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diff --git a/5950.txt b/5950.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f87ae3 --- /dev/null +++ b/5950.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21469 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fortunes of Nigel, by Sir Walter Scott + +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 Fortunes of Nigel + +Author: Sir Walter Scott + + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5950] +This file was first posted on September 24, 2002 +Last Updated: June 20, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + +THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL + +By Sir Walter Scott + + + +A Tale Which Holdeth Children From Play & Old Men From The Chimney +Corner --Sir Philip Sidney + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + But why should lordlings all our praise engross? + Rise, honest man, and sing the Man of Ross. + + Pope + +Having, in the tale of the Heart of Mid-Lothian, succeeded in some +degree in awakening an interest in behalf of one devoid of those +accomplishments which belong to a heroine almost by right, I was next +tempted to choose a hero upon the same unpromising plan; and as worth of +character, goodness of heart, and rectitude of principle, were necessary +to one who laid no claim to high birth, romantic sensibility, or any of +the usual accomplishments of those who strut through the pages of this +sort of composition, I made free with the name of a person who has left +the most magnificent proofs of his benevolence and charity that the +capital of Scotland has to display. + +To the Scottish reader little more need be said than that the man +alluded to is George Heriot. But for those south of the Tweed, it may +be necessary to add, that the person so named was a wealthy citizen of +Edinburgh, and the King's goldsmith, who followed James to the English +capital, and was so successful in his profession, as to die, in 1624, +extremely wealthy for that period. He had no children; and after making +a full provision for such relations as might have claims upon him, he +left the residue of his fortune to establish an hospital, in which the +sons of Edinburgh freemen are gratuitously brought up and educated for +the station to which their talents may recommend them, and are finally +enabled to enter life under respectable auspices. The hospital in which +this charity is maintained is a noble quadrangle of the Gothic order, +and as ornamental to the city as a building, as the manner in which the +youths are provided for and educated, renders it useful to the community +as an institution. To the honour of those who have the management, (the +Magistrates and Clergy of Edinburgh), the funds of the Hospital have +increased so much under their care, that it now supports and educates +one hundred and thirty youths annually, many of whom have done honour to +their country in different situations. + +The founder of such a charity as this may be reasonably supposed to have +walked through life with a steady pace, and an observant eye, neglecting +no opportunity of assisting those who were not possessed of the +experience necessary for their own guidance. In supposing his +efforts directed to the benefit of a young nobleman, misguided by the +aristocratic haughtiness of his own time, and the prevailing tone +of selfish luxury which seems more peculiar to ours, as well as the +seductions of pleasure which are predominant in all, some amusement, +or even some advantage, might, I thought, be derived from the manner in +which I might bring the exertions of this civic Mentor to bear in his +pupil's behalf. I am, I own, no great believer in the moral utility +to be derived from fictitious compositions; yet, if in any case a word +spoken in season may be of advantage to a young person, it must surely +be when it calls upon him to attend to the voice of principle and +self-denial, instead of that of precipitate passion. I could not, +indeed, hope or expect to represent my prudent and benevolent citizen +in a point of view so interesting as that of the peasant girl, who +nobly sacrificed her family affections to the integrity of her moral +character. Still however, something I hoped might be done not altogether +unworthy the fame which George Heriot has secured by the lasting +benefits he has bestowed on his country. + +It appeared likely, that out of this simple plot I might weave something +attractive; because the reign of James I., in which George Heriot +flourished, gave unbounded scope to invention in the fable, while at the +same time it afforded greater variety and discrimination of character +than could, with historical consistency, have been introduced, if the +scene had been laid a century earlier. Lady Mary Wortley Montague has +said, with equal truth and taste, that the most romantic region of every +country is that where the mountains unite themselves with the plains or +lowlands. For similiar reasons, it may be in like manner said, that the +most picturesque period of history is that when the ancient rough and +wild manners of a barbarous age are just becoming innovated upon, and +contrasted, by the illumination of increased or revived learning, and +the instructions of renewed or reformed religion. The strong contrast +produced by the opposition of ancient manners to those which are +gradually subduing them, affords the lights and shadows necessary to +give effect to a fictitious narrative; and while such a period entitles +the author to introduce incidents of a marvellous and improbable +character, as arising out of the turbulent independence and ferocity, +belonging to old habits of violence, still influencing the manners of +a people who had been so lately in a barbarous state; yet, on the other +hand, the characters and sentiments of many of the actors may, with +the utmost probability, be described with great variety of shading and +delineation, which belongs to the newer and more improved period, of +which the world has but lately received the light. + +The reign of James I. of England possessed this advantage in a peculiar +degree. Some beams of chivalry, although its planet had been for some +time set, continued to animate and gild the horizon, and although +probably no one acted precisely on its Quixotic dictates, men and women +still talked the chivalrous language of Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia; and +the ceremonial of the tilt-yard was yet exhibited, though it now only +flourished as a Place de Carrousel. Here and there a high-spirited +Knight of the Bath, witness the too scrupulous Lord Herbert of Cherbury, +was found devoted enough to the vows he had taken, to imagine himself +obliged to compel, by the sword's-point, a fellow-knight or squire +to restore the top-knot of ribbon which he had stolen from a fair +damsel;[Footnote: See Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Memoirs.] but yet, +while men were taking each other's lives on such punctilios of honour, +the hour was already arrived when Bacon was about to teach the world +that they were no longer to reason from authority to fact, but to +establish truth by advancing from fact to fact, till they fixed an +indisputable authority, not from hypothesis, but from experiment. + +The state of society in the reign of James I. was also strangely +disturbed, and the license of a part of the community was perpetually +giving rise to acts of blood and violence. The bravo of the Queen's day, +of whom Shakspeare has given us so many varieties, as Bardolph, Nym, +Pistol, Peto, and the other companions of Falstaff, men who had their +humours, or their particular turn of extravaganza, had, since the +commencement of the Low Country wars, given way to a race of sworders, +who used the rapier and dagger, instead of the far less dangerous sword +and buckler; so that a historian says on this subject, "that private +quarrels were nourished, but especially between the Scots and English; +and duels in every street maintained; divers sects and peculiar titles +passed unpunished and unregarded, as the sect of the Roaring Boys, +Bonaventors, Bravadors, Quarterors, and such like, being persons +prodigal, and of great expense, who, having run themselves into debt, +were constrained to run next into factions, to defend themselves +from danger of the law. These received countenance from divers of the +nobility; and the citizens, through lasciviousness consuming their +estates, it was like that the number [of these desperadoes] would rather +increase than diminish; and under these pretences they entered into many +desperate enterprizes, and scarce any durst walk in the street after +nine at night."[Footnote: history of the First Fourteen Years of King +James's Reign. See Somers's Tracts, edited by Scott, vol. ii. p.266.] + +The same authority assures us farther, that "ancient gentlemen, who had +left their inheritance whole and well furnished with goods and chattels +(having thereupon kept good houses) unto their sons, lived to see part +consumed in riot and excess, and the rest in possibility to be utterly +lost; the holy state of matrimony made but a May-game, by which divers +families had been subverted; brothel houses much frequented, and even +great persons, prostituting their bodies to the intent to satisfy their +lusts, consumed their substance in lascivious appetites. And of +all sorts, such knights and gentlemen, as either through pride or +prodigality--had consumed their substance, repairing to the city, and to +the intent to consume their virtue also, lived dissolute lives; many +of their ladies and daughters, to the intent to maintain themselves +according to their dignity, prostituting their bodies in shameful +manner. Ale-houses, dicing-houses, taverns, and places of iniquity, +beyond manner abounding in most places." + +Nor is it only in the pages of a puritanical, perhaps a satirical +writer, that we find so shocking and disgusting a picture of the +coarseness of the beginning of the seventeenth century. On the contrary, +in all the comedies of the age, the principal character for gaiety and +wit is a young heir, who has totally altered the establishment of +the father to whom he has succeeded, and, to use the old simile, who +resembles a fountain, which plays off in idleness and extravagance +the wealth which its careful parents painfully had assembled in hidden +reservoirs. + +And yet, while that spirit of general extravagance seemed at work over +a whole kingdom, another and very different sort of men were gradually +forming the staid and resolved characters, which afterwards displayed +themselves during the civil wars, and powerfully regulated and affected +the character of the whole English nation, until, rushing from one +extreme to another, they sunk in a gloomy fanaticism the splendid traces +of the reviving fine arts. + +From the quotations which I have produced, the selfish and disgusting +conduct of Lord Dalgarno will not perhaps appear overstrained; nor will +the scenes in Whitefriars and places of similar resort seem too highly +coloured. This indeed is far from being the case. It was in James I.'s +reign that vice first appeared affecting the better classes in its +gross and undisguised depravity. The entertainments and amusements of +Elizabeth's time had an air of that decent restraint which became the +court of a maiden sovereign; and, in that earlier period, to use the +words of Burke, vice lost half its evil by being deprived of all its +grossness. In James's reign, on the contrary, the coarsest pleasures +were publicly and unlimitedly indulged, since, according to Sir John +Harrington, the men wallowed in beastly delights; and even ladies +abandoned their delicacy and rolled about in intoxication. After a +ludicrous account of a mask, in which the actors had got drunk, and +behaved themselves accordingly, he adds, "I have much marvelled at these +strange pageantries, and they do bring to my recollection what passed of +this sort in our Queen's days, in which I was sometimes an assistant and +partaker: but never did I see such lack of good order and sobriety as I +have now done. The gunpowder fright is got out of all our heads, and we +are going on hereabout as if the devil was contriving every man should +blow up himself by wild riot, excess, and devastation of time and +temperance. The great ladies do go well masqued; and indeed, it be the +only show of their modesty to conceal their countenance, but alack, they +meet with such countenance to uphold their strange doings, that I marvel +not at aught that happens."[Footnote: Harrington's Nugae Antique, vol. +ii. p. 352. For the gross debauchery of the period, too much encouraged +by the example of the monarch, who was, in other respects, neither +without talent nor a good-natured disposition, see Winwood's Memorials, +Howell's Letters, and other Memorials of the time; but particularly, +consult the Private Letters and Correspondence of Steenie, _alias_ +Buckingham, with his reverend Dad and Gossip, King James, which abound +with the grossest as well as the most childish language. The learned Mr. +D'Israeli, in an attempt to vindicate the character of James, has +only succeeded in obtaining for himself the character of a skilful and +ingenious advocate, without much advantage to his royal client] + +Such being the state of the court, coarse sensuality brought along with +it its ordinary companion, a brutal degree of undisguised selfishness, +destructive alike of philanthropy and good breeding; both of which, in +their several spheres, depend upon the regard paid by each individual +to the interest as well as the feelings of others. It is in such a time +that the heartless and shameless man of wealth and power may, like the +supposed Lord Dalgarno, brazen out the shame of his villainies, and +affect to triumph in their consequences, so long as they were personally +advantageous to his own pleasures or profit. + +Alsatia is elsewhere explained as a cant name for Whitefriars, which, +possessing certain privileges of sanctuary, became for that reason a +nest of those mischievous characters who were generally obnoxious to the +law. These privileges were derived from its having been an establishment +of the Carmelites, or White Friars, founded says Stow, in his Survey +of London, by Sir Patrick Grey, in 1241. Edward I. gave them a plot of +ground in Fleet Street, to build their church upon. The edifice then +erected was rebuilt by Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, in the reign of +Edward. In the time of the Reformation the place retained its immunities +as a sanctuary, and James I. confirmed and added to them by a charter +in 1608. Shadwell was the first author who made some literary use of +Whitefriars, in his play of the Squire of Alsatia, which turns upon the +plot of the Adelphi of Terence. + +In this old play, two men of fortune, brothers, educate two young men, +(sons to the one and nephews to the other,) each under his own separate +system of rigour and indulgence. The elder of the subjects of this +experiment, who has been very rigidly brought up, falls at once into +all the vices of the town, is debauched by the cheats and bullies of +Whitefriars, and, in a word, becomes the Squire of Alsatia. The poet +gives, as the natural and congenial inhabitants of the place, such +characters as the reader will find in the note. [Footnote: "Cheatly, a +rascal, who by reason of debts dares not stir out of Whitefriars, but +there inveigles young heirs of entail, and helps them to goods and money +upon great disadvantages, is bound for them, and shares with them till +he undoes them. A lewd, impudent, debauched fellow, very expert in the +cant about town. + +"Shamwell, cousin to the Belfords, who, being ruined by Cheatly, is made +a decoy-duck for others, not daring to stir out of Alsatia, where he +lives. Is bound with Cheatly for heirs, and lives upon them a dissolute +debauched life. + +"Captain Hackum, a blockheaded bully of Alsatia, a cowardly, impudent, +blustering fellow, formerly a sergeant in Flanders, who has run from his +colours, and retreated into Whitefriars for a very small debt, where by +the Alsatians he is dubb'd a captain, marries one that lets lodgings, +sells cherry-brandy, and is a bawd. + +"Scrapeall a hypocritical, repeating, praying, psalm-singing, precise +fellow, pretending to great piety; a godly knave, who joins with +Cheatly, and supplies young heirs with goods, and money."--Dramatis +Personae to the Squire of Alsatia, SHADWELL'S Works, vol. iv.] The play, +as we learn from the dedication to the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, was +successful above the author's expectations, "no comedy these many years +having filled the theatre so long together. And I had the great honour," +continues Shadwell, "to find so many friends, that the house was never +so full since it was built as upon the third day of this play, and vast +numbers went away that could not be admitted." [Footnote: Dedication to +the Squire of Alsatia, Shadwell's Works, vol. iv.] From the Squire of +Alsatia the author derived some few hints, and learned the footing +on which the bullies and thieves of the Sanctuary stood with their +neighbours, the fiery young students of the Temple, of which some +intimation is given in the dramatic piece. + +Such are the materials to which the author stands indebted for the +composition of the Fortunes of Nigel, a novel, which may be perhaps one +of those that are more amusing on a second perusal, than when read a +first time for the sake of the story, the incidents of which are few and +meagre. + +The Introductory Epistle is written, in Lucio's phrase, "according +to the trick," and would never have appeared had the writer meditated +making his avowal of the work. As it is the privilege of a masque or +incognito to speak in a feigned voice and assumed character, the author +attempted, while in disguise, some liberties of the same sort; and while +he continues to plead upon the various excuses which the introduction +contains, the present acknowledgment must serve as an apology for a +species of "hoity toity, whisky frisky" pertness of manner, which, in +his avowed character, the author should have considered as a departure +from the rules of civility and good taste. + + +ABBOTSFORD. + +1st July, 1831. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE + +CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK TO THE REVEREND DR. DRYASDUST + +DEAR SIR, + +I readily accept of, and reply to the civilities with which you have +been pleased to honour me in your obliging letter, and entirely agree +with your quotation, of _"Quam bonum et quam jucundum!"_ We may indeed +esteem ourselves as come of the same family, or, according to our +country proverb, as being all one man's bairns; and there needed no +apology on your part, reverend and dear sir, for demanding of me any +information which I may be able to supply respecting the subject of your +curiosity. The interview which you allude to took place in the course +of last winter, and is so deeply imprinted on my recollection, that it +requires no effort to collect all its most minute details. + +You are aware that the share which I had in introducing the Romance, +called THE MONASTERY, to public notice, has given me a sort of character +in the literature of our Scottish metropolis. I no longer stand in +the outer shop of our bibliopolists, bargaining for the objects of my +curiosity with an unrespective shop-lad, hustled among boys who come to +buy Corderies and copy-books, and servant girls cheapening a pennyworth +of paper, but am cordially welcomed by the bibliopolist himself, with, +"Pray, walk into the back-shop, Captain. Boy, get a chair for Captain +Clutterbuck. There is the newspaper, Captain--to-day's paper;" or, "Here +is the last new work--there is a folder, make free with the leaves;" +or, "Put it in your pocket and carry it home;" or, "We will make a +bookseller of you, sir, and you shall have it at trade price." Or, +perhaps if it is the worthy trader's own publication, his liberality +may even extend itself to--"Never mind booking such a trifle to +_you_, sir--it is an over-copy. Pray, mention the work to your reading +friends." I say nothing of the snug well-selected literary party +arranged round a turbot, leg of five-year-old mutton, or some such gear, +or of the circulation of a quiet bottle of Robert Cockburn's choicest +black--nay, perhaps, of his new ones. All these are comforts reserved +to such as are freemen of the corporation of letters, and I have the +advantage of enjoying them in perfection. But all things change under +the sun; and it is with no ordinary feelings of regret, that, in my +annual visits to the metropolis, I now miss the social and warm-hearted +welcome of the quick-witted and kindly friend who first introduced me to +the public; who had more original wit than would have set up a dozen of +professed sayers of good things, and more racy humour than would have +made the fortune of as many more. To this great deprivation has been +added, I trust for a time only, the loss of another bibliopolical +friend, whose vigorous intellect, and liberal ideas, have not only +rendered his native country the mart of her own literature, but +established there a Court of Letters, which must command respect, even +from those most inclined to dissent from many of its canons. The effect +of these changes, operated in a great measure by the strong sense and +sagacious calculations of an individual, who knew how to avail himself, +to an unhoped-for extent, of the various kinds of talent which his +country produced, will probably appear more clearly to the generation +which shall follow the present. + +I entered the shop at the Cross, to enquire after the health of my +worthy friend, and learned with satisfaction, that his residence in the +south had abated the rigour of the symptoms of his disorder. Availing +myself, then, of the privileges to which I have alluded, I strolled +onward in that labyrinth of small dark rooms, or _crypts_, to speak our +own antiquarian language, which form the extensive back-settlements of +that celebrated publishing-house. Yet, as I proceeded from one obscure +recess to another, filled, some of them with old volumes, some with such +as, from the equality of their rank on the shelves, I suspected to be +the less saleable modern books of the concern, I could not help feeling +a holy horror creep upon me, when I thought of the risk of intruding on +some ecstatic bard giving vent to his poetical fury; or it might be, +on the yet more formidable privacy of a band of critics, in the act of +worrying the game which they had just run down. In such a supposed case, +I felt by anticipation the horrors of the Highland seers, whom their +gift of deuteroscopy compels to witness things unmeet for mortal eye; +and who, to use the expression of Collins, + + ----"heartless, oft, like moody madness, stare, + To see the phantom train their secret work prepare." + +Still, however, the irresistible impulse of an undefined curiosity +drove me on through this succession of darksome chambers, till, like the +jeweller of Delhi in the house of the magician Bennaskar, I at length +reached a vaulted room, dedicated to secrecy and silence, and beheld, +seated by a lamp, and employed in reading a. blotted _revise_, +[Footnote: The uninitiated must be informed, that a second proof-sheet +is so called.] the person, or perhaps I should rather say the Eidolon, +or representative Vision of the AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY! You will not be +surprised at the filial instinct which enabled me at once to acknowledge +the features borne by this venerable apparition, and that I at once +bended the knee, with the classical salutation of, _Salve, magne +parens!_ The vision, however, cut me short, by pointing to a seat, +intimating at the same time, that my presence was not expected, and that +he had something to say to me. + +I sat down with humble obedience, and endeavoured to note the features +of him with whom I now found myself so unexpectedly in society. But on +this point I can give your reverence no satisfaction; for, besides the +obscurity of the apartment, and the fluttered state of my own nerves, I +seemed to myself overwhelmed by a sense of filial awe, which prevented +my noting and recording what it is probable the personage before me +might most desire to have concealed. Indeed, his figure was so closely +veiled and wimpled, either with a mantle, morning-gown, or some such +loose garb, that the verses of Spenser might well have been applied-- + + "Yet, certes, by her face and physnomy, + Whether she man or woman only were, + That could not any creature well descry." + +I must, however, go on as I have begun, to apply the masculine gender; +for, notwithstanding very ingenious reasons, and indeed something like +positive evidence, have been offered to prove the Author of Waverley to +be two ladies of talent, I must abide by the general opinion, that he is +of the rougher sex. There are in his writings too many things + + "Quae maribus sola tribuuntur," + +to permit me to entertain any doubt on that subject. I will proceed, in +the manner of dialogue, to repeat as nearly as I can what passed betwixt +us, only observing, that in the course of the conversation, my timidity +imperceptibly gave way under the familiarity of his address; and that, +in the concluding part of our dialogue, I perhaps argued with fully as +much confidence as was beseeming. + +_Author of Waverley._ I was willing to see you, Captain Clutterbuck, +being the person of my family whom I have most regard for, since the +death of Jedediah Cleishbotham; and I am afraid I may have done you some +wrong, in assigning to you The Monastery as a portion of my effects. I +have some thoughts of making it up to you, by naming you godfather +to this yet unborn babe--(he indicated the proof-sheet with his +finger)--But first, touching The Monastery--How says the world--you are +abroad and can learn? + +_Captain Clutterbuck._ Hem! hem!--The enquiry is delicate--I have not +heard any complaints from the Publishers. + +_Author._ That is the principal matter; but yet an indifferent work is +sometimes towed on by those which have left harbour before it, with the +breeze in their poop.--What say the Critics? + +_Captain._ There is a general--feeling--that the White Lady is no +favourite. + +_Author._ I think she is a failure myself; but rather in execution than +conception. Could I have evoked an _esprit follet_, at the same time +fantastic and interesting, capricious and kind; a sort of wildfire of +the elements, bound by no fixed laws, or motives of action; faithful and +fond, yet teazing and uncertain---- + +_Captain._ If you will pardon the interruption, sir, I think you are +describing a pretty woman. + +_Author._ On my word, I believe I am. I must invest my elementary +spirits with a little human flesh and blood--they are too fine-drawn for +the present taste of the public. + +_Captain._ They object, too, that the object of your Nixie ought to +have been more uniformly noble--Her ducking the priest was no Naiad-like +amusement. + +_Author._ Ah! they ought to allow for the capriccios of what is, after +all, but a better sort of goblin. The bath into which Ariel, the most +delicate creation of Shakspeare's imagination, seduces our jolly friend +Trinculo, was not of amber or rose-water. But no one shall find me +rowing against the stream. I care not who knows it--I write for general +amusement; and, though I never will aim at popularity by what I think +unworthy means, I will not, on the other hand, be pertinacious in the +defence of my own errors against the voice of the public. + +_Captain._ You abandon, then, in the present work--(looking, in my turn, +towards the proof-sheet)--the mystic, and the magical, and the whole +system of signs, wonders, and omens? There are no dreams, or presages, +or obscure allusions to future events? + +_Author._ Not a Cock-lane scratch, my son--not one bounce on the drum of +Tedworth--not so much as the poor tick of a solitary death-watch in +the wainscot. All is clear and above board--a Scots metaphysician might +believe every word of it. + +_Captain._ And the story is, I hope, natural and probable; commencing +strikingly, proceeding naturally, ending happily--like the course of a +famed river, which gushes from the mouth of some obscure and romantic +grotto--then gliding on, never pausing, never precipitating its course, +visiting, as it were, by natural instinct, whatever worthy subjects of +interest are presented by the country through which it passes--widening +and deepening in interest as it flows on; and at length arriving at +the final catastrophe as at some mighty haven, where ships of all kinds +strike sail and yard? + +_Author._ Hey! hey! what the deuce is all this? Why,'tis Ercles' vein, +and it would require some one much more like Hercules than I, to produce +a story which should gush, and glide, and never pause, and visit, and +widen, and deepen, and all the rest on't. I should be chin-deep in the +grave, man, before I had done with my task; and, in the meanwhile, all +the quirks and quiddities which I might have devised for my reader's +amusement, would lie rotting in my gizzard, like Sancho's suppressed +witticisms, when he was under his master's displeasure.--There never was +a novel written on this plan while the world stood. + +_Captain._ Pardon me--Tom Jones. + +_Author._ True, and perhaps Amelia also. Fielding had high notions of +the dignity of an art which he may be considered as having founded. He +challenges a comparison between the Novel and the Epic. Smollett, Le +Sage, and others, emancipating themselves from the strictness of +the rules he has laid down, have written rather a history of the +miscellaneous adventures which befall an individual in the course of +life, than the plot of a regular and connected epopeia, where every step +brings us a point nearer to the final catastrophe. These great masters +have been satisfied if they amused the reader upon the road; though the +conclusion only arrived because the tale must have an end--just as the +traveller alights at the inn, because it is evening. + +_Captain._ A very commodious mode of travelling, for the author at +least. In short, sir, you are of opinion with Bayes--"What the devil +does the plot signify, except to bring in fine things?" + +_Author._ Grant that I were so, and that I should write with sense and +spirit a few scenes unlaboured and loosely put together, but which had +sufficient interest in them to amuse in one corner the pain of body; in +another, to relieve anxiety of mind; in a third place, to unwrinkle a +brow bent with the furrows of daily toil; in another, to fill the place +of bad thoughts, or to suggest better; in yet another, to induce an +idler to study the history of his country; in all, save where the +perusal interrupted the discharge of serious duties, to furnish harmless +amusement,--might not the author of such a work, however inartificially +executed, plead for his errors and negligences the excuse of the slave, +who, about to be punished for having spread the false report of a +victory, saved himself by exclaiming--"Am I to blame, O Athenians, who +have given you one happy day?" + +_Captain._ Will your goodness permit me to mention an anecdote of my +excellent grandmother? + +_Author._ I see little she can have to do with the subject, Captain +Clutterbuck. + +_Captain._ It may come into our dialogue on Bayes's plan.--The sagacious +old lady--rest her soul!--was a good friend to the church, and could +never hear a minister maligned by evil tongues, without taking his +part warmly. There was one fixed point, however, at which she always +abandoned the cause of her reverend _protege_--it was so soon as +she learned he had preached a regular sermon against slanderers and +backbiters. + +_Author._ And what is that to the purpose? + +_Captain._ Only that I have heard engineers say, that one may betray the +weak point to the enemy, by too much ostentation of fortifying it. + +_Author._ And, once more I pray, what is that to the purpose? + +_Captain._ Nay, then, without farther metaphor, I am afraid this new +production, in which your generosity seems willing to give me some +concern, will stand much in need of apology, since you think proper to +begin your defence before the case is on trial.-The story is hastily +huddled up, I will venture a pint of claret. + +_Author._ A pint of port, I suppose you mean? + +_Captain._ I say of claret--good claret of the Monastery. Ah, sir, would +you but take the advice of your friends, and try to deserve at least +one-half of the public favour you have met with, we might all drink +Tokay! + +_Author._ I care not what I drink, so the liquor be wholesome. + +_Captain._ Care for your reputation, then,--for your fame. + +_Author._ My fame?--I will answer you as a very ingenious, able, and +experienced friend, being counsel for the notorious Jem MacCoul, replied +to the opposite side of the bar, when they laid weight on his client's +refusing to answer certain queries, which they said any man who had a +regard for his reputation would not hesitate to reply to. "My client," +said he-by the way, Jem was standing behind him at the time, and a rich +scene it was-"is so unfortunate as to have no regard for his reputation; +and I should deal very uncandidly with the Court, should I say he had +any that was worth his attention."-I am, though from very different +reasons, in Jem's happy state of indifference. Let fame follow those who +have a substantial shape. A shadow-and an impersonal author is nothing +better-can cast no shade. + +_Captain._ You are not now, perhaps, so impersonal as here-tofore. These +Letters to the Member for the University of Oxford--_Author._ Show the +wit, genius, and delicacy of the author, which I heartily wish to see +engaged on a subject of more importance; and show, besides, that the +preservation of my character of _incongnito_ has engaged early talent in +the discussion of a curious question of evidence. But a cause, however +ingeniously pleaded, is not therefore gained. You may remember, the +neatly-wrought chain of circumstantial evidence, so artificially brought +forward to prove Sir Philip Francis's title to the Letters of Junius, +seemed at first irrefragable; yet the influence of the reasoning has +passed away, and Junius, in the general opinion, is as much unknown as +ever. But on this subject I will not be soothed or provoked into saying +one word more. To say who I am not, would be one step towards saying +who I am; and as I desire not, any more than a certain justice of peace +mentioned by Shenstone, the noise or report such things make in the +world, I shall continue to be silent on a subject, which, in my opinion, +is very undeserving the noise that has been made about it, and still +more unworthy of the serious employment of such ingenuity as has been +displayed by the young letter-writer. + +_Captain._ But allowing, my dear sir, that you care not for your +personal reputation, or for that of any literary person upon whose +shoulders your faults may be visited, allow me to say, that common +gratitude to the public, which has received you so kindly, and to the +critics, who have treated you so leniently, ought to induce you to +bestow more pains on your story. + +_Author._ I do entreat you, my son, as Dr. Johnson would have said, +"free your mind from cant." For the critics, they have their business, +and I mine; as the nursery proverb goes-- + +"The children in Holland take pleasure in making What the children in +England take pleasure in breaking." + +I am their humble jackal, too busy in providing food for them, to have +time for considering whether they swallow or reject it.--To the public, +I stand pretty nearly in the relation of the postman who leaves a packet +at the door of an individual. If it contains pleasing intelligence, a +billet from a mistress, a letter from an absent son, a remittance from +a correspondent supposed to be bankrupt,--the letter is acceptably +welcome, and read and re-read, folded up, filed, and safely deposited in +the bureau. If the contents are disagreeable, if it comes from a dun or +from a bore, the correspondent is cursed, the letter is thrown into the +fire, and the expense of postage is heartily regretted; while all the +time the bearer of the dispatches is, in either case, as little thought +on as the snow of last Christmas. The utmost extent of kindness between +the author and the public which can really exist, is, that the world are +disposed to be somewhat indulgent to the succeeding works of an original +favourite, were it but on account of the habit which the public mind has +acquired; while the author very naturally thinks well of _their_ taste, +who have so liberally applauded _his_ productions. But I deny there is +any call for gratitude, properly so called, either on one side or the +other. + +_Captain._ Respect to yourself, then, ought to teach caution. + +_Author._ Ay, if caution could augment the chance of my success. But, +to confess to you the truth, the works and passages in which I have +succeeded, have uniformly been written with the greatest rapidity; and +when I have seen some of these placed in opposition with others, and +commended as more highly finished, I could appeal to pen and standish, +that the parts in which I have come feebly off, were by much the more +laboured. Besides, I doubt the beneficial effect of too much delay, both +on account of the author and the public. A man should strike while the +iron is hot, and hoist sail while the wind is fair. If a successful +author keep not the stage, another instantly takes his ground. If +a writer lie by for ten years ere he produces a second work, he is +superseded by others; or, if the age is so poor of genius that this does +not happen, his own reputation becomes his greatest obstacle. The public +will expect the new work to be ten times better than its predecessor; +the author will expect it should be ten times more popular, and 'tis a +hundred to ten that both are disappointed. + +_Captain_. This may justify a certain degree of rapidity in publication, +but not that which is proverbially said to be no speed. You should take +time at least to arrange your story. + +_Author_. That is a sore point with me, my son. Believe me, I have not +been fool enough to neglect ordinary precautions. I have repeatedly laid +down my future work to scale, divided it into volumes and chapters, +and endeavoured to construct a story which I meant should evolve itself +gradually and strikingly, maintain suspense, and stimulate curiosity; +and which, finally, should terminate in a striking catastrophe. But I +think there is a demon who seats himself on the feather of my pen when I +begin to write, and leads it astray from the purpose. Characters expand +under my hand; incidents are multiplied; the story lingers, while the +materials increase; my regular mansion turns out a Gothic anomaly, and +the work is closed long before I have attained the point I proposed. + +_Captain_. Resolution and determined forbearance might remedy that evil. + +_Author_. Alas! my dear sir, you do not know the force of paternal +affection. When I light on such a character as Bailie Jarvie, or +Dalgetty, my imagination brightens, and my conception becomes clearer +at every step which I take in his company, although it leads me many +a weary mile away from the regular road, and forces me leap hedge and +ditch to get back into the route again. If I resist the temptation, +as you advise me, my thoughts become prosy, flat, and dull; I write +painfully to myself, and under a consciousness of flagging which makes +me flag still more; the sunshine with which fancy had invested the +incidents, departs from them, and leaves every thing dull and gloomy. +I am no more the same author I was in my better mood, than the dog in a +wheel, condemned to go round and round for hours, is like the same +dog merrily chasing his own tail, and gambolling in all the frolic of +unrestrained freedom. In short, sir, on such occasions, I think I am +bewitched. + +_Captain_. Nay, sir, if you plead sorcery, there is no more to be +said--he must needs go whom the devil drives. And this, I suppose, sir, +is the reason why you do not make the theatrical attempt to which you +have been so often urged? + +_Author_. It may pass for one good reason for not writing a play, that +I cannot form a plot. But the truth is, that the idea adopted by too +favourable judges, of my having some aptitude for that department of +poetry, has been much founded on those scraps of old plays, which, +being taken from a source inaccessible to collectors, they have hastily +considered the offspring of my mother-wit. Now, the manner in which I +became possessed of these fragments is so extraordinary, that I cannot +help telling it to you. + +You must know, that, some twenty years since, I went down to visit an +old friend in Worcestershire, who had served with me in the----Dragoons. + +_Captain._ Then you _have_ served, sir? + +_Author._ I have--or I have not, which signifies the same thing--Captain +is a good travelling name.--I found my friend's house unexpectedly +crowded with guests, and, as usual, was condemned--the mansion being +an old one--to the _haunted apartment._ I have, as a great modern said, +seen too many ghosts to believe in them, so betook myself seriously +to my repose, lulled by the wind rustling among the lime-trees, the +branches of which chequered the moonlight which fell on the floor +through the diamonded casement, when, behold, a darker shadow interposed +itself, and I beheld visibly on the floor of the apartment-- + +_Captain._ The White Lady of Avenel, I suppose?--You have told the very +story before. + +_Author._ No--I beheld a female form, with mob-cap, bib, and apron, +sleeves tucked up to the elbow, a dredging-box in the one hand, and in +the other a sauce-ladle. I concluded, of course, that it was my friend's +cook-maid walking in her sleep; and as I knew he had a value for Sally, +who could toss a pancake with any girl in the country, I got up +to conduct her safely to the door. But as I approached her, she +said,--"Hold, sir! I am not what you take me for;"--words which seemed +so opposite to the circumstances, that I should not have much minded +them, had it not been for the peculiarly hollow sound in which they were +uttered.--"Know, then," she said, in the same unearthly accents, "that +I am the spirit of Betty Barnes."--"Who hanged herself for love of the +stage-coachman," thought I; "this is a proper spot of work!"--"Of that +unhappy Elizabeth or Betty Barnes, long cook-maid to Mr. Warburton, the +painful collector, but ah! the too careless custodier, of the largest +collection of ancient plays ever known--of most of which the titles only +are left to gladden the Prolegomena of the Variorum Shakspeare. Yes, +stranger, it was these ill-fated hands That consigned to grease and +conflagration the scores of small quartos, which, did they now exist, +would drive the whole Roxburghe Club out of their senses--it was these +unhappy pickers and stealers that singed fat fowls and wiped dirty +trenchers with the lost works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, +Jonson, Webster--what shall I say?--even of Shakspeare himself!" + +Like every dramatic antiquary, my ardent curiosity after some play named +in the Book of the Master of Revels, had often been checked by finding +the object of my research numbered amongst the holocaust of victims +which this unhappy woman had sacrificed to the God of Good Cheer. It is +no wonder then, that, like the Hermit of Parnell, + + "I broke the bands of fear, and madly cried, + 'You careless jade!'--But scarce the words began, + When Betty brandish'd high her saucing-pan." + +"Beware," she said, "you do not, by your ill-timed anger, cut off the +opportunity I yet have to indemnify the world for the errors of my +ignorance. In yonder coal-hole, not used for many a year, repose the few +greasy and blackened fragments of the elder Drama which were not totally +destroyed. Do thou then"--Why, what do you stare at, Captain? By my +soul, it is true; as my friend Major Longbow says, "What should I tell +you a lie for?" + +_Captain._ Lie, sir! Nay, Heaven forbid I should apply the word to a +person so veracious. You are only inclined to chase your tail a little +this morning, that's all. Had you not better reserve this legend to form +an introduction to "Three Recovered Dramas," or so? + +_Author._ You are quite right--habit's a strange thing, my son. I had +forgot whom I was speaking to. Yes, Plays for the closet, not for the +stage-- + +_Captain._ Right, and so you are sure to be acted; for the managers, +while thousands of volunteers are desirous of serving them, are +wonderfully partial to pressed men. + +_Author._ I am a living witness, having been, like a second Laberius, +made a dramatist whether I would or not. I believe my muse would be +_Terry_-fied into treading the stage, even if I should write a sermon. + +_Captain._ Truly, if you did, I am afraid folks might make a farce +of it; and, therefore, should you change your style, I still advise a +volume of dramas like Lord Byron's. + +_Author._ No, his lordship is a cut above me--I won't run my horse +against his, if I can help myself. But there is my friend Allan has +written just such a play as I might write myself, in a very sunny day, +and with one of Bramah's extra-patent pens. I cannot make neat work +without such appurtenances. + +_Captain._ Do you mean Allan Ramsay? + +_Author._ No, nor Barbara Allan either. I mean Allan Cunningham, who +has just published his tragedy of Sir Marmaduke Maxwell, full of +merry-making and murdering, kissing and cutting of throats, and passages +which lead to nothing, and which are very pretty passages for all +that. Not a glimpse of probability is there about the plot, but so much +animation in particular passages, and such a vein of poetry through the +whole, as I dearly wish I could infuse into my Culinary Remains, should +I ever be tempted to publish them. With a popular impress, people would +read and admire the beauties of Allan--as it is, they may perhaps only +note his defects--or, what is worse, not note him at all.--But +never mind them, honest Allan; you are a credit to Caledonia for all +that.--There are some lyrical effusions of his, too, which you would do +well to read, Captain. "It's hame, and it's hame," is equal to Burns. + +_Captain._ I will take the hint. The club at Kennaquhair are turned +fastidious since Catalan! visited the Abbey. My "Poortith Cauld" has +been received both poorly and coldly, and "the Banks of Bonnie Doon" +have been positively coughed down--_Tempora mutantur._ + +_Author._ They cannot stand still, they will change with all of us. What +then? + + "A man's a man for a' that." + +But the hour of parting approaches. + +_Captain._ You are determined to proceed then in your own system? +Are you aware that an unworthy motive may be assigned for this rapid +succession of publication? You will be supposed to work merely for the +lucre of gain. + +_Author._ Supposing that I did permit the great advantages which must +be derived from success in literature, to join with other motives in +inducing me to come more frequently before the public,--that emolument +is the voluntary tax which the public pays for a certain species of +literary amusement--it is extorted from no one, and paid, I presume, +by those only who can afford it, and who receive gratification in +proportion to the expense. If the capital sum which these volumes have +put into circulation be a very large one, has it contributed to my +indulgences only? or can I not say to hundreds, from honest Duncan the +paper-manufacturer, to the most snivelling of the printer's devils, +"Didst thou not share? Hadst thou not fifteen pence?" I profess I think +our Modern Athens much obliged to me for having established such an +extensive manufacture; and when universal suffrage comes in fashion, +I intend to stand for a seat in the House on the interest of all the +unwashed artificers connected with literature. + +_Captain._ This would be called the language of a calico-manufacturer. + +_Author._ Cant again, my dear son--there is lime in this sack, +too--nothing but sophistication in this world! I do say it, in spite of +Adam Smith and his followers, that a successful author is a productive +labourer, and that his works constitute as effectual a part of the +public wealth, as that which is created by any other manufacture. If a +new commodity, having an actually intrinsic and commercial value, be +the result of the operation, why are the author's bales of books to be +esteemed a less profitable part of the public stock than the goods of +any other manufacturer? I speak with reference to the diffusion of the +wealth arising to the public, and the degree of industry which even such +a trifling work as the present must stimulate and reward, before the +volumes leave the publisher's shop. Without me it could not exist, +and to this extent I am a benefactor to the country. As for my own +emolument, it is won by my toil, and I account myself answerable to +Heaven only for the mode in which I expend it. The candid may hope it is +not all dedicated to selfish purposes; and, without much pretensions to +merit in him who disburses it, a part may "wander, heaven-directed, to +the poor." + +_Captain._ Yet it is generally held base to write from the mere motives +of gain. + +_Author._ It would be base to do so exclusively, or even to make it a +principal motive for literary exertion. Nay, I will venture to say, +that no work of imagination, proceeding from the mere consideration of +a certain sum of copy-money, ever did, or ever will, succeed. So the +lawyer who pleads, the soldier who fights, the physician who prescribes, +the clergyman--if such there be--who preaches, without any zeal for his +profession, or without any sense of its dignity, and merely on account +of the fee, pay, or stipend, degrade themselves to the rank of sordid +mechanics. Accordingly, in the case of two of the learned faculties +at least, their services are considered as unappreciable, and are +acknowledged, not by any exact estimate of the services rendered, but by +a _honorarium,_ or voluntary acknowledgment. But let a client or patient +make the experiment of omitting this little ceremony of the honorarium, +which is _cense_ to be a thing entirely out of consideration between +them, and mark how the learned gentleman will look upon his case. Cant +set apart, it is the same thing with literary emolument. No man of +sense, in any rank of life, is, or ought to be, above accepting a just +recompense for his time, and a reasonable share of the capital which +owes its very existence to his exertions. When Czar Peter wrought in the +trenches, he took the pay of a common soldier; and nobles, statesmen, +and divines, the most distinguished of their time, have not scorned to +square accounts with their bookseller. + +_Captain. (Sings._) + + "O if it were a mean thing, + The gentles would not use it; + And if it were ungodly, + The clergy would refuse it." + +_Author._ You say well. But no man of honour, genius, or spirit, would +make the mere love of gain, the chief, far less the only, purpose of his +labours. For myself, I am not displeased to find the game a winning one; +yet while I pleased the public, I should probably continue it merely for +the pleasure of playing; for I have felt as strongly as most folks that +love of composition, which is perhaps the strongest of all instincts, +driving the author to the pen, the painter to the pallet, often without +either the chance of fame or the prospect of reward. Perhaps I have said +too much of this. I might, perhaps, with as much truth as most people, +exculpate myself from the charge of being either of a greedy or +mercenary disposition; but I am not, therefore, hypocrite enough to +disclaim the ordinary motives, on account of which the whole world +around me is toiling unremittingly, to the sacrifice of ease, comfort, +health, and life. I do not affect the disinterestedness of that +ingenious association of gentlemen mentioned by Goldsmith, who sold +their magazine for sixpence a-piece, merely for their own amusement. + +_Captain._ I have but one thing more to hint.--The world say you will +run yourself out. + +_Author._ The world say true: and what then? When they dance no longer, +I will no longer pipe; and I shall not want flappers enough to remind me +of the apoplexy. + +_Captain._ And what will become of us then, your poor family? We shall +fall into contempt and oblivion. + +_Author._ Like many a poor fellow, already overwhelmed with the number +of his family, I cannot help going on to increase it--"'Tis my vocation, +Hal."--Such of you as deserve oblivion--perhaps the whole of you--may be +consigned to it. At any rate, you have been read in your day, which is +more than can be said of some of your contemporaries, of less fortune +and more merit. They cannot say but that you _had_ the crown. It is +always something to have engaged the public attention for seven years. +Had I only written Waverley, I should have long since been, according to +the established phrase, "the ingenious author of a novel much admired +at the time." I believe, on my soul, that the reputation of Waverley +is sustained very much by the praises of those, who may be inclined to +prefer that tale to its successors. + +_Captain._ You are willing, then, to barter future reputation for +present popularity? + +_Author. Meliora spero._ Horace himself expected not to survive in all +his works--I may hope to live in some of mine;--_non omnis moriar._ It +is some consolation to reflect, that the best authors in all countries +have been the most voluminous; and it has often happened, that those +who have been best received in their own time, have also continued to +be acceptable to posterity. I do not think so ill of the present +generation, as to suppose that its present favour necessarily infers +future condemnation. + +_Captain._ Were all to act on such principles, the public would be +inundated. + +_Author_ Once more, my dear son, beware of cant. You speak as if the +public were obliged to read books merely because they are printed--your +friends the booksellers would thank you to make the proposition good. +The most serious grievance attending such inundations as you talk of, +is, that they make rags dear. The multiplicity of publications does the +present age no harm, and may greatly advantage that which is to succeed +us. + +_Captain._ I do not see how that is to happen. + +_Author._ The complaints in the time of Elizabeth and James, of +the alarming fertility of the press, were as loud as they are at +present--yet look at the shore over which the inundation of that age +flowed, and it resembles now the Rich Strand of the Faery Queen-- + + ----"Besrrew'd all with rich array, + Of pearl and precious stones of great assay; + And all the gravel mix'd with golden ore." + +Believe me, that even in the most neglected works of the present age, +the next may discover treasures. + +_Captain._ Some books will defy all alchemy. + +_Author._ They will be but few in number; since, as for the writers, who +are possessed of no merit at all, unless indeed they publish their +works at their own expense, like Sir Richard Blackmore, their power of +annoying the public will be soon limited by the difficulty of finding +undertaking booksellers. + +_Captain._ You are incorrigible. Are there no bounds to your audacity? + +_Author._ There are the sacred and eternal boundaries of honour and +virtue. My course is like the enchanted chamber of Britomart-- + + "Where as she look'd about, she did behold + How over that same door was likewise writ, + _Be Bold--Be Bold,_ and everywhere _Be Bold._ + Whereat she mused, and could not construe it; + At last she spied at that room's upper end + Another iron door, on which was writ-- + BE NOT TOO BOLD." + +_Captain._ Well, you must take the risk of proceeding on your own +principles. + +_Author._ Do you act on yours, and take care you do not stay idling here +till the dinner hour is over.--I will add this work to your patrimony, +_valeat quantum._ + +Here our dialogue terminated; for a little sooty-faced Apollyon from +the Canongate came to demand the proof-sheet on the part of Mr. +M'Corkindale; and I heard Mr. C. rebuking Mr. F. in another compartment +of the same labyrinth I have described, for suffering any one to +penetrate so far into the _penetralia_ of their temple. + +I leave it to you to form your own opinion concerning the import of this +dialogue, and I cannot but believe I shall meet the wishes of our common +parent in prefixing this letter to the work which it concerns. + +I am, reverend and dear Sir, + +Very sincerely and affectionately + +Yours, + + + + + + +THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL + + _Knifegrinder._ Story? Lord bless you! I have none to tell, sir. + _Poetry of the Antijacobin._ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + + Now Scot and English are agreed, + And Saunders hastes to cross the Tweed, + Where, such the splendours that attend him, + His very mother scarce had kend him. + His metamorphosis behold, + From Glasgow frieze to cloth of gold; + His back-sword, with the iron hilt, + To rapier, fairly hatch'd and gilt; + Was ever seen a gallant braver! + His very bonnet's grown a beaver. + _The Reformation._ + +The long-continued hostilities which had for centuries separated the +south and the north divisions of the Island of Britain, had been happily +terminated by the succession of the pacific James I. to the English +Crown. But although the united crown of England and Scotland was worn +by the same individual, it required a long lapse of time, and the +succession of more than one generation, ere the inveterate national +prejudices which had so long existed betwixt the sister kingdoms were +removed, and the subjects of either side of the Tweed brought to regard +those upon the opposite bank as friends and as brethren. + +These prejudices were, of course, most inveterate during the reign of +King James. The English subjects accused him of partiality to those of +his ancient kingdom; while the Scots, with equal injustice, charged +him with having forgotten the land of his nativity, and with neglecting +those early friends to whose allegiance he had been so much indebted. + +The temper of the king, peaceable even to timidity, inclined him +perpetually to interfere as mediator between the contending factions, +whose brawls disturbed the Court. But, notwithstanding all his +precautions, historians have recorded many instances, where the mutual +hatred of two nations, who, after being enemies for a thousand years, +had been so very recently united, broke forth with a fury which menaced +a general convulsion; and, spreading from the highest to the lowest +classes, as it occasioned debates in council and parliament, factions in +the court, and duels among the gentry, was no less productive of riots +and brawls amongst the lower orders. + +While these heart-burnings were at the highest, there flourished in the +city of London an ingenious but whimsical and self opinioned mechanic, +much devoted to abstract studies, David Ramsay by name, who, whether +recommended by his great skill in his profession, as the courtiers +alleged, or, as was murmured among the neighbours, by his birthplace, in +the good town of Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, held in James's household the +post of maker of watches and horologes to his Majesty. He scorned +not, however, to keep open shop within Temple Bar, a few yards to the +eastward of Saint Dunstan's Church. + +The shop of a London tradesman at that time, as it may be supposed, was +something very different from those we now see in the same locality. The +goods were exposed to sale in cases, only defended from the weather by +a covering of canvass, and the whole resembled the stalls and booths now +erected for the temporary accommodation of dealers at a country fair, +rather than the established emporium of a respectable citizen. But most +of the shopkeepers of note, and David Ramsay amongst others, had their +booth connected with a small apartment which opened backward from it, +and bore the same resemblance to the front shop that Robinson Crusoe's +cavern did to the tent which he erected before it. + +To this Master Ramsay was often accustomed to retreat to the labour of +his abstruse calculations; for he aimed at improvements and discoveries +in his own art, and sometimes pushed his researches, like Napier, and +other mathematicians of the period, into abstract science. When thus +engaged, he left the outer posts of his commercial establishment to be +maintained by two stout-bodied and strong-voiced apprentices, who kept +up the cry of, "What d'ye lack? what d'ye lack?" accompanied with the +appropriate recommendations of the articles in which they dealt. + +This direct and personal application for custom to those who chanced to +pass by, is now, we believe, limited to Monmouth Street, (if it +still exists even in that repository of ancient garments,) under the +guardianship of the scattered remnant of Israel. But at the time we +are speaking of, it was practised alike by Jew and Gentile, and served, +instead of all our present newspaper puffs and advertisements, to +solicit the attention of the public in general, and of friends in +particular, to the unrivalled excellence of the goods, which they +offered to sale upon such easy terms, that it might fairly appear that +the venders had rather a view to the general service of the public, than +to their own particular advantage. + +The verbal proclaimers of the excellence of their commodities, had this +advantage over those who, in the present day, use the public papers for +the same purpose, that they could in many cases adapt their address to +the peculiar appearance and apparent taste of the passengers. [This, as +we have said, was also the case in Monmouth Street in our remembrance. +We have ourselves been reminded of the deficiencies of our femoral +habiliments, and exhorted upon that score to fit ourselves more +beseemingly; but this is a digression.] This direct and personal mode of +invitation to customers became, however, a dangerous temptation to the +young wags who were employed in the task of solicitation during +the absence of the principal person interested in the traffic; and, +confiding in their numbers and civic union, the 'prentices of London +were often seduced into taking liberties with the passengers, and +exercising their wit at the expense of those whom they had no hopes of +converting into customers by their eloquence. If this were resented by +any act of violence, the inmates of each shop were ready to pour forth +in succour; and in the words of an old song which Dr. Johnson was used +to hum,-- + + "Up then rose the 'prentices all, + Living in London, both proper and tall." + +Desperate riots often arose on such occasions, especially when the +Templars, or other youths connected with the aristocracy, were insulted, +or conceived themselves to be so. Upon such occasions, bare steel was +frequently opposed to the clubs of the citizens, and death sometimes +ensued on both sides. The tardy and inefficient police of the time +had no other resource than by the Alderman of the ward calling out the +householders, and putting a stop to the strife by overpowering numbers, +as the Capulets and Montagues are separated upon the stage. + +At the period when such was the universal custom of the most +respectable, as well as the most inconsiderable, shopkeepers in London, +David Ramsay, on the evening to which we solicit the attention of +the reader, retiring to more abstruse and private labours, left +the administration of his outer shop, or booth, to the aforesaid +sharp-witted, active, able-bodied, and well-voiced apprentices, namely, +Jenkin Vincent and Frank Tunstall. + +Vincent had been educated at the excellent foundation of Christ's Church +Hospital, and was bred, therefore, as well as born, a Londoner, with +all the acuteness, address, and audacity which belong peculiarly to +the youth of a metropolis. He was now about twenty years old, short in +stature, but remarkably strong made, eminent for his feats upon holidays +at foot-ball, and other gymnastic exercises; scarce rivalled in +the broad-sword play, though hitherto only exercised in the form of +single-stick. He knew every lane, blind alley, and sequestered court of +the ward, better than his catechism; was alike active in his master's +affairs, and in his own adventures of fun and mischief; and so managed +matters, that the credit he acquired by the former bore him out, or at +least served for his apology, when the latter propensity led him into +scrapes, of which, however, it is but fair to state, that they had +hitherto inferred nothing mean or discreditable. Some aberrations there +were, which David Ramsay, his master, endeavoured to reduce to regular +order when he discovered them, and others which he winked at--supposing +them to answer the purpose of the escapement of a watch, which disposes +of a certain quantity of the extra power of that mechanical impulse +which puts the whole in motion. + +The physiognomy of Jin Vin--by which abbreviation he was familiarly +known through the ward--corresponded with the sketch we have given +of his character. His head, upon which his 'prentice's flat cap was +generally flung in a careless and oblique fashion, was closely covered +with thick hair of raven black, which curled naturally and closely, and +would have grown to great length, but for the modest custom enjoined by +his state in life and strictly enforced by his master, which compelled +him to keep it short-cropped,--not unreluctantly, as he looked with +envy on the flowing ringlets, in which the courtiers, and aristocratic +students of the neighbouring Temple, began to indulge themselves, as +marks of superiority and of gentility. + +Vincent's eyes were deep set in his head, of a strong vivid black, full +of fire, roguery, and intelligence, and conveying a humorous expression, +even while he was uttering the usual small-talk of his trade, as if +he ridiculed those who were disposed to give any weight to his +commonplaces. He had address enough, however, to add little touches of +his own, which gave a turn of drollery even to this ordinary routine of +the booth; and the alacrity of his manner--his ready and obvious wish +to oblige--his intelligence and civility, when he thought civility +necessary, made him a universal favourite with his master's customers. + +His features were far from regular, for his nose was flattish, his mouth +tending to the larger size, and his complexion inclining to be more dark +than was then thought consistent with masculine beauty. But, in despite +of his having always breathed the air of a crowded city, his complexion +had the ruddy and manly expression of redundant health; his turned-up +nose gave an air of spirit and raillery to what he said, and seconded +the laugh of his eyes; and his wide mouth was garnished with a pair of +well-formed and well-coloured lips, which, when he laughed, disclosed a +range of teeth strong and well set, and as white as the very pearl. Such +was the elder apprentice of David Ramsay, Memory's Monitor, watchmaker, +and constructor of horologes, to his Most Sacred Majesty James I. + +Jenkin's companion was the younger apprentice, though, perhaps, he might +be the elder of the two in years. At any rate, he was of a much more +staid and composed temper. Francis Tunstall was of that ancient and +proud descent who claimed the style of the "unstained;" because, amid +the various chances of the long and bloody wars of the Roses, they had, +with undeviating faith, followed the House of Lancaster, to which they +had originally attached themselves. The meanest sprig of such a tree +attached importance to the root from which it derived itself; and +Tunstall was supposed to nourish in secret a proportion of that family +pride, which had exhorted tears from his widowed and almost indigent +mother, when she saw herself obliged to consign him to a line of +life inferior, as her prejudices suggested, to the course held by his +progenitors. Yet, with all this aristocratic prejudice, his master found +the well-born youth more docile, regular, and strictly attentive to +his duty, than his far more active and alert comrade. Tunstall also +gratified his master by the particular attention which he seemed +disposed to bestow on the abstract principles of science connected with +the trade which he was bound to study, the limits of which were daily +enlarged with the increase of mathematical science. + +Vincent beat his companion beyond the distance-post, in every thing like +the practical adaptation of thorough practice, in the dexterity of +hand necessary to execute the mechanical branches of the art, and +doubled-distanced him in all respecting the commercial affairs of the +shop. Still David Ramsay was wont to say, that if Vincent knew how to do +a thing the better of the two, Tunstall was much better acquainted with +the principles on which it ought to be done; and he sometimes objected +to the latter, that he knew critical excellence too well ever to be +satisfied with practical mediocrity. + +The disposition of Tunstall was shy, as well as studious; and, though +perfectly civil and obliging, he never seemed to feel himself in his +place while he went through the duties of the shop. He was tall +and handsome, with fair hair, and well-formed limbs, good features, +well-opened light-blue eyes, a straight Grecian nose, and a countenance +which expressed both good-humour and intelligence, but qualified by a +gravity unsuitable to his years, and which almost amounted to dejection. +He lived on the best of terms with his companion, and readily stood by +him whenever he was engaged in any of the frequent skirmishes, which, as +we have already observed, often disturbed the city of London about this +period. But though Tunstall was allowed to understand quarter-staff (the +weapon of the North country) in a superior degree, and though he was +naturally both strong and active, his interference in such affrays +seemed always matter of necessity; and, as he never voluntarily joined +either their brawls or their sports, he held a far lower place in the +opinion of the youth of the ward than his hearty and active friend Jin +Vin. Nay, had it not been for the interest made for his comrade, by the +intercession of Vincent, Tunstall would have stood some chance of being +altogether excluded from the society of his contemporaries of the same +condition, who called him, in scorn, the Cavaliero Cuddy, and the Gentle +Tunstall. + +On the other hand, the lad himself, deprived of the fresh air in which +he had been brought up, and foregoing the exercise to which he had +formerly been accustomed, while the inhabitant of his native mansion, +lost gradually the freshness of his complexion, and, without showing any +formal symptoms of disease, grew more thin and pale as he grew older, +and at length exhibited the appearance of indifferent health, without +any thing of the habits and complaints of an invalid, excepting a +disposition to avoid society, and to spend his leisure time in private +study, rather than mingle in the sports of his companions, or even +resort to the theatres, then the general rendezvous of his class; where, +according to high authority, they fought for half-bitten apples, cracked +nuts, and filled the upper gallery with their clamours. + +Such were the two youths who called David Ramsay master; and with both +of whom he used to fret from morning till night, as their peculiarities +interfered with his own, or with the quiet and beneficial course of his +traffic. + +Upon the whole, however, the youths were attached to their master, and +he, a good-natured, though an absent and whimsical man, was scarce +less so to them; and when a little warmed with wine at an occasional +junketing, he used to boast, in his northern dialect, of his "twa bonnie +lads, and the looks that the court ladies threw at them, when visiting +his shop in their caroches, when on a frolic into the city." But David +Ramsay never failed, at the same time, to draw up his own tall, +thin, lathy skeleton, extend his lean jaws into an alarming grin, and +indicate, by a nod of his yard-long visage, and a twinkle of his little +grey eye, that there might be more faces in Fleet Street worth looking +at than those of Frank and Jenkin. His old neighbour, Widow Simmons, the +sempstress, who had served, in her day, the very tip-top revellers of +the Temple, with ruffs, cuffs, and bands, distinguished more deeply +the sort of attention paid by the females of quality, who so regularly +visited David Ramsay's shop, to its inmates. "The boy Frank," she +admitted, "used to attract the attention of the young ladies, as having +something gentle and downcast in his looks; but then he could not better +himself, for the poor youth had not a word to throw at a dog. Now Jin +Vin was so full of his jibes and jeers, and so willing, and so ready, +and so serviceable, and so mannerly all the while, with a step that +sprung like a buck's in Epping Forest, and his eye that twinkled as +black as a gipsy's, that no woman who knew the world would make a +comparison betwixt the lads. As for poor neighbour Ramsay himself, the +man," she said, "was a civil neighbour, and a learned man, doubtless, +and might be a rich man if he had common sense to back his learning; and +doubtless, for a Scot, neighbour Ramsay was nothing of a bad man, but +he was so constantly grimed with smoke, gilded with brass filings, +and smeared with lamp-black and oil, that Dame Simmons judged it would +require his whole shopful of watches to induce any feasible woman to +touch the said neighbour Ramsay with any thing save a pair of tongs." + +A still higher authority, Dame Ursula, wife to Benjamin Suddlechop, the +barber, was of exactly the same opinion. + +Such were, in natural qualities and public estimation, the two youths, +who, in a fine April day, having first rendered their dutiful service +and attendance on the table of their master and his daughter, at their +dinner at one o'clock,--Such, O ye lads of London, was the severe +discipline undergone by your predecessors!--and having regaled +themselves upon the fragments, in company with two female domestics, one +a cook, and maid of all work, the other called Mistress Margaret's maid, +now relieved their master in the duty of the outward shop; and agreeably +to the established custom, were soliciting, by their entreaties and +recommendations of their master's manufacture, the attention and +encouragement of the passengers. + +In this species of service it may be easily supposed that Jenkin Vincent +left his more reserved and bashful comrade far in the background. The +latter could only articulate with difficulty, and as an act of duty +which he was rather ashamed of discharging, the established words +of form--"What d'ye lack?--What d'ye lack?--Clocks--watches--barnacles? +--What d'ye lack?--Watches--clocks--barnacles?--What d'ye lack, sir? What +d'ye lack, madam?--Barnacles--watches--clocks?" + +But this dull and dry iteration, however varied by diversity of verbal +arrangement, sounded flat when mingled with the rich and recommendatory +oratory of the bold-faced, deep-mouthed, and ready-witted Jenkin +Vincent.--"What d'ye lack, noble sir?--What d'ye lack, beauteous madam?" +he said, in a tone at once bold and soothing, which often was so applied +as both to gratify the persons addressed, and to excite a smile from +other hearers.--"God bless your reverence," to a beneficed clergyman; +"the Greek and Hebrew have harmed your reverence's eyes--Buy a pair of +David Ramsay's barnacles. The King--God bless his Sacred Majesty!--never +reads Hebrew or Greek without them." + +"Are you well avised of that?" said a fat parson from the Vale of +Evesham. "Nay, if the Head of the Church wears them,--God bless his +Sacred Majesty!--I will try what they can do for me; for I have not +been able to distinguish one Hebrew letter from another, since--I cannot +remember the time--when I had a bad fever. Choose me a pair of his +most Sacred Majesty's own wearing, my good youth." + +"This is a pair, and please your reverence," said Jenkin, producing a +pair of spectacles which he touched with an air of great deference and +respect, "which his most blessed Majesty placed this day three weeks on +his own blessed nose; and would have kept them for his own sacred use, +but that the setting being, as your reverence sees, of the purest jet, +was, as his Sacred Majesty was pleased to say, fitter for a bishop than +for a secular prince." + +"His Sacred Majesty the King," said the worthy divine, "was ever a very +Daniel in his judgment. Give me the barnacles, my good youth, and who +can say what nose they may bestride in two years hence?--our reverend +brother of Gloucester waxes in years." He then pulled out his purse, +paid for the spectacles, and left the shop with even a more important +step than that which had paused to enter it. + +"For shame," said Tunstall to his companion; "these glasses will never +suit one of his years." + +"You are a fool, Frank," said Vincent, in reply; "had the good doctor +wished glasses to read with, he would have tried them before buying. +He does not want to look through them himself, and these will serve +the purpose of being looked at by other folks, as well as the best +magnifiers in the shop.--What d'ye lack?" he cried, resuming his +solicitations. "Mirrors for your toilette, my pretty madam; your +head-gear is something awry--pity, since it is so well fancied." The +woman stopped and bought a mirror.--"What d'ye lack?--a watch, Master +Sergeant--a watch that will go as long as a lawsuit, as steady and true +as your own eloquence?" + +"Hold your peace, sir," answered the Knight of the Coif, who was +disturbed by Vin's address whilst in deep consultation with an eminent +attorney; "hold your peace! You are the loudest-tongued varlet betwixt +the Devil's Tavern and Guildhall." + +"A watch," reiterated the undaunted Jenkin, "that shall not lose +thirteen minutes in a thirteen years' lawsuit.--He's out of hearing--A +watch with four wheels and a bar-movement--a watch that shall tell you, +Master Poet, how long the patience of the audience will endure your next +piece at the Black Bull." The bard laughed, and fumbled in the pocket of +his slops till he chased into a corner, and fairly caught, a small piece +of coin. + +"Here is a tester to cherish thy wit, good boy," he said. + +"Gramercy," said Vin; "at the next play of yours I will bring down a +set of roaring boys, that shall make all the critics in the pit, and the +gallants on the stage, civil, or else the curtain shall smoke for it." + +"Now, that I call mean," said Tunstall, "to take the poor rhymer's +money, who has so little left behind." + +"You are an owl, once again," said Vincent; "if he has nothing left to +buy cheese and radishes, he will only dine a day the sooner with some +patron or some player, for that is his fate five days out of the seven. +It is unnatural that a poet should pay for his own pot of beer; I will +drink his tester for him, to save him from such shame; and when his +third night comes round, he shall have penniworths for his coin, I +promise you.--But here comes another-guess customer. Look at that +strange fellow--see how he gapes at every shop, as if he would swallow +the wares.--O! Saint Dunstan has caught his eye; pray God he swallow not +the images. See how he stands astonished, as old Adam and Eve ply +their ding-dong! Come, Frank, thou art a scholar; construe me that same +fellow, with his blue cap with a cock's feather in it, to show he's of +gentle blood, God wot--his grey eyes, his yellow hair, his sword with a +ton of iron in the handle--his grey thread-bare cloak--his step like a +Frenchman--his look like a Spaniard--a book at his girdle, and a broad +dudgeon-dagger on the other side, to show him half-pedant, half-bully. +How call you that pageant, Frank?" + +"A raw Scotsman," said Tunstall; "just come up, I suppose, to help the +rest of his countrymen to gnaw old England's bones; a palmerworm, I +reckon, to devour what the locust has spared." + +"Even so, Frank," answered Vincent; "just as the poet sings sweetly,-- + + 'In Scotland he was born and bred, + And, though a beggar, must be fed.'" + +"Hush!" said Tunstall, "remember our master." + +"Pshaw!" answered his mercurial companion; "he knows on which side +his bread is buttered, and I warrant you has not lived so long among +Englishmen, and by Englishmen, to quarrel with us for bearing an English +mind. But see, our Scot has done gazing at St. Dunstan's, and comes our +way. By this light, a proper lad and a sturdy, in spite of freckles and +sun-burning.--He comes nearer still, I will have at him." + +"And, if you do," said his comrade, "you may get a broken head--he looks +not as if he would carry coals." + +"A fig for your threat," said Vincent, and instantly addressed the +stranger. "Buy a watch, most noble northern Thane--buy a watch, to count +the hours of plenty since the blessed moment you left Berwick behind +you.--Buy barnacles, to see the English gold lies ready for your +gripe.--Buy what you will, you shall have credit for three days; for, +were your pockets as bare as Father Fergus's, you are a Scot in London, +and you will be stocked in that time." The stranger looked sternly +at the waggish apprentice, and seemed to grasp his cudgel in rather a +menacing fashion. "Buy physic," said the undaunted Vincent, "if you will +buy neither time nor light--physic for a proud stomach, sir;--there is a +'pothecary's shop on the other side of the way." + +Here the probationary disciple of Galen, who stood at his master's door +in his flat cap and canvass sleeves, with a large wooden pestle in his +hand, took up the ball which was flung to him by Jenkin, with, "What +d'ye lack, sir?--Buy a choice Caledonian salve, _Flos sulphvr. cum +butyro quant. suff._" + +"To be taken after a gentle rubbing-down with an English oaken towel," +said Vincent. + +The bonny Scot had given full scope to the play of this small artillery +of city wit, by halting his stately pace, and viewing grimly, first the +one assailant, and then the other, as if menacing either repartee or +more violent revenge. But phlegm or prudence got the better of his +indignation, and tossing his head as one who valued not the raillery to +which he had been exposed, he walked down Fleet Street, pursued by the +horse-laugh of his tormentors. + +"The Scot will not fight till he see his own blood," said Tunstall, whom +his north of England extraction had made familiar with all manner of +proverbs against those who lay yet farther north than himself. + +"Faith, I know not," said Jenkin; "he looks dangerous, that +fellow--he will hit some one over the noddle before he goes +far.--Hark!--hark!--they are rising." + +Accordingly, the well-known cry of, +"'Prentices--'prentices--Clubs--clubs!" now rang along Fleet Street; and +Jenkin, snatching up his weapon, which lay beneath the counter ready +at the slightest notice, and calling to Tunstall to take his bat and +follow, leaped over the hatch-door which protected the outer-shop, and +ran as fast as he could towards the affray, echoing the cry as he ran, +and elbowing, or shoving aside, whoever stood in his way. His comrade, +first calling to his master to give an eye to the shop, followed +Jenkin's example, and ran after him as fast as he could, but with more +attention to the safety and convenience of others; while old David +Ramsay, with hands and eyes uplifted, a green apron before him, and a +glass which he had been polishing thrust into his bosom, came forth +to look after the safety of his goods and chattels, knowing, by old +experience, that, when the cry of "Clubs" once arose, he would have +little aid on the part of his apprentices. + + + + + +CHAPTER II + + + This, sir, is one among the Seignory, + Has wealth at will, and will to use his wealth, + And wit to increase it. Marry, his worst folly + Lies in a thriftless sort of charity, + That goes a-gadding sometimes after objects, + Which wise men will not see when thrust upon them. + _The Old Couple._ + +The ancient gentleman bustled about his shop, in pettish displeasure +at being summoned hither so hastily, to the interruption of his more +abstract studies; and, unwilling to renounce the train of calculation +which he had put in progress, he mingled whimsically with the fragments +of the arithmetical operation, his oratory to the passengers, and angry +reflections on his idle apprentices. "What d'ye lack, sir? Madam, +what d'ye lack--clocks for hall or table--night-watches--day +watches?--_Locking wheel being 48--the power of retort 8--the striking +pins are 48_--What d'ye lack, honoured sir?--_The quotient--the +multiplicand_--That the knaves should have gone out this blessed +minute!--_the acceleration being at the rate of 5 minutes, 55 seconds, +53 thirds, 59 fourths_--I will switch them both when they come back--I +will, by the bones of the immortal Napier!" + +Here the vexed philosopher was interrupted by the entrance of a grave +citizen of a most respectable appearance, who, saluting him familiarly +by the name of "Davie, my old acquaintance," demanded what had put him +so much out of sorts, and gave him at the same time a cordial grasp of +his hand. + +The stranger's dress was, though grave, rather richer than usual. His +paned hose were of black velvet, lined with purple silk, which garniture +appeared at the slashes. His doublet was of purple cloth, and his +short cloak of black velvet, to correspond with his hose; and both were +adorned with a great number of small silver buttons richly wrought in +filigree. A triple chain of gold hung round his neck; and, in place of +a sword or dagger, he wore at his belt an ordinary knife for the purpose +of the table, with a small silver case, which appeared to contain +writing materials. He might have seemed some secretary or clerk engaged +in the service of the public, only that his low, flat, and unadorned +cap, and his well-blacked, shining shoes, indicated that he belonged to +the city. He was a well-made man, about the middle size, and seemed in +firm health, though advanced in years. His looks expressed sagacity and +good-humour: and the air of respectability which his dress announced, +was well supported by his clear eye, ruddy cheek, and grey hair. He used +the Scottish idiom in his first address, but in such a manner that it +could hardly be distinguished whether he was passing upon his friend a +sort of jocose mockery, or whether it was his own native dialect, for +his ordinary discourse had little provincialism. + +In answer to the queries of his respectable friend, Ramsay groaned +heavily, answering by echoing back the question, "What ails me, Master +George? Why, every thing ails me! I profess to you that a man may +as well live in Fairyland as in the Ward of Farringdon-Without. My +apprentices are turned into mere goblins--they appear and disappear like +spunkies, and have no more regularity in them than a watch without a +scapement. If there is a ball to be tossed up, or a bullock to be driven +mad, or a quean to be ducked for scolding, or a head to be broken, +Jenkin is sure to be at the one end or the other of it, and then +away skips Francis Tunstall for company. I think the prize-fighters, +bear-leaders, and mountebanks, are in a league against me, my dear +friend, and that they pass my house ten times for any other in the city. +Here's an Italian fellow come over, too, that they call Punchinello; +and, altogether----" + +"Well," interrupted Master George, "but what is all this to the present +case?" + +"Why," replied Ramsay, "here has been a cry of thieves or murder, (I +hope that will prove the least of it amongst these English pock-pudding +swine!) and I have been interrupted in the deepest calculation ever +mortal man plunged into, Master George." + +"What, man!" replied Master George, "you must take patience--You are a +man that deals in time, and can make it go fast and slow at pleasure; +you, of all the world, have least reason to complain, if a little of it +be lost now and then.--But here come your boys, and bringing in a slain +man betwixt them, I think--here has been serious mischief, I am afraid." + +"The more mischief the better sport," said the crabbed old +watchmaker. "I am blithe, though, that it's neither of the twa loons +themselves.--What are ye bringing a corpse here for, ye fause villains?" +he added, addressing the two apprentices, who, at the head of a +considerable mob of their own class, some of whom bore evident marks of +a recent fray, were carrying the body betwixt them. + +"He is not dead yet, sir," answered Tunstall. + +"Carry him into the apothecary's, then," replied his master. "D'ye +think I can set a man's life in motion again, as if he were a clock or a +timepiece?" + +"For godsake, old friend," said his acquaintance, "let us have him here +at the nearest--he seems only in a swoon." + +"A swoon?" said Ramsay, "and what business had he to swoon in the +streets? Only, if it will oblige my friend Master George, I would take +in all the dead men in St. Dunstan's parish. Call Sam Porter to look +after the shop." So saying, the stunned man, being the identical +Scotsman who had passed a short time before amidst the jeers of the +apprentices, was carried into the back shop of the artist, and there +placed in an armed chair till the apothecary from over the way came to +his assistance. This gentleman, as sometimes happens to those of the +learned professions, had rather more lore than knowledge, and began to +talk of the sinciput and occiput, and cerebrum and cerebellum, until he +exhausted David Ramsay's brief stock of patience. + +"Bell-um! bell-ell-um!" he repeated, with great indignation; "What +signify all the bells in London, if you do not put a plaster on the +child's crown?" + +Master George, with better-directed zeal, asked the apothecary whether +bleeding might not be useful; when, after humming and hawing for a +moment, and being unable, upon the spur of the occasion, to suggest any +thing else, the man of pharmacy observed, that it would, at all events, +relieve the brain or cerebrum, in case there was a tendency to the +depositation of any extravasated blood, to operate as a pressure upon +that delicate organ. + +Fortunately he was adequate to performing this operation; and, being +powerfully aided by Jenkin Vincent (who was learned in all cases of +broken heads) with plenty of cold water, and a little vinegar, applied +according to the scientific method practised by the bottle-holders in a +modern ring, the man began to raise himself on his chair, draw his cloak +tightly around him, and look about like one who struggles to recover +sense and recollection. + +"He had better lie down on the bed in the little back closet," said Mr. +Ramsay's visitor, who seemed perfectly familiar with the accommodations +which the house afforded. + +"He is welcome to my share of the truckle," said Jenkin,--for in +the said back closet were the two apprentices accommodated in one +truckle-bed,--"I can sleep under the counter." + +"So can I," said Tunstall, "and the poor fellow can have the bed all +night." + +"Sleep," said the apothecary, "is, in the opinion of Galen, +a restorative and febrifuge, and is most naturally taken in a +truckle-bed." + +"Where a better cannot be come by,"--said Master George; "but these are +two honest lads, to give up their beds so willingly. Come, off with his +cloak, and let us bear him to his couch--I will send for Dr. Irving, the +king's chirurgeon--he does not live far off, and that shall be my share +of the Samaritan's duty, neighbour Ramsay." + +"Well, sir," said the apothecary, "it is at your pleasure to send for +other advice, and I shall not object to consult with Dr. Irving or any +other medical person of skill, neither to continue to furnish such drugs +as may be needful from my pharmacopeia. However, whatever Dr. Irving, +who, I think, hath had his degrees in Edinburgh, or Dr. Any-one-beside, +be he Scottish or English, may say to the contrary, sleep, taken +timeously, is a febrifuge, or sedative, and also a restorative." + +He muttered a few more learned words, and concluded by informing +Ramsay's friend in English far more intelligible than his Latin, that he +would look to him as his paymaster, for medicines, care, and attendance, +furnished, or to be furnished, to this party unknown. + +Master George only replied by desiring him to send his bill for what he +had already to charge, and to give himself no farther trouble unless he +heard from him. The pharmacopolist, who, from discoveries made by the +cloak falling a little aside, had no great opinion of the faculty of +this chance patient to make reimbursement, had no sooner seen his case +espoused by a substantial citizen, than he showed some reluctance to +quit possession of it, and it needed a short and stern hint from Master +George, which, with all his good-humour, he was capable of expressing +when occasion required, to send to his own dwelling this Esculapius of +Temple Bar. + +When they were rid of Mr. Raredrench, the charitable efforts of Jenkin +and Francis, to divest the patient of his long grey cloak, were firmly +resisted on his own part.--"My life suner--my life suner," he muttered +in indistinct murmurs. In these efforts to retain his upper garment, +which was too tender to resist much handling, it gave way at length with +a loud rent, which almost threw the patient into a second syncope, +and he sat before them in his under garments, the looped and repaired +wretchedness of which moved at once pity and laughter, and had certainly +been the cause of his unwillingness to resign the mantle, which, like +the virtue of charity, served to cover so many imperfections. + +The man himself cast his eyes on his poverty-struck garb, and seemed so +much ashamed of the disclosure, that, muttering between his teeth, that +he would be too late for his appointment, he made an effort to rise and +leave the shop, which was easily prevented by Jenkin Vincent and his +comrade, who, at the nod of Master George, laid hold of and detained him +in his chair. + +The patient next looked round him for a moment, and then said faintly, +in his broad northern language--"What sort of usage ca' ye this, +gentlemen, to a stranger a sojourner in your town? Ye hae broken my +head--ye hae riven my cloak, and now ye are for restraining my personal +liberty! They were wiser than me," he said, after a moment's pause, +"that counselled me to wear my warst claithing in the streets of +London; and, if I could have got ony things warse than these mean +garments,"--("which would have been very difficult," said Jin Vin, in a +whisper to his companion,)--"they would have been e'en ower gude for the +grips o' men sae little acquented with the laws of honest civility." + +"To say the truth," said Jenkin, unable to forbear any longer, although +the discipline of the times prescribed to those in his situation a +degree of respectful distance and humility in the presence of parents, +masters, or seniors, of which the present age has no idea--"to say the +truth, the good gentleman's clothes look as if they would not brook much +handling." + +"Hold your peace, young man," said Master George, with a tone of +authority; "never mock the stranger or the poor--the black ox has not +trod on your foot yet--you know not what lands you may travel in, or +what clothes you may wear, before you die." + +Vincent held down his head and stood rebuked, but the stranger did not +accept the apology which was made for him. + +"I _am_ a stranger, sir," said he, "that is certain; though methinks, +that, being such, I have been somewhat familiarly treated in this town +of yours; but, as for my being poor, I think I need not be charged with +poverty, till I seek siller of somebody." + +"The dear country all over," said Master George, in a whisper, to David +Ramsay, "pride and poverty." + +But David had taken out his tablets and silver pen, and, deeply immersed +in calculations, in which he rambled over all the terms of arithmetic, +from the simple unit to millions, billions, and trillions, neither heard +nor answered the observation of his friend, who, seeing his abstraction, +turned again to the Scot. + +"I fancy now, Jockey, if a stranger were to offer you a noble, you would +chuck it back at his head?" + +"Not if I could do him honest service for it, sir," said the Scot; "I +am willing to do what I may to be useful, though I come of an honourable +house, and may be said to be in a sort indifferently weel provided for." + +"Ay!" said the interrogator, "and what house may claim the honour of +your descent?" + +"An ancient coat belongs to it, as the play says," whispered Vincent to +his companion. + +"Come, Jockey, out with it," continued Master George, observing that the +Scot, as usual with his countrymen, when asked a blunt, straightforward +question, took a little time before answering it. + +"I am no more Jockey, sir, than you are John," said the stranger, as if +offended at being addressed by a name, which at that time was used, as +Sawney now is, for a general appellative of the Scottish nation. "My +name, if you must know it, is Richie Moniplies; and I come of the old +and honourable house of Castle Collop, weel kend at the West-Port of +Edinburgh." + +"What is that you call the West-Port?" proceeded the interrogator. + +"Why, an it like your honour," said Richie, who now, having recovered +his senses sufficiently to observe the respectable exterior of Master +George, threw more civility into his manner than at first, "the +West-Port is a gate of our city, as yonder brick arches at Whitehall +form the entrance of the king's palace here, only that the West-Port is +of stonern work, and mair decorated with architecture and the policy of +bigging." + +"Nouns, man, the Whitehall gateways were planned by the great Holbein," +answered Master George; "I suspect your accident has jumbled your +brains, my good friend. I suppose you will tell me next, you have +at Edinburgh as fine a navigable river as the Thames, with all its +shipping?" + +"The Thames!" exclaimed Richie, in a tone of ineffable contempt--"God +bless your honour's judgment, we have at Edinburgh the Water-of-Leith +and the Nor-loch!" + +"And the Pow-Burn, and the Quarry-holes, and the Gusedub, ye fause +loon!" answered Master George, speaking Scotch with a strong and natural +emphasis; "it is such land-loupers as you, that, with your falset and +fair fashions, bring reproach on our whole country." + +"God forgie me, sir," said Richie, much surprised at finding the +supposed southron converted into a native Scot, "I took your honour for +an Englisher! But I hope there was naething wrang in standing up for +ane's ain country's credit in a strange land, where all men cry her +down?" + +"Do you call it for your country's credit, to show that she has a lying, +puffing rascal, for one of her children?" said Master George. "But come, +man, never look grave on it,--as you have found a countryman, so you +have found a friend, if you deserve one--and especially if you answer me +truly." + +"I see nae gude it wad do me to speak ought else but truth," said the +worthy North Briton. + +"Well, then--to begin," said Master George, "I suspect you are a son of +old Mungo Moniplies, the flesher, at the West-Port." + +"Your honour is a witch, I think," said Richie, grinning. + +"And how dared you, sir, to uphold him for a noble?" + +"I dinna ken, sir," said Richie, scratching his head; "I hear muckle +of an Earl of Warwick in these southern parts,--Guy, I think his name +was,--and he has great reputation here for slaying dun cows, and boars, +and such like; and I am sure my father has killed more cows and boars, +not to mention bulls, calves, sheep, ewes, lambs, and pigs, than the +haill Baronage of England." + +"Go to! you are a shrewd knave," said Master George; "charm your tongue, +and take care of saucy answers. Your father was an honest burgher, and +the deacon of his craft: I am sorry to see his son in so poor a coat." + +"Indifferent, sir," said Richie Moniplies, looking down on his +garments--"very indifferent; but it is the wonted livery of poor +burghers' sons in our country--one of Luckie Want's bestowing upon +us--rest us patient! The king's leaving Scotland has taken all custom +frae Edinburgh; and there is hay made at the Cross, and a dainty crop +of fouats in the Grass-market. There is as much grass grows where my +father's stall stood, as might have been a good bite for the beasts he +was used to kill." + +"It is even too true," said Master George; "and while we make fortunes +here, our old neighbours and their families are starving at home. This +should be thought upon oftener.--And how came you by that broken head, +Richie?--tell me honestly." + +"Troth, sir, I'se no lee about the matter," answered Moniplies. "I was +coming along the street here, and ilk ane was at me with their jests and +roguery. So I thought to mysell, ye are ower mony for me to mell with; +but let me catch ye in Barford's Park, or at the fit of the Vennel, I +could gar some of ye sing another sang. Sae ae auld hirpling deevil of +a potter behoved just to step in my way and offer me a pig, as he +said, just to put my Scotch ointment in, and I gave him a push, as but +natural, and the tottering deevil coupit ower amang his ain pigs, and +damaged a score of them. And then the reird raise, and hadna these twa +gentlemen helped me out of it, murdered I suld hae been, without remeid. +And as it was, just when they got haud of my arm to have me out of the +fray, I got the lick that donnerit me from a left-handed lighterman." + +Master George looked to the apprentices as if to demand the truth of +this story. + +"It is just as he says, sir," replied Jenkin; "only I heard nothing +about pigs.--The people said he had broke some crockery, and that--I beg +pardon, sir--nobody could thrive within the kenning of a Scot." + +"Well, no matter what they said, you were an honest fellow to help the +weaker side.--And you, sirrah," continued Master George, addressing his +countryman, "will call at my house to-morrow morning, agreeable to this +direction." + +"I will wait upon your honour," said the Scot, bowing very low; "that +is, if my honourable master will permit me." + +"Thy master?" said George,--"Hast thou any other master save Want, whose +livery you say you wear?" + +"Troth, in one sense, if it please your honour, I serve twa masters," +said Richie; "for both my master and me are slaves to that same beldam, +whom we thought to show our heels to by coming off from Scotland. So +that you see, sir, I hold in a sort of black ward tenure, as we call it +in our country, being the servant of a servant." + +"And what is your master's name?" said Master George; and observing that +Richie hesitated, he added, "Nay, do not tell me, if it is a secret." + +"A secret that there is little use in keeping," said Richie; "only ye +ken that our northern stomachs are ower proud to call in witnesses to +our distress. No that my master is in mair than present pinch, sir," he +added, looking towards the two English apprentices, "having a large sum +in the Royal Treasury--that is," he continued, in a whisper to Master +George,--"the king is owing him a lot of siller; but it's ill getting at +it, it's like.--My master is the young Lord Glenvarloch." + +Master George testified surprise at the name.--"_You_ one of the young +Lord Glenvarloch's followers, and in such a condition?" + +"Troth, and I am all the followers he has, for the present that is; and +blithe wad I be if he were muckle better aff than I am, though I were to +bide as I am." + +"I have seen his father with four gentlemen and ten lackeys at his +heels," said Master George, "rustling in their laces and velvets. Well, +this is a changeful world, but there is a better beyond it.--The good +old house of Glenvarloch, that stood by king and country five hundred +years!" + +"Your honour may say a thousand," said the follower. + +"I will say what I know to be true, friend," said the citizen, "and not +a word more.--You seem well recovered now--can you walk?" + +"Bravely, sir," said Richie; "it was but a bit dover. I was bred at the +West-Port, and my cantle will stand a clour wad bring a stot down." + +"Where does your master lodge?" + +"We pit up, an it like your honour," replied the Scot, "in a sma' house +at the fit of ane of the wynds that gang down to the water-side, with +a decent man, John Christie, a ship-chandler, as they ca't. His father +came from Dundee. I wotna the name of the wynd, but it's right anent the +mickle kirk yonder; and your honour will mind, that we pass only by our +family-name of simple Mr. Nigel Olifaunt, as keeping ourselves retired +for the present, though in Scotland we be called the Lord Nigel." + +"It is wisely done of your master," said the citizen. "I will find +out your lodgings, though your direction be none of the clearest." +So saying, and slipping a piece of money at the same time into Richie +Moniplies's hand, he bade him hasten home, and get into no more affrays. + +"I will take care of that now, sir," said Richie, with a look of +importance, "having a charge about me. And so, wussing ye a' weel, with +special thanks to these twa young gentlemen----" + +"I am no gentleman," said Jenkin, flinging his cap on his head; "I am +a tight London 'prentice, and hope to be a freeman one day. Frank may +write himself gentleman, if he will." + +"I _was_ a gentleman once," said Tunstall, "and I hope I have done +nothing to lose the name of one." + +"Weel, weel, as ye list," said Richie Moniplies; "but I am mickle +beholden to ye baith--and I am not a hair the less like to bear it in +mind that I say but little about it just now.--Gude-night to you, my +kind countryman." So saying, he thrust out of the sleeve of his ragged +doublet a long bony hand and arm, on which the muscles rose like +whip-cord. Master George shook it heartily, while Jenkin and Frank +exchanged sly looks with each other. + +Richie Moniplies would next have addressed his thanks to the master of +the shop, but seeing him, as he afterwards said, "scribbling on his +bit bookie, as if he were demented," he contented his politeness +with "giving him a hat," touching, that is, his bonnet, in token of +salutation, and so left the shop. + +"Now, there goes Scotch Jockey, with all his bad and good about him," +said Master George to Master David, who suspended, though unwillingly, +the calculations with which he was engaged, and keeping his pen within +an inch of the tablets, gazed on his friend with great lack-lustre eyes, +which expressed any thing rather than intelligence or interest in the +discourse addressed to him.--"That fellow," proceeded Master George, +without heeding his friend's state of abstraction, "shows, with great +liveliness of colouring, how our Scotch pride and poverty make liars +and braggarts of us; and yet the knave, whose every third word to an +Englishman is a boastful lie, will, I warrant you, be a true and tender +friend and follower to his master, and has perhaps parted with his +mantle to him in the cold blast, although he himself walked _in cuerpo,_ +as the Don says.--Strange! that courage and fidelity--for I will warrant +that the knave is stout--should have no better companion than this +swaggering braggadocio humour.--But you mark me not, friend Davie." + +"I do--I do, most heedfully," said Davie.--"For, as the sun goeth round +the dial-plate in twenty-four hours, add, for the moon, fifty minutes +and a half----" + +"You are in the seventh heavens, man," said his companion. + +"I crave your pardon," replied Davie.--"Let the wheel A go round in +twenty-four hours--I have it--and the wheel B in twenty-four hours, +fifty minutes and a half--fifty-seven being to fifty-four, as fifty-nine +to twenty-four hours, fifty minutes and a half, or very nearly,--I crave +your forgiveness, Master George, and heartily wish you good-even." + +"Good-even?" said Master George; "why, you have not wished me good-day +yet. Come, old friend, lay by these tablets, or you will crack the inner +machinery of _your_ skull, as our friend yonder has got the outer-case +of his damaged.--Good-night, quotha! I mean not to part with you so +easily. I came to get my four hours' nunchion from you, man, besides a +tune on the lute from my god-daughter, Mrs. Marget." + +"Good faith! I was abstracted, Master George--but you know me. Whenever +I get amongst the wheels," said Mr. Ramsay, "why, 'tis----" + +"Lucky that you deal in small ones," said his friend; as, awakened from +his reveries and calculations, Ramsay led the way up a little back-stair +to the first storey, occupied by his daughter and his little household. + +The apprentices resumed their places in the front-shop, and relieved +Sam Porter; when Jenkin said to Tunstall--"Didst see, Frank, how the old +goldsmith cottoned in with his beggarly countryman? When would one +of his wealth have shaken hands so courteously with a poor +Englishman?--Well, I'll say that for the best of the Scots, that they +will go over head and ears to serve a countryman, when they will not +wet a nail of their finger to save a Southron, as they call us, from +drowning. And yet Master George is but half-bred Scot neither in that +respect; for I have known him do many a kind thing to the English too." + +"But hark ye, Jenkin," said Tunstall, "I think you are but half-bred +English yourself. How came you to strike on the Scotsman's side after +all?" + +"Why, you did so, too," answered Vincent. + +"Ay, because I saw you begin; and, besides, it is no Cumberland fashion +to fall fifty upon one," replied Tunstall. + +"And no Christ Church fashion neither," said Jenkin. "Fair play and Old +England for ever!--Besides, to tell you a secret, his voice had a twang +in it--in the dialect I mean--reminded me of a little tongue, which I +think sweeter--sweeter than the last toll of St. Dunstan's will sound, +on the day that I am shot of my indentures--Ha!--you guess who I mean, +Frank?" + +"Not I, indeed," answered Tunstall.--"Scotch Janet, I suppose, the +laundress." + + +"Off with Janet in her own bucking-basket!--No, no, no!--You blind +buzzard,--do you not know I mean pretty Mrs. Marget?" + +"Umph!" answered Tunstall, dryly. + +A flash of anger, not unmingled with suspicion, shot from Jenkin's keen +black eyes. + +"Umph!--and what signifies umph? I am not the first 'prentice has +married his master's daughter, I suppose?" + +"They kept their own secret, I fancy," said Tunstall, "at least till +they were out of their time." + +"I tell you what it is, Frank," answered Jenkin, sharply, "that may +be the fashion of you gentlefolks, that are taught from your biggin to +carry two faces under the same hood, but it shall never be mine." + +"There are the stairs, then," said Tunstall, coolly; "go up and ask Mrs. +Marget of our master just now, and see what sort of a face he will wear +under _his_ hood." + +"No, I wonnot," answered Jenkin; "I am not such a fool as that neither. +But I will take my own time; and all the Counts in Cumberland shall not +cut my comb, and this is that which you may depend upon." + +Francis made no reply; and they resumed their usual attention to the +business of the shop, and their usual solicitations to the passengers. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +_Bobadil._ I pray you, possess no gallant of your acquaintance with a +knowledge of my lodging. _Master Matthew._ Who, I, sir?--Lord, sir! _Ben +Jonson._ + +The next morning found Nigel Olifaunt, the young Lord of Glenvarloch, +seated, sad and solitary, in his little apartment, in the mansion +of John Christie, the ship-chandler; which that honest tradesman, in +gratitude perhaps to the profession from which he derived his chief +support, appeared to have constructed as nearly as possible upon the +plan of a ship's cabin. + +It was situated near to Paul's Wharf, at the end of one of those +intricate and narrow lanes, which, until that part of the city was swept +away by the Great Fire in 1666, constituted an extraordinary labyrinth +of small, dark, damp, and unwholesome streets and alleys, in one corner +or other of which the plague was then as surely found lurking, as in the +obscure corners of Constantinople in our own time. But John Christie's +house looked out upon the river, and had the advantage, therefore, +of free air, impregnated, however, with the odoriferous fumes of the +articles in which the ship-chandler dealt, with the odour of pitch, and +the natural scent of the ooze and sludge left by the reflux of the tide. + +Upon the whole, except that his dwelling did not float with the +flood-tide, and become stranded with the ebb, the young lord was nearly +as comfortably accommodated as he was while on board the little trading +brig from the long town of Kirkaldy, in Fife, by which he had come a +passenger to London. He received, however, every attention which could +be paid him by his honest landlord, John Christie; for Richie Moniplies +had not thought it necessary to preserve his master's _incognito_ so +completely, but that the honest ship-chandler could form a guess that +his guest's quality was superior to his appearance. + +As for Dame Nelly, his wife, a round, buxom, laughter-loving dame, +with black eyes, a tight well-laced bodice, a green apron, and a red +petticoat edged with a slight silver lace, and judiciously shortened so +as to show that a short heel, and a tight clean ankle, rested upon her +well-burnished shoe,--she, of course, felt interest in a young man, who, +besides being very handsome, good-humoured, and easily satisfied with +the accommodations her house afforded, was evidently of a rank, as well +as manners, highly superior to the skippers (or Captains, as they called +themselves) of merchant vessels, who were the usual tenants of the +apartments which she let to hire; and at whose departure she was sure to +find her well-scrubbed floor soiled with the relics of tobacco, (which, +spite of King James's Counterblast, was then forcing itself into use,) +and her best curtains impregnated with the odour of Geneva and strong +waters, to Dame Nelly's great indignation; for, as she truly said, the +smell of the shop and warehouse was bad enough without these additions. + +But all Mr. Olifaunt's habits were regular and cleanly, and his address, +though frank and simple, showed so much of the courtier and gentleman, +as formed a strong contrast with the loud halloo, coarse jests, and +boisterous impatience of her maritime inmates. Dame Nelly saw that her +guest was melancholy also, notwithstanding his efforts to seem contented +and cheerful; and, in short, she took that sort of interest in him, +without being herself aware of the extent, which an unscrupulous gallant +might have been tempted to improve to the prejudice of honest John, +who was at least a score of years older than his helpmate. Olifaunt, +however, had not only other matters to think of, but would have regarded +such an intrigue, had the idea ever occurred to him, as an abominable +and ungrateful encroachment upon the laws of hospitality, his religion +having been by his late father formed upon the strict principles of the +national faith, and his morality upon those of the nicest honour. He +had not escaped the predominant weakness of his country, an overweening +sense of the pride of birth, and a disposition to value the worth and +consequence of others according to the number and the fame of their +deceased ancestors; but this pride of family was well subdued, and +in general almost entirely concealed, by his good sense and general +courtesy. + +Such as we have described him, Nigel Olifaunt, or rather the young +Lord Glenvarloch, was, when our narrative takes him up, under great +perplexity respecting the fate of his trusty and only follower, Richard +Moniplies, who had been dispatched by his young master, early the +preceding morning, as far as the court at Westminster, but had not yet +returned. His evening adventures the reader is already acquainted with, +and so far knows more of Richie than did his master, who had not heard +of him for twenty-four hours. + +Dame Nelly Christie, in the meantime, regarded her guest with some +anxiety, and a great desire to comfort him, if possible. She placed on +the breakfast-table a noble piece of cold powdered beef, with its usual +guards of turnip and carrot, recommended her mustard as coming direct +from her cousin at Tewkesbury, and spiced the toast with her own +hands--and with her own hands, also, drew a jug of stout and nappy ale, +all of which were elements of the substantial breakfast of the period. + +When she saw that her guest's anxiety prevented him from doing justice +to the good cheer which she set before him, she commenced her career +of verbal consolation with the usual volubility of those women in her +station, who, conscious of good looks, good intentions, and good lungs, +entertain no fear either of wearying themselves or of fatiguing their +auditors. + +"Now, what the good year! are we to send you down to Scotland as thin +as you came up?--I am sure it would be contrary to the course of nature. +There was my goodman's father, old Sandie Christie, I have heard he was +an atomy when he came up from the North, and I am sure he died, Saint +Barnaby was ten years, at twenty stone weight. I was a bare-headed girl +at the time, and lived in the neighbourhood, though I had little thought +of marrying John then, who had a score of years the better of me--but he +is a thriving man and a kind husband--and his father, as I was saying, +died as fat as a church-warden. Well, sir, but I hope I have not +offended you for my little joke--and I hope the ale is to your honour's +liking,--and the beef--and the mustard?" + +"All excellent--all too good," answered Olifaunt; "you have every thing +so clean and tidy, dame, that I shall not know how to live when I go +back to my own country--if ever I go back there." + +This was added as it seemed involuntarily, and with a deep sigh. + +"I warrant your honour go back again if you like it," said the dame: +"unless you think rather of taking a pretty well-dowered English lady, +as some of your countryfolk have done. I assure you, some of the best of +the city have married Scotsmen. There was Lady Trebleplumb, Sir Thomas +Trebleplumb the great Turkey merchant's widow, married Sir Awley +Macauley, whom your honour knows, doubtless; and pretty Mistress +Doublefee, old Sergeant Doublefee's daughter, jumped out of window, +and was married at May-fair to a Scotsman with a hard name; and old +Pitchpost the timber merchant's daughters did little better, for they +married two Irishmen; and when folks jeer me about having a Scotsman +for lodger, meaning your honour, I tell them they are afraid of their +daughters and their mistresses; and sure I have a right to stand up for +the Scots, since John Christie is half a Scotsman, and a thriving man, +and a good husband, though there is a score of years between us; and so +I would have your honour cast care away, and mend your breakfast with a +morsel and a draught." + +"At a word, my kind hostess, I cannot," said Olifaunt; "I am anxious +about this knave of mine, who has been so long absent in this dangerous +town of yours." + +It may be noticed in passing that Dame Nelly's ordinary mode of +consolation was to disprove the existence of any cause for distress; and +she is said to have carried this so far as to comfort a neighbour, who +had lost her husband, with the assurance that the dear defunct would be +better to-morrow, which perhaps might not have proved an appropriate, +even if it had been a possible, mode of relief. + +On this occasion she denied stoutly that Richie had been absent +altogether twenty hours; and as for people being killed in the streets +of London, to be sure two men had been found in Tower-ditch last week, +but that was far to the east, and the other poor man that had his throat +cut in the fields, had met his mishap near by Islington; and he that was +stabbed by the young Templar in a drunken frolic, by Saint Clement's +in the Strand, was an Irishman. All which evidence she produced to show +that none of these casualties had occurred in a case exactly parallel +with that of Richie, a Scotsman, and on his return from Westminster. + +"My better comfort is, my good dame," answered Olifaunt, "that the lad +is no brawler or quarreller, unless strongly urged, and that he has +nothing valuable about him to any one but me." + +"Your honour speaks very well," retorted the inexhaustible hostess, who +protracted her task of taking away, and putting to rights, in order +that she might prolong her gossip. "I'll uphold Master Moniplies to be +neither reveller nor brawler, for if he liked such things, he might +be visiting and junketing with the young folks about here in the +neighbourhood, and he never dreams of it; and when I asked the young +man to go as far as my gossip's, Dame Drinkwater, to taste a glass of +aniseed, and a bit of the groaning cheese,--for Dame Drinkwater has had +twins, as I told your honour, sir,--and I meant it quite civilly to the +young man, but he chose to sit and keep house with John Christie; and +I dare say there is a score of years between them, for your honour's +servant looks scarce much older than I am. I wonder what they could have +to say to each other. I asked John Christie, but he bid me go to sleep." + +"If he comes not soon," said his master, "I will thank you to tell me +what magistrate I can address myself to; for besides my anxiety for the +poor fellow's safety, he has papers of importance about him." + +"O! your honour may be assured he will be back in a quarter of an hour," +said Dame Nelly; "he is not the lad to stay out twenty-four hours at a +stretch. And for the papers, I am sure your honour will pardon him for +just giving me a peep at the corner, as I was giving him a small cup, +not so large as my thimble, of distilled waters, to fortify his stomach +against the damps, and it was directed to the King's Most Excellent +Majesty; and so doubtless his Majesty has kept Richie out of civility to +consider of your honour's letter, and send back a fitting reply." + +Dame Nelly here hit by chance on a more available topic of consolation +than those she had hitherto touched upon; for the youthful lord had +himself some vague hopes that his messenger might have been delayed at +Court until a fitting and favourable answer should be dispatched back to +him. Inexperienced, however, in public affairs as he certainly was, +it required only a moment's consideration to convince him of the +improbability of an expectation so contrary to all he had heard of +etiquette, as well as the dilatory proceedings in a court suit, and he +answered the good-natured hostess with a sigh, that he doubted whether +the king would even look on the paper addressed to him, far less take it +into his immediate consideration. + +"Now, out upon you for a faint-hearted gentleman!" said the good +dame; "and why should he not do as much for us as our gracious Queen +Elizabeth? Many people say this and that about a queen and a king, but +I think a king comes more natural to us English folks; and this good +gentleman goes as often down by water to Greenwich, and employs as many +of the barge-men and water-men of all kinds; and maintains, in his royal +grace, John Taylor, the water-poet, who keeps both a sculler and a pair +of oars. And he has made a comely Court at Whitehall, just by the river; +and since the king is so good a friend to the Thames, I cannot see, +if it please your honour, why all his subjects, and your honour in +specialty, should not have satisfaction by his hands." + +"True, dame--true,--let us hope for the best; but I must take my cloak +and rapier, and pray your husband in courtesy to teach me the way to a +magistrate." + +"Sure, sir," said the prompt dame, "I can do that as well as he, who has +been a slow man of his tongue all his life, though I will give him his +due for being a loving husband, and a man as well to pass in the world +as any betwixt us and the top of the lane. And so there is the sitting +alderman, that is always at the Guildhall, which is close by Paul's, and +so I warrant you he puts all to rights in the city that wisdom can mend; +and for the rest there is no help but patience. But I wish I were as +sure of forty pounds as I am that the young man will come back safe and +sound." + +Olifaunt, in great and anxious doubt of what the good dame so strongly +averred, flung his cloak on one shoulder, and was about to belt on his +rapier, when first the voice of Richie Moniplies on the stair, and +then that faithful emissary's appearance in the chamber, put the matter +beyond question. Dame Nelly, after congratulating Moniplies on his +return, and paying several compliments to her own sagacity for having +foretold it, was at length pleased to leave the apartment. The truth +was, that, besides some instinctive feelings of good breeding which +combated her curiosity, she saw there was no chance of Richie's +proceeding in his narrative while she was in the room, and she therefore +retreated, trusting that her own address would get the secret out of one +or other of the young men, when she should have either by himself. + +"Now, in Heaven's name, what is the matter?" said Nigel +Olifaunt.--"Where have you been, or what have you been about? You look +as pale as death. There is blood on your hand, and your clothes are +torn. What barns-breaking have you been at? You have been drunk, +Richard, and fighting." + +"Fighting I have been," said Richard, "in a small way; but for being +drunk, that's a job ill to manage in this town, without money to come +by liquor; and as for barns-breaking, the deil a thing's broken but my +head. It's not made of iron, I wot, nor my claithes of chenzie-mail; so +a club smashed the tane, and a claught damaged the tither. Some misleard +rascals abused my country, but I think I cleared the causey of them. +However, the haill hive was ower mony for me at last, and I got this +eclipse on the crown, and then I was carried, beyond my kenning, to +a sma' booth at the Temple Port, whare they sell the whirligigs and +mony-go-rounds that measure out time as a man wad measure a tartan +web; and then they bled me, wold I nold I, and were reasonably civil, +especially an auld country-man of ours, of whom more hereafter." + +"And at what o'clock might this be?" said Nigel. + +"The twa iron carles yonder, at the kirk beside the Port, were just +banging out sax o' the clock." + +"And why came you not home as soon as you recovered?" said Nigel. + +"In troth, my lord, every _why_ has its _wherefore_, and this has a gude +ane," answered his follower. "To come hame, I behoved to ken whare hame +was; now, I had clean tint the name of the wynd, and the mair I asked, +the mair the folk leugh, and the farther they sent me wrang; sae I gave +it up till God should send daylight to help me; and as I saw mysell near +a kirk at the lang run, I e'en crap in to take up my night's quarters in +the kirkyard." + +"In the churchyard?" said Nigel--"But I need not ask what drove you to +such a pinch." + +"It wasna sae much the want o' siller, my Lord Nigel," said Richie, +with an air of mysterious importance, "for I was no sae absolute without +means, of whilk mair anon; but I thought I wad never ware a saxpence +sterling on ane of their saucy chamberlains at a hostelry, sae lang as +I could sleep fresh and fine in a fair, dry, spring night. Mony a time, +when I hae come hame ower late, and faund the West-Port steekit, and the +waiter ill-willy, I have garr'd the sexton of Saint Cuthbert's calf-ward +serve me for my quarters. But then there are dainty green graffs in +Saint Cuthbert's kirkyard, whare ane may sleep as if they were in a +down-bed, till they hear the lavrock singing up in the air as high as +the Castle; whereas, and behold, these London kirkyards are causeyed +with through-stanes, panged hard and fast thegither; and my cloak being +something threadbare, made but a thin mattress, so I was fain to give +up my bed before every limb about me was crippled. Dead folks may sleep +yonder sound enow, but deil haet else." + +"And what became of you next?" said his master. + +"I just took to a canny bulkhead, as they ca' them here; that is, the +boards on the tap of their bits of outshots of stalls and booths, +and there I sleepit as sound as if I was in a castle. Not but I was +disturbed with some of the night-walking queans and swaggering billies, +but when they found there was nothing to be got by me but a slash of my +Andrew Ferrara, they bid me good-night for a beggarly Scot; and I was +e'en weel pleased to be sae cheap rid of them. And in the morning, I cam +daikering here, but sad wark I had to find the way, for I had been +east as far as the place they ca' Mile-End, though it is mair like +sax-mile-end." + +"Well, Richie," answered Nigel, "I am glad all this has ended so +well--go get something to eat. I am sure you need it." + +"In troth do I, sir," replied Moniplies; "but, with your lordship's +leave--" + +"Forget the lordship for the present, Richie, as I have often told you +before." + +"Faith," replied Richie, "I could weel forget that your honour was a +lord, but then I behoved to forget that I am a lord's man, and that's +not so easy. But, however," he added, assisting his description with the +thumb and the two forefingers of his right hand, thrust out after the +fashion of a bird's claw, while the little finger and ring-finger were +closed upon the palm, "to the Court I went, and my friend that promised +me a sight of his Majesty's most gracious presence, was as gude as +his word, and carried me into the back offices, where I got the best +breakfast I have had since we came here, and it did me gude for the rest +of the day; for as to what I have eaten in this accursed town, it is aye +sauced with the disquieting thought that it maun be paid for. After a', +there was but beef banes and fat brose; but king's cauff, your honour +kens, is better than ither folk's corn; at ony rate, it was a' in free +awmous.--But I see," he added, stopping short, "that your honour waxes +impatient." + +"By no means, Richie," said the young nobleman, with an air of +resignation, for he well knew his domestic would not mend his pace for +goading; "you have suffered enough in the embassy to have a right to +tell the story in your own way. Only let me pray for the name of the +friend who was to introduce you into the king's presence. You were very +mysterious on the subject, when you undertook, through his means, to +have the Supplication put into his Majesty's own hands, since those +sent heretofore, I have every reason to think, went no farther than his +secretary's." + +"Weel, my lord," said Richie, "I did not tell you his name and quality +at first, because I thought you would be affronted at the like of him +having to do in your lordship's affairs. But mony a man climbs up in +Court by waur help. It was just Laurie Linklater, one of the yeomen of +the kitchen, that was my father's apprentice lang syne." + +"A yeoman in the kitchen--a scullion!" exclaimed Lord Nigel, pacing the +room in displeasure. + +"But consider, sir," said Richie, composedly, "that a' your great +friends hung back, and shunned to own you, or to advocate your petition; +and then, though I am sure I wish Laurie a higher office, for your +lordship's sake and for mine, and specially for his ain sake, being a +friendly lad, yet your lordship must consider, that a scullion, if a +yeoman of the king's most royal kitchen may be called a scullion, may +weel rank with a master-cook elsewhere; being that king's cauff, as I +said before, is better than--" + +"You are right, and I was wrong," said the young nobleman. "I have no +choice of means of making my case known, so that they be honest." + +"Laurie is as honest a lad as ever lifted a ladle," said Richie; "not +but what I dare to say he can lick his fingers like other folk, and +reason good. But, in fine, for I see your honour is waxing impatient, he +brought me to the palace, where a' was astir for the king going out to +hunt or hawk on Blackheath, I think they ca'd it. And there was a horse +stood with all the quarries about it, a bonny grey as ever was foaled; +and the saddle and the stirrups, and the curb and bit, o' burning gowd, +or silver gilded at least; and down, sir, came the king, with all his +nobles, dressed out in his hunting-suit of green, doubly laced, and laid +down with gowd. I minded the very face o' him, though it was lang since +I saw him. But my certie, lad, thought I, times are changed since ye +came fleeing down the back stairs of auld Holyrood House, in grit fear, +having your breeks in your hand without time to put them on, and Frank +Stewart, the wild Earl of Bothwell, hard at your haunches; and if auld +Lord Glenvarloch hadna cast his mantle about his arm, and taken bluidy +wounds mair than ane in your behalf, you wald not have craw'd sae +crouse this day; and so saying, I could not but think your lordship's +Sifflication could not be less than most acceptable; and so I banged +in among the crowd of lords. Laurie thought me mad, and held me by the +cloak-lap till the cloth rave in his hand; and so I banged in right +before the king just as he mounted, and crammed the Sifflication into +his hand, and he opened it like in amaze; and just as he saw the first +line, I was minded to make a reverence, and I had the ill luck to hit +his jaud o' a beast on the nose with my hat, and scaur the creature, +and she swarved aside, and the king, that sits na mickle better than a +draff-pock on the saddle, was like to have gotten a clean coup, and that +might have cost my craig a raxing-and he flung down the paper amang the +beast's feet, and cried, 'Away wi' the fause loon that brought it!' And +they grippit me, and cried treason; and I thought of the Ruthvens that +were dirked in their ain house, for, it may be, as small a forfeit. +However, they spak only of scourging me, and had me away to the porter's +lodge to try the tawse on my back, and I was crying mercy as loud as +I could; and the king, when he had righted himself on the saddle, and +gathered his breath, cried to do me nae harm; for, said he, he is ane +of our ain Norland stots, I ken by the rowt of him,--and they a' +laughed and rowted loud eneugh. And then he said, 'Gie him a copy of +the Proclamation, and let him go down to the North by the next light +collier, before waur come o't.' So they let me go, and rode out, a +sniggering, laughing, and rounding in ilk ither's lugs. A sair life I +had wi' Laurie Linklater; for he said it wad be the ruin of him. And +then, when I told him it was in your matter, he said if he had known +before he would have risked a scauding for you, because he minded +the brave old lord, your father. And then he showed how I suld have +done,--and that I suld have held up my hand to my brow, as if the +grandeur of the king and his horse-graith thegither had casten the +glaiks in my een, and mair jackanape tricks I suld hae played, instead +of offering the Sifflication, he said, as if I had been bringing guts to +a bear." [Footnote: I am certain this prudential advice is not original +on Mr. Linklater's part, but I am not at present able to produce my +authority. I think it amounted to this, that James flung down a petition +presented by some supplicant who paid no compliments to his horse, +and expressed no admiration at the splendour of his furniture, saying, +"Shall a king cumber himself about the petition of a beggar, while +the beggar disregards the king's splendour?" It is, I think, Sir John +Harrington who recommends, as a sure mode to the king's favour, to +praise the paces of the royal palfrey.] + +'For,' said he, 'Richie, the king is a weel-natured and just man of +his ain kindly nature, but he has a wheen maggots that maun be cannily +guided; and then, Richie,' says he, in a very laigh tone, 'I would tell +it to nane but a wise man like yoursell, but the king has them about him +wad corrupt an angel from heaven; but I could have gi'en you avisement +how to have guided him, but now it's like after meat mustard.'--'Aweel, +aweel, Laurie,' said I, 'it may be as you say', but since I am clear of +the tawse and the porter's lodge, sifflicate wha like, deil hae Richie +Moniplies if he come sifflicating here again.'--And so away I came, and +I wasna far by the Temple Port, or Bar, or whatever they ca' it, when I +met with the misadventure that I tauld you of before." + +"Well, my honest Richie," said Lord Nigel, "your attempt was well meant, +and not so ill conducted, I think, as to have deserved so bad an issue; +but go to your beef and mustard, and we'll talk of the rest afterwards." + +"There is nae mair to be spoken, sir," said his follower, "except that +I met ane very honest, fair-spoken, weel-put-on gentleman, or rather +burgher, as I think, that was in the whigmaleery man's back-shop; and +when he learned wha I was, behold he was a kindly Scot himsell, and, +what is more, a town's-bairn o' the gude town, and he behoved to compel +me to take this Portugal piece, to drink, forsooth--my certie, thought +I, we ken better, for we will eat it--and he spoke of paying your +lordship a visit." + +"You did not tell him where I lived, you knave?" said the Lord Nigel, +angrily. "'Sdeath! I shall have every clownish burgher from Edinburgh +come to gaze on my distress, and pay a shilling for having seen the +motion of the Poor Noble!" + +"Tell him where you lived?" said Richie, evading the question; "How +could I tell him what I kendna mysell? If I had minded the name of the +wynd, I need not have slept in the kirkyard yestreen." + +"See, then, that you give no one notice of our lodging," said the young +nobleman; "those with whom I have business I can meet at Paul's, or in +the Court of Requests." + +"This is steeking the stable-door when the steed is stolen," thought +Richie to himself; "but I must put him on another pin." + +So thinking, he asked the young lord what was in the Proclamation which +he still held folded in his hand; "for, having little time to spell at +it," said he, "your lordship well knows I ken nought about it but the +grand blazon at the tap--the lion has gotten a claught of our auld +Scottish shield now, but it was as weel upheld when it had a unicorn on +ilk side of it." + +Lord Nigel read the Proclamation, and he coloured deep with shame and +indignation as he read; for the purport was, to his injured feelings, +like the pouring of ardent spirits upon a recent wound. + +"What deil's in the paper, my lord?" said Richie, unable to suppress his +curiosity as he observed his master change colour; "I wadna ask such a +thing, only the Proclamation is not a private thing, but is meant for a' +men's hearing." + +"It is indeed meant for all men's hearing," replied Lord Nigel, "and it +proclaims the shame of our country, and the ingratitude of our Prince." + +"Now the Lord preserve us! and to publish it in London, too!" ejaculated +Moniplies. + +"Hark ye, Richard," said Nigel Olifaunt, "in this paper the Lords of the +Council set forth, that, 'in consideration of the resort of idle persons +of low condition forth from his Majesty's kingdom of Scotland to his +English Court--filling the same with their suits and supplications, +and dishonouring the royal presence with their base, poor, and beggarly +persons, to the disgrace of their country in the estimation of the +English; these are to prohibit the skippers, masters of vessels +and others, in every part of Scotland, from bringing such miserable +creatures up to Court under pain of fine and impisonment."' + +"I marle the skipper took us on board," said Richie. + +"Then you need not marvel how you are to get back again," said Lord +Nigel, "for here is a clause which says, that such idle suitors are to +be transported back to Scotland at his Majesty's expense, and punished +for their audacity with stripes, stocking, or incarceration, according +to their demerits--that is to say, I suppose, according to the degree of +their poverty, for I see no other demerit specified." + +"This will scarcely," said Richie, "square with our old proverb-- + + A King's face + Should give grace-- + +But what says the paper farther, my lord?" + +"O, only a small clause which especially concerns us, making some still +heavier denunciations against those suitors who shall be so bold as to +approach the Court, under pretext of seeking payment of old debts due +to them by the king, which, the paper states, is, of all species of +importunity, that which is most odious to his Majesty." + +"The king has neighbours in that matter," said Richie; "but it is not +every one that can shift off that sort of cattle so easily as he does." + +Their conversation was here interrupted by a knocking at the door. +Olifaunt looked out at the window, and saw an elderly respectable person +whom he knew not. Richie also peeped, and recognised, but, recognising, +chose not to acknowledge, his friend of the preceding evening. Afraid +that his share in the visit might be detected, he made his escape out +of the apartment under pretext of going to his breakfast; and left their +landlady the task of ushering Master George into Lord Nigel's apartment, +which she performed with much courtesy. