary;
+and then he asked her to sing--as her aunt had given him a quiet hint
+that her niece did sometimes do such a thing--saying, in a low tone,
+while he preferred the request, &quot;Pray, go on with the song, though I
+may interrupt you sometimes with questions, not quite relevant to the
+subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand--I quite understand,&quot; answered Zara; but it may be a
+question whether that sweet girl really quite understood either
+herself or him. It is impossible that any two free hearts, can go on
+long, holding such intimate and secret communion, on subjects deeply
+interesting to both, without being drawn together by closer bonds,
+than perhaps they fancy can ever be established between them--unless
+there be something inherently repulsive on one part or the other.
+Propinquity is certainly much, in the matter of love; but there are
+circumstances, not rarely occurring in human life, which mightily
+abridge the process; and such are--difficulties and dangers
+experienced together--a common struggle for a common object--but more
+than all--mutual and secret communion with, and aid of each other in
+things of deep interest. The confidence that is required, the
+excitement of imagination, the unity of effort, and of purpose, the
+rapid exercise of mind to catch the half-uttered thought, the enforced
+candour from want of time, which admits of no disguise or
+circumlocution, the very mystery itself--all cast that magic chain
+around those so circumstanced, within which they can hardly escape
+from the power of love. Nine times out of ten, they never try; and,
+however Zara Croyland might feel, she rose willingly enough to sing,
+while Sir Edward Digby leaned over her chair, as she sat at the
+instrument, which in those days supplied the place of that which is
+now absurdly enough termed in England, a piano. Her voice, which was
+fine though not very powerful, wavered a little as she began, from
+emotions of many kinds. She wished to sing well; but she sang worse
+than she might have done; yet quite well enough to please Sir Edward
+Digby, though his ear was refined by art, and good by nature.
+Nevertheless, though he listened with delight, and felt the music
+deeply, he forgot not his purpose, and between each stanza asked some
+question, obtaining a brief reply. But I will not so interrupt the
+course of an old song, and will give the interrogatory a separate
+place:</p>
+<div class="poem2">
+<br>
+<p class="t8"><b>THE LADY'S SONG.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;Oh! there be many, many griefs,</p>
+<p class="t1">In this world's sad career,</p>
+<p class="t0">That shun the day, that fly the gaze,</p>
+<p class="t1">And never, never meet the ear.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="t0">But what is darkest--darkest of them all?</p>
+<p class="t1">The pang of love betray'd?--</p>
+<p class="t0">The hopes of youth all fleeting by--</p>
+<p class="t1">Spring flowers that early, early fade?</p>
+<br>
+<p class="t0">But there are griefs--ay, griefs as deep:</p>
+<p class="t1">The friendship turn'd to hate--</p>
+<p class="t0">And, deeper still--and deeper still,</p>
+<p class="t1">Repentance come too late!--too late!</p>
+<br>
+<p class="t0">The doubt of those we love; and more</p>
+<p class="t1">The rayless, dull despair,</p>
+<p class="t0">When trusted hearts are worthless found,</p>
+<p class="t1">And all our dreams are air--but air.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="t0">Deep in each bosom's secret cell,</p>
+<p class="t1">The hermit-sorrows lie;</p>
+<p class="t0">And thence--unheard on earth--they raise</p>
+<p class="t1">The voice of prayer on high--on high.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="t0">Oh! there be many, many griefs,</p>
+<p class="t1">In this world's sad career,</p>
+<p class="t0">That shun the day, that fly the gaze,</p>
+<p class="t1">And, never, never meet the ear.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus sang the lady; and one of her hearers, at least, was delighted
+with the sweet voice, and the sweet music, and the expression which
+she gave to the whole. But though he listened with deep attention,
+both to words and tones, as long as her lips moved, yet, when the mere
+instrumental part of the music recommenced, which was the case between
+every second and third stanza--and the symphonetic parts of every song
+were somewhat long in those days--he instantly remembered the object
+with which he had first asked her to sing, (little thinking that such
+pleasure would be his reward;) and bending down his head, as if he
+were paying her some lover-like compliment on her performance, he
+asked her quietly, as I have said before, a question or two, closely
+connected with the subject on which both their minds were at that
+moment principally bent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus, at the first pause, he inquired--&quot;Do you know--did you ever see,
+in times long past, a gentleman of the name of Warde--a clergyman--a
+good and clever man, but somewhat strange and wild?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; answered Zara, looking down at the keys of the harpsichord; &quot;I
+know no one of that name;&quot; and she recommenced the song.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When her voice again ceased, the young officer seemed to have thought
+farther; and he asked, in the same low tone, &quot;Did you ever know a
+gentleman answering that description--his features must once have been
+good--somewhat strongly marked, but fine and of an elevated
+expression, with a good deal of wildness in the eye, but a peculiarly
+bland and beautiful smile when he is pleased--too remarkable to be
+overlooked or forgotten?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you be speaking of Mr. Osborn?&quot; asked Zara, in return. &quot;I barely
+recollect him in former days; but I and Edith met him about ten days
+ago; and he remembered and spoke to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The song required her attention; and though she would fain have played
+the symphony over again, she was afraid her father would remark it,
+and went on to sing the last two stanzas. As soon as she had
+concluded, however, she said, in a low, quick voice, &quot;He is a very
+extraordinary man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you give me any sign by which I should know him?&quot; asked Digby.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has now got a number of blue lines traced on his face,&quot; answered
+Zara; &quot;he went abroad to preach to the savages, I have heard. He is a
+good man, but very eccentric.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the same moment the voice of her father was raised, saying, &quot;I
+wish, my dear, you would not sing such melancholy things as that.
+Cannot you find something gayer? I do not like young ladies singing
+such dull ditties, only fit for sentimental misses of the true French
+school.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What was the true French school of his day, I cannot tell. Certainly,
+it must have been very different from the present.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps Sir Edward will sing something more cheerful himself?&quot;
+answered Zara.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I am a very bad musician,&quot; replied the young officer; &quot;I cannot
+even accompany myself. If you will, and have any of the few things I
+know, I shall be very happy.--In everything, one can but try,&quot; he
+added, in a low voice, &quot;still hoping for the best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara looked over her collection of music with him; and at last she
+opened one song which was somewhat popular in those times, though it
+has long fallen into well-merited oblivion. &quot;Can you venture to sing
+that?&quot; she asked, pointing to the words rather than the music; &quot;it is
+quite a soldier's song.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby read the first line; and thinking he observed a
+double meaning in her question, he answered, &quot;Oh, yes, that I will, if
+you will consent to accompany me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara smiled, and sat down to the instrument again; and the reader must
+judge from the song itself whether the young officer's conjecture that
+her words had an enigmatical sense was just or not.</p>
+<div class="poem2">
+<br>
+<p class="t4"><b>THE OFFICER'S SONG.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;A star is still beaming</p>
+<p class="t2">Beyond the grey cloud;</p>
+<p class="t0">Its light rays are streaming,</p>
+<p class="t2">With nothing to shroud;</p>
+<p class="t0">And the star shall be there</p>
+<p class="t2">When the clouds pass away;</p>
+<p class="t0">Its lustre unchanging,</p>
+<p class="t2">Immortal its ray.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;'Tis the guide of the true heart,</p>
+<p class="t2">In field, or on sea;</p>
+<p class="t0">'Tis the hope of the slave,</p>
+<p class="t2">And the trust of the free;</p>
+<p class="t0">The light of the lover,</p>
+<p class="t2">Whatever assail;</p>
+<p class="t0">The strength of the honest,</p>
+<p class="t2">That never can fail.</p>
+<br>
+<p class="i6">&quot;Waft, waft, thou light wind,</p>
+<p class="t2">From the peace-giving ray,</p>
+<p class="t0">The vapours of sorrow,</p>
+<p class="t2">That over it stray;</p>
+<p class="t0">And let it pour forth,</p>
+<p class="t2">All unshrouded and bright,</p>
+<p class="t0">That those who now mourn,</p>
+<p class="t2">May rejoice in its light.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God grant it!&quot; murmured the voice of Sir Robert Croyland. Zara said,
+&quot;Amen,&quot; in her heart; and in a minute or two after, her father rose,
+and left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During the rest of the evening, nothing very important occurred in
+Harbourne House. Mrs. Barbara played her usual part, and would
+contribute to Sir Edward Digby's amusement in a most uncomfortable
+manner. The following morning, too, went by without any incident of
+importance, till about ten o'clock, when breakfast just being over,
+and Zara having been called from the room by her maid, Sir Robert's
+butler announced to his master, that the groom had returned from Mr.
+Croyland's.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is the note?&quot; demanded his master, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has not brought one, Sir Robert,&quot; replied the servant, &quot;only a
+message, sir, to say that Mr. Croyland is very sorry he cannot spare
+the horses to-day, as they were out a long way yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland started up in a state of fury not at all becoming.
+He stamped, he even swore. But we have got rid of a great many of the
+vices of those times; and swearing was so common at the period I speak
+of, that it did not even startle Mrs. Barbara. Her efforts, however,
+to soothe her brother, only served to irritate him the more; and next
+he swore at her, which did surprise her mightily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He then fell into a fit of thought, which ended in his saying aloud,
+&quot;Yes, that must be the way. It is his business, and so----&quot; But
+Sir Robert did not conclude the sentence, retiring to his own
+sitting-room, and there writing a letter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he had done, he paused and meditated, his mind rambling over many
+subjects, though still occupied intensely with only one. &quot;I am a most
+unfortunate man,&quot; he thought. &quot;Nothing since that wretched day has
+ever gone right with me. Even trifles combine to frustrate everything
+I attempt. Would I had died many years ago! Poor Edith--poor girl--she
+must know more sorrow still, and yet it must be done, or I am
+lost!--If that wretched youth had been killed in that affray
+yesterday, it would have all been over. Was there no bullet that could
+find him?--and yet, perhaps, it might not have had the effect.--No,
+no; there would have been some new kind of demand from that greedy,
+craving scoundrel.--May there not be such even now? Will he give up
+that fatal paper?--He shall--by Heaven, he shall!--But I must send the
+letter. Sir Edward Digby will think this all very strange. How
+unfortunate, that it should have happened just when he was here. Would
+to Heaven I had any one to consult with! But I am lone, lone indeed.
+My wife, my sons, my friends,--gone, gone, all gone! It is very sad;&quot;
+and after having mused for several minutes more, he rang the bell,
+gave the servant who appeared the letter which he had just written,
+and directed him to take it over to Mr. Radford's as soon as possible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Returning to the room which he had previously left--without bestowing
+one word upon Mrs. Barbara, whom he passed in the corridor, Sir
+Robert Croyland entered into conversation with Sir Edward Digby, and
+strove--though with too evident an effort--to appear careless and
+unconcerned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, however, we must notice what was passing in the
+corridor; for it was of some importance, though, like many other
+important things, it was transacted very quietly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara had overheard Sir Robert's directions to the servant; and
+she had seen the man--as he went away to get ready the pony, which was
+usually sent in the morning to the post--deposit the note he had
+received upon an antique piece of furniture--a large marble table,
+with great sprawling gilt legs--which stood in the hall, close to the
+double doors that led to the offices.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now, Mrs. Barbara was one of the most benevolent people upon earth:
+she literally overflowed with the milk of human kindness; and, if a
+few drops of that same milk occasionally spotted the apron of her
+morality, which we cannot help acknowledging was sometimes the case,
+she thought, as a great many other people do of a great many other
+sins, that &quot;there was no great harm in it, if the motive was good.&quot;
+This was one of those cases and occasions when the milk was beginning
+to run over. She had a deep regard for her brother: she would have
+sacrificed her right hand for him; and she was quite sure that
+something very sad had happened to vex him, or he never would have
+thought of swearing <i>at her</i>. She would have done, she was ready to
+do, anything in the world, to help him; but how could she help him,
+without knowing what he was vexed about? It is wonderful how many
+lines the devil always has out, for those who are disposed to take a
+bait. Something whispered to Mrs. Barbara, as she gazed at the letter,
+&quot;The whole story is in there!&quot; Ah, Mrs. Barbara, do not take it up,
+and look at the address!--It is dangerous--very dangerous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Mrs. Barbara did take it up, and looked at the address--and then
+at the two ends. It was folded as a note, unfortunately; and she
+thought--&quot;There can be no harm, I'm sure--I won't open it--though I've
+seen him open Edith's letters, poor thing!--I shall hear the man pull
+back the inner door, and can put it down in a minute. Nobody else can
+see me here; and if I could but find out what is vexing him, I might
+have some way of helping him; I'm sure I intend well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All this argumentation in Mrs. Barbara's mind took up the space of
+about three seconds; and then the note, pressed between two fingers in
+the most approved fashion, was applied as a telescope to her eye, to
+get a perspective view of the cause of her brother's irritation. I
+must make the reader a party to the transaction, I am afraid, and let
+him know the words which Mrs. Barbara read:--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Radford,&quot; the note began--&quot;As misfortune would have it, all
+my horses have been taken out of the stable, and have not been brought
+back. I fear that they have fallen into other hands than those that
+borrowed them; and my brother Zachary has one of his crabbed moods
+upon him, and will not lend his carriage to bring Edith back. If your
+horses have not gone as well as mine, I should feel particularly
+obliged by your sending them down here, to take over my coach to
+Zachary's and bring Edith back; for I do not wish her to stay there
+any longer, as the marriage is to take place so soon. If you can come
+over to-morrow, we can settle whether it is to be at your house or
+here--though I should prefer it here, if you have no objection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There seemed to be a few words more; but it took Mrs. Barbara longer
+to decipher the above lines, in the actual position of the note, than
+it might have done, had the paper been spread out fair before her; so
+that, just as she was moving it a little, to get at the rest, the
+sound of the farther of the two doors being thrown open, interrupted
+her proceedings; and, laying down the letter quickly, she darted away,
+full of the important intelligence which she had acquired.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_05" href="#div3Ref_05">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">There are periods in the life of some men, when, either by a
+concatenation of unfortunate events, or by the accumulated
+consequences of their own errors, the prospect on every side becomes
+so clouded, that there is no resource for them, but to shut their eyes
+to the menacing aspect of all things, and to take refuge in the moral
+blindness of thoughtless inaction, against the pressure of present
+difficulties. &quot;I dare not think,&quot; is the excuse of many a man, for
+continuing in the same course of levity which first brought
+misfortunes upon him; but such is not always the case with those who
+fly to wretched merriment in the hour of distress; and such was not
+the case with Sir Robert Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had thought for long years, till his very heart sickened at the
+name of reflection. He had looked round for help, and had found none.
+He had tried to discover some prospect of relief; and all was
+darkness. The storm he had long foreseen was now bursting upon his
+head; it was no longer to be delayed; it was not to be warded off. His
+daughter's misery, or his own destruction, was the only choice before
+him; and he was resolved to think no more--to let events take their
+course, and to meet them as he best might.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But to resolve is one thing--to execute, another; and Edith's father
+was not a man who could keep such a determination long. He might
+indeed, for a time, cease to think of all the painful particulars of
+his situation; but there will ever come moments when thought is forced
+even upon the thoughtless, and events will arise, to press reflection
+upon any heart. His efforts were, at first, very successful. After he
+had despatched the letter to Mr. Radford, he had said, &quot;I must really
+pay my visitor some attention. It will serve to occupy my mind, too.
+Anything to escape from the torturing consideration of questions,
+which must ever be solved in wretchedness.&quot; And when he returned to
+Sir Edward Digby, his conversation was particularly gay and cheerful.
+It first turned to the unpleasant fact of the abstraction of all his
+horses; but he now spoke of it in a lighter and less careful manner
+than before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Doubtless,&quot; he said, &quot;they have been taken without leave, as usual,
+by the smugglers, to use for their own purposes. It is quite a common
+practice in this county; and yet we all go on leaving our stable-doors
+open, as if to invite all who pass to enter, and choose what they
+like. Then, I suppose, they have been captured with other spoil, in
+the strife of yesterday morning, and are become the prize of the
+conquerors; so that I shall never see them again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no!&quot; answered the young officer, &quot;they will be restored, I am
+quite sure, upon your identifying them, and proving that they were
+taken, without your consent, by the smugglers. I shall go over to
+Woodchurch by-and-by; and if you please, I will claim them for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is scarcely worth while,&quot; replied the baronet; &quot;I doubt that I
+shall ever get them back. These are little losses which every man in
+this neighbourhood must suffer, as a penalty for remaining in a half
+savage part of the country.--What are you disposed to do this morning,
+Sir Edward? Do you again walk the stubbles?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I fear it 'would be of little use,&quot; answered Digby; &quot;there has been
+so much galloping lately, that I do not think a partridge has been
+left undisturbed in its furrow; and the sun is too high for much
+sport.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, let us walk in the garden for a little,&quot; said Sir Robert;
+&quot;it is curious, in some respects, having been laid out long before
+this house was built, antiquated as it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby assented, but looked round for Zara, as he certainly
+thought her society would be a great addition to her father's. She had
+not yet returned to the room, however; and Sir Robert, as if he
+divined his young companion's feelings, requested his sister to tell
+her niece, when she came, that he and their guest were walking in the
+garden. &quot;It is one of her favourite spots, Sir Edward,&quot; he continued,
+as they went out, &quot;and many a meditative hour she spends there; for,
+gay as she is, she has her fits of thought, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young baronet internally said, &quot;Well she may, in this house!&quot; but
+making a more civil answer to his entertainer, he followed him to the
+garden; and so well and even cheerfully did Sir Robert Croyland keep
+up the conversation, so learnedly did he descant upon the levelling
+and preservation of turf in bowling-greens, and upon the clipping of
+old yew-trees--both before and after Zara joined them--that Digby
+began to doubt, notwithstanding all he had heard, whether he could
+really have such a load upon his heart as he himself had stated to
+Edith, and to fancy that, after all, it might be a stratagem to drive
+her to compliance with his wishes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A little incident, of no great moment in the eyes of any one but a
+very careful observer of his fellow-men--and Digby was far more so
+than he seemed--soon settled the doubt. As they were passing under an
+old wall of red brick--channelled by time and the shoots of pears and
+peaches--which separated the garden from the different courts, a door
+suddenly opened behind them, just after they had passed it; and while
+Sir Edward's eyes were turned to the face of the master of the house,
+Sir Robert's ear instantly caught the sound, and his cheek became as
+pale as ashes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is some dark terror there!&quot; thought the young officer; but,
+turning to Zara, he finished the sentence he had been uttering, while
+her father's coachman, who was the person that had opened the door,
+came forward to say that one of the horses had returned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Returned!&quot; exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland; &quot;has been brought back, I
+suppose you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, Sir Robert,&quot; replied the man; &quot;a fellow from the lone house by
+Iden Green brought him; and in a sad state the poor beast is. He's got
+a cut, like with a knife, all down his shoulder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your dragoon swords are sharp, Sir Edward,&quot; said the old baronet,
+gaily, to his guest; &quot;however, I will go and see him myself, and
+rejoin you here in a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am so glad to have a moment alone,&quot; cried Zara, as soon as her
+father was gone, &quot;that you must forgive me if I use it directly. I am
+going to ask you a favour, Sir Edward. You must take me a ride, and
+lend me a horse. I have just had a message from poor Harry Leyton; he
+wishes to see me, but I am afraid to go alone, with so many soldiers
+about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are they such terrible animals?&quot; asked her companion, with a smile,
+adding, however, &quot;I shall be delighted, if your father will consent;
+for I have already told him that I am going to Woodchurch this
+afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! you must ask me yourself, Sir Edward,&quot; replied Zara, &quot;quite in a
+civil tone; and then when you see that I am willing, you must be very
+pressing with my father--quite as if you were a lover; and he will not
+refuse you.--I'll bear you harmless, as I have heard Mr. Radford say;&quot;
+she added, with a playful smile that was quickly saddened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall command for the time,&quot; answered Digby, as gaily; &quot;perhaps
+after that, I may take my turn, sweet lady. But I have a good deal to
+say to you, too, which I could not fully explain last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As we go--as we go,&quot; replied Zara; &quot;my father will be back directly,
+otherwise I would tell you a long story about my aunt, who has
+evidently got some great secret which she is all impatience to
+divulge. If I had stayed an hour with her, I might have arrived at it;
+but I was afraid of losing my opportunity here.--Oh, that invaluable
+thing, opportunity! Once lost, what years of misery does it not
+sometimes leave behind.--Would to Heaven that Edith and Leyton had run
+away with each other when they were about it.--We should all have been
+happier now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I should never have known you,&quot; replied Digby. Zara smiled, and
+shook her head, as if saying, &quot;That is hardly fair;&quot; but Sir Robert
+Croyland was seen coming up the walk; and she only replied, &quot;Now do
+your <i>devoir</i>, gallant knight, and let me see if you do it zealously.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have been trying in your absence, my dear sir,&quot; said Digby, rather
+maliciously, as the baronet joined them, &quot;to persuade your fair
+daughter to run away with me. But she is very dutiful, and will not
+take such a rash step, though the distance is only to Woodchurch,
+without your consent. I pray you give it; for I long to mount her on
+my quietest horse, and see her try her skill in horsemanship again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland looked grave; and ere the words were half spoken,
+Sir Edward Digby felt that he had committed an error in his game; for
+he was well aware that when we have a favour to ask, we should not
+call up, by speech or look, in the mind of the person who is to grant
+it, any association having a contrary tendency.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am afraid that I have no servant whom I could send with you, Sir
+Edward,&quot; replied her father; &quot;one I have just dispatched to some
+distance, and you know I am left without horses, for this poor beast
+just come back, is unfit. Neither do I think it would be altogether
+consistent with decorum, for Zara to go with you quite alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby mentally sent the word decorum back to the place from
+whence it came; but he was resolved to press his point; and when Zara
+replied, &quot;Oh, do let me go, papa!&quot; he added, &quot;My servant can accompany
+us, to satisfy propriety, Sir Robert; and you know I have quartered
+three horses upon you. Then, as I find the fair lady is somewhat
+afraid of a multitude of soldiers, I promise most faithfully not even
+to dismount in Woodchurch, but to say what I have to say, to the
+officer in command there, and then canter back over the country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is the officer in command?&quot; asked Sir Robert Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara drew her breath quick, but Sir Edward Digby avoided the dangerous
+point. &quot;Irby has one troop there,&quot; he replied; &quot;and there are parts of
+two others. When I have made interest enough here,&quot; he continued, with
+a half bow to Zara, &quot;I shall beg to introduce Irby to you, Sir Robert;
+you will like him much, I think. I have known him long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray invite him to dinner while he stays,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland;
+&quot;it will give me much pleasure to see him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not yet--not yet!&quot; answered Digby, laughing; &quot;I always secure my own
+approaches first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland smiled graciously, and, turning to Zara, said,
+&quot;Well, my dear, I see no objection, if you wish it. You had better go
+and get ready.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara's cheek was glowing, and she took her father at the first word;
+but when she was gone, Sir Robert thought fit to lecture his guest a
+little, upon the bad habit of spoiling young ladies which he seemed to
+have acquired. He did it jocularly, but with his usual pompous and
+grave air; and no one would have recognised in the Sir Robert Croyland
+walking in the garden, the father whom we have lately seen humbled
+before his own child. There is no part of a man's character which he
+keeps up so well to the world as that part which is not his own. The
+assertion may seem to be a contradiction in terms; but there is no
+other way of expressing the sense clearly; and whether those terms be
+correct or not, will depend upon whether character is properly innate
+or accumulated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby answered gaily, for it was his object to keep his
+host in good humour at least, for the time. He denied the possibility
+of spoiling a lady, while he acknowledged his propensity to attempt
+impossibilities in that direction; and at the same time, with a good
+grace, and a frankness, real yet assumed--for his words were true,
+though they might not have been spoken just then, under any other
+circumstances--he admitted that, of all people whom he should like to
+spoil, the fair being who had just left them was the foremost. The
+words were too decided to be mistaken. Sir Edward Digby was evidently
+a gentleman, and known to be a man of honour. No man of honour trifles
+with a woman's affections; and Sir Robert Croyland, wise in this
+instance if not in others, did as all wise fathers would do, held his
+tongue for a time that the matter might cool and harden, and then
+changed the subject.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Digby, however, had grown thoughtful. Did he repent what he had said?
+No, certainly not. He wished, indeed, that he had not been driven to
+say it so soon; for there were doubts in his own mind whether Zara
+herself were altogether won. She was frank, she was kind, she trusted
+him, she acted with him; but there was at times a shade of reserve
+about her, coming suddenly, which seemed to him as a warning. She had
+from the first taken such pains to ensure that her confidence--the
+confidence of circumstances--should not be misunderstood; she had
+responded so little to the first approaches of love, while she had
+yielded so readily to those of friendship, that there was a doubt in
+his mind which made him uneasy; and, every now and then, her uncle's
+account of her character rung in his ear, and made him think--&quot;I have
+found this artillery more dangerous than I expected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What a pity it is that uncles will not hold their tongues!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At length, he bethought him that it would be as well to order the
+horses, which was accordingly done; and some time before they were
+ready, the fair girl herself appeared, and continued walking up and
+down the garden with her father and their guest, looking very lovely,
+both from excitement, which gave a varying colour to her cheek, and
+from intense feelings, which, denied the lips, looked out with deeper
+soul from the eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think, Zara,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, when it was announced that
+the horses and the servant were ready, &quot;that you took Sir Edward to
+the north, when you went over to your uncle's. You had better,
+therefore, in returning--for I know, in your wild spirits, when once
+on horseback, you will not be contented with the straight road--you
+had better, I say, come by the southwest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, papa, I could never learn the points of the compass in my life!&quot;
+answered Zara, laughing; &quot;I suppose that is the reason why, as my aunt
+says, I steer so ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I mean--by the lower road,&quot; replied her father; and he laid such
+emphasis on the words, that Zara received them as a command.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They mounted and set out, much to the surprise of Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, who saw them from the window, and thence derived her first
+information of their intended expedition; for Zara was afraid of her
+aunt's kindnesses, and never encountered them when she could help it.
+When they were a hundred yards from the house, the conversation began;
+but I will not enter into all the details; for at first they related
+to facts with which the reader is already well acquainted. Sir Edward
+Digby told her at large, all that had passed between himself and
+Leyton on the preceding day, and Zara, in return, informed him of the
+message she had received from his friend, and how it had been
+conveyed. Their minds then turned to other things, or rather to other
+branches of the same subjects; and, what was to be done? was the next
+question; for hours were flying--the moment that was to decide the
+fate of the two beings in whom each felt a deep though separate
+interest, was approaching fast; and no progress had apparently been
+made.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara's feelings seemed as much divided as Edith's had been. She shrank
+from the thought, that her sister, whom she loved with a species of
+adoration, should sacrifice herself on any account to such a fate as
+that which must attend the wife of Richard Radford. She shrank also,
+as a young, generous woman's heart must ever shrink, from the thought
+of any one wedding the abhorred, and separating for ever from the
+beloved; but then, when she came to turn her eyes towards her father,
+she trembled for him as much as for Edith; and, with her two hands
+resting on the pommel of the saddle, she gazed down in anxious and
+bitter thought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know not your father as well as you do, my dear Miss Croyland,&quot;
+said her companion, at length, as he marked these emotions; &quot;and
+therefore I cannot tell what might be his conduct under particular
+circumstances.&quot; Zara suddenly raised her eyes, and fixed them on his
+face; but Digby continued. &quot;I do not speak of the past, but of the
+future. I take it for granted--not alone as a courtesy, but from all I
+have seen--that Sir Robert Croyland cannot have committed any act,
+that could justly render him liable to danger from the law.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you--thank you!&quot; said Zara, dropping her eyes again; &quot;you judge
+rightly, I am sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But at the same time,&quot; he proceeded, &quot;it is clear that some
+unfortunate concurrence of circumstances has placed him either really,
+or in imagination, in Mr. Radford's power. Now, would he but act a
+bold and decided part--dare the worst--discountenance a bad man and a
+villain--even, if necessary, in his magisterial capacity, treat him as
+he deserves--he would take away the sting from his malice. Any
+accusation this man might bring would have <i>enmity</i> too strongly
+written upon it, to carry much weight; and all the evidence in favour
+of your father would have double force.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He cannot--he will not,&quot; answered Zara, sadly, &quot;unless he be actually
+driven. I know no more than you, Sir Edward, how all this has
+happened; but I know my father, and I know that he shrinks from
+disgrace more than death. An accusation, a public trial, would kill
+him by the worst and most terrible kind of torture. Mr. Radford, too,
+has wound the toils round him completely--that I can see. He could say
+that Sir Robert Croyland has acted contrary to all his own principles,
+at his request; and he could point to the cause. He could say that Sir
+Robert Croyland suddenly became, and has been for years the most
+intimate friend and companion of a man he scorned and avoided;
+and he could assert that it was because the proud man was in the
+cunning man's power. If, for vengeance, he chooses to avow his own
+disgrace--and what is there not Mr. Radford would avow to serve his
+ends?--believe me, he has my father in a net, from which it will be
+difficult to disentangle him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They both fell into thought again; but Zara did not sink in Digby's
+estimation, from the clear and firm view which she took of her
+father's position.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; he said, at length, &quot;let us wait, and hear what poor Leyton
+has to tell you. Perhaps he may have gained some further insight, or
+may have formed some plan; and now, Zara, let us for a moment speak of
+ourselves. You see, to-day, I have been forced to make love to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Too much,&quot; said Zara, gravely. &quot;I am sure you intended it for the
+best; but I am sorry it could not be avoided.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet it is very pleasant,&quot; answered Digby, half jestingly, half
+seriously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara seemed agitated: &quot;Do not, do not!&quot; she replied; &quot;my mind is too
+full of sad things, to think of what might be pleasant or not at
+another time;&quot; and she turned a look towards him, in which kindness,
+entreaty, and seriousness were all so blended, that it left him in
+greater doubt than ever, as to her sensations. &quot;Besides,&quot; she added,
+the serious predominating in her tone, &quot;consider what a difference one
+rash word, on either part, may make between us. Let me regard you, at
+least for the present, as a friend--or a brother, as you once said,
+Digby; let me take counsel with you, seek your advice, call for your
+assistance, without one thought or care to shackle or restrain me. In
+pity, do; for you know not how much I need support.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I am most ready to give it, on your own terms, and in your own
+way,&quot; answered Digby, warmly; but, immediately afterwards, he fell
+into a reverie, and in his own mind thought--&quot;She is wrong in her
+view; or indifferent towards me. With a lover to whom all is
+acknowledged, and with whom all is decided, she would have greater
+confidence, than with a friend, towards whom the dearest feelings of
+the heart are in doubt. This must be resolved speedily, but not now;
+for it evidently agitates her too much.--Yet, after all, in that
+agitation is hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just as his meditations had reached this point, they passed by the
+little public house of the Chequers, then a very favourite sign in
+England, and especially in that part of the country; and in five
+minutes after, they perceived a horseman on the road, riding rapidly
+towards them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is Leyton,&quot; said Sir Edward Digby, as he came somewhat nearer;
+but Zara gazed forward with surprise, at the tall, manly figure,
+dressed in the handsome uniform of the time, the pale but noble
+countenance, and the calm commanding air. &quot;Impossible!&quot; she cried.
+&quot;Why, he was a gay, slight, florid, young man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Six or seven years ago,&quot; answered Digby; &quot;but that, my dear Miss
+Croyland, is Sir Henry Leyton, depend upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now, it may seem strange that Edith should have instantly recognised,
+even at a much greater distance, the man whom her sister did not,
+though the same period had passed since each had seen him; but, it
+must be remembered, that Edith was between two and three years older
+than Zara; and those two or three years, at the time of life which
+they had reached when Leyton left England, are amongst the most
+important in a woman's life--those when new feelings and new thoughts
+arise, to impress for ever, on the woman's heart, events and persons
+that the girl forgets in an hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton, however, it certainly was; and when Zara could see his
+features distinctly, she recalled the lines. Springing from his horse
+as soon as he was near, her sister's lover cast the bridle of his
+charger over his arm, and, taking the hand she extended to him, kissed
+it affectionately: &quot;Oh, Zara, how you are changed!&quot; he said. &quot;But so
+am I; and you have gained, whilst I have lost. It is very kind of you
+to come thus speedily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You could not doubt, Leyton, that I would, if possible,&quot; answered
+Zara; &quot;but all things are much changed in our house, as well as
+ourselves; and that wild liberty which we formerly enjoyed, of running
+whithersoever we would, is sadly abridged now. But what have you to
+say, Leyton? for I dare not stay long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Digby was dropping behind, apparently to speak to his servant for a
+moment; but Leyton called to him, assuring him that he had nothing to
+say, which he might not hear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Presently, presently,&quot; answered Zara's companion; and leaving them
+alone, he rode up to good Mr. Somers, who, with his usual discretion,
+had halted, as they halted, at a very respectful distance. The young
+officer seemed to give some orders, which were rather long, and then
+returned at a slow pace. In the meantime, the conversation of Leyton
+and Zara had gone on; but his only object, it appeared, was to see
+her, and to entreat her to aid and support his Edith in any trial she
+might be put to. &quot;I spent a short period of chequered happiness with
+her last night,&quot; he said; &quot;and she then told me, dear Zara, that she
+was sure her father would send for her in the course of this day. If
+such be the case, keep with her always as far as possible; bid her
+still remember Harry Leyton; bid her resist to the end; and assure her
+that he will come to her deliverance ultimately. Were it myself alone,
+I would sacrifice anything, and set her free; but when I know that, by
+so doing, I should make her wretched for ever--that her own heart
+would be broken, and nothing but an early death relieve her, I cannot
+do it, Zara--no one can expect it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps not--perhaps not, Leyton;&quot; answered Zara, with the tears in
+her eyes; &quot;but yet--my father! However, I cannot advise--I cannot even
+ask anything. All is so dark and perplexed, I am lost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am labouring now, dear Zara,&quot; replied the young officer, &quot;to find
+or devise means of rendering his safety sure. Already I have the power
+to crush the bad man in whose grasp he is, and render his testimony,
+whatever it may be, nearly valueless. At all events, the only course
+before us, is that which I have pointed out; and while Digby is with
+you, you can never want the best and surest counsel and assistance.
+You may confide in him fully, Zara. I have now known him many years;
+and a more honourable and upright man, or one of greater talent, does
+not live.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something very gratifying to Zara in what he said of his
+friend; and had she been in a mood to scrutinize her own feelings
+accurately, the pleasure that she experienced in hearing such words
+spoken of Sir Edward Digby--the agitated sort of pleasure--might have
+given her an insight into her own heart. As it was, it only sent a
+passing blush into her cheek, and she replied, &quot;I am sure he is all
+you say, Harry; and indeed, it is to his connivance that I owe my
+being able to come hither to-day. These smugglers took away all my
+father's horses; and I suppose, from what I hear, that some of them
+have been captured by your men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If such is the case they shall be sent back,&quot; replied Leyton; &quot;for I
+am well aware that the horses being found with the smugglers, is no
+proof that they were therewith the owner's consent. To-morrow, I trust
+to be able to give you a further insight into my plans, for I am
+promised some information of importance to-night; and perhaps, even
+before you reach home, I shall have put a bar against Mr. Richard
+Radford's claims to Edith, which he may find insurmountable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he was speaking, Sir Edward Digby returned, quickening his horse's
+pace as he came near, and pointing with his hand. &quot;You have got a
+detachment out, I see, Leyton,&quot; he said--&quot;Is there any new affair
+before you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; replied the Colonel, &quot;it is merely Irby and a part of his
+troop, whom I have despatched to search the wood, for I have certain
+intelligence that the man we are seeking is concealed there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They may save themselves the trouble,&quot; replied Zara, shaking her
+head; &quot;for though he was certainly there all yesterday, he made his
+escape this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton hit his lip, and his brow grew clouded. &quot;That is unfortunate,&quot;
+he said, &quot;most unfortunate!--I do not ask you how you know, Zara; but
+are you quite sure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perfectly,&quot; she answered--&quot;I would not deceive you for the world,
+Leyton; and I only say what I have said, because I think that, if you
+do search the wood, it may draw attention to your being in this
+neighbourhood, which as yet is not known at Harbourne, and it may
+embarrass us very much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not sure, Leyton,&quot; said Sir Edward Digby, &quot;that as far as your
+own purposes are concerned, it might not be better to seem, at all
+events, to withdraw the troops, or at least a part of them, from this
+neighbourhood. Indeed, though I have no right to give you advice upon
+the subject, I think also it might be beneficial in other respects,
+for as soon as the smugglers think you gone, they will act with more
+freedom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I propose to do so, to-morrow,&quot; replied the colonel; &quot;but I have some
+information already, and expect more, upon which I must act in the
+first place. It will be as well, however, to stop Irby's party, if
+there is no end to be obtained by their proceedings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He then took leave of Zara and his friend, mounted his horse, and rode
+back to meet the troop that was advancing; while Zara and Sir Edward
+Digby, after following the same road up to the first houses of
+Woodchurch, turned away to the right, and went back to Harbourne, by
+the small country road which leads from Kennardington to Tenterden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Their conversation, as they went, would be of very little interest to
+the reader; for it consisted almost altogether of comments upon
+Leyton's changed appearance, and discussions of the same questions of
+doubt and difficulty which had occupied them before. They went slowly,
+however; and when they reached the house it did not want much more
+than three quarters of an hour to the usual time of dinner. Sir Robert
+Croyland they found looking out of the glass-door, which commanded a
+view towards his brother's house, and his first question was, which
+way they had returned. Sir Edward Digby gave an easy and unconcerned
+reply, describing the road they had followed, and comparing it,
+greatly to its disadvantage, with that which they had pursued on their
+former expedition.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you saw nothing of the carriage, Zara?&quot; inquired her father. &quot;It
+is very strange that Edith has not come back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, we saw no carriage of any kind; but a carrier's cart,&quot; replied
+the young lady. &quot;Perhaps if Edith did not know you were going to send,
+she might not be ready.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This reason, however, did not seem to satisfy Sir Robert Croyland; and
+after talking with him for a few minutes more as he stood, still
+gazing forth over the country, Zara and Digby retired to change their
+dress before dinner; and the latter received a long report from his
+servant of facts which will be shown hereafter. The man was
+particularly minute and communicative, because his master asked him no
+questions, and suffered him to tell his tale his own way. But that
+tale fully occupied the time till the second bell rang, and Digby
+hurried down to dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still, Miss Croyland had not returned; and it was evident that Sir
+Robert Croyland was annoyed and uneasy. All the suavity and
+cheerfulness of the morning was gone; for one importunate source of
+care and thought will always carry the recollection back to others;
+and he sat at the dinner table in silence and gloom, only broken by
+brief intervals of conversation, which he carried on with a laborious
+effort.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just as Mrs. Barbara rose to retire, however, the butler re-entered
+the room, announcing to Sir Robert Croyland that Mr. Radford had
+called, and wished to speak with him. &quot;He would not come in, sir,&quot;
+continued the man, &quot;for he said he wanted to speak with you alone, so
+I showed him into the library.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland instantly rose, but looked with a hesitating
+glance at his guest, while Mrs. Barbara and Zara retired from the
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, do not let me detain you, Sir Robert,&quot; said the young officer;
+&quot;I have taken as much wine as I ever do, and will go and join the
+ladies in the drawing-room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The customs of the day required that the master of the house should
+press the bottle upon his guest; and Sir Robert Croyland did not fail
+to do so. But Digby remained firm, and, to settle the question, walked
+quietly to the door and entered the drawing-room. There, he found Zara
+seated; but Mrs. Barbara was standing near the table, and apparently
+in a state, for which the English language supplies but one term, and
+that not a very classical one. I mean, she was in a <i>fidget</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reader is aware that the library of Harbourne House was adjacent
+to the drawing-room, and that there was a door between them. It was a
+thick, solid, oaken door, however, such as shut out the wind in the
+good old times; and, moreover, it fitted very close. Thus, though the
+minute after Sir Edward had entered the room, a low murmur, as of
+persons speaking somewhat loud, was heard from the library, not a
+single syllable could be distinguished; and Mrs. Barbara looked at the
+keyhole, with a longing indescribable. After about thirty seconds'
+martyrdom, Mrs. Barbara quitted the room: Zara, who knew her aunt,
+candidly trusting, that she had gone to put herself out of temptation;
+and Sir Edward Digby never for a moment imagining, that she could have
+been in any temptation at all. It may now be necessary, however, to
+follow Sir Robert Croyland to the library, and to reveal to the reader
+all that Mrs. Barbara was so anxious to learn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He found Mr. Radford, booted and spurred, standing, with his tall,
+bony figure, in as easy an attitude as it could assume, by the
+fire-place; and the baronet's first question was, &quot;In the name of
+Heaven, Radford, what has become of Edith?--Neither she nor the
+carriage have returned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, the carriage has, half an hour ago!&quot; replied Mr. Radford;
+&quot;and I met the horses going back as I came.--Didn't you get my message
+which I sent by the coachman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I must have been at dinner,&quot; answered Sir Robert Croyland, &quot;and
+the fools did not give it to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, it is no great matter,&quot; rejoined Mr. Radford, in the quietest
+possible tone. &quot;It was only to say that I was coming over, and would
+explain to you all about Miss Croyland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But where is she? Why did she not come?&quot; demanded her father, with
+some of the old impetuosity of his youth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is at my house,&quot; answered the other, deliberately; &quot;I thought it
+would be a great deal better, Croyland, to bring her there at once, as
+you left to me the decision of where the marriage was to be. She could
+be quite as comfortable there as here. My son will be up to-morrow;
+and the marriage can take place quietly, without any piece of work.
+Now, here it would be difficult to manage it; for, in the first place,
+it would be dangerous for my son. You have got a stranger in the
+house, and a whole heap of servants, who cannot be trusted. I have
+arranged everything for the marriage, and for their going off quietly
+on their little tour. We shall soon get a pardon for this affair with
+the dragoons; and that will be all settled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland had remained mute; not with any calm or tranquil
+feelings, but with indignation and astonishment. &quot;Upon my life and
+soul,&quot; he cried, &quot;this is too bad! Do you mean to say, sir, that you
+have ventured, without my knowledge or consent, to change my
+daughter's destination, and take her to your house when I wished her
+to be brought here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Undoubtedly,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, with the most perfect calmness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well then, sir,&quot; exclaimed the baronet, irritated beyond all
+endurance--&quot;I have to tell you, that you have committed a gross,
+insolent, and unjustifiable act; and I have to insist that she be
+brought back here this very night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, my dear friend--nay,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, in a half jeering
+tone. &quot;These are harsh words that you use; but you must hear me first,
+before I pay any attention to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I want to hear nothing, sir,&quot; cried Sir Robert Croyland, his anger
+still carrying him forward. &quot;But if you do not send her back to her
+own home, I will get horses over from Tenterden, and bring her
+myself.--Her slavery has not yet commenced, Mr. Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall not be able to bring her over,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, still
+maintaining the same provoking coolness; &quot;because, in case of her
+return, I should be obliged to use my horses myself, to lay certain
+important facts, which we both know of, before a brother magistrate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, and Sir Robert Croyland winced. But still indignation was
+uppermost for the time; and rapidly as lightning the thoughts of
+resistance passed through his mind. &quot;This man's conduct is too bad,&quot;
+he said to himself. &quot;After such a daring act as this, with his
+character blackened by so many stains, and so clear a case of revenge,
+the magistrates will surely hardly listen to him.&quot; But as he continued
+to reflect, timidity--the habitual timidity of many years--began to
+mingle with and dilute his resolution; and Mr. Radford, who knew him
+to the very heart, after having suffered him to reflect just long
+enough to shake his firmness, went on in a somewhat different tone,
+saying, &quot;Come, Sir Robert! don't be unreasonable; and before you
+quarrel irretrievably with an old friend, listen quietly to what he
+has got to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, sir, well,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, casting himself into a
+chair--&quot;what is it you have got to say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, simply this, my dear friend,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, &quot;that you
+are not aware of all the circumstances, and therefore cannot judge yet
+whether I have acted right or wrong. You and I have decided, I think,
+that there can no longer be any delay in the arrangement of our
+affairs. I put it plainly to you yesterday, that it was to be now or
+never; and you agreed that it should be now. You brought me your
+daughter's consent in the afternoon; and so far the matter was
+settled. I don't want to injure you; and if you are injured, it is
+your own fault--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I gave no consent,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, &quot;that she should be
+taken to your house. The circumstances--the circumstances, Mr.
+Radford!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Presently, presently,&quot; replied his companion. &quot;I take it for
+granted, that, when you have pledged yourself to a thing, you are
+anxious to accomplish it. Now I tell you, there was no sure way of
+accomplishing this, but that which I have taken. Do you know who is
+the commander of this dragoon regiment which is down here?--No. But I
+do. Do you know who is the man, who, like a sub-officer of the
+Customs, attacked our friends yesterday morning, took some fifty of
+them prisoners, robbed me of some seventy thousand pounds, and is now
+hunting after my son, as if he were a fox?--No. But I do; and I will
+tell you who he is.--One Harry Leyton, whom you may have heard
+of--now, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath,
+forsooth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland gazed upon him in astonishment; but, whatever were
+his other sensations, deep grief and bitter regret mingled with them,
+when he thought that circumstances should ever have driven or tempted
+him to promise his daughter's hand to a low, dissolute, unprincipled
+villan, and to put a fatal barrier between her and one whom he had
+always known to be generous, honorable, and high principled, and who
+had now gained such distinction in the service of his country. He
+remained perfectly silent, however; and the expression of surprise and
+consternation which his countenance displayed, was misinterpreted by
+Mr. Radford to his own advantage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, look here, Sir Robert,&quot; he continued; &quot;if your daughter were in
+your house, you could not help this young man having some
+communication with her. He has already been over at your brother's,
+and has seen her, I doubt not. Here, then, is your fair daughter Miss
+Zara, your guest Sir Edward Digby--his intimate friend, I dare
+say--all your maids and half your men servants, even dear Mrs. Barbara
+herself, with her sweet meddling ways, would all be ready to fetch and
+carry between the lovers. In short, our whole plans would be
+overturned; and I should be compelled to do that which would be very
+disagreeable to me, and to strike at this upstart Henry Leyton through
+the breast of Sir Robert Croyland. In my house, he can have no access
+to her; and though some mischief may already have been done, yet it
+can go no further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now I understand what you mean by revenge,&quot; said the baronet, in a
+low tone, folding his hands together.--&quot;Now I understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, but have I judged rightly or wrongly?&quot; demanded Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rightly, I suppose,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, sadly. &quot;It can't be
+helped;--but poor Edith, how does she bear it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, very well,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, quietly. &quot;She cried a little at
+first, and when she found where they were going, asked the coachman
+what he meant. It was my coachman, you know, not yours; and so he
+lied, like a good, honest fellow, and said you were waiting for her at
+my house. I was obliged to make up a little bit of a story too, and
+tell her you knew all about it; but that was no great harm; for I was
+resolved, you should know all about it, very soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lied like a good honest fellow!&quot; murmured Sir Robert Croyland, to
+himself. &quot;Well,&quot; he continued, aloud, &quot;at all events I must come over
+to-morrow, and try to reconcile the poor girl to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do so, do so,&quot; answered Mr. Radford; &quot;and in the meantime, I must be
+off; for I've still a good deal of work to do to-night. Did you see,
+they have withdrawn the dragoons from the wood? They knew it would be
+of no use to keep them there. So now, good night--that's all settled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All settled, indeed,&quot; murmured Sir Robert Croyland as Mr. Radford
+left him; and for nearly half an hour after, he continued sitting in
+the library, with his hands clasped upon his knee, exactly in the same
+position.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_06" href="#div3Ref_06">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby did not take advantage of the opportunity which Mrs.
+Barbara's absence afforded him. This may seem extraordinary conduct in
+a good soldier and quick and ready man; but he had his reasons for it.
+Not that he was beginning to hesitate, as some men do, when--after
+having quite made up their minds--they begin to consider all the
+perils of their situation, and retreat, without much regard for their
+own consistency, or the feelings of the other persons interested. But,
+no--Digby justly remembered that what he had to say might require some
+time, and that it might produce some agitation. Moreover, he
+recollected that there are few things so disagreeable on earth, as
+being interrupted at a time when people's eyes are sparkling or in
+tears, when the cheek is flushed or deadly pale; and as he knew not
+when Mrs. Barbara might return, and certainly did not anticipate that
+she would be long absent, he resolved to wait for another opportunity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he found minute after minute slip by, however, he began to repent
+of his determination; and certainly, although the word love never
+passed his lips, something very like the reality shone out in his
+eyes. Perhaps, had Zara been in any of her usual moods, more serious
+words might have followed. Had she been gay and jesting, or calm and
+thoughtful, a thousand little incidents might have led on naturally to
+the unfolding of the heart of each. But, on the contrary, she was
+neither the one nor the other. She was evidently anxious,
+apprehensive, ill at ease; and though she conversed rationally enough
+for a person whose mind was in such a state, yet she frequently turned
+her eyes towards the door of the adjoining room, from which the sound
+of her father's voice and that of Mr. Radford might still be heard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby endeavoured to gain her attention to himself, as much
+with a view to withdraw it from unpleasant subjects as anything else;
+and it was very natural that--with one so fair and so excellent, one
+possessing so much brightness, in spite of a few little spots--it was
+natural that his tone should become tenderer every minute. At length,
+however, she stopped him, saying, &quot;I am very anxious just now. I fear
+there is some mischief going on there, which we cannot prevent, and
+may never know. Edith's absence is certainly very strange; and I fear
+they may foil us yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In a minute or two after, Mrs. Barbara Croyland returned, but in such
+a flutter that she spoilt her embroidery, which she snatched up to
+cover her agitation, dropped her finest scissars, and broke the point
+off, and finally ran the needle into her finger, which, thereupon,
+spotted the silk with blood. She gave no explanation indeed of all
+this emotion, but looked several times at Zara with a meaning glance;
+and when, at length, Sir Robert Croyland entered the drawing-room, his
+whole air and manner did not tend to remove from his daughter's mind
+the apprehension which his sister's demeanour had cast over it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There is a general tone in every landscape which it never entirely
+loses; yet how infinite are the varieties which sunshine and cloud and
+storm, and morning, evening, and noon, bring upon it; and thus with
+the expression and conduct of every man, although they retain certain
+distinctive characteristics, yet innumerable are the varieties
+produced by the moods, the passions, and the emotions of the mind. Sir
+Robert Croyland was no longer irritably thoughtful; but he was stern,
+gloomy, melancholy. He strove to converse, indeed; but the effort was
+so apparent, the pain it gave him so evident, that Sir Edward Digby
+felt, or fancied, that his presence was a restraint. He had too much
+tact, however, to show that he imagined such to be the case; and he
+only resolved to retire to his own room as soon as he decently could.
+He was wrong in his supposition, indeed, that his host might wish to
+communicate something privately to Zara, or to Mrs. Barbara. Sir
+Robert had nothing to tell; and therefore the presence of Sir Edward
+Digby was rather agreeable to him than not, as shielding him from
+inquiries, which it might not have suited him to answer. He would have
+talked if he could, and would have done his best to make his house
+agreeable to his young guest; but his thoughts still turned, with all
+the bitterness of smothered anger, to the indignity he had suffered;
+and he asked himself, again and again, &quot;Will the time ever come, when
+I shall have vengeance for all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The evening passed gloomily, and in consequence slowly; and at length,
+when the clock showed that it still wanted a quarter to ten, Digby
+rose and bade the little party good night, saying that he was somewhat
+tired, and had letters to write.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall go to bed too,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, ringing for his
+candle. But Digby quitted the room first; and Zara could not refrain
+from saying, in a low tone, as she took leave of her father for the
+night, and went out of the room with him, &quot;There is nothing amiss with
+Edith, I trust, my dear father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, no!&quot; answered Sir Robert Croyland, with as careless an air
+as he could assume. &quot;Nothing at all, but that she does not come home
+to-night, and perhaps may not to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still unsatisfied, Zara sought her own room; and when her maid had
+half performed her usual functions for the night, she dismissed her,
+saying, that she would do the rest herself. When alone, however, Zara
+Croyland did not proceed to undress, but remained thinking over all
+the events of the day, with her head resting on her hand, and her eyes
+cast down. The idea of Edith and her fate mingled with other images.
+The words that Digby had spoken, the increasing tenderness of his tone
+and manner, came back to memory, and made her heart flutter with
+sensations unknown till then. She felt alarmed at her own feelings;
+she knew not well what they were; but still she said to herself at
+every pause of thought--&quot;It is all nonsense!--He will go away and
+forget me; and I shall forget him! These soldiers have always some
+tale of love for every woman's ear. It is their habit--almost their
+nature.&quot; Did she believe her own conclusions? Not entirely; but she
+tried to believe them; and that was enough for the present.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some minutes after, however, when a light knock was heard at the door,
+she started almost as if some one had struck her; and Fancy, who is
+always drawing upon improbability, made her believe, for an instant,
+that it might be Digby. She said, &quot;Come in,&quot; however, with tolerable
+calmness; and the next instant, the figure of her aunt presented
+itself, with eagerness in her looks and importance in her whole air.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear child!&quot; she said, &quot;I did not know whether your maid was gone;
+but I am very happy she is, for I have something to tell you of very
+great importance indeed. What do you think that rascal Radford has
+done?&quot; and as she spoke, she sank, with a dignified air, into a chair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I really can't tell, my dear aunt,&quot; replied Zara, not a little
+surprised to hear the bad epithet which her aunt applied to a
+gentleman, towards whom she usually displayed great politeness. &quot;I am
+sure he is quite capable of anything that is bad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, he is very much afraid of me, and what he calls my sweet meddling
+ways,&quot; said the old lady; &quot;but, perhaps, if I had meddled before, it
+might have been all the better. I am sure I am the very last to
+meddle, except when there is an absolute occasion for it, as you well
+know, my dear Zara.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last proposition was put in some degree as a question; but Zara
+did not think fit to answer it, merely saying, &quot;What is it, my dear
+aunt?--I am all anxiety and fear regarding Edith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well you may be, my love,&quot; said Mrs. Barbara; and thereupon she
+proceeded to tell Zara, how she had overheard the whole conversation
+between Mr. Radford and her brother, through the door of the library,
+which opened into the little passage, that ran between it and the
+rooms beyond. She did not say that she had put her ear to the keyhole;
+but that Zara took for granted, and indeed felt somewhat like an
+accomplice, while listening to secrets which had been acquired by such
+means.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus almost everything that had passed in the library--with a few very
+short variations and improvements, but with a good deal of comment,
+and a somewhat lengthy detail--was communicated by Mrs. Barbara to her
+niece; and when she had done, the old lady added, &quot;There, my dear, now
+go to bed and sleep upon it; and we will talk it all over in the
+morning, for I am determined that my niece shall not be treated in
+such a way by any vagabond smuggler like that. Dear me! one cannot
+tell what might happen, with Edith shut up in his house in that way.
+Talk of my meddling, indeed! He shall find that I will meddle now to
+some purpose! Good night, my dear love--good night!&quot; But Mrs. Barbara
+stopped at the door, to explain to Zara that she had not told her
+before, &quot;Because, you know,&quot; said the good lady, &quot;I could not speak of
+such things before a stranger, like Sir Edward Digby; and when he was
+gone, I didn't dare say anything to your father. Think of it till
+to-morrow, there's a dear girl, and try and devise some plan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will,&quot; said Zara--&quot;I will;&quot; but as soon as her aunt had
+disappeared, she clasped her hands together, exclaiming, &quot;Good Heaven!
+what plan can I form? Edith is lost! They have her now completely in
+their power. Oh, that I had known this before Sir Edward Digby went to
+sleep. He might have gone over to Leyton to-morrow, early; and they
+might have devised something together. Perhaps he has not gone to rest
+yet. He told me to throw off all restraint, to have no ceremony in
+case of need. Leyton told me so, too--that I might trust in him--that
+he is a man of honour. Oh, yes, I am sure he is a man of honour! but
+what will he think?--He promised he would think no harm of anything I
+might be called upon to do; and I promised I would trust him. I will
+go! He can speak to me in the passage. No one sleeps near, to
+overhear. But I will knock softly; for though he said he had letters
+to write, he may have gone to bed by this time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leaving the lights standing where they were, Zara cast on a long
+dressing-gown, and crept quietly out into the passage, taking care not
+to pull the door quite to. All was silent in the house; not a sound
+was heard; and with her heart beating as if it would have burst
+through her side, she approached Sir Edward Digby's door;--but there
+she paused. Had she not paused, but gone on at once, and knocked, all
+would have been well; for, so far from being in bed, he was sitting
+calmly reading. But ladies' resolutions, and men's, are made of very
+much the same materials. The instant her foot stopped, her whole host
+of woman's feelings crowded upon her, and barred the way. First, she
+thought of modesty, and propriety, and decency; and then, though she
+might have overcome the whole of that squadron for Edith's sake, the
+remembrance of many words that Digby had spoken, the look, the tone,
+the manner, all rose again upon her memory. She felt that he was a
+lover; and putting her hand to her brow, she murmured--&quot;I cannot; no,
+I cannot. Had he been only a friend, I would.--I will see him early
+to-morrow. I will sit up all night, that I may not sleep, and miss the
+opportunity; but I cannot go to-night;&quot; and, returning as quietly to
+her own chamber as she had come thence, she shut the door and locked
+it. She had never locked it in her life before; and she knew not why
+she did it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then, drawing the arm-chair to the hearth, Zara Croyland trimmed the
+fire, wrapped herself up as warmly as she could; and putting out one
+of the candles, that she might not be left in darkness by both being
+burnt out together, she took up a book, and began to read. From time
+to time, during that long night, her eyes grew heavy, and she fell
+asleep; but something always woke her. Either her own thoughts
+troubled her in dreams, or else the book fell out of her hand, or the
+wind shook the window, or the cold chill that precedes the coming
+morning disturbed her; and at length she looked at her watch, and,
+finding it past five o'clock, she congratulated herself at having
+escaped the power of the drowsy god, and, dressing in haste, undrew
+the curtains, and looked out by the light of the dawning day. When she
+saw the edge of the sun coming up, she said to herself, &quot;He is often
+very early. I will go down.&quot; But, bethinking herself that no time was
+to be lost, she hurried first to her maid's room, and waking her, told
+her to see Sir Edward Digby's servant, as soon as he rose, and to bid
+him inform his master that she wanted to speak with him in the
+library. &quot;Speak not a word of this to any one else, Eliza,&quot; she said;
+and then, thinking it necessary to assign some reason for her conduct,
+she added, &quot;I am very anxious about my sister; her not coming home
+yesterday alarms me, and I want to hear more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear! you needn't frighten yourself, Miss Zara,&quot; replied the
+maid--&quot;I dare say there's nothing the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I cannot help frightening myself,&quot; replied Zara; and going down
+into the library, she unclosed one of the shutters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The maid was very willing to gratify her young lady, for Zara was a
+favourite with all; but thinking from the look of the sky, that it
+would be a long time before the servant rose, and having no such
+scruples as her mistress, she went quietly away to his room, and
+knocked at his door, saying, &quot;I wish you would get up, Mr. Somers--I
+want to speak with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara remained alone for twenty minutes in the library, or not much
+more, and then she heard Digby's step in the passage. There was a good
+deal of alarm and surprise in his look when he entered; but his fair
+companion's tale was soon told; and that sufficiently explained her
+sudden call for his presence. He made no comment at the moment, but
+replied, &quot;Wait for me here one instant. I will order my horse, and be
+back directly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was speedily by her side again; and then, taking her hand in his,
+he said, &quot;I wish I had known this, last night.--You need not have been
+afraid of disturbing me, for I was up till nearly one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara smiled: &quot;You do not know,&quot; she answered, &quot;how near I was to your
+door, with the intention of calling you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And why did you not?&quot; asked Digby, eagerly. &quot;Nay, you must tell me,
+why you should hesitate when so much was at stake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can but answer, because my heart failed me,&quot; replied Zara. &quot;You
+know women's hearts are weak foolish things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay,&quot; said Digby, &quot;you must explain further.--Why did your heart fail
+you? Tell me, Zara. I cannot rest satisfied unless you tell me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, there is no time now for explanation,&quot; she replied, feeling
+that her admission had drawn her into more than she had anticipated;
+&quot;your horse will soon be here--and--and there is not a moment to
+lose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is time enough for those who will,&quot; answered Digby, in a
+serious tone; &quot;you promised me that you would not hesitate, whenever
+necessity required you to apply to me for counsel or aid--you have
+hesitated, Zara. Could you doubt me--could you be apprehensive--could
+you suppose that Edward Digby would, in word, deed, or thought, take
+advantage of your generous confidence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no--oh, no!&quot; answered Zara, warmly, blushing, and trembling at
+the same time, &quot;I did not--I could not, after all you have done--after
+all I have seen. No, no; I thought you would think it strange--I
+thought----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you supposed I would wrong you in thought!&quot; he replied, with
+some mortification in his manner; &quot;you do not know me yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes, indeed I do,&quot; she answered, feeling that she was getting
+further and further into difficulties; and then she added, with one of
+her sudden bursts of frankness, &quot;I will tell you how it was--candidly
+and truly. Just as I was at your door, and about to knock, the memory
+of several things you had said--inadvertently, perhaps--crossed my
+mind; and, though I felt that I could go at any hour to consult a
+friend in such terrible circumstances, I could not--no, I could not do
+so with a--with one--You see what harm you have done by such fine
+speeches!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She thought, that by her last words, she had guarded herself securely
+from any immediate consequences of this unreserved confession; but she
+was mistaken. She merely hurried on what might yet have rested for a
+day or two.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby took her other hand also, and held it gently yet
+firmly, as if he was afraid she should escape from him. &quot;Zara,&quot; he
+said, &quot;dear Zara, I have done harm, by speaking too much, or not
+enough. I must remedy it by the only means in my power.--Listen to me
+for one moment, for I cannot go till all is said. You must cast off
+this reserve--you must act perfectly freely with me; I seek to bind
+you by no engagement--I will bear my doubt; I will not construe
+anything you do, as an acceptance of my suit; but you must know--nay,
+you do know, you do feel, that I am your lover. It was doubt of your
+own sensations towards me, that made you hesitate--it was fear that
+you should commit yourself, to that which you might, on consideration,
+be indisposed to ratify.--You thought that I might plead such
+confidence as a tacit promise; and that made you pause. But hear me,
+as I pledge myself--upon my honour, as a gentleman--that if you act
+fearlessly and freely, in the cause in which we are both engaged--if
+you confide in me--trust in me, and never hesitate to put yourself, as
+you may think, entirely in my power, I will never look upon anything
+as plighting you to me in the slightest degree, till I hear you say
+the words, 'Digby, I am yours'--if ever that happy day should come. In
+the meantime, however, to set you entirely free from all apprehension
+of what others may say, I hold myself bound to you by every promise
+that man can make; and this very day I will ask your father's
+approbation of my suit. But I am well aware, though circumstances have
+shown me in a marvellous short time, that your heart and mind is equal
+to your beauty, yet it is not to be expected that such a being can be
+won in a few short days, and that I must wait in patience--not without
+hope, indeed, but with no presumption. By your conduct, at least, I
+shall know, whether I have gained your esteem.--Your love, perhaps,
+may follow; and now I leave you, to serve your sister and my friend,
+to the best of my power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he raised her hand to his lips, kissed it, and moved
+towards the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a sad struggle in Zara's breast; but as he was laying his
+hand upon the lock to open it, she said, &quot;Digby--Digby--Edward!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He instantly turned, and ran towards her; for her face had become very
+pale. She gave him her hand at once, however, &quot;Kind, generous man!&quot;
+she said, &quot;you must not go without hearing my answer. Such a pledge
+cannot be all on one part. I am yours, Digby, if you wish it; yet know
+me better first before you answer--see all my faults, and all my
+failings. Even this must show you how strange a being I am--how unlike
+other girls--how unlike perhaps, the woman you would wish to call your
+wife!----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wish it!&quot; answered Digby, casting his arm round her, &quot;from my
+heart--from my very soul, Zara. I know enough, I have seen enough, for
+I have seen you in circumstances that bring forth the bosom's inmost
+feelings; and though you are unlike others--and I have watched many in
+their course--that very dissimilarity is to me the surpassing charm.
+They are all art, you are all nature--ay, and nature in its sweetest
+and most graceful form; and I can boldly say, I never yet saw woman
+whom I should desire to call my wife till I saw you. I will not wait,
+dear girl; but, pledged to you as you are pledged to me, will not
+press this subject further on you, till your sister's fate is sealed.
+I must, indeed, speak with your father at once, that there may be no
+mistake, no misapprehension; but till all this sad business is
+settled, we are brother and sister, Zara; and then a dearer bond.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, yes--brother and sister!&quot; cried Zara, clinging to him at a
+name which takes fear from woman's heart, &quot;so will we be, Edward; and
+now all my doubts and hesitations will be at an end. I shall never
+fear more to seek you when it is needful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And my suit will be an excuse and a reason to all others, for free
+interviews, and solitary rambles, and private conference, and every
+dear communion,&quot; answered Digby, pleased, and yet almost amazed at the
+simplicity with which she lent herself to the magic of a word, when
+the heart led her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Zara saw he was a little extending the brother's privilege; and
+with a warm cheek but smiling lip, she answered, &quot;There, leave me now;
+I see you are learned in the art of leading on from step to step. Go
+on your way, Edward; and, oh! be kind to me, and do not make me feel
+this new situation too deeply at first. There, pray take away your
+arm; none but a father's or a sister's has been there before; and it
+makes my heart beat, as if it were wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Digby kept it where it was for a moment or two longer, and gave a
+few instants to happiness, in which she shared, though it agitated
+her. &quot;Nay, go,&quot; she said, at length, in a tone of entreaty, &quot;and I
+will lie down and rest for an hour; for I have sat up all night by the
+fire, lest I should be too late.--You must go, indeed. There is your
+horse upon the terrace; and we must not be selfish, but remember poor
+Edith before we think of our own happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a sweet and frank confession in her words that pleased Digby
+well; and leaving her with a heart at rest on his own account, he
+mounted his horse and rode rapidly away towards the quarters of Sir
+Henry Leyton.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_07" href="#div3Ref_07">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The reader has doubtless remarked--for every reader who peruses a book
+to any purpose must remark everything, inasmuch as the most important
+events are so often connected with insignificant circumstances, that
+the one cannot be understood without the other--the reader has
+doubtless remarked, that Mr. Radford, on leaving Sir Robert Croyland,
+informed his unhappy victim, that he had still a good deal of business
+to do that night. Now, during the day he had--as may well be judged
+from his own statement of all the preparations he had already
+made--done a great deal of very important business; but the details of
+his past proceedings I shall not enter into, and only beg leave to
+precede him by a short time, to the scene of those farther operations
+which he had laid out as the close of that evening's labours. It is to
+the lone house, as it was called, near Iden Green, that I wish to
+conduct my companions, and a solitary and gloomy looking spot it was,
+at the time I speak of. All that part of the country is now very
+thickly inhabited: the ground bears nearly as large a population as it
+can support; and though there are still fields, and woods, and
+occasional waste places, yet no such events could now happen as those
+which occurred eighty or a hundred years ago, when one might travel
+miles, in various parts of Kent, without meeting a living soul. The
+pressure of a large population crushes out the bolder and more daring
+sorts of crime, and leaves small cunning to effect, in secret, what
+cannot be accomplished openly, under the police of innumerable eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it was not so in those days; and the lone house near Iden Green,
+whatever it was originally built for, had become the refuge and the
+lurking-place of some of the most fierce and lawless men in the
+country. It was a large building, with numerous rooms and passages;
+and it had stables behind it, but no walled courtyard; for the close
+sweeping round of the wood, a part of which still exists in great
+beauty, was a convenience on which its architect seemed to have
+calculated. Standing some way off the high road, and about half a mile
+from Collyer Green, it was so sheltered by trees that, on whichever
+side approached, nothing could be seen but the top of the roof and
+part of a garret-window, till one was within a short distance of the
+edifice. But that garret-window had its advantages; for it commanded a
+view over a great part of the country, on three sides, and especially
+gave a prospect of the roads in the neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The building was not a farm-house, for it had none of the requisites;
+it could not well be a public-house, though a sign swung before it;
+for the lower windows were boarded up, and the owner or tenant
+thereof, if any traveller whom he did not know, stopped at his
+door--which was, indeed, a rare occurrence--told him that it was all a
+mistake, and cursing the sign, vowed he would have it cut down.
+Nevertheless, if the Ramleys, or any of their gang, or, indeed, any
+members of a similar fraternity, came thither, the doors opened as if
+by magic; and good accommodation for man and horse was sure to be
+found within.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was also remarked, that many a gentleman in haste went in there,
+and was never seen to issue forth again till he appeared in quite a
+different part of the country; and, had the master of the house lived
+two or three centuries earlier, he might on that very account have
+risked the fagot, on a charge of dealing with the devil. As it was, he
+was only suspected of being a coiner; but in regard to that charge,
+history has left no evidence, pro or con.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was in this house, however, on the evening of the day subsequent to
+the discomfiture of the smugglers, that six men were assembled in a
+small room at the back, all of whom had, more or less, taken part in
+the struggle near Woodchurch. The two younger Ramleys were there, as
+well as one of the principal members of their gang, and two other men,
+who had been long engaged in carrying smuggled goods from the coast,
+as a regular profession; but who were, in other respects, much more
+respectable persons than those by whom they were surrounded. At the
+head of the table, however, was the most important personage of the
+whole: no other than Richard Radford himself, who had joined his
+comrades an hour or two before. The joy and excitement of his escape
+from the wood, the temporary triumph which he had obtained over the
+vigilance of the soldiery, and the effect produced upon a disposition
+naturally bold, reckless, and daring, by the sudden change from
+imminent peril to comparative security, had all raised his spirits to
+an excessive pitch; and, indeed, the whole party, instead of seeming
+depressed by their late disaster, appeared elevated with that wild and
+lawless mirth, which owns no tie or restraint, reverences nothing
+sacred or respectable. Spirits and water were circulating freely
+amongst them; and they were boasting of their feats in the late
+skirmish, or commenting upon its events, with many a jest and many a
+falsehood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Major did very well, too,&quot; said Ned Ramley, &quot;for he killed one of
+the dragoons, and wounded another, before he went down himself, poor
+devil!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here's to the Major's ghost!&quot; cried young Radford, &quot;and I'll try to
+give it satisfaction by avenging him. We'll have vengeance upon them
+yet, Ned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, upon all who had any concern in it,&quot; answered Jim Ramley, with a
+meaning look.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And first upon him who betrayed us,&quot; rejoined Richard Radford; &quot;and I
+will have it, too, in a way that shall punish him more than if we
+flogged him to death with horse-whips, as the Sussex men did to Chater
+at the Flying Bull, near Hazlemere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The elder of the two Ramleys gave a look towards the men who were at
+the bottom of the table; and Richard Radford, dropping his voice,
+whispered something to Ned Ramley, who replied aloud, with an oath,
+&quot;I'd have taken my revenge, whatever came of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; answered Radford, &quot;the red-coats were too near. However,
+all's not lost that's delayed. I wonder where that young devil, little
+Starlight's gone to. I sent him three hours ago to Cranbrook with the
+clothes, and told him to come back and tell me if she passed. She'll
+not go now, that's certain; for she would be in the dark. Have you any
+notion, Ned, how many men we could get together in case of need?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, fifty or sixty!&quot; said one of the men from the bottom of the
+table, who seemed inclined to have his share in the conversation, as
+soon as it turned upon subjects with which he was familiar; &quot;there are
+seven or eight hid away down at Cranbrook, and nine or ten at
+Tenterden, with some of the goods, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, that's well!&quot; answered young Radford; &quot;I thought all the goods
+had been taken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, dear no,&quot; replied Jim Ramley, &quot;we've got a thousand pounds' worth
+in this house, and I dare say double as much is scattered about in
+different hides. The light things were got off; but they are the most
+valuable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll tell you what, my men,&quot; cried young Radford, &quot;as soon as these
+soldiers are gone down to the coast again, we'll all gather together,
+and do some devilish high thing, just to show them that they are not
+quite masters of the country yet. I've a great mind to burn their inn
+at Woodchurch, just for harbouring them. If we don't make these
+rascally fellows fear us, the trade will be quite put down in the
+county.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I swear,&quot; exclaimed Ned Ramley, with a horrible blasphemy, &quot;that if I
+can catch any one who has peached, even if it be but by one word, I
+will split his head like a lobster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I, too!&quot; answered his brother; and several others joined in the
+oath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The conversation then took another turn; and while it went on
+generally around the table, young Radford spoke several times in a low
+voice to the two who sat next to him, and the name of Harding was more
+than once mentioned. The glass circulated very freely also; and
+although none of them became absolutely intoxicated, yet all of them
+were more or less affected by the spirits, when the boy, whom we have
+called Little Starlight, crept quietly into the room, and approached
+Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She's not come, sir,&quot; he said; &quot;I waited a long while, and then went
+and asked the old woman of the shop, telling her that I was to be sure
+and see that Kate Clare got the bundle; but she said that she
+certainly wouldn't come to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's a good boy,&quot; said young Radford. &quot;Go and tell the people to
+bring us some candles; and then I'll give you a glass of Hollands for
+your pains. It's getting infernally dark,&quot; he continued, &quot;and as
+nothing more is to be done to-day, we may as well make a night of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no,&quot; answered one of the men at the bottom of the table, &quot;I've
+had enough, and I shall go and turn in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nobody opposed him; and he and his companion soon after left them. A
+smile passed round amongst the rest as soon as the two had shut the
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now those puny fellows are gone,&quot; said Jim Ramley, &quot;we can say what
+we like. First, let us talk about the goods, Mr. Radford, for I don't
+think they are quite safe here. They had better be got up to your
+father's as soon as possible, for if the house were to be searched, we
+could get out into the wood, but they could not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hark!&quot; said young Radford; &quot;there's some one knocking hard at the
+house door, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, trust all that to Obadiah,&quot; said Ned Ramley. &quot;He wont open the
+door till he sees who it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The minute after, however, old Mr. Radford stood amongst them; and he
+took especial care not to throw any damp upon their spirits, but
+rather to encourage them, and make light of the late events. He sat
+down for a few minutes by his son, took a glass of Hollands and water,
+and then whispered to his hopeful heir that he wanted to speak with
+him for a minute. The young man instantly rose, and led the way out
+into the room opposite, which was vacant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By Heaven, Dick, this is an awkward job!&quot; said his father; &quot;the loss
+is enormous, and never to be recovered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The things are not all lost,&quot; answered Richard Radford. &quot;A great
+quantity of the goods are about the country. There's a thousand
+pounds' worth, they say, in this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We must have them got together as fast as possible,&quot; said Mr.
+Radford, &quot;and brought up to our place. All that is here had better be
+sent up about three o'clock in the morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll bring them up myself,&quot; replied his son.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no, no!&quot; said Mr. Radford; &quot;you keep quiet where you are, till
+to-morrow night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh, nonsense,&quot; answered the young man; &quot;I'm not at all
+afraid.--Very well--very well, they shall come up, and I'll follow
+to-morrow night, if you think I can be at the Hall in safety.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't intend you to be long at the Hall,&quot; answered Mr. Radford:
+&quot;you must take a trip over the sea, my boy, till we can make sure of a
+pardon for you. There! you need not look so blank. You shan't go
+alone. Come up at eleven o'clock; and you will find Edith Croyland
+waiting to give you her hand, the next day.--Then a post-chaise and
+four, and a good tight boat on the beach, and you are landed in France
+in no time. Everything is ready--everything is settled; and with her
+fortune, you will have enough to live like a prince, till you can come
+back here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All this intelligence did not seem to give Richard Radford as much
+satisfaction as his father expected. &quot;I would rather have had little
+Zara, a devilish deal!&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very likely,&quot; answered his father, with his countenance changing, and
+his brow growing dark; &quot;but that wont do, Dick. We have had enough
+nonsense of all sorts; and it must now be brought to an end. It's not
+the matter of the fortune alone; but I am determined that both you and
+I shall have revenge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Revenge!&quot; said his son; &quot;I don't see what revenge has to do with
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll tell you,&quot; answered old Mr. Radford, in a low tone, but bitter
+in its very lowness. &quot;The man who so cunningly surrounded you and the
+rest yesterday morning, who took all my goods, and murdered many of
+our friends, is that very Harry Leyton, whom you've heard talk of. He
+has come down here on purpose to ruin you and me, if possible, and to
+marry Edith Croyland; but he shall never have her, by----,&quot; and he
+added a fearful oath which I will not repeat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, that alters the case,&quot; replied Richard Radford, with a demoniacal
+smile; &quot;oh, I'll marry her and make her happy, as the people say. But
+I'll tell you what--I'll have my revenge, too, before I go, and upon
+one who is worse than the other fellow--I mean the man who betrayed us
+all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is that?&quot; demanded the father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Harding,&quot; answered young Radford--&quot;Harding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you sure that it was he?&quot; asked the old gentleman; &quot;I have
+suspected him myself, but I have no proof.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I have,&quot; replied his son: &quot;he was seen several nights before, by
+little Starlight, talking for a long while with this very Colonel of
+Dragoons, upon the cliff. Another man was with him, too--most likely
+Mowle; and then, again, yesterday evening, some of these good fellows
+who were on the look-out to help me, saw him speaking to a dragoon
+officer at Widow Clare's door; so he must be a traitor, or they would
+have taken him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he deserves to be shot,&quot; said old Radford, fiercely; &quot;but take
+care, Dick: you had better not do it yourself. You'll find him
+difficult to get at, and may be caught.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave him to me--leave him to me,&quot; answered his hopeful son; &quot;I've a
+plan in my head that will punish him better than a bullet. But the
+bullet he shall have, too; for all the men have sworn that they will
+take his blood; but that can be done after I'm gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But what's your plan, my boy?&quot; asked old Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never mind, never mind!&quot; answered Richard, &quot;I'll find means to
+execute it.--I only wish those dragoons were away from Harbourne
+Wood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, they are,&quot; exclaimed his father, laughing. &quot;They were withdrawn
+this afternoon, and a party of them, too, marched out of Woodchurch,
+as if they were going to Ashford. I dare say, by this time to-morrow
+night, they will be all gone to their quarters again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then it's all safe!&quot; said his son; and after some more conversation
+between the two--and various injunctions upon the part of the old man,
+as to caution and prudence, upon the part of the young one, they
+parted for the time. Young Radford then rejoined his companions, and
+remained with them till about one o'clock in the morning, when the
+small portion of smuggled goods which had been saved, was sent off,
+escorted by two men, towards Radford Hall, where they arrived safely,
+and were received by servants well accustomed to such practices. They
+consisted of only one horse-load, indeed, so that the journey was
+quickly performed; and the two men returned before five. Although
+Richard Radford had given his father every assurance that he would
+remain quiet, and take every prudent step for his own concealment, his
+very first acts showed no disposition to keep his word. Before eight
+o'clock in the morning, he, the two Ramleys, and one or two other men,
+who had come in during the night, were out amongst the fields and
+woods, &quot;reconnoitring,&quot; as they called it; but, with a spirit in their
+breasts, which rendered them ready for any rash and criminal act that
+might suggest itself. Thus occupied, I shall for the present leave
+them, and show more of their proceedings at a future period.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_08" href="#div3Ref_08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Having now led the history of a great part of the personages in our
+drama up to the same point of time, namely, the third morning after
+the defeat of the smugglers, we may as well turn to follow out the
+course of Sir Edward Digby, on a day that was destined to be eventful
+to all the parties concerned. On arriving at Woodchurch, he found a
+small body of dragoons, ready mounted, at the door of the little inn,
+and two saddled horses, held waiting for their riders. Without
+ceremony, he entered, and went up at once to Leyton's room, where he
+found him, booted and spurred to set out, with Mowle the officer
+standing by him, looking on, while Sir Henry placed some papers in a
+writing-desk, and locked them up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young commander greeted his friend warmly; and then, turning to
+the officer of Customs, said, &quot;If you will mount, Mr. Mowle, I will be
+down with you directly;&quot; and as soon as Mowle, taking the hint,
+departed, he continued, in a quick tone, but with a faint smile upon
+his countenance, &quot;I know your errand, Digby, before you tell it. Edith
+has been transferred to the good charge and guidance of Mr. Radford;
+but that has only prepared me to act more vigorously than ever. My
+scruples on Sir Robert Croyland's account are at an end.--Heaven and
+earth! Is it possible that a man can be so criminally weak, as to give
+his child up--a sweet, gentle girl like that--to the charge of such a
+base unprincipled scoundrel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, nay, we must do Sir Robert justice,&quot; answered Digby. &quot;It was
+done without his consent--indeed, against his will; and, a more
+impudent and shameless piece of trickery was never practised. You must
+listen for one moment, Leyton, though you seem in haste;&quot; and he
+proceeded to detail to him, as succinctly as possible, all that had
+occurred between Mr. Radford and Edith's father on the preceding
+evening, stating his authority, and whence Zara had received her
+information.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That somewhat alters the case, indeed;&quot; answered Leyton; &quot;but it must
+not alter my conduct. I am, indeed, in haste, Digby, for I hope, ere
+two or three hours are over, to send the young scoundrel, for whose
+sake all this is done, a prisoner to the gaol. Mowle has somehow got
+information of where he is--from undoubted authority, he says; and we
+are away to Iden Green, in consequence. We shall get more information
+by the way; and I go with the party for a certain distance, in order
+to be at hand, in case of need; but, as it does not do for me, in my
+position, to take upon me the capture of half-a-dozen smugglers, the
+command of the party will rest with Cornet Joyce. We will deal with
+Mr. Radford, the father, afterwards. But, in the meantime, Digby, as
+your information certainly gives a different view of the case, from
+that which I had before taken, you will greatly oblige me if you can
+contrive to ride over to Mr. Croyland's, and see if you can find Mr.
+Warde there. Beg him to let me have the directions he promised, by
+four o'clock to-day; and if you do not find him, leave word to that
+effect, with Mr. Croyland himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem to place great faith in Warde,&quot; said Sir Edward Digby,
+shaking his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have cause--I have cause, Digby,&quot; answered his friend. &quot;But I must
+go, lest this youth escape me again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, God speed you, then,&quot; replied Digby. &quot;I will go to Mr. Croyland
+at once, and can contrive, I dare say, to get back to Harbourne by
+breakfast time. It is not above two or three miles round, and I will
+go twenty, at any time, to serve you, Leyton.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby found good Mr. Zachary Croyland walking about in his
+garden, in a state of irritation indescribable. He, also, was aware,
+by this time, of what had befallen his niece; and such was his
+indignation, that he could scarcely find it in his heart to be even
+commonly civil to any one. On Sir Edward Digby delivering his message,
+as he found that Mr. Warde was not there, the old gentleman burst
+forth, exclaiming, &quot;What have I to do with Warde, sir, or your friend
+either, sir?--Your friend's a fool! He might have walked out of that
+door with Edith Croyland in his hand; and that's no light prize, let
+me tell you; but he chose to be delicate, and gentlemanly, and all
+that sort of stupidity, and you see what has come of it. And now,
+forsooth, he sends over to ask advice and directions from Warde. Well,
+I will tell the man, if I see him--though Heaven only knows whether
+that will be the case or not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Henry Leyton seems to place great confidence in Mr. Warde,&quot;
+replied Digby, &quot;which I trust may be justified.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland looked at him sharply, for a moment, from under his
+cocked hat, and then exclaimed, &quot;Pish! you are a fool, young
+man.--There, don't look so fierce. I've given over fighting for these
+twenty years; and, besides--you wouldn't come to the duello with
+little Zara's uncle, would you? Ha, ha, ha!--Ha, ha, ha!--Ha, ha, ha!&quot;
+and he laughed immoderately, but splenetically enough at the same
+time. &quot;But I ought to have put my meaning as a question, not as a
+proposition,&quot; he continued. &quot;Are you such a fool as not to know the
+difference between an odd man and a madman, an eccentric man and a
+lunatic? If so, you had better get away as fast as possible; for you
+and I are likely soon to fall out. I understand what you mean about
+Warde, quite well; but I can tell you, that if you think Warde mad,
+I'm quite as mad as he is, only that his oddities lie all on the side
+of goodness and philanthropy, and mine now and then take a different
+course. But get you gone--get you gone; you are better than the rest
+of them, I believe. I do hope and trust you'll marry Zara; and then
+you'll plague each other's souls, to my heart's content.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He held his hand out as he spoke; and Digby shook it, laughing
+good-humouredly; but, ere he had taken ten steps towards the
+door of the house, through which he had to pass before he could
+mount his horse, Mr. Croyland called after him, &quot;Digby, Digby!--Sir
+Eddard!--Eldest son! I say,--how could you be such a fool as not to
+run that fellow through the stomach when you had him at your feet? You
+see what a quantity of mischief has come of it. You are all fools
+together, you soldiers, I think;--but it's true, a fool does as well
+as anything else to be shot at.--How's your shoulder? Better, I
+suppose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not thought of it for the last two days,&quot; replied Digby.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, that will do,&quot; said Mr. Croyland. &quot;Cured by the first
+intention. There, you may go: I don't want you. Only, pray tell my
+brother, that I think him as great a rascal as old Radford.--He'll
+know how much that means.--One's a weak rascal, and the other's a
+strong one; that's the only difference between them; and Robert may
+fit on which cap he likes best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Digby did not think it necessary to stop to justify Sir Robert
+Croyland in his brother's opinion; but, mounting his horse, he rode
+back across the country towards Harbourne as fast as he could go. He
+reached the house before the usual breakfast hour; but he found that
+everybody there had been an early riser as well as himself; the table
+was laid ready for breakfast; and Sir Robert Croyland was waiting in
+the drawing-room with some impatience in his looks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think I am not too late, Sir Robert,&quot; said Digby, taking out his
+watch, and bowing with a smile to Zara and Mrs. Barbara.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, oh dear, no, my young friend,&quot; replied the baronet; &quot;only in such
+a house as this, breakfast is going on all the morning long; and I
+thought you would excuse me, if I took mine a little earlier than
+usual, as I have got some way to go this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was said as they were entering the breakfast-room; but Sir Edward
+Digby replied, promptly, &quot;I must ask you to spare me five minutes
+before you go, Sir Robert, as I wish to speak with you for a short
+time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His host looked uneasy; for he was in that nervous and agitated state
+of mind, in which anything that is not clear and distinct seems
+terrible to the imagination, from the consciousness that many
+ill-defined calamities are hanging over us. He said, &quot;Certainly,
+certainly!&quot; however, in a polite tone; but he swallowed his breakfast
+in haste; and the young officer perceived that his host looked at
+every mouthful he took, as if likely to procrastinate the meal. Zara's
+face, too, was anxious and thoughtful; and consequently he hurried his
+own breakfast as fast as possible, knowing that the signal to rise
+would be a relief to all parties.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you will come into my little room, Sir Edward,&quot; said the master of
+the house, as soon as he saw that his guest was ready, &quot;I shall be
+very happy to hear what you have to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby followed in silence; and, to tell the truth, his
+heart beat a good deal, though it was not one to yield upon slight
+occasions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will not detain you a moment, Sir Robert,&quot; he said, when they had
+entered, and the door was shut, &quot;for what I have to say will be easily
+answered. I am sensible, that yesterday my attention to your youngest
+daughter must have been remarked by you, and, indeed, my manner
+altogether must have shown you, and herself also, that I feel
+differently towards her and other women. I do not think it would be
+right to continue such conduct for one moment longer, without your
+approbation of my suit; and I can only further say, that if you grant
+me your sanction, I feel that I can love her deeply and well, that I
+will try to make her happy to the best of my power, and that my
+fortune is amply sufficient to maintain her in the station of life in
+which she has always moved, and to make such a settlement upon her as
+I trust will be satisfactory to you. I will not detain you to
+expatiate upon my feelings; but such is a soldier's straightforward
+declaration, and I trust you will countenance and approve of my
+addressing her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland shook him warmly by the hand. &quot;'My dear Sir
+Edward,&quot; he said, &quot;you are your father's own son--frank, candid, and
+honourable. He was one of the most gentlemanly and amiable men I ever
+knew; and it will give me heartfelt pleasure to see my dear child
+united to his son. But--indeed, I must deal with you as candidly----&quot;
+He hesitated for a moment or two, and then went on--&quot;Perhaps you think
+that circumstances here are more favourable than they really are.
+Things may come to your knowledge--things may have to be
+related--Zara's fortune will be----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby saw that Sir Robert Croyland was greatly embarrassed;
+and for an instant--for love is a very irritable sort of state, at
+least for the imagination, and he was getting over head and ears in
+love, notwithstanding all his good resolutions--for an instant, I say,
+he might think that Zara had been engaged before, and that Sir Robert
+was about to tell him, that it was not the ever-coveted, first
+freshness of the heart he was to possess in her love, even if it were
+gained entirely. But a moment's thought, in regard to her father's
+situation, together with the baronet's last words, dispelled that
+unpleasant vision, and he replied, eagerly, &quot;Oh, my dear sir, that can
+make no difference in my estimation. If I can obtain her full and
+entire love, no external circumstance whatsoever can at all affect my
+views.--I only desire her hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No external circumstances whatsoever!&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland,
+pausing on the words. &quot;Are you sure of your own firmness, Sir Edward
+Digby? If her father were to tell you he is a ruined man--if he had
+many circumstances to relate which might make it painful to you to
+connect yourself with him--I do not say that it is so; but if it
+were?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rather an awkward position!&quot; thought Sir Edward Digby; but his mind
+was fully made up; and he replied, without hesitation, &quot;It would still
+make no difference in my eyes, Sir Robert. I trust that none of these
+terrible things are the case, for your sake; but I should despise
+myself, if, with enough of my own, I made fortune any ingredient in my
+considerations, or if I could suffer my love for a being perfectly
+amiable in herself, to be affected by the circumstances of her
+family.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland wrung his hand hard; and Digby felt that it was a
+sort of compact between them. &quot;I fear I must go,&quot; said Zara's father,
+&quot;and therefore I cannot explain more; but it is absolutely necessary
+to tell you that all my unmortgaged property is entailed, and will go
+to my brother, that Edith's fortune is totally independent, and that
+Zara has but a tithe of what her sister has.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Still I say, as I said before,&quot; replied Digby, &quot;that nothing of that
+kind can make any difference to me; nor will I ever suffer any
+consideration, not affecting your daughter personally--and I beg this
+may be clearly understood--to make any change in my views. If I can
+win her love--her entire, full, hearty love--with your sanction, she
+is mine. Have I that sanction. Sir Robert?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fully, and from my heart,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland, with the
+unwonted tears coursing over his cheeks. &quot;Go to her, my dear
+friend--go to her, and make what progress you may, with my best
+wishes. This is indeed a great happiness--a great relief!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he followed Sir Edward Digby out of the room; and,
+mounting a new horse which had been brought up from his bailiff's, he
+rode slowly and thoughtfully away. As he went, a faint hope--nay, it
+could hardly be called a hope--a vague, wild fancy of explaining his
+whole situation to Sir Edward Digby, and gaining the blessed relief of
+confidence and counsel, arose in Sir Robert Croyland's breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Alas! what an unhappy state has been brought about by the long
+accumulation of sin and deceit which has gathered over human society!
+that no man can trust another fully! that we dare not confide our
+inmost thoughts to any! that there should be a fear--the necessity for
+a fear--of showing the unguarded heart to the near and dear! that
+every man should--according to the most accursed axiom of a corrupt
+world--live with his friend as if he were one day to be his enemy. Oh,
+truths and honour, and sincerity! oh, true Christianity! whither are
+ye gone? Timidity soon banished such thoughts from the breast of Sir
+Robert Croyland, though there was something in the whole demeanour of
+his daughter's lover which showed him that, if ever man was to be
+trusted, he might trust there; and had he known how deeply Digby was
+already acquainted with much that concerned him, he might perhaps have
+gone one step farther, and told him all. As it was, he rode on, and
+soon gave himself up to bitter thoughts again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime. Sir Edward Digby returned to Zara and Mrs. Barbara in
+the drawing-room, with so well satisfied a look, that it was evident
+to both, his conversation with Sir Robert had not referred to any
+unpleasant subject, and had not had any unpleasant result. He excited
+the elder lady's surprise, however, and produced some slight agitation
+in the younger, by taking Zara by the hand, and in good set terms of
+almost formal courtesy, requesting a few minutes' private audience.
+Her varying colour, and her hesitating look, showed her lover that she
+apprehended something more unpleasant than he had to say; and he
+whispered, as they went along towards the library, &quot;It is nothing--it
+is nothing but to tell you what I have done, and to arrange our plan
+of campaign.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara looked up in his face with a glad smile, as if his words took
+some terror from her heart; and as soon as he was in the room, he let
+go her hand, and turned the key in such a manner in the door, that the
+key-hole could not serve the purpose of a perspective glass, even if
+it might that of an ear-trumpet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me, dear Zara,&quot; he said, &quot;if I take care to secure our
+defences; otherwise, as your good aunt is perfectly certain that I am
+about to fall on my knees, and make my declaration, she might be
+seized with a desire to witness the scene, not at all aware that it
+has been performed already. But not to say more,&quot; he continued, &quot;on a
+subject on which you have kindly and frankly set a lover's heart at
+rest, let me only tell you that your father has fully sanctioned my
+suit, which I know, after what you have said, will not be painful to
+you to hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was sure he would,&quot; answered Zara; &quot;not that he entered into any of
+my aunt's castles in the air, or that he devised my schemes, Digby;
+but, doubtless, he wishes to see a fortuneless girl well married, and
+would have been content with a lover for her, who might not have
+suited herself quite so well. You see I deal frankly with you, Digby,
+still; and will do so both now and hereafter, if you do not check me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never, never will I!&quot; answered Sir Edward Digby; &quot;it was so you first
+commanded my esteem, even before my love; and so you will always keep
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Before your love?&quot; said Zara, in an unwontedly serious tone; &quot;your
+love is very young yet, Digby; and sometimes I can hardly believe all
+this to be real.--Will it last? or will it vanish away like a dream,
+and leave me waking, alone and sorrowful?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yours for me, Zara?&quot; asked her lover; but then, he added,
+quickly, &quot;no, I will not put an unfair question: and every question is
+unfair that is already answered in one's own heart. Yours will, I
+trust, remain firm for me--so mine, I know, will for you, because we
+have seen each other under circumstances which have called forth the
+feelings, and displayed fully all the inmost thoughts which years of
+ordinary intercourse might not develop. But now, dear Zara, let us
+speak of our demeanour to each other. It will, perhaps, give us
+greater advantage if you treat me--perhaps, as a favoured, but not yet
+as an accepted lover. I will appear willingly as your humble slave and
+follower, if you will, now and then, let me know in private that I am
+something dearer; and by keeping up the character with me, which has
+gained you your uncle's commendation as a fair coquette, you may,
+perhaps, reconcile Mrs. Barbara to many things, which her notions of
+propriety might interfere with, if they were done as between the
+betrothed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I fear I shall manage it but badly, Digby,&quot; she answered. &quot;It was
+very easy to play the coquette before, when no deeper feelings were
+engaged, when I cared for no one, when all were indifferent to me. It
+might be natural to me, then; but I do not think I could play the
+coquette with the man I loved. At all events, I should act the part
+but badly, and should fancy he was always laughing at me in his heart,
+and triumphing over poor Zara Croyland, when he knew right well that
+he had the strings of the puppet in his hand. However, I will do my
+best, if you wish it; and I do believe, from knowing more of this
+house than you do, that your plan is a good one. The airs I have given
+myself, and the freedom I have taken, have been of service both to
+myself and Edith--to her in many ways, and to myself in keeping from
+me all serious addresses from men I could not love.--Yours is the
+first proposal I have ever had, Digby; so do not let what my uncle has
+said, make you believe that you have conquered a queen of hearts, who
+has set all others at defiance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No <i>gentleman</i> was ever refused by a <i>lady</i>,&quot; answered Digby, laying
+a strong emphasis on each noun-substantive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So, then, you were quite sure, before you said a word!&quot; cried Zara,
+laughing. &quot;Well, that is as frank a confession as any of my own! And
+yet you might have been mistaken; for esteeming you as I did, and
+circumstanced as I was, I would have trusted you as much, Digby, if
+you had been merely a friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you would not have shown me the deeper feelings of your heart
+upon other indifferent subjects,&quot; replied her lover.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara blushed, and looked down; then suddenly changed the course of
+conversation, saying, &quot;But you have not told me what Leyton thought of
+all this, and what plans you have formed. What is to be done? Was he
+not deeply grieved and shocked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby told her all that had passed, and then added, &quot;I
+intend now to send out my servant, Somers, to reconnoitre. He shall
+waylay Leyton on his return, and bring me news of his success. If this
+youth be safely lodged in gaol, his pretensions are at an end, at
+least for the present; but if he again escape, I think, ere noon
+to-morrow, I must interfere myself. I have now a better right to do so
+than I have hitherto had; and what I have heard from other quarters
+will enable me to speak boldly--even to your father, dear one--without
+committing either you or Edith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zara paused and thought; but all was still dark on every side, and she
+could extract no ray of light from the gloom. Digby did not fail (as,
+how could a lover neglect?) to try to lead her mind to pleasanter
+themes; and he did so in some degree. But we have been too long
+eaves-dropping upon private intercourse, and we will do so no more.
+The rest of the day passed in that mingled light and shade, which has
+a finer interest than the mere broad sunshine, till the return of Sir
+Robert Croyland, when the deep sadness that overspread his countenance
+clouded the happiness of all the rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Shortly after, Zara saw her lover's servant ride up the road, at
+considerable speed; and as it wanted but half-an-hour to dinner-time,
+Digby, who marked his coming also, retired to dress. When he returned
+to the drawing-room, there was a deeper and a sterner gloom upon his
+brow than the fair girl had ever seen; but her father and aunt were
+both present, and no explanation could take place. After dinner, too,
+Sir Robert Croyland and his guest returned to the drawing-room
+together; and though the cloud was still upon Digby's countenance, and
+he was graver than he had ever before appeared, yet she whom he loved
+could gain no tidings. To her he was still all tenderness and
+attention; but Zara could not play the part she had undertaken; and
+often her eyes rested on his face, with a mute, sad questioning, which
+made her aunt say to herself, &quot;Well, Zara is in love at last!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus passed a couple of hours, during which not above ten words were
+uttered by Sir Robert Croyland. At length, lights were brought in,
+after they had been for some time necessary; and at the end of about
+ten minutes more, the sound of several horses coming at a quick pace
+was heard. The feet stopped at the great door, the bell rang, and
+voices sounded in the hall. The tones of one, deep, clear, and mellow,
+made both Zara and her father start; and in a minute after, the butler
+entered--he was an old servant--saying, in a somewhat embarrassed
+manner, &quot;Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, sir, wishes to speak with you
+immediately on business of importance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who--who?&quot; demanded Sir Robert, &quot;Sir Henry Leyton!--Well, well, take
+him in somewhere!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He rose from his chair, but staggered perceptibly for a moment; then,
+overcoming the emotion that he could not but feel, he steadied himself
+by the arm of his chair, and left the room. Zara gazed at Digby, and
+he at her he loved; but this night Mrs. Barbara thought fit to sit
+where she was; and Digby, approaching Zara's seat, bent over her,
+whispering, &quot;Leyton has a terrible tale to tell; but not affecting
+Edith. She is safe.--What more he seeks, I do not know.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_09" href="#div3Ref_09">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">After parting with Sir Edward Digby at Woodchurch, Henry Leyton had
+ridden on at a quick pace to Park-gate, and thence along the high
+road, to Cranbrook. He himself was habited in the undress of his
+regiment, though with pistols at his saddle, and a heavy sword by his
+side. One of his servants followed him similarly accoutred, and an
+orderly accompanied the servant, while by the young officer's side
+appeared our good friend Mr. Mowle, heavily armed, with the somewhat
+anomalous equipments of a riding officer of Customs in those days. At
+a little distance behind this first group, came Cornet Joyce, and his
+party of dragoons; and in this order they all passed through
+Cranbrook, about nine o'clock; but a quarter of a mile beyond the
+little town they halted, and Mowle rode on for a short way alone, to
+the edge of Hangley Wood, which was now close before them. There he
+dismounted, and went in amongst the trees; but he was not long absent,
+for in less than five minutes he was by the colonel's side again.
+&quot;All's right, sir,&quot; he said, &quot;the boy assures me that they were all
+there still, at six this morning, and that their captain, Radford,
+does not move till after dark, to-night. So now we shall have the
+worst fellows amongst them--the two Ramleys and all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; answered Leyton, &quot;you had better go on at once with the
+party, keeping through the wood. I will remain behind, coming on
+slowly; and if wanted, you will find me somewhere in the Hanger.
+Cornet Joyce has his orders in regard to surrounding the house; but of
+course he must act according to circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No more words were needed: the party of dragoons moved on rapidly,
+with Mowle at their head; and Leyton, after pausing for a few minutes
+on the road, dismounted, and giving his rein to the servant, walked
+slowly on into the wood, telling the two men who accompanied him, to
+follow. There was, at that time, as there is now, I believe, a broad
+road through Hangley Wood, leading into the cross-road from Biddenden
+to Goudhurst; but at that period, instead of being tolerably straight
+and good, it was very tortuous, rough, and uneven. Along this forest
+path, for so it might be called, the dragoons had taken their way, at
+a quick trot; and by it their young colonel followed, with his arms
+crossed upon his chest, and his head bent down, in deep and anxious
+meditation. The distance across the wood at that part is nearly a
+mile; and when he had reached the other side, Leyton turned upon his
+steps again, passed his servant and the orderly, and walked slowly on
+the road back to Cranbrook. The two men went to the extreme verge of
+the wood, and looked out towards Iden Green for a minute or two before
+they followed their officer, so that in the turnings of the road, they
+were out of sight by the time he had gone a quarter of a mile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton's thoughts were busy, as may be well supposed; but at length
+they were suddenly interrupted by loud, repeated, and piercing
+shrieks, apparently proceeding from a spot at some distance before
+him. Darting on, with a single glance behind, and a loud shout to call
+the men up, he rushed forward along the road, and the next instant
+beheld a sight which made his blood boil with indignation. At first,
+he merely perceived a girl, struggling in the hands of some five or
+six ruffians, who were maltreating her in the most brutal manner; but
+in another instant, as, drawing his sword, he rushed forward, he
+recognised--for it can scarcely be said, he saw--poor Kate Clare. With
+another loud shout to his men to come up, he darted on without pause
+or hesitation; but his approach was observed--the ruffians withdrew
+from around their victim; and one of them exclaimed, &quot;Run, run! the
+dragoons are coming!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;D--me! give her a shot before you go,&quot; cried another, &quot;or she'll
+peach.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let her,&quot; cried young Radford--&quot;but here goes;&quot; and, turning as he
+hurried away, he deliberately fired a pistol at the unhappy girl, who
+was starting up wildly from the ground. She instantly reeled and fell,
+some seconds before Leyton could reach her; for he was still at the
+distance of a hundred yards.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All this had taken place in an inconceivably short space of time; but
+the next minute, the panic with which the villains had been seized
+subsided a little. One turned to look back--another turned--they
+beheld but one man on the road; and all the party were pausing, when
+Leyton reached poor Kate Clare, and raised her in his arms. It might
+have fared ill with him had he been alone; but just at that moment the
+orderly appeared at the turn, coming up at the gallop, with the young
+officer's servant behind him; and not doubting that a large party was
+following, Radford and his companions fled as fast as they could.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On after them, like lightning!&quot; cried Leyton, as the men came up.
+&quot;Leave the horse, leave the horse, and away! Watch them wherever they
+go, especially the man in the green coat! Take him if you can--shoot
+him dead if he resist. Ah, my poor girl!&quot; he cried, with the tears
+rising in his eyes, &quot;this is sad, indeed!--Where has he wounded you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There,&quot; said Kate, faintly, taking away her hand, which was pressed
+upon her right side; &quot;but that was his kindest act.--Thank God, I am
+dying!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, nay,&quot; answered Leyton, &quot;I trust not!&quot; But the blood poured
+rapidly out, staining all her dress, which was torn and in wild
+disorder, and so rapidly did it flow, that Leyton clearly saw her
+words would probably prove too true. &quot;Who was that villain?&quot; he cried;
+&quot;I will punish him if there be justice on earth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't you know him?&quot; said Kate, her voice growing more and more low.
+&quot;I thought you were seeking him--Richard Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The atrocious scoundrel!&quot; said Leyton; and drawing his handkerchief
+from his breast, he tied it tightly over her side, trying, though he
+saw it was nearly in vain, to stanch the blood, while at the same time
+he supported her against his knee with one arm thrown round her waist.
+Poor Kate closed her eyes with a faint shudder; and for a moment
+Leyton thought she was dead. She appeared to be reviving again,
+however, when a loud voice, not far distant, exclaimed, &quot;Ha,--halloo!
+What the devil is this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton looked suddenly up--for his eyes had been bent upon the poor
+girl's face for several minutes--and then beheld, hurrying up the road
+with a look of fury in his countenance, Kate's promised husband,
+Harding. With a violent oath the man rushed on, exclaiming, &quot;Kate,
+what is all this?--Villain, have you misused the girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, hush!&quot; cried Leyton, with a stern gesture of his hand; &quot;she is
+dying!--I would have saved her if I could; but alas, I came too late!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The whole expression of Harding's countenance changed in an instant.
+Grief and terror succeeded to rage; and, catching her franticly in his
+arms, he exclaimed--&quot;Kate, Kate, speak to me!--Tell me, who has done
+this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can tell you,&quot; answered Leyton--&quot;Richard Radford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While he was speaking, Kate Clare opened her eyes again, and gazed on
+Harding's face, moving her right hand faintly round and placing it
+upon his.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give me that handkerchief from your neck,&quot; said Leyton; &quot;if we can
+stop the blood, we may save her, yet. I have seen very bad wounds
+recovered from----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no!&quot; said Kate Clare; &quot;thank God, I am dying--I would rather
+die!--Harding, I am not in fault--they caught me in the wood--oh, they
+treated me horribly. Mr. Radford said it was revenge--God forgive him,
+God forgive him! But I would rather die thus in your arms--do not try
+to stop it--it is all in vain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton and Harding still persisted, however, and bound another
+handkerchief tight over the wound, in some degree diminishing the
+stream of blood, but yet, not stopping it entirely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let us carry her to some house,&quot; cried Leyton, &quot;and then send for
+assistance. See! her lips are not so pale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will carry her,&quot; cried Harding, raising her in his powerful arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To my aunt's, then--to my aunt's, Harding,&quot; murmured Kate; &quot;I would
+sooner die there than in any other place.&quot; And on Harding sped,
+without reply, while Leyton, sheathing his sword, which he had cast
+down, followed him, inquiring, &quot;Is it far?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But a step, sir,&quot; answered the smuggler. &quot;Pray, come with us.--This
+must be avenged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It shall,&quot; replied Leyton, sternly; &quot;but I must stay here for a
+minute or two, till you can send somebody to me, to take my place, and
+let my men know where I am when they return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding nodded his head, and then turned his eyes upon the face of the
+poor girl whom he bore in his arms, hurrying on without a moment's
+pause, till he was lost to the young officer's sight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It is needless to describe the feelings of a high-minded and noble man
+like Leyton, when left alone to meditate over the horrible outrage
+which had been committed under his very eyes. He gave way to no burst
+of indignation, indeed, but with a frowning brow walked back upon the
+road, caught his horse without difficulty, and mounting, remained
+fixed near the spot where poor Kate had received her death-wound, like
+a soldier upon guard. In less than ten minutes, a lad ran up, saying,
+&quot;Mr. Harding sent me, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, walk up and down here, my good boy,&quot; replied Leyton,
+&quot;till some one comes to inquire for me. If it should be a servant, or
+a single soldier, send him down to the place which you came from, and
+wait where you are till a larger party of dragoons come up, when you
+must tell them the same--to go down to me there. If the party come
+first, wait for the servant and the soldier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having given these directions, he was turning away, but paused again
+to inquire his way to the place where Harding was; and then pointing
+to a bundle that lay upon the road, he said--&quot;You had better bring
+that with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Following the boy's direction, as soon as he issued out of the wood,
+Sir Henry Leyton turned through a little field to the left; and seeing
+a small farm-house at some distance before him, he leaped his horse
+over two fences to abridge the way. Then riding into the farm-yard, he
+sprang to the ground, looking round for some one to take his charger.
+Several men of different ages were running about with eagerness and
+haste in their faces. Horses were being led forth from the stable;
+guns were in the hands of several; and one of them--a fine, tall,
+powerful young fellow--exclaimed, as soon as he saw Leyton--&quot;We will
+catch them, sir--we will catch them! and by----they shall be hanged as
+high as Haman for hurting the poor dear girl. Here, take his honour's
+horse, Bill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is she still living?&quot; asked Leyton.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh dear, yes, sir!&quot; cried the young man; &quot;she seemed somewhat better
+for what mother gave her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; rejoined the young officer, &quot;if you are going to search
+for these scoundrels, gallop up to the wood as fast as you can; you
+will find my servant and a trooper watching. They will give you
+information of which way the villains are gone. I will join you in a
+minute or two with a stronger force.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, sir, we shall do--we shall do,&quot; cried William Harris; &quot;we will
+raise the whole county as we go, and will hunt them down like foxes.
+Do they think that our sisters and our wives are to be ill-used and
+murdered by such scum as they are?&quot; and at the same time he sprang
+upon his horse's back. Leyton turned towards the house, but met the
+old farmer himself coming out with a great cavalry sword in his hand,
+and the butt end of a pistol sticking out of each pocket. &quot;Quick,
+quick! to your horses!&quot; he cried, &quot;they shall rue the day--they shall
+rue the day!--Ah, sir, go in,&quot; he continued, seeing Leyton; &quot;she is
+telling my wife and Harding all about it; but I can't stop to hear.--I
+will have that young Radford's blood, if I have a soul to be saved!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Better take him alive, and hand him over to justice,&quot; said Leyton,
+going into the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;D----n him, I'll kill him like a dog!&quot; cried the farmer; and mounting
+somewhat less nimbly than his son, he put himself at the head of the
+whole party assembled, and rode fast away towards Hangley Wood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, Leyton entered the kitchen of the farm; but it was
+quite vacant. Voices, however, were heard speaking above, and he
+ventured to go up and enter the room. Three or four women were
+assembled there round good Mrs. Harris's own bed, on which poor Kate
+Clare was stretched, with Harding on his knees beside her, and her
+hand in his, the hot tears of man's bitterest agony, coursing each
+other down his bronzed and weather-beaten cheek.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, there!&quot; said Mrs. Harris; &quot;don't take on so, Harding--you only
+keep down her spirits. She might do very well, if she would but take
+heart. You see she is better for the cordial stuff I gave her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding made no reply; but Kate Clare faintly shook her head; and
+Leyton, after having gazed on the sad scene for a moment, with bitter
+grief and indignation in his heart, drew back, thinking that his
+presence would only be a restraint to Kate's family and friends. He
+made a sign, however, to one of the women before he went, who followed
+him out of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I merely wish to tell you,&quot; he said, in a low voice, when the woman
+joined him at the top of the stairs, &quot;that I am going back to the
+wood, to aid in the pursuit of these villains; for I can be of no use
+here, and may be there. If any of my people come, tell them where to
+find me; bid them follow me instantly, and stop every man on foot they
+see quitting the wood, till he gives an account of himself.--But had
+you not better send for a surgeon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One is sent for, sir,&quot; replied the woman; &quot;but I think she is not so
+bad as she was.--I'll take care and tell your people. I do hope they
+will catch them, for this is <i>too</i> bad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without more words Leyton went down, remounted his horse, and galloped
+back towards the edge of the wood. The news of what had happened,
+however, seemed to have spread over the country with the speed of
+lightning; for he saw four or five of the peasantry on horseback,
+already riding in the same direction across the fields. Two stout
+farmers joined him as he went, and both were already full of the story
+of poor Kate Clare. Rage and indignation were universal amongst the
+people; but as usual on such occasions, one proposed one plan, and
+another the other, so that by want of combination in their operations,
+all their resolution and eagerness were likely to be fruitlessly
+employed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton knew that it was of little use to argue on such points with
+undisciplined men; and his only trust was in the speedy arrival of the
+soldiers from Iden Green. When he reached the edge of the wood,
+however, with his two companions, they came upon farmer Harris's
+party, now swelled to twelve or thirteen men; and at the same moment
+his own servant rode round, exclaiming, as soon as he saw his master,
+&quot;They are still in the wood, sir, if they have not come out this way.
+They dispersed so that we could not follow them on horseback, and we
+galloped out by different ways to watch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They haven't come here,&quot; cried Farmer Harris, &quot;or we should have seen
+them. So now we have them safe enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ride off towards Iden Green,&quot; said Leyton to the servant, &quot;and direct
+Cornet Joyce to bring down his men at the gallop to the edge of the
+copse. Let him dismount twelve on the north side of the wood, and,
+with all the farm-servants and country people he can collect, sweep
+it down, while the rest of the mounted men advance, on a line, on
+either side.--Stay, I will write;&quot; and tearing a leaf out of his
+pocket-book, he put down his orders in pencil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man had just galloped away, when the young farmer, William Harris,
+shouted, &quot;There they go--there they go! After them!--after them! Tally
+ho!&quot; and instantly set spurs to his horse. All the rest but Leyton
+followed at full speed; but he paused, and, directing his eyes along
+the edge of the wood, clearly saw, at the distance of somewhat more
+than half a mile, three men, who seemed to have issued forth from
+amongst the trees, running across the fields as fast as they could go.
+It would seem that they had not been aware of the numbers collected to
+intercept them, till they had advanced too far to retreat; but
+they had got a good start; the country was difficult for any but
+well-trained horses; and darting on, they took their way towards
+Goudhurst, passing within a hundred yards of the spot where the victim
+of their horrid barbarity lay upon the bed of death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Taking the narrow paths, leaping the stiles and gates, they at first
+seemed to gain upon the mass of peasantry who followed them, though
+their pursuers were on horseback and they on foot. But, well knowing
+the country, the farmers spread out along the small bridle-roads; and,
+while the better mounted horsemen followed direct across the fields,
+the others prepared to cut off the ruffians on the right and left.
+Gradually a semi-circle, enclosing them within its horns, was thus
+formed; and all chance of escape by flight was thus cut off.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In this dilemma, the three miscreants made straight towards a
+farm-house at which they occasionally received hospitality in their
+lawless expeditions, and which bears the name of &quot;Smuggler Farm&quot; to
+this day; but they knew not that all hearts had been raised against
+them by their late atrocities, and that the very tenant of the farm
+himself was now one of the foremost in pursuit. Rushing in, then, with
+no farther ceremony than casting the door open, they locked and barred
+it, just as some of the peasantry were closing in upon them; and then,
+hurrying to the kitchen, where the farmer's wife, his sister, and a
+servant was collected, Ned Ramley, who was the first, exclaimed, &quot;Have
+you no hide, good dame?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hide!&quot; replied the stout farmer's wife, eyeing him askance--&quot;not for
+such villains as you! Give me the spit, Madge; I've a great mind to
+run him through.&quot; Ned Ramley drew a pistol from his pocket; but at
+that moment the window was thrown up, the back door of the house was
+cast open, and half-a-dozen of the stout yeomanry rushed in. The
+smugglers saw that resistance would be vain; but still they resisted;
+and though, in the agitation of the moment, Ned Ramley's pistol was
+discharged innocuously, he did not fail to aim it at the head of young
+William Harris, who was springing towards him. The stout farmer,
+however, instantly levelled him with the ground by a thundering blow
+upon the head; and the other two men, after a desperate struggle, were
+likewise taken and tied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lucky for you it was me, and not my father, Master Ramley,&quot; said
+William Harris. &quot;He'd have blown your brains out; but you're only
+saved to be hanged, anyhow.--Ay, here he comes!--Stop, stop, old
+gentleman! he's a prisoner; don't you touch him.--Let the law have the
+job, as the gentleman said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you accursed villain--oh, you hellish scoundrel,&quot; cried old
+Harris, kept back with difficulty by his son and the rest. &quot;You were
+one of the foremost of them. But where is the greatest villain of them
+all?--where's that limb of the devil, young Radford?--I will have him!
+Let me go, Will--I will have him, I say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ned Ramley laughed aloud: &quot;You wont, though,&quot; he answered, bitterly;
+&quot;he's been gone this half hour, and will be at the sea, and over the
+sea, before you can catch him.--You may do with me what you like, but
+he's safe enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Some one ride off and tell the officer what he says!&quot; cried the
+farmer. But when the intelligence was conveyed to Sir Henry Leyton, he
+was already aware that some of the men must have made their escape
+unobserved; for his servant had met Cornet Joyce and the party of
+dragoons by the way, and with the aid of a number of farm servants
+from Iden Green and its neighbourhood, the wood had been searched with
+such strictness, that the pheasants, which were at that time numerous
+there, had flown out in clouds, as if a battue had been going on. He
+mistrusted Ned Ramley's information, however; knowing that the
+hardened villain would find a sort of pride in misleading the pursuers
+of young Radford, even though taken himself. Riding quickly across to
+the farm, then, together with Mowle and the Cornet, he interrogated
+the men separately, but found they were all in the same story, from
+which they varied not in the least--that Richard Radford had crept out
+by the hedges near the wood, and had gone first to a place where a
+horse was in waiting for him, and thence would make straight to the
+sea-side, where a boat was already prepared. Instant measures to
+prevent him from executing this plan now became necessary; and Leyton
+directed the Cornet to hasten away as fast as possible in pursuit,
+sending information from Woodchurch to every point of the coast where
+the offender was likely to pass, spreading out his men so as to cover
+all the roads to the sea, and only leaving at the farm a sufficient
+guard to secure the prisoners.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On hearing the latter part of this order, however, Farmer Harris
+exclaimed, &quot;No, no, sir; no need of that. We've taken them, and we'll
+keep them safe enough. I'll see these fellows into prison myself--ay,
+and hanged too, please God! and we'll guard them sure, don't you be
+afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton looked to Mowle, saying, &quot;I must abide by your decision, Mr.
+Mowle.&quot; But the officer answered: &quot;Oh, you may trust them, sir, quite
+safely, after all I hear has happened. But I think, Mr. Harris, you
+had better have just a few men to help you. You've got no place to
+keep them here; and they must be taken before a magistrate first,
+before they can be committed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, we'll keep them safe enough,&quot; replied the farmer. &quot;We'll put them
+in Goudhurst church, till we can send them off, and, in the meantime,
+I'll have them up before Squire Broughton. My son's a constable, so
+they are in proper hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well,&quot; answered Leyton; &quot;in this case I have no right to
+interfere; but, of course, you are responsible for their safe
+custody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I say, Mowle,&quot; cried Ned Ramley, in his usual daring manner, &quot;bid
+them give me something to drink, for I'm devilish thirsty; and I'll
+give you some information, if you will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mowle obtained some beer for him, and then demanded, &quot;Well, what is
+it, Ned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, only this,&quot; said Ned Ramley, after they had held the beer to his
+lips, and he had taken a deep draught--&quot;you will have your brains
+blown out, before ten days are over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not afraid,&quot; replied Mowle, laughing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's right,&quot; answered Ned Ramley. &quot;But it will happen; for fifty of
+us have sworn it. We have had our revenge of your spy, Harding; and we
+have only you to settle with now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Harding!&quot; cried Mowle. &quot;He's no spy of mine.--It was not he that
+peached, you young scoundrel; it was one of those whom you trusted
+more than him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, well,&quot; answered Ned Ramley, indifferently; &quot;then he'll have a
+sore heart to-night, that he didn't work for. But you'll have your
+turn yet, Mr. Mowle, so look that you make good use of your brains,
+for they wont be long in your skull.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a hardened villain,&quot; said Sir Henry Leyton. &quot;You had better
+march them off as fast as you can, my good friends; take them before a
+magistrate; and above all things, get them to prison ere nightfall, or
+we may have another rescue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No fear, no fear!&quot; answered Farmer Harris. &quot;To rescue a smuggler is
+one thing--I never liked to see them taken myself--but bloodthirsty
+villains like these, that would ill use a poor, dear, good girl, and
+murder her in cold blood,--why, there is not a man in the county would
+not help to hang them. But I wish, sir, you would go yourself, and see
+and stop that other great villain. If he isn't hanged too, I don't
+think I shall ever rest in my bed again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will do my best, depend upon it,&quot; replied Leyton; &quot;but I must
+first, Mr. Harris, go to your house, and see the state of that poor
+girl. I have known her since she was a child, and feel for her almost
+as if she were a sister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, sir--thank you!&quot; cried old Harris, shaking him by the
+hand. &quot;There, boys,&quot; he continued, dashing away the tears from his
+eyes--&quot;make a guard, and take these blackguards off in the middle of
+you. We'll have them up to Squire Broughton's at once; and then I must
+go back, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On his way to the farm, Leyton desired Mowle to return to Woodchurch,
+and to wait for him there, taking every step that he might think
+necessary, with the aid of Captain Irby. &quot;I will not be long,&quot; he
+added.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray don't, sir,&quot; rejoined Mowle; &quot;for we have other business to do
+to-night;&quot; and, sinking his voice to a whisper, he added, &quot;I've got
+the information I wanted, sir. A part of the goods are certainly at
+Radford Hall, and if we can seize them there, that, with the
+deposition of the men at Woodchurch, will bring him in for the whole
+offence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall, very likely, overtake you by the way,&quot; replied Leyton. &quot;But,
+at all events, I shall be there before four.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Most such calculations are vain, however. Leyton turned aside to the
+Harris's farm, where he found poor Kate Clare sinking rapidly. The
+curate of the parish had been sent for, and, by his advice, Mr.
+Broughton, the magistrate, who had entered the house but two or three
+minutes before Leyton himself. Though her voice now scarcely rose
+above a whisper, she made her dying declaration with clearness and
+accuracy. It is not necessary here to give any of the details; but, as
+she concluded, she turned her faint and swimming eyes towards Leyton,
+saying, &quot;That gentleman, who has always been such a good friend to me
+and mine, can tell you more, sir, for he came up to my help, just as
+they shot me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The magistrate raised his eyes, and inquired, in a low tone, &quot;Who is
+he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Henry Leyton,&quot; replied the poor girl, loud enough for that
+officer to hear; and thinking that she asked for him, he approached
+nearer, and stood by Harding's side. Kate raised her hand a little
+from the bedclothes, as if she would have given it to him; and he took
+it kindly in his, speaking some words of comfort.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, sir--thank you, for all your kindness,&quot; said Kate. &quot;I am
+glad you have come, that I may wish you good-bye, and ask you to be
+kind to poor Harding, too. It will soon be over now; and you had
+better all leave me. Not you, Harding--not you.--You must close my
+eyes, as my poor mother is not here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A groan burst from the stout seaman's breast; and giving way to all
+his feelings, he sobbed like a child. According to her desire, Leyton
+and Mr. Broughton retired from the room; and the young officer
+informed the magistrate, that the prisoners who had been taken were
+waiting for examination at his house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We shall want your evidence, Sir Henry,&quot; said the magistrate. &quot;It is
+absolutely necessary, if, as I understand, you were eye-witness to the
+murder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton saw the propriety of the magistrate's demand, and he yielded
+immediately. But the investigation was prolonged by several
+circumstances; and, what between the time that it took up, and that
+which had been previously spent in the pursuit of the murderers, it
+was past three o'clock before Leyton mounted his horse at Mr.
+Broughton's door. He paused for an instant at the gate of the Harris's
+farm-yard, where a girl was standing with tears in her eyes; but
+before he could ask any question, she replied to that which was rising
+to his lips. &quot;She is gone, sir,&quot; said the girl--&quot;she is gone. She did
+not last half-an-hour after you were here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a sad heart, Leyton rode on, passing at a quick pace through
+Harbourne Wood, and not trusting himself to stop at Mrs. Clare's
+cottage. The windows, however, were closed; and the young officer
+concluded from that circumstance, that the tidings of her daughter's
+fate must by this time have reached the childless widow. Not far
+beyond her gate, he was met by Sir Edward Digby's servant; but eager
+to arrive at Woodchurch, Leyton did not stop to speak with him, and
+Somers, turning his horse with the orderly and his old companion,
+Leyton's servant, gleaned what information he could from them as he
+went.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Notwithstanding all the speed he could use, however, it was half-past
+four before Leyton reached Woodchurch; and, on inquiring for Mr.
+Warde, he found that gentleman had called, but gone away again, saying
+he would return in an hour.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_10" href="#div3Ref_10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Such as we have described in the last chapter, were the fatal events
+to which Sir Edward Digby had alluded in the few words he had spoken
+to Zara Croyland; and it may be needless to explain to the reader,
+that he had learned the tale from his servant just before he came down
+to dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland, as we have shown, after some agitation and
+hesitation, quitted the drawing-room to meet,--the first time for many
+years--the son of a man, whom, at the instigation of others, he had
+cruelly persecuted. He paused as soon as he got into the passage,
+however, to summon courage, and to make up his mind as to the
+demeanour which he should assume--always a vain and fruitless task;
+for seldom, if ever, do circumstances allow any man to maintain the
+aspect which he has predetermined to affect. Sir Robert Croyland
+resolved to be cold, stately, and repulsive--to treat Sir Henry Leyton
+as a perfect stranger, and if he alluded to their former intimacy, to
+cut the conversation short by telling him that, as all the feelings of
+those days were at an end, he did not wish to revive their memory in
+any shape. He did not calculate, indeed, upon the peculiar state of
+Leyton's mind, at the moment--nay, nor even upon the effect of his
+former favourite's personal appearance upon himself; and when he
+entered the library and saw the tall, powerful, dignified-looking man,
+the pale, thoughtful, stern countenance, and the haughty air, he felt
+all his predeterminations vain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton, on his part, had done the same as Sir Robert Croyland, and in
+setting out from Woodchurch had made up his mind to see in the man he
+went to visit, nothing but Edith's father--to treat him kindly,
+gently, and with compassion for his weakness, rather than anger at his
+faults; but as he rode along, and conversed with one who accompanied
+him thither, the memory of much that Sir Robert Croyland had done in
+former days, came painfully back upon him, and combining with his
+treatment of Edith, raised up bitter and indignant feelings that he
+could have wished to quell. The scenes which he had passed through
+that day, too, had given a tone of sternness to his mind which was not
+usual; and the few minutes he had waited in the library, when every
+moment seemed of value, added impatience to his other sensations.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baronet entered as firmly as he could, bowing his head and
+motioning coldly to a chair. But Leyton did not sit down, gazing for
+an instant on the countenance of Sir Robert, struck and astonished by
+the change that he beheld. That steadfast gaze was painful to its
+object, and sank his spirit still farther; but Leyton, the moment
+after, began to speak; and the well-known tones of his clear, mellow
+voice, awakened the recollection of the days when they were once
+pleasant to hear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Robert Croyland,&quot; he said, &quot;I have come to you on business of
+importance, in which it is necessary for you to act immediately in
+your magisterial capacity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have no clerk with me, sir,&quot; answered the baronet, in a hesitating
+manner; &quot;at this late hour, it is not usual, except under
+circumstances----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The circumstances admit of no delay, Sir Robert Croyland,&quot; replied
+Leyton. &quot;As the nearest magistrate, I have applied to you in the first
+instance; and have done so for many other reasons besides your being
+the nearest magistrate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, sir, what is your application?&quot; demanded Edith's father. &quot;I
+wish, indeed, you had applied to somebody else, at this time of night;
+but I will do my duty--oh, yes, I will do my duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is all that is required, sir,&quot; answered the young officer. &quot;My
+application is for a warrant to search the house of one Richard
+Radford; and I have to tender you, on oath, information that
+customable goods, which have been introduced without the payment
+of duty, are concealed on his premises.--One moment more, if you
+please--I have also to apply to you, upon similar evidence, for a
+warrant to search his house for his son, Richard Radford, charged with
+murder; and, in the end, if you would allow me to advise you, you
+would instantly mount your horse, and superintend the search
+yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a marked and peculiar emphasis on the last few words, which
+Sir Robert Croyland did not understand. The manner was not agreeable
+to him; but it was scarcely perhaps to be expected that it should be;
+for there had been nothing in his own, to invite that kindly candour,
+which opens heart to heart. All that had of late years passed between
+him and Sir Henry Leyton, had been of a repulsive kind. For one
+youthful error, he had not only repelled and shut his house against
+the son, but he had persecuted, ruined, and destroyed the father, who
+had no part in that fault. Every reason too, which he had given, every
+motive he had assigned, for his anger at Henry Leyton's pretensions to
+Edith's hand, he had set at nought, or forgotten in the case of him
+whom he had chosen for her husband. Even now, although his manner was
+wavering and timid, it was cold and harsh; and it was a hard thing for
+Henry Leyton to assume the tone of kindness towards Sir Robert
+Croyland, or to soften his demeanour towards him, with all the busy
+memories of the past and the feelings of the present thronging upon
+him, on his first return to the house where he had spent many happy
+days in youth. I am painting a man, and nothing more; and he could
+not, and did not overcome the sensations of human nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His words did not please Sir Robert Croyland, but they somewhat
+alarmed him. Everything that was vague in his present situation,
+did produce fear; but after a moment's thought, he replied,
+coldly, &quot;Oh dear no, sir, I do not see that it is at all necessary I
+should go myself. I really think the application altogether
+extraordinary, seeing that it comes from, I am led to imagine, the
+lieutenant-colonel, commanding the ---- regiment of dragoons,
+quartered in this district, who has no primary power, or authority, or
+even duty in such affairs; but can only act as required by the
+officers of Customs, to whom he is so far subordinate.--But still I am
+ready to receive the informations tendered, and then shall decide in
+regard to my own conduct, as the case may require.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are wrong in all respects, but one, Sir Robert Croyland,&quot;
+answered Leyton, at once; &quot;I am empowered to act very differently from
+any officer who has been in command here before me. If my powers are
+beyond that which the law authorizes, those who gave them are
+responsible to their country; but, for an extraordinary case,
+extraordinary means are requisite; and as I require of you nothing but
+what the law requires, I shall not pause to argue, whether I am
+exactly the proper person to make the application. It might easily be
+made by another, who is without: but I have reasons for what I am
+doing--and reasons, believe me,&quot; he added, after a moment's pause and
+reflection, &quot;not unfriendly to Sir Robert Croyland.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again his words and manner were peculiar. Sir Robert Croyland began to
+feel some apprehension lest he might push his coldness too far. But he
+did not see how he could change his tone; and he was proceeding, with
+the same distant reserve, to repeat that he was ready to receive the
+information in a formal manner, when Leyton suddenly interrupted him,
+after a severe struggle with himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir Robert Croyland,&quot; he said, &quot;let us speak as friends. Let griefs
+and complaints on both sides be forgotten for the moment; let us bury,
+for the time, seven years in oblivion. Look upon me, if it be but for
+a few minutes, as the Henry Leyton you knew before anything arose to
+produce one ill feeling between us; for, believe me, I come to you
+with kindly sentiments. Your own fate hangs in the balance at this
+hour. I would decide it favourably for you, if you would let me.
+But--you must shake off doubt and timidity; you must act boldly and
+decidedly, and all will be well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not understand what you mean, sir,&quot; cried Sir Robert Croyland,
+astonished at his change of tone, and without time to collect his
+ideas, and calculate the probabilities. &quot;My fate!--How can you affect
+my fate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;More than you are aware,&quot; answered Leyton; &quot;even now I affect your
+fate, by giving you the choice of at once proceeding in the line of
+your duty, against a bad man who has overruled your better nature, too
+long,--by allowing you to conduct the search, which must be instituted
+either by yourself or others.--In one word, Sir Robert Croyland, I
+know all; and would serve you, if you would let me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know all!&quot; exclaimed Edith's father, in a dull, gloomy tone--&quot;you
+know all! she has told you, then! That explains it--that shows how she
+retracted her consent--how she was willing to-day to sacrifice her
+father. You have seen her--you have taught her her part!--Yes, she has
+betrayed her parent's confidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton could bear no more. Himself, he could have heard slandered
+calmly; but he could not hear such words of her he loved: &quot;It is
+false!&quot; he said; &quot;she did not betray your confidence! She told me no
+more than was needful to induce me to release her from bonds she was
+too faithful and true to break. From her I have heard nothing
+more--but from others I have heard all; and now, Sir Robert Croyland,
+you have chosen your part, I have but to call in those who must lay
+the required information. Our duty must be done, whatever be the
+consequences; and as you reject the only means of saving yourself from
+much grief--though, I trust, not the danger you apprehend--we must act
+without you;&quot; and he rose and walked towards the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, Leyton--stay!&quot; cried Sir Robert Croyland, catching him eagerly
+by the arm--&quot;yet a moment--yet a moment. You say you know all. Do you
+know all?--all?--everything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All!--everything!&quot; answered Leyton, firmly; &quot;every word that was
+spoken--every deed that was done--more than you know yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, at least, you know I am innocent,&quot; said the old man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A calm but grave serenity took the place, on Sir Henry Leyton's
+countenance, of the impetuous look with which he had last spoken.
+&quot;Innocent,&quot; he said, &quot;of intentional murder; but not innocent of rash
+and unnecessary anger; and, oh! Sir Robert Croyland--if I must say
+it--most culpable in the consequences which you have suffered to flow
+from one hasty act. Mark me; and see the result!--Your own dear child,
+against your will, is in the hands of a man whom you hate and abhor.
+You are anxious to make her the wife of a being you condemn and
+despise! The child of the man that your own hand slew, is now lying a
+corpse, murdered by him to whom you would give your daughter! Your own
+life is----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, Kate!--Kate Clare!&quot; exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland, with a
+sudden change coming over his countenance--&quot;murdered by Richard
+Radford!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By his own hand, after the most brutal usage,&quot; replied Leyton.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland sprang to the bell, and rang it violently, then
+threw open the door and called aloud--&quot;My horse!--my horse!--saddle my
+horse!--If it cost me land and living, life and honour, she shall be
+avenged!&quot; he added, turning to Leyton, and raising his head erect, the
+first time for many years. &quot;It is over--the folly, and the weakness,
+and crime, are at an end. I have been bowed and broken; but there is a
+spark of my former nature yet left. I vowed to God in Heaven, that I
+would ever protect and be a father to that child, as an atonement--as
+some--some compensation, however small; and I will keep my vow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! Sir Robert,&quot; cried Leyton, taking his hand and pressing it in
+his, &quot;be ever thus, and how men will love and venerate you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The barrier was broken down--the chain which had so long bound him was
+cast away; and Sir Robert returned Leyton's grasp with equal warmth.
