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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peveril of the Peak, 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: Peveril of the Peak
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: June, 2004  [EBook #5959]
+Posting Date: May 1, 2009
+Last Updated: August 31, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEVERIL OF THE PEAK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Emma Wong Shee, John Bickers, and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PEVERIL OF THE PEAK
+
+By Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+
+
+
+
+
+PEVERIL OF THE PEAK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+               When civil dudgeon first grew high,
+               And men fell out, they knew not why;
+               When foul words, jealousies, and fears,
+               Set folk together by the ears--
+                                             --BUTLER.
+
+William, the Conqueror of England, was, or supposed himself to be, the
+father of a certain William Peveril, who attended him to the battle of
+Hastings, and there distinguished himself. The liberal-minded monarch,
+who assumed in his charters the veritable title of Gulielmus Bastardus,
+was not likely to let his son’s illegitimacy be any bar to the course of
+his royal favour, when the laws of England were issued from the mouth
+of the Norman victor, and the lands of the Saxons were at his unlimited
+disposal. William Peveril obtained a liberal grant of property and
+lordships in Derbyshire, and became the erecter of that Gothic fortress,
+which, hanging over the mouth of the Devil’s Cavern, so well known to
+tourists, gives the name of Castleton to the adjacent village.
+
+From this feudal Baron, who chose his nest upon the principles on which
+an eagle selects her eyry, and built it in such a fashion as if he had
+intended it, as an Irishman said of the Martello towers, for the sole
+purpose of puzzling posterity, there was, or conceived themselves to be,
+descended (for their pedigree was rather hypothetical) an opulent
+family of knightly rank, in the same county of Derby. The great fief
+of Castleton, with its adjacent wastes and forests, and all the wonders
+which they contain, had been forfeited in King John’s stormy days, by
+one William Peveril, and had been granted anew to the Lord Ferrers of
+that day. Yet this William’s descendants, though no longer possessed
+of what they alleged to have been their original property, were long
+distinguished by the proud title of Peverils of the Peak, which served
+to mark their high descent and lofty pretensions.
+
+In Charles the Second’s time, the representative of this ancient family
+was Sir Geoffrey Peveril, a man who had many of the ordinary attributes
+of an old-fashioned country gentleman, and very few individual traits
+to distinguish him from the general portrait of that worthy class
+of mankind. He was proud of small advantages, angry at small
+disappointments, incapable of forming any resolution or opinion
+abstracted from his own prejudices--he was proud of his birth, lavish
+in his housekeeping, convivial with those kindred and acquaintances, who
+would allow his superiority in rank--contentious and quarrelsome with
+all that crossed his pretensions--kind to the poor, except when they
+plundered his game--a Royalist in his political opinions, and one who
+detested alike a Roundhead, a poacher, and a Presbyterian. In religion
+Sir Geoffrey was a high-churchman, of so exalted a strain that many
+thought he still nourished in private the Roman Catholic tenets, which
+his family had only renounced in his father’s time, and that he had a
+dispensation for conforming in outward observances to the Protestant
+faith. There was at least such a scandal amongst the Puritans, and
+the influence which Sir Geoffrey Peveril certainly appeared to possess
+amongst the Catholic gentlemen of Derbyshire and Cheshire, seemed to
+give countenance to the rumour.
+
+Such was Sir Geoffrey, who might have passed to his grave without
+further distinction than a brass-plate in the chancel, had he not lived
+in times which forced the most inactive spirits into exertion, as a
+tempest influences the sluggish waters of the deadest mere. When the
+Civil Wars broke out, Peveril of the Peak, proud from pedigree, and
+brave by constitution, raised a regiment for the King, and showed upon
+several occasions more capacity for command than men had heretofore
+given him credit for.
+
+Even in the midst of the civil turmoil, he fell in love with, and
+married, a beautiful and amiable young lady of the noble house of
+Stanley; and from that time had the more merit in his loyalty, as it
+divorced him from her society, unless at very brief intervals, when his
+duty permitted an occasional visit to his home. Scorning to be allured
+from his military duty by domestic inducements, Peveril of the Peak
+fought on for several rough years of civil war, and performed his part
+with sufficient gallantry, until his regiment was surprised and cut
+to pieces by Poyntz, Cromwell’s enterprising and successful general of
+cavalry. The defeated Cavalier escaped from the field of battle, and,
+like a true descendant of William the Conqueror, disdaining submission,
+threw himself into his own castellated mansion, which was attacked and
+defended in a siege of that irregular kind which caused the destruction
+of so many baronial residences during the course of those unhappy wars.
+Martindale Castle, after having suffered severely from the cannon which
+Cromwell himself brought against it, was at length surrendered when in
+the last extremity. Sir Geoffrey himself became a prisoner, and while
+his liberty was only restored upon a promise of remaining a peaceful
+subject to the Commonwealth in future, his former delinquencies, as
+they were termed by the ruling party, were severely punished by fine and
+sequestration.
+
+But neither his forced promise, nor the fear of farther unpleasant
+consequences to his person or property, could prevent Peveril of the
+Peak from joining the gallant Earl of Derby the night before the fatal
+engagement in Wiggan Lane, where the Earl’s forces were dispersed. Sir
+Geoffrey having had his share in that action, escaped with the relics
+of the Royalists after the defeat, to join Charles II. He witnessed also
+the final defeat of Worcester, where he was a second time made prisoner;
+and as, in the opinion of Cromwell and the language of the times, he
+was regarded as an obstinate malignant, he was in great danger of having
+shared with the Earl of Derby his execution at Bolton-le-Moor, having
+partaken with him the dangers of two actions. But Sir Geoffrey’s life
+was preserved by the interest of a friend, who possessed influence in
+the councils of Oliver.--This was a Mr. Bridgenorth, a gentleman of
+middling quality, whose father had been successful in some commercial
+adventure during the peaceful reign of James I.; and who had bequeathed
+his son a considerable sum of money, in addition to the moderate
+patrimony which he inherited from his father.
+
+The substantial, though small-sized, brick building of Moultrassie
+Hall, was but two miles distant from Martindale Castle, and the young
+Bridgenorth attended the same school with the heir of the Peverils. A
+sort of companionship, if not intimacy, took place betwixt them, which
+continued during their youthful sports--the rather that Bridgenorth,
+though he did not at heart admit Sir Geoffrey’s claims of superiority to
+the extent which the other’s vanity would have exacted, paid deference
+in a reasonable degree to the representative of a family so much more
+ancient and important than his own, without conceiving that he in any
+respect degraded himself by doing so.
+
+Mr. Bridgenorth did not, however, carry his complaisance so far as to
+embrace Sir Geoffrey’s side during the Civil War. On the contrary, as an
+active Justice of the Peace, he rendered much assistance in arraying
+the militia in the cause of the Parliament, and for some time held
+a military commission in that service. This was partly owing to his
+religious principles, for he was a zealous Presbyterian, partly to his
+political ideas, which, without being absolutely democratical, favoured
+the popular side of the great national question. Besides, he was a
+moneyed man, and to a certain extent had a shrewd eye to his worldly
+interest. He understood how to improve the opportunities which civil war
+afforded, of advancing his fortune, by a dexterous use of his capital;
+and he was not at a loss to perceive that these were likely to be
+obtained in joining the Parliament; while the King’s cause, as it was
+managed, held out nothing to the wealthy but a course of exaction
+and compulsory loans. For these reasons, Bridgenorth became a decided
+Roundhead, and all friendly communication betwixt his neighbour and him
+was abruptly broken asunder. This was done with the less acrimony, that,
+during the Civil War, Sir Geoffrey was almost constantly in the field,
+following the vacillating and unhappy fortunes of his master; while
+Major Bridgenorth, who soon renounced active military service, resided
+chiefly in London, and only occasionally visited the Hall.
+
+Upon these visits, it was with great pleasure he received the
+intelligence, that Lady Peveril had shown much kindness to Mrs.
+Bridgenorth, and had actually given her and her family shelter in
+Martindale Castle, when Moultrassie Hall was threatened with pillage by
+a body of Prince Rupert’s ill-disciplined Cavaliers. This acquaintance
+had been matured by frequent walks together, which the vicinity of
+their places of residence suffered the Lady Peveril to have with Mrs.
+Bridgenorth, who deemed herself much honoured in being thus admitted
+into the society of so distinguished a lady. Major Bridgenorth heard of
+this growing intimacy with great pleasure, and he determined to repay
+the obligation, as far as he could without much hurt to himself,
+by interfering with all his influence, in behalf of her unfortunate
+husband. It was chiefly owing to Major Bridgenorth’s mediation, that Sir
+Geoffrey’s life was saved after the battle of Worcester. He obtained him
+permission to compound for his estate on easier terms than many who had
+been less obstinate in malignancy; and, finally, when, in order to
+raise the money to the composition, the Knight was obliged to sell a
+considerable portion of his patrimony, Major Bridgenorth became the
+purchaser, and that at a larger price than had been paid to any
+Cavalier under such circumstances, by a member of the Committee for
+Sequestrations. It is true, the prudent committeeman did not, by any
+means, lose sight of his own interest in the transaction, for the
+price was, after all, very moderate, and the property lay adjacent
+to Moultrassie Hall, the value of which was at least trebled by the
+acquisition. But then it was also true, that the unfortunate owner must
+have submitted to much worse conditions, had the committeeman used,
+as others did, the full advantages which his situation gave him; and
+Bridgenorth took credit to himself, and received it from others,
+for having, on this occasion, fairly sacrificed his interest to his
+liberality.
+
+Sir Geoffrey Peveril was of the same opinion, and the rather that Mr.
+Bridgenorth seemed to bear his exaltation with great moderation, and
+was disposed to show him personally the same deference in his present
+sunshine of prosperity, which he had exhibited formerly in their early
+acquaintance. It is but justice to Major Bridgenorth to observe, that
+in this conduct he paid respect as much to the misfortunes as to the
+pretensions of his far-descended neighbour, and that, with the frank
+generosity of a blunt Englishman, he conceded points of ceremony, about
+which he himself was indifferent, merely because he saw that his doing
+so gave pleasure to Sir Geoffrey.
+
+Peveril of the Peak did justice to his neighbour’s delicacy, in
+consideration of which he forgot many things. He forgot that Major
+Bridgenorth was already in possession of a fair third of his estate, and
+had various pecuniary claims affecting the remainder, to the extent of
+one-third more. He endeavoured even to forget, what it was still more
+difficult not to remember, the altered situation in which they and their
+mansions now stood to each other.
+
+Before the Civil War, the superb battlements and turrets of Martindale
+Castle looked down on the red brick-built Hall, as it stole out from the
+green plantations, just as an oak in Martindale Chase would have looked
+beside one of the stunted and formal young beech-trees with which
+Bridgenorth had graced his avenue; but after the siege which we have
+commemorated, the enlarged and augmented Hall was as much predominant in
+the landscape over the shattered and blackened ruins of the Castle, of
+which only one wing was left habitable, as the youthful beech, in all
+its vigour of shoot and bud, would appear to the same aged oak stripped
+of its boughs, and rifted by lightning, one-half laid in shivers on the
+ground, and the other remaining a blackened and ungraceful trunk, rent
+and splintered, and without either life or leaves. Sir Geoffrey could
+not but feel, that the situation and prospects were exchanged as
+disadvantageously for himself as the appearance of their mansions; and
+that though the authority of the man in office under the Parliament,
+the sequestrator, and the committeeman, had been only exerted for the
+protection of the Cavalier and the malignant, they would have been as
+effectual if applied to procure his utter ruin; and that he was become a
+client, while his neighbour was elevated into a patron.
+
+There were two considerations, besides the necessity of the case and
+the constant advice of his lady, which enabled Peveril of the Peak to
+endure, with some patience, this state of degradation. The first
+was, that the politics of Major Bridgenorth began, on many points, to
+assimilate themselves to his own. As a Presbyterian, he was not an utter
+enemy to monarchy, and had been considerably shocked at the unexpected
+trial and execution of the King; as a civilian and a man of property, he
+feared the domination of the military; and though he wished not to see
+Charles restored by force of arms, yet he arrived at the conclusion,
+that to bring back the heir of the royal family on such terms of
+composition as might ensure the protection of those popular immunities
+and privileges for which the Long Parliament had at first contended,
+would be the surest and most desirable termination to the mutations in
+state affairs which had agitated Britain. Indeed, the Major’s ideas
+on this point approached so nearly those of his neighbour, that he had
+well-nigh suffered Sir Geoffrey, who had a finger in almost all the
+conspiracies of the Royalists, to involve him in the unfortunate rising
+of Penruddock and Groves, in the west, in which many of the Presbyterian
+interest, as well as the Cavalier party, were engaged. And though his
+habitual prudence eventually kept him out of this and other dangers,
+Major Bridgenorth was considered during the last years of Cromwell’s
+domination, and the interregnum which succeeded, as a disaffected person
+to the Commonwealth, and a favourer of Charles Stewart.
+
+But besides this approximation to the same political opinions, another
+bond of intimacy united the families of the Castle and the Hall.
+Major Bridgenorth, fortunate, and eminently so, in all his worldly
+transactions, was visited by severe and reiterated misfortunes in his
+family, and became, in this particular, an object of compassion to his
+poorer and more decayed neighbour. Betwixt the breaking out of the Civil
+War and the Restoration, he lost successively a family of no less than
+six children, apparently through a delicacy of constitution, which cut
+off the little prattlers at the early age when they most wind themselves
+round the heart of the parents.
+
+In the beginning of the year 1658, Major Bridgenorth was childless; ere
+it ended, he had a daughter, indeed, but her birth was purchased by the
+death of an affectionate wife, whose constitution had been exhausted by
+maternal grief, and by the anxious and harrowing reflection, that from
+her the children they had lost derived that delicacy of health, which
+proved unable to undergo the tear and wear of existence. The same voice
+which told Bridgenorth that he was the father of a living child (it was
+the friendly voice of Lady Peveril), communicated to him the melancholy
+intelligence that he was no longer a husband. The feelings of Major
+Bridgenorth were strong and deep, rather than hasty and vehement; and
+his grief assumed the form of a sullen stupor, from which neither the
+friendly remonstrances of Sir Geoffrey, who did not fail to be with his
+neighbour at this distressing conjuncture, even though he knew he must
+meet the Presbyterian pastor, nor the ghastly exhortations of this
+latter person, were able to rouse the unfortunate widower.
+
+At length Lady Peveril, with the ready invention of a female sharped
+by the sight of distress and the feelings of sympathy, tried on the
+sufferer one of those experiments by which grief is often awakened from
+despondency into tears. She placed in Bridgenorth’s arms the infant
+whose birth had cost him so dear, and conjured him to remember that his
+Alice was not yet dead, since she survived in the helpless child she had
+left to his paternal care.
+
+“Take her away--take her away!” said the unhappy man, and they were the
+first words he had spoken; “let me not look on her--it is but another
+blossom that has bloomed to fade, and the tree that bore it will never
+flourish more!”
+
+He almost threw the child into Lady Peveril’s arms, placed his
+hands before his face, and wept aloud. Lady Peveril did not say “be
+comforted,” but she ventured to promise that the blossom should ripen to
+fruit.
+
+“Never, never!” said Bridgenorth; “take the unhappy child away, and let
+me only know when I shall wear black for her--Wear black!” he exclaimed,
+interrupting himself, “what other colour shall I wear during the
+remainder of my life?”
+
+“I will take the child for a season,” said Lady Peveril, “since the
+sight of her is so painful to you; and the little Alice shall share the
+nursery of our Julian, until it shall be pleasure and not pain for you
+to look on her.”
+
+“That hour will never come,” said the unhappy father; “her doom is
+written--she will follow the rest--God’s will be done.--Lady, I thank
+you--I trust her to your care; and I thank God that my eye shall not see
+her dying agonies.”
+
+Without detaining the reader’s attention longer on this painful theme,
+it is enough to say that the Lady Peveril did undertake the duties of
+a mother to the little orphan; and perhaps it was owing, in a great
+measure, to her judicious treatment of the infant, that its feeble hold
+of life was preserved, since the glimmering spark might probably have
+been altogether smothered, had it, like the Major’s former children,
+undergone the over-care and over-nursing of a mother rendered nervously
+cautious and anxious by so many successive losses. The lady was the more
+ready to undertake this charge, that she herself had lost two infant
+children; and that she attributed the preservation of the third, now a
+fine healthy child of three years old, to Julian’s being subjected to
+rather a different course of diet and treatment than was then generally
+practised. She resolved to follow the same regiment with the little
+orphan, which she had observed in the case of her own boy; and it was
+equally successful. By a more sparing use of medicine, by a bolder
+admission of fresh air, by a firm, yet cautious attention to encourage
+rather than to supersede the exertions of nature, the puny infant, under
+the care of an excellent nurse, gradually improved in strength and in
+liveliness.
+
+Sir Geoffrey, like most men of his frank and good-natured disposition,
+was naturally fond of children, and so much compassionated the sorrows
+of his neighbour, that he entirely forgot his being a Presbyterian,
+until it became necessary that the infant should be christened by a
+teacher of that persuasion.
+
+This was a trying case--the father seemed incapable of giving direction;
+and that the threshold of Martindale Castle should be violated by the
+heretical step of a dissenting clergyman, was matter of horror to its
+orthodox owner. He had seen the famous Hugh Peters, with a Bible in one
+hand and a pistol in the other, ride in triumph through the court-door
+when Martindale was surrendered; and the bitterness of that hour had
+entered like iron into his soul. Yet such was Lady Peveril’s influence
+over the prejudices of her husband, that he was induced to connive
+at the ceremony taking place in a remote garden house, which was not
+properly within the precincts of the Castle-wall. The lady even dared
+to be present while the ceremony was performed by the Reverend Master
+Solsgrace, who had once preached a sermon of three hours’ length before
+the House of Commons, upon a thanksgiving occasion after the relief of
+Exeter. Sir Geoffrey Peveril took care to be absent the whole day from
+the Castle, and it was only from the great interest which he took in
+the washing, perfuming, and as it were purification of the summer-house,
+that it could have been guessed he knew anything of what had taken place
+in it.
+
+But, whatever prejudices the good Knight might entertain against his
+neighbour’s form of religion, they did not in any way influence his
+feelings towards him as a sufferer under severe affliction. The mode in
+which he showed his sympathy was rather singular, but exactly suited the
+character of both, and the terms on which they stood with each other.
+
+Morning after morning the good Baronet made Moultrassie Hall the
+termination of his walk or ride, and said a single word of kindness as
+he passed. Sometimes he entered the old parlour where the proprietor sat
+in solitary wretchedness and despondency; but more frequently (for Sir
+Geoffrey did not pretend to great talents of conversation), he paused on
+the terrace, and stopping or halting his horse by the latticed window,
+said aloud to the melancholy inmate, “How is it with you, Master
+Bridgenorth?” (the Knight would never acknowledge his neighbour’s
+military rank of Major); “I just looked in to bid you keep a good heart,
+man, and to tell you that Julian is well, and little Alice is well, and
+all are well at Martindale Castle.”
+
+A deep sigh, sometimes coupled with “I thank you, Sir Geoffrey; my
+grateful duty waits on Lady Peveril,” was generally Bridgenorth’s only
+answer. But the news was received on the one part with the kindness
+which was designed upon the other; it gradually became less painful
+and more interesting; the lattice window was never closed, nor was the
+leathern easy-chair which stood next to it ever empty, when the
+usual hour of the Baronet’s momentary visit approached. At length the
+expectation of that passing minute became the pivot upon which the
+thoughts of poor Bridgenorth turned during all the rest of the day. Most
+men have known the influence of such brief but ruling moments at some
+period of their lives. The moment when a lover passes the window of his
+mistress--the moment when the epicure hears the dinner-bell,--is that
+into which is crowded the whole interest of the day; the hours which
+precede it are spent in anticipation; the hours which follow, in
+reflection on what has passed; and fancy dwelling on each brief
+circumstance, gives to seconds the duration of minutes, to minutes that
+of hours. Thus seated in his lonely chair, Bridgenorth could catch at
+a distance the stately step of Sir Geoffrey, or the heavy tramp of his
+war-horse, Black Hastings, which had borne him in many an action; he
+could hear the hum of “The King shall enjoy his own again,” or the
+habitual whistle of “Cuckolds and Roundheads,” die unto reverential
+silence, as the Knight approached the mansion of affliction; and then
+came the strong hale voice of the huntsman soldier with its usual
+greeting.
+
+By degrees the communication became something more protracted, as Major
+Bridgenorth’s grief, like all human feelings, lost its overwhelming
+violence, and permitted him to attend, in some degree, to what passed
+around him, to discharge various duties which pressed upon him, and to
+give a share of attention to the situation of the country, distracted as
+it was by the contending factions, whose strife only terminated in the
+Restoration. Still, however, though slowly recovering from the effects
+of the shock which he had sustained, Major Bridgenorth felt himself
+as yet unable to make up his mind to the effort necessary to see his
+infant; and though separated by so short a distance from the being
+in whose existence he was more interested than in anything the world
+afforded, he only made himself acquainted with the windows of the
+apartment where little Alice was lodged, and was often observed to
+watch them from the terrace, as they brightened in the evening under the
+influence of the setting sun. In truth, though a strong-minded man in
+most respects, he was unable to lay aside the gloomy impression that
+this remaining pledge of affection was soon to be conveyed to that grave
+which had already devoured all besides that was dear to him; and he
+awaited in miserable suspense the moment when he should hear that
+symptoms of the fatal malady had begun to show themselves.
+
+The voice of Peveril continued to be that of a comforter until the month
+of April 1660, when it suddenly assumed a new and different tone. “The
+King shall enjoy his own again,” far from ceasing, as the hasty tread
+of Black Hastings came up the avenue, bore burden to the clatter of
+his hoofs on the paved courtyard, as Sir Geoffrey sprang from his great
+war-saddle, now once more garnished with pistols of two feet in length,
+and, armed with steel-cap, back and breast, and a truncheon in his hand,
+he rushed into the apartment of the astonished Major, with his eyes
+sparkling, and his cheek inflamed, while he called out, “Up! up,
+neighbour! No time now to mope in the chimney-corner! Where is your
+buff-coat and broadsword, man? Take the true side once in your life, and
+mend past mistakes. The King is all lenity, man--all royal nature and
+mercy. I will get your full pardon.”
+
+“What means all this?” said Bridgenorth--“Is all well with you--all well
+at Martindale Castle, Sir Geoffrey?”
+
+“Well as you could wish them, Alice, and Julian, and all. But I have
+news worth twenty of that--Monk has declared at London against those
+stinking scoundrels the Rump. Fairfax is up in Yorkshire--for the
+King--for the King, man! Churchmen, Presbyterians, and all, are in buff
+and bandoleer for King Charles. I have a letter from Fairfax to secure
+Derby and Chesterfield with all the men I can make. D--n him, fine that
+I should take orders from him! But never mind that--all are friends now,
+and you and I, good neighbour, will charge abreast, as good neighbours
+should. See there! read--read--read--and then boot and saddle in an
+instant.
+
+ ‘Hey for cavaliers--ho for cavaliers,
+  Pray for cavaliers,
+    Dub-a-dub, dub-a-dub,
+    Have at old Beelzebub,
+  Oliver shakes in his bier!’”
+
+After thundering forth this elegant effusion of loyal enthusiasm, the
+sturdy Cavalier’s heart became too full. He threw himself on a seat, and
+exclaiming, “Did ever I think to live to see this happy day!” he wept,
+to his own surprise, as much as to that of Bridgenorth.
+
+Upon considering the crisis in which the country was placed, it appeared
+to Major Bridgenorth, as it had done to Fairfax, and other leaders of
+the Presbyterian party, that their frank embracing of the royal interest
+was the wisest and most patriotic measure which they could adopt in the
+circumstances, when all ranks and classes of men were seeking refuge
+from the uncertainty and varied oppression attending the repeated
+contests between the factions of Westminster Hall and of Wallingford
+House. Accordingly he joined with Sir Geoffrey, with less enthusiasm
+indeed, but with equal sincerity, taking such measures as seemed proper
+to secure their part of the country on the King’s behalf, which was
+done as effectually and peaceably as in other parts of England. The
+neighbours were both at Chesterfield, when news arrived that the King
+had landed in England; and Sir Geoffrey instantly announced his purpose
+of waiting upon his Majesty, even before his return to the Castle of
+Martindale.
+
+“Who knows, neighbour,” he said, “whether Sir Geoffrey Peveril will ever
+return to Martindale? Titles must be going amongst them yonder, and
+I have deserved something among the rest.--Lord Peveril would sound
+well--or stay, Earl of Martindale--no, not of Martindale--Earl of the
+Peak.--Meanwhile, trust your affairs to me--I will see you secured--I
+would you had been no Presbyterian, neighbour--a knighthood,--I mean
+a knight-bachelor, not a knight-baronet,--would have served your turn
+well.”
+
+“I leave these things to my betters, Sir Geoffrey,” said the Major, “and
+desire nothing so earnestly as to find all well at Martindale when I
+return.”
+
+“You will--you will find them all well,” said the Baronet; “Julian,
+Alice, Lady Peveril, and all of them--Bear my commendations to them, and
+kiss them all, neighbour, Lady Peveril and all--you may kiss a Countess
+when I come back; all will go well with you now you are turned honest
+man.”
+
+“I always meant to be so, Sir Geoffrey,” said Bridgenorth calmly.
+
+“Well, well, well--no offence meant,” said the Knight, “all is well
+now--so you to Moultrassie Hall, and I to Whitehall. Said I well, aha!
+So ho, mine host, a stoup of Canary to the King’s health ere we get to
+horse--I forgot, neighbour--you drink no healths.”
+
+“I wish the King’s health as sincerely as if I drank a gallon to it,”
+ replied the Major; “and I wish you, Sir Geoffrey, all success on your
+journey, and a safe return.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+       Why, then, we will have bellowing of beeves,
+       Broaching of barrels, brandishing of spigots;
+       Blood shall flow freely, but it shall be gore
+       Of herds and flocks, and venison and poultry,
+       Join’d to the brave heart’s-blood of John-a-Barleycorn!
+                                                --OLD PLAY.
+
+Whatever rewards Charles might have condescended to bestow in
+acknowledgement of the sufferings and loyalty of Peveril of the Peak,
+he had none in his disposal equal to the pleasure which Providence had
+reserved for Bridgenorth on his return to Derbyshire. The exertion to
+which he had been summoned, had had the usual effect of restoring to a
+certain extent the activity and energy of his character, and he felt it
+would be unbecoming to relapse into the state of lethargic melancholy
+from which it had roused him. Time also had its usual effect in
+mitigating the subjects of his regret; and when he had passed one day at
+the Hall in regretting that he could not expect the indirect news of his
+daughter’s health, which Sir Geoffrey used to communicate in his almost
+daily call, he reflected that it would be in every respect becoming that
+he should pay a personal visit at Martindale Castle, carry thither the
+remembrances of the Knight to his lady, assure her of his health, and
+satisfy himself respecting that of his daughter. He armed himself for
+the worst--he called to recollection the thin cheeks, faded eye, wasted
+hand, pallid lip, which had marked the decaying health of all his former
+infants.
+
+“I shall see,” he said, “these signs of mortality once more--I shall
+once more see a beloved being to whom I have given birth, gliding to
+the grave which ought to enclose me long before her. No matter--it is
+unmanly so long to shrink from that which must be--God’s will be done!”
+
+He went accordingly, on the subsequent morning, to Martindale Castle,
+and gave the lady the welcome assurances of her husband’s safety, and of
+his hopes of preferment.
+
+“For the first, may Almighty God be praised!” said the Lady Peveril;
+“and be the other as our gracious and restored Sovereign may will it.
+We are great enough for our means, and have means sufficient for
+contentment, though not for splendour. And now I see, good Master
+Bridgenorth, the folly of putting faith in idle presentiments of evil.
+So often had Sir Geoffrey’s repeated attempts in favour of the Stewarts
+led him into new misfortunes, that when, the other morning, I saw
+him once more dressed in his fatal armour, and heard the sound of his
+trumpet, which had been so long silent, it seemed to me as if I saw his
+shroud, and heard his death-knell. I say this to you, good neighbour,
+the rather because I fear your own mind has been harassed with
+anticipations of impending calamity, which it may please God to avert
+in your case as it has done in mine; and here comes a sight which bears
+good assurance of it.”
+
+The door of the apartment opened as she spoke, and two lovely children
+entered. The eldest, Julian Peveril, a fine boy betwixt four and
+five years old, led in his hand, with an air of dignified support and
+attention, a little girl of eighteen months, who rolled and tottered
+along, keeping herself with difficulty upright by the assistance of her
+elder, stronger, and masculine companion.
+
+Bridgenorth cast a hasty and fearful glance upon the countenance of his
+daughter, and, even in that glimpse, perceived, with exquisite delight,
+that his fears were unfounded. He caught her in his arms, pressed her
+to his heart, and the child, though at first alarmed at the vehemence
+of his caresses, presently, as if prompted by Nature, smiled in reply to
+them. Again he held her at some distance from him, and examined her
+more attentively; he satisfied himself that the complexion of the young
+cherub he had in his arms was not the hectic tinge of disease, but the
+clear hue of ruddy health; and that though her little frame was slight,
+it was firm and springy.
+
+“I did not think that it could have been thus,” he said, looking to
+Lady Peveril, who had sat observing the scene with great pleasure; “but
+praise be to God in the first instance, and next, thanks to you, madam,
+who have been His instrument.”
+
+“Julian must lose his playfellow now, I suppose?” said the lady; “but
+the Hall is not distant, and I will see my little charge often. Dame
+Martha, the housekeeper at Moultrassie, has sense, and is careful. I
+will tell her the rules I have observed with little Alice, and----”
+
+“God forbid my girl should ever come to Moultrassie,” said Major
+Bridgenorth hastily; “it has been the grave of her race. The air of the
+low grounds suited them not--or there is perhaps a fate connected with
+the mansion. I will seek for her some other place of abode.”
+
+“That you shall not, under your favour be it spoken, Major Bridgenorth,”
+ answered the lady. “If you do so, we must suppose that you are
+undervaluing my qualities as a nurse. If she goes not to her father’s
+house, she shall not quit mine. I will keep the little lady as a pledge
+of her safety and my own skill; and since you are afraid of the damp of
+the low grounds, I hope you will come here frequently to visit her.”
+
+This was a proposal which went to the heart of Major Bridgenorth. It was
+precisely the point which he would have given worlds to arrive at, but
+which he saw no chance of attaining.
+
+It is too well known, that those whose families are long pursued by such
+a fatal disease as existed in his, become, it may be said, superstitious
+respecting its fatal effects, and ascribe to place, circumstance, and
+individual care, much more perhaps than these can in any case contribute
+to avert the fatality of constitutional distemper. Lady Peveril was
+aware that this was peculiarly the impression of her neighbour; that the
+depression of his spirits, the excess of his care, the feverishness of
+his apprehensions, the restraint and gloom of the solitude in which he
+dwelt, were really calculated to produce the evil which most of all he
+dreaded. She pitied him, she felt for him, she was grateful for former
+protection received at his hands--she had become interested in the child
+itself. What female fails to feel such interest in the helpless creature
+she has tended? And to sum the whole up, the dame had a share of human
+vanity; and being a sort of Lady Bountiful in her way (for the character
+was not then confined to the old and the foolish), she was proud of
+the skill by which she had averted the probable attacks of hereditary
+malady, so inveterate in the family of Bridgenorth. It needed not,
+perhaps, in other cases, that so many reasons should be assigned for
+an act of neighbourly humanity; but civil war had so lately torn the
+country asunder, and broken all the usual ties of vicinage and good
+neighbourhood, that it was unusual to see them preserved among persons
+of different political opinions.
+
+Major Bridgenorth himself felt this; and while the tear of joy in his
+eye showed how gladly he would accept Lady Peveril’s proposal, he could
+not help stating the obvious inconveniences attendant upon her scheme,
+though it was in the tone of one who would gladly hear them overruled.
+“Madam,” he said, “your kindness makes me the happiest and most thankful
+of men; but can it be consistent with your own convenience? Sir Geoffrey
+has his opinions on many points, which have differed, and probably do
+still differ, from mine. He is high-born, and I of middling parentage
+only. He uses the Church Service, and I the Catechism of the Assembly of
+Divines at Westminster----”
+
+“I hope you will find prescribed in neither of them,” said the Lady
+Peveril, “that I may not be a mother to your motherless child. I trust,
+Master Bridgenorth, the joyful Restoration of his Majesty, a work
+wrought by the direct hand of Providence, may be the means of closing
+and healing all civil and religious dissensions among us, and that,
+instead of showing the superior purity of our faith, by persecuting
+those who think otherwise from ourselves on doctrinal points, we shall
+endeavour to show its real Christian tendency, by emulating each other
+in actions of good-will towards man, as the best way of showing our love
+to God.”
+
+“Your ladyship speaks what your own kind heart dictates,” answered
+Bridgenorth, who had his own share of the narrow-mindedness of the time;
+“and sure am I, that if all who call themselves loyalists and Cavaliers,
+thought like you--and like my friend Sir Geoffrey”--(this he added after
+a moment’s pause, being perhaps rather complimentary than sincere)--“we,
+who thought it our duty in time past to take arms for freedom of
+conscience, and against arbitrary power, might now sit down in peace
+and contentment. But I wot not how it may fall. You have sharp and hot
+spirits amongst you; I will not say our power was always moderately
+used, and revenge is sweet to the race of fallen Adam.”
+
+“Come, Master Bridgenorth,” said the Lady Peveril gaily, “those evil
+omenings do but point out conclusions, which, unless they were
+so anticipated, are most unlikely to come to pass. You know what
+Shakespeare says--
+
+ ‘To fly the boar before the boar pursues,
+  Were to incense the boar to follow us,
+  And make pursuit when he did mean no chase.’
+
+“But I crave your pardon--it is so long since we have met, that I forgot
+you love no play-books.”
+
+“With reverence to your ladyship,” said Bridgenorth, “I were much to
+blame did I need the idle words of a Warwickshire stroller, to teach me
+my grateful duty to your ladyship on this occasion, which appoints me to
+be directed by you in all things which my conscience will permit.”
+
+“Since you permit me such influence, then,” replied the Lady Peveril,
+“I shall be moderate in exercising it, in order that I may, in my
+domination at least, give you a favourable impression of the new order
+of things. So, if you will be a subject of mine for one day, neighbour,
+I am going, at my lord and husband’s command, to issue out my warrants
+to invite the whole neighbourhood to a solemn feast at the Castle,
+on Thursday next; and I not only pray you to be personally present
+yourself, but to prevail on your worthy pastor, and such neighbours and
+friends, high and low, as may think in your own way, to meet with the
+rest of the neighbourhood, to rejoice on this joyful occasion of the
+King’s Restoration, and thereby to show that we are to be henceforward a
+united people.”
+
+The parliamentarian Major was considerably embarrassed by this proposal.
+He looked upward, and downward, and around, cast his eye first to the
+oak-carved ceiling, and anon fixed it upon the floor; then threw
+it around the room till it lighted on his child, the sight of whom
+suggested another and a better train of reflections than ceiling and
+floor had been able to supply.
+
+“Madam,” he said, “I have long been a stranger to festivity, perhaps
+from constitutional melancholy, perhaps from the depression which is
+natural to a desolate and deprived man, in whose ear mirth is marred,
+like a pleasant air when performed on a mistuned instrument. But though
+neither my thoughts nor temperament are Jovial or Mercurial, it becomes
+me to be grateful to Heaven for the good He has sent me by the means of
+your ladyship. David, the man after God’s own heart, did wash and eat
+bread when his beloved child was removed--mine is restored to me, and
+shall I not show gratitude under a blessing, when he showed resignation
+under an affliction? Madam, I will wait on your gracious invitation with
+acceptance; and such of my friends with whom I may possess influence,
+and whose presence your ladyship may desire, shall accompany me to the
+festivity, that our Israel may be as one people.”
+
+Having spoken these words with an aspect which belonged more to a martyr
+than to a guest bidden to a festival, and having kissed, and solemnly
+blessed his little girl, Major Bridgenorth took his departure for
+Moultrassie Hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+            Here’s neither want of appetite nor mouths;
+            Pray Heaven we be not scant of meat or mirth!
+                                                --OLD PLAY.
+
+Even upon ordinary occasions, and where means were ample, a great
+entertainment in those days was not such a sinecure as in modern times,
+when the lady who presides has but to intimate to her menials the day
+and hour when she wills it to take place. At that simple period, the
+lady was expected to enter deeply into the arrangement and provision of
+the whole affair; and from a little gallery, which communicated with
+her own private apartment, and looked down upon the kitchen, her shrill
+voice was to be heard, from time to time, like that of the warning
+spirit in a tempest, rising above the clash of pots and stewpans--the
+creaking spits--the clattering of marrowbones and cleavers--the
+scolding of cooks--and all the other various kinds of din which form an
+accompaniment to dressing a large dinner.
+
+But all this toil and anxiety was more than doubled in the case of the
+approaching feast at Martindale Castle, where the presiding Genius
+of the festivity was scarce provided with adequate means to carry her
+hospitable purpose into effect. The tyrannical conduct of husbands,
+in such cases, is universal; and I scarce know one householder of my
+acquaintance who has not, on some ill-omened and most inconvenient
+season, announced suddenly to his innocent helpmate, that he had invited
+
+ “Some odious Major Rock,
+  To drop in at six o’clock.”
+
+to the great discomposure of the lady, and the discredit, perhaps, of
+her domestic arrangements.
+
+Peveril of the Peak was still more thoughtless; for he had directed his
+lady to invite the whole honest men of the neighbourhood to make good
+cheer at Martindale Castle, in honour of the blessed Restoration of his
+most sacred Majesty, without precisely explaining where the provisions
+were to come from. The deer-park had lain waste ever since the siege;
+the dovecot could do little to furnish forth such an entertainment;
+the fishponds, it is true, were well provided (which the neighbouring
+Presbyterians noted as a suspicious circumstance); and game was to be
+had for the shooting, upon the extensive heaths and hills of
+Derbyshire. But these were but the secondary parts of a banquet; and
+the house-steward and bailiff, Lady Peveril’s only coadjutors and
+counsellors, could not agree how the butcher-meat--the most substantial
+part, or, as it were, the main body of the entertainment--was to be
+supplied. The house-steward threatened the sacrifice of a fine yoke of
+young bullocks, which the bailiff, who pleaded the necessity of their
+agricultural services, tenaciously resisted; and Lady Peveril’s good
+and dutiful nature did not prevent her from making some impatient
+reflections on the want of consideration of her absent Knight, who had
+thus thoughtlessly placed her in so embarrassing a situation.
+
+These reflections were scarcely just, if a man is only responsible for
+such resolutions as he adopts when he is fully master of himself. Sir
+Geoffrey’s loyalty, like that of many persons in his situation, had,
+by dint of hopes and fears, victories and defeats, struggles and
+sufferings, all arising out of the same moving cause, and turning, as
+it were, on the same pivot, acquired the character of an intense and
+enthusiastic passion; and the singular and surprising change of fortune,
+by which his highest wishes were not only gratified, but far exceeded,
+occasioned for some time a kind of intoxication of loyal rapture which
+seemed to pervade the whole kingdom. Sir Geoffrey had seen Charles
+and his brothers, and had been received by the merry monarch with that
+graceful, and at the same time frank urbanity, by which he conciliated
+all who approached him; the Knight’s services and merits had been
+fully acknowledged, and recompense had been hinted at, if not expressly
+promised. Was it for Peveril of the Peak, in the jubilee of his spirits,
+to consider how his wife was to find beef and mutton to feast his
+neighbours?
+
+Luckily, however, for the embarrassed lady, there existed some one who
+had composure of mind sufficient to foresee this difficulty. Just as
+she had made up her mind, very reluctantly, to become debtor to Major
+Bridgenorth for the sum necessary to carry her husband’s commands into
+effect, and whilst she was bitterly regretting this departure from the
+strictness of her usual economy, the steward, who, by-the-bye, had not
+been absolutely sober since the news of the King’s landing at Dover,
+burst into the apartment, snapping his fingers, and showing more marks
+of delight than was quite consistent with the dignity of my lady’s large
+parlour.
+
+“What means this, Whitaker?” said the lady, somewhat peevishly; for she
+was interrupted in the commencement of a letter to her neighbour on the
+unpleasant business of the proposed loan,--“Is it to be always thus with
+you?--Are you dreaming?”
+
+“A vision of good omen, I trust,” said the steward, with a triumphant
+flourish of the hand; “far better than Pharaoh’s, though, like his, it
+be of fat kine.”
+
+“I prithee be plain, man,” said the lady, “or fetch some one who can
+speak to purpose.”
+
+“Why, odds-my-life, madam,” said the steward, “mine errand can speak for
+itself. Do you not hear them low? Do you not hear them bleat? A yoke of
+fat oxen, and half a score prime wethers. The Castle is victualled for
+this bout, let them storm when they will; and Gatherill may have his
+d--d mains ploughed to the boot.”
+
+The lady, without farther questioning her elated domestic, rose and went
+to the window, where she certainly beheld the oxen and sheep which had
+given rise to Whitaker’s exultation. “Whence come they?” said she, in
+some surprise.
+
+“Let them construe that who can,” answered Whitaker; “the fellow who
+drove them was a west-country man, and only said they came from a friend
+to help to furnish out your ladyship’s entertainment; the man would
+not stay to drink--I am sorry he would not stay to drink--I crave your
+ladyship’s pardon for not keeping him by the ears to drink--it was not
+my fault.”
+
+“That I’ll be sworn it was not,” said the lady.
+
+“Nay, madam, by G--, I assure you it was not,” said the zealous steward;
+“for, rather than the Castle should lose credit, I drank his health
+myself in double ale, though I had had my morning draught already. I
+tell you the naked truth, my lady, by G--!”
+
+“It was no great compulsion, I suppose,” said the lady; “but, Whitaker,
+suppose you should show your joy on such occasions, by drinking and
+swearing a little less, rather than a little more, would it not be as
+well, think you?”
+
+“I crave your ladyship’s pardon,” said Whitaker, with much reverence; “I
+hope I know my place. I am your ladyship’s poor servant; and I know it
+does not become me to drink and swear like your ladyship--that is, like
+his honour, Sir Geoffrey, I would say. But I pray you, if I am not to
+drink and swear after my degree, how are men to know Peveril of the
+Peak’s steward,--and I may say butler too, since I have had the keys of
+the cellar ever since old Spigots was shot dead on the northwest turret,
+with a black jack in his hand,--I say, how is an old Cavalier like me
+to be known from those cuckoldly Roundheads that do nothing but fast and
+pray, if we are not to drink and swear according to our degree?”
+
+The lady was silent, for she well knew speech availed nothing; and,
+after a moment’s pause, proceeded to intimate to the steward that she
+would have the persons, whose names were marked in a written paper,
+which she delivered to him, invited to the approaching banquet.
+
+Whitaker, instead of receiving the list with the mute acquiescence of
+a modern Major Domo, carried it into the recess of one of the windows,
+and, adjusting his spectacles, began to read it to himself. The
+first names, being those of distinguished Cavalier families in the
+neighbourhood, he muttered over in a tone of approbation--paused and
+pshawed at that of Bridgenorth--yet acquiesced, with the observation,
+“But he is a good neighbour, so it may pass for once.” But when he read
+the name and surname of Nehemiah Solsgrace, the Presbyterian parson,
+Whitaker’s patience altogether forsook him; and he declared he would as
+soon throw himself into Eldon-hole,[*] as consent that the intrusive old
+puritan howlet, who had usurped the pulpit of a sound orthodox divine,
+should ever darken the gates of Martindale Castle by any message or
+mediation of his.
+
+[*] A chasm in the earth supposed to be unfathomable, one of the
+    wonders of the Peak.
+
+“The false crop-eared hypocrites,” cried he, with a hearty oath, “have
+had their turn of the good weather. The sun is on our side of the hedge
+now, and we will pay off old scores, as sure as my name is Richard
+Whitaker.”
+
+“You presume on your long services, Whitaker, and on your master’s
+absence, or you had not dared to use me thus,” said the lady.
+
+The unwonted agitation of her voice attracted the attention of the
+refractory steward, notwithstanding his present state of elevation; but
+he no sooner saw that her eye glistened, and her cheek reddened, than
+his obstinacy was at once subdued.
+
+“A murrain on me,” he said, “but I have made my lady angry in good
+earnest! and that is an unwonted sight for to see.--I crave your
+pardon, my lady! It was not poor Dick Whitaker disputed your honourable
+commands, but only that second draught of double ale. We have put a
+double stroke of malt to it, as your ladyship well knows, ever since the
+happy Restoration. To be sure I hate a fanatic as I do the cloven foot
+of Satan; but then your honourable ladyship hath a right to invite Satan
+himself, cloven foot and all, to Martindale Castle; and to send me
+to hell’s gate with a billet of invitation--and so your will shall be
+done.”
+
+The invitations were sent round accordingly, in all due form; and one of
+the bullocks was sent down to be roasted whole at the market-place of a
+little village called Martindale-Moultrassie, which stood considerably
+to the eastward both of the Castle and Hall, from which it took its
+double name, at about an equal distance from both; so that, suppose a
+line drawn from the one manor-house to the other, to be the base of a
+triangle, the village would have occupied the salient angle. As the said
+village, since the late transference of a part of Peveril’s property,
+belonged to Sir Geoffrey and to Bridgenorth in nearly equal portions,
+the lady judged it not proper to dispute the right of the latter to add
+some hogsheads of beer to the popular festivity.
+
+In the meanwhile, she could not but suspect the Major of being the
+unknown friend who had relieved her from the dilemma arising from the
+want of provisions; and she esteemed herself happy when a visit from
+him, on the day preceding the proposed entertainment, gave her, as she
+thought, an opportunity of expressing her gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+          No, sir--I will not pledge--I’m one of those
+          Who think good wine needs neither bush nor preface
+          To make it welcome. If you doubt my word,
+          Fill the quart-cup, and see if I will choke on’t.
+                                                   --OLD PLAY.
+
+There was a serious gravity of expression in the disclamation with which
+Major Bridgenorth replied to the thanks tendered to him by Lady
+Peveril, for the supply of provisions which had reached her Castle so
+opportunely. He seemed first not to be aware what she alluded to; and,
+when she explained the circumstance, he protested so seriously that he
+had no share in the benefit conferred, that Lady Peveril was compelled
+to believe him, the rather that, being a man of plain downright
+character, affecting no refined delicacy of sentiment, and practising
+almost a quaker-like sincerity of expression, it would have been much
+contrary to his general character to have made such a disavowal, unless
+it were founded in truth.
+
+“My present visit to you, madam,” said he, “had indeed some reference to
+the festivity of to-morrow.” Lady Peveril listened, but as her visitor
+seemed to find some difficulty in expressing himself, she was compelled
+to ask an explanation. “Madam,” said the Major, “you are not perhaps
+entirely ignorant that the more tender-conscienced among us have
+scruples at certain practices, so general amongst your people at times
+of rejoicing, that you may be said to insist upon them as articles of
+faith, or at least greatly to resent their omission.”
+
+“I trust, Master Bridgenorth,” said the Lady Peveril, not fully
+comprehending the drift of his discourse, “that we shall, as your
+entertainers, carefully avoid all allusions or reproaches founded on
+past misunderstanding.”
+
+“We would expect no less, madam, from your candour and courtesy,” said
+Bridgenorth; “but I perceive you do not fully understand me. To be
+plain, then, I allude to the fashion of drinking healths, and pledging
+each other in draughts of strong liquor, which most among us consider as
+a superfluous and sinful provoking of each other to debauchery, and
+the excessive use of strong drink; and which, besides, if derived, as
+learned divines have supposed, from the custom of the blinded Pagans,
+who made libations and invoked idols when they drank, may be justly said
+to have something in it heathenish, and allied to demon-worship.”
+
+The lady had already hastily considered all the topics which were
+likely to introduce discord into the proposed festivity; but this very
+ridiculous, yet fatal discrepancy, betwixt the manners of the parties on
+convivial occasions, had entirely escaped her. She endeavoured to soothe
+the objecting party, whose brows were knit like one who had fixed an
+opinion by which he was determined to abide.
+
+“I grant,” she said, “my good neighbour, that this custom is at least
+idle, and may be prejudicial if it leads to excess in the use of liquor,
+which is apt enough to take place without such conversation. But I
+think, when it hath not this consequence, it is a thing indifferent,
+affords a unanimous mode of expressing our good wishes to our friends,
+and our loyal duty to our sovereign; and, without meaning to put any
+force upon the inclination of those who believe otherwise, I cannot see
+how I can deny my guests and friends the privilege of drinking a health
+to the King, or to my husband, after the old English fashion.”
+
+“My lady,” said the Major, “if the age of fashion were to command it,
+Popery is one of the oldest English fashions that I have heard of; but
+it is our happiness that we are not benighted like our fathers, and
+therefore we must act according to the light that is in us, and not
+after their darkness. I had myself the honour to attend the Lord-Keeper
+Whitelocke, when, at the table of the Chamberlain of the kingdom of
+Sweden, he did positively refuse to pledge the health of his Queen,
+Christina, thereby giving great offence, and putting in peril the whole
+purpose of that voyage; which it is not to be thought so wise a man
+would have done, but that he held such compliance a thing not merely
+indifferent, but rather sinful and damnable.”
+
+“With all respect to Whitelocke,” said the Lady Peveril, “I continue of
+my own opinion, though, Heaven knows, I am no friend to riot or wassail.
+I would fain accommodate myself to your scruples, and will discourage
+all other pledges; but surely those of the King and of Peveril of the
+Peak may be permitted?”
+
+“I dare not,” answered Bridgenorth, “lay even the ninety-ninth part of a
+grain of incense upon an altar erected to Satan.”
+
+“How, sir!” said the lady; “do you bring Satan into comparison with our
+master King Charles, and with my noble lord and husband?”
+
+“Pardon me, madam,” answered Bridgenorth, “I have no such
+thoughts--indeed they would ill become me. I do wish the King’s health
+and Sir Geoffrey’s devoutly, and I will pray for both. But I see not
+what good it should do their health if I should prejudice my own by
+quaffing pledges out of quart flagons.”
+
+“Since we cannot agree upon this matter,” said Lady Peveril, “we must
+find some resource by which to offend those of neither party. Suppose
+you winked at our friends drinking these pledges, and we should connive
+at your sitting still?”
+
+But neither would this composition satisfy Bridgenorth, who was of
+opinion, as he expressed himself, that it would be holding a candle
+to Beelzebub. In fact, his temper, naturally stubborn, was at present
+rendered much more so by a previous conference with his preacher, who,
+though a very good man in the main, was particularly and illiberally
+tenacious of the petty distinctions which his sect adopted; and while he
+thought with considerable apprehension on the accession of power which
+Popery, Prelacy, and Peveril of the Peak, were like to acquire by the
+late Revolution, became naturally anxious to put his flock on their
+guard, and prevent their being kidnapped by the wolf. He disliked
+extremely that Major Bridgenorth, indisputably the head of the
+Presbyterian interest in that neighbourhood, should have given his only
+daughter to be, as he termed it, nursed by a Canaanitish woman; and
+he told him plainly that he liked not this going to feast in the
+high places with the uncircumcised in heart, and looked on the whole
+conviviality only as a making-merry in the house of Tirzah.
+
+Upon receiving this rebuke from his pastor, Bridgenorth began to suspect
+he might have been partly wrong in the readiness which, in his first
+ardour of gratitude, he had shown to enter into intimate intercourse
+with the Castle of Martindale; but he was too proud to avow this to the
+preacher, and it was not till after a considerable debate betwixt them,
+that it was mutually agreed their presence at the entertainment should
+depend upon the condition, that no healths or pledges should be given
+in their presence. Bridgenorth, therefore, as the delegate and
+representative of his party, was bound to stand firm against all
+entreaty, and the lady became greatly embarrassed. She now regretted
+sincerely that her well-intended invitation had ever been given, for she
+foresaw that its rejection was to awaken all former subjects of quarrel,
+and perhaps to lead to new violences amongst people who had not many
+years since been engaged in civil war. To yield up the disputed point to
+the Presbyterians, would have been to offend the Cavalier party, and Sir
+Geoffrey in particular, in the most mortal degree; for they made it
+as firm a point of honour to give healths, and compel others to pledge
+them, as the Puritans made it a deep article of religion to refuse
+both. At length the lady changed the discourse, introduced that of Major
+Bridgenorth’s child, caused it to be sent for, and put into his arms.
+The mother’s stratagem took effect; for, though the parliamentary major
+stood firm, the father, as in the case of the Governor of Tilbury, was
+softened, and he agreed that his friends should accept a compromise.
+This was, that the major himself, the reverend divine, and such of their
+friends as held strict Puritan tenets, should form a separate party
+in the Large Parlour, while the Hall should be occupied by the jovial
+Cavaliers; and that each party should regulate their potations after
+their own conscience, or after their own fashion.
+
+Major Bridgenorth himself seemed greatly relieved after this important
+matter had been settled. He had held it matter of conscience to be
+stubborn in maintaining his own opinion, but was heartily glad when
+he escaped from the apparently inevitable necessity of affronting Lady
+Peveril by the refusal of her invitation. He remained longer than usual,
+and spoke and smiled more than was his custom. His first care on
+his return was to announce to the clergyman and his congregation the
+compromise which he had made, and this not as a matter for deliberation,
+but one upon which he had already resolved; and such was his authority
+among them, that though the preacher longed to pronounce a separation of
+the parties, and to exclaim--“To your tents, O Israel!” he did not see
+the chance of being seconded by so many, as would make it worth while to
+disturb the unanimous acquiescence in their delegate’s proposal.
+
+Nevertheless, each party being put upon the alert by the consequences
+of Major Bridgenorth’s embassy, so many points of doubt and delicate
+discussion were started in succession, that the Lady Peveril, the
+only person, perhaps, who was desirous of achieving an effectual
+reconciliation between them, incurred, in reward for her good
+intentions, the censure of both factions, and had much reason to
+regret her well-meant project of bringing the Capulets and Montagues of
+Derbyshire together on the same occasion of public festivity.
+
+As it was now settled that the guests were to form two different
+parties, it became not only a subject of dispute betwixt themselves,
+which should be first admitted within the Castle of Martindale, but
+matter of serious apprehension to Lady Peveril and Major Bridgenorth,
+lest, if they were to approach by the same avenue and entrance, a
+quarrel might take place betwixt them, and proceed to extremities, even
+before they reached the place of entertainment. The lady believed she
+had discovered an admirable expedient for preventing the possibility of
+such interference, by directing that the Cavaliers should be admitted
+by the principal entrance, while the Roundheads should enter the Castle
+through a great breach which had been made in the course of the siege,
+and across which there had been made a sort of by-path to drive the
+cattle down to their pasture in the wood. By this contrivance the Lady
+Peveril imagined she had altogether avoided the various risks which
+might occur from two such parties encountering each other, and disputing
+for precedence. Several other circumstances of less importance were
+adjusted at the same time, and apparently so much to the satisfaction of
+the Presbyterian teacher, that, in a long lecture on the subject of the
+Marriage Garment, he was at the pains to explain to his hearers, that
+outward apparel was not alone meant by that scriptural expression, but
+also a suitable frame of mind for enjoyment of peaceful festivity; and
+therefore he exhorted the brethren, that whatever might be the errors of
+the poor blinded malignants, with whom they were in some sort to eat and
+drink upon the morrow they ought not on this occasion to show any evil
+will against them, lest they should therein become troublers of the
+peace of Israel.
+
+Honest Doctor Dummerar, the elected Episcopal Vicar of Martindale _cum_
+Moultrassie, preached to the Cavaliers on the same subject. He had
+served the cure before the breaking out of the rebellion, and was
+in high favour with Sir Geoffrey, not merely on account of his sound
+orthodoxy and deep learning, but his exquisite skill in playing at
+bowls, and his facetious conversation over a pipe and tankard of
+October. For these latter accomplishments, the Doctor had the honour to
+be recorded by old Century White amongst the roll of lewd, incompetent,
+profligate clergymen of the Church of England, whom he denounced to God
+and man, on account chiefly of the heinous sin of playing at games of
+skill and chance, and of occasionally joining in the social meetings of
+their parishioners. When the King’s party began to lose ground, Doctor
+Dummerar left his vicarage, and, betaking himself to the camp, showed
+upon several occasions, when acting as chaplain to Sir Geoffrey
+Peveril’s regiment, that his portly bodily presence included a stout
+and masculine heart. When all was lost, and he himself, with most other
+loyal divines, was deprived of his living, he made such shift as he
+could; now lurking in the garrets of old friends in the University, who
+shared with him, and such as him, the slender means of livelihood which
+the evil times had left them; and now lying hid in the houses of the
+oppressed and sequestered gentry, who respected at once his character
+and sufferings. When the Restoration took place, Doctor Dummerar emerged
+from some one of his hiding-places, and hied him to Martindale Castle,
+to enjoy the triumph inseparable from this happy change.
+
+His appearance at the Castle in his full clerical dress, and the warm
+reception which he received from the neighbouring gentry, added not a
+little to the alarm which was gradually extending itself through the
+party which were so lately the uppermost. It is true, Doctor Dummerar
+framed (honest worthy man) no extravagant views of elevation or
+preferment; but the probability of his being replaced in the living,
+from which he had been expelled under very flimsy pretences, inferred
+a severe blow to the Presbyterian divine, who could not be considered
+otherwise than as an intruder. The interest of the two preachers,
+therefore, as well as the sentiments of their flocks, were at direct
+variance; and here was another fatal objection in the way of Lady
+Peveril’s scheme of a general and comprehensive healing ordinance.
+
+Nevertheless, as we have already hinted, Doctor Dummerar behaved as
+handsomely upon the occasion as the Presbyterian incumbent had done.
+It is true, that in a sermon which he preached in the Castle hall to
+several of the most distinguished Cavalier families, besides a world
+of boys from the village, who went to see the novel circumstance of
+a parson in a cassock and surplice, he went at great length into the
+foulness of the various crimes committed by the rebellious party during
+the late evil times, and greatly magnified the merciful and peaceful
+nature of the honourable Lady of the Manor, who condescended to
+look upon, or receive into her house in the way of friendship and
+hospitality, men holding the principles which had led to the murder
+of the King--the slaying and despoiling his loyal subjects--and the
+plundering and breaking down of the Church of God. But then he wiped all
+this handsomely up again, with the observation, that since it was the
+will of their gracious and newly-restored Sovereign, and the pleasure of
+the worshipful Lady Peveril, that this contumacious and rebellious race
+should be, for a time, forborne by their faithful subjects, it would
+be highly proper that all the loyal liegemen should, for the present,
+eschew subjects of dissension or quarrel with these sons of Shimei;
+which lesson of patience he enforced by the comfortable assurance, that
+they could not long abstain from their old rebellious practices; in
+which case, the Royalists would stand exculpated before God and man, in
+extirpating them from the face of the earth.
+
+The close observers of the remarkable passages of the times from which
+we draw the events of our history, have left it upon record, that these
+two several sermons, much contrary, doubtless, to the intention of the
+worthy divines by whom they were delivered, had a greater effect in
+exasperating, than in composing, the disputes betwixt the two factions.
+Under such evil auspices, and with corresponding forebodings on the mind
+of Lady Peveril, the day of festivity at length arrived.
+
+By different routes, and forming each a sort of procession, as if the
+adherents of each party were desirous of exhibiting its strength and
+numbers, the two several factions approached Martindale Castle; and so
+distinct did they appear in dress, aspect, and manners, that it seemed
+as if the revellers of a bridal party, and the sad attendants upon a
+funeral solemnity, were moving towards the same point from different
+quarters.
+
+The puritanical party was by far the fewer in numbers, for which two
+excellent reasons might be given. In the first place, they had enjoyed
+power for several years, and, of course, became unpopular among the
+common people, never at any time attached to those, who, being in the
+immediate possession of authority, are often obliged to employ it in
+controlling their humours. Besides, the country people of England had,
+and still have, an animated attachment to field sports, and a natural
+unrestrained joviality of disposition, which rendered them impatient
+under the severe discipline of the fanatical preachers; while they
+were not less naturally discontented with the military despotism of
+Cromwell’s Major-Generals. Secondly, the people were fickle as usual,
+and the return of the King had novelty in it, and was therefore popular.
+The side of the Puritans was also deserted at this period by a numerous
+class of more thinking and prudential persons, who never forsook them
+till they became unfortunate. These sagacious personages were called in
+that age the Waiters upon Providence, and deemed it a high delinquency
+towards Heaven if they afforded countenance to any cause longer than it
+was favoured by fortune.
+
+But, though thus forsaken by the fickle and the selfish, a solemn
+enthusiasm, a stern and determined depth of principle, a confidence in
+the sincerity of their own motives, and the manly English pride which
+inclined them to cling to their former opinions, like the traveller in
+the fable to his cloak, the more strongly that the tempest blew around
+them, detained in the ranks of the Puritans many, who, if no longer
+formidable from numbers, were still so from their character. They
+consisted chiefly of the middling gentry, with others whom industry
+or successful speculations in commerce or in mining had raised into
+eminence--the persons who feel most umbrage from the overshadowing
+aristocracy, and are usually the most vehement in defence of what they
+hold to be their rights. Their dress was in general studiously simple
+and unostentatious, or only remarkable by the contradictory affectation
+of extreme simplicity or carelessness. The dark colour of their cloaks,
+varying from absolute black to what was called sad-coloured--their
+steeple-crowned hats, with their broad shadowy brims--their long swords,
+suspended by a simple strap around the loins, without shoulder-belt,
+sword-knot, plate, buckles, or any of the other decorations with which
+the Cavaliers loved to adorn their trusty rapiers,--the shortness of
+their hair, which made their ears appear of disproportioned size,--above
+all, the stern and gloomy gravity of their looks, announced their
+belonging to that class of enthusiasts, who, resolute and undismayed,
+had cast down the former fabric of government, and who now regarded
+with somewhat more than suspicion, that which had been so unexpectedly
+substituted in its stead. There was gloom in their countenances; but
+it was not that of dejection, far less of despair. They looked like
+veterans after a defeat, which may have checked their career and wounded
+their pride, but has left their courage undiminished.