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + Ay, sir, the clouted shoe hath oft times craft in't, + As says the rustic proverb; and your citizen, + In's grogram suit, gold chain, and well-black'd shoes, + Bears under his flat cap ofttimes a brain + Wiser than burns beneath the cap and feather, + Or seethes within the statesman's velvet nightcap. + _Read me my Riddle._ + +The young Scottish nobleman received the citizen with distant +politeness, expressing that sort of reserve by which those of the higher +ranks are sometimes willing to make a plebeian sensible that he is an +intruder. But Master George seemed neither displeased nor disconcerted. +He assumed the chair, which, in deference to his respectable appearance, +Lord Nigel offered to him, and said, after a moment's pause, during +which he had looked attentively at the young man, with respect not +unmingled with emotion--"You will forgive me for this rudeness, my +lord; but I was endeavouring to trace in your youthful countenance the +features of my good old lord, your excellent father." + +There was a moment's pause ere young Glenvarloch replied, still with +a reserved manner,--"I have been reckoned like my father, sir; and am +happy to see any one that respects his memory. But the business which +calls me to this city is of a hasty as well as a private nature, and--" + +"I understand the hint, my lord," said Master George, "and would not +be guilty of long detaining you from business, or more agreeable +conversation. My errand is almost done when I have said that my name is +George Heriot, warmly befriended, and introduced into the employment +of the Royal Family of Scotland, more than twenty years since, by your +excellent father; and that, learning from a follower of yours that your +lordship was in this city in prosecution of some business of importance, +it is my duty,--it is my pleasure,--to wait on the son of my respected +patron; and, as I am somewhat known both at the Court, and in the city, +to offer him such aid in the furthering of his affairs as my credit and +experience may be able to afford." + +"I have no doubt of either, Master Heriot," said Lord Nigel, "and I +thank you heartily for the good-will with which you have placed them at +a stranger's disposal; but my business at Court is done and ended, and +I intend to leave London and, indeed, the island, for foreign travel +and military service. I may add, that the suddenness of my departure +occasions my having little time at my disposal." + +Master Heriot did not take the hint, but sat fast, with an embarrassed +countenance however, like one who had something to say that he knew not +exactly how to make effectual. At length he said, with a dubious smile, +"You are fortunate, my lord, in having so soon dispatched your business +at Court. Your talking landlady informs me you have been but a fortnight +in this city. It is usually months and years ere the Court and a suitor +shake hands and part." + +"My business," said Lord Nigel, with a brevity which was intended to +stop further discussion, "was summarily dispatched." + +Still Master Heriot remained seated, and there was a cordial good-humour +added to the reverence of his appearance, which rendered it impossible +for Lord Nigel to be more explicit in requesting his absence. + +"Your lordship has not yet had time," said the citizen, still attempting +to sustain the conversation, "to visit the places of amusement,--the +playhouses, and other places to which youth resort. But I see in your +lordship's hand one of the new-invented plots of the piece, [Footnote: +Meaning, probably, playbills.] which they hand about of late--May I ask +what play?" + +"Oh! a well-known piece," said Lord Nigel, impatiently throwing down +the Proclamation, which he had hitherto been twisting to and fro in +his hand,--"an excellent and well-approved piece--_A New Way to Pay Old +Debts._" + +Master Heriot stooped down, saying, "Ah! my old acquaintance, Philip +Massinger;" but, having opened the paper and seen the purport, he looked +at Lord Nigel with surprise, saying, "I trust your lordship does not +think this prohibition can extend either to _your_ person or your +claims?" + +"I should scarce have thought so myself," said the young nobleman; "but +so it proves. His Majesty, to close this discourse at once, has been +pleased to send me this Proclamation, in answer to a respectful +Supplication for the repayment of large loans advanced by my father for +the service of the State, in the king's utmost emergencies." + +"It is impossible!" said the citizen--"it is absolutely impossible!--If +the king could forget what was due to your father's memory, still +he would not have wished--would not, I may say, have dared--to be so +flagrantly unjust to the memory of such a man as your father, who, dead +in the body, will long live in the memory of the Scottish people." + +"I should have been of your opinion," answered Lord Nigel, in the same +tone as before; "but there is no fighting with facts." + +"What was the tenor of this Supplication?" said Heriot; "or by whom was +it presented? Something strange there must have been in the contents, or +else--" + +"You may see my original draught," said the young lord, taking it out +of a small travelling strong-box; "the technical part is by my lawyer in +Scotland, a skilful and sensible man; the rest is my own, drawn, I hope, +with due deference and modesty." + +Master Heriot hastly cast his eye over the draught. "Nothing," he said, +"can be more well-tempered and respectful. Is it possible the king can +have treated this petition with contempt?" + +"He threw it down on the pavement," said the Lord of Glenvarloch, "and +sent me for answer that Proclamation, in which he classes me with the +paupers and mendicants from Scotland, who disgrace his Court in the eyes +of the proud English--that is all. Had not my father stood by him with +heart, sword, and fortune, he might never have seen the Court of England +himself." + +"But by whom was this Supplication presented, my lord?" said Heriot; +"for the distaste taken at the messenger will sometimes extend itself to +the message." + +"By my servant," said the Lord Nigel; "by the man you saw, and, I think, +were kind to." + +"By your servant, my lord?" said the citizen; "he seems a shrewd fellow, +and doubtless a faithful; but surely--" + +"You would say," said Lord Nigel, "he is no fit messenger to a king's +presence?--Surely he is not; but what could I do? Every attempt I had +made to lay my case before the king had miscarried, and my petitions +got no farther than the budgets of clerks and secretaries; this fellow +pretended he had a friend in the household that would bring him to the +king's presence,--and so--" + +"I understand," said Heriot; "but, my lord, why should you not, in +right of your rank and birth, have appeared at Court, and required an +audience, which could not have been denied to you?" + +The young lord blushed a little, and looked at his dress, which was very +plain; and, though in perfect good order, had the appearance of having +seen service. + +"I know not why I should be ashamed of speaking the truth," he said, +after a momentary hesitation,--"I had no dress suitable for appearing +at Court. I am determined to incur no expenses which I cannot discharge; +and I think you, sir, would not advise me to stand at the palace-door, +in person, and deliver my petition, along with those who are in very +deed pleading their necessity, and begging an alms." + +"That had been, indeed, unseemly," said the citizen; "but yet, my lord, +my mind runs strangely that there must be some mistake.--Can I speak +with your domestic?" + +"I see little good it can do," answered the young lord, "but the +interest you take in my misfortunes seems sincere, and therefore----" +He stamped on the floor, and in a few seconds afterwards Moniplies +appeared, wiping from his beard and mustaches the crumbs of bread, +and the froth of the ale-pot, which plainly showed how he had been +employed.--"Will your lordship grant permission," said Heriot, "that I +ask your groom a few questions?" + +"His lordship's page, Master George," answered Moniplies, with a nod of +acknowledgment, "if you are minded to speak according to the letter." + +"Hold your saucy tongue," said his master, "and reply distinctly to the +questions you are to be asked." + +"And _truly,_ if it like your pageship," said the citizen, "for you may +remember I have a gift to discover falset." + +"Weel, weel, weel," replied the domestic, somewhat embarrassed, in spite +of his effrontery--"though I think that the sort of truth that serves my +master, may weel serve ony ane else." + +"Pages lie to their masters by right of custom," said the citizen; "and +you write yourself in that band, though I think you be among the oldest +of such springalds; but to me you must speak truth, if you would not +have it end in the whipping-post." + +"And that's e'en a bad resting-place," said the well-grown page; "so +come away with your questions, Master George." + +"Well, then," demanded the citizen, "I am given to understand that you +yesterday presented to his Majesty's hand a Supplication, or petition, +from this honourable lord, your master." + +"Troth, there's nae gainsaying that, sir," replied Moniplies; "there +were enow to see it besides me." + +"And you pretend that his Majesty flung it from him with contempt?" said +the citizen. "Take heed, for I have means of knowing the truth; and you +were better up to the neck in the Nor-Loch, which you like so well, than +tell a leasing where his Majesty's name is concerned." + +"There is nae occasion for leasing-making about the matter," answered +Moniplies, firmly; "his Majesty e'en flung it frae him as if it had +dirtied his fingers." + +"You hear, sir," said Olifaunt, addressing Heriot. + +"Hush!" said the sagacious citizen; "this fellow is not ill named--he +has more plies than one in his cloak. Stay, fellow," for Moniplies, +muttering somewhat about finishing his breakfast, was beginning to +shamble towards the door, "answer me this farther question--When you +gave your master's petition to his Majesty, gave you nothing with it?" + +"Ou, what should I give wi' it, ye ken, Master George?" + +"That is what I desire and insist to know," replied his interrogator. + +"Weel, then--I am not free to say, that maybe I might not just slip +into the king's hand a wee bit Sifflication of mine ain, along with my +lord's--just to save his Majesty trouble--and that he might consider +them baith at ance." + +"A supplication of your own, you varlet!" said his master. + +"Ou dear, ay, my lord," said Richie--"puir bodies hae their bits of +sifflications as weel as their betters." + +"And pray, what might your worshipful petition import?" said Master +Heriot.--"Nay, for Heaven's sake, my lord, keep your patience, or we +shall never learn the truth of this strange matter.--Speak out, sirrah, +and I will stand your friend with my lord." + +"It's a lang story to tell--but the upshot is, that it's a scrape of an +auld accompt due to my father's yestate by her Majesty the king's maist +gracious mother, when she lived in the Castle, and had sundry providings +and furnishings forth of our booth, whilk nae doubt was an honour to +my father to supply, and whilk, doubtless, it will be a credit to his +Majesty to satisfy, as it will be grit convenience to me to receive the +saam." + +"What string of impertinence is this?" said his master. + +"Every word as true as e'er John Knox spoke," said Richie; "here's the +bit double of the Sifflication." + +Master George took a crumpled paper from the fellow's hand, and said, +muttering betwixt his teeth--"'Humbly showeth--um--um--his Majesty's +maist gracious mother--um--um--justly addebted and owing the sum of +fifteen merks--the compt whereof followeth--Twelve nowte's feet for +jellies--ane lamb, being Christmas--ane roasted capin in grease for +the privy chalmer, when my Lord of Bothwell suppit with her Grace.'--I +think, my lord, you can hardly be surprised that the king gave this +petition a brisk reception; and I conclude, Master Page, that you took +care to present your own Supplication before your master's?" + +"Troth did I not," answered Moniplies. "I thought to have given my +lord's first, as was reason gude; and besides that, it wad have redd the +gate for my ain little bill. But what wi' the dirdum an' confusion, an' +the loupin here and there of the skeigh brute of a horse, I believe I +crammed them baith into his hand cheek-by-jowl, and maybe my ain was +bunemost; and say there was aught wrang, I am sure I had a' the fright +and a' the risk--" + +"And shall have all the beating, you rascal knave," said Nigel; "am I to +be insulted and dishonoured by your pragmatical insolence, in blending +your base concerns with mine?" + +"Nay, nay, nay, my lord," said the good-humoured citizen, interposing, +"I have been the means of bringing the fellow's blunder to light--allow +me interest enough with your lordship to be bail for his bones. You +have cause to be angry, but still I think the knave mistook more out of +conceit than of purpose; and I judge you will have the better service of +him another time, if you overlook this fault--Get you gone, sirrah--I'll +make your peace." + +"Na, na," said Moniplies, keeping his ground firmly, "if he likes to +strike a lad that has followed him for pure love, for I think there has +been little servant's fee between us, a' the way frae Scotland, just +let my lord be doing, and see the credit he will get by it--and I would +rather (mony thanks to you though, Master George) stand by a lick of his +baton, than it suld e'er be said a stranger came between us." + +"Go, then," said his master, "and get out of my sight." + +"Aweel I wot that is sune done," said Moniplies, retiring slowly; "I did +not come without I had been ca'd for--and I wad have been away half an +hour since with my gude will, only Maister George keepit me to answer +his interrogation, forsooth, and that has made a' this stir." + +And so he made his grumbling exit, with the tone much rather of one who +has sustained an injury, than who has done wrong. + +"There never was a man so plagued as I am with a malapert knave!--The +fellow is shrewd, and I have found him faithful--I believe he loves me, +too, and he has given proofs of it--but then he is so uplifted in his +own conceit, so self-willed, and so self-opinioned, that he seems to +become the master and I the man; and whatever blunder he commits, he is +sure to make as loud complaints, as if the whole error lay with me, and +in no degree with himself." + +"Cherish him, and maintain him, nevertheless," said the citizen; +"for believe my grey hairs, that affection and fidelity are now rarer +qualities in a servitor, than when the world was younger. Yet, trust +him, my good lord, with no commission above his birth or breeding, for +you see yourself how it may chance to fall." + +"It is but too evident, Master Heriot," said the young nobleman; "and I +am sorry I have done injustice to my sovereign, and your master. But I +am, like a true Scotsman, wise behind hand--the mistake has happened--my +Supplication has been refused, and my only resource is to employ the +rest of my means to carry Moniplies and myself to some counter-scarp, +and die in the battle-front like my ancestors." + +"It were better to live and serve your country like your noble father, +my lord," replied Master George. "Nay, nay, never look down or shake +your head--the king has not refused your Supplication, for he has not +seen it--you ask but justice, and that his place obliges him to give to +his subjects--ay, my lord, and I will say that his natural temper doth +in this hold bias with his duty." + +"I were well pleased to think so, and yet----" said Nigel Olifaunt,--"I +speak not of my own wrongs, but my country hath many that are +unredressed." + +"My lord," said Master Heriot, "I speak of my royal master, not only +with the respect due from a subject--the gratitude to be paid by a +favoured servant, but also with the frankness of a free and loyal +Scotsman. The king is himself well disposed to hold the scales of +justice even; but there are those around him who can throw without +detection their own selfish wishes and base interests into the scale. +You are already a sufferer by this, and without your knowing it." + +"I am surprised, Master Heriot," said the young lord, "to hear you, upon +so short an acquaintance, talk as if you were familiarly acquainted with +my affairs." + +"My lord," replied the goldsmith, "the nature of my employment affords +me direct access to the interior of the palace; I am well known to be no +meddler in intrigues or party affairs, so that no favourite has as yet +endeavoured to shut against me the door of the royal closet; on the +contrary, I have stood well with each while he was in power, and I have +not shared the fall of any. But I cannot be thus connected with the +Court, without hearing, even against my will, what wheels are in motion, +and how they are checked or forwarded. Of course, when I choose to seek +such intelligence, I know the sources in which it is to be traced. I +have told you why I was interested in your lordship's fortunes. It was +last night only that I knew you were in this city, yet I have been +able, in coming hither this morning, to gain for you some information +respecting the impediments to your suit." + +"Sir, I am obliged by your zeal, however little it may be merited," +answered Nigel, still with some reserve; "yet I hardly know how I have +deserved this interest." + +"First let me satisfy you that it is real," said the citizen; "I blame +you not for being unwilling to credit the fair professions of a stranger +in my inferior class of society, when you have met so little friendship +from relations, and those of your own rank, bound to have assisted +you by so many ties. But mark the cause. There is a mortgage over your +father's extensive estate, to the amount of 40,000 merks, due ostensibly +to Peregrine Peterson, the Conservator of Scottish Privileges at +Campvere." + +"I know nothing of a mortgage," said the young lord; "but there is +a wadset for such a sum, which, if unredeemed, will occasion the +forfeiture of my whole paternal estate, for a sum not above a fourth +of its value--and it is for that very reason that I press the king's +government for a settlement of the debts due to my father, that I may be +able to redeem my land from this rapacious creditor." + +"A wadset in Scotland," said Heriot, "is the same with a mortgage +on this side of the Tweed; but you are not acquainted with your real +creditor. The Conservator Peterson only lends his name to shroud no less +a man than the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, who hopes, under cover +of this debt, to gain possession of the estate himself, or perhaps to +gratify a yet more powerful third party. He will probably suffer +his creature Peterson to take possession, and when the odium of the +transaction shall be forgotten, the property and lordship of Glenvarloch +will be conveyed to the great man by his obsequious instrument, under +cover of a sale, or some similar device." + +"Can this be possible?" said Lord Nigel; "the Chancellor wept when I +took leave of him--called me his cousin--even his son--furnished me with +letters, and, though I asked him for no pecuniary assistance, excused +himself unnecessarily for not pressing it on me, alleging the expenses +of his rank and his large family. No, I cannot believe a nobleman would +carry deceit so far." + +"I am not, it is true, of noble blood," said the citizen; "but once more +I bid you look on my grey hairs, and think what can be my interest in +dishonouring them with falsehood in affairs in which I have no interest, +save as they regard the son of my benefactor. Reflect also, have you had +any advantage from the Lord Chancellor's letters?" + +"None," said Nigel Olifaunt, "except cold deeds and fair words. I have +thought for some time, their only object was to get rid of me--one +yesterday pressed money on me when I talked of going abroad, in order +that I might not want the means of exiling myself." + +"Right," said Heriot; "rather than you fled not, they would themselves +furnish wings for you to fly withal." + +"I will to him this instant," said the incensed youth, "and tell him my +mind of his baseness." + +"Under your favour," said Heriot, detaining him, "you shall not do so. +By a quarrel you would become the ruin of me your informer; and though +I would venture half my shop to do your lordship a service, I think you +would hardly wish me to come by damage, when it can be of no service to +you." + +The word _shop_ sounded harshly in the ear of the young nobleman, who +replied hastily--"Damage, sir?--so far am I from wishing you to incur +damage, that I would to Heaven you would cease your fruitless offers of +serving one whom there is no chance of ultimately assisting!" + +"Leave me alone for that," said the citizen: "you have now erred as far +on the bow-hand. Permit me to take this Supplication--I will have it +suitably engrossed, and take my own time (and it shall be an early one) +for placing it, with more prudence, I trust, than that used by your +follower, in the king's hand--I will almost answer for his taking up the +matter as you would have him--but should he fail to do so, even then I +will not give up the good cause." + +"Sir," said the young nobleman, "your speech is so friendly, and my own +state so helpless, that I know not how to refuse your kind proffer, even +while I blush to accept it at the hands of a stranger." + +"We are, I trust, no longer such," said the goldsmith; "and for my +guerdon, when my mediation proves successful, and your fortunes are +re-established, you shall order your first cupboard of plate from George +Heriot." + +"You would have a bad paymaster, Master Heriot," said Lord Nigel. + +"I do not fear that," replied the goldsmith; "and I am glad to see you +smile, my lord--methinks it makes you look still more like the good old +lord your father; and it emboldens me, besides, to bring out a small +request--that you would take a homely dinner with me to-morrow. I lodge +hard by in Lombard Street. For the cheer, my lord, a mess of white +broth, a fat capon well larded, a dish of beef collops for auld +Scotland's sake, and it may be a cup of right old wine, that was +barrelled before Scotland and England were one nation--Then for company, +one or two of our own loving countrymen--and maybe my housewife may find +out a bonny Scots lass or so." + +"I would accept your courtesy, Master Heriot," said Nigel, "but I hear +the city ladies of London like to see a man gallant--I would not like to +let down a Scottish nobleman in their ideas, as doubtless you have said +the best of our poor country, and I rather lack the means of bravery for +the present." + +"My lord, your frankness leads me a step farther," said Master George. +"I--I owed your father some monies; and--nay, if your lordship looks at +me so fixedly, I shall never tell my story--and, to speak plainly, for +I never could carry a lie well through in my life--it is most fitting, +that, to solicit this matter properly, your lordship should go to +Court in a manner beseeming your quality. I am a goldsmith, and live +by lending money as well as by selling plate. I am ambitious to put an +hundred pounds to be at interest in your hands, till your affairs are +settled." + +"And if they are never favourably settled?" said Nigel. + +"Then, my lord," returned the citizen, "the miscarriage of such a sum +will be of little consequence to me, compared with other subjects of +regret." + +"Master Heriot," said the Lord Nigel, "your favour is generously +offered, and shall be frankly accepted. I must presume that you see your +way through this business, though I hardly do; for I think you would be +grieved to add any fresh burden to me, by persuading me to incur debts +which I am not likely to discharge. I will therefore take your +money, under the hope and trust that you will enable me to repay you +punctually." + +"I will convince you, my lord," said the goldsmith, "that I mean to deal +with you as a creditor from whom I expect payment; and therefore, you +shall, with your own good pleasure, sign an acknowledgment for these +monies, and an obligation to content and repay me." + +He then took from his girdle his writing materials, and, writing a few +lines to the purport he expressed, pulled out a small bag of gold from +a side-pouch under his cloak, and, observing that it should contain an +hundred pounds, proceeded to tell out the contents very methodically +upon the table. Nigel Olifaunt could not help intimating that this was +an unnecessary ceremonial, and that he would take the bag of gold on the +word of his obliging creditor; but this was repugnant to the old man's +forms of transacting business. + +"Bear with me," he said, "my good lord,--we citizens are a wary and +thrifty generation; and I should lose my good name for ever within +the toll of Paul's, were I to grant quittance, or take acknowledgment, +without bringing the money to actual tale. I think it be right now--and, +body of me," he said, looking out at the window, "yonder come my boys +with my mule; for I must Westward Hoe. Put your monies aside, my lord; +it is not well to be seen with such goldfinches chirping about one in +the lodgings of London. I think the lock of your casket be indifferent +good; if not, I can serve you at an easy rate with one that has held +thousands;--it was the good old Sir Faithful Frugal's;--his spendthrift +son sold the shell when he had eaten the kernel--and there is the end of +a city-fortune." + +"I hope yours will make a better termination, Master Heriot," said the +Lord Nigel. + +"I hope it will, my lord," said the old man, with a smile; "but," to use +honest John Bunyan's phrase--'therewithal the water stood in his eyes,' +"it has pleased God to try me with the loss of two children; and for one +adopted shild who lives--Ah! woe is me! and well-a-day!--But I am patient +and thankful; and for the wealth God has sent me, it shall not want +inheritors while there are orphan lads in Auld Reekie.--I wish you +good-morrow, my lord." + +"One orphan has cause to thank you already," said Nigel, as he attended +him to the door of his chamber, where, resisting further escort, the old +citizen made his escape. + +As, in going downstairs, he passed the shop where Dame Christie stood +becking, he made civil inquiries after her husband. The dame of course +regretted his absence; but he was down, she said, at Deptford, to settle +with a Dutch ship-master. + +"Our way of business, sir," she said, "takes him much from home, and my +husband must be the slave of every tarry jacket that wants but a pound +of oakum." + +"All business must be minded, dame," said the goldsmith. "Make my +remembrances--George Heriot, of Lombard Street's remembrances--to your +goodman. I have dealt with him--he is just and punctual--true to time +and engagements;--be kind to your noble guest, and see he wants nothing. +Though it be his pleasure at present to lie private and retired, there +be those that care for him, and I have a charge to see him supplied; so +that you may let me know by your husband, my good dame, how my lord is, +and whether he wants aught." + +"And so he _is_ a real lord after all?" said the good dame. "I am sure I +always thought he looked like one. But why does he not go to Parliament, +then?" + +"He will, dame," answered Heriot, "to the Parliament of Scotland, which +is his own country." + +"Oh! he is but a Scots lord, then," said the good dame; "and that's the +thing makes him ashamed to take the title, as they say." + +"Let him not hear _you_ say so, dame," replied the citizen. + +"Who, I, sir?" answered she; "no such matter in my thought, sir. Scot +or English, he is at any rate a likely man, and a civil man; and rather +than he should want any thing, I would wait upon him myself, and come as +far as Lombard Street to wait upon your worship too." + +"Let your husband come to me, good dame," said the goldsmith, who, +with all his experience and worth, was somewhat of a formalist and +disciplinarian. "The proverb says, 'House goes mad when women gad;' and +let his lordship's own man wait upon his master in his chamber--it is +more seemly. God give ye good-morrow." + +"Good-morrow to your worship," said the dame, somewhat coldly; and, so +soon as the adviser was out of hearing, was ungracious enough to mutter, +in contempt of his council, "Marry quep of your advice, for an old +Scotch tinsmith, as you are! My husband is as wise, and very near as +old, as yourself; and if I please him, it is well enough; and though he +is not just so rich just now as some folks, yet I hope to see him ride +upon his moyle, with a foot-cloth, and have his two blue-coats after +him, as well as they do." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Wherefore come ye not to court? Certain 'tis the rarest sport; There +are silks and jewels glistening, Prattling fools and wise men listening, +Bullies among brave men justling, Beggars amongst nobles bustling; +Low-breath'd talkers, minion lispers, Cutting honest throats by +whispers; Wherefore come ye not to court? Skelton swears 'tis glorious +sport. _Skelton Skeltonizeth._ + +It was not entirely out of parade that the benevolent citizen was +mounted and attended in that manner, which, as the reader has been +informed, excited a gentle degree of spleen on the part of Dame +Christie, which, to do her justice, vanished in the little soliloquy +which we have recorded. The good man, besides the natural desire to +maintain the exterior of a man of worship, was at present bound to +Whitehall in order to exhibit a piece of valuable workmanship to King +James, which he deemed his Majesty might be pleased to view, or even to +purchase. He himself was therefore mounted upon his caparisoned mule, +that he might the better make his way through the narrow, dirty, and +crowded streets; and while one of his attendants carried under his arm +the piece of plate, wrapped up in red baize, the other two gave an +eye to its safety; for such was then the state of the police of the +metropolis, that men were often assaulted in the public street for the +sake of revenge or of plunder; and those who apprehended being beset, +usually endeavoured, if their estate admitted such expense, to secure +themselves by the attendance of armed followers. And this custom, which +was at first limited to the nobility and gentry, extended by degrees to +those citizens of consideration, who, being understood to travel with +a charge, as it was called, might otherwise have been selected as safe +subjects of plunder by the street-robber. + +As Master George Heriot paced forth westward with this gallant +attendance, he paused at the shop door of his countryman and friend, the +ancient horologer, and having caused Tunstall, who was in attendance, to +adjust his watch by the real time, he desired to speak with his master; +in consequence of which summons, the old Time-meter came forth from his +den, his face like a bronze bust, darkened with dust, and glistening +here and there with copper filings, and his senses so bemused in the +intensity of calculation, that he gazed on his friend the goldsmith for +a minute before he seemed perfectly to comprehend who he was, and +heard him express his invitation to David Ramsay, and pretty Mistress +Margaret, his daughter, to dine with him next day at noon, to meet with +a noble young countrymen, without returning any answer. + +"I'll make thee speak, with a murrain to thee," muttered Heriot to +himself; and suddenly changing his tone, he said aloud,--"I pray you, +neighbour David, when are you and I to have a settlement for the bullion +wherewith I supplied you to mount yonder hall-clock at Theobald's, and +that other whirligig that you made for the Duke of Buckingham? I have +had the Spanish house to satisfy for the ingots, and I must needs put +you in mind that you have been eight months behind-hand." + +There is something so sharp and _aigre_ in the demand of a peremptory +dun, that no human tympanum, however inaccessible to other tones, can +resist the application. David Ramsay started at once from his reverie, +and answered in a pettish tone, "Wow, George, man, what needs aw this +din about sax score o' pounds? Aw the world kens I can answer aw claims +on me, and you proffered yourself fair time, till his maist gracious +Majesty and the noble Duke suld make settled accompts wi' me; and ye +may ken, by your ain experience, that I canna gang rowting like an +unmannered Highland stot to their doors, as ye come to mine." + +Heriot laughed, and replied, "Well, David, I see a demand of money is +like a bucket of water about your ears, and makes you a man of the world +at once. And now, friend, will you tell me, like a Christian man, if you +will dine with me to-morrow at noon, and bring pretty Mistress Margaret, +my god-daughter, with you, to meet with our noble young countryman, the +Lord of Glenvarloch?" + +"The young Lord of Glenvarloch!" said the old mechanist; "wi' aw my +heart, and blithe I will be to see him again. We have not met these +forty years--he was twa years before me at the humanity classes--he is a +sweet youth." + +"That was his father--his father--his father!--you old dotard +Dot-and-carry-one that you are," answered the goldsmith. "A sweet youth +he would have been by this time, had he lived, worthy nobleman! This is +his son, the Lord Nigel." + +"His son!" said Ramsay; "maybe he will want something of a chronometer, +or watch--few gallants care to be without them now-a-days." + +"He may buy half your stock-in-trade, if ever he comes to his own, for +what I know," said his friend; "but, David, remember your bond, and +use me not as you did when my housewife had the sheep's-head and the +cock-a-leeky boiling for you as late as two of the clock afternoon." + +"She had the more credit by her cookery," answered David, now fully +awake; "a sheep's-head over-boiled, were poison, according to our +saying." + +"Well," answered Master George, "but as there will be no sheep's-head +to-morrow, it may chance you to spoil a dinner which a proverb +cannot mend. It may be you may forgather with your friend, Sir Mungo +Malagrowther, for I purpose to ask his worship; so, be sure and bide +tryste, Davie." + +"That will I--I will be true as a chronometer," said Ramsay. + +"I will not trust you, though," replied Heriot.--"Hear you, Jenkin boy, +tell Scots Janet to tell pretty Mistress Margaret, my god-child, she +must put her father in remembrance to put on his best doublet to-morrow, +and to bring him to Lombard Street at noon. Tell her they are to meet a +brave young Scots lord." + +Jenkin coughed that sort of dry short cough uttered by those who are +either charged with errands which they do not like, or hear opinions to +which they must not enter a dissent. + +"Umph!" repeated Master George--who, as we have already noticed, was +something of a martinet in domestic discipline--"what does _umph_ mean? +Will you do mine errand or not, sirrah?" + +"Sure, Master George Heriot," said the apprentice, touching his cap, +"I only meant, that Mistress Margaret was not likely to forget such an +invitation." + +"Why, no," said Master George; "she is a dutiful girl to her god-father, +though I sometimes call her a jill-flirt.--And, hark ye, Jenkin, you and +your comrade had best come with your clubs, to see your master and her +safely home; but first shut shop, and loose the bull-dog, and let the +porter stay in the fore-shop till your return. I will send two of my +knaves with you; for I hear these wild youngsters of the Temple are +broken out worse and lighter than ever." + +"We can keep their steel in order with good handbats," said Jenkin; "and +never trouble your servants for the matter." + +"Or, if need be," said Tunstall, "we have swords as well as the +Templars." + +"Fie upon it--fie upon it, young man," said the citizen;--"An apprentice +with a sword!--Marry, heaven forefend! I would as soon see him in a hat +and feather." + +"Well, sir," said Jenkin--"we will find arms fitting to our station, and +will defend our master and his daughter, if we should tear up the very +stones of the pavement." + +"There spoke a London 'prentice bold," said the citizen; "and, for your +comfort, my lads, you shall crush a cup of wine to the health of the +Fathers of the City. I have my eye on both of you--you are thriving +lads, each in his own way.--God be wi' you, Davie. Forget not to-morrow +at noon." And, so saying, he again turned his mule's head westward, and +crossed Temple Bar, at that slow and decent amble, which at once became +his rank and civic importance, and put his pedestrian followers to no +inconvenience to keep up with him. + +At the Temple gate he again paused, dismounted, and sought his way into +one of the small booths occupied by scriveners in the neighbourhood. A +young man, with lank smooth hair combed straight to his ears, and then +cropped short, rose, with a cringing reverence, pulled off a slouched +hat, which he would upon no signal replace on his head, and answered +with much demonstration of reverence, to the goldsmith's question of, +"How goes business, Andrew?"--"Aw the better for your worship's kind +countenance and maintenance." + +"Get a large sheet of paper, man, and make a new pen, with a sharp neb, +and fine hair-stroke. Do not slit the quill up too high, it's a wastrife +course in your trade, Andrew--they that do not mind corn-pickles, never +come to forpits. I have known a learned man write a thousand pages with +one quill." [Footnote: A biblical commentary by Gill, which (if the +author's memory serves him) occupies between five and six hundred +printed quarto pages, and must therefore have filled more pages of +manuscript than the number mentioned in the text, has this quatrain at +the end of the volume-- + + "With one good pen I wrote this book, + Made of a grey goose quill; + A pen it was when it I took, + And a pen I leave it still."] + +"Ah! sir," said the lad, who listened to the goldsmith, though +instructing him in his own trade, with an air of veneration and +acquiescence, "how sune ony puir creature like mysell may rise in the +world, wi' the instruction of such a man as your worship!" + +"My instructions are few, Andrew, soon told, and not hard to practise. +Be honest--be industrious--be frugal--and you will soon win wealth and +worship.--Here, copy me this Supplication in your best and most formal +hand. I will wait by you till it is done." + +The youth lifted not his eye from the paper, and laid not the pen from +his hand, until the task was finished to his employer's satisfaction. +The citizen then gave the young scrivener an angel; and bidding him, on +his life, be secret in all business intrusted to him, again mounted his +mule, and rode on westward along the Strand. + +It may be worth while to remind our readers, that the Temple Bar which +Heriot passed, was not the arched screen, or gateway, of the present +day; but an open railing, or palisade, which, at night, and in times of +alarm, was closed with a barricade of posts and chains. The Strand also, +along which he rode, was not, as now, a continued street, although +it was beginning already to assume that character. It still might be +considered as an open road, along the south side of which stood various +houses and hotels belonging to the nobility, having gardens behind them +down to the water-side, with stairs to the river, for the convenience +of taking boat; which mansions have bequeathed the names of their lordly +owners to many of the streets leading from the Strand to the Thames. The +north side of the Strand was also a long line of houses, behind which, +as in Saint Martin's Lane, and other points, buildings, were rapidly +arising; but Covent Garden was still a garden, in the literal sense +of the word, or at least but beginning to be studded with irregular +buildings. All that was passing around, however, marked the rapid +increase of a capital which had long enjoyed peace, wealth, and a +regular government. Houses were rising in every direction; and the +shrewd eye of our citizen already saw the period not distant, which +should convert the nearly open highway on which he travelled, into a +connected and regular street, uniting the Court and the town with the +city of London. + +He next passed Charing Cross, which was no longer the pleasant solitary +village at which the judges were wont to breakfast on their way to +Westminster Hall, but began to resemble the artery through which, to +use Johnson's expression "pours the full tide of London population." The +buildings were rapidly increasing, yet certainly gave not even a faint +idea of its present appearance. + +At last Whitehall received our traveller, who passed under one of +the beautiful gates designed by Holbein, and composed of tesselated +brick-work, being the same to which Moniplies had profanely likened the +West-Port of Edinburgh, and entered the ample precincts of the palace of +Whitehall, now full of all the confusion attending improvement. It was +just at the time when James,--little suspecting that he was employed in +constructing a palace, from the window of which his only son was to pass +in order that he might die upon a scaffold before it,--was busied in +removing the ancient and ruinous buildings of De Burgh, Henry VIII., and +Queen Elizabeth, to make way for the superb architecture on which Inigo +Jones exerted all his genius. The king, ignorant of futurity, was now +engaged in pressing on his work; and, for that purpose, still maintained +his royal apartments at Whitehall, amidst the rubbish of old buildings, +and the various confusion attending the erection of the new pile, which +formed at present a labyrinth not easily traversed. + +The goldsmith to the Royal Household, and who, if fame spoke true, +oftentimes acted as their banker,--for these professions were not as +yet separated from each other,--was a person of too much importance to +receive the slightest interruption from sentinel or porter; and, leaving +his mule and two of his followers in the outer-court, he gently knocked +at a postern-gate of the building, and was presently admitted, while the +most trusty of his attendants followed him closely, with the piece +of plate under his arm. This man also he left behind him in an +ante-room,--where three or four pages in the royal livery, but +untrussed, unbuttoned, and dressed more carelessly than the place, and +nearness to a king's person, seemed to admit, were playing at dice and +draughts, or stretched upon benches, and slumbering with half-shut eyes. +A corresponding gallery, which opened from the ante-room, was occupied +by two gentlemen-ushers of the chamber, who gave each a smile of +recognition as the wealthy goldsmith entered. + +No word was spoken on either side; but one of the ushers looked first +to Heriot, and then to a little door half-covered by the tapestry, which +seemed to say, as plain as a look could, "Lies your business that way?" +The citizen nodded; and the court-attendant, moving on tiptoe, and with +as much caution as if the floor had been paved with eggs, advanced to +the door, opened it gently, and spoke a few words in a low tone. The +broad Scottish accent of King James was heard in reply,--"Admit him +instanter, Maxwell. Have you hairboured sae lang at the Court, and not +learned, that gold and silver are ever welcome?" + +The usher signed to Heriot to advance, and the honest citizen was +presently introduced into the cabinet of the Sovereign. + +The scene of confusion amid which he found the king seated, was no bad +picture of the state and quality of James's own mind. There was much +that was rich and costly in cabinet pictures and valuable ornaments; +but they were arranged in a slovenly manner, covered with dust, and lost +half their value, or at least their effect, from the manner in which +they were presented to the eye. The table was loaded with huge folios, +amongst which lay light books of jest and ribaldry; and, amongst notes +of unmercifully long orations, and essays on king-craft, were mingled +miserable roundels and ballads by the Royal 'Prentice, as he styled +himself, in the art of poetry, and schemes for the general pacification +of Europe, with a list of the names of the king's hounds, and remedies +against canine madness. + +The king's dress was of green velvet, quilted so full as to be +dagger-proof--which gave him the appearance of clumsy and ungainly +protuberance; while its being buttoned awry, communicated to his figure +an air of distortion. Over his green doublet he wore a sad-coloured +nightgown, out of the pocket of which peeped his hunting-horn. His +high-crowned grey hat lay on the floor, covered with dust, but encircled +by a carcanet of large balas rubies; and he wore a blue velvet nightcap, +in the front of which was placed the plume of a heron, which had been +struck down by a favourite hawk in some critical moment of the flight, +in remembrance of which the king wore this highly honoured feather. + +But such inconsistencies in dress and appointments were mere outward +types of those which existed in the royal character, rendering it a +subject of doubt amongst his contemporaries, and bequeathing it as a +problem to future historians. He was deeply learned, without possessing +useful knowledge; sagacious in many individual cases, without having +real wisdom; fond of his power, and desirous to maintain and augment it, +yet willing to resign the direction of that, and of himself, to the most +unworthy favourites; a big and bold asserter of his rights in words, yet +one who tamely saw them trampled on in deeds; a lover of negotiations, +in which he was always outwitted; and one who feared war, where +conquest might have been easy. He was fond of his dignity, while he was +perpetually degrading it by undue familiarity; capable of much public +labour, yet often neglecting it for the meanest amusement; a wit, though +a pedant; and a scholar, though fond of the conversation of the ignorant +and uneducated. Even his timidity of temper was not uniform; and there +were moments of his life, and those critical, in which he showed the +spirit of his ancestors. He was laborious in trifles, and a trifler +where serious labour was required; devout in his sentiments, and yet +too often profane in his language; just and beneficent by nature, he yet +gave way to the iniquities and oppression of others. He was penurious +respecting money which he had to give from his own hand, yet +inconsiderately and unboundedly profuse of that which he did not see. +In a word, those good qualities which displayed themselves in particular +cases and occasions, were not of a nature sufficiently firm and +comprehensive to regulate his general conduct; and, showing themselves +as they occasionally did, only entitled James to the character bestowed +on him by Sully--that he was the wisest fool in Christendom. + +That the fortunes of this monarch might be as little of apiece as his +character, he, certainly the least able of the Stewarts, succeeded +peaceably to that kingdom, against the power of which his predecessors +had, with so much difficulty, defended his native throne; and, lastly, +although his reign appeared calculated to ensure to Great Britain that +lasting tranquillity and internal peace which so much suited the king's +disposition, yet, during that very reign, were sown those seeds of +dissension, which, like the teeth of the fabulous dragon, had their +harvest in a bloody and universal civil war. + +Such was the monarch, who, saluting Heriot by the name of Jingling +Geordie, (for it was his well-known custom to give nicknames to all +those with whom he was on terms of familiarity,) inquired what new +clatter-traps he had brought with him, to cheat his lawful and native +Prince out of his siller. + +"God forbid, my liege," said the citizen, "that I should have any such +disloyal purpose. I did but bring a piece of plate to show to your most +gracious Majesty, which, both for the subject and for the workmanship, +I were loath to put into the hands of any subject until I knew your +Majesty's pleasure anent it." + +"Body o' me, man, let's see it, Heriot; though, by my saul, Steenie's +service o' plate was sae dear a bargain, I had 'maist pawned my word +as a Royal King, to keep my ain gold and silver in future, and let you, +Geordie, keep yours." + +"Respecting the Duke of Buckingham's plate," said the goldsmith, "your +Majesty was pleased to direct that no expense should be spared, and--" + +"What signifies what I desired, man? when a wise man is with fules and +bairns, he maun e'en play at the chucks. But you should have had mair +sense and consideration than to gie Babie Charles and Steenie their ain +gate; they wad hae floored the very rooms wi' silver, and I wonder they +didna." + +George Heriot bowed, and said no more. He knew his master too well to +vindicate himself otherwise than by a distant allusion to his order; and +James, with whom economy was only a transient and momentary twinge of +conscience, became immediately afterwards desirous to see the piece of +plate which the goldsmith proposed to exhibit, and dispatched Maxwell +to bring it to his presence. In the meantime he demanded of the citizen +whence he had procured it. + +"From Italy, may it please your Majesty," replied Heriot. + +"It has naething in it tending to papistrie?" said the king, looking +graver than his wont. + +"Surely not, please your Majesty," said Heriot; "I were not wise to +bring any thing to your presence that had the mark of the beast." + +"You would be the mair beast yourself to do so," said the king; "it is +weel kend that I wrestled wi' Dagon in my youth, and smote him on the +groundsill of his own temple; a gude evidence that I should be in time +called, however unworthy, the Defender of the Faith.--But here comes +Maxwell, bending under his burden, like the Golden Ass of Apuleius." + +Heriot hastened to relieve the usher, and to place the embossed salver, +for such it was, and of extraordinary dimensions, in a light favourable +for his Majesty's viewing the sculpture. + +"Saul of my body, man," said the king, "it is a curious piece, and, as +I think, fit for a king's chalmer; and the subject, as you say, Master +George, vera adequate and beseeming--being, as I see, the judgment of +Solomon--a prince in whose paths it weel becomes a' leeving monarchs to +walk with emulation." + +"But whose footsteps," said Maxwell, "only one of them--if a subject may +say so much--hath ever overtaken." + +"Haud your tongue for a fause fleeching loon!" said the king, but with +a smile on his face that showed the flattery had done its part. "Look +at the bonny piece of workmanship, and haud your clavering tongue.--And +whase handiwork may it be, Geordie?" + +"It was wrought, sir," replied the goldsmith, "by the famous Florentine, +Benvenuto Cellini, and designed for Francis the First of France; but I +hope it will find a fitter master." + +"Francis of France!" said the king; "send Solomon, King of the Jews, to +Francis of France!--Body of me, man, it would have kythed Cellini mad, +had he never done ony thing else out of the gate. Francis!--why, he +was a fighting fule, man,--a mere fighting fule,--got himsell ta'en at +Pavia, like our ain David at Durham lang syne;--if they could hae sent +him Solomon's wit, and love of peace, and godliness, they wad hae dune +him a better turn. But Solomon should sit in other gate company than +Francis of France." + +"I trust that such will be his good fortune," said Heriot. + +"It is a curious and very artificial sculpture," said the king, in +continuation; "but yet, methinks, the carnifex, or executioner there, +is brandishing his gully ower near the king's face, seeing he is within +reach of his weapon. I think less wisdom than Solomon's wad have taught +him that there was danger in edge-tools, and that he wad have bidden the +smaik either sheath his shabble, or stand farther back." + +George Heriot endeavoured to alleviate this objection, by assuring the +king that the vicinity betwixt Solomon and the executioner was nearer in +appearance than in reality, and that the perspective should be allowed +for. + +"Gang to the deil wi' your prospective, man," said the king; "there +canna be a waur prospective for a lawful king, wha wishes to reign in +luve, and die in peace and honour, than to have naked swords flashing in +his een. I am accounted as brave as maist folks; and yet I profess to +ye I could never look on a bare blade without blinking and winking. But +a'thegither it is a brave piece;--and what is the price of it, man?" + +The goldsmith replied by observing, that it was not his own property, +but that of a distressed countryman. + +"Whilk you mean to mak your excuse for asking the double of its worth, +I warrant?" answered the king. "I ken the tricks of you burrows-town +merchants, man." + +"I have no hopes of baffling your Majesty's sagacity," said Heriot; "the +piece is really what I say, and the price a hundred and fifty pounds +sterling, if it pleases your Majesty to make present payment." + +"A hundred and fifty punds, man! and as mony witches and warlocks to +raise them!" said the irritated Monarch. "My saul, Jingling Geordie, ye +are minded that your purse shall jingle to a bonny tune!--How am I to +tell you down a hundred and fifty punds for what will not weigh as many +merks? and ye ken that my very household servitors, and the officers of +my mouth, are sax months in arrear!" + +The goldsmith stood his ground against all this objurgation, being what +he was well accustomed to, and only answered, that, if his Majesty liked +the piece, and desired to possess it, the price could be easily settled. +It was true that the party required the money, but he, George Heriot, +would advance it on his Majesty's account, if such were his pleasure, +and wait his royal conveniency for payment, for that and other matters; +the money, meanwhile, lying at the ordinary usage. + +"By my honour," said James, "and that is speaking like an honest and +reasonable tradesman. We maun get another subsidy frae the Commons, and +that will make ae compting of it. Awa wi' it, Maxwell--awa wi' it, +and let it be set where Steenie and Babie Charles shall see it as they +return from Richmond.--And now that we are secret, my good auld friend +Geordie, I do truly opine, that speaking of Solomon and ourselves, the +haill wisdom in the country left Scotland, when we took our travels to +the Southland here." + +George Heriot was courtier enough to say, that "the wise naturally +follow the wisest, as stags follow their leader." + +"Troth, I think there is something in what thou sayest," said James; +"for we ourselves, and those of our Court and household, as thou +thyself, for example, are allowed by the English, for as self-opinioned +as they are, to pass for reasonable good wits; but the brains of those +we have left behind are all astir, and run clean hirdie-girdie, like sae +mony warlocks and witches on the Devil's Sabbath e'en." + +"I am sorry to hear this, my liege," said Heriot. "May it please your +Grace to say what our countrymen have done to deserve such a character?" + +"They are become frantic, man--clean brain-crazed," answered the king. +"I cannot keep them out of the Court by all the proclamations that the +heralds roar themselves hoarse with. Yesterday, nae farther gane, +just as we were mounted, and about to ride forth, in rushed a thorough +Edinburgh gutterblood--a ragged rascal, every dud upon whose back was +bidding good-day to the other, with a coat and hat that would have +served a pease-bogle, and without havings or reverence, thrusts into our +hands, like a sturdy beggar, some Supplication about debts owing by our +gracious mother, and siclike trash; whereat the horse spangs on end, +and, but for our admirable sitting, wherein we have been thought to +excel maist sovereign princes, as well as subjects, in Europe, I promise +you we would have been laid endlang on the causeway." + +"Your Majesty," said Heriot, "is their common father, and therefore they +are the bolder to press into your gracious presence." + +"I ken I am _pater patriae_ well enough," said James; "but one would +think they had a mind to squeeze my puddings out, that they may divide +the inheritance, Ud's death, Geordie, there is not a loon among them can +deliver a Supplication, as it suld be done in the face of majesty." + +"I would I knew the most fitting and beseeming mode to do so," +said Heriot, "were it but to instruct our poor countrymen in better +fashions." + +"By my halidome," said the king, "ye are a ceevileezed fellow, Geordie, +and I carena if I fling awa as much time as may teach ye. And, first, +see you, sir--ye shall approach the presence of majesty thus,--shadowing +your eyes with your hand, to testify that you are in the presence of +the Vice-gerent of Heaven.--Vera weel, George, that is done in a comely +manner.--Then, sir, ye sail kneel, and make as if ye would kiss the +hem of our garment, the latch of our shoe, or such like.--Very weel +enacted--whilk we, as being willing to be debonair and pleasing towards +our lieges, prevent thus,--and motion to you to rise;--whilk, having +a boon to ask, as yet you obey not, but, gliding your hand into your +pouch, bring forth your Supplication, and place it reverentially in our +open palm." The goldsmith, who had complied with great accuracy with all +the prescribed points of the ceremonial, here completed it, to James's +no small astonishment, by placing in his hand the petition of the Lord +of Glenvarloch. "What means this, ye fause loon?" said he, reddening and +sputtering; "hae I been teaching you the manual exercise, that ye suld +present your piece at our ain royal body?--Now, by this light, I had as +lief that ye had bended a real pistolet against me, and yet this hae +ye done in my very cabinet, where nought suld enter but at my ain +pleasure." + +"I trust your Majesty," said Heriot, as he continued to kneel, "will +forgive my exercising the lesson you condescended to give me in the +behalf of a friend?" + +"Of a friend!" said the king; "so much the waur--so much the waur, I +tell you. If it had been something to do _yoursell_ good there would +have been some sense in it, and some chance that you wad not have +come back on me in a hurry; but a man may have a hundred friends, and +petitions for every ane of them, ilk ane after other." + +"Your Majesty, I trust," said Heriot, "will judge me by former +experience, and will not suspect me of such presumption." + +"I kenna," said the placable monarch; "the world goes daft, I +think--_sed semel insanivimus omnes_--thou art my old and faithful +servant, that is the truth; and, were't any thing for thy own behoof, +man, thou shouldst not ask twice. But, troth, Steenie loves me so +dearly, that he cares not that any one should ask favours of me but +himself.--Maxwell," (for the usher had re-entered after having carried +off the plate,) "get into the ante-chamber wi' your lang lugs.--In +conscience, Geordie, I think as that thou hast been mine ain auld +fiduciary, and wert my goldsmith when I might say with the Ethnic +poet--_Non mea renidet in domo lacunar_--for, faith, they had pillaged +my mither's auld house sae, that beechen bickers, and treen trenchers, +and latten platters, were whiles the best at our board, and glad we were +of something to put on them, without quarrelling with the metal of the +dishes. D'ye mind, for thou wert in maist of our complots, how we were +fain to send sax of the Blue-banders to harry the Lady of Loganhouse's +dowcot and poultry-yard, and what an awfu' plaint the poor dame made +against Jock of Milch, and the thieves of Annandale, wha were as +sackless of the deed as I am of the sin of murder?" + +"It was the better for Jock," said Heriot; "for, if I remember weel, it +saved him from a strapping up at Dumfries, which he had weel deserved +for other misdeeds." + +"Ay, man, mind ye that?" said the king; "but he had other virtues, for +he was a tight huntsman, moreover, that Jock of Milch, and could hollow +to a hound till all the woods rang again. But he came to an Annandale +end at the last, for Lord Torthorwald run his lance out through +him.--Cocksnails, man, when I think of those wild passages, in my +conscience, I am not sure but we lived merrier in auld Holyrood in +those shifting days, than now when we are dwelling at heck and manger. +_Cantabit vacuus_--we had but little to care for." + +"And if your Majesty please to remember," said the goldsmith, "the awful +task we had to gather silver-vessail and gold-work enough to make some +show before the Spanish Ambassador." + +"Vera true," said the king, now in a full tide of gossip, "and I mind +not the name of the right leal lord that helped us with every unce he +had in his house, that his native Prince might have some credit in the +eyes of them that had the Indies at their beck." + +"I think, if your Majesty," said the citizen, "will cast your eye on the +paper in your hand, you will recollect his name." + +"Ay!" said the king, "say ye sae, man?--Lord Glenvarloch, that was his +name indeed--_Justus et tenax propositi_--A just man, but as obstinate +as a baited bull. He stood whiles against us, that Lord Randal Olifaunt +of Glenvarloch, but he was a loving and a leal subject in the main. But +this supplicator maun be his son--Randal has been long gone where king +and lord must go, Geordie, as weel as the like of you--and what does his +son want with us?" + +"The settlement," answered the citizen, "of a large debt due by your +Majesty's treasury, for money advanced to your Majesty in great State +emergency, about the time of the Raid of Ruthven." + +"I mind the thing weel," said King James--"Od's death, man, I was just +out of the clutches of the Master of Glamis and his complices, and there +was never siller mair welcome to a born prince,--the mair the shame and +pity that crowned king should need sic a petty sum. But what need he dun +us for it, man, like a baxter at the breaking? We aught him the siller, +and will pay him wi' our convenience, or make it otherwise up to him, +whilk is enow between prince and subject--We are not _in meditatione +fugae,_ man, to be arrested thus peremptorily." + +"Alas! an it please your Majesty," said the goldsmith, shaking his head, +"it is the poor young nobleman's extreme necessity, and not his will, +that makes him importunate; for he must have money, and that briefly, +to discharge a debt due to Peregrine Peterson, Conservator of the +Privileges at Campvere, or his haill hereditary barony and estate of +Glenvarloch will be evicted in virtue of an unredeemed wadset." + +"How say ye, man--how say ye?" exclaimed the king, impatiently; "the +carle of a Conservator, the son of a Low-Dutch skipper, evict the auld +estate and lordship of the house of Olifaunt?--God's bread, man, +that maun not be--we maun suspend the diligence by writ of favour, or +otherwise." + +"I doubt that may hardly be," answered the citizen, "if it please your +Majesty; your learned counsel in the law of Scotland advise, that there +is no remeid but in paying the money." + +"Ud's fish," said the king, "let him keep haud by the strong hand +against the carle, until we can take some order about his affairs." + +"Alas!" insisted the goldsmith, "if it like your Majesty, your own +pacific government, and your doing of equal justice to all men, has made +main force a kittle line to walk by, unless just within the bounds of +the Highlands." + +"Well--weel--weel, man," said the perplexed monarch, whose ideas of +justice, expedience, and convenience, became on such occasions strangely +embroiled; "just it is we should pay our debts, that the young man may +pay his; and he must be paid, and _in verbo regis_ he shall be paid--but +how to come by the siller, man, is a difficult chapter--ye maun try the +city, Geordie." + +"To say the truth," answered Heriot, "please your gracious Majesty, +what betwixt loans and benevolences, and subsidies, the city is at this +present----" + +"Donna tell me of what the city is," said King James; "our Exchequer is +as dry as Dean Giles's discourses on the penitentiary psalms--_Ex nihilo +nihil fit_--It's ill taking the breeks aff a wild Highlandman--they that +come to me for siller, should tell me how to come by it--the city ye +maun try, Heriot; and donna think to be called Jingling Geordie for +nothing--and _in verbo regis_ I will pay the lad if you get me the +loan--I wonnot haggle on the terms; and, between you and me, Geordie, we +will redeem the brave auld estate of Glenvarloch.--But wherefore comes +not the young lord to Court, Heriot--is he comely--is he presentable in +the presence?" + +"No one can be more so," said George Heriot; "but----" + +"Ay, I understand ye," said his Majesty--"I understand ye--_Res angusta +domi_--puir lad-puir lad!--and his father a right true leal Scots heart, +though stiff in some opinions. Hark ye, Heriot, let the lad have twa +hundred pounds to fit him out. And, here--here"--(taking the carcanet +of rubies from his old hat)--"ye have had these in pledge before for a +larger sum, ye auld Levite that ye are. Keep them in gage, till I gie ye +back the siller out of the next subsidy." + +"If it please your Majesty to give me such directions in writing," said +the cautious citizen. + +"The deil is in your nicety, George," said the king; "ye are as preceese +as a Puritan in form, and a mere Nullifidian in the marrow of the +matter. May not a king's word serve ye for advancing your pitiful twa +hundred pounds?" + +"But not for detaining the crown jewels," said George Heriot. + +And the king, who from long experience was inured to dealing +with suspicious creditors, wrote an order upon George Heriot, his +well-beloved goldsmith and jeweller, for the sum of two hundred pounds, +to be paid presently to Nigel Olifaunt, Lord of Glenvarloch, to be +imputed as so much debts due to him by the crown; and authorizing +the retention of a carcanet of balas rubies, with a great diamond, +as described in a Catalogue of his Majesty's Jewels, to remain in +possession of the said George Heriot, advancer of the said sum, and +so forth, until he was lawfully contented and paid thereof. By another +rescript, his Majesty gave the said George Heriot directions to deal +with some of the monied men, upon equitable terms, for a sum of money +for his Majesty's present use, not to be under 50,000 merks, but as much +more as could conveniently be procured. + +"And has he ony lair, this Lord Nigel of ours?" said the king. + +George Heriot could not exactly answer this question; but believed "the +young lord had studied abroad." + +"He shall have our own advice," said the king, "how to carry on his +studies to maist advantage; and it may be we will have him come to +Court, and study with Steenie and Babie Charles. And, now we think on't, +away--away, George--for the bairns will be coming hame presently, and we +would not as yet they kend of this matter we have been treating anent. +_Propera fedem,_ O Geordie. Clap your mule between your boughs, and +god-den with you." + +Thus ended the conference betwixt the gentle King Jamie and his +benevolent jeweller and goldsmith. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + O I do know him--tis the mouldy lemon + Which our court wits will wet their lips withal, + When they would sauce their honied conversation + With somewhat sharper flavour--Marry sir, + That virtue's wellnigh left him--all the juice + That was so sharp and poignant, is squeezed out, + While the poor rind, although as sour as ever, + Must season soon the draff we give our grunters, + For two legg'd things are weary on't. + _The Chamberlain--A Comedy_ + +The good company invited by the hospitable citizen assembled at his +house in Lombard Street at the "hollow and hungry hour" of noon, to +partake of that meal which divides the day, being about the time when +modern persons of fashion, turning themselves upon their pillow, begin +to think, not without a great many doubts and much hesitation, that +they will by and by commence it. Thither came the young Nigel, arrayed +plainly, but in a dress, nevertheless, more suitable to his age and +quality than he had formerly worn, accompanied by his servant Moniplies, +whose outside also was considerably improved. His solemn and stern +features glared forth from under a blue velvet bonnet, fantastically +placed sideways on his head--he had a sound and tough coat of English +blue broad-cloth, which, unlike his former vestment, would have +stood the tug of all the apprentices in Fleet Street. The buckler and +broadsword he wore as the arms of his condition, and a neat silver +badge, bearing his lord's arms, announced that he was an appendage of +aristocracy. He sat down in the good citizen's buttery, not a little +pleased to find his attendance upon the table in the hall was likely to +be rewarded with his share of a meal such as he had seldom partaken of. + +Mr. David Ramsay, that profound and ingenious mechanic, was safely +conducted to Lombard Street, according to promise, well washed, brushed, +and cleaned, from the soot of the furnace and the forge. His daughter, +who came with him, was about twenty years old, very pretty, very +demure, yet with lively black eyes, that ever and anon contradicted the +expression of sobriety, to which silence, reserve, a plain velvet hood, +and a cambric ruff, had condemned Mistress Marget, as the daughter of a +quiet citizen. + +There were also two citizens and merchants of London, men ample in +cloak, and many-linked golden chain, well to pass in the world, and +experienced in their craft of merchandise, but who require no particular +description. There was an elderly clergyman also, in his gown and +cassock, a decent venerable man, partaking in his manners of the +plainness of the citizens amongst whom he had his cure. + +These may be dismissed with brief notice; but not so Sir Mungo +Malagrowther, of Girnigo Castle, who claims a little more attention, as +an original character of the time in which he flourished. + +That good knight knocked at Master Heriot's door just as the clock began +to strike twelve, and was seated in his chair ere the last stroke +had chimed. This gave the knight an excellent opportunity of making +sarcastic observations on all who came later than himself, not to +mention a few rubs at the expense of those who had been so superfluous +as to appear earlier. + +Having little or no property save his bare designation, Sir Mungo had +been early attached to Court in the capacity of whipping-boy, as the +office was then called, to King James the Sixth, and, with his Majesty, +trained to all polite learning by his celebrated preceptor, George +Buchanan. The office of whipping-boy doomed its unfortunate occupant to +undergo all the corporeal punishment which the Lord's Anointed, whose +proper person was of course sacred, might chance to incur, in the course +of travelling through his grammar and prosody. Under the stern rule, +indeed, of George Buchanan, who did not approve of the vicarious mode +of punishment, James bore the penance of his own faults, and Mungo +Malagrowther enjoyed a sinecure; but James's other pedagogue, Master +Patrick Young, went more ceremoniously to work, and appalled the very +soul of the youthful king by the floggings which he bestowed on the +whipping-boy, when the royal task was not suitably performed. And be +it told to Sir Mungo's praise, that there were points about him in the +highest respect suited to his official situation. He had even in youth a +naturally irregular and grotesque set of features, which, when distorted +by fear, pain, and anger, looked like one of the whimsical faces which +present themselves in a Gothic cornice. His voice also was high-pitched +and querulous, so that, when smarting under Master Peter Young's +unsparing inflictions, the expression of his grotesque physiognomy, and +the superhuman yells which he uttered, were well suited to produce all +the effects on the Monarch who deserved the lash, that could possibly be +produced by seeing another and an innocent individual suffering for his +delict. + +Sir Mungo Malagrowther, for such he became, thus got an early footing +at Court, which another would have improved and maintained. But, when he +grew too big to be whipped, he had no other means of rendering himself +acceptable. A bitter, caustic, and backbiting humour, a malicious wit, +and an envy of others more prosperous than the possessor of such amiable +qualities, have not, indeed, always been found obstacles to a courtier's +rise; but then they must be amalgamated with a degree of selfish cunning +and prudence, of which Sir Mungo had no share. His satire ran riot, his +envy could not conceal itself, and it was not long after his majority +till he had as many quarrels upon his hands as would have required a +cat's nine lives to answer. In one of these rencontres he received, +perhaps we should say fortunately, a wound, which served him as an +excuse for answering no invitations of the kind in future. Sir Rullion +Rattray, of Ranagullion, cut off, in mortal combat, three of the fingers +of his right hand, so that Sir Mungo never could hold sword again. At +a later period, having written some satirical verses upon the Lady +Cockpen, he received so severe a chastisement from some persons employed +for the purpose, that he was found half dead on the spot where they had +thus dealt with him, and one of his thighs having been broken, and ill +set, gave him a hitch in his gait, with which he hobbled to his grave. +The lameness of his leg and hand, besides that they added considerably +to the grotesque appearance of this original, procured him in future +a personal immunity from the more dangerous consequences of his own +humour; and he gradually grew old in the service of the Court, in safety +of life and limb, though without either making friends or attaining +preferment. Sometimes, indeed, the king was amused with his caustic +sallies, but he had never art enough to improve the favourable +opportunity; and his enemies (who were, for that matter, the whole +Court) always found means to throw him out of favour again. The +celebrated Archie Armstrong offered Sir Mungo, in his generosity, a +skirt of his own fool's coat, proposing thereby to communicate to him +the privileges and immunities of a professed jester--"For," said the man +of motley, "Sir Mungo, as he goes on just now, gets no more for a good +jest than just the king's pardon for having made it." + +Even in London, the golden shower which fell around him did not moisten +the blighted fortunes of Sir Mungo Malagrowther. He grew old, deaf, +and peevish--lost even the spirit which had formerly animated his +strictures--and was barely endured by James, who, though himself nearly +as far stricken in years, retained, to an unusual and even an absurd +degree, the desire to be surrounded by young people. + +Sir Mungo, thus fallen into the yellow leaf of years and fortune, showed +his emaciated form and faded embroidery at Court as seldom as his duty +permitted; and spent his time in indulging his food for satire in the +public walks, and in the aisles of Saint Paul's, which were then the +general resort of newsmongers and characters of all descriptions, +associating himself chiefly with such of his countrymen as he accounted +of inferior birth and rank to himself. In this manner, hating and +contemning commerce, and those who pursued it, he nevertheless lived a +good deal among the Scottish artists and merchants, who had followed +the Court to London. To these he could show his cynicism without much +offence; for some submitted to his jeers and ill-humour in deference +to his birth and knighthood, which in those days conferred high +privileges--and others, of more sense, pitied and endured the old man, +unhappy alike in his fortunes and his temper. + +Amongst the latter was George Heriot, who, though his habits and +education induced him to carry aristocratical feelings to a degree which +would now be thought extravagant, had too much spirit and good sense to +permit himself to be intruded upon to an unauthorized excess, or used +with the slightest improper freedom, by such a person as Sir Mungo, to +whom he was, nevertheless, not only respectfully civil, but essentially +kind, and even generous. + +Accordingly, this appeared from the manner in which Sir Mungo +Malagrowther conducted himself upon entering the apartment. He paid +his respects to Master Heriot, and a decent, elderly, somewhat +severe-looking female, in a coif, who, by the name of Aunt Judith, did +the honours of his house and table, with little or no portion of the +supercilious acidity, which his singular physiognomy assumed when he +made his bow successively to David Ramsay and the two sober citizens. +He thrust himself into the conversation of the latter, to observe he +had heard in Paul's, that the bankrupt concern of Pindivide, a great +merchant,--who, as he expressed it, had given the crows a pudding, and +on whom he knew, from the same authority, each of the honest citizens +has some unsettled claim,--was like to prove a total loss--"stock and +block, ship and cargo, keel and rigging, all lost, now and for ever." + +The two citizens grinned at each other; but, too prudent to make their +private affairs the subject of public discussion, drew their heads +together, and evaded farther conversation by speaking in a whisper. + +The old Scots knight next attacked the watchmaker with the same +disrespectful familiarity.--"Davie," he said,--"Davie, ye donnard auld +idiot, have ye no gane mad yet, with applying your mathematical science, +as ye call it, to the book of Apocalypse? I expected to have heard ye +make out the sign of the beast, as clear as a tout on a bawbee whistle." + +"Why, Sir Mungo," said the mechanist, after making an effort to recall +to his recollection what had been said to him, and by whom, "it may be, +that ye are nearer the mark than ye are yoursell aware of; for, taking +the ten horns o' the beast, ye may easily estimate by your digitals--" + +"My digits! you d--d auld, rusty, good-for-nothing time-piece!" +exclaimed Sir Mungo, while, betwixt jest and earnest, he laid on his +hilt his hand, or rather his claw, (for Sir Rullion's broadsword +has abridged it into that form,)--"D'ye mean to upbraid me with my +mutilation?" + +Master Heriot interfered. "I cannot persuade our friend David," he said, +"that scriptural prophecies are intended to remain in obscurity, until +their unexpected accomplishment shall make, as in former days, that +fulfilled which was written. But you must not exert your knightly valour +on him for all that." + +"By my saul, and it would be throwing it away," said Sir Mungo, +laughing. "I would as soon set out, with hound and horn, to hunt +a sturdied sheep; for he is in a doze again, and up to the chin in +numerals, quotients, and dividends.--Mistress Margaret, my pretty +honey," for the beauty of the young citizen made even Sir Mungo +Malagrowther's grim features relax themselves a little, "is your father +always as entertaining as he seems just now?" + +Mistress Margaret simpered, bridled, looked to either side, then +straight before her; and, having assumed all the airs of bashful +embarrassment and timidity which were necessary, as she thought, to +cover a certain shrewd readiness which really belonged to her character, +at length replied: "That indeed her father was very thoughtful, but she +had heard that he took the habit of mind from her grandfather." + +"Your grandfather!" said Sir Mungo,--after doubting if he had heard her +aright,--"Said she her grandfather! The lassie is distraught!--I ken +nae wench on this side of Temple Bar that is derived from so distant a +relation." + +"She has got a godfather, however, Sir Mungo," said George Heriot, again +interfering; "and I hope you will allow him interest enough with you, to +request you will not put his pretty godchild to so deep a blush." + +"The better--the better," said Sir Mungo. "It is a credit to her, that, +bred and born within the sound of Bow-bell, she can blush for any thing; +and, by my saul, Master George," he continued, chucking the irritated +and reluctant damsel under the chin, "she is bonny enough to make amends +for her lack of ancestry--at least, in such a region as Cheapside, +where, d'ye mind me, the kettle cannot call the porridge-pot--" + +The damsel blushed, but not so angrily as before. Master George Heriot +hastened to interrupt the conclusion of Sir Mungo's homely proverb, by +introducing him personally to Lord Nigel. + +Sir Mungo could not at first understand what his host said,--"Bread of +Heaven, wha say ye, man?" + +Upon the name of Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glenvarloch, being again hollowed +into his ear, he drew up, and, regarding his entertainer with some +austerity, rebuked him for not making persons of quality acquainted with +each other, that they might exchange courtesies before they mingled with +other folks. He then made as handsome and courtly a congee to his new +acquaintance as a man maimed in foot and hand could do; and, observing +he had known my lord, his father, bid him welcome to London, and hoped +he should see him at Court. + +Nigel in an instant comprehended, as well from Sir Mungo's manner, as +from a strict compression of their entertainer's lips, which intimated +the suppression of a desire to laugh, that he was dealing with an +original of no ordinary description, and accordingly, returned his +courtesy with suitable punctiliousness. Sir Mungo, in the meanwhile, +gazed on him with much earnestness; and, as the contemplation of natural +advantages was as odious to him as that of wealth, or other adventitious +benefits, he had no sooner completely perused the handsome form and good +features of the young lord, than like one of the comforters of the man +of Uz, he drew close up to him, to enlarge on the former grandeur of the +Lords of Glenvarloch, and the regret with which he had heard, that their +representative was not likely to possess the domains of his ancestry. +Anon, he enlarged upon the beauties of the principal mansion of +Glenvarloch--the commanding site of the old castle--the noble expanse +of the lake, stocked with wildfowl for hawking--the commanding screen of +forest, terminating in a mountain-ridge abounding with deer--and all the +other advantages of that fine and ancient barony, till Nigel, in spite +of every effort to the contrary, was unwillingly obliged to sigh. + +Sir Mungo, skilful in discerning when the withers of those he conversed +with were wrung, observed that his new acquaintance winced, and would +willingly have pressed the discussion; but the cook's impatient knock +upon the dresser with the haft of his dudgeon-knife, now gave a signal +loud enough to be heard from the top of the house to the bottom, +summoning, at the same time, the serving-men to place the dinner upon +the table, and the guests to partake of it. + +Sir Mungo, who was an admirer of good cheer,--a taste which, by the +way, might have some weight in reconciling his dignity to these city +visits,--was tolled off by the sound, and left Nigel and the other +guests in peace, until his anxiety to arrange himself in his due place +of pre-eminence at the genial board was duly gratified. Here, seated on +the left hand of Aunt Judith, he beheld Nigel occupy the station of yet +higher honour on the right, dividing that matron from pretty Mistress +Margaret; but he saw this with the more patience, that there stood +betwixt him and the young lord a superb larded capon. + +The dinner proceeded according to the form of the times. All was +excellent of the kind; and, besides the Scottish cheer promised, the +board displayed beef and pudding, the statutory dainties of Old England. +A small cupboard of plate, very choicely and beautifully wrought, did +not escape the compliments of some of the company, and an oblique +sneer from Sir Mungo, as intimating the owner's excellence in his own +mechanical craft. + +"I am not ashamed of the workmanship, Sir Mungo," said the honest +citizen. "They say, a good cook knows how to lick his own fingers; and, +methinks, it were unseemly that I, who have furnished half the cupboards +in broad Britain, should have my own covered with paltry pewter." + +The blessing of the clergyman now left the guests at liberty to attack +what was placed before them; and the meal went forward with great +decorum, until Aunt Judith, in farther recommendation of the capon, +assured her company that it was of a celebrated breed of poultry, which +she had herself brought from Scotland. + +"Then, like some of his countrymen, madam," said the pitiless Sir Mungo, +not without a glance towards his landlord, "he has been well larded in +England." + +"There are some others of his countrymen," answered Master Heriot, +"to whom all the lard in England has not been able to render that good +office." + +Sir Mungo sneered and reddened, the rest of the company laughed; and the +satirist, who had his reasons for not coming to extremity with Master +George, was silent for the rest of the dinner. + +The dishes were exchanged for confections, and wine of the highest +quality and flavour; and Nigel saw the entertainments of the wealthiest +burgomasters, which he had witnessed abroad, fairly outshone by the +hospitality of a London citizen. Yet there was nothing ostentatious, or +which seemed inconsistent with the degree of an opulent burgher. + +While the collation proceeded, Nigel, according to the good-breeding of +the time, addressed his discourse principally to Mrs. Judith, whom he +found to be a woman of a strong Scottish understanding, more inclined +towards the Puritans than was her brother George, (for in that relation +she stood to him, though he always called her aunt,) attached to him in +the strongest degree, and sedulously attentive to all his comforts. As +the conversation of this good dame was neither lively nor fascinating, +the young lord naturally addressed himself next to the old horologer's +very pretty daughter, who sat upon his left hand. From her, however, +there was no extracting any reply beyond the measure of a monosyllable; +and when the young gallant had said the best and most complaisant things +which his courtesy supplied, the smile that mantled upon her pretty +mouth was so slight and evanescent, as scarce to be discernible. + +Nigel was beginning to tire of his company, for the old citizens were +speaking with his host of commercial matters in language to him totally +unintelligible, when Sir Mungo Malagrowther suddenly summoned their +attention. + +That amiable personage had for some time withdrawn from the company into +the recess of a projecting window, so formed and placed as to command +a view of the door of the house, and of the street. This situation was +probably preferred by Sir Mungo on account of the number of objects +which the streets of a metropolis usually offer, of a kind congenial +to the thoughts of a splenetic man. What he had hitherto seen passing +there, was probably of little consequence; but now a trampling of horse +was heard without, and the knight suddenly exclaimed,--"By my faith, +Master George, you had better go look to shop; for here comes Knighton, +the Duke of Buckingham's groom, and two fellows after him, as if he were +my Lord Duke himself." + +"My cash-keeper is below," said Heriot, without disturbing himself, +"and he will let me know if his Grace's commands require my immediate +attention." + +"Umph!--cash-keeper?" muttered Sir Mungo to himself; "he would have had +an easy office when I first kend ye.--But," said he, speaking aloud, +"will you not come to the window, at least? for Knighton has trundled a +piece of silver-plate into your house--ha! ha! ha!--trundled it upon its +edge, as a callan' would drive a hoop. I cannot help laughing--ha! ha! +ha!--at the fellow's impudence." + +"I believe you could not help laughing," said George Heriot, rising up +and leaving the room, "if your best friend lay dying." + +"Bitter that, my lord--ha?" said Sir Mungo, addressing Nigel. "Our +friend is not a goldsmith for nothing--he hath no leaden wit. But I will +go down, and see what comes on't." + +Heriot, as he descended the stairs, met his cash-keeper coming up, with +some concern in his face.--"Why, how now, Roberts," said the goldsmith, +"what means all this, man?" + +"It is Knighton, Master Heriot, from the Court--Knighton, the Duke's +man. He brought back the salver you carried to Whitehall, flung it into +the entrance as if it had been an old pewter platter, and bade me tell +you the king would have none of your trumpery." + +"Ay, indeed," said George Heriot--"None of my trumpery!--Come hither +into the compting-room, Roberts.--Sir Mungo," he added, bowing to the +knight, who had joined, and was preparing to follow them, "I pray your +forgiveness for an instant." + +In virtue of this prohibition, Sir Mungo, who, as well as the rest of +the company, had overheard what passed betwixt George Heriot and his +cash-keeper, saw himself condemned to wait in the outer business-room, +where he would have endeavoured to slake his eager curiosity by +questioning Knighton; but that emissary of greatness, after having added +to the uncivil message of his master some rudeness of his own, had again +scampered westward, with his satellites at his heels. + +In the meanwhile, the name of the Duke of Buckingham, the omnipotent +favourite both of the king and the Prince of Wales, had struck some +anxiety into the party which remained in the great parlour. He was more +feared than beloved, and, if not absolutely of a tyrannical disposition, +was accounted haughty, violent, and vindictive. It pressed on Nigel's +heart, that he himself, though he could not conceive how, nor why, +might be the original cause of the resentment of the Duke against his +benefactor. The others made their comments in whispers, until the sounds +reached Ramsay, who had not heard a word of what had previously passed, +but, plunged in those studies with which he connected every other +incident and event, took up only the catchword, and replied,--"The +Duke--the Duke of Buckingham--George Villiers--ay--I have spoke with +Lambe about him." + +"Our Lord and our Lady! Now, how can you say so, father?" said his +daughter, who had shrewdness enough to see that her father was touching +upon dangerous ground. + +"Why, ay, child," answered Ramsay; "the stars do but incline, they +cannot compel. But well you wot, it is commonly said of his Grace, by +those who have the skill to cast nativities, that there was a notable +conjunction of Mars and Saturn--the apparent or true time of which, +reducing the calculations of Eichstadius made for the latitude of +Oranienburgh, to that of London, gives seven hours, fifty-five minutes, +and forty-one seconds----" + +"Hold your peace, old soothsayer," said Heriot, who at that instant +entered the room with a calm and steady countenance; "your calculations +are true and undeniable when they regard brass and wire, and mechanical +force; but future events are at the pleasure of Him who bears the hearts +of kings in his hands." + +"Ay, but, George," answered the watchmaker, "there was a concurrence +of signs at this gentleman's birth, which showed his course would be +a strange one. Long has it been said of him, he was born at the very +meeting of night and day, and under crossing and contending influences +that may affect both us and him. + + 'Full moon and high sea, + Great man shalt thou be; + Red dawning, stormy sky, + Bloody death shalt thou die.'" + +"It is not good to speak of such things," said Heriot, "especially of +the great; stone walls have ears, and a bird of the air shall carry the +matter." + +Several of the guests seemed to be of their host's opinion. The two +merchants took brief leave, as if under consciousness that something +was wrong. Mistress Margaret, her body-guard of 'prentices being in +readiness, plucked her father by the sleeve, and, rescuing him from a +brown study, (whether referring to the wheels of Time, or to that of +Fortune, is uncertain,) wished good-night to her friend Mrs. Judith, and +received her godfather's blessing, who, at the same time, put upon +her slender finger a ring of much taste and some value; for he seldom +suffered her to leave him without some token of his affection. Thus +honourably dismissed, and accompanied by her escort, she set forth on +her return to Fleet Street. + +Sir Mungo had bid adieu to Master Heriot as he came out from the back +compting-room, but such was the interest which he took in the affairs +of his friend, that, when Master George went upstairs, he could not +help walking into that sanctum sanctorum, to see how Master Roberts was +employed. The knight found the cash-keeper busy in making extracts from +those huge brass-clasped leathern-bound manuscript folios, which are +the pride and trust of dealers, and the dread of customers whose year of +grace is out. The good knight leant his elbows on the desk, and said to +the functionary in a condoling tone of voice,--"What! you have lost a +good customer, I fear, Master Roberts, and are busied in making out his +bill of charges?" + +Now, it chanced that Roberts, like Sir Mungo himself, was a little deaf, +and, like Sir Mungo, knew also how to make the most of it; so that he +answered at cross purposes,--"I humbly crave your pardon, Sir Mungo, for +not having sent in your bill of charge sooner, but my master bade me not +disturb you. I will bring the items together in a moment." So saying, he +began to turn over the leaves of his book of fate, murmuring, "Repairing +ane silver seal-new clasp to his chain of office--ane over-gilt brooch +to his hat, being a Saint Andrew's cross, with thistles--a copper gilt +pair of spurs,--this to Daniel Driver, we not dealing in the article." + +He would have proceeded; but Sir Mungo, not prepared to endure the +recital of the catalogue of his own petty debts, and still less +willing to satisfy them on the spot, wished the bookkeeper, cavalierly, +good-night, and left the house without farther ceremony. The clerk +looked after him with a civil city sneer, and immediately resumed the +more serious labours which Sir Mungo's intrusion had interrupted. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + Things needful we have thought on; but the thing + Of all most needful--that which Scripture terms, + As if alone it merited regard, + The ONE thing needful--that's yet unconsider'd. + _The Chamberlain._ + +When the rest of the company had taken their departure from Master +Heriot's house, the young Lord of Glenvarloch also offered to take +leave; but his host detained him for a few minutes, until all were gone +excepting the clergyman. + +"My lord," then said the worthy citizen, "we have had our permitted hour +of honest and hospitable pastime, and now I would fain delay you for +another and graver purpose, as it is our custom, when we have the +benefit of good Mr. Windsor's company, that he reads the prayers of the +church for the evening before we separate. Your excellent father, my +lord, would not have departed before family worship--I hope the same +from your lordship." + +"With pleasure, sir," answered Nigel; "and you add in the invitation an +additional obligation to those with which you have loaded me. When young +men forget what is their duty, they owe deep thanks to the friend who +will remind them of it." + +While they talked together in this manner, the serving-men had removed +the folding-tables, brought forward a portable reading-desk, and placed +chairs and hassocks for their master, their mistress, and the noble +stranger. Another low chair, or rather a sort of stool, was placed close +beside that of Master Heriot; and though the circumstance was trivial, +Nigel was induced to notice it, because, when about to occupy that +seat, he was prevented by a sign from the old gentleman, and motioned +to another of somewhat more elevation. The clergyman took his station +behind the reading-desk. The domestics, a numerous family both of clerks +and servants, including Moniplies, attended, with great gravity, and +were accommodated with benches. + +The household were all seated, and, externally at least, composed +to devout attention, when a low knock was heard at the door of the +apartment; Mrs. Judith looked anxiously at her brother, as if desiring +to know his pleasure. He nodded his head gravely, and looked to the +door. Mrs. Judith immediately crossed the chamber, opened the door, and +led into the apartment a beautiful creature, whose sudden and singular +appearance might have made her almost pass for an apparition. She +was deadly pale-there was not the least shade of vital red to enliven +features, which were exquisitely formed, and might, but for that +circumstance, have been termed transcendently beautiful. Her long black +hair fell down over her shoulders and down her back, combed smoothly and +regularly, but without the least appearance of decoration or ornament, +which looked very singular at a period when head-gear, as it was called, +of one sort or other, was generally used by all ranks. Her dress was of +white, of the simplest fashion, and hiding all her person excepting +the throat, face, and hands. Her form was rather beneath than above the +middle size, but so justly proportioned and elegantly made, that +the spectator's attention was entirely withdrawn from her size. In +contradiction of the extreme plainness of all the rest of her attire, +she wore a necklace which a duchess might have envied, so large and +lustrous were the brilliants of which it was composed; and around her +waist a zone of rubies of scarce inferior value. + +When this singular figure entered the apartment, she cast her eyes on +Nigel, and paused, as if uncertain whether to advance or retreat. The +glance which she took of him seemed to be one rather of uncertainty and +hesitation, than of bashfulness or timidity. Aunt Judith took her by the +hand, and led her slowly forward--her dark eyes, however, continued to +be fixed on Nigel, with an expression of melancholy by which he felt +strangely affected. Even when she was seated on the vacant stool, which +was placed there probably for her accommodation, she again looked on him +more than once with the same pensive, lingering, and anxious expression, +but without either shyness or embarrassment, not even so much as to call +the slightest degree of complexion into her cheek. + +So soon as this singular female had taken up the prayer-book, which +was laid upon her cushion, she seemed immersed in devotional duty; and +although Nigel's attention to the service was so much disturbed by this +extraordinary apparition, that he looked towards her repeatedly in +the course of the service, he could never observe that her eyes or her +thoughts strayed so much as a single moment from the task in which she +was engaged. Nigel himself was less attentive, for the appearance of +this lady seemed so extraordinary, that, strictly as he had been bred up +by his father to pay the most reverential attention during performance +of divine service, his thoughts in spite of himself were disturbed by +her presence, and he earnestly wished the prayers were ended, that +his curiosity might obtain some gratification. When the service was +concluded, and each had remained, according to the decent and edifying +practice of the church, concentrated in mental devotion for a short +space, the mysterious visitant arose ere any other person stirred; and +Nigel remarked that none of the domestics left their places, oreven +moved, until she had first kneeled on one knee to Heriot, who seemed to +bless her with his hand laid on her head, and a melancholy solemnity of +look and action. She then bended her body, but without kneeling, to Mrs. +Judith, and having performed these two acts of reverence, she left the +room; yet just in the act of her departure, she once more turned her +penetrating eyes on Nigel with a fixed look, which compelled him to turn +his own aside. When he looked towards her again, he saw only the skirt +of her white mantle as she left the apartment. + +The domestics then rose and dispersed themselves--wine, and fruit, and +spices, were offered to Lord Nigel and to the clergyman, and the latter +took his leave. The young lord would fain have accompanied him, in hope +to get some explanation of the apparition which he had beheld, but +he was stopped by his host, who requested to speak with him in his +compting-room. + +"I hope, my lord," said the citizen, "that your preparations for +attending Court are in such forwardness that you can go thither the day +after to-morrow. It is, perhaps, the last day, for some time, that his +Majesty will hold open Court for all who have pretensions by birth, +rank, or office to attend upon him. On the subsequent day he goes +to Theobald's, where he is so much occupied with hunting and other +pleasures, that he cares not to be intruded on." + +"I shall be in all outward readiness to pay my duty," said the young +nobleman, "yet I have little heart to do it. The friends from whom I +ought to have found encouragement and protection, have proved cold and +false--I certainly will not trouble _them_ for their countenance on +this occasion--and yet I must confess my childish unwillingness to enter +quite alone upon so new a scene." + +"It is bold of a mechanic like me to make such an offer to a nobleman," +said Heriot; "but I must attend at Court to-morrow. I can accompany +you as far as the presence-chamber, from my privilege as being of the +household. I can facilitate your entrance, should you find difficulty, +and I can point out the proper manner and time of approaching the king. +But I do not know," he added, smiling, "whether these little advantages +will not be overbalanced by the incongruity of a nobleman receiving them +from the hands of an old smith." + +"From the hands rather of the only friend I have found in London," said +Nigel, offering his hand. + +"Nay, if you think of the matter in that way," replied the honest +citizen, "there is no more to be said--I will come for you to-morrow, +with a barge proper to the occasion.--But remember, my good young lord, +that I do not, like some men of my degree, wish to take opportunity to +step beyond it, and associate with my superiors in rank, and therefore +do not fear to mortify my presumption, by suffering me to keep my +distance in the presence, and where it is fitting for both of us to +separate; and for what remains, most truly happy shall I be in proving +of service to the son of my ancient patron." + +The style of conversation led so far from the point which had interested +the young nobleman's curiosity, that there was no returning to it that +night. He therefore exchanged thanks and greetings with George Heriot, +and took his leave, promising to be equipped and in readiness to embark +with him on the second successive morning at ten o'clock. + +The generation of linkboys, celebrated by Count Anthony Hamilton, as +peculiar to London, had already, in the reign of James I., begun their +functions, and the service of one of them with his smoky torch, had +been secured to light the young Scottish lord and his follower to their +lodgings, which, though better acquainted than formerly with the city, +they might in the dark have run some danger of missing. This gave the +ingenious Mr. Moniplies an opportunity of gathering close up to his +master, after he had gone through the form of slipping his left arm into +the handles of his buckler, and loosening his broadsword in the sheath, +that he might be ready for whatever should befall. + +"If it were not for the wine and the good cheer which we have had in +yonder old man's house, my lord," said this sapient follower, "and that +I ken him by report to be a just living man in many respects, and a real +Edinburgh gutterblood, I should have been well pleased to have seen how +his feet were shaped, and whether he had not a cloven cloot under the +braw roses and cordovan shoon of his." + +"Why, you rascal," answered Nigel, "you have been too kindly treated, +and now that you have filled your ravenous stomach, you are railing on +the good gentleman that relieved you." + +"Under favour, no, my lord," said Moniplies,--"I would only like to see +something mair about him. I have eaten his meat, it is true--more shame +that the like of him should have meat to give, when your lordship and +me could scarce have gotten, on our own account, brose and a bear +bannock--I have drunk his wine, too." + +"I see you have," replied his master, "a great deal more than you should +have done." + +"Under your patience, my lord," said Moniplies, "you are pleased to say +that, because I crushed a quart with that jolly boy Jenkin, as they +call the 'prentice boy, and that was out of mere acknowledgment for his +former kindness--I own that I, moreover, sung the good old song of Elsie +Marley, so as they never heard it chanted in their lives----" + +And withal (as John Bunyan says) as they went on their way, he sung-- + + "O, do ye ken Elsie Marley, honey-- + The wife that sells the barley, honey? + For Elsie Marley's grown sae fine, + She winna get up to feed the swine.-- + O, do ye ken----" + +Here in mid career was the songster interrupted by the stern gripe +of his master, who threatened to baton him to death if he brought the +city-watch upon them by his ill-timed melody. + +"I crave pardon, my lord--I humbly crave pardon--only when I think of +that Jen Win, as they call him, I can hardly help humming--'O, do ye +ken'--But I crave your honour's pardon, and will be totally dumb, if you +command me so." + +"No, sirrah!" said Nigel, "talk on, for I well know you would say and +suffer more under pretence of holding your peace, than when you get an +unbridled license. How is it, then? What have you to say against Master +Heriot?" + +It seems more than probable, that in permitting this license, the young +lord hoped his attendant would stumble upon the subject of the young +lady who had appeared at prayers in a manner so mysterious. But whether +this was the case, or whether he merely desired that Moniplies should +utter, in a subdued and under tone of voice, those spirits which might +otherwise have vented themselves in obstreperous song, it is certain he +permitted his attendant to proceed with his story in his own way. + +"And therefore," said the orator, availing himself of his immunity, "I +would like to ken what sort of carle this Maister Heriot is. He hath +supplied your lordship with wealth of gold, as I can understand; and if +he has, I make it for certain he hath had his ain end in it, according +to the fashion of the world. Now, had your lordship your own good +lands at your guiding, doubtless this person, with most of his +craft--goldsmiths they call themselves--I say usurers--wad be glad to +exchange so many pounds of African dust, by whilk I understand gold, +against so many fair acres, and hundreds of acres, of broad Scottish +land." + +"But you know I have no land," said the young lord, "at least none that +can be affected by any debt which I can at present become obliged for--I +think you need not have reminded me of that." + +"True, my lord, most true; and, as your lordship says, open to the +meanest capacity, without any unnecessary expositions. Now, therefore, +my lord, unless Maister George Heriot has something mair to allege as +a motive for his liberality, vera different from the possession of your +estate--and moreover, as he could gain little by the capture of your +body, wherefore should it not be your soul that he is in pursuit of?" + +"My soul, you rascal!" said the young lord; "what good should my soul do +him?" + +"What do I ken about that?" said Moniplies; "they go about roaring and +seeking whom they may devour--doubtless, they like the food that they +rage so much about--and, my lord, they say," added Moniplies, drawing up +still closer to his master's side, "they say that Master Heriot has one +spirit in his house already." + +"How, or what do you mean?" said Nigel; "I will break your head, you +drunken knave, if you palter with me any longer." + +"Drunken?" answered his trusty adherent, "and is this the story?--why, +how could I but drink your lordship's health on my bare knees, when +Master Jenkin began it to me?--hang them that would not--I would have +cut the impudent knave's hams with my broadsword, that should make +scruple of it, and so have made him kneel when he should have found it +difficult to rise again. But touching the spirit," he proceeded, finding +that his master made no answer to his valorous tirade, "your lordship +has seen her with your own eyes." + +"I saw no spirit," said Glenvarloch, but yet breathing thick as one who +expects some singular disclosure, "what mean you by a spirit?" + +"You saw a young lady come in to prayers, that spoke not a word to +any one, only made becks and bows to the old gentleman and lady of the +house--ken ye wha she is?" + +"No, indeed," answered Nigel; "some relation of the family, I suppose." + +"Deil a bit--deil a bit," answered Moniplies, hastily, "not a +blood-drop's kin to them, if she had a drop of blood in her body--I tell +you but what all human beings allege to be truth, that swell within hue +and cry of Lombard Street--that lady, or quean, or whatever you choose +to call her, has been dead in the body these many a year, though she +haunts them, as we have seen, even at their very devotions." + +"You will allow her to be a good spirit at least," said Nigel Olifaunt, +"since she chooses such a time to visit her friends?" + +"For that I kenna, my lord," answered the superstitious follower; "I ken +no spirit that would have faced the right down hammer-blow of Mess John +Knox, whom my father stood by in his very warst days, bating a chance +time when the Court, which my father supplied with butcher-meat, was +against him. But yon divine has another airt from powerful +Master Rollock, and Mess David Black, of North Leith, and sic +like.--Alack-a-day! wha can ken, if it please your lordship, whether +sic prayers as the Southron read out of their auld blethering black +mess-book there, may not be as powerful to invite fiends, as a right +red-het prayer warm fraw the heart, may be powerful to drive them away, +even as the Evil Spirit was driven by he smell of the fish's liver from +the bridal-chamber of Sara, the daughter of Raguel? As to whilk story, +nevertheless, I make scruple to say whether it be truth or not, better +men than I am having doubted on that matter." + +"Well, well, well," said his master, impatiently, "we are now near home, +and I have permitted you to speak of this matter for once, that we may +have an end to your prying folly, and your idiotical superstitions, for +ever. For whom do you, or your absurd authors or informers, take this +lady?" + +"I can sae naething preceesely as to that," answered Moniplies; +"certain it is her body died and was laid in the grave many a day since, +notwithstanding she still wanders on earth, and chiefly amongst Maister +Heriot's family, though she hath been seen in other places by them that +well knew her. But who she is, I will not warrant to say, or how she +becomes attached, like a Highland Brownie, to some peculiar family. +They say she has a row of apartments of her own, ante-room, parlour, and +bedroom; but deil a bed she sleeps in but her own coffin, and the walls, +doors, and windows are so chinked up, as to prevent the least blink of +daylight from entering; and then she dwells by torchlight--" + +"To what purpose, if she be a spirit?" said Nigel Olifaunt. + +"How can I tell your lordship?" answered his attendant. "I thank God I +know nothing of her likings, or mislikings--only her coffin is there; +and I leave your lordship to guess what a live person has to do with a +coffin. As little as a ghost with a lantern, I trow." + +"What reason," repeated Nigel, "can a creature, so young and so +beautiful, have already habitually to contemplate her bed of last-long +rest?" + +"In troth, I kenna, my lord," answered Moniplies; "but there is the +coffin, as they told me who have seen it: it is made of heben-wood, with +silver nails, and lined all through with three-piled damask, might serve +a princess to rest in." + +"Singular," said Nigel, whose brain, like that of most active young +spirits, was easily caught by the singular and the romantic; "does she +not eat with the family?" + +"Who!--she!"--exclaimed Moniplies, as if surprised at the question; +"they would need a lang spoon would sup with her, I trow. Always there +is something put for her into the Tower, as they call it, whilk is a +whigmaleery of a whirling-box, that turns round half on the tae side o' +the wa', half on the tother." + +"I have seen the contrivance in foreign nunneries," said the Lord of +Glenvarloch. "And is it thus she receives her food?" + +"They tell me something is put in ilka day, for fashion's sake," replied +the attendant; "but it's no to be supposed she would consume it, ony +mair than the images of Bel and the Dragon consumed the dainty vivers +that were placed before them. There are stout yeomen and chamber-queans +in the house, enow to play the part of Lick-it-up-a', as well as the +threescore and ten priests of Bel, besides their wives and children." + +"And she is never seen in the family but when the hour of prayer +arrives?" said the master. + +"Never, that I hear of," replied the servant. + +"It is singular," said Nigel Olifaunt, musing. "Were it not for the +ornaments which she wears, and still more for her attendance upon the +service of the Protestant Church, I should know what to think, and +should believe her either a Catholic votaress, who, for some cogent +reason, was allowed to make her cell here in London, or some unhappy +Popish devotee, who was in the course of undergoing a dreadful penance. +As it is, I know not what to deem of it." + +His reverie was interrupted by the linkboy knocking at the door of +honest John Christie, whose wife came forth with "quips, and becks, and +wreathed smiles," to welcome her honoured guest on his return to his +apartment. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + Ay! mark the matron well--and laugh not, Harry, + At her old steeple-hat and velvet guard-- + I've call'd her like the ear of Dionysius; + I mean that ear-form'd vault, built o'er his dungeon, + To catch the groans and discontented murmurs + Of his poor bondsmen--Even so doth Martha + Drink up, for her own purpose, all that passes, + Or is supposed to pass, in this wide city-- + She can retail it too, if that her profit + Shall call on her to do so; and retail it + For your advantage, so that you can make + Your profit jump with hers. + The Conspiracy. + +We must now introduce to the reader's acquaintance another character, +busy and important far beyond her ostensible situation in society--in +a word, Dame Ursula Suddlechop, wife of Benjamin Suddlechop, the most +renowned barber in all Fleet Street. This dame had her own particular +merits, the principal part of which was (if her own report could be +trusted) an infinite desire to be of service to her fellow-creatures. +Leaving to her thin half-starved partner the boast of having the most +dexterous snap with his fingers of any shaver in London, and the care +of a shop where starved apprentices flayed the faces of those who +were boobies enough to trust them, the dame drove a separate and more +lucrative trade, which yet had so many odd turns and windings, that it +seemed in many respects to contradict itself. + +Its highest and most important duties were of a very secret and +confidential nature, and Dame Ursula Suddlechop was never known to +betray any transaction intrusted to her, unless she had either been +indifferently paid for her service, or that some one found it convenient +to give her a double douceur to make her disgorge the secret; and +these contingencies happened in so few cases, that her character for +trustiness remained as unimpeached as that for honesty and benevolence. + +In fact, she was a most admirable matron, and could be useful to the +impassioned and the frail in the rise, progress, and consequences of +their passion. She could contrive an interview for lovers who could show +proper reasons for meeting privately; she could relieve the frail fair +one of the burden of a guilty passion, and perhaps establish the hopeful +offspring of unlicensed love as the heir of some family whose love was +lawful, but where an heir had not followed the union. More than this she +could do, and had been concerned in deeper and dearer secrets. She had +been a pupil of Mrs. Turner, and learned from her the secret of making +the yellow starch, and, it may be, two or three other secrets of more +consequence, though perhaps none that went to the criminal extent of +those whereof her mistress was accused. But all that was deep and dark +in her real character was covered by the show of outward mirth and +good-humour, the hearty laugh and buxom jest with which the dame knew +well how to conciliate the elder part of her neighbours, and the many +petty arts by which she could recommend herself to the younger, those +especially of her own sex. + +Dame Ursula was, in appearance, scarce past forty, and her full, but +not overgrown form, and still comely features, although her person was +plumped out, and her face somewhat coloured by good cheer, had a joyous +expression of gaiety and good-humour, which set off the remains of +beauty in the wane. Marriages, births, and christenings were seldom +thought to be performed with sufficient ceremony, for a considerable +distance round her abode, unless Dame Ursley, as they called her, was +present. She could contrive all sorts of pastimes, games, and jests, +which might amuse the large companies which the hospitality of our +ancestors assembled together on such occasions, so that her presence was +literally considered as indispensable in the families of all citizens of +ordinary rank, at such joyous periods. So much also was she supposed to +know of life and its labyrinths, that she was the willing confidant +of half the loving couples in the vicinity, most of whom used to +communicate their secrets to, and receive their counsel from, Dame +Ursley. The rich rewarded her services with rings, owches, or gold +pieces, which she liked still better; and she very generously gave +her assistance to the poor, on the same mixed principles as young +practitioners in medicine assist them, partly from compassion, and +partly to keep her hand in use. + +Dame Ursley's reputation in the city was the greater that her practice +had extended beyond Temple Bar, and that she had acquaintances, nay, +patrons and patronesses, among the quality, whose rank, as their members +were much fewer, and the prospect of approaching the courtly sphere much +more difficult, bore a degree of consequence unknown to the present day, +when the toe of the citizen presses so close on the courtier's heel. +Dame Ursley maintained her intercourse with this superior rank of +customers, partly by driving a small trade in perfumes, essences, +pomades, head-gears from France, dishes or ornaments from China, then +already beginning to be fashionable; not to mention drugs of various +descriptions, chiefly for the use of the ladies, and partly by other +services, more or less connected with the esoteric branches of her +profession heretofore alluded to. + +Possessing such and so many various modes of thriving, Dame Ursley +was nevertheless so poor, that she might probably have mended her own +circumstances, as well as her husband's, if she had renounced them all, +and set herself quietly down to the care of her own household, and to +assist Benjamin in the concerns of his trade. But Ursula was luxurious +and genial in her habits, and could no more have endured the stinted +economy of Benjamin's board, than she could have reconciled herself to +the bald chat of his conversation. + +It was on the evening of the day on which Lord Nigel Olifaunt dined with +the wealthy goldsmith, that we must introduce Ursula Suddlechop upon +the stage. She had that morning made a long tour to Westminster, was +fatigued, and had assumed a certain large elbow-chair, rendered smooth +by frequent use, placed on one side of her chimney, in which there was +lit a small but bright fire. Here she observed, betwixt sleeping and +waking, the simmering of a pot of well-spiced ale, on the brown surface +of which bobbed a small crab-apple, sufficiently roasted, while a little +mulatto girl watched, still more attentively, the process of dressing +a veal sweetbread, in a silver stewpan which occupied the other side +of the chimney. With these viands, doubtless, Dame Ursula proposed +concluding the well spent day, of which she reckoned the labour over, +and the rest at her own command. She was deceived, however; for just +as the ale, or, to speak technically, the lamb's-wool, was fitted for +drinking, and the little dingy maiden intimated that the sweetbread was +ready to be eaten, the thin cracked voice of Benjamin was heard from the +bottom of the stairs. + +"Why, Dame Ursley--why, wife, I say--why, dame--why, love, you are +wanted more than a strop for a blunt razor--why, dame--" + +"I would some one would draw a razor across thy windpipe, thou bawling +ass!" said the dame to herself, in the first moment of irritation +against her clamorous helpmate; and then called aloud,--"Why, what is +the matter, Master Suddlechop? I am just going to slip into bed; I have +been daggled to and fro the whole day." + +"Nay, sweetheart, it is not me," said the patient Benjamin, "but the +Scots laundry-maid from neighbour Ramsay's, who must speak with you +incontinent." + +At the word sweetheart, Dame Ursley cast a wistful look at the mess +which was stewed to a second in the stewpan, and then replied, with +a sigh,--"Bid Scots Jenny come up, Master Suddlechop. I shall be very +happy to hear what she has to say;" then added in a lower tone, "and I +hope she will go to the devil in the flame of a tar-barrel, like many a +Scots witch before her!" + +The Scots laundress entered accordingly, and having heard nothing of the +last kind wish of Dame Suddlechop, made her reverence with considerable +respect, and said, her young mistress had returned home unwell, and +wished to see her neighbour, Dame Ursley, directly. + +"And why will it not do to-morrow, Jenny, my good woman?" said Dame +Ursley; "for I have been as far as Whitehall to-day already, and I am +well-nigh worn off my feet, my good woman." + +"Aweel!" answered Jenny, with great composure, "and if that sae be sae, +I maun take the langer tramp mysell, and maun gae down the waterside for +auld Mother Redcap, at the Hungerford Stairs, that deals in comforting +young creatures, e'en as you do yoursell, hinny; for ane o' ye the bairn +maun see before she sleeps, and that's a' that I ken on't." + +So saying, the old emissary, without farther entreaty, turned on her +heel, and was about to retreat, when Dame Ursley exclaimed,--"No, no--if +the sweet child, your mistress, has any necessary occasion for good +advice and kind tendance, you need not go to Mother Redcap, Janet. She +may do very well for skippers' wives, chandlers' daughters, and such +like; but nobody shall wait on pretty Mistress Margaret, the daughter of +his most Sacred Majesty's horologer, excepting and saving myself. And +so I will but take my chopins and my cloak, and put on my muffler, +and cross the street to neighbour Ramsay's in an instant. But tell me +yourself, good Jenny, are you not something tired of your young lady's +frolics and change of mind twenty times a-day?" + +"In troth, not I," said the patient drudge, "unless it may be when she +is a wee fashious about washing her laces; but I have been her +keeper since she was a bairn, neighbour Suddlechop, and that makes a +difference." + +"Ay," said Dame Ursley, still busied putting on additional defences +against the night air; "and you know for certain that she has two +hundred pounds a-year in good land, at her own free disposal?" + +"Left by her grandmother, heaven rest her soul!" said the Scotswoman; +"and to a daintier lassie she could not have bequeathed it." + +"Very true, very true, mistress; for, with all her little whims, I have +always said Mistress Margaret Ramsay was the prettiest girl in the ward; +and, Jenny, I warrant the poor child has had no supper?" + +Jenny could not say but it was the case, for, her master being out, the +twa 'prentice lads had gone out after shutting shop, to fetch them home, +and she and the other maid had gone out to Sandy MacGivan's, to see a +friend frae Scotland. + +"As was very natural, Mrs. Janet," said Dame Ursley, who found her +interest in assenting to all sorts of propositions from all sorts of +persons. + +"And so the fire went out, too,"--said Jenny. + +"Which was the most natural of the whole," said Dame Suddlechop; "and +so, to cut the matter short, Jenny, I'll carry over the little bit of +supper that I was going to eat. For dinner I have tasted none, and it +may be my young pretty Mistress Marget will eat a morsel with me; for +it is mere emptiness, Mistress Jenny, that often puts these fancies +of illness into young folk's heads." So saying, she put the silver +posset-cup with the ale into Jenny's hands and assuming her mantle with +the alacrity of one determined to sacrifice inclination to duty, she +hid the stewpan under its folds, and commanded Wilsa, the little mulatto +girl, to light them across the street. + +"Whither away, so late?" said the barber, whom they passed seated with +his starveling boys round a mess of stockfish and parsnips, in the shop +below. + +"If I were to tell you, Gaffer," said the dame, with most contemptuous +coolness, "I do not think you could do my errand, so I will e'en keep it +to myself." Benjamin was too much accustomed to his wife's independent +mode of conduct, to pursue his inquiry farther; nor did the dame tarry +for farther question, but marched out at the door, telling the eldest of +the boys "to sit up till her return, and look to the house the whilst." + +The night was dark and rainy, and although the distance betwixt the two +shops was short, it allowed Dame Ursley leisure enough, while she strode +along with high-tucked petticoats, to embitter it by the following +grumbling reflections--"I wonder what I have done, that I must needs +trudge at every old beldam's bidding, and every young minx's maggot! +I have been marched from Temple Bar to Whitechapel, on the matter of a +pinmaker's wife having pricked her fingers--marry, her husband that made +the weapon might have salved the wound.--And here is this fantastic ape, +pretty Mistress Marget, forsooth--such a beauty as I could make of a +Dutch doll, and as fantastic, and humorous, and conceited, as if she +were a duchess. I have seen her in the same day as changeful as a +marmozet and as stubborn as a mule. I should like to know whether +her little conceited noddle, or her father's old crazy calculating +jolter-pate, breeds most whimsies. But then there's that two hundred +pounds a-year in dirty land, and the father is held a close chuff, +though a fanciful--he is our landlord besides, and she has begged a +late day from him for our rent; so, God help me, I must be +comfortable--besides, the little capricious devil is my only key to get +at Master George Heriot's secret, and it concerns my character to find +that out; and so, ANDIAMOS, as the lingua franca hath it." + +Thus pondering, she moved forward with hasty strides until she arrived +at the watchmaker's habitation. The attendant admitted them by means of +a pass-key. Onward glided Dame Ursula, now in glimmer and now in gloom, +not like the lovely Lady Cristabelle through Gothic sculpture and +ancient armour, but creeping and stumbling amongst relics of old +machines, and models of new inventions in various branches of +mechanics with which wrecks of useless ingenuity, either in a broken +or half-finished shape, the apartment of the fanciful though ingenious +mechanist was continually lumbered. + +At length they attained, by a very narrow staircase, pretty Mistress +Margaret's apartment, where she, the cynosure of the eyes of every bold +young bachelor in Fleet Street, sat in a posture which hovered between +the discontented and the disconsolate. For her pretty back and shoulders +were rounded into a curve, her round and dimpled chin reposed in the +hollow of her little palm, while the fingers were folded over her mouth; +her elbow rested on a table, and her eyes seemed fixed upon the dying +charcoal, which was expiring in a small grate. She scarce turned her +head when Dame Ursula entered, and when the presence of that estimable +matron was more precisely announced in words by the old Scotswoman, +Mistress Margaret, without changing her posture, muttered some sort of +answer that was wholly unintelligible. + +"Go your ways down to the kitchen with Wilsa, good Mistress Jenny," said +Dame Ursula, who was used to all sorts of freaks, on the part of her +patients or clients, whichever they might be termed; "put the stewpan +and the porringer by the fireside, and go down below--I must speak to my +pretty love, Mistress Margaret, by myself--and there is not a bachelor +betwixt this and Bow but will envy me the privilege." + +The attendants retired as directed, and Dame Ursula, having availed +herself of the embers of charcoal, to place her stewpan to the best +advantage, drew herself as close as she could to her patient, and began +in a low, soothing, and confidential tone of voice, to inquire what +ailed her pretty flower of neighbours. + +"Nothing, dame," said Margaret somewhat pettishly, and changing her +posture so as rather to turn her back upon the kind inquirer. + +"Nothing, lady-bird!" answered Dame Suddlechop; "and do you use to send +for your friends out of bed at this hour for nothing?" + +"It was not I who sent for you, dame," replied the malecontent maiden. + +"And who was it, then?" said Ursula; "for if I had not been sent for, I +had not been here at this time of night, I promise you!" + +"It was the old Scotch fool Jenny, who did it out of her own head, I +suppose," said Margaret; "for she has been stunning me these two hours +about you and Mother Redcap." + +"Me and Mother Redcap!" said Dame Ursula, "an old fool indeed, that +couples folk up so.--But come, come, my sweet little neighbour, Jenny +is no such fool after all; she knows young folks want more and better +advice than her own, and she knows, too, where to find it for them; so +you must take heart of grace, my pretty maiden, and tell me what you are +moping about, and then let Dame Ursula alone for finding out a cure." + +"Nay, an ye be so wise, Mother Ursula," replied the girl, "you may guess +what I ail without my telling you." + +"Ay, ay, child," answered the complaisant matron, "no one can play +better than I at the good old game of What is my thought like? Now I'll +warrant that little head of yours is running on a new head-tire, a foot +higher than those our city dames wear--or you are all for a trip +to Islington or Ware, and your father is cross and will not +consent--or----" + +"Or you are an old fool, Dame Suddlechop," said Margaret, peevishly, +"and must needs trouble yourself about matters you know nothing of." + +"Fool as much as you will, mistress," said Dame Ursula, offended in her +turn, "but not so very many years older than yourself, mistress." + +"Oh! we are angry, are we?" said the beauty; "and pray, Madam Ursula, +how come you, that are not so many years older than me, to talk about +such nonsense to me, who am so many years younger, and who yet have too +much sense to care about head-gears and Islington?" + +"Well, well, young mistress," said the sage counsellor, rising, "I +perceive I can be of no use here; and methinks, since you know your own +matters so much better than other people do, you might dispense with +disturbing folks at midnight to ask their advice." + +"Why, now you are angry, mother," said Margaret, detaining her; "this +comes of your coming out at eventide without eating your supper--I +never heard you utter a cross word after you had finished your little +morsel.--Here, Janet, a trencher and salt for Dame Ursula;--and what +have you in that porringer, dame?--Filthy clammy ale, as I would +live--Let Janet fling it out of the window, or keep it for my father's +morning draught; and she shall bring you the pottle of sack that was set +ready for him--good man, he will never find out the difference, for ale +will wash down his dusty calculations quite as well as wine." + +"Truly, sweetheart, I am of your opinion," said Dame Ursula, whose +temporary displeasure vanished at once before these preparations for +good cheer; and so, settling herself on the great easy-chair, with +a three-legged table before her, she began to dispatch, with good +appetite, the little delicate dish which she had prepared for herself. +She did not, however, fail in the duties of civility, and earnestly, but +in vain, pressed Mistress Margaret to partake her dainties. The damsel +declined the invitation. + +"At least pledge me in a glass of sack," said Dame Ursula; "I have heard +my grandame say, that before the gospellers came in, the old Catholic +father confessors and their penitents always had a cup of sack together +before confession; and you are my penitent." + +"I shall drink no sack, I am sure," said Margaret; "and I told you +before, that if you cannot find out what ails me, I shall never have the +heart to tell it." + +So saying, she turned away from Dame Ursula once more, and resumed her +musing posture, with her hand on her elbow, and her back, at least one +shoulder, turned towards her confidant. + +"Nay, then," said Dame Ursula, "I must exert my skill in good +earnest.--You must give me this pretty hand, and I will tell you by +palmistry, as well as any gipsy of them all, what foot it is you halt +upon." + +"As if I halted on any foot at all," said Margaret, something +scornfully, but yielding her left hand to Ursula, and continuing at the +same time her averted position. + +"I see brave lines here," said Ursula, "and not ill to read +neither--pleasure and wealth, and merry nights and late mornings to my +Beauty, and such an equipage as shall shake Whitehall. O, have I touched +you there?--and smile you now, my pretty one?--for why should not he be +Lord Mayor, and go to Court in his gilded caroch, as others have done +before him?" + +"Lord Mayor? pshaw!" replied Margaret. + +"And why pshaw at my Lord Mayor, sweetheart? or perhaps you pshaw at my +prophecy; but there is a cross in every one's line of life as well as +in yours, darling. And what though I see a 'prentice's flat cap in this +pretty palm, yet there is a sparking black eye under it, hath not its +match in the Ward of Farringdon-Without." + +"Whom do you mean, dame?" said Margaret coldly. + +"Whom should I mean," said Dame Ursula, "but the prince of 'prentices, +and king of good company, Jenkin Vincent?" + +"Out, woman--Jenkin Vincent?--a clown--a Cockney!" exclaimed the +indignant damsel. + +"Ay, sets the wind in that quarter, Beauty!" quoth the dame; "why, it +has changed something since we spoke together last, for then I would +have sworn it blew fairer for poor Jin Vin; and the poor lad dotes on +you too, and would rather see your eyes than the first glimpse of the +sun on the great holiday on May-day." + +"I would my eyes had the power of the sun to blind his, then," said +Margaret, "to teach the drudge his place." + +"Nay," said Dame Ursula, "there be some who say that Frank Tunstall +is as proper a lad as Jin Vin, and of surety he is third cousin to +a knighthood, and come of a good house; and so mayhap you may be for +northward ho!" + +"Maybe I may"--answered Margaret, "but not with my father's 'prentice--I +thank you, Dame Ursula." + +"Nay, then, the devil may guess your thoughts for me," said Dame Ursula; +"this comes of trying to shoe a filly that is eternally wincing and +shifting ground!" + +"Hear me, then," said Margaret, "and mind what I say.--This day I dined +abroad--" + +"I can tell you where," answered her counsellor,--"with your godfather +the rich goldsmith--ay, you see I know something--nay, I could tell you, +as I would, with whom, too." + +"Indeed!" said Margaret, turning suddenly round with an accent of strong +surprise, and colouring up to the eyes. + +"With old Sir Mungo Malagrowther," said the oracular dame,--"he was +trimmed in my Benjamin's shop in his way to the city." + +"Pshaw! the frightful old mouldy skeleton!" said the damsel. + +"Indeed you say true, my dear," replied the confidant,--"it is a shame +to him to be out of Saint Pancras's charnel-house, for I know no +other place he is fit for, the foul-mouthed old railer. He said to my +husband--" + +"Somewhat which signifies nothing to our purpose, I dare say," +interrupted Margaret. "I must speak, then.--There dined with us a +nobleman--" + +"A nobleman! the maiden's mad!" said Dame Ursula. + +"There dined with us, I say," continued Margaret, without regarding the +interruption, "a nobleman--a Scottish nobleman." + +"Now Our Lady keep her!" said the confidant, "she is quite +frantic!--heard ever any one of a watchmaker's daughter falling in love +with a nobleman--and a Scots nobleman, to make the matter complete, +who are all as proud as Lucifer, and as poor as Job?--A Scots nobleman, +quotha? I had lief you told me of a Jew pedlar. I would have you think +how all this is to end, pretty one, before you jump in the dark." + +"That is nothing to you, Ursula--it is your assistance," said Mistress +Margaret, "and not your advice, that I am desirous to have, and you know +I can make it worth your while." + +"O, it is not for the sake of lucre, Mistress Margaret," answered +the obliging dame; "but truly I would have you listen to some +advice--bethink you of your own condition." + +"My father's calling is mechanical," said Margaret, "but our blood is +not so. I have heard my father say that we are descended, at a distance +indeed, from the great Earls of Dalwolsey." [Footnote: The head of the +ancient and distinguished house of Ramsay, and to whom, as their chief, +the individuals of that name look as their origin and source of gentry. +Allan Ramsay, the pastoral poet, in the same manner, makes + + "Dalhousie of an auld descent, + My chief, my stoup, my ornament."] + +"Ay, ay," said Dame Ursula; "even so--I never knew a Scot of you but was +descended, as ye call it, from some great house or other; and a piteous +descent it often is--and as for the distance you speak of, it is so +great as to put you out of sight of each other. Yet do not toss your +pretty head so scornfully, but tell me the name of this lordly northern +gallant, and we will try what can be done in the matter." + +"It is Lord Glenvarloch, whom they call Lord Nigel Olifaunt," said +Margaret in a low voice, and turning away to hide her blushes. + +"Marry, Heaven forefend!" exclaimed Dame Suddlechop; "this is the very +devil, and something worse!" + +"How mean you?" said the damsel, surprised at the vivacity of her +exclamation. + +"Why, know ye not," said the dame, "what powerful enemies he has at +Court? know ye not--But blisters on my tongue, it runs too fast for my +wit--enough to say, that you had better make your bridal-bed under a +falling house, than think of young Glenvarloch." + +"He IS unfortunate then?" said Margaret; "I knew it--I divined it--there +was sorrow in his voice when he said even what was gay--there was a +touch of misfortune in his melancholy smile--he had not thus clung to my +thoughts had I seen him in all the mid-day glare of prosperity." + +"Romances have cracked her brain!" said Dame Ursula; "she is a castaway +girl--utterly distraught--loves a Scots lord--and likes him the better +for being unfortunate! Well, mistress, I am sorry this is a matter I +cannot aid you in--it goes against my conscience, and it is an affair +above my condition, and beyond my management;--but I will keep your +counsel." + +"You will not be so base as to desert me, after having drawn my secret +from me?" said Margaret, indignantly; "if you do, I know how to have my +revenge; and if you do not, I will reward you well. Remember the house +your husband dwells in is my father's property." + +"I remember it but too well, Mistress Margaret," said Ursula, after +a moment's reflection, "and I would serve you in any thing in my +condition; but to meddle with such high matters--I shall never forget +poor Mistress Turner, my honoured patroness, peace be with her!--she had +the ill-luck to meddle in the matter of Somerset and Overbury, and so +the great earl and his lady slipt their necks out of the collar, and +left her and some half-dozen others to suffer in their stead. I shall +never forget the sight of her standing on the scaffold with the ruff +round her pretty neck, all done up with the yellow starch which I had so +often helped her to make, and that was so soon to give place to a rough +hempen cord. Such a sight, sweetheart, will make one loath to meddle +with matters that are too hot or heavy for their handling." + +"Out, you fool!" answered Mistress Margaret; "am I one to speak to you +about such criminal practices as that wretch died for? All I desire of +you is, to get me precise knowledge of what affair brings this young +nobleman to Court." + +"And when you have his secret," said Ursula, "what will it avail you, +sweetheart?--and yet I would do your errand, if you could do as much for +me." + +"And what is it you would have of me?" said Mistress Margaret. + +"What you have been angry with me for asking before," answered Dame +Ursula. "I want to have some light about the story of your godfather's +ghost, that is only seen at prayers." + +"Not for the world," said Mistress Margaret, "will I be a spy on my kind +godfather's secrets--No, Ursula--that I will never pry into, which he +desires to keep hidden. But thou knowest that I have a fortune, of my +own, which must at no distant day come under my own management--think of +some other recompense." + +"Ay, that I well know," said the counsellor--"it is that two hundred +per year, with your father's indulgence, that makes you so wilful, +sweetheart." + +"It may be so,"--said Margaret Ramsay; "meanwhile, do you serve me +truly, and here is a ring of value in pledge, that when my fortune is in +my own hand, I will redeem the token with fifty broad pieces of gold." + +"Fifty broad pieces of gold!" repeated the dame; "and this ring, +which is a right fair one, in token you fail not of your word!--Well, +sweetheart, if I must put my throat in peril, I am sure I cannot risk it +for a friend more generous than you; and I would not think of more than +the pleasure of serving you, only Benjamin gets more idle every day, and +our family----" + +"Say no more of it," said Margaret; "we understand each other. And now, +tell me what you know of this young man's affairs, which made you so +unwilling to meddle with them?" + +"Of that I can say no great matter as yet," answered Dame Ursula; "only +I know, the most powerful among his own countrymen are against him, and +also the most powerful at the Court here. But I will learn more of it; +for it will be a dim print that I will not read for your sake, pretty +Mistress Margaret. Know you where this gallant dwells?" + +"I heard by accident," said Margaret, as if ashamed of the minute +particularity of her memory upon such an occasion,--"he lodges, +I think--at one Christie's--if I mistake not--at Paul's Wharf--a +ship-chandler's." + +"A proper lodging for a young baron!--Well, but cheer you up, Mistress +Margaret--If he has come up a caterpillar, like some of his countrymen, +he may cast his slough like them, and come out a butterfly.--So I drink +good-night, and sweet dreams to you, in another parting cup of sack; +and you shall hear tidings of me within four-and-twenty hours. And, once +more, I commend you to your pillow, my pearl of pearls, and Marguerite +of Marguerites!" + +So saying, she kissed the reluctant cheek of her young friend, or +patroness, and took her departure with the light and stealthy pace of +one accustomed to accommodate her footsteps to the purposes of dispatch +and secrecy. + +Margaret Ramsay looked after her for some time, in anxious silence. "I +did ill," she at length murmured, "to let her wring this out of me; but +she is artful, bold and serviceable--and I think faithful--or, if not, +she will be true at least to her interest, and that I can command. I +would I had not spoken, however--I have begun a hopeless work. For what +has he said to me, to warrant my meddling in his fortunes?--Nothing but +words of the most ordinary import--mere table-talk, and terms of course. +Yet who knows"--she said, and then broke off, looking at the glass the +while, which, as it reflected back a face of great beauty, probably +suggested to her mind a more favourable conclusion of the sentence than +she cared to trust her tongue withal. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + So pitiful a thing is suitor's state! + Most miserable man, whom wicked fate + Hath brought to Court to sue, for _had I wist_, + That few have found, and many a one hath miss'd! + Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried, + What hell it is, in sueing long to bide: + To lose good days that might be better spent; + To waste long nights in pensive discontent; + To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow; + To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; + To have thy Prince's grace, yet want her Peers'; + To have thy asking, yet wait many years; + To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares-- + To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs. + To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, + To spend, to give, to want, to be undone. + _Mother Hubbard's Tale._ + +On the morning of the day on which George Heriot had prepared to escort +the young Lord of Glenvarloch to the Court at Whitehall, it may be +reasonably supposed, that the young man, whose fortunes were likely to +depend on this cast, felt himself more than usually anxious. He rose +early, made his toilette with uncommon care, and, being enabled, by the +generosity of his more plebeian countryman, to set out a very handsome +person to the best advantage, he obtained a momentary approbation from +himself as he glanced at the mirror, and a loud and distinct plaudit +from his landlady, who declared at once, that, in her judgment, he would +take the wind out of the sail of every gallant in the presence--so much +had she been able to enrich her discourse with the metaphors of those +with whom her husband dealt. + +At the appointed hour, the barge of Master George Heriot arrived, +handsomely manned and appointed, having a tilt, with his own cipher, and +the arms of his company, painted thereupon. + +The young Lord of Glenvarloch received the friend, who had evinced such +disinterested attachment, with the kind courtesy which well became him. + +Master Heriot then made him acquainted with the bounty of his sovereign; +which he paid over to his young friend, declining what he had himself +formerly advanced to him. Nigel felt all the gratitude which the +citizen's disinterested friendship had deserved, and was not wanting in +expressing it suitably. + +Yet, as the young and high-born nobleman embarked to go to the +presence of his prince, under the patronage of one whose best, or most +distinguished qualification, was his being an eminent member of the +Goldsmiths' Incorporation, he felt a little surprised, if not abashed, +at his own situation; and Richie Moniplies, as he stepped over +the gangway to take his place forward in the boat, could not help +muttering,--"It was a changed day betwixt Master Heriot and his honest +father in the Kraemes;--but, doubtless, there was a difference between +clinking on gold and silver, and clattering upon pewter." + +On they glided, by the assistance of the oars of four stout watermen, +along the Thames, which then served for the principal high-road betwixt +London and Westminster; for few ventured on horseback through the narrow +and crowded streets of the city, and coaches were then a luxury reserved +only for the higher nobility, and to which no citizen, whatever was his +wealth, presumed to aspire. The beauty of the banks, especially on the +northern side, where the gardens of the nobility descended from their +hotels, in many places, down to the water's edge, was pointed out to +Nigel by his kind conductor, and was pointed out in vain. The mind of +the young Lord of Glenvarloch was filled with anticipations, not the +most pleasant, concerning the manner in which he was likely to be +received by that monarch, in whose behalf his family had been nearly +reduced to ruin; and he was, with the usual mental anxiety of those +in such a situation, framing imaginary questions from the king, and +over-toiling his spirit in devising answers to them. + +His conductor saw the labour of Nigel's mind, and avoided increasing it +by farther conversation; so that, when he had explained to him briefly +the ceremonies observed at Court on such occasions of presentation, the +rest of their voyage was performed in silence. + +They landed at Whitehall Stairs, and entered the Palace after announcing +their names,--the guards paying to Lord Glenvarloch the respect and +honours due to his rank. + +The young man's heart beat high and thick within him as he came into the +royal apartments. His education abroad, conducted, as it had been, on +a narrow and limited scale, had given him but imperfect ideas of the +grandeur of a Court; and the philosophical reflections which taught him +to set ceremonial and exterior splendour at defiance, proved, like other +maxims of mere philosophy, ineffectual, at the moment they were weighed +against the impression naturally made on the mind of an inexperienced +youth, by the unusual magnificence of the scene. The splendid apartments +through which they passed, the rich apparel of the grooms, guards, and + apartments, had something in it, trifling and commonplace as it might +appear to practised courtiers, embarrassing, and even alarming, to one, +who went through these forms for the first time, and who was doubtful +what sort of reception was to accompany his first appearance before his +sovereign. + +Heriot, in anxious attention to save his young friend from any momentary +awkwardness, had taken care to give the necessary password to the +warders, grooms of the chambers, ushers, or by whatever name they were +designated; so they passed on without interruption. + +In this manner they passed several ante-rooms, filled chiefly with +guards, attendants of the Court, and their acquaintances, male and +female, who, dressed in their best apparel, and with eyes rounded by +eager curiosity to make the most of their opportunity, stood, with +beseeming modesty, ranked against the wall, in a manner which indicated +that they were spectators, not performers, in the courtly exhibition. + +Through these exterior apartments Lord Glenvarloch and his city friend +advanced into a large and splendid withdrawing-room, communicating with +the presence-chamber, into which ante-room were admitted those only who, +from birth, their posts in the state or household, or by the particular +grant of the kings, had right to attend the Court, as men entitled to +pay their respects to their sovereign. + +Amid this favoured and selected company, Nigel observed Sir Mungo +Malagrowther, who, avoided and discountenanced by those who knew how +low he stood in Court interest and favour, was but too happy in the +opportunity of hooking himself upon a person of Lord Glenvarloch's rank, +who was, as yet, so inexperienced as to feel it difficult to shake off +an intruder. + +The knight forthwith framed his grim features to a ghastly smile, and, +after a preliminary and patronising nod to George Heriot, accompanied +with an aristocratic wave of the hand, which intimated at once +superiority and protection, he laid aside altogether the honest citizen, +to whom he owed many a dinner, to attach himself exclusively to the +young lord, although he suspected he might be occasionally in the +predicament of needing one as much as himself. And even the notice +of this original, singular and unamiable as he was, was not entirely +indifferent to Lord Glenvarloch, since the absolute and somewhat +constrained silence of his good friend Heriot, which left him at liberty +to retire painfully to his own agitating reflections, was now relieved; +while, on the other hand, he could not help feeling interest in the +sharp and sarcastic information poured upon him by an observant, though +discontented courtier, to whom a patient auditor, and he a man of +title and rank, was as much a prize, as his acute and communicative +disposition rendered him an entertaining companion to Nigel Olifaunt. +Heriot, in the meantime, neglected by Sir Mungo, and avoiding every +attempt by which the grateful politeness of Lord Glenvarloch strove to +bring him into the conversation, stood by, with a kind of half smile on +his countenance; but whether excited by Sir Mungo's wit, or arising at +his expense, did not exactly appear. + +In the meantime, the trio occupied a nook of the ante-room, next to +the door of the presence-chamber, which was not yet thrown open, when +Maxwell, with his rod of office, came bustling into the apartment, where +most men, excepting those of high rank, made way for him. He stopped +beside the party in which we are interested, looked for a moment at +the young Scots nobleman, then made a slight obeisance to Heriot, and +lastly, addressing Sir Mungo Malagrowther, began a hurried complaint +to him of the misbehaviour of the gentlemen-pensioners and warders, who +suffered all sort of citizens, suitors, and scriveners, to sneak into +the outer apartments, without either respect or decency.--"The English," +he said, "were scandalised, for such a thing durst not be attempted in +the queen's days. In her time, there was then the court-yard for the +mobility, and the apartments for the nobility; and it reflects on your +place, Sir Mungo," he added, "belonging to the household as you do, that +such things should not be better ordered." + +Here Sir Mungo, afflicted, as was frequently the case on such occasions, +with one of his usual fits of deafness, answered, "It was no wonder +the mobility used freedoms, when those whom they saw in office were so +little better in blood and havings than themselves." + +"You are right, sir--quite right," said Maxwell, putting his hand on the +tarnished embroidery on the old knight's sleeve,--"when such fellows see +men in office dressed in cast-off suits, like paltry stage-players, it +is no wonder the Court is thronged with intruders." + +"Were you lauding the taste of my embroidery, Maister Maxwell?" answered +the knight, who apparently interpreted the deputy-chamberlain's meaning +rather from his action than his words;--"it is of an ancient and liberal +pattern, having been made by your mother's father, auld James Stitchell, +a master-fashioner of honest repute, in Merlin's Wynd, whom I made +a point to employ, as I am now happy to remember, seeing your father +thought fit to intermarry with sic a person's daughter." + +Maxwell looked stern; but, conscious there was nothing to be got of Sir +Mungo in the way of amends, and that prosecuting the quarrel with +such an adversary would only render him ridiculous, and make public +a mis-alliance of which he had no reason to be proud, he covered his +resentment with a sneer; and, expressing his regret that Sir Mungo was +become too deaf to understand or attend to what was said to him, +walked on, and planted himself beside the folding-doors of +the presence-chamber, at which he was to perform the duty of +deputy-chamberlain, or usher, so soon as they should be opened. + +"The door of the presence is about to open," said the goldsmith, in a +whisper, to his young friend; "my condition permits me to go no farther +with you. Fail not to present yourself boldly, according to your birth, +and offer your Supplication; which the king will not refuse to accept, +and, as I hope, to consider favourably." + +As he spoke, the door of the presence-chamber opened accordingly, and, +as is usual on such occasions, the courtiers began to advance towards +it, and to enter in a slow, but continuous and uninterrupted stream. + +As Nigel presented himself in his turn at the entrance, and mentioned +his name and title, Maxwell seemed to hesitate. "You are not known +to any one," he said. "It is my duty to suffer no one to pass to the +presence, my lord, whose face is unknown to me, unless upon the word of +a responsible person." + +"I came with Master George Heriot," said Nigel, in some embarrassment at +this unexpected interruption. + +"Master Heriot's name will pass current for much gold and silver, my +lord," replied Maxwell, with a civil sneer, "but not for birth and +rank. I am compelled by my office to be peremptory.--The entrance is +impeded--I am much concerned to say it--your lordship must stand back." + +"What is the matter?" said an old Scottish nobleman, who had been +speaking with George Heriot, after he had separated from Nigel, and +who now came forward, observing the altercation betwixt the latter and +Maxwell. + +"It is only Master Deputy-Chamberlain Maxwell," said Sir Mungo +Malagrowther, "expressing his joy to see Lord Glenvarloch at Court, +whose father gave him his office--at least I think he is speaking to +that purport--for your lordship kens my imperfection." A subdued laugh, +such as the situation permitted, passed round amongst those who heard +this specimen of Sir Mungo's sarcastic temper. But the old nobleman +stepped still more forward, saying,--"What!--the son of my gallant +old opponent, Ochtred Olifaunt--I will introduce him to the presence +myself." + +So saying, he took Nigel by the arm, without farther ceremony, and was +about to lead him forward, when Maxwell, still keeping his rod across +the door, said, but with hesitation and embarrassment--"My lord, this +gentleman is not known, and I have orders to be scrupulous." + +"Tutti--taiti, man," said the old lord, "I will be answerable he is his +father's son, from the cut of his eyebrow--and thou, Maxwell, knewest +his father well enough to have spared thy scruples. Let us pass, man." +So saying, he put aside the deputy-chamberlain's rod, and entered the +presence-room, still holding the young nobleman by the arm. + +"Why, I must know you, man," he said; "I must know you. I knew your +father well, man, and I have broke a lance and crossed a blade with him; +and it is to my credit that I am living to brag of it. He was king's-man +and I was queen's-man during the Douglas wars--young fellows both, +that feared neither fire nor steel; and we had some old feudal quarrels +besides, that had come down from father to son, with our seal-rings, +two-harided broad-swords, and plate-coats, and the crests on our +burgonets." + +"Too loud, my Lord of Huntinglen," whispered a gentleman of the +chamber,--"The King!--the King!" + +The old earl (for such he proved) took the hint, and was silent; +and James, advancing from a side-door, received in succession the +compliments of strangers, while a little group of favourite courtiers, +or officers of the household, stood around him, to whom he addressed +himself from time to time. Some more pains had been bestowed on his +toilette than upon the occasion when we first presented the monarch to +our readers; but there was a natural awkwardness about his figure which +prevented his clothes from sitting handsomely, and the prudence or +timidity of his disposition had made him adopt the custom already +noticed, of wearing a dress so thickly quilted as might withstand the +stroke of a dagger, which added an ungainly stiffness to his whole +appearance, contrasting oddly with the frivolous, ungraceful, and +fidgeting motions with which he accompanied his conversation. And yet, +though the king's deportment was very undignified, he had a manner so +kind, familiar, and good-humoured, was so little apt to veil over or +conceal his own foibles, and had so much indulgence and sympathy for +those of others, that his address, joined to his learning, and a +certain proportion of shrewd mother-wit, failed not to make a favourable +impression on those who approached his person. + +When the Earl of Huntinglen had presented Nigel to his sovereign, a +ceremony which the good peer took upon himself, the king received the +young lord very graciously, and observed to his introducer, that he +"was fain to see them twa stand side by side; for I trow, my Lord +Huntinglen," continued he, "your ancestors, ay, and e'en your lordship's +self and this lad's father, have stood front to front at the sword's +point, and that is a worse posture." + +"Until your Majesty," said Lord Huntinglen, "made Lord Ochtred and me +cross palms, upon the memorable day when your Majesty feasted all the +nobles that were at feud together, and made them join hands in your +presence--" + +"I mind it weel," said the king; "I mind it weel--it was a blessed day, +being the nineteen of September, of all days in the year--and it was a +blithe sport to see how some of the carles girned as they clapped loofs +together. By my saul, I thought some of them, mair special the Hieland +chiels, wad have broken out in our own presence; but we caused them to +march hand in hand to the Cross, ourselves leading the way, and there +drink a blithe cup of kindness with ilk other, to the stanching of feud, +and perpetuation of amity. Auld John Anderson was Provost that year--the +carle grat for joy, and the bailies and councillors danced bare-headed +in our presence like five-year-auld colts, for very triumph." + +"It was indeed a happy day," said Lord Huntinglen, "and will not be +forgotten in the history of your Majesty's reign." + +"I would not that it were, my lord," replied the monarch--"I would not +that it were pretermitted in our annals. Ay, ay--BEATI PACIFICI. My +English lieges here may weel make much of me, for I would have them +to know, they have gotten the only peaceable man that ever came of my +family. If James with the Fiery Face had come amongst you," he said, +looking round him, "or my great grandsire, of Flodden memory!" + +"We should have sent him back to the north again," whispered one English +nobleman. + +"At least," said another, in the same inaudible tone, "we should have +had a MAN to our sovereign, though he were but a Scotsman." + +"And now, my young springald," said the king to Lord Glenvarloch, "where +have you been spending your calf-time?" + +"At Leyden, of late, may it please your Majesty," answered Lord Nigel. + +"Aha! a scholar," said the king; "and, by my saul, a modest and +ingenuous youth, that hath not forgotten how to blush, like most of our +travelled Monsieurs. We will treat him conformably." + +Then drawing himself up, coughing slightly, and looking around him with +the conscious importance of superior learning, while all the courtiers +who understood, or understood not, Latin, pressed eagerly forward to +listen, the sapient monarch prosecuted his inquiries as follows:-- + +"Hem! hem! _salve bis, quaterque salve, glenvarlochides noster! +Nuperumne ab lugduno batavorum britanniam rediisti?_" + +The young nobleman replied, bowing low-- + +"_Imo, rex augustissime--biennium fere apud lugdunenses Moratus sum._" + +James proceeded-- + +"_Biennium dicis? Bene, bene, optume factum est--non uno Die, quod +dicunt,--intelligisti, domine glenvarlochiensis?_ Aha!" + +Nigel replied by a reverent bow, and the king, turning to those behind +him, said-- + +"_Adolescens quidem ingenui vultus ingenuique pudoris._" Then resumed +his learned queries. "_Et quid hodie lugdunenses loquuntur--vossius +vester nihilne novi scripsit?--nihil certe, quod doleo, typis recenter +editit_." + +"_Valet quidem vossius, rex benevole._" replied Nigel, "_ast senex +veneratissimus annum agit, ni fallor, septuagesimum._" + +"_Virum, mehercle, vix tam grandaevum crediderim_," replied the +monarch. "_et vorstius iste?--arminii improbi successor aeque ac +sectator--herosne adhuc, ut cum homero loquar_, [ZOOS ESTI KAI EPI THONI +DERKOV]?" text in Greek + +Nigel, by good fortune, remembered that Vorstius, the divine last +mentioned in his Majesty's queries about the state of Dutch literature, +had been engaged in a personal controversy with James, in which the +king had taken so deep an interest, as at length to hint in his public +correspondence with the United States, that they would do well to apply +the secular arm to stop the progress of heresy by violent measures +against the Professor's person--a demand which their Mighty +Mightinesses' principles of universal toleration induced them to elude, +though with some difficulty. Knowing all this, Lord Glenvarloch, though +a courtier of only five minutes' standing, had address enough to reply-- + +"_Vivum quidem, haud diu est, hominem videbam--vigere autem quis dicat +qui sub fulminibus eloquentiae tuae, rex magne, jamdudum pronus jacet, +et prostratus?_" + +[Footnote: Lest any lady or gentleman should suspect there is aught of +mystery concealed under the sentences printed in Italics, they will be +pleased to understand that they contain only a few commonplace Latin +phrases, relating to the state of letters in Holland, which neither +deserve, nor would endure, a literal translation.] + +This last tribute to his polemical powers completed James's happiness, +which the triumph of exhibiting his erudition had already raised to a +considerable height. + +He rubbed his hands, snapped his fingers, fidgeted, chuckled, +exclaimed--"_Euge! Belle! Optime!_" and turning to the Bishops of Exeter +and Oxford, who stood behind him, he said.--"Ye see, my lords, no bad +specimen of our Scottish Latinity, with which language we would all our +subjects of England were as well embued as this, and other youths of +honourable birth, in our auld kingdom; also, we keep the genuine and +Roman pronunciation, like other learned nations on the continent, sae +that we hold communing with any scholar in the universe, who can but +speak the Latin tongue; whereas ye, our learned subjects of England, +have introduced into your universities, otherwise most learned, a +fashion of pronouncing like unto the 'nippit foot and clippit foot' of +the bride in the fairy tale, whilk manner of speech, (take it not amiss +that I be round with you) can be understood by no nation on earth saving +yourselves; whereby Latin, _quoad anglos_, ceaseth to be _communis +lingua_, the general dragoman, or interpreter, between all the wise men +of the earth." + +The Bishop of Exeter bowed, as in acquiescence to the royal censure; +but he of Oxford stood upright, as mindful over what subjects his see +extended, and as being equally willing to become food for fagots in +defence of the Latinity of the university, as for any article of his +religious creed. + +The king, without awaiting an answer from either prelate, proceeded to +question Lord Nigel, but in the vernacular tongue,--"Weel, my likely +Alumnus of the Muses, and what make you so far from the north?" + +"To pay my homage to your Majesty," said the young nobleman, kneeling on +one knee, "and to lay before you," he added, "this my humble and dutiful +Supplication." + +The presenting of a pistol would certainly have startled King James +more, but could (setting apart the fright) hardly have been more +unpleasing to his indolent disposition. + +"And is it even so, man?" said he; "and can no single man, were it but +for the rarity of the case, ever come up frae Scotland, excepting EX +PROPOSITO--on set purpose, to see what he can make out of his loving +sovereign? It is but three days syne that we had weel nigh lost our +life, and put three kingdoms into dule-weeds, from the over haste of a +clumsy-handed peasant, to thrust a packet into our hand, and now we are +beset by the like impediment in our very Court. To our Secretary with +that gear, my lord--to our Secretary with that gear." + +"I have already offered my humble Supplication to your Majesty's +Secretary of State," said Lord Glenvarloch--"but it seems----" + +"That he would not receive it, I warrant?" said the king, interrupting +him; "bu my saul, our Secretary kens that point of king-craft, called +refusing, better than we do, and will look at nothing but what he +likes himsell--I think I wad make a better Secretary to him than he to +me.--Weel, my lord, you are welcome to London; and, as ye seem an acute +and learned youth, I advise ye to turn your neb northward as soon as ye +like, and settle yoursell for a while at Saint Andrews, and we will be +right glad to hear that you prosper in your studies.--_Incumbite Remis +Fortiter._" + +While the king spoke thus, he held the petition of the young lord +carelessly, like one who only delayed till the supplicant's back was +turned, to throw it away, or at least lay it aside to be no more looked +at. The petitioner, who read this in his cold and indifferent looks, and +in the manner in which he twisted and crumpled together the paper, +arose with a bitter sense of anger and disappointment, made a profound +obeisance, and was about to retire hastily. But Lord Huntinglen, who +stood by him, checked his intention by an almost imperceptible touch +upon the skirt of his cloak, and Nigel, taking the hint, retreated +only a few steps from the royal presence, and then made a pause. In +the meantime, Lord Huntinglen kneeled before James, in his turn, and +said--"May it please your Majesty to remember, that upon one certain +occasion you did promise to grant me a boon every year of your sacred +life?" + +"I mind it weel, man," answered James, "I mind it weel, and good reason +why--it was when you unclasped the fause traitor Ruthven's fangs +from about our royal throat, and drove your dirk into him like a true +subject. We did then, as you remind us, (whilk was unnecessary,) being +partly beside ourselves with joy at our liberation, promise we would +grant you a free boon every year; whilk promise, on our coming +to menseful possession of our royal faculties, we did confirm, +_restrictive_ always and _conditionaliter_, that your lordship's demand +should be such as we, in our royal discretion, should think reasonable." + +"Even so, gracious sovereign," said the old earl, "and may I yet +farther crave to know if I have ever exceeded the bounds of your royal +benevolence?" + +"By my word, man, no!'" said the king; "I cannot remember you have asked +much for yourself, if it be not a dog or a hawk, or a buck out of our +park at Theobald's, or such like. But to what serves this preface?" + +"To the boon to which I am now to ask of your Grace," said Lord +Huntinglen; "which is, that your Majesty would be pleased, on the +instant, to look at the placet of Lord Glenvarloch, and do upon it +what your own just and royal nature shall think meet and just, without +reference to your Secretary or any other of your Council." + +"By my saul, my lord, this is strange," said the king; "ye are pleading +for the son of your enemy!" + +"Of one who WAS my enemy till your Majesty made him my friend," answered +Lord Huntinglen. + +"Weel spoken, my lord!" said the king; "and with, a true Christian +spirit. And, respecting the Supplication of this young man, I partly +guess where the matter lies; and in plain troth I had promised to George +Heriot to be good to the lad--But then, here the shoe pinches. Steenie +and Babie Charles cannot abide him--neither can your own son, my lord; +and so, methinks, he had better go down to Scotland before he comes +toill luck by them." + +"My son, an it please your Majesty, so far as he is concerned, shall not +direct my doings," said the earl, "nor any wild-headed young man of them +all." + +"Why, neither shall they mine," replied the monarch; "by my father's +saul, none of them all shall play Rex with me--I will do what I will, +and what I ought, like a free king." + +"Your Majesty will then grant me my boon?" said the Lord Huntinglen. + +"Ay, marry will I--marry will I," said the king; "but follow me this +way, man, where we may be more private." + +He led Lord Huntinglen with rather a hurried step through the courtiers, +all of whom gazed earnestly on this unwonted scene, as is the fashion of +all Courts on similar occasions. The king passed into a little cabinet, +and bade, in the first moment, Lord Huntinglen lock or bar the door; but +countermanded his direction in the next, saying,--"No, no, no--bread o' +life, man, I am a free king--will do what I will and what I should--I am +_justus et tenax propositi_, man--nevertheless, keep by the door, Lord +Huntinglen, in case Steenie should come in with his mad humour." + +"O my poor master!" groaned the Earl of Huntinglen. "When you were in +your own cold country, you had warmer blood in your veins." + +The king hastily looked over the petition or memorial, every now and +then glancing his eye towards the door, and then sinking it hastily +on the paper, ashamed that Lord Huntinglen, whom he respected, should +suspect him of timidity. + +"To grant the truth," he said, after he had finished his hasty perusal, +"this is a hard case; and harder than it was represented to me, though I +had some inkling of it before. And so the lad only wants payment of the +siller due from us, in order to reclaim his paternal estate? But then, +Huntinglen, the lad will have other debts--and why burden himsell with +sae mony acres of barren woodland? let the land gang, man, let the land +gang; Steenie has the promise of it from our Scottish Chancellor--it is +the best hunting-ground in Scotland--and Babie Charles and Steenie want +to kill a buck there this next year--they maun hae the land--they maun +hae the land; and our debt shall be paid to the young man plack and +bawbee, and he may have the spending of it at our Court; or if he has +such an eard hunger, wouns! man, we'll stuff his stomach with English +land, which is worth twice as much, ay, ten times as much, as these +accursed hills and heughs, and mosses and muirs, that he is sae keen +after." + +All this while the poor king ambled up and down the apartment in a +piteous state of uncertainty, which was made more ridiculous by his +shambling circular mode of managing his legs, and his ungainly fashion +on such occasions of fiddling with the bunches of ribbons which fastened +the lower part of his dress. + +Lord Huntinglen listened with great composure, and answered, "An it +please your Majesty, there was an answer yielded by Naboth when +Ahab coveted his vineyard--' The Lord forbid that I should give the +inheritance of my fathers unto thee.'" + +"Ey, my lord--ey, my lord!" ejaculated James, while all the colour +mounted both to his cheek and nose; "I hope ye mean not to teach me +divinity? Ye need not fear, my lord, that I will shun to do justice to +every man; and, since your lordship will give me no help to take up +this in a more peaceful manner--whilk, methinks, would be better for the +young man, as I said before,--why--since it maun be so--'sdeath, I am +a free king, man, and he shall have his money and redeem his land, and +make a kirk and a miln of it, an he will." So saying, he hastily wrote +an order on the Scottish Exchequer for the sum in question, and then +added, "How they are to pay it, I see not; but I warrant he will find +money on the order among the goldsmiths, who can find it for every one +but me.--And now you see, my Lord of Huntinglen, that I am neither an +untrue man, to deny you the boon whilk I became bound for, nor an Ahab, +to covet Naboth's vineyard; nor a mere nose-of-wax, to be twisted this +way and that, by favourites and counsellors at their pleasure. I think +you will grant now that I am none of those?" + +"You are my own native and noble prince," said Huntinglen, as he knelt +to kiss the royal hand--"just and generous, whenever you listen to the +workings of your own heart." + +"Ay, ay," said the king, laughing good-naturedly, as he raised his +faithful servant from the ground, "that is what ye all say when I do any +thing to please ye. There--there, take the sign-manual, and away with +you and this young fellow. I wonder Steenie and Babie Charles have not +broken in on us before now." + +Lord Huntinglen hastened from the cabinet, foreseeing a scene at which +he was unwilling to be present, but which sometimes occurred when James +roused himself so far as to exert his own free will, of which he boasted +so much, in spite of that of his imperious favourite Steenie, as he +called the Duke of Buckingham, from a supposed resemblance betwixt +his very handsome countenance, and that with which the Italian artists +represented the protomartyr Stephen. In fact, the haughty favourite, +who had the unusual good fortune to stand as high in the opinion of the +heir-apparent as of the existing monarch, had considerably diminished in +his respect towards the latter; and it was apparent, to the more +shrewd courtiers, that James endured his domination rather from habit, +timidity, and a dread of encountering his stormy passions, than from any +heartfelt continuation of regard towards him, whose greatness had been +the work of his own hands. To save himself the pain of seeing what was +likely to take place on the duke's return, and to preserve the king from +the additional humiliation which the presence of such a witness must +have occasioned, the earl left the cabinet as speedily as possible, +having first carefully pocketed the important sign-manual. + +No sooner had he entered the presence-room, than he hastily sought Lord +Glenvarloch, who had withdrawn into the embrasure of one of the windows, +from the general gaze of men who seemed disposed only to afford him the +notice which arises from surprise and curiosity, and, taking him by +the arm, without speaking, led him out of the presence-chamber into the +first ante-room. Here they found the worthy goldsmith, who approached +them with looks of curiosity, which were checked by the old lord, who +said hastily, "All is well.--Is your barge in waiting?" Heriot answered +in the affirmative. "Then," said Lord Huntinglen, "you shall give me a +cast in it, as the watermen say; and I, in requital, will give you both +your dinner; for we must have some conversation together." + +They both followed the earl without speaking, and were in the second +ante-room when the important annunciation of the ushers, and the hasty +murmur with which all made ample way as the company repeated to each +other,--"The Duke--the Duke!" made them aware of the approach of the +omnipotent favourite. + +He entered, that unhappy minion of Court favour, sumptuously dressed +in the picturesque attire which will live for ever on the canvas of +Vandyke, and which marks so well the proud age, when aristocracy, though +undermined and nodding to its fall, still, by external show and profuse +expense, endeavoured to assert its paramount superiority over the +inferior orders. The handsome and commanding countenance, stately form, +and graceful action and manners of the Duke of Buckingham, made him +become that picturesque dress beyond any man of his time. At present, +however, his countenance seemed discomposed, his dress a little +more disordered than became the place, his step hasty, and his voice +imperative. + +All marked the angry spot upon his brow, and bore back so suddenly +to make way for him, that the Earl of Huntinglen, who affected no +extraordinary haste on the occasion, with his companions, who could not, +if they would, have decently left him, remained as it were by themselves +in the middle of the room, and in the very path of the angry favourite. +He touched his cap sternly as he looked on Huntinglen, but unbonneted +to Heriot, and sunk his beaver, with its shadowy plume, as low as the +floor, with a profound air of mock respect. In returning his greeting, +which he did simply and unaffectedly, the citizen only said,--"Too much +courtesy, my lord duke, is often the reverse of kindness." + +"I grieve you should think so, Master Heriot," answered the duke; "I +only meant, by my homage, to claim your protection, sir--your patronage. +You are become, I understand, a solicitor of suits--a promoter--an +undertaker--a fautor of court suitors of merit and quality, who chance +to be pennyless. I trust your bags will bear you out in your new boast." + +"They will bear me the farther, my lord duke," answered the goldsmith, +"that my boast is but small." + +"O, you do yourself less than justice, my good Master Heriot," +continued the duke, in the same tone of irony; "you have a marvellous +court-faction, to be the son of an Edinburgh tinker. Have the goodness +to prefer me to the knowledge of the high-born nobleman who is honoured +and advantaged by your patronage." + +"That shall be my task," said Lord Huntinglen, with emphasis. "My +lord duke, I desire you to know Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glenvarloch, +representative of one of the most ancient and powerful baronial houses +in Scotland.--Lord Glenvarloch, I present you to his Grace the Duke of +Buckingham, representative of Sir George Villiers, Knight of Brookesby, +in the county of Leicester." + +The duke coloured still more high as he bowed to Lord Glenvarloch +scornfully, a courtesy which the other returned haughtily, and with +restrained indignation. "We know each other, then," said the duke, after +a moment's pause; and as if he had seen something in the young nobleman +which merited more serious notice than the bitter raillery with which he +had commenced--"we know each other--and you know me, my lord, for your +enemy." + +"I thank you for your plainness, my lord duke," replied Nigel; "an open +enemy is better than a hollow friend." + +"For you, my Lord Huntinglen," said the duke, "methinks you have but now +overstepped the limits of the indulgence permitted to you, as the father +of the prince's friend, and my own." + +"By my word, my lord duke," replied the earl, "it is easy for any one +to outstep boundaries, of the existence of which he was not aware. It is +neither to secure my protection nor approbation, that my son keeps such +exalted company." + +"O, my lord, we know you, and indulge you," said the duke; "you are one +of those who presume for a life-long upon the merit of one good action." + +"In faith, my lord, and if it be so," said the old earl, "I have at +least the advantage of such as presume more than I do, without having +done any action of merit whatever. But I mean not to quarrel with you, +my lord--we can neither be friends nor enemies--you have your path, and +I have mine." + +Buckingham only replied by throwing on his bonnet, and shaking its lofty +plume with a careless and scornful toss of the head. They parted thus; +the duke walking onwards through the apartments, and the others leaving +the Palace and repairing to Whitehall Stairs, where they embarked on +board the barge of the citizen. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + + Bid not thy fortune troll upon the wheels + Of yonder dancing cubes of mottled bone; + And drown it not, like Egypt's royal harlot, + Dissolving her rich pearl in the brimm'd wine-cup. + These are the arts, Lothario, which shrink acres + Into brief yards--bring sterling pounds to farthings, + Credit to infamy; and the poor gull, + Who might have lived an honour'd, easy life, + To ruin, and an unregarded grave. + _The Changes._ + +When they were fairly embarked on the Thames, the earl took from his +pocket the Supplication, and, pointing out to George Heriot the royal +warrant indorsed thereon, asked him, if it were in due and regular form? +The worthy citizen hastily read it over, thrust forth his hand as if to +congratulate the Lord Glenvarloch, then checked himself, pulled out +his barnacles, (a present from old David Ramsay,) and again perused +the warrant with the most business-like and critical attention. "It +is strictly correct and formal," he said, looking to the Earl of +Huntinglen; "and I sincerely rejoice at it." + +"I doubt nothing of its formality," said the earl; "the king understands +business well, and, if he does not practise it often, it is only because +indolence obscures parts which are naturally well qualified for the +discharge of affairs. But what is next to be done for our young friend, +Master Heriot? You know how I am circumstanced. Scottish lords living at +the English Court have seldom command of money; yet, unless a sum can be +presently raised on this warrant, matters standing as you hastily +hinted to me, the mortgage, wadset, or whatever it is called, will be +foreclosed." + +"It is true," said Heriot, in some embarrassment; "there is a large sum +wanted in redemption--yet, if it is not raised, there will be an expiry +of the legal, as our lawyers call it, and the estate will be evicted." + +"My noble--my worthy friends, who have taken up my cause so +undeservedly, so unexpectedly," said Nigel, "do not let me be a burden +on your kindness. You have already done too much where nothing was +merited." + +"Peace, man, peace," said Lord Huntinglen, "and let old Heriot and I +puzzle this scent out. He is about to open--hark to him!" + +"My lord," said the citizen, "the Duke of Buckingham sneers at our city +money-bags; yet they can sometimes open, to prop a falling and a noble +house." + +"We know they can," said Lord Huntinglen--"mind not Buckingham, he is a +Peg-a-Ramsay--and now for the remedy." + +"I partly hinted to Lord Glenvarloch already," said Heriot, "that the +redemption money might be advanced upon such a warrant as the present, +and I will engage my credit that it can. But then, in order to secure +the lender, he must come in the shoes of the creditor to whom he +advances payment." + +"Come in his shoes!" replied the earl; "why, what have boots or shoes to +do with this matter, my good friend?" + +"It is a law phrase, my lord. My experience has made me pick up a few of +them," said Heriot. + +"Ay, and of better things along with them, Master George," replied Lord +Huntinglen; "but what means it?" + +"Simply this," resumed the citizen; "that the lender of this money will +transact with the holder of the mortgage, or wadset, over the estate of +Glenvarloch, and obtain from him such a conveyance to his right as +shall leave the lands pledged for the debt, in case the warrant upon +the Scottish Exchequer should prove unproductive. I fear, in this +uncertainty of public credit, that without some such counter security, +it will be very difficult to find so large a sum." + +"Ho la!" said the Earl of Huntinglen, "halt there! a thought +strikes me.--What if the new creditor should admire the estate as a +hunting-field, as much as my Lord Grace of Buckingham seems to do, and +should wish to kill a buck there in the summer season? It seems to +me, that on your plan, Master George, our new friend will be as well +entitled to block Lord Glenvarloch out of his inheritance as the present +holder of the mortgage." + +The citizen laughed. "I will engage," he said, "that the keenest +sportsman to whom I may apply on this occasion, shall not have a +thought beyond the Lord Mayor's Easter-Hunt, in Epping Forest. But your +lordship's caution is reasonable. The creditor must be bound to allow +Lord Glenvarloch sufficient time to redeem his estate by means of +the royal warrant, and must wave in his favour the right of instant +foreclosure, which may be, I should think, the more easily managed, as +the right of redemption must be exercised in his own name." + +"But where shall we find a person in London fit to draw the necessary +writings?" said the earl. "If my old friend Sir John Skene of Halyards +had lived, we should have had his advice; but time presses, and--" + +"I know," said Heriot, "an orphan lad, a scrivener, that dwells by +Temple Bar; he can draw deeds both after the English and Scottish +fashion, and I have trusted him often in matters of weight and of +importance. I will send one of my serving-men for him, and the mutual +deeds may be executed in your lordship's presence; for, as things stand, +there should be no delay." His lordship readily assented; and, as they +now landed upon the private stairs leading down to the river from the +gardens of the handsome hotel which he inhabited, the messenger was +dispatched without loss of time. + +Nigel, who had sat almost stupefied while these zealous friends +volunteered for him in arranging the measures by which his fortune was +to be disembarrassed, now made another eager attempt to force upon +them his broken expressions of thanks and gratitude. But he was again +silenced by Lord Huntinglen, who declared he would not hear a word on +that topic, and proposed instead, that they should take a turn in the +pleached alley, or sit upon the stone bench which overlooked the Thames, +until his son's arrival should give the signal for dinner. + +"I desire to introduce Dalgarno and Lord Glenvarloch to each other," he +said, "as two who will be near neighbours, and I trust will be more kind +ones than their fathers were formerly. There is but three Scots miles +betwixt the castles, and the turrets of the one are visible from the +battlements of the other." + +The old earl was silent for a moment, and appeared to muse upon the +recollections which the vicinity of the castles had summoned up. + +"Does Lord Dalgarno follow the Court to Newmarket next week?" said +Heriot, by way of removing the conversation. + +"He proposes so, I think," answered Lord Huntinglen, relapsed into +his reverie for a minute or two, and then addressed Nigel somewhat +abruptly-- + +"My young friend, when you attain possession of your inheritance, as I +hope you soon will, I trust you will not add one to the idle followers +of the Court, but reside on your patrimonial estate, cherish your +ancient tenants, relieve and assist your poor kinsmen, protect the poor +against subaltern oppression, and do what our fathers used to do, with +fewer lights and with less means than we have." + +"And yet the advice to keep the country," said Heriot, "comes from an +ancient and constant ornament of the Court." + +"From an old courtier, indeed," said the earl, "and the first of my +family that could so write himself--my grey beard falls on a cambric +ruff and a silken doublet--my father's descended upon a buff coat and +a breast-plate. I would not that those days of battle returned; but I +should love well to make the oaks of my old forest of Dalgarno ring once +more with halloo, and horn, and hound, and to have the old stone-arched +hall return the hearty shout of my vassals and tenants, as the bicker +and the quaigh walked their rounds amongst them. I should like to see +the broad Tay once more before I die--not even the Thames can match it, +in my mind." + +"Surely, my lord," said the citizen, "all this might be easily done--it +costs but a moment's resolution, and the journey of some brief days, and +you will be where you desire to be--what is there to prevent you?" + +"Habits, Master George, habits," replied the earl, "which to young men +are like threads of silk, so lightly are they worn, so soon broken; but +which hang on our old limbs as if time had stiffened them into gyves of +iron. To go to Scotland for a brief space were but labour in vain; and +when I think of abiding there, I cannot bring myself to leave my old +master, to whom I fancy myself sometimes useful, and whose weal and +woe I have shared for so many years. But Dalgarno shall be a Scottish +noble." + +"Has he visited the North?" said Heriot. + +"He was there last year and made such a report of the country, that the +prince has expressed a longing to see it." + +"Lord Dalgarno is in high grace with his Highness and the Duke of +Buckingham?" observed the goldsmith. + +"He is so," answered the earl,--"I pray it may be for the advantage of +them all. The prince is just and equitable in his sentiments, though +cold and stately in his manners, and very obstinate in his most trifling +purposes; and the duke, noble and gallant, and generous and open, is +fiery, ambitious, and impetuous. Dalgarno has none of these faults, +and such as he may have of his own, may perchance be corrected by the +society in which he moves.--See, here he comes." + +Lord Dalgarno accordingly advanced from the farther end of the alley to +the bench on which his father and his guests were seated, so that Nigel +had full leisure to peruse his countenance and figure. He was dressed +point-device, and almost to extremity, in the splendid fashion of the +time, which suited well with his age, probably about five-and-twenty, +with a noble form and fine countenance, in which last could easily be +traced the manly features of his father, but softened by a more +habitual air of assiduous courtesy than the stubborn old earl had ever +condescended to assume towards the world in general. In other respects, +his address was gallant, free, and unencumbered either by pride or +ceremony--far remote certainly from the charge either of haughty +coldness or forward impetuosity; and so far his father had justly freed +him from the marked faults which he ascribed to the manners of the +prince and his favourite Buckingham. + +While the old earl presented his young acquaintance Lord Glenvarloch to +his son, as one whom he would have him love and honour, Nigel marked the +countenance of Lord Dalgarno closely, to see if he could detect aught +of that secret dislike which the king had, in one of his broken +expostulations, seemed to intimate, as arising from a clashing of +interests betwixt his new friend and the great Buckingham. But nothing +of this was visible; on the contrary, Lord Dalgarno received his new +acquaintance with the open frankness and courtesy which makes conquest +at once, when addressed to the feelings of an ingenuous young man. + +It need hardly be told that his open and friendly address met equally +ready and cheerful acceptation from Nigel Olifaunt. For many months, and +while a youth not much above two-and-twenty, he had been restrained by +circumstances from the conversation of his equals. When, on his father's +sudden death, he left the Low Countries for Scotland, he had found +himself involved, to all appearance inextricably, with the details +of the law, all of which threatened to end in the alienation of the +patrimony which should support his hereditary rank. His term of sincere +mourning, joined to injured pride, and the swelling of the heart under +unexpected and undeserved misfortune, together with the uncertainty +attending the issue of his affairs, had induced the young Lord of +Glenvarloch to live, while in Scotland, in a very private and reserved +manner. How he had passed his time in London, the reader is acquainted +with. But this melancholy and secluded course of life was neither +agreeable to his age nor to his temper, which was genial and sociable. +He hailed, therefore, with sincere pleasure, the approaches which a +young man of his own age and rank made towards him; and when he had +exchanged with Lord Dalgarno some of those words and signals by which, +as surely as by those of freemasonry, young people recognise a mutual +wish to be agreeable to each other, it seemed as if the two noblemen had +been acquainted for some time. + +Just as this tacit intercourse had been established, one of Lord +Huntinglen's attendants came down the alley, marshalling onwards a +man dressed in black buckram, who followed him with tolerable speed, +considering that, according to his sense of reverence and propriety, he +kept his body bent and parallel to the horizon from the moment that he +came in sight of the company to which he was about to be presented. + +"Who is this, you cuckoldy knave," said the old lord, who had retained +the keen appetite and impatience of a Scottish baron even during a long +alienation from his native country; "and why does John Cook, with a +murrain to him, keep back dinner?" + +"I believe we are ourselves responsible for this person's intrusion," +said George Heriot; "this is the scrivener whom we desired to see.--Look +up, man, and see us in the face as an honest man should, instead of +beating thy noddle charged against us thus, like a battering-ram." + +The scrivener did look up accordingly, with the action of an automaton +which suddenly obeys the impulse of a pressed spring. But, strange to +tell, not even the haste he had made to attend his patron's mandate, +a business, as Master Heriot's message expressed, of weight and +importance--nay not even the state of depression in which, out of sheer +humility, doubtless, he had his head stooped to the earth, from the +moment he had trod the demesnes of the Earl of Huntinglen, had called +any colour into his countenance. The drops stood on his brow from haste +and toil, but his cheek was still pale and tallow-coloured as before; +nay, what seemed stranger, his very hair, when he raised his head, hung +down on either cheek as straight and sleek and undisturbed as it was +when we first introduced him to our readers, seated at his quiet and +humble desk. + +Lord Dalgarno could not forbear a stifled laugh at the ridiculous and +puritanical figure which presented itself like a starved anatomy to the +company, and whispered at the same time into Lord Glenvarloch's ear-- + + "The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon, + Where got'st thou that goose-look?" + +Nigel was too little acquainted with the English stage to understand a +quotation which had already grown matter of common allusion in London. +Lord Dalgarno saw that he was not understood, and continued, "That +fellow, by his visage, should either be a saint, or a most hypocritical +rogue--and such is my excellent opinion of human nature, that I always +suspect the worst. But they seem deep in business. Will you take a +turn with me in the garden, my lord, or will you remain a member of the +serious conclave?" + +"With you, my lord, most willingly," said Nigel; and they were turning +away accordingly, when George Heriot, with the formality belonging +to his station, observed, that, "as their business concerned Lord +Glenvarloch, he had better remain, to make himself master of it, and +witness to it." + +"My presence is utterly needless, my good lord;-and, my best friend, +Master Heriot," said the young nobleman, "I shall understand nothing +the better for cumbering you with my ignorance in these matters; and can +only say at the end, as I now say at the beginning, that I dare not take +the helm out of the hand of the kind pilots who have already guided +my course within sight of a fair and unhoped-for haven. Whatever you +recommend to me as fitting, I shall sign and seal; and the import of the +deeds I shall better learn by a brief explanation from Master Heriot, if +he will bestow so much trouble in my behalf, than by a thousand learned +words and law terms from this person of skill." + +"He is right," said Lord Huntinglen; "our young friend is right, in +confiding these matters to you and me, Master George Heriot--he has not +misplaced his confidence." + +Master George Heriot cast a long look after the two young noblemen, who +had now walked down the alley arm-in-arm, and at length said, "He hath +not, indeed, misplaced his confidence, as your lordship well and truly +says--but, nevertheless, he is not in the right path; for it behoves +every man to become acquainted with his own affairs, so soon as he hath +any that are worth attending to." + +When he had made this observation, they applied themselves, with the +scrivener, to look into various papers, and to direct in what manner +writings should be drawn, which might at once afford sufficient security +to those who were to advance the money, and at the same time preserve +the right of the young nobleman to redeem the family estate, provided he +should obtain the means of doing so, by the expected reimbursement from +the Scottish Exchequer, or otherwise. It is needless to enter into those +details. But it is not unimportant to mention, as an illustration of +character, that Heriot went into the most minute legal details with a +precision which showed that experience had made him master even of the +intricacies of Scottish conveyancing; and that the Earl of Huntinglen, +though far less acquainted with technical detail, suffered no step of +the business to pass over, until he had attained a general but distinct +idea of its import and its propriety. + +They seemed to be admirably seconded in their benevolent intentions +towards the young Lord Glenvarloch, by the skill and eager zeal of the +scrivener, whom Heriot had introduced to this piece of business, the +most important which Andrew had ever transacted in his life, and the +particulars of which were moreover agitated in his presence between an +actual earl, and one whose wealth and character might entitle him to be +an alderman of his ward, if not to be lord mayor, in his turn. + +While they were thus in eager conversation on business, the good earl +even forgetting the calls of his appetite, and the delay of dinner, in +his anxiety to see that the scrivener received proper instructions, and +that all was rightly weighed and considered, before dismissing him to +engross the necessary deeds, the two young men walked together on the +terrace which overhung the river, and talked on the topics which Lord +Dalgarno, the elder, and the more experienced, thought most likely to +interest his new friend. + +These naturally regarded the pleasures attending a Court life; and Lord +Dalgarno expressed much surprise at understanding that Nigel proposed an +instant return to Scotland. + +"You are jesting with me," he said. "All the Court rings--it is needless +to mince it--with the extraordinary success of your suit--against the +highest interest, it is said, now influencing the horizon at Whitehall. +Men think of you--talk of you--fix their eyes on you--ask each other, +who is this young Scottish lord, who has stepped so far in a single day? +They augur, in whispers to each other, how high and how far you may push +your fortune--and all that you design to make of it, is, to return to +Scotland, eat raw oatmeal cakes, baked upon a peat-fire, have your hand +shaken by every loon of a blue-bonnet who chooses to dub you cousin, +though your relationship comes by Noah; drink Scots twopenny ale, +eat half-starved red-deer venison, when you can kill it, ride upon a +galloway, and be called my right honourable and maist worthy lord!" + +"There is no great gaiety in the prospect before me, I confess," said +Lord Glenvarloch, "even if your father and good Master Heriot should +succeed in putting my affairs on some footing of plausible hope. And yet +I trust to do something for my vassals as my ancestors before me, and to +teach my children, as I have myself been taught, to make some personal +sacrifices, if they be necessary, in order to maintain with dignity the +situation in which they are placed by Providence." + +Lord Dalgarno, after having once or twice stifled his laughter during +this speech, at length broke out into a fit of mirth, so hearty and +so resistless, that, angry as he was, the call of sympathy swept Nigel +along with him, and despite of himself, he could not forbear to join +in a burst of laughter, which he thought not only causeless, but almost +impertinent. + +He soon recollected himself, however, and said, in a tone qualified to +allay Lord Dalgarno's extreme mirth: "This is all well, my lord; but how +am I to understand your merriment?" Lord Dalgarno only answered him with +redoubled peals of laughter, and at length held by Lord Glenvarloch's +cloak, as if to prevent his falling down on the ground, in the extremity +of his convulsion. + +At length, while Nigel stood half abashed, half angry, at becoming thus +the subject of his new acquaintance's ridicule, and was only restrained +from expressing his resentment against the son, by a sense of the +obligations he owed the father, Lord Dalgarno recovered himself, and +spoke in a half-broken voice, his eyes still running with tears: "I +crave your pardon, my dear Lord Glenvarloch--ten thousand times do I +crave your pardon. But that last picture of rural dignity, accompanied +by your grave and angry surprise at my laughing at what would have made +any court-bred hound laugh, that had but so much as bayed the moon once +from the court-yard at Whitehall, totally overcame me. Why, my liefest +and dearest lord, you, a young and handsome fellow, with high birth, a +title, and the name of an estate, so well received by the king at your +first starting, as makes your further progress scarce matter of doubt, +if you know how to improve it--for the king has already said you are a +'braw lad, and well studied in the more humane letters'--you, too, whom +all the women, and the very marked beauties of the Court, desire to see, +because you came from Leyden, were born in Scotland, and have gained a +hard-contested suit in England--you, I say, with a person like a prince, +an eye of fire, and a wit as quick, to think of throwing your cards on +the table when the game is in your very hand, running back to the +frozen north, and marrying--let me see--a tall, stalking, blue-eyed, +fair-skinned bony wench, with eighteen quarters in her scutcheon, a sort +of Lot's wife, newly descended from her pedestal, and with her to shut +yourself up in your tapestried chamber! Uh, gad!--Swouns, I shall never +survive the idea!" + +It is seldom that youth, however high-minded, is able, from mere +strength of character and principle, to support itself against the force +of ridicule. Half angry, half mortified, and, to say truth, half ashamed +of his more manly and better purpose, Nigel was unable, and flattered +himself it was unnecessary, to play the part of a rigid moral patriot, +in presence of a young man whose current fluency of language, as well as +his experience in the highest circles of society, gave him, in spite of +Nigel's better and firmer thoughts, a temporary ascendency over him. He +sought, therefore, to compromise the matter, and avoid farther debate, +by frankly owning, that, if to return to his own country were not his +choice, it was at least a matter of necessity. "His affairs," he said, +"were unsettled, his income precarious." + +"And where is he whose affairs are settled, or whose income is less than +precarious, that is to be found in attendance on the Court?" said Lord +Dalgarno; "all are either losing or winning. Those who have wealth, come +hither to get rid of it, while the happy gallants, who, like you and I, +dear Glenvarloch, have little or none, have every chance to be sharers +in their spoils." + +"I have no ambition of that sort," said Nigel, "and if I had, I must +tell you plainly, Lord Dalgarno, I have not the means to do so. I can +scarce as yet call the suit I wear my own; I owe it, and I do riot blush +to say so, to the friendship of yonder good man." + +"I will not laugh again, if I can help it," said Lord Dalgarno. +"But, Lord! that you should have gone to a wealthy goldsmith for your +habit--why, I could have brought you to an honest, confiding tailor, +who should have furnished you with half-a-dozen, merely for love of the +little word, 'lordship,' which you place before your name;--and then +your goldsmith, if he be really a friendly goldsmith, should have +equipped you with such a purse of fair rose-nobles as would have bought +you thrice as many suits, or done better things for you." + +"I do not understand these fashions, my lord," said Nigel, his +displeasure mastering his shame; "were I to attend the Court of my +sovereign, it should be when I could maintain, without shifting or +borrowing, the dress and retinue which my rank requires." + +"Which my rank requires!" said Lord Dalgarno, repeating his last words; +"that, now, is as good as if my father had spoke it. I fancy you +would love to move to Court with him, followed by a round score of +old blue-bottles, with white heads and red noses, with bucklers and +broadswords, which their hands, trembling betwixt age and strong waters, +can make no use of--as many huge silver badges on their arms, to +show whose fools they are, as would furnish forth a court cupboard of +plate--rogues fit for nothing but to fill our ante-chambers with the +flavour of onions and genievre--pah!" + +"The poor knaves!" said Lord Glenvarloch; "they have served your father, +it may be, in the wars. What would become of them were he to turn them +off?" + +"Why, let them go to the hospital," said Dalgarno, "or to the +bridge-end, to sell switches. The king is a better man than my father, +and you see those who have served in HIS wars do so every day; or, when +their blue coats were well worn out, they would make rare scarecrows. +Here is a fellow, now, comes down the walk; the stoutest raven dared +not come within a yard of that copper nose. I tell you, there is more +service, as you will soon see, in my valet of the chamber, and such +a lither lad as my page Lutin, than there is in a score of these old +memorials of the Douglas wars, [Footnote: The cruel civil wars waged by +the Scottish barons during the minority of James VI., had the name from +the figure made in them by the celebrated James Douglas, Earl of Morton. +Both sides executed their prisoners without mercy or favour.] where they +cut each other's throats for the chance of finding twelve pennies Scots +on the person of the slain. Marry, my lord, to make amends, they will +eat mouldy victuals, and drink stale ale, as if their bellies were +puncheons.--But the dinner-bell is going to sound--hark, it is clearing +its rusty throat, with a preliminary jowl. That is another clamorous +relic of antiquity, that, were I master, should soon be at the bottom +of the Thames. How the foul fiend can it interest the peasants and +mechanics in the Strand, to know that the Earl of Huntinglen is sitting +down to dinner? But my father looks our way--we must not be late for the +grace, or we shall be in DIS-grace, if you will forgive a quibble which +would have made his Majesty laugh. You will find us all of a piece, and, +having been accustomed to eat in saucers abroad, I am ashamed you should +witness our larded capons, our mountains of beef, and oceans of brewis, +as large as Highland hills and lochs; but you shall see better cheer +to-morrow. Where lodge you? I will call for you. I must be your guide +through the peopled desert, to certain enchanted lands, which you will +scarce discover without chart and pilot. Where lodge you?" + +"I will meet you in Paul's," said Nigel, a good deal embarrassed, "at +any hour you please to name." + +"O, you would be private," said the young lord; "nay, fear not me--I +will be no intruder. But we have attained this huge larder of flesh, +fowl, and fish. I marvel the oaken boards groan not under it." + +They had indeed arrived in the dining-parlour of the mansion, where the +table was superabundantly loaded, and where the number of attendants, +to a certain extent, vindicated the sarcasms of the young nobleman. +The chaplain, and Sir Mungo Malagrowther, were of the party. The latter +complimented Lord Glenvarloch upon the impression he had made at Court. +"One would have thought ye had brought the apple of discord in your +pouch, my lord, or that you were the very firebrand of whilk Althea was +delivered, and that she had lain-in in a barrel of gunpowder, for the +king, and the prince, and the duke, have been by the lugs about ye, and +so have many more, that kendna before this blessed day that there was +such a man living on the face of the earth." + +"Mind your victuals, Sir Mungo," said the earl; "they get cold while +you talk." + +"Troth, and that needsna, my lord," said the knight; "your lordship's +dinners seldom scald one's mouth--the serving-men are turning auld, like +oursells, my lord, and it is far between the kitchen and the ha'." + +With this little explosion of his spleen, Sir Mungo remained satisfied, +until the dishes were removed, when, fixing his eyes on the brave new +doublet of Lord Dalgarno, he complimented him on his economy, pretending +to recognise it as the same which his father had worn in Edinburgh in +the Spanish ambassador's time. Lord Dalgarno, too much a man of the +world to be moved by any thing from such a quarter, proceeded to crack +some nuts with great deliberation, as he replied, that the doublet was +in some sort his father's, as it was likely to cost him fifty pounds +some day soon. Sir Mungo forthwith proceeded in his own way to convey +this agreeable intelligence to the earl, observing, that his son was a +better maker of bargains than his lordship, for he had bought a doublet +as rich as that his lordship wore when the Spanish ambassador was at +Holyrood, and it had cost him but fifty pounds Scots;--"that was no +fool's bargain, my lord." + +"Pounds sterling, if you please, Sir Mungo," answered the earl, calmly; +"and a fool's bargain it is, in all the tenses. Dalgarno WAS a fool when +he bought--I _will_ be a fool when I pay--and you, Sir Mungo, craving +your pardon, _are_ a fool _in praesenti_, for speaking of what concerns +you not." + +So saying, the earl addressed himself to the serious business of the +table and sent the wine around with a profusion which increased the +hilarity, but rather threatened the temperance, of the company, until +their joviality was interrupted by the annunciation that the scrivener +had engrossed such deeds as required to be presently executed. + +George Heriot rose from the table, observing, that wine-cups and legal +documents were unseemly neighbours. The earl asked the scrivener if they +had laid a trencher and set a cup for him in the buttery and received +the respectful answer, that heaven forbid he should be such an +ungracious beast as to eat or drink until his lordship's pleasure was +performed. + +"Thou shalt eat before thou goest," said Lord Huntinglen; "and I will +have thee try, moreover, whether a cup of sack cannot bring some colour +into these cheeks of thine. It were a shame to my household, thou +shouldst glide out into the Strand after such a spectre-fashion as +thou now wearest--Look to it, Dalgarno, for the honour of our roof is +concerned." + +Lord Dalgarno gave directions that the man should be attended to. Lord +Glenvarloch and the citizen, in the meanwhile, signed and interchanged, +and thus closed a transaction, of which the principal party concerned +understood little, save that it was under the management of a zealous +and faithful friend, who undertook that the money should be forthcoming, +and the estate released from forfeiture, by payment of the stipulated +sum for which it stood pledged, and that at the term of Lambmas, and at +the hour of noon, and beside the tomb of the Regent Earl of Murray, +in the High Kirk of Saint Giles, at Edinburgh, being the day and place +assigned for such redemption. [Footnote: As each covenant in those days +of accuracy had a special place nominated for execution, the tomb of the +Regent Earl of Murray in Saint Giles's Church was frequently assigned +for the purpose.] + +When this business was transacted, the old earl would fain have renewed +his carouse; but the citizen, alleging the importance of the deeds he +had about him, and the business he had to transact betimes the next +morning, not only refused to return to table, but carried with him to +his barge Lord Glenvarloch, who might, perhaps, have been otherwise +found more tractable. + +When they were seated in the boat, and fairly once more afloat on the +river, George Heriot looked back seriously on the mansion they had +left--"There live," he said, "the old fashion and the new. The father +is like a noble old broadsword, but harmed with rust, from neglect and +inactivity; the son is your modern rapier, well-mounted, fairly gilt, +and fashioned to the taste of the time--and it is time must evince if +the metal be as good as the show. God grant it prove so, says an old +friend to the family." + +Nothing of consequence passed betwixt them, until Lord Glenvarloch, +landing at Paul's Wharf, took leave of his friend the citizen, and +retired to his own apartment, where his attendant, Richie, not a little +elevated with the events of the day, and with the hospitality of Lord +Huntinglen's house-keeping, gave a most splendid account of them to +the buxom Dame Nelly, who rejoiced to hear that the sun at length was +shining upon what Richie called "the right side of the hedge." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + You are not for the manner nor the times, + They have their vices now most like to virtues; + You cannot know them apait by any difference, + They wear the same clothes, eat the same meat-- + Sleep i' the self-same beds, ride in those coaches, + Or very like four horses in a coach, + As the best men and women. + _Ben Jonson_ + +On the following morning, while Nigel, his breakfast finished, was +thinking how he should employ the day, there was a little bustle upon +the stairs which attracted his attention, and presently entered Dame +Nelly, blushing like scarlet, and scarce able to bring out--"A young +nobleman, sir--no one less," she added, drawing her hand slightly over +her lips, "would be so saucy--a young nobleman, sir, to wait on you!" + +And she was followed into the little cabin by Lord Dalgarno, gay, +easy, disembarrassed, and apparently as much pleased to rejoin his +new acquaintance as if he had found him in the apartments of a palace. +Nigel, on the contrary, (for youth is slave to such circumstances,) +was discountenanced and mortified at being surprised by so splendid a +gallant in a chamber which, at the moment the elegant and high-dressed +cavalier appeared in it, seemed to its inhabitant, yet lower, narrower, +darker, and meaner than it had ever shown before. He would have made +some apology for the situation, but Lord Dalgarno cut him short-- + +"Not a word of it," he said, "not a single word--I know why you ride at +anchor here--but I can keep counsel--so pretty a hostess would recommend +worse quarters." + +"On my word--on my honour," said Lord Glenvarloch-- + +"Nay, nay, make no words of the matter," said Lord Dalgarno; "I am no +tell-tale, nor shall I cross your walk; there is game enough in the +forest, thank Heaven, and I can strike a doe for myself." + +All this he said in so significant a manner, and the explanation +which he had adopted seemed to put Lord Glenvarloch's gallantry on so +respectable a footing, that Nigel ceased to try to undeceive him; and +less ashamed, perhaps, (for such is human weakness,) of supposed vice +than of real poverty, changed the discourse to something else, and +left poor Dame Nelly's reputation and his own at the mercy of the young +courtier's misconstruction. + +He offered refreshments with some hesitation. Lord Dalgarno had long +since breakfasted, but had just come from playing a set of tennis, he +said, and would willingly taste a cup of the pretty hostess's single +beer. This was easily procured, was drunk, was commended, and, as the +hostess failed not to bring the cup herself, Lord Dalgarno profited by +the opportunity to take a second and more attentive view of her, and +then gravely drank to her husband's health, with an almost imperceptible +nod to Lord Glenvarloch. Dame Nelly was much honoured, smoothed her +apron down with her hands, and said + +"Her John was greatly and truly honoured by their lordships--he was a +kind painstaking man for his family, as was in the alley, or indeed, as +far north as Paul's Chain." + +She would have proceeded probably to state the difference betwixt their +ages, as the only alloy to their nuptial happiness; but her lodger, who +had no mind to be farther exposed to his gay friend's raillery, gave +her, contrary to his wont, a signal to leave the room. + +Lord Dalgarno looked after her, and then looked at Glenvarloch, shook +his head, and repeated the well-known lines-- + +"'My lord, beware of jealousy--It is the green-eyed monster which doth +make the meat it feeds on.' + +"But come," he said, changing his tone, "I know not why I should worry +you thus--I who have so many follies of my own, when I should rather +make excuse for being here at all, and tell you wherefore I came." + +So saying, he reached a seat, and, placing another for Lord Glenvarloch, +in spite of his anxious haste to anticipate this act of courtesy, he +proceeded in the same tone of easy familiarity:-- + +"We are neighbours, my lord, and are just made known to each other. +Now, I know enough of the dear North, to be well aware that Scottish +neighbours must be either dear friends or deadly enemies--must either +walk hand-in-hand, or stand sword-point to sword-point; so I choose the +hand-in-hand, unless you should reject my proffer." + +"How were it possible, my lord," said Lord Glenvarloch, "to refuse what +is offered so frankly, even if your father had not been a second father +to me?"--And, as he took Lord Dalgarno's hand, he added--"I have, I +think, lost no time, since, during one day's attendance at Court, I have +made a kind friend and a powerful enemy." + +"The friend thanks you," replied Lord Dalgarno, "for your just opinion; +but, my dear Glenvarloch--or rather, for titles are too formal between +us of the better file--what is your Christian name?" + +"Nigel," replied Lord Glenvarloch. + +"Then we will be Nigel and Malcolm to each other," said his visitor, +"and my lord to the plebeian world around us. But I was about to ask you +whom you suppose your enemy?" + +"No less than the all-powerful favourite, the great Duke of Buckingham." + +"You dream! What could possess you with such an opinion?" said Dalgarno. + +"He told me so himself," replied Glenvarloch; "and, in so doing, dealt +frankly and honourably with me." + +"O, you know him not yet," said his companion; "the duke is moulded of +an hundred noble and fiery qualities, that prompt him, like a generous +horse, to spring aside in impatience at the least obstacle to his +forward course. But he means not what he says in such passing heats--I +can do more with him, I thank Heaven, than most who are around him; you +shall go visit him with me, and you will see how you shall be received." + +"I told you, my lord," said Glenvarloch firmly, and with some +haughtiness, "the Duke of Buckingham, without the least offence, +declared himself my enemy in the face of the Court; and he shall +retract that aggression as publicly as it was given, ere I will make the +slightest advance towards him." + +"You would act becomingly in every other case," said Lord Dalgarno, +"but here you are wrong. In the Court horizon Buckingham is Lord of +the Ascendant, and as he is adverse or favouring, so sinks or rises the +fortune of a suitor. The king would bid you remember your Phaedrus, + + 'Arripiens geminas, ripis cedentibus, ollas--' + +and so forth. You are the vase of earth; beware of knocking yourself +against the vase of iron." + +"The vase of earth," said Glenvarloch, "will avoid the encounter, by +getting ashore out of the current--I mean to go no more to Court." + +"O, to Court you necessarily must go; you will find your Scottish suit +move ill without it, for there is both patronage and favour necessary +to enforce the sign-manual you have obtained. Of that we will speak more +hereafter; but tell me in the meanwhile, my dear Nigel, whether you did +not wonder to see me here so early?" + +"I am surprised that you could find me out in this obscure corner," said +Lord Glenvarloch. + +"My page Lutin is a very devil for that sort of discovery," replied +Lord Dalgarno; "I have but to say, 'Goblin, I would know where he or she +dwells,' and he guides me thither as if by art magic." + +"I hope he waits not now in the street, my lord," said Nigel; "I will +send my servant to seek him." + +"Do not concern yourself--he is by this time," said Lord Dalgarno, +"playing at hustle-cap and chuck-farthing with the most blackguard imps +upon the wharf, unless he hath foregone his old customs." + +"Are you not afraid," said Lord Glenvarloch, "that in such company his +morals may become depraved?" + +"Let his company look to their own," answered Lord Dalgarno, cooly; "for +it will be a company of real fiends in which Lutin cannot teach more +mischief than he can learn: he is, I thank the gods, most thoroughly +versed in evil for his years. I am spared the trouble of looking after +his moralities, for nothing can make them either better or worse." + +"I wonder you can answer this to his parents, my lord," said Nigel. + +"I wonder where I should find his parents," replied his companion, "to +render an account to them." + +"He may be an orphan," said Lord Nigel; "but surely, being a page in +your lordship's family, his parents must be of rank." + +"Of as high rank as the gallows could exalt them to," replied Lord +Dalgarno, with the same indifference; "they were both hanged, I +believe--at least the gipsies, from whom I bought him five years ago, +intimated as much to me.--You are surprised at this, now. But is it not +better that, instead of a lazy, conceited, whey-faced slip of gentility, +to whom, in your old-world idea of the matter, I was bound to stand Sir +Pedagogue, and see that he washed his hands and face, said his prayers, +learned his acddens, spoke no naughty words, brushed his hat, and +wore his best doublet only on Sunday,--that, instead of such a Jacky +Goodchild, I should have something like this?" + +He whistled shrill and clear, and the page he spoke of darted into the +room, almost with the effect of an actual apparition. From his height he +seemed but fifteen, but, from his face, might be two or even three years +older, very neatly made, and richly dressed; with a thin bronzed visage, +which marked his gipsy descent, and a pair of sparkling black eyes, +which seemed almost to pierce through those whom he looked at. + +"There he is," said Lord Dalgarno, "fit for every element--prompt to +execute every command, good, bad, or indifferent--unmatched in his +tribe, as rogue, thief, and liar." + +"All which qualities," said the undaunted page, "have each in turn stood +your lordship in stead." + +"Out, you imp of Satan!" said his master; "vanish-begone-or my conjuring +rod goes about your ears." The boy turned, and disappeared as suddenly +as he had entered. "You see," said Lord Dalgarno, "that, in choosing my +household, the best regard I can pay to gentle blood is to exclude it +from my service--that very gallows--bird were enough to corrupt a +whole antechamber of pages, though they were descended from kings and +kaisers." + +"I can scarce think that a nobleman should need the offices of such +an attendant as your goblin," said Nigel; "you are but jesting with my +inexperience." + +"Time will show whether I jest or not, my dear Nigel," replied Dalgarno; +"in the meantime, I have to propose to you to take the advantage of the +flood-tide, to run up the river for pastime; and at noon I trust you +will dine with me." + +Nigel acquiesced in a plan which promised so much amusement; and his new +friend and he, attended by Lutin and Moniplies, who greatly resembled, +when thus associated, the conjunction of a bear and a monkey, took +possession of Lord Dalgarno's wherry, which, with its badged watermen, +bearing his lordship's crest on their arms, lay in readiness to receive +them. The air was delightful upon the river; and the lively conversation +of Lord Dalgarno added zest to the pleasures of the little voyage. +He could not only give an account of the various public buildings and +noblemen's houses which they passed in ascending the Thames, but knew +how to season his information with abundance of anecdote, political +innuendo, and personal scandal; if he had not very much wit, he was at +least completely master of the fashionable tone, which in that time, as +in ours, more than amply supplies any deficiency of the kind. + +It was a style of conversation entirely new to his companion, as was the +world which Lord Dalgarno opened to his observation; and it is no wonder +that Nigel, notwithstanding his natural good sense and high spirit, +admitted, more readily than seemed consistent with either, the tone +of authoritative instruction which his new friend assumed towards him. +There would, indeed, have been some difficulty in making a stand. To +attempt a high and stubborn tone of morality, in answer to the light +strain of Lord Dalgarno's conversation, which kept on the frontiers +between jest and earnest, would have seemed pedantic and ridiculous; and +every attempt which Nigel made to combat his companion's propositions, +by reasoning as jocose as his own, only showed his inferiority in +that gay species of controversy. And it must be owned, besides, though +internally disapproving much of what he heard, Lord Glenvarloch, young +as he was in society, became less alarmed by the language and manners of +his new associate, than in prudence he ought to have been. + +Lord Dalgarno was unwilling to startle his proselyte, by insisting +upon any topic which appeared particularly to jar with his habits or +principles; and he blended his mirth and his earnest so dexterously, +that it was impossible for Nigel to discover how far he was serious in +his propositions, or how far they flowed from a wild and extravagant +spirit of raillery. And, ever and anon, those flashes of spirit and +honour crossed his conversation, which seemed to intimate, that, when +stirred to action by some adequate motive, Lord Dalgarno would prove +something very different from the court-haunting and ease-loving +voluptuary, which he was pleased to represent as his chosen character. + +As they returned down the river, Lord Glenvarloch remarked, that the +boat passed the mansion of Lord Huntinglen, and noticed the circumstance +to Lord Dalgarno, observing, that he thought they were to have dined +there. "Surely no," said the young nobleman, "I have more mercy on you +than to gorge you a second time with raw beef and canary wine. I propose +something better for you, I promise you, than such a second Scythian +festivity. And as for my father, he proposes to dine to-day with my +grave, ancient Earl of Northampton, whilome that celebrated putter-down +of pretended prophecies, Lord Henry Howard." + +"And do you not go with him?" said his companion. + +"To what purpose?" said Lord Dalgarno. "To hear his wise lordship speak +musty politics in false Latin, which the old fox always uses, that he +may give the learned Majesty of England an opportunity of correcting his +slips in grammar? That were a rare employment!" + +"Nay," said Lord Nigel, "but out of respect, to wait on my lord your +father." + +"My lord my father," replied Lord Dalgarno, "has blue-bottles enough to +wait on him, and can well dispense with such a butterfly as myself. He +can lift the cup of sack to his head without my assistance; and, should +the said paternal head turn something giddy, there be men enough to +guide his right honourable lordship to his lordship's right honourable +couch.--Now, do not stare at me, Nigel, as if my words were to sink the +boat with us. I love my father--I love him dearly--and I respect him, +too, though I respect not many things; a trustier old Trojan never +belted a broadsword by a loop of leather. But what then? He belongs to +the old world, I to the new. He has his follies, I have mine; and the +less either of us sees of the other's peccadilloes, the greater will be +the honour and respect--that, I think, is the proper phrase--I say the +_respect_ in which we shall hold each other. Being apart, each of us is +himself, such as nature and circumstances have made him; but, couple us +up too closely together, you will be sure to have in your leash either +an old hypocrite or a young one, or perhaps both the one and t'other." + +As he spoke thus, the boat put into the landing-place at Blackfriars. +Lord Dalgarno sprung ashore, and, flinging his cloak and rapier to his +page, recommended to his companion to do the like. "We are coming among +a press of gallants," he said; "and, if we walked thus muffled, we shall +look like your tawny-visaged Don, who wraps him close in his cloak, to +conceal the defects of his doublet." + +"I have known many an honest man do that, if it please your lordship," +said Richie Moniplies, who had been watching for an opportunity to +intrude himself on the conversation, and probably remembered what had +been his own condition, in respect to cloak and doublet, at a very +recent period. + +Lord Dalgarno stared at him, as if surprised at his assurance; but +immediately answered, "You may have known many things, friend; but, in +the meanwhile, you do not know what principally concerns your master, +namely, how to carry his cloak, so as to show to advantage the +gold-laced seams, and the lining of sables. See how Lutin holds the +sword, with his cloak cast partly over it, yet so as to set off the +embossed hilt, and the silver work of the mounting.--Give your familiar +your sword, Nigel," he continued, addressing Lord Glenvarloch, "that he +may practise a lesson in an art so necessary." + +"Is it altogether prudent," said Nigel, unclasping his weapon, and +giving it to Richie, "to walk entirely unarmed?" + +"And wherefore not?" said his companion. "You are thinking now of Auld +Reekie, as my father fondly calls your good Scottish capital, where +there is such bandying of private feuds and public factions, that a man +of any note shall not cross your High Street twice, without endangering +his life thrice. Here, sir, no brawling in the street is permitted. Your +bull-headed citizen takes up the case so soon as the sword is drawn, and +clubs is the word." + +"And a hard word it is," said Richie, "as my brain-pan kens at this +blessed moment." + +"Were I your master, sirrah," said Lord Dalgarno, "I would make your +brain-pan, as you call it, boil over, were you to speak a word in my +presence before you were spoken to." + +Richie murmured some indistinct answer, but took the hint, and ranked +himself behind his master along with Lutin, who failed not to expose his +new companion to the ridicule of the passers-by, by mimicking, as often +as he could do so unobserved by Richie, his stiff and upright stalking +gait and discontented physiognomy. + +"And tell me now, my dear Malcolm," said Nigel, "where we are bending +our course, and whether we shall dine at an apartment of yours?" + +"An apartment of mine--yes, surely," answered Lord Dalgarno, "you shall +dine at an apartment of mine, and an apartment of yours, and of twenty +gallants besides; and where the board shall present better cheer, better +wine, and better attendance, than if our whole united exhibitions went +to maintain it. We are going to the most noted ordinary of London." + +"That is, in common language, an inn, or a tavern," said Nigel. + +"An inn, or a tavern, my most green and simple friend!" exclaimed Lord +Dalgarno. "No, no--these are places where greasy citizens take pipe +and pot, where the knavish pettifoggers of the law spunge on their most +unhappy victims--where Templars crack jests as empty as their nuts, and +where small gentry imbibe such thin potations, that they get dropsies +instead of getting drunk. An ordinary is a late-invented institution, +sacred to Bacchus and Comus, where the choicest noble gallants of the +time meet with the first and most ethereal wits of the age,--where the +wine is the very soul of the choicest grape, refined as the genius of +the poet, and ancient and generous as the blood of the nobles. And then +the fare is something beyond your ordinary gross terrestrial food! Sea +and land are ransacked to supply it; and the invention of six ingenious +cooks kept eternally upon the rack to make their art hold pace with, and +if possible enhance, the exquisite quality of the materials." + +"By all which rhapsody," said Lord Glenvarloch, "I can only understand, +as I did before, that we are going to a choice tavern, where we shall be +handsomely entertained, on paying probably as handsome a reckoning." + +"Reckoning!" exclaimed Lord Dalgarno in the same tone as before, +"perish the peasantly phrase! What profanation! Monsieur le Chevalier de +Beaujeu, pink of Paris and flower of Gascony--he who can tell the age of +his wine by the bare smell, who distils his sauces in an alembic by the +aid of Lully's philosophy--who carves with such exquisite precision, +that he gives to noble, knight and squire, the portion of the pheasant +which exactly accords with his rank--nay, he who shall divide a becafico +into twelve parts with such scrupulous exactness, that of twelve guests +not one shall have the advantage of the other in a hair's breadth, or +the twentieth part of a drachm, yet you talk of him and of a reckoning +in the same breath! Why, man, he is the well-known and general referee +in all matters affecting the mysteries of Passage, Hazard, In and +In, Penneeck, and Verquire, and what not--why, Beaujeu is King of +the Card-pack, and Duke of the Dice-box--HE call a reckoning like a +green-aproned, red-nosed son of the vulgar spigot! O, my dearest Nigel, +what a word you have spoken, and of what a person! That you know him +not, is your only apology for such blasphemy; and yet I scarce hold it +adequate, for to have been a day in London and not to know Beaujeu, is a +crime of its own kind. But you _shall_ know him this blessed moment, +and shall learn to hold yourself in horror for the enormities you have +uttered." + +"Well, but mark you," said Nigel, "this worthy chevalier keeps not all +this good cheer at his own cost, does he?" + +"No, no," answered Lord Dalgarno; "there is a sort of ceremony which my +chevalier's friends and intimates understand, but with which you have no +business at present. There is, as majesty might say, a _symbolum_ to be +disbursed--in other words, a mutual exchange of courtesies take place +betwixt Beaujeu and his guests. He makes them a free present of the +dinner and wine, as often as they choose to consult their own felicity +by frequenting his house at the hour of noon, and they, in gratitude, +make the chevalier a present of a Jacobus. Then you must know, that, +besides Comus and Bacchus, that princess of sublunary affairs, the Diva +Fortuna, is frequently worshipped at Beaujeu's, and he, as officiating +high-priest, hath, as in reason he should, a considerable advantage from +a share of the sacrifice." + +"In other words," said Lord Glenvarloch, "this man keeps a +gaming-house." + +"A house in which you may certainly game," said Lord Dalgarno, "as you +may in your own chamber if you have a mind; nay, I remember old Tom +Tally played a hand at put for a wager with Quinze le Va, the Frenchman, +during morning prayers in St. Paul's; the morning was misty, and the +parson drowsy, and the whole audience consisted of themselves and a +blind woman, and so they escaped detection." + +"For all this, Malcolm," said the young lord, gravely, "I cannot dine +with you to-day, at this same ordinary." + +"And wherefore, in the name of heaven, should you draw back from your +word?" said Lord Dalgarno. + +"I do not retract my word, Malcolm; but I am bound, by an early promise +to my father, never to enter the doors of a gaming-house." + +"I tell you this is none," said Lord Dalgarno; "it is but, in plain +terms, an eating-house, arranged on civiller terms, and frequented by +better company, than others in this town; and if some of them do amuse +themselves with cards and hazard, they are men of honour, and who play +as such, and for no more than they can well afford to lose. It was not, +and could not be, such houses that your father desired you to avoid. +Besides, he might as well have made you swear you would never take +accommodation of an inn, tavern, eating-house, or place of public +reception of any kind; for there is no such place of public resort but +where your eyes may be contaminated by the sight of a pack of pieces of +painted pasteboard, and your ears profaned by the rattle of those little +spotted cubes of ivory. The difference is, that where we go, we may +happen to see persons of quality amusing themselves with a game; and in +the ordinary houses you will meet bullies and sharpers, who will strive +either to cheat or to swagger you out of your money." + +"I am sure you would not willingly lead me to do what is wrong," said +Nigel; "but my father had a horror for games of chance, religious +I believe, as well as prudential. He judged from I know not what +circumstance, a fallacious one I should hope, that I should have a +propensity to such courses, and I have told you the promise which he +exacted from me." + +"Now, by my honour," said Dalgarno, "what you have said affords the +strongest reason for my insisting that you go with me. A man who would +shun any danger, should first become acquainted with its real bearing +and extent, and that in the company of a confidential guide and guard. +Do you think I myself game? Good faith, my father's oaks grow too far +from London, and stand too fast rooted in the rocks of Perthshire, for +me to troll them down with a die, though I have seen whole forests go +down like nine-pins. No, no--these are sports for the wealthy Southron, +not for the poor Scottish noble. The place is an eating-house, and as +such you and I will use it. If others use it to game in, it is their +fault, but neither that of the house nor ours." + +Unsatisfied with this reasoning, Nigel still insisted upon the promise +he had given to his father, until his companion appeared rather +displeased, and disposed to impute to him injurious and unhandsome +suspicions. Lord Glenvarloch could not stand this change of tone. He +recollected that much was due from him to Lord Dalgarno, on account +of his father's ready and efficient friendship, and something also on +account of the frank manner in which the young man himself had offered +him his intimacy. He had no reason to doubt his assurances, that the +house where they were about to dine did not fall under the description +of places which his father's prohibition referred; and finally, he was +strong in his own resolution to resist every temptation to join in +games of chance. He therefore pacified Lord Dalgarno, by intimating +his willingness to go along with him; and, the good-humour of the young +courtier instantaneously returning, he again ran on in a grotesque and +rodomontade account of the host, Monsieur de Beaujeu, which he did not +conclude until they had reached the temple of hospitality over which +that eminent professor presided. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + ----This is the very barn-yard, + Where muster daily the prime cocks o' the game, + Ruffle their pinions, crow till they are hoarse, + And spar about a barleycorn. Here too chickens, + The callow, unfledged brood of forward folly, + Learn first to rear the crest, and aim the spur, + And tune their note like full-plumed Chanticleer. + _The Bear-Garden._ + +The Ordinary, now an ignoble sound, was in the days of James, a +new institution, as fashionable among the youth of that age as the +first-rate modern club-houses are amongst those of the present day. +It differed chiefly, in being open to all whom good clothes and good +assurance combined to introduce there. The company usually dined +together at an hour fixed, and the manager of the establishment presided +as master of the ceremonies. + +Monsieur le Chevalier, (as he qualified himself,) Saint Priest de +Beaujeu, was a sharp, thin Gascon, about sixty years old, banished from +his own country, as he said, on account of an affair of honour, in which +he had the misfortune to kill his antagonist, though the best swordsman +in the south of France. His pretensions to quality were supported by +a feathered hat, a long rapier, and a suit of embroidered taffeta, not +much the worse for wear, in the extreme fashion of the Parisian court, +and fluttering like a Maypole with many knots of ribbon, of which it +was computed he bore at least five hundred yards about his person. +But, notwithstanding this profusion of decoration, there were many who +thought Monsieur le Chevalier so admirably calculated for his present +situation, that nature could never have meant to place him an inch +above it. It was, however, part of the amusement of the place, for Lord +Dalgarno and other young men of quality to treat Monsieur de Beaujeu +with a great deal of mock ceremony, which being observed by the herd of +more ordinary and simple gulls, they paid him, in clumsy imitation, much +real deference. The Gascon's natural forwardness being much enhanced by +these circumstances, he was often guilty of presuming beyond the limits +of his situation, and of course had sometimes the mortification to be +disagreeably driven back into them. + +When Nigel entered the mansion of this eminent person, which had been +but of late the residence of a great Baron of Queen Elizabeth's court, +who had retired to his manors in the country on the death of that +princess, he was surprised at the extent of the accommodation which it +afforded, and the number of guests who were already assembled. Feathers +waved, spurs jingled, lace and embroidery glanced everywhere; and at +first sight, at least, it certainly made good Lord Dalgarno's encomium, +who represented the company as composed almost entirely of youth of the +first quality. A more close review was not quite so favourable. Several +individuals might be discovered who were not exactly at their ease +in the splendid dresses which they wore, and who, therefore, might be +supposed not habitually familiar with such finery. Again, there were +others, whose dress, though on a general view it did not seem inferior +to that of the rest of the company, displayed, on being observed more +closely, some of these petty expedients, by which vanity endeavours to +disguise poverty. + +Nigel had very little time to make such observations, for the entrance +of Lord Dalgarno created an immediate bustle and sensation among the +company, as his name passed from one mouth to another. Some stood +forward to gaze, others stood back to make way--those of his own rank +hastened to welcome him--those of inferior degree endeavoured to catch +some point of his gesture, or of his dress, to be worn and practised +upon a future occasion, as the newest and most authentic fashion. + +The _genius loci_, the Chevalier himself, was not the last to welcome +this prime stay and ornament of his establishment. He came shuffling +forward with a hundred apish _conges_ and _chers milors_, to express his +happiness at seeing Lord Dalgarno again.--"I hope you do bring back the +sun with you, _Milor_--You did carry away the sun and moon from your +pauvre Chevalier when you leave him for so long. Pardieu, I believe you +take them away in your pockets." + +"That must have been because you left me nothing else in them, +Chevalier," answered Lord Dalgarno; "but Monsieur le Chevalier, I pray +you to know my countryman and friend, Lord Glenvarloch!" + +"Ah, ha! tres honore--Je m'en souviens,--oui. J'ai connu autrefois un +Milor Kenfarloque en Ecosse. Yes, I have memory of him--le pere de milor +apparemment-we were vera intimate when I was at Oly Root with Monsieur +de la Motte--I did often play at tennis vit Milor Kenfarloque at +L'Abbaie d'Oly Root--il etoit meme plus fort que moi--Ah le beaucoup +de revers qu'il avoit!--I have memory, too that he was among the pretty +girls--ah, un vrai diable dechaine--Aha! I have memory--" + +"Better have no more memory of the late Lord Glenvarloch," said Lord +Dalgarno, interrupting the Chevalier without ceremony; who perceived +that the encomium which he was about to pass on the deceased was likely +to be as disagreeable to the son as it was totally undeserved by the +father, who, far from being either a gamester or libertine, as the +Chevalier's reminiscences falsely represented him, was, on the contrary, +strict and severe in his course of life, almost to the extent of rigour. + +"You have the reason, milor," answered the Chevalier, "you have the +right--Qu'est ce que nous avons a faire avec le temps passe?--the time +passed did belong to our fathers--our ancetres--very well--the time +present is to us--they have their pretty tombs with their memories and +armorials, all in brass and marbre--we have the petits plats exquis, and +the soupe-a-Chevalier, which I will cause to mount up immediately." + +So saying, he made a pirouette on his heel, and put his attendants in +motion to place dinner on the table. Dalgarno laughed, and, observing +his young friend looked grave, said to him, in a tone of reproach--"Why, +what!--you are not gull enough to be angry with such an ass as that?" + +"I keep my anger, I trust, for better purposes," said Lord Glenvarloch; +"but I confess I was moved to hear such a fellow mention my father's +name--and you, too, who told me this was no gaming-house, talked to him +of having left it with emptied pockets." + +"Pshaw, man!" said Lord Dalgarno, "I spoke but according to the trick of +the time; besides, a man must set a piece or two sometimes, or he would +be held a cullionly niggard. But here comes dinner, and we will +see whether you like the Chevalier's good cheer better than his +conversation." + +Dinner was announced accordingly, and the two friends, being seated in +the most honourable station at the board, were ceremoniously attended +to by the Chevalier, who did the honours of his table to them and to the +other guests, and seasoned the whole with his agreeable conversation. +The dinner was really excellent, in that piquant style of cookery which +the French had already introduced, and which the home-bred young men of +England, when they aspired to the rank of connoisseurs and persons of +taste, were under the necessity of admiring. The wine was also of the +first quality, and circulated in great variety, and no less abundance. +The conversation among so many young men was, of course, light, lively, +and amusing; and Nigel, whose mind had been long depressed by anxiety +and misfortune, naturally found himself at ease, and his spirits raised +and animated. + +Some of the company had real wit, and could use it both politely and to +advantage; others were coxcombs, and were laughed at without discovering +it; and, again, others were originals, who seemed to have no objection +that the company should be amused with their folly instead of their +wit. And almost all the rest who played any prominent part in the +conversation had either the real tone of good society which belonged to +the period, or the jargon which often passes current for it. + +In short, the company and conversation was so agreeable, that Nigel's +rigour was softened by it, even towards the master of ceremonies, and +he listened with patience to various details which the Chevalier de +Beaujeu, seeing, as he said, that Milor's taste lay for the "curieux +and Futile," chose to address to him in particular, on the subject of +cookery. To gratify, at the same time, the taste for antiquity, which +he somehow supposed that his new guest possessed, he launched out in +commendation of the great artists of former days, particularly one +whom he had known in his youth, "Maitre de Cuisine to the Marechal +Strozzi--tres bon gentilhomme pourtant;" who had maintained his master's +table with twelve covers every day during the long and severe blockade +of le petit Leyth, although he had nothing better to place on it than +the quarter of a carrion-horse now and then, and the grass and weeds +that grew on the ramparts. "Despardieux c'dtoit un homme superbe!" With +one tistle-head, and a nettle or two, he could make a soupe for twenty +guests--an haunch of a little puppy-dog made a roti des plus excellens; +but his coupe de maitre was when the rendition--what you call the +surrender, took place and appened; and then, dieu me damme, he made out +of the hind quarter of one salted horse, forty-five couverts; that the +English and Scottish officers and nobility, who had the honour to dine +with Monseigneur upon the rendition, could not tell what the devil any +of them were made upon at all. + +The good wine had by this time gone so merrily round, and had such +genial effect on the guests, that those of the lower end of the table, +who had hitherto been listeners, began, not greatly to their own credit, +or that of the ordinary, to make innovations. + +"You speak of the siege of Leith," said a tall, raw-boned man, with +thick mustaches turned up with a military twist, a broad buff belt, a +long rapier, and other outward symbols of the honoured profession, which +lives by killing other people--"you talk of the siege of Leith, and I +have seen the place--a pretty kind of a hamlet it is, with a plain wall, +or rampart, and a pigeon-house or so of a tower at every angle. Uds +daggers and scabbards, if a leaguer of our days had been twenty-four +hours, not to say so many months, before it, without carrying the place +and all its cocklofts, one after another, by pure storm, they would have +deserved no better grace than the Provost-Marshal gives when his noose +is reeved." + +"Saar," said the Chevalier, "Monsieur le Capitaine, I vas not at +the siege of the petit Leyth, and I know not what you say about the +cockloft; but I will say for Monseigneur de Strozzi, that he understood +the grande guerre, and was grand capitaine--plus grand--that is more +great, it may be, than some of the capitaines of Angleterre, who do +speak very loud--tenez, Monsieur, car c'est a vous!" + +"O Monsieur." answered the swordsman, "we know the Frenchman will fight +well behind his barrier of stone, or when he is armed with back, breast, +and pot." + +"Pot!" exclaimed the Chevalier, "what do you mean by pot--do you mean to +insult me among my noble guests? Saar, I have done my duty as a pauvre +gentilhomme under the Grand Henri Quatre, both at Courtrai and Yvry, +and, ventre saint gris! we had neither pot nor marmite, but did always +charge in our shirt." + +"Which refutes another base scandal," said Lord Dalgarno, laughing, +"alleging that linen was scarce among the French gentlemen-at-arms." + +"Gentlemen out at arms and elbows both, you mean, my lord," said the +captain, from the bottom of the table. "Craving your lordship's pardon, +I do know something of these same gens-d'armes." + +"We will spare your knowledge at present, captain, and save your modesty +at the same time the trouble of telling us how that knowledge was +acquired," answered Lord Dalgarno, rather contemptuously. + +"I need not speak of it, my lord," said the man of war; "the world knows +it--all perhaps, but the men of mohair--the poor sneaking citizens of +London, who would see a man of valour eat his very hilts for hunger, ere +they would draw a farthing from their long purses to relieve them. O, +if a band of the honest fellows I have seen were once to come near that +cuckoo's nest of theirs!" + +"A cuckoo's nest!-and that said of the city of London!" said a gallant +who sat on the opposite side of the table, and who, wearing a splendid +and fashionable dress, seemed yet scarce at home in it--"I will not +brook to hear that repeated." + +"What!" said the soldier, bending a most terrific frown from a pair of +broad black eyebrows, handling the hilt of his weapon with one hand, and +twirling with the other his huge mustaches; "will you quarrel for your +city?" + +"Ay, marry will I," replied the other. "I am a citizen, I care not who +knows it; and he who shall speak a word in dispraise of the city, is an +ass and a peremptory gull, and I will break his pate, to teach him sense +and manners." + +The company, who probably had their reasons for not valuing the +captain's courage at the high rate which he himself put upon it, were +much entertained at the manner in which the quarrel was taken up by +the indignant citizen; and they exclaimed on all sides, "Well run, +Bow-bell!"--"Well crowed, the cock of Saint Paul's!"--"Sound a charge +there, or the soldier will mistake his signals, and retreat when he +should advance." + +"You mistake me, gentlemen," said the captain, looking round with an +air of dignity. "I will but inquire whether this cavaliero citizen is +of rank and degree fitted to measure swords with a man of action; (for, +conceive me, gentlemen, it is not with every one that I can match myself +without loss of reputation;) and in that case he shall soon hear from me +honourably, by way of cartel." + +"You shall feel me most dishonourably in the way of cudgel," said the +citizen, starting up, and taking his sword, which he had laid in a +corner. "Follow me." + +"It is my right to name the place of combat, by all the rules of +the sword," said the captain; "and I do nominate the Maze, in +Tothill-Fields, for place--two gentlemen, who shall be indifferent +judges, for witnesses;--and for time--let me say this day fortnight, at +daybreak." + +"And I," said the citizen, "do nominate the bowling-alley behind the +house for place, the present good company for witnesses, and for time +the present moment." + +So saying, he cast on his beaver, struck the soldier across the +shoulders with his sheathed sword, and ran down stairs. The captain +showed no instant alacrity to follow him; yet, at last, roused by the +laugh and sneer around him, he assured the company, that what he did he +would do deliberately, and, assuming his hat, which he put on with the +air of Ancient Pistol, he descended the stairs to the place of combat, +where his more prompt adversary was already stationed, with his sword +unsheathed. Of the company, all of whom seemed highly delighted with +the approaching fray, some ran to the windows which overlooked the +bowling-alley, and others followed the combatants down stairs. Nigel +could not help asking Dalgarno whether he would not interfere to prevent +mischief. + +"It would be a crime against the public interest," answered his friend; +"there can no mischief happen between two such originals, which will not +be a positive benefit to society, and particularly to the Chevalier's +establishment, as he calls it. I have been as sick of that captain's +buff belt, and red doublet, for this month past, as e'er I was of aught; +and now I hope this bold linendraper will cudgel the ass out of that +filthy lion's hide. See, Nigel, see the gallant citizen has ta'en his +ground about a bowl's-cast forward, in the midst of the alley--the very +model of a hog in armour. Behold how he prances with his manly foot, and +brandishes his blade, much as if he were about to measure forth cambric +with it. See, they bring on the reluctant soldado, and plant him +opposite to his fiery antagonist, twelve paces still dividing them--Lo, +the captain draws his tool, but, like a good general, looks over his +shoulder to secure his retreat, in case the worse come on't. Behold the +valiant shop-keeper stoops his head, confident, doubtless, in the civic +helmet with which his spouse has fortified his skull--Why, this is the +rarest of sport. By Heaven, he will run a tilt at him, like a ram." + +It was even as Lord Dalgarno had anticipated; for the citizen, who +seemed quite serious in his zeal for combat, perceiving that the man +of war did not advance towards him, rushed onwards with as much good +fortune as courage, beat down the captain's guard, and, pressing +on, thrust, as it seemed, his sword clear through the body of his +antagonist, who, with a deep groan, measured his length on the ground. +A score of voices cried to the conqueror, as he stood fixed in +astonishment at his own feat, "Away, away with you!--fly, fly--fly by +the back door!--get into the Whitefriars, or cross the water to the +Bankside, while we keep off the mob and the constables." And +the conqueror, leaving his vanquished foeman on the ground, fled +accordingly, with all speed. + +"By Heaven," said Lord Dalgarno, "I could never have believed that +the fellow would have stood to receive a thrust--he has certainly been +arrested by positive terror, and lost the use of his limbs. See, they +are raising him." + +Stiff and stark seemed the corpse of the swordsman, as one or two of +the guests raised him from the ground; but, when they began to open his +waistcoat to search for the wound which nowhere existed, the man of war +collected, his scattered spirits; and, conscious that the ordinary was +no longer a stage on which to display his valour, took to his heels as +fast as he could run, pursued by the laughter and shouts of the company. + +"By my honour," said Lord Dalgarno, "he takes the same course with his +conqueror. I trust in heaven he will overtake him, and then the valiant +citizen will suppose himself haunted by the ghost of him he has slain." + +"Despardieux, milor," said the Chevalier, "if he had stayed one moment, +he should have had a _torchon_--what you call a dishclout, pinned to him +for a piece of shroud, to show he be de ghost of one grand fanfaron." + +"In the meanwhile," said Lord Dalgarno, "you will oblige us, Monsieur le +Chevalier, as well as maintain your own honoured reputation, by letting +your drawers receive the man-at-arms with a cudgel, in case he should +venture to come way again." + +"Ventre saint gris, milor," said the Chevalier, "leave that to +me.--Begar, the maid shall throw the wash-sud upon the grand poltron!" + +When they had laughed sufficiently at this ludicrous occurrence, the +party began to divide themselves into little knots--some took possession +of the alley, late the scene of combat, and put the field to its proper +use of a bowling-ground, and it soon resounded with all the terms of the +game, as "run, run-rub, rub--hold bias, you infernal trundling timber!" +thus making good the saying, that three things are thrown away in a +bowling-green, namely, time, money, and oaths. In the house, many of the +gentlemen betook themselves to cards or dice, and parties were formed at +Ombre, at Basset, at Gleek, at Primero, and other games then in fashion; +while the dice were used at various games, both with and without the +tables, as Hazard, In-and-in, Passage, and so forth. The play, however, +did not appear to be extravagantly deep; it was certainly conducted with +great decorum and fairness; nor did there appear any thing to lead the +young Scotsman in the least to doubt his companion's assurance, that +the place was frequented by men of rank and quality, and that the +recreations they adopted were conducted upon honourable principles. + +Lord Dalgarno neither had proposed play to his friend, nor joined in the +amusement himself, but sauntered from one table to another, remarking +the luck of the different players, as well as their capacity to avail +themselves of it, and exchanging conversation with the highest and most +respectable of the guests. At length, as if tired of what in modern +phrase would have been termed lounging, he suddenly remembered that +Burbage was to act Shakespeare's King Richard, at the Fortune, that +afternoon, and that he could not give a stranger in London, like +Lord Glenvarloch, a higher entertainment than to carry him to that +exhibition; "unless, indeed," he added, in a whisper, "there is paternal +interdiction of the theatre as well as of the ordinary." + +"I never heard my father speak of stage-plays," said Lord Glenvarloch, +"for they are shows of a modern date, and unknown in Scotland. Yet, if +what I have heard to their prejudice be true, I doubt much whether he +would have approved of them." + +"Approved of them!" exclaimed Lord Dalgarno--"why, George Buchanan wrote +tragedies, and his pupil, learned and wise as himself, goes to see +them, so it is next door to treason to abstain; and the cleverest men in +England write for the stage, and the prettiest women in London resort to +the playhouses, and I have a brace of nags at the door which will +carry us along the streets like wild-fire, and the ride will digest our +venison and ortolans, and dissipate the fumes of the wine, and so let's +to horse--Godd'en to you, gentlemen--Godd'en, Chevalier de la Fortune." + +Lord Dalgarno's grooms were in attendance with two horses, and the young +men mounted, the proprietor upon a favourite barb, and Nigel upon a +high-dressed jennet, scarce less beautiful. As they rode towards the +theatre, Lord Dalgarno endeavoured to discover his friend's opinion of +the company to which he had introduced him, and to combat the exceptions +which he might suppose him to have taken. "And wherefore lookest thou +sad," he said, "my pensive neophyte? Sage son of the Alma Mater of +Low-Dutch learning, what aileth thee? Is the leaf of the living world +which we have turned over in company, less fairly written than thou +hadst been taught to expect? Be comforted, and pass over one little blot +or two; thou wilt be doomed to read through many a page, as black as +Infamy, with her sooty pinion, can make them. Remember, most immaculate +Nigel, that we are in London, not Leyden--that we are studying life, not +lore. Stand buff against the reproach of thine over-tender conscience, +man, and when thou summest up, like a good arithmetician, the actions +of the day, before you balance the account on your pillow, tell the +accusing spirit, to his brimstone beard, that if thine ears have heard +the clatter of the devil's bones, thy hand hath not trowled them--that +if thine eye hath seen the brawling of two angry boys, thy blade hath +not been bared in their fray." + +"Now, all this may be wise and witty," replied Nigel; "yet I own I +cannot think but that your lordship, and other men of good quality +with whom we dined, might have chosen a place of meeting free from the +intrusion of bullies, and a better master of your ceremonial than yonder +foreign adventurer." + +"All shall be amended, Sancte Nigelle, when thou shalt come forth a +new Peter the Hermit, to preach a crusade against dicing, drabbing, and +company-keeping. We will meet for dinner in Saint Sepulchre's Church; +we will dine in the chancel, drink our flask in the vestry, the parson +shall draw every cork, and the clerk say amen to every health. Come man, +cheer up, and get rid of this sour and unsocial humour. Credit me, that +the Puritans who object to us the follies and the frailties incident to +human nature, have themselves the vices of absolute devils, privy malice +and backbiting hypocrisy, and spiritual pride in all its presumption. +There is much, too, in life which we must see, were it only to learn to +shun it. Will Shakespeare, who lives after death, and who is presently +to afford thee such pleasure as none but himself can confer, has +described the gallant Falconbridge as calling that man + + ----' a bastard to the time, + That doth not smack of observation; + Which, though I will not practise to deceive, + Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn." + +But here we are at the door of the Fortune, where we shall have +matchless Will speaking for himself.--Goblin, and you other lout, leave +the horses to the grooms, and make way for us through the press." + +They dismounted, and the assiduous efforts of Lutin, elbowing, bullying, +and proclaiming his master's name and title, made way through a crowd of +murmuring citizens, and clamorous apprentices, to the door, where Lord +Dalgarno speedily procured a brace of stools upon the stage for his +companion and himself, where, seated among other gallants of the same +class, they had an opportunity of displaying their fair dresses +and fashionable manners, while they criticised the piece during its +progress; thus forming, at the same time, a conspicuous part of the +spectacle, and an important proportion of the audience. + +Nigel Olifaunt was too eagerly and deeply absorbed in the interest of +the scene, to be capable of playing his part as became the place +where he was seated. He felt all the magic of that sorcerer, who had +displayed, within the paltry circle of a wooden booth, the long wars of +York and Lancaster, compelling the heroes of either line to stalk across +the scene in language and fashion as they lived, as if the grave had +given up the dead for the amusement and instruction of the living. +Burbage, esteemed the best Richard until Garrick arose, played the +tyrant and usurper with such truth and liveliness, that when the Battle +of Bosworth seemed concluded by his death, the ideas of reality and +deception were strongly contending in Lord Glenvarloch's imagination, +and it required him to rouse himself from his reverie, so strange did +the proposal at first sound when his companion declared King Richard +should sup with them at the Mermaid. + +They were joined, at the same time, by a small party of the gentlemen +with whom they had dined, which they recruited by inviting two or three +of the most accomplished wits and poets, who seldom failed to attend +the Fortune Theatre, and were even but too ready to conclude a day of +amusement with a night of pleasure. Thither the whole party adjourned, +and betwixt fertile cups of sack, excited spirits, and the emulous wit +of their lively companions, seemed to realise the joyous boast of one of +Ben Jonson's contemporaries, when reminding the bard of + + "Those lyric feasts, + Where men such clusters had, + As made them nobly wild, not mad; + While yet each verse of thine + Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + + Let the proud salmon gorge the feather'd hook, + Then strike, and then you have him--He will wince; + Spin out your line that it shall whistle from you + Some twenty yards or so, yet you shall have him-- + Marry! you must have patience--the stout rock + Which is his trust, hath edges something sharp; + And the deep pool hath ooze and sludge enough + To mar your fishing--'less you are more careful. + _Albion, or the Double Kings._ + +It is seldom that a day of pleasure, upon review, seems altogether +so exquisite as the partaker of the festivity may have felt it while +passing over him. Nigel Olifaunt, at least, did not feel it so, and it +required a visit from his new acquaintance, Lord Dalgarno, to reconcile +him entirely to himself. But this visit took place early after +breakfast, and his friend's discourse was prefaced with a question, How +he liked the company of the preceding evening? + +"Why, excellently well," said Lord Glenvarloch; "only I should have +liked the wit better had it appeared to flow more freely. Every man's +invention seemed on the stretch, and each extravagant simile seemed to +set one half of your men of wit into a brown study to produce something +which should out-herod it." + +"And wherefore not?" said Lord Dalgarno, "or what are these fellows fit +for, but to play the intellectual gladiators before us? He of them who +declares himself recreant, should, d--n him, be restricted to muddy ale, +and the patronage of the Waterman's Company. I promise you, that many a +pretty fellow has been mortally wounded with a quibble or a carwitchet +at the Mermaid, and sent from thence, in a pitiable estate, to Wit's +hospital in the Vintry, where they languish to this day amongst fools +and aldermen." + +"It may be so," said Lord Nigel; "yet I could swear by my honour, that +last night I seemed to be in company with more than one man whose genius +and learning ought either to have placed him higher in our company, or +to have withdrawn him altogether from a scene, where, sooth to speak, +his part seemed unworthily subordinate." + +"Now, out upon your tender conscience," said Lord Dalgarno; "and the +fico for such outcasts of Parnassus! Why, these are the very leavings of +that noble banquet of pickled herrings and Rhenish, which lost London +so many of her principal witmongers and bards of misrule. What would you +have said had you seen Nash or Green, when you interest yourself about +the poor mimes you supped with last night? Suffice it, they had their +drench and their doze, and they drank and slept as much as may save +them from any necessity of eating till evening, when, if they are +industrious, they will find patrons or players to feed them. [Footnote: +The condition of men of wit and talents was never more melancholy than +about this period. Their lives were so irregular, and their means of +living so precarious, that they were alternately rioting in debauchery, +or encountering and struggling with the meanest necessities. Two or +three lost their lives by a surfeit brought on by that fatal banquet of +Rhenish wine and pickled herrings, which is familiar to those who +study the lighter literature of that age. The whole history is a most +melancholy picture of genius, degraded at once by its own debaucheries, +and the patronage of heartless rakes and profligates.] For the rest of +their wants, they can be at no loss for cold water while the New +River head holds good; and your doublets of Parnassus are eternal in +duration." + +"Virgil and Horace had more efficient patronage," said Nigel. + +"Ay," replied his countryman, "but these fellows are neither Virgil nor +Horace; besides, we have other spirits of another sort, to whom I will +introduce you on some early occasion. Our Swan of Avon hath sung his +last; but we have stout old Ben, with as much learning and genius as +ever prompted the treader of sock and buskin. It is not, however, of +him I mean now to speak; but I come to pray you, of dear love, to row up +with me as far as Richmond, where two or three of the gallants whom you +saw yesterday, mean to give music and syllabubs to a set of beauties, +with some curious bright eyes among them--such, I promise you, as might +win an astrologer from his worship of the galaxy. My sister leads the +bevy, to whom I desire to present you. She hath her admirers at Court; +and is regarded, though I might dispense with sounding her praise, as +one of the beauties of the time." + +There was no refusing an engagement, where the presence of the party +invited, late so low in his own regard, was demanded by a lady of +quality, one of the choice beauties of the time. Lord Glenvarloch +accepted, as was inevitable, and spent a lively day among the gay +and the fair. He was the gallant in attendance, for the day, upon his +friend's sister, the beautiful Countess of Blackchester, who aimed at +once at superiority in the realms of fashion, of power, and of wit. + +She was, indeed, considerably older than her brother, and had probably +completed her six lustres; but the deficiency in extreme youth was more +than atoned for, in the most precise and curious accuracy in attire, +an early acquaintance with every foreign mode, and a peculiar gift +in adapting the knowledge which she acquired, to her own particular +features and complexion. At Court, she knew as well as any lady in the +circle, the precise tone, moral, political, learned, or jocose, in which +it was proper to answer the monarch, according to his prevailing humour; +and was supposed to have been very active, by her personal interest, +in procuring her husband a high situation, which the gouty old viscount +could never have deserved by any merit of his own commonplace conduct +and understanding. + +It was far more easy for this lady than for her brother, to reconcile +so young a courtier as Lord Glenvarloch to the customs and habits of +a sphere so new to him. In all civilised society, the females of +distinguished rank and beauty give the tone to manners, and, through +these, even to morals. Lady Blackchester had, besides, interest either +in the Court, or over the Court, (for its source could not be well +traced,) which created friends, and overawed those who might have been +disposed to play the part of enemies. + +At one time, she was understood to be closely leagued with the +Buckingham family, with whom her brother still maintained a great +intimacy; and, although some coldness had taken place betwixt the +Countess and the Duchess of Buckingham, so that they were little seen +together, and the former seemed considerably to have withdrawn herself +into privacy, it was whispered that Lady Blackchester's interest with +the great favourite was not diminished in consequence of her breach with +his lady. + +Our accounts of the private Court intrigues of that period, and of the +persons to whom they were intrusted, are not full enough to enable us to +pronounce upon the various reports which arose out of the circumstances +we have detailed. It is enough to say, that Lady Blackchester possessed +great influence on the circle around her, both from her beauty, her +abilities, and her reputed talents for Court intrigue; and that Nigel +Olifaunt was not long of experiencing its power, as he became a slave in +some degree to that species of habit, which carries so many men into a +certain society at a certain hour, without expecting or receiving any +particular degree of gratification, or even amusement. + +His life for several weeks may be thus described. The ordinary was no +bad introduction to the business of the day; and the young lord quickly +found, that if the society there was not always irreproachable, still +it formed the most convenient and agreeable place of meeting with the +fashionable parties, with whom he visited Hyde Park, the theatres, and +other places of public resort, or joined the gay and glittering circle +which Lady Blackchester had assembled around her. Neither did he +entertain the same scrupulous horror which led him originally even to +hesitate entering into a place where gaming was permitted; but, on the +contrary, began to admit the idea, that as there could be no harm done +in beholding such recreation when only indulged in to a moderate degree, +so, from a parity of reasoning, there could be no objection to joining +in it, always under the same restrictions. But the young lord was a +Scotsman, habituated to early reflection, and totally unaccustomed to +any habit which inferred a careless risk or profuse waste of money. +Profusion was not his natural vice, or one likely to be acquired in +the course of his education; and, in all probability, while his father +anticipated with noble horror the idea of his son approaching the +gaming-table, he was more startled at the idea of his becoming a gaining +than a losing adventurer. The second, according to his principles, had +a termination, a sad one indeed, in the loss of temporal fortune--the +first quality went on increasing the evil which he dreaded, and perilled +at once both body and soul. + +However the old lord might ground his apprehension, it was so far +verified by his son's conduct, that, from an observer of the various +games of chance which he witnessed, he came, by degrees, by moderate +hazards, and small bets or wagers, to take a certain interest in them. +Nor could it be denied, that his rank and expectations entitled him to +hazard a few pieces (for his game went no deeper) against persons, who, +from the readiness with which they staked their money, might be supposed +well able to afford to lose it. + +It chanced, or, perhaps, according to the common belief, his evil genius +had so decreed, that Nigel's adventures were remarkably successful. He +was temperate, cautious, cool-headed, had a strong memory, and a ready +power of calculation; was besides, of a daring and intrepid character, +one upon whom no one that had looked even slightly, or spoken to +though but hastily, would readily have ventured to practise any thing +approaching to trick, or which required to be supported by intimidation. +While Lord Glenvarloch chose to play, men played with him regularly, +or, according to the phrase, upon the square; and, as he found his +luck change, or wished to hazard his good fortune no farther, the more +professed votaries of fortune, who frequented the house of Monsieur le +Chevalier de Saint Priest Beaujeu, did not venture openly to express +their displeasure at his rising a winner. But when this happened +repeatedly, the gamesters murmured amongst themselves equally at the +caution and the success of the young Scotsman; and he became far from +being a popular character among their society. + +It was no slight inducement to the continuance of this most evil habit, +when it was once in some degree acquired, that it seemed to place +Lord Glenvarloch, haughty as he naturally was, beyond the necessity of +subjecting himself to farther pecuniary obligations, which his prolonged +residence in London must otherwise have rendered necessary. He had to +solicit from the ministers certain forms of office, which were to render +his sign-manual effectually useful; and these, though they could not be +denied, were delayed in such a manner, as to lead Nigel to believe there +was some secret opposition, which occasioned the demur in his business. +His own impulse was, to have appeared at Court a second time, with the +king's sign-manual in his pocket, and to have appealed to his Majesty +himself, whether the delay of the public officers ought to render his +royal generosity unavailing. But the Lord Huntinglen, that good old +peer, who had so frankly interfered in his behalf on a former occasion, +and whom he occasionally visited, greatly dissuaded him from a similar +adventure, and exhorted him quietly to await the deliverance of the +ministers, which should set him free from dancing attendance in London. + +Lord Dalgarno joined his father in deterring his young friend from a +second attendance at Court, at least till he was reconciled with the +Duke of Buckingham--"a matter in which," he said, addressing his father, +"I have offered my poor assistance, without being able to prevail on +Lord Nigel to make any--not even the least--submission to the Duke of +Buckingham." + +"By my faith, and I hold the laddie to be in the right on't, Malcom!" +answered the stout old Scots lord.--"What right hath Buckingham, or, +to speak plainly, the son of Sir George Villiers, to expect homage and +fealty from one more noble than himself by eight quarters? I heard him +myself, on no reason that I could perceive, term Lord Nigel his enemy; +and it will never be by my counsel that the lad speaks soft word to him, +till he recalls the hard one." + +"That is precisely my advice to Lord Glenvarloch," answered Lord +Dalgarno; "but then you will admit, my dear father, that it would be the +risk of extremity for our friend to return into the presence, the duke +being his enemy--better to leave it with me to take off the heat of the +distemperature, with which some pickthanks have persuaded the duke to +regard our friend." + +"If thou canst persuade Buckingham of his error, Malcolm," said his +father, "for once I will say there hath been kindness and honesty in +Court service. I have oft told your sister and yourself, that in the +general I esteem it as lightly as may be." + +"You need not doubt my doing my best in Nigel's case," answered Lord +Dalgarno; "but you must think, my dear father, I must needs use slower +and gentler means than those by which you became a favourite twenty +years ago." + +"By my faith, I am afraid thou wilt," answered his father.--"I tell +thee, Malcolm, I would sooner wish myself in the grave, than doubt +thine honesty or honour; yet somehow it hath chanced, that honest, +ready service, hath not the same acceptance at Court which it has in my +younger time--and yet you rise there." + +"O, the time permits not your old-world service," said Lord +Dalgarno; "we have now no daily insurrections, no nightly attempts at +assassination, as were the fashion in the Scottish Court. Your prompt +and uncourteous sword-in-hand attendance on the sovereign is no +longer necessary, and would be as unbeseeming as your old-fashioned +serving-men, with their badges, broadswords, and bucklers, would be at a +court-mask. Besides, father, loyal haste hath its inconveniences. I have +heard, and from royal lips too, that when you stuck your dagger into the +traitor Ruthven, it was with such little consideration, that the point +ran a quarter of an inch into the royal buttock. The king +never talks of it but he rubs the injured part, and quotes his +_'infandum-------renovare dolorem.'_ But this comes of old fashions, and +of wearing a long Liddesdale whinger instead of a poniard of Parma. Yet +this, my dear father, you call prompt and valiant service. The king, I +am told, could not sit upright for a fortnight, though all the cushions +in Falkland were placed in his chair of state, and the Provost of +Dunfermline's borrowed to the boot of all." + +"It is a lie," said the old earl, "a false lie, forge it who list!--It +is true I wore a dagger of service by my side, and not a bodkin like +yours, to pick one's teeth withal--and for prompt service--Odds nouns! +it should be prompt to be useful when kings are crying treason and +murder with the screech of a half-throttled hen. But you young courtiers +know nought of these matters, and are little better than the green geese +they bring over from the Indies, whose only merit to their masters is to +repeat their own words after them--a pack of mouthers, and flatterers, +and ear-wigs.