+&quot;Harry,&quot; he said, &quot;I have done you wrong; but I will do so no more. I
+was driven--I was goaded along the road to all evil, like a beast
+driven to the slaughter. But you have done wrong, too, young
+man--yours was the first offence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was,&quot; answered Leyton--&quot;I own it--I did do wrong; and I will make
+no excuse, though youth, and love as true as ever man felt, might
+afford some. But let me assure you, that I have been willing to make
+reparation--I have been willing to sacrifice all the brightest hope of
+years to save you, even now. I assured Edith that I would, when she
+told me the little she could venture to tell; but it was her misery
+that withheld me--it was the life-long wretchedness, to which she was
+doomed if I yielded, that made me resist. Nothing else on earth should
+have stopped me; but now, Sir Robert, the prospect is more clear for
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, do not speak of that,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland; &quot;I will
+think of it no more--I have now chosen my path; and I will pursue it,
+without looking at the consequences to myself. Let them come when they
+must come; for once in life, I will do what is just and right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And by so doing, my dear sir, you will save yourself,&quot; answered
+Leyton. &quot;Moved by revenge--with no doubt whatsoever of his
+motive--after a concealment of six years, this base man's accusation
+will be utterly valueless. Your bare statement of the real
+circumstances will be enough to dissipate every cloud. I shall require
+that all his papers be seized; and I have many just reasons for
+wishing that they should be in your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand you, Harry, and I thank you,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland;
+&quot;but with my present feelings I would not----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not understand me fully, Sir Robert,&quot; replied Leyton. &quot;I wish
+you only to act as you will find just, right, and honourable, and wait
+for the result. It will be, or I am much mistaken, more favourable to
+you, personally, than you imagine. Now, as you have decided on the
+true and upright course, let us lose no time in carrying it into
+execution. I will call in the men who have to lay the information; and
+when you have received it, I will place before you depositions which
+will justify the most vigorous measures against both father and son.
+In regard to the latter, I must act under your authority in my
+military capacity, as I have no civil power there; but in regard to
+the former, I am already called upon, by the officers of the revenue,
+to aid them in entering his house by force, and searching it
+thoroughly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Call them in, Harry--call them in!&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland;
+&quot;every man is justified by the law in apprehending a murderer. But you
+shall have full authority.--Kate Clare!--How could this have
+happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will explain, as we ride on,&quot; answered Leyton, going to the door;
+and speaking to one of the servants who was standing in the hall, he
+added, &quot;Desire Mr. Mowle to walk in, and bring the boy with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In another minute, Mowle entered the room with another man, holding by
+the arm the boy Ray, whom the smugglers had chosen to denominate
+Little Starlight. He came, apparently, unwillingly; for though ever
+ready, for money, to spy and to inform secretly, he had a great
+abhorrence of being brought publicly forward; and when on coming to
+Mowle that evening with more information--he was detained and told he
+must go before a magistrate, he had made every possible effort to
+escape.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was now somewhat surprised, on being brought forward after Mowle
+had laid the information, to find that he was not questioned upon any
+point affecting the smuggling transactions which had lately taken
+place, as the evidence upon that subject was sufficient without his
+testimony. But in regard to the proceedings of young Radford, and to
+the place where he was concealed, he was interrogated closely. It was
+all in vain, however. To obtain a straightforward answer from him was
+impossible; and although Mowle repeated distinctly that the boy had
+casually said, the murderer of poor Kate Clare had gone to his
+father's house, Little Starlight lied and prevaricated at every word,
+and impudently, though not unskilfully attempted to put another
+meaning on his previous admission.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As time was wearing away, however, Sir Henry Leyton, at length,
+interposed--&quot;I think it is unnecessary, Sir Robert,&quot; he said, &quot;to push
+this inquiry further at present. As the whole house and premises must
+be searched on other grounds, we shall discover the villain if he is
+there. Mr. Mowle and I have adopted infallible means, I think, to
+prevent his escaping from any point of the coast; and the magistrates
+at every port were this evening furnished with such information that,
+if they act with even a moderate degree of ability, he must be taken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Besides, sir,&quot; rejoined Mowle, &quot;the frigate has come round; and she
+will take care that, with this wind, not a boat big enough to carry
+him over shall get out. We had better set out, your worship, if you
+please; for if old Radford gets an inkling of what is going on, he
+will double upon us some way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am quite ready,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland. &quot;I will call my clerk to
+accompany us as we go, in case of any further proceedings being
+necessary. We must pass through the village where he lives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a firm step he moved towards the door; and, strange as it may
+seem, though for six years, while supposing he was taking the only
+means of self-preservation, he had lived in constant terror and
+anxiety, he felt no fear, no trepidation now, when he had determined
+to do what was right at every personal risk. An enfeebling spell
+seemed to have been taken off his mind; and the lassitude of doubt and
+indecision was gone. But such is almost always the result, even upon
+the nerves of our corporeal frame, of a strong effort of mental
+energy. It is one thing certainly to resolve, and another to do; but
+the very act of resolution, if it be sincerely exerted, affords a
+degree of vigour, which is sure to produce as great results as the
+means at our disposal can accomplish. Energetic determination will
+carry men through things that seem impossible, as a bold heart will
+carry them over Alps, that, viewed from their base, appear
+insurmountable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland did not venture into the drawing-room before he
+went; but he told the butler, who was waiting in the hall, to inform
+Sir Edward Digby and the family that he had been called away on
+business, and feared he should not return till a late hour; and having
+left this message, he went out upon the terrace. He found there a
+number of persons assembled, with some twenty or thirty of the
+dragoons. Five or six officers of the Customs were present, besides
+Mowle; but the darkness was too great to admit of their faces being
+seen; and Sir Robert Croyland mounted without speaking to any one. Sir
+Henry Leyton paused for an instant to give orders, that the boy should
+be taken back to Woodchurch, and kept there under a safe guard. He
+then spoke a few words to Digby's servant, Somers, and springing on
+his horse placed himself at Sir Robert Croyland's side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The night was as dark as either of the two which had preceded it; the
+same film of cloud covered the sky; not a star was to be seen; the
+moon was far below the horizon; and slowly the whole party moved on,
+two and two abreast, through the narrow lanes and tortuous roads of
+that part of the country. It halted for a minute in the nearest
+village, while Sir Robert Croyland stopped at his clerk's house, and
+directed him to follow as fast as possible to Mr. Radford's; and then,
+resuming their march, the dragoons, and those who accompanied them,
+wound on for between four or five miles further, when, as they turned
+the angle of a wood, some lights, apparently proceeding from the
+windows of a house half way up a gentle slope, were seen shining out
+in the midst of the darkness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Halt!&quot; said Sir Henry Leyton; and before he proceeded to give his
+orders, for effectually surrounding the house and grounds of Mr.
+Radford, he gazed steadfastly for a moment or two upon the building
+which contained her who was most dear to him, and whose heart he well
+knew was at that moment wrung with the contention of many a painful
+feeling. &quot;I promised her I would bring her aid, dear girl,&quot; he
+thought, &quot;and so I have.--Thanks be to God, who has enabled me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland, too, gazed--with very different feelings, it is
+true, but still with a stern determination that was not shaken in the
+least. It seemed, when he thought of Kate Clare, that he was atoning
+to the spirit of the father, by seeking to avenge the child; and the
+whole tale of her wrongs and death, which he had heard from Leyton, as
+they came, had raised the desire of so doing almost to an enthusiasm.
+Human passions and infirmities, indeed, will mingle with our best
+feelings; and as he gazed upon Mr. Radford's house, and remembered all
+that he had endured for the last six years, he said to himself, with
+some bitterness, &quot;That man shall now taste a portion of the same cup
+he has forced upon others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Henry Leyton woke from his reverie sooner than his companion; and
+turning his horse, he spoke for a few moments with Mowle, somewhat
+longer with another person wrapped in a dark horseman's coat behind,
+and then gave various distinct orders to the dragoons, who immediately
+separated into small parties, and, taking different roads, placed
+themselves in such positions as to command every approach to the
+house. Then riding forward with Sir Robert Croyland, the officers of
+Customs, and one or two soldiers, he turned up the little avenue which
+led from the road, consulting with Edith's father as he went. At about
+a couple of hundred yards from the house he paused, turning his head
+and saying to Mowle, &quot;You had better, I think, all dismount; and,
+making fast the horses, get behind the nearest laurels and evergreens,
+while Sir Robert and I ride on alone, and ask admission quietly. When
+the door is opened, you can come up and make yourselves masters of the
+servants till the search is over. I do not anticipate any resistance;
+but if the young man be really here, it may be made.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He then rode on with the baronet at a quicker pace, the noise of their
+horses' feet, as they trotted on and approached the great doors,
+covering the sound of the movements of the party they left behind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The house, to which the actual possessor had given the name of Radford
+Hall, was an old-fashioned country mansion, and presented, like many
+another building at that time, several large, iron hooks, standing out
+from the brickwork on each side of the doorway, on which it was
+customary for visitors on horseback to hang their rein while they rang
+the bell, or till a servant could be called to take them to the
+stable. Sir Robert Croyland was acquainted with this peculiarity
+of the house, though Leyton was not, and he whispered to his
+companion--&quot;Let us hook up our horses, before we ring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was accordingly done; and then taking the long iron handle
+of the bell, Leyton pulled it gently. A minute or two after, a step
+sounded in the hall, and a servant appeared--a stout, red-faced,
+shrewd-looking fellow, who at first held the great door only half
+open. As soon, however, as he saw Sir Robert Croyland's face, he threw
+it back, replying, in answer to the baronet's question as to whether
+Mr. Radford was at home, &quot;Yes, Sir Robert, he has been home this
+hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton had stood back, and, in the darkness, the man did not see him,
+or took him for a groom; but when the young officer advanced, and the
+uniform of the dragoon regiment became apparent, Mr. Radford's servant
+suddenly stretched his hand towards the door again, as if about to
+throw it violently to. But Leyton's strong grasp was on his shoulder
+in a moment. &quot;You are my prisoner,&quot; he said, in a low tone; &quot;not a
+word--not a syllable, if you would not suffer for it. No harm will
+happen to you, if you are only quiet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the same moment, Mowle and the rest came running across the lawn,
+and, giving the man into their hands, Leyton entered the house with
+Sir Robert Croyland.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_11" href="#div3Ref_11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">About an hour before the event took place, which we have last related,
+Edith Croyland sat in a small drawing-room at the back of Mr.
+Radford's house, in which she had been kept captive--for we may well
+use that term--ever since her removal from Mr. Croyland's. Her first
+day had been spent in tears and indignation; for immediately after her
+arrival, on finding that her father was not really there, she became
+convinced that she had been deceived, and naturally doubted that it
+was with his consent she had been removed. Nor had Mr. Radford's
+manner at all tended to do away with this impression. He laughed at
+her remonstrances and indignation, treated her tears with cold
+indifference, and told his servants, before her face, that she was on
+no account to be suffered to go out, or to see any one but Sir Robert
+Croyland. In other respects, he treated her well--did all in his power
+to provide for her comfort; and, as his whole establishment was
+arranged upon a scale of luxury and extravagance rarely met with in
+the old country houses of the gentry of that time, none of the
+materials of that which is commonly called comfort were wanting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it was the comfort of the heart which Edith required, and did not
+find. Mr. Radford handed her down to dinner himself, and with as much
+ceremonious politeness as he could show, seated her at the end of his
+ostentatious table: but Edith did not eat. She retired at night to the
+downy bed prepared for her: but Edith did not sleep. Thus passed the
+first day and the morning of the second; and when, about noon, Sir
+Robert Croyland arrived, he found her pale and wan with anxiety and
+watching; and he left her paler still; for he resisted all her
+entreaties to take her thence; and her last hope of relief was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had spoken kindly--tenderly, indeed; he had even shed tears; but
+his mind at the time of his visit was still in a state of suspense,
+irritated by injuries and insult, but not yet roused by indignation to
+dare the worst that Mr. Radford could do; and, though he heard her
+express her determination never to marry Richard Radford unless set
+free from her vows to Henry Leyton, without remonstrance, only begging
+her to keep that resolution secret till the last moment, yet, with the
+usual resource of weakness, he sought to postpone the evil hour by
+seeming to enter into all his enemy's views.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus had passed Edith's time; and it is unnecessary to enter into a
+more detailed account of her thoughts and feelings previous to the
+period we have mentioned--namely, one hour before the arrival of her
+father and Henry Leyton at the door of the house. She was sitting,
+then, in that small back drawing-room, with her fair cheek leaning on
+her hand, her eyes bent down upon the table, and her mind busy with
+the present and the future. &quot;It is foolish,&quot; she thought, &quot;thus to
+alarm myself. No harm can happen. They dare not show me any violence;
+and no clergyman in England will venture to proceed with the service
+against my loud dissent. My uncle, and Leyton too, must soon hear of
+this, and will interfere.--I will not give way to such terrors any
+more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As she thus meditated, she heard a rapid step upon the great stairs;
+and the next moment Mr. Radford entered--booted, spurred, and dusty,
+as from a journey, and with a heavy horsewhip in his hand. His face
+betrayed more agitation than she had ever seen it display. There
+was a deep line between his brows, as if they had been long bent into
+such a frown, that they could not readily be smoothed again. His long
+upper-lip was quivering with a sort of impatient vehemence that would
+not be restrained; and his eye was flashing, as if under the influence
+of some strong passion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Miss Croyland,&quot; he said, throwing his horsewhip down upon the
+table, and casting himself into a chair, &quot;I hope they have made you
+comfortable during my absence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith merely bowed her head, without reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, that's civil!&quot; cried Mr. Radford; &quot;but I think every body is
+going mad, and so it is no wonder that women do! Miss Croyland, I have
+a piece of news for you--there's going to be a wedding in our house,
+to-night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still Edith was silent, and looked towards the fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I tell you of the fact,&quot; continued Mr. Radford, &quot;because it may be
+necessary for you to make some little preparation for your journey. I
+don't know whether you hear or not; but you are to be married to my
+son, to-night. It is now nine; the clergyman and Richard will be here
+by eleven; and the marriage will take place half an hour before
+twelve. So you have two hours and a half to prepare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken altogether, Mr. Radford,&quot; replied Edith, in as firm
+a tone as she could assume. &quot;It is not my intention to marry your son
+at all. I have often told you so--I now repeat it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do, do you!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford, giving her a furious glance
+across the table; &quot;then I will tell you something, young woman. Your
+consent was given to your father; and I will have no trifling
+backwards and forwards. Circumstances have arisen to-day--curses be
+upon them all!--which render it necessary that the marriage should
+take place four-and-twenty hours before it was first fixed, and it
+shall take place, by----!&quot; and he added a terrible oath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will find it will not take place, Mr. Radford,&quot; replied Edith, in
+the same tone as before, &quot;for, in the first place, I never did
+consent. My father left me fainting, without waiting to hear what I
+had to say, or he would not have so deceived himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he shall die the death of a felon,&quot; cried Mr. Radford, &quot;and you
+yourself shall be the person to put the rope round his neck.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whatever be the consequences, I shall be firm,&quot; replied Edith; &quot;but
+at the same time, let me tell you, I do not believe you have the power
+you suppose. You may bring a false accusation--an accusation you know
+to be false; but such things are never so well prepared but they are
+discovered at last; and so it will be in your case.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A false accusation!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford vehemently--&quot;an accusation
+I know to be false! I'll soon show you that, girl;&quot; and starting up
+from his seat, he hurried out of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Contrary to Edith's expectation, Mr. Radford was absent for a long
+time; but when he returned he had several papers in his hand, some
+apparently freshly written, and one which bore the yellow marks of
+age. His face was stern and resolute, but displayed less excitement
+than when he left her. He entered with a slow step, leaving the door
+partly open behind him, seated himself, and gazed at her for a moment,
+then spread out the small yellow paper on the table, but held his hand
+tight upon the lower part, as if he feared she might snatch it up and
+destroy it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, look at that, Miss Croyland!&quot; he said; &quot;you spoke of false
+accusations; look at that, and be ashamed of bringing them yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith gave a glance towards it with a sensation of awe, but did not
+attempt to read it. Her eye rested upon the words, &quot;Deposition
+of--&quot; and upon a stain of blood at the bottom of the page, and she
+turned away with a shudder. &quot;I have heard of it before,&quot; she answered,
+&quot;yet every word in it may be false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;False, or not false,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, &quot;it sends your father to
+gaol to-morrow, and to the gallows a month after--if you do not
+instantly sign that!&quot; and he laid another freshly written page open
+before her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith took it in her hand, and read--&quot;I hereby consent and promise,
+when called upon, to marry Richard Radford, junior, Esquire, the son
+of Richard Radford, of Radford Hall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have your choice, Miss Croyland,&quot; continued her persecutor, in a
+low and bitter tone, &quot;either to save your father, or to put him to
+death with your own hands; for I swear, by all that I hold sacred,
+that if you do not instantly sign that paper--ay, and fulfil its
+engagement, I will send off this deposition to the bench of
+magistrates, with the letter I have just written, giving an account of
+all the circumstances, and explaining how, out of weak kindness and
+friendship for Sir Robert Croyland, I have been prevailed upon to keep
+back the information until now. Do not deceive yourself, and think
+that his fortune or his station will save him. A peer of the realm has
+been hanged before now for the murder of his own servant. Neither must
+you suppose that upon that deposition alone rests the proof of his
+guilt. There was other evidence given at the Coroner's inquest, all
+bearing upon the same point, which requires but this light, to be made
+plain. The threats your father previously used, the falsehoods he told
+regarding where he had been--all these things can be proved, for I
+have taken care to preserve that evidence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was like a friend, indeed!&quot; murmured Edith; &quot;but such are the
+friendships of the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am acting like a friend to you, Miss Croyland,&quot; rejoined Mr.
+Radford, apparently neither touched nor hurt by her words, &quot;in letting
+you see clearly your father's situation, while I give you the
+opportunity of saving him if you will. Do as you please--there is the
+paper. Sign it if you like; but sign it quickly; for this night brings
+all tergiversation to an end. I will have no more of it; and five
+minutes decides your father's life or death. Do not say I do it. It is
+you. His pardon is before you. You have nothing to do but to put your
+name. If you do not, you sign his death warrant!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Five minutes!&quot; said Edith, with her heart beating violently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, five minutes,&quot; answered Mr. Radford, who saw, from the wild look
+of her beautiful eyes, and the ashy paleness of her cheek and lips,
+how powerfully he had worked upon her--&quot;five minutes, no longer;&quot; and
+he laid his watch upon the table. Then, turning somewhat
+ostentatiously to a small fixed writing-desk, which stood near, he
+took up a stick of sealing-wax, and laid it down beside the letter he
+had written, as if determined not to lose a moment beyond the period
+he had named.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith gazed upon the paper for an instant, agitated and trembling
+through her whole frame; but her eye fell upon the name of Richard
+Radford. His image rose up before her, recalling all the horror that
+she felt whenever he was in her presence; then came the thought of
+Leyton, and of her vows to him yet uncancelled. &quot;Richard Radford!&quot; she
+said to herself--&quot;Richard Radford!--marry him--vow that I will love
+him--call God to witness, when I know I shall abhor him more and
+more--when I love another? I cannot do it--I will not do it!&quot; and she
+pushed the paper from her, saying, aloud, &quot;No, I will not sign it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well,&quot; said Mr. Radford--&quot;very well. Your parent's blood be upon
+your head;&quot; and he proceeded to fold up slowly the deposition he had
+shown her, in the letter he had written. But he stopped in the midst;
+and then, abandoning the calm, low tone, and stern but quiet demeanour
+which he had lately used, he started up, striking the table violently
+with his hand, and exclaiming, in a loud and angry tone, &quot;Wretched,
+miserable girl, dare you bring upon your head the guilt of parricide?
+What was the curse of Cain to that? How will you bear the day of your
+father's trial--ay, how bear the day of his death--the lingering agony
+of his imprisonment--the public shame of the court of justice--the
+agony of the gallows and the cord?--the proud Sir Robert Croyland
+become the gaze of hooting boys, the spectacle of the rude multitude,
+expiring, through his daughter's fault, by the hand of the common
+hangman! Ay, think of it all, for in another minute it will be too
+late! Once gone from my hand, this paper can never be recalled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith uttered a faint cry; but at the same moment a voice behind Mr.
+Radford said, &quot;Nor can it, now!&quot; and Sir Robert Croyland himself laid
+his hand upon the papers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford turned round fiercely, and was darting forward to seize
+them from him; but he was held back by a more powerful arm; and the
+baronet went on, in a voice grave and sad, but firm and strong--&quot;Sir
+Henry Leyton,&quot; he said, &quot;I give these papers into your hands to do
+with exactly as you may think right, as a man of honour, a gentleman,
+and a respecter of the law. I ask not to hold them for one moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not struggle, sir,--do not struggle!&quot; cried Leyton, holding Mr.
+Radford fast by the collar--&quot;you are a prisoner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A prisoner!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford. &quot;What! in my own house--a
+magistrate!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Anywhere, sir,&quot; answered Leyton; &quot;and for the time, you are a
+magistrate no longer.--Ho! without there!--send some one in!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith had sunk down in her seat; for she knew not whether to rejoice
+or grieve. The first feeling undoubtedly was joy; but the next was
+bitter apprehension for her father. At first she covered her eyes with
+her hands; for she thought to hear the terrible truth proclaimed
+aloud; but when she looked up, Sir Robert Croyland's face was so calm,
+so resolute, so unlike what it had ever appeared of late years, that
+fear gave way to surprise, and surprise began to verge into hope. As
+that bright flame arose again in her heart, she started up, and cast
+herself upon her father's bosom, murmuring, while the tears flowed
+rapidly from her eyes, &quot;Are you safe--are you safe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know not, my dear child,&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland; &quot;but I am
+now doing my duty, and that gives me strength.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, a dragoon had appeared at the door, and as soon as
+Mr. Radford beheld him, he exclaimed, &quot;This is a base and infamous
+plot to defeat the ends of justice. I understand it all: the military
+power called in, right willingly, I have no doubt, to take away the
+documents which prove that felon's guilt. But this shall be bitterly
+repaid, and I hold you responsible, sir, for the production of these
+papers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, Mr. Radford,&quot; replied Leyton, with a calm smile, &quot;I will
+be responsible. But as you object to the military power, we will hand
+you over to the civil. Hart,&quot; he continued, speaking to the soldier,
+&quot;call up Mowle or Birchett, or any of the other officers, and let them
+bring one of the constables with them, for this is not purely a case
+for the Customs. Then tell Serjeant Shaw to bring on his men from the
+back, as I directed, seeing that nothing--not an inch of ground, not a
+shed, not a tool-house, remains unexamined.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of what am I accused, sir, that you dare to pursue such a course in
+my house?&quot; demanded Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of murder, sir,&quot; replied Sir Henry Leyton.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Murder!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford, and then burst into an affected
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, sir,&quot; replied the young officer; &quot;and you may find it not so
+much a jest as you suppose; for though the law, in consequence of the
+practices of yourself and others, has slept long ineffective, it is
+not dead. I say for murder! as an accessory before the fact, to the
+armed resistance of lawful authority, in which his majesty's subjects
+have been killed in the execution of their duty; and as an accessory
+after the fact, in harbouring and comforting the actual culprits,
+knowing them to be such.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford's countenance fell; for he perceived that the matter was
+much more serious than he at first supposed. He trusted, indeed, from
+the laxity with, which the law had lately been carried into execution,
+that he might escape from the gravest part of the charge; but still,
+if Sir Henry Leyton was in a condition to prove the participation of
+which he accused him, in the crimes that had been committed, nothing
+short of transportation for life could be anticipated. But he had
+other sources of anxiety. His wretched son, he expected to present
+himself every minute; and well aware of the foul deed which Richard
+Radford had that morning perpetrated, and of his person having been
+recognised, he was perfectly certain, that his apprehension would take
+place. He would have given worlds to speak for a single instant with
+one of his own servants; but none of them appeared; and while these
+thoughts were passing rapidly through his brain, the officer Birchett
+entered the room with a constable, and several other persons followed
+them in. He was startled from his reverie, however, by Sir Henry
+Leyton's voice demanding--&quot;Have you brought handcuffs, constable?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, ay, sir,&quot; answered the man, &quot;I've got the bracelets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good evening, Mr. Radford,&quot; said Birchett; &quot;we have hold of you at
+last, I fancy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Radford was silent, and the young officer demanded, &quot;Have you
+found anything else, Birchett?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh yes, sir, plenty,&quot; answered Birchett, &quot;and besides the run goods,
+things enough to prove all the rest even if we had not proof
+sufficient before--one of your own dragoon's swords, sir, that must
+have been snatched up from some poor fellow who was killed. Corporal
+Hart says, he thinks it belonged to a man named Green.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, there is your prisoner,&quot; replied Leyton,--&quot;you and the
+constable must take care that he be properly secured. No unnecessary
+harshness, I beg; but you know how rescue is sometimes attempted, and
+escape effected. You had better remove him to another room; for we
+must have all the papers and different articles of smuggled goods
+brought hither.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I protest against the whole of this proceeding,&quot; exclaimed Mr.
+Radford, on whom the constable was now unceremoniously fixing a pair
+of handcuffs, &quot;and I beg every body will take notice of my protest.
+This person, who is, I suppose, a military officer, is quite going
+beyond his duty, and acting as if he were a civil magistrate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am acting under the orders and authority of a magistrate, sir,&quot;
+replied Sir Henry Leyton, &quot;and according to my instructions.--Dear
+Edith,&quot; he continued, crossing over to her, and taking her hand as she
+still clung to her father; for all that I have described had taken
+place with great rapidity--&quot;you had better go into another room till
+this is over. We shall have some papers to examine, and I trust
+another prisoner before the search is finished.--Had she not better
+retire, Sir Robert?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Mr. Radford raised his voice again, as the constable was moving
+him towards the door, exclaiming, &quot;At all events, I claim my right to
+witness all these extraordinary proceedings. It is most unjust and
+illegal for you to seize and do what you will with my private papers,
+in my absence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a very common occurrence,&quot; said Sir Henry Leyton, &quot;in criminal
+cases like your own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let him remain--let him remain!&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland. &quot;He can
+but interrupt us a little.--Oh, here is the clerk at last!--Now,
+Edith, my love, you had better go; these are no scenes for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton took her by the hand, and led her to the door, bending down his
+head and whispering as he went, &quot;Be under no alarm, dear girl. All
+will go well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you sure, Harry--are you sure?&quot; asked Edith, gazing anxiously in
+his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certain,&quot; he replied; &quot;your father's decision has saved him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he spoke, there was a violent ringing at the bell; and Mr. Radford
+said to himself, &quot;It is that unhappy boy; he will be taken, to a
+certainty.&quot; But the next instant, he thought, &quot;No--no, he would never
+come to the front door. It must be some more of their party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland, in the meantime, seated himself at the end of the
+table, and handed over a number of papers, which Leyton had given him
+at his own house, to the clerk, who, by his direction, seated himself
+near. &quot;I have no objection, Mr. Radford,&quot; he said, turning to the
+prisoner, &quot;that you should hear read, if you desire it, the
+depositions on which I have granted a warrant for your apprehension,
+and, at the requisition of the officers of Customs, have authorized
+your premises to be searched for the smuggled goods, a part of which
+has been found upon them. The depositions are those of a man named
+George Jones, since dead, and of Michael Scalesby, and Edward
+Larchant, at present in the hands of justice; and the information is
+laid by John Mowle and Stephen Birchett.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the recital of the names of several of the men whom he himself had
+furnished with arms and directions, Mr. Radford's heart sunk; but the
+moment after, a gleam of bitter satisfaction sprang up in his breast,
+as the door opened, and Mr. Zachary Croyland entered, exclaiming,
+&quot;How's this--how's this? I came to take a dove out of a hawk's nest,
+and here I find the dogs unearthing a fox.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am very glad you are come, sir,&quot; replied Mr. Radford, before any
+one else could speak; &quot;for, though you are the brother of that person
+sitting there, you are a man of honour, and an honest man----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;More than I can say for you, Radford,&quot; grumbled Mr. Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And, moreover, a magistrate for this county,&quot; continued Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I never act--I never act!&quot; cried the old gentleman. &quot;I never have
+acted; I never will act.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But in this case I shall insist upon your acting,&quot; said the prisoner;
+&quot;for your brother, who is now proceeding thus virulently against me,
+does it to shield himself from a charge of murder, which he knew I was
+about to bring against him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fiddlesticks' ends!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland. &quot;This is what people call
+turning the tables, I think. But it wont succeed with me, my good
+friend. I am an old bird--a very old bird, indeed--and I don't like
+chaff at all, Radford. If you have any charge to make against my
+brother, you must make it where you are going. I'll have nothing to do
+with it. I always knew him to be a fool; but never suspected him of
+being anything else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At all events,&quot; said Mr. Radford, in a gloomy tone, &quot;since simple
+justice is denied me at all hands, I require that the papers which
+have been seized in this house, be placed in proper hands, and duly
+authenticated. The important evidence of the crime of which I charge
+him, has been given by your brother, sir, to one who has but too great
+an interest, I believe, to conceal or destroy it. I say it boldly,
+those papers are not safe in the keeping of Sir Henry Leyton; and I
+demand that they be given up, duly marked by the clerk, and signed by
+myself, and some independent person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton's eyes flashed for a moment, at the insinuation which the
+prisoner threw out; but he overcame his anger instantly, and took the
+papers which had been handed him, from his pocket, saying, &quot;I will
+most willingly resign these documents, whatever they may be. Mr.
+Croyland, this person seems to wish that you should keep them, rather
+than myself; but here is another paper on the table, which may throw
+some light upon the whole transaction;&quot; and he took up the written
+promise, which Mr. Radford had been urging Edith to sign--and on which
+his own eyes had been fixed during the last few minutes--and handed
+it, with the rest, to her uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, stay a moment!&quot; said Mr. Croyland, putting on his spectacles.
+&quot;I will be responsible for the safe keeping of nothing of which I do
+not know the contents;&quot; and he proceeded to read aloud the engagement
+to wed Richard Radford, which Edith had rejected. &quot;Ay, a precious
+rascally document, indeed!&quot; said the old gentleman, when he had
+concluded; &quot;written in the hand of the said Richard Radford, Esq.,
+senior, and which, I suppose, Miss Croyland refused to sign under any
+threats. Be so good as to put your name on that, at the back, Mr.
+Clerk. I will mark it, too, that there be no mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And now, sir, since you have read the one, will you be good enough to
+read the other?&quot; exclaimed Mr. Radford, with a triumphant smile.
+&quot;Even-handed justice, if you please, Mr. Zachary Croyland; the
+enclosure first, then the letter, if you will. I see there are a
+multitude of persons present; I beg they will all attend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will read it certainly,&quot; replied Mr. Croyland, drawing one of the
+candles somewhat nearer. &quot;It seems to be somewhat indistinct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland leaned his head upon his hand, and covered his
+eyes; and several persons pressed forward, to hear what seemed of
+importance--in the eyes of the prisoner, at least.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland ran over the writing, as a preliminary to reading it
+aloud; but, as he did so, his countenance fell, and he paused and
+hesitated. The next moment, however, he exclaimed, &quot;No, hang it! It
+shall be read--'The deposition of William Clare, now lying at the
+point of death, and with the full assurance that he has not many
+minutes to live, made before Richard Radford, Esquire, J. P.; this
+24th day of September, in the year of grace 17--;&quot; and he proceeded to
+read, with a voice occasionally wavering indeed, but in general firm
+and clear, the formal setting forth of the same tale which the reader
+has heard before, in the statement of Sir Robert Croyland to his
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His brother paused, and held the paper in his hand for a moment after
+he had done, while Leyton, who had been standing close beside him,
+bore a strange, almost sarcastic smile upon his lip, which strongly
+contrasted with the sad and solemn expression of Mr. Croyland's
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is this great red blot just below the man's name?&quot; asked the old
+gentleman, at length, looking to Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That, sir,&quot; replied the prisoner, in a calm, grave tone, which had
+much effect upon the hearers, &quot;is the poor fellow's own blood, as I
+held him up to sign the declaration. He had been pressing his right
+hand upon the wound, and where it rested on the paper it gave that
+bloody witness to the authenticity of the document.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something too fine in the reply, and Mr. Croyland repeated,
+&quot;Bloody witness!--authenticity of the document!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Leyton stretched out his hand, saying, &quot;Will you allow me to look
+at the paper, Mr. Croyland?&quot; and then added, as soon as he received
+it, &quot;Can any one tell me whether William Clare was left-handed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!&quot; replied Sir Robert Croyland, suddenly raising his head--&quot;no, he
+was not.--Why do you ask?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That I can answer for,&quot; said the constable, coming forward, &quot;for he
+carved the stock of a gun for me; and I know he never used his left
+hand when he could use his right one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why do you ask, Harry?--why do you ask?&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because, my dear sir,&quot; answered Leyton, aloud and clear, &quot;this is the
+print of the thumb of a man's right hand. To have made it at all, he
+must have held the paper with his right, while he signed with his
+left, and even then, he could have done it with difficulty, as it is
+so near the signature, that his fingers would not have room to move;&quot;
+and as he ended, he fixed his eyes sternly on Mr. Radford's face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The prisoner's countenance had changed several times while Sir Henry
+Leyton spoke, first becoming fiery red, then deadly pale, then red
+again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;However it happened, so it was,&quot; he said, doggedly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland, sharply, &quot;your evidence will fetch
+what it is worth!--I hope, clerk, you have got down Mr. Radford's
+statement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has written the same down here, your worship,&quot; replied the man,
+pointing to the letter in which the deposition had been enclosed, and
+which, having been cast down by Mr. Zachary, had been busily read by
+the clerk.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, we will read that too,&quot; observed the old gentleman.
+&quot;Silence there!&quot; he continued; for there was a good deal of noise at
+the side of the room, as the different persons present conversed over
+the events that were passing; &quot;but first, we had better docket this
+commodity which we have just perused. Mr. Clerk, will you have the
+goodness to sign it also--on the back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay,&quot; said a voice from behind the rest, &quot;let me sign it first;&quot; and
+the man who had accompanied Leyton thither, wrapped in the dark
+horseman's coat, advanced between Mr. Croyland and the clerk.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Any one that likes--any one that likes,&quot; answered the former. &quot;Ah, is
+that you, my old friend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Both Mr. Radford and Sir Robert Croyland gazed, with looks of surprise
+not unmingled with more painful feelings, on the countenance of Mr.
+Warde, though each doubted his identity with one whom they had known
+in former years. But, without noticing any one, the strange-looking
+old man took the paper from the clerk, dipped the pen in the ink, and,
+in a bold, free hand, wrote some words upon the back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ha, what is this?&quot; cried Mr. Croyland, taking the paper, and
+reading--&quot;An infamous forgery--Henry Osborn!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Villain, you are detected!&quot; cried the person who has been called Mr.
+Warde. &quot;I wrote from a distant land to warn you, that I was present
+when you knelt by William Clare--that I heard all--that I heard you
+try to prompt the dying man to an accusation he would not make--that I
+saw you stain the paper with his blood--ay, and sign it, too, after
+life had quitted him--I wrote to warn you; for I suspected you, from
+all I heard of your poor tool's changed conduct; and I gave you due
+notice, that if you ceased not, the day of retribution would arrive.
+It is come; and I am here, though you thought me dead! All your shifts
+and evasions are at an end. There is no collusion here--there is no
+personal interest. I have not conversed with that weak man for many
+years--and he it was who persecuted my sister's husband unto death!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At his suggestion--from his threats!&quot; exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland,
+pointing with his hand to Mr. Radford.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take me away,&quot; said the prisoner, turning to the constable--&quot;I am
+faint--I am sick--take me away!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland nodded his head; and, supported by the constable and
+Birchett, Mr. Radford was led into the adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The scene that followed is indescribable. It was all confusion; every
+one spoke at once; some strove to make themselves heard above the
+rest; some seemed little to care whether they were heard or not; if
+any man thought he could fix another's attention, he tried to converse
+with him apart--many fixed upon the person nearest; but one or two
+endeavoured to make others hear across the room; and all order and
+common form were at an end.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">I have said every one spoke; but I should have made one exception. Sir
+Robert Croyland talked eagerly with his brother, and said a few low
+words to Mr. Osborn; but Leyton remained profoundly silent for several
+minutes. The din of many voices did not seem to disturb him; the
+strange turn that events had taken, appeared to produce no surprise;
+but he remained fixed to the same spot, with his eyes bent upon the
+table, and his mind evidently absent from all that was passing round.
+It was the abstraction of profound emotion; the power which the heart
+sometimes exercises over the mind, in withdrawing all its perceptions
+and its operative faculties from external things, to fix them
+concentrated upon some great problem within. At length, however, a
+sense of higher duties made him shake off the thoughts of his own fate
+and situation--of the bright and glorious hopes that were rising out
+of the previous darkness, like the splendour of the coming star after
+a long night--of the dreams of love and joy at length--of the growing
+light of &quot;trust in the future,&quot; still faintly overshadowed by the dark
+objects of the past. With a quick start, as if he had awakened from
+sleep, he looked round, and demanded of one of the soldiers, many of
+whom were in the room, &quot;Have you found the person accused--Richard
+Radford, I mean--has any one been taken in the premises and the house,
+besides the servants?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, sir, a person just arrived in a post-chaise,&quot; replied the
+sergeant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We must have order, Sir Robert,&quot; continued Leyton, his powerful voice
+rising above the din; &quot;there is much more to be done! Clear the room
+of your men, sergeant. They are not wanted here--but stay, I will
+speak with Mr. Haveland;&quot; and he went out, followed by the sergeant
+and some half-dozen of the dragoons, who had accompanied their
+non-commissioned officer into the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton soon returned; but the precautions he had gone to enforce were
+vain. The person who had arrived in the chaise, proved to be a
+somewhat disreputable clergyman from a distant parish. Young Richard
+Radford was not taken; another fate awaited him. A man, indeed, on
+horseback, was seen to approach the grounds of Radford Hall towards
+eleven o'clock; but the lights, that were apparent through many
+windows, seemed to startle him, as he rode along the road. He paused
+for a moment, and gazed, and then advanced more slowly; but the
+eagerness of the small guard at that point, perhaps, frustrated their
+object, for it is not certain to this day who the person was. When he
+again halted, and seemed to hesitate, they dashed out after him; but
+instantly setting spurs to his horse, he galloped off into the woods;
+and knowing the country better than they did, he was soon lost to
+their pursuit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, the result of the search in Mr. Radford's house was
+made known, in a formal manner, to the party assembled in the small
+drawing-room. Abundant evidence was found of his having been
+implicated in all the most criminal parts of the late smuggling
+transactions; and the business of the night concluded, by an order to
+remand him, to be brought before the bench of magistrates on the
+following day; for Sir Robert Croyland declined to commit him on his
+own responsibility.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has preferred a charge against me,&quot; he said, in the same firm tone
+he had lately assumed--&quot;let us see whether he will sustain it
+to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before all was concluded, it was near midnight; and then every one
+rose to depart. Mr. Croyland eagerly asked for Edith, saying he would
+convey her home in his carriage; but Leyton interposed, replying, &quot;We
+will bring her to you in a moment, my dear friend.--Sir Robert, it may
+be as well that you and I should seek Miss Croyland alone. I think I
+saw her maid below.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly,&quot; answered her father, &quot;let us go, my dear Henry, for it is
+growing very late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland smiled, saying, &quot;Well, well, so be it;&quot; and the other two
+left the room. They found Edith, after some search, seated in the
+dining hall. She looked pale and anxious; but the expression of
+Leyton's face relieved her of her worst apprehensions--not that it was
+joyful; for there was a touch of sadness in it; but she knew that his
+aspect could not be such, if her father's life were in any real
+danger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leyton advanced towards her at once, even before her father, took her
+hand in his, and kissed it tenderly. &quot;I told you, dearest Edith,&quot; he
+said, &quot;that I would bring you aid; and I have, thank God, been able to
+redeem that promise; but now I have another task to perform. Your
+father's safety is placed beyond doubt--his innocence made clear; and
+your happiness, beloved one, is not sacrificed. The chance of
+endangering that happiness was the only cause of my not doing what,
+perhaps, you desired for his sake--what I do now. Sir Robert Croyland,
+I did wrong in years long past--in boyhood and the intemperance of
+youthful love and hope--by engaging your daughter to myself by vows,
+which she has nobly though painfully kept. As an atonement to you, as
+a satisfaction to my own sense of right, I now, as far as in me lies,
+set her free from those engagements, leaving to her own self how she
+will act, and to you how you will decide. Edith, beloved, you are
+free, as far as I can make you so; and, Sir Robert, I ask your
+forgiveness for the wrong act I once committed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith Croyland turned somewhat pale, and looked at her father
+earnestly; but Sir Robert did not answer for a moment.--Was it that he
+hesitated?--No; but there was an oppressive weight at his heart, when
+he thought of all that he had done--all that he had inflicted, not
+only on the man before him, but on others guiltless of all offence,
+which seemed almost to stop its beating. But at length, he took
+Edith's hand and put it in Leyton's, saying, in a low, tremulous
+voice, &quot;She is yours, Henry--she is yours; and, oh, forgive the father
+for the daughter's sake!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_12" href="#div3Ref_12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a solitary light in an upstairs window of Farmer Harris's
+house; and, by its dim ray, sat Harding the smuggler, watching the
+inanimate form of her upon whom all the strong affections of his heart
+had been concentrated. No persuasions could induce him to entrust &quot;the
+first watch,&quot; as he called it, to others; and there he sat, seldom
+taking his eyes from that pale but still beautiful countenance, and
+often stooping over to print a kiss upon the cold and clay-like
+forehead of the dead. His tears were all shed: he wept not--he spoke
+not; but the bitterness which has no end was in his heart, and, with a
+sleepless eye, he watched through the livelong night. It was about
+three o'clock in the morning, when a hard knocking was heard at the
+door of the farm; and, without a change of feature, Harding rose and
+went down in the dark. He unlocked the door, and opened it, when a
+hand holding a paper was thrust in, and instantly withdrawn, as
+Harding took the letter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is this?&quot; he said; but the messenger ran away without reply; and
+the smuggler returned to the chamber of death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The paper he had taken was folded in the shape of a note, but neither
+sealed nor addressed; and, without ceremony, Harding opened it, and
+read. It was written in a free, good hand, which he recognised at
+once, with rage and indignation all the more intense because he
+restrained them within his own breast. He uttered not a word; his face
+betrayed, only in part, the workings of strong passion within him. It
+is true, his lip quivered a little, and his brow became contracted,
+but it soon relaxed its frown; and, without oath or comment--though
+very blasphemous expletives were then tolerated in what was called the
+best society, and were prevalent amongst all the inferior classes,--he
+proceeded to read the few lines which the letter contained, and which
+something--perhaps the emotions he felt--had prevented him from seeing
+distinctly at first.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The epistle was, as we have seen, addressed to no one, and was drawn
+up, indeed, more in the form of a general notice than anything else.
+Many, of nearly the same import, as was afterwards discovered, had
+been delivered at various farm-houses in the neighbourhood; but, as
+all were in substance the same, one specimen will suffice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We give you to know,&quot; so the letter ran, &quot;that, unless Edward Ramley
+and his two comrades are set free before daylight to-morrow, we will
+come to Goudhurst, and burn the place. Neither man, woman, nor child,
+shall escape. We are many--more than you think--and you know we will
+keep our word. So look to it, if you would escape--</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:40%">&quot;<span class="sc">Vengeance!</span>&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding approached the bed, with the letter in his hand, gazed
+steadfastly upon the corpse for several minutes, and then, without a
+word, quitted the room. He went straight to the chamber which Farmer
+Harris and his wife now occupied, and knocked sharply at the door,
+exclaiming, &quot;Harris--Harris! I want to speak with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The good farmer was with difficulty roused; for though no man felt
+more warmly, or, indeed, more vehemently, yet the corporeal had its
+full share with the mental; and when the body was fatigued with more
+than its ordinary portion of labour, the mind did not keep the whole
+being waking. At length, however, he came out, still drowsy, and
+taking the letter, gazed on it by the light of the candle, &quot;with lack
+lustre eye!&quot; But Harding soon brought him to active consciousness, by
+saying, &quot;They threaten to burn the village, Harris, unless the
+murderers be suffered to escape. I am going up to the church, where
+they are kept.--Wake some one to sit up-stairs.--I will die before a
+man of them goes out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And so will I,&quot; cried Harris; &quot;let me see--let me see! My heart's
+asleep still, but I'll soon wake up. Why, where the mischief did this
+come from?&quot; and he read the letter over again, with more comprehension
+of its contents. When he had done, he swore vehemently, &quot;They shall
+find that the men of Goudhurst can match them,&quot; he cried; &quot;but we must
+set about it quick, Harding, and call up all the young men.--They will
+come, that is certain; for the devil himself has not their impudence;
+but they must be well received when they do come. We'll give them a
+breakfast, Harding, they shan't forget. It shall be called the
+Goudhurst breakfast, as long as men can remember. Stay, I'll just put
+on my coat, and get out the gun and the pistols--we shall want as many
+of those things as we can muster. I'll be back in a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">From that hour till five o'clock, the little village of Goudhurst was
+all alive. Intimation of the danger was sent to all the neighbouring
+farmers; every labouring man was roused from his bed with directions
+to meet the rest in the church-yard; and there, as the sky became
+grey, a busy scene was displayed, some sixty stout men being assembled
+before the porch, most of them armed with old muskets or fowling
+pieces. Amongst those to whom age or habitual authority assigned the
+chief place, an eager consultation went on as to their proceedings;
+and though there was, as is generally the case in such meetings, a
+great difference upon many points, yet three acts were unanimously
+decided upon; first, to send all the women and children out of the
+village--next, to despatch a messenger to Woodchurch for military
+aid--and, next, to set about casting bullets immediately, as no shot
+larger than slugs were to be found in the place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reader will probably ask, with a look of surprise, &quot;Is this a
+scene in North America, where settlers were daily exposed to the
+incursions of the savages?&quot;--and he may add, &quot;This could not have
+happened in England!&quot; But I beg to say, this happened in the county of
+Kent, less than a century ago; and persons are still living, who
+remember having been sent with the women and children out of the
+village, that the men might not be impeded by fear for those they
+loved, while defending the spot on which they were born.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A fire of wood was speedily lighted by some of the men in the
+church-yard; others applied themselves, with what moulds could be
+procured, to the casting of ball; others, again, woke the still
+slumbering inhabitants of the cottages and houses round, and warned
+the women to remove to the neighbouring farms, and the men to come and
+join their friends at the rendezvous; and a few of the best instructed
+proceeded to arrange their plan of defence, barricading the gates of
+the cemetery, and blocking up a stile, which at that time led from the
+right hand wall, with an old grave-stone, against which they piled up
+a heap of earth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The vestry, in which the prisoners had been confined--after having
+been brought from Mr. Broughton's at too late an hour to convey them
+to gaol--was luckily protected by strong iron bars over the windows,
+and a heavy plated door between it and the church; and the old tower
+of the building afforded a strong point in the position of the
+villagers, which they flattered themselves could not easily be forced.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How many men do you think they can muster, Harding?&quot; asked Farmer
+Harris, when their first rude preparations were nearly complete.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can but guess,&quot; answered the smuggler; &quot;perhaps two hundred. They
+had more than that in the Marsh, of whom I hear some fifty were taken
+or killed; but a good many were not there, who may, and will be here
+to-day--old Ramley for one, I should think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then we had better get into the church when they come,&quot; replied the
+farmer; &quot;they cannot force us there till the soldiers come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you send for them?&quot; asked Harding.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes,&quot; answered the farmer, &quot;half-an-hour ago. I sent the young
+boy, who would be of no good here, on the pony; and I told him to let
+Sir Robert know, as he passed; for I thought the soldiers might not
+meddle if they had not a magistrate with them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well,&quot; replied Harding, and set himself to work away again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Six o'clock was now past, seven approached and went by; the hand of
+the dial moved half-way on to eight, and yet nothing indicated the
+approach of the smugglers. In a few minutes after, however, the sound
+of horses' feet galloping was heard; and a young man, who had been
+placed in the belfry to look out, shouted down to those below, &quot;Only
+two!&quot; and the next moment a horseman in military half dress, with a
+servant behind him, rode up at speed to the principal entrance of the
+church-yard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am come to help you, my men,&quot; cried Sir Edward Digby, springing to
+the ground, and giving his rein to his servant--&quot;Will you let us in to
+your redoubt? The dragoons will soon be over; I sent your messenger
+on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps, sir, you may have your trouble for your pains, after all,&quot;
+answered young Harris, opening the gate, to let Digby and his horses
+in; &quot;the fellows have not shown themselves, and very likely wont
+come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, they will,&quot; said the young baronet, advancing amongst
+them, and looking round on every side, &quot;I saw a long line of men on
+horseback moving over the hill as I came. Put the horses under cover
+of that shed, Somers. You should cut down those thick bushes near the
+wall. They will conceal their movements.--Have you any axes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here is one,&quot; cried a young man, and immediately he set to work,
+hewing down the shrubs and bushes to which Digby pointed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, the young officer ran over the groups with his eye,
+calculating their numbers, and at length he said: &quot;You had better
+confine yourselves to defending the church--you are not enough to meet
+them out here. I counted a hundred and fifty, and there may be more.
+Station your best marksmen at the windows and on the roof of the
+tower, and put a few stout resolute fellows to guard the door in case
+these scoundrels get nearer than we wish them. As we all act upon our
+own responsibility, however, we had better be cautious, and abstain
+from offensive measures, till they are absolutely necessary for the
+defence of ourselves and the security of the prisoners. Besides, if
+they are kept at bay for some time, the dragoons will take them in
+flank, and a good number may be captured.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We can deal with them ourselves,&quot; said the voice of Harding, in a
+stern tone. He had been standing by, listening, in grave silence, with
+a gun in his hand, which he had borrowed at farmer Harris's; and now,
+as soon as he had spoken, he turned away, walked into the church, and
+climbed to the roof of the tower. There, after examining the priming
+of the piece, he seated himself coolly upon the little parapet, and
+looked out over the country. The moment after, his voice was heard,
+calling from above--&quot;They are coming up, Harris!--Tell the officer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby had, in the meantime, advanced to the gates to
+insure that they were securely fastened; but he heard what Harding
+said, and turning his head, exclaimed--&quot;Go into the church; and
+garnish the windows with marksmen, as I said! I will be with you in a
+moment.--Here, Somers, help me here for a moment. They will soon pull
+this down;&quot; and he proceeded calmly to fasten the barricade more
+strongly. Before he had accomplished this to his satisfaction, men on
+horseback were seen gathering thick in the road, and on the little
+open space in front; but he went on without pausing to look at them,
+till a loud voice exclaimed--&quot;What are you about there?--Do you intend
+to give the men up, or not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby then raised his head, and replied: &quot;Certainly
+not!--Oh, Mr. Richard Radford--you will have the goodness to remark
+that, if you advance one step towards these gates, or attempt to pass
+that wall, you will be fired on from the church.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While he was speaking, he took a step back, and then walked slowly
+towards the building, making his servant go first; but half-way
+thither he paused, and turning towards the ruffians congregated at a
+little distance from the wall, he added aloud, addressing Richard
+Radford--&quot;You had better tell your gang what I say, my good friend,
+for they will find we will keep our word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he spoke, some one from the mass fired a pistol at him; but the
+ball did not take effect, and Digby raised his hand, waving to those
+in the church not to fire, and at the same time hurrying his pace a
+little till he had passed the door and ordered it to be shut.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They have now fair warning,&quot; he said to one of the young Harris's,
+who was on guard at the door; &quot;but I will go up above and call to you
+when I think anything is necessary to be done.--Remember, my good
+fellows, that some order must be kept; and as you cannot all be at the
+windows, let those who must stand back, load while the rest fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he mounted to the top of the tower with a quick step, and
+found Harding and five others on the roof. The horsemen in front of
+the church, were all gathered together at a little distance, and
+seemed in eager consultation; and amongst them the figures of young
+Radford and the two Ramleys, father and son, were conspicuous from the
+vehement gestures that they made--now pointing to the top of the
+tower, now to the wall of the churchyard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think we could bring a good many down as they stand now,&quot; said
+young William Harris, moving his gun towards his shoulder, as if the
+inclination to fire were almost irresistible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay--stay! not yet,&quot; replied Sir Edward Digby; &quot;let it be clearly in
+our own defence. Besides, you must remember these are but fowling
+pieces. At that distance, few shots would tell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One shall tell, at least, before this day is over,&quot; said Harding, who
+had remained seated, hardly looking at the party without. &quot;Something
+tells me, I shall have vengeance this day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hallo! they are going to begin!&quot; cried another man; and the same
+moment, the gang of miscreants spread out, and while some advanced on
+horseback towards the wall, at least fifty, who were armed with guns,
+dismounted and aimed deliberately at the tower and the windows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Down with your heads behind the parapet!&quot; cried Digby, though he did
+not follow the caution himself; &quot;no use of exposing your lives
+needlessly. Down--down, Harding!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Harding sat where he was, saying, bitterly, &quot;They'll not hit
+me.--I know it--they've done worse already.&quot; As he spoke, a single gun
+was fired, and then a volley, from the two sides of the churchyard
+wall. One of the balls whizzed close by Sir Edward Digby's head, and
+another struck the parapet near Harding; but neither were touched, and
+the stout seaman did not move a muscle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now up, and give it them back!&quot; exclaimed Digby; and, speaking down
+the trap that led to the stairs, he called to those below, &quot;Fire now,
+and pick them off!--Steadily--steadily!&quot; he continued, addressing his
+companions on the roof, who were becoming somewhat too much excited.
+&quot;Make every shot tell, if you can--a good aim--a good aim!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here goes for one!&quot; cried William Harris, aiming at Jim Ramley, and
+hitting him in the thigh; and instantly, from the roof and the windows
+of the church, blazed forth a sharp fire of musketry, which apparently
+was not without severe effect; for the men who had dismounted were
+thrown into great confusion, and the horsemen who were advancing
+recoiled, with several of their horses plunging violently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The only one on the roof who did not fire was Harding, and he remained
+with his gun resting on the parapet beside him, gazing, with a stern,
+dark brow, upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are three down,&quot; cried one of the men, &quot;and a lot of horses!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Richard Radford was seen gesticulating vehemently; and at length
+taking off his hat, he waved it in the air, shouting, so loud that his
+words reached those above, &quot;I will show you the way, then; let every
+brave man follow me!&quot; And as he spoke he struck his spurs into his
+horse's sides, galloped on, and pushed his beast at the low wall of
+the churchyard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The animal, a powerful hunter, which had been sent to him by his
+father the day before, rose to the leap as if with pride. But just
+then, Harding raised his gun, aimed steadily, and pulled the trigger.
+The smoke for a moment obscured Digby's view; but the instant after he
+saw Richard Radford falling headlong from the saddle, and his shoulder
+striking the wall as the horse cleared it. The body then fell over,
+bent up, with the head leaning against a tombstone and the legs upon
+an adjoining grave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There!--that's done!&quot; said Harding; and laying down the gun again, he
+betook himself quietly to his seat upon the parapet once more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The dragoons! the dragoons!&quot; cried a young man from the other side of
+the tower. But ere he spoke, the gang of villains were already in
+retreat, several galloping away, and the rest wavering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Loading as fast as they could, the stout yeomanry in the church
+continued firing from the windows and from the roof, accelerating the
+movements of their assailants, who seemed only to pause for the
+purpose of carrying off their wounded companions. Sir Edward Digby,
+however, ran round to the opposite side of the tower, and, clearly
+seeing the advance of some cavalry from the side of Cranbrook--though
+the trees prevented him from ascertaining their numbers--he bade the
+rest follow, and ran down into the body of the church.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now out, and after them!&quot; he exclaimed; &quot;we may make some prisoners!&quot;
+But as soon as the large wooden doors were thrown back and the
+peasantry were seen pouring forth, old Ramley, who was amongst the
+last that lingered, turned his horse and galloped away, his companions
+following as fast as they could. Four men were found on the outside of
+the churchyard wall, of whom two were living; but Sir Edward Digby
+advanced with several others to the spot where Richard Radford was
+lying. He did not appear to have moved at all since he fell; and on
+raising his head, which had fallen forward on his chest as he lay
+propped up by the gravestone, a dark red spot in the centre of the
+forehead, from which a small quantity of blood had flowed down over
+his eyes and cheeks, told how fatally true the shot had gone to the
+mark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he had gazed on him for a moment, Digby turned round again, to
+look for Harding; but the man who had slain him, did not approach the
+corpse of Richard Radford; and Digby perceived him standing near a low
+shed, which at that time encumbered the churchyard of Goudhurst, and
+under which the young baronet's horses had been placed. Thither the
+strong hunter, which Radford had been riding, had trotted as soon as
+his master fell; and Harding had caught it by the bridle, and was
+gazing at it with a thoughtful look.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last time Sir Edward Digby had seen him, before that morning, he
+was in high happiness by the side of poor Kate Clare; and when the
+young officer looked at him, as he stood there, with a sort of dull
+despair in his whole aspect, he could not but feel strong and painful
+sympathy with him, in his deep grief.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Harding,&quot; he said, approaching him, &quot;the unhappy man is quite
+dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, sir,&quot; answered Harding, &quot;dead enough, I am sure. I hope he
+knew whose hand did it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry to give you any further pain or anxiety, at this moment,&quot;
+continued Digby, sinking his voice, &quot;but I have heard that you are
+supposed to have taken some part in landing the goods which were
+captured the other day. For aught we know, there may be information
+lodged against you; and probably there will be some officer of Customs
+with the troop that is coming up. Would it not be better for you to
+retire from this scene for a little?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, sir,--thank you! That is kind!&quot; answered Harding. &quot;Life's
+a load to me; but a prison is another thing. I would have given any of
+those clumsy fellows a hundred guineas to have shot me as I sat there
+but no man shall ever take me, and clap me up in a cell. I could not
+bear that; and my poor Kate lying dead there, too!--I'll go, as you
+say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But before he could execute his purpose, a small party of dragoons,
+commanded by a lieutenant, with Birchett, the riding officer, and two
+or three of his companions, came up at a trot, and poured through the
+gate of the churchyard, which was now open.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Edward Digby advanced at once towards them--if the truth must be
+told, to cover Harding's retreat; but Birchett's quick, shrewd eye had
+run round the place in an instant; and, before the young baronet had
+taken two steps along the path, he cried, &quot;Why, there is Harding! Stop
+him!--stop him! We have information against him. Don't let him pass!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I <i>will</i> pass, though,&quot; cried Harding, leaping at once upon the back
+of Richard Radford's horse. &quot;Now, stop me if you can!&quot; and striking it
+with his heel, he turned the animal across the churchyard, taking an
+angle, away from the dragoons. Birchett spurred after him in a moment;
+and the other officers followed; but the soldiers did not move.
+Passing close by the spot where young Radford lay, as the officers
+tried to cut him off from the gate, Harding cried, with a wild and
+bitter laugh, &quot;He is a good leaper, I know!&quot; and instantly pushed his
+horse at the wall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gallant beast took it at once, and dashed away with its rider
+along the road. The officers of Customs dared not trust their own
+cattle with the same feat; but Birchett exclaimed, in a loud and
+imperative tone, turning to the lieutenant of dragoons, &quot;I require
+your aid in capturing that man. He is one of the most daring smugglers
+on the whole coast. We can catch him easily, if we are quick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know that I am authorized,&quot; said the lieutenant, not well
+pleased with the man's manner; &quot;where no armed resistance is
+apprehended, I doubt if----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But there may be resistance, sir,&quot; replied Birchett, vehemently; &quot;he
+is gone to join his comrades.--Well, the responsibility be on your
+head! I claim your aid! Refuse it or not, as you shall think fit.--I
+claim and require it instantly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you think, sir?&quot; asked the young officer, turning to Digby.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, I am not in command here,&quot; answered the other; &quot;you know your
+orders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To give all lawful aid and assistance,&quot; said the lieutenant. &quot;Well,
+take a Serjeant's guard, Mr. Birchett.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In haste, the men were drawn out, and followed: Birchett leading them
+furiously on the pursuit; but ere they had quitted the churchyard,
+Harding was half-a-mile upon the road; and that was all he desired.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div3_13" href="#div3Ref_13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a large lugger lying off at no great distance from the
+beach, near Sandgate, and a small boat, ready for launching, on the
+shore. At the distance of two or three miles out, might be seen a
+vessel of considerable size, and of that peculiar rig and build which
+denoted, to nautical eyes, that there lay a king's vessel. She was,
+indeed, a frigate of inferior class, which had been sent round to
+co-operate with the Customs, in the suppression of the daring system
+of smuggling, which, as we have shown, was carried on in Romney Marsh,
+and the neighbouring country. By the lesser boat, upon the shore,
+stood four stout fellows, apparently employed in making ready to put
+off; and upon the high ground above, was seen a single officer of
+Customs, walking carelessly to and fro, and apparently taking little
+heed of the proceedings below. Some movements might be perceived on
+board the ship; the sails, which had been furled, now began to flutter
+in the wind, which was blowing strong; and it seemed evident that the
+little frigate was about to get under weigh. The lugger, however,
+remained stationary; and the men near the boat continued their labours
+for nearly an hour after they seemed in reality to have nothing more
+to do.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At length, however, coming at a furious pace, down one of the narrow
+foot-paths from the high ground above, which led away towards Cheriton
+and Newington, was seen a horseman, waving his hand to those below,
+and passing within fifty yards of the officer of Customs. The sailors,
+who were standing by the boat, instantly pushed her down to the very
+verge of the water; the officer hallooed after the bold rider, but
+without causing him to pause for an instant in his course; and down,
+at thundering speed, across the road, and over the sand and shingle,
+Harding, the smuggler, dashed on, till the horse that bore him stood
+foaming and panting beside the boat. Instantly springing out of the
+saddle, he cast the bridle on the tired beasts neck, and jumped into
+the skiff, exclaiming, &quot;Shove her off!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Arn't there some more, Jack?&quot; asked one of the men.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;None but myself,&quot; replied Harding, &quot;and me they shan't catch.--Shove
+her off, I say--you'll soon see who are coming after!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men obeyed at once; the boat was launched into the water; and
+almost at the same instant, the party of dragoons in pursuit appeared
+upon the top of the rise, followed, a moment after, by Birchett, and
+another officer of the Customs. The vehement and angry gestures of the
+riding officer indicated plainly enough that he saw the prey had
+escaped him; but while the dragoons and his fellow officer made their
+way slowly down the bank, to the narrow road which at that time ran
+along the beach, he galloped off towards a signal-post, which then
+stood upon an elevated spot, not far from the place where the
+turnpike, on the road between Sandgate and Folkestone, now stands. In
+a few minutes various small flags were seen rapidly running up to the
+top of the staff; and, as speedily as possible afterwards, signals of
+the same kind were displayed on board the frigate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the meantime, however, Harding and his party had rowed rapidly
+towards the lugger, the sails of which were already beginning to fill;
+and in less than two minutes she was scudding through the water as
+fast as the wind would bear her. But the frigate was also under weigh;
+and, to both experienced and inexperienced eyes, it seemed that the
+bold smuggler had hardly one chance of escape. Between Dungeness
+Point, and the royal vessel, there appeared to be no space for any of
+those daring man&#339;uvres by which the small vessels, engaged in the
+contraband trade, occasionally eluded the pursuit of their larger and
+more formidable opponents; but Harding still pursued his course,
+striving to get into the open sea, before the frigate could cut him
+off.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bending under the press of sail, the boat rushed through the waves,
+with the uptide running strong against her, and the spray dashing over
+her from stem to stern; but still, as she took an angle, though an
+acute one, with the course of the frigate, the latter gained upon her
+every moment, till at length a shot, whistling across her bows, gave
+her the signal to bring to. It is needless to tell the reader, that
+signal received no attention; but, still steered with a firm hand, and
+carrying every stitch of canvas she could bear, the lugger pursued her
+way. A minute had scarcely passed, ere flash and report came again
+from the frigate, and once more a ball whistled by. Another and
+another followed; but, no longer directed across the lugger's bows,
+they were evidently aimed directly at her; and one of them passed
+through the foresail, though without doing any farther damage. The
+case seemed so hopeless, not only to those who watched the whole
+proceeding from the shore, but to most of those who were in the
+lugger, that a murmured consultation took place among the men; and
+after two or three more shots had been fired, coming each time nearer
+and nearer to their flying mark, one of the crew turned to Harding,
+who had scarcely uttered a word since he entered the boat, and said,
+&quot;Come, sir, I don't think this will do.--We shall only get ourselves
+sunk for no good.--We had better douse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Harding looked sternly at him for a moment without reply; and a
+somewhat bitter answer rose to his lips. But he checked himself, and
+said, at length, &quot;There's no use sacrificing your lives. You've got
+wives and children--fathers and mothers. I have no one to care for
+me.--Get into the boat, and be off. Me they shall never catch, dead or
+alive; and if I go to the bottom, it's the best berth for me now.
+Here, just help me reeve these tiller-ropes that I may take shelter
+under the companion; and then be off as fast as you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men would fain have remonstrated; but Harding would hear nothing;
+and, covering himself as much as he could from the aim of small arms
+from the vessel, he insisted that the whole of his crew should go and
+leave him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A short pause in the lugger's flight was observable from the shore;
+and everybody concluded that she had struck. The row-boat, filled with
+men, was seen to pull off from her, and the large heavy sails to flap
+for an instant in the wind. But then her course was altered in a
+moment; the sails filled again with the full breeze; and going like a
+swallow over the waves, she dashed on towards the frigate, and,
+passing her within pistol-range immediately after, shot across upon
+her weather-bow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A cloud of smoke ran all along the side of the frigate, as this bold
+and extraordinary man&#339;uvre was executed. The faint report of small
+arms was wafted by the wind to the shore, as well as the sound of
+several cannon; but still, whether Harding was wounded or not wounded,
+living or dead, his gallant boat dashed steadily on, and left the
+frigate far behind, apparently giving up the chase, as no longer
+presenting any chance of success. On, on, went the lugger, diminishing
+as it flew over the waves, till at length, to the eyes even of those
+who watched from the heights, its dark, tanned sails grouped
+themselves into one small speck, and were then lost to the sight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The after-fate of that adventurous man, who thus, single and unaided,
+trusted himself to the wide waves, is wrapped in obscurity. The writer
+of these pages, indeed, did once see a stern-looking old man of the
+same name, who had returned some few years before from distant
+lands--no one well knew whence--to spend the last few years of a life,
+which had been protracted considerably beyond the ordinary term of
+human existence, in a seaport not very far from Folkestone. The
+conversation of the people of the place pointed him out as one who had
+done extraordinary deeds, and seen strange sights; but whether he was,
+indeed, the Harding of this tale or not, I cannot say. Of one thing,
+however, the reader may be certain, that in all the statements
+regarding the smuggler's marvellous escape, the most scrupulous
+accuracy has been observed, and that every fact is as true as any part
+of history, and a great deal more so than most.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having now disposed of one of our principal characters, let me take
+the reader gently by the hand, and lead him back to Harbourne House.
+The way is somewhat long, but still, not more than a stout man can
+walk without fatigue upon a pleasant morning; and it lies, too,
+amongst sweet and interesting scenes--which, to you and me, dear
+reader, are, I trust, embellished by some of the charms of
+association.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was about six days after the attack, upon the church at Goudhurst,
+when a great number of those personages with whom it has been
+necessary to make the reader acquainted, were assembled in the
+drawing-room of Sir Robert Croyland's mansion. One or two, indeed,
+were wanting, even of the party which might have been expected there,
+but their absence shall be accounted for hereafter. The baronet
+himself was seated in the arm-chair, which he generally occupied more
+as a mark of his state and dignity, than for comfort and convenience.
+In the present instance, however, he seemed to need support, for he
+leaned heavily upon the arm of the chair, and appeared languid and
+feeble. His face was very pale, his lips somewhat livid; and yet,
+though suffering evidently under considerable corporeal debility,
+there was a look of mental relief in his eyes, and a sweet placidity
+about his smile, that no one had seen on his countenance for many
+years.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Barbara was, as usual, seated at her everlasting embroidery; and
+here we may as well mention a fact which we omitted to mention before,
+but which some persons may look upon as indicative of her mental
+character--namely, that the embroidery, though it had gone on all her
+life, by no means proceeded in an even course of progression. On the
+contrary, to inexperienced eyes, it seemed as if no sooner was a
+stitch put in than it was drawn out again, the point of the needle
+being gently thrust under the loop of the thread, and then the arm
+extended with an even sweep, so as to withdraw the silk from its hole
+in the canvas. Penelope's web was nothing to Mrs. Barbary Croyland's
+embroidery; for the queen of Ithaca only undid what she had previously
+done, every night; and Aunt Bab undid it every minute. On the present
+occasion, she was more busy in the retroactive process than ever, not
+only pulling out the silk she had just put in, but a great deal more;
+so that the work of the last three days, was in imminent danger of
+total destruction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Zachary Croyland never sat down when he could stand; for there was
+about him, a sort of mobility and activity of spirits, which always
+inclined him to keep his body ready for action. He so well knew that,
+when seated, he was incessantly inclined to start up again, that
+probably he thought it of little use to sit down at all; and
+consequently he was even now upon his feet, midway between his brother
+and his sister, rubbing his hands, and giving a gay, but cynical
+glance from one to the other.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In a chair near the window, with his wild, but fine eye gazing over
+the pleasant prospect which the terrace commanded, and apparently
+altogether absent in mind from the scene in the drawing-room, was
+seated Mr. Osborn; and not far from Mr. Croyland stood Sir Henry
+Leyton, in an ordinary riding-dress, with his left hand resting on the
+hilt of his sword, speaking in an easy, quiet tone to Sir Robert
+Croyland; and nearly opposite to him was Edith, with her arm resting
+on the table, and her cheek supported on her hand. Her face was still
+pale, though the colour had somewhat returned; and the expression was
+grave, though calm. Indeed, she never recovered the gay and sparkling
+look which had characterized her countenance in early youth; but the
+expression had gained in depth and intensity more than it had lost in
+brightness; and then, when she did smile, it was with ineffable
+sweetness: a gleam of sunshine upon the deep sea. Her eyes were fixed
+upon her lover; and those who knew her well could read in them
+satisfaction, love, hope--nay, more than hope--a pride, the only pride
+that she could know--that he whom she had chosen in her girlhood, to
+whom she had remained true and faithful through years of sorrow and
+unexampled trial, had proved himself in every way worthy of her first
+affection and her long constancy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But where was Zara?--where Sir Edward Digby? for neither of them were
+present at the time. From the laws of attraction between different
+terrestrial bodies, we have every reason to infer that Digby and Zara
+were not very far apart. However, they had been somewhat eccentric
+in their orbits; for Zara had gone out about a couple of hours
+before--Digby being then absent, no one knew where--upon a charitable
+errand, to carry consolation and sympathy to the cottage of poor Mrs.
+Clare, whose daughter had been committed to the earth the day before.
+How it happened, Heaven only knows, but certain it is, that at the
+moment I now speak of, she and Digby were walking home together,
+towards Harbourne House, while his servant led his horse at some
+distance behind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before they reached the house, however, a long conversation had taken
+place between the personages in the drawing-room, of which I shall
+only give the last few sentences.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is true, Harry, it is true,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland, in reply to
+something just spoken by Leyton; &quot;and we have both things to forgive;
+but you far more than I have; and as you have set me an example of
+doing good for evil, and atoning, by every means, for a slight error,
+I will not be backward to do the same, and to acknowledge that I have
+acted most wrongly towards you--for which may Heaven forgive me, as
+you have done. I have small means of atoning for much that is past;
+but to do so, as far as possible: freely, and with my full consent,
+take the most valuable thing I have to give--my dear child's
+hand,--nay, hear me yet a moment. I wish your marriage to take place
+as soon as possible. I have learned to doubt of time, and never to
+trust the future. Say a week--a fortnight, Edith; but let it be
+speedily. It is my wish--let me say, for the last time, it is my
+command.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, brother Robert,&quot; exclaimed Mrs. Barbara, ruining her embroidery
+irretrievably in the agitation of the moment, &quot;you know it can't be so
+very soon; for there are all the dresses to get ready, and the
+settlements to be drawn up, and a thousand things to buy; and our
+cousins in Yorkshire must be informed, and----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;D--n our cousins in Yorkshire!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Zachary Croyland. &quot;Now,
+my dear Bab, tell me candidly, whether you have or have not any nice
+little plan ready for spoiling the whole, and throwing us all into
+confusion again. Don't you think you could just send Edith to visit
+somebody in the small-pox? or get Harry Leyton run through in a duel?
+or some other little comfortable consummation, which may make us all
+as unhappy as possible?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really, brother Zachary, I don't know what you mean,&quot; said Mrs.
+Barbara, looking the picture of injured innocence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I dare say not, Bab,&quot; answered Mr. Croyland; &quot;but I understand what
+you mean; and I tell you it shall not be. Edith shall fix the day; and
+as a good child, she will obey her father, and fix it as early as
+possible. When once fixed, it shall not be changed or put off, on any
+account or consideration whatever, if my name's Croyland. As for the
+dresses, don't you trouble your head about that; I'll undertake the
+dresses, and have them all down from London by the coach. Give me the
+size of your waist, Edith, upon a piece of string, and your length
+from shoulder to heel, and leave all the rest to me. If I don't dress
+her like a Mahommedan princess, may I never hear <i>Bismillah</i> again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Edith smiled, but answered, &quot;I don't think it will be at all
+necessary, my dear uncle, to put you to the trouble; and I do not
+think it would answer its purpose if you took it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I will have my own way,&quot; said Mr. Croyland--&quot;you are my pet; and
+all the matrimonial arrangements shall be mine. If you don't mind, and
+say another word, I'll insist upon being bridesmaid too; for I can
+encroach in my demands, I can tell you, as well as a lady, or a prime
+minister.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he spoke, the farther progress of the discussion was interrupted by
+the entrance of Zara, followed by Sir Edward Digby. Her colour was a
+little heightened, and her manner somewhat agitated; but she shook
+hands with her uncle and Leyton, neither of whom she had seen before
+during that morning; and then passing by her father, in her way
+towards Edith, she whispered a word to him as she went.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, what!&quot; exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland, turning suddenly round
+towards Digby, with a look of alarm, and pressing his left hand upon
+his side, &quot;she says you have something important to tell me, Sir
+Edward.--Pray speak! I have no secrets from those who are around me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sure, what I have to say will shock all present!&quot; replied Sir
+Edward Digby, gravely; &quot;but the fact is, I heard a report this
+morning, from my servant, that Mr. Radford had destroyed himself last
+night in prison; and I rode over as fast as I could, to ascertain if
+the rumour was correct. I found that it was but too accurate, and that
+the unhappy man terminated a career of crime, by the greatest that he
+could commit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, there's one rascal less in the world--that's some comfort,&quot;
+said Mr. Zachary Croyland; &quot;I would rather, indeed, he had let some
+one else hang him, instead of doing it himself; for I don't approve of
+suicide at all--it's foolish, and wicked, and cowardly. Still, nothing
+else could be expected from such a man--but what's the matter with
+you, Robert? you seem ill--surely, you can't take this man's death
+much to heart?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sir Robert Croyland did not reply, but made a faint sign to open the
+window, which was immediately done; and he revived under the influence
+of the air.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will go out for a few minutes,&quot; he said, rising; and Edith,
+instantly starting up, approached to go with him. He would not suffer
+her, however--&quot;No, my child,&quot; he replied to her offer, &quot;no: you can
+understand what I feel; but I shall be better presently. Stay here,
+and let all this be settled; and remember, Edith, name the earliest
+day possible--arrange with Zara and Digby. Theirs can take place at
+the same time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus saying, he went out, and was seen walking slowly to and fro upon
+the terrace, for some minutes after. In the meanwhile, the war had
+commenced between Mr. Zachary Croyland and his younger niece. &quot;Ah,
+Mrs. Madcap!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;so I hear tales of you. The coquette has
+been caught at length! You are going to commit matrimony; and as birds
+of a feather flock together, the wild girl and the wild boy must
+pair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With her usual light, graceful step, and with her usual gay and
+brilliant smile, Zara left Sir Edward Digby's side, and crossing over
+to her uncle, rested both her hands upon his arm, while he stood as
+erect and stiff as a finger post, gazing down upon her with a look of
+sour fun, But in Zara's eyes, beautiful and beaming as they were,
+there was a look of deeper feeling than they usually displayed when
+jesting, as was her wont, with Mr. Croyland.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Chit,&quot; he said, &quot;well, what do you want?--a new gown, or a
+smart hat, or a riding-whip, with a tiger's head in gold at the top?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, my dear uncle,&quot; she answered, &quot;but I want you not to tease me,
+nor to laugh at me, nor to abuse me, just now. For once in my life, I
+feel that I must be serious; and I think even less teasing than
+ordinary might be too much for me. Perhaps, one time or another, you
+may find out that poor Zara's coquetry was more apparent than real,
+and that though she had an object, it was a better one than you, in
+your benevolence, were disposed to think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An unwonted drop swam in her eyes as she spoke; and Mr. Croyland gazed
+down upon her tenderly for a moment. Then throwing his arms round her,
+he kissed her cheek--&quot;I know it, my dear,&quot; he said--&quot;I know it. Edith
+has told me all; and she who has been a kind, good sister, will, I am
+sure, be a kind, good wife. Here, take her away, Digby. A better girl
+doesn't live, whatever I may have said. The worst of it is, she is a
+great deal too good for you, or any other wild, harem-scarem fellow.
+But stay--stay,&quot; he continued, as Digby came forward, laughing, and
+took Zara's hand; &quot;here's something with her; for, as I am sure you
+will be a couple of spendthrifts, it is but fit that you should have
+something to set out upon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Croyland, as he spoke, put his hand into the somewhat wide and
+yawning pocket of his broad-tailed coat, and produced his pocket-book,
+from which he drew forth a small slip of paper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Digby took it, and looked at it, but instantly held it out again to
+Mr. Croyland, saying, &quot;My dear sir, it is quite unnecessary. I claim
+nothing but her hand; and that is mine by promises which I hope will
+not be very long ere they are fulfilled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense, nonsense!&quot; cried Mr. Croyland, putting away the paper with
+the back of his hand; &quot;did ever any one see such a fool?--I tell you,
+Sir Edward Digby, I'm as proud a man as you are, and you shall not
+marry my niece without receiving the same portion as her sister
+possesses. I hate all eldest sons, as you well know; and I don't see
+why eldest daughters should exist either. I'll have them all equal. No
+differences here. I've made up to Zara, the disparity which one fool
+of an uncle thought fit to put between her and Edith. Such was always
+my intention; and moreover, let it clearly be understood, that when
+you have put this old carrion under ground, what I leave is to be
+divided between them--all equal, all equal--co-heiresses, of Zachary
+Croyland, Esq., surnamed the Nabob, alias the Misanthrope--and then,
+if you like it, you may each bear in your arms a crow rampant, on an
+escutcheon of pretence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, thank you, my dear uncle,&quot; answered Edith Croyland, while
+Zara's gay heart was too full to let her speak--&quot;thank you for such
+thought of my sweet sister; for, indeed, to me, during long years of
+sorrow and trouble, she has been the spirit of consolation, comfort,
+strength--even hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Poor Zara was overpowered; and she burst into tears. It seemed as if
+all the feelings, which for the sake of others she had so long
+suppressed--all the emotions, anxieties, and cares which she had
+conquered or treated lightly, in order to give aid and support to
+Edith, rushed upon her at once in the moment of joy, and overwhelmed
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, what's the foolish girl crying about?&quot; exclaimed Mr. Croyland;
+but then, drawing her kindly to him, he added, &quot;Come, my dear, we will
+make a truce, upon the following conditions--I wont tease you any
+more; and you shall do everything I tell you. In the first place,
+then, wipe your eyes, and dry up your tears; for if Digby sees how red
+your cheeks can look, when you've been crying, he may find out that
+you are not quite such a Venus as he fancies just now--There, go
+along!&quot; and he pushed her gently away from him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While this gayer conversation had been going on within, Mr. Osborn had
+passed through the glass doors, and was walking slowly up and down
+with Sir Robert Croyland. The subject they spoke upon must have been
+grave; for there was gloom upon both their faces when they returned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it,&quot; said Sir Robert Croyland to his companion as they entered
+the room; &quot;I am quite well aware of it; it is that which makes me urge
+speed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If such be your view,&quot; replied Mr. Osborn, &quot;you are right, Sir
+Robert; and Heaven bless those acts, which are done under such
+impressions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The party in the drawing-room heard no more; and, notwithstanding the
+kindly efforts of Mrs. Barbara, and a thousand little impediments,
+which, &quot;with the very best motives in the world,&quot; she created or
+discovered, all the arrangements for the double marriage were made
+with great promptitude and success. At the end of somewhat less than a
+fortnight, without any noise or parade, the two sisters stood together
+at the altar, and pledged their troth to those they truly loved. Sir
+Robert Croyland seemed well and happy; for during the last few days
+previous to the wedding, both his health and spirits had apparently
+improved. But, ere a month was over, both his daughters received a
+summons to return, as speedily as possible, to Harbourne House. They
+found him on the bed of death, with his brother and Mr. Osborn sitting
+beside him. But their father greeted them with a well-contented smile,
+and reproved their tears in a very different tone from that which he
+had been generally accustomed to use.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear children,&quot; he said, in a feeble voice, &quot;I have often longed
+for this hour; and though life has become happier now, I have, for
+many weeks, seen death approaching, and have seen it without regret. I
+did not think it would have been so slow; and that was the cause of my
+hurrying your marriage; for I longed to witness it with my own eyes,
+yet was unwilling to mingle the happiness of such a union, with the
+thought that it took place while I was in sickness and danger. My
+brother will be a father to you, I am sure, when I am gone; but still
+it is some satisfaction to know that you have both better protectors,
+even here on earth, than he or I could be. I trust you are happy; and
+believe me, I am not otherwise--though lying here with death before
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Towards four o'clock on the following day, the windows of Harbourne
+House were closed; and, about a week after, the mortal remains of Sir
+Robert Croyland were conveyed to the family vault in the village
+church. Mr. Croyland succeeded to the estates and title of his
+brother; but he would not quit the mansion which he himself had built,
+leaving Mrs. Barbara, with a handsome income, which he secured to her,
+to act the Lady Bountiful of Harbourne House.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The fate of Edith and Zara we need not farther trace. It was such as
+might be expected from the circumstances in which they were now
+placed. We will not venture to say that it was purely happy; for when
+was ever pure and unalloyed happiness found on earth? There were
+cares, there were anxieties, there were griefs, from time to time: for
+the splendid visions of young imagination may be prophetic of joys
+that shall be ours, if we deserve them in our trial here, but are
+never realized within the walls of our mortal prison, and recede
+before us, to take their stand for ever beyond the portals of the
+tomb. But still they were as happy as human beings, perhaps, ever
+were; for no peculiar pangs or sufferings were destined to follow
+those which had gone before; and in their domestic life, having chosen
+well and wisely, they found--as every one will find, who judges upon
+such grounds--that love, when it is pure, and high, and true, is a
+possession, to the brightness of which even hope can add no sweetness,
+imagination no splendour that it does not in itself possess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reader may be inclined to ask the after fate of some of the other
+characters mentioned in this work. In regard to many of them, I must
+give an unsatisfactory reply. What became of most, indeed, I do not
+know. The name of Mowle, the officer of Customs, is still familiar to
+the people of Hythe and its neighbourhood. It is certain that Ramley
+and one of his sons were hanged; but the rest of the records of that
+respectable family are, I fear, lost to the public. Little Starlight
+seems to have disappeared from that part of the country, for some
+time; and in truth, I have no certainty that the well-known
+pickpocket, Night Ray, who was transported to Botany Bay, some
+thirty years after the period of this tale, and was shot in an attempt
+to escape, was the same person whose early career is here recorded.
+But of one thing the reader maybe perfectly certain, that--whatever
+was the fortune which attended any of the persons I have
+mentioned--whether worldly prosperity, or temporary adversity befel
+them--the real, the solid good, the happiness of spirit, was awarded
+in exact proportion to each, as their acts were good, and their hearts
+were pure.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_01" href="#div4Ref_01">Footnote 1</a>: It may be as well to explain to the uninitiated reader,
+that the secret places where smugglers conceal their goods after
+landing, are known by the name of &quot;Hides.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_02" href="#div4Ref_02">Footnote 2</a>: It will be seen that I have represented all my officers
+as young men, even up to the very colonel of the regiment; but it must
+be remembered, that, in those days, promotion in the service was
+regulated in a very different manner from the present system. I
+remember a droll story, of a visitor at a nobleman's house, inquiring
+of the butler what was the cause of an obstreperous roaring he heard
+up stairs, when the servant replied, &quot;Oh, sir, it is nothing but the
+little general crying for his pap.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos Street, Covent Garden.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III)
+       A Tale
+
+Author: G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2012 [EBook #39531]
+Last Updated: December 12, 2017
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMUGGLER: (VOL'S I-III) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (Oxford University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=q_QDAAAAQAAJ
+     (Oxford University)
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER:
+
+
+
+                                A Tale
+
+
+
+                       BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+                 "DARNLEY," "DE L'ORME," "RICHELIEU,"
+
+                              ETC. ETC.
+
+
+
+                          IN THREE VOLUMES.
+
+
+                               VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+                 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
+                                1845.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             DEDICATION.
+
+                              *   *   *
+
+                                  TO
+
+                   THE HON. CHARLES EWAN LAW, M.P.
+
+                         RECORDER OF LONDON,
+
+                            ETC. ETC. ETC.
+
+                              *   *   *
+
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+It would be almost superfluous to assure you of my esteem and regard;
+but feelings of personal friendship are rarely assigned as the sole
+motives of a dedication. The qualities, however, which command public
+respect, and the services which have secured it to you in so high a
+degree, must appear a sufficient motive for offering you this slight
+tribute, in the eyes not only of those who know and love you in the
+relations of private life, but of all the many who have marked your
+career, either as a lawyer, alike eminent in learning and in
+eloquence, or as a just, impartial, clear-sighted, and yet merciful
+judge.
+
+You will willingly accept the book, I know, for the sake of the
+author; though, perhaps, you may have neither time nor inclination to
+read it. Accept the dedication, also, I beg, as a sincere testimony of
+respect from one who, having seen a good deal of the world, and
+studied mankind attentively, is not easily induced to reverence or won
+to regard.
+
+When you look upon this page, it will probably call to your mind some
+very pleasant hours, which would doubtless have been as agreeable if I
+had not been there. As I write it, it brings up before my eyes many a
+various scene, of which you and yours were the embellishment and the
+light. At all events, such memories must be pleasant to us both; for
+they refer to days almost without a shadow, when the magistrate and
+the legislator escaped from care and thought, and the laborious man of
+letters cast away his toil.
+
+In the following pages you will find more than one place depicted, as
+familiar to your remembrance as to mine; and if I have taken some
+liberties with a few localities, stolen a mile or two off certain
+distances, or deprived various hills and dales of their due
+proportions, these faults are of a species of petty larceny, on which
+I do not think you will pass a severe sentence, and I hope the public
+will imitate your lenity.
+
+I trust that no very striking errors will meet your eye, for I believe
+I have given a correct picture of the state of society in this good
+county of Kent as it existed some eighty or ninety years ago; and, in
+regard to the events, if you or any of my readers should be inclined
+to exclaim,--"This incident is not probable!" I have an answer ready,
+quite satisfactory to myself, whatever it may be to others; namely,
+that "the improbable incident" is true. All the more wild, stirring,
+and what may be called romantic parts of the tale, are not alone
+_founded_ upon fact, but are facts; and the narrative owes me nothing
+more than a gown owes to a sempstress--namely, the mere sewing of it
+together with a very common-place needle and thread. In short, a few
+characters thrown in for relief, a little love, a good deal of
+landscape, and a few tiresome reflections, are all that I have added
+to a simple relation of transactions well known to many in this part
+of the country as having actually happened, a generation or two ago.
+Among these recorded incidents are the attack of Goudhurst Church by
+the smugglers, its defence by the peasantry, the pursuit, and defeat
+of the free-traders of those days by the Dragoons, the implication of
+some persons of great wealth in the most heinous parts of the
+transaction, the visit of Mowle, the officer, in disguise, to the
+meeting-place of his adversaries, his accidental detection by one of
+them, and the bold and daring man[oe]uvre of the smuggler, Harding, as
+related near the close of the work. Another incident, but too sadly
+true--namely, the horrible deed by which some of the persons taking a
+chief part in the contraband trade called down upon themselves the
+fierce enmity of the peasantry--I have but lightly touched upon, for
+reasons you will understand and appreciate. But it is some
+satisfaction to know that there were just judges in those days, as
+well as at present, and that the perpetrators of one of the most
+brutal crimes on record suffered the punishment they so well merited.
+
+Happily, my dear sir, a dedication, in these days, is no compliment;
+and therefore I can freely offer, and you receive it, as a true and
+simple expression of high respect and regard,
+
+                     From yours faithfully,
+
+                                 G. P. R. JAMES.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THE SMUGGLER
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It is wonderful what improvements have taken place in clocks and
+watches during the last half-century; how accurately the escapements
+are constructed, how delicately the springs are formed, how easily the
+wheels move, and what good time they keep. After all, society is but a
+clock, a very complicated piece of mechanism; and it, too, has
+undergone, in many countries, the same improvements that have taken
+place in the little ticking machines that we put in our pockets, or
+those greater indicators of our progress towards eternity that we hang
+upon our walls. From the wooden clock, with its weight and catgut, to
+the exquisite chronometer which varies only by a second or two in the
+course of the year, what a vast advance! and between even a period
+which many still living can remember, and that in which I now write,
+what a change has taken place in the machinery and organization of the
+land in which we dwell!
+
+In the times which I am about to depict, though feudal ages were gone,
+though no proud barons ruled the country round from castle and
+stronghold, though the tumultuous times of the great rebellion had
+also passed away, and men in buff and bandolier no longer preached, or
+fought, or robbed, or tyrannized under the name of law and liberty,
+though the times of the second Charles and the second James, William
+and Mary, and good Queen Anne, falling collars, and hats and plumes,
+and floating wigs and broad-tailed coats, were all gone--bundled away
+into the great lumber-room of the Past--still, dear reader, there was
+a good deal of the wooden clock about the mechanism of society.
+
+One of the parts in which rudeness of construction and coarseness of
+material were most apparent, was in the Customs system of the country,
+and in the impediments which it met with. The escapement was anything
+but fine. Nowadays we do things delicately. If we wish to cheat the
+government, we forge Exchequer bills, or bribe landing-waiters and
+supervisors, or courteously insinuate to a superior officer that a
+thousand pounds is not too great a mark of gratitude for enabling us
+to pocket twenty thousand at the expense of the Customs. If we wish to
+cheat the public, there is chalk for our milk, grains of paradise for
+our beer, sago and old rags for our sugar, lime for our linen, and
+devils' dust to cover our backs. Chemistry and electricity, steam and
+galvanism, all lend their excellent aid to the cheat, the swindler,
+and the thief; and if a man is inclined to keep himself within
+respectable limits, and deceive himself and others at the same time
+with perfect good faith and due decorum, are there not hom[oe]opathy,
+hydropathy, and mesmerism?
+
+In the days I speak of it was not so. There was a grander roughness
+and daringness about both our rogues and our theorists. None but a
+small villain would consent to be a swindler. We had more robbers than
+cheats; and if a man chose to be an impostor, it was with all the
+dignity and decision of a Psalmanazor, or a bottle conjuror. Gunpowder
+and lead were the only chemical agents employed; a bludgeon was the
+animal magnetism most in vogue, and your senses and your person were
+attacked and knocked down upon the open road without having the heels
+of either delicately tripped up by some one you did not see.
+
+Still this difference was more apparent in the system of smuggling
+than in anything else, and the whole plan, particulars, course of
+action, and results were so completely opposed to anything that is, or
+can be in the present day--the scenes, the characters, the very
+localities have so totally changed, that it may be necessary to pause
+a moment before we go on to tell our tale, in order to give some sort
+of description of the state of the country bordering on the sea-coast,
+at the period to which I allude.
+
+Scarcely any one of the maritime counties was in those days without
+its gang of smugglers; for if France was not opposite, Holland was not
+far off; and if brandy was not the object, nor silk, nor wine, yet tea
+and cinnamon, and hollands, and various East India goods, were things
+duly estimated by the British public, especially when they could be
+obtained without the payment of Custom-house dues. But besides the
+inducements to smuggling which the high price that those dues imposed
+upon certain articles, held out, it must be remembered that various
+other commodities were totally prohibited, and, as an inevitable
+consequence, were desired and sought for more than any others. The
+nature of both man and woman, from the time of Adam and Eve down to
+the present day, has always been fond of forbidden fruit; and it
+mattered not a pin whether the goods were really better or worse, so
+that they were prohibited, men would risk their necks to get them. The
+system of prevention also was very inefficient, and a few scattered
+Custom-House officers, aided by a cruiser here or there upon the
+coast, had an excellent opportunity of getting their throats cut or
+their heads broken, or of making a decent livelihood by conniving at
+the transactions they were sent down to stop, as the peculiar
+temperament of each individual might render such operations pleasant
+to him. Thus, to use one of the smugglers' own expressions--a
+_roaring_ trade in contraband goods was going on along the whole
+British coast, with very little let or hindrance.
+
+As there are land-sharks and water-sharks, so were there then (and so
+are there now) land-smugglers and water-smugglers. The latter brought
+the objects of their commerce, either from foreign countries or from
+foreign vessels, and landed them on the coast--and a bold, daring,
+reckless body of men they were; the former, in gangs, consisting
+frequently of many hundreds, generally well mounted and armed,
+conveyed the commodities so landed into the interior, and distributed
+them to others, who retailed them as occasion required. Nor were these
+gentry one whit less fearless, enterprising, and lawless than their
+brethren of the sea.
+
+We have not yet done, however, with all the ramifications of this vast
+and magnificent league, for it extended itself, in the districts where
+it existed, to almost every class of society. Each tradesman smuggled
+or dealt in smuggled goods; each public house was supported by
+smugglers, and gave them in return every facility possible; each
+country gentleman on the coast dabbled a little in the interesting
+traffic; almost every magistrate shared in the proceeds or partook of
+the commodities. Scarcely a house but had its place of concealment,
+which would accommodate either kegs or bales, or human beings, as the
+case might be; and many streets in sea-port towns had private passages
+from one house to another, so that the gentleman inquired for by the
+officers at No. 1 was often walking quietly out of No. 20, while they
+were searching for him in vain. The back of one street had always
+excellent means of communication with the front of another; and the
+gardens gave exit to the country with as little delay as possible.
+
+Of all counties, however, the most favoured by nature and by art for
+the very pleasant and exciting sport of smuggling, was the county of
+Kent; its geographical position, its local features, its variety of
+coast, all afforded it the greatest advantages; and the daring
+character of the natives on the shores of the Channel was sure to turn
+those advantages to the purposes in question. Sussex, indeed, was not
+without its share of facilities, nor did the Sussex men fail to
+improve them; but they were so much farther off from the opposite
+coast, that the commerce--which we may well call the regular
+trade--was, at Hastings, Rye, and Winchelsea, in no degree to be
+compared to that which was carried on from the North Foreland to
+Romney Hoy.
+
+At one time, the fine level of "The Marsh," a dark night and a fair
+wind, afforded a delightful opportunity for landing a cargo and
+carrying it rapidly into the interior; at another time, Sandwich Flats
+and Pevensey Bay presented a harbour of refuge, and a place of repose
+to kegs innumerable and bales of great value; at another period, the
+cliffs round Folkestone and near the South Foreland, saw spirits
+travelling up by paths which seemed inaccessible to mortal foot; and
+at another, the wild and broken ground at the back of Sandgate was
+traversed by long trains of horses, escorting or carrying every
+description of contraband articles.
+
+The interior of the country was not less favourable to the traffic
+than the coast: large masses of wood, numerous gentlemen's parks,
+hills and dales tossed about in wild confusion; roads such as nothing
+but horses could travel, or men on foot, often constructed with felled
+trees or broad stones laid side by side; wide tracts of ground, partly
+copse and partly moor, called in that county "minnisses;" and a long
+extent of the Weald of Kent, through which no high way existed, and
+where such thing as coach or carriage was never seen, offered the land
+smugglers opportunities of carrying on their transactions with the
+degree of secrecy and safety which no other county afforded. Their
+numbers, too, were so great, their boldness and violence so notorious,
+their powers of injuring or annoying so various, that even those who
+took no part in their operations were glad to connive at their
+proceedings, and at times to aid in concealing their persons or their
+goods. Not a park, not a wood, not a barn, did not at some period
+afford them a refuge when pursued, or become a depository for their
+commodities; and many a man, on visiting his stable or his cart-shed
+early in the morning, found it tenanted by anything but horses or
+wagons. The churchyards were frequently crowded at night by other
+spirits than those of the dead, and not even the church was exempted
+from such visitations.
+
+None of the people of the county took notice of, or opposed these
+proceedings; the peasantry laughed at, or aided, and very often got a
+good day's work, or, at all events, a jug of genuine hollands from the
+friendly smugglers; the clerk and the sexton willingly aided and
+abetted, and opened the door of vault, or vestry, or church, for the
+reception of the passing goods; the clergyman shut his eyes if he saw
+tubs or stone jars in his way; and it is remarkable what good brandy
+punch was generally to be found at the house of the village pastor.
+The magistrates of the county, when called upon to aid in pursuit of
+the smugglers, looked grave, and swore in constables very slowly;
+despatched servants on horseback to see what was going on, and ordered
+the steward or the butler to "_send the sheep to the wood_," an
+intimation that was not lost upon those for whom it was intended. The
+magistrates and officers of seaport towns were in general so deeply
+implicated in the trade themselves, that smuggling had a fairer chance
+than the law, in any case that came before them, and never was a more
+hopeless enterprise undertaken, in ordinary circumstances, than that
+of convicting a smuggler, unless captured in flagrant delict.
+
+Were it only our object to depict the habits and manners of these
+worthy people, we might take any given part of the seaward side of
+Kent that we chose for particular description, for it was all the
+same. No railroads had penetrated through the country then; no coast
+blockade was established; even martello-towers were unknown; and in
+the general confederacy or understanding which existed throughout the
+whole of the county, the officers found it nearly a useless task to
+attempt to execute their duty. Nevertheless, as it is a tale I have to
+tell, not a picture to paint, I may as well dwell for a few minutes
+upon the scene of the principal adventures about to be related. A long
+range of hills, varying greatly in height and steepness, runs nearly
+down the centre of the county of Kent, throwing out spurs or
+buttresses in different directions, and sometimes leaving broad and
+beautiful valleys between. The origin or base, if we may so call it,
+of this range is the great Surrey chain of hills; not that it is
+perfectly connected with that chain, for in many places a separation
+is found, through which the Medway, the Stour, and several smaller
+rivers wind onward to the Thames or to the sea; but still the general
+connexion is sufficiently marked, and from Dover and Folkestone, by
+Chart, Lenham, Maidstone, and Westerham on the one side, and Barham,
+Harbledown, and Rochester on the other, the road runs generally over a
+long line of elevated ground, only dipping down here and there to
+visit some town or city of importance which has nested itself in one
+of the lateral valleys, or strayed out into the plain.
+
+On the northern side of the county, a considerable extent of flat
+ground extends along the bank and estuary of the Thames from Greenwich
+to Sandwich and Deal. On the southern side, a still wider extent lies
+between the high-land and the borders of Sussex. This plain or valley
+as perhaps it may be called, terminates at the sea by the renowned
+flat of Romney Marsh. Farther up, somewhat narrowing as it goes, it
+takes the name of the Weald of Kent, comprising some very rich land
+and a number of small villages, with one or two towns of no very great
+importance. This Weald of Kent is bordered all along by the southern
+side of the hilly range we have mentioned; but strange to say,
+although a very level piece of ground was to be had through this
+district, the high road perversely pursued its way up and down the
+hills, by Lenham and Charing, till it thought fit to descend to
+Ashford, and thence once more make its way to Folkestone. Thus a great
+part of the Weald of Kent was totally untravelled; and at one village
+of considerable size, which now hears almost hourly the panting and
+screaming steam-engine whirled by, along its iron course, I have
+myself seen the whole population of the place turn out to behold the
+wonderful phenomenon of a coach-and-four, the first that was ever
+beheld in the place. Close to the sea the hills are bare enough; but
+at no great distance inland, they become rich in wood, and the Weald,
+whether arable or pasture, or hop-garden or orchard, is so divided
+into small fields by numerous hedgerows of fine trees, and so
+diversified by patches of woodland, that, seen at a little distance up
+the hill--not high enough to view it like a map--it assumes, in the
+leafy season, almost the look of a forest partially cleared.
+
+Along the southern edge, then, of the hills we have mentioned, and in
+the plainer valley that stretches away from their feet, among the
+woods, and hedgerows, and villages, and parks which embellish that
+district, keeping generally in Kent, but sometimes trespassing a
+little upon the fair county of Sussex, lies the scene of the tale
+which is to follow, at a period when the high calling, or vocation, of
+smuggling was in its most palmy days. But, ere I proceed to conduct
+the reader into the actual locality where the principal events here
+recorded really took place, I must pause for an instant in the
+capital, to introduce him to one or two travelling companions.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+It was in the gray of the morning--and very gray, indeed, the morning
+was, with much more black than white in the air, much more of night
+still remaining in the sky than of day appearing in the east--when,
+from the old Golden Cross, Charing Cross, or rather from the low and
+narrow archway which, at that time, gave exit from its yard into the
+open street exactly opposite the statue of King Charles, issued forth
+a vehicle which had not long lost the name of diligence, and assumed
+that of stage-coach. Do not let the reader delude himself into the
+belief that it was like the stage-coach of his own recollections in
+any other respect than in having four wheels, and two doors, and
+windows. Let not fancy conjure up before him flat sides of a bright
+claret colour, and a neat boot as smooth and shining as a looking
+glass, four bays, or browns, or greys, three-parts blood, and a
+coachman the pink of all propriety. Nothing of the kind was there. The
+vehicle was large and roomy, capable of containing within, at least,
+six travellers of large size. It was hung in a somewhat straggling
+manner upon its almost upright springs, and was elevated far above any
+necessary pitch. The top was decorated with round iron rails on either
+side; and multitudinous were the packages collected upon the space so
+enclosed; while a large cage-like instrument behind contained one or
+two travellers, and a quantity of parcels. The colour of the sides was
+yellow, but the numerous inscriptions which they bore in white
+characters left little of the groundwork to be seen; for the name of
+every place at which the coach stopped was there written for the
+convenience of travellers who might desire to visit any town upon the
+road; so that each side seemed more like a leaf out of a topographical
+dictionary of the county of Kent than anything else. Underneath
+the carriage was a large wicker basket, or cradle, also filled with
+trunk-mails, and various other contrivances for holding the goods and
+chattels of passengers; and the appearance of the whole was as
+lumbering and heavy as that of a hippopotamus. The coachman mounted on
+the box was a very different looking animal even from our friend Mr.
+Weller, though the inimitable portrait of that gentleman is now, alas,
+but a record of an extinct creature! However, as we have little to do
+with the driver of the coach, I shall not pause to give a long account
+of his dress or appearance; and, only noticing that the horses before
+him formed as rough and shambling a team of nags as ever were seen,
+shall proceed to speak of the travellers who occupied the interior of
+the vehicle.
+
+Although, as we have seen, the coach would have conveniently contained
+six, it was now only tenanted by three persons. The first, who had
+entered at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, was a tall, thin, elderly
+gentleman, dressed with scrupulous care and neatness. His linen and
+his neckcloth were as white as snow, his shoes, his silk stockings,
+his coat, his waistcoat, and his breeches as black as jet; his hat was
+in the form of a Banbury cake; the buckles in his shoes and at his
+knees were large and resplendent; and a gold-headed cane was in his
+hand. To keep him from the cold, he had provided himself with a
+garment which would either serve for a cloak or a coat, as he might
+find agreeable, being extensive enough for the former, and having
+sleeves to enable it to answer the purpose of the latter. His hair and
+eyebrows were as white as driven snow, but his eyes were still keen,
+quick, and lively. His colour was high, his teeth were remarkably
+fine, and the expression of his countenance was both intelligent and
+benevolent, though there was a certain degree of quickness in the turn
+of the eyes, which, together with a sudden contraction of the brow
+when anything annoyed him, and a mobility of the lips, seemed to
+betoken a rather hasty and irascible spirit.
+
+He had not been in the coach more than a minute and a half--but was
+beginning to look at a huge watch which he drew from his fob, and to
+"pish" at the coachman for being a minute behind his time--when he was
+joined by two other travellers of a very different appearance and age
+from himself. The one who entered first was a well-made, powerful man,
+who might be either six-and-twenty or two-and-thirty. He could not
+well be younger than the first of those two terms, for he had all the
+breadth and vigorous proportions of fully-developed manhood. He could
+not be well older than the latter, for not a trace of passing years,
+no wrinkle, no furrow, no grayness of hair, no loss of any youthful
+grace was apparent. Although covered by a large rough coat, then
+commonly called a wrap-rascal, of the coarsest materials and the
+rudest form, there was something in his demeanour and his look which
+at once denoted the gentleman. His hat, too, his gloves, and his
+boots, which were the only other parts of his dress that the loose
+coat we have mentioned suffered to be seen, were all not only good,
+but of the best quality. Though his complexion was dark, and his skin
+bronzed almost to a mahogany colour by exposure to sun and wind, the
+features were all fine and regular, and the expression high toned, but
+somewhat grave, and even sad. He seated himself quietly in the corner
+of the coach, with his back to the horses; and folding his arms upon
+his broad chest, gazed out of the window with an abstracted look,
+though his eyes were turned towards a man with a lantern who was
+handing something up to the coachman. Thus the old gentleman on the
+opposite side had a full view of his countenance, and seemed, by the
+gaze which he fixed upon it, to study it attentively.
+
+The second of the two gentlemen I have mentioned entered immediately
+after the first, and was about the same age, but broader in make, and
+not quite so tall. He was dressed in the height of the mode of that
+day; and, though not in uniform, bore about him several traces of
+military costume, which were, indeed, occasionally affected by the
+dapper shopmen of that period, when they rode up Rotten Row or walked
+the Mall, but which harmonized so well with his whole appearance and
+demeanour, as to leave no doubt of their being justly assumed. His
+features were not particularly good, but far from ugly, his complexion
+fair, his hair strong and curly; and he would have passed rather for a
+handsome man than otherwise, had not a deep scar, as if from a
+sabre-wound, traversed his right cheek and part of his upper lip. His
+aspect was gay, lively, and good-humoured, and yet there were some
+strong lines of thought about his brow, with a slightly sarcastic turn
+of the muscles round the corner of his mouth and nostrils. On
+entering, he seated himself opposite the second traveller, but without
+speaking to him, so that the old gentleman who first tenanted the
+coach could not tell whether they came together or not; and the moment
+after they had entered, the door was closed, the clerk of the inn
+looked at the way-bill, the coachman bestowed two or three strokes of
+his heavy whip on the flanks of his dull cattle, and the lumbering
+machine moved heavily out, and rolled away towards Westminster Bridge.
+
+The lights which were under the archway had enabled the travellers to
+see each other's faces, but when once they had got into the street,
+the thickness of the air, and the grayness of the dawn, rendered
+everything indistinct, except the few scattered globe lamps which
+still remained blinking at the sides of the pavement. The old
+gentleman sunk back in his corner, wrapped his cloak about him for a
+nap, and was soon in the land of forgetfulness. His slumbers did not
+continue very long, however; and when he woke up at the Loompit Hill,
+he found the sky all rosy with the beams of the rising sun, the
+country air light and cheerful, and his two companions talking
+together in familiar tones. After rousing himself, and putting down
+the window, he passed about five minutes either in contemplating the
+hedges by the roadside, all glittering in the morning dew, or in
+considering the faces of his two fellow-travellers, and making up his
+mind as to their characters and qualities. At the end of that time, as
+they had now ceased speaking, he said--
+
+"A beautiful day, gentlemen. I was sure it would be so when we set
+out."
+
+The darker and the graver traveller made no reply, but the other
+smiled good-humouredly, and inquired--
+
+"May I ask by what you judged, for to me the morning seemed to promise
+anything but fine weather?"
+
+"Two things--two things, my dear sir," answered the gentleman in
+black. "An old proverb and a bad almanack."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the other. "I should have thought it a very good
+almanack if it told me to a certainty what sort of weather it would
+be."
+
+"Ay, but how did it tell me?" rejoined the elderly traveller, leaning
+his hand upon the gold head of his cane. "It declared we should have
+torrents of rain. Now, sir, the world is composed of a great mass of
+fools with a small portion of sensible men, who, like a little
+quantity of yeast in a large quantity of dough, make the dumpling not
+quite so bad as it might be. Of all the fools that I ever met with,
+however, the worst are scientific fools, for they apply themselves to
+tell all the other fools in the world that of which they themselves
+know nothing, or at all events very little, which is worse. I have
+examined carefully, in the course of a long life, how to deal with
+these gentry, and I find that if you believe the exact reverse of any
+information they give you, you will be right nine hundred and
+ninety-seven times out of a thousand. I made a regular calculation of
+it some years ago; and although at first sight it would seem that the
+chances are equal, that these men should be right or wrong, I found
+the result as I have stated, and have acted upon it ever since in
+perfect security. If they trusted to mere guess work, the chances
+might, perhaps, be equal, but they make such laborious endeavours to
+lead themselves wrong, and so studiously avoid everything that could
+lead them right, that the proportion is vastly against them."
+
+"If such be their course of proceeding, the result will be naturally
+as you say," answered the gentleman to whom he spoke; "but I should
+think that as the variations of the weather must proceed from natural
+causes constantly recurring, observation and calculation might arrive
+at some certainty regarding them."
+
+"Hold the sea in the hollow of your hand," cried the old gentleman,
+impatiently; "make the finite contain the infinite; put twenty
+thousand gallons into a pint pot,--and when you have done all that,
+then calculate the causes that produce rain to-day and wind to-morrow,
+or sunshine one day and clouds the next. Men say the same cause
+acting under the same circumstances will always produce the same
+effect--good; I grant that, merely for the sake of argument. But I
+contend that the same effect may be produced by a thousand causes or
+more. A man knocks you down; you fall: that's the effect produced by
+one cause; but a fit of apoplexy may make you fall exactly in the same
+way. Then apply the cause at the other end if you like, and trip your
+foot over a stone, or over some bunches of long grass that mischievous
+boys have tied across the path--down you come, just as if a
+quarrelsome companion had tapped you on the head. No, no, sir; the
+only way of ascertaining what the weather will be from one hour to
+another is by a barometer. That's not very sure, and the best I know
+of is a cow's tail, or a piece of dried seaweed. But these men of
+science, they do nothing but go out mare's-nesting from morning till
+night, and a precious number of horses' eggs they have found!"
+
+Thus commenced a conversation which lasted for some time, and in which
+the younger traveller seemed to find some amusement, plainly
+perceiving, what the reader has already discovered, that his elderly
+companion was an oddity. The other tenant of the coach made no
+observation, but remained with his arms folded on his chest, sometimes
+looking out of the window, sometimes gazing down at his own knee in
+deep thought. About ten miles from town the coach passed some led
+horses, with the grooms that were conducting them; and, as is natural
+for young men, both the old gentleman's fellow-travellers put their
+heads to the window, and examined the animals with a scrutinizing eye.
+
+"Fine creatures, fine creatures--horses!" said the gentleman in black.
+
+"Those are very fine ones," answered the graver of the two young men;
+"I think I never saw better points about any beast than that black
+charger."
+
+"Ay, sir; you are a judge of horse-flesh, I suppose," rejoined the old
+gentleman; "but I was speaking of horses in the abstract. They are
+noble creatures indeed; and as matters have fallen out in this world,
+I can't help thinking that there is a very bad arrangement, and that
+those at the top of the tree should be a good way down. If all
+creatures had their rights, man would not be the cock of the walk, as
+he is now--a feeble, vain, self-sufficient, sensual monkey, who has no
+farther advantages over other apes than being able to speak and cook
+his dinner."
+
+"May I ask," inquired the livelier of the two young men, "what is the
+gentlemanly beast you would put over his head?"
+
+"A great many--a great many," replied the other. "Dogs,
+horses--elephants, certainly; I think elephants at the top. I am not
+sure how I would class lions and tigers, who decidedly have one
+advantage over man, that of being stronger and nobler beasts of prey.
+He is only at the head of the tribe Simia, and should be described by
+naturalists as the largest, cunningest, and most gluttinous of
+baboons."
+
+The gay traveller laughed aloud; and even his grave companion smiled,
+saying, drily, "On my life, I believe there's some truth in it."
+
+"Truth, sir!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "It's as true as we are
+living. How dare man compare himself to a dog? an animal with greater
+sagacity, stronger affections, infinitely more honour and honesty, a
+longer memory, and a truer heart. I would not be a man if I could be a
+dog, I can assure you."
+
+"Many a man leads the life of a dog," said the gay traveller. "I'm
+sure I have, for the last five or six years."
+
+"If you have led as honest a life, sir," rejoined the old man, "you
+may be very proud of it."
+
+What the other would have answered cannot be told, for at that moment
+the coach stopped to change horses, which was an operation in those
+days, occupying about a quarter of an hour, and the whole party got
+out and went into the little inn to obtain some breakfast; for between
+London and Folkestone, which was to be the ultimate resting-place of
+the vehicle, two hours and a half, upon the whole, were consumed with
+breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper. Thus any party of travellers
+proceeding together throughout the entire journey, had a much better
+opportunity of becoming thoroughly acquainted with each other than
+many a man has before marriage with the wife he takes to his bosom.
+
+Though the conversation of the old gentleman was, as the reader has
+perceived, somewhat morose and misanthropical, he showed himself very
+polite and courteous at the breakfast table, made the tea, carved the
+ham, and asked every man if he took cream and sugar. What wonderful
+things little attentions are--how they smooth down our asperities and
+soften us to one another! The two younger gentlemen had looked upon
+their elderly companion merely as that curious compound which we have
+before mentioned--an oddity, and which, like a pinch of strong snuff,
+stimulates us without being very pleasant; but now they began to think
+him a very nice old gentleman, and even the graver of the pair
+conversed with him almost cheerfully for the short space of time their
+meal occupied. When they had finished, and paid the score, the whole
+party walked out together to the front of the house, where they found
+a poor beggar woman with a child in her arms. Each gave her something,
+but the elderly man stopped to inquire farther, and the others walked
+up and down for a few minutes, till the coachman, who was making
+himself comfortable by the absorption of his breakfast, and the horses
+who were undergoing the opposite process in the application of their
+harness, at length made their appearance. The two younger gentlemen
+turned their eyes from time to time, as they walked, to their elderly
+friend, who seemed to be scolding the poor woman most vehemently. His
+keen black eyes sparkled, his brow contracted, he spoke with great
+volubility, and demonstrated somewhat largely with the forefinger of
+his right hand. What were their internal comments upon this conduct
+did not appear; but both were a good deal surprised to see him, in the
+end, put his hand into his breeches pocket, draw forth a piece of
+money--it was not silver for it was yellow, and it was not copper for
+it was too bright--and slip it quietly into the poor woman's palm. He
+next gave a quiet, almost a timid glance around, to see if any one
+were looking, and then stepped rapidly into the coach, as if he were
+ashamed of what he had done. During all this proceeding he had taken
+no notice of his two companions, nor at all listened to what they were
+talking of; but as they entered the vehicle, while the horses were
+being put to, the one said to the other, "I think you had better do
+so, a great deal. It is as well to have the _carte du pays_ before one
+commences operations."
+
+"Well," replied the other, "you take the lead, Edward. The wound is
+still painful, though it is an old one."
+
+What they were talking of their companion could not tell; but it
+excited, in some degree, his curiosity; and the manners of his two
+companions had, to say the truth, pleased him, though he was one of
+those men who, with very benevolent feelings at the bottom, are but
+little inclined to acknowledge that they are well pleased with
+anything or with anybody. For a moment or two all parties were silent;
+but the elderly gentleman was the first to begin, saying, in a more
+placable and complimentary tone than he was in general accustomed to
+use, "I hope I am to have the pleasure of your society, gentlemen, to
+the end of my journey?"
+
+"I rather think we shall be your companions as far as you go," replied
+the gayer of the two young men, "for we are wending down to the far,
+wild parts of Kent; and it is probable you will not go beyond
+Folkestone, unless, indeed, you are about to cross the seas."
+
+"Not I," exclaimed the old gentleman--"I have crossed the seas enough
+in my day, and never intend to set my foot out of my own country
+again, till four stout fellows carry me to the churchyard. No, no;
+you'll journey beyond me a long way, for I am only going to a little
+place called Harbourne, some distance on the Sussex side of
+Folkestone: a place quite out of the world, with no bigger a town near
+it than Cranbrook, and where we see the face of a human creature above
+the rank of a farmer, or a smuggler about once in the year--always
+excepting the parson of the parish."
+
+"Then you turn off from Maidstone?" said the graver traveller, looking
+steadfastly in his face.
+
+"No, I don't," replied the other. "Never, my dear sir, come to
+conclusions where you don't know the premises. I go, on the contrary,
+to Ashford, where I intend to sleep. I am there to be joined by a
+worthy brother of mine, and then we return together to Cranbrook. You
+are quite right, indeed, that my best and straightest road would be,
+as you say, from Maidstone; but we can't always take the straightest
+road in this world, though young men think they can, and old men only
+learn too late that they cannot."
+
+"I have good reason to know the fact," said the gayer of his two
+fellow travellers; "I myself am going to the very same part of the
+country you mention, but have to proceed still farther out of my way;
+for I must visit Hythe and Folkestone first."
+
+"Indeed, indeed!" exclaimed their elderly friend. "Do you know any
+body in that part of Kent?--Have you ever been there before?"
+
+"Never," replied the other; "nor have I ever seen the persons I am
+going to see. What sort of a country is it?"
+
+"Bless the young man's life!" exclaimed the gentleman in black, "does
+he expect me to give him a long picturesque description of St.
+Augustine's Lathe? If you wish to know my opinion of it, it is as wild
+and desolate a part of the world as the backwoods of America, and the
+people little better than American savages. You'll find plenty of
+trees, a few villages, some farm-houses, one or two gentlemen's
+seats--they had better have called them stools--a stream or two, a
+number of hills and things of that kind; and your humble servant, who
+would be very happy to see you, if you are not a smuggler, and are
+coming to that part of the country."
+
+"I shall not fail to pay my respects to you," replied the gentleman to
+whom he spoke; "but I must first know who I am to inquire for."
+
+"Pay your respect where it is due, my dear sir," rejoined the other.
+"You can't tell a whit whether I deserve any respect or not. You'll
+find out all that by and by. As to what I am called, I could give you
+half a dozen names. Some people call me the Bear, some people the
+Nabob, some the Misanthrope; but my real name--that which I am known
+by at the post-office--is Mr. Zachary Croyland, brother of the man who
+has Harbourne House: a younger brother too, by God's blessing--and a
+great blessing it is."
+
+"It is lucky when every man is pleased with his situation," answered
+his young acquaintance. "Most elder brothers thank God for making them
+such, and I have often had cause to do the same."
+
+"It's the greatest misfortune that can happen to a man," exclaimed the
+old gentleman, eagerly. "What are elder brothers, but people who are
+placed by fate in the most desperate and difficult circumstances.
+Spoilt and indulged in their infancy, taught to be vain and idle and
+conceited from the cradle, deprived of every inducement to the
+exertion of mind, corrupted by having always their own way, sheltered
+from all the friendly buffets of the world, and left, like a pond in a
+gravel pit, to stagnate or evaporate without stirring. Nine times out
+of ten from mere inanition they fall into every sort of vice; forget
+that they have duties as well as privileges, think that the slice of
+the world that has been given to them is entirely at their own
+pleasure and disposal, spend their fortunes, encumber their estates,
+bully their wives and their servants, indulge their eldest son till he
+is just such a piece of unkneaded dough as themselves, kick out their
+younger sons into the world without a farthing, and break their
+daughters' hearts by forcing them to marry men they hate. That's what
+elder brothers are made for; and to be one, I say again, is the
+greatest curse that can fall upon a man. But come, now I have told you
+my name, tell me yours. That's but a fair exchange you know, and no
+robbery, and I hate going on calling people 'sir' for ever."
+
+"Quite a just demand," replied the gentleman whom he addressed, "and
+you shall immediately have the whole particulars. My name is Digby, a
+poor major in his Majesty's ---- regiment of Dragoons, to whom the two
+serious misfortunes have happened of being born an eldest son, and
+having a baronetcy thrust upon him."
+
+"Couldn't be worse--couldn't be worse!" replied the old gentleman,
+laughing. "And so you are Sir Edward Digby! Oh yes. I can tell you,
+you are expected, and have been so these three weeks. The whole
+matter's laid out for you in every house in the country. You are to
+marry every unmarried woman in the hundred. The young men expect you
+to do nothing but hunt foxes, course hares, and shoot partridges from
+morning till night; and the old men have made up their minds that you
+shall drink port, claret, or madeira, as the case may be, from night
+till morning. I pity you--upon my life, I pity you. What between love
+and wine and field sports, you'll have a miserable time of it! Take
+care how you speak a single word to any single woman! Don't even smile
+upon Aunt Barbara, or she'll make you a low curtsey, and say 'You must
+ask my brother about the settlement, my dear Edward.' Ha, ha, ha!" and
+he laughed a long, merry, hearty peal, that made the rumbling vehicle
+echo again. Then putting the gold-headed cane to his lips, he turned a
+sly glance upon the other traveller, who was only moved to a very
+faint smile by all the old gentleman's merriment, asking, "Does this
+gentleman come with you?--Are you to be made a martyr of too, sir? Are
+you to be set running after foxes all day, like a tiger on horseback,
+and to have sheep's eyes cast at you all the evening, like a man in
+the pillory pelted with eggs? Are you bound to imbibe a butt of claret
+in three weeks? Poor young men--poor young men! My bowels of
+compassion yearn towards you."
+
+"I shall fortunately escape all such perils," replied he whom he had
+last addressed--"I have no invitation to that part of the country."
+
+"Come, then, I'll give you one," said the old gentleman; "if you like
+to come and stay a few days with an old bachelor, who will neither
+make you drunk nor make you foolish, I shall be glad to see you."
+
+"I am not very likely to get drunk," answered the other, "as an old
+wound compels me to be a water drinker. Foolish enough I may be, and
+may have been; but, I am sure, that evil would not be increased by
+frequenting your society, my dear sir."
+
+"I don't know--I don't know, young gentleman," said Mr. Croyland:
+"every man has his follies, and I amongst the rest as goodly a
+bag-full as one could well desire. But you have not given me an
+answer; shall I see you? Will you come with your friend, and take up
+your abode at a single man's house, while Sir Edward goes and charms
+the ladies."
+
+"I cannot come with him, I am afraid," replied the young gentleman,
+"for I must remain with the regiment some time; but I will willingly
+accept your invitation, and join him in a week or two."
+
+"Oh you're in the same regiment, are you?" asked Mr. Croyland; "it's
+not a whole regiment of elder sons, I hope?"
+
+"Oh no," answered the other, "I have the still greater misfortune of
+being an only son; and the greater one still, of being an orphan."
+
+"And may I know your style and denomination?" said Mr. Croyland.
+
+"Oh, Osborn, Osborn!" cried Sir Edward Digby, before his friend could
+speak, "Captain Osborn of the ---- Dragoons."
+
+"I will put that down in my note-book," rejoined the old gentleman.
+"The best friend I ever had was named Osborn. He couldn't be your
+father, though, for he had no children, poor fellow! and was never
+married, which was the only blessing Heaven ever granted him, except a
+good heart and a well-regulated mind. His sister married my old
+schoolfellow, Leyton--but that's a bad story, and a sad story, though
+now it's an old story, too."
+
+"Indeed!" said Sir Edward Digby; "I'm fond of old stories if they are
+good ones."
+
+"But, I told you this was a bad one, Sir Ned," rejoined the old
+gentleman sharply; "and as my brother behaved very ill to poor Leyton,
+the less we say of it the better. The truth is," he continued, for he
+was one of those who always refuse to tell a story, and tell it after
+all, "Leyton was rector of a living which was in my brother's gift. He
+was only to hold it, however, till my youngest nephew was of age to
+take it; but when the boy died--as they both did sooner or
+later--Leyton held the living on, and thought it was his own, till one
+day there came a quarrel between him and my brother, and then Robert
+brought forward his letter promising to resign when called upon, and
+drove him out. I wasn't here then; but I have heard all about it
+since, and a bad affair it was. It should not have happened if I had
+been here, for Bob has a shrewd eye to the nabob's money, as well he
+may, seeing that he's----but that's no business of mine. If he chooses
+to dribble through his fortune, Heaven knows how, I've nothing to do
+with it! The two poor girls will suffer."
+
+"What, your brother has two fair daughters then, has he?" demanded Sir
+Edward Digby. "I suppose it is under the artillery of their glances I
+am first to pass; for, doubtless, you know I am going to your
+brother's."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know--I know all about it!" replied Mr. Croyland. "They
+tell me everything as in duty bound--that's to say, everything they
+don't wish to conceal. But I'm consulted like an oracle upon all
+things unimportant; for he that was kicked out with a sixpence into
+the wide world, has grown a wonderful great man since the sixpence has
+multiplied itself. As to your having to pass under the artillery of
+the girls' glances, however, you must take care of yourself; for you
+might stand a less dangerous fire, I can tell you, even in a field of
+battle. But I'll give you one warning for your safeguard. You may make
+love to little Zara as long as you like--think of the fools calling
+her Zara! Though she'll play a pretty game of picquet with you, you
+may chance to win it; but you must not dangle after Edith, or you will
+burn your fingers. She'll not have you, if you were twenty baronets,
+and twenty majors of Dragoons into the bargain. She has got some of
+the fancies of the old uncle about her, and is determined to die an
+old maid, I can see."
+
+"Oh, the difficulty of the enterprise would only be a soldier's reason
+for undertaking it!" said Sir Edward Digby.
+
+"It wont do--it wont do;" answered Mr. Croyland, laughing; "you may
+think yourself very captivating, very conquering, quite a look-and-die
+man, as all you people in red jackets fancy yourselves, but it will be
+all lost labour with Edith, I can tell you."
+
+"You excite all the martial ardour in my soul!" exclaimed Digby, with
+a gay smile; "and if she be not forty, hump-backed, or one eyed, by
+the fates you shall see what you shall see."
+
+"Forty!" cried Mr. Croyland; "why she's but two-and-twenty, man!--a
+great deal straighter than that crouching wench in white marble they
+call the 'Venus de Medici,' and with a pair of eyes, that, on my life,
+I think would have made me forswear celibacy, if I had found such
+looking at me, any time before I reached fifty!"
+
+"Do you hear that, Osborn?" cried Sir Edward Digby. "Here's a fine
+field for an adventurous spirit. I shall have the start of you, my
+friend; and in the wilds of Kent, what may not be done in ten days or
+a fortnight?"
+
+His companion only answered by a melancholy smile; and the
+conversation went on between the old gentleman and the young baronet
+till they reached the small town of Lenham, where they stopped again
+to dine. There, however, Mr. Croyland drew Sir Edward Digby aside, and
+inquired in a low tone, "Is your friend in love?--He looks mighty
+melancholy."
+
+"I believe he is," replied Digby. "Love's the only thing that can make
+a man melancholy; and when one comes to consider all the attractions
+of a squaw of the Chippeway Indians, it is no wonder that my friend is
+in such a hopeless case."
+
+The old gentleman poked him with his finger, and shook his head with a
+laugh, saying--"You are a wag, young gentleman--you are a wag; but it
+would be a great deal more reasonable, let me tell you, to fall in
+love with a Chippeway squaw, in her feathers and wampam, than with one
+of these made-up madams, all paint and satin, and tawdry bits of
+embroidery. In the one case you might know something of what your love
+is like; in the other, I defy you to know anything about her; and,
+nine times out of ten, what, a man marries is little better than a
+bale of tow and whalebone, covered over with the excrement of a
+silkworm. Man's a strange animal; and one of the strangest of all his
+proceedings is, that of covering up his own natural skin with all
+manner of contrivances derived from every bird, beast, fish, and
+vegetable, that happens to come in his way. If he wants warmth, he
+goes and robs a sheep of its great coat; he beats the unfortunate
+grass of the field, till he leaves nothing but shreds, to make himself
+a shirt; he skins a beaver, to cover his head; and, if he wants to be
+exceedingly fine, he pulls the tail of an ostrich, and sticks the
+feather in his hat. He's the universal mountebank, depend upon it,
+playing his antics for the amusement of creation, and leaving nothing
+half so ridiculous as himself."
+
+Thus saying, he turned round again, and joined Captain Osborn, in
+whom, perhaps, he took a greater interest than even in his livelier
+companion. It might be that the associations called up by the name
+were pleasant to him, or it might be that there was something in his
+face that interested him, for certainly that face was one which seemed
+to become each moment more handsome as one grew familiar with it.
+
+When, after dinner, they re-entered the vehicle, and rolled away once
+more along the high road, Captain Osborn took a greater share in the
+conversation than he had previously done; and remarking that Mr.
+Croyland had put, as a condition, upon his invitation to Sir Edward,
+that he should not be a smuggler, he went on to observe, "You seem to
+have a great objection to those gentry, my dear sir; and yet I
+understand your county is full of them."
+
+"Full of them!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland--"it is running over with them.
+They drop down into Sussex, out into Essex, over into Surrey; the
+vermin are more numerous than rats in an old barn. Not that, when a
+fellow is poor, and wants money, and can get it by no other
+means,--not that I think very hard of him when he takes to a life of
+risk and adventure, where his neck is not worth sixpence, and his gain
+is bought by the sweat of his brow. But your gentleman smuggler is my
+abomination--your fellow that risks little but an exchequer process,
+and gains ten times what the others do, without their labour or their
+danger. Give me your bold, brave fellow, who declares war and fights
+it out. There's some spirit in him."
+
+"Gentlemen smugglers!" said Osborn; "that seems to me to be a strange
+sort of anomaly. I was not aware that there were such things."
+
+"Pooh! the country is full of them," cried Mr. Croyland. "It is not
+here that the peasant treads upon the kybe of the peer; but the
+smuggler treads upon the country gentlemen. Many a merchant who never
+made a hundred pounds by fair trade, makes thousands and hundreds of
+thousands by cheating the Customs. There is not a man in this part of
+the country who does not dabble in the traffic more or less. I've no
+doubt all my brandied cherries are steeped in stuff that never paid
+duty; and if you don't smuggle yourself, your servants do it for you.
+But I'll tell you all about it," and he proceeded to give them a true
+and faithful exposition of the state of the county, agreeing in all
+respects with that which has been furnished to the reader in the first
+chapter of this tale.
+
+His statement and the various conversation, which arose from different
+parts of it, occupied the time fully, till the coach, as it was
+growing dark, rolled into Ashford. There Mr. Croyland quitted his two
+companions, shaking them each by the hand with right goodwill; and
+they pursued their onward course to Hythe and Folkestone, without any
+farther incident worthy of notice.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+At Hythe, to make use of a very extraordinary though not uncommon
+expression, the coach stopped to sup--not that the coach itself ate
+anything, for, on the contrary, it disgorged that which it had already
+taken in; but the travellers who descended from it were furnished with
+supper, although the distance to Folkestone might very well have
+justified them in going on to the end of their journey without any
+other pabulum than that which they had already received. But two or
+three things are to be taken into consideration. The distance from
+London to Folkestone is now seventy-one miles. It was longer in those
+days by several more, besides having the disadvantage of running up
+and down over innumerable hills, all of which were a great deal more
+steep than they are in the present day. The journey, which the
+travellers accomplished, was generally considered a feat both of
+difficulty and danger, and the coach which performed that feat in one
+day, was supposed to deserve right well the name which it had assumed,
+of "The Phenomenon." Before it began to run, seventy-one miles in
+seventeen hours was considered an impracticable journey for anything
+but a man on horseback, and when first the coach appeared upon the
+road, the towns-people and villagers turned out in multitudes, with
+admiration and wonder, not unmixed with dread, to see the rapid rate
+at which it went--very nearly six miles an hour! The old diligence,
+which had preceded it, had slept one night, and sometimes two, upon
+the road; and, in its first vain struggles with its more rapid
+successor, it had actually once or twice made the journey in
+two-and-twenty hours. To beat off this pertinacious rival, the
+proprietor of the stage had been obliged to propitiate the inn-keepers
+of various important towns, by dividing his favours amongst them; and
+thus the traveller was forced to wait nearly one hour at Hythe, during
+which he might sup if he liked, although he was only about five miles
+from Folkestone.
+
+The supper room of the inn was vacant when the two officers of
+Dragoons entered, but the table, covered with its neat white cloth,
+and all the preparations for a substantial meal, together with a
+bright fire sparkling in the grate, rendered its aspect cheerful and
+reviving after a long and tedious journey, such as that which had just
+been accomplished. Sir Edward Digby looked round well pleased, turned
+his back to the fire, spoke to the landlord and his maid about supper,
+and seemed disposed to enjoy himself during the period of his stay. He
+ordered, too, a pint of claret, which he was well aware was likely to
+be procured in great perfection upon the coast of Kent. The landlord
+in consequence conceived a high respect for him, and very much
+undervalued all the qualities of his companion, who, seating himself
+at the table, leaned his head upon his hand, and fell into deep
+thought, without giving orders for anything. The host, with his
+attendant star, disappeared from the room to procure the requisites
+for the travellers' meal, and Sir Edward Digby immediately took
+advantage of their absence to say, "Come, come, my dear Colonel, shake
+this off. I think all that we have lately heard should have tended to
+revive hope, and to give comfort. During all the six years that we
+have been more like brothers than friends, I have never seen you so
+much cast down as now, when you are taking the field under the most
+favourable circumstances, with name, station, reputation, fortune, and
+with the best reason to believe those true whom you had been taught to
+suppose false."
+
+"I cannot tell, Digby," replied his companion; "we shall hear more ere
+long, and doubt is always well nigh as painful as the worst certainty.