+
+The melancholy, now become habitual, which overcast Major Bridgenorth’s
+countenance, well qualified him to act as the chief of the group who
+now advanced from the village. When they reached the point by which they
+were first to turn aside into the wood which surrounded the Castle, they
+felt a momentary impression of degradation, as if they were yielding the
+high road to their old and oft-defeated enemies the Cavaliers. When they
+began to ascend the winding path, which had been the daily passage of
+the cattle, the opening of the wooded glade gave them a view of the
+Castle ditch, half choked with the rubbish of the breach, and of
+the breach itself, which was made at the angle of a large square
+flanking-tower, one-half of which had been battered into ruins,
+while the other fragment remained in a state strangely shattered and
+precarious, and seemed to be tottering above the huge aperture in the
+wall. A stern still smile was exchanged among the Puritans, as the
+sight reminded them of the victories of former days. Holdfast Clegg, a
+millwright of Derby, who had been himself active at the siege, pointed
+to the breach, and said, with a grim smile to Mr. Solsgrace, “I little
+thought, that when my own hand helped to level the cannon which Oliver
+pointed against yon tower, we should have been obliged to climb like
+foxes up the very walls which we won by our bow and by our spear.
+Methought these malignants had then enough of shutting their gates and
+making high their horn against us.”
+
+“Be patient, my brother,” said Solsgrace; “be patient, and let not thy
+soul be disquieted. We enter not this high place dishonourably, seeing
+we ascend by the gate which the Lord opened to the godly.”
+
+The words of the pastor were like a spark to gunpowder. The countenances
+of the mournful retinue suddenly expanded, and, accepting what had
+fallen from him as an omen and a light from heaven how they were to
+interpret their present situation, they uplifted, with one consent, one
+of the triumphant songs in which the Israelites celebrated the victories
+which had been vouchsafed to them over the heathen inhabitants of the
+Promised Land:--
+
+ “Let God arise, and then His foes
+    Shall turn themselves to flight,
+  His enemies for fear shall run,
+    And scatter out of sight;
+
+  And as wax melts before the fire,
+    And wind blows smoke away,
+  So in the presence of the Lord,
+    The wicked shall decay.
+
+  God’s army twenty thousand is,
+    Of angels bright and strong,
+  The Lord also in Sinai
+    Is present them among.
+
+  Thou didst, O Lord, ascend on high,
+    And captive led’st them all,
+  Who, in times past, Thy chosen flock
+    In bondage did enthral.”
+
+These sounds of devotional triumph reached the joyous band of the
+Cavaliers, who, decked in whatever pomp their repeated misfortunes and
+impoverishment had left them, were moving towards the same point,
+though by a different road, and were filling the principal avenue to
+the Castle, with tiptoe mirth and revelry. The two parties were strongly
+contrasted; for, during that period of civil dissension, the manners
+of the different factions distinguished them as completely as separate
+uniforms might have done. If the Puritan was affectedly plain in his
+dress, and ridiculously precise in his manners, the Cavalier often
+carried his love of ornament into tawdry finery, and his contempt of
+hypocrisy into licentious profligacy. Gay gallant fellows, young and
+old, thronged together towards the ancient Castle, with general and
+joyous manifestation of those spirits, which, as they had been buoyant
+enough to support their owners during the worst of times, as they termed
+Oliver’s usurpation, were now so inflated as to transport them nearly
+beyond the reach of sober reason. Feathers waved, lace glittered, spears
+jingled, steeds caracoled; and here and there a petronel, or pistol, was
+fired off by some one, who found his own natural talents for making a
+noise inadequate to the dignity of the occasion. Boys--for, as we said
+before, the rabble were with the uppermost party, as usual--halloo’d
+and whooped, “Down with the Rump,” and “Fie upon Oliver!” Musical
+instruments, of as many different fashions as were then in use, played
+all at once, and without any regard to each other’s tune; and the glee
+of the occasion, while it reconciled the pride of the high-born of the
+party to fraternise with the general rout, derived an additional zest
+from the conscious triumph, that their exultation was heard by their
+neighbours, the crestfallen Roundheads.
+
+When the loud and sonorous swell of the psalm-tune, multiplied by all
+the echoes of the cliffs and ruinous halls, came full upon their ear,
+as if to warn them how little they were to reckon upon the depression
+of their adversaries, at first it was answered with a scornful laugh,
+raised to as much height as the scoffers’ lungs would permit, in order
+that it might carry to the psalmodists the contempt of their auditors;
+but this was a forced exertion of party spleen. There is something in
+melancholy feelings more natural to an imperfect and suffering state
+than in those of gaiety, and when they are brought into collision, the
+former seldom fail to triumph. If a funeral-train and wedding-procession
+were to meet unexpectedly, it will readily be allowed that the mirth of
+the last would be speedily merged in the gloom of the others. But the
+Cavaliers, moreover, had sympathies of a different kind. The psalm-tune,
+which now came rolling on their ear, had been heard too often, and upon
+too many occasions had preceded victory gained over the malignants, to
+permit them, even in their triumph, to hear it without emotion. There
+was a sort of pause, of which the party themselves seemed rather
+ashamed, until the silence was broken by the stout old knight, Sir
+Jasper Cranbourne, whose gallantry was so universally acknowledged, that
+he could afford, if we may use such an expression, to confess emotions,
+which men whose courage was in any respect liable to suspicion, would
+have thought it imprudent to acknowledge.
+
+“Adad,” said the old Knight, “may I never taste claret again, if that is
+not the very tune with which the prick-eared villains began their onset
+at Wiggan Lane, where they trowled us down like so many ninepins! Faith,
+neighbours, to say truth, and shame the devil, I did not like the sound
+of it above half.”
+
+“If I thought the round-headed rogues did it in scorn of us,” said
+Dick Wildblood of the Dale, “I would cudgel their psalmody out of their
+peasantly throats with this very truncheon;” a motion which, being
+seconded by old Roger Raine, the drunken tapster of the Peveril Arms in
+the village, might have brought on a general battle, but that Sir Jasper
+forbade the feud.
+
+“We’ll have no ranting, Dick,” said the old Knight to the young
+Franklin; “adad, man, we’ll have none, for three reasons: first, because
+it would be ungentle to Lady Peveril; then, because it is against
+the King’s peace; and, lastly, Dick, because if we did set on the
+psalm-singing knaves, thou mightest come by the worst, my boy, as has
+chanced to thee before.”
+
+“Who, I! Sir Jasper?” answered Dick--“I come by the worst!--I’ll be
+d--d if it ever happened but in that accursed lane, where we had no
+more flank, front, or rear, than if we had been so many herrings in a
+barrel.”
+
+“That was the reason, I fancy,” answered Sir Jasper, “that you, to mend
+the matter, scrambled into the hedge, and stuck there, horse and man,
+till I beat thee through it with my leading-staff; and then, instead of
+charging to the front, you went right-about, and away as fast as your
+feet would carry you.”
+
+This reminiscence produced a laugh at Dick’s expense, who was known, or
+at least suspected, to have more tongue in his head than mettle in
+his bosom. And this sort of rallying on the part of the Knight having
+fortunately abated the resentment which had begun to awaken in the
+breasts of the royalist cavalcade, farther cause for offence was
+removed, by the sudden ceasing of the sounds which they had been
+disposed to interpret into those of premeditated insult.
+
+This was owing to the arrival of the Puritans at the bottom of the large
+and wide breach, which had been formerly made in the wall of the Castle
+by their victorious cannon. The sight of its gaping heaps of rubbish,
+and disjointed masses of building, up which slowly winded a narrow and
+steep path, such as is made amongst ancient ruins by the rare passage of
+those who occasionally visit them, was calculated, when contrasted with
+the grey and solid massiveness of the towers and curtains which yet
+stood uninjured, to remind them of their victory over the stronghold of
+their enemies, and how they had bound nobles and princes with fetters of
+iron.
+
+But feelings more suitable to the purpose of their visit to Martindale
+Castle, were awakened in the bosoms even of these stern sectaries,
+when the Lady of the Castle, still in the very prime of beauty and of
+womanhood, appeared at the top of the breach with her principal female
+attendants, to receive her guests with the honour and courtesy becoming
+her invitation. She had laid aside the black dress which had been her
+sole attire for several years, and was arrayed with a splendour not
+unbecoming her high descent and quality. Jewels, indeed, she had none;
+but her long and dark hair was surmounted with a chaplet made of oak
+leaves, interspersed with lilies; the former being the emblem of the
+King’s preservation in the Royal Oak, and the latter of his happy
+Restoration. What rendered her presence still more interesting to those
+who looked on her, was the presence of the two children whom she held in
+either hand; one of whom was well known to them all to be the child
+of their leader, Major Bridgenorth, who had been restored to life and
+health by the almost maternal care of the Lady Peveril.
+
+If even the inferior persons of the party felt the healing influence of
+her presence, thus accompanied, poor Bridgenorth was almost overwhelmed
+with it. The strictness of his cast and manners permitted him not to
+sink on his knee, and kiss the hand which held his little orphan; but
+the deepness of his obeisance--the faltering tremor of his voice--and
+the glistening of his eye, showed a grateful respect for the lady whom
+he addressed, deeper and more reverential than could have been expressed
+even by Persian prostration. A few courteous and mild words, expressive
+of the pleasure she found in once more seeing her neighbours as her
+friends--a few kind inquiries, addressed to the principal individuals
+among her guests, concerning their families and connections, completed
+her triumph over angry thoughts and dangerous recollections, and
+disposed men’s bosoms to sympathise with the purposes of the meeting.
+
+Even Solsgrace himself, although imagining himself bound by his office
+and duty to watch over and counteract the wiles of the “Amalekitish
+woman,” did not escape the sympathetic infection; being so much struck
+with the marks of peace and good-will exhibited by Lady Peveril, that he
+immediately raised the psalm--
+
+ “O what a happy thing it is,
+    And joyful, for to see
+  Brethren to dwell together in
+    Friendship and unity!”
+
+Accepting this salutation as a mark of courtesy repaid, the Lady Peveril
+marshalled in person this party of her guests to the apartment, where
+ample good cheer was provided for them; and had even the patience to
+remain while Master Nehemiah Solsgrace pronounced a benediction of
+portentous length, as an introduction to the banquet. Her presence was
+in some measure a restraint on the worthy divine, whose prolusion lasted
+the longer, and was the more intricate and embarrassed, that he felt
+himself debarred from rounding it off by his usual alliterative petition
+for deliverance from Popery, Prelacy, and Peveril of the Peak, which had
+become so habitual to him, that, after various attempts to conclude with
+some other form of words, he found himself at last obliged to pronounce
+the first words of his usual _formula_ aloud, and mutter the rest in
+such a manner as not to be intelligible even by those who stood nearest
+to him.
+
+The minister’s silence was followed by all the various sounds which
+announce the onset of a hungry company on a well-furnished table; and at
+the same time gave the lady an opportunity to leave the apartment, and
+look to the accommodation of her other company. She felt, indeed,
+that it was high time to do so; and that the royalist guests might be
+disposed to misapprehend, or even to resent, the prior attentions which
+she had thought it prudent to offer to the Puritans.
+
+These apprehensions were not altogether ill-founded. It was in vain that
+the steward had displayed the royal standard, with its proud motto of
+_Tandem Triumphans_, on one of the great towers which flanked the main
+entrance of the Castle; while, from the other, floated the banner of
+Peveril of the Peak, under which many of those who now approached had
+fought during all the vicissitudes of civil war. It was in vain he
+repeated his clamorous “Welcome, noble Cavaliers! welcome, generous
+gentlemen!” There was a slight murmur amongst them, that their welcome
+ought to have come from the mouth of the Colonel’s lady--not from that
+of a menial. Sir Jasper Cranbourne, who had sense as well as spirit and
+courage, and who was aware of his fair cousin’s motives, having been
+indeed consulted by her upon all the arrangements which she had adopted,
+saw matters were in such a state that no time ought to be lost in
+conducting the guests to the banqueting apartment, where a fortunate
+diversion from all these topics of rising discontent might be made, at
+the expense of the good cheer of all sorts, which the lady’s care had so
+liberally provided.
+
+The stratagem of the old soldier succeeded in its utmost extent. He
+assumed the great oaken-chair usually occupied by the steward at his
+audits; and Dr. Dummerar having pronounced a brief Latin benediction
+(which was not the less esteemed by the hearers that none of them
+understood it), Sir Jasper exhorted the company to wet their appetites
+to the dinner by a brimming cup to his Majesty’s health, filled as high
+and as deep as their goblets would permit. In a moment all was bustle,
+with the clank of wine-cups and of flagons. In another moment the guests
+were on their feet like so many statues, all hushed as death, but with
+eyes glancing with expectation, and hands outstretched, which displayed
+their loyal brimmers. The voice of Sir Jasper, clear, sonorous, and
+emphatic, as the sound of his war-trumpet, announced the health of the
+restored Monarch, hastily echoed back by the assemblage, impatient to
+render it due homage. Another brief pause was filled by the draining of
+their cups, and the mustering breath to join in a shout so loud, that
+not only the rafters of the old hall trembled while they echoed it
+back, but the garlands of oaken boughs and flowers with which they
+were decorated, waved wildly, and rustled as if agitated by a sudden
+whirlwind. This rite observed, the company proceeded to assail the good
+cheer with which the table groaned, animated as they were to the attack
+both by mirth and melody, for they were attended by all the minstrels
+of the district, who, like the Episcopal clergy, had been put to silence
+during the reign of the self-entitled saints of the Commonwealth. The
+social occupation of good eating and drinking, the exchange of pledges
+betwixt old neighbours who had been fellow-soldiers in the moment of
+resistance--fellow-sufferers in the time of depression and subjugation,
+and were now partners in the same general subject of congratulation,
+soon wiped from their memory the trifling cause of complaint, which in
+the minds of some had darkened the festivity of the day; so that when
+the Lady Peveril walked into the hall, accompanied as before with
+the children and her female attendants, she was welcomed with the
+acclamations due to the mistress of the banquet and of the Castle--the
+dame of the noble Knight, who had led most of them to battle with an
+undaunted and persevering valour, which was worthy of better success.
+
+Her address to them was brief and matronly, yet spoken with so much
+feeling as found its way to every bosom. She apologised for the lateness
+of her personal welcome, by reminding them that there were then present
+in Martindale Castle that day, persons whom recent happy events had
+converted from enemies into friends, but on whom the latter character
+was so recently imposed, that she dared not neglect with them any point
+of ceremonial. But those whom she now addressed, were the best, the
+dearest the most faithful friends of her husband’s house, to whom and to
+their valour Peveril had not only owed those successes, which had given
+them and him fame during the late unhappy times, but to whose courage
+she in particular had owed the preservation of their leader’s life, even
+when it could not avert defeat. A word or two of heartfelt authority,
+completed all which she had boldness to add, and, bowing gracefully
+round her, she lifted a cup to her lips as if to welcome her guests.
+
+There still remained, and especially amongst the old Cavaliers of the
+period, some glimmering of that spirit which inspired Froissart, when he
+declares that a knight hath double courage at need, when animated by the
+looks and words of a beautiful and virtuous woman. It was not until the
+reign which was commencing at the moment we are treating of, that
+the unbounded licence of the age, introducing a general course of
+profligacy, degraded the female sex into mere servants of pleasure, and,
+in so doing, deprived society of that noble tone of feeling towards
+the sex, which, considered as a spur to “raise the clear spirit,”
+ is superior to every other impulse, save those of religion and of
+patriotism. The beams of the ancient hall of Martindale Castle instantly
+rang with a shout louder and shriller than that at which they had so
+lately trembled, and the names of the Knight of the Peak and his lady
+were proclaimed amid waving of caps and hats, and universal wishes for
+their health and happiness.
+
+Under these auspices the Lady Peveril glided from the hall, and left
+free space for the revelry of the evening.
+
+That of the Cavaliers may be easily conceived, since it had the usual
+accompaniments of singing, jesting, quaffing of healths, and playing of
+tunes, which have in almost every age and quarter of the world been the
+accompaniments of festive cheer. The enjoyments of the Puritans were of
+a different and less noisy character. They neither sung, jested, heard
+music, nor drank healths; and yet they seemed not the less, in their own
+phrase, to enjoy the creature-comforts, which the frailty of humanity
+rendered grateful to their outward man. Old Whitaker even protested,
+that, though much the smaller party in point of numbers, they discussed
+nearly as much sack and claret as his own more jovial associates. But
+those who considered the steward’s prejudices, were inclined to think,
+that, in order to produce such a result, he must have thrown in his
+own by-drinkings--no inconsiderable item--to the sum total of the
+Presbyterian potations.
+
+Without adopting such a partial and scandalous report, we shall
+only say, that on this occasion, as on most others, the rareness of
+indulgence promoted the sense of enjoyment, and that those who made
+abstinence, or at least moderation, a point of religious principle,
+enjoyed their social meeting the better that such opportunities rarely
+presented themselves. If they did not actually drink each other’s
+healths, they at least showed, by looking and nodding to each other as
+they raised their glasses, that they all were sharing the same festive
+gratification of the appetite, and felt it enhanced, because it was at
+the same time enjoyed by their friends and neighbours. Religion, as it
+was the principal topic of their thoughts, became also the chief subject
+of their conversation, and as they sat together in small separate knots,
+they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief, balanced the
+merits of various preachers, compared the creeds of contending sects,
+and fortified by scriptural quotations those which they favoured.
+Some contests arose in the course of these debates, which might have
+proceeded farther than was seemly, but for the cautious interference
+of Major Bridgenorth. He suppressed also, in the very bud, a dispute
+betwixt Gaffer Hodgeson of Charnelycot and the Reverend Mr. Solsgrace,
+upon the tender subject of lay-preaching and lay-ministering; nor did he
+think it altogether prudent or decent to indulge the wishes of some of
+the warmer enthusiasts of the party, who felt disposed to make the rest
+partakers of their gifts in extemporaneous prayer and exposition. These
+were absurdities that belonged to the time, which, however, the Major
+had sense enough to perceive were unfitted, whether the offspring of
+hypocrisy or enthusiasm, for the present time and place.
+
+The Major was also instrumental in breaking up the party at an early and
+decorous hour, so that they left the Castle long before their rivals,
+the Cavaliers, had reached the springtide of their merriment; an
+arrangement which afforded the greatest satisfaction to the lady, who
+dreaded the consequences which might not improbably have taken place,
+had both parties met at the same period and point of retreat.
+
+It was near midnight ere the greater part of the Cavaliers, meaning such
+as were able to effect their departure without assistance, withdrew to
+the village of Martindale Moultrassie, with the benefit of the broad
+moon to prevent the chance of accidents. Their shouts, and the burden of
+their roaring chorus of--
+
+ “The King shall enjoy his own again!”
+
+were heard with no small pleasure by the lady, heartily glad that
+the riot of the day was over without the occurrence of any unpleasing
+accident. The rejoicing was not, however, entirely ended; for the
+elevated Cavaliers, finding some of the villagers still on foot around a
+bonfire on the street, struck merrily in with them--sent to Roger Raine
+of the Peveril Arms, the loyal publican whom we have already mentioned,
+for two tubs of merry stingo (as it was termed), and lent their own
+powerful assistance at the _dusting_ it off to the health of the King
+and the loyal General Monk. Their shouts for a long time disturbed, and
+even alarmed, the little village; but no enthusiasm is able to
+withstand for ever the natural consequences of late hours, and potations
+pottle-deep. The tumult of the exulting Royalists at last sunk into
+silence, and the moon and the owl were left in undisturbed sovereignty
+over the old tower of the village church, which, rising white above a
+circle of knotty oaks, was tenanted by the bird, and silvered by the
+planet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+             ‘Twas when they raised, ‘mid sap and siege,
+             The banners of their rightful liege,
+               At their she-captain’s call,
+             Who, miracle of womankind!
+             Lent mettle to the meanest hind
+               That mann’d her castle wall.
+                                           --WILLIAM S. ROSE.
+
+On the morning succeeding the feast, the Lady Peveril, fatigued with the
+exertions and the apprehensions of the former day, kept her apartment
+for two or three hours later than her own active habits, and the
+matutinal custom of the time, rendered usual. Meanwhile, Mistress
+Ellesmere, a person of great trust in the family, and who assumed much
+authority in her mistress’s absence, laid her orders upon Deborah, the
+governante, immediately to carry the children to their airing in the
+park, and not to let any one enter the gilded chamber, which was
+usually their sporting-place. Deborah, who often rebelled, and sometimes
+successfully, against the deputed authority of Ellesmere, privately
+resolved that it was about to rain, and that the gilded chamber was a
+more suitable place for the children’s exercise than the wet grass of
+the park on a raw morning.
+
+But a woman’s brain is sometimes as inconstant as a popular assembly;
+and presently after she had voted the morning was like to be rainy,
+and that the gilded chamber was the fittest play-room for the children,
+Mistress Deborah came to the somewhat inconsistent resolution, that the
+park was the fittest place for her own morning walk. It is certain,
+that during the unrestrained joviality of the preceding evening, she had
+danced till midnight with Lance Outram the park-keeper; but how far the
+seeing him just pass the window in his woodland trim, with a feather in
+his hat, and a crossbow under his arm, influenced the discrepancy of the
+opinions Mistress Deborah formed concerning the weather, we are far
+from presuming to guess. It is enough for us, that, so soon as Mistress
+Ellesmere’s back was turned, Mistress Deborah carried the children into
+the gilded chamber, not without a strict charge (for we must do her
+justice) to Master Julian to take care of his little wife, Mistress
+Alice; and then, having taken so satisfactory a precaution, she herself
+glided into the park by the glass-door of the still-room, which was
+nearly opposite to the great breach.
+
+The gilded chamber in which the children were, by this arrangement,
+left to amuse themselves, without better guardianship than what Julian’s
+manhood afforded, was a large apartment, hung with stamped Spanish
+leather, curiously gilded, representing, in a manner now obsolete, but
+far from unpleasing, a series of tilts and combats betwixt the Saracens
+of Grenada, and the Spaniards under the command of King Ferdinand and
+Queen Isabella, during that memorable siege, which was terminated by the
+overthrow of the last fragments of the Moorish empire in Spain.
+
+The little Julian was careering about the room for the amusement of his
+infant friend, as well as his own, mimicking with a reed the menacing
+attitude of the Abencerrages and Zegris engaged in the Eastern sport of
+hurling the JERID, or javelin; and at times sitting down beside her, and
+caressing her into silence and good humour, when the petulant or timid
+child chose to become tired of remaining an inactive spectator of his
+boisterous sport; when, on a sudden, he observed one of the panelled
+compartments of the leather hangings slide apart, so as to show a fair
+hand, with its fingers resting upon its edge, prepared, it would seem,
+to push it still farther back. Julian was much surprised, and somewhat
+frightened, at what he witnessed, for the tales of the nursery had
+strongly impressed on his mind the terrors of the invisible world. Yet,
+naturally bold and high-spirited, the little champion placed himself
+beside his defenceless sister, continuing to brandish his weapon in her
+defence, as boldly as he had himself been an Abencerrage of Grenada.
+
+The panel, on which his eye was fixed, gradually continued to slide
+back, and display more and more the form to which the hand appertained,
+until, in the dark aperture which was disclosed, the children saw the
+figure of a lady in a mourning dress, past the meridian of life, but
+whose countenance still retained traces of great beauty, although the
+predominant character both of her features and person was an air of
+almost royal dignity. After pausing a moment on the threshold of the
+portal which she had thus unexpectedly disclosed, and looking with
+some surprise at the children, whom she had not probably observed while
+engaged with the management of the panel, the stranger stepped into the
+apartment, and the panel, upon a touch of a spring, closed behind her so
+suddenly, that Julian almost doubted it had ever been open, and began to
+apprehend that the whole apparition had been a delusion.
+
+The stately lady, however, advanced to him, and said, “Are not you the
+little Peveril?”
+
+“Yes,” said the boy, reddening, not altogether without a juvenile
+feeling of that rule of chivalry which forbade any one to disown his
+name, whatever danger might be annexed to the avowal of it.
+
+“Then,” said the stately stranger, “go to your mother’s room, and tell
+her to come instantly to speak with me.”
+
+“I wo’not,” said the little Julian.
+
+“How?” said the lady,--“so young and so disobedient?--but you do but
+follow the fashion of the time. Why will you not go, my pretty boy, when
+I ask it of you as a favour?”
+
+“I would go, madam,” said the boy, “but”--and he stopped short, still
+drawing back as the lady advanced on him, but still holding by the
+hand Alice Bridgenorth, who, too young to understand the nature of the
+dialogue, clung, trembling, to her companion.
+
+The stranger saw his embarrassment, smiled, and remained standing fast,
+while she asked the child once more, “What are you afraid of, my brave
+boy--and why should you not go to your mother on my errand?”
+
+“Because,” answered Julian firmly, “if I go, little Alice must stay
+alone with you.”
+
+“You are a gallant fellow,” said the lady, “and will not disgrace your
+blood, which never left the weak without protection.”
+
+The boy understood her not, and still gazed with anxious apprehension,
+first on her who addressed him, and then upon his little companion,
+whose eyes, with the vacant glance of infancy, wandered from the figure
+of the lady to that of her companion and protector, and at length,
+infected by a portion of the fear which the latter’s magnanimous efforts
+could not entirely conceal, she flew into Julian’s arms, and, clinging
+to him, greatly augmented his alarm, and by screaming aloud, rendered it
+very difficult for him to avoid the sympathetic fear which impelled him
+to do the same.
+
+There was something in the manner and bearing of this unexpected inmate
+which might justify awe at least, if not fear, when joined to the
+singular and mysterious mode in which she had made her appearance. Her
+dress was not remarkable, being the hood and female riding attire of
+the time, such as was worn by the inferior class of gentlewomen; but her
+black hair was very long, and, several locks having escaped from under
+her hood, hung down dishevelled on her neck and shoulders. Her eyes
+were deep black, keen, and piercing, and her features had something of a
+foreign expression. When she spoke, her language was marked by a slight
+foreign accent, although, in construction, it was pure English. Her
+slightest tone and gesture had the air of one accustomed to command and
+to be obeyed; the recollection of which probably suggested to Julian
+the apology he afterwards made for being frightened, that he took the
+stranger for an “enchanted queen.”
+
+While the stranger lady and the children thus confronted each other, two
+persons entered almost at the same instant, but from different doors,
+whose haste showed that they had been alarmed by the screams of the
+latter.
+
+The first was Major Bridgenorth, whose ears had been alarmed with the
+cries of his child, as he entered the hall, which corresponded with what
+was called the gilded chamber. His intention had been to remain in
+the more public apartment, until the Lady Peveril should make her
+appearance, with the good-natured purpose of assuring her that the
+preceding day of tumult had passed in every respect agreeably to his
+friends, and without any of those alarming consequences which might have
+been apprehended from a collision betwixt the parties. But when it is
+considered how severely he had been agitated by apprehensions for his
+child’s safety and health, too well justified by the fate of those who
+had preceded her, it will not be thought surprising that the infantine
+screams of Alice induced him to break through the barriers of form, and
+intrude farther into the interior of the house than a sense of strict
+propriety might have warranted.
+
+He burst into the gilded chamber, therefore, by a side-door and narrow
+passage, which communicated betwixt that apartment and the hall, and,
+snatching the child up in his arms, endeavoured, by a thousand caresses,
+to stifle the screams which burst yet more violently from the little
+girl, on beholding herself in the arms of one to whose voice and manner
+she was, but for one brief interview, an entire stranger.
+
+Of course, Alice’s shrieks were redoubled, and seconded by those of
+Julian Peveril, who, on the appearance of this second intruder, was
+frightened into resignation of every more manly idea of rescue than that
+which consisted in invoking assistance at the very top of his lungs.
+
+Alarmed by this noise, which in half a minute became very clamorous,
+Lady Peveril, with whose apartment the gilded chamber was connected by a
+private door of communication opening into her wardrobe, entered on the
+scene. The instant she appeared, the little Alice, extricating herself
+from the grasp of her father, ran towards _her_ protectress, and when
+she had once taken hold of her skirts, not only became silent, but
+turned her large blue eyes, in which the tears were still glistening,
+with a look of wonder rather than alarm, towards the strange lady.
+Julian manfully brandished his reed, a weapon which he had never parted
+with during the whole alarm, and stood prepared to assist his mother if
+there should be danger in the encounter betwixt her and the stranger.
+
+In fact, it might have puzzled an older person to account for the sudden
+and confused pause which the Lady Peveril made, as she gazed on her
+unexpected guest, as if dubious whether she did, or did not recognise,
+in her still beautiful though wasted and emaciated features, a
+countenance which she had known well under far different circumstances.
+
+The stranger seemed to understand the cause of hesitation, for she said
+in that heart-thrilling voice which was peculiarly her own--
+
+“Time and misfortune have changed me much, Margaret--that every
+mirror tells me--yet methinks, Margaret Stanley might still have known
+Charlotte de la Tremouille.”
+
+The Lady Peveril was little in the custom of giving way to sudden
+emotion, but in the present case she threw herself on her knees in
+a rapture of mingled joy and grief, and, half embracing those of the
+stranger, exclaimed, in broken language--
+
+“My kind, my noble benefactress--the princely Countess of Derby--the
+royal queen in Man--could I doubt your voice, your features, for a
+moment--Oh, forgive, forgive me!”
+
+The Countess raised the suppliant kinswoman of her husband’s house, with
+all the grace of one accustomed from early birth to receive homage and
+to grant protection. She kissed the Lady Peveril’s forehead, and passed
+her hand in a caressing manner over her face as she said--
+
+“You too are changed, my fair cousin, but it is a change becomes you,
+from a pretty and timid maiden to a sage and comely matron. But my own
+memory, which I once held a good one, has failed me strangely, if this
+gentleman be Sir Geoffrey Peveril.”
+
+“A kind and good neighbour only, madam,” said Lady Peveril; “Sir
+Geoffrey is at Court.”
+
+“I understood so much,” said the Countess of Derby, “when I arrived here
+last night.”
+
+“How, madam!” said Lady Peveril--“Did you arrive at Martindale
+Castle--at the house of Margaret Stanley, where you have such right to
+command, and did not announce your presence to her?”
+
+“Oh, I know you are a dutiful subject, Margaret,” answered the Countess,
+“though it be in these days a rare character--but it was our pleasure,”
+ she added, with a smile, “to travel incognito--and finding you engaged
+in general hospitality, we desired not to disturb you with our royal
+presence.”
+
+“But how and where were you lodged, madam?” said Lady Peveril; “or why
+should you have kept secret a visit which would, if made, have augmented
+tenfold the happiness of every true heart that rejoiced here yesterday?”
+
+“My lodging was well cared for by Ellesmere--your Ellesmere now, as she
+was formerly mine--she has acted as quartermaster ere now, you know, and
+on a broader scale; you must excuse her--she had my positive order to
+lodge me in the most secret part of your Castle”--(here she pointed to
+the sliding panel)--“she obeyed orders in that, and I suppose also in
+sending you now hither.”
+
+“Indeed I have not yet seen her,” said the lady, “and therefore was
+totally ignorant of a visit so joyful, so surprising.”
+
+“And I,” said the Countess, “was equally surprised to find none but
+these beautiful children in the apartment where I thought I heard you
+moving. Our Ellesmere has become silly--your good-nature has spoiled
+her--she has forgotten the discipline she learned under me.”
+
+“I saw her run through the wood,” said the Lady Peveril, after a
+moment’s recollection, “undoubtedly to seek the person who has charge of
+the children, in order to remove them.”
+
+“Your own darlings, I doubt not,” said the Countess, looking at the
+children. “Margaret, Providence has blessed you.”
+
+“That is my son,” said the Lady Peveril, pointing to Julian, who stood
+devouring their discourse with greedy ear; “the little girl--I may call
+mine too.” Major Bridgenorth, who had in the meantime again taken up his
+infant, and was engaged in caressing it, set it down as the Countess of
+Derby spoke, sighed deeply, and walked towards the oriel window. He was
+well aware that the ordinary rules of courtesy would have rendered it
+proper that he should withdraw entirely, or at least offer to do so;
+but he was not a man of ceremonious politeness, and he had a particular
+interest in the subjects on which the Countess’s discourse was likely
+to turn, which induced him to dispense with ceremony. The ladies seemed
+indeed scarce to notice his presence. The Countess had now assumed a
+chair, and motioned to the Lady Peveril to sit upon a stool which was
+placed by her side. “We will have old times once more, though there are
+here no roaring of rebel guns to drive you to take refuge at my side,
+and almost in my pocket.”
+
+“I have a gun, madam,” said little Julian, “and the park-keeper is to
+teach me how to fire it next year.”
+
+“I will list you for my soldier, then,” said the Countess.
+
+“Ladies have no soldiers,” said the boy, looking wistfully at her.
+
+“He has the true masculine contempt of our frail sex, I see,” said the
+Countess; “it is born with the insolent varlets of mankind, and shows
+itself so soon as they are out of their long clothes.--Did Ellesmere
+never tell you of Latham House and Charlotte of Derby, my little
+master?”
+
+“A thousand thousand times,” said the boy, colouring; “and how the Queen
+of Man defended it six weeks against three thousand Roundheads, under
+Rogue Harrison the butcher.”
+
+“It was your mother defended Latham House,” said the Countess, “not
+I, my little soldier--Hadst thou been there, thou hadst been the best
+captain of the three.”
+
+“Do not say so, madam,” said the boy, “for mamma would not touch a gun
+for all the universe.”
+
+“Not I, indeed, Julian,” said his mother; “there I was for certain, but
+as useless a part of the garrison----”
+
+“You forget,” said the Countess, “you nursed our hospital, and made lint
+for the soldiers’ wounds.”
+
+“But did not papa come to help you?” said Julian.
+
+“Papa came at last,” said the Countess, “and so did Prince Rupert--but
+not, I think, till they were both heartily wished for.--Do you remember
+that morning, Margaret, when the round-headed knaves, that kept us pent
+up so long, retreated without bag or baggage, at the first glance of
+the Prince’s standards appearing on the hill--and how you took every
+high-crested captain you saw for Peveril of the Peak, that had been your
+partner three months before at the Queen’s mask? Nay, never blush for
+the thought of it--it was an honest affection--and though it was the
+music of trumpets that accompanied you both to the old chapel, which was
+almost entirely ruined by the enemy’s bullets; and though Prince Rupert,
+when he gave you away at the altar, was clad in buff and bandoleer, with
+pistols in his belt, yet I trust these warlike signs were no type of
+future discord?”
+
+“Heaven has been kind to me,” said the Lady Peveril, “in blessing me
+with an affectionate husband.”
+
+“And in preserving him to you,” said the Countess, with a deep
+sigh; “while mine, alas! sealed with his blood his devotion to his
+king[*]--Oh, had he lived to see this day!”
+
+[*] The Earl of Derby and King in Man was beheaded at Bolton-on-the-
+    Moors, after having been made prisoner in a previous skirmish in
+    Wiggan Lane.
+
+“Alas! alas! that he was not permitted!” answered Lady Peveril; “how had
+that brave and noble Earl rejoiced in the unhoped-for redemption of our
+captivity!”
+
+The Countess looked on Lady Peveril with an air of surprise.
+
+“Thou hast not then heard, cousin, how it stands with our house?--How
+indeed had my noble lord wondered, had he been told that the very
+monarch for whom he had laid down his noble life on the scaffold at
+Bolton-le-Moor, should make it his first act of restored monarchy to
+complete the destruction of our property, already well-nigh ruined in
+the royal cause, and to persecute me his widow!”
+
+“You astonish me, madam!” said the Lady Peveril. “It cannot be, that
+you--that you, the wife of the gallant, the faithful, the murdered
+Earl--you, Countess of Derby, and Queen in Man--you, who took on you
+even the character of a soldier, and seemed a man when so many men
+proved women--that you should sustain evil from the event which has
+fulfilled--exceeded--the hopes of every faithful subject--it cannot be!”
+
+“Thou art as simple, I see, in this world’s knowledge as ever, my fair
+cousin,” answered the Countess. “This restoration, which has given
+others security, has placed me in danger--this change which relieved
+other Royalists, scarce less zealous, I presume to think, than I--has
+sent me here a fugitive, and in concealment, to beg shelter and
+assistance from you, fair cousin.”
+
+“From me,” answered the Lady Peveril--“from me, whose youth your
+kindness sheltered--from the wife of Peveril, your gallant Lord’s
+companion in arms--you have a right to command everything; but, alas!
+that you should need such assistance as I can render--forgive me, but it
+seems like some ill-omened vision of the night--I listen to your words
+as if I hoped to be relieved from their painful import by awaking.”
+
+“It is indeed a dream--a vision,” said the Countess of Derby; “but
+it needs no seer to read it--the explanation hath been long since
+given--Put not your faith in princes. I can soon remove your
+surprise.--This gentleman, your friend, is doubtless _honest?_”
+
+The Lady Peveril well knew that the Cavaliers, like other factions,
+usurped to themselves the exclusive denomination of the _honest_ party,
+and she felt some difficulty in explaining that her visitor was not
+honest in that sense of the word.
+
+“Had we not better retire, madam?” she said to the Countess, rising, as
+if in order to attend her. But the Countess retained her seat.
+
+“It was but a question of habit,” she said; “the gentleman’s principles
+are nothing to me, for what I have to tell you is widely blazed, and I
+care not who hears my share of it. You remember--you must have heard,
+for I think Margaret Stanley would not be indifferent to my fate--that
+after my husband’s murder at Bolton, I took up the standard which he
+never dropped until his death, and displayed it with my own hand in our
+Sovereignty of Man.”
+
+“I did indeed hear so, madam,” said the Lady Peveril; “and that you had
+bidden a bold defiance to the rebel government, even after all other
+parts of Britain had submitted to them. My husband, Sir Geoffrey,
+designed at one time to have gone to your assistance with some few
+followers; but we learned that the island was rendered to the Parliament
+party, and that you, dearest lady, were thrown into prison.”
+
+“But you heard not,” said the Countess, “how that disaster befell
+me.--Margaret, I would have held out that island against the knaves
+as long as the sea continued to flow around it. Till the shoals which
+surround it had become safe anchorage--till its precipices had melted
+beneath the sunshine--till of all its strong abodes and castles not
+one stone remained upon another,--would I have defended against these
+villainous hypocritical rebels, my dear husband’s hereditary dominion.
+The little kingdom of Man should have been yielded only when not an
+arm was left to wield a sword, not a finger to draw a trigger in its
+defence. But treachery did what force could never have done. When we
+had foiled various attempts upon the island by open force--treason
+accomplished what Blake and Lawson, with their floating castles, had
+found too hazardous an enterprise--a base rebel, whom we had nursed
+in our own bosoms, betrayed us to the enemy. This wretch was named
+Christian----”
+
+Major Bridgenorth started and turned towards the speaker, but instantly
+seemed to recollect himself, and again averted his face. The Countess
+proceeded, without noticing the interruption, which, however, rather
+surprised Lady Peveril, who was acquainted with her neighbour’s general
+habits of indifference and apathy, and therefore the more surprised at
+his testifying such sudden symptoms of interest. She would once again
+have moved the Countess to retire to another apartment, but Lady Derby
+proceeded with too much vehemence to endure interruption.
+
+“This Christian,” she said, “had eaten of my lord his sovereign’s bread,
+and drunk of his cup, even from childhood--for his fathers had been
+faithful servants to the House of Man and Derby. He himself had fought
+bravely by my husband’s side, and enjoyed all his confidence; and when
+my princely Earl was martyred by the rebels, he recommended to me,
+amongst other instructions communicated in the last message I received
+from him, to continue my confidence in Christian’s fidelity. I obeyed,
+although I never loved the man. He was cold and phlegmatic, and utterly
+devoid of that sacred fire which is the incentive to noble deeds,
+suspected, too, of leaning to the cold metaphysics of Calvinistic
+subtlety. But he was brave, wise, and experienced, and, as the event
+proved, possessed but too much interest with the islanders. When these
+rude people saw themselves without hope of relief, and pressed by a
+blockade, which brought want and disease into their island, they began
+to fall off from the faith which they had hitherto shown.”
+
+“What!” said the Lady Peveril, “could they forget what was due to the
+widow of their benefactor--she who had shared with the generous Derby
+the task of bettering their condition?”
+
+“Do not blame them,” said the Countess; “the rude herd acted but
+according to their kind--in present distress they forgot former
+benefits, and, nursed in their earthen hovels, with spirits suited
+to their dwellings, they were incapable of feeling the glory which
+is attached to constancy in suffering. But that Christian should have
+headed their revolt--that he, born a gentleman, and bred under my
+murdered Derby’s own care in all that was chivalrous and noble--that
+_he_ should have forgot a hundred benefits--why do I talk of
+benefits?--that he should have forgotten that kindly intercourse which
+binds man to man far more than the reciprocity of obligation--that
+he should have headed the ruffians who broke suddenly into my
+apartment--immured me with my infants in one of my own castles, and
+assumed or usurped the tyranny of the island--that this should have been
+done by William Christian, my vassal, my servant, my friend, was a deed
+of ungrateful treachery, which even this age of treason will scarcely
+parallel!”
+
+“And you were then imprisoned,” said the Lady Peveril, “and in your own
+sovereignty?”
+
+“For more than seven years I have endured strict captivity,” said the
+Countess. “I was indeed offered my liberty, and even some means of
+support, if I would have consented to leave the island, and pledge my
+word that I would not endeavour to repossess my son in his father’s
+rights. But they little knew the princely house from which I spring--and
+as little the royal house of Stanley which I uphold, who hoped to humble
+Charlotte of Tremouille into so base a composition. I would rather have
+starved in the darkest and lowest vault of Rushin Castle, than have
+consented to aught which might diminish in one hair’s-breadth the right
+of my son over his father’s sovereignty!”
+
+“And could not your firmness, in a case where hope seemed lost, induce
+them to be generous and dismiss you without conditions?”
+
+“They knew me better than thou dost, wench,” answered the Countess;
+“once at liberty, I had not been long without the means of disturbing
+their usurpation, and Christian would have as soon encaged a lioness to
+combat with, as have given me the slightest power of returning to the
+struggle with him. But time had liberty and revenge in store--I had
+still friends and partisans in the island, though they were compelled to
+give way to the storm. Even among the islanders at large, most had
+been disappointed in the effects which they expected from the change
+of power. They were loaded with exactions by their new masters, their
+privileges were abridged, and their immunities abolished, under the
+pretext of reducing them to the same condition with the other subjects
+of the pretended republic. When the news arrived of the changes which
+were current in Britain, these sentiments were privately communicated to
+me. Calcott and others acted with great zeal and fidelity; and a
+rising, effected as suddenly and effectually as that which had made me
+a captive, placed me at liberty and in possession of the sovereignty of
+Man, as Regent for my son, the youthful Earl of Derby. Do you think
+I enjoyed that sovereignty long without doing justice on that traitor
+Christian?”
+
+“How, madam,” said Lady Peveril, who, though she knew the high and
+ambitious spirit of the Countess, scarce anticipated the extremities to
+which it was capable of hurrying her--“have you imprisoned Christian?”
+
+“Ay, wench--in that sure prison which felon never breaks from,” answered
+the Countess.
+
+Bridgenorth, who had insensibly approached them, and was listening with
+an agony of interest which he was unable any longer to suppress, broke
+in with the stern exclamation--
+
+“Lady, I trust you have not dared----”
+
+The Countess interrupted him in her turn.
+
+“I know not who you are who question--and you know not me when you speak
+to me of that which I dare, or dare not do. But you seem interested
+in the fate of this Christian, and you shall hear it.--I was no sooner
+placed in possession of my rightful power, than I ordered the Dempster
+of the island to hold upon the traitor a High Court of Justice, with all
+the formalities of the isle, as prescribed in its oldest records. The
+Court was held in the open air, before the Dempster and the Keys of the
+island, assembled under the vaulted cope of heaven, and seated on the
+terrace of the Zonwald Hill, where of old Druid and Scald held their
+courts of judgment. The criminal was heard at length in his own defence,
+which amounted to little more than those specious allegations of public
+consideration, which are ever used to colour the ugly front of treason.
+He was fully convicted of his crime, and he received the doom of a
+traitor.”
+
+“But which, I trust, is not yet executed?” said Lady Peveril, not
+without an involuntary shudder.
+
+“You are a fool, Margaret,” said the Countess sharply; “think you I
+delayed such an act of justice, until some wretched intrigues of the
+new English Court might have prompted their interference? No, wench--he
+passed from the judgment-seat to the place of execution, with no farther
+delay than might be necessary for his soul’s sake. He was shot to death
+by a file of musketeers in the common place of execution called Hango
+Hill.”
+
+Bridgenorth clasped his hands together, wrung them, and groaned
+bitterly.
+
+“As you seem interested for this criminal,” added the Countess,
+addressing Bridgenorth, “I do him but justice in repeating to you, that
+his death was firm and manly, becoming the general tenor of his life,
+which, but for that gross act of traitorous ingratitude, had been fair
+and honourable. But what of that? The hypocrite is a saint, and
+the false traitor a man of honour, till opportunity, that faithful
+touchstone, proves their metal to be base.”
+
+“It is false, woman--it is false!” said Bridgenorth, no longer
+suppressing his indignation.
+
+“What means this bearing, Master Bridgenorth?” said Lady Peveril, much
+surprised. “What is this Christian to you, that you should insult the
+Countess of Derby under my roof?”
+
+“Speak not to me of countesses and of ceremonies,” said Bridgenorth;
+“grief and anger leave me no leisure for idle observances to humour the
+vanity of overgrown children.--O Christian--worthy, well worthy, of the
+name thou didst bear! My friend--my brother--the brother of my blessed
+Alice--the only friend of my desolate estate! art thou then cruelly
+murdered by a female fury, who, but for thee, had deservedly paid with
+her own blood that of God’s saints, which she, as well as her tyrant
+husband, had spilled like water!--Yes, cruel murderess!” he continued,
+addressing the Countess, “he whom thou hast butchered in thy insane
+vengeance, sacrificed for many a year the dictates of his own conscience
+to the interest of thy family, and did not desert it till thy frantic
+zeal for royalty had well-nigh brought to utter perdition the little
+community in which he was born. Even in confining thee, he acted but
+as the friends of the madman, who bind him with iron for his own
+preservation; and for thee, as I can bear witness, he was the only
+barrier between thee and the wrath of the Commons of England; and but
+for his earnest remonstrances, thou hadst suffered the penalty of thy
+malignancy, even like the wicked wife of Ahab.”
+
+“Master Bridgenorth,” said the Lady Peveril, “I will allow for your
+impatience upon hearing these unpleasing tidings; but there is neither
+use nor propriety in farther urging this question. If in your grief you
+forget other restraints, I pray you to remember that the Countess is my
+guest and kinswoman, and is under such protection as I can afford her. I
+beseech you, in simple courtesy, to withdraw, as what must needs be the
+best and most becoming course in these trying circumstances.”
+
+“Nay, let him remain,” said the Countess, regarding him with composure,
+not unmingled with triumph; “I would not have it otherwise; I would not
+that my revenge should be summed up in the stinted gratification which
+Christian’s death hath afforded. This man’s rude and clamorous grief
+only proves that the retribution I have dealt has been more widely felt
+than by the wretched sufferer himself. I would I knew that it had but
+made sore as many rebel hearts, as there were loyal breasts afflicted by
+the death of my princely Derby!”
+
+“So please you, madam,” said Lady Peveril, “since Master Bridgenorth
+hath not the manners to leave us upon my request, we will, if your
+ladyship lists, leave him, and retire to my apartment.--Farewell, Master
+Bridgenorth; we will meet hereafter on better terms.”
+
+“Pardon me, madam,” said the Major, who had been striding hastily
+through the room, but now stood fast, and drew himself up, as one who
+has taken a resolution;--“to yourself I have nothing to say but what
+is respectful; but to this woman I must speak as a magistrate. She
+has confessed a murder in my presence--the murder too of my
+brother-in-law--as a man, and as a magistrate, I cannot permit her to
+pass from hence, excepting under such custody as may prevent her farther
+flight. She has already confessed that she is a fugitive, and in search
+of a place of concealment, until she should be able to escape into
+foreign parts.--Charlotte, Countess of Derby, I attach thee of the crime
+of which thou hast but now made thy boast.”
+
+“I shall not obey your arrest,” said the Countess composedly; “I was
+born to give, but not to receive such orders. What have your English
+laws to do with my acts of justice and of government, within my son’s
+hereditary kingdom? Am I not Queen in Man, as well as Countess of Derby?
+A feudatory Sovereign indeed; but yet independent so long as my dues of
+homage are duly discharged. What right can you assert over me?”
+
+“That given by the precepts of Scripture,” answered Bridgenorth--“‘Whoso
+spilleth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be spilled.’ Think not the
+barbarous privileges of ancient feudal customs will avail to screen
+you from the punishment due for an Englishman murdered upon pretexts
+inconsistent with the act of indemnity.”
+
+“Master Bridgenorth,” said the Lady Peveril, “if by fair terms you
+desist not from your present purpose, I tell you that I neither dare,
+nor will, permit any violence against this honourable lady within the
+walls of my husband’s castle.”
+
+“You will find yourself unable to prevent me from executing my duty,
+madam,” said Bridgenorth, whose native obstinacy now came in aid of his
+grief and desire of revenge; “I am a magistrate, and act by authority.”
+
+“I know not that,” said Lady Peveril. “That you _were_ a magistrate,
+Master Bridgenorth, under the late usurping powers, I know well; but
+till I hear of your having a commission in the name of the King, I now
+hesitate to obey you as such.”
+
+“I shall stand on small ceremony,” said Bridgenorth. “Were I no
+magistrate, every man has title to arrest for murder against the terms
+of the indemnities held out by the King’s proclamations, and I will make
+my point good.”
+
+“What indemnities? What proclamations?” said the Countess of Derby
+indignantly. “Charles Stuart may, if he pleases (and it doth seem to
+please him), consort with those whose hands have been red with the
+blood, and blackened with the plunder, of his father and of his loyal
+subjects. He may forgive them if he will, and count their deeds good
+service. What has that to do with this Christian’s offence against me
+and mine? Born a Mankesman--bred and nursed in the island--he broke the
+laws under which he lived, and died for the breach of them, after the
+fair trial which they allowed.--Methinks, Margaret, we have enough of
+this peevish and foolish magistrate--I attend you to your apartment.”
+
+Major Bridgenorth placed himself betwixt them and the door, in a manner
+which showed him determined to interrupt their passage; when the Lady
+Peveril, who thought she already showed more deference to him in this
+matter than her husband was likely to approve of, raised her voice, and
+called loudly on her steward, Whitaker. That alert person, who had heard
+high talking, and a female voice with which he was unacquainted, had
+remained for several minutes stationed in the anteroom, much afflicted
+with the anxiety of his own curiosity. Of course he entered in an
+instant.
+
+“Let three of the men instantly take arms,” said the lady; “bring them
+into the anteroom, and wait my farther orders.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+            You shall have no worse prison than my chamber,
+            Nor jailer than myself.
+                                               --THE CAPTAIN.
+
+The command which Lady Peveril laid on her domestics to arm themselves,
+was so unlike the usual gentle acquiescence of her manners, that Major
+Bridgenorth was astonished. “How mean you, madam?” said he; “I thought
+myself under a friendly roof.”
+
+“And you are so, Master Bridgenorth,” said the Lady Peveril, without
+departing from the natural calmness of her voice and manner; “but it is
+a roof which must not be violated by the outrage of one friend against
+another.”
+
+“It is well, madam,” said Bridgenorth, turning to the door of the
+apartment. “The worthy Master Solsgrace has already foretold, that the
+time was returned when high houses and proud names should be once more
+an excuse for the crimes of those who inhabit the one and bear the
+other. I believed him not, but now see he is wiser than I. Yet think not
+I will endure this tamely. The blood of my brother--of the friend of my
+bosom--shall not long call from the altar, ‘How long, O Lord, how long!’
+If there is one spark of justice left in this unhappy England, that
+proud woman and I shall meet where she can have no partial friend to
+protect her.”
+
+So saying, he was about to leave the apartment, when Lady Peveril said,
+“You depart not from this place, Master Bridgenorth, unless you give me
+your word to renounce all purpose against the noble Countess’s liberty
+upon the present occasion.”
+
+“I would sooner,” answered he, “subscribe to my own dishonour, madam,
+written down in express words, than to any such composition. If any
+man offers to interrupt me, his blood be on his own head!” As Major
+Bridgenorth spoke, Whitaker threw open the door, and showed that, with
+the alertness of an old soldier, who was not displeased to see things
+tend once more towards a state of warfare, he had got with him four
+stout fellows in the Knight of the Peak’s livery, well armed with swords
+and carabines, buff-coats, and pistols at their girdles.
+
+“I will see,” said Major Bridgenorth, “if any of these men be so
+desperate as to stop me, a freeborn Englishman, and a magistrate in the
+discharge of my duty.”
+
+So saying, he advanced upon Whitaker and his armed assistants, with his
+hand on the hilt of his sword.
+
+“Do not be so desperate, Master Bridgenorth,” exclaimed Lady Peveril;
+and added, in the same moment, “Lay hold upon, and disarm him, Whitaker;
+but do him no injury.”
+
+Her commands were obeyed. Bridgenorth, though a man of moral resolution,
+was not one of those who undertook to cope in person with odds of a
+description so formidable. He half drew his sword, and offered such show
+of resistance as made it necessary to secure him by actual force; but
+then yielded up his weapon, and declared that, submitting to force
+which one man was unable to resist, he made those who commanded, and
+who employed it, responsible for assailing his liberty without a legal
+warrant.
+
+“Never mind a warrant on a pinch, Master Bridgenorth,” said old
+Whitaker; “sure enough you have often acted upon a worse yourself. My
+lady’s word is as good as a warrant, sure, as Old Noll’s commission; and
+you bore that many a day, Master Bridgenorth, and, moreover, you laid
+me in the stocks for drinking the King’s health, Master Bridgenorth, and
+never cared a farthing about the laws of England.”
+
+“Hold your saucy tongue, Whitaker,” said the Lady Peveril; “and do you,
+Master Bridgenorth, not take it to heart that you are detained prisoner
+for a few hours, until the Countess of Derby can have nothing to fear
+from your pursuit. I could easily send an escort with her that might
+bid defiance to any force you could muster; but I wish, Heaven knows, to
+bury the remembrance of old civil dissensions, not to awaken new. Once
+more, will you think better of it--assume your sword again, and forget
+whom you have now seen at Martindale Castle?”
+
+“Never,” said Bridgenorth. “The crime of this cruel woman will be the
+last of human injuries which I can forget. The last thought of earthly
+kind which will leave me, will be the desire that justice shall be done
+on her.”
+
+“If such be your sentiments,” said Lady Peveril, “though they are
+more allied to revenge than to justice, I must provide for my friend’s
+safety, by putting restraint upon your person. In this room you will
+be supplied with every necessary of life, and every convenience; and a
+message shall relieve your domestics of the anxiety which your absence
+from the Hall is not unlikely to occasion. When a few hours, at most two
+days, are over, I will myself relieve you from confinement, and demand
+your pardon for now acting as your obstinacy compels me to do.”
+
+The Major made no answer, but that he was in her hands, and must submit
+to her pleasure; and then turned sullenly to the window, as if desirous
+to be rid of their presence.
+
+The Countess and the Lady Peveril left the apartment arm in arm; and
+the lady issued forth her directions to Whitaker concerning the mode in
+which she was desirous that Bridgenorth should be guarded and treated
+during his temporary confinement; at the same time explaining to him,
+that the safety of the Countess of Derby required that he should be
+closely watched.
+
+In all proposals for the prisoner’s security, such as the regular relief
+of guards, and the like, Whitaker joyfully acquiesced, and undertook,
+body for body, that he should be detained in captivity for the necessary
+period. But the old steward was not half so docile when it came to be
+considered how the captive’s bedding and table should be supplied; and
+he thought Lady Peveril displayed a very undue degree of attention
+to her prisoner’s comforts. “I warrant,” he said, “that the cuckoldly
+Roundhead ate enough of our fat beef yesterday to serve him for a month;
+and a little fasting will do his health good. Marry, for drink, he shall
+have plenty of cold water to cool his hot liver, which I will be bound
+is still hissing with the strong liquors of yesterday. And as for
+bedding, there are the fine dry board--more wholesome than the wet straw
+I lay upon when I was in the stocks, I trow.”
+
+“Whitaker,” said the lady peremptorily, “I desire you to provide Master
+Bridgenorth’s bedding and food in the way I have signified to you; and
+to behave yourself towards him in all civility.”
+
+“Lack-a-day! yes, my lady,” said Whitaker; “you shall have all your
+directions punctually obeyed; but as an old servant, I cannot but speak
+my mind.”
+
+The ladies retired after this conference with the steward in the
+antechamber, and were soon seated in another apartment, which was
+peculiarly dedicated to the use of the mistress of the mansion--having,
+on the one side, access to the family bedroom; and, on the other, to the
+still-room which communicated with the garden. There was also a
+small door which, ascending a few steps, led to that balcony, already
+mentioned, that overhung the kitchen; and the same passage, by a
+separate door, admitted to the principal gallery in the chapel; so that
+the spiritual and temporal affairs of the Castle were placed almost at
+once within the reach of the same regulating and directing eye.[*]
+
+[*] This peculiar collocation of apartments may be seen at Haddon
+    Hall, Derbyshire, once a seat of the Vernons, where, in the lady’s
+    pew in the chapel, there is a sort of scuttle, which opens into
+    the kitchen, so that the good lady could ever and anon, without
+    much interruption of her religious duties, give an eye that the
+    roast-meat was not permitted to burn, and that the turn-broche did
+    his duty.
+
+In the tapestried room, from which issued these various sally-ports, the
+Countess and Lady Peveril were speedily seated; and the former, smiling
+upon the latter, said, as she took her hand, “Two things have happened
+to-day, which might have surprised me, if anything ought to surprise me
+in such times:--the first is, that yonder roundheaded fellow should have
+dared to use such insolence in the house of Peveril of the Peak. If your
+husband is yet the same honest and downright Cavalier whom I once knew,
+and had chanced to be at home, he would have thrown the knave out of
+window. But what I wonder at still more, Margaret, is your generalship.
+I hardly thought you had courage sufficient to have taken such decided
+measures, after keeping on terms with the man so long. When he spoke of
+justices and warrants, you looked so overawed that I thought I felt the
+clutch of the parish-beadles on my shoulder, to drag me to prison as a
+vagrant.”
+
+“We owe Master Bridgenorth some deference, my dearest lady,” answered
+the Lady Peveril; “he has served us often and kindly, in these late
+times; but neither he, nor any one else, shall insult the Countess of
+Derby in the house of Margaret Stanley.”
+
+“Thou art become a perfect heroine, Margaret,” replied the Countess.
+
+“Two sieges, and alarms innumerable,” said Lady Peveril, “may have
+taught me presence of mind. My courage is, I believe, as slender as
+ever.”
+
+“Presence of mind _is_ courage,” answered the Countess. “Real valour
+consists not in being insensible to danger, but in being prompt to
+confront and disarm it;--and we may have present occasion for all
+that we possess,” she added, with some slight emotion, “for I hear the
+trampling of horses’ steps on the pavement of the court.”
+
+In one moment, the boy Julian, breathless with joy, came flying into the
+room, to say that papa was returned, with Lamington and Sam Brewer; and
+that he was himself to ride Black Hastings to the stable. In the second
+the tramp of the honest Knight’s heavy jack-boots was heard, as, in his
+haste to see his lady, he ascended the staircase by two steps at a
+time. He burst into the room; his manly countenance and disordered dress
+showing marks that he had been riding fast; and without looking to any
+one else, caught his good lady in his arms, and kissed her a dozen of
+times.--Blushing, and with some difficulty, Lady Peveril extricated
+herself from Sir Geoffrey’s arms; and in a voice of bashful and gentle
+rebuke, bid him, for shame, observe who was in the room.
+
+“One,” said the Countess, advancing to him, “who is right glad to see
+that Sir Geoffrey Peveril, though turned courtier and favourite, still
+values the treasure which she had some share in bestowing upon him. You
+cannot have forgot the raising of the leaguer of Latham House!”
+
+“The noble Countess of Derby!” said Sir Geoffrey, doffing his plumed hat
+with an air of deep deference, and kissing with much reverence the hand
+which she held out to him; “I am as glad to see your ladyship in my poor
+house, as I would be to hear that they had found a vein of lead in the
+Brown Tor. I rode hard, in the hope of being your escort through the
+country. I feared you might have fallen into bad hands, hearing there
+was a knave sent out with a warrant from the Council.”
+
+“When heard you so? and from whom?”