--Well, I am old and unable to mend, else I would break all +off, and hear the Tay once more flinging himself over the Campsie Linn." + +"But there is your dinner-bell, father," said Lord Dalgarno, "which, if +the venison I sent you prove seasonable, is at least as sweet a sound." + +"Follow me, then, youngsters, if you list," said the old earl; and +strode on from the alcove in which this conversation was held, towards +the house, followed by the two young men. + +In their private discourse, Lord Dalgarno had little trouble in +dissuading Nigel from going immediately to Court; while, on the other +hand, the offers he made him of a previous introduction to the Duke +of Buckingham, were received by Lord Glenvarloch with a positive and +contemptuous refusal. His friend shrugged his shoulders, as one who +claims the merit of having given to an obstinate friend the best +counsel, and desires to be held free of the consequences of his +pertinacity. + +As for the father, his table indeed, and his best liquor, of which +he was more profuse than necessary, were at the command of his young +friend, as well as his best advice and assistance in the prosecution of +his affairs. But Lord Huntinglen's interest was more apparent than real; +and the credit he had acquired by his gallant defence of the king's +person, was so carelessly managed by himself, and so easily eluded by +the favourites and ministers of the sovereign, that, except upon one or +two occasions, when the king was in some measure taken by surprise, as +in the case of Lord Glenvarloch, the royal bounty was never efficiently +extended either to himself or to his friends. + +"There never was a man," said Lord Dalgarno, whose shrewder knowledge of +the English Court saw where his father's deficiency lay, "that had it so +perfectly in his power to have made his way to the pinnacle of fortune +as my poor father. He had acquired a right to build up a staircase, step +by step, slowly and surely, letting every boon, which he begged year +after year, become in its turn the resting-place for the next annual +grant. But your fortunes shall not shipwreck upon the same coast, +Nigel," he would conclude. "If I have fewer means of influence than my +father has, or rather had, till he threw them away for butts of sack, +hawks, hounds, and such carrion, I can, far better than he, improve that +which I possess; and that, my dear Nigel, is all engaged in your behalf. +Do not be surprised or offended that you now see me less than formerly. +The stag-hunting is commenced, and the prince looks that I should attend +him more frequently. I must also maintain my attendance on the duke, +that I may have an opportunity of pleading your cause when occasion +shall permit." + +"I have no cause to plead before the duke," said Nigel, gravely; "I have +said so repeatedly." + +"Why, I meant the phrase no otherwise, thou churlish and suspicious +disputant," answered Dalgarno, "than as I am now pleading the duke's +cause with thee. Surely I only mean to claim a share in our royal +master's favourite benediction, _Beati Pacifici_." + +Upon several occasions, Lord Glenvarloch's conversations, both with the +old earl and his son, took a similar turn and had a like conclusion. He +sometimes felt as if, betwixt the one and the other, not to mention the +more unseen and unboasted, but scarce less certain influence of Lady +Blackchester, his affair, simple as it had become, might have been +somehow accelerated. But it was equally impossible to doubt the rough +honesty of the father, and the eager and officious friendship of Lord +Dalgarno; nor was it easy to suppose that the countenance of the lady, +by whom he was received with such distinction, would be wanting, could +it be effectual in his service. + +Nigel was further sensible of the truth of what Lord Dalgarno often +pointed out, that the favourite being supposed to be his enemy, every +petty officer, through whose hands his affair must necessarily pass, +would desire to make a merit of throwing obstacles in his way, which +he could only surmount by steadiness and patience, unless he preferred +closing the breach, or, as Lord Dalgarno called it, making his peace +with the Duke of Buckingham. + +Nigel might, and doubtless would, have had recourse to the advice of his +friend George Heriot upon this occasion, having found it so advantageous +formerly; but the only time he saw him after their visit to Court, he +found the worthy citizen engaged in hasty preparations for a journey to +Paris, upon business of great importance in the way of his profession, +and by an especial commission from the Court and the Duke of Buckingham, +which was likely to be attended with considerable profit. The good man +smiled as he named the Duke of Buckingham. He had been, he said, pretty +sure that his disgrace in that quarter would not be of long duration. +Lord Glenvarloch expressed himself rejoiced at that reconciliation, +observing, that it had been a most painful reflection to him, that +Master Heriot should, in his behalf, have incurred the dislike, and +perhaps exposed himself to the ill offices, of so powerful a favourite. + +"My lord," said Heriot, "for your father's son I would do much; and yet +truly, if I know myself, I would do as much and risk as much, for the +sake of justice, in the case of a much more insignificant person, as I +have ventured for yours. But as we shall not meet for some time, I must +commit to your own wisdom the farther prosecution of this matter." + +And thus they took a kind and affectionate leave of each other. + +There were other changes in Lord Glenvarloch's situation, which require +to be noticed. His present occupations, and the habits of amusement +which he had acquired, rendered his living so far in the city a +considerable inconvenience. He may also have become a little ashamed of +his cabin on Paul's Wharf, and desirous of being lodged somewhat +more according to his quality. For this purpose, he had hired a small +apartment near the Temple. He was, nevertheless, almost sorry for what +he had done, when he observed that his removal appeared to give some +pain to John Christie, and a great deal to his cordial and officious +landlady. The former, who was grave and saturnine in every thing he did, +only hoped that all had been to Lord Glenvarloch's mind, and that he had +not left them on account of any unbeseeming negligence on their part. +But the tear twinkled in Dame Nelly's eye, while she recounted the +various improvements she had made in the apartment, of express purpose +to render it more convenient to his lordship. + +"There was a great sea-chest," she said, "had been taken upstairs to the +shopman's garret, though it left the poor lad scarce eighteen inches +of opening to creep betwixt it and his bed; and Heaven knew--she did +not--whether it could ever be brought down that narrow stair again. Then +the turning the closet into an alcove had cost a matter of twenty round +shillings; and to be sure, to any other lodger but his lordship, the +closet was more convenient. There was all the linen, too, which she had +bought on purpose--But Heaven's will be done--she was resigned." + +Everybody likes marks of personal attachment; and Nigel, whose heart +really smote him, as if in his rising fortunes he were disdaining the +lowly accommodations and the civilities of the humble friends which had +been but lately actual favours, failed not by every assurance in his +power, and by as liberal payment as they could be prevailed upon to +accept, to alleviate the soreness of their feelings at his departure; +and a parting kiss from the fair lips of his hostess sealed his +forgiveness. + +Richie Moniplies lingered behind his master, to ask whether, in case of +need, John Christie could help a canny Scotsman to a passage back to his +own country; and receiving assurance of John's interest to that effect, +he said at parting, he would remind him of his promise soon.--"For," +said he, "if my lord is not weary of this London life, I ken one that +is, videlicet, mysell; and I am weel determined to see Arthur's Seat +again ere I am many weeks older." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + + Bingo, why, Bingo! hey, boy--here, sir, here!-- + He's gone and off, but he'll be home before us;-- + 'Tis the most wayward cur e'er mumbled bone, + Or dogg'd a master's footstep.--Bingo loves me + Better than ever beggar loved his alms; + Yet, when he takes such humour, you may coax + Sweet Mistress Fantasy, your worship's mistress, + Out of her sullen moods, as soon as Bingo. + _The Dominie And His Dog_. + +Richie Moniplies was as good as his word. Two or three mornings after +the young lord had possessed himself of his new lodgings, he appeared +before Nigel, as he was preparing to dress, having left his pillow at an +hour much later than had formerly been his custom. + +As Nigel looked upon his attendant, he observed there was a gathering +gloom upon his solemn features, which expressed either additional +importance, or superadded discontent, or a portion of both. + +"How now," he said, "what is the matter this morning, Richie, that you +have made your face so like the grotesque mask on one of the spouts +yonder?" pointing to the Temple Church, of which Gothic building they +had a view from the window. + +Richie swivelled his head a little to the right with as little alacrity +as if he had the crick in his neck, and instantly resuming his posture, +replied,--"Mask here, mask there--it were nae such matters that I have +to speak anent." + +"And what matters have you to speak anent, then?" said his master, whom +circumstances had inured to tolerate a good deal of freedom from his +attendant. + +"My lord,"--said Richie, and then stopped to cough and hem, as if what +he had to say stuck somewhat in his throat. + +"I guess the mystery," said Nigel, "you want a little money, Richie; +will five pieces serve the present turn?" + +"My lord," said Richie, "I may, it is like, want a trifle of money; and +I am glad at the same time, and sorry, that it is mair plenty with your +lordship than formerly." + +"Glad and sorry, man!" said Lord Nigel, "why, you are reading riddles to +me, Richie." + +"My riddle will be briefly read," said Richie; "I come to crave of your +lordship your commands for Scotland." + +"For Scotland!--why, art thou mad, man?" said Nigel; "canst thou not +tarry to go down with me?" + +"I could be of little service," said Richie, "since you purpose to hire +another page and groom." + +"Why, thou jealous ass," said the young lord, "will not thy load of +duty lie the lighter?--Go, take thy breakfast, and drink thy ale double +strong, to put such absurdities out of thy head--I could be angry with +thee for thy folly, man--but I remember how thou hast stuck to me in +adversity." + +"Adversity, my lord, should never have parted us," said Richie; +"methinks, had the warst come to warst, I could have starved as +gallantly as your lordship, or more so, being in some sort used to it; +for, though I was bred at a flasher's stall, I have not through my life +had a constant intimacy with collops." + +"Now, what is the meaning of all this trash?" said Nigel; "or has it no +other end than to provoke my patience? You know well enough, that, had I +twenty serving-men, I would hold the faithful follower that stood by +me in my distress the most valued of them all. But it is totally out of +reason to plague me with your solemn capriccios." + +"My lord," said Richie, "in declaring your trust in me, you have done +what is honourable to yourself, if I may with humility say so much, and +in no way undeserved on my side. Nevertheless, we must part." + +"Body of me, man, why?" said Lord Nigel; "what reason can there be for +it, if we are mutually satisfied?" + +"My lord," said Richie Moniplies, "your lordship's occupations are such +as I cannot own or countenance by my presence." + +"How now, sirrah!" said his master, angrily. + +"Under favour, my lord," replied his domestic, "it is unequal dealing to +be equally offended by my speech and by my silence. If you can hear with +patience the grounds of my departure, it may be, for aught I know, the +better for you here and hereafter--if not, let me have my license of +departure in silence, and so no more about it." + +"Go to, sir!" said Nigel; "speak out your mind--only remember to whom +you speak it." + +"Weel, weel, my lord--I speak it with humility;" (never did Richie look +with more starched dignity than when he uttered the word;) "but do +you think this dicing and card-shuffling, and haunting of taverns and +playhouses, suits your lordship--for I am sure it does not suit me?" + +"Why, you are not turned precisian or puritan, fool?" said Lord +Glenvarloch, laughing, though, betwixt resentment and shame, it cost him +some trouble to do so. + +"My lord," replied the follower, "I ken the purport of your query. I +am, it may be, a little of a precisian, and I wish to Heaven I was mair +worthy of the name; but let that be a pass-over.--I have stretched the +duties of a serving-man as far as my northern conscience will permit. I +can give my gude word to my master, or to my native country, when I am +in a foreign land, even though I should leave downright truth a wee bit +behind me. Ay, and I will take or give a slash with ony man that +speaks to the derogation of either. But this chambering, dicing, and +play-haunting, is not my element--I cannot draw breath in it--and when +I hear of your lordship winning the siller that some poor creature may +full sairly miss--by my saul, if it wad serve your necessity, rather +than you gained it from him, I wad take a jump over the hedge with your +lordship, and cry 'Stand!' to the first grazier we met that was coming +from Smithfield with the price of his Essex calves in his leathern +pouch!" + +"You are a simpleton," said Nigel, who felt, however, much +conscience-struck; "I never play but for small sums." + +"Ay, my lord," replied the unyielding domestic, "and--still with +reverence--it is even sae much the waur. If you played with your equals, +there might be like sin, but there wad be mair warldly honour in it. +Your lordship kens, or may ken, by experience of your ain, whilk is not +as yet mony weeks auld, that small sums can ill be missed by those that +have nane larger; and I maun e'en be plain with you, that men notice it +of your lordship, that ye play wi' nane but the misguided creatures that +can but afford to lose bare stakes." + +"No man dare say so!" replied Nigel, very angrily. "I play with whom I +please, but I will only play for what stake I please." + +"That is just what they say, my lord," said the unmerciful Richie, +whose natural love of lecturing, as well as his bluntness of feeling, +prevented him from having any idea of the pain which he was inflicting +on his master; "these are even their own very words. It was but +yesterday your lordship was pleased, at that same ordinary, to win from +yonder young hafflins gentleman, with the crimson velvet doublet, and +the cock's feather in his beaver--him, I mean, who fought with the +ranting captain--a matter of five pounds, or thereby. I saw him come +through the hall; and, if he was not cleaned out of cross and pile, I +never saw a ruined man in my life." + +"Impossible!" said Lord Glenvarloch--"Why, who is he? he looked like a +man of substance." + +"All is not gold that glistens, my lord," replied Richie; "'broidery +and bullion buttons make bare pouches. And if you ask who he is--maybe I +have a guess, and care not to tell." + +"At least, if I have done any such fellow an injury," said the Lord +Nigel, "let me know how I can repair it." + +"Never fash your beard about that, my lord,--with reverence always," +said Richie,--"he shall be suitably cared after. Think on him but as +ane wha was running post to the devil, and got a shouldering from your +lordship to help him on his journey. But I will stop him, if reason can; +and so your lordship needs asks nae mair about it, for there is no use +in your knowing it, but much the contrair." + +"Hark you, sirrah," said his master, "I have borne with you thus far, +for certain reasons; but abuse my good-nature no farther--and since you +must needs go, why, go a God's name, and here is to pay your journey." +So saying, he put gold into his hand, which Richie told over piece by +piece, with the utmost accuracy. + +"Is it all right--or are they wanting in weight--or what the devil keeps +you, when your hurry was so great five minutes since?" said the young +lord, now thoroughly nettled at the presumptuous precision with which +Richie dealt forth his canons of morality. + +"The tale of coin is complete," said Richie, with the most imperturbable +gravity; "and, for the weight, though they are sae scrupulous in this +town, as make mouths at a piece that is a wee bit light, or that has +been cracked within the ring, my sooth, they will jump at them in +Edinburgh like a cock at a grosart. Gold pieces are not so plenty there, +the mair the pity!" + +"The more is your folly, then," said Nigel, whose anger was only +momentary, "that leave the land where there is enough of them." + +"My lord," said Richie, "to be round with you, the grace of God is +better than gold pieces. When Goblin, as you call yonder Monsieur +Lutin,--and you might as well call him Gibbet, since that is what he is +like to end in,--shall recommend a page to you, ye will hear little such +doctrine as ye have heard from me.--And if they were my last words," he +said, raising his voice, "I would say you are misled, and are forsaking +the paths which your honourable father trode in; and, what is more, you +are going--still under correction--to the devil with a dishclout, for ye +are laughed at by them that lead you into these disordered bypaths." + +"Laughed at!" said Nigel, who, like others of his age, was more sensible +to ridicule than to reason--"Who dares laugh at me?" + +"My lord, as sure as I live by bread--nay, more, as I am a true +man--and, I think, your lordship never found Richie's tongue bearing +aught but the truth--unless that your lordship's credit, my country's +profit, or, it may be, some sma' occasion of my ain, made it unnecessary +to promulgate the haill veritie,--I say then, as I am a true man, when I +saw that puir creature come through the ha', at that ordinary, whilk is +accurst (Heaven forgive me for swearing!) of God and man, with his teeth +set, and his hands clenched, and his bonnet drawn over his brows like a +desperate man, Goblin said to me, 'There goes a dunghill chicken, that +your master has plucked clean enough; it will be long ere his lordship +ruffle a feather with a cock of the game.' And so, my lord, to speak +it out, the lackeys, and the gallants, and more especially your sworn +brother, Lord Dalgarno, call you the sparrow-hawk.--I had some thought +to have cracked Lutin's pate for the speech, but, after a', the +controversy was not worth it." + +"Do they use such terms of me?" said Lord Nigel. "Death and the devil!" + +"And the devil's dam, my lord," answered Richie; "they are all three +busy in London.--And, besides, Lutin and his master laughed at you, my +lord, for letting it be thought that--I shame to speak it--that ye were +over well with the wife of the decent honest man whose house you but +now left, as not sufficient for your new bravery, whereas they said, the +licentious scoffers, that you pretended to such favour when you had not +courage enough for so fair a quarrel, and that the sparrow-hawk was +too craven-crested to fly at the wife of a cheesemonger."--He stopped a +moment, and looked fixedly in his master's face, which was inflamed with +shame and anger, and then proceeded. "My lord, I did you justice in my +thought, and myself too; for, thought I, he would have been as deep in +that sort of profligacy as in others, if it hadna been Richie's four +quarters." + +"What new nonsense have you got to plague me with?" said Lord Nigel. +"But go on, since it is the last time I am to be tormented with your +impertinence,--go on, and make the most of your time." + +"In troth," said Richie, "and so will I even do. And as Heaven has +bestowed on me a tongue to speak and to advise----" + +"Which talent you can by no means be accused of suffering to remain +idle," said Lord Glenvarloch, interrupting him. + +"True, my lord," said Richie, again waving his hand, as if to bespeak +his master's silence and attention; "so, I trust, you will think some +time hereafter. And, as I am about to leave your service, it is proper +that ye suld know the truth, that ye may consider the snares to which +your youth and innocence may be exposed, when aulder and doucer heads +are withdrawn from beside you.--There has been a lusty, good-looking +kimmer, of some forty, or bygane, making mony speerings about you, my +lord." + +"Well, sir, what did she want with me?" said Lord Nigel. + +"At first, my lord," replied his sapient follower, "as she seemed to be +a well-fashioned woman, and to take pleasure in sensible company, I was +no way reluctant to admit her to my conversation." + +"I dare say not," said Lord Nigel; "nor unwilling to tell her about my +private affairs." + +"Not I, truly, my lord," said the attendant;--"for, though she asked me +mony questions about your fame, your fortune, your business here, and +such like, I did not think it proper to tell her altogether the truth +thereanent." + +"I see no call on you whatever," said Lord Nigel, "to tell the woman +either truth or lies upon what she had nothing to do with." + +"I thought so, too, my lord," replied Richie, "and so I told her +neither." + +"And what _did_ you tell her, then, you eternal babbler?" said his +master, impatient of his prate, yet curious to know what it was all to +end in. + +"I told her," said Richie, "about your warldly fortune, and sae forth, +something whilk is not truth just at this time; but which hath been +truth formerly, suld be truth now, and will be truth again,--and that +was, that you were in possession of your fair lands, whilk ye are but +in right of as yet. Pleasant communing we had on that and other topics, +until she showed the cloven foot, beginning to confer with me about some +wench that she said had a good-will to your lordship, and fain she would +have spoken with you in particular anent it; but when I heard of such +inklings, I began to suspect she was little better than--whew! "--Here +he concluded his narrative with a low, but very expressive whistle. + +"And what did your wisdom do in these circumstances?" said Lord Nigel, +who, notwithstanding his former resentment, could now scarcely forbear +laughing. + +"I put on a look, my lord," replied Richie, bending his solemn brows, +"that suld give her a heartscald of walking on such errands. I laid her +enormities clearly before her, and I threatened her, in sae mony words, +that I would have her to the ducking-stool; and she, on the contrair +part, miscawed me for a forward northern tyke--and so we parted never +to meet again, as I hope and trust. And so I stood between your lordship +and that temptation, which might have been worse than the ordinary, or +the playhouse either; since you wot well what Solomon, King of the Jews, +sayeth of the strange woman--for, said I to mysell, we have taken to +dicing already, and if we take to drabbing next, the Lord kens what we +may land in!" + +"Your impertinence deserves correction, but it is the last which, for +a time at least, I shall have to forgive--and I forgive it," said Lord +Glenvarloch; "and, since we are to part, Richie, I will say no more +respecting your precautions on my account, than that I think you might +have left me to act according to my own judgment." + +"Mickle better not," answered Richie--"mickle better not; we are a' +frail creatures, and can judge better for ilk ither than in our ain +cases. And for me, even myself, saving that case of the Sifflication, +which might have happened to ony one, I have always observed myself to +be much more prudential in what I have done in your lordship's +behalf, than even in what I have been able to transact for my own +interest--whilk last, I have, indeed, always postponed, as in duty I +ought." + +"I do believe thou hast," said Lord Nigel, "having ever found thee true +and faithful. And since London pleases you so little, I will bid you a +short farewell; and you may go down to Edinburgh until I come thither +myself, when I trust you will re-enter into my service." + +"Now, Heaven bless you, my lord," said Richie Moniplies, with uplifted +eyes; "for that word sounds more like grace than ony has come out of +your mouth this fortnight.--I give you godd'en, my lord." + +So saying, he thrust forth his immense bony hand, seized on that of Lord +Glenvarloch, raised it to his lips, then turned short on his heel, and +left the room hastily, as if afraid of showing more emotion than was +consistent with his ideas of decorum. Lord Nigel, rather surprised at +his sudden exit, called after him to know whether he was sufficiently +provided with money; but Richie, shaking his head, without making any +other answer, ran hastily down stairs, shut the street-door heavily +behind him, and was presently seen striding along the Strand. + +His master almost involuntarily watched and distinguished the tall +raw-boned figure of his late follower, from the window, for some time, +until he was lost among the crowd of passengers. Nigel's reflections +were not altogether those of self-approval. It was no good sign of his +course of life, (he could not help acknowledging this much to himself,) +that so faithful an adherent no longer seemed to feel the same pride +in his service, or attachment to his person, which he had formerly +manifested. Neither could he avoid experiencing some twinges of +conscience, while he felt in some degree the charges which Richie +had preferred against him, and experienced a sense of shame and +mortification, arising from the colour given by others to that, which +he himself would have called his caution and moderation in play. He had +only the apology, that it had never occurred to himself in this light. + +Then his pride and self-love suggested, that, on the other hand, Richie, +with all his good intentions, was little better than a conceited, +pragmatical domestic, who seemed disposed rather to play the tutor than +the lackey, and who, out of sheer love, as he alleged, to his master's +person, assumed the privilege of interfering with, and controlling, his +actions, besides rendering him ridiculous in the gay world, from the +antiquated formality, and intrusive presumption, of his manners. + +Nigel's eyes were scarce turned from the window, when his new landlord +entering, presented to him a slip of paper, carefully bound round with +a string of flox-silk and sealed---it had been given in, he said, by a +woman, who did not stop an instant. The contents harped upon the same +string which Richie Moniplies had already jarred. The epistle was in the +following words: + +For the Right Honourable hands of Lord Glenvarloch, "These, from a +friend unknown:-- + +"MY LORD, + +"You are trusting to an unhonest friend, and diminishing an honest +reputation. An unknown but real friend of your lordship will speak in +one word what you would not learn from flatterers in so many days, as +should suffice for your utter ruin. He whom you think most true--I say +your friend Lord Dalgarno--is utterly false to you, and doth but seek, +under pretence of friendship, to mar your fortune, and diminish the good +name by which you might mend it. The kind countenance which he shows +to you, is more dangerous than the Prince's frown; even as to gain +at Beaujeu's ordinary is more discreditable than to lose. Beware of +both.--And this is all from your true but nameless friend, IGNOTO." + +Lord Glenvarloch paused for an instant, and crushed the paper +together--then again unfolded and read it with attention--bent +his brows--mused for a moment, and then tearing it to fragments, +exclaimed--"Begone for a vile calumny! But I will watch--I will +observe--" + +Thought after thought rushed on him; but, upon the whole, Lord +Glenvarloch was so little satisfied with the result of his own +reflections, that he resolved to dissipate them by a walk in the Park, +and, taking his cloak and beaver, went thither accordingly. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + + Twas when fleet Snowball's head was woxen grey, + A luckless lev'ret met him on his way.-- + Who knows not Snowball--he, whose race renown'd + Is still victorious on each coursing ground? + Swaffhanm Newmarket, and the Roman Camp, + Have seen them victors o'er each meaner stamp-- + In vain the youngling sought, with doubling wile, + The hedge, the hill, the thicket, or the stile. + Experience sage the lack of speed supplied, + And in the gap he sought, the victim died. + So was I once, in thy fair street, Saint James, + Through walking cavaliers, and car-borne dames, + Descried, pursued, turn'd o'er again, and o'er, + Coursed, coted, mouth'd by an unfeeling bore. + &c. &c. &c, + +The Park of Saint James's, though enlarged, planted with verdant alleys, +and otherwise decorated by Charles II., existed in the days of his +grandfather, as a public and pleasant promenade; and, for the sake of +exercise or pastime, was much frequented by the better classes. + +Lord Glenvarloch repaired thither to dispel the unpleasant reflections +which had been suggested by his parting with his trusty squire, Richie +Moniplies, in a manner which was agreeable neither to his pride nor his +feelings; and by the corroboration which the hints of his late attendant +had received from the anonymous letter mentioned in the end of the last +chapter. + +There was a considerable number of company in the Park when he entered +it, but, his present state of mind inducing him to avoid society, +he kept aloof from the more frequented walks towards Westminster +and Whitehall, and drew to the north, or, as we should now say, the +Piccadilly verge of the enclosure, believing he might there enjoy, or +rather combat, his own thoughts unmolested. + +In this, however, Lord Glenvarloch was mistaken; for, as he strolled +slowly along with his arms folded in his cloak, and his hat drawn over +his eyes, he was suddenly pounced upon by Sir Mungo Malagrowther, +who, either shunning or shunned, had retreated, or had been obliged to +retreat, to the same less frequented corner of the Park. + +Nigel started when he heard the high, sharp, and querulous tones of the +knight's cracked voice, and was no less alarmed when he beheld his tall +thin figure hobbling towards him, wrapped in a thread-bare cloak, on +whose surface ten thousand varied stains eclipsed the original scarlet, +and having his head surmounted with a well-worn beaver, bearing a black +velvet band for a chain, and a capon's feather for an ostrich plume. + +Lord Glenvarloch would fain have made his escape, but, as our motto +intimates, a leveret had as little chance to free herself of an +experienced greyhound. Sir Mungo, to continue the simile, had long ago +learned to run cunning, and make sure of mouthing his game. So +Nigel found himself compelled to stand and answer the hackneyed +question--"What news to-day?" + +"Nothing extraordinary, I believe," answered the young nobleman, +attempting to pass on. + +"O, ye are ganging to the French ordinary belive," replied the knight; +"but it is early day yet--we will take a turn in the Park in the +meanwhile--it will sharpen your appetite." + +So saying, he quietly slipped his arm under Lord Glenvarloch's, in spite +of all the decent reluctance which his victim could exhibit, by keeping +his elbow close to his side; and having fairly grappled the prize, he +proceeded to take it in tow. + +Nigel was sullen and silent, in hopes to shake off his unpleasant +companion; but Sir Mungo was determined, that if he did not speak, he +should at least hear. + +"Ye are bound for the ordinary, my lord?" said the cynic;--"weel, ye +canna do better--there is choice company there, and peculiarly selected, +as I am tauld, being, dootless, sic as it is desirable that young +noblemen should herd withal--and your noble father wad have been blithe +to see you keeping such worshipful society." + +"I believe," said Lord Glenvarloch, thinking himself obliged to say +something, "that the society is as good as generally can be found in +such places, where the door can scarcely be shut against those who come +to spend their money." + +"Right, my lord--vera right," said his tormentor, bursting out into a +chuckling, but most discordant laugh. "These citizen chuffs and clowns +will press in amongst us, when there is but an inch of a door open. And +what remedy?--Just e'en this, that as their cash gies them confidence, +we should strip them of it. Flay them, my lord--singe them as the +kitchen wench does the rats, and then they winna long to come back +again.--Ay, ay--pluck them, plume them--and then the larded capons will +not be for flying so high a wing, my lord, among the goss-hawks and +sparrow-hawks, and the like." + +And, therewithal, Sir Mungo fixed on Nigel his quick, sharp, grey +eye, watching the effect of his sarcasm as keenly as the surgeon, in a +delicate operation, remarks the progress of his anatomical scalpel. + +Nigel, however willing to conceal his sensations, could not avoid +gratifying his tormentor by wincing under the operation. He coloured +with vexation and anger; but a quarrel with Sir Mungo Malagrowther +would, he felt, be unutterably ridiculous; and he only muttered to +himself the words, "Impertinent coxcomb!" which, on this occasion, +Sir Mungo's imperfection of organ did not prevent him from hearing and +replying to. + +"Ay, ay--vera true," exclaimed the caustic old courtier--"Impertinent +coxcombs they are, that thus intrude themselves on the society of their +betters; but your lordship kens how to gar them as gude--ye have the +trick on't.--They had a braw sport in the presence last Friday, how ye +suld have routed a young shopkeeper, horse and foot, ta'en his _spolia +ofima_, and a' the specie he had about him, down to the very silver +buttons of his cloak, and sent him to graze with Nebuchadnezzar, King +of Babylon. Muckle honour redounded to your lordship thereby.--We were +tauld the loon threw himsell into the Thames in a fit of desperation. +There's enow of them behind--there was mair tint on Flodden-edge." + +"You have been told a budget of lies, so far as I am concerned, Sir +Mungo," said Nigel, speaking loud and sternly. + +"Vera likely--vera likely," said the unabashed and undismayed Sir Mungo; +"naething but lies are current in the circle.--So the chield is not +drowned, then?--the mair's the pity.--But I never believed that part of +the story--a London dealer has mair wit in his anger. I dare swear the +lad has a bonny broom-shank in his hand by this time, and is scrubbing +the kennels in quest after rusty nails, to help him to begin his pack +again.--He has three bairns, they say; they will help him bravely to +grope in the gutters. Your good lordship may have the ruining of him +again, my lord, if they have any luck in strand-scouring." + +"This is more than intolerable," said Nigel, uncertain whether to make +an angry vindication of his character, or to fling the old tormentor +from his arm. But an instant's recollection convinced him, that, to do +either, would only give an air of truth and consistency to the scandals +which he began to see were affecting his character, both in the higher +and lower circles. Hastily, therefore, he formed the wiser resolution, +to endure Sir Mungo's studied impertinence, under the hope of +ascertaining, if possible, from what source those reports arose which +were so prejudicial to his reputation. + +Sir Mungo, in the meanwhile, caught up, as usual, Nigel's last words, or +rather the sound of them, and amplified and interpreted them in his own +way. "Tolerable luck!" he repeated; "yes, truly, my lord, I am told that +you have tolerable luck, and that ye ken weel how to use that jilting +quean, Dame Fortune, like a canny douce lad, willing to warm yourself in +her smiles, without exposing yourself to her frowns. And that is what I +ca' having luck in a bag." + +"Sir Mungo Malagrowther," said Lord Glenvarloch, turning towards him +seriously, "have the goodness to hear me for a moment." + +"As weel as I can, my lord--as weel as I can," said Sir Mungo, shaking +his head, and pointing the finger of his left hand to his ear. + +"I will try to speak very distinctly," said Nigel, arming himself with +patience. "You take me for a noted gamester; I give you my word that +you have not been rightly informed--I am none such. You owe me some +explanation, at least, respecting the source from which you have derived +such false information." + +"I never heard ye were a _great_ gamester, and never thought or said ye +were such, my lord," said Sir Mungo, who found it impossible to +avoid hearing what Nigel said with peculiarly deliberate and distinct +pronunciation. "I repeat it--I never heard, said, or thought that +you were a ruffling gamester,--such as they call those of the first +head.--Look you, my lord, I call _him_ a gamester, that plays with equal +stakes and equal skill, and stands by the fortune of the game, good or +bad; and I call _him_ a ruffling gamester, or ane of the first head, who +ventures frankly and deeply upon such a wager. But he, my lord, who has +the patience and prudence never to venture beyond small game, such as, +at most, might crack the Christmas-box of a grocer's 'prentice, who vies +with those that have little to hazard, and who therefore, having the +larger stock, can always rook them by waiting for his good fortune, and +by rising from the game when luck leaves him--such a one as he, my +lord, I do not call a _great_ gamester, to whatever other name he may be +entitled." + +"And such a mean-spirited, sordid wretch, you would infer that I am," +replied Lord Glenvarloch; "one who fears the skilful, and preys upon the +ignorant--who avoids playing with his equals, that he may make sure +of pillaging his inferiors?--Is this what I am to understand has been +reported of me?" + +"Nay, my lord, you will gain nought by speaking big with me," said Sir +Mungo, who, besides that his sarcastic humour was really supported by +a good fund of animal courage, had also full reliance on the immunities +which he had derived from the broadsword of Sir Rullion Rattray, and the +baton of the satellites employed by the Lady Cockpen. "And for the truth +of the matter," he continued, "your lordship best knows whether you +ever lost more than five pieces at a time since you frequented +Beaujeu's--whether you have not most commonly risen a winner--and +whether the brave young gallants who frequent the ordinary--I mean +those of noble rank, and means conforming--are in use to play upon those +terms?" + +"My father was right," said Lord Glenvarloch, in the bitterness of his +spirit; "and his curse justly followed me when I first entered that +place. There is contamination in the air, and he whose fortune avoids +ruin, shall be blighted in his honour and reputation." + +Sir Mungo, who watched his victim with the delighted yet wary eye of an +experienced angler, became now aware, that if he strained the line on +him too tightly, there was every risk of his breaking hold. In order to +give him room, therefore, to play, he protested that Lord Glenvarloch +"should not take his free speech _in malam partem_. If you were a trifle +ower sicker in your amusement, my lord, it canna be denied that it +is the safest course to prevent farther endangerment of your somewhat +dilapidated fortunes; and if ye play with your inferiors, ye are +relieved of the pain of pouching the siller of your friends and +equals; forby, that the plebeian knaves have had the advantage, _tecum +certasse_, as Ajax Telamon sayeth, _apud Metamorphoseos_; and for the +like of them to have played with ane Scottish nobleman is an honest and +honourable consideration to compensate the loss of their stake, whilk, I +dare say, moreover, maist of the churls can weel afford." + +"Be that as it may, Sir Mungo," said Nigel, "I would fain know--" + +"Ay, ay," interrupted Sir Mungo; "and, as you say, who cares whether the +fat bulls of Bashan can spare it or no? gentlemen are not to limit their +sport for the like of them." + +"I wish to know, Sir Mungo," said Lord Glenvarloch, "in what company you +have learned these offensive particulars respecting me?" + +"Dootless--dootless, my lord," said Sir Mungo; "I have ever heard, and +have ever reported, that your lordship kept the best of company in a +private way.--There is the fine Countess of Blackchester, but I think +she stirs not much abroad since her affair with his Grace of Buckingham; +and there is the gude auld-fashioned Scottish nobleman, Lord Huntinglen, +an undeniable man of quality--it is pity but he could keep caup and can +frae his head, whilk now and then doth'minish his reputation. And there +is the gay young Lord Dalgarno, that carries the craft of gray hairs +under his curled love-locks--a fair race they are, father, daughter, +and son, all of the same honourable family. I think we needna speak of +George Heriot, honest man, when we have nobility in question. So that +is the company I have heard of your keeping, my lord, out-taken those of +the ordinary." + +"My company has not, indeed, been much more extended than amongst those +you mention," said Lord Glenvarloch; "but in short--" + +"To Court?" said Sir Mungo, "that was just what I was going to say--Lord +Dalgarno says he cannot prevail on ye to come to Court, and that does ye +prejudice, my lord--the king hears of you by others, when he should see +you in person--I speak in serious friendship, my lord. His Majesty, +when you were named in the circle short while since, was heard to say, +_'Jacta est alea!_--Glenvarlochides is turned dicer and drinker.'--My +Lord Dalgarno took your part, and he was e'en borne down by the popular +voice of the courtiers, who spoke of you as one who had betaken yourself +to living a town life, and risking your baron's coronet amongst the +flatcaps of the city." + +"And this was publicly spoken of me," said Nigel, "and in the king's +presence?" + +"Spoken openly?" repeated Sir Mungo Malagrowther; "ay, by my troth +was it--that is to say, it was whispered privately--whilk is as open +promulgation as the thing permitted; for ye may think the Court is not +like a place where men are as sib as Simmie and his brother, and roar +out their minds as if they were at an ordinary." + +"A curse on the Court and the ordinary both!" cried Nigel, impatiently. + +"With all my heart," said the knight; "I have got little by a knight's +service in the Court; and the last time I was at the ordinary, I lost +four angels." + +"May I pray of you, Sir Mungo, to let me know," said Nigel, "the names +of those who thus make free with the character of one who can be but +little known to them, and who never injured any of them?" + +"Have I not told you already," answered Sir Mungo, "that the king said +something to that effect--so did the Prince too;--and such being the +case, ye may take it on your corporal oath, that every man in the circle +who was not silent, sung the same song as they did." + +"You said but now," replied Glenvarloch, "that Lord Dalgarno interfered +in my behalf." + +"In good troth did he," answered Sir Mungo, with a sneer; "but the young +nobleman was soon borne down--by token, he had something of a catarrh, +and spoke as hoarse as a roopit raven. Poor gentleman, if he had had his +full extent of voice, he would have been as well listened to, dootless, +as in a cause of his ain, whilk no man kens better how to plead to +purpose.--And let me ask you, by the way," continued Sir Mungo, "whether +Lord Dalgarno has ever introduced your lordship to the Prince, or the +Duke of Buckingham, either of whom might soon carry through your suit?" + +"I have no claim on the favour of either the Prince or the Duke of +Buckingham," said Lord Glenvarloch.--"As you seem to have made my +affairs your study, Sir Mungo, although perhaps something unnecessarily, +you may have heard that I have petitioned my Sovereign for payment of a +debt due to my family. I cannot doubt the king's desire to do justice, +nor can I in decency employ the solicitation of his Highness the Prince, +or his Grace the Duke of Buckingham, to obtain from his Majesty what +either should be granted me as a right, or refused altogether." + +Sir Mungo twisted his whimsical features into one of his most grotesque +sneers, as he replied-- + +"It is a vera clear and parspicuous position of the case, my lord; and +in relying thereupon, you show an absolute and unimprovable acquaintance +with the King, Court, and mankind in general.-But whom have we got +here?--Stand up, my lord, and make way--by my word of honour, they are +the very men we spoke of--talk of the devil, and--humph!" + +It must be here premised, that, during the conversation, Lord +Glenvarloch, perhaps in the hope of shaking himself free of Sir Mungo, +had directed their walk towards the more frequented part of the Park; +while the good knight had stuck to him, being totally indifferent which +way they went, provided he could keep his talons clutched upon his +companion. They were still, however, at some distance from the livelier +part of the scene, when Sir Mungo's experienced eye noticed the +appearances which occasioned the latter part of his speech to Lord +Glenvarloch. A low respectful murmur arose among the numerous groups of +persons which occupied the lower part of the Park. They first clustered +together, with their faces turned towards Whitehall, then fell back +on either hand to give place to a splendid party of gallants, who, +advancing from the Palace, came onward through the Park; all the other +company drawing off the pathway, and standing uncovered as they passed. + +Most of these courtly gallants were dressed in the garb which the +pencil of Vandyke has made familiar even at the distance of nearly two +centuries; and which was just at this period beginning to supersede +the more fluttering and frivolous dress which had been adopted from the +French Court of Henri Quatre. + +The whole train were uncovered excepting the Prince of Wales, afterwards +the most unfortunate of British monarchs, who came onward, having his +long curled auburn tresses, and his countenance, which, even in early +youth, bore a shade of anticipated melancholy, shaded by the Spanish hat +and the single ostrich feather which drooped from it. On his right +hand was Buckingham, whose commanding, and at the same time graceful, +deportment, threw almost into shade the personal demeanour and majesty +of the Prince on whom he attended. The eye, movements, and gestures +of the great courtier were so composed, so regularly observant of all +etiquette belonging to his situation, as to form a marked and strong +contrast with the forward gaiety and frivolity by which he recommended +himself to the favour of his "dear dad and gossip," King James. A +singular fate attended this accomplished courtier, in being at once +the reigning favourite of a father and son so very opposite in manners, +that, to ingratiate himself with the youthful Prince, he was obliged +to compress within the strictest limits of respectful observance the +frolicsome and free humour which captivated his aged father. + +It is true, Buckingham well knew the different dispositions both of +James and Charles, and had no difficulty in so conducting himself as +to maintain the highest post in the favour of both. It has indeed been +supposed, as we before hinted, that the duke, when he had completely +possessed himself of the affections of Charles, retained his hold in +those of the father only by the tyranny of custom; and that James, +could he have brought himself to form a vigorous resolution, was, in +the latter years of his life especially, not unlikely to have discarded +Buckingham from his counsels and favour. But if ever the king indeed +meditated such a change, he was too timid, and too much accustomed to +the influence which the duke had long exercised over him, to summon up +resolution enough for effecting such a purpose; and at all events it +is certain, that Buckingham, though surviving the master by whom he was +raised, had the rare chance to experience no wane of the most splendid +court-favour during two reigns, until it was at once eclipsed in his +blood by the dagger of his assassin Felton. + +To return from this digression: The Prince, with his train, advanced, +and were near the place where Lord Glenvarloch and Sir Mungo had stood +aside, according to form, in order to give the Prince passage, and +to pay the usual marks of respect. Nigel could now remark that Lord +Dalgarno walked close behind the Duke of Buckingham, and, as he thought, +whispered something in his ear as they came onward. At any rate, both +the Prince's and Duke of Buckingham's attention seemed to be directed +by such circumstance towards Nigel, for they turned their heads in that +direction and looked at him attentively--the Prince with a countenance, +the grave, melancholy expression of which was blended with severity; +while Buckingham's looks evinced some degree of scornful triumph. +Lord Dalgarno did not seem to observe his friend, perhaps because the +sunbeams fell from the side of the walk on which Nigel stood, obliging +Malcolm to hold up his hat to screen his eyes. + +As the Prince passed, Lord Glenvarloch and Sir Mungo bowed, as respect +required; and the Prince, returning their obeisance with that grave +ceremony which paid to every rank its due, but not a tittle beyond +it, signed to Sir Mungo to come forward. Commencing an apology for his +lameness as he started, which he had just completed as his hobbling gait +brought him up to the Prince, Sir Mungo lent an attentive, and, as it +seemed, an intelligent ear, to questions, asked in a tone so low, that +the knight would certainly have been deaf to them had they been put to +him by any one under the rank of Prince of Wales. After about a minute's +conversation, the Prince bestowed on Nigel the embarrassing notice of +another fixed look, touched his hat slightly to Sir Mungo, and walked +on. + +"It is even as I suspected, my lord," said Sir Mungo, with an air +which he designed to be melancholy and sympathetic, but which, in +fact, resembled the grin of an ape when he has mouthed a scalding +chestnut--"Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends--or, to be +plain, enemies--about the person of the Prince." + +"I am sorry to hear it," said Nigel; "but I would I knew what they +accuse me of." + +"Ye shall hear, my lord," said Sir Mungo, "the Prince's vera words--'Sir +Mungo,' said he, 'I rejoice to see you, and am glad your rheumatic +troubles permit you to come hither for exercise.'--I bowed, as in duty +bound--ye might remark, my lord, that I did so, whilk formed the first +branch of our conversation.--His Highness then demanded of me, 'if he +with whom I stood, was the young Lord Glenvarloch.' I answered, 'that +you were such, for his Highness's service;' whilk was the second +branch.--Thirdly, his Highness, resuming the argument, said, that 'truly +he had been told so,' (meaning that he had been told you were that +personage,) 'but that he could not believe, that the heir of that noble +and decayed house could be leading an idle, scandalous, and precarious +life, in the eating-houses and taverns of London, while the king's +drums were beating, and colours flying in Germany in the cause of the +Palatine, his son-in-law.'--I could, your lordship is aware, do nothing +but make an obeisance; and a gracious 'Give ye good-day, Sir Mungo +Malagrowther,' licensed me to fall back to your lordship. And now, +my lord, if your business or pleasure calls you to the ordinary, +or anywhere in the direction of the city--why, have with you; for, +dootless, ye will think ye have tarried lang enough in the Park, as they +will likely turn at the head of the walk, and return this way--and you +have a broad hint, I think, not to cross the Prince's presence in a +hurry." + +"_You_ may stay or go as you please, Sir Mungo," said Nigel, with an +expression of calm, but deep resentment; "but, for my own part, my +resolution is taken. I will quit this public walk for pleasure of no +man--still less will I quit it like one unworthy to be seen in places of +public resort. I trust that the Prince and his retinue will return this +way as you expect; for I will abide, Sir Mungo, and beard them." + +"Beard them!" exclaimed Sir Mungo, in the extremity of surprise,--"Beard +the Prince of Wales--the heir-apparent of the kingdoms!--By my saul, you +shall beard him yourself then." + +Accordingly, he was about to leave Nigel very hastily, when some +unwonted touch of good-natured interest in his youth and experience, +seemed suddenly to soften his habitual cynicism. + +"The devil is in me for an auld fule!" said Sir Mungo; "but I must +needs concern mysell--I that owe so little either to fortune or +my fellow-creatures, must, I say, needs concern mysell--with this +springald, whom I will warrant to be as obstinate as a pig possessed +with a devil, for it's the cast of his family; and yet I maun e'en +fling away some sound advice on him.--My dainty young Lord Glenvarloch, +understand me distinctly, for this is no bairn's-play. When the Prince +said sae much to me as I have repeated to you, it was equivalent to +a command not to appear in his presence; wherefore take an auld man's +advice that wishes you weel, and maybe a wee thing better than he has +reason to wish ony body. Jouk, and let the jaw gae by, like a canny +bairn--gang hame to your lodgings, keep your foot frae taverns, and your +fingers frae the dice-box; compound your affairs quietly wi' some ane +that has better favour than yours about Court, and you will get a round +spell of money to carry you to Germany, or elsewhere, to push your +fortune. It was a fortunate soldier that made your family four or five +hundred years syne, and, if you are brave and fortunate, you may find +the way to repair it. But, take my word for it, that in this Court you +will never thrive." + +When Sir Mungo had completed his exhortation, in which there was more of +sincere sympathy with another's situation, than he had been heretofore +known to express in behalf of any one, Lord Glenvarloch replied, "I am +obliged to you, Sir Mungo--you have spoken, I think, with sincerity, and +I thank you. But in return for your good advice, I heartily entreat you +to leave me; I observe the Prince and his train are returning down the +walk, and you may prejudice yourself, but cannot help me, by remaining +with me." + +"And that is true,"--said Sir Mungo; "yet, were I ten years younger, +I would be tempted to stand by you, and gie them the meeting. But at +threescore and upward, men's courage turns cauldrife; and they that +canna win a living, must not endanger the small sustenance of their +age. I wish you weel through, my lord, but it is an unequal fight." So +saying, he turned and limped away; often looking back, however, as if +his natural spirit, even in its present subdued state, aided by his +love of contradiction and of debate, rendered him unwilling to adopt the +course necessary for his own security. + +Thus abandoned by his companion, whose departure he graced with better +thoughts of him than those which he bestowed on his appearance, Nigel +remained with his arms folded, and reclining against a solitary tree +which overhung the path, making up his mind to encounter a moment which +he expected to be critical of his fate. But he was mistaken in supposing +that the Prince of Wales would either address him, or admit him to +expostulation, in such a public place as the Park. He did not remain +unnoticed, however, for, when he made a respectful but haughty +obeisance, intimating in look and manner that he was possessed of, and +undaunted by, the unfavourable opinion which the Prince had so lately +expressed, Charles returned his reverence with such a frown, as is only +given by those whose frown is authority and decision. The train passed +on, the Duke of Buckingham not even appearing to see Lord Glenvarloch; +while Lord Dalgarno, though no longer incommoded by the sunbeams, kept +his eyes, which had perhaps been dazzled by their former splendour, bent +upon the ground. + +Lord Glenvarloch had difficulty to restrain an indignation, to which, +in the circumstances, it would have been madness to have given vent. He +started from his reclining posture, and followed the Prince's train so +as to keep them distinctly in sight; which was very easy, as they walked +slowly. Nigel observed them keep their road towards the Palace, where +the Prince turned at the gate and bowed to the noblemen in attendance, +in token of dismissing them, and entered the Palace, accompanied only by +the Duke of Buckingham, and one or two of his equerries. The rest of +the train, having returned in all dutiful humility the farewell of the +Prince, began to disperse themselves through the Park. + +All this was carefully noticed by Lord Glenvarloch, who, as he adjusted +his cloak, and drew his sword-belt round so as to bring the hilt closer +to his hand, muttered--"Dalgarno shall explain all this to me, for it is +evident that he is in the secret!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + + Give way--give way--I must and will have justice. + And tell me not of privilege and place; + Where I am injured, there I'll sue redress. + Look to it, every one who bars my access; + I have a heart to feel the injury, + A hand to night myself, and, by my honour, + That hand shall grasp what grey-beard Law denies me. + _The Chamberlain._ + +It was not long ere Nigel discovered Lord Dalgarno advancing towards him +in the company of another young man of quality of the Prince's train; +and as they directed their course towards the south-eastern corner of +the Park, he concluded they were about to go to Lord Huntinglen's. They +stopped, however, and turned up another path leading to the north; and +Lord Glenvarloch conceived that this change of direction was owing to +their having seen him, and their desire to avoid him. + +Nigel followed them without hesitation by a path which, winding around +a thicket of shrubs and trees, once more conducted him to the less +frequented part of the Park. He observed which side of the thicket +was taken by Lord Dalgarno and his companion, and he himself, walking +hastily round the other verge, was thus enabled to meet them face to +face. + +"Good-morrow, my Lord Dalgarno," said Lord Glenvarloch, sternly. + +"Ha! my friend Nigel," answered Lord Dalgarno, in his usual careless and +indifferent tone, "my friend Nigel, with business on his brow?--but you +must wait till we meet at Beaujeu's at noon--Sir Ewes Haldimund and I +are at present engaged in the Prince's service." + +"If you were engaged in the king's, my lord," said Lord Glenvarloch, +"you must stand and answer me." + +"Hey-day!" said Lord Dalgarno, with an air of great astonishment, "what +passion is this? Why, Nigel, this is King Cambyses' vein!--You have +frequented the theatres too much lately--Away with this folly, man; go, +dine upon soup and salad, drink succory-water to cool your blood, go to +bed at sun-down, and defy those foul fiends, Wrath and Misconstruction." + +"I have had misconstruction enough among you," said Glenvarloch, in the +same tone of determined displeasure, "and from you, my Lord Dalgarno, in +particular, and all under the mask of friendship." + +"Here is a proper business!"--said Dalgarno, turning as if to appeal to +Sir Ewes Haldimund; "do you see this angry ruffler, Sir Ewes? A month +since, he dared not have looked one of yonder sheep in the face, and +now he is a prince of roisterers, a plucker of pigeons, a controller of +players and poets--and in gratitude for my having shown him the way +to the eminent character which he holds upon town, he comes hither to +quarrel with his best friend, if not his only one of decent station." + +"I renounce such hollow friendship, my lord," said Lord Glenvarloch; "I +disclaim the character which, even to my very face, you labour to fix +upon me, and ere we part I will call you to a reckoning for it." + +"My lords both," interrupted Sir Ewes Haldimund, "let me remind you that +the Royal Park is no place to quarrel in." + +"I will make my quarrel good," said Nigel, who did not know, or in +his passion might not have recollected, the privileges of the place, +"wherever I find my enemy." + +"You shall find quarelling enough," replied Lord Dalgarno, calmly, "so +soon as you assign a sufficient cause for it. Sir Ewes Haldimund, +who knows the Court, will warrant you that I am not backward on such +occasions.--But of what is it that you now complain, after having +experienced nothing save kindness from me and my family?" + +"Of your family I complain not," replied Lord Glenvarloch; "they have +done for me all they could, more, far more, than I could have expected; +but you, my lord, have suffered me, while you called me your friend, to +be traduced, where a word of your mouth would have placed my character +in its true colours--and hence the injurious message which I just now +received from the Prince of Wales. To permit the misrepresentation of a +friend, my lord, is to share in the slander." + +"You have been misinformed, my Lord Glenvarloch," said Sir Ewes +Haldimund; "I have myself often heard Lord Dalgarno defend your +character, and regret that your exclusive attachment to the pleasures of +a London life prevented your paying your duty regularly to the King and +Prince." + +"While he himself," said Lord Glenvarloch, "dissuaded me from presenting +myself at Court." + +"I will cut this matter short," said Lord Dalgarno, with haughty +coldness. "You seem to have conceived, my lord, that you and I were +Pylades and Orestes--a second edition of Damon and Pythias--Theseus and +Pirithoiis at the least. You are mistaken, and have given the name of +friendship to what, on my part, was mere good-nature and compassion for +a raw and ignorant countryman, joined to the cumbersome charge which my +father gave me respecting you. Your character, my lord, is of no one's +drawing, but of your own making. I introduced you where, as in all such +places, there was good and indifferent company to be met with--your +habits, or taste, made you prefer the worse. Your holy horror at the +sight of dice and cards degenerated into the cautious resolution to play +only at those times, and with such persons, as might ensure your rising +a winner--no man can long do so, and continue to be held a gentleman. +Such is the reputation you have made for yourself, and you have no right +to be angry that I do not contradict in society what yourself know to be +true. Let us pass on, my lord; and if you want further explanation, seek +some other time and fitter place." + +"No time can be better than the present," said Lord Glenvarloch, whose +resentment was now excited to the uttermost by the cold-blooded and +insulting manner, in which Dalgarno vindicated himself,--"no place +fitter than the place where we now stand. Those of my house have ever +avenged insult, at the moment, and on the spot, where it was offered, +were it at the foot of the throne.--Lord Dalgarno, you are a villain! +draw and defend yourself." At the same moment he unsheathed his rapier. + +"Are you mad?" said Lord Dalgarno, stepping back; "we are in the +precincts of the Court." + +"The better," answered Lord Glenvarloch; "I will cleanse them from a +calumniator and a coward." He then pressed on Lord Dalgarno, and struck +him with the flat of the sword. + +The fray had now attracted attention, and the cry went round, "Keep +the peace--keep the peace--swords drawn in the Park!--What, ho! +guards!--keepers--yeomen--rangers!" and a number of people came rushing +to the spot from all sides. + +Lord Dalgarno, who had half drawn his sword on receiving the blow, +returned it to his scabbard when he observed the crowd thicken, and, +taking Sir Ewes Haldimund by the arm, walked hastily away, only saying +to Lord Glenvarloch as they left him, "You shall dearly abye this +insult--we will meet again." + +A decent-looking elderly man, who observed that Lord Glenvarloch +remained on the spot, taking compassion on his youthful appearance, +said to him, "Are you aware that this is a Star-Chamber business, young +gentleman, and that it may cost you your right hand?--Shift for yourself +before the keepers or constables come up--Get into Whitefriars or +somewhere, for sanctuary and concealment, till you can make friends or +quit the city." + +The advice was not to be neglected. Lord Glenvarloch made hastily +towards the issue from the Park by Saint James's Palace, then Saint +James's Hospital. The hubbub increased behind him; and several +peace-officers of the Royal Household came up to apprehend the +delinquent. Fortunately for Nigel, a popular edition of the cause of the +affray had gone abroad. It was said that one of the Duke of Buckingham's +companions had insulted a stranger gentleman from the country, and that +the stranger had cudgelled him soundly. A favourite, or the companion +of a favourite, is always odious to John Bull, who has, besides, a +partiality to those disputants who proceed, as lawyers term it, _par +wye du fait_, and both prejudices were in Nigel's favour. The officers, +therefore, who came to apprehend him, could learn from the spectators no +particulars of his appearance, or information concerning the road he had +taken; so that, for the moment, he escaped being arrested. + +What Lord Glenvarloch heard among the crowd as he passed along, was +sufficient to satisfy him, that in his impatient passion he had placed +himself in a predicament of considerable danger. He was no stranger +to the severe and arbitrary proceedings of the Court of Star-Chamber, +especially in cases of breach of privilege, which made it the terror +of all men; and it was no farther back than the Queen's time that the +punishment of mutilation had been actually awarded and executed, for +some offence of the same kind which he had just committed. He had also +the comfortable reflection, that, by his violent quarrel with Lord +Dalgarno, he must now forfeit the friendship and good offices of that +nobleman's father and sister, almost the only persons of consideration +in whom he could claim any interest; while all the evil reports which +had been put in circulation concerning his character, were certain to +weigh heavily against him, in a case where much must necessarily depend +on the reputation of the accused. To a youthful imagination, the idea +of such a punishment as mutilation seems more ghastly than death itself; +and every word which he overheard among the groups which he met, mingled +with, or overtook and passed, announced this as the penalty of his +offence. He dreaded to increase his pace for fear of attracting +suspicion, and more than once saw the ranger's officers so near him, +that his wrist tingled as if already under the blade of the dismembering +knife. At length he got out of the Park, and had a little more leisure +to consider what he was next to do. + +Whitefriars, adjacent to the Temple, then well known by the cant name +of Alsatia, had at this time, and for nearly a century afterwards, the +privilege of a sanctuary, unless against the writ of the Lord Chief +Justice, or of the Lords of the Privy-Council. Indeed, as the place +abounded with desperadoes of every description,--bankrupt citizens, +ruined gamesters, irreclaimable prodigals, desperate duellists, bravoes, +homicides, and debauched profligates of every description, all leagued +together to maintain the immunities of their asylum,--it was both +difficult and unsafe for the officers of the law to execute warrants +emanating even from the highest authority, amongst men whose safety +was inconsistent with warrants or authority of any kind. This Lord +Glenvarloch well knew; and odious as the place of refuge was, it seemed +the only one where, for a space at least, he might be concealed and +secure from the immediate grasp of the law, until he should have leisure +to provide better for his safety, or to get this unpleasant matter in +some shape accommodated. + +Meanwhile, as Nigel walked hastily forward towards the place of +sanctuary, he bitterly blamed himself for suffering Lord Dalgarno +to lead him into the haunts of dissipation; and no less accused his +intemperate heat of passion, which now had driven him for refuge into +the purlieus of profane and avowed vice and debauchery. + +"Dalgarno spoke but too truly in that," were his bitter reflections; "I +have made myself an evil reputation by acting on his insidious counsels, +and neglecting the wholesome admonitions which ought to have claimed +implicit obedience from me, and which recommended abstinence even +from the slightest approach of evil. But if I escape from the perilous +labyrinth in which folly and inexperience, as well as violent passions, +have involved me, I will find some noble way of redeeming the lustre of +a name which was never sullied until I bore it." + +As Lord Glenvarloch formed these prudent resolutions, he entered the +Temple Walks, whence a gate at that time opened into Whitefriars, by +which, as by the more private passage, he proposed to betake himself to +the sanctuary. As he approached the entrance to that den of infamy, from +which his mind recoiled even while in the act of taking shelter there, +his pace slackened, while the steep and broken stairs reminded him of +the _facilis_ descensus Averni, and rendered him doubtful whether it +were not better to brave the worst which could befall him in the public +haunts of honourable men, than to evade punishment by secluding himself +in those of avowed vice and profligacy. + +As Nigel hesitated, a young gentleman of the Temple advanced towards +him, whom he had often seen, and sometimes conversed with, at the +ordinary, where he was a frequent and welcome guest, being a wild +young gallant, indifferently well provided with money, who spent at +the theatres and other gay places of public resort, the time which his +father supposed he was employing in the study of the law. But Reginald +Lowestoffe, such was the young Templar's name, was of opinion that +little law was necessary to enable him to spend the revenues of the +paternal acres which were to devolve upon him at his father's demose, +and therefore gave himself no trouble to acquire more of that science +than might be imbibed along with the learned air of the region in which +he had his chambers. In other respects, he was one of the wits of the +place, read Ovid and Martial, aimed at quick repartee and pun, (often +very far fetched,) danced, fenced, played at tennis, and performed +sundry tunes on the fiddle and French horn, to the great annoyance of +old Counsellor Barratter, who lived in the chambers immediately below +him. Such was Reginald Lowes-toffe, shrewd, alert, and well-acquainted +with the town through all its recesses, but in a sort of disrespectable +way. This gallant, now approaching the Lord Glenvarloch, saluted him by +name and title, and asked if his lordship designed for the Chevalier's +this day, observing it was near noon, and the woodcock would be on the +board before they could reach the ordinary. + +"I do not go there to-day," answered Lord Glenvarloch. "Which way, then, +my lord?" said the young Templar, who was perhaps not undesirous to +parade a part at least of the street in company with a lord, though but +a Scottish one. + +"I--I--" said Nigel, desiring to avail himself of this young man's local +knowledge, yet unwilling and ashamed to acknowledge his intention to +take refuge in so disreputable a quarter, or to describe the situation +in which he stood--"I have some curiosity to see Whitefriars." + +"What! your lordship is for a frolic into Alsatia?" said +Lowestoffe-"-Have with you, my lord--you cannot have a better guide to +the infernal regions than myself. I promise you there are bona-robas to +be found there--good wine too, ay, and good fellows to drink it with, +though somewhat suffering under the frowns of Fortune. But your lordship +will pardon me--you are the last of our acquaintance to whom I would +have proposed such a voyage of discovery." + +"I am obliged to you, Master Lowestoffe, for the good opinion you have +expressed in the observation," said Lord Glenvarloch; "but my present +circumstances may render even a residence of a day or two in the +sanctuary a matter of necessity." + +"Indeed!" said Lowestoffe, in a tone of great surprise; "I thought your +lordship had always taken care not to risk any considerable stake--I beg +pardon, but if the bones have proved perfidious, I know just so much +law as that a peer's person is sacred from arrest; and for mere +impecuniosity, my lord, better shift can be made elsewhere than in +Whitefriars, where all are devouring each other for very poverty." + +"My misfortune has no connexion with want of money," said Nigel. + +"Why, then, I suppose," said Lowestoffe, "you have been tilting, +my lord, and have pinked your man; in which case, and with a +purse reasonably furnished, you may lie perdu in Whitefriars for a +twelvemonth--Marry, but you must be entered and received as a member of +their worshipful society, my lord, and a frank burgher of Alsatia--so +far you must condescend; there will be neither peace nor safety for you +else." + +"My fault is not in a degree so deadly, Master Lowestoffe," answered +Lord Glenvarloch, "as you seem to conjecture--I have stricken a +gentleman in the Park, that is all." + +"By my hand, my lord, and you had better have struck your sword through +him at Barns Elms," said the Templar. "Strike within the verge of +the Court! You will find that a weighty dependence upon your hands, +especially if your party be of rank and have favour." + +"I will be plain with you, Master Lowestoffe," said Nigel, "since I have +gone thus far. The person I struck was Lord Dalgarno, whom you have seen +at Beaujeu's." + +"A follower and favourite of the Duke of Buckingham!--It is a most +unhappy chance, my lord; but my heart was formed in England, and cannot +bear to see a young nobleman borne down, as you are like to be. We +converse here greatly too open for your circumstances. The Templars +would suffer no bailiff to execute a writ, and no gentleman to be +arrested for a duel, within their precincts; but in such a matter +between Lord Dalgarno and your lordship, there might be a party on +either side. You must away with me instantly to my poor chambers +here, hard by, and undergo some little change of dress, ere you take +sanctuary; for else you will have the whole rascal rout of the Friars +about you, like crows upon a falcon that strays into their rookery. We +must have you arrayed something more like the natives of Alsatia, or +there will be no life there for you." + +While Lowestoffe spoke, he pulled Lord Glenvarloch along with him into +his chambers, where he had a handsome library, filled with all the poems +and play-books which were then in fashion. The Templar then dispatched a +boy, who waited upon him, to procure a dish or two from the next cook's +shop; "and this," he said, "must be your lordship's dinner, with a glass +of old sack, of which my grandmother (the heavens requite her!) sent me +a dozen bottles, with charge to use the liquor only with clarified whey, +when I felt my breast ache with over study. Marry, we will drink the +good lady's health in it, if it is your lordship's pleasure, and you +shall see how we poor students eke out our mutton-commons in the hall." + +The outward door of the chambers was barred so soon as the boy had +re-entered with the food; the boy was ordered to keep close watch, and +admit no one; and Lowestoffe, by example and precept, pressed his noble +guest to partake of his hospitality. His frank and forward manners, +though much differing from the courtly ease of Lord Dalgarno, were +calculated to make a favourable impression; and Lord Glenvarloch, though +his experience of Dalgarno's perfidy had taught him to be cautious of +reposing faith in friendly professions, could not avoid testifying his +gratitude to the young Templar, who seemed so anxious for his safety and +accommodation. + +"You may spare your gratitude any great sense of obligation, my lord," +said the Templar. "No doubt I am willing to be of use to any gentleman +that has cause to sing _Fortune my foe_, and particularly proud to serve +your lordship's turn; but I have also an old grudge, to speak Heaven's +truth, at your opposite, Lord Dalgarno." + +"May I ask on what account, Master Lowestoffe?" said Lord Glenvarloch. + +"O, my lord," replied the Templar, "it was for a hap that chanced after +you left the ordinary, one evening about three weeks since--at least I +think you were not by, as your lordship always left us before deep play +began--I mean no offence, but such was your lordship's custom--when +there were words between Lord Dalgarno and me concerning a certain game +at gleek, and a certain mournival of aces held by his lordship, which +went for eight--tib, which went for fifteen--twenty-three in all. Now I +held king and queen, being three--a natural towser, making fifteen--and +tiddy, nineteen. We vied the ruff, and revied, as your lordship may +suppose, till the stake was equal to half my yearly exhibition, fifty as +fair yellow canary birds as e'er chirped in the bottom of a green silk +purse. Well, my lord, I gained the cards, and lo you! it pleases his +lordship to say that we played without tiddy; and as the rest stood +by and backed him, and especially the sharking Frenchman, why, I was +obliged to lose more than I shall gain all the season.--So judge if I +have not a crow to pluck with his lordship. Was it ever heard there was +a game at gleek at the ordinary before, without counting tiddy?--marry +quep upon his lordship!--Every man who comes there with his purse in his +hand, is as free to make new laws as he, I hope, since touch pot touch +penny makes every man equal." + +As Master Lowestoffe ran over this jargon of the gaming-table, Lord +Glenvarloch was both ashamed and mortified, and felt a severe pang of +aristocratic pride, when he concluded in the sweeping clause that the +dice, like the grave, levelled those distinguishing points of society, +to which Nigel's early prejudices clung perhaps but too fondly. It was +impossible, however, to object any thing to the learned reasoning of +the young Templar, and therefore Nigel was contented to turn the +conversation, by making some inquiries respecting the present state of +White-friars. There also his host was at home. + +"You know, my lord," said Master Lowestoffe, "that we Templars are a +power and a dominion within ourselves, and I am proud to say that I hold +some rank in our republic--was treasurer to the Lord of Misrule last +year, and am at this present moment in nomination for that dignity +myself. In such circumstances, we are under the necessity of maintaining +an amicable intercourse with our neighbours of Alsatia, even as the +Christian States find themselves often, in mere policy, obliged to make +alliance with the Grand Turk, or the Barbary States." + +"I should have imagined you gentlemen of the Temple more independent of +your neighbours," said Lord Glenvarloch. + +"You do us something too much honour, my lord," said the Templar; "the +Alsatians and we have some common enemies, and we have, under the rose, +some common friends. We are in the use of blocking all bailiffs out of +our bounds, and we are powerfully aided by our neighbours, who tolerate +not a rag belonging to them within theirs. Moreover the Alsatians +have--I beg you to understand me--the power of protecting or distressing +our friends, male or female, who may be obliged to seek sanctuary within +their bounds. In short, the two communities serve each other, though the +league is between states of unequal quality, and I may myself say, that +I have treated of sundry weighty affairs, and have been a negotiator +well approved on both sides.--But hark--hark--what is that?" + +The sound by which Master Lowestoffe was interrupted, was that of a +distant horn, winded loud and keenly, and followed by a faint and remote +huzza. + +"There is something doing," said Lowestoffe, "in the Whitefriars at this +moment. That is the signal when their privileges are invaded by tipstaff +or bailiff; and at the blast of the horn they all swarm out to the +rescue, as bees when their hive is disturbed.--Jump, Jim," he +said, calling out to the attendant, "and see what they are doing in +Alsatia.--That bastard of a boy," he continued, as the lad, accustomed +to the precipitate haste of his master, tumbled rather than ran out of +the apartment, and so down stairs, "is worth gold in this quarter--he +serves six masters--four of them in distinct Numbers, and you would +think him present like a fairy at the mere wish of him that for the time +most needs his attendance. No scout in Oxford, no gip in Cambridge, ever +matched him in speed and intelligence. He knows the step of a dun from +that of a client, when it reaches the very bottom of the staircase; can +tell the trip of a pretty wench from the step of a bencher, when at +the upper end of the court; and is, take him all in all--But I see your +lordship is anxious--May I press another cup of my kind grandmother's +cordial, or will you allow me to show you my wardrobe, and act as your +valet or groom of the chamber?" + +Lord Glenvarloch hesitated not to acknowledge that he was painfully +sensible of his present situation, and anxious to do what must needs be +done for his extrication. + +The good-natured and thoughtless young Templar readily acquiesced, +and led the way into his little bedroom, where, from bandboxes, +portmanteaus, mail-trunks, not forgetting an old walnut-tree wardrobe, +he began to select the articles which he thought best suited effectually +to disguise his guest in venturing into the lawless and turbulent +society of Alsatia. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + + Come hither, young one,--Mark me! Thou art now + 'Mongst men o' the sword, that live by reputation + More than by constant income--Single-suited + They are, I grant you; yet each single suit + Maintains, on the rough guess, a thousand followers-- + And they be men, who, hazarding their all, + Needful apparel, necessary income, + And human body, and immortal soul, + Do in the very deed but hazard nothing-- So strictly is that ALL bound in reversion; + Clothes to the broker, income to the usurer, + And body to disease, and soul to the foul fiend; + Who laughs to see Soldadoes and Fooladoes, + Play better than himself his game on earth. + _The Mohocks._ + +"Your lordship," said Reginald Lowestoffe, "must be content to exchange +your decent and court-beseeming rapier, which I will retain in safe +keeping, for this broadsword, with an hundredweight of rusty iron about +the hilt, and to wear these huge-paned slops, instead of your civil +and moderate hose. We allow no cloak, for your ruffian always walks in +_cuerpo_; and the tarnished doublet of bald velvet, with its discoloured +embroidery, and--I grieve to speak it--a few stains from the blood of +the grape, will best suit the garb of a roaring boy. I will leave you to +change your suit for an instant, till I can help to truss you." + +Lowestoffe retired, while slowly, and with hesitation, Nigel obeyed +his instructions. He felt displeasure and disgust at the scoundrelly +disguise which he was under the necessity of assuming; but when he +considered the bloody consequences which law attached to his rash act +of violence, the easy and indifferent temper of James, the prejudices of +his son, the overbearing influence of the Duke of Buckingham, which was +sure to be thrown into the scale against him; and, above all, when +he reflected that he must now look upon the active, assiduous, and +insinuating Lord Dalgarno, as a bitter enemy, reason told him he was in +a situation of peril which authorised all honest means, even the most +unseemly in outward appearance, to extricate himself from so dangerous a +predicament. + +While he was changing his dress, and musing on these particulars, his +friendly host re-entered the sleeping apartment--"Zounds!" he said, "my +lord, it was well you went not straight into that same Alsatia of ours +at the time you proposed, for the hawks have stooped upon it. Here +is Jem come back with tidings, that he saw a pursuivant there with a +privy-council warrant, and half a score of yeomen assistants, armed to +the teeth, and the horn which we heard was sounded to call out the posse +of the Friars. Indeed, when old Duke Hildebrod saw that the quest was +after some one of whom he knew nothing, he permitted, out of courtesy, +the man-catcher to search through his dominions, quite certain that +they would take little by their motions; for Duke Hildebrod is a most +judicious potentate.--Go back, you bastard, and bring us word when all +is quiet." + +"And who may Duke Hildebrod be?" said Lord Glenvarloch. + +"Nouns! my lord," said the Templar, "have you lived so long on the town, +and never heard of the valiant, and as wise and politic as valiant, Duke +Hildebrod, grand protector of the liberties of Alsatia? I thought the +man had never whirled a die but was familiar with his fame." + +"Yet I have never heard of him, Master Lowestoffe," said Lord +Glenvarloch; "or, what is the same thing, I have paid no attention to +aught that may have passed in conversation respecting him." + +"Why, then," said Lowestoffe--"but, first, let me have the honour of +trussing you. Now, observe, I have left several of the points untied, of +set purpose; and if it please you to let a small portion of your shirt +be seen betwixt your doublet and the band of your upper stock, it will +have so much the more rakish effect, and will attract you respect in +Alsatia, where linen is something scarce. Now, I tie some of the +points carefully asquint, for your ruffianly gallant never appears too +accurately trussed--so." + +"Arrange it as you will, sir," said Nigel; "but let me hear at least +something of the conditions of the unhappy district into which, with +other wretches, I am compelled to retreat." + +"Why, my lord," replied the Templar, "our neighbouring state of Alsatia, +which the law calls the Sanctuary of White-friars, has had its mutations +and revolutions like greater kingdoms; and, being in some sort a +lawless, arbitrary government, it follows, of course, that these have +been more frequent than our own better regulated commonwealth of the +Templars, that of Gray's Inn, and other similar associations, have +had the fortune to witness. Our traditions and records speak of twenty +revolutions within the last twelve years, in which the aforesaid state +has repeatedly changed from absolute despotism to republicanism, not +forgetting the intermediate stages of oligarchy, limited monarchy, and +even gynocracy; for I myself remember Alsatia governed for nearly nine +months by an old fish-woman. 'I hen it fell under the dominion of a +broken attorney, who was dethroned by a reformado captain, who, proving +tyrannical, was deposed by a hedgeparson, who was succeeded, upon +resignation of his power, by Duke Jacob Hildebrod, of that name the +first, whom Heaven long preserve." + +"And is this potentate's government," said Lord Glenvarloch, forcing +himself to take some interest in the conversation, "of a despotic +character?" + +"Pardon me, my lord," said the Templar; "this said sovereign is too +wise to incur, like many of his predecessors, the odium of wielding +so important an authority by his own sole will. He has established a +council of state, who regularly meet for their morning's draught +at seven o'clock; convene a second time at eleven for their +_ante-meridiem_, or whet; and, assembling in solemn conclave at the +hour of two afternoon, for the purpose of consulting for the good of +the commonwealth, are so prodigal of their labour in the service of +the state, that they seldom separate before midnight. Into this worthy +senate, composed partly of Duke Hildebrod's predecessors in his high +office, whom he has associated with him to prevent the envy attending +sovereign and sole authority, I must presently introduce your lordship, +that they may admit you to the immunities of the Friars, and assign you +a place of residence." + +"Does their authority extend to such regulation?" said Lord Glenvarloch. + +"The council account it a main point of their privileges, my lord," +answered Lowestoffe; "and, in fact, it is one of the most powerful means +by which they support their authority. For when Duke Ilildebrod and his +senate find a topping householder in the Friars becomes discontented and +factious, it is but assigning him, for a lodger, some fat bankrupt, or +new lesidenter, whose circumstances require refuge, and whose purse can +pay for it, and the malecontent becomes as tractable as a lamb. As +for the poorer refugees, they let them shift as they can; but the +registration of their names in the Duke's entry-book, and the payment of +garnish conforming to their circumstances, is never dispensed with; and +the Friars would be a very unsafe residence for the stranger who should +dispute these points of jurisdiction." + +"Well, Master Lowestoffe," said Lord Glenvarloch, "I must be controlled +by the circumstances which dictate to me this state of concealment--of +course, I am desirous not to betray my name and rank." + +"It will be highly advisable, my lord," said Lowestoffe; "and is a +case thus provided for in the statutes of the republic, or monarchy, or +whatsoever you call it.--He who desires that no questions shall be asked +him concerning his name, cause of refuge, and the like, may escape +the usual interrogations upon payment of double the garnish otherwise +belonging to his condition. Complying with this essential stipulation, +your lordship may register yourself as King of Bantam if you will, for +not a question will be asked of you.--But here comes our scout, with +news of peace and tranquillity. Now, I will go with your lordship +myself, and present you to the council of Alsatia, with all the +influence which I have over them as an office-bearer in the Temple, +which is not slight; for they have come halting off upon all occasions +when we have taken part against them, and that they well know. The time +is propitious, for as the council is now met in Alsatia, so the Temple +walks are quiet. Now, my lord, throw your cloak about you, to hide your +present exterior. You shall give it to the boy at the foot of the stairs +that go down to the Sanctuary; and as the ballad says that Queen Eleanor +sunk at Charing Cross and rose at Queenhithe, so you shall sink a +nobleman in the Temple Gardens, and rise an Alsatian at Whitefriars." + +They went out accordingly, attended by the little scout, traversed +the gardens, descended the stairs, and at the bottom the young Templar +exclaimed,--"And now let us sing, with Ovid, + + 'In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas--' + +Off, off, ye lendings!" he continued, in the same vein. "Via, the +curtain that shadowed Borgia!--But how now, my lord?" he continued, +when he observed Lord Glenvarloch was really distressed at the degrading +change in his situation, "I trust you are not offended at my rattling +folly? I would but reconcile you to your present circumstances, and give +you the tone of this strange place. Come, cheer up; I trust it will only +be your residence for a very few days." + +Nigel was only able to press his hand, and reply in a whisper, "I am +sensible of your kindness. I know I must drink the cup which my own +folly has filled for me. Pardon me, that, at the first taste, I feel its +bitterness." + +Reginald Lowestoffe was bustlingly officious and good-natured; but, +used to live a scrambling, rakish course of life himself, he had not the +least idea of the extent of Lord Glenvarloch's mental sufferings, and +thought of his temporary concealment as if it were merely the trick of +a wanton boy, who plays at hide-and-seek with his tutor. With the +appearance of the place, too, he was familiar--but on his companion it +produced a deep sensation. + +The ancient Sanctuary at Whitefriars lay considerably lower than the +elevated terraces and gardens of the Temple, and was therefore generally +involved in the damps and fogs arising from the Thames. The brick +buildings by which it was occupied, crowded closely on each other, for, +in a place so rarely privileged, every foot of ground was valuable; but, +erected in many cases by persons whose funds were inadequate to their +speculations, the houses were generally insufficient, and exhibited the +lamentable signs of having become ruinous while they were yet new. +The wailing of children, the scolding of their mothers, the miserable +exhibition of ragged linens hung from the windows to dry, spoke the +wants and distresses of the wretched inhabitants; while the sounds of +complaint were mocked and overwhelmed in the riotous shouts, oaths, +profane songs, and boisterous laughter, that issued from the alehouses +and taverns, which, as the signs indicated, were equal in number to all +the other houses; and, that the full character of the place might be +evident, several faded, tinselled and painted females, looked boldly at +the strangers from their open lattices, or more modestly seemed busied +with the cracked flower-pots, filled with mignonette and rosemary, +which were disposed in front of the windows, to the great risk of the +passengers. + +"_Semi-reducta Venus_," said the Templar, pointing to one of these +nymphs, who seemed afraid of observation, and partly concealed herself +behind the casement, as she chirped to a miserable blackbird, the tenant +of a wicker prison, which hung outside on the black brick wall.--"I +know the face of yonder waistcoateer," continued the guide; "and I could +wager a rose-noble, from the posture she stands in, that she has clean +head-gear and a soiled night-rail.--But here come two of the male +inhabitants, smoking like moving volcanoes! These are roaring blades, +whom Nicotia and Trinidado serve, I dare swear, in lieu of beef and +pudding; for be it known to you, my lord, that the king's counter-blast +against the Indian weed will no more pass current in Alsatia than will +his writ of _capias_." + +As he spoke, the two smokers approached; shaggy, uncombed ruffians, +whose enormous mustaches were turned back over their ears, and mingled +with the wild elf-locks of their hair, much of which was seen under +the old beavers which they wore aside upon their heads, while some +straggling portion escaped through the rents of the hats aforesaid. +Their tarnished plush jerkins, large slops, or trunk-breeches, their +broad greasy shoulder-belts, and discoloured scarfs, and, above all, the +ostentatious manner in which the one wore a broad-sword and the other an +extravagantly long rapier and poniard, marked the true Alsatian bully, +then, and for a hundred years afterwards, a well-known character. + +"Tour out," said the one ruffian to the other; "tour the bien mort +twiring at the gentry cove!" [Footnote: Look sharp. See how the girl is +coquetting with the strange gallants!] + +"I smell a spy," replied the other, looking at Nigel. "Chalk him across +the peepers with your cheery." [Footnote: Slash him over the eyes with +your dagger.] + +"Bing avast, bing avast!" replied his companion; "yon other is rattling +Reginald Lowestoffe of the Temple--I know him; he is a good boy, and +free of the province." + +So saying, and enveloping themselves in another thick cloud of smoke, +they went on without farther greeting. + +"_Grasso in aere_!" said the Templar. "You hear what a character the +impudent knave gives me; but, so it serves your lordship's turn, I care +not.--And, now, let me ask your lordship what name you will assume, for +we are near the ducal palace of Duke Hildebrod." + +"I will be called Grahame," said Nigel; "it was my mother's name." + +"Grime," repeated the Templar, "will suit Alsatia well enough--both a +grim and grimy place of refuge." + +"I said Grahame, sir, not Grime," said Nigel, something shortly, and +laying an emphasis on the vowel--for few Scotsmen understand raillery +upon the subject of their names. + +"I beg pardon, my lord," answered the undisconcerted punster; "but +_Graam_ will suit the circumstance, too--it signifies tribulation in +the High Dutch, and your lordship must be considered as a man under +trouble." + +Nigel laughed at the pertinacity of the Templar; who, proceeding to +point out a sign representing, or believed to represent, a dog attacking +a bull, and running at his head, in the true scientific style of +onset,--"There," said he, "doth faithful Duke Hildebrod deal forth laws, +as well as ale and strong waters, to his faithful Alsatians. Being a +determined champion of Paris Garden, he has chosen a sign corresponding +to his habits; and he deals in giving drink to the thirsty, that he +himself may drink without paying, and receive pay for what is drunken by +others.--Let us enter the ever-open gate of this second Axylus." + +As they spoke, they entered the dilapidated tavern, which was, +nevertheless, more ample in dimensions, and less ruinous, than many +houses in the same evil neighbourhood. Two or three haggard, ragged +drawers, ran to and fro, whose looks, like those of owls, seemed only +adapted for midnight, when other creatures sleep, and who by day seemed +bleared, stupid, and only half awake. Guided by one of these blinking +Ganymedes, they entered a room, where the feeble rays of the sun were +almost wholly eclipsed by volumes of tobacco-smoke, rolled from the +tubes of the company, while out of the cloudy sanctuary arose the old +chant of-- + + "Old Sir Simon the King, + And old Sir Simon the King, + With his malmsey nose, + And his ale-dropped hose, + And sing hey ding-a-ding-ding." + +Duke Hildebrod, who himself condescended to chant this ditty to his +loving subjects, was a monstrously fat old man, with only one eye; and +a nose which bore evidence to the frequency, strength, and depth of +his potations. He wore a murrey-coloured plush jerkin, stained with the +overflowings of the tankard, and much the worse for wear, and unbuttoned +at bottom for the ease of his enormous paunch. Behind him lay a +favourite bull-dog, whose round head and single black glancing eye, as +well as the creature's great corpulence, gave it a burlesque resemblance +to its master. + +The well-beloved counsellors who surrounded the ducal throne, incensed +it with tobacco, pledged its occupier in thick clammy ale, and echoed +back his choral songs, were Satraps worthy of such a Soldan. The buff +jerkin, broad belt, and long sword of one, showed him to be a Low +Country soldier, whose look of scowling importance, and drunken +impudence, were designed to sustain his title to call himself a Roving +Blade. It seemed to Nigel that he had seen this fellow somewhere or +other. A hedge-parson, or buckle-beggar, as that order of priesthood +has been irreverently termed, sat on the Duke's left, and was easily +distinguished by his torn band, flapped hat, and the remnants of a rusty +cassock. Beside the parson sat a most wretched and meagre-looking old +man, with a threadbare hood of coarse kersey upon his head, and buttoned +about his neck, while his pinched features, like those of old Daniel, +were illuminated by + + --"an eye, + Through the last look of dotage still cunning and sly." + +On his left was placed a broken attorney, who, for some malpractices, +had been struck from the roll of practitioners, and who had nothing +left of his profession, except its roguery. One or two persons of +less figure, amongst whom there was one face, which, like that of the +soldier, seemed not unknown to Nigel, though he could not recollect +where he had seen it, completed the council-board of Jacob Duke +Hildebrod. + +The strangers had full time to observe all this; for his grace the Duke, +whether irresistibly carried on by the full tide of harmony, or whether +to impress the strangers with a proper idea of his consequence, chose +to sing his ditty to an end before addressing them, though, during the +whole time, he closely scrutinized them with his single optic. + +When Duke Hildebrod had ended his song, he informed his Peers that a +worthy officer of the Temple attended them, and commanded the captain +and parson to abandon their easy chairs in behalf of the two strangers, +whom he placed on his right and left hand. The worthy representative of +the army and the church of Alsatia went to place themselves on a crazy +form at the bottom of the table, which, ill calculated to sustain men +of such weight, gave way under them, and the man of the sword and man of +the gown were rolled over each other on the floor, amidst the exulting +shouts of the company. They arose in wrath, contending which should vent +his displeasure in the loudest and deepest oaths, a strife in which +the parson's superior acquaintance with theology enabled him greatly to +excel the captain, and were at length with difficulty tranquillised by +the arrival of the alarmed waiters with more stable chairs, and by a +long draught of the cooling tankard. When this commotion was appeased, +and the strangers courteously accommodated with flagons, after the +fashion of the others present, the Duke drank prosperity to the Temple +in the most gracious manner, together with a cup of welcome to Master +Reginald Lowestoffe; and, this courtesy having been thankfully accepted, +the party honoured prayed permission to call for a gallon of Rhenish, +over which he proposed to open his business. + +The mention of a liquor so superior to their usual potations had an +instant and most favourable effect upon the little senate; and its +immediate appearance might be said to secure a favourable reception +of Master Lowestoffe's proposition, which, after a round or two had +circulated, he explained to be the admission of his friend Master Nigel +Grahame to the benefit of the sanctuary and other immunities of Alsatia, +in the character of a grand compounder; for so were those termed who +paid a double fee at their matriculation, in order to avoid laying +before the senate the peculiar circumstances which compelled them to +take refuge there. + +The worthy Duke heard the proposition with glee, which glittered in his +single eye; and no wonder, as it was a rare occurrence, and of peculiar +advantage to his private revenue. Accordingly, he commanded his ducal +register to be brought him, a huge book, secured with brass clasps like +a merchant's ledger, and whose leaves, stained with wine, and slabbered +with tobacco juice, bore the names probably of as many rogues as are to +be found in the Calendar of Newgate. + +Nigel was then directed to lay down two nobles as his ransom, and to +claim privilege by reciting the following doggerel verses, which were +dictated to him by the Duke:-- + + "Your suppliant, by name + Nigel Grahame, + In fear of mishap + From a shoulder-tap; + And dreading a claw + From the talons of law, + That are sharper than briers: + His freedom to sue, + And rescue by you-- + Thorugh weapon and wit, + From warrant and writ, + From bailiff's hand, + From tipstaff's wand, + Is come hither to Whitefriars." + +As Duke Hildebrod with a tremulous hand began to make the entry, and had +already, with superfluous generosity, spelled Nigel with two g's instead +of one, he was interrupted by the parson. [Footnote: This curious +register is still in existence, being in possession of that eminent +antiquary, Dr. Dryasdust, who liberally offered the author permission to +have the autograph of Duke Hildebrod engraved as an illustration of this +passage. Unhappily, being rigorous as Ritson himself in adhering to the +very letter of his copy, the worthy Doctor clogged his munificence with +the condition that we should adopt the Duke's orthography, and entitle +the work "The Fortunes of Niggle," with which stipulation we did +not think it necessary to comply.] This reverend gentleman had been +whispering for a minute or two, not with the captain, but with that +other individual, who dwelt imperfectly, as we have already mentioned, +in Nigel's memory, and being, perhaps, still something malecontent on +account of the late accident, he now requested to be heard before the +registration took place. + +"The person," he said, "who hath now had the assurance to propose +himself as a candidate for the privileges and immunities of this +honourable society, is, in plain terms, a beggarly Scot, and we have +enough of these locusts in London already--if we admit such palmer-worms +and caterpillars to the Sanctuary, we shall soon have the whole nation." + +"We are not entitled to inquire," said Duke Hildebrod, "whether he be +Scot, or French, or English; seeing he has honourably laid down his +garnish, he is entitled to our protection." + +"Word of denial, most Sovereign Duke," replied the parson, "I ask him no +questions--his speech betrayeth him--he is a Galilean--and his garnish +is forfeited for his assurance in coming within this our realm; and I +call on you, Sir Duke, to put the laws in force against him!" + +The Templar here rose, and was about to interrupt the deliberations of +the court, when the Duke gravely assured him that he should be heard +in behalf of his friend, so soon as the council had finished their +deliberations. + +The attorney next rose, and, intimating that he was to speak to the +point of law, said--"It was easy to be seen that this gentleman did not +come here in any civil case, and that he believed it to be the story +they had already heard of concerning a blow given within the verge of +the Park--that the Sanctuary would not bear out the offender in such +case--and that the queer old Chief would send down a broom which would +sweep the streets of Alsatia from the Strand to the Stairs; and it +was even policy to think what evil might come to their republic, by +sheltering an alien in such circumstances." + +The captain, who had sat impatiently while these opinions were +expressed, now sprung on his feet with the vehemence of a cork bouncing +from a bottle of brisk beer, and, turning up his mustaches with a +martial air, cast a glance of contempt on the lawyer and churchman, +while he thus expressed his opinion. + +"Most noble Duke Hildebrod! When I hear such base, skeldering, coistril +propositions come from the counsellors of your grace, and when I +remember the Huffs, the Muns, and the Tityretu's by whom your grace's +ancestors and predecessors were advised on such occasions, I begin to +think the spirit of action is as dead in Alsatia as in my old grannam; +and yet who thinks so thinks a lie, since I will find as many roaring +boys in the Friars as shall keep the liberties against all the +scavengers of Westminster. And, if we should be overborne for a turn, +death and darkness! have we not time to send the gentleman off by water, +either to Paris Garden or to the bankside? and, if he is a gallant of +true breed, will he not make us full amends for all the trouble we have? +Let other societies exist by the law, I say that we brisk boys of +the Fleet live in spite of it; and thrive best when we are in right +opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, sergeant and tipstaff, +catchpoll, and bum-bailey." + +This speech was followed by a murmur of approbation, and Lowestoffe, +striking in before the favourable sound had subsided, reminded the Duke +and his council how much the security of their state depended upon the +amity of the Templars, who, by closing their gates, could at pleasure +shut against the Alsatians the communication betwixt the Friars and the +Temple, and that as they conducted themselves on this occasion, so would +they secure or lose the benefit of his interest with his own body, which +they knew not to be inconsiderable. "And, in respect of my friend being +a Scotsman and alien, as has been observed by the reverend divine and +learned lawyer, you are to consider," said Lowestoffe, "for what he is +pursued hither--why, for giving the bastinado, not to an Englishman, but +to one of his own countrymen. And for my own simple part," he continued, +touching Lord Glenvarloch at the same time, to make him understand he +spoke but in jest, "if all the Scots in London were to fight a Welsh +main, and kill each other to a man, the survivor would, in my humble +opinion, be entitled to our gratitude, as having done a most acceptable +service to poor Old England." + +A shout of laughter and applause followed this ingenious apology for the +client's state of alienage; and the Templar followed up his plea with +the following pithy proposition:--"I know well," said he, "it is the +custom of the fathers of this old and honourable republic, ripely +and well to consider all their proceedings over a proper allowance of +liquor; and far be it from me to propose the breach of so laudable a +custom, or to pretend that such an affair as the present can be well and +constitutionally considered during the discussion of a pitiful gallon +of Rhenish. But, as it is the same thing to this honourable conclave +whether they drink first and determine afterwards, or whether they +determine first and drink afterwards, I propose your grace, with the +advice of your wise and potent senators, shall pass your edict, granting +to mine honourable friend the immunities of the place, and assigning +him a lodging, according to your wise forms, to which he will presently +retire, being somewhat spent with this day's action; whereupon I will +presently order you a rundlet of Rhenish, with a corresponding quantity +of neats' tongues and pickled herrings, to make you all as glorious as +George-a-Green." + +This overture was received with a general shout of applause, which +altogether drowned the voice of the dissidents, if any there were +amongst the Alsatian senate who could have resisted a proposal so +popular. The words of, kind heart! noble gentleman! generous gallant! +flew from mouth to mouth; the inscription of the petitioner's name in +the great book was hastily completed, and the oath administered to him +by the worthy Doge. Like the Laws of the Twelve Tables, of the ancient +Cambro-Britons, and other primitive nations, it was couched in poetry, +and ran as follows:-- + + "By spigot and barrel, + By bilboe and buff; + Thou art sworn to the quarrel + Of the blades of the huff. + For Whitefriars and its claims + To be champion or martyr, + And to fight for its dames + Like a Knight of the Garter." + +Nigel felt, and indeed exhibited, some disgust at this mummery; but, +the Templar reminding him that he was too far advanced to draw back, +he repeated the words, or rather assented as they were repeated by Duke +Hildebrod, who concluded the ceremony by allowing him the privilege of +sanctuary, in the following form of prescriptive doggerel:-- + + "From the touch of the tip, + From the blight of the warrant, + From the watchmen who skip + On the Harman Beck's errand; + From the bailiffs cramp speech, + That makes man a thrall, + I charm thee from each, + And I charm thee from all. + Thy freedom's complete + As a Blade of the Huff, + To be cheated and cheat, + To be cuff'd and to cuff; + To stride, swear, and swagger, + To drink till you stagger, + To stare and to stab, + And to brandish your dagger + In the cause of your drab; + To walk wool-ward in winter, + Drink brandy, and smoke, + And go _fresco_ in summer + For want of a cloak; + To eke out your living + By the wag of your elbow, + By fulham and gourd, + And by baring of bilboe; + To live by your shifts, + And to swear by your honour, + Are the freedom and gifts + Of which I am the donor."[Footnote: Of the cant words used in this +inauguratory oration, some are obvious in their meaning, others, as +Harman Beck (constable), and the like, derive their source from that +ancient piece of lexicography, the Slang Dictionary] + +This homily being performed, a dispute arose concerning the special +residence to be assigned the new brother of the Sanctuary; for, as +the Alsatians held it a maxim in their commonwealth, that ass's milk +fattens, there was usually a competition among the inhabitants which +should have the managing, as it was termed, of a new member of the +society. + +The Hector who had spoken so warmly and critically in Nigel's behalf, +stood out now chivalrously in behalf of a certain Blowselinda, or +Bonstrops, who had, it seems, a room to hire, once the occasional +residence of Slicing Dick of Paddington, who lately suffered at Tyburn, +and whose untimely exit had been hitherto mourned by the damsel in +solitary widowhood, after the fashion of the turtle-dove. + +The captain's interest was, however, overruled, in behalf of the old +gentleman in the kersey hood, who was believed, even at his extreme age, +to understand the plucking of a pigeon, as well, or better, than any man +in Alsatia. + +This venerable personage was an usurer of notoriety, called Trapbois, +and had very lately done the state considerable service in advancing a +subsidy necessary to secure a fresh importation of liquors to the Duke's +cellars, the wine-merchant at the Vintry being scrupulous to deal with +so great a man for any thing but ready money. + +When, therefore, the old gentleman arose, and with much coughing, +reminded the Duke that he had a poor apartment to let, the claims of all +others were set aside, and Nigel was assigned to Trapbois as his guest. + +No sooner was this arrangement made, than Lord Glenvarloch expressed to +Lowestoffe his impatience to leave this discreditable assembly, and took +his leave with a careless haste, which, but for the rundlet of Rhenish +wine that entered just as he left the apartment, might have been taken +in bad part. The young Templar accompanied his friend to the house of +the old usurer, with the road to which he and some other youngsters +about the Temple were even but too well acquainted. On the way, he +assured Lord Glenvarloch that he was going to the only clean house in +Whitefriars; a property which it owed solely to the exertions of the old +man's only daughter, an elderly damsel, ugly enough to frighten sin, yet +likely to be wealthy enough to tempt a puritan, so soon as the devil had +got her old dad for his due. As Lowestoffe spoke thus, they knocked at +the door of the house, and the sour stern countenance of the female by +whom it was opened, fully confirmed all that the Templar had said of +the hostess. She heard with an ungracious and discontented air the young +Templar's information, that the gentleman, his companion, was to be her +father's lodger, muttered something about the trouble it was likely +to occasion, but ended by showing the stranger's apartment, which was +better than could have been augured from the general appearance of the +place, and much larger in extent than that which he occupied at Paul's +Wharf, though inferior to it in neatness. + +Lowestoffe, having thus seen his friend fairly installed in his new +apartment, and having obtained for him a note of the rate at which he +could be accommodated with victuals from a neighbouring cook's shop, now +took his leave, offering, at the same time, to send the whole, or any +part of Lord Glenvarloch's baggage, from his former place of residence +to his new lodging. Nigel mentioned so few articles, that the Templar +could not help observing, that his lordship, it would seem, did not +intend to enjoy his new privileges long. + +"They are too little suited to my habits and taste, that I should do +so," replied Lord Glenvarloch. + +"You may change your opinion to-morrow," said Lowestoffe; "and so I wish +you a good even. To-morrow I will visit you betimes." + +The morning came, but instead of the Templar, it brought only a letter +from him. The epistle stated, that Lowestoffe's visit to Alsatia had +drawn down the animadversions of some crabbed old pantaloons among the +benchers, and that he judged it wise not to come hither at present, for +fear of attracting too much attention to Lord Glenvarloch's place of +residence. He stated, that he had taken measures for the safety of his +baggage, and would send him, by a safe hand, his money-casket, and +what articles he wanted. Then followed some sage advices, dictated by +Lowestoffe's acquaintance with Alsatia and its manners. He advised him +to keep the usurer in the most absolute uncertainty concerning the state +of his funds-never to throw a main with the captain, who was in the +habit of playing dry-fisted, and paying his losses with three vowels; +and, finally, to beware of Duke Hildebrod, who was as sharp, he said, +as a needle, though he had no more eyes than are possessed by that +necessary implement of female industry. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +_Mother._ What I dazzled by a flash from Cupid's mirror, With which +the boy, as mortal urchins wont, Flings back the sunbeam in the eye of +passengers--Then laughs to see them stumble! + +_Daughter._ Mother! no--It was a lightning-flash which dazzled me, And +never shall these eyes see true again. _Beef and Pudding.-An Old English +Comedy._ + +It is necessary that we should leave our hero Nigel for a time, although +in a situation neither safe, comfortable, nor creditable, in order +to detail some particulars which have immediate connexion with his +fortunes. + +It was but the third day after he had been forced to take refuge in the +house of old Trapbois, the noted usurer of Whitefriars, commonly called +Golden Trapbois, when the pretty daughter of old Ramsay, the watchmaker, +after having piously seen her father finish his breakfast, (from +the fear that he might, in an abstruse fit of thought, swallow the +salt-cellar instead of a crust of the brown loaf,) set forth from the +house as soon as he was again plunged into the depth of calculation, +and, accompanied only by that faithful old drudge, Janet, the Scots +laundress, to whom her whims were laws, made her way to Lombard Street, +and disturbed, at the unusual hour of eight in the morning, Aunt Judith, +the sister of her worthy godfather. + +The venerable maiden received her young visitor with no great +complacency; for, naturally enough, she had neither the same admiration +of her very pretty countenance, nor allowance for her foolish and +girlish impatience of temper, which Master George Heriot entertained. +Still Mistress Margaret was a favourite of her brother's, whose will was +to Aunt Judith a supreme law; and she contented herself with asking her +untimely visitor, "what she made so early with her pale, chitty face, in +the streets of London?" + +"I would speak with the Lady Hermione," answered the almost breathless +girl, while the blood ran so fast to her face as totally to remove the +objection of paleness which Aunt Judith had made to her complexion. + +"With the Lady Hermione?" said Aunt Judith--"with the Lady Hermione? and +at this time in the morning, when she will scarce see any of the family, +even at seasonable hours? You are crazy, you silly wench, or you abuse +the indulgence which my brother and the lady have shown to you." + +"Indeed, indeed I have not," repeated Margaret, struggling to retain the +unbidden tear which seemed ready to burst out on the slightest occasion. +"Do but say to the lady that your brother's god-daughter desires +earnestly to speak to her, and I know she will not refuse to see me." + +Aunt Judith bent an earnest, suspicious, and inquisitive glance on her +young visitor, "You might make me your secretary, my lassie," she said, +"as well as the Lady Hermione. I am older, and better skilled to advise. +I live more in the world than one who shuts herself up within four +rooms, and I have the better means to assist you." + +"O! no--no--no," said Margaret, eagerly, and with more earnest sincerity +than complaisance; "there are some things to which you cannot advise me, +Aunt Judith. It is a case--pardon me, my dear aunt--a case beyond your +counsel." + +"I am glad on't, maiden," said Aunt Judith, somewhat angrily; "for I +think the follies of the young people of this generation would drive mad +an old brain like mine. Here you come on the viretot, through the whole +streets of London, to talk some nonsense to a lady, who scarce sees +God's sun, but when he shines on a brick wall. But I will tell her you +are here." + +She went away, and shortly returned with a dry--"Miss Marget, the lady +will be glad to see you; and that's more, my young madam, than you had a +right to count upon." + +Mistress Margaret hung her head in silence, too much perplexed by +the train of her own embarrassed thoughts, for attempting either to +conciliate Aunt Judith's kindness, or, which on other occasions +would have been as congenial to her own humour, to retaliate on her +cross-tempered remarks and manner. She followed Aunt Judith, therefore, +in silence and dejection, to the strong oaken door which divided the +Lady Hermione's apartments from the rest of George Heriot's spacious +house. + +At the door of this sanctuary it is necessary to pause, in order to +correct the reports with which Richie Moniplies had filled his master's +ear, respecting the singular appearance of that lady's attendance at +prayers, whom we now own to be by name the Lady Hermione. Some part +of these exaggerations had been communicated to the worthy Scotsman by +Jenkin Vincent, who was well experienced in the species of wit which +has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, +giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing, humbugging, and +quizzing; for which sport Richie Moniplies, with his solemn gravity, +totally unapprehensive of a joke, and his natural propensity to the +marvellous, formed an admirable subject. Farther ornaments the tale had +received from Richie himself, whose tongue, especially when oiled with +good liquor, had a considerable tendency to amplification, and +who failed not, while he retailed to his master all the wonderful +circumstances narrated by Vincent, to add to them many conjectures of +his own, which his imagination had over-hastily converted into facts. + +Yet the life which the Lady Hermione had led for two years, during which +she had been the inmate of George Heriot's house, was so singular, as +almost to sanction many of the wild reports which went abroad. The house +which the worthy goldsmith inhabited, had in former times belonged to a +powerful and wealthy baronial family, which, during the reign of Henry +VIII., terminated in a dowager lady, very wealthy, very devout, and most +unalienably attached to the Catholic faith. The chosen friend of the +Honourable Lady Foljambe was the Abbess of Saint Roque's Nunnery, like +herself a conscientious, rigid, and devoted Papist. When the house of +Saint Roque was despotically dissolved by the fiat of the impetuous +monarch, the Lady Foljambe received her friend into her spacious +mansion, together with two vestal sisters, who, like their Abbess, were +determined to follow the tenor of their vows, instead of embracing the +profane liberty which the Monarch's will had thrown in their choice. +For their residence, the Lady Foljambe contrived, with all secrecy--for +Henry might not have relished her interference--to set apart a suite of +four rooms, with a little closet fitted up as an oratory, or chapel; the +whole apartments fenced by a stout oaken door to exclude strangers, and +accommodated with a turning wheel to receive necessaries, according +to the practice of all nunneries. In this retreat, the Abbess of Saint +Roque and her attendants passed many years, communicating only with the +Lady Foljambe, who, in virtue of their prayers, and of the support she +afforded them, accounted herself little less than a saint on earth. The +Abbess, fortunately for herself, died before her munificent patroness, +who lived deep in Queen Elizabeth's time, ere she was summoned by fate. + +The Lady Foljambe was succeeded in this mansion by a sour fanatic +knight, a distant and collateral relation, who claimed the same merit +for expelling the priestess of Baal, which his predecessor had founded +on maintaining the votaresses of Heaven. Of the two unhappy nuns, driven +from their ancient refuge, one went beyond sea; the other, unable from +old age to undertake such a journey, died under the roof of a faithful +Catholic widow of low degree. Sir Paul Crambagge, having got rid of +the nuns, spoiled the chapel of its ornaments, and had thoughts of +altogether destroying the apartments, until checked by the reflection +that the operation would be an unnecessary expense, since he only +inhabited three rooms of the large mansion, and had not therefore the +slightest occasion for any addition to its accommodations. His son +proved a waster and a prodigal, and from him the house was bought by our +friend George Heriot, who, finding, like Sir Paul, the house more than +sufficiently ample for his accommodation, left the Foljambe apartments, +or Saint Roque's rooms, as they were called, in the state in which he +found them. + +About two years and a half before our history opened, when Heriot was +absent upon an expedition to the Continent, he sent special orders to +his sister and his cash-keeper, directing that the Foljambe apartments +should be fitted up handsomely, though plainly, for the reception of +a lady, who would make them her residence for some time; and who would +live more or less with his own family according to her pleasure. He also +directed, that the necessary repairs should be made with secrecy, +and that as little should be said as possible upon the subject of his +letter. + +When the time of his return came nigh, Aunt Judith and the household +were on the tenter-hooks of impatience. Master George came, as he had +intimated, accompanied by a lady, so eminently beautiful, that, had +it not been for her extreme and uniform paleness, she might have been +reckoned one of the loveliest creatures on earth. She had with her an +attendant, or humble companion, whose business seemed only to wait upon +her. This person, a reserved woman, and by her dialect a foreigner, aged +about fifty, was called by the lady Monna Paula, and by Master Heriot, +and others, Mademoiselle Pauline. She slept in the same room with +her patroness at night, ate in her apartment, and was scarcely ever +separated from her during the day. + +These females took possession of the nunnery of the devout Abbess, and, +without observing the same rigorous seclusion, according to the letter, +seemed wellnigh to restore the apartments to the use to which they had +been originally designed. The new inmates lived and took their meals +apart from the rest of the family. With the domestics Lady Hermione, for +so she was termed, held no communication, and Mademoiselle Pauline only +such as was indispensable, which she dispatched as briefly as possible. +Frequent and liberal largesses reconciled the servants to this conduct; +and they were in the habit of observing to each other, that to do a +service for Mademoiselle Pauline, was like finding a fairy treasure. + +To Aunt Judith the Lady Hermione was kind and civil, but their +intercourse was rare; on which account the elder lady felt some pangs +both of curiosity and injured dignity. But she knew her brother so well, +and loved him so dearly, that his will, once expressed, might be truly +said to become her own. The worthy citizen was not without a spice of +the dogmatism which grows on the best disposition, when a word is a +law to all around. Master George did not endure to be questioned by his +family, and, when he had generally expressed his will, that the Lady +Hermione should live in the way most agreeable to her, and that no +inquiries should be made concerning their history, or her motives for +observing such strict seclusion, his sister well knew that he would have +been seriously displeased with any attempt to pry into the secret. + +But, though Heriot's servants were bribed, and his sister awed into +silent acquiescence in these arrangements, they were not of a nature to +escape the critical observation of the neighbourhood. Some opined that +the wealthy goldsmith was about to turn papist, and re-establish Lady +Foljambe's nunnery--others that he was going mad--others that he +was either going to marry, or to do worse. Master George's constant +appearance at church, and the knowledge that the supposed votaress +always attended when the prayers of the English ritual were read in the +family, liberated him from the first of these suspicions; those who +had to transact business with him upon 'Change, could not doubt the +soundness of Master Heriot's mind; and, to confute the other rumours, +it was credibly reported by such as made the matter their particular +interest, that Master George Heriot never visited his guest but in +presence of Mademoiselle Pauline, who sat with her work in a remote part +of the same room in which they conversed. It was also ascertained that +these visits scarcely ever exceeded an hour in length, and were usually +only repeated once a week, an intercourse too brief and too long +interrupted, to render it probable that love was the bond of their +union. + +The inquirers were, therefore, at fault, and compelled to relinquish +the pursuit of Master Heriot's secret, while a thousand ridiculous +tales were circulated amongst the ignorant and superstitious, with some +specimens of which our friend Richie Moniplies had been _crammed_, as we +have seen, by the malicious apprentice of worthy David Ramsay. + +There was one person in the world who, it was thought, could (if she +would) have said more of the Lady Hermione than any one in London, +except George Heriot himself; and that was the said David Ramsay's only +child, Margaret. + +This girl was not much past the age of fifteen when the Lady Hermione +first came to England, and was a very frequent visitor at her +godfather's, who was much amused by her childish sallies, and by the +wild and natural beauty with which she sung the airs of her native +country. Spoilt she was on all hands; by the indulgence of her +godfather, the absent habits and indifference of her father, and the +deference of all around to her caprices, as a beauty and as an heiress. +But though, from these circumstances, the city-beauty had become as +wilful, as capricious, and as affected, as unlimited indulgence seldom +fails to render those to whom it is extended; and although she exhibited +upon many occasions that affectation of extreme shyness, silence, and +reserve, which misses in their teens are apt to take for an amiable +modesty; and, upon others, a considerable portion of that flippancy, +which youth sometimes confounds with wit, Mistress Margaret had much +real shrewdness and judgment, which wanted only opportunities of +observation to refine it--a lively, good-humoured, playful disposition, +and an excellent heart. Her acquired follies were much increased by +reading plays and romances, to which she devoted a great deal of her +time, and from which she adopted ideas as different as possible from +those which she might have obtained from the invaluable and affectionate +instructions of an excellent mother; and the freaks of which she was +sometimes guilty, rendered her not unjustly liable to the charge of +affectation and coquetry. But the little lass had sense and shrewdness +enough to keep her failings out of sight of her godfather, to whom she +was sincerely attached; and so high she stood in his favour, that, at +his recommendation, she obtained permission to visit the recluse Lady +Hermione. + +The singular mode of life which that lady observed; her great beauty, +rendered even more interesting by her extreme paleness; the conscious +pride of being admitted farther than the rest of the world into the +society of a person who was wrapped in so much mystery, made a +deep impression on the mind of Margaret Ramsay; and though their +conversations were at no time either long or confidential, yet, proud of +the trust reposed in her, Margaret was as secret respecting their tenor +as if every word repeated had been to cost her life. No inquiry, however +artfully backed by flattery and insinuation, whether on the part of Dame +Ursula, or any other person equally inquisitive, could wring from the +little maiden one word of what she heard or saw, after she entered these +mysterious and secluded apartments. The slightest question concerning +Master Heriot's ghost, was sufficient, at her gayest moment, to check +the current of her communicative prattle, and render her silent. + +We mention this, chiefly to illustrate the early strength of Margaret's +character--a strength concealed under a hundred freakish whims and +humours, as an ancient and massive buttress is disguised by its +fantastic covering of ivy and wildflowers. In truth, if the damsel had +told all she heard or saw within the Foljambe apartments, she would have +said but little to gratify the curiosity of inquirers. + +At the earlier period of their acquaintance, the Lady Hermione was wont +to reward the attentions of her little friend with small but elegant +presents, and entertain her by a display of foreign rarities and +curiosities, many of them of considerable value. Sometimes the time +was passed in a way much less agreeable to Margaret, by her receiving +lessons from Pauline in the use of the needle. But, although her +preceptress practised these arts with a dexterity then only known in +foreign convents, the pupil proved so incorrigibly idle and awkward, +that the task of needlework was at length given up, and lessons of music +substituted in their stead. Here also Pauline was excellently qualified +as an instructress, and Margaret, more successful in a science for which +Nature had gifted her, made proficiency both in vocal and instrumental +music. These lessons passed in presence of the Lady Hermione, to whom +they seemed to give pleasure. She sometimes added her own voice to the +performance, in a pure, clear stream of liquid melody; but this was only +when the music was of a devotional cast. As Margaret became older, her +communications with the recluse assumed a different character. She was +allowed, if not encouraged, to tell whatever she had remarked out of +doors, and the Lady Hermione, while she remarked the quick, sharp, and +retentive powers of observation possessed by her young friend, often +found sufficient reason to caution her against rashness in forming +opinions, and giddy petulance in expressing them. + +The habitual awe with which she regarded this singular personage, +induced Mistress Margaret, though by no means delighting in +contradiction or reproof, to listen with patience to her admonitions, +and to make full allowance for the good intentions of the patroness by +whom they were bestowed; although in her heart she could hardly conceive +how Madame Hermione, who never stirred from the Foljambe apartments, +should think of teaching knowledge of the world to one who walked twice +a-week between Temple Bar and Lombard Street, besides parading in +the Park every Sunday that proved to be fair weather. Indeed, pretty +Mistress Margaret was so little inclined to endure such remonstrances, +that her intercourse with the inhabitants of the Foljambe apartments +would have probably slackened as her circle of acquaintance increased +in the external world, had she not, on the one hand, entertained an +habitual reverence for her monitress, of which she could not divest +herself, and been flattered, on the other, by being to a certain degree +the depository of a confidence for which others thirsted in vain. +Besides, although the conversation of Hermione was uniformly serious, it +was not in general either formal or severe; nor was the lady offended by +flights of levity which Mistress Margaret sometimes ventured on in her +presence, even when they were such as made Monna Paula cast her eyes +upwards, and sigh with that compassion which a devotee extends towards +the votaries of a trivial and profane world. Thus, upon the whole, the +little maiden was disposed to submit, though not without some wincing, +to the grave admonitions of the Lady Hermione; and the rather that the +mystery annexed to the person of her monitress was in her mind early +associated with a vague idea of wealth and importance, which had been +rather confirmed than lessened by many accidental circumstances which +she had noticed since she was more capable of observation. + +It frequently happens, that the counsel which we reckon intrusive when +offered to us unasked, becomes precious in our eyes when the pressure of +difficulties renders us more diffident of our own judgment than we are +apt to find ourselves in the hours of ease and indifference; and this is +more especially the case if we suppose that our adviser may also possess +power and inclination to back his counsel with effectual assistance. +Mistress Margaret was now in that situation. She was, or believed +herself to be, in a condition where both advice and assistance might be +necessary; and it was therefore, after an anxious and sleepless night, +that she resolved to have recourse to the Lady Hermione, who she knew +would readily afford her the one, and, as she hoped, might also possess +means of giving her the other. The conversation between them will best +explain the purport of the visit. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + + By this good light, a wench of matchless mettle! + This were a leaguer-lass to love a soldier, + To bind his wounds, and kiss his bloody brow, + And sing a roundel as she help'd to arm him, + Though the rough foeman's drums were beat so nigh, + They seem'd to bear the burden. + _Old Play._ + +When Mistress Margaret entered the Foljambe apartment, she found the +inmates employed in their usual manner; the lady in reading, and her +attendant in embroidering a large piece of tapestry, which had occupied +her ever since Margaret had been first admitted within these secluded +chambers. + +Hermione nodded kindly to her visitor, but did not speak; and Margaret, +accustomed to this reception, and in the present case not sorry for it, +as it gave her an interval to collect her thoughts, stooped over Monna +Paula's frame and observed, in a half whisper, "You were just so far as +that rose, Monna, when I first saw you--see, there is the mark where I +had the bad luck to spoil the flower in trying to catch the stitch--I +was little above fifteen then. These flowers make me an old woman, Monna +Paula." + +"I wish they could make you a wise one, my child," answered Monna Paula, +in whose esteem pretty Mistress Margaret did not stand quite so high as +in that of her patroness; partly owing to her natural austerity, which +was something intolerant of youth and gaiety, and partly to the jealousy +with which a favourite domestic regards any one whom she considers as a +sort of rival in the affections of her mistress. + +"What is it you say to Monna, little one?" asked the lady. + +"Nothing, madam," replied Mistress Margaret, "but that I have seen the +real flowers blossom three times over since I first saw Monna Paula +working in her canvass garden, and her violets have not budded yet." + +"True, lady-bird," replied Hermione; "but the buds that are longest in +blossoming will last the longest in flower. You have seen them in the +garden bloom thrice, but you have seen them fade thrice also; now, Monna +Paula's will remain in blow for ever--they will fear neither frost nor +tempest." + +"True, madam," answered Mistress Margaret; "but neither have they life +or odour." + +"That, little one," replied the recluse, "is to compare a life agitated +by hope and fear, and chequered with success and disappointment, and +fevered by the effects of love and hatred, a life of passion and of +feeling, saddened and shortened by its exhausting alternations, to a +calm and tranquil existence, animated but by a sense of duties, and only +employed, during its smooth and quiet course, in the unwearied discharge +of them. Is that the moral of your answer?" + +"I do not know, madam," answered Mistress Margaret; "but, of all birds +in the air, I would rather be the lark, that sings while he is drifting +down the summer breeze, than the weathercock that sticks fast yonder +upon his iron perch, and just moves so much as to discharge his duty, +and tell us which way the wind blows." + +"Metaphors are no arguments, my pretty maiden," said the Lady Hermione, +smiling. + +"I am sorry for that, madam," answered Margaret; "for they are such a +pretty indirect way of telling one's mind when it differs from one's +betters--besides, on this subject there is no end of them, and they are +so civil and becoming withal." + +"Indeed?" replied the lady; "let me hear some of them, I pray you." + +"It would be, for example, very bold in me," said Margaret, "to say +to your ladyship, that, rather than live a quiet life, I would like a +little variety of hope and fear, and liking and disliking--and--and--and +the other sort of feelings which your ladyship is pleased to speak of; +but I may say freely, and without blame, that I like a butterfly better +than a bettle, or a trembling aspen better than a grim Scots fir, that +never wags a leaf--or that of all the wood, brass, and wire that ever my +father's fingers put together, I do hate and detest a certain huge +old clock of the German fashion, that rings hours and half hours, and +quarters and half quarters, as if it were of such consequence that the +world should know it was wound up and going. Now, dearest lady, I wish +you would only compare that clumsy, clanging, Dutch-looking piece of +lumber, with the beautiful timepiece that Master Heriot caused my father +to make for your ladyship, which uses to play a hundred merry tunes, and +turns out, when it strikes the hour, a whole band of morrice dancers, to +trip the hays to the measure." + +"And which of these timepieces goes the truest, Margaret?" said the +lady. + +"I must confess the old Dutchman has the advantage in that"--said +Margaret. "I fancy you are right, madam, and that comparisons are no +arguments; at least mine has not brought me through." + +"Upon my word, maiden Margaret," said the lady, smiling, "you have been +of late thinking very much of these matters." + +"Perhaps too much, madam," said Margaret, so low as only to be heard by +the lady, behind the back of whose chair she had now placed herself. The +words were spoken very gravely, and accompanied by a half sigh, which +did not escape the attention of her to whom they were addressed. +The Lady Hermione turned immediately round, and looked earnestly at +Margaret, then paused for a moment, and, finally, commanded Monna Paula +to carry her frame and embroidery into the antechamber. When they were +left alone, she desired her young friend to come from behind the chair +on the back of which she still rested, and sit down beside her upon a +stool. + +"I will remain thus, madam, under your favour," answered Margaret, +without changing her posture; "I would rather you heard me without +seeing me." + +"In God's name, maiden," returned her patroness, "what is it you can +have to say, that may not be uttered face to face, to so true a friend +as I am?" + +Without making any direct answer, Margaret only replied, "You were +right, dearest lady, when you said, I had suffered my feelings too much +to engross me of late. I have done very wrong, and you will be angry +with me--so will my godfather, but I cannot help it--he must be +rescued." + +"_He?_" repeated the lady, with emphasis; "that brief little word does, +indeed, so far explain your mystery;--but come from behind the chair, +you silly popinjay! I will wager you have suffered yonder gay young +apprentice to sit too near your heart. I have not heard you mention +young Vincent for many a day--perhaps he has not been out of mouth and +out of mind both. Have you been so foolish as to let him speak to you +seriously?--I am told he is a bold youth." + +"Not bold enough to say any thing that could displease me, madam," said +Margaret. + +"Perhaps, then, you were _not_ displeased," said the lady; "or perhaps +he has not _spoken_, which would be wiser and better. Be open-hearted, +my love--your godfather will soon return, and we will take him into +our consultations. If the young man is industrious, and come of honest +parentage, his poverty may be no such insurmountable obstacle. But you +are both of you very young, Margaret--I know your godfather will expect, +that the youth shall first serve out his apprenticeship." + +Margaret had hitherto suffered the lady to proceed, under the mistaken +impression which she had adopted, simply because she could not tell how +to interrupt her; but pure despite at hearing her last words gave her +boldness at length to say "I crave your pardon, madam; but neither +the youth you mention, nor any apprentice or master within the city of +London--" + +"Margaret," said the lady, in reply, "the contemptuous tone with which +you mention those of your own class, (many hundreds if not thousands of +whom are in all respects better than yourself, and would greatly honour +you by thinking of you,) is methinks, no warrant for the wisdom of your +choice--for a choice, it seems, there is. Who is it, maiden, to whom you +have thus rashly attached yourself?--rashly, I fear it must be." + +"It is the young Scottish Lord Glenvarloch, madam," answered Margaret, +in a low and modest tone, but sufficiently firm, considering the +subject. + +"The young Lord of Glenvarloch!" repeated the lady, in great +surprise--"Maiden, you are distracted in your wits." + +"I knew you would say so, madam," answered Margaret. "It is what another +person has already told me--it is, perhaps, what all the world would +tell me--it is what I am sometimes disposed to tell myself. But look +at me, madam, for I will now come before you, and tell me if there is +madness or distraction in my look and word, when I repeat to you again, +that I have fixed my affections on this young nobleman." + +"If there is not madness in your look or word, maiden, there is infinite +folly in what you say," answered the Lady Hermione, sharply. "When did +you ever hear that misplaced love brought any thing but wretchedness? +Seek a match among your equals, Margaret, and escape the countless +kinds of risk and misery that must attend an affection beyond your +degree.--Why do you smile, maiden? Is there aught to cause scorn in what +I say?" + +"Surely no, madam," answered Margaret. "I only smiled to think how it +should happen, that, while rank made such a wide difference between +creatures formed from the same clay, the wit of the vulgar should, +nevertheless, jump so exactly the same length with that of the +accomplished and the exalted. It is but the variation of the phrase +which divides them. Dame Ursley told me the very same thing which your +ladyship has but now uttered; only you, madam, talk of countless misery, +and Dame Ursley spoke of the gallows, and Mistress Turner, who was +hanged upon it." + +"Indeed?" answered the Lady Hermione; "and who may Dame Ursley be, +that your wise choice has associated with me in the difficult task of +advising a fool?" + +"The barber's wife at next door, madam," answered Margaret, with feigned +simplicity, but far from being sorry at heart, that she had found an +indirect mode of mortifying her monitress. "She is the wisest woman that +I know, next to your ladyship." + +"A proper confidant," said the lady, "and chosen with the same delicate +sense of what is due to yourself and others!