+Besides, I am returning to the scenes of my early youth--scenes
+stored, it is true, with many a sweet and happy memory, but full also
+of painful recollections. Those memories themselves are but as an
+inscription on a tomb, where hopes and pleasures, the bright dreams of
+youth, the ardent aspirations of first true love, the sweet
+endearments of a happy home, the treasured caresses of the best of
+mothers, the counsels, the kindness, the unvarying tenderness of the
+noblest and highest minded of fathers, all lie buried. There may be a
+pleasure in visiting that tomb, but it is a melancholy one; and when I
+think that it was for me--that it was on my account, my father
+suffered persecution and wrong, till a powerful mind, and a vigorous
+frame gave way, there is a bitterness mingled with all my remembrances
+of these scenes, from which I would fain clear my heart. I will do so,
+too, but it will require some solitary thought, some renewed
+familiarity with all the objects round, to take off the sharpness of
+the first effect. You, go on to Folkestone and see that all is right
+there, I will remain here and wait for the rest. As soon as you have
+ascertained that everything is prepared to act in case we are called
+upon--which I hope may not be the case, as I do not like the
+service--you may betake yourself to Harbourne House, making me a
+report as you pass. When I have so distributed the men that we can
+rapidly concentrate a sufficient number upon any spot where they may
+be required, I will come on after you to our good old friend's
+dwelling. There you can see me, and let me know what is taking place."
+
+"I think you had better not let him know who you really are," replied
+Sir Edward Digby, "at least till we have seen how the land lies."
+
+"I do not know--I will think of it," answered the other gentleman,
+whom for the present we shall continue to call Osborn, though the
+learned reader has already discovered that such was not his true name.
+"It is evident," he continued, "that old Mr. Croyland does not
+remember me, although I saw him frequently when he was in England for
+a short time, some six or seven years before he finally quitted India.
+However, though I feel I am much changed, it is probable that many
+persons will recognise me whenever I appear in the neighbourhood of
+Cranbrook, and he might take it ill, that he who was so good and true
+a friend both to my uncle and my father, should be left in ignorance.
+Perhaps it would be better to confide in him fully, and make him aware
+of all my views and purposes."
+
+"Under the seal of confession, then," said his friend; "for he is
+evidently a very talkative old gentleman. Did you remark how he once
+or twice declared he would not tell a story, that it was no business
+of his, and then went on to tell it directly."
+
+"True, such was always his habit," answered Osborn; "and his oddities
+have got somewhat exaggerated during the last twelve years; but he's
+as true and faithful as ever man was, and nothing would induce him to
+betray a secret confided to him."
+
+"You know best," replied the other; but the entrance of the landlord
+with the claret, and the maid with the supper, broke off the
+conversation, and there was no opportunity of renewing it till it was
+announced that the horses were to, and the coach was ready. The two
+friends then took leave of each other, both coachman and host being
+somewhat surprised to find that one of the travellers was about to
+remain behind.
+
+When, however, a portmanteau, a sword-case, and a large trunk, or mail
+as it was then called, had been handed out of the egregious boot,
+Osborn walked into the inn once more, and called the landlord to him.
+"I shall, most likely," he said, "take up my quarters with you for
+some days, so you will be good enough to have a bed room prepared for
+me. You must also let me have a room, however small, where I can read,
+and write, and receive any persons who may come to see me, for I have
+a good deal of business to transact."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir--I understand," replied the host, with a knowing
+elevation of one eye-brow and a depression of the other, "Quite snug
+and private. You shall have a room at the back of the house with two
+doors, so that they can come in by the one, and go out through the
+other, and nobody know anything about it."
+
+"I rather suspect you mistake," answered the guest, with a smile, "and
+for fear you should say anything, under an error, that you might be
+sorry for afterwards, let me tell you at once that I am an officer of
+Dragoons, and that the business I speak of is merely regimental
+business."
+
+The host's face grew amazingly blank; for a smuggler in a large way
+was, in his estimation, a much more valuable and important guest than
+an officer in the army, even had he been Commander-in-Chief of the
+forces; but Osborn proceeded to relieve his mind from some of its
+anxieties by saying: "You will understand that I am neither a spy nor
+an informer, my good friend, but merely come here to execute whatever
+orders I may receive from government as a military man. I tell you who
+I am at once, that you may, as far as possible, keep from my sight any
+of those little transactions which I am informed are constantly taking
+place on this coast. I shall not, of course, step over the line of my
+duty, which is purely military, to report anything I see; but still I
+should not like that any man should say I was cognizant of proceedings
+contrary to the interests of the government. This hint, however, I
+doubt not, will be enough."
+
+"Sir, you are a gentleman," said the host, "and as a nod is as good as
+a wink to a blind horse, I shall take care you have no annoyance. You
+must wait a little for your bed-room though, for we did not know you
+were going to stay; but we will lose no time getting it ready. Can I
+do anything else to serve you, sir?"
+
+"I think not," replied Osborn. "But one thing will be necessary. I
+expect five horses down to-morrow, and there must be found stabling
+for them, and accommodation for the servants."
+
+The landlord, who was greatly consoled by these latter proofs of his
+guest's opulence and importance, was proceeding to assure him that all
+manner of conveniences, both for horse and man were to be found at his
+inn, when the door of the room opened, and a third person was added to
+the party within. The moment the eye of the traveller by the coach
+fell upon him, his face lighted up with a well pleased smile, and he
+exclaimed, "Ah, my good friend, is that you?--I little expected to
+find you in this part of Kent. What brought you hither, after our long
+voyage?"
+
+"The same that brought you," answered the other: "old memories and
+loved associations."
+
+But before we proceed to notice what was Osborn's reply, we must,
+though very unwilling to give long descriptions either of personal
+appearance or of dress, pause to notice briefly those of the stranger
+who had just entered.
+
+He had originally been a tall man, and probably a powerful one, but he
+now stooped considerably, and was extremely thin. His face had no
+colour in it, and even the lips were pale, but yet the hue was not
+cadaverous, or even what could be called sickly. The features were
+generally small and fine, except the eyes, which were large and
+bright, with a sort of brilliant but unsafe fire in them, and that
+peculiar searching and intense gaze when speaking to any one, which is
+common to people of strong imaginations, who try to convey to others
+more than they actually say. His forehead, too, was high and grand,
+but wrinkled over with the furrows of thought and care; and on the
+right side was a deep indentation, with a gash across it, as if the
+skull had been driven in by a blow. His hair, which was long and thin,
+was milk white, and though his teeth were fine, yet the wrinkles of
+his skin, the peculiar roughness of the ear, and the shrivelled hand,
+all bore testimony of an advanced age. Yet, perhaps, he might be
+younger than he looked, for the light in that eager eye plainly spoke
+one of those quick, anxious, ever labouring spirits which wear the
+frame by the internal emotions, infinitely more rapidly and more
+destructively than any of the external events and circumstances of
+life. One thing was very peculiar about him--at least, in this
+country--for on another continent such a peculiarity might have called
+for no attention. On either cheek, beginning just behind the external
+corner of the eye, and proceeding in a graceful wave all along the
+cheek bone, turning round, like an acanthus leaf, at the other
+extremity upon the cheek itself, was a long line of very minute blue
+spots, with another, and another, and another beneath it, till the
+whole assumed the appearance of a rather broad arabesque painted in
+blue upon his face. His dress in other respects (if this tattooing
+might be called a part of his dress) though coarse in texture was
+good. The whole, too, was black, except where the white turned-down
+collar of his shirt appeared between his coat and his pale brownish
+skin. His shoes were large and heavy like those used by the countrymen
+in that part of the county, and in them he wore a pair of silver
+buckles, not very large, but which in their peculiar form and
+ornaments, gave signs of considerable antiquity. Though bent, as we
+have said, thin, and pale, he seemed active and energetic. All his
+motions were quick and eager, and he grasped the hand which Osborn
+extended to him, with a warmth and enthusiasm very different from the
+ordinary expression of common friendship.
+
+"You mistake," said the young gentleman, in answer to his last
+observation. "It was not old memories and loved associations which
+brought me here at all, Mr. Warde. It was an order from the
+commander-in-chief. Had I not received it, I should not have visited
+this place for years--if ever!"
+
+"Yes, yes, you would," replied the old man; "you could not help
+yourself. It was written in the book of your fate. It was not to be
+avoided. You were drawn here by an irresistible impulse to undergo
+what you have to undergo, to perform that which is assigned you, and
+to do and suffer all those things which are written on high."
+
+"I wonder to hear _you_ speaking in terms so like those of a fatalist,"
+answered Osborn--"you whom I have always heard so strenuously assert
+man's responsibility for all his actions, and scoff at the idea of his
+excusing himself on the plea of his predestination."
+
+"True, true," answered the old man whom he called
+Warde,--"predestination affords him no excuse for aught that is wrong,
+for though it be an inscrutable mystery how those three great facts
+are to be reconciled, yet certain it is that Omniscience cannot be
+ignorant of that which will take place, any more than of that which
+has taken place; that everything which God foreknows, must take place,
+and has been pre-determined by his will, and that yet--as every man
+must feel within himself--his own actions depend upon his volition,
+and if they be evil he alone is to blame. The end is to come,
+Osborn--the end is to come when all will be revealed--and doubt not
+that it will be for God's glory. I often think," he continued in a
+less emphatic tone, "that man with his free will is like a child with
+a plaything. We see the babe about to dash it against the wall in mere
+wantonness, we know that he will injure it--perhaps break it to
+pieces--perhaps hurt himself with it in a degree; we could prevent it,
+yet we do not, thinking perhaps that it will be a lesson--one of
+those, the accumulation of which makes experience, if not wisdom. At
+all events the punishment falls upon him; and, if duly warned, he has
+no right to blame us for that which his own will did, though we saw
+what he would do, and could have prevented him from doing so. We are
+all spoilt children, Osborn, and remain so to the end, though God
+gives us warning enough,--but here comes my homely meal."
+
+At the same moment the landlord brought in a dish of vegetables, some
+milk and some pottage, which he placed upon the table, giving a shrewd
+look to the young officer, but saying to his companion, "There, I have
+brought what you ordered, sir; but I cannot help thinking you had
+better take a bit of meat. You had nothing but the same stuff this
+morning, and no dinner that I know of."
+
+"Man, I never eat anything that has drawn the breath of life," replied
+Warde. "The first of our race brought death into the world and was
+permitted to inflict it upon others, for the satisfaction of his own
+appetites; but it was a permission, and not an injunction--except for
+sacrifice. I will not be one of the tyrants of the whole creation; I
+will have no more of the tiger in my nature than is inseparable from
+it; and as to gorging myself some five or six times a day with
+unnecessary food--am I a swine, do you think, to eat when I am not
+hungry, for the sole purpose of devouring? No, no, the simplest food,
+and that only for necessity, is best for man's body and his mind. We
+all grow too rank and superfluous."
+
+Thus saying, he approached the table, said a short grace over that
+which was set before him, and then sitting down, ate till he was
+satisfied, without exchanging a word with any one during the time that
+he was thus engaged. It occupied less than five minutes, however, to
+take all that he required, and then starting up suddenly, he thanked
+God for what he had given him, took up his hat and turned towards the
+door.
+
+"I am going out, Osborn," he said, "for my evening walk. Will you come
+with me?"
+
+"Willingly for half an hour," answered the young officer, and, telling
+the landlord as he passed that he would be back by the time that his
+room was ready, he accompanied his eccentric acquaintance out into the
+streets of Hythe, and thence, through some narrow walks and lanes, to
+the sea-shore.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The sky was clear and bright; the moonlight was sleeping in dream-like
+splendour upon the water, and the small waves, thrown up by the tide
+more than the wind, came rippling along the beach like a flood of
+diamonds. All was still and silent in the sky, and upon the earth; and
+the soft rustle of the waters upon the shore seemed but to say "Hush!"
+as if nature feared that any louder sound should interrupt her calm
+repose. To the west, stretched out the faint low line of coast towards
+Dungeness; and to the east, appeared the high cliffs near Folkestone
+and Dover--grey and solemn; while the open heaven above looked down
+with its tiny stars and lustrous moon upon the wide extended sea,
+glittering in the silver veil cast over her sleeping bosom from on
+high.
+
+Such was the scene presented to the eyes of the two wanderers when
+they reached the beach, a little way on the Sandgate side of Hythe,
+and both paused to gaze upon it for several minutes in profound
+silence.
+
+"This is indeed a night to walk forth upon the sands," said the young
+officer at length. "It seems to me, that of all the many scenes from
+which man can derive both instruction and comfort, in the difficulties
+and troubles of life, there is none so elevating, so strengthening, as
+that presented by the sea shore on a moonlight night. To behold that
+mighty element, so full of destructive and of beneficial power, lying
+tranquilly within the bound which God affixed to it, and to remember
+the words, 'Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther, and here shall
+thy proud waves be stopped,' affords so grand an illustration of his
+might, so fine a proof of the truth of his promises, that the heart
+must be hard indeed and the mind dull, not to receive confirmation of
+faith, and encouragement in hope."
+
+"More, far more, may man receive," replied his companion, "if he be
+but willing; but that gross and corrupt insect refuses all
+instruction, and though the whole universe holds out blessings, still
+chooses the curse. Where is there a scene whence man may not receive
+benefit? What spot upon the whole earth has not something to speak to
+his heart, if he would but listen? In his own busy passions, however,
+and in his own fierce contentions, in his sordid creeping after gain,
+in his trickery and his knavery, even in his loves and pleasures, man
+turns a deaf ear to the great voice speaking to him; and the only
+scene of all this earth which cannot benefit the eye that looks upon
+it, is that in which human beings are the chief actors. There all is
+foulness, or pitifulness, or vice; and one, to live in happiness, and
+to take the moral of all nature to his heart, should live alone with
+nature. I will find me out such a place, where I can absent myself
+entirely, and contemplate nought but the works of God without the
+presence of man, for I am sick to death of all that I have seen of him
+and his, especially in what is called a civilized state."
+
+"You have often threatened to do so, Warde," answered the young
+officer, "but yet methinks, though you rail at him, you love man too
+much to quit his abodes entirely. I have seen you kind and considerate
+to savages of the most horrible class; to men whose daily practice
+it is to torture with the most unheard of cruelty the prisoners
+whom they take in battle; and will you have less regard for other
+fellow-creatures, because they are what you call civilized?"
+
+"The savage is at least sincere," replied his companion. "The want of
+sincerity is the great and crowning vice of all this portion of the
+globe. Cruel the wild hunters may be, but are they more cruel than the
+people here? Which is the worst torment, a few hours' agony at the
+stake, singing the war-song, all ended by a blow of a hatchet, or long
+years of mental torture, when every scorn and contumely, every bitter
+injustice, every cruel bereavement that man can inflict or suffer, is
+piled upon your head, till the load becomes intolerable. Then, too, it
+is done in a smooth and smiling guise. The civilized fiend looks
+softly upon you while he wounds you to the heart--makes a pretext of
+law, and justice, and equity--would have you fancy him a soft good
+man, while there is no act of malevolence and iniquity that he does
+not practise. The savage is true, at all events. The man who fractured
+my skull with a blow of his tomahawk, made no pretence of friendship
+or of right. He did it boldly, as an act customary with his people,
+and would have led me to the stake and danced with joy to see me
+suffering, had I not been rescued. He was sincere at least: but how
+would the Englishman have served me? He would have wrung my heart with
+pangs insupportable, and all the time have talked of his great grief
+to afflict me, of the necessity of the case, of justice being on his
+side, and of a thousand other vain and idle pretexts, but aggravating
+the act by mocking me with a show of generosity."
+
+"I fear my excellent friend that you have at some time suffered sadly
+from man's baseness," said Osborn; "but yet I think you are wrong to
+let the memory thereof affect you thus. I, too, have suffered, and
+perhaps shall have to suffer more; but yet I would not part with the
+best blessings God has given to man, as you have done, for any other
+good."
+
+"What have I parted with that I could keep?" asked the other, sharply:
+"what blessings? I know of none!"
+
+"Trust--confidence," replied his young companion. "I know you will say
+that they have been taken from you; that you have not thrown them
+away, that you have been robbed of them. But have you not parted with
+them too easily? Have you not yielded at once, without a struggle to
+retain what I still call the best blessings of God? There are many
+villains in the world--I know it but too well; there are many knaves.
+There are still more cold and selfish egotists, who, without
+committing actual crimes or injuring others, do good to none; but
+there are also many true and upright hearts, many just, noble, and
+generous men; and were it a delusion to think so, I would try to
+retain it still."
+
+"And suffer for it in the hour of need, in the moment of the deepest
+confidence," answered Warde. "If you must have confidence, place it in
+the humble and the low, in the rudest and least civilized--ay, in the
+very outcasts of society--rather than in the polished and the courtly,
+the great and high. I would rather trust my life, or my purse, to the
+honour of the common robber, and to his generosity, than to the very
+gentlemanly man of fashion and high station. Now, if, as you say, you
+have not come down hither for old associations, you must be sent to
+hunt down honester men than those who sent you--men who break boldly
+through an unjust and barbarous system, which denies to our land the
+goods of another, and who, knowing that the very knaves who devised
+that system, did it but to enrich themselves, stop with a strong hand
+a part of the plunder on the way--or, rather, insist at the peril of
+their lives, on man's inherent right to trade with his neighbours, and
+frustrate the roguish devices of those who would forbid to our land
+the use of that produced by another."
+
+Osborn smiled at his companion's defence of smuggling, but replied, "I
+can conceive a thousand reasons, my good friend, why the trade in
+certain things should be totally prohibited, and a high duty for the
+interests of the state be placed on others. But I am not going to
+argue with you on all our institutions; merely this I will say, that
+when we entrust to certain men the power of making laws, we are bound
+to obey those laws when they are made; and it were but candid and just
+to suppose that those who had made them, after long deliberation, did
+so for the general good of the whole."
+
+"For their own villanous ends," answered Warde--"for their own selfish
+interests. The good of the whole!--what is it in the eyes of any of
+these law-givers but the good of a party?"
+
+"But do you not think," asked the young officer, "that we ourselves,
+who are not law-givers, judge their actions but too often under the
+influence of the very motives we attribute to them? Has party no share
+in our own bosoms? Has selfishness--have views of our own interests,
+in opposition either to the interests of others or the general weal,
+no part in the judgment that we form? Each man carps at that which
+suits him not, and strives to change it, without the slightest care
+whether, in so doing, he be not bringing ruin on the heads of
+thousands. But as to what you said just now of my being sent hither to
+hunt down the smuggler, such is not the case. I am sent to lend my aid
+to the civil power when called upon to do so--but nothing more; and we
+all know that the civil power has proved quite ineffective in stopping
+a system, which began by violation of a fiscal law, and has gone on to
+outrages the most brutal, and the most daring. I shall not step beyond
+the line of my duty, my good friend; and I will admit that many of
+these very misguided men themselves, who are carrying on an illegal
+traffic in this daring manner, fancy themselves justified by such
+arguments as you have just now used--nay, more, I do believe that
+there are some men amongst them of high and noble feelings, who never
+dream that they are dishonest in breaking a law that they dislike. But
+if we break one law thus, why should we keep any?--why not add robbery
+and murder if it suits us?
+
+"Ay, there _are_ high minded and noble men amongst them," answered
+Warde, not seeming to heed the latter part of what his companion said,
+"and there stands one of them. He has evil in him doubtless; for he is
+a man and an Englishman; but I have found none here who has less, and
+many who have more. Yet were that man taken in pursuing his
+occupation, they would imprison, exile, perhaps hang him, while a
+multitude of knaves in gilded coats, would be suffered to go on
+committing every sin, and almost every crime, unpunished--a good man,
+an excellent man, and yet a smuggler."
+
+The young officer knew it was in vain to reason with him, for in the
+frequent intercourse they had held together, he had perceived that,
+with many generous and noble feelings, with a pure heart, and almost
+ascetic severity of life, there was a certain perversity in the course
+of Mr. Warde's thoughts, which rendered it impossible to turn them
+from the direction which they naturally took. It seemed as if by long
+habit they had channelled for themselves so deep a bed, that they
+could never be diverted thence; and consequently, without replying at
+first, he merely turned his eyes in the direction which the other
+pointed out, trying to catch sight of the person of whom he spoke.
+They were now on the low sandy shore which runs along between the town
+of Hythe and the beautiful little watering place of Sandgate. But it
+must be recollected, that at the time I speak of, the latter place
+displayed no ornamental villas, no gardens full of flowers, almost
+touching on the sea, and consisted merely of a few fishermen's, or
+rather smuggler's, huts, with one little public house, and a
+low-browed shop, filled with all the necessities that the inhabitants
+might require. Thus nothing like the mass of buildings which the
+watering place now can boast, lay between them and the Folkestone
+cliffs; and the whole line of the coast, except at one point, where
+the roof of a house intercepted the view, was open before Osborn's
+eyes; yet neither upon the shore itself, nor upon the green upland,
+which was broken by rocks and bushes, and covered by thick dry grass,
+could he perceive anything resembling a human form. A minute after,
+however, he thought he saw something move against the rugged
+background, and the next moment, the head and shoulders of a man
+rising over the edge of the hill caught his eyes, and as his companion
+walked forward in silence, he inquired,
+
+"Have you known him long, or is this one of your sudden judgments, my
+good friend?"
+
+"I knew him when he was a boy and a lad," answered Wilmot, "I know him
+now that he is a man--so it is no sudden judgment. Come, let us speak
+with him, Osborn," and he advanced rapidly, by a narrow path, up the
+side of the slope.
+
+Osborn paused a single instant, and then followed, saying, "Be upon
+your guard, Warde; and remember how I am circumstanced. Neither commit
+me nor let him commit himself."
+
+"No, no, fear not," answered his friend, "I am no smuggler, young
+man;" and he strode on before, without pausing for further
+consultation. As they climbed the hill, the figure of the man of whom
+they had been speaking became more and more distinct, while walking up
+and down upon a flat space at the top of the first step or wave of
+ground; he seemed to take no notice of their approach. When they came
+nearer still, he paused, as if waiting for their coming; and the moon
+shining full upon him, displayed his powerful form, standing in an
+attitude of easy grace, with the arms folded on the chest, and the
+head slightly bent forward. He was not above the middle height; but
+broad in the shoulders, and long in the arms; robust and strong--every
+muscle was round and swelling, and yet not heavy; for there was the
+appearance of great lightness and activity in his whole figure,
+strangely combined with that of vigour and power. His head was small,
+and well set upon his shoulders; and the very position in which he
+stood, the firm planting of his feet on the ground, the motionless
+crossing of his arm upon his breast, all seemed to argue to the mind
+of Osborn--and he was one not unaccustomed to judge of character by
+external signs--a strong and determined spirit, well fitted for the
+rough and adventurous life which he had undertaken.
+
+"Good night, Harding," said Mr. Warde, as they came up to the spot
+where he stood. "What a beautiful evening it is!"
+
+"Goodnight, sir," answered the man, in a civil tone, and with a voice
+of considerable melody. "It is indeed a beautiful evening, though
+sometimes I like to see the cloudy sky, too."
+
+"And yet I dare say you enjoy a walk by the bright sea, in the calm
+moonlight, as much as I do," rejoined Mr. Warde.
+
+"Ay, that I do, sir," replied the smuggler. "That's what brought me
+out to-night, for there's nothing else doing; but I should not rest
+quiet, I suppose, in my bed, if I did not take my stroll along the
+downs or somewhere, and look over the sea, while she lies panting in
+the moonbeams. She's a pretty creature, and I love her dearly. I
+wonder how people can live inland."
+
+"Oh, there are beautiful scenes enough inland," said Osborn, joining
+in the conversation; "both wild and grand, and calm and peaceful."
+
+"I know there are, sir, I know there are," answered the smuggler,
+gazing at him attentively, "and if ever I were to live away from the
+beach, I should say, give me the wild and grand, for I have seen many
+a beautiful place inland, especially in Wales; but still it always
+seems to me as if there was something wanting when the sea is not
+there. I suppose it is natural for an Englishman."
+
+"Perhaps it is," rejoined Osborn, "for certainly when Nature rolled
+the ocean round us, she intended us for a maritime people. But to
+return to what you were saying, if I could choose my own abode, it
+should be amongst the calm and peaceful scenes, of which the eye never
+tires, and amongst which the mind rests in repose."
+
+"Ay, if it is repose one is seeking," replied the smuggler, with a
+laugh, "well and good. Then a pleasant little valley, with trees and a
+running stream, and a neat little church, and the parsonage, may do
+well enough. But I dare say you and I, sir, have led very different
+lives, and so have got different likings. I have always been
+accustomed to the storm and the gale, to a somewhat adventurous life,
+and to have that great wide sea before my eyes for ever. You, I dare
+say, have been going on quietly and peacefully all your days, perhaps
+in London, or in some great town, knowing nothing of hardships or of
+dangers; so that is the reason you love quiet places."
+
+"Quite the reverse!" answered Osborn, with a smile--"mine has been
+nothing but a life of peril and danger, and activity, as far as it
+hitherto has gone. From the time I was eighteen till now, the battle
+and the skirmish, the march and the retreat, with often the hard
+ground for my bed, as frequently the sky for my covering, and at best
+a thin piece of canvas to keep off the blast, have been my lot, but it
+is that very fact that makes me long for some repose, and love scenes
+that give the picture of it to the imagination, if not the reality to
+the heart. I should suppose that few men who have passed their time
+thus, and known from youth to manhood nothing but strife and hourly
+peril, do not sooner or later desire such tranquillity."
+
+"I don't know, sir," said the smuggler; "it maybe so, and the time may
+come with me; but yet I think habits one is bred to, get such a hold
+of the heart that we can't do without them. I often fancy I should
+like a month's quiet, too; but then I know before the month was out I
+should long to be on the sea again."
+
+"Man is a discontented creature," said Warde,--"not even the bounty of
+God can satisfy him. I do not believe that he would even rest in
+heaven, were he not wearied of change by the events of this life. Well
+may they say it is a state of trial."
+
+"I hope I shall go to heaven, too," rejoined the smuggler; "but I
+should like a few trips first; and I dare say, when I grow an old man,
+and stiff and rusty, I shall be well contented to take my walk here in
+the sunshine, and talk of days that are gone; but at present, when one
+has life and strength, I could no more sit and get cankered in
+idleness than I could turn miller. This world's not a place to be
+still in; and I say, Blow wind, and push off the boat."
+
+"But one may have activity enough without constant excitement and
+peril," answered Osborn.
+
+"I don't know that there would be half the pleasure in it," replied
+the smuggler, laughing--"that we strive for, that we love. Everything
+must have its price, and cheap got is little valued. But who is this
+coming?" he continued, turning sharply round before either of his
+companions heard a sound.
+
+The next moment, however, steps running up the face of the bank were
+distinguished, and in another minute a boy of twelve or thirteen,
+dressed in a sailor's jacket, came hurrying up to the smuggler, and
+pulled his sleeve, saying, in a low voice, "Come hither--come hither;
+I want to speak to you."
+
+The man took a step apart, and bending down his head listened to
+something which the boy whispered in his ear. "I will come--I will
+come directly," he said, at length, when the lad was done. "Run on and
+tell him, little Starlight; for I must get home first for a minute.
+Good night, gentlemen," he continued, turning to Mr. Warde and his
+companion, "I must go away for a longer walk;" and, without farther
+adieu, he began to descend the bank, leaving the two friends to take
+their way back to Hythe, conversing, as they went, much in the same
+strain as that in which they had indulged while coming thither,
+differing in almost every topic, but yet with some undefinable link of
+sympathy between them, which nevertheless owed its origin, in the old
+man's breast, to very different feelings from those which were
+experienced by his younger companion.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+There was an old house, built in a style which acquired the mint-mark
+of fashion of about the reign of George the First, and was considered
+by those of the English, or opposite party, to be peculiarly well
+qualified for the habitation of Hanover rats. It stood at a little
+distance from the then small hamlet of Harbourne, and was plunged into
+one of the southern apertures of the wood of that name, having its
+gardens and pleasure-grounds around it, with a terrace and a lawn
+stretching out to the verge of a small parish road, which passed at
+the distance of somewhat less than a quarter of a mile from the
+windows. It was all of red brick, and looked square and formal enough,
+with the two wings projecting like the a-kimbo arms of some untamed
+virago, straight and resolute as a redoubt. The numerous windows,
+however, with very tolerable spaces between them; the numerous
+chimneys, with every sort of form and angle; the numerous doors, of
+every shape and size, and the square precision of the whole, bespoke
+it a very capacious building, and the inside justified fully the idea
+which the mind of a traveller naturally formed from the outside. It
+was, in truth, a roomy, and in some cases a very convenient abode; but
+it was laid out upon a particular plan, which it may not be amiss to
+write down, for the practical instruction of the reader unlearned in
+such edifices.
+
+In the centre of the ground-floor was a large hall of a cruciform
+shape, each of the limbs being about fifteen feet wide. The two
+shorter arms of the cross stretched from side to side of the building
+in its width; the two longer from end to end of its length. The
+southern termination of the shorter arms was the great hall-door; the
+northern arm, which formed the passage between the various ranges of
+offices, extended to a door at the back, opening into a court-yard
+surrounded by coach-houses, stables, cow-sheds, pig-sties, and
+hen-roosts. But the offices, and the passage between them, were shut
+off from the main hall and the rest of the mansion by double doors;
+and the square of fifteen feet in the centre of the hall was, to the
+exent of about two-thirds of the whole, occupied by a large,
+low-stepped, broad-ballustraded oaken staircase. The eastern and
+western limbs of the cross afforded the means of communicating with
+various rooms,--such as library, dining-room, drawing-room,
+music-room, magistrate's-room, gentleman's-room, and billiard-room,
+with one or two others to which no name had been applied. Many of
+these rooms had doors which led into the one adjacent; but this was
+not invariably the case, for from the main corridor branched off
+several little passages, separating in some instances one chamber from
+the other, and leading out upon the terrace by the smaller doors which
+we have noticed above. What was the use of these passages and doors
+nobody was ever able to divine, and it remains a mystery to the
+present day, which I shall not attempt to solve by venturing any
+hypothesis upon so recondite a subject. The second floor above was
+laid out much in the same way as the one below, except that one of the
+limbs of the cross was wanting, the space over the great door being
+appropriated to a very tolerable bed-room. From this floor to the
+other, descended two or three staircases, the principal one being the
+great open flight of steps which I have already mentioned; and the
+second, or next in importance, being a stone staircase, which reached
+the ground between the double doors, that shut out the main hall from
+the offices.
+
+Having thus given some idea of the interior of the building, I will
+only pause to notice, that, at the period I speak of, it had one very
+great defect. It was very much out of repair,--not, indeed, of that
+sort of substantial repair which is necessary to comfort, but of that
+pleasant repair which is agreeable to the eye. It was well and solidly
+built, and was quite wind and water tight; but although the builders
+of the day in which it was erected were, as every one knows,
+peculiarly neat in their brick-work, yet Time would have his way even
+with their constructions, and he had maliciously chiselled out the
+pointing from between the sharp, well-cut bricks, scraped away the
+mortar from the stone copings, and cracked and blistered the painting
+of the wood-work. This labour of his had not only given a venerable,
+but also a somewhat dilapidated appearance to the mansion; and some
+green mould, with which he had taken the pains to dabble all the white
+parts of the edifice, did not decrease the look of decay.
+
+Sweeping round from the parish road that we have mentioned was a
+branch, leading by the side of the lawn, and a gentle ascent up to the
+terrace and to the great door, and carriages on arriving passed along
+the whole front of the house by the western angle before they reached
+the court-yard behind. But from that courtyard there were various
+other means of exit. One to the kitchen garden, one to two or three
+other courts, and one into the wood which came within fifty yards of
+the enclosure; for, to use the ordinary romance phrase, Harbourne
+House was literally "bosomed in wood." The windows, however, and the
+front, commanded a fine view of a rich and undulating country,
+plentifully garnished with trees, but still, for a considerable
+distance, exposed to the eye, from the elevated ground upon which the
+mansion was placed. A little hamlet was seen at the distance of about
+two miles in front--I rather suspect it was Kenchill--and to the
+eastward the house looked over the valley towards the high ground by
+Woodchurch and Woodchurch Beacon, catching a blue line which probably
+was Romney Marsh. Between, Woodchurch, however, and itself, was seen
+standing out, straight and upright, a very trim-looking white
+dwelling, flanked by some pleasant groves, and to the west were seen
+one or two gentlemen's seats scattered about over the face of the
+country. Behind, nothing of course was to be seen but tree-tops,
+except from the window of one of the attics, whence the housemaid
+could descry Biddenden Windmill and the top of Biddenden Church.
+Harbourne Wood was indeed, at that time, very extensive, joining on to
+the large piece of woodland, from which it is now separated, and
+stretching out as far as that place with an unpleasant name, called
+Gallows Green. The whole of this space, and a considerable portion of
+the cultivated ground around, was within the manor of the master of
+the mansion, Sir Robert Croyland, of Harbourne, the elder brother of
+that Mr. Zachary Croyland, whom we have seen travelling down into Kent
+with two companions in the newly established stage-coach.
+
+About four days after that memorable journey, a traveller on
+horseback, followed by a servant leading another horse, and with a
+portmanteau behind him, rode up the little parish road we have
+mentioned, took the turning which led to the terrace, and drew in his
+bridle at the great door of Harbourne House. I would describe him
+again, but I have already given the reader so correct and accurate a
+picture of Sir Edward Digby, that he cannot make any mistake. The only
+change which had taken place in his appearance since he set out from
+London, was produced by his being now dressed in a full military
+costume; but nevertheless the eyes of a fair lady, who was in the
+drawing-room and had a full view of the terrace, conveyed to her mind,
+as she saw him ride up, the impression that he was a very handsome man
+indeed. In two minutes more, which were occupied by the opening of the
+door and sundry directions given by the young baronet to his servant,
+Sir Edward Digby was ushered into the drawing-room, and advanced with
+a frank, free, military air, though unacquainted with any of the
+persons it contained. As his arrival about that hour was expected, the
+whole family of Harbourne House was assembled to receive him; and
+before we proceed farther, we may as well give some account of the
+different persons of whom the little circle was composed.
+
+The first whom Sir Edward's eyes fell upon was the master of the
+mansion, who had risen, and was coming forward to welcome his guest.
+Sir Robert Croyland, however, was so different a person from his
+brother, in every point, that the young officer could hardly believe
+that he had the baronet before him. He was a large, heavy-looking man,
+with good features and expressive eyes, but sallow in complexion, and
+though somewhat corpulent, having that look of loose, flabby obesity,
+which is generally an indication of bad health. His dress, though
+scrupulously clean and in the best fashion of the time, fitted him
+ill, being too large even for his large person; and the setting of the
+diamond ring which he wore upon his hand was scarcely more yellow than
+the hand itself. On his face he bore a look of habitual thought and
+care, approaching moroseness, which even the smile he assumed on Sir
+Edward's appearance could not altogether dissipate. In his tone,
+however, he was courtly and kind, though perhaps a little pompous,
+expressed his delight at seeing his old friend's son in Harbourne
+House, shook him warmly by the hand, and then led him ceremoniously
+forward to introduce him to his sister, Mrs. Barbara Croyland, and his
+two daughters.
+
+The former lady might very well have had applied to her Fielding's
+inimitable description of the old maid. Her appearance was very
+similar, her station and occupation much the same; but nevertheless,
+in all essential points, Mrs. Barbara Croyland was a very different
+person from the sister of Squire Allworthy. She was a kind-hearted
+soul as ever existed; gentle in her nature, anxious to do the very
+best for every body, a little given to policy for the purpose of
+accomplishing that end, and consequently, nine times out of ten,
+making folks very uncomfortable in order to make them comfortable, and
+doing all manner of mischief for the purpose of setting things right.
+No woman ever had a more perfect abnegation of self than Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, in all things of great importance. She had twice missed a
+very good opportunity of marriage, by making up a match between one
+who was quite ready to be her own lover and one of her female friends,
+for whom he cared very little. She had lent the whole of her own
+private fortune, except a small annuity, which by some chance had been
+settled upon her, to her brother Sir Robert, without taking any
+security whatsoever for principal or interest; and she was always
+ready, when there was anything in her purse, to give it away to the
+worthy or unworthy--rather, indeed, preferring the latter, from a
+conviction that they were more likely to be destitute of friends than
+those who had some claim upon society.
+
+Nevertheless Mrs. Barbara Croyland was not altogether without that
+small sort of selfishness which is usually termed vanity. She was
+occasionally a little affronted and indignant with her friends, when
+they disapproved of her spoiling their whole plans with the intention
+of facilitating them. She knew that her design was good; and she
+thought it very ungrateful in the world to be angry when her good
+designs produced the most opposite results to those which she
+intended. She was fully convinced, too, that circumstances were
+perversely against her; and yet for her life she could not refrain
+from trying to make those circumstances bend to her purpose,
+notwithstanding all the nips on the knuckles she received; and she had
+still some scheme going on, which, though continually disappointed,
+rose up Hydra-like, with a new head springing out as soon as the other
+was cut off. As it was at her suggestion, and in favour of certain
+plans which she kept deep in the recesses of her own bosom, that Sir
+Robert Croyland had claimed acquaintance with Sir Edward Digby on the
+strength of an old friendship with his father, and had invited him
+down to Harbourne House immediately on the return of his regiment to
+England, it may well be supposed that Miss Barbara received him with
+her most gracious smiles--which, to say the truth, though the face was
+wrinkled with age, and the complexion not very good, were exceedingly
+sweet and benignant, springing from a natural kindness of heart,
+which, if guided by a sounder discretion, would have rendered her one
+of the most amiable persons on the earth.
+
+After a few words of simple courtesy on both parts, Sir Edward turned
+to the other two persons who were in the room, where he found metal
+more attractive--at least, for the eyes. The first to whom he was
+introduced was a young lady, who seemed to be about one-and-twenty
+years of age, though she had in fact just attained another year; and
+though Sir Robert somewhat hurried him on to the next, who was
+younger, the keen eye of the young officer marked enough to make him
+aware that, if so cold and so little disposed to look on a lover as
+her uncle had represented, she might well become a very dangerous
+neighbour to a man with a heart not well guarded against the power of
+beauty. Her hair, eyes, and eyelashes were almost black, and her
+complexion of a clear brown, with the rose blushing faintly in the
+cheek; but the eyes were of a deep blue. The whole form of the head,
+the fall of the hair, the bend of the neck from the shoulders, were
+all exquisitely symmetrical and classical, and nothing could be more
+lovely than the line of the brow and the chiselled cutting of the
+nose. The upper lip, small and delicately drawn, the under lip full
+and slightly apart, shewing the pearl-like teeth beneath; the turn of
+the ear, and the graceful line in the throat, might all have served as
+models for the sculptor or the painter; for the colouring was as rich
+and beautiful as the form; and when she rose and stood to receive him,
+with the small hand leaning gently on the arm of the chair, he thought
+he had never seen anything more graceful than the figure, or more
+harmonious than its calm dignity, with the lofty gravity of her
+countenance. If there was a defect in the face, it was perhaps that
+the chin was a little too prominent, but yet it suited well with the
+whole countenance and with its expression, giving it decision without
+harshness, and a look of firmness, which the bright smile that
+fluttered for a moment round the lips, deprived of everything that was
+not gentle and kind. There was soul, there was thought, there was
+feeling, in the whole look; and Digby would fain have paused to see
+those features animated in conversation. But her father led him on,
+after a single word of introduction, to present him to his younger
+daughter, who, with some points of resemblance, offered a strange
+contrast to her sister. She, too, was very handsome, and apparently
+about two years younger; but hers was the style of beauty which,
+though it deserves a better name, is generally termed pretty. All the
+features were good, and the hair exceedingly beautiful; but the face
+was not so oval, the nose perhaps a little too short, and the lips too
+sparkling with smiles to impress the mind, at first sight, so much as
+the countenance of the other. She seemed all happiness; and in looking
+to the expression and at her bright blue eyes, as they looked out
+through the black lashes, like violets from a clump of dark leaves, it
+was scarcely possible to fancy that she had ever known a touch of care
+or sorrow, or that one of the anxieties of life had ever even brushed
+her lightly with its wing. She seemed the flower just opening to the
+morning sunshine--the fruit, before the bloom had been washed away by
+one shower. Her figure, too, was full of young grace; her movements
+were all quicker, more wild and free than her sister's; and as she
+rose to receive Sir Edward Digby, it was more with the air of an old
+friend than a new acquaintance. Indeed, she was the first of the
+family who had seen him, for hers were the eyes which had watched his
+approach from the window, so that she felt as if she knew him better
+than any of them.
+
+There was something very winning in the frank and cordial greeting
+with which she met him, and in an instant it had established a sort of
+communication between them which would have taken hours, perhaps days,
+to bring about with her sister. As Sir Edward Digby did not come there
+to fall in love, he would fain have resisted such influences, even at
+the beginning; and perhaps the words of old Mr. Croyland had somewhat
+put him upon his guard. But it was of no use being upon his guard;
+for, fortify himself as strongly as he would, Zara went through all
+his defences in an instant; and, seeming to take it for granted that
+they were to be great friends, and that there was not the slightest
+obstacle whatever to their being perfectly familiar in a ladylike and
+gentleman-like manner, of course they were so in five minutes, though
+he was a soldier who had seen some service, and she an inexperienced
+girl just out of her teens. But all women have a sort of experience of
+their own; or, if experience be not the right name, an intuition in
+matters where the other sex is concerned, which supplies to them very
+rapidly a great part of that which long converse with the world
+bestows on men. Too true that it does not always act as a safeguard to
+their own hearts--true that it does not always guide them right in
+their own actions,--but still it does not fail to teach them the best
+means of winning where they wish to win; and if they do not succeed,
+it is far more frequently that the cards which they hold are not good,
+than that they play the game unskilfully.
+
+Whether Sir Robert Croyland had or had not any forethought in his
+invitation of Sir Edward Digby, and, like a prudent father, judged
+that it would be quite as well his youngest daughter should marry a
+wealthy baronet, he was too wise to let anything like design appear;
+and though he suffered the young officer to pursue his conversation
+with Zara for two or three minutes longer than he had done with her
+sister, he soon interposed, by taking the first opportunity of telling
+his guest the names of those whom he had invited to meet him that day
+at dinner.
+
+"We shall have but a small party," he said, in a somewhat apologetic
+tone, "for several of our friends are absent just now; but I have
+asked my good and eccentric brother Zachary to meet you to-day, Sir
+Edward; and also my excellent neighbour, Mr. Radford, of Radford
+Hall--a very superior man indeed under the surface, though the manner
+may be a little rough. His son, too, I trust will join us;" and he
+glanced his eye towards Edith, whose face grew somewhat paler than it
+had been before. Sir Robert instantly withdrew his gaze; but the look
+of both father and daughter had not been lost upon Digby; and he
+replied--"I have the pleasure of knowing your brother already, Sir
+Robert. We were fellow-travellers as far as Ashford, four or five days
+ago. I hope he is well."
+
+"Oh, quite well--quite well," answered the baronet; "but as odd as
+ever--nay odder, I think, for his expedition to London. That which
+seems to polish and soften other men, but renders him rougher and more
+extraordinary. But he was always very odd--very odd indeed, even as a
+boy."
+
+"Ay, but he was always kind-hearted, brother Robert," observed Miss
+Barbara; "and though he may be a little odd, he has been in odd
+places, you know--India and the like; and besides, it does not do to
+talk of his oddity, as you are doing always, for if he heard of it, he
+might leave all his money away."
+
+"He is only odd, I think," said Edith Croyland, "by being kinder and
+better than other men."
+
+Sir Edward Digby turned towards her with a warm smile, replying--"So
+it struck me, Miss Croyland. He is so good and right-minded himself,
+that he is at times a little out of patience with the faults and
+follies of others--at least, such was my impression, from all I saw of
+him."
+
+"It was a just one," answered the young lady, "and I am sure, Sir
+Edward, the more you see of him the more you will be inclined to
+overlook the oddities for the sake of the finer qualities."
+
+It seemed to Sir Edward Digby that the commendations of Sir Robert
+Croyland's brother did not seem the most grateful of all possible
+sounds to the ears of the Baronet, who immediately after announced
+that he would have the pleasure of conducting his young guest to his
+apartments, adding that they were early people in the country, their
+usual dinner-hour being four o'clock, though he found that the
+fashionable people of London were now in the habit of dining at
+half-past four. Sir Edward accordingly followed him up the great
+oaken staircase to a very handsome and comfortable room, with a
+dressing-room at the side, in which he found his servant already
+busily employed in disburdening his bags and portmanteau of their
+contents.
+
+Sir Robert paused for a moment--to see that his guest had everything
+which he might require, and then left him. But the young baronet did
+not proceed immediately to the business of the toilet, seating himself
+before the window of the bed-room, and gazing out with a thoughtful
+expression, while his servant continued his operations in the next
+room. From time to time the man looked in as if he had something to
+say, but his master continued in a reverie, of which it may be as well
+to take some notice. His first thought was, "I must lay out the plan
+of my campaign; but I must take care not to get my wing of the army
+defeated while the main body is moving up to give battle. On my life,
+I'm a great deal too good-natured to put myself in such a dangerous
+position for a friend. The artillery that the old gentleman spoke of
+is much more formidable than I expected. My worthy colonel did not use
+so much of love's glowing colours in his painting as I supposed; but
+after all, there's no danger; I am proof against all such shots, and I
+fancy I must use little Zara for the purpose of getting at her
+sister's secrets. There can be no harm in making a little love to her,
+the least little bit possible. It will do my pretty coquette no harm,
+and me none either. It may be well to know how the land lies, however;
+and I dare say that fellow of mine has made some discoveries already;
+but the surest way to get nothing out of him is to ask him, and so I
+must let him take his own way."
+
+His thoughts then turned to another branch of the same subject; and he
+went on pondering rather than thinking for some minutes more. There is
+a state of mind which can scarcely be called thought; for thought is
+rapid and progressive, like the flight of a bird, whether it be in the
+gyrations of the swallow, or the straightforward course of the rook;
+but in the mode or condition of which I speak, the mind seems rather
+to hover over a particular object, like the hawk eyeing carefully that
+which is beneath it; and this state can no more be called thought than
+the hovering of the hawk can be called flight. Such was the occupation
+of Sir Edward Digby, as I have said, for several minutes, and then he
+went on to his conclusions. "She loves him still," he said to himself;
+"of that I feel sure. She is true to him still, and steadfast in her
+truth. Whatever may have been said or done has not been hers, and that
+is a great point gained; for now, with station, rank, distinction, and
+competence at least, he presents himself in a very different position
+from any which he could assume before; and unless on account of some
+unaccountable prejudice, the old gentleman can have no objection. Oh,
+yes, she loves him still, I feel very sure! The calm gravity of that
+beautiful face has only been written there so early by some deep and
+unchanged feeling. We never see the sparkling brightness of youth so
+shadowed but by some powerful and ever-present memory, which, like the
+deep bass notes of a fine instrument, gives a solemn tone even to the
+liveliest music of life. She can smile, but the brow is still grave:
+there is something underneath it; and we must find out exactly what
+that is. Yet I cannot doubt; I am sure of it. Here, Somers! are not
+those things ready yet? I shall be too late for dinner."
+
+"Oh, no, sir;" replied the man, coming in, and putting up the back of
+his hand to his head, in military fashion. "Your honour wont be too
+late. The great bell rings always half-an-hour before, then Mr.
+Radford is always a quarter-of-an-hour behind his time."
+
+"I wonder who Mr. Radford is!" said Sir Edward Digby, as if speaking
+to himself. "He seems a very important person in the county."
+
+"I can tell you, sir," said the man, "he is or was the richest person
+in the neighbourhood, and has got Sir Robert quite under his thumb,
+they say. He was a merchant, or a shopkeeper, the butler told me, in
+Hythe. But there was more money came in than ever went through his
+counting-house, and what between trading one way or another, he got
+together a great deal of riches, bought this place here in the
+neighbourhood, and set up for a gentleman. His son is to be married to
+Miss Croyland, they say; but the servants think that she hates him,
+and fancy that he would himself rather have her sister."
+
+The latter part of this speech was that which interested Sir Edward
+Digby the most; but he knew that there was a certain sort of
+perversity about his servant, which made him less willing to answer a
+distinct question than to volunteer any information; and therefore he
+fixed upon another point, inquiring, "What do you mean, Somers, by
+saying that he is, or was, the richest man in the country?"
+
+"Why, sir, that is as it may be," answered the man; "but one thing is
+certain--Miss Croyland has three times refused to marry this young
+Radford, notwithstanding all her father could say; and as for the
+young gentleman himself, why he's no gentleman at all, going about
+with all the bad characters in the county, and carrying on his
+father's old trade, like a highwayman. It has not quite answered so
+well though, for they say old Radford lost fully fifty thousand pounds
+by his last venture, which was run ashore somewhere about Romney Hoy.
+The boats were sunk, part of the goods seized, and the rest sent to
+the bottom. You may be sure he's a dare-devil, however, for whenever
+the servants speak of him, they sink their voice to a whisper, as if
+the fiend were at their elbow."
+
+Sir Edward Digby was very well inclined to hear more; but while the
+man was speaking, the bell he had mentioned, rang, and the young
+baronet, who had a certain regard for his own personal appearance,
+hastened to dress and to descend to the drawing-room.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+It is sometimes expedient in telling a tale of this kind, to introduce
+the different personages quietly to the reader one after the other,
+and to suffer him to become familiar with them separately, before they
+are all brought to act together, that he may have a clear and definite
+notion of their various characters, dispositions, and peculiarities,
+and be enabled to judge at once of the motives by which they are
+actuated, when we recite the deeds that they perform.
+
+Having twice or thrice mentioned one of the prominent persons in this
+history, without having brought him visibly upon the scene, (as, in
+the natural course of events, I must very soon do,) I shall now follow
+the plan above mentioned; and, in order to give the reader a distinct
+notion of Mr. Radford, his character and proceedings, will beg those
+who have gone on with me thus far, to step back with me to the same
+night, on which Mr. Warde and his young friend met the smuggler in his
+evening walk along the heights.
+
+Not very far from the town of Hythe, not very far from the village of
+Sandgate, are still to be found the ruins of an ancient castle, which,
+by various deeds that have been performed within its walls, has
+acquired a name in English history. The foundation of the building is
+beyond our records; and tradition, always fond of the marvellous,
+carries back the period when the first stone was laid to the times of
+the Roman invaders of Great Britain. Others supposed that it was
+erected by the Saxons, but, as it now stands, it presents no trace of
+the handiwork of either of those two races of barbarians, and is
+simply one of those strongholds constructed by the Normans, or their
+close descendants, either to keep their hold of a conquered country,
+or to resist the power both of tyrannical monarchs and dangerous
+neighbours. Various parts of the building are undoubtedly attributable
+to the reign of Henry II.; and if any portion be of an earlier date,
+of which I have some doubts, it is but small; but a considerable part
+is, I believe, of a still later epoch, and in some places may be
+traced the architecture common in the reign of Edward III. and of his
+grandson. The space enclosed within the outer walls is very extensive,
+and numerous detached buildings, chapels, halls, and apparently a
+priory, are still to be found built against those walls themselves, so
+that it is probable that the castle in remote days gave shelter to
+some religious body, which is rendered still more likely from the fact
+of Saltwood Castle and its manor having formerly appertained to the
+church and see of Canterbury.
+
+Many a remarkable scene has undoubtedly passed in the courts and halls
+of that now ruined building, and it is even probable that there the
+dark and dreadful deed, which, though probably not of his contriving,
+embittered the latter life of the second Henry, was planned and
+determined by the murderers of Thomas a Becket. With such deeds,
+however, and those ancient times, we have nothing here to do; and at
+the period to which this tale refers, the castle, though in a much
+more perfect state than at present, was already in ruins. The park,
+which formerly surrounded it, had been long thrown open and divided
+into fields; but still the character which its formation had given to
+the neighbouring scenery had not passed away; and the rich extent of
+old pasture, the scattered woods and clumps of trees, the brawling
+brook, here and there diverted from its natural course for ornament or
+convenience,--all bespoke the former destination of the ground, for
+near a mile around on every side, when magnificent Archbishop
+Courtenay held the castle of Saltwood as his favourite place of
+residence.
+
+Though, as I have said, grey ruin had possession of the building, yet
+the strength of its construction had enabled it in many parts to
+resist the attacks of time; and the great keep, with its two lofty
+gate towers and wide-spreading hall, was then but very little decayed.
+Nevertheless, at that period no one tenanted the castle of Saltwood
+but an old man and his son, who cultivated a small portion of ground
+in the neighbourhood; and their dwelling was confined to three rooms
+in the keep, though they occupied several others by their implements
+of husbandry, occasionally diversified with sacks of grain, stores of
+carrots and turnips, and other articles of agricultural produce. Thus,
+every night, for a short time, lights were to be seen in Saltwood
+Castle, but all the buildings except the keep, were utterly neglected,
+and falling rapidly into a state of complete dilapidation.
+
+It was towards this building, on the night I speak of, that the
+smuggler took his way, about a quarter of an hour after having
+suddenly broken off his conversation with Mr. Warde and the young
+officer. He walked on with a quick, bold, careless step, apparently
+without much thought or consideration of the interview to which he was
+summoned. He paused, indeed, more than once, and looked around him;
+but it was merely to gaze at the beauty of the scenery, for which he
+had a great natural taste. It is no slight mistake to suppose that the
+constant intercourse with, and opportunity of enjoying the beauties of
+nature, diminish in any degree the pleasures that we thence derive.
+The direct contrary is the case. Every other delight, everything that
+man has contrived or found for himself, palls upon the taste by
+frequent fruition; but not so with those sources of pleasure which are
+given us by God himself; and the purer and freer they are from man's
+invention, the more permanent are they in their capability of
+bestowing happiness, the more extensive seems their quality of
+satisfying the ever-increasing desires of the spirit within us. Were
+it not so, the ardent attachment which is felt by those who have been
+born and brought up in the midst of fine and magnificent scenery to
+the place of their nativity, could not exist; and it will always be
+found that, other things being equal, those who live most amongst the
+beauties of nature, are those who most appreciate them.
+
+Many a beautiful prospect presented itself to the smuggler, as he
+walked on by the light of the moon. At one place, the woods swept
+round him and concealed the rest of the country from his eyes; but
+then the moonbeams poured through the branches, or streamed along the
+path, and every now and then, between the old trunks and gnarled
+roots, he caught a sight of the deeper parts of the woodland, sleeping
+in the pale rays. At another, issuing forth upon the side of the hill,
+the leafy wilderness lay beneath his feet with the broad round summit
+of some piece of high ground, rising dark and flat above; and at some
+distance further, he suddenly turned the angle of the valley, and had
+the tall grey ruin of Saltwood full before him, with the lines of the
+trees and meadows sweeping down into the dell, and the bright sky,
+lustrous with the moonlight, extended broad and unclouded behind.
+Shortly after, he came to the little stream, rushing in miniature
+cascades between its hollow banks, and murmuring with a soft and
+musical voice amongst the roots of the shrubs, which here and there
+hid it from the beams.
+
+He paused but a moment or two, however, at any of these things, and
+then walked on again, till at length he climbed the road leading up to
+the castle, and passed through the arch-way of the gate. Of the
+history of the place he knew nothing, but from vague traditions heard
+in his boyhood; and yet, when he stood amongst those old grey walls,
+with the high towers rising before him, and the greensward, covering
+the decay of centuries, beneath his feet, he could not help feeling a
+vague impression of melancholy, not unmingled with awe, fall upon him.
+In the presence of ancient things, the link between all mortality
+seems most strongly felt. We perceive our association with the dead
+more strongly. The character and habits of thought of the person, of
+course, render it a more distinct or obscure perception; but still we
+all have it. With some, it is as I have before called it, an
+impression that we must share the same decay, meet the same fate, fall
+into the same tomb as those who have raised or produced the things
+that we behold; for every work of man is but a tombstone, if it be
+read aright. But with others, an audible voice speaks from the grey
+ruin and the ancient church, from the dilapidated houses where our
+fathers dwelt or worshipped, and says to every one amongst the living,
+"As they were, who built us, so must you be. They enjoyed, and hoped,
+and feared, and suffered. So do you. Where are they gone, with all
+their thoughts? Where will you go, think you never so highly? All
+down, down, to the same dust, whither we too are tending. We have seen
+these things, for ages past, and we shall see more."
+
+I mean not to say that such was exactly the aspect under which those
+ruins presented themselves to the eye of the man who now visited them.
+The voice that spoke was not so clear; but yet it was clear enough to
+make him feel thoughtful if not sad; and he paused to gaze up at the
+high keep, as the moon shone out upon the old stone-work, showing
+every loophole and casement. He was not without imagination in a
+homely way, and, following the train of thought which the sight of the
+castle at that hour suggested, he said to himself, "I dare say many a
+pretty girl has looked out of that window to talk to her lover by the
+moonlight; and they have grown old, and died like other folks."
+
+How long he would have gone on in this musing mood I cannot tell, but
+just at that moment the boy who had come down to the beach to call
+him, appeared from the old doorway of the chapel, and pointing to one
+of the towers in the wall, whispered--"He's up there, waiting for
+you."
+
+"Well, then, you run home, young Starlight," replied the smuggler.
+"I'll be after you in a minute, for he can't have much to say, I
+should think. Off with you! and no listening, or I'll break your head,
+youngster."
+
+The boy laughed, and ran away through the gate; and his companion
+turned towards the angle which he had pointed out. Approaching the
+wall, he entered what might have been a door, or perhaps a window
+looking in upon the court, and communicating with one of those
+passages which led from tower to tower, with stairs every here and
+there leading to the battlements. He was obliged to bow his head as he
+passed; but after climbing a somewhat steep ascent, where the broken
+steps were half covered with rubbish, he emerged upon the top of the
+wall, where many a sentinel had kept his weary watch in times long
+past. At a little distance in advance, standing in the pale moonlight,
+was a tall, gaunt figure, leaning against a fragment of one of the
+neighbouring towers; and Harding did not pause to look at the
+splendour of the view below, though it might well, with its world of
+wood and meadow, bounded by the glistening sea, have attracted eyes
+less fond of such scenes than his; but on he walked, straight towards
+the person before him, who, on his part, hurried forward to meet him,
+whenever the sound of his step broke upon the ear.
+
+"Good night, Harding," said Mr. Radford, in a low but still harsh
+tone; "what a time you have been. It will be one o'clock or more
+before I get back."
+
+"Past two," answered the smuggler, bluntly; "but I came as soon as I
+could. It is not much more than half an hour since I got your
+message."
+
+"That stupid boy has been playing the fool, then," replied the other;
+"I sent him----"
+
+"Oh, he's not stupid," interrupted the smuggler; "and he's not given
+to play the fool either. More like to play the rogue. But what's the
+business now, sir? There's no doing anything on such nights as these."
+
+"I know that--I know that," rejoined Radford. "But this will soon
+change. The moon will be dwindled down to cheese-paring before many
+days are over, and the barometer is falling. It is necessary that we
+should make all our arrangements beforehand, Harding, and have
+everything ready. We must have no more such jobs as the last two."
+
+"I had nothing to do with them," rejoined the smuggler. "You chose
+your own people, and they failed. I do not mean to say it was their
+fault, for I don't think it was. They lost as much, for them, as you
+did; and they did their best, I dare say; but still that is nothing to
+me. I've undertaken to land the cargo, and I will do it, if I live. If
+I die, there's nothing to be said, you know; but I don't say I'll ever
+undertake another of the sort. It does not answer, Mr. Radford. It
+makes a man think too much, to know that other people have got so much
+money staked on such a venture."
+
+"Ay, but that is the very cause why every one should exert himself,"
+answered his companion. "I lost fifty thousand pounds by the last
+affair, twenty by the other; but I tell you, Harding, I have more than
+both upon this, and if this fail----"
+
+He paused, and did not finish the sentence; but he set his teeth hard,
+and seemed to draw his breath with difficulty.
+
+"That's a bad plan," said the smuggler--"a bad plan, in all ways. You
+wish to make up all at one run: and so you double the venture: but you
+should know by this time, that one out of four pays very well, and we
+have seldom failed to do one out of two or three; but the more money
+people get the more greedy they are of it; so that because you put
+three times as much as enough on one freight, you must needs put five
+times on the other, and ten times on the third, risking a greater loss
+every time for a greater gain. I'll have to do with no more of these
+things. I'm contented with little, and don't like such great
+speculations."
+
+"Oh, if you are afraid," cried Mr. Radford, "you can give it up! I
+dare say we can find some one else to land the goods."
+
+"As to being afraid, that I am not," answered Harding; "and having
+undertaken the run, I'll do it. I'm not half so much afraid as you
+are: for I've not near so much to lose--only my life or liberty and
+three hundred pounds. But still, Mr. Radford, I do not like to think
+that if anything goes wrong you'll be so much hurt; and it makes a man
+feel queer. If I have a few hundreds in a boat, and nothing to lose
+but myself and a dozen of tubs, I go about it as gay as a lark and as
+cool and quiet as a dogfish; but if anything were to go wrong now, why
+it would be----"
+
+"Ruin--utter ruin!" said Mr. Radford.
+
+"I dare say it would," rejoined the smuggler; "but, nevertheless, your
+coming down here every other day, and sending for me, does no good,
+and a great deal of harm. It only teazes me, and sets me always
+thinking about it, when the best way is not to think at all, but just
+to do the thing and get it over. Besides, you'll have people noticing
+your being so often down here, and you'll make them suspect something
+is going on."
+
+"But it is necessary, my good fellow," answered the other, "that we
+should settle all our plans. I must have people ready, and horses and
+help, in case of need."
+
+"Ay, that you must," replied the smuggler, thoughtfully. "I think you
+said the cargo was light goods."
+
+"Almost all India," said Radford, in return. "Shawls and painted
+silks, and other things of great value but small bulk. There are a few
+bales of lace, too; but the whole will require well nigh a hundred
+horses to carry it, so that we must have a strong muster."
+
+"Ay, and men who fight, too," rejoined Harding. "You know there are
+Dragoons down at Folkestone?"
+
+"No!--when did they come?" exclaimed Hadford, eagerly. "That's a bad
+job--that's a bad job! Perhaps they suspect already. Perhaps some of
+those fellows from the other side have given information, and these
+soldiers are sent down in consequence--I shouldn't wonder, I shouldn't
+wonder."
+
+"Pooh--nonsense, Mr. Radford!" replied Harding; "you are always so
+suspicious. Some day or another you'll suspect me."
+
+"I suspect everybody," cried Radford, vehemently, "and I have good
+cause. I have known men do such things, for a pitiful gain, as would
+hang them, if there were any just punishment for treachery."
+
+Harding laughed, but he did not explain the cause of his merriment,
+though probably he thought that Mr. Radford himself would do many a
+thing for a small gain, which would not lightly touch his soul's
+salvation. He soon proceeded, however, to reply, in a grave
+tone--"That's a bad plan, Mr. Radford. No man is ever well served by
+those whom he suspects. He had better never have anything to do with a
+person he doubts; so, if you doubt me, I'm quite willing to give the
+business up, for I don't half like it."
+
+"Oh, no!" said Radford, in a smooth and coaxing tone, "I did not mean
+you, Harding; I know you too well for as honest a fellow as ever
+lived; but I do doubt those fellows on the other side, and I strongly
+suspect they peached about the other two affairs. Besides, you said
+something about Dragoons, and we have not had any of that sort of
+vermin here for a year or more."
+
+"You frighten yourself about nothing," answered Harding. "There is but
+a troop of them yet, though they say more are expected. But what good
+are Dragoons? I have run many a cargo under their very noses, and hope
+I shall live to run many another. As to stopping this traffic, they
+are no more good than so many old women!"
+
+"But you must get it all over before the rest come," replied Mr.
+Radford, in an argumentative manner, taking hold of the lappel of his
+companion's jacket; "there's no use of running more risk than needful.
+And you must remember that we have a long way to carry the goods after
+they are landed. Then is the most dangerous time."
+
+"I don't know that," said Harding; "but, however, you must provide for
+that, and must also look out for _hides_[1] for the things. I wont
+have any of them down with me; and when I have landed them safely,
+though I don't mind giving a help to bring them a little way inland, I
+wont be answerable for anything more."
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 1: It may be as well to explain to the uninitiated reader,
+that the secret places where smugglers conceal their goods after
+landing, are known by the name of "Hides."]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+"No, no; that's all settled," answered his companion; "and the hides
+are all ready, too. Some can come into my stable, others can be
+carried up to the willow cave. Then there's Sir Robert's great barn."
+
+"Will Sir Robert consent?" asked Harding, in a doubtful tone. "He
+would never have anything to do with these matters himself, and was
+always devilish hard upon us. I remember he sent my father to gaol ten
+years ago, when I was a youngster."
+
+"He must consent," replied Radford, sternly. "He dare as soon refuse
+me as cut off his right hand. I tell you, Harding, I have got him in a
+vice; and one turn of the lever will make him cry for mercy when I
+like. But no more of him. I shall use his barn as if it were my own;
+and it is in the middle of the wood, you know, so that it's out of
+sight. But even if it were not for that, we've got many another place.
+Thank Heaven, there are no want of hides in this county!"
+
+"Ay, but the worst of dry goods, and things of that kind," rejoined
+the smuggler, "is that they spoil with a little wet, so that one can't
+sink them in a cut or canal till they are wanted, as one can do with
+tubs. Who do you intend to send down for them? That's one thing I must
+know."
+
+"Oh, whoever comes, my son will be with them," answered Mr. Radford.
+"As to who the others will be, I cannot tell yet. The Ramleys,
+certainly, amongst the rest. They are always ready, and will either
+fight or run, as it may be needed."
+
+"I don't much like them," replied Harding; "they are a bad set. I wish
+they were hanged, or out of the country; for, as you say, they will
+either fight, or run, or peach, or anything else that suits them: one
+just as soon as another."
+
+"Oh, no fear of that--no fear of that!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, in a
+confident tone, which seemed somewhat strange to the ears of his
+companion, after the suspicions he had heard him so lately express;
+but the other instantly added, in explanation, "I shall take care that
+they have no means of peaching, for I will tell them nothing about it,
+till they are setting off with fifty or sixty others."
+
+"That's the best way, and the only way with such fellows as that,"
+answered Harding; "but if you tell nobody, you'll find it a hard job
+to get them all together."
+
+"Only let the day be fixed," said Mr. Radford; "and I'll have all
+ready--never fear."
+
+"That must be your affair," replied Harding; "I'm ready whenever you
+like. Give me a dark night and a fair wind, and my part of the job is
+soon done."
+
+"About this day week, I should think," said Mr. Radford. "The moon
+will be nearly out by that time."
+
+"Not much more than half," replied the smuggler; "and as we have got
+to go far,--for the ship, you say, will not stand in,--we had better
+have the whole night to ourselves. Even a bit of a moon is a bad
+companion on such a trip; especially when there is so much money
+risked. No, I think you had better give me three days more: then there
+will be wellnigh nothing left of her, and she wont rise till three or
+four. We can see what the weather's like, too, about that time; and I
+can come up, and let you know. But if you'll take my advice, Mr.
+Radford, you'll not be coming down here any more, till it's all over
+at least. There's no good of it, and it may do mischief."
+
+"Well, now it's all settled, I shall not need to do so," rejoined the
+other; "but I really don't see, Harding, why you should so much wish
+me to stay away."
+
+"I'll tell you why, Mr. Radford," said Harding, putting his hands into
+the pockets of his jacket, "and that very easily. Although you have
+become a great gentleman, and live at a fine place inland, people
+haven't forgot when you kept a house and a counting-house too, in
+Hythe, and all that used to go on in those days; and though you are a
+magistrate, and go out hunting and shooting, and all that, the good
+folks about have little doubt that you have a hankering after the old
+trade yet, only that you do your business on a larger scale than you
+did then. It's but the other day, when I was in at South's, the
+grocer's, to talk to him about some stuff he wanted, I heard two men
+say one to the other, as they saw you pass, 'Ay, there goes old
+Radford. I wonder what he's down here for!' 'As great an old smuggler
+as ever lived,' said the other; 'and a pretty penny he's made of it.
+He's still at it, they say; and I dare say he's down here now upon
+some such concern.' So you see, sir, people talk about it, and that's
+the reason why I say that the less you are here the better."
+
+"Perhaps it is--perhaps it is," answered Mr. Radford, quickly; "and as
+we've now settled all we can settle, till you come up, I'll take
+myself home. Good night, Harding--good night!"
+
+"Good night, sir," answered Harding, with something like a smile upon
+his lip; and finding their way down again to the court below, they
+parted.
+
+"I don't like that fellow at all," said Mr. Radford to himself, as he
+walked away upon the road to Hythe, where he had left his horse; "he's
+more than half inclined to be uncivil. I'll have nothing more to do
+with him after this is over."
+
+Harding took his way across the fields towards Sandgate, and perhaps
+his thoughts were not much more complimentary to his companion than
+Mr. Radford's had been to him; but in the meantime, while each
+followed his separate course homeward, we must remain for a short
+space in the green, moonlight court of Saltwood Castle. All remained
+still and silent for about three minutes; but then the ivy, which at
+that time had gathered thickly round the old walls, might be seen to
+move in the neighbourhood of a small aperture in one of the ruined
+flanking towers of the outer wall, to which it had at one time
+probably served as a window, though all traces of its original form
+were now lost. The tower was close to the spot where Mr. Radford and
+his companion had been standing; and although the aperture we have
+mentioned looked towards the court, joining on to a projecting wall in
+great part overthrown, there was a loop-hole on the other side,
+flanking the very parapet on which they had carried on their
+conversation.
+
+After the ivy had moved for a moment, as I have said, something like a
+human head was thrust out, looking cautiously round the court. The
+next minute a broad pair of shoulders appeared, and then the whole
+form of a tall and powerful man, who, after pausing for an instant on
+the top of the broken wall, used its fragments as a means of descent
+to the ground below. Just as he reached the level of the court, one of
+the loose stones which he had displaced as he came down, rolled after
+him and fell at his side; and, with a sudden start at the first sound,
+he laid his hand on the butt of a large horse-pistol stuck in a belt
+round his waist. As soon as he perceived what it was that had alarmed
+him, he took his hand from the weapon again, and walked out into the
+moonlight; and thence, after pacing quietly up and down for two or
+three minutes, to give time for the two other visitors of the castle
+to get to a distance, he sauntered slowly out through the gate. He
+then turned under the walls towards the little wood which at that time
+occupied a part of the valley; opposite to which he stood gazing for
+about five minutes. When he judged all safe, he gave a whistle, upon
+which the form of a boy instantly started out from the trees, and came
+running across the meadow towards him.
+
+"Have you heard all, Mr. Mowle?" asked the boy in a whisper, as soon
+as he was near.
+
+"All that they said, Little Starlight," replied the other. "They
+didn't say enough; but yet it will do; and you are a clever little
+fellow. But come along," he added, laying his hand on the boy's
+shoulder, "you shall have what I promised you, and half-a-crown more;
+and if you go on, and tell me all you find out, you shall be well
+paid."
+
+Thus saying, he walked on with the boy towards Hythe, and the scenery
+round Saltwood resumed its silent solitude again.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+To a very hungry man, it matters not much what is put upon the table,
+so that it be eatable; but with the intellectual appetite the case is
+different, and every one is anxious to know who is to be his
+companion, or what is to be in his book. Now, Sir Edward Digby was
+somewhat of an epicure in human character; and he always felt as great
+a curiosity to enjoy any new personage brought before him, as the more
+ordinary epicure desires to taste a new dish. He was equally refined,
+too, in regard to the taste of his intellectual food. He liked a good
+deal of flavour, but not too much: a soupcon of something, he did not
+well know what, in a man's demeanour gave it great zest, as a soupcon
+of two or three condiments so blended in a salmi as to defy analysis
+must have charmed Vatel; and, to say the truth, the little he had seen
+or heard of the house in which he now was, together with his knowledge
+of some of its antecedents, had awakened a great desire for a farther
+taste of its quality.
+
+When he went down stairs, then, and opened the dining-room door, his
+eye naturally ran round in search of the new guests. Only two,
+however, had arrived, in the first of whom he recognised Mr. Zachary
+Croyland. The other was a venerable looking old man, in black, whom he
+could not conceive to be Mr. Radford, from the previous account which
+he had heard of that respectable gentleman's character. It turned out,
+however, that the person before him--who had been omitted by Sir
+Robert Croyland in the enumeration of his expected visitors--was the
+clergyman of the neighbouring village; and being merely a plain, good
+man, of very excellent sense, but neither, rich noble, nor thrifty,
+was nobody in the opinion of the baronet.
+
+As soon as Sir Edward Digby appeared, Mr. Zachary Croyland, with his
+back tall, straight, and stiff as a poker, advanced towards him, and
+shook him cordially by the hand. "Welcome, welcome, my young friend,"
+he said; "you've kept your word, I see; and that's a good sign of any
+man, especially when he knows that there's neither pleasure, profit,
+nor popularity to be gained by so doing; and I'm sure there's none of
+either to be had in this remote corner of the world. You have some
+object, of course, in coming among us; for every man has an object;
+but what it is I can't divine."
+
+"A very great object indeed, my dear sir," replied the young officer,
+with a smile; "I wish to cultivate the acquaintance of an old friend
+of my father's--your brother here, who was kind enough to invite me."
+
+"A very unprofitable sort of plant to cultivate," answered Mr.
+Croyland, in a voice quite loud enough to be heard by the whole room.
+"It wont pay tillage, I should think; but you know your own affairs
+best. Here, Edith, my love, I must make you better acquainted with my
+young fellow-traveller. Doubtless, he is perfectly competent to talk
+as much nonsense to you as any other young man about town, and has
+imported, for the express benefit of the young ladies in the country,
+all the sweet things and pretty speeches last in vogue. But he can, in
+his saner moments, and if you just let him know that you are not quite
+a fool, bestow upon you some small portion of common sense, which he
+has picked up, Heaven knows how!--He couldn't have it by descent; for
+he is an eldest son, and that portion of the family property is always
+reserved for the younger children."
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland, who found that her brother Zachary was riding
+his horse somewhat hard, moved across the room--with the superfluity
+of whalebone which she had in her stays crackling at every step, as if
+expressly to attract attention--and, laying her hand on Mr. Croyland's
+arm, she whispered--"Now do, brother, be a little civil and kind.
+There's no use of hurting people's feelings; and, if Robert hasn't as
+much sense as you, there's no use you should always be telling him
+so."
+
+"Pish! nonsense! "cried Mr. Croyland, "Hold your tongue, Bab. You're a
+good soul as ever lived, but a great fool into the bargain. So don't
+meddle. I should think you had burnt your fingers enough with it by
+this time."
+
+"And I'm sure you're a good soul, too, if you would but let people
+know it," replied Mrs. Barbara, anxious to soften and keep down all
+the little oddities and asperities of her family circle in the eyes of
+Sir Edward Digby.
+
+But she only showed them the more by so doing; for Mr. Croyland was
+not to be caught by honey; and, besides, the character which she, in
+her simplicity, thought fit to attribute to him, was the very last
+upon the face of the earth which he coveted. Every man has his vanity;
+and it is an imp that takes an infinite variety of different forms,
+frequently the most hideous or the most absurd. Now Mr. Croyland's
+vanity lay in his oddity and acerbity. There was nothing on earth
+which he considered so foolish as good-nature; and he was heartily
+ashamed of the large portion with which Heaven had endowed him.
+
+"I a good soul!" he exclaimed. "Let me tell you, Bab, you are very
+much mistaken in that, as in every other thing you say or do. I am
+nothing more nor less than a very cross, ill-tempered old man; and you
+know it quite well, if you wouldn't be a hypocrite."
+
+"Well, I do believe you are," said the lady, with her own particular
+vanity mortified into a state of irritation, "and the only way is to
+let you alone."
+
+While this conversation had been passing between brother and sister,
+Sir Edward Digby, taking advantage of the position in which they
+stood, and which masked his own operations from the rest of the party,
+bent down to speak a few words to Edith, who, whatever they were,
+looked up with a smile, faint and thoughtful indeed, but still
+expressing as much cheerfulness as her countenance ever showed. The
+topic which he spoke upon might be commonplace, but what he said was
+said with grace, and had a degree of originality in it, mingled with
+courtliness and propriety of expression, which at once awakened
+attention and repaid it. It was not strong beer--it was not strong
+spirit--but it was like some delicate kind of wine, which has more
+power than the fineness of the flavour suffers to be apparent at the
+first taste.
+
+Their conversation was not long, however; for by the time that the
+young gentleman and lady had exchanged a few sentences, and Mr.
+Croyland had finished his discussion with his sister, the name of Mr.
+Radford was announced; and Sir Edward Digby turned quickly round to
+examine the appearance of the new comer. As he did so, however, his
+eye fell for a moment upon the countenance of Edith Croyland, and he
+thought he remarked an expression of anxiety not unmingled with pain,
+till the door closed after admitting a single figure, when a look of
+relief brightened her face, and she gave a glance across the room to
+her sister. The younger girl instantly rose; and while her father was
+busy receiving Mr. Radford with somewhat profuse attention, she
+gracefully crossed the room, and seating herself by Edith, laid her
+hand upon her sister's, whispering something to her with a kindly
+look.
+
+Sir Edward Digby marked it all, and liked it; for there is something
+in the bottom of man's heart which has always a sympathy with
+affection; but he, nevertheless, did not fail to take a complete
+survey of the personage who entered, and whom I must now present to
+the reader, somewhat more distinctly than I could do by the moonlight.
+Mr. Richard Radford was a tall, thin, but large-boned man, with dark
+eyes and overhanging shaggy brows, a hook nose, considerably depressed
+towards the point, a mouth somewhat wide, and teeth very fine for his
+age, though somewhat straggling and sharklike. His hair was very
+thick, and apparently coarse; his arms long and powerful; and his
+legs, notwithstanding the meagreness of his body, furnished with very
+respectable calves. On the whole, he was a striking but not a
+prepossessing person; and there was a look of keenness and cupidity,
+we might almost say voracity, in his eye, with a bend in the brow,
+which would have given the observer an idea of great quickness of
+intellect and decision of character, if it had not been for a certain
+degree of weakness about the partly opened mouth, which seemed to be
+in opposition to the latter characteristic. He was dressed in the
+height of the mode, with large buckles in his shoes and smaller ones
+at his knees, a light dress-sword hanging not ungracefully by his
+side, and a profusion of lace and embroidery about his apparel.
+
+Mr. Radford replied to the courtesies of Sir Robert Croyland
+with perfect self-possession--one might almost call it
+self-sufficiency--but with no grace and some stiffness. He was then
+introduced, in form, to Sir Edward Digby, bowing low, if that could be
+called a bow, which was merely an inclination of the rigid spine, from
+a perpendicular position to an angle of forty-five with the horizon.
+The young officer's demeanour formed a very striking contrast with
+that of his new acquaintance, not much in favour of the latter; but he
+showed that, as Mr. Croyland had predicated of him, he was quite
+prepared to say a great many courteous nothings in a very civil and
+obliging tone. Mr. Radford declared himself delighted at the honour of
+making his acquaintance, and Sir Edward pronounced himself charmed at
+the opportunity of meeting him. Mr. Radford hoped that he was going to
+honour their poor place for a considerable length of time, and Sir
+Edward felt sure that the beauty of such scenery, and the delights of
+such society, would be the cause of much pain to him when he was
+compelled to tear himself away.
+
+A low but merry laugh from behind them, caused both the gentlemen to
+turn their heads; and they found the sparkling eyes of Zara Croyland
+fixed upon them. She instantly dropped her eye-lids, however, and
+coloured a little, at being detected. It was evident enough that she
+had been weighing the compliments she heard, and estimating them at
+their right value, which made Mr. Radford look somewhat angry, but
+elicited nothing from Sir Edward Digby but a gay glance at the
+beautiful little culprit, which she caught, even through the thick
+lashes of her downcast eyes, and which served to reassure her.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland himself was displeased; but Zara was in a degree a
+spoiled child, and had established for herself a privilege of doing
+what she liked, unscolded. To turn the conversation, therefore, Sir
+Robert, in a tone of great regard, inquired particularly after his
+young friend, Richard, and said, he hoped that they were to have the
+pleasure of seeing him.
+
+"I trust so--I trust so, Sir Robert," replied Mr. Radford; "but you
+know I am totally unacquainted with his movements. He had gone away
+upon some business, the servants told me; and I waited as long as I
+could for him; but I did not choose to keep your dinner, Sir Robert;
+and if he does not choose to come in time, the young dog must go
+without.--Pray do not stop a moment for him."
+
+"Business!" muttered Mr. Croyland--"either cheating the king's
+revenue, or making love to a milkmaid, I'll answer for him;" but the
+remark passed unnoticed, for Sir Robert Croyland, who was always
+anxious to drown his brother's somewhat too pertinent observations,
+without giving the nabob any offence, was loudly pressing Mr. Radford
+to let them wait for half an hour, in order to give time for the young
+gentleman's arrival.
+
+His father, however, would not hear of such a proceeding; and the bell
+was rung, and dinner ordered. It was placed upon the table with great
+expedition; and the party moved towards the dining-room. Mr. Radford
+handed in the baronet's sister, who was, to say the truth, an enigma
+to him; for he himself could form no conception of her good-nature,
+simplicity, and kindness, and consequently thought that all the
+mischief she occasionally caused, must originate in well-concealed
+spite, which gave him a great reverence for her character. Sir Edward
+Digby, notwithstanding a hint from Sir Robert to take in his youngest
+daughter, advanced to Miss Croyland, and secured her, as he thought,
+for himself; while the brother of the master of the house followed
+with the fair Zara, leaving the clergyman and Sir Robert to come
+together. By a man[oe]uvre on the part of Edith, however, favoured by
+her father, but nearly frustrated by the busy spirit of her aunt, Miss
+Croyland got placed between Sir Robert and the clergyman, while the
+youngest daughter of the house was seated by Sir Edward Digby, leaving
+a chair vacant between herself and her worthy parent for young
+Radford, when he should arrive.
+
+All this being arranged, to the satisfaction of everybody but Sir
+Edward Digby, grace was said, after a not very decent hint from Sir
+Robert Croyland, that it ought not to be too long; and the dinner
+commenced with the usual attack upon soup and fish. It must not be
+supposed, however, because we have ventured to say that the
+arrangement was not to the satisfaction of Sir Edward Digby, that the
+young baronet was at all disinclined to enjoy his pretty little
+friend's society nearer than the opposite side of the table. Nor must
+it be imagined that his sage reflections, in regard to keeping himself
+out of danger, had at all made a coward of the gallant soldier. The
+truth is, he had a strong desire to study Edith Croyland: not on
+account of any benefit which that study could be of to himself, but
+with other motives and views, which, upon the whole, were very
+laudable. He wished to see into her mind, and, by those slight
+indications which were all he could expect her to display--but which,
+nevertheless, to a keen observer, often tell a history better than a
+whole volume of details--to ascertain some facts, in regard to which
+he took a considerable interest. Being somewhat eager in his way, and
+not knowing how long he might find it either convenient or safe to
+remain in his present quarters, he had determined to commence the
+campaign as soon as possible; but, frustrated in his first attack, he
+determined to change his plan of operations, and besiege the fair Zara
+as one of the enemy's outworks. He accordingly laughed and talked with
+her upon almost every subject in the world during the first part of
+dinner, skilfully leading her up to the pursuits of her sister and
+herself in the country, in order to obtain a clear knowledge of their
+habits and course of proceeding, that he might take advantage of it at
+an after-period, for purposes of his own.
+
+The art of conversation, when properly regarded, forms a regular
+system of tactics, in which, notwithstanding the various man[oe]uvres
+of your adversary, and the desultory fire kept up by indifferent
+persons around, you still endeavour to carry the line of advance in
+the direction that you wish, and to frustrate every effort to turn it
+towards any point that may not be agreeable to you, rallying it here,
+giving it a bend there; presenting a sharp angle at one place, an
+obtuse one at another; and raising from time to time a barrier or a
+breastwork for the purpose of preventing the adverse force from
+turning your flank, and getting into your rear.
+
+But the mischief was, in the present instance, that Sir Edward Digby's
+breastworks were too low for such an active opponent as Zara Croyland.
+They might have appeared a formidable obstacle in the way of a
+scientific opponent; but with all the rash valour of youth, which is
+so frequently successful where practice and experience fail, she
+walked straight up, and jumped over them, taking one line after
+another, till Sir Edward Digby found that she had nearly got into the
+heart of his camp. It was all so easy and natural, however, so gay and
+cheerful, that he could not feel mortified, even at his own want of
+success; and though five times she darted away from the subject, and
+began to talk of other things, he still renewed it, expatiating upon
+the pleasures of a country life, and upon how much more rational, as
+well as agreeable it was, when compared to the amusements and whirl of
+the town.
+
+Mr. Zachary Croyland, indeed, cut across them often, listening to what
+they said and sometimes smiling significantly at Sir Edward Digby, or
+at other times replying himself to what either of the two thought fit
+to discourse upon. Thus, then, when the young baronet was descanting
+sagely of the pleasures of the country, as compared with those of the
+town, good Mr. Croyland laughed merrily, saying, "You will soon have
+enough of it, Sir Edward; or else you are only deceiving that poor
+foolish girl; for what have you to do with the country?--you, who have
+lived the best part of your life in cities, and amongst their
+denizens. I dare say, if the truth were told now, you would give a
+guinea to be walking up the Mall, instead of sitting down here, in
+this old, crumbling, crazy house, speaking courteous nonsense to a
+pretty little milkmaid."
+
+"Indeed, my dear sir, you are very much mistaken," replied Sir Edward,
+gravely. "You judge all men by yourself; and because you are fond of
+cities, and the busy haunts of men, you think I must be so too."
+
+"I fond of cities and the busy haunts of men!" cried Mr. Croyland, in
+a tone of high indignation; but a laugh that ran round the table, and
+in which even the worthy clergyman joined, shewed the old gentleman
+that he had been taken in by Sir Edward's quietly-spoken jest; and at
+the same time his brother exclaimed, still laughing, "He hit you
+fairly there, Zachary. He has found out the full extent of your love
+for your fellow-creatures already."
+
+"Well, I forgive him, I forgive him!" said Mr. Croyland, with more
+good humour than might have been expected. "I had forgotten that I had
+told him, four or five days ago, my hatred for all cities, and
+especially for that great mound of greedy emmets, which,
+unfortunately, is the capital of this country. I declare I never go
+into that vast den of iniquity, and mingle with the stream of
+wretched-looking things that call themselves human, which all its
+doors are hourly vomiting forth, but they put me in mind of the white
+ants in India, just the same squalid-looking, active, and voracious
+vermin as themselves, running over everything that obstructs them,
+intruding themselves everywhere, destroying everything that comes in
+their way, and acting as an incessant torment to every one within
+reach. Certainly, the white ants are the less venemous of the two
+races, and somewhat prettier to look at; but still there's a wonderful
+resemblance."
+
+"I don't at all approve of your calling me a milkmaid, uncle," said
+Zara, shaking her small delicate finger at Mr. Croyland, across the
+table. "It's very wrong and ungrateful of you. See if ever I milk your
+cow for you again!"
+
+"Then I'll milk it myself, my dear," replied Mr. Croyland, with a
+good-humoured smile at his fair niece.
+
+"You cannot, you cannot!" cried Zara. "Fancy, Sir Edward, what a
+picture it made when one day I went over to my uncle's, and found him
+with a frightful-looking black man, in a turban whom he brought over
+from Heaven knows where, trying to milk a cow he had just bought, and
+neither of them able to manage it. My uncle was kneeling upon his
+cocked hat, amongst the long grass, looking, as he acknowledges, like
+a kangaroo; the cow had got one of her feet in the pail, kicking most
+violently; and the black man with a white turban round his head, was
+upon both his knees before her, beseeching her in some heathen
+language to be quiet. It was the finest sight I ever saw, and would
+have made a beautiful picture of the Worship of the Cow, which is, as
+I am told, customary in the country where both the gentlemen came
+from."
+
+"Zara, my dear--Zara!" cried Mrs. Barbara, who was frightened to death
+lest her niece should deprive herself of all share in Mr. Croyland's
+fortune. "You really should not tell such a story of your uncle."
+
+But the worthy gentleman himself was laughing till the tears ran down
+his cheeks. "It's quite true--it's quite true!" he exclaimed, "and she
+did milk the cow, though we couldn't. The ill-tempered devil was as
+quiet as a lamb with her, though she is so vicious with every male
+thing, that I have actually been obliged to have a woman in the
+cottage within a hundred yards of the house, for the express purpose
+of milking her."
+
+"That's what you should have done at first," said Mr. Radford, putting
+down the fork with which he had been diligently devouring a large
+plateful of fish. "Instead of having nothing but men about you, you
+should have had none but your coachman and footman, and all the rest
+women."
+
+"Ay, and married my cook-maid," replied Mr. Croyland, sarcastically.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland looked down into his plate with a quivering lip
+and a heavy brow, as if he did not well know whether to laugh or be
+angry. The clergyman smiled, Mr. Radford looked furious, but said
+nothing, and Mrs. Barbara exclaimed, "Oh, brother, you should not say
+such things! and besides, there are many cook-maids who are very nice,
+pretty, respectable people."
+
+"Well, sister, I'll think of it," said Mr. Croyland, drily, but with a
+good deal of fun twinkling in the corners of his eyes.
+
+It was too much for the light heart of Zara Croyland; and holding down
+her head, she laughed outright, although she knew that Mr. Radford had
+placed himself in the predicament of which her uncle spoke, though he
+had been relieved of the immediate consequence for some years.
+
+What would have been the result is difficult to say; for Mr. Radford
+was waxing wroth; but at that moment the door was flung hastily open,
+and a young gentleman entered, of some three or four-and-twenty years
+of age, bearing a strong resemblance to Mr. Radford, though
+undoubtedly of a much more pleasant and graceful appearance. He was
+well dressed, and his coat, lined with white silk of the finest
+texture, was cast negligently back from his chest, with an air of
+carelessness which was to be traced in all the rest of his apparel.
+Everything he wore was as good as it could be, and everything became
+him; for he was well formed, and his movements were free and even
+graceful; but everything seemed to have been thrown on in a hurry, and
+his hair floated wild and straggling round his brow, as if neither
+comb nor brush had touched it for many hours. It might have been
+supposed that this sort of disarray proceeded from haste when he found
+himself too late and his father gone; but there was an expression of
+reckless indifference about his face which led Sir Edward Digby to
+imagine that this apparent negligence was the habitual characteristic
+of his mind, rather than the effect of any accidental circumstance.
+His air was quite self-possessed, though hurried; and a flashing
+glance of his eye round the table, resting for a moment longer on Sir
+Edward Digby than on any one else, seemed directed to ascertain
+whether the party assembled was one that pleased him, before he chose
+to sit down to the board with them. He made no apology to Sir Robert
+Croyland for being too late, but shook hands with him in return for
+the very cordial welcome he met with, and then seated himself in the
+vacant chair, nodding to Miss Croyland familiarly, and receiving a
+cold inclination of the head in return. One of the servants inquired
+if he would take soup and fish; but he replied, abruptly, "No; bring
+me fish. No soup--I hate such messes."
+
+In the meantime, by one of those odd turns which sometimes take place
+in conversation, Mr. Croyland, the clergyman, and Mr. Radford himself
+were once more talking together: the latter having apparently overcome
+his indignation at the nabob's tart rejoinder, in the hope and
+expectation of saying something still more biting to him in return.
+Like many a great general, however, he had not justly appreciated the
+power of his adversary as compared with his own strength. Mr.
+Croyland, soured at an early period of life, had acquired by long
+practice and experience a habit of repartee when his prejudices or his
+opinions (and they are very different things) were assailed, which was
+overpowering. A large fund of natural kindness and good humour formed
+a curious substratum for the acerbity which had accumulated above it,
+and his love of a joke would often shew itself in a hearty peal of
+laughter, even at his own expense, when the attack upon him was made
+in a good spirit, by one for whom he had any affection or esteem. But
+if he despised or disliked his assailant, as was the case with Mr.
+Radford, the bitterest possible retort was sure to be given in the
+fewest possible words.
+
+In order to lead away from the obnoxious subject, the clergyman
+returned to Mr. Croyland's hatred of London, saying, not very
+advisedly perhaps, just as young Mr. Radford entered, "I cannot
+imagine, my dear sir, why you have such an animosity to our
+magnificent capital, and to all that it contains, especially when we
+all know you to be as beneficent to individuals as you are severe upon
+the species collectively."
+
+"My dear Cruden, you'll only make a mess of it," replied Mr. Croyland.
+"The reason why I do sometimes befriend a poor scoundrel whom I happen
+to know, is because it is less pleasant for me to see a rascal suffer
+than to do what's just by him. I have no will and no power to punish
+all the villany I see, otherwise my arm would be tired enough of
+flogging, in this county of Kent. But I do not understand why I should
+be called upon to like a great agglomeration of blackguards in a city,
+when I can have the same diluted in the country. Here we have about a
+hundred scoundrels to the square mile; in London we have a hundred to
+the square yard."
+
+"Don't you think, sir, that they may be but the worse scoundrels in
+the country because they are fewer?" demanded Mr. Radford.
+
+"I am beginning to fancy so," answered Mr. Croyland, drily, "but I
+suppose in London the number makes up for the want of intensity."
+
+"Well, it's a very fine city," rejoined Mr. Radford; "the emporium of
+the world, the nurse of arts and sciences, the birth-place and the
+theatre of all that is great and majestic in the efforts of human
+intellect."
+
+"And equally of all that is base and vile," answered his opponent; "it
+is the place to which all smuggled goods naturally tend, Radford.
+Every uncustomed spirit, every prohibited ware, physical and
+intellectual, there finds its mart; and the chief art that is
+practised is to cheat as cleverly as may be--the chief science
+learned, is how to defraud without being detected. We are improving in
+the country, daily--daily; but we have not reached the skill of London
+yet. Men make large fortunes in the country in a few years by merely
+cheating the Customs; but in London they make large fortunes in a few
+months by cheating everybody."
+
+"So they do in India," replied Mr. Radford, who thought he had hit the
+tender place.
+
+"True, true!" cried Mr. Croyland; "and then we go and set up for
+country gentlemen, and cheat still. What rogues we are, Radford!--eh?
+I see you know the world. It is very well for me to say, I made all my
+money by curing men, not by robbing them. Never you believe it, my
+good friend. It is not in human nature, is it? No, no! tell that to
+the marines. No man ever made a fortune but by plunder, that's a
+certain fact."
+
+The course of Sir Robert Croyland's dinner-party seemed to promise
+very pleasantly at this juncture; but Sir Edward Digby, though
+somewhat amused, was not himself fond of sharp words, and had some
+compassion upon the ladies at the table. He therefore stepped in; and,
+without seeming to have noticed that there was anything passing
+between Mr. Radford and the brother of his host, except the most
+delicate courtesies, he contrived, by some well-directed questions in
+regard to India, to give Mr. Croyland an inducement to deviate from
+the sarcastic into the expatiative; and having set him cantering upon
+one of his hobbies, he left him to finish his excursion, and returned
+to a conversation which had been going on between him and the fair
+Zara, in somewhat of a low tone, though not so low as to show any
+mutual design of keeping it from the ears of those around. Young
+Radford had in the meantime been making up for the loss of time
+occasioned by his absence at the commencement of dinner, and he seemed
+undoubtedly to have a prodigious appetite. Not a word had passed from
+father to son, or son to father; and a stranger might have supposed
+them in no degree related to each other. Indeed, the young gentleman
+had hitherto spoken to nobody but the servant; and while his mouth was
+employed in eating, his quick, large eyes were directed to every face
+round the table in succession, making several more tours than the
+first investigating glance, which I have already mentioned, and every
+time stopping longer at the countenance of Sir Edward Digby than
+anywhere else. He now, however, seemed inclined to take part in that
+officer's conversation with the youngest Miss Croyland, and did not
+appear quite pleased to find her attention so completely engrossed by
+a stranger. To Edith he vouchsafed not a single word; but hearing the
+fair lady next to him reply to something which Sir Edward Digby had
+said. "Oh, we go out once or twice almost every day; sometimes on
+horseback; but more frequently to take a walk," he exclaimed, "Do you,
+indeed, Miss Zara?--why, I never meet you, and I am always running
+about the country. How is that, I wonder?"
+
+Zara smiled, and replied, with an arch look, "Because fortune
+befriends us, I suppose, Mr. Radford;" but then, well knowing that he
+was not one likely to take a jest in good part, she added--"we don't
+go out to meet anybody, and therefore always take those paths where we
+are least likely to do so."
+
+Still young Radford did not seem half to like her reply; but,
+nevertheless, he went on in the same tone, continually interrupting
+her conversation with Sir Edward Digby, and endeavouring, after a
+fashion not at all uncommon, to make himself agreeable by preventing
+people from following the course they are inclined to pursue. The
+young baronet rather humoured him than otherwise, for he wished to see
+as deeply as possible into his character. He asked him to drink wine
+with him; he spoke to him once or twice without being called upon to
+do so; and he was somewhat amused to see that the fair Zara was a good
+deal annoyed at the encouragement he gave to her companion on the left
+to join in their conversation.
+
+He was soon satisfied, however, in regard to the young man's mind and
+character. Richard Radford had evidently received what is called a
+good education, which is, in fact, no education at all. He had been
+taught a great many things; he knew a good deal; but that which really
+and truly constitutes education was totally wanting. He had not
+learned how to make use of that which he had acquired, either for his
+own benefit or for that of society. He had been instructed, not
+educated, and there is the greatest possible difference between the
+two. He was shrewd enough, but selfish and conceited to a high degree,
+with a sufficient portion of pride to be offensive, with sufficient
+vanity to be irritable, with all the wilfulness of a spoiled child,
+and with that confusion of ideas in regard to plain right and wrong,
+which is always consequent upon the want of moral training and
+over-indulgence in youth. To judge from his own conversation, the
+whole end and aim of his life seemed to be excitement; he spoke of
+field sports with pleasure; but the degree of satisfaction which he
+derived from each, appeared to be always in proportion to the danger,
+the activity, and the fierceness. Hunting he liked better than
+shooting, shooting than fishing, which latter he declared was only
+tolerable because there was nothing else to be done in the spring of
+the year. But upon the pleasures of the chase he would dilate largely,
+and he told several anecdotes of staking a magnificent horse here, and
+breaking the back of another there, till poor Zara turned somewhat
+pale, and begged him to desist from such themes.
+
+"I cannot think how men can be so barbarous," she said. "Their whole
+pleasure seems to consist in torturing poor animals or killing them."
+
+Young Radford laughed. "What were they made for?" he asked.
+
+"To be used by man, I think, not to be tortured by him," the young
+lady replied.
+
+"No torture at all," said her companion on the left. "The horse takes
+as much pleasure in running after the hounds as I do, and if he breaks
+his back, or I break my neck, it's our own fault. We have nobody to
+thank for it but ourselves. The very chance of killing oneself gives
+additional pleasure; and, when one pushes a horse at a leap, the best
+fun of the whole is the thought whether he will be able by any
+possibility to clear it or not. If it were not for hunting, and one or
+two other things of the sort, there would be nothing left for an
+English gentleman, but to go to Italy and put himself at the head of a
+party of banditti. That must be glorious work!"
+
+"Don't you think, Mr. Radford," asked Sir Edward Digby, "that active
+service in the army might offer equal excitement, and a more
+honourable field?"
+
+"Oh, dear no!" cried the young man. "A life of slavery compared with a
+life of freedom; to be drilled and commanded, and made a mere machine
+of, and sent about relieving guards and pickets, and doing everything
+that one is told like a school-boy! I would not go into the army for
+the world. I'm sure if I did I should shoot my commanding officer
+within a month!"
+
+"Then I would advise you not," answered the young baronet, "for after
+the shooting there would be another step to be taken which would not
+be quite so pleasant."
+
+"Oh, you mean the hanging," cried young Radford, laughing; "but I
+would take care they should never hang me; for I could shoot myself as
+easily as I could shoot him; and I have a great dislike to
+strangulation. It's one of the few sorts of death that would not
+please me."
+
+"Come, come, Richard!" said Sir Robert Croyland, in a nervous and
+displeased tone; "let us talk of some other subject. You will frighten
+the ladies from table before the cloth is off."
+
+"It is very odd," said young Radford, in a low voice, to Sir Edward
+Digby, without making any reply to the master of the house--"it is
+very odd, how frightened old men are at the very name of death, when
+at the best they can have but two or three years to live."
+
+The young officer did not reply, but turned the conversation to other
+things; and the wine having been liberally supplied, operated as it
+usually does, at the point where its use stops short of excess, in
+"making glad the heart of man;" and the conclusion of the dinner was
+much more cheerful and placable than the commencement.
+
+The ladies retired within a few minutes after the desert was set upon
+the table; and it soon became evident to Sir Edward Digby, that the
+process of deep drinking, so disgracefully common in England at that
+time, was about to commence. He was by no means incapable of bearing
+as potent libations as most men; for occasionally, in those days, it
+was scarcely possible to escape excess without giving mortal offence
+to your entertainer; but it was by no means either his habit or his
+inclination so to indulge, and for this evening especially he was
+anxious to escape. He looked, therefore, across the table to Mr.
+Croyland for relief; and that gentleman, clearly understanding what he
+meant, gave him a slight nod, and finished his first glass of wine
+after dinner. The bottles passed round again, and Mr. Croyland took
+his second glass; but after that he rose without calling much
+attention: a proceeding which was habitual with him. When, however,
+Sir Edward Digby followed his example, there was a general outcry.
+Every one declared it was too bad, and Sir Robert said, in a somewhat
+mortified tone, that he feared his wine was not so good as that to
+which his guest had been accustomed.
+
+"It is only too good, my dear sir," replied the young baronet,
+determined to cut the matter short, at once and for ever. "So good,
+indeed, that I have been induced to take two more glasses than I
+usually indulge in, and I consequently feel somewhat heated and
+uncomfortable. I shall go and refresh myself by a walk through your
+woods."
+
+Several more efforts were made to induce him to stay; but he was
+resolute in his course; and Mr. Croyland also came to his aid,
+exclaiming, "Pooh, nonsense, Robert! let every man do as he likes.
+Have not I heard you, a thousand times, call your house Liberty Hall?
+A pretty sort of liberty, indeed, if a man must get beastly drunk
+because you choose to do so!"
+
+"I do not intend to do any such thing, brother," replied Sir Robert,
+somewhat sharply; and in the meanwhile, during this discussion, Sir
+Edward Digby made his escape from the room.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+On entering the drawing-room, towards which Sir Edward Digby
+immediately turned his steps, he found it tenanted alone by Mrs.
+Barbara Croyland, who sat in the window with her back towards the
+door, knitting most diligently, with something pinned to her knee. As
+it was quite beyond the good lady's conception that any body would
+ever think of quitting the dining-room so early but her younger
+brother, no sooner did she hear a step than, jumping at conclusions as
+she usually did, she exclaimed aloud, "Isn't he a nice young man,
+brother Zachary? I think it will do quite well, if that----"
+
+Sir Edward Digby would have given a great deal to hear the conclusion
+of the sentence; but his honour was as bright as his sword; and he
+never took advantage of a mistake. "It is not your brother, Mrs.
+Croyland," he said; and then Mrs. Barbara starting up with a face like
+scarlet, tearing her gown at the same time by the tug she gave to the
+pin which attached her work to her knee, he added, with the most
+benevolent intentions, "I think he might have been made a very nice
+young man, if he had been properly treated in his youth. But I should
+imagine he was very wild and headstrong now."
+
+Mrs. Barbara stared at him with a face full of wonder and confusion;
+for her own mind was so completely impressed with the subject on which
+she had begun to speak, that she by no means comprehended the turn
+that he intended to give it, but thought that he also was talking of
+himself, and not of young Radford. How it would have ended, no mere
+mortal can tell; for when once Mrs. Barbara got into a scrape, she
+floundered most awfully. Luckily, however, her brother was close
+enough behind Sir Edward Digby to hear all that passed, and he entered
+the room while the consternation was still fresh upon his worthy
+sister's countenance.
+
+After gazing at her for a moment, with a look of sour merriment, Mr.
+Croyland exclaimed, "There! hold your tongue, Bab; you can't get your
+fish out of the kettle without burning your fingers!--Now, my young
+friend," he continued, taking Sir Edward Digby by the arm, and drawing
+him aside, "if you choose to be a great fool, and run the risk of
+falling in love with a pretty girl, whom my sister Barbara has
+determined you shall marry, whether you like it or not, and who
+herself, dear little soul, has no intention in the world but of
+playing you like a fish till you are caught, and then laughing at you,
+you will find the two girls walking in the wood behind the house, as
+they do every day. But if you don't like such amusement, you can stay
+here with me and Bab, and be instructed by her in the art and mystery
+of setting everything to wrongs with the very best intentions in the
+world."
+
+"Thank you, my dear sir," replied Sir Edward, smiling, "I think I
+should prefer the fresh air; and, as to the dangers against which you
+warn me, I have no fears. The game of coquetry can be played by two."
+
+"Ay, but woe to him who loses!" said Mr. Croyland, in a more serious
+tone. "But go along with you--go along! You are a rash young man; and
+if you will court your fate, you must."
+
+The young baronet accordingly walked away, leaving Mrs. Barbara to
+recover from her confusion as she best might, and Mr. Croyland to
+scold her at his leisure, which Sir Edward did not in the slightest
+degree doubt he would do. It was a beautiful summer's afternoon in the
+end of August, the very last day of the month, the hour about a
+quarter to six, so that the sun had nearly to run a twelfth part of
+his course before the time of his setting. It was warm and cheerful,
+too, but with a freshness in the air, and a certain golden glow over
+the sky, which told that it was evening. Not wishing exactly to pass
+before the dining-room windows, Sir Edward endeavoured to find his way
+out into the wood behind the house by the stable and farm yards; but
+he soon found himself in a labyrinth from which it was difficult to
+extricate himself, and in the end was obliged to have recourse to a
+stout country lad, who was walking up towards the mansion, with a
+large pail of milk tugging at his hand, and bending in the opposite
+direction to balance the load. Right willingly, however, the youth set
+down the pail; and, leaving it to the tender mercies of some pigs, who
+were walking about in the yard and did not fail to inquire into the
+nature of its contents, he proceeded to show the way through the
+flower and kitchen gardens, by a small door in the wall, to a path
+which led out at once amongst the trees.
+
+Now, Sir Edward Digby had not the slightest idea of which way the two
+young ladies had gone; and it was by no means improbable that, if he
+were left without pilotage in going and returning, he might lose his
+way in the wood, which, as I have said, was very extensive. But all
+true lovers are fond of losing their way; and as he had his sword by
+his side, he had not the slightest objection to that characteristic of
+an Amadis, having in reality a good deal of the knight-errant about
+him, and rather liking a little adventure, if it did not go too far.
+His adventures, indeed, were not destined that night to be very
+remarkable; for, following the path about a couple of hundred yards,
+he was led directly into a good, broad, sandy road, in which he
+thought it would be impossible to go astray. A few clouds that passed
+over the sky from time to time cast their fitful and fanciful shadows
+upon the way; the trees waved on either hand; and, with a small border
+of green turf, the yellow path pursued its course through the wood,
+forming a fine but pleasant contrast in colour with the verdure of all
+the other things around. As he went on, too, the sky overhead, and the
+shades amongst the trees, began to assume a rosy hue as the day
+declined farther and farther; and the busy little squirrels, as
+numerous as mice, were seen running here and there up the trees and
+along the branches, with their bright black eyes staring at the
+stranger with a saucy activity very little mingled with fear. The
+young baronet was fond of such scenes, and fond of the somewhat grave
+musing which they very naturally inspire; and he therefore went on,
+alternately pondering and admiring, and very well contented with his
+walk, whether he met with his fair friends or not. Sir Edward, indeed,
+would not allow himself to fancy that he was by any means very anxious
+for Zara's company, or for Miss Croyland's either--for he was not in
+the slightest hurry either to fall in love or to acknowledge it to
+himself even if he were. With regard to Edith, indeed, he felt himself
+in no possible danger; for had he continued to think her, as he had
+done at first, more beautiful than her sister--which by this time he
+did not--he was still guarded in her case by feelings, which, to a man
+of his character, were as a triple shield of brass, or anything a
+great deal stronger.
+
+He walked on, however, and he walked on; not, indeed, with a very slow
+pace, but with none of the eager hurry of youth after beauty; till at
+length, when he had proceeded for about half an hour, he saw
+cultivated fields and hedgerows at the end of the road he was
+pursuing, and soon after came to the open country, without meeting
+with the slightest trace of Sir Robert Croyland's daughters.
+
+On the right hand, as he issued out of the wood, there was a small but
+very neat and picturesque cottage, with its little kitchen-garden and
+its flower-garden, its wild roses, and its vine.
+
+"I have certainly missed them," said Sir Edward Digby to himself, "and
+I ought to make the best use of my time, for it wont do to stay here
+too long. Perhaps they may have gone into the cottage. Girls like
+these often seek an object in their walk, and visit this poor person
+or that;" and thus thinking, he advanced to the little gate, went into
+the garden, and knocked with his knuckles at the door of the house. A
+woman's voice bade him come in; and, doing so, he found a room, small
+in size, but corresponding in neatness and cleanliness with the
+outside of the place. It was tenanted by three persons--a middle-aged
+woman, dressed as a widow, with a fine and placid countenance, who was
+advancing towards the door as he entered; a very lovely girl of
+eighteen or nineteen, who bore a strong resemblance to the widow; and
+a stout, powerful, good-looking man, of about thirty, well dressed,
+though without any attempt at the appearance of a station above the
+middle class, with a clean, fine, checked shirt, having the collar
+cast back, and a black silk handkerchief tied lightly in what is
+usually termed a sailor's knot. The two latter persons were sitting
+very close together, and the girl was smiling gaily at something her
+companion had just said.
+
+"Two lovers!" thought the young baronet; but, as that was no business
+of his, he went on to inquire of the good woman of the house, if she
+had seen some young ladies pass that way; and having named them, he
+added, to escape scandal, "I am staying at the house, and am afraid,
+if I do not meet with them, I shall not easily find my way back."
+
+"They were here a minute ago, sir," replied the widow, "and they went
+round to the east. They will take the Halden road back, I suppose. If
+you make haste, you will catch them easily."
+
+"But which is the Halden road, my good lady?" asked Sir Edward Digby;
+and she, turning to the man who was sitting by her daughter, said, "I
+wish you would shew the gentleman, Mr. Harding."
+
+The man rose cheerfully enough--considering the circumstances--and led
+the young baronet with a rapid step, by a footpath that wound round
+the edge of the wood, to another broad road about three hundred yards
+distant from that by which the young officer had come. Then, pointing
+with his hand, he said, "There they are, going as slow as a Dutch
+butter-tub. You can't miss them, or the road either: for it leads
+straight on."
+
+Sir Edward Digby thanked him, and walked forward. A few rapid steps
+brought him close to the two ladies, who--though they looked upon
+every part of the wood as more or less their home, and consequently
+felt no fear--turned at the sound of a footfall so near; and the
+younger of the two smiled gaily, when she saw who it was.
+
+"What! Sir Edward Digby!" she exclaimed. "In the name of all that is
+marvellous, how did you escape from the dining-room? Why, you will be
+accused of shirking the bottle, cowardice, and milksopism, and crimes
+and misdemeanours enough to forfeit your commission."
+
+She spoke gaily; but Sir Edward Digby thought that the gaiety was not
+exactly sterling; for when first she turned, her face had been nearly
+as grave as her sister's. He answered, however, in the same tone, "I
+must plead guilty to all such misdemeanours; but if they are to be
+rewarded by such pleasure as that of a walk with you, I fear I shall
+often commit them."
+
+"You must not pay us courtly compliments, Sir Edward," said Miss
+Croyland, "for we poor country people do not understand them. I hope,
+however, you left the party peaceable: for it promised to be quite the
+contrary at one time, and my uncle and Mr. Radford never agree."
+
+"Oh, quite peaceable, I can assure you," replied Digby. "I retreated
+under cover of your uncle's movements. Perhaps, otherwise, I might not
+have got away so easily. He it was who told me where I should find
+you."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Miss Croyland, in a tone of surprise; and then,
+casting down her eyes, she fell into thought. Her sister, however,
+carried on the conversation in her stead, saying, "Well, you are the
+first soldier, Sir Edward, I ever saw, who left the table before
+night."
+
+"They must have been soldiers who had seen little service, I should
+think," replied the young officer; "for a man called upon often for
+active exertion, soon finds the necessity of keeping any brains he has
+got as clear as possible, in case they should be needed. In many
+countries where I have been, too, we could get no wine to drink, even
+if we wanted it. Such was the case in Canada, and in some parts of
+Germany."
+
+"Have you served in Canada?" demanded Miss Croyland suddenly, raising
+her eyes to his face with a look of deep interest.
+
+"Through almost the whole of the war." replied Sir Edward Digby,
+quietly, without noticing, even by a glance, the change of expression
+which his words had produced. He then paused for a moment, as if
+waiting for some other question; but both Miss Croyland and her sister
+remained perfectly silent, and the former turned somewhat pale.
+
+As he saw that neither of his two fair companions were likely to carry
+the conversation a step further, the young officer proceeded, in a
+quiet and even light tone--"This part of the country," he continued,
+"is always connected in my mind with Canada; and, indeed, I was glad
+to accept your father's invitation at once, when he was kind enough to
+ask me to his house; for, in addition to the pleasure of making his
+personal acquaintance, I longed to see scenes which I had often heard
+mentioned with all the deep affection and delight which only can be
+felt by a fine mind for the spot in which our brighter years are
+passed."
+
+The younger girl looked to her sister, but Edith Croyland was deadly
+pale, and said nothing; and Zara inquired in a tone to which she too
+evidently laboured to give the gay character of her usual demeanour,
+"Indeed, Sir Edward! May I ask who gave you such a flattering account
+of our poor country? He must have been a very foolish and prejudiced
+person--at least, so I fear you must think, now you have seen it."
+
+"No, no!--oh, no!" cried Digby, earnestly, "anything but that. I had
+that account from a person so high-minded, so noble, so full of every
+generous quality of heart, and every fine quality of mind, that I was
+quite sure, ere I came here, I should find the people whom he
+mentioned, and the scenes which he described, all that he had stated;
+and I have not been disappointed, Miss Croyland."
+
+"But you have not named him, Sir Edward," said Zara; "you are very
+tantalizing. Perhaps we may know him, and be sure we shall love him
+for his patriotism."
+
+"He was an officer in the regiment to which I then belonged." answered
+the young baronet, "and my dearest friend. His name was Leyton--a most
+distinguished man, who had already gained such a reputation, that, had
+his rank in the army admitted it, none could have been more desired to
+take the command of the forces when Wolfe fell on the heights of
+Abraham. He was too young, however, and had too little interest to
+obtain that position.--Miss Croyland, you seem ill. Let me give you my
+arm."
+
+Edith bowed her head quietly, and leaned upon her sister, but answered
+not a word; and Zara gave a glance to Sir Edward Digby which he read
+aright. It was a meaning, a sort of relying and imploring look, as if
+she would have said, "I beseech you, say no more; she cannot bear it."
+And the young officer abruptly turned the conversation, observing,
+"The day has been very hot, Miss Croyland. You have walked far, and
+over-fatigued yourself."
+
+"It is nothing--it is nothing," answered Edith, with a deep-drawn
+breath; "it will be past in a moment, Sir Edward. I am frequently
+thus."
+
+"Too frequently," murmured Zara, gazing at her sister; and Sir Edward
+Digby replied, "I am sure, if such be the case, you should consult
+some physician."
+
+Zara shook her head with a melancholy smile, while her sister walked
+on, leaning upon her arm in silence, with her eyes bent towards the
+ground, as if in deep thought. "I fear that no physician would do her
+good," said the younger lady, in a low voice; "the evil is now
+confirmed."
+
+"Nay," replied Digby, gazing at her, "I think I know one who could
+cure her entirely."
+
+His look said more than his words; and Zara fixed her eyes upon his
+face for an instant with an inquiring glance. The expression then
+suddenly changed to one of bright intelligence, and she answered, "I
+will make you give me his name to-morrow, Sir Edward. Not now--not
+now! I shall forget it."
+
+Sir Edward Digby was not slow in taking a hint; and he consequently
+made no attempt to bring the conversation back to the subject which
+had so much affected Miss Croyland; but lest a dead silence should too
+plainly mark that he saw into the cause of the faintness which had
+come over her, he went on talking to her sister; and Zara soon
+resumed, at least to all appearance, her own light spirits again. But
+Digby had seen her under a different aspect, which was known to few
+besides her sister; and to say the truth, though he had thought her
+sparkling frankness very charming, yet the deeper and tenderer
+feelings which she had displayed towards Edith were still more to his
+taste.
+
+"She is not the light coquette her uncle represents her," he thought,
+as they walked on: "there is a true and feeling heart beneath--one
+whose affections, if strongly excited and then disappointed, might
+make her as sad and cheerless as this other poor girl."
+
+He had not much time to indulge either in such meditations or in
+conversation with his fair companion; for, when they were within about
+a mile of the house, old Mr. Croyland was seen advancing towards them
+with his usual brisk air and quick pace.
+
+"Well, young people, well," he said, coming forward, "I bring the
+soberness of age to temper the lightness of youth."
+
+"Oh, we are all very sober, uncle," replied Zara. "It is only those
+who stay in the house drinking wine who are otherwise."
+
+"I have not been drinking wine, saucy girl," answered Mr. Croyland;
+"but come, Edith, I want to speak with you; and, as the road is too
+narrow for four, we'll pair off, as the rascals who ruin the country
+in the House of Commons term it. Troop on, Miss Zara. There's a
+gallant cavalier who will give you his arm, doubtless, if you will ask
+it."
+
+"Indeed I shall do no such thing," replied the fair lady, walking on;
+and, while Edith and her uncle came slowly after, Sir Edward Digby and
+the youngest Miss Croyland proceeded on their way, remaining silent
+for some minutes, though each, to say the truth, was busily thinking
+how the conversation which had been interrupted might best be renewed.
+It was Zara who spoke first, however, looking suddenly up in her
+companion's face with one of her bright and sparkling smiles, and
+saying, "It is a strange house, is it not, Sir Edward? and we are a
+strange family?"
+
+"Nay, I do not see that," replied the young officer. "With every new
+person whose acquaintance we make, we are like a traveller for the
+first time in a foreign country, and must learn the secrets of the
+land before we can find our way rightly."
+
+"Oh, secrets enough here!" cried Zara. "Every one has his secret but
+myself. I have none, thank God! My good father is full of them; Edith,
+you see, has hers; my uncle is loaded with one even now, and eager to
+disburden himself; but my aunt's are the most curious of all, for they
+are everlasting; and not only that, but though most profound, they are
+sure to be known in five minutes to the whole world. Try to conceal
+them how she may, they are sure to drop out before the day is over;
+and, whatever good schemes she may have against any one, no defence is
+needed, for they are sure to frustrate themselves.--What are you
+laughing at, Sir Edward? Has she begun upon you already?"
+
+"Nay, not exactly upon me," answered Sir Edward Digby. "She certainly
+did let drop some words which showed me, she had some scheme in her
+head, though whom it referred to, I am at a loss to divine."
+
+"Nay, nay, now you are not frank," cried the young lady. "Tell me this
+moment, if you would have me hold you good knight and true! Was it me
+or Edith that it was all about? Nay, do not shake your head, my good
+friend, for I will know, depend upon it; and if you do not tell me, I
+will ask my aunt myself----"
+
+"Nay, for Heaven's sake, do not!" exclaimed Sir Edward. "You must not
+make your aunt think that I am a tell-tale."
+
+"Oh, I know--I know!" exclaimed the fair girl, clapping her hands
+eagerly--"I can divine it all in a minute. She has been telling you
+what an excellent good girl Zara Croyland is, and what an admirable
+wife she would make, especially for any man moving in the highest
+society, and hinting, moreover, that she is fond of military men, and,
+in short, that Sir Edward Digby could not do better. I know it all--I
+know it all, as well as if I had heard it! But now, my dear sir," she
+continued, in a graver tone, "put all such nonsense out of your head,
+if you would have us such good friends as I think we may be. Leave my
+dear aunt's schemes to unravel and defeat themselves, or only think of
+them as a matter of amusement, and do not for a moment believe that
+Zara Croyland has either any share in them, or any design of
+captivating you or any other man whatsoever; for I tell you fairly,
+and at once, that I never intend--that nothing would induce me--no,
+not if my own dearest happiness depended upon it--to marry, and leave
+poor Edith to endure all that she may be called upon to undergo. I
+will talk to you more about her another time; for I think that you
+already know something beyond what you have said to-day; but we are
+too near the house now, and I will only add, that I have spoken
+frankly to Sir Edward Digby, because I believe, from all I have seen
+and all I have heard, that he is incapable of misunderstanding such
+conduct."
+
+"You do me justice, Miss Croyland," replied the young officer, much
+gratified; "but you have spoken under a wrong impression in regard to
+your aunt. I did not interrupt you, for what you said was too
+pleasing, too interesting not to induce me to let you go on; but I can
+assure you that what I said was perfectly true, and that though some
+words which your aunt dropped accidentally showed me that she had some
+scheme on foot, she said nothing to indicate what it was."
+
+"Well, never mind it," answered the young lady. "We now understand
+each other, I trust; and, after this, I do not think you will easily
+mistake me, though, if what I suppose is true, I may have to do a
+great many extraordinary things with you, Sir Edward--seek your
+society when you may not be very willing to grant it, consult you,
+rely upon you, confide in you in a way that few women would do, except
+with a brother or an acknowledged lover, which I beg you to understand
+you are on no account to be; and I, on my part, will promise that I
+will not misunderstand you either, nor take anything that you may do,
+at my request, for one very dear to me," (and she gave a glance over
+her shoulder towards her sister, who was some way behind,) "as
+anything but a sign of your having a kind and generous heart. So now
+that's all settled."
+
+"There is one thing, Miss Croyland," replied Digby, gravely, "that you
+will find very difficult to do, though you say you will try it,
+namely, to seek my society when I am unwilling to give it."
+
+"Nay, nay, I will have no such speeches," cried Zara Croyland, "or I
+have done with you! I never could put any trust in a man who said
+civil things to me."
+
+"What, not if he sincerely thought them?" demanded her companion.
+
+"Then I would rather he continued to think them without speaking
+them," answered the young lady. "If you did but know, Sir Edward, how
+sickened and disgusted a poor girl in the country soon gets with
+flattery that means nothing, from men who insult her understanding by
+thinking that she can be pleased with such trash, you would excuse me
+for being rude and uncivilized enough to wish never to hear a smooth
+word from any man whom I am inclined to respect."
+
+"Very well," answered the young baronet, laughing, "to please you, I
+will be as brutal as possible, and if you like it, scold you as
+sharply as your uncle, if you say or do anything that I disapprove
+of."
+
+"Do, do!" cried Zara; "I love him and esteem him, though he does not
+understand me in the least; and I would rather a great deal have his
+conversation, sharp and snappish as it seems to be, than all the honey
+or milk and water of any of the smart young men in the neighbourhood.
+But here we are at the house; and only one word more as a warning, and
+one word as a question; first, do not let any of my good aunt's
+schemes embarrass you in anything you have to do or say. Walk straight
+through them as if they did not exist. Take your own course, without,
+in the least degree, attending to what she says for or against."
+
+"And what is the question?" demanded Sir Edward, as they were now
+mounting the steps to the terrace.
+
+"Simply this," replied the fair lady,--"are you not acquainted with
+more of Edith's history than the people here are aware of?"
+
+"I am," answered Digby; "and to see more of her, to speak with her for
+a few minutes in private, if possible, was the great object of my
+coming hither."
+
+"Thanks, thanks!" said Zara, giving him a bright and grateful smile.
+"Be guided by me, and you shall have the opportunity. But I must speak
+with you first myself, that you may know all. I suppose you are an
+early riser?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" replied Sir Edward; but he added no more; for at that
+moment they were overtaken by Edith and Mr. Croyland; and the whole
+party entered the house together.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+There is a strange similarity--I had nearly called it an
+affinity--between the climate of any country and the general character
+of its population; and there is a still stronger and more commonly
+remarked resemblance between the changes of the weather and the usual
+course of human life. From the atmosphere around us, and from the
+alterations which affect it, poets and moralists both, have borrowed a
+large store of figures; and the words, clouds, and sunshine, light
+breezes, and terrible storms, are terms as often used to express the
+variations in man's condition as to convey the ideas to which they
+were originally applied. But it is the affinity between the climate
+and the people of which I wish to speak. The sunny lightness of the
+air of France, the burning heat of Italy and Spain, the cold dullness
+of the skies of Holland, contrast as strongly with the climate in
+which we live, as the characters of the several nations amongst
+themselves; and the fiercer tempests of the south, the more foggy and
+heavy atmosphere of the north, may well be taken as some compensation
+for the continual mutability of the weather in our own most changeable
+air. The differences are not so great here as in other lands. We
+escape, in general, the tornado and the hurricane, we know little of
+the burning heat of summer, or the intense cold of winter, as they are
+experienced in other parts of the world; but at all events, the
+changes are much more frequent; and we seldom have either a long lapse
+of sunny days, or a long continued season of frost, without
+interruption. So it is, too, with the people. Moveable and fluctuating
+as they always are, seeking novelty, disgusted even with all that is
+good as soon as they discover that it is old, our laws, our
+institutions, our very manners are continually undergoing some change,
+though rarely, very rarely indeed, is it brought about violently and
+without due preparation. Sometimes it will occur, indeed, both morally
+and physically, that a great and sudden alteration takes place, and a
+rash and vehement proceeding will disturb the whole country, and seem
+to shake the very foundations of society. In the atmosphere, too,
+clouds and storms will gather in a few hours, and darken the whole
+heaven.
+
+The latter was the case during the first night of Sir Edward Digby's
+stay at Harbourne House. The evening preceding, as well as the day,
+had been warm and sunshiny; but about nine o'clock the wind suddenly
+chopped round to the southward, and when Sir Edward woke on the
+following morning, as he usually did, about six, he found a strong
+breeze blowing and rattling the casements of the room, and the whole
+atmosphere loaded with a heavy sea-mist filled with saline particles,
+borne over Romney Marsh to the higher country, in which the house was
+placed.
+
+"A pleasant day for partridge-shooting," he thought, as he rose from
+his bed; "what variations there are in this climate." But
+nevertheless, he opened the window and looked out, when, somewhat to
+his surprise, he saw fifteen or sixteen horses moving along the road,
+heavily laden, with a number of men on horseback following, and eight
+or ten on foot driving the weary beasts along. They were going
+leisurely enough; there was no affectation of haste or concealment;
+but yet all that the young officer had heard of the county and of the
+habits of its denizens, led him naturally to suppose that he had a
+gang of smugglers before him, escorting from the coast some contraband
+goods lately landed.
+
+He had soon a more unpleasant proof of the lawless state of that part
+of England; for as he continued to lean out of the window, saying to
+himself, "Well, it is no business of mine," he saw two or three of the
+men pause; and a moment after, a voice shouted--"Take that, old
+Croyland, for sending me to gaol last April."
+
+The wind bore the sounds to his ear, and made the words distinct; and
+scarcely had they been spoken, when a flash broke through the misty
+air, followed by a loud report, and a ball whizzed through the window,
+just above his head, breaking one of the panes of glass, and lodging
+in the cornice at the other side of the room.
+
+"Very pleasant!" said Sir Edward Digby to himself; but he was a
+somewhat rash young man, and he did not move an inch, thinking--"the
+vagabonds shall not have to say they frightened me."
+
+They shewed no inclination to repeat the shot, however, riding on at a
+somewhat accelerated pace; and as soon as they were out of sight,
+Digby withdrew from the window, and began to dress himself. He had not
+given his servant, the night before, any orders to call him at a
+particular hour; but he knew that the man would not be later than
+half-past six; and before he appeared, the young officer was nearly
+dressed.
+
+"Here, Somers," said his master, "put my gun together, and have
+everything ready if I should like to go out to shoot. After that I've
+a commission for you, something quite in your own way, which I know
+you will execute capitally."
+
+"Quite ready, sir," said the man, putting up his hand to his head.
+"Always ready to obey orders."
+
+"We want intelligence of the enemy, Somers," continued his master.
+"Get me every information you can obtain regarding young Mr. Radford,
+where he goes, what he does, and all about him."
+
+"Past, present, or to come, sir?" demanded the man.
+
+"All three," answered his master. "Everything you can learn about him,
+in short--birth, parentage, and education."
+
+"I shall soon have to add his last dying speech and confession, I
+think, sir," said the man; "but you shall have it all before
+night--from the loose gossip of the post-office down to the full,
+true, and particular account of his father's own butler. But bless my
+soul, there's a hole through the window, sir."
+
+"Nothing but a musket-ball, Somers," answered his master, carelessly.
+"You've seen such a thing before, I fancy."
+
+"Yes, sir, but not often in a gentleman's bedroom," replied the man.
+"Who could send it in here, I wonder?"
+
+"Some smugglers, I suppose they were," replied Sir Edward, "who took
+me for Sir Robert Croyland, as I was leaning out of the window, and
+gave me a ball as they passed. I never saw a worse shot in my life;
+for I was put up like a target, and it went a foot and a half above my
+head. Give me those boots, Somers;" and having drawn them on, Sir
+Edward Digby descended to the drawing-room, while his servant
+commented upon his coolness, by saying, "Well, he's a devilish fine
+young fellow, that master of mine, and ought to make a capital general
+some of these days!"
+
+In the drawing-room, Sir Edward Digby found nobody but a pretty
+country girl in a mob-cap sweeping out the dust; and leaving her to
+perform her functions undisturbed by his presence, he sauntered
+through a door which he had seen open the night before, exposing part
+of the interior of a library. That room was quite vacant, and as the
+young officer concluded that between it and the drawing-room must lie
+the scene of his morning's operations, he entertained himself with
+taking down different books, looking into them for a moment or two,
+reading a page here and a page there, and then putting them up again.
+He was in no mood, to say the truth, either for serious study or light
+reading. Gay would not have amused him; Locke would have driven him
+mad.
+
+He knew not well why it was, but his heart beat when he heard a step
+in the neighbouring room. It was nothing but the housemaid, as he was
+soon convinced, by her letting the dustpan drop and making a terrible
+clatter. He asked himself what his heart could be about, to go on in
+such a way, simply because he was waiting, in the not very vague
+expectation of seeing a young lady, with whom he had to talk of some
+business, in which neither of them were personally concerned.
+
+"It must be the uncertainty of whether she will come or not," he
+thought; "or else the secrecy of the thing;" and yet he had, often
+before, had to wait with still more secrecy and still more
+uncertainty, on very dangerous and important occasions, without
+feeling any such agitation of his usually calm nerves. She was a very
+pretty girl, it was true, with all the fresh graces of youth about
+her, light and sunshine in her eyes, health and happiness on her
+cheeks and lips, and
+
+
+             "La grace encore plus belle que la beaute"
+
+
+in every movement. But then, they perfectly understood each other;
+there was no harm, there was no risk, there was no reason why they
+should not meet.
+
+Did they perfectly understand each other? Did they perfectly
+understand themselves? It is a very difficult question to answer; but
+one thing is very certain--that, of all things upon this earth, the
+most gullible is the human heart; and when it thinks it understands
+itself best, it is almost always sure to prove a greater fool than
+ever.
+
+Sir Edward Digby did not altogether like his own thoughts; and
+therefore, after waiting for a quarter of an hour, he walked out into
+one of the little passages, which we have already mentioned, running
+from the central corridor towards a door or window in the front,
+between the library and what was called the music-room. He had not
+been there a minute when a step--very different from that of the
+housemaid--was heard in the neighbouring room; and, as the officer was
+turning thither, he met the younger Miss Croyland coming out, with a
+bonnet--or hat, as it was then called,--hanging on her arm by the
+ribbons.
+
+She held out her hand, frankly, towards him, saying, in a low tone,
+"You must think this all very strange, Sir Edward, and perhaps very
+improper. I have been taxing myself about it all night; but yet I was
+resolved I would not lose the opportunity, trusting to your generosity
+to justify me, when you hear all."
+
+"It requires no generosity, my dear Miss Croyland," replied the young
+baronet; "I am already aware of so much, and see the kind and deep
+interest you take in your sister so clearly, that I fully understand
+and appreciate your motives."
+
+"Thank you--thank you," replied Zara, warmly; "that sets my mind at
+rest. But come out upon the terrace. There, seen by all the world, I
+shall not feel as if I were plotting;" and she unlocked the glass door
+at the end of the passage. Sir Edward Digby followed close upon her
+steps; and when once fairly on the esplanade before the house, and far
+enough from open doors and windows not to be overheard, they commenced
+their walk backwards and forwards.
+
+It was quite natural that both should be silent for a few moments; for
+where there is much to say, and little time to say it in, people are
+apt to waste the precious present--or, at least, a part--in
+considering how it may best be said. At length the lady raised her
+eyes to her companion's face, with a smile more melancholy and
+embarrassed than usually found place upon her sweet lips, asking, "How
+shall I begin, Sir Edward?--Have you nothing to tell me?"
+
+"I have merely to ask questions," replied Digby; "yet, perhaps that
+may be the best commencement. I am aware, my dear Miss Croyland, that
+your sister has loved, and has been as deeply beloved as woman ever
+was by man. I know the whole tale; but what I seek now to learn is
+this--does she or does she not retain the affection of her early
+youth? Do former days and former feelings dwell in her heart as still
+existing things? or are they but as sad memories of a passion passed
+away, darkening instead of lighting the present,--or perhaps as a tie
+which she would fain shake off, and which keeps her from a brighter
+fate hereafter?"
+
+He spoke solemnly, earnestly, with his whole manner changed; and Zara
+gazed in his face eagerly and inquiringly as he went on, her face
+glowing, but her look becoming less sad, till it beamed with a warm
+and relieved smile at the close. "I was right, and she was wrong"--she
+said, at length, as if speaking to herself. "But to answer your
+question, Sir Edward Digby," she continued, gravely. "You little know
+woman's heart, or you would not put it--I mean the heart of a true and
+unspoiled woman, a woman worthy of the name. When she loves, she loves
+for ever--and it is only when death or unworthiness takes from her him
+she loves, that love becomes a memory. You cannot yet judge of Edith,
+and therefore I forgive you for asking such a thing; but she is all
+that is noble, and good, and bright; and Heaven pardon me, if I almost
+doubt that she was meant for happiness below--she seems so fitted for
+a higher state!"
+
+The tears rose in her eyes as she spoke; but Sir Edward feared
+interruption, and went on, asking, somewhat abruptly perhaps, "What
+made you say, just now, that you were right and she was wrong?"
+
+"Because she thought that he was dead, and that you came to announce
+it to her," Zara replied. "You spoke of him in the past, you always
+said, 'he was;' you said not a word of the present."
+
+"Because I knew not what were her present feelings," answered Digby.
+"She has never written--she has never answered one letter. All his
+have been returned in cold silence to his agents, addressed in her own
+hand. And then her father wrote to----"
+
+"Stay, stay!" cried Zara, putting her hand to her head--"addressed in
+her own hand? It must have been a forgery! Yet, no--perhaps not. She
+wrote to him twice; once just after he went, and once in answer to a
+message. The last letter I gave to the gardener myself, and bade him
+post it. That, too, was addressed to his agent's house. Can they have
+stopped the letters and used the covers?"