+
+“It was from Cholmondley of Vale Royal,” said Sir Geoffrey; “he is come
+down to make provision for your safety through Cheshire; and I promised
+to bring you there in safety. Prince Rupert, Ormond, and other friends,
+do not doubt the matter will be driven to a fine; but they say
+the Chancellor, and Harry Bennet, and some others of the over-sea
+counsellors, are furious at what they call a breach of the King’s
+proclamation. Hang them, say I!--They left us to bear all the beating;
+and now they are incensed that we should wish to clear scores with those
+who rode us like nightmares!”
+
+“What did they talk of for my chastisement?” said the Countess.
+
+“I wot not,” said Sir Geoffrey; “some friends, as I said, from our kind
+Cheshire, and others, tried to bring it to a fine; but some, again,
+spoke of nothing but the Tower, and a long imprisonment.”
+
+“I have suffered imprisonment long enough for King Charles’s sake,” said
+the Countess; “and have no mind to undergo it at his hand. Besides, if
+I am removed from the personal superintendence of my son’s dominions in
+Man, I know not what new usurpation may be attempted there. I must be
+obliged to you, cousin, to contrive that I may get in security to Vale
+Royal, and from thence I know I shall be guarded safely to Liverpool.”
+
+“You may rely on my guidance and protection, noble lady,” answered her
+host, “though you had come here at midnight, and with the rogue’s head
+in your apron, like Judith in the Holy Apocrypha, which I joy to hear
+once more read in churches.”
+
+“Do the gentry resort much to the Court?” said the lady.
+
+“Ay, madam,” replied Sir Geoffrey; “and according to our saying, when
+miners do begin to bore in these parts, it is _for the grace of God, and
+what they there may find_.”
+
+“Meet the old Cavaliers with much countenance?” continued the Countess.
+
+“Faith, madam, to speak truth,” replied the Knight, “the King hath so
+gracious a manner, that it makes every man’s hopes blossom, though we
+have seen but few that have ripened into fruit.”
+
+“You have not, yourself, my cousin,” answered the Countess, “had room
+to complain of ingratitude, I trust? Few have less deserved it at the
+King’s hand.”
+
+Sir Geoffrey was unwilling, like most prudent persons, to own the
+existence of expectations which had proved fallacious, yet had too
+little art in his character to conceal his disappointment entirely.
+“Who, I, madam?” he said; “Alas! what should a poor country knight
+expect from the King, besides the pleasure of seeing him in Whitehall
+once more, and enjoying his own again? And his Majesty was very gracious
+when I was presented, and spoke to me of Worcester, and of my horse,
+Black Hastings--he had forgot his name, though--faith, and mine, too, I
+believe, had not Prince Rupert whispered it to him. And I saw some old
+friends, such as his Grace of Ormond, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Sir Philip
+Musgrave, and so forth; and had a jolly rouse or two, to the tune of old
+times.”
+
+“I should have thought so many wounds received--so many dangers
+risked--such considerable losses--merited something more than a few
+smooth words,” said the Countess.
+
+“Nay, my lady, there were other friends of mine who had the same
+thought,” answered Peveril. “Some were of opinion that the loss of
+so many hundred acres of fair land was worth some reward of honour
+at least; and there were who thought my descent from William the
+Conqueror--craving your ladyship’s pardon for boasting it in your
+presence--would not have become a higher rank or title worse than the
+pedigree of some who have been promoted. But what said the witty Duke
+of Buckingham, forsooth? (whose grandsire was a Lei’stershire
+Knight--rather poorer, and scarcely so well-born as myself)--Why, he
+said, that if all of my degree who deserved well of the King in the late
+times were to be made peers, the House of Lords must meet upon Salisbury
+Plain!”
+
+“And that bad jest passed for a good argument!” said the Countess; “and
+well it might, where good arguments pass for bad jests. But here comes
+one I must be acquainted with.”
+
+This was little Julian, who now re-entered the hall, leading his little
+sister, as if he had brought her to bear witness to the boastful tale
+which he told his father, of his having manfully ridden Black Hastings
+to the stable-yard, alone in the saddle; and that Saunders though he
+walked by the horse’s head, did not once put his hand upon the rein,
+and Brewer, though he stood beside him, scarce held him by the knee. The
+father kissed the boy heartily; and the Countess, calling him to her
+so soon as Sir Geoffrey had set him down, kissed his forehead also, and
+then surveyed all his features with a keen and penetrating eye.
+
+“He is a true Peveril,” said she, “mixed as he should be with some touch
+of the Stanley. Cousin, you must grant me my boon, and when I am safely
+established, and have my present affair arranged, you must let me have
+this little Julian of yours some time hence, to be nurtured in my house,
+held as my page, and the playfellow of the little Derby. I trust in
+Heaven, they will be such friends as their fathers have been, and may
+God send them more fortunate times!”
+
+“Marry, and I thank you for the proposal with all my heart, madam,” said
+the Knight. “There are so many noble houses decayed, and so many more
+in which the exercise and discipline for the training of noble youths is
+given up and neglected, that I have often feared I must have kept Gil
+to be young master at home; and I have had too little nurture myself to
+teach him much, and so he would have been a mere hunting hawking knight
+of Derbyshire. But in your ladyship’s household, and with the noble
+young Earl, he will have all, and more than all, the education which I
+could desire.”
+
+“There shall be no distinction betwixt them, cousin,” said the Countess;
+“Margaret Stanley’s son shall be as much the object of care to me as
+my own, since you are kindly disposed to entrust him to my charge.--You
+look pale, Margaret,” she continued, “and the tear stands in your eye?
+Do not be so foolish, my love--what I ask is better than you can desire
+for your boy; for the house of my father, the Duke de la Tremouille,
+was the most famous school of chivalry in France; nor have I degenerated
+from him, or suffered any relaxation in that noble discipline which
+trained young gentlemen to do honour to their race. You can promise your
+Julian no such advantages, if you train him up a mere home-bred youth.”
+
+“I acknowledge the importance of the favour, madam,” said Lady Peveril,
+“and must acquiesce in what your ladyship honours us by proposing, and
+Sir Geoffrey approves of; but Julian is an only child, and----”
+
+“An only son,” said the Countess, “but surely not an only child. You pay
+too high deference to our masters, the male sex, if you allow Julian to
+engross all your affection, and spare none for this beautiful girl.”
+
+So saying, she set down Julian, and, taking Alice Bridgenorth on her
+lap, began to caress her; and there was, notwithstanding her masculine
+character, something so sweet in the tone of her voice and in the cast
+of her features, that the child immediately smiled, and replied to her
+marks of fondness. This mistake embarrassed Lady Peveril exceedingly.
+Knowing the blunt impetuosity of her husband’s character, his devotion
+to the memory of the deceased Earl of Derby, and his corresponding
+veneration for his widow, she was alarmed for the consequences of his
+hearing the conduct of Bridgenorth that morning, and was particularly
+desirous that he should not learn it save from herself in private,
+and after due preparation. But the Countess’s error led to a more
+precipitate disclosure.
+
+“That pretty girl, madam,” answered Sir Geoffrey, “is none of ours--I
+wish she were. She belongs to a neighbour hard by--a good man, and,
+to say truth, a good neighbour--though he was carried off from his
+allegiance in the late times by a d--d Presbyterian scoundrel, who
+calls himself a parson, and whom I hope to fetch down from his perch
+presently, with a wannion to him! He has been cock of the roost long
+enough.--There are rods in pickle to switch the Geneva cloak with, I can
+tell the sour-faced rogues that much. But this child is the daughter of
+Bridgenorth--neighbour Bridgenorth, of Moultrassie Hall.”
+
+“Bridgenorth?” said the Countess; “I thought I had known all the
+honourable names in Derbyshire--I remember nothing of Bridgenorth.--But
+stay--was there not a sequestrator and committeeman of that name? Sure,
+it cannot be he?”
+
+Peveril took some shame to himself, as he replied, “It is the very man
+whom your ladyship means, and you may conceive the reluctance with which
+I submitted to receive good offices from one of his kidney; but had I
+not done so, I should have scarce known how to find a roof to cover Dame
+Margaret’s head.”
+
+The Countess, as he spoke, raised the child gently from her lap, and
+placed it upon the carpet, though little Alice showed a disinclination
+to the change of place, which the lady of Derby and Man would certainly
+have indulged in a child of patrician descent and loyal parentage.
+
+“I blame you not,” she said; “no one knows what temptation will bring us
+down to. Yet I _did_ think Peveril of the Peak would have resided in its
+deepest cavern, sooner than owed an obligation to a regicide.”
+
+“Nay, madam,” answered the Knight, “my neighbour is bad enough, but
+not so bad as you would make him; he is but a Presbyterian--that I must
+confess--but not an Independent.”
+
+“A variety of the same monster,” said the Countess, “who hallooed while
+the others hunted, and bound the victim whom the Independents massacred.
+Betwixt such sects I prefer the Independents. They are at least bold,
+bare-faced, merciless villains, have more of the tiger in them, and less
+of the crocodile. I have no doubt it was that worthy gentleman who took
+it upon him this morning----”
+
+She stopped short, for she saw Lady Peveril was vexed and embarrassed.
+
+“I am,” she said, “the most luckless of beings. I have said something,
+I know not what, to distress you, Margaret--Mystery is a bad thing, and
+betwixt us there should be none.”
+
+“There is none, madam,” said Lady Peveril, something impatiently; “I
+waited but an opportunity to tell my husband what had happened--Sir
+Geoffrey, Master Bridgenorth was unfortunately here when the Lady Derby
+and I met; and he thought it part of his duty to speak of----”
+
+“To speak of what?” said the Knight, bending his brows. “You were
+ever something too fond, dame, of giving way to the usurpation of such
+people.”
+
+“I only mean,” said Lady Peveril, “that as the person--he to whom
+Lord Derby’s story related--was the brother of his late lady, he
+threatened--but I cannot think that he was serious.”
+
+“Threaten?--threaten the Lady of Derby and Man in my house!--the widow
+of my friend--the noble Charlotte of Latham House!--by Heaven, the
+prick-eared slave shall answer it! How comes it that my knaves threw him
+not out of the window?”
+
+“Alas! Sir Geoffrey, you forget how much we owe him,” said the lady.
+
+“Owe him!” said the Knight, still more indignant; for in his singleness
+of apprehension he conceived that his wife alluded to pecuniary
+obligations,--“if I do owe him some money, hath he not security for it?
+and must he have the right, over and above, to domineer and play the
+magistrate in Martindale Castle?--Where is he?--what have you made of
+him? I will--I must speak with him.”
+
+“Be patient, Sir Geoffrey,” said the Countess, who now discerned the
+cause of her kinswoman’s apprehension; “and be assured I did not need
+your chivalry to defend me against this discourteous faitour, as _Morte
+d’Arthur_ would have called him. I promise you my kinswoman hath fully
+righted my wrong; and I am so pleased to owe my deliverance entirely to
+her gallantry, that I charge and command you, as a true knight, not to
+mingle in the adventure of another.”
+
+Lady Peveril, who knew her husband’s blunt and impatient temper, and
+perceived that he was becoming angry, now took up the story, and plainly
+and simply pointed out the cause of Master Bridgenorth’s interference.
+
+“I am sorry for it,” said the Knight; “I thought he had more sense;
+and that this happy change might have done some good upon him. But you
+should have told me this instantly--It consists not with my honour that
+he should be kept prisoner in this house, as if I feared anything he
+could do to annoy the noble Countess, while she is under my roof, or
+within twenty miles of this Castle.”
+
+So saying, and bowing to the Countess, he went straight to the gilded
+chamber, leaving Lady Peveril in great anxiety for the event of an angry
+meeting between a temper hasty as that of her husband, and stubborn like
+that of Bridgenorth. Her apprehensions were, however, unnecessary; for
+the meeting was not fated to take place.
+
+When Sir Geoffrey Peveril, having dismissed Whitaker and his sentinels,
+entered the gilded chamber, in which he expected to find his captive,
+the prisoner had escaped, and it was easy to see in what manner. The
+sliding panel had, in the hurry of the moment, escaped the memory of
+Lady Peveril, and of Whitaker, the only persons who knew anything of it.
+It was probable that a chink had remained open, sufficient to indicate
+its existence to Bridgenorth; who withdrawing it altogether, had found
+his way into the secret apartment with which it communicated, and from
+thence to the postern of the Castle by another secret passage, which had
+been formed in the thickness of the wall, as is not uncommon in ancient
+mansions; the lords of which were liable to so many mutations of
+fortune, that they usually contrived to secure some lurking place and
+secret mode of retreat from their fortresses. That Bridgenorth had
+discovered and availed himself of this secret mode of retreat was
+evident; because the private doors communicating with the postern and
+the sliding panel in the gilded chamber were both left open.
+
+Sir Geoffrey returned to the ladies with looks of perplexity. While he
+deemed Bridgenorth within his reach, he was apprehensive of nothing he
+could do; for he felt himself his superior in personal strength, and in
+that species of courage which induces a man to rush, without hesitation,
+upon personal danger. But when at a distance, he had been for many years
+accustomed to consider Bridgenorth’s power and influence as something
+formidable; and notwithstanding the late change of affairs, his ideas
+so naturally reverted to his neighbour as a powerful friend or dangerous
+enemy, that he felt more apprehension on the Countess’s score, than he
+was willing to acknowledge even to himself. The Countess observed his
+downcast and anxious brow, and requested to know if her stay there was
+likely to involve him in any trouble, or in any danger.
+
+“The trouble should be welcome,” said Sir Geoffrey, “and more welcome
+the danger, which should come on such an account. My plan was, that your
+ladyship should have honoured Martindale with a few days’ residence,
+which might have been kept private until the search after you was
+ended. Had I seen this fellow Bridgenorth, I have no doubt I could have
+compelled him to act discreetly; but he is now at liberty, and will keep
+out of my reach; and, what is worse, he has the secret of the priest’s
+chamber.”
+
+Here the Knight paused, and seemed much embarrassed.
+
+“You can, then, neither conceal nor protect me?” said the Countess.
+
+“Pardon, my honoured lady,” answered the Knight, “and let me say out
+my say. The plain truth is, that this man hath many friends among the
+Presbyterians here, who are more numerous than I would wish them; and
+if he falls in with the pursuivant fellow who carries the warrant of the
+Privy Council, it is likely he will back him with force sufficient
+to try to execute it. And I doubt whether any of our friends can be
+summoned together in haste, sufficient to resist such a power as they
+are like to bring together.”
+
+“Nor would I wish any friends to take arms, in my name, against the
+King’s warrant, Sir Geoffrey,” said the Countess.
+
+“Nay, for that matter,” replied the Knight, “an his Majesty will grant
+warrants against his best friends, he must look to have them resisted.
+But the best I can think of in this emergence is--though the proposal
+be something inhospitable--that your ladyship should take presently to
+horse, if your fatigue will permit. I will mount also, with some brisk
+fellows, who will lodge you safe at Vale Royal, though the Sheriff
+stopped the way with a whole _posse comitatus_.”
+
+The Countess of Derby willingly acquiesced in this proposal. She
+had enjoyed a night’s sound repose in the private chamber, to which
+Ellesmere had guided her on the preceding evening, and was quite ready
+to resume her route, or flight--“she scarce knew,” she said, “which of
+the two she should term it.”
+
+Lady Peveril wept at the necessity which seemed to hurry her earliest
+friend and protectress from under her roof, at the instant when
+the clouds of adversity were gathering around her; but she saw no
+alternative equally safe. Nay, however strong her attachment to Lady
+Derby, she could not but be more readily reconciled to her hasty
+departure, when she considered the inconvenience, and even danger,
+in which her presence, at such a time, and in such circumstances, was
+likely to involve a man so bold and hot-tempered as her husband Sir
+Geoffrey.
+
+While Lady Peveril, therefore, made every arrangement which time
+permitted and circumstances required, for the Countess prosecuting her
+journey, her husband, whose spirits always rose with the prospect
+of action, issued his orders to Whitaker to get together a few stout
+fellows, with back and breast pieces, and steel-caps. “There are the two
+lackeys, and Outram and Saunders, besides the other groom fellow, and
+Roger Raine, and his son; but bid Roger not come drunk again;--thyself,
+young Dick of the Dale and his servant, and a file or two of the
+tenants,--we shall be enough for any force they can make. All these are
+fellows that will strike hard, and ask no question why--their hands
+are ever readier than their tongues, and their mouths are more made for
+drinking than speaking.”
+
+Whitaker, apprised of the necessity of the case, asked if he should not
+warn Sir Jasper Cranbourne.
+
+“Not a word to him, as you live,” said the Knight; “this may be an
+outlawry, as they call it, for what I know; and therefore I will bring
+no lands or tenements into peril, saving mine own. Sir Jasper hath had
+a troublesome time of it for many a year. By my will, he shall sit quiet
+for the rest of’s days.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+         _Fang._--A rescue! a rescue!
+         _Mrs. Quickly._--Good people, bring a rescue or two.
+                                            --Henry IV. _Part I._
+
+The followers of Peveril were so well accustomed to the sound of “Boot
+and Saddle,” that they were soon mounted and in order; and in all the
+form, and with some of the dignity of danger, proceeded to escort the
+Countess of Derby through the hilly and desert tract of country which
+connects the frontier of the shire with the neighbouring county of
+Cheshire. The cavalcade moved with considerable precaution, which
+they had been taught by the discipline of the Civil Wars. One wary and
+well-mounted trooper rode about two hundred yards in advance; followed,
+at about half that distance, by two more, with their carabines advanced,
+as if ready for action. About one hundred yards behind the advance, came
+the main body; where the Countess of Derby, mounted on Lady Peveril’s
+ambling palfrey (for her own had been exhausted by the journey from
+London to Martindale Castle), accompanied by one groom, of approved
+fidelity, and one waiting-maid, was attended and guarded by the Knight
+of the Peak, and three files of good and practised horsemen. In the rear
+came Whitaker, with Lance Outram, as men of especial trust, to whom the
+covering the retreat was confided. They rode, as the Spanish proverb
+expresses it, “with the beard on the shoulder,” looking around, that
+is, from time to time, and using every precaution to have the speediest
+knowledge of any pursuit which might take place.
+
+But, however wise in discipline, Peveril and his followers were somewhat
+remiss in civil policy. The Knight had communicated to Whitaker, though
+without any apparent necessity, the precise nature of their present
+expedition; and Whitaker was equally communicative to his comrade Lance,
+the keeper. “It is strange enough, Master Whitaker,” said the latter,
+when he had heard the case, “and I wish you, being a wise man, would
+expound it;--why, when we have been wishing for the King--and praying
+for the King--and fighting for the King--and dying for the King, for
+these twenty years, the first thing we find to do on his return, is to
+get into harness to resist his warrant?”
+
+“Pooh! you silly fellow,” said Whitaker, “that is all you know of the
+true bottom of our quarrel! Why, man, we fought for the King’s person
+against his warrant, all along from the very beginning; for I remember
+the rogues’ proclamations, and so forth, always ran in the name of the
+King and Parliament.”
+
+“Ay! was it even so?” replied Lance. “Nay, then, if they begin the old
+game so soon again, and send out warrants in the King’s name against his
+loyal subjects, well fare our stout Knight, say I, who is ready to take
+them down in their stocking-soles. And if Bridgenorth takes the chase
+after us, I shall not be sorry to have a knock at him for one.”
+
+“Why, the man, bating he is a pestilent Roundhead and Puritan,” said
+Whitaker, “is no bad neighbour. What has he done to thee, man?”
+
+“He has poached on the manor,” answered the keeper.
+
+“The devil he has!” replied Whitaker. “Thou must be jesting, Lance.
+Bridgenorth is neither hunter nor hawker; he hath not so much of honesty
+in him.”
+
+“Ay, but he runs after game you little think of, with his sour,
+melancholy face, that would scare babes and curdle milk,” answered
+Lance.
+
+“Thou canst not mean the wenches?” said Whitaker; “why, he hath been
+melancholy mad with moping for the death of his wife. Thou knowest our
+lady took the child, for fear he should strangle it for putting him in
+mind of its mother, in some of his tantrums. Under her favour, and among
+friends, there are many poor Cavaliers’ children, that care would be
+better bestowed upon--But to thy tale.”
+
+“Why, thus it runs,” said Lance. “I think you may have noticed, Master
+Whitaker, that a certain Mistress Deborah hath manifested a certain
+favour for a certain person in a certain household.”
+
+“For thyself, to wit,” answered Whitaker; “Lance Outram, thou art the
+vainest coxcomb----”
+
+“Coxcomb?” said Lance; “why, ‘twas but last night the whole family saw
+her, as one would say, fling herself at my head.”
+
+“I would she had been a brickbat then, to have broken it, for thy
+impertinence and conceit,” said the steward.
+
+“Well, but do but hearken. The next morning--that is, this very blessed
+morning--I thought of going to lodge a buck in the park, judging a bit
+of venison might be wanted in the larder, after yesterday’s wassail;
+and, as I passed under the nursery window, I did but just look up to see
+what madam governante was about; and so I saw her, through the
+casement, whip on her hood and scarf as soon as she had a glimpse of me.
+Immediately after I saw the still-room door open, and made sure she was
+coming through the garden, and so over the breach and down to the park;
+and so, thought I, ‘Aha, Mistress Deb, if you are so ready to dance
+after my pipe and tabor, I will give you a couranto before you shall
+come up with me.’ And so I went down Ivy-tod Dingle, where the copse is
+tangled, and the ground swampy, and round by Haxley-bottom, thinking all
+the while she was following, and laughing in my sleeve at the round I
+was giving her.”
+
+“You deserved to be ducked for it,” said Whitaker, “for a weather-headed
+puppy; but what is all this Jack-a-lantern story to Bridgenorth?”
+
+“Why, it was all along of he, man,” continued Lance, “that is, of
+Bridgenorth, that she did not follow me--Gad, I first walked slow, and
+then stopped, and then turned back a little, and then began to wonder
+what she had made of herself, and to think I had borne myself something
+like a jackass in the matter.”
+
+“That I deny,” said Whitaker, “never jackass but would have borne him
+better--but go on.”
+
+“Why, turning my face towards the Castle, I went back as if I had my
+nose bleeding, when just by the Copely thorn, which stands, you know, a
+flight-short from the postern-gate, I saw Madam Deb in close conference
+with the enemy.”
+
+“What enemy?” said the steward.
+
+“What enemy! why, who but Bridgenorth? They kept out of sight, and among
+the copse; but, thought I, it is hard if I cannot stalk you, that have
+stalked so many bucks. If so, I had better give my shafts to be pudding
+pins. So I cast round the thicket, to watch their waters; and may I
+never bend crossbow again, if I did not see him give her gold, and
+squeeze her by the hand!”
+
+“And was that all you saw pass between them?” said the steward.
+
+“Faith, and it was enough to dismount me from my hobby,” said Lance.
+“What! when I thought I had the prettiest girl in the Castle dancing
+after my whistle, to find that she gave me the bag to hold, and was
+smuggling in a corner with a rich old Puritan!”
+
+“Credit me, Lance, it is not as thou thinkest,” said Whitaker.
+“Bridgenorth cares not for these amorous toys, and thou thinkest of
+nothing else. But it is fitting our Knight should know that he has met
+with Deborah in secret, and given her gold; for never Puritan gave gold
+yet, but it was earnest for some devil’s work done, or to be done.”
+
+“Nay, but,” said Lance, “I would not be such a dog-bolt as to go and
+betray the girl to our master. She hath a right to follow her fancy, as
+the dame said who kissed her cow--only I do not much approve her choice,
+that is all. He cannot be six years short of fifty; and a verjuice
+countenance, under the penthouse of a slouched beaver, and bag of
+meagre dried bones, swaddled up in a black cloak, is no such temptation,
+methinks.”
+
+“I tell you once more,” said Whitaker, “you are mistaken; and that there
+neither is, nor can be, any matter of love between them, but only some
+intrigue, concerning, perhaps, this same noble Countess of Derby. I tell
+thee, it behoves my master to know it, and I will presently tell it to
+him.”
+
+So saying, and in spite of all the remonstrances which Lance continued
+to make on behalf of Mistress Deborah, the steward rode up to the
+main body of their little party, and mentioned to the Knight, and the
+Countess of Derby, what he had just heard from the keeper, adding at
+the same time his own suspicions, that Master Bridgenorth of Moultrassie
+Hall was desirous to keep up some system of espial in the Castle of
+Martindale, either in order to secure his menaced vengeance on the
+Countess of Derby, as authoress of his brother-in-law’s death, or for
+some unknown, but probably sinister purpose.
+
+The Knight of the Peak was filled with high resentment at Whitaker’s
+communication. According to his prejudices, those of the opposite
+faction were supposed to make up by wit and intrigue what they wanted
+in open force; and he now hastily conceived that his neighbour,
+whose prudence he always respected, and sometimes even dreaded, was
+maintaining for his private purposes, a clandestine correspondence with
+a member of his family. If this was for the betrayal of his noble guest,
+it argued at once treachery and presumption; or, viewing the whole as
+Lance had done, a criminal intrigue with a woman so near the person
+of Lady Peveril, was in itself, he deemed, a piece of sovereign
+impertinence and disrespect on the part of such a person as Bridgenorth,
+against whom Sir Geoffrey’s anger was kindled accordingly.
+
+Whitaker had scarce regained his post in the rear, when he again quitted
+it, and galloped to the main body with more speed than before, with the
+unpleasing tidings that they were pursued by half a score of horseman,
+and better.
+
+“Ride on briskly to Hartley-nick,” said the Knight, “and there, with
+God to help, we will bide the knaves.--Countess of Derby--one word and
+a short one--Farewell!--you must ride forward with Whitaker and another
+careful fellow, and let me alone to see that no one treads on your
+skirts.”
+
+“I will abide with you and stand them,” said the Countess; “you know of
+old, I fear not to look on man’s work.”
+
+“You _must_ ride on, madam,” said the Knight, “for the sake of the young
+Earl, and the rest of my noble friends’ family. There is no manly work
+which can be worth your looking upon; it is but child’s play that these
+fellows bring with them.”
+
+As she yielded a reluctant consent to continue her flight, they reached
+the bottom of Hartley-nick, a pass very steep and craggy, and where the
+road, or rather path, which had hitherto passed over more open ground,
+became pent up and confined betwixt copsewood on the one side, and, on
+the other, the precipitous bank of a mountain stream.
+
+The Countess of Derby, after an affectionate adieu to Sir Geoffrey,
+and having requested him to convey her kind commendations to her little
+page-elect and his mother, proceeded up the pass at a round pace, and
+with her attendants and escort, was soon out of sight. Immediately after
+she had disappeared, the pursuers came up with Sir Geoffrey Peveril, who
+had divided and drawn up his party so as completely to occupy the road
+at three different points.
+
+The opposite party was led, as Sir Geoffrey had expected, by Major
+Bridgenorth. At his side was a person in black, with a silver greyhound
+on his arm; and he was followed by about eight or ten inhabitants of the
+village of Martindale Moultrassie, two or three of whom were officers of
+the peace, and others were personally known to Sir Geoffrey as favourers
+of the subverted government.
+
+As the party rode briskly up, Sir Geoffrey called to them to halt; and
+as they continued advancing, he ordered his own people to present their
+pistols and carabines; and after assuming that menacing attitude, he
+repeated, with a voice of thunder, “Halt, or we fire!”
+
+The other party halted accordingly, and Major Bridgenorth advanced, as
+if to parley.
+
+“Why, how now, neighbour,” said Sir Geoffrey, as if he had at that
+moment recognised him for the first time,--“what makes you ride so
+sharp this morning? Are you not afraid to harm your horse, or spoil your
+spurs?”
+
+“Sir Geoffrey,” said the Major, “I have not time for jesting--I’m on the
+King’s affairs.”
+
+“Are you sure it is not upon Old Noll’s, neighbour? You used to hold his
+the better errand,” said the Knight, with a smile which gave occasion to
+a horse-laugh among his followers.
+
+“Show him your warrant,” said Bridgenorth to the man in black formerly
+mentioned, who was a pursuivant. Then taking the warrant from the
+officer, he gave it to Sir Geoffrey--“To this, at least, you will pay
+regard.”
+
+“The same regard which you would have paid to it a month back or so,”
+ said the Knight, tearing the warrant to shreds.--“What a plague do you
+stare at? Do you think you have a monopoly of rebellion, and that we
+have not a right to show a trick of disobedience in our turn?”
+
+“Make way, Sir Geoffrey Peveril,” said Bridgenorth, “or you will compel
+me to do that I may be sorry for. I am in this matter the avenger of
+the blood of one of the Lord’s saints, and I will follow the chase while
+Heaven grants me an arm to make my way.”
+
+“You shall make no way here but at your peril,” said Sir Geoffrey; “this
+is my ground--I have been harassed enough for these twenty years by
+saints, as you call yourselves. I tell you, master, you shall neither
+violate the security of my house, nor pursue my friends over the
+grounds, nor tamper, as you have done, amongst my servants, with
+impunity. I have had you in respect for certain kind doings, which I
+will not either forget or deny, and you will find it difficult to make
+me draw a sword or bend a pistol against you; but offer any hostile
+movement, or presume to advance a foot, and I will make sure of you
+presently. And for those rascals, who come hither to annoy a noble lady
+on my bounds, unless you draw them off, I will presently send some of
+them to the devil before their time.”
+
+“Make room at your proper peril,” said Major Bridgenorth; and he put
+his right hand on his holster-pistol. Sir Geoffrey closed with him
+instantly, seized him by the collar, and spurred Black Hastings,
+checking him at the same time, so that the horse made a courbette, and
+brought the full weight of his chest against the counter of the other. A
+ready soldier might, in Bridgenorth’s situation, have rid himself of his
+adversary with a bullet. But Bridgenorth’s courage, notwithstanding his
+having served some time with the Parliament army, was rather of a civil
+than a military character; and he was inferior to his adversary, not
+only in strength and horsemanship, but also and especially in the daring
+and decisive resolution which made Sir Geoffrey thrust himself readily
+into personal contest. While, therefore, they tugged and grappled
+together upon terms which bore such little accordance with their long
+acquaintance and close neighbourhood, it was no wonder that Bridgenorth
+should be unhorsed with much violence. While Sir Geoffrey sprung from
+the saddle, the party of Bridgenorth advanced to rescue their leader,
+and that of the Knight to oppose them. Swords were unsheathed, and
+pistols presented; but Sir Geoffrey, with the voice of a herald,
+commanded both parties to stand back, and to keep the peace.
+
+The pursuivant took the hint, and easily found a reason for not
+prosecuting a dangerous duty. “The warrant,” he said, “was destroyed.
+They that did it must be answerable to the Council; for his part, he
+could proceed no farther without his commission.”
+
+“Well said, and like a peaceable fellow!” said Sir Geoffrey.--“Let
+him have refreshment at the Castle--his nag is sorely out of
+condition.--Come, neighbour Bridgenorth, get up, man--I trust you have
+had no hurt in this mad affray? I was loath to lay hand on you, man,
+till you plucked out your petronel.”
+
+As he spoke thus, he aided the Major to rise. The pursuivant, meanwhile,
+drew aside; and with him the constable and head-borough, who were not
+without some tacit suspicion, that though Peveril was interrupting
+the direct course of law in this matter, yet he was likely to have his
+offence considered by favourable judges; and therefore it might be as
+much for their interest and safety to give way as to oppose him. But the
+rest of the party, friends of Bridgenorth, and of his principles, kept
+their ground notwithstanding this defection, and seemed, from their
+looks, sternly determined to rule their conduct by that of their leader,
+whatever it might be.
+
+But it was evident that Bridgenorth did not intend to renew the
+struggle. He shook himself rather roughly free from the hands of Sir
+Geoffrey Peveril; but it was not to draw his sword. On the contrary, he
+mounted his horse with a sullen and dejected air; and, making a sign to
+his followers, turned back the same road which he had come. Sir Geoffrey
+looked after him for some minutes. “Now, there goes a man,” said
+he, “who would have been a right honest fellow had he not been a
+Presbyterian. But there is no heartiness about them--they can never
+forgive a fair fall upon the sod--they bear malice, and that I hate as I
+do a black cloak, or a Geneva skull-cap, and a pair of long ears rising
+on each side on’t, like two chimneys at the gable ends of a thatched
+cottage. They are as sly as the devil to boot; and, therefore, Lance
+Outram, take two with you, and keep after them, that they may not turn
+our flank, and get on the track of the Countess again after all.”
+
+“I had as soon they should course my lady’s white tame doe,” answered
+Lance, in the spirit of his calling. He proceeded to execute his
+master’s orders by dogging Major Bridgenorth at a distance, and
+observing his course from such heights as commanded the country. But it
+was soon evident that no manoeuvre was intended, and that the Major was
+taking the direct road homeward. When this was ascertained, Sir Geoffrey
+dismissed most of his followers; and retaining only his own domestics,
+rode hastily forward to overtake the Countess.
+
+It is only necessary to say farther, that he completed his purpose
+of escorting the Countess of Derby to Vale Royal, without meeting any
+further hindrance by the way. The lord of the mansion readily undertook
+to conduct the high-minded lady to Liverpool, and the task of seeing her
+safely embarked for her son’s hereditary dominions, where there was no
+doubt of her remaining in personal safety until the accusation against
+her for breach of the Royal Indemnity, by the execution of Christian,
+could be brought to some compromise.
+
+For a length of time this was no easy matter. Clarendon, then at the
+head of Charles’s administration, considered her rash action, though
+dictated by motives which the human breast must, in some respects,
+sympathise with, as calculated to shake the restored tranquillity of
+England, by exciting the doubts and jealousies of those who had to
+apprehend the consequences of what is called, in our own time, a
+_reaction_. At the same time, the high services of this distinguished
+family--the merits of the Countess herself--the memory of her gallant
+husband--and the very peculiar circumstances of jurisdiction which took
+the case out of all common rules, pleaded strongly in her favour; and
+the death of Christian was at length only punished by the imposition of
+a heavy fine, amounting, we believe, to many thousand pounds; which was
+levied, with great difficulty, out of the shattered estates of the young
+Earl of Derby.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+                     My native land, good night!
+                                           --BYRON.
+
+Lady Peveril remained in no small anxiety for several hours after her
+husband and the Countess had departed from Martindale Castle; more
+especially when she learned that Major Bridgenorth, concerning whose
+motions she made private inquiry, had taken horse with a party, and was
+gone to the westward in the same direction with Sir Geoffrey.
+
+At length her immediate uneasiness in regard to the safety of her
+husband and the Countess was removed, by the arrival of Whitaker, with
+her husband’s commendations, and an account of the scuffle betwixt
+himself and Major Bridgenorth.
+
+Lady Peveril shuddered to see how nearly they had approached to renewal
+of the scenes of civil discord; and while she was thankful to Heaven for
+her husband’s immediate preservation, she could not help feeling both
+regret and apprehension for the consequences of his quarrel with Major
+Bridgenorth. They had now lost an old friend, who had showed himself
+such under those circumstances of adversity by which friendship is
+most severely tried; and she could not disguise from herself that
+Bridgenorth, thus irritated, might be a troublesome, if not a dangerous
+enemy. His rights as a creditor, he had hitherto used with gentleness;
+but if he should employ rigour, Lady Peveril, whose attention to
+domestic economy had made her much better acquainted with her husband’s
+affairs than he was himself, foresaw considerable inconvenience from the
+measures which the law put in his power. She comforted herself with the
+recollection, however, that she had still a strong hold on Bridgenorth,
+through his paternal affection, and from the fixed opinion which he
+had hitherto manifested, that his daughter’s health could only flourish
+while under her charge. But any expectations of reconciliation which
+Lady Peveril might probably have founded on this circumstance, were
+frustrated by an incident which took place in the course of the
+following morning.
+
+The governante, Mistress Deborah, who has been already mentioned, went
+forth, as usual, with the children, to take their morning exercise in
+the Park, attended by Rachael, a girl who acted occasionally as her
+assistant in attending upon them. But not as usual did she return. It
+was near the hour of breakfast, when Ellesmere, with an unwonted degree
+of primness in her mouth and manner, came to acquaint her lady that
+Mistress Deborah had not thought proper to come back from the Park,
+though the breakfast hour approached so near.
+
+“She will come, then, presently,” said Lady Peveril with indifference.
+
+Ellesmere gave a short and doubtful cough, and then proceeded to say,
+that Rachael had been sent home with little Master Julian, and that
+Mistress Deborah had been pleased to say, she would walk on with Miss
+Bridgenorth as far as Moultrassie Holt; which was a point at which
+the property of the Major, as matters now stood, bounded that of Sir
+Geoffrey Peveril.
+
+“Is the wench turned silly,” exclaimed the lady, something angrily,
+“that she does not obey my orders, and return at regular hours?”
+
+“She may be turning silly,” said Ellesmere mysteriously; “or she may
+be turning too sly; and I think it were as well your ladyship looked to
+it.”
+
+“Looked to what, Ellesmere?” said the lady impatiently. “You are
+strangely oracular this morning. If you know anything to the prejudice
+of this young woman, I pray you speak it out.”
+
+“I prejudice!” said Ellesmere; “I scorn to prejudice man, woman, or
+child, in the way of a fellow-servant; only I wish your ladyship to look
+about you, and use your own eyes--that is all.”
+
+“You bid me use my own eyes, Ellesmere; but I suspect,” answered the
+lady, “you would be better pleased were I contented to see through your
+spectacles. I charge you--and you know I will be obeyed--I charge you to
+tell me what you know or suspect about this girl, Deborah Debbitch.”
+
+“I see through spectacles!” exclaimed the indignant Abigail; “your
+ladyship will pardon me in that, for I never use them, unless a pair
+that belonged to my poor mother, which I put on when your ladyship
+wants your pinners curiously wrought. No woman above sixteen ever did
+white-seam without barnacles. And then as to suspecting, I suspect
+nothing; for as your ladyship hath taken Mistress Deborah Debbitch from
+under my hand, to be sure it is neither bread nor butter of mine. Only”
+ (here she began to speak with her lips shut, so as scarce to permit a
+sound to issue, and mincing her words as if she pinched off the ends
+of them before she suffered them to escape),--“only, madam, if Mistress
+Deborah goes so often of a morning to Moultrassie Holt, why, I should
+not be surprised if she should never find the way back again.”
+
+“Once more, what do you mean, Ellesmere? You were wont to have some
+sense--let me know distinctly what the matter is.”
+
+“Only, madam,” pursued the Abigail, “that since Bridgenorth came back
+from Chesterfield, and saw you at the Castle Hall, Mistress Deborah has
+been pleased to carry the children every morning to that place; and
+it has so happened that she has often met the Major, as they call him,
+there in his walks; for he can walk about now like other folks; and
+I warrant you she hath not been the worse of the meeting--one way at
+least, for she hath bought a new hood might serve yourself, madam; but
+whether she hath had anything in hand besides a piece of money, no doubt
+your ladyship is best judge.”
+
+Lady Peveril, who readily adopted the more good-natured construction of
+the governante’s motives, could not help laughing at the idea of a man
+of Bridgenorth’s precise appearance, strict principles, and reserved
+habits, being suspected of a design of gallantry; and readily concluded,
+that Mistress Deborah had found her advantage in gratifying his parental
+affection by a frequent sight of his daughter during the few days which
+intervened betwixt his first seeing little Alice at the Castle, and the
+events which had followed. But she was somewhat surprised, when, an
+hour after the usual breakfast hour, during which neither the child nor
+Mistress Deborah appeared, Major Bridgenorth’s only man-servant arrived
+at the Castle on horseback, dressed as for a journey; and having
+delivered a letter addressed to herself, and another to Mistress
+Ellesmere, rode away without waiting any answer.
+
+There would have been nothing remarkable in this, had any other person
+been concerned; but Major Bridgenorth was so very quiet and orderly in
+all his proceedings--so little liable to act hastily or by impulse, that
+the least appearance of bustle where he was concerned, excited surprise
+and curiosity.
+
+Lady Peveril broke her letter hastily open, and found that it contained
+the following lines:--
+
+
+ “_For the Hands of the Honourable and Honoured Lady Peveril--
+  These:_
+
+ “Madam--Please it your Ladyship,--I write more to excuse myself to
+  your ladyship, than to accuse either you or others, in respect
+  that I am sensible it becomes our frail nature better to confess
+  our own imperfections, than to complain of those of others.
+  Neither do I mean to speak of past times, particularly in respect
+  of your worthy ladyship, being sensible that if I have served you
+  in that period when our Israel might be called triumphant, you
+  have more than requited me, in giving to my arms a child,
+  redeemed, as it were, from the vale of the shadow of death. And
+  therefore, as I heartily forgive to your ladyship the unkind and
+  violent measure which you dealt to me at our last meeting (seeing
+  that the woman who was the cause of strife is accounted one of
+  your kindred people), I do entreat you, in like manner, to pardon
+  my enticing away from your service the young woman called Deborah
+  Debbitch, whose direction, is, it may be, indispensable to the
+  health of my dearest child. I had purposed, madam, with your
+  gracious permission, that Alice should have remained at Martindale
+  Castle, under your kind charge, until she could so far discern
+  betwixt good and evil, that it should be matter of conscience to
+  teach her the way in which she should go. For it is not unknown to
+  your ladyship, and in no way do I speak it reproachfully, but
+  rather sorrowfully, that a person so excellently gifted as
+  yourself--I mean touching natural qualities--has not yet received
+  that true light, which is a lamp to the paths, but are contented
+  to stumble in darkness, and among the graves of dead men. It has
+  been my prayer in the watches of the night, that your ladyship
+  should cease from the doctrine which causeth to err; but I grieve
+  to say, that our candlestick being about to be removed, the land
+  will most likely be involved in deeper darkness than ever; and the
+  return of the King, to which I and many looked forward as a
+  manifestation of divine favour, seems to prove little else than a
+  permitted triumph of the Prince of the Air, who setteth about to
+  restore his Vanity-fair of bishops, deans, and such like,
+  extruding the peaceful ministers of the word, whose labours have
+  proved faithful to many hungry souls. So, hearing from a sure
+  hand, that commission has gone forth to restore these dumb dogs,
+  the followers of Laud and of Williams, who were cast forth by the
+  late Parliament, and that an Act of Conformity, or rather of
+  deformity, of worship, was to be expected, it is my purpose to
+  flee from the wrath to come, and to seek some corner where I may
+  dwell in peace, and enjoy liberty of conscience. For who would
+  abide in the Sanctuary, after the carved work thereof is broken
+  down, and when it hath been made a place for owls, and satyrs of
+  the wilderness?--And herein I blame myself, madam, that I went in
+  the singleness of my heart too readily into that carousing in the
+  house of feasting, wherein my love of union, and my desire to show
+  respect to your ladyship, were made a snare to me. But I trust it
+  will be an atonement, that I am now about to absent myself from
+  the place of my birth, and the house of my fathers, as well as
+  from the place which holdeth the dust of those pledges of my
+  affection. I have also to remember, that in this land my honour
+  (after the worldly estimation) hath been abated, and my utility
+  circumscribed, by your husband, Sir Geoffrey Peveril; and that
+  without any chance of my obtaining reparation at his hand, whereby
+  I may say the hand of a kinsman was lifted up against my credit
+  and my life. These things are bitter to the taste of the old Adam;
+  wherefore to prevent farther bickerings, and, it may be,
+  bloodshed, it is better that I leave this land for a time. The
+  affairs which remain to be settled between Sir Geoffrey and
+  myself, I shall place in the hand of the righteous Master Joachim
+  Win-the-Fight, an attorney in Chester, who will arrange them with
+  such attention to Sir Geoffrey’s convenience, as justice, and the
+  due exercise of the law, will permit; for, as I trust I shall
+  have grace to resist the temptation to make the weapons of carnal
+  warfare the instruments of my revenge, so I scorn to effect it
+  through the means of Mammon. Wishing, madam, that the Lord may
+  grant you every blessing, and, in especial, that which is over all
+  others, namely, the true knowledge of His way, I remain, your
+  devoted servant to command,     RALPH BRIDGENORTH.
+
+ “_Written at Moultrassie Hall, this tenth
+        day of July, 1660._”
+
+
+So soon as Lady Peveril had perused this long and singular homily,
+in which it seemed to her that her neighbour showed more spirit of
+religious fanaticism than she could have supposed him possessed of,
+she looked up and beheld Ellesmere,--with a countenance in which
+mortification, and an affected air of contempt, seemed to struggle
+together,--who, tired with watching the expression of her mistress’s
+countenance, applied for confirmation of her suspicions in plain terms.
+
+“I suppose, madam,” said the waiting-woman, “the fanatic fool intends to
+marry the wench? They say he goes to shift the country. Truly it’s time,
+indeed; for, besides that the whole neighbourhood would laugh him to
+scorn, I should not be surprised if Lance Outram, the keeper, gave him a
+buck’s head to bear; for that is all in the way of his office.”
+
+“There is no great occasion for your spite at present, Ellesmere,”
+ replied her lady. “My letter says nothing of marriage; but it would
+appear that Master Bridgenorth, being to leave this country, has engaged
+Deborah to take care of his child; and I am sure I am heartily glad of
+it, for the infant’s sake.”
+
+“And I am glad of it for my own,” said Ellesmere; “and, indeed, for the
+sake of the whole house.--And your ladyship thinks she is not like to be
+married to him? Troth, I could never see how he should be such an idiot;
+but perhaps she is going to do worse; for she speaks here of coming to
+high preferment, and that scarce comes by honest servitude nowadays;
+then she writes me about sending her things, as if I were mistress of
+the wardrobe to her ladyship--ay, and recommends Master Julian to the
+care of my age and experience, forsooth, as if she needed to recommend
+the dear little jewel to me; and then, to speak of my age--But I will
+bundle away her rags to the Hall, with a witness!”
+
+“Do it with all civility,” said the lady, “and let Whitaker send her the
+wages for which she has served, and a broad-piece over and above; for
+though a light-headed young woman, she was kind to the children.”
+
+“I know who is kind to their servants, madam, and would spoil the best
+ever pinned a gown.”
+
+“I spoiled a good one, Ellesmere, when I spoiled thee,” said the lady;
+“but tell Mistress Deborah to kiss the little Alice for me, and to
+offer my good wishes to Major Bridgenorth, for his temporal and future
+happiness.”
+
+She permitted no observation or reply, but dismissed her attendant,
+without entering into farther particulars.
+
+When Ellesmere had withdrawn, Lady Peveril began to reflect, with much
+feeling of compassion, on the letter of Major Bridgenorth; a person in
+whom there were certainly many excellent qualities, but whom a series of
+domestic misfortunes, and the increasing gloom of a sincere, yet stern
+feeling of devotion, rendered lonely and unhappy; and she had more than
+one anxious thought for the happiness of the little Alice, brought
+up, as she was likely to be, under such a father. Still the removal of
+Bridgenorth was, on the whole, a desirable event; for while he remained
+at the Hall, it was but too likely that some accidental collision with
+Sir Geoffrey might give rise to a rencontre betwixt them, more fatal
+than the last had been.
+
+In the meanwhile, she could not help expressing to Doctor Dummerar
+her surprise and sorrow, that all which she had done and attempted, to
+establish peace and unanimity betwixt the contending factions, had been
+perversely fated to turn out the very reverse of what she had aimed at.
+
+“But for my unhappy invitation,” she said, “Bridgenorth would not have
+been at the Castle on the morning which succeeded the feast, would not
+have seen the Countess, and would not have incurred the resentment and
+opposition of my husband. And but for the King’s return, an event which
+was so anxiously expected as the termination of all our calamities,
+neither the noble lady nor ourselves had been engaged in this new path
+of difficulty and danger.”
+
+“Honoured madam,” said Doctor Dummerar, “were the affairs of this world
+to be guided implicitly by human wisdom, or were they uniformly to fall
+out according to the conjectures of human foresight, events would no
+longer be under the domination of that time and chance, which happen
+unto all men, since we should, in the one case, work out our own
+purposes to a certainty, by our own skill, and in the other, regulate
+our conduct according to the views of unerring prescience. But man is,
+while in this vale of tears, like an uninstructed bowler, so to speak,
+who thinks to attain the jack, by delivering his bowl straight forward
+upon it, being ignorant that there is a concealed bias within the
+spheroid, which will make it, in all probability, swerve away, and lose
+the cast.”
+
+Having spoken this with a sententious air, the Doctor took his
+shovel-shaped hat, and went down to the Castle green, to conclude a
+match of bowls with Whitaker, which had probably suggested this notable
+illustration of the uncertain course of human events.
+
+Two days afterwards, Sir Geoffrey arrived. He had waited at Vale Royal
+till he heard of the Countess’s being safely embarked for Man, and then
+had posted homeward to his Castle and Dame Margaret. On his way, he
+learned from some of his attendants, the mode in which his lady had
+conducted the entertainment which she had given to the neighbourhood at
+his order; and notwithstanding the great deference he usually showed
+in cases where Lady Peveril was concerned, he heard of her liberality
+towards the Presbyterian party with great indignation.
+
+“I could have admitted Bridgenorth,” he said, “for he always bore him
+in neighbourly and kindly fashion till this last career--I could have
+endured him, so he would have drunk the King’s health, like a true
+man--but to bring that snuffling scoundrel Solsgrace, with all his
+beggarly, long-eared congregation, to hold a conventicle in my father’s
+house--to let them domineer it as they listed--why, I would not have
+permitted them such liberty, when they held their head the highest! They
+never, in the worst of times, found any way into Martindale Castle but
+what Noll’s cannon made for them; and that they should come and cant
+there, when good King Charles is returned--By my hand, Dame Margaret
+shall hear of it!”
+
+But, notwithstanding these ireful resolutions, resentment altogether
+subsided in the honest Knight’s breast, when he saw the fair features of
+his lady lightened with affectionate joy at his return in safety. As he
+took her in his arms and kissed her, he forgave her ere he mentioned her
+offence.
+
+“Thou hast played the knave with me, Meg,” he said, shaking his head,
+and smiling at the same time, “and thou knowest in what manner; but I
+think thou art true church-woman, and didst only act from silly womanish
+fancy of keeping fair with these roguish Roundheads. But let me have no
+more of this. I had rather Martindale Castle were again rent by their
+bullets, than receive any of the knaves in the way of friendship--I
+always except Ralph Bridgenorth of the Hall, if he should come to his
+senses again.”
+
+Lady Peveril was here under the necessity of explaining what she had
+heard of Master Bridgenorth--the disappearance of the governante with
+his daughter, and placed Bridgenorth’s letter in his hand. Sir Geoffrey
+shook his head at first, and then laughed extremely at the idea that
+there was some little love-intrigue between Bridgenorth and Mistress
+Deborah.
+
+“It is the true end of a dissenter,” he said, “to marry his own
+maid-servant, or some other person’s. Deborah is a good likely wench,
+and on the merrier side of thirty, as I should think.”
+
+“Nay, nay,” said the Lady Peveril, “you are as uncharitable as
+Ellesmere--I believe it but to be affection to his child.”
+
+“Pshaw! pshaw!” answered the Knight, “women are eternally thinking of
+children; but among men, dame, many one carresses the infant that he
+may kiss the child’s maid; and where’s the wonder or the harm either, if
+Bridgenorth should marry the wench? Her father is a substantial yeoman;
+his family has had the same farm since Bosworthfield--as good a pedigree
+as that of the great-grandson of a Chesterfield brewer, I trow. But let
+us hear what he says for himself--I shall spell it out if there is any
+roguery in the letter about love and liking, though it might escape your
+innocence, Dame Margaret.”
+
+The Knight of the Peak began to peruse the letter accordingly, but was
+much embarrassed by the peculiar language in which it was couched. “What
+he means by moving of candlesticks, and breaking down of carved work
+in the church, I cannot guess; unless he means to bring back the large
+silver candlesticks which my grandsire gave to be placed on the altar
+at Martindale Moultrassie; and which his crop-eared friends, like
+sacrilegious villains as they are, stole and melted down. And in like
+manner, the only breaking I know of, was when they pulled down the rails
+of the communion table (for which some of their fingers are hot enough
+by this time), and when the brass ornaments were torn down from Peveril
+monuments; and that was breaking and removing with a vengeance. However,
+dame, the upshot is, that poor Bridgenorth is going to leave the
+neighbourhood. I am truly sorry for it, though I never saw him oftener
+than once a day, and never spoke to him above two words. But I see how
+it is--that little shake by the shoulder sticks in his stomach; and yet,
+Meg, I did but lift him out of the saddle as I might have lifted thee
+into it, Margaret--I was careful not to hurt him; and I did not think
+him so tender in point of honour as to mind such a thing much; but I
+see plainly where his sore lies; and I warrant you I will manage that
+he stays at the Hall, and that you get back Julian’s little companion.
+Faith, I am sorry myself at the thought of losing the baby, and of
+having to choose another ride when it is not hunting weather, than round
+by the Hall, with a word at the window.”
+
+“I should be very glad, Sir Geoffrey,” said the Lady Peveril, “that you
+could come to a reconciliation with this worthy man, for such I must
+hold Master Bridgenorth to be.”
+
+“But for his dissenting principles, as good a neighbour as ever lived,”
+ said Sir Geoffrey.
+
+“But I scarce see,” continued the lady, “any possibility of bringing
+about a conclusion so desirable.”
+
+“Tush, dame,” answered the Knight, “thou knowest little of such matters.
+I know the foot he halts upon, and you shall see him go as sound as
+ever.”
+
+Lady Peveril had, from her sincere affection and sound sense, as good
+a right to claim the full confidence of her husband, as any woman in
+Derbyshire; and, upon this occasion, to confess the truth, she had more
+anxiety to know his purpose than her sense of their mutual and separate
+duties permitted her in general to entertain. She could not imagine what
+mode of reconciliation with his neighbour, Sir Geoffrey (no very acute
+judge of mankind or their peculiarities) could have devised, which might
+not be disclosed to her; and she felt some secret anxiety lest the means
+resorted to might be so ill chosen as to render the breach rather wider.
+But Sir Geoffrey would give no opening for farther inquiry. He had been
+long enough colonel of a regiment abroad, to value himself on the right
+of absolute command at home; and to all the hints which his lady’s
+ingenuity could devise and throw out, he only answered, “Patience, Dame
+Margaret, patience. This is no case for thy handling. Thou shalt know
+enough on’t by-and-by, dame.--Go, look to Julian. Will the boy never
+have done crying for lack of that little sprout of a Roundhead? But we
+will have little Alice back with us in two or three days, and all will
+be well again.”
+
+As the good Knight spoke these words, a post winded his horn in the
+court, and a large packet was brought in, addressed to the worshipful
+Sir Geoffrey Peveril, Justice of the Peace, and so forth; for he had
+been placed in authority as soon as the King’s Restoration was put upon
+a settled basis. Upon opening the packet, which he did with no small
+feeling of importance, he found that it contained the warrant which he
+had solicited for replacing Doctor Dummerar in the parish, from which he
+had been forcibly ejected during the usurpation.
+
+Few incidents could have given more delight to Sir Geoffrey. He could
+forgive a stout able-bodied sectary or nonconformist, who enforced his
+doctrines in the field by downright blows on the casques and cuirasses
+of himself and other Cavaliers. But he remembered with most vindictive
+accuracy, the triumphant entrance of Hugh Peters through the breach
+of his Castle; and for his sake, without nicely distinguishing betwixt
+sects or their teachers, he held all who mounted a pulpit without
+warrant from the Church of England--perhaps he might also in
+private except that of Rome--to be disturbers of the public
+tranquillity--seducers of the congregation from their lawful
+preachers--instigators of the late Civil War--and men well disposed to
+risk the fate of a new one.
+
+Then, on the other hand, besides gratifying his dislike to Solsgrace,
+he saw much satisfaction in the task of replacing his old friend and
+associate in sport and in danger, the worthy Doctor Dummerar, in his
+legitimate rights and in the ease and comforts of his vicarage. He
+communicated the contents of the packet, with great triumph, to the
+lady, who now perceived the sense of the mysterious paragraph in Major
+Bridgenorth’s letter, concerning the removal of the candlestick, and the
+extinction of light and doctrine in the land. She pointed this out to
+Sir Geoffrey, and endeavoured to persuade him that a door was now opened
+to reconciliation with his neighbour, by executing the commission which
+he had received in an easy and moderate manner, after due delay, and
+with all respect to the feelings both of Solsgrace and his congregation,
+which circumstances admitted of. This, the lady argued, would be doing
+no injury whatever to Doctor Dummerar;--nay, might be the means of
+reconciling many to his ministry, who might otherwise be disgusted with
+it for ever, by the premature expulsion of a favourite preacher.
+
+There was much wisdom, as well as moderation, in this advice; and, at
+another time, Sir Geoffrey would have sense enough to have adopted it.
+But who can act composedly or prudently in the hour of triumph? The
+ejection of Mr. Solsgrace was so hastily executed, as to give it some
+appearance of persecution; though, more justly considered, it was the
+restoring of his predecessor to his legal rights. Solsgrace himself
+seemed to be desirous to make his sufferings as manifest as possible.
+He held out to the last; and on the Sabbath after he had received
+intimation of his ejection, attempted to make his way to the pulpit, as
+usual, supported by Master Bridgenorth’s attorney, Win-the-Fight, and a
+few zealous followers.
+
+Just as their party came into the churchyard on the one side, Doctor
+Dummerar, dressed in full pontificals, in a sort of triumphal procession
+accompanied by Peveril of the Peak, Sir Jasper Cranbourne, and other
+Cavaliers of distinction, entered at the other.
+
+To prevent an actual struggle in the church, the parish officers were
+sent to prevent the farther approach of the Presbyterian minister; which
+was effected without farther damage than a broken head, inflicted
+by Roger Raine, the drunken innkeeper of the Peveril Arms, upon the
+Presbyterian attorney of Chesterfield.
+
+Unsubdued in spirit, though compelled to retreat by superior force, the
+undaunted Mr. Solsgrace retired to the vicarage; where under some legal
+pretext which had been started by Mr. Win-the-Fight (in that day
+unaptly named), he attempted to maintain himself--bolted gates--barred
+windows--and, as report said (though falsely), made provision of
+fire-arms to resist the officers. A scene of clamour and scandal
+accordingly took place, which being reported to Sir Geoffrey, he came in
+person, with some of his attendants carrying arms--forced the outer-gate
+and inner-doors of the house; and proceeding to the study, found no
+other garrison save the Presbyterian parson, with the attorney, who gave
+up possession of the premises, after making protestation against the
+violence that had been used.
+
+The rabble of the village being by this time all in motion, Sir
+Geoffrey, both in prudence and good-nature, saw the propriety of
+escorting his prisoners, for so they might be termed, safely through the
+tumult; and accordingly conveyed them in person, through much noise and
+clamour, as far as the avenue of Moultrassie Hall, which they chose for
+the place of their retreat.
+
+But the absence of Sir Geoffrey gave the rein to some disorders, which,
+if present, he would assuredly have restrained. Some of the minister’s
+books were torn and flung about as treasonable and seditious trash, by
+the zealous parish-officers or their assistants. A quantity of his
+ale was drunk up in healths to the King and Peveril of the Peak.
+And, finally, the boys, who bore the ex-parson no good-will for his
+tyrannical interference with their games at skittles, foot-ball, and so
+forth, and, moreover, remembered the unmerciful length of his
+sermons, dressed up an effigy with his Geneva gown and band, and his
+steeple-crowned hat, which they paraded through the village, and burned
+on the spot whilom occupied by a stately Maypole, which Solsgrace had
+formerly hewed down with his own reverend hands.
+
+Sir Geoffrey was vexed at all this and sent to Mr. Solsgrace, offering
+satisfaction for the goods which he had lost; but the Calvinistical
+divine replied, “From a thread to a shoe-latchet, I will not take
+anything that is thine. Let the shame of the work of thy hands abide
+with thee.”
+
+Considerable scandal, indeed, arose against Sir Geoffrey Peveril as
+having proceeded with indecent severity and haste upon this occasion;
+and rumour took care to make the usual additions to the reality. It was
+currently reported, that the desperate Cavalier, Peveril of the
+Peak, had fallen on a Presbyterian congregation, while engaged in the
+peaceable exercise of religion, with a band of armed men--had slain
+some, desperately wounded many more, and finally pursued the preacher to
+his vicarage which he burned to the ground. Some alleged the clergyman
+had perished in the flames; and the most mitigated report bore, that he
+had only been able to escape by disposing his gown, cap, and band,
+near a window, in such a manner as to deceive them with the idea of his
+person being still surrounded by flames, while he himself fled by the
+back part of the house. And although few people believed in the extent
+of the atrocities thus imputed to our honest Cavalier, yet still enough
+of obloquy attached to him to infer very serious consequences, as the
+reader will learn at a future period of our history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+             _Bessus_.--‘Tis a challenge, sir, is it not?
+             _Gentleman_.--‘Tis an inviting to the field.
+                                           --King and No King.
+
+For a day or two after this forcible expulsion from the vicarage, Mr.
+Solsgrace continued his residence at Moultrassie Hall, where the natural
+melancholy attendant on his situation added to the gloom of the owner
+of the mansion. In the morning, the ejected divine made excursions to
+different families in the neighbourhood, to whom his ministry had
+been acceptable in the days of his prosperity, and from whose grateful
+recollections of that period he now found sympathy and consolation. He
+did not require to be condoled with, because he was deprived of an easy
+and competent maintenance, and thrust out upon the common of life, after
+he had reason to suppose he would be no longer liable to such mutations
+of fortune. The piety of Mr. Solsgrace was sincere; and if he had many
+of the uncharitable prejudices against other sects, which polemical
+controversy had generated, and the Civil War brought to a head, he had
+also that deep sense of duty, by which enthusiasm is so often dignified,
+and held his very life little, if called upon to lay it down in
+attestation of the doctrines in which he believed. But he was soon
+to prepare for leaving the district which Heaven, he conceived, had
+assigned to him as his corner of the vineyard; he was to abandon his
+flock to the wolf--was to forsake those with whom he had held sweet
+counsel in religious communion--was to leave the recently converted
+to relapse into false doctrines, and forsake the wavering, whom his
+continued cares might have directed into the right path,--these were
+of themselves deep causes of sorrow, and were aggravated, doubtless, by
+those natural feelings with which all men, especially those whose duties
+or habits have confined them to a limited circle, regard the separation
+from wonted scenes, and their accustomed haunts of solitary musing, or
+social intercourse.