--But what ails you, +maiden--where are you going?" + +"Only to ask Dame Ursley's advice," said Margaret, as if about to +depart; "for I see your ladyship is too angry to give me any, and the +emergency is pressing." + +"What emergency, thou simple one?" said the lady, in a kinder +tone.--"Sit down, maiden, and tell me your tale. It is true you are a +fool, and a pettish fool to boot; but then you are a child--an amiable +child, with all your self-willed folly, and we must help you, if we +can.--Sit down, I say, as you are desired, and you will find me a safer +and wiser counseller than the barber-woman. And tell me how you come to +suppose, that you have fixed your heart unalterably upon a man whom you +have seen, as I think, but once." + +"I have seen him oftener," said the damsel, looking down; "but I have +only spoken to him once. I should have been able to get that once out of +my head, though the impression was so deep, that I could even now repeat +every trifling word he said; but other things have since riveted it in +my bosom for ever." + +"Maiden," replied the lady, "_for ever_ is the word which comes most +lightly on the lips in such circumstances, but which, not the less, +is almost the last that we should use. The fashion of this world, +its passions, its joys, and its sorrows, pass away like the winged +breeze--there is nought for ever but that which belongs to the world +beyond the grave." + +"You have corrected me justly, madam," said Margaret calmly; "I ought +only to have spoken of my present state of mind, as what will last me +for my lifetime, which unquestionably may be but short." + +"And what is there in this Scottish lord that can rivet what concerns +him so closely in your fancy?" said the lady. "I admit him a personable +man, for I have seen him; and I will suppose him courteous and +agreeable. But what are his accomplishments besides, for these surely +are not uncommon attributes." + +"He is unfortunate, madam--most unfortunate--and surrounded by snares +of different kinds, ingeniously contrived to ruin his character, destroy +his estate, and, perhaps, to reach even his life. These schemes have +been devised by avarice originally, but they are now followed close by +vindictive ambition, animated, I think, by the absolute and concentrated +spirit of malice; for the Lord Dalgarno--" + +"Here, Monna Paula--Monna Paula!" exclaimed the Lady Hermione, +interrupting her young friend's narrative. "She hears me not," she +answered, rising and going out, "I must seek her--I will return +instantly." She returned accordingly very soon after. "You mentioned a +name which I thought was familiar to me," she said; "but Monna Paula has +put me right. I know nothing of your lord--how was it you named him?" + +"Lord Dalgarno," said Margaret;--"the wickedest man who lives. Under +pretence of friendship, he introduced the Lord Glenvarloch to a +gambling-house with the purpose of engaging him in deep play; but +he with whom the perfidious traitor had to deal, was too virtuous, +moderate, and cautious, to be caught in a snare so open. What did they +next, but turn his own moderation against him, and persuade others +that--because he would not become the prey of wolves, he herded with +them for a share of their booty! And, while this base Lord Dalgarno was +thus undermining his unsuspecting countryman, he took every measure +to keep him surrounded by creatures of his own, to prevent him from +attending Court, and mixing with those of his proper rank. Since the +Gunpowder Treason, there never was a conspiracy more deeply laid, more +basely and more deliberately pursued." + +The lady smiled sadly at Margaret's vehemence, but sighed the next +moment, while she told her young friend how little she knew the world +she was about to live in, since she testified so much surprise at +finding it full of villainy. + +"But by what means," she added, "could you, maiden, become possessed of +the secret views of a man so cautious as Lord Dalgarno--as villains in +general are?" + +"Permit me to be silent on that subject," said the maiden; "I could not +tell you without betraying others--let it suffice that my tidings are as +certain as the means by which I acquired them are secret and sure. But I +must not tell them even to you." + +"You are too bold, Margaret," said the lady, "to traffic in such matters +at your early age. It is not only dangerous, but even unbecoming and +unmaidenly." + +"I knew you would say that also," said Margaret, with more meekness and +patience than she usually showed on receiving reproof; "but, God knows, +my heart acquits me of every other feeling save that of the wish to +assist this most innocent and betrayed man.--I contrived to send him +warning of his friend's falsehood;--alas! my care has only hastened his +utter ruin, unless speedy aid be found. He charged his false friend with +treachery, and drew on him in the Park, and is now liable to the fatal +penalty due for breach of privilege of the king's palace." + +"This is indeed an extraordinary tale," said Hermione; "is Lord +Glenvarloch then in prison?" + +"No, madam, thank God, but in the Sanctuary at Whitefriars--it is matter +of doubt whether it will protect him in such a case--they speak of a +warrant from the Lord Chief Justice--A gentleman of the temple has been +arrested, and is in trouble for having assisted him in his flight.--Even +his taking temporary refuge in that base place, though from extreme +necessity, will be used to the further defaming him. All this I know, +and yet I cannot rescue him--cannot rescue him save by your means." + +"By my means, maiden?" said the lady--"you are beside yourself!--What +means can I possess in this secluded situation, of assisting this +unfortunate nobleman?" + +"You have means," said Margaret, eagerly; "you have those means, unless +I mistake greatly, which can do anything--can do everything, in this +city, in this world--you have wealth, and the command of a small portion +of it will enable me to extricate him from his present danger. He will +be enabled and directed how to make his escape--and I--" she paused. + +"Will accompany him, doubtless, and reap the fruits of your sage +exertions in his behalf?" said the Lady Hermione, ironically. + +"May heaven forgive you the unjust thought, lady," answered Margaret. +"I will never see him more--but I shall have saved him, and the thought +will make me happy." + +"A cold conclusion to so bold and warm a flame," said the lady, with a +smile which seemed to intimate incredulity. + +"It is, however, the only one which I expect, madam--I could almost +say the only one which I wish--I am sure I will use no efforts to bring +about any other; if I am bold in his cause, I am timorous enough in my +own. During our only interview I was unable to speak a word to him. He +knows not the sound of my voice--and all that I have risked, and must +yet risk, I am doing for one, who, were he asked the question, would say +he has long since forgotten that he ever saw, spoke to, or sat beside, a +creature of so little signification as I am." + +"This is a strange and unreasonable indulgence of a passion equally +fanciful and dangerous," said Lady Hermione. "You will _not_ assist me, +then?" said Margaret; "have good-day, then, madam--my secret, I trust, +is safe in such honourable keeping." + +"Tarry yet a little," said the lady, "and tell me what resource you +have to assist this youth, if you were supplied with money to put it in +motion." + +"It is superfluous to ask me the question, madam," answered Margaret, +"unless you purpose to assist me; and, if you do so purpose, it is still +superfluous. You could not understand the means I must use, and time is +too brief to explain." + +"But have you in reality such means?" said the lady. + +"I have, with the command of a moderate sum," answered Margaret Ramsay, +"the power of baffling all his enemies--of eluding the passion of +the irritated king--the colder but more determined displeasure of the +prince--the vindictive spirit of Buckingham, so hastily directed against +whomsoever crosses the path of his ambition--the cold concentrated +malice of Lord Dalgarno--all, I can baffle them all!" + +"But is this to be done without your own personal risk, Margaret?" +replied the lady; "for, be your purpose what it will, you are not to +peril your own reputation or person, in the romantic attempt of serving +another; and I, maiden, am answerable to your godfather,--to your +benefactor, and my own,--not to aid you in any dangerous or unworthy +enterprise." + +"Depend upon my word,--my oath,--dearest lady," replied the supplicant, +"that I will act by the agency of others, and do not myself design to +mingle in any enterprise in which my appearance might be either perilous +or unwomanly." + +"I know not what to do," said the Lady Hermione; "it is perhaps +incautious and inconsiderate in me to aid so wild a project; yet the end +seems honourable, if the means be sure--what is the penalty if he fall +into their power?" + +"Alas, alas! the loss of his right hand!" replied Margaret, her voice +almost stifled with sobs. + +"Are the laws of England so cruel? Then there is mercy in heaven alone," +said the lady, "since, even in this free land, men are wolves to each +other.--Compose yourself, Margaret, and tell me what money is necessary +to secure Lord Glenvarloch's escape." + +"Two hundred pieces," replied Margaret; "I would speak to you of +restoring them--and I must one day have the power--only that I +know--that is, I think--your ladyship is indifferent on that score." + +"Not a word more of it," said the lady; "call Monna Paula hither." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + + Credit me, friend, it hath been ever thus, + Since the ark rested on Mount Ararat. + False man hath sworn, and woman hath believed-- + Repented and reproach'd, and then believed once more. + _The New World._ + +By the time that Margaret returned with Monna Paula, the Lady Hermione +was rising from the table at which she had been engaged in writing +something on a small slip of paper, which she gave to her attendant. + +"Monna Paula," she said, "carry this paper to Roberts the cash-keeper; +let them give you the money mentioned in the note, and bring it hither +presently." + +Monna Paula left the room, and her mistress proceeded. + +"I do not know," she said, "Margaret, if I have done, and am doing, +well in this affair. My life has been one of strange seclusion, and I am +totally unacquainted with the practical ways of this world--an ignorance +which I know cannot be remedied by mere reading.--I fear I am doing +wrong to you, and perhaps to the laws of the country which affords me +refuge, by thus indulging you; and yet there is something in my heart +which cannot resist your entreaties." + +"O, listen to it--listen to it, dear, generous lady!" said Margaret, +throwing herself on her knees and grasping those of her benefactress +and looking in that attitude like a beautiful mortal in the act +of supplicating her tutelary angel; "the laws of men are but the +injunctions of mortality, but what the heart prompts is the echo of the +voice from heaven within us." + +"Rise, rise, maiden," said Hermione; "you affect me more than I thought +I could have been moved by aught that should approach me. Rise and tell +me whence it comes, that, in so short a time, your thoughts, your looks, +your speech, and even your slightest actions, are changed from those +of a capricious and fanciful girl, to all this energy and impassioned +eloquence of word and action?" + +"I am sure I know not, dearest lady," said Margaret, looking down; "but +I suppose that, when I was a trifler, I was only thinking of trifles. +What I now reflect is deep and serious, and I am thankful if my speech +and manner bear reasonable proportion to my thoughts." + +"It must be so," said the lady; "yet the change seems a rapid and +strange one. It seems to be as if a childish girl had at once shot up +into deep-thinking and impassioned woman, ready to make exertions alike, +and sacrifices, with all that vain devotion to a favourite object of +affection, which is often so basely rewarded." + +The Lady Hermione sighed bitterly, and Monna Paula entered ere the +conversation proceeded farther. She spoke to her mistress in the foreign +language in which they frequently conversed, but which was unknown to +Margaret. + +"We must have patience for a time," said the lady to her visitor; "the +cash-keeper is abroad on some business, but he is expected home in the +course of half an hour." + +Margaret wrung her hands in vexation and impatience. + +"Minutes are precious," continued the lady; "that I am well aware of; +and we will at least suffer none of them to escape us. Monna Paula shall +remain below and transact our business, the very instant that Roberts +returns home." + +She spoke to her attendant accordingly, who again left the room. + +"You are very kind, madam--very good," said the poor little Margaret, +while the anxious trembling of her lip and of her hand showed all that +sickening agitation of the heart which arises from hope deferred. + +"Be patient, Margaret, and collect yourself," said the lady; "you +may, you must, have much to do to carry through this your bold +purpose--reserve your spirits, which you may need so much--be +patient--it is the only remedy against the evils of life." + +"Yes, madam," said Margaret, wiping her eyes, and endeavouring in +vain to suppress the natural impatience of her temper,--"I have heard +so--very often indeed; and I dare say I have myself, heaven forgive me, +said so to people in perplexity and affliction; but it was before I +had suffered perplexity and vexation myself, and I am sure I will never +preach patience to any human being again, now that I know how much the +medicine goes against the stomach." + +"You will think better of it, maiden," said the Lady Hermione; "I also, +when I first felt distress, thought they did me wrong who spoke to me +of patience; but my sorrows have been repeated and continued till I have +been taught to cling to it as the best, and--religious duties excepted, +of which, indeed, patience forms a part--the only alleviation which life +can afford them." + +Margaret, who neither wanted sense nor feeling, wiped her tears hastily, +and asked her patroness's forgiveness for her petulance. + +"I might have thought"--she said, "I ought to have reflected, that even +from the manner of your life, madam, it is plain you must have suffered +sorrow; and yet, God knows, the patience which I have ever seen you +display, well entitles you to recommend your own example to others." + +The lady was silent for a moment, and then replied-- + +"Margaret, I am about to repose a high confidence in you. You are no +longer a child, but a thinking and a feeling woman. You have told me as +much of your secret as you dared--I will let you know as much of mine as +I may venture to tell. You will ask me, perhaps, why, at a moment when +your own mind is agitated, I should force upon you the consideration of +my sorrows? and I answer, that I cannot withstand the impulse which now +induces me to do so. Perhaps from having witnessed, for the first time +these three years, the natural effects of human passion, my own +sorrows have been awakened, and are for the moment too big for my own +bosom--perhaps I may hope that you, who seem driving full sail on the +very rock on which I was wrecked for ever, will take warning by the tale +I have to tell. Enough, if you are willing to listen, I am willing to +tell you who the melancholy inhabitant of the Foljambe apartments really +is, and why she resides here. It will serve, at least, to while away the +time until Monna Paula shall bring us the reply from Roberts." + +At any other moment of her life, Margaret Ramsay would have heard +with undivided interest a communication so flattering in itself, and +referring to a subject upon which the general curiosity had been so +strongly excited. And even at this agitating moment, although she ceased +not to listen with an anxious ear and throbbing heart for the sound of +Monna Paula's returning footsteps, she nevertheless, as gratitude and +policy, as well as a portion of curiosity dictated, composed herself, +in appearance at least, to the strictest attention to the Lady Hermione, +and thanked her with humility for the high confidence she was pleased +to repose in her. The Lady Hermione, with the same calmness which always +attended her speech and actions, thus recounted her story to her young +friend: + +"My father," she said, "was a merchant, but he was of a city whose +merchants are princes. I am the daughter of a noble house in Genoa, +whose name stood as high in honour and in antiquity, as any inscribed in +the Golden Register of that famous aristocracy. + +"My mother was a noble Scottish woman. She was descended--do not +start--and not remotely descended, of the house of Glenvarloch--no +wonder that I was easily led to take concern in the misfortunes of this +young lord. He is my near relation, and my mother, who was more than +sufficiently proud of her descent, early taught me to take an interest +in the name. My maternal grandfather, a cadet of that house of +Glenvarloch, had followed the fortunes of an unhappy fugitive, Francis +Earl of Bothwell, who, after showing his miseries in many a foreign +court, at length settled in Spain upon a miserable pension, which +he earned by conforming to the Catholic faith. Ralph Olifaunt, my +grandfather, separated from him in disgust, and settled at Barcelona, +where, by the friendship of the governor, his heresy, as it was termed, +was connived at. My father, in the course of his commerce, resided more +at Barcelona than in his native country, though at times he visited +Genoa. + +"It was at Barcelona that he became acquainted with my mother, loved +her, and married her; they differed in faith, but they agreed in +affection. I was their only child. In public I conformed to the +docterins and ceremonial of the Church of Rome; but my mother, by whom +these were regarded with horror, privately trained me up in those of the +reformed religion; and my father, either indifferent in the matter, or +unwilling to distress the woman whom he loved, overlooked or connived at +my secretly joining in her devotions. + +"But when, unhappily, my father was attacked, while yet in the prime +of life, by a slow wasting disease, which he felt to be incurable, he +foresaw the hazard to which his widow and orphan might be exposed, after +he was no more, in a country so bigoted to Catholicism as Spain. He made +it his business, during the two last years of his life, to realize and +remit to England a large part of his fortune, which, by the faith and +honour of his correspondent, the excellent man under whose roof I now +reside, was employed to great advantage. Had my father lived to complete +his purpose, by withdrawing his whole fortune from commerce, he himself +would have accompanied us to England, and would have beheld us settled +in peace and honour before his death. But heaven had ordained it +otherwise. He died, leaving several sums engaged in the hands of his +Spanish debtors; and, in particular, he had made a large and extensive +consignment to a certain wealthy society of merchants at Madrid, who +showed no willingness after his death to account for the proceeds. Would +to God we had left these covetous and wicked men in possession of their +booty, for such they seemed to hold the property of their deceased +correspondent and friend! We had enough for comfort, and even splendour, +already secured in England; but friends exclaimed upon the folly +of permitting these unprincipled men to plunder us of our rightful +property. The sum itself was large, and the claim having been made, +my mother thought that my father's memory was interested in its being +enforced, especially as the defences set up for the mercantile society +went, in some degree, to impeach the fairness of his transactions. + +"We went therefore to Madrid. I was then, my Margaret, about your age, +young and thoughtless, as you have hitherto been--We went, I say, to +Madrid, to solicit the protection of the Court and of the king, without +which we were told it would be in vain to expect justice against an +opulent and powerful association. + +"Our residence at the Spanish metropolis drew on from weeks to months. +For my part, my natural sorrow for a kind, though not a fond father, +having abated, I cared not if the lawsuit had detained us at Madrid for +ever. My mother permitted herself and me rather more liberty than we +had been accustomed to. She found relations among the Scottish and Irish +officers, many of whom held a high rank in the Spanish armies; their +wives and daughters became our friends and companions, and I had +perpetual occasion to exercise my mother's native language, which I had +learned from my infancy. By degrees, as my mother's spirits were low, +and her health indifferent, she was induced, by her partial fondness for +me, to suffer me to mingle occasionally in society which she herself did +not frequent, under the guardianship of such ladies as she imagined she +could trust, and particularly under the care of the lady of a general +officer, whose weakness or falsehood was the original cause of my +misfortunes. I was as gay, Margaret, and thoughtless--I again repeat +it--as you were but lately, and my attention, like yours, became +suddenly riveted to one object, and to one set of feelings. + +"The person by whom they were excited was young, noble, handsome, +accomplished, a soldier, and a Briton. So far our cases are nearly +parallel; but, may heaven forbid that the parallel should become +complete! This man, so noble, so fairly formed, so gifted, and so +brave--this villain, for that, Margaret, was his fittest name, spoke of +love to me, and I listened---Could I suspect his sincerity? If he was +wealthy, noble, and long-descended, I also was a noble and an opulent +heiress. It is true, that he neither knew the extent of my father's +wealth, nor did I communicate to him (I do not even remember if I myself +knew it at the time) the important circumstance, that the greater part +of that wealth was beyond the grasp of arbitrary power, and not subject +to the precarious award of arbitrary judges. My lover might think, +perhaps, as my mother was desirous the world at large should believe, +that almost our whole fortune depended on the precarious suit which we +had come to Madrid to prosecute--a belief which she had countenanced +out of policy, being well aware that a knowledge of my father's having +remitted such a large part of his fortune to England, would in no shape +aid the recovery of further sums in the Spanish courts. Yet, with no +more extensive views of my fortune than were possessed by the public, +I believe that he, of whom I am speaking, was at first sincere in his +pretensions. He had himself interest sufficient to have obtained a +decision in our favour in the courts, and my fortune, reckoning only +what was in Spain, would then have been no inconsiderable sum. To be +brief, whatever might be his motives or temptation for so far committing +himself, he applied to my mother for my hand, with my consent and +approval. My mother's judgment had become weaker, but her passions had +become more irritable, during her increasing illness. + +"You have heard of the bitterness of the ancient Scottish feuds, of +which it may be said, in the language of Scripture, that the fathers eat +sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge. Unhappily--I +should say _happily_, considering what this man has now shown himself +to be--some such strain of bitterness had divided his house from my +mother's, and she had succeeded to the inheritance of hatred. When +he asked her for my hand, she was no longer able to command her +passions--she raked up every injury which the rival families had +inflicted upon each other during a bloody feud of two centuries--heaped +him with epithets of scorn, and rejected his proposal of alliance, as if +it had come from the basest of mankind. + +"My lover retired in passion; and I remained to weep and murmur against +fortune, and--I will confess my fault--against my affectionate parent. +I had been educated with different feelings, and the traditions of the +feuds and quarrels of my mother's family in Scotland, which we're to her +monuments and chronicles, seemed to me as insignificant and unmeaning +as the actions and fantasies of Don Quixote; and I blamed my mother +bitterly for sacrificing my happiness to an empty dream of family +dignity. + +"While I was in this humour, my lover sought a renewal of our +intercourse. We met repeatedly in the house of the lady whom I +have mentioned, and who, in levity, or in the spirit of intrigue, +countenanced our secret correspondence. At length we were secretly +married--so far did my blinded passion hurry me. My lover had secured +the assistance of a clergyman of the English church. Monna Paula, who +had been my attendant from infancy, was one witness of our union. Let me +do the faithful creature justice--She conjured me to suspend my purpose +till my mother's death should permit us to celebrate our marriage +openly; but the entreaties of my lover, and my own wayward passion, +prevailed over her remonstrances. The lady I have spoken of was another +witness, but whether she was in full possession of my bridegroom's +secret, I had never the means to learn. But the shelter of her name and +roof afforded us the means of frequently meeting, and the love of my +husband seemed as sincere and as unbounded as my own. + +"He was eager, he said, to gratify his pride, by introducing me to one +or two of his noble English friends. This could not be done at Lady +D---'s; but by his command, which I was now entitled to consider as my +law, I contrived twice to visit him at his own hotel, accompanied only +by Monna Paula. There was a very small party, of two ladies and two +gentlemen. There was music, mirth, and dancing. I had heard of the +frankness of the English nation, but I could not help thinking it +bordered on license during these entertainments, and in the course +of the collation which followed; but I imputed my scruples to my +inexperience, and would not doubt the propriety of what was approved by +my husband. + +"I was soon summoned to other scenes: My poor mother's disease drew to +a conclusion--Happy I am that it took place before she discovered what +would have cut her to the soul. + +"In Spain you may have heard how the Catholic priests, and particularly +the monks, besiege the beds of the dying, to obtain bequests for the +good of the church. I have said that my mother's temper was irritated by +disease, and her judgment impaired in proportion. She gathered spirits +and force from the resentment which the priests around her bed excited +by their importunity, and the boldness of the stern sect of reformers, +to which she had secretly adhered, seemed to animate her dying tongue. +She avowed the religion she had so long concealed; renounced all hope +and aid which did not come by and through its dictates; rejected with +contempt the ceremonial of the Romish church; loaded the astonished +priests with reproaches for their greediness and hypocrisy, and +commanded them to leave her house. They went in bitterness and rage, +but it was to return with the inquisitorial power, its warrants, and its +officers; and they found only the cold corpse left of her, on whom they +had hoped to work their vengeance. As I was soon discovered to have +shared my mother's heresy, I was dragged from her dead body, imprisoned +in a solitary cloister, and treated with severity, which the Abbess +assured me was due to the looseness of my life, as well as my spiritual +errors. I avowed my marriage, to justify the situation in which I found +myself--I implored the assistance of the Superior to communicate my +situation to my husband. She smiled coldly at the proposal, and told +me the church had provided a better spouse for me; advised me to secure +myself of divine grace hereafter, and deserve milder treatment here, by +presently taking the veil. In order to convince me that I had no other +resource, she showed me a royal decree, by which all my estate was +hypothecated to the convent of Saint Magdalen, and became their complete +property upon my death, or my taking the vows. As I was, both from +religious principle, and affectionate attachment to my husband, +absolutely immovable in my rejection of the veil, I believe--may heaven +forgive me if I wrong her--that the Abbess was desirous to make sure of +my spoils, by hastening the former event. + +"It was a small and a poor convent, and situated among the mountains +of Guadarrama. Some of the sisters were the daughters of neighbouring +Hidalgoes, as poor as they were proud and ignorant; others were women +immured there on account of their vicious conduct. The Superior herself +was of a high family, to which she owed her situation; but she was said +to have disgraced her connexions by her conduct during youth, and now, +in advanced age, covetousness and the love of power, a spirit too of +severity and cruelty, had succeeded to the thirst after licentious +pleasure. I suffered much under this woman--and still her dark, glassy +eye, her tall, shrouded form, and her rigid features, haunt my slumbers. + +"I was not destined to be a mother. I was very ill, and my recovery was +long doubtful. The most violent remedies were applied, if remedies +they indeed were. My health was restored at length, against my own +expectation and that of all around me. But, when I first again beheld +the reflection of my own face, I thought it was the visage of a ghost. I +was wont to be flattered by all, but particularly by my husband, for the +fineness of my complexion--it was now totally gone, and, what is more +extraordinary, it has never returned. I have observed that the few +who now see me, look upon me as a bloodless phantom--Such has been +the abiding effect of the treatment to which I was subjected. May God +forgive those who were the agents of it!--I thank Heaven I can say so +with as sincere a wish, as that with which I pray for forgiveness of +my own sins. They now relented somewhat towards me--moved perhaps +to compassion by my singular appearance, which bore witness to my +sufferings; or afraid that the matter might attract attention during +a visitation of the bishop, which was approaching. One day, as I was +walking in the convent-garden, to which I had been lately admitted, a +miserable old Moorish slave, who was kept to cultivate the little +spot, muttered as I passed him, but still keeping his wrinkled face and +decrepit form in the same angle with the earth--'There is Heart's Ease +near the postern.' + +"I knew something of the symbolical language of flowers, once carried to +such perfection among the Moriscoes of Spain; but if I had been ignorant +of it, the captive would soon have caught at any hint which seemed +to promise liberty. With all the haste consistent with the utmost +circumspection--for I might be observed by the Abbess or some of the +sisters from the window--I hastened to the postern. It was closely +barred as usual, but when I coughed slightly, I was answered from the +other side--and, O heaven! it was my husband's voice which said, 'Lose +not a minute here at present, but be on this spot when the vesper bell +has tolled.' + +"I retired in an ecstasy of joy. I was not entitled or permitted to +assist at vespers, but was accustomed to be confined to my cell while +the nuns were in the choir. Since my recovery, they had discontinued +locking the door; though the utmost severity was denounced against me +if I left these precincts. But, let the penalty be what it would, I +hastened to dare it.--No sooner had the last toll of the vesper bell +ceased to sound, than I stole from my chamber, reached the garden +unobserved, hurried to the postern, beheld it open with rapture, and +in the next moment was in my husband's arms. He had with him another +cavalier of noble mien--both were masked and armed. Their horses, with +one saddled for my use, stood in a thicket hard by, with two other +masked horsemen, who seemed to be servants. In less than two minutes we +were mounted, and rode off as fast as we could through rough and devious +roads, in which one of the domestics appeared to act as guide. + +"The hurried pace at which we rode, and the anxiety of the moment, kept +me silent, and prevented my expressing my surprise or my joy save in a +few broken words. It also served as an apology for my husband's silence. +At length we stopped at a solitary hut--the cavaliers dismounted, and I +was assisted from my saddle, not by M----M----my husband, I would say, +who seemed busied about his horse, but by the stranger. + +"'Go into the hut,' said my husband, 'change your dress with the +speed of lightning--you will find one to _assist_ you--we must forward +instantly when you have shifted your apparel.' + +"I entered the hut, and was received in the arms of the faithful Monna +Paula, who had waited my arrival for many hours, half distracted with +fear and anxiety. With her assistance I speedily tore off the detested +garments of the convent, and exchanged them for a travelling suit, made +after the English fashion. I observed that Monna Paula was in a similar +dress. I had but just huddled on my change of attire, when we were +hastily summoned to mount. A horse, I found, was provided for Monna +Paula, and we resumed our route. On the way, my convent-garb, which had +been wrapped hastily together around a stone, was thrown into a lake, +along the verge of which we were then passing. The two cavaliers rode +together in front, my attendant and I followed, and the servants brought +up the rear. Monna Paula, as we rode on, repeatedly entreated me to +be silent upon the road, as our lives depended on it. I was easily +reconciled to be passive, for, the first fever of spirits which attended +the sense of liberation and of gratified affection having passed away, I +felt as it were dizzy with the rapid motion; and my utmost exertion was +necessary to keep my place on the saddle, until we suddenly (it was now +very dark) saw a strong light before us. + +"My husband reined up his horse, and gave a signal by a low whistle +twice repeated, which was answered from a distance. The whole party then +halted under the boughs of a large cork-tree, and my husband, drawing +himself close to my side, said, in a voice which I then thought was only +embarrassed by fear for my safety,--'We must now part. Those to whom I +commit you are contrabandists, who only know you as English-women, but +who, for a high bribe, have undertaken to escort you through the passes +of the Pyrenees as far as Saint Jean de Luz.' + +"'And do you not go with us?' I exclaimed with emphasis, though in a +whisper. + +"'It is impossible,' he said, 'and would ruin all--See that you speak +in English in these people's hearing, and give not the least sign of +understanding what they say in Spanish--your life depends on it; for, +though they live in opposition to, and evasion of, the laws of Spain, +they would tremble at the idea of violating those of the church--I see +them coming--farewell--farewell.' + +"The last words were hastily uttered-I endeavoured to detain him yet a +moment by my feeble grasp on his cloak. + +"'You will meet me, then, I trust, at Saint Jean de Luz?' + +"'Yes, yes,' he answered hastily, 'at Saint Jean de Luz you will meet +your protector.' + +"He then extricated his cloak from my grasp, and was lost in the +darkness. His companion approached--kissed my hand, which in the +agony of the moment I was scarce sensible of, and followed my husband, +attended by one of the domestics." + +The tears of Hermione here flowed so fast as to threaten the +interruption of her narrative. When she resumed it, it was with a kind +of apology to Margaret. + +"Every circumstance," she said, "occurring in those moments, when I +still enjoyed a delusive idea of happiness, is deeply imprinted in my +remembrance, which, respecting all that has since happened, is waste and +unvaried as an Arabian desert. But I have no right to inflict on you, +Margaret, agitated as you are with your own anxieties, the unavailing +details of my useless recollections." + +Margaret's eyes were full of tears--it was impossible it could +be otherwise, considering that the tale was told by her suffering +benefactress, and resembled, in some respects, her own situation; and +yet she must not be severely blamed, if, while eagerly pressing her +patroness to continue her narrative, her eye involuntarily sought the +door, as if to chide the delay of Monna Paula. + +The Lady Hermione saw and forgave these conflicting emotions; and +she, too, must be pardoned, if, in her turn, the minute detail of her +narrative showed, that, in the discharge of feelings so long locked +in her own bosom, she rather forgot those which were personal to +her auditor, and by which it must be supposed Margaret's mind was +principally occupied, if not entirely engrossed. + +"I told you, I think, that one domestic followed the gentlemen," thus +the lady continued her story, "the other remained with us for the +purpose, as it seemed, of introducing us to two persons whom M--, I +say, whom my husband's signal had brought to the spot. A word or two of +explanation passed between them and the servant, in a sort of _patois_, +which I did not understand; and one of the strangers taking hold of my +bridle, the other of Monna Paula's, they led us towards the light, +which I have already said was the signal of our halting. I touched Monna +Paula, and was sensible that she trembled very much, which surprised me, +because I knew her character to be so strong and bold as to border upon +the masculine. + +"When we reached the fire, the gipsy figures of those who surrounded it, +with their swarthy features, large Sombrero hats, girdles stuck full +of pistols and poniards, and all the other apparatus of a roving and +perilous life, would have terrified me at another moment. But then I +only felt the agony of having parted from my husband almost in the very +moment of my rescue. The females of the gang--for there were four or +five women amongst these contraband traders--received us with a sort of +rude courtesy. They were, in dress and manners, not extremely different +from the men with whom they associated--were almost as hardy and +adventurous, carried arms like them, and were, as we learned from +passing circumstances, scarce less experienced in the use of them. + +"It was impossible not to fear these wild people; yet they gave us no +reason to complain of them, but used us on all occasions with a kind of +clumsy courtesy, accommodating themselves to our wants and our weakness +during the journey, even while we heard them grumbling to each other +against our effeminacy,--like some rude carrier, who, in charge of a +package of valuable and fragile ware, takes every precaution for its +preservation, while he curses the unwonted trouble which it occasions +him. Once or twice, when they were disappointed in their contraband +traffic, lost some goods in a rencontre with the Spanish officers of +the revenue, and were finally pursued by a military force, their murmurs +assumed a more alarming tone, in the terrified ears of my attendant and +myself, when, without daring to seem to understand them, we heard them +curse the insular heretics, on whose account God, Saint James, and +Our Lady of the Pillar, had blighted their hopes of profit. These are +dreadful recollections, Margaret." + +"Why, then, dearest lady," answered Margaret, "will you thus dwell on +them?" + +"It is only," said the Lady Hermione, "because I linger like a criminal +on the scaffold, and would fain protract the time that must inevitably +bring on the final catastrophe. Yes, dearest Margaret, I rest and dwell +on the events of that journey, marked as it was by fatigue and danger, +though the road lay through the wildest and most desolate deserts and +mountains, and though our companions, both men and women, were fierce +and lawless themselves, and exposed to the most merciless retaliation +from those with whom they were constantly engaged--yet would I rather +dwell on these hazardous events than tell that which awaited me at Saint +Jean de Luz." + +"But you arrived there in safety?" said Margaret. + +"Yes, maiden," replied the Lady Hermione; "and were guided by the chief +of our outlawed band to the house which had been assigned for reception, +with the same punctilious accuracy with which he would have delivered a +bale of uncustomed goods to a correspondent. I was told a gentleman +had expected me for two days--I rushed into the apartment, and, when +I expected to embrace my husband--I found myself in the arms of his +friend!" + +"The villain!" exclaimed Margaret, whose anxiety had, in spite of +herself, been a moment suspended by the narrative of the lady. + +"Yes," replied Hermione, calmly, though her voice somewhat faltered, "it +is the name that best--that well befits him. He, Margaret, for whom I +had sacrificed all--whose love and whose memory were dearer to me than +my freedom, when I was in the convent--than my life, when I was on my +perilous journey--had taken his measures to shake me off, and transfer +me, as a privileged wanton, to the protection of his libertine +friend. At first the stranger laughed at my tears and my agony, as the +hysterical passion of a deluded and overreached wanton, or the wily +affection of a courtezan. My claim of marriage he laughed at, assuring +me he knew it was a mere farce required by me, and submitted to by his +friend, to save some reserve of delicacy; and expressed his surprise +that I should consider in any other light a ceremony which could be +valid neither in Spain nor England, and insultingly offered to remove +my scruples, by renewing such a union with me himself. My exclamations +brought Monna Paula to my aid--she was not, indeed, far distant, for she +had expected some such scene." + +"Good heaven!" said Margaret, "was she a confidant of your base +husband?" + +"No," answered Hermione, "do her not that injustice. It was her +persevering inquiries that discovered the place of my confinement--it +was she who gave the information to my husband, and who remarked even +then that the news was so much more interesting to his friend than to +him, that she suspected, from an early period, it was the purpose of the +villain to shake me off. On the journey, her suspicions were confirmed. +She had heard him remark to his companion, with a cold sarcastic +sneer, the total change which my prison and my illness had made on my +complexion; and she had heard the other reply, that the defect might be +cured by a touch of Spanish red. This, and other circumstances, having +prepared her for such treachery, Monna Paula now entered, completely +possessed of herself, and prepared to support me. Her calm +representations went farther with the stranger than the expressions of +my despair. If he did not entirely believe our tale, he at least +acted the part of a man of honour, who would not intrude himself +on defenceless females, whatever was their character; desisted from +persecuting us with his presence; and not only directed Monna Paula how +we should journey to Paris, but furnished her with money for the purpose +of our journey. From the capital I wrote to Master Heriot, my father's +most trusted correspondent; he came instantly to Paris on receiving +the letter; and--But here comes Monna Paula, with more than the sum you +desired. Take it, my dearest maiden--serve this youth if you will. But, +O Margaret, look for no gratitude in return!" + +The Lady Hermione took the bag of gold from her attendant, and gave it +to her young friend, who threw herself into her arms, kissed her on +both the pale cheeks, over which the sorrows so newly awakened by +her narrative had drawn many tears, then sprung up, wiped her own +overflowing eyes, and left the Foljambe apartments with a hasty and +resolved step. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + + Rove not from pole to pole-the man lives here + Whose razor's only equall'd by his beer; + And where, in either sense, the cockney-put + May, if he pleases, get confounded cut. + _On the sign of an Alehouse kept by a Barber._ + +We are under the necessity of transporting our readers to the habitation +of Benjamin Suddlechop, the husband of the active and efficient Dame +Ursula, and who also, in his own person, discharged more offices than +one. For, besides trimming locks and beards, and turning whiskers upward +into the martial and swaggering curl, or downward into the drooping +form which became mustaches of civil policy; besides also occasionally +letting blood, either by cupping or by the lancet, extracting a stump, +and performing other actions of petty pharmacy, very nearly as well as +his neighbour Raredrench, the apothecary: he could, on occasion, draw +a cup of beer as well as a tooth, tap a hogshead as well as a vein, and +wash, with a draught of good ale, the mustaches which his art had just +trimmed. But he carried on these trades apart from each other. + +His barber's shop projected its long and mysterious pole into Fleet +Street, painted party-coloured-wise, to represent the ribbons with +which, in elder times, that ensign was garnished. In the window were +seen rows of teeth displayed upon strings like rosaries--cups with a red +rag at the bottom, to resemble blood, an intimation that patients +might be bled, cupped, or blistered, with the assistance of "sufficient +advice;" while the more profitable, but less honourable operations upon +the hair of the head and beard, were briefly and gravely announced. +Within was the well-worn leather chair for customers, the guitar, then +called a ghittern or cittern, with which a customer might amuse himself +till his predecessor was dismissed from under Benjamin's hands, and +which, therefore, often flayed the ears of the patient metaphorically, +while his chin sustained from the razor literal scarification. All, +therefore, in this department, spoke the chirurgeon-barber, or the +barber-chirurgeon. + +But there was a little back-room, used as a private tap-room, which had +a separate entrance by a dark and crooked alley, which communicated with +Fleet Street, after a circuitous passage through several by-lanes +and courts. This retired temple of Bacchus had also a connexion with +Benjamin's more public shop by a long and narrow entrance, conducting to +the secret premises in which a few old topers used to take their morning +draught, and a few gill-sippers their modicum of strong waters, in a +bashful way, after having entered the barber's shop under pretence of +being shaved. Besides, this obscure tap-room gave a separate admission +to the apartments of Dame Ursley, which she was believed to make use of +in the course of her multifarious practice, both to let herself secretly +out, and to admit clients and employers who cared not to be seen to +visit her in public. Accordingly, after the hour of noon, by which time +the modest and timid whetters, who were Benjamin's best customers, had +each had his draught, or his thimbleful, the business of the tap was in +a manner ended, and the charge of attending the back-door passed from +one of the barber's apprentices to the little mulatto girl, the dingy +Iris of Dame Suddlechop. Then came mystery thick upon mystery; muffled +gallants, and masked females, in disguises of different fashions, were +seen to glide through the intricate mazes of the alley; and even the low +tap on the door, which frequently demanded the attention of the +little Creole, had in it something that expressed secrecy and fear of +discovery. + +It was the evening of the same day when Margaret had held the long +conference with the Lady Hermione, that Dame Suddlechop had directed her +little portress to "keep the door fast as a miser's purse-strings; and, +as she valued her saffron skin, to let in none but---" the name she +added in a whisper, and accompanied it with a nod. The little domestic +blinked intelligence, went to her post, and in brief time thereafter +admitted and ushered into the presence of the dame, that very +city-gallant whose clothes sat awkwardly upon him, and who had behaved +so doughtily in the fray which befell at Nigel's first visit to +Beaujeu's ordinary. The mulatto introduced him--"Missis, fine young +gentleman, all over gold and velvet "--then muttered to herself as she +shut the door, "fine young gentleman, he!--apprentice to him who makes +the tick-tick." + +It was indeed--we are sorry to say it, and trust our readers will +sympathize with the interest we take in the matter--it was indeed honest +Jin Vin, who had been so far left to his own devices, and abandoned by +his better angel, as occasionally to travesty himself in this fashion, +and to visit, in the dress of a gallant of the day, those places of +pleasure and dissipation, in which it would have been everlasting +discredit to him to have been seen in his real character and condition; +that is, had it been possible for him in his proper shape to have gained +admission. There was now a deep gloom on his brow, his rich habit was +hastily put on, and buttoned awry; his belt buckled in a most disorderly +fashion, so that his sword stuck outwards from his side, instead of +hanging by it with graceful negligence; while his poniard, though fairly +hatched and gilded, stuck in his girdle like a butcher's steel in +the fold of his blue apron. Persons of fashion had, by the way, the +advantage formerly of being better distinguished from the vulgar than at +present; for, what the ancient farthingale and more modern hoop were to +court ladies, the sword was to the gentleman; an article of dress, which +only rendered those ridiculous who assumed it for the nonce, without +being in the habit of wearing it. Vincent's rapier got between his legs, +and, as he stumbled over it, he exclaimed--"Zounds! 'tis the second time +it has served me thus--I believe the damned trinket knows I am no true +gentleman, and does it of set purpose." + +"Come, come, mine honest Jin Vin--come, my good boy," said the dame, in +a soothing tone, "never mind these trankums--a frank and hearty London +'prentice is worth all the gallants of the inns of court." + +"I was a frank and hearty London 'prentice before I knew you, Dame +Suddlechop," said Vincent; "what your advice has made me, you may find a +name for; since, fore George! I am ashamed to think about it myself." + +"A-well-a-day," quoth the dame, "and is it even so with thee?--nay, +then, I know but one cure;" and with that, going to a little corner +cupboard of carved wainscoat, she opened it by the assistance of a key, +which, with half-a-dozen besides, hung in a silver chain at her girdle, +and produced a long flask of thin glass cased with wicker, bringing +forth at the same time two Flemish rummer glasses, with long stalks and +capacious wombs. She filled the one brimful for her guest, and the other +more modestly to about two-thirds of its capacity, for her own +use, repeating, as the rich cordial trickled forth in a smooth oily +stream--"Right Rosa Solis, as ever washed mulligrubs out of a moody +brain!" + +But, though Jin Vin tossed off his glass without scruple, while the lady +sippped hers more moderately, it did not appear to produce the expected +amendment upon his humour. On the contrary, as he threw himself into the +great leathern chair, in which Dame Ursley was wont to solace herself of +an evening, he declared himself "the most miserable dog within the sound +of Bow-bell." + +"And why should you be so idle as to think yourself so, silly boy?" said +Dame Suddlechop; "but 'tis always thus--fools and children never know +when they are well. Why, there is not one that walks in St. Paul's, +whether in flat cap, or hat and feather, that has so many kind glances +from the wenches as you, when ye swagger along Fleet Street with your +bat under your arm, and your cap set aside upon your head. Thou knowest +well, that, from Mrs. Deputy's self down to the waist-coateers in the +alley, all of them are twiring and peeping betwixt their fingers when +you pass; and yet you call yourself a miserable dog! and I must tell +you all this over and over again, as if I were whistling the chimes +of London to a pettish child, in order to bring the pretty baby into +good-humour!" + +The flattery of Dame Ursula seemed to have the fate of her cordial--it +was swallowed, indeed, by the party to whom she presented it, and that +with some degree of relish, but it did not operate as a sedative on the +disturbed state of the youth's mind. He laughed for an instant, half +in scorn, and half in gratified vanity, but cast a sullen look on Dame +Ursley as he replied to her last words, + +"You do treat me like a child indeed, when you sing over and over to me +a cuckoo song that I care not a copper-filing for." + +"Aha!" said Dame Ursley; "that is to say, you care not if you please +all, unless you please one--You are a true lover, I warrant, and care +not for all the city, from here to Whitechapel, so you could write +yourself first in your pretty Peg-a-Ramsay's good-will. Well, well, take +patience, man, and be guided by me, for I will be the hoop will bind you +together at last." + +"It is time you were so," said Jenkin, "for hitherto you have rather +been the wedge to separate us." + +Dame Suddlechop had by this time finished her cordial--it was not the +first she had taken that day; and, though a woman of strong brain, +and cautious at least, if not abstemious, in her potations, it may +nevertheless be supposed that her patience was not improved by the +regimen which she observed. + +"Why, thou ungracious and ingrate knave," said Dame Ursley, "have not +I done every thing to put thee in thy mistress's good graces? She loves +gentry, the proud Scottish minx, as a Welshman loves cheese, and has +her father's descent from that Duke of Daldevil, or whatsoever she calls +him, as close in her heart as gold in a miser's chest, though she +as seldom shows it--and none she will think of, or have, but a +gentleman--and a gentleman I have made of thee, Jin Vin, the devil +cannot deny that." + +"You have made a fool of me," said poor Jenkin, looking at the sleeve of +his jacket. + +"Never the worse gentleman for that," said Dame Ursley, laughing. + +"And what is worse," said he, turning his back to her suddenly, and +writhing in his chair, "you have made a rogue of me." + +"Never the worse gentleman for that neither," said Dame Ursley, in the +same tone; "let a man bear his folly gaily and his knavery stoutly, and +let me see if gravity or honesty will look him in the face now-a-days. +Tut, man, it was only in the time of King Arthur or King Lud, that a +gentleman was held to blemish his scutcheon by a leap over the line +of reason or honesty--It is the bold look, the ready hand, the fine +clothes, the brisk oath, and the wild brain, that makes the gallant +now-a-days." + +"I know what you have made me," said Jin Vin; "since I have given up +skittles and trap-ball for tennis and bowls, good English ale for thin +Bordeaux and sour Rhenish, roast-beef and pudding for woodcocks and +kickshaws--my bat for a sword, my cap for a beaver, my forsooth for +a modish oath, my Christmas-box for a dice-box, my religion for the +devil's matins, and mine honest name for--Woman, I could brain thee, +when I think whose advice has guided me in all this!" + +"Whose advice, then? whose advice, then? Speak out, thou poor, petty +cloak-brusher, and say who advised thee!" retorted Dame Ursley, flushed +and indignant--"Marry come up, my paltry companion--say by whose advice +you have made a gamester of yourself, and a thief besides, as your +words would bear--The Lord deliver us from evil!" And here Dame Ursley +devoutly crossed herself. + +"Hark ye, Dame Ursley Suddlechop," said Jenkin, starting up, his dark +eyes flashing with anger; "remember I am none of your husband--and, if +I were, you would do well not to forget whose threshold was swept +when they last rode the Skimmington [Footnote: A species of triumphal +procession in honour of female supremacy, when it rose to such a height +as to attract the attention of the neighbourhood. It is described at +full length in Hudibras. (Part II. Canto II.) As the procession passed +on, those who attended it in an official capacity were wont to sweep +the threshold of the houses in which Fame affirmed the mistresses to +exercise paramount authority, which was given and received as a hint +that their inmates might, in their turn, be made the subject of a +similar ovation. The Skimmington, which in some degree resembled +the proceedings of Mumbo Jumbo in an African village, has been long +discontinued in England, apparently because female rule has become +either milder or less frequent than among our ancestors.] upon such +another scolding jade as yourself." + +"I hope to see you ride up Holborn next," said Dame Ursley, provoked out +of all her holiday and sugar-plum expressions, "with a nosegay at your +breast, and a parson at your elbow!" + +"That may well be," answered Jin Vin, bitterly, "if I walk by your +counsels as I have begun by them; but, before that day comes, you +shall know that Jin Vin has the brisk boys of Fleet Street still at +his wink.--Yes, you jade, you shall be carted for bawd and conjurer, +double-dyed in grain, and bing off to Bridewell, with every brass basin +betwixt the Bar and Paul's beating before you, as if the devil were +banging them with his beef-hook." + +Dame Ursley coloured like scarlet, seized upon the half-emptied flask of +cordial, and seemed, by her first gesture, about to hurl it at the head +of her adversary; but suddenly, and as if by a strong internal effort, +she checked her outrageous resentment, and, putting the bottle to its +more legitimate use, filled, with wonderful composure, the two glasses, +and, taking up one of them, said, with a smile, which better became her +comely and jovial countenance than the fury by which it was animated the +moment before-- + +"Here is to thee, Jin Vin, my lad, in all loving kindness, whatever +spite thou bearest to me, that have always been a mother to thee." + +Jenkin's English good-nature could not resist this forcible appeal; he +took up the other glass, and lovingly pledged the dame in her cup of +reconciliation, and proceeded to make a kind of grumbling apology for +his own violence-- + +"For you know," he said, "it was you persuaded me to get these fine +things, and go to that godless ordinary, and ruffle it with the best, +and bring you home all the news; and you said, I, that was the cock +of the ward, would soon be the cock of the ordinary, and would win +ten times as much at gleek and primero, as I used to do at put and +beggar-my-neighbour--and turn up doublets with the dice, as busily as I +was wont to trowl down the ninepins in the skittle-ground--and then you +said I should bring you such news out of the ordinary as should make +us all, when used as you knew how to use it--and now you see what is to +come of it all!" + +"'Tis all true thou sayest, lad," said the dame; "but thou must have +patience. Rome was not built in a day--you cannot become used to your +court-suit in a month's time, any more than when you changed your long +coat for a doublet and hose; and in gaming you must expect to lose as +well as gain--'tis the sitting gamester sweeps the board." + +"The board has swept me, I know," replied Jin Vin, "and that pretty +clean out.--I would that were the worst; but I owe for all this finery, +and settling-day is coming on, and my master will find my accompt worse +than it should be by a score of pieces. My old father will be called in +to make them good; and I--may save the hangman a labour and do the job +myself, or go the Virginia voyage." + +"Do not speak so loud, my dear boy," said Dame Ursley; "but tell me why +you borrow not from a friend to make up your arrear. You could lend him +as much when his settling-day came round." + +"No, no--I have had enough of that work," said Vincent. "Tunstall would +lend me the money, poor fellow, an he had it; but his gentle, beggarly +kindred, plunder him of all, and keep him as bare as a birch at +Christmas. No--my fortune may be spelt in four letters, and these read, +RUIN." + +"Now hush, you simple craven," said the dame; "did you never hear, that +when the need is highest the help is nighest? We may find aid for you +yet, and sooner than you are aware of. I am sure I would never have +advised you to such a course, but only you had set heart and eye on +pretty Mistress Marget, and less would not serve you--and what could +I do but advise you to cast your city-slough, and try your luck where +folks find fortune?" + +"Ay, ay--I remember your counsel well," said Jenkin; "I was to be +introduced to her by you when I was perfect in my gallantries, and as +rich as the king; and then she was to be surprised to find I was poor +Jin Vin, that used to watch, from matin to curfew, for one glance of +her eye; and now, instead of that, she has set her soul on this Scottish +sparrow-hawk of a lord that won my last tester, and be cursed to him; +and so I am bankrupt in love, fortune, and character, before I am out of +my time, and all along of you, Mother Midnight." + +"Do not call me out of my own name, my dear boy, Jin Vin," answered +Ursula, in a tone betwixt rage and coaxing,--"do not; because I am no +saint, but a poor sinful woman, with no more patience than she needs, +to carry her through a thousand crosses. And if I have done you wrong by +evil counsel, I must mend it and put you right by good advice. And for +the score of pieces that must be made up at settling-day, why, here is, +in a good green purse, as much as will make that matter good; and +we will get old Crosspatch, the tailor, to take a long day for your +clothes; and--" + +"Mother, are you serious?" said Jin Vin, unable to trust either his eyes +or his ears. + +"In troth am I," said the dame; "and will you call me Mother Midnight +now, Jin Vin?" + +"Mother Midnight!" exclaimed Jenkin, hugging the dame in his transport, +and bestowing on her still comely cheek a hearty and not unacceptable +smack, that sounded like the report of a pistol,--"Mother Midday, +rather, that has risen to light me out of my troubles--a mother more +dear than she who bore me; for she, poor soul, only brought me into a +world of sin and sorrow, and your timely aid has helped me out of the +one and the other." And the good-natured fellow threw himself back in +his chair, and fairly drew his hand across his eyes. + +"You would not have me be made to ride the Skimmington then," said the +dame; "or parade me in a cart, with all the brass basins of the ward +beating the march to Bridewell before me?" + +"I would sooner be carted to Tyburn myself," replied the penitent. + +"Why, then, sit up like a man, and wipe thine eyes; and, if thou art +pleased with what I have done, I will show thee how thou mayst requite +me in the highest degree." + +"How?" said Jenkin Vincent, sitting straight up in his chair.--"You +would have me, then, do you some service for this friendship of yours?" + +"Ay, marry would I," said Dame Ursley; "for you are to know, that though +I am right glad to stead you with it, this gold is not mine, but was +placed in my hands in order to find a trusty agent, for a certain +purpose; and so--But what's the matter with you?--are you fool enough to +be angry because you cannot get a purse of gold for nothing? I would +I knew where such were to come by. I never could find them lying in my +road, I promise you." + +"No, no, dame," said poor Jenkin, "it is not for that; for, look you, +I would rather work these ten bones to the knuckles, and live by my +labour; but--" (and here he paused.) + +"But what, man?" said Dame Ursley. "You are willing to work for what you +want; and yet, when I offer you gold for the winning, you look on me as +the devil looks over Lincoln." + +"It is ill talking of the devil, mother," said Jenkin. "I had him even +now in my head--for, look you, I am at that pass, when they say he +will appear to wretched ruined creatures, and proffer them gold for the +fee-simple of their salvation. But I have been trying these two days to +bring my mind strongly up to the thought, that I will rather sit down +in shame, and sin, and sorrow, as I am like to do, than hold on in ill +courses to get rid of my present straits; and so take care, Dame Ursula, +how you tempt me to break such a good resolution." + +"I tempt you to nothing, young man," answered Ursula; "and, as I +perceive you are too wilful to be wise, I will e'en put my purse in my +pocket, and look out for some one that will work my turn with better +will, and more thankfulness. And you may go your own course,--break +your indenture, ruin your father, lose your character, and bid pretty +Mistress Margaret farewell, for ever and a day." + +"Stay, stay," said Jenkin "the woman is in as great a hurry as a brown +baker when his oven is overheated. First, let me hear that which you +have to propose to me." + +"Why, after all, it is but to get a gentleman of rank and fortune, who +is in trouble, carried in secret down the river, as far as the Isle of +Dogs, or somewhere thereabout, where he may lie concealed until he can +escape aboard. I know thou knowest every place by the river's side as +well as the devil knows an usurer, or the beggar knows his dish." + +"A plague of your similes, dame," replied the apprentice; "for the devil +gave me that knowledge, and beggary may be the end on't.--But what has +this gentleman done, that he should need to be under hiding? No Papist, +I hope--no Catesby and Piercy business--no Gunpowder Plot?" + +"Fy, fy!--what do you take me for?" said Dame Ursula. "I am as good a +churchwoman as the parson's wife, save that necessary business will not +allow me to go there oftener than on Christmas-day, heaven help me!--No, +no--this is no Popish matter. The gentleman hath but struck another in +the Park--" + +"Ha! what?" said Vincent, interrupting her with a start. + +"Ay, ay, I see you guess whom I mean. It is even he we have spoken of so +often--just Lord Glenvarloch, and no one else." + +Vincent sprung from his seat, and traversed the room with rapid and +disorderly steps. + +"There, there it is now--you are always ice or gunpowder. You sit in the +great leathern armchair, as quiet as a rocket hangs upon the frame in a +rejoicing-night till the match be fired, and then, whizz! you are in the +third heaven, beyond the reach of the human voice, eye, or brain.--When +you have wearied yourself with padding to and fro across the room, will +you tell me your determination, for time presses? Will you aid me in +this matter, or not?" + +"No--no--no--a thousand times no," replied Jenkin. "Have you not +confessed to me, that Margaret loves him?" + +"Ay," answered the dame, "that she thinks she does; but that will not +last long." + +"And have I not told you but this instant," replied Jenkin, "that it was +this same Glenvarloch that rooked me, at the ordinary, of every penny I +had, and made a knave of me to boot, by gaining more than was my own?--O +that cursed gold, which Shortyard, the mercer, paid me that morning on +accompt, for mending the clock of Saint Stephen's! If I had not, by ill +chance, had that about me, I could but have beggared my purse, without +blemishing my honesty; and, after I had been rooked of all the rest +amongst them, I must needs risk the last five pieces with that shark +among the minnows!" + +"Granted," said Dame Ursula. "All this I know; and I own, that as Lord +Glenvarloch was the last you played with, you have a right to charge +your ruin on his head. Moreover, I admit, as already said, that Margaret +has made him your rival. Yet surely, now he is in danger to lose his +hand, it is not a time to remember all this?" + +"By my faith, but it is, though," said the young citizen. "Lose his +hand, indeed? They may take his head, for what I care. Head and hand +have made me a miserable wretch!" + +"Now, were it not better, my prince of flat-caps," said Dame Ursula, +"that matters were squared between you; and that, through means of the +same Scottish lord, who has, as you say, deprived you of your money and +your mistress, you should in a short time recover both?" + +"And how can your wisdom come to that conclusion, dame?" said the +apprentice. "My money, indeed, I can conceive--that is, if I comply with +your proposal; but--my pretty Marget!--how serving this lord, whom +she has set her nonsensical head upon, can do me good with her, is far +beyond my conception." + +"That is because, in simple phrase," said Dame Ursula, "thou knowest no +more of a woman's heart than doth a Norfolk gosling. Look you, man. +Were I to report to Mistress Margaret that the young lord has miscarried +through thy lack of courtesy in refusing to help him, why, then, thou +wert odious to her for ever. She will loathe thee as she will loathe the +very cook who is to strike off Glenvarloch's hand with his cleaver--and +then she will be yet more fixed in her affections towards this lord. +London will hear of nothing but him--speak of nothing but him--think +of nothing but him, for three weeks at least, and all that outcry will +serve to keep him uppermost in her mind; for nothing pleases a girl so +much as to bear relation to any one who is the talk of the whole world +around her. Then, if he suffer this sentence of the law, it is a chance +if she ever forgets him. I saw that handsome, proper young gentleman +Babington, suffer in the Queen's time myself, and though I was then but +a girl, he was in my head for a year after he was hanged. But, above +all, pardoned or punished, Glenvarloch will probably remain in London, +and his presence will keep up the silly girl's nonsensical fancy about +him. Whereas, if he escapes--" + +"Ay, show me how that is to avail me?" said Jenkin. "If he escapes," +said the dame, resuming her argument, "he must resign the Court for +years, if not for life; and you know the old saying, 'out of sight, and +out of mind.'" + +"True--most true," said Jenkin; "spoken like an oracle, most wise +Ursula." + +"Ay, ay, I knew you would hear reason at last," said the wily dame; "and +then, when this same lord is off and away for once and for ever, who, I +pray you, is to be pretty pet's confidential person, and who is to fill +up the void in her affections?--why, who but thou, thou pearl of +'prentices! And then you will have overcome your own inclinations to +comply with hers, and every woman is sensible of that--and you will have +run some risk, too, in carrying her desires into effect--and what is it +that woman likes better than bravery, and devotion to her will? Then you +have her secret, and she must treat you with favour and observance, and +repose confidence in you, and hold private intercourse with you, till +she weeps with one eye for the absent lover whom she is never to see +again, and blinks with the other blithely upon him who is in presence; +and then if you know not how to improve the relation in which you stand +with her, you are not the brisk lively lad that all the world takes you +for--Said I well?" + +"You have spoken like an empress, most mighty Ursula," said Jenkin +Vincent; "and your will shall be obeyed." + +"You know Alsatia well?" continued his tutoress. + +"Well enough, well enough," replied he with a nod; "I have heard the +dice rattle there in my day, before I must set up for gentleman, and go +among the gallants at the Shavaleer Bojo's, as they call him,--the worse +rookery of the two, though the feathers are the gayest." + +"And they will have a respect for thee yonder, I warrant?" + +"Ay, ay," replied Vin, "when I am got into my fustian doublet again, +with my bit of a trunnion under my arm, I can walk Alsatia at midnight +as I could do that there Fleet Street in midday--they will not one of +them swagger with the prince of 'prentices, and the king of clubs--they +know I could bring every tall boy in the ward down upon them." + +"And you know all the watermen, and so forth?" + +"Can converse with every sculler in his own language, from Richmond to +Gravesend, and know all the water-cocks, from John Taylor the Poet to +little Grigg the Grinner, who never pulls but he shows all his teeth +from ear to ear, as if he were grimacing through a horse-collar." + +"And you can take any dress or character upon you well, such as a +waterman's, a butcher's, a foot-soldier's," continued Ursula, "or the +like?" + +"Not such a mummer as I am within the walls, and thou knowest that +well enough, dame," replied the apprentice. "I can touch the players +themselves, at the Ball and at the Fortune, for presenting any thing +except a gentleman. Take but this d--d skin of frippery off me, which +I think the devil stuck me into, and you shall put me into nothing else +that I will not become as if I were born to it." + +"Well, we will talk of your transmutation by and by," said the dame, +"and find you clothes withal, and money besides; for it will take a good +deal to carry the thing handsomely through." + +"But where is that money to come from, dame?" said Jenkin; "there is a +question I would fain have answered before I touch it." + +"Why, what a fool art thou to ask such a question! Suppose I am content +to advance it to please young madam, what is the harm then?" + +"I will suppose no such thing," said Jenkin, hastily; "I know that you, +dame, have no gold to spare, and maybe would not spare it if you had--so +that cock will not crow. It must be from Margaret herself." + +"Well, thou suspicious animal, and what if it were?" said Ursula. + +"Only this," replied Jenkin, "that I will presently to her, and learn if +she has come fairly by so much ready money; for sooner than connive at +her getting it by any indirection, I would hang myself at once. It is +enough what I have done myself, no need to engage poor Margaret in such +villainy--I'll to her, and tell her of the danger--I will, by heaven!" + +"You are mad to think of it," said Dame Suddlechop, considerably +alarmed--"hear me but a moment. I know not precisely from whom she got +the money; but sure I am that she obtained it at her godfather's." + +"Why, Master George Heriot is not returned from France," said Jenkin. + +"No," replied Ursula, "but Dame Judith is at home--and the strange lady, +whom they call Master Heriot's ghost--she never goes abroad." + +"It is very true, Dame Suddlechop," said Jenkin; "and I believe you have +guessed right--they say that lady has coin at will; and if Marget can +get a handful of fairy-gold, why, she is free to throw it away at will." + +"Ah, Jin Vin," said the dame, reducing her voice almost to a whisper, +"we should not want gold at will neither, could we but read the riddle +of that lady!" + +"They may read it that list," said Jenkin, "I'll never pry into what +concerns me not--Master George Heriot is a worthy and brave citizen, and +an honour to London, and has a right to manage his own household as he +likes best.--There was once a talk of rabbling him the fifth of November +before the last, because they said he kept a nunnery in his house, like +old Lady Foljambe; but Master George is well loved among the 'prentices, +and we got so many brisk boys of us together as should have rabbled the +rabble, had they had but the heart to rise." + +"Well, let that pass," said Ursula; "and now, tell me how you will +manage to be absent from shop a day or two, for you must think that this +matter will not be ended sooner." + +"Why, as to that, I can say nothing," said Jenkin, "I have always served +duly and truly; I have no heart to play truant, and cheat my master of +his time as well as his money." + +"Nay, but the point is to get back his money for him," said Ursula, +"which he is not likely to see on other conditions. Could you not ask +leave to go down to your uncle in Essex for two or three days? He may be +ill, you know." + +"Why, if I must, I must," said Jenkin, with a heavy sigh; "but I will +not be lightly caught treading these dark and crooked paths again." + +"Hush thee, then," said the dame, "and get leave for this very evening; +and come back hither, and I will introduce you to another implement, +who must be employed in the matter.--Stay, stay!--the lad is mazed--you +would not go into your master's shop in that guise, surely? Your trunk +is in the matted chamber, with your 'prentice things--go and put them on +as fast as you can." + +"I think I am bewitched," said Jenkin, giving a glance towards his +dress, "or that these fool's trappings have made as great an ass of +me as of many I have seen wear them; but let line once be rid of the +harness, and if you catch me putting it on again, I will give you leave +to sell me to a gipsy, to carry pots, pans, and beggar's bantlings, all +the rest of my life." So saying, he retired to change his apparel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + + Chance will not do the work--Chance sends the breeze; + But if the pilot slumber at the helm, + The very wind that wafts us towards the port + May dash us on the shelves.--The steersman's part is vigilance, + Blow it or rough or smooth. + _Old Play_. + +We left Nigel, whose fortunes we are bound to trace by the engagement +contracted in our title-page, sad and solitary in the mansion of +Trapbois the usurer, having just received a letter instead of a visit +from his friend the Templar, stating reasons why he could not at +that time come to see him in Alsatia. So that it appeared that his +intercourse with the better and more respectable class of society, was, +for the present, entirely cut off. This was a melancholy, and, to a +proud mind like that of Nigel, a degrading reflection. + +He went to the window of his apartment, and found the street enveloped +in one of those thick, dingy, yellow-coloured fogs, which often invest +the lower part of London and Westminster. Amid the darkness, dense and +palpable, were seen to wander like phantoms a reveller or two, whom the +morning had surprised where the evening left them; and who now, with +tottering steps, and by an instinct which intoxication could not wholly +overcome, were groping the way to their own homes, to convert day into +night, for the purpose of sleeping off the debauch which had turned +night into day. Although it was broad day in the other parts of the +city, it was scarce dawn yet in Alsatia; and none of the sounds of +industry or occupation were there heard, which had long before aroused +the slumberers in any other quarter. The prospect was too tiresome and +disagreeable to detain Lord Glenvarloch at his station, so, turning from +the window, he examined with more interest the furniture and appearance +of the apartment which he tenanted. + +Much of it had been in its time rich and curious--there was a huge +four-post bed, with as much carved oak about it as would have made the +head of a man-of-war, and tapestry hangings ample enough to have +been her sails. There was a huge mirror with a massy frame of gilt +brass-work, which was of Venetian manufacture, and must have been worth +a considerable sum before it received the tremendous crack, which, +traversing it from one corner to the other, bore the same proportion to +the surface that the Nile bears to the map of Egypt. The chairs were +of different forms and shapes, some had been carved, some gilded, some +covered with damasked leather, some with embroidered work, but all were +damaged and worm-eaten. There was a picture of Susanna and the Elders +over the chimney-piece, which might have been accounted a choice piece, +had not the rats made free with the chaste fair one's nose, and with the +beard of one of her reverend admirers. + +In a word, all that Lord Glenvarloch saw, seemed to have been articles +carried off by appraisement or distress, or bought as pennyworths at +some obscure broker's, and huddled together in the apartment, as in a +sale-room, without regard to taste or congruity. + +The place appeared to Nigel to resemble the houses near the sea-coast, +which are too often furnished with the spoils of wrecked vessels, as +this was probably fitted up with the relics of ruined profligates.--"My +own skiff is among the breakers," thought Lord Glenvarloch, "though my +wreck will add little to the profits of the spoiler." + +He was chiefly interested in the state of the grate, a huge assemblage +of rusted iron bars which stood in the chimney, unequally supported +by three brazen feet, moulded into the form of lion's claws, while the +fourth, which had been bent by an accident, seemed proudly uplifted +as if to paw the ground; or as if the whole article had nourished the +ambitious purpose of pacing forth into the middle of the apartment, and +had one foot ready raised for the journey. A smile passed over Nigel's +face as this fantastic idea presented itself to his fancy.--"I must +stop its march, however," he thought; "for this morning is chill and raw +enough to demand some fire." + +He called accordingly from the top of a large staircase, with a heavy +oaken balustrade, which gave access to his own and other apartments, for +the house was old and of considerable size; but, receiving no answer to +his repeated summons, he was compelled to go in search of some one who +might accommodate him with what he wanted. + +Nigel had, according to the fashion of the old world in Scotland, +received an education which might, in most particulars, be termed +simple, hardy, and unostentatious; but he had, nevertheless, been +accustomed to much personal deference, and to the constant attendance +and ministry of one or more domestics. This was the universal custom in +Scotland, where wages were next to nothing, and where, indeed, a man of +title or influence might have as many attendants as he pleased, for +the mere expense of food, clothes, and countenance. Nigel was therefore +mortified and displeased when he found himself without notice or +attendance; and the more dissatisfied, because he was at the same time +angry with himself for suffering such a trifle to trouble him at all, +amongst matters of more deep concernment. "There must surely be some +servants in so large a house as this," said he, as he wandered over the +place, through which he was conducted by a passage which branched +off from the gallery. As he went on, he tried the entrance to several +apartments, some of which he found were locked and others unfurnished, +all apparently unoccupied; so that at length he returned to the +staircase, and resolved to make his way down to the lower part of the +house, where he supposed he must at least find the old gentleman, and +his ill-favoured daughter. With this purpose he first made his entrance +into a little low, dark parlour, containing a well-worn leathern +easy-chair, before which stood a pair of slippers, while on the left +side rested a crutch-handled staff; an oaken table stood before it, and +supported a huge desk clamped with iron, and a massive pewter inkstand. +Around the apartment were shelves, cabinets, and other places convenient +for depositing papers. A sword, musketoon, and a pair of pistols, hung +over the chimney, in ostentatious display, as if to intimate that the +proprietor would be prompt in the defence of his premises. + +"This must be the usurer's den," thought Nigel; and he was about to +call aloud, when the old man, awakened even by the slightest noise, +for avarice seldom sleeps sound, soon was heard from the inner room, +speaking in a voice of irritability, rendered more tremulous by his +morning cough. + +"Ugh, ugh, ugh--who is there? I say--ugh, ugh--who is there? Why, +Martha!--ugh! ugh--Martha Trapbois--here be thieves in the house, and +they will not speak to me--why, Martha!--thieves, thieves--ugh, ugh, +ugh!" + +Nigel endeavoured to explain, but the idea of thieves had taken +possession of the old man's pineal gland, and he kept coughing and +screaming, and screaming and coughing, until the gracious Martha entered +the apartment; and, having first outscreamed her father, in order +to convince him that there was no danger, and to assure him that the +intruder was their new lodger, and having as often heard her sire +ejaculate--"Hold him fast--ugh, ugh--hold him fast till I come," she at +length succeeded in silencing his fears and his clamour, and then +coldly and dryly asked Lord Glenvarloch what he wanted in her father's +apartment. + +Her lodger had, in the meantime, leisure to contemplate her appearance, +which did not by any means improve the idea he had formed of it by +candlelight on the preceding evening. She was dressed in what was called +a Queen Mary's ruff and farthingale; not the falling ruff with which the +unfortunate Mary of Scotland is usually painted, but that which, with +more than Spanish stiffness, surrounded the throat, and set off +the morose head, of her fierce namesake, of Smithfield memory. This +antiquated dress assorted well with the faded complexion, grey eyes, +thin lips, and austere visage of the antiquated maiden, which was, +moreover, enhanced by a black hood, worn as her head-gear, carefully +disposed so as to prevent any of her hair from escaping to view, +probably because the simplicity of the period knew no art of disguising +the colour with which time had begun to grizzle her tresses. Her figure +was tall, thin, and flat, with skinny arms and hands, and feet of the +larger size, cased in huge high-heeled shoes, which added height to +a stature already ungainly. Apparently some art had been used by +the tailor, to conceal a slight defect of shape, occasioned by +the accidental elevation of one shoulder above the other; but the +praiseworthy efforts of the ingenious mechanic, had only succeeded in +calling the attention of the observer to his benevolent purpose, without +demonstrating that he had been able to achieve it. + +Such was Mrs. Martha Trapbois, whose dry "What were you seeking here, +sir?" fell again, and with reiterated sharpness, on the ear of Nigel, +as he gazed upon her presence, and compared it internally to one of the +faded and grim figures in the old tapestry which adorned his bedstead. +It was, however, necessary to reply, and he answered, that he came in +search of the servants, as he desired to have a fire kindled in his +apartment on account of the rawness of the morning. + +"The woman who does our char-work," answered Mistress Martha, "comes at +eight o'clock-if you want fire sooner, there are fagots and a bucket of +sea-coal in the stone-closet at the head of the stair--and there is a +flint and steel on the upper shelf--you can light fire for yourself if +you will." + +"No--no--no, Martha," ejaculated her father, who, having donned his +rustic tunic, with his hose all ungirt, and his feet slip-shod, hastily +came out of the inner apartment, with his mind probably full of robbers, +for he had a naked rapier in his hand, which still looked formidable, +though rust had somewhat marred its shine.--What he had heard at +entrance about lighting a fire, had changed, however, the current of his +ideas. "No--no--no," he cried, and each negative was more emphatic than +its predecessor-"The gentleman shall not have the trouble to put on a +fire--ugh--ugh. I'll put it on myself, for a con-si-de-ra-ti-on." + +This last word was a favourite expression with the old gentleman, which +he pronounced in a peculiar manner, gasping it out syllable by syllable, +and laying a strong emphasis upon the last. It was, indeed, a sort +of protecting clause, by which he guarded himself against all +inconveniences attendant on the rash habit of offering service or +civility of any kind, the which, when hastily snapped at by those to +whom they are uttered, give the profferer sometimes room to repent his +promptitude. + +"For shame, father," said Martha, "that must not be. Master Grahame will +kindle his own fire, or wait till the char-woman comes to do it for him, +just as likes him best." + +"No, child--no, child. Child Martha, no," reiterated the old miser--"no +char-woman shall ever touch a grate in my house; they put--ugh, ugh--the +faggot uppermost, and so the coal kindles not, and the flame goes up +the chimney, and wood and heat are both thrown away. Now, I will lay +it properly for the gentleman, for a consideration, so that it shall +last--ugh, ugh--last the whole day." Here his vehemence increased his +cough so violently, that Nigel could only, from a scattered word here +and there, comprehend that it was a recommendation to his daughter +to remove the poker and tongs from the stranger's fireside, with an +assurance, that, when necessary, his landlord would be in attendance to +adjust it himself, "for a consideration." + +Martha paid as little attention to the old man's injunctions as a +predominant dame gives to those of a henpecked husband. She only +repeated, in a deeper and more emphatic tone of censure,--"For shame, +father--for shame!" then, turning to her guest, said, with her usual +ungraciousness of manner--"Master Grahame--it is best to be plain with +you at first. My father is an old, a very old man, and his wits, as you +may see, are somewhat weakened--though I would not advise you to make +a bargain with him, else you may find them too sharp for your own. For +myself, I am a lone woman, and, to say truth, care little to see or +converse with any one. If you can be satisfied with house-room, shelter, +and safety, it will be your own fault if you have them not, and they +are not always to be found in this unhappy quarter. But, if you seek +deferential observance and attendance, I tell you at once you will not +find them here." + +"I am not wont either to thrust myself upon acquaintance, madam, or +to give trouble," said the guest; "nevertheless, I shall need the +assistance of a domestic to assist me to dress--Perhaps you can +recommend me to such?" + +"Yes, to twenty," answered Mistress Martha, "who will pick your purse +while they tie your points, and cut your throat while they smooth your +pillow." + +"I will be his servant, myself," said the old man, whose intellect, +for a moment distanced, had again, in some measure, got up with +the conversation. "I will brush his cloak--ugh, ugh--and tie his +points--ugh, ugh--and clean his shoes--ugh--and run on his errands with +speed and safety--ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh--for a consideration." + +"Good-morrow to you, sir," said Martha, to Nigel, in a tone of direct +and positive dismissal. "It cannot be agreeable to a daughter that +a stranger should hear her father speak thus. If you be really a +gentleman, you will retire to your own apartment." + +"I will not delay a moment," said Nigel, respectfully, for he was +sensible that circumstances palliated the woman's rudeness. "I would but +ask you, if seriously there can be danger in procuring the assistance of +a serving-man in this place?" + +"Young gentleman," said Martha, "you must know little of Whitefriars to +ask the question. We live alone in this house, and seldom has a stranger +entered it; nor should you, to be plain, had my will been consulted. +Look at the door--see if that of a castle can be better secured; the +windows of the first floor are grated on the outside, and within, look +to these shutters." + +She pulled one of them aside, and showed a ponderous apparatus of bolts +and chains for securing the window-shutters, while her father, pressing +to her side, seized her gown with a trembling hand, and said, in a low +whisper, "Show not the trick of locking and undoing them. Show him not +the trick on't, Martha--ugh, ugh--on _no_ consideration." Martha went +on, without paying him any attention. + +"And yet, young gentleman, we have been more than once like to find all +these defences too weak to protect our lives; such an evil effect on the +wicked generation around us hath been made by the unhappy report of my +poor father's wealth." + +"Say nothing of that, housewife," said the miser, his irritability +increased by the very supposition of his being wealthy--"Say nothing +of that, or I will beat thee, housewife--beat thee with my staff, for +fetching and carrying lies that will procure our throats to be cut +at last--ugh, ugh.--I am but a poor man," he continued, turning to +Nigel--"a very poor man, that am willing to do any honest turn upon +earth, for a modest consideration." + +"I therefore warn you of the life you must lead, young gentleman," said +Martha; "the poor woman who does the char-work will assist you so far as +in her power, but the wise man is his own best servant and assistant." + +"It is a lesson you have taught me, madam, and I thank you for it--I +will assuredly study it at leisure." + +"You will do well," said Martha; "and as you seem thankful for advice, +I, though I am no professed counsellor of others, will give you more. +Make no intimacy with any one in Whitefriars--borrow no money, on any +score, especially from my father, for, dotard as he seems, he will make +an ass of you. Last, and best of all, stay here not an instant longer +than you can help it. Farewell, sir." + +"A gnarled tree may bear good fruit, and a harsh nature may give good +counsel," thought the Lord of Glenvarloch, as he retreated to his own +apartment, where the same reflection occurred to him again and again, +while, unable as yet to reconcile himself to the thoughts of becoming +his own fire-maker, he walked up and down his bedroom, to warm himself +by exercise. + +At length his meditations arranged themselves in the following +soliloquy--by which expression I beg leave to observe once for all, that +I do not mean that Nigel literally said aloud with his bodily organs, +the words which follow in inverted commas, (while pacing the room by +himself,) but that I myself choose to present to my dearest reader the +picture of my hero's mind, his reflections and resolutions, in the form +of a speech, rather than in that of a narrative. In other words, I have +put his thoughts into language; and this I conceive to be the purpose of +the soliloquy upon the stage as well as in the closet, being at once the +most natural, and perhaps the only way of communicating to the spectator +what is supposed to be passing in the bosom of the scenic personage. +There are no such soliloquies in nature, it is true, but unless they +were received as a conventional medium of communication betwixt the poet +and the audience, we should reduce dramatic authors to the recipe of +Master Puff, who makes Lord Burleigh intimate a long train of political +reasoning to the audience, by one comprehensive shake of his noddle. In +narrative, no doubt, the writer has the alternative of telling that his +personages thought so and so, inferred thus and thus, and arrived at +such and such a conclusion; but the soliloquy is a more concise and +spirited mode of communicating the same information; and therefore thus +communed, or thus might have communed, the Lord of Glenvarloch with his +own mind. + +"She is right, and has taught me a lesson I will profit by. I have been, +through my whole life, one who leant upon others for that assistance, +which it is more truly noble to derive from my own exertions. I am +ashamed of feeling the paltry inconvenience which long habit had led me +to annex to the want of a servant's assistance--I am ashamed of that; +but far, far more am I ashamed to have suffered the same habit of +throwing my own burden on others, to render me, since I came to this +city, a mere victim of those events, which I have never even +attempted to influence--a thing never acting, but perpetually acted +upon--protected by one friend, deceived by another; but in the advantage +which I received from the one, and the evil I have sustained from the +other, as passive and helpless as a boat that drifts without oar or +rudder at the mercy of the winds and waves. I became a courtier, because +Heriot so advised it--a gamester, because Dalgarno so contrived it--an +Alsatian, because Lowestoffe so willed it. Whatever of good or bad has +befallen me, has arisen out of the agency of others, not from my own. My +father's son must no longer hold this facile and puerile course. Live +or die, sink or swim, Nigel Olifaunt, from this moment, shall owe his +safety, success, and honour, to his own exertions, or shall fall with +the credit of having at least exerted his own free agency. I will write +it down in my tablets, in her very words,--'The wise man is his own best +assistant.'" + +He had just put his tablets in his pocket when the old charwoman, who, +to add to her efficiency, was sadly crippled by rheumatism, hobbled into +the room, to try if she could gain a small gratification by waiting on +the stranger. She readily undertook to get Lord Glenvarloch's breakfast, +and as there was an eating-house at the next door, she succeeded in a +shorter time than Nigel had augured. + +As his solitary meal was finished, one of the Temple porters, or +inferior officers, was announced, as seeking Master Grahame, on the part +of his friend, Master Lowestoffe; and, being admitted by the old woman +to his apartment, he delivered to Nigel a small mail-trunk, with the +clothes he had desired should be sent to him, and then, with more +mystery, put into his hand a casket, or strong-boy, which he carefully +concealed beneath his cloak. "I am glad to be rid on't," said the +fellow, as he placed it on the table. + +"Why, it is surely not so very heavy," answered Nigel, "and you are a +stout young man." + +"Ay, sir," replied the fellow; "but Samson himself would not have +carried such a matter safely through Alsatia, had the lads of the Huff +known what it was. Please to look into it, sir, and see all is right--I +am an honest fellow, and it comes safe out of my hands. How long it may +remain so afterwards, will depend on your own care. I would not my good +name were to suffer by any after-clap." + +To satisfy the scruples of the messenger, Lord Glenvarloch opened the +casket in his presence, and saw that his small stock of money, with +two or three valuable papers which it contained, and particularly the +original sign-manual which the king had granted in his favour, were in +the same order in which he had left them. At the man's further instance, +he availed himself of the writing materials which were in the casket, in +order to send a line to Master Lowestoffe, declaring that his property +had reached him in safety. He added some grateful acknowledgments for +Lowestoffe's services, and, just as he was sealing and delivering his +billet to the messenger, his aged landlord entered the apartment. His +threadbare suit of black clothes was now somewhat better arranged than +they had been in the dishabille of his first appearance, and his nerves +and intellects seemed to be less fluttered; for, without much coughing +or hesitation, he invited Nigel to partake of a morning draught of +wholesome single ale, which he brought in a large leathern tankard, or +black-jack, carried in the one hand, while the other stirred it round +with a sprig of rosemary, to give it, as the old man said, a flavour. + +Nigel declined the courteous proffer, and intimated by his manner, +while he did so, that he desired no intrusion on the privacy of his +own apartment; which, indeed, he was the more entitled to maintain, +considering the cold reception he had that morning met with when +straying from its precincts into those of his landlord. But the open +casket contained matter, or rather metal, so attractive to old Trapbois, +that he remained fixed, like a setting-dog at a dead point, his nose +advanced, and one hand expanded like the lifted forepaw, by which that +sagacious quadruped sometimes indicates that it is a hare which he has +in the wind. Nigel was about to break the charm which had thus arrested +old Trapbois, by shutting the lid of the casket, when his attention was +withdrawn from him by the question of the messenger, who, holding +out the letter, asked whether he was to leave it at Mr. Lowestoffe's +chambers in the Temple, or carry it to the Marshalsea? + +"The Marshalsea?" repeated Lord Glenvarloch; "what of the Marshalsea?" + +"Why, sir," said the man, "the poor gentleman is laid up there in +lavender, because, they say, his own kind heart led him to scald his +fingers with another man's broth." + +Nigel hastily snatched back the letter, broke the seal, joined to the +contents his earnest entreaty that he might be instantly acquainted with +the cause of his confinement, and added, that, if it arose out of his +own unhappy affair, it would be of a brief duration, since he had, even +before hearing of a reason which so peremptorily demanded that he should +surrender himself, adopted the resolution to do so, as the manliest and +most proper course which his ill fortune and imprudence had left in his +own power. He therefore conjured Mr. Lowestoffe to have no delicacy upon +this score, but, since his surrender was what he had determined upon as +a sacrifice due to his own character, that he would have the frankness +to mention in what manner it could be best arranged, so as to extricate +him, Lowestoffe, from the restraint to which the writer could not but +fear his friend had been subjected, on account of the generous interest +which he had taken in his concerns. The letter concluded, that the +writer would suffer twenty-four hours to elapse in expectation of +hearing from him, and, at the end of that period, was determined to put +his purpose in execution. He delivered the billet to the messenger, +and, enforcing his request with a piece of money, urged him, without a +moment's delay, to convey it to the hands of Master Lowestoffe. + +"I--I--I--will carry it to him myself," said the old usurer, "for half +the consideration." + +The man who heard this attempt to take his duty and perquisites over his +head, lost no time in pocketing the money, and departed on his errand as +fast as he could. + +"Master Trapbois," said Nigel, addressing the old man somewhat +impatiently, "had you any particular commands for me?" + +"I--I--came to see if you rested well," answered the old man; "and--if I +could do anything to serve you, on any consideration." + +"Sir, I thank you," said Lord Glenvarloch--"I thank you;" and, ere he +could say more, a heavy footstep was heard on the stair. + +"My God!" exclaimed the old man, starting up--"Why, +Dorothy--char-woman--why, daughter,--draw bolt, I say, housewives--the +door hath been left a-latch!" + +The door of the chamber opened wide, and in strutted the portly bulk +of the military hero whom Nigel had on the preceding evening in vain +endeavoured to recognise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +SWASH-BUCKLER. Bilboe's the word--PIERROT. It hath been spoke too often, +The spell hath lost its charm--I tell thee, friend, The meanest cur that +trots the street, will turn, And snarl against your proffer'd bastinado. +SWASH-BUCKLER. 'Tis art shall do it, then--I will dose the mongrels--Or, +in plain terms, I'll use the private knife 'Stead of the brandish'd +falchion. _Old Play_. + +The noble Captain Colepepper or Peppercull, for he was known by both +these names, and some others besides; had a martial and a swashing +exterior, which, on the present occasion, was rendered yet more +peculiar, by a patch covering his left eye and a part of the cheek. +The sleeves of his thickset velvet jerkin were polished and shone with +grease,--his buff gloves had huge tops, which reached almost to the +elbow; his sword-belt of the same materials extended its breadth from +his haunchbone to his small ribs, and supported on the one side his +large black-hilted back-sword, on the other a dagger of like proportions +He paid his compliments to Nigel with that air of predetermined +effrontery, which announces that it will not be repelled by any coldness +of reception, asked Trapbois how he did, by the familiar title of old +Peter Pillory, and then, seizing upon the black-jack, emptied it off at +a draught, to the health of the last and youngest freeman of Alsatia, +the noble and loving master Nigel Grahame. + +When he had set down the empty pitcher and drawn his breath, he began to +criticise the liquor which it had lately contained.--"Sufficient single +beer, old Pillory--and, as I take it, brewed at the rate of a nutshell +of malt to a butt of Thames--as dead as a corpse, too, and yet it +went hissing down my throat--bubbling, by Jove, like water upon hot +iron.--You left us early, noble Master Grahame, but, good faith, we had +a carouse to your honour--we heard _butt_ ring hollow ere we parted; +we were as loving as inkle-weavers--we fought, too, to finish off the +gawdy. I bear some marks of the parson about me, you see--a note of the +sermon or so, which should have been addressed to my ear, but missed its +mark, and reached my left eye. The man of God bears my sign-manual too, +but the Duke made us friends again, and it cost me more sack than I +could carry, and all the Rhenish to boot, to pledge the seer in the way +of love and reconciliation--But, Caracco! 'tis a vile old canting slave +for all that, whom I will one day beat out of his devil's livery into +all the colours of the rainbow.--Basta!--Said I well, old Trapbois? +Where is thy daughter, man?--what says she to my suit?--'tis an honest +one--wilt have a soldier for thy son-in-law, old Pillory, to mingle the +soul of martial honour with thy thieving, miching, petty-larceny blood, +as men put bold brandy into muddy ale?" + +"My daughter receives not company so early, noble captain," said the +usurer, and concluded his speech with a dry, emphatical "ugh, ugh." + +"What, upon no con-si-de-ra-ti-on?" said the captain; "and wherefore not, +old Truepenny? she has not much time to lose in driving her bargain, +methinks." + +"Captain," said Trapbois, "I was upon some little business with our +noble friend here, Master Nigel Green--ugh, ugh, ugh--" + +"And you would have me gone, I warrant you?" answered the bully; "but +patience, old Pillory, thine hour is not yet come, man--You see," he +said, pointing to the casket, "that noble Master Grahame, whom you call +Green, has got the _decuses_ and the _smelt_." + +"Which you would willingly rid him of, ha! ha!--ugh, ugh," answered the +usurer, "if you knew how--but, lack-a-day! thou art one of those that +come out for wool, and art sure to go home shorn. Why now, but that I +am sworn against laying of wagers, I would risk some consideration that +this honest guest of mine sends thee home penniless, if thou darest +venture with him--ugh, ugh--at any game which gentlemen play at." + +"Marry, thou hast me on the hip there, thou old miserly cony-catcher!" +answered the captain, taking a bale of dice from the sleeve of his coat; +"I must always keep company with these damnable doctors, and they have +made me every baby's cully, and purged my purse into an atrophy; but +never mind, it passes the time as well as aught else--How say you, +Master Grahame?" + +The fellow paused; but even the extremity of his impudence could +scarcely hardly withstand the cold look of utter contempt with which +Nigel received his proposal, returning it with a simple, "I only play +where I know my company, and never in the morning." + +"Cards may be more agreeable," said Captain Colepepper; "and, for +knowing your company, here is honest old Pillory will tell you Jack +Colepepper plays as truly on the square as e'er a man that trowled +a die--Men talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and bristles, topping, +knapping, slurring, stabbing, and a hundred ways of rooking besides; +but broil me like a rasher of bacon, if I could ever learn the trick on +'em!" + +"You have got the vocabulary perfect, sir, at the least," said Nigel, in +the same cold tone. + +"Yes, by mine honour have I," returned the Hector; "they are phrases +that a gentleman learns about town.--But perhaps you would like a set at +tennis, or a game at balloon--we have an indifferent good court hard +by here, and a set of as gentleman-like blades as ever banged leather +against brick and mortar." + +"I beg to be excused at present," said Lord Glenvarloch; "and to be +plain, among the valuable privileges your society has conferred on me, I +hope I may reckon that of being private in my own apartment when I have +a mind." + +"Your humble servant, sir," said the captain; "and I thank you for +your civility--Jack Colepepper can have enough of company, and thrusts +himself on no one.--But perhaps you will like to make a match at +skittles?" + +"I am by no means that way disposed," replied the young nobleman, + +"Or to leap a flea--run a snail--match a wherry, eh?" + +"No--I will do none of these," answered Nigel. + +Here the old man, who had been watching with his little peery eyes, +pulled the bulky Hector by the skirt, and whispered, "Do not vapour him +the huff, it will not pass--let the trout play, he will rise to the hook +presently." + +But the bully, confiding in his own strength, and probably mistaking +for timidity the patient scorn with which Nigel received his proposals, +incited also by the open casket, began to assume a louder and more +threatening tone. He drew himself up, bent his brows, assumed a look of +professional ferocity, and continued, "In Alsatia, look ye, a man must +be neighbourly and companionable. Zouns! sir, we would slit any nose +that was turned up at us honest fellows.--Ay, sir, we would slit it +up to the gristle, though it had smelt nothing all its life but musk, +ambergris, and court-scented water.--Rabbit me, I am a soldier, and care +no more for a lord than a lamplighter!" + +"Are you seeking a quarrel, sir?" said Nigel, calmly, having in truth no +desire to engage himself in a discreditable broil in such a place, and +with such a character. + +"Quarrel, sir?" said the captain; "I am not seeking a quarrel, though I +care not how soon I find one. Only I wish you to understand you must +be neighbourly, that's all. What if we should go over the water to the +garden, and see a bull hanked this fine morning--'sdeath, will you do +nothing?" + +"Something I am strangely tempted to do at this moment," said Nigel. + +"Videlicet," said Colepepper, with a swaggering air, "let us hear the +temptation." + +"I am tempted to throw you headlong from the window, unless you +presently make the best of your way down stairs." + +"Throw me from the window?--hell and furies!" exclaimed the captain; "I +have confronted twenty crooked sabres at Buda with my single rapier, and +shall a chitty-faced, beggarly Scots lordling, speak of me and a window +in the same breath?--Stand off, old Pillory, let me make Scotch collops +of him--he dies the death!" + +"For the love of Heaven, gentlemen," exclaimed the old miser, throwing +himself between them, "do not break the peace on any consideration! +Noble guest, forbear the captain--he is a very Hector of +Troy--Trusty Hector, forbear my guest, he is like to prove a very +Achilles-ugh-ugh----" + +Here he was interrupted by his asthma, but, nevertheless, continued +to interpose his person between Colepepper (who had unsheathed his +whinyard, and was making vain passes at his antagonist) and Nigel, who +had stepped back to take his sword, and now held it undrawn in his left +hand. + +"Make an end of this foolery, you scoundrel!" said Nigel--"Do you come +hither to vent your noisy oaths and your bottled-up valour on me? You +seem to know me, and I am half ashamed to say I have at length been +able to recollect you--remember the garden behind the ordinary,--you +dastardly ruffian, and the speed with which fifty men saw you run from a +drawn sword.--Get you gone, sir, and do not put me to the vile labour of +cudgelling such a cowardly rascal down stairs." + +The bully's countenance grew dark as night at this unexpected +recognition; for he had undoubtedly thought himself secure in his change +of dress, and his black patch, from being discovered by a person who had +seen him but once. He set his teeth, clenched his hands, and it seemed +as if he was seeking for a moment's courage to fly upon his antagonist. +But his heart failed, he sheathed his sword, turned his back in gloomy +silence, and spoke not until he reached the door, when, turning +round, he said, with a deep oath, "If I be not avenged of you for this +insolence ere many days go by, I would the gallows had my body and the +devil my spirit!" + +So saying, and with a look where determined spite and malice made his +features savagely fierce, though they could not overcome his fear, he +turned and left the house. Nigel followed him as far as the gallery at +the head of the staircase, with the purpose of seeing him depart, and +ere he returned was met by Mistress Martha Trapbois, whom the noise of +the quarrel had summoned from her own apartment. He could not resist +saying to her in his natural displeasure--"I would, madam, you could +teach your father and his friends the lesson which you had the goodness +to bestow on me this morning, and prevail on them to leave me the +unmolested privacy of my own apartment." + +"If you came hither for quiet or retirement, young man," answered she, +"you have been advised to an evil retreat. You might seek mercy in the +Star-Chamber, or holiness in hell, with better success than quiet in +Alsatia. But my father shall trouble you no longer." + +So saying, she entered the apartment, and, fixing her eyes on the +casket, she said with emphasis--"If you display such a loadstone, it +will draw many a steel knife to your throat." + +While Nigel hastily shut the casket, she addressed her father, +upbraiding him, with small reverence, for keeping company with the +cowardly, hectoring, murdering villain, John Colepepper. + +"Ay, ay, child," said the old man, with the cunning leer which +intimated perfect satisfaction with his own superior address--"I know--I +know--ugh--but I'll crossbite him--I know them all, and I can manage +them--ay, ay--I have the trick on't--ugh-ugh." + +"_You_ manage, father!" said the austere damsel; "you will manage to +have your throat cut, and that ere long. You cannot hide from them your +gains and your gold as formerly." + +"My gains, wench? my gold?" said the usurer; "alack-a-day, few of these +and hard got--few and hard got." + +"This will not serve you, father, any longer," said she, "and had not +served you thus long, but that Bully Colepepper had contrived a cheaper +way of plundering your house, even by means of my miserable self.--But +why do I speak to him of all this," she said, checking herself, and +shrugging her shoulders with an expression of pity which did not fall +much short of scorn. "He hears me not--he thinks not of me.--Is it +not strange that the love of gathering gold should survive the care to +preserve both property and life?" + +"Your father," said Lord Glenvarloch, who could not help respecting the +strong sense and feeling shown by this poor woman, even amidst all +her rudeness and severity, "your father seems to have his faculties +sufficiently alert when he is in the exercise of his ordinary pursuits +and functions. I wonder he is not sensible of the weight of your +arguments." + +"Nature made him a man senseless of danger, and that insensibility is +the best thing I have derived from him," said she; "age has left him +shrewdness enough to tread his old beaten paths, but not to seek new +courses. The old blind horse will long continue to go its rounds in the +mill, when it would stumble in the open meadow." + +"Daughter!--why, wench--why, housewife!" said the old man, awakening +out of some dream, in which he had been sneering and chuckling in +imagination, probably over a successful piece of roguery,--"go to +chamber, wench--go to chamber--draw bolts and chain--look sharp to +door--let none in or out but worshipful Master Grahame--I must take my +cloak, and go to Duke Hildebrod--ay, ay, time has been, my own warrant +was enough; but the lower we lie, the more are we under the wind." + +And, with his wonted chorus of muttering and coughing, the old man left +the apartment. His daughter stood for a moment looking after him, with +her usual expression of discontent and sorrow. + +"You ought to persuade your father," said Nigel, "to leave this evil +neighbourhood, if you are in reality apprehensive for his safety." + +"He would be safe in no other quarter," said the daughter; "I would +rather the old man were dead than publicly dishonoured. In other +quarters he would be pelted and pursued, like an owl which ventures into +sunshine. Here he was safe, while his comrades could avail themselves of +his talents; he is now squeezed and fleeced by them on every pretence. +They consider him as a vessel on the strand, from which each may snatch +a prey; and the very jealousy which they entertain respecting him as a +common property, may perhaps induce them to guard him from more private +and daring assaults." + +"Still, methinks, you ought to leave this place," answered Nigel, "since +you might find a safe retreat in some distant country." + +"In Scotland, doubtless," said she, looking at him with a sharp and +suspicious eye, "and enrich strangers with our rescued wealth--Ha! young +man?" + +"Madam, if you knew me," said Lord Glenvarloch, "you would spare the +suspicion implied in your words." + +"Who shall assure me of that?" said Martha, sharply. "They say you are +a brawler and a gamester, and I know how far these are to be trusted by +the unhappy." + +"They do me wrong, by Heaven!" said Lord Glenvarloch. + +"It may be so," said Martha; "I am little interested in the degree of +your vice or your folly; but it is plain, that the one or the other +has conducted you hither, and that your best hope of peace, safety, and +happiness, is to be gone, with the least possible delay, from a place +which is always a sty for swine, and often a shambles." So saying, she +left the apartment. + +There was something in the ungracious manner of this female, amounting +almost to contempt of him she spoke to--an indignity to which +Glenvarloch, notwithstanding his poverty, had not as yet been personally +exposed, and which, therefore, gave him a transitory feeling of painful +surprise. Neither did the dark hints which Martha threw out concerning +the danger of his place of refuge, sound by any means agreeably to his +ears. The bravest man, placed in a situation in which he is surrounded +by suspicious persons, and removed from all counsel and assistance, +except those afforded by a valiant heart and a strong arm, experiences +a sinking of the spirit, a consciousness of abandonment, which for +a moment chills his blood, and depresses his natural gallantry of +disposition. + +But, if sad reflections arose in Nigel's mind, he had not time to +indulge them; and, if he saw little prospect of finding friends in +Alsatia, he found that he was not likely to be solitary for lack of +visitors. + +He had scarcely paced his apartment for ten minutes, endeavouring to +arrange his ideas on the course which he was to pursue on quitting +Alsatia, when he was interrupted by the Sovereign of the quarter, the +great Duke Hildebrod himself, before whose approach the bolts and chains +of the miser's dwelling fell, or withdrew, as of their own accord; and +both the folding leaves of the door were opened, that he might roll +himself into the house like a huge butt of liquor, a vessel to which +he bore a considerable outward resemblance, both in size, shape, +complexion, and contents. + +"Good-morrow to your lordship," said the greasy puncheon, cocking his +single eye, and rolling it upon Nigel with a singular expression of +familiar impudence; whilst his grim bull-dog, which was close at his +heels, made a kind of gurgling in his throat, as if saluting, in similar +fashion, a starved cat, the only living thing in Trapbois' house which +we have not yet enumerated, and which had flown up to the top of the +tester, where she stood clutching and grinning at the mastiff, whose +greeting she accepted with as much good-will as Nigel bestowed on that +of the dog's master. + +"Peace, Belzie!--D--n thee, peace!" said Duke Hildebrod. "Beasts and +fools will be meddling, my lord." + +"I thought, sir," answered Nigel, with as much haughtiness as was +consistent with the cool distance which he desired to preserve, "I +thought I had told you, my name at present was Nigel Grahame." + +His eminence of Whitefriars on this burst out into a loud, chuckling, +impudent laugh, repeating the word, till his voice was almost +inarticulate,--"Niggle Green--Niggle Green--Niggle Green!--why, my lord, +you would be queered in the drinking of a penny pot of Malmsey, if you +cry before you are touched. Why, you have told me the secret even now, +had I not had a shrewd guess of it before. Why, Master Nigel, since that +is the word, I only called you my lord, because we made you a peer +of Alsatia last night, when the sack was predominant.--How you look +now!--Ha! ha! ha!" + +Nigel, indeed, conscious that he had unnecessarily betrayed himself, +replied hastily,--"he was much obliged to him for the honours conferred, +but did not propose to remain in the Sanctuary long enough to enjoy +them." + +"Why, that may be as you will, an you will walk by wise counsel," +answered the ducal porpoise; and, although Nigel remained standing, in +hopes to accelerate his guest's departure, he threw himself into one of +the old tapestry-backed easy-chairs, which cracked under his weight, and +began to call for old Trapbois. + +The crone of all work appearing instead of her master, the Duke cursed +her for a careless jade, to let a strange gentleman, and a brave guest, +go without his morning's draught. + +"I never take one, sir," said Glenvarloch. + +"Time to begin--time to begin," answered the Duke.--"Here, you old +refuse of Sathan, go to our palace, and fetch Lord Green's morning +draught. Let us see--what shall it be, my lord?--a humming double pot of +ale, with a roasted crab dancing in it like a wherry above bridge?--or, +hum--ay, young men are sweet-toothed--a quart of burnt sack, with sugar +and spice?--good against the fogs. Or, what say you to sipping a gill of +right distilled waters? Come, we will have them all, and you shall take +your choice.--Here, you Jezebel, let Tim send the ale, and the sack, and +the nipperkin of double-distilled, with a bit of diet-loaf, or some such +trinket, and score it to the new comer." + +Glenvarloch, bethinking himself that it might be as well to endure +this fellow's insolence for a brief season, as to get into farther +discreditable quarrels, suffered him to take his own way, without +interruption, only observing, "You make yourself at home, sir, in my +apartment; but, for the time, you may use your pleasure. Meanwhile, +I would fain know what has procured me the honour of this unexpected +visit?" + +"You shall know that when old Deb has brought the liquor--I never speak +of business dry-lipped. Why, how she drumbles--I warrant she stops to +take a sip on the road, and then you will think you have had unchristian +measure.--In the meanwhile, look at that dog there--look Belzebub in +the face, and tell me if you ever saw a sweeter beast--never flew but at +head in his life." + +And, after this congenial panegyric, he was proceeding with a tale of a +dog and a bull, which threatened to be somewhat of the longest, when +he was interrupted by the return of the old crone, and two of his own +tapsters, bearing the various kinds of drinkables which he had demanded, +and which probably was the only species of interruption he would have +endured with equanimity. + +When the cups and cans were duly arranged upon the table, and when +Deborah, whom the ducal generosity honoured with a penny farthing in +the way of gratuity, had withdrawn with her satellites, the worthy +potentate, having first slightly invited Lord Glenvarloch to partake +of the liquor which he was to pay for, and after having observed, that, +excepting three poached eggs, a pint of bastard, and a cup of clary, he +was fasting from every thing but sin, set himself seriously to reinforce +the radical moisture. Glenvarloch had seen Scottish lairds and Dutch +burgomasters at their potations; but their exploits (though each might +be termed a thirsty generation) were nothing to those of Duke Hildebrod, +who seemed an absolute sandbed, capable of absorbing any given quantity +of liquid, without being either vivified or overflowed. He drank off +the ale to quench a thirst which, as he said, kept him in a fever from +morning to night, and night to morning; tippled off the sack to correct +the crudity of the ale; sent the spirits after the sack to keep all +quiet, and then declared that, probably, he should not taste liquor till +_post meridiem_, unless it was in compliment to some especial friend. +Finally, he intimated that he was ready to proceed on the business +which brought him from home so early, a proposition which Nigel readily +received, though he could not help suspecting that the most important +purpose of Duke Hildebrod's visit was already transacted. + +In this, however, Lord Glenvarloch proved to be mistaken. Hildebrod, +before opening what he had to say, made an accurate survey of the +apartment, laying, from time to time, his finger on his nose, and +winking on Nigel with his single eye, while he opened and shut the +doors, lifted the tapestry, which concealed, in one or two places, the +dilapidation of time upon the wainscoted walls, peeped into closets, +and, finally, looked under the bed, to assure himself that the coast +was clear of listeners and interlopers. He then resumed his seat, and +beckoned confidentially to Nigel to draw his chair close to him. + +"I am well as I am, Master Hildebrod," replied the young lord, little +disposed to encourage the familiarity which the man endeavoured to fix +on him; but the undismayed Duke proceeded as follows: + +"You shall pardon me, my lord--and I now give you the title right +seriously--if I remind you that our waters may be watched; for though +old Trapbois be as deaf as Saint Paul's, yet his daughter has sharp +ears, and sharp eyes enough, and it is of them that it is my business to +speak." + +"Say away, then, sir," said Nigel, edging his chair somewhat closer to +the Quicksand, "although I cannot conceive what business I have either +with mine host or his daughter." + +"We will see that in the twinkling of a quart-pot," answered the +gracious Duke; "and first, my lord, you must not think to dance in a net +before old Jack Hildebrod, that has thrice your years o'er his head, and +was born, like King Richard, with all his eye-teeth ready cut." + +"Well, sir, go on," said Nigel. + +"Why, then, my lord, I presume to say, that, if you are, as I believe +you are, that Lord Glenvarloch whom all the world talk of--the Scotch +gallant that has spent all, to a thin cloak and a light purse--be not +moved, my lord, it is so noised of you--men call you the sparrow-hawk, +who will fly at all--ay, were it in the very Park--Be not moved, my +lord." + +"I am ashamed, sirrah," replied Glenvarloch, "that you should have power +to move me by your insolence--but beware--and, if you indeed guess who +I am, consider how long I may be able to endure your tone of insolent +familiarity." + +"I crave pardon, my lord," said Hildebrod, with a sullen, yet apologetic +look; "I meant no harm in speaking my poor mind. I know not what honour +there may be in being familiar with your lordship, but I judge there +is little safety, for Lowestoffe is laid up in lavender only for having +shown you the way into Alsatia; and so, what is to come of those who +maintain you when you are here, or whether they will get most honour or +most trouble by doing so, I leave with your lordship's better judgment." + +"I will bring no one into trouble on my account," said Lord Glenvarloch. +"I will leave Whitefriars to-morrow. Nay, by Heaven, I will leave it +this day." + +"You will have more wit in your anger, I trust," said Duke Hildebrod; +"listen first to what I have to say to you, and, if honest Jack +Hildebrod puts you not in the way of nicking them all, may he never cast +doublets, or dull a greenhorn again! And so, my lord, in plain words, +you must wap and win." + +"Your words must be still plainer before I can understand them," said +Nigel. + +"What the devil--a gamester, one who deals with the devil's bones and +the doctors, and not understand Pedlar's French! Nay, then, I must speak +plain English, and that's the simpleton's tongue." + +"Speak, then, sir," said Nigel; "and I pray you be brief, for I have +little more time to bestow on you." + +"Well, then, my lord, to be brief, as you and the lawyers call it--I +understand you have an estate in the north, which changes masters for +want of the redeeming ready.--Ay, you start, but you cannot dance in +a net before me, as I said before; and so the king runs the frowning +humour on you, and the Court vapours you the go-by; and the Prince +scowls at you from under his cap; and the favourite serves you out the +puckered brow and the cold shoulder; and the favourite's favourite--" + +"To go no further, sir," interrupted Nigel, "suppose all this true--and +what follows?" + +"What follows?" returned Duke Hildebrod. "Marry, this follows, that you +will owe good deed, as well as good will, to him who shall put you in +the way to walk with your beaver cocked in the presence, as an ye were +Earl of Kildare; bully the courtiers; meet the Prince's blighting look +with a bold brow; confront the favourite; baffle his deputy, and--" + +"This is all well," said Nigel! "but how is it to be accomplished?" + +"By making thee a Prince of Peru, my lord of the northern latitudes; +propping thine old castle with ingots,--fertilizing thy failing fortunes +with gold dust--it shall but cost thee to put thy baron's coronet for a +day or so on the brows of an old Caduca here, the man's daughter of the +house, and thou art master of a mass of treasure that shall do all I +have said for thee, and--" + +"What, you would have me marry this old gentlewoman here, the daughter +of mine host?" said Nigel, surprised and angry, yet unable to suppress +some desire to laugh. + +"Nay, my lord, I would have you marry fifty thousand good sterling +pounds; for that, and better, hath old Trapbois hoarded; and thou shall +do a deed of mercy in it to the old man, who will lose his golden smelts +in some worse way--for now that he is well-nigh past his day of work, +his day of payment is like to follow." + +"Truly, this is a most courteous offer," said Lord Glenvarloch; "but may +I pray of your candour, most noble duke, to tell me why you dispose of +a ward of so much wealth on a stranger like me, who may leave you +to-morrow?" + +"In sooth, my lord," said the Duke, "that question smacks more of the +wit of Beaujeu's ordinary, than any word I have yet heard your lordship +speak, and reason it is you should be answered. Touching my peers, it is +but necessary to say, that Mistress Martha Trapbois will none of them, +whether clerical or laic. The captain hath asked her, so hath the +parson, but she will none of them--she looks higher than either, and +is, to say truth, a woman of sense, and so forth, too profound, and of +spirit something too high, to put up with greasy buff or rusty prunella. +For ourselves, we need but hint that we have a consort in the land of +the living, and, what is more to purpose, Mrs. Martha knows it. So, as +she will not lace her kersey hood save with a quality binding, you, my +lord, must be the man, and must carry off fifty thousand decuses, the +spoils of five thousand bullies, cutters, and spendthrifts,--always +deducting from the main sum some five thousand pounds for our princely +advice and countenance, without which, as matters stand in Alsatia, you +would find it hard to win the plate." + +"But has your wisdom considered, sir," replied Glenvarloch, "how this +wedlock can serve me in my present emergence?" + +"As for that, my lord," said Duke Hildebrod, "if, with forty or fifty +thousand pounds in your pouch, you cannot save yourself, you will +deserve to lose your head for your folly, and your hand for being +close-fisted." + +"But, since your goodness has taken my matters into such serious +consideration," continued Nigel, who conceived there was no prudence +in breaking with a man, who, in his way, meant him favour rather than +offence, "perhaps you may be able to tell me how my kindred will be +likely to receive such a bride as you recommend to me?" + +"Touching that matter, my lord, I have always heard your countrymen knew +as well as other folks, on which side their bread was buttered. And, +truly, speaking from report, I know no place where fifty thousand +pounds--fifty thousand pounds, I say--will make a woman more welcome +than it is likely to do in your ancient kingdom. And, truly, saving the +slight twist in her shoulder, Mrs. Martha Trapbois is a person of very +awful and majestic appearance, and may, for aught I know, be come of +better blood than any one wots of; for old Trapbois looks not over +like to be her father, and her mother was a generous, liberal sort of a +woman." + +"I am afraid," answered Nigel, "that chance is rather too vague to +assure her a gracious reception into an honourable house." + +"Why, then, my lord," replied Hildebrod, "I think it like she will be +even with them; for I will venture to say, she has as much ill-nature as +will make her a match for your whole clan." + +"That may inconvenience me a little," replied Nigel. + +"Not a whit--not a whit," said the Duke, fertile in expedients; "if she +should become rather intolerable, which is not unlikely, your honourable +house, which I presume to be a castle, hath, doubtless, both turrets and +dungeons, and ye may bestow your bonny bride in either the one or the +other, and then you know you will be out of hearing of her tongue, and +she will be either above or below the contempt of your friends." + +"It is sagely counselled, most equitable sir," replied Nigel, "and such +restraint would be a fit meed for her folly that gave me any power over +her." + +"You entertain the project then, my lord?" said Duke Hildebrod. + +"I must turn it in my mind for twenty-four hours," said Nigel; "and I +will pray you so to order matters that I be not further interrupted by +any visitors." + +"We will utter an edict to secure your privacy," said the Duke; "and you +do not think," he added, lowering his voice to a confidential whisper, +"that ten thousand is too much to pay to the Sovereign, in name of +wardship?" + +"Ten thousand!" said Lord Glenvarloch; "why, you said five thousand but +now." + +"Aha! art avised of that?" said the Duke, touching the side of his +nose with his finger; "nay, if you have marked me so closely, you are +thinking on the case more nearly than I believed, till you trapped me. +Well, well, we will not quarrel about the consideration, as old Trapbois +would call it--do you win and wear the dame; it will be no hard matter +with your face and figure, and I will take care that no one interrupts +you. I will have an edict from the Senate as soon as they meet for their +meridiem." + +So saying, Duke Hildebrod took his leave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + + This is the time--Heaven's maiden sentinel + Hath quitted her high watch--the lesser spangles + Are paling one by one; give me the ladder + And the short lever--bid Anthony + Keep with his carabine the wicket-gate; + And do thou bare thy knife and follow me, + For we will in and do it--darkness like this + Is dawning of our fortunes. + _Old Play._ + +When Duke Hildebrod had withdrawn, Nigel's first impulse was an +irresistible feeling to laugh at the sage adviser, who would have thus +connected him with age, ugliness, and ill-temper; but his next thought +was pity for the unfortunate father and daughter, who, being the only +persons possessed of wealth in this unhappy district, seemed like a +wreck on the sea-shore of a barbarous country, only secured from plunder +for the moment by the jealousy of the tribes among whom it had been +cast. Neither could he help being conscious that his own residence here +was upon conditions equally precarious, and that he was considered by +the Alsatians in the same light of a godsend on the Cornish coast, or a +sickly but wealthy caravan travelling through the wilds of Africa, and +emphatically termed by the nations of despoilers through whose regions +it passes _Dummalafong_, which signifies a thing given to be devoured--a +common prey to all men. + +Nigel had already formed his own plan to extricate himself, at whatever +risk, from his perilous and degrading situation; and, in order that he +might carry it into instant execution, he only awaited the return of +Lowestoffe's messenger. He expected him, however, in vain, and could +only amuse himself by looking through such parts of his baggage as had +been sent to him from his former lodgings, in order to select a small +packet of the most necessary articles to take with him, in the event of +his quitting his lodgings secretly and suddenly, as speed and privacy +would, he foresaw, be particularly necessary, if he meant to obtain +an interview with the king, which was the course his spirit and his +interest alike determined him to pursue. + +While he was thus engaged, he found, greatly to his satisfaction, that +Master Lowestoffe had transmitted not only his rapier and poniard, but a +pair of pistols, which he had used in travelling; of a smaller and more +convenient size than the large petronels, or horse pistols, which were +then in common use, as being made for wearing at the girdle or in the +pockets. Next to having stout and friendly comrades, a man is chiefly +emboldened by finding himself well armed in case of need, and Nigel, +who had thought with some anxiety on the hazard of trusting his life, if +attacked, to the protection of the clumsy weapon with which Lowestoffe +had equipped him, in order to complete his disguise, felt an emotion +of confidence approaching to triumph, as, drawing his own good and +well-tried rapier, he wiped it with his handkerchief, examined its +point, bent it once or twice against the ground to prove its well-known +metal, and finally replaced it in the scabbard, the more hastily, that +he heard a tap at the door of his chamber, and had no mind to be found +vapouring in the apartment with his sword drawn. + +It was his old host who entered, to tell him with many cringes that the +price of his apartment was to be a crown per diem; and that, according +to the custom of Whitefriars, the rent was always payable per advance, +although he never scrupled to let the money lie till a week or +fortnight, or even a month, in the hands of any honourable guest like +Master Grahame, always upon some reasonable consideration for the use. +Nigel got rid of the old dotard's intrusion, by throwing down two pieces +of gold, and requesting the accommodation of his present apartment for +eight days, adding, however, he did not think he should tarry so long. + +The miser, with a sparkling eye and a trembling hand, clutched fast the +proffered coin, and, having balanced the pieces with exquisite pleasure +on the extremity of his withered finger, began almost instantly to +show that not even the possession of gold can gratify for more than an +instant the very heart that is most eager in the pursuit of it. First, +the pieces might be light--with hasty hand he drew a small pair +of scales from his bosom, and weighed them, first together, then +separately, and smiled with glee as he saw them attain the due +depression in the balance--a circumstance which might add to his +profits, if it were true, as was currently reported, that little of the +gold coinage was current in Alsatia in a perfect state, and that none +ever left the Sanctuary in that condition. + +Another fear then occurred to trouble the old miser's pleasure. He had +been just able to comprehend that Nigel intended to leave the Friars +sooner than the arrival of the term for which he had deposited the rent. +This might imply an expectation of refunding, which, as a Scotch wag +said, of all species of funding, jumped least with the old gentleman's +humour. He was beginning to enter a hypothetical caveat on this subject, +and to quote several reasons why no part of the money once consigned as +room-rent, could be repaid back on any pretence, without great hardship +to the landlord, when Nigel, growing impatient, told him that the money +was his absolutely, and without any intention on his part of resuming +any of it--all he asked in return was the liberty of enjoying in private +the apartment he had paid for. Old Trapbois, who had still at his +tongue's end much of the smooth language, by which, in his time, he had +hastened the ruin of many a young spendthrift, began to launch out +upon the noble and generous disposition of his new guest, until Nigel, +growing impatient, took the old gentleman by the hand, and gently, yet +irresistibly, leading him to the door of the chamber, put him out, but +with such decent and moderate exertion of his superior strength, as to +render the action in no shape indecorous, and, fastening the door, began +to do that for his pistols which he had done for his favourite sword, +examining with care the flints and locks, and reviewing the state of his +small provision of ammunition. + +In this operation he was a second time interrupted by a knocking at the +door--he called upon the person to enter, having no doubt that it +was Lowestoffe's messenger at length arrived. It was, however, the +ungracious daughter of old Trapbois, who, muttering something about her +father's mistake, laid down upon the table one of the pieces of gold +which Nigel had just given to him, saying, that what she retained was +the full rent for the term he had specified. Nigel replied, he had paid +the money, and had no desire to receive it again. + +"Do as you will with it, then," replied his hostess, "for there it lies, +and shall lie for me. If you are fool enough to pay more than is reason, +my father shall not be knave enough to take it." + +"But your father, mistress," said Nigel, "your father told me--" + +"Oh, my father, my father," said she, interrupting him,--"my father +managed these affairs while he was able--I manage them now, and that may +in the long run be as well for both of us." + +She then looked on the table, and observed the weapons. + +"You have arms, I see," she said; "do you know how to use them?" + +"I should do so mistress," replied Nigel, "for it has been my +occupation." + +"You are a soldier, then?" she demanded. + +"No farther as yet, than as every gentleman of my country is a soldier." + +"Ay, that is your point of honour--to cut the throats of the poor--a +proper gentlemanlike occupation for those who should protect them!" + +"I do not deal in cutting throats, mistress," replied Nigel; "but I +carry arms to defend myself, and my country if it needs me." + +"Ay," replied Martha, "it is fairly worded; but men say you are as +prompt as others in petty brawls, where neither your safety nor your +country is in hazard; and that had it not been so, you would not have +been in the Sanctuary to-day." + +"Mistress," returned Nigel, "I should labour in vain to make you +understand that a man's honour, which is, or should be, dearer to him +than his life, may often call on and compel us to hazard our own +lives, or those of others, on what would otherwise seem trifling +contingencies." + +"God's law says nought of that," said the female; "I have only read +there, that thou shall not kill. But I have neither time nor inclination +to preach to you--you will find enough of fighting here if you like +it, and well if it come not to seek you when you are least prepared. +Farewell for the present--the char-woman will execute your commands for +your meals." + +She left the room, just as Nigel, provoked at her assuming a superior +tone of judgment and of censure, was about to be so superfluous as to +enter into a dispute with an old pawnbroker's daughter on the subject of +the point of honour. He smiled at himself for the folly into which the +spirit of self-vindication had so nearly hurried him. + +Lord Glenvarloch then applied to old Deborah the char-woman, by whose +intermediation he was provided with a tolerably decent dinner; and the +only embarrassment which he experienced, was from the almost forcible +entry of the old dotard his landlord, who insisted upon giving his +assistance at laying the cloth. Nigel had some difficulty to prevent +him from displacing his arms and some papers which were lying on a small +table at which he had been sitting; and nothing short of a stern and +positive injunction to the contrary could compel him to use another +board (though there were two in the room) for the purpose of laying the +cloth. + +Having at length obliged him to relinquish his purpose, he could not +help observing that the eyes of the old dotard seemed still anxiously +fixed upon the small table on which lay his sword and pistols; and that, +amidst all the little duties which he seemed officiously anxious to +render to his guest, he took every opportunity of looking towards and +approaching these objects of his attention. At length, when Trapbois +thought he had completely avoided the notice of his guest, Nigel, +through the observation of one of the cracked mirrors, oh which channel +of communication the old man had not calculated, beheld him actually +extend his hand towards the table in question. He thought it unnecessary +to use further ceremony, but telling his landlord, in a stern voice, +that he permitted no one to touch his arms, he commanded him to leave +the apartment. The old usurer commenced a maundering sort of apology, in +which all that Nigel distinctly apprehended, was a frequent repetition +of the word _consideration_, and which did not seem to him to require +any other answer than a reiteration of his command to him to leave the +apartment, upon pain of worse consequences. + +The ancient Hebe who acted as Lord Glenvarloch's cup-bearer, took his +part against the intrusion of the still more antiquated Ganymede, and +insisted on old Trapbois leaving the room instantly, menacing him at +the same time with her mistress's displeasure if he remained there any +longer. The old man seemed more under petticoat government than any +other, for the threat of the char-woman produced greater effect upon him +than the more formidable displeasure of Nigel. He withdrew grumbling and +muttering, and Lord Glenvarloch heard him bar a large door at the nearer +end of the gallery, which served as a division betwixt the other parts +of the extensive mansion, and the apartment occupied by his guest, +which, as the reader is aware, had its access from the landing-place at +the head of the grand staircase. + +Nigel accepted the careful sound of the bolts and bars as they were +severally drawn by the trembling hand of old Trapbois, as an omen +that the senior did not mean again to revisit him in the course of +the evening, and heartily rejoiced that he was at length to be left to +uninterrupted solitude. + +The old woman asked if there was aught else to be done for his +accommodation; and, indeed, it had hitherto seemed as if the pleasure of +serving him, or more properly the reward which she expected, had renewed +her youth and activity. Nigel desired to have candles, to have a fire +lighted in his apartment, and a few fagots placed beside it, that he +might feed it from time to time, as he began to feel the chilly effects +of the damp and low situation of the house, close as it was to the +Thames. But while the old woman was absent upon his errand, he began to +think in what way he should pass the long solitary evening with which he +was threatened. + +His own reflections promised to Nigel little amusement, and less +applause. He had considered his own perilous situation in every light +in which it could be viewed, and foresaw as little utility as comfort in +resuming the survey. To divert the current of his ideas, books were, of +course, the readiest resource; and although, like most of us, Nigel had, +in his time, sauntered through large libraries, and even spent a long +time there without greatly disturbing their learned contents, he was now +in a situation where the possession of a volume, even of very inferior +merit, becomes a real treasure. The old housewife returned shortly +afterwards with fagots, and some pieces of half-burnt wax-candles, the +perquisites, probably, real or usurped, of some experienced groom of +the chambers, two of which she placed in large brass candlesticks, of +different shapes and patterns, and laid the others on the table, that +Nigel might renew them from time to time as they burnt to the socket. +She heard with interest Lord Glenvarloch's request to have a book--any +sort of book--to pass away the night withal, and returned for answer, +that she knew of no other books in the house than her young mistress's +(as she always denominated Mistress Martha Trapbois) Bible, which the +owner would not lend; and her master's Whetstone of Witte, being the +second part of Arithmetic, by Robert Record, with the Cossike Practice +and Rule of Equation; which promising volume Nigel declined to borrow. +She offered, however, to bring him some books from Duke Hildebrod--"who +sometimes, good gentleman, gave a glance at a book when the State +affairs of Alsatia left him as much leisure." + +Nigfil embraced the proposal, and his unwearied Iris scuttled away on +this second embassy. She returned in a short time with a tattered quarto +volume under her arm, and a bottle of sack in her hand; for the Duke, +judging that mere reading was dry work, had sent the wine by way of +sauce to help it down, not forgetting to add the price to the morning's +score, which he had already run up against the stranger in the +Sanctuary. + +Nigel seized on the book, and did not refuse the wine, thinking that a +glass or two, as it really proved to be of good quality, would be no +bad interlude to his studies. He dismissed, with thanks and assurance +of reward, the poor old drudge who had been so zealous in his service; +trimmed his fire and candles, and placed the easiest of the old +arm-chairs in a convenient posture betwixt the fire and the table at +which he had dined, and which now supported the measure of sack and the +lights; and thus accompanying his studies with such luxurious appliances +as were in his power, he began to examine the only volume with which the +ducal library of Alsatia had been able to supply him. + +The contents, though of a kind generally interesting, were not well +calculated to dispel the gloom by which he was surrounded. The book was +entitled "God's Revenge against Murther;" not, as the bibliomaniacal +reader may easily conjecture, the work which Reynolds published under +that imposing name, but one of a much earlier date, printed and sold +by old Wolfe; and which, could a copy now be found, would sell for much +more than its weight in gold.