+
+"It is probable," answered Digby, thoughtfully. "Did she receive none
+from him?"
+
+"None--none," replied Zara, decidedly. "All that she has ever heard of
+him was conveyed in that one message; but she doubted not, Sir Edward.
+She knew him, it seems, better than he knew her."
+
+"Neither did he doubt her," rejoined her companion, "till circumstance
+after circumstance occurred to shake his confidence. Her own father
+wrote to him--now three years ago--to say that she was engaged, by her
+own consent, to this young Radford, and to beg that he would trouble
+her peace no more by fruitless letters."
+
+"Oh, Heaven!" cried Zara, "did my father say that?"
+
+"He did," replied Sir Edward. "And more: everything that poor Leyton
+has heard since his return has confirmed the tale. He inquired, too
+curiously for his own peace--first, whether she was yet married; next,
+whether she was really engaged; and every one gave but one account."
+
+"How busy they have been!" said Zara, thoughtfully. "Whoever said it,
+it is false, Sir Edward; and he should not have doubted her more than
+she doubted him."
+
+"She, you admit, had one message," answered Digby; "he had none; and
+yet he held a lingering hope--trust would not altogether be crushed
+out. Can you tell me the tenour of the letters which she sent?"
+
+"Nay, I did not read them," replied his fair companion; "but she told
+me that it was the same story still: that she could not violate her
+duty to her parent; but that she should ever consider herself pledged
+and plighted to him beyond recall, by what had passed between them."
+
+"Then there is light at last," said Digby, with a smile. "But what is
+this story of young Radford? Is he, or is he not, her lover? He seemed
+to pay her little attention,--more, indeed, to yourself."
+
+The gay girl laughed. "I will tell you all about it," she answered.
+"Richard Radford is not her lover. He cares as little about her as
+about the Queen of England, or any body he has never seen; and, as you
+say, he would perhaps pay me the compliment of selecting me rather
+than Edith, if there was not a very cogent objection: Edith has forty
+thousand pounds settled upon herself by my mother's brother, who was
+her godfather; I have nothing, or next to nothing--some three or four
+thousand pounds, I believe; but I really don't know. However, this
+fortune of my poor sister's is old Radford's object; and he and my
+father have settled it between them, that the son of the one should
+marry the daughter of the other. What possesses my father, I cannot
+divine; for he must condemn old Radford, and despise the young one;
+but certain it is that he has pressed Edith, nearly to cruelty, to
+give her hand to a man she scorns and hates--and presses her still. It
+would be worse than it is, I fear, were it not for young Radford
+himself, who is not half so eager as his father, and does not wish to
+hurry matters on.--I may have some small share in the business," she
+continued, laughing again, but colouring at the same time; "for, to
+tell the truth, Sir Edward, having nothing else to do, and wishing to
+relieve poor Edith as much as possible, I have perhaps foolishly,
+perhaps even wrongly, drawn this wretched young man away from her
+whenever I had an opportunity. I do not think it was coquetry, as my
+uncle calls it--nay, I am sure it was not; for I abhor him as much as
+any one; but I thought that as there was no chance of my ever being
+driven to marry him, I could bear the infliction of his conversation
+better than my poor sister."
+
+"The motive was a kind one, at all events," replied Sir Edward Digby;
+"but then I may firmly believe that there is no chance whatever of
+Miss Croyland giving her hand to Richard Radford?"
+
+"None--none whatever," answered his fair companion. But at that point
+of their conversation one of the windows above was thrown up, and the
+voice of Mrs. Barbara was heard exclaiming--"Zara, my love, put on
+your hat; you will catch cold if you walk in that way, with your hat
+on your arm, in such a cold, misty morning!"
+
+Miss Croyland looked up, nodding to her aunt; and doing as she was
+told, like a very good girl as she was. But the next instant she said,
+in a low tone, "Good Heaven! there is his face at the window! My
+unlucky aunt has roused him by calling to me; and we shall not be long
+without him."
+
+"Who do you mean?" asked the young officer, turning his eyes towards
+the house, and seeing no one.
+
+"Young Radford," answered Zara. "Did you not know that they had to
+carry him to bed last night, unable to stand? So my maid told me; and
+I saw his face just now at the window, next to my aunt's. We shall
+have little time, Sir Edward, for he is as intrusive as he is
+disagreeable; so tell me at once what I am to think regarding poor
+Harry Leyton. Does he still love Edith? Is he in a situation to enable
+him to seek her, without affording great, and what they would consider
+reasonable, causes of objection?"
+
+"He loves her as deeply and devotedly as ever," replied Sir Edward
+Digby; "and all I have to tell him will but, if possible, increase
+that love. Then as to his situation, he is now a superior officer in
+the army, highly distinguished, commanding one of our best regiments,
+and sharing largely in the late great distribution of prize-money.
+There is no position that can be filled by a military man to which he
+has not a right to aspire; and, moreover, he has already received,
+from the gratitude of his king and his country, the high honour----"
+
+But he was not allowed to finish his sentence; for Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, who was most unfortunately matutinal in her habits, now came
+out with a shawl for her fair niece, and was uncomfortably civil to
+Sir Edward Digby, inquiring how he had slept, whether he had been warm
+enough, whether he liked two pillows or one, and a great many other
+questions, which lasted till young Radford made his appearance at the
+door, and then, with a pale face and sullen brow, came out and joined
+the party on the terrace.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Barbara--now that she had done as much mischief as
+possible--"I'll just go in and make breakfast, as Edith must set out
+early, and Mr. Radford wants to get home to shoot."
+
+"Edith set off early?" exclaimed Zara; "why, where is she going, my
+dear aunt?"
+
+"Oh, I have just been settling it all with your papa, my love,"
+replied Mrs. Barbara. "I thought she was looking ill yesterday, and so
+I talked to your uncle last night. He said he would be very glad to
+have her with him for a few days; but as he expects a Captain Osborn
+before the end of the week, she must come at once; and Sir Robert says
+she can have the carriage after breakfast, but that it must be back by
+one."
+
+Zara cast down her eyes, and the whole party, as if by common consent,
+took their way back to the house. As they passed in, however, and
+proceeded towards the dining-room, where the table was laid for
+breakfast, Zara found a moment to say to Sir Edward Digby, in a low
+tone, "Was ever anything so unfortunate! I will try to stop it if I
+can."
+
+"Not so unfortunate as it seems," answered the young baronet, in a
+whisper; "let it take its course. I will explain hereafter."
+
+"Whispering! whispering!" said young Radford, in a rude tone, and with
+a sneer curling his lip.
+
+Zara's cheek grew crimson; but Digby turned upon him sharply,
+demanding, "What is that to you, sir? Pray make no observations upon
+my conduct, for depend upon it I shall not tolerate any insolence."
+
+At that moment, however, Sir Robert Croyland appeared; and whatever
+might have been Richard Radford's intended reply, it was suspended
+upon his lips.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Before I proceed farther with the events of that morning, I must
+return for a time to the evening which preceded it. It was a dark and
+somewhat dreary night, when Mr. Radford, leaving his son stupidly
+drunk at Sir Robert Croyland's, proceeded to the hall door to mount
+his horse; and as he pulled his large riding-boots over his shoes and
+stockings, and looked out, he regretted that he had not ordered his
+carriage. "Who would have thought," he said, "that such a fine day
+would have ended in such a dull evening?"
+
+"It often happens, my dear Radford," replied Sir Robert Croyland, who
+stood beside him, "that everything looks fair and prosperous for a
+time; then suddenly the wind shifts, and a gloomy night succeeds."
+
+Mr. Radford was not well-pleased with the homily. It touched upon that
+which was a sore subject with him at that moment; for, to say the
+truth, he was labouring under no light apprehensions regarding the
+result of certain speculations of his. He had lately lost a large sum
+in one of these wild adventures--far more than was agreeable to a man
+of his money-getting turn of mind; and though he was sanguine enough,
+from long success, to embark, like a determined gambler, a still
+larger amount in the same course, yet the first shadow of reverse
+which had fallen upon him, brought home and applied to his own
+situation the very commonplace words of Sir Robert Croyland; and he
+began to fancy that the bright day of his prosperity might be indeed
+over, and a dark and gloomy night about to succeed.
+
+As we have said, therefore, he did not at all like the baronet's
+homily; and, as very often happens with men of his disposition, he
+felt displeased with the person whose words alarmed him. Murmuring
+something, therefore, about its being "a devilish ordinary
+circumstance indeed," he strode to the door, scarcely wishing the
+baronet good night, and mounted a powerful horse, which was held ready
+for him. He then rode forward, followed by two servants on horseback,
+proceeding slowly at first, but getting into a quicker pace when he
+came upon the parish road, and trotting on hard along the edge of
+Harbourne Wood. He had drunk as much wine as his son; but his hard and
+well-seasoned head was quite insensible to the effects of strong
+beverages, and he went on revolving all probable contingencies,
+somewhat sullen and out of humour with all that had passed during the
+afternoon, and taking a very unpromising view of everybody and
+everything.
+
+"I've a notion," he thought, "that old scoundrel Croyland is playing
+fast and loose about his daughter's marriage with my son. He shall
+repent it if he do; and if Dick does not make the girl pay for all her
+airs and coldness when he's got her, he's no son of mine. He seems as
+great a fool as she is, though, and makes love to her sister without a
+penny, never saying a word to a girl who has forty thousand pounds.
+The thing shall soon be settled one way or another, however. I'll have
+a conference with Sir Robert on Friday, and bring him to book. I'll
+not be trifled with any longer. Here we have been kept more than four
+years waiting till the girl chooses to make up her mind, and I'll not
+stop any longer. It shall be, yes or no, at once."
+
+He was still busy with such thoughts when he reached the angle of
+Harbourne Wood, and a loud voice exclaimed, "Hi! Mr. Radford!"
+
+"Who the devil are you?" exclaimed that worthy gentleman, pulling in
+his horse, and at the same time putting his hand upon one of the
+holsters, which every one at that time carried at his saddle bow.
+
+"Harding, sir," answered the voice--"Jack Harding; and I want to speak
+a word with you."
+
+At the same time the man walked forward; and Mr. Radford immediately
+dismounting, gave his horse to the servants, and told them to lead him
+quietly on till they came to Tiffenden. Then pausing till the sound of
+the hoofs became somewhat faint, he asked, with a certain degree of
+alarm, "Well, Harding, what's the matter? What has brought you up in
+such a hurry to-night?"
+
+"No great hurry, sir," answered the smuggler, "I came up about four
+o'clock; and finding that you were dining at Sir Robert's, I thought I
+would look out for you as you went home, having something to tell you.
+I got an inkling last night, that, some how or another, the people
+down at Hythe have some suspicion that you are going to try something,
+and I doubt that boy very much."
+
+"Indeed! indeed!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, evidently under great
+apprehension. "What have they found out, Harding?"
+
+"Why, not much, I believe," replied the smuggler; "but merely that
+there's something in the wind, and that you have a hand in it."
+
+"That's bad enough--that's bad enough," repeated Mr. Radford. "We must
+put it off, Harding. We must delay it, till this has blown by."
+
+"No, I think not, sir," answered the smuggler. "It seems to me, on the
+contrary, that we ought to hurry it; and I'll tell you why. You see,
+the wind changed about five, and if I'm not very much mistaken, we
+shall have a cloudy sky and dirty weather for the next week at least.
+That's one thing; but then another is this, the Ramleys are going to
+make a run this very night. Now, I know that the whole affair is
+blown; and though they may get the goods ashore they wont carry them
+far. I told them so, just to be friendly; but they wouldn't listen,
+and you know their rash way. Bill Ramley answered, they would run the
+goods in broad daylight, if they liked, that there was not an officer
+in all Kent who would dare to stop them. Now, I know that they will be
+caught to-morrow morning, somewhere up about your place. I rather
+think, too, your son has a hand in the venture; and if I were you, I
+would do nothing to make people believe that it wasn't my own affair
+altogether. Let them think what they please; and then they are not so
+likely to be on the look-out."
+
+"I see--I see," cried Mr. Radford. "If they catch these fellows, and
+think that this is my venture, they will never suspect another. It's a
+good scheme. We had better set about it to-morrow night."
+
+"I don't know," answered Harding. "That cannot well be done, I should
+think. First, you must get orders over to the vessel to stand out to
+sea; then you must get all your people together, and one half of them
+are busy upon this other scheme, the Ramleys and young Chittenden, and
+him they call the major, and all their parties. You must see what
+comes of that first; for one half of them may be locked up before
+to-morrow night.
+
+"That's unfortunate, indeed!" said Mr. Radford, thoughtfully.
+
+"One must take a little ill luck with plenty of good luck," observed
+Harding; "and it's fortunate enough for you that these wild fellows
+will carry through this mad scheme, when they know they are found out
+before they start. Besides, I'm not sure that it is not best to wait
+till the night after, or, may be, the night after that. Then the news
+will have spread, that the goods have been either run and hid away, or
+seized by the officers. In either case, if you manage well, they will
+think that it is your venture; and the fellows on the coast will be
+off their guard--especially Mowle, who's the sharpest of them all."
+
+"Oh, I'll go down to-morrow and talk to Mowle myself," replied Mr.
+Radford. "It will be well worth my while to give him a hundred guineas
+to wink a bit."
+
+"Don't try it--don't try it!" exclaimed Harding, quickly. "It will do
+no good, and a great deal of harm. In the first place, you can do
+nothing with Mowle. He never took a penny in his life."
+
+"Oh, every man has his price," rejoined Mr. Radford, whose opinion of
+human nature, as the reader may have perceived, was not particularly
+high. "It's only because he wants to be bid up to. Mr. Mowle thinks
+himself above five or ten pounds; but the chink of a hundred guineas
+is a very pleasant sound."
+
+"He's as honest a fellow as ever lived," answered Harding, "and I tell
+you plainly, Mr. Radford, that if you offered him ten times the sum,
+he wouldn't take it. You would only shew him that this venture is not
+your grand one, without doing yourself the least good. He's a fair,
+open enemy, and lets every one know that, as long as he's a
+riding-officer here, he will do all he can against us."
+
+"Then he must be knocked on the head," said Mr. Radford, in a calm and
+deliberate tone; "and it shall be done, too, if he meddles with my
+affairs."
+
+"It will not be I who do it," replied Harding; "unless we come hand to
+hand together. Then, every man must take care of himself; but I should
+be very sorry, notwithstanding; for he's a straightforward, bold
+fellow, as brave as a lion, and with a good heart into the bargain. I
+wonder such an honest man ever went into such a rascally service."
+
+The last observation of our friend Harding may perhaps sound strangely
+to the reader's ears; but some allowance must be made for professional
+prejudices, and it is by no means too much to say that the smugglers
+of those days, and even of a much later period, looked upon their own
+calling as highly honest, honourable, and respectable, regarding the
+Customs as a most fraudulent and abominable institution, and all
+connected with it more or less in the light of a band of swindlers and
+knaves, leagued together for the purpose of preventing honest men from
+pursuing their avocations in peace. Such were the feelings which
+induced Harding to wonder that so good a man as Mowle could have
+anything to do with the prevention of smuggling; for he was so
+thoroughly convinced he was in the right himself, that he could not
+conceive how any one could see the case in any other point of view.
+
+"Ay," answered Mr. Radford, "that is a wonder, if he is such a good
+sort of man; but that I doubt. However, as you say it would not do to
+put oneself in his power, I'll have him looked after, and in the
+meanwhile, let us talk of the rest of the business. You say the night
+after to-morrow, or the night after that! I must know, however; for
+the men must be down. How are we to arrange that?"
+
+"Why, I'll see what the weather is like," was Harding's reply. "Then I
+can easily send up to let you know--or, what will be better still, if
+you can gather the men together the day after to-morrow, in the
+different villages not far off the coast, and I should find it the
+right sort of night, and get out to sea, they shall see a light on the
+top of Tolsford Hill, as soon as I am near in shore again. That will
+serve to guide them and puzzle the officers. Then let them gather, and
+come down towards Dymchurch, where they will find somebody from me to
+guide them."
+
+"They shall gather first at Saltwood," said Mr. Radford, "and then
+march down to Dymchurch. But how are we to manage about the ship?"
+
+"Why, you must send an order," answered Harding, "for both days, and
+let your skipper know that if he does not see us the first, he will
+see us the second."
+
+"You had better take it down with you at once," replied Mr. Radford,
+"and get it off early to-morrow. If you'll just come up to my house,
+I'll write it for you in a minute."
+
+"Ay, but I'm not going home to-night," said the smuggler; "I can have
+a bed at Mrs. Clare's; and I'm going to sleep there, so you can send
+it over when you like in the morning, and I'll get it off in time."
+
+"I wish you would not go hanging about after that girl, when we've got
+such serious business in hand," exclaimed Mr. Radford, in a sharp
+tone; but the next moment he added, with a sudden change of voice, "It
+doesn't signify to-night, however. There will be time enough; and they
+say you are going to marry her, Harding. Is that true?"
+
+"I should say, that's my business," replied Harding, bluntly, "but
+that I look upon it as an honour, Mr. Radford, that she's going to
+marry me; for a better girl does not live in the land, and I've known
+her a long while now, so I'm never likely to think otherwise."
+
+"Ay, I've known her a long time, too," answered Mr. Radford--"ever
+since her poor father was shot, and before; and a very good girl I
+believe she is. But now that you are over here, you may as well wait
+and hear what comes of these goods. Couldn't you just ride over to the
+Ramleys to-morrow morning--there you'll hear all about it."
+
+Harding laughed, but replied the next moment, in a grave tone, "I
+don't like the Ramleys, sir, and don't want to have more to do with
+them than I can help. I shall hear all about it soon enough, without
+going there."
+
+"But I sha'n't," answered Mr. Radford.
+
+"Then you had better send your son, sir," rejoined Harding. "He's
+oftener there than I am, a great deal.--Well, the matter is all
+settled, then. Either the night after to-morrow, or the night after
+that, if the men keep a good look-out, they'll see a light on Tolsford
+Hill. Then they must gather as fast as possible at Saltwood, and come
+on with anybody they may find there. Good night, Mr. Radford."
+
+"Good night, Harding--good night," said Mr. Radford, walking on; and
+the other turning his steps back towards Harbourne, made his way, by
+the first road on the right, to the cottage where we have seen him in
+the earlier part of the day.
+
+It was a pleasant aspect that the cottage presented when he went in,
+which he did without any of the ceremonies of knocking at the door or
+ringing the bell; for he was sure of a welcome. There was but one
+candle lighted on the table, for the dwellers in the place were poor;
+but the room was small, and that one was quite sufficient to shew the
+white walls and the neat shelves covered with crockery, and with
+one or two small prints in black frames. Besides, there was the
+fire-place, with a bright and cheerful, but not large fire; for
+though, in the month of September, English nights are frequently cold
+and sometimes frosty, the weather had been as yet tolerably mild.
+Nevertheless, the log of fir at the top blazed high, and crackled
+amidst the white and red embers below, and the flickering flame, as it
+rose and fell, caused the shadows to fall more vaguely or distinctly
+upon the walls, with a fanciful uncertainty of outline, that had
+something cheerful, yet mysterious in it.
+
+The widow was bending over the fire, with her face turned away, and
+her figure in the shadow. The daughter was busily working with her
+needle, but her eyes were soon raised--and they were very beautiful
+eyes--as Harding entered. A smile, too, was upon her lips; and though
+even tears may be lovely, and a sad look awaken deep and tender
+emotions, yet the smile of affection on a face we love is the
+brightest aspect of that bright thing the human countenance. It is
+what the sunshine is to the landscape, which may be fair in the rain
+or sublime in the storm, but can never harmonize so fully with the
+innate longing for happiness which is in the breast of every one, as
+when lighted up with the rays that call all its excellence and all its
+powers into life and being.
+
+Harding sat down beside the girl, and took her hand in his, saying,
+"Well, Kate, this day three weeks, then, remember?"
+
+"My mother says so," answered the girl, with a cheek somewhat glowing,
+"and then, you know, John, you are to give it up altogether. No more
+danger--no more secrets?"
+
+"Oh, as for danger," answered Harding, laughing, "I did not say that,
+love. I don't know what life would be worth without danger. Every man
+is in danger all day long; and I suppose that we are only given life
+just to feel the pleasure of it by the chance of losing it. But no
+dangers but the common ones, Kate. I'll give up the trade, as you have
+made me promise; and I shall have enough by that time to buy out the
+whole vessel, in which I've got shares, and what between that and the
+boats, we shall do very well. You put me in mind, with your fears, of
+a song that wicked boy, little Starlight, used to sing. I learned it
+from hearing him: a more mischievous little dog does not live; but he
+has got a sweet pipe."
+
+"Sing it, John--sing it!" cried Kate; "I love to hear you sing, for it
+seems as if you sing what you are thinking."
+
+"No, I wont sing it," answered Harding, "for it is a sad sort of song,
+and that wont do when I am so happy."
+
+"Oh, I like sad songs!" said the girl; "they please me far more than
+all the merry ones."
+
+"Oh, pray sing it, Harding!" urged the widow; "I am very fond of a
+song that makes me cry."
+
+"This wont do that," replied the smuggler; "but it is sadder than some
+that do, I always think. However, I'll sing it, if you like;" and in a
+fine, mellow, bass voice, to a very simple air, with a flattened third
+coming in every now and then, like the note of a wintry bird, he went
+on:--
+
+
+                                SONG.
+
+                    "Life's like a boat,
+                          Rowing--rowing
+                     Over a bright sea,
+                     On the waves to float,
+                          Flowing--flowing
+                     Away from her lea.
+
+                    "Up goes the sheet!
+                          Sailing--sailing,
+                     To catch the rising breeze,
+                     While the winds fleet,
+                          Wailing--wailing,
+                     Sigh o'er the seas.
+
+                    "She darts through the waves,
+                          Gaily--gaily,
+                     Scattering the foam.
+                     Beneath her, open graves,
+                          Daily--daily,
+                     The blithest to entomb.
+
+                    "Who heeds the deep,
+                          Yawning--yawning
+                     For its destined prey,
+                     When from night's dark sleep,
+                          Dawning--dawning,
+                     Wakens the bright day?
+
+                    "Away, o'er the tide!
+                          Fearless--fearless
+                     Of all that lies beneath;
+                     Let the waves still hide,
+                          Cheerless--cheerless,
+                     All their stores of death.
+
+                    "Stray where we may,
+                          Roaming--roaming
+                     Either far or near,
+                     Death is on the way,
+                          Coming--coming--
+                     Who's the fool to fear?"
+
+
+The widow did weep, however, not at the rude song, though the voice
+that sung it was fine, and perfect in the melody, but at the
+remembrances which it awakened--remembrances on which she loved to
+dwell, although they were so sad.
+
+"Ay, Harding," she said, "it's very true what your song says. Whatever
+way one goes, death is near enough; and I don't know that it's a bit
+nearer on the sea than anywhere else."
+
+"Not a whit," replied Harding; "God's hand is upon the sea as well as
+upon the land, Mrs. Clare; and if it is his will that we go, why we
+go; and if it is his will that we stay, he doesn't want strength to
+protect us."
+
+"No, indeed," answered Mrs. Clare; "and it's that which comforts me,
+for I think that what is God's will must be good. I'm sure, when my
+poor husband went out in the morning, six years ago come the tenth of
+October next, as well and as hearty as a man could be, I never thought
+to see him brought home a corpse, and I left a lone widow with my poor
+girl, and not knowing where to look for any help. But God raised me up
+friends where I least expected them."
+
+"Why you had every right to expect that Sir Robert would be kind to
+you, Mrs. Clare," rejoined Harding, "when your husband had been in his
+service for sixteen or seventeen years."
+
+"No, indeed, I hadn't," said the widow; "for Sir Robert was always, we
+thought, a rough, hard master, grumbling continually, till my poor man
+could hardly bear it; for he was a free-spoken man, as I dare say you
+remember, Mr. Harding, and would say his mind to any one, gentle or
+simple."
+
+"He was as good a soul as ever lived," answered Harding; "a little
+rash and passionate, but none the worse for that."
+
+"Ay, but it was that which set the head keeper against him," answered
+the widow, "and he set Sir Robert, making out that Edward was always
+careless and insolent; but he did his duty as well as any man, and
+knowing that, he didn't like to be found fault with. However, I don't
+blame Sir Robert; for since my poor man's death he has found out what
+he was worth; and very kind he has been to me, to be sure. The
+cottage, and the garden, and the good bit of ground at the back, and
+twelve shillings a-week into the bargain, have we had from him ever
+since."
+
+"Ay, and I am sure nothing can be kinder than the two young ladies,"
+said Kate; "they are always giving me something; and Miss Edith taught
+me all I know. I should have been sadly ignorant if it had not been
+for her--and a deal of trouble I gave her."
+
+"God bless her!" cried Harding, heartily. "She's a nice young lady, I
+believe, though I never saw her but twice, and then she looked very
+sad."
+
+"Ay, she has cause enough, poor thing!" said Mrs. Clare. "Though I
+remember her as blithe as the morning lark--a great deal gayer than
+Miss Zara, gay as she may be."
+
+"Ay, I know--they crossed her love," answered Harding; "and that's
+enough to make one sad. Though I never heard the rights of the story."
+
+"Oh, it was bad enough to break her heart, poor thing!" replied Mrs.
+Clare. "You remember young Leyton, the rector's son--a fine, handsome,
+bold lad as ever lived, and as good as he was handsome. Well, he was
+quite brought up with these young ladies, you know--always up at the
+Hall, and Miss Edith always down at the Rectory; and one would have
+thought Sir Robert blind or foolish, not to fancy that two such young
+things would fall in love with each other; and so they did, to be
+sure. Many's the time I've seen them down here, in this very cottage,
+laughing and talking, and as fond as a pair of doves--for Sir Robert
+used to let them do just whatever they liked, and many a time used to
+send young Harry Leyton to take care of Miss Croyland, when she was
+going out to walk any distance; so, very naturally, they promised
+themselves to each other; and one day--when he was twenty and she just
+sixteen--they got a Prayer-Book at the Rectory, and read over the
+marriage ceremony together, and took all the vows down upon their
+bended knees. I remember it quite well, for I was down at the Rectory
+that very day helping the housekeeper; and just as they had done old
+Mr. Leyton came in, and found them somewhat confused, and the book
+open between them. He would know what it was all about, and they told
+him the truth. So then he was in a terrible taking; and he got Miss
+Croyland under his arm and went away up to Sir Robert directly, and
+told him the whole story without a minute's delay. Every one thought
+it would end in being a match; for though Sir Robert was very angry,
+and insisted that Harry Leyton should be sent to his regiment
+immediately--for he was then just home for a bit, on leave--he did not
+show how angry he was at first, but very soon after he turned Mr.
+Leyton out of the living, and made him pay, I don't know what, for
+dilapidations; so that he was arrested and put in prison--which broke
+his heart, poor man, and he died!"
+
+Harding gave Sir Robert Croyland a hearty oath; and Mrs. Clare
+proceeded to tell her tale, saying--"I did not give much heed to the
+matter then; for it was just at that time that my husband was killed,
+and I could think of nothing else; but when I came to hear of what was
+going on, I found that Sir Robert had promised his daughter to this
+young Radford----"
+
+"As nasty a vermin as ever lived," said Harding.
+
+"Well, she wont have him, I'm sure," continued the widow, "for it has
+been hanging off and on for these six years. People at first said it
+was because they were too young. But I know that she has always
+refused, and declared that nothing should ever drive her to marry him,
+or any one else; for the law might say what it liked, but her own
+heart and her own conscience, told her that she was Harry Leyton's
+wife, and could not be any other man's, as long as he was living.
+Susan, her maid, heard her say so to Sir Robert himself; but he still
+keeps teasing her about it, and tells everybody she's engaged to young
+Radford."
+
+"He'll go the devil," said Harding; "and I'll go to bed, Mrs. Clare,
+for I must be up early to-morrow, to get a good many things to rights.
+God bless you Kate, my love! I dare say I shall see you before I
+go--for I must measure the dear little finger!" And giving her a
+hearty kiss, Harding took a candle, and retired to the snug room that
+had been prepared for him.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+We must change the scene for a while, not only to another part of the
+county of Kent, but to very different people from the worthy Widow
+Clare and the little party assembled at her cottage. We must pass over
+the events of the night also, and of the following morning up to the
+hour of nine, proposing shortly to return to Harbourne House, and
+trace the course of those assembled there. The dwelling into which we
+must now introduce the reader, was a large, old-fashioned Kentish
+farm-house, not many miles on the Sussex side of Ashford. It was
+built, as many of these farm-houses still are, in the form of a cross,
+presenting four limbs of strongly constructed masonry, two stories
+high, with latticed windows divided into three partitions, separated
+by rather neatly cut divisions of stone. Externally it had a strong
+Harry-the-Eighth look about it, and probably had been erected in his
+day, or in that of one of his immediate successors, as the residence
+of some of the smaller gentry of the time. At the period I speak of,
+it was tenanted by a family notorious for their daring and licentious
+life, and still renowned in county tradition for many a fierce and
+lawless act. Nevertheless, the head of the house, now waxing somewhat
+in years, carried on, not only ostensibly but really, the peaceable
+occupation of a Kentish farmer. He had his cows and his cattle, and
+his sheep and his pigs; he grew wheat and barley, and oats and
+turnips; had a small portion of hop-ground, and brewed his own beer.
+But this trade of farming was only a small part of his employment,
+though, to say the truth, he had given himself up more to it since his
+bodily powers had declined, and he was no longer able to bear the
+fatigue and exertion which the great strength of his early years had
+looked upon as sport. The branch of his business which he was most
+fond of was now principally entrusted to his two sons; and two strong,
+handsome daughters, which made the number of his family amount to
+four, occasionally aided their brothers, dressed in men's clothes, and
+mounted upon powerful horses, which they managed as well as any grooms
+in the county.
+
+The reader must not think that, in this description, we are exercising
+indiscreetly our licence for dealing in fiction. We are painting a
+true picture of the family of which we speak, as they lived and acted
+some eighty or eighty-five years ago.
+
+The wife of the farmer had been dead ten or twelve years; and her
+children had done just what they liked ever since; but it must be
+admitted, that, even if she had lived to superintend their education,
+we have no reason to conclude their conduct would have been very
+different from what it was. We have merely said that they had done as
+they pleased ever since her death, because during her life she had
+made them do as she pleased, and beat them, or, as she herself termed
+it, "basted" them heartily, if they did not. She was quite capable of
+doing so too, to her own perfect satisfaction, for probably few arms
+in all Kent were furnished with more sinewy muscles or a stouter fist
+than hers could boast. It was only upon minor points of difference,
+however, that she and her children ever quarrelled; for of their
+general course of conduct she approved most highly; and no one was
+more ready to receive packets of lace, tea, or other goods under her
+fostering care, or more apt and skilful in stopping a tub of spirits
+from "talking," or of puzzling a Custom-House officer when force was
+not at hand to resist him.
+
+She was naturally of so strong a constitution, and so well built a
+frame, that it is wonderful she died at all; but having caught cold
+one night, poor thing!--it is supposed, in setting fire to a
+neighbouring farm-house, the inmates of which were suspected of having
+informed against her husband--her very strength and vigour gave a
+tendency to inflammation, which speedily reduced her very low. A
+surgeon, who visited the house in fear and trembling, bled her
+largely, and forbade the use of all that class of liquids which she
+was accustomed to imbibe in considerable quantities; and for three or
+four days the fear of death made her follow his injunctions. But at
+the end of that period, when the crisis of the disease was imminent,
+finding herself no better, and very weak, she declared that the doctor
+was a fool, and ought to have his head broken, and directed the maid
+to bring her the big green bottle out of the corner cupboard. To this
+she applied more than once, and then beginning to get a little
+riotous, she sent for her family to witness how soon she had cured
+herself. Sitting up in her bed, with a yellow dressing-gown over her
+shoulders, and a gay cap overshadowing her burning face, she sung them
+a song in praise of good liquor--somewhat panting for breath, it must
+be owned--and then declaring that she was "devilish thirsty," which
+was probably accurate to the letter, she poured out a large glass from
+the big green bottle, which happened to be her bed-fellow for the
+time, and raised it to her lips. Half the contents went down her
+throat; but, how it happened I do not know, the rest was spilt upon
+the bed clothes, and good Mrs. Ramley fell back in a doze, from which
+nobody could rouse her. Before two hours were over she slept a still
+sounder sleep, which required the undertaker to provide against its
+permanence.
+
+The bereaved widower comforted himself after a time. We will not say
+how many hours it required to effect that process. He was not a
+drunken man himself; for the passive participle of the verb to "drink"
+was not often actually applicable to his condition. Nevertheless,
+there was a great consumption of hollands in the house during the next
+week; and, if it was a wet funeral that followed, it was not with
+water, salt or fresh.
+
+There are compensations for all things; and if Ramley had lost his
+wife, and his children a mother, they all lost also a great number of
+very good beatings, for, sad to say, he who could thrash all the
+country round, submitted very often to be thrashed by his better half,
+or at all events underwent the process of either having his head made
+closely acquainted with a candlestick, or rendered the means of
+breaking a platter. After that period the two boys grew up into as
+fine, tall, handsome, dissolute blackguards as one could wish to look
+upon; and for the two girls, no term perhaps can be found in the
+classical authors of our language; but the vernacular supplies an
+epithet particularly applicable, which we must venture to use. They
+were two _strapping wenches_, nearly as tall as their brothers, full,
+rounded, and well formed in person, fine and straight cut in features,
+with large black shining eyes, a well-turned foot and ancle, and, as
+was generally supposed, the invincible arm of their mother.
+
+We are not here going to investigate or dwell upon the individual
+morality of the two young ladies. It is generally said to have been
+better in some respects than either their ordinary habits, their
+education, or their language would have led one to expect; and,
+perhaps being very full of the stronger passions, the softer ones had
+no great dominion over them.
+
+There, however, they sat at breakfast on the morning of which we have
+spoken, in the kitchen of the farm-house, with their father seated at
+the head of the table. He was still a great, tall, raw-boned man, with
+a somewhat ogre-ish expression of countenance, and hair more white
+than grey. But there were four other men at the table besides himself,
+two being servants of the farm, and two acknowledged lovers of the
+young ladies--very bold fellows as may well be supposed; for to marry
+a she-lion or a demoiselle bear would have been a light undertaking
+compared to wedding one of the Miss Ramleys. They seemed to be upon
+very intimate terms with those fair personages, however, and perhaps
+possessed as much of their affection as could possibly be obtained;
+but still the love-making seemed rather of a feline character, for the
+caresses, which were pretty prodigal, were mingled with--we must not
+say interrupted by--a great deal of grumbling and growling, some
+scratching, and more than one pat upon the side of the head, which did
+not come with the gentleness of the western wind. The fare upon the
+table consisted neither of tea, coffee, cocoa, nor any other kind of
+weak beverage, but of beef and strong beer, a diet very harmonious
+with the appearance of the persons who partook thereof. It was
+seasoned occasionally with roars of laughter, gay and not very
+delicate jests, various pieces of fun, which on more than one occasion
+went to the very verge of an angry encounter, together with a good
+many blasphemous oaths, and those testimonies of affection which I
+have before spoken of as liberally bestowed by the young ladies upon
+their lovers in the shape of cuffs and scratches. The principal topic
+of conversation seemed to be some adventure which was even then going
+forward, and in which the sons of the house were taking a part. No
+fear, no anxiety, however, was expressed by any one, though they
+wondered that Jim and Ned had not yet returned.
+
+"If they don't come soon they won't get much beef, Tom, if you swallow
+it at that rate," said the youngest Miss Ramley to her sweetheart;
+"you've eaten two pounds already, I'm sure."
+
+The young gentleman declared that it was all for love of her, but that
+he hadn't eaten half so much as she had, whereupon the damsel became
+wroth, and appealed to her father, who, for his part, vowed, that,
+between them both, they had eaten and swilled enough to fill the big
+hog-trough. The dispute might have run high, for Miss Ramley was not
+inclined to submit to such observations, even from her father; but,
+just as she was beginning in good set terms, which she had learnt from
+himself, to condemn her parent's eyes, the old man started up,
+exclaiming, "Hark! there's a shot out there!"
+
+"To be sure," answered one of the lovers. "It's the first of
+September, and all the people are out shooting."
+
+Even while he was speaking, however, several more shots were heard,
+apparently too many to proceed from sportsmen in search of game, and
+the next moment the sound of horses' feet could be heard running quick
+upon the road, and then turning into the yard which lay before the
+house.
+
+"There they are!--there they are!" cried half-a-dozen voices; and, all
+rushing out at the front door, they found the two young men with
+several companions, and four led horses, heavily laden. Jim, the elder
+brother, with the assistance of one of those who accompanied him, was
+busily engaged in shutting the two great wooden gates which had been
+raised by old Ramley some time before--nobody could tell why--in place
+of a five-barred gate, which, with the tall stone wall, formerly shut
+out the yard from the road. The other brother, Edward, or Ned Ramley,
+as he was called, stood by the side of his horse, holding his head
+down over a puddle; and, for a moment, no one could make out what he
+was about. On his sister Jane approaching him, however, she perceived
+a drop of blood falling every second into the dirty water below, and
+exclaimed, "How hast thou broken thy noddle, Ned?"
+
+"There, let me alone, Jinny," cried the young man, shaking off the
+hand she had laid upon his arm, "or I shall bloody my toggery. One of
+those fellows has nearly cracked my skull, that's all; and he'd have
+done it, too, if he had but been a bit nearer. This brute shied just
+as I was firing my pistol at him, or he'd never have got within arm's
+length. It's nothing--it's but a scratch.--Get the goods away; for
+they'll be after us quick enough. They are chasing the major and his
+people, and that's the way we got off."
+
+One of the usual stories of the day was then told by the rest--of how
+a cargo had been run the night before, and got safe up into the
+country: how, when they thought all danger over, they had passed
+before old Bob Croyland's windows, and how Jim had given him a shot as
+he stood at one of them; and then they went on to say that, whether it
+was the noise of the gun, or that the old man had sent out to call the
+officers upon them, they could not tell; but about three miles further
+on, they saw a largish party of horse upon their right. Flight had
+then become the order of the day; but, finding that they could not
+effect it in one body, they were just upon the point of separating,
+Ned Ramley declared, when two of the riding officers overtook them,
+supported by a number of dragoons. Some firing took place, without
+much damage, and, dividing into three bodies, the smugglers scampered
+off, the Ramleys and their friends taking their way towards their own
+house, and the others in different directions. The former might have
+escaped unpursued, it would seem, had not the younger brother, Ned,
+determined to give one of the dragoons a shot before he went: thus
+bringing on the encounter in which he had received the wound on his
+head.
+
+While all this was being told to the father, the two girls, their
+lovers, the farm-servants, and several of the men, hurried the
+smuggled goods into the house, and raising a trap in the floor of the
+kitchen--contrived in such a manner that four whole boards moved up at
+once on the western side of the room--stowed the different articles
+away in places of concealment below, so well arranged, that even if
+the trap was discovered, the officers would find nothing but a vacant
+space, unless they examined the walls very closely.
+
+The horses were then all led to the stable; and Edward Ramley, having
+in some degree stopped the bleeding of his wound, moved into the
+house, with most of the other men. Old Ramley and the two
+farm-servants, however, remained without, occupying themselves in
+loading a cart with manure, till the sound of horses galloping down
+was heard, and somebody shook the gates violently, calling loudly to
+those within to open "in the King's name."
+
+The farmer instantly mounted upon the cart, and looked over the wall;
+but the party before the gates consisted only of five or six dragoons,
+of whom he demanded, in a bold tone, "Who the devil be you, that I
+should open for you? Go away, go away, and leave a quiet man at
+peace!"
+
+"If you don't open the gates, we'll break them down," said one of the
+men.
+
+"Do, if you dare," answered old Ramley, boldly; "and if you do, I'll
+shoot the best of you dead.--Bring me my gun, Tom.--Where's your
+warrant, young man? You are not an officer, and you've got none with
+you, so I shan't let any boiled lobsters enter my yard, I can tell
+you."
+
+By this time he was provided with the weapon he had sent for; and one
+of his men, similarly armed, had got into the cart beside him. The
+appearance of resistance was rather ominous, and the dragoons were
+well aware that if they did succeed in forcing an entrance, and blood
+were spilt, the whole responsibility would rest upon themselves, if no
+smuggled goods should be found, as they had neither warrant nor any
+officer of the Customs with them.
+
+After a short consultation, then, he who had spoken before, called to
+old Ramley, saying, "We'll soon bring a warrant. Then look to
+yourself;" and, thus speaking, he rode off with his party. Old Ramley
+only laughed, however, and turned back into the house, where he made
+the party merry at the expense of the dragoons. All the men who had
+been out upon the expedition were now seated at the table, dividing
+the beef and bread amongst them, and taking hearty draughts from the
+tankard. Not the least zealous in this occupation was Edward Ramley,
+who seemed to consider the deep gash upon his brow as a mere scratch,
+not worth talking about. He laughed and jested with the rest; and when
+they had demolished all that the board displayed, he turned to his
+father, saying, not in the most reverent tone, "Come, old fellow,
+after bringing our venture home safe, I think you ought to send round
+the true stuff: we've had beer enough. Let's have some of the
+Dutchman."
+
+"That you shall, Neddy, my boy," answered the farmer, "only I wish you
+had shot that rascal you fired at. However, one can't always have a
+steady aim, especially with a fidgetty brute like that you ride;" and
+away he went to bring the hollands, which soon circulated very freely
+amongst the party, producing, in its course, various degrees of mirth
+and joviality, which speedily deviated into song. Some of the ditties
+that were sung were good, and some of them very bad; but almost all
+were coarse, and the one that was least so was the following:--
+
+
+                                SONG.
+
+      "It's wonderful, it's wonderful, is famous London town,
+                       With its alleys
+                       And its valleys,
+                     And its houses up and down;
+       But I would give fair London town, its court, and all its
+           people,
+       For the little town of Biddenden, with the moon above
+           the steeple.
+
+      "It's wonderful, it's wonderful, to see what pretty faces
+                       In London streets
+                       A person meets
+                     In very funny places;
+       But I wouldn't give for all the eyes in London town one sees,
+       A pair, that by the moonlight, looks out beneath the trees.
+
+      "It's wonderful, in London town, how soon a man may hold,
+                       By art and sleight,
+                       Or main and might,
+                     A pretty sum of gold;
+       Yet give me but a pistol, and one rich squire or two,
+       A moonlight night, a yellow chaise, and the high road will do."
+
+
+This was not the last song that was sung; but that which followed was
+interrupted by one of the pseudo-labourers coming in from the yard, to
+say that there was a hard knocking at the gate.
+
+"I think it is Mr. Radford's voice," added the man, "but I'm not sure;
+and I did not like to get up into the cart to look."
+
+"Run up stairs to the window, Jinny!" cried old Ramley, "and you'll
+soon see."
+
+His daughter did, on this occasion, as she was bid, and soon called
+down from above, "It's old Radford, sure enough; but he's got two men
+with him!"
+
+"It's all right, if he's there," said Jim Ramley; and the gates were
+opened in a minute, to give that excellent gentleman admission.
+
+Now, Mr. Radford, it must be remembered, was a magistrate for the
+county of Kent; but his presence created neither alarm nor confusion
+in the house of the Ramleys; and when he entered, leaving his men in
+the court for a minute, he said, with a laugh, holding the father of
+that hopeful family by the arm, "I've come to search, and to stop the
+others. Where are the goods?"
+
+"Safe enough," answered the farmer. "No fear--no fear!"
+
+"But can we look under the trap?" asked Mr. Radford, who seemed as
+well acquainted with the secrets of the place as the owner thereof.
+
+"Ay, ay!" replied the old man. "Don't leave 'em too long--that's all."
+
+"I'll go down myself," said Radford; "they've got scent of it, or I
+wouldn't find it out."
+
+"All right--all right!" rejoined the other, in a low voice; and the
+magistrate, raising his tone, exclaimed, "Here, Clinch and Adams--you
+two fools! why don't you come in? They say there is nothing here; but
+we must search. We must not take any man's word; not to say that I
+doubt yours, Mr. Ramley; but it is necessary, you know."
+
+"Oh, do what you like, sir," replied the farmer. "I don't care!"
+
+A very respectable search was then commenced, and pursued from room to
+room--one of the men who accompanied Mr. Radford, and who was an
+officer of the Customs, giving old Ramley a significant wink with his
+right eye as he passed, at which the other grinned. Indeed, had the
+whole matter not been very well understood between the great majority
+of both parties, it would have been no very pleasant or secure task
+for any three men in England to enter the kitchen of that farm-house
+on such an errand. At length, however, Mr. Radford and his companions
+returned to the kitchen, and the magistrate thought fit to walk
+somewhat out of his way towards the left-hand side of the room, when
+suddenly stopping, he exclaimed, in a grave tone, "Hallo! Ramley,
+what's here? These boards seem loose!"
+
+"To be sure they are," answered the farmer; "that's the way to the old
+beer cellar. But there's nothing in it, upon my honour!"
+
+"But we must look, Ramley, you know," said Mr. Radford. "Come, open
+it, whatever it is!
+
+"Oh, with all my heart," replied the man; "but you'll perhaps break
+your head. That's your fault, not mine, however,"--and, advancing to
+the side of the room, he took a crooked bit of iron from his
+pocket--not unlike that used for pulling stones out of a horse's
+hoofs--and insinuating it between the skirting-board and the floor,
+soon raised the trap-door of which we have spoken before.
+
+A vault of about nine feet deep was now exposed, with the top of a
+ladder leading into it; and Mr. Radford ordered the men who were with
+him to go down first. The one who had given old Ramley the wink in
+passing, descended without ceremony; but the other, who was also an
+officer, hesitated for a moment.
+
+"Go down--go down, Clinch!" said Mr. Radford. "You _would_ have a
+search, and so you shall do it thoroughly."
+
+The man obeyed, and the magistrate paused a moment to speak with the
+smuggling farmer, saying, in a low voice, "I don't mind their knowing
+I'm your friend, Ramley. Let them think about that as they like.
+Indeed, I'd rather that they did see we understand each other; so give
+me a hint if they go too far; I'll bear it out."
+
+Thus saying, he descended into the cellar, and old Ramley stood gazing
+down upon the three from above, with his gaunt figure bending over the
+trap-door. At the end of a minute or two he called down, "There--that
+ought to do, I'm sure! We can't be kept bothering here all day!"
+
+Something was said in a low tone by one of the men below; but then the
+voice of Mr. Radford was heard, exclaiming, "No, no; that will do!
+We've had enough of it! Go up, I say! There's no use of irritating
+people by unreasonable suspicions, Mr. Clinch. Is it not quite enough,
+Adams? Are you satisfied!"
+
+"Oh! quite, sir," answered the other officer; "there's nothing but bare
+walls and an empty beer barrel."
+
+The next moment the party began to reappear from the trap, the officer
+Clinch coming up first, with a grave look, and Mr. Radford and the
+other following, with a smile upon their faces.
+
+"There, all is clear enough," said Mr. Radford; "so you, gentlemen,
+can go and pursue your search elsewhere. I must remain here to wait
+for my son, whom I sent for to join me with the servants, as you know;
+not that I feared any resistance from you, Mr. Ramley; but smuggling
+is so sadly prevalent now-a-days, that one must be on one's guard, you
+know."
+
+A horse laugh burst from the whole party round the table; and in the
+midst of it the two officers retired into the yard, where, mounting
+their horses, they opened the gates and rode away.
+
+As soon as they were gone, Mr. Radford shook old Ramley familiarly by
+the hand, exclaiming, "This is the luckiest thing in the world, my
+good fellow! If I can but get them to accuse me of conniving at this
+job, it will be a piece of good fortune which does not often happen to
+a man."
+
+Ramley, as well he might, looked a little confounded; but Mr. Radford
+drew him aside, and spoke to him for a quarter of an hour, in a voice
+raised hardly above a whisper. Numerous laughs, and nods, and signs of
+mutual understanding passed between them; and the conversation ended
+by Mr. Radford saying, aloud, "I wonder what can keep Dick so long; he
+ought to have been here before now! I sent over to him at eight; and
+it is past eleven."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+We will now, by the reader's good leave, return for a short time to
+Harbourne House, where the party sat down to breakfast, at the
+inconveniently early hour of eight. I will not take upon myself to say
+that it might not be a quarter-of-an-hour later, for almost everything
+is after its time on this globe, and Harbourne House did not differ in
+this respect from all the rest of the world. From the face of young
+Radford towards the countenance of Sir Edward Digby shot some very
+furious glances as they took their places at the breakfast-table; but
+those looks gradually sunk down into a dull and sullen frown, as they
+met with no return. Sir Edward Digby, indeed, seemed to have forgotten
+the words which had passed between them as soon as they had been
+uttered; and he laughed, and talked, and conversed with every one as
+gaily as if nothing had happened. Edith was some ten minutes behind
+the rest at the meal, and seemed even more depressed than the night
+before; but Zara had reserved a place for her at her own side; and
+taking the first opportunity, while the rest of the party were busily
+talking together, she whispered a few words in her ear. Sir Edward
+Digby saw her face brighten in a moment, and her eyes turn quickly
+towards himself; but he took no notice; and an interval of silence
+occurring the next moment, the conversation between the two sisters
+was interrupted.
+
+During breakfast, a servant brought in a note and laid it on the
+side-board, and after the meal was over, Miss Croyland retired to her
+own room to make ready for her departure. Zara was about to follow;
+but good Mrs. Barbara, who had heard some sharp words pass between the
+two gentlemen, and had remarked the angry looks of young Radford, was
+determined that they should not quarrel without the presence of
+ladies, and consequently called her youngest niece back, saying, in a
+whisper, "Stay here, my dear. I have a particular reason why I want
+you not to go."
+
+"I will be back in a moment, my dear aunt," replied Zara; but the
+worthy old lady would not suffer her to depart; and the butler
+entering at that moment, called the attention of Richard Radford to
+the note which had been brought in some half-an-hour before, and which
+was, in fact, a sudden summons from his father.
+
+The contents seemed to give him no great satisfaction; and, turning to
+the servant, he said, "Well, tell them to saddle my horse, and bring
+him round;" and as he spoke, he directed a frowning look towards the
+young baronet, as if he could scarcely refrain from shewing his anger
+till a fitting opportunity occurred for expressing it.
+
+Digby, however, continued talking lightly with Zara Croyland, in the
+window, till the horse had been brought round, and the young man had
+taken leave of the rest of the party. Then sauntering slowly out of
+the room, he passed through the hall door, to the side of Richard
+Radford's horse, just as the latter was mounting.
+
+"Mr. Radford," he said, in a low tone, "you were pleased to make an
+impertinent observation upon my conduct, which led me to tell you what
+I think of yours. We were interrupted; but I dare say you must wish
+for further conversation with me. You can have it when and where you
+please."
+
+"At three o'clock this afternoon, in the road straight from the back
+of the house," replied young Radford, in a low, determined tone,
+touching the hilt of his sword.
+
+Sir Edward Digby nodded, and then turning on his heel, walked coolly
+into the house.
+
+"I am sure, Sir Edward," cried Mrs. Barbara, as soon as she saw him,
+while Zara fixed her eyes somewhat anxiously upon his countenance--"I
+am sure you and Mr. Radford have been quarrelling."
+
+"Oh no, my dear madam," replied Sir Edward Digby; "nothing of the
+kind, I can assure you. Our words were very ordinary words, and
+perfectly civil, upon my word. We had no time to quarrel."
+
+"My dear Sir Edward," said Sir Robert Croyland, "you must excuse me
+for saying it, I must have no such things here. I am a magistrate for
+this county, and bound by my oath to keep the peace. My sister tells
+me that high words passed between you and my young friend Radford
+before breakfast?"
+
+"They were very few, Sir Robert," answered Digby, in a careless tone;
+"he thought fit to make an observation upon my saying a few words to
+your daughter, here, in a low tone, which I conceive every gentleman
+has a right to do to a fair lady. I told him, I thought his conduct
+insolent; and that was all that passed. I believe the youth has got a
+bad headache from too much of your good wine, Sir Robert; therefore, I
+forgive him. I dare say, he'll be sorry enough for what he said,
+before the day is over; and if he is not, I cannot help it."
+
+"Well, well, if that's all, it is no great matter!" replied the master
+of the house; "but here comes round the carriage; run and call Edith,
+Zara."
+
+Before the young lady could quit the room, however, her sister
+appeared; and the only moment they obtained for private conference was
+at the door of the carriage, after Edith had got in, and while her
+father was giving some directions to the coachman. No great
+information could be given or received, indeed, for Sir Robert
+returned to the side of the vehicle immediately, bade his daughter
+good-bye, and the carriage rolled away.
+
+As soon as it was gone, Sir Edward Digby proposed, with the permission
+of Sir Robert Croyland, to go out to shoot; for he did not wish to
+subject himself to any further cross-examination by the ladies of the
+family, and he read many inquiries in fair Zara's eyes, which he
+feared might be difficult to answer. Retiring, then, to put on a more
+fitting costume, while gamekeepers and dogs were summoned to attend
+him, he took the opportunity of writing a short letter, which he
+delivered to his servant to post, giving him, at the same time, brief
+directions to meet him near the cottage of good Mrs. Clare, about
+half-past two, with the sword which the young officer usually wore
+when not on military service. Those orders were spoken in so ordinary
+and commonplace a tone that none but a very shrewd fellow would have
+discovered that anything was going forward different from the usual
+occurrences of the day; but Somers was a very shrewd fellow; and in a
+few minutes--judging from what he had observed while waiting on his
+master during dinner on the preceding day--he settled the whole matter
+entirely to his own satisfaction, thinking, according to the
+phraseology of those times, "Sir Edward will pink him--and a good
+thing too; but it will spoil sport here, I've a notion."
+
+As he descended to the hall, in order to join the keepers and their
+four-footed coadjutors, the young baronet encountered Mrs. Barbara and
+her niece; and he perceived Zara's eyes instantly glance to his
+sword-belt, from which he had taken care to remove a weapon that could
+only be inconvenient to him in the sport he was about to pursue. She
+was not so easily to be deceived as her father; but yet the absence of
+the weapon usually employed in those days, as the most efficacious for
+killing a fellow-creature, put her mind at ease, at least for the
+present; and, although she determined to watch the proceedings of the
+young baronet during the two or three following days--as far, at
+least, as propriety would permit--she took no further notice at the
+moment, being very anxious to prevent her good aunt from interfering
+more than necessary in the affairs of Sir Edward Digby.
+
+Mrs. Barbara, indeed, was by no means well pleased that Sir Edward was
+going to deprive her schemes of the full benefit which might have
+accrued from his passing the whole of that day unoccupied, with Zara,
+at Harbourne House, and hinted significantly that she trusted if he
+did not find good sport he would return early, as her niece was very
+fond of a ride over the hills, only that she had no companion.
+
+The poor girl coloured warmly, and the more so as Sir Edward could not
+refrain from a smile.
+
+"I trust, then, I shall have the pleasure of being your companion
+to-morrow, Miss Croyland," he said, turning to the young lady. "Why
+should we not ride over, and see your excellent uncle and your sister?
+I must certainly pay my respects to him; and if I may have the honour
+of escorting you, it will give double pleasure to my ride."
+
+Zara Croyland was well aware that many a matter, which if treated
+seriously may become annoying--if not dangerous, can be carried
+lightly off by a gay and dashing jest: "Oh, with all my heart," she
+said; "only remember, Sir Edward, we must have plenty of servants with
+us, or else all the people in the country will say that you and I are
+going to be married; and as I never intend that such a saying should
+be verified, it will be as well to nip the pretty little blossom of
+gossip in the bud."
+
+"It shall be all exactly as you please," replied the young officer,
+with a low bow and a meaning smile; but at the very same moment, Mrs.
+Barbara thought fit to reprove her niece, wondering how she could talk
+so sillily; and Sir Edward took his leave, receiving his host's
+excuses, as he passed through the hall, for not accompanying him on
+his shooting expedition.
+
+"The truth is, my dear sir," said Sir Robert Croyland, "that I am now
+too old and too heavy for such sports."
+
+"You were kind enough to tell me, this is Liberty Hall," replied the
+young baronet, "and you shall see, my dear sir, that I take you at
+your word, both in regard to your game and your wine, being resolved,
+with your good permission, and for my own health, to kill your birds
+and spare your bottles."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," answered the master of the mansion--"you shall
+do exactly as you like;" and with this licence, Sir Edward set out
+shooting, with tolerable success, till towards two o'clock, when,
+quite contrary to the advice and opinion of the gamekeepers--who
+declared that the dogs would have the wind with them in that
+direction, and that as the day was now hot, the birds would not lie a
+minute--he directed his course towards the back of Harbourne Wood,
+finding, it must be confessed, but very little sport. There,
+apparently fatigued and disgusted with walking for a mile or two
+without a shot, he gave his gun to one of the men, and bade him take
+it back to the house, saying, he would follow speedily. As soon as he
+had seen them depart, he tracked round the edge of the wood, towards
+Mrs. Clare's cottage, exactly opposite to which he found his trusty
+servant, provided as he had directed.
+
+Sir Edward then took the sword and fixed it in his belt, saying, "Now,
+Somers, you may go!"
+
+"Certainly, sir," replied the man, touching his hat with a look of
+hesitation; but he added, a minute after, "you had better let me know
+where it's to be, sir, in case----"
+
+"Well," rejoined Sir Edward Digby, with a smile, "you are an old
+soldier and no meddler, Somers; so that I will tell you, 'in
+case,'--that the place is in a straight line between this and
+Harbourne House. So now, face about to the right, and go back by the
+other road."
+
+The man touched his hat again, and walked quickly away, while the
+young officer turned his steps up the road which he had followed
+during the preceding evening in pursuit of the two Miss Croylands. It
+was a good broad open way, in which there was plenty of fencing room,
+and he thought to himself as he walked on, "I shall not be sorry to
+punish this young vagabond a little. I must see what sort of skill he
+has, and if possible wound him without hurting him much. If one could
+keep him to his bed for a fortnight, we should have the field more
+clear for our own campaign; but these things must always be a chance."
+
+Thus meditating, and looking at his watch to see how much time he had
+to spare, Major Sir Edward Digby walked on till became within sight of
+the garden wall and some of the out-buildings of Harbourne House. The
+reader, if he has paid attention, will remember that the road did not
+go straight to the back of the house itself: a smaller path, which led
+to the right, conducting thither; but as the gardens extended for
+nearly a quarter of a mile on that side, it followed the course of the
+wall to the left to join the parish road which ran in front of the
+mansion, leaving the green court, as it was called, or lawn, and the
+terrace, on the right hand.
+
+As there was no other road in that direction, Sir Edward Digby felt
+sure that he must be on the ground appointed, but yet, as is the case
+in all moments of expectation, the time seemed so long, that when he
+saw the brick-work he took out his watch again, and found there were
+still five minutes to spare. He accordingly turned upon his steps,
+walking slowly back for about a quarter of a mile, and then returned,
+looking sharply out for his opponent, but seeing no one. He was now
+sure that the time must be past; but, resolved to afford young Radford
+every opportunity, he said to himself, "Watches may differ, and
+something may have detained him. I will give him a full half hour, and
+then if he does not come I shall understand the matter."
+
+As soon, then, as he saw the walls once more, he wheeled round and
+re-trod his steps, then looked at his watch, and found that it was a
+quarter past three. "Too bad!" he said,--"too bad! The fellow cannot
+be coward, too, as well as blackguard. One turn more, and then I've
+done with him." But as he advanced on his way towards the house, he
+suddenly perceived the flutter of female garments before him, and
+saying to himself, "This is awkward!" he gazed round for some path, in
+order to get out of the way for a moment, but could perceive none. The
+next instant, coming round a shrub which started forward a little
+before the rest of the trees, he saw the younger Miss Croyland
+advancing with a quick step, and, he could not help thinking, with a
+somewhat agitated air. Her colour was heightened, her eyes eagerly
+looking on; but, as soon as she saw him, she slackened her pace, and
+came forward in a more deliberate manner.
+
+"Oh, Sir Edward!" she said, in a calm, sweet tone, "I am glad to see
+you. You have finished your shooting early, it seems."
+
+"Why, the sport was beginning to slacken," answered Sir Edward Digby.
+"I had not had a shot for the last half hour, and so thought it best
+to give it up."
+
+"Well then, you shall take a walk with me," cried Zara, gaily. "I am
+just going down to a poor friend of ours, called Widow Clare, and you
+shall come too."
+
+"What! notwithstanding all your sage and prudent apprehensions in
+regard to what people might say if we were seen alone together!"
+exclaimed Sir Edward Digby, with a smile.
+
+"Oh! I don't mind that," answered Zara. "Great occasions, you know,
+Sir Edward, require decisive measures; and I assuredly want an escort
+through this terrible forest, to protect me from all the giants and
+enchanters it may contain."
+
+Sir Edward Digby looked at his watch again, and saw that it wanted but
+two minutes to the half hour.
+
+"Oh!" said Zara, affecting a look of pique, "if you have some
+important appointment, Sir Edward, it is another affair--only tell me
+if it be so?"
+
+Sir Edward Digby took her hand in his: "I will tell you, dear lady,"
+he replied, "if you will first tell me one thing, truly and
+sincerely--What brought you here?"
+
+Zara trembled and coloured; for with the question put in so direct a
+shape, the agitation, which she had previously overcome, mastered her
+in turn, and she answered, "Don't, don't, or I shall cry."
+
+"Well, then, tell me at least if I had anything to do with it?" asked
+the young baronet.
+
+"Yes, you had!" replied Zara; "I can't tell a falsehood. But now, Sir
+Edward, don't, as most of you men would do, suppose that it's from any
+very tender interest in you, that I did this foolish thing. It was
+because I thought--I thought, if you were going to do what I imagined,
+it would be the very worst thing in the world for poor Edith."
+
+"I shall only suppose that you are all that is kind and good,"
+answered Digby--perhaps a little piqued at the indifference which she
+so studiously assumed; "and even if I thought, Miss Croyland, that you
+did take some interest in my poor self, depend upon it, I should not
+be inclined to go one step farther in the way of vanity than you
+yourself could wish. I am not altogether a coxcomb. But now tell me,
+how you were led to suspect anything?"
+
+"Promise me first," said Zara, "that this affair shall not take place.
+Indeed, indeed, Sir Edward, it must not, on every account!"
+
+"There is not the slightest chance of any such thing," replied Sir
+Edward Digby. "You need not be under the slightest alarm."
+
+"What! you do not mean to say," she exclaimed, with her cheeks glowing
+and her eyes raised to his face, "that you did not come here to fight
+him?"
+
+"Not exactly," answered Sir Edward Digby, laughing; "but what I do
+mean to say, my dear young lady, is, that our friend is half an hour
+behind his time, and I am not disposed to give him another opportunity
+of keeping me waiting."
+
+"And if he had been in time," cried Zara, clasping her hands together
+and casting down her eyes, "I should have been too late."
+
+"But tell me," persisted Sir Edward Digby, "how you heard all this.
+Has my servant, Somers, been indiscreet?"
+
+"No, no," replied Zara; "no, I can assure you! I saw you go out in
+your shooting dress, and without a sword. Then I thought it was all
+over, especially as you had the gamekeepers with you; but some time
+ago I found that your servant had gone out, carrying a sword under his
+arm, and had come straight up this road. That made me uneasy. When the
+gamekeepers came back without you, I was more uneasy still; but I
+could not get away from my aunt for a few minutes. When I could,
+however, I got my hat and cloak, and hurried away, knowing that you
+would not venture to fight in the presence of a woman. As I went out,
+all my worst fears were confirmed by seeing your servant come back
+without the sword; and then--not very well knowing, indeed, what I was
+to say or do--I hurried on as fast as possible. Now you have the whole
+story, and you must come away from this place."
+
+"Very willingly," answered the young officer; adding, with a smile,
+"which way shall we go, Miss Croyland? To Widow Clare's?"
+
+"No, no!" answered Zara, blushing again. "Do not tease me. You do not
+know how soon, when a woman is agitated, she is made to weep. My
+father is out, indeed," she added, in a gayer tone, "so that I should
+have time to bathe my eyes before dinner, which will be half an hour
+later than usual; but I should not like my aunt to tell him that I
+have been taking a crying walk with Sir Edward Digby."
+
+"Heaven forbid that I should ever give you cause for a tear!" answered
+the young baronet; and then, with a vague impression that he was doing
+something very like making love, he added, "but let us return to the
+house, or perhaps we may have your aunt seeking us."
+
+"The most likely thing in the world," replied Zara; and taking their
+way back, they passed through the gardens and entered the house by one
+of the side doors.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+It was a custom of those days, I believe, not altogether done away
+with in the present times, for magistrates to assemble in petty
+sessions, or to meet at other times for the dispatch of any
+extraordinary business, in tavern, public-house, or inn--a custom more
+honoured in the breach than the observance, except where no other
+place of assembly can be found. It thus happened that, on the day of
+which we have been speaking, some half-dozen gentlemen, all justices
+of the peace for the county of Kent, were gathered together in a
+good-sized room of the inn, at the little town of * * * * * . There
+was a table drawn across the room, at which was placed the
+magistrates' clerk, with sundry sheets of paper before him, several
+printed forms, and two books, one big and the other little. The
+magistrates themselves, however, were not seated in due state and
+dignity, but, on the contrary, were in general standing about and
+talking together, some looking out of the window into the street, some
+leaning with their backs against the table and the tails of their
+coats turned over their hands, while one occupied an arm-chair placed
+sideways at the board, with one knee thrown over the other--a
+favourite position which he could not have assumed had he sat with his
+face to the table.
+
+The latter was Sir Robert Croyland, who had been sent for in haste by
+his brother justices, to take part in their proceedings relative to a
+daring act of smuggling which had just been perpetrated. Sir Robert
+would willingly have avoided giving his assistance upon this occasion;
+but the summons had been so urgent that he could not refuse going; and
+he was now not a little angry to find that there were more than
+sufficient justices present to make a quorum, and to transact all the
+necessary business. Some one, however, it would seem, had--as usual in
+all county arrangements--been very busy in pressing for as full an
+attendance as possible; and those who knew the characters of the
+gentlemen assembled might have perceived that the great majority of
+them were not very well qualified to sit as judges upon a case of this
+nature, as almost every one was under suspicion of leaning towards the
+side of the smugglers, most of them having at some time engaged more
+or less in the traffic which they were called upon to stop. Sir Robert
+Croyland was the least objectionable in this point of view; for he had
+always borne a very high name for impartiality in such matters, and
+had never had anything personally to do with the illicit traffic
+itself. It is probable, therefore, that he was sent for to give a mere
+show of justice to the proceedings; for Mr. Radford was expected to be
+there; and it was a common observation of the county gentlemen, that
+the latter could now lead Sir Robert as he liked. Mr. Radford, indeed,
+had not yet arrived, though two messengers had been despatched to
+summon him; the answer still being that he had gone over towards
+Ashford. Sir Robert, therefore, sat in the midst--not harmonizing much
+in feeling with the rest, and looking anxiously for his friend's
+appearance, in order to obtain some hint as to how he was to act.
+
+At length, a considerable noise was heard in the streets below, and a
+sort of constable door-keeper presented himself, to inform the
+magistrates that the officers and dragoons had arrived, bringing in
+several prisoners. An immediate bustle took place, the worshipful
+gentlemen beginning to seat themselves, and one of them--as it is
+technically termed--moving Sir Robert into the chair. In order to shew
+that this was really as well as metaphysically done, Sir Robert
+Croyland rose, sat down again, and wheeled himself round to the table.
+A signal was then given to the constable; and a rush of several
+persons from without was made into the temporary justice room, which
+was at once nearly filled with custom-house officers, soldiers,
+smugglers, and the curious of the village.
+
+Amongst the latter portion of the auditory,--at least, so he supposed
+at first,--Sir Robert Croyland perceived his young friend, Richard
+Radford; and he was in the act of beckoning him to come up to the
+table, in order to inquire where his father was, and how soon he would
+return, when one of the officers of the Customs suddenly thrust the
+young gentleman out of the way, exclaiming, "Stand farther back! What
+are you pushing forward for? Your turn will come soon enough, I
+warrant."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland was confounded; and for a moment or two he sat
+silent in perplexity and surprise. Not that he ever entertained a
+doubt of old Mr. Radford still nourishing all the propensities of his
+youth; nor that he was not well aware they had formed part of the
+inheritance of the son; but there were certain considerations of some
+weight which made Sir Robert feel that it would have been better for
+him to be in any other spot of the habitable globe than that where he
+was at the moment. Recovering himself, however, after a brief pause of
+anxious indecision, he made a sign to the constable door-keeper, and
+whispered to him, as soon as the man reached his side, to inquire into
+the cause of Mr. Richard Radford's being there. The man was shrewd and
+quick, and while half the magistrates were speaking across the table
+to half the officers and some of the dragoons, he went and returned to
+and from the other side of the room, and then whispered to the
+baronet, "For smuggling, sir--caught abetting the others--his name
+marked upon some of the goods!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland was not naturally a brilliant man. Though hasty in
+temper in his early days, he had always been somewhat obtuse in
+intellect; but this was a case of emergency; and there is no greater
+sharpener of the wits than necessity. In an instant, he had formed his
+plan to gain time, which was his great object at that moment; and,
+taking out his watch, he laid it on the table, exclaiming aloud,
+"Gentlemen! gentlemen! a little regularity, if you please. My time is
+precious. I have an important engagement this afternoon, and I----"
+
+But his whole scheme had nearly been frustrated by the impetuosity of
+young Radford himself, who at once pushed through officers and
+soldiers, saying, "And so have I, Sir Robert, a very important
+engagement this afternoon. I claim to be heard as speedily as
+possible."
+
+Sir Robert, however, was determined to carry his point, and to avoid
+having aught to do with the case of his young friend, even at the risk
+of giving him offence and annoyance. "Stand back, sir!" he said. "In
+this court, there is no friendship or favour. You will have attention
+in turn, but not before. Mr. Mowle, bring forward the prisoners one
+after the other, as near as possible, in the order of--the order
+of--of their capture," he added, at length, after hesitating for a
+moment to consider whether it was or was not probable that young
+Radford had been amongst those last taken; "and let all the others be
+removed, under guard, into the next room."
+
+"Wont that make it a long affair, Sir Robert?" asked Mr. Runnington, a
+neighbouring squire.
+
+"Oh dear, no!" replied the chairman; "by regularity we shall save
+time. Do as you are directed, Mowle!"
+
+Young Radford showed a strong disposition to resist, or, at least, to
+protest against this arrangement; but the officer to whom the baronet
+had spoken, treated the prisoner with very little reverence; and he,
+with the rest of the gang, was removed from the room, with the
+exception of three, one of whom, with a smart cockade in his hat, such
+as was worn at that time by military men in undress, swaggered up to
+the table with a bold air, as if he were about to address the
+magistrates.
+
+"Ah, major, is that you?" asked a gentleman on Sir Robert's right,
+known in the country by the name of Squire Jollyboat, though his
+family being originally French, his real appellation was Jollivet.
+
+"Oh yes, squire," answered the prisoner, in a gay, indifferent tone,
+"here I am. It is long since I have had the pleasure of seeing your
+worship. I think you were not on the bench the last time I was
+committed, or I should have fared better."
+
+"I don't know that, major," replied the gentleman; "on the former
+occasion I gave you a month, I think."
+
+"Ay, but the blackguards that time gave me two," rejoined the major.
+
+"Because it was the second offence," said Squire Jollyboat.
+
+"The second! Lord bless you, sir!" answered the major, with a look of
+cool contempt; and turning round with a wink to his two companions,
+they all three laughed joyously, as if it were the finest joke in the
+world.
+
+It might not be very interesting to the reader were we to give in
+detail the depositions of the various witnesses upon a common case of
+smuggling in the last century, or to repeat all the various arguments
+which were bandied backwards and forwards between the magistrates,
+upon the true interpretation of the law, as expressed in the 9th
+George II., cap. 35. It was very evident, indeed, to the officers of
+Customs, to the serjeant of dragoons, and even to the prisoners
+themselves, that the worthy justices were disposed to take as
+favourable a view of smuggling transactions as possible. But the law
+was very clear; the case was not less so; Mowle, the principal riding
+officer, was a straightforward, determined, and shrewd man; and
+although Sir Robert Croyland, simply with a view of protracting the
+investigation till Mr. Radford should arrive, started many questions
+which he left to the other magistrates to settle, yet in about half an
+hour the charge of smuggling, with riot, and armed resistance to the
+Custom-House officers, was clearly made out against the major and his
+two companions; and as the act left no discretion in such a case, the
+resistance raising the act to felony, all three were committed for
+trial, and the officers bound over to prosecute.
+
+The men were then taken away, laughing and jesting; and Sir Robert
+Croyland looked with anxiety for the appearance of the next party; but
+two other men were now introduced without Richard Radford; and the
+worthy baronet was released for the time. The case brought forward
+against these prisoners differed from that against those who preceded
+them, inasmuch as no resistance was charged. They had simply been
+found aiding and abetting in the carriage of the smuggled goods, and
+had fled when they found themselves pursued by the officers, though
+not fast enough to avoid capture. The facts were speedily proved, and,
+indeed, much more rapidly than suited the views of Sir Robert
+Croyland. He therefore raised the question, when the decision of the
+magistrates was about to be pronounced, whether this was the first or
+the second offence, affecting some remembrance of the face of one of
+the men. The officers, also, either really did recollect, or pretended
+to do so, that the person of whom he spoke had been convicted before;
+but the man himself positively denied it, and defied them to bring
+forward any proof. A long discussion thus commenced, and before it was
+terminated the baronet was relieved by the appearance of Mr. Radford
+himself, who entered booted and spurred, and covered with dust, as if
+just returned from a long ride.
+
+Shaking hands with his brother magistrates, and especially with Sir
+Robert Croyland, he was about to seat himself at the end of that
+table, when the baronet rose, saying, "Here, Radford, you had better
+take my place, as I must positively get home directly, having
+important business to transact."
+
+"No, no, Sir Robert," replied that respectable magistrate, "we cannot
+spare you in this case, nor can I take that place. My son, I hear, is
+charged with taking part in this affair; and some sharp words have
+been passing between myself and that scoundrel of a fellow called
+Clinch, the officer, who applied to me for aid in searching the
+Ramleys' house. When I agreed to go with him, and found out a very
+snug place for hiding, he was half afraid to go down; and yet, since
+then, he has thought fit to insinuate that I had something to do with
+the run, and did not conduct the search fairly."
+
+The magistrates looked round to each other and smiled; and Radford
+himself laughed heartily, very much as if he was acting a part in a
+farce, without any hope or expectation of passing off his zeal in the
+affair, upon his fellow magistrates, as genuine. Mowle, the officer,
+at the same time turned round, and spoke a few words to two men who
+had followed Mr. Radford into the room, one of whom shrugged his
+shoulders with a laugh, and said nothing, and the other replied
+eagerly, but in a low tone.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, however, urged the necessity of his going, put
+his watch in his pocket, and buttoned up his coat. But Mr. Radford,
+assuming a graver air and a very peculiar tone, replied, "No, no, Sir
+Robert; you must stay, indeed. We shall want you. Your known
+impartiality will give weight to our decisions, whatever they may be."
+
+The baronet sat down again, but evidently with so much unwillingness,
+that his brethren marvelled not a little at this fresh instance of the
+influence which Mr. Radford exerted over his mind.
+
+"Who is the next prisoner, Mr. Mowle?" demanded Sir Robert Croyland,
+as soon as he had resumed his seat.
+
+"Mr. Richard Radford, I suppose, sir," said Mowle; "but these two men
+are not disposed of."
+
+"Well, then," said Mr. Jollivet, who was very well inclined to
+commence a career of lenity, "as no proof has been given that this is
+the second offence, I think we must send them both for a month. That
+seems to me the utmost we can do."
+
+The other magistrates concurred in this decision; and the prisoners
+were ordered to be removed; but ere they went, the one against whom
+the officers had most seriously pressed their charge, turned round
+towards the bench, exclaiming, in a gay tone, "Thank you, Squire
+Jollyboat. Your worship shall have a chest of tea for this, before I'm
+out a fortnight."
+
+A roar of laughter ran round the magistrates--for such matters were as
+indecently carried on in those days, on almost all occasions, as they
+sometimes are now; and in a moment or two after, young Radford was
+brought in, with a dark scowl upon his brow.
+
+"How is this, Dick?" cried his father. "Have you been dabbling in a
+run, and suffered yourself to be caught?"
+
+"Let these vagabonds make their accusation, and bring their
+witnesses," replied the young man, sullenly, "and then I'll speak for
+myself."
+
+"Well, your worships," said Mowle, coming forward, "the facts are
+simply these: I have long had information that goods were to be run
+about this time, and that Mr. Radford had some share in the matter.
+Last night, a large quantity of goods were landed in the Marsh, though
+I had been told it was to be near about Sandgate, or between that and
+Hythe, and was consequently on the look-out there. As soon as I got
+intimation, however, that the run had been effected, I got together as
+many men as I could, sent for a party of dragoons from Folkestone,
+and, knowing pretty well which way they would take, came across by
+Aldington, Broadoak and Kingsnorth, and then away by Singleton Green,
+towards Four-Elms, where, just under the hill, we came upon those two
+men who have just been convicted, and two others, who got off. We
+captured these two, and three horse-loads they had with them, for
+their beasts were tired, and they had lagged behind. There were two or
+three chests of tea, and a good many other things, and all of them
+were marked, just like honest bales of goods, 'Richard Radford,
+Esquire, Junior.' As we found, however, that the great party was on
+before, we pursued them as far as Rouse-end, where we overtook them
+all; but there they scattered, some galloping off towards Gouldwell,
+as if they were going to the Ramleys; some towards Usherhouse, and
+some by the wood towards Etchden. Four or five of the dragoons pushed
+after those running for Gouldwell, but I and the rest stuck to the
+main body, which went away towards the wood, and who showed fight.
+There was a good deal of firing amongst the trees, but not much damage
+done, except to my horse, who was shot in the shoulder. But just as we
+were chasing them out of the wood, up came Mr. Richard Radford, who
+was seen for a minute speaking to one of the men who were running, and
+riding along beside him for some way. He then turned, and came up to
+us, and tried to stop us as we were galloping after them, asking what
+the devil we were about, and giving us a great deal of bad language. I
+didn't mind him, but rode on, knowing we could take him at any time;
+but Mr. Birchett, the other chief officer, who had captured the major
+a minute or two before, got angry, and caught him by the collar,
+charging him to surrender, when he instantly drew his sword, and
+threatened to run him through. One of the dragoons, however, knocked
+it out of his hand, and then he was taken. This affray in the middle
+of the road enabled the greater part of the rest to get off; and we
+only captured two more horses and one man."
+
+Several of the other officers, and the dragoons, corroborated Mowle's
+testimony; and the magistrates, but especially Sir Robert Croyland,
+began to look exceedingly grave. Mr. Radford, however, only laughed,
+turning to his son, and asking, "Well, Dick! what have you to say to
+all this?"
+
+Richard Radford, however, merely tossed up his head, and threw back
+his shoulders, without reply, till Sir Robert Croyland addressed him,
+saying, "I hope, Mr. Radford, you can clear yourself of this charge,
+for you ought to know that armed resistance to the King's officers is
+a transportable offence."
+
+"I will speak to the magistrates," replied young Radford, "when I can
+speak freely, without all these people about me. As to the goods they
+mention, marked with my name, I know nothing about them."
+
+"Do you wish to speak with the magistrates alone?" demanded old Mr.
+Radford.
+
+"I must strongly object to any such proceeding," exclaimed Mowle.
+
+"Pray, sir, meddle with what concerns you," said old Radford, turning
+upon him fiercely, "and do not pretend to dictate here. You gentlemen
+are greatly inclined to forget your place. I think that the room had
+better be cleared of all but the prisoner, Sir Robert."
+
+The baronet bowed his head; Squire Jollivet concurred in the same
+opinion; and, though one or two of the others hesitated, they were
+ultimately overruled, and the room was cleared of all persons but the
+magistrates and the culprit.
+
+Scarcely was this done, when, with a bold free air, and contemptuous
+smile, young Radford advanced to the side of the table, and laid his
+left hand firmly upon it; then, looking round from one to another, he
+said, "I will ask you a question, worshipful gentlemen.--Is there any
+one of you, here present, who has never, at any time, had anything to
+do with a smuggling affair?--Can you swear it upon your oaths?--Can
+you, sir?--Can you? Can you?"
+
+The magistrates to whom he addressed himself, looked marvellously
+rueful, and replied not; and at last, turning to his father, he said,
+"Can you, sir? though I, methinks, need hardly ask the question."
+
+"No, by Jove, Dick, I can't!" replied his father, laughing. "I wish to
+Heaven you wouldn't put such awful interrogatories; for I believe, for
+that matter, we are all in the same boat."
+
+"Then I refuse," said young Radford, "to be judged by you. Settle the
+matter as you like.--Get out of the scrape as you can; but don't
+venture to convict a man when you are more guilty than he is himself.
+If you do, I may tell a few tales that may not be satisfactory to any
+of you."
+
+It had been remarked, that, in putting his questions, the young
+gentleman had entirely passed Sir Robert Croyland; and Mr. Jollivet
+whispered to the gentleman next him, "I think we had better leave him
+and Sir Robert to settle it, for I believe the baronet is quite clear
+of the scrape."
+
+But Mr. Radford had overheard, and he exclaimed, "No, no; I think the
+matter is quite clear how we must proceed. There's not the slightest
+proof given that he knew anything about these goods being marked with
+his name, or that it was done by his authority. He was not with the
+men either, who were carrying the goods; and they were going quite
+away from his own dwelling. He happened to come there accidentally,
+just when the fray was going on. That I can prove, for I sent him a
+note this morning, telling him to join me at Ashford as fast as
+possible."
+
+"I saw it delivered myself," said Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+"To be sure," rejoined Mr. Radford; "and then, as to his talking to
+the smugglers when he did come up, I dare say he was telling them to
+surrender, or not to resist the law. Wasn't it so, Dick?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," answered Richard Radford, boldly. "I told them to
+be off as fast as they could. But I did tell them not to fire any
+more. That's true enough!"
+
+"Ay, to be sure," cried Mr. Radford. "He was trying to persuade them
+not to resist legitimate authority."
+
+Almost all the magistrates burst into a fit of laughter; but, no way
+disconcerted, worthy Mr. Radford went on saying--"While he was doing
+this, up comes this fellow, Birchett, and seizes him by the collar;
+and, I dare say, he abused him into the bargain."
+
+"He said I was a d--d smuggling blackguard myself," said young
+Radford.
+
+"Well, then, gentlemen, is it at all wonderful that he drew his
+sword?" demanded his respectable father. "Is every gentleman in the
+county to be ridden over, rough-shod, by these officers and their
+dragoons, and called 'd--d smuggling blackguards,' when they are
+actually engaged in persuading the smugglers not to fire? I promise
+you, my son shall bring an action against that fellow, Birchett, for
+an assault. It seems to me that the case is quite clear."
+
+"It is, at all events, rendered doubtful," said Sir Robert Croyland,
+"by what has been suggested. I think the officers had better now be
+recalled; and, by your permission, I will put a few questions to
+them."
+
+In a very few minutes the room was, once more, nearly filled, and the
+baronet addressed Mowle, in a grave tone, saying--"A very different
+view of this case has been afforded us, Mr. Mowle, from that which you
+gave just now. It is distinctly proved, and I myself can in some
+degree testify to the fact, that Mr. Radford was on the spot
+accidentally, having been sent for by his father to join him at
+Ashford----"
+
+"At the Ramleys', I suppose you mean, sir," observed Mowle, drily.
+
+"No, sir; at Ashford," rejoined Mr. Radford; and Sir Robert Croyland
+proceeded to say:
+
+"The young gentleman also asserts that he was persuading the smugglers
+to submit to lawful authority, or, at all events, not to fire upon
+you. Was there any more firing after he came up?"
+
+"No; there was not," answered Mowle. "They all galloped off as hard as
+they could."
+
+"Corroborative proof of his statement," observed Sir Robert, solemnly.
+"The only question, therefore, remaining, seems to be, as to whether
+Mr. Radford, junior, had really anything to do with the placing of his
+name upon the goods. Now, one strong reason for supposing such not to
+be the case is, that they were not found near his house, or going
+towards it, but the contrary."
+
+"Why, he's as much at home in the Ramleys' house as at his own," said
+a voice from behind; but Sir Robert took no notice, and proceeded to
+inquire--"Have you proof, Mr. Mowle, that he authorized any one to
+mark these goods with his name?"
+
+Mr. Radford smiled; and Mowle, the officer, looked a little puzzled.
+At length, however, he answered--"No, I can't say we have, Sir Robert;
+but one thing is very certain, it is not quite customary to ask for
+such proof in this stage of the business, and in the cases of inferior
+men."
+
+"I am sorry to hear it," replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a dignified
+and sententious tone, "for it is quite necessary that in all cases the
+evidence should be clear and satisfactory to justify the magistrates
+in committing any man to prison, even for trial. In this instance
+nothing is proved, and not even a fair cause for suspicion made out.
+Mr. Radford was there accidentally; the goods were going in a
+different direction from his house; he was seized, we think upon
+insufficient grounds, while endeavouring to dissuade the smugglers
+from resisting the king's officers and troops; and though we may judge
+his opposition imprudent, it was not wholly unjustifiable. The
+prisoner is therefore discharged."
+
+"The goods were going to the Ramleys," said the man, Clinch, who now,
+emboldened by the presence of several other officers, spoke loud and
+decidedly. "Here are two or three of the dragoons, who can swear that
+they followed a party of the smugglers nearly to the house, and had
+the gates shut in their face when they came up; and I can't help
+saying, that the search of the house by Mr. Radford was not conducted
+as it ought to have been. The two officers were left without, while he
+went in to speak with old Ramley, and there were a dozen of men, or
+more, in the kitchen."
+
+"Pooh! nonsense, fellow!" cried Mr. Radford, interrupting him with a
+laugh; "I did it for your own security."
+
+"And then," continued Clinch, "when we had gone down into the
+concealed cellar below, which was as clear a _hide_ for smuggled goods
+as ever was seen, he would not let me carry out the search, though I
+found that two places at the sides were hollow, and only covered with
+boards."
+
+"Why, you vagabond, you were afraid of going down at all!" said Mr.
+Radford. "Where is Adams? He can bear witness of it."
+
+"Clinch didn't seem to like it much, it must be confessed," said
+Adams, without coming forward; "but, then, the place was so full of
+men, it was enough to frighten one."
+
+"I wasn't frightened," rejoined Mr. Radford.
+
+"Because it was clear enough that you and the Ramleys understood each
+other," answered Clinch, boldly.
+
+"Pooh--pooh, nonsense!" said Squire Jollivet. "You must not talk such
+stuff here, Mr. Clinch. But, however that may be, the prisoner is
+discharged; and now, as I think we have no more business before us, we
+may all go home; for it's nearly five o'clock, and I, for one, want my
+dinner."
+
+"Ay, it is nearly five o'clock," said young Radford, who had been
+standing with his eyes cast down and his brow knit; "and you do not
+know what you have all done, keeping me here in this way."
+
+He added an oath, and then flung out of the room, passing through the
+crowd of officers and others, in his way towards the door, without
+waiting for his father, who had risen with the rest of the
+magistrates, and was preparing to depart.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland and Mr. Radford descended the stairs of the inn
+together; and at the bottom, Mr. Radford shook the baronet heartily by
+the hand, saying, loud enough to be heard by everybody. "That was
+admirably well done, Sir Robert! Many thanks--many thanks."
+
+"None to me, my dear sir," answered Sir Robert Croyland. "It was but
+simple justice;" and he turned away to mount his horse.
+
+"Very pretty justice, indeed!" said Mowle, in a low voice, to the
+sergeant of dragoons; "but I can't help fancying there's something
+more under this than meets the eye. Mr. Radford isn't a gentleman who
+usually laughs at these matters so lightly. But if he thinks to cheat
+me, perhaps he may find himself mistaken."
+
+In the meantime the baronet hastened homewards, putting his horse into
+a quick pace, and taking the nearest roads through the woods, which
+were then somewhat thickly scattered over that part of Kent. He had no
+servant with him; and when at about two miles from his own house, he
+passed through a wild and desolate part of the country, near what is
+now called Chequer Tree, he looked on before and around him on every
+side, somewhat anxiously, as if he did not much admire the aspect of
+the place.
+
+He pushed on, however, entered the wood, and rode rapidly down into a
+deep dell, which may still be seen in that neighbourhood, though its
+wild and gloomy character is now almost altogether lost. At that time,
+tall trees grew up round it on either hand, leaving, in the hollow, a
+little patch of about half an acre, filled with long grass and some
+stunted willows, while the head of a stream bubbling up in their
+shade, poured on its clear waters through a fringe of sedges and
+rushes towards some larger river.
+
+The sun had yet an hour or two to run before his setting; but it was
+only at noon of a summer's day that his rays ever penetrated into that
+gloomy and secluded spot; and towards the evening it had a chilly and
+desolate aspect, which made one feel as if it were a place debarred
+for ever of the bright light of day. The green tints of spring, or the
+warmer brown of autumn, seemed to make no difference, for the shades
+were always blue, dull and heavy, mingling with the thin filmy mist
+that rose up from the plashy ground on either side of the road.
+
+A faint sort of shudder came over Sir Robert Croyland, probably from
+the damp air; and he urged his horse rapidly down the hill without any
+consideration for the beast's knees. He was spurring on towards the
+other side, as if eager to get out of it, when a voice was heard from
+amongst the trees, exclaiming, in a sad and melancholy tone, "Robert
+Croyland! Robert Croyland! what look you for here?"
+
+The baronet turned on his saddle with a look of terror and anguish;
+but, instead of stopping, he dug his spurs into the horse's sides, and
+gallopped up the opposite slope. As if irresistibly impelled to look
+at that which he dreaded, he gazed round twice as he ascended, and
+each time beheld, standing in the middle of the road, the same figure,
+wrapped in a large dark cloak, which he had seen when first the voice
+caught his ear. Each time he averted his eyes in an instant, and
+spurred on more furiously than ever. His accelerated pace soon carried
+him to the top of the hill, where he could see over the trees; and in
+about a quarter of an hour, he reached Halden, when he began to check
+his horse, and reasoned with himself on his own sensations. There was
+a great struggle in his mind; but ere he arrived at Harbourne House he
+had gained sufficient mastery over himself to say, "What a strange
+thing imagination is!"
+
+
+
+                            END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+       T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos-street, Covent-garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER:
+
+
+
+                                A Tale
+
+
+
+                       BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+                 "DARNLEY," "DE L'ORME," "RICHELIEU,"
+
+                              ETC. ETC.
+
+
+
+                          IN THREE VOLUMES.
+
+
+                               VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+                 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
+                                1845.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+What a varying thing is the stream of life! How it sparkles and
+glitters! Now it bounds along its pebbly bed, sometimes in sunshine,
+and sometimes in shade; sometimes sporting round all things, as if its
+essence were merriment and brightness; sometimes flowing solemnly on,
+as if it were derived from Lethe itself. Now it runs like a liquid
+diamond along the meadow; now it plunges in fume and fury over the
+rock; now it is clear and limpid, as youth and innocence can make it;
+now it is heavy and turbid, with the varying streams of thought and
+memory that are ever flowing into it, each bringing its store of
+dulness and pollution as it tends towards the end. Its voice, too,
+varies as it goes; now it sings lightly as it dances on; now it roars
+amidst the obstacles that oppose its way; and now it has no tone but
+the dull low murmur of exhausted energy.
+
+Such is the stream of life! yet, perhaps, few of us would wish to
+change our portion of it for the calm regularity of a canal--even if
+one could be constructed without locks and floodgates upon it to hold
+in the pent-up waters of the heart till they are ready to burst
+through the banks.
+
+Life was in its sparkling aspect with Zara Croyland and Sir Edward
+Digby, when they set out on horseback for the house of old Mr.
+Croyland, cantering easily along the roads of that part of the
+country, which, in the days I speak of, were soft and somewhat sandy.
+Two servants followed behind at a discreet distance; and lightly
+passing over hill and dale, with all the loveliness of a very bright
+portion of our fair land stretched out around them, the young lady and
+her companion drew in, through the eyes, fresh sensations of happiness
+from all the lovely things of nature. The yellow woods warmed their
+hearts; the blue heaven raised their thoughts; the soft air refreshed
+and cheered all their feelings; and, when a passing cloud swept over
+the sky, it only gave that slight shadowy tone to the mind, which
+wakens within us the deep, innate, and elevating movements of the
+spirit, that seem to connect the aspect of God's visible creation,
+with a higher and a purer state of being. Each had some spring of
+happiness in the heart fresh opened; for, to the fair girl who went
+bounding along through that gay world, the thought that she was
+conveying to a dear sister tidings of hope, was in itself a joy; and
+to her companion a new subject of contemplation was presenting itself,
+in the very being who accompanied him on the way--a subject quite
+untouched and novel, and, to a man of his character and disposition, a
+most interesting one.
+
+Sir Edward Digby had mingled much with the world; he had seen many
+scenes of different kinds; he had visited various countries, the most
+opposite to each other; he had frequented courts, and camps, and
+cities; and he had known and seen a good deal of woman, and of
+woman's heart; but he had never yet met any one like Zara Croyland.
+The woman of fashion and of rank in all the few modifications of
+character that her circumstances admit--for rank and fashion are sadly
+like the famous bed of the robber of Attica, on which all men are cut
+down or stretched out to a certain size,--was well known to him, and
+looked upon much in the light of an exotic plant, kept in an
+artificial state of existence, with many beauties and excellences,
+perhaps, mingling with many deformities and faults, but still weakened
+and deprived of individuality by long drilling in a round of
+conventionalities. He had seen, too, the wild Indian, in the midst of
+her native woods, and might have sometimes admired the free grace and
+wild energy of uncultivated and unperverted nature; but he was not
+very fond of barbarism, and though he might admit the existence of
+fine qualities, even in a savage, yet he had not been filled with any
+great enthusiasm in favour of Indian life, from what he had seen in
+Canada. The truth is, he had never been a very dissolute, or, as it is
+termed, a very gay man--he was not sated and surfeited with the vices
+of civilization, and consequently was not inclined to seek for new
+excitement in the very opposite extreme of primeval rudeness.
+
+Most of the gradations between the two, he had seen at different
+periods and in different lands; but yet in her who now rode along
+beside him, there was something different from any. It was not a want,
+but a combination of the qualities he had remarked in others. There
+was the polish and the cultivation of high class and finished
+training, with a slight touch of the wildness and the originality of
+the fresh unsophisticated heart. There was the grace of education, and
+the grace of nature; and there seemed to be high natural powers of
+intellect, uncurbed by artificial rules, but supplied with materials
+by instruction.
+
+All this was apparent; but the question with him was, as to the heart
+beneath, and its emotions. He gazed upon her as they went on--when she
+was not looking that way--he watched her countenance, the habitual
+expression of the features, and the varying expression which every
+emotion produced. Her face seemed like a bright looking-glass, which a
+breath will dim, and a touch will brighten; but there is so much
+deceit in the world, and every man who has mingled with that world
+must have seen so much of it, and every man, also, has within himself
+such internal and convincing proofs of our human nature's fondness for
+seeming, that we are all inclined--except in very early youth--to
+doubt the first impression, to inquire beyond the external appearance,
+and to inquire if the heart of the fruit corresponds with the beauty
+of the outside.
+
+He asked himself what was she really?--what was true, and what was
+false, in that bright and sparkling creature? Whether, was the gaiety
+or the sadness the real character of the mind within? or whether the
+frequent variation from the one to the other--ay, and from energy to
+lightness, from softness to firmness, from gentleness to vigour--were
+not all the indications of a character as various as the moods which
+it assumed.
+
+Sir Edward Digby was resolved not to fall in love, which is the most
+dangerous resolution that a man can take: for it is seldom, if ever,
+taken, except in a case of great necessity--one of those hasty
+outworks thrown up against a powerful enemy, which are generally taken
+in a moment and the cannon therein turned against ourselves.
+
+Nevertheless, he had resolved, as I have said, not to fall in love;
+and he fancied that, strengthened by that resolution, he was quite
+secure. It must not be understood, indeed, that Sir Edward Digby never
+contemplated marriage. On the contrary, he thought of it as a remote
+evil that was likely to fall upon him some day, by an inevitable
+necessity. It seemed a sort of duty, indeed, to transmit his name, and
+honours, and wealth to another generation; and as duties are not
+always very pleasant things, he, from time to time, looked forward to
+the execution of his, in this respect, in a calm, philosophical,
+determined manner. Thirty-five, he thought, would be a good time to
+marry; and when he did so, he had quite made up his mind to do it with
+the utmost deliberation and coolness. It should be quite a _mariage de
+raison_. He would take it as a dose of physic--a disagreeable thing,
+to be done when necessary, but not a minute before; and in the
+meantime, to fall in love, was quite out of the question.
+
+No, he was examining and investigating and contemplating Zara
+Croyland's character, merely as a matter of interesting speculation;
+and a very dangerous speculation it was, Sir Edward Digby! I don't
+know which was most perilous, that, or your resolution.
+
+It is very strange, he never recollected that, in no other case in his
+whole career, had he found it either necessary to take such a
+resolution, or pleasant to enter into such a speculation. If he had,
+perhaps he might have begun to tremble for himself. Nor did he take
+into the calculation the very important fact that Zara Croyland was
+both beautiful and pretty--two very different things, reader, as you
+will find, if you examine. A person may be very pretty without being
+the least beautiful, or very beautiful without being the least pretty;
+but when those two qualities are both combined, and when, in one girl,
+the beauty of features and of form that excites admiration, is joined
+with that prettiness of expression, and colouring, and arrangement
+that wakens tenderness and wins affection, Lord have mercy upon the
+man who rides along with her through fair scenes, under a bright sky!
+
+Digby did not at all find out, that he was in the most dangerous
+situation in the world; or, if some fancy ever came upon him, that he
+was not quite safe, it was but as one of those vague impressions of
+peril that float for a single instant over the mind when we are
+engaged in any very bold and exciting undertaking, and pass away again
+as fast.
+
+Far from guarding himself at all, Sir Edward Digby went on in his
+unconsciousness, laying himself more and more open to the enemy. In
+pursuit of his scheme of investigation, he proceeded, as they rode
+along, to try the mind of his fair companion in a thousand different
+ways; and every instant he brought forth some new and dangerous
+quality. He found that, in the comparative solitude in which she
+lived, she had had time for study as well as thought, and had acquired
+far more, and far more varied stores of information, than was common
+with the young women of her day. It was not alone that she could read
+and spell--which a great many could not, in those times,--but she had
+read a number of different works upon a number of different subjects;
+knew as much of other lands, and of the habits of other people, as
+books could give, and was tastefully proficient in the arts that
+brighten life, even where their cultivation is not its object.
+
+Thus her conversation had always something new about it. The very
+images that suggested themselves to her mind were derived from such
+numerous sources, that it kept the fancy on the stretch to follow her
+in her flights, and made their whole talk a sort of playful chase,
+like that of one bird after another in the air. Now she borrowed a
+comparison for something sensible to the eye from the sweet music that
+charms the ear--now she found out links of association between the
+singing of the birds and some of the fine paintings that she had seen
+or heard of--now combined a bright scene, or a peculiar moment of
+happiness, with the sweet odours of the flowers or the murmur of the
+stream. With everything in nature and art she sported, apparently
+unconscious; and often, too, in speaking of the emotions of the heart
+or the thoughts of the mind, she would, with a bright flash of
+imagination, cast lights upon those dark and hidden things, from
+objects in the external world, or from the common events of life.
+
+Eagerly Digby led her on--pleased, excited, entertained himself; but
+in so doing he produced an effect which he had not calculated upon. He
+made a change in her feelings towards himself. She had thought him a
+very agreeable man from the first; she had seen that he was a
+gentleman by habit, and divined that he was so by nature; but now she
+began to think that he was a very high-toned and noble-minded man,
+that he was one worthy of high station and of all happiness--she did
+not say--of affection, nor let the image of love pass distinctly
+before her eyes. There might be a rosy cloud in the far sky wherein
+the god was veiled; but she did not see him--or, was it that she would
+not? Perhaps it was so; for woman's heart is often as perverse and
+blind, in these matters, as man's. But one thing is clear, no two
+people can thus pour forth the streams of congenial thought and
+feeling--to flow on mingling together in sweet communion--for any
+great length of time, without a change of their sensations towards
+each other; and, unless the breast be well guarded by passion for
+another, it is not alone that mind with mind is blended, but heart
+with heart.
+
+Though the distance was considerable,--that is to say, some three or
+four miles, and they made it more than twice as long by turning up
+towards the hills, to catch a fine view of the wooded world below, on
+whose beauty Zara expatiated eloquently,--and though they talked of a
+thousand different subjects, which I have not paused to mention here,
+lest the detail should seem all too tedious, yet their ride passed
+away briefly, like a dream. At length, coming through some green
+lanes, overhung by young saplings and a crown of brambles and other
+hedge-row shrubs--no longer, alas, in flower--they caught sight of the
+chimneys of a house a little way farther on, and Zara said, with a
+sigh, "There is my uncle's house."
+
+Sir Edward Digby asked himself, "Why does she sigh?" and as he did so,
+felt inclined to sigh, too; for the ride had seemed too short, and had
+now become as a pleasant thing passed away. But then he thought, "We
+shall enjoy it once again as we return;" and he took advantage of
+their slackened pace to say, "As I know you are anxious to speak with
+your sister, Miss Croyland, I will contrive to occupy your uncle for a
+time, if we find him at home. I fear I shall not be able to obtain an
+opportunity of talking with her myself on the subjects that so deeply
+interest her, as at one time I hoped to do; but I am quite sure, from
+what I see of you, that I may depend upon what you tell me, and act
+accordingly."
+
+As if by mutual consent, they had avoided, during their expedition of
+that morning, the subject which was, perhaps, most in the thoughts of
+each; but now Zara checked her horse to a slow walk, and replied,
+after a moment's thought, "I should think, if you desire it, you could
+easily obtain a few minutes' conversation with her at my uncle's.--I
+only don't know whether it may agitate her too much or not. Perhaps
+you had better let me speak with her first, and then, if she wishes
+it, she will easily find the means. You may trust to me, indeed, Sir
+Edward, in Edith's case, though I do not always say exactly what I
+mean about myself. Not that I have done otherwise with you; for,
+indeed, I have neither had time nor occasion; but with the people that
+occasionally come to the house, sometimes it is necessary, and
+sometimes I am tempted, out of pure perversity, to make them think me
+very different from what I am. It is not always with those that I hate
+or despise either, but sometimes with people that I like and esteem
+very much. Now, I dare say poor Harry Leyton has given you a very sad
+account of me?"
+
+"No, indeed," answered Sir Edward Digby; "you do him wrong; I have not
+the least objection to tell you exactly what he said."
+
+"Oh, do--do!" cried Zara; "I should like to hear very much, for I am
+afraid I used to tease him terribly."
+
+"He said," replied Digby, "that when last he saw you, you were a gay,
+kind-hearted girl of fourteen, and that he was sure, if I spoke to you
+about him, you would tell me all that I wanted to know with truth and
+candour."
+
+"That was kind of him," said Zara, with some emotion, "that was very
+kind. I am glad he knows me; and yet that very candour, Sir Edward,
+some people call affectation, and some impudence. I am afraid that
+those who know much of the world never judge rightly of those who know
+little of it. Sincerity is a commodity so very rare, I am told, in the
+best society, that those who meet with it never believe that they have
+got the genuine article."
+
+"I know a good deal of the world," replied the young baronet, "but
+yet, my dear Miss Croyland, I do not think that I have judged you
+wrongly;" and he fell into thought.
+
+The next moment they turned up to the house of old Mr. Croyland; and
+while the servants were holding the horses, and Zara, with the aid of
+Sir Edward Digby, dismounting at the door, they saw, to her horror and
+consternation, a large, yellow coach coming down the hill towards the
+house, which she instantly recognised as her father's family vehicle.
+
+"My aunt, my aunt, upon my life!" exclaimed Zara, with a rueful shake
+of the head. "I must speak one word with Edith before she comes; so
+forgive me, Sir Edward," and she darted into the house, asking a black
+servant, in a shawl turban and a long white gown, where Miss Croyland
+was to be found.
+
+"She out in de garden, pretty missy," replied the man; and Zara ran on
+through the vestibule before her. Unfortunately, vestibules will have
+doors communicating with them, which, I have often remarked, have an
+unhappy propensity to open when any one is anxious to pass by them
+quietly. It was so in the present instance: roused from a reverie by
+the ringing of the bell, and the sound of voices without, Mr. Croyland
+issued forth just at the moment when Zara's light foot was carrying
+her across to the garden; and catching her by the arm, he detained
+her, asking, "What brought you here, saucy girl, and whither are you
+running so fast?"
+
+Now Zara, though she was not good Mr. Zachary's favourite, had a very
+just appreciation of her uncle's character, and knew that the simple
+truth was less dangerous with him than with nine hundred and
+ninety-nine persons out of a thousand in civilized society. She,
+therefore, replied at once. "Don't stop me, uncle, there's a good man!
+I came to speak a few words to Edith, and wish to speak them before my
+aunt arrives."
+
+"What! plot and counterplot, I will warrant!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland,
+freeing her arm. "Well, get you gone, you graceless monkey! Ha! who
+have we here? Why, my young friend, the half-bottle man! Are you one
+of the plotters too, Sir Edward?"
+
+"Oh, I am a complete master in the art of domestic strategy, I assure
+you," answered the young officer, "and I propose--having heard what
+Miss Croyland has just said--that we take up a position across these
+glass doors, in order to favour her operations. We can then impede
+the advance of Mrs. Barbara's corps, by throwing forward the
+light-infantry of small-talk, assure her it is a most beautiful day,
+tell her that the view from the hill is lovely, and that the slight
+yellowness of September gives a fine warmth to the green foliage--with
+various other pieces of information which she does not desire--till
+the man[oe]uvres in our rear are complete."
+
+"Ah, you are a sad knave," replied Mr. Zachary Croyland, laughing,
+"and, I see, are quite ready to aid the young in bamboozling the old."
+
+But, alas, the best schemed campaign is subject to accidental
+impediments in execution, which will often deprive it of success!
+Almost as Mr. Croyland spoke, the carriage rolled up; and not small
+was the horror of the master of the house, to see riding behind it, on
+a tall grey horse, no other than young Richard Radford. Sir Edward
+Digby, though less horrified, was not well pleased; but it was Mr.
+Croyland who spoke, and that in rather a sharp and angry tone,
+stepping forward, at the same time, over the threshold of his door:
+"Mr. Radford," he said--"Mr. Radford, I am surprised to see you! You
+must very well know, that although I tolerate, and am obliged to
+tolerate, a great many people whom I don't approve, at my brother's
+house, your society is not that which I particularly desire."
+
+Young Radford's eyes flashed, but, for once in his life, he exercised
+some command over himself. "I came here at your sister's suggestion,
+sir," he said.
+
+"Oh, Barbara, Barbara! barbarous Barbara!" exclaimed Mr. Zachary
+Croyland, shaking his head at his sister, who was stepping out of the
+carriage. "The devil himself never invented an instrument better
+fitted to torment the whole human race, than a woman with the best
+intentions in the world."
+
+"Why, my dear brother," said Mrs. Barbara, with the look of a martyr,
+"you know quite well that Robert wishes Mr. Radford to have the
+opportunity of paying his addresses to Edith, and so I proposed----"
+
+"He shan't have the opportunity here, by Vishnoo!" cried the old
+gentleman.
+
+"To say the truth," said Mr. Radford, interposing, "such was not my
+object in coming hither to-day. I wished to have the honour of saying
+a few words to a gentleman I see standing behind you, sir, which was
+also the motive of my going over to Harbourne House. Otherwise, well
+knowing your prejudices, I should not have troubled you; for, I can
+assure you, that _your_ company is not particularly agreeable to
+_me_."
+
+"If mine is what you want, sir," replied Sir Edward Digby, stepping
+forward and passing Mr. Croyland, "it is very easily obtained; but, as
+it seems you are not a welcome guest here, perhaps we had better walk
+along the lane together."
+
+"A less distance than that will do," answered Richard Radford,
+throwing the bridle of his horse to one of the servants, and taking
+two or three steps away from the house.
+
+"Oh, Zachary, my dear brother, do interfere!" exclaimed Mrs. Barbara.
+"I forgot they had quarrelled yesterday morning, and unfortunately let
+out that Sir Edward was here. There will be a duel, if you don't stop
+them."
+
+"Not I," cried Mr. Croyland, rubbing his hands; "it's a pleasure to
+see two fools cut each other's throats. I'd lay any wager--if I ever
+did such a thing as lay wagers at all--that Digby pricks him through
+the midriff. There's a nice little spot at the end of the garden quite
+fit for such exercises."
+
+Mr. Zachary Croyland was merely playing upon his sister's
+apprehensions, as the best sort of punishment he could inflict for the
+mischief she had brought about; but he never had the slightest idea
+that Sir Edward Digby and young Radford would come to anything like
+extreme measures in his sister's presence, knowing the one to be a
+gentleman, and mistakenly believing the other to be a coward. The
+conversation of the two who had walked away was not of long duration:
+nor, for a time, did it appear very vehement. Mr. Radford said
+something, and the young Baronet replied; Mr. Radford rejoined, and
+Digby answered the rejoinder. Then some new observation was made by
+the other, which seemed to cause Sir Edward to look round to the
+house, and, seeing Mr. Croyland and his sister still on the step, to
+make a sign for young Radford to follow to a greater distance. The
+latter, however, planted the heel of his boot tight in the gravel, as
+if to give emphasis to what he said, and uttered a sentence in a
+louder tone, and with a look so fierce, meaning, and contemptuous,
+that Mr. Croyland saw the matter was getting serious, and stepped
+forward to interfere.
+
+In an instant, however, Sir Edward Digby, apparently provoked beyond
+bearing, raised the heavy horsewhip which he had in his hand, and laid
+it three or four times, with great rapidity, over Mr. Radford's
+shoulders. The young man instantly dropped his own whip, drew his
+sword, and made a fierce lunge at the young officer's breast. The
+motion was so rapid, and the thrust so well aimed, that Digby had
+barely time to put it aside with his riding-whip, receiving a wound in
+his left shoulder as he did so. But the next moment his sword was also
+out of the sheath, and, after three sharp passes, young Radford's
+blade was flying over the neighbouring hedge, and a blow in the face
+from the hilt of Sir Edward Digby's weapon brought him with his knee
+to the ground.
+
+The whole of this scene passed as quick as lightning; and I have not
+thought fit to interrupt the narration for the purpose of recording,
+in order, the four, several, piercing shrieks with which Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland accompanied each act of the drama. The first, however, was
+loud enough to call Zara from the garden, even before she had found
+her sister; and she came up to her aunt's side just at the moment that
+young Radford was disarmed, and then struck in the face by his
+opponent.
+
+Slightly heated, Sir Edward gazed at him with his weapon in his hand;
+and the young lady, clasping her hands, exclaimed aloud, "Hold, Sir
+Edward! Sir Edward! for Heaven's sake!"
+
+Sir Edward Digby turned round with a faint smile, thrust his sword
+back into the sheath, and, without bestowing another word on his
+adversary, walked slowly back to the door of the house, and apologized
+to Mrs. Barbara for what had occurred, saying, "I beg you ten thousand
+pardons, my dear madam, for treating you to such a sight as this; but
+I can assure you it is not my seeking. That person, who failed to keep
+an appointment with me yesterday, thought fit twice just now to call
+me coward; and as he would not walk to a little distance, I had no
+resource but to horsewhip him where I stood."
+
+"Pity you didn't ran him through the liver!" observed Mr. Croyland.
+
+While these few words were passing, young Radford rose slowly, paused
+for an instant to gaze upon the ground, and then, gnawing his lip,
+approached his horse's side. There is, perhaps, no passion of the
+human heart more dire, more terrible than impotent revenge, or more
+uncontrollable in its effect upon the human countenance. The face of
+Richard Radford, handsome as it was in many respects, was at the
+moment when he put his foot into the stirrup and swung himself up to
+the saddle, perfectly frightful, from the fiend-like expression of
+rage and disappointment that it bore. He felt that he was
+powerless--for a time, at least; that he had met an adversary greatly
+superior to himself, both in skill and strength; and that he had
+suffered not only defeat but disgrace, before the eyes of a number of
+persons whom his own headstrong fury had made spectators of a scene so
+painful to himself. Reining his horse angrily back to clear him of the
+carriage, he shook his fist at Sir Edward Digby, exclaiming, "Sooner
+or later, I will have revenge!" Then, striking the beast's flank with
+his spurs, he turned and galloped away.
+
+Digby had, as we have seen, addressed his apologies to Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland; but after hearing, with a calm smile, his vanquished
+opponent's empty threat, he looked round to the fair companion of his
+morning's ride, and saw her standing beside her uncle, with her cheek
+very pale and her eyes cast down to the ground.
+
+"Do not be alarmed. Miss Croyland," he said, bending down his head,
+and speaking in a low and gentle tone. "This affair can have no other
+results. It is all over now."
+
+Zara raised her eyes to his face, but, as she did so, turned more pale
+than before; and pointing to his arm--where the cloth of his coat was
+cut through, and the blood flowing down over his sleeve and dropping
+from the ruffle round his wrist--she exclaimed, "You are hurt, Sir
+Edward! Good Heaven! he has wounded you!"
+
+"A scratch--a scratch," said Digby; "a mere nothing. A
+pocket-handkerchief tied round it, will soon remedy all the mischief
+he has done, though not all he intended."
+
+"Oh! come in--come in, and have it examined!" cried Zara, eagerly.
+
+The rest of the party gathered round, joined, just at that moment, by
+Edith from the garden; and Mr. Croyland, tearing the coat wider open,
+looked at the wound with more experienced eyes, saying, "Ah, a flesh
+wound! but in rather an awkward place. Not as wide as a church door,
+nor as deep as a draw-well, as our friend has it; but if it had been
+an inch and a half to the right, it would have divided the subclavian
+artery--and then, my dear sir, 'it would have done.' This will get
+well soon. But come, Sir Neddy, let us into the house; and I will do
+for you what I haven't done for ten or twelve years--_id est_, dress
+your wound myself: and mind, you must not drink any wine to-night."
+
+The whole party began to move into the house, Sir Edward Digby keeping
+as near the two Miss Croylands as possible, and laying out a little
+plan in his head for begging the assistance of Mrs. Barbara while his
+wound was dressed, and sending the two young ladies out of the room to
+hold their conference together. He was, however, destined to be
+frustrated here also. To Zara Croyland, it had been a day of unusual
+excitement; she had enjoyed, she had been moved, she had been agitated
+and terrified, and she was still under much greater alarm than perhaps
+was needful, both regarding Sir Edward Digby's wound and the threat
+which young Radford had uttered. She felt her head giddy and her heart
+flutter as if oppressed; but she walked on steadily enough for four or
+five steps, while her aunt, Mrs. Barbara, was explaining to Edith, in
+her own particular way, all that had occurred. But just when the old
+lady was saying--"Then, whipping out his sword in an instant, he
+thrust at Sir Edward's breast, and I thought to a certainty he was run
+through--" Zara sunk slowly down, caught by her sister as she fell,
+and the hue of death spread over her face.
+
+"Fainted!" cried Mr. Croyland. "I wish to Heaven, Bab, you would hold
+your tongue! I will tell Edith about it afterwards. What's the use of
+bringing it all up again before the girl's mind, when the thing's done
+and over? There, let her lie where she is; the recumbent position is
+the right thing. Bring a cushion out of the drawing-room, Edith, my
+love, and ask Baba for the hartshorn drops. We'll soon get her better;
+and then the best thing you can do, Bab, is to put her into the
+carriage, take her home again, and hold your tongue to my brother
+about this foolish affair--if anything can hold a woman's tongue. I'll
+plaster up the man's arm, and then, like many another piece of damaged
+goods, he'll be all right--on the outside at least."
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland followed devoutly one part of her brother's
+injunctions. As soon as Zara was sufficiently recovered, she hurried
+her to the carriage, without leaving her alone with Edith for one
+moment; and Sir Edward Digby, having had his wound skilfully dressed
+by Mr. Zachary Croyland's own hands, thanked the old gentleman
+heartily for his care and kindness, mounted his horse, and rode back
+to Harbourne House.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+We must now return to the town of Hythe, and to the little room in the
+little inn, which that famous borough boasted as its principal
+hostelry, at the period of our tale. It was about eleven o'clock at
+night, perhaps a few minutes earlier; and in that room was seated a
+gentleman, whom we have left for a long time, though not without
+interest in himself and his concerns. But, as in this wayfaring world
+we are often destined for weeks, months--ay, and long years--to quit
+those whom we love best, and to work for their good in distant scenes,
+with many a thought given to them, but few means of communication; so,
+in every picture of human life which comprises more than one
+character, must we frequently leave those in whom we are most
+interested, while we are tracing out the various remote cords and
+pulleys of fate, by which the fabric of their destiny is ultimately
+reared.
+
+The gentleman, then, who had been introduced to Mr. Croyland as
+Captain Osborne, was seated at a table, writing. A number of papers,
+consisting of letters, accounts, and several printed forms, unfilled
+up, were strewed upon the table around, which was moreover encumbered
+by a heavy sword and belt, a large pair of thick buckskin gloves, and
+a brace of heavy silver-mounted pistols. He looked pale and somewhat
+anxious; but nevertheless he went on, with his fine head bent, and
+the light falling from above upon his beautifully cut classical
+features--sometimes putting down a name, and adding a sum in figures
+opposite--sometimes, when he came to the bottom of the page, running
+up the column with rapidity and ease, and then inscribing the sum
+total at the bottom.
+
+It was perhaps, rather an unromantic occupation that the young officer
+was employed in; for it was evident that he was making up, with steady
+perseverance, some rather lengthy accounts; and all his thoughts
+seemed occupied with pounds, shillings, and pence. It was not so,
+indeed, though he wished it to be so; but, if the truth must be
+spoken, his mind often wandered afar; and his brain seemed to have got
+into that state of excitement, which caused sounds and circumstances
+that would at any other time have passed without notice, to trouble
+him and disturb his ideas on the present occasion.
+
+There had been a card and punch club in one of the neighbouring rooms.
+The gentlemen had assembled at half-past six or seven, had hung up
+their wigs upon pegs provided for the purpose, and had made a great
+deal of noise in coming in and arranging themselves. There was then
+the brewing of the punch, the lighting of the pipes, and the laughing
+and jesting to which those important events generally give rise, at
+the meeting of persons of some importance in a country town; and then
+the cards were produced, and a great deal of laughing and talking, as
+usual, succeeded, in regard to the preliminaries, and also respecting
+the course of the game.
+
+There had been no slight noise, also, in the lower regions of the inn,
+much speaking, and apparently some merriment; and, from all these
+things put together--to say nothing of, every now and then, the
+pleasures of a comic song, given by one of the parties above or
+below--the young officer had been considerably disturbed, and had been
+angry with himself for being so. His thoughts, too, would wander,
+whether he liked it or not.
+
+"Digby must have seen her," he said to himself, "unless she be absent;
+and surely he must have found some opportunity of speaking with
+herself or her sister by this time. I wonder I have not heard from
+him. He promised to write as soon as he had any information; and he is
+not a man to forget. Well, it is of no use to think of it;" and he
+went on--"five and six are eleven, and four are fifteen, and six are
+twenty-one."
+
+At this interesting point of his calculation, a dragoon, who was
+stationed at the door, put his head into the room, and said, "Mr.
+Mowle, sir, wants to speak to you."
+
+"Let him come in," answered the officer; and, laying down his pen, he
+looked up with a smile. "Well, Mr. Mowle!" he continued, "what news do
+you bring? Have you been successful?"
+
+"No very good news, and but very little success, sir," answered the
+officer of customs, taking a seat to which the other pointed. "We have
+captured some of their goods, and taken six of the men, but the
+greater part of the cargo, and the greatest villain of them all, have
+been got off."
+
+"Ay, how happened that?" asked the gentleman to whom he spoke. "I gave
+you all the men you required; and I should certainly have thought you
+were strong enough."
+
+"Oh yes, sir, that was not what we lacked," answered Mowle, in a
+somewhat bitter tone; "but I'll tell you what we did want--honest
+magistrates, and good information. Knowing the way they were likely to
+take, I cut straight across the country by Aldington, Kingsnorth, and
+Singleton-green, towards Four Elms----"
+
+"It would have been better, I should think, to go on by Westhawk,"
+said the young officer; "for though the road is rather hilly, you
+would by that means have cut them off, both from Singleton, Chart
+Magna, and Gouldwell, towards which places, I think you said, they
+were tending.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the officer of Customs, "but we found, on the
+road, that we were rather late in the day, and that our only chance
+was by hard riding. We came up with four of them, however, who had
+lagged behind, about Four Elms. Two of these we got, and all their
+goods; and, from the information they gave, we galloped on as hard as
+we could to Rousend."
+
+"Did you take the road, or across the country?" demanded the young
+officer.
+
+"Birchett would take the road," answered Mowle.
+
+"He was wrong--he was quite wrong," replied the other. "If you had
+passed by Newstreet, then straight over the fields and meadows, up to
+the mill, you would have had them in a trap. They could not have
+reached Chart, or New Purchase, or Gouldwell, or Etchden, without your
+catching them; and if they had fallen back, they must have come upon
+the men I stationed at Bethersden, with whom was Adams, the officer."
+
+"Why, you seem to know the country, sir," said his companion, with
+some surprise, "as if you had lived in it all your days."
+
+"I do know it very well," answered the officer of dragoons; "and you
+must be well aware that what I say is right. It was the shortest way,
+too, and presents no impediments but a couple of fences, and a ditch."
+
+"All very true, sir," answered Mowle, "and so I told Birchett; but
+Adams had gone off for another officer, and is very little use to us
+himself.--There's no trusting him, sir.--However, we came up with them
+at Rousend, but there, after a little bit of a tussle, they
+separated;" and he went on to give his account of the affray with the
+smugglers, nearly in the same words which he had employed when
+speaking to the magistrates, some six or seven hours before. His
+hearer listened with grave attention; but when Mowle came to mention
+the appearance of Richard Radford, and his capture, the young
+officer's eyes flashed, and his brow knit; and as the man went on to
+describe the self-evident juggle which had been played, to enable the
+youth to evade the reach of justice, he rose from the table, and
+walked once or twice hastily up and down the room. Then, seating
+himself again, to all appearance as calm as before, he said, "This is
+too bad, Mr. Mowle, and shall be reported."
+
+"Ay, sir; but you have not heard the worst," answered Mowle. "These
+worthy justices thought fit to send the five men whom they had
+committed, off to gaol in a wagon, with three or four constables to
+guard them, and of course you know what took place."
+
+"Oh, they were all rescued, of course!" replied the officer.
+
+"Before they got to Headcorn," said Mowle. "But the whole affair was
+arranged by Mr. Radford; for these fellows say themselves, that it is
+better to work for him at half price, than for any one else, because
+he always stands by his own, and will see no harm come to them. If
+this is to go on, sir, you and I may as well leave the county."
+
+"It shall not go on," answered the officer; "but we must have a little
+patience, my good friend. Long impunity makes a man rash. This worthy
+Mr. Radford seems to have become so already; otherwise, he would never
+have risked carrying so large a venture across the country in open
+day----"
+
+"I don't think that, in this, he was rash at all, sir," answered
+Mowle, lowering his tone, and speaking in a whisper; "and if you will
+listen for a moment, I'll tell you why. My belief is, that the whole
+of this matter is but a lure to take us off the right scent; and I
+have several reasons for thinking so. In the first place, the run was
+but a trifling affair, as far as I can learn--not worth five hundred
+pounds. I know that what we have got is not worth a hundred; and it
+has cost me as good a horse as I ever rode in my life. Now from all I
+hear, the cargo that Mr. Radford expects is the most valuable that
+ever was run from Dungeness Point to the North Foreland. So, if my
+information is correct, and I am sure it----"
+
+"Who did you get it from?" demanded the officer, "if the question is a
+fair one."
+
+"Some such questions might not be," answered Mowle, "but I don't mind
+answering this, Colonel. I got it from Mr. Radford himself.--Ay, sir,
+you may well look surprised; but I heard him, with my own ears, say
+that it was worth at least seventy thousand pounds. So you see my
+information is pretty good. Now, knowing this, as soon as I found out
+what value was in this lot, I said to myself, this is some little spec
+of young Radford's own. But when I came to consider the matter, I
+found, that must be a mistake too; for the old man helped the Ramleys
+out of their scrape so impudently, and took such pains to let it be
+well understood that he had an interest in the affair, that I felt
+sure there was some motive at the bottom, sir. In all these things, he
+has shown himself from a boy, as cautious as he is daring, and that's
+the way he has made such a power of money. He's not a man to appear
+too much in a thing, even for his son's sake, if he has not some
+purpose to answer; and, depend upon it, I'm right, when I say that
+this run was nothing but a trap, or a blind as they call it, to make
+us think--in case we've got any information of the great venture--that
+the thing is all over. Why did they choose the day, when they might
+have done it all at night? Why did Mr. Radford go on laughing with the
+magistrates, as if it was a good joke? No, no, sir, the case is clear
+enough: they are going to strike their great stroke sooner than we
+supposed; and this is but a trifle."
+
+"But may you not have made some mistake in regard to Mr. Radford's
+words?" demanded the young officer. "I should think it little likely
+that so prudent a man, as you represent him to be, would run so great
+a risk for such a purpose."
+
+"I made no mistake," answered Mowle; "I heard the words clear enough;
+and, besides, I've another proof. The man who is to run the goods for
+him, had nothing to do with this affair. I've got sharp eyes upon him;
+and though he was away from home the other night, he was not at sea.
+That I've discovered. He was up in the county, not far from Mr.
+Radford's own place, and most likely saw him, though that I can't find
+out. However, sir, I shall hear more very soon. Whenever it is to be
+done, we shall have sharp work of it, and must have plenty of men."
+
+"My orders are to assist you to the best of my power," said the young
+officer, "and to give you what men you may require; but as I have been
+obliged to quarter them in different places, you had better give me as
+speedy information of what force you are likely to demand, and on what
+point you wish them to assemble, as you can."
+
+"Those are puzzling questions, Colonel," replied Mowle. "I do not
+think the attempt will be made to-night; for their own people must be
+all knocked up, and they cannot bring down enough to carry as well as
+run--at least, I think not. But it will probably be made to-morrow, if
+they fancy they have lulled us; and that fancy I shall take care to
+indulge, by keeping a sharp look out, without seeming to look out at
+all. As to the point, that is what I cannot tell. Harding will start
+from the beach here; but where he will land is another affair; and the
+troops are as likely to be wanted twenty miles down the coast, or
+twenty miles up, as anywhere else. I wish you would give me a general
+order for the dragoons to assist me wherever I may want them."
+
+"That is given already, Mr. Mowle," answered the officer; "such are
+the commands we have received; and even the non-commissioned officers
+are instructed, on the very first requisition made by a chief officer
+of Customs, to turn out and aid in the execution of the law. Wherever
+any of the regiment are quartered, you will find them ready to
+assist."
+
+"Ay, but they are so scattered, sir," rejoined Mowle, "that it may be
+difficult to get them together in a hurry."
+
+"Not in the least," replied Osborne; "they are so disposed that I can,
+at a very short notice, collect a sufficient force, at any point, to
+deal with the largest body of smugglers that ever assembled."
+
+"You may, perhaps, sir, but I cannot," answered the Custom-House
+officer; "and what I wish is, that you would give them a general order
+to march to any place where I require them, and to act as I shall
+direct."
+
+"Nay, Mr. Mowle," said the other, shaking his head, "that, I am
+afraid, cannot be. I have no instructions to such effect; and though
+the military power is sent here, to assist the civil, it is not put
+under the command of the civil. I do not conceal from you that I do
+not like the service; but that shall only be a motive with me for
+executing my duty the more vigorously; and you have but to give me
+intimation of where you wish a force collected, and it shall be done
+in the shortest possible time."
+
+Mowle did not seem quite satisfied with this answer; and after
+musing for a few minutes, he replied, "But suppose I do not know
+myself--suppose it should be fifteen or twenty miles from Hythe, and I
+myself, on the spot, how am I to get the requisition sent to you--and
+how are you to move your men to the place where I may want
+them--perhaps, farther still?".
+
+"As to my moving my men, you must leave that to me," answered the
+young officer; "and as to your obtaining the information, and
+communicating it, I might reply, that _you_ must look to that; but as
+I sincerely believe you to be a most vigilant and active person, who
+will leave no means unemployed to obtain intelligence, I will only
+point out, in the first place, that our best efforts sometimes fail,
+but that we may always rest at ease, when we have used our best; and,
+in the second, I will suggest to you one or two means of ensuring
+success. Wherever you may happen to find that the landing of these
+goods is intended, or wherever you may be when it is effected, you
+will find within a circle of three miles, several parties of dragoons,
+who, on the first call, will render you every aid. With them, upon the
+system I have laid down for them, you will be able to keep your
+adversaries in check, delay their operations, and follow them up. Your
+first step, however, should be, to send off a trooper to me with all
+speed, charging him, if verbally, with as short and plain a message as
+possible--first, stating the point where the 'run,' as you call it,
+has been effected; and secondly, in what direction, to the best of
+your judgment, the enemy--that is to say, the smugglers--are marching.
+If you do that, and are right in your conjecture, they shall not go
+far without being attacked. If you are wrong, as any man may be, in
+regard to their line of retreat, they shall not be long unpursued. But
+as to putting the military under the command of the Customs, as I said
+before, I have no orders to that effect, and do not think that any
+such will ever be issued. In the next place, in order to obtain the
+most speedy information yourself, and to ensure that I shall be
+prepared, I would suggest that you direct each officer on the coast,
+if a landing should be effected in his district, first, to call for
+the aid of the nearest military party, and then to light a beacon on
+the next high ground. As soon as the first beacon is lighted, let the
+next officer on the side of Hythe, light one also, and, at the same
+time, with any force he can collect, proceed towards the first. Easy
+means may be found to transmit intelligence of the route of the
+smugglers to the bodies coming up; and, in a case like the present, I
+shall not scruple to take the command myself, at any point where I may
+be assured formidable resistance is likely to be offered."
+
+"Well, sir, I think the plan of the beacons is a good one," answered
+Mowle, "and it would be still better, if there were any of the coast
+officers on whom we could depend; but a more rascally set of mercenary
+knaves does not exist. Not one of them who would not sell the whole of
+the King's revenue for a twenty pound or so; and, however clear are
+the orders they receive, they find means to mistake them. But I will
+go and write the whole down, and have it copied out for each station,
+so that if they do not choose to understand, it must be their own
+fault. I am afraid, however, that all this preparation will put our
+friends upon their guard, and that they will delay their run till they
+can draw us off somewhere else."
+
+"There is some reason for that apprehension," replied the young
+officer, thoughtfully. "You imagine, then, that it is likely to take
+place to-morrow night, if we keep quiet?"
+
+"I have little doubt of it," replied Mowle; "or if not, the night
+after.--But I think it will be to-morrow. Yes, they won't lose the
+opportunity, if they fancy we are slack; and then the superintendent
+chose to fall sick to-day, so that the whole rests with me, which will
+give me enough to do, as they are well aware."
+
+"Well, then," replied the gentleman to whom he spoke, "leave the
+business of the beacons to me. I will give orders that they be lighted
+at every post, as soon as application is made for assistance. You will
+know what it means when you see one; and, in the meantime, keep quite
+quiet--affect a certain degree of indifference, but not too much, and
+speak of having partly spoiled Mr. Radford's venture.--Do you think he
+will be present himself?"
+
+"Oh, not he--not he!" answered Mowle. "He is too cunning for that, by
+a hundred miles. In any little affair like this of to-day, he might
+not, perhaps, be afraid of showing himself--to answer a purpose; but
+in a more serious piece of business, where his brother justices could
+not contrive to shelter him, and where government would certainly
+interfere, he will keep as quiet and still as if he had nought to do
+with it. But I will have him, nevertheless, before long; and then all
+his ill-gotten wealth shall go, even if we do not contrive to
+transport him."
+
+"How will you manage that?" asked the young officer; "if he abstains
+from taking any active part, you will have no proof, unless, indeed,
+one of those he employs should give evidence against him, or inform
+beforehand for the sake of the reward."
+
+"They wont do that," said Mowle, thoughtfully, "they wont do
+that.--I do not know how it is, sir," he continued, after a moment's
+pause, "but the difference between the establishment of the Customs
+and the smugglers is a very strange one; and I'll tell you what it is:
+there is not one of these fellows who run goods upon the coast, or
+carry them inland, who will, for any sum that can be offered, inform
+against their employers or their comrades; and there's scarce a
+Custom-House officer in all Kent, that, for five shillings, would not
+betray his brother or sell his country. The riding officers are
+somewhat better than the rest; but these fellows at the ports think no
+more of taking a bribe to shut their eyes than of drinking a glass of
+rum. Now you may attempt to bribe a smuggler for ever--not that I ever
+tried; for I don't like to ask men to sell their own souls; but
+Birchett has, often. I cannot well make out the cause of this
+difference; but certainly there is such a spirit amongst the smugglers
+that they wont do a dishonest thing, except in their own way, for any
+sum. There are the Ramleys, even--the greatest blackguards in Europe,
+smugglers, thieves, and cut-throats--but they wont betray each other.
+There is no crime they wont commit but that; and that they would
+sooner die than do; while we have a great many men amongst us, come of
+respectable parents, well brought up, well educated, who take money
+every day to cheat their employers."
+
+"I rather suspect that it is the difference of consequences in the two
+cases," answered Osborne, "which makes men view the same act in a
+different way. A Custom-House officer who betrays his trust, thinks
+that he only brings a little loss upon a government which can well
+spare it--he is not a bit the less a rogue for that, for honesty makes
+no such distinctions--but the smuggler who betrays his comrade or
+employer, must be well aware that he is not only ruining him in purse,
+but bringing on him corporeal punishment."
+
+"Ay, sir, but there's a spirit in the thing," said Mowle, shaking his
+head; "the very country people in general love the smugglers, and help
+them whenever they can. There's not a cottage that will not hide them
+or their goods; scarce a gentleman in the county who, if he finds all
+the horses out of his stable in the morning, does not take it quietly,
+without asking any more questions; scarce a magistrate who does not
+give the fellows notice as soon as he knows the officers are after
+them. The country folks, indeed, do not like them so well as they did;
+but they'll soon make it up."