+
+There was, indeed, a plan of placing Mr. Solsgrace at the head of a
+nonconforming congregation in his present parish, which his followers
+would have readily consented to endow with a sufficient revenue. But
+although the act for universal conformity was not yet passed, such a
+measure was understood to be impending, and there existed a general
+opinion among the Presbyterians, that in no hands was it likely to be
+more strictly enforced, than in those of Peveril of the Peak.
+Solsgrace himself considered not only his personal danger as being
+considerable,--for, assuming perhaps more consequence than was actually
+attached to him or his productions, he conceived the honest Knight to be
+his mortal and determined enemy,--but he also conceived that he should
+serve the cause of his Church by absenting himself from Derbyshire.
+
+“Less known pastors,” he said, “though perhaps more worthy of the name,
+may be permitted to assemble the scattered flocks in caverns or in
+secret wilds, and to them shall the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim
+be better than the vintage of Abiezer. But I, that have so often carried
+the banner forth against the mighty--I, whose tongue hath testified,
+morning and evening, like the watchman upon the tower, against Popery,
+Prelacy, and the tyrant of the Peak--for me to abide here, were but to
+bring the sword of bloody vengeance amongst you, that the shepherd might
+be smitten, and the sheep scattered. The shedders of blood have
+already assailed me, even within that ground which they themselves call
+consecrated; and yourselves have seen the scalp of the righteous broken,
+as he defended my cause. Therefore, I will put on my sandals, and gird
+my loins, and depart to a far country, and there do as my duty shall
+call upon me, whether it be to act or to suffer--to bear testimony at
+the stake or in the pulpit.”
+
+Such were the sentiments which Mr. Solsgrace expressed to his desponding
+friends, and which he expatiated upon at more length with Major
+Bridgenorth; not failing, with friendly zeal, to rebuke the haste
+which the latter had shown to thrust out the hand of fellowship to the
+Amalekite woman, whereby he reminded him, “He had been rendered her
+slave and bondsman for a season, like Samson, betrayed by Delilah, and
+might have remained longer in the house of Dagon, had not Heaven pointed
+to him a way out of the snare. Also, it sprung originally from the
+Major’s going up to feast in the high place of Baal, that he who was the
+champion of the truth was stricken down, and put to shame by the enemy,
+even in the presence of the host.”
+
+These objurgations seeming to give some offence to Major Bridgenorth,
+who liked, no better than any other man, to hear of his own mishaps, and
+at the same time to have them imputed to his own misconduct, the worthy
+divine proceeded to take shame to himself for his own sinful compliance
+in that matter; for to the vengeance justly due for that unhappy dinner
+at Martindale Castle (which was, he said, a crying of peace when there
+was no peace, and a dwelling in the tents of sin), he imputed his
+ejection from his living, with the destruction of some of his most pithy
+and highly prized volumes of divinity, with the loss of his cap, gown,
+and band, and a double hogshead of choice Derby ale.
+
+The mind of Major Bridgenorth was strongly tinged with devotional
+feeling, which his late misfortunes had rendered more deep and solemn;
+and it is therefore no wonder, that, when he heard these arguments urged
+again and again, by a pastor whom he so much respected, and who was now
+a confessor in the cause of their joint faith, he began to look
+back with disapproval on his own conduct, and to suspect that he had
+permitted himself to be seduced by gratitude towards Lady Peveril, and
+by her special arguments in favour of a mutual and tolerating liberality
+of sentiments, into an action which had a tendency to compromise his
+religious and political principles.
+
+One morning, as Major Bridgenorth had wearied himself with several
+details respecting the arrangement of his affairs, he was reposing in
+the leathern easy-chair, beside the latticed window, a posture which, by
+natural association, recalled to him the memory of former times, and
+the feelings with which he was wont to expect the recurring visit of
+Sir Geoffrey, who brought him news of his child’s welfare,--“Surely,”
+ he said, thinking, as it were, aloud, “there was no sin in the kindness
+with which I then regarded that man.”
+
+Solsgrace, who was in the apartment, and guessed what passed through
+his friend’s mind, acquainted as he was with every point of his history,
+replied--“When God caused Elijah to be fed by ravens, while hiding at
+the brook Cherith, we hear not of his fondling the unclean birds, whom,
+contrary to their ravening nature, a miracle compelled to minister to
+him.”
+
+“It may be so,” answered Bridgenorth, “yet the flap of their wings must
+have been gracious in the ear of the famished prophet, like the tread of
+his horse in mine. The ravens, doubtless, resumed their nature when
+the season was passed, and even so it has fared with him.--Hark!” he
+exclaimed, starting, “I hear his horse’s hoof tramp even now.”
+
+It was seldom that the echoes of that silent house and courtyard were
+awakened by the trampling of horses, but such was now the case.
+
+Both Bridgenorth and Solsgrace were surprised at the sound, and even
+disposed to anticipate some farther oppression on the part of the
+government, when the Major’s old servant introduced, with little
+ceremony (for his manners were nearly as plain as his master’s), a tall
+gentleman on the farther side of middle life, whose vest and cloak, long
+hair, slouched hat and drooping feather, announced him as a Cavalier.
+He bowed formally, but courteously, to both gentlemen, and said, that he
+was “Sir Jasper Cranbourne, charged with an especial message to Master
+Ralph Bridgenorth of Moultrassie Hall, by his honourable friend Sir
+Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak, and that he requested to know whether
+Master Bridgenorth would be pleased to receive his acquittal of
+commission here or elsewhere.”
+
+“Anything which Sir Geoffrey Peveril can have to say to me,” said Major
+Bridgenorth, “may be told instantly, and before my friend, from whom I
+have no secrets.”
+
+“The presence of any other friend were, instead of being objectionable,
+the thing in the world most to be desired,” said Sir Jasper, after a
+moment’s hesitation, and looking at Mr. Solsgrace; “but this gentleman
+seems to be a sort of clergyman.”
+
+“I am not conscious of any secrets,” answered Bridgenorth, “nor do I
+desire to have any, in which a clergyman is unfitting confidant.”
+
+“At your pleasure,” replied Sir Jasper. “The confidence, for aught I
+know, may be well enough chosen, for your divines (always under your
+favour) have proved no enemies to such matters as I am to treat with you
+upon.”
+
+“Proceed, sir,” answered Mr. Bridgenorth gravely; “and I pray you to be
+seated, unless it is rather your pleasure to stand.”
+
+“I must, in the first place, deliver myself of my small commission,”
+ answered Sir Jasper, drawing himself up; “and it will be after I have
+seen the reception thereof, that I shall know whether I am, or am
+not, to sit down at Moultrassie Hall.--Sir Geoffrey Peveril, Master
+Bridgenorth, hath carefully considered with himself the unhappy
+circumstances which at present separate you as neighbours. And he
+remembers many passages in former times--I speak his very words--which
+incline him to do all that can possibly consist with his honour, to wipe
+out unkindness between you; and for this desirable object, he is willing
+to condescend in a degree, which, as you could not have expected, it
+will no doubt give you great pleasure to learn.”
+
+“Allow me to say, Sir Jasper,” said Bridgenorth, “that this is
+unnecessary. I have made no complaints of Sir Geoffrey--I have required
+no submission from him--I am about to leave this country; and what
+affairs we may have together, can be as well settled by others as by
+ourselves.”
+
+“In a word,” said the divine, “the worthy Major Bridgenorth hath had
+enough of trafficking with the ungodly, and will no longer, on any
+terms, consort with them.”
+
+“Gentleman both,” said Sir Jasper, with imperturbable politeness,
+bowing, “you greatly mistake the tenor of my commission, which you will
+do as well to hear out, before making any reply to it.--I think, Master
+Bridgenorth, you cannot but remember your letter to the Lady Peveril,
+of which I have here a rough copy, in which you complain of the
+hard measure which you have received at Sir Geoffrey’s hand, and, in
+particular, when he pulled you from your horse at or near Hartley-nick.
+Now, Sir Geoffrey thinks so well of you, as to believe, that, were it
+not for the wide difference betwixt his descent and rank and your
+own, you would have sought to bring this matter to a gentleman-like
+arbitrament, as the only mode whereby your stain may be honourably wiped
+away. Wherefore, in this slight note, he gives you, in his generosity,
+the offer of what you, in your modesty (for to nothing else does he
+impute your acquiescence), have declined to demand of him. And withal,
+I bring you the measure of his weapon; and when you have accepted the
+cartel which I now offer you, I shall be ready to settle the time,
+place, and other circumstances of your meeting.”
+
+“And I,” said Solsgrace, with a solemn voice, “should the Author of Evil
+tempt my friend to accept of so bloodthirsty a proposal, would be the
+first to pronounce against him sentence of the greater excommunication.”
+
+“It is not you whom I address, reverend sir,” replied the envoy; “your
+interest, not unnaturally, may determine you to be more anxious about
+your patron’s life than about his honour. I must know, from himself, to
+which _he_ is disposed to give the preference.”
+
+So saying, and with a graceful bow, he again tendered the challenge to
+Major Bridgenorth. There was obviously a struggle in that gentleman’s
+bosom, between the suggestions of human honour and those of religious
+principle; but the latter prevailed. He calmly waived receiving the
+paper which Sir Jasper offered to him, and spoke to the following
+purpose:--“It may not be known to you, Sir Jasper, that since the
+general pouring out of Christian light upon this kingdom, many solid men
+have been led to doubt whether the shedding human blood by the hand of a
+fellow-creature be in _any_ respect justifiable. And although this rule
+appears to me to be scarcely applicable to our state in this stage of
+trial, seeing that such non-resistance, if general, would surrender our
+civil and religious rights into the hands of whatsoever daring tyrants
+might usurp the same; yet I am, and have been, inclined to limit the
+use of carnal arms to the case of necessary self-defence, whether
+such regards our own person, or the protection of our country against
+invasion; or of our rights of property, and the freedom of our laws and
+of our conscience, against usurping power. And as I have never shown
+myself unwilling to draw my sword in any of the latter causes, so you
+shall excuse my suffering it now to remain in the scabbard, when, having
+sustained a grievous injury, the man who inflicted it summons me to
+combat, either upon an idle punctilio, or, as is more likely, in mere
+bravado.”
+
+“I have heard you with patience,” said Sir Jasper; “and now, Master
+Bridgenorth, take it not amiss, if I beseech you to bethink yourself
+better on this matter. I vow to Heaven, sir, that your honour lies
+a-bleeding; and that in condescending to afford you this fair meeting,
+and thereby giving you some chance to stop its wounds, Sir Geoffrey has
+been moved by a tender sense of your condition, and an earnest wish to
+redeem your dishonour. And it will be but the crossing of your blade
+with his honoured sword for the space of some few minutes, and you will
+either live or die a noble and honoured gentleman. Besides, that the
+Knight’s exquisite skill of fence may enable him, as his good-nature
+will incline him, to disarm you with some flesh wound, little to the
+damage of your person, and greatly to the benefit of your reputation.”
+
+“The tender mercies of the wicked,” said Master Solsgrace emphatically,
+by way of commenting on this speech, which Sir Jasper had uttered very
+pathetically, “are cruel.”
+
+“I pray to have no farther interruption from your reverence,” said Sir
+Jasper; “especially as I think this affair very little concerns you;
+and I entreat that you permit me to discharge myself regularly of my
+commission from my worthy friend.”
+
+So saying, he took his sheathed rapier from his belt, and passing the
+point through the silk thread which secured the letter, he once
+more, and literally at sword point, gracefully tendered it to Major
+Bridgenorth who again waved it aside, though colouring deeply at the
+same time, as if he was putting a marked constraint upon himself--drew
+back, and made Sir Jasper Cranbourne a deep bow.
+
+“Since it is to be thus,” said Sir Jasper, “I must myself do violence to
+the seal of Sir Geoffrey’s letter, and read it to you, that I may
+fully acquit myself of the charge entrusted to me, and make you, Master
+Bridgenorth, equally aware of the generous intentions of Sir Geoffrey on
+your behalf.”
+
+“If,” said Major Bridgenorth, “the contents of the letter be to no
+other purpose than you have intimated, methinks farther ceremony is
+unnecessary on this occasion, as I have already taken my course.”
+
+“Nevertheless,” said Sir Jasper, breaking open the letter, “it is
+fitting that I read to you the letter of my worshipful friend.” And he
+read accordingly as follows:--
+
+
+       “_For the worthy hands of Ralph Bridgenorth, Esquire, of
+                      Moultrassie Hall--These:_
+
+       “By the honoured conveyance of the Worshipful Sir Jasper
+               Cranbourne, Knight, of Long-Mallington.
+
+ “Master Bridgenorth,--We have been given to understand by your
+  letter to our loving wife, Dame Margaret Peveril, that you hold
+  hard construction of certain passages betwixt you and I, of a late
+  date, as if your honour should have been, in some sort, prejudiced
+  by what then took place. And although you have not thought it fit
+  to have direct recourse to me, to request such satisfaction as is
+  due from one gentleman of condition to another, yet I am fully
+  minded that this proceeds only from modesty, arising out of the
+  distinction of our degree, and from no lack of that courage which
+  you have heretofore displayed, I would I could say in a good
+  cause. Wherefore I am purposed to give you, by my friend, Sir
+  Jasper Cranbourne, a meeting, for the sake of doing that which
+  doubtless you entirely long for. Sir Jasper will deliver you the
+  length of my weapon, and appoint circumstances and an hour for our
+  meeting; which, whether early or late--on foot or horseback--with
+  rapier or backsword--I refer to yourself, with all the other
+  privileges of a challenged person; only desiring, that if you
+  decline to match my weapon, you will send me forthwith the length
+  and breadth of your own. And nothing doubting that the issue of
+  this meeting must needs be to end, in one way or other, all
+  unkindness betwixt two near neighbours,--I remain, your humble
+  servant to command,
+                                    “Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak.”
+
+ “Given from my poor house of Martindale Castle, this same ____ of
+  ____, sixteen hundred and sixty.”
+
+
+“Bear back my respects to Sir Geoffrey Peveril,” said Major Bridgenorth.
+“According to his light, his meaning may be fair towards me; but tell
+him that our quarrel had its rise in his own wilful aggression towards
+me; and that though I wish to be in charity with all mankind, I am not
+so wedded to his friendship as to break the laws of God, and run the
+risk of suffering or committing murder, in order to regain it. And for
+you, sir, methinks your advanced years and past misfortunes might teach
+you the folly of coming on such idle errands.”
+
+“I shall do your message, Master Ralph Bridgenorth,” said Sir Jasper;
+“and shall then endeavour to forget your name, as a sound unfit to be
+pronounced, or even remembered, by a man of honour. In the meanwhile,
+in return for your uncivil advice, be pleased to accept of mine; namely,
+that as your religion prevents your giving a gentleman satisfaction, it
+ought to make you very cautious of offering him provocation.”
+
+So saying, and with a look of haughty scorn, first at the Major, and
+then at the divine, the envoy of Sir Geoffrey put his hat on his head,
+replaced his rapier in its belt, and left the apartment. In a few
+minutes afterwards, the tread of his horse died away at a considerable
+distance.
+
+Bridgenorth had held his hand upon his brow ever since his departure,
+and a tear of anger and shame was on his face as he raised it when the
+sound was heard no more. “He carries this answer to Martindale
+Castle,” he said. “Men will hereafter think of me as a whipped, beaten,
+dishonourable fellow, whom every one may baffle and insult at their
+pleasure. It is well I am leaving the house of my father.”
+
+Master Solsgrace approached his friend with much sympathy, and grasped
+him by the hand. “Noble brother,” he said, with unwonted kindness of
+manner, “though a man of peace, I can judge what this sacrifice hath
+cost to thy manly spirit. But God will not have from us an imperfect
+obedience. We must not, like Ananias and Sapphira, reserve behind some
+darling lust, some favourite sin, while we pretend to make sacrifice of
+our worldly affections. What avails it to say that we have but secreted
+a little matter, if the slightest remnant of the accursed thing remain
+hidden in our tent? Would it be a defence in thy prayers to say, I have
+not murdered this man for the lucre of gain, like a robber--nor for
+the acquisition of power, like a tyrant,--nor for the gratification
+of revenge, like a darkened savage; but because the imperious voice of
+worldly honour said, ‘Go forth--kill or be killed--is it not I that have
+sent thee?’ Bethink thee, my worthy friend, how thou couldst frame such
+a vindication in thy prayers; and if thou art forced to tremble at the
+blasphemy of such an excuse, remember in thy prayers the thanks due to
+Heaven, which enabled thee to resist the strong temptation.”
+
+“Reverend and dear friend,” answered Bridgenorth, “I feel that you speak
+the truth. Bitterer, indeed, and harder, to the old Adam, is the text
+which ordains him to suffer shame, than that which bids him to do
+valiantly for the truth. But happy am I that my path through the
+wilderness of this world will, for some space at least, be along with
+one, whose zeal and friendship are so active to support me when I am
+fainting in the way.”
+
+While the inhabitants of Moultrassie Hall thus communicated together
+upon the purport of Sir Jasper Cranbourne’s visit, that worthy knight
+greatly excited the surprise of Sir Geoffrey Peveril, by reporting the
+manner in which his embassy had been received.
+
+“I took him for a man of other metal,” said Sir Geoffrey;--“nay, I would
+have sworn it, had any one asked my testimony. But there is no making a
+silken purse out of a sow’s ear. I have done a folly for him that I will
+never do for another: and that is, to think a Presbyterian would fight
+without his preacher’s permission. Give them a two hours’ sermon,
+and let them howl a psalm to a tune that is worse than the cries of a
+flogged hound, and the villains will lay on like threshers; but for
+a calm, cool, gentleman-like turn upon the sod, hand to hand, in a
+neighbourly way, they have not honour enough to undertake it. But enough
+of our crop-eared cur of a neighbour.--Sir Jasper, you will tarry with
+us to dine, and see how Dame Margaret’s kitchen smokes; and after dinner
+I will show you a long-winged falcon fly. She is not mine, but the
+Countess’s, who brought her from London on her fist almost the whole
+way, for all the haste she was in, and left her with me to keep the
+perch for a season.”
+
+This match was soon arranged, and Dame Margaret overheard the good
+Knight’s resentment mutter itself off, with those feelings with which
+we listen to the last growling of the thunderstorm; which, as the black
+cloud sinks beneath the hill, at once assures us that there has been
+danger, and that the peril is over. She could not, indeed, but marvel in
+her own mind at the singular path of reconciliation with his neighbour
+which her husband had, with so much confidence, and in the actual
+sincerity of his goodwill to Mr. Bridgenorth, attempted to open; and
+she blessed God internally that it had not terminated in bloodshed.
+But these reflections she locked carefully within her own bosom, well
+knowing that they referred to subjects in which the Knight of the Peak
+would neither permit his sagacity to be called in question, nor his will
+to be controlled.
+
+The progress of the history hath hitherto been slow; but after this
+period so little matter worth of mark occurred at Martindale, that we
+must hurry over hastily the transactions of several years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+              _Cleopatra._--Give me to drink mandragora,
+              That I may sleep away this gap of time.
+                                       --Antony and Cleopatra.
+
+There passed, as we hinted at the conclusion of the last chapter, four
+or five years after the period we have dilated upon; the events of
+which scarcely require to be discussed, so far as our present purpose is
+concerned, in as many lines. The Knight and his Lady continued to reside
+at their Castle--she, with prudence and with patience, endeavouring
+to repair the damages which the Civil Wars had inflicted upon their
+fortune; and murmuring a little when her plans of economy were
+interrupted by the liberal hospitality, which was her husband’s
+principal expense, and to which he was attached, not only from his own
+English heartiness of disposition, but from ideas of maintaining the
+dignity of his ancestry--no less remarkable, according to the tradition
+of their buttery, kitchen, and cellar, for the fat beeves which they
+roasted, and the mighty ale which they brewed, than for their extensive
+estates, and the number of their retainers.
+
+The world, however, upon the whole, went happily and easily with
+the worthy couple. Sir Geoffrey’s debt to his neighbour Bridgenorth
+continued, it is true, unabated; but he was the only creditor upon the
+Martindale estate--all others being paid off. It would have been most
+desirable that this encumbrance also should be cleared, and it was the
+great object of Dame Margaret’s economy to effect the discharge; for
+although interest was regularly settled with Master Win-the-Fight, the
+Chesterfield attorney, yet the principal sum, which was a large one,
+might be called for at an inconvenient time. The man, too, was gloomy,
+important, and mysterious, and always seemed as if he was thinking upon
+his broken head in the churchyard of Martindale-cum-Moultrassie.
+
+Dame Margaret sometimes transacted the necessary business with him in
+person; and when he came to the Castle on these occasions, she thought
+she saw a malicious and disobliging expression in his manner and
+countenance. Yet his actual conduct was not only fair, but liberal;
+for indulgence was given, in the way of delay of payment, whenever
+circumstances rendered it necessary to the debtor to require it. It
+seemed to Lady Peveril that the agent, in such cases, was acting under
+the strict orders of his absent employer, concerning whose welfare she
+could not help feeling a certain anxiety.
+
+Shortly after the failure of the singular negotiation for attaining
+peace by combat, which Peveril had attempted to open with Major
+Bridgenorth, that gentleman left his seat of Moultrassie Hall in the
+care of his old housekeeper, and departed, no one knew whither, having
+in company with him his daughter Alice and Mrs. Deborah Debbitch, now
+formally installed in all the duties of a governante; to these was added
+the Reverend Master Solsgrace. For some time public rumour persisted in
+asserting, that Major Bridgenorth had only retreated to a distant part
+of the country for a season, to achieve his supposed purpose of marrying
+Mrs. Deborah, and of letting the news be cold, and the laugh of
+the neighbourhood be ended, ere he brought her down as mistress of
+Moultrassie Hall. This rumour died away; and it was then affirmed, that
+he had removed to foreign parts, to ensure the continuance of health in
+so delicate a constitution as that of little Alice. But when the
+Major’s dread of Popery was remembered, together with the still deeper
+antipathies of worthy Master Nehemiah Solsgrace, it was resolved
+unanimously, that nothing less than what they might deem a fair
+chance of converting the Pope would have induced the parties to trust
+themselves within Catholic dominions. The most prevailing opinion was,
+that they had gone to New England, the refuge then of many whom too
+intimate concern with the affairs of the late times, or the desire of
+enjoying uncontrolled freedom of conscience, had induced to emigrate
+from Britain.
+
+Lady Peveril could not help entertaining a vague idea, that Bridgenorth
+was not so distant. The extreme order in which everything was maintained
+at Moultrassie Hall, seemed--no disparagement to the care of Dame
+Dickens the housekeeper, and the other persons engaged--to argue,
+that the master’s eye was not so very far off, but that its occasional
+inspection might be apprehended. It is true, that neither the domestics
+nor the attorney answered any questions respecting the residence of
+Master Bridgenorth; but there was an air of mystery about them when
+interrogated, that seemed to argue more than met the ear.
+
+About five years after Master Bridgenorth had left the country,
+a singular incident took place. Sir Geoffrey was absent at the
+Chesterfield races, and Lady Peveril, who was in the habit of walking
+around every part of the neighbourhood unattended, or only accompanied
+by Ellesmere, or her little boy, had gone down one evening upon a
+charitable errand to a solitary hut, whose inhabitant lay sick of a
+fever, which was supposed to be infectious. Lady Peveril never allowed
+apprehensions of this kind to stop “devoted charitable deeds;” but she
+did not choose to expose either her son or her attendant to the risk
+which she herself, in some confidence that she knew precautions for
+escaping the danger, did not hesitate to incur.
+
+Lady Peveril had set out at a late hour in the evening, and the way
+proved longer than she expected--several circumstances also occurred to
+detain her at the hut of her patient. It was a broad autumn moonlight,
+when she prepared to return homeward through the broken glades and
+upland which divided her from the Castle. This she considered as a
+matter of very little importance, in so quiet and sequestered a country,
+where the road lay chiefly through her own domains, especially as she
+had a lad about fifteen years old, the son of her patient, to escort
+her on the way. The distance was better than two miles, but might be
+considerably abridged by passing through an avenue belonging to the
+estate of Moultrassie Hall, which she had avoided as she came, not from
+the ridiculous rumours which pronounced it to be haunted, but because
+her husband was much displeased when any attempt was made to render the
+walks of the Castle and Hall common to the inhabitants of both. The good
+lady, in consideration, perhaps, of extensive latitude allowed to her
+in the more important concerns of the family, made a point of never
+interfering with her husband’s whims or prejudices; and it is a
+compromise which we would heartily recommend to all managing matrons
+of our acquaintance; for it is surprising how much real power will be
+cheerfully resigned to the fair sex, for the pleasure of being allowed
+to ride one’s hobby in peace and quiet.
+
+Upon the present occasion, however, although the Dobby’s Walk[*] was
+within the inhabited domains of the Hall, the Lady Peveril determined
+to avail herself of it, for the purpose of shortening her road home,
+and she directed her steps accordingly. But when the peasant-boy, her
+companion, who had hitherto followed her, whistling cheerily, with a
+hedge-bill in his hand, and his hat on one side, perceived that she
+turned to the stile which entered to the Dobby’s Walk, he showed
+symptoms of great fear, and at length coming to the lady’s side,
+petitioned her, in a whimpering tone,--“Don’t ye now--don’t ye now, my
+lady, don’t ye go yonder.”
+
+[*] Dobby, an old English name for goblin.
+
+Lady Peveril, observing that his teeth chattered in his head, and that
+his whole person exhibited great signs of terror, began to recollect
+the report, that the first Squire of Moultrassie, the brewer of
+Chesterfield, who had brought the estate, and then died of melancholy
+for lack of something to do (and, as was said, not without suspicions of
+suicide), was supposed to walk in this sequestered avenue, accompanied
+by a large headless mastiff, which, when he was alive, was a particular
+favourite of the ex-brewer. To have expected any protection from her
+escort, in the condition to which superstitious fear had reduced him,
+would have been truly a hopeless trust; and Lady Peveril, who was not
+apprehensive of any danger, thought there would be great cruelty in
+dragging the cowardly boy into a scene which he regarded with so much
+apprehension. She gave him, therefore, a silver piece, and permitted him
+to return. The latter boon seemed even more acceptable than the first;
+for ere she could return the purse into her pocket, she heard the wooden
+clogs of her bold convoy in full retreat, by the way from whence they
+came.
+
+Smiling within herself at the fear she esteemed so ludicrous, Lady
+Peveril ascended the stile, and was soon hidden from the broad light of
+the moonbeams, by the numerous and entangled boughs of the huge elms,
+which, meeting from either side, totally overarched the old avenue. The
+scene was calculated to excite solemn thoughts; and the distant
+glimmer of a light from one of the numerous casements in the front of
+Moultrassie Hall, which lay at some distance, was calculated to make
+them even melancholy. She thought of the fate of that family--of the
+deceased Mrs. Bridgenorth, with whom she had often walked in this very
+avenue, and who, though a woman of no high parts or accomplishments, had
+always testified the deepest respect, and the most earnest gratitude,
+for such notice as she had shown to her. She thought of her blighted
+hopes--her premature death--the despair of her self-banished
+husband--the uncertain fate of their orphan child, for whom she felt,
+even at this distance of time, some touch of a mother’s affection.
+
+Upon such sad subjects her thoughts were turned, when, just as she
+attained the middle of the avenue, the imperfect and checkered light
+which found its way through the silvan archway, showed her something
+which resembled the figure of a man. Lady Peveril paused a moment, but
+instantly advanced;--her bosom, perhaps, gave one startled throb, as
+a debt to the superstitious belief of the times, but she instantly
+repelled the thought of supernatural appearances. From those that were
+merely mortal, she had nothing to fear. A marauder on the game was the
+worst character whom she was likely to encounter; and he would be
+sure to hide himself from her observation. She advanced, accordingly,
+steadily; and, as she did so, had the satisfaction to observe that the
+figure, as she expected, gave place to her, and glided away amongst the
+trees on the left-hand side of the avenue. As she passed the spot on
+which the form had been so lately visible, and bethought herself that
+this wanderer of the night might, nay must, be in her vicinity, her
+resolution could not prevent her mending her pace, and that with so
+little precaution, that, stumbling over the limb of a tree, which,
+twisted off by a late tempest, still lay in the avenue, she fell, and,
+as she fell, screamed aloud. A strong hand in a moment afterwards added
+to her fears by assisting her to rise, and a voice, to whose accents she
+was not a stranger, though they had been long unheard, said, “Is it not
+you, Lady Peveril?”
+
+“It is I,” said she, commanding her astonishment and fear; “and if my
+ear deceive me not, I speak to Master Bridgenorth.”
+
+“I was that man,” said he, “while oppression left me a name.”
+
+He spoke nothing more, but continued to walk beside her for a minute or
+two in silence. She felt her situation embarrassing; and to divest it of
+that feeling, as well as out of real interest in the question, she asked
+him, “How her god-daughter Alice now was?”
+
+“Of god-daughter, madam,” answered Major Bridgenorth, “I know nothing;
+that being one of the names which have been introduced, to the
+corruption and pollution of God’s ordinances. The infant who owed
+to your ladyship (so called) her escape from disease and death, is a
+healthy and thriving girl, as I am given to understand by those in whose
+charge she is lodged, for I have not lately seen her. And it is even the
+recollection of these passages, which in a manner impelled me, alarmed
+also by your fall, to offer myself to you at this time and mode, which
+in other respects is no way consistent with my present safety.”
+
+“With your safety, Master Bridgenorth?” said the Lady Peveril; “surely,
+I could never have thought that it was in danger!”
+
+“You have some news, then, yet to learn, madam,” said Major Bridgenorth;
+“but you will hear in the course of tomorrow, reasons why I dare not
+appear openly in the neighbourhood of my own property, and wherefore
+there is small judgment in committing the knowledge of my present
+residence to any one connected with Martindale Castle.”
+
+“Master Bridgenorth,” said the lady, “you were in former times prudent
+and cautious--I hope you have been misled by no hasty impression--by no
+rash scheme--I hope----”
+
+“Pardon my interrupting you, madam,” said Bridgenorth. “I have indeed
+been changed--ay, my very heart within me hath been changed. In the
+times to which your ladyship (so called) thinks proper to refer, I was a
+man of this world--bestowing on it all my thoughts--all my actions, save
+formal observances--little deeming what was the duty of a Christian man,
+and how far his self-denial ought to extend--even unto his giving all
+as if he gave nothing. Hence I thought chiefly on carnal things--on the
+adding of field to field, and wealth to wealth--of balancing between
+party and party--securing a friend here, without losing a friend
+there--But Heaven smote me for my apostasy, the rather that I abused
+the name of religion, as a self-seeker, and a most blinded and carnal
+will-worshipper--But I thank Him who hath at length brought me out of
+Egypt.”
+
+In our day--although we have many instances of enthusiasm among us--we
+might still suspect one who avowed it thus suddenly and broadly of
+hypocrisy, or of insanity; but according to the fashion of the times,
+such opinions as those which Bridgenorth expressed were openly pleaded,
+as the ruling motives of men’s actions. The sagacious Vane--the brave
+and skilful Harrison--were men who acted avowedly under the influence
+of such. Lady Peveril, therefore, was more grieved than surprised at the
+language she heard Major Bridgenorth use, and reasonably concluded
+that the society and circumstances in which he might lately have been
+engaged, had blown into a flame the spark of eccentricity which always
+smouldered in his bosom. This was the more probable, considering that he
+was melancholy by constitution and descent--that he had been unfortunate
+in several particulars--and that no passion is more easily nursed
+by indulgence, than the species of enthusiasm of which he now showed
+tokens. She therefore answered him by calmly hoping, “That the
+expression of his sentiments had not involved him in suspicion or in
+danger.”
+
+“In suspicion, madam?” answered the Major;--“for I cannot forbear giving
+to you, such is the strength of habit, one of those idle titles by which
+we poor potsherds are wont, in our pride, to denominate each other--I
+walk not only in suspicion, but in that degree of danger, that, were
+your husband to meet me at this instant--me, a native Englishman,
+treading on my own lands--I have no doubt he would do his best to offer
+me to the Moloch of Roman superstition, who now rages abroad for victims
+among God’s people.”
+
+“You surprise me by your language, Major Bridgenorth,” said the lady,
+who now felt rather anxious to be relieved from his company, and with
+that purpose walked on somewhat hastily. He mended his pace, however,
+and kept close by her side.
+
+“Know you not,” said he, “that Satan hath come down upon earth with
+great wrath, because his time is short? The next heir to the crown is
+an avowed Papist; and who dare assert, save sycophants and time-servers,
+that he who wears it is not equally ready to stoop to Rome, were he not
+kept in awe by a few noble spirits in the Commons’ House? You believe
+not this--yet in my solitary and midnight walks, when I thought on your
+kindness to the dead and to the living, it was my prayer that I might
+have the means granted to warn you--and lo! Heaven hath heard me.”
+
+“What I was while in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity,
+it signifies not to recall,” answered he. “I was then like to Gallio,
+who cared for none of these things. I doted on creature comforts--I
+clung to worldly honour and repute--my thoughts were earthward--or those
+I turned to Heaven were cold, formal, pharisaical meditations--I brought
+nothing to the altar save straw and stubble. Heaven saw need to chastise
+me in love--I was stript of all I clung to on earth--my worldly honour
+was torn from me--I went forth an exile from the home of my fathers, a
+deprived and desolate man--a baffled, and beaten, and dishonoured man.
+But who shall find out the ways of Providence? Such were the means by
+which I was chosen forth as a champion for the truth--holding my life as
+nothing, if thereby that may be advanced. But this was not what I wished
+to speak of. Thou hast saved the earthly life of my child--let me save
+the eternal welfare of yours.”
+
+Lady Peveril was silent. They were now approaching the point where
+the avenue terminated in a communication with a public road, or rather
+pathway, running through an unenclosed common field; this the lady
+had to prosecute for a little way, until a turn of the path gave her
+admittance into the Park of Martindale. She now felt sincerely anxious
+to be in the open moonshine, and avoided reply to Bridgenorth that
+she might make the more haste. But as they reached the junction of the
+avenue and the public road, he laid his hand on her arm, and commanded
+rather than requested her to stop. She obeyed. He pointed to a huge oak,
+of the largest size, which grew on the summit of a knoll in the open
+ground which terminated the avenue, and was exactly so placed as to
+serve for a termination to the vista. The moonshine without the avenue
+was so strong, that, amidst the flood of light which it poured on the
+venerable tree, they could easily discover, from the shattered state
+of the boughs on one side, that it had suffered damage from lightning.
+“Remember you,” he said, “when we last looked together on that tree?
+I had ridden from London, and brought with me a protection from the
+committee for your husband; and as I passed the spot--here on this spot
+where we now stand, you stood with my lost Alice--two--the last two of
+my beloved infants gambolled before you. I leaped from my horse--to
+her I was a husband--to those a father--to you a welcome and revered
+protector--What am I now to any one?” He pressed his hand on his brow,
+and groaned in agony of spirit.
+
+It was not in the Lady Peveril’s nature to hear sorrow without an
+attempt at consolation. “Master Bridgenorth,” she said, “I blame no
+man’s creed, while I believe and follow my own; and I rejoice that in
+yours you have sought consolation for temporal afflictions. But does not
+every Christian creed teach us alike, that affliction should soften our
+heart?”
+
+“Ay, woman,” said Bridgenorth sternly, “as the lightning which shattered
+yonder oak hath softened its trunk. No; the seared wood is the fitter
+for the use of the workmen--the hardened and the dried-up heart is that
+which can best bear the task imposed by these dismal times. God and man
+will no longer endure the unbridled profligacy of the dissolute--the
+scoffing of the profane--the contempt of the divine laws--the infraction
+of human rights. The times demand righters and avengers, and there will
+be no want of them.”
+
+“I deny not the existence of much evil,” said Lady Peveril, compelling
+herself to answer, and beginning at the same time to walk forward;
+“and from hearsay, though not, I thank Heaven, from observation, I am
+convinced of the wild debauchery of the times. But let us trust it may
+be corrected without such violent remedies as you hint at. Surely the
+ruin of a second civil war--though I trust your thoughts go not that
+dreadful length--were at best a desperate alternative.”
+
+“Sharp, but sure,” replied Bridgenorth. “The blood of the Paschal
+lamb chased away the destroying angel--the sacrifices offered on the
+threshing-floor of Araunah, stayed the pestilence. Fire and sword are
+severe remedies, but they pure and purify.”
+
+“Alas! Major Bridgenorth,” said the lady, “wise and moderate in your
+youth, can you have adopted in your advanced life the thoughts and
+language of those whom you yourself beheld drive themselves and the
+nation to the brink of ruin?”
+
+“I know not what I then was--you know not what I now am,” he replied,
+and suddenly broke off; for they even then came forth into the open
+light, and it seemed as if, feeling himself under the lady’s eye, he was
+disposed to soften his tone and his language.
+
+At the first distinct view which she had of his person, she was aware
+that he was armed with a short sword, a poniard, and pistols at his
+belt--precautions very unusual for a man who formerly had seldom, and
+only on days of ceremony, carried a walking rapier, though such was
+the habitual and constant practice of gentlemen of his station in life.
+There seemed also something of more stern determination than usual in
+his air, which indeed had always been rather sullen than affable; and
+ere she could repress the sentiment, she could not help saying, “Master
+Bridgenorth, you are indeed changed.”
+
+“You see but the outward man,” he replied; “the change within is yet
+deeper. But it was not of myself that I desired to talk--I have already
+said, that as you have preserved my child from the darkness of the
+grave, I would willingly preserve yours from that more utter darkness,
+which, I fear, hath involved the path and walks of his father.”
+
+“I must not hear this of Sir Geoffrey,” said the Lady Peveril; “I must
+bid you farewell for the present; and when we again meet at a more
+suitable time, I will at least listen to your advice concerning Julian,
+although I should not perhaps incline to it.”
+
+“That more suitable time may never come,” replied Bridgenorth. “Time
+wanes, eternity draws nigh. Hearken! it is said to be your purpose to
+send the young Julian to be bred up in yonder bloody island, under the
+hand of your kinswoman, that cruel murderess, by whom was done to death
+a man more worthy of vital existence than any that she can boast among
+her vaunted ancestry. These are current tidings--Are they true?”
+
+“I do not blame you, Master Bridgenorth, for thinking harshly of my
+cousin of Derby,” said Lady Peveril; “nor do I altogether vindicate
+the rash action of which she hath been guilty. Nevertheless, in her
+habitation, it is my husband’s opinion and my own, that Julian may be
+trained in the studies and accomplishments becoming his rank, along with
+the young Earl of Derby.”
+
+“Under the curse of God, and the blessing of the Pope of Rome,”
+ said Bridgenorth. “You, lady, so quick-sighted in matters of earthly
+prudence, are you blind to the gigantic pace at which Rome is moving to
+regain this country, once the richest gem in her usurped tiara? The
+old are seduced by gold--the youth by pleasure--the weak by
+flattery--cowards by fear--and the courageous by ambition. A thousand
+baits for each taste, and each bait concealing the same deadly hook.”
+
+“I am well aware, Master Bridgenorth,” said Lady Peveril, “that my
+kinswoman is a Catholic;[*] but her son is educated in the Church of
+England’s principles, agreeably to the command of her deceased husband.”
+
+     [*] I have elsewhere noticed that this is a deviation from
+     the truth   Charlotte, Countess of Derby, was a Huguenot.
+
+“Is it likely,” answered Bridgenorth, “that she, who fears not shedding
+the blood of the righteous, whether on the field or scaffold, will
+regard the sanction of her promise when her religion bids her break it?
+Or, if she does, what shall your son be the better, if he remain in the
+mire of his father? What are your Episcopal tenets but mere Popery? save
+that ye have chosen a temporal tyrant for your Pope, and substitute a
+mangled mass in English for that which your predecessors pronounced in
+Latin.--But why speak I of these things to one who hath ears, indeed,
+and eyes, yet cannot see, listen to, or understand what is alone worthy
+to be heard, seen, and known? Pity that what hath been wrought so fair
+and exquisite in form and disposition, should be yet blind, deaf, and
+ignorant, like the things which perish!”
+
+“We shall not agree on these subjects, Master Bridgenorth,” said the
+lady, anxious still to escape from this strange conference, though
+scarce knowing what to apprehend; “once more, I must bid you farewell.”
+
+“Stay yet an instant,” he said, again laying his hand on her arm;
+“I would stop you if I saw you rushing on the brink of an actual
+precipice--let me prevent you from a danger still greater. How shall
+I work upon your unbelieving mind? Shall I tell you that the debt of
+bloodshed yet remains a debt to be paid by the bloody house of Derby?
+And wilt thou send thy son to be among those from whom it shall be
+exacted?”
+
+“You wish to alarm me in vain, Master Bridgenorth,” answered the lady;
+“what penalty can be exacted from the Countess, for an action, which I
+have already called a rash one, has been long since levied.”
+
+“You deceive yourself,” retorted he sternly. “Think you a paltry sum of
+money, given to be wasted on the debaucheries of Charles, can atone for
+the death of such a man as Christian--a man precious alike to heaven and
+to earth? Not on such terms is the blood of the righteous to be poured
+forth! Every hour’s delay is numbered down as adding interest to the
+grievous debt, which will one day be required from that blood-thirsty
+woman.”
+
+At this moment the distant tread of horses was heard on the road on
+which they held this singular dialogue. Bridgenorth listened a moment,
+and then said, “Forget that you have seen me--name not my name to your
+nearest or dearest--lock my counsel in your breast--profit by it, and it
+shall be well with you.”
+
+So saying, he turned from her, and plunging through a gap in the fence,
+regained the cover of his own wood, along which the path still led.
+
+The noise of horses advancing at full trot now came nearer; and Lady
+Peveril was aware of several riders, whose forms rose indistinctly on
+the summit of the rising ground behind her. She became also visible
+to them; and one or two of the foremost made towards her at increased
+speed, challenging her as they advanced with the cry of “Stand! Who goes
+there?” The foremost who came up, however, exclaimed, “Mercy on us, if
+it be not my lady!” and Lady Peveril, at the same moment, recognised one
+of her own servants. Her husband rode up immediately afterwards, with,
+“How now, Dame Margaret? What makes you abroad so far from home and at
+an hour so late?”
+
+Lady Peveril mentioned her visit at the cottage, but did not think it
+necessary to say aught of having seen Major Bridgenorth; afraid, it may
+be, that her husband might be displeased with that incident.
+
+“Charity is a fine thing and a fair,” answered Sir Geoffrey; “but I
+must tell you, you do ill, dame, to wander about the country like a
+quacksalver, at the call of every old woman who has a colic-fit; and
+at this time of night especially, and when the land is so unsettled
+besides.”
+
+“I am sorry to hear that it so,” said the lady. “I had heard no such
+news.”
+
+“News?” repeated Sir Geoffrey, “why, here has a new plot broken out
+among the Roundheads, worse than Venner’s by a butt’s length;[*] and
+who should be so deep in it as our old neighbour Bridgenorth? There is
+search for him everywhere; and I promise you if he is found, he is like
+to pay old scores.”
+
+[*] The celebrated insurrection of the Anabaptists and Fifth Monarchy
+    men in London, in the year 1661.
+
+“Then I am sure, I trust he will not be found,” said Lady Peveril.
+
+“Do you so?” replied Sir Geoffrey. “Now I, on my part hope that he
+will; and it shall not be my fault if he be not; for which effect I will
+presently ride down to Moultrassie, and make strict search, according to
+my duty; there shall neither rebel nor traitor earth so near Martindale
+Castle, that I will assure them. And you, my lady, be pleased for once
+to dispense with a pillion, and get up, as you have done before, behind
+Saunders, who shall convey you safe home.”
+
+The Lady obeyed in silence; indeed she did not dare to trust her
+voice in an attempt to reply, so much was she disconcerted with the
+intelligence she had just heard.
+
+She rode behind the groom to the Castle, where she awaited in great
+anxiety the return of her husband. He came back at length; but to her
+great relief, without any prisoner. He then explained more fully
+than his haste had before permitted, that an express had come down to
+Chesterfield, with news from Court of a proposed insurrection amongst
+the old Commonwealth men, especially those who had served in the army;
+and that Bridgenorth, said to be lurking in Derbyshire, was one of the
+principal conspirators.
+
+After some time, this report of a conspiracy seemed to die away like
+many others of that period. The warrants were recalled, but nothing more
+was seen or heard of Major Bridgenorth; although it is probable he might
+safely enough have shown himself as openly as many did who lay under the
+same circumstances of suspicion.
+
+About this time also, Lady Peveril, with many tears, took a temporary
+leave of her son Julian, who was sent, as had long been intended,
+for the purpose of sharing the education of the young Earl of Derby.
+Although the boding words of Bridgenorth sometimes occurred to Lady
+Peveril’s mind, she did not suffer them to weigh with her in opposition
+to the advantages which the patronage of the Countess of Derby secured
+to her son.
+
+The plan seemed to be in every respect successful; and when, from time
+to time, Julian visited the house of his father, Lady Peveril had the
+satisfaction to see him, on every occasion, improved in person and in
+manner, as well as ardent in the pursuit of more solid acquirements.
+In process of time he became a gallant and accomplished youth, and
+travelled for some time upon the continent with the young Earl. This was
+the more especially necessary for the enlarging of their acquaintance
+with the world; because the Countess had never appeared in London, or at
+the Court of King Charles, since her flight to the Isle of Man in 1660;
+but had resided in solitary and aristocratic state, alternately on her
+estates in England and in that island.
+
+This had given to the education of both the young men, otherwise as
+excellent as the best teachers could render it, something of a narrow
+and restricted character; but though the disposition of the young Earl
+was lighter and more volatile than that of Julian, both the one and
+the other had profited, in a considerable degree, by the opportunities
+afforded them. It was Lady Derby’s strict injunction to her son, now
+returning from the continent, that he should not appear at the Court
+of Charles. But having been for some time of age, he did not think it
+absolutely necessary to obey her in this particular; and had remained
+for some time in London, partaking the pleasures of the gay Court there,
+with all the ardour of a young man bred up in comparative seclusion.
+
+In order to reconcile the Countess to this transgression of her
+authority (for he continued to entertain for her the profound respect
+in which he had been educated), Lord Derby agreed to make a long sojourn
+with her in her favourite island, which he abandoned almost entirely to
+her management.
+
+Julian Peveril had spent at Martindale Castle a good deal of the time
+which his friend had bestowed in London; and at the period to which,
+passing over many years, our story has arrived, as it were, _per
+saltum_, they were both living as the Countess’s guests, in the Castle
+of Rushin, in the venerable kingdom of Man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+             Mona--long hid from those who roam the main.
+                                                   --COLLINS.
+
+The Isle of Man, in the middle of the seventeenth century, was very
+different, as a place of residence, from what it is now. Men had not
+then discovered its merit as a place of occasional refuge from the
+storms of life, and the society to be there met with was of a very
+uniform tenor. There were no smart fellows, whom fortune had tumbled
+from the seat of their barouches--no plucked pigeons or winged rooks--no
+disappointed speculators--no ruined miners--in short, no one worth
+talking to. The society of the island was limited to the natives
+themselves, and a few merchants, who lived by contraband trade. The
+amusements were rare and monotonous, and the mercurial young Earl was
+soon heartily tired of his dominions. The islanders, also, become
+too wise for happiness, had lost relish for the harmless and somewhat
+childish sports in which their simple ancestors had indulged themselves.
+May was no longer ushered in by the imaginary contest between the
+Queen of returning winter and advancing spring; the listeners no longer
+sympathised with the lively music of the followers of the one, or the
+discordant sounds with which the other asserted a more noisy claim to
+attention. Christmas, too, closed, and the steeples no longer jangled
+forth a dissonant peal. The wren, to seek for which used to be the sport
+dedicated to the holytide, was left unpursued and unslain. Party spirit
+had come among these simple people, and destroyed their good humour,
+while it left them their ignorance. Even the races, a sport generally
+interesting to people of all ranks, were no longer performed, because
+they were no longer interesting. The gentlemen were divided by feuds
+hitherto unknown, and each seemed to hold it scorn to be pleased with
+the same diversions that amused those of the opposite faction. The
+hearts of both parties revolted from the recollection of former days,
+when all was peace among them, when the Earl of Derby, now slaughtered,
+used to bestow the prize, and Christian, since so vindictively executed,
+started horses to add to the amusement.
+
+Julian was seated in the deep recess which led to a latticed window
+of the old Castle; and, with his arms crossed, and an air of profound
+contemplation, was surveying the long perspective of ocean, which rolled
+its successive waves up to the foot of the rock on which the ancient
+pile is founded. The Earl was suffering under the infliction of
+ennui--now looking into a volume of Homer--now whistling--now swinging
+on his chair--now traversing the room--till, at length, his attention
+became swallowed up in admiration of the tranquillity of his companion.
+
+“King of Men!” he said, repeating the favourite epithet by which Homer
+describes Agamemnon,--“I trust, for the old Greek’s sake, he had a
+merrier office than being King of Man--Most philosophical Julian, will
+nothing rouse thee--not even a bad pun on my own royal dignity?”
+
+“I wish you would be a little more the King in Man,” said Julian,
+starting from his reverie, “and then you would find more amusement in
+your dominions.”
+
+“What! dethrone that royal Semiramis my mother,” said the young lord,
+“who has as much pleasure in playing Queen as if she were a real
+Sovereign?--I wonder you can give me such counsel.”
+
+“Your mother, as you well know, my dear Derby, would be delighted, did
+you take any interest in the affairs of the island.”
+
+“Ay, truly, she would permit me to be King; but she would choose to
+remain Viceroy over me. Why, she would only gain a subject the more,
+by my converting my spare time, which is so very valuable to me, to the
+cares of royalty. No, no, Julian, she thinks it power, to direct all
+the affairs of these poor Manxmen; and, thinking it power, she finds it
+pleasure. I shall not interfere, unless she hold a high court of
+justice again. I cannot afford to pay another fine to my brother, King
+Charles--But I forget--this is a sore point with you.”
+
+“With the Countess, at least,” replied Julian; “and I wonder you will
+speak of it.”
+
+“Why, I bear no malice against the poor man’s memory any more than
+yourself, though I have not the same reasons for holding it in
+veneration,” replied the Earl of Derby; “and yet I have some respect
+for it too. I remember their bringing him out to die--It was the first
+holiday I ever had in my life, and I heartily wish it had been on some
+other account.”
+
+“I would rather hear you speak of anything else, my lord,” said Julian.
+
+“Why, there it goes,” answered the Earl; “whenever I talk of anything
+that puts you on your mettle, and warms your blood, that runs as cold as
+a merman’s--to use a simile of this happy island--hey pass! you press me
+to change the subject.--Well, what shall we talk of?--O Julian, if you
+had not gone down to earth yourself among the castles and caverns
+of Derbyshire, we should have had enough of delicious topics--the
+play-houses, Julian--Both the King’s house and the Duke’s--Louis’s
+establishment is a jest to them;--and the Ring in the Park, which beats
+the Corso at Naples--and the beauties, who beat the whole world!”
+
+“I am very willing to hear you speak on the subject, my lord,” answered
+Julian; “the less I have seen of London world myself, the more I am
+likely to be amused by your account of it.”
+
+“Ay, my friend--but where to begin?--with the wit of Buckingham, and
+Sedley, and Etherege, or with the grace of Harry Jermyn--the courtesy
+of the Duke of Monmouth, or with the loveliness of La Belle Hamilton--of
+the Duchess of Richmond--of Lady ----, the person of Roxalana, the smart
+humour of Mrs. Nelly----”
+
+“Or what say you to the bewitching sorceries of Lady Cynthia?” demanded
+his companion.
+
+“Faith, I would have kept these to myself,” said the Earl, “to follow
+your prudent example. But since you ask me, I fairly own I cannot tell
+what to say of them; only I think of them twenty times as often as all
+the beauties I have spoken of. And yet she is neither the twentieth part
+so beautiful as the plainest of these Court beauties, nor so witty as
+the dullest I have named, nor so modish--that is the great matter--as
+the most obscure. I cannot tell what makes me dote on her, except that
+she is a capricious as her whole sex put together.”
+
+“That I should think a small recommendation,” answered his companion.
+
+“Small, do you term it,” replied the Earl, “and write yourself a brother
+of the angle? Why, which like you best? to pull a dead strain on a
+miserable gudgeon, which you draw ashore by main force, as the fellows
+here tow in their fishing-boats--or a lively salmon, that makes your
+rod crack, and your line whistle--plays you ten thousand mischievous
+pranks--wearies your heart out with hopes and fears--and is only laid
+panting on the bank, after you have shown the most unmatchable display
+of skill, patience, and dexterity?--But I see you have a mind to go
+on angling after your own old fashion. Off laced coat, and on brown
+jerkin;--lively colours scare fish in the sober waters of the Isle of
+Man;--faith, in London you will catch few, unless the bait glistens a
+little. But you _are_ going?--Well, good luck to you. I will take to
+the barge;--the sea and wind are less inconstant than the tide you have
+embarked on.”
+
+“You have learned to say all these smart things in London, my lord,”
+ answered Julian; “but we shall have you a penitent for them, if Lady
+Cynthia be of my mind. Adieu, and pleasure till we meet.”
+
+The young men parted accordingly; and while the Earl betook him to his
+pleasure voyage, Julian, as his friend had prophesied, assumed the dress
+of one who means to amuse himself with angling. The hat and feather were
+exchanged for a cap of grey cloth; the deeply-laced cloak and doublet
+for a simple jacket of the same colour, with hose conforming; and
+finally, with rod in hand, and pannier at his back, mounted upon a
+handsome Manx pony, young Peveril rode briskly over the country which
+divided him from one of those beautiful streams that descend to the sea
+from the Kirk-Merlagh mountains.
+
+Having reached the spot where he meant to commence his day’s sport,
+Julian let his little steed graze, which, accustomed to the situation,
+followed him like a dog; and now and then, when tired of picking herbage
+in the valley through which the stream winded, came near her master’s
+side, and, as if she had been a curious amateur of the sport, gazed on
+the trouts as Julian brought them struggling to the shore. But Fairy’s
+master showed, on that day, little of the patience of a real angler, and
+took no heed to old Isaac Walton’s recommendation, to fish the streams
+inch by inch. He chose, indeed, with an angler’s eye, the most promising
+casts, which the stream broke sparkling over a stone, affording the
+wonted shelter to a trout; or where, gliding away from a rippling
+current to a still eddy it streamed under the projecting bank, or dashed
+from the pool of some low cascade. By this judicious selection of spots
+whereon to employ his art, the sportsman’s basket was soon sufficiently
+heavy, to show that his occupation was not a mere pretext; and so soon
+as this was the case, he walked briskly up the glen, only making a
+cast from time to time, in case of his being observed from any of the
+neighbouring heights.
+
+It was a little green and rocky valley through which the brook strayed,
+very lonely, although the slight track of an unformed road showed that
+it was occasionally traversed, and that it was not altogether void of
+inhabitants. As Peveril advanced still farther, the right bank reached
+to some distance from the stream, leaving a piece of meadow ground, the
+lower part of which, being close to the brook, was entirely covered with
+rich herbage, being possibly occasionally irrigated by its overflow. The
+higher part of the level ground afforded a stance for an old house, of
+singular structure, with a terraced garden, and a cultivated field or
+two beside it. In former times, a Danish or Norwegian fastness had stood
+here, called the Black Fort, from the colour of a huge healthy hill,
+which, rising behind the building, appeared to be the boundary of
+the valley, and to afford the source of the brook. But the original
+structure had been long demolished, as, indeed, it probably only
+consisted of dry stones, and its materials had been applied to the
+construction of the present mansion--the work of some churchman during
+the sixteenth century, as was evident from the huge stone-work of its
+windows, which scarce left room for light to pass through, as well as
+from two or three heavy buttresses, which projected from the front of
+the house, and exhibited on their surface little niches for images.
+These had been carefully destroyed, and pots of flowers were placed in
+the niches in their stead, besides their being ornamented by creeping
+plants of various kinds, fancifully twined around them. The garden was
+also in good order; and though the spot was extremely solitary, there
+was about it altogether an air of comfort, accommodation, and even
+elegance, by no means generally characteristic of the habitations of the
+island at the time.
+
+With much circumspection, Julian Peveril approached the low Gothic
+porch, which defended the entrance of the mansion from the tempests
+incident to its situation, and was, like the buttresses, overrun with
+ivy and other creeping plants. An iron ring, contrived so as when drawn
+up and down to rattle against the bar of notched iron through which it
+was suspended, served the purpose of a knocker; and to this he applied
+himself, though with the greatest precaution.
+
+He received no answer for some time, and indeed it seemed as if the
+house was totally uninhabited; when, at length, his impatience getting
+the upper hand, he tried to open the door, and, as it was only upon
+the latch, very easily succeeded. He passed through a little low-arched
+hall, the upper end of which was occupied by a staircase, and turning
+to the left, opened the door of a summer parlour, wainscoted with
+black oak, and very simply furnished with chairs and tables of the same
+materials; the former cushioned with the leather. The apartment was
+gloomy--one of those stone-shafted windows which we have mentioned, with
+its small latticed panes, and thick garland of foliage, admitting but an
+imperfect light.
+
+Over the chimneypiece (which was of the same massive materials with
+the panelling of the apartment) was the only ornament of the room; a
+painting, namely, representing an officer in the military dress of the
+Civil Wars. It was a green jerkin, then the national and peculiar wear
+of the Manxmen; his short band which hung down on the cuirass--the
+orange-coloured scarf, but, above all, the shortness of his close-cut
+hair, showing evidently to which of the great parties he had belonged.
+His right hand rested on the hilt of his sword; and in the left he
+held a small Bible, bearing the inscription, “_In hoc signo_.” The
+countenance was of a light complexion, with fair and almost effeminate
+blue eyes, and an oval form of face--one of those physiognomies, to
+which, though not otherwise unpleasing, we naturally attach the idea of
+melancholy and of misfortune.[*] Apparently it was well known to Julian
+Peveril; for after having looked at it for a long time, he could not
+forbear muttering aloud, “What would I give that that man had never been
+born, or that he still lived!”
+
+[*] I am told that a portrait of the unfortunate William Christian is
+    still preserved in the family of Waterson of Ballnabow of Kirk
+    Church, Rushin. William Dhône is dressed in a green coat without
+    collar or cape, after the fashion of those puritanic times, with
+    the head in a close cropt wig, resembling the bishop’s peruke of
+    the present day. The countenance is youthful and well-looking,
+    very unlike the expression of foreboding melancholy. I have so far
+    taken advantage of this criticism, as to bring my ideal portrait
+    in the present edition, nearer to the complexion at least of the
+    fair-haired William Dhône.
+
+“How now--how is this?” said a female, who entered the room as he
+uttered this reflection. “_You_ here, Master Peveril, in spite of all
+the warnings you have had! You here in the possession of folk’s house
+when they are abroad, and talking to yourself, as I shall warrant!”
+
+“Yes, Mistress Deborah,” said Peveril, “I am here once more, as you
+see, against every prohibition, and in defiance of all danger.--Where is
+Alice?”
+
+“Where you will never see her, Master Julian--you may satisfy yourself
+of that,” answered Mistress Deborah, for it was that respectable
+governante; and sinking down at the same time upon one of the large
+leathern chairs, she began to fan herself with her handkerchief, and
+complain of the heat in a most ladylike fashion.
+
+In fact, Mistress Debbitch, while her exterior intimated a considerable
+change of condition for the better, and her countenance showed the less
+favourable effects of the twenty years which had passed over her head,
+was in mind and manners very much what she had been when she battled
+the opinions of Madam Ellesmere at Martindale Castle. In a word, she
+was self-willed, obstinate, and coquettish as ever, otherwise no
+ill-disposed person. Her present appearance was that of a woman of the
+better rank. From the sobriety of the fashion of her dress, and the
+uniformity of its colours, it was plain she belonged to some sect which
+condemned superfluous gaiety in attire; but no rules, not those of a
+nunnery or of a quaker’s society, can prevent a little coquetry in that
+particular, where a woman is desirous of being supposed to retain some
+claim to personal attention. All Mistress Deborah’s garments were so
+arranged as might best set off a good-looking woman, whose countenance
+indicated ease and good cheer--who called herself five-and-thirty, and
+was well entitled, if she had a mind, to call herself twelve or fifteen
+years older.
+
+Julian was under the necessity of enduring all her tiresome and
+fantastic airs, and awaiting with patience till she had “prinked
+herself and pinned herself”--flung her hoods back, and drawn them
+forward--snuffed at a little bottle of essences--closed her eyes like a
+dying fowl--turned them up like duck in a thunderstorm; when at length,
+having exhausted her round of _minauderies_, she condescended to open
+the conversation.
+
+“These walks will be the death of me,” she said, “and all on your
+account, Master Julian Peveril; for if Dame Christian should learn that
+you have chosen to make your visits to her niece, I promise you Mistress
+Alice would be soon obliged to find other quarters, and so should I.”