[Footnote: Only three copies are known +to exist; one in the library at Kennaquhair, and two--one foxed and +cropped, the other tall and in good condition--both in the possession +of an eminent member of the Roxburghe Club.--_Note by_ CAPTAIN +CLUTTERBUCK.] Nigel had soon enough of the doleful tales which the book +contains, and attempted one or two other modes of killing the evening. +He looked out at window, but the night was rainy, with gusts of wind; +he tried to coax the fire, but the fagots were green, and smoked without +burning; and as he was naturally temperate, he felt his blood somewhat +heated by the canary sack which he had already drank, and had no farther +inclination to that pastime. He next attempted to compose a memorial +addressed to the king, in which he set forth his case and his +grievances; but, speedily stung with the idea that his supplication +would be treated with scorn, he flung the scroll into the fire, and, in +a sort of desperation, resumed the book which he had laid aside. + +Nigel became more interested in the volume at the second than at the +first attempt which he made to peruse it. The narratives, strange and +shocking as they were to human feeling, possessed yet the interest of +sorcery or of fascination, which rivets the attention by its awakening +horrors. Much was told of the strange and horrible acts of blood by +which men, setting nature and humanity alike at defiance, had, for +the thirst of revenge, the lust of gold, or the cravings of irregular +ambition, broken into the tabernacle of life. Yet more surprising and +mysterious tales were recounted of the mode in which such deeds of blood +had come to be discovered and revenged. Animals, irrational animals, +had told the secret, and birds of the air had carried the matter. The +elements had seemed to betray the deed which had polluted them--earth +had ceased to support the murderer's steps, fire to warm his frozen +limbs, water to refresh his parched lips, air to relieve his gasping +lungs. All, in short, bore evidence to the homicide's guilt. In other +circumstances, the criminal's own awakened conscience pursued and +brought him to justice; and in some narratives the grave was said to +have yawned, that the ghost of the sufferer might call for revenge. + +It was now wearing late in the night, and the book was still in Nigel's +hands, when the tapestry which hung behind him flapped against the wall, +and the wind produced by its motion waved the flame of the candles by +which he was reading. Nigel started and turned round, in that excited +and irritated state of mind which arose from the nature of his studies, +especially at a period when a certain degree of superstition was +inculcated as a point of religious faith. It was not without emotion +that he saw the bloodless countenance, meagre form, and ghastly aspect +of old Trapbois, once more in the very act of extending his withered +hand towards the table which supported his arms. Convinced by this +untimely apparition that something evil was meditated towards him, Nigel +sprung up, seized his sword, drew it, and placing it at the old man's +breast, demanded of him what he did in his apartment at so untimely an +hour. Trapbois showed neither fear nor surprise, and only answered +by some imperfect expressions, intimating he would part with his +life rather than with his property; and Lord Glenvarloch, strangely +embarrassed, knew not what to think of the intruder's motives, and still +less how to get rid of him. As he again tried the means of intimidation, +he was surprised by a second apparition from behind the tapestry, in the +person of the daughter of Trapbois, bearing a lamp in her hand. She +also seemed to possess her father's insensibility to danger, for, coming +close to Nigel, she pushed aside impetuously his naked sword, and even +attempted to take it out of his hand. + +"For shame," she said, "your sword on a man of eighty years and +more!-=this the honour of a Scottish gentleman!--give it to me to make a +spindle of!" + +"Stand back," said Nigel; "I mean your father no injury--but I _will_ +know what has caused him to prowl this whole day, and even at this late +hour of night, around my arms." + +"Your arms!" repeated she; "alas! young man, the whole arms in the Tower +of London are of little value to him, in comparison of this miserable +piece of gold which I left this morning on the table of a young +spendthrift, too careless to put what belonged to him into his own +purse." + +So saying, she showed the piece of gold, which, still remaining on the +table, where she left it, had been the bait that attracted old Trapbois +so frequently to the spot; and which, even in the silence of the night, +had so dwelt on his imagination, that he had made use of a private +passage long disused, to enter his guest's apartment, in order to +possess himself of the treasure during his slumbers. He now exclaimed, +at the highest tones of his cracked and feeble voice-- + +"It is mine--it is mine!--he gave it to me for a consideration--I will +die ere I part with my property!" + +"It is indeed his own, mistress," said Nigel, "and I do entreat you to +restore it to the person on whom I have bestowed it, and let me have my +apartment in quiet." + +"I will account with you for it, then,"--said the maiden, reluctantly +giving to her father the morsel of Mammon, on which he darted as if his +bony fingers had been the talons of a hawk seizing its prey; and then +making a contented muttering and mumbling, like an old dog after he +has been fed, and just when he is wheeling himself thrice round for the +purpose of lying down, he followed his daughter behind the tapestry, +through a little sliding-door, which was perceived when the hangings +were drawn apart. + +"This shall be properly fastened to-morrow," said the daughter to Nigel, +speaking in such a tone that her father, deaf, and engrossed by his +acquisition, could not hear her; "to-night I will continue to watch him +closely.--I wish you good repose." + +These few words, pronounced in a tone of more civility than she had yet +made use of towards her lodger, contained a wish which was not to be +accomplished, although her guest, presently after her departure, retired +to bed. + +There was a slight fever in Nigel's blood, occasioned by the various +events of the evening, which put him, as the phrase is, beside his +rest. Perplexing and painful thoughts rolled on his mind like a troubled +stream, and the more he laboured to lull himself to slumber, the farther +he seemed from attaining his object. He tried all the resources common +in such cases; kept counting from one to a thousand, until his head +was giddy--he watched the embers of the wood fire till his eyes were +dazzled--he listened to the dull moaning of the wind, the swinging and +creaking of signs which projected from the houses, and the baying of +here and there a homeless dog, till his very ear was weary. + +Suddenly, however, amid this monotony, came a sound which startled him +at once. It was a female shriek. He sat up in his bed to listen, then +remembered he was in Alsatia, where brawls of every sort were current +among the unruly inhabitants. But another scream, and another, and +another, succeeded so close, that he was certain, though the noise was +remote and sounded stifled, it must be in the same house with himself. + +Nigel jumped up hastily, put on a part of his clothes, seized his sword +and pistols, and ran to the door of his chamber. Here he plainly heard +the screams redoubled, and, as he thought, the sounds came from the +usurer's apartment. All access to the gallery was effectually excluded +by the intermediate door, which the brave young lord shook with eager, +but vain impatience. But the secret passage occurred suddenly to his +recollection. He hastened back to his room, and succeeded with some +difficulty in lighting a candle, powerfully agitated by hearing the +cries repeated, yet still more afraid lest they should sink into +silence. + +He rushed along the narrow and winding entrance, guided by the noise, +which now burst more wildly on his ear; and, while he descended a narrow +staircase which terminated the passage, he heard the stifled voices +of men, encouraging, as it seemed, each other. "D--n her, strike +her down--silence her--beat her brains out!"--while the voice of his +hostess, though now almost exhausted, was repeating the cry of "murder," +and "help." At the bottom of the staircase was a small door, which gave +way before Nigel as he precipitated himself upon the scene of action,--a +cocked pistol in one hand, a candle in the other, and his naked sword +under his arm. + +Two ruffians had, with great difficulty, overpowered, or, rather, were +on the point of overpowering, the daughter of Trapbois, whose resistance +appeared to have been most desperate, for the floor was covered with +fragments of her clothes, and handfuls of her hair. It appeared that her +life was about to be the price of her defence, for one villain had drawn +a long clasp-knife, when they were surprised by the entrance of Nigel, +who, as they turned towards him, shot the fellow with the knife dead on +the spot, and when the other advanced to him, hurled the candlestick at +his head, and then attacked him with his sword. It was dark, save some +pale moonlight from the window; and the ruffian, after firing a pistol +without effect, and fighting a traverse or two with his sword, lost +heart, made for the window, leaped over it, and escaped. Nigel fired his +remaining pistol after him at a venture, and then called for light. + +"There is light in the kitchen," answered Martha Trapbois, with more +presence of mind than could have been expected. "Stay, you know not the +way; I will fetch it myself.--Oh! my father--my poor father!--I knew +it would come to this--and all along of the accursed gold!--They have +_murdered_ him!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + + Death finds us 'mid our playthings--snatches us, + As a cross nurse might do a wayward child, + From all our toys and baubles. His rough call + Unlooses all our favourite ties on earth; + And well if they are such as may be answer'd + In yonder world, where all is judged of truly. + _Old Play_. + +It was a ghastly scene which opened, upon Martha Trapbois's return with +a light. Her own haggard and austere features were exaggerated by +all the desperation of grief, fear, and passion--but the latter was +predominant. On the floor lay the body of the robber, who had expired +without a groan, while his blood, flowing plentifully, had crimsoned +all around. Another body lay also there, on which the unfortunate woman +precipitated herself in agony, for it was that of her unhappy father. In +the next moment she started up, and exclaiming--"There may be life yet!" +strove to raise the body. Nigel went to her assistance, but not without +a glance at the open window; which Martha, as acute as if undisturbed +either by passion or terror, failed not to interpret justly. + +"Fear not," she cried, "fear not; they are base cowards, to whom courage +is as much unknown as mercy. If I had had weapons, I could have defended +myself against them without assistance or protection.--Oh! my poor +father! protection comes too late for this cold and stiff corpse.--He is +dead--dead!" + +While she spoke, they were attempting to raise the dead body of the old +miser; but it was evident, even from the feeling of the inactive weight +and rigid joints, that life had forsaken her station. Nigel looked for a +wound, but saw none. The daughter of the deceased, with more presence +of mind than a daughter could at the time have been supposed capable +of exerting, discovered the instrument of his murder--a sort of scarf, +which had been drawn so tight round his throat, as to stifle his cries +for assistance, in the first instance, and afterwards to extinguish +life. + +She undid the fatal noose; and, laying the old man's body in the arms of +Lord Glenvarloch, she ran for water, for spirits, for essences, in the +vain hope that life might be only suspended. That hope proved indeed +vain. She chafed his temples, raised his head, loosened his nightgown, +(for it seemed as if he had arisen from bed upon hearing the entrance +of the villains,) and, finally, opened, with difficulty, his fixed and +closely-clenched hands, from one of which dropped a key, from the other +the very piece of gold about which the unhappy man had been a little +before so anxious, and which probably, in the impaired state of his +mental faculties, he was disposed to defend with as desperate energy as +if its amount had been necessary to his actual existence. + +"It is in vain--it is in vain," said the daughter, desisting from her +fruitless attempts to recall the spirit which had been effectually +dislodged, for the neck had been twisted by the violence of the +murderers; "It is in vain--he is murdered--I always knew it would be +thus; and now I witness it!" + +She then snatched up the key and the piece of money, but it was only to +dash them again on the floor, as she exclaimed, "Accursed be ye both, +for you are the causes of this deed!" + +Nigel would have spoken--would have reminded her, that measures should +be instantly taken for the pursuit of the murderer who had escaped, as +well as for her own security against his return; but she interrupted him +sharply. + +"Be silent," she said, "be silent. Think you, the thoughts of my own +heart are not enough to distract me, and with such a sight as this +before me? I say, be silent," she said again, and in a yet sterner +tone--"Can a daughter listen, and her father's murdered corpse lying on +her knees?" + +Lord Glenvarloch, however overpowered by the energy of her grief, felt +not the less the embarrassment of his own situation. He had discharged +both his pistols--the robber might return--he had probably other +assistants besides the man who had fallen, and it seemed to him, indeed, +as if he had heard a muttering beneath the windows. He explained hastily +to his companion the necessity of procuring ammunition. + +"You are right," she said, somewhat contemptuously, "and have ventured +already more than ever I expected of man. Go, and shift for yourself, +since that is your purpose--leave me to my fate." + +Without stopping for needless expostulation, Nigel hastened to his own +room through the secret passage, furnished himself with the ammunition +he sought for, and returned with the same celerity; wondering himself at +the accuracy with which he achieved, in the dark, all the meanderings +of the passage which he had traversed only once, and that in a moment of +such violent agitation. + +He found, on his return, the unfortunate woman standing like a statue by +the body of her father, which she had laid straight on the floor, having +covered the face with the skirt of his gown. She testified neither +surprise nor pleasure at Nigel's return, but said to him calmly--"My +moan is made--my sorrow--all the sorrow at least that man shall ever +have noting of, is gone past; but I will have justice, and the base +villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, by +the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumber +the earth long after him. Stranger, whom heaven has sent to forward +the revenge reserved for this action, go to Hildebrod's--there they are +awake all night in their revels--bid him come hither--he is bound by his +duty, and dare not, and shall not, refuse his assistance, which he knows +well I can reward. Why do ye tarry?--go instantly." + +"I would," said Nigel, "but I am fearful of leaving you alone; the +villains may return, and--" + +"True, most true," answered Martha, "he may return; and, though I care +little for his murdering me, he may possess himself of what has most +tempted him. Keep this key and this piece of gold; they are both of +importance--defend your life if assailed, and if you kill the villain I +will make you rich. I go myself to call for aid." + +Nigel would have remonstrated with her, but she had departed, and in +a moment he heard the house-door clank behind her. For an instant he +thought of following her; but upon recollection that the distance was +but short betwixt the tavern of Hildebrod and the house of Trapbois, +he concluded that she knew it better than he--incurred little danger in +passing it, and that he would do well in the meanwhile to remain on the +watch as she recommended. + +It was no pleasant situation for one unused to such scenes to remain +in the apartment with two dead bodies, recently those of living and +breathing men, who had both, within the space of less than half an hour, +suffered violent death; one of them by the hand of the assassin, the +other, whose blood still continued to flow from the wound in his throat, +and to flood all around him, by the spectator's own deed of violence, +though of justice. He turned his face from those wretched relics of +mortality with a feeling of disgust, mingled with superstition; and he +found, when he had done so, that the consciousness of the presence +of these ghastly objects, though unseen by him, rendered him more +uncomfortable than even when he had his eyes fixed upon, and reflected +by, the cold, staring, lifeless eyeballs of the deceased. Fancy also +played her usual sport with him. He now thought he heard the well-worn +damask nightgown of the deceased usurer rustle; anon, that he heard the +slaughtered bravo draw up his leg, the boot scratching the floor as if +he was about to rise; and again he deemed he heard the footsteps and +the whisper of the returned ruffian under the window from which he had +lately escaped. To face the last and most real danger, and to parry the +terrors which the other class of feelings were like to impress upon him, +Nigel went to the window, and was much cheered to observe the light of +several torches illuminating the street, and followed, as the murmur +of voices denoted, by a number of persons, armed, it would seem, with +firelocks and halberds, and attendant on Hildebrod, who (not in his +fantastic office of duke, but in that which he really possessed of +bailiff of the liberty and sanctuary of Whitefriars) was on his way to +inquire into the crime and its circumstances. + +It was a strange and melancholy contrast to see these debauchees, +disturbed in the very depth of their midnight revel, on their arrival at +such a scene as this. They stared on each other, and on the bloody work +before them, with lack-lustre eyes; staggered with uncertain steps +over boards slippery with blood; their noisy brawling voices sunk into +stammering whispers; and, with spirits quelled by what they saw, while +their brains were still stupefied by the liquor which they had drunk, +they seemed like men walking in their sleep. + +Old Hildebrod was an exception to the general condition. That seasoned +cask, however full, was at all times capable of motion, when there +occurred a motive sufficiently strong to set him a-rolling. He seemed +much shocked at what he beheld, and his proceedings, in consequence, +had more in them of regularity and propriety, than he might have been +supposed capable of exhibiting upon any occasion whatever. The +daughter was first examined, and stated, with wonderful accuracy and +distinctness, the manner in which she had been alarmed with a noise of +struggling and violence in her father's apartment, and that the +more readily, because she was watching him on account of some alarm +concerning his health. On her entrance, she had seen her father sinking +under the strength of two men, upon whom she rushed with all the fury +she was capable of. As their faces were blackened, and their figures +disguised, she could not pretend, in the hurry of a moment so dreadfully +agitating, to distinguish either of them as persons whom she had seen +before. She remembered little more except the firing of shots, until +she found herself alone with her guest, and saw that the ruffians had +escaped. Lord Glenvarloch told his story as we have given it to the +reader. The direct evidence thus received, Hildebrod examined the +premises. He found that the villains had made their entrance by the +window out of which the survivor had made his escape; yet it seemed +singular that they should have done so, as it was secured with strong +iron bars, which old Trapbois was in the habit of shutting with his own +hand at nightfall. He minuted down with great accuracy, the state of +every thing in the apartment, and examined carefully the features of the +slain robber. He was dressed like a seaman of the lowest order, but +his face was known to none present. Hildebrod next sent for an Alsatian +surgeon, whose vices, undoing what his skill might have done for him, +had consigned him to the wretched practice of this place. He made him +examine the dead bodies, and make a proper declaration of the manner in +which the sufferers seemed to have come by their end. The circumstances +of the sash did not escape the learned judge, and having listened to +all that could be heard or conjectured on the subject, and collected +all particulars of evidence which appeared to bear on the bloody +transaction, he commanded the door of the apartment to be locked until +next morning; and carrying, the unfortunate daughter of the murdered +man into the kitchen, where there was no one in presence but Lord +Glenvarloch, he asked her gravely, whether she suspected no one in +particular of having committed the deed. + +"Do _you_ suspect no one?" answered Martha, looking fixedly on him. + +"Perhaps, I may, mistress; but it is my part to ask questions, yours to +answer them. That's the rule of the game." + +"Then I suspect him who wore yonder sash. Do not you know whom I mean?" + +"Why, if you call on me for honours, I must needs say I have seen +Captain Peppercull have one of such a fashion, and he was not a man to +change his suits often." + +"Send out, then," said Martha, "and have him apprehended." + +"If it is he, he will be far by this time; but I will communicate with +the higher powers," answered the judge. + +"You would have him escape," resumed she, fixing her eyes on him +sternly. + +"By cock and pie," replied Hildebrod, "did it depend on me, the +murdering cut-throat should hang as high as ever Haman did--but let me +take my time. He has friends among us, _that_ you wot well; and all that +should assist me are as drunk as fiddlers." + +"I will have revenge--I _will_ have it," repeated she; "and take heed +you trifle not with me." + +"Trifle! I would sooner trifle with a she-bear the minute after they had +baited her. I tell you, mistress, be but patient, and we will have him. +I know all his haunts, and he cannot forbear them long; and I will have +trap-doors open for him. You cannot want justice, mistress, for you have +the means to get it." + +"They who help me in my revenge," said Martha, "shall share those +means." + +"Enough said," replied Hildebrod; "and now I would have you go to my +house, and get something hot--you will be but dreary here by yourself." + +"I will send for the old char-woman," replied Martha, "and we have the +stranger gentleman, besides." + +"Umph, umph--the stranger gentleman!" said Hildebrod to Nigel, whom +he drew a little apart. "I fancy the captain has made the stranger +gentleman's fortune when he was making a bold dash for his own. I +can tell your honour--I must not say lordship--that I think my having +chanced to give the greasy buff-and-iron scoundrel some hint of what I +recommended to you to-day, has put him on this rough game. The better +for you--you will get the cash without the father-in-law.--You will keep +conditions, I trust?" + +"I wish you had said nothing to any one of a scheme so absurd," said +Nigel. + +"Absurd!--Why, think you she will not have thee? Take her with the tear +in her eye, man--take her with the tear in her eye. Let me hear from you +to-morrow. Good-night, good-night--a nod is as good as a wink. I must to +my business of sealing and locking up. By the way, this horrid work has +put all out of my head.--Here is a fellow from Mr. Lowestoffe has been +asking to see you. As he said his business was express, the Senate only +made him drink a couple of flagons, and he was just coming to beat up +your quarters when this breeze blew up.--Ahey, friend! there is Master +Nigel Grahame." + +A young man, dressed in a green plush jerkin, with a badge on the +sleeve, and having the appearance of a waterman, approached and took +Nigel aside, while Duke Hildebrod went from place to place to exercise +his authority, and to see the windows fastened, and the doors of the +apartment locked up. The news communicated by Lowestoffe's messenger +were not the most pleasant. They were intimated in a courteous whisper +to Nigel, to the following effect:--That Master Lowestoffe prayed him to +consult his safety by instantly leaving Whitefriars, for that a warrant +from the Lord Chief-Justice had been issued out for apprehending him, +and would be put in force to-morrow, by the assistance of a party of +musketeers, a force which the Alsatians neither would nor dared to +resist. + +"And so, squire," said the aquatic emissary, "my wherry is to wait you +at the Temple Stairs yonder, at five this morning, and, if you would +give the blood-hounds the slip, why, you may." + +"Why did not Master Lowestoffe write to me?" said Nigel. + +"Alas! the good gentleman lies up in lavender for it himself, and has as +little to do with pen and ink as if he were a parson." + +"Did he send any token to me?" said Nigel. + +"Token!--ay, marry did he--token enough, an I have not forgot it," said +the fellow; then, giving a hoist to the waistband of his breeches, he +said,--"Ay, I have it--you were to believe me, because your name was +written with an O, for Grahame. Ay, that was it, I think.--Well, shall +we meet in two hours, when tide turns, and go down the river like a +twelve-oared barge?" + +"Where is the king just now, knowest thou?" answered Lord Glenvarloch. + +"The king! why, he went down to Greenwich yesterday by water, like a +noble sovereign as he is, who will always float where he can. He was +to have hunted this week, but that purpose is broken, they say; and +the Prince, and the Duke, and all of them at Greenwich, are as merry as +minnows." + +"Well," replied Nigel, "I will be ready to go at five; do thou come +hither to carry my baggage." + +"Ay, ay, master," replied the fellow, and left the house mixing himself +with the disorderly attendants of Duke Hildebrod, who were now retiring. +That potentate entreated Nigel to make fast the doors behind him, and, +pointing to the female who sat by the expiring fire with her limbs +outstretched, like one whom the hand of Death had already arrested, he +whispered, "Mind your hits, and mind your bargain, or I will cut your +bow-string for you before you can draw it." + +Feeling deeply the ineffable brutality which could recommend the +prosecuting such views over a wretch in such a condition, Lord +Glenvarloch yet commanded his temper so far as to receive the advice +in silence, and attend to the former part of it, by barring the door +carefully behind Duke Hildebrod and his suite, with the tacit hope +that he should never again see or hear of them. He then returned to the +kitchen, in which the unhappy woman remained, her hands still clenched, +her eyes fixed, and her limbs extended, like those of a person in a +trance. Much moved by her situation, and with the prospect which lay +before her, he endeavoured to awaken her to existence by every means in +his power, and at length apparently succeeded in dispelling her stupor, +and attracting her attention. He then explained to her that he was +in the act of leaving Whitefriars in a few hours--that his future +destination was uncertain, but that he desired anxiously to know whether +he could contribute to her protection by apprizing any friend of her +situation, or otherwise. With some difficulty she seemed to comprehend +his meaning, and thanked him with her usual short ungracious manner. "He +might mean well," she said, "but he ought to know that the miserable had +no friends." + +Nigel said, "He would not willingly be importunate, but, as he was about +to leave the Friars--" She interrupted him-- + +"You are about to leave the Friars? I will go with you." + +"You go with me!" exclaimed Lord Glenvarloch. + +"Yes," she said, "I will persuade my father to leave this murdering +den." But, as she spoke, the more perfect recollection of what had +passed crowded on her mind. She hid her face in her hands, and burst out +into a dreadful fit of sobs, moans, and lamentations, which terminated +in hysterics, violent in proportion to the uncommon strength of her body +and mind. + +Lord Glenvarloch, shocked, confused, and inexperienced, was about to +leave the house in quest of medical, or at least female assistance; but +the patient, when the paroxysm had somewhat spent its force, held him +fast by the sleeve with one hand, covering her face with the other, +while a copious flood of tears came to relieve the emotions of grief by +which she had been so violently agitated. + +"Do not leave me," she said--"do not leave me, and call no one. I have +never been in this way before, and would not now," she said, sitting +upright, and wiping her eyes with her apron,--"would not now--but +that--but that he loved _me_. if he loved nothing else that was +human--To die so, and by such hands!" + +And again the unhappy woman gave way to a paroxysm of sorrow, mingling +her tears with sobbing, wailing, and all the abandonment of female +grief, when at its utmost height. At length, she gradually recovered +the austerity of her natural composure, and maintained it as if by a +forcible exertion of resolution, repelling, as she spoke, the repeated +returns of the hysterical affection, by such an effort as that by which +epileptic patients are known to suspend the recurrence of their fits. +Yet her mind, however resolved, could not so absolutely overcome the +affection of her nerves, but that she was agitated by strong fits of +trembling, which, for a minute or two at a time, shook her whole frame +in a manner frightful to witness. Nigel forgot his own situation, and, +indeed, every thing else, in the interest inspired by the unhappy woman +before him--an interest which affected a proud spirit the more deeply, +that she herself, with correspondent highness of mind, seemed determined +to owe as little as possible either to the humanity or the pity of +others. + +"I am not wont to be in this way," she said,--"but--but--Nature will +have power over the frail beings it has made. Over you, sir, I have some +right; for, without you, I had not survived this awful night. I wish +your aid had been either earlier or later--but you have saved my life, +and you are bound to assist in making it endurable to me." + +"If you will show me how it is possible," answered Nigel. + +"You are going hence, you say, instantly--carry me with you," said +the unhappy woman. "By my own efforts, I shall never escape from this +wilderness of guilt and misery." + +"Alas! what can I do for you?" replied Nigel. "My own way, and I must +not deviate from it, leads me, in all probability, to a dungeon. I +might, indeed, transport you from hence with me, if you could afterwards +bestow yourself with any friend." + +"Friend!" she exclaimed--"I have no friend--they have long since +discarded us. A spectre arising from the dead were more welcome than +I should be at the doors of those who have disclaimed us; and, if they +were willing to restore their friendship to me now, I would despise it, +because they withdrew it from him--from him"--(here she underwent strong +but suppressed agitation, and then added firmly)--"from _him_ who lies +yonder.--I have no friend." Here she paused; and then suddenly, as if +recollecting herself, added, "I have no friend, but I have that +will purchase many--I have that which will purchase both friends and +avengers.--It is well thought of; I must not leave it for a prey to +cheats and ruffians.--Stranger, you must return to yonder room. Pass +through it boldly to his--that is, to the sleeping apartment; push the +bedstead aside; beneath each of the posts is a brass plate, as if to +support the weight, but it is that upon the left, nearest to the wall, +which must serve your turn--press the corner of the plate, and it will +spring up and show a keyhole, which this key will open. You will then +lift a concealed trap-door, and in a cavity of the floor you will +discover a small chest. Bring it hither; it shall accompany our journey, +and it will be hard if the contents cannot purchase me a place of +refuge." + +"But the door communicating with the kitchen has been locked by these +people," said Nigel. + +"True, I had forgot; they had their reasons for that, doubtless," +answered she. "But the secret passage from your apartment is open, and +you may go that way." + +Lord Glenvarloch took the key, and, as he lighted a lamp to show him the +way, she read in his countenance some unwillingness to the task imposed. + +"You fear?" said she--"there is no cause; the murderer and his victim +are both at rest. Take courage, I will go with you myself--you cannot +know the trick of the spring, and the chest will be too heavy for you." + +"No fear, no fear," answered Lord Glenvarloch, ashamed of the +construction she put upon a momentary hesitation, arising from a dislike +to look upon what is horrible, often connected with those high-wrought +minds which are the last to fear what is merely dangerous--"I will do +your errand as you desire; but for you, you must not--cannot go yonder." + +"I can--I will," she said. "I am composed. You shall see that I am so." +She took from the table a piece of unfinished sewing-work, and, with +steadiness and composure, passed a silken thread into the eye of a +fine needle.--"Could I have done that," she said, with a smile yet more +ghastly than her previous look of fixed despair, "had not my heart and +hand been both steady?" + +She then led the way rapidly up stairs to Nigel's chamber, and proceeded +through the secret passage with the same haste, as if she had feared her +resolution might have failed her ere her purpose was executed. At the +bottom of the stairs she paused a moment, before entering the fatal +apartment, then hurried through with a rapid step to the sleeping +chamber beyond, followed closely by Lord Glenvarloch, whose reluctance +to approach the scene of butchery was altogether lost in the anxiety +which he felt on account of the survivor of the tragedy. + +Her first action was to pull aside the curtains of her father's bed. The +bed-clothes were thrown aside in confusion, doubtless in the action of +his starting from sleep to oppose the entrance of the villains into the +next apartment. The hard mattress scarcely showed the slight pressure +where the emaciated body of the old miser had been deposited. His +daughter sank beside the bed, clasped her hands, and prayed to heaven, +in a short and affectionate manner, for support in her affliction, +and for vengeance on the villains who had made her fatherless. A +low-muttered and still more brief petition recommended to Heaven the +soul of the sufferer, and invoked pardon for his sins, in virtue of the +great Christian atonement. + +This duty of piety performed, she signed to Nigel to aid her; and, +having pushed aside the heavy bedstead, they saw the brass plate which +Martha had described. She pressed the spring, and, at once, the plate +starting up, showed the keyhole, and a large iron ring used in lifting +the trap-door, which, when raised, displayed the strong box, or small +chest, she had mentioned, and which proved indeed so very weighty, that +it might perhaps have been scarcely possible for Nigel, though a very +strong man, to have raised it without assistance. + +Having replaced everything as they had found it, Nigel, with such help +as his companion was able to afford, assumed his load, and made a shift +to carry it into the next apartment, where lay the miserable owner, +insensible to sounds and circumstances, which, if any thing could +have broken his long last slumber, would certainly have done so. His +unfortunate daughter went up to his body, and had even the courage to +remove the sheet which had been decently disposed over it. She put her +hand on the heart, but there was no throb--held a feather to the lips, +but there was no motion--then kissed with deep reverence the starting +veins of the pale forehead, and then the emaciated hand. + +"I would you could hear me," she said,--"Father! I would you could hear +me swear, that, if I now save what you most valued on earth, it is only +to assist me in obtaining vengeance for your death." + +She replaced the covering, and, without a tear, a sigh, or an additional +word of any kind, renewed her efforts, until they conveyed the +strong-box betwixt them into Lord Glenvarloch's sleeping apartment. "It +must pass," she said, "as part of your baggage. I will be in readiness +so soon as the waterman calls." + +She retired; and Lord Glenvarloch, who saw the hour of their departure +approach, tore down a part of the old hanging to make a covering, which +he corded upon the trunk, lest the peculiarity of its shape, and the +care with which it was banded and counterbanded with bars of steel, +might afford suspicions respecting the treasure which it contained. +Having taken this measure of precaution, he changed the rascally +disguise, which he had assumed on entering Whitefriars, into a suit +becoming his quality, and then, unable to sleep, though exhausted +with the events of the night, he threw himself on his bed to await the +summons of the waterman. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + + Give us good voyage, gentle stream--we stun not + Thy sober ear with sounds of revelry; + Wake not the slumbering echoes of thy banks + With voice of flute and horn--we do but seek + On the broad pathway of thy swelling bosom + To glide in silent safety. + _The Double Bridal._ + +Grey, or rather yellow light, was beginning to twinkle through the +fogs of Whitefriars, when a low tap at the door of the unhappy miser +announced to Lord Glenvarloch the summons of the boatman. He found at +the door the man whom he had seen the night before, with a companion. + +"Come, come, master, let us get afloat," said one of them, in a rough +impressive whisper, "time and tide wait for no man." + +"They shall not wait for me," said Lord Glenvarloch; "but I have some +things to carry with me." + +"Ay, ay--no man will take a pair of oars now, Jack, unless he means to +load the wherry like a six-horse waggon. When they don't want to shift +the whole kitt, they take a sculler, and be d--d to them. Come, come, +where be your rattle-traps?" + +One of the men was soon sufficiently loaded, in his own estimation at +least, with Lord Glenvarloch's mail and its accompaniments, with which +burden he began to trudge towards the Temple Stairs. His comrade, who +seemed the principal, began to handle the trunk which contained the +miser's treasure, but pitched it down again in an instant, declaring, +with a great oath, that it was as reasonable to expect a man to carry +Paul's on his back. The daughter of Trapbois, who had by this time +joined them, muffled up in a long dark hood and mantle, exclaimed to +Lord Glenvarloch--"Let them leave it if they will, let them leave it +all; let us but escape from this horrible place." + +We have mentioned elsewhere, that Nigel was a very athletic young man, +and, impelled by a strong feeling of compassion and indignation, he +showed his bodily strength singularly on this occasion, by seizing on +the ponderous strong-box, and, by means of the rope he had cast around +it, throwing it on his shoulders, and marching resolutely forward under +a weight, which would have sunk to the earth three young gallants, +at the least, of our degenerate day. The waterman followed him in +amazement, calling out, "Why, master, master, you might as well gie me +t'other end on't!" and anon offered his assistance to support it in some +degree behind, which after the first minute or two Nigel was fain to +accept. His strength was almost exhausted when he reached the wherry, +which was lying at the Temple Stairs according to appointment; and, when +he pitched the trunk into it, the weight sank the bow of the boat so low +in the water as well-nigh to overset it. + +"We shall have as hard a fare of it," said the waterman to his +companion, "as if we were ferrying over an honest bankrupt with all his +secreted goods--Ho, ho! good woman, what, are you stepping in for?--our +gunwale lies deep enough in the water without live lumber to boot." + +"This person comes with me," said Lord Glenvarloch; "she is for the +present under my protection." + +"Come, come, master," rejoined the fellow, "that is out of my +commission. You must not double my freight on me--she may go by +land--and, as for protection, her face will protect her from Berwick to +the Land's End." + +"You will not except at my doubling the loading, if I double the fare?" +said Nigel, determined on no account to relinquish the protection of +this unhappy woman, for which he had already devised some sort of plan, +likely now to be baffled by the characteristic rudeness of the Thames +watermen. + +"Ay, by G----, but I will except, though," said the fellow with the green +plush jacket: "I will overload my wherry neither for love nor money--I +love my boat as well as my wife, and a thought better." + +"Nay, nay, comrade," said his mate, "that is speaking no true water +language. For double fare we are bound to row a witch in her eggshell if +she bid us; and so pull away, Jack, and let us have no more prating." + +They got into the stream-way accordingly, and, although heavily laden, +began to move down the river with reasonable speed. + +The lighter vessels which passed, overtook, or crossed them, in their +course, failed not to assail them with their boisterous raillery, which +was then called water-wit; for which the extreme plainness of Mistress +Martha's features, contrasted with the youth, handsome figure, and good +looks of Nigel, furnished the principal topics; while the circumstance +of the boat being somewhat overloaded, did not escape their notice. They +were hailed successively, as a grocer's wife upon a party of pleasure +with her eldest apprentice--as an old woman carrying her grandson to +school--and as a young strapping Irishman, conveying an ancient maiden +to Dr. Rigmarole's, at Redriffe, who buckles beggars for a tester and +a dram of Geneva. All this abuse was retorted in a similar strain of +humour by Greenjacket and his companion, who maintained the war of wit +with the same alacrity with which they were assailed. + +Meanwhile, Lord Glenvarloch asked his desolate companion if she had +thought on any place where she could remain in safety with her property. +She confessed, in more detail than formerly, that her father's character +had left her no friends; and that, from the time he had betaken himself +to Whitefriars, to escape certain legal consequences of his eager +pursuit of gain, she had lived a life of total seclusion; not +associating with the society which the place afforded, and, by her +residence there, as well as her father's parsimony, effectually cut off +from all other company. What she now wished, was, in the first place, +to obtain the shelter of a decent lodging, and the countenance of honest +people, however low in life, until she should obtain legal advice as +to the mode of obtaining justice on her father's murderer. She had +no hesitation to charge the guilt upon Colepepper, (commonly called +Peppercull,) whom she knew to be as capable of any act of treacherous +cruelty, as he was cowardly, where actual manhood was required. He +had been strongly suspected of two robberies before, one of which +was coupled with an atrocious murder. He had, she intimated, made +pretensions to her hand as the easiest and safest way of obtaining +possession of her father's wealth; and, on her refusing his addresses, +if they could be termed so, in the most positive terms, he had thrown +out such obscure hints of vengeance, as, joined with some imperfect +assaults upon the house, had kept her in frequent alarm, both on her +father's account and her own. + +Nigel, but that his feeling of respectful delicacy to the unfortunate +woman forebade him to do so, could here have communicated a circumstance +corroborative of her suspicions, which had already occurred to his own +mind. He recollected the hint that old Hildebrod threw forth on the +preceding night, that some communication betwixt himself and Colepepper +had hastened the catastrophe. As this communication related to the +plan which Hildebrod had been pleased to form, of promoting a marriage +betwixt Nigel himself and the rich heiress of Trapbois, the fear +of losing an opportunity not to be regained, together with the mean +malignity of a low-bred ruffian, disappointed in a favourite scheme, +was most likely to instigate the bravo to the deed of violence which +had been committed. The reflection that his own name was in some +degree implicated with the causes of this horrid tragedy, doubled Lord +Glenvarloch's anxiety in behalf of the victim whom he had rescued, while +at the same time he formed the tacit resolution, that, so soon as his +own affairs were put upon some footing, he would contribute all in his +power towards the investigation of this bloody affair. + +After ascertaining from his companion that she could form no better plan +of her own, he recommended to her to take up her lodging for the time, +at the house of his old landlord, Christie the ship-chandler, at Paul's +Wharf, describing the decency and honesty of that worthy couple, and +expressing his hopes that they would receive her into their own house, +or recommend her at least to that of some person for whom they would be +responsible, until she should have time to enter upon other arrangements +for herself. + +The poor woman received advice so grateful to her in her desolate +condition, with an expression of thanks, brief indeed, but deeper +than any thing had yet extracted from the austerity of her natural +disposition. + +Lord Glenvarloch then proceeded to inform Martha, that certain reasons, +connected with his personal safety, called him immediately to Greenwich, +and, therefore, it would not be in his power to accompany her to +Christie's house, which he would otherwise have done with pleasure: but, +tearing a leaf from his tablet, he wrote on it a few lines, addressed +to his landlord, as a man of honesty and humanity, in which he described +the bearer as a person who stood in singular necessity of temporary +protection and good advice, for which her circumstances enabled her to +make ample acknowledgment. He therefore requested John Christie, as his +old and good friend, to afford her the shelter of his roof for a short +time; or, if that might not be consistent with his convenience, at least +to direct her to a proper lodging-and, finally, he imposed on him the +additional, and somewhat more difficult commission, to recommend her to +the counsel and services of an honest, at least a reputable and skilful +attorney, for the transacting some law business of importance. The note +he subscribed with his real name, and, delivering it to his _protegee_, +who received it with another deeply uttered "I thank you," which spoke +the sterling feelings of her gratitude better than a thousand combined +phrases, he commanded the watermen to pull in for Paul's Wharf, which +they were now approaching. + +"We have not time," said Green-jacket; "we cannot be stopping every +instant." + +But, upon Nigel insisting upon his commands being obeyed, and adding, +that it was for the purpose of putting the lady ashore, the waterman +declared that he would rather have her room than her company, and put +the wherry alongside the wharf accordingly. Here two of the porters, who +ply in such places, were easily induced to undertake the charge of the +ponderous strong-box, and at the same time to guide the owner to the +well-known mansion of John Christie, with whom all who lived in that +neighbourhood were perfectly acquainted. + +The boat, much lightened of its load, went down the Thames at a rate +increased in proportion. But we must forbear to pursue her in her voyage +for a few minutes, since we have previously to mention the issue of Lord +Glenvarloch's recommendation. + +Mistress Martha Trapbois reached the shop in perfect safety, and was +about to enter it, when a sickening sense of the uncertainty of her +situation, and of the singularly painful task of telling her story, came +over her so strongly, that she paused a moment at the very threshold +of her proposed place of refuge, to think in what manner she could best +second the recommendation of the friend whom Providence had raised up +to her. Had she possessed that knowledge of the world, from which her +habits of life had completely excluded her, she might have known +that the large sum of money which she brought along with her, might, +judiciously managed, have been a passport to her into the mansions +of nobles, and the palaces of princes. But, however conscious of its +general power, which assumes so many forms and complexions, she was so +inexperienced as to be most unnecessarily afraid that the means by which +the wealth had been acquired, might exclude its inheretrix from shelter +even in the house of a humble tradesman. + +While she thus delayed, a more reasonable cause for hesitation arose, in +a considerable noise and altercation within the house, which grew louder +and louder as the disputants issued forth upon the street or lane before +the door. + +The first who entered upon the scene was a tall raw-boned hard-favoured +man, who stalked out of the shop hastily, with a gait like that of a +Spaniard in a passion, who, disdaining to add speed to his locomotion by +running, only condescends, in the utmost extremity of his angry haste, +to add length to his stride. He faced about, so soon as he was out +of the house, upon his pursuer, a decent-looking, elderly, plain +tradesman--no other than John Christie himself, the owner of the shop +and tenement, by whom he seemed to be followed, and who was in a state +of agitation more than is usually expressed by such a person. + +"I'll hear no more on't," said the personage who first appeared on the +scene.--"Sir, I will hear no more on it. Besides being a most false +and impudent figment, as I can testify--it is _Scandaalum Magnaatum_, +sir--_Scandaalum Magnaatum_" he reiterated with a broad accentuation of +the first vowel, well known in the colleges of Edinburgh and Glasgow, +which we can only express in print by doubling the said first of letters +and of vowels, and which would have cheered the cockles of the reigning +monarch had he been within hearing,--as he was a severer stickler for +what he deemed the genuine pronunciation of the Roman tongue, than for +any of the royal prerogatives, for which he was at times disposed to +insist so strenuously in his speeches to Parliament. + +"I care not an ounce of rotten cheese," said John Christie in reply, +"what you call it--but it is TRUE; and I am a free Englishman, and have +right to speak the truth in my own concerns; and your master is little +better than a villain, and you no more than a swaggering coxcomb, whose +head I will presently break, as I have known it well broken before on +lighter occasion." + +And, so saying, he flourished the paring-shovel which usually made clean +the steps of his little shop, and which he had caught up as the readiest +weapon of working his foeman damage, and advanced therewith upon him. +The cautious Scot (for such our readers must have already pronounced +him, from his language and pedantry) drew back as the enraged +ship-chandler approached, but in a surly manner, and bearing his hand +on his sword-hilt rather in the act of one who was losing habitual +forbearance and caution of deportment, than as alarmed by the attack of +an antagonist inferior to himself in youth, strength, and weapons. + +"Bide back," he said, "Maister Christie--I say bide back, and consult +your safety, man. I have evited striking you in your ain house under +muckle provocation, because I am ignorant how the laws here may +pronounce respecting burglary and hamesucken, and such matters; and, +besides, I would not willingly hurt ye, man, e'en on the causeway, that +is free to us baith, because I mind your kindness of lang syne, and +partly consider ye as a poor deceived creature. But deil d--n me, sir, +and I am not wont to swear, but if you touch my Scotch shouther with +that shule of yours, I will make six inches of my Andrew Ferrara +deevilish intimate with your guts, neighbour." + +And therewithal, though still retreating from the brandished shovel, he +made one-third of the basket-hilled broadsword which he wore, visible +from the sheath. The wrath of John Christie was abated, either by his +natural temperance of disposition, or perhaps in part by the glimmer of +cold steel, which flashed on him from his adversary's last action. + +"I would do well to cry clubs on thee, and have thee ducked at the +wharf," he said, grounding his shovel, however, at the same time, "for +a paltry swaggerer, that would draw thy bit of iron there on an honest +citizen before his own door; but get thee gone, and reckon on a salt eel +for thy supper, if thou shouldst ever come near my house again. I wish +it had been at the bottom of the Thames when it first gave the use of +its roof to smooth-faced, oily-tongued, double-minded Scots thieves!" + +"It's an ill bird that fouls its own nest," replied his adversary, not +perhaps the less bold that he saw matters were taking the turn of a +pacific debate; "and a pity it is that a kindly Scot should ever +have married in foreign parts, and given life to a purse-proud, +pudding-headed, fat-gutted, lean-brained Southron, e'en such as you, +Maister Christie. But fare ye weel--fare ye weel, for ever and a day; +and, if you quarrel wi' a Scot again, man, say as mickle ill o' himsell +as ye like, but say nane of his patron or of his countrymen, or it will +scarce be your flat cap that will keep your lang lugs from the sharp +abridgement of a Highland whinger, man." + +"And, if you continue your insolence to me before my own door, were +it but two minutes longer," retorted John Christie, "I will call the +constable, and make your Scottish ankles acquainted with an English pair +of stocks!" + +So saying, he turned to retire into his shop with some show of victory; +for his enemy, whatever might be his innate valour, manifested no +desire to drive matters to extremity--conscious, perhaps, that whatever +advantage he might gain in single combat with Jonn Christie, would +be more than overbalanced by incurring an affair with the constituted +authorities of Old England, not at that time apt to be particularly +favourable to their new fellow-subjects, in the various successive +broils which were then constantly taking place between the individuals +of two proud nations, who still retained a stronger sense of their +national animosity during centuries, than of their late union for a few +years under the government of the same prince. + +Mrs. Martha Trapbois had dwelt too long in Alsatia, to be either +surprised or terrified at the altercation she had witnessed. Indeed, +she only wondered that the debate did not end in some of those acts of +violence by which they were usually terminated in the Sanctuary. As +the disputants separated from each other, she, who had no idea that the +cause of the quarrel was more deeply rooted than in the daily scenes of +the same nature which she had heard of or witnessed, did not hesitate to +stop Master Christie in his return to his shop, and present to him the +letter which Lord Glenvarloch had given to her. Had she been better +acquainted with life and its business, she would certainly have waited +for a more temperate moment; and she had reason to repent of her +precipitation, when, without saying a single word, or taking the trouble +to gather more of the information contained in the letter than was +expressed in the subscription, the incensed ship chandler threw it down +on the ground, trampled it in high disdain, and, without addressing a +single word to the bearer, except, indeed, something much more like +a hearty curse than was perfectly consistent with his own grave +appearance, he retired into his shop, and shut the hatch-door. + +It was with the most inexpressible anguish that the desolate, friendless +and unhappy female, thus beheld her sole hope of succour, countenance, +and protection, vanish at once, without being able to conceive a reason; +for, to do her justice, the idea that her friend, whom she knew by +the name of Nigel Grahame, had imposed on her, a solution which might +readily have occurred to many in her situation, never once entered +her mind. Although it was not her temper easily to bend her mind to +entreaty, she could not help exclaiming after the ireful and retreating +ship-chandler,--"Good Master, hear me but a moment! for mercy's sake, +for honesty's sake!" + +"Mercy and honesty from him, mistress!" said the Scot, who, though he +essayed not to interrupt the retreat of his antagonist, still kept stout +possession of the field of action,--"ye might as weel expect brandy from +bean-stalks, or milk from a craig of blue whunstane. The man is mad, bom +mad, to boot." + +"I must have mistaken the person to whom the letter was addressed, +then;" and, as she spoke, Mistress Martha Trapbois was in the act of +stooping to lift the paper which had been so uncourteously received. Her +companion, with natural civility, anticipated her purpose; but, what +was not quite so much in etiquette, he took a sly glance at it as he was +about to hand it to her, and his eye having caught the subscription, he +said, with surprise, "Glenvarloch--Nigel Olifaunt of Glenvarloch! Do you +know the Lord Glenvarloch, mistress?" + +"I know not of whom you speak," said Mrs. Martha, peevishly. "I had that +paper from one Master Nigel Gram." + +"Nigel Grahame!--umph.-O, ay, very true--I had forgot," said the +Scotsman. "A tall, well-set young man, about my height; bright blue +eyes like a hawk's; a pleasant speech, something leaning to the kindly +north-country accentuation, but not much, in respect of his having been +resident abroad?" + +"All this is true--and what of it all?" said the daughter of the miser. + +"Hair of my complexion?" + +"Yours is red," replied she. + +"I pray you peace," said the Scotsman. "I was going to say--of my +complexion, but with a deeper shade of the chestnut. Weel, mistress, if +I have guessed the man aright, he is one with whom I am, and have been, +intimate and familiar,--nay,--I may truly say I have done him much +service in my time, and may live to do him more. I had indeed a sincere +good-will for him, and I doubt he has been much at a loss since we +parted; but the fault is not mine. Wherefore, as this letter will not +avail you with him to whom it is directed, you may believe that heaven +hath sent it to me, who have a special regard for the writer--I have, +besides, as much mercy and honesty within me as man can weel make his +bread with, and am willing to aid any distressed creature, that is my +friend's friend, with my counsel, and otherwise, so that I am not put +to much charges, being in a strange country, like a poor lamb that has +wandered from its ain native hirsel, and leaves a tait of its woo' in +every d--d Southron bramble that comes across it." While he spoke thus, +he read the contents of the letter, without waiting for permission, +and then continued,--"And so this is all that you are wanting, my dove? +nothing more than safe and honourable lodging, and sustenance, upon your +own charges?" + +"Nothing more," said she. "If you are a man and a Christian, you will +help me to what I need so much." + +"A man I am," replied the formal Caledonian, "e'en sic as ye see me; and +a Christian I may call myself, though unworthy, and though I have +heard little pure doctrine since I came hither--a' polluted with men's +devices--ahem! Weel, and if ye be an honest woman," (here he peeped +under her muffler,) "as an honest woman ye seem likely to be--though, +let me tell you, they are a kind of cattle not so rife in the streets +of this city as I would desire them--I was almost strangled with my own +band by twa rampallians, wha wanted yestreen, nae farther gane, to harle +me into a change-house--however, if ye be a decent honest woman," (here +he took another peep at features certainly bearing no beauty which +could infer suspicion,) "as decent and honest ye seem to be, why, I +will advise you to a decent house, where you will get douce, quiet +entertainment, on reasonable terms, and the occasional benefit of my +own counsel and direction--that is, from time to time, as my other +avocations may permit." + +"May I venture to accept of such an offer from a stranger?" said Martha, +with natural hesitation. + +"Troth, I see nothing to hinder you, mistress," replied the bonny Scot; +"ye can but see the place, and do after as ye think best. Besides, we +are nae such strangers, neither; for I know your friend, and you, +it's like, know mine, whilk knowledge, on either hand, is a medium of +communication between us, even as the middle of the string connecteth +its twa ends or extremities. But I will enlarge on this farther as we +pass along, gin ye list to bid your twa lazy loons of porters there lift +up your little kist between them, whilk ae true Scotsman might carry +under his arm. Let me tell you, mistress, ye will soon make a toom +pock-end of it in Lon'on, if you hire twa knaves to do the work of ane." + +So saying, he led the way, followed by Mistress Martha Trapbois, whose +singular destiny, though it had heaped her with wealth, had left her, +for the moment, no wiser counsellor, or more distinguished protector, +than honest Richie Moniplies, a discarded serving-man. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + + This way lie safety and a sure retreat; + Yonder lie danger, shame, and punishment + Most welcome danger then--Nay, let me say, + Though spoke with swelling heart--welcome e'en shame + And welcome punishment--for, call me guilty, + I do but pay the tax that's due to justice; + And call me guiltless, then that punishment + Is shame to those alone who do inflict it, + _The Tribunal_. + +We left Lord Glenvarloch, to whose fortunes our story chiefly attaches +itself, gliding swiftly down the Thames. He was not, as the reader may +have observed, very affable in his disposition, or apt to enter into +conversation with those into whose company he was casually thrown. This +was, indeed, an error in his conduct, arising less from pride, though +of that feeling we do not pretend to exculpate him, than from a sort of +bashful reluctance to mix in the conversation of those with whom he was +not familiar. It is a fault only to be cured by experience and knowledge +of the world, which soon teaches every sensible and acute person the +important lesson, that amusement, and, what is of more consequence, +that information and increase of knowledge, are to be derived from the +conversation of every individual whatever, with whom he is thrown into +a natural train of communication. For ourselves, we can assure the +reader--and perhaps if we have ever been able to afford him amusement, +it is owing in a great degree to this cause--that we never found +ourselves in company with the stupidest of all possible companions in a +post-chaise, or with the most arrant cumber-corner that ever occupied +a place in the mail-coach, without finding, that, in the course of our +conversation with him, we had some ideas suggested to us, either grave +orgay, or some information communicated in the course of our journey, +which we should have regretted not to have learned, and which we should +be sorry to have immediately forgotten. But Nigel was somewhat immured +within the Bastile of his rank, as some philosopher (Tom Paine, we +think) has happily enough expressed that sort of shyness which men of +dignified situations are apt to be beset with, rather from not exactly +knowing how far, or with whom, they ought to be familiar, than from any +real touch of aristocratic pride. Besides, the immediate pressure of +our adventurer's own affairs was such as exclusively to engross his +attention. + +He sat, therefore, wrapt in his cloak, in the stern of the boat, with +his mind entirely bent upon the probable issue of the interview with his +Sovereign, which it was his purpose to seek; for which abstraction of +mind he may be fully justified, although perhaps, by questioning +the watermen who were transporting him down the river, he might have +discovered matters of high concernment to him. + +At any rate, Nigel remained silent till the wherry approached the +town of Greenwich, when he commanded the men to put in for the nearest +landing-place, as it was his purpose to go ashore there, and dismiss +them from further attendance. + +"That is not possible," said the fellow with the green jacket, who, as +we have already said, seemed to take on himself the charge of pilotage. +"We must go," he continued, "to Gravesend, where a Scottish vessel, +which dropped down the river last tide for the very purpose, lies +with her anchor a-peak, waiting to carry you to your own dear northern +country. Your hammock is slung, and all is ready for you, and you talk +of going ashore at Greenwich, as seriously as if such a thing were +possible!" + +"I see no impossibility," said Nigel, "in your landing me where I desire +to be landed; but very little possibility of your carrying me anywhere I +am not desirous of going." + +"Why, whether do you manage the wherry, or we, master?" asked +Green-jacket, in a tone betwixt jest and earnest; "I take it she will go +the way we row her." + +"Ay," retorted Nigel, "but I take it you will row her on the course I +direct you, otherwise your chance of payment is but a poor one." + +"Suppose we are content to risk that," said the undaunted waterman, "I +wish to know how you, who talk so big--I mean no offence, master, but +you do talk big--would help yourself in such a case?" + +"Simply thus," answered Lord Glenvarloch--"You saw me, an hour since, +bring down to the boat a trunk that neither of you could lift. If we are +to contest the destination of our voyage, the same strength which +tossed that chest into the wherry, will suffice to fling you out of it; +wherefore, before we begin the scuffle, I pray you to remember, that, +whither I would go, there I will oblige you to carry me." + +"Gramercy for your kindness," said Green-jacket; "and now mark me in +return. My comrade and I are two men--and you, were you as stout as +George-a-Green, can pass but for one; and two, you will allow, are more +than a match for one. You mistake in your reckoning, my friend." + +"It is you who mistake," answered Nigel, who began to grow warm; "it is +I who am three to two, sirrah--I carry two men's lives at my girdle." + +So saying, he opened his cloak and showed the two pistols which he had +disposed at his girdle. Green-jacket was unmoved at the display. + +"I have got," said he, "a pair of barkers that will match yours," and he +showed that he also was armed with pistols; "so you may begin as soon as +you list." + +"Then," said Lord Glenvarloch, drawing forth and cocking a pistol, +"the sooner the better. Take notice, I hold you as a ruffian, who have +declared you will put force on my person; and that I will shoot you +through the head if you do not instantly put me ashore at Greenwich." + +The other waterman, alarmed at Nigel's gesture, lay upon his oar; but +Green-jacket replied coolly--"Look you, master, I should not care a +tester to venture a life with you on this matter; but the truth is, I am +employed to do you good, and not to do you harm." + +"By whom are you employed?" said the Lord Glenvarloch; "or who dare +concern themselves in me, or my affairs, without my authority?" + +"As to that," answered the waterman, in the same tone of indifference, +"I shall not show my commission. For myself, I care not, as I said, +whether you land at Greenwich to get yourself hanged, or go down to get +aboard the Royal Thistle, to make your escape to your own country; you +will be equally out of my reach either way. But it is fair to put the +choice before you." + +"My choice is made," said Nigel. "I have told you thrice already it is +my pleasure to be landed at Greenwich." + +"Write it on a piece of paper," said the waterman, "that such is your +positive will; I must have something to show to my employers, that the +transgression of their orders lies with yourself, not with me." + +"I choose to hold this trinket in my hand for the present," said Nigel, +showing his pistol, "and will write you the acquittance when I go +ashore." + +"I would not go ashore with you for a hundred pieces," said the +waterman. "Ill luck has ever attended you, except in small gaming; do me +fair justice, and give me the testimony I desire. If you are afraid of +foul play while you write it, you may hold my pistols, if you will." He +offered the weapons to Nigel accordingly, who, while they were under +his control, and all possibility of his being taken at disadvantage was +excluded, no longer hesitated to give the waterman an acknowledgment, in +the following terms:-- + +"Jack in the Green, with his mate, belonging to the wherry called +the Jolly Raven, have done their duty faithfully by me, landing me +at Greenwich by my express command; and being themselves willing and +desirous to carry me on board the Royal Thistle, presently lying at +Gravesend." Having finished this acknowledgment, which he signed +with the letters, N. O. G. as indicating his name and title, he again +requested to know of the waterman, to whom he delivered it, the name of +his employers. + +"Sir," replied Jack in the Green, "I have respected your secret, do not +you seek to pry into mine. It would do you no good to know for whom I +am taking this present trouble; and, to be brief, you shall not know +it--and, if you will fight in the quarrel, as you said even now, the +sooner we begin the better. Only this you may be cock-sure of, that we +designed you no harm, and that, if you fall into any, it will be of your +own wilful seeking." As he spoke, they approached the landing-place, +where Nigel instantly jumped ashore. The waterman placed his small +mail-trunk on the stairs, observing that there were plenty of spare +hands about, to carry it where he would. + +"We part friends, I hope, my lads," said the young nobleman, offering at +the same time a piece of money more than double the usual fare, to the +boatmen. + +"We part as we met," answered Green-jacket; "and, for your money, I am +paid sufficiently with this bit of paper. Only, if you owe me any love +for the cast I have given you, I pray you not to dive so deep into the +pockets of the next apprentice that you find fool enough to play the +cavalier.--And you, you greedy swine," said he to his companion, who +still had a longing eye fixed on the money which Nigel continued to +offer, "push off, or, if I take a stretcher in hand, I'll break the +knave's pate of thee." The fellow pushed off, as he was commanded, but +still could not help muttering, "This was entirely out of waterman's +rules." + +Glenvarloch, though without the devotion of the "injured Thales" of the +moralist, to the memory of that great princess, had now attained + + "The hallow'd soil which gave Eliza birth," + +whose halls were now less respectably occupied by her successor. It was +not, as has been well shown by a late author, that James was void either +of parts or of good intentions; and his predecessor was at least as +arbitrary in effect as he was in theory. But, while Elizabeth possessed +a sternness of masculine sense and determination which rendered even her +weaknesses, some of which were in themselves sufficiently ridiculous, in +a certain degree respectable, James, on the other hand, was so utterly +devoid of "firm resolve," so well called by the Scottish bard, + + "The stalk of carle-hemp in man," + +that even his virtues and his good meaning became laughable, from the +whimsical uncertainty of his conduct; so that the wisest things he ever +said, and the best actions he ever did, were often touched with a strain +of the ludicrous and fidgety character of the man. Accordingly, though +at different periods of his reign he contrived to acquire with his +people a certain degree of temporary popularity, it never long outlived +the occasion which produced it; so true it is, that the mass of mankind +will respect a monarch stained with actual guilt, more than one whose +foibles render him only ridiculous. + +To return from this digression, Lord Glenvarloch soon received, as +Green-jacket had assured him, the offer of an idle bargeman to transport +his baggage where he listed; but that where was a question of momentary +doubt. At length, recollecting the necessity that his hair and beard +should be properly arranged before he attempted to enter the royal +presence, and desirous, at the same time, of obtaining some information +of the motions of the Sovereign and of the Court, he desired to be +guided to the next barber's shop, which we have already mentioned as +the place where news of every kind circled and centred. He was speedily +shown the way to such an emporium of intelligence, and soon found he was +likely to hear all he desired to know, and much more, while his head was +subjected to the art of a nimble tonsor, the glibness of whose tongue +kept pace with the nimbleness of his fingers while he ran on, without +stint or stop, in the following excursive manner:-- + +"The Court here, master?--yes, master--much to the advantage of +trade--good custom stirring. His Majesty loves Greenwich--hunts every +morning in the Park--all decent persons admitted that have the entries +of the Palace--no rabble--frightened the king's horse with their +hallooing, the uncombed slaves.--Yes, sir, the beard more peaked? +Yes, master, so it is worn. I know the last cut--dress several of the +courtiers--one valet-of-the-chamber, two pages of the body, the clerk +of the kitchen, three running footmen, two dog-boys, and an honourable +Scottish knight, Sir Munko Malgrowler." + +"Malagrowther, I suppose?" said Nigel, thrusting in his conjectural +emendation, with infinite difficulty, betwixt two clauses of the +barber's text. + +"Yes, sir--Malcrowder, sir, as you say, sir--hard names the Scots have, +sir, for an English mouth. Sir Munko is a handsome person, sir--perhaps +you know him--bating the loss of his fingers, and the lameness of his +leg, and the length of his chin. Sir, it takes me one minute, twelve +seconds, more time to trim that chin of his, than any chin that I know +in the town of Greenwich, sir. But he is a very comely gentleman, +for all that; and a pleasant--a very pleasant gentleman, sir--and a +good-humoured, saving that he is so deaf he can never hear good of +any one, and so wise, that he can never believe it; but he is a very +good-natured gentleman for all that, except when one speaks too low, or +when a hair turns awry.--Did I graze you, sir? We shall put it to rights +in a moment, with one drop of styptic--my styptic, or rather my wife's, +sir--She makes the water herself. One drop of the styptic, sir, and a +bit of black taffeta patch, just big enough to be the saddle to a flea, +sir--Yes, sir, rather improves than otherwise. The Prince had a patch +the other day, and so had the Duke: and, if you will believe me, there +are seventeen yards three quarters of black taffeta already cut into +patches for the courtiers." + +"But Sir Mungo Malagrowther?" again interjected Nigel, with difficulty. + +"Ay, ay, sir--Sir Munko, as you say; a pleasant, good-humoured gentleman +as ever--To be spoken with, did you say? O ay, easily to be spoken +withal, that is, as easily as his infirmity will permit. He will +presently, unless some one hath asked him forth to breakfast, be taking +his bone of broiled beef at my neighbour Ned Kilderkin's yonder, +removed from over the way. Ned keeps an eating-house, sir, famous for +pork-griskins; but Sir Munko cannot abide pork, no more than the +King's most Sacred Majesty,[Footnote: The Scots, till within the last +generation, disliked swine's flesh as an article of food as much as the +Highlanders do at present. It was remarked as extraordinary rapacity, +when the Border depredators condescended to make prey of the accursed +race, whom the fiend made his habitation. Ben Jonson, in drawing James's +character, says, he loved "no part of a swine."] nor my Lord Duke of +Lennox, nor Lord Dalgarno,--nay, I am sure, sir, if I touched you this +time, it was your fault, not mine.--But a single drop of the styptic, +another little patch that would make a doublet for a flea, just under +the left moustache; it will become you when you smile, sir, as well as +a dimple; and if you would salute your fair mistress--but I beg pardon, +you are a grave gentleman, very grave to be so young.--Hope I have given +no offence; it is my duty to entertain customers--my duty, sir, and my +pleasure--Sir Munko Malcrowther?--yes, sir, I dare say he is at this +moment in Ned's eating-house, for few folks ask him out, now Lord +Huntinglen is gone to London. You will get touched again--yes, +sir--there you shall find him with his can of single ale, stirred with a +sprig of rosemary, for he never drinks strong potations, sir, unless to +oblige Lord Huntinglen--take heed, sir--or any other person who asks him +forth to breakfast--but single beer he always drinks at Ned's, with his +broiled bone of beef or mutton--or, it may be, lamb at the season--but +not pork, though Ned is famous for his griskins. But the Scots never eat +pork--strange that! some folk think they are a sort of Jews. There is a +resemblance, sir,--Do you not think so? Then they call our most gracious +Sovereign the Second Solomon, and Solomon, you know, was King of the +Jews; so the thing bears a face, you see. I believe, sir, you will +find yourself trimmed now to your content. I will be judged by the fair +mistress of your affections. Crave pardon--no offence, I trust. Pray, +consult the glass--one touch of the crisping tongs, to reduce this +straggler.--Thank your munificence, sir--hope your custom while you stay +in Greenwich. Would you have a tune on that ghittern, to put your temper +in concord for the day?--Twang, twang--twang, twang, dillo. Something +out of tune, sir--too many hands to touch it--we cannot keep these +things like artists. Let me help you with your cloak, sir--yes, +sir--You would not play yourself, sir, would you?--Way to Sir Munko's +eating-house?--Yes, sir; but it is Ned's eating-house, not Sir +Munko's.--The knight, to be sure, eats there, and makes it his +eating-house in some sense, sir--ha, ha! Yonder it is, removed from over +the way, new white-washed posts, and red lattice--fat man in his doublet +at the door--Ned himself, sir--worth a thousand pounds, they say--better +singeing pigs' faces than trimming courtiers--but ours is the less +mechanical vocation.--Farewell, sir; hope your custom." So saying, he +at length permitted Nigel to depart, whose ears, so long tormented with +continued babble, tingled when it had ceased, as if a bell had been rung +close to them for the same space of time. + +Upon his arrival at the eating-house, where he proposed to meet with Sir +Mungo Malagrowther, from whom, in despair of better advice, he trusted +to receive some information as to the best mode of introducing himself +into the royal presence, Lord Glenvarloch found, in the host with whom +he communed, the consequential taciturnity of an Englishman well to pass +in the world. Ned Kilderkin spoke as a banker writes, only touching the +needful. Being asked if Sir Mungo Malagrowther was there? he replied, +No. Being interrogated whether he was expected? he said, Yes. And being +again required to say when he was expected, he answered, Presently. +As Lord Glenvarloch next inquired, whether he himself could have any +breakfast? the landlord wasted not even a syllable in reply, but, +ushering him into a neat room where there were several tables, he placed +one of them before an armchair, and beckoning Lord Glenvarloch to take +possession, he set before him, in a very few minutes, a substantial +repast of roast-beef, together with a foaming tankard, to which +refreshment the keen air of the river disposed him, notwithstanding his +mental embarrassments, to do much honour. + +While Nigel was thus engaged in discussing his commons, but raising his +head at the same time whenever he heard the door of the apartment open, +eagerly desiring the arrival of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, (an event which +had seldom been expected by any one with so much anxious interest,) a +personage, as it seemed, of at least equal importance with the knight, +entered into the apartment, and began to hold earnest colloquy with +the publican, who thought proper to carry on the conference on his side +unbonneted. This important gentleman's occupation might be guessed from +his dress. A milk-white jerkin, and hose of white kersey; a white apron +twisted around his body in the manner of a sash, in which, instead of a +war-like dagger, was stuck a long-bladed knife, hilted with buck's-horn; +a white nightcap on his head, under which his hair was neatly tucked, +sufficiently pourtrayed him as one of those priests of Comus whom the +vulgar call cooks; and the air with which he rated the publican for +having neglected to send some provisions to the Palace, showed that he +ministered to royalty itself. + +"This will never answer," he said, "Master Kilderkin--the king twice +asked for sweetbreads, and fricasseed coxcombs, which are a favourite +dish of his most Sacred Majesty, and they were not to be had, because +Master Kilderkin had not supplied them to the clerk of the kitchen, as +by bargain bound." Here Kilderkin made some apology, brief, according +to his own nature, and muttered in a lowly tone after the fashion of all +who find themselves in a scrape. His superior replied, in a lofty +strain of voice, "Do not tell me of the carrier and his wain, and of the +hen-coops coming from Norfolk with the poultry; a loyal man would have +sent an express--he would have gone upon his stumps, like Widdrington. +What if the king had lost his appetite, Master Kilderkin? What if his +most Sacred Majesty had lost his dinner? O, Master Kilderkin, if you had +but the just sense of the dignity of our profession, which is told of +by the witty African slave, for so the king's most excellent Majesty +designates him, Publius Terentius, _Tanguam in specula--in patinas +inspicerejubeo_." + +"You are learned, Master Linklater," replied the English publican, +compelling, as it were with difficulty, his mouth to utter three or four +words consecutively. + +"A poor smatterer," said Mr. Linklater; "but it would be a shame to us, +who are his most excellent Majesty's countrymen, not in some sort to +have cherished those arts wherewith he is so deeply embued--_Regis ad +exemplar_, Master Kilderkin, _totus componitur orbis_--which is as +much as to say, as the king quotes the cook learns. In brief, Master +Kilderkin, having had the luck to be bred where humanities may be had +at the matter of an English five groats by the quarter, I, like others, +have acquired--ahem-hem!--" Here, the speaker's eye having fallen upon +Lord Glenvarloch, he suddenly stopped in his learned harangue, with +such symptoms of embarrassment as induced Ned Kilderkin to stretch his +taciturnity so far as not only to ask him what he ailed, but whether he +would take any thing. + +"Ail nothing," replied the learned rival of the philosophical Syrus; +"Nothing--and yet I do feel a little giddy. I could taste a glass of +your dame's _aqua mirabilis_." + +"I will fetch it," said Ned, giving a nod; and his back was no sooner +turned, than the cook walked near the table where Lord Glenvarloch was +seated, and regarding him with a look of significance, where more was +meant than met the ear, said,--"You are a stranger in Greenwich, sir. +I advise you to take the opportunity to step into the Park--the western +wicket was ajar when I came hither; I think it will be locked presently, +so you had better make the best of your way--that is, if you have any +curiosity. The venison are coming into season just now, sir, and there +is a pleasure in looking at a hart of grease. I always think when they +are bounding so blithely past, what a pleasure it would be, to broach +their plump haunches on a spit, and to embattle their breasts in a noble +fortification of puff-paste, with plenty of black pepper." + +He said no more, as Kilderkin re-entered with the cordial, but edged off +from Nigel without waiting any reply, only repeating the same look of +intelligence with which he had accosted him. + +Nothing makes men's wits so alert as personal danger. Nigel took the +first opportunity which his host's attention to the yeoman of the royal +kitchen permitted, to discharge his reckoning, and readily obtained a +direction to the wicket in question. He found it upon the latch, as +he had been taught to expect; and perceived that it admitted him to a +narrow footpath, which traversed a close and tangled thicket, designed +for the cover of the does and the young fawns. Here he conjectured it +would be proper to wait; nor had he been stationary above five minutes, +when the cook, scalded as much with heat of motion as ever he had been +by his huge fire-place, arrived almost breathless, and with his pass-key +hastily locked the wicket behind him. + +Ere Lord Glenvarloch had time to speculate upon this action, the man +approached with anxiety, and said--"Good lord, my Lord Glenvarloch!--why +will you endanger yourself thus?" + +"You know me then, my friend?" said Nigel. + +"Not much of that, my lord--but I know your honour's noble house +well.--My name is Laurie Linklater, my lord." + +"Linklater!" repeated Nigel. "I should recollect--' + +"Under your lordship's favour," he continued, "I was 'prentice, my +lord, to old Mungo Moniplies, the flesher at the wanton West-Port of +Edinburgh, which I wish I saw again before I died. And, your honour's +noble father having taken Richie Moniplies into his house to wait on +your lordship, there was a sort of connexion, your lordship sees." + +"Ah!" said Lord Glenvarloch, "I had almost forgot your name, but not +your kind purpose. You tried to put Richie in the way of presenting a +supplication to his Majesty?" + +"Most true, my lord," replied the king's cook. "I had like to have come +by mischief in the job; for Richie, who was always wilful, 'wadna be +guided by me,' as the sang says. But nobody amongst these brave English +cooks can kittle up his Majesty's most sacred palate with our own gusty +Scottish dishes. So I e'en betook myself to my craft, and concocted a +mess of friar's chicken for the soup, and a savoury hachis, that made +the whole cabal coup the crans; and, instead of disgrace, I came +by preferment. I am one of the clerks of the kitchen now, make me +thankful--with a finger in the purveyor's office, and may get my whole +hand in by and by." + +"I am truly glad," said Nigel, "to hear that you have not suffered on my +account,--still more so at your good fortune." + +"You bear a kind heart, my lord," said Linklater, "and do not forget +poor people; and, troth, I see not why they should be forgotten, since +the king's errand may sometimes fall in the cadger's gate. I have +followed your lordship in the street, just to look at such a stately +shoot of the old oak-tree; and my heart jumped into my throat, when I +saw you sitting openly in the eating-house yonder, and knew there was +such danger to your person." + +"What! there are warrants against me, then?" said Nigel. + +"It is even true, my lord; and there are those who are willing to +blacken you as much as they can.--God forgive them, that would sacrifice +an honourable house for their own base ends!" + +"Amen," said Nigel. + +"For, say your lordship may have been a little wild, like other young +gentlemen--" + +"We have little time to talk of it, my friend," said Nigel. "The point +in question is, how am I to get speech of the king?" + +"The king, my lord!" said Linklater in astonishment; "why, will not that +be rushing wilfully into danger?--scalding yourself, as I may say, with +your own ladle?" + +"My good friend," answered Nigel, "my experience of the Court, and +my knowledge of the circumstances in which I stand, tell me, that the +manliest and most direct road is, in my case, the surest and the safest. +The king has both a head to apprehend what is just, and a heart to do +what is kind." + +"It is e'en true, my lord, and so we, his old servants, know," added +Linklater; "but, woe's me, if you knew how many folks make it their +daily and nightly purpose to set his head against his heart, and his +heart against his head--to make him do hard things because they are +called just, and unjust things because they are represented as kind. +Woe's me! it is with his Sacred Majesty, and the favourites who work +upon him, even according to the homely proverb that men taunt my calling +with,--'God sends good meat, but the devil sends cooks.'" + +"It signifies not talking of it, my good friend," said Nigel, "I must +take my risk, my honour peremptorily demands it. They may maim me, or +beggar me, but they shall not say I fled from my accusers. My peers +shall hear my vindication." + +"Your peers?" exclaimed the cook--"Alack-a-day, my lord, we are not in +Scotland, where the nobles can bang it out bravely, were it even +with the king himself, now and then. This mess must be cooked in the +Star-Chamber, and that is an oven seven times heated, my lord;--and yet, +if you are determined to see the king, I will not say but you may find +some favour, for he likes well any thing that is appealed directly to +his own wisdom, and sometimes, in the like cases, I have known him stick +by his own opinion, which is always a fair one. Only mind, if you will +forgive me, my lord--mind to spice high with Latin; a curn or two of +Greek would not be amiss; and, if you can bring in any thing about the +judgment of Solomon, in the original Hebrew, and season with a merry +jest or so, the dish will be the more palatable.--Truly, I think, that, +besides my skill in art, I owe much to the stripes of the Rector of +the High School, who imprinted on my mind that cooking scene in +the Heautontimorumenos." + +"Leaving that aside, my friend," said Lord Glenvarloch, "can you inform +me which way I shall most readily get to the sight and speech of the +king?" + +"To the sight of him readily enough," said Linklater; "he is galloping +about these alleys, to see them strike the hart, to get him an appetite +for a nooning--and that reminds me I should be in the kitchen. To the +speech of the king you will not come so easily, unless you could either +meet him alone, which rarely chances, or wait for him among the +crowd that go to see him alight. And now, farewell, my lord, and God +speed!--if I could do more for you, I would offer it." + +"You have done enough, perhaps, to endanger yourself," said Lord +Glenvarloch. "I pray you to be gone, and leave me to my fate." + +The honest cook lingered, but a nearer burst of the horns apprized him +that there was no time to lose; and, acquainting Nigel that he would +leave the postern-door on the latch to secure his retreat in that +direction, he bade God bless him, and farewell. + +In the kindness of this humble countryman, flowing partly from national +partiality, partly from a sense of long-remembered benefits, which had +been scarce thought on by those who had bestowed them, Lord Glenvarloch +thought he saw the last touch of sympathy which he was to receive in +this cold and courtly region, and felt that he must now be sufficient to +himself, or be utterly lost. + +He traversed more than one alley, guided by the sounds of the chase, +and met several of the inferior attendants upon the king's sport, who +regarded him only as one of the spectators who were sometimes permitted +to enter the Park by the concurrence of the officers about the Court. +Still there was no appearance of James, or any of his principal +courtiers, and Nigel began to think whether, at the risk of incurring +disgrace similar to that which had attended the rash exploit of Richie +Moniplies, he should not repair to the Palace-gate, in order to address +the king on his return, when Fortune presented him the opportunity of +doing so, in her own way. + +He was in one of those long walks by which the Park was traversed, when +he heard, first a distant rustling, then the rapid approach of hoofs +shaking the firm earth on which he stood; then a distant halloo, warned +by which he stood up by the side of the avenue, leaving free room for +the passage of the chase. The stag, reeling, covered with foam, and +blackened with sweat, his nostrils extended as he gasped for breath, +made a shift to come up as far as where Nigel stood, and, without +turning to bay, was there pulled down by two tall greyhounds of the +breed still used by the hardy deer-stalkers of the Scottish Highlands, +but which has been long unknown in England. One dog struck at the buck's +throat, another dashed his sharp nose and fangs, I might almost +say, into the animal's bowels. It would have been natural for Lord +Glenvarloch, himself persecuted as if by hunters, to have thought upon +the occasion like the melancholy Jacques; but habit is a strange matter, +and I fear that his feelings on the occasion were rather those of the +practised huntsman than of the moralist. He had no time, however, to +indulge them, for mark what befell. + +A single horseman followed the chase, upon a steed so thoroughly +subjected to the rein, that it obeyed the touch of the bridle as if +it had been a mechanical impulse operating on the nicest piece of +machinery; so that, seated deep in his demipique saddle, and so trussed +up there as to make falling almost impossible, the rider, without either +fear or hesitation, might increase or diminish the speed at which he +rode, which, even on the most animating occasions of the chase, seldom +exceeded three-fourths of a gallop, the horse keeping his haunches +under him, and never stretching forward beyond the managed pace of +the academy. The security with which he chose to prosecute even this +favourite, and, in the ordinary case, somewhat dangerous amusement, as +well as the rest of his equipage, marked King James. No attendant was +within sight; indeed, it was often a nice strain of flattery to permit +the Sovereign to suppose he had outridden and distanced all the rest of +the chase. + +"Weel dune, Bash--weel dune, Battie!" he exclaimed as he came up. "By +the honour of a king, ye are a credit to the Braes of Balwhither!--Haud +my horse, man," he called out to Nigel, without stopping to see to whom +he had addressed himself--"Haud my naig, and help me doun out o' the +saddle--deil ding your saul, sirrah, canna ye mak haste before these +lazy smaiks come up?--haud the rein easy--dinna let him swerve--now, +haud the stirrup--that will do, man, and now we are on terra firma." +So saying, without casting an eye on his assistant, gentle King Jamie, +unsheathing the short, sharp hanger, (_couteau de chasse_,) which was +the only thing approaching to a sword that he could willingly endure the +sight of, drew the blade with great satisfaction across the throat of +the buck, and put an end at once to its struggles and its agonies. + +Lord Glenvarloch, who knew well the silvan duty which the occasion +demanded, hung the bridle of the king's palfrey on the branch of a tree, +and, kneeling duteously down, turned the slaughtered deer upon its back, +and kept the _quarree_ in that position, while the king, too intent upon +his sport to observe any thing else, drew his _couteau_ down the breast +of the animal, _secundum artem_; and, having made a cross cut, so as to +ascertain the depth of the fat upon the chest, exclaimed, in a sort of +rapture, "Three inches of white fat on the brisket!--prime--prime--as +I am a crowned sinner--and deil ane o' the lazy loons in but mysell! +Seven--aught--aught tines on the antlers. By G--d, a hart of aught +tines, and the first of the season! Bash and Battie, blessings on the +heart's-root of ye! Buss me, my bairns, buss me." The dogs accordingly +fawned upon him, licked him with bloody jaws, and soon put him in such +a state that it might have seemed treason had been doing its full work +upon his anointed body. "Bide doun, with a mischief to ye--bide doun, +with a wanion," cried the king, almost overturned by the obstreperous +caresses of the large stag-hounds. "But ye are just like ither folks, +gie ye an inch and ye take an ell.--And wha may ye be, friend?" he said, +now finding leisure to take a nearer view of Nigel, and observing what +in his first emotion of silvan delight had escaped him,--"Ye are nane +of our train, man. In the name of God, what the devil are ye?" + +"An unfortunate man, sire," replied Nigel. + +"I dare say that," answered the king, snappishly, "or I wad have seen +naething of you. My lieges keep a' their happiness to themselves; but +let bowls row wrang wi' them, and I am sure to hear of it." + +"And to whom else can we carry our complaints but to your Majesty, who +is Heaven's vicegerent over us!" answered Nigel. + +"Right, man, right--very weel spoken," said the king; "but you should +leave Heaven's vicegerent some quiet on earth, too." + +"If your Majesty will look on me," (for hitherto the king had been +so busy, first with the dogs, and then with the mystic operation of +_breaking_, in vulgar phrase, cutting up the deer, that he had scarce +given his assistant above a transient glance,) "you will see whom +necessity makes bold to avail himself of an opportunity which may never +again occur." + +King James looked; his blood left his cheek, though it continued stained +with that of the animal which lay at his feet, he dropped the knife from +his hand, cast behind him a faltering eye, as if he either +meditated flight or looked out for assistance, and then +exclaimed,--"Glenvarlochides! as sure as I was christened James Stewart. +Here is a bonny spot of work, and me alone, and on foot too!" he added, +bustling to get upon his horse. + +"Forgive me that I interrupt you, my liege," said Nigel, placing himself +between the king and his steed; "hear me but a moment!" + +"I'll hear ye best on horseback," said the king. "I canna hear a word +on foot, man, not a word; and it is not seemly to stand cheek-for-chowl +confronting us that gate. Bide out of our gate, sir, we charge you on +your allegiance.--The deil's in them a', what can they be doing?" + +"By the crown that you wear, my liege," said Nigel, "and for which my +ancestors have worthily fought, I conjure you to be composed, and to +hear me but a moment!" + +That which he asked was entirely out of the monarch's power to grant. +The timidity which he showed was not the plain downright cowardice, +which, like a natural impulse, compels a man to flight, and which can +excite little but pity or contempt, but a much more ludicrous, as well +as more mingled sensation. The poor king was frightened at once and +angry, desirous of securing his safety, and at the same time ashamed +to compromise his dignity; so that without attending to what Lord +Glenvarloch endeavoured to explain, he kept making at his horse, and +repeating, "We are a free king, man,--we are a free king--we will not be +controlled by a subject.--In the name of God, what keeps Steenie? And, +praised be his name, they are coming--Hillo, ho--here, here--Steenie, +Steenie!" + +The Duke of Buckingham galloped up, followed by several courtiers +and attendants of the royal chase, and commenced with his usual +familiarity,--"I see Fortune has graced our dear dad, as usual.--But +what's this?" + +"What is it? It is treason for what I ken," said the king; "and a' your +wyte, Steenie. Your dear dad and gossip might have been murdered, for +what you care." + +"Murdered? Secure the villain!" exclaimed the Duke. "By Heaven, it is +Olifaunt himself!" A dozen of the hunters dismounted at once, letting +their horses run wild through the park. Some seized roughly on Lord +Glenvarloch, who thought it folly to offer resistance, while others +busied themselves with the king. "Are you wounded, my liege--are you +wounded?" + +"Not that I ken of," said the king, in the paroxysm of his apprehension, +(which, by the way, might be pardoned in one of so timorous a +temper, and who, in his time, had been exposed to so many strange +attempts)--"Not that I ken of--but search him--search him. I am sure I +saw fire-arms under his cloak. I am sure I smelled powder--I am dooms +sure of that." + +Lord Glenvarloch's cloak being stripped off, and his pistols discovered, +a shout of wonder and of execration on the supposed criminal purpose, +arose from the crowd now thickening every moment. Not that celebrated +pistol, which, though resting on a bosom as gallant and as loyal as +Nigel's, spread such cause less alarm among knights and dames at a late +high solemnity--not that very pistol caused more temporary consternation +than was so groundlessly excited by the arms which were taken from Lord +Glenvarloch's person; and not Mhic-Allastar-More himself could repel +with greater scorn and indignation, the insinuations that they were worn +for any sinister purposes. + +"Away with the wretch--the parricide--the bloody-minded villain!" was +echoed on all hands; and the king, who naturally enough set the same +value on his own life, at which it was, or seemed to be, rated by +others, cried out, louder than all the rest, "Ay, ay--away with him. +I have had enough of him and so has the country. But do him no bodily +harm--and, for God's sake, sirs, if ye are sure ye have thoroughly +disarmed him, put up your swords, dirks, and skenes, for you will +certainly do each other a mischief." + +There was a speedy sheathing of weapons at the king's command; for those +who had hitherto been brandishing them in loyal bravado, began thereby +to call to mind the extreme dislike which his Majesty nourished against +naked steel, a foible which seemed to be as constitutional as his +timidity, and was usually ascribed to the brutal murder of Rizzio having +been perpetrated in his unfortunate mother's presence before he yet saw +the light. + +At this moment, the Prince, who had been hunting in a different part +of the then extensive Park, and had received some hasty and confused +information of what was going forward, came rapidly up, with one or two +noblemen in his train, and amongst others Lord Dalgarno. He sprung from +his horse and asked eagerly if his father were wounded. + +"Not that I am sensible of, Baby Charles--but a wee matter exhausted, +with struggling single-handed with the assassin.--Steenie, fill up a cup +of wine--the leathern bottle is hanging at our pommel.--Buss me, then, +Baby Charles," continued the monarch, after he had taken this cup of +comfort; "O man, the Commonwealth and you have had a fair escape from +the heavy and bloody loss of a dear father; for we are _pater patriae_, +as weel as _pater familias_.-_Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus tarn +cari capitis!_-Woe is me, black cloth would have been dear in England, +and dry een scarce!" + +And, at the very idea of the general grief which must have attended his +death, the good-natured monarch cried heartily himself. + +"Is this possible?" said Charles, sternly; for his pride was hurt at +his father's demeanour on the one hand, while on the other, he felt the +resentment of a son and a subject, at the supposed attempt on the +king's life. "Let some one speak who has seen what happened--My Lord of +Buckingham!" + +"I cannot say my lord," replied the Duke, "that I saw any actual +violence offered to his Majesty, else I should have avenged him on the +spot." + +"You would have done wrong, then, in your zeal, George," answered the +Prince; "such offenders were better left to be dealt with by the laws. +But was the villain not struggling with his Majesty?" + +"I cannot term it so, my lord," said the Duke, who, with many faults, +would have disdained an untruth; "he seemed to desire to detain his +Majesty, who, on the contrary, appeared to wish to mount his horse; but +they have found pistols on his person, contrary to the proclamation, +and, as it proves to be by Nigel Olifaunt, of whose ungoverned +disposition your Royal Highness has seen some samples, we seem to be +justified in apprehending the worst." + +"Nigel Olifaunt!" said the Prince; "can that unhappy man so soon have +engaged in a new trespass? Let me see those pistols." + +"Ye are not so unwise as to meddle with such snap-haunces, Baby +Charles?" said James--"Do not give him them, Steenie--I command you +on your allegiance! They may go off of their own accord, whilk often +befalls.--You will do it, then?--Saw ever a man sic wilful bairns as we +are cumbered with!--Havena we guardsmen and soldiers enow, but you must +unload the weapons yoursell--you, the heir of our body and dignities, +and sae mony men around that are paid for venturing life in our cause?" + +But without regarding his father's exclamations, Prince Charles, with +the obstinacy which characterised him in trifles, as well as matters of +consequence, persisted in unloading the pistols with his own hand, of +the double bullets with which each was charged. The hands of all around +were held up in astonishment at the horror of the crime supposed to have +been intended, and the escape which was presumed so narrow. + +Nigel had not yet spoken a word--he now calmly desired to be heard. + +"To what purpose?" answered the Prince coldly. "You knew yourself +accused of a heavy offence, and, instead of rendering yourself up to +justice, in terms of the proclamation, you are here found intruding +yourself on his Majesty's presence, and armed with unlawful weapons." + +"May it please you, sir," answered Nigel, "I wore these unhappy weapons +for my own defence; and not very many hours since they were necessary to +protect the lives of others." + +"Doubtless, my lord," answered the Prince, still calm and +unmoved,--"your late mode of life, and the associates with whom you have +lived, have made you familiar with scenes and weapons of violence. But +it is not to me you are to plead your cause." + +"Hear me--hear me, noble Prince!" said Nigel, eagerly. "Hear me! +You--even you yourself--may one day ask to be heard, and in vain." + +"How, sir," said the Prince, haughtily--"how am I to construe that, my +lord?" + +"If not on earth, sir," replied the prisoner, "yet to Heaven we must all +pray for patient and favourable audience." + +"True, my lord," said the Prince, bending his head with haughty +acquiescence; "nor would I now refuse such audience to you, could it +avail you. But you shall suffer no wrong. We will ourselves look into +your case." + +"Ay, ay," answered the king, "he hath made _appellatio ad Casarem_--we +will interrogate Glenvarlochides ourselves, time and place fitting; and, +in the meanwhile, have him and his weapons away, for I am weary of the +sight of them." + +In consequence of directions hastily given, Nigel was accordingly +removed from the presence, where, however, his words had not altogether +fallen to the ground. "This is a most strange matter, George," said +the Prince to the favourite; "this gentleman hath a good countenance, a +happy presence, and much calm firmness in his look and speech. I cannot +think he would attempt a crime so desperate and useless." + +"I profess neither love nor favour to the young man," answered +Buckingham, whose high-spirited ambition bore always an open character: +"but I cannot but agree with your Highness, that our dear gossip hath +been something hasty in apprehending personal danger from him." + +"By my saul, Steenie, ye are not blate, to say so!" said the king. "Do I +not ken the smell of pouther, think ye? Who else nosed out the Fifth of +November, save our royal selves? Cecil, and Suffolk, and all of them, +were at fault, like sae mony mongrel tikes, when I puzzled it out: +and trow ye that I cannot smell pouther? Why, 'sblood, man, Joannes +Barclaius thought my ingine was in some measure inspiration, and terms +his history of the plot, Series patefacti divinitus parricidii; and +Spondanus, in like manner, saith of us, Divinitus evasit." + +"The land was happy in your Majesty's escape," said the Duke of +Buckingham, "and not less in the quick wit which tracked that labyrinth +of treason by so fine and almost invisible a clew." + +"Saul, man, Steenie, ye are right! There are few youths have sic true +judgment as you, respecting the wisdom of their elders; and, as for this +fause, traitorous smaik, I doubt he is a hawk of the same nest. Saw ye +not something papistical about him? Let them look that he bears not a +crucifix, or some sic Roman trinket, about him." + +"It would ill become me to attempt the exculpation of this unhappy man," +said Lord Dalgarno, "considering the height of his present attempt, +which has made all true men's blood curdle in their veins. Yet I cannot +avoid intimating, with all due submission to his Majesty's infallible +judgment, in justice to one who showed himself formerly only my enemy, +though he now displays himself in much blacker colours, that this +Olifaunt always appeared to me more as a Puritan than as a Papist." + +"Ah, Dalgarno, art thou there, man?" said the king. "And ye behoved to +keep back, too, and leave us to our own natural strength and the care of +Providence, when we were in grips with the villain!" + +"Providence, may it please your most Gracious Majesty, would not fail +to aid, in such a strait, the care of three weeping kingdoms," said Lord +Dalgarno. + +"Surely, man--surely," replied the king--"but a sight of your father, +with his long whinyard, would have been a blithe matter a short while +syne; and in future we will aid the ends of Providence in our favour, +by keeping near us two stout beef-eaters of the guard.--And so this +Olifaunt is a Puritan?--not the less like to be a Papist, for all +that--for extremities meet, as the scholiast proveth. There are, as I +have proved in my book, Puritans of papistical principles--it is just a +new tout on an old horn." + +Here the king was reminded by the Prince, who dreaded perhaps that he +was going to recite the whole Basilicon Doron, that it would be best to +move towards the Palace, and consider what was to be done for satisfying +the public mind, in whom the morning's adventure was likely to excite +much speculation. As they entered the gate of the Palace, a female bowed +and presented a paper, which the king received, and, with a sort +of groan, thrust it into his side pocket. The Prince expressed some +curiosity to know its contents. "The valet in waiting will tell you +them," said the king, "when I strip off my cassock. D'ye think, Baby, +that I can read all that is thrust into my hands? See to me, man"--(he +pointed to the pockets of his great trunk breeches, which were stuffed +with papers)--"We are like an ass--that we should so speak--stooping +betwixt two burdens. Ay, ay, Asinus fortis accumbens inter terminos, as +the Vulgate hath it--Ay, ay, Vidi terrain quod esset optima, et supposui +humerum ad portandum, et factus sum tributis serviens--I saw this land +of England, and became an overburdened king thereof." + +"You are indeed well loaded, my dear dad and gossip," said the Duke of +Buckingham, receiving the papers which King James emptied out of his +pockets. + +"Ay, ay," continued the monarch; "take them to you per aversionem, +bairns--the one pouch stuffed with petitions, t'other with pasquinadoes; +a fine time we have on't. On my conscience, I believe the tale of Cadmus +was hieroglyphical, and that the dragon's teeth whilk he sowed were +the letters he invented. Ye are laughing, Baby Charles?--Mind what I +say.--When I came here first frae our ain country, where the men are +as rude as the weather, by my conscience, England was a bieldy bit; +one would have thought the king had little to do but to walk by quiet +waters, per aquam refectionis. But, I kenna how or why, the place is +sair changed--read that libel upon us and on our regimen. The dragon's +teeth are sown, Baby Charles; I pray God they bearna their armed harvest +in your day, if I suld not live to see it. God forbid I should, for +there will be an awful day's kemping at the shearing of them." + +"I shall know how to stifle the crop in the blade,--ha, George?" said +the Prince, turning to the favourite with a look expressive of some +contempt for his father's apprehensions, and full of confidence in the +superior firmness and decision of his own counsels. + +While this discourse was passing, Nigel, in charge of a +pursuivant-at-arms, was pushed and dragged through the small town, all +the inhabitants of which, having been alarmed by the report of an attack +on the king's life, now pressed forward to see the supposed traitor. +Amid the confusion of the moment, he could descry the face of the +victualler, arrested into a stare of stolid wonder, and that of the +barber grinning betwixt horror and eager curiosity. He thought that he +also had a glimpse of his waterman in the green jacket. + +He had no time for remarks, being placed in a boat with the pursuivant +and two yeomen of the guard, and rowed up the river as fast as the +arms of six stout watermen could pull against the tide. They passed +the groves of masts which even then astonished the stranger with the +extended commerce of London, and now approached those low and blackened +walls of curtain and bastion, which exhibit here and there a piece of +ordnance, and here and there a solitary sentinel under arms, but have +otherwise so little of the military terrors of a citadel. A projecting +low-browed arch, which had loured over many an innocent, and many a +guilty head, in similar circumstances, now spread its dark frowns over +that of Nigel. The boat was put close up to the broad steps against +which the tide was lapping its lazy wave. The warder on duty looked from +the wicket, and spoke to the pursuivant in whispers. In a few minutes +the Lieutenant of the Tower appeared, received, and granted an +acknowledgment for the body of Nigel, Lord Glenvarloch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + + Ye towers of Julius! London's lasting shame; + With many a foul and midnight murder fed! + _Gray._ + +Such is the exclamation of Gray. Bandello, long before him, has said +something like it; and the same sentiment must, in some shape or other, +have frequently occurred to those, who, remembering the fate of other +captives in that memorable state-prison, may have had but too much +reason to anticipate their own. The dark and low arch, which seemed, +like the entrance to Dante's Hell, to forbid hope of regress--the +muttered sounds of the warders, and petty formalities observed in +opening and shutting the grated wicket--the cold and constrained +salutation of the Lieutenant of the fortress, who showed his prisoner +that distant and measured respect which authority pays as a tax to +decorum, all struck upon Nigel's heart, impressing on him the cruel +consciousness of captivity. + +"I am a prisoner," he said, the words escaping from him almost unawares; +"I am a prisoner, and in the Tower!" + +The Lieutenant bowed--"And it is my duty," he said, "to show your +lordship your chamber, where, I am compelled to say, my orders are +to place you under some restraint. I will make it as easy as my duty +permits." + +Nigel only bowed in return to this compliment, and followed the +Lieutenant to the ancient buildings on the western side of the parade, +and adjoining to the chapel, used in those days as a state-prison, but +in ours as the mess-room of the officers of the guard upon duty at the +fortress. The double doors were unlocked, the prisoner ascended a few +steps, followed by the Lieutenant, and a warder of the higher class. +They entered a large, but irregular, low-roofed, and dark apartment, +exhibiting a very scanty proportion of furniture. The warder had orders +to light a fire, and attend to Lord Glenvarloch's commands in all things +consistent with his duty; and the Lieutenant, having made his reverence +with the customary compliment, that he trusted his lordship would not +long remain under his guardianship, took his leave. + +Nigel would have asked some questions of the warder, who remained to +put the apartment into order, but the man had caught the spirit of his +office. He seemed not to hear some of the prisoner's questions, though +of the most ordinary kind, did not reply to others, and when he did +speak, it was in a short and sullen tone, which, though not +positively disrespectful, was such as at least to encourage no farther +communication. + +Nigel left him, therefore, to do his work in silence, and proceeded +to amuse himself with the melancholy task of deciphering the names, +mottoes, verses, and hieroglyphics, with which his predecessors in +captivity had covered the walls of their prison-house. There he saw +the names of many a forgotten sufferer mingled with others which will +continue in remembrance until English history shall perish. There were +the pious effusions of the devout Catholic, poured forth on the eve of +his sealing his profession at Tyburn, mingled with those of the firm +Protestant, about to feed the fires of Smithfield. There the slender +hand of the unfortunate Jane Grey, whose fate was to draw tears from +future generations, might be contrasted with the bolder touch which +impressed deep on the walls the Bear and Ragged Staff, the proud emblem +of the proud Dudleys. It was like the roll of the prophet, a record of +lamentation and mourning, and yet not unmixed with brief +interjections of resignation, and sentences expressive of the firmest +resolution.[Footnote: These memorials of illustrious criminals, or of +innocent persons who had the fate of such, are still preserved, though +at one time, in the course of repairing the rooms, they were in some +danger of being whitewashed. They are preserved at present with becoming +respect, and have most of them been engraved.--_See_ BAYLEY'S _History +and Antiquities of the Tower of London._] + +In the sad task of examining the miseries of his predecessors in +captivity, Lord Glenvarloch was interrupted by the sudden opening of +the door of his prison-room. It was the warder, who came to inform him, +that, by order of the Lieutenant of the Tower, his lordship was to +have the society and attendance of a fellow-prisoner in his place of +confinement. Nigel replied hastily, that he wished no attendance, and +would rather be left alone; but the warder gave him to understand, with +a kind of grumbling civility, that the Lieutenant was the best judge how +his prisoners should be accommodated, and that he would have no trouble +with the boy, who was such a slip of a thing as was scarce worth turning +a key upon.--"There, Giles," he said, "bring the child in." + +Another warder put the "lad before him" into the room, and, both +withdrawing, bolt crashed and chain clanged, as they replaced these +ponderous obstacles to freedom. The boy was clad in a grey suit of the +finest cloth, laid down with silver lace, with a buff-coloured cloak +of the same pattern. His cap, which was a Montero of black velvet, was +pulled over his brows, and, with the profusion of his long ringlets, +almost concealed his face. He stood on the very spot where the warder +had quitted his collar, about two steps from the door of the apartment, +his eyes fixed on the ground, and every joint trembling with confusion +and terror. Nigel could well have dispensed with his society, but it was +not in his nature to behold distress, whether of body or mind, without +endeavouring to relieve it. + +"Cheer up," he said, "my pretty lad. We are to be companions, it seems, +for a little time--at least I trust your confinement will be short, +since you are too young to have done aught to deserve long restraint. +Come, come--do not be discouraged. Your hand is cold and trembles? the +air is warm too--but it may be the damp of this darksome room. Place you +by the fire.--What! weeping-ripe, my little man? I pray you, do not be +a child. You have no beard yet, to be dishonoured by your tears, but yet +you should not cry like a girl. Think you are only shut up for playing +truant, and you can pass a day without weeping, surely." + +The boy suffered himself to be led and seated by the fire, but, after +retaining for a long time the very posture which he assumed in sitting +down, he suddenly changed it in order to wring his hands with an air of +the bitterest distress, and then, spreading them before his face, wept +so plentifully, that the tears found their way in floods through his +slender fingers. + +Nigel was in some degree rendered insensible to his own situation, by +his feelings for the intense agony by which so young and beautiful +a creature seemed to be utterly overwhelmed; and, sitting down close +beside the boy, he applied the most soothing terms which occurred, +to endeavour to alleviate his distress; and, with an action which the +difference of their age rendered natural, drew his hand kindly along the +long hair of the disconsolate child. The lad appeared so shy as even +to shrink from this slight approach to familiarity--yet, when Lord +Glenvarloch, perceiving and allowing for his timidity, sat down on the +farther side of the fire, he appeared to be more at his ease, and to +hearken with some apparent interest to the arguments which from time to +time Nigel used, to induce him to moderate, at least, the violence of +his grief. As the boy listened, his tears, though they continued to flow +freely, seemed to escape from their source more easily, his sobs were +less convulsive, and became gradually changed into low sighs, which +succeeded each other, indicating as much sorrow, perhaps, but less +alarm, than his first transports had shown. + +"Tell me who and what you are, my pretty boy," said Nigel.--"Consider +me, child, as a companion, who wishes to be kind to you, would you but +teach him how he can be so." + +"Sir--my lord, I mean," answered the boy, very timidly, and in a voice +which could scarce be heard even across the brief distance which divided +them, "you are very good--and I--am very unhappy--" + +A second fit of tears interrupted what else he had intended to say, and +it required a renewal of Lord Glenvarloch's good-natured expostulations +and encouragements, to bring him once more to such composure as rendered +the lad capable of expressing himself intelligibly. At length, however, +he was able to say--"I am sensible of your goodness, my lord--and +grateful for it--but I am a poor unhappy creature, and, what is worse, +have myself only to thank for my misfortunes." + +"We are seldom absolutely miserable, my young acquaintance," said Nigel, +"without being ourselves more or less responsible for it--I may well say +so, otherwise I had not been here to-day--but you are very young, and +can have but little to answer for." + +"O sir! I wish I could say so--I have been self-willed and +obstinate--and rash and ungovernable--and now--now, how dearly do I pay +the price of it!" + +"Pshaw, my boy," replied Nigel; "this must be some childish frolic--some +breaking out of bounds--some truant trick--And yet how should any of +these have brought you to the Tower?--There is something mysterious +about you, young man, which I must inquire into." + +"Indeed, indeed, my lord, there is no harm about me," said the boy, more +moved it would seem to confession by the last words, by which he seemed +considerably alarmed, than by all the kind expostulations and arguments +which Nigel had previously used. "I am innocent--that is, I have done +wrong, but nothing to deserve being in this frightful place." + +"Tell me the truth, then," said Nigel, in a tone in which command +mingled with encouragement; "you have nothing to fear from me, and as +little to hope, perhaps--yet, placed as I am, I would know with whom I +speak." + +"With an unhappy--boy, sir--and idle and truantly disposed, as your +lordship said," answered the lad, looking up, and showing a countenance +in which paleness and blushes succeeded each other, as fear and +shamefacedness alternately had influence. "I left my father's house +without leave, to see the king hunt in the Park at Greenwich; there came +a cry of treason, and all the gates were shut--I was frightened, and +hid myself in a thicket, and I was found by some of the rangers and +examined--and they said I gave no good account of myself--and so I was +sent hither." + +"I am an unhappy, a most unhappy being," said Lord Glenvarloch, rising +and walking through the apartment; "nothing approaches me but shares my +own bad fate! Death and imprisonment dog my steps, and involve all who +are found near me. Yet this boy's story sounds strangely.--You say you +were examined, my young friend--Let me pray you to say whether you told +your name, and your means of gaining admission into the Park--if so, +they surely would not have detained you?" + +"O, my lord," said the boy, "I took care not to tell them the name of +the friend that let me in; and as to my father--I would not he knew +where I now am for all the wealth in London!" + +"But do you not expect," said Nigel, "that they will dismiss you till +you let them know who and what you are?" + +"What good will it do them to keep so useless a creature as myself?" +said the boy; "they must let me go, were it but out of shame." + +"Do not trust to that--tell me your name and station--I will communicate +them to the Lieutenant--he is a man of quality and honour, and will not +only be willing to procure your liberation, but also, I have no doubt, +will intercede with your father. I am partly answerable for such poor +aid as I can afford, to get you out of this embarrassment, since I +occasioned the alarm owing to which you were arrested; so tell me your +name, and your father's name." + +"My name to you? O never, never!" answered the boy, in a tone of deep +emotion, the cause of which Nigel could not comprehend. + +"Are you so much afraid of me, young man," he replied, "because I am +here accused and a prisoner? Consider, a man may be both, and deserve +neither suspicion nor restraint. Why should you distrust me? You seem +friendless, and I am myself so much in the same circumstances, that I +cannot but pity your situation when I reflect on my own. Be wise; I have +spoken kindly to you--I mean as kindly as I speak." + +"O, I doubt it not, I doubt it not, my lord," said the boy, "and I could +tell you all--that is, almost all." + +"Tell me nothing, my young friend, excepting what may assist me in being +useful to you," said Nigel. + +"You are generous, my lord," said the boy; "and I am sure--O sure, +I might safely trust to your honour--But yet--but yet--I am so sore +beset--I have been so rash, so unguarded--I can never tell you of +my folly. Besides, I have already told too much to one whose heart I +thought I had moved--yet I find myself here." + +"To whom did you make this disclosure?" said Nigel. + +"I dare not tell," replied the youth. + +"There is something singular about you, my young friend," said Lord +Glenvarloch, withdrawing with a gentle degree of compulsion the hand +with which the boy had again covered his eyes; "do not pain yourself +with thinking on your situation just at present--your pulse is high, and +your hand feverish--lay yourself on yonder pallet, and try to compose +yourself to sleep. It is the readiest and best remedy for the fancies +with which you are worrying yourself." + +"I thank you for your considerate kindness, my lord," said the boy; +"with your leave I will remain for a little space quiet in this chair--I +am better thus than on the couch. I can think undisturbedly on what I +have done, and have still to do; and if God sends slumber to a creature +so exhausted, it shall be most welcome." + +So saying, the boy drew his hand from Lord Nigel's, and, drawing around +him and partly over his face the folds of his ample cloak, he resigned +himself to sleep or meditation, while his companion, notwithstanding the +exhausting scenes of this and the preceding day, continued his pensive +walk up and down the apartment. + +Every reader has experienced, that times occur, when far from being lord +of external circumstances, man is unable to rule even the wayward realm +of his own thoughts. It was Nigel's natural wish to consider his own +situation coolly, and fix on the course which it became him as a man +of sense and courage to adopt; and yet, in spite of himself, and +notwithstanding the deep interest of the critical state in which he was +placed, it did so happen that his fellow-prisoner's situation occupied +more of his thoughts than did his own. There was no accounting for this +wandering of the imagination, but also there was no striving with it. +The pleading tones of one of the sweetest voices he had ever heard, +still rung in his ear, though it seemed that sleep had now fettered the +tongue of the speaker. He drew near on tiptoe to satisfy himself whether +it were so. The folds of the cloak hid the lower part of his face +entirely; but the bonnet, which had fallen a little aside, permitted him +to see the forehead streaked with blue veins, the closed eyes, and the +long silken eyelashes. + +"Poor child," said Nigel to himself, as he looked on him, nestled up as +it were in the folds of his mantle, "the dew is yet on thy eyelashes, +and thou hast fairly wept thyself asleep. Sorrow is a rough nurse to one +so young and delicate as thou art. Peace be to thy slumbers, I will +not disturb them. My own misfortunes require my attention, and it is to +their contemplation that I must resign myself." + +He attempted to do so, but was crossed at every turn by conjectures +which intruded themselves as before, and which all regarded the sleeper +rather than himself. He was angry and vexed, and expostulated with +himself concerning the overweening interest which he took in the +concerns of one of whom he knew nothing, saving that the boy was forced +into his company, perhaps as a spy, by those to whose custody he was +committed--but the spell could not be broken, and the thoughts which he +struggled to dismiss, continued to haunt him. + +Thus passed half an hour, or more; at the conclusion of which, the +harsh sound of the revolving bolts was again heard, and the voice of the +warder announced that a man desired to speak with Lord Glenvarloch. "A +man to speak with me, under my present circumstances!--Who can it be?" +And John Christie, his landlord of Paul's Wharf, resolved his doubts, by +entering the apartment. "Welcome--most welcome, mine honest landlord!" +said Lord Glenvarloch. "How could I have dreamt of seeing you in my +present close lodgings?" And at the same time, with the frankness of +old kindness, he walked up to Christie and offered his hand; but John +started back as from the look of a basilisk. + +"Keep your courtesies to yourself, my lord," said he, gruffly; "I have +had as many of them already as may serve me for my life." + +"Why, Master Christie," said Nigel, "what means this? I trust I have not +offended you?" + +"Ask me no questions, my lord," said Christie, bluntly. "I am a man of +peace--I came not hither to wrangle with you at this place and season. +Just suppose that I am well informed of all the obligements from your +honour's nobleness, and then acquaint me, in as few words as may be, +where is the unhappy woman--What have you done with her?" + +"What have I done with her!" said Lord Glenvarloch--"Done with whom? I +know not what you are speaking of." + +"Oh, yes, my lord," said Christie; "play surprise as well as you will, +you must have some guess that I am speaking of the poor fool that was my +wife, till she became your lordship's light-o'-love." + +"Your wife! Has your wife left you? and, if she has, do you come to ask +her of me?" + +"Yes, my lord, singular as it may seem," returned Christie, in a tone +of bitter irony, and with a sort of grin widely discording from the +discomposure of his features, the gleam of his eye, and the froth which +stood on his lip, "I do come to make that demand of your lordship. +Doubtless, you are surprised I should take the trouble; but, I cannot +tell, great men and little men think differently. She has lain in +my bosom, and drunk of my cup; and, such as she is, I cannot forget +that--though I will never see her again--she must not starve, my lord, +or do worse, to gain bread, though I reckon your lordship may think I am +robbing the public in trying to change her courses." + +"By my faith as a Christian, by my honour as a gentleman," said Lord +Glenvarloch, "if aught amiss has chanced with your wife, I know nothing +of it. I trust in Heaven you are as much mistaken in imputing guilt to +her, as in supposing me her partner in it." + +"Fie! fie! my lord," said Christie, "why will you make it so tough? She +is but the wife of a clod-pated old chandler, who was idiot enough to +marry a wench twenty years younger than himself. Your lordship cannot +have more glory by it than you have had already; and, as for +advantage and solace, I take it Dame Nelly is now unnecessary to +your gratification. I should be sorry to interrupt the course of your +pleasure; an old wittol should have more consideration of his condition. +But, your precious lordship being mewed up here among other choice +jewels of the kingdom, Dame Nelly cannot, I take it, be admitted +to share the hours of dalliance which"--Here the incensed husband +stammered, broke off his tone of irony, and proceeded, striking his +staff against the ground--"O that these false limbs of yours, which I +wish had been hamstrung when they first crossed my honest threshold, +were free from the fetters they have well deserved! I would give you the +odds of your youth, and your weapon, and would bequeath my soul to +the foul fiend if I, with this piece of oak, did not make you such an +example to all ungrateful, pick-thank courtiers, that it should be a +proverb to the end of time, how John Christie swaddled his wife's fine +leman!" + +"I understand not your insolence," said Nigel, "but I forgive it, +because you labour under some strange delusion. In so far as I can +comprehend your vehement charge, it is entirely undeserved on my part. +You seem to impute to me the seduction of your wife--I trust she is +innocent. For me, at least, she is as innocent as an angel in bliss. +I never thought of her--never touched her hand or cheek, save in +honourable courtesy." + +"O, ay--courtesy!--that is the very word. She always praised your +lordship's honourable courtesy. Ye have cozened me between ye, with your +courtesy. My lord--my lord, you came to us no very wealthy man--you know +it. It was for no lucre of gain I took you and your swash-buckler, your +Don Diego yonder, under my poor roof. I never cared if the little room +were let or no; I could live without it. If you could not have paid for +it, you should never have been asked. All the wharf knows John Christie +has the means and spirit to do a kindness. When you first darkened my +honest doorway, I was as happy as a man need to be, who is no youngster, +and has the rheumatism. Nelly was the kindest and best-humoured +wench--we might have a word now and then about a gown or a ribbon, but +a kinder soul on the whole, and a more careful, considering her years, +till you come--and what is she now!