+
+"A strange state, certainly," said the officer of dragoons; "but what
+has become of the horses you mention, when they are thus found
+absent?"
+
+"Gone to carry goods, to be sure," answered Mowle. "But one thing is
+very clear, all the country is in the smugglers' favour, and I cannot
+help thinking that the people do not like the Custom's dues, that they
+don't see the good of them, and are resolved to put them down."
+
+"Ignorant people, and, indeed, all people, do not like taxation of any
+kind," replied Osborne; "and every class objects to that tax which
+presses on itself, without the slightest regard either for the
+necessity of distributing the burdens of the country equally, or any
+of the apparently minute but really important considerations upon
+which the apportionment has been formed. However, Mr. Mowle, we have
+only to do our duty according to our position--you to gain all the
+information that you can--I to aid you, to the best of my ability, in
+carrying the law into effect."
+
+"From the smugglers themselves, little is the information I can get,
+sir," answered Mowle, returning to the subject from which their
+conversation had deviated, "and often I am obliged to have recourse to
+means I am ashamed of. The principal intelligence I receive is from a
+boy who offered himself one day--the little devil's imp--and
+certainly, by his cunning, and by not much caring myself what risks I
+run, I have got some very valuable tidings. But the little vagabond
+would betray me, or anyone else, to-morrow. He is the grandson of an
+old hag who lives at a little hut just by Saltwood, who puts him up to
+it all; and if ever there was an old demon in the world she is one.
+She is always brewing mischief, and chuckling over it all the time, as
+if it were her sport to see men tear each other to pieces, and to make
+innocent girls as bad as she was herself, and as her own daughter was,
+too,--the mother of this boy. The girl was killed by a chance shot,
+one day, in a riot between the smugglers and the Customs people; and
+the old woman always says it was a smuggler's shot. Oh! I could tell
+you such stories of that old witch."
+
+The stories of Mr. Mowle, however, were cut short by the entrance of a
+servant carrying a letter, which the young officer took and opened
+with a look of eager anxiety. The contents were brief; but they seemed
+important, for various were the changes which came over his fine
+countenance while he read them. The predominant expression, however,
+was joy, though there was a look of thoughtful consideration--perhaps
+in a degree of embarrassment, too, on his face; and as he laid the
+letter down on the table, and beat the paper with his fingers, gazing
+up into vacancy, Mowle, judging that his presence was not desired,
+rose to retire.
+
+"Stay a moment. Mr. Mowle--stay a moment," said Osborne. "This letter
+requires some consideration. It contains a call to a part of Kent some
+fifteen or sixteen miles distant; but as it is upon private business,
+I must not let that interfere with my public duty. You say that this
+enterprise of Mr. Radford's is likely to be put in execution to-morrow
+night."
+
+"I cannot be sure, colonel," answered the officer: "but I think there
+is every chance of it."
+
+"Then I must return before nightfall to-morrow," replied the
+gentleman, with a sigh.
+
+"Your presence will be very necessary, sir," said the Custom-House
+officer. "There is not one of your officers who seems up to the
+business, except Major Digby and yourself. All the rest are such fine
+gentlemen that one can't get on with them."
+
+"Let me consider for a moment," rejoined the other; but Mowle went on
+in the same strain, saying, "Then, sir, if you were to be absent all
+to-morrow, I might get very important information, and not be able to
+give it to you, nor arrange anything with you either."
+
+Osborne still meditated with a grave brow for some time. "I will
+write," he said, at length. "It will be better--it will be only just
+and honourable. I will write instead of going to-morrow, Mr. Mowle;
+and if this affair should not take place to-morrow night, as you
+suppose, I will make such arrangements for the following day--on which
+I must go over to Woodchurch--as will enable you to communicate with
+me without delay, should you have any message to send. At all events,
+I will return to Hythe before night. Now good evening;" and while
+Mowle made his bow and retired, the young officer turned to the letter
+again, and read it over with glistening eyes.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+I wonder if the reader ever wandered from Saltwood Castle back to the
+good old town of Hythe, on a fine summer's day, with a fair companion,
+as full of thought and mind as grace and beauty, and with a dear child
+just at the age when all the world is fresh and lovely--and then
+missed his way, and strayed--far from the track--towards Sandgate,
+till dinner was kept waiting at the inn, and the party who would not
+plod on foot, were all tired and wondering at their friend's delay!--I
+wonder if the reader ever did all this. I have--and a very pleasant
+thing it is to do. Yes, all of it, reader. For, surely, to go from
+waving wood to green field, and from green field to hill-side and wood
+again, and to trace along the brook which we know must lead to the
+sea-shore, with one companion of high soul, who can answer thought for
+thought, and another in life's early morning, who can bring back
+before your eyes the picture of young enjoyment--ay, and to know that
+those you love most dearly and esteem most highly, are looking for
+your coming, with a little anxiety, not even approaching the bounds of
+apprehension, is all very pleasant indeed.
+
+You, dear and excellent lady, who were one of my companions on the
+way, may perhaps recollect a little cottage--near the spot where we
+sprung a solitary partridge--whither I went to inquire the shortest
+road to Hythe. That cottage was standing there at the period of which
+I now write; and at the bottom of that hill, amongst the wood, and
+close by the little stream nearly where the foot-bridge now carries
+the traveller over dryshod, was another hut, half concealed by the
+trees, and covered over with well nigh as much moss and houseleek as
+actual thatch.
+
+It has been long swept away, as well as its tenants; and certainly a
+wretched and ill-constructed place it was. Would to Heaven that all
+such were gone from our rich and productive land, and that every
+labourer, in a country which owes so much to the industry of her
+children, had a dwelling better fitted to a human being! But, alas,
+many such still exist! and it is not always, as it was in this case,
+that vice is the companion of misery. This is no book of idle twaddle,
+to represent all the wealthy as cold, hard, and vicious, and the poor
+all good, forbearing, and laborious; for evil is pretty equally
+distributed through all classes--though, God knows, the rich, with all
+their opportunities, ought to shew a smaller proportion of wickedness,
+and the poor might perhaps be expected, from their temptations, to be
+worse than they are! Still it is hard to think that many as honest a
+man as ever lived--ay, and as industrious a man, too--returns, after
+his hard day's toil, to find his wife and children, well nigh in
+starvation, in such a place as I am about to describe--and none to
+help them.
+
+The hut--for it did not deserve the name of cottage--was but of one
+floor, which was formed of beaten clay, but a little elevated above
+the surrounding soil. It contained two rooms. The one opened into what
+had been a garden before it, running down nearly to the brookside; and
+the other communicated with the first, but had a door which gave exit
+into the wood behind. Windows the hut had two, one on either side; but
+neither contained more than two complete panes of glass. The spaces,
+where glass had once been, were now filled up in a strange variety of
+ways. Here was a piece of board nailed in; there a coarse piece of
+cloth kept out the wind; another broken pane was filled up with paper;
+and another, where some fragments of the original substance remained,
+was stopped with an old stocking stuffed with straw. In the garden, as
+it was still called, appeared a few cabbages and onions, with more
+cabbage-stalks than either, and a small patch of miserable potatoes.
+But weeds were the most plentiful of all, and chickweed and groundsel
+enough appeared there to have supplied a whole forest of singing
+birds. It had been once fenced in, that miserable garden; but the wood
+had been pulled down and burned for firing by its present tenants, or
+others as wretched in circumstances as themselves; and nought remained
+but a strong post here and there, with sometimes a many-coloured rag
+of coarse cotton fluttering upon some long, rusty nail, which had
+snatched a shred from passing poverty. Three or four stunted
+gooseberry bushes, however, marked out the limit on one side; a path
+ran in front between the garden and the brook; and on the other side
+there was a constant petty warfare between the farmer and the
+inhabitant of the hovel as to the possession of the border-land; and
+like a great and small state contending, the more powerful always
+gained some advantage in despite of right, but lost perhaps as much by
+the spiteful incursions of the foe, as if he had yielded the contested
+territory.
+
+On the night of which I speak--the same on which Mowle visited the
+commanding officer of the dragoons at Hythe--the cottage itself, the
+garden, and all the squalid-looking things about the place, were
+hidden in the deep darkness which had again fallen over the earth as
+soon as night had fallen. The morning, it may be remembered--it
+was the same on which Sir Edward Digby had been fired at by the
+smugglers--had been somewhat cold and foggy; but about eleven, the day
+had brightened, and the evening had been sultry. No sooner, however,
+did the sun reach the horizon than mists began to rise, and before
+seven o'clock the whole sky was under cloud and the air filled with
+fog. He must have been well acquainted with every step of the country
+who could find his way from town to town. Nevertheless, any one who
+approached Galley Ray's cottage, as it was called, would, at the
+distance of at least a hundred yards, have perceived something to lead
+him on; for a light, red as that of a baleful meteor, was streaming
+through the two glazed squares of the window into the misty air,
+making them look like the eyes of some wild animal in a dark forest.
+
+We must pause here, however, for a moment, to explain to the reader
+who Galley Ray was, and how she acquired the first of her two
+appellations, which certainly was not that which she had received at
+her baptism. Galley Ray, then, was the old woman of whom Mr. Mowle had
+given that favourable account, which may be seen in the last chapter;
+and, to say the truth, he had but done her justice. Her name was
+originally Gillian Ray; but, amongst a number of corrupt associates,
+with whom her early life was spent, the first of the two appellations
+was speedily transformed to Gilly or Gill. Some time afterwards--when
+youth began to wane, and whatever youthful graces she possessed were
+deviating into the virago qualities of the middle age--while watching
+one night the approach of a party of smugglers, with whom she had some
+intimacy, she perceived three or four Custom-House officers coming
+down to launch a galley, which they had upon the beach, for the
+purpose of cutting off the free-traders. But Gilly Ray instantly
+sprang in, and with the boat-hook set them all at defiance, till they
+threatened to launch her into the sea, boat and all.
+
+It is true, she was reported to have been drunk at the time; but her
+daring saved the smugglers, and conveyed her for two months to jail,
+whence, as may be supposed, she returned not much improved in her
+morals. One of those whom she had befriended in the time of need,
+bestowed on her the name of Galley, by an easy transition from her
+original praenomen; and it remained by her to the last day of her life.
+
+The reader has doubtless remarked, that amongst the lawless and the
+rash, there is a certain fondness for figures of speech, and that
+tropes and metaphors, simile and synecdoche, are far more prevalent
+amongst them than amongst the more orderly classes of society. Whether
+it is or not, that they wish to get rid of a precise apprehension of
+their own acts, I cannot say; but certain it is, that they do indulge
+in such flowers of rhetoric, and sometimes, in the midst of humour,
+quaintness, and even absurdity, reach the point of wit, and at times
+soar into the sublime. Galley Ray had, as we have seen, one daughter,
+whose fate has been related; and that daughter left one son, who,
+after his reputed father, one Mark Nightingale, was baptized
+Nightingale Ray. His mother, and after her death his grandmother, used
+to call him Little Nighty and Little Night; but following their
+fanciful habits, the smugglers who used to frequent the house found
+out an association between "Night Ray" and the beams of the bright and
+mystical orbs that shine upon us from afar; and some one gave him the
+name of Little Starlight, which remained with him, as that of Galley
+had adhered to his grandmother. The cottage or hut of the latter,
+then, beamed with an unwonted blaze upon the night I have spoken of,
+till long after the hour when Mowle had left the inn where his
+conference with the young officer had taken place. But let not the
+reader suppose that this illumination proceeded from any great expense
+of wax or oil. Only one small tallow candle, stuck into a long-necked,
+square-sided Dutch bottle, spread its rays through the interior of the
+hovel, and that was a luxury; but in the fireplace blazed an immense
+pile of mingled wood and driftcoal; and over it hung a large hissing
+pot, as huge and capacious as that of the witches in Macbeth, or of
+the no less famous Meg Merrilies. Galley Ray, however, was a very
+different person in appearance from the heroine of "Guy Mannering;"
+and we must endeavour to call up her image as she stood by the
+fire-side, watching the cauldron and a kettle which stood close to it.
+
+The red and fitful light flashed upon no tall, gaunt form, and lighted
+up no wild and commanding features. There was nothing at all poetical
+in her aspect: it was such as may be seen every day in the haunts of
+misery and vice. Originally of the middle height, though once strong
+and upright, she had somewhat sunk down under the hand of Time, and
+was now rather short than otherwise. About fifty she had grown fat and
+heavy; but fifteen years more had robbed her flesh of firmness and her
+skin of its plumped out smoothness; and though she had not yet reached
+the period when emaciation accompanies decrepitude, her muscles were
+loose and hanging, her face withered and sallow. Her hair, once as
+black as jet, was now quite grey, not silver--but with the white
+greatly predominating over the black. Yet, strange to say, her eyes
+were still clear and bright, though small, and somewhat red round the
+lids; and, stranger still, her front teeth were white as ivory,
+offering a strange contrast to the wrinkled and yellow skin. Her look
+was keen; but there was that sort of habitual jocularity about it,
+which in people of her caste is often partly assumed--as an ever ready
+excuse for evading a close question, or covering a dangerous
+suggestion by a jest--and partly natural, or at least springing from a
+fearful kind of philosophy, gained by the exhaustion of all sorts of
+criminal pleasures, which leaves behind, too surely, the impression
+that everything is but a mockery on earth. Those who have adopted that
+philosophy never give a thought beyond this world. Her figure was
+somewhat bowed, and over her shoulders she had the fragments of a
+coarse woollen shawl, from beneath which appeared, as she stirred the
+pot, her sharp yellow elbows and long arms. On her head she wore a
+cap, which had remained there, night and day, for months; and, thrust
+back from her forehead, which was low and heavy, appeared the
+dishevelled grey hair, while beneath the thick and beetling brows came
+the keen eyes, and a nose somewhat aquiline and depressed at the
+point.
+
+Near her, on the opposite side of the hearth, was the boy whom the
+reader has already seen, and who has been called little Starlight;
+and, even at that late hour, for it was near midnight, he seemed as
+brisk and active as ever. Night and day, indeed, appeared to him the
+same; for he had none of the habits of childhood. The setting sun
+brought no drowsiness to his eyelids: mid-day often found him sleeping
+after a night of watchfulness and activity. The whole course of his
+existence and his thoughts had been tainted: there was nothing of
+youth either in his mind or his ways. The old beldam called him, and
+thought him, the shrewdest boy that ever lived; but, in truth, she had
+left him no longer a boy, in aught but size and looks. Often--indeed
+generally--he would assume the tone of his years, for he found it
+served his purpose best; but he only laughed at those who thought him
+a child, and prided himself on the cunning of the artifice.
+
+There might be, it is true, some lingering of the faults of youth, but
+that was all. He was greedy and voracious, loved sweet things as well
+as strong drink, and could not always curb the truant and erratic
+spirit of childhood; but still, even in his wanderings there was a
+purpose, and often a malevolence. He would go to see what one person
+was about; he would stay away because another wanted him. It may be
+asked, was this natural wickedness?--was his heart so formed
+originally? Oh no, reader; never believe such things. There are
+certainly infinite varieties of human character; and I admit that the
+mind of man is not the blank sheet of paper on which we can write what
+we please, as has been vainly represented. Or, if it be, the
+experience of every man must have shown him, that that paper is of
+every different kind and quality--some that will retain the finest
+line, some that will scarce receive the broadest trace. But still
+education has immense power for good or evil. By education I do not
+mean teaching. I mean that great and wonderful process by which,
+commencing at the earliest period of infancy--ay, at the mother's
+breast--the raw material of the mind is manufactured into all the
+varieties that we see. I mean the sum of every line with which the
+paper is written as it passes from hand to hand. That is education;
+and most careful should we be that, at an early period, nought should
+be written but good, for every word once impressed is well nigh
+indelible.
+
+Now what education had that poor boy received? The people of the
+neighbouring village would have said a very good one; for there was
+what is called a charity school in the neighbourhood, where he had
+been taught to read and write, and cast accounts. But this was
+_teaching_, not _education_. Oh, fatal mistake! when will Englishmen
+learn to discriminate between the two? His education had been at
+home--in that miserable hut--by that wretched woman--by her companions
+in vice and crime! What had all the teaching he had received at the
+school done for him, but placed weapons in the hand of wickedness? Had
+education formed any part of the system of the school where he was
+instructed--had he been taught how best to use the gifts that were
+imparted--had he been inured to regulate the mind that was stored--had
+he been habituated to draw just conclusions from all he read, instead
+of merely being taught to read, that would have been in some degree
+education, and it might have corrected, to a certain point, the darker
+schooling he received at home. Well might the great philosopher, who
+in some things most grossly misused the knowledge he himself
+possessed, pronounce that "Knowledge is power;" but, alas, he forgot
+to add, that it is power _for good or evil!_ That poor child had been
+taught that which to him might have been either a blessing or a bane;
+but all his real education had been for evil; and there he stood,
+corrupted to the heart's core.
+
+"I say, Mother Ray," he exclaimed, "that smells cursed nice--can't you
+give us a drop before the coves come?"
+
+"No, no, you young devil," replied the old woman with a grin, "one
+can't tell when they'll show their mugs at the door; and it wouldn't
+do for them to find you gobbling up their stuff. But bring me that big
+porringer, and we'll put by enough for you and me. I've nimmed one
+half of the yellow-boy they sent, so we'll have a quart of moonshine
+to-morrow to help it down."
+
+"I could get it very well down without," answered little Starlight,
+bringing her a large earthen pot, with a cracked cover, into which she
+ladled out about half a gallon of the soup.
+
+"There, take and put that far under the bed in t'other room," said the
+old woman, adding several expletives of so peculiar and unpleasant a
+character, that I must omit them; and, indeed, trusting to the
+reader's imagination, I shall beg leave to soften, as far as possible,
+the terms of both the boy and his grandmother for the future, merely
+premising, that when conversing alone together, hardly a sentence
+escaped their lips without an oath or a blasphemy.
+
+Little Starlight soon received the pot from the hands of his worthy
+ancestress, and conveyed it into the other room, where he stayed so
+long that she called him to come forth, in what, to ordinary ears,
+would have seemed the most abusive language, but which, on her lips,
+was merely the tone of endearment. He had waited, indeed, to cool the
+soup, in order to steal a portion of the stolen food; but finding that
+he should be detected if he remained longer, he ventured to put his
+finger in to taste it. The result was that he scalded his hand; but he
+was sufficiently Spartan to utter no cry or indication of pain; and he
+escaped all inquiry; for the moment after he had returned, the door
+burst violently open, and some ten or twelve men came pouring in,
+nearly filling the little room.
+
+Various were their garbs, and strangely different from each other were
+they in demeanour as well as dress. Some were clad in smock-frocks,
+and some in sailors' jackets; some looked like respectable tradesmen,
+some were clothed in a sort of fanciful costume of their own, smacking
+a little of the brigand; and one appeared in the ordinary riding-dress
+of a gentleman of that period; but all were well armed, without much
+concealment of the pistols, which they carried about them in addition
+to the sword that was not uncommonly borne by more than one class in
+England at that time. They were all young men except one or two; and
+three of the number bore evident marks of some recent affray. One had
+a broad strip of plaster all the way down his forehead, another had
+his upper lip terribly cut, and a third--the gentleman, as I am bound
+to call him, as he assumed the title of Major--had a patch over his
+eye, from beneath which appeared several rings of various colours,
+which showed that the aforesaid patch was not merely a means of
+disguise.
+
+They were all quite familiar with Galley Ray and her grandson; some
+slapped her on the shoulder; some pulled her ear; some abused her
+horribly in jocular tones; and all called upon her eagerly to set
+their supper before them, vowing that they had come twenty miles since
+seven o'clock that night, and were as hungry as fox-hunters.
+
+To each and all Galley Ray had something to say in their own
+particular way. To some she was civil and coaxing, addressed them as
+"gentlemen," and to others slang and abusive, though quite in good
+humour, calling them, "you blackguards," and "you varmint," with
+sundry other delectable epithets, which I shall forbear to transcribe.
+
+To give value to her entertainment, she of course started every
+objection and difficulty in the world against receiving them, asking
+how, in the name of the fiend, they could expect her to take in so
+many? where she was to get porringers or plates for them all? and
+hoping heartily that such a troop weren't going to stay above half an
+hour.
+
+"Till to-morrow night, Galley, my chicken," replied the Major. "Come,
+don't make a fuss. It must be so, and you shall be well paid. We shall
+stay in here to-night; and to-morrow we shall take to cover in the
+wood; but young Radford will come down some time in the day, and then
+you must send up little Starlight to us, to let me know."
+
+The matter of the supper was soon arranged to their contentment. Some
+had tea-cups, and some saucers; some had earthen pans, some wooden
+platters. Two were honoured with china plates; and the large pot being
+taken off the fire, and set on the ground in the midst of them, each
+helped himself, and went on with his meal. A grand brewing of smuggled
+spirits and water then commenced; and a number of horn cups were
+handed round, not enough, indeed, for all the guests; but each vessel
+was made to serve two or three; and the first silence of hunger being
+over, a wild, rambling, and desultory conversation ensued, to which
+both Galley Ray and her grandson lent an attentive ear.
+
+The Major said something to the man with the cut upon his brow, to
+which the other replied, by condemning his own soul, if he did not
+blow Harding's brains out--if it were true. "But, I don't believe it,"
+he continued. "He's no friend of mine; but he's not such a blackguard
+as to peach."
+
+"So I think; but Dick Radford says he is sure he did," answered the
+Major; "Dick fancies that he's jealous of not having had yesterday's
+job too, and that's why he spoiled it. We know he was up about that
+part of the country on the pretence of his seeing his Dolly; but
+Radford says he went to inform, and that he'll wring his liver out, as
+soon as this job of his father's is over."
+
+A torrent of blasphemies poured forth by almost every person present
+followed, and they all called down the most horrid condemnation on
+their own heads, if they did not each lend a hand to punish the
+informer. In the midst of this storm of big words, Galley Ray put her
+mouth to the Major's ear, saying, "I could tell young Radford how he
+could wring his heart out, and that's better than his liver. There's
+no use of trying to kill him, for he doesn't care two straws about
+that. Sharp steel and round lead are what he looks for every day. But
+I could show you how to plague him worse."
+
+"Why, you old brute," replied the Major, "you're a friend of his!--But
+you may tell him, if you like. We have all sworn it, and we'll do it;
+only hold your tongue till after to-morrow night, or I'll cure your
+bacon for you."
+
+"I'm no friend of his," cried Galley Ray. "The infernal devil, wasn't
+it he that shot my girl, Meg? Ay, ay, I know he says he didn't, and
+that he didn't fire a pistol that day, but kept all to the cutlash;
+but he did, I'm sure, and a-purpose too; for didn't he turn to, that
+morning, and abuse her like the very dirt under his feet, because she
+came, a little in liquor, down to his boat-side?--Ay, I'll have my
+revenge--I've been looking for it long, but now it's a-coming--it's
+a-coming very fast; and afore I've done with him, I'll wring him out
+like a wet cloth, till he's not got one pleasure left in his whole
+carcase, nor one thing to look to, for as long as he may live!--Ay,
+ay, he thinks an old woman nothing; but he shall see--he shall see;"
+and the beldam wagged her frightful head backwards and forwards with a
+look of well-contented malice that made it more horrible than ever.
+
+"What an old devil!" cried the Major, glancing round the table with a
+look of mock surprise; and then they all burst into a roar of laughter
+which shook the miserable hovel in which they sat.
+
+"Come, granny, give us some more lush, and leave off preaching," cried
+Ned Ramley, the man with the cut upon his brow. "You can tell it all
+to Dick Radford, to-morrow; for he's fond of cutting up people's
+hearts."
+
+"But how is it--how is it?" asked the Major. "I should like to hear."
+
+"Ay, but you shan't hear all," answered Galley Ray. "Let Dick do his
+part, and I'll do mine, so we'll both have our revenge; but I know one
+thing, if I were a gentleman, and wanted a twist at Jack Harding, I'd
+get his Kate away from him. She's a light-hearted lass, and would
+listen to a gentleman, I dare say; but, however, I'll have her away
+some way, and then kick her out into Folkestone streets, to get her
+bread like many a better woman than herself."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense!" said Ned Ramley--"that's all stuff. Harding is going
+to marry her; and she knows better than to play the fool."
+
+"Ay," answered the old woman, with a look of spite, "I shouldn't
+wonder if Harding spoiled this job for old Radford, too."
+
+"Not he!" cried Ramley, "he would pinch himself there, old tiger; for
+his own pay depends upon it."
+
+"Ay, upon landing the stuff safely," answered the old woman, with a
+grin, "but not upon getting it clear up into the Weald. He may have
+both, Neddy, my dear--he may have both pays; first for landing and
+then for peaching. Play booty for ever!--that's the way to make money;
+and who knows but you may get another crack of your own pretty skull,
+or have your brains sent flying out, like the inside of an egg against
+the pillory."
+
+"By the fiend, he had better not," said Ned Ramley, "for there will be
+some of us left, at all events, to pay him."
+
+"Come, speak out, old woman," cried another of the men; "have you or
+your imp there got any inkling that the Custom House blackguards have
+nosed the job. If we find they have, and you don't tell, I'll send you
+into as much thick loam as will cover you well, I can tell you;" and
+he added a horrible oath to give force to his words.
+
+"Not they, as yet," answered the beldam, "of that I am quite sure; for
+as soon as the guinea and the message came, I went down to buy the
+beef, and mutton, and the onions; and there I saw Mowle talking to
+Gurney the grocer, and heard him say that he had spoiled Mr. Radford's
+venture this morning, for one turn at least; and after that, I sent
+down little Nighty there, to watch him and his cronies; and they all
+seemed very jolly, he said, when he came back half an hour ago, and
+crowing like so many young cocks, as if they had done a mighty deal.
+Didn't they, my dear?"
+
+"Ay, that they did, Granny," replied the boy, with a look of
+simplicity; "and when I went to the tap of the Dragon to get
+twopennorth, I heard the landlord say that Mowle was up with the
+dragoon Colonel, telling him all about the fine morning's work they
+had made."
+
+"Devilish fine, indeed!" cried Ned Ramley. "Why they did not get one
+quarter of the things; and if we can save a third, that's enough to
+pay very well, I can tell them."
+
+"No, no! they know nothing as yet," continued the old woman, with a
+sapient shake of the head; "I can't say what they may hear before
+to-morrow night; but, if they do hear anything, I know where it will
+come from--that's all. People may be blind if they like; but I'm not,
+that's one thing."
+
+"No, no! you see sharp enough, Galley Ray," answered the Major. "But
+hark, is not that the sound of a horse coming down?"
+
+All the men started up; and some one exclaimed, "I shouldn't wonder if
+it were Mowle himself.--He's always spying about."
+
+"If it is, I'll blow his brains out," said Ned Ramley, motioning to
+the rest to make their way into the room behind.
+
+"Ay, you had best, I think, Neddy," said Galley Ray, in a quiet,
+considerate tone, answering his rash threat as coolly as if she had
+been speaking of the catching of a trout. "You'll have him here all
+snug, and may never get such another chance. 'Dead men tell no tales,'
+Neddy. But, get back--'tis a horse, sure enough! You can take your own
+time, if you go in there."
+
+The young man retreated; and bending down her lips to the boy's ear,
+the old witch inquired in a whisper, "Is t'other door locked, and the
+window fast?"
+
+"Yes," said the boy, in the same tone; "and the key hid in the
+sacking."
+
+"Then if there are enough to take 'em," murmured Gaily Ray to
+herself--"take 'em they shall!--If there's no one but Mowle, he must
+go--that's clear. Stretch out that bit o' sail, boy, to catch the
+blood."
+
+But before the boy could obey her whisper, the door of the hut was
+thrown open; and instead of Mowle there appeared the figure of Richard
+Radford.
+
+"Here, little Starlight!" he cried, "hold my horse--why, where are all
+the men? Have they not come?"
+
+The old woman arranged her face in an instant into the sweetest smile
+it was capable of assuming, and replied, instantly, "Oh dear, yes:
+bless your beautiful face, Mr. Radford, but we didn't expect you
+to-night, and thought it was some of the Custom-House blackguards when
+we heard the horse. Here, Neddy!--Major!--It's only Mr. Radford."
+
+Ere she had uttered the call, the men, hearing a well-known voice,
+were entering the room again; and young Radford shook hands with
+several of them familiarly, congratulating the late prisoners on their
+escape.
+
+"I found I couldn't come to-morrow morning," he said, "and so I rode
+down to-night. It's all settled for to-morrow, and by this time
+Harding's at sea. He'll keep over on the other side till the sun is
+low; and we must be ready for work by ten, though I don't think he'll
+get close in before midnight."
+
+"Are you quite sure of Harding, Mr. Radford?" asked the Major. "I
+thought you had doubts of him about this other venture."
+
+"Ay, and so I have still," answered Richard Radford, a dark scowl
+coming over his face, "but we must get this job over first. My father
+says, he will have no words about it, till this is all clear, and
+after that I may do as I like. Then, Major, then----"
+
+He did not finish the sentence; but those who heard him knew very well
+what he meant; and the Major inquired, "But is he quite safe in this
+business? The old woman thinks not."
+
+Young Radford mused with a heavy brow for a minute or two, and then
+replied, after a sudden start, "But it's no use now--he's at sea by
+this time; and we can't mend it. Have you heard anything certain of
+him, Galley Ray?"
+
+"No, nothing quite for certain, my beauty," said the old woman; "but
+one thing I know: he was seen there upon the cliffs, with two strange
+men, a-talking away at a great rate; and that was the very night he
+saw your father, too; but that clear little cunning devil, my boy,
+Nighty--he's the shrewdest lad that ever lived--found it all out."
+
+"What did he find out?" demanded young Radford, sharply.
+
+"Why, who the one was, he could never be sure," answered the
+beldam--"a nasty-looking ugly brute, all tattooed in the face, like a
+wild Indian; but the other was the colonel of dragoons--that's
+certain, so Nighty says--he is the shrewdest boy that----"
+
+Richard Radford and his companions gazed at each other with very
+meaning and very ill-satisfied looks; but the former, at length, said,
+"Well, we shall see--we shall see! and if he does, he shall rue it. In
+the meantime, Major, what we must do is, to have force enough to set
+them, dragoons and all, at defiance. My father has got already a
+hundred men, and I'll beat up for more to-morrow.--I can get fifty or
+sixty out of Sussex. We'll all be down with you early. The soldiers
+are scattered about in little parties, so they can never have very
+many together; and the devil's in it, if we can't beat a handful of
+them."
+
+"Give us a hundred men," said Ned Ramley, "and we'll beat the whole
+regiment of them."
+
+"Why, there are not to be found twenty of them together in any one
+place," answered young Radford, "except at Folkestone, and we shan't
+have the run within fifteen or sixteen miles of that; so we shall
+easily do for them; and I should like to give those rascals a
+licking."
+
+"Then, what's to be done with Harding?" asked Ned Ramley.
+
+"Leave him to me--leave him to me, Ned," replied the young gentleman,
+"I'll find a way of settling accounts with him."
+
+"Why, the old woman was talking something about it," said the Major.
+"Come, speak up, old brute!--What is it you've got to say?"
+
+"Oh, I'll tell him quietly when he's a going," answered Galley Ray.
+"It's no business of yours, Major."
+
+"She hates him like poison," said the Major, in a whisper, to young
+Radford; "so that you must not believe all she says about him."
+
+The young man gave a gloomy smile, and then, after a few words more,
+unceremoniously turned the old woman out of her own hovel, telling her
+he would come and speak to her in a moment. As soon as the hut was
+clear of her presence, he proceeded to make all his final arrangements
+with the lawless set who were gathered together within.
+
+"I thought that Harding was not to set off till to-morrow morning,"
+said one of the more staid-looking of the party, at length; "I wonder
+your father lets him make such changes, Mr. Radford--it looks
+suspicious, to my thinking."
+
+"No, no; it was by my father's own orders," said young Radford;
+"there's nothing wrong in that. I saw the note sent this evening; so
+that's all right. By some contrivance of his own, Harding is to give
+notice to one of the people on Tolsford Hill, when he is well in land
+and all is safe; and then we shall see a fire lighted on the top,
+which is to be our signal, to gather down on the beach. It's all right
+in that respect, at least.
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," answered the other; "and now, as all is
+settled, had you not better take a glass of grog before you go."
+
+"No, no," replied the young man, "I'll keep my head cool for
+to-morrow; for I've got a job to do in the morning that may want a
+clear eye and a steady hand."
+
+"Well, then, good luck to you!" said Ned Ramley, laughing; and with
+this benediction, the young gentleman opened the cottage door.
+
+He found Galley Ray holding his horse alone; and, as soon as she saw
+him, she said, "I've sent the boy away, Mr. Radford, because I wanted
+to have a chat with you for a minute, all alone, about that
+blackguard, Harding;" and sinking her voice to a whisper, she
+proceeded for several minutes, detailing her own diabolical notions,
+of how young Radford might best revenge himself on Harding, with a
+coaxing manner, and sweet tone, which contrasted strangely and
+horribly, both with the words which she occasionally used, and the
+general course of her suggestions. Young Radford sometimes laughed,
+with a harsh sort of bitter, unpleasant merriment, and sometimes asked
+questions, but more frequently remained listening attentively to what
+she said.
+
+Thus passed some ten minutes, at the end of which time, he exclaimed,
+with an oath, "I'll do it!" and then, mounting his horse, he rode away
+slowly and cautiously, on account of the thick fog and the narrow and
+stony road.
+
+No sooner was he gone, than little Starlight crept out from between
+the cottage and a pile of dried furze-bushes, which had been cast down
+on the left of the hut--at once affording fuel to the inhabitants, and
+keeping out the wind from a large crack in the wall, which penetrated
+through and through, into the room where young Radford had been
+conversing with the smugglers.
+
+"Did you hear them, my kiddy?" asked the old woman, as soon as the boy
+approached her.
+
+"Every word, Mother Ray," answered little Starlight. "But, get in,
+get in, or they will be thinking something; and I'll tell you all
+to-morrow."
+
+The old woman saw the propriety of his suggestion; and, both entering
+the hovel, the door was shut. With it, I may close a scene, upon which
+I have been obliged to pause longer than I could have wished.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The man who follows a wolf goes straight on after him till he rides
+him down; but, in chasing a fox, it is always expedient and fair to
+take across the easiest country for your horse or for yourself, to
+angle a field, to make for a slope when the neighbouring bank is too
+high, to avoid a clay fallow, or to skirt a shaking moss. Very
+frequently, however, one beholds an inexperienced sportsman (who does
+not well know the country he is riding, and sees the field broken up
+into several parties, each taking its own course after the hounds)
+pause for several minutes, not knowing which to follow. Such is often
+the case with the romance writer also, when the broken nature of the
+country over which his course lies, separates his characters, and he
+cannot proceed with all of them at once.
+
+Now, at the present moment, I would fain follow the smugglers to the
+end of their adventure; but, in so doing, dear reader, I should (to
+borrow a shred of the figure I have just used) get before my hounds;
+or, in other words, I should too greatly violate that strict
+chronological order which is necessary in an important history like
+the present. I must, therefore, return, by the reader's good leave, to
+the house of Mr. Zachary Croyland, almost immediately after Sir Edward
+Digby had ridden away, on the day following young Radford's recently
+related interview with the smugglers, at which day--with a sad
+violation of the chronological order I have mentioned above--I had
+already arrived, as the reader must remember, in the first chapter of
+the present volume.
+
+Mr. Croyland then stood in the little drawing-room, fitted up
+according to his own peculiar notions, where Sir Edward's wound had
+been dressed; and Edith, his niece, sat at no great distance on one of
+the low ottomans, for which he had an oriental predilection. She was a
+little excited, both by all that she had witnessed, and all that she
+had not; and her bright and beautiful eyes were raised to her uncle's
+face, as she inquired, "How did all this happen? You said you would
+tell me when they were gone."
+
+Mr. Croyland gazed at her with that sort of parental tenderness which
+he had long nourished in his heart towards her; and certainly, as she
+sat there, leaning lightly upon her arm, and with the sunshine falling
+upon her beautiful form, her left hand resting upon her knee, and one
+small beautiful foot extended beyond her gown, he could not help
+thinking her the loveliest creature he had ever beheld in his life,
+and asking himself--"Is such a being as that, so full of grace in
+person, and excellence in mind, to be consigned to a rude, brutal
+bully, like the man who has just met with deserved chastisement at my
+door?"
+
+He had just begun to answer her question, thinking how he might best
+do so without inflicting more pain upon her than necessary, when the
+black servant I have mentioned entered the drawing-room, saying, "A
+man want to speak to you, master."
+
+"A man!" cried Mr. Croyland, impatiently. "What man? I don't want any
+man! I've had enough of men for one morning, surely, with those two
+fools fighting just opposite my house!--What sort of a man is it?"
+
+"Very odd man, indeed, master," answered the Hindoo. "Got great blue
+pattern on him's face. Strange looking man. Think him half mad," and
+he made a deferential bow, as if submitting his judgment to that of
+his master.
+
+"Well, I like odd men," exclaimed Mr. Croyland. "I like strange men
+better than any others. I'm not sure I do not like them a _leetle_
+mad--not too much, not too much, you know, Edith, my dear! Not
+dangerous; just mad enough to be pleasant, but not furious or
+obstreperous.--Where have you put him?"
+
+"In de library, master," replied the man; "and he begin taking down
+the books directly."
+
+"High time I should go and see, who is so studiously inclined," said
+Mr. Croyland; "or he may not only take down the books, but take them
+away. That wouldn't do, you know, Edith, my dear--that wouldn't do.
+Without my niece and my books, what would become of me? I don't intend
+to lose either the one or the other. So that you are never to marry,
+my love; mind that, you are never to marry!"
+
+Edith smiled faintly--very faintly indeed; but for the world she would
+not have made her uncle feel that he had touched upon a tender point.
+"I do not think I ever shall, my dear uncle," she answered; and
+saying, "That's a good girl!" the old gentleman hurried out of the
+room to see his unknown visitor.
+
+Edith remained for some time where she was, in deep and even painful
+thoughts. All that she had learnt from her sister, since Zara's
+explanation with Sir Edward Digby, amounted but to this, that he whom
+she had so deeply loved--whom she still loved so deeply--was yet
+living. Nothing more had reached her; and, though hope, the fast
+clinger to the last wreck of probability, yet whispered that he might
+love her still--that she might not be forgotten--that she might not be
+abandoned, yet fear and despondency far predominated, and their hoarse
+tones nearly drowned the feeble whisper of a voice which once had been
+loud and gay in her heart.
+
+After meditating, then, for some minutes, she rose and left the
+drawing-room, passing, on her way to the stairs, the door of the
+library to which her uncle had previously gone. She heard him talking
+loud as she went along; but the sounds were gay, cheerful, and
+anything but angry; and another voice was answering, in mellower
+tones, somewhat melancholy, indeed, but still not sad. Going rapidly
+by, this was all she distinguished; but after she reached her own
+room, which was nearly above the library, the murmur of the voices
+still rose up for more than an hour, and at length Mr. Croyland and
+his guest came out, and walked through the vestibule to the door.
+
+"God bless you, Harry--God bless you!" said Mr. Croyland, with an
+appearance of warmth and affection which Edith had seldom known him to
+display towards any one; "if you wont stay, I can't help it. But mind
+your promise--mind your promise! In three or four days, you know;" and
+with another cordial farewell they parted.
+
+When the stranger was gone, however, Mr. Croyland remained standing in
+the vestibule for several minutes, gazing down upon the floor-cloth,
+and murmuring to himself various broken sentences, from time to time.
+"Who'd have thought it," he said; "thirty years come Lady-day next,
+since we saw each other!--But this isn't quite right of the boy: I
+will scold him--I will frighten him, too. He shouldn't deceive--nobody
+should deceive--it's not right. But after all, in love and war, every
+stratagem is fair, they say; and I'll work for him, that I will. Here,
+Edith, my love," he continued, calling up the stairs, for he had heard
+his niece's light foot above, "come, and take a walk with me, my dear:
+it will do us both good."
+
+Edith came down in a moment, with a hat (or bonnet) in her hand; and
+although Mr. Croyland affected, on most occasions, to be by no means
+communicative, yet there was in his whole manner, and in the
+expression of his face, quite sufficient to indicate to his niece,
+that he was labouring under the pressure of a secret, which was not a
+very sad or dark one.
+
+"There, my dear!" he exclaimed, "I said just now that I would not have
+you marry; but I shall take off the restriction. I will not prohibit
+the banns--only in case you should wish to marry some one I don't
+approve. But I've got a husband for you--I've got a husband for you,
+better than all the Radfords that ever were christened; though, by the
+way, I doubt whether these fellows ever were christened at all--a set
+of unbelieving, half-barbarous sceptics. I do not think, upon my
+conscience, that old Radford believes in anything but the existence of
+his own individuality."
+
+"But who is the husband you have got for me?" demanded Edith, forcing
+herself to assume a look of gaiety which was not natural to her. "I
+hope he's young, handsome, rich, and agreeable."
+
+"All, all!" cried Mr. Croyland. "Those are absolute requisites in a
+lady's estimation, I know. Never was such a set of grasping monkeys as
+you women. Youth, beauty, riches, and a courtly air--you must have
+them all, or you are dissatisfied; and the ugliest, plainest, poorest
+woman in all Europe, thinks that she has every right to a ph[oe]nix
+for her companion--an angel--a demi-god. But you shall see--you shall
+see; and in the true spirit of a fond parent, if you do not see with
+my eyes, hear with my ears, and understand with my understanding--why,
+I'll disinherit you.--But who the mischief is this, now?" he
+continued, looking out at the door--"another man on horseback, upon my
+life, as if we had not had enough of them already. Never, since I have
+been in this county of Kent, has my poor, quiet, peaceable door been
+besieged in this manner before."
+
+"It's only a servant with a note, my dear uncle," said Edith.
+
+"Ah, something more on your account," cried Mr. Croyland. "It's all
+because you are here. Baba, Baba! see what that fellow wants!--It's
+not your promised husband, my dear, so you need not eye him so
+curiously."
+
+"Oh, no!" answered Edith, smiling. "I took it for granted that my
+promised husband, as you call him, was to be this same odd,
+strange-looking gentleman, who has been with you for the last hour."
+
+"Pooh--no!" cried Mr. Croyland; "and yet, my lady, I can tell you, you
+could not do better in some respects, for he's a very good man--a very
+excellent man indeed, and has the advantage of being a _leetle_ mad,
+as I said before--that is, he's wise enough not to care what fools
+think of him. That's what is called being mad now-a-days. Who is it
+from, Baba?
+
+"Didn't say, master," answered the Indian, who had just handed him a
+note. "He wait an answer."
+
+"Oh, very well!" answered Mr. Croyland. "He may get a shorter one than
+he expects. I've no time to be answering notes. People in England
+spend one half of their lives in writing notes that mean nothing, and
+the other half in sealing them. Why can't the fools send a message?"
+
+While he had been thus speaking, the worthy old gentleman had been
+adjusting the spectacles to his nose, and walking with his usual brisk
+step to the window in the passage, against which he planted his back,
+so that the light might fall over his shoulder upon the paper; but as
+he read, a great change came over his countenance.
+
+"Ah, that's right!--That's well!--That's honest," he said: "I see what
+he means, but I'll let him speak out himself. Walk into the garden,
+Edith, my love, till I answer this man's note. Baba, bid the fellow
+wait for a moment," and stepping into the library, Mr. Croyland sought
+for a pen that would write, and then scrawled, in a very rude and
+crooked hand, which soon made the paper look like an ancient Greek
+manuscript, a few lines, to the beauty of which he added the effect of
+bad blotting-paper. Then folding his note up, he sealed and addressed
+it, first reading carefully over again the epistle which he had just
+received, and with which it may be as well to make the reader
+acquainted, though I shall abstain from looking into Mr. Croyland's
+answer till it reaches its destination. The letter which the servant
+had brought was to the following effect:
+
+"The gentleman who had the pleasure of travelling with Mr. Croyland
+from London, and who was introduced to him by the name of Captain
+Osborn, was about to avail himself of Mr. Croyland's invitation, when
+some circumstances came to his knowledge, which seem to render it
+expedient that he should have a few minutes' conversation with Mr.
+Croyland before he visits his house. He is at present at Woodchurch,
+and will remain there till two o'clock, if it is convenient for Mr.
+Croyland to see him at that place to-day.--If not, he will return to
+Woodchurch to-morrow, towards one, and will wait for Mr. Croyland till
+any hour he shall appoint."
+
+"There! give that to the gentleman's servant," said Mr. Croyland; and
+then depositing his spectacles safely in their case, he walked out
+into the garden to seek Edith.
+
+The servant, in the meanwhile, went at a rapid pace, over pleasant
+hill and dale, till he reached the village of Woodchurch, and stopped
+at a little public-house, before the door of which stood three
+dragoons, with their horses' bridles over their arms. As speedily as
+possible, the man entered the house, and walked up stairs, where he
+found his master talking to a man, covered with dust from the road.
+
+"Mr. Mowle should have given me farther information," the young
+officer said, looking at a paper in his hand. "I could have made my
+combinations here as well as at Hythe."
+
+"He sent me off in a great hurry, sir," answered the man; "but I'll
+tell him what you say."
+
+"Stay, stay!" said the officer, holding out his hand to his servant
+for the note which he had brought. "I will tell you more in a minute,
+and breaking open the seal, he read Mr. Croyland's epistle, which was
+to the following effect.
+
+"Mr. Croyland presents his compliments to Captain Osborn, and has had
+the honour of receiving his letter, although he cannot conceive why
+Captain Osborn should wish to speak with him at Woodchurch, when he
+could so easily speak with him in his own house, yet Mr. Croyland is
+Captain Osborn's very humble servant, and will do as he bids him. As
+it is now past one o'clock, as it would take half-an-hour to get Mr.
+Croyland's carriage ready, and an hour to reach Woodchurch, and as it
+is some years since Mr. Croyland has got upon the back of anything but
+an ass, or a hobby-horse,--having moreover no asses at hand with the
+proper proportion of legs, though many, deficient in number--it is
+impossible for him to reach Woodchurch by the time stated to-day. He
+will be over at that place, however, by two o'clock to-morrow, and
+hopes that Captain Osborn will be able to return with him, and spend a
+few days in an old bachelor's house."
+
+The young officer's face was grave as he read the first part of the
+letter, but it relaxed into a smile towards the end. He then gave,
+perhaps, ten seconds to thought; after which, rousing himself
+abruptly, he turned to the dusty messenger from Hythe, and fixing a
+somewhat searching glance upon the man's face, he said--"Tell Mr.
+Mowle that I will be over with him directly, and as the troops, it
+seems, will be required on the side of Folkestone, he must have
+everything prepared on his part; for we shall have no time to spare."
+
+The man bowed with a stolid look, and withdrew; and after he had left
+the room, the officer remained silent for a moment or two, looking out
+of the window till he saw him mount his horse and depart. Then,
+descending in haste to the inn door, he gave various orders to the
+dragoons, who were there waiting. To one they were, "Ride off to
+Folkestone as fast as you can go, and tell Captain Irby to march
+immediately with his troop to Bilsington, which place he must reach
+before two o'clock in the morning." To another: "You gallop off to
+Appledore, and bid the sergeant there bring his party down to Brenzet
+Corner, in the Marsh, and put himself under the orders of Cornet
+Joyce." To the third: "You, Wood, be off to Ashford, and tell
+Lieutenant Green to bring down all his men as far as Bromley Green,
+taking up the party at Kingsnorth. Let him be there by three; and
+remember, these are private orders. Not a word to any one."
+
+The men sprang into the saddle, as soon as the last words were spoken,
+and rode away in different directions; and, after bidding his servant
+bring round his horse, the young officer remained standing at the door
+of the inn, with his tall form erect, his arms crossed upon his chest,
+and his eyes gazing towards Harbourne House. He was in the midst of
+the scenes where his early days had been spent. Every object around
+him was familiar to his eye: not a hill, not a wood, not a church
+steeple or a farm house, but had its association with some of those
+bright things which leave a lustre in the evening sky of life, even
+when the day-star of existence has set. There were the pleasant hours
+of childhood, the sports of boyhood, the dreams of youth, the love of
+early manhood. The light that memory cast upon the whole might not be
+so strong and powerful, might not present them in so real and definite
+a form, as in the full day of enjoyment; but there is a great
+difference between that light of memory, when it brightens a period of
+life that may yet renew the joys which have passed away for a time,
+and when it shines upon pleasures gone for ever. In the latter case it
+is but as the moonlight--a reflected beam, without the warmth of
+fruition or the brilliancy of hope; but in the former, it is as the
+glow of the descending sun, which sheds a purple lustre through the
+vista of the past, and gives a promise of returning joy even as it
+sinks away. He stood, then, amongst the scenes of his early years,
+with hope refreshed, though still with the remembrance of sorrows
+tempering the warmth of expectation, perhaps shading the present. It
+wanted, indeed, but some small circumstance, by bearing afar, like
+some light wind, the cloud of thought, to give to all around the
+bright hues of other days; and that was soon afforded. He had not
+remained there above two or three minutes when the landlord of the
+public-house came out, and stood directly before him.
+
+"Oh, I forgot your bill, my good fellow," said the young officer.
+"What is my score?"
+
+"No, sir, it is not that," answered the man, "but I think you have
+forgotten me. I could not let you go, however, without just asking you
+to shake hands with me, though you are a great gentleman now, and I am
+much what I was."
+
+The young officer gazed at him for a moment, and let his eye run over
+the stout limbs and portly person of the landlord, till at length he
+said, in a doubtful tone, "Surely, you cannot be young Miles, the son
+of my father's clerk?"
+
+"Ay, sir, just the same," replied the host; "but young and old, we
+change, just as women do their names when they marry. Not that six or
+seven years have made me old either; but I was six and twenty when you
+went away, and as thin as a whipping post; now I'm two and thirty, and
+as fat as a porker. That makes a wonderful difference, sir. But I'm
+glad you don't forget old times."
+
+"Forget them, Miles!" said the young officer, holding out his hand to
+him, "oh no, they are too deeply written in my heart ever to be
+blotted out! I thought I was too much changed myself for any one to
+remember me, but those who were most dear to me. What between the
+effects of time and labour, sorrow and war, I hardly fancied that any
+one in Kent would know me. But you are changed for the better, I for
+the worse. Yet I am very glad to see you, Miles; and I shall see you
+again to-morrow; for I am coming back here towards two o'clock. In the
+meantime, you need not say you have seen me; for I do not wish it to
+be known that I am here, till I have learned a little of what
+reception I am likely to have."
+
+"Oh, I understand, sir--I understand," replied the landlord; "and if
+you should want to know how the land lies, I can always tell you; for
+you see, I have the parish-clerks' club, which meets here once a week;
+and then all the news of the country comes out; and besides, many a
+one of them comes in here at other times, to have a gossip with old
+Rafe Miles's son, so that I hear everything that goes on in the county
+almost as soon as it is done; and right glad shall I be to tell you
+anything you want to know, just for old times' sake; when you used to
+go shooting snipes by the brooks, and I used to come after for the
+sport--that is to say, anything about your own people; not about the
+smugglers, you know; for they say you are sent here to put them down;
+and I should not like to peach, even to you. I heard that some great
+gentleman had come down--a Sir Harry Somebody. But I little thought it
+was you, till I saw you just now standing looking so melancholy
+towards Harbourne, and thinking, I dare say, of the old house at
+Tiffenden."
+
+"Indeed I was," answered the young officer, with a sigh. "But as to
+the smugglers, my good friend, I want no information. I am sent down
+with my regiment merely to aid the civil power, which seems totally
+incompetent to stop the daring outrages that are every day committed.
+If this were suffered to go on, all law, not only regarding the
+revenue, but even that affecting the protection of life and property,
+would soon be at an end."
+
+"That it would, sir," answered the landlord; "and it's well nigh at an
+end already, for that matter."
+
+"Well," continued the officer, "though the service is not an agreeable
+one, and I think, considering all things, might have been entrusted to
+another person, yet I have but to obey; and consequently, being here,
+am ready whenever called upon to support the officers, either of
+justice or the revenue, both by arms and by advice. But I have no
+other duty to perform, and indeed would rather not have any
+information regarding the proceedings of these misguided men, except
+through the proper channels. If I had the absolute command of the
+district, with orders to put down smuggling therein, it might be a
+different matter; but I have not."
+
+"Ay, I thought there was a mistake about it," replied Miles; "but here
+is your horse, sir. I shall see you to-morrow, then?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the officer; and having paid his score, he
+mounted and rode away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The colonel of the dragoon regiment rode into Hythe coolly and calmly,
+followed by his servant; for though, to say the truth, he had pushed
+his horse very fast for some part of the way, he judged it expedient
+not to cause any bustle in the town by an appearance of haste and
+excitement. It was customary in those days for officers in the army in
+active service, even when not on actual duty, to appear in their
+regimental uniform; but this practice the gentleman in question had
+dispensed with since he left London, on many motives, both public and
+personal; and though he wore the cockade--at that time the sign and
+symbol of a military man, or of one who affected that position, yet he
+generally appeared in plain clothes, except when any large body of the
+troops were gathered together.
+
+At the door of the inn where he had fixed his headquarters, and in the
+passage leading from it into the house, were a number of private
+soldiers and a sergeant; and amongst them appeared Mr. Mowle, the
+Custom-House officer, waiting the arrival of the commander of the
+dragoons. As the latter dismounted, Mowle advanced to his side, saying
+something in a low voice. The young officer looked at the sky, which
+was still glowing bright with the sun, which had about an hour and
+a-half to run ere it reached the horizon.
+
+"In an hour, Mr. Mowle," replied the officer: "there will be time
+enough. Make all your own arrangements in the meanwhile."
+
+"But, sir, if you have to send to Folkestone?" said Mowle. "You
+misunderstood me, I think."
+
+"No, no," answered the colonel, "I did not. You misunderstood me. Come
+back in an hour.--If you show haste or anxiety, you will put the enemy
+on his guard."
+
+After having said these few words in a low tone, he entered the house,
+gave some orders to the soldiers, several of whom sauntered away
+slowly to their quarters, as if the business of the day were over; and
+then, proceeding to his own room, he rang the bell and ordered dinner.
+
+"I thought there was a bit of a bustle, sir?" said the landlord,
+inquiringly, as he put the first dish upon the table.
+
+"Oh dear, no," replied the colonel. "Did you mean about these men who
+have escaped?"
+
+"I didn't know about what, colonel," answered the landlord, "but
+seeing Mr. Mowle waiting for you----"
+
+"You thought it must be about them," added the officer; "but you are
+mistaken, my good friend. There is no bustle at all. The men will,
+doubtless, soon be taken, one after the other, by the constables. At
+all events, that is an affair with which I can have nothing to do."
+
+The landlord immediately retreated, loaded with intelligence, and
+informed two men who were sipping rum-and-water in the tap-room, that
+Mowle had come to ask the colonel to help in apprehending "the Major"
+and others who had been rescued, and that the colonel would have
+nothing to do with it.
+
+The men finished their grog much more rapidly than they had begun it,
+and then walked out of the house, probably to convey the tidings
+elsewhere. Now, the town of Hythe is composed, as every one knows, of
+one large and principal street nearly at the bottom of the hill, with
+several back streets--or perhaps lanes we might call them--running
+parallel to the first, and a great number of shorter ones running up
+and down the hill, and connecting the principal thoroughfare with
+those behind it. Many--nay, I might say most--of the houses in the
+main street had, at the time I speak of, a back as well as a front
+entrance. They might sometimes have even more than one; for there were
+trades carried on in Hythe, as the reader has been made aware, which
+occasionally required rapid and secret modes of exit. Nor was the
+house in which the young commander of dragoons resided without its
+conveniences in this respect; but it happened that Mowle, the officer,
+was well acquainted with all its different passages and contrivances;
+and consequently he took advantage, on his return at the end of an
+hour, of one of the small lanes, which led him by a back way into the
+inn. Then ascending a narrow staircase without disturbing anybody, he
+made his way to the room he sought, where he found the colonel of the
+regiment quietly writing some letters after his brief meal was over.
+
+"Well, Mr. Mowle!" said the young officer, folding up, and sealing the
+note he had just concluded--"now, let me hear what you have
+discovered, and where you wish the troops to be."
+
+"I am afraid, sir, we have lost time," answered Mowle; "for I can't
+tell at what time the landing will take place."
+
+"Not before midnight," replied his companion; "there is no vessel in
+sight, and, with the wind at this quarter, they can't be very quick in
+their movements."
+
+"Why, probably not before midnight, sir," answered Mowle; "but there
+are not above fifty of your men within ten miles round, and if you've
+to send for them to Folkestone and Ashford, and out almost to
+Staplehurst, they will have no time to make ready and march; and the
+fellows will be off into the Weald before we can catch them."
+
+The young officer smiled: "Then you think fifty men will not be
+enough?" he asked.
+
+"Not half enough," answered Mowle, beginning to set down his companion
+as a person of very little intellect or energy--"why, from what I
+hear, there will be some two or three hundred of these fellows down,
+to carry the goods after they are run, and every one of them equal to
+a dragoon, at any time."
+
+"Well, we shall see!" said the young officer, coolly. "You are sure
+that Dymchurch is the place?"
+
+"Why, somewhere thereabouts, sir; and that's a long way off," answered
+Mowle; "so if you have any arrangements to make, you had better make
+them."
+
+"They are all made," replied the colonel; "but tell me, Mr. Mowle,
+does it not frequently take place that, when smugglers are pursued in
+the marsh, they throw their goods into the cuts and canals and creeks
+by which it is intersected."
+
+"To be sure they do, sir," exclaimed the officer; "and they'll do that
+to a certainty, if we can't prevent them landing; and, if we attack
+them in the Marsh----"
+
+"To prevent them landing," said the gentleman, "seems to me impossible
+in the present state of affairs; and I do not know whether it would be
+expedient, even if we could. Your object is to seize the goods, both
+for your own benefit and that of the state, and to take as many
+prisoners as possible. Now, from what you told me yesterday, I find
+that you have no force at sea, except a few miserable boats----"
+
+"I sent off for the revenue cruiser this morning, sir," answered
+Mowle.
+
+"But she is not come," rejoined the officer; "and, consequently, must
+be thrown out of our combinations. If we assemble a large force at any
+point of the coast, the smugglers on shore will have warning. They may
+easily find means of giving notice of the fact to their comrades at
+sea--the landing may be effected at a different point from that now
+proposed, and the goods carried clear off before we can reach them. It
+seems to me, therefore, better for you to let the landing take place
+quietly. As soon as it has taken place, the beacons will be lighted by
+my orders; the very fact of a signal they don't understand will throw
+the smugglers into some confusion; and they will hurry out of the
+Marsh as fast as possible----"
+
+"But suppose they separate, and all take different roads," said Mowle.
+
+"Then all, or almost all, the different parties will be met with and
+stopped," replied the officer.
+
+"But your men cannot act without a requisition from the Customs, sir,"
+answered Mowle, "and they are so devilish cautious of committing
+themselves----"
+
+"But I am not," rejoined the colonel; "and every party along the whole
+line has notice that the firing of the beacons is to be taken as a
+signal that due requisition has been made, and has orders also to stop
+any body of men carrying goods that they may meet with. But I do not
+think that these smugglers will separate at all, Mr. Mowle. Their only
+chance of safety must seem to them--not knowing how perfectly prepared
+we are--to lie in their numbers and their union. While acting
+together, their numbers, it appears from your account, would be
+sufficient to force any one post opposed to them, according to the
+arrangements which they have every reason to believe still exist; and
+they will not throw away that chance. It is, therefore, my belief that
+they will make their way out of the Marsh in one body. After that,
+leave them to me. I will take the responsibility upon myself."
+
+"Very well, colonel--very well!" said Mowle; "if you are ready without
+my knowing anything about it, all the better. Only the fellow I sent
+you brought back word something about Folkestone."
+
+"That was merely because I did not like the man's look," replied the
+young officer, "and thought you would understand that a message sent
+you in so public a manner, upon a business which required secrecy,
+must not be read in its direct sense."
+
+"Oh, I see, colonel--I see," cried the officer of Customs; "it was
+stupid enough not to understand. All my people are ready, however; and
+if we could but discover the hour the run is to be made, we should
+have a pretty sure game of it."
+
+"Cannot the same person who gave you so much intelligence, give you
+that also?" asked his companion.
+
+"Why, no; either the imp can't, or he wont," said Mowle. "I had to pay
+him ten pounds for what tidings I got, for the little wretch is as
+cunning as Satan."
+
+"Are you sure the intelligence was correct?" demanded the officer of
+dragoons.
+
+"Oh yes, sir," replied Mowle. "His tidings have always been quite
+right; and besides, I've the means of testing this myself; for he told
+me where they are to meet--at least a large party of them--before
+going down to the shore. I've a very great mind to disguise myself,
+and creep in among them."
+
+"A very hazardous experiment, I should think," said the colonel; "and
+I do not see any object worth the risk."
+
+"Why, the object would be to get information of the hour," answered
+Mowle. "If we could learn that, some time before, we could have
+everything ready, and have them watched all through the Marsh."
+
+"Well, you must use your own judgment in that particular!" answered
+the young officer; "but I tell you, I am quite prepared myself; and
+such a large body as you have mentioned cannot cross a considerable
+extent of country without attracting attention."
+
+"Well, I'll see, sir--I'll see," answered Mowle; "but had I not better
+send off two or three officers towards Dymchurch, to give your men
+notice as soon as the goods are landed?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," answered the colonel. "There's a party at New Romney,
+and a party at Burmarsh. They both have their orders, and as soon as
+they have intimation, will act upon them. I would have enough men
+present, if I were you, to watch the coast well, but with strict
+orders to do nothing to create alarm."
+
+Some minor arrangements were then entered into, of no great importance
+to the tale; and Mowle took his leave, after having promised to give
+the colonel the very first intimation he received of the farther
+proceedings of the smugglers.
+
+The completion of his own arrangements took the Custom-House officer
+half an hour more, and at the end of that time he returned to his own
+dwelling, and sat down for a while, to think over the next step. He
+felt a strong inclination to visit the meeting place of the smugglers
+in person. He was, as we have shown, a man of a daring and adventurous
+disposition, strong in nerve, firm in heart, and with, perhaps, too
+anxious a sense of duty. Indeed, he was rather inclined to be rash
+than otherwise, from the apprehension of having anything like fear
+attributed to him in the execution of the service he had undertaken;
+but still he could not shut his eyes to the fact that the scheme he
+meditated was full of peril to himself. The men amongst whom he
+proposed to venture were lawless, sanguinary, and unscrupulous; and,
+if discovered, he had every reason to believe that his life would be
+sacrificed by them without the slightest hesitation or remorse. He was
+their most persevering enemy; he had spared them on no occasion; and
+although he had dealt fairly by them, yet many of those who were
+likely to be present, had suffered severe punishment at his
+instigation and by his means. He hesitated a little, and called to
+mind what the colonel had said regarding the hazard of the act, and
+the want of sufficient object; but then, suddenly starting up, he
+looked forward with a frowning brow, exclaiming, "Why, hang it, I'm
+not afraid! I'll go, whatever befals me. It's my duty not to leave any
+chance for information untried. That young fellow is mighty cool about
+the business; and if these men get off, it shall not be any fault of
+mine."
+
+Thus saying, he lighted a candle, and went into an adjoining room,
+where, from a large commode, filled with a strange medley of different
+dresses and implements, he chose out a wagoner's frock, a large pair
+of leathern leggings, or gaiters, and a straw hat, such as was very
+commonly used at that time amongst the peasantry of England. After
+gazing at them for a moment or two, and turning them over once or
+twice, he put them on, and then, with a pair of sharp scissors, cut
+away, in a rough and unceremonious fashion, a considerable quantity of
+his black hair, which was generally left rough and floating. High up
+over his neck, and round his chin, he tied a large blue handkerchief,
+and when thus completely accoutred, gave himself a glance in the
+glass, saying, "I don't think I should know myself."
+
+He seemed considerably reassured at finding himself so completely
+disguised; and then looking at his watch, and perceiving that the hour
+named for the meeting was approaching, he put a brace of pistols in
+his breast, where they could be easily reached through the opening in
+front of the smock-frock.
+
+He had already reached the door, when something seemed to strike
+him; and saying to himself--"Well, there's no knowing what may
+happen!--it's better to prepare against anything," he turned back to
+his sitting-room, and wrote down on a sheet of paper:
+
+
+"Sir,--I am gone up to see what they are about. If I should not be
+back by eleven, you may be sure they have caught me, and then you must
+do your best with Birchett and the others. If I get off, I'll call in
+as I come back, and let you know.
+
+             "Sir, your very obedient servant,
+
+                              "William Mowle."
+
+
+As soon as this was done, he folded the note up, addressed, and sealed
+it; and then, blowing the light out, he called an old female servant
+who had lived in his house for many years, and whom he now directed to
+carry the epistle to the colonel of dragoons who was up at the inn,
+adding that she was to deliver it with her own hand.
+
+The old woman took it at once; and knowing well, how usual it was for
+the Custom-House officers to disguise their persons in various ways,
+she took no notice of the strange change in Mr. Mowle's appearance,
+though it was so complete that it could not well escape her eyes, even
+in the darkness which reigned throughout the house.
+
+This having been all arranged, and the maid on her way to convey the
+letter, Mowle himself walked slowly forward through the long narrow
+lanes at the back of the town, and along the path up towards Saltwood.
+It was dusk when he set out, but not yet quite dark; and as he went,
+he met two people of the town, whom he knew well, but who only replied
+to the awkward nod of the head which he gave them, by saying, "Good
+night, my man," and walked on, evidently unconscious that they were
+passing an acquaintance.
+
+As he advanced, however, the night grew darker and more dark; and a
+fog began to rise, though not so thick as that of the night before.
+Mowle muttered to himself, as he observed it creeping up the hill from
+the side of the valley, "Ay, this is what the blackguards calculated
+upon, and they are always sure to be right about the weather; but it
+will serve my turn as well as theirs;" and on he went in the direction
+of the castle, keeping the regular road by the side of the hill, and
+eschewing especially the dwelling of Galley Ray and her grandson.
+
+Born in that part of the country, and perfectly well prepared, both to
+find his way about every part of the ruins, and to speak the dialect
+of the county in its broadest accent, if he should be questioned, the
+darkness was all that he could desire; and it was with pleasure that
+he found the obscurity so deep that even he could not see the large
+stones which at that time lay in the road, causing him to stumble more
+than once as he approached the castle. He was in some hope, indeed, of
+reaching the ruins before the smugglers began to assemble, and of
+finding a place of concealment whence he could overhear their sayings
+and doings; but in this expectation, he discovered, as he approached
+the walls, that he should be disappointed; for in the open road
+between the castle and the village, he found a number of horses tied,
+and two men watching. He trudged on past them, however, with a slow
+step and a slouching gait; and when one of the men called out, "Is
+that you, Jack?" he answered, "Ay, ay!" without stopping.
+
+At the gate of the court he heard a good many voices talking within;
+and, it must be acknowledged, that, although as brave a man as ever
+lived, he was not without a strong sense of the dangers of his
+situation. But he suffered it not to master him in the least; and
+advancing resolutely, he soon got the faint outline of several groups
+of men--amounting in the whole to about thirty--assembled on the green
+between the walls and the keep. Walking resolutely up to one of these
+little knots, he looked boldly amongst the persons it comprised as if
+seeking for somebody. Their faces could scarcely be distinguished; but
+the voices of one or two who were talking together, showed him that
+the group was a hazardous one, as it contained several of the most
+notorious smugglers of the neighbourhood, who had but too good cause
+to be well acquainted with his person and his tongue. He went on,
+consequently, to the next little party, which he soon judged, from the
+conversation he overheard, to be principally composed of strangers.
+One man spoke of how they did those things in Sussex, and told of how
+he had aided to haul up, Heaven knows how many bales of goods over the
+bare face of the cliff between Hastings and Winchelsea. Judging,
+therefore, that he was here in security, the officer attached himself
+to this group, and, after a while, ventured to ask, "Do ye know what's
+to be the hour, about?"
+
+The man he spoke to answered "No!" adding that, they could not tell
+anything "till the gentleman came." This, however, commenced a
+conversation, and Mowle was speedily identified with that group,
+which, consisting entirely of strangers, as he had supposed, did not
+mingle much with the rest. Every one present was armed; and he found
+that though some had come on foot like himself, the greater part had
+journeyed on horseback. He had a good opportunity also of learning
+that, notwithstanding every effort made by the Government, the system
+of smuggling was carried on along the coast to a much greater extent
+than even he himself had been aware of. Many of his brother officers
+were spoken of in high terms of commendation, which did not sound very
+satisfactory to his ears; and many a hint for his future operations,
+he gained from the gossip of those who surrounded him.
+
+Still time wore on, and he began to be a little uneasy lest he should
+be detained longer than the hour which he had specified in his note to
+the colonel of dragoons. But at length, towards ten o'clock, the quick
+tramping of a number of horses were heard, and several voices
+speaking; and a minute after, five or six and twenty men entered the
+grass court, and came up hastily to the rest.
+
+"Now, are you all ready?" cried a voice, which Mowle instantly
+recognised as that of young Radford.
+
+"Yes, we've been waiting these two hours," answered one of those in
+the group which the officer had first approached; "but you'll never
+have enough here, sir."
+
+"Never you mind that," rejoined Richard Radford, "there are eighty
+more at Lympne, and a good number down at Dymchurch already,
+with plenty of horses. Come, muster, muster, and let us be off,
+for the landing will begin at one, and we have a good long way to
+go.--Remember, every one," he continued, raising his voice, "that
+the way is by Butter's Bridge, and then down and along the shore. If
+any one takes the road by Burmarsh he will fall in with the dragoons.
+Troop off, my men, troop off. You Ned, and you Major, see that the
+court is quite cleared; we must have none lagging behind."
+
+This precaution did not at all disconcert our good friend Mowle, for
+he judged that he should very easily find the means of detaching
+himself from the rest, at the nearest point to Hythe; and accordingly
+he walked on with the party he had joined, till they arrived at the
+spot where they had seen the horses tied. There, however, the greater
+part mounted, and the others joined a different body, which Mowle was
+well aware was not quite so safe; for acting as the chief thereof, and
+looking very sharply after his party too, was no other than our friend
+the Major. Mowle now took good care to keep silence--a prudent step,
+which was enjoined upon them all by Mr. Radford and some others, who
+seemed to have the direction of the affair. But notwithstanding every
+care, the tread of so many men and so many horses made a considerable
+noise; and just as they were passing a small cottage, not a quarter of
+a mile from Saltwood, the good dame within opened the door to see what
+such a bustle could be about. As she did so, the light from the
+interior fell full upon Mowle's face, and the eyes of the Major,
+turned towards the door at the same moment, rested upon him for an
+instant, and were then withdrawn. It were vain to say, that the worthy
+officer felt quite as comfortable at that moment as if he had been in
+his own house; but when no notice was taken, he comforted himself with
+the thought that his disguise had served him well, and trudged on with
+the rest, without showing any hesitation or surprise. About half a
+mile farther lay the turning which he proposed to take to reach Hythe;
+and he contrived to get over to the left side of the party, in order
+to drop off in that direction unperceived. When he was within ten
+steps of it, however, and was congratulating himself that the party,
+having scattered a little, gave him greater facilities for executing
+his scheme, an arm was familiarly thrust through his own, and a pair
+of lips, close to his ear, said in a low, but very distinct tone, "I
+know you--and if you attempt to get off, you are a dead man! Continue
+with the party, and you are safe. When the goods are landed and gone,
+you shall go; but the least suspicious movement before, shall bring
+twenty bullets into your head. You did me a good turn yesterday
+morning before the Justices, in not raking up old offences; and I am
+willing to do you a good turn now; but this is all I can do for you."
+
+Mowle turned round, well knowing the voice, nodded his head, and
+walked on with the rest in the direction of Lympne.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Towards half-past ten o'clock at night, the Inn at Hythe was somewhat
+quieter than it had been on the evening before. This was not a punch
+club night; there was no public dinner going forward; a great many
+accustomed guests were absent, and the house was left nearly vacant of
+all visitors, except the young commandant of the dragoons, his two or
+three servants, and three stout-looking old soldiers, who had come in
+about ten, and taken possession of the tap-room, in their full
+uniform, scaring away, as it would seem, a sharp-looking man, who had
+been previously drinking there in solitude, only cheered by the
+occasional visits and brief conversation of the landlord. The officer
+himself was up stairs in his room, with a soldier at his door, as
+usual, and was supposed by all the household to be busy writing; but,
+in the meanwhile, there was a good deal of bustle in the stables; and
+about a quarter before eleven, the ostler came in, and informed the
+landlord, that they were saddling three of the colonel's horses, and
+his two grooms' horses.
+
+"Saddling three!" cried the host; "why, he can't ride three horses at
+once, anyhow; and where can he be going to ride to-night? I must run
+and see if I can pump it out of the fellows;" and away he walked
+to the stables, where he found the men--two grooms, and two
+helpers--busily engaged in the occupation which the ostler had stated.
+
+"Ah," said the landlord, "so there is something going on to-night?"
+
+"Not that I know of," answered the head groom. "Tie down that holster,
+Bill. The thongs are loose--don't you see?"
+
+"Oh, but there must be something in the wind," rejoined the landlord,
+"the colonel wouldn't ride out so late else."
+
+"Lord bless you!" replied the man, "little you know of his ways. Why,
+sometimes he'll have us all up at two or three in the morning, just to
+visit a post of perhaps twenty men. He's a smart officer, I can tell
+you; and no one must be caught napping in his regiment, that's
+certain."
+
+"But you have saddled three horses for him!" said the landlord,
+returning to his axiom; "and he can't ride three at once, any how."
+
+"Ay, but who can tell which he may like to ride?" rejoined the groom,
+"we shan't know anything about that, till he comes into the stable,
+most likely."
+
+"And where is he going to, to-night?" asked the landlord.
+
+"We can't tell that he's going anywhere," answered the man; "but if he
+does, I should suppose it would be to Folkestone. The major is away on
+leave, you know; and it is just as likely as not, that he'll go over
+to see that all's right there."
+
+The worthy host was not altogether satisfied with the information he
+received; but as he clearly saw that he should get no more, he
+retired, and went into the tap, to try the dragoons, without being
+more successful in that quarter than he had been in the stables.
+
+In the meantime, his guest up stairs had finished his letters--had
+dressed himself in uniform--armed himself, and laid three brace of
+pistols, charged, upon the table, for the holsters of his saddles; and
+then taking a large map of the county, he leaned over it, tracing the
+different roads, which at that time intersected the Weald of Kent. Two
+or three times he took out his watch; and as the hour of eleven drew
+near, he began to feel considerable alarm for the fate of poor Mowle.
+
+"If they discover him, they will murder him, to a certainty," he
+thought; "and I believe a more honest fellow does not live.--It was a
+rash and foolish undertaking. The measures I have adopted could not
+fail.--Hark! there is the clock striking. We must lose no more time.
+We may save him yet, or at all events, avenge him." He then called the
+soldier from the door, and sent off a messenger to the house of the
+second officer of Customs, named Birchett, who came up in a few
+minutes.
+
+"Mr. Birchett," said the colonel, "I fear our friend Mowle has got
+himself into a scrape;" and he proceeded to detail as many of the
+circumstances as were necessary to enable the other to comprehend the
+situation of affairs; and ended by asking, "Are you prepared to act in
+Mr. Mowle's absence?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," answered Birchett. "Mowle did not tell me the
+business; but he said, I must have my horse saddled. He was always a
+close fellow, and kept all the intelligence to himself."
+
+"In this case it was absolutely necessary," replied the colonel; "but
+without any long explanations, I think you had better ride down
+towards Dymchurch at once, with all the men you can trust, keeping as
+sharp a look-out as you can on the coast, and sending me information
+the moment you receive intelligence that the run has been effected. Do
+not attempt to attack the smugglers without sufficient force; but
+despatch two men by different roads, to intimate the fact to me at
+Aldington Knowle, where I shall be found throughout the night."
+
+"Ay, sir," answered the officer, "but suppose the fellows take along
+by Burmarsh, and so up to Hardy Pool. They will pass you, and be off
+into the country before anything can be done."
+
+"They will be stopped at Burmarsh," replied the colonel; "orders have
+been given to barricade the road at nightfall, and to defend the
+hamlet against any one coming from the sea. I shall establish another
+post at Lympne as I go. Leave all that to me."
+
+"But you must have a requisition, sir, or I suppose you are not
+authorized to act," said the officer. "I will get one for you in a
+minute."
+
+"I have one," answered the Colonel, laying hand on the papers before
+him; "but even were it not so, I should act on my own responsibility.
+This is no ordinary case, Mr. Birchett. All you have to do is to ride
+off towards Dymchurch as fast as you can, to give me notice that the
+smugglers have landed their goods as soon as you find that such is the
+case, and to add any information that you can gain respecting the
+course they have taken. Remember, not to attack them unless you find
+that you have sufficient force, but follow and keep them in sight as
+far as you can."
+
+"It's such a devilish foggy night, sir," said Birchett.
+
+"It will be clearer inland," replied the young officer; "and we shall
+catch them at day break. We can only fail from want of good
+information; so see that I have the most speedy intelligence. But
+stay--lest anything should go wrong, or be misunderstood with regard
+to the beacons, you may as well, if you have men to spare, send off as
+you pass, after the run has been effected, to the different posts at
+Brenzet, at Snave, at Ham Street, with merely these words, 'The goods
+are landed. The smugglers are at such a place.' The parties will act
+upon the orders they have already received. Now away, and lose no
+time!"
+
+The riding officer hurried off, and the colonel of the regiment
+descended to the court-yard. In three minutes more the sound of a
+trumpet was heard in the streets of Hythe, and in less than ten, a
+party of about thirty dragoons were marching out of the town towards
+Lympne. A halt for about five minutes was made at the latter place,
+and the small party of soldiers was diminished to about half its
+number. Information, too, was there received, from one of the
+cottagers, of a large body of men (magnified in his account into three
+or four hundred) having gone down into the marshes about half an hour
+before; but the commanding officer made no observation in reply, and
+having given the orders he thought necessary, rode on towards
+Aldington. The fog was thick in all the low ground, but cleared away a
+good deal upon the more elevated spots; and as they were rising one of
+the hills, the Serjeant who was with the party exclaimed, "There is
+something very red up there, sir! It looks as if there were a beacon
+lighted up, if we could see it for the fog."
+
+The young officer halted for a moment, looked round, and then rode on
+till he reached the summit of the hill, whence a great light, clearly
+proceeding from a beacon, was discovered to the north-east.
+
+"That must be near Postling," he said. "We have no party there. It
+must be some signal of their own." And as he rode on, he thought, "It
+is not impossible that poor Mowle's rashness may have put these men on
+their guard, and thus thwarted the whole scheme. That is clearly some
+warning to their boats."
+
+But ere a quarter of an hour more had passed, he saw the probability
+of still more disastrous effects, resulting from the lighting of the
+beacon on Tolsford Hill; for another flame shot up, casting a red
+glare through the haze from the side of Burmarsh, and then another and
+another, till the dim air seemed all tinged with flame.
+
+"An unlucky error," he said to himself. "Serjeant Jackson should have
+known that we have no party in that quarter; and the beacons were only
+to be lighted, from the first towards Hythe. It is very strange how
+the clearest orders are sometimes misunderstood."
+
+He rode on, however, at a quick pace, till he reached Aldington
+Knowle, and had found the highest ground in the neighbourhood, whence,
+after pausing for a minute or two to examine the country, as marked
+out by the various fires, he dispatched three of the dragoons in
+different directions, with orders to the parties in the villages round
+to disregard the lights they saw, and not to act upon the orders
+previously given, till they received intimation that the smugglers
+were on the march.
+
+It was now about midnight, and during nearly two hours the young
+officer remained stationed upon the hill without any one approaching,
+or any sound breaking the stillness of the night but the stamping of
+the horses of his little force and the occasional clang of the
+soldiers' arms. At the end of that period, the tramp of horse coming
+along the road at a quick pace from the side of Hythe, was heard by
+the party on the more elevated ground at a little distance from the
+highway. There was a tightening of the bridle and a movement of the
+heel amongst the men, to bring their chargers into more regular line;
+but not a word was said, and the colonel remained in front, with his
+arms crossed upon his chest and his rein thrown down, while what
+appeared from the sound to be a considerable body of cavalry, passed
+before him. He could not see them, it is true, from the darkness of
+the night; but his ear recognised in a moment the jingling of the
+dragoons' arms, and he concluded rightly, that the party consisted of
+the company which he had ordered from Folkestone down to Bilsington.
+As soon as they had gone on, he detached a man to the next cross road
+on the same side, with orders, if he perceived any body of men coming
+across from the side of the Marsh, to ride forward at once to the
+officer in command at Bilsington, and direct him to move to the north,
+keeping the Priory wood on the right, till he reached the cross-roads
+at the corner, and wait there for further orders. The beacons had by
+this time burnt out; and all remained dark and still for about half an
+hour more, when the quick galloping of a horse was heard coming from
+the side of the Marsh. A pause took place as soon as the animal
+reached the high road, as if the rider had halted to look for some one
+he had expected; and--dashing down instantly through the gate of the
+field, which had been opened by the dragoons to gain the highest point
+of ground--the young officer exclaimed, "Who goes there?"
+
+"Ah, colonel, is that you?" cried the voice of Birchett. "They are
+coming up as fast as they can come, and will pass either by Bilsington
+or Bonnington. There's a precious lot of them--I never saw such a
+number gathered before. Mowle's gone, poor fellow, to a certainty; for
+we've seen nothing of him down there."
+
+"Nor I either," answered the young officer, with a sigh. "I hope you
+have left men to watch them, Mr. Birchett."
+
+"Oh yes, sir," replied the officer. "I thought it better to come up
+myself, than trust to any other. But I left Clinch and the rest there,
+and sent off, as you told me, to all your posts."
+
+"You are sure they will come by Bilsington or Bonnington, and not
+strike off by Kitsbridge, towards Ham Street or Warehorn?" demanded
+the young officer.
+
+"If they do, they'll have to turn all the way back," answered
+Birchett; "for I saw them to the crossing of the roads, and then came
+across by Sherlock's Bridges and the horse-road to Hurst."
+
+"And are you quite sure," continued the colonel, "that your messengers
+will reach the parties at Brenzet or Snave?"
+
+"Quite, sir," answered the Custom-House officer; "for I did not send
+them off till the blackguards had passed, and the country behind was
+clear."
+
+"That was judicious; and we have them," rejoined the young officer. "I
+trust they may take by Bonnington; but it will be necessary to
+ascertain the fact. You shall go down, Mr. Birchett, yourself, with
+some of the troopers, and reconnoitre. Go as cautiously as possible;
+and if you see or hear them passing, fall back quietly. If they do not
+appear in reasonable time, send me intelligence. You can calculate the
+distances better than I can."
+
+"I believe they will go by Bonnington," said the Customs officer; "for
+it's much shorter, and I think they must know of your party at
+Bilsington; though, to be sure, they could easily force that, for it
+is but a sergeant's guard."
+
+"You are mistaken," answered the colonel.
+
+"Captain Irby is there with his troop; and, together with the parties
+moving up, on a line with the smugglers from the Marsh, he will have a
+hundred and fifty men, either in Bilsington, or three miles in his
+rear. Nevertheless, we must give him help, in case they take that
+road; so you had better ride down at once, Mr. Birchett."
+
+And, ordering three of the privates to accompany the Custom-House
+officer, with renewed injunctions to caution and silence, he resumed
+his position on the hill, and waited in expectation of the result.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The cottages round Dymchurch, and the neighbourhood of the Gut, as it
+is called, showed many a cheerful light about eleven o'clock, on the
+night of which we have just been speaking; and, as the evening had
+been cold and damp, it seemed natural enough to the two officers of
+Customs stationed in the place--or at least they chose to think
+so--that the poor people should have a fire to keep them warm. If they
+had judged it expedient to go forth, instead of remaining in the house
+appropriated to them, they might indeed have discovered a fragrant
+odour of good Hollands, and every now and then a strong smell of
+brandy, issuing from any hovel door that happened to open as they
+passed. But the two officers did not judge it expedient to go forth;
+for it was late, they were warm and comfortable where they were, a
+good bowl of punch stood before them, and one of them, as he ladled
+out the exhilarating liquor to the other, remarked, with philosophical
+sagacity, "It's such a foggy night, who the deuce could see anything
+on the water even if they went to look for it?"
+
+The other laughed, with a meaning wink of his eye, and perfectly
+agreed in the justice of his companion's observation. "Well, we must
+go out, Jim, about twelve," he said, "just to let old Mowle see that
+we are looking about; but you can go down to High Nook, and I can
+pretend I heard something suspicious in the Marsh, farther up.
+Otherwise, we shall be broke, to a certainty."
+
+"I don't care, if I am broke," answered the other. "I've got all that
+I want now, and can set up a shop."
+
+"Well, I should like to hold on a little longer," replied his more
+prudent companion; "and besides, if they found us out, they might do
+worse than discharge us."
+
+"But how the deuce should they find us out?" asked the other. "Nobody
+saw me speak to the old gentleman; and nobody saw you. I didn't: nor
+did you see me. So we can say nothing, and nobody else can say
+anything--I shan't budge."
+
+"Well, I shall!" said the other. "'Tis but a walk; and you know quite
+well, Jim, that if we keep to the westward, it's all safe."
+
+It was evident to the last speaker that his comrade had drunk quite
+enough punch; but still they went on till the bowl was finished; and
+then, the one going out, the other did not choose to remain, but
+issued forth also, cursing and growling as he went. The murmur of a
+good many voices to the eastward of Dymchurch saluted their ears the
+moment they quitted the house; but that sound only induced them to
+hasten their steps in the opposite direction.
+
+The noise which produced this effect upon the officers, had also been
+heard by another person, who was keeping his solitary watch on the low
+shore, three or four hundred yards from the village; and to him it was
+a pleasant sound. He had been on the look-out there for nearly two
+hours; and no sight had he seen, nor sound had he heard, but the water
+coming up as the tide made, and every now and then driving him further
+back to avoid the ripple of the wave. Two or three minutes after, a
+step could be distinguished; and some one gave a whistle.
+
+The watcher whistled in return; and the next instant he was joined by
+another person, somewhat taller than himself, who inquired, "Have you
+heard anything of them yet?"
+
+"No, sir," answered the man, in a respectful tone. "Everything has
+been as still and as sleepy as an old woman's cat."
+
+"Then what the devil's the meaning of these fires all over the
+country?" asked young Radford; for he it was who had come down.
+
+"Fires, sir?" said the man. "Why they were to light one upon Tolsford
+Hill, when Harding sent up the rockets; but I have heard of none but
+that, and have seen none at all."
+
+"Why, they are blazing all over the country," cried young Radford,
+from Tolsford to Dungeness. "If it's any of our people that have done
+it, they must be mad."
+
+"Well, if they have lighted the one at Tolsford,"' answered the man,
+"we shall soon have Tom Hazlewood down to tell us more; for he was to
+set off and gallop as fast as possible, whenever he saw anything."
+
+Young Radford made no reply, but stood musing in silence for two or
+three minutes; and then starting, he exclaimed, "Hark! wasn't that a
+cheer from the sea?"
+
+"I didn't hear it," answered the man; "but I thought I heard some one
+riding."
+
+Young Radford listened; but all seemed still for a moment, till,
+coming upon harder ground, a horse's feet sounded distinctly.
+
+"Tom Hazlewood, I think," cried Radford. "Run up, and see, Bill!"
+
+"He'll come straight down here, sir," replied the man; "he knows where
+to find me." And almost as he spoke, a man on horseback galloped up,
+saying, "They must be well in shore now."
+
+"Who the devil lighted all those fires?" exclaimed young Radford. "Why
+they will alarm the whole country!"
+
+"I don't know, sir," answered the man on horseback; "I lighted the one
+at Tolsford, but I've nothing to do with the others, and don't know
+who lighted them."
+
+"Then you saw the rockets?" demanded the young gentleman.
+
+"Quite clear, sir," replied Hazlewood; "I got upon the highest point
+that I could find, and kept looking out over the sea, thinking I
+should see nothing; for though it was quite clear up so high, and the
+stars shining as bright as possible, yet all underneath was like a
+great white cloud rolled about; but suddenly, as I was looking over
+this way, I saw something like a star shoot up from the cloud and
+burst into a thousand bright sparks, making quite a blaze all round
+it; and then came another, and then another. So, being quite sure that
+it was Jack Harding at sea, I ran down as hard as I could to where I
+had left Peter by the pile of wood and the two old barrels, and taking
+the candle out of his lantern, thrust it in. As soon as it was in a
+blaze, I got outside my horse and galloped down; for he could not be
+more than two or three miles out when I saw the rockets."
+
+"Then he must be close in now," answered Richard Radford; "and we had
+better get all the men down, and spread out."
+
+"There will be time enough, sir, I should think," observed the man on
+foot, "for he'll get the big boats in, as near as he can, before he
+loads the little ones."
+
+"I will fire a pistol, to let him know where we are," answered young
+Radford; and drawing one from his belt, he had cocked it, when the man
+on foot stopped him, saying, "There are two officers in Dymchurch, you
+know, sir, and they may send off for troops."
+
+"Pooh--nonsense!" replied Richard Radford, firing the pistol in the
+air; "do you think we would have left them there, if we were not sure
+of them?"
+
+In somewhat less than a minute, a distinct cheer was heard from the
+sea; and at the sound of the pistol, a crowd of men and horses, which
+in the mist and darkness seemed innumerable, began to gather down upon
+the shore, as near to the water's edge as they could come. A great
+many lanterns were produced, and a strange and curious sight it was to
+see the number of wild-looking faces which appeared by that dim,
+uncertain light.
+
+"Ned Ramley!" cried young Radford.
+
+"Here I am, sir," answered a voice close at hand.
+
+"Where's the Major?"
+
+"Major! Major!" shouted Ramley.
+
+"Coming," answered a voice at some distance. "Stand by him, and do as
+I told you!"
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Richard Radford, as the Major came up.
+
+"Oh, nothing, sir!" replied the other; "only a man I found larking
+about. He says he's willing to help; but I thought it best to set a
+watch upon him, as I don't know him."
+
+"That was right," said the young gentleman. "But, hark!--there are the
+oars!" And the sound of the regular sweep, and the shifting beat of
+the oar against the rowlocks, was distinctly heard by all present.
+Some of the men waded down into the water, there being very little sea
+running, and soon, through the mist, six boats of a tolerable size
+could be seen pulling hard towards the land. In another moment, amidst
+various cries and directions, they touched the shore. Several men
+jumped out of each into the water, and a number of the party which had
+come down to meet them, running in, caught hold of the ropes that were
+thrown out of the boats, and with marvellous rapidity they were drawn
+up till they were high and dry.
+
+"Ah, Harding, is that you?" said young Radford, addressing the
+smuggler, who had been steering the largest boat. "This is capitally
+managed. You are even earlier than I expected; and we shall get far
+into the country before daylight."
+
+"We were obliged to use the sweeps, sir," said Harding, bluntly; "but
+don't let's talk. Get the things out, and load the horses; for we
+shall have to make two more trips back to the luggers before they are
+all cleared."
+
+Everything was now bustle and activity; a number of bales and packages
+were taken out of the boats and placed upon the horses in one way or
+another, not always the most convenient to the poor animals; and as
+soon as Harding had made Mr. Radford count the number of the articles
+landed, the boats were launched off again to some larger vessels,
+which it seems were lying out at a little distance, though
+indiscernible in the fog.
+
+Harding himself remained ashore; and turning to one or two of those
+about him, he asked, "What was all that red blaze I saw half over the
+country?"
+
+"None of us can tell," answered young Radford. "The moment the fire at
+Tolsford was lighted, a dozen more were flaming up, all along to
+Dungeness."
+
+"That's devilish strange!" said Harding. "It does not look well.--How
+many men have you got with you, Mr. Radford?"
+
+"Why, well nigh upon two hundred," answered Ned Ramley, for his
+comrade.
+
+"Ah, then you'll do," answered Harding, with a laugh; "but still you
+won't be the worse for some more. So I and some of the lads will see
+you safe across the Marsh. The Customs have got nothing at sea about
+here; so the boats will be safe enough."
+
+"Thank you, Harding--thank you, Jack;" said several of the voices.
+"Once out of the Marsh, with all these ditches and things, and we
+shall do very well. How far are the luggers off?"
+
+"Not a hundred fathom," answered Harding. "I would have run them
+ashore if there had been any capstan here to have drawn them up. But
+they wont be a minute, so have every thing ready. Move off those
+horses that are loaded, a bit, my lads, and bring up the others."
+
+Harding's minute, however, extended to nearly ten, and then the boats
+were again perceived approaching, and the same process was followed as
+before. The third trip was then made with equal success and ease. Not
+the slightest difficulty occurred, not the slightest obstruction was
+offered; the number of packages was declared to be complete, the
+horses were all loaded, and the party began to move off in a long
+line, across the Marsh, like a caravan threading the mazes of the
+desert.
+
+Leaving a few men with the boats that were ashore, Harding and the
+rest of the seamen, with Mr. Radford, and several of his party,
+brought up the rear of the smugglers, talking over the events which
+had taken place, and the course of their farther proceedings. All
+seemed friendly and good-humoured; but there is such a thing as
+seeming, even amongst smugglers, and if Harding could have seen the
+real feelings of some of his companions towards him, it is very
+probable that he would not have given himself the trouble to accompany
+them on the way.
+
+"I will pay you the money when I get to Bonnington," said young
+Radford, addressing his companion. "I can't very well get at it till I
+dismount."
+
+"Oh, there's no matter for that, sir," replied the smuggler. "Your
+father can pay me some other time.--But what are you going to
+Bonnington for? I should have thought your best way would have been by
+Bilsington, and so straight into the Weald. Then you would have had
+the woods round about you the greater part of the way; or I don't know
+that I might not have gone farther down still, and so by Orleston."
+
+"There's a party of dragoons at Bilsington," said young Radford, "and
+another at Ham Street."
+
+"Ay, that alters the case," answered the smuggler; "but they are all
+so scattered about and so few, I should think they could do you no
+great harm. However, it will be best for you to go by Bonnington, if
+you are sure there are no troops there."
+
+"If there are, we must fight: that's all," answered young Radford; and
+so ended the conversation for the time. One of those pauses of deep
+silence succeeded, which--by the accidental exhaustion of topics and
+the recurrence of the mind to the thoughts suggested by what has just
+passed--so frequently intervene in the conversation even of great
+numbers, whether occupied with light or serious subjects. How often do
+we find, amidst the gayest or the busiest assembly, a sudden stillness
+pervade the whole, and the ear may detect a pin fall. In the midst of
+the silence, however, Harding laid his hand upon young Radford's
+bridle, saying, in a low voice, "Hark! do you not hear the galloping
+of horses to the east there?"
+
+The young man, on the first impulse, put his hand to his holster; but
+then withdrew it, and listened. "I think I do," he answered; "but now
+it has stopped."
+
+"You are watched, I suspect," said Harding; "they did not seem many,
+however, and may be afraid to attack you. If I were you, I would put
+the men into a quicker pace; for these fellows may gather as they
+go.--If you had got such things with you as you could throw into the
+cuts, it would not much matter; for you could fight it out here, as
+well as elsewhere; but, if I understood your father rightly, these
+goods would all be spoiled, and so the sooner you are out of the Marsh
+the better. Then you will be safe enough, if you are prudent. You may
+have to risk a shot or two; but that does not much matter."
+
+"And what do you call prudent, Harding?" asked young Radford, in a
+wonderfully calm tone, considering his vehement temperament, and the
+excitement of the adventure in which he was engaged; "how would you
+have me act, when I do get out of the Marsh?"
+
+"Why, that seems clear enough," replied the smuggler. "I would send
+all the goods and the men on foot, first, keeping along the straight
+road between the woods; and then, with all those who have got horses,
+I would hang behind a quarter of a mile or so, till the others had
+time to get on and disperse to the different hides, which ought to be
+done as soon as possible. Let a number drop off here, and a number
+there--one set to the willow cave, close by Woodchurch hill, another
+to the old Priory in the wood, and so on: you still keeping behind,
+and facing about upon the road, if you are pursued. If you do that,
+you are sure to secure the goods, or by far the greater part of them."
+
+The advice was so good--as far as young Radford knew of the condition
+of the country, and the usual plan of operations which had hitherto
+been pursued by the Customs in their pursuit of smugglers--that he
+could offer no reasonable argument against it; but when prejudice has
+taken possession of a man's mind, it is a busy and skilful framer of
+suspicions; and he thought within his own breast, though he did not
+speak his intentions aloud, "No! Hang me if I leave the goods till I
+see them safe housed. This fellow may want to ruin us, by separating
+us into small parties."
+
+The rest of the party had, by this time, resumed their conversation;
+and both Radford and Harding well knew that it would be vain to
+attempt to keep them quiet; for they were a rash and careless set,
+inclined to do everything with dash and swagger; and although, in the
+presence of actual and apparent danger, they could be induced to
+preserve some degree of order and discipline, and to show some
+obedience to their leaders, yet as soon as the peril had passed away,
+or was no longer immediately before their eyes, they were like
+schoolboys in the master's absence, and careless of the consequences
+which they did not see. Twice Harding said, in a low voice, "I hear
+them again to the east, there!" and twice young Radford urged his men
+to a quicker pace; but many of them had come far; horses and men were
+tired; every one considered that, as the goods were safely landed, and
+no opposition shown, the battle was more than half won; and all forgot
+the warning of the day before, as man ever forgets the chastisements
+which are inflicted by Heaven for his good, and falls the next day
+into the very same errors, for the reproof of which they were sent.
+
+"Now," said Harding, as they approached the spot where the Marsh road
+opened upon the highway to Bonnington, "spread some of your men out on
+the right and left, Mr. Radford, to keep you clear in case the enemy
+wish to make an attack. Your people can easily close in, and follow
+quickly, as soon as the rest have passed."
+
+"If they do make an attack," thought young Radford, "your head shall
+be the first I send a ball through;" but the advice was too judicious
+to be neglected; and he accordingly gave orders to Ned Ramley and the
+Major, with ten men each, to go one or two hundred yards on the road
+towards Bilsington on the one hand, and Hurst on the other, and see
+that all was safe. A little confusion ensued, as was but natural in so
+badly disciplined a body; and in the meanwhile the laden horses
+advanced along the road straight into the heart of the country, while
+Richard Radford, with the greater part of his mounted men, paused to
+support either of his parties in case of attack. He said something in
+a low voice regarding the money, to Harding, who replied abruptly,
+"There--never mind about that; only look out, and get off as quickly
+as you can. You are safe enough now, I think; so good night."
+
+Thus saying, he turned, and with the six or eight stout fellows who
+accompanied him, trod his way back into the Marsh. What passed through
+young Radford's brain at that moment it may be needless to dwell upon;
+but Harding escaped a peril that he little dreamed of, solely by the
+risk of ruin to the whole scheme which a brawl at that spot and moment
+must have entailed.
+
+The men who had been detached to the right, advanced along the road to
+the distance specified, proceeding slowly in the fog, and looking
+eagerly out before. "Look out," said Ned Ramley, at length, to one of
+his companions, taking a pistol from his belt at the same time, "I see
+men on horseback there, I think."
+
+"Only trees in the fog," answered the other.
+
+"Hush!" cried Ramley, sharply; but the other men were talking
+carelessly, and whether it was the sound of retreating horses or not,
+that he heard, he could not discover. After going on about three
+hundred yards, Ned Ramley turned, saying, "We had better go back now,
+and give warning; for I am very sure those were men I saw."
+
+The other differed with him on that point; and, on rejoining Richard
+Radford, they found the Major and his party just come back from the
+Bilsington road, but with one man short. "That fellow," said the
+Major, "has taken himself off. I was sure he was a spy, so we had
+better go on as fast as possible. We shall have plenty of time before
+he can raise men enough to follow."
+
+"There are others to the east, there," replied Ned Ramley. "I saw two
+or three, and there is no time to be lost, I say, or we shall have the
+whole country upon us. If I were you, Mr. Radford, I'd disperse in as
+small numbers as possible whenever we get to the Chequer-tree; and
+then if we lose a few of the things, we shall keep the greater
+part--unless, indeed, you are minded to stand it out, and have a fight
+upon the Green. We are enough to beat them all, I should think."
+
+"Ay, Ned, that is the gallant way," answered Richard Radford; "but we
+must first see what is on before. We must not lose the goods, or risk
+them; otherwise nothing would please me better than to drub these
+dragoons; but in case it should be dark still when they come near
+us--if they do at all--we'll have a blow or two before we have done, I
+trust. However, let us forward now, for we must keep up well with the
+rest."
+
+The party moved on at a quick pace, and soon overtook the train of
+loaded horses, and men on foot, which had gone on before. Many a time
+a glance was given along the road behind, and many a time an attentive
+ear was turned listening for the sound of coming horse; but all was
+still and silent; and winding on through the thick woods, which at
+that time overspread all the country in the vicinity of their course,
+and covered their line of advance right and left, they began to lose
+the sense of danger, and to suppose that the sounds which had been
+heard, and the forms which had been seen, were but mere creations of
+the fancy.
+
+About two miles from the border of Romney Marsh, the mist grew
+lighter, fading gradually away as the sea air mingled with the clearer
+atmosphere of the country. At times a star or two might be seen above;
+and though at that hour the moon gave no light, yet there was a
+certain degree of brightening in the sky which made some think they
+had miscalculated the hour, and that it was nearer the dawn than they
+imagined, while others contended that it was produced merely by the
+clearing away of the fog. At length, however, they heard a distant
+clock strike four. They were now at a spot where three or four roads
+branch off in different directions, at a distance of not more than
+half-a-mile from Chequer-tree, having a wide extent of rough,
+uncultivated land, called Aldington Freight, on their right, and part
+of the Priory wood on their left; and it yet wanted somewhat more than
+an hour to the actual rising of the sun. A consultation was then held;
+and, notwithstanding some differences of opinion, it was resolved to
+take the road by Stonecross Green, where they thought they could get
+information from some friendly cottagers, and thence through Gilbert's
+Wood towards Shaddoxhurst. At that point, they calculated that they
+could safely separate in order to convey the goods to the several
+_hides_, or places of concealment, which had been chosen beforehand.
+
+At Stonecross Green, they paused again, and knocked hard at a cottage
+door, till they brought forth the sleepy tenant from his bed. But the
+intelligence gained from him was by no means satisfactory; he spoke of
+a large party of dragoons at Kingsnorth, and mentioned reports which
+had reached him of a small body having shown itself, at Bromley Green,
+late on the preceding night; and it was consequently resolved, after
+much debate, to turn off before entering Gilbert's Wood, and, in some
+degree retreading their steps towards the Marsh, to make for
+Woodchurch beacon and thence to Redbrook Street. The distance was thus
+rendered greater, and both men and horses were weary; but the line of
+road proposed lay amidst a wild and thinly inhabited part of the
+country, where few hamlets or villages offered any quarters for the
+dragoons. They calculated, too, that having turned the dragoons who
+were quartered at Bilsington, they should thus pass between them and
+those at Kingsnorth and Bromley Green: and Richard Radford, himself,
+was well aware that there were no soldiers, when he left that part of
+the country, in the neighbourhood of High Halden or Bethersden. This
+seemed, therefore, the only road that was actually open before them;
+and it was accordingly taken, after a general distribution of spirits
+amongst the men, and of hay and water to the horses. Still their
+progress was slow, for the ground became hilly in that neighbourhood,
+and by the time they arrived at an elevated spot, near Woodchurch
+Beacon, whence they could see over a wide extent of country round, the
+grey light of the dawn was spreading rapidly through the sky, showing
+all the varied objects of the fair and beautiful land through which
+they wandered.
+
+But it is now necessary to turn to another personage in our history,
+of whose fate, for some time, we have had no account.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+We left our friend, Mr. Mowle, in no very pleasant situation; for
+although the generosity of the Major, in neither divulging the
+discovery he had made, to the rest of the smugglers, nor blowing the
+brains of the intruder out upon the spot, was, perhaps, much more than
+could be expected from a man in his situation and of his habits, yet
+it afforded no guarantee whatsoever to the unfortunate Custom-House
+officer, that his life would not be sacrificed on the very first
+danger or alarm. He also knew, that if such an accident were to happen
+again, as that which had at first displayed his features to one of
+those into whose nocturnal councils he had intruded, nothing on earth
+could save him; for amongst the gang by whom he was surrounded, were a
+number of men who had sworn to shed his blood on the very first
+opportunity.
+
+He walked along, therefore, as the reader may well conceive, with the
+feeling of a knife continually at his throat; and a long and weary
+march it seemed to him, as, proceeding by tortuous ways and zig-zag
+paths, the smugglers descended into Romney Marsh, and advanced
+rapidly towards Dymchurch. Mowle was, perhaps, as brave and daring a
+man as any that ever existed; but still the sensation of impending
+death can never be very pleasant to a person in strong health, and
+well-contented with the earth on which he is placed; and Mowle felt
+all the disagreeable points in his situation, exactly as any other man
+would do. It would not be just to him, however, were we not to state,
+that many other considerations crossed his mind, besides that of his
+own personal safety. The first of these was his duty to the department
+of government which he served; and many a plan suggested itself for
+making his escape here or there, in which he regarded the apprehension
+of the smugglers, and the seizure of the goods that they were going to
+escort into the country, fully as much as his own life.
+
+His friend the Major, however, took means to frustrate all such plans,
+and seemed equally careful to prevent Mr. Mowle from effecting his
+object, and to guard against his being discovered by the other
+smugglers. At every turn and corner, at the crossing of every stream
+or cut, the Major was by his side; and yet once or twice he whispered
+a caution to him to keep out of the way of the lights, more especially
+as they approached Dymchurch. When they came near the shore, and a
+number of men with lanterns issued forth to aid them from the various
+cottages in the vicinity, he told Mowle to keep back with one party,
+consisting of hands brought out of Sussex, who were stationed in the
+rear with a troop of the horses. But at the same time Mowle heard his
+compassionate friend direct two of the men to keep a sharp eye upon
+him, as he was a stranger, of whom the leaders were not quite sure,
+adding an injunction to blow his brains out at once, if he made the
+slightest movement without orders.
+
+In the bustle and confusion which ensued, during the landing of the
+smuggled goods and the loading of the horses, Mowle once or twice
+encouraged a hope that something would favour his escape. But the two
+men strictly obeyed the orders they had received, remained close to
+his side during more than an hour and a half, which was consumed upon
+the beach, and never left him till he was rejoined by the Major, who
+told him to march on with the rest.
+
+"What's to come of this?" thought Mowle, as he proceeded, "and what can
+the fellow intend to do with me?--If he drags me along with them till
+daylight, one half of them will know me; and then the game's up--and
+yet he can't mean me harm, either. Well, I may have an opportunity of
+repaying him some day."
+
+When the party arrived at Bonnington, however, and, as we have already
+stated, two small bodies were sent off to the right and left, to
+reconnoitre the ground on either side, Mowle was one of those selected
+by the Major to accompany him on the side of Bilsington. But after
+having gone to the prescribed distance, without discovering anything
+to create suspicion, the worthy field-officer gave the order to
+return; and contriving to disentangle Mowle from the rest, he
+whispered in his ear, "Off with you as fast as you can, and take back
+by the Marsh, for if you give the least information, or bring the
+soldiers upon us, be you sure that some of us will find means to cut
+your throat.--Get on, get on fast!" he continued aloud, to the other
+men. "We've no time to lose;" and Mowle, taking advantage of the hurry
+and confusion of the moment, ran off towards Bilsington as fast as his
+legs could carry him.
+
+"He's off!" cried one of the men. "Shall I give him a shot?"
+
+"No--no," answered the Major, "it will only make more row. He's more
+frightened than treacherous, I believe. I don't think he'll peach."
+
+Thus saying, he rejoined the main body of the smugglers, as we have
+seen; and Mowle hurried on his way without pause, running till he was
+quite out of breath. Now, the Major, in his parting speech to Mowle,
+though a shrewd man, had miscalculated his course, and mistaken the
+person with whom he had to deal. Had he put it to the Custom-House
+officer, as a matter of honour and generosity, not to inform against
+the person who had saved his life, poor Mowle would have been in a
+situation of great perplexity; but the threat which had been used,
+relieved him of half the difficulty. Not that he did not feel a
+repugnance to the task which duty pointed out--not that he did not ask
+himself, as soon as he had a moment to think of anything, "What ought
+I to do? How ought I to act?" But still the answer was, that his duty
+and his oath required him immediately to take steps for the pursuit
+and capture of the smugglers; and when he thought of the menace he
+said to himself, "No, no; if I don't do what I ought, these fellows
+will only say that I was afraid."
+
+Having settled the matter in his own mind, he proceeded to execute his
+purpose with all speed, and hurried on towards Bilsington, where he
+knew there was a small party of dragoons, proposing to send off
+messengers immediately to the colonel of the regiment and to all the
+different posts around. It was pitch dark, so that he did not perceive
+the first houses of the hamlet, till he was within a few yards of
+them; and all seemed still and quiet in the place. But after having
+passed the lane leading to the church, Mowle heard the stamping of
+some horses' feet, and the next instant a voice exclaimed, "Stand! who
+goes there?"
+
+'"A friend!" answered Mowle. "Where's the sergeant?"
+
+"Here am I," replied another voice. "Who are you?
+
+"My name is Mowle," rejoined our friend, "the chief officer of Customs
+at Hythe."
+
+"Oh, come along, Mr. Mowle; you are just the man we want," said the
+sergeant, advancing a step or two. "Captain Irby is up here, and would
+be glad to speak with you."
+
+Mowle followed in silence, having, indeed, some occasion to set his
+thoughts in order, and to recover his breath. About sixty or seventy
+yards farther on, a scene broke upon him, which somewhat surprised
+him; for, instead of a dozen dragoons at the most, he perceived, on
+turning the corner of the next cottage, a body of at least seventy or
+eighty men, as well as he could calculate, standing each beside his
+horse, whose breath was seen mingling with the thick fog, by the light
+of a single lantern held close to the wall of the house which
+concealed the party from the Bonnington Road. Round that lantern were
+congregated three or four figures, besides that of the man who held
+it; and, fronting the approach, was a young gentleman,[2] dressed in
+the usual costume of a dragoon officer of that period. Before him
+stood another, apparently a private of the regiment; and the light
+shone full upon the faces of both, showing a cold, thoughtful, and
+inquiring look upon the countenance of the young officer, and anxious
+haste upon that of the inferior soldier.
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 2: It will be seen that I have represented all my officers
+as young men, even up to the very colonel of the regiment; but it must
+be remembered, that, in those days, promotion in the service was
+regulated in a very different manner from the present system. I
+remember a droll story, of a visitor at a nobleman's house, inquiring
+of the butler what was the cause of an obstreperous roaring he heard
+up stairs, when the servant replied, "Oh, sir, it is nothing but the
+little general crying for his pap."]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+"Here is Mr. Mowle, the chief officer, captain," said the sergeant, as
+they advanced.
+
+"Ha, that is fortunate!" replied Captain Irby. "Now we shall get at
+the facts, I suppose. Well, Mr. Mowle, what news?"
+
+"Why, sir, the cargo is landed," exclaimed Mowle, eagerly; "and the
+smugglers passed by Bonnington, up towards Chequer-tree, not twenty
+minutes ago."
+
+"So this man says," rejoined Captain Irby, not the least in the world
+in haste. "Have you any fresh orders from the colonel?"
+
+"No, sir; he said all his orders were given when last I saw him,"
+replied the officer of Customs; "but if you move up quick towards
+Chequer-tree, you are sure to overtake them."
+
+"How long is it since you saw Sir Henry?" demanded Captain Irby,
+without appearing to notice Mowle's suggestion.
+
+"Oh, several hours ago," answered the Custom-House agent, somewhat
+provoked at the young officer's coolness. "I have been kept prisoner
+by the smugglers since ten o'clock--but that is nothing to the
+purpose, sir. If you would catch the smugglers, you have nothing for
+it but to move up to Chequer-tree after them; and that is what I
+require you to do."
+
+"I have my orders," answered the captain of the troop, with a smile at
+the impetuous tone of the Custom-House officer, "and if you bring me
+none later, those I shall obey, Mr. Mowle."
+
+"Well, sir, you take the responsibility upon yourself, then," said
+Mowle; "I have expressed my opinion, and what I require at your
+hands."
+
+"The responsibility will rest where it ought," replied Captain Irby,
+"on the shoulders of him whom I am bound to obey. For your opinion I
+am obliged to you, but it cannot be followed; and as to what you
+require, I am under superior authority, which supersedes your
+requisition."
+
+He then said a word or two to one of the men beside him, who
+immediately proceeded to the body of men behind; but all that Mowle
+could hear was "Snave" and "Brenzet," repeated once or twice, with
+some mention of Woodchurch and the road by Red Brooke Street. The
+order was then given to mount, and march; and Mowle remarked that four
+troopers rode off at a quick pace before the rest.
+
+"Now, Mr. Mowle, we shall want you with us if you please," said
+Captain Irby, in a civil tone. "Where is your horse?"
+
+"Horse!--I have got none;" answered the officer of Customs, a good
+deal piqued; "did I not say that I have been a prisoner with the
+smugglers for the last five hours? and as to my going with you, sir, I
+see no use I can be of, if you do not choose to do what I require, or
+follow my advice."
+
+"Oh, the greatest--the greatest!" replied the young officer, without
+losing his temper for an instant, "and as to a horse, we will soon
+supply you."
+
+An order was immediately given; and in three minutes the horse of a
+dragoon officer, fully caparisoned, was led up to Mowle's side, who,
+after a moment's hesitation, mounted, and rode on with the troop. It
+must not be denied that he was anything but satisfied, not alone
+because he thought that he was not treated with sufficient
+deference--although, having for years been accustomed to be obeyed
+implicitly by the small parties of dragoons which had been previously
+sent down to aid the Customs, it did seem to him very strange that his
+opinions should go for nought--but also because he feared that the
+public service would suffer, and that the obstinacy, as he called it,
+of the young officer, would enable the smugglers to escape. Still more
+was his anxiety and indignation raised, when he perceived the slow
+pace at which the young officer proceeded, and that instead of taking
+the road which he had pointed out, the party kept the Priory Wood on
+the right hand, bearing away from Chequer-tree, to which he had
+assured himself that Richard Radford and his party were tending.
+
+He saw that many precautions were taken, however, which, attributing
+them at first to a design of guarding against surprise, he thought
+quite unnecessary. Two dragoons were thrown forward at a considerable
+distance before the head of the troop; a single private followed about
+twenty yards behind them; two more succeeded, and then another, and
+last came Captain Irby himself, keeping Mr. Mowle by his side. From
+time to time a word was passed down from those who led the advance,
+not shouted--but spoken in a tone only loud enough to be heard by the
+trooper immediately behind; and this word, for a considerable way, was
+merely "All clear!"
+
+At length, just at the end of the Priory Wood, where a path, coming
+from the east, branched off towards Aldington Freight, and two roads
+went away to the north and west, the order to halt was given, to the
+surprise and consternation of Mr. Mowle, who conceived that the escape
+of the smugglers must be an inevitable result. At length a new word
+was passed from the head of the line, which was, "On before." But
+still the captain of the troop gave no command to march, and the
+soldiers sat idle on their horses for a quarter of an hour longer.
+Mowle calculated that it must now be at least half past four or five
+o'clock. He thought he perceived the approach of day; and though, in
+discontented silence, he ventured to say no more, he would have given
+all he had in the world to have had the command of the troop for a
+couple of hours. His suspense and anxiety were brought to an end at
+length; for just as he was assured, by the greyness of the sky, that
+the sun would soon rise, a trooper came dashing down the right-hand
+path at full speed, and Captain Irby spurred on to meet him. What
+passed between them Mowle could not hear; but the message was soon
+delivered, the soldier rode back to the east, by the way he came, and
+the order to march was immediately given. Instead, however, of taking
+the road to Stonecross, the troop directed its course to the west, but
+at a somewhat quicker pace than before. Still a word was passed back
+from the head of the line; and, after a short time, the troop was put
+into a quick trot, Captain Irby sometimes endeavouring to lead his
+companion into general conversation upon any indifferent subject, but
+not once alluding to the expedition on which they were engaged. Poor
+Mowle was too anxious to talk much. He did not at all comprehend the
+plan upon which the young officer was acting; but yet he began to see
+that there was some plan in operation, and he repeated to himself more
+than once, "There must be something in it, that's clear; but he might
+as well tell me what it is, I think."
+
+At length he turned frankly round to his companion, and said, "I see
+you are going upon some scheme, Captain. I wish to Heaven you would
+tell me what it is; for you can't imagine how anxious I am about this
+affair."
+
+"My good friend," replied Captain Irby, "I know no more of the matter
+than you do; so I can tell you nothing about it. I am acting under
+orders; and the only difference between you and I is, that you, not
+being accustomed to do so, are always puzzling yourself to know what
+it all means, while I, being well drilled to such things, do not
+trouble my head about it; but do as I am told, quite sure that it will
+all go right."
+
+"Heaven send it!" answered Mowle; "but here it is broad day-light, and
+we seem to be going farther and farther from our object every minute."
+
+As if in answer to his last observation, the word was again passed
+down from the front, "On, before!" and Captain Irby immediately halted
+his troop for about five minutes. At the end of that time, the march
+was resumed, and shortly after the whole body issued out upon the side
+of one of the hills, a few miles from Woodchurch.
+
+The sun was now just risen--the east was glowing with all the hues of
+early day--the mist was dispersed or left behind in the neighbourhood
+of the Marsh; and a magnificent scene, all filled with golden light,
+spread out beneath the eyes of the Custom-House officer. But he had
+other objects to contemplate much more interesting to him than the
+beauties of the landscape. About three-quarters of a mile in advance,
+and in the low ground to the north-west of the hill on which he stood,
+appeared a dark, confused mass of men and horses, apparently directing
+their course towards Tiffenden; and Mowle's practised eye instantly
+perceived that they were the smugglers. At first sight he thought,
+"They may escape us yet:" but following the direction in which Captain
+Irby's glance was turned, he saw, further on, in the open fields
+towards High Halden, a considerable body of horse, whose regular line
+at once showed them to be a party of the military. Then turning
+towards the little place on his left, called Cuckoo Point, he
+perceived, at the distance of about a mile, another troop of dragoons,
+who must have marched, he thought, from Brenzet and Appledore.
+
+The smugglers seemed to become aware, nearly at the same moment, of
+the presence of the troops on the side of High Halden; for they were
+observed to halt, to pause for a minute or two, then re-tread their
+steps for a short distance, and take their way over the side of the
+hill, as if tending towards Plurenden or Little Ingham.
+
+"You should cut them off, sir--you should cut them off!" cried Mowle,
+addressing Captain Irby, "or, by Jove, they'll be over the hill above
+Brook Street; and then we shall never catch them, amongst all the
+woods and copses up there. They'll escape, to a certainty!"
+
+"I think not, if I know my man," answered Captain Irby, coolly; "and,
+at all events, Mr. Mowle, I must obey my orders.--But there he comes
+over the hill; so that matter's settled. Now let them get out if they
+can.--You have heard of a rat-trap, Mr. Mowle?"
+
+Mowle turned his eyes in the direction of an opposite hill, about
+three-quarters of a mile distant from the spot where he himself stood,
+and there, coming up at a rapid pace, appeared an officer in a plain
+grey cloak, with two or three others in full regimentals, round him,
+while a larger body of cavalry than any he had yet seen, met his eyes,
+following their commander about fifty yards behind, and gradually
+crowning the summit of the rise, where they halted. The smugglers
+could not be at more than half a mile's distance from this party, and
+the moment that it appeared, the troops from the side of High Halden
+and from Cuckoo Point began to advance at a quick trot, while Captain
+Irby descended into the lower ground more slowly, watching, with a
+small glass that he carried in his hand, the motions of all the other
+bodies, when the view was not cut off by the hedge-rows and copses, as
+his position altered. Mowle kept his eyes upon the body of smugglers,
+and upon the dragoons on the opposite hill, and he soon perceived a
+trooper ride down from the latter group to the former, as if bearing
+them some message.
+
+The next instant, there was a flash or two, as if the smugglers had
+fired upon the soldier sent to them; and then, retreating slowly
+towards a large white house, with some gardens and shrubberies and
+various outbuildings around it, they manifested a design of occupying
+the grounds with the intention of there resisting the attack of the
+cavalry. A trooper instantly galloped down, at full speed, towards
+Captain Irby, making him a sign with his hand as he came near; and the
+troop with whom Mowle had advanced instantly received the command to
+charge, while the other, from the hill, came dashing down with
+headlong speed towards the confused multitude below.
+
+The smugglers were too late in their man[oe]uvre. Embarrassed with a
+large quantity of goods and a number of men on foot; they had not time
+to reach the shelter of the garden walls, before the party of dragoons
+from the hill was amongst them. But still they resisted with fierce
+determination, formed with some degree of order, gave the troopers a
+sharp discharge of firearms as they came near, and fought hand to hand
+with them, even after being broken by their charge.
+
+The greater distance which Captain Irby had to advance, prevented his
+troop from reaching the scene of strife for a minute or two after the
+others; but their arrival spread panic and confusion amongst the
+adverse party; and after a brief and unsuccessful struggle, in the
+course of which, one of the dragoons was killed, and a considerable
+number wounded, nothing was thought of amongst young Radford's band,
+but how to escape in the presence of such a force. The goods were
+abandoned--all those men who had horses were seen galloping over the
+country in different directions; and if any fugitive paused, it was
+but to turn and fire a shot at one of the dragoons in pursuit. Almost
+every one of the men on foot was taken ere half an hour was over; and
+a number of those on horseback were caught and brought back, some
+desperately wounded. Several were left dead, or dying, on the spot
+where the first encounter had taken place; and amongst the former,
+Mowle, with feelings of deep regret, almost approaching remorse,
+beheld, as he rode up towards the colonel of the regiment, the body of
+his friend, the Major, shot through the head by a pistol-ball. Men of
+the Custom-House officer's character, however, soon console themselves
+for such things; and Mowle, as he rode on, thought to himself, "After
+all, it's just as well! He would only have been hanged--so he's had an
+easier death."
+
+The young officer in the command of the regiment of dragoons was
+seated on horseback, upon the top of a little knoll, with some six or
+seven persons immediately around him, while two groups of soldiers,
+dismounted, and guarding a number of prisoners, appeared a little in
+advance. Amongst those nearest to the Colonel, Mowle remarked his
+companion, Birchett, who was pointing, with a discharged pistol,
+across the country, and saying, "There he goes, sir, there he goes!
+I'll swear that is he, on the strong grey horse. I fired at him--I'm
+sure I must have hit him."
+
+"No, you didn't, sir," answered a sergeant of dragoons, who was busily
+tying a handkerchief round his own wounded arm. "Your shot went
+through his hat."
+
+The young officer fixed his eyes keenly upon the road leading to
+Harbourne, where a man, on horseback, was seen galloping away, at full
+speed, with four or five of the soldiers in pursuit.
+
+"Away after him, Sergeant Miles," he said; "take straight across the
+country, with six men of Captain Irby's troop. They are fresher. If
+you make haste you will cut him off at the corner of the wood; or if
+he takes the road through it, in order to avoid you, leave a couple of
+men at Tiffenden corner, and round by the path to the left. The
+distance will be shorter for you, and you will stop him at Mrs.
+Clare's cottage--a hundred guineas to any one who brings him in."
+
+His orders were immediately obeyed; and, without noticing Mowle, or
+any one else, the colonel continued to gaze after the little party of
+dragoons, as, dashing on at the utmost speed of their horses, they
+crossed an open part of the ground in front, keeping to the right hand
+of the fugitive, and threatening to cut him off from the north side of
+the country, towards which he was decidedly tending. Whether, if he
+had been able to proceed at the same rate at which he was then going,
+they would have been successful in their efforts or not, is difficult
+to say; for his horse, though tired, was very powerful, and chosen
+expressly for its fleetness. But in a flight and pursuit like that,
+the slightest accident will throw the advantage on the one side or the
+other; and unfortunately for the fugitive, his horse stumbled, and
+came upon its knees. It was up again in a moment, and went on, though
+somewhat more slowly; and the young officer observed, in a low tone,
+"They will have him.--It is of the utmost importance that he should be
+taken.--Ah! Mr. Mowle, is that you? Why, we have given you up for
+these many hours. We have been successful, you see; and yet, but half
+successful either, if their leader gets away.--You are sure of the
+person, Mr. Birchett?"
+
+"Perfectly, sir," answered the officer of Customs. "I was as near to
+him, at one time, as I am now to you; and Mr. Mowle here, too, will
+tell you I know him well."
+
+"Who,--young Radford?" asked Mowle. "Oh yes, that we all do; and
+besides, I can tell you, that is he on the grey horse, for I was along
+with him the greater part of last night." And Mowle proceeded to
+relate succinctly all that had occurred to him from ten o'clock on the
+preceding evening.
+
+The young officer, in the meanwhile, continued to follow the soldiers
+with his eyes, commenting, by a brief word or two, on the various
+turns taken by the pursuit.
+
+"He is cut off," he said, in a tone of satisfaction; "the troops, from
+Halden, will stop him there.--He is turning to the left, as if he
+would make for Tenterden.--Captain Irby, be so good as to detach a
+corporal, with as many men as you can spare, to cut him off by Gallows
+Green--on the left-hand road, there. Bid them use all speed. Now he's
+for Harbourne again! He'll try to get through the wood; but Miles will
+be before him."
+
+He then applied himself to examine the state of his own men and the
+prisoners, and paid every humane attention to both, doing the best
+that he could for their wounds, in the absence of surgical assistance,
+and ordering carts to be procured from the neighbouring farms, to
+carry those most severely injured into the village of Woodchurch. The
+smuggled goods he consigned to the charge of the Custom-House
+officers, giving them, however, a strong escort, at their express
+desire; although, he justly observed, that there was but little chance
+of any attempt being made by the smugglers to recover what they had
+lost.
+
+"I shall now, Mr. Mowle," he continued, "proceed to Woodchurch, and
+remain there for a time, to see what other prisoners are brought in,
+and make any farther arrangements that may be necessary; but I shall
+be in Hythe, in all probability, before night. The custody of the
+prisoners I shall take upon myself for the present, as the civil power
+is evidently not capable of guarding them."
+
+"Well, sir, you have made a glorious day's work of it," answered
+Mowle, "that I must say; and I'm sure if you like to establish your
+quarters, for the morning, at Mr. Croyland's there, on just before, he
+will make you heartily welcome; for he hates smugglers as much as any
+one."
+
+The young officer shook his head, saying, "No, I will go to
+Woodchurch."
+
+But he gazed earnestly at the house for several minutes, before he
+turned his horse towards the village; and then, leaving the minor
+arrangements to be made by the inferior officers, he rode slowly and
+silently away.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+We must turn, dear reader, to other persons and to other scenes, but
+still keep to that eventful day when the smugglers, who had almost
+fancied themselves lords of Kent, first met severe discomfiture at the
+hands of those sent to suppress their illicit traffic. Many small
+parties had before been defeated, it is true; many a cargo of great
+value, insufficiently protected, had been seized. Such, indeed, had
+been the case with the preceding venture of Richard Radford; and such
+had been, several times, the result of overweening confidence; but the
+free-traders of Kent had still, more frequently, been successful in
+their resistance of the law; and they had never dreamed that in great
+numbers, and with every precaution and care to boot, they could be
+hemmed in and overpowered, in a country with every step of which they
+were well acquainted. They had now, however, been defeated, as I have
+said, for the first time, in a complete and conclusive manner, after
+every precaution had been taken, and when every opportunity had been
+afforded them of trying their strength with the dragoons, as they had
+often boastfully expressed a wish to do.
+
+But we must now leave them, and turn to the interior of the house near
+which the strife took place. Nay, more, we must enter a fair lady's
+chamber, and watch her as she lies, during the night of which we have
+already given so many scenes, looking for awhile into her waking
+thoughts and slumbering dreams; for that night passed in a strange
+mingling of sleepless fancies and of drowsy visions.
+
+Far from me to encourage weak and morbid sensibilities, or to
+represent life as a dream of sickly feelings, or a stage for the
+action of ill-regulated passions;--it is a place of duty and of
+action, of obedience to the rule of the one great guide, of endeavour,
+and, alas, of trial!--But still human beings are not mere machines:
+there is still something within this frame-work of dust and ashes,
+besides, and very different from, the bones and muscles, the veins and
+nerves, of which it is composed; and Heaven forbid that it should not
+be so! There are still loves and affections, sympathies and regards,
+associations and memories, and all the linked sweetness of that
+strange harmonious whole, where the spirit and the matter, the soul
+and the body, blended in mysterious union, act on each other, and
+reciprocate, by every sense and every perception, new sources of pain
+or of delight. The forms and conventionalities of society, the habits
+of the age in which we live, the force of education, habit, example,
+may, in very many cases, check the outward show of feeling, and in
+some, perhaps, wear down to nothing the reality. But still how many a
+bitter heart-ache lies concealed beneath the polished brow and smiling
+lip; how many a bright aspiration, how many a tender hope, how many a
+passionate throb, hides itself from the eyes of others--from the
+foreigners of the heart--under an aspect of gay merriment or of cold
+indifference. The silver services of the world are all, believe me,
+but of plated goods, and the brightest ornaments that deck the table
+or adorn the saloon but of silver-gilt.
+
+Could we--as angels may be supposed to do--stand by the bed-side of
+many a fair girl who has been laughing through an evening of apparent
+merriment, and look through the fair bosom into the heart beneath, see
+all the feelings that thrill therein, or trace even the visions that
+chequer slumber, what should we behold? Alas! how strange a contrast
+to the beaming looks and gladsome smiles which have marked the course
+of the day. How often would be seen the bitter repining; the weary
+sickness of the heart; the calm, stern grief; the desolation; the
+despair--forming a black and gloomy background to the bright seeming
+of the hours of light. How often, in the dream, should we behold "the
+lost, the loved, the dead, too many, yet how few," rise up before
+memory in those moments, when not only the shackles and the handcuffs
+of the mind, imposed by the tyrant uses of society, are cast off, but
+also when the softer bands are loosened, which the waking spirit
+places upon unavailing regrets and aspirations all in vain--in those
+hours, when memory, and imagination, and feeling are awake, and when
+judgment, and reason, and resolution are all buried in slumber. Can it
+be well for us thus to check the expression of all the deeper feelings
+of the heart--to shut out all external sympathies--to lock within the
+prison of the heart its brightest treasures like the miser's gold, and
+only to give up to them the hours of solitude and of slumber?--I know
+not; and the question, perhaps, is a difficult one to solve: but such,
+however, are the general rules of society; and to its rules we are
+slaves and bondsmen.
+
+It was to her own chamber that Edith Croyland usually carried her
+griefs and memories; and even in the house of her uncle, though she
+was aware how deeply he loved her, she could not, or she would not,
+venture to speak of her sensations as they really arose.
+
+On the eventful day of young Radford's quarrel with Sir Edward Digby,
+Edith retired at the sober hour at which the whole household of Mr.
+Croyland usually sought repose; but there, for a considerable time,
+she meditated as she had often meditated before, on the brief
+intelligence she had received on the preceding day. "He is living,"
+she said to herself: "he is in England, and yet he seeks me not! But
+my sister says he loves me still!--It is strange, it is very strange.
+He must have greatly changed. So eager, so impetuous as he used to be,
+to become timid, cautious, reserved,--never to write, never to
+send.--And yet why should I blame him? What has he not met with from
+mine, if not from me? What has his love brought upon himself and his?
+The ruin of his father--a parent's suffering and death--the
+destruction of his own best prospects--a life of toil and danger, and
+expulsion from the scenes in which his bright and early days were
+spent!--Why should I wonder that he does not come back to a spot where
+every object must be hateful to him?--why should I wonder that he does
+not seek me, whose image can never be separated from all that is
+painful and distressing to him in memory? Poor Henry! Oh, that I could
+cheer him, and wipe away the dark and gloomy recollections of the
+past."
+
+Such were some of her thoughts ere she lay down to rest; and they
+pursued her still, long after she had sought her pillow, keeping her
+waking for some hours. At length, not long before daybreak, sleep took
+possession of her brain; but it was not untroubled sleep. Wild and
+whirling images for some time supplied the place of thought; but they
+were all vague, and confused, and undefined for a considerable length
+of time after sleep had closed her eyes, and she forgot them as soon
+as she awoke. But at length a vision of more tangible form presented
+itself, which remained impressed upon her memory. In it, the events of
+the day mingled with those both of the former and the latter years,
+undoubtedly in strange and disorderly shape, but still bearing a
+sufficient resemblance to reality to show whence they were derived.
+The form of young Radford, bleeding and wounded, seemed before her
+eyes; and with one hand clasped tightly round her wrist, he seemed to
+drag her down into a grave prepared for himself. Then she saw Sir
+Edward Digby with a naked sword in his hand, striving in vain to cut
+off the arm that held her, the keen blade passing through and through
+the limb of the phantom without dissevering it from the body, or
+relaxing its hold upon herself. Then the figure of her father stood
+before her, clad in a long mourning cloak, and she heard his voice
+crying, in a dark and solemn tone, "Down, down, both of you, to the
+grave that you have dug for me!" The next instant the scene was
+crowded with figures, both on horseback and on foot. Many a
+countenance which she had seen and known at different times was
+amongst them; and all seemed urging her on down into the gulf before
+her; till suddenly appeared, at the head of a bright and glittering
+troop, he whom she had so long and deeply loved, as if advancing at
+full speed to her rescue. She called loudly to him; she stretched out
+her hand towards him, and onward he came through the throng till he
+nearly reached her. Then in an instant her father interposed again and
+pushed him back. All became a scene of disarray and confusion, as if a
+general battle had been taking place around her. Swords were drawn,
+shots were fired, wounds were given and received; there were cries of
+agony and loud words of command, till at length, in the midst, her
+lover reached her; his arms were cast round her; she was pressed to
+his bosom; and with a start, and mingled feelings of joy and terror,
+Edith's dream came to an end.
+
+Daylight was pouring into her room through the tall window; but yet
+she could hardly persuade herself that she was not dreaming still; for
+many of the sounds which had transmitted such strange impressions to
+her mind, still rang in her ears. She heard shots and galloping horse,
+and the loud word of command; and after pausing for an instant or two,
+she sprang up, cast something over her, and ran to the window.