+
+“Come now, Mistress Deborah, be good-humoured,” said Julian; “consider,
+was not all this intimacy of ours of your own making? Did you not make
+yourself known to me the very first time I strolled up this glen with my
+fishing-rod, and tell me that you were my former keeper, and that Alice
+had been my little playfellow? And what could there be more natural,
+than that I should come back and see two such agreeable persons as often
+as I could?”
+
+“Yes,” said Dame Deborah; “but I did not bid you fall in love with us,
+though, or propose such a matter as marriage either to Alice or myself.”
+
+“To do you justice, you never did, Deborah,” answered the youth; “but
+what of that? Such things will come out before one is aware. I am sure
+you must have heard such proposals fifty times when you least expected
+them.”
+
+“Fie, fie, fie, Master Julian Peveril,” said the governante; “I would
+have you to know that I have always so behaved myself, that the best of
+the land would have thought twice of it, and have very well considered
+both what he was going to say, and how he was going to say it, before he
+came out with such proposals to me.”
+
+“True, true, Mistress Deborah,” continued Julian; “but all the world
+hath not your discretion. Then Alice Bridgenorth is a child--a mere
+child; and one always asks a baby to be one’s little wife, you know.
+Come, I know you will forgive me. Thou wert ever the best-natured,
+kindest woman in the world; and you know you have said twenty times we
+were made for each other.”
+
+“Oh no, Master Julian Peveril; no, no, no!” ejaculated Deborah. “I may
+indeed have said your estates were born to be united; and to be sure it
+is natural for me, that come of the old stock of the yeomanry of Peveril
+of the Peak’s estate, to wish that it was all within the ring
+fence again; which sure enough it might be, were you to marry Alice
+Bridgenorth. But then there is the knight your father, and my lady your
+mother; and there is her father, that is half crazy with his religion;
+and her aunt that wears eternal black grogram for that unlucky Colonel
+Christian; and there is the Countess of Derby, that would serve us all
+with the same sauce if we were thinking of anything that would displease
+her. And besides all that, you have broke your word with Mistress Alice,
+and everything is over between you; and I am of opinion it is quite
+right it should be all over. And perhaps it may be, Master Julian, that
+I should have thought so a long time ago, before a child like Alice put
+it into my head; but I am so good-natured.”
+
+No flatterer like a lover, who wishes to carry his point.
+
+“You are the best-natured, kindest creature in the world, Deborah.--But
+you have never seen the ring I bought for you at Paris. Nay, I will
+put it on your finger myself;--what! your foster-son, whom you loved so
+well, and took such care of?”
+
+He easily succeeded in putting a pretty ring of gold, with a humorous
+affectation of gallantry, on the fat finger of Mistress Deborah
+Debbitch. Hers was a soul of a kind often to be met with, both among
+the lower and higher vulgar, who, without being, on a broad scale,
+accessible to bribes or corruption, are nevertheless much attached to
+perquisites, and considerably biassed in their line of duty, though
+perhaps insensibly, by the love of petty observances, petty presents,
+and trivial compliments. Mistress Debbitch turned the ring round, and
+round, and round, and at length said, in a whisper, “Well, Master Julian
+Peveril, it signifies nothing denying anything to such a young gentleman
+as you, for young gentlemen are always so obstinate! and so I may as
+well tell you, that Mistress Alice walked back from the Kirk-Truagh
+along with me, just now, and entered the house at the same time with
+myself.”
+
+“Why did you not tell me so before?” said Julian, starting up;
+“where--where is she?”
+
+“You had better ask why I tell you so _now_, Master Julian,” said Dame
+Deborah; “for, I promise you, it is against her express commands; and
+I would not have told you, had you not looked so pitiful;--but as for
+seeing you, that she will not--and she is in her own bedroom, with a
+good oak door shut and bolted upon her--that is one comfort.--And so, as
+for any breach of trust on my part--I promise you the little saucy minx
+gives it no less name--it is quite impossible.”
+
+“Do not say so, Deborah--only go--only try--tell her to hear me--tell
+her I have a hundred excuses for disobeying her commands--tell her I
+have no doubt to get over all obstacles at Martindale Castle.”
+
+“Nay, I tell you it is all in vain,” replied the Dame. “When I saw your
+cap and rod lying in the hall, I did but say, ‘There he is again,’ and
+she ran up the stairs like a young deer; and I heard key turned, and
+bolt shot, ere I could say a single word to stop her--I marvel you heard
+her not.”
+
+“It was because I am, as I ever was, an owl--a dreaming fool, who let
+all those golden minutes pass, which my luckless life holds out to me
+so rarely.--Well--tell her I go--go for ever--go where she will hear no
+more of me--where no one shall hear more of me!”
+
+“Oh, the Father!” said the dame, “hear how he talks!--What will become
+of Sir Geoffrey, and your mother, and of me, and of the Countess, if you
+were to go so far as you talk of? And what would become of poor Alice
+too? for I will be sworn she likes you better than she says, and I know
+she used to sit and look the way that you used to come up the stream,
+and now and then ask me if the morning were good for fishing. And all
+the while you were on the continent, as they call it, she scarcely
+smiled once, unless it was when she got two beautiful long letters about
+foreign parts.”
+
+“Friendship, Dame Deborah--only friendship--cold and calm remembrance
+of one who, by your kind permission, stole in on your solitude now
+and then, with news from the living world without--Once, indeed, I
+thought--but it is all over--farewell.”
+
+So saying, he covered his face with one hand, and extended the other,
+in the act of bidding adieu to Dame Debbitch, whose kind heart became
+unable to withstand the sight of his affliction.
+
+“Now, do not be in such haste,” she said; “I will go up again, and tell
+her how it stands with you, and bring her down, if it is in woman’s
+power to do it.”
+
+And so saying, she left the apartment, and ran upstairs.
+
+Julian Peveril, meanwhile, paced the apartment in great agitation,
+waiting the success of Deborah’s intercession; and she remained long
+enough absent to give us time to explain, in a short retrospect, the
+circumstances which had led to his present situation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+            Ah me! for aught that ever I could read,
+            Could ever hear by tale or history,
+            The course of true love never did run smooth!
+                                       --Midsummer Night’s Dream.
+
+The celebrated passage which we have prefixed to this chapter has, like
+most observations of the same author, its foundation in real experience.
+The period at which love is formed for the first time, and felt most
+strongly, is seldom that at which there is much prospect of its being
+brought to a happy issue. The state of artificial society opposes many
+complicated obstructions to early marriages; and the chance is very
+great, that such obstacles prove insurmountable. In fine, there are few
+men who do not look back in secret to some period of their youth, at
+which a sincere and early affection was repulsed, or betrayed, or become
+abortive from opposing circumstances. It is these little passages of
+secret history, which leave a tinge of romance in every bosom, scarce
+permitting us, even in the most busy or the most advanced period of
+life, to listen with total indifference to a tale of true love.
+
+Julian Peveril had so fixed his affections, as to insure the fullest
+share of that opposition which early attachments are so apt to
+encounter. Yet nothing so natural as that he should have done so. In
+early youth, Dame Debbitch had accidentally met with the son of her
+first patroness, and who had himself been her earliest charge, fishing
+in the little brook already noticed, which watered the valley in
+which she resided with Alice Bridgenorth. The dame’s curiosity easily
+discovered who he was; and besides the interest which persons in her
+condition usually take in the young people who have been under their
+charge, she was delighted with the opportunity to talk about former
+times--about Martindale Castle, and friends there--about Sir
+Geoffrey and his good lady--and, now and then, about Lance Outram the
+park-keeper.
+
+The mere pleasure of gratifying her inquiries, would scarce have had
+power enough to induce Julian to repeat his visits to the lonely glen;
+but Deborah had a companion--a lovely girl--bred in solitude, and in the
+quiet and unpretending tastes which solitude encourages--spirited, also,
+and inquisitive, and listening, with laughing cheek, and an eager eye,
+to every tale which the young angler brought from the town and castle.
+
+The visits of Julian to the Black Fort were only occasional--so far
+Dame Deborah showed common-sense--which was, perhaps, inspired by the
+apprehension of losing her place, in case of discovery. She had, indeed,
+great confidence in the strong and rooted belief--amounting almost to
+superstition--which Major Bridgenorth entertained, that his daughter’s
+continued health could only be insured by her continuing under the
+charge of one who had acquired Lady Peveril’s supposed skill in treating
+those subject to such ailments. This belief Dame Deborah had improved
+to the utmost of her simple cunning,--always speaking in something of an
+oracular tone, upon the subject of her charge’s health, and hinting
+at certain mysterious rules necessary to maintain it in the present
+favourable state. She had availed herself of this artifice, to procure
+for herself and Alice a separate establishment at the Black Fort; for it
+was originally Major Bridgenorth’s resolution, that his daughter and her
+governante should remain under the same roof with the sister-in-law of
+his deceased wife, the widow of the unfortunate Colonel Christian. But
+this lady was broken down with premature age, brought on by sorrow;
+and, in a short visit which Major Bridgenorth made to the island, he
+was easily prevailed on to consider her house at Kirk-Truagh, as a
+very cheerless residence for his daughter. Dame Deborah, who longed
+for domestic independence, was careful to increase this impression by
+alarming her patron’s fears on account of Alice’s health. The mansion of
+Kirk-Truagh stood, she said, much exposed to the Scottish winds, which
+could not but be cold, as they came from a country where, as she was
+assured, there was ice and snow at midsummer. In short, she prevailed,
+and was put into full possession of the Black Fort, a house which, as
+well as Kirk-Truagh, belonged formerly to Christian, and now to his
+widow.
+
+Still, however, it was enjoined on the governante and her charge, to
+visit Kirk-Truagh from time to time, and to consider themselves as
+under the management and guardianship of Mistress Christian--a state
+of subjection, the sense of which Deborah endeavoured to lessen, by
+assuming as much freedom of conduct as she possibly dared, under the
+influence, doubtless, of the same feelings of independence, which
+induced her, at Martindale Hall, to spurn the advice of Mistress
+Ellesmere.
+
+It was this generous disposition to defy control which induced her to
+procure for Alice, secretly, some means of education, which the stern
+genius of puritanism would have proscribed. She ventured to have her
+charge taught music--nay, even dancing; and the picture of the stern
+Colonel Christian trembled on the wainscot where it was suspended,
+while the sylph-like form of Alice, and the substantial person of Dame
+Deborah, executed French _chaussées_ and _borrées_, to the sound of
+a small kit, which screamed under the bow of Monsieur De Pigal, half
+smuggler, half dancing-master. This abomination reached the ears of
+the Colonel’s widow, and by her was communicated to Bridgenorth, whose
+sudden appearance in the island showed the importance he attached to the
+communication. Had she been faithless to her own cause, that had been
+the latest hour of Mrs. Deborah’s administration. But she retreated into
+her stronghold.
+
+“Dancing,” she said, “was exercise, regulated and timed by music; and it
+stood to reason, that it must be the best of all exercise for a delicate
+person, especially as it could be taken within doors, and in all states
+of the weather.”
+
+Bridgenorth listened, with a clouded and thoughtful brow, when,
+in exemplification of her doctrine, Mistress Deborah, who was no
+contemptible performer on the viol, began to jangle Sellenger’s Round,
+and desired Alice to dance an old English measure to the tune. As
+the half-bashful, half-smiling girl, about fourteen--for such was
+her age--moved gracefully to the music, the father’s eye unavoidably
+followed the light spring of her step, and marked with joy the rising
+colour in her cheek. When the dance was over, he folded her in his arms,
+smoothed her somewhat disordered locks with a father’s affectionate
+hand, smiled, kissed her brow, and took his leave, without one single
+word farther interdicting the exercise of dancing. He did not himself
+communicate the result of his visit at the Black Fort to Mrs. Christian,
+but she was not long of learning it, by the triumph of Dame Deborah on
+her next visit.
+
+“It is well,” said the stern old lady; “my brother Bridgenorth hath
+permitted you to make a Herodias of Alice, and teach her dancing. You
+have only now to find her a partner for life--I shall neither meddle nor
+make more in their affairs.”
+
+In fact, the triumph of Dame Deborah, or rather of Dame Nature, on this
+occasion, had more important effects than the former had ventured to
+anticipate; for Mrs. Christian, though she received with all formality
+the formal visits of the governante and her charge, seemed thenceforth
+so pettish with the issue of her remonstrance, upon the enormity of
+her niece dancing to a little fiddle, that she appeared to give up
+interference in her affairs, and left Dame Debbitch and Alice to manage
+both education and housekeeping--in which she had hitherto greatly
+concerned herself--much after their own pleasure.
+
+It was in this independent state that they lived, when Julian first
+visited their habitation; and he was the rather encouraged to do so by
+Dame Deborah, that she believed him to be one of the last persons in the
+world with whom Mistress Christian would have desired her niece to be
+acquainted--the happy spirit of contradiction superseding, with Dame
+Deborah, on this, as on other occasions, all consideration of the
+fitness of things. She did not act altogether without precaution
+neither. She was aware she had to guard not only against any reviving
+interest or curiosity on the part of Mistress Christian, but against the
+sudden arrival of Major Bridgenorth, who never failed once in the year
+to make his appearance at the Black Fort when least expected, and
+to remain there for a few days. Dame Debbitch, therefore, exacted of
+Julian, that his visits should be few and far between; that he should
+condescend to pass for a relation of her own, in the eyes of two
+ignorant Manx girls and a lad, who formed her establishment; and that
+he should always appear in his angler’s dress made of the simple
+_Loughtan_, or buff-coloured wool of the island, which is not subjected
+to dyeing. By these cautions, she thought his intimacy at the Black Fort
+would be entirely unnoticed, or considered as immaterial, while, in the
+meantime, it furnished much amusement to her charge and herself.
+
+This was accordingly the case during the earlier part of their
+intercourse, while Julian was a lad, and Alice a girl two or three years
+younger. But as the lad shot up to youth, and the girl to womanhood,
+even Dame Deborah Debbitch’s judgment saw danger in their continued
+intimacy. She took an opportunity to communicate to Julian who Miss
+Bridgenorth actually was, and the peculiar circumstances which placed
+discord between their fathers. He heard the story of their quarrel
+with interest and surprise, for he had only resided occasionally at
+Martindale Castle, and the subject of Bridgenorth’s quarrel with his
+father had never been mentioned in his presence. His imagination caught
+fire at the sparks afforded by this singular story; and, far from
+complying with the prudent remonstrance of Dame Deborah, and gradually
+estranging himself from the Black Fort and its fair inmate, he frankly
+declared, he considered his intimacy there, so casually commenced, as
+intimating the will of Heaven, that Alice and he were designed for each
+other, in spite of every obstacle which passion or prejudice could
+raise up betwixt them. They had been companions in infancy; and a little
+exertion of memory enabled him to recall his childish grief for the
+unexpected and sudden disappearance of his little companion, whom he was
+destined again to meet with in the early bloom of opening beauty, in a
+country which was foreign to them both.
+
+Dame Deborah was confounded at the consequences of her communication,
+which had thus blown into a flame the passion which she hoped it would
+have either prevented or extinguished. She had not the sort of head
+which resists the masculine and energetic remonstrances of passionate
+attachment, whether addressed to her on her own account, or on behalf of
+another. She lamented, and wondered, and ended her feeble opposition,
+by weeping, and sympathising, and consenting to allow the continuance of
+Julian’s visits, provided he should only address himself to Alice as a
+friend; to gain the world, she would consent to nothing more. She was
+not, however, so simple, but that she also had her forebodings of the
+designs of Providence on this youthful couple; for certainly they could
+not be more formed to be united than the good estates of Martindale and
+Moultrassie.
+
+Then came a long sequence of reflections. Martindale Castle wanted but
+some repairs to be almost equal to Chatsworth. The Hall might be allowed
+to go to ruin; or, what would be better, when Sir Geoffrey’s time came
+(for the good knight had seen service, and must be breaking now), the
+Hall would be a good dowery-house, to which my lady and Ellesmere might
+retreat; while (empress of the still-room, and queen of the pantry)
+Mistress Deborah Debbitch should reign housekeeper at the Castle, and
+extend, perhaps, the crown-matrimonial to Lance Outram, provided he was
+not become too old, too fat, or too fond of ale.
+
+Such were the soothing visions under the influence of which the dame
+connived at an attachment, which lulled also to pleasing dreams, though
+of a character so different, her charge and her visitant.
+
+The visits of the young angler became more and more frequent; and the
+embarrassed Deborah, though foreseeing all the dangers of discovery, and
+the additional risk of an explanation betwixt Alice and Julian, which
+must necessarily render their relative situation so much more delicate,
+felt completely overborne by the enthusiasm of the young lover, and was
+compelled to let matters take their course.
+
+The departure of Julian for the continent interrupted the course of
+his intimacy at the Black Fort, and while it relieved the elder of its
+inmates from much internal apprehension, spread an air of languor and
+dejection over the countenance of the younger, which, at Bridgenorth’s
+next visit to the Isle of Man, renewed all his terrors for his
+daughter’s constitutional malady.
+
+Deborah promised faithfully she should look better the next morning, and
+she kept her word. She had retained in her possession for some time a
+letter which Julian had, by some private conveyance, sent to her
+charge, for his youthful friend. Deborah had dreaded the consequences
+of delivering it as a billet-doux, but, as in the case of the dance, she
+thought there could be no harm in administering it as a remedy.
+
+It had complete effect; and next day the cheeks of the maiden had a
+tinge of the rose, which so much delighted her father, that, as he
+mounted his horse, he flung his purse into Deborah’s hand, with the
+desire she should spare nothing that could make herself and his daughter
+happy, and the assurance that she had his full confidence.
+
+This expression of liberality and confidence from a man of Major
+Bridgenorth’s reserved and cautious disposition, gave full plumage to
+Mistress Deborah’s hopes; and emboldened her not only to deliver another
+letter of Julian’s to the young lady, but to encourage more boldly and
+freely than formerly the intercourse of the lovers when Peveril returned
+from abroad.
+
+At length, in spite of all Julian’s precaution, the young Earl became
+suspicious of his frequent solitary fishing parties; and he himself, now
+better acquainted with the world than formerly, became aware that his
+repeated visits and solitary walks with a person so young and
+beautiful as Alice, might not only betray prematurely the secret of his
+attachment, but be of essential prejudice to her who was its object.
+
+Under the influence of this conviction, he abstained, for an unusual
+period, from visiting the Black Fort. But when he next indulged himself
+with spending an hour in the place where he would gladly have abode
+for ever, the altered manner of Alice--the tone in which she seemed
+to upbraid his neglect, penetrated his heart, and deprived him of
+that power of self-command, which he had hitherto exercised in their
+interviews. It required but a few energetic words to explain to Alice
+at once his feelings, and to make her sensible of the real nature of her
+own. She wept plentifully, but her tears were not all of bitterness. She
+sat passively still, and without reply, while he explained to her, with
+many an interjection, the circumstances which had placed discord between
+their families; for hitherto, all that she had known was, that Master
+Peveril, belonging to the household of the great Countess or Lady of
+Man, must observe some precautions in visiting a relative of the unhappy
+Colonel Christian. But, when Julian concluded his tale with the warmest
+protestations of eternal love, “My poor father!” she burst forth, “and
+was this to be the end of all thy precautions?--This, that the son of
+him that disgraced and banished thee, should hold such language to your
+daughter?”
+
+“You err, Alice, you err,” cried Julian eagerly. “That I hold this
+language--that the son of Peveril addresses thus the daughter of your
+father--that he thus kneels to you for forgiveness of injuries which
+passed when we were both infants, shows the will of Heaven, that in our
+affection should be quenched the discord of our parents. What else could
+lead those who parted infants on the hills of Derbyshire, to meet thus
+in the valleys of Man?”
+
+Alice, however new such a scene, and, above all, her own emotions, might
+be, was highly endowed with that exquisite delicacy which is imprinted
+in the female heart, to give warning of the slightest approach to
+impropriety in a situation like hers.
+
+“Rise, rise, Master Peveril,” she said; “do not do yourself and me this
+injustice--we have done both wrong--very wrong; but my fault was done in
+ignorance. O God! my poor father, who needs comfort so much--is it for
+me to add to his misfortunes? Rise!” she added more firmly; “if you
+retain this unbecoming posture any longer, I will leave the room and you
+shall never see me more.”
+
+The commanding tone of Alice overawed the impetuosity of her lover, who
+took in silence a seat removed to some distance from hers, and was again
+about to speak. “Julian,” said she in a milder tone, “you have spoken
+enough, and more than enough. Would you had left me in the pleasing
+dream in which I could have listened to you for ever! but the hour of
+wakening is arrived.” Peveril waited the prosecution of her speech as a
+criminal while he waits his doom; for he was sufficiently sensible that
+an answer, delivered not certainly without emotion, but with firmness
+and resolution, was not to be interrupted. “We have done wrong,” she
+repeated, “very wrong; and if we now separate for ever, the pain we may
+feel will be but a just penalty for our error. We should never have met:
+meeting, we should part as soon as possible. Our farther intercourse
+can but double our pain at parting. Farewell, Julian; and forget we ever
+have seen each other!”
+
+“Forget!” said Julian; “never, never. To _you_, it is easy to speak the
+word--to think the thought. To _me_, an approach to either can only be
+by utter destruction. Why should you doubt that the feud of our
+fathers, like so many of which we have heard, might be appeased by our
+friendship? You are my only friend. I am the only one whom Heaven has
+assigned to you. Why should we separate for the fault of others, which
+befell when we were but children?”
+
+“You speak in vain, Julian,” said Alice; “I pity you--perhaps I pity
+myself--indeed, I should pity myself, perhaps, the most of the two; for
+you will go forth to new scenes and new faces, and will soon forget
+me; but, I, remaining in this solitude, how shall _I_ forget?--that,
+however, is not now the question--I can bear my lot, and it commands us
+to part.”
+
+“Hear me yet a moment,” said Peveril; “this evil is not, cannot be
+remediless. I will go to my father,--I will use the intercession of my
+mother, to whom he can refuse nothing--I will gain their consent--they
+have no other child--and they must consent, or lose him for ever. Say,
+Alice, if I come to you with my parents’ consent to my suit, will you
+again say, with that tone so touching and so sad, yet so incredibly
+determined--Julian, we must part?” Alice was silent. “Cruel girl, will
+you not even deign to answer me?” said her lover.
+
+“I would refer you to my father,” said Alice, blushing and casting her
+eyes down; but instantly raising them again, she repeated, in a firmer
+and a sadder tone, “Yes, Julian, I would refer you to my father; and you
+would find that your pilot, Hope, had deceived you; and that you had but
+escaped the quicksands to fall upon the rocks.”
+
+“I would that could be tried!” said Julian. “Methinks I could persuade
+your father that in ordinary eyes our alliance is not undesirable. My
+family have fortune, rank, long descent--all that fathers look for when
+they bestow a daughter’s hand.”
+
+“All this would avail you nothing,” said Alice. “The spirit of my father
+is bent upon the things of another world; and if he listened to hear you
+out, it would be but to tell you that he spurned your offers.”
+
+“You know not--you know not, Alice,” said Julian. “Fire can soften
+iron--thy father’s heart cannot be so hard, or his prejudices so strong,
+but I shall find some means to melt him. Forbid me not--Oh, forbid me
+not at least the experiment!”
+
+“I can but advise,” said Alice; “I can forbid you nothing; for, to
+forbid, implies power to command obedience. But if you will be wise, and
+listen to me--Here, and on this spot, we part for ever!”
+
+“Not so, by Heaven!” said Julian, whose bold and sanguine temper scarce
+saw difficulty in attaining aught which he desired. “We now part,
+indeed, but it is that I may return armed with my parents’ consent. They
+desire that I should marry--in their last letters they pressed it more
+openly--they shall have their desire; and such a bride as I will present
+to them has not graced their house since the Conqueror gave it origin.
+Farewell, Alice! Farewell, for a brief space!”
+
+She replied, “Farewell, Julian! Farewell for ever!”
+
+Julian, within a week of this interview, was at Martindale Castle, with
+the view of communicating his purpose. But the task which seems easy at
+a distance, proves as difficult, upon a nearer approach, as the fording
+of a river, which from afar appeared only a brook. There lacked not
+opportunities of entering upon the subject; for in the first ride which
+he took with his father, the Knight resumed the subject of his son’s
+marriage, and liberally left the lady to his choice; but under the
+strict proviso, that she was of a loyal and an honourable family;--if
+she had fortune, it was good and well, or rather, it was better than
+well; but if she was poor, why, “there is still some picking,” said Sir
+Geoffrey, “on the bones of the old estate; and Dame Margaret and I will
+be content with the less, that you young folks may have your share of
+it. I am turned frugal already, Julian. You see what a north-country
+shambling bit of a Galloway nag I ride upon--a different beast, I wot,
+from my own old Black Hastings, who had but one fault, and that was his
+wish to turn down Moultrassie avenue.”
+
+“Was that so great a fault?” said Julian, affecting indifference, while
+his heart was trembling, as it seemed to him, almost in his very throat.
+
+“It used to remind me of that base, dishonourable Presbyterian fellow,
+Bridgenorth,” said Sir Geoffrey; “and I would as lief think of a
+toad:--they say he has turned Independent, to accomplish the full degree
+of rascality.--I tell you, Gill, I turned off the cow-boy, for gathering
+nuts in his woods--I would hang a dog that would so much as kill a hare
+there.--But what is the matter with you? You look pale.”
+
+Julian made some indifferent answer, but too well understood, from the
+language and tone which his father used, that his prejudices against
+Alice’s father were both deep and envenomed, as those of country
+gentlemen often become, who, having little to do or think of, are but
+too apt to spend their time in nursing and cherishing petty causes of
+wrath against their next neighbours.
+
+In the course of the same day, he mentioned the Bridgenorth to his
+mother, as if in a casual manner. But the Lady Peveril instantly
+conjured him never to mention the name, especially in his father’s
+presence.
+
+“Was that Major Bridgenorth, of whom I have heard the name mentioned,”
+ said Julian, “so very bad a neighbour?”
+
+“I do not say so,” said Lady Peveril; “nay, we were more than once
+obliged to him, in the former unhappy times; but your father and he took
+some passages so ill at each other’s hands, that the least allusion
+to him disturbs Sir Geoffrey’s temper, in a manner quite unusual, and
+which, now that his health is somewhat impaired, is sometimes alarming
+to me. For Heaven’s sake, then, my dear Julian, avoid upon all occasions
+the slightest allusion to Moultrassie, or any of its inhabitants.”
+
+This warning was so seriously given, that Julian himself saw that
+mentioning his secret purpose would be the sure way to render it
+abortive, and therefore he returned disconsolate to the Isle.
+
+Peveril had the boldness, however, to make the best he could of what had
+happened, by requesting an interview with Alice, in order to inform her
+what had passed betwixt his parents and him on her account. It was with
+great difficulty that this boon was obtained; and Alice Bridgenorth
+showed no slight degree of displeasure, when she discovered, after much
+circumlocution, and many efforts to give an air of importance to what
+he had to communicate, that all amounted but to this, that Lady
+Peveril continued to retain a favourable opinion of her father, Major
+Bridgenorth, which Julian would fain have represented as an omen of
+their future more perfect reconciliation.
+
+“I did not think you would thus have trifled with me, Master Peveril,”
+ said Alice, assuming an air of dignity; “but I will take care to avoid
+such intrusion in future--I request you will not again visit the Black
+Fort; and I entreat of you, good Mistress Debbitch, that you will no
+longer either encourage or permit this gentleman’s visits, as the result
+of such persecution will be to compel me to appeal to my aunt and father
+for another place of residence, and perhaps also for another and more
+prudent companion.”
+
+This last hint struck Mistress Deborah with so much terror, that she
+joined her ward in requiring and demanding Julian’s instant absence,
+and he was obliged to comply with their request. But the courage of
+a youthful lover is not easily subdued; and Julian, after having gone
+through the usual round of trying to forget his ungrateful mistress, and
+entertaining his passion with augmented violence, ended by the visit to
+the Black Fort, the beginning of which we narrated in the last chapter.
+
+We then left him anxious for, yet almost fearful of, an interview with
+Alice, which he prevailed upon Deborah to solicit; and such was the
+tumult of his mind, that, while he traversed the parlour, it seemed
+to him that the dark melancholy eyes of the slaughtered Christian’s
+portrait followed him wherever he went, with the fixed, chill, and
+ominous glance, which announced to the enemy of his race mishap and
+misfortune.
+
+The door of the apartment opened at length, and these visions were
+dissipated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+         Parents have flinty hearts! No tears can move them.
+                                                       --OTWAY.
+
+When Alice Bridgenorth at length entered the parlour where her anxious
+lover had so long expected her, it was with a slow step, and a composed
+manner. Her dress was arranged with an accurate attention to form, which
+at once enhanced the appearance of its puritanic simplicity, and struck
+Julian as a bad omen; for although the time bestowed upon the toilet
+may, in many cases, intimate the wish to appear advantageously at such
+an interview, yet a ceremonious arrangement of attire is very much
+allied with formality, and a preconceived determination to treat a lover
+with cold politeness.
+
+The sad-coloured gown--the pinched and plaited cap, which carefully
+obscured the profusion of long dark-brown hair--the small ruff, and the
+long sleeves, would have appeared to great disadvantage on a shape less
+graceful than Alice Bridgenorth’s; but an exquisite form, though not, as
+yet, sufficiently rounded in the outlines to produce the perfection
+of female beauty, was able to sustain and give grace even to this
+unbecoming dress. Her countenance, fair and delicate, with eyes of
+hazel, and a brow of alabaster, had, notwithstanding, less regular
+beauty than her form, and might have been justly subjected to criticism.
+There was, however, a life and spirit in her gaiety, and a depth of
+sentiment in her gravity, which made Alice, in conversation with the
+very few persons with whom she associated, so fascinating in her manners
+and expression, whether of language or countenance--so touching, also,
+in her simplicity and purity of thought, that brighter beauties might
+have been overlooked in her company. It was no wonder, therefore, that
+an ardent character like Julian, influenced by these charms, as well as
+by the secrecy and mystery attending his intercourse with Alice, should
+prefer the recluse of the Black Fort to all others with whom he had
+become acquainted in general society.
+
+His heart beat high as she came into the apartment, and it was almost
+without an attempt to speak that his profound obeisance acknowledged her
+entrance.
+
+“This is a mockery, Master Peveril,” said Alice, with an effort to speak
+firmly, which yet was disconcerted by a slightly tremulous inflection
+of voice--“a mockery, and a cruel one. You come to this lone place,
+inhabited only by two women, too simple to command your absence--too
+weak to enforce it--you come, in spite of my earnest request--to
+the neglect of your own time--to the prejudice, I may fear, of my
+character--you abuse the influence you possess over the simple person
+to whom I am entrusted--All this you do, and think to make up by low
+reverences and constrained courtesy! Is this honourable, or is it
+fair?--Is it,” she added, after a moment’s hesitation--“is it kind?”
+
+The tremulous accent fell especially on the last word she uttered, and
+it was spoken in a low tone of gentle reproach, which went to Julian’s
+heart.
+
+“If,” said he, “there was a mode by which, at the peril of my life,
+Alice, I could show my regard--my respect--my devoted tenderness--the
+danger would be dearer to me than ever was pleasure.”
+
+“You have said such things often,” said Alice, “and they are such as I
+ought not to hear, and do not desire to hear. I have no tasks to impose
+on you--no enemies to be destroyed--no need or desire of protection--no
+wish, Heaven knows, to expose you to danger--It is your visits here
+alone to which danger attaches. You have but to rule your own wilful
+temper--to turn your thoughts and your cares elsewhere, and I can have
+nothing to ask--nothing to wish for. Use your own reason--consider the
+injury you do yourself--the injustice you do us--and let me, once
+more, in fair terms, entreat you to absent yourself from this
+place--till--till----”
+
+She paused, and Julian eagerly interrupted her.--“Till when,
+Alice?--till when?--impose on me any length of absence which your
+severity can inflict, short of a final separation--Say, Begone for
+years, but return when these years are over; and, slow and wearily as
+they must pass away, still the thought that they must at length have
+their period, will enable me to live through them. Let me, then, conjure
+thee, Alice, to name a date--to fix a term--to say till _when!_”
+
+“Till you can bear to think of me only as a friend and sister.”
+
+“That is a sentence of eternal banishment indeed!” said Julian; “it
+is seeming, no doubt, to fix a term of exile, but attaching to it an
+impossible condition.”
+
+“And why impossible, Julian?” said Alice, in a tone of persuasion; “were
+we not happier ere you threw the mask from your own countenance, and
+tore the veil from my foolish eyes? Did we not meet with joy, spend our
+time happily, and part cheerily, because we transgressed no duty, and
+incurred no self-reproach? Bring back that state of happy ignorance, and
+you shall have no reason to call me unkind. But while you form schemes
+which I know to be visionary, and use language of such violence and
+passion, you shall excuse me if I now, and once for all, declare, that
+since Deborah shows herself unfit for the trust reposed in her, and
+must needs expose me to persecutions of this nature, I will write to
+my father, that he may fix me another place of residence; and in the
+meanwhile I will take shelter with my aunt at Kirk-Truagh.”
+
+“Hear me, unpitying girl,” said Peveril, “hear me, and you shall see how
+devoted I am to obedience, in all that I can do to oblige you! You say
+you were happy when we spoke not on such topics--well--at all expense of
+my own suppressed feelings, that happy period shall return. I will meet
+you--walk with you--read with you--but only as a brother would with his
+sister, or a friend with his friend; the thoughts I may nourish, be they
+of hope or of despair, my tongue shall not give birth to, and therefore
+I cannot offend; Deborah shall be ever by your side, and her presence
+shall prevent my even hinting at what might displease you--only do not
+make a crime to me of those thoughts which are the dearest part of
+my existence; for believe me it were better and kinder to rob me of
+existence itself.”
+
+“This is the mere ecstasy of passion, Julian,” answered Alice
+Bridgenorth; “that which is unpleasant, our selfish and stubborn
+will represents as impossible. I have no confidence in the plan you
+propose--no confidence in your resolution, and less than none in the
+protection of Deborah. Till you can renounce, honestly and explicitly,
+the wishes you have lately expressed, we must be strangers;--and could
+you renounce them even at this moment, it were better that we should
+part for a long time; and, for Heaven’s sake, let it be as soon as
+possible--perhaps it is even now too late to prevent some unpleasant
+accident--I thought I heard a noise.”
+
+“It was Deborah,” answered Julian. “Be not afraid, Alice; we are secure
+against surprise.”
+
+“I know not,” said Alice, “what you mean by such security--I have
+nothing to hide. I sought not this interview; on the contrary, averted
+it as long as I could--and am now most desirous to break it off.”
+
+“And wherefore, Alice, since you say it must be our last? Why should you
+shake the sand which is passing so fast? the very executioner hurries
+not the prayers of the wretches upon the scaffold.--And see you not--I
+will argue as coldly as you can desire--see you not that you are
+breaking your own word, and recalling the hope which yourself held out
+to me?”
+
+“What hope have I suggested? What word have I given, Julian?” answered
+Alice. “You yourself build wild hopes in the air, and accuse me of
+destroying what had never any earthly foundation. Spare yourself,
+Julian--spare me--and in mercy to us both depart, and return not again
+till you can be more reasonable.”
+
+“Reasonable?” replied Julian; “it is you, Alice, who will deprive me
+altogether of reason. Did you not say, that if our parents could be
+brought to consent to our union, you would no longer oppose my suit?”
+
+“No--no--no,” said Alice eagerly, and blushing deeply,--“I did not say
+so, Julian--it was your own wild imagination which put construction on
+my silence and my confusion.”
+
+“You do _not_ say so, then?” answered Julian; “and if all other
+obstacles were removed, I should find one in the cold flinty bosom of
+her who repays the most devoted and sincere affection with contempt and
+dislike?--Is that,” he added, in a deep tone of feeling--“is that what
+Alice Bridgenorth says to Julian Peveril?”
+
+“Indeed--indeed, Julian,” said the almost weeping girl, “I do not say
+so--I say nothing, and I ought not to say anything concerning what
+I might do, in a state of things which can never take place. Indeed,
+Julian, you ought not thus to press me. Unprotected as I am--wishing you
+well--very well--why should you urge me to say or do what would lessen
+me in my own eyes? to own affection for one from whom fate has separated
+me for ever? It is ungenerous--it is cruel--it is seeking a momentary
+and selfish gratification to yourself, at the expense of every feeling
+which I ought to entertain.”
+
+“You have said enough, Alice,” said Julian, with sparkling eyes; “you
+have said enough in deprecating my urgency, and I will press you no
+farther. But you overrate the impediments which lie betwixt us--they
+must and shall give way.”
+
+“So you said before,” answered Alice, “and with what probability, your
+own account may show. You dared not to mention the subject to your own
+father--how should you venture to mention it to mine?”
+
+“That I will soon enable you to decide upon. Major Bridgenorth, by my
+mother’s account, is a worthy and an estimable man. I will remind him,
+that to my mother’s care he owes the dearest treasure and comfort of his
+life; and I will ask him if it is a just retribution to make that mother
+childless. Let me but know where to find him, Alice, and you shall soon
+hear if I have feared to plead my cause with him.”
+
+“Alas!” answered Alice, “you well know my uncertainty as to my dear
+father’s residence. How often has it been my earnest request to him that
+he would let me share his solitary abode, or his obscure wanderings!
+But the short and infrequent visits which he makes to this house are all
+that he permits me of his society. Something I might surely do, however
+little, to alleviate the melancholy by which he is oppressed.”
+
+“Something we might both do,” said Peveril. “How willingly would I aid
+you in so pleasing a task! All old griefs should be forgotten--all
+old friendships revived. My father’s prejudices are those of an
+Englishman--strong, indeed, but not insurmountable by reason. Tell me,
+then, where Major Bridgenorth is, and leave the rest to me; or let me
+but know by what address your letters reach him, and I will forthwith
+essay to discover his dwelling.”
+
+“Do not attempt it, I charge you,” said Alice. “He is already a man of
+sorrows; and what would he think were I capable of entertaining a suit
+so likely to add to them? Besides, I could not tell you, if I would,
+where he is now to be found. My letters reach him from time to time, by
+means of my aunt Christian; but of his address I am entirely ignorant.”
+
+“Then, by Heaven,” answered Julian, “I will watch his arrival in this
+island, and in this house; and ere he has locked thee in his arms, he
+shall answer to me on the subject of my suit.”
+
+“Then demand that answer now,” said a voice from without the door, which
+was at the same time slowly opened--“Demand that answer now, for here
+stands Ralph Bridgenorth.”
+
+As he spoke, he entered the apartment with his usual slow and sedate
+step--raised his flapp’d and steeple-crowned hat from his brows, and,
+standing in the midst of the room, eyed alternately his daughter and
+Julian Peveril with a fixed and penetrating glance.
+
+“Father!” said Alice, utterly astonished, and terrified besides, by his
+sudden appearance at such a conjuncture,--“Father, I am not to blame.”
+
+“Of that anon, Alice,” said Bridgenorth; “meantime retire to your
+apartment--I have that to say to this youth which will not endure your
+presence.”
+
+“Indeed--indeed, father,” said Alice, alarmed at what she supposed these
+words indicated, “Julian is as little to be blamed as I! It was chance,
+it was fortune, which caused our meeting together.” Then suddenly
+rushing forward, she threw her arms around her father, saying, “Oh, do
+him no injury--he meant no wrong! Father, you were wont to be a man of
+reason and religious peace.”
+
+“And wherefore should I not be so now, Alice?” said Bridgenorth, raising
+his daughter from the ground, on which she had almost sunk in the
+earnestness of her supplication. “Dost thou know aught, maiden, which
+should inflame my anger against this young man, more than reason
+or religion may bridle? Go--go to thy chamber. Compose thine own
+passions--learn to rule these--and leave it to me to deal with this
+stubborn young man.”
+
+Alice arose, and, with her eyes fixed on the ground, retired slowly from
+the apartment. Julian followed her steps with his eyes till the last
+wave of her garment was visible at the closing door; then turned his
+looks to Major Bridgenorth, and then sunk them on the ground. The Major
+continued to regard him in profound silence; his looks were melancholy
+and even austere; but there was nothing which indicated either agitation
+or keen resentment. He motioned to Julian to take a seat, and assumed
+one himself. After which he opened the conversation in the following
+manner:--
+
+“You seemed but now, young gentleman, anxious to learn where I was to
+be found. Such I at least conjectured, from the few expressions which I
+chanced to overhear; for I made bold, though it may be contrary to the
+code of modern courtesy, to listen a moment or two, in order to gather
+upon what subject so young a man as you entertained so young a woman as
+Alice, in a private interview.”
+
+“I trust, sir,” said Julian, rallying spirits in what he felt to be a
+case of extremity, “you have heard nothing on my part which has given
+offence to a gentleman, whom, though unknown, I am bound to respect so
+highly.”
+
+“On the contrary,” said Bridgenorth, with the same formal gravity, “I am
+pleased to find that your business is, or appears to be, with me,
+rather than with my daughter. I only think you had done better to have
+entrusted it to me in the first instance, as my sole concern.”
+
+The utmost sharpness of attention which Julian applied, could not
+discover if Bridgenorth spoke seriously or ironically to the above
+purpose. He was, however, quick-witted beyond his experience, and
+was internally determined to endeavour to discover something of the
+character and the temper of him with whom he spoke. For that purpose,
+regulating his reply in the same tone with Bridgenorth’s observation, he
+said, that not having the advantage to know his place of residence, he
+had applied for information to his daughter.
+
+“Who is now known to you for the first time?” said Bridgenorth. “Am I so
+to understand you?”
+
+“By no means,” answered Julian, looking down; “I have been known to your
+daughter for many years; and what I wished to say, respects both her
+happiness and my own.”
+
+“I must understand you,” said Bridgenorth, “even as carnal men
+understand each other on the matters of this world. You are attached to
+my daughter by the cords of love; I have long known this.”
+
+“You, Master Bridgenorth?” exclaimed Peveril--“_You_ have long known
+it?”
+
+“Yes, young man. Think you, that as the father of an only child, I could
+have suffered Alice Bridgenorth--the only living pledge of her who is
+now an angel in heaven--to have remained in this seclusion without the
+surest knowledge of all her material actions? I have, in person, seen
+more, both of her and of you, than you could be aware of; and
+when absent in the body, I had the means of maintaining the same
+superintendence. Young man, they say that such love as you entertain for
+my daughter teaches much subtilty; but believe not that it can overreach
+the affection which a widowed father bears to an only child.”
+
+“If,” said Julian, his heart beating thick and joyfully, “if you have
+known this intercourse so long, may I not hope that it has not met your
+disapprobation?”
+
+The Major paused for an instant, and then answered, “In some respects,
+certainly not. Had it done so--had there seemed aught on your side, or
+on my daughter’s, to have rendered your visits here dangerous to her,
+or displeasing to me, she had not been long the inhabitant of this
+solitude, or of this island. But be not so hasty as to presume, that
+all which you may desire in this matter can be either easily or speedily
+accomplished.”
+
+“I foresee, indeed, difficulties,” answered Julian; “but with your
+kind acquiescence, they are such as I trust to remove. My father is
+generous--my mother is candid and liberal. They loved you once; I trust
+they will love you again. I will be the mediator betwixt you--peace and
+harmony shall once more inhabit our neighbourhood, and----”
+
+Bridgenorth interrupted him with a grim smile; for such it seemed, as it
+passed over a face of deep melancholy. “My daughter well said, but short
+while past, that you were a dreamer of dreams--an architect of plans and
+hopes fantastic as the visions of the night. It is a great thing you
+ask of me;--the hand of my only child--the sum of my worldly substance,
+though that is but dross in comparison. You ask the key of the only
+fountain from which I may yet hope to drink one pleasant draught; you
+ask to be the sole and absolute keeper of my earthly happiness--and what
+have you offered, or what have you to offer in return, for the surrender
+you require of me?”
+
+“I am but too sensible,” said Peveril, abashed at his own hasty
+conclusions, “how difficult it may be.”
+
+“Nay, but interrupt me not,” replied Bridgenorth, “till I show you the
+amount of what you offer me in exchange for a boon, which, whatever may
+be its intrinsic value, is earnestly desired by you, and comprehends all
+that is valuable on earth which I have it in my power to bestow. You may
+have heard that in the late times I was the antagonist of your father’s
+principles and his profane faction, but not the enemy of his person.”
+
+“I have ever heard,” replied Julian, “much the contrary; and it was but
+now that I reminded you that you had been his friend.”
+
+“Ay. When he was in affliction and I in prosperity, I was neither
+unwilling, nor altogether unable, to show myself such. Well, the tables
+are turned--the times are changed. A peaceful and unoffending man
+might have expected from a neighbour, now powerful in his turn, such
+protection, when walking in the paths of the law, as all men, subjects
+of the same realm, have a right to expect even from perfect strangers.
+What chances? I pursue, with the warrant of the King and law, a
+murderess, bearing on her hand the blood of my near connection, and I
+had, in such a case, a right to call on every liege subject to render
+assistance to the execution. My late friendly neighbour, bound, as a man
+and a magistrate, to give ready assistance to a legal action--bound,
+as a grateful and obliged friend, to respect my rights and my
+person--thrusts himself betwixt me--me, the avenger of blood--and my
+lawful captive; beats me to the earth, at once endangering my life, and,
+in mere human eyes, sullying mine honour; and under his protection, the
+Midianitish woman reaches, like a sea-eagle, the nest which she hath
+made in the wave-surrounded rocks, and remains there till gold, duly
+administered at Court, wipes out all memory of her crime, and baffles
+the vengeance due to the memory of the best and bravest of men.--But,”
+ he added, apostrophising the portrait of Christian, “thou art not
+yet forgotten, my fair-haired William! The vengeance which dogs thy
+murderess is slow,--but it is sure!”
+
+There was a pause of some moments, which Julian Peveril, willing to hear
+to what conclusion Major Bridgenorth was finally to arrive, did not
+care to interrupt. Accordingly, in a few minutes, the latter
+proceeded.--“These things,” he said, “I recall not in bitterness, so far
+as they are personal to me--I recall them not in spite of heart, though
+they have been the means of banishing me from my place of residence,
+where my fathers dwelt, and where my earthly comforts lie interred. But
+the public cause sets further strife betwixt your father and me. Who so
+active as he to execute the fatal edict of black St. Bartholomew’s day,
+when so many hundreds of gospel-preachers were expelled from house and
+home--from hearth and altar--from church and parish, to make room for
+belly-gods and thieves? Who, when a devoted few of the Lord’s people
+were united to lift the fallen standard, and once more advance the
+good cause, was the readiest to break their purpose--to search for,
+persecute, and apprehend them? Whose breath did I feel warm on my
+neck--whose naked sword was thrust within a foot of my body, whilst
+I lurked darkling, like a thief in concealment, in the house of my
+fathers?--It was Geoffrey Peveril’s--it was your father’s!--What can
+you answer to all this, or how can you reconcile it with your present
+wishes?
+
+“These things I point out to you, Julian, that I may show you how
+impossible, in the eyes of a merely worldly man, would be the union
+which you are desirous of. But Heaven hath at times opened a door, where
+man beholds no means of issue. Julian, your mother, for one to whom the
+truth is unknown, is, after the fashion of the world, one of the best,
+and one of the wisest of women; and Providence, which gave her so fair a
+form, and tenanted that form with a mind as pure as the original frailty
+of our vile nature will permit, means not, I trust, that she shall
+continue to the end to be a vessel of wrath and perdition. Of your
+father I say nothing--he is what the times and example of others, and
+the counsels of his lordly priest, have made him; and of him, once more,
+I say nothing, save that I have power over him, which ere now he might
+have felt, but that there is one within his chambers, who might have
+suffered in his suffering. Nor do I wish to root up your ancient family.
+If I prize not your boast of family honours and pedigree, I would not
+willingly destroy them; more than I would pull down a moss-grown tower,
+or hew to the ground an ancient oak, save for the straightening of
+the common path, and advantage of the public. I have, therefore, no
+resentment against the humbled House of Peveril--nay, I have regard to
+it in its depression.”
+
+He here made a second pause, as if he expected Julian to say something.
+But notwithstanding the ardour with which the young man had pressed his
+suit, he was too much trained in ideas of the importance of his family,
+and in the better habit of respect for his parents, to hear, without
+displeasure, some part of Bridgenorth’s discourse.
+
+“The House of Peveril,” he replied, “was never humbled.”
+
+“Had you said the sons of that House had never been _humble_,” answered
+Bridgenorth, “you would have come nearer the truth.--Are _you_
+not humbled? Live you not here, the lackey of a haughty woman, the
+play-companion of an empty youth? If you leave this Isle, and go to the
+Court of England, see what regard will there be paid to the old pedigree
+that deduces your descent from kings and conquerors. A scurril or
+obscene jest, an impudent carriage, a laced cloak, a handful of gold,
+and the readiness to wager it on a card, or a die, will better advance
+you at the Court of Charles, than your father’s ancient name, and
+slavish devotion of blood and fortune to the cause of _his_ father.”
+
+“That is, indeed, but too probable,” said Peveril; “but the Court shall
+be no element of mine. I will live like my fathers, among my people,
+care for their comforts, decide their differences----”
+
+“Build Maypoles, and dance around them,” said Bridgenorth, with another
+of those grim smiles which passed over his features like the light of
+a sexton’s torch, as it glares and is reflected by the window of the
+church, when he comes from locking a funeral vault. “No, Julian,
+these are not times in which, by the dreaming drudgery of a country
+magistrate, and the petty cares of a country proprietor, a man can serve
+his unhappy country. There are mighty designs afloat, and men are called
+to make their choice betwixt God and Baal. The ancient superstition--the
+abomination of our fathers--is raising its head, and flinging abroad its
+snares, under the protection of the princes of the earth; but she raises
+not her head unmarked or unwatched; the true English hearts are as
+thousands, which wait but a signal to arise as one man, and show the
+kings of the earth that they have combined in vain! We will cast their
+cords from us--the cup of their abominations we will not taste.”
+
+“You speak in darkness, Master Bridgenorth,” said Peveril. “Knowing so
+much of me, you may, perhaps, also be aware, that I at least have
+seen too much of the delusions of Rome, to desire that they should be
+propagated at home.”
+
+“Else, wherefore do I speak to thee friendly and so free?” said
+Bridgenorth. “Do I not know, with what readiness of early wit you
+baffled the wily attempts of the woman’s priest, to seduce thee from the
+Protestant faith? Do I not know, how thou wast beset when abroad, and
+that thou didst both hold thine own faith, and secure the wavering
+belief of thy friend? Said I not, this was done like the son of Margaret
+Peveril? Said I not, he holdeth, as yet, but the dead letter--but the
+seed which is sown shall one day sprout and quicken?--Enough, however,
+of this. For to-day this is thy habitation. I will see in thee neither
+the servant of the daughter of Eshbaal, nor the son of him who pursued
+my life, and blemished my honours; but thou shalt be to me, for this
+day, as the child of her, without whom my house had been extinct.”
+
+So saying, he stretched out his thin, bony hand, and grasped that of
+Julian Peveril; but there was such a look of mourning in his welcome,
+that whatever delight the youth anticipated, spending so long a time
+in the neighbourhood of Alice Bridgenorth, perhaps in her society,
+or however strongly he felt the prudence of conciliating her father’s
+good-will, he could not help feeling as if his heart was chilled in his
+company.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+           This day at least is friendship’s--on the morrow
+           Let strife come an she will.
+                                                       --OTWAY.
+
+Deborah Debbitch, summoned by her master, now made her appearance, with
+her handkerchief at her eyes, and an appearance of great mental trouble.
+“It was not my fault, Major Bridgenorth,” she said; “how could I help
+it? like will to like--the boy would come--the girl would see him.”
+
+“Peace, foolish woman,” said Bridgenorth, “and hear what I have got to
+say.”
+
+“I know what your honour has to say well enough,” said Deborah.
+“Service, I wot, is no inheritance nowadays--some are wiser than other
+some--if I had not been wheedled away from Martindale, I might have had
+a house of mine own by this time.”
+
+“Peace, idiot!” said Bridgenorth; but so intent was Deborah on her
+vindication, that he could but thrust the interjection, as it were
+edgewise, between her exclamations, which followed as thick as is usual
+in cases, where folks endeavour to avert deserved censure by a clamorous
+justification ere the charge be brought.
+
+“No wonder she was cheated,” she said, “out of sight of her own
+interest, when it was to wait on pretty Miss Alice. All your honour’s
+gold should never have tempted me, but that I knew she was but a dead
+castaway, poor innocent, if she were taken away from my lady or me.--And
+so this is the end on’t!--up early, and down late--and this is all my
+thanks!--But your honour had better take care what you do--she has the
+short cough yet sometimes--and should take physic, spring and fall.”
+
+“Peace, chattering fool!” said her master, so soon as her failing breath
+gave him an opportunity to strike in, “thinkest thou I knew not of
+this young gentleman’s visits to the Black Fort, and that, if they had
+displeased me, I would not have known how to stop them?”
+
+“Did I know that your honour knew of his visits!” exclaimed Deborah, in
+a triumphant tone,--for, like most of her condition, she never
+sought farther for her defence than a lie, however inconsistent and
+improbable--“_Did_ I know that your honour knew of it!--Why, how should
+I have permitted his visits else? I wonder what your honour takes me
+for! Had I not been sure it was the thing in this world that your honour
+most desired would I have presumed to lend it a hand forward? I trust
+I know my duty better. Hear if I ever asked another youngster into
+the house, save himself--for I knew your honour was wise, and quarrels
+cannot last for ever, and love begins where hatred ends; and, to be
+sure, they love as if they were born one for the other--and then, the
+estates of Moultrassie and Martindale suit each other like sheath and
+knife.”
+
+“Parrot of a woman, hold your tongue!” said Bridgenorth, his patience
+almost completely exhausted; “or, if you will prate, let it be to
+your playfellows in the kitchen, and bid them get ready some dinner
+presently, for Master Peveril is far from home.”
+
+“That I will, and with all my heart,” said Deborah; “and if there are
+a pair of fatter fowls in Man than shall clap their wings on the table
+presently, your honour shall call me goose as well as parrot.” She then
+left the apartment.
+
+“It is to such a woman as that,” said Bridgenorth, looking after her
+significantly, “that you conceived me to have abandoned the charge of
+my only child! But enough of this subject--we will walk abroad, if you
+will, while she is engaged in a province fitter for her understanding.”
+
+So saying, he left the house, accompanied by Julian Peveril, and they
+were soon walking side by side, as if they had been old acquaintances.
+
+It may have happened to many of our readers, as it has done to
+ourselves, to be thrown by accident into society with some individual
+whose claims to what is called a _serious_ character stand considerably
+higher than our own, and with whom, therefore, we have conceived
+ourselves likely to spend our time in a very stiff and constrained
+manner; while, on the other hand, our destined companion may have
+apprehended some disgust from the supposed levity and thoughtless gaiety
+of a disposition that when we, with that urbanity and good-humour
+which is our principal characteristic, have accommodated ourself to our
+companion, by throwing as much seriousness into our conversation as our
+habits will admit, he, on the other hand, moved by our liberal
+example, hath divested his manners of part of their austerity; and our
+conversation has, in consequence, been of that pleasant texture, betwixt
+the useful and agreeable, which best resembles “the fairy-web of night
+and day,” usually called in prose the twilight. It is probable
+both parties may, on such occasions, have been the better for their
+encounter, even if it went no farther than to establish for the time a
+community of feeling between men, who, separated more perhaps by
+temper than by principle, are too apt to charge each other with profane
+frivolity on the one hand, or fanaticism on the other.
+
+It fared thus in Peveril’s walk with Bridgenorth, and in the
+conversation which he held with him.
+
+Carefully avoiding the subject on which he had already spoken, Major
+Bridgenorth turned his conversation chiefly on foreign travel, and on
+the wonders he had seen in distant countries, and which he appeared to
+have marked with a curious and observant eye. This discourse made the
+time fly light away; for although the anecdotes and observations thus
+communicated were all tinged with the serious and almost gloomy spirit
+of the narrator, they yet contained traits of interest and of wonder,
+such as are usually interesting to a youthful ear, and were particularly
+so to Julian, who had, in his disposition, some cast of the romantic and
+adventurous.
+
+It appeared that Bridgenorth knew the south of France, and could tell
+many stories of the French Huguenots, who already began to sustain those
+vexations which a few years afterwards were summed up by the revocation
+of the Edict of Nantz. He had even been in Hungary, for he spoke as from
+personal knowledge of the character of several of the heads of the great
+Protestant insurrection, which at this time had taken place under the
+celebrated Tekeli; and laid down solid reasons why they were entitled to
+make common cause with the Great Turk, rather than submit to the Pope
+of Rome. He talked also of Savoy, where those of the reformed religion
+still suffered a cruel persecution; and he mentioned with a swelling
+spirit, the protection which Oliver had afforded to the oppressed
+Protestant Churches; “therein showing himself,” he added, “more fit
+to wield the supreme power, than those who, claiming it by right of
+inheritance, use it only for their own vain and voluptuous pursuits.”
+
+“I did not expect,” said Peveril modestly, “to have heard Oliver’s
+panegyric from you, Master Bridgenorth.”
+
+“I do not panegyrise him,” answered Bridgenorth; “I speak but truth of
+that extraordinary man, now being dead, whom, when alive, I feared not
+to withstand to his face. It is the fault of the present unhappy King,
+if he make us look back with regret to the days when the nation was
+respected abroad, and when devotion and sobriety were practised at
+home.--But I mean not to vex your spirit by controversy. You have
+lived amongst those who find it more easy and more pleasant to be the
+pensioners of France than her controllers--to spend the money which
+she doles out to themselves, than to check the tyranny with which she
+oppresses our poor brethren of the religion. When the scales shall fall
+from thine eyes, all this thou shalt see; and seeing, shalt learn to
+detest and despise it.”
+
+By this time they had completed their walk, and were returned to the
+Black Fort, by a different path from that which had led them up the
+valley. The exercise and the general tone of conversation had removed,
+in some degree, the shyness and embarrassment which Peveril originally
+felt in Bridgenorth’s presence and which the tenor of his first remarks
+had rather increased than diminished. Deborah’s promised banquet was
+soon on the board; and in simplicity as well as neatness and good order,
+answered the character she had claimed for it. In one respect alone,
+there seemed some inconsistency, perhaps a little affectation. Most
+of the dishes were of silver, and the plates were of the same metal;
+instead of the trenchers and pewter which Peveril had usually seen
+employed on similar occasions at the Black Fort.
+
+Presently, with the feeling of one who walks in a pleasant dream from
+which he fears to awake, and whose delight is mingled with wonder and
+with uncertainty, Julian Peveril found himself seated between Alice
+Bridgenorth and her father--the being he most loved on earth, and
+the person whom he had ever considered as the great obstacle to their
+intercourse. The confusion of his mind was such, that he could scarcely
+reply to the importunate civilities of Dame Deborah; who, seated with
+them at table in her quality of governante, now dispensed the good
+things which had been prepared under her own eye.
+
+As for Alice she seemed to have found a resolution to play the mute; for
+she answered not, excepting briefly, to the questions of Dame Debbitch;
+nay, even when her father, which happened once or twice, attempted to
+bring her forward in the conversation, she made no further reply than
+respect for him rendered absolutely necessary.
+
+Upon Bridgenorth himself, then, devolved the task of entertaining the
+company; and contrary to his ordinary habits, he did not seem to shrink
+from it. His discourse was not only easy, but almost cheerful, though
+ever and anon crossed by some expressions indicative of natural and
+habitual melancholy, or prophetic of future misfortune and woe. Flashes
+of enthusiasm, too, shot along his conversation, gleaming like the
+sheet-lightening of an autumn eve, which throws a strong, though
+momentary illumination, across the sober twilight, and all the
+surrounding objects, which, touched by it, assume a wilder and more
+striking character. In general, however, Bridgenorth’s remarks were
+plain and sensible; and as he aimed at no graces of language, any
+ornament which they received arose out of the interest with which they
+were impressed on his hearers. For example, when Deborah, in the pride
+and vulgarity of her heart, called Julian’s attention to the plate
+from which they had been eating, Bridgenorth seemed to think an apology
+necessary for such superfluous expense.
+
+“It was a symptom,” he said, “of approaching danger, when such men, as
+were not usually influenced by the vanities of life employed much money
+in ornaments composed of the precious metals. It was a sign that the
+merchant could not obtain a profit for the capital, which, for the sake
+of security, he invested in this inert form. It was a proof that the
+noblemen or gentlemen feared the rapacity of power, when they put
+their wealth into forms the most portable and the most capable of being
+hidden; and it showed the uncertainty of credit, when a man of judgment
+preferred the actual possession of a mass of a silver to the convenience
+of a goldsmith’s or a banker’s receipt. While a shadow of liberty
+remained,” he said, “domestic rights were last invaded; and, therefore,
+men disposed upon their cupboards and tables the wealth which in these
+places would remain longest, though not perhaps finally, sacred from the
+grasp of a tyrannical government. But let there be a demand for capital
+to support a profitable commerce, and the mass is at once consigned
+to the furnace, and, ceasing to be a vain and cumbrous ornament of the
+banquet, becomes a potent and active agent for furthering the prosperity
+of the country.”
+
+“In war, too,” said Peveril, “plate has been found a ready resource.”
+
+“But too much so,” answered Bridgenorth. “In the late times, the plate
+of the nobles and gentry, with that of the colleges, and the sale of
+the crown-jewels, enabled the King to make his unhappy stand, which
+prevented matters returning to a state of peace and good order,
+until the sword had attained an undue superiority both over King and
+Parliament.”