--But I will not be a fool to cry, if +I can help it. _What_ she is, is not the question, but where she is; and +that I must learn, sir, of you." + +"How can you, when I tell you," replied Nigel, "that I am as ignorant as +yourself, or rather much more so? Till this moment, I never heard of any +disagreement betwixt your dame and you." + +"That is a lie," said John Christie, bluntly. + +"How, you base villain!" said Lord Glenvarloch--"do you presume on my +situation? If it were not that I hold you mad, and perhaps made so +by some wrong sustained, you should find my being weaponless were no +protection, I would beat your brains out against the wall." + +"Ay, ay," answered Christie, "bully as ye list. Ye have been at the +ordinaries, and in Alsatia, and learned the ruffian's rant, I doubt not. +But I repeat, you have spoken an untruth, when you said you knew not of +my wife's falsehood; for, when you were twitted with it among your gay +mates, it was a common jest among you, and your lordship took all the +credit they would give you for your gallantry and gratitude." + +There was a mixture of truth in this part of the charge which +disconcerted Lord Glenvarloch exceedingly; for he could not, as a man +of honour, deny that Lord Dalgarno, and others, had occasionally jested +with him on the subject of Dame Nelly, and that, though he had not +played exactly _le fanfaron des vices qu'il n'avoit pas_, he had not +at least been sufficiently anxious to clear himself of the suspicion of +such a crime to men who considered it as a merit. It was therefore with +some hesitation, and in a sort of qualifying tone, that he admitted that +some idle jests had passed upon such a supposition, although without +the least foundation in truth. John Christie would not listen to his +vindication any longer. "By your own account," he said, "you permitted +lies to be told of you injest. How do I know you are speaking truth, +now you are serious? You thought it, I suppose, a fine thing to wear the +reputation of having dishonoured an honest family,--who will not think +that you had real grounds for your base bravado to rest upon? I will not +believe otherwise for one, and therefore, my lord, mark what I have to +say. You are now yourself in trouble--As you hope to come through +it safely, and without loss of life and property, tell me where this +unhappy woman is. Tell me, if you hope for heaven--tell me, if you fear +hell--tell me, as you would not have the curse of an utterly ruined +woman, and a broken-hearted man, attend you through life, and bear +witness against you at the Great Day, which shall come after death. You +are moved, my lord, I see it. I cannot forget the wrong you have done +me. I cannot even promise to forgive it--but--tell me, and you shall +never see me again, or hear more of my reproaches." + +"Unfortunate man," said Lord Glenvarloch, "you have said more, far more +than enough, to move me deeply. Were I at liberty, I would lend you my +best aid to search out him who has wronged you, the rather that I do +suspect my having been your lodger has been in some degree the remote +cause of bringing the spoiler into the sheepfold." + +"I am glad your lordship grants me so much," said John Christie, +resuming the tone of embittered irony with which he had opened +the singular conversation; "I will spare you farther reproach and +remonstrance--your mind is made up, and so is mine.--So, ho, warder!" +The warder entered, and John went on,--"I want to get out, brother. Look +well to your charge--it were better that half the wild beasts in their +dens yonder were turned loose upon Tower Hill, than that this same +smooth-faced, civil-spoken gentleman, were again returned to honest +men's company!" + +So saying, he hastily left the apartment; and Nigel had full leisure +to lament the waywardness of his fate, which seemed never to tire of +persecuting him for crimes of which he was innocent, and investing him +with the appearances of guilt which his mind abhorred. He could not, +however, help acknowledging to himself, that all the pain which he +might sustain from the present accusation of John Christie, was so far +deserved, from his having suffered himself, out of vanity, or rather an +unwillingness to encounter ridicule, to be supposed capable of a +base inhospitable crime, merely because fools called it an affair of +gallantry; and it was no balsam to the wound, when he recollected what +Richie had told him of his having been ridiculed behind his back by the +gallants of the ordinary, for affecting the reputation of an intrigue +which he had not in reality spirit enough to have carried on. His +simulation had, in a word, placed him in the unlucky predicament of +being rallied as a braggart amongst the dissipated youths, with whom the +reality of the amour would have given him credit; whilst, on the other +hand, he was branded as an inhospitable seducer by the injured husband, +who was obstinately persuaded of his guilt. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + + How fares the man on whom good men would look + With eyes where scorn and censure combated, + But that kind Christian love hath taught the lesson-- + That they who merit most contempt and hate, + Do most deserve our pity.-- + _Old Play_. + +It might have seemed natural that the visit of John Christie should have +entirely diverted Nigel's attention from his slumbering companion, and, +for a time, such was the immediate effect of the chain of new ideas +which the incident introduced; yet, soon after the injured man had +departed, Lord Glenvarloch began to think it extraordinary that the boy +should have slept so soundly, while they talked loudly in his vicinity. +Yet he certainly did not appear to have stirred. Was he well--was he +only feigning sleep? He went close to him to make his observations, and +perceived that he had wept, and was still weeping, though his eyes were +closed. He touched him gently on the shoulder--the boy shrunk from his +touch, but did not awake. He pulled him harder, and asked him if he was +sleeping. + +"Do they waken folk in your country to know whether they are asleep or +no?" said the boy, in a peevish tone. + +"No, my young sir," answered Nigel; "but when they weep in the manner +you do in your sleep, they awaken them to see what ails them." + +"It signifies little to any one what ails me," said the boy. + +"True," replied Lord Glenvarloch; "but you knew before you went to +sleep how little I could assist you in your difficulties, and you seemed +disposed, notwithstanding, to put some confidence in me." + +"If I did, I have changed my mind," said the lad. + +"And what may have occasioned this change of mind, I trow?" said Lord +Glenvarloch. "Some men speak through their sleep--perhaps you have the +gift of hearing in it?" + +"No, but the Patriarch Joseph never dreamt truer dreams than I do." + +"Indeed!" said Lord Glenvarloch. "And, pray, what dream have you had +that has deprived me of your good opinion; for that, I think, seems the +moral of the matter?" + +"You shall judge yourself," answered the boy. "I dreamed I was in a wild +forest, where there was a cry of hounds, and winding of horns, exactly +as I heard in Greenwich Park." + +"That was because you were in the Park this morning, you simple child," +said Nigel. + +"Stay, my lord," said the youth. "I went on in my dream, till, at the +top of a broad green alley, I saw a noble stag which had fallen into the +toils; and methought I knew that he was the very stag which the whole +party were hunting, and that if the chase came up, the dogs would tear +him to pieces, or the hunters would cut his throat; and I had pity on +the gallant stag, and though I was of a different kind from him, and +though I was somewhat afraid of him, I thought I would venture something +to free so stately a creature; and I pulled out my knife, and just as I +was beginning to cut the meshes of the net, the animal started up in my +face in the likeness of a tiger, much larger and fiercer than any you +may have seen in the ward of the wild beasts yonder, and was just about +to tear me limb from limb, when you awaked me." + +"Methinks," said Nigel, "I deserve more thanks than I have got, for +rescuing you from such a danger by waking you. But, my pretty master, +methinks all this tale of a tiger and a stag has little to do with your +change of temper towards me." + +"I know not whether it has or no," said the lad; "but I will not tell +you who I am." + +"You will keep your secret to yourself then, peevish boy," said Nigel, +turning from him, and resuming his walk through the room; then stopping +suddenly, he said--"And yet you shall not escape from me without knowing +that I penetrate your mystery." + +"My mystery!" said the youth, at once alarmed and irritated--"what mean +you, my lord?" + +"Only that I can read your dream without the assistance of a Chaldean +interpreter, and my exposition is--that my fair companion does not wear +the dress of her sex." + +"And if I do not, my lord," said his companion, hastily starting up, and +folding her cloak tight around her, "my dress, such as it is, covers one +who will not disgrace it." + +"Many would call that speech a fair challenge," said Lord Glenvarloch, +looking on her fixedly; "women do not masquerade in men's clothes, to +make use of men's weapons." + +"I have no such purpose," said the seeming boy; "I have other means +of protection, and powerful--but I would first know what is _your_ +purpose." + +"An honourable and a most respectful one," said Lord Glenvarloch; +"whatever you are--whatever motive may have brought you into this +ambiguous situation, I am sensible--every look, word, and action of +yours, makes me sensible, that you are no proper subject of importunity, +far less of ill usage. What circumstances can have forced you into so +doubtful a situation, I know not; but I feel assured there is, and can +be, nothing in them of premeditated wrong, which should expose you to +cold-blooded insult. From me you have nothing to dread." + +"I expected nothing less from your nobleness, my lord," answered the +female; "my adventure, though I feel it was both desperate and foolish, +is not so very foolish, nor my safety here so utterly unprotected, as +at first sight--and in this strange dress, it may appear to be. I have +suffered enough, and more than enough, by the degradation of having been +seen in this unfeminine attire, and the comments you must necessarily +have made on my conduct--but I thank God that I am so far protected, +that I could not have been subjected to insult unavenged." When this +extraordinary explanation had proceeded thus far, the warder appeared, +to place before Lord Glenvarloch a meal, which, for his present +situation, might be called comfortable, and which, if not equal to +the cookery of the celebrated Chevalier Beaujeu, was much superior in +neatness and cleanliness to that of Alsatia. A warder attended to do the +honours of the table, and made a sign to the disguised female to rise +and assist him in his functions. But Nigel, declaring that he knew the +youth's parents, interfered, and caused his companion to eat along with +him. She consented with a sort of embarrassment, which rendered her +pretty features yet more interesting. Yet she maintained with a natural +grace that sort of good-breeding which belongs to the table; and +it seemed to Nigel, whether already prejudiced in her favour by the +extraordinary circumstances of their meeting, or whether really judging +from what was actually the fact, that he had seldom seen a young person +comport herself with more decorous propriety, mixed with ingenuous +simplicity; while the consciousness of the peculiarity of her situation +threw a singular colouring over her whole demeanour, which could be +neither said to be formal, nor easy, nor embarrassed, but was compounded +of, and shaded with, an interchange of all these three characteristics. +Wine was placed on the table, of which she could not be prevailed on +to taste a glass. Their conversation was, of course, limited by the +presence of the warder to the business of the table: but Nigel had, long +ere the cloth was removed, formed the resolution, if possible, of making +himself master of this young person's history, the more especially as he +now began to think that the tones of her voice and her features were not +so strange to him as he had originally supposed. This, however, was a +conviction which he adopted slowly, and only as it dawned upon him from +particular circumstances during the course of the repast. + +At length the prison-meal was finished, and Lord Glenvarloch began to +think how he might most easily enter upon the topic he meditated, when +the warder announced a visitor. + +"Soh!" said Nigel, something displeased, "I find even a prison does not +save one from importunate visitations." + +He prepared to receive his guest, however, while his alarmed companion +flew to the large cradle-shaped chair, which had first served her as a +place of refuge, drew her cloak around her, and disposed herself as much +as she could to avoid observation. She had scarce made her arrangements +for that purpose when the door opened, and the worthy citizen, George +Heriot, entered the prison-chamber. + +He cast around the apartment his usual sharp, quick glance of +observation, and, advancing to Nigel, said--"My lord, I wish I could say +I was happy to see you." + +"The sight of those who are unhappy themselves, Master Heriot, seldom +produces happiness to their friends--I, however, am glad to see you." + +He extended his hand, but Heriot bowed with much formal complaisance, +instead of accepting the courtesy, which in those times, when the +distinction of ranks was much guarded by etiquette and ceremony, was +considered as a distinguished favour. + +"You are displeased with me, Master Heriot," said Lord Glenvarloch, +reddening, for he was not deceived by the worthy citizen's affectation +of extreme reverence and respect. + +"By no means, my lord," replied Heriot; "but I have been in France, and +have thought it is well to import, along with other more substantial +articles, a small sample of that good-breeding which the French are so +renowned for." + +"It is not kind of you," said Nigel, "to bestow the first use of it on +an old and obliged friend." + +Heriot only answered to this observation with a short dry cough, and +then proceeded. + +"Hem! hem! I say, ahem! My lord, as my French politeness may not carry +me far, I would willingly know whether I am to speak as a friend, since +your lordship is pleased to term me such; or whether I am, as befits +my condition, to confine myself to the needful business which must be +treated of between us." + +"Speak as a friend by all means, Master Heriot," said Nigel; "I perceive +you have adopted some of the numerous prejudices against me, if not +all of them. Speak out, and frankly--what I cannot deny I will at least +confess." + +"And I trust, my lord, redress," said Heriot. + +"So far as in my power, certainly," answered Nigel. + +"Ah I my lord," continued Heriot, "that is a melancholy though a +necessary restriction; for how lightly may any one do an hundred times +more than the degree of evil which it may be within his power to repair +to the sufferers and to society! But we are not alone here," he said, +stopping, and darting his shrewd eye towards the muffled figure of the +disguised maiden, whose utmost efforts had not enabled her so to adjust +her position as altogether to escape observation. More anxious to +prevent her being discovered than to keep his own affairs private, Nigel +hastily answered--"'Tis a page of mine; you may speak freely before him. +He is of France, and knows no English." + +"I am then to speak freely," said Heriot, after a second glance at the +chair; "perhaps my words may be more free than welcome." + +"Go on, sir," said Nigel, "I have told you I can bear reproof." + +"In one word, then, my lord--why do I find you in this place, and +whelmed with charges which must blacken a name rendered famous by ages +of virtue?" + +"Simply, then, you find me here," said Nigel, "because, to begin from my +original error, I would be wiser than my father." + +"It was a difficult task, my lord," replied Heriot; "your father was +voiced generally as the wisest and one of the bravest men of Scotland." + +"He commanded me," continued Nigel, "to avoid all gambling; and I took +upon me to modify this injunction into regulating my play according to +my skill, means, and the course of my luck." + +"Ay, self opinion, acting on a desire of acquisition, my lord--you hoped +to touch pitch and not to be defiled," answered Heriot. "Well, my +lord, you need not say, for I have heard with much regret, how far +this conduct diminished your reputation. Your next error I may without +scruple remind you of--My lord, my lord, in whatever degree Lord +Dalgarno may have failed towards you, the son of his father should have +been sacred from your violence." + +"You speak in cold blood, Master Heriot, and I was smarting under a +thousand wrongs inflicted on me under the mask of friendship." + +"That is, he gave your lordship bad advice, and you," said Heriot-- + +"Was fool enough to follow his counsel," answered Nigel--"But we will +pass this, Master Heriot, if you please. Old men and young men, men of +the sword and men of peaceful occupation, always have thought, always +will think, differently on such subjects." + +"I grant," answered Heriot, "the distinction between the old goldsmith +and the young nobleman--still you should have had patience for Lord +Huntinglen's sake, and prudence for your own. Supposing your quarrel +just--" + +"I pray you to pass on to some other charge," said Lord Glenvarloch. + +"I am not your accuser, my lord; but I trust in heaven, that your own +heart has already accused you bitterly on the inhospitable wrong which +your late landlord has sustained at your hand." + +"Had I been guilty of what you allude to," said Lord Glenvarloch,--"had +a moment of temptation hurried me away, I had long ere now most bitterly +repented it. But whoever may have wronged the unhappy woman, it was not +I--I never heard of her folly until within this hour." + +"Come, my lord," said Heriot, with some severity, "this sounds too much +like affectation. I know there is among our modern youth a new creed +respecting adultery as well as homicide--I would rather hear you speak +of a revision of the Decalogue, with mitigated penalties in favour of +the privileged orders--I would rather hear you do this than deny a fact +in which you have been known to glory." + +"Glory!--I never did, never would have taken honour to myself from +such a cause," said Lord Glenvarloch. "I could not prevent other idle +tongues, and idle brains, from making false inferences." + +"You would have known well enough how to stop their mouths, my lord," +replied Heriot, "had they spoke of you what was unpleasing to your +ears, and what the truth did not warrant.--Come, my lord, remember your +promise to confess; and, indeed, to confess is, in this case, in +some slight sort to redress. I will grant you are young--the woman +handsome--and, as I myself have observed, light-headed enough. Let me +know where she is. Her foolish husband has still some compassion for +her--will save her from infamy--perhaps, in time, receive her back; for +we are a good-natured generation we traders. Do not, my lord, emulate +those who work mischief merely for the pleasure of doing so--it is the +very devil's worst quality." + +"Your grave remonstrances will drive me mad," said Nigel. "There is +a show of sense and reason in what you say; and yet, it is positively +insisting on my telling the retreat of a fugitive of whom I know nothing +earthly." + +"It is well, my lord," answered Heriot, coldly. "You have a right, such +as it is, to keep your own secrets; but, since my discourse on these +points seems so totally unavailing, we had better proceed to business. +Yet your father's image rises before me, and seems to plead that I +should go on." + +"Be it as you will, sir," said Glenvarloch; "he who doubts my word shall +have no additional security for it." + +"Well, my lord.--In the Sanctuary at Whitefriars--a place of refuge so +unsuitable to a young man of quality and character--I am told a murder +was committed." + +"And you believe that I did the deed, I suppose?" + +"God forbid, my lord!" said Heriot. "The coroner's inquest hath sat, +and it appeared that your lordship, under your assumed name of Grahame, +behaved with the utmost bravery." + +"No compliment, I pray you," said Nigel; "I am only too happy to find, +that I did not murder, or am not believed to have murdered, the old +man." + +"True, my lord," said Heriot; "but even in this affair there lacks +explanation. Your lordship embarked this morning in a wherry with a +female, and, it is said, an immense sum of money, in specie and other +valuables--but the woman has not since been heard of." + +"I parted with her at Paul's Wharf," said Nigel, "where she went ashore +with her charge. I gave her a letter to that very man, John Christie." + +"Ay, that is the waterman's story; but John Christie denies that he +remembers anything of the matter." + +"I am sorry to hear this," said the young nobleman; "I hope in Heaven +she has not been trepanned, for the treasure she had with her." + +"I hope not, my lord," replied Heriot; "but men's minds are much +disturbed about it. Our national character suffers on all hands. Men +remember the fatal case of Lord Sanquhar, hanged for the murder of a +fencing-master; and exclaim, they will not have their wives whored, and +their property stolen, by the nobility of Scotland." + +"And all this is laid to my door!" said Nigel; "my exculpation is easy." + +"I trust so, my lord," said Heriot;--"nay, in this particular, I do not +doubt it.--But why did you leave Whitefriars under such circumstances?" + +"Master Reginald Lowestoffe sent a boat for me, with intimation to +provide for my safety." + +"I am sorry to say," replied Heriot, "that he denies all knowledge of +your lordship's motions, after having dispatched a messenger to you with +some baggage." + +"The watermen told me they were employed by him." + +"Watermen!" said Heriot; "one of these proves to be an idle apprentice, +an old acquaintance of mine--the other has escaped; but the fellow who +is in custody persists in saying he was employed by your lordship, and +you only." + +"He lies!" said Lord Glenvarloch, hastily;--"He told me Master +Lowestoffe had sent him.--I hope that kind-hearted gentleman is at +liberty?" + +"He is," answered Heriot; "and has escaped with a rebuke from the +benchers, for interfering in such a matter as your lordship's. The Court +desire to keep well with the young Templars in these times of commotion, +or he had not come off so well." + +"That is the only word of comfort I have heard from you," replied Nigel. +"But this poor woman,--she and her trunk were committed to the charge of +two porters." + +"So said the pretended waterman; but none of the fellows who ply at the +wharf will acknowledge the employment.--I see the idea makes you uneasy, +my lord; but every effort is made to discover the poor woman's place +of retreat--if, indeed, she yet lives.--And now, my lord, my errand is +spoken, so far as it relates exclusively to your lordship; what remains, +is matter of business of a more formal kind." + +"Let us proceed to it without delay," said Lord Glenvarloch. "I would +hear of the affairs of any one rather than of my own." + +"You cannot have forgotten, my lord," said Heriot, "the transaction +which took place some weeks since at Lord Huntinglen's--by which a large +sum of money was advanced for the redemption of your lordship's estate?" + +"I remember it perfectly," said Nigel; "and your present austerity +cannot make me forget your kindness on the occasion." + +Heriot bowed gravely, and went on.--"That money was advanced under the +expectation and hope that it might be replaced by the contents of a +grant to your lordship, under the royal sign-manual, in payment of +certain monies due by the crown to your father.--I trust your lordship +understood the transaction at the time--I trust you now understand my +resumption of its import, and hold it to be correct?" + +"Undeniably correct," answered Lord Glenvarloch. "If the sums contained +in the warrant cannot be recovered, my lands become the property of +those who paid off the original holders of the mortgage, and now stand +in their right." + +"Even so, my lord," said Heriot. "And your lordship's unhappy +circumstances having, it would seem, alarmed these creditors, they +are now, I am sorry to say, pressing for one or other of these +alternatives--possession of the land, or payment of their debt." + +"They have a right to one or other," answered Lord Glenvarloch; "and as +I cannot do the last in my present condition, I suppose they must enter +on possession." + +"Stay, my lord," replied Heriot; "if you have ceased to call me a friend +to your person, at least you shall see I am willing to be such to your +father's house, were it but for the sake of your father's memory. If +you will trust me with the warrant under the sign-manual, I believe +circumstances do now so stand at Court, that I may be able to recover +the money for you." + +"I would do so gladly," said Lord Glenvarloch, "but the casket which +contains it is not in my possession. It was seized when I was arrested +at Greenwich." + +"It will be no longer withheld from you," said Heriot; "for, I +understand, my Master's natural good sense, and some information which +he has procured, I know not how, has induced him to contradict the whole +charge of the attempt on his person. It is entirely hushed up; and +you will only be proceeded against for your violence on Lord Dalgarno, +committed within the verge of the Palace--and that you will find heavy +enough to answer." + +"I will not shrink under the weight," said Lord Glenvarloch. "But that +is not the present point.--If I had that casket--" + +"Your baggage stood in the little ante-room, as I passed," said the +citizen; "the casket caught my eye. I think you had it of me. It was my +old friend Sir Faithful Frugal's. Ay; he, too, had a son--" + +Here he stopped short. + +"A son who, like Lord Glenvarloch's, did no credit to his father.--Was +it not so you would have ended the sentence, Master Heriot?" asked the +young nobleman. + +"My lord, it was a word spoken rashly," answered Heriot. "God may +mend all in his own good time. This, however, I will say, that I have +sometimes envied my friends their fair and flourishing families; and yet +have I seen such changes when death has removed the head, so many rich +men's sons penniless, the heirs of so many knights and nobles acreless, +that I think mine own estate and memory, as I shall order it, has a fair +chance of outliving those of greater men, though God has given me no +heir of my name. But this is from the purpose.--Ho! warder, bring in +Lord Glenvarloch's baggage." The officer obeyed. Seals had been placed +upon the trunk and casket, but were now removed, the warder said, in +consequence of the subsequent orders from Court, and the whole was +placed at the prisoner's free disposal. + +Desirous to bring this painful visit to a conclusion, Lord Glenvarloch +opened the casket, and looked through the papers which it contained, +first hastily, and then more slowly and accurately; but it was all in +vain. The Sovereign's signed warrant had disappeared. + +"I thought and expected nothing better," said George Heriot, bitterly. +"The beginning of evil is the letting out of water. Here is a fair +heritage lost, I dare say, on a foul cast at dice, or a conjuring trick +at cards!--My lord, your surprise is well played. I give you full joy +of your accomplishments. I have seen many as young brawlers and +spendthrifts, but never as young and accomplished a dissembler.--Nay, +man, never bend your angry brows on me. I speak in bitterness of heart, +from what I remember of your worthy father; and if his son hears of his +degeneracy from no one else, he shall hear it from the old goldsmith." + +This new suspicion drove Nigel to the very extremity of his patience; +yet the motives and zeal of the good old man, as well as the +circumstances of suspicion which created his displeasure, were so +excellent an excuse for it, that they formed an absolute curb on the +resentment of Lord Glenvarloch, and constrained him, after two or three +hasty exclamations, to observe a proud and sullen silence. At length, +Master Heriot resumed his lecture. + +"Hark you, my lord," he said, "it is scarce possible that this most +important paper can be absolutely assigned away. Let me know in what +obscure corner, and for what petty sum, it lies pledged--something may +yet be done." + +"Your efforts in my favour are the more generous," said Lord +Glenvarloch, "as you offer them to one whom you believe you have cause +to think hardly of--but they are altogether unavailing. Fortune has +taken the field against me at every point. Even let her win the battle." + +"Zouns!" exclaimed Heriot, impatiently,--"you would make a saint swear! +Why, I tell you, if this paper, the loss of which seems to sit so +light on you, be not found, farewell to the fair lordship of +Glenvarloch--firth and forest--lea and furrow--lake and stream--all that +has been in the house of Olifaunt since the days of William the Lion!" + +"Farewell to them, then," said Nigel,--"and that moan is soon made." + +"'Sdeath! my lord, you will make more moan for it ere you die," said +Heriot, in the same tone of angry impatience. + +"Not I, my old friend," said Nigel. "If I mourn, Master Heriot, it will +be for having lost the good opinion of a worthy man, and lost it, as I +must say, most undeservedly." + +"Ay, ay, young man," said Heriot, shaking his head, "make me believe +that if you can.--To sum the matter up," he said, rising from his seat, +and walking towards that occupied by the disguised female, "for our +matters are now drawn into small compass, you shall as soon make me +believe that this masquerading mummer, on whom I now lay the hand of +paternal authority, is a French page, who understands no English." + +So saying, he took hold of the supposed page's cloak, and, not without +some gentle degree of violence, led into the middle of the apartment the +disguised fair one, who in vain attempted to cover her face, first with +her mantle, and afterwards with her hands; both which impediments Master +Heriot removed something unceremoniously, and gave to view the detected +daughter of the old chronologist, his own fair god-daughter, Margaret +Ramsay. + +"Here is goodly gear!" he said; and, as he spoke, he could not prevent +himself from giving her a slight shake, for we have elsewhere noticed +that he was a severe disciplinarian.--"How comes it, minion, that I +find you in so shameless a dress, and so unworthy a situation? Nay, your +modesty is now mistimed--it should have come sooner. Speak, or I will--" + +"Master Heriot," said Lord Glenvarloch, "whatever right you may have +over this maiden elsewhere, while in my apartment she is under my +protection." + +"Your protection, my lord!--a proper protector!--and how long, mistress, +have you been under my lord's protection? Speak out forsooth!" + +"For the matter of two hours, godfather," answered the maiden, with a +countenance bent to the ground, and covered with blushes, "but it was +against my will." + +"Two hours!" repeated Heriot,--"space enough for mischief.--My lord, +this is, I suppose, another victim offered to your character of +gallantry--another adventure to be boasted of at Beaujeu's ordinary? +Methinks the roof under which you first met this silly maiden should +have secured _her_, at least, from such a fate." + +"On my honour, Master Heriot," said Lord Glenvarloch, "you remind me +now, for the first time, that I saw this young lady in your family. +Her features are not easily forgotten, and yet I was trying in vain to +recollect where I had last looked on them. For your suspicions, they are +as false as they are injurious both to her and me. I had but discovered +her disguise as you entered. I am satisfied, from her whole behaviour, +that her presence here in this dress was involuntary; and God forbid +that I have been capable of taking advantage of it to her prejudice." + +"It is well mouthed, my lord," said Master Heriot; "but a cunning clerk +can read the Apocrypha as loud as the Scripture. Frankly, my lord, you +are come to that pass, where your words will not be received without a +warrant." + +"I should not speak, perhaps," said Margaret, the natural vivacity of +whose temper could never be long suppressed by any situation, however +disadvantageous, "but I cannot be silent. Godfather, you do me +wrong--and no less wrong to this young nobleman. You say his words want +a warrant. I know where to find a warrant for some of them, and the rest +I deeply and devoutly believe without one." + +"And I thank you, maiden," replied Nigel, "for the good opinion you have +expressed. I am at that point, it seems, though how I have been driven +to it I know not, where every fair construction of my actions and +motives is refused me. I am the more obliged to her who grants me that +right which the world denies me. For you, lady, were I at liberty, I +have a sword and arm should know how to guard your reputation." + +"Upon my word, a perfect Amadis and Oriana!" said George Heriot. "I +should soon get my throat cut betwixt the knight and the princess, I +suppose, but that the beef-eaters are happily within halloo.--Come, +come, Lady Light-o'-Love--if you mean to make your way with me, it must +be by plain facts, not by speeches from romaunts and play-books. How, in +Heaven's name, came you here?" + +"Sir," answered Margaret, "since I must speak, I went to Greenwich this +morning with Monna Paula, to present a petition to the king on the part +of the Lady Hermione." + +"Mercy-a-gad!" exclaimed Heriot, "is she in the dance, too? Could she +not have waited my return to stir in her affairs? But I suppose the +intelligence I sent her had rendered her restless. Ah! woman, woman--he +that goes partner with you, had need of a double share of patience, for +you will bring none into the common stock.--Well, but what on earth had +this embassy of Monna Paula's to do with your absurd disguise? Speak +out." + +"Monna Paula was frightened," answered Margaret, "and did not know +how to set about the errand, for you know she scarce ever goes out of +doors--and so--and so--I agreed to go with her to give her courage; and, +for the dress, I am sure you remember I wore it at a Christmas mumming, +and you thought it not unbeseeming." + +"Yes, for a Christmas parlour," said Heriot, "but not to go a-masking +through the country in. I do remember it, minion, and I knew it even +now; that and your little shoe there, linked with a hint I had in the +morning from a friend, or one who called himself such, led to your +detection."--Here Lord Glenvarloch could not help giving a glance at the +pretty foot, which even the staid citizen thought worth recollection--it +was but a glance, for he saw how much the least degree of observation +added to Margaret's distress and confusion. "And tell me, maiden," +continued Master Heriot, for what we have observed was by-play,--"did +the Lady Hermione know of this fair work?" + +"I dared not have told her for the world," said Margaret--"she thought +one of our apprentices went with Monna Paula." + +It may be here noticed, that the words, "our apprentices," seemed to +have in them something of a charm to break the fascination with which +Lord Glenvarloch had hitherto listened to the broken, yet interesting +details of Margaret's history. + +"And wherefore went he not?--he had been a fitter companion for Monna +Paula than you, I wot," said the citizen. + +"He was otherwise employed," said Margaret, in a voice scarce audible. + +Master George darted a hasty glance at Nigel, and when he saw his +features betoken no consciousness, he muttered to himself,--"It must be +better than I feared.--And so this cursed Spaniard, with her head full, +as they all have, of disguises, trap-doors, rope-ladders, and masks, +was jade and fool enough to take you with her on this wild goose +errand?--And how sped you, I pray?" + +"Just as we reached the gate of the Park," replied Margaret, "the cry +of treason was raised. I know not what became of Monna, but I ran till I +fell into the arms of a very decent serving-man, called Linklater; and I +was fain to tell him I was your god-daughter, and so he kept the rest of +them from me, and got me to speech of his Majesty, as I entreated him to +do." + +"It is the only sign you showed in the whole matter that common sense +had not utterly deserted your little skull," said Heriot. + +"His Majesty," continued the damsel, "was so gracious as to receive me +alone, though the courtiers cried out against the danger to his person, +and would have searched me for arms, God help me, but the king forbade +it. I fancy he had a hint from Linklater how the truth stood with me." + +"Well, maiden, I ask not what passed," said Heriot; "it becomes not +me to pry into my Master's secrets. Had you been closeted with his +grandfather the Red Tod of Saint Andrews, as Davie Lindsay used to call +him, by my faith, I should have had my own thoughts of the matter; but +our Master, God bless him, is douce and temperate, and Solomon in every +thing, save in the chapter of wives and concubines." + +"I know not what you mean, sir," answered Margaret. "His Majesty was +most kind and compassionate, but said I must be sent hither, and that +the Lieutenant's lady, the Lady Mansel, would have a charge of me, and +see that I sustained no wrong; and the king promised to send me in a +tilted barge, and under conduct of a person well known to you; and thus +I come to be in the Tower." + +"But how, or why, in this apartment, nymph?" said George +Heriot--"Expound that to me, for I think the riddle needs reading." + +"I cannot explain it, sir, further, than that the Lady Mansel sent me +here, in spite of my earnest prayers, tears, and entreaties. I was not +afraid of any thing, for I knew I should be protected. But I could have +died then--could die now--for very shame and confusion!" + +"Well, well, if your tears are genuine," said Heriot, "they may the +sooner wash out the memory of your fault--Knows your father aught of +this escape of yours?" + +"I would not for the world he did," replied she; "he believes me with +the Lady Hermione." + +"Ay, honest Davy can regulate his horologes better than his +family.--Come, damsel, now I will escort you back to the Lady Mansel, +and pray her, of her kindness, that when she is again trusted with a +goose, she will not give it to the fox to keep.--The warders will let us +pass to my lady's lodgings, I trust." + +"Stay but one moment," said Lord Glenvarloch. "Whatever hard opinion you +may have formed of me, I forgive you, for time will show that you do +me wrong; and you yourself, I think, will be the first to regret the +injustice you have done me. But involve not in your suspicions this +young person, for whose purity of thought angels themselves should be +vouchers. I have marked every look, every gesture; and whilst I can draw +breath, I shall ever think of her with--" + +"Think not at all of her, my lord," answered George Heriot, interrupting +him; "it is, I have a notion, the best favour you can do her;--or think +of her as the daughter of Davy Ramsay, the clockmaker, no proper +subject for fine speeches, romantic adventures, or high-flown Arcadian +compliments. I give you god-den, my lord. I think not altogether so +harshly as my speech may have spoken. If I can help--that is, if I saw +my way clearly through this labyrinth--but it avails not talking now. I +give your lordship god-den.--Here, warder! Permit us to pass to the +Lady Hansel's apartment." The warder said he must have orders from the +Lieutenant; and as he retired to procure them, the parties remained +standing near each other, but without speaking, and scarce looking at +each other save by stealth, a situation which, in two of the party at +least, was sufficiently embarrassing. The difference of rank, though in +that age a consideration so serious, could not prevent Lord Glenvarloch +from seeing that Margaret Ramsay was one of the prettiest young women +he had ever beheld--from suspecting, he could scarce tell why, that he +himself was not indifferent to her--from feeling assured that he had +been the cause of much of her present distress--admiration, self-love, +and generosity, acting in favour of the same object; and when the yeoman +returned with permission to his guests to withdraw, Nigel's obeisance +to the beautiful daughter of the mechanic was marked with an expression, +which called up in her cheeks as much colour as any incident of the +eventful day had hitherto excited. She returned the courtesy timidly +and irresolutely--clung to her godfather's arm, and left the apartment, +which, dark as it was, had never yet appeared so obscure to Nigel, as +when the door closed behind her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + + Yet though thou shouldst be dragg'd in scorn + To yonder ignominious tree, + Thou shall not want one faithful friend + To share the cruel fates' decree. + _Ballad of Jemmy Dawson._ + +Master George Heriot and his ward, as she might justly be termed, for +his affection to Margaret imposed on him all the cares of a guardian, +were ushered by the yeoman of the guard to the lodging of the +Lieutenant, where they found him seated with his lady. They were +received by both with that decorous civility which Master Heriot's +character and supposed influence demanded, even at the hand of a +punctilious old soldier and courtier like Sir Edward Mansel. Lady Mansel +received Margaret with like courtesy, and informed Master George that +she was now only her guest, and no longer her prisoner. + +"She is at liberty," she said, "to return to her friends under your +charge--such is his Majesty's pleasure." + +"I am glad of it, madam," answered Heriot, "but only I could have wished +her freedom had taken place before her foolish interview with that +singular young man; and I marvel your ladyship permitted it." + +"My good Master Heriot," said Sir Edward, "we act according to the +commands of one better and wiser than ourselves--our orders from his +Majesty must be strictly and literally obeyed; and I need not say that +the wisdom of his Majesty doth more than ensure--" + +"I know his Majesty's wisdom well," said Heriot; "yet there is an old +proverb about fire and flax--well, let it pass." + +"I see Sir Mungo Malagrowther stalking towards the door of the lodging," +said the Lady Mansel, "with the gait of a lame crane--it is his second +visit this morning." + +"He brought the warrant for discharging Lord Glenvarloch of the charge +of treason," said Sir Edward. + +"And from him," said Heriot, "I heard much of what had befallen; for I +came from France only late last evening, and somewhat unexpectedly." + +As they spoke, Sir Mungo entered the apartment--saluted the Lieutenant +of the Tower and his lady with ceremonious civility--honoured George +Heriot with a patronising nod of acknowledgment, and accosted Margaret +with--"Hey! my young charge, you have not doffed your masculine attire +yet?" + +"She does not mean to lay it aside, Sir Mungo," said Heriot, speaking +loud, "until she has had satisfaction from you, for betraying her +disguise to me, like a false knight--and in very deed, Sir Mungo, I +think when you told me she was rambling about in so strange a dress, you +might have said also that she was under Lady Mansel's protection." + +"That was the king's secret, Master Heriot," said Sir Mungo, throwing +himself into a chair with an air of atrabilarious importance; "the other +was a well-meaning hint to yourself, as the girl's friend." + +"Yes," replied Heriot, "it was done like yourself--enough told to make +me unhappy about her--not a word which could relieve my uneasiness." + +"Sir Mungo will not hear that remark," said the lady; "we must change +the subject.--Is there any news from Court, Sir Mungo? you have been to +Greenwich?" + +"You might as well ask me, madam," answered the Knight, "whether there +is any news from hell." + +"How, Sir Mungo, how!" said Sir Edward, "measure your words something +better--You speak of the Court of King James." + +"Sir Edward, if I spoke of the court of the twelve Kaisers, I would say +it is as confused for the present as the infernal regions. Courtiers of +forty years' standing, and such I may write myself, are as far to seek +in the matter as a minnow in the Maelstrom. Some folk say the king has +frowned on the Prince--some that the Prince has looked grave on the +duke--some that Lord Glenvarloch will be hanged for high treason--and +some that there is matter against Lord Dalgarno that may cost him as +much as his head's worth." + +"And what do you, that are a courtier of forty years' standing, think of +it all?" said Sir Edward Mansel. + +"Nay, nay, do not ask him, Sir Edward," said the lady, with an +expressive look to her husband. + +"Sir Mungo is too witty," added Master Heriot, "to remember that he who +says aught that may be repeated to his own prejudice, does but load a +piece for any of the company to shoot him dead with, at their pleasure +and convenience." + +"What!" said the bold Knight, "you think I am afraid of the trepan? Why +now, what if I should say that Dalgarno has more wit than honesty,--the +duke more sail than ballast,--the Prince more pride than prudence,--and +that the king--" The Lady Mansel held up her finger in a warning +manner--"that the king is my very good master, who has given me, for +forty years and more, dog's wages, videlicit, bones and beating.--Why +now, all this is said, and Archie Armstrong [Footnote: The celebrated +Court jester.] says worse than this of the best of them every day." + +"The more fool he," said George Heriot; "yet he is not so utterly wrong, +for folly is his best wisdom. But do not you, Sir Mungo, set your wit +against a fool's, though he be a court fool." + +"A fool, said you?" replied Sir Mungo, not having fully heard what +Master Heriot said, or not choosing to have it thought so,--"I have +been a fool indeed, to hang on at a close-fisted Court here, when men of +understanding and men of action have been making fortunes in every other +place of Europe. But here a man comes indifferently off unless he gets a +great key to turn," (looking at Sir Edward,) "or can beat tattoo with a +hammer on a pewter plate.--Well, sirs, I must make as much haste back on +mine errand as if I were a fee'd messenger.--Sir Edward and my lady, +I leave my commendations with you--and my good-will with you, Master +Heriot--and for this breaker of bounds, if you will act by my counsel, +some maceration by fasting, and a gentle use of the rod, is the best +cure for her giddy fits." + +"If you propose for Greenwich, Sir Mungo," said the Lieutenant, "I can +spare you the labour--the king comes immediately to Whitehall." + +"And that must be the reason the council are summoned to meet in such +hurry," said Sir Mungo. "Well--I will, with your permission, go to the +poor lad Glenvarloch, and bestow some comfort on him." + +The Lieutenant seemed to look up, and pause for a moment as if in doubt. + +"The lad will want a pleasant companion, who can tell him the nature of +the punishment which he is to suffer, and other matters of concernment. +I will not leave him until I show him how absolutely he hath ruined +himself from feather to spur, how deplorable is his present state, and +how small his chance of mending it." + +"Well, Sir Mungo," replied the Lieutenant, "if you really think all +this likely to be very consolatory to the party concerned, I will send a +warder to conduct you." + +"And I," said George Heriot, "will humbly pray of Lady Mansel, that she +will lend some of her handmaiden's apparel to this giddy-brained girl; +for I shall forfeit my reputation if I walk up Tower Hill with her +in that mad guise--and yet the silly lassie looks not so ill in it +neither." + +"I will send my coach with you instantly," said the obliging lady. + +"Faith, madam, and if you will honour us by such courtesy, I will gladly +accept it at your hands," said the citizen, "for business presses hard +on me, and the forenoon is already lost, to little purpose." + +The coach being ordered accordingly, transported the worthy citizen and +his charge to his mansion in Lombard Street. There he found his presence +was anxiously expected by the Lady Hermione, who had just received an +order to be in readiness to attend upon the Royal Privy Council in the +course of an hour; and upon whom, in her inexperience of business, and +long retirement from society and the world, the intimation had made as +deep an impression as if it had not been the necessary consequence of +the petition which she had presented to the king by Monna Paula. George +Heriot gently blamed her for taking any steps in an affair so important +until his return from France, especially as he had requested her +to remain quiet, in a letter which accompanied the evidence he had +transmitted to her from Paris. She could only plead in answer the +influence which her immediately stirring in the matter was likely to +have on the affair of her kinsman Lord Glenvarloch, for she was ashamed +to acknowledge how much she had been gained on by the eager importunity +of her youthful companion. The motive of Margaret's eagerness was, of +course, the safety of Nigel; but we must leave it to time to show in +what particulars that came to be connected with the petition of the +Lady Hermione. Meanwhile, we return to the visit with which Sir Mungo +Malagrowther favoured the afflicted young nobleman in his place of +captivity. + +The Knight, after the usual salutations, and having prefaced his +discourse with a great deal of professed regret for Nigel's situation, +sat down beside him, and composing his grotesque features into the most +lugubrious despondence, began his raven song as follows:-- + +"I bless God, my lord, that I was the person who had the pleasure to +bring his Majesty's mild message to the Lieutenant, discharging the +higher prosecution against ye, for any thing meditated against his +Majesty's sacred person; for, admit you be prosecuted on the lesser +offence, or breach of privilege of the Palace and its precincts, _usque +ad mutilationem_, even to dismemberation, as it is most likely you will, +yet the loss of a member is nothing to being hanged and drawn quick, +after the fashion of a traitor." + +"I should feel the shame of having deserved such a punishment," answered +Nigel, "more than the pain of undergoing it." + +"Doubtless, my lord, the having, as you say, deserved it, must be an +excruciation to your own mind," replied his tormentor; "a kind of mental +and metaphysical hanging, drawing, and quartering, which may be in some +measure equipollent with the external application of hemp, iron, fire, +and the like, to the outer man." + +"I say, Sir Mungo," repeated Nigel, "and beg you to understand my words, +that I am unconscious of any error, save that of having arms on my +person when I chanced to approach that of my Sovereign." + +"Ye are right, my lord, to acknowledge nothing," said Sir Mungo. "We +have an old proverb,--Confess, and--so forth. And indeed, as to the +weapons, his Majesty has a special ill-will at all arms whatsoever, and +more especially pistols; but, as I said, there is an end of that matter. +[Footnote: Wilson informs us that when Colonel Grey, a Scotsman who +affected the buff dress even in the time of peace, appeared in that +military garb at Court, the king, seeing him with a case of pistols at +his girdle, which he never greatly liked, told him, merrily, "he was +now so fortified, that, if he were but well victualled, he would be +impregnable."--WILSON'S _Life and Reign of James VI._, _apud_ KENNET'S +_History of England_, vol. ii. p. 389. In 1612, the tenth year +of James's reign, there was a rumour abroad that a shipload of +pocket-pistols had been exported from Spain, with a view to a general +massacre of the Protestants. Proclamations were of consequence sent +forth, prohibiting all persons from carrying pistols under a foot long +in the barrel. _Ibid_. p. 690.] I wish you as well through the next, +which is altogether unlikely." + +"Surely, Sir Mungo," answered Nigel, "you yourself might say something +in my favour concerning the affair in the Park. None knows better +than you that I was at that moment urged by wrongs of the most heinous +nature, offered to me by Lord Dalgarno, many of which were reported to +me by yourself, much to the inflammation of my passion." + +"Alack-a-day!-Alack-a-day!" replied Sir Mungo, "I remember but too well +how much your choler was inflamed, in spite of the various remonstrances +which I made to you respecting the sacred nature of the place. Alas! +alas! you cannot say you leaped into the mire for want of warning." + +"I see, Sir Mungo, you are determined to remember nothing which can do +me service," said Nigel. + +"Blithely would I do ye service," said the Knight; "and the best whilk I +can think of is, to tell you the process of the punishment to the whilk +you will be indubitably subjected, I having had the good fortune to +behold it performed in the Queen's time, on a chield that had written +a pasquinado. I was then in my Lord Gray's train, who lay leaguer here, +and being always covetous of pleasing and profitable sights, I could not +dispense with being present on the occasion." + +"I should be surprised, indeed," said Lord Glenvarloch, "if you had so +far put restraint upon your benevolence, as to stay away from such an +exhibition." + +"Hey! was your lordship praying me to be present at your own execution?" +answered the Knight. "Troth, my lord, it will be a painful sight to a +friend, but I will rather punish myself than baulk you. It is a pretty +pageant, in the main--a very pretty pageant. The fallow came on with +such a bold face, it was a pleasure to look on him. He was dressed all +in white, to signify harmlessness and innocence. The thing was done on a +scaffold at Westminster--most likely yours will be at the Charing. There +were the Sheriffs and the Marshal's men, and what not--the executioner, +with his cleaver and mallet, and his man, with a pan of hot charcoal, +and the irons for cautery. He was a dexterous fallow that Derrick. This +man Gregory is not fit to jipper a joint with him; it might be worth +your lordship's while to have the loon sent to a barber-surgeon's, to +learn some needful scantling of anatomy--it may be for the benefit of +yourself and other unhappy sufferers, and also a kindness to Gregory." + +"I will not take the trouble," said Nigel.--"If the laws will demand my +hand, the executioner may get it off as he best can. If the king leaves +it where it is, it may chance to do him better service." + +"Vera noble--vera grand, indeed, my lord," said Sir Mungo; "it is +pleasant to see a brave man suffer. This fallow whom I spoke of--This +Tubbs, or Stubbs, or whatever the plebeian was called, came forward as +bold as an emperor, and said to the people, 'Good friends, I come +to leave here the hand of a true Englishman,' and clapped it on +the dressing-block with as much ease as if he had laid it on his +sweetheart's shoulder; whereupon Derrick the hangman, adjusting, d'ye +mind me, the edge of his cleaver on the very joint, hit it with the +mallet with such force, that the hand flew off as far from the owner as +a gauntlet which the challenger casts down in the tilt-yard. Well, sir, +Stubbs, or Tubbs, lost no whit of countenance, until the fallow clapped +the hissing-hot iron on his raw stump. My lord, it fizzed like a rasher +of bacon, and the fallow set up an elritch screech, which made some +think his courage was abated; but not a whit, for he plucked off his +hat with his left hand, and waved it, crying, 'God save the Queen, and +confound all evil counsellors!' The people gave him three cheers, which +he deserved for his stout heart; and, truly, I hope to see your lordship +suffer with the same magnanimity." + +"I thank you, Sir Mungo," said Nigel, who had not been able to forbear +some natural feelings of an unpleasant nature during this lively +detail,--"I have no doubt the exhibition will be a very engaging one +to you and the other spectators, whatever it may prove to the party +principally concerned." + +"Vera engaging," answered Sir Mungo, "vera interesting--vera interesting +indeed, though not altogether so much so as an execution for high +treason. I saw Digby, the Winters, Fawkes, and the rest of the gunpowder +gang, suffer for that treason, whilk was a vera grand spectacle, as well +in regard to their sufferings, as to their constancy in enduring." + +"I am the more obliged to your goodness, Sir Mungo," replied Nigel, +"that has induced you, although you have lost the sight, to congratulate +me on my escape from the hazard of making the same edifying appearance." + +"As you say, my lord," answered Sir Mungo, "the loss is chiefly +in appearance. Nature has been very bountiful to us, and has given +duplicates of some organs, that we may endure the loss of one of them, +should some such circumstance chance in our pilgrimage. See my poor +dexter, abridged to one thumb, one finger, and a stump,--by the blow of +my adversary's weapon, however, and not by any carnificial knife. Weel, +sir, this poor maimed hand doth me, in some sort, as much service as +ever; and, admit yours to be taken off by the wrist, you have still your +left hand for your service, and are better off than the little Dutch +dwarf here about town, who threads a needle, limns, writes, and tosses a +pike, merely by means of his feet, without ever a hand to help him." + +"Well, Sir Mungo," said Lord Glenvarloch, "this is all no doubt very +consolatory; but I hope the king will spare my hand to fight for him +in battle, where, notwithstanding all your kind encouragement, I could +spend my blood much more cheerfully than on a scaffold." + +"It is even a sad truth," replied Sir Mungo, "that your lordship was +but too like to have died on a scaffold--not a soul to speak for you but +that deluded lassie Maggie Ramsay." + +"Whom mean you?" said Nigel, with more interest than he had hitherto +shown in the Knight's communications. + +"Nay, who should I mean, but that travestied lassie whom we dined with +when we honoured Heriot the goldsmith? Ye ken best how you have made +interest with her, but I saw her on her knees to the king for you. She +was committed to my charge, to bring her up hither in honour and safety. +Had I had my own will, I would have had her to Bridewell, to flog the +wild blood out of her--a cutty quean, to think of wearing the breeches, +and not so much as married yet!" + +"Hark ye, Sir Mungo Malagrowther," answered Nigel, "I would have you +talk of that young person with fitting respect." + +"With all the respect that befits your lordship's paramour, and Davy +Ramsay's daughter, I shall certainly speak of her, my lord," said Sir +Mungo, assuming a dry tone of irony. + +Nigel was greatly disposed to have made a serious quarrel of it, but +with Sir Mungo such an affair would have been ridiculous; he smothered +his resentment, therefore, and conjured him to tell what he had heard +and seen respecting this young person. + +"Simply, that I was in the ante-room when she had audience, and heard +the king say, to my great perplexity, '_Pulchra sane puella;_' and +Maxwell, who hath but indifferent Latin ears, thought that his Majesty +called on him by his own name of Sawney, and thrust into the presence, +and there I saw our Sovereign James, with his own hand, raising up the +lassie, who, as I said heretofore, was travestied in man's attire. I +should have had my own thoughts of it, but our gracious Master is auld, +and was nae great gillravager amang the queans even in his youth; and +he was comforting her in his own way and saying,--'Ye needna greet about +it, my bonnie woman, Glenvarlochides shall have fair play; and, indeed, +when the hurry was off our spirits, we could not believe that he had +any design on our person. And touching his other offences, we will look +wisely and closely into the matter.' So I got charge to take the young +fence-louper to the Tower here, and deliver her to the charge of Lady +Mansel; and his Majesty charged me to say not a word to her about your +offences, for, said he, the poor thing is breaking her heart for him." + +"And on this you have charitably founded the opinion to the prejudice +of this young lady, which you have now thought proper to express?" said +Lord Glenvarloch. + +"In honest truth, my lord," replied Sir Mungo, "what opinion would you +have me form of a wench who gets into male habiliments, and goes on +her knees to the king for a wild young nobleman? I wot not what the +fashionable word may be, for the phrase changes, though the custom +abides. But truly I must needs think this young leddy--if you call +Watchie Ramsay's daughter a young leddy--demeans herself more like a +leddy of pleasure than a leddy of honour." + +"You do her egregious wrong, Sir Mungo," said Nigel; "or rather you have +been misled by appearances." + +"So will all the world be misled, my lord," replied the satirist, +"unless you were doing that to disabuse them which your father's son +will hardly judge it fit to do." + +"And what may that be, I pray you?" + +"E'en marry the lass--make her Leddy Glenvarloch.--Ay, ay, ye may +start--but it's the course you are driving on. Rather marry than do +worse, if the worst be not done already." + +"Sir Mungo," said Nigel, "I pray you to forbear this subject, and rather +return to that of the mutilation, upon which it pleased you to enlarge a +short while since." + +"I have not time at present," said Sir Mungo, hearing the clock strike +four; "but so soon as you shall have received sentence, my lord, you may +rely on my giving you the fullest detail of the whole solemnity; and I +give you my word, as a knight and a gentleman, that I will myself attend +you on the scaffold, whoever may cast sour looks on me for doing so. I +bear a heart, to stand by a friend in the worst of times." + +So saying, he wished Lord Glenvarloch farewell; who felt as heartily +rejoiced at his departure, though it may be a bold word, as any person +who had ever undergone his society. + +But, when left to his own reflections, Nigel could not help feeling +solitude nearly as irksome as the company of Sir Mungo Malagrowther. The +total wreck of his fortune,--which seemed now to be rendered unavoidable +by the loss of the royal warrant, that had afforded him the means of +redeeming his paternal estate,--was an unexpected and additional blow. +When he had seen the warrant he could not precisely remember; but was +inclined to think, it was in the casket when he took out money to pay +the miser for his lodgings at Whitefriars. Since then, the casket had +been almost constantly under his own eye, except during the short time +he was separated from his baggage by the arrest in Greenwich Park. It +might, indeed, have been taken out at that time, for he had no reason +to think either his person or his property was in the hands of those who +wished him well; but, on the other hand, the locks of the strong-box had +sustained no violence that he could observe, and, being of a particular +and complicated construction, he thought they could scarce be opened +without an instrument made on purpose, adapted to their peculiarities, +and for this there had been no time. But, speculate as he would on the +matter, it was clear that this important document was gone, and probable +that it had passed into no friendly hands. "Let it be so," said Nigel +to himself; "I am scarcely worse off respecting my prospects of fortune, +than when I first reached this accursed city. But to be hampered with +cruel accusations, and stained with foul suspicions-to be the object +of pity of the most degrading kind to yonder honest citizen, and of the +malignity of that envious and atrabilarious courtier, who can endure +the good fortune and good qualities of another no more than the mole +can brook sunshine--this is indeed a deplorable reflection; and the +consequences must stick to my future life, and impede whatever my head, +or my hand, if it is left me, might be able to execute in my favour." + +The feeling, that he is the object of general dislike and dereliction, +seems to be one of the most unendurably painful to which a human being +can be subjected. The most atrocious criminals, whose nerves have not +shrunk from perpetrating the most horrid cruelty, endure more from the +consciousness that no man will sympathise with their sufferings, than +from apprehension of the personal agony of their impending punishment; +and are known often to attempt to palliate their enormities, and +sometimes altogether to deny what is established by the clearest proof, +rather than to leave life under the general ban of humanity. It was no +wonder that Nigel, labouring under the sense of general, though unjust +suspicion, should, while pondering on so painful a theme, recollect that +one, at least, had not only believed him innocent, but hazarded herself, +with all her feeble power, to interpose in his behalf. + +"Poor girl!" he repeated; "poor, rash, but generous maiden! your fate is +that of her in Scottish story, who thrust her arm into the staple of +the door, to oppose it as a bar against the assassins who threatened the +murder of her sovereign. The deed of devotion was useless; save to give +an immortal name to her by whom it was done, and whose blood flows, it +is said, in the veins of my house." + +I cannot explain to the reader, whether the recollection of this +historical deed of devotion, and the lively effect which the comparison, +a little overstrained perhaps, was likely to produce in favour of +Margaret Ramsay, was not qualified by the concomitant ideas of ancestry +and ancient descent with which that recollection was mingled. But the +contending feelings suggested a new train of ideas.--"Ancestry," he +thought, "and ancient descent, what are they to me?--My patrimony +alienated--my title become a reproach--for what can be so absurd as +titled beggary?--my character subjected to suspicion,--I will not remain +in this country; and should I, at leaving it, procure the society of one +so lovely, so brave, and so faithful, who should say that I derogated +from the rank which I am virtually renouncing?" + +There was something romantic and pleasing, as he pursued this picture of +an attached and faithful pair, becoming all the world to each other, +and stemming the tide of fate arm in arm; and to be linked thus with a +creature so beautiful, and who had taken such devoted and disinterested +concern in his fortunes, formed itself into such a vision as romantic +youth loves best to dwell upon. + +Suddenly his dream was painfully dispelled, by the recollection, that +its very basis rested upon the most selfish ingratitude on his own part. +Lord of his castle and his towers, his forests and fields, his fair +patrimony and noble name, his mind would have rejected, as a sort of +impossibility, the idea of elevating to his rank the daughter of a +mechanic; but, when degraded from his nobility, and plunged into poverty +and difficulties, he was ashamed to feel himself not unwilling, that +this poor girl, in the blindness of her affection, should abandon +all the better prospects of her own settled condition, to embrace the +precarious and doubtful course which he himself was condemned to. The +generosity of Nigel's mind recoiled from the selfishness of the plan of +happiness which he projected; and he made a strong effort to expel from +his thoughts for the rest of the evening this fascinating female, or, at +least, not to permit them to dwell upon the perilous circumstance, that +she was at present the only creature living who seemed to consider him +as an object of kindness. + +He could not, however, succeed in banishing her from his slumbers, when, +after having spent a weary day, he betook himself to a perturbed couch. +The form of Margaret mingled with the wild mass of dreams which his late +adventures had suggested; and even when, copying the lively narrative of +Sir Mungo, fancy presented to him the blood bubbling and hissing on +the heated iron, Margaret stood behind him like a spirit of light, to +breathe healing on the wound. At length nature was exhausted by these +fantastic creations, and Nigel slept, and slept soundly, until awakened +in the morning by the sound of a well-known voice, which had often +broken his slumbers about the same hour. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + + Many, come up, sir, with your gentle blood! + Here's a red stream beneath this coarse blue doublet, + That warms the heart as kindly as if drawn + From the far source of old Assyrian kings. + Who first made mankind subject to their sway. + _Old Play_. + +The sounds to which we alluded in our last, were no other than the +grumbling tones of Richie Moniplies's voice. + +This worthy, like some other persons who rank high in their own opinion, +was very apt, when he could have no other auditor, to hold conversation +with one who was sure to be a willing listener--I mean with himself. He +was now brushing and arranging Lord Glenvarloch's clothes, with as +much composure and quiet assiduity as if he had never been out of +his service, and grumbling betwixt whiles to the following +purpose:--"Hump--ay, time cloak and jerkin were through my hands--I +question if horsehair has been passed over them since they and I last +parted. The embroidery finely frayed too--and the gold buttons of the +cloak--By my conscience, and as I am an honest man, there is a round +dozen of them gane! This comes of Alsatian frolics--God keep us with +his grace, and not give us over to our own devices!--I see no sword--but +that will be in respect of present circumstances." + +Nigel for some time could not help believing that he was still in a +dream, so improbable did it seem that his domestic, whom he supposed to +be in Scotland, should have found him out, and obtained access to him, +in his present circumstances. Looking through the curtains, however, +he became well assured of the fact, when he beheld the stiff and bony +length of Richie, with a visage charged with nearly double its ordinary +degree of importance, employed sedulously in brushing his master's +cloak, and refreshing himself with whistling or humming, from interval +to interval, some snatch of an old melancholy Scottish ballad-tune. +Although sufficiently convinced of the identity of the party, Lord +Glenvarloch could not help expressing his surprise in the superfluous +question--"In the name of Heaven, Richie, is this you?" + +"And wha else suld it be, my lord?" answered Richie; "I dreamna that +your lordship's levee in this place is like to be attended by ony that +are not bounded thereto by duty." + +"I am rather surprised," answered Nigel, "that it should be attended by +any one at all--especially by you, Richie; for you know that we parted, +and I thought you had reached Scotland long since." + +"I crave your lordship's pardon, but we have not parted yet, nor are +soon likely so to do; for there gang twa folk's votes to the unmaking +of a bargain, as to the making of ane. Though it was your lordship's +pleasure so to conduct yourself that we were like to have parted, yet +it was not, on reflection, my will to be gone. To be plain, if your +lordship does not ken when you have a good servant, I ken when I have a +kind master; and to say truth, you will be easier served now than ever, +for there is not much chance of your getting out of bounds." + +"I am indeed bound over to good behaviour," said Lord Glenvarloch, with +a smile; "but I hope you will not take advantage of my situation to be +too severe on my follies, Richie?" + +"God forbid, my lord--God forbid!" replied Richie, with an expression +betwixt a conceited consciousness of superior wisdom and real +feeling--"especially in consideration of your lordship's having a due +sense of them. I did indeed remonstrate, as was my humble duty, but +I scorn to cast that up to your lordship now--Na, na, I am myself an +erring creature--very conscious of some small weaknesses--there is no +perfection in man." + +"But, Richie," said Lord Glenvarloch, "although I am much obliged to you +for your proffered service, it can be of little use to me here, and may +be of prejudice to yourself." + +"Your lordship shall pardon me again," said Richie, whom the relative +situation of the parties had invested with ten times his ordinary +dogmatism; "but as I will manage the matter, your lordship shall be +greatly benefited by my service, and I myself no whit prejudiced." + +"I see not how that can be, my friend," said Lord Glenvarloch, "since +even as to your pecuniary affairs--" + +"Touching my pecuniars, my lord," replied Richie, "I am indifferently +weel provided; and, as it chances, my living here will be no burden to +your lordship, or distress to myself. Only I crave permission to annex +certain conditions to my servitude with your lordship." + +"Annex what you will," said Lord Glenvarloch, "for you are pretty sure +to take your own way, whether you make any conditions or not. Since you +will not leave me, which were, I think, your wisest course, you must, +and I suppose will, serve me only on such terms as you like yourself." + +"All that I ask, my lord," said Richie, gravely, and with a tone of +great moderation, "is to have the uninterrupted command of my own +motions, for certain important purposes which I have now in hand, always +giving your lordship the solace of my company and attendance, at such +times as may be at once convenient for me, and necessary for your +service." + +"Of which, I suppose, you constitute yourself sole judge," replied +Nigel, smiling. + +"Unquestionably, my lord," answered Richie, gravely; "for your lordship +can only know what yourself want; whereas I, who see both sides of the +picture, ken both what is the best for your affairs, and what is the +most needful for my own." + +"Richie, my good friend," said Nigel, "I fear this arrangement, which +places the master much under the disposal of the servant, would scarce +suit us if we were both at large; but a prisoner as I am, I may be as +well at your disposal as I am at that of so many other persons; and +so you may come and go as you list, for I suppose you will not take my +advice, to return to your own country, and leave me to my fate." + +"The deil be in my feet if I do," said Moniplies,--"I am not the lad to +leave your lordship in foul weather, when I followed you and fed upon +you through the whole summer day, And besides, there may be brave days +behind, for a' that has come and gane yet; for + +"It's hame, and it's hame, and it's hame we fain would be, Though the +cloud is in the lift, and the wind is on the lea; For the sun through +the mirk blinks blithe on mine ee, Says,--'I'll shine on ye yet in our +ain country!" + +Having sung this stanza in the manner of a ballad-singer, whose voice +has been cracked by matching his windpipe against the bugle of the north +blast, Richie Moniplies aided Lord Glenvarloch to rise, attended his +toilet with every possible mark of the most solemn and deferential +respect, then waited upon him at breakfast, and finally withdrew, +pleading that he had business of importance, which would detain him for +some hours. + +Although Lord Glenvarloch necessarily expected to be occasionally +annoyed by the self-conceit and dogmatism of Richie Moniplies's +character, yet he could not but feel the greatest pleasure from the firm +and devoted attachment which this faithful follower had displayed in +the present instance, and indeed promised himself an alleviation of the +ennui of his imprisonment, in having the advantage of his services. It +was, therefore, with pleasure that he learned from the warder, that +his servant's attendance would be allowed at all times when the general +rules of the fortress permitted the entrance of strangers. + +In the meanwhile, the magnanimous Richie Moniplies had already reached +Tower Wharf. Here, after looking with contempt on several scullers by +whom he was plied, and whose services he rejected with a wave of his +hand, he called with dignity, "First oars!" and stirred into activity +several lounging Tritons of the higher order, who had not, on his +first appearance, thought it worth while to accost him with proffers of +service. He now took possession of a wherry, folded his arms within his +ample cloak, and sitting down in the stern with an air of importance, +commanded them to row to Whitehall Stairs. Having reached the Palace +in safety, he demanded to see Master Linklater, the under-clerk of his +Majesty's kitchen. The reply was, that he was not to be spoken withal, +being then employed in cooking a mess of cock-a-leekie for the king's +own mouth. + +"Tell him," said Moniplies, "that it is a dear countryman of his, who +seeks to converse with him on matter of high import." + +"A dear countryman?" said Linklater, when this pressing message was +delivered to him. "Well, let him come in and be d--d, that I should say +sae! This now is some red-headed, long-legged, gillie-white-foot +frae the West Port, that, hearing of my promotion, is come up to be +a turn-broche, or deputy scullion, through my interest. It is a great +hinderance to any man who would rise in the world, to have such friends +to hang by his skirts, in hope of being towed up along with him.--Ha! +Richie Moniplies, man, is it thou? And what has brought ye here? If they +should ken thee for the loon that scared the horse the other day!--" + +"No more o' that, neighbour," said Richie,--"I am just here on the auld +errand--I maun speak with the king." + +"The king? Ye are red wud," said Linklater; then shouted to his +assistant in the kitchen, "Look to the broches, ye knaves--_pisces +purga_--_Salsamenta fac macerentur pulchre_--I will make you understand +Latin, ye knaves, as becomes the scullions of King James." Then in a +cautious tone, to Richie's private ear, he continued, "Know ye not how +ill your master came off the other day?--I can tell you that job made +some folk shake for their office." + +"Weel, but, Laurie, ye maun befriend me this time, and get this wee +bit sifflication slipped into his Majesty's ain most gracious hand. I +promise you the contents will be most grateful to him." + +"Richie," answered Linklater, "you have certainly sworn to say your +prayers in the porter's lodge, with your back bare; and twa grooms, with +dog-whips, to cry amen to you." + +"Na, na, Laurie, lad," said Richie, "I ken better what belangs to +sifflications than I did yon day; and ye will say that yoursell, if ye +will but get that bit note to the king's hand." + +"I will have neither hand nor foot in the matter," said the cautious +Clerk of the Kitchen; "but there is his Majesty's mess of cock-a-leekie +just going to be served to him in his closet--I cannot prevent you from +putting the letter between the gilt bowl and the platter; his sacred +Majesty will see it when he lifts the bowl, for he aye drinks out the +broth." + +"Enough said," replied Richie, and deposited the paper accordingly, just +before a page entered to carry away the mess to his Majesty. + +"Aweel, aweel, neighbour," said Laurence, when the mess was taken +away, "if ye have done ony thing to bring yoursell to the withy, or the +scourging post, it is your ain wilful deed." + +"I will blame no other for it," said Richie; and with that undismayed +pertinacity of conceit, which made a fundamental part of his character, +he abode the issue, which was not long of arriving. + +In a few minutes Maxwell himself arrived in the apartment, and demanded +hastily who had placed a writing on the king's trencher, Linklater +denied all knowledge of it; but Richie Moniplies, stepping boldly forth, +pronounced the emphatical confession, "I am the man." + +"Follow me, then," said Maxwell, after regarding him with a look of +great curiosity. + +They went up a private staircase,--even that private staircase, the +privilege of which at Court is accounted a nearer road to power than the +_grandes entrees_ themselves. Arriving in what Richie described as an +"ill redd-up" ante-room, the usher made a sign to him to stop, while he +went into the king's closet. Their conference was short, and as Maxwell +opened the door to retire, Richie heard the conclusion of it. + +"Ye are sure he is not dangerous?--I was caught once.--Bide within call, +but not nearer the door than within three geometrical cubits. If I speak +loud, start to me like a falcon--If I speak loun, keep your lang lugs +out of ear-shot--and now let him come in." + +Richie passed forward at Maxwell's mute signal, and in a moment found +himself in the presence of the king. Most men of Richie's birth and +breeding, and many others, would have been abashed at finding themselves +alone with their Sovereign. But Richie Moniplies had an opinion of +himself too high to be controlled by any such ideas; and having made his +stiff reverence, he arose once more into his perpendicular height, and +stood before James as stiff as a hedge-stake. + +"Have ye gotten them, man? have ye gotten them?" said the king, in +a fluttered state, betwixt hope and eagerness, and some touch of +suspicious fear. "Gie me them--gie me them--before ye speak a word, I +charge you, on your allegiance." + +Richie took a box from his bosom, and, stooping on one knee, presented +it to his Majesty, who hastily opened it, and having ascertained that +it contained a certain carcanet of rubies, with which the reader was +formerly made acquainted, he could not resist falling into a sort of +rapture, kissing the gems, as if they had been capable of feeling, +and repeating again and again with childish delight, "_Onyx cum prole, +silexque_---_Onyx cum prole!_ Ah, my bright and bonny sparklers, my +heart loups light to see you again." He then turned to Richie, upon +whose stoical countenance his Majesty's demeanour had excited something +like a grim smile, which James interrupted his rejoicing to reprehend, +saying, "Take heed, sir, you are not to laugh at us--we are your +anointed Sovereign." + +"God forbid that I should laugh!" said Richie, composing his countenance +into its natural rigidity. "I did but smile, to bring my visage into +coincidence and conformity with your Majesty's physiognomy." + +"Ye speak as a dutiful subject, and an honest man," said the king; "but +what deil's your name, man?" + +"Even Richie Moniplies, the son of auld Mungo Moniplies, at the West +Port of Edinburgh, who had the honour to supply your Majesty's mother's +royal table, as weel as your Majesty's, with flesh and other vivers, +when time was." + +"Aha!" said the king, laughing,--for he possessed, as a useful attribute +of his situation, a tenacious memory, which recollected every one with +whom he was brought into casual contact,--"Ye are the self-same traitor +who had weelnigh coupit us endlang on the causey of our ain courtyard? +but we stuck by our mare. _Equam memento rebus in arduis servare_. Weel, +be not dismayed, Richie; for, as many men have turned traitors, it +is but fair that a traitor, now and then, suld prove to be, contra +expectanda, a true man. How cam ye by our jewels, man?--cam ye on the +part of George Heriot?" + +"In no sort," said Richie. "May it please your Majesty, I come as +Harry Wynd fought, utterly for my own hand, and on no man's errand; as, +indeed, I call no one master, save Him that made me, your most +gracious Majesty who governs me, and the noble Nigel Olifaunt, Lord of +Glenvarloch, who maintained me as lang as he could maintain himself, +poor nobleman!" + +"Glenvarlochides again!" exclaimed the king; "by my honour, he lies in +ambush for us at every corner!--Maxwell knocks at the door. It is George +Heriot come to tell us he cannot find these jewels.--Get thee behind +the arras, Richie--stand close, man--sneeze not--cough not--breathe +not!--Jingling Geordie is so damnably ready with his gold-ends of +wisdom, and sae accursedly backward with his gold-ends of siller, that, +by our royal saul, we are glad to get a hair in his neck." + +Richie got behind the arras, in obedience to the commands of the +good-natured king, while the Monarch, who never allowed his dignity to +stand in the way of a frolic, having adjusted, with his own hand, the +tapestry, so as to complete the ambush, commanded Maxwell to tell him +what was the matter without. Maxwell's reply was so low as to be lost by +Richie Moniplies, the peculiarity of whose situation by no means abated +his curiosity and desire to gratify it to the uttermost. + +"Let Geordie Heriot come in," said the king; and, as Richie could +observe through a slit in the tapestry, the honest citizen, if not +actually agitated, was at least discomposed. The king, whose talent for +wit, or humour, was precisely of a kind to be gratified by such a scene +as ensued, received his homage with coldness, and began to talk to him +with an air of serious dignity, very different from the usual indecorous +levity of his behaviour. "Master Heriot," he said, "if we aright +remember, we opignorated in your hands certain jewels of the Crown, for +a certain sum of money--Did we, or did we not?" + +"My most gracious Sovereign," said Heriot, "indisputably your Majesty +was pleased to do so." + +"The property of which jewels and _cimelia_ remained with us," continued +the king, in the same solemn tone, "subject only to your claim of +advance thereupon; which advance being repaid, gives us right to +repossession of the thing opignorated, or pledged, or laid in wad. +Voetius, Vinnius, Groenwigeneus, Pagenstecherus,--all who have treated +_de Contractu Opignerationis, consentiunt in eundem_,--gree on the same +point. The Roman law, the English common law, and the municipal law +of our ain ancient kingdom of Scotland, though they split in mair +particulars than I could desire, unite as strictly in this as the three +strands of a twisted rope." + +"May it please your Majesty," replied Heriot, "it requires not so many +learned authorities to prove to any honest man, that his interest in a +pledge is determined when the money lent is restored." + +"Weel, sir, I proffer restoration of the sum lent, and I demand to be +repossessed of the jewels pledged with you. I gave ye a hint, brief +while since, that this would be essential to my service, for, as +approaching events are like to call us into public, it would seem +strange if we did not appear with those ornaments, which are heirlooms +of the Crown, and the absence whereof is like to place us in contempt +and suspicion with our liege subjects." + +Master George Heriot seemed much moved by this address of his Sovereign, +and replied with emotion, "I call Heaven to witness, that I am totally +harmless in this matter, and that I would willingly lose the sum +advanced, so that I could restore those jewels, the absence of which +your Majesty so justly laments. Had the jewels remained with me, the +account of them would be easily rendered; but your Majesty will do me +the justice to remember, that, by your express order, I transferred them +to another person, who advanced a large sum, just about the time of my +departure for Paris. The money was pressingly wanted, and no other means +to come by it occurred to me. I told your Majesty, when I brought the +needful supply, that the man from whom the monies were obtained, was +of no good repute; and your most princely answer was, smelling to the +gold--_Non olet_, it smells not of the means that have gotten it." + +"Weel, man," said the king, "but what needs a' this din? If ye gave my +jewels in pledge to such a one, suld ye not, as a liege subject, have +taken care that the redemption was in our power? And are we to suffer +the loss of our _cimelia_ by your neglect, besides being exposed to the +scorn and censure of our lieges, and of the foreign ambassadors?" + +"My lord and liege king," said Heriot, "God knows, if my bearing blame +or shame in this matter would keep it from your Majesty, it were my duty +to endure both, as a servant grateful for many benefits; but when +your Majesty considers the violent death of the man himself, the +disappearance of his daughter, and of his wealth, I trust you will +remember that I warned your Majesty, in humble duty, of the possibility +of such casualties, and prayed you not to urge me to deal with him on +your behalf." + +"But you brought me nae better means," said the king--"Geordie, ye +brought me nae better means. I was like a deserted man; what could I do +but grip to the first siller that offered, as a drowning man grasps to +the willow-wand that comes readiest?--And now, man, what for have ye not +brought back the jewels? they are surely above ground, if ye wad make +strict search." + +"All strict search has been made, may it please your Majesty," replied +the citizen; "hue and cry has been sent out everywhere, and it has been +found impossible to recover them." + +"Difficult, ye mean, Geordie, not impossible," replied the king; "for +that whilk is impossible, is either naturally so, _exempli gratia_, to +make two into three; or morally so, as to make what is truth falsehood; +but what is only difficult may come to pass, with assistance of wisdom +and patience; as, for example, Jingling Geordie, look here!" And he +displayed the recovered treasure to the eyes of the astonished jeweller, +exclaiming, with great triumph, "What say ye to that, Jingler?--By my +sceptre and crown, the man stares as if he took his native prince for a +warlock! us that are the very _malleus maleficarum_, the contunding +and contriturating hammer of all witches, sorcerers, magicians, and the +like; he thinks we are taking a touch of the black art outsells!--But +gang thy way, honest Geordie; thou art a good plain man, but nane of the +seven sages of Greece; gang thy way, and mind the soothfast word which +you spoke, small time syne, that there is one in this land that comes +near to Solomon, King of Israel, in all his gifts, except in his love to +strange women, forby the daughter of Pharaoh." + +If Heriot was surprised at seeing the jewels so unexpectedly produced +at the moment the king was upbraiding him for the loss of them, this +allusion to the reflection which had escaped him while conversing with +Lord Glenvarloch, altogether completed his astonishment; and the king +was so delighted with the superiority which it gave him at the moment, +that he rubbed his hands, chuckled, and finally, his sense of dignity +giving way to the full feeling of triumph, he threw himself into his +easy-chair, and laughed with unconstrained violence till he lost his +breath, and the tears ran plentifully down his cheeks as he strove +to recover it. Meanwhile, the royal cachinnation was echoed out by a +discordant and portentous laugh from behind the arras, like that of one +who, little accustomed to give way to such emotions, feels himself +at some particular impulse unable either to control or to modify his +obstreperous mirth. Heriot turned his head with new surprise towards the +place, from which sounds so unfitting the presence of a monarch seemed +to burst with such emphatic clamour. + +The king, too, somewhat sensible of the indecorum, rose up, wiped his +eyes, and calling,--"Todlowrie, come out o' your den," he produced from +behind the arras the length of Richie Moniplies, still laughing with as +unrestrained mirth as ever did gossip at a country christening. "Whisht, +man, whisht, man," said the king; "ye needna nicher that gait, like a +cusser at a caup o' corn, e'en though it was a pleasing jest, and our +ain framing. And yet to see Jingling Geordie, that bauds himself so +much the wiser than other folk--to see him, ha! ha! ha!--in the vein of +Euclio apud Plautum, distressing himself to recover what was lying at +his elbow--'Peril, interii, occidi--quo curram? quo non curram?--Tene, +tene--quem? quis? nescio--nihil video." + +"Ah! Geordie, your een are sharp enough to look after gowd and silver, +gems, rubies, and the like of that, and yet ye kenna how to come by them +when they are lost.--Ay, ay--look at them, man--look at them--they are +a' right and tight, sound and round, not a doublet crept in amongst +them." + +George Heriot, when his first surprise was over, was too old a courtier +to interrupt the king's imaginary triumph, although he darted a look +of some displeasure at honest Richie, who still continued on what is +usually termed the broad grin. He quietly examined the stones, and +finding them all perfect, he honestly and sincerely congratulated his +Majesty on the recovery of a treasure which could not have been lost +without some dishonour to the crown; and asked to whom he himself was to +pay the sums for which they had been pledged, observing, that he had the +money by him in readiness. + +"Ye are in a deevil of a hurry, when there is paying in the case, +Geordie," said the king.--"What's a' the haste, man? The jewels were +restored by an honest, kindly countryman of ours. There he stands, and +wha kens if he wants the money on the nail, or if he might not be as +weel pleased wi' a bit rescript on our treasury some six months hence? +Ye ken that our Exchequer is even at a low ebb just now, and ye cry pay, +pay, pay, as if we had all the mines of Ophir." + +"Please your Majesty," said Heriot, "if this man has the real right to +these monies, it is doubtless at his will to grant forbearance, if he +will. But when I remember the guise in which I first saw him, with a +tattered cloak and a broken head, I can hardly conceive it.--Are not you +Richie Moniplies, with the king's favour?" + +"Even sae, Master Heriot--of the ancient and honourable house of Castle +Collop, near to the West Port of Edinburgh," answered Richie. + +"Why, please your Majesty, he is a poor serving-man," said Heriot. "This +money can never be honestly at his disposal." + +"What for no?" said the king. "Wad ye have naebody spraickle up the brae +but yoursell, Geordie? Your ain cloak was thin enough when ye cam here, +though ye have lined it gay and weel. And for serving-men, there has +mony a red-shank cam over the Tweed wi' his master's wallet on his +shoulders, that now rustles it wi' his six followers behind him. There +stands the man himsell; speer at him, Geordie." + +"His may not be the best authority in the case," answered the cautious +citizen. + +"Tut, tut, man," said the king, "ye are over scrupulous. The knave +deer-stealers have an apt phrase, _Non est inquirendum unde venit_ +VENISON. He that brings the gudes hath surely a right to dispose of +the gear.--Hark ye, friend, speak the truth and shame the deil. Have +ye plenary powers to dispose on the redemption-money as to delay of +payments, or the like, ay or no?" + +"Full power, an it like your gracious Majesty," answered Richie +Moniplies; "and I am maist willing to subscrive to whatsoever may in ony +wise accommodate your Majesty anent the redemption-money, trusting your +Majesty's grace will be kind to me in one sma' favour." + +"Ey, man," said the king, "come ye to me there? I thought ye wad e'en +be like the rest of them.--One would think our subjects' lives and goods +were all our ain, and holden of us at our free will; but when we stand +in need of ony matter of siller from them, which chances more frequently +than we would it did, deil a boddle is to be had, save on the auld terms +of giff-gaff. It is just niffer for niffer.--Aweel, neighbour, what +is it that ye want--some monopoly, I reckon? Or it may be a grant +of kirk-lands and teinds, or a knighthood, or the like? Ye maun be +reasonable, unless ye propose to advance more money for our present +occasions." + +"My liege," answered Richie Moniplies, "the owner of these monies places +them at your Majesty's command, free of all pledge or usage as long as +it is your royal pleasure, providing your Majesty will condescend to +show some favour to the noble Lord Glenvarloch, presently prisoner in +your royal Tower of London." + +"How, man--how,--man--how, man!" exclaimed the king, reddening and +stammering, but with emotions more noble than those by which he was +sometimes agitated--"What is that you dare to say to us?--Sell our +justice!--sell our mercy!--and we a crowned king, sworn to do justice +to our subjects in the gate, and responsible for our stewardship to +Him that is over all kings?"--Here he reverently looked up, touched his +bonnet, and continued, with some sharpness,--"We dare not traffic in +such commodities, sir; and, but that ye are a poor ignorant creature, +that have done us this day some not unpleasant service, we wad have a +red iron driven through your tongue, _in terrorem_ of others.--Awa with +him, Geordie,--pay him, plack and bawbee, out of our monies in your +hands, and let them care that come ahint." + +Richie, who had counted with the utmost certainty upon the success +of this master-stroke of policy, was like an architect whose whole +scaffolding at once gives way under him. He caught, however, at what +he thought might break his fall. "Not only the sum for which the jewels +were pledged," he said, "but the double of it, if required, should be +placed at his Majesty's command, and even without hope or condition of +repayment, if only--" + +But the king did not allow him to complete the sentence, crying out with +greater vehemence than before, as if he dreaded the stability of his own +good resolutions,--"Awa wi' him--swith awa wi' him! It is time he +were gane, if he doubles his bode that gate. And, for your life, letna +Steenie, or ony of them, hear a word from his mouth; for wha kens what +trouble that might bring me into! _Ne inducas in tentationem_--_Vade +retro, Sathanas!--Amen_." + +In obedience to the royal mandate, George Heriot hurried the abashed +petitioner out of the presence and out of the Palace; and, when they +were in the Palace-yard, the citizen, remembering with some resentment +the airs of equality which Richie had assumed towards him in the +commencement of the scene which had just taken place, could not forbear +to retaliate, by congratulating him with an ironical smile on his favour +at Court, and his improved grace in presenting a supplication. + +"Never fash your beard about that, Master George Heriot," said Richie, +totally undismayed; "but tell me when and where I am to sifflicate +you for eight hundred pounds sterling, for which these jewels stood +engaged?" + +"The instant that you bring with you the real owner of the money," +replied Heriot; "whom it is important that I should see on more accounts +than one." + +"Then will I back to his Majesty," said Richie Moniplies, stoutly, "and +get either the money or the pledge back again. I am fully commissionate +to act in that matter." + +"It may be so, Richie," said the citizen, "and perchance it may _not_ +be so neither, for your tales are not all gospel; and, therefore, be +assured I will see that it _is_ so, ere I pay you that large sum of +money. I shall give you an acknowledgment for it, and I will keep it +prestable at a moment's warning. But, my good Richard Moniplies, of +Castle Collop, near the West Port of Edinburgh, in the meantime I am +bound to return to his Majesty on matters of weight." So speaking, and +mounting the stair to re-enter the Palace, he added, by way of summing +up the whole,--"George Heriot is over old a cock to be caught with +chaff." + +Richie stood petrified when he beheld him re-enter the Palace, and found +himself, as he supposed, left in the lurch.--"Now, plague on ye," he +muttered, "for a cunning auld skinflint! that, because ye are an honest +man yoursell, forsooth, must needs deal with all the world as if they +were knaves. But deil be in me if ye beat me yet!--Gude guide us! +yonder comes Laurie Linklater next, and he will be on me about the +sifflication.--I winna stand him, by Saint Andrew!" + +So saying, and changing the haughty stride with which he had that +morning entered the precincts of the Palace, into a skulking shamble, he +retreated for his wherry, which was in attendance, with speed which, to +use the approved phrase on such occasions, greatly resembled a flight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +_Benedict_. This looks not like a nuptial. _Much Ado About Nothing._ + +Master George Heriot had no sooner returned to the king's apartment, +than James inquired of Maxwell if the Earl of Huntinglen was in +attendance, and, receiving an answer in the affirmative, desired that he +should be admitted. The old Scottish Lord having made his reverence +in the usual manner, the king extended his hand to be kissed, and then +began to address him in a tone of great sympathy. + +"We told your lordship in our secret epistle of this morning, written +with our ain hand, in testimony we have neither pretermitted nor +forgotten your faithful service, that we had that to communicate to you +that would require both patience and fortitude to endure, and therefore +exhorted you to peruse some of the most pithy passages of Seneca, and of +Boethius _de Consolatione_, that the back may be, as we say, fitted for +the burden--This we commend to you from our ain experience. + + 'Non ignara mail, miseris succurrere disco,' + +sayeth Dido, and I might say in my own person, _non ignarus_; but +to change the gender would affect the prosody, whereof our southern +subjects are tenacious. So, my Lord of Huntinglen, I trust you have +acted by our advice, and studied patience before ye need it--_venienti +occurrite morbo_--mix the medicament when the disease is coming on." + +"May it please your Majesty," answered Lord Huntinglen, "I am more of an +old soldier than a scholar--and if my own rough nature will not bear +me out in any calamity, I hope I shall have grace to try a text of +Scripture to boot." + +"Ay, man, are you there with your bears?" said the king; "The Bible, +man," (touching his cap,) "is indeed _principium et fons_--but it is +pity your lordship cannot peruse it in the original. For although we did +ourselves promote that work of translation,--since ye may read, at the +beginning of every Bible, that when some palpable clouds of darkness +were thought like to have overshadowed the land, after the setting of +that bright occidental star, Queen Elizabeth; yet our appearance, like +that of the sun in his strength, instantly dispelled these surmised +mists,--I say, that although, as therein mentioned, we countenanced +the preaching of the gospel, and especially the translation of the +Scriptures out of the original sacred tongues; yet nevertheless, we +ourselves confess to have found a comfort in consulting them in the +original Hebrew, whilk we do not perceive even in the Latin version of +the Septuagint, much less in the English traduction." + +"Please your Majesty," said Lord Huntinglen, "if your Majesty delays +communicating the bad news with which your honoured letter threatens me, +until I am capable to read Hebrew like your Majesty, I fear I shall +die in ignorance of the misfortune which hath befallen, or is about to +befall, my house." + +"You will learn it but too soon, my lord," replied the king. "I grieve +to say it, but your son Dalgarno, whom I thought a very saint, as he was +so much with Steenie and Baby Charles, hath turned out a very villain." + +"Villain!" repeated Lord Huntinglen; and though he instantly checked +himself, and added, "but it is your Majesty speaks the word," the effect +of his first tone made the king step back as if he had received a blow. +He also recovered himself again, and said in the pettish way which +usually indicated his displeasure--"Yes, my lord, it was we that said +it--_non surdo canis_--we are not deaf--we pray you not to raise your +voice in speech with us--there is the bonny memorial--read, and judge +for yourself." + +The king then thrust into the old nobleman's hand a paper, containing +the story of the Lady Hermione, with the evidence by which it was +supported, detailed so briefly and clearly, that the infamy of Lord +Dalgarno, the lover by whom she had been so shamefully deceived, seemed +undeniable. But a father yields not up so easily the cause of his son. + +"May it please your Majesty," he said, "why was this tale not sooner +told? This woman hath been here for years--wherefore was the claim on my +son not made the instant she touched English ground?" + +"Tell him how that came about, Geordie," said the king, dressing Heriot. + +"I grieve to distress my Lord Huntinglen," said Heriot; "but I must speak +the truth. For a long time the Lady Hermione could not brook the idea +of making her situation public; and when her mind became changed in +that particular, it was necessary to recover the evidence of the false +marriage, and letters and papers connected with it, which, when she +came to Paris, and just before I saw her, she had deposited with a +correspondent of her father in that city. He became afterwards bankrupt, +and in consequence of that misfortune the lady's papers passed into +other hands, and it was only a few days since I traced and recovered +them. Without these documents of evidence, it would have been imprudent +for her to have preferred her complaint, favoured as Lord Dalgarno is by +powerful friends." + +"Ye are saucy to say sae," said the king; "I ken what ye mean weel +eneugh--ye think Steenie wad hae putten the weight of his foot into +the scales of justice, and garr'd them whomle the bucket--ye forget, +Geordie, wha it is whose hand uphaulds them. And ye do poor Steenie the +mair wrang, for he confessed it ance before us and our privy council, +that Dalgarno would have put the quean aff on him, the puir simple +bairn, making him trow that she was a light-o'-love; in whilk mind he +remained assured even when he parted from her, albeit Steenie might hae +weel thought ane of thae cattle wadna hae resisted the like of him." + +"The Lady Hermione," said George Heriot, "has always done the utmost +justice to the conduct of the duke, who, although strongly possessed +with prejudice against her character, yet scorned to avail himself +of her distress, and on the contrary supplied her with the means of +extricating herself from her difficulties." + +"It was e'en like himsell--blessings on his bonny face!" said the king; +"and I believed this lady's tale the mair readily, my Lord Huntinglen, +that she spake nae ill of Steenie--and to make a lang tale short, my +lord, it is the opinion of our council and ourself, as weel as of Baby +Charles and Steenie, that your son maun amend his wrong by wedding this +lady, or undergo such disgrace and discountenance as we can bestow." + +The person to whom he spoke was incapable of answering him. He stood +before the king motionless, and glaring with eyes of which even the lids +seemed immovable, as if suddenly converted into an ancient statue of the +times of chivalry, so instantly had his hard features and strong limbs +been arrested into rigidity by the blow he had received--And in a second +afterwards, like the same statue when the lightning breaks upon it, +he sunk at once to the ground with a heavy groan. The king was in the +utmost alarm, called upon Heriot and Maxwell for help, and, presence +of mind not being his _forte_, ran to and fro in his cabinet, +exclaiming--"My ancient and beloved servant--who saved our anointed +self! _vae atque dolor!_ My Lord of Huntinglen, look up--look up, man, +and your son may marry the Queen of Sheba if he will." + +By this time Maxwell and Heriot had raised the old nobleman, and placed +him on a chair; while the king, observing that he began to recover +himself, continued his consolations more methodically. + +"Haud up your head--haud up your head, and listen to your ain kind +native Prince. If there is shame, man, it comesna empty-handed--there +is siller to gild it--a gude tocher, and no that bad a pedigree;--if she +has been a loon, it was your son made her sae, and he can make her an +honest woman again." + +These suggestions, however reasonable in the common case, gave no +comfort to Lord Huntinglen, if indeed he fully comprehended them; but +the blubbering of his good-natured old master, which began to accompany +and interrupt his royal speech, produced more rapid effect. The large +tear gushed reluctantly from his eye, as he kissed the withered hands, +which the king, weeping with less dignity and restraint, abandoned to +him, first alternately and then both together, until the feelings of the +man getting entirely the better of the Sovereign's sense of dignity, he +grasped and shook Lord Huntinglen's hands with the sympathy of an equal +and a familiar friend. + +"_Compone lachrymas_," said the Monarch; "be patient, man, be patient; +the council, and Baby Charles, and Steenie, may a' gang to the +deevil--he shall not marry her since it moves you so deeply." + +"He _shall_ marry her, by God!" answered the earl, drawing himself +up, dashing the tear from his eyes, and endeavouring to recover his +composure. "I pray your Majesty's pardon, but he shall marry her, with +her dishonour for her dowry, were she the veriest courtezan in all +Spain--If he gave his word, he shall make his word good, were it to +the meanest creature that haunts the streets--he shall do it, or my own +dagger shall take the life that I gave him. If he could stoop to use so +base a fraud, though to deceive infamy, let him wed infamy." + +"No, no!" the Monarch continued to insinuate, "things are not so bad as +that--Steenie himself never thought of her being a streetwalker, even +when he thought the worst of her." + +"If it can at all console my Lord of Huntinglen," said the citizen, "I +can assure him of this lady's good birth, and most fair and unspotted +fame." + +"I am sorry for it," said Lord Huntinglen--then interrupting himself, he +said--"Heaven forgive me for being ungrateful for such comfort!--but I +am well-nigh sorry she should be as you represent her, so much better +than the villain deserves. To be condemned to wed beauty and innocence +and honest birth--" + +"Ay, and wealth, my lord--wealth," insinuated the king, "is a better +sentence than his perfidy has deserved." + +"It is long," said the embittered father, "since I saw he was selfish +and hardhearted; but to be a perjured liar--I never dreaded that such a +blot would have fallen on my race! I will never look on him again." + +"Hoot ay, my lord, hoot ay," said the king; "ye maun tak him to task +roundly. I grant you should speak more in the vein of Demea than Mitio, +_vi nempe et via pervulgata patrum_; but as for not seeing him again, +and he your only son, that is altogether out of reason. I tell ye, man, +(but I would not for a boddle that Baby Charles heard me,) that he might +gie the glaiks to half the lasses of Lonnun, ere I could find in my +heart speak such harsh words as you have said of this deil of a Dalgarno +of yours." + +"May it please your Majesty to permit me to retire," said Lord +Huntinglen, "and dispose of the case according to your own royal sense +of justice, for I desire no favour for him." + +"Aweel, my lord, so be it; and if your lordship can think," added the +Monarch, "of any thing in our power which might comfort you--" + +"Your Majesty's gracious sympathy," said Lord Huntinglen, "has already +comforted me as far as earth can; the rest must be from the King of +kings." + +"To Him I commend you, my auld and faithful servant," said James with +emotion, as the earl withdrew from his presence. The king remained fixed +in thought for some time, and then said to Heriot, "Jingling Geordie, +ye ken all the privy doings of our Court, and have dune so these thirty +years, though, like a wise man, ye hear, and see, and say nothing. +Now, there is a thing I fain wad ken, in the way of philosophical +inquiry--Did you ever hear of the umquhile Lady Huntinglen, the departed +Countess of this noble earl, ganging a wee bit gleed in her walk through +the world; I mean in the way of slipping a foot, casting a leglin-girth, +or the like, ye understand me?" + +[Footnote: A leglin-girth is the lowest hoop upon a _leglin_, or +milk-pail. Allan Ramsay applies the phrase in the same metaphorical +sense. + +"Or bairns can read, they first maun spell, I learn'd this frae my +mammy, And cast a leglin-girth mysell, + Lang ere I married Tammy." + _Christ's Kirk On The Green_.] + +"On my word as an honest man," said George Heriot, somewhat surprised +at the question, "I never heard her wronged by the slightest breath +of suspicion. She was a worthy lady, very circumspect in her walk, and +lived in great concord with her husband, save that the good Countess was +something of a puritan, and kept more company with ministers than was +altogether agreeable to Lord Huntinglen, who is, as your Majesty well +knows, a man of the old rough world, that will drink and swear." + +"O Geordie!" exclaimed the king, "these are auld-warld frailties, of +whilk we dare not pronounce even ourselves absolutely free. But the +warld grows worse from day to day, Geordie. The juveniles of this age +may weel say with the poet-- + + 'Aetas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos nequiores--' + +This Dalgarno does not drink so much, or swear so much, as his father; +but he wenches, Geordie, and he breaks his word and oath baith. As +to what you say of the leddy, and the ministers, we are a' fallible +creatures, Geordie, priests and kings, as weel as others; and wha kens +but what that may account for the difference between this Dalgarno and +his father? The earl is the vera soul of honour, and cares nae mair for +warld's gear than a noble hound for the quest of a foulmart; but as +for his son, he was like to brazen us a' out--ourselves, Steenie, Baby +Charles, and our council--till he heard of the tocher, and then, by my +kingly crown, he lap like a cock at a grossart! These are discrepancies +betwixt parent and son not to be accounted for naturally, according to +Baptista Porta, Michael Scott _de secretis_, and others.--Ah, Jingling +Geordie, if your clouting the caldron, and jingling on pots, pans, and +veshels of all manner of metal, hadna jingled a' your grammar out of +your head, I could have touched on that matter to you at mair length." + +Heriot was too plain-spoken to express much concern for the loss of his +grammar learning on this occasion; but after modestly hinting that he +had seen many men who could not fill their father's bonnet, though no +one had been suspected of wearing their father's nightcap, he inquired +"whether Lord Dalgarno had consented to do the Lady Hermione justice." + +"Troth, man, I have small doubt that he will," quoth the king; "I gave +him the schedule of her worldly substance, which you delivered to us in +the council, and we allowed him half-an-hour to chew the cud upon that. +It is rare reading for bringing him to reason. I left Baby Charles and +Steenie laying his duty before him; and if he can resist doing what +_they_ desire him--why, I wish he would teach _me_ the gate of it. O +Geordie, Jingling Geordie, it was grand to hear Baby Charles laying down +the guilt of dissimulation, and Steenie lecturing on the turpitude of +incontinence!" + +"I am afraid," said George Heriot, more hastily than prudently, "I might +have thought of the old proverb of Satan reproving sin." + +"Deil hae our saul, neighbour," said the king, reddening, "but ye are +not blate! I gie ye license to speak freely, and, by our saul, ye do not +let the privilege become lost _non utendo_--it will suffer no negative +prescription in your hands. Is it fit, think ye, that Baby Charles +should let his thoughts be publicly seen?--No--no--princes' thoughts are +_arcana imperii_--_Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare_. Every liege +subject is bound to speak the whole truth to the king, but there is +nae reciprocity of obligation--and for Steenie having been whiles a +dike-louper at a time, is it for you, who are his goldsmith, and to +whom, I doubt, he awes an uncomatable sum, to cast that up to him?" + +Heriot did not feel himself called on to play the part of Zeno and +sacrifice himself for upholding the cause of moral truth; he did not +desert it, however, by disavowing his words, but simply expressed +sorrow for having offended his Majesty, with which the placable king was +sufficiently satisfied. + +"And now, Geordie, man," quoth he, "we will to this culprit, and hear +what he has to say for himself, for I will see the job cleared this +blessed day. Ye maun come wi' me, for your evidence may be wanted." + +The king led the way, accordingly, into a larger apartment, where the +Prince, the Duke of Buckingham, and one or two privy counsellors were +seated at a table, before which stood Lord Dalgarno, in an attitude of +as much elegant ease and indifference as could be expressed, considering +the stiff dress and manners of the times. + +All rose and bowed reverently, while the king, to use a north country +word, expressive of his mode of locomotion, _toddled_ to his chair or +throne, making a sign to Heriot to stand behind him. + +"We hope," said his Majesty, "that Lord Dalgarno stands prepared to do +justice to this unfortunate lady, and to his own character and honour?" + +"May I humbly inquire the penalty," said Lord Dalgarno, "in case +I should unhappily find compliance with your Majesty's demands +impossible?" + +"Banishment frae our Court, my lord," said the king; "frae our Court and +our countenance." + +"Unhappy exile that I may be!" said Lord Dalgarno, in a tone of subdued +irony--"I will at least carry your Majesty's picture with me, for I +shall never see such another king." + +"And banishment, my lord," said the Prince, sternly, "from these our +dominions." + +"That must be by form of law, please your Royal Highness," said +Dalgarno, with an affectation of deep respect; "and I have not heard +that there is a statute, compelling us, under such penalty, to marry +every woman we may play the fool with. Perhaps his Grace of Buckingham +can tell me?" + +"You are a villain, Dalgarno," said the haughty and vehement favourite. + +"Fie, my lord, fie!--to a prisoner, and in presence of your royal and +paternal gossip!" said Lord Dalgarno. "But I will cut this deliberation +short. I have looked over this schedule of the goods and effects of +Erminia Pauletti, daughter of the late noble--yes, he is called the +noble, or I read wrong, Giovanni Pauletti, of the Houee of Sansovino, +in Genoa, and of the no less noble Lady Maud Olifaunt, of the House of +Glenvarloch--Well, I declare that I was pre-contracted in Spain to this +noble lady, and there has passed betwixt us some certain _proelibatio +matrimonii_; and now, what more does this grave assembly require of me?" + +"That you should repair the gross and infamous wrong you have done the +lady, by marrying her within this hour," said the Prince. + +"O, may it please your Royal Highness," answered Dalgarno, "I have a +trifling relationship with an old Earl, who calls himself my father, who +may claim some vote in the matter. Alas! every son is not blessed with +an obedient parent!" He hazarded a slight glance towards the throne, to +give meaning to his last words. + +"We have spoken ourselves with Lord Huntinglen," said the king, "and are +authorised to consent in his name." + +"I could never have expected this intervention of a _proxaneta_, which +the vulgar translate blackfoot, of such eminent dignity," said Dalgarno, +scarce concealing a sneer. "And my father hath consented? He was wont +to say, ere we left Scotland, that the blood of Huntinglen and of +Glenvarloch would not mingle, were they poured into the same basin. +Perhaps he has a mind to try the experiment?" + +"My lord," said James, "we will not be longer trifled with--Will you +instantly, and _sine mora_, take this lady to your wife, in our chapel?" + +"_Statim atque instanter_," answered Lord Dalgarno; "for I perceive +by doing so, I shall obtain power to render great services to the +commonwealth--I shall have acquired wealth to supply the wants of +your Majesty, and a fair wife to be at the command of his Grace of +Buckingham." + +The Duke rose, passed to the end of the table where Lord Dalgarno was +standing, and whispered in his ear, "You have placed a fair sister at my +command ere now." + +This taunt cut deep through Lord Dalgarno's assumed composure. He +started as if an adder had stung him, but instantly composed himself, +and, fixing on the Duke's still smiling countenance an eye which spoke +unutterable hatred, he pointed the forefinger of his left hand to the +hilt of his sword, but in a manner which could scarce be observed by any +one save Buckingham. The Duke gave him another smile of bitter scorn, +and returned to his seat, in obedience to the commands of the king, who +continued calling out, "Sit down, Steenie, sit down, I command ye--we +will hae nae harnsbreaking here." + +"Your Majesty needs not fear my patience," said Lord Dalgarno; "and +that I may keep it the better, I will not utter another word in this +presence, save those enjoined to me in that happy portion of the +Prayer-Book, which begins with _Dearly Beloved_, and ends with +_amazement_." + +"You are a hardened villain, Dalgarno," said the king; "and were I the +lass, by my father's saul, I would rather brook the stain of having been +your concubine, than run the risk of becoming your wife. But she shall +be under our special protection.--Come, my lords, we will ourselves see +this blithesome bridal." He gave the signal by rising, and moved towards +the door, followed by the train. Lord Dalgarno attended, speaking to +none, and spoken to by no one, yet seeming as easy and unembarrassed in +his gait and manner as if in reality a happy bridegroom. + +They reached the Chapel by a private entrance, which communicated from +the royal apartment. The Bishop of Winchester, in his pontifical dress, +stood beside the altar; on the other side, supported by Monna Paula, the +colourless, faded, half-lifeless form of the Lady Hermione, or Erminia +Pauletti. Lord Dalgarno bowed profoundly to her, and the Prince, +observing the horror with which she regarded him, walked up, and said +to her, with much dignity,--"Madam, ere you put yourself under the +authority of this man, let me inform you, he hath in the fullest degree +vindicated your honour, so far as concerns your former intercourse. It +is for you to consider whether you will put your fortune and happiness +into the hands of one, who has shown himself unworthy of all trust." + +The lady, with much difficulty, found words to make reply. "I owe to +his Majesty's goodness," she said, "the care of providing me some +reservation out of my own fortune, for my decent sustenance. The rest +cannot be better disposed than in buying back the fair fame of which I +am deprived, and the liberty of ending my life in peace and seclusion." + +"The contract has been drawn up," said the king, "under our own eye, +specially discharging the _potestas maritalis_, and agreeing they shall +live separate. So buckle them, my Lord Bishop, as fast as you can, that +they may sunder again the sooner." + +The Bishop accordingly opened his book and commenced the marriage +ceremony, under circumstances so novel and so inauspicious. The +responses of the bride were only expressed by inclinations of the +head and body; while those of the bridegroom were spoken boldly and +distinctly, with a tone resembling levity, if not scorn. When it was +concluded, Lord Dalgarno advanced as if to salute the bride, but seeing +that she drew back in fear and abhorrence, he contented himself with +making her a low bow. He then drew up his form to its height, and +stretched himself as if examining the power of his limbs, but elegantly, +and without any forcible change of attitude. "I could caper yet," +he said "though I am in fetters--but they are of gold, and lightly +worn.--Well, I see all eyes look cold on me, and it is time I should +withdraw. The sun shines elsewhere than in England! But first I must ask +how this fair Lady Dalgarno is to be bestowed. Methinks it is but decent +I should know. Is she to be sent to the harem of my Lord Duke? Or is +this worthy citizen, as before--" + +"Hold thy base ribald tongue!" said his father, Lord Huntinglen, who had +kept in the background during the ceremony, and now stepping suddenly +forward, caught the lady by the arm, and confronted her unworthy +husband.--"The Lady Dalgarno," he continued, "shall remain as a widow in +my house. A widow I esteem her, as much as if the grave had closed over +her dishonoured husband." + +Lord Dalgarno exhibited momentary symptoms of extreme confusion, and +said, in a submissive tone, "If you, my lord, can wish me dead, I +cannot, though your heir, return the compliment. Few of the first-born +of Israel," he added, recovering himself from the single touch of +emotion he had displayed, "can say so much with truth. But I will +convince you ere I go, that I am a true descendant of a house famed for +its memory of injuries." + +"I marvel your Majesty will listen to him longer," said Prince Charles. +"Methinks we have heard enough of his daring insolence." + +But James, who took the interest of a true gossip in such a scene as was +now passing, could not bear to cut the controversy short, but imposed +silence on his son, with "Whisht, Baby Charles--there is a good bairn, +whisht!--I want to hear what the frontless loon can say." + +"Only, sir," said Dalgarno, "that but for one single line in this +schedule, all else that it contains could not have bribed me to take +that woman's hand into mine." + +"That line maun have been the SUMMA TOTALIS," said the king. + +"Not so, sire," replied Dalgarno. "The sum total might indeed have been +an object for consideration even to a Scottish king, at no very distant +period; but it would have had little charms for me, save that I see +here an entry which gives me the power of vengeance over the family of +Glenvarloch; and learn from it that yonder pale bride, when she put the +wedding-torch into my hand, gave me the power of burning her mother's +house to ashes!" + +"How is that?" said the king. "What is he speaking about, Jingling +Geordie?" + +"This friendly citizen, my liege," said Lord Dalgarno, "hath expended a +sum belonging to my lady, and now, I thank heaven, to me, in acquiring +a certain mortgage, or wanset, over the estate of Glenvarloch, which, if +it be not redeemed before to-morrow at noon, will put me in possession +of the fair demesnes of those who once called themselves our house's +rivals." + +"Can this be true?" said the king. + +"It is even but too true, please your Majesty," answered the citizen. +"The Lady Hermione having advanced the money for the original creditor, +I was obliged, in honour and honesty, to take the rights to her; and +doubtless, they pass to her husband." + +"But the warrant, man," said the king--"the warrant on our +Exchequer--Couldna that supply the lad wi' the means of redemption?" + +"Unhappily, my liege, he has lost it, or disposed of it--It is not to be +found. He is the most unlucky youth!" + +"This is a proper spot of work!" said the king, beginning to amble +about and play with the points of his doublet and hose, in expression of +dismay. "We cannot aid him without paying our debts twice over, and we +have, in the present state of our Exchequer, scarce the means of paying +them once." + +"You have told me news," said Lord Dalgarno, "but I will take no +advantage." + +"Do not," said his father, "be a bold villain, since thou must be one, +and seek revenge with arms, and not with the usurer's weapons." + +"Pardon me, my lord," said Lord Dalgarno. "Pen and ink are now my +surest means of vengeance; and more land is won by the lawyer with the +ram-skin, than by the Andrea Ferrara with his sheepshead handle. But, +as I said before, I will take no advantages. I will await in town +to-morrow, near Covent Garden; if any one will pay the redemption-money +to my scrivener, with whom the deeds lie, the better for Lord +Glenvarloch; if not, I will go forward on the next day, and travel with +all dispatch to the north, to take possession." + +"Take a father's malison with you, unhappy wretch!" said Lord +Huntinglen. + +"And a king's, who is _pater patriae_," said James. + +"I trust to bear both lightly," said Lord Dalgarno; and bowing around +him, he withdrew; while all present, oppressed, and, as it were, +overawed, by his determined effrontery, found they could draw breath +more freely, when he at length relieved them of his society. Lord +Huntinglen, applying himself to comfort his new daughter-in-law, +withdrew with her also; and the king, with his privy-council, whom he +had not dismissed, again returned to his council-chamber, though the +hour was unusually late. Heriot's attendance was still commanded, but +for what reason was not explained to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +---I'll play the eavesdropper. _Richard III., Act V., Scene 3_. + +James had no sooner resumed his seat at the council-board than he began +to hitch in his chair, cough, use his handkerchief, and make other +intimations that he meditated a long speech. The council composed +themselves to the beseeming degree of attention. Charles, as strict +in his notions of decorum, as his father was indifferent to it, fixed +himself in an attitude of rigid and respectful attention, while the +haughty favourite, conscious of his power over both father and +son, stretched himself more easily on his seat, and, in assuming an +appearance of listening, seemed to pay a debt to ceremonial rather than +to duty. + +"I doubt not, my lords," said the Monarch, "that some of you may be +thinking the hour of refection is past, and that it is time to ask with +the slave in the comedy--_Quid de symbolo?_--Nevertheless, to do justice +and exercise judgment is our meat and drink; and now we are to pray your +wisdom to consider the case of this unhappy youth, Lord Glenvarloch, and +see whether, consistently with our honour, any thing can be done in his +favour." + +"I am surprised at your Majesty's wisdom making the inquiry," said the +Duke; "it is plain this Dalgarno hath proved one of the most insolent +villains on earth, and it must therefore be clear, that if Lord +Glenvarloch had run him through the body, there would but have been +out of the world a knave who had lived in it too long. I think Lord +Glenvarloch hath had much wrong; and I regret that, by the persuasions +of this false fellow, I have myself had some hand in it." + +"Ye speak like a child, Steenie--I mean my Lord of Buckingham," answered +the king, "and as one that does not understand the logic of the schools; +for an action may be inconsequential or even meritorious, _quoad +hominem_, that is, as touching him upon _whom_ it is acted; and yet most +criminal, _quoad locum_, or considering the place _wherein_ it is done; +as a man may lawfully dance Chrighty Beardie or any other dance in a +tavern, but not _inter parietes ecclesiae_. So that, though it may have +been a good deed to have sticked Lord Dalgarno, being such as he has +shown himself, anywhere else, yet it fell under the plain statute, when +violence was offered within the verge of the Court. For, let me tell +you, my lords, the statute against striking would be of no small use in +our Court, if it could be eluded by justifying the person stricken to be +a knave. It is much to be lamented that I ken nae Court in Christendom +where knaves are not to be found; and if men are to break the peace +under pretence of beating them, why, it will rain Jeddart staves +[Footnote: The old-fashioned weapon called the Jeddart staff was a +species of battle-axe. Of a very great tempest, it is said, in the south +of Scotland, that it rains Jeddart staffs, as in England the common +people talk of its raining cats and dogs.] in our very ante-chamber." + +"What your Majesty says," replied Prince Charles, "is marked with your +usual wisdom--the precincts of palaces must be sacred as well as +the persons of kings, which are respected even in the most barbarous +nations, as being one step only beneath their divinities. But your +Majesty's will can control the severity of this and every other law, +and it is in your power, on consideration of his case, to grant the rash +young man a free pardon." + +"_Rem acu tetigisti, Carole, mi puerule,_" answered the king; "and know, +my lords, that we have, by a shrewd device and gift of our own, already +sounded the very depth of this Lord Glenvarloch's disposition. I trow +there be among you some that remember my handling in the curious case +of my Lady Lake, and how I trimmed them about the story of hearkening +behind the arras. Now this put me to cogitation, and I remembered me +of having read that Dionysius, King of Syracuse, whom historians call +Tyrannos, which signifieth not in the Greek tongue, as in ours, a +truculent usurper, but a royal king who governs, it may be, something +more strictly than we and other lawful monarchs, whom the ancients +termed Basileis--Now this Dionysius of Syracuse caused cunning workmen +to build for himself a _lugg_--D'ye ken what that is, my Lord Bishop?" + +"A cathedral, I presume to guess," answered the Bishop. + +"What the deil, man--I crave your lordship's pardon for swearing--but +it was no cathedral--only a lurking-place called the king's _lugg_, +or _ear_, where he could sit undescried, and hear the converse of his +prisoners. Now, sirs, in imitation of this Dionysius, whom I took for +my pattern, the rather that he was a great linguist and grammarian, and +taught a school with good applause after his abdication, (either he or +his successor of the same name, it matters not whilk)--I have caused +them to make a _lugg_ up at the state-prison of the Tower yonder, more +like a pulpit than a cathedral, my Lord Bishop--and communicating with +the arras behind the Lieutenant's chamber, where we may sit and +privily hear the discourse of such prisoners as are pent up there for +state-offences, and so creep into the very secrets of our enemies." + +The Prince cast a glance towards the Duke, expressive of great vexation +and disgust. Buckingham shrugged his shoulders, but the motion was so +slight as to be almost imperceptible. + +"Weel, my lords, ye ken the fray at the hunting this morning--I +shall not get out of the trembling exies until I have a sound night's +sleep--just after that, they bring ye in a pretty page that had been +found in the Park. We were warned against examining him ourselves by the +anxious care of those around us; nevertheless, holding our life ever at +the service of these kingdoms, we commanded all to avoid the room, +the rather that we suspected this boy to be a girl. What think ye, my +lords?--few of you would have thought I had a hawk's eye for sic gear; +but we thank God, that though we are old, we know so much of such toys +as may beseem a man of decent gravity. Weel, my lords, we questioned +this maiden in male attire ourselves, and I profess it was a very pretty +interrogatory, and well followed. For, though she at first professed +that she assumed this disguise in order to countenance the woman who +should present us with the Lady Hermione's petition, for whom she +professed entire affection; yet when we, suspecting _anguis in herba_, +did put her to the very question, she was compelled to own a virtuous +attachment for Glenvarlochides, in such a pretty passion of shame and +fear, that we had much ado to keep our own eyes from keeping company +with hers in weeping. Also, she laid before us the false practices of +this Dalgarno towards Glenvarlochides, inveigling him into houses of ill +resort, and giving him evil counsel under pretext of sincere friendship, +whereby the inexperienced lad was led to do what was prejudicial to +himself, and offensive to us. But, however prettily she told her tale, +we determined not altogether to trust to her narration, but rather to +try the experiment whilk we had devised for such occasions. And having +ourselves speedily passed from Greenwich to the Tower, we constituted +ourselves eavesdropper, as it is called, to observe what should pass +between Glenvarlochides and his page, whom we caused to be admitted to +his apartment, well judging that if they were of counsel together to +deceive us, it could not be but something of it would spunk out--And +what think ye we saw, my lords?--Naething for you to sniggle and laugh +at, Steenie--for I question if you could have played the temperate and +Christian-like part of this poor lad Glenvarloch. He might be a Father +of the Church in comparison of you, man.--And then, to try his patience +yet farther, we loosed on him a courtier and a citizen, that is Sir +Mungo Malagrowther and our servant George Heriot here, wha dang the poor +lad about, and didna greatly spare our royal selves.--You mind, Geordie, +what you said about the wives and concubines? but I forgie ye, man--nae +need of kneeling, I forgie ye--the readier, that it regards a certain +particular, whilk, as it added not much to Solomon's credit, the lack +of it cannot be said to impinge on ours. Aweel, my lords, for all +temptation of sore distress and evil ensample, this poor lad never +loosed his tongue on us to say one unbecoming word--which inclines us +the rather, acting always by your wise advice, to treat this affair +of the Park as a thing done in the heat of blood, and under strong +provocation, and therefore to confer our free pardon on Lord +Glenvarloch." + +"I am happy your gracious Majesty," said the Duke of Buckingham, "has +arrived at that conclusion, though I could never have guessed at the +road by which you attained it." + +"I trust," said Prince Charles, "that it is not a path which your +Majesty will think it consistent with your high dignity to tread +frequently." + +"Never while I live again, Baby Charles, that I give you my royal word +on. They say that hearkeners hear ill tales of themselves--by my saul, +my very ears are tingling wi' that auld sorrow Sir Mungo's sarcasms. He +called us close-fisted, Steenie--I am sure you can contradict that. But +it is mere envy in the auld mutilated sinner, because he himself has +neither a noble to hold in his loof, nor fingers to close on it if he +had." Here the king lost recollection of Sir Mungo's irreverence +in chuckling over his own wit, and only farther alluded to it by +saying--"We must give the old maunderer _bos in linguam_--something to +stop his mouth, or he will rail at us from Dan to Beersheba.--And now, +my lords, let our warrant of mercy to Lord Glenvarloch be presently +expedited, and he put to his freedom; and as his estate is likely to go +so sleaveless a gate, we will consider what means of favour we can +show him.--My lords, I wish you an appetite to an early supper--for our +labours have approached that term.--Baby Charles and Steenie, you will +remain till our couchee.--My Lord Bishop, you will be pleased to stay to +bless our meat.--Geordie Heriot, a word with you apart." + +His Majesty then drew the citizen into a corner, while the counsellors, +those excepted who had been commanded to remain, made their +obeisance, and withdrew. "Geordie," said the king, "my good and trusty +servant"--Here he busied his fingers much with the points and ribbons of +his dress,--"Ye see that we have granted, from our own natural sense of +right and justice, that which yon long-backed fallow, Moniplies I think +they ca' him, proffered to purchase from us with a mighty bribe; whilk +we refused, as being a crowned king, who wad neither sell our justice +nor our mercy for pecuniar consideration. Now, what think ye should be +the upshot of this?" + +"My Lord Glenvarloch's freedom, and his restoration to your Majesty's +favour," said Heriot. + +"I ken that," said the king, peevishly. "Ye are very dull to-day. I +mean, what do you think this fallow Moniplies should think about the +matter?" + +"Surely that your Majesty is a most good and gracious sovereign," +answered Heriot. + +"We had need to be gude and gracious baith," said the king, still more +pettishly, "that have idiots about us that cannot understand what we +mint at, unless we speak it out in braid Lowlands. See this chield +Moniplies, sir, and tell him what we have done for Lord Glenvarloch, +in whom he takes such part, out of our own gracious motion, though we +refused to do it on ony proffer of private advantage. Now, you may put +it till him, as if of your own mind, whether it will be a gracious or a +dutiful part in him, to press us for present payment of the two or three +hundred miserable pounds for whilk we were obliged to opignorate our +jewels? Indeed, mony men may think ye wad do the part of a good citizen, +if you took it on yourself to refuse him payment, seeing he hath +had what he professed to esteem full satisfaction, and considering, +moreover, that it is evident he hath no pressing need of the money, +whereof we have much necessity." + +George Heriot sighed internally. "O my Master," thought he--"my dear +Master, is it then fated you are never to indulge any kingly or noble +sentiment, without its being sullied by some afterthought of interested +selfishness!" + +The king troubled himself not about what he thought, but taking him by +the collar, said,--"Ye ken my meaning now, Jingler--awa wi' ye. You +are a wise man--manage it your ain gate--but forget not our present +straits." The citizen made his obeisance, and withdrew. + +"And now, bairns," said the king, "what do you look upon each other +for--and what have you got to ask of your dear dad and gossip?" + +"Only," said the Prince, "that it would please your Majesty to command +the lurking-place at the prison to be presently built up--the groans of +a captive should not be brought in evidence against him." + +"What! build up my lugg, Baby Charles? And yet, better deaf than hear +ill tales of oneself. So let them build it up, hard and fast, without +delay, the rather that my back is sair with sitting in it for a whole +hour.--And now let us see what the cooks have been doing for us, bonny +bairns." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + + To this brave man the knight repairs + For counsel in his law affairs; + And found him mounted in his pew. + With books and money placed for show, + Like nest-eggs to make clients lay, + And for his false opinion pay. + _Hudibras._ + +Our readers may recollect a certain smooth-tongued, lank-haired, +buckram-suited, Scottish scrivener, who, in the earlier part of this +history, appeared in the character of a protege of George Heriot. It is +to his house we are about to remove, but times have changed with him. +The petty booth hath become a chamber of importance--the buckram suit +is changed into black velvet; and although the wearer retains his +puritanical humility and politeness to clients of consequence, he can +now look others broad in the face, and treat them with a full allowance +of superior opulence, and the insolence arising from it. It was but +a short period that had achieved these alterations, nor was the party +himself as yet entirely accustomed to them, but the change was becoming +less embarrassing to him with every day's practice. Among other +acquisitions of wealth, you may see one of Davy Ramsay's best timepieces +on the table, and his eye is frequently observing its revolutions, while +a boy, whom he employs as a scribe, is occasionally sent out to compare +its progress with the clock of Saint Dunstan. + +The scrivener himself seemed considerably agitated. He took from a +strong-box a bundle of parchments, and read passages of them with great +attention; then began to soliloquize--"There is no outlet which law can +suggest--no back-door of evasion--none--if the lands of Glenvarloch +are not redeemed before it rings noon, Lord Dalgarno has them a cheap +pennyworth. Strange, that he should have been at last able to set his +patron at defiance, and achieve for himself the fair estate, with the +prospect of which he so long flattered the powerful Buckingham.