+
+It was a bright and beautiful morning; and the room which she occupied
+looked over Mr. Croyland's garden wall to the country beyond. But
+underneath that garden wall was presented a scene, such as Edith had
+never before witnessed. Before her eyes, mingled in strange confusion
+with a group of men who, from their appearance, she judged to be
+smugglers, were a number of the royal dragoons; and, though pistols
+were discharged on both sides, and even long guns on the part of the
+smugglers, the use of fire-arms was too limited to produce sufficient
+smoke to obscure the view. Swords were out, and used vehemently; and
+on running her eye over the mass before her, she saw a figure that
+strongly brought back her thoughts to former days. Directing the
+operations of the troops, seldom using the sword which he carried in
+his own hand, yet mingling in the thickest of the fray, appeared a
+tall and powerful young man, mounted on a splendid charger, but only
+covered with a plain grey cloak.
+
+The features she could scarcely discern; but there was something in
+the form and in the bearing, that made Edith's heart beat vehemently,
+and caused her to raise her voice to Heaven in murmured prayer. The
+shots were flying thick: one of them struck the sun-dial in the
+garden, and knocked a fragment off; but still she could not withdraw
+herself from the window; and with eager and anxious eyes she continued
+to watch the fight, till another body of dragoons swept up, and the
+smugglers, apparently struck with panic, abandoned resistance, and
+were soon seen flying in every direction over the ground.
+
+One man, mounted on a strong grey horse, passed close beneath the
+garden wall; and in him Edith instantly recognised young Richard
+Radford. That sight made her draw back again for a moment from the
+window, lest he should recognise her; but the next instant she looked
+out again, and then beheld the officer whom she had seen commanding
+the dragoons, stretching out his hand and arm in the direction which
+the fugitive had taken, as if giving orders for his pursuit. She
+watched him with feelings indescribable, and saw him more than once
+turn his eyes towards the house where she was, and gaze on it long and
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Can he know whose dwelling this is?" she asked herself; "can he know
+who is in it, and yet ride away?" But so it was. After he had remained
+on the ground for about half an hour, she saw him depart, turning his
+horse's head slowly towards Woodchurch; and Edith withdrew from the
+window, and wept.
+
+Her eyes were dry, however, and her manner calm, when she went down to
+breakfast; and she heard unmoved, from her uncle, the details of the
+skirmish which had taken place between the smugglers and the military.
+
+"This must be a tremendous blow to them," said Mr. Croyland; "the
+goods are reported to be of immense value, and the whole of them are
+stated to have been run by that old infernal villain, Radford. I am
+glad that this has happened, trebly--_felix ter et amplius_, my dear
+Edith; first, that a trade which enriches scoundrels to the detriment
+of the fair and lawful merchant, has received nearly its death-blow;
+secondly, that these audacious vagabonds, who fancied they had all the
+world at their command, and that they could do as they pleased in
+Kent, have been taught how impotent they are against a powerful hand
+and a clear head; and, thirdly, that the most audacious vagabond of
+them all, who has amassed a large fortune by defiance of the law, and
+by a system which embodies cheatery with robbery--I mean robbery of
+the revenue with cheatery of the lawful merchant--has been the person
+to suffer. I have heard a great deal of forcing nations to abate their
+Customs dues, by smuggling in despite of them; but depend upon it,
+whoever advocates such a system is--I will not say, either a rogue or
+a fool, as some rash and intemperate persons might say--but a man with
+very queer notions of morals, my dear. I dare say, the fellows firing
+awoke you, my love. You look pale, as if you had been disturbed."
+
+Edith replied, simply, that she had been roused by the noise, but did
+not enter into any particulars, though she saw, or fancied she saw, an
+inquiring look upon her uncle's face as he spoke.
+
+During the morning many were the reports and anecdotes brought in by
+the servants, regarding the encounter, which had taken place so close
+to the house; and all agreed that never had so terrible a disaster
+befallen the smugglers. Their bands were quite broken up, it was said,
+their principal leaders taken or killed, and the amount of the
+smuggled goods which--with the usual exaggeration of rumour--was
+raised to three or four hundred thousand pounds, was universally
+reported to be the loss of Mr. Radford. His son had been seen by many
+in command of the party of contraband traders; and it was clear that
+he had fled to conceal himself, in fear of the very serious
+consequences which were likely to ensue.
+
+Mr. Croyland rubbed his hands: "I will mark this day in the calendar
+with a white stone!" he said. "Seldom, my dear Edith, very seldom, do
+so many fortunate circumstances happen together; a party of atrocious
+vagabonds discomfited and punished as they deserve; the most audacious
+rogue of the whole stripped of his ill-gotten wealth; and a young
+ruffian, who has long bullied and abused the whole county, driven from
+that society in which he never had any business. This young officer,
+this Captain Osborn, must be a very clever, as well as a very gallant
+fellow."
+
+"Captain Osborn!" murmured Edith; "were they commanded by Captain
+Osborn?"
+
+"Yes, my dear," answered the old gentleman; "I saw him myself over the
+garden wall. I know him, my love; I have been introduced to him.
+Didn't you hear me say, he is coming to spend a few days with me?"
+
+Edith made no reply; but somewhat to her surprise, she heard her
+uncle, shortly after, order his carriage to be at the door at
+half-past twelve. He gave his fair niece no invitation to accompany
+him; and Edith prepared to amuse herself during his absence as
+best she might. She calculated, indeed, upon that which, to a
+well-regulated mind, is almost always either a relief or a pleasure,
+though too often a sad one: the spending of an hour or two in solitary
+thought. But all human calculations are vain; and so were those of
+poor Edith Croyland. For the present, however, we must leave her to
+her fate, and follow her good uncle, Zachary, on his expedition to
+Woodchurch, whither, as doubtless the reader has anticipated, his
+steps, or rather those of his coach horses, were turned, just as the
+hands of the clock in the vestibule pointed to a quarter to one.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+During the whole forenoon of the 3rd of September, the little village
+of Woodchurch presented a busy and bustling, though, in truth, it
+could not be called a gay scene. The smart dresses of the dragoons,
+the number of men and horses, the soldiers riding quickly along the
+road from time to time, the occasional sound of the trumpet, the
+groups of villagers and gaping children, all had an animating effect;
+but there was, mingled with the other sights which the place
+presented, quite a sufficient portion of human misery, in various
+forms, to sadden any but a very unfeeling heart. For some time after
+the affray was over, every ten minutes, was seen to roll in one of the
+small, narrow carts of the country, half filled with straw, and
+bearing a wounded man, or at most, two. In the same manner, several
+corpses, also, were carried in; and the number of at least fifty
+prisoners, in separate detachments, with hanging hands and pinioned
+arms, were marched slowly through the street to the houses which had
+been marked out as affording the greatest security.
+
+The good people of Woodchurch laughed and talked freely with the
+dragoons, made many inquiries concerning the events of the skirmish,
+and gave every assistance to the wounded soldiers; but it was remarked
+with surprise, by several of the officers, that they showed no great
+sympathy with the smugglers, either prisoners or wounded--gazed upon
+the parties who were brought in with an unfriendly air, and turning
+round to each other, commented, in low tones, with very little
+appearance of compassion.
+
+"Ay, that's one of the Ramleys' gang," said the stout blacksmith of
+the place, to his friend and neighbour, the wheelwright, as some ten
+or twelve men passed before them with their wrists tied.
+
+"And that fellow in the smart green coat is another," rejoined the
+wheelwright; "he's the man who, I dare say, ham-stringed my mare,
+because I wouldn't let them have her for the last run."
+
+"That's Tom Angel," observed the blacksmith; "he's to be married to
+Jinny Ramley, they say."
+
+"He'll be married to a halter first, I've a notion," answered the
+wheelwright, "and then instead of an angel he'll make a devil! He's
+one of the worst of them, bad as they all are. A pretty gaol delivery
+we shall have at the next 'Sizes!"
+
+"A good county delivery, too," replied the blacksmith; "as men have
+been killed, it's felony, that's clear: so hemp will be dear, Mr.
+Slatterly."
+
+By the above conversation the feelings of the people of Woodchurch
+towards the smugglers, at that particular time, may be easily divined;
+but the reader must not suppose that they were influenced alone by the
+very common tendency of men's nature to side with the winning party;
+for such was not altogether the case, though, perhaps, they would not
+have ventured to show their dislike to the smugglers so strongly, had
+they been more successful. As long as the worthy gentlemen, who had
+now met with so severe a reverse, had contented themselves with merely
+running contraband articles--even as long as they had done nothing
+more than take a man's horse for their own purposes, without his
+leave, or use his premises, whether he liked it or not, as a place of
+concealment for their smuggled goods, they were not only indifferent,
+but even friendly; for man has always a sufficient portion of the
+adventurer at his heart to have a fellow feeling for all his brethren
+engaged in rash and perilous enterprises. But the smugglers had grown
+insolent and domineering from long success; they had not only felt
+themselves lords of the county, but had made others feel it often in
+an insulting, and often in a cruel and brutal manner. Crimes of a very
+serious character had been lately committed by the Ramleys and others,
+which, though not traced home by sufficient evidence to satisfy the
+law, were fixed upon them by the general voice of the people; and the
+threats of terrible vengeance which they sometimes uttered against all
+who opposed them, and the boastful tone in which they indulged, when
+speaking of their most criminal exploits, probably gained them credit
+for much more wickedness than they really committed.
+
+Thus their credit with the country people was certainly on the decline
+when they met with the disaster which has been lately recorded; and
+their defeat and dispersion was held by the inhabitants of Woodchurch
+as an augury of better times, when their women would be able to pass
+from village to village, even after dusk, in safety and free from
+insult, and their cattle might be left out in the fields all night,
+without being injured, either by wantonness, or in lawless uses. It
+will be understood, that in thus speaking, I allude alone to the land
+smugglers, a race altogether different from their fellow labourers of
+the sea, whom the people looked upon with a much more favourable eye,
+and who, though rash and daring men enough, were generally a good
+humoured free-hearted body, spending the money that they had gained at
+the peril of their lives or their freedom, with a liberal hand and in
+a kindly spirit.
+
+Almost every inhabitant of Woodchurch had some cause of complaint
+against the Ramleys' gang; and, to say the truth, Mr. Radford himself
+was by no means popular in the county. A selfish and a cunning man is
+almost always speedily found out by the lower classes, even when he
+makes an effort to conceal it. But Mr. Radford took no such trouble;
+for he gloried in his acuteness; and if he had chosen a motto, it
+probably would have been "Every man for himself." His selfishness,
+too, took several of the most offensive forms. He was ostentatious; he
+was haughty; and, on the strength of riches acquired, every one knew
+how, he looked upon himself as a very great man, and treated all the
+inferior classes, except those of whom he had need, to use their own
+expression, "as dirt under his feet." All the villagers, therefore,
+were well satisfied to think that he had met with a check at last; and
+many of the good folks of Woodchurch speculated upon the probability
+of two or three, out of so great a number of prisoners, giving such
+evidence as would bring that worthy gentleman within the gripe of the
+law.
+
+Such were the feelings of the people of that place, as well as those
+of many a neighbouring village; and the scene presented by the captive
+and wounded smugglers, as they were led along, was viewed with
+indifference by some, and with pleasure by others. Two or three of the
+women, indeed, bestowed kindly attention upon the wounded men, moved
+by that beautiful compassion which is rarely if ever wanting, in a
+female heart; but the male part of the population took little share,
+if any, in such things, and were quite willing to aid the soldiers in
+securing the prisoners, till they could be marched off to prison.
+
+The first excitement had subsided before noon, but still, from time to
+time, some little bustle took place--a prisoner was caught and brought
+in, and carried to the public house where the colonel had established
+himself--an orderly galloped through the street--messengers came and
+went; and four or five soldiers, with their horses ready saddled,
+remained before the door of the inn, ready, at a moment's notice, for
+any event. The commanding officer did not appear at all beyond the
+doors of his temporary abode; but continued writing, giving orders,
+examining the prisoners, and those who brought them, in the same room
+which he had entered when first he arrived. As few of the people of
+the place had seen him, a good deal of curiosity was excited by his
+quietness and reserve. It was whispered amongst the women, that he was
+the handsomest man ever seen; and the men said he was a very fine
+fellow, and ought to be made a general of. The barmaid communicated to
+her intimate friends, that when he took off his cloak, she had seen a
+star upon the breast of his coat; and that her master seemed to know
+more of him, if he liked to tell; but the landlord was as silent as a
+mouse.
+
+These circumstances, however, kept up a little crowd before the
+entrance of the inn, consisting of persons anxious to behold the hero
+of the day; and just at the hour of two, the carriage of Mr. Croyland
+rolled in, through the people, at the usual slow and deliberate pace
+to which that gentleman accustomed his carriage horses.
+
+The large heavy door of the large heavy vehicle, was opened by the two
+servants who accompanied it; and out stepped Mr. Croyland, with his
+back as straight and stiff as a poker, and his gold-headed cane in his
+hand. The landlord, at the sight of an equipage, which he well knew,
+came out in haste, bowing low, and welcoming Mr. Croyland in the
+hearty good old style. The nabob himself unbent a little to his friend
+of the inn, and after asking him how he did, and bestowing a word or
+two on the state of the weather, proceeded to say, "And now, Miles, I
+wish to speak a word or two with Captain Osborn, who is in your house,
+I believe."
+
+"No, Mr. Croyland," replied the landlord, looking at the visitor with
+some surprise, "the captain is not here. He is down at Nelly South's,
+and his name's not Osborn, either, but Irby."
+
+"Then, who the deuce have you got here, with all these soldiers about
+the door?" demanded Mr. Croyland.
+
+"The colonel of the regiment, sir," answered Miles; "there has only
+been one captain here all day; and that's Captain Irby."
+
+"Not right of the lad--not right of the lad!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland,
+rather testily; "no one should keep a man waiting, especially an old
+man, and more especially still, a cross old man. But I'll come in and
+stop a bit; for I want to see the young gentleman. Where the devil did
+he go to, I wonder, after the skirmish?--Halloo, you sir, corporal!
+Pray, sir, what's your officer's name?"
+
+The man put up his hand in military fashion, and, with a strong
+Hibernian accent, demanded, "Is it the colonel you're inquiring about,
+sir? Why, then, his name is Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton,
+Knight of the Bath--and mighty cold weather it was, too, when he got
+the Bath; so I didn't envy him his ducking."
+
+"Oh ho!" said Mr. Croyland, putting his finger sagaciously to the side
+of his nose; "be so good as to send up that card to Lieutenant-Colonel
+Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath, and tell him that the gentleman
+whose appellation it bears is here, inquiring for one Captain Osborn
+whom he once saw."
+
+The corporal took the card himself to the top of the stairs, and
+delivered the message, with as much precision as his intellect could
+muster, to some person who seemed to be waiting on the outside of a
+door above. "Why, you fool!" cried a voice, immediately, "I told you,
+if Mr. Croyland came, to show him up. Sir Henry will see him." And
+immediately a servant, in plain clothes, descended to perform his
+function himself.
+
+"Very grand!" murmured Mr. Croyland, as he followed.
+
+The door above was immediately thrown open, and his name announced;
+but, walking slowly, he had not entered the room before the young
+officer, who has more than once been before the reader's eyes, was
+half across the floor to meet him. He was now dressed in full uniform;
+and certainly a finer or more commanding-looking man had seldom, if
+ever, met Mr. Croyland's view. Advancing with a frank and pleasant
+smile, he led him to the arm-chair which he had just occupied--it was
+the only one in the room--and, after thanking him for his visit,
+turned to the servant, and bade him shut the door.
+
+"I am in some surprise, and in some doubt, Sir Henry," said Mr.
+Croyland, with his sharp eyes twinkling a little. "I came here to see
+one Captain Osborn; and I find a gentleman very like him, in truth,
+but certainly a much smarter looking person, whom I am told is
+Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath, &c. &c. &c.;
+and yet he seems to look upon old Zachary Croyland as a friend, too."
+
+"He does, from his heart, I can assure you, Mr. Croyland," replied the
+young officer; "and I trust you will ever permit him to do so. But if
+it becomes us to deceive no man, it becomes us still more not to
+deceive a friend; and on that account it was I asked your presence
+here, to explain to you one or two circumstances which I thought it
+but just you should know, before I ventured to present myself at your
+house."
+
+"Pray speak, Sir Henry," replied Mr. Croyland--"I am all ears."
+
+The young officer paused for a moment, and a shadow came over his
+brow, as if something painful passed through his mind; but then, with
+a slight motion of his hand, as if he would have waved away unpleasant
+thoughts, he said, "I must first tell you, my dear sir, that I am the
+son of the Reverend Henry Leyton, whom you once knew, and the nephew
+of that Charles Osborn, with whom you were also intimately
+acquainted."
+
+"The dearest friend I ever had in the world," replied Mr. Croyland,
+blowing his nose violently.
+
+"Then I trust you will extend the same friendship to his nephew," said
+the colonel.
+
+"I don't know--I don't know," answered Mr. Croyland; "that must depend
+upon circumstances. I'm a very crabbed, tiresome old fellow, Sir
+Henry; and my friendships are not very sudden ones. But I have patted
+your head many a time when you were a child, and that's something.
+Then you are very like your father, and a little like your uncle,
+that's something more: so we may get on, I think. But what have you
+got to say more? and what in the name of fortune made you call
+yourself Captain Osborn, to an old friend of your family like myself?"
+
+"I did not do so, if you recollect," replied the young officer. "It
+was my friend Digby who gave me that name; and you must pardon me, if,
+on many accounts, I yielded to the trick; for I was coming down here
+on a difficult service--one that I am not accustomed to, and do not
+like; and I was very desirous of seeing a little of the country, and
+of learning something of the habits of the persons with whom I had to
+deal, before I was called upon to act."
+
+"And devilish well you did act when you set about it," cried Mr.
+Croyland. "I watched you this morning over the wall, and wondered a
+little that you did not come on to my house at once."
+
+"It is upon that subject that I must now speak," said Sir Henry
+Leyton, taking a grave tone, "and I must touch upon many painful
+subjects in the past. Just when I was about to write to you, Mr.
+Croyland, to say that I would come, in accordance with your kind
+invitation, I learned that your niece, Miss Croyland, is staying at
+your house. Now, I know not whether you have been informed, that long
+ago----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know all about that," answered Mr. Croyland, quickly.
+"There was a great deal of love and courting, and all that sort of boy
+and girl's stuff."
+
+"It must be man and woman's stuff now, Mr. Croyland," replied the
+young officer, "for I must tell you fairly and at once, I love her as
+deeply, as truly as ever. Years have made no difference; other scenes
+have made no change. The same as I went, in every thought and feeling,
+I have returned; and I can never think of her without emotion, which I
+can never speak to her without expressing."
+
+"Indeed--indeed!" said Mr. Croyland, apparently in some surprise.
+"That does make some difference."
+
+"That is what I feared," continued Sir Henry Leyton. "Your brother
+disapproved of our engagement. In consequence of it, he behaved to my
+father in a way--on which I will not dwell. You would not have behaved
+in such a way, I know; and although I should think any means
+justifiable, to see your niece when in her father's mansion, to tell
+her how deeply I love her still, and to ask her to sacrifice fortune
+and everything to share a soldier's fate, yet I did not think it would
+be right or honourable, to come into the house of a friend under a
+feigned name, and seek his niece--for seek her I should wherever I
+found her--when he might share the same views as his brother, or at
+all events think himself bound to support them. In short, Mr.
+Croyland, I knew that when you were aware of my real name and of my
+real feelings, it would make a difference, and a great one."
+
+"Not the difference you think, Harry," replied the old gentleman,
+holding out his hand to him; "but quite the reverse.--I'll tell you
+what, young man, I think you a devilish fine, high-spirited,
+honourable fellow, and the only one I ever saw whom I should like to
+marry my Edith. So don't say a word more about it. Come and dine with
+me to-day, as soon as you've got all this job over. You shall see her;
+you shall talk to her; you shall make all your arrangements together;
+and if there's a post-chaise in the country, I'll put you in and shut
+the door with my own hands. My brother is an old fool, and worse than
+an old fool, too--something very like an old rogue--at least, so he
+behaved to your father, and not much better to his own child; but I
+don't care a straw about him, and never did; and I never intend to
+humour one of his whims."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton pressed the old gentleman's hand in his, with much
+emotion; for the prospect seemed brightening to him, and the dark
+clouds which had so long overshadowed his course appeared to be
+breaking away. He had been hitherto like a traveller on a strong and
+spirited horse, steadfastly pursuing his course, and making his way
+onward, with vigour and determination, but with a dark and threatening
+sky over head, and not even a gleam of hope to lead him on.
+Distinction, honours, competence, command, he had obtained by his own
+talents and his own energies; he was looked up to by those below him,
+by his equals, even by many of his superiors. The eyes of all who knew
+him turned towards him as to one who was destined to be a leading man
+in his day. Everything seemed fair and smiling around him, and no eye
+could see the cloud that overshadowed him but his own. But what to him
+were honours, or wealth, or the world's applause, if the love of his
+early years were to remain blighted for ever? and in the tented field,
+the city, or the court, the shadow had still remained upon his heart's
+best feelings, not checking his energies, but saddening all his
+enjoyments. How often is it in the world, that we thus see the bright,
+the admired, the powerful, the prosperous, with the grave hue of
+painful thoughts upon the brow, the never unmingled smile, the lapses
+of gloomy meditation, and ask ourselves, "What is the secret sorrow in
+the midst of all this success? what is the fountain of darkness that
+turns the stream of sunshine grey? what the canker-worm that preys
+upon so bright a flower?" Deep, deep in the recesses of the heart, it
+lies gnawing in silence; but never ceasing, and never satisfied. Now,
+however, there was a light in the heavens for him; and whether it was
+as one of those rays that sometimes break through a storm, and then
+pass away, no more to be seen till the day dies in darkness; or
+whether it was the first glad harbinger of a serene evening after a
+stormy morning, the conclusion of this tale must show.
+
+"I'll tell you something, my dear boy," continued Mr. Croyland,
+forgetting that he was speaking to the colonel of a dragoon regiment,
+and going back at a leap to early days. "Your father was my old
+school-fellow and dear companion; your uncle was the best friend I
+ever had, and the founder of my fortune; for to his interest I owe my
+first appointment to India--ay, and to his generosity the greater part
+of my outfit and my passage. To them I am indebted for everything, to
+my brother for nothing; and I look upon you as a relation much more
+than upon him; so I have no very affectionate motives for
+countenancing or assisting him in doing what is not right. I'll tell
+you something more, too, Harry; I was sure that you would do what is
+honourable and right--not because you have got a good name in the
+world; for I am always doubtful of the world's good names, and,
+besides, I never heard the name of Sir Harry Leyton till this blessed
+day--but because you were the son of one honest man and the nephew of
+another, and a good wild frank boy too. So I was quite sure you would
+not come to my house under a false name, when my niece was in it,
+without, at all events, letting me into the secret; and you have
+justified my confidence, young man."
+
+"I would not have done such a thing for the world," replied the young
+officer; "but may I ask, then, my dear Mr. Croyland, if you recognised
+me in the stage coach? for it must be eighteen or nineteen years since
+you saw me."
+
+"Don't call me Mr. Croyland," said the old gentleman, abruptly; "call
+me Zachary, or Nabob, or Misanthrope, or Bear, or anything but that.
+As to your question, I say, no. I did not recognise you the least in
+the world. I saw in your face something like the faces of old friends,
+and I liked it on that account. But as for the rest of the matter,
+there's a little secret, my boy--a little bit of a puzzle. By one way
+or another--it matters not what--I had found out that Captain Osborn
+was my old friend Leyton's son; but till I came here to-day, I had no
+notion that he was colonel of the regiment, and a Knight of the Bath,
+to boot, as your corporal fellow took care to inform me. I thought you
+had been going under a false name, perhaps, all this time, and fancied
+I should find Captain Osborn quite well known in the regiment. I had a
+shrewd notion, too, that you had sent for me to tell the secret; but I
+was determined to let you explain yourself without helping you at all;
+for I'm a great deal fonder of men's actions than their words, Harry."
+
+"Is it fair to ask, who told you who I was?" asked Sir Henry Leyton.
+"My friend Digby has some----"
+
+"No, no," cried Mr. Croyland; "it wasn't that good, rash, rattle-pate,
+coxcomb of a fellow, who is only fit to be caged with little Zara; and
+then they may live together very well, like two monkeys in a show-box.
+No, he had nothing to do with it, though he has been busy enough since
+he came here, shooting partridges, and fighting young Radfords, and
+all that sort of thing."
+
+"Fighting young Radfords!" exclaimed Sir Henry Leyton, suddenly
+grasping the sheath of his sword with his right hand. "He should not
+have done that--at least, without letting me know."
+
+"Why, he knew nothing about it himself," replied Mr. Croyland, "till
+the minute it took place. The young vagabond followed him to my house;
+so I civilly told my brother's pet that I didn't want to see him; and
+he walked away with your friend Digby just across the lawn in front of
+the house, when, after a few minutes of pleasant conversation, the
+baronet applies me a horsewhip, with considerable unction and
+perseverance, to the shoulders of Richard Radford, Esquire, junior;
+upon which out come the pinking-irons, and in the course of the
+scuffle, Sir Edward receives a little hole in the shoulder, and Mr.
+Radford is disarmed and brought upon his knee, with a very unpleasant
+and ungentleman-like bump upon his forehead, bestowed, with hearty
+good-will, by the hilt of Master Digby's sword. Well, when he had got
+him there, instead of quietly poking a hole through him, as any man of
+common sense would have done, your friend lets him get up again, and
+ride away, just as a man might be supposed to pinch a Cobra that had
+bit him, by the tail, and then say, 'Walk off, my friend.' However, so
+stands the matter; and young Radford rode away, vowing all sorts of
+vengeance. He'll have it, too, if he can get it; for he's as spiteful
+as a baboon; so I hope you've caught him, as he was with these
+smuggling vagabonds, that's certain."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton shook his head. "He has escaped, I am sorry to say,"
+he replied. "How, I cannot divine; for I took means to catch him that
+I thought were infallible. All the roads through Harbourne Wood were
+guarded, but yet in that wood, all trace of him was lost. He left his
+horse in the midst of it, and must have escaped by some of the
+by-paths."
+
+"He's concealed in my brother's house, for a hundred guineas!" cried
+Mr. Croyland. "Robert's bewitched, to a certainty; for nothing else
+but witchcraft could make a man take an owl for a cock pheasant. Oh
+yes! there he is, snug in Harbourne House, depend upon it, feeding
+upon venison and turbot, and with a magnum of claret and two bottles
+of port to keep him comfortable--a drunken, beastly, vicious brute! A
+cross between a wolf and a swine, and not without a touch of the fox
+either--though the first figure is the best; for his father was the
+wolf, and his mother the sow, if all tales be true."
+
+"He cannot be in Harbourne House, I should think," replied the
+colonel, "for my dragoons searched it, it seems, violating the laws a
+little, for they had no competent authority with them; and besides he
+would not have put himself within Digby's reach, I imagine."
+
+"Then he's up in a tree, roosting in the day, like a bird of prey,"
+rejoined Mr. Croyland, in his quick way. "It's very unlucky he has
+escaped--very unlucky indeed."
+
+"At all events," answered the young officer, "thus much have we
+gained, my dear friend: he dare not shew himself in this county for
+years. He was seen, by competent witnesses, at the head of these
+smugglers, taking an active part with them in resistance to lawful
+authority. Blood has been shed, lives have been sacrificed, and a
+felony has been committed; so that if he is wise, and can manage it,
+he will get out of England. If he fail of escaping, or venture to show
+himself, he will grace the gallows, depend upon it."
+
+"Heaven be praised!" cried Mr. Croyland. "Give me the first tidings,
+when it is to happen, Harry, that I may order four horses, and hire a
+window. I would not have him hanged without my seeing it for a hundred
+pounds."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton smiled faintly, saying, "Those are sad sights, my
+dear sir, and we have too many of them in this county; but you have
+not told me, from whom you received intimation that Captain Osborn and
+Henry Osborn Leyton were the same person."
+
+"That's a secret--that's a secret, Hal," answered Mr. Croyland. "So
+now tell me when you'll come.--You'll be over to-night. I suppose, or
+have time and wisdom tamed the eagerness of love?"
+
+"Oh no, my dear sir," answered Leyton; "but I have still some business
+to settle here, and have promised to be in Hythe to-night. Before I
+go, however, I will ride over for an hour or two, for, till I have
+seen that dear girl again, and have heard her feelings and her wishes
+from her own lips, my thoughts will be all in confusion. I shall be
+calmer and more reasonable afterwards."
+
+"Much need!" answered Mr. Croyland. "But now I must leave you. I
+shan't say a word about it all, till you come; for preparing people's
+minds is all nonsense. It is only drawing them out upon the rack of
+expectation, which leaves them bruised and crushed, with no power to
+resist whatever is to come afterwards.--But don't be long, Harry, for
+remember that delays are dangerous."
+
+Leyton promised to set out as soon as one of his messengers, whom he
+expected every instant, had returned; and going down with Mr.
+Croyland, to the door of his carriage, he bade him adieu, and watched
+him as he drove away, gratifying the eyes of the people of Woodchurch
+with a view of his fine person, as he stood uncovered at the door. In
+the meantime, Mr. Croyland took his way slowly back towards his own
+dwelling.
+
+What had happened there during his absence, we shall see presently.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+All things have their several stages; and, without a knowledge of the
+preceding one it is impossible to judge accurately of any event which
+is the immediate subject of our contemplation. The life of every one,
+the history of the whole world that we inhabit, is but a regular drama
+with its scenes and acts, each depending for its interest upon that
+which preceded. I therefore judge it necessary, before going on to
+detail the events which took place in Mr. Croyland's house during his
+absence to visit the dwelling of his brother, and give some account of
+that which produced them. On the same eventful morning, then, of which
+we have spoken so much already, the inhabitants of Harbourne House
+slept quietly during the little engagement between the smugglers and
+the dragoons, unaware that things of great importance to their little
+circle were passing at no great distance. I have mentioned the
+inhabitants of Harbourne House; but perhaps it would have been more
+proper to have said the master, his family, and his guest; for a
+number of the servants were up; the windows were opened; and the wind,
+setting from Woodchurch, brought the sound of firearms thence. The
+movement of the troops from the side of High Halden was also remarked
+by one of the housemaids and a footman, as the young lady was leaning
+out of one of the windows with the young gentleman by her side. In a
+minute or two after they perceived, galloping across the country, two
+or three parties of men on horseback, as if in flight and pursuit.
+Most of these took to the right or left, and were soon lost to the
+sight; but at length one solitary horseman came on at a furious speed
+towards Harbourne House, with a small party of dragoons following him
+direct at a couple of hundred yards' distance, while two or three of
+the soldiery were seen scattered away to the right, and a somewhat
+larger body appeared moving down at a quick pace to the left, as if to
+cut the fugitive off at Gallows Green.
+
+The horse of the single rider seemed tired and dirty; and he was
+himself without a hat; but nevertheless, they pushed on with such
+rapidity, that a few seconds, from the time when they were first seen,
+brought steed and horseman into the little parish road which I have
+mentioned as running in front of the house, and passing round the
+grounds into the wood. As the fugitive drew near, the maid exclaimed,
+with a sort of a half scream, "Why, Lord ha' mercy, Matthew, it's
+young Mr. Radford!"
+
+"To be sure it is," answered the footman; "didn't you see that before,
+Betsy? There's a number of the dragoons after him, too. He's been up
+to some of his tricks, I'll warrant."
+
+"Well, I hope he wont come in here, at all events," rejoined the maid,
+"for I shouldn't like it, if we were to have any fighting in the
+house."
+
+"I shall go and shut the hall door," said the footman, drily--Richard
+Radford not having ingratiated himself as much with the servants as he
+had done with their master. But this precaution was rendered
+unnecessary; for the young man showed no inclination to enter the
+house, but passing along the road with the rapidity of an arrow, was
+soon lost in the wood, without even looking up towards the house of
+Sir Robert Croyland. Several of the dragoons followed him quickly; but
+two of them planted themselves at the corner of the road, and remained
+there immovable.
+
+The maid then observed, that she thought it high time the gentlefolks
+should be called; and she proceeded to execute her laudable purpose,
+taking care that tidings of what she had seen concerning Mr. Radford
+should be communicated to Sir Robert Croyland, to Zara, and to the
+servant of Sir Edward Digby, who again carried the intelligence to his
+master. The whole house was soon afoot; and Sir Robert was just out of
+his room in his dressing-gown, when three of the soldiers entered the
+mansion, expressing their determination to search it, and declaring
+their conviction that the smuggler whom they had been pursuing had
+taken refuge there.
+
+In vain Sir Robert Croyland remonstrated, and inquired if they had a
+warrant; in vain the servants assured the dragoons that no person had
+entered during the morning. The Serjeant who was at their head,
+persisted in asserting that the fugitive must have come in there, just
+when he was hid from his pursuers by the trees, assigning as a reason
+for this belief, that they had found his horse turned loose not a
+hundred yards from the house. They accordingly proceeded to execute
+their intention, meeting with no farther impediment till they reached
+the room of Sir Edward Digby, who, though he did not choose to
+interfere, not being on duty himself, warned the serjeant that he must
+be careful of what he was doing, as it appeared that he had neither
+magistrate, warrant, nor Custom-House officer with him.
+
+The serjeant, however, who was a bold and resolute fellow, and
+moreover a little heated and excited by the pursuit, took the
+responsibility upon himself, saying that he was fully authorized by
+Mr. Birchett to follow, search for, and apprehend one Richard Radford,
+and that he had the colonel's orders, too. Certainly, not a nook or
+corner of Harbourne House did he leave unexamined before he retired,
+grumbling and wondering at his want of success.
+
+Previous to his going, Sir Edward Digby charged him with a message to
+the colonel, which proved as great an enigma to the soldier as the
+escape of Richard Radford. "Tell him," said the young baronet, "that I
+am ready to come down if he wants me; but that if he does not, I think
+I am quite as well where I am."
+
+The breakfast passed in that sort of hurried and desultory
+conversation which such a dish of gossip as now poured in from all
+quarters usually produces, when served up at the morning meal. Sir
+Robert Croyland, indeed, looked ill at ease, laughed and jested in an
+unnatural and strained tone upon smugglers and smuggling, and
+questioned every servant that came in for further tidings. The reports
+that he thus received were as full of falsehood and exaggeration as
+all such reports generally are. The property captured was said to be
+immense. Two or three hundred smugglers were mentioned as having been
+taken, and a whole legion of them killed. Some had made confession,
+and clearly proved that the whole property was Mr. Radford's; and some
+had fought to the last, and killed an incredible number of the
+soldiers. To believe the butler, who received his information from the
+hind, who had his from the shepherd, the man called the Major, before
+he died, had absolutely breakfasted on dragoons, as if they had been
+prawns; but all agreed that never had such a large body of contraband
+traders been assembled before, or suffered such a disastrous defeat,
+in any of their expeditions.
+
+Sir Edward Digby gathered from the whole account, that his friend had
+been fully successful, that the smugglers had fought fiercely, that
+blood had been shed, and that Richard Radford, after having taken an
+active part in the affray, was now a fugitive, and, as the young
+baronet fancied, never to appear upon the stage again. But still Sir
+Robert Croyland did not seem by any means so well pleased as might
+have been wished; and a dark and thoughtful cloud would frequently
+come over his heavy brow, while a slight twitching of his lip seemed
+to indicate that anxiety had as great a share in his feelings as
+mortification.
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland amused herself, as usual, by doing her best to
+tease every one around her, and by saying the most malapropos things
+in the world. She spoke with great commiseration of "the poor
+smugglers:" every particle of her pity was bestowed upon them. She
+talked of the soldiers as if they had been the most fierce and
+sanguinary monsters in Europe, who had attacked, unprovoked, a party
+of poor men that were doing them no harm; till Zara's glowing cheek
+recalled to her mind, that these very blood-thirsty dragoons were Sir
+Edward Digby's companions and friends; and then she made the
+compliment more pointed by apologizing to the young baronet, and
+assuring him that she did not think for a moment he would commit such
+acts. Her artillery was next turned against her brother; and, in a
+pleasant tone of raillery, she joked him upon the subject of young Mr.
+Radford, and of the search the soldiers had made, looking with a
+meaning smile at Zara, and saying, "She dared say, Sir Robert could
+tell where he was, if he liked."
+
+The baronet declared, sharply and truly, that he knew nothing about
+the young man; but Mrs. Barbara shook her head and nodded, and looked
+knowing, adding various agreeable insinuations of the same kind as
+before--all in the best humour possible--till Sir Robert Croyland was
+put quite out of temper, and would have retorted violently, had he not
+known that to do so always rendered the matter ten times worse. Even
+poor Zara did not altogether escape; but, as we are hurrying on to
+important events, we must pass over her share of infliction.
+
+The conclusion of Mrs. Barbara's field-day was perhaps the most signal
+achievement of all. Breakfast had come to an end, though the meal had
+been somewhat protracted; and the party were just lingering out a few
+minutes before they rose, still talking on the subject of the skirmish
+of that morning, when the good lady thought fit to remark--"Well, we
+may guess for ever; but we shall soon know more about it, for I dare
+say we shall have Mr. Radford over here before an hour is gone, and he
+must know if the goods were his."
+
+This seemed to startle--nay, to alarm Sir Robert Croyland. He looked
+round with a sharp, quick turn of his head, and then rose at once,
+saying, "Well, whether he comes or not, I must go out and see about a
+good many things. Would you like to take a ride, Sir Edward Digby, or
+what will you do?"
+
+"Why, I think I must stay here for the present," replied the young
+baronet; "I may have a summons unexpectedly, and ought not to be
+absent."
+
+"Well, you will excuse me, I know," answered his entertainer. "I must
+leave my sister and Zara to amuse you for an hour or two, till I
+return."
+
+Thus saying, and evidently in a great bustle, Sir Robert Croyland
+quitted the room and ordered his horse. But just as the three whom he
+had left in the breakfast-room were sauntering quietly towards the
+library--Sir Edward Digby calculating by the way how he might best get
+rid of Mrs. Barbara, in order to enjoy the fair Zara's company
+undisturbed--they came upon the baronet at the moment when he was
+encountered by one of his servants bringing him some unpleasant
+intelligence. "Please, Sir Robert," said the man, with a knowing wink
+of the eye, "all the horses are out."
+
+"Out!" cried the baronet, with a look of fury and consternation. "What
+do you mean by out, fellow?"
+
+"Why, they were taken out of the stable last night, sir," replied the
+man. "I dare say you know where they went; and they have not come back
+again yet."
+
+"Pray, have mine been taken also?" demanded Sir Edward Digby, very
+well understanding what sort of an expedition Sir Robert Croyland's
+horses had gone upon.
+
+"Oh dear, no, sir!" answered the man; "your servant keeps the key of
+that stable himself, sir."
+
+The young baronet instantly offered his host the use of one of his
+steeds, which was gratefully accepted by Sir Robert Croyland, who,
+however, thought fit to enter into an exculpation of himself, somewhat
+tedious withal, assuring his guest that the horses had been taken
+without his approbation or consent, and that he had no knowledge
+whatsoever of the transaction in which they were engaged.
+
+Sir Edward Digby professed himself quite convinced that such was the
+case, and in order to relieve his host from the embarrassment which he
+seemed to feel, explained that he was already aware that the Kentish
+smugglers were in the habit of borrowing horses without the owner's
+consent.
+
+In our complicated state of society, however, everything hinges upon
+trifles. We have made the watch so fine, that a grain of dust stops
+the whole movement; and the best arranged plans are thrown out by the
+negligence, the absence, or the folly of a servant, a friend, or a
+messenger. Sir Edward Digby's groom could not be found for more than a
+quarter of an hour: when he was, at length, brought to light, the
+horse had to be saddled. An hour had now nearly elapsed since the
+master of the house had given orders for his own horse to be brought
+round immediately: he was evidently uneasy at the delay, peevish,
+restless, uncomfortable; and in the end, he said he would mount at the
+back door, as it was the nearest and the most convenient. He even
+waited in the vestibule; but suddenly he turned, walked through the
+double doors leading to the stable-yard, and said he heard the horse
+coming up.
+
+Mrs. Barbara Croyland had, in the meantime, amused herself and her
+niece in the library, with the door open; and sometimes she worked a
+paroquet, in green, red, and white silk embroidery--a favourite
+occupation for ladies in her juvenile days--and sometimes she gazed
+out of the window, or listened to the conversation of her brother and
+his guest in the vestibule. At the very moment, however, when Sir
+Robert was making his exit by the doors between the principal part of
+the house and the offices, Mrs. Barbara called loudly after him,
+"Brother Robert!--Brother Robert!--Here is Mr. Radford coming."
+
+The baronet turned a deaf ear, and shut the door. He would have locked
+it, too, if the evasion would not have then been too palpable. But
+Mrs. Barbara was resolved that he should know that Mr. Radford was
+coming; and up she started, casting down half-a-dozen cards of silk.
+Zara tried to stop her; for she knew her father, and all the signs and
+indications of his humours; but her efforts were in vain. Mrs. Barbara
+dashed past her, rushed through both doors, leaving them open behind
+her, and caught her brother's arms just as the horse, which he had
+thought fit to hear approach a little before it really did so, was led
+up slowly from the stables to the back door of the mansion.
+
+"Robert, here is Mr. Radford!" said Mrs. Barbara, aloud. "I knew you
+would like to see him."
+
+The baronet turned his head, and saw his worthy friend, through the
+open doors, just entering the vestibule. To the horror and surprise of
+his sister, he uttered a low but bitter curse, adding, in tones quite
+distinct enough to reach her ear, "Woman, you have ruined me!"
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Mrs. Barbara; "why, I thought----"
+
+"Hush! silence!" said Sir Robert Croyland, in a menacing tone; "not
+another word, on your life;" and turning, he met Mr. Radford with the
+utmost suavity, but with a certain degree of restraint which he had
+not time to banish entirely from his manner.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Radford!" he exclaimed, shaking him, too, heartily by the
+hand, "I was just going out to inquire about some things of
+importance;" and he gazed at him with a look which he intended to be
+very significant of the inquiries he had proposed to institute. But
+his glance was hesitating and ill-assured; and Mr. Radford replied,
+with the coolest and most self-possessed air possible, and with a
+firm, fixed gaze upon the baronet's countenance.
+
+"Indeed, Sir Robert!" he said, "perhaps I can satisfy you upon some
+points; but, at all events, I must speak with you for a few minutes
+before you go. Good morning, Sir Edward Digby: have you had any sport
+in the field?--I will not detain you a quarter of an hour, my good
+friend. We had better go into your little room."
+
+He led the way thither as he spoke; and Sir Robert Croyland followed
+with a slow and faltering step. He knew Richard Radford; he knew what
+that calm and self-possessed manner meant. He was aware of the
+significance of courteous expressions and amicable terms from the man
+who called him his good friend; and if there was a being upon earth,
+on whose head Sir Robert Croyland would have wished to stamp as on a
+viper's, it was the placid benign personage who preceded him.
+
+They entered the room in which the baronet usually sat in a morning to
+transact his business with his steward, and to arrange his affairs;
+and Sir Robert carefully shut the door behind him, trying, during the
+one moment that his back was turned upon his unwelcome guest, to
+compose his agitated features into the expression of haughty and
+self-sufficient tranquillity which they usually wore.
+
+"Sit down, Radford," he said--"pray sit down, if it be but for ten
+minutes;" and he pointed to the arm-chair on the other side of the
+table.
+
+Mr. Radford sat down, and leaned his head upon his hand, looking in
+the baronet's face with a scrutinizing gaze. If Sir Robert Croyland
+understood him well, he also understood Sir Robert Croyland, heart and
+mind--every corporeal fibre--every mental peculiarity. He saw clearly
+that his companion was terrified; he divined that he had wished to
+avoid him; and the satisfaction that he felt at having caught him just
+as he was going out, at having frustrated his hope of escape, had a
+pleasant malice in it, which compensated for a part of all that he had
+suffered during that morning, as report after report reached him of
+the utter annihilation of his hopes of immense gain, the loss of a
+ruinous sum of money, and the danger and narrow escape of his son. He
+had not slept a wink during the whole of the preceding night; and he
+had passed the hours in a state of nervous anxiety which would have
+totally unmanned many a strong-minded man when his first fears were
+realized. But Mr. Radford's mind was of a peculiar construction:
+apprehension he might feel, but never, by any chance, discouragement.
+All his pain was in anticipation, not in endurance. The moment a blow
+was struck, it was over: his thoughts turned to new resources; and, in
+reconstructing schemes which had been overthrown, in framing new ones,
+or pursuing old ones which had slumbered, he instantly found comfort
+for the past. Thus he seemed as fresh, as resolute, as unabashed by
+fortune's late frowns, as ever; but there was a rankling bitterness,
+an eager, wolf-like energy in his heart, which sprung both from angry
+disappointment and from the desperate aspect of his present fortune;
+and such feelings naturally communicated some portion of their
+acerbity to the expression of his countenance, which no effort could
+totally banish.
+
+He gazed upon Sir Robert Croyland, then with a keen and inquiring
+look, not altogether untinged with that sort of pity which amounts to
+scorn; and, after a momentary pause, he said, "Well, Croyland, you
+have heard all, I suppose!"
+
+"No, not all--not all, Radford," answered the baronet, hesitating; "I
+was going out to inquire."
+
+"I can save you the trouble, then," replied Mr. Radford, drily. "I am
+ruined. That is to say, in the two last ventures I have lost
+considerably more than a hundred thousand pounds."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland waved his head sadly, saying, "Terrible, terrible!
+but what can be done?"
+
+"Oh, several things," answered Mr. Radford, "and that is what I have
+come to speak to you about, because the first must rest with you, my
+excellent good friend."
+
+"But where is your son, poor fellow?" asked the baronet, eager to
+avoid, as long as possible, the point to which their conversation was
+tending. "They tell me he was well nigh taken; and, after there has
+been blood shed, that would have been destruction. Do you know they
+came and searched this house for him?"
+
+"No, I had not heard of that, Croyland," replied Mr. Radford; "but he
+is near enough, well enough, and safe enough to marry your fair
+daughter."
+
+"Ay, yes," answered Sir Robert; "that must be thought of, and----."
+
+"Oh dear, no!" cried the other, interrupting him; "it has been thought
+of enough already, Croyland--too much, perhaps; now, it must be done."
+
+"Well, I will go over to Edith at once," said the baronet, "and I will
+urge her, by every inducement. I will tell her, that it is her duty,
+that it is my will, and that she must and shall obey."
+
+Mr. Radford rose slowly off his seat, crossed over the rug to the
+place where Sir Robert Croyland was placed; and, leaning his hand upon
+the arm of the other's chair, he bent down his head, saying in a low
+but very clear voice and perfectly distinct words, "Tell her, her
+father's life depends upon it!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland shrank from him, as if an asp had approached his
+cheek; and he turned deadly pale. "No, Radford--no," he replied, in a
+faltering and deprecatory tone; "you cannot mean such a horrible
+thing. I will do all that I can to make her yield--I will, indeed--I
+will insist--I will----"
+
+"Sir Robert Croyland," said Mr. Radford, sternly and slowly, "I will
+have no more trifling. I have indulged you too long. Your daughter
+must be my son's wife before he quits this country--which must be the
+case for a time, till we can get this affair wiped out by our
+parliamentary influence. Her fortune must be his, she must be his
+wife, I say, before four days are over.--Now, my good friend," he
+continued, falling back, in a degree, into his usual manner, which had
+generally a touch of sarcastic bitterness in it when addressing his
+present companion, "what means you may please to adopt to arrive at
+this desirable result I cannot tell; but as the young lady has shown
+an aversion to the match, not very flattering to my son----"
+
+"Is it not his own fault?" cried Sir Robert Croyland, roused to some
+degree of indignation and resistance--"has he ever, by word or deed,
+sought to remove that reluctance? Has he wooed her as woman always
+requires to be wooed? Has he not rather shown a preference to her
+sister, paid her all attention, courted, admired her?"
+
+"Pity you suffered it, Sir Robert," answered Radford; "but permit me,
+in your courtesy, to go on with what I was saying. As the young lady
+has shown this unfortunate reluctance, I anticipate no effect from
+your proposed use of parental authority. I believe your requests and
+your commands will be equally unavailing; and, therefore, I say, tell
+her, her father's life depends upon it; for I will have no more
+trifling, Sir Robert--no more delay--no more hesitation. It must be
+settled at once--this very day. Before midnight, I must hear that she
+consents, or you understand!--and consent she will, if you but employ
+the right means. She may show herself obstinate, undutiful, careless
+of your wishes and commands; but I do not think that she would like to
+be the one to tie a halter round her father's neck, or to bring what I
+think you gentlemen of heraldry and coat-armour call a cross-patonce
+into the family-bearing--ha, ha, ha!--Do you, Sir Robert?"
+
+The unhappy gentleman to whom he spoke covered his eyes with his hand;
+but, from beneath, his features could be seen working with the
+agitation of various emotions, in which rage, impotent though it might
+be, was not without its share. Suddenly, however, a gleam of hope
+seemed to shoot across his mind; he withdrew his hand; he looked up
+with some light in his eyes. "A thought has struck me, Radford," he
+said; "Zara--we have talked of Zara--why not substitute her for Edith?
+Listen to me--listen to me. You have not heard all."
+
+Mr. Radford shook his head. "It cannot be done," he replied--"it is
+quite out of the question."
+
+"Nay, but hear!" exclaimed the baronet. "Not so much out of the
+question as you think. Look at the whole circumstances, Radford. The
+great obstacle with Edith, is that unfortunate engagement with young
+Leyton. She looks upon herself as his wife; she has told me so a
+thousand times; and I doubt even the effect of the terrible course
+which you urge upon me so cruelly."
+
+Mr. Radford's brow had grown exceedingly dark at the very mention of
+the name of Leyton; but he said nothing, and, as if to keep down the
+feelings that were swelling in his heart, set his teeth hard in his
+under lip. Sir Robert Croyland saw all these marks of anger, but went
+on--"Now, the case is different with Zara. Your son has sought her,
+and evidently admires her; and she has shown herself by no means
+unfavourable towards him. Besides, I can do with her what I like.
+There is no such obstacle in her case; and I could bend her to my will
+with a word--Yes, but hear me out. I know what you would say: she has
+no fortune; all the land that I can dispose of is mortgaged to the
+full--the rest goes to my brother, if he survives me.--True, all very
+true!--But, Radford, listen--if I can induce my brother to give Zara
+the same fortune which Edith possesses--if this night I can bring
+it you under his own hand, that she shall have fifty thousand
+pounds?--You shake your head; you doubt that he will do it; but I can
+tell you that he would willingly give it, to save Edith from your son.
+I am ready to pledge you my word, that you shall have that engagement,
+under his own hand, this very night, or that Edith shall become your
+son's wife within four days. Let us cast aside all idle
+circumlocution. It is Edith's fortune for your son, that you require.
+You can care nothing personally which of the two he marries. As for
+him, he evidently prefers Zara. She is also well inclined to him. I
+can--I am sure I can--offer you the same fortune with her. Why should
+you object?"
+
+Mr. Radford had resumed his seat, and with his arms folded on his
+chest, and his head bent, had remained in a listening posture. But
+nothing that he heard seemed to produce any change in his countenance;
+and when Sir Robert Croyland had concluded, he rose again, took a step
+towards him, and replied, through his shut teeth, "You are mistaken,
+Sir Robert Croyland--it is not fortune alone I seek.--It is
+revenge!--There, ask me no questions, I have told you my determination.
+Your daughter Edith shall be my son's wife within four days, or Maidstone
+jail, trial, and execution, shall be your lot. The haughty family of
+Croyland shall bear the stain of felony upon them to the last
+generation; and your daughter shall know--for if you do not tell her,
+I will--that it is her obstinacy which sends her father to the
+gallows. No more trifling--no more nonsense! Act, sir, as you think
+fit; but remember, that the words--once passed my lips--can never be
+recalled; that the secret I have kept buried for so many years, shall
+to-morrow morning be published to the whole world, if to-night you do
+not bring me your daughter's consent to what I demand. I am using no
+vain threats, Sir Robert Croyland," he continued, resuming a somewhat
+softened tone, "and I do not urge you to this without some degree of
+regret. You have been very kind and friendly; you have done me good
+service on several occasions; and it will be with great regret that I
+become the instrument of your destruction. But still every man has a
+conscience of some kind. Even I am occasionally troubled with qualms;
+and I frequently reproach myself for concealing what I am bound to
+reveal. It is a pity this marriage was not concluded long ago, for
+then, connected with you by the closest ties; I should have felt
+myself more justified in holding my tongue. Now, however, it is
+absolutely necessary that your daughter Edith should become my son's
+wife. I have pointed out the means which I think will soonest bring it
+to bear; and if you do not use them, you must abide the consequences.
+But mark me--no attempt at delay, no prevarication, no hesitation! A
+clear, positive, distinct answer this night by twelve o'clock, or you
+are lost!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland had leaned his arms upon the table, and pressed
+his eyes upon his arms. His whole frame shook with emotion, and the
+softer, and seemingly more kindly words of the man before him, were
+even bitterer to him than the harsher and the fiercer. Though he did
+not see his face, he knew that there was far more sarcasm than
+tenderness in them. He had been his slave--his tool, for years--his
+tool through the basest and most unmanly of human passions--fear; and
+he felt, not only that he was despised, but that at that moment
+Radford was revelling in contempt. He could have got up and stabbed
+him where he stood; for he was naturally a passionate and violent man.
+But fear had still the dominion; and after a bitter struggle with
+himself, he conquered his anger, and gave himself up to the thought of
+meeting the circumstances in which he was placed, as best he might. He
+was silent for several moments, however, after Mr. Radford had ceased
+speaking; and then, looking up with an anxious eye and quivering lip,
+he said, "But how is it possible, Radford, that the marriage should
+take place in four days? The banns could not be published; and even if
+you got a licence, your son could not appear at church within the
+prescribed hours, without running a fatal risk."
+
+"We will have a special licence, my good friend," answered Mr.
+Radford, with a contemptuous smile. "Do not trouble yourself about
+that. You will have quite enough to do with your daughter, I should
+imagine, without annoying yourself with other things. As to my son, I
+will manage his part of the affair; and he can marry your daughter in
+your drawing-room, or mine, at an hour when there will be no eager
+eyes abroad. Money can do all things; and a special licence is not so
+very expensive but that I can afford it, still. My drawing-room will
+be best; for then we shall be all secure."
+
+"But, Radford--Radford!" said Sir Robert Croyland, "if I do--if I
+bring Edith at the time appointed--if she become your son's wife--you
+will give me up that paper, that fatal deposition?"
+
+"Oh, yes, assuredly," replied Mr. Radford, with an insulting smile; "I
+can hand it over to you as part of the marriage settlement. You need
+not be the least afraid!--and now, I think I must go; for I have
+business to settle as well as you."
+
+"Stay, stay a moment, Radford," said the baronet, rising and coming
+nearer to him. "You spoke of revenge just now. What is it that you
+mean?"
+
+"I told you to ask no questions," answered the other, sharply.
+
+"But at least tell me, if it is on me or mine that you seek revenge!"
+exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland. "I am unconscious of ever having
+injured or offended you in any way."
+
+"Oh dear, no," replied Mr. Radford. "You have nothing to do with
+it--no, nor your daughter either, though she deserves a little
+punishment for her ill-treatment to my son. No, but there is one on
+whom I will have revenge--deep and bitter revenge, too! But that is my
+affair; and I do not choose to say more. You have heard my
+resolutions; and you know me well enough, to be sure that I will keep
+my word. So now go to your daughter, and manage the matter as you
+judge best; but if you will take my advice, you will simply ask her
+consent, and make her fully aware that her father's life depends upon
+it; and now good-by, my dear friend. Good luck attend you on your
+errand; for I would a great deal rather not have any hand in bringing
+you, where destiny seems inclined to lead you very soon."
+
+Thus saying, he turned and quitted the room; and Sir Robert Croyland
+remained musing for several minutes, his thoughts first resting upon
+the last part of their conversation. "Revenge!" he said; "he must mean
+my brother; and it will be bitter enough, to him, to see Edith married
+to this youth. Bitter enough to me, too; but it must be done--it must
+be done!"
+
+He pressed his hand upon his heart, and then went out to mount his
+horse; but pausing in the vestibule, he told the butler to bring him a
+glass of brandy. The man hastened to obey; for his master's face was
+as pale as death, and he thought that Sir Robert was going to faint.
+But when the baronet had swallowed the stimulating liquor, he walked
+to the back door with a quick and tolerably steady step, mounted, and
+rode away alone.
+
+Before I follow him, though anxious to do so as quickly as possible, I
+must say a few words in regard to Mr. Radford's course. After he had
+reached the parish road I have mentioned,--on which one or two
+dragoons were still visible, slowly patrolling round Harbourne
+Wood,--the man who had exercised so terrible an influence upon poor
+Sir Robert Croyland turned his horse's head upon the path which led
+straight through the trees towards the cottage of Widow Clare. His
+face was still dark and cloudy; and, trusting to the care and
+sure-footedness of his beast, he went on with a loose rein and his
+eyes bent down towards his saddle-bow, evidently immersed in deep
+thought. When he had got about two-thirds across the wood, he started
+and turned round his head; for there was the sound of a horse's feet
+behind, and he instantly perceived a dragoon following him, and
+apparently keeping him in sight. Mr. Radford rode on, however, till he
+came out not far from the gate of Mrs. Clare's garden, when he saw
+another soldier riding slowly round the wood. With a careless air,
+however, and as if he scarcely perceived these circumstances, he
+dismounted, buckled the rein of his bridle slowly over the palings of
+the garden, and went into the cottage, closing the door after him. He
+found the widow and her daughter busily employed with the needle,
+making somewhat smarter clothes than those they wore on ordinary
+occasions. It was poor Kate's bridal finery.
+
+Mrs. Clare instantly rose, and dropped a low curtsey to Mr. Radford,
+who had of late years frequently visited her cottage, and occasionally
+contributed a little to her comfort, in a kindly and judicious manner.
+Sometimes he had sent her down a load of wood, to keep the house warm;
+sometimes he had given her a large roll of woollen cloth, a new gown
+for her daughter or herself, or a little present of money. But Mr.
+Radford had his object: he always had.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Clare!" said Mr. Radford, in as easy and quiet a tone as
+if nothing had happened to agitate his mind or derange his plans; "so,
+my pretty little friend, Kate, is going to be married to worthy Jack
+Harding, I find."
+
+Kate blushed and held down her head, and Mrs. Clare assented with a
+faint smile.
+
+"There has been a bad business of it this morning, though," said Mr.
+Radford, looking in Mrs. Clare's face; "I dare say you've heard all
+about it--over there, in the valley by Woodchurch and Redbrook
+Street."
+
+Mrs. Clare looked alarmed; and Kate forgot her timidity, and
+exclaimed--"Oh! is he safe?"
+
+"Oh, yes, my dear," answered Mr. Radford, in a kindly tone; "you need
+not alarm yourself. He was not in it, at all. I don't say he had no
+share in running the goods; for that is pretty well known, I believe;
+and he did his part of the work well; but the poor fellows who were
+bringing up the things, by some folly, or mistake, I do not know
+which, got in amongst the dragoons, were attacked, and nearly cut to
+pieces."
+
+"Ay, then, that is what the soldiers are hanging about here for," said
+Mrs. Clare.
+
+"It's a sad affair for me, indeed!" continued Mr. Radford,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I am truly sorry to hear that, sir!" exclaimed Mrs. Clare, "for you
+have been always very kind to me."
+
+"Well, my good lady," replied her visitor, "perhaps you may now be
+able to do me a kindness in return," said Mr. Radford. "To tell you
+the truth, my son was in this affray. He made his escape when he found
+that they could not hold their ground; and it is for him that the
+soldiers are now looking--at least, I suspect so. Perhaps you may be
+able to give a little help, if he should be concealed about here?"
+
+"That I will," said Widow Clare, "if it cost me one of my hands!"
+
+"Oh, there will be no danger!" answered Mr. Radford; "I only wish you,
+in case he should be lying where I think he is, to take care that he
+has food till he can get away. It might be better for Kate here, to go
+rather than yourself; or one could do it at one time, and the other at
+another. With a basket on her arm, and a few eggs at the top, Kate
+could trip across the wood as if she were going to Harbourne House.
+You could boil the eggs hard, you know, and put some bread and other
+things underneath. Then, at the place where I suppose he is, she could
+quietly put down the basket and walk on."
+
+"But you must tell me where he is, sir," answered Mrs. Clare.
+
+"Certainly," replied Mr. Radford--"that is to say, I can tell you
+where I think he is. Then, when she gets near it, she can look round
+to see if there's any one watching, and if she sees no one, can say
+aloud--'Do you want anything?' If he's there he'll answer; and should
+he send any message to me, one of you must bring it up. I shan't
+forget to repay you for your trouble."
+
+"Oh dear, sir, it isn't for that," said Mrs. Clare--"Kate and I will
+both be very glad, indeed, to show our gratitude for your kindness. It
+is seldom poor people have the opportunity; and I am sure, after good
+Sir Robert Croyland, we owe more to you than to any body."
+
+"Sir Robert has been kind to you, I believe, Mrs. Clare!" replied Mr.
+Radford, with a peculiar expression of countenance. "Well he may be!
+He has not always been so kind to you and yours."
+
+"Pray, sir, do not say a word against Sir Robert!" answered the widow;
+"though he sometimes used to speak rather cross and angrily in former
+times, yet since my poor husband's death, nothing could be more kind
+than he has been. I owe him everything, sir."
+
+"Ay, it's all very well, Mrs. Clare," replied Mr. Radford, shaking his
+head with a doubtful smile--"it's all very well! However, I do not
+intend to say a word against Sir Robert Croyland. He's my very good
+friend, you know; and it's all very well.--Now let us talk about the
+place where you or Kate are to go; but, above all things, remember
+that you must not utter a word about it to any one, either now or
+hereafter; for it might be the ruin of us all if you did."
+
+"Oh, no--not for the world, sir!" answered Mrs. Clare; "I know such
+places are not to be talked about; and nobody shall ever hear anything
+about it from us."
+
+"Well, then," continued Mr. Radford, "you know the way up to Harbourne
+House, through the gardens. There's the little path to the right; and
+then, half way up that, there's one to the left, which brings you to
+the back of the stables. It goes between two sandy banks, you may
+recollect; and there's a little pond with a willow growing over it,
+and some bushes at the back of the willow. Well, just behind these
+bushes there is a deep hole in the bank, high enough to let a man
+stand upright in it, when he gets a little way down. It would make a
+famous _hide_ if there were a better horse-path up to it, and
+sometimes it has been used for small things such as a man can carry on
+his back. Now, from what I have heard, my boy Richard must be in
+there; for his horse was found, it seems, not above two or three
+hundred yards from the house, broken-knee'd and knocked-up. If any one
+should follow you as you go, and make inquiries, you must say that you
+are going to the house; for there is a door there in the wall of the
+stable-yard--though that path is seldom, if ever used now; but, if
+there be nobody by, you can just set down the basket by the stump of
+the willow, and ask if he wants anything more. If he doesn't answer,
+speak again, and try at all events to find out whether he's there or
+not, so that I may hear."
+
+"Oh, I know the place, quite well!" said Mrs. Clare. "My poor husband
+used to get gravel there. But when do you think I had better go, sir?
+for if the dragoons are still lingering about, a thousand to one but
+they follow me, and, more likely still, may follow Kate; so I shall go
+myself to night, at all events."
+
+"You had better wait till it is duskish," answered Mr. Radford; "and
+then they'll soon lose sight of you amongst the trees; for they can't
+go up there on horseback, and if they stop to dismount you can easily
+get out of their way. Let me have any message you may get from
+Richard; and don't forget, either, if Harding comes up here, to tell
+him I want to speak with him very much. He'll be sorry enough for this
+affair when he hears of it, for the loss is dreadful!"
+
+"I'm sure he will, sir," said Kate Clare; "for he was talking about
+something that he had to do, and said it would half kill him, if he
+did not get it done safely."
+
+"Ay, he's a very good fellow," answered Mr. Radford, "and you shall
+have a wedding-gown from me, Kate.--Look out of the window, there's a
+good girl, and see if any of those dragoons are about."
+
+Kate did as he bade her, and replied in the negative; and Mr. Radford,
+after giving a few more directions, mounted his horse and rode away,
+muttering as he went--"Ay, Master Harding, I have a strong suspicion
+of you; and I will soon satisfy myself. They must have had good
+information, which none could give but you, I think; so look to
+yourself, my friend. No man ever injured me yet who had not cause to
+repent it."
+
+Mr. Radford forgot that he no longer possessed such extensive means of
+injuring others as he had formerly done; but the bitter will was as
+strong as ever.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+The house of Mr. Zachary Croyland was not so large or ostentatious in
+appearance as that of his brother; but, nevertheless, it was a very
+roomy and comfortable house; and as he was naturally a man of fine
+taste--though somewhat singular in his likings and dislikings, as well
+in matters of art as in his friendships, and vehement in favour of
+particular schools, and in abhorrence of others--his dwelling was
+fitted up with all that could refresh the eye or improve the mind. A
+very extensive and well-chosen library covered the walls of one room,
+in which were also several choice pieces of sculpture; and his
+drawing-room was ornamented with a valuable collection of small
+pictures, into which not one single Dutch piece was admitted. He was
+accustomed to say, when any connoisseur objected to the total
+exclusion of a very fine school--"Don't mention it--don't mention it;
+I hate it in all its branches and all its styles. I have pictures for
+my own satisfaction, not because they are worth a thousand pounds
+apiece. I hate to see men represented as like beasts as possible; or
+to refresh my eyes with swamps and canals; or, in the climate of
+England, which is dull enough of all conscience, to exhilarate myself
+with the view of a frozen pond and fields, as flat as a plate, covered
+with snow, while half-a-dozen boors, in red night-caps and red noses,
+are skating away in ten pairs of breeches--looking, in point of shape,
+exactly like hogs set upon their hind legs. It's all very true the
+artist may have shown very great talent; but that only shows him to be
+the greater fool for wasting his talents upon such subjects."
+
+His collection, therefore, consisted almost entirely of the Italian
+schools, with a few Flemish, a few English, and one or two exquisite
+Spanish pictures. He had two good Murillos and a Velasquez, one or two
+fine Vandykes, and four sketches by Rubens of larger pictures. But he
+had numerous landscapes, and several very beautiful small paintings of
+the Bolognese school; though that on which he prided himself the most,
+was an exquisite Correggio.
+
+It was in this room that he left his niece Edith when he set out for
+Woodchurch; and, as she sat--with her arm fallen somewhat listlessly
+over the back of the low sofa, the light coming in from the window
+strong upon her left cheek, and the rest in shade, with her rich
+colouring and her fine features, the high-toned expression of soul
+upon her brow, and the wonderful grace of her whole form and
+attitude--she would have made a fine study for any of those dead
+artists whose works lived around her.
+
+She heard the wheels of the carriage roll away; but she gave no
+thought to the question of whither her uncle had gone, or why he took
+her not with him, as he usually did. She was glad of it, in fact; and
+people seldom reason upon that with which they are well pleased. Her
+whole mind was directed to her own situation, and to the feelings
+which the few words of conversation she had had with her sister had
+aroused. She thought of him she loved, with the intense, eager longing
+to behold him once more--but once, if so it must be--which perhaps
+only a woman's heart can fully know. To be near him, to hear him
+speak, to trace the features she had loved, to mark the traces of
+Time's hand, and the lines that care and anxiety, and disappointment
+and regret, she knew must be busily working--oh, what a boon it would
+be! Then her mind ran on, led by the light hand of Hope, along the
+narrow bridge of association, to ask herself--if it would be such
+delight to see him and to hear him speak--what would it be to soothe,
+to comfort, to give him back to joy and peace!
+
+The dream was too bright to last, and it soon faded. He was near her,
+and yet he did not come; he was in the same land, in the same
+district; he had gazed up to the house where she dwelt; if he had
+asked whose it was, the familiar name--the name once so dear--must
+have sounded in his ear; and yet he did not come. A few minutes of
+time, a few steps of his horse, would have brought him to where she
+was; but he had turned away,--and Edith's eyes filled with tears.
+
+She rose and wiped them off, saying, "I will think of something else;"
+and she went up and gazed at a picture. It was a Salvator Rosa--a fine
+painting, though not by one of the finest masters. There was a rocky
+scene in front, with trees waving in the wind of a fierce storm, while
+two travellers stood beneath a bank and a writhing beech tree,
+scarcely seeming to find shelter even there from the large grey
+streams of rain that swept across the foreground. But, withal, in the
+distance were seen some majestic old towers and columns, with a gleam
+of golden light upon the edge of the sky; and Hope, never wearying of
+her kindly offices, whispered to Edith's heart, "In life, as in that
+picture, there may be sunshine behind the storm."
+
+Poor Edith was right willing to listen; and she gave herself up to the
+gentle guide. "Perhaps," she thought, "his duty might not admit of his
+coming, or perhaps he might not know how he would he received. My
+father's anger would be sure to follow such a step. He might think
+that insult, injury, would be added. He might imagine even, that I am
+changed," and she shook her head, sadly. "Yet why should he not," she
+continued, "if I sit here and think so of him? Who can tell what
+people may have said?--Who can tell even what falsehoods may have been
+spread? Perhaps he's even now thinking of me. Perhaps he has come into
+this part of the country to make inquiries, to see with his own eyes,
+to satisfy himself. Oh, it must be so--it must be so!" she cried,
+giving herself up again to the bright dream. "Ay, and this Sir Edward
+Digby, too, he is his dear friend, his companion, may he not have sent
+him down to investigate and judge? I thought it strange at the time,
+that this young officer should write to inquire after my father's
+family, and then instantly accept an invitation; and I marked how he
+gazed at that wretched young man and his unworthy father. Perhaps he
+will tell Zara more, and I shall hear when I return. Perhaps he has
+told her more already. Indeed, it is very probable, for they had a
+long ride together yesterday;" and poor Edith began to feel as anxious
+to go back to her father's house as she had been glad to quit it. Yet
+she saw no way how this could be accomplished, before the period
+allotted for her stay was at an end; and she determined to have
+recourse to a little simple art, and ask Mr. Croyland to take her over
+to Harbourne, on the following morning, with the ostensible purpose of
+looking for some article of apparel left behind, but, in truth, to
+obtain a few minutes' conversation with her sister.
+
+There are times in the life of almost every one--at least, of every
+one of feeling and intellect--when it seems as if we could meditate
+for ever: when, without motion or change, the spirit within the
+earthly tabernacle could pause and ponder over deep subjects of
+contemplation for hour after hour, with the doors and windows of the
+senses shut, and without any communication with external things. The
+matter before us may be any of the strange and perplexing relations of
+man's mysterious being; or it may be some obscure circumstance of our
+own fate--some period of uncertainty and expectation--some of those
+Egyptian darknesses which from time to time come over the future, and
+which we gaze on half in terror, half in hope, discovering nothing,
+yet speculating still. The latter was the case at that moment with
+Edith Croyland; and, as she revolved every separate point of her
+situation, it seemed as if fresh wells of thought sprung up to flow on
+interminably.
+
+She had continued thus during more than half an hour after her uncle's
+departure, when she heard a horse stop before the door of the house,
+and her heart beat, though she knew not wherefore. Her lover might
+have come at length, indeed; but if that dream crossed her mind it was
+soon swept away; for the next instant she heard her father's voice,
+first inquiring for herself, and then asking, in a lower tone, if his
+brother was within. If Edith had felt hope before, she now felt
+apprehension; for during several years no private conversation had
+taken place between her father and herself without bringing with it
+grief and anxiety, harsh words spoken, and answers painful for a child
+to give.
+
+It seldom happens that fear does not go beyond reality; but such was
+not the case in the present instance; for Edith Croyland had to
+undergo far more than she expected. Her father entered the room where
+she sat, with a slow step and a stern and determined look. His face
+was very pale, too; his lips themselves seemed bloodless, and the
+terrible emotions which were in his heart showed themselves upon his
+countenance by many an intelligible but indescribable sign. As soon as
+Edith saw him, she thought, "He has heard of Henry's return to this
+country. It is that which has brought him;" and she nerved her heart
+for a new struggle; but still she could scarcely prevent her limbs
+from shaking, as she rose and advanced to meet her parent.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland drew her to him, and kissed her tenderly enough;
+for, in truth, he loved her very dearly: and then he led her back to
+the sofa, and seated himself beside her.
+
+"How low these abominable contrivances are," he said; "I do wish that
+Zachary would have some sofas that people can sit upon with comfort,
+instead of these beastly things, only fit for a Turkish harem, or a
+dog-kennel."
+
+Edith made no reply; for she waited in dread of what was to follow,
+and could not speak of trifles. But her father presently went on,
+saying, "So, my brother is out, and not likely to return for an hour
+or two!--Well, I am glad of it, Edith; for I came over to speak with
+you on matters of much moment."
+
+Still Edith was silent; for she durst not trust her voice with any
+reply. She feared that her courage would give way at the first words,
+and that she should burst into tears, when she felt sure that all the
+resolution she could command, would be required to bear her safely
+through. She trusted, indeed, that, as she had often found before, her
+spirit would rise with the occasion, and that she should find powers
+of resistance within her in the time of need, though she shrank from
+the contemplation of what was to come.
+
+"I have delayed long, Edith," continued Sir Robert Croyland, after a
+pause, "to press you upon a subject in regard to which it is now
+absolutely necessary you should come to a decision;--too long, indeed;
+but I have been actuated by a regard for your feelings, and you owe me
+something for my forbearance. There can now, however, be no further
+delay. You will easily understand, that I mean your marriage with
+Richard Radford."
+
+Edith raised her eyes to her father's face, and, after a strong
+effort, replied, "My decision, my dear father, has, as you know, been
+long made. I cannot, and I will not, marry him--nothing on earth shall
+ever induce me!"
+
+"Do not say that, Edith," answered Sir Robert Croyland, with a bitter
+smile; "for I could utter words, which, if I know you rightly, would
+make you glad and eager to give him your hand, even though you broke
+your heart in so doing. But before I speak those things which will
+plant a wound in your bosom for life, that nothing can heal or
+assuage, I will try every other means. I request you--I intreat you--I
+command you, to marry him! By every duty that you owe me--by all the
+affection that a child ought to feel for a father, I beseech you to do
+so, if you would save me from destruction and despair!"
+
+"I cannot! I cannot!" said Edith, clasping her hands. "Oh! why should
+you drive me to such painful disobedience? In the first place, can I
+promise to love a man that I hate, to honour and obey one whom I
+despise, and whose commands can never be for good? But still more, my
+father,--you must hear me out, for you force me to speak--you force me
+to tear open old wounds, to go back to times long past, and to recur
+to things bitter to you and to me. I cannot marry him, as I told you
+once before; for I hold myself to be the wife of another."
+
+"Folly and nonsense!" cried Sir Robert Croyland, angrily, "you are
+neither his wife, nor he your husband. What! the wife of a man who has
+never sought you for years--who has cast you off, abandoned you, made
+no inquiry for you?--The marriage was a farce. You read a ceremony
+which you had no right to read, you took vows which you had no power
+to take. The law of the land pronounces all such engagements mere
+pieces of empty foolery!"
+
+"But the law of God," replied Edith, "tells us to keep vows that we
+have once made. To those vows, I called God to witness with a true and
+sincere heart; and with the same heart, and the same feelings, I will
+keep them! I did wrong, my father--I know I did wrong--and Henry did
+wrong too; but by what we have done we must abide; and I dare not, I
+cannot be the wife of another."
+
+"But, I tell you, you shall!" exclaimed her father, vehemently. "I
+will compel you to be so; I will over-rule this obstinate folly, and
+make you obedient, whether you choose it or not."
+
+"Nay, nay--not so!" cried Edith. "You could not do, you would not
+attempt, so cruel a thing!"
+
+"I will, so help me Heaven!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+"Then, thank Heaven," answered his daughter, in a low but solemn
+voice, "it is impossible! In this country, there is no clergyman who
+would perform the ceremony contrary to my expressed dissent. If I
+break the vows that I have taken, it must be my own voluntary act; for
+there is not any force that can compel me so to do; and I call Heaven
+to witness, that, even if you were to drag me to the altar, I would
+say, No, to the last!"
+
+"Rash, mad, unfeeling girl!" cried her father, starting up, and gazing
+upon her with a look in which rage, and disappointment, and perplexity
+were all mingled.
+
+He stood before her for a moment in silence, and then strode
+vehemently backwards and forwards in the room, with his right hand
+contracting and expanding, as if grasping at something. "It must be
+done!" he said, at length, pressing his hand upon his brow; "it must
+be done!" and then he recommenced his silent walk, with the shadows of
+many emotions coming over his countenance.
+
+When he returned to Edith's side again, the manner and the aspect of
+Sir Robert Croyland were both changed. There was an expression of deep
+sorrow upon his countenance, of much agitation, but considerable
+tenderness; and, to his daughter's surprise, he took her hand in his,
+and pressed it affectionately.
+
+"Edith," he said, after a short interval of silence, "I have
+commanded, I have insisted, I have threatened--but all in vain. Yet,
+in so doing, I have had in view to spare you even greater pain than
+could be occasioned by a father's sternness. My very love for you, my
+child, made me seem wanting in love. But now I must inflict the
+greater pain. You require, it seems, inducements stronger than
+obedience to a father's earnest commands, and you shall have them,
+however terrible for me to speak and you to hear. I will tell you all,
+and leave you to judge."
+
+Edith gazed at him in surprise and terror. "Oh, do not--do not, sir!"
+she said; "do not try to break my heart, and put my duty to you in
+opposition to the fulfilment of a most sacred vow--in opposition to
+all the dictates of my own heart and my own conscience."
+
+"Edith, it must be done," replied Sir Robert Croyland. "I have urged
+you to a marriage with young Richard Radford. I now tell you solemnly
+that your father's life depends upon it."
+
+Edith clasped her hands wildly together, and gazed, for a moment, in
+his face, without a word, almost stupified with horror. But Sir Robert
+Croyland had deceived her, or attempted to deceive her, on the very
+same subject they were now discussing, more than once already. She
+knew it; and of course she doubted; for those who have been once false
+are never fully believed--those who have been once deceived are always
+suspicious of those who have deceived them, even when they speak the
+truth. As thought and reflection came back after the first shock,
+Edith found much cause to doubt: she could not see how such a thing
+was possible--how her refusal of Richard Radford could affect her
+father's life; and she replied, after a time, in a hesitating tone,
+"How can that be?--I do not understand it.--I do not see how----"
+
+"I will tell you," replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a low and
+peculiarly-quiet voice, which had something fearful in it to his
+daughter's ear. "It is a long story, Edith; but you must hear it all,
+my child. You shall be your father's confidant--his only one. You
+shall share the secret, dreadful as it is, which has embittered his
+whole existence, rendered his days terrible, his nights sleepless, his
+bed a couch of fire."
+
+Edith trembled in every limb; and Sir Robert, rising, crossed over and
+opened the door of the drawing-room, to see that there were none of
+the servants near it. Then closing it again, he returned to her side,
+and proceeded, holding her hand in his: "You must have remarked," he
+said, "and perhaps often wondered, my dear child, that Mr. Radford, a
+man greatly below myself in station, whose manners are repulsive and
+disagreeable, whose practices I condemn and reprobate, whose notions
+and principles I abhor, has exercised over me for many years an
+influence which no other person possesses, that he has induced me to
+do many things which my better sense and better feelings disapproved,
+that he has even led me to consent that my best-loved daughter should
+become the wife of his son, and to urge her to be so at the expense of
+all her feelings. You have seen all this, Edith, and wondered. Is it
+not so?"
+
+"I have, indeed," murmured Edith. "I have been by no means able to
+account for it."
+
+"Such will not be the case much longer, Edith," replied Sir Robert
+Croyland. "I am making my confession, my dear child; and you shall
+hear all. I must recur, too, to the story of young Leyton. You know
+well that I liked and esteemed him; and although I was offended, as I
+justly might be, at his conduct towards yourself, and thought fit to
+show that I disapproved, yet at first, and from the first, I
+determined, if I saw the attachment continue and prove real and
+sincere, to sacrifice all feelings of pride, and all considerations of
+fortune, and when you were of a fit age, to confirm the idle ceremony
+which had passed between you, by a real and lawful marriage."
+
+"Oh, that was kind and generous of you, my dear father. What could
+make you change so suddenly and fatally? You must have seen that the
+attachment was true and lasting; you must have known that Henry was in
+every way calculated to make your daughter happy."
+
+"You shall hear, Edith--you shall hear," replied her father. "Very
+shortly after the event of which I have spoken, another occurred, of a
+dark and terrible character, only known to myself and one other. I was
+somewhat irritable at that time. My views and prospects with regard to
+yourself were crossed; and although I had taken the resolution I have
+mentioned, vexation and disappointment had their effect upon my mind.
+Always passionate, I gave way more to my passion than I had ever done
+before; and the result was a fatal and terrible one. You may remember
+poor Clare, the gamekeeper. He had offended me on the Monday morning;
+and I had used violent and angry language towards him before his
+companions, threatening to punish him in a way he did not expect. On
+the following day, we went out again to shoot--he and I alone
+together--and, on our way back, we passed through a little wood, which
+lies----"
+
+"Oh, stop--stop!" cried Edith, covering her eyes with her hands. "Do
+not tell me any more!"
+
+Her father was not displeased to see her emotion, for it answered his
+purpose. Yet, it must not be supposed that the peculiar tone and
+manner which he assumed, so different from anything that had been seen
+in his demeanour for years, was affected as a means to an end. Such
+was not the case. Sir Robert Croyland was now true, in manner and in
+words, though it was the first time that he had been entirely so for
+many years. There had been a terrible struggle before he could make up
+his mind to speak; but yet, when he did begin, it was a relief to him,
+to unburthen the overloaded breast, even to his own child. It softened
+him; it made his heart expand; it took the chain off long-imprisoned
+feelings, and gave a better spirit room to make its presence felt. He
+did not forget his object, indeed. To save himself from a death of
+horror, from accusation, from disgrace, was still his end; but the
+means by which he proposed to seek it were gentler. He even wavered in
+his resolution: he fancied that he could summon fortitude to leave the
+decision to Edith herself, and that if that decision were against him,
+would dare and bear the worst. But still he was pleased to see her
+moved; for he thought that she could never hear the whole tale, and
+learn his situation fully, without rushing forward to extricate him;
+and he went on--"Nay, Edith, now the statement has been begun, it must
+be concluded," he said. "You would hear, and you must hear all. You
+know the wood I speak of, I dare say--a little to the left of Chequer
+Tree?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" murmured Edith, "where poor Clare was found."
+
+The baronet nodded his head: "It was there, indeed," he said. "We went
+down to see if there were any snipes, or wild fowl, in the bottom. It
+is a deep and gloomy-looking dell, with a pond of water and some
+rushes in the hollow, and a little brook running through it, having
+tall trees all around, and no road but one narrow path crossing it. As
+we came down, I thought I saw the form of a man move amongst the
+trees; and I fancied that some one was poaching there. I told Clare to
+go round the pond and see, while I watched the road. He did not seem
+inclined to go, saying, that he had not remarked anybody, but that the
+people round about said the place was haunted. I had been angry with
+him the whole morning, and a good deal out of humour with many things;
+so I told him to go round instantly, and not make me any answer. The
+man did so, in a somewhat slow and sullen humour, I thought, and
+returned sooner than I fancied he ought to do, saying that he could
+see no trace of any one. I was now very angry, for I fancied he
+neglected his duty. I told him that he was a liar, that I had
+perceived some one, whom he might have perceived as well, and that my
+firm belief was, he was in alliance with the poachers, and deserved to
+be immediately discharged. 'Well, Sir Robert,' he said, 'in regard to
+discharging me, that is soon settled. I will not stay another day in
+your service, after I have a legal right to go. As to being a liar, I
+am none; and as to being in league with the poachers, if you say so,
+you yourself lie!' Such were his words, or words to that effect. I got
+furious at his insolence, though perhaps, Edith--perhaps I provoked it
+myself--at least, I have thought so since. However, madly giving way
+to rage, I took my gun by the barrel to knock him down. A struggle
+ensued; for he caught hold of the weapon in my hand; and how I know
+not, but the gun went off, and Clare fell back upon the turf. What
+would I not have done then, to recal every hasty word I had spoken!
+But it was in vain. I stooped over him; I spoke to him; I told him how
+sorry I was for what had happened. But he made no answer, and pressed
+his hand upon his right side, where the charge had entered. I was mad
+with despair and remorse. I knew not where to go, or what to do. The
+man was evidently dying; for his face had grown pale and sharp; and
+after trying to make him speak, and beseeching him to answer one word,
+I set off running as fast as I could towards the nearest village for
+assistance. As I was going, I saw a man on horseback, riding sharply
+down towards the very place. He was at some distance from me; but I
+easily recognised Mr. Radford, and knew that he must pass by the spot
+where the wounded man lay. I comforted myself with thinking that Clare
+would get aid without my committing myself; and I crept in amongst the
+trees at the edge of the wood, to make sure that Mr. Radford saw him,
+and to watch their proceedings. Quietly and stealthily finding my way
+through the bushes, I came near; and then I saw that Radford was
+kneeling by Clare's side with an inkhorn in his hand, which, with his
+old tradesmanlike-habits, he used always at that time to carry about
+him. He was writing busily, and I could hear Clare speak, but could
+not distinguish what he said. The state of my mind, at that moment, I
+cannot describe. It was more like madness than any thing else. Vain
+and foolish is it, for any man or any body of men, to argue what would
+be their conduct in trying situations which they have never been
+placed in. It is worse than folly for them to say, what would
+naturally be another man's conduct in any circumstances; for no man
+can tell another's character, or understand fully all the fine shades
+of feeling or emotion that may influence him. The tale I am telling
+you now, Edith, is true--too true, in all respects. I was very wrong,
+certainly; but I was not guilty of the man's murder. I never intended
+to fire: I never tried to fire; and yet, perhaps, I acted, afterwards,
+as if I had been guilty, or at all events in a way that was well
+calculated to make people believe I was so. But I was mad at the
+time--mad with agitation and grief--and every man, I believe, in
+moments of deep emotion is mad, more or less. However, I crept out of
+the wood again, and hastened on, determined to leave the man to the
+care of Mr. Radford, but with all my thoughts wild and confused, and
+no definite line of conduct laid out for myself. Before I had gone a
+mile, I began to think what a folly I had committed, that I should
+have joined Radford at once; that I should have been present to hear
+what the man said, and to give every assistance in my power, although
+it might be ineffectual, in order to stanch the blood and save his
+life. As soon as these reflections arose, I determined, though late,
+to do what I should have done at first; and, turning my steps, I
+walked back at a quick pace. Ere I got half way to the top of the hill
+which looks down upon the wood, I saw Radford coming out again on
+horseback; but I went on, and met him. As soon as he beheld me he
+checked his horse, which was going at a rapid rate, and when I came
+near, dismounted to speak with me. We were then little more than
+common acquaintances, and I had sometimes dealt hardly with him in his
+different transactions; but he spoke in a friendly tone, saying, 'This
+is a sad business, Sir Robert; but if you will take my advice you will
+go home as quickly as you can, and say nothing to any one till you see
+me. I will be with you in an hour or so. At present I must ride up to
+Middle Quarter, and get down men to carry home the body.' With a
+feeling I cannot express, I asked, if he were dead, then. He nodded
+his head significantly, and when I was going to put further questions,
+he grasped my hand, saying, 'Go home, Sir Robert--go home. I shall say
+nothing about the matter to any one, till I see you, except that I
+found him dying in the wood. His gun was discharged,' he continued,
+'so there is no proof that he did not do it himself!' Little did I
+know what a fiend he was, into whose power I was putting myself."
+
+"Oh, Heaven!" cried Edith, who had been listening with her head bent
+down till her whole face was nearly concealed, "I see it all, now! I
+see it all!"
+
+"No, dear child," replied Sir Robert Croyland, in a voice sad and
+solemn, but wonderfully calm, "you cannot see it all; no, nor one
+thousandth part of what I have suffered. Even the next dreadful three
+hours--for he was fully that time ere he came to Harbourne--were full
+of horror, inconceivable to any one but to him who endured them. At
+length, he made his appearance; calm, grave, self-possessed, with
+nought of his somewhat rude and blustering manner, and announced, with
+an affectation of feeling to the family, that poor Clare, my keeper,
+had been found dying with a wound in his side."
+
+"I recollect the day, well!" said Edith, shuddering.
+
+"Do you not remember, then," said Sir Robert Croyland, "that he and I
+went into my writing-room--that awful room, which well deserves the
+old prison name of the room of torture! We were closeted there for
+nearly two hours; and all he said I cannot repeat. His tone, however,
+was the most friendly in the world. He professed the greatest interest
+in me and in my situation; and he told me that he had come to see me
+before he said a word to any one, because he wished to take my opinion
+as to how he was to proceed. It was necessary, he said, that I should
+know the facts, for, unfortunately they placed me in a very dangerous
+situation, which he was most anxious to free me from; and then he went
+on to tell me, that when he had come up, poor Clare was perfectly
+sensible, and had his speech distinctly. 'As a magistrate,' he
+continued, 'I thought it right immediately to take his dying
+deposition, for I saw that he had not many minutes to live. Here it
+is,' he said, showing his pocket-book; 'and, as I luckily always have
+pen and ink with me, I knelt down, and wrote his words from his own
+lips. He had strength enough to sign the paper; and, as you may see,
+there is the mark of blood from his own hand, which he had been
+pressing on his side.' I would fain have taken the paper, but he would
+not let me, saying, that he was bound to keep it; and then he went on,
+and read the contents. In it, the unfortunate man charged me most
+wrongfully with having shot him in a fit of passion; and, moreover, he
+said that he had been sure, beforehand, that I would do it, as I had
+threatened him on the preceding day, and there were plenty of people
+who could prove it."
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!" cried Edith.
+
+"It was false, as I have a soul to be saved!" cried Sir Robert
+Croyland. "But Mr. Radford then went on, and, shrugging his shoulders,
+said, that he was placed in a very delicate and painful situation, and
+that he did not really know how to act with regard to the deposition.
+'Put it in the fire!' I exclaimed--'put it in the fire!' But he said,
+'No; every man must consider himself in these things, Sir Robert. I
+have my own character and reputation to think of--my own duty. I risk
+a great deal, you must recollect, by concealing a thing of this kind.
+I do not know that I don't put my own life in danger; for this is
+clear and conclusive evidence against you, and you know, what it is to
+be accessory in a case of murder!' I then told him my own story,
+Edith; and he said, that made some difference, indeed. He was sure I
+would tell him the truth; but yet he must consider himself in the
+matter; and he added hints which I could not mistake, that his
+evidence was to be bought off. I offered anything he pleased to name,
+and the result was such as you may guess. He exacted that I should
+mortgage my estate, as far as it could be mortgaged, and make over the
+proceeds to him, and that I should promise to give your hand to his
+son. I promised anything, my child; for not only life and death, but
+honour or disgrace, were in the balance. If he had asked my life, I
+would have held my throat to the knife a thousand times sooner than
+have made such sacrifices. But to die the death of a felon, Edith--to
+be hanged--to writhe in the face of a grinning and execrating
+multitude--to have my name handed down in the annals of crime, as the
+man who had been executed for the murder of his own servant,--I could
+not bear that, my child; and I promised anything! He kept the paper,
+he said, as a security; and, at first, it was to be given to me, to do
+with it as I liked--when the money coming from the mortgage was
+secretly made over to him; but then, he said, that he had lost one
+great hold, and must keep it till the marriage was completed: for by
+this time the coroner's inquest was over, and he had withheld the
+deposition, merely testifying that he had found the man at the point
+of death in the wood, and had gone as fast as possible for assistance.
+The jury consisted of his tenants and mine, and they were easily
+satisfied; but the fiend who had me in his power was more greedy; and,
+by the very exercise of his influence, he seemed to learn to enjoy it.
+Day after day, month after month, he took a pleasure in making me do
+things that were abhorrent to me. It changed my nature and my
+character. He forced me to wink at frauds that I detested; and every
+year he pressed for the completion of your marriage with his son. Your
+coldness, your dislike, your refusal would, long ere this, have driven
+him into fury, I believe, if Richard Radford had been eager for your
+hand himself. But now, Edith--now, my child, he will hear of no more
+delay. He is ruined in fortune, disappointed in his expectations, and
+rendered fierce as a hungry beast by some events that have taken place
+this morning. He has just now been over at Harbourne, and used threats
+which I know, too well, he will execute. He it was, himself, who told
+me to inform you, that if you did not consent, your father's life
+would be the sacrifice!"
+
+"Oh, Heaven!" cried Edith, covering her eyes with her hands, "at
+least, give me time to think.--Surely, his word cannot have such
+power: a base, notorious criminal himself, one who every day violates
+the law, who scoffs at his own oaths, and holds truth and honour but
+as names--surely his word will be nothing against Sir Robert
+Croyland's."
+
+"His word is nothing, would be nothing," replied her father,
+earnestly; "but that deposition, Edith! It is that which is my
+destruction. Remember, that the words of a dying man, with eternity
+and judgment close before his eyes, are held by the law more powerful
+than any other kind of evidence; and, besides, there are those still
+living, who heard the rash threat I used. Suspicion once pointed at
+me, a thousand corroborative circumstances would come forth to prove
+that the tale I told of parting with the dead man, some time before,
+was false, and that very fact would condemn me. Cast away all such
+hopes, Edith--cast away all such expectations. They are vain!--vain!
+Look the truth full in the face, my child. This man has your father's
+life entirely and totally in his power, and ask yourself, if you will
+doom me to death."
+
+"Oh, give me time--give me time!" cried Edith, wringing her hands.
+"Let me but think over it till to-morrow, or next day."
+
+"Not an hour ago," replied Sir Robert Croyland, "he swore, by
+everything he holds sacred, that if before twelve to-night, he did not
+receive your consent----"
+
+"Stay, stay!" cried Edith, eagerly, placing her hand upon her brow.
+"Let me think--let me think. It is but money that he wants--it is but
+the pitiful wealth my uncle left me. Let him take it, my father!" she
+continued, laying her hand upon Sir Robert's arm, and gazing brightly
+in his face, as if the light of hope had suddenly been renewed. "Let
+him take it all, every farthing. I would sooner work as a hired
+servant in the fields for my daily bread, with the only comfort of
+innocence and peace, than break my vows, and marry that bad man. I
+will sign a promise this instant that he shall have all."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland threw his arms round her, and looked up to Heaven,
+as if imploring succour for them both. "My sweet child!--My dear
+child!" he said, with the tears streaming down his cheeks. "But I
+cannot leave you even this generous hope. This man has other designs.
+I offered--I promised to give Zara to his son, and to ensure to her,
+with my brother's help, a fortune equal to your own. But he would not
+hear of it. He has other views, my Edith. You must know all--you must
+see all as it really is. He will keep his word this very night! If
+before twelve, he do not receive your consent, the intimation of the
+fatal knowledge he possesses will be sent to those who will not fail
+to track it through every step, as the bloodhound follows his prey. He
+is a desperate man, Edith, and will keep his word, bringing down ruin
+upon our heads, even if it overwhelm himself also."
+
+Edith Croyland paused without reply for several minutes, her beautiful
+face remaining pale, with the exception of one glowing spot in the
+centre of her cheek. Her eyes were fixed upon the ground; and her lips
+moved, but without speech. She was arguing in her own mind the case
+between hope and despair; and the terrible array of circumstances on
+every side bewildered her. Delay was her only refuge; and looking up
+in her father's face, she said, "But why is he so hasty? Why cannot he
+wait a few hours longer? I will fix a time when my answer shall be
+given--it shall be shortly, very shortly--this time to-morrow. Surely,
+surely, in so terrible a case, I may be allowed a few hours to
+think--a short, a very short period, to decide."
+
+"He will admit of no more than I have said," answered Sir Robert
+Croyland: "it is as vain to entreat him, as to ask the hangman to
+delay his fatal work. He is hard as iron, without feeling, without
+heart. His reasons, too, are specious, my dear child. His son, it
+seems, has taken part this morning in a smuggling affray with the
+troops--blood has been shed--some of the soldiers have been
+killed--all who have had a share therein are guilty of felony; and it
+has become necessary that the young man should be hurried out of the
+country without delay. To him such a flight is nothing: he has no
+family to blacken with the record of crime--he has no honourable name
+to stain--his means are all prepared; his flight is easy, his escape
+secure; but his father insists that you shall be his bride before he
+goes, or he gives your father up, not to justice, but to the
+law--which in pretending to administer justice, but too often commits
+the very crimes it seems to punish. Four short days are all that he
+allows; and then you are to be that youth's bride."
+
+"What! the bride of a felon!" cried Edith, her spirit rising for a
+moment--"of one stained with every vice and every crime--to vow
+falsely that I will love him whom I must ever hate--to break all my
+promises to one I must ever love--to deceive, prove false and forsworn
+to the noble and the true, and give myself to the base, the lawless,
+and the abhorred! Oh, my father--my father! is it possible that you
+can ask such a thing?"
+
+The fate of Sir Robert Croyland and his daughter hung in the balance.
+One harsh command, one unkind word, with justice and truth on her
+side, and feebleness and wrong on his, might have armed her to resist;
+but the old man's heart was melted. The struggle that he witnessed in
+his child was, for a moment--remark, only for a moment--more terrible
+than that within his own breast. There was something in the innocence
+and truth, something in the higher attributes of the passions called
+into action in her breast, something in the ennobling nature of the
+conflicting feelings of her heart--the filial tenderness, the
+adherence to her engagements, the abhorrence of the bad, the love of
+the good, the truth, the honour, and the piety, all striving one with
+the other, that for a time made the mean passion of fear seem small
+and insignificant. "I do not ask you, my child," he said--"I do not
+urge you--I ask, I urge you no more! The worst bitterness is past. I
+have told my own child the tale of my sorrows, my folly, my weakness,
+and my danger. I have inflicted the worst upon you, Edith, and on
+myself; and I leave it to your own heart to decide. After your
+generous, your noble offer, to sacrifice your property and leave
+yourself nothing, for my sake, it were cruel--it were, indeed, base,
+to urge you farther. To avoid this, dreadful disclosure, to shelter
+you and myself from such horrible details, I have often been stern,
+and harsh, and menacing.--Forgive me, Edith, but it is past! You now
+know what is on the die; and it is your own hand casts it. Your
+father's life, the honour of your family, the high name we have ever
+borne--these are to be lost and won. But I urge it not--I ask it not.
+You only must and can decide."
+
+Edith, who had risen, stood before him, pale as ashes, with her hands
+clasped so tight that the blood retreated from her fingers, where they
+pressed against each other, leaving them as white as those of the
+dead--her eyes fixed, straining, but sightless, upon the ground. All
+that she saw, all that she knew, all that she felt, was the dreadful
+alternative of fates before her. It was more than her frame could
+bear--it was more than almost any human heart could endure. To condemn
+a father to death, to bring the everlasting regret into her heart, to
+wander, as if accurst, over the earth, with a parent's blood crying
+out for vengeance! It was a terrible thought indeed. Then again, she
+remembered the vows that she had taken, the impossibility of
+performing those that were asked of her, the sacrifice of the innocent
+to the guilty, the perjury that she must commit, the dark and dreadful
+future before her, the self-reproach that stood on either hand to
+follow her through life! She felt as if her heart was bursting; and
+the next moment, all the blood seemed to fly from it, and leave it
+cold and motionless. She strove to speak--her voice was choked; but
+then, again, she made an effort; and a few words broke forth,
+convulsively--"To save you, my father, I would do anything," she
+cried. "I _will_ do anything--but----"
+
+She could not finish; her sight failed her; her heart seemed crushed;
+her head swam; the colour left her lips; and she fell prone at her
+father's feet, without one effort to save herself.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland's first proceeding was, to raise her and lay her
+on the sofa; but before he called any one, he gazed at her a moment or
+two in silence. "She has fainted," he said. "Poor child!--Poor girl!"
+But then came another thought: "She said she would do anything," he
+murmured; "her words were, 'I will'--It is surely a consent."
+
+He forgot--he heeded not--he would not heed, that she had added,
+"But----"
+
+"Yes, it was a consent," he repeated; "it must have been a consent. I
+will hasten to tell him. If we can but gain a few days, it is
+something. Who can say what a few days may bring? At all events, it is
+a relief.--It will obtain the delay she wished--I will tell him.--It
+must have been a consent;" and calling the servants and Edith's own
+maid, to attend upon her, he hastened out of the house, fearful of
+waiting till her senses returned, lest other words should snatch from
+him the interpretation he chose to put upon those which had gone
+before. In an instant, however, he returned, went into the library,
+and wrote down on a scrap of paper:--
+
+"Thanks, dearest Edith!--thanks! I go in haste to tell Mr. Radford the
+promise you have given."
+
+Then hurrying out again, he put the paper, which he had folded up,
+into the hands of the groom, who held his horse. "That for Miss
+Croyland," he said, "when she has quite recovered; but not before;"
+and, mounting with speed, he rode away as fast as he could go.
+
+
+
+                           END OF VOL. II.
+
+
+       T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos-street, Covent-garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER:
+
+
+
+                                A Tale
+
+
+
+                       BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+                 "DARNLEY," "DE L'ORME," "RICHELIEU,"
+
+                              ETC. ETC.
+
+
+
+                          IN THREE VOLUMES.
+
+
+                              VOL. III.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+                 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
+                                1845.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE SMUGGLER.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was two o'clock when Sir Robert Croyland left his daughter; and
+Edith, with the aid of her maid, soon recovered from the swoon into
+which she had fallen. At first she hardly knew where she was, or what
+had taken place. All seemed strange to her; for she had never fainted
+before; and though she had more than once seen her sister in the state
+in which she herself had just been, yet she did not apply what she had
+witnessed in others to explain her own sensations.
+
+When she could rise from the sofa, where her father had laid her, and
+thought and recollection returned, Edith's first inquiry was for Sir
+Robert; and the servant's answer that he had been gone a quarter of an
+hour, was at first a relief. But Edith sat and pondered for a while,
+applying herself to call to mind all the last words which had been
+spoken. As she did so, a fear came over her--a fear that her meaning
+might have been mistaken. "No!" she murmured, at length--"no! I said,
+_but_--he must have heard it.--I cannot break those vows--I dare not;
+I would do anything to save him--oh, yes, doom myself to wretchedness
+for life; but I cannot, unless Henry gives me back my promise.--Poor
+Henry! what right have I to make him suffer too?--Yet does he
+suffer?--But a father's life--a father's life! That must not be the
+sacrifice!--Leave me, Caroline--I am better now!" she continued aloud;
+"it is very foolish to faint in this way. It never happened to me
+before."
+
+"Oh dear, Miss Edith! it happens to every one now and then," said the
+maid, who had been in her service long; "and I am sure all Sir Robert
+said to you to-day, was enough to make you."
+
+"Good heaven!" cried Edith; in alarm, "did you hear?"
+
+"I could not help hearing a part, Miss Edith," answered the maid; "for
+in that little room, where I sit to be out of the way of all the black
+fellows, one hears very plain what is said here. There was once a
+door, I believe, and it is only just covered over."
+
+For a moment, Edith sat mute in consternation; but at length demanded,
+"What did you hear? Tell me all, Caroline--every word, if you would
+ever have me regard you more."
+
+"Oh, it was not much, Miss!" replied the maid; "I heard Sir Robert
+twice say, his life depended on it--and I suppose he meant, on your
+marrying young Mr. Radford. Then he seemed to tell you a long story;
+but I did not hear the whole of that; for I did not try, I can assure
+you, Miss Edith; and then I heard you say, 'To save you, my father, I
+would do anything--I _will_ do anything, but--' and then you stopped
+in the middle, because I suppose you fainted."
+
+Edith put her hands before her eyes and thought, or tried to think;
+for her ideas were still in sad confusion. "Leave me now, Caroline,"
+she said; "but, remember, I expect that no part of any conversation
+you have overheard between me and my father, will ever be repeated."
+
+"Oh dear, no, Miss Edith," replied the woman, "I would not on any
+account;" and she left the room.
+
+We all know of what value are ordinary promises of secrecy, even in
+the best society, as it is called. Nine times out of ten, there is one
+dear friend to whom everything is revealed; and that dear friend has
+others; and at each remove, the bond of secrecy is weaker and more
+weak, till the whole world is made a hearer of the tale. Now Edith's
+maid was a very discreet person; and when she promised not to reveal
+what she had heard, she only proposed to herself, to tell it to one
+person in the world. Nor was that person her lover, or her friend, or
+her fellow-servant; nor was she moved by the spirit of gossip, but
+really and truly by a love for her young lady, which was great, and by
+a desire to serve her. Thus, she thought, as soon as she had shut the
+door, "I will tell it to Miss Zara, though; for it is but right that
+she should know how they are driving her sister to marry a man she
+hates, as well she may. Miss Zara is active and quick, and may find
+some means of helping her."
+
+The maid had not been gone a minute, when she returned with the short
+note which Sir Robert Croyland had left; and as she handed it to her
+young mistress, she watched her countenance eagerly. But Edith took
+it, read it, and gazed upon the paper without a word.
+
+"Pray, Miss Edith," said the maid, "are you likely to want me soon;
+for I wish to go up to the village for something?"
+
+"No, Caroline--no," answered Edith, with an absent air; "I shall not
+want you;" and she remained standing with the paper in her hand, and
+her eyes fixed upon it.
+
+The powers by which volition acts upon the mind, and in what volition
+really consists, are mysteries which have never yet, that I have seen,
+been explained. Yet certain it is, that there is something within us
+which, when the intellectual faculties seem, under the pressure of
+circumstances, to lose their functions, can by a great effort compel
+them to return to their duty, rally them, and array them, as it were,
+against the enemy by whom they have been routed. Edith Croyland made
+the effort, and succeeded. She had been taken by surprise, and
+overcome; but now she collected all the forces of her mind, and
+prepared to fight the battle over again. In a few minutes, she became
+calm, and applied herself to consider fully her own situation. There
+were filial duty and tenderness on one side--love and a strong vow on
+the other. "He has gone to tell Mr. Radford that I have consented,"
+was her first distinct thought, "but his having mistaken me, must not
+make me give that consent when it is wrong. Were it myself alone, I
+would sacrifice all for him--I could but die--a few hours of misery
+are not much to bear--I have borne many. But I am bound--Good God!
+what an alternative!"
+
+But I will not follow her thoughts: they can easily be conceived. She
+was left alone, with no one to counsel, with no one to aid her. The
+fatal secret she possessed was a bar to asking advice from any one.
+Buried in her own bosom, the causes of her conduct, the motives upon
+which she acted, must ever be secret, whatever course she pursued.
+Agony was on either hand. She had to choose between two terrible
+alternatives: on the one hand a breach of all her engagements, a few
+years, a few weeks, perhaps, of misery, and an early death--for such
+she knew must be her fate: and, on the other, a life, with love
+certainly to cheer it, but poisoned by the remembrance that she had
+sacrificed her father. Yet Edith now thought firmly, weighed,
+considered all.
+
+She could come to no determination. Between two such gulfs, she shrank
+trembling from either.
+
+The clock in the hall, with its clear, sharp bell, struck three; and
+the moment after, the quick sound of horses' feet was heard. "Can it
+be my father?" she thought. "No! he has not had time--unless he has
+doubted;" but while she asked herself the question, the horses stopped
+at the door, the bell rang; and she went on to say to herself,
+"perhaps it is Zara. That would be a comfort indeed, though I cannot
+tell her--I must not tell her all."
+
+The old Hindoo opened the door, saying "Missy, a gentleman want to see
+you--very fine gentleman."
+
+Edith could not speak; but she bowed her head, and the servant,
+receiving that token as assent, turned to some one behind him and
+said, "Walk in, sir."
+
+For a moment or two, Edith did not raise her eyes, and her lips moved.
+She heard a step in the room, that made her heart flutter; she heard
+the door shut; but yet for an instant she remained with her head bent,
+and her hands clasped together. Then she looked up. Standing before
+her, and gazing intently upon her, was a tall handsome man, dressed in
+the splendid uniform of the dragoons of that time, and with a star
+upon his left breast--a decoration worn by persons who had the right
+to do so, more frequently in those days than at the present time. But
+it was to the face that Edith's eyes were turned--to the countenance
+well known and deeply loved. Changed though it was--grave where it had
+been gay, pale where it had been florid, sterner in the lines, once so
+full of gentle youth--still all the features were there, and the
+expression too, though saddened, was the same.
+
+He gazed on her with a look full of tenderness and love; and their
+eyes met. On both of them the feelings of other years seemed to rush
+with overpowering force. The interval which had since occurred, for a
+moment, was annihilated; the heart went back with the rapid wing of
+Memory, to the hours of joy that were gone; and Leyton opened wide his
+arms, exclaiming, "Edith! Edith!"
+
+She could not resist. She had no power to struggle. Love, stronger
+than herself, was master; and, starting up, she cast herself upon his
+bosom, and there wept.
+
+"Dear, dear girl!" he said, "then you love me still,--then Digby's
+assurance is true--then you have not forgotten poor Harry Leyton--then
+his preserving hope, his long endurance, his unwavering love, his
+efforts, his success, have not been all in vain!--Dear, dear Edith!
+This hour repays me for all--for all. Dangers and adversities, and
+wounds, and anguish of body and of mind, and sleepless nights, and
+days of bitter thought--I would endure them all. All?--ay, tenfold
+all--for this one hour!" and he pressed her closer and closer to his
+heart.
+
+"Nay, Harry--nay," cried Edith, still clinging to him; "but hear me,
+hear me--or if you speak such words of tenderness, you will break my
+heart, or drive me mad."
+
+"Good heaven!" exclaimed Leyton, unclasping his arms, "what is it that
+you say? Edith--my Edith--my own, my vowed, my bride! But now, you
+seemed to share the joy you gave,--to love, as you are loved; and
+now----"
+
+"I do love you--oh! I do love you!" cried Edith, vehemently; "add not
+a doubt of that to all I suffer. Ever, ever have I loved you, without
+change, without thought of change. But yet--but yet--. I may have
+fancied that you have forgotten me--I may have thought it strange that
+you did not write--that my letters remained unanswered; but still I
+loved, still I have been true to you."
+
+"I did write, my Edith. I received no letters," said Leyton, sadly;
+"we have both been wronged, my dear girl. My letters were returned in
+a cover directed in your own hand: but that trick I understand--that I
+see through. Oh, do not let any one deceive you again, beloved girl!
+You have been my chief--I might say my only thought; for the memory of
+you has mingled with every other idea, and made the whole your own. In
+the camp and in the field, I have endured and fought for Edith; in the
+council and in the court, I have struggled and striven for her; she
+has been the end and object of every effort, the ruling power of my
+whole mind. And now, Edith--now your soldier has returned to you. He
+has won every step towards the crowning reward of his endeavours; he
+has risen to competence, to command, to some honour in the service of
+his country; and he can proudly say to her he loves, Cast from you the
+fortune for which men dared to think I sought you--come to your lover,
+come to your husband, as dowerless as he was when they parted us; and
+let all the world see and know, that it was your love, not your
+wealth, I coveted--this dear hand, that dear heart, not base gold,
+that I desired. Oh, Edith, in Heaven's name, cast me not now headlong
+down from the height of hope and joy to which you have raised me, for
+fear a heart and spirit, too long depressed, should never find
+strength to rise again."
+
+Edith staggered back and sank down upon the sofa, covering her eyes,
+and only murmuring--"I do love you, Harry, beyond life itself.--Oh,
+that I were dead!--oh, that I were dead!"
+
+There was a terrible struggle in Henry Leyton's bosom. He could not
+understand the agitation that he witnessed; had it borne anything like
+the character of joy, even of surprise, all would have been clear; but
+it was evidently very different. It was joy overborne by sorrow. It
+was evidently a struggle of love with some influence, perhaps not
+stronger, yet terrible in its effect. He was a man of quick decision
+and strong resolution--qualities not always combined; and he overcame
+himself in a moment. He saw that he was loved--still deeply, truly
+loved; and that was a great point. He saw that Edith was grieved to
+the soul--he saw that he himself could not feel more intensely the
+anguish she inflicted than she did, that she was wringing her own
+heart while she was wringing his, and felt a double pang; and that was
+a strong motive for calmness, if not for fortitude. Her last words, "I
+wish I were dead!" restored him fully to himself; and following her to
+the sofa, he seated himself beside her, gently took her hand in his,
+and pressed his lips upon it.
+
+"Edith," he said--"my own dear Edith, let us be calm! Thank you, my
+beloved, for one moment of happiness, the first I have known for
+years; and now let us talk, as quietly as may be, of anything that may
+have arisen which should justly cause Henry Leyton's return to make
+Edith Croyland wish herself dead. Your uncle will not be long ere he
+arrives; I left him on the road; and it is by his full consent that I
+am here."
+
+"Oh no, Harry--no!" said Edith, turning at first to his comment on her
+words, "it is not your return that makes me wish myself dead; but it
+is, that circumstances--dark and terrible circumstances--which were
+only made known to me an hour before your arrival, have turned all the
+joy, the pure, the almost unmixed joy, that I should have felt at
+seeing you again, into a well of bitterness. It is that I cannot, that
+I dare not explain to you those circumstances--that you will think me
+wrong, unkind--fickle, perhaps,--perhaps even mad, in whatsoever way I
+may act."
+
+"But surely you can say something, dear Edith," said her lover; "you
+can give some hint of the cause of all I see. You tell me in one
+breath that you love me still, yet wish you were dead; and show
+evidently that my coming has been painful to you."
+
+"No, no, Harry," she answered, mournfully, "do not say so. Painful to
+me?--oh, no! It would be the purest joy that ever I yet knew, were it
+not that--But why did you not come earlier, Harry? Why, when your
+horse stood upon that hill, did you not turn his head hither? Would
+that you had, would that you had! My fate would have been already
+decided. Now it is all clouds and darkness. I knew you instantly. I
+could see no feature; I could but trace a figure on horseback, wrapped
+in a large cloak; but the instinct of love told me who it was. Oh! why
+did you not come then?"
+
+"Because it would have been dishonest, Edith," answered Leyton,
+gravely. "Your uncle had been my father's friend, my uncle's friend.
+In a kindly manner he invited me here some time ago, as a perfect
+stranger, under the name of Captain Osborn. You were not here then;
+and I thought I could not in honour come under his roof, when I found
+you were here, without telling him who I really was. He appointed this
+day to meet me at Woodchurch at two; and I dared not venture, after
+all that has passed between your family and mine, to seek you in his
+dwelling, ere I had seen and explained myself to him. I knew you were
+here: I gazed up at these windows with a yearning of the heart that
+nearly overcame my resolution----"
+
+"I saw you gaze, Harry," answered Edith; "and I say still, would that
+you had come.--Yet you were right.--It might have saved me much
+misery; but you were right. And now listen to the fate that is before
+me--to the choice I have to make, as far as I can explain it--and yet
+what words can I use?--But it must be done. I must not leave anything
+unperformed, that can prevent poor Edith Croyland from becoming an
+object of hatred and contempt in Henry Leyton's eyes. Little as I can
+do to defend myself, I must do it."
+
+She paused, gazed up on high for a moment, and then laid her hand upon
+his.
+
+"Henry, I do love you," she said. "Nay, more, I am yours, plighted to
+you by bonds I cannot and I dare not break--vows, I mean, the most
+solemn, as well as the ties of long affection. Yet, if I wed you, I am
+miserable for life. Self-reproach, eternal self-reproach--the most
+terrible of all things--to which no other mental or corporeal pain can
+ever reach, would prey upon my heart for ever, and bear me down into
+the grave. Peace--rest, I should have none. A voice would be for ever
+howling in my ear a name that would poison sleep, and make each waking
+moment an hour of agony. I can tell you no more on this side of the
+question; but so it is. It seems fated that I should bring misery one
+way or another upon him who is dearest to me."
+
+"I cannot comprehend," exclaimed Leyton, in surprise. "Your father has
+heard, I suppose, that I am here, and has menaced you with his curse."
+
+"Oh, no!" answered Edith; "far from it. He was here but now; he spoke
+of you, Henry, as you deserve. He told me how he had loved you and
+esteemed you in your young days; how, though angry at first at our
+rash engagement, he would have consented in the end; but--there was a
+fatal 'but,' Henry--an impediment not to be surmounted. I must not
+tell you what it is--I cannot, I dare not explain. But listen to what
+he said besides. You have heard one part of the choice; hear the
+other: it is to wed a man whom I abhor--despise--contemn--whose very
+look is fearful to me; to ask you to give me back the vows I plighted,
+in order--in order," and she spoke very low, "that I may sacrifice
+myself for my father, that I may linger out a few weeks of
+wretchedness, and then sink into the grave, which is now my only
+hope."
+
+"And do you ask me, Edith?" inquired Leyton, in a sad and solemn
+tone--"do you, Edith Croyland, really and truly ask me to give you
+back those vows? Speak, beloved--speak; for my heart is well nigh
+bursting."
+
+He paused, and she was silent; covering her eyes with her hands, while
+her bosom heaved, as if she were struggling for breath. "No, no, no,
+Harry!" she cried, at length, as if the effort were vain, "I cannot, I
+cannot! Oh, Harry, Harry! I wish that I were dead!" and, casting her
+arms round his neck, she wept upon his breast again.
+
+Henry Leyton drew her closer to him with his left arm round her waist;
+but pressed his right hand on his brow, and gazed on vacancy. Both
+remained without speaking for a time; but at length he said, in a
+voice more calm than might have been expected, "Let us consider this
+matter, Edith. You have been terrified by some means; a tale has
+been told you, which has agitated and alarmed you, which has overcome
+your resolution, that now has endured more than six years, and
+doubtless that tale has been well devised.--Are you sure that it is
+true?--Forgive this doubt in regard to one who is near and dear to
+you; but when such deceits have been practised, as those which we know
+have been used to delude us, I must be suspicious.--Are you sure that
+it is true, I say?
+
+"Too true, too true!"' answered Edith, shaking her head,
+mournfully--"that tale explains all, too,--even those deceits you
+mention. No, no, it is but too true--it could not be feigned--besides,
+I remember so many things, all tending to the same. It is true--I
+cannot doubt it."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton paused, and twice began to speak, but twice stopped,
+as if the words he was about to utter, cost him a terrible struggle to
+speak. At length he said, "And the man, Edith--the man they wish you
+to marry--who is he?"
+
+"Ever the same," answered Edith, bending down her head, and her cheek,
+which had been as pale as death, glowing like crimson--"the same,
+Richard Radford."
+
+"What! a felon!" exclaimed Leyton, turning round, with his brows bent;
+"a felon, after whom my soldiers and the officers of justice are now
+hunting through the country! Sir Robert Croyland must be mad! But I
+tell you, Edith, that man shall never stand within a church again,
+till it be the chapel of the gaol. Let him make his peace with Heaven;
+for if he be caught--and caught he shall be--there is no mercy for him
+on earth. But surely there must be some mistake. You cannot have
+understood your father rightly, or he cannot know----"
+
+"Oh! yes, yes!" replied Edith; "he knows all; and it is the same. Ay,
+and within four days, too--that he may take me with him in his
+flight."
+
+"Ere four days be over," answered her lover, sternly, "he shall no
+more think of bridals."
+
+"And what will become of my father, then!" said Edith, gazing steadily
+down upon the ground. "It is I--I that shall have done it. Alas, alas!
+which way shall I turn?"
+
+There was something more than sorrow in her countenance; there was
+anguish--almost agony; and Sir Henry Leyton was much moved. "Turn to
+me, Edith," he said; "turn to him who loves you better than life; and
+there is no sacrifice that he will not make for you, but his honour.
+Tell me, have you made any promise?--have you given your father your
+consent?"
+
+"No," answered Edith, eagerly; "no, I have not. He took my words as
+consent, though ere they were half finished, the horror and pain of
+all I heard overcame me, and I fainted. But I did not consent,
+Harry--I could not consent, without your permission.--Oh, Harry, aid
+and support me!"
+
+"Listen to me, my beloved," replied Leyton; "wealth, got by any means,
+is this man's object. I gather from what you say, that your father has
+some cause to dread him--give up to him this much-coveted fortune--let
+him take it--ay, and share Henry Leyton's little wealth. I desire
+nothing but yourself."
+
+"Alas, Henry, it is all in vain!" answered Edith; "I have offered it--I
+knew your noble, generous heart. I knew that wealth would make no
+difference to him I loved, and offered to resign everything. My
+father, even before he came hither, offered him my sister--offered to
+make her the sacrifice, as she is bound by no promises, and to give
+her an equal portion; but it was all refused."
+
+"Then there is some other object," said her lover; "some object that
+may, perhaps, tend even to more misery than you dream of, Edith.
+Believe me, my beloved--oh! believe me, did I but see how I could
+deliver you--were I sure that any act of mine would give you peace, no
+sacrifice on my part would seem too great. At present, however, I see
+nothing clearly--all is darkness and shadow around. I know not, that
+if I give you back your promise, and free you from your vow, that I
+shall not be contributing to make you wretched. How, then, am I to
+act? You are sure, dear one, that you have not consented?"
+
+"Quite sure," answered Edith; "and it so happened, that there was one
+who heard my words as well as my father. He, indeed, took them as
+consent, and hurried away to Mr. Radford, without giving me time to
+recover and say more. Read that, Harry," and she put the note her
+father had left into his hands.
+
+"It is fortunate you were heard by another," replied Leyton. "Hark!
+there is your uncle's carriage coming.--Four days, did he say--four
+days? Well, then, dear Edith, will you trust in me? Will you leave
+your fate in the hands of one who will do anything on earth for your
+happiness?--and will you never doubt, though you may be kept in
+suspense, that I will so act as to deliver you, if I can, without
+bringing ruin on your father."
+
+"It is worse than ruin," answered Edith, with the tears rolling down
+her cheeks--"it is death. But I will trust to you, Henry--I will trust
+implicitly. But tell me how to act--tell me what I am to do."
+
+"Leave this matter as it is," answered her lover, hearing Mr.
+Croyland's carriage stop at the door;--"your father has snatched too
+eagerly at your words. Perhaps he has done so to gain time; but, at
+all events, the fault is his, not yours. If he speaks to you on the
+subject, you must tell the truth, and say you did not consent; but in
+everything else be passive--let him do with you what he will--take you
+to the altar, if he so pleases; but there must be the final struggle,
+Edith. There you must boldly and aloud refuse to wed a man you cannot
+love. There let the memory of your vows to me be ever present with
+you. It may seem cruel; but I exact it for your own sake. In the
+meantime, take means to let me know everything that happens, be it
+small or great--cast off all reserve towards Digby; tell him all,
+everything that takes place; tell your sister, too, or any one who can
+bear me the tidings. I shall be nearer than you think."
+
+"Oh, Heaven, how will this end!" cried Edith, putting her hand in
+his--"God help me, Harry--God help me!"
+
+"He will, dear girl," answered Leyton--"I feel sure he will. But
+remember what I have said. Fail not to tell Digby, or Zara, or any one
+who can bear the tidings to me, everything that occurs, every word
+that is spoken, every step that is taken. Think nothing too trifling.
+But there is your uncle's voice in the passage. Can you not inform him
+of that which you think yourself bound not to tell me? I mean the
+particulars of your father's situation."
+
+"No; oh no!" replied Edith--"I dare tell no one, especially not my
+uncle. Though kind, and generous, and benevolent, yet he is hasty, and
+he might ruin all. Dared I tell any one on earth, Henry, it would be
+you; and if I loved you before--oh, how I must love you now, when
+instead of the anger, or even heat, which I expected you to display,
+you have shown yourself ready to sacrifice all for one who is hardly
+worthy of you."
+
+Leyton pressed her to his bosom, and replied, "Real love is unselfish,
+Edith. I tell you, dearest, that I die if I lose you; yet, Edith
+Croyland shall never do what is wrong for Henry Leyton's sake. If in
+the past we did commit an error, if I should not have engaged you by
+vows without your parent's consent--though God knows that error has
+been bitterly visited on my head!--I am still ready to make atonement
+to the best of my power; but I will not consent that you should be
+causelessly made miserable, or sacrifice yourself and me, without
+benefit to any one. Trust to me, Edith--trust to me."
+
+"I will, I will!" answered Edith Croyland; "who can I trust to else?"
+
+Mr. Croyland was considerate; and knowing that Sir Henry Leyton was
+with his niece--for his young friend had passed him on the road--he
+paused for a moment in the vestibule, giving various orders and
+directions, in order to afford them a few minutes more of private
+conversation. When he went in, he was surprised to find Edith's face
+full of deep grief, and her eyes wet with tears, and still more when
+Leyton, after kissing her fair cheek, advanced towards him, saying, "I
+must go, my dear friend, nor can I accept your kind invitation to stay
+here to-night. But I am about to show myself a bold man, and ask you
+to give me almost the privilege of a son--that is, of coming and
+going, for the four or five next days, at my own will, and without
+question."
+
+"What's all this?--what's all this?" cried Mr. Croyland; "a lovers'
+quarrel?--Ha, Edith? Ha, Harry?"
+
+"Oh, no," answered Edith, giving her uncle her hand; "there never can
+be a quarrel between me and Henry Leyton."
+
+"Well, then, what is it all?" exclaimed Mr. Croyland, turning
+from one to the other. "Mystery--mystery! I hate mystery, Harry
+Leyton.--However, you shall have your privilege; the doors shall be
+open. Come--go--do what you like. But if you are not a great fool, you
+will order over a post-chaise and four this very night, put her in,
+and be off for Gretna Green. I'll give you my parental benediction."
+
+"I am afraid, my dear sir," answered Leyton, "that cannot be. Edith
+has told me various things since I saw her, which require to be dealt
+with in a different way. I trust, that in whatever I do, my conduct
+will be such as to give you satisfaction; and whether the result be
+fortunate or otherwise, I shall never, till the last hour of life,
+forget the kindness you have shown me. And now, my dear sir, adieu for
+the present, for I have much to do this night."
+
+Thus saying, he shook the old gentleman's hand, and departed with a
+heavy heart and anxious mind. During his onward ride, his heart did
+not become lighter; his mind was only more burdened with cares. As
+long as he was in Edith's presence, he had borne up and struggled
+against all that he felt; for he saw that she was already overwhelmed
+with grief, and he feared to add to it; but now his thoughts were all
+confusion. With incomplete information--in circumstances the most
+difficult--anxious to save her he loved, even at any sacrifice on his
+own part, yet seeing no distinct means of acting in any direction
+without danger to her--he looked around him in vain for any resource;
+or, if he formed a plan one moment, he rejected it the next. He knew
+Edith's perfect truth, he knew the quiet firmness and power of her
+mind too well to doubt one tittle of that which she had stated; and
+though at first sight he thought the proofs he possessed of Mr.
+Radford's participation in the late smuggling transaction were quite
+sufficient to justify that person's immediate arrest, and proposed
+that it should take place immediately, yet the next moment he
+recollected what might be the result to Sir Robert Croyland, and
+hesitated how to act. Then, again, he turned his eyes to the
+circumstances in which Edith's father was placed, and asked himself,
+what could be the mystery which so terribly overshadowed him? Edith
+had said that his life was at stake; and Leyton tortured his
+imagination in vain to find some explanation of such a fact.
+
+"Can he have been deceiving her?" he asked himself more than once. But
+then, again, he answered, "No, it must be true! He can have no
+ordinary motive in urging her to such a step; his whole character, his
+whole views are against it. Haughty and ostentatious, there must be
+some overpowering cause to make him seek to wed his daughter to a low
+ruffian--the son of an upstart, who owed his former wealth to fraud,
+and who is now, if all tales be true, nearly bankrupt,--to wed Edith,
+a being of grace, of beauty, and of excellence, to a villain like
+this--a felon and a fugitive--and to send her forth into the wide
+world, to share the wanderings of a man she hates! The love of life
+must be a strange thing in some men. One would have thought that a
+thousand lives were nothing to such a sacrifice. Yet, the tale must be
+true; this old man must have Sir Robert's life in his power. But
+how--how? that is the question. Perhaps Digby can discover something.
+At all events, I must see him without delay."
+
+In such thoughts, Sir Henry Leyton rode on fast to Woodchurch,
+accomplishing in twenty minutes that which took good Mr. Croyland with
+his pampered horses, more than an hour to perform; and springing from
+his charger at the door of the inn, he was preparing to go up and
+write to Sir Edward Digby, when Captain Irby, on the one hand, and his
+own servant on the other, applied for attention.
+
+"Mr. Warde is up stairs, sir," said the servant; "he has been waiting
+about half an hour."
+
+But Leyton turned to the officer, asking, "What is it, Captain Irby?"
+
+"Two or three of the men, sir, who have been taken," replied Captain
+Irby, "have expressed a wish to make a statement. One of them is badly
+wounded, too; but I did not know how to act till you arrived, as we
+had no magistrate here."
+
+"Was it quite voluntary?" demanded the young officer; "no inducements
+held out--no questions asked?"
+
+"Quite voluntary, sir," answered the other. "They sent to ask for you;
+and when I went, in your absence, they told me what it was they
+desired; but I refused to take the deposition till you arrived, for
+fear of getting myself into a scrape."
+
+"It must be taken," replied the colonel. "Of whatever value it may be
+judged hereafter, we must not refuse it when offered. I will come to
+them in a moment, Irby;" and entering the house, but without going up
+stairs, he wrote a few lines, in the bar, to Sir Edward Digby,
+requesting to see him without delay. Then, calling his servant, he
+said, "Tell Mr. Warde I will be with him in a few minutes; after
+which, mount yourself, and carry this note over to Harbourne House, to
+Sir Edward Digby. Give it into his own hand; but remember, it is my
+wish that you should not mention my name there at all. Do you know the
+place?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the man; and, leaving him to fulfil his errand,
+the colonel returned to the door of the house, to accompany Captain
+Irby.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+We mast now return for a time to Harbourne House, where, after Sir
+Robert Croyland's departure, his guest had endeavoured in vain, during
+the whole morning, to obtain a few minutes' private conversation with
+the baronet's youngest daughter. Now, it was not in the least degree,
+that Mrs. Barbara's notions of propriety interfered to prevent the two
+young people from being alone together; for, on the contrary, Mrs.
+Barbara was a very lenient and gentle-minded person, and thought
+it quite right that any two human beings who were likely to fall in
+love with each other, should have every opportunity of doing so, to
+their hearts' content. But it so happened, from a sort of fatality
+which hung over all her plans, that whenever she interfered with
+anything,--which, indeed, she always did, with everything she could
+lay her hands upon,--the result was sure to be directly the contrary
+to that which she intended. It might be, indeed, that she did not
+always manage matters quite judiciously, that she acted without
+considering all the circumstances of the case; and undoubtedly it
+would have been quite as well if she had not acted at all when she was
+not asked.
+
+In the present instance, when she had remained in the drawing-room
+with her niece and Sir Edward, for near half an hour after her brother
+had departed, it just struck her that they might wish to be alone
+together; for she had made up her mind by this time, that the young
+officer's visit was to end in a love affair; and, as the very best
+means of accomplishing the desired object, instead of going to speak
+with the housekeeper, or to give orders to the dairy-maid, or to talk
+to the steward,--as any other prudent, respectable, and well-arranged
+aunt would have done--she said to her niece, as if a sudden thought
+had occurred to her, "I don't think Sir Edward Digby has ever seen the
+library. Zara, my dear, you had better show it to him. There are some
+very curious books there, and the manuscript in vellum, with all the
+kings' heads painted."
+
+Zara felt that it was rather a coarse piece of work which her aunt had
+just turned out of hand; and being a little too much susceptible of
+ridicule, she did not like to have anything to do with it, although,
+to say the truth, she was very anxious herself for the few minutes
+that Mrs. Barbara was inclined to give her.
+
+"Oh, I dare say, my dear aunt," she replied, "Sir Edward Digby does
+not care anything about old books!--I don't believe they have been
+opened for these fifty years."
+
+"The greater the treasure, Miss Croyland," answered the young officer;
+"I can assure you nothing delights me more than an old library; so I
+think I shall go and find it out myself, if you are not disposed to
+show it to me."
+
+Zara Croyland remembered, with a smile, that Sir Edward Digby had met
+with no great difficulty in finding it out for himself on a previous
+occasion. She rose, however, with her colour a little heightened; for
+his invitation was a very palpable one, and she did not know what
+conclusions her aunt might be pleased to draw, or to insinuate to
+others; and, leading the way towards the library, she opened the door,
+expecting to find the room untenanted. There, however, before her
+eyes, standing opposite to a book-case, with a large folio volume of
+divinity in his hand, stood the clergyman of the parish; and he
+instantly turned round his head, with spectacles on nose, and advanced
+to pay his respects to Miss Croyland and Sir Edward Digby. Now, the
+clergyman was a very worthy man; but he had one of those
+peculiarities, which, if peculiarities were systematically classed,
+would be referred to the bore genus. He was frequently unaware of when
+people had had enough of him; and consequently on the present
+occasion--after he had informed Zara, that finding that her father was
+out, he had taken the liberty of walking into the library to look at a
+book he wanted--he put back that book, and attacked Sir Edward Digby,
+totis viribus, upon the state of the weather, the state of the
+country, and the state of the smugglers. The later topic, as it was
+the predominant one in every man's mind at that moment, and in that
+part of the country, occupied him rather longer than a sermon, though
+his parishioners occasionally thought his sermons quite sufficiently
+extensive for any sleep-resisting powers of the human frame to
+withstand; and then, when Sir Edward and Zara, forgetting, in the
+interest which they seemed to take in his discourse, that they had
+come into the library to look at the books, walked out upon the
+terrace, he walked out with them; and as they turned up and down, he
+turned up and down also, for full an hour.
+
+Zara could almost have cried in the end; but, as out of the basest
+refuse of our stable-yards, grow the finest flowers of our gardens, so
+good is ever springing up from evil; and in the end the worthy
+clergyman gave his two companions the first distinct account which
+they had received of the dispersion of Mr. Radford's band of
+smugglers, and of the eager pursuit of young Radford which was taking
+place throughout the country. Thus passed the morning, with one event
+or other of little consequence, presenting obstacles to any free
+communication between two people, who were almost as desirous of some
+private conversation as if they had been lovers.
+
+A little before three o'clock, however, Zara Croyland who had been
+looking out of the window, suddenly quitted the drawing-room; and Sir
+Edward Digby, who maintained his post, was left to entertain Mrs.
+Barbara, which he did to the best of his abilities. He was still in
+full career, a little enjoying, to say sooth, some of the good lady's
+minor absurdities, when Zara re-entered the room with a quick step,
+and a somewhat eager look. Her fair cheek was flushed too; and her
+face had in it that sort of determined expression which often betrays
+that there has been a struggle in the mind, as to some step about to
+be taken, and that victory has not been achieved without an effort.