+
+He looked at Julian as he spoke, much as he who proves a horse offers
+some object suddenly to his eyes, then watches to see if he starts or
+blenches from it. But Julian’s thoughts were too much bent on other
+topics to manifest any alarm. His answer referred to a previous part of
+Bridgenorth’s discourse, and was not returned till after a brief pause.
+“War, then,” he said, “war, the grand impoverisher, is also a creator of
+wealth which it wastes and devours?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Bridgenorth, “even as the sluice brings into action the
+sleeping waters of the lake, which it finally drains. Necessity invents
+arts and discovers means; and what necessity is sterner than that of
+civil war? Therefore, even war is not in itself unmixed evil, being the
+creator of impulses and energies which could not otherwise have existed
+in society.”
+
+“Men should go to war, then,” said Peveril, “that they may send their
+silver plate to the mint, and eat from pewter dishes and wooden plates?”
+
+“Not so, my son,” said Bridgenorth. Then checking himself as he observed
+the deep crimson in Julian’s cheek and brow, he added, “I crave your
+pardon for such familiarity; but I meant not to limit what I said even
+now to such trifling consequences, although it may be something salutary
+to tear men from their pomps and luxuries, and teach those to be Romans
+who would otherwise be Sybarites. But I would say, that times of public
+danger, as they call into circulation the miser’s hoard and the proud
+man’s bullion, and so add to the circulating wealth of the country,
+do also call into action many a brave and noble spirit, which would
+otherwise lie torpid, give no example to the living, and bequeath no
+name to future ages. Society knows not, and cannot know, the mental
+treasures which slumber in her bosom, till necessity and opportunity
+call forth the statesman and the soldier from the shades of lowly
+life to the parts they are designed by Providence to perform, and the
+stations which nature had qualified them to hold. So rose Oliver--so
+rose Milton--so rose many another name which cannot be forgotten--even
+as the tempest summons forth and displays the address of the mariner.”
+
+“You speak,” said Peveril, “as if national calamity might be, in some
+sort, an advantage.”
+
+“And if it were not so,” replied Bridgenorth, “it had not existed in
+this state of trial, where all temporal evil is alleviated by something
+good in its progress or result, and where all that is good is close
+coupled with that which is in itself evil.”
+
+“It must be a noble sight,” said Julian, “to behold the slumbering
+energies of a great mind awakened into energy, and to see it assume the
+authority which is its due over spirits more meanly endowed.”
+
+“I once witnessed,” said Bridgenorth, “something to the same effect;
+and as the tale is brief, I will tell it you, if you will:--Amongst
+my wanderings, the Transatlantic settlements have not escaped me; more
+especially the country of New England, into which our native land has
+shaken from her lap, as a drunkard flings from him his treasures, so
+much that is precious in the eyes of God and of His children. There
+thousands of our best and most godly men--such whose righteousness might
+come of cities--are content to be the inhabitants of the desert, rather
+encountering the unenlightened savages, than stooping to extinguish,
+under the oppression practised in Britain, the light that is within
+their own minds. There I remained for a time, during the wars which the
+colony maintained with Philip, a great Indian Chief, or Sachem, as they
+were called, who seemed a messenger sent from Satan to buffet them.
+His cruelty was great--his dissimulation profound; and the skill
+and promptitude with which he maintained a destructive and desultory
+warfare, inflicted many dreadful calamities on the settlement. I was,
+by chance, at a small village in the woods, more than thirty miles from
+Boston, and in its situation exceedingly lonely, and surrounded with
+thickets. Nevertheless, there was no idea of any danger from the Indians
+at that time, for men trusted to the protection of a considerable body
+of troops who had taken the field for protection of the frontiers, and
+who lay, or were supposed to lie, betwixt the hamlet and the enemy’s
+country. But they had to do with a foe, whom the devil himself had
+inspired at once with cunning and cruelty. It was on a Sabbath morning,
+when we had assembled to take sweet counsel together in the Lord’s
+house. Our temple was but constructed of wooden logs; but when shall the
+chant of trained hirelings, or the sounding of tin and brass tubes amid
+the aisles of a minster, arise so sweetly to Heaven, as did the psalm in
+which we united at once our voices and our hearts! An excellent worthy,
+who now sleeps in the Lord, Nehemia Solsgrace, long the companion of
+my pilgrimage, had just begun to wrestle in prayer, when a woman,
+with disordered looks and dishevelled hair, entered our chapel in
+a distracted manner, screaming incessantly, ‘The Indians! The
+Indians!’--In that land no man dares separate himself from his means of
+defence; and whether in the city or in the field, in the ploughed land
+or the forest, men keep beside them their weapons, as did the Jews at
+the rebuilding of the Temple. So we sallied forth with our guns and
+pikes, and heard the whoop of these incarnate devils, already in
+possession of a part of the town, and exercising their cruelty on
+the few whom weighty causes or indisposition had withheld from public
+worship; and it was remarked as a judgment, that, upon that bloody
+Sabbath, Adrian Hanson, a Dutchman, a man well enough disposed towards
+man, but whose mind was altogether given to worldly gain, was shot and
+scalped as he was summing his weekly gains in his warehouse. In fine,
+there was much damage done; and although our arrival and entrance into
+combat did in some sort put them back, yet being surprised and confused,
+and having no appointed leader of our band, the devilish enemy shot
+hard at us and had some advantage. It was pitiful to hear the screams of
+women and children amid the report of guns and the whistling of bullets,
+mixed with the ferocious yells of these savages, which they term their
+war-whoop. Several houses in the upper part of the village were soon on
+fire; and the roaring of the flames, and crackling of the great beams as
+they blazed, added to the horrible confusion; while the smoke which the
+wind drove against us gave farther advantage to the enemy, who fought
+as it were, invisible, and under cover, whilst we fell fast by their
+unerring fire. In this state of confusion, and while we were about to
+adopt the desperate project of evacuating the village, and, placing the
+women and children in the centre, of attempting a retreat to the nearest
+settlement, it pleased Heaven to send us unexpected assistance. A tall
+man, of a reverend appearance, whom no one of us had ever seen before,
+suddenly was in the midst of us, as we hastily agitated the resolution
+of retreating. His garments were of the skin of the elk, and he wore
+sword and carried gun; I never saw anything more august than his
+features, overshadowed by locks of grey hair, which mingled with a long
+beard of the same colour. ‘Men and brethren,’ he said, in a voice like
+that which turns back the flight, ‘why sink your hearts? and why are
+you thus disquieted? Fear ye that the God we serve will give you up to
+yonder heathen dogs? Follow me, and you shall see this day that there is
+a captain in Israel!’ He uttered a few brief but distinct orders, in a
+tone of one who was accustomed to command; and such was the influence of
+his appearance, his mien, his language, and his presence of mind,
+that he was implicitly obeyed by men who had never seen him until that
+moment. We were hastily divided, by his orders, into two bodies; one of
+which maintained the defence of the village with more courage than ever,
+convinced that the Unknown was sent by God to our rescue. At his command
+they assumed the best and most sheltered positions for exchanging their
+deadly fire with the Indians; while, under cover of the smoke, the
+stranger sallied from the town, at the head of the other division of the
+New England men, and, fetching a circuit, attacked the Red Warriors
+in the rear. The surprise, as is usual amongst savages, had complete
+effect; for they doubted not that they were assailed in their turn, and
+placed betwixt two hostile parties by the return of a detachment from
+the provincial army. The heathens fled in confusion, abandoning the
+half-won village, and leaving behind them such a number of their
+warriors, that the tribe hath never recovered its loss. Never shall I
+forget the figure of our venerable leader, when our men, and not they
+only, but the women and children of the village, rescued from the
+tomahawk and scalping-knife, stood crowded around him, yet scarce
+venturing to approach his person, and more minded, perhaps, to worship
+him as a descended angel, than to thank him as a fellow-mortal. ‘Not
+unto me be the glory,’ he said; ‘I am but an implement, frail as
+yourselves, in the hand of Him who is strong to deliver. Bring me a cup
+of water, that I may allay my parched throat, ere I essay the task of
+offering thanks where they are most due.’ I was nearest to him as he
+spoke, and I gave into his hand the water he requested. At that moment
+we exchanged glances, and it seemed to me that I recognised a noble
+friend whom I had long since deemed in glory; but he gave me no time to
+speak, had speech been prudent. Sinking on his knees, and signing us to
+obey him, he poured forth a strong and energetic thanksgiving for the
+turning back of the battle, which, pronounced with a voice loud and
+clear as a war-trumpet, thrilled through the joints and marrow of the
+hearers. I have heard many an act of devotion in my life, had Heaven
+vouchsafed me grace to profit by them; but such a prayer as this,
+uttered amid the dead and the dying, with a rich tone of mingled triumph
+and adoration, was beyond them all--it was like the song of the inspired
+prophetess who dwelt beneath the palm-tree between Ramah and Bethel. He
+was silent; and for a brief space we remained with our faces bent to the
+earth--no man daring to lift his head. At length we looked up, but our
+deliverer was no longer amongst us; nor was he ever again seen in the
+land which he had rescued.”
+
+Here Bridgenorth, who had told this singular story with an eloquence
+and vivacity of detail very contrary to the usual dryness of his
+conversation, paused for an instant, and then resumed--“Thou seest,
+young man, that men of valour and of discretion are called forth
+to command in circumstances of national exigence, though their very
+existence is unknown in the land which they are predestined to deliver.”
+
+“But what thought the people of the mysterious stranger?” said Julian,
+who had listened with eagerness, for the story was of a kind interesting
+to the youthful and the brave.
+
+“Many things,” answered Bridgenorth, “and, as usual, little to
+the purpose. The prevailing opinion was, notwithstanding his own
+disclamation, that the stranger was really a supernatural being; others
+believed him an inspired champion, transported in the body from some
+distant climate, to show us the way to safety; others, again, concluded
+that he was a recluse, who, either from motives of piety, or other
+cogent reasons, had become a dweller in the wilderness, and shunned the
+face of man.”
+
+“And, if I may presume to ask,” said Julian, “to which of these opinions
+were you disposed to adhere?”
+
+“The last suited best with the transient though close view with which I
+had perused the stranger’s features,” replied Bridgenorth; “for although
+I dispute not that it may please Heaven, on high occasions, even to
+raise one from the dead in defence of his country, yet I doubted not
+then, as I doubt not now, that I looked on the living form of one, who
+had indeed powerful reasons to conceal him in the cleft of the rock.”
+
+“Are these reasons a secret?” said Julian Peveril.
+
+“Not properly a secret,” replied Bridgenorth; “for I fear not thy
+betraying what I might tell thee in private discourse; and besides, wert
+thou so base, the prey lies too distant for any hunters to whom thou
+couldst point out its traces. But the name of this worthy will sound
+harsh in thy ear, on account of one action of his life--being his
+accession to a great measure, which made the extreme isles of the earth
+to tremble. Have you never heard of Richard Whalley?”
+
+“Of the regicide?” exclaimed Peveril, starting.
+
+“Call his act what thou wilt,” said Bridgenorth; “he was not less the
+rescuer of that devoted village, that, with other leading spirits of the
+age, he sat in the judgment-seat when Charles Stewart was arraigned at
+the bar, and subscribed the sentence that went forth upon him.”
+
+“I have ever heard,” said Julian, in an altered voice, and colouring
+deeply, “that you, Master Bridgenorth, with other Presbyterians, were
+totally averse to that detestable crime, and were ready to have made
+joint-cause with the Cavaliers in preventing so horrible a parricide.”
+
+“If it were so,” said Bridgenorth, “we have been richly rewarded by his
+successor.”
+
+“Rewarded!” exclaimed Julian; “does the distinction of good and evil,
+and our obligation to do the one and forbear the other, depend on the
+reward which may attach to our actions?”
+
+“God forbid,” answered Bridgenorth; “yet those who view the havoc which
+this house of Stewart have made in the Church and State--the tyranny
+which they exercise over men’s persons and consciences--may well doubt
+whether it be lawful to use weapons in their defence. Yet you hear
+me not praise, or even vindicate the death of the King, though so far
+deserved, as he was false to his oath as a Prince and Magistrate. I only
+tell you what you desired to know, that Richard Whalley, one of the
+late King’s judges, was he of whom I have just been speaking. I knew
+his lofty brow, though time had made it balder and higher; his grey eye
+retained all its lustre; and though the grizzled beard covered the lower
+part of his face, it prevented me not from recognising him. The scent
+was hot after him for his blood; but by the assistance of those friends
+whom Heaven had raised up for his preservation, he was concealed
+carefully, and emerged only to do the will of Providence in the matter
+of that battle. Perhaps his voice may be heard in the field once more,
+should England need one of her noblest hearts.”
+
+“Now, God forbid!” said Julian.
+
+“Amen,” returned Bridgenorth. “May God avert civil war, and pardon those
+whose madness would bring it on us!”
+
+There was a long pause, during which Julian, who had scarce lifted his
+eyes towards Alice, stole a glance in that direction, and was struck by
+the deep cast of melancholy which had stolen over features, to which a
+cheerful, if not gay expression, was most natural. So soon as she caught
+his eye, she remarked, and, as Julian thought, with significance, that
+the shadows were lengthening, and evening coming on.
+
+He heard; and although satisfied that she hinted at his departure, he
+could not, upon the instant, find resolution to break the spell which
+detained him. The language which Bridgenorth held was not only new and
+alarming, but so contrary to the maxims in which he was brought up,
+that, as a son of Sir Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak, he would, in another
+case, have thought himself called upon to dispute its conclusions, even
+at the sword’s point. But Bridgenorth’s opinions were delivered with
+so much calmness--seemed so much the result of conviction--that they
+excited in Julian rather a spirit of wonder, than of angry controversy.
+There was a character of sober decision, and sedate melancholy, in
+all that he said, which, even had he not been the father of Alice (and
+perhaps Julian was not himself aware how much he was influenced by
+that circumstance), would have rendered it difficult to take personal
+offence. His language and sentiments were of that quiet, yet decided
+kind, upon which it is difficult either to fix controversy, or quarrel,
+although it be impossible to acquiesce in the conclusions to which they
+lead.
+
+While Julian remained, as if spell-bound to his chair, scarce more
+surprised at the company in which he found himself, than at the opinions
+to which he was listening, another circumstance reminded him that the
+proper time of his stay at Black Fort had been expended. Little Fairy,
+the Manx pony, which, well accustomed to the vicinity of Black Fort,
+used to feed near the house while her master made his visits there,
+began to find his present stay rather too long. She had been the gift
+of the Countess to Julian, whilst a youth, and came of a high-spirited
+mountain breed, remarkable alike for hardiness, for longevity, and for
+a degree of sagacity approaching to that of the dog. Fairy showed the
+latter quality, by the way in which she chose to express her impatience
+to be moving homewards. At least such seemed the purpose of the shrill
+neigh with which she startled the female inmates of the parlour, who,
+the moment afterwards, could not forbear smiling to see the nose of the
+pony advanced through the opened casement.
+
+“Fairy reminds me,” said Julian, looking to Alice, and rising, “that the
+term of my stay here is exhausted.”
+
+“Speak with me yet one moment,” said Bridgenorth, withdrawing him into
+a Gothic recess of the old-fashioned apartment, and speaking so low
+that he could not be overheard by Alice and her governante, who, in the
+meantime, caressed, and fed with fragments of bread the intruder Fairy.
+
+“You have not, after all,” said Bridgenorth, “told me the cause of your
+coming hither.” He stopped, as if to enjoy his embarrassment, and then
+added, “And indeed it were most unnecessary that you should do so. I
+have not so far forgotten the days of my youth, or those affections
+which bind poor frail humanity but too much to the things of this world.
+Will you find no words to ask of me the great boon which you seek, and
+which, peradventure, you would not have hesitated to have made your
+own, without my knowledge, and against my consent?--Nay, never vindicate
+thyself, but mark me farther. The patriarch bought his beloved by
+fourteen years’ hard service to her father Laban, and they seemed to
+him but as a few days. But he that would wed my daughter must serve,
+in comparison, but a few days; though in matters of such mighty import,
+that they shall seem as the service of many years. Reply not to me now,
+but go, and peace be with you.”
+
+He retired so quickly, after speaking, that Peveril had literally not an
+instant to reply. He cast his eyes around the apartment, but Deborah
+and her charge had also disappeared. His gaze rested for a moment on
+the portrait of Christian, and his imagination suggested that his dark
+features were illuminated by a smile of haughty triumph. He stared,
+and looked more attentively--it was but the effect of the evening beam,
+which touched the picture at the instant. The effect was gone, and there
+remained but the fixed, grave, inflexible features of the republican
+soldier.
+
+Julian left the apartment as one who walks in a dream; he mounted Fairy,
+and, agitated by a variety of thoughts, which he was unable to reduce to
+order, he returned to Castle Rushin before the night sat down.
+
+Here he found all in movement. The Countess, with her son, had, upon
+some news received, or resolution formed, during his absence, removed,
+with a principal part of their family, to the yet stronger Castle of
+Holm-Peel, about eight miles’ distance across the island; and which had
+been suffered to fall into a much more dilapidated condition than that
+of Castletown, so far as it could be considered as a place of residence.
+But as a fortress, Holm-Peel was stronger than Castletown; nay, unless
+assailed regularly, was almost impregnable; and was always held by
+a garrison belonging to the Lords of Man. Here Peveril arrived at
+nightfall. He was told in the fishing-village, that the night-bell of
+the Castle had been rung earlier than usual, and the watch set with
+circumstances of unusual and jealous repetition.
+
+Resolving, therefore, not to disturb the garrison by entering at that
+late hour, he obtained an indifferent lodging in the town for the night,
+and determined to go to the Castle early on the succeeding morning. He
+was not sorry thus to gain a few hours of solitude, to think over the
+agitating events of the preceding day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+                ----What seem’d its head,
+                The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
+                                           --PARADISE LOST.
+
+Sodor, or Holm-Peel, so is named the castle to which our Julian directed
+his course early on the following morning, is one of those extraordinary
+monuments of antiquity with which this singular and interesting island
+abounds. It occupies the whole of a high rocky peninsula, or rather
+an island, for it is surrounded by the sea at high-water, and scarcely
+accessible even when the tide is out, although a stone causeway, of
+great solidity, erected for the express purpose, connects the island
+with the mainland. The whole space is surrounded by double walls of
+great strength and thickness; and the access to the interior, at the
+time which we treat of, was only by two flights of steep and narrow
+steps, divided from each other by a strong tower and guard-house; under
+the former of which, there is an entrance-arch. The open space within
+the walls extends to two acres, and contains many objects worthy
+of antiquarian curiosity. There were besides the castle itself, two
+cathedral churches, dedicated, the earlier to St. Patrick, the latter to
+St. Germain; besides two smaller churches; all of which had become, even
+in that day, more or less ruinous. Their decayed walls, exhibiting the
+rude and massive architecture of the most remote period, were composed
+of a ragged grey-stone, which formed a singular contrast with the bright
+red freestone of which the window-cases, corner-stones, arches, and
+other ornamental parts of the building, were composed.
+
+Besides these four ruinous churches, the space of ground enclosed by the
+massive exterior walls of Holm-Peel exhibited many other vestiges of the
+olden time. There was a square mound of earth, facing, with its angles
+to the points of the compass, one of those motes, as they were called,
+on which, in ancient times, the northern tribes elected or recognised
+their chiefs, and held their solemn popular assemblies, or _comitia_.
+There was also one of those singular towers, so common in Ireland as
+to have proved the favourite theme of her antiquaries; but of which the
+real use and meaning seems yet to be hidden in the mist of ages. This
+of Holm-Peel had been converted to the purpose of a watch-tower.
+There were, besides, Runic monuments, of which legends could not be
+deciphered; and later inscriptions to the memory of champions, of
+whom the names only were preserved from oblivion. But tradition and
+superstitious eld, still most busy where real history is silent, had
+filled up the long blank of accurate information with tales of Sea-kings
+and Pirates, Hebridean Chiefs and Norwegian Resolutes, who had formerly
+warred against, and in defence of, this famous castle. Superstition,
+too, had her tales of fairies, ghosts, and spectres--her legions of
+saints and demons, of fairies and of familiar spirits, which in no
+corner of the British empire are told and received with more absolute
+credulity than in the Isle of Man.
+
+Amidst all these ruins of an older time arose the Castle itself,--now
+ruinous--but in Charles II.’s reign well garrisoned, and, in a military
+point of view, kept in complete order. It was a venerable and very
+ancient building, containing several apartments of sufficient size
+and height to be termed noble. But in the surrender of the island by
+Christian, the furniture had been, in a great measure, plundered or
+destroyed by the republican soldiers; so that, as we have before
+hinted, its present state was ill adapted for the residence of the noble
+proprietor. Yet it had been often the abode, not only of the Lords of
+Man, but of those state prisoners whom the Kings of Britain sometimes
+committed to their charge.
+
+In this Castle of Holm-Peel the great king-maker, Richard, Earl of
+Warwick, was confined, during one period of his eventful life, to
+ruminate at leisure on his farther schemes of ambition. And here, too,
+Eleanor, the haughty wife of the good Duke of Gloucester, pined out in
+seclusion the last days of her banishment. The sentinels pretended that
+her discontented spectre was often visible at night, traversing the
+battlements of the external walls, or standing motionless beside a
+particular solitary turret of one of the watch-towers with which they
+are flanked; but dissolving into air at cock-crow, or when the bell
+tolled from the yet remaining tower of St. Germain’s church.
+
+Such was Holm-Peel, as records inform us, till towards the end of the
+seventeenth century.
+
+It was in one of the lofty but almost unfurnished apartments of this
+ancient Castle that Julian Peveril found his friend the Earl of Derby,
+who had that moment sat down to a breakfast composed of various sorts
+of fish. “Welcome, most imperial Julian,” he said; “welcome to our royal
+fortress; in which, as yet, we are not like to be starved with hunger,
+though well-nigh dead for cold.”
+
+Julian answered by inquiring the meaning of this sudden movement.
+
+“Upon my word,” replied the Earl, “you know nearly as much of it as I
+do. My mother has told me nothing about it; supposing I believe, that
+I shall at length be tempted to inquire; but she will find herself much
+mistaken. I shall give her credit for full wisdom in her proceedings,
+rather than put her to the trouble to render a reason, though no woman
+can render one better.”
+
+“Come, come; this is affectation, my good friend,” said Julian. “You
+should inquire into these matters a little more curiously.”
+
+“To what purpose?” said the Earl. “To hear old stories about the Tinwald
+laws, and the contending rights of the lords and the clergy, and all
+the rest of that Celtic barbarism, which, like Burgesse’s thorough-paced
+doctrine enters at one ear, paces through, and goes out at the other?”
+
+“Come, my lord,” said Julian, “you are not so indifferent as you would
+represent yourself--you are dying of curiosity to know what this hurry
+is about; only you think it the courtly humour to appear careless about
+your own affairs.”
+
+“Why, what should it be about,” said the young Earl “unless some
+factious dispute between our Majesty’s minister, Governor Nowel, and
+our vassals? or perhaps some dispute betwixt our Majesty and the
+ecclesiastical jurisdictions? for all which our Majesty cares as little
+as any king in Christendom.”
+
+“I rather suppose there is intelligence from England,” said Julian.
+“I heard last night in Peel-town, that Greenhalgh is come over with
+unpleasant news.”
+
+“He brought me nothing that was pleasant, I wot well,” said the Earl.
+“I expected something from St. Evremond or Hamilton--some new plays by
+Dryden or Lee, and some waggery or lampoons from the Rose Coffee-house;
+and the fellow has brought me nothing but a parcel of tracts about
+Protestants and Papists, and a folio play-book, one of the conceptions,
+as she calls them, of that old mad-woman the Duchess of Newcastle.”
+
+“Hush, my lord, for Heaven’s sake,” said Peveril; “here comes the
+Countess; and you know she takes fire at the least slight to her ancient
+friend.”
+
+“Let her read her ancient friend’s works herself, then,” said the Earl,
+“and think her as wise as she can; but I would not give one of Waller’s
+songs, or Denham’s satires, for a whole cart-load of her Grace’s
+trash.--But here comes our mother with care on her brow.”
+
+The Countess of Derby entered the apartment accordingly, holding in her
+hand a number of papers. Her dress was a mourning habit, with a deep
+train of black velvet, which was borne by a little favourite attendant,
+a deaf and dumb girl, whom, in compassion to her misfortune, the
+Countess had educated about her person for some years. Upon this
+unfortunate being, with the touch of romance which marked many of her
+proceedings, Lady Derby had conferred the name of Fenella, after some
+ancient princess of the island. The Countess herself was not much
+changed since we last presented her to our readers. Age had rendered her
+step more slow, but not less majestic; and while it traced some wrinkles
+on her brow, had failed to quench the sedate fire of her dark eye. The
+young men rose to receive her with the formal reverence which they knew
+she loved, and were greeted by her with equal kindness.
+
+“Cousin Peveril,” she said (for so she always called Julian, in respect
+of his mother being a kinswoman of her husband), “you were ill abroad
+last night, when we much needed your counsel.”
+
+Julian answered with a blush which he could not prevent, “That he had
+followed his sport among the mountains too far--had returned late--and
+finding her ladyship was removed from Castletown, had instantly followed
+the family hither; but as the night-bell was rung, and the watch set, he
+had deemed it more respectful to lodge for the night in the town.”
+
+“It is well,” said the Countess; “and, to do you justice, Julian, you
+are seldom a truant neglecter of appointed hours, though, like the rest
+of the youth of this age, you sometimes suffer your sports to consume
+too much of time that should be spent otherwise. But for your friend
+Philip, he is an avowed contemner of good order, and seems to find
+pleasure in wasting time, even when he does not enjoy it.”
+
+“I have been enjoying my time just now at least,” said the Earl, rising
+from table, and picking his teeth carelessly. “These fresh mullets are
+delicious, and so is the Lachrymæ Christi. I pray you to sit down
+to breakfast, Julian, and partake the goods my royal foresight has
+provided. Never was King of Man nearer being left to the mercy of the
+execrable brandy of his dominions. Old Griffiths would never, in the
+midst of our speedy retreat of last night, have had sense enough to
+secure a few flasks, had I not given him a hint on that important
+subject. But presence of mind amid danger and tumult, is a jewel I have
+always possessed.”
+
+“I wish, then, Philip, you would exert it to better purpose,” said the
+Countess, half smiling, half displeased; for she doated upon her son
+with all a mother’s fondness, even when she was most angry with him for
+being deficient in the peculiar and chivalrous disposition which had
+distinguished his father, and which was so analogous to her own romantic
+and high-minded character. “Lend me your signet,” she added with a sigh;
+“for it were, I fear, vain to ask you to read over these despatches
+from England, and execute the warrants which I have thought necessary to
+prepare in consequence.”
+
+“My signet you shall command with all my heart, madam,” said Earl
+Philip; “but spare me the revision of what you are much more capable to
+decide upon. I am, you know, a most complete _Roi fainéant_, and never
+once interfered with my _Maire de palais_ in her proceedings.”
+
+The Countess made signs to her little train-bearer, who immediately went
+to seek for wax and a light, with which she presently returned.
+
+In the meanwhile the Countess continued, addressing Peveril. “Philip
+does himself less than justice. When you were absent, Julian (for if
+you had been here I would have given you the credit of prompting your
+friend), he had a spirited controversy with the Bishop, for an attempt
+to enforce spiritual censures against a poor wretch, by confining her in
+the vault under the chapel.” [*]
+
+[*] Beneath the only one of the four churches in Castle Rushin, which
+    is or was kept a little in repair, is a prison or dungeon, for
+    ecclesiastical offenders. “This,” says Waldron, “is certainly one
+    of the most dreadful places that imagination can form; the sea
+    runs under it through the hollows of the rock with such a
+    continual roar, that you would think it were every moment breaking
+    in upon you, and over it are the vaults for burying the dead. The
+    stairs descending to this place of terrors are not above thirty,
+    but so steep and narrow, that they are very difficult to go down,
+    a child of eight or nine years not being able to pass them but
+    sideways.”--WALDRON’S _Description of the Isle of Man, in his
+    Works_, p. 105, folio.
+
+“Do not think better of me than I deserve,” said the Earl to Peveril;
+“my mother has omitted to tell you the culprit was pretty Peggy of
+Ramsey, and her crime what in Cupid’s courts would have been called a
+peccadillo.”
+
+“Do not make yourself worse than you are,” replied Peveril, who observed
+the Countess’s cheek redden,--“you know you would have done as much for
+the oldest and poorest cripple in the island. Why, the vault is under
+the burial-ground of the chapel, and, for aught I know, under the ocean
+itself, such a roaring do the waves make in its vicinity. I think no one
+could remain there long, and retain his reason.”
+
+“It is an infernal hole,” answered the Earl, “and I will have it built
+up one day--that is full certain.--But hold--hold--for God’s sake,
+madam--what are you going to do?--Look at the seal before you put it to
+the warrant--you will see it is a choice antique cameo Cupid, riding
+on a flying fish--I had it for twenty zechins, from Signor Furabosco at
+Rome--a most curious matter for an antiquary, but which will add little
+faith to a Manx warrant.
+
+“My signet--my signet--Oh! you mean that with the three monstrous
+legs, which I supposed was devised as the most preposterous device, to
+represent our most absurd Majesty of Man.--The signet--I have not seen
+it since I gave it to Gibbon, my monkey, to play with.--He did whine for
+it most piteously--I hope he has not gemmed the green breast of ocean
+with my symbol of sovereignty!”
+
+“Now, by Heaven,” said the Countess, trembling, and colouring deeply
+with anger, “it was your father’s signet! the last pledge which he sent,
+with his love to me, and his blessing to thee, the night before they
+murdered him at Bolton!”
+
+“Mother, dearest mother,” said the Earl, startled out of his apathy, and
+taking her hand, which he kissed tenderly, “I did but jest--the signet
+is safe--Peveril knows that it is so.--Go fetch it, Julian, for Heaven’s
+sake--here are my keys--it is in the left-hand drawer of my travelling
+cabinet--Nay, mother, forgive me--it was but a _mauvaise plaisanterie_;
+only an ill-imagined jest, ungracious, and in bad taste, I allow--but
+only one of Philip’s follies. Look at me, dearest mother, and forgive
+me.”
+
+The Countess turned her eyes towards him, from which the tears were fast
+falling.
+
+“Philip,” she said, “you try me too unkindly, and too severely. If times
+are changed, as I have heard you allege--if the dignity of rank, and
+the high feelings of honour and duty, are now drowned in giddy jests and
+trifling pursuits, let _me_ at least, who live secluded from all others,
+die without perceiving the change which has happened, and, above all,
+without perceiving it in mine own son. Let me not learn the general
+prevalence of this levity, which laughs at every sense of dignity or
+duty, through your personal disrespect--Let me not think that when I
+die----”
+
+“Speak nothing of it, mother,” said the Earl, interrupting her
+affectionately. “It is true, I cannot promise to be all my father and
+his fathers were; for we wear silk vests for their steel coats, and
+feathered beavers for their crested helmets. But believe me, though
+to be an absolute Palmerin of England is not in my nature, no son ever
+loved a mother more dearly, or would do more to oblige her. And that you
+may own this, I will forthwith not only seal the warrants, to the great
+endangerment of my precious fingers, but also read the same from end to
+end, as well as the despatches thereunto appertaining.”
+
+A mother is easily appeased, even when most offended; and it was with an
+expanding heart that the Countess saw her son’s very handsome
+features, while reading these papers, settle into an expression of deep
+seriousness, such as they seldom wore. It seemed to her as if the family
+likeness to his gallant but unfortunate father increased, when the
+expression of their countenances became similar in gravity. The Earl
+had no sooner perused the despatches, which he did with great attention,
+than he rose and said, “Julian, come with me.”
+
+The Countess looked surprised. “I was wont to share your father’s
+counsels, my son,” she said; “but do not think that I wish to intrude
+myself upon yours. I am too well pleased to see you assume the power and
+the duty of thinking for yourself, which is what I have so long
+urged you to do. Nevertheless, my experience, who have been so
+long administrator of your authority in Man, might not, I think, be
+superfluous to the matter in hand.”
+
+“Hold me excused, dearest mother,” said the Earl gravely. “The
+interference was none of my seeking; had you taken your own course,
+without consulting me, it had been well; but since I have entered on the
+affair--and it appears sufficiently important--I must transact it to the
+best of my own ability.”
+
+“Go, then, my son,” said the Countess, “and may Heaven enlighten thee
+with its counsel, since thou wilt have none of mine.--I trust that you,
+Master Peveril, will remind him of what is fit for his own honour;
+and that only a coward abandons his rights, and only a fool trusts his
+enemies.”
+
+The Earl answered not, but, taking Peveril by the arm, led him up a
+winding stair to his own apartment, and from thence into a projecting
+turret, where, amidst the roar of waves and sea-mews’ clang, he held
+with him the following conversation:--
+
+“Peveril, it is well I looked into these warrants. My mother queens it
+at such a rate as may cost me not only my crown, which I care little
+for, but perhaps my head, which, though others may think little of, I
+would feel it an inconvenience to be deprived of.”
+
+“What on earth is the matter?” said Peveril, with considerable anxiety.
+
+“It seems,” said the Earl of Derby, “that old England who takes a
+frolicsome brain-fever once every two or three years, for the benefit of
+her doctors, and the purification of the torpid lethargy brought on by
+peace and prosperity, is now gone stark staring mad on the subject of a
+real or supposed Popish plot. I read one programme on the subject, by
+a fellow called Oates, and thought it the most absurd foolery I ever
+perused. But that cunning fellow Shaftesbury, and some others amongst
+the great ones, having taken it up, and are driving on at such a rate
+as makes harness crack, and horses smoke for it. The King, who has sworn
+never to kiss the pillow his father went to sleep on, temporises, and
+gives way to the current; the Duke of York, suspected and hated on
+account of his religion, is about to be driven to the continent; several
+principal Catholic nobles are in the Tower already; and the nation,
+like a bull at Tutbury-running, is persecuted with so many inflammatory
+rumours and pestilent pamphlets, that she has cocked her tail, flung
+up her heels, taken the bit betwixt her teeth and is as furiously
+unmanageable as in the year 1642.”
+
+“All this you must have known already,” said Peveril; “I wonder you told
+me not of news so important.”
+
+“It would have taken long to tell,” said the Earl; “moreover, I desired
+to have you _solus_; thirdly, I was about to speak when my mother
+entered; and, to conclude, it was no business of mine. But these
+despatches of my politic mother’s private correspondent put a new face
+on the whole matter; for it seems some of the informers--a trade which,
+having become a thriving one, is now pursued by many--have dared to
+glance at the Countess herself as an agent in this same plot--ay, and
+have found those that are willing enough to believe their report.”
+
+“On mine honour,” said Peveril, “you both take it with great coolness.
+I think the Countess the more composed of the two; for, except her
+movement hither, she exhibited no mark of alarm, and, moreover, seemed
+no way more anxious to communicate the matter to your lordship than
+decency rendered necessary.”
+
+“My good mother,” said the Earl, “loves power, though it has cost her
+dear. I wish I could truly say that my neglect of business is entirely
+assumed in order to leave it in her hands, but that better motive
+combines with natural indolence. But she seems to have feared I should
+not think exactly like her in this emergency, and she was right in
+supposing so.”
+
+“How comes the emergency upon you?” said Julian; “and what form does the
+danger assume?”
+
+“Marry, thus it is,” said the Earl: “I need not bid you remember
+the affair of Colonel Christian. That man, besides his widow, who is
+possessed of large property--Dame Christian of Kirk Truagh, whom you
+have often heard of, and perhaps seen--left a brother called Edward
+Christian, whom you never saw at all. Now this brother--but I dare say
+you know all about it.”
+
+“Not I, on my honour,” said Peveril; “you know the Countess seldom or
+never alludes to the subject.”
+
+“Why,” replied the Earl, “I believe in her heart she is something
+ashamed of that gallant act of royalty and supreme jurisdiction, the
+consequences of which maimed my estate so cruelly.--Well, cousin,
+this same Edward Christian was one of the dempsters at the time, and,
+naturally enough, was unwilling to concur in the sentence which adjudged
+his _aîné_ to be shot like a dog. My mother, who was then in high force,
+and not to be controlled by any one, would have served the dempster with
+the same sauce with which she dressed his brother, had he not been wise
+enough to fly from the island. Since that time, the thing has slept on
+all hands; and though we knew that Dempster Christian made occasionally
+secret visits to his friends in the island, along with two or three
+other Puritans of the same stamp, and particularly a prick-eared rogue,
+called Bridgenorth, brother-in-law to the deceased, yet my mother, thank
+Heaven, has hitherto had the sense to connive at them, though, for some
+reason or other, she holds this Bridgenorth in especial disfavour.”
+
+“And why,” said Peveril, forcing himself to speak, in order to conceal
+the very unpleasant surprise which he felt, “why does the Countess now
+depart from so prudent a line of conduct?”
+
+“You must know the case is now different. The rogues are not satisfied
+with toleration--they would have supremacy. They have found friends in
+the present heat of the popular mind. My mother’s name, and especially
+that of her confessor, Aldrick the Jesuit, have been mentioned in this
+beautiful maze of a plot, which if any such at all exists, she knows as
+little of as you or I. However, she is a Catholic, and that is enough;
+and I have little doubt, that if the fellows could seize on our scrap of
+a kingdom here, and cut all our throats, they would have the thanks of
+the present House of Commons, as willingly as old Christian had those of
+the Rump, for a similar service.”
+
+“From whence did you receive all this information?” said Peveril, again
+speaking, though by the same effort which a man makes who talks in his
+sleep.
+
+“Aldrick has seen the Duke of York in secret, and his Royal Highness,
+who wept while he confessed his want of power to protect his
+friends--and it is no trifle will wring tears from him--told him to
+send us information that we should look to our safety, for that Dempster
+Christian and Bridgenorth were in the island, with secret and severe
+orders; that they had formed a considerable party there, and were likely
+to be owned and protected in anything they might undertake against us.
+The people of Ramsey and Castletown are unluckily discontented about
+some new regulation of the imposts; and to tell you the truth, though
+I thought yesterday’s sudden remove a whim of my mother’s, I am almost
+satisfied they would have blockaded us in Rushin Castle, where we could
+not have held out for lack of provisions. Here we are better supplied,
+and, as we are on our guard, it is likely the intended rising will not
+take place.”
+
+“And what is to be done in this emergency?” said Peveril.
+
+“That is the very question, my gentle coz,” answered the Earl.
+“My mother sees but one way of going to work, and that is by royal
+authority. Here are the warrants she had prepared, to search for, take,
+and apprehend the bodies of Edward Christian and Robert--no, Ralph
+Bridgenorth, and bring them to instant trial. No doubt, she would soon
+have had them in the Castle court, with a dozen of the old matchlocks
+levelled against them--that is her way of solving all sudden
+difficulties.”
+
+“But in which, I trust, you do not acquiesce, my lord,” answered
+Peveril, whose thoughts instantly reverted to Alice, if they could ever
+be said to be absent from her.
+
+“Truly I acquiesce in no such matter,” said the Earl. “William
+Christian’s death cost me a fair half of my inheritance. I have no fancy
+to fall under the displeasure of my royal brother, King Charles, for a
+new escapade of the same kind. But how to pacify my mother, I know not.
+I wish the insurrection would take place, and then, as we are better
+provided than they can be, we might knock the knaves on the head; and
+yet, since they began the fray, we should keep the law on our side.”
+
+“Were it not better,” said Peveril, “if by any means these men could be
+induced to quit the island?”
+
+“Surely,” replied the Earl; “but that will be no easy matter--they
+are stubborn on principle, and empty threats will not move them. This
+stormblast in London is wind in their sails, and they will run their
+length, you may depend on it. I have sent orders, however, to clap up
+the Manxmen upon whose assistance they depended, and if I can find the
+two worthies themselves, here are sloops enough in the harbour--I will
+take the freedom to send them on a pretty distant voyage, and I hope
+matters will be settled before they return to give an account of it.”
+
+At this moment a soldier belonging to the garrison approached the two
+young men, with many bows and tokens of respect. “How now, friend?” said
+the Earl to him. “Leave off thy courtesies, and tell thy business.”
+
+The man, who was a native islander, answered in Manx, that he had a
+letter for his honour, Master Julian Peveril. Julian snatched the billet
+hastily, and asked whence it came.
+
+“It was delivered to him by a young woman,” the soldier replied, “who
+had given him a piece of money to deliver it into Master Peveril’s own
+hand.”
+
+“Thou art a lucky fellow, Julian,” said the Earl. “With that grave brow
+of thine, and thy character for sobriety and early wisdom, you set the
+girls a-wooing, without waiting till they are asked; whilst I, their
+drudge and vassal, waste both language and leisure, without getting a
+kind word or look, far less a billet-doux.”
+
+This the young Earl said with a smile of conscious triumph, as in fact
+he valued himself not a little upon the interest which he supposed
+himself to possess with the fair sex.
+
+Meanwhile the letter impressed on Peveril a different train of thoughts
+from what his companion apprehended. It was in Alice’s hand, and
+contained these few words:--
+
+
+ “I fear what I am going to do is wrong; but I must see you. Meet me
+  at noon at Goddard Crovan’s Stone, with as much secrecy as you
+  may.”
+
+
+The letter was signed only with the initials A. B.; but Julian had no
+difficulty in recognising the handwriting, which he had often seen,
+and which was remarkably beautiful. He stood suspended, for he saw the
+difficulty and impropriety of withdrawing himself from the Countess and
+his friend at this moment of impending danger; and yet, to neglect this
+invitation was not to be thought of. He paused in the utmost perplexity.
+
+“Shall I read your riddle?” said the Earl. “Go where love calls you--I
+will make an excuse to my mother--only, most grave anchorite, be
+hereafter more indulgent to the failings of others than you have been
+hitherto, and blaspheme not the power of the little deity.”
+
+“Nay, but, Cousin Derby--” said Peveril, and stopped short, for he
+really knew not what to say. Secured himself by a virtuous passion from
+the contagious influence of the time, he had seen with regret his noble
+kinsman mingle more in its irregularities than he approved of, and had
+sometimes played the part of a monitor. Circumstances seemed at present
+to give the Earl a right of retaliation. He kept his eye fixed on his
+friend, as if he waited till he should complete his sentence, and at
+length exclaimed, “What! cousin, quite _à-la-mort!_ Oh, most judicious
+Julian! Oh, most precise Peveril! have you bestowed so much wisdom on me
+that you have none left for yourself? Come, be frank--tell me name and
+place--or say but the colour of the eyes of the most emphatic she--or
+do but let me have the pleasure to hear thee say, ‘I love!’--confess one
+touch of human frailty--conjugate the verb _amo_, and I will be a gentle
+schoolmaster, and you shall have, as father Richards used to say, when
+we were under his ferule, ‘_licentia exeundi_.’”
+
+“Enjoy your pleasant humour at my expense, my lord,” said Peveril; “I
+fairly will confess thus much, that I would fain, if it consisted with
+my honour and your safety, have two hours at my own disposal; the more
+especially as the manner in which I shall employ them may much concern
+the safety of the island.”
+
+“Very likely, I dare say,” answered the Earl, still laughing. “No doubt
+you are summoned out by some Lady Politic Wouldbe of the isle, to talk
+over some of the breast-laws: but never mind--go, and go speedily, that
+you may return as quickly as possible. I expect no immediate explosion
+of this grand conspiracy. When the rogues see us on our guard, they will
+be cautious how they break out. Only, once more make haste.”
+
+Peveril thought this last advice was not to be neglected; and, glad to
+extricate himself from the raillery of his cousin, walked down towards
+the gate of the Castle, meaning to cross over to the village, and there
+take horse at the Earl’s stables, for the place of rendezvous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+         _Acasto._--Can she not speak?
+         _Oswald._--If speech be only in accented sounds,
+         Framed by the tongue and lips, the maiden’s dumb;
+         But if by quick and apprehensive look,
+         By motion, sign, and glance, to give each meaning,
+         Express as clothed in language, be term’d speech,
+         She hath that wondrous faculty; for her eyes,
+         Like the bright stars of heaven, can hold discourse,
+         Though it be mute and soundless.
+                                                   --OLD PLAY.
+
+At the head of the first flight of steps which descended towards the
+difficult and well-defended entrance of the Castle of Holm-Peel,
+Peveril was met and stopped by the Countess’s train-bearer. This little
+creature--for she was of the least and slightest size of womankind--was
+exquisitely well formed in all her limbs, which the dress she usually
+wore (a green silk tunic, of a peculiar form) set off to the best
+advantage. Her face was darker than the usual hue of Europeans; and the
+profusion of long and silken hair, which, when she undid the braids in
+which she commonly wore it, fell down almost to her ankles, was also
+rather a foreign attribute. Her countenance resembled a most beautiful
+miniature; and there was a quickness, decision, and fire, in Fenella’s
+look, and especially in her eyes, which was probably rendered yet more
+alert and acute, because, through the imperfection of her other organs,
+it was only by sight that she could obtain information of what passed
+around her.
+
+The pretty mute was mistress of many little accomplishments, which the
+Countess had caused to be taught to her in compassion for her forlorn
+situation, and which she learned with the most surprising quickness.
+Thus, for example, she was exquisite in the use of the needle, and so
+ready and ingenious a draughtswoman, that, like the ancient Mexicans,
+she sometimes made a hasty sketch with her pencil the means of conveying
+her ideas, either by direct or emblematical representation. Above all,
+in the art of ornamental writing, much studied at that period, Fenella
+was so great a proficient, as to rival the fame of Messrs. Snow,
+Shelley, and other masters of the pen, whose copybooks, preserved in
+the libraries of the curious, still show the artists smiling on the
+frontispiece in all the honours of flowing gowns and full-bottomed wigs,
+to the eternal glory of caligraphy.
+
+The little maiden had, besides these accomplishments, much ready wit
+and acuteness of intellect. With Lady Derby, and with the two young
+gentlemen, she was a great favourite, and used much freedom in
+conversing with them, by means of a system of signs which had been
+gradually established amongst them, and which served all ordinary
+purposes of communication.
+
+But, though happy in the indulgence and favour of her mistress, from
+whom indeed she was seldom separate, Fenella was by no means a favourite
+with the rest of the household. In fact, it seemed that her temper,
+exasperated perhaps by a sense of her misfortune, was by no means equal
+to her abilities. She was very haughty in her demeanour, even towards
+the upper domestics, who in that establishment were of a much higher
+rank and better birth than in the families of the nobility in general.
+These often complained, not only of her pride and reserve, but of her
+high and irascible temper and vindictive disposition. Her passionate
+propensity had been indeed idly encouraged by the young men, and
+particularly by the Earl, who sometimes amused himself with teasing her,
+that he might enjoy the various singular motions and murmurs by which
+she expressed her resentment. Towards him, these were of course only
+petulant and whimsical indications of pettish anger. But when she was
+angry with others of inferior degree--before whom she did not control
+herself--the expression of her passion, unable to display itself in
+language, had something even frightful, so singular were the tones,
+contortions, and gestures, to which she had recourse. The lower
+domestics, to whom she was liberal almost beyond her apparent means,
+observed her with much deference and respect, but much more from fear
+than from any real attachment; for the caprices of her temper displayed
+themselves even in her gifts; and those who most frequently shared her
+bounty, seemed by no means assured of the benevolence of the motives
+which dictated her liberality.
+
+All these peculiarities led to a conclusion consonant with Manx
+superstition. Devout believers in all the legends of fairies so dear to
+the Celtic tribes, the Manx people held it for certainty that the elves
+were in the habit of carrying off mortal children before baptism, and
+leaving in the cradle of the new born babe one of their own brood, which
+was almost always imperfect in some one or other of the organs proper to
+humanity. Such a being they conceived Fenella to be; and the smallness
+of her size, her dark complexion, her long locks of silken hair, the
+singularity of her manners and tones, as well as the caprices of her
+temper, were to their thinking all attributes of the irritable, fickle,
+and dangerous race from which they supposed her to be sprung. And it
+seemed, that although no jest appeared to offend her more than when Lord
+Derby called her in sport the Elfin Queen, or otherwise alluded to her
+supposed connection with “the pigmy folk,” yet still her perpetually
+affecting to wear the colour of green, proper to the fairies, as well as
+some other peculiarities, seemed voluntarily assumed by her, in order to
+countenance the superstition, perhaps because it gave her more authority
+among the lower orders.
+
+Many were the tales circulated respecting the Countess’s _Elf_, as
+Fenella was currently called in the island; and the malcontents of
+the stricter persuasion were convinced, that no one but a Papist and a
+malignant would have kept near her person a creature of such doubtful
+origin. They conceived that Fenella’s deafness and dumbness were only
+towards those of this world, and that she had been heard talking, and
+singing, and laughing most elvishly, with the invisibles of her own
+race. They alleged, also, that she had a _Double_, a sort of apparition
+resembling her, which slept in the Countess’s ante-room, or bore her
+train, or wrought in her cabinet, while the real Fenella joined the song
+of the mermaids on the moonlight sands, or the dance of the fairies in
+the haunted valley of Glenmoy, or on the heights of Snawfell and Barool.
+The sentinels, too, would have sworn they had seen the little maiden
+trip past them in their solitary night walks, without their having it in
+their power to challenge her, any more than if they had been as mute
+as herself. To all this mass of absurdities the better informed paid no
+more attention than to the usual idle exaggerations of the vulgar, which
+so frequently connect that which is unusual with what is supernatural.
+
+Such, in form and habits, was the little female, who, holding in her
+hand a small old-fashioned ebony rod, which might have passed for a
+divining wand, confronted Julian on the top of the flight of steps which
+led down the rock from the Castle court. We ought to observe, that as
+Julian’s manner to the unfortunate girl had been always gentle, and free
+from those teasing jests in which his gay friend indulged, with less
+regard to the peculiarity of her situation and feelings; so Fenella, on
+her part, had usually shown much greater deference to him than to any of
+the household, her mistress, the Countess, always excepted.
+
+On the present occasion, planting herself in the very midst of the
+narrow descent, so as to make it impossible for Peveril to pass by her,
+she proceeded to put him to the question by a series of gestures, which
+we will endeavour to describe. She commenced by extending her hand
+slightly, accompanied with the sharp inquisitive look which served her
+as a note of interrogation. This was meant as an inquiry whether he was
+going to a distance. Julian, in reply, extended his arm more than half,
+to intimate that the distance was considerable. Fenella looked grave,
+shook her head, and pointed to the Countess’s window, which was visible
+from the spot where they stood. Peveril smiled, and nodded, to intimate
+there was no danger in quitting her mistress for a short space. The
+little maiden next touched an eagle’s feather which she wore in her
+hair, a sign which she usually employed to designate the Earl, and then
+looked inquisitively at Julian once more, as if to say, “Goes he
+with you?” Peveril shook his head, and, somewhat wearied by these
+interrogatories, smiled, and made an effort to pass. Fenella frowned,
+struck the end of her ebony rod perpendicularly on the ground, and again
+shook her head, as if opposing his departure. But finding that Julian
+persevered in his purpose, she suddenly assumed another and milder mood,
+held him by the skirt of his cloak with one hand, and raised the other
+in an imploring attitude, whilst every feature of her lively countenance
+was composed into the like expression of supplication; and the fire of
+the large dark eyes, which seemed in general so keen and piercing as
+almost to over-animate the little sphere to which they belonged, seemed
+quenched, for the moment, in the large drops which hung on her long
+eyelashes, but without falling.
+
+Julian Peveril was far from being void of sympathy towards the poor
+girl, whose motives in opposing his departure appeared to be her
+affectionate apprehension for her mistress’s safety. He endeavoured to
+reassure by smiles, and, at the same time, by such signs as he could
+devise, to intimate that there was no danger, and that he would return
+presently; and having succeeded in extricating his cloak from her
+grasp, and in passing her on the stair, he began to descend the steps as
+speedily as he could, in order to avoid farther importunity.
+
+But with activity much greater than his, the dumb maiden hastened to
+intercept him, and succeeded by throwing herself, at the imminent risk
+of life and limb, a second time into the pass which he was descending,
+so as to interrupt his purpose. In order to achieve this, she was
+obliged to let herself drop a considerable height from the wall of a
+small flanking battery, where two patereroes were placed to scour the
+pass, in case any enemy could have mounted so high. Julian had scarce
+time to shudder at her purpose, as he beheld her about to spring
+from the parapet, ere, like a thing of gossamer, she stood light and
+uninjured on the rocky platform below. He endeavoured, by the gravity
+of his look and gesture, to make her understand how much he blamed her
+rashness; but the reproof, though obviously quite intelligible, was
+entirely thrown away. A hasty wave of her hand intimated how she
+contemned the danger and the remonstrance; while, at the same time,
+she instantly resumed, with more eagerness than before, the earnest
+and impressive gestures by which she endeavoured to detain him in the
+fortress.
+
+Julian was somewhat staggered by her pertinacity. “Is it possible,” he
+thought, “that any danger can approach the Countess, of which this
+poor maiden has, by the extreme acuteness of her observation, obtained
+knowledge which has escaped others?”
+
+He signed to Fenella hastily to give him the tablets and the pencil
+which she usually carried with her, and wrote on them the question, “Is
+there danger near to your mistress, that you thus stop me?”
+
+“There is danger around the Countess,” was the answer instantly written
+down; “but there is much more in your own purpose.”
+
+“How?--what?--what know you of my purpose?” said Julian, forgetting, in
+his surprise, that the party he addressed had neither ear to comprehend,
+nor voice to reply to uttered language. She had regained her book in
+the meantime, and sketched, with a rapid pencil, on one of the leaves, a
+scene which she showed to Julian. To his infinite surprise he recognised
+Goddard Crovan’s Stone, a remarkable monument, of which she had given
+the outline with sufficient accuracy; together with a male and female
+figure, which, though only indicated by a few slight touches of the
+pencil, bore yet, he thought, some resemblance to himself and Alice
+Bridgenorth.
+
+When he had gazed on the sketch for an instant with surprise, Fenella
+took the book from his hand, laid her finger upon the drawing, and
+slowly and sternly shook her head, with a frown which seemed to prohibit
+the meeting which was there represented. Julian, however, though
+disconcerted, was in no shape disposed to submit to the authority of
+his monitress. By whatever means she, who so seldom stirred from the
+Countess’s apartment, had become acquainted with a secret which he
+thought entirely his own, he esteemed it the more necessary to keep the
+appointed rendezvous, that he might learn from Alice, if possible, how
+the secret had transpired. He had also formed the intention of seeking
+out Bridgenorth; entertaining an idea that a person so reasonable
+and calm as he had shown himself in their late conference, might
+be persuaded, when he understood that the Countess was aware of his
+intrigues, to put an end to her danger and his own, by withdrawing from
+the island. And could he succeed in this point, he should at once,
+he thought, render a material benefit to the father of his beloved
+Alice--remove the Earl from his state of anxiety--save the Countess from
+a second time putting her feudal jurisdiction in opposition to that of
+the Crown of England--and secure quiet possession of the island to her
+and her family.
+
+With this scheme of mediation on his mind, Peveril determined to
+rid himself of the opposition of Fenella to his departure, with less
+ceremony than he had hitherto observed towards her; and suddenly lifting
+up the damsel in his arms before she was aware of his purpose, he turned
+about, set her down on the steps above him, and began to descend the
+pass himself as speedily as possible. It was then that the dumb maiden
+gave full course to the vehemence of her disposition; and clapping
+her hands repeatedly, expressed her displeasure in sound, or rather a
+shriek, so extremely dissonant, that it resembled more the cry of a wild
+creature, than anything which could have been uttered by female organs.
+Peveril was so astounded at the scream as it rung through the living
+rocks, that he could not help stopping and looking back in alarm, to
+satisfy himself that she had not sustained some injury. He saw her,
+however, perfectly safe, though her face seemed inflamed and distorted
+with passion. She stamped at him with her foot, shook her clenched hand,
+and turning her back upon him, without further adieu, ran up the rude
+steps as lightly as a kid could have tripped up that rugged ascent, and
+paused for a moment at the summit of the first flight.
+
+Julian could feel nothing but wonder and compassion for the impotent
+passion of a being so unfortunately circumstanced, cut off, as it were,
+from the rest of mankind, and incapable of receiving in childhood that
+moral discipline which teaches us mastery of our wayward passions, ere
+yet they have attained their meridian strength and violence. He waved
+his hand to her, in token of amicable farewell; but she only replied by
+once more menacing him with her little hand clenched; and then ascending
+the rocky staircase with almost preternatural speed, was soon out of
+sight.
+
+Julian, on his part, gave no farther consideration to her conduct or its
+motives, but hastening to the village on the mainland, where the stables
+of the Castle were situated, he again took his palfrey from the
+stall, and was soon mounted and on his way to the appointed place of
+rendezvous, much marvelling, as he ambled forward with speed far greater
+than was promised by the diminutive size of the animal he was mounted
+on, what could have happened to produce so great a change in Alice’s
+conduct towards him, that in place of enjoining his absence as usual, or
+recommending his departure from the island, she should now voluntarily
+invite him to a meeting. Under impression of the various doubts which
+succeeded each other in his imagination, he sometimes pressed Fairy’s
+sides with his legs; sometimes laid his holly rod lightly on her neck;
+sometimes incited her by his voice, for the mettled animal needed
+neither whip nor spur, and achieved the distance betwixt the Castle of
+Holm-Peel and the stone at Goddard Crovan, at the rate of twelve miles
+within the hour.
+
+The monumental stone, designed to commemorate some feat of an ancient
+King of Man, which had been long forgotten, was erected on the side of
+a narrow lonely valley, or rather glen, secluded from observation by
+the steepness of its banks, upon a projection of which stood the tall,
+shapeless, solitary rock, frowning, like a shrouded giant, over the
+brawling of the small rivulet which watered the ravine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+          This a love-meeting? See the maiden mourns,
+          And the sad suitor bends his looks on earth.
+          There’s more hath pass’d between them than belongs
+          To Love’s sweet sorrows.
+                                                   --OLD PLAY.
+
+As he approached the monument of Goddard Crovan, Julian cast many an
+anxious glance to see whether any object visible beside the huge grey
+stone should apprise him, whether he was anticipated, at the appointed
+place of rendezvous, by her who had named it. Nor was it long before
+the flutter of a mantle, which the breeze slightly waved, and the motion
+necessary to replace it upon the wearer’s shoulders, made him aware that
+Alice had already reached their place of meeting. One instant set the
+palfrey at liberty, with slackened girths and loosened reins, to pick
+its own way through the dell at will; another placed Julian Peveril by
+the side of Alice Bridgenorth.
+
+That Alice should extend her hand to her lover, as with the ardour of a
+young greyhound he bounded over the obstacles of the rugged path, was
+as natural as that Julian, seizing on the hand so kindly stretched
+out, should devour it with kisses, and, for a moment or two, without
+reprehension; while the other hand, which should have aided in the
+liberation of its fellow, served to hide the blushes of the fair owner.
+But Alice, young as she was, and attached to Julian by such long habits
+of kindly intimacy, still knew well how to subdue the tendency of her
+own treacherous affections.
+
+“This is not right,” she said, extricating her hand from Julian’s grasp,
+“this is not right, Julian. If I have been too rash in admitting such a
+meeting as the present, it is not you that should make me sensible of my
+folly.”
+
+Julian Peveril’s mind had been early illuminated with that touch of
+romantic fire which deprives passion of selfishness, and confers on it
+the high and refined tone of generous and disinterested devotion. He let
+go the hand of Alice with as much respect as he could have paid to that
+of a princess; and when she seated herself upon a rocky fragment, over
+which nature had stretched a cushion of moss and lichen, interspersed
+with wild flowers, backed with a bush of copsewood, he took his place
+beside her, indeed, but at such distance as to intimate the duty of an
+attendant, who was there only to hear and to obey. Alice Bridgenorth
+became more assured as she observed the power which she possessed over
+her lover; and the self-command which Peveril exhibited, which other
+damsels in her situation might have judged inconsistent with intensity
+of passion, she appreciated more justly, as a proof of his respectful
+and disinterested sincerity. She recovered, in addressing him, the
+tone of confidence which rather belonged to the scenes of their early
+acquaintance, than to those which had passed betwixt them since Peveril
+had disclosed his affection, and thereby had brought restraint upon
+their intercourse.
+
+“Julian,” she said, “your visit of yesterday--your most ill-timed visit,
+has distressed me much. It has misled my father--it has endangered you.
+At all risks, I resolved that you should know this, and blame me not
+if I have taken a bold and imprudent step in desiring this solitary
+interview, since you are aware how little poor Deborah is to be
+trusted.”
+
+“Can you fear misconstruction from me, Alice?” replied Peveril warmly;
+“from me, whom you have thus highly favoured--thus deeply obliged?”
+
+“Cease your protestations, Julian,” answered the maiden; “they do but
+make me the more sensible that I have acted over boldly. But I did for
+the best.--I could not see you whom I have known so long--you, who say
+you regard me with partiality----”
+
+“_Say_ that I regard you with partiality!” interrupted Peveril in his
+turn. “Ah, Alice, with a cold and doubtful phrase you have used to
+express the most devoted, the most sincere affection!”
+
+“Well, then,” said Alice sadly, “we will not quarrel about words; but
+do not again interrupt me.--I could not, I say, see you, who, I believe,
+regard me with sincere though vain and fruitless attachment, rush
+blindfold into a snare, deceived and seduced by those very feelings
+towards me.”