--Might +not Andrew Skurliewhitter nick him as neatly? He hath been my +patron--true--not more than Buckingham was his; and he can be so no +more, for he departs presently for Scotland. I am glad of it--I hate +him, and I fear him. He knows too many of my secrets--I know too many +of his. But, no--no--no--I need never attempt it, there are no means of +over-reaching him.--Well, Willie, what o'clock?" + +"Ele'en hours just chappit, sir." + +"Go to your desk without, child," said the scrivener. "What to do +next--I shall lose the old Earl's fair business, and, what is worse, his +son's foul practice. Old Heriot looks too close into business to permit +me more than the paltry and ordinary dues. The Whitefriars business was +profitable, but it has become unsafe ever since--pah!--what brought that +in my head just now? I can hardly hold my pen--if men should see me +in this way!--Willie," (calling aloud to the boy,) "a cup of distilled +waters--Soh!--now I could face the devil." + +He spoke the last words aloud, and close by the door of the apartment, +which was suddenly opened by Richie Moniplies, followed by two +gentlemen, and attended by two porters bearing money-bags. "If ye can +face the devil, Maister Skurliewhitter," said Richie, "ye will be the +less likely to turn your back on a sack or twa o' siller, which I have +ta'en the freedom to bring you. Sathanas and Mammon are near akin." The +porters, at the same time, ranged their load on the floor. + +"I--I,"--stammered the surprised scrivener--"I cannot guess what you +mean, sir." + +"Only that I have brought you the redemption-money on the part of +Lord Glenvarloch, in discharge of a certain mortgage over his family +inheritance. And here, in good time, comes Master Reginald Lowestoffe, +and another honourable gentleman of the Temple, to be witnesses to the +transaction." + +"I--I incline to think," said the scrivener, "that the term is expired." + +"You will pardon us, Master Scrivener," said Lowestoffe. "You will not +baffle us--it wants three-quarters of noon by every clock in the city." + +"I must have time, gentlemen," said Andrew, "to examine the gold by tale +and weight." + +"Do so at your leisure, Master Scrivener," replied Lowestoffe again. +"We have already seen the contents of each sack told and weighed, and we +have put our seals on them. There they stand in a row, twenty in number, +each containing three hundred yellow-hammers--we are witnesses to the +lawful tender." + +"Gentlemen," said the scrivener, "this security now belongs to a +mighty lord. I pray you, abate your haste, and let me send for Lord +Dalgarno,--or rather I will run for him myself." + +So saying, he took up his hat; but Lowestoffe called out,--"Friend +Moniplies, keep the door fast, an thou be'st a man! he seeks but to put +off the time.--In plain terms, Andrew, you may send for the devil, if +you will, who is the mightiest lord of my acquaintance, but from hence +you stir not till you have answered our proposition, by rejecting or +accepting the redemption-money fairly tendered--there it lies--take it, +or leave it, as you will. I have skill enough to know that the law is +mightier than any lord in Britain--I have learned so much at the Temple, +if I have learned nothing else. And see that you trifle not with it, +lest it make your long ears an inch shorter, Master Skurliewhitter." + +"Nay, gentlemen, if you threaten me," said the scrivener, "I cannot +resist compulsion." + +"No threats--no threats at all, my little Andrew," said Lowestoffe; "a +little friendly advice only--forget not, honest Andrew, I have seen you +in Alsatia." + +Without answering a single word, the scrivener sat down, and drew in +proper form a full receipt for the money proffered. + +"I take it on your report, Master Lowestoffe," he said; "I hope you +will remember I have insisted neither upon weight nor tale--I have been +civil--if there is deficiency I shall come to loss." + +"Fillip his nose with a gold-piece, Richie," quoth the Templar. "Take up +the papers, and now wend we merrily to dine thou wot'st where." + +"If I might choose," said Richie, "it should not be at yonder roguish +ordinary; but as it is your pleasure, gentlemen, the treat shall be +given wheresoever you will have it." + +"At the ordinary," said the one Templar. + +"At Beaujeu's," said the other; "it is the only house in London for neat +wines, nimble drawers, choice dishes, and--" + +"And high charges," quoth Richie Moniplies. "But, as I said before, +gentlemen, ye have a right to command me in this thing, having so +frankly rendered me your service in this small matter of business, +without other stipulation than that of a slight banquet." + +The latter part of this discourse passed in the street, where, +immediately afterwards, they met Lord Dalgarno. He appeared in haste, +touched his hat slightly to Master Lowestoffe, who returned his +reverence with the same negligence, and walked slowly on with his +companion, while Lord Dalgarno stopped Richie Moniplies with a +commanding sign, which the instinct of education compelled Moniplies, +though indignant, to obey. + +"Whom do you now follow, sirrah?" demanded the noble. + +"Whomsoever goeth before me, my lord," answered Moniplies. + +"No sauciness, you knave--I desire to know if you still serve Nigel +Olifaunt?" said Dalgarno. + +"I am friend to the noble Lord Glenvarloch," answered Moniplies, with +dignity. + +"True," replied Lord Dalgarno, "that noble lord has sunk to seek friends +among lackeys--Nevertheless,--hark thee hither,--nevertheless, if he +be of the same mind as when we last met, thou mayst show him, that, on +to-morrow, at four afternoon, I shall pass northward by Enfield Chase--I +will be slenderly attended, as I design to send my train through Barnet. +It is my purpose to ride an easy pace through the forest, and to linger +a while by Camlet Moat--he knows the place; and, if he be aught but an +Alsatian bully, will think it fitter for some purposes than the Park. He +is, I understand, at liberty, or shortly to be so. If he fail me at +the place nominated, he must seek me in Scotland, where he will find me +possessed of his father's estate and lands." + +"Humph!" muttered Richie; "there go twa words to that bargain." + +He even meditated a joke on the means which he was conscious he +possessed of baffling Lord Dalgarno's expectations; but there was +something of keen and dangerous excitement in the eyes of the young +nobleman, which prompted his discretion for once to rule his vit, and he +only answered-- + +"God grant your lordship may well brook your new conquest--when you +get it. I shall do your errand to my lord--whilk is to say," he added +internally, "he shall never hear a word of it from Richie. I am not the +lad to put him in such hazard." + +Lord Dalgarno looked at him sharply for a moment, as if to penetrate +the meaning of the dry ironical tone, which, in spite of Richie's awe, +mingled with his answer, and then waved his hand, in signal he should +pass on. He himself walked slowly till the trio were out of sight, then +turned back with hasty steps to the door of the scrivener, which he had +passed in his progress, knocked, and was admitted. + +Lord Dalgarno found the man of law with the money-bags still +standing before him; and it escaped not his penetrating glance, that +Skurliewhitter was disconcerted and alarmed at his approach. + +"How now, man," he said; "what! hast thou not a word of oily compliment +to me on my happy marriage?--not a word of most philosophical +consolation on my disgrace at Court?--Or has my mien, as a wittol and +discarded favourite, the properties of the Gorgon's head, the _turbatae +Palladis arma_, as Majesty might say?" + +"My lord, I am glad--my lord, I am sorry,"--answered the trembling +scrivener, who, aware of the vivacity of Lord Dalgarno's temper, dreaded +the consequence of the communication he had to make to him. + +"Glad and sorry!" answered Lord Dalgarno. "That is blowing hot and cold, +with a witness. Hark ye, you picture of petty-larceny personified--if +you are sorry I am a cuckold, remember I am only mine own, you +knave--there is too little blood in her cheeks to have sent her astray +elsewhere. Well, I will bear mine antler'd honours as I may--gold +shall gild them; and for my disgrace, revenge shall sweeten it. Ay, +revenge--and there strikes the happy hour!" + +The hour of noon was accordingly heard to peal from Saint Dunstan's. +"Well banged, brave hammers!" said Lord Dalgarno, in triumph.--"The +estate and lands of Glenvarloch are crushed beneath these clanging +blows. If my steel to-morrow prove but as true as your iron maces +to-day, the poor landless lord will little miss what your peal hath +cut him out from.--The papers--the papers, thou varlet! I am to-morrow +Northward, ho! At four, afternoon, I am bound to be at Camlet Moat, +in the Enfield Chase. To-night most of my retinue set forward. The +papers!--Come, dispatch." + +"My lord, the--the papers of the Glenvarloch mortgage--I--I have them +not." + +"Have them not!" echoed Lord Dalgarno,--"Hast thou sent them to my +lodgings, thou varlet? Did I not say I was coming hither?--What mean you +by pointing to that money? What villainy have you done for it? It is too +large to be come honestly by." + +"Your lordship knows best," answered the scrivener, in great +perturbation. "The gold is your own. It is--it is--" + +"Not the redemption-money of the Glenvarloch estate!" said Dalgarno. +"Dare not say it is, or I will, upon the spot, divorce your pettifogging +soul from your carrion carcass!" So saying, he seized the scrivener +by the collar, and shook him so vehemently, that he tore it from the +cassock. + +"My lord, I must call for help," said the trembling caitiff, who felt +at that moment all the bitterness of the mortal agony--"It was the law's +act, not mine. What could I do?" + +"Dost ask?--why, thou snivelling dribblet of damnation, were all thy +oaths, tricks, and lies spent? or do you hold yourself too good to utter +them in my service? Thou shouldst have lied, cozened, out-sworn truth +itself, rather than stood betwixt me and my revenge! But mark me," he +continued; "I know more of your pranks than would hang thee. A line from +me to the Attorney-General, and thou art sped." + +"What would you have me to do, my lord?" said the scrivener. "All that +art and law can accomplish, I will try." + +"Ah, are you converted? do so, or pity of your life!" said the lord; +"and remember I never fail my word.--Then keep that accursed gold," +he continued. "Or, stay, I will not trust you--send me this gold home +presently to my lodging. I will still forward to Scotland, and it shall +go hard but that I hold out Glenvarloch Castle against the owner, by +means of the ammunition he has himself furnished. Thou art ready to +serve me?" The scrivener professed the most implicit obedience. + +"Then remember, the hour was past ere payment was tendered--and see thou +hast witnesses of trusty memory to prove that point." + +"Tush, my lord, I will do more," said Andrew, reviving--"I will prove +that Lord Glenvarloch's friends threatened, swaggered, and drew swords +on me.--Did your lordship think I was ungrateful enough to have suffered +them to prejudice your lordship, save that they had bare swords at my +throat?" + +"Enough said," replied Dalgarno; "you are perfect--mind that you +continue so, as you would avoid my fury. I leave my page below--get +porters, and let them follow me instantly with the gold." + +So saying, Lord Dalgarno left the scrivener's habitation. + +Skurliewhitter, having dispatched his boy to get porters of trust for +transporting the money, remained alone and in dismay, meditating by +what means he could shake himself free of the vindictive and ferocious +nobleman, who possessed at once a dangerous knowledge of his character, +and the power of exposing him, where exposure would be ruin. He +had indeed acquiesced in the plan, rapidly sketched, for obtaining +possession of the ransomed estate, but his experience foresaw that this +would be impossible; while, on the other hand, he could not anticipate +the various consequences of Lord Dalgarno's resentment, without fears, +from which his sordid soul recoiled. To be in the power, and subject +both to the humours and the extortions of a spendthrift young lord, just +when his industry had shaped out the means of fortune,--it was the most +cruel trick which fate could have played the incipient usurer. + +While the scrivener was in this fit of anxious anticipation, one knocked +at the door of the apartment; and, being desired to enter, appeared in +the coarse riding-cloak of uncut Wiltshire cloth, fastened by a broad +leather belt and brass buckle, which was then generally worn by graziers +and countrymen. Skurliewhitter, believing he saw in his visitor a +country client who might prove profitable, had opened his mouth to +request him to be seated, when the stranger, throwing back his frieze +hood which he had drawn over his face, showed the scrivener features +well imprinted in his recollection, but which he never saw without a +disposition to swoon. + +"Is it you?" he said, faintly, as the stranger replaced the hood which +concealed his features. + +"Who else should it be?" said his visitor. + +"Thou son of parchment, got betwixt the inkhorn And the stuff'd +process-bag--that mayest call The pen thy father, and the ink thy mother, + + The wax thy brother, and the sand thy sister + And the good pillory thy cousin allied-- + Rise, and do reverence unto me, thy better!" + +"Not yet down to the country," said the scrivener, "after every warning? +Do not think your grazier's cloak will bear you out, captain--no, nor +your scraps of stage-plays." + +"Why, what would you have me to do?" said the captain--"Would you have +me starve? If I am to fly, you must eke my wings with a few feathers. +You can spare them, I think." + +"You had means already--you have had ten pieces--What is become of +them?" + +"Gone," answered Captain Colepepper--"Gone, no matter where--I had a +mind to bite, and I was bitten, that's all--I think my hand shook at the +thought of t'other night's work, for I trowled the doctors like a very +baby." + +"And you have lost all, then?--Well, take this and be gone," said the +scrivener. + +"What, two poor smelts! Marry, plague of your bounty!--But remember, you +are as deep in as I." + +"Not so, by Heaven!" answered the scrivener; "I only thought of easing +the old man of some papers and a trifle of his gold, and you took his +life." + +"Were he living," answered Colepepper, "he would rather have lost +it than his money.--But that is not the question, Master +Skurliewhitter--you undid the private bolts of the window when you +visited him about some affairs on the day ere he died--so satisfy +yourself, that, if I am taken, I will not swing alone. Pity Jack +Hempsfield is dead, it spoils the old catch, + + 'And three merry men, and three merry men, + And three merry men are we, + As ever did sing three parts in a string, + All under the triple tree.'" + +"For God's sake, speak lower," said the scrivener; "is this a place or +time to make your midnight catches heard?--But how much will serve your +turn? I tell you I am but ill provided." + +"You tell me a lie, then," said the bully--"a most palpable and gross +lie.--How much, d'ye say, will serve my turn? Why, one of these bags +will do for the present." + +"I swear to you that these bags of money are not at my disposal." + +"Not honestly, perhaps," said the captain, "but that makes little +difference betwixt us." + +"I swear to you," continued the scrivener "they are in no way at my +disposal--they have been delivered to me by tale--I am to pay them over +to Lord Dalgarno, whose boy waits for them, and I could not skelder one +piece out of them, without risk of hue and cry." + +"Can you not put off the delivery?" said the bravo, his huge hand still +fumbling with one of the bags, as if his fingers longed to close on it. + +"Impossible," said the scrivener, "he sets forward to Scotland +to-morrow." + +"Ay!" said the bully, after a moment's thought--"Travels he the north +road with such a charge?" + +"He is well accompanied," added the scrivener; "but yet--" + +"But yet--but what?" said the bravo. + +"Nay, I meant nothing," said the scrivener. + +"Thou didst--thou hadst the wind of some good thing," replied +Colepepper; "I saw thee pause like a setting dog. Thou wilt say as +little, and make as sure a sign, as a well-bred spaniel." + +"All I meant to say, captain, was, that his servants go by Barnet, and +he himself, with his page, pass through Enfield Chase; and he spoke to +me yesterday of riding a soft pace." + +"Aha!--Comest thou to me there, my boy?" + +"And of resting"--continued the scrivener,--"resting a space at Camlet +Moat." + +"Why, this is better than cock-fighting!" said the captain. + +"I see not how it can advantage you, captain," said the scrivener. "But, +however, they cannot ride fast, for his page rides the sumpter-horse, +which carries all that weight," pointing to the money on the table. +"Lord Dalgarno looks sharp to the world's gear." + +"That horse will be obliged to those who may ease him of his burden," +said the bravo; "and egad, he may be met with.--He hath still that +page--that same Lutin--that goblin? Well, the boy hath set game for +me ere now. I will be revenged, too, for I owe him a grudge for an old +score at the ordinary. Let me see--Black Feltham, and Dick Shakebag--we +shall want a fourth--I love to make sure, and the booty will stand +parting, besides what I can bucket them out of. Well, scrivener, lend +me two pieces.--Bravely done--nobly imparted! Give ye good-den." And +wrapping his disguise closer around him, away he went. + +When he had left the room, the scrivener wrung his hands, and exclaimed, +"More blood--more blood! I thought to have had done with it, but this +time there was no fault with me--none--and then I shall have all the +advantage. If this ruffian falls, there is truce with his tugs at my +purse-strings; and if Lord Dalgarno dies--as is most likely, for though +as much afraid of cold steel as a debtor of a dun, this fellow is +a deadly shot from behind a bush,--then am I in a thousand ways +safe--safe--safe." + +We willingly drop the curtain over him and his reflections. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + + We are not worst at once--the course of evil + Begins so slowly, and from such slight source, + An infant's hand might stem its breach with clay; + But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy-- + Ay, and religion too--shall strive in vain + To turn the headlong torrent. + _Old Play._ + +The Templars had been regaled by our friend Richie Moniplies in a +private chamber at Beaujeu's, where he might be considered as good +company; for he had exchanged his serving-man's cloak and jerkin for +a grave yet handsome suit of clothes, in the fashion of the times, but +such as might have befitted an older man than himself. He had positively +declined presenting himself at the ordinary, a point to which his +companions were very desirous to have brought him, for it will be +easily believed that such wags as Lowestoffe and his companion were not +indisposed to a little merriment at the expense of the raw and pedantic +Scotsman; besides the chance of easing him of a few pieces, of which +he appeared to have acquired considerable command. But not even a +succession of measures of sparkling sack, in which the little brilliant +atoms circulated like motes in the sun's rays, had the least effect +on Richie's sense of decorum. He retained the gravity of a judge, even +while he drank like a fish, partly from his own natural inclination to +good liquor, partly in the way of good fellowship towards his guests. +When the wine began to make some innovation on their heads, Master +Lowestoffe, tired, perhaps, of the humours of Richie, who began to +become yet more stoically contradictory and dogmatical than even in the +earlier part of the entertainment, proposed to his friend to break up +their debauch and join the gamesters. + +The drawer was called accordingly, and Richie discharged the reckoning +of the party, with a generous remuneration to the attendants, which was +received with cap and knee, and many assurances of--"Kindly welcome, +gentlemen." + +"I grieve we should part so soon, gentlemen," said Richie to his +companions,--"and I would you had cracked another quart ere you went, or +stayed to take some slight matter of supper, and a glass of Rhenish. I +thank you, however, for having graced my poor collation thus far; and +I commend you to fortune, in your own courses, for the ordinary neither +was, is, nor shall be, an element of mine." + +"Fare thee well, then," said Lowestoffe, "most sapient and sententious +Master Moniplies. May you soon have another mortgage to redeem, and may +I be there to witness it; and may you play the good fellow, as heartily +as you have done this day." + +"Nay, gentlemen, it is merely of your grace to say so--but, if you +would but hear me speak a few words of admonition respecting this wicked +ordinary--" + +"Reserve the lesson, most honourable Richie," said Lowestoffe, "until +I have lost all my money," showing, at the same time, a purse +indifferently well provided, "and then the lecture is likely to have +some weight." + +"And keep my share of it, Richie," said the other Templar, showing an +almost empty purse, in his turn, "till this be full again, and then I +will promise to hear you with some patience." + +"Ay, ay, gallants," said Richie, "the full and the empty gang a' ae +gate, and that is a grey one--but the time will come." + +"Nay, it is come already," said Lowestoffe; "they have set out the +hazard table. Since you will peremptorily not go with us, why, farewell, +Richie." + +"And farewell, gentlemen," said Richie, and left the house, into which +they had returned. + +Moniplies was not many steps from the door, when a person, whom, lost +in his reflections on gaming, ordinaries, and the manners of the age, +he had not observed, and who had been as negligent on his part, ran +full against him; and, when Richie desired to know whether he meant "ony +incivility," replied by a curse on Scotland, and all that belonged to +it. A less round reflection on his country would, at any time, have +provoked Richie, but more especially when he had a double quart of +Canary and better in his pate. He was about to give a very rough answer, +and to second his word by action, when a closer view of his antagonist +changed his purpose. + +"You are the vera lad in the warld," said Richie, "whom I most wished to +meet." + +"And you," answered the stranger, "or any of your beggarly countrymen, +are the last sight I should ever wish to see. You Scots are ever fair +and false, and an honest man cannot thrive within eyeshot of you." + +"As to our poverty, friend," replied Richie, "that is as Heaven pleases; +but touching our falset, I'll prove to you that a Scotsman bears as leal +and true a heart to his friend as ever beat in English doublet." + +"I care not whether he does or not," said the gallant. "Let me go--why +keep you hold of my cloak? Let me go, or I will thrust you into the +kennel." + +"I believe I could forgie ye, for you did me a good turn once, in +plucking me out of it," said the Scot. + +"Beshrew my fingers, then, if they did so," replied the stranger. "I +would your whole country lay there, along with you; and Heaven's curse +blight the hand that helped to raise them!--Why do you stop my way?" he +added, fiercely. + +"Because it is a bad one, Master Jenkin," said Richie. "Nay, never start +about it, man--you see you are known. Alack-a-day! that an honest man's +son should live to start at hearing himself called by his own name!" +Jenkin struck his brow violently with his clenched fist. + +"Come, come," said Richie, "this passion availeth nothing. Tell me what +gate go you?" + +"To the devil!" answered Jin Vin. + +"That is a black gate, if you speak according to the letter," answered +Richie; "but if metaphorically, there are worse places in this great +city than the Devil Tavern; and I care not if I go thither with you, and +bestow a pottle of burnt sack on you--it will correct the crudities of +my stomach, and form a gentle preparative for the leg of a cold pullet." + +"I pray you, in good fashion, to let me go," said Jenkin. "You may mean +me kindly, and I wish you to have no wrong at my hand; but I am in the +humour to be dangerous to myself, or any one." + +"I will abide the risk," said the Scot, "if you will but come with me; +and here is a place convenient, a howff nearer than the Devil, whilk +is but an ill-omened drouthy name for a tavern. This other of the Saint +Andrew is a quiet place, where I have ta'en my whetter now and +then, when I lodged in the neighbourhood of the Temple with Lord +Glenvarloch.--What the deil's the matter wi' the man, garr'd him gie sic +a spang as that, and almaist brought himself and me on the causeway?" + +"Do not name that false Scot's name to me," said Jin Vin, "if you would +not have me go mad!--I was happy before I saw him--he has been the cause +of all the ill that has befallen me--he has made a knave and a madman of +me!" + +"If you are a knave," said Richie, "you have met an officer--if you are +daft, you have met a keeper; but a gentle officer and a kind keeper. +Look you, my gude friend, there has been twenty things said about this +same lord, in which there is no more truth than in the leasings of +Mahound. The warst they can say of him is, that he is not always so +amenable to good advice as I would pray him, you, and every young man to +be. Come wi' me--just come ye wi' me; and, if a little spell of siller +and a great deal of excellent counsel can relieve your occasions, all +I can say is, you have had the luck to meet one capable of giving you +both, and maist willing to bestow them." + +The pertinacity of the Scot prevailed over the sullenness of Vincent, +who was indeed in a state of agitation and incapacity to think for +himself, which led him to yield the more readily to the suggestions of +another. He suffered himself to be dragged into the small tavern which +Richie recommended, and where they soon found themselves seated in a +snug niche, with a reeking pottle of burnt sack, and a paper of sugar +betwixt them. Pipes and tobacco were also provided, but were only used +by Richie, who had adopted the custom of late, as adding considerably to +the gravity and importance of his manner, and affording, as it were, +a bland and pleasant accompaniment to the words of wisdom which flowed +from his tongue. After they had filled their glasses and drank them in +silence, Richie repeated the question, whither his guest was going when +they met so fortunately. + +"I told you," said Jenkin, "I was going to destruction--I mean to the +gaming-house. I am resolved to hazard these two or three pieces, to get +as much as will pay for a passage with Captain Sharker, whose ship lies +at Gravesend, bound for America--and so Eastward, ho!--I met one devil +in the way already, who would have tempted me from my purpose, but I +spurned him from me--you may be another for what I know.--What degree +of damnation do you propose for me," he added wildly, "and what is the +price of it?" + +"I would have you to know," answered Richie, "that I deal in no such +commodities, whether as buyer or seller. But if you will tell me +honestly the cause of your distress, I will do what is in my power to +help you out of it,--not being, however, prodigal of promises, until +I know the case; as a learned physician only gives advice when he has +observed the diagnostics." + +"No one has any thing to do with my affairs," said the poor lad; and +folding his arms on the table, he laid his head upon them, with the +sullen dejection of the overburdened lama, when it throws itself down to +die in desperation. + +Richard Moniplies, like most folk who have a good opinion of themselves, +was fond of the task of consolation, which at once displayed his +superiority, (for the consoler is necessarily, for the time at least, +superior to the afflicted person,) and indulged his love of talking. +He inflicted on the poor penitenta harangue of pitiless length, stuffed +full of the usual topics of the mutability of human affairs--the eminent +advantages of patience under affliction--the folly of grieving for what +hath no remedy--the necessity of taking more care for the future, and +some gentle rebukes on account of the past, which acid he threw in to +assist in subduing the patient's obstinacy, as Hannibal used vinegar in +cutting his way through rocks. It was not in human nature to endure this +flood of commonplace eloquence in silence; and Jin Vin, whether desirous +of stopping the flow of words--crammed thus into his ear, "against the +stomach of his sense," or whether confiding in Richie's protestations +of friendship, which the wretched, says Fielding, are ever so ready to +believe, or whether merely to give his sorrows vent in words, raised his +head, and turning his red and swollen eyes to Richie-- + +"Cocksbones, man, only hold thy tongue, and thou shall know all about +it,--and then all I ask of thee is to shake hands and part.--This +Margaret Ramsay,--you have seen her, man?" + +"Once," said Richie, "once, at Master George Heriot's in Lombard +Street--I was in the room when they dined." + +"Ay, you helped to shift their trenchers, I remember," said Jin Vin. +"Well, that same pretty girl--and I will uphold her the prettiest +betwixt Paul's and the Bar--she is to be wedded to your Lord +Glenvarloch, with a pestilence on him!" + +"That is impossible," said Richie; "it is raving nonsense, man--they +make April gouks of you cockneys every month in the year--The Lord +Glenvarloch marry the daughter of a Lonnon mechanic! I would as soon +believe the great Prester John would marry the daughter of a Jew +packman." + +"Hark ye, brother," said Jin Vin, "I will allow no one to speak +disregardfully of the city, for all I am in trouble." + +"I crave your pardon, man--I meant no offence," said Richie; "but as to +the marriage, it is a thing simply impossible." + +"It is a thing that will take place, though, for the Duke and the +Prince, and all of them, have a finger in it; and especially the old +fool of a king, that makes her out to be some great woman in her own +country, as all the Scots pretend to be, you know." + +"Master Vincent, but that you are under affliction," said the consoler, +offended on his part, "I would hear no national reflections." + +The afflicted youth apologised in his turns, but asserted, "it was true +that the king said Peg-a-Ramsay was some far-off sort of noblewoman; and +that he had taken a great interest in the match, and had run about like +an old gander, cackling about Peggie ever since he had seen her in hose +and doublet--and no wonder," added poor Vin, with a deep sigh. + +"This may be all true," said Richie, "though it sounds strange in my +ears; but, man, you should not speak evil of dignities---Curse not the +king, Jenkin; not even in thy bed-chamber--stone walls have ears--no one +has a right to know better than I." + +"I do not curse the foolish old man," said Jenkin; "but I would have +them carry things a peg lower.--If they were to see on a plain field +thirty thousand such pikes as I have seen in the artillery gardens, +it would not be their long-haired courtiers would help them, I trow." +[Footnote: Clarendon remarks, that the importance of the military +exercise of the citizens was severely felt by the cavaliers during the +civil war, notwithstanding the ridicule that had been showered upon it +by the dramatic poets of the day. Nothing less than habitual practice +could, at the battle of Newbury and elsewhere, have enabled the +Londoners to keep their ranks as pikemen, in spite of the repeated +charge of the fiery Prince Rupert and his gallant cavaliers.] + +"Hout tout, man," said Richie, "mind where the Stewarts come frae, and +never think they would want spears or claymores either; but leaving sic +matters, whilk are perilous to speak on, I say once more, what is your +concern in all this matter?" + +"What is it?" said Jenkin; "why, have I not fixed on Peg-a-Ramsay to be +my true love, from the day I came to her old father's shop? and have I +not carried her pattens and her chopines for three years, and borne her +prayer-book to church, and brushed the cushion for her to kneel down +upon, and did she ever say me nay?" + +"I see no cause she had," said Richie, "if the like of such small +services were all that ye proffered. Ah, man! there are few--very few, +either of fools or of wise men, ken how to guide a woman." + +"Why, did I not serve her at the risk of my freedom, and very nigh at +the risk of my neck? Did she not--no, it was not her neither, but that +accursed beldam whom she caused to work upon me--persuade me like a fool +to turn myself into a waterman to help my lord, and a plague to him, +down to Scotland? and instead of going peaceably down to the ship at +Gravesend, did not he rant and bully, and show his pistols, and make +me land him at Greenwich, where he played some swaggering pranks, that +helped both him and me into the Tower?" + +"Aha!" said Richie, throwing more than his usual wisdom into his looks, +"so you were the green-jacketed waterman that rowed Lord Glenvarloch +down the river?" + +"The more fool I, that did not souse him in the Thames," said Jenkin; +"and I was the lad who would not confess one word of who and what I +was, though they threatened to make me hug the Duke of Exeter's +daughter."[Footnote: A particular species of rack, used at the Tower of +London, was so called.] + +"Wha is she, man?" said Richie; "she must be an ill-fashioned piece, if +you're so much afraid of her, and she come of such high kin." + +"I mean the rack--the rack, man," said Jenkin. "Where were you bred +that never heard of the Duke of Exeter's daughter? But all the dukes and +duchesses in England could have got nothing out of me--so the truth came +out some other way, and I was set free.--Home I ran, thinking myself +one of the cleverest and happiest fellows in the ward. And she--she--she +wanted to pay me with _money_ for all my true service! and she spoke so +sweetly and so coldly at the same time, I wished myself in the deepest +dungeon of the Tower--I wish they had racked me to death before I heard +this Scottishman was to chouse me out of my sweetheart!" + +"But are ye sure ye have lost her?" said Richie; "it sounds strange +in my ears that my Lord Glenvarloch should marry the daughter of a +dealer,--though there are uncouth marriages made in London, I'll allow +that." + +"Why, I tell you this lord was no sooner clear of the Tower, than he and +Master George Heriot comes to make proposals for her, with the king's +assent, and what not; and fine fair-day prospects of Court favour for +this lord, for he hath not an acre of land." + +"Well, and what said the auld watch-maker?" said Richie; "was he not, as +might weel beseem him, ready to loop out of his skin-case for very joy?" + +"He multiplied six figures progressively, and reported the product--then +gave his consent." + +"And what did you do?" + +"I rushed into the streets," said the poor lad, "with a burning heart +and a blood-shot eye--and where did I first find myself, but with that +beldam, Mother Suddlechop--and what did she propose to me, but to take +the road?" + +"Take the road, man? in what sense?" said Richie. + +"Even as a clerk to Saint Nicholas--as a highwayman, like Poins and +Peto, and the good fellows in the play--and who think you was to be my +captain?--for she had the whole out ere I could speak to her--I fancy +she took silence for consent, and thought me damned too unutterably +to have one thought left that savoured of redemption--who was to be my +captain, but the knave that you saw me cudgel at the ordinary when you +waited on Lord Glenvarloch, a cowardly, sharking, thievish bully about +town here, whom they call Colepepper." + +"Colepepper--umph--I know somewhat of that smaik," said Richie; "ken ye +by ony chance where he may be heard of, Master Jenkin?--ye wad do me a +sincere service to tell me." + +"Why, he lives something obscurely," answered the apprentice, "on +account of suspicion of some villainy--I believe that horrid murder in +Whitefriars, or some such matter. But I might have heard all about him +from Dame Suddlechop, for she spoke of my meeting him at Enfield Chase, +with some other good fellows, to do a robbery on one that goes northward +with a store of treasure." + +"And you did not agree to this fine project?" said Moniplies. + +"I cursed her for a hag, and came away about my business," answered +Jenkin. + +"Ay, and what said she to that, man? That would startle her," said +Richie. + +"Not a whit. She laughed, and said she was in jest," answered Jenkin; +"but I know the she-devil's jest from her earnest too well to be taken +in that way. But she knows I would never betray her.' + +"Betray her! No," replied Richie; "but are ye in any shape bound to this +birkie Peppercull, or Colepepper, or whatever they call him, that ye +suld let him do a robbery on the honest gentleman that is travelling to +the north, and may be a kindly Scot, for what we know?" + +"Ay--going home with a load of English money," said Jenkin. "But be he +who he will, they may rob the whole world an they list, for I am robbed +and ruined." + +Richie filled his friend's cup up to the brim, and insisted that he +should drink what he called "clean caup out." "This love," he said, +"is but a bairnly matter for a brisk young fellow like yourself, Master +Jenkin. And if ye must needs have a whimsy, though I think it would be +safer to venture on a staid womanly body, why, here be as bonny lasses +in London as this Peg-a-Ramsay. You need not sigh sae deeply, for it is +very true--there is as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it. Now +wherefore should you, who are as brisk and trig a young fellow of your +inches as the sun needs to shine on--wherefore need you sit moping this +way, and not try some bold way to better your fortune?" + +"I tell you, Master Moniplies," said Jenkin, "I am as poor as any +Scot among you--I have broke my indenture, and I think of running my +country." + +"A-well-a-day!" said Richie; "but that maunna be, man--I ken weel, by +sad experience, that poortith takes away pith, and the man sits full +still that has a rent in his breeks. [Footnote: This elegant speech was +made by the Earl of Douglas, called Tineman after being wounded and made +prisoner at the battle of Shrewsbury, where + + "His well labouring sword + Had three times slain the semblance of the king,"] + +But courage, man; you have served me heretofore, and I will serve you +now. If you will but bring me to speech of this same captain, it will be +the best day's work you ever did." + +"I guess where you are, Master Richard--you would save your countryman's +long purse," said Jenkin. "I cannot see how that should advantage me, +but I reck not if I should bear a hand. I hate that braggart, that +bloody-minded, cowardly bully. If you can get me mounted I care not if I +show you where the dame told me I should meet him--but you must stand +to the risk, for though he is a coward himself, I know he will have more +than one stout fellow with him." + +"We'll have a warrant, man," said Richie, "and the hue and cry, to +boot." + +"We will have no such thing," said Jenkin, "if I am to go with you. I +am not the lad to betray any one to the harmanbeck. You must do it by +manhood if I am to go with you. I am sworn to cutter's law, and will +sell no man's blood." + +"Aweel," said Richie, "a wilful man must have his way; ye must think +that I was born and bred where cracked crowns were plentier than whole +ones. Besides, I have two noble friends here, Master Lowestoffe of the +Temple, and his cousin Master Ringwood, that will blithely be of so +gallant a party." + +"Lowestoffe and Ringwood!" said Jenkin; "they are both brave +gallants--they will be sure company. Know you where they are to be +found?" + +"Ay, marry do I," replied Richie. "They are fast at the cards and dice, +till the sma' hours, I warrant them." + +"They are gentlemen of trust and honour," said Jenkin, "and, if they +advise it, I will try the adventure. Go, try if you can bring them +hither, since you have so much to say with, them. We must not be seen +abroad together.--I know not how it is, Master Moniplies," continued he, +as his countenance brightened up, and while, in his turn, he filled the +cups, "but I feel my heart something lighter since I have thought of +this matter." + +"Thus it is to have counsellors, Master Jenkin," said Richie; "and truly +I hope to hear you say that your heart is as light as a lavrock's, and +that before you are many days aulder. Never smile and shake your head, +but mind what I tell you--and bide here in the meanwhile, till I go to +seek these gallants. I warrant you, cart-ropes would not hold them back +from such a ploy as I shall propose to them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + + + The thieves have bound the true men-- + Now, could thou and I rob the thieves, and go + merrily to London. + _Henry IV., Part I._ + +The sun was high upon the glades of Enfield Chase, and the deer, with +which it then abounded, were seen sporting in picturesque groups among +the ancient oaks of the forest, when a cavalier and a lady, on foot, +although in riding apparel, sauntered slowly up one of the long alleys +which were cut through the park for the convenience of the hunters. +Their only attendant was a page, who, riding a Spanish jennet, which +seemed to bear a heavy cloak-bag, followed them at a respectful +distance. The female, attired in all the fantastic finery of the period, +with more than the usual quantity of bugles, flounces, and trimmings, +and holding her fan of ostrich feathers in one hand, and her riding-mask +of black velvet in the other, seemed anxious, by all the little coquetry +practised on such occasions, to secure the notice of her companion, +who sometimes heard her prattle without seeming to attend to it, and +at other times interrupted his train of graver reflections, to reply to +her. + +"Nay, but, my lord--my lord, you walk so fast, you will leave me behind +you.--Nay, I will have hold of your arm, but how to manage with my mask +and my fan? Why would you not let me bring my waiting-gentlewoman to +follow us, and hold my things? But see, I will put my fan in my girdle, +soh!--and now that I have a hand to hold you with, you shall not run +away from me." + +"Come on, then," answered the gallant, "and let us walk apace, since you +would not be persuaded to stay with your gentlewoman, as you call her, +and with the rest of the baggage.--You may perhaps see _that_, though, +you will not like to see." + +She took hold of his arm accordingly; but as he continued to walk at the +same pace, she shortly let go her hold, exclaiming that he had hurt her +hand. The cavalier stopped, and looked at the pretty hand and arm which +she showed him, with exclamations against his cruelty. "I dare say," she +said, baring her wrist and a part of her arm, "it is all black and blue +to the very elbow." + +"I dare say you are a silly little fool," said the cavalier, carelessly +kissing the aggrieved arm; "it is only a pretty incarnate which sets off +the blue veins." + +"Nay, my lord, now it is you are silly," answered the dame; "but I am +glad I can make you speak and laugh on any terms this morning. I am +sure, if I did insist on following you into the forest, it was all +for the sake of diverting you. I am better company than your page, I +trow.--And now, tell me, these pretty things with horns, be they not +deer?" + +"Even such they be, Nelly," answered her neglectful attendant. + +"And what can the great folk do with so many of them, forsooth?" + +"They send them to the city, Nell, where wise men make venison pasties +of their flesh, and wear their horns for trophies," answered Lord +Dalgarno, whom our reader has already recognised. + +"Nay, now you laugh at me, my lord," answered his companion; "but I know +all about venison, whatever you may think. I always tasted it once a +year when we dined with Mr. Deputy," she continued, sadly, as a sense +of her degradation stole across a mind bewildered with vanity and +folly, "though he would not speak to me now, if we met together in the +narrowest lane in the Ward!" + +"I warrant he would not," said Lord Dalgarno, "because thou, Nell, +wouldst dash him with a single look; for I trust thou hast more spirit +than to throw away words on such a fellow as he?" + +"Who, I!" said Dame Nelly. "Nay, I scorn the proud princox too much for +that. Do you know, he made all the folk in the Ward stand cap in hand to +him, my poor old John Christie and all?" Here her recollection began to +overflow at her eyes. + +"A plague on your whimpering," said Dalgarno, somewhat harshly,--"Nay, +never look pale for the matter, Nell. I am not angry with you, you +simple fool. But what would you have me think, when you are eternally +looking back upon your dungeon yonder by the river, which smelt of pitch +and old cheese worse than a Welshman does of onions, and all this when I +am taking you down to a castle as fine as is in Fairy Land!" + +"Shall we be there to-night, my lord?" said Nelly, drying her tears. + +"To-night, Nelly?--no, nor this night fortnight." + +"Now, the Lord be with us, and keep us!--But shall we not go by sea, +my lord?--I thought everybody came from Scotland by sea. I am sure Lord +Glenvarloch and Richie Moniplies came up by sea." + +"There is a wide difference between coming up and going down, Nelly," +answered Lord Dalgarno. + +"And so there is, for certain," said his simple companion. "But yet I +think I heard people speaking of going down to Scotland by sea, as well +as coming up. Are you well avised of the way?--Do you think it possible +we can go by land, my sweet lord?" + +"It is but trying, my sweet lady," said Lord Dalgarno. "Men say England +and Scotland are in the same island, so one would hope there may be some +road betwixt them by land." + +"I shall never be able to ride so far," said the lady. + +"We will have your saddle stuffed softer," said the lord. "I tell you +that you shall mew your city slough, and change from the caterpillar of +a paltry lane into the butterfly of a prince's garden. You shall have as +many tires as there are hours in the day--as many handmaidens as +there are days in the week--as many menials as there are weeks in the +year--and you shall ride a hunting and hawking with a lord, instead of +waiting upon an old ship-chandler, who could do nothing but hawk and +spit." + +"Ay, but will you make me your lady?" said Dame Nelly. + +"Ay, surely--what else?" replied the lord--"My lady-love." + +"Ay, but I mean your lady-wife," said Nelly. + +"Truly, Nell, in that I cannot promise to oblige you. A lady-wife," +continued Dalgarno, "is a very different thing from a lady-love." + +"I heard from Mrs. Suddlechop, whom you lodged me with since I left poor +old John Christie, that Lord Glenvarloch is to marry David Ramsay the +clockmaker's daughter?" + +"There is much betwixt the cup and the lip, Nelly. I wear something +about me may break the bans of that hopeful alliance, before the day is +much older," answered Lord Dalgarno. + +"Well, but my father was as good a man as old Davy Ramsay, and as well +to pass in the world, my lord; and, therefore, why should you not marry +me? You have done me harm enough, I trow--wherefore should you not do me +this justice?" + +"For two good reasons, Nelly. Fate put a husband on you, and the king +passed a wife upon me," answered Lord Dalgarno. + +"Ay, my lord," said Nelly, "but they remain in England, and we go to +Scotland." + +"Thy argument is better than thou art aware of," said Lord Dalgarno. "I +have heard Scottish lawyers say the matrimonial tie may be unclasped +in our happy country by the gentle hand of the ordinary course of law, +whereas in England it can only be burst by an act of Parliament. Well, +Nelly, we will look into that matter; and whether we get married again +or no, we will at least do our best to get unmarried." + +"Shall we indeed, my honey-sweet lord? and then I will think less about +John Christie, for he will marry again, I warrant you, for he is well to +pass; and I would be glad to think he had somebody to take care of him, +as I used to do, poor loving old man! He was a kind man, though he was +a score of years older than I; and I hope and pray he will never let a +young lord cross his honest threshold again!" + +Here the dame was once more much inclined to give way to a passion of +tears; but Lord Dalgarno conjured down the emotion, by saying with some +asperity--"I am weary of these April passions, my pretty mistress, and +I think you will do well to preserve your tears for some more pressing +occasion. Who knows what turn of fortune may in a few minutes call for +more of them than you can render?" + +"Goodness, my lord! what mean you by such expressions? John Christie +(the kind heart!) used to keep no secrets from me, and I hope your +lordship will not hide your counsel from me?" + +"Sit down beside me on this bank," said the nobleman; "I am bound to +remain here for a short space, and if you can be but silent, I should +like to spend a part of it in considering how far I can, on the present +occasion, follow the respectable example which you recommend to me." + +The place at which he stopped was at that time little more than a mound, +partly surrounded by a ditch, from which it derived the name of Camlet +Moat. A few hewn stones there were, which had escaped the fate of many +others that had been used in building different lodges in the forest for +the royal keepers. These vestiges, just sufficient to show that "herein +former times the hand of man had been," marked the ruins of the abode of +a once illustrious but long-forgotten family, the Mandevilles, Earls +of Essex, to whom Enfield Chase and the extensive domains adjacent had +belonged in elder days. A wild woodland prospect led the eye at various +points through broad and seemingly interminable alleys, which, meeting +at this point as at a common centre, diverged from each other as they +receded, and had, therefore, been selected by Lord Dalgarno as +the rendezvous for the combat, which, through the medium of Richie +Moniplies, he had offered to his injured friend, Lord Glenvarloch. + +"He will surely come?" he said to himself; "cowardice was not wont to +be his fault--at least he was bold enough in the Park.--Perhaps yonder +churl may not have carried my message? But no--he is a sturdy knave--one +of those would prize their master's honour above their life.--Look to +the palfrey, Lutin, and see thou let him not loose, and cast thy falcon +glance down every avenue to mark if any one comes.--Buckingham has +undergone my challenge, but the proud minion pleads the king's paltry +commands for refusing to answer me. If I can baffle this Glenvarloch, or +slay him--If I can spoil him of his honour or his life, I shall go down +to Scotland with credit sufficient to gild over past mischances. I know +my dear countrymen--they never quarrel with any one who brings them +home either gold or martial glory, much more if he has both gold and +laurels." + +As he thus reflected, and called to mind the disgrace which he had +suffered, as well as the causes he imagined for hating Lord Glenvarloch, +his countenance altered under the influence of his contending emotions, +to the terror of Nelly, who, sitting unnoticed at his feet, and looking +anxiously in his face, beheld the cheek kindle, the mouth become +compressed, the eye dilated, and the whole countenance express the +desperate and deadly resolution of one who awaits an instant and +decisive encounter with a mortal enemy. The loneliness of the place, the +scenery so different from that to which alone she had been accustomed, +the dark and sombre air which crept so suddenly over the countenance +of her seducer, his command imposing silence upon her, and the apparent +strangeness of his conduct in idling away so much time without any +obvious cause, when a journey of such length lay before them, brought +strange thoughts into her weak brain. She had read of women, seduced +from their matrimonial duties by sorcerers allied to the hellish powers, +nay, by the Father of Evil himself, who, after conveying his victim +into some desert remote from human kind, exchanged the pleasing shape in +which he gained her affections, for all his natural horrors. She chased +this wild idea away as it crowded itself upon her weak and bewildered +imagination; yet she might have lived to see it realised allegorically, +if not literally, but for the accident which presently followed. + +The page, whose eyes were remarkably acute, at length called out to +his master, pointing with his finger at the same time down one of the +alleys, that horsemen were advancing in that direction. Lord Dalgarno +started up, and shading his eyes with his hand, gazed eagerly down the +alley; when, at the same instant, he received a shot, which, grazing his +hand, passed right through his brain, and laid him a lifeless corpse +at the feet, or rather across the lap, of the unfortunate victim of +his profligacy. The countenance, whose varied expression she had been +watching for the last five minutes, was convulsed for an instant, and +then stiffened into rigidity for ever. Three ruffians rushed from the +brake from which the shot had been fired, ere the smoke was dispersed. +One, with many imprecations seized on the page; another on the female, +upon whose cries he strove by the most violent threats to impose +silence; whilst the third began to undo the burden from the page's +horse. But an instant rescue prevented their availing themselves of the +advantage they had obtained. + +It may easily be supposed that Richie Moniplies, having secured the +assistance of the two Templars, ready enough to join in any thing +which promised a fray, with Jin Vin to act as their guide, had set off, +gallantly mounted and well armed, under the belief that they would reach +Camlet Moat before the robbers, and apprehend them in the fact. They +had not calculated that, according to the custom of robbers in other +countries, but contrary to that of the English highwayman of those +days, they meant to ensure robbery by previous murder. An accident also +happened to delay them a little while on the road. In riding through +one of the glades of the forest, they found a man dismounted and sitting +under a tree, groaning with such bitterness of spirit, that Lowestoffe +could not forbear asking if he was hurt. In answer, he said he was +an unhappy man in pursuit of his wife, who had been carried off by a +villain; and as he raised his countenance, the eyes of Richie, to his +great astonishment, encountered the visage of John Christie. + +"For the Almighty's sake, help me, Master Moniplies!" he said; "I have +learned my wife is but a short mile before, with that black villain Lord +Dalgarno." + +"Have him forward by all means," said Lowestoffe; "a second Orpheus +seeking his Eurydice!--Have him forward--we will save Lord Dalgarno's +purse, and ease him of his mistress--Have him with us, were it but for +the variety of the adventure. I owe his lordship a grudge for rooking +me. We have ten minutes good." + +But it is dangerous to calculate closely in matters of life and death. +In all probability the minute or two which was lost in mounting John +Christie behind one of their party, might have saved Lord Dalgarno +from his fate. Thus his criminal amour became the indirect cause of +his losing his life; and thus "our pleasant vices are made the whips to +scourge us." + +The riders arrived on the field at full gallop the moment after the shot +was fired; and Richie, who had his own reasons for attaching himself to +Colepepper, who was bustling to untie the portmanteau from the page's +saddle, pushed against him with such violence as to overthrow him, his +own horse at the same time stumbling and dismounting his rider, who was +none of the first equestrians. The undaunted Richie immediately arose, +however, and grappled with the ruffian with such good-will, that, though +a strong fellow, and though a coward now rendered desperate, Moniplies +got him under, wrenched a long knife from his hand, dealt him a +desperate stab with his own weapon, and leaped on his feet; and, as the +wounded man struggled to follow his example, he struck him upon the head +with the butt-end of a musketoon, which last blow proved fatal. + +"Bravo, Richie!" cried Lowestoffe, who had himself engaged +at sword-point with one of the ruffians, and soon put him to +flight,--"Bravo! why, man, there lies Sin, struck down like an ox, and +Iniquity's throat cut like a calf." + +"I know not why you should upbraid me with my upbringing, Master +Lowestoffe," answered Richie, with great composure; "but I can tell you, +the shambles is not a bad place for training one to this work." + +The other Templar now shouted loudly to them,--"If ye be men, come +hither--here lies Lord Dalgarno, murdered!" + +Lowestoffe and Richie ran to the spot, and the page took the +opportunity, finding himself now neglected on all hands, to ride off +in a different direction; and neither he, nor the considerable sum with +which his horse was burdened, were ever heard of from that moment. + +The third ruffian had not waited the attack of the Templar and Jin Vin, +the latter of whom had put down old Christie from behind him that he +might ride the lighter; and the whole five now stood gazing with horror +on the bloody corpse of the young nobleman, and the wild sorrow of the +female, who tore her hair and shrieked in the most disconsolate manner, +until her agony was at once checked, or rather received a new direction, +by the sudden and unexpected appearance of her husband, who, fixing on +her a cold and severe look, said, in a tone suited to his manner--"Ay, +woman! thou takest on sadly for the loss of thy paramour."--Then, +looking on the bloody corpse of him from whom he had received so deep an +injury, he repeated the solemn words of Scripture,--"'Vengeance is mine, +saith the Lord, and I will repay it.'--I, whom thou hast injured, will +be first to render thee the decent offices due to the dead." + +So saying, he covered the dead body with his cloak, and then looking on +it for a moment, seemed to reflect on what he had next to perform. As +the eye of the injured man slowly passed from the body of the seducer +to the partner and victim of his crime, who had sunk down to his feet, +which she clasped without venturing to look up, his features, naturally +coarse and saturnine, assumed a dignity of expression which overawed +the young Templars, and repulsed the officious forwardness of Richie +Moniplies, who was at first eager to have thrust in his advice and +opinion. "Kneel not to me, woman," he said, "but kneel to the God +thou hast offended, more than thou couldst offend such another worm as +thyself. How often have I told thee, when thou wert at the gayest and +the lightest, that pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit +before a fall? Vanity brought folly, and folly brought sin, and sin hath +brought death, his original companion. Thou must needs leave duty, and +decency, and domestic love, to revel it gaily with the wild and with the +wicked; and there thou liest like a crushed worm, writhing beside the +lifeless body of thy paramour. Thou hast done me much wrong--dishonoured +me among friends--driven credit from my house, and peace from my +fireside--But thou wert my first and only love, and I will not see +thee an utter castaway, if it lies with me to prevent it.--Gentlemen, +I render ye such thanks as a broken-hearted man can give.--Richard, +commend me to your honourable master. I added gall to the bitterness of +his affliction, but I was deluded.--Rise up, woman, and follow me." + +He raised her up by the arm, while, with streaming eyes, and bitter +sobs, she endeavoured to express her penitence. She kept her hands +spread over her face, yet suffered him to lead her away; and it was only +as they turned around a brake which concealed the scene they had left, +that she turned back, and casting one wild and hurried glance towards +the corpse of Dalgarno, uttered a shriek, and clinging to her husband's +arm, exclaimed wildly,--"Save me--save me! They have murdered him!" + +Lowestoffe was much moved by what he had witnessed; but he was ashamed, +as a town-gallant, of his own unfashionable emotion, and did a force +to his feelings when he exclaimed,--"Ay, let them go--the kind-hearted, +believing, forgiving husband--the liberal, accommodating spouse. O what +a generous creature is your true London husband!--Horns hath he, but, +tame as a fatted ox, he goreth not. I should like to see her when +she hath exchanged her mask and riding-beaver for her peaked hat +and muffler. We will visit them at Paul's Wharf, coz--it will be a +convenient acquaintance." + +"You had better think of catching the gipsy thief, Lutin," said Richie +Moniplies; "for, by my faith, he is off with his master's baggage and +the siller." + +A keeper, with his assistants, and several other persons, had now come +to the spot, and made hue and cry after Lutin, but in vain. To their +custody the Templars surrendered the dead bodies, and after going +through some formal investigation, they returned, with Richard and +Vincent, to London, where they received great applause for their +gallantry.--Vincent's errors were easily expiated, in consideration +of his having been the means of breaking up this band of villains; +and there is some reason to think, that what would have diminished +the credit of the action in other instances, rather added to it in +the actual circumstances, namely, that they came too late to save Lord +Dalgarno. + +George Heriot, who suspected how matters stood with Vincent, requested +and obtained permission from his master to send the poor young fellow on +an important piece of business to Paris. We are unable to trace his +fate farther, but believe it was prosperous, and that he entered into +an advantageous partnership with his fellow-apprentice, upon old +Davy Ramsay retiring from business, in consequence of his daughter's +marriage. That eminent antiquary, Dr. Dryasdust, is possessed of an +antique watch, with a silver dial-plate, the mainspring being a piece +of catgut instead of a chain, which bears the names of Vincent and +Tunstall, Memory-Monitors. + +Master Lowestoffe failed not to vindicate his character as a man of +gaiety, by inquiring after John Christie and Dame Nelly; but greatly to +his surprise, (indeed to his loss, for he had wagered ten pieces that he +would domesticate himself in the family,) he found the good-will, as +it was called, of the shop, was sold, the stock auctioned, and the late +proprietor and his wife gone, no one knew whither. The prevailing belief +was, that they had emigrated to one of the new settlements in America. + +Lady Dalgarno received the news of her unworthy husband's death with a +variety of emotions, among which, horror that he should have been cut +off in the middle career of his profligacy, was the most prominent. +The incident greatly deepened her melancholy, and injured her health, +already shaken by previous circumstances. Repossessed of her own +fortune by her husband's death, she was anxious to do justice to Lord +Glenvarloch, by treating for the recovery of the mortgage. + +But the scrivener, having taken fright at the late events, had left the +city and absconded, so that it was impossible to discover into whose +hands the papers had now passed. Richard Moniplies was silent, for his +own reasons; the Templars, who had witnessed the transaction, kept +the secret at his request, and it was universally believed that the +scrivener had carried off the writings along with him. We may here +observe, that fears similar to those of Skurliewhitter freed London for +ever from the presence of Dame Suddlechop, who ended her career in the +_Rasp-haus_, (viz. Bridewell,) of Amsterdam. + +The stout old Lord Huntinglen, with a haughty carriage and unmoistened +eye, accompanied the funeral procession of his only son to its last +abode; and perhaps the single tear which fell at length upon the coffin, +was given less to the fate of the individual, than to the extinction of +the last male of his ancient race. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + + +_Jacques_. There is, suie, another flood toward, and these couples are +coming to the ark!--Here comes a pair of very strange beasts.--_As You +Like It_. + +The fashion of such narratives as the present, changes like other +earthly things. Time was that the tale-teller was obliged to wind up +his story by a circumstantial description of the wedding, bedding, and +throwing the stocking, as the grand catastrophe to which, through so +many circumstances of doubt and difficulty, he had at length happily +conducted his hero and heroine. Not a circumstance was then omitted, +from the manly ardour of the bridegroom, and the modest blushes of the +bride, to the parson's new surplice, and the silk tabinet mantua of +the bridesmaid. But such descriptions are now discarded, for the same +reason, I suppose, that public marriages are no longer fashionable, and +that, instead of calling together their friends to a feast and a dance, +the happy couple elope in a solitary post-chaise, as secretly as if they +meant to go to Gretna-Green, or to do worse. I am not ungrateful for a +change which saves an author the trouble of attempting in vain to give +a new colour to the commonplace description of such matters; but, +notwithstanding, I find myself forced upon it in the present instance, +as circumstances sometimes compel a stranger to make use of an old road +which has been for some time shut up. The experienced reader may have +already remarked, that the last chapter was employed in sweeping out +of the way all the unnecessary and less interesting characters, that I +might clear the floor for a blithe bridal. + +In truth, it would be unpardonable to pass over slightly what so +deeply interested our principal personage, King James. That learned and +good-humoured monarch made no great figure in the politics of Europe; +but then, to make amends, he was prodigiously busy, when he could find a +fair opportunity of intermeddling with the private affairs of his loving +subjects, and the approaching marriage of Lord Glenvarloch was matter +of great interest to him. He had been much struck (that is, for him, +who was not very accessible to such emotions) with the beauty and +embarrassment of the pretty Peg-a-Ramsay, as he called her, when he +first saw her, and he glorified himself greatly on the acuteness which +he had displayed in detecting her disguise, and in carrying through the +whole inquiry which took place in consequence of it. + +He laboured for several weeks, while the courtship was in progress, with +his own royal eyes, so as wellnigh to wear out, he declared, a pair +of her father's best barnacles, in searching through old books and +documents, for the purpose of establishing the bride's pretensions to +a noble, though remote descent, and thereby remove the only objection +which envy might conceive against the match. In his own opinion, at +least, he was eminently successful; for, when Sir Mungo Malagrowther one +day, in the presence-chamber, took upon him to grieve bitterly for the +bride's lack of pedigree, the monarch cut him short with, "Ye may save +your grief for your ain next occasions, Sir Mungo; for, by our royal +saul, we will uphauld her father, Davy Ramsay, to be a gentleman of nine +descents, whase great gudesire came of the auld martial stock of the +House of Dalwolsey, than whom better men never did, and better never +will, draw sword for king and country. Heard ye never of Sir William +Ramsay of Dalwolsey, man, of whom John Fordoun saith,--'He was +_bellicosissimus, nobilissimus?_'--His castle stands to witness for +itsell, not three miles from Dalkeith, man, and within a mile of +Bannockrig. Davy Ramsay came of that auld and honoured stock, and I +trust he hath not derogated from his ancestors by his present craft. +They all wrought wi' steel, man; only the auld knights drilled holes wi' +their swords in their enemies' corslets, and he saws nicks in his brass +wheels. And I hope it is as honourable to give eyes to the blind as +to slash them out of the head of those that see, and to show us how to +value our time as it passes, as to fling it away in drinking, brawling, +spear-splintering, and such-like unchristian doings. And you maun +understand, that Davy Ramsay is no mechanic, but follows a liberal art, +which approacheth almost to the act of creating a living being, +seeing it may be said of a watch, as Claudius saith of the sphere of +Archimedes, the Syracusan-- + +"Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus astris, Et vivum certis motibus +urget opus.'" + +"Your Majesty had best give auld Davy a coat-of-arms, as well as a +pedigree," said Sir Mungo. + +"It's done, or ye bade, Sir Mungo," said the king; "and I trust we, who +are the fountain of all earthly honour, are free to spirit a few drops +of it on one so near our person, without offence to the Knight of Castle +Girnigo. We have already spoken with the learned men of the Herald's +College, and we propose to grant him an augmented coat-of-arms, being +his paternal coat, charged with the crown-wheel of a watch in chief, for +a difference; and we purpose to add Time and Eternity, for supporters, +as soon as the Garter King-at-Arms shall be able to devise how Eternity +is to be represented." + +"I would make him twice as muckle as Time," [Footnote: Chaucer says, +there is nothing new but what it has been old. The reader has here the +original of an anecdote which has since been fathered on a Scottish +Chief of our own time.] said Archie Armstrong, the Court fool, who +chanced to be present when the king stated this dilemma. "Peace, man--ye +shall be whippet," said the king, in return for this hint; "and you, my +liege subjects of England, may weel take a hint from what we have said, +and not be in such a hurry to laugh at our Scottish pedigrees, though +they be somewhat long derived, and difficult to be deduced. Ye see that +a man of right gentle blood may, for a season, lay by his gentry, and +yet ken whare to find it, when he has occasion for it. It would be as +unseemly for a packman, or pedlar, as ye call a travelling merchant, +whilk is a trade to which our native subjects of Scotland are specially +addicted, to be blazing his genealogy in the faces of those to whom he +sells a bawbee's worth of ribbon, as it would be to him to have a +beaver on his head, and a rapier by his side, when the pack was on his +shoulders. Na, na--he hings his sword on the cleek, lays his beaver on +the shelf, puts his pedigree into his pocket, and gangs as doucely and +cannily about his peddling craft as if his blood was nae better than +ditch-water; but let our pedlar be transformed, as I have kend it happen +mair than ance, into a bein thriving merchant, then ye shall have a +transformation, my lords. + + 'In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas--' + +Out he pulls his pedigree, on he buckles his sword, gives his beaver a +brush, and cocks it in the face of all creation. We mention these things +at the mair length, because we would have you all to know, that it is +not without due consideration of the circumstances of all parties, that +we design, in a small and private way, to honour with our own royal +presence the marriage of Lord Glenvarloch with Margaret Ramsay, daughter +and heiress of David Ramsay, our horologer, and a cadet only thrice +removed from the ancient house of Dalwolsey. We are grieved we cannot +have the presence of the noble Chief of that House at the ceremony; but +where there is honour to be won abroad the Lord Dalwolsey is seldom +to be found at home. _Sic fuit, est, et erit_.-Jingling Geordie, as ye +stand to the cost of the marriage feast, we look for good cheer." + +Heriot bowed, as in duty bound. In fact, the king, who was a great +politician about trifles, had manoeuvred greatly on this occasion, +and had contrived to get the Prince and Buckingham dispatched on an +expedition to Newmarket, in order that he might find an opportunity in +their absence of indulging himself in his own gossiping, _coshering_ +habits, which were distasteful to Charles, whose temper inclined to +formality, and with which even the favourite, of late, had not thought +it worth while to seem to sympathise. When the levee was dismissed, Sir +Mungo Malagrowther seized upon the worthy citizen in the court-yard +of the Palace, and detained him, in spite of all his efforts, for the +purpose of subjecting him to the following scrutiny:-- + +"This is a sair job on you, Master George--the king must have had little +consideration--this will cost you a bonny penny, this wedding dinner?" + +"It will not break me, Sir Mungo," answered Heriot; "the king hath a +right to see the table which his bounty hath supplied for years, well +covered for a single day." + +"Vera true, vera true--we'll have a' to pay, I doubt, less or mair--a +sort of penny-wedding it will prove, where all men contribute to the +young folk's maintenance, that they may not have just four bare legs in +a bed together. What do you propose to give, Master George?--we begin +with the city when money is in question." [Footnote: The penny-wedding +of the Scots, now disused even among the lowest ranks, was a peculiar +species of merry-making, at which, if the wedded pair were popular, the +guests who convened, contributed considerable sums under pretence of +paying for the bridal festivity, but in reality to set the married folk +afloat in the world.] + +"Only a trifle, Sir Mungo--I give my god-daughter the marriage ring; +it is a curious jewel--I bought it in Italy; it belonged to Cosmo +de Medici. The bride will not need my help--she has an estate which +belonged to her maternal grandfather." + +"The auld soap-boiler," said Sir Mungo; "it will need some of his suds +to scour the blot out of the Glenvarloch shield--I have heard that +estate was no great things." + +"It is as good as some posts at Court, Sir Mungo, which are coveted by +persons of high quality," replied George Heriot. + +"Court favour, said ye? Court favour, Master Heriot?" replied Sir Mungo, +choosing then to use his malady of misapprehension; "Moonshine in +water, poor thing, if that is all she is to be tochered with--I am truly +solicitous about them." + +"I will let you into a secret," said the citizen, "which will relieve +your tender anxiety. The dowager Lady Dalgarno gives a competent fortune +to the bride, and settles the rest of her estate upon her nephew the +bridegroom." + +"Ay, say ye sae?" said Sir Mungo, "just to show her regard to her +husband that is in the tomb--lucky that her nephew did not send him +there; it was a strange story that death of poor Lord Dalgarno--some +folk think the poor gentleman had much wrong. Little good comes of +marrying the daughter of the house you are at feud with; indeed, it was +less poor Dalgarno's fault, than theirs that forced the match on him; +but I am glad the young folk are to have something to live on, come how +it like, whether by charity or inheritance. But if the Lady Dalgarno +were to sell all she has, even to her very wylie-coat, she canna gie +them back the fair Castle of Glenvarloch--that is lost and gane--lost +and gane." + +"It is but too true," said George Heriot; "we cannot discover what has +become of the villain Andrew Skurliewhitter, or what Lord Dalgarno has +done with the mortgage." + +"Assigned it away to some one, that his wife might not get it after he +was gane; it would have disturbed him in his grave, to think Glenvarloch +should get that land back again," said Sir Mungo; "depend on it, he will +have ta'en sure measures to keep that noble lordship out of her grips or +her nevoy's either." + +"Indeed it is but too probable, Sir Mungo," said Master Heriot; "but +as I am obliged to go and look after many things in consequence of this +ceremony, I must leave you to comfort yourself with the reflection." + +"The bride-day, you say, is to be on the thirtieth of the instant +month?" said Sir Mungo, holloing after the citizen; "I will be with you +in the hour of cause." + +"The king invites the guests," said George Heriot, without turning back. + +"The base-born, ill-bred mechanic!" soliloquised Sir Mungo, "if it were +not the odd score of pounds he lent me last week, I would teach him how +to bear himself to a man of quality! But I will be at the bridal banquet +in spite of him." + +Sir Mungo contrived to get invited, or commanded, to attend on the +bridal accordingly, at which there were but few persons present; for +James, on such occasions, preferred a snug privacy, which gave him +liberty to lay aside the encumbrance, as he felt it to be, of his regal +dignity. The company was very small, and indeed there were at least two +persons absent whose presence might have been expected. The first of +these was the Lady Dalgarno, the state of whose health, as well as the +recent death of her husband, precluded her attendance on the ceremony. +The other absentee was Richie Moniplies, whose conduct for some time +past had been extremely mysterious. Regulating his attendance on Lord +Glenvarloch entirely according to his own will and pleasure, he had, +ever since the rencounter in Enfield Chase, appeared regularly at his +bedside in the morning, to assist him to dress, and at his wardrobe in +the evening. The rest of the day he disposed of at his own pleasure, +without control from his lord, who had now a complete establishment of +attendants. Yet he was somewhat curious to know how the fellow disposed +of so much of his time; but on this subject Richie showed no desire to +be communicative. + +On the morning of the bridal-day, Richie was particularly attentive in +doing all a valet-de-chambre could, so as to set off to advantage the +very handsome figure of his master; and when he had arranged his dress +to the utmost exactness, and put to his long curled locks what he called +"the finishing touch of the redding-kaim," he gravely kneeled down, +kissed his hand, and bade him farewell, saying that he humbly craved +leave to discharge himself of his lordship's service. + +"Why, what humour is this?" said Lord Glenvarloch; "if you mean to +discharge yourself of my service, Richie, I suppose you intend to enter +my wife's?" + +"I wish her good ladyship that shall soon be, and your good lordship, +the blessings of as good a servant as myself, in heaven's good time," +said Richie; "but fate hath so ordained it, that I can henceforth only +be your servant in the way of friendly courtesy." + +"Well, Richie," said the young lord, "if you are tired of service, we +will seek some better provision for you; but you will wait on me to the +church, and partake of the bridal dinner?" + +"Under favour, my lord," answered Richie; "I must remind you of our +covenant, having presently some pressing business of mine own, whilk +will detain me during the ceremony; but I will not fail to prie Master +George's good cheer, in respect he has made very costly fare, whilk it +would be unthankful not to partake of." + +"Do as you list," answered Lord Glenvarloch; and having bestowed a +passing thought on the whimsical and pragmatical disposition of his +follower, he dismissed the subject for others better suited to the day. + +The reader must fancy the scattered flowers which strewed the path +of the happy couple to church--the loud music which accompanied the +procession--the marriage service performed by a bishop--the king, who +met them at Saint Paul's, giving away the bride,--to the great relief +of her father, who had thus time, during the ceremony, to calculate the +just quotient to be laid on the pinion of report in a timepiece which he +was then putting together. + +When the ceremony was finished, the company were transported in the +royal carriages to George Heriot's, where a splendid collation was +provided for the marriage-guests in the Foljambe apartments. The king +no sooner found himself in this snug retreat, than, casting from him +his sword and belt with such haste as if they burnt his fingers, and +flinging his plumed hat on the table, as who should say, Lie there, +authority! he swallowed a hearty cup of wine to the happiness of the +married couple, and began to amble about the room, mumping, laughing, +and cracking jests, neither the wittiest nor the most delicate, but +accompanied and applauded by shouts of his own mirth, in order to +encourage that of the company. Whilst his Majesty was in the midst of +this gay humour, and a call to the banquet was anxiously expected, +a servant whispered Master Heriot forth of the apartment. When he +re-entered, he walked up to the king, and, in his turn whispered +something, at which James started. + +"He is not wanting his siller?" said the king, shortly and sharply. + +"By no means, my liege," answered Heriot. "It is a subject he states +himself as quite indifferent about, so long as it can pleasure your +Majesty." + +"Body of us, man!" said the king, "it is the speech of a true man and a +loving subject, and we will grace him accordingly--what though he be +but a carle--a twopenny cat may look at a king. Swith, man! have +him--_pundite fores_.--Moniplies?--They should have called the chield +Monypennies, though I sall warrant you English think we have not such a +name in Scotland." + +"It is an ancient and honourable stock, the Monypennies," said Sir Mungo +Malagrowther; "the only loss is, there are sae few of the name." + +"The family seems to increase among your countrymen, Sir Mungo," said +Master Lowestoffe, whom Lord Glenvarloch had invited to be present, +"since his Majesty's happy accession brought so many of you here." + +"Right, sir--right," said Sir Mungo, nodding and looking at George +Heriot; "there have some of ourselves been the better of that great +blessing to the English nation." + +As he spoke, the door flew open, and in entered, to the astonishment +of Lord Glenvarloch, his late serving-man Richie Moniplies, now +sumptuously, nay, gorgeously, attired in a superb brocaded suit, and +leading in his hand the tall, thin, withered, somewhat distorted form +of Martha Trapbois, arrayed in a complete dress of black velvet, +which suited so strangely with the pallid and severe melancholy of her +countenance, that the king himself exclaimed, in some perturbation, +"What the deil has the fallow brought us here? Body of our regal selves! +it is a corpse that has run off with the mort-cloth!" + +"May I sifflicate your Majesty to be gracious unto her?" said Richie; +"being that she is, in respect of this morning's wark, my ain wedded +wife, Mrs. Martha Moniplies by name." + +"Saul of our body, man! but she looks wondrous grim," answered King +James. "Art thou sure she has not been in her time maid of honour to +Queen Mary, our kinswoman, of redhot memory?" + +"I am sure, an it like your Majesty, that she has brought me fifty +thousand pounds of good siller, and better; and that has enabled me to +pleasure your Majesty, and other folk." + +"Ye need have said naething about that, man," said the king; "we ken our +obligations in that sma' matter, and we are glad this rudas spouse of +thine hath bestowed her treasure on ane wha kens to put it to the profit +of his king and country.--But how the deil did ye come by her, man?" + +"In the auld Scottish fashion, my liege. She is the captive of my bow +and my spear," answered Moniplies. "There was a convention that she +should wed me when I avenged her father's death--so I slew, and took +possession." + +"It is the daughter of Old Trapbois, who has been missed so long," said +Lowestoffe.--"Where the devil could you mew her up so closely, friend +Richie?" + +"Master Richard, if it be your will," answered Richie; "or Master +Richard Moniplies, if you like it better. For mewing of her up, I found +her a shelter, in all honour and safety, under the roof of an honest +countryman of my own--and for secrecy, it was a point of prudence, when +wantons like you were abroad, Master Lowestoffe." + +There was a laugh at Richie's magnanimous reply, on the part of every +one but his bride, who made to him a signal of impatience, and said, +with her usual brevity and sternness,--"Peace--peace, I pray you, peace. +Let us do that which we came for." So saying, she took out a bundle of +parchments, and delivering them to Lord Glenvarloch, she said aloud,--"I +take this royal presence, and all here, to witness, that I restore the +ransomed lordship of Glenvarloch to the right owner, as free as ever it +was held by any of his ancestors." + +"I witnessed the redemption of the mortgage," said Lowestoffe; "but I +little dreamt by whom it had been redeemed." + +"No need ye should," said Richie; "there would have been small wisdom in +crying roast-meat." + +"Peace," said his bride, "once more.--This paper," she continued, +delivering another to Lord Glenvarloch, "is also your property--take it, +but spare me the question how it came into my custody." + +The king had bustled forward beside Lord Glenvarloch, and fixing an +eager eye on the writing, exclaimed--"Body of ourselves, it is our royal +sign-manual for the money which was so long out of sight!--How came you +by it, Mistress Bride?" + +"It is a secret," said Martha, dryly. + +"A secret which my tongue shall never utter," said Richie, +resolutely,--"unless the king commands me on my allegiance." + +"I do--I do command you," said James, trembling and stammering with the +impatient curiosity of a gossip; while Sir Mungo, with more malicious +anxiety to get at the bottom of the mystery, stooped his long thin form +forward like a bent fishing-rod, raised his thin grey locks from his +ear, and curved his hand behind it to collect every vibration of the +expected intelligence. Martha in the meantime frowned most ominously on +Richie, who went on undauntedly to inform the king, "that his deceased +father-in-law, a good careful man in the main, had a' touch of worldly +wisdom about him, that at times marred the uprightness of his walk; +he liked to dabble among his neighbour's gear, and some of it would at +times stick to his fingers in the handling." + +"For shame, man, for shame!" said Martha; "since the infamy of the +deed must be told, be it at least briefly.--Yes, my lord," she added, +addressing Glenvarloch, "the piece of gold was not the sole bait which +brought the miserable old man to your chamber that dreadful night--his +object, and he accomplished it, was to purloin this paper. The wretched +scrivener was with him that morning, and, I doubt not, urged the doting +old man to this villainy, to offer another bar to the ransom of your +estate. If there was a yet more powerful agent at the bottom of this +conspiracy, God forgive it to him at this moment, for he is now where +the crime must be answered!" + +"Amen!" said Lord Glenvarloch, and it was echoed by all present. + +"For my father," continued she, with her stern features twitched by an +involuntary and convulsive movement, "his guilt and folly cost him his +life; and my belief is constant, that the wretch, who counselled him +that morning to purloin the paper, left open the window for the entrance +of the murderers." + +Every body was silent for an instant; the king was first to speak, +commanding search instantly to be made for the guilty scrivener. +"_I, lictor,_" he concluded, "_colliga manus--caput obnubito-infelici +suspendite arbori_." + +Lowestoffe answered with due respect, that the scrivener had absconded +at the time of Lord Dalgarno's murder, and had not been heard of since. + +"Let him be sought for," said the king. "And now let us change the +discourse--these stories make one's very blood grew, and are altogether +unfit for bridal festivity. Hymen, O Hymenee!" added he, snapping his +fingers, "Lord Glenvarloch, what say you to Mistress Moniplies, this +bonny bride, that has brought you back your father's estate on your +bridal day?" + +"Let him say nothing, my liege," said Martha; "that will best suit his +feelings and mine." + +"There is redemption-money, at the least, to be repaid," said Lord +Glenvarloch; "in that I cannot remain debtor." + +"We will speak of it hereafter," said Martha; "_my_ debtor _you_ cannot +be." And she shut her mouth as if determined to say nothing more on the +subject. + +Sir Mungo, however, resolved not to part with the topic, and availing +himself of the freedom of the moment, said to Richie--"A queer story +that of your father-in-law, honest man; methinks your bride thanked you +little for ripping it up." + +"I make it a rule, Sir Mungo," replied Richie, "always to speak any evil +I know about my family myself, having observed, that if I do not, it is +sure to be told by ither folks." + +"But, Richie," said Sir Mungo, "it seems to me that this bride of yours +is like to be master and mair in the conjugal state." + +"If she abides by words, Sir Mungo," answered Richie, "I thank heaven I +can be as deaf as any one; and if she comes to dunts, I have twa hands +to paik her with." + +"Weel said, Richie, again," said the king; "you have gotten it on baith +haffits, Sir Mungo.--Troth, Mistress Bride, for a fule, your gudeman has +a pretty turn of wit." + +"There are fools, sire," replied she, "who have wit, and fools who +have courage--aye, and fools who have learning, and are great fools +notwithstanding.--I chose this man because he was my protector when +I was desolate, and neither for his wit nor his wisdom. He is truly +honest, and has a heart and hand that make amends for some folly. Since +I was condemned to seek a protector through the world, which is to me a +wilderness, I may thank God that I have come by no worse." + +"And that is sae sensibly said," replied the king, "that, by my saul, +I'll try whether I canna make him better. Kneel down, Richie--somebody +lend me a rapier--yours, Mr. Langstaff, (that's a brave name for a +lawyer,)--ye need not flash it out that gate, Templar fashion, as if ye +were about to pink a bailiff!" + +He took the drawn sword, and with averted eyes, for it was a sight he +loved not to look on, endeavoured to lay it on Richie's shoulder, but +nearly stuck it into his eye. Richie, starting back, attempted to rise, +but was held down by Lowestoffe, while Sir Mungo, guiding the royal +weapon, the honour-bestowing blow was given and received: "_Surge, +carnifex_--Rise up, Sir Richard Moniplies, of Castle-Collop!--And, my +lords and lieges, let us all to our dinner, for the cock-a-leekie is +cooling." + + + + +NOTES + + +Note I. p. l4.--DAVID RAMSAY + +David Ramsay, watchmaker and horologer to James I., was a real person, +though the author has taken the liberty of pressing him into the service +of fiction. Although his profession led him to cultivate the exact +sciences, like many at this period he mingled them with pursuits which +were mystical and fantastic. The truth was, that the boundaries between +truth and falsehood in mathematics, astronomy, and similar pursuits, +were not exactly known, and there existed a sort of _terra incognita_ +between them, in which the wisest men bewildered themselves. David +Ramsay risked his money on the success of the vaticinations which his +researches led him to form, since he sold clocks and watches under +condition, that their value should not become payable till King James +was crowned in the Pope's chair at Rome. Such wagers were common in that +day, as may be seen by looking at Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour. + +David Ramsay was also an actor in another singular scene, in which the +notorious astrologer Lilly was a performer, and had no small expectation +on the occasion, since he brought with him a half-quartern sack to put +the treasure in. + +"David Ramsay, his Majesty's clock-maker, had been informed that there +was a great quantity of treasure buried in the cloister of Westminster +Abbey. He acquaints Dean Withnam therewith, who was also then Bishop +of Lincoln. The Dean gave him liberty to search after it, with this +proviso, that if any was discovered, his church should have a share of +it. Davy Ramsay finds out one John Scott, who pretended the use of the +Mosaical rods, to assist him herein. [Footnote: The same now called, +I believe, the Divining Rod, and applied to the discovery of water +not obvious to the eye.] I was desired to join with him, unto which +I consented. One winter's night, Davy Ramsay, with several gentlemen, +myself, and Scott, entered the cloisters. We played the hazel rods round +about the cloisters. Upon the west end of the cloisters the rods turned +one over another, an argument that the treasure was there. The labourers +digged at least six feet deep, and then we met with a coffin; but which, +in regard it was not heavy, we did not open, which we afterwards much +repented. + +"From the cloisters we went into the abbey church, where, upon a +sudden, (there being no wind when we began,) so fierce and so high, so +blustering and loud a wind did rise, that we verily believed the west +end of the church would have fallen upon us. Our rods would not move at +all; the candles and torches, also, but one were extinguished, or burned +very dimly. John Scott, my partner, was amazed, looked pale, knew not +what to think or do, until I gave directions and command to dismiss the +demons; which, when done, all was quiet again, and each man returned +unto his lodging late, about twelve o'clock at night. I could never +since be induced to join with any such like actions. + +"The true miscarriage of the business was by reason of so many people +being present at the operation; for there was about thirty, some +laughing, others deriding us; so that, if we had not dismissed the +demons, I believe most part of the abbey church would have been blown +down. Secrecy and intelligent operators, with a strong confidence and +knowledge of what they are doing, are best for the work."--LILLY'S _Life +and Times_, p. 46. + +David Ramsay had a son called William Ramsay, who appears to have +possessed all his father's credulity. He became an astrologer, and in +1651-2 published "_Vox Stellarum_, an Introduction to the Judgment of +Eclipses and the Annual Revolutions of the World." The edition of 1652 +is inscribed, to his father. It would appear, as indeed it might be +argued from his mode of disposing of his goods, that the old horologer +had omitted to make hay while the sun shone; for his son, in his +dedication, has this exception to the paternal virtues, "It's true your +carelessness in laying up while the sun shone for the tempests of a +stormy day, hath given occasion to some inferior spirited people not to +value you according to what you are by nature and in yourself, for such +look not to a man longer than he is in prosperity, esteeming none +but for their wealth, not wisdom, power, nor virtue." From these +expressions, it is to be apprehended that while old David Ramsay, a +follower of the Stewarts, sunk under the Parliamentary government, his +son, William, had advanced from being a dupe to astrology to the dignity +of being himself a cheat. + +Note II. p. 27.-GEORGE HERIOT + +This excellent person was but little known by his actions when alive, +but we may well use, in this particular, the striking phrase of +Scripture, "that being dead he yet speaketh." We have already mentioned, +in the Introduction, the splendid charity of which he was the founder; +the few notices of his personal history are slight and meagre. + +George Heriot was born at Trabroun, in the parish of Gladsmuir; he was +the eldest son of a goldsmith in Edinburgh, descended from a family of +some consequence in East Lothian. His father enjoyed the confidence of +his fellow-citizens, and was their representative in Parliament. He +was, besides, one of the deputies sent by the inhabitants of the city to +propitiate the King, when he had left Edinburgh abruptly, after the riot +of 17th December, 1596. + +George Heriot, the son, pursued his father's occupation of a +goldsmith, then peculiarly lucrative, and much connected with that of a +money-broker. He enjoyed the favour and protection of James, and of his +consort, Anne of Denmark. He married, for his first wife, a maiden of +his own rank, named Christian Marjoribanks, daughter of a respectable +burgess. This was in 1586. He was afterwards named jeweller to the +Queen, whose account to him for a space of ten years amounted to nearly +L40,000. George Heriot, having lost his wife, connected himself with +the distinguished house of Rosebery, by marrying a daughter of James +Primrose, Clerk to the Privy Council. Of this lady he was deprived by +her dying in child-birth in 1612, before attaining her twenty-first +year. After a life spent in honourable and successful industry, George +Heriot died in London, to which city he had followed his royal master, +on the 12th February, 1624, at the age of sixty-one years. His picture, +(copied by Scougal from a lost original,) in which he is represented in +the prime of life, is thus described: "His fair hair, which overshades +the thoughtful brow and calm calculating eye, with the cast of humour +on the lower part of the countenance, are all indicative of the genuine +Scottish character, and well distinguish a person fitted to move +steadily and wisely through the world, with a strength of resolution +to ensure success, and a disposition to enjoy it."--_Historical and +Descriptive Account of Heriot's Hospital, with a Memoir of the Founder, +by Messrs James and John Johnstone._ Edinburgh, 1827. + +I may add, as every thing concerning George Heriot is interesting, +that his second wife, Alison Primrose, was interred in Saint Gregory's +Church, from the register of which parish the Rev. Mr. Barham, Rector, +has, in the kindest manner, sent me the following extract:--"Mrs. +Alison, the wife of Mr. George Heriot, gentleman, 20th April, 1612." +Saint Gregory's, before the Great Fire of London which consumed the +Cathedral, formed one of the towers of old Saint Paul's, and occupied +the space of ground now filled by Queen Anne's statue. In the south +aisle of the choir Mrs. Heriot reposed under a handsome monument, +bearing the following inscription:-- + +_"Sanctissimae et charissimae conjugi ALISONAE HERIOT, Jacobi Primrosii, +Regia Majestatis in Sanctiori Concilio Regni Scotia Amanuensis, +filiae, fernina omnibus turn animi turn corporis dotibus, ac pio cultu +instructissimae, maestissimus ipsius maritus GEORGIUS HERIOT, ARMIGER, +Regis, Reginae, Principum Henrici et Caroli Gemmarius, bene merenti, non +sine lachrymis, hoc Monumentum pie posuit. + +"Obiit Mensis Aprilis die 16, anno salutis 1612, aetatis 20, in +ipso flore juventae, et mihi, parentibus, et amicis tristissimum sui +desiderium reliquit. + + Hic Alicia Primrosa + Jacet crudo abruta fato, + Intempestivas + Ut rosa pressa manus. + Nondum bisdenos + Annorum impleverat orbes, + Pulchra, pudica, + Patris delicium atque viri: + Quum gravida, heu! Nunquam + Mater, decessit, et inde + Cura dolorq: Patri, + Cura dolorq: viro. + Non sublata tamen + Tantum translata recessit; + Nunc Rosa prima Poli + Quae fuit antea soli."_ + +The loss of a young, beautiful, and amiable partner, at a period so +interesting, was the probable reason of her husband devoting his fortune +to a charitable institution. The epitaph occurs in Strype's edition of +_Stewe's Survey of London_, Book iii., page 228. + +Note III. p. 39.--PROCLAMATION AGAINST THE SCOTS COMING TO ENGLAND + +The English agreed in nothing more unanimously than in censuring James +on account of the beggarly rabble which not only attended the King at +his coming first out of Scotland, "but," says Osborne, "which, through +his whole reign, like a fluent spring, were found still crossing the +Tweed." Yet it is certain, from the number of proclamations published +by the Privy Council in Scotland, and bearing marks of the King's +own diction, that he was sensible of the whole inconveniences and +unpopularity attending the importunate crowd of disrespectable suitors, +and as desirous to get rid of them as his Southern subjects could be. +But it was in vain that his Majesty argued with his Scottish subjects on +the disrespect they were bringing on their native country and sovereign, +by causing the English to suppose there were no well-nurtured or +independent gentry in Scotland, they who presented themselves being, in +the opinion and conceit of all beholders, "but idle rascals, and poor +miserable bodies." It was even in vain that the vessels which brought +up this unwelcome cargo of petitioners were threatened with fine and +confiscation; the undaunted suitors continued to press forward, and, as +one of the proclamations says, many of them under pretence of requiring +payment of "auld debts due to them by the King," which, it is observed +with great _naivete_, "is, of all kinds of importunity, most unpleasing +to his Majesty." The expressions in the text are selected from these +curious proclamations. + +NOTE IV. p. 59.--KING JAMES + +The dress of this monarch, together with his personal appearance, is +thus described by a contemporary:-- + +"He was of a middle stature, more corpulent through [i.e. by means of] +his clothes than in his body, yet fat enough. His legs were very weak, +having had, as was thought, some foul play in his youth, or rather +before he was born, that he was not able to stand at seven years of age. +That weakness made him ever leaning on other men's shoulders. His walk +was even circular; his hands are in that walk ever fiddling about----[a +part of dress now laid aside]. He would make a great deal too bold with +God in his passion, both with cursing and swearing, and a strain higher +verging on blasphemy; but would, in his better temper, say, he hoped God +would not impute them as sins, and lay them to his charge, seeing they +proceeded from passion. He had need of great assistance, rather than +hope, that would daily make thus bold with God."--DALZELL'S _Sketches of +Scottish History _, p. 86. + +NOTE V. p. 78.--SIR MUNGO MALAGROWTHER + +It will perhaps be recognised by some of my countrymen, that the caustic +Scottish knight, as described in the preceding chapter, borrowed some of +his attributes from a most worthy and respectable baronet, who was to be +met with in Edinburgh society about twenty-five or thirty years ago. It +is not by any means to be inferred, that the living person resembled the +imaginary one in the course of life ascribed to him, or in his personal +attributes. But his fortune was little adequate to his rank and the +antiquity of his family; and, to avenge himself of this disparity, the +worthy baronet lost no opportunity of making the more avowed sons of +fortune feel the edge of his satire. This he had the art of disguising +under the personal infirmity of deafness, and usually introduced his +most severe things by an affected mistake of what was said around +him. For example, at a public meeting of a certain county, this worthy +gentleman had chosen to display a laced coat, of such a pattern as had +not been seen in society for the better part of a century. The young men +who were present amused themselves with rallying him on his taste, +when he suddenly singled out one of the party:--"Auld d'ye think my +coat--auld-fashioned?--indeed it canna be new; but it was the wark of a +braw tailor, and that was your grandfather, who was at the head of the +trade in Edinburgh about the beginning of last century." Upon another +occasion, when this type of Sir Mungo Malagrowther happened to hear a +nobleman, the high chief of one of those Border clans who were accused +of paying very little attention in ancient times to the distinctions +of _Meum_ and _Tuum,_ addressing a gentleman of the same name, as +if conjecturing there should be some relationship between them, he +volunteered to ascertain the nature of the connexion by saying, that +the "chief's ancestors had _stolen_ the cows, and the other gentleman's +ancestors had _killed_ them,"--fame ascribing the origin of the latter +family to a butcher. It may be well imagined, that among a people that +have been always punctilious about genealogy, such a person, who had a +general acquaintance with all the flaws and specks in the shields of the +proud, the pretending, and the nouveaux riches, must have had the same +scope for amusement as a monkey in a china shop. + +Note VI. p. 98.--MRS. ANNE TURNER + +Mrs. Anne Turner was a dame somewhat of the occupation of Mrs. +Suddlechop in the text; that is, half milliner half procuress, and +secret agent in all manner of proceedings. She was a trafficker in the +poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, for which so many subordinate agents +lost their lives, while, to the great scandal of justice, the Earl of +Somerset and his Countess were suffered to escape, upon a threat of +Somerset to make public some secret which nearly affected his master, +King James. Mrs. Turner introduced into England a French custom of using +yellow starch in getting up bands and cuffs, and, by Lord Coke's orders, +she appeared in that fashion at the place of execution. She was the +widow of a physician, and had been eminently beautiful, as appears from +the description of her in the poem called Overbury's Vision. There was +produced in court a parcel of dolls or puppets belonging to this lady, +some naked, some dressed, and which she used for exhibiting fashions +upon. But, greatly to the horror of the spectators, who accounted these +figures to be magical devices, there was, on their being shown, "heard a +crack from the scaffold, which caused great fear, tumult, and confusion, +among the spectators and throughout the hall, every one fearing hurt, as +if the devil had been present, and grown angry to have his workmanship +showed to such as were not his own scholars." Compare this curious +passage in the History of King James for the First Fourteen Years, 1651, +with the Aulicus Coquinarius of Dr. Heylin. Both works are published in +the Secret History of King James. + +Note VII. p. 110.--LORD HUNTINGLEN + +The credit of having rescued James I. from the dagger of Alexander +Ruthven, is here fictitiously ascribed to an imaginary Lord Huntinglen. +In reality, as may be read in every history, his preserver was John +Ramsay, afterwards created Earl of Holderness, who stabbed the younger +Ruthven with his dagger while he was struggling with the King. Sir +Anthony Weldon informs us, that, upon the annual return of the day, the +King's deliverance was commemorated by an anniversary feast. The time +was the fifth of August, "upon which," proceeds the satirical historian, +"Sir John Ramsay, for his good service in that preservation, was the +principal guest, and so did the King grant him any boon he would ask +that day. But he had such limitation made to his asking, as made his +suit as unprofitable, as the action for which he asked it for was +unserviceable to the King." + +Note VIII. p. 115.--BUCKINGHAM + +Buckingham, who had a frankness in his high and irascible ambition, +was always ready to bid defiance to those by whom he was thwarted or +opposed. He aspired to be created Prince of Tipperary in Ireland, and +Lord High Constable of England. Coventry, then Lord Keeper, opposed what +seemed such an unreasonable extent of power as was annexed to the office +of Constable. On this opposition, according to Sir Anthony Weldon, +"the Duke peremptorily accosted Coventry, 'Who made you Lord Keeper, +Coventry?' He replied, 'The King.' Buckingham replied, 'It's false; +'twas I did make you, and you shall know that I, who made you, can, and +will, unmake you.' Coventry thus answered him, 'Did I conceive that +I held my place by your favour, I would presently unmake myself, by +rendering up the seals to his Majesty.' Then Buckingham, in a scorn and +fury, flung from him, saying, 'You shall not keep it long;' and surely, +had not Felton prevented him, he had made good his word."--WELDON'S +_Court of King James and Charles._ + + Note IX. p. 134.--PAGES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +About this time the ancient customs arising from the long prevalence of +chivalry, began to be grossly varied from the original purposes of the +institution. None was more remarkable than the change which took place +in the breeding and occupation of pages. This peculiar species of menial +originally consisted of youths of noble birth, who, that they might be +trained to the exercise of arms, were early removed from their paternal +homes, where too much indulgence might have been expected, to be placed +in the family of some prince or man of rank and military renown, where +they served, as it were, an apprenticeship to the duties of chivalry +and courtesy. Their education was severely moral, and pursued with great +strictness in respect to useful exercises, and what were deemed elegant +accomplishments. From being pages, they were advanced to the next +gradation of squires; from squires, these candidates for the honours of +knighthood were frequently made knights. + +But in the sixteenth century the page had become, in many instances, +a mere domestic, who sometimes, by the splendour of his address and +appearance, was expected to make up in show for the absence of a whole +band of retainers with swords and bucklers. We have Sir John's authority +when he cashiers part of his train. + + "Falstaff will learn the humour of the age, + French thrift, you rogues, myself and skirted page." + +Jonson, in a high tone of moral indignation, thus reprobated the change. +The Host of the New Inn replies to Lord Lovel, who asks to have his son +for a page, that he would, with his own hands hang him, sooner + + "Than damn him to this desperate course of life. + _LOVEL._ Call you that desperate, which, by a line + Of institution, from our ancestors + Hath been derived down to us, and received + In a succession, for the noblest way + Of brushing up our youth, in letters, arms, + Fair mien, discourses civil, exercise, + And all the blazon of a gentleman? + Where can he learn to vault, to ride, to fence, + To move his body gracefully, to speak + The language pure, or to turn his mind + Or manners more to the harmony of nature, + Than in these nurseries of nobility? + _HOST._ Ay, that was when the nursery's self was noble, + And only virtue made it, not the market, + That titles were not vended at the drum + And common outcry; goodness gave the greatness, + And greatness worship; every house became + An academy, and those parts + We see departed in the practice now + Quite from the institution. + _LOVEL._ Why do you say so, + Or think so enviously? do they not still + Learn us the Centaur's skill, the art of Thrace, + To ride? or Pollux' mystery, to fence? + The Pyrrhick gestures, both to stand and spring + In armour; to be active for the wars; + To study figures, numbers and proportions, + May yield them great in counsels and the art; + To make their English sweet upon their tongue? + As reverend Chaucer says. + _HOST._ Sir, you mistake; + To play Sir Pandarus, my copy hath it, + And carry messages to Madam Cressid; + Instead of backing the brave steed o'mornings. + To kiss the chambermaid, and for a leap + O' the vaulting horse, to ply the vaulting house; + For exercise of arms a bale of dice, + And two or three packs of cards to show the cheat + And nimbleness of hand; mistake a cloak + From my lord's back, and pawn it; ease his pockets + Of a superfluous watch, or geld a jewel + Of an odd stone or so; twinge three or four buttons + From off my lady's gown: These are the arts, + Or seven liberal deadly sciences, + Of pagery, or rather paganism, + As the tides run; to which, if he apply him, + He may, perhaps, take a degree at Tyburn, + A year the earlier come to read a lecture + Upon Aquinas, at Saint Thomas-a-Watering's + And so go forth a laureate in hemp-circle." + The New Inn, Act I. + +Note X. p. 135.--LORD HENRY HOWARD + +Lord Henry Howard was the second son of the poetical Earl of Surrey, and +possessed considerable parts and learning. He wrote, in the year 1583, a +book called, _A Defensative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies._ +He gained the favour of Queen Elizabeth, by having, he says, directed +his battery against a sect of prophets and pretended soothsayers, whom +he accounted _infesti regibus,_ as he expresses it. In the last years +of the Queen, he became James's most ardent partisan, and conducted +with great pedantry, but much intrigue, the correspondence betwixt the +Scottish King and the younger Cecil. Upon James's accession, he was +created Earl of Northampton, and Lord Privy Seal. According to De +Beaumont the French Ambassador, Lord Henry Howard, was one of the +greatest flatterers and calumniators that ever lived. + +Note XI. p. 136.--SKIRMISHES IN THE PUBLIC STREETS + +Edinburgh appears to have been one of the most disorderly towns in +Europe, during the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. +The Diary of the honest citizen Birrel, repeatedly records such +incidents as the following: "The 24 of November (1567), at two +afternoon, the Laird of Airth and the Laird of Weems met on the High +Gate of Edinburgh, and they and their followers fought a very bloody +skirmish, where there were many hurt on both sides with shot of pistol." +These skirmishes also took place in London itself. In Shadwell's play of +_The Scowrers,_ an old rake thus boasts of his early exploits:--"I knew +the Hectors, and before them the Muns, and the Tityretu's; they were +brave fellows indeed! In these days, a man could not go from the Rose +Garden to the Piazza once, but he must venture his life twice, my dear +Sir Willie." But it appears that the affrays, which, in the Scottish +capital, arose out of hereditary quarrels and ancient feuds, were +in London the growth of the licentiousness and arrogance of young +debauchees. + +Note XII. p. 144.--FRENCH COOKERY + +The exertion of French ingenuity mentioned in the text is noticed +by some authorities of the period; the siege of Leith was also +distinguished by the protracted obstinacy of the besieged, in which was +displayed all that the age possessed of defensive war, so that Brantome +records that those who witnessed this siege, had, from that very +circumstance, a degree of consequence yielded to their persons and +opinions. He tells a story of Strozzi himself, from which it appears +that his jests lay a good deal in the line of the cuisine. He caused a +mule to be stolen from one Brusquet, on whom he wished to play a trick, +and served up the flesh of that unclean animal so well disguised, that +it passed with Brusquet for venison. + +Note XIII. p. 145.--CUCKOO'S NEST + +The quarrel in this chapter between the pretended captain and the +citizen of London, is taken from a burlesque poem called The Counter +Scuffle, that is, the Scuffle in the Prison at Wood street, so called. +It is a piece of low humour, which had at the time very considerable +vogue. The prisoners, it seems, had fallen into a dispute amongst +themselves "which calling was of most repute," and a lawyer put in his +claim to be most highly considered. The man of war repelled his pretence +with much arrogance. + + "'Wer't not for us, thou swad,' quoth he, + 'Where wouldst thou fay to get a fee? + But to defend such things as thee + 'Tis pity; + For such as you esteem us least, + Who ever have been ready prest + To guard you and your cuckoo's nest, + The City'" + +The offence is no sooner given than it is caught up by a gallant +citizen, a goldsmith, named Ellis. + + "'Of London city I am free, + And there I first my wife did see, + And for that very cause,' said he, + 'I love it. + + And he that calls it cuckoo's nest, + Except he say he speaks in jest, + He is a villain and a beast,-- + 'I'll prove it! + + For though I am a man of trade, + And free of London city made, + Yet can I use gun, bill, and blade, + In battle. + + And citizens, if need require, + Themselves can force the foe retire, + Whatever this low country squire + May prattle.'" + +The dispute terminates in the scuffle, which is the subject of the poem. +The whole may be found in the second edition of Dryden's _Miscellany,_ +12mo, vol. iii. 1716. + +Note XIV. p. 150.--BURBAGE + +Burbage, whom Camden terms another Roscius, was probably the original +representative of Richard III., and seems to have been early almost +identified with his prototype. Bishop Corbet, in his Iter Boreale, tells +us that mine host of Market Bosworth was full of ale and history. + + "Hear him, See you yon wood? there Richard lay + With his whole army; look the other way, + And lo, where Richmond, in a field of gorse, + Encamp'd himself in might and all his force. + Upon this hill they met. Why, he could tell + The inch where Richmond stood, where Richard fell; + Besides, what of his knowledge he could say, + He had authentic notice from the play, + Which I might guess by's mustering up the ghosts + And policies not incident to hosts; + But chiefly by that one perspicuous thing, + Where he mistook a player for a king, + For when he would have said, that Richard died, + And call'd, a horse! a horse! he Burbage cried." + + RICHARD CORBET'S _Poems, Edition 1815,_ p. 193. + +Note XV. p. 323.--MHIC-ALLASTAR-MORE + +This is the Highland patronymic of the late gallant Chief of Glengarry. +The allusion in the text is to an unnecessary alarm taken by some lady, +at the ceremonial of the coronation of George IV., at the sight of +the pistols which the Chief wore as a part of his Highland dress. The +circumstance produced some confusion, which was talked of at the time. +All who knew Glengarry (and the author knew him well) were aware that +his principles were of devoted loyalty to the person of his sovereign. + +Note XVI. p. 323.--KING JAMES'S HUNTING BOTTLE + +Roger Coke, in his Detection of the Court and State of England, London, +1697, p.70, observes of James I., "The king was excessively addicted to +hunting, and drinking, not ordinary French and Spanish wines, but strong +Greek wines, and thought he would compound his hunting with these wines; +and to that purpose, he was attended by a special officer, who was, as +much as he could be, always at hand to fill the King's cup in hunting +when he called for it. I have heard my father say, that, hunting with +the King, after the King had drank of the wine, he also drank of it; and +though he was young, and of a healthful disposition, it so deranged +his head that it spoiled his pleasure and disordered him for three days +after. Whether it was from drinking these wines, or from some other +cause, the King became so lazy and so unwieldy, that he was trussed on +horseback, and as he was set, so would he ride, without stirring himself +in the saddle; nay, when his hat was set upon his head he would not take +the trouble to alter it, but it sate as it was put on." + +The trussing, for which the demipique saddle of the day afforded +particular facility, is alluded to in the text; and the author, among +other nickcnacks of antiquity, possesses a leathern flask, like those +carried by sportsmen, which is labelled, "King James's Hunting Bottle," +with what authenticity is uncertain. Coke seems to have exaggerated the +King's taste for the bottle. Welldon says James was not intemperate in +his drinking; "However, in his old age, Buckingham's jovial suppers, +when he had any turn to do with him, made him sometimes overtaken, which +he would the next day remember, and repent with tears. It is true he +drank very often, which was rather out of a custom than any delight; and +his drinks were of that kind for strength, as Frontiniack, Canary, high +country wine, tent wine, and Scottish ale, that had he not had a very +strong brain, he might have been daily overtaken, though he seldom +drank at any one time above four spoonfuls, many times not above one or +two."--_Secret History of King James,_ vol. ii., p. 3. Edin. 1811. + +Note XVII. p. 325.--SCENE IN GREENWICH PARK + +I cannot here omit mentioning, that a painting of the old school is in +existence, having a remarkable resemblance to the scene described in the +foregoing chapter, although it be nevertheless true that the similarity +is in all respects casual, and that the author knew not of the existence +of the painting till it was sold, amongst others, with the following +description attached to it in a well-drawn-up catalogue: + + "FREDERIGO ZUCCHERO + _"Scene as represented in the Fortunes of Nigel, by Frederigo +Zucchero, the King's painter._ + +"This extraordinary picture, which, independent of its pictorial merit, +has been esteemed a great literary curiosity, represents most faithfully +the meeting, in Greenwich Park, between King James and Nigel Oliphaunt, +as described in the Fortunes of Nigel, showing that the author must +have taken the anecdote from authenticated facts. In the centre of the +picture sits King James on horseback, very erect and stiffly. Between +the King and Prince Charles, who is on the left of the picture, the Duke +of Buckingham is represented riding a black horse, and pointing eagerly +towards the culprit, Nigel Olifaunt, who is standing on the right side +of the picture. He grasps with his right hand a gun, or crossbow, and +looks angrily towards the King, who seems somewhat confused and alarmed. +Behind Nigel, his servant is restraining two dogs which are barking +fiercely. Nigel and his servant are both clothed in red, the livery of +the Oliphaunt family in which, to this day, the town-officers of Perth +are clothed, there being an old charter, granting to the Oliphaunt +family, the privilege of dressing the public officers of Perth in their +livery. The Duke of Buckingham is in all respects equal in magnificence +of dress to the King or the Prince. The only difference that is marked +between him and royalty is, that his head is uncovered. The King and the +Prince wear their hats. In Letitia Aikin's Memoirs of the Reign of +King James, will be found a letter from Sir Thomas Howard to Lord +L. Harrington, in which he recommends the latter to come to court, +mentioning that his Majesty has spoken favourably of him. He then +proceeds to give him some advice, by which he is likely to find favour +in the King's eyes. He tells him to wear a bushy ruff, well starched; +and after various other directions as to his dress, he concludes, 'but +above all things fail not to praise the roan jennet whereon the King +doth daily ride.' In this picture King James is represented on the +identical roan jennet. In the background of the picture are seen two +or three suspicious-looking figures, as if watching the success of some +plot. These may have been put in by the painter, to flatter the King, +by making it be supposed that he had actually escaped, or successfully +combated, some serious plot. The King is attended by a numerous band of +courtiers and attendants, all of whom seem moving forward to arrest +the defaulter. The painting of this picture is extremely good, but +the drawing is very Gothic, and there is no attempt at the keeping of +perspective. The picture is very dark and obscure, which considerably +adds to the interest of the scene." + +Note XVIII. p. 325.--KING JAMES'S TIMIDITY + +The fears of James for his personal safety were often excited without +serious grounds. On one occasion, having been induced to visit a +coal-pit on the coast of Fife, he was conducted a little way under the +sea, and brought to daylight again on a small island, or what was such +at full tide, down which a shaft had been sunk. James, who conceived his +life or liberty aimed at, when he found himself on an islet surrounded +by the sea, instead of admiring, as his cicerone hoped, the unexpected +change of scene, cried TREASON with all his might, and could not be +pacified till he was rowed ashore. At Lockmaben he took an equally +causeless alarm from a still slighter circumstance. Some vendisses, +a fish peculiar to the Loch, were presented to the royal table as a +delicacy; but the King, who was not familiar with their appearance, +concluded they were poisoned, and broke up the banquet "with most +admired disorder." + +Note XIX. p. 328.--TRAITOR'S GATE + +Traitor's Gate, which opens from the Tower of London to the Thames, was, +as its name implies, that by which persons accused of state offences +were conveyed to their prison. When the tide is making, and the ancient +gate is beheld from within the buildings, it used to be a most striking +part of the old fortress; but it is now much injured in appearance, +being half built up with masonry to support a steam-engine, or something +of that sort. + +Note XX. p. 361.--PUNISHMENT OF STUBBS BY MUTILATION + +This execution, which so captivated the imagination of Sir Mungo +Malagrowther, was really a striking one. The criminal, a furious and +bigoted Puritan, had published a book in very violent terms against the +match of Elizabeth with the Duke of Alencon, which he termed an union of +a daughter of God with a son of antichrist. Queen Elizabeth was greatly +incensed at the freedom assumed in this work, and caused the author +Stubbs, with Page the publisher, and one Singleton the printer, to +be tried on an act passed by Philip and Mary against the writers and +dispersers of seditious publications. They were convicted, and although +there was an opinion strongly entertained by the lawyers, that the +act was only temporary, and expired with Queen Mary, Stubbs and Page +received sentence to have their right hands struck off. They accordingly +suffered the punishment, the wrist being divided by a cleaver driven +through the joint by force of a mallet. The printer was pardoned. "I +remember," says the historian Camden, "being then present, that Stubbs, +when his right hand was cut off, plucked off his hat with the left, and +said, with a loud voice, 'God save the Queen!' The multitude standing +about was deeply silent, either out of horror of this new and unwonted +kind of punishment, or out of commiseration towards the man, as being of +an honest and unblamable repute, or else out of hatred to the marriage, +which most men presaged would be the overthrow of religion."-CAMDBN'S +_Annals for the Year_ 1581. + +Note XXI. p. 375.--RlCHIE MONIPLIES BEHIND THE ARRAS + +The practical jest of Richie Moniplies going behind the arras to get an +opportunity of teasing Heriot, was a pleasantry such as James might be +supposed to approve of. It was customary for those who knew his humour +to contrive jests of this kind for his amusement. The celebrated Archie +Armstrong, and another jester called Drummond, mounted on other people's +backs, used to charge each other like knights in the tilt-yard, to the +monarch's great amusement. The following is an instance of the same +kind, taken from Webster upon Witchcraft. The author is speaking of the +faculty called ventriloquism. + +But to make this more plain and certain, we shall add a story of a +notable impostor, or ventriloquist, from the testimony of Mr. Ady, which +we have had confirmed from the mouth of some courtiers, that both saw +and knew him, and is this:--It hath been (saith he) credibly reported, +that there was a man in the court of King James his days, that could act +this imposture so lively, that he could call the King by name, and cause +the King to look round about him, wondering who it was that called him, +whereas he that called him stood before him in his presence, with his +face towards him. But after this imposture was known, the King, in his +merriment, would sometimes take occasionally this impostor to make sport +upon some of his courtiers, as, for instance:-- + +"There was a knight belonging to the court, whom the King caused to come +before him in his private room, (where no man was but the King, and this +knight and the impostor,) and feigned some occasion of serious discourse +with the knight; but when the King began to speak and the knight bending +his attention to the King, suddenly there came a voice as out of another +room, calling the knight by name, 'Sir John, Sir John; come away, +Sir John;' at which the knight began to frown that any man should be +unmannerly as to molest the King and him; and still listening to the +King's discourse, the voice came again, 'Sir John, Sir John; come away +and drink off your sack.' At that Sir John began to swell with anger, +and looked into the next room to see who it was that dared to call him +so importunately, and could not find out who it was, and having chid +with whomsoever he found, he returned again to the King. The King had no +sooner begun to speak as formerly, but the voice came again, 'Sir John, +come away, your sack stayeth for you.' At that Sir John began to stamp +with madness, and looked out and returned several times to the King, but +could not be quiet in his discourse with the King, because of the voice +that so often troubled him, till the king had sported enough."--WEBSTER +_on Witchcraft_, p. 124. + +Note XXII. p. 393.--LADY LAKE. + +Whether out of a meddling propensity common to all who have a gossiping +disposition, or from the love of justice, which ought to make part of a +prince's character, James was very fond of enquiring personally into the +causes _celebres_ which occurred during his reign. In the imposture of +the Boy of Bilson, who pretended to be possessed, and of one Richard +Haydock, a poor scholar, who pretended to preach during his sleep, the +King, to use the historian Wilson's expression, took delight in +sounding with the line of his understanding, the depths of these brutish +impositions, and in doing so, showed the acuteness with which he was +endowed by Nature. Lady Lake's story consisted in a clamorous complaint +against the Countess of Exeter, whom she accused of a purpose to put to +death Lady Lake herself, and her daughter, Lady Ross, the wife of the +Countess's own son-in-law, Lord Ross; and a forged letter was produced, +in which Lady Exeter was made to acknowledge such a purpose. The account +given of the occasion of obtaining this letter, was, that it had been +written by the Countess at Wimbledon, in presence of Lady Lake and her +daughter, Lady Ross, being designed to procure their forgiveness for her +mischievous intention. The King remained still unsatisfied, the writing, +in his opinion, bearing some marks of forgery. Lady Lake and her +daughter then alleged, that, besides their own attestation, and that of +a confidential domestic, named Diego, in whose presence Lady Exeter had +written the confession, their story might also be supported by the oath +of their waiting-maid, who had been placed behind the hangings at the +time the letter was written, and heard the Countess of Exeter read over +the confession after she had signed it. Determined to be at the bottom +of this accusation, James, while hunting one day near Wimbledon, the +scene of the alleged confession, suddenly left his sport, and, +galloping hastily to Wimbledon, in order to examine personally the +room, discovered, from the size of the apartment, that the alleged +conversation could not have taken place in the manner sworn to; and that +the tapestry of the chamber, which had remained in the same state for +thirty years, was too short by two feet, and, therefore, could not have +concealed any one behind it. This matter was accounted an exclusive +discovery of the King by his own spirit of shrewd investigation. The +parties were punished in the Star Chamber by fine and imprisonment. + + + + _A,' all. BELDAM, ugly old woman. + ABYE, suffer for. BELIVE, by-and-by, presently. + ACCIDENS, grammar. BENEVOLENCES, taxes illegally + AIGRE, sour, ill-natured. exacted by the Kings of + AIN GATE, own way. England. + A' LEEVING, all living. BIDE, keep, remain. + AMBLE, a peculiar gait of a BIELDY BIT, sheltered spot. + horse, in which both legs on BIGGING, building. + one side are moved forward BILBOE, sword, rapier. + at the same time. BILLIES, brothers. + ANCE, once. BIRKIE, lively young fellow. + ANENT, concerning. BLACK-JACK, leathern drinking- + ANGEL, an ancient English gold cup. + coin, worth about 10s., and BLADES, dashing fellows, rakes. + bearing the figure of an angel. BLATE, modest, bashful. + ARRAS, tapestry. BLETHERING, foolish, silly. + AUGHT, owe. BLITHE, BLYTHE, glad. + AULD, old. BLUE-COATS, lackeys. + AULD REEKIE, Edinburgh, in BODDLE, a copper coin, value + allusion to its smoke. the sixth part of an English + AVISEMENT, counsel. penny. + AW, all. BODE, bid, offer. + AWMOUS, alms, a gift. BOOKIE, book. + BRAE, hill, hill-side. BANGED, + sprang, bounded. + BRAVE PIECE, fine thing. + BARNACLES, spectacles. BRAW, fine, handsome. + BARNS-BREAKING, idle frolics. BREAKING, kneading. + BAWBEE, halfpenny. BREEKS, breeches, trousers. + BAXTER, baker. BROCHES, kitchen spits. + BEAR-BANNOCKS, barley cakes. BROSE, pottage of mean and + BECKING, curtseying. water. + BECKS, nods. BROWNIE, domestic goblin. + BEECHEN BICKERS, dishes of BUCKET, cheat. + beechwood. BUNEMOST, uppermost. + + BURROWS-TOWN, borough-town. + BUSS, kiss. + + CALF-WARD, place where calves are kept in the field. + CALLAN, CALLANT, lad. + CANNILY, cautiously, skilfully. + CANNY, quiet. + CANTLE, crown of the head. + CARCANET, necklace. + CARLE, fellow. + CARLE-HEMPIE, the strongest stalk of hemp. + CARNIFEX, executioner. + CAUFF, chaff. + CAULDRIFE, chilly. + CA'T, call it. + CAUP, cup. + CAUSEY, pavement. + CERTIE, faith, in truth. + CHALMER, chamber. + CHANGE-HOUSE, roadside inn where horses are changed on a journey. + CHALK, slash. + CHAPPIT, struck. + CHEEK-BY-JOWL, CHEEK-BY-CHOWL, side by side. + CHEERY, dagger. + CHENZIE-MAIL, chain-mail. + CHIELD, fellow. + CHOPINES, high shoes or clogs. + CHUCKS, chuck-stones, as played by children. + CHUFFS, clowns, simpletons. + CLAITHING, clothing. + + CLAPPED LOOFS, crossed palms. + CLATTER-TRAPS, rattle-traps. + CLAUGHT, snatched. + CLAVERING, idle talking. + CLEEK, hook. + CLEW, clue. + CLOOT, hoof. + CLOUR, blow. + CLOUTING, mending. + COCK-A-LEEKIE, COCK-A-LEEKY, leek soup in which a cock has been + boiled. + COIF, linen covering for the head. + COMPLOTS, plots, intrigues. + COMPT, list, account, particulars. + COMPTING-ROOM, counting-house. + COSHERING, being familiar and intimate. + COUP, barter. + COUP THE CRANS, go to wreck and ruin. + COUPIT, tumbled. + CRAIG, rock; also neck. + CRAP, creep. + CRAW'D SAE CROUSE, crowed so proudly. + CULLY, one easily deceived, a dupe. + CURN, grain. + CUSSER, stallion. + CUTTY-QUEAN, a loose woman. + + DAFT, silly, mad. + DAIKERING, jogging or toiling along. + DANG, driven, knocked. + DEIL, devil. + DEUTEROSCOPY, a meaning beyond the original sense. + DIDNA, did not. + DIKE-LOUPER, a debauchee. + DIRDUM, uproar, tumult. DIRKED, stabbed with a dirk. + DONNERIT, stupefied. + DOOMS, very, absolutely. + DOUCE, quiet, respectable, sober. + DOVER, neither asleep nor awake. + DOWCOT, dove-cote. + DRAB, illicit sexual intercourse. + DRAFF, drains given to cows; also the wash given to pigs. + DRAFF-POKE, bag of grains. + DREDGING-BOX, a box with holes for sprinkling flour in cookery. + DROUTHY, thirsty. + DUD, rag. + DUKE OF EXETER'S DAUGHTER, a species of rack in the Tower of London. + DULE-WEEDS, mourning. + DUMMALAFONG, a common prey to all comers. + DUNTS, blows. + + EARD, earth. + EEN, eyes. + ELRITCH, hideous. + ENOW, just now. + ENSAMPLE, example. + EVITED, avoided. + EXIES, hysterics. + + FALCHION, a short broadsword with a slightly curved point. + FALSET, falsehood. + FAUSE, false. + FASH, trouble. + FASHIOUS, troublesome, annoying. + FENCE-LOUPER, rakish fellow. + FEBRIFUGE, a medicine to subdue a fever. + FIDUCIARY, trustee. + FLATCAPS, citizens, civilians. + FLEECHING, flattering. + FOOD FOR FAGGOTS, martyrs for their religious opinions. + FOOT-CLOTH, horse-cloth reaching almost to the ground. + FOUARTS, house-leeks. + FOULWART, pole-cat. + FRAE, from. + FRESCO, half-naked. + FULE, fool. + FULHAM, loaded dice. + + GAGE, pledge, trust. + GANG A' AE GATE, go all one way. + GAR, make, force. + GARR'D, made, compelled. + GATE, way, road; also kind of. + GEAR, property. + GIFF-GAFF, give and take, tit for tat. + GIE THE GLAIKS, to befool, deceive. + GILLIE-WHITE-FOOT, running footman. + GILLRAVAGER, plunderer. + GIRNED, grinned. + GLAIKS, deception. + GLEED, awry, all wrong. + GOUD-COUK, fool. + GRAFFS, graves. + GRAMERCY, great thanks. + GRANDAM, old woman, grandmother. + GRAT, cried. + GREEN GEESE, parrots. + GREET, cry. + GREW, shudder. + GRIPS, handshakings, greetings. + GROSART, GROSSART, goose-berry. + GULL, one easily befooled, + GULLEY, large knife. + GUTTERBLOOD, one meanly bred. + GYNOCRACY, petticoat government. + + HAET, thing. + HAFFITS, sides of the head. + HAFT, handle. + HAIRBOURED, resided, sojourned. + HAMESUCKEN, assaulting a man on his own premises. + HANKED, coiled. + HARLE, drag, trail. + HARMAN BECK, constable. + HEART-SCALD, disgust. + HEAD-TIRE, head-dress. + HECK AND MANGER, in comfortable quarters. + HEUGHS, glens. + HIRDIE-GIRDIE, topsy-turvy. + HIRPLING, limping, walking lame. + HIRSEL, flock. + HORSE-GRAITH, harness. + HOUGHS, hollows. + HOWFF, rendezvous, place of resort. + + ILK ANE, each one. + ILL, bad. + ILL REDD-UP, very untidy. + ILL-WILLY, ill-natured. + INGINE, ingenuity. + INGOTS, masses of unwrought metal. + INGRATE, an ungrateful person. + IRON CARLES, iron figures of men. + + JAW, wave. + JEDDART-STAFF, a species of battle-axe peculiar to Jedburgh. + JENNET, a small Spanish horse. + JINGLE, dance. + JOUP, dip, stoop down. + + KEMPING, strife. + KENNING, knowledge. + KIMMER, gossip, neighbour. + KIRK, church. + KITTLE, ticklish, difficult, precarious. + KYTHED, seemed, appeared. + + LAIGH, low. + LAIR, learning. + LAMB'S-WOOL, a beverage made of the pulp of roasted apples. + LANDLOUPER, adventurer, runagate. + LANG SYNE, long ago. + LATTEN, plated iron or brass. + LAVROCK, lark. + LEASING-MAKING, uttering treasonable language. + LEASINGS, falsehoods, treason. + LEGLIN-GIRTH, the lowest hoop on a leglin, or milk-pail. + LICK, a beating. + LIEFEST, most beloved. + LIFT, steal. + LIGHT O' LOVE, mistress, wanton woman. + LINKBOYS, juvenile torch-bearers. + LIST, like. + LITHER, soft. + LOOF, palm of the hand. + LOON, LOUN, rascal. + LOUPING, leaping. + LUG, LUGG, ear. + LUVE, love. + + MAIR THAN ANCE, more than once. + MARLE, wonder, marvel. + MAGGOT, whim, fancy. + MELL, intermeddle. + MENSEFUL, modest, mannerly. + MERK, a Scottish coin, value 13s 4d. + MESS-BOOK, mass-book, Catholic prayer-book. + MICKLE, MUCKLE, much, great, large. + MINT, attempt. + MIRK, dark. + MISLEARD, unmannerly. + MORT-CLOTH, shroud. + MOTION, puppet-show. + MUCKLE v. MICKLE. + MUFFLED, disguised. + MUSKETOON, a species of musket. + MY GERTIE, my goodness! gracious! + + NEB, nose, point. + NEEDSNA, need not. + NICHER, snigger. + NICKS, notches. + NIFFER, exchange. + NOBLE, a gold coin, value 6s. 8d. sterling. + NOWTE, black cattle. + NUNCHION, luncheon, food taken between meals. + + OR, before. + OTHER GATE, other kind of. + OWER SICKER, too careful. + + PAIK, fight, chastise. + PANGED, crammed. + PAPISTRIE, Popery. + PEASE-BOGLE, scarecrow among the pease growing. + PENNY-WEDDING, a wedding where all who attend contribute a trifle + towards the + expenses of the merrymaking. + PICKTHANK, a parasitical informer. + PIG, earthen pot, vessel, or pitcher. + PINK, stab, pierce holes into. + PLACK, a copper coin, value the third part of an English + penny. + PLOY, trick. + POCK-END, empty pocket or purse. + POCK-PUDDING, bag pudding. + POORTITH, poverty. + PORK-GRISKINS, sucking-pigs; also broiled loin of pork. + POUCH, pocket. + PRIE, taste. + PULLET, a young hen. + + QUEAN, wench, young woman. + + RAMPALLIONS, low women. + RAVE, tore. + RAXING, stretching. + REDDING-KAME, hair-comb. + REDD-UP, tidy, put in order. + RED WUD, stark mad. + REIRD, shouting. + REMEID, resource, remedy. + ROOPIT, croupy, hoarse. + ROSE-NOBLE, a gold coin, value 6s. 8d., impressed with a rose. + ROUT, ROWT, to roar or bellow. + RUDAS, wild, forward, bold. + + SAAM, same. + SACK, sherry or canary wine, warmed and spiced. + SACKLESS, innocent. + SCAT, tribute, tax. + SCAUDING, scalding. + SCAUR, scare, frighten. + SCLATE-STANE, slate-stone. + SCRIVENER, one who draws up contracts. + SHABBLE, cutlass, + SHOON, shoes. + SHOUTHER, shoulder. + SHULE, shovel. + SIB, related. + SIBYL, prophetess. + SICKER, careful. + SICLIKE, just so. + SILLER, money, silver. + SIRRAH, sir! + SKEIGH, skittish. + SKELDER, plunder, snatch. + SLEEVELESS, thriftless. + SMAIK, mean, paltry fellow. + SNAP-HAUNCHES, firelocks. + SPANG, spring. + SPEER, ask. + SPEERINGS, information, inquiries. + SPRAIKLE, to get on with difficulty. + SPUNK, slip. + SPUNKIES, will-o'-the-wisps. + STEEKING, closing. + STEEKIT, shut. + STONERN, stone. + STOT, a bullock between two and three years old. + STRAND-SCOURING, gutter-raking. + STURDIED, afflicted with the sturdy, a sheep disease. + STYPIC, astringent, something to arrest haemorrhage. + SUCCORY-WATER, sugar water. + SUNDOWN, sunset. + SUNER, sooner. + SUMPTER HORSE, pack-horse. + SWITH, begone! be off! + SYNE, ago. + + TAIT, lock. + TANE, the one. + TAWSE, leather strap used for chastisement. + TEINDS, tithes. + THROUGH-STANES, gravestones. + TIKE v. TYKE. + TINT, lost. + TITHER, the other. + TOCHER, dowry. + TOOM, empty. + TOUR, see. + TOUT, blast on the horn. + TOYS, goods. + TREEN, wooden. + TROTH, truth. + TROW, believe, guess. + TRYSTE, appointment. + TURN-BROCHE, turn-spit. + TYKE, TIKE, dog, cur. + TWA, two. + TWIRING, coquetting, making eyes at. + + UMQUHILE, late, deceased. + + VIVERS, victuals. + + WAD, pledge. + WADNA, would not. + WADSET, mortgage. + WANION, misfortune. + WARE, spend. + WARLOCKS, wizards. + WASTRIFE, waste, extravagance. + WAUR, worse. + WEEL KEND, well known. + WHA, who. + WHEEN, few, a number of. + WHIGMALEERY, trinkets, nicknacks. + WHILK, which. + WHINGER, cutlass, long knife. + WHINYARD, sword. + WHOMBLE, upset. + WIMPLED, wrapped up. + WINNA, will not. + WITHY, gallows rope. + WOO', wool. + WYLIE-COAT, under-petticoat. + WYND, street, alley. + WYTE, blame. + + YESTREEN, last night. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fortunes of Nigel, by Sir Walter Scott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL *** + +***** This file should be named 5950.txt or 5950.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/9/5/5950/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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