+
+"Sir Edward Digby," she said, in a clear and distinct tone, "I want to
+speak with you for a few moments, if you please."
+
+Mrs. Barbara looked shocked, and internally wondered that Zara could
+not have made some little excuse for engaging Sir Edward in private
+conversation.
+
+"She might have asked him to go and see a flower, or offered to play
+him a tune on the harpsichord, or taken him to look at the dovecot, or
+anything," thought Mrs. Barbara.
+
+The young officer, however, instantly started up, and accompanied his
+fair inviter towards the library, to which she led the way with a
+hurried and eager step.
+
+"Let us come in here!" she said, opening the door; but the moment she
+was within, she sank into a chair and clasped her hands together.
+
+Sir Edward Digby shut the door, and then advanced towards her, a good
+deal surprised and somewhat alarmed by the agitation he saw her
+display. She did not speak for a moment, as if completely overpowered,
+and feeling for her more deeply than he himself knew, her companion
+took her hand and tried to soothe her, saying, "Be calm--be calm, my
+dear Miss Croyland! You know you can trust in me, and if I can aid you
+in any way, command me."
+
+"I know not what to do, or what to say," cried Zara; "but I am sure,
+Sir Edward, you will find excuses for me; and therefore I will make
+none--though I may perhaps seem somewhat bold in dealing thus with one
+whom I have only known a few days."
+
+"There are circumstances which sometimes make a few days equal to many
+years," replied Sir Edward Digby. "It is so, my dear young lady, with
+you and I. Therefore, without fear or hesitation, tell me what it is
+that agitates you, and how I can serve you. I am not fond of making
+professions; but if it be in human power, it shall be done."
+
+"I know not, whether it can be done or not," said Zara; "but if not,
+there is nothing but ruin and desolation for two people, whom we both
+love. You saw my father set out this morning. Did you remark the
+course he took? It was over to my uncle's, for I watched him from the
+window. He passed back again some time ago, but then struck off
+towards Mr. Radford's. All that made me uneasy; but just now, I saw
+Edith's maid coming up towards the house; and eager for tidings, I
+hurried away.--Good Heavens, what tidings she has borne me!"
+
+"They must be evil ones, I see," answered Digby; "but I trust not such
+as to preclude all chance of remedying what may have gone wrong. When
+two or three people act together zealously, dear lady, there are very
+few things they cannot accomplish."
+
+"Yes, but how to explain!" exclaimed Zara; "yet I must be short; for
+otherwise my aunt will be in upon us. Now, Sir Edward Digby," she
+continued, after thinking for a moment, "I know you are a man of
+honour--I am sure you are; and I ask you to pledge me that honour,
+that you will never reveal to any one what I am going to tell you; for
+I know not whether I am about to do right or wrong--whether, in trying
+to save one, I may not be bringing down ruin upon others. Do you give
+me your honour?"
+
+"Most assuredly!" answered her companion. "I will never repeat a word
+that you say, unless with your permission, on my honour!"
+
+"Well, then," replied Zara, in a faint voice, "Mr. Radford has my
+father's life in his power. How, I know not--how, I cannot tell. But
+so it is; and such are the tidings that Caroline has just brought us.
+Mr. Radford's conference with him this morning was not for nothing.
+Immediately after, he went over to Edith; he told her some tale which
+the girl did not distinctly hear; but, it seems, some paper which Mr.
+Radford possesses was spoken of, and the sum of the whole matter was,
+that my poor, sweet sister was told, if she did not consent, within
+four days, to marry that hateful young man, she would sacrifice her
+father's life. He left her fainting, and has ridden over to bear her
+consent to Mr. Radford."
+
+"But, did she consent?" exclaimed Sir Edward Digby, in surprise and
+consternation--"Did she really yield?"
+
+"No--no!" answered Zara, "she did not! The girl said she heard her
+words, and they were not in truth a consent. But my father chose to
+take them as such, and left her even before she recovered."
+
+I have already shown the effect of the same account upon Sir Henry
+Leyton, with all the questions which it suggested to his mind; and the
+impression produced upon his friend, as a man of sense and a man of
+the world, were so similar, that it may be needless to give any
+detailed statement of his first observations or inquiries. Zara soon
+satisfied him, however, that the tale her father had told, was not a
+mere device to frighten Edith into a compliance with his wishes; and
+then came the question, What was to be done?
+
+"It is, in truth, a most painful situation in which your sister is
+placed," said Digby, after some consideration; "but think you that
+this man, this Radford, cannot be bought off? Money must be to him--if
+he be as totally ruined as people say--the first consideration; and I
+know Leyton so well, that I can venture to promise nothing of that
+kind shall stand in the way, if we can but free your sister from the
+terrible choice put before her."
+
+Zara shook her head sadly, saying, "No; that hope is vain!--The girl
+tells me," she added, with a faint smile, which was quickly succeeded
+by a blush, "that she heard my father say, he had offered me--poor me!
+to Richard Radford, with the same fortune as Edith, but had been
+refused."
+
+"And would you have consented?" demanded Sir Edward Digby, in a more
+eager tone than he had yet used.
+
+"Nay," replied Zara, "that has nought to do with the present question.
+Suffice it, that this proves that gold is not his only object."
+
+"Nay, but answer me," persevered her companion; "would you have
+consented? It may have much to do with the question yet." He fixed his
+eyes gravely upon her face, and took the fair, small hand, that lay
+upon the arm of the chair, in his.--It was something very like making
+love, and Zara felt a strange sensation at her heart; but she turned
+away her face, and answered, with a very pale cheek, "I would die for
+my father, Sir Edward; but I could not wed Richard Radford."
+
+Sir Edward raised her hand to his lips, and pressed them on it. "I
+thought so!" he said--"I thought so! And now, heart, and mind, and
+hand, and spirit, to save your sister, Zara! I have hunted many a fox
+in my day, and I don't think the old one of Radford Hall will escape
+me. The greatest difficulty is, not to compromise your father in any
+way; but that shall be cared for, too, to the very best of my power,
+be assured. Henceforth, dear lady, away with all reserve between us.
+While I am in this house, it will be absolutely necessary for you to
+communicate with me freely, and probably very often. Have no
+hesitation; have no scruple as to hour, or manner, or means. Trust to
+my honour as you have trusted this day; and you shall never find it
+fail you. I will enter into such explanations with my servant, Somers,
+in regard to poor Leyton, as will make him think it nothing strange,
+if you send him for me at any time. He is as discreet as a privy
+councillor; and you must, therefore, have no hesitation."
+
+"I will not," answered Zara; "for I would do anything to save my
+sister from such a fate; and I do believe you will not think--you will
+not imagine----"
+
+She paused in some confusion; and Sir Edward Digby answered, with a
+smile--but a kindly and a gentlemanly one, "Let my imagination do as
+it will, Zara. Depend upon it, it shall do you no wrong; and believe
+me when I say, that I can hardly feel so much pain at these
+circumstances as I otherwise might, since they bring me into such near
+and frequent communication with you."
+
+"Hush, hush!" she answered, somewhat gravely; "I can think of nothing
+now but my poor sister; and you must not, Sir Edward, by one
+compliment, or fine speech--nay, nor by one kind speech either," she
+added, laying her hand upon his arm, and looking up in his face, with
+a glowing cheek--"for I know you mean it as kind--you must not,
+indeed, throw any embarrassment over an intercourse, which is
+necessary at present, and which is my only hope and resource, in the
+circumstances in which we are placed. So now tell me what you are
+going to do; for you seemed, but now, as if you were about to set out
+somewhere."
+
+"I am going to Woodchurch instantly," replied Digby. "Sir Henry Leyton
+must be there still----"
+
+"Sir Henry Leyton!" exclaimed Zara; "then he has, indeed, been a
+successful campaigner."
+
+"Most successful, and most deservedly so," answered his friend. "No
+man but Wolfe won more renown; and if he can but gain this battle,
+Leyton will have all that he desires on earth. But I will not stay
+here, skirmishing on the flanks, dear lady, while the main body is
+engaged. I will ride over as fast as possible, see Leyton, consult
+with him, and be back, if possible, by dinner time. If not, you must
+tell your father not to wait for me, as I was suddenly called away on
+business."
+
+"But how shall I know the result of your expedition?" demanded Zara;
+"we shall be surrounded, I fear, by watchful eyes."
+
+"We must trust to fortune and our own efforts to afford us some means
+of communication," replied Digby. "But remember, dearest lady, that
+for this great object, you have promised to cast away all reserve. For
+the time, at least, you must look upon Edward Digby as a brother, and
+treat him as such."
+
+"That I will!" answered the fair girl, heartily; and Digby, leaving
+her to explain their conduct to her aunt as she best might, ordered
+his horse, and rode away towards Woodchurch, in haste.
+
+Pulling in his rein at the door of the little inn, he inquired which
+was Sir Henry Leyton's room, and was directed up stairs; but on
+opening the door of the chamber which had been pointed out, he found
+no one in it, but the somewhat strange-looking old man, whom we have
+once before seen with Leyton, at Hythe.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Warde, you here!" exclaimed Sir Edward Digby. "Leyton told me
+you were in England. But where is he? I have business of some
+importance to talk with him upon;" and as he spoke, he shook the old
+man's hand warmly.
+
+"I know you have," answered Mr. Warde, gazing upon him--"at least, I
+can guess that such is the case.--So have I; and doubtless the subject
+is the same."
+
+"Nay, I should think not," refilled Digby; "mine refers only to
+private affairs."
+
+The old man smiled; and that sharp featured, rude countenance assumed
+an expression of indescribable sweetness: "Mine is the same," he said.
+"You come to speak of Edith Croyland--so do I."
+
+"Indeed!" cried his companion, a good deal surprised; "you are a
+strange being, Mr. Warde. You seem to learn men's secrets, whether
+they will or not."
+
+"There is nothing strange on earth, but man's blindness," answered the
+other; "everything is so simple, when once explained, that its
+simplicity remains the only marvel.--But here he comes. Let me
+converse with him first. Then, when he is aware of all that I know,
+you shall have my absence, or my presence, as it suits you."
+
+While he was speaking, the voice of Henry Leyton was heard below, and
+then his step upon the stairs; and, before Digby could answer, he was
+in the room. His face was grave, but not so cloudy as it had been when
+he returned to Woodchurch, half-an-hour before. He welcomed Mr. Warde
+frankly, and cordially; but turned immediately to Sir Edward Digby,
+saying, "You have been quick indeed, Digby. I could not have conceived
+that my letter had reached you."
+
+"I got no letter," answered Digby; "perhaps it missed me on the way;
+for, the corn being down, I came straight across the country."
+
+"It matters not--it matters not," answered Leyton; "so you are
+here--that is enough. I have much to say to you, and that of immediate
+importance."
+
+"I know it already," answered Digby. "But here is our good friend,
+Warde, who seems to have something to say to you on the same subject."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton turned towards the old man with some surprise. "I
+think Digby must be mistaken," he said, "for though, I am aware, from
+what you told me some little time ago, that you have been in this part
+of the country before, yet it must have been long ago, and you can
+know nothing of the events which have affected myself since."
+
+The old man smiled, and shook his head. "I know more than you
+imagine," he answered. "It is, indeed, long since first I was in this
+land; but not so long since I was here last; and all its people and
+its things, its woods, its villages, its hills, are as familiar to
+me--ay, more so than to you. Of yourself, Leyton, and your fate, I
+also know much--I might say I know all; for certainly I know more than
+you do, can do more than you are able to do, will do more than you
+can. To show you what I know; I will give you a brief summary of your
+own history--at least, that part of it, of which you think I know
+nothing. Young, eager, and impatient, you were thrown constantly into
+the society of one, good, beautiful, gentle, and true. You had much
+encouragement from those who should not have given it, unless they had
+the intention of continuing it to the end. You loved, and were
+beloved; and then, in the impatience of your boyish ardour, you bound
+Edith Croyland to yourself, without her parent's knowledge and
+consent, by vows which, whatever human laws may say, are indissoluble
+by the law of Heaven; and therein you did wrong. It was a great
+error.--Do I say right?"
+
+"It was, indeed," answered Sir Henry Leyton, casting down his eyes
+sternly on the ground--"it was, indeed."
+
+"More--I will tell you more," continued Mr. Warde; "you have bitterly
+repented it, and bitterly suffered for it. You are suffering even
+now."
+
+"Not for it," replied the young officer--"not for it. My sufferings
+are not consequences of my fault."
+
+"You are wrong," answered the old man; "wrong, as you will find. But I
+will go on, and tell you what you have done this day. Those who have
+behaved ill to you have been punished likewise; and their punishment
+is working itself out, but sweeping you in within its vortex. You have
+been over to see Edith Croyland. She has told you her tale. You have
+met in love, and parted in sorrow.--Is it not so? And now you know not
+which way to turn for deliverance."
+
+"It is so, indeed, my good friend," said Leyton, sadly; "but how you
+have discovered all this, I cannot divine."
+
+"That has nought to do with the subject," answered Warde. "Now tell
+me, Leyton, tell me--and remember you are dearer to me than you
+know--are you prepared to make atonement for your fault? The only
+atonement in your power--to give back to Edith the vows she plighted,
+to leave her free to act as she may judge best. I have marked you
+well, as you know, for years. I have seen you tried as few men,
+perhaps, are tried; and you have come out pure and honest. The last
+trial is now arrived; and I ask you here, before your friend, your
+worldly friend, if you are ready to act honestly still, and to annul
+engagements that you had no right to contract?"
+
+"I am," answered Sir Henry Leyton; "I am, if----"
+
+"Ay, if! There is ever an 'if'  when men would serve their own
+purposes against their conscience," said Mr. Warde, sternly.
+
+"Nay, but hear me, my good friend," replied the young officer. "I have
+every respect for you. Your whole character commands it and deserves
+it, as well as your profession; but, at the same time, though I may
+think fit to answer you candidly, in matters where I would reject any
+other man's interference, yet I must shape my answer as I think
+proper, and rule my conduct according to my own views. You must,
+therefore, hear me out. I say that I am ready to give back to Edith
+Croyland the vows she plighted me, to set her free from all
+engagements, to leave her, as far as possible, as if she had never
+known Henry Leyton, whatever pang it may cost me--_if_ it can be
+proved to me that by so doing I have not given her up to misery, as
+well as myself. My own wretchedness I can bear--I have borne it long,
+cheered by one little ray of hope. I can bear it still, even though
+that light go out; but to know that by any act of mine--however
+seemingly generous, or, as you term it, honest--I had yielded her up
+to a life of anguish, that I could not bear. Show me that this will
+not be the case; and, as I have said before, I am ready to make the
+sacrifice, if it cost me life. Nay, more: I returned hither prepared,
+if at the last, and with every effort to avert it, I found that
+circumstances of which I know not the extent, rendered the keeping of
+her vows to me more terrible in its consequences than her union with
+another, however hateful he may be,--I came hither prepared, I say, in
+such a case, to set her free; and I will do it!"
+
+The old man took both his hands, and gazed on him with a look of glad
+satisfaction. "Honest to the last," he said--"honest to the last! The
+resolution to do this, is as good as the deed; for I know you are not
+one to fail where you have resolved.--But those who might exact the
+sacrifice are not worthy of it. Your willingness has made the
+atonement, Leyton; and I will deliver you from your difficulty."
+
+"You, Mr. Warde!" exclaimed Sir Edward Digby; "I cannot suppose that
+you really have the power; or, perhaps, after all, you do not know the
+whole circumstances."
+
+"Hush, hush, young man!" answered Warde, with a wave of the hand; "I
+know all, I see all, where you know little or nothing. You are a good
+youth, as the world goes--better than most of your bad class and
+station; but these matters are above you. Listen to me, Leyton. Did
+not Edith tell you that her father had worked upon her, by fears for
+his safety--for his honour--for his life, perhaps?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," exclaimed Leyton, eagerly, and with a ray of hope
+beginning to break upon him. "Was the tale not true, then?"
+
+"I guessed so," answered the old man. "I was sure that would be the
+course at last. Nevertheless, the tale he told was true--too true. It
+was forced from him by circumstances. Yet, I have said I will deliver
+you from your difficulty; and I will. Pursue your own course; as you
+have commenced, go on to the end. I ask you not now to give Edith back
+her promises. Nay, I tell you, that her misery, her wretchedness--ay,
+tenfold more than any you could suffer--would be the consequence, if
+you did so. Let her go on firmly in her truth to the last; but tell
+her, that deliverance will come. Now I leave you; but, be under no
+doubt. Your course is clear; do all you can by your own efforts to
+save her; but it is I who must deliver her in the end."
+
+Without any further farewell, he turned and left the room; and Sir
+Henry Leyton and his friend remained for a minute or two in thought.
+
+"His parting advice is the best," said Digby, at length; "and
+doubtless you will follow it, Leyton; but, of course, you will not
+trust so far to the word of a madman, as to neglect any means that may
+present themselves."
+
+"He is not mad," answered Leyton, shaking his head. "When first he
+joined us in Canada, before the battle of Quebec, I thought as you do;
+but he is not mad, Digby. There are various shades of reason; and
+there may be a slight aberration in his mind from the common course of
+ordinary thought. He may be wrong in his reasonings, rash in his
+opinions, somewhat overexcited in imagination; but that is not
+madness. His promises give me hope, I will confess; but still I will
+act as if they had not been made. Now let us speak of our plans; and
+first tell me what has taken place at Harbourne; for you seem to know
+all the particulars already, which I sent for you to communicate,
+though how you learned them I cannot divine."
+
+"Oh, my dear Leyton, if I were to tell you all that has happened,"
+replied Sir Edward Digby, "I should have to go on as long as a
+Presbyterian minister, or a popular orator. I had better keep to the
+point;" and he proceeded to relate to his friend the substance of the
+conversation which had last taken place between himself and Zara.
+
+"It is most fortunate," answered Leyton, "that dear girl has thus
+become acquainted with the facts; for Edith would not have told her,
+and now we have some chance of obtaining information of all that
+occurs, which must be our great security. However--since I returned, I
+have obtained valuable information, which puts good Mr. Radford's
+liberty, if not his life, in my power. Three of the men whom we have
+taken, distinctly state that he sent them upon this expedition
+himself--armed, and mounted them; and therefore he is a party to the
+whole transaction. I have sent off a messenger to Mowle, the
+officer--as faithful and as true a fellow as ever lived--begging him
+to bring me up, without a moment's delay, a magistrate in whom he can
+trust; for one of the men is at the point of death, and all the
+justices round this place are so imbued with the spirit of smuggling,
+that I do not choose the depositions to be taken by them. I have
+received and written down the statements made, before witnesses; and
+the men have signed them; but I have no power in this case to
+administer an oath. As soon as the matter is in more formal train, I
+shall insist upon the apprehension of Mr. Radford, whatever be the
+consequences to Sir Robert Croyland; for here my duty to the country
+is concerned, and the very powers with which I am entrusted, render it
+imperative upon me so to act."
+
+"If you can catch him--if you can catch him!" replied Sir Edward
+Digby. "But be sure, my dear Leyton, if he once discovers that you
+have got such a hold upon him, he will take care to render that matter
+difficult. You may find it troublesome, also, to get a magistrate to
+act as you desire; for they are all of the same leaven; and I fancy
+you have no power to do anything yourself except in aid and support of
+the civil authorities. You must be very careful, too, not to exceed
+your commission, where people might suspect that personal feelings are
+concerned."
+
+"Personal feelings shall not bias me, Digby, even in the slightest
+degree," replied his friend. "I will act towards Mr. Radford, exactly
+as I would towards any other man who had committed this offence; and,
+as to the imputation of motives, I can well afford to treat such
+things with contempt. Were I, indeed, to act as I wish, I should not
+pursue this charge against the chief offender, in order not to bring
+down his vengeance suddenly upon Sir Robert Croyland's head, or should
+use the knowledge I possess merely to impose silence upon him through
+fear. But my duty is plain and straightforward; and it must be done.
+As to my powers, they are more extensive than you suppose. Indeed, I
+would have sooner thrown up my commission, than have undertaken a
+service I disliked, without sufficient authority to execute it
+properly. Thus, if no magistrate could be found to act as I might
+require, I would not scruple, with the aid of any officer of Customs,
+or even without, to apprehend this man on my own responsibility. But I
+think we shall easily find one who will do his duty."
+
+"At all events," replied Sir Edward Digby, "you had better be
+cautious, my dear Leyton. If you are not too quick in your movements,
+you may perhaps trap the old bird and the young one together; and that
+will be a better day's sport than if you only got a single shot."
+
+"Heaven send it may be before these fatal four days are over!"
+answered Leyton; "for then the matter will be decided and Edith
+delivered."
+
+"Why, if you were to catch the young one, it would be sufficient for
+that object," said his friend.
+
+But Leyton shook his head. "I fear not," he replied; "yet that purpose
+must not be neglected. Where he has concealed himself I cannot divine.
+It would seem certain that he never got out of Harbourne Wood, unless,
+indeed, it was by some of the bye-paths; and in that case, he surely
+must have been seen. I will have it searched, to-morrow, from end to
+end."
+
+In the same strain the conversation proceeded for half-an-hour more,
+without any feasible plan of action having been decided upon, and with
+no further result than the arrangement of means for frequent and
+private communication. It was settled, indeed, that Leyton should fix
+his head-quarters at Woodchurch, and that two or three of the dragoons
+should be billeted at a small public-house on the road to Harbourne.
+To them any communication from Sir Edward Digby was to be conveyed by
+his servant, Somers, for the purpose of being forwarded to Woodchurch.
+Such matters being thus arranged, as far as circumstances admitted,
+the two friends parted; and Digby rode back to Harbourne House, which
+he reached, as may be supposed, somewhat later than Sir Robert
+Croyland's dinner-hour.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+About six o'clock on the evening of the same day, the cottage of Mrs.
+Clare was empty. The good widow herself stood at the garden gate, and
+looked up the road into the wood, along which the western sun was
+streaming low. After gazing for a moment in that direction, she turned
+her eyes to the left, and then down the edge of the wood, which
+stretched along in a tolerably even line till it reached the farther
+angle. The persevering dragoons were patrolling round it still; and
+Mrs. Clare murmured to herself, "How will he ever get out, if they
+keep such a watch?"
+
+She was then going into the cottage again, when a hurried step caught
+her ear, coming apparently from the path which led from the side of
+Halden to the back of the house, and thence round the little garden
+into the road.
+
+"That sounds like Harding's step," thought the widow; and her ear had
+not deceived her. In another minute, she beheld him turn the corner of
+the fence and come towards her; but there was a heated and angry look
+upon his face, which she had never seen there before; and--although
+she had acted for the best, and not without much consideration, in
+sending Kate upon Mr. Radford's commission, and not going herself--she
+feared that her daughter's lover might not be well pleased his bride
+should undertake such a task. As he came near, the symptoms of anger
+were more apparent still. There was the cloudy brow, the flashing eye,
+the hurried and impetuous walk, which she had often seen in her own
+husband--a man very similar in character to him who now approached
+her--when irritated by harsh words; and Widow Clare prepared to do all
+she could to soothe him ere Kate's return.
+
+But Harding did not mention her he loved, demanding, while yet at some
+distance, "Where is Mr. Radford, Mrs. Clare?"
+
+"He is not here, Mr. Harding," replied the widow; "he has not been
+here since the morning. But what makes you look so cross, Harding? You
+seem angry."
+
+"And well I may be," answered Harding, with an oath. "What do you
+think they have set about?--That I informed against them, and betrayed
+them into the hands of the dragoons: when, they know, I saw them safe
+out of the Marsh; and it must have been their own stupidity, or the
+old man's babbling fears, that ruined them--always trusting people
+that were sure to be treacherous, and doubting those he knew to be
+honest. But I'll make him eat his words, or cram them down his throat
+with my fist."
+
+"Why, he spoke quite kindly of you this morning, Harding," said the
+widow; "there must be some mistake."
+
+"Mistake!" cried the smuggler, sharply; "there is no mistake.--It is
+all over Hythe and Folkestone already; and every one says that it came
+from him. Can you not tell me where he is gone?--Which way did he
+turn?"
+
+"Towards his own house," replied Mrs. Clare; "but you had better come
+in, Harding, and get yourself cool before you go to him. You will
+speak angrily now, and mischief may come of it. I am sure there is
+some mistake."
+
+"I" will not sit down till I have made him own it," answered the
+smuggler. "Perhaps he is up at Harbourne. I'll go there. Where is
+Kate, Mrs. Clare?"
+
+"She has gone towards Harbourne House," said the widow, not choosing,
+in the excited state of his feelings, to tell him her daughter's
+errand; "but she will be back in one minute, if you will but come in."
+
+"No," he replied; "I will come back by-and-by. Perhaps I shall meet
+her as I go;" and he was turning towards the wood, when suddenly, at
+the spot where the road entered amongst the trees, the pretty figure
+of Kate Clare, as trim, and neat, and simple as a wild flower,
+appeared walking slowly back towards the cottage. But she was not
+alone. By her side was a tall, handsome young man, dressed in full
+military costume, with his heavy sword under his arm, and a star upon
+his breast. He was bending down, talking to his fair companion with a
+friendly air, and she was answering him with a gay smile.
+
+A pang shot through Harding's bosom: the first that ever the poor girl
+had caused; nor, indeed, would he have felt it then, had he not been
+irritated; for his was a frank and confiding heart, open as the day,
+in which that foul and dangerous guest, Suspicion, usually could find
+no lurking place. At first he did not recognise, in the glittering
+personage before his eyes, the grave, plain-looking stranger, who, a
+week or two before, had conversed with him for a few minutes on the
+cliffs near Sandgate; but he saw, as the two came on, that Kate raised
+her eyes; and as soon as she perceived him standing by her mother, a
+look of joy lighted up her face, which made him murmur to himself,
+"I'm a fool!"
+
+The stranger, too, saw him; but it made no change in his demeanour;
+and the next moment, to Harding's surprise, the officer came forward
+somewhat more quickly, and took Widow Clare by the hand, saying, with
+a grave smile, "Do you not know me, Mrs. Clare?"
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" cried the widow, drawing back and gazing at him,
+"Can it be you, sir?"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" he answered. "Why, Kate here knew me directly, though
+she was but ten or eleven, I think, when I went away."
+
+"Oh, that was because you were always so fond of her, Mr. Henry,"
+replied Widow Clare. "Gracious! how you are changed!"
+
+Harding was talking to Kate while these few words passed, but he heard
+them; nor did he fail to remark that two mounted dragoons, one leading
+a horse by the rein, followed the young officer from the wood. He now
+recognised him also; and by his dress perceived the rank he held in
+the army, though Mrs. Clare called him "Mr. Henry."
+
+"Yes, I am changed, indeed!" replied Leyton, to the widow's last
+remark, "in body and health, Mrs. Clare, but not in heart, I can
+assure you; and as I was obliged to visit this wood, I resolved I
+would not be so near you without coming in to see how you were going
+on, with your pretty Kate here."
+
+"My pretty Kate, very soon!" said Harding, aloud; and the young
+officer turned suddenly round, and looked at him more attentively than
+before.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Harding!" he exclaimed, "is that you? We have met before,
+though perhaps you don't remember me."
+
+"Oh yes, I do, sir," replied the smuggler, drily. "But I must go,
+Kate;" and he added, in a low tone, "I shall be back by-and-by."
+
+Thus saying, he walked away; but before he had taken ten steps, Leyton
+followed, and took him by the arm. "What do you want with me, sir?"
+asked the smuggler, turning sharply round, and putting his hand in the
+bosom of his coat.
+
+"Hush!" replied the young officer; "I seek no harm to you--merely
+one word. For Heaven's sake, Harding, quit this perilous life of
+yours!--at least, before you marry that poor girl--if I have
+understood you rightly, that you are about to marry her. I speak as a
+friend."
+
+"Thank you, sir!" answered the smuggler, "I dare say you mean it kind;
+but it was hardly fair of you, either, to come and talk with me upon
+the cliff, if you are, as I suppose, the Sir Henry Leyton all the
+folks are speaking about."
+
+"Why, my good friend, my talking with you did you no harm," replied
+the young officer; "you cannot say that I led you to speak of anything
+that could injure either you or others. Besides, I have nothing to do
+with you gentlemen of the sea, though I may with your friends on land.
+But take the advice of one well disposed towards you; and, above all,
+do not linger about this place at present, for it is a dangerous
+neighbourhood for any one who has had a share in the late
+transactions."
+
+"That advice I shall take, at all events," answered Harding, bluntly;
+"and perhaps the other too, for I am sick of all this!" And thus
+saying, he walked away, passing close by the two dragoons, who offered
+no obstruction.
+
+In the meanwhile Leyton, returning to Widow Clare and her daughter,
+went into the cottage, and talked to them, for a few minutes, of old
+days. Gradually, however, he brought the conversation round to the
+inhabitants of Harbourne House, and asked if either the widow or Kate
+ever went up there.
+
+"Oh, Kate goes twice every day, sir," said Mrs. Clare, "for we have
+all the finest of the poultry to keep down here. But are you not going
+there yourself, Mr. Henry?"
+
+"Alas, no!" answered Leyton, with a sigh. "Those days have gone by,
+Mrs. Clare; and I am now a stranger where I was once loved."
+
+"Don't say so, sir," replied the widow, "don't say so! For, I am sure,
+where you were best loved of all, there you are best loved still."
+
+"That I believe," answered Leyton; "but, at all events, I am not going
+there at present; and if Kate would do me a service, she would, the
+first time she sees Miss Zara Croyland alone, tell her, that if ever
+she rides or walks out along the road by the Chequers, she will find
+an old friend by the way."
+
+"Miss Zara, sir, did you say?" asked Widow Clare.
+
+"Yes, mother--yes," cried Kate; "you forget Miss Edith is not there
+now; she is down at Mr. Croyland's."
+
+"But remember, Kate," continued Leyton, "I do not wish my name
+mentioned to many persons in the house. Indeed, it will be better not
+to speak of me at all to any one but Zara. It must be soon known that
+I am here, it is true; but I wish to let events take their course till
+then. And now, Mrs. Clare, good evening. I shall see you again some
+day soon; and you must let me know when Kate's wedding-day is fixed."
+
+The mother looked at her daughter with a smile, and Kate blushed and
+laughed. "It is to be this day week, sir," answered Mrs. Clare.
+
+Leyton nodded his head, saying, "I will not forget," and, mounting his
+horse at the door, rode away.
+
+"Now, did you find him, Kate?" asked Mrs. Clare, in a low tone, the
+moment Sir Henry Leyton was gone.
+
+"Oh yes," replied her daughter; "the dragoons did not follow me, as
+you thought they would, mother; and I set down the basket close to the
+willow. At first he did not answer when I asked if he wanted anything;
+but when I spoke again, he said, 'No. A thousand thanks for what you
+have brought;' and he spoke kind and civilly. Then, just as I was
+going away, he said, 'Kate, Kate! let me know when the soldiers are
+gone.--If you could bring me a woman's dress, I could easily get
+away.' I should not be afraid of going any more, mother," the girl
+continued; "for he seems quite changed by his misfortune, and not rude
+and jesting as he always used to be, whenever I saw him before."
+
+The idea of the woman's clothes seemed to strike Mrs. Clare very much;
+and the good widow and her daughter set their wits to work, to
+consider how all that was necessary could be procured; for a very
+serious impediment thrust itself in the way of either mother or child
+lending him a suit of their own apparel. Neither of them were very
+tall women; and though young Radford was himself not above the middle
+height, yet Kate's gown would not have fallen further than half way
+down his leg; and the poor girl laughed merrily, to think of what a
+figure he would make dressed in her garments. It would have been the
+old story of the wolf in sheep's clothing, assuredly.
+
+"If we could but accomplish it, and enable him to escape," thought
+Mrs. Clare, "especially after Harding has just been up here, it would
+show Mr. Radford, clearly enough, that John had nothing to do with
+informing against him." But the question, of where fitting apparel was
+to be procured, still remained unsettled, till Kate suggested, that
+perhaps her aunt's, at Glassenbury, might do. "She is very tall,"
+continued the girl, "and I am sure she would lend them to me; for she
+and my uncle have always been so kind. Suppose I walk over early
+to-morrow, and ask her."
+
+Now the little farm which Mrs. Clare's brother held, was somewhat more
+than seven miles off, on the other side of Cranbrook. But still, what
+is the exertion which woman will not make for a fellow-creature in
+distress; and Mrs. Clare determined that she would rise betimes, and
+go to William Harris's herself, certain of a kind reception and ready
+consent from those who had always displayed towards her, in adversity,
+the feelings of affection, which the more worldly-minded generally
+shower upon prosperity alone.
+
+It was far for her daughter to walk, she thought; and besides, Harding
+might come, and it would not do for Kate to be absent. Thus had she
+settled it in her own mind, when Mr. Radford entered the cottage to
+inquire after his son.
+
+High were the praises that he bestowed upon Kate and Mrs. Clare, for
+their kindness; and he expressed his warm approval of their little
+scheme. Nevertheless, he turned the matter in his mind, in order to
+see whether he could not save Mrs. Clare the trouble of going nearly
+to Goudhurst, by obtaining the necessary articles of female apparel
+somewhere else. His own women servants, however, were all short and
+stout; the only other persons whom he could think of, as at all
+approaching his son in height, he did not choose to trust; and
+therefore it was, at length, determined that the original plan should
+be followed. But the worthy gentleman laid strict injunctions upon
+Mrs. Clare, to be early in her proceedings, as he feared much, from
+all he had gathered, that the wood might be more strictly searched, in
+the course of the following day.
+
+When this was settled, and Mr. Radford had expressed his thanks, more
+than once, Mrs. Clare thought it a good opportunity of turning the
+conversation to Harding; and she asked Mr. Radford if he had seen him,
+adding, "He has gone to look for you, sir, and seems very quick and
+angry, because the people down about his place have got a report that
+he informed about the run; and he fancies you have said so."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense, Mrs. Clare, I never said anything of the kind!"
+replied Mr. Radford. "It is a story put about by the Custom-House
+officers themselves, just to cover the persons from whom they had the
+information. But we shall discover them some day, and pay them
+handsomely. Tell Harding not to mind what people say, for I never
+thought of such a thing."
+
+"That I will, sir," replied the widow; "for I'm sure it will set his
+mind at rest.--You must know very well, sir, that he's as honest a man
+as ever lived."
+
+"To be sure--to be sure," answered Mr. Radford, with great warmth of
+manner; "no one knows that better than I do, Mrs. Clare."
+
+But whether Mr. Radford really felt the warmth which he assumed, may
+be another question. His seemings were not always the best indications
+of his real sentiments; and when he left Mrs. Clare's cottage, after
+all had been arranged, his first thought was, "We will reckon with Mr.
+Harding by-and-by.--The account is not made up yet."
+
+Before I proceed to other scenes, it may be as well to go on with the
+part assigned in this history to Mrs. Clare and her daughter, at
+least, till the morning of the following day. About eight o'clock at
+night, Harding returned, still irritable and discontented, having
+failed to find Mr. Radford. The account, however, which the widow gave
+of her conversation with that gentleman, soothed him a good deal; but
+he would not stay the night, as he had done before, saying that he
+must absolutely be at home as soon as possible, and would return,
+perhaps, the next day, or, at all events, the day after.
+
+"I must do the best I can, Mrs. Clare," he continued, "to help these
+fellows out of the scrape they've run into. Two or three of them are
+good men enough; and, as they risk their necks if they are taken, I
+should like to get them down, and give them a passage to the other
+side. So you see I shall be going about here a good deal, for the next
+four or five days, and will look in, from time to time, to see you and
+my dear little Kate."
+
+"But are you going to walk all the way back to-night, John?" asked
+Kate, as he rose to depart.
+
+"No, my love," he answered, "I've got a horse up at Plurendon; but the
+beast cast a shoe as I was coming, and I was obliged to leave him at
+the blacksmith's."
+
+No sooner was Harding gone, than a little kindly contest rose between
+mother and daughter, as to which should go over to Glassenbury; but
+Mrs. Clare persisted, against all her child's remonstrances; and, in
+order that they might rise before daylight, both retired to bed early,
+and slept calmly and peacefully, unknowing what the morrow, to which
+they both looked anxiously forward, was to bring. The sun was yet some
+way below the horizon, when Mrs. Clare set out; but she met with no
+impediment, and, walking on stoutly, arrived, at an early hour, at a
+little farm-house, inhabited by her brother. She found farmer Harris
+and his wife, with their two sons and Mrs. Harris's nephew (three
+stout, good humoured, young men) seated at their breakfast; and warm
+and joyful was the reception of Aunt Clare; one joking her upon Kate's
+approaching marriage; another declaring Jack Harding, whom they all
+knew, was a capital fellow; and all striving to make her comfortable,
+and pressing her to partake of their morning meal.
+
+Every one of the party was eager to obtain some information from her,
+who lived so much nearer to the spot, in regard to the late
+discomfiture of the smugglers, although none seemed to take any great
+interest in them, all declaring that the Ramleys, and their gang, were
+the pest of the country, and that young Dick Radford was not a bit
+better. Such opinions, regarding that young gentleman, acted as a
+warning to Mrs. Clare, not to mention the object of the loan she came
+to solicit; and when, after having rested about twenty minutes, she
+preferred her petition to Mrs. Harris, it was readily granted by the
+tall farmer's wife, although not without some expression of curiosity,
+as to what her sister-in-law could want a dress of hers for.
+
+"Kate or I will bring it back to-night or to-morrow morning," replied
+Mrs. Clare, "and I'll tell you what we want it for, at the wedding,
+which, remember, is to be yesterday week."
+
+"Ay, we will all come down with white favours, and our best buckles,"
+said young William, the farmer's eldest son; "and I'll have a kiss of
+the bride."
+
+A gown and cloak of Mrs. Harris's, having been brought down--they were
+not her best--and neatly folded up in a shawl-handkerchief, Mrs. Clare
+set forward on her way home, hurrying her steps as much as possible,
+lest any untoward event should prevent the execution of her scheme. A
+stout country woman, accustomed to exercise, the widow accomplished
+the walk in as short a time as possible; yet it was nine o'clock
+before she reached the cottage, and she instantly dispatched her
+daughter to the "hide" in the wood, with the clothes folded up in as
+small a space as possible, and laid in the bottom of a basket, covered
+over with eggs.
+
+The only difficulty was, in regard to a bonnet; and, after earnest
+consultation between mother and child, it was determined that, as Mrs.
+Clare's head was somewhat larger than Kate's, her bonnet should be put
+over her daughter's, which was easily accomplished. Both were of
+straw, and both were plain enough; but, to conceal the contrivance
+from the eyes of any one whom Kate might meet, Mrs. Clare pinned a
+small piece of lace--which had been bought for the wedding--into the
+inside of her own bonnet, remarking, that it would do to hide young
+Mr. Radford's face a bit.
+
+Furnished with all that was needful, and having had the instructions
+which Mr. Radford had left, repeated carefully to her, by her mother,
+fair Kate Clare set out upon her expedition, passing one of the
+dragoons, who were still patrolling round the wood, near the place
+where the road entered it. The man said something to her, as she went
+by, but did not attempt to follow; and Kate walked on, looking behind
+her, from time to time, till she was satisfied that her proceedings
+were unwatched. Then, hurrying on, with a quicker step, she turned to
+the path, which led to the back of the gardens of Harbourne House, and
+approached the old willow, and the brushwood which covered the place
+where Richard Radford was concealed.
+
+"Mr. Radford," she said, as soon as she was quite close, "Mr. Radford!
+Here is what you wanted. Take it as fast as you can."
+
+"Is there any one near but you, Kate?" asked the voice of Richard
+Radford.
+
+"Oh, no!" she replied; "but the soldiers are still on the outside of
+the wood watching."
+
+"I know that," rejoined the voice again, "for I saw them last night,
+when I tried to get out. But are you sure that none of them followed
+you, Kate?"
+
+"Oh, quite sure," she answered, "for I looked behind all the way!"
+
+"Well, stay and help me to put the things on," said Richard Radford,
+issuing forth from behind the bushes, like a snake out of its hole.
+Kate Clare willingly agreed to help him, and while the gown and the
+cloak were thrown over his other clothes, told him all that his father
+had said, desiring him not to come up to Radford Hall till he heard
+more; but to go down to the _lone house_, near Iden Green, where he
+would find one or two friends already collected.
+
+"Why, these are never your own clothes, Kate!" said young Radford, as
+she pinned on the gown for him. "They fit as if they were made for
+me."
+
+"Not at the back," answered Kate, laughing, "I cannot get the gown to
+meet there; but that will be covered up by the cloak, so it does not
+matter.--No, they are my aunt's, at Glassenbury; and you must let me
+have them back, Mr. Radford, as soon as ever you have got to Iden
+Green; for my mother has promised to return them to-night."
+
+"I don't know howl shall get them back, Kate," answered Richard
+Radford; "for none of our people will like to venture up here. Can't
+you come down and fetch them? It is not much out of your way."
+
+"No, I can't do that," answered Kate, who did not altogether like
+going to the lone house she had mentioned; "but you can send them down
+to Cranbrook, at all events; and there they can be left for me, at
+Mrs. Tims's shop. They'll be quite safe; and I will call for them
+either to-night or to-morrow morning."
+
+"Well, I will do that, my love," replied Richard Radford, taking the
+bonnet and putting it on his head.
+
+"Very well, sir," answered Kate, not well pleased with the epithet he
+had bestowed upon her, and taking a step to move away, "I will call
+for them there."
+
+But young Radford threw his arm round her waist, saying, "Come, Kate!
+I must have a kiss before you go.--You give plenty to Harding, I dare
+say."
+
+"Let me go, sir!" cried Kate Clare, indignantly. "You are a base,
+ungrateful young man!"
+
+But young Radford did not let her go. He took the kiss she struggled
+against, by force; and he was proceeding to farther insult, when Kate
+exclaimed, "If you do not let me go, I will scream till the soldiers
+are upon you.--They are not far."
+
+She spoke so loud, that her very tone excited his alarm; and he
+withdrew his arm from her waist, but still held her hand tight,
+saying, "Come, come, Kate! Nonsense, I did not mean to offend you! Go
+up to Harbourne House, there's a good girl, and stay as long as you
+can there, till I get out of the wood."
+
+"You do offend me--you do offend me!" cried Kate Clare, striving to
+withdraw her hand from his grasp.
+
+"Will you promise to go up to Harbourne, then?" said Richard Radford,
+"and I will let you go."
+
+"Yes, yes," answered Kate, "I will go;" and the moment her hand was
+free, she darted away, leaving the basket she had brought behind her.
+
+As soon as she was gone, Richard Radford cursed her for a saucy jade,
+as if the offence had been hers, not his; and then taking up the
+basket, he threw it, eggs and all, together with his own hat, into the
+deep hole in the sandbank. Advancing along the path till he reached
+the open road, he hurried on in the direction of Widow Clare's
+cottage. Of a daring and resolute disposition--for his only virtue was
+courage--he thought of passing the soldiers, as a good joke rather
+than a difficult undertaking; but still recollecting the necessity of
+caution, as he came near the edge of the wood he slackened his pace,
+tried to shorten his steps, and assumed a more feminine demeanour.
+When he was within a couple of hundred yards of the open country, he
+saw one of the dragoons slowly pass the end of the road and look up;
+and, on issuing forth from the wood, he perceived that the man had
+paused, and was gazing back. But at that distance, the female garments
+which he wore deceived the soldier; and he was suffered to walk on
+unopposed towards Iden Green.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Sir Robert Croyland himself did not return to Harbourne House, till
+the hands of the clock pointed out to every one that went through the
+hall, that it was twenty minutes past the usual dinner hour; and,
+though he tried to be as expeditious as he could, he was yet fully ten
+minutes longer in dressing than usual. He was nervous; he was
+agitated; all the events of that day had shaken and affected him; he
+was angry with his servant; and several times he gave the most
+contradictory orders. Although for years he had been undergoing a slow
+and gradual change, under the painful circumstances in which he had
+been placed, and had, from the gay, rash, somewhat noisy and
+overbearing country gentleman, dwindled down into the cold, silent,
+pompous, and imperative man of family, yet the alteration during that
+day had been so great and peculiar that the valet could not help
+remarking it, and wondering if his master was ill.
+
+Sir Robert tried to smoothe his look and compose his manner for the
+drawing-room, however; and when he entered, he gazed round for Sir
+Edward Digby, observing aloud: "Why, I thought soldiers were more
+punctual. However, as it happens, to-day I am glad Sir Edward is not
+down."
+
+"Down!" cried Mrs. Barbara, who had a grand objection to dinners being
+delayed; "why, he is out; but you could expect no better; for
+yesterday you were so long that the fish was done to rags; so I
+ordered it not to be put in till he made his appearance."
+
+"I told you, my dear aunt, that he said he might not be back before
+dinner," replied her niece, "and, therefore, it will be vain to wait
+for him. He desired me to say so, papa."
+
+"Oh yes! Zara knows all about it," said Mrs. Barbara, with a shrewd
+look; "they were talking together for ten minutes in the library; and
+I cannot get her to tell me what it was about."
+
+It is, indeed, conscience that makes cowards of us all; and had the
+fair girl's conversation with her new friend been on any other subject
+than that to which it related--had it been about love, marriage, arms,
+or divinity, she would have found no difficulty in parrying her aunt's
+observations, however mal-a-propos they might have been. At present,
+however, she was embarrassed by doubts of the propriety of what she
+was doing, more especially as she felt sure that her father would be
+inquisitive and suspicious, if the tale the maid had told was true.
+Acting, however, as she not unfrequently did, in any difficulty, she
+met Mrs. Barbara's inuendoes at once, replying, "Indeed I shall not
+say anything about it to any one, my dear aunt. I will manage some
+matters for myself; and the only thing I shall repeat is Sir Edward's
+last dying speech, which was to the effect, that he feared he might be
+detained till after our dinner hour, but would be back as soon as ever
+he could, and trusted my father would not wait."
+
+"Do you know where he is gone, and why?" asked Sir Robert Croyland, in
+a much quieter tone than she expected. But poor Zara was still puzzled
+for an answer; and, as her only resource, she replied vaguely,
+"Something about some of the smugglers, I believe."
+
+"Then had he any message or intelligence brought him?" inquired Sir
+Robert Croyland.
+
+"I do not know--Oh, yes, I believe he had," replied his daughter,
+in a hesitating tone and with a cheek that was beginning to grow red.
+"He spoke with one of the soldiers at the corner of the road, I
+know;--and, oh yes, I saw a man ride up with a letter."
+
+"That was after he was gone," observed Mrs. Barbara; but Sir Robert
+paid little attention, and, ringing, ordered dinner to be served.
+Could we see into the breasts of others, we should often save
+ourselves a great deal of unnecessary anxiety. Zara forgot that
+her father was not as well aware that Sir Edward Digby was
+Leyton's dearest friend, as she was; but, in truth, all that he
+concluded--either from the pertinent remarks of Mrs. Barbara or from
+Zara's embarrassment--was, that the young baronet had been making a
+little love to his daughter, which, to say sooth, was a consummation
+that Sir Robert Croyland was not a little inclined to see.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour more, the dinner was announced; and the
+master of the house, his sister, and Zara, sat down together. Hardly
+had the fish and soup made any progress, when the quick canter of Sir
+Edward Digby's horse put his fair confidante out of her anxiety; and,
+in a few minutes after, he appeared himself, and apologized gracefully
+to his host, for having been too late. "You must have waited for me, I
+fear," he added, "for it is near an hour after the time; but I thought
+it absolutely necessary, from some circumstances I heard, to go over
+and see my colonel before he returned to Hythe, and then I was
+detained."
+
+"Pray, who does command your regiment?" asked Mrs. Barbara. But Sir
+Edward Digby was, at that moment, busily engaged in taking his seat by
+Zara's side; and he did not hear. The lady repeated the question when
+he was seated; but then he replied, "No, I thank you, my dear madam,
+no soup to-day--a solid meal always after a hard ride; and I have
+galloped till I have almost broken my horse's wind.--By the way, Sir
+Robert, I hope you found my bay a pleasant goer. I have only ridden
+him twice since I bought him, though he cost two hundred guineas."
+
+"He is well worth the money," replied the Baronet--"a very powerful
+animal--bore me like a feather, and I ride a good weight."
+
+"Have your own horses come back?" asked the young officer, with a
+laugh.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland answered in the negative, adding, "And that
+reminds me I must write to my brother, to let Edith have his carriage
+to-morrow, to bring her back; for mine are gone--coach-horses, and
+all."
+
+"Edith, to-morrow!" exclaimed Mrs. Barbara, in surprise; "why, I
+thought she was going to stay four or five days."
+
+"She is coming back to-morrow, Bab," replied Sir Robert, sharply; and
+instantly turned the conversation.
+
+During the rest of the evening, Sir Edward Digby remained very
+constantly by fair Zara's side; and, moreover, he paid her most
+particular attention, in so marked a manner, that both Sir Robert
+Croyland and Mrs. Barbara thought matters were taking their course
+very favourably. The father busied himself in writing a letter and one
+or two notes, which he pronounced to be of consequence--as, indeed,
+they really were--while the aunt, worked diligently and discreetly at
+embroidering, not interrupting the conference of her niece and their
+guest above ten times in a minute. Sir Edward, indeed, kept himself
+within all due and well-defined rules. He never proceeded beyond what
+a great master of the art has pronounced to be "making love"--"a
+course of small, quiet, attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so
+vague as to be misunderstood." Strange to say, Zara was very much
+obliged to him for following such a course, as it gave an especially
+good pretext for intimacy, for whispered words and quiet conversation,
+and even for a little open seeking for each other's society, which
+would have called observation, if not inquiry, upon them, had not her
+companion's conduct been what it was. She thought fit to attribute it,
+in her own mind, entirely to his desire of communicating to her,
+without attracting notice, whatever he had learned, that could in any
+way affect her sister's fate; and she judged it a marvellous good
+device that they should appear for the time as lovers, with full
+powers on both parts to withdraw from that position whenever it suited
+them. Poor girl! she knew not how far she was entangling herself.
+
+Sir Edward Digby, in the meanwhile, took no alarming advantage of his
+situation. The whispered word was almost always of Edith or of Leyton.
+He never spoke of Zara herself, or of himself, or of his own feelings;
+not a word could denote to her that he was making love, though his
+whole demeanour had very much that aspect to those who sat and looked
+on. Oh, those who sit and look on, what a world they see! and what a
+world they don't see! Ever more than those who play the game, be they
+shrewd as they may: ever less than the cards would show, were they
+turned up. By fits and snatches, he communicated to his fair
+companion, while he was playing with this ball of gold thread, or
+winding and unwinding that piece of crimson silk, as much of what had
+passed between himself and Sir Henry Leyton, as he thought necessary;
+and then he asked her to sing--as her aunt had given him a quiet hint
+that her niece did sometimes do such a thing--saying, in a low tone,
+while he preferred the request, "Pray, go on with the song, though I
+may interrupt you sometimes with questions, not quite relevant to the
+subject."
+
+"I understand--I quite understand," answered Zara; but it may be a
+question whether that sweet girl really quite understood either
+herself or him. It is impossible that any two free hearts, can go on
+long, holding such intimate and secret communion, on subjects deeply
+interesting to both, without being drawn together by closer bonds,
+than perhaps they fancy can ever be established between them--unless
+there be something inherently repulsive on one part or the other.
+Propinquity is certainly much, in the matter of love; but there are
+circumstances, not rarely occurring in human life, which mightily
+abridge the process; and such are--difficulties and dangers
+experienced together--a common struggle for a common object--but more
+than all--mutual and secret communion with, and aid of each other in
+things of deep interest. The confidence that is required, the
+excitement of imagination, the unity of effort, and of purpose, the
+rapid exercise of mind to catch the half-uttered thought, the enforced
+candour from want of time, which admits of no disguise or
+circumlocution, the very mystery itself--all cast that magic chain
+around those so circumstanced, within which they can hardly escape
+from the power of love. Nine times out of ten, they never try; and,
+however Zara Croyland might feel, she rose willingly enough to sing,
+while Sir Edward Digby leaned over her chair, as she sat at the
+instrument, which in those days supplied the place of that which is
+now absurdly enough termed in England, a piano. Her voice, which was
+fine though not very powerful, wavered a little as she began, from
+emotions of many kinds. She wished to sing well; but she sang worse
+than she might have done; yet quite well enough to please Sir Edward
+Digby, though his ear was refined by art, and good by nature.
+Nevertheless, though he listened with delight, and felt the music
+deeply, he forgot not his purpose, and between each stanza asked some
+question, obtaining a brief reply. But I will not so interrupt the
+course of an old song, and will give the interrogatory a separate
+place:
+
+
+                           THE LADY'S SONG.
+
+      "Oh! there be many, many griefs,
+         In this world's sad career,
+       That shun the day, that fly the gaze,
+         And never, never meet the ear.
+
+       But what is darkest--darkest of them all?
+         The pang of love betray'd?--
+       The hopes of youth all fleeting by--
+         Spring flowers that early, early fade?
+
+       But there are griefs--ay, griefs as deep:
+         The friendship turn'd to hate--
+       And, deeper still--and deeper still,
+         Repentance come too late!--too late!
+
+       The doubt of those we love; and more
+         The rayless, dull despair,
+       When trusted hearts are worthless found,
+         And all our dreams are air--but air.
+
+       Deep in each bosom's secret cell,
+         The hermit-sorrows lie;
+       And thence--unheard on earth--they raise
+         The voice of prayer on high--on high.
+
+       Oh! there be many, many griefs,
+         In this world's sad career,
+       That shun the day, that fly the gaze,
+         And, never, never meet the ear."
+
+
+Thus sang the lady; and one of her hearers, at least, was delighted
+with the sweet voice, and the sweet music, and the expression which
+she gave to the whole. But though he listened with deep attention,
+both to words and tones, as long as her lips moved, yet, when the mere
+instrumental part of the music recommenced, which was the case between
+every second and third stanza--and the symphonetic parts of every song
+were somewhat long in those days--he instantly remembered the object
+with which he had first asked her to sing, (little thinking that such
+pleasure would be his reward;) and bending down his head, as if he
+were paying her some lover-like compliment on her performance, he
+asked her quietly, as I have said before, a question or two, closely
+connected with the subject on which both their minds were at that
+moment principally bent.
+
+Thus, at the first pause, he inquired--"Do you know--did you ever see,
+in times long past, a gentleman of the name of Warde--a clergyman--a
+good and clever man, but somewhat strange and wild?"
+
+"No," answered Zara, looking down at the keys of the harpsichord; "I
+know no one of that name;" and she recommenced the song.
+
+When her voice again ceased, the young officer seemed to have thought
+farther; and he asked, in the same low tone, "Did you ever know a
+gentleman answering that description--his features must once have been
+good--somewhat strongly marked, but fine and of an elevated
+expression, with a good deal of wildness in the eye, but a peculiarly
+bland and beautiful smile when he is pleased--too remarkable to be
+overlooked or forgotten?"
+
+"Can you be speaking of Mr. Osborn?" asked Zara, in return. "I barely
+recollect him in former days; but I and Edith met him about ten days
+ago; and he remembered and spoke to her."
+
+The song required her attention; and though she would fain have played
+the symphony over again, she was afraid her father would remark it,
+and went on to sing the last two stanzas. As soon as she had
+concluded, however, she said, in a low, quick voice, "He is a very
+extraordinary man."
+
+"Can you give me any sign by which I should know him?" asked Digby.
+
+"He has now got a number of blue lines traced on his face," answered
+Zara; "he went abroad to preach to the savages, I have heard. He is a
+good man, but very eccentric."
+
+At the same moment the voice of her father was raised, saying, "I
+wish, my dear, you would not sing such melancholy things as that.
+Cannot you find something gayer? I do not like young ladies singing
+such dull ditties, only fit for sentimental misses of the true French
+school."
+
+What was the true French school of his day, I cannot tell. Certainly,
+it must have been very different from the present.
+
+"Perhaps Sir Edward will sing something more cheerful himself?"
+answered Zara.
+
+"Oh, I am a very bad musician," replied the young officer; "I cannot
+even accompany myself. If you will, and have any of the few things I
+know, I shall be very happy.--In everything, one can but try," he
+added, in a low voice, "still hoping for the best."
+
+Zara looked over her collection of music with him; and at last she
+opened one song which was somewhat popular in those times, though it
+has long fallen into well-merited oblivion. "Can you venture to sing
+that?" she asked, pointing to the words rather than the music; "it is
+quite a soldier's song."
+
+Sir Edward Digby read the first line; and thinking he observed a
+double meaning in her question, he answered, "Oh, yes, that I will, if
+you will consent to accompany me."
+
+Zara smiled, and sat down to the instrument again; and the reader must
+judge from the song itself whether the young officer's conjecture that
+her words had an enigmatical sense was just or not.
+
+
+                         THE OFFICER'S SONG.
+
+      "A star is still beaming
+         Beyond the grey cloud;
+       Its light rays are streaming,
+         With nothing to shroud;
+       And the star shall be there
+         When the clouds pass away;
+       Its lustre unchanging,
+         Immortal its ray.
+
+      "'Tis the guide of the true heart,
+         In field, or on sea;
+       'Tis the hope of the slave,
+         And the trust of the free;
+       The light of the lover,
+         Whatever assail;
+       The strength of the honest,
+         That never can fail.
+
+      "Waft, waft, thou light wind,
+         From the peace-giving ray,
+       The vapours of sorrow,
+         That over it stray;
+       And let it pour forth,
+         All unshrouded and bright,
+       That those who now mourn,
+         May rejoice in its light."
+
+
+"God grant it!" murmured the voice of Sir Robert Croyland. Zara said,
+"Amen," in her heart; and in a minute or two after, her father rose,
+and left the room.
+
+During the rest of the evening, nothing very important occurred in
+Harbourne House. Mrs. Barbara played her usual part, and would
+contribute to Sir Edward Digby's amusement in a most uncomfortable
+manner. The following morning, too, went by without any incident of
+importance, till about ten o'clock, when breakfast just being over,
+and Zara having been called from the room by her maid, Sir Robert's
+butler announced to his master, that the groom had returned from Mr.
+Croyland's.
+
+"Where is the note?" demanded his master, eagerly.
+
+"He has not brought one, Sir Robert," replied the servant, "only a
+message, sir, to say that Mr. Croyland is very sorry he cannot spare
+the horses to-day, as they were out a long way yesterday."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland started up in a state of fury not at all becoming.
+He stamped, he even swore. But we have got rid of a great many of the
+vices of those times; and swearing was so common at the period I speak
+of, that it did not even startle Mrs. Barbara. Her efforts, however,
+to soothe her brother, only served to irritate him the more; and next
+he swore at her, which did surprise her mightily.
+
+He then fell into a fit of thought, which ended in his saying aloud,
+"Yes, that must be the way. It is his business, and so----" But
+Sir Robert did not conclude the sentence, retiring to his own
+sitting-room, and there writing a letter.
+
+When he had done, he paused and meditated, his mind rambling over many
+subjects, though still occupied intensely with only one. "I am a most
+unfortunate man," he thought. "Nothing since that wretched day has
+ever gone right with me. Even trifles combine to frustrate everything
+I attempt. Would I had died many years ago! Poor Edith--poor girl--she
+must know more sorrow still, and yet it must be done, or I am
+lost!--If that wretched youth had been killed in that affray
+yesterday, it would have all been over. Was there no bullet that could
+find him?--and yet, perhaps, it might not have had the effect.--No,
+no; there would have been some new kind of demand from that greedy,
+craving scoundrel.--May there not be such even now? Will he give up
+that fatal paper?--He shall--by Heaven, he shall!--But I must send the
+letter. Sir Edward Digby will think this all very strange. How
+unfortunate, that it should have happened just when he was here. Would
+to Heaven I had any one to consult with! But I am lone, lone indeed.
+My wife, my sons, my friends,--gone, gone, all gone! It is very sad;"
+and after having mused for several minutes more, he rang the bell,
+gave the servant who appeared the letter which he had just written,
+and directed him to take it over to Mr. Radford's as soon as possible.
+
+Returning to the room which he had previously left--without bestowing
+one word upon Mrs. Barbara, whom he passed in the corridor, Sir
+Robert Croyland entered into conversation with Sir Edward Digby, and
+strove--though with too evident an effort--to appear careless and
+unconcerned.
+
+In the meantime, however, we must notice what was passing in the
+corridor; for it was of some importance, though, like many other
+important things, it was transacted very quietly.
+
+Mrs. Barbara had overheard Sir Robert's directions to the servant; and
+she had seen the man--as he went away to get ready the pony, which was
+usually sent in the morning to the post--deposit the note he had
+received upon an antique piece of furniture--a large marble table,
+with great sprawling gilt legs--which stood in the hall, close to the
+double doors that led to the offices.
+
+Now, Mrs. Barbara was one of the most benevolent people upon earth:
+she literally overflowed with the milk of human kindness; and, if a
+few drops of that same milk occasionally spotted the apron of her
+morality, which we cannot help acknowledging was sometimes the case,
+she thought, as a great many other people do of a great many other
+sins, that "there was no great harm in it, if the motive was good."
+This was one of those cases and occasions when the milk was beginning
+to run over. She had a deep regard for her brother: she would have
+sacrificed her right hand for him; and she was quite sure that
+something very sad had happened to vex him, or he never would have
+thought of swearing _at her_. She would have done, she was ready to
+do, anything in the world, to help him; but how could she help him,
+without knowing what he was vexed about? It is wonderful how many
+lines the devil always has out, for those who are disposed to take a
+bait. Something whispered to Mrs. Barbara, as she gazed at the letter,
+"The whole story is in there!" Ah, Mrs. Barbara, do not take it up,
+and look at the address!--It is dangerous--very dangerous.
+
+But Mrs. Barbara did take it up, and looked at the address--and then
+at the two ends. It was folded as a note, unfortunately; and she
+thought--"There can be no harm, I'm sure--I won't open it--though I've
+seen him open Edith's letters, poor thing!--I shall hear the man pull
+back the inner door, and can put it down in a minute. Nobody else can
+see me here; and if I could but find out what is vexing him, I might
+have some way of helping him; I'm sure I intend well."
+
+All this argumentation in Mrs. Barbara's mind took up the space of
+about three seconds; and then the note, pressed between two fingers in
+the most approved fashion, was applied as a telescope to her eye, to
+get a perspective view of the cause of her brother's irritation. I
+must make the reader a party to the transaction, I am afraid, and let
+him know the words which Mrs. Barbara read:--
+
+"My dear Radford," the note began--"As misfortune would have it, all
+my horses have been taken out of the stable, and have not been brought
+back. I fear that they have fallen into other hands than those that
+borrowed them; and my brother Zachary has one of his crabbed moods
+upon him, and will not lend his carriage to bring Edith back. If your
+horses have not gone as well as mine, I should feel particularly
+obliged by your sending them down here, to take over my coach to
+Zachary's and bring Edith back; for I do not wish her to stay there
+any longer, as the marriage is to take place so soon. If you can come
+over to-morrow, we can settle whether it is to be at your house or
+here--though I should prefer it here, if you have no objection."
+
+There seemed to be a few words more; but it took Mrs. Barbara longer
+to decipher the above lines, in the actual position of the note, than
+it might have done, had the paper been spread out fair before her; so
+that, just as she was moving it a little, to get at the rest, the
+sound of the farther of the two doors being thrown open, interrupted
+her proceedings; and, laying down the letter quickly, she darted away,
+full of the important intelligence which she had acquired.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+There are periods in the life of some men, when, either by a
+concatenation of unfortunate events, or by the accumulated
+consequences of their own errors, the prospect on every side becomes
+so clouded, that there is no resource for them, but to shut their eyes
+to the menacing aspect of all things, and to take refuge in the moral
+blindness of thoughtless inaction, against the pressure of present
+difficulties. "I dare not think," is the excuse of many a man, for
+continuing in the same course of levity which first brought
+misfortunes upon him; but such is not always the case with those who
+fly to wretched merriment in the hour of distress; and such was not
+the case with Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+He had thought for long years, till his very heart sickened at the
+name of reflection. He had looked round for help, and had found none.
+He had tried to discover some prospect of relief; and all was
+darkness. The storm he had long foreseen was now bursting upon his
+head; it was no longer to be delayed; it was not to be warded off. His
+daughter's misery, or his own destruction, was the only choice before
+him; and he was resolved to think no more--to let events take their
+course, and to meet them as he best might.
+
+But to resolve is one thing--to execute, another; and Edith's father
+was not a man who could keep such a determination long. He might
+indeed, for a time, cease to think of all the painful particulars of
+his situation; but there will ever come moments when thought is forced
+even upon the thoughtless, and events will arise, to press reflection
+upon any heart. His efforts were, at first, very successful. After he
+had despatched the letter to Mr. Radford, he had said, "I must really
+pay my visitor some attention. It will serve to occupy my mind, too.
+Anything to escape from the torturing consideration of questions,
+which must ever be solved in wretchedness." And when he returned to
+Sir Edward Digby, his conversation was particularly gay and cheerful.
+It first turned to the unpleasant fact of the abstraction of all his
+horses; but he now spoke of it in a lighter and less careful manner
+than before.
+
+"Doubtless," he said, "they have been taken without leave, as usual,
+by the smugglers, to use for their own purposes. It is quite a common
+practice in this county; and yet we all go on leaving our stable-doors
+open, as if to invite all who pass to enter, and choose what they
+like. Then, I suppose, they have been captured with other spoil, in
+the strife of yesterday morning, and are become the prize of the
+conquerors; so that I shall never see them again."
+
+"Oh, no!" answered the young officer, "they will be restored, I am
+quite sure, upon your identifying them, and proving that they were
+taken, without your consent, by the smugglers. I shall go over to
+Woodchurch by-and-by; and if you please, I will claim them for you."
+
+"It is scarcely worth while," replied the baronet; "I doubt that I
+shall ever get them back. These are little losses which every man in
+this neighbourhood must suffer, as a penalty for remaining in a half
+savage part of the country.--What are you disposed to do this morning,
+Sir Edward? Do you again walk the stubbles?"
+
+"I fear it 'would be of little use," answered Digby; "there has been
+so much galloping lately, that I do not think a partridge has been
+left undisturbed in its furrow; and the sun is too high for much
+sport."
+
+"Well, then, let us walk in the garden for a little," said Sir Robert;
+"it is curious, in some respects, having been laid out long before
+this house was built, antiquated as it is."
+
+Sir Edward Digby assented, but looked round for Zara, as he certainly
+thought her society would be a great addition to her father's. She had
+not yet returned to the room, however; and Sir Robert, as if he
+divined his young companion's feelings, requested his sister to tell
+her niece, when she came, that he and their guest were walking in the
+garden. "It is one of her favourite spots, Sir Edward," he continued,
+as they went out, "and many a meditative hour she spends there; for,
+gay as she is, she has her fits of thought, too."
+
+The young baronet internally said, "Well she may, in this house!" but
+making a more civil answer to his entertainer, he followed him to the
+garden; and so well and even cheerfully did Sir Robert Croyland keep
+up the conversation, so learnedly did he descant upon the levelling
+and preservation of turf in bowling-greens, and upon the clipping of
+old yew-trees--both before and after Zara joined them--that Digby
+began to doubt, notwithstanding all he had heard, whether he could
+really have such a load upon his heart as he himself had stated to
+Edith, and to fancy that, after all, it might be a stratagem to drive
+her to compliance with his wishes.
+
+A little incident, of no great moment in the eyes of any one but a
+very careful observer of his fellow-men--and Digby was far more so
+than he seemed--soon settled the doubt. As they were passing under an
+old wall of red brick--channelled by time and the shoots of pears and
+peaches--which separated the garden from the different courts, a door
+suddenly opened behind them, just after they had passed it; and while
+Sir Edward's eyes were turned to the face of the master of the house,
+Sir Robert's ear instantly caught the sound, and his cheek became as
+pale as ashes.
+
+"There is some dark terror there!" thought the young officer; but,
+turning to Zara, he finished the sentence he had been uttering, while
+her father's coachman, who was the person that had opened the door,
+came forward to say that one of the horses had returned.
+
+"Returned!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland; "has been brought back, I
+suppose you mean?"
+
+"Ay, Sir Robert," replied the man; "a fellow from the lone house by
+Iden Green brought him; and in a sad state the poor beast is. He's got
+a cut, like with a knife, all down his shoulder."
+
+"Your dragoon swords are sharp, Sir Edward," said the old baronet,
+gaily, to his guest; "however, I will go and see him myself, and
+rejoin you here in a minute."
+
+"I am so glad to have a moment alone," cried Zara, as soon as her
+father was gone, "that you must forgive me if I use it directly. I am
+going to ask you a favour, Sir Edward. You must take me a ride, and
+lend me a horse. I have just had a message from poor Harry Leyton; he
+wishes to see me, but I am afraid to go alone, with so many soldiers
+about."
+
+"Are they such terrible animals?" asked her companion, with a smile,
+adding, however, "I shall be delighted, if your father will consent;
+for I have already told him that I am going to Woodchurch this
+afternoon."
+
+"Oh! you must ask me yourself, Sir Edward," replied Zara, "quite in a
+civil tone; and then when you see that I am willing, you must be very
+pressing with my father--quite as if you were a lover; and he will not
+refuse you.--I'll bear you harmless, as I have heard Mr. Radford say;"
+she added, with a playful smile that was quickly saddened.
+
+"You shall command for the time," answered Digby, as gaily; "perhaps
+after that, I may take my turn, sweet lady. But I have a good deal to
+say to you, too, which I could not fully explain last night."
+
+"As we go--as we go," replied Zara; "my father will be back directly,
+otherwise I would tell you a long story about my aunt, who has
+evidently got some great secret which she is all impatience to
+divulge. If I had stayed an hour with her, I might have arrived at it;
+but I was afraid of losing my opportunity here.--Oh, that invaluable
+thing, opportunity! Once lost, what years of misery does it not
+sometimes leave behind.--Would to Heaven that Edith and Leyton had run
+away with each other when they were about it.--We should all have been
+happier now."
+
+"And I should never have known you," replied Digby. Zara smiled, and
+shook her head, as if saying, "That is hardly fair;" but Sir Robert
+Croyland was seen coming up the walk; and she only replied, "Now do
+your _devoir_, gallant knight, and let me see if you do it zealously."
+
+"I have been trying in your absence, my dear sir," said Digby, rather
+maliciously, as the baronet joined them, "to persuade your fair
+daughter to run away with me. But she is very dutiful, and will not
+take such a rash step, though the distance is only to Woodchurch,
+without your consent. I pray you give it; for I long to mount her on
+my quietest horse, and see her try her skill in horsemanship again."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland looked grave; and ere the words were half spoken,
+Sir Edward Digby felt that he had committed an error in his game; for
+he was well aware that when we have a favour to ask, we should not
+call up, by speech or look, in the mind of the person who is to grant
+it, any association having a contrary tendency.
+
+"I am afraid that I have no servant whom I could send with you, Sir
+Edward," replied her father; "one I have just dispatched to some
+distance, and you know I am left without horses, for this poor beast
+just come back, is unfit. Neither do I think it would be altogether
+consistent with decorum, for Zara to go with you quite alone."
+
+Sir Edward Digby mentally sent the word decorum back to the place from
+whence it came; but he was resolved to press his point; and when Zara
+replied, "Oh, do let me go, papa!" he added, "My servant can accompany
+us, to satisfy propriety, Sir Robert; and you know I have quartered
+three horses upon you. Then, as I find the fair lady is somewhat
+afraid of a multitude of soldiers, I promise most faithfully not even
+to dismount in Woodchurch, but to say what I have to say, to the
+officer in command there, and then canter back over the country."
+
+"Who is the officer in command?" asked Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+Zara drew her breath quick, but Sir Edward Digby avoided the dangerous
+point. "Irby has one troop there," he replied; "and there are parts of
+two others. When I have made interest enough here," he continued, with
+a half bow to Zara, "I shall beg to introduce Irby to you, Sir Robert;
+you will like him much, I think. I have known him long."
+
+"Pray invite him to dinner while he stays," said Sir Robert Croyland;
+"it will give me much pleasure to see him."
+
+"Not yet--not yet!" answered Digby, laughing; "I always secure my own
+approaches first."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland smiled graciously, and, turning to Zara, said,
+"Well, my dear, I see no objection, if you wish it. You had better go
+and get ready."
+
+Zara's cheek was glowing, and she took her father at the first word;
+but when she was gone, Sir Robert thought fit to lecture his guest a
+little, upon the bad habit of spoiling young ladies which he seemed to
+have acquired. He did it jocularly, but with his usual pompous and
+grave air; and no one would have recognised in the Sir Robert Croyland
+walking in the garden, the father whom we have lately seen humbled
+before his own child. There is no part of a man's character which he
+keeps up so well to the world as that part which is not his own. The
+assertion may seem to be a contradiction in terms; but there is no
+other way of expressing the sense clearly; and whether those terms be
+correct or not, will depend upon whether character is properly innate
+or accumulated.
+
+Sir Edward Digby answered gaily, for it was his object to keep his
+host in good humour at least, for the time. He denied the possibility
+of spoiling a lady, while he acknowledged his propensity to attempt
+impossibilities in that direction; and at the same time, with a good
+grace, and a frankness, real yet assumed--for his words were true,
+though they might not have been spoken just then, under any other
+circumstances--he admitted that, of all people whom he should like to
+spoil, the fair being who had just left them was the foremost. The
+words were too decided to be mistaken. Sir Edward Digby was evidently
+a gentleman, and known to be a man of honour. No man of honour trifles
+with a woman's affections; and Sir Robert Croyland, wise in this
+instance if not in others, did as all wise fathers would do, held his
+tongue for a time that the matter might cool and harden, and then
+changed the subject.
+
+Digby, however, had grown thoughtful. Did he repent what he had said?
+No, certainly not. He wished, indeed, that he had not been driven to
+say it so soon; for there were doubts in his own mind whether Zara
+herself were altogether won. She was frank, she was kind, she trusted
+him, she acted with him; but there was at times a shade of reserve
+about her, coming suddenly, which seemed to him as a warning. She had
+from the first taken such pains to ensure that her confidence--the
+confidence of circumstances--should not be misunderstood; she had
+responded so little to the first approaches of love, while she had
+yielded so readily to those of friendship, that there was a doubt in
+his mind which made him uneasy; and, every now and then, her uncle's
+account of her character rung in his ear, and made him think--"I have
+found this artillery more dangerous than I expected."
+
+What a pity it is that uncles will not hold their tongues!
+
+At length, he bethought him that it would be as well to order the
+horses, which was accordingly done; and some time before they were
+ready, the fair girl herself appeared, and continued walking up and
+down the garden with her father and their guest, looking very lovely,
+both from excitement, which gave a varying colour to her cheek, and
+from intense feelings, which, denied the lips, looked out with deeper
+soul from the eyes.
+
+"I think, Zara," said Sir Robert Croyland, when it was announced that
+the horses and the servant were ready, "that you took Sir Edward to
+the north, when you went over to your uncle's. You had better,
+therefore, in returning--for I know, in your wild spirits, when once
+on horseback, you will not be contented with the straight road--you
+had better, I say, come by the southwest."
+
+"Oh, papa, I could never learn the points of the compass in my life!"
+answered Zara, laughing; "I suppose that is the reason why, as my aunt
+says, I steer so ill."
+
+"I mean--by the lower road," replied her father; and he laid such
+emphasis on the words, that Zara received them as a command.
+
+They mounted and set out, much to the surprise of Mrs. Barbara
+Croyland, who saw them from the window, and thence derived her first
+information of their intended expedition; for Zara was afraid of her
+aunt's kindnesses, and never encountered them when she could help it.
+When they were a hundred yards from the house, the conversation began;
+but I will not enter into all the details; for at first they related
+to facts with which the reader is already well acquainted. Sir Edward
+Digby told her at large, all that had passed between himself and
+Leyton on the preceding day, and Zara, in return, informed him of the
+message she had received from his friend, and how it had been
+conveyed. Their minds then turned to other things, or rather to other
+branches of the same subjects; and, what was to be done? was the next
+question; for hours were flying--the moment that was to decide the
+fate of the two beings in whom each felt a deep though separate
+interest, was approaching fast; and no progress had apparently been
+made.
+
+Zara's feelings seemed as much divided as Edith's had been. She shrank
+from the thought, that her sister, whom she loved with a species of
+adoration, should sacrifice herself on any account to such a fate as
+that which must attend the wife of Richard Radford. She shrank also,
+as a young, generous woman's heart must ever shrink, from the thought
+of any one wedding the abhorred, and separating for ever from the
+beloved; but then, when she came to turn her eyes towards her father,
+she trembled for him as much as for Edith; and, with her two hands
+resting on the pommel of the saddle, she gazed down in anxious and
+bitter thought.
+
+"I know not your father as well as you do, my dear Miss Croyland,"
+said her companion, at length, as he marked these emotions; "and
+therefore I cannot tell what might be his conduct under particular
+circumstances." Zara suddenly raised her eyes, and fixed them on his
+face; but Digby continued. "I do not speak of the past, but of the
+future. I take it for granted--not alone as a courtesy, but from all I
+have seen--that Sir Robert Croyland cannot have committed any act,
+that could justly render him liable to danger from the law."
+
+"Thank you--thank you!" said Zara, dropping her eyes again; "you judge
+rightly, I am sure."
+
+"But at the same time," he proceeded, "it is clear that some
+unfortunate concurrence of circumstances has placed him either really,
+or in imagination, in Mr. Radford's power. Now, would he but act a
+bold and decided part--dare the worst--discountenance a bad man and a
+villain--even, if necessary, in his magisterial capacity, treat him as
+he deserves--he would take away the sting from his malice. Any
+accusation this man might bring would have _enmity_ too strongly
+written upon it, to carry much weight; and all the evidence in favour
+of your father would have double force."
+
+"He cannot--he will not," answered Zara, sadly, "unless he be actually
+driven. I know no more than you, Sir Edward, how all this has
+happened; but I know my father, and I know that he shrinks from
+disgrace more than death. An accusation, a public trial, would kill
+him by the worst and most terrible kind of torture. Mr. Radford, too,
+has wound the toils round him completely--that I can see. He could say
+that Sir Robert Croyland has acted contrary to all his own principles,
+at his request; and he could point to the cause. He could say that Sir
+Robert Croyland suddenly became, and has been for years the most
+intimate friend and companion of a man he scorned and avoided;
+and he could assert that it was because the proud man was in the
+cunning man's power. If, for vengeance, he chooses to avow his own
+disgrace--and what is there not Mr. Radford would avow to serve his
+ends?--believe me, he has my father in a net, from which it will be
+difficult to disentangle him."
+
+They both fell into thought again; but Zara did not sink in Digby's
+estimation, from the clear and firm view which she took of her
+father's position.
+
+"Well," he said, at length, "let us wait, and hear what poor Leyton
+has to tell you. Perhaps he may have gained some further insight, or
+may have formed some plan; and now, Zara, let us for a moment speak of
+ourselves. You see, to-day, I have been forced to make love to you."
+
+"Too much," said Zara, gravely. "I am sure you intended it for the
+best; but I am sorry it could not be avoided."
+
+"And yet it is very pleasant," answered Digby, half jestingly, half
+seriously.
+
+Zara seemed agitated: "Do not, do not!" she replied; "my mind is too
+full of sad things, to think of what might be pleasant or not at
+another time;" and she turned a look towards him, in which kindness,
+entreaty, and seriousness were all so blended, that it left him in
+greater doubt than ever, as to her sensations. "Besides," she added,
+the serious predominating in her tone, "consider what a difference one
+rash word, on either part, may make between us. Let me regard you, at
+least for the present, as a friend--or a brother, as you once said,
+Digby; let me take counsel with you, seek your advice, call for your
+assistance, without one thought or care to shackle or restrain me. In
+pity, do; for you know not how much I need support."
+
+"Then I am most ready to give it, on your own terms, and in your own
+way," answered Digby, warmly; but, immediately afterwards, he fell
+into a reverie, and in his own mind thought--"She is wrong in her
+view; or indifferent towards me. With a lover to whom all is
+acknowledged, and with whom all is decided, she would have greater
+confidence, than with a friend, towards whom the dearest feelings of
+the heart are in doubt. This must be resolved speedily, but not now;
+for it evidently agitates her too much.--Yet, after all, in that
+agitation is hope."
+
+Just as his meditations had reached this point, they passed by the
+little public house of the Chequers, then a very favourite sign in
+England, and especially in that part of the country; and in five
+minutes after, they perceived a horseman on the road, riding rapidly
+towards them.
+
+"There is Leyton," said Sir Edward Digby, as he came somewhat nearer;
+but Zara gazed forward with surprise, at the tall, manly figure,
+dressed in the handsome uniform of the time, the pale but noble
+countenance, and the calm commanding air. "Impossible!" she cried.
+"Why, he was a gay, slight, florid, young man."
+
+"Six or seven years ago," answered Digby; "but that, my dear Miss
+Croyland, is Sir Henry Leyton, depend upon it."
+
+Now, it may seem strange that Edith should have instantly recognised,
+even at a much greater distance, the man whom her sister did not,
+though the same period had passed since each had seen him; but, it
+must be remembered, that Edith was between two and three years older
+than Zara; and those two or three years, at the time of life which
+they had reached when Leyton left England, are amongst the most
+important in a woman's life--those when new feelings and new thoughts
+arise, to impress for ever, on the woman's heart, events and persons
+that the girl forgets in an hour.
+
+Leyton, however, it certainly was; and when Zara could see his
+features distinctly, she recalled the lines. Springing from his horse
+as soon as he was near, her sister's lover cast the bridle of his
+charger over his arm, and, taking the hand she extended to him, kissed
+it affectionately: "Oh, Zara, how you are changed!" he said. "But so
+am I; and you have gained, whilst I have lost. It is very kind of you
+to come thus speedily."
+
+"You could not doubt, Leyton, that I would, if possible," answered
+Zara; "but all things are much changed in our house, as well as
+ourselves; and that wild liberty which we formerly enjoyed, of running
+whithersoever we would, is sadly abridged now. But what have you to
+say, Leyton? for I dare not stay long."
+
+Digby was dropping behind, apparently to speak to his servant for a
+moment; but Leyton called to him, assuring him that he had nothing to
+say, which he might not hear.
+
+"Presently, presently," answered Zara's companion; and leaving them
+alone, he rode up to good Mr. Somers, who, with his usual discretion,
+had halted, as they halted, at a very respectful distance. The young
+officer seemed to give some orders, which were rather long, and then
+returned at a slow pace. In the meantime, the conversation of Leyton
+and Zara had gone on; but his only object, it appeared, was to see
+her, and to entreat her to aid and support his Edith in any trial she
+might be put to. "I spent a short period of chequered happiness with
+her last night," he said; "and she then told me, dear Zara, that she
+was sure her father would send for her in the course of this day. If
+such be the case, keep with her always as far as possible; bid her
+still remember Harry Leyton; bid her resist to the end; and assure her
+that he will come to her deliverance ultimately. Were it myself alone,
+I would sacrifice anything, and set her free; but when I know that, by
+so doing, I should make her wretched for ever--that her own heart
+would be broken, and nothing but an early death relieve her, I cannot
+do it, Zara--no one can expect it."
+
+"Perhaps not--perhaps not, Leyton;" answered Zara, with the tears in
+her eyes; "but yet--my father! However, I cannot advise--I cannot even
+ask anything. All is so dark and perplexed, I am lost!"
+
+"I am labouring now, dear Zara," replied the young officer, "to find
+or devise means of rendering his safety sure. Already I have the power
+to crush the bad man in whose grasp he is, and render his testimony,
+whatever it may be, nearly valueless. At all events, the only course
+before us, is that which I have pointed out; and while Digby is with
+you, you can never want the best and surest counsel and assistance.
+You may confide in him fully, Zara. I have now known him many years;
+and a more honourable and upright man, or one of greater talent, does
+not live."
+
+There was something very gratifying to Zara in what he said of his
+friend; and had she been in a mood to scrutinize her own feelings
+accurately, the pleasure that she experienced in hearing such words
+spoken of Sir Edward Digby--the agitated sort of pleasure--might have
+given her an insight into her own heart. As it was, it only sent a
+passing blush into her cheek, and she replied, "I am sure he is all
+you say, Harry; and indeed, it is to his connivance that I owe my
+being able to come hither to-day. These smugglers took away all my
+father's horses; and I suppose, from what I hear, that some of them
+have been captured by your men."
+
+"If such is the case they shall be sent back," replied Leyton; "for I
+am well aware that the horses being found with the smugglers, is no
+proof that they were therewith the owner's consent. To-morrow, I trust
+to be able to give you a further insight into my plans, for I am
+promised some information of importance to-night; and perhaps, even
+before you reach home, I shall have put a bar against Mr. Richard
+Radford's claims to Edith, which he may find insurmountable."
+
+As he was speaking, Sir Edward Digby returned, quickening his horse's
+pace as he came near, and pointing with his hand. "You have got a
+detachment out, I see, Leyton," he said--"Is there any new affair
+before you?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied the Colonel, "it is merely Irby and a part of his
+troop, whom I have despatched to search the wood, for I have certain
+intelligence that the man we are seeking is concealed there."
+
+"They may save themselves the trouble," replied Zara, shaking her
+head; "for though he was certainly there all yesterday, he made his
+escape this morning."
+
+Leyton hit his lip, and his brow grew clouded. "That is unfortunate,"
+he said, "most unfortunate!--I do not ask you how you know, Zara; but
+are you quite sure?"
+
+"Perfectly," she answered--"I would not deceive you for the world,
+Leyton; and I only say what I have said, because I think that, if you
+do search the wood, it may draw attention to your being in this
+neighbourhood, which as yet is not known at Harbourne, and it may
+embarrass us very much."
+
+"I am not sure, Leyton," said Sir Edward Digby, "that as far as your
+own purposes are concerned, it might not be better to seem, at all
+events, to withdraw the troops, or at least a part of them, from this
+neighbourhood. Indeed, though I have no right to give you advice upon
+the subject, I think also it might be beneficial in other respects,
+for as soon as the smugglers think you gone, they will act with more
+freedom."
+
+"I propose to do so, to-morrow," replied the colonel; "but I have some
+information already, and expect more, upon which I must act in the
+first place. It will be as well, however, to stop Irby's party, if
+there is no end to be obtained by their proceedings."
+
+He then took leave of Zara and his friend, mounted his horse, and rode
+back to meet the troop that was advancing; while Zara and Sir Edward
+Digby, after following the same road up to the first houses of
+Woodchurch, turned away to the right, and went back to Harbourne, by
+the small country road which leads from Kennardington to Tenterden.
+
+Their conversation, as they went, would be of very little interest to
+the reader; for it consisted almost altogether of comments upon
+Leyton's changed appearance, and discussions of the same questions of
+doubt and difficulty which had occupied them before. They went slowly,
+however; and when they reached the house it did not want much more
+than three quarters of an hour to the usual time of dinner. Sir Robert
+Croyland they found looking out of the glass-door, which commanded a
+view towards his brother's house, and his first question was, which
+way they had returned. Sir Edward Digby gave an easy and unconcerned
+reply, describing the road they had followed, and comparing it,
+greatly to its disadvantage, with that which they had pursued on their
+former expedition.
+
+"Then you saw nothing of the carriage, Zara?" inquired her father. "It
+is very strange that Edith has not come back."
+
+"No, we saw no carriage of any kind; but a carrier's cart," replied
+the young lady. "Perhaps if Edith did not know you were going to send,
+she might not be ready."
+
+This reason, however, did not seem to satisfy Sir Robert Croyland; and
+after talking with him for a few minutes more as he stood, still
+gazing forth over the country, Zara and Digby retired to change their
+dress before dinner; and the latter received a long report from his
+servant of facts which will be shown hereafter. The man was
+particularly minute and communicative, because his master asked him no
+questions, and suffered him to tell his tale his own way. But that
+tale fully occupied the time till the second bell rang, and Digby
+hurried down to dinner.
+
+Still, Miss Croyland had not returned; and it was evident that Sir
+Robert Croyland was annoyed and uneasy. All the suavity and
+cheerfulness of the morning was gone; for one importunate source of
+care and thought will always carry the recollection back to others;
+and he sat at the dinner table in silence and gloom, only broken by
+brief intervals of conversation, which he carried on with a laborious
+effort.
+
+Just as Mrs. Barbara rose to retire, however, the butler re-entered
+the room, announcing to Sir Robert Croyland that Mr. Radford had
+called, and wished to speak with him. "He would not come in, sir,"
+continued the man, "for he said he wanted to speak with you alone, so
+I showed him into the library."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland instantly rose, but looked with a hesitating
+glance at his guest, while Mrs. Barbara and Zara retired from the
+room.
+
+"Pray, do not let me detain you, Sir Robert," said the young officer;
+"I have taken as much wine as I ever do, and will go and join the
+ladies in the drawing-room."
+
+The customs of the day required that the master of the house should
+press the bottle upon his guest; and Sir Robert Croyland did not fail
+to do so. But Digby remained firm, and, to settle the question, walked
+quietly to the door and entered the drawing-room. There, he found Zara
+seated; but Mrs. Barbara was standing near the table, and apparently
+in a state, for which the English language supplies but one term, and
+that not a very classical one. I mean, she was in a _fidget_.
+
+The reader is aware that the library of Harbourne House was adjacent
+to the drawing-room, and that there was a door between them. It was a
+thick, solid, oaken door, however, such as shut out the wind in the
+good old times; and, moreover, it fitted very close. Thus, though the
+minute after Sir Edward had entered the room, a low murmur, as of
+persons speaking somewhat loud, was heard from the library, not a
+single syllable could be distinguished; and Mrs. Barbara looked at the
+keyhole, with a longing indescribable. After about thirty seconds'
+martyrdom, Mrs. Barbara quitted the room: Zara, who knew her aunt,
+candidly trusting, that she had gone to put herself out of temptation;
+and Sir Edward Digby never for a moment imagining, that she could have
+been in any temptation at all. It may now be necessary, however, to
+follow Sir Robert Croyland to the library, and to reveal to the reader
+all that Mrs. Barbara was so anxious to learn.
+
+He found Mr. Radford, booted and spurred, standing, with his tall,
+bony figure, in as easy an attitude as it could assume, by the
+fire-place; and the baronet's first question was, "In the name of
+Heaven, Radford, what has become of Edith?--Neither she nor the
+carriage have returned."
+
+"Oh, yes, the carriage has, half an hour ago!" replied Mr. Radford;
+"and I met the horses going back as I came.--Didn't you get my message
+which I sent by the coachman?"
+
+"No, I must have been at dinner," answered Sir Robert Croyland, "and
+the fools did not give it to me."
+
+"Well, it is no great matter," rejoined Mr. Radford, in the quietest
+possible tone. "It was only to say that I was coming over, and would
+explain to you all about Miss Croyland."
+
+"But where is she? Why did she not come?" demanded her father, with
+some of the old impetuosity of his youth.
+
+"She is at my house," answered the other, deliberately; "I thought it
+would be a great deal better, Croyland, to bring her there at once, as
+you left to me the decision of where the marriage was to be. She could
+be quite as comfortable there as here. My son will be up to-morrow;
+and the marriage can take place quietly, without any piece of work.
+Now, here it would be difficult to manage it; for, in the first place,
+it would be dangerous for my son. You have got a stranger in the
+house, and a whole heap of servants, who cannot be trusted. I have
+arranged everything for the marriage, and for their going off quietly
+on their little tour. We shall soon get a pardon for this affair with
+the dragoons; and that will be all settled."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland had remained mute; not with any calm or tranquil
+feelings, but with indignation and astonishment. "Upon my life and
+soul," he cried, "this is too bad! Do you mean to say, sir, that you
+have ventured, without my knowledge or consent, to change my
+daughter's destination, and take her to your house when I wished her
+to be brought here?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," replied Mr. Radford, with the most perfect calmness.
+
+"Well then, sir," exclaimed the baronet, irritated beyond all
+endurance--"I have to tell you, that you have committed a gross,
+insolent, and unjustifiable act; and I have to insist that she be
+brought back here this very night."
+
+"Nay, my dear friend--nay," replied Mr. Radford, in a half jeering
+tone. "These are harsh words that you use; but you must hear me first,
+before I pay any attention to them."
+
+"I want to hear nothing, sir," cried Sir Robert Croyland, his anger
+still carrying him forward. "But if you do not send her back to her
+own home, I will get horses over from Tenterden, and bring her
+myself.--Her slavery has not yet commenced, Mr. Radford."
+
+"I shall not be able to bring her over," answered Mr. Radford, still
+maintaining the same provoking coolness; "because, in case of her
+return, I should be obliged to use my horses myself, to lay certain
+important facts, which we both know of, before a brother magistrate."
+
+He paused, and Sir Robert Croyland winced. But still indignation was
+uppermost for the time; and rapidly as lightning the thoughts of
+resistance passed through his mind. "This man's conduct is too bad,"
+he said to himself. "After such a daring act as this, with his
+character blackened by so many stains, and so clear a case of revenge,
+the magistrates will surely hardly listen to him." But as he continued
+to reflect, timidity--the habitual timidity of many years--began to
+mingle with and dilute his resolution; and Mr. Radford, who knew him
+to the very heart, after having suffered him to reflect just long
+enough to shake his firmness, went on in a somewhat different tone,
+saying, "Come, Sir Robert! don't be unreasonable; and before you
+quarrel irretrievably with an old friend, listen quietly to what he
+has got to say."
+
+"Well, sir, well," said Sir Robert Croyland, casting himself into a
+chair--"what is it you have got to say?"
+
+"Why, simply this, my dear friend," answered Mr. Radford, "that you
+are not aware of all the circumstances, and therefore cannot judge yet
+whether I have acted right or wrong. You and I have decided, I think,
+that there can no longer be any delay in the arrangement of our
+affairs. I put it plainly to you yesterday, that it was to be now or
+never; and you agreed that it should be now. You brought me your
+daughter's consent in the afternoon; and so far the matter was
+settled. I don't want to injure you; and if you are injured, it is
+your own fault--"
+
+"But I gave no consent," said Sir Robert Croyland, "that she should be
+taken to your house. The circumstances--the circumstances, Mr.
+Radford!"
+
+"Presently, presently," replied his companion. "I take it for
+granted, that, when you have pledged yourself to a thing, you are
+anxious to accomplish it. Now I tell you, there was no sure way of
+accomplishing this, but that which I have taken. Do you know who is
+the commander of this dragoon regiment which is down here?--No. But I
+do. Do you know who is the man, who, like a sub-officer of the
+Customs, attacked our friends yesterday morning, took some fifty of
+them prisoners, robbed me of some seventy thousand pounds, and is now
+hunting after my son, as if he were a fox?--No. But I do; and I will
+tell you who he is.--One Harry Leyton, whom you may have heard
+of--now, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, Knight of the Bath,
+forsooth!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland gazed upon him in astonishment; but, whatever were
+his other sensations, deep grief and bitter regret mingled with them,
+when he thought that circumstances should ever have driven or tempted
+him to promise his daughter's hand to a low, dissolute, unprincipled
+villan, and to put a fatal barrier between her and one whom he had
+always known to be generous, honorable, and high principled, and who
+had now gained such distinction in the service of his country. He
+remained perfectly silent, however; and the expression of surprise and
+consternation which his countenance displayed, was misinterpreted by
+Mr. Radford to his own advantage.
+
+"Now, look here, Sir Robert," he continued; "if your daughter were in
+your house, you could not help this young man having some
+communication with her. He has already been over at your brother's,
+and has seen her, I doubt not. Here, then, is your fair daughter Miss
+Zara, your guest Sir Edward Digby--his intimate friend, I dare
+say--all your maids and half your men servants, even dear Mrs. Barbara
+herself, with her sweet meddling ways, would all be ready to fetch and
+carry between the lovers. In short, our whole plans would be
+overturned; and I should be compelled to do that which would be very
+disagreeable to me, and to strike at this upstart Henry Leyton through
+the breast of Sir Robert Croyland. In my house, he can have no access
+to her; and though some mischief may already have been done, yet it
+can go no further."
+
+"Now I understand what you mean by revenge," said the baronet, in a
+low tone, folding his hands together.--"Now I understand."
+
+"Well, but have I judged rightly or wrongly?" demanded Mr. Radford.
+
+"Rightly, I suppose," said Sir Robert Croyland, sadly. "It can't be
+helped;--but poor Edith, how does she bear it?"
+
+"Oh, very well," answered Mr. Radford, quietly. "She cried a little at
+first, and when she found where they were going, asked the coachman
+what he meant. It was my coachman, you know, not yours; and so he
+lied, like a good, honest fellow, and said you were waiting for her at
+my house. I was obliged to make up a little bit of a story too, and
+tell her you knew all about it; but that was no great harm; for I was
+resolved, you should know all about it, very soon."
+
+"Lied like a good honest fellow!" murmured Sir Robert Croyland, to
+himself. "Well," he continued, aloud, "at all events I must come over
+to-morrow, and try to reconcile the poor girl to it."
+
+"Do so, do so," answered Mr. Radford; "and in the meantime, I must be
+off; for I've still a good deal of work to do to-night. Did you see,
+they have withdrawn the dragoons from the wood? They knew it would be
+of no use to keep them there. So now, good night--that's all settled."
+
+"All settled, indeed," murmured Sir Robert Croyland as Mr. Radford
+left him; and for nearly half an hour after, he continued sitting in
+the library, with his hands clasped upon his knee, exactly in the same
+position.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Sir Edward Digby did not take advantage of the opportunity which Mrs.
+Barbara's absence afforded him. This may seem extraordinary conduct in
+a good soldier and quick and ready man; but he had his reasons for it.
+Not that he was beginning to hesitate, as some men do, when--after
+having quite made up their minds--they begin to consider all the
+perils of their situation, and retreat, without much regard for their
+own consistency, or the feelings of the other persons interested. But,
+no--Digby justly remembered that what he had to say might require some
+time, and that it might produce some agitation. Moreover, he
+recollected that there are few things so disagreeable on earth, as
+being interrupted at a time when people's eyes are sparkling or in
+tears, when the cheek is flushed or deadly pale; and as he knew not
+when Mrs. Barbara might return, and certainly did not anticipate that
+she would be long absent, he resolved to wait for another opportunity.
+
+When he found minute after minute slip by, however, he began to repent
+of his determination; and certainly, although the word love never
+passed his lips, something very like the reality shone out in his
+eyes. Perhaps, had Zara been in any of her usual moods, more serious
+words might have followed. Had she been gay and jesting, or calm and
+thoughtful, a thousand little incidents might have led on naturally to
+the unfolding of the heart of each. But, on the contrary, she was
+neither the one nor the other. She was evidently anxious,
+apprehensive, ill at ease; and though she conversed rationally enough
+for a person whose mind was in such a state, yet she frequently turned
+her eyes towards the door of the adjoining room, from which the sound
+of her father's voice and that of Mr. Radford might still be heard.
+
+Sir Edward Digby endeavoured to gain her attention to himself, as much
+with a view to withdraw it from unpleasant subjects as anything else;
+and it was very natural that--with one so fair and so excellent, one
+possessing so much brightness, in spite of a few little spots--it was
+natural that his tone should become tenderer every minute. At length,
+however, she stopped him, saying, "I am very anxious just now. I fear
+there is some mischief going on there, which we cannot prevent, and
+may never know. Edith's absence is certainly very strange; and I fear
+they may foil us yet."
+
+In a minute or two after, Mrs. Barbara Croyland returned, but in such
+a flutter that she spoilt her embroidery, which she snatched up to
+cover her agitation, dropped her finest scissars, and broke the point
+off, and finally ran the needle into her finger, which, thereupon,
+spotted the silk with blood. She gave no explanation indeed of all
+this emotion, but looked several times at Zara with a meaning glance;
+and when, at length, Sir Robert Croyland entered the drawing-room, his
+whole air and manner did not tend to remove from his daughter's mind
+the apprehension which his sister's demeanour had cast over it.
+
+There is a general tone in every landscape which it never entirely
+loses; yet how infinite are the varieties which sunshine and cloud and
+storm, and morning, evening, and noon, bring upon it; and thus with
+the expression and conduct of every man, although they retain certain
+distinctive characteristics, yet innumerable are the varieties
+produced by the moods, the passions, and the emotions of the mind. Sir
+Robert Croyland was no longer irritably thoughtful; but he was stern,
+gloomy, melancholy. He strove to converse, indeed; but the effort was
+so apparent, the pain it gave him so evident, that Sir Edward Digby
+felt, or fancied, that his presence was a restraint. He had too much
+tact, however, to show that he imagined such to be the case; and he
+only resolved to retire to his own room as soon as he decently could.
+He was wrong in his supposition, indeed, that his host might wish to
+communicate something privately to Zara, or to Mrs. Barbara. Sir
+Robert had nothing to tell; and therefore the presence of Sir Edward
+Digby was rather agreeable to him than not, as shielding him from
+inquiries, which it might not have suited him to answer. He would have
+talked if he could, and would have done his best to make his house
+agreeable to his young guest; but his thoughts still turned, with all
+the bitterness of smothered anger, to the indignity he had suffered;
+and he asked himself, again and again, "Will the time ever come, when
+I shall have vengeance for all this?"
+
+The evening passed gloomily, and in consequence slowly; and at length,
+when the clock showed that it still wanted a quarter to ten, Digby
+rose and bade the little party good night, saying that he was somewhat
+tired, and had letters to write.
+
+"I shall go to bed too," said Sir Robert Croyland, ringing for his
+candle. But Digby quitted the room first; and Zara could not refrain
+from saying, in a low tone, as she took leave of her father for the
+night, and went out of the room with him, "There is nothing amiss with
+Edith, I trust, my dear father?"
+
+"Oh dear, no!" answered Sir Robert Croyland, with as careless an air
+as he could assume. "Nothing at all, but that she does not come home
+to-night, and perhaps may not to-morrow."
+
+Still unsatisfied, Zara sought her own room; and when her maid had
+half performed her usual functions for the night, she dismissed her,
+saying, that she would do the rest herself. When alone, however, Zara
+Croyland did not proceed to undress, but remained thinking over all
+the events of the day, with her head resting on her hand, and her eyes
+cast down. The idea of Edith and her fate mingled with other images.
+The words that Digby had spoken, the increasing tenderness of his tone
+and manner, came back to memory, and made her heart flutter with
+sensations unknown till then. She felt alarmed at her own feelings;
+she knew not well what they were; but still she said to herself at
+every pause of thought--"It is all nonsense!--He will go away and
+forget me; and I shall forget him! These soldiers have always some
+tale of love for every woman's ear. It is their habit--almost their
+nature." Did she believe her own conclusions? Not entirely; but she
+tried to believe them; and that was enough for the present.
+
+Some minutes after, however, when a light knock was heard at the door,
+she started almost as if some one had struck her; and Fancy, who is
+always drawing upon improbability, made her believe, for an instant,
+that it might be Digby. She said, "Come in," however, with tolerable
+calmness; and the next instant, the figure of her aunt presented
+itself, with eagerness in her looks and importance in her whole air.
+
+"My dear child!" she said, "I did not know whether your maid was gone;
+but I am very happy she is, for I have something to tell you of very
+great importance indeed. What do you think that rascal Radford has
+done?" and as she spoke, she sank, with a dignified air, into a chair.
+
+"I really can't tell, my dear aunt," replied Zara, not a little
+surprised to hear the bad epithet which her aunt applied to a
+gentleman, towards whom she usually displayed great politeness. "I am
+sure he is quite capable of anything that is bad."
+
+"Ah, he is very much afraid of me, and what he calls my sweet meddling
+ways," said the old lady; "but, perhaps, if I had meddled before, it
+might have been all the better. I am sure I am the very last to
+meddle, except when there is an absolute occasion for it, as you well
+know, my dear Zara."
+
+The last proposition was put in some degree as a question; but Zara
+did not think fit to answer it, merely saying, "What is it, my dear
+aunt?--I am all anxiety and fear regarding Edith."
+
+"Well you may be, my love," said Mrs. Barbara; and thereupon she
+proceeded to tell Zara, how she had overheard the whole conversation
+between Mr. Radford and her brother, through the door of the library,
+which opened into the little passage, that ran between it and the
+rooms beyond. She did not say that she had put her ear to the keyhole;
+but that Zara took for granted, and indeed felt somewhat like an
+accomplice, while listening to secrets which had been acquired by such
+means.
+
+Thus almost everything that had passed in the library--with a few very
+short variations and improvements, but with a good deal of comment,
+and a somewhat lengthy detail--was communicated by Mrs. Barbara to her
+niece; and when she had done, the old lady added, "There, my dear, now
+go to bed and sleep upon it; and we will talk it all over in the
+morning, for I am determined that my niece shall not be treated in
+such a way by any vagabond smuggler like that. Dear me! one cannot
+tell what might happen, with Edith shut up in his house in that way.
+Talk of my meddling, indeed! He shall find that I will meddle now to
+some purpose! Good night, my dear love--good night!" But Mrs. Barbara
+stopped at the door, to explain to Zara that she had not told her
+before, "Because, you know," said the good lady, "I could not speak of
+such things before a stranger, like Sir Edward Digby; and when he was
+gone, I didn't dare say anything to your father. Think of it till
+to-morrow, there's a dear girl, and try and devise some plan."
+
+"I will," said Zara--"I will;" but as soon as her aunt had
+disappeared, she clasped her hands together, exclaiming, "Good Heaven!
+what plan can I form? Edith is lost! They have her now completely in
+their power. Oh, that I had known this before Sir Edward Digby went to
+sleep. He might have gone over to Leyton to-morrow, early; and they
+might have devised something together. Perhaps he has not gone to rest
+yet. He told me to throw off all restraint, to have no ceremony in
+case of need. Leyton told me so, too--that I might trust in him--that
+he is a man of honour. Oh, yes, I am sure he is a man of honour! but
+what will he think?--He promised he would think no harm of anything I
+might be called upon to do; and I promised I would trust him. I will
+go! He can speak to me in the passage. No one sleeps near, to
+overhear. But I will knock softly; for though he said he had letters
+to write, he may have gone to bed by this time."
+
+Leaving the lights standing where they were, Zara cast on a long
+dressing-gown, and crept quietly out into the passage, taking care not
+to pull the door quite to. All was silent in the house; not a sound
+was heard; and with her heart beating as if it would have burst
+through her side, she approached Sir Edward Digby's door;--but there
+she paused. Had she not paused, but gone on at once, and knocked, all
+would have been well; for, so far from being in bed, he was sitting
+calmly reading. But ladies' resolutions, and men's, are made of very
+much the same materials. The instant her foot stopped, her whole host
+of woman's feelings crowded upon her, and barred the way. First, she
+thought of modesty, and propriety, and decency; and then, though she
+might have overcome the whole of that squadron for Edith's sake, the
+remembrance of many words that Digby had spoken, the look, the tone,
+the manner, all rose again upon her memory. She felt that he was a
+lover; and putting her hand to her brow, she murmured--"I cannot; no,
+I cannot. Had he been only a friend, I would.--I will see him early
+to-morrow. I will sit up all night, that I may not sleep, and miss the
+opportunity; but I cannot go to-night;" and, returning as quietly to
+her own chamber as she had come thence, she shut the door and locked
+it. She had never locked it in her life before; and she knew not why
+she did it.
+
+Then, drawing the arm-chair to the hearth, Zara Croyland trimmed the
+fire, wrapped herself up as warmly as she could; and putting out one
+of the candles, that she might not be left in darkness by both being
+burnt out together, she took up a book, and began to read. From time
+to time, during that long night, her eyes grew heavy, and she fell
+asleep; but something always woke her. Either her own thoughts
+troubled her in dreams, or else the book fell out of her hand, or the
+wind shook the window, or the cold chill that precedes the coming
+morning disturbed her; and at length she looked at her watch, and,
+finding it past five o'clock, she congratulated herself at having
+escaped the power of the drowsy god, and, dressing in haste, undrew
+the curtains, and looked out by the light of the dawning day. When she
+saw the edge of the sun coming up, she said to herself, "He is often
+very early. I will go down." But, bethinking herself that no time was
+to be lost, she hurried first to her maid's room, and waking her, told
+her to see Sir Edward Digby's servant, as soon as he rose, and to bid
+him inform his master that she wanted to speak with him in the
+library. "Speak not a word of this to any one else, Eliza," she said;
+and then, thinking it necessary to assign some reason for her conduct,
+she added, "I am very anxious about my sister; her not coming home
+yesterday alarms me, and I want to hear more."
+
+"Oh dear! you needn't frighten yourself, Miss Zara," replied the
+maid--"I dare say there's nothing the matter."
+
+"But I cannot help frightening myself," replied Zara; and going down
+into the library, she unclosed one of the shutters.
+
+The maid was very willing to gratify her young lady, for Zara was a
+favourite with all; but thinking from the look of the sky, that it
+would be a long time before the servant rose, and having no such
+scruples as her mistress, she went quietly away to his room, and
+knocked at his door, saying, "I wish you would get up, Mr. Somers--I
+want to speak with you."
+
+Zara remained alone for twenty minutes in the library, or not much
+more, and then she heard Digby's step in the passage. There was a good
+deal of alarm and surprise in his look when he entered; but his fair
+companion's tale was soon told; and that sufficiently explained her
+sudden call for his presence. He made no comment at the moment, but
+replied, "Wait for me here one instant. I will order my horse, and be
+back directly."
+
+He was speedily by her side again; and then, taking her hand in his,
+he said, "I wish I had known this, last night.--You need not have been
+afraid of disturbing me, for I was up till nearly one."
+
+Zara smiled: "You do not know," she answered, "how near I was to your
+door, with the intention of calling you."
+
+"And why did you not?" asked Digby, eagerly. "Nay, you must tell me,
+why you should hesitate when so much was at stake."
+
+"I can but answer, because my heart failed me," replied Zara. "You
+know women's hearts are weak foolish things."
+
+"Nay," said Digby, "you must explain further.--Why did your heart fail
+you? Tell me, Zara. I cannot rest satisfied unless you tell me."
+
+"Indeed, there is no time now for explanation," she replied, feeling
+that her admission had drawn her into more than she had anticipated;
+"your horse will soon be here--and--and there is not a moment to
+lose."
+
+"There is time enough for those who will," answered Digby, in a
+serious tone; "you promised me that you would not hesitate, whenever
+necessity required you to apply to me for counsel or aid--you have
+hesitated, Zara. Could you doubt me--could you be apprehensive--could
+you suppose that Edward Digby would, in word, deed, or thought, take
+advantage of your generous confidence?"
+
+"No, no--oh, no!" answered Zara, warmly, blushing, and trembling at
+the same time, "I did not--I could not, after all you have done--after
+all I have seen. No, no; I thought you would think it strange--I
+thought----"
+
+"Then you supposed I would wrong you in thought!" he replied, with
+some mortification in his manner; "you do not know me yet."
+
+"Oh yes, indeed I do," she answered, feeling that she was getting
+further and further into difficulties; and then she added, with one of
+her sudden bursts of frankness, "I will tell you how it was--candidly
+and truly. Just as I was at your door, and about to knock, the memory
+of several things you had said--inadvertently, perhaps--crossed my
+mind; and, though I felt that I could go at any hour to consult a
+friend in such terrible circumstances, I could not--no, I could not do
+so with a--with one--You see what harm you have done by such fine
+speeches!"
+
+She thought, that by her last words, she had guarded herself securely
+from any immediate consequences of this unreserved confession; but she
+was mistaken. She merely hurried on what might yet have rested for a
+day or two.
+
+Sir Edward Digby took her other hand also, and held it gently yet
+firmly, as if he was afraid she should escape from him. "Zara," he
+said, "dear Zara, I have done harm, by speaking too much, or not
+enough. I must remedy it by the only means in my power.--Listen to me
+for one moment, for I cannot go till all is said. You must cast off
+this reserve--you must act perfectly freely with me; I seek to bind
+you by no engagement--I will bear my doubt; I will not construe
+anything you do, as an acceptance of my suit; but you must know--nay,
+you do know, you do feel, that I am your lover. It was doubt of your
+own sensations towards me, that made you hesitate--it was fear that
+you should commit yourself, to that which you might, on consideration,
+be indisposed to ratify.--You thought that I might plead such
+confidence as a tacit promise; and that made you pause. But hear me,
+as I pledge myself--upon my honour, as a gentleman--that if you act
+fearlessly and freely, in the cause in which we are both engaged--if
+you confide in me--trust in me, and never hesitate to put yourself, as
+you may think, entirely in my power, I will never look upon anything
+as plighting you to me in the slightest degree, till I hear you say
+the words, 'Digby, I am yours'--if ever that happy day should come. In
+the meantime, however, to set you entirely free from all apprehension
+of what others may say, I hold myself bound to you by every promise
+that man can make; and this very day I will ask your father's
+approbation of my suit. But I am well aware, though circumstances have
+shown me in a marvellous short time, that your heart and mind is equal
+to your beauty, yet it is not to be expected that such a being can be
+won in a few short days, and that I must wait in patience--not without
+hope, indeed, but with no presumption. By your conduct, at least, I
+shall know, whether I have gained your esteem.--Your love, perhaps,
+may follow; and now I leave you, to serve your sister and my friend,
+to the best of my power."
+
+Thus saying, he raised her hand to his lips, kissed it, and moved
+towards the door.
+
+There was a sad struggle in Zara's breast; but as he was laying his
+hand upon the lock to open it, she said, "Digby--Digby--Edward!"
+
+He instantly turned, and ran towards her; for her face had become very
+pale. She gave him her hand at once, however, "Kind, generous man!"
+she said, "you must not go without hearing my answer. Such a pledge
+cannot be all on one part. I am yours, Digby, if you wish it; yet know
+me better first before you answer--see all my faults, and all my
+failings. Even this must show you how strange a being I am--how unlike
+other girls--how unlike perhaps, the woman you would wish to call your
+wife!----"
+
+"Wish it!" answered Digby, casting his arm round her, "from my
+heart--from my very soul, Zara. I know enough, I have seen enough, for
+I have seen you in circumstances that bring forth the bosom's inmost
+feelings; and though you are unlike others--and I have watched many in
+their course--that very dissimilarity is to me the surpassing charm.
+They are all art, you are all nature--ay, and nature in its sweetest
+and most graceful form; and I can boldly say, I never yet saw woman
+whom I should desire to call my wife till I saw you. I will not wait,
+dear girl; but, pledged to you as you are pledged to me, will not
+press this subject further on you, till your sister's fate is sealed.
+I must, indeed, speak with your father at once, that there may be no
+mistake, no misapprehension; but till all this sad business is
+settled, we are brother and sister, Zara; and then a dearer bond."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes--brother and sister!" cried Zara, clinging to him at a
+name which takes fear from woman's heart, "so will we be, Edward; and
+now all my doubts and hesitations will be at an end. I shall never
+fear more to seek you when it is needful."
+
+"And my suit will be an excuse and a reason to all others, for free
+interviews, and solitary rambles, and private conference, and every
+dear communion," answered Digby, pleased, and yet almost amazed at the
+simplicity with which she lent herself to the magic of a word, when
+the heart led her.
+
+But Zara saw he was a little extending the brother's privilege; and
+with a warm cheek but smiling lip, she answered, "There, leave me now;
+I see you are learned in the art of leading on from step to step. Go
+on your way, Edward; and, oh! be kind to me, and do not make me feel
+this new situation too deeply at first. There, pray take away your
+arm; none but a father's or a sister's has been there before; and it
+makes my heart beat, as if it were wrong."
+
+But Digby kept it where it was for a moment or two longer, and gave a
+few instants to happiness, in which she shared, though it agitated
+her. "Nay, go," she said, at length, in a tone of entreaty, "and I
+will lie down and rest for an hour; for I have sat up all night by the
+fire, lest I should be too late.--You must go, indeed. There is your
+horse upon the terrace; and we must not be selfish, but remember poor
+Edith before we think of our own happiness."
+
+There was a sweet and frank confession in her words that pleased Digby
+well; and leaving her with a heart at rest on his own account, he
+mounted his horse and rode rapidly away towards the quarters of Sir
+Henry Leyton.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The reader has doubtless remarked--for every reader who peruses a book
+to any purpose must remark everything, inasmuch as the most important
+events are so often connected with insignificant circumstances, that
+the one cannot be understood without the other--the reader has
+doubtless remarked, that Mr. Radford, on leaving Sir Robert Croyland,
+informed his unhappy victim, that he had still a good deal of business
+to do that night. Now, during the day he had--as may well be judged
+from his own statement of all the preparations he had already
+made--done a great deal of very important business; but the details of
+his past proceedings I shall not enter into, and only beg leave to
+precede him by a short time, to the scene of those farther operations
+which he had laid out as the close of that evening's labours. It is to
+the lone house, as it was called, near Iden Green, that I wish to
+conduct my companions, and a solitary and gloomy looking spot it was,
+at the time I speak of. All that part of the country is now very
+thickly inhabited: the ground bears nearly as large a population as it
+can support; and though there are still fields, and woods, and
+occasional waste places, yet no such events could now happen as those
+which occurred eighty or a hundred years ago, when one might travel
+miles, in various parts of Kent, without meeting a living soul. The
+pressure of a large population crushes out the bolder and more daring
+sorts of crime, and leaves small cunning to effect, in secret, what
+cannot be accomplished openly, under the police of innumerable eyes.
+
+But it was not so in those days; and the lone house near Iden Green,
+whatever it was originally built for, had become the refuge and the
+lurking-place of some of the most fierce and lawless men in the
+country. It was a large building, with numerous rooms and passages;
+and it had stables behind it, but no walled courtyard; for the close
+sweeping round of the wood, a part of which still exists in great
+beauty, was a convenience on which its architect seemed to have
+calculated. Standing some way off the high road, and about half a mile
+from Collyer Green, it was so sheltered by trees that, on whichever
+side approached, nothing could be seen but the top of the roof and
+part of a garret-window, till one was within a short distance of the
+edifice. But that garret-window had its advantages; for it commanded a
+view over a great part of the country, on three sides, and especially
+gave a prospect of the roads in the neighbourhood.
+
+The building was not a farm-house, for it had none of the requisites;
+it could not well be a public-house, though a sign swung before it;
+for the lower windows were boarded up, and the owner or tenant
+thereof, if any traveller whom he did not know, stopped at his
+door--which was, indeed, a rare occurrence--told him that it was all a
+mistake, and cursing the sign, vowed he would have it cut down.
+Nevertheless, if the Ramleys, or any of their gang, or, indeed, any
+members of a similar fraternity, came thither, the doors opened as if
+by magic; and good accommodation for man and horse was sure to be
+found within.
+
+It was also remarked, that many a gentleman in haste went in there,
+and was never seen to issue forth again till he appeared in quite a
+different part of the country; and, had the master of the house lived
+two or three centuries earlier, he might on that very account have
+risked the fagot, on a charge of dealing with the devil. As it was, he
+was only suspected of being a coiner; but in regard to that charge,
+history has left no evidence, pro or con.
+
+It was in this house, however, on the evening of the day subsequent to
+the discomfiture of the smugglers, that six men were assembled in a
+small room at the back, all of whom had, more or less, taken part in
+the struggle near Woodchurch. The two younger Ramleys were there, as
+well as one of the principal members of their gang, and two other men,
+who had been long engaged in carrying smuggled goods from the coast,
+as a regular profession; but who were, in other respects, much more
+respectable persons than those by whom they were surrounded. At the
+head of the table, however, was the most important personage of the
+whole: no other than Richard Radford himself, who had joined his
+comrades an hour or two before. The joy and excitement of his escape
+from the wood, the temporary triumph which he had obtained over the
+vigilance of the soldiery, and the effect produced upon a disposition
+naturally bold, reckless, and daring, by the sudden change from
+imminent peril to comparative security, had all raised his spirits to
+an excessive pitch; and, indeed, the whole party, instead of seeming
+depressed by their late disaster, appeared elevated with that wild and
+lawless mirth, which owns no tie or restraint, reverences nothing
+sacred or respectable. Spirits and water were circulating freely
+amongst them; and they were boasting of their feats in the late
+skirmish, or commenting upon its events, with many a jest and many a
+falsehood.
+
+"The Major did very well, too," said Ned Ramley, "for he killed one of
+the dragoons, and wounded another, before he went down himself, poor
+devil!"
+
+"Here's to the Major's ghost!" cried young Radford, "and I'll try to
+give it satisfaction by avenging him. We'll have vengeance upon them
+yet, Ned."
+
+"Ay, upon all who had any concern in it," answered Jim Ramley, with a
+meaning look.
+
+"And first upon him who betrayed us," rejoined Richard Radford; "and I
+will have it, too, in a way that shall punish him more than if we
+flogged him to death with horse-whips, as the Sussex men did to Chater
+at the Flying Bull, near Hazlemere."
+
+The elder of the two Ramleys gave a look towards the men who were at
+the bottom of the table; and Richard Radford, dropping his voice,
+whispered something to Ned Ramley, who replied aloud, with an oath,
+"I'd have taken my revenge, whatever came of it."
+
+"No, no," answered Radford, "the red-coats were too near. However,
+all's not lost that's delayed. I wonder where that young devil, little
+Starlight's gone to. I sent him three hours ago to Cranbrook with the
+clothes, and told him to come back and tell me if she passed. She'll
+not go now, that's certain; for she would be in the dark. Have you any
+notion, Ned, how many men we could get together in case of need?"
+
+"Oh, fifty or sixty!" said one of the men from the bottom of the
+table, who seemed inclined to have his share in the conversation, as
+soon as it turned upon subjects with which he was familiar; "there are
+seven or eight hid away down at Cranbrook, and nine or ten at
+Tenterden, with some of the goods, too."
+
+"Ah, that's well!" answered young Radford; "I thought all the goods
+had been taken."
+
+"Oh, dear no," replied Jim Ramley, "we've got a thousand pounds' worth
+in this house, and I dare say double as much is scattered about in
+different hides. The light things were got off; but they are the most
+valuable."
+
+"I'll tell you what, my men," cried young Radford, "as soon as these
+soldiers are gone down to the coast again, we'll all gather together,
+and do some devilish high thing, just to show them that they are not
+quite masters of the country yet. I've a great mind to burn their inn
+at Woodchurch, just for harbouring them. If we don't make these
+rascally fellows fear us, the trade will be quite put down in the
+county."
+
+"I swear," exclaimed Ned Ramley, with a horrible blasphemy, "that if I
+can catch any one who has peached, even if it be but by one word, I
+will split his head like a lobster."
+
+"And I, too!" answered his brother; and several others joined in the
+oath.
+
+The conversation then took another turn; and while it went on
+generally around the table, young Radford spoke several times in a low
+voice to the two who sat next to him, and the name of Harding was more
+than once mentioned. The glass circulated very freely also; and
+although none of them became absolutely intoxicated, yet all of them
+were more or less affected by the spirits, when the boy, whom we have
+called Little Starlight, crept quietly into the room, and approached
+Mr. Radford.
+
+"She's not come, sir," he said; "I waited a long while, and then went
+and asked the old woman of the shop, telling her that I was to be sure
+and see that Kate Clare got the bundle; but she said that she
+certainly wouldn't come to-night."
+
+"That's a good boy," said young Radford. "Go and tell the people to
+bring us some candles; and then I'll give you a glass of Hollands for
+your pains. It's getting infernally dark," he continued, "and as
+nothing more is to be done to-day, we may as well make a night of it."
+
+"No, no," answered one of the men at the bottom of the table, "I've
+had enough, and I shall go and turn in."
+
+Nobody opposed him; and he and his companion soon after left them. A
+smile passed round amongst the rest as soon as the two had shut the
+door.
+
+"Now those puny fellows are gone," said Jim Ramley, "we can say what
+we like. First, let us talk about the goods, Mr. Radford, for I don't
+think they are quite safe here. They had better be got up to your
+father's as soon as possible, for if the house were to be searched, we
+could get out into the wood, but they could not."
+
+"Hark!" said young Radford; "there's some one knocking hard at the
+house door, I think."
+
+"Ay, trust all that to Obadiah," said Ned Ramley. "He wont open the
+door till he sees who it is."
+
+The minute after, however, old Mr. Radford stood amongst them; and he
+took especial care not to throw any damp upon their spirits, but
+rather to encourage them, and make light of the late events. He sat
+down for a few minutes by his son, took a glass of Hollands and water,
+and then whispered to his hopeful heir that he wanted to speak with
+him for a minute. The young man instantly rose, and led the way out
+into the room opposite, which was vacant.
+
+"By Heaven, Dick, this is an awkward job!" said his father; "the loss
+is enormous, and never to be recovered."
+
+"The things are not all lost," answered Richard Radford. "A great
+quantity of the goods are about the country. There's a thousand
+pounds' worth, they say, in this house."
+
+"We must have them got together as fast as possible," said Mr.
+Radford, "and brought up to our place. All that is here had better be
+sent up about three o'clock in the morning."
+
+"I'll bring them up myself," replied his son.
+
+"No, no, no!" said Mr. Radford; "you keep quiet where you are, till
+to-morrow night."
+
+"Pooh, nonsense," answered the young man; "I'm not at all
+afraid.--Very well--very well, they shall come up, and I'll follow
+to-morrow night, if you think I can be at the Hall in safety."
+
+"I don't intend you to be long at the Hall," answered Mr. Radford:
+"you must take a trip over the sea, my boy, till we can make sure of a
+pardon for you. There! you need not look so blank. You shan't go
+alone. Come up at eleven o'clock; and you will find Edith Croyland
+waiting to give you her hand, the next day.--Then a post-chaise and
+four, and a good tight boat on the beach, and you are landed in France
+in no time. Everything is ready--everything is settled; and with her
+fortune, you will have enough to live like a prince, till you can come
+back here."
+
+All this intelligence did not seem to give Richard Radford as much
+satisfaction as his father expected. "I would rather have had little
+Zara, a devilish deal!" he replied.
+
+"Very likely," answered his father, with his countenance changing, and
+his brow growing dark; "but that wont do, Dick. We have had enough
+nonsense of all sorts; and it must now be brought to an end. It's not
+the matter of the fortune alone; but I am determined that both you and
+I shall have revenge."
+
+"Revenge!" said his son; "I don't see what revenge has to do with
+that."
+
+"I'll tell you," answered old Mr. Radford, in a low tone, but bitter
+in its very lowness. "The man who so cunningly surrounded you and the
+rest yesterday morning, who took all my goods, and murdered many of
+our friends, is that very Harry Leyton, whom you've heard talk of. He
+has come down here on purpose to ruin you and me, if possible, and to
+marry Edith Croyland; but he shall never have her, by----," and he
+added a fearful oath which I will not repeat.
+
+"Ay, that alters the case," replied Richard Radford, with a demoniacal
+smile; "oh, I'll marry her and make her happy, as the people say. But
+I'll tell you what--I'll have my revenge, too, before I go, and upon
+one who is worse than the other fellow--I mean the man who betrayed us
+all."
+
+"Who is that?" demanded the father.
+
+"Harding," answered young Radford--"Harding."
+
+"Are you sure that it was he?" asked the old gentleman; "I have
+suspected him myself, but I have no proof."
+
+"But I have," replied his son: "he was seen several nights before, by
+little Starlight, talking for a long while with this very Colonel of
+Dragoons, upon the cliff. Another man was with him, too--most likely
+Mowle; and then, again, yesterday evening, some of these good fellows
+who were on the look-out to help me, saw him speaking to a dragoon
+officer at Widow Clare's door; so he must be a traitor, or they would
+have taken him."
+
+"Then he deserves to be shot," said old Radford, fiercely; "but take
+care, Dick: you had better not do it yourself. You'll find him
+difficult to get at, and may be caught."
+
+"Leave him to me--leave him to me," answered his hopeful son; "I've a
+plan in my head that will punish him better than a bullet. But the
+bullet he shall have, too; for all the men have sworn that they will
+take his blood; but that can be done after I'm gone."
+
+"But what's your plan, my boy?" asked old Mr. Radford.
+
+"Never mind, never mind!" answered Richard, "I'll find means to
+execute it.--I only wish those dragoons were away from Harbourne
+Wood."
+
+"Why, they are," exclaimed his father, laughing. "They were withdrawn
+this afternoon, and a party of them, too, marched out of Woodchurch,
+as if they were going to Ashford. I dare say, by this time to-morrow
+night, they will be all gone to their quarters again."
+
+"Then it's all safe!" said his son; and after some more conversation
+between the two--and various injunctions upon the part of the old man,
+as to caution and prudence, upon the part of the young one, they
+parted for the time. Young Radford then rejoined his companions, and
+remained with them till about one o'clock in the morning, when the
+small portion of smuggled goods which had been saved, was sent off,
+escorted by two men, towards Radford Hall, where they arrived safely,
+and were received by servants well accustomed to such practices. They
+consisted of only one horse-load, indeed, so that the journey was
+quickly performed; and the two men returned before five. Although
+Richard Radford had given his father every assurance that he would
+remain quiet, and take every prudent step for his own concealment, his
+very first acts showed no disposition to keep his word. Before eight
+o'clock in the morning, he, the two Ramleys, and one or two other men,
+who had come in during the night, were out amongst the fields and
+woods, "reconnoitring," as they called it; but, with a spirit in their
+breasts, which rendered them ready for any rash and criminal act that
+might suggest itself. Thus occupied, I shall for the present leave
+them, and show more of their proceedings at a future period.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Having now led the history of a great part of the personages in our
+drama up to the same point of time, namely, the third morning after
+the defeat of the smugglers, we may as well turn to follow out the
+course of Sir Edward Digby, on a day that was destined to be eventful
+to all the parties concerned. On arriving at Woodchurch, he found a
+small body of dragoons, ready mounted, at the door of the little inn,
+and two saddled horses, held waiting for their riders. Without
+ceremony, he entered, and went up at once to Leyton's room, where he
+found him, booted and spurred to set out, with Mowle the officer
+standing by him, looking on, while Sir Henry placed some papers in a
+writing-desk, and locked them up.
+
+The young commander greeted his friend warmly; and then, turning to
+the officer of Customs, said, "If you will mount, Mr. Mowle, I will be
+down with you directly;" and as soon as Mowle, taking the hint,
+departed, he continued, in a quick tone, but with a faint smile upon
+his countenance, "I know your errand, Digby, before you tell it. Edith
+has been transferred to the good charge and guidance of Mr. Radford;
+but that has only prepared me to act more vigorously than ever. My
+scruples on Sir Robert Croyland's account are at an end.--Heaven and
+earth! Is it possible that a man can be so criminally weak, as to give
+his child up--a sweet, gentle girl like that--to the charge of such a
+base unprincipled scoundrel!"
+
+"Nay, nay, we must do Sir Robert justice," answered Digby. "It was
+done without his consent--indeed, against his will; and, a more
+impudent and shameless piece of trickery was never practised. You must
+listen for one moment, Leyton, though you seem in haste;" and he
+proceeded to detail to him, as succinctly as possible, all that had
+occurred between Mr. Radford and Edith's father on the preceding
+evening, stating his authority, and whence Zara had received her
+information.
+
+"That somewhat alters the case, indeed;" answered Leyton; "but it must
+not alter my conduct. I am, indeed, in haste, Digby, for I hope, ere
+two or three hours are over, to send the young scoundrel, for whose
+sake all this is done, a prisoner to the gaol. Mowle has somehow got
+information of where he is--from undoubted authority, he says; and we
+are away to Iden Green, in consequence. We shall get more information
+by the way; and I go with the party for a certain distance, in order
+to be at hand, in case of need; but, as it does not do for me, in my
+position, to take upon me the capture of half-a-dozen smugglers, the
+command of the party will rest with Cornet Joyce. We will deal with
+Mr. Radford, the father, afterwards. But, in the meantime, Digby, as
+your information certainly gives a different view of the case, from
+that which I had before taken, you will greatly oblige me if you can
+contrive to ride over to Mr. Croyland's, and see if you can find Mr.
+Warde there. Beg him to let me have the directions he promised, by
+four o'clock to-day; and if you do not find him, leave word to that
+effect, with Mr. Croyland himself."
+
+"You seem to place great faith in Warde," said Sir Edward Digby,
+shaking his head.
+
+"I have cause--I have cause, Digby," answered his friend. "But I must
+go, lest this youth escape me again."
+
+"Well, God speed you, then," replied Digby. "I will go to Mr. Croyland
+at once, and can contrive, I dare say, to get back to Harbourne by
+breakfast time. It is not above two or three miles round, and I will
+go twenty, at any time, to serve you, Leyton."
+
+Sir Edward Digby found good Mr. Zachary Croyland walking about in his
+garden, in a state of irritation indescribable. He, also, was aware,
+by this time, of what had befallen his niece; and such was his
+indignation, that he could scarcely find it in his heart to be even
+commonly civil to any one. On Sir Edward Digby delivering his message,
+as he found that Mr. Warde was not there, the old gentleman burst
+forth, exclaiming, "What have I to do with Warde, sir, or your friend
+either, sir?--Your friend's a fool! He might have walked out of that
+door with Edith Croyland in his hand; and that's no light prize, let
+me tell you; but he chose to be delicate, and gentlemanly, and all
+that sort of stupidity, and you see what has come of it. And now,
+forsooth, he sends over to ask advice and directions from Warde. Well,
+I will tell the man, if I see him--though Heaven only knows whether
+that will be the case or not."
+
+"Sir Henry Leyton seems to place great confidence in Mr. Warde,"
+replied Digby, "which I trust may be justified."
+
+Mr. Croyland looked at him sharply, for a moment, from under his
+cocked hat, and then exclaimed, "Pish! you are a fool, young
+man.--There, don't look so fierce. I've given over fighting for these
+twenty years; and, besides--you wouldn't come to the duello with
+little Zara's uncle, would you? Ha, ha, ha!--Ha, ha, ha!--Ha, ha, ha!"
+and he laughed immoderately, but splenetically enough at the same
+time. "But I ought to have put my meaning as a question, not as a
+proposition," he continued. "Are you such a fool as not to know the
+difference between an odd man and a madman, an eccentric man and a
+lunatic? If so, you had better get away as fast as possible; for you
+and I are likely soon to fall out. I understand what you mean about
+Warde, quite well; but I can tell you, that if you think Warde mad,
+I'm quite as mad as he is, only that his oddities lie all on the side
+of goodness and philanthropy, and mine now and then take a different
+course. But get you gone--get you gone; you are better than the rest
+of them, I believe. I do hope and trust you'll marry Zara; and then
+you'll plague each other's souls, to my heart's content."
+
+He held his hand out as he spoke; and Digby shook it, laughing
+good-humouredly; but, ere he had taken ten steps towards the
+door of the house, through which he had to pass before he could
+mount his horse, Mr. Croyland called after him, "Digby, Digby!--Sir
+Eddard!--Eldest son! I say,--how could you be such a fool as not to
+run that fellow through the stomach when you had him at your feet? You
+see what a quantity of mischief has come of it. You are all fools
+together, you soldiers, I think;--but it's true, a fool does as well
+as anything else to be shot at.--How's your shoulder? Better, I
+suppose."