+
+“I understand you not, Alice,” said Peveril; “nor can I see any danger
+to which I am at present exposed. The sentiments which your father
+has expressed towards me, are of a nature irreconcilable with hostile
+purposes. If he is not offended with the bold wishes I may have
+formed,--and his whole behaviour shows the contrary,--I know not a
+man on earth from whom I have less cause to apprehend any danger or
+ill-will.”
+
+“My father,” said Alice, “means well by his country, and well by you;
+yet I sometimes fear he may rather injure than serve his good cause; and
+still more do I dread, that in attempting to engage you as an auxiliary,
+he may forget those ties which ought to bind you, and I am sure which
+will bind you, to a different line of conduct from his own.”
+
+“You lead me into still deeper darkness, Alice,” answered Peveril. “That
+your father’s especial line of politics differs widely from mine, I
+know well; but how many instances have occurred, even during the bloody
+scenes of civil warfare, of good and worthy men laying the prejudice of
+party affections aside, and regarding each other with respect, and even
+with friendly attachment, without being false to principle on either
+side?”
+
+“It may be so,” said Alice; “but such is not the league which my father
+desires to form with you, and that to which he hopes your misplaced
+partiality towards his daughter may afford a motive for your forming
+with him.”
+
+“And what is it,” said Peveril, “which I would refuse, with such a
+prospect before me?”
+
+“Treachery and dishonour!” replied Alice; “whatever would render you
+unworthy of the poor boon at which you aim--ay, were it more worthless
+than I confess it to be.”
+
+“Would your father,” said Peveril, as he unwillingly received the
+impression which Alice designed to convey,--“would he, whose views of
+duty are so strict and severe--would he wish to involve me in aught, to
+which such harsh epithets as treachery and dishonour can be applied with
+the lightest shadow of truth?”
+
+“Do not mistake me, Julian,” replied the maiden; “my father is incapable
+of requesting aught of you that is not to his thinking just and
+honourable; nay, he conceives that he only claims from you a debt, which
+is due as a creature to the Creator, and as a man to your fellow-men.”
+
+“So guarded, where can be the danger of our intercourse?” replied
+Julian. “If he be resolved to require, and I determined to accede to,
+nothing save what flows from conviction, what have I to fear, Alice? And
+how is my intercourse with your father dangerous? Believe not so; his
+speech has already made impression on me in some particulars, and
+he listened with candour and patience to the objections which I made
+occasionally. You do Master Bridgenorth less than justice in confounding
+him with the unreasonable bigots in policy and religion, who can listen
+to no argument but what favours their own prepossessions.”
+
+“Julian,” replied Alice; “it is you who misjudge my father’s powers,
+and his purpose with respect to you, and who overrate your own powers of
+resistance. I am but a girl, but I have been taught by circumstances to
+think for myself, and to consider the character of those around me. My
+father’s views in ecclesiastical and civil policy are as dear to him as
+the life which he cherishes only to advance them. They have been, with
+little alteration, his companions through life. They brought him at one
+period into prosperity, and when they suited not the times, he suffered
+for having held them. They have become not only a part, but the very
+dearest part, of his existence. If he shows them not to you at first,
+in the flexible strength which they have acquired over his mind, do
+not believe that they are the less powerful. He who desires to make
+converts, must begin by degrees. But that he should sacrifice to an
+inexperienced young man, whose ruling motive he will term a childish
+passion, any part of those treasured principles which he has maintained
+through good repute and bad repute--Oh, do not dream of such an
+impossibility! If you meet at all, you must be the wax, he the seal--you
+must receive, he must bestow, an absolute impression.”
+
+“That,” said Peveril, “were unreasonable. I will frankly avow to you,
+Alice, that I am not a sworn bigot to the opinions entertained by my
+father, much as I respect his person. I could wish that our Cavaliers,
+or whatsoever they are pleased to call themselves, would have some more
+charity towards those who differ from them in Church and State. But to
+hope that I would surrender the principles in which I have lived, were
+to suppose me capable of deserting my benefactress, and breaking the
+hearts of my parents.”
+
+“Even so I judged of you,” answered Alice; “and therefore I asked this
+interview, to conjure that you will break off all intercourse with our
+family--return to your parents--or, what will be much safer, visit the
+continent once more, and abide till God send better days to England, for
+these are black with many a storm.”
+
+“And can you bid me go, Alice?” said the young man, taking her
+unresisting hand; “can you bid me go, and yet own an interest in my
+fate?--Can you bid me, for fear of dangers, which, as a man, as a
+gentleman, and a loyal one, I am bound to show my face to, meanly
+abandon my parents, my friends, my country--suffer the existence of
+evils which I might aid to prevent--forego the prospect of doing such
+little good as might be in my power--fall from an active and honourable
+station, into the condition of a fugitive and time-server--Can you bid
+me do all this, Alice? Can you bid me do all this, and, in the same
+breath, bid farewell for ever to you and happiness?--It is impossible--I
+cannot surrender at once my love and my honour.”
+
+“There is no remedy,” said Alice, but she could not suppress a sigh
+while she said so--“there is no remedy--none whatever. What we might
+have been to each other, placed in more favourable circumstances, it
+avails not to think of now; and, circumstanced as we are, with open
+war about to break out betwixt our parents and friends, we can be but
+well-wishers--cold and distant well-wishers, who must part on this spot,
+and at this hour, never meet again.”
+
+“No, by Heaven!” said Peveril, animated at the same time by his own
+feelings, and by the sight of the emotions which his companion in
+vain endeavoured to suppress,--“No, by Heaven!” he exclaimed, “we part
+not--Alice, we part not. If I am to leave my native land, you shall
+be my companion in my exile. What have you to lose?--Whom have you to
+abandon?--Your father?--The good old cause, as it is termed, is dearer
+to him than a thousand daughters; and setting him aside, what tie is
+there between you and this barren isle--between my Alice and any spot of
+the British dominions, where her Julian does not sit by her?”
+
+“O Julian,” answered the maiden, “why make my duty more painful by
+visionary projects, which you ought not to name, or I to listen to? Your
+parents--my father--it cannot be!”
+
+“Fear not for my parents, Alice,” replied Julian, and pressing close
+to his companion’s side, he ventured to throw his arm around her; “they
+love me, and they will soon learn to love, in Alice, the only being on
+earth who could have rendered their son happy. And for your own father,
+when State and Church intrigues allow him to bestow a thought upon you,
+will he not think that your happiness, your security, is better cared
+for when you are my wife, than were you to continue under the mercenary
+charge of yonder foolish woman? What could his pride desire better
+for you, than the establishment which will one day be mine? Come then,
+Alice, and since you condemn me to banishment--since you deny me a share
+in those stirring achievements which are about to agitate England--come!
+do you--for you only can--do you reconcile me to exile and inaction, and
+give happiness to one, who, for your sake, is willing to resign honour.”
+
+“It cannot--it cannot be,” said Alice, faltering as she uttered her
+negative. “And yet,” she said, “how many in my place--left alone and
+unprotected, as I am--But I must not--I must not--for your sake, Julian,
+I must not.”
+
+“Say not for my sake you must not, Alice,” said Peveril eagerly; “this
+is adding insult to cruelty. If you will do aught for my sake, you will
+say yes; or you will suffer this dear head to drop on my shoulder--the
+slightest sign--the moving of an eyelid, shall signify consent. All
+shall be prepared within an hour; within another the priest shall
+unite us; and within a third, we leave the isle behind us, and seek our
+fortunes on the continent.” But while he spoke, in joyful anticipation
+of the consent which he implored, Alice found means to collect together
+her resolution, which, staggered by the eagerness of her lover,
+the impulse of her own affections, and the singularity of her
+situation,--seeming, in her case, to justify what would have been most
+blamable in another,--had more than half abandoned her.
+
+The result of a moment’s deliberation was fatal to Julian’s proposal.
+She extricated herself from the arm which had pressed her to his
+side--arose, and repelling his attempts to approach or detain her, said,
+with a simplicity not unmingled with dignity, “Julian, I always knew I
+risked much in inviting you to this meeting; but I did not guess that I
+could have been so cruel to both to you and to myself, as to suffer
+you to discover what you have to-day seen too plainly--that I love you
+better than you love me. But since you do know it, I will show you that
+Alice’s love is disinterested--She will not bring an ignoble name into
+your ancient house. If hereafter, in your line, there should arise some
+who may think the claims of the hierarchy too exorbitant, the powers of
+the crown too extensive, men shall not say these ideas were derived from
+Alice Bridgenorth, their whig granddame.”
+
+“Can you speak thus, Alice?” said her lover. “Can you use such
+expressions? and are you not sensible that they show plainly it is your
+own pride, not regard for me, that makes you resist the happiness of
+both?”
+
+“Not so, Julian; not so,” answered Alice, with tears in her eyes; “it
+is the command of duty to us both--of duty, which we cannot transgress,
+without risking our happiness here and hereafter. Think what I, the
+cause of all, should feel, when your father frowns, your mother weeps,
+your noble friends stand aloof, and you, even you yourself, shall have
+made the painful discovery, that you have incurred the contempt and
+resentment of all to satisfy a boyish passion; and that the poor
+beauty, once sufficient to mislead you, is gradually declining under the
+influence of grief and vexation. This I will not risk. I see distinctly
+it is best we should here break off and part; and I thank God, who gives
+me light enough to perceive, and strength enough to withstand, your
+folly as well as my own. Farewell, then, Julian; but first take the
+solemn advice which I called you hither to impart to you:--Shun my
+father--you cannot walk in his paths, and be true to gratitude and to
+honour. What he doth from pure and honourable motives, you cannot aid
+him in, except upon the suggestion of a silly and interested passion, at
+variance with all the engagements you have formed at coming into life.”
+
+“Once more, Alice,” answered Julian, “I understand you not. If a course
+of action is good, it needs no vindication from the actor’s motives--if
+bad, it can derive none.”
+
+“You cannot blind me with your sophistry, Julian,” replied Alice
+Bridgenorth, “any more than you can overpower me with your passion. Had
+the patriarch destined his son to death upon any less ground than faith
+and humble obedience to a divine commandment, he had meditated a murder
+and not a sacrifice. In our late bloody and lamentable wars, how many
+drew swords on either side, from the purest and most honourable motives?
+How many from the culpable suggestions of ambition, self-seeking, and
+love of plunder? Yet while they marched in the same ranks, and spurred
+their horses at the same trumpet-sound, the memory of the former is
+dear to us as patriots or loyalists--that of those who acted on mean or
+unworthy promptings, is either execrated or forgotten. Once more, I warn
+you, avoid my father--leave this island, which will be soon agitated
+by strange incidents--while you stay, be on your guard--distrust
+everything--be jealous of every one, even of those to whom it may
+seem almost impossible, from circumstances, to attach a shadow of
+suspicion--trust not the very stones of the most secret apartment in
+Holm-Peel, for that which hath wings shall carry the matter.”
+
+Here Alice broke off suddenly, and with a faint shriek; for, stepping
+from behind the stunted copse which had concealed him, her father stood
+unexpectedly before them.
+
+The reader cannot have forgotten that this was the second time in
+which the stolen interviews of the lovers had been interrupted by the
+unexpected apparition of Major Bridgenorth. On this second occasion
+his countenance exhibited anger mixed with solemnity, like that of the
+spirit to a ghost-seer, whom he upbraids with having neglected a charge
+imposed at their first meeting. Even his anger, however, produced no
+more violent emotion than a cold sternness of manner in his speech and
+action. “I thank you, Alice,” he said to his daughter, “for the pains
+you have taken to traverse my designs towards this young man, and
+towards yourself. I thank you for the hints you have thrown out before
+my appearance, the suddenness of which alone has prevented you from
+carrying your confidence to a pitch which would have placed my life and
+that of others at the discretion of a boy, who, when the cause of God
+and his country is laid before him, has not leisure to think of them,
+so much is he occupied with such a baby-face as thine.” Alice, pale as
+death, continued motionless, with her eyes fixed on the ground, without
+attempting the slightest reply to the ironical reproaches of her father.
+
+“And you,” continued Major Bridgenorth, turning from his daughter to her
+lover,--“you sir, have well repaid the liberal confidence which I
+placed in you with so little reserve. You I have to thank also for some
+lessons, which may teach me to rest satisfied with the churl’s blood
+which nature has poured into my veins, and with the rude nurture which
+my father allotted to me.”
+
+“I understand you not, sir,” replied Julian Peveril, who, feeling the
+necessity of saying something, could not, at the moment, find anything
+more fitting to say.
+
+“Yes, sir, I thank you,” said Major Bridgenorth, in the same cold
+sarcastic tone, “for having shown me that breach of hospitality,
+infringement of good faith, and such like peccadilloes, are not utterly
+foreign to the mind and conduct of the heir of a knightly house of
+twenty descents. It is a great lesson to me, sir: for hitherto I had
+thought with the vulgar, that gentle manners went with gentle blood. But
+perhaps courtesy is too chivalrous a quality to be wasted in intercourse
+with a round-headed fanatic like myself.”
+
+“Major Bridgenorth,” said Julian, “whatever has happened in this
+interview which may have displeased you, has been the result of feelings
+suddenly and strongly animated by the crisis of the moment--nothing was
+premeditated.”
+
+“Not even your meeting, I suppose?” replied Bridgenorth, in the same
+cold tone. “You, sir, wandered hither from Holm-Peel--my daughter
+strolled forth from the Black Fort; and chance, doubtless, assigned you
+a meeting by the stone of Goddard Crovan?--Young man, disgrace yourself
+by no more apologies--they are worse than useless.--And you, maiden,
+who, in your fear of losing your lover, could verge on betraying what
+might have cost a father his life--begone to your home. I will talk with
+you at more leisure, and teach you practically those duties which you
+seem to have forgotten.”
+
+“On my honour, sir,” said Julian, “your daughter is guiltless of all
+that can offend you; she resisted every offer which the headstrong
+violence of my passion urged me to press upon her.”
+
+“And, in brief,” said Bridgenorth, “I am not to believe that you met in
+this remote place of rendezvous by Alice’s special appointment?”
+
+Peveril knew not what to reply, and Bridgenorth again signed with his
+hand to his daughter to withdraw.
+
+“I obey you, father,” said Alice, who had by this time recovered from
+the extremity of her surprise,--“I obey you; but Heaven is my witness
+that you do me more than injustice in suspecting me capable of betraying
+your secrets, even had it been necessary to save my own life or that of
+Julian. That you are walking in a dangerous path I well know; but you
+do it with your eyes open, and are actuated by motives of which you
+can estimate the worth and value. My sole wish was, that this young man
+should not enter blindfold on the same perils; and I had a right to warn
+him, since the feelings by which he is hoodwinked had a direct reference
+to me.”
+
+“‘Tis well, minion,” said Bridgenorth, “you have spoken your
+say. Retire, and let me complete the conference which you have so
+considerately commenced.”
+
+“I go, sir,” said Alice.--“Julian, to you my last words are, and I would
+speak them with my last breath--Farewell, and caution!”
+
+She turned from them, disappeared among the underwood, and was seen no
+more.
+
+“A true specimen of womankind,” said her father, looking after her, “who
+would give the cause of nations up, rather than endanger a hair of her
+lover’s head.--You, Master Peveril, doubtless, hold her opinion, that
+the best love is a safe love!”
+
+“Were danger alone in my way,” said Peveril, much surprised at the
+softened tone in which Bridgenorth made this observation, “there are few
+things which I would not face to--to--deserve your good opinion.”
+
+“Or rather to win my daughter’s hand,” said Bridgenorth. “Well, young
+man, one thing has pleased me in your conduct, though of much I have
+my reasons to complain--one thing _has_ pleased me. You have surmounted
+that bounding wall of aristocratical pride, in which your father, and,
+I suppose, his fathers, remained imprisoned, as in the precincts of a
+feudal fortress--you have leaped over this barrier, and shown yourself
+not unwilling to ally yourself with a family whom your father spurns as
+low-born and ignoble.”
+
+However favourable this speech sounded towards success in his suit, it
+so broadly stated the consequences of that success so far as his parents
+were concerned, that Julian felt it in the last degree difficult to
+reply. At length, perceiving that Major Bridgenorth seemed resolved
+quietly to await his answer, he mustered up courage to say, “The
+feelings which I entertain towards your daughter, Master Bridgenorth,
+are of a nature to supersede many other considerations, to which in
+any other case, I should feel it my duty to give the most reverential
+attention. I will not disguise from you, that my father’s prejudices
+against such a match would be very strong; but I devoutly believe they
+would disappear when he came to know the merit of Alice Bridgenorth, and
+to be sensible that she only could make his son happy.”
+
+“In the meanwhile, you are desirous to complete the union which you
+propose without the knowledge of your parents, and take the chance
+of their being hereafter reconciled to it? So I understand, from the
+proposal which you made but lately to my daughter.”
+
+The turns of human nature, and of human passion, are so irregular and
+uncertain, that although Julian had but a few minutes before urged
+to Alice a private marriage, and an elopement to the continent, as
+a measure upon which the whole happiness of his life depended, the
+proposal seemed not to him half so delightful when stated by the calm,
+cold, dictatorial accents of her father. It sounded no longer like the
+dictates of ardent passion, throwing all other considerations aside, but
+as a distinct surrender of the dignity of his house to one who seemed
+to consider their relative situation as the triumph of Bridgenorth over
+Peveril. He was mute for a moment, in the vain attempt to shape his
+answer so as at once to intimate acquiescence in what Bridgenorth
+stated, and a vindication of his own regard for his parents, and for the
+honour of his house.
+
+This delay gave rise to suspicion, and Bridgenorth’s eye gleamed, and
+his lip quivered while he gave vent to it. “Hark ye, young man--deal
+openly with me in this matter, if you would not have me think you the
+execrable villain who would have seduced an unhappy girl, under promises
+which he never designed to fulfil. Let me but suspect this, and you
+shall see, on the spot, how far your pride and your pedigree will
+preserve you against the just vengeance of a father.”
+
+“You do me wrong,” said Peveril--“you do me infinite wrong, Major
+Bridgenorth, I am incapable of the infamy which you allude to. The
+proposal I made to your daughter was as sincere as ever was offered
+by man to woman. I only hesitated, because you think it necessary to
+examine me so very closely; and to possess yourself of all my purposes
+and sentiments, in their fullest extent, without explaining to me the
+tendency of your own.”
+
+“Your proposal, then, shapes itself thus,” said Bridgenorth:--“You are
+willing to lead my only child into exile from her native country, to
+give her a claim to kindness and protection from your family, which you
+know will be disregarded, on condition I consent to bestow her hand on
+you, with a fortune sufficient to have matched your ancestors, when
+they had most reason to boast of their wealth. This, young man, seems
+no equal bargain. And yet,” he continued, after a momentary pause, “so
+little do I value the goods of this world, that it might not be utterly
+beyond thy power to reconcile me to the match which you have proposed to
+me, however unequal it may appear.”
+
+“Show me but the means which can propitiate your favour, Major
+Bridgenorth,” said Peveril,--“for I will not doubt that they will be
+consistent with my honour and duty--and you shall soon see how eagerly I
+will obey your directions, or submit to your conditions.”
+
+“They are summed in few words,” answered Bridgenorth. “Be an honest man,
+and the friend of your country.”
+
+“No one has ever doubted,” replied Peveril, “that I am both.”
+
+“Pardon me,” replied the Major; “no one has, as yet, seen you show
+yourself either. Interrupt me not--I question not your will to be
+both; but you have hitherto neither had the light nor the opportunity
+necessary for the display of your principles, or the service of your
+country. You have lived when an apathy of mind, succeeding to the
+agitations of the Civil War, had made men indifferent to state affairs,
+and more willing to cultivate their own ease, than to stand in the gap
+when the Lord was pleading with Israel. But we are Englishmen; and with
+us such unnatural lethargy cannot continue long. Already, many of those
+who most desired the return of Charles Stewart, regard him as a King
+whom Heaven, importuned by our entreaties, gave to us in His anger. His
+unlimited licence--and example so readily followed by the young and the
+gay around him--has disgusted the minds of all sober and thinking men.
+I had not now held conference with you in this intimate fashion, were
+I not aware that you, Master Julian, were free from such stain of the
+times. Heaven, that rendered the King’s course of license fruitful,
+had denied issue to his bed of wedlock; and in the gloomy and stern
+character of his bigoted successor, we already see what sort of monarch
+shall succeed to the crown of England. This is a critical period, at
+which it necessarily becomes the duty of all men to step forward, each
+in his degree, and aid in rescuing the country which gave us birth.”
+ Peveril remembered the warning which he had received from Alice, and
+bent his eyes on the ground, without returning any reply. “How is it,
+young man,” continued Bridgenorth, after a pause--“so young as thou
+art, and bound by no ties of kindred profligacy with the enemies of your
+country, you can be already hardened to the claims she may form on you
+at this crisis?”
+
+“It were easy to answer you generally, Major Bridgenorth,” replied
+Peveril--“It were easy to say that my country cannot make a claim on me
+which I will not promptly answer at the risk of lands and life. But in
+dealing thus generally, we should but deceive each other. What is the
+nature of this call? By whom is it to be sounded? And what are to be the
+results? for I think you have already seen enough of the evils of civil
+war, to be wary of again awakening its terrors in a peaceful and happy
+country.”
+
+“They that are drenched with poisonous narcotics,” said the Major, “must
+be awakened by their physicians, though it were with the sound of the
+trumpet. Better that men should die bravely, with their arms in their
+hands, like free-born Englishmen, than that they should slide into the
+bloodless but dishonoured grave which slavery opens for its vassals--But
+it is not of war that I was about to speak,” he added, assuming a milder
+tone. “The evils of which England now complains, are such as can be
+remedied by the wholesome administration of her own laws, even in the
+state in which they are still suffered to exist. Have these laws not a
+right to the support of every individual who lives under them? Have they
+not a right to yours?”
+
+As he seemed to pause for an answer, Peveril replied, “I have to learn,
+Major Bridgenorth, how the laws of England have become so far weakened
+as to require such support as mine. When that is made plain to me, no
+man will more willingly discharge the duty of a faithful liegeman to
+the law as well as the King. But the laws of England are under the
+guardianship of upright and learned judges, and of a gracious monarch.”
+
+“And of a House of Commons,” interrupted Bridgenorth, “no longer doting
+upon restored monarchy, but awakened, as with a peal of thunder, to the
+perilous state of our religion, and of our freedom. I appeal to your
+own conscience, Julian Peveril, whether this awakening hath not been in
+time, since you yourself know, and none better than you, the secret but
+rapid strides which Rome has made to erect her Dagon of idolatry within
+our Protestant land.”
+
+Here Julian seeing, or thinking he saw, the drift of Bridgenorth’s
+suspicions, hastened to exculpate himself from the thought of favouring
+the Roman Catholic religion. “It is true,” he said, “I have been
+educated in a family where that faith is professed by one honoured
+individual, and that I have since travelled in Popish countries;
+but even for these very reasons I have seen Popery too closely to be
+friendly to its tenets. The bigotry of the laymen--the persevering arts
+of the priesthood--the perpetual intrigue for the extension of the forms
+without the spirit of religion--the usurpation of that Church over the
+consciences of men--and her impious pretensions to infallibility, are
+as inconsistent to my mind as they can seem to yours, with common-sense,
+rational liberty, freedom of conscience, and pure religion.”
+
+“Spoken like the son of your excellent mother,” said Bridgenorth,
+grasping his hand; “for whose sake I have consented to endure so much
+from your house unrequited, even when the means of requital were in my
+own hand.”
+
+“It was indeed from the instructions of that excellent parent,” said
+Peveril, “that I was enabled, in my early youth, to resist and repel the
+insidious attacks made upon my religious faith by the Catholic priests
+into whose company I was necessarily thrown. Like her, I trust to live
+and die in the faith of the reformed Church of England.”
+
+“The Church of England!” said Bridgenorth, dropping his young friend’s
+hand, but presently resuming it--“Alas! that Church, as now constituted,
+usurps scarcely less than Rome herself upon men’s consciences and
+liberties; yet, out of the weakness of this half-reformed Church,
+may God be pleased to work out deliverance to England, and praise to
+Himself. I must not forget, that one whose services have been in the
+cause incalculable, wears the garb of an English priest, and hath had
+Episcopal ordination. It is not for us to challenge the instrument, so
+that our escape is achieved from the net of the fowler. Enough, that I
+find thee not as yet enlightened with the purer doctrine, but prepared
+to profit by it when the spark shall reach thee. Enough, in especial,
+that I find thee willing to uplift thy testimony to cry aloud and spare
+not, against the errors and arts of the Church of Rome. But remember,
+what thou hast now said, thou wilt soon be called upon to justify, in a
+manner the most solemn--the most awful.”
+
+“What I have said,” replied Julian Peveril, “being the unbiassed
+sentiments of my heart, shall, upon no proper occasion, want the support
+of my open avowal; and I think it strange you should doubt me so far.”
+
+“I doubt thee not, my young friend,” said Bridgenorth; “and I trust to
+see that name rank high amongst those by whom the prey shall be rent
+from the mighty. At present, thy prejudices occupy thy mind like the
+strong keeper of the house mentioned in Scripture. But there shall
+come a stronger than he, and make forcible entry, displaying on
+the battlements that sign of faith in which alone there is found
+salvation.--Watch, hope, and pray, that the hour may come.”
+
+There was a pause in the conversation, which was first broken by
+Peveril. “You have spoken to me in riddles, Major Bridgenorth; and I
+have asked you for no explanation. Listen to a caution on my part, given
+with the most sincere good-will. Take a hint from me, and believe it,
+though it is darkly expressed. You are here--at least are believed to be
+here--on an errand dangerous to the Lord of the island. That danger will
+be retorted on yourself, if you make Man long your place of residence.
+Be warned, and depart in time.”
+
+“And leave my daughter to the guardianship of Julian Peveril! Runs not
+your counsel so, young man?” answered Bridgenorth. “Trust my safety,
+Julian, to my own prudence. I have been accustomed to guide myself
+through worse dangers than now environ me. But I thank you for
+your caution, which I am willing to believe was at least partly
+disinterested.”
+
+“We do not, then, part in anger?” said Peveril.
+
+“Not in anger, my son,” said Bridgenorth, “but in love and strong
+affection. For my daughter, thou must forbear every thought of seeing
+her, save through me. I accept not thy suit, neither do I reject it;
+only this I intimate to you, that he who would be my son, must first
+show himself the true and loving child of his oppressed and deluded
+country. Farewell; do not answer me now, thou art yet in the gall of
+bitterness, and it may be that strife (which I desire not) should fall
+between us. Thou shalt hear of me sooner than thou thinkest for.”
+
+He shook Peveril heartily by the hand, and again bid him farewell,
+leaving him under the confused and mingled impression of pleasure,
+doubt, and wonder. Not a little surprised to find himself so far in the
+good graces of Alice’s father, that his suit was even favoured with a
+sort of negative encouragement, he could not help suspecting, as well
+from the language of the daughter as of the father, that Bridgenorth was
+desirous, as the price of his favour, that he should adopt some line of
+conduct inconsistent with the principles in which he had been educated.
+
+“You need not fear, Alice,” he said in his heart; “not even your
+hand would I purchase by aught which resembled unworthy or truckling
+compliance with tenets which my heart disowns; and well I know, were I
+mean enough to do so, even the authority of thy father were insufficient
+to compel thee to the ratification of so mean a bargain. But let me
+hope better things. Bridgenorth, though strong-minded and sagacious, is
+haunted by the fears of Popery, which are the bugbears of his sect. My
+residence in the family of the Countess of Derby is more than enough to
+inspire him with suspicions of my faith, from which, thank Heaven, I can
+vindicate myself with truth and a good conscience.”
+
+So thinking, he again adjusted the girths of his palfrey, replaced
+the bit which he had slipped out of its mouth, that it might feed at
+liberty, and mounting, pursued his way back to the Castle of Holm-Peel,
+where he could not help fearing that something extraordinary might have
+happened in his absence.
+
+But the old pile soon rose before him, serene, and sternly still, amid
+the sleeping ocean. The banner, which indicated that the Lord of Man
+held residence within its ruinous precincts, hung motionless by the
+ensign-staff. The sentinels walked to and fro on their posts, and hummed
+or whistled their Manx airs. Leaving his faithful companion, Fairy, in
+the village as before, Julian entered the Castle, and found all within
+in the same state of quietness and good order which external appearances
+had announced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                 Now rede me, rede me, brother dear,
+                   Throughout Merry England,
+                 Where will I find a messenger,
+                   Betwixt us two to send.
+                                       --BALLAD OF KING ESTMERE.
+
+Julian’s first encounter, after re-entering the Castle, was with its
+young Lord, who received him with his usual kindness and lightness of
+humour.
+
+“Thrice welcome, Sir Knight of Dames,” said the Earl; “here you rove
+gallantly, and at free will, through our dominions, fulfilling of
+appointments, and achieving amorous adventures; while we are condemned
+to sit in our royal halls, as dull and as immovable as if our Majesty
+was carved on the stern of some Manx smuggling dogger, and christened
+the King Arthur of Ramsey.”
+
+“Nay, in that case you would take the sea,” said Julian, “and so enjoy
+travel and adventure enough.”
+
+“Oh, but suppose me wind-bound, or detained in harbour by a revenue
+pink, or ashore, if you like it, and lying high and dry upon the sand.
+Imagine the royal image in the dullest of all predicaments, and you have
+not equalled mine.”
+
+“I am happy to hear, at least, that you have had no disagreeable
+employment,” said Julian; “the morning’s alarm has blown over, I
+suppose?”
+
+“In faith it has, Julian; and our close inquiries cannot find any cause
+for the apprehended insurrection. That Bridgenorth is in the island
+seems certain; but private affairs of consequence are alleged as the
+cause of his visit; and I am not desirous to have him arrested unless I
+could prove some malpractices against him and his companions. In fact,
+it would seem we had taken the alarm too soon. My mother speaks of
+consulting you on the subject, Julian; and I will not anticipate her
+solemn communication. It will be partly apologetical, I suppose; for we
+begin to think our retreat rather unroyal, and that, like the wicked, we
+have fled when no man pursued. This idea afflicts my mother, who, as a
+Queen-Dowager, a Queen-Regent, a heroine, and a woman in general, would
+be extremely mortified to think that her precipitate retreat hither had
+exposed her to the ridicule of the islanders; and she is disconcerted
+and out of humour accordingly. In the meanwhile, my sole amusement has
+been the grimaces and fantastic gestures of that ape Fenella, who is
+more out of humour, and more absurd, in consequence, than you ever saw
+her. Morris says, it is because you pushed her downstairs, Julian--how
+is that?”
+
+“Nay, Morris has misreported me,” answered Julian; “I did but lift her
+_up_ stairs to be rid of her importunity; for she chose, in her way, to
+contest my going abroad in such an obstinate manner, that I had no other
+mode of getting rid of her.”
+
+“She must have supposed your departure, at a moment so critical, was
+dangerous to the state of our garrison,” answered the Earl; “it shows
+how dearly she esteems my mother’s safety, how highly she rates your
+prowess. But, thank Heaven, there sounds the dinner-bell. I would the
+philosophers, who find a sin and waste of time in good cheer, could
+devise us any pastime half so agreeable.”
+
+The meal which the young Earl had thus longed for, as a means of
+consuming a portion of the time which hung heavy on his hands, was soon
+over; as soon, at least, as the habitual and stately formality of
+the Countess’s household permitted. She herself, accompanied by her
+gentlewomen and attendants, retired early after the tables were drawn;
+and the young gentlemen were left to their own company. Wine had, for
+the moment, no charms for either; for the Earl was out of spirits from
+ennui, and impatience of his monotonous and solitary course of life; and
+the events of the day had given Peveril too much matter for reflection,
+to permit his starting amusing or interesting topics of conversation.
+After having passed the flask in silence betwixt them once or twice,
+they withdrew each to a separate embrasure of the windows of the dining
+apartment, which, such was the extreme thickness of the wall, were deep
+enough to afford a solitary recess, separated, as it were, from the
+chamber itself. In one of these sat the Earl of Derby, busied in looking
+over some of the new publications which had been forwarded from London;
+and at intervals confessing how little power or interest these had for
+him, by yawning fearfully as he looked out on the solitary expanse
+of waters, which, save from the flight of a flock of sea-gulls, or
+a solitary cormorant, offered so little of variety to engage his
+attention.
+
+Peveril, on his part, held a pamphlet also in his hand, without giving,
+or affecting to give it, even his occasional attention. His whole
+soul turned upon the interview which he had had that day with Alice
+Bridgenorth, and with her father; while he in vain endeavoured to form
+any hypothesis which could explain to him why the daughter, to whom he
+had no reason to think himself indifferent, should have been so suddenly
+desirous of their eternal separation, while her father, whose opposition
+he so much dreaded, seemed to be at least tolerant of his addresses. He
+could only suppose, in explanation, that Major Bridgenorth had some
+plan in prospect, which it was in his own power to farther or to impede;
+while, from the demeanour, and indeed the language, of Alice, he had
+but too much reason to apprehend that her father’s favour could only be
+conciliated by something, on his own part, approaching to dereliction of
+principle. But by no conjecture which he could form, could he make
+the least guess concerning the nature of that compliance, of which
+Bridgenorth seemed desirous. He could not imagine, notwithstanding Alice
+had spoken of treachery, that her father would dare to propose to him
+uniting in any plan by which the safety of the Countess, or the security
+of her little kingdom of Man, was to be endangered. This carried such
+indelible disgrace in the front, that he could not suppose the scheme
+proposed to him by any who was not prepared to defend with his sword,
+upon the spot, so flagrant an insult offered to his honour. And such
+a proceeding was totally inconsistent with the conduct of Major
+Bridgenorth in every other respect, besides his being too calm and
+cold-blooded to permit of his putting a mortal affront upon the son of
+his old neighbour, to whose mother he confessed so much of obligation.
+
+While Peveril in vain endeavoured to extract something like a
+probable theory out of the hints thrown out by the father and by
+the daughter--not without the additional and lover-like labour of
+endeavouring to reconcile his passion to his honour and conscience--he
+felt something gently pull him by the cloak. He unclasped his arms,
+which, in meditation, had been folded on his bosom; and withdrawing his
+eyes from the vacant prospect of sea-coast and sea which they perused,
+without much consciousness upon what they rested, he beheld beside
+him the little dumb maiden, the elfin Fenella. She was seated on a low
+cushion or stool, with which she had nestled close to Peveril’s side,
+and had remained there for a short space of time, expecting, no doubt,
+he would become conscious of her presence; until, tired of remaining
+unnoticed, she at length solicited his attention in the manner which we
+have described. Startled out of his reverie by this intimation of her
+presence, he looked down, and could not, without interest, behold this
+singular and helpless being.
+
+Her hair was unloosened, and streamed over her shoulders in such length,
+that much of it lay upon the ground, and in such quantity, that it
+formed a dark veil, or shadow, not only around her face, but over her
+whole slender and minute form. From the profusion of her tresses looked
+forth her small and dark, but well-formed features, together with the
+large and brilliant black eyes; and her whole countenance was composed
+into the imploring look of one who is doubtful of the reception she is
+about to meet with from a valued friend, while she confesses a fault,
+pleads an apology, or solicits a reconciliation. In short, the whole
+face was so much alive with expression, that Julian, though her aspect
+was so familiar to him, could hardly persuade himself but that her
+countenance was entirely new. The wild, fantastic, elvish vivacity
+of the features, seemed totally vanished, and had given place to a
+sorrowful, tender, and pathetic cast of countenance, aided by the
+expression of the large dark eyes, which, as they were turned up towards
+Julian, glistened with moisture, that, nevertheless, did not overflow
+the eyelids.
+
+Conceiving that her unwonted manner arose from a recollection of the
+dispute which had taken place betwixt them in the morning, Peveril was
+anxious to restore the little maiden’s gaiety, by making her sensible
+that there dwelt on his mind no unpleasing recollection of their
+quarrel. He smiled kindly, and shook her hand in one of his; while, with
+the familiarity of one who had known her from childhood, he stroked
+down her long dark tresses with the other. She stooped her head, as if
+ashamed, and, at the same time, gratified with his caresses--and he was
+thus induced to continue them, until, under the veil of her rich and
+abundant locks, he suddenly felt his other hand, which she still held in
+hers, slightly touched with her lips, and, at the same time, moistened
+with a tear.
+
+At once, and for the first time in his life, the danger of being
+misinterpreted in his familiarity with a creature to whom the usual
+modes of explanation were a blank, occurred to Julian’s mind; and,
+hastily withdrawing his hand, and changing his posture, he asked her,
+by a sign which custom had rendered familiar, whether she brought any
+message to him from the Countess. She started up, and arranged herself
+in her seat with the rapidity of lightning; and, at the same moment,
+with one turn of her hand, braided her length of locks into a natural
+head-dress of the most beautiful kind. There was, indeed, when she
+looked up, a blush still visible on her dark features; but their
+melancholy and languid expression had given place to that of wild and
+restless vivacity, which was most common to them. Her eyes gleamed with
+more than their wonted fire, and her glances were more piercingly wild
+and unsettled than usual. To Julian’s inquiry, she answered, by laying
+her hand on her heart--a motion by which she always indicated the
+Countess--and rising, and taking the direction of her apartment, she
+made a sign to Julian to follow her.
+
+The distance was not great betwixt the dining apartment and that to
+which Peveril now followed his mute guide; yet, in going thither, he
+had time enough to suffer cruelly from the sudden suspicion, that this
+unhappy girl had misinterpreted the uniform kindness with which he had
+treated her, and hence come to regard him with feelings more tender than
+those which belong to friendship. The misery which such a passion was
+likely to occasion to a creature in her helpless situation, and actuated
+by such lively feelings, was great enough to make him refuse credit to
+the suspicion which pressed itself upon his mind; while, at the same
+time, he formed the internal resolution so to conduct himself towards
+Fenella, as to check such misplaced sentiments, if indeed she unhappily
+entertained them towards him.
+
+When they reached the Countess’s apartment, they found her with writing
+implements, and many sealed letters before her. She received Julian with
+her usual kindness; and having caused him to be seated, beckoned to
+the mute to resume her needle. In an instant Fenella was seated at
+an embroidering-frame; where, but for the movement of her dexterous
+fingers, she might have seemed a statue, so little did she move from her
+work either head or eye. As her infirmity rendered her presence no bar
+to the most confidential conversation, the Countess proceeded to address
+Peveril as if they had been literally alone together.
+
+“Julian,” she said, “I am not now about to complain to you of the
+sentiments and conduct of Derby. He is your friend--he is my son. He has
+kindness of heart and vivacity of talent; and yet----”
+
+“Dearest lady,” said Peveril, “why will you distress yourself with
+fixing your eye on deficiencies which arise rather from a change of
+times and manners, than any degeneracy of my noble friend? Let him be
+once engaged in his duty, whether in peace or war, and let me pay the
+penalty if he acquits not himself becoming his high station.”
+
+“Ay,” replied the Countess; “but when will the call of duty prove
+superior to that of the most idle or trivial indulgence which can serve
+to drive over the lazy hour? His father was of another mould; and how
+often was it my lot to entreat that he would spare, from the rigid
+discharge of those duties which his high station imposed, the relaxation
+absolutely necessary to recruit his health and his spirits!”
+
+“Still, my dearest lady,” said Peveril, “you must allow, that the duties
+to which the times summoned your late honoured lord, were of a more
+stirring, as well as a more peremptory cast, than those which await your
+son.”
+
+“I know not that,” said the Countess. “The wheel appears to be again
+revolving; and the present period is not unlikely to bring back such
+scenes as my young years witnessed.--Well, be it so; they will not find
+Charlotte de la Tremouille broken in spirit, though depressed by years.
+It was even on this subject I would speak with you, my young friend.
+Since our first early acquaintance--when I saw your gallant behaviour as
+I issued forth to your childish eye, like an apparition, from my place
+of concealment in your father’s castle--it has pleased me to think you a
+true son of Stanley and Peveril. I trust your nurture in this family has
+been ever suited to the esteem in which I hold you.--Nay, I desire no
+thanks.--I have to require of you, in return, a piece of service,
+not perhaps entirely safe to yourself, but which, as times are
+circumstanced, no person is so well able to render to my house.”
+
+“You have been ever my good and noble lady,” answered Peveril, “as well
+as my kind, and I may say maternal, protectress. You have a right to
+command the blood of Stanley in the veins of every one--You have a
+thousand rights to command it in mine.” [*]
+
+[*] The reader cannot have forgotten that the Earl of Derby was head
+    of the great house of Stanley.
+
+“My advices from England,” said the Countess, “resemble more the dreams
+of a sick man, than the regular information which I might have expected
+from such correspondents as mine;--their expressions are like those of
+men who walk in their sleep, and speak by snatches of what passes in
+their dreams. It is said, a plot, real or fictitious, has been detected
+among the Catholics, which has spread far wider and more uncontrollable
+terror than that of the fifth of November. Its outlines seem utterly
+incredible, and are only supported by the evidence of wretches, the
+meanest and most worthless in the creation; yet it is received by the
+credulous people of England with the most undoubting belief.”
+
+“This is a singular delusion, to rise without some real ground,”
+ answered Julian.
+
+“I am no bigot, cousin, though a Catholic,” replied the Countess. “I
+have long feared that the well-meant zeal of our priests for increasing
+converts, would draw on them the suspicion of the English nation. These
+efforts have been renewed with double energy since the Duke of York
+conformed to the Catholic faith; and the same event has doubled the hate
+and jealousy of the Protestants. So far, I fear, there may be just cause
+of suspicion, that the Duke is a better Catholic than an Englishman,
+and that bigotry has involved him, as avarice, or the needy greed of
+a prodigal, has engaged his brother, in relations with France, whereof
+England may have too much reason to complain. But the gross, thick,
+and palpable fabrications of conspiracy and murder, blood and fire--the
+imaginary armies--the intended massacres--form a collection of
+falsehoods, that one would have thought indigestible, even by the coarse
+appetite of the vulgar for the marvellous and horrible; but which
+are, nevertheless, received as truth by both Houses of Parliament, and
+questioned by no one who is desirous to escape the odious appellation of
+friend to the bloody Papists, and favourer of their infernal schemes of
+cruelty.”
+
+“But what say those who are most likely to be affected by these wild
+reports?” said Julian. “What say the English Catholics themselves?--a
+numerous and wealthy body, comprising so many noble names?”
+
+“Their hearts are dead within them,” said the Countess. “They are like
+sheep penned up in the shambles, that the butcher may take his choice
+among them. In the obscure and brief communications which I have had by
+a secure hand, they do but anticipate their own utter ruin, and ours--so
+general is the depression, so universal the despair.”
+
+“But the King,” said Peveril,--“the King and the Protestant
+Royalists--what say they to this growing tempest?”
+
+“Charles,” replied the Countess, “with his usual selfish prudence,
+truckles to the storm; and will let cord and axe do their work on the
+most innocent men in his dominions, rather than lose an hour of pleasure
+in attempting their rescue. And, for the Royalists, either they have
+caught the general delirium which has seized on Protestants in general,
+or they stand aloof and neutral, afraid to show any interest in the
+unhappy Catholics, lest they be judged altogether such as themselves,
+and abettors of the fearful conspiracy in which they are alleged to be
+engaged. In fact, I cannot blame them. It is hard to expect that mere
+compassion for a persecuted sect--or, what is yet more rare, an abstract
+love of justice--should be powerful enough to engage men to expose
+themselves to the awakened fury of a whole people; for, in the present
+state of general agitation, whoever disbelieves the least tittle of the
+enormous improbabilities which have been accumulated by these wretched
+reformers, is instantly hunted down, as one who would smother the
+discovery of the Plot. It is indeed an awful tempest; and, remote as we
+lie from its sphere, we must expect soon to feel its effects.”
+
+“Lord Derby already told me something of this,” said Julian; “and
+that there were agents in this island whose object was to excite
+insurrection.”
+
+“Yes,” answered the Countess, and her eye flashed fire as she spoke;
+“and had my advice been listened to, they had been apprehended in the
+very fact; and so dealt with, as to be a warning to all others how they
+sought this independent principality on such an errand. But my son, who
+is generally so culpably negligent of his own affairs, was pleased to
+assume the management of them upon this crisis.”
+
+“I am happy to learn, madam,” answered Peveril, “that the measures of
+precaution which my kinsman has adopted, have had the complete effect of
+disconcerting the conspiracy.”
+
+“For the present, Julian; but they should have been such as would have
+made the boldest tremble to think of such infringement of our rights in
+future. But Derby’s present plan is fraught with greater danger; and yet
+there is something in it of gallantry, which has my sympathy.”
+
+“What is it, madam?” inquired Julian anxiously; “and in what can I aid
+it, or avert its dangers?”
+
+“He purposes,” said the Countess, “instantly to set forth for London. He
+is, he says, not merely the feudal chief of a small island, but one of
+the noble Peers of England, who must not remain in the security of an
+obscure and distant castle, when his name, or that of his mother, is
+slandered before his Prince and people. He will take his place, he says,
+in the House of Lords, and publicly demand justice for the insult thrown
+on his house, by perjured and interested witnesses.”
+
+“It is a generous resolution, and worthy of my friend,” said Julian
+Peveril. “I will go with him and share his fate, be it what it may.”
+
+“Alas, foolish boy!” answered the Countess, “as well may you ask a
+hungry lion to feel compassion, as a prejudiced and furious people to do
+justice. They are like the madman at the height of frenzy, who murders
+without compunction his best and dearest friend; and only wonders and
+wails over his own cruelty, when he is recovered from his delirium.”
+
+“Pardon me, dearest lady,” said Julian, “this cannot be. The noble and
+generous people of England cannot be thus strangely misled. Whatever
+prepossessions may be current among the more vulgar, the House of
+Legislature cannot be deeply infected by them--they will remember their
+own dignity.”
+
+“Alas! cousin,” answered the Countess, “when did Englishmen, even of the
+highest degree, remember anything, when hurried away by the violence
+of party feeling? Even those who have too much sense to believe in
+the incredible fictions which gull the multitude, will beware how they
+expose them, if their own political party can gain a momentary advantage
+by their being accredited. It is amongst such, too, that your kinsman
+has found friends and associates. Neglecting the old friends of his
+house, as too grave and formal companions for the humour of the times,
+his intercourse has been with the versatile Shaftesbury--the mercurial
+Buckingham--men who would not hesitate to sacrifice to the popular
+Moloch of the day, whatsoever or whomsoever, whose ruin could propitiate
+the deity.--Forgive a mother’s tears, kinsman; but I see the scaffold
+at Bolton again erected. If Derby goes to London while these bloodhounds
+are in full cry, obnoxious as he is, and I have made him by my religious
+faith, and my conduct in this island, he dies his father’s death. And
+yet upon what other course to resolve!----”
+
+“Let me go to London, madam,” said Peveril, much moved by the distress
+of his patroness; “your ladyship was wont to rely something on my
+judgment. I will act for the best--will communicate with those whom
+you point out to me, and only with them; and I trust soon to send you
+information that this delusion, however strong it may now be, is in the
+course of passing away; at the worst, I can apprise you of the danger,
+should it menace the Earl or yourself; and may be able also to point out
+the means by which it may be eluded.”
+
+The Countess listened with a countenance in which the anxiety of
+maternal affection, which prompted her to embrace Peveril’s generous
+offer, struggled with her native disinterested and generous disposition.
+“Think what you ask of me, Julian,” she replied with a sigh. “Would you
+have me expose the life of my friend’s son to those perils to which I
+refuse my own?--No, never!”
+
+“Nay, but madam,” replied Julian, “I do not run the same risk--my person
+is not known in London--my situation, though not obscure in my own
+country, is too little known to be noticed in that huge assemblage of
+all that is noble and wealthy. No whisper, I presume, however indirect,
+has connected my name with the alleged conspiracy. I am a Protestant,
+above all; and can be accused of no intercourse, direct or indirect,
+with the Church of Rome. My connections also lie amongst those, who, if
+they do not, or cannot, befriend me, cannot, at least, be dangerous to
+me. In a word, I run no danger where the Earl might incur great peril.”
+
+“Alas!” said the Countess of Derby, “all this generous reasoning may be
+true; but it could only be listened to by a widowed mother. Selfish as
+I am, I cannot but reflect that my kinswoman has, in all events, the
+support of an affectionate husband--such is the interested reasoning to
+which we are not ashamed to subject our better feelings.”
+
+“Do not call it so, madam,” answered Peveril; “think of me as the
+younger brother of my kinsman. You have ever done by me the duties of
+a mother; and have a right to my filial service, were it at a risk ten
+times greater than a journey to London, to inquire into the temper of
+the times. I will instantly go and announce my departure to the Earl.”
+
+“Stay, Julian,” said the Countess; “if you must make this journey in our
+behalf,--and, alas! I have not generosity enough to refuse your noble
+proffer,--you must go alone, and without communication with Derby. I
+know him well; his lightness of mind is free from selfish baseness; and
+for the world, would he not suffer you to leave Man without his company.
+And if he went with you, your noble and disinterested kindness would be
+of no avail--you would but share his ruin, as the swimmer who attempts
+to save a drowning man is involved in his fate, if he permit the
+sufferer to grapple with him.”
+
+“It shall be as you please, madam,” said Peveril. “I am ready to depart
+upon half-an-hour’s notice.”
+
+“This night, then,” said the Countess, after a moment’s pause--“this
+night I will arrange the most secret means of carrying your generous
+project into effect; for I would not excite that prejudice against you,
+which will instantly arise, were it known you had so lately left this
+island, and its Popish lady. You will do well, perhaps, to use a feigned
+name in London.”
+
+“Pardon me, madam,” said Julian; “I will do nothing that can draw on
+me unnecessary attention; but to bear a feigned name, or affect any
+disguise beyond living with extreme privacy, would, I think, be
+unwise as well as unworthy; and what, if challenged, I might find some
+difficulty in assigning a reason for, consistent with perfect fairness
+of intentions.”
+
+“I believe you are right,” answered the Countess, after a moment’s
+consideration; and then added, “You propose, doubtless, to pass through
+Derbyshire, and visit Martindale Castle?”
+
+“I should wish it, madam, certainly,” replied Peveril, “did time permit,
+and circumstances render it advisable.”
+
+“Of that,” said the Countess, “you must yourself judge. Despatch
+is, doubtless, desirable; on the other hand, arriving from your own
+family-seat, you will be less an object of doubt and suspicion, than if
+you posted up from hence, without even visiting your parents. You
+must be guided in this,--in all,--by your own prudence. Go, my dearest
+son--for to me you should be dear as a son--go, and prepare for your
+journey. I will get ready some despatches, and a supply of money--Nay,
+do not object. Am I not your mother; and are you not discharging a son’s
+duty? Dispute not my right of defraying your expenses. Nor is this all;
+for, as I must trust your zeal and prudence to act in our behalf when
+occasion shall demand, I will furnish you with effectual recommendations
+to our friends and kindred, entreating and enjoining them to render
+whatever aid you may require, either for your own protection, or the
+advancement of what you may propose in our favour.”
+
+Peveril made no farther opposition to an arrangement, which in truth the
+moderate state of his own finances rendered almost indispensable, unless
+with his father’s assistance; and the Countess put into his hand bills
+of exchange to the amount of two hundred pounds, upon a merchant in the
+city. She then dismissed Julian for the space of an hour; after which,
+she said, she must again require his presence.
+
+The preparations for his journey were not of a nature to divert the
+thoughts which speedily pressed on him. He found that half-an-hour’s
+conversation had once more completely changed his immediate prospects
+and plans for the future. He had offered to the Countess of Derby a
+service, which her uniform kindness had well deserved at his hand; but,
+by her accepting it, he was upon the point of being separated from Alice
+Bridgenorth, at a time when she was become dearer to him than ever, by
+her avowal of mutual passion. Her image rose before him, such as he had
+that day pressed her to his bosom--her voice was in his ear, and seemed
+to ask whether he could desert her in the crisis which everything seemed
+to announce as impending. But Julian Peveril, his youth considered, was
+strict in judging his duty, and severely resolved in executing it. He
+trusted not his imagination to pursue the vision which presented itself;
+but resolutely seizing his pen, wrote to Alice the following letter,
+explaining his situation, as far as justice to the Countess permitted
+him to do so:--
+
+
+ “I leave you, dearest Alice,” thus ran the letter.--“I leave you;
+  and though, in doing so, I but obey the command you have laid on
+  me, yet I can claim little merit for my compliance, since, without
+  additional and most forcible reasons in aid of your orders, I fear
+  I should have been unable to comply with them. But family affairs
+  of importance compel me to absent myself from this island, for, I
+  fear, more than one week. My thoughts, hopes, and wishes will be
+  on the moment that shall restore me to the Black Fort, and its
+  lovely valley. Let me hope that yours will sometimes rest on the
+  lonely exile, whom nothing could render such, but the command of
+  honour and duty. Do not fear that I mean to involve you in a
+  private correspondence, and let not your father fear it. I could
+  not love you so much, but for the openness and candour of your
+  nature; and I would not that you concealed from Major Bridgenorth
+  one syllable of what I now avow. Respecting other matters, he
+  himself cannot desire the welfare of our common country with more
+  zeal than I do. Differences may occur concerning the mode in which
+  that is to be obtained; but, in the principle, I am convinced
+  there can be only one mind between us; nor can I refuse to listen
+  to his experience and wisdom, even where they may ultimately fail
+  to convince me. Farewell--Alice, farewell! Much might be added to
+  that melancholy word, but nothing that could express the
+  bitterness with which it is written. Yet I could transcribe it
+  again and again, rather than conclude the last communication which
+  I can have with you for some time. My sole comfort is, that my
+  stay will scarce be so long as to permit you to forget one who
+  never can forget you.”
+
+
+He held the paper in his hand for a minute after he had folded, but
+before he had sealed it, while he hurriedly debated in his own mind
+whether he had not expressed himself towards Major Bridgenorth in so
+conciliating a manner as might excite hopes of proselytism, which his
+conscience told him he could not realise with honour. Yet, on the other
+hand, he had no right, from what Bridgenorth had said, to conclude that
+their principles were diametrically irreconcilable; for though the son
+of a high Cavalier, and educated in the family of the Countess of Derby,
+he was himself, upon principle, an enemy of prerogative, and a friend
+to the liberty of the subject. And with such considerations, he silenced
+all internal objections on the point of honour; although his conscience
+secretly whispered that these conciliatory expressions towards the
+father were chiefly dictated by the fear, that during his absence Major
+Bridgenorth might be tempted to change the residence of his daughter,
+and perhaps to convey her altogether out of his reach.
+
+Having sealed his letter, Julian called his servant, and directed him
+to carry it under cover of one addressed to Mrs. Debbitch, to a house in
+the town of Rushin, where packets and messages intended for the family
+at Black Fort were usually deposited; and for that purpose to take horse
+immediately. He thus got rid of an attendant, who might have been in
+some degree a spy on his motions. He then exchanged the dress he usually
+wore for one more suited to travelling; and, having put a change or two
+of linen into a small cloak-bag, selected as arms a strong double-edged
+sword and an excellent pair of pistols, which last he carefully loaded
+with double bullets. Thus appointed, and with twenty pieces in his
+purse, and the bills we have mentioned secured in a private pocket-book,
+he was in readiness to depart as soon as he should receive the
+Countess’s commands.
+
+The buoyant spirit of youth and hope, which had, for a moment, been
+chilled by the painful and dubious circumstances in which he was placed,
+as well as the deprivation which he was about to undergo, now revived in
+full vigour. Fancy, turning from more painful anticipations, suggested
+to him that he was now entering upon life, at a crisis when resolution
+and talents were almost certain to make the fortune of their possessor.
+How could he make a more honourable entry on the bustling scene, than
+sent by, and acting in behalf of, one of the noblest houses in England;
+and should he perform what his charge might render incumbent with
+the resolution and the prudence necessary to secure success, how many
+occurrences might take place to render his mediation necessary to
+Bridgenorth; and thus enable him, on the most equal and honourable
+terms, to establish a claim to his gratitude and to his daughter’s hand.
+
+Whilst he was dwelling on such pleasing, though imaginary prospects, he
+could not help exclaiming aloud--“Yes, Alice, I will win thee nobly!”
+ The words had scarce escaped his lips, when he heard at the door of his
+apartment, which the servant had left ajar, a sound like a deep sigh,
+which was instantly succeeded by a gentle tap--“Come in,” replied
+Julian, somewhat ashamed of his exclamation, and not a little afraid
+that it had been caught up by some eavesdropper--“Come in,” he again
+repeated; but his command was not obeyed; on the contrary, the knock was
+repeated somewhat louder. He opened the door, and Fenella stood before
+him.
+
+With eyes that seemed red with recent tears, and with a look of the
+deepest dejection, the little mute, first touching her bosom, and
+beckoning with her finger, made to him the usual sign that the Countess
+desired to see him--then turned, as if to usher him to her apartment. As
+he followed her through the long gloomy vaulted passages which afforded
+communication betwixt the various apartments of the castle, he could
+not but observe that her usual light trip was exchanged for a tardy
+and mournful step, which she accompanied with low inarticulate moaning
+(which she was probably the less able to suppress, because she could not
+judge how far it was audible), and also with wringing of the hands, and
+other marks of extreme affliction.
+
+At this moment a thought came across Peveril’s mind, which, in spite of
+his better reason, made him shudder involuntarily. As a Peaksman, and
+a long resident in the Isle of Man, he was well acquainted with many a
+superstitious legend, and particularly with a belief, which attached
+to the powerful family of the Stanleys, for their peculiar demon, a
+Banshie, or female spirit, who was wont to shriek “foreboding evil
+times;” and who was generally seen weeping and bemoaning herself before
+the death of any person of distinction belonging to the family. For an
+instant, Julian could scarcely divest himself of the belief that the
+wailing, jibbering form, which glided before him, with a lamp in her
+hand, was a genius of his mother’s race, come to announce to him as an
+analogous reflection, that if the suspicion which had crossed his mind
+concerning Fenella was a just one, her ill-fated attachment to him,
+like that of the prophetic spirit to his family, could bode nothing but
+disaster, and lamentation, and woe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+           Now, hoist the anchor, mates--and let the sails
+           Give their broad bosom to the buxom wind,
+           Like lass that woos a lover.
+                                               --ANONYMOUS.
+
+The presence of the Countess dispelled the superstitious feeling, which,
+for an instant, had encroached on Julian’s imagination, and compelled
+him to give attention to the matters of ordinary life. “Here are your
+credentials,” she said, giving him a small packet, carefully packed
+up in a sealskin cover; “you had better not open them till you come
+to London. You must not be surprised to find that there are one or two
+addressed to men of my own persuasion. These, for all our sakes, you
+will observe caution in delivering.”
+
+“I go your messenger, madam,” said Peveril; “and whatever you desire
+me to charge myself with, of that I undertake the care. Yet allow me to
+doubt whether an intercourse with Catholics will at this moment forward
+the purposes of my mission.”
+
+“You have caught the general suspicion of this wicked sect already,”
+ said the Countess, smiling, “and are the fitter to go amongst Englishmen
+in their present mood. But, my cautious friend, these letters are so
+addressed, and the persons to whom they are addressed so disguised,
+that you will run no danger in conversing with them. Without their aid,
+indeed, you will not be able to obtain the accurate information you go
+in search of. None can tell so exactly how the wind sets, as the pilot
+whose vessel is exposed to the storm. Besides, though you Protestants
+deny our priesthood the harmlessness of the dove, you are ready enough
+to allow us a full share of the wisdom of the serpent; in plain terms,
+their means of information are extensive, and they are not deficient in
+the power of applying it. I therefore wish you to have the benefit of
+their intelligence and advice, if possible.”
+
+“Whatever you impose upon me as a part of my duty, madam, rely on its
+being discharged punctually,” answered Peveril. “And, now, as there is
+little use in deferring the execution of a purpose when once fixed, let
+me know your ladyship’s wishes concerning my departure.”
+
+“It must be sudden and secret,” said the Countess; “the island is full
+of spies; and I would not wish that any of them should have notice that
+an envoy of mine was about to leave Man for London. Can you be ready to
+go on board to-morrow?”
+
+“To-night--this instant if you will,” said Julian,--“my little
+preparations are complete.”
+
+“Be ready, then, in your chamber, at two hours after midnight. I will
+send one to summon you, for our secret must be communicated, for the
+present, to as few as possible. A foreign sloop is engaged to carry you
+over; then make the best of your way to London, by Martindale Castle, or
+otherwise, as you find most advisable. When it is necessary to
+announce your absence, I will say you are gone to see your parents. But
+stay--your journey will be on horseback, of course, from Whitehaven.
+You have bills of exchange, it is true; but are you provided with ready
+money to furnish yourself with a good horse?”
+
+“I am sufficiently rich, madam,” answered Julian; “and good nags are
+plenty in Cumberland. There are those among them who know how to come by
+them good and cheap.”
+
+“Trust not to that,” said the Countess. “Here is what will purchase for
+you the best horse on the Borders.--Can you be simple enough to refuse
+it?” she added, as she pressed on him a heavy purse, which he saw
+himself obliged to accept.
+
+“A good horse, Julian,” continued the Countess, “and a good sword, next
+to a good heart and head, are the accomplishments of a cavalier.”
+
+“I kiss your hands, then, madam,” said Peveril, “and humbly beg you to
+believe, that whatever may fail in my present undertaking, my purpose
+to serve you, my noble kinswoman and benefactress, can at least never
+swerve or falter.”
+
+“I know it, my son, I know it; and may God forgive me if my anxiety
+for your friend has sent you on dangers which should have been his!