+
+"I have not thought of it for the last two days," replied Digby.
+
+"Well, that will do," said Mr. Croyland. "Cured by the first
+intention. There, you may go: I don't want you. Only, pray tell my
+brother, that I think him as great a rascal as old Radford.--He'll
+know how much that means.--One's a weak rascal, and the other's a
+strong one; that's the only difference between them; and Robert may
+fit on which cap he likes best."
+
+Digby did not think it necessary to stop to justify Sir Robert
+Croyland in his brother's opinion; but, mounting his horse, he rode
+back across the country towards Harbourne as fast as he could go. He
+reached the house before the usual breakfast hour; but he found that
+everybody there had been an early riser as well as himself; the table
+was laid ready for breakfast; and Sir Robert Croyland was waiting in
+the drawing-room with some impatience in his looks.
+
+"I think I am not too late, Sir Robert," said Digby, taking out his
+watch, and bowing with a smile to Zara and Mrs. Barbara.
+
+"No, oh dear, no, my young friend," replied the baronet; "only in such
+a house as this, breakfast is going on all the morning long; and I
+thought you would excuse me, if I took mine a little earlier than
+usual, as I have got some way to go this morning."
+
+This was said as they were entering the breakfast-room; but Sir Edward
+Digby replied, promptly, "I must ask you to spare me five minutes
+before you go, Sir Robert, as I wish to speak with you for a short
+time."
+
+His host looked uneasy; for he was in that nervous and agitated state
+of mind, in which anything that is not clear and distinct seems
+terrible to the imagination, from the consciousness that many
+ill-defined calamities are hanging over us. He said, "Certainly,
+certainly!" however, in a polite tone; but he swallowed his breakfast
+in haste; and the young officer perceived that his host looked at
+every mouthful he took, as if likely to procrastinate the meal. Zara's
+face, too, was anxious and thoughtful; and consequently he hurried his
+own breakfast as fast as possible, knowing that the signal to rise
+would be a relief to all parties.
+
+"If you will come into my little room, Sir Edward," said the master of
+the house, as soon as he saw that his guest was ready, "I shall be
+very happy to hear what you have to say."
+
+Sir Edward Digby followed in silence; and, to tell the truth, his
+heart beat a good deal, though it was not one to yield upon slight
+occasions.
+
+"I will not detain you a moment, Sir Robert," he said, when they had
+entered, and the door was shut, "for what I have to say will be easily
+answered. I am sensible, that yesterday my attention to your youngest
+daughter must have been remarked by you, and, indeed, my manner
+altogether must have shown you, and herself also, that I feel
+differently towards her and other women. I do not think it would be
+right to continue such conduct for one moment longer, without your
+approbation of my suit; and I can only further say, that if you grant
+me your sanction, I feel that I can love her deeply and well, that I
+will try to make her happy to the best of my power, and that my
+fortune is amply sufficient to maintain her in the station of life in
+which she has always moved, and to make such a settlement upon her as
+I trust will be satisfactory to you. I will not detain you to
+expatiate upon my feelings; but such is a soldier's straightforward
+declaration, and I trust you will countenance and approve of my
+addressing her."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland shook him warmly by the hand. "'My dear Sir
+Edward," he said, "you are your father's own son--frank, candid, and
+honourable. He was one of the most gentlemanly and amiable men I ever
+knew; and it will give me heartfelt pleasure to see my dear child
+united to his son. But--indeed, I must deal with you as candidly----"
+He hesitated for a moment or two, and then went on--"Perhaps you think
+that circumstances here are more favourable than they really are.
+Things may come to your knowledge--things may have to be
+related--Zara's fortune will be----"
+
+Sir Edward Digby saw that Sir Robert Croyland was greatly embarrassed;
+and for an instant--for love is a very irritable sort of state, at
+least for the imagination, and he was getting over head and ears in
+love, notwithstanding all his good resolutions--for an instant, I say,
+he might think that Zara had been engaged before, and that Sir Robert
+was about to tell him, that it was not the ever-coveted, first
+freshness of the heart he was to possess in her love, even if it were
+gained entirely. But a moment's thought, in regard to her father's
+situation, together with the baronet's last words, dispelled that
+unpleasant vision, and he replied, eagerly, "Oh, my dear sir, that can
+make no difference in my estimation. If I can obtain her full and
+entire love, no external circumstance whatsoever can at all affect my
+views.--I only desire her hand."
+
+"No external circumstances whatsoever!" said Sir Robert Croyland,
+pausing on the words. "Are you sure of your own firmness, Sir Edward
+Digby? If her father were to tell you he is a ruined man--if he had
+many circumstances to relate which might make it painful to you to
+connect yourself with him--I do not say that it is so; but if it
+were?"
+
+"Rather an awkward position!" thought Sir Edward Digby; but his mind
+was fully made up; and he replied, without hesitation, "It would still
+make no difference in my eyes, Sir Robert. I trust that none of these
+terrible things are the case, for your sake; but I should despise
+myself, if, with enough of my own, I made fortune any ingredient in my
+considerations, or if I could suffer my love for a being perfectly
+amiable in herself, to be affected by the circumstances of her
+family."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland wrung his hand hard; and Digby felt that it was a
+sort of compact between them. "I fear I must go," said Zara's father,
+"and therefore I cannot explain more; but it is absolutely necessary
+to tell you that all my unmortgaged property is entailed, and will go
+to my brother, that Edith's fortune is totally independent, and that
+Zara has but a tithe of what her sister has."
+
+"Still I say, as I said before," replied Digby, "that nothing of that
+kind can make any difference to me; nor will I ever suffer any
+consideration, not affecting your daughter personally--and I beg this
+may be clearly understood--to make any change in my views. If I can
+win her love--her entire, full, hearty love--with your sanction, she
+is mine. Have I that sanction. Sir Robert?"
+
+"Fully, and from my heart," replied Sir Robert Croyland, with the
+unwonted tears coursing over his cheeks. "Go to her, my dear
+friend--go to her, and make what progress you may, with my best
+wishes. This is indeed a great happiness--a great relief!"
+
+Thus saying, he followed Sir Edward Digby out of the room; and,
+mounting a new horse which had been brought up from his bailiff's, he
+rode slowly and thoughtfully away. As he went, a faint hope--nay, it
+could hardly be called a hope--a vague, wild fancy of explaining his
+whole situation to Sir Edward Digby, and gaining the blessed relief of
+confidence and counsel, arose in Sir Robert Croyland's breast.
+
+Alas! what an unhappy state has been brought about by the long
+accumulation of sin and deceit which has gathered over human society!
+that no man can trust another fully! that we dare not confide our
+inmost thoughts to any! that there should be a fear--the necessity for
+a fear--of showing the unguarded heart to the near and dear! that
+every man should--according to the most accursed axiom of a corrupt
+world--live with his friend as if he were one day to be his enemy. Oh,
+truths and honour, and sincerity! oh, true Christianity! whither are
+ye gone? Timidity soon banished such thoughts from the breast of Sir
+Robert Croyland, though there was something in the whole demeanour of
+his daughter's lover which showed him that, if ever man was to be
+trusted, he might trust there; and had he known how deeply Digby was
+already acquainted with much that concerned him, he might perhaps have
+gone one step farther, and told him all. As it was, he rode on, and
+soon gave himself up to bitter thoughts again.
+
+In the meantime. Sir Edward Digby returned to Zara and Mrs. Barbara in
+the drawing-room, with so well satisfied a look, that it was evident
+to both, his conversation with Sir Robert had not referred to any
+unpleasant subject, and had not had any unpleasant result. He excited
+the elder lady's surprise, however, and produced some slight agitation
+in the younger, by taking Zara by the hand, and in good set terms of
+almost formal courtesy, requesting a few minutes' private audience.
+Her varying colour, and her hesitating look, showed her lover that she
+apprehended something more unpleasant than he had to say; and he
+whispered, as they went along towards the library, "It is nothing--it
+is nothing but to tell you what I have done, and to arrange our plan
+of campaign."
+
+Zara looked up in his face with a glad smile, as if his words took
+some terror from her heart; and as soon as he was in the room, he let
+go her hand, and turned the key in such a manner in the door, that the
+key-hole could not serve the purpose of a perspective glass, even if
+it might that of an ear-trumpet.
+
+"Forgive me, dear Zara," he said, "if I take care to secure our
+defences; otherwise, as your good aunt is perfectly certain that I am
+about to fall on my knees, and make my declaration, she might be
+seized with a desire to witness the scene, not at all aware that it
+has been performed already. But not to say more," he continued, "on a
+subject on which you have kindly and frankly set a lover's heart at
+rest, let me only tell you that your father has fully sanctioned my
+suit, which I know, after what you have said, will not be painful to
+you to hear."
+
+"I was sure he would," answered Zara; "not that he entered into any of
+my aunt's castles in the air, or that he devised my schemes, Digby;
+but, doubtless, he wishes to see a fortuneless girl well married, and
+would have been content with a lover for her, who might not have
+suited herself quite so well. You see I deal frankly with you, Digby,
+still; and will do so both now and hereafter, if you do not check me."
+
+"Never, never will I!" answered Sir Edward Digby; "it was so you first
+commanded my esteem, even before my love; and so you will always keep
+it."
+
+"Before your love?" said Zara, in an unwontedly serious tone; "your
+love is very young yet, Digby; and sometimes I can hardly believe all
+this to be real.--Will it last? or will it vanish away like a dream,
+and leave me waking, alone and sorrowful?"
+
+"And yours for me, Zara?" asked her lover; but then, he added,
+quickly, "no, I will not put an unfair question: and every question is
+unfair that is already answered in one's own heart. Yours will, I
+trust, remain firm for me--so mine, I know, will for you, because we
+have seen each other under circumstances which have called forth the
+feelings, and displayed fully all the inmost thoughts which years of
+ordinary intercourse might not develop. But now, dear Zara, let us
+speak of our demeanour to each other. It will, perhaps, give us
+greater advantage if you treat me--perhaps, as a favoured, but not yet
+as an accepted lover. I will appear willingly as your humble slave and
+follower, if you will, now and then, let me know in private that I am
+something dearer; and by keeping up the character with me, which has
+gained you your uncle's commendation as a fair coquette, you may,
+perhaps, reconcile Mrs. Barbara to many things, which her notions of
+propriety might interfere with, if they were done as between the
+betrothed."
+
+"I fear I shall manage it but badly, Digby," she answered. "It was
+very easy to play the coquette before, when no deeper feelings were
+engaged, when I cared for no one, when all were indifferent to me. It
+might be natural to me, then; but I do not think I could play the
+coquette with the man I loved. At all events, I should act the part
+but badly, and should fancy he was always laughing at me in his heart,
+and triumphing over poor Zara Croyland, when he knew right well that
+he had the strings of the puppet in his hand. However, I will do my
+best, if you wish it; and I do believe, from knowing more of this
+house than you do, that your plan is a good one. The airs I have given
+myself, and the freedom I have taken, have been of service both to
+myself and Edith--to her in many ways, and to myself in keeping from
+me all serious addresses from men I could not love.--Yours is the
+first proposal I have ever had, Digby; so do not let what my uncle has
+said, make you believe that you have conquered a queen of hearts, who
+has set all others at defiance."
+
+"No _gentleman_ was ever refused by a _lady_," answered Digby, laying
+a strong emphasis on each noun-substantive.
+
+"So, then, you were quite sure, before you said a word!" cried Zara,
+laughing. "Well, that is as frank a confession as any of my own! And
+yet you might have been mistaken; for esteeming you as I did, and
+circumstanced as I was, I would have trusted you as much, Digby, if
+you had been merely a friend."
+
+"But you would not have shown me the deeper feelings of your heart
+upon other indifferent subjects," replied her lover.
+
+Zara blushed, and looked down; then suddenly changed the course of
+conversation, saying, "But you have not told me what Leyton thought of
+all this, and what plans you have formed. What is to be done? Was he
+not deeply grieved and shocked?"
+
+Sir Edward Digby told her all that had passed, and then added, "I
+intend now to send out my servant, Somers, to reconnoitre. He shall
+waylay Leyton on his return, and bring me news of his success. If this
+youth be safely lodged in gaol, his pretensions are at an end, at
+least for the present; but if he again escape, I think, ere noon
+to-morrow, I must interfere myself. I have now a better right to do so
+than I have hitherto had; and what I have heard from other quarters
+will enable me to speak boldly--even to your father, dear one--without
+committing either you or Edith."
+
+Zara paused and thought; but all was still dark on every side, and she
+could extract no ray of light from the gloom. Digby did not fail (as,
+how could a lover neglect?) to try to lead her mind to pleasanter
+themes; and he did so in some degree. But we have been too long
+eaves-dropping upon private intercourse, and we will do so no more.
+The rest of the day passed in that mingled light and shade, which has
+a finer interest than the mere broad sunshine, till the return of Sir
+Robert Croyland, when the deep sadness that overspread his countenance
+clouded the happiness of all the rest.
+
+Shortly after, Zara saw her lover's servant ride up the road, at
+considerable speed; and as it wanted but half-an-hour to dinner-time,
+Digby, who marked his coming also, retired to dress. When he returned
+to the drawing-room, there was a deeper and a sterner gloom upon his
+brow than the fair girl had ever seen; but her father and aunt were
+both present, and no explanation could take place. After dinner, too,
+Sir Robert Croyland and his guest returned to the drawing-room
+together; and though the cloud was still upon Digby's countenance, and
+he was graver than he had ever before appeared, yet she whom he loved
+could gain no tidings. To her he was still all tenderness and
+attention; but Zara could not play the part she had undertaken; and
+often her eyes rested on his face, with a mute, sad questioning, which
+made her aunt say to herself, "Well, Zara is in love at last!"
+
+Thus passed a couple of hours, during which not above ten words were
+uttered by Sir Robert Croyland. At length, lights were brought in,
+after they had been for some time necessary; and at the end of about
+ten minutes more, the sound of several horses coming at a quick pace
+was heard. The feet stopped at the great door, the bell rang, and
+voices sounded in the hall. The tones of one, deep, clear, and mellow,
+made both Zara and her father start; and in a minute after, the butler
+entered--he was an old servant--saying, in a somewhat embarrassed
+manner, "Colonel Sir Henry Leyton, sir, wishes to speak with you
+immediately on business of importance."
+
+"Who--who?" demanded Sir Robert, "Sir Henry Leyton!--Well, well, take
+him in somewhere!"
+
+He rose from his chair, but staggered perceptibly for a moment; then,
+overcoming the emotion that he could not but feel, he steadied himself
+by the arm of his chair, and left the room. Zara gazed at Digby, and
+he at her he loved; but this night Mrs. Barbara thought fit to sit
+where she was; and Digby, approaching Zara's seat, bent over her,
+whispering, "Leyton has a terrible tale to tell; but not affecting
+Edith. She is safe.--What more he seeks, I do not know."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+After parting with Sir Edward Digby at Woodchurch, Henry Leyton had
+ridden on at a quick pace to Park-gate, and thence along the high
+road, to Cranbrook. He himself was habited in the undress of his
+regiment, though with pistols at his saddle, and a heavy sword by his
+side. One of his servants followed him similarly accoutred, and an
+orderly accompanied the servant, while by the young officer's side
+appeared our good friend Mr. Mowle, heavily armed, with the somewhat
+anomalous equipments of a riding officer of Customs in those days. At
+a little distance behind this first group, came Cornet Joyce, and his
+party of dragoons; and in this order they all passed through
+Cranbrook, about nine o'clock; but a quarter of a mile beyond the
+little town they halted, and Mowle rode on for a short way alone, to
+the edge of Hangley Wood, which was now close before them. There he
+dismounted, and went in amongst the trees; but he was not long absent,
+for in less than five minutes he was by the colonel's side again.
+"All's right, sir," he said, "the boy assures me that they were all
+there still, at six this morning, and that their captain, Radford,
+does not move till after dark, to-night. So now we shall have the
+worst fellows amongst them--the two Ramleys and all."
+
+"Well, then," answered Leyton, "you had better go on at once with the
+party, keeping through the wood. I will remain behind, coming on
+slowly; and if wanted, you will find me somewhere in the Hanger.
+Cornet Joyce has his orders in regard to surrounding the house; but of
+course he must act according to circumstances."
+
+No more words were needed: the party of dragoons moved on rapidly,
+with Mowle at their head; and Leyton, after pausing for a few minutes
+on the road, dismounted, and giving his rein to the servant, walked
+slowly on into the wood, telling the two men who accompanied him, to
+follow. There was, at that time, as there is now, I believe, a broad
+road through Hangley Wood, leading into the cross-road from Biddenden
+to Goudhurst; but at that period, instead of being tolerably straight
+and good, it was very tortuous, rough, and uneven. Along this forest
+path, for so it might be called, the dragoons had taken their way, at
+a quick trot; and by it their young colonel followed, with his arms
+crossed upon his chest, and his head bent down, in deep and anxious
+meditation. The distance across the wood at that part is nearly a
+mile; and when he had reached the other side, Leyton turned upon his
+steps again, passed his servant and the orderly, and walked slowly on
+the road back to Cranbrook. The two men went to the extreme verge of
+the wood, and looked out towards Iden Green for a minute or two before
+they followed their officer, so that in the turnings of the road, they
+were out of sight by the time he had gone a quarter of a mile.
+
+Leyton's thoughts were busy, as may be well supposed; but at length
+they were suddenly interrupted by loud, repeated, and piercing
+shrieks, apparently proceeding from a spot at some distance before
+him. Darting on, with a single glance behind, and a loud shout to call
+the men up, he rushed forward along the road, and the next instant
+beheld a sight which made his blood boil with indignation. At first,
+he merely perceived a girl, struggling in the hands of some five or
+six ruffians, who were maltreating her in the most brutal manner; but
+in another instant, as, drawing his sword, he rushed forward, he
+recognised--for it can scarcely be said, he saw--poor Kate Clare. With
+another loud shout to his men to come up, he darted on without pause
+or hesitation; but his approach was observed--the ruffians withdrew
+from around their victim; and one of them exclaimed, "Run, run! the
+dragoons are coming!"
+
+"D--me! give her a shot before you go," cried another, "or she'll
+peach."
+
+"Let her," cried young Radford--"but here goes;" and, turning as he
+hurried away, he deliberately fired a pistol at the unhappy girl, who
+was starting up wildly from the ground. She instantly reeled and fell,
+some seconds before Leyton could reach her; for he was still at the
+distance of a hundred yards.
+
+All this had taken place in an inconceivably short space of time; but
+the next minute, the panic with which the villains had been seized
+subsided a little. One turned to look back--another turned--they
+beheld but one man on the road; and all the party were pausing, when
+Leyton reached poor Kate Clare, and raised her in his arms. It might
+have fared ill with him had he been alone; but just at that moment the
+orderly appeared at the turn, coming up at the gallop, with the young
+officer's servant behind him; and not doubting that a large party was
+following, Radford and his companions fled as fast as they could.
+
+"On after them, like lightning!" cried Leyton, as the men came up.
+"Leave the horse, leave the horse, and away! Watch them wherever they
+go, especially the man in the green coat! Take him if you can--shoot
+him dead if he resist. Ah, my poor girl!" he cried, with the tears
+rising in his eyes, "this is sad, indeed!--Where has he wounded you?"
+
+"There," said Kate, faintly, taking away her hand, which was pressed
+upon her right side; "but that was his kindest act.--Thank God, I am
+dying!"
+
+"Nay, nay," answered Leyton, "I trust not!" But the blood poured
+rapidly out, staining all her dress, which was torn and in wild
+disorder, and so rapidly did it flow, that Leyton clearly saw her
+words would probably prove too true. "Who was that villain?" he cried;
+"I will punish him if there be justice on earth!"
+
+"Don't you know him?" said Kate, her voice growing more and more low.
+"I thought you were seeking him--Richard Radford."
+
+"The atrocious scoundrel!" said Leyton; and drawing his handkerchief
+from his breast, he tied it tightly over her side, trying, though he
+saw it was nearly in vain, to stanch the blood, while at the same time
+he supported her against his knee with one arm thrown round her waist.
+Poor Kate closed her eyes with a faint shudder; and for a moment
+Leyton thought she was dead. She appeared to be reviving again,
+however, when a loud voice, not far distant, exclaimed, "Ha,--halloo!
+What the devil is this?"
+
+Leyton looked suddenly up--for his eyes had been bent upon the poor
+girl's face for several minutes--and then beheld, hurrying up the road
+with a look of fury in his countenance, Kate's promised husband,
+Harding. With a violent oath the man rushed on, exclaiming, "Kate,
+what is all this?--Villain, have you misused the girl?"
+
+"Hush, hush!" cried Leyton, with a stern gesture of his hand; "she is
+dying!--I would have saved her if I could; but alas, I came too late!"
+
+The whole expression of Harding's countenance changed in an instant.
+Grief and terror succeeded to rage; and, catching her franticly in his
+arms, he exclaimed--"Kate, Kate, speak to me!--Tell me, who has done
+this?"
+
+"I can tell you," answered Leyton--"Richard Radford."
+
+While he was speaking, Kate Clare opened her eyes again, and gazed on
+Harding's face, moving her right hand faintly round and placing it
+upon his.
+
+"Give me that handkerchief from your neck," said Leyton; "if we can
+stop the blood, we may save her, yet. I have seen very bad wounds
+recovered from----"
+
+"No, no!" said Kate Clare; "thank God, I am dying--I would rather
+die!--Harding, I am not in fault--they caught me in the wood--oh, they
+treated me horribly. Mr. Radford said it was revenge--God forgive him,
+God forgive him! But I would rather die thus in your arms--do not try
+to stop it--it is all in vain."
+
+Leyton and Harding still persisted, however, and bound another
+handkerchief tight over the wound, in some degree diminishing the
+stream of blood, but yet, not stopping it entirely.
+
+"Let us carry her to some house," cried Leyton, "and then send for
+assistance. See! her lips are not so pale."
+
+"I will carry her," cried Harding, raising her in his powerful arms.
+
+"To my aunt's, then--to my aunt's, Harding," murmured Kate; "I would
+sooner die there than in any other place." And on Harding sped,
+without reply, while Leyton, sheathing his sword, which he had cast
+down, followed him, inquiring, "Is it far?"
+
+"But a step, sir," answered the smuggler. "Pray, come with us.--This
+must be avenged."
+
+"It shall," replied Leyton, sternly; "but I must stay here for a
+minute or two, till you can send somebody to me, to take my place, and
+let my men know where I am when they return."
+
+Harding nodded his head, and then turned his eyes upon the face of the
+poor girl whom he bore in his arms, hurrying on without a moment's
+pause, till he was lost to the young officer's sight.
+
+It is needless to describe the feelings of a high-minded and noble man
+like Leyton, when left alone to meditate over the horrible outrage
+which had been committed under his very eyes. He gave way to no burst
+of indignation, indeed, but with a frowning brow walked back upon the
+road, caught his horse without difficulty, and mounting, remained
+fixed near the spot where poor Kate had received her death-wound, like
+a soldier upon guard. In less than ten minutes, a lad ran up, saying,
+"Mr. Harding sent me, sir."
+
+"Well, then, walk up and down here, my good boy," replied Leyton,
+"till some one comes to inquire for me. If it should be a servant, or
+a single soldier, send him down to the place which you came from, and
+wait where you are till a larger party of dragoons come up, when you
+must tell them the same--to go down to me there. If the party come
+first, wait for the servant and the soldier."
+
+Having given these directions, he was turning away, but paused again
+to inquire his way to the place where Harding was; and then pointing
+to a bundle that lay upon the road, he said--"You had better bring
+that with you."
+
+Following the boy's direction, as soon as he issued out of the wood,
+Sir Henry Leyton turned through a little field to the left; and seeing
+a small farm-house at some distance before him, he leaped his horse
+over two fences to abridge the way. Then riding into the farm-yard, he
+sprang to the ground, looking round for some one to take his charger.
+Several men of different ages were running about with eagerness and
+haste in their faces. Horses were being led forth from the stable;
+guns were in the hands of several; and one of them--a fine, tall,
+powerful young fellow--exclaimed, as soon as he saw Leyton--"We will
+catch them, sir--we will catch them! and by----they shall be hanged as
+high as Haman for hurting the poor dear girl. Here, take his honour's
+horse, Bill."
+
+"Is she still living?" asked Leyton.
+
+"Oh dear, yes, sir!" cried the young man; "she seemed somewhat better
+for what mother gave her."
+
+"Well, then," rejoined the young officer, "if you are going to search
+for these scoundrels, gallop up to the wood as fast as you can; you
+will find my servant and a trooper watching. They will give you
+information of which way the villains are gone. I will join you in a
+minute or two with a stronger force."
+
+"Oh, sir, we shall do--we shall do," cried William Harris; "we will
+raise the whole county as we go, and will hunt them down like foxes.
+Do they think that our sisters and our wives are to be ill-used and
+murdered by such scum as they are?" and at the same time he sprang
+upon his horse's back. Leyton turned towards the house, but met the
+old farmer himself coming out with a great cavalry sword in his hand,
+and the butt end of a pistol sticking out of each pocket. "Quick,
+quick! to your horses!" he cried, "they shall rue the day--they shall
+rue the day!--Ah, sir, go in," he continued, seeing Leyton; "she is
+telling my wife and Harding all about it; but I can't stop to hear.--I
+will have that young Radford's blood, if I have a soul to be saved!"
+
+"Better take him alive, and hand him over to justice," said Leyton,
+going into the house.
+
+"D----n him, I'll kill him like a dog!" cried the farmer; and mounting
+somewhat less nimbly than his son, he put himself at the head of the
+whole party assembled, and rode fast away towards Hangley Wood.
+
+In the meantime, Leyton entered the kitchen of the farm; but it was
+quite vacant. Voices, however, were heard speaking above, and he
+ventured to go up and enter the room. Three or four women were
+assembled there round good Mrs. Harris's own bed, on which poor Kate
+Clare was stretched, with Harding on his knees beside her, and her
+hand in his, the hot tears of man's bitterest agony, coursing each
+other down his bronzed and weather-beaten cheek.
+
+"There, there!" said Mrs. Harris; "don't take on so, Harding--you only
+keep down her spirits. She might do very well, if she would but take
+heart. You see she is better for the cordial stuff I gave her."
+
+Harding made no reply; but Kate Clare faintly shook her head; and
+Leyton, after having gazed on the sad scene for a moment, with bitter
+grief and indignation in his heart, drew back, thinking that his
+presence would only be a restraint to Kate's family and friends. He
+made a sign, however, to one of the women before he went, who followed
+him out of the room.
+
+"I merely wish to tell you," he said, in a low voice, when the woman
+joined him at the top of the stairs, "that I am going back to the
+wood, to aid in the pursuit of these villains; for I can be of no use
+here, and may be there. If any of my people come, tell them where to
+find me; bid them follow me instantly, and stop every man on foot they
+see quitting the wood, till he gives an account of himself.--But had
+you not better send for a surgeon?"
+
+"One is sent for, sir," replied the woman; "but I think she is not so
+bad as she was.--I'll take care and tell your people. I do hope they
+will catch them, for this is _too_ bad."
+
+Without more words Leyton went down, remounted his horse, and galloped
+back towards the edge of the wood. The news of what had happened,
+however, seemed to have spread over the country with the speed of
+lightning; for he saw four or five of the peasantry on horseback,
+already riding in the same direction across the fields. Two stout
+farmers joined him as he went, and both were already full of the story
+of poor Kate Clare. Rage and indignation were universal amongst the
+people; but as usual on such occasions, one proposed one plan, and
+another the other, so that by want of combination in their operations,
+all their resolution and eagerness were likely to be fruitlessly
+employed.
+
+Leyton knew that it was of little use to argue on such points with
+undisciplined men; and his only trust was in the speedy arrival of the
+soldiers from Iden Green. When he reached the edge of the wood,
+however, with his two companions, they came upon farmer Harris's
+party, now swelled to twelve or thirteen men; and at the same moment
+his own servant rode round, exclaiming, as soon as he saw his master,
+"They are still in the wood, sir, if they have not come out this way.
+They dispersed so that we could not follow them on horseback, and we
+galloped out by different ways to watch."
+
+"They haven't come here," cried Farmer Harris, "or we should have seen
+them. So now we have them safe enough."
+
+"Ride off towards Iden Green," said Leyton to the servant, "and direct
+Cornet Joyce to bring down his men at the gallop to the edge of the
+copse. Let him dismount twelve on the north side of the wood, and,
+with all the farm-servants and country people he can collect, sweep
+it down, while the rest of the mounted men advance, on a line, on
+either side.--Stay, I will write;" and tearing a leaf out of his
+pocket-book, he put down his orders in pencil.
+
+The man had just galloped away, when the young farmer, William Harris,
+shouted, "There they go--there they go! After them!--after them! Tally
+ho!" and instantly set spurs to his horse. All the rest but Leyton
+followed at full speed; but he paused, and, directing his eyes along
+the edge of the wood, clearly saw, at the distance of somewhat more
+than half a mile, three men, who seemed to have issued forth from
+amongst the trees, running across the fields as fast as they could go.
+It would seem that they had not been aware of the numbers collected to
+intercept them, till they had advanced too far to retreat; but
+they had got a good start; the country was difficult for any but
+well-trained horses; and darting on, they took their way towards
+Goudhurst, passing within a hundred yards of the spot where the victim
+of their horrid barbarity lay upon the bed of death.
+
+Taking the narrow paths, leaping the stiles and gates, they at first
+seemed to gain upon the mass of peasantry who followed them, though
+their pursuers were on horseback and they on foot. But, well knowing
+the country, the farmers spread out along the small bridle-roads; and,
+while the better mounted horsemen followed direct across the fields,
+the others prepared to cut off the ruffians on the right and left.
+Gradually a semi-circle, enclosing them within its horns, was thus
+formed; and all chance of escape by flight was thus cut off.
+
+In this dilemma, the three miscreants made straight towards a
+farm-house at which they occasionally received hospitality in their
+lawless expeditions, and which bears the name of "Smuggler Farm" to
+this day; but they knew not that all hearts had been raised against
+them by their late atrocities, and that the very tenant of the farm
+himself was now one of the foremost in pursuit. Rushing in, then, with
+no farther ceremony than casting the door open, they locked and barred
+it, just as some of the peasantry were closing in upon them; and then,
+hurrying to the kitchen, where the farmer's wife, his sister, and a
+servant was collected, Ned Ramley, who was the first, exclaimed, "Have
+you no hide, good dame?"
+
+"Hide!" replied the stout farmer's wife, eyeing him askance--"not for
+such villains as you! Give me the spit, Madge; I've a great mind to
+run him through." Ned Ramley drew a pistol from his pocket; but at
+that moment the window was thrown up, the back door of the house was
+cast open, and half-a-dozen of the stout yeomanry rushed in. The
+smugglers saw that resistance would be vain; but still they resisted;
+and though, in the agitation of the moment, Ned Ramley's pistol was
+discharged innocuously, he did not fail to aim it at the head of young
+William Harris, who was springing towards him. The stout farmer,
+however, instantly levelled him with the ground by a thundering blow
+upon the head; and the other two men, after a desperate struggle, were
+likewise taken and tied.
+
+"Lucky for you it was me, and not my father, Master Ramley," said
+William Harris. "He'd have blown your brains out; but you're only
+saved to be hanged, anyhow.--Ay, here he comes!--Stop, stop, old
+gentleman! he's a prisoner; don't you touch him.--Let the law have the
+job, as the gentleman said."
+
+"Oh, you accursed villain--oh, you hellish scoundrel," cried old
+Harris, kept back with difficulty by his son and the rest. "You were
+one of the foremost of them. But where is the greatest villain of them
+all?--where's that limb of the devil, young Radford?--I will have him!
+Let me go, Will--I will have him, I say!"
+
+Ned Ramley laughed aloud: "You wont, though," he answered, bitterly;
+"he's been gone this half hour, and will be at the sea, and over the
+sea, before you can catch him.--You may do with me what you like, but
+he's safe enough."
+
+"Some one ride off and tell the officer what he says!" cried the
+farmer. But when the intelligence was conveyed to Sir Henry Leyton, he
+was already aware that some of the men must have made their escape
+unobserved; for his servant had met Cornet Joyce and the party of
+dragoons by the way, and with the aid of a number of farm servants
+from Iden Green and its neighbourhood, the wood had been searched with
+such strictness, that the pheasants, which were at that time numerous
+there, had flown out in clouds, as if a battue had been going on. He
+mistrusted Ned Ramley's information, however; knowing that the
+hardened villain would find a sort of pride in misleading the pursuers
+of young Radford, even though taken himself. Riding quickly across to
+the farm, then, together with Mowle and the Cornet, he interrogated
+the men separately, but found they were all in the same story, from
+which they varied not in the least--that Richard Radford had crept out
+by the hedges near the wood, and had gone first to a place where a
+horse was in waiting for him, and thence would make straight to the
+sea-side, where a boat was already prepared. Instant measures to
+prevent him from executing this plan now became necessary; and Leyton
+directed the Cornet to hasten away as fast as possible in pursuit,
+sending information from Woodchurch to every point of the coast where
+the offender was likely to pass, spreading out his men so as to cover
+all the roads to the sea, and only leaving at the farm a sufficient
+guard to secure the prisoners.
+
+On hearing the latter part of this order, however, Farmer Harris
+exclaimed, "No, no, sir; no need of that. We've taken them, and we'll
+keep them safe enough. I'll see these fellows into prison myself--ay,
+and hanged too, please God! and we'll guard them sure, don't you be
+afraid."
+
+Leyton looked to Mowle, saying, "I must abide by your decision, Mr.
+Mowle." But the officer answered: "Oh, you may trust them, sir, quite
+safely, after all I hear has happened. But I think, Mr. Harris, you
+had better have just a few men to help you. You've got no place to
+keep them here; and they must be taken before a magistrate first,
+before they can be committed."
+
+"Oh, we'll keep them safe enough," replied the farmer. "We'll put them
+in Goudhurst church, till we can send them off, and, in the meantime,
+I'll have them up before Squire Broughton. My son's a constable, so
+they are in proper hands."
+
+"Very well," answered Leyton; "in this case I have no right to
+interfere; but, of course, you are responsible for their safe
+custody."
+
+"I say, Mowle," cried Ned Ramley, in his usual daring manner, "bid
+them give me something to drink, for I'm devilish thirsty; and I'll
+give you some information, if you will."
+
+Mowle obtained some beer for him, and then demanded, "Well, what is
+it, Ned?"
+
+"Why, only this," said Ned Ramley, after they had held the beer to his
+lips, and he had taken a deep draught--"you will have your brains
+blown out, before ten days are over."
+
+"I am not afraid," replied Mowle, laughing.
+
+"That's right," answered Ned Ramley. "But it will happen; for fifty of
+us have sworn it. We have had our revenge of your spy, Harding; and we
+have only you to settle with now."
+
+"Harding!" cried Mowle. "He's no spy of mine.--It was not he that
+peached, you young scoundrel; it was one of those whom you trusted
+more than him."
+
+"Ah, well," answered Ned Ramley, indifferently; "then he'll have a
+sore heart to-night, that he didn't work for. But you'll have your
+turn yet, Mr. Mowle, so look that you make good use of your brains,
+for they wont be long in your skull."
+
+"You are a hardened villain," said Sir Henry Leyton. "You had better
+march them off as fast as you can, my good friends; take them before a
+magistrate; and above all things, get them to prison ere nightfall, or
+we may have another rescue."
+
+"No fear, no fear!" answered Farmer Harris. "To rescue a smuggler is
+one thing--I never liked to see them taken myself--but bloodthirsty
+villains like these, that would ill use a poor, dear, good girl, and
+murder her in cold blood,--why, there is not a man in the county would
+not help to hang them. But I wish, sir, you would go yourself, and see
+and stop that other great villain. If he isn't hanged too, I don't
+think I shall ever rest in my bed again."
+
+"I will do my best, depend upon it," replied Leyton; "but I must
+first, Mr. Harris, go to your house, and see the state of that poor
+girl. I have known her since she was a child, and feel for her almost
+as if she were a sister."
+
+"Thank you, sir--thank you!" cried old Harris, shaking him by the
+hand. "There, boys," he continued, dashing away the tears from his
+eyes--"make a guard, and take these blackguards off in the middle of
+you. We'll have them up to Squire Broughton's at once; and then I must
+go back, too."
+
+On his way to the farm, Leyton desired Mowle to return to Woodchurch,
+and to wait for him there, taking every step that he might think
+necessary, with the aid of Captain Irby. "I will not be long," he
+added.
+
+"Pray don't, sir," rejoined Mowle; "for we have other business to do
+to-night;" and, sinking his voice to a whisper, he added, "I've got
+the information I wanted, sir. A part of the goods are certainly at
+Radford Hall, and if we can seize them there, that, with the
+deposition of the men at Woodchurch, will bring him in for the whole
+offence."
+
+"I shall, very likely, overtake you by the way," replied Leyton. "But,
+at all events, I shall be there before four."
+
+Most such calculations are vain, however. Leyton turned aside to the
+Harris's farm, where he found poor Kate Clare sinking rapidly. The
+curate of the parish had been sent for, and, by his advice, Mr.
+Broughton, the magistrate, who had entered the house but two or three
+minutes before Leyton himself. Though her voice now scarcely rose
+above a whisper, she made her dying declaration with clearness and
+accuracy. It is not necessary here to give any of the details; but, as
+she concluded, she turned her faint and swimming eyes towards Leyton,
+saying, "That gentleman, who has always been such a good friend to me
+and mine, can tell you more, sir, for he came up to my help, just as
+they shot me."
+
+The magistrate raised his eyes, and inquired, in a low tone, "Who is
+he?"
+
+"Sir Henry Leyton," replied the poor girl, loud enough for that
+officer to hear; and thinking that she asked for him, he approached
+nearer, and stood by Harding's side. Kate raised her hand a little
+from the bedclothes, as if she would have given it to him; and he took
+it kindly in his, speaking some words of comfort.
+
+"Thank you, sir--thank you, for all your kindness," said Kate. "I am
+glad you have come, that I may wish you good-bye, and ask you to be
+kind to poor Harding, too. It will soon be over now; and you had
+better all leave me. Not you, Harding--not you.--You must close my
+eyes, as my poor mother is not here."
+
+A groan burst from the stout seaman's breast; and giving way to all
+his feelings, he sobbed like a child. According to her desire, Leyton
+and Mr. Broughton retired from the room; and the young officer
+informed the magistrate, that the prisoners who had been taken were
+waiting for examination at his house.
+
+"We shall want your evidence, Sir Henry," said the magistrate. "It is
+absolutely necessary, if, as I understand, you were eye-witness to the
+murder."
+
+Leyton saw the propriety of the magistrate's demand, and he yielded
+immediately. But the investigation was prolonged by several
+circumstances; and, what between the time that it took up, and that
+which had been previously spent in the pursuit of the murderers, it
+was past three o'clock before Leyton mounted his horse at Mr.
+Broughton's door. He paused for an instant at the gate of the Harris's
+farm-yard, where a girl was standing with tears in her eyes; but
+before he could ask any question, she replied to that which was rising
+to his lips. "She is gone, sir," said the girl--"she is gone. She did
+not last half-an-hour after you were here."
+
+With a sad heart, Leyton rode on, passing at a quick pace through
+Harbourne Wood, and not trusting himself to stop at Mrs. Clare's
+cottage. The windows, however, were closed; and the young officer
+concluded from that circumstance, that the tidings of her daughter's
+fate must by this time have reached the childless widow. Not far
+beyond her gate, he was met by Sir Edward Digby's servant; but eager
+to arrive at Woodchurch, Leyton did not stop to speak with him, and
+Somers, turning his horse with the orderly and his old companion,
+Leyton's servant, gleaned what information he could from them as he
+went.
+
+Notwithstanding all the speed he could use, however, it was half-past
+four before Leyton reached Woodchurch; and, on inquiring for Mr.
+Warde, he found that gentleman had called, but gone away again, saying
+he would return in an hour.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Such as we have described in the last chapter, were the fatal events
+to which Sir Edward Digby had alluded in the few words he had spoken
+to Zara Croyland; and it may be needless to explain to the reader,
+that he had learned the tale from his servant just before he came down
+to dinner.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, as we have shown, after some agitation and
+hesitation, quitted the drawing-room to meet,--the first time for many
+years--the son of a man, whom, at the instigation of others, he had
+cruelly persecuted. He paused as soon as he got into the passage,
+however, to summon courage, and to make up his mind as to the
+demeanour which he should assume--always a vain and fruitless task;
+for seldom, if ever, do circumstances allow any man to maintain the
+aspect which he has predetermined to affect. Sir Robert Croyland
+resolved to be cold, stately, and repulsive--to treat Sir Henry Leyton
+as a perfect stranger, and if he alluded to their former intimacy, to
+cut the conversation short by telling him that, as all the feelings of
+those days were at an end, he did not wish to revive their memory in
+any shape. He did not calculate, indeed, upon the peculiar state of
+Leyton's mind, at the moment--nay, nor even upon the effect of his
+former favourite's personal appearance upon himself; and when he
+entered the library and saw the tall, powerful, dignified-looking man,
+the pale, thoughtful, stern countenance, and the haughty air, he felt
+all his predeterminations vain.
+
+Leyton, on his part, had done the same as Sir Robert Croyland, and in
+setting out from Woodchurch had made up his mind to see in the man he
+went to visit, nothing but Edith's father--to treat him kindly,
+gently, and with compassion for his weakness, rather than anger at his
+faults; but as he rode along, and conversed with one who accompanied
+him thither, the memory of much that Sir Robert Croyland had done in
+former days, came painfully back upon him, and combining with his
+treatment of Edith, raised up bitter and indignant feelings that he
+could have wished to quell. The scenes which he had passed through
+that day, too, had given a tone of sternness to his mind which was not
+usual; and the few minutes he had waited in the library, when every
+moment seemed of value, added impatience to his other sensations.
+
+The baronet entered as firmly as he could, bowing his head and
+motioning coldly to a chair. But Leyton did not sit down, gazing for
+an instant on the countenance of Sir Robert, struck and astonished by
+the change that he beheld. That steadfast gaze was painful to its
+object, and sank his spirit still farther; but Leyton, the moment
+after, began to speak; and the well-known tones of his clear, mellow
+voice, awakened the recollection of the days when they were once
+pleasant to hear.
+
+"Sir Robert Croyland," he said, "I have come to you on business of
+importance, in which it is necessary for you to act immediately in
+your magisterial capacity."
+
+"I have no clerk with me, sir," answered the baronet, in a hesitating
+manner; "at this late hour, it is not usual, except under
+circumstances----"
+
+"The circumstances admit of no delay, Sir Robert Croyland," replied
+Leyton. "As the nearest magistrate, I have applied to you in the first
+instance; and have done so for many other reasons besides your being
+the nearest magistrate."
+
+"Well, sir, what is your application?" demanded Edith's father. "I
+wish, indeed, you had applied to somebody else, at this time of night;
+but I will do my duty--oh, yes, I will do my duty."
+
+"That is all that is required, sir," answered the young officer. "My
+application is for a warrant to search the house of one Richard
+Radford; and I have to tender you, on oath, information that
+customable goods, which have been introduced without the payment
+of duty, are concealed on his premises.--One moment more, if you
+please--I have also to apply to you, upon similar evidence, for a
+warrant to search his house for his son, Richard Radford, charged with
+murder; and, in the end, if you would allow me to advise you, you
+would instantly mount your horse, and superintend the search
+yourself."
+
+There was a marked and peculiar emphasis on the last few words, which
+Sir Robert Croyland did not understand. The manner was not agreeable
+to him; but it was scarcely perhaps to be expected that it should be;
+for there had been nothing in his own, to invite that kindly candour,
+which opens heart to heart. All that had of late years passed between
+him and Sir Henry Leyton, had been of a repulsive kind. For one
+youthful error, he had not only repelled and shut his house against
+the son, but he had persecuted, ruined, and destroyed the father, who
+had no part in that fault. Every reason too, which he had given, every
+motive he had assigned, for his anger at Henry Leyton's pretensions to
+Edith's hand, he had set at nought, or forgotten in the case of him
+whom he had chosen for her husband. Even now, although his manner was
+wavering and timid, it was cold and harsh; and it was a hard thing for
+Henry Leyton to assume the tone of kindness towards Sir Robert
+Croyland, or to soften his demeanour towards him, with all the busy
+memories of the past and the feelings of the present thronging upon
+him, on his first return to the house where he had spent many happy
+days in youth. I am painting a man, and nothing more; and he could
+not, and did not overcome the sensations of human nature.
+
+His words did not please Sir Robert Croyland, but they somewhat
+alarmed him. Everything that was vague in his present situation,
+did produce fear; but after a moment's thought, he replied,
+coldly, "Oh dear no, sir, I do not see that it is at all necessary I
+should go myself. I really think the application altogether
+extraordinary, seeing that it comes from, I am led to imagine, the
+lieutenant-colonel, commanding the ---- regiment of dragoons,
+quartered in this district, who has no primary power, or authority, or
+even duty in such affairs; but can only act as required by the
+officers of Customs, to whom he is so far subordinate.--But still I am
+ready to receive the informations tendered, and then shall decide in
+regard to my own conduct, as the case may require."
+
+"You are wrong in all respects, but one, Sir Robert Croyland,"
+answered Leyton, at once; "I am empowered to act very differently from
+any officer who has been in command here before me. If my powers are
+beyond that which the law authorizes, those who gave them are
+responsible to their country; but, for an extraordinary case,
+extraordinary means are requisite; and as I require of you nothing but
+what the law requires, I shall not pause to argue, whether I am
+exactly the proper person to make the application. It might easily be
+made by another, who is without: but I have reasons for what I am
+doing--and reasons, believe me," he added, after a moment's pause and
+reflection, "not unfriendly to Sir Robert Croyland."
+
+Again his words and manner were peculiar. Sir Robert Croyland began to
+feel some apprehension lest he might push his coldness too far. But he
+did not see how he could change his tone; and he was proceeding, with
+the same distant reserve, to repeat that he was ready to receive the
+information in a formal manner, when Leyton suddenly interrupted him,
+after a severe struggle with himself.
+
+"Sir Robert Croyland," he said, "let us speak as friends. Let griefs
+and complaints on both sides be forgotten for the moment; let us bury,
+for the time, seven years in oblivion. Look upon me, if it be but for
+a few minutes, as the Henry Leyton you knew before anything arose to
+produce one ill feeling between us; for, believe me, I come to you
+with kindly sentiments. Your own fate hangs in the balance at this
+hour. I would decide it favourably for you, if you would let me.
+But--you must shake off doubt and timidity; you must act boldly and
+decidedly, and all will be well."
+
+"I do not understand what you mean, sir," cried Sir Robert Croyland,
+astonished at his change of tone, and without time to collect his
+ideas, and calculate the probabilities. "My fate!--How can you affect
+my fate?"
+
+"More than you are aware," answered Leyton; "even now I affect your
+fate, by giving you the choice of at once proceeding in the line of
+your duty, against a bad man who has overruled your better nature, too
+long,--by allowing you to conduct the search, which must be instituted
+either by yourself or others.--In one word, Sir Robert Croyland, I
+know all; and would serve you, if you would let me."
+
+"You know all!" exclaimed Edith's father, in a dull, gloomy tone--"you
+know all! she has told you, then! That explains it--that shows how she
+retracted her consent--how she was willing to-day to sacrifice her
+father. You have seen her--you have taught her her part!--Yes, she has
+betrayed her parent's confidence."
+
+Leyton could bear no more. Himself, he could have heard slandered
+calmly; but he could not hear such words of her he loved: "It is
+false!" he said; "she did not betray your confidence! She told me no
+more than was needful to induce me to release her from bonds she was
+too faithful and true to break. From her I have heard nothing
+more--but from others I have heard all; and now, Sir Robert Croyland,
+you have chosen your part, I have but to call in those who must lay
+the required information. Our duty must be done, whatever be the
+consequences; and as you reject the only means of saving yourself from
+much grief--though, I trust, not the danger you apprehend--we must act
+without you;" and he rose and walked towards the door.
+
+"Stay, Leyton--stay!" cried Sir Robert Croyland, catching him eagerly
+by the arm--"yet a moment--yet a moment. You say you know all. Do you
+know all?--all?--everything?"
+
+"All!--everything!" answered Leyton, firmly; "every word that was
+spoken--every deed that was done--more than you know yourself."
+
+"Then, at least, you know I am innocent," said the old man.
+
+A calm but grave serenity took the place, on Sir Henry Leyton's
+countenance, of the impetuous look with which he had last spoken.
+"Innocent," he said, "of intentional murder; but not innocent of rash
+and unnecessary anger; and, oh! Sir Robert Croyland--if I must say
+it--most culpable in the consequences which you have suffered to flow
+from one hasty act. Mark me; and see the result!--Your own dear child,
+against your will, is in the hands of a man whom you hate and abhor.
+You are anxious to make her the wife of a being you condemn and
+despise! The child of the man that your own hand slew, is now lying a
+corpse, murdered by him to whom you would give your daughter! Your own
+life is----"
+
+"What, Kate!--Kate Clare!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland, with a
+sudden change coming over his countenance--"murdered by Richard
+Radford!"
+
+"By his own hand, after the most brutal usage," replied Leyton.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland sprang to the bell, and rang it violently, then
+threw open the door and called aloud--"My horse!--my horse!--saddle my
+horse!--If it cost me land and living, life and honour, she shall be
+avenged!" he added, turning to Leyton, and raising his head erect, the
+first time for many years. "It is over--the folly, and the weakness,
+and crime, are at an end. I have been bowed and broken; but there is a
+spark of my former nature yet left. I vowed to God in Heaven, that I
+would ever protect and be a father to that child, as an atonement--as
+some--some compensation, however small; and I will keep my vow."
+
+"Oh! Sir Robert," cried Leyton, taking his hand and pressing it in
+his, "be ever thus, and how men will love and venerate you!"
+
+The barrier was broken down--the chain which had so long bound him was
+cast away; and Sir Robert returned Leyton's grasp with equal warmth.
+"Harry," he said, "I have done you wrong; but I will do so no more. I
+was driven--I was goaded along the road to all evil, like a beast
+driven to the slaughter. But you have done wrong, too, young
+man--yours was the first offence."
+
+"It was," answered Leyton--"I own it--I did do wrong; and I will make
+no excuse, though youth, and love as true as ever man felt, might
+afford some. But let me assure you, that I have been willing to make
+reparation--I have been willing to sacrifice all the brightest hope of
+years to save you, even now. I assured Edith that I would, when she
+told me the little she could venture to tell; but it was her misery
+that withheld me--it was the life-long wretchedness, to which she was
+doomed if I yielded, that made me resist. Nothing else on earth should
+have stopped me; but now, Sir Robert, the prospect is more clear for
+you."
+
+"Nay, do not speak of that," replied Sir Robert Croyland; "I will
+think of it no more--I have now chosen my path; and I will pursue it,
+without looking at the consequences to myself. Let them come when they
+must come; for once in life, I will do what is just and right."
+
+"And by so doing, my dear sir, you will save yourself," answered
+Leyton. "Moved by revenge--with no doubt whatsoever of his
+motive--after a concealment of six years, this base man's accusation
+will be utterly valueless. Your bare statement of the real
+circumstances will be enough to dissipate every cloud. I shall require
+that all his papers be seized; and I have many just reasons for
+wishing that they should be in your hands."
+
+"I understand you, Harry, and I thank you," said Sir Robert Croyland;
+"but with my present feelings I would not----"
+
+"You do not understand me fully, Sir Robert," replied Leyton. "I wish
+you only to act as you will find just, right, and honourable, and wait
+for the result. It will be, or I am much mistaken, more favourable to
+you, personally, than you imagine. Now, as you have decided on the
+true and upright course, let us lose no time in carrying it into
+execution. I will call in the men who have to lay the information; and
+when you have received it, I will place before you depositions which
+will justify the most vigorous measures against both father and son.
+In regard to the latter, I must act under your authority in my
+military capacity, as I have no civil power there; but in regard to
+the former, I am already called upon, by the officers of the revenue,
+to aid them in entering his house by force, and searching it
+thoroughly."
+
+"Call them in, Harry--call them in!" replied Sir Robert Croyland;
+"every man is justified by the law in apprehending a murderer. But you
+shall have full authority.--Kate Clare!--How could this have
+happened?"
+
+"I will explain, as we ride on," answered Leyton, going to the door;
+and speaking to one of the servants who was standing in the hall, he
+added, "Desire Mr. Mowle to walk in, and bring the boy with him."
+
+In another minute, Mowle entered the room with another man, holding by
+the arm the boy Ray, whom the smugglers had chosen to denominate
+Little Starlight. He came, apparently, unwillingly; for though ever
+ready, for money, to spy and to inform secretly, he had a great
+abhorrence of being brought publicly forward; and when on coming to
+Mowle that evening with more information--he was detained and told he
+must go before a magistrate, he had made every possible effort to
+escape.
+
+He was now somewhat surprised, on being brought forward after Mowle
+had laid the information, to find that he was not questioned upon any
+point affecting the smuggling transactions which had lately taken
+place, as the evidence upon that subject was sufficient without his
+testimony. But in regard to the proceedings of young Radford, and to
+the place where he was concealed, he was interrogated closely. It was
+all in vain, however. To obtain a straightforward answer from him was
+impossible; and although Mowle repeated distinctly that the boy had
+casually said, the murderer of poor Kate Clare had gone to his
+father's house, Little Starlight lied and prevaricated at every word,
+and impudently, though not unskilfully attempted to put another
+meaning on his previous admission.
+
+As time was wearing away, however, Sir Henry Leyton, at length,
+interposed--"I think it is unnecessary, Sir Robert," he said, "to push
+this inquiry further at present. As the whole house and premises must
+be searched on other grounds, we shall discover the villain if he is
+there. Mr. Mowle and I have adopted infallible means, I think, to
+prevent his escaping from any point of the coast; and the magistrates
+at every port were this evening furnished with such information that,
+if they act with even a moderate degree of ability, he must be taken."
+
+"Besides, sir," rejoined Mowle, "the frigate has come round; and she
+will take care that, with this wind, not a boat big enough to carry
+him over shall get out. We had better set out, your worship, if you
+please; for if old Radford gets an inkling of what is going on, he
+will double upon us some way."
+
+"I am quite ready," said Sir Robert Croyland. "I will call my clerk to
+accompany us as we go, in case of any further proceedings being
+necessary. We must pass through the village where he lives."
+
+With a firm step he moved towards the door; and, strange as it may
+seem, though for six years, while supposing he was taking the only
+means of self-preservation, he had lived in constant terror and
+anxiety, he felt no fear, no trepidation now, when he had determined
+to do what was right at every personal risk. An enfeebling spell
+seemed to have been taken off his mind; and the lassitude of doubt and
+indecision was gone. But such is almost always the result, even upon
+the nerves of our corporeal frame, of a strong effort of mental
+energy. It is one thing certainly to resolve, and another to do; but
+the very act of resolution, if it be sincerely exerted, affords a
+degree of vigour, which is sure to produce as great results as the
+means at our disposal can accomplish. Energetic determination will
+carry men through things that seem impossible, as a bold heart will
+carry them over Alps, that, viewed from their base, appear
+insurmountable.
+
+Sir Robert Croyland did not venture into the drawing-room before he
+went; but he told the butler, who was waiting in the hall, to inform
+Sir Edward Digby and the family that he had been called away on
+business, and feared he should not return till a late hour; and having
+left this message, he went out upon the terrace. He found there a
+number of persons assembled, with some twenty or thirty of the
+dragoons. Five or six officers of the Customs were present, besides
+Mowle; but the darkness was too great to admit of their faces being
+seen; and Sir Robert Croyland mounted without speaking to any one. Sir
+Henry Leyton paused for an instant to give orders, that the boy should
+be taken back to Woodchurch, and kept there under a safe guard. He
+then spoke a few words to Digby's servant, Somers, and springing on
+his horse placed himself at Sir Robert Croyland's side.
+
+The night was as dark as either of the two which had preceded it; the
+same film of cloud covered the sky; not a star was to be seen; the
+moon was far below the horizon; and slowly the whole party moved on,
+two and two abreast, through the narrow lanes and tortuous roads of
+that part of the country. It halted for a minute in the nearest
+village, while Sir Robert Croyland stopped at his clerk's house, and
+directed him to follow as fast as possible to Mr. Radford's; and then,
+resuming their march, the dragoons, and those who accompanied them,
+wound on for between four or five miles further, when, as they turned
+the angle of a wood, some lights, apparently proceeding from the
+windows of a house half way up a gentle slope, were seen shining out
+in the midst of the darkness.
+
+"Halt!" said Sir Henry Leyton; and before he proceeded to give his
+orders, for effectually surrounding the house and grounds of Mr.
+Radford, he gazed steadfastly for a moment or two upon the building
+which contained her who was most dear to him, and whose heart he well
+knew was at that moment wrung with the contention of many a painful
+feeling. "I promised her I would bring her aid, dear girl," he
+thought, "and so I have.--Thanks be to God, who has enabled me!"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, too, gazed--with very different feelings, it is
+true, but still with a stern determination that was not shaken in the
+least. It seemed, when he thought of Kate Clare, that he was atoning
+to the spirit of the father, by seeking to avenge the child; and the
+whole tale of her wrongs and death, which he had heard from Leyton, as
+they came, had raised the desire of so doing almost to an enthusiasm.
+Human passions and infirmities, indeed, will mingle with our best
+feelings; and as he gazed upon Mr. Radford's house, and remembered all
+that he had endured for the last six years, he said to himself, with
+some bitterness, "That man shall now taste a portion of the same cup
+he has forced upon others."
+
+Sir Henry Leyton woke from his reverie sooner than his companion; and
+turning his horse, he spoke for a few moments with Mowle, somewhat
+longer with another person wrapped in a dark horseman's coat behind,
+and then gave various distinct orders to the dragoons, who immediately
+separated into small parties, and, taking different roads, placed
+themselves in such positions as to command every approach to the
+house. Then riding forward with Sir Robert Croyland, the officers of
+Customs, and one or two soldiers, he turned up the little avenue which
+led from the road, consulting with Edith's father as he went. At about
+a couple of hundred yards from the house he paused, turning his head
+and saying to Mowle, "You had better, I think, all dismount; and,
+making fast the horses, get behind the nearest laurels and evergreens,
+while Sir Robert and I ride on alone, and ask admission quietly. When
+the door is opened, you can come up and make yourselves masters of the
+servants till the search is over. I do not anticipate any resistance;
+but if the young man be really here, it may be made."
+
+He then rode on with the baronet at a quicker pace, the noise of their
+horses' feet, as they trotted on and approached the great doors,
+covering the sound of the movements of the party they left behind.
+
+The house, to which the actual possessor had given the name of Radford
+Hall, was an old-fashioned country mansion, and presented, like many
+another building at that time, several large, iron hooks, standing out
+from the brickwork on each side of the doorway, on which it was
+customary for visitors on horseback to hang their rein while they rang
+the bell, or till a servant could be called to take them to the
+stable. Sir Robert Croyland was acquainted with this peculiarity
+of the house, though Leyton was not, and he whispered to his
+companion--"Let us hook up our horses, before we ring."
+
+This was accordingly done; and then taking the long iron handle
+of the bell, Leyton pulled it gently. A minute or two after, a step
+sounded in the hall, and a servant appeared--a stout, red-faced,
+shrewd-looking fellow, who at first held the great door only half
+open. As soon, however, as he saw Sir Robert Croyland's face, he threw
+it back, replying, in answer to the baronet's question as to whether
+Mr. Radford was at home, "Yes, Sir Robert, he has been home this
+hour."
+
+Leyton had stood back, and, in the darkness, the man did not see him,
+or took him for a groom; but when the young officer advanced, and the
+uniform of the dragoon regiment became apparent, Mr. Radford's servant
+suddenly stretched his hand towards the door again, as if about to
+throw it violently to. But Leyton's strong grasp was on his shoulder
+in a moment. "You are my prisoner," he said, in a low tone; "not a
+word--not a syllable, if you would not suffer for it. No harm will
+happen to you, if you are only quiet."
+
+At the same moment, Mowle and the rest came running across the lawn,
+and, giving the man into their hands, Leyton entered the house with
+Sir Robert Croyland.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+About an hour before the event took place, which we have last related,
+Edith Croyland sat in a small drawing-room at the back of Mr.
+Radford's house, in which she had been kept captive--for we may well
+use that term--ever since her removal from Mr. Croyland's. Her first
+day had been spent in tears and indignation; for immediately after her
+arrival, on finding that her father was not really there, she became
+convinced that she had been deceived, and naturally doubted that it
+was with his consent she had been removed. Nor had Mr. Radford's
+manner at all tended to do away with this impression. He laughed at
+her remonstrances and indignation, treated her tears with cold
+indifference, and told his servants, before her face, that she was on
+no account to be suffered to go out, or to see any one but Sir Robert
+Croyland. In other respects, he treated her well--did all in his power
+to provide for her comfort; and, as his whole establishment was
+arranged upon a scale of luxury and extravagance rarely met with in
+the old country houses of the gentry of that time, none of the
+materials of that which is commonly called comfort were wanting.
+
+But it was the comfort of the heart which Edith required, and did not
+find. Mr. Radford handed her down to dinner himself, and with as much
+ceremonious politeness as he could show, seated her at the end of his
+ostentatious table: but Edith did not eat. She retired at night to the
+downy bed prepared for her: but Edith did not sleep. Thus passed the
+first day and the morning of the second; and when, about noon, Sir
+Robert Croyland arrived, he found her pale and wan with anxiety and
+watching; and he left her paler still; for he resisted all her
+entreaties to take her thence; and her last hope of relief was gone.
+
+He had spoken kindly--tenderly, indeed; he had even shed tears; but
+his mind at the time of his visit was still in a state of suspense,
+irritated by injuries and insult, but not yet roused by indignation to
+dare the worst that Mr. Radford could do; and, though he heard her
+express her determination never to marry Richard Radford unless set
+free from her vows to Henry Leyton, without remonstrance, only begging
+her to keep that resolution secret till the last moment, yet, with the
+usual resource of weakness, he sought to postpone the evil hour by
+seeming to enter into all his enemy's views.
+
+Thus had passed Edith's time; and it is unnecessary to enter into a
+more detailed account of her thoughts and feelings previous to the
+period we have mentioned--namely, one hour before the arrival of her
+father and Henry Leyton at the door of the house. She was sitting,
+then, in that small back drawing-room, with her fair cheek leaning on
+her hand, her eyes bent down upon the table, and her mind busy with
+the present and the future. "It is foolish," she thought, "thus to
+alarm myself. No harm can happen. They dare not show me any violence;
+and no clergyman in England will venture to proceed with the service
+against my loud dissent. My uncle, and Leyton too, must soon hear of
+this, and will interfere.--I will not give way to such terrors any
+more."
+
+As she thus meditated, she heard a rapid step upon the great stairs;
+and the next moment Mr. Radford entered--booted, spurred, and dusty,
+as from a journey, and with a heavy horsewhip in his hand. His face
+betrayed more agitation than she had ever seen it display. There
+was a deep line between his brows, as if they had been long bent into
+such a frown, that they could not readily be smoothed again. His long
+upper-lip was quivering with a sort of impatient vehemence that would
+not be restrained; and his eye was flashing, as if under the influence
+of some strong passion.
+
+"Well, Miss Croyland," he said, throwing his horsewhip down upon the
+table, and casting himself into a chair, "I hope they have made you
+comfortable during my absence?"
+
+Edith merely bowed her head, without reply.
+
+"Well, that's civil!" cried Mr. Radford; "but I think every body is
+going mad, and so it is no wonder that women do! Miss Croyland, I have
+a piece of news for you--there's going to be a wedding in our house,
+to-night!"
+
+Still Edith was silent, and looked towards the fire.
+
+"I tell you of the fact," continued Mr. Radford, "because it may be
+necessary for you to make some little preparation for your journey. I
+don't know whether you hear or not; but you are to be married to my
+son, to-night. It is now nine; the clergyman and Richard will be here
+by eleven; and the marriage will take place half an hour before
+twelve. So you have two hours and a half to prepare."
+
+"You are mistaken altogether, Mr. Radford," replied Edith, in as firm
+a tone as she could assume. "It is not my intention to marry your son
+at all. I have often told you so--I now repeat it."
+
+"You do, do you!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, giving her a furious glance
+across the table; "then I will tell you something, young woman. Your
+consent was given to your father; and I will have no trifling
+backwards and forwards. Circumstances have arisen to-day--curses be
+upon them all!--which render it necessary that the marriage should
+take place four-and-twenty hours before it was first fixed, and it
+shall take place, by----!" and he added a terrible oath.
+
+"You will find it will not take place, Mr. Radford," replied Edith, in
+the same tone as before, "for, in the first place, I never did
+consent. My father left me fainting, without waiting to hear what I
+had to say, or he would not have so deceived himself."
+
+"Then he shall die the death of a felon," cried Mr. Radford, "and you
+yourself shall be the person to put the rope round his neck."
+
+"Whatever be the consequences, I shall be firm," replied Edith; "but
+at the same time, let me tell you, I do not believe you have the power
+you suppose. You may bring a false accusation--an accusation you know
+to be false; but such things are never so well prepared but they are
+discovered at last; and so it will be in your case."
+
+"A false accusation!" exclaimed Mr. Radford vehemently--"an accusation
+I know to be false! I'll soon show you that, girl;" and starting up
+from his seat, he hurried out of the room.
+
+Contrary to Edith's expectation, Mr. Radford was absent for a long
+time; but when he returned he had several papers in his hand, some
+apparently freshly written, and one which bore the yellow marks of
+age. His face was stern and resolute, but displayed less excitement
+than when he left her. He entered with a slow step, leaving the door
+partly open behind him, seated himself, and gazed at her for a moment,
+then spread out the small yellow paper on the table, but held his hand
+tight upon the lower part, as if he feared she might snatch it up and
+destroy it.
+
+"There, look at that, Miss Croyland!" he said; "you spoke of false
+accusations; look at that, and be ashamed of bringing them yourself."
+
+Edith gave a glance towards it with a sensation of awe, but did not
+attempt to read it. Her eye rested upon the words, "Deposition
+of--" and upon a stain of blood at the bottom of the page, and she
+turned away with a shudder. "I have heard of it before," she answered,
+"yet every word in it may be false."
+
+"False, or not false," replied Mr. Radford, "it sends your father to
+gaol to-morrow, and to the gallows a month after--if you do not
+instantly sign that!" and he laid another freshly written page open
+before her.
+
+Edith took it in her hand, and read--"I hereby consent and promise,
+when called upon, to marry Richard Radford, junior, Esquire, the son
+of Richard Radford, of Radford Hall."
+
+"You have your choice, Miss Croyland," continued her persecutor, in a
+low and bitter tone, "either to save your father, or to put him to
+death with your own hands; for I swear, by all that I hold sacred,
+that if you do not instantly sign that paper--ay, and fulfil its
+engagement, I will send off this deposition to the bench of
+magistrates, with the letter I have just written, giving an account of
+all the circumstances, and explaining how, out of weak kindness and
+friendship for Sir Robert Croyland, I have been prevailed upon to keep
+back the information until now. Do not deceive yourself, and think
+that his fortune or his station will save him. A peer of the realm has
+been hanged before now for the murder of his own servant. Neither must
+you suppose that upon that deposition alone rests the proof of his
+guilt. There was other evidence given at the Coroner's inquest, all
+bearing upon the same point, which requires but this light, to be made
+plain. The threats your father previously used, the falsehoods he told
+regarding where he had been--all these things can be proved, for I
+have taken care to preserve that evidence."
+
+"That was like a friend, indeed!" murmured Edith; "but such are the
+friendships of the world."
+
+"I am acting like a friend to you, Miss Croyland," rejoined Mr.
+Radford, apparently neither touched nor hurt by her words, "in letting
+you see clearly your father's situation, while I give you the
+opportunity of saving him if you will. Do as you please--there is the
+paper. Sign it if you like; but sign it quickly; for this night brings
+all tergiversation to an end. I will have no more of it; and five
+minutes decides your father's life or death. Do not say I do it. It is
+you. His pardon is before you. You have nothing to do but to put your
+name. If you do not, you sign his death warrant!"
+
+"Five minutes!" said Edith, with her heart beating violently.
+
+"Ay, five minutes," answered Mr. Radford, who saw, from the wild look
+of her beautiful eyes, and the ashy paleness of her cheek and lips,
+how powerfully he had worked upon her--"five minutes, no longer;" and
+he laid his watch upon the table. Then, turning somewhat
+ostentatiously to a small fixed writing-desk, which stood near, he
+took up a stick of sealing-wax, and laid it down beside the letter he
+had written, as if determined not to lose a moment beyond the period
+he had named.
+
+Edith gazed upon the paper for an instant, agitated and trembling
+through her whole frame; but her eye fell upon the name of Richard
+Radford. His image rose up before her, recalling all the horror that
+she felt whenever he was in her presence; then came the thought of
+Leyton, and of her vows to him yet uncancelled. "Richard Radford!" she
+said to herself--"Richard Radford!--marry him--vow that I will love
+him--call God to witness, when I know I shall abhor him more and
+more--when I love another? I cannot do it--I will not do it!" and she
+pushed the paper from her, saying, aloud, "No, I will not sign it!"
+
+"Very well," said Mr. Radford--"very well. Your parent's blood be upon
+your head;" and he proceeded to fold up slowly the deposition he had
+shown her, in the letter he had written. But he stopped in the midst;
+and then, abandoning the calm, low tone, and stern but quiet demeanour
+which he had lately used, he started up, striking the table violently
+with his hand, and exclaiming, in a loud and angry tone, "Wretched,
+miserable girl, dare you bring upon your head the guilt of parricide?
+What was the curse of Cain to that? How will you bear the day of your
+father's trial--ay, how bear the day of his death--the lingering agony
+of his imprisonment--the public shame of the court of justice--the
+agony of the gallows and the cord?--the proud Sir Robert Croyland
+become the gaze of hooting boys, the spectacle of the rude multitude,
+expiring, through his daughter's fault, by the hand of the common
+hangman! Ay, think of it all, for in another minute it will be too
+late! Once gone from my hand, this paper can never be recalled."
+
+Edith uttered a faint cry; but at the same moment a voice behind Mr.
+Radford said, "Nor can it, now!" and Sir Robert Croyland himself laid
+his hand upon the papers.
+
+Mr. Radford turned round fiercely, and was darting forward to seize
+them from him; but he was held back by a more powerful arm; and the
+baronet went on, in a voice grave and sad, but firm and strong--"Sir
+Henry Leyton," he said, "I give these papers into your hands to do
+with exactly as you may think right, as a man of honour, a gentleman,
+and a respecter of the law. I ask not to hold them for one moment."
+
+"Do not struggle, sir,--do not struggle!" cried Leyton, holding Mr.
+Radford fast by the collar--"you are a prisoner."
+
+"A prisoner!" exclaimed Mr. Radford. "What! in my own house--a
+magistrate!"
+
+"Anywhere, sir," answered Leyton; "and for the time, you are a
+magistrate no longer.--Ho! without there!--send some one in!"
+
+Edith had sunk down in her seat; for she knew not whether to rejoice
+or grieve. The first feeling undoubtedly was joy; but the next was
+bitter apprehension for her father. At first she covered her eyes with
+her hands; for she thought to hear the terrible truth proclaimed
+aloud; but when she looked up, Sir Robert Croyland's face was so calm,
+so resolute, so unlike what it had ever appeared of late years, that
+fear gave way to surprise, and surprise began to verge into hope. As
+that bright flame arose again in her heart, she started up, and cast
+herself upon her father's bosom, murmuring, while the tears flowed
+rapidly from her eyes, "Are you safe--are you safe?"
+
+"I know not, my dear child," replied Sir Robert Croyland; "but I am
+now doing my duty, and that gives me strength."
+
+In the meantime, a dragoon had appeared at the door, and as soon as
+Mr. Radford beheld him, he exclaimed, "This is a base and infamous
+plot to defeat the ends of justice. I understand it all: the military
+power called in, right willingly, I have no doubt, to take away the
+documents which prove that felon's guilt. But this shall be bitterly
+repaid, and I hold you responsible, sir, for the production of these
+papers."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Radford," replied Leyton, with a calm smile, "I will
+be responsible. But as you object to the military power, we will hand
+you over to the civil. Hart," he continued, speaking to the soldier,
+"call up Mowle or Birchett, or any of the other officers, and let them
+bring one of the constables with them, for this is not purely a case
+for the Customs. Then tell Serjeant Shaw to bring on his men from the
+back, as I directed, seeing that nothing--not an inch of ground, not a
+shed, not a tool-house, remains unexamined."
+
+"Of what am I accused, sir, that you dare to pursue such a course in
+my house?" demanded Mr. Radford.
+
+"Of murder, sir," replied Sir Henry Leyton.
+
+"Murder!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, and then burst into an affected
+laugh.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the young officer; "and you may find it not so
+much a jest as you suppose; for though the law, in consequence of the
+practices of yourself and others, has slept long ineffective, it is
+not dead. I say for murder! as an accessory before the fact, to the
+armed resistance of lawful authority, in which his majesty's subjects
+have been killed in the execution of their duty; and as an accessory
+after the fact, in harbouring and comforting the actual culprits,
+knowing them to be such."
+
+Mr. Radford's countenance fell; for he perceived that the matter was
+much more serious than he at first supposed. He trusted, indeed, from
+the laxity with, which the law had lately been carried into execution,
+that he might escape from the gravest part of the charge; but still,
+if Sir Henry Leyton was in a condition to prove the participation of
+which he accused him, in the crimes that had been committed, nothing
+short of transportation for life could be anticipated. But he had
+other sources of anxiety. His wretched son, he expected to present
+himself every minute; and well aware of the foul deed which Richard
+Radford had that morning perpetrated, and of his person having been
+recognised, he was perfectly certain, that his apprehension would take
+place. He would have given worlds to speak for a single instant with
+one of his own servants; but none of them appeared; and while these
+thoughts were passing rapidly through his brain, the officer Birchett
+entered the room with a constable, and several other persons followed
+them in. He was startled from his reverie, however, by Sir Henry
+Leyton's voice demanding--"Have you brought handcuffs, constable?"
+
+"Oh, ay, sir," answered the man, "I've got the bracelets."
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Radford," said Birchett; "we have hold of you at
+last, I fancy."
+
+Mr. Radford was silent, and the young officer demanded, "Have you
+found anything else, Birchett?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, plenty," answered Birchett, "and besides the run goods,
+things enough to prove all the rest even if we had not proof
+sufficient before--one of your own dragoon's swords, sir, that must
+have been snatched up from some poor fellow who was killed. Corporal
+Hart says, he thinks it belonged to a man named Green."
+
+"Well, there is your prisoner," replied Leyton,--"you and the
+constable must take care that he be properly secured. No unnecessary
+harshness, I beg; but you know how rescue is sometimes attempted, and
+escape effected. You had better remove him to another room; for we
+must have all the papers and different articles of smuggled goods
+brought hither."
+
+"I protest against the whole of this proceeding," exclaimed Mr.
+Radford, on whom the constable was now unceremoniously fixing a pair
+of handcuffs, "and I beg every body will take notice of my protest.
+This person, who is, I suppose, a military officer, is quite going
+beyond his duty, and acting as if he were a civil magistrate."
+
+"I am acting under the orders and authority of a magistrate, sir,"
+replied Sir Henry Leyton, "and according to my instructions.--Dear
+Edith," he continued, crossing over to her, and taking her hand as she
+still clung to her father; for all that I have described had taken
+place with great rapidity--"you had better go into another room till
+this is over. We shall have some papers to examine, and I trust
+another prisoner before the search is finished.--Had she not better
+retire, Sir Robert?"
+
+But Mr. Radford raised his voice again, as the constable was moving
+him towards the door, exclaiming, "At all events, I claim my right to
+witness all these extraordinary proceedings. It is most unjust and
+illegal for you to seize and do what you will with my private papers,
+in my absence."
+
+"It is a very common occurrence," said Sir Henry Leyton, "in criminal
+cases like your own."
+
+"Let him remain--let him remain!" said Sir Robert Croyland. "He can
+but interrupt us a little.--Oh, here is the clerk at last!--Now,
+Edith, my love, you had better go; these are no scenes for you."
+
+Leyton took her by the hand, and led her to the door, bending down his
+head and whispering as he went, "Be under no alarm, dear girl. All
+will go well."
+
+"Are you sure, Harry--are you sure?" asked Edith, gazing anxiously in
+his face.
+
+"Certain," he replied; "your father's decision has saved him."
+
+As he spoke, there was a violent ringing at the bell; and Mr. Radford
+said to himself, "It is that unhappy boy; he will be taken, to a
+certainty." But the next instant, he thought, "No--no, he would never
+come to the front door. It must be some more of their party."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland, in the meantime, seated himself at the end of the
+table, and handed over a number of papers, which Leyton had given him
+at his own house, to the clerk, who, by his direction, seated himself
+near. "I have no objection, Mr. Radford," he said, turning to the
+prisoner, "that you should hear read, if you desire it, the
+depositions on which I have granted a warrant for your apprehension,
+and, at the requisition of the officers of Customs, have authorized
+your premises to be searched for the smuggled goods, a part of which
+has been found upon them. The depositions are those of a man named
+George Jones, since dead, and of Michael Scalesby, and Edward
+Larchant, at present in the hands of justice; and the information is
+laid by John Mowle and Stephen Birchett."
+
+At the recital of the names of several of the men whom he himself had
+furnished with arms and directions, Mr. Radford's heart sunk; but the
+moment after, a gleam of bitter satisfaction sprang up in his breast,
+as the door opened, and Mr. Zachary Croyland entered, exclaiming,
+"How's this--how's this? I came to take a dove out of a hawk's nest,
+and here I find the dogs unearthing a fox."
+
+"I am very glad you are come, sir," replied Mr. Radford, before any
+one else could speak; "for, though you are the brother of that person
+sitting there, you are a man of honour, and an honest man----"
+
+"More than I can say for you, Radford," grumbled Mr. Croyland.
+
+"And, moreover, a magistrate for this county," continued Mr. Radford.
+
+"I never act--I never act!" cried the old gentleman. "I never have
+acted; I never will act."
+
+"But in this case I shall insist upon your acting," said the prisoner;
+"for your brother, who is now proceeding thus virulently against me,
+does it to shield himself from a charge of murder, which he knew I was
+about to bring against him."
+
+"Fiddlesticks' ends!" cried Mr. Croyland. "This is what people call
+turning the tables, I think. But it wont succeed with me, my good
+friend. I am an old bird--a very old bird, indeed--and I don't like
+chaff at all, Radford. If you have any charge to make against my
+brother, you must make it where you are going. I'll have nothing to do
+with it. I always knew him to be a fool; but never suspected him of
+being anything else."
+
+"At all events," said Mr. Radford, in a gloomy tone, "since simple
+justice is denied me at all hands, I require that the papers which
+have been seized in this house, be placed in proper hands, and duly
+authenticated. The important evidence of the crime of which I charge
+him, has been given by your brother, sir, to one who has but too great
+an interest, I believe, to conceal or destroy it. I say it boldly,
+those papers are not safe in the keeping of Sir Henry Leyton; and I
+demand that they be given up, duly marked by the clerk, and signed by
+myself, and some independent person."
+
+Leyton's eyes flashed for a moment, at the insinuation which the
+prisoner threw out; but he overcame his anger instantly, and took the
+papers which had been handed him, from his pocket, saying, "I will
+most willingly resign these documents, whatever they may be. Mr.
+Croyland, this person seems to wish that you should keep them, rather
+than myself; but here is another paper on the table, which may throw
+some light upon the whole transaction;" and he took up the written
+promise, which Mr. Radford had been urging Edith to sign--and on which
+his own eyes had been fixed during the last few minutes--and handed
+it, with the rest, to her uncle.
+
+"Stay, stay a moment!" said Mr. Croyland, putting on his spectacles.
+"I will be responsible for the safe keeping of nothing of which I do
+not know the contents;" and he proceeded to read aloud the engagement
+to wed Richard Radford, which Edith had rejected. "Ay, a precious
+rascally document, indeed!" said the old gentleman, when he had
+concluded; "written in the hand of the said Richard Radford, Esq.,
+senior, and which, I suppose, Miss Croyland refused to sign under any
+threats. Be so good as to put your name on that, at the back, Mr.
+Clerk. I will mark it, too, that there be no mistake."
+
+"And now, sir, since you have read the one, will you be good enough to
+read the other?" exclaimed Mr. Radford, with a triumphant smile.
+"Even-handed justice, if you please, Mr. Zachary Croyland; the
+enclosure first, then the letter, if you will. I see there are a
+multitude of persons present; I beg they will all attend."
+
+"I will read it certainly," replied Mr. Croyland, drawing one of the
+candles somewhat nearer. "It seems to be somewhat indistinct."
+
+Sir Robert Croyland leaned his head upon his hand, and covered his
+eyes; and several persons pressed forward, to hear what seemed of
+importance--in the eyes of the prisoner, at least.
+
+Mr. Croyland ran over the writing, as a preliminary to reading it
+aloud; but, as he did so, his countenance fell, and he paused and
+hesitated. The next moment, however, he exclaimed, "No, hang it! It
+shall be read--'The deposition of William Clare, now lying at the
+point of death, and with the full assurance that he has not many
+minutes to live, made before Richard Radford, Esquire, J. P.; this
+24th day of September, in the year of grace 17--;" and he proceeded to
+read, with a voice occasionally wavering indeed, but in general firm
+and clear, the formal setting forth of the same tale which the reader
+has heard before, in the statement of Sir Robert Croyland to his
+daughter.
+
+His brother paused, and held the paper in his hand for a moment after
+he had done, while Leyton, who had been standing close beside him,
+bore a strange, almost sarcastic smile upon his lip, which strongly
+contrasted with the sad and solemn expression of Mr. Croyland's
+countenance.
+
+"What is this great red blot just below the man's name?" asked the old
+gentleman, at length, looking to Mr. Radford.
+
+"That, sir," replied the prisoner, in a calm, grave tone, which had
+much effect upon the hearers, "is the poor fellow's own blood, as I
+held him up to sign the declaration. He had been pressing his right
+hand upon the wound, and where it rested on the paper it gave that
+bloody witness to the authenticity of the document."
+
+There was something too fine in the reply, and Mr. Croyland repeated,
+"Bloody witness!--authenticity of the document!"
+
+But Leyton stretched out his hand, saying, "Will you allow me to look
+at the paper, Mr. Croyland?" and then added, as soon as he received
+it, "Can any one tell me whether William Clare was left-handed?"
+
+"No!" replied Sir Robert Croyland, suddenly raising his head--"no, he
+was not.--Why do you ask?"
+
+"That I can answer for," said the constable, coming forward, "for he
+carved the stock of a gun for me; and I know he never used his left
+hand when he could use his right one."
+
+"Why do you ask, Harry?--why do you ask?" exclaimed Mr. Croyland.
+
+"Because, my dear sir," answered Leyton, aloud and clear, "this is the
+print of the thumb of a man's right hand. To have made it at all, he
+must have held the paper with his right, while he signed with his
+left, and even then, he could have done it with difficulty, as it is
+so near the signature, that his fingers would not have room to move;"
+and as he ended, he fixed his eyes sternly on Mr. Radford's face.
+
+The prisoner's countenance had changed several times while Sir Henry
+Leyton spoke, first becoming fiery red, then deadly pale, then red
+again.
+
+"However it happened, so it was," he said, doggedly.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Mr. Croyland, sharply, "your evidence will fetch
+what it is worth!--I hope, clerk, you have got down Mr. Radford's
+statement."
+
+"He has written the same down here, your worship," replied the man,
+pointing to the letter in which the deposition had been enclosed, and
+which, having been cast down by Mr. Zachary, had been busily read by
+the clerk.
+
+"Well, then, we will read that too," observed the old gentleman.
+"Silence there!" he continued; for there was a good deal of noise at
+the side of the room, as the different persons present conversed over
+the events that were passing; "but first, we had better docket this
+commodity which we have just perused. Mr. Clerk, will you have the
+goodness to sign it also--on the back?"
+
+"Stay," said a voice from behind the rest, "let me sign it first;" and
+the man who had accompanied Leyton thither, wrapped in the dark
+horseman's coat, advanced between Mr. Croyland and the clerk.
+
+"Any one that likes--any one that likes," answered the former. "Ah, is
+that you, my old friend?"
+
+Both Mr. Radford and Sir Robert Croyland gazed, with looks of surprise
+not unmingled with more painful feelings, on the countenance of Mr.
+Warde, though each doubted his identity with one whom they had known
+in former years. But, without noticing any one, the strange-looking
+old man took the paper from the clerk, dipped the pen in the ink, and,
+in a bold, free hand, wrote some words upon the back.
+
+"Ha, what is this?" cried Mr. Croyland, taking the paper, and
+reading--"An infamous forgery--Henry Osborn!"
+
+"Villain, you are detected!" cried the person who has been called Mr.
+Warde. "I wrote from a distant land to warn you, that I was present
+when you knelt by William Clare--that I heard all--that I heard you
+try to prompt the dying man to an accusation he would not make--that I
+saw you stain the paper with his blood--ay, and sign it, too, after
+life had quitted him--I wrote to warn you; for I suspected you, from
+all I heard of your poor tool's changed conduct; and I gave you due
+notice, that if you ceased not, the day of retribution would arrive.
+It is come; and I am here, though you thought me dead! All your shifts
+and evasions are at an end. There is no collusion here--there is no
+personal interest. I have not conversed with that weak man for many
+years--and he it was who persecuted my sister's husband unto death!"
+
+"At his suggestion--from his threats!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland,
+pointing with his hand to Mr. Radford.
+
+"Take me away," said the prisoner, turning to the constable--"I am
+faint--I am sick--take me away!"
+
+Mr. Croyland nodded his head; and, supported by the constable and
+Birchett, Mr. Radford was led into the adjoining room.
+
+The scene that followed is indescribable. It was all confusion; every
+one spoke at once; some strove to make themselves heard above the
+rest; some seemed little to care whether they were heard or not; if
+any man thought he could fix another's attention, he tried to converse
+with him apart--many fixed upon the person nearest; but one or two
+endeavoured to make others hear across the room; and all order and
+common form were at an end.
+
+I have said every one spoke; but I should have made one exception. Sir
+Robert Croyland talked eagerly with his brother, and said a few low
+words to Mr. Osborn; but Leyton remained profoundly silent for several
+minutes. The din of many voices did not seem to disturb him; the
+strange turn that events had taken, appeared to produce no surprise;
+but he remained fixed to the same spot, with his eyes bent upon the
+table, and his mind evidently absent from all that was passing round.
+It was the abstraction of profound emotion; the power which the heart
+sometimes exercises over the mind, in withdrawing all its perceptions
+and its operative faculties from external things, to fix them
+concentrated upon some great problem within. At length, however, a
+sense of higher duties made him shake off the thoughts of his own fate
+and situation--of the bright and glorious hopes that were rising out
+of the previous darkness, like the splendour of the coming star after
+a long night--of the dreams of love and joy at length--of the growing
+light of "trust in the future," still faintly overshadowed by the dark
+objects of the past. With a quick start, as if he had awakened from
+sleep, he looked round, and demanded of one of the soldiers, many of
+whom were in the room, "Have you found the person accused--Richard
+Radford, I mean--has any one been taken in the premises and the house,
+besides the servants?"
+
+"Yes, sir, a person just arrived in a post-chaise," replied the
+sergeant.
+
+"We must have order, Sir Robert," continued Leyton, his powerful voice
+rising above the din; "there is much more to be done! Clear the room
+of your men, sergeant. They are not wanted here--but stay, I will
+speak with Mr. Haveland;" and he went out, followed by the sergeant
+and some half-dozen of the dragoons, who had accompanied their
+non-commissioned officer into the room.
+
+Leyton soon returned; but the precautions he had gone to enforce were
+vain. The person who had arrived in the chaise, proved to be a
+somewhat disreputable clergyman from a distant parish. Young Richard
+Radford was not taken; another fate awaited him. A man, indeed, on
+horseback, was seen to approach the grounds of Radford Hall towards
+eleven o'clock; but the lights, that were apparent through many
+windows, seemed to startle him, as he rode along the road. He paused
+for a moment, and gazed, and then advanced more slowly; but the
+eagerness of the small guard at that point, perhaps, frustrated their
+object, for it is not certain to this day who the person was. When he
+again halted, and seemed to hesitate, they dashed out after him; but
+instantly setting spurs to his horse, he galloped off into the woods;
+and knowing the country better than they did, he was soon lost to
+their pursuit.
+
+In the meantime, the result of the search in Mr. Radford's house was
+made known, in a formal manner, to the party assembled in the small
+drawing-room. Abundant evidence was found of his having been
+implicated in all the most criminal parts of the late smuggling
+transactions; and the business of the night concluded, by an order to
+remand him, to be brought before the bench of magistrates on the
+following day; for Sir Robert Croyland declined to commit him on his
+own responsibility.
+
+"He has preferred a charge against me," he said, in the same firm tone
+he had lately assumed--"let us see whether he will sustain it
+to-morrow."
+
+Before all was concluded, it was near midnight; and then every one
+rose to depart. Mr. Croyland eagerly asked for Edith, saying he would
+convey her home in his carriage; but Leyton interposed, replying, "We
+will bring her to you in a moment, my dear friend.--Sir Robert, it may
+be as well that you and I should seek Miss Croyland alone. I think I
+saw her maid below."
+
+"Certainly," answered her father, "let us go, my dear Henry, for it is
+growing very late."
+
+Mr. Croyland smiled, saying, "Well, well, so be it;" and the other two
+left the room. They found Edith, after some search, seated in the
+dining hall. She looked pale and anxious; but the expression of
+Leyton's face relieved her of her worst apprehensions--not that it was
+joyful; for there was a touch of sadness in it; but she knew that his
+aspect could not be such, if her father's life were in any real
+danger.
+
+Leyton advanced towards her at once, even before her father, took her
+hand in his, and kissed it tenderly. "I told you, dearest Edith," he
+said, "that I would bring you aid; and I have, thank God, been able to
+redeem that promise; but now I have another task to perform. Your
+father's safety is placed beyond doubt--his innocence made clear; and
+your happiness, beloved one, is not sacrificed. The chance of
+endangering that happiness was the only cause of my not doing what,
+perhaps, you desired for his sake--what I do now. Sir Robert Croyland,
+I did wrong in years long past--in boyhood and the intemperance of
+youthful love and hope--by engaging your daughter to myself by vows,
+which she has nobly though painfully kept. As an atonement to you, as
+a satisfaction to my own sense of right, I now, as far as in me lies,
+set her free from those engagements, leaving to her own self how she
+will act, and to you how you will decide. Edith, beloved, you are
+free, as far as I can make you so; and, Sir Robert, I ask your
+forgiveness for the wrong act I once committed."
+
+Edith Croyland turned somewhat pale, and looked at her father
+earnestly; but Sir Robert did not answer for a moment.--Was it that he
+hesitated?--No; but there was an oppressive weight at his heart, when
+he thought of all that he had done--all that he had inflicted, not
+only on the man before him, but on others guiltless of all offence,
+which seemed almost to stop its beating. But at length, he took
+Edith's hand and put it in Leyton's, saying, in a low, tremulous
+voice, "She is yours, Henry--she is yours; and, oh, forgive the father
+for the daughter's sake!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+There was a solitary light in an upstairs window of Farmer Harris's
+house; and, by its dim ray, sat Harding the smuggler, watching the
+inanimate form of her upon whom all the strong affections of his heart
+had been concentrated. No persuasions could induce him to entrust "the
+first watch," as he called it, to others; and there he sat, seldom
+taking his eyes from that pale but still beautiful countenance, and
+often stooping over to print a kiss upon the cold and clay-like
+forehead of the dead. His tears were all shed: he wept not--he spoke
+not; but the bitterness which has no end was in his heart, and, with a
+sleepless eye, he watched through the livelong night. It was about
+three o'clock in the morning, when a hard knocking was heard at the
+door of the farm; and, without a change of feature, Harding rose and
+went down in the dark. He unlocked the door, and opened it, when a
+hand holding a paper was thrust in, and instantly withdrawn, as
+Harding took the letter.
+
+"What is this?" he said; but the messenger ran away without reply; and
+the smuggler returned to the chamber of death.
+
+The paper he had taken was folded in the shape of a note, but neither
+sealed nor addressed; and, without ceremony, Harding opened it, and
+read. It was written in a free, good hand, which he recognised at
+once, with rage and indignation all the more intense because he
+restrained them within his own breast. He uttered not a word; his face
+betrayed, only in part, the workings of strong passion within him. It
+is true, his lip quivered a little, and his brow became contracted,
+but it soon relaxed its frown; and, without oath or comment--though
+very blasphemous expletives were then tolerated in what was called the
+best society, and were prevalent amongst all the inferior classes,--he
+proceeded to read the few lines which the letter contained, and which
+something--perhaps the emotions he felt--had prevented him from seeing
+distinctly at first.
+
+The epistle was, as we have seen, addressed to no one, and was drawn
+up, indeed, more in the form of a general notice than anything else.
+Many, of nearly the same import, as was afterwards discovered, had
+been delivered at various farm-houses in the neighbourhood; but, as
+all were in substance the same, one specimen will suffice.
+
+"We give you to know," so the letter ran, "that, unless Edward Ramley
+and his two comrades are set free before daylight to-morrow, we will
+come to Goudhurst, and burn the place. Neither man, woman, nor child,
+shall escape. We are many--more than you think--and you know we will
+keep our word. So look to it, if you would escape--
+
+                                  "Vengeance!"
+
+
+Harding approached the bed, with the letter in his hand, gazed
+steadfastly upon the corpse for several minutes, and then, without a
+word, quitted the room. He went straight to the chamber which Farmer
+Harris and his wife now occupied, and knocked sharply at the door,
+exclaiming, "Harris--Harris! I want to speak with you!"
+
+The good farmer was with difficulty roused; for though no man felt
+more warmly, or, indeed, more vehemently, yet the corporeal had its
+full share with the mental; and when the body was fatigued with more
+than its ordinary portion of labour, the mind did not keep the whole
+being waking. At length, however, he came out, still drowsy, and
+taking the letter, gazed on it by the light of the candle, "with lack
+lustre eye!" But Harding soon brought him to active consciousness, by
+saying, "They threaten to burn the village, Harris, unless the
+murderers be suffered to escape. I am going up to the church, where
+they are kept.--Wake some one to sit up-stairs.--I will die before a
+man of them goes out."
+
+"And so will I," cried Harris; "let me see--let me see! My heart's
+asleep still, but I'll soon wake up. Why, where the mischief did this
+come from?" and he read the letter over again, with more comprehension
+of its contents. When he had done, he swore vehemently, "They shall
+find that the men of Goudhurst can match them," he cried; "but we must
+set about it quick, Harding, and call up all the young men.--They will
+come, that is certain; for the devil himself has not their impudence;
+but they must be well received when they do come. We'll give them a
+breakfast, Harding, they shan't forget. It shall be called the
+Goudhurst breakfast, as long as men can remember. Stay, I'll just put
+on my coat, and get out the gun and the pistols--we shall want as many
+of those things as we can muster. I'll be back in a minute."
+
+From that hour till five o'clock, the little village of Goudhurst was
+all alive. Intimation of the danger was sent to all the neighbouring
+farmers; every labouring man was roused from his bed with directions
+to meet the rest in the church-yard; and there, as the sky became
+grey, a busy scene was displayed, some sixty stout men being assembled
+before the porch, most of them armed with old muskets or fowling
+pieces. Amongst those to whom age or habitual authority assigned the
+chief place, an eager consultation went on as to their proceedings;
+and though there was, as is generally the case in such meetings, a
+great difference upon many points, yet three acts were unanimously
+decided upon; first, to send all the women and children out of the
+village--next, to despatch a messenger to Woodchurch for military
+aid--and, next, to set about casting bullets immediately, as no shot
+larger than slugs were to be found in the place.
+
+The reader will probably ask, with a look of surprise, "Is this a
+scene in North America, where settlers were daily exposed to the
+incursions of the savages?"--and he may add, "This could not have
+happened in England!" But I beg to say, this happened in the county of
+Kent, less than a century ago; and persons are still living, who
+remember having been sent with the women and children out of the
+village, that the men might not be impeded by fear for those they
+loved, while defending the spot on which they were born.
+
+A fire of wood was speedily lighted by some of the men in the
+church-yard; others applied themselves, with what moulds could be
+procured, to the casting of ball; others, again, woke the still
+slumbering inhabitants of the cottages and houses round, and warned
+the women to remove to the neighbouring farms, and the men to come and
+join their friends at the rendezvous; and a few of the best instructed
+proceeded to arrange their plan of defence, barricading the gates of
+the cemetery, and blocking up a stile, which at that time led from the
+right hand wall, with an old grave-stone, against which they piled up
+a heap of earth.
+
+The vestry, in which the prisoners had been confined--after having
+been brought from Mr. Broughton's at too late an hour to convey them
+to gaol--was luckily protected by strong iron bars over the windows,
+and a heavy plated door between it and the church; and the old tower
+of the building afforded a strong point in the position of the
+villagers, which they flattered themselves could not easily be forced.
+
+"How many men do you think they can muster, Harding?" asked Farmer
+Harris, when their first rude preparations were nearly complete.
+
+"I can but guess," answered the smuggler; "perhaps two hundred. They
+had more than that in the Marsh, of whom I hear some fifty were taken
+or killed; but a good many were not there, who may, and will be here
+to-day--old Ramley for one, I should think."
+
+"Then we had better get into the church when they come," replied the
+farmer; "they cannot force us there till the soldiers come."
+
+"Did you send for them?" asked Harding.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the farmer, "half-an-hour ago. I sent the young
+boy, who would be of no good here, on the pony; and I told him to let
+Sir Robert know, as he passed; for I thought the soldiers might not
+meddle if they had not a magistrate with them."
+
+"Very well," replied Harding, and set himself to work away again.
+
+Six o'clock was now past, seven approached and went by; the hand of
+the dial moved half-way on to eight, and yet nothing indicated the
+approach of the smugglers. In a few minutes after, however, the sound
+of horses' feet galloping was heard; and a young man, who had been
+placed in the belfry to look out, shouted down to those below, "Only
+two!" and the next moment a horseman in military half dress, with a
+servant behind him, rode up at speed to the principal entrance of the
+church-yard.
+
+"I am come to help you, my men," cried Sir Edward Digby, springing to
+the ground, and giving his rein to his servant--"Will you let us in to
+your redoubt? The dragoons will soon be over; I sent your messenger
+on."
+
+"Perhaps, sir, you may have your trouble for your pains, after all,"
+answered young Harris, opening the gate, to let Digby and his horses
+in; "the fellows have not shown themselves, and very likely wont
+come."
+
+"Oh, yes, they will," said the young baronet, advancing amongst
+them, and looking round on every side, "I saw a long line of men on
+horseback moving over the hill as I came. Put the horses under cover
+of that shed, Somers. You should cut down those thick bushes near the
+wall. They will conceal their movements.--Have you any axes?"
+
+"Here is one," cried a young man, and immediately he set to work,
+hewing down the shrubs and bushes to which Digby pointed.
+
+In the meantime, the young officer ran over the groups with his eye,
+calculating their numbers, and at length he said: "You had better
+confine yourselves to defending the church--you are not enough to meet
+them out here. I counted a hundred and fifty, and there may be more.
+Station your best marksmen at the windows and on the roof of the
+tower, and put a few stout resolute fellows to guard the door in case
+these scoundrels get nearer than we wish them. As we all act upon our
+own responsibility, however, we had better be cautious, and abstain
+from offensive measures, till they are absolutely necessary for the
+defence of ourselves and the security of the prisoners. Besides, if
+they are kept at bay for some time, the dragoons will take them in
+flank, and a good number may be captured."
+
+"We can deal with them ourselves," said the voice of Harding, in a
+stern tone. He had been standing by, listening, in grave silence, with
+a gun in his hand, which he had borrowed at farmer Harris's; and now,
+as soon as he had spoken, he turned away, walked into the church, and
+climbed to the roof of the tower. There, after examining the priming
+of the piece, he seated himself coolly upon the little parapet, and
+looked out over the country. The moment after, his voice was heard,
+calling from above--"They are coming up, Harris!--Tell the officer."
+
+Sir Edward Digby had, in the meantime, advanced to the gates to
+insure that they were securely fastened; but he heard what Harding
+said, and turning his head, exclaimed--"Go into the church; and
+garnish the windows with marksmen, as I said! I will be with you in a
+moment.--Here, Somers, help me here for a moment. They will soon pull
+this down;" and he proceeded calmly to fasten the barricade more
+strongly. Before he had accomplished this to his satisfaction, men on
+horseback were seen gathering thick in the road, and on the little
+open space in front; but he went on without pausing to look at them,
+till a loud voice exclaimed--"What are you about there?--Do you intend
+to give the men up, or not?"
+
+Sir Edward Digby then raised his head, and replied: "Certainly
+not!--Oh, Mr. Richard Radford--you will have the goodness to remark
+that, if you advance one step towards these gates, or attempt to pass
+that wall, you will be fired on from the church."
+
+While he was speaking, he took a step back, and then walked slowly
+towards the building, making his servant go first; but half-way
+thither he paused, and turning towards the ruffians congregated at a
+little distance from the wall, he added aloud, addressing Richard
+Radford--"You had better tell your gang what I say, my good friend,
+for they will find we will keep our word."
+
+As he spoke, some one from the mass fired a pistol at him; but the
+ball did not take effect, and Digby raised his hand, waving to those
+in the church not to fire, and at the same time hurrying his pace a
+little till he had passed the door and ordered it to be shut.
+
+"They have now fair warning," he said to one of the young Harris's,
+who was on guard at the door; "but I will go up above and call to you
+when I think anything is necessary to be done.--Remember, my good
+fellows, that some order must be kept; and as you cannot all be at the
+windows, let those who must stand back, load while the rest fire."
+
+Thus saying, he mounted to the top of the tower with a quick step, and
+found Harding and five others on the roof. The horsemen in front of
+the church, were all gathered together at a little distance, and
+seemed in eager consultation; and amongst them the figures of young
+Radford and the two Ramleys, father and son, were conspicuous from the
+vehement gestures that they made--now pointing to the top of the
+tower, now to the wall of the churchyard.
+
+"I think we could bring a good many down as they stand now," said
+young William Harris, moving his gun towards his shoulder, as if the
+inclination to fire were almost irresistible.
+
+"Stay--stay! not yet," replied Sir Edward Digby; "let it be clearly in
+our own defence. Besides, you must remember these are but fowling
+pieces. At that distance, few shots would tell."
+
+"One shall tell, at least, before this day is over," said Harding, who
+had remained seated, hardly looking at the party without. "Something
+tells me, I shall have vengeance this day."
+
+"Hallo! they are going to begin!" cried another man; and the same
+moment, the gang of miscreants spread out, and while some advanced on
+horseback towards the wall, at least fifty, who were armed with guns,
+dismounted and aimed deliberately at the tower and the windows.
+
+"Down with your heads behind the parapet!" cried Digby, though he did
+not follow the caution himself; "no use of exposing your lives
+needlessly. Down--down, Harding!"
+
+But Harding sat where he was, saying, bitterly, "They'll not hit
+me.--I know it--they've done worse already." As he spoke, a single gun
+was fired, and then a volley, from the two sides of the churchyard
+wall. One of the balls whizzed close by Sir Edward Digby's head, and
+another struck the parapet near Harding; but neither were touched, and
+the stout seaman did not move a muscle.
+
+"Now up, and give it them back!" exclaimed Digby; and, speaking down
+the trap that led to the stairs, he called to those below, "Fire now,
+and pick them off!--Steadily--steadily!" he continued, addressing his
+companions on the roof, who were becoming somewhat too much excited.
+"Make every shot tell, if you can--a good aim--a good aim!"
+
+"Here goes for one!" cried William Harris, aiming at Jim Ramley, and
+hitting him in the thigh; and instantly, from the roof and the windows
+of the church, blazed forth a sharp fire of musketry, which apparently
+was not without severe effect; for the men who had dismounted were
+thrown into great confusion, and the horsemen who were advancing
+recoiled, with several of their horses plunging violently.
+
+The only one on the roof who did not fire was Harding, and he remained
+with his gun resting on the parapet beside him, gazing, with a stern,
+dark brow, upon the scene.
+
+"There are three down," cried one of the men, "and a lot of horses!"
+
+But Richard Radford was seen gesticulating vehemently; and at length
+taking off his hat, he waved it in the air, shouting, so loud that his
+words reached those above, "I will show you the way, then; let every
+brave man follow me!" And as he spoke he struck his spurs into his
+horse's sides, galloped on, and pushed his beast at the low wall of
+the churchyard.
+
+The animal, a powerful hunter, which had been sent to him by his
+father the day before, rose to the leap as if with pride. But just
+then, Harding raised his gun, aimed steadily, and pulled the trigger.
+The smoke for a moment obscured Digby's view; but the instant after he
+saw Richard Radford falling headlong from the saddle, and his shoulder
+striking the wall as the horse cleared it. The body then fell over,
+bent up, with the head leaning against a tombstone and the legs upon
+an adjoining grave.
+
+"There!--that's done!" said Harding; and laying down the gun again, he
+betook himself quietly to his seat upon the parapet once more.
+
+"The dragoons! the dragoons!" cried a young man from the other side of
+the tower. But ere he spoke, the gang of villains were already in
+retreat, several galloping away, and the rest wavering.
+
+Loading as fast as they could, the stout yeomanry in the church
+continued firing from the windows and from the roof, accelerating the
+movements of their assailants, who seemed only to pause for the
+purpose of carrying off their wounded companions. Sir Edward Digby,
+however, ran round to the opposite side of the tower, and, clearly
+seeing the advance of some cavalry from the side of Cranbrook--though
+the trees prevented him from ascertaining their numbers--he bade the
+rest follow, and ran down into the body of the church.
+
+"Now out, and after them!" he exclaimed; "we may make some prisoners!"
+But as soon as the large wooden doors were thrown back and the
+peasantry were seen pouring forth, old Ramley, who was amongst the
+last that lingered, turned his horse and galloped away, his companions
+following as fast as they could. Four men were found on the outside of
+the churchyard wall, of whom two were living; but Sir Edward Digby
+advanced with several others to the spot where Richard Radford was
+lying. He did not appear to have moved at all since he fell; and on
+raising his head, which had fallen forward on his chest as he lay
+propped up by the gravestone, a dark red spot in the centre of the
+forehead, from which a small quantity of blood had flowed down over
+his eyes and cheeks, told how fatally true the shot had gone to the
+mark.
+
+When he had gazed on him for a moment, Digby turned round again, to
+look for Harding; but the man who had slain him, did not approach the
+corpse of Richard Radford; and Digby perceived him standing near a low
+shed, which at that time encumbered the churchyard of Goudhurst, and
+under which the young baronet's horses had been placed. Thither the
+strong hunter, which Radford had been riding, had trotted as soon as
+his master fell; and Harding had caught it by the bridle, and was
+gazing at it with a thoughtful look.
+
+The last time Sir Edward Digby had seen him, before that morning, he
+was in high happiness by the side of poor Kate Clare; and when the
+young officer looked at him, as he stood there, with a sort of dull
+despair in his whole aspect, he could not but feel strong and painful
+sympathy with him, in his deep grief.
+
+"Mr. Harding," he said, approaching him, "the unhappy man is quite
+dead."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," answered Harding, "dead enough, I am sure. I hope he
+knew whose hand did it."
+
+"I am sorry to give you any further pain or anxiety, at this moment,"
+continued Digby, sinking his voice, "but I have heard that you are
+supposed to have taken some part in landing the goods which were
+captured the other day. For aught we know, there may be information
+lodged against you; and probably there will be some officer of Customs
+with the troop that is coming up. Would it not be better for you to
+retire from this scene for a little?"
+
+"Thank you, sir,--thank you! That is kind!" answered Harding. "Life's
+a load to me; but a prison is another thing. I would have given any of
+those clumsy fellows a hundred guineas to have shot me as I sat there
+but no man shall ever take me, and clap me up in a cell. I could not
+bear that; and my poor Kate lying dead there, too!--I'll go, as you
+say."
+
+But before he could execute his purpose, a small party of dragoons,
+commanded by a lieutenant, with Birchett, the riding officer, and two
+or three of his companions, came up at a trot, and poured through the
+gate of the churchyard, which was now open.
+
+Sir Edward Digby advanced at once towards them--if the truth must be
+told, to cover Harding's retreat; but Birchett's quick, shrewd eye had
+run round the place in an instant; and, before the young baronet had
+taken two steps along the path, he cried, "Why, there is Harding! Stop
+him!--stop him! We have information against him. Don't let him pass!"
+
+"I _will_ pass, though," cried Harding, leaping at once upon the back
+of Richard Radford's horse. "Now, stop me if you can!" and striking it
+with his heel, he turned the animal across the churchyard, taking an
+angle, away from the dragoons. Birchett spurred after him in a moment;
+and the other officers followed; but the soldiers did not move.
+Passing close by the spot where young Radford lay, as the officers
+tried to cut him off from the gate, Harding cried, with a wild and
+bitter laugh, "He is a good leaper, I know!" and instantly pushed his
+horse at the wall.
+
+The gallant beast took it at once, and dashed away with its rider
+along the road. The officers of Customs dared not trust their own
+cattle with the same feat; but Birchett exclaimed, in a loud and
+imperative tone, turning to the lieutenant of dragoons, "I require
+your aid in capturing that man. He is one of the most daring smugglers
+on the whole coast. We can catch him easily, if we are quick."
+
+"I do not know that I am authorized," said the lieutenant, not well
+pleased with the man's manner; "where no armed resistance is
+apprehended, I doubt if----"
+
+"But there may be resistance, sir," replied Birchett, vehemently; "he
+is gone to join his comrades.--Well, the responsibility be on your
+head! I claim your aid! Refuse it or not, as you shall think fit.--I
+claim and require it instantly!"
+
+"What do you think, sir?" asked the young officer, turning to Digby.
+
+"Nay, I am not in command here," answered the other; "you know your
+orders."
+
+"To give all lawful aid and assistance," said the lieutenant. "Well,
+take a Serjeant's guard, Mr. Birchett."
+
+In haste, the men were drawn out, and followed: Birchett leading them
+furiously on the pursuit; but ere they had quitted the churchyard,
+Harding was half-a-mile upon the road; and that was all he desired.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+There was a large lugger lying off at no great distance from the
+beach, near Sandgate, and a small boat, ready for launching, on the
+shore. At the distance of two or three miles out, might be seen a
+vessel of considerable size, and of that peculiar rig and build which
+denoted, to nautical eyes, that there lay a king's vessel. She was,
+indeed, a frigate of inferior class, which had been sent round to
+co-operate with the Customs, in the suppression of the daring system
+of smuggling, which, as we have shown, was carried on in Romney Marsh,
+and the neighbouring country. By the lesser boat, upon the shore,
+stood four stout fellows, apparently employed in making ready to put
+off; and upon the high ground above, was seen a single officer of
+Customs, walking carelessly to and fro, and apparently taking little
+heed of the proceedings below. Some movements might be perceived on
+board the ship; the sails, which had been furled, now began to flutter
+in the wind, which was blowing strong; and it seemed evident that the
+little frigate was about to get under weigh. The lugger, however,
+remained stationary; and the men near the boat continued their labours
+for nearly an hour after they seemed in reality to have nothing more
+to do.
+
+At length, however, coming at a furious pace, down one of the narrow
+foot-paths from the high ground above, which led away towards Cheriton
+and Newington, was seen a horseman, waving his hand to those below,
+and passing within fifty yards of the officer of Customs. The sailors,
+who were standing by the boat, instantly pushed her down to the very
+verge of the water; the officer hallooed after the bold rider, but
+without causing him to pause for an instant in his course; and down,
+at thundering speed, across the road, and over the sand and shingle,
+Harding, the smuggler, dashed on, till the horse that bore him stood
+foaming and panting beside the boat. Instantly springing out of the
+saddle, he cast the bridle on the tired beasts neck, and jumped into
+the skiff, exclaiming, "Shove her off!"
+
+"Arn't there some more, Jack?" asked one of the men.
+
+"None but myself," replied Harding, "and me they shan't catch.--Shove
+her off, I say--you'll soon see who are coming after!"
+
+The men obeyed at once; the boat was launched into the water; and
+almost at the same instant, the party of dragoons in pursuit appeared
+upon the top of the rise, followed, a moment after, by Birchett, and
+another officer of the Customs. The vehement and angry gestures of the
+riding officer indicated plainly enough that he saw the prey had
+escaped him; but while the dragoons and his fellow officer made their
+way slowly down the bank, to the narrow road which at that time ran
+along the beach, he galloped off towards a signal-post, which then
+stood upon an elevated spot, not far from the place where the
+turnpike, on the road between Sandgate and Folkestone, now stands. In
+a few minutes various small flags were seen rapidly running up to the
+top of the staff; and, as speedily as possible afterwards, signals of
+the same kind were displayed on board the frigate.
+
+In the meantime, however, Harding and his party had rowed rapidly
+towards the lugger, the sails of which were already beginning to fill;
+and in less than two minutes she was scudding through the water as
+fast as the wind would bear her. But the frigate was also under weigh;
+and, to both experienced and inexperienced eyes, it seemed that the
+bold smuggler had hardly one chance of escape. Between Dungeness
+Point, and the royal vessel, there appeared to be no space for any of
+those daring man[oe]uvres by which the small vessels, engaged in the
+contraband trade, occasionally eluded the pursuit of their larger and
+more formidable opponents; but Harding still pursued his course,
+striving to get into the open sea, before the frigate could cut him
+off.
+
+Bending under the press of sail, the boat rushed through the waves,
+with the uptide running strong against her, and the spray dashing over
+her from stem to stern; but still, as she took an angle, though an
+acute one, with the course of the frigate, the latter gained upon her
+every moment, till at length a shot, whistling across her bows, gave
+her the signal to bring to. It is needless to tell the reader, that
+signal received no attention; but, still steered with a firm hand, and
+carrying every stitch of canvas she could bear, the lugger pursued her
+way. A minute had scarcely passed, ere flash and report came again
+from the frigate, and once more a ball whistled by. Another and
+another followed; but, no longer directed across the lugger's bows,
+they were evidently aimed directly at her; and one of them passed
+through the foresail, though without doing any farther damage. The
+case seemed so hopeless, not only to those who watched the whole
+proceeding from the shore, but to most of those who were in the
+lugger, that a murmured consultation took place among the men; and
+after two or three more shots had been fired, coming each time nearer
+and nearer to their flying mark, one of the crew turned to Harding,
+who had scarcely uttered a word since he entered the boat, and said,
+"Come, sir, I don't think this will do.--We shall only get ourselves
+sunk for no good.--We had better douse."
+
+Harding looked sternly at him for a moment without reply; and a
+somewhat bitter answer rose to his lips. But he checked himself, and
+said, at length, "There's no use sacrificing your lives. You've got
+wives and children--fathers and mothers. I have no one to care for
+me.--Get into the boat, and be off. Me they shall never catch, dead or
+alive; and if I go to the bottom, it's the best berth for me now.
+Here, just help me reeve these tiller-ropes that I may take shelter
+under the companion; and then be off as fast as you can."
+
+The men would fain have remonstrated; but Harding would hear nothing;
+and, covering himself as much as he could from the aim of small arms
+from the vessel, he insisted that the whole of his crew should go and
+leave him.
+
+A short pause in the lugger's flight was observable from the shore;
+and everybody concluded that she had struck. The row-boat, filled with
+men, was seen to pull off from her, and the large heavy sails to flap
+for an instant in the wind. But then her course was altered in a
+moment; the sails filled again with the full breeze; and going like a
+swallow over the waves, she dashed on towards the frigate, and,
+passing her within pistol-range immediately after, shot across upon
+her weather-bow.
+
+A cloud of smoke ran all along the side of the frigate, as this bold
+and extraordinary man[oe]uvre was executed. The faint report of small
+arms was wafted by the wind to the shore, as well as the sound of
+several cannon; but still, whether Harding was wounded or not wounded,
+living or dead, his gallant boat dashed steadily on, and left the
+frigate far behind, apparently giving up the chase, as no longer
+presenting any chance of success. On, on, went the lugger, diminishing
+as it flew over the waves, till at length, to the eyes even of those
+who watched from the heights, its dark, tanned sails grouped
+themselves into one small speck, and were then lost to the sight.
+
+The after-fate of that adventurous man, who thus, single and unaided,
+trusted himself to the wide waves, is wrapped in obscurity. The writer
+of these pages, indeed, did once see a stern-looking old man of the
+same name, who had returned some few years before from distant
+lands--no one well knew whence--to spend the last few years of a life,
+which had been protracted considerably beyond the ordinary term of
+human existence, in a seaport not very far from Folkestone. The
+conversation of the people of the place pointed him out as one who had
+done extraordinary deeds, and seen strange sights; but whether he was,
+indeed, the Harding of this tale or not, I cannot say. Of one thing,
+however, the reader may be certain, that in all the statements
+regarding the smuggler's marvellous escape, the most scrupulous
+accuracy has been observed, and that every fact is as true as any part
+of history, and a great deal more so than most.
+
+Having now disposed of one of our principal characters, let me take
+the reader gently by the hand, and lead him back to Harbourne House.
+The way is somewhat long, but still, not more than a stout man can
+walk without fatigue upon a pleasant morning; and it lies, too,
+amongst sweet and interesting scenes--which, to you and me, dear
+reader, are, I trust, embellished by some of the charms of
+association.
+
+It was about six days after the attack, upon the church at Goudhurst,
+when a great number of those personages with whom it has been
+necessary to make the reader acquainted, were assembled in the
+drawing-room of Sir Robert Croyland's mansion. One or two, indeed,
+were wanting, even of the party which might have been expected there,
+but their absence shall be accounted for hereafter. The baronet
+himself was seated in the arm-chair, which he generally occupied more
+as a mark of his state and dignity, than for comfort and convenience.
+In the present instance, however, he seemed to need support, for he
+leaned heavily upon the arm of the chair, and appeared languid and
+feeble. His face was very pale, his lips somewhat livid; and yet,
+though suffering evidently under considerable corporeal debility,
+there was a look of mental relief in his eyes, and a sweet placidity
+about his smile, that no one had seen on his countenance for many
+years.
+
+Mrs. Barbara was, as usual, seated at her everlasting embroidery; and
+here we may as well mention a fact which we omitted to mention before,
+but which some persons may look upon as indicative of her mental
+character--namely, that the embroidery, though it had gone on all her
+life, by no means proceeded in an even course of progression. On the
+contrary, to inexperienced eyes, it seemed as if no sooner was a
+stitch put in than it was drawn out again, the point of the needle
+being gently thrust under the loop of the thread, and then the arm
+extended with an even sweep, so as to withdraw the silk from its hole
+in the canvas. Penelope's web was nothing to Mrs. Barbary Croyland's
+embroidery; for the queen of Ithaca only undid what she had previously
+done, every night; and Aunt Bab undid it every minute. On the present
+occasion, she was more busy in the retroactive process than ever, not
+only pulling out the silk she had just put in, but a great deal more;
+so that the work of the last three days, was in imminent danger of
+total destruction.
+
+Mr. Zachary Croyland never sat down when he could stand; for there was
+about him, a sort of mobility and activity of spirits, which always
+inclined him to keep his body ready for action. He so well knew that,
+when seated, he was incessantly inclined to start up again, that
+probably he thought it of little use to sit down at all; and
+consequently he was even now upon his feet, midway between his brother
+and his sister, rubbing his hands, and giving a gay, but cynical
+glance from one to the other.
+
+In a chair near the window, with his wild, but fine eye gazing over
+the pleasant prospect which the terrace commanded, and apparently
+altogether absent in mind from the scene in the drawing-room, was
+seated Mr. Osborn; and not far from Mr. Croyland stood Sir Henry
+Leyton, in an ordinary riding-dress, with his left hand resting on the
+hilt of his sword, speaking in an easy, quiet tone to Sir Robert
+Croyland; and nearly opposite to him was Edith, with her arm resting
+on the table, and her cheek supported on her hand. Her face was still
+pale, though the colour had somewhat returned; and the expression was
+grave, though calm. Indeed, she never recovered the gay and sparkling
+look which had characterized her countenance in early youth; but the
+expression had gained in depth and intensity more than it had lost in
+brightness; and then, when she did smile, it was with ineffable
+sweetness: a gleam of sunshine upon the deep sea. Her eyes were fixed
+upon her lover; and those who knew her well could read in them
+satisfaction, love, hope--nay, more than hope--a pride, the only pride
+that she could know--that he whom she had chosen in her girlhood, to
+whom she had remained true and faithful through years of sorrow and
+unexampled trial, had proved himself in every way worthy of her first
+affection and her long constancy.
+
+But where was Zara?--where Sir Edward Digby? for neither of them were
+present at the time. From the laws of attraction between different
+terrestrial bodies, we have every reason to infer that Digby and Zara
+were not very far apart. However, they had been somewhat eccentric
+in their orbits; for Zara had gone out about a couple of hours
+before--Digby being then absent, no one knew where--upon a charitable
+errand, to carry consolation and sympathy to the cottage of poor Mrs.
+Clare, whose daughter had been committed to the earth the day before.
+How it happened, Heaven only knows, but certain it is, that at the
+moment I now speak of, she and Digby were walking home together,
+towards Harbourne House, while his servant led his horse at some
+distance behind.
+
+Before they reached the house, however, a long conversation had taken
+place between the personages in the drawing-room, of which I shall
+only give the last few sentences.
+
+"It is true, Harry, it is true," said Sir Robert Croyland, in reply to
+something just spoken by Leyton; "and we have both things to forgive;
+but you far more than I have; and as you have set me an example of
+doing good for evil, and atoning, by every means, for a slight error,
+I will not be backward to do the same, and to acknowledge that I have
+acted most wrongly towards you--for which may Heaven forgive me, as
+you have done. I have small means of atoning for much that is past;
+but to do so, as far as possible: freely, and with my full consent,
+take the most valuable thing I have to give--my dear child's
+hand,--nay, hear me yet a moment. I wish your marriage to take place
+as soon as possible. I have learned to doubt of time, and never to
+trust the future. Say a week--a fortnight, Edith; but let it be
+speedily. It is my wish--let me say, for the last time, it is my
+command."
+
+"But, brother Robert," exclaimed Mrs. Barbara, ruining her embroidery
+irretrievably in the agitation of the moment, "you know it can't be so
+very soon; for there are all the dresses to get ready, and the
+settlements to be drawn up, and a thousand things to buy; and our
+cousins in Yorkshire must be informed, and----"
+
+"D--n our cousins in Yorkshire!" exclaimed Mr. Zachary Croyland. "Now,
+my dear Bab, tell me candidly, whether you have or have not any nice
+little plan ready for spoiling the whole, and throwing us all into
+confusion again. Don't you think you could just send Edith to visit
+somebody in the small-pox? or get Harry Leyton run through in a duel?
+or some other little comfortable consummation, which may make us all
+as unhappy as possible?"
+
+"Really, brother Zachary, I don't know what you mean," said Mrs.
+Barbara, looking the picture of injured innocence.
+
+"I dare say not, Bab," answered Mr. Croyland; "but I understand what
+you mean; and I tell you it shall not be. Edith shall fix the day; and
+as a good child, she will obey her father, and fix it as early as
+possible. When once fixed, it shall not be changed or put off, on any
+account or consideration whatever, if my name's Croyland. As for the
+dresses, don't you trouble your head about that; I'll undertake the
+dresses, and have them all down from London by the coach. Give me the
+size of your waist, Edith, upon a piece of string, and your length
+from shoulder to heel, and leave all the rest to me. If I don't dress
+her like a Mahommedan princess, may I never hear _Bismillah_ again."
+
+Edith smiled, but answered, "I don't think it will be at all
+necessary, my dear uncle, to put you to the trouble; and I do not
+think it would answer its purpose if you took it."
+
+"But I will have my own way," said Mr. Croyland--"you are my pet; and
+all the matrimonial arrangements shall be mine. If you don't mind, and
+say another word, I'll insist upon being bridesmaid too; for I can
+encroach in my demands, I can tell you, as well as a lady, or a prime
+minister."
+
+As he spoke, the farther progress of the discussion was interrupted by
+the entrance of Zara, followed by Sir Edward Digby. Her colour was a
+little heightened, and her manner somewhat agitated; but she shook
+hands with her uncle and Leyton, neither of whom she had seen before
+during that morning; and then passing by her father, in her way
+towards Edith, she whispered a word to him as she went.
+
+"What, what!" exclaimed Sir Robert Croyland, turning suddenly round
+towards Digby, with a look of alarm, and pressing his left hand upon
+his side, "she says you have something important to tell me, Sir
+Edward.--Pray speak! I have no secrets from those who are around me."
+
+"I am sure, what I have to say will shock all present!" replied Sir
+Edward Digby, gravely; "but the fact is, I heard a report this
+morning, from my servant, that Mr. Radford had destroyed himself last
+night in prison; and I rode over as fast as I could, to ascertain if
+the rumour was correct. I found that it was but too accurate, and that
+the unhappy man terminated a career of crime, by the greatest that he
+could commit."
+
+"Well, there's one rascal less in the world--that's some comfort,"
+said Mr. Zachary Croyland; "I would rather, indeed, he had let some
+one else hang him, instead of doing it himself; for I don't approve of
+suicide at all--it's foolish, and wicked, and cowardly. Still, nothing
+else could be expected from such a man--but what's the matter with
+you, Robert? you seem ill--surely, you can't take this man's death
+much to heart?"
+
+Sir Robert Croyland did not reply, but made a faint sign to open the
+window, which was immediately done; and he revived under the influence
+of the air.
+
+"I will go out for a few minutes," he said, rising; and Edith,
+instantly starting up, approached to go with him. He would not suffer
+her, however--"No, my child," he replied to her offer, "no: you can
+understand what I feel; but I shall be better presently. Stay here,
+and let all this be settled; and remember, Edith, name the earliest
+day possible--arrange with Zara and Digby. Theirs can take place at
+the same time."
+
+Thus saying, he went out, and was seen walking slowly to and fro upon
+the terrace, for some minutes after. In the meanwhile, the war had
+commenced between Mr. Zachary Croyland and his younger niece. "Ah,
+Mrs. Madcap!" he exclaimed, "so I hear tales of you. The coquette has
+been caught at length! You are going to commit matrimony; and as birds
+of a feather flock together, the wild girl and the wild boy must
+pair."
+
+With her usual light, graceful step, and with her usual gay and
+brilliant smile, Zara left Sir Edward Digby's side, and crossing over
+to her uncle, rested both her hands upon his arm, while he stood as
+erect and stiff as a finger post, gazing down upon her with a look of
+sour fun, But in Zara's eyes, beautiful and beaming as they were,
+there was a look of deeper feeling than they usually displayed when
+jesting, as was her wont, with Mr. Croyland.
+
+"Well, Chit," he said, "well, what do you want?--a new gown, or a
+smart hat, or a riding-whip, with a tiger's head in gold at the top?"
+
+"No, my dear uncle," she answered, "but I want you not to tease me,
+nor to laugh at me, nor to abuse me, just now. For once in my life, I
+feel that I must be serious; and I think even less teasing than
+ordinary might be too much for me. Perhaps, one time or another, you
+may find out that poor Zara's coquetry was more apparent than real,
+and that though she had an object, it was a better one than you, in
+your benevolence, were disposed to think."
+
+An unwonted drop swam in her eyes as she spoke; and Mr. Croyland gazed
+down upon her tenderly for a moment. Then throwing his arms round her,
+he kissed her cheek--"I know it, my dear," he said--"I know it. Edith
+has told me all; and she who has been a kind, good sister, will, I am
+sure, be a kind, good wife. Here, take her away, Digby. A better girl
+doesn't live, whatever I may have said. The worst of it is, she is a
+great deal too good for you, or any other wild, harem-scarem fellow.
+But stay--stay," he continued, as Digby came forward, laughing, and
+took Zara's hand; "here's something with her; for, as I am sure you
+will be a couple of spendthrifts, it is but fit that you should have
+something to set out upon."
+
+Mr. Croyland, as he spoke, put his hand into the somewhat wide and
+yawning pocket of his broad-tailed coat, and produced his pocket-book,
+from which he drew forth a small slip of paper.
+
+Digby took it, and looked at it, but instantly held it out again to
+Mr. Croyland, saying, "My dear sir, it is quite unnecessary. I claim
+nothing but her hand; and that is mine by promises which I hope will
+not be very long ere they are fulfilled."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense!" cried Mr. Croyland, putting away the paper with
+the back of his hand; "did ever any one see such a fool?--I tell you,
+Sir Edward Digby, I'm as proud a man as you are, and you shall not
+marry my niece without receiving the same portion as her sister
+possesses. I hate all eldest sons, as you well know; and I don't see
+why eldest daughters should exist either. I'll have them all equal. No
+differences here. I've made up to Zara, the disparity which one fool
+of an uncle thought fit to put between her and Edith. Such was always
+my intention; and moreover, let it clearly be understood, that when
+you have put this old carrion under ground, what I leave is to be
+divided between them--all equal, all equal--co-heiresses, of Zachary
+Croyland, Esq., surnamed the Nabob, alias the Misanthrope--and then,
+if you like it, you may each bear in your arms a crow rampant, on an
+escutcheon of pretence."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, my dear uncle," answered Edith Croyland, while
+Zara's gay heart was too full to let her speak--"thank you for such
+thought of my sweet sister; for, indeed, to me, during long years of
+sorrow and trouble, she has been the spirit of consolation, comfort,
+strength--even hope."
+
+Poor Zara was overpowered; and she burst into tears. It seemed as if
+all the feelings, which for the sake of others she had so long
+suppressed--all the emotions, anxieties, and cares which she had
+conquered or treated lightly, in order to give aid and support to
+Edith, rushed upon her at once in the moment of joy, and overwhelmed
+her.
+
+"Why, what's the foolish girl crying about?" exclaimed Mr. Croyland;
+but then, drawing her kindly to him, he added, "Come, my dear, we will
+make a truce, upon the following conditions--I wont tease you any
+more; and you shall do everything I tell you. In the first place,
+then, wipe your eyes, and dry up your tears; for if Digby sees how red
+your cheeks can look, when you've been crying, he may find out that
+you are not quite such a Venus as he fancies just now--There, go
+along!" and he pushed her gently away from him.
+
+While this gayer conversation had been going on within, Mr. Osborn had
+passed through the glass doors, and was walking slowly up and down
+with Sir Robert Croyland. The subject they spoke upon must have been
+grave; for there was gloom upon both their faces when they returned.
+
+"I know it," said Sir Robert Croyland to his companion as they entered
+the room; "I am quite well aware of it; it is that which makes me urge
+speed."
+
+"If such be your view," replied Mr. Osborn, "you are right, Sir
+Robert; and Heaven bless those acts, which are done under such
+impressions."
+
+The party in the drawing-room heard no more; and, notwithstanding the
+kindly efforts of Mrs. Barbara, and a thousand little impediments,
+which, "with the very best motives in the world," she created or
+discovered, all the arrangements for the double marriage were made
+with great promptitude and success. At the end of somewhat less than a
+fortnight, without any noise or parade, the two sisters stood together
+at the altar, and pledged their troth to those they truly loved. Sir
+Robert Croyland seemed well and happy; for during the last few days
+previous to the wedding, both his health and spirits had apparently
+improved. But, ere a month was over, both his daughters received a
+summons to return, as speedily as possible, to Harbourne House. They
+found him on the bed of death, with his brother and Mr. Osborn sitting
+beside him. But their father greeted them with a well-contented smile,
+and reproved their tears in a very different tone from that which he
+had been generally accustomed to use.
+
+"My dear children," he said, in a feeble voice, "I have often longed
+for this hour; and though life has become happier now, I have, for
+many weeks, seen death approaching, and have seen it without regret. I
+did not think it would have been so slow; and that was the cause of my
+hurrying your marriage; for I longed to witness it with my own eyes,
+yet was unwilling to mingle the happiness of such a union, with the
+thought that it took place while I was in sickness and danger. My
+brother will be a father to you, I am sure, when I am gone; but still
+it is some satisfaction to know that you have both better protectors,
+even here on earth, than he or I could be. I trust you are happy; and
+believe me, I am not otherwise--though lying here with death before
+me."
+
+Towards four o'clock on the following day, the windows of Harbourne
+House were closed; and, about a week after, the mortal remains of Sir
+Robert Croyland were conveyed to the family vault in the village
+church. Mr. Croyland succeeded to the estates and title of his
+brother; but he would not quit the mansion which he himself had built,
+leaving Mrs. Barbara, with a handsome income, which he secured to her,
+to act the Lady Bountiful of Harbourne House.
+
+The fate of Edith and Zara we need not farther trace. It was such as
+might be expected from the circumstances in which they were now
+placed. We will not venture to say that it was purely happy; for when
+was ever pure and unalloyed happiness found on earth? There were
+cares, there were anxieties, there were griefs, from time to time: for
+the splendid visions of young imagination may be prophetic of joys
+that shall be ours, if we deserve them in our trial here, but are
+never realized within the walls of our mortal prison, and recede
+before us, to take their stand for ever beyond the portals of the
+tomb. But still they were as happy as human beings, perhaps, ever
+were; for no peculiar pangs or sufferings were destined to follow
+those which had gone before; and in their domestic life, having chosen
+well and wisely, they found--as every one will find, who judges upon
+such grounds--that love, when it is pure, and high, and true, is a
+possession, to the brightness of which even hope can add no sweetness,
+imagination no splendour that it does not in itself possess.
+
+The reader may be inclined to ask the after fate of some of the other
+characters mentioned in this work. In regard to many of them, I must
+give an unsatisfactory reply. What became of most, indeed, I do not
+know. The name of Mowle, the officer of Customs, is still familiar to
+the people of Hythe and its neighbourhood. It is certain that Ramley
+and one of his sons were hanged; but the rest of the records of that
+respectable family are, I fear, lost to the public. Little Starlight
+seems to have disappeared from that part of the country, for some
+time; and in truth, I have no certainty that the well-known
+pickpocket, Night Ray, who was transported to Botany Bay, some
+thirty years after the period of this tale, and was shot in an attempt
+to escape, was the same person whose early career is here recorded.
+But of one thing the reader maybe perfectly certain, that--whatever
+was the fortune which attended any of the persons I have
+mentioned--whether worldly prosperity, or temporary adversity befel
+them--the real, the solid good, the happiness of spirit, was awarded
+in exact proportion to each, as their acts were good, and their hearts
+were pure.
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+       T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos Street, Covent Garden.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Smuggler: (Vol's I-III), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford James
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