+Go--go--May saints and angels bless you! Fenella shall acquaint him that
+you sup in your own apartment. So indeed will I; for to-night I should
+be unable to face my son’s looks. Little will he thank me for sending
+you on his errand; and there will be many to ask, whether it was like
+the Lady of Latham to trust her friend’s son on the danger which should
+have been braved by her own. But oh! Julian, I am now a forlorn widow,
+whom sorrow has made selfish!”
+
+“Tush, madam,” answered Peveril; “it is more unlike the Lady of Latham
+to anticipate dangers which may not exist at all, and to which, if
+they do indeed occur, I am less obnoxious than my noble kinsman.
+Farewell!--All blessings attend you, madam. Commend me to Derby,
+and make him my excuses. I shall expect a summons at two hours after
+midnight.”
+
+They took an affectionate leave of each other; the more affectionate,
+indeed, on the part of the Countess, that she could not entirely
+reconcile her generous mind to exposing Peveril to danger on her son’s
+behalf; and Julian betook himself to his solitary apartment.
+
+His servant soon afterwards brought him wine and refreshments; to
+which, notwithstanding the various matters he had to occupy his mind, he
+contrived to do reasonable justice. But when this needful occupation
+was finished, his thoughts began to stream in upon him like a troubled
+tide--at once recalling the past, and anticipating the future. It was in
+vain that he wrapped himself in his riding cloak, and, lying down on
+his bed, endeavoured to compose himself to sleep. The uncertainty of
+the prospect before him--the doubt how Bridgenorth might dispose of his
+daughter during his absence--the fear that the Major himself might fall
+into the power of the vindictive Countess, besides a numerous train of
+vague and half-formed apprehensions, agitated his blood, and rendered
+slumber impossible. Alternately to recline in the old oaken easy-chair,
+and listen to the dashing of the waves under the windows, mingled,
+as the sound was, with the scream of the sea-birds; or traverse the
+apartment with long and slow steps, pausing occasionally to look out
+on the sea, slumbering under the influence of a full moon, which tipped
+each wave with silver--such were the only pastimes he could invent,
+until midnight had passed for one hour; the next was wasted in anxious
+expectation of the summons of departure.
+
+At length it arrived--a tap at his door was followed by a low murmur,
+which made him suspect that the Countess had again employed her mute
+attendant as the most secure minister of her pleasure on this occasion.
+He felt something like impropriety in this selection; and it was with
+a feeling of impatience alien to the natural generosity of his temper,
+that, when he opened the door, he beheld the dumb maiden standing before
+him. The lamp which he held in his hand showed his features distinctly,
+and probably made Fenella aware of the expression which animated them.
+She cast her large dark eyes mournfully on the ground; and, without
+again looking him in the face, made him a signal to follow her. He
+delayed no longer than was necessary to secure his pistols in his belt,
+wrap his cloak closer around him, and take his small portmanteau under
+his arm. Thus accoutred, he followed her out of the Keep, or inhabited
+part of the Castle, by a series of obscure passages leading to a postern
+gate, which she unlocked with a key, selected from a bundle which she
+carried at her girdle.
+
+They now stood in the castle-yard, in the open moonlight, which
+glimmered white and ghastly on the variety of strange and ruinous
+objects to which we have formerly alluded, and which gave the scene
+rather the appearance of some ancient cemetery, than of the interior of
+a fortification. The round and elevated tower--the ancient mount, with
+its quadrangular sides facing the ruinous edifices which once boasted
+the name of Cathedral--seemed of yet more antique and anomalous form,
+when seen by the pale light which now displayed them. To one of these
+churches Fenella took the direct course, and was followed by Julian;
+although he at once divined, and was superstitious enough to dislike,
+the path which she was about to adopt. It was by a secret passage
+through this church that in former times the guard-room of the garrison,
+situated at the lower and external defences, communicated with the Keep
+of the Castle; and through this passage were the keys of the Castle
+every night carried to the Governor’s apartment, so soon as the gates
+were locked, and the watch set. The custom was given up in James the
+First’s time, and the passage abandoned, on account of the well-known
+legend of the _Mauthe Dog_--a fiend, or demon, in the shape of a large,
+shaggy, black mastiff, by which the church was said to be haunted.
+It was devoutly believed, that in former times this spectre became so
+familiar with mankind, as to appear nightly in the guard-room, issuing
+from the passage which we have mentioned at night, and retiring to it at
+daybreak. The soldiers became partly familiarised to its presence; yet
+not so much so as to use any licence of language while the apparition
+was visible; until one fellow, rendered daring by intoxication, swore
+he would know whether it was dog or devil, and, with his drawn sword,
+followed the spectre when it retreated by the usual passage. The man
+returned in a few minutes, sobered by terror, his mouth gaping, and his
+hair standing on end, under which horror he died; but, unhappily for
+the lovers of the marvellous, altogether unable to disclose the horrors
+which he had seen. Under the evil repute arising from this tale of
+wonder, the guard-room was abandoned, and a new one constructed. In like
+manner, the guards after that period held another and more circuitous
+communication with the Governor or Seneschal of the Castle; and that
+which lay through the ruinous church was entirely abandoned.
+
+In defiance of the legendary terrors which tradition had attached to
+the original communication, Fenella, followed by Peveril, now boldly
+traversed the ruinous vaults through which it lay--sometimes only guided
+over heaps of ruins by the precarious light of the lamp borne by the
+dumb maiden--sometimes having the advantage of a gleam of moonlight,
+darting into the dreary abyss through the shafted windows, or through
+breaches made by time. As the path was by no means a straight one,
+Peveril could not but admire the intimate acquaintance with the mazes
+which his singular companion displayed, as well as the boldness with
+which she traversed them. He himself was not so utterly void of
+the prejudices of the times, but that he contemplated, with some
+apprehension, the possibility of their intruding on the lair of the
+phantom hound, of which he had heard so often; and in every remote sight
+of the breeze among the ruins, he thought he heard him baying at the
+mortal footsteps which disturbed his gloomy realm. No such terrors,
+however, interrupted their journey; and in the course of a few minutes,
+they attained the deserted and now ruinous guard-house. The broken walls
+of the little edifice served to conceal them from the sentinels, one of
+whom was keeping a drowsy watch at the lower gate of the Castle; whilst
+another, seated on the stone steps which communicated with the parapet
+of the bounding and exterior wall, was slumbering, in full security,
+with his musket peacefully grounded by his side. Fenella made a sign to
+Peveril to move with silence and caution, and then showed him, to his
+surprise, from the window of the deserted guard-room, a boat, for it was
+now high water, with four rowers, lurking under the cliff on which the
+castle was built; and made him farther sensible that he was to have
+access to it by a ladder of considerable height placed at the window of
+the ruin.
+
+Julian was both displeased and alarmed by the security and carelessness
+of the sentinels, who had suffered such preparations to be made without
+observation or alarm given; and he hesitated whether he should not call
+the officer of the guard, upbraid him with negligence, and show him
+how easily Holm-Peel, in spite of its natural strength, and although
+reported impregnable, might be surprised by a few resolute men. Fenella
+seemed to guess his thoughts with that extreme acuteness of observation
+which her deprivations had occasioned her acquiring. She laid one hand
+on his arm, and a finger of the other on her own lips, as if to enjoin
+forbearance; and Julian, knowing that she acted by the direct authority
+of the Countess, obeyed her accordingly; but with the internal
+resolution to lose no time in communicating his sentiments to the Earl,
+concerning the danger to which the Castle was exposed on this point.
+
+In the meantime, he descended the ladder with some precaution, for the
+steps were unequal, broken, wet, and slippery; and having placed himself
+in the stern of the boat, made a signal to the men to push off, and
+turned to take farewell of his guide. To his utter astonishment, Fenella
+rather slid down, than descended regularly, the perilous ladder, and,
+the boat being already pushed off, made a spring from the last step of
+it with incredible agility, and seated herself beside Peveril, ere he
+could express either remonstrance or surprise. He commanded the men once
+more to pull in to the precarious landing-place; and throwing into his
+countenance a part of the displeasure which he really felt, endeavoured
+to make her comprehend the necessity of returning to her mistress.
+Fenella folded her arms, and looked at him with a haughty smile, which
+completely expressed the determination of her purpose. Peveril was
+extremely embarrassed; he was afraid of offending the Countess, and
+interfering with her plan, by giving alarm, which otherwise he was much
+tempted to have done. On Fenella, it was evident, no species of argument
+which he could employ was likely to make the least impression; and the
+question remained, how, if she went on with him, he was to rid himself
+of so singular and inconvenient a companion, and provide, at the same
+time, sufficiently for her personal security.
+
+The boatmen brought the matter to a decision; for, after lying on their
+oars for a minute, and whispering among themselves in Low Dutch or
+German, they began to pull stoutly, and were soon at some distance from
+the Castle. The possibility of the sentinels sending a musket-ball, or
+even a cannon-shot, after them, was one of the contingencies which gave
+Peveril momentary anxiety; but they left the fortress, as they must have
+approached it, unnoticed, or at least unchallenged--a carelessness on
+the part of the garrison, which, notwithstanding that the oars were
+muffled, and that the men spoke little, and in whispers, argued, in
+Peveril’s opinion, great negligence on the part of the sentinels. When
+they were a little way from the Castle, the men began to row briskly
+towards a small vessel which lay at some distance. Peveril had, in
+the meantime, leisure to remark, that the boatmen spoke to each other
+doubtfully, and bent anxious looks on Fenella, as if uncertain whether
+they had acted properly in bringing her off.
+
+After about a quarter of an hour’s rowing, they reached the little
+sloop, where Peveril was received by the skipper, or captain, on the
+quarter-deck, with an offer of spirits or refreshments. A word or two
+among the seamen withdrew the captain from his hospitable cares, and he
+flew to the ship’s side, apparently to prevent Fenella from entering
+the vessel. The men and he talked eagerly in Dutch, looking anxiously at
+Fenella as they spoke together; and Peveril hoped the result would
+be, that the poor woman should be sent ashore again. But she
+baffled whatever opposition could be offered to her; and when the
+accommodation-ladder, as it is called, was withdrawn, she snatched the
+end of a rope, and climbed on board with the dexterity of a sailor,
+leaving them no means of preventing her entrance, save by actual
+violence, to which apparently they did not choose to have recourse. Once
+on deck, she took the captain by the sleeve, and led him to the head
+of the vessel, where they seemed to hold intercourse in a manner
+intelligible to both.
+
+Peveril soon forgot the presence of the mute, as he began to muse upon
+his own situation, and the probability that he was separated for some
+considerable time from the object of his affections. “Constancy,” he
+repeated to himself,--“Constancy.” And, as if in coincidence with the
+theme of his reflections, he fixed his eyes on the polar star, which
+that night twinkled with more than ordinary brilliancy. Emblem of pure
+passion and steady purpose--the thoughts which arose as he viewed its
+clear and unchanging light, were disinterested and noble. To seek
+his country’s welfare, and secure the blessings of domestic peace--to
+discharge a bold and perilous duty to his friend and patron--to regard
+his passion for Alice Bridgenorth, as the loadstar which was to guide
+him to noble deeds--were the resolutions which thronged upon his mind,
+and which exalted his spirits to that state of romantic melancholy,
+which perhaps is ill exchanged even for feelings of joyful rapture.
+
+He was recalled from those contemplations by something which nestled
+itself softly and closely to his side--a woman’s sigh sounded so near
+him, as to disturb his reverie; and as he turned his head, he saw
+Fenella seated beside him, with her eyes fixed on the same star which
+had just occupied his own. His first emotion was that of displeasure;
+but it was impossible to persevere in it towards a being so helpless
+in many respects, so interesting in others; whose large dark eyes were
+filled with dew, which glistened in the moonlight; and the source of
+whose emotions seemed to be in a partiality which might well claim
+indulgence, at least from him who was the object of it. At the same
+time, Julian resolved to seize the present opportunity, for such
+expostulations with Fenella on the strangeness of her conduct, as the
+poor maiden might be able to comprehend. He took her hand with great
+kindness, but at the same time with much gravity, pointed to the boat,
+and to the Castle, whose towers and extended walls were now scarce
+visible in the distance; and thus intimated to her the necessity of
+her return to Holm-Peel. She looked down, and shook her head, as if
+negativing his proposal with obstinate decision. Julian renewed his
+expostulation by look and gesture--pointed to his own heart, to intimate
+the Countess--and bent his brows, to show the displeasure which she must
+entertain. To all which the maiden only answered by her tears.
+
+At length, as if driven to explanation by his continued remonstrances,
+she suddenly seized him by the arm, to arrest his attention--cast
+her eye hastily around, as if to see whether she was watched by
+any one--then drew the other hand, edge-wise, across her slender
+throat--pointed to the boat, and to the Castle, and nodded.
+
+On this series of signs, Peveril could put no interpretation, excepting
+that he was menaced with some personal danger, from which Fenella
+seemed to conceive that her presence was a protection. Whatever was her
+meaning, her purpose seemed unalterably adopted; at least it was plain
+he had no power to shake it. He must therefore wait till the end of
+their short voyage, to disembarrass himself of his companion; and, in
+the meanwhile, acting on the idea of her having harboured a misplaced
+attachment to him, he thought he should best consult her interest,
+and his own character, in keeping at as great a distance from her as
+circumstances admitted. With this purpose, he made the sign she used
+for going to sleep, by leaning his head on his palm; and having thus
+recommended to her to go to rest, he himself desired to be conducted to
+his berth.
+
+The captain readily showed him a hammock, in the after-cabin, into which
+he threw himself, to seek that repose which the exercise and agitation
+of the preceding day, as well as the lateness of the hour, made him
+now feel desirable. Sleep, deep and heavy, sunk down on him in a few
+minutes, but it did not endure long. In his sleep he was disturbed by
+female cries; and at length, as he thought, distinctly heard the voice
+of Alice Bridgenorth call on his name.
+
+He awoke, and starting up to quit his bed, became sensible, from the
+motion of the vessel, and the swinging of the hammock, that his dream
+had deceived him. He was still startled by its extreme vivacity and
+liveliness. “Julian Peveril, help! Julian Peveril!” The sounds still
+rung in his ears--the accents were those of Alice--and he could scarce
+persuade himself that his imagination had deceived him. Could she be in
+the same vessel? The thought was not altogether inconsistent with her
+father’s character, and the intrigues in which he was engaged; but
+then, if so, to what peril was she exposed, that she invoked his name so
+loudly?
+
+Determined to make instant inquiry, he jumped out of his hammock,
+half-dressed as he was, and stumbling about the little cabin, which was
+as dark as pitch, at length, with considerable difficulty, reached
+the door. The door, however, he was altogether unable to open; and was
+obliged to call loudly to the watch upon deck. The skipper, or captain,
+as he was called, being the only person aboard who could speak English,
+answered to the summons, and replied to Peveril’s demand, what noise
+that was?--that a boat was going off with the young woman--that she
+whimpered a little as she left the vessel--and “dat vaas all.”
+
+His dream was thus fully explained. Fancy had caught up the inarticulate
+and vehement cries with which Fenella was wont to express resistance or
+displeasure--had coined them into language, and given them the accents
+of Alice Bridgenorth. Our imagination plays wilder tricks with us almost
+every night.
+
+The captain now undid the door, and appeared with a lantern; without the
+aid of which Peveril could scarce have regained his couch, where he
+now slumbered secure and sound, until day was far advanced, and the
+invitation of the captain called him up to breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+           Now, what is this that haunts me like my shadow,
+           Frisking and mumming like an elf in moonlight!
+                                               --BEN JONSON.
+
+Peveril found the master of the vessel rather less rude than those in
+his station of life usually are, and received from him full satisfaction
+concerning the fate of Fenella, upon whom the captain bestowed a hearty
+curse, for obliging him to lay-to until he had sent his boat ashore, and
+had her back again.
+
+“I hope,” said Peveril, “no violence was necessary to reconcile her to
+go ashore? I trust she offered no foolish resistance?”
+
+“Resist! mein Gott,” said the captain, “she did resist like a troop of
+horse--she did cry, you might hear her at Whitehaven--she did go up
+the rigging like a cat up a chimney; but dat vas ein trick of her old
+trade.”
+
+“What trade do you mean?” said Peveril.
+
+“Oh,” said the seaman, “I vas know more about her than you, Meinheer.
+I vas know that she vas a little, very little girl, and prentice to one
+seiltanzer, when my lady yonder had the good luck to buy her.”
+
+“A seiltanzer!” said Peveril; “what do you mean by that?”
+
+“I mean a rope-danzer, a mountebank, a Hans pickel-harring. I vas know
+Adrian Brackel vell--he sell de powders dat empty men’s stomach, and
+fill him’s own purse. Not know Adrian Brackel, mein Gott! I have smoked
+many a pound of tabak with him.”
+
+Peveril now remembered that Fenella had been brought into the family
+when he and the young Earl were in England, and while the Countess was
+absent on an expedition to the continent. Where the Countess found her,
+she never communicated to the young men; but only intimated, that she
+had received her out of compassion, in order to relieve her from a
+situation of extreme distress.
+
+He hinted so much to the communicative seaman, who replied, “that for
+distress he knew nocht’s on’t; only, that Adrian Brackel beat her
+when she would not dance on the rope, and starved her when she did,
+to prevent her growth.” The bargain between the countess and the
+mountebank, he said, he had made himself; because the Countess had hired
+his brig upon her expedition to the continent. None else knew where
+she came from. The Countess had seen her on a public stage at
+Ostend--compassionated her helpless situation, and the severe treatment
+she received--and had employed him to purchase the poor creature from
+her master, and charged him with silence towards all her retinue.--“And
+so I do keep silence,” continued the faithful confidant, “van I am in
+the havens of Man; but when I am on the broad seas, den my tongue is
+mine own, you know. Die foolish beoples in the island, they say she is
+a wechsel-balg--what you call a fairy-elf changeling. My faith, they do
+not never have seen ein wechsel-balg; for I saw one myself at Cologne,
+and it was twice as big as yonder girl, and did break the poor people,
+with eating them up, like de great big cuckoo in the sparrow’s nest; but
+this Venella eat no more than other girls--it was no wechsel-balg in the
+world.”
+
+By a different train of reasoning, Julian had arrived at the same
+conclusion; in which, therefore, he heartily acquiesced. During the
+seaman’s prosing, he was reflecting within himself, how much of the
+singular flexibility of her limbs and movements the unfortunate girl
+must have derived from the discipline and instructions of Adrian
+Brackel; and also how far the germs of her wilful and capricious
+passions might have been sown during her wandering and adventurous
+childhood. Aristocratic, also, as his education had been, these
+anecdotes respecting Fenella’s original situation and education, rather
+increased his pleasure of having shaken off her company; and yet he
+still felt desirous to know any farther particulars which the seaman
+could communicate on the same subject. But he had already told all he
+knew. Of her parents he knew nothing, except that “her father must have
+been a damned hundsfoot, and a schelm, for selling his own flesh and
+blood to Adrian Brackel;” for by such a transaction had the mountebank
+become possessed of his pupil.
+
+This conversation tended to remove any passing doubts which might have
+crept on Peveril’s mind concerning the fidelity of the master of the
+vessel, who appeared from thence to have been a former acquaintance
+of the Countess, and to have enjoyed some share of her confidence. The
+threatening motion used by Fenella, he no longer considered as worthy of
+any notice, excepting as a new mark of the irritability of her temper.
+
+He amused himself with walking the deck, and musing on his past and
+future prospects, until his attention was forcibly arrested by the
+wind, which began to rise in gusts from the north-west, in a manner so
+unfavourable to the course they intended to hold, that the master, after
+many efforts to beat against it, declared his bark, which was by no
+means an excellent sea-boat, was unequal to making Whitehaven; and that
+he was compelled to make a fair wind of it, and run for Liverpool. To
+this course Peveril did not object. It saved him some land journey, in
+case he visited his father’s castle; and the Countess’s commission would
+be discharged as effectually the one way as the other.
+
+The vessel was put, accordingly, before the wind, and ran with great
+steadiness and velocity. The captain, notwithstanding, pleading some
+nautical hazards, chose to lie off, and did not attempt the mouth of
+the Mersey until morning, when Peveril had at length the satisfaction of
+being landed upon the quay of Liverpool, which even then showed symptoms
+of the commercial prosperity that has since been carried to such a
+height.
+
+The master, who was well acquainted with the port, pointed out to Julian
+a decent place of entertainment, chiefly frequented by seafaring people;
+for, although he had been in the town formerly, he did not think it
+proper to go anywhere at present where he might have been unnecessarily
+recognised. Here he took leave of the seaman, after pressing upon him
+with difficulty a small present for his crew. As for his passage, the
+captain declined any recompense whatever; and they parted upon the most
+civil terms.
+
+The inn to which he was recommended was full of strangers, seamen, and
+mercantile people, all intent upon their own affairs, and discussing
+them with noise and eagerness, peculiar to the business of a thriving
+seaport. But although the general clamour of the public room, in
+which the guests mixed with each other, related chiefly to their own
+commercial dealings, there was a general theme mingling with them, which
+was alike common and interesting to all; so that, amidst disputes about
+freight, tonnage, demurrage, and such like, were heard the
+emphatic sounds of “Deep, damnable, accursed plot,”--“Bloody Papist
+villains,”--“The King in danger--the gallows too good for them,” and so
+forth.
+
+The fermentation excited in London had plainly reached even this remote
+seaport, and was received by the inhabitants with the peculiar stormy
+energy which invests men in their situation with the character of the
+winds and waves with which they are chiefly conversant. The
+commercial and nautical interests of England were indeed particularly
+anti-Catholic; although it is not, perhaps, easy to give any distinct
+reason why they should be so, since theological disputes in general
+could scarce be considered as interesting to them. But zeal, amongst the
+lower orders at least, is often in an inverse ratio to knowledge; and
+sailors were not probably the less earnest and devoted Protestants, that
+they did not understand the controversy between the Churches. As for
+the merchants, they were almost necessarily inimical to the gentry of
+Lancashire and Cheshire; many of whom still retained the faith of Rome,
+which was rendered ten times more odious to the men of commerce, as the
+badge of their haughty aristocratic neighbours.
+
+From the little which Peveril heard of the sentiments of the people of
+Liverpool, he imagined he should act most prudently in leaving the place
+as soon as possible, and before any suspicion should arise of his
+having any connection with the party which appeared to have become so
+obnoxious.
+
+In order to accomplish his journey, it was first necessary that he
+should purchase a horse; and for this purpose he resolved to have
+recourse to the stables of a dealer well known at the time, and who
+dwelt in the outskirts of the place; and having obtained directions to
+his dwelling, he went thither to provide himself.
+
+Joe Bridlesley’s stables exhibited a large choice of good horses; for
+that trade was in former days more active than at present. It was an
+ordinary thing for a stranger to buy a horse for the purpose of a single
+journey, and to sell him, as well as he could, when he had reached the
+point of his destination; and hence there was a constant demand, and a
+corresponding supply; upon both of which, Bridlesley, and those of his
+trade, contrived, doubtless, to make handsome profits.
+
+Julian, who was no despicable horse-jockey, selected for his purpose a
+strong well-made horse, about sixteen hands high, and had him led into
+the yard, to see whether the paces corresponded with his appearance. As
+these also gave perfect satisfaction to the customer, it remained only
+to settle the price with Bridlesley; who of course swore his customer
+had pitched upon the best horse ever darkened the stable-door, since
+he had dealt that way; that no such horses were to be had nowadays,
+for that the mares were dead that foaled them; and having named a
+corresponding price, the usual haggling commenced betwixt the seller
+and purchaser, for adjustment of what the French dealers call _le prix
+juste_.
+
+The reader, if he be at all acquainted with this sort of traffic, well
+knows it is generally a keen encounter of wits, and attracts the notice
+of all the idlers within hearing, who are usually very ready to offer
+their opinions, or their evidence. Amongst these, upon the present
+occasion, was a thin man, rather less than the ordinary size, and meanly
+dressed; but whose interference was in a confident tone, and such as
+showed himself master of the subject on which he spoke. The price of the
+horse being settled to about fifteen pounds, which was very high for the
+period, that of the saddle and bridle had next to be adjusted, and the
+thin mean-looking person before-mentioned, found nearly as much to say
+on this subject as on the other. As his remarks had a conciliating and
+obliging tendency towards the stranger, Peveril concluded he was one of
+those idle persons, who, unable or unwilling to supply themselves with
+the means of indulgence at their own cost, do not scruple to deserve
+them at the hands of others, by a little officious complaisance; and
+considering that he might acquire some useful information from such a
+person, was just about to offer him the courtesy of a morning draught,
+when he observed he had suddenly left the yard. He had scarce remarked
+this circumstance, before a party of customers entered the place,
+whose haughty assumption of importance claimed the instant attention of
+Bridlesley, and all his militia of grooms and stable-boys.
+
+“Three good horses,” said the leader of the party, a tall bulky man,
+whose breath was drawn full and high, under a consciousness of fat, and
+of importance--“three good and able-bodied horses, for the service of
+the Commons of England.”
+
+Bridlesley said he had some horses which might serve the Speaker himself
+at need; but that, to speak Christian truth, he had just sold the best
+in his stable to that gentleman present, who, doubtless, would give up
+the bargain if the horse was needed for the service of the State.
+
+“You speak well, friend,” said the important personage; and advancing to
+Julian, demanded, in a very haughty tone, the surrender of the purchase
+which he had just made.
+
+Peveril, with some difficulty, subdued the strong desire which he felt
+to return a round refusal to so unreasonable a request, but fortunately,
+recollecting that the situation in which he at present stood, required,
+on his part, much circumspection, he replied simply, that upon showing
+him any warrant to seize upon horses for the public service, he must of
+course submit to resign his purchase.
+
+The man, with an air of extreme dignity, pulled from his pocket, and
+thrust into Peveril’s hand, a warrant, subscribed by the Speaker of the
+House of Commons, empowering Charles Topham, their officer of the Black
+Rod, to pursue and seize upon the persons of certain individuals named
+in the warrant; and of all other persons who are, or should be, accused
+by competent witnesses, of being accessory to, or favourers of, the
+hellish and damnable Popish Plot, at present carried on within the
+bowels of the kingdom; and charging all men, as they loved their
+allegiance, to render the said Charles Topham their readiest and most
+effective assistance, in execution of the duty entrusted to his care.
+
+On perusing a document of such weighty import, Julian had no hesitation
+to give up his horse to this formidable functionary; whom somebody
+compared to a lion, which, as the House of Commons was pleased to
+maintain such an animal, they were under the necessity of providing for
+by frequent commitments; until “_Take him, Topham_,” became a proverb,
+and a formidable one, in the mouth of the public.
+
+The acquiescence of Peveril procured him some grace in the sight of
+the emissary; who, before selecting two horses for his attendants, gave
+permission to the stranger to purchase a grey horse, much inferior,
+indeed, to that which he had resigned, both in form and in action, but
+very little lower in price, as Mr. Bridlesley, immediately on learning
+the demand for horses upon the part of the Commons of England, had
+passed a private resolution in his own mind, augmenting the price of his
+whole stud, by an imposition of at least twenty per cent., _ad valorem_.
+
+Peveril adjusted and paid the price with much less argument than on the
+former occasion; for, to be plain with the reader, he had noticed in the
+warrant of Mr. Topham, the name of his father, Sir Geoffrey Peveril of
+Martindale Castle, engrossed at full length, as one of those subjected
+to arrest by that officer.
+
+When aware of this material fact, it became Julian’s business to leave
+Liverpool directly, and carry the alarm to Derbyshire, if, indeed, Mr.
+Topham had not already executed his charge in that county, which he
+thought unlikely, as it was probable they would commence by securing
+those who lived nearest to the seaports. A word or two which he
+overheard strengthened his hopes.
+
+“And hark ye, friend,” said Mr. Topham; “you will have the horses at
+the door of Mr. Shortell, the mercer, in two hours, as we shall refresh
+ourselves there with a cool tankard, and learn what folks live in the
+neighbourhood that may be concerned in my way. And you will please
+to have that saddle padded, for I am told the Derbyshire roads are
+rough.--And you, Captain Dangerfield, and Master Everett, you must put
+on your Protestant spectacles, and show me where there is the shadow of
+a priest, or of a priest’s favourer; for I am come down with a broom in
+my cap to sweep this north country of such like cattle.”
+
+One of the persons he thus addressed, who wore the garb of a broken-down
+citizen, only answered, “Ay, truly, Master Topham, it is time to purge
+the garner.”
+
+The other, who had a formidable pair of whiskers, a red nose, and a
+tarnished laced coat, together with a hat of Pistol’s dimensions,
+was more loquacious. “I take it on my damnation,” said this zealous
+Protestant witness, “that I will discover the marks of the beast on
+every one of them betwixt sixteen and seventy, as plainly as if they had
+crossed themselves with ink, instead of holy water. Since we have a King
+willing to do justice, and a House of Commons to uphold prosecutions,
+why, damn me, the cause must not stand still for lack of evidence.”
+
+“Stick to that, noble captain,” answered the officer; “but, prithee,
+reserve thy oaths for the court of justice; it is but sheer waste to
+throw them away, as you do in your ordinary conversation.”
+
+“Fear you nothing, Master Topham,” answered Dangerfield; “it is right to
+keep a man’s gifts in use; and were I altogether to renounce oaths in
+my private discourse, how should I know how to use one when I needed it?
+But you hear me use none of your Papist abjurations. I swear not by the
+mass, or before George, or by anything that belongs to idolatry; but
+such downright oaths as may serve a poor Protestant gentleman, who would
+fain serve Heaven and the King.”
+
+“Bravely spoken, most noble Festus,” said his yoke-fellow. “But do not
+suppose, that although I am not in the habit of garnishing my words with
+oaths out of season, I shall be wanting, when called upon, to declare
+the height and the depth, the width and the length, of this hellish plot
+against the King and the Protestant faith.”
+
+Dizzy, and almost sick, with listening to the undisguised brutality of
+these fellows, Peveril, having with difficulty prevailed on Bridlesley
+to settle his purchase, at length led forth his grey steed; but
+was scarce out of the yard, when he heard the following alarming
+conversation pass, of which he seemed himself the object.
+
+“Who is that youth?” said the slow soft voice of the more precise of the
+two witnesses. “Methinks I have seen him somewhere before. Is he from
+these parts?”
+
+“Not that I know of,” said Bridlesley; who, like all the other
+inhabitants of England at the time, answered the interrogatories of
+these fellows with the deference which is paid in Spain to the questions
+of an inquisitor. “A stranger--entirely a stranger--never saw him
+before--a wild young colt, I warrant him; and knows a horse’s mouth as
+well as I do.”
+
+“I begin to bethink me I saw such a face as his at the Jesuits’ consult,
+in the White Horse Tavern,” answered Everett.
+
+“And I think I recollect,” said Captain Dangerfield----
+
+“Come, come, master and captain,” said the authoritative voice of
+Topham, “we will have none of your recollections at present. We all know
+what these are likely to end in. But I will have you know, you are not
+to run till the leash is slipped. The young man is a well-looking
+lad, and gave up his horse handsomely for the service of the House of
+Commons. He knows how to behave himself to his betters, I warrant you;
+and I scarce think he has enough in his purse to pay the fees.”
+
+This speech concluded the dialogue, which Peveril, finding himself so
+much concerned in the issue, thought it best to hear to an end. Now,
+when it ceased, to get out of the town unobserved, and take the nearest
+way to his father’s castle, seemed his wisest plan. He had settled his
+reckoning at the inn, and brought with him to Bridlesley’s the small
+portmanteau which contained his few necessaries, so that he had no
+occasion to return thither. He resolved, therefore, to ride some miles
+before he stopped, even for the purpose of feeding his horse; and being
+pretty well acquainted with the country, he hoped to be able to push
+forward to Martindale Castle sooner than the worshipful Master Topham;
+whose saddle was, in the first place, to be padded, and who, when
+mounted, would, in all probability, ride with the precaution of those
+who require such security against the effects of a hard trot.
+
+Under the influence of these feelings, Julian pushed for Warrington,
+a place with which he was well acquainted; but, without halting in the
+town, he crossed the Mersey, by the bridge built by an ancestor of his
+friend the Earl of Derby, and continued his route towards Dishley, on
+the borders of Derbyshire. He might have reached this latter village
+easily, had his horse been fitter for a forced march; but in the course
+of the journey, he had occasion, more than once, to curse the official
+dignity of the person who had robbed him of his better steed, while
+taking the best direction he could through a country with which he was
+only generally acquainted.
+
+At length, near Altringham, a halt became unavoidable; and Peveril had
+only to look for some quiet and sequestered place of refreshment. This
+presented itself, in the form of a small cluster of cottages; the best
+of which united the characters of an alehouse and a mill, where the sign
+of the Cat (the landlord’s faithful ally in defence of his meal-sacks),
+booted as high as Grimalkin in the fairy tale, and playing on the fiddle
+for the more grace, announced that John Whitecraft united the two honest
+occupations of landlord and miller; and, doubtless, took toll from the
+public in both capacities.
+
+Such a place promised a traveller, who journeyed incognito, safer,
+if not better accommodation, than he was like to meet with in more
+frequented inns; and at the door of the Cat and Fiddle, Julian halted
+accordingly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+           In these distracted times, when each man dreads
+           The bloody stratagems of busy hands.
+                                                       --OTWAY.
+
+At the door of the Cat and Fiddle, Julian received the usual attention
+paid to the customers of an inferior house of entertainment. His horse
+was carried by a ragged lad, who acted as hostler, into a paltry stable;
+where, however, the nag was tolerably supplied with food and litter.
+
+Having seen the animal on which his comfort, perhaps his safety,
+depended, properly provided for, Peveril entered the kitchen, which
+indeed was also the parlour and hall of the little hostelry, to try what
+refreshment he could obtain for himself. Much to his satisfaction, he
+found there was only one guest in the house besides himself; but he was
+less pleased when he found that he must either go without dinner, or
+share with that single guest the only provisions which chanced to be
+in the house, namely, a dish of trouts and eels, which their host, the
+miller, had brought in from his mill-stream.
+
+At the particular request of Julian, the landlady undertook to add a
+substantial dish of eggs and bacon, which perhaps she would not have
+undertaken for, had not the sharp eye of Peveril discovered the flitch
+hanging in its smoky retreat, when, as its presence could not be denied,
+the hostess was compelled to bring it forward as a part of her supplies.
+
+She was a buxom dame about thirty, whose comely and cheerful countenance
+did honour to the choice of the jolly miller, her loving mate; and
+was now stationed under the shade of an old-fashioned huge projecting
+chimney, within which it was her province to “work i’ the fire,” and
+provide for the wearied wayfaring man, the good things which were to
+send him rejoicing on his course. Although, at first, the honest woman
+seemed little disposed to give herself much additional trouble on
+Julian’s account, yet the good looks, handsome figure, and easy civility
+of her new guest, soon bespoke the principal part of her attention; and
+while busy in his service, she regarded him, from time to time, with
+looks, where something like pity mingled with complacency. The rich
+smoke of the rasher, and the eggs with which it was flanked, already
+spread itself through the apartment; and the hissing of these savoury
+viands bore chorus to the simmering of the pan, in which the fish
+were undergoing a slower decoction. The table was covered with a clean
+huck-aback napkin, and all was in preparation for the meal, which Julian
+began to expect with a good deal of impatience, when the companion, who
+was destined to share it with him, entered the apartment.
+
+At the first glance Julian recognised, to his surprise, the same
+indifferently dressed, thin-looking person, who, during the first
+bargain which he had made with Bridlesley, had officiously interfered
+with his advice and opinion. Displeased at having the company of any
+stranger forced upon him, Peveril was still less satisfied to find one
+who might make some claim of acquaintance with him, however slender,
+since the circumstances in which he stood compelled him to be as
+reserved as possible. He therefore turned his back upon his destined
+messmate, and pretended to amuse himself by looking out of the window,
+determined to avoid all intercourse until it should be inevitably forced
+upon him.
+
+In the meanwhile, the other stranger went straight up to the landlady,
+where she toiled on household cares intent, and demanded of her, what
+she meant by preparing bacon and eggs, when he had positively charged
+her to get nothing ready but the fish.
+
+The good woman, important as every cook in the discharge of her duty,
+deigned not for some time so much as to acknowledge that she heard the
+reproof of her guest; and when she did so, it was only to repel it in a
+magisterial and authoritative tone.--“If he did not like bacon--(bacon
+from their own hutch, well fed on pease and bran)--if he did not like
+bacon and eggs--(new-laid eggs, which she had brought in from the
+hen-roost with her own hands)--why so put case--it was the worse for his
+honour, and the better for those who did.”
+
+“The better for those who like them?” answered the guest; “that is as
+much as to say I am to have a companion, good woman.”
+
+“Do not good woman me, sir,” replied the miller’s wife, “till I call you
+good man; and, I promise you, many would scruple to do that to one who
+does not love eggs and bacon of a Friday.”
+
+“Nay, my good lady,” said her guest, “do not fix any misconstruction
+upon me--I dare say the eggs and the bacon are excellent; only they are
+rather a dish too heavy for my stomach.”
+
+“Ay, or your conscience perhaps, sir,” answered the hostess. “And now, I
+bethink me, you must needs have your fish fried with oil, instead of
+the good drippings I was going to put to them. I would I could spell
+the meaning of all this now; but I warrant John Bigstaff, the constable,
+could conjure something out of it.”
+
+There was a pause here; but Julian, somewhat alarmed at the tone which
+the conversation assumed, became interested in watching the dumb show
+which succeeded. By bringing his head a little towards the left, but
+without turning round, or quitting the projecting latticed window where
+he had taken his station, he could observe that the stranger, secured,
+as he seemed to think himself, from observation, had sidled close up to
+the landlady, and, as he conceived, had put a piece of money into her
+hand. The altered tone of the miller’s moiety corresponded very much
+with this supposition.
+
+“Nay, indeed, and forsooth,” she said, “her house was Liberty Hall; and
+so should every publican’s be. What was it to her what gentlefolks ate
+or drank, providing they paid for it honestly? There were many honest
+gentlemen, whose stomachs could not abide bacon, grease, or dripping,
+especially on a Friday; and what was that to her, or any one in her
+line, so gentlefolks paid honestly for the trouble? Only, she would say,
+that her bacon and eggs could not be mended betwixt this and Liverpool,
+and that she would live and die upon.”
+
+“I shall hardly dispute it,” said the stranger; and turning towards
+Julian, he added, “I wish this gentleman, who I suppose is my
+trencher-companion, much joy of the dainties which I cannot assist him
+in consuming.”
+
+“I assure you, sir,” answered Peveril, who now felt himself compelled
+to turn about, and reply with civility, “that it was with difficulty I
+could prevail on my landlady to add my cover to yours, though she seems
+now such a zealot for the consumption of eggs and bacon.”
+
+“I am zealous for nothing,” said the landlady, “save that men would eat
+their victuals, and pay their score; and if there be enough in one dish
+to serve two guests, I see little purpose in dressing them two; however,
+they are ready now, and done to a nicety.--Here, Alice! Alice!”
+
+The sound of that well-known name made Julian start; but the Alice
+who replied to the call ill resembled the vision which his imagination
+connected with the accents, being a dowdy slipshod wench, the drudge
+of the low inn which afforded him shelter. She assisted her mistress
+in putting on the table the dishes which the latter had prepared; and a
+foaming jug of home-brewed ale being placed betwixt them, was warranted
+by Dame Whitecraft as excellent; “for,” said she, “we know by practice
+that too much water drowns the miller, and we spare it on our malt as we
+would in our mill-dam.”
+
+“I drink to your health in it, dame,” said the elder stranger; “and
+a cup of thanks for these excellent fish; and to the drowning of all
+unkindness between us.”
+
+“I thank you, sir,” said the dame, “and wish you the like; but I dare
+not pledge you, for our Gaffer says that ale is brewed too strong for
+women; so I only drink a glass of canary at a time with a gossip, or any
+gentleman guest that is so minded.”
+
+“You shall drink one with me, then, dame,” said Peveril, “so you will
+let me have a flagon.”
+
+“That you shall, sir, and as good as ever was broached; but I must to
+the mill, to get the key from the goodman.”
+
+So saying, and tucking her clean gown through the pocket-holes, that
+her steps might be the more alert, and her dress escape dust, off she
+tripped to the mill, which lay close adjoining.
+
+“A dainty dame, and dangerous, is the miller’s wife,” said the stranger,
+looking at Peveril. “Is not that old Chaucer’s phrase?”
+
+“I--I believe so,” said Peveril, not much read in Chaucer, who was then
+even more neglected than at present; and much surprised at a literary
+quotation from one of the mean appearance exhibited by the person before
+him.
+
+“Yes,” answered the stranger, “I see that you, like other young
+gentlemen of the time, are better acquainted with Cowley and Waller,
+than with the ‘well of English undefiled.’ I cannot help differing.
+There are touches of nature about the old bard of Woodstock, that, to
+me, are worth all the turns of laborious wit in Cowley, and all
+the ornate and artificial simplicity of his courtly competitor. The
+description, for instance, of his country coquette--
+
+ ‘Wincing she was, as is a wanton colt,
+  Sweet as a flower, and upright as a bolt.’
+
+Then, again, for pathos, where will you mend the dying scene of Arcite?
+
+ ‘Alas, my heart’s queen! alas, my wife!
+  Giver at once, and ender of my life.
+  What is this world?--What axen men to have?
+  Now with his love--now in his cold grave
+  Alone, withouten other company.’
+
+But I tire you, sir; and do injustice to the poet, whom I remember but
+by halves.”
+
+“On the contrary, sir,” replied Peveril, “you make him more intelligible
+to me in your recitation, than I have found him when I have tried to
+peruse him myself.”
+
+“You were only frightened by the antiquated spelling, and ‘the letters
+black,’” said his companion. “It is many a scholar’s case, who mistakes
+a nut, which he could crack with a little exertion, for a bullet, which
+he must needs break his teeth on; but yours are better employed.--Shall
+I offer you some of this fish?”
+
+“Not so, sir,” replied Julian, willing to show himself a man of reading
+in his turn; “I hold with old Caius, and profess to fear judgment, to
+fight where I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.”
+
+The stranger cast a startled look around him at this observation, which
+Julian had thrown out, on purpose to ascertain, if possible, the quality
+of his companion, whose present language was so different from the
+character he had assumed at Bridlesley’s. His countenance, too, although
+the features were of an ordinary, not to say mean cast, had that
+character of intelligence which education gives to the most homely face;
+and his manners were so easy and disembarrassed, as plainly showed a
+complete acquaintance with society, as well as the habit of mingling
+with it in the higher stages. The alarm which he had evidently shown at
+Peveril’s answer, was but momentary; for he almost instantly replied,
+with a smile, “I promise you, sir, that you are in no dangerous company;
+for notwithstanding my fish dinner, I am much disposed to trifle with
+some of your savoury mess, if you will indulge me so far.”
+
+Peveril accordingly reinforced the stranger’s trencher with what
+remained of the bacon and eggs, and saw him swallow a mouthful or two
+with apparent relish; but presently after began to dally with his knife
+and fork, like one whose appetite was satiated; and then took a long
+draught of the black jack, and handed his platter to the large mastiff
+dog, who, attracted by the smell of the dinner, had sat down before
+him for some time, licking his chops, and following with his eye every
+morsel which the guest raised to his head.
+
+“Here, my poor fellow,” said he, “thou hast had no fish, and needest
+this supernumerary trencher-load more than I do. I cannot withstand thy
+mute supplication any longer.”
+
+The dog answered these courtesies by a civil shake of the tail, while he
+gobbled up what was assigned him by the stranger’s benevolence, in the
+greater haste, that he heard his mistress’s voice at the door.
+
+“Here is the canary, gentlemen,” said the landlady; “and the goodman
+has set off the mill, to come to wait on you himself. He always does so,
+when company drink wine.”
+
+“That he may come in for the host’s, that is, for the lion’s share,”
+ said the stranger, looking at Peveril.
+
+“The shot is mine,” said Julian; “and if mine host will share it, I will
+willingly bestow another quart on him, and on you, sir. I never break
+old customs.”
+
+These sounds caught the ear of Gaffer Whitecraft, who had entered the
+room, a strapping specimen of his robust trade, prepared to play
+the civil, or the surly host, as his company should be acceptable or
+otherwise. At Julian’s invitation, he doffed his dusty bonnet--brushed
+from his sleeve the looser particles of his professional dust--and
+sitting down on the end of a bench, about a yard from the table, filled
+a glass of canary, and drank to his guests, and “especially to this
+noble gentleman,” indicating Peveril, who had ordered the canary.
+
+Julian returned the courtesy by drinking his health, and asking what
+news were about in the country?
+
+“Nought, sir, I hears on nought, except this Plot, as they call it, that
+they are pursuing the Papishers about; but it brings water to my mill,
+as the saying is. Between expresses hurrying hither and thither,
+and guards and prisoners riding to and again, and the custom of the
+neighbours, that come to speak over the news of an evening, nightly, I
+may say, instead of once a week, why, the spigot is in use, gentlemen,
+and your land thrives; and then I, serving as constable, and being a
+known Protestant, I have tapped, I may venture to say, it may be ten
+stands of ale extraordinary, besides a reasonable sale of wine for a
+country corner. Heaven make us thankful, and keep all good Protestants
+from Plot and Popery.”
+
+“I can easily conceive, my friend,” said Julian, “that curiosity is
+a passion which runs naturally to the alehouse; and that anger,
+and jealousy, and fear, are all of them thirsty passions, and great
+consumers of home-brewed. But I am a perfect stranger in these parts;
+and I would willingly learn, from a sensible man like you, a little
+of this same Plot, of which men speak so much, and appear to know so
+little.”
+
+“Learn a little of it?--Why, it is the most horrible--the most damnable,
+bloodthirsty beast of a Plot--But hold, hold, my good master; I hope,
+in the first place, you believe there is a Plot; for, otherwise,
+the Justice must have a word with you, as sure as my name is John
+Whitecraft.”
+
+“It shall not need,” said Peveril; “for I assure you, mine host, I
+believe in the Plot as freely and fully as a man can believe in anything
+he cannot understand.”
+
+“God forbid that anybody should pretend to understand it,” said the
+implicit constable; “for his worship the Justice says it is a mile
+beyond him; and he be as deep as most of them. But men may believe,
+though they do not understand; and that is what the Romanists say
+themselves. But this I am sure of, it makes a rare stirring time for
+justices, and witnesses, and constables.--So here’s to your health
+again, gentlemen, in a cup of neat canary.”
+
+“Come, come, John Whitecraft,” said the wife, “do not you demean
+yourself by naming witnesses along with justices and constables. All the
+world knows how they come by their money.”
+
+“Ay, but all the world knows that they _do_ come by it, dame; and that
+is a great comfort. They rustle in their canonical silks, and swagger
+in their buff and scarlet, who but they?--Ay, ay, the cursed fox
+thrives--and not so cursed neither. Is there not Doctor Titus Oates, the
+saviour of the nation--does he not live at Whitehall, and eat off plate,
+and have a pension of thousands a year, for what I know? and is he not
+to be Bishop of Litchfield, so soon as Dr. Doddrum dies?”
+
+“Then I hope Dr. Doddrum’s reverence will live these twenty years; and I
+dare say I am the first that ever wished such a wish,” said the hostess.
+“I do not understand these doings, not I; and if a hundred Jesuits came
+to hold a consult at my house, as they did at the White Horse Tavern,
+I should think it quite out of the line of business to bear witness
+against them, provided they drank well, and paid their score.”
+
+“Very true, dame,” said her elder guest; “that is what I call keeping a
+good publican conscience; and so I will pay my score presently, and be
+jogging on my way.”
+
+Peveril, on his part, also demanded a reckoning, and discharged it
+so liberally, that the miller flourished his hat as he bowed, and the
+hostess courtesied down to the ground.
+
+The horses of both guests were brought forth; and they mounted, in order
+to depart in company. The host and hostess stood in the doorway, to see
+them depart. The landlord proffered a stirrup-cup to the elder guest,
+while the landlady offered Peveril a glass from her own peculiar bottle.
+For this purpose, she mounted on the horse-block, with flask and glass
+in hand; so that it was easy for the departing guest, although on
+horse-back, to return the courtesy in the most approved manner, namely,
+by throwing his arm over his landlady’s shoulder, and saluting her at
+parting.
+
+Dame Whitecraft did not decline this familiarity; for there is no room
+for traversing upon a horse-block, and the hands which might have served
+her for resistance, were occupied with glass and bottle--matters too
+precious to be thrown away in such a struggle. Apparently, however, she
+had something else in her head; for as, after a brief affectation of
+reluctance, she permitted Peveril’s face to approach hers, she whispered
+in his ear, “Beware of trepans!”--an awful intimation, which, in
+those days of distrust, suspicion, and treachery, was as effectual
+in interdicting free and social intercourse, as the advertisement of
+“man-traps and spring-guns,” to protect an orchard. Pressing her hand,
+in intimation that he comprehended her hint, she shook his warmly in
+return, and bade God speed him. There was a cloud on John Whitecraft’s
+brow; nor did his final farewell sound half so cordial as that which
+had been spoken within doors. But then Peveril reflected, that the same
+guest is not always equally acceptable to landlord and landlady; and
+unconscious of having done anything to excite the miller’s displeasure,
+he pursued his journey without thinking farther of the matter.
+
+Julian was a little surprised, and not altogether pleased, to find that
+his new acquaintance held the same road with him. He had many reasons
+for wishing to travel alone; and the hostess’s caution still rung in his
+ears. If this man, possessed of so much shrewdness as his countenance
+and conversation intimated, versatile, as he had occasion to remark, and
+disguised beneath his condition, should prove, as was likely, to be a
+concealed Jesuit or seminary-priest, travelling upon their great task
+of the conversion of England, and rooting out of the Northern heresy,--a
+more dangerous companion, for a person in his own circumstances,
+could hardly be imagined; since keeping society with him might seem to
+authorise whatever reports had been spread concerning the attachment
+of his family to the Catholic cause. At the same time, it was very
+difficult, without actual rudeness, to shake off the company of one who
+seemed so determined, whether spoken to or not, to remain alongside of
+him.
+
+Peveril tried the experiment of riding slow; but his companion,
+determined not to drop him, slackened his pace, so as to keep close
+by him. Julian then spurred his horse to a full trot; and was soon
+satisfied, that the stranger, notwithstanding the meanness of his
+appearance, was so much better mounted than himself, as to render
+vain any thought of outriding him. He pulled up his horse to a more
+reasonable pace, therefore, in a sort of despair. Upon his doing so, his
+companion, who had been hitherto silent, observed, that Peveril was not
+so well qualified to try speed upon the road, as he would have been had
+he abode by his first bargain of horse-flesh that morning.
+
+Peveril assented dryly, but observed, that the animal would serve his
+immediate purpose, though he feared it would render him indifferent
+company for a person better mounted.
+
+“By no means,” answered his civil companion; “I am one of those who have
+travelled so much, as to be accustomed to make my journey at any rate of
+motion which may be most agreeable to my company.”
+
+Peveril made no reply to this polite intimation, being too sincere to
+tender the thanks which, in courtesy, were the proper answer.--A second
+pause ensued, which was broken by Julian asking the stranger whether
+their roads were likely to lie long together in the same direction.
+
+“I cannot tell,” said the stranger, smiling, “unless I knew which way
+you were travelling.”
+
+“I am uncertain how far I shall go to-night,” said Julian, willingly
+misunderstanding the purport of the reply.
+
+“And so am I,” replied the stranger; “but though my horse goes better
+than yours, I think it will be wise to spare him; and in case our road
+continues to lie the same way, we are likely to sup, as we have dined
+together.”
+
+Julian made no answer whatever to this round intimation, but continued
+to ride on, turning, in his own mind, whether it would not be wisest to
+come to a distinct understanding with his pertinacious attendant, and
+to explain, in so many words, that it was his pleasure to travel alone.
+But, besides that the sort of acquaintance which they had formed during
+dinner, rendered him unwilling to be directly uncivil towards a person
+of gentleman-like manners, he had also to consider that he might very
+possibly be mistaken in this man’s character and purpose; in which case,
+the cynically refusing the society of a sound Protestant, would afford
+as pregnant matter of suspicion, as travelling in company with a
+disguised Jesuit.
+
+After brief reflection, therefore, he resolved to endure the encumbrance
+of the stranger’s society, until a fair opportunity should occur to rid
+himself of it; and, in the meantime, to act with as much caution as he
+possibly could, in any communication that might take place between them;
+for Dame Whitecraft’s parting caution still rang anxiously in his ears,
+and the consequences of his own arrest upon suspicion, must deprive him
+of every opportunity of serving his father, or the countess, or Major
+Bridgenorth, upon whose interest, also, he had promised himself to keep
+an eye.
+
+While he revolved these things in his mind, they had journeyed several
+miles without speaking; and now entered upon a more waste country, and
+worse roads, than they had hitherto found, being, in fact, approaching
+the more hilly district of Derbyshire. In travelling on a very stony and
+uneven lane, Julian’s horse repeatedly stumbled; and, had he not been
+supported by the rider’s judicious use of the bridle, must at length
+certainly have fallen under him.
+
+“These are times which crave wary riding, sir,” said his companion;
+“and by your seat in the saddle, and your hand on the rein, you seem to
+understand it to be so.”
+
+“I have been long a horseman, sir,” answered Peveril.
+
+“And long a traveller, too, sir, I should suppose; since by the great
+caution you observe, you seem to think the human tongue requires a curb,
+as well as the horse’s jaws.”
+
+“Wiser men than I have been of opinion,” answered Peveril, “that it
+were a part of prudence to be silent, when men have little or nothing to
+say.”
+
+“I cannot approve of their opinion,” answered the stranger. “All
+knowledge is gained by communication, either with the dead, through
+books, or, more pleasingly, through the conversation of the living. The
+_deaf and dumb_, alone, are excluded from improvement; and surely their
+situation is not so enviable that we should imitate them.”
+
+At this illustration, which awakened a startling echo in Peveril’s
+bosom, the young man looked hard at his companion; but in the composed
+countenance, and calm blue eye, he read no consciousness of a farther
+meaning than the words immediately and directly implied. He paused a
+moment, and then answered, “You seem to be a person, sir, of shrewd
+apprehension; and I should have thought it might have occurred to you,
+that in the present suspicious times, men may, without censure, avoid
+communication with strangers. You know not me; and to me you are totally
+unknown. There is not room for much discourse between us, without
+trespassing on the general topics of the day, which carry in them seeds
+of quarrel between friends, much more betwixt strangers. At any other
+time, the society of an intelligent companion would have been most
+acceptable upon my solitary ride; but at present----”
+
+“At present!” said the other, interrupting him. “You are like the old
+Romans, who held that _hostis_ meant both a stranger and an enemy.
+I will therefore be no longer a stranger. My name is Ganlesse--by
+profession I am a Roman Catholic priest--I am travelling here in dread
+of my life--and I am very glad to have you for a companion.”
+
+“I thank you for the information with all my heart,” said Peveril; “and
+to avail myself of it to the uttermost, I must beg you to ride forward,
+or lag behind, or take a side-path, at your own pleasure; for as I am
+no Catholic, and travel upon business of high concernment, I am exposed
+both to risk and delay, and even to danger, by keeping such suspicious
+company. And so, Master Ganlesse, keep your own pace, and I will keep
+the contrary; for I beg leave to forbear your company.”
+
+As Peveril spoke thus, he pulled up his horse, and made a full stop.
+
+The stranger burst out a-laughing. “What!” he said, “you forbear my
+company for a trifle of danger? Saint Anthony! How the warm blood of
+the Cavaliers is chilled in the young men of the present day! This
+young gallant, now, has a father, I warrant, who has endured as many
+adventures for hunting priests, as a knight-errant for distressed
+damsels.”
+
+“This raillery avails nothing, sir,” said Peveril. “I must request you
+will keep your own way.”
+
+“My way is yours,” said the pertinacious Master Ganlesse, as he called
+himself; “and we will both travel the safer, that we journey in company.
+I have the receipt of fern-seed, man, and walk invisible. Besides, you
+would not have me quit you in this lane, where there is no turn to right
+or left?”
+
+Peveril moved on, desirous to avoid open violence--for which the
+indifferent tone of the traveller, indeed, afforded no apt pretext--yet
+highly disliking his company, and determined to take the first
+opportunity to rid himself of it.
+
+The stranger proceeded at the same pace with him, keeping cautiously on
+his bridle hand, as if to secure that advantage in case of a struggle.
+But his language did not intimate the least apprehension. “You do me
+wrong,” he said to Peveril, “and you equally wrong yourself. You are
+uncertain where to lodge to-night--trust to my guidance. Here is an
+ancient hall, within four miles, with an old knightly Pantaloon for its
+lord--an all-be-ruffed Dame Barbara for the lady gay--a Jesuit, in a
+butler’s habit, to say grace--an old tale of Edgehill and Worster fights
+to relish a cold venison pasty, and a flask of claret mantled with
+cobwebs--a bed for you in the priest’s hiding-hole--and, for aught I
+know, pretty Mistress Betty, the dairy-maid, to make it ready.”
+
+“This has no charms for me, sir,” said Peveril, who, in spite of
+himself, could not but be amused with the ready sketch which the
+stranger gave of many an old mansion in Cheshire and Derbyshire, where
+the owners retained the ancient faith of Rome.
+
+“Well, I see I cannot charm you in this way,” continued his companion;
+“I must strike another key. I am no longer Ganlesse, the seminary
+priest, but (changing his tone, and snuffling in the nose) Simon Canter,
+a poor preacher of the Word, who travels this way to call sinners to
+repentance; and to strengthen, and to edify, and to fructify among the
+scattered remnant who hold fast the truth.--What say you to this, sir?”
+
+“I admire your versatility, sir, and could be entertained with it at
+another time. At present sincerity is more in request.”
+
+“Sincerity!” said the stranger;--“a child’s whistle, with but two notes
+in it--yea, yea, and nay, nay. Why, man, the very Quakers have renounced
+it, and have got in its stead a gallant recorder, called Hypocrisy, that
+is somewhat like Sincerity in form, but of much greater compass, and
+combines the whole gamut. Come, be ruled--be a disciple of Simon Canter
+for the evening, and we will leave the old tumble-down castle of the
+knight aforesaid, on the left hand, for a new brick-built mansion,
+erected by an eminent salt-boiler from Namptwich, who expects the said
+Simon to make a strong spiritual pickle for the preservation of a soul
+somewhat corrupted by the evil communications of this wicked world.
+What say you? He has two daughters--brighter eyes never beamed under a
+pinched hood; and for myself, I think there is more fire in those who
+live only to love and to devotion, than in your court beauties, whose
+hearts are running on twenty follies besides. You know not the pleasure
+of being conscience-keeper to a pretty precisian, who in one breath
+repeats her foibles, and in the next confesses her passion. Perhaps,
+though, you may have known such in your day? Come, sir, it grows too
+dark to see your blushes; but I am sure they are burning on your cheek.”
+
+“You take great freedom, sir,” said Peveril, as they now approached the
+end of the lane, where it opened on a broad common; “and you seem rather
+to count more on my forbearance, than you have room to do with safety.
+We are now nearly free of the lane which has made us companions for this
+late half hour. To avoid your farther company, I will take the turn to
+the left, upon that common; and if you follow me, it shall be at your
+peril. Observe, I am well armed; and you will fight at odds.”
+
+“Not at odds,” returned the provoking stranger, “while I have my brown
+jennet, with which I can ride round and round you at pleasure; and this
+text, of a handful in length (showing a pistol which he drew from his
+bosom), which discharges very convincing doctrine on the pressure of a
+forefinger, and is apt to equalise all odds, as you call them, of youth
+and strength. Let there be no strife between us, however--the moor lies
+before us--choose your path on it--I take the other.”
+
+“I wish you good night, sir,” said Peveril to the stranger. “I ask your
+forgiveness, if I have misconstrued you in anything; but the times
+are perilous, and a man’s life may depend on the society in which he
+travels.”
+
+“True,” said the stranger; “but in your case, the danger is already
+undergone, and you should seek to counteract it. You have travelled in
+my company long enough to devise a handsome branch of the Popish Plot.
+How will you look, when you see come forth, in comely folio form, The
+Narrative of Simon Canter, otherwise called Richard Ganlesse, concerning
+the horrid Popish Conspiracy for the Murder of the King, and Massacre
+of all Protestants, as given on oath to the Honourable House of Commons;
+setting forth, how far Julian Peveril, younger of Martindale Castle, is
+concerned in carrying on the same----”
+
+“How, sir? What mean you?” said Peveril, much startled.
+
+“Nay, sir,” replied his companion, “do not interrupt my title-page.
+Now that Oates and Bedloe have drawn the great prizes, the subordinate
+discoverers get little but by the sale of their Narrative; and Janeway,
+Newman, Simmons, and every bookseller of them, will tell you that the
+title is half the narrative. Mine shall therefore set forth the various
+schemes you have communicated to me, of landing ten thousand soldiers
+from the Isle of Man upon the coast of Lancashire; and marching into
+Wales, to join the ten thousand pilgrims who are to be shipped from
+Spain; and so completing the destruction of the Protestant religion,
+and of the devoted city of London. Truly, I think such a Narrative, well
+spiced with a few horrors, and published _cum privilegio parliamenti_,
+might, though the market be somewhat overstocked, be still worth some
+twenty or thirty pieces.”
+
+“You seem to know me, sir,” said Peveril; “and if so, I think I may
+fairly ask you your purpose in thus bearing me company, and the meaning
+of all this rhapsody. If it be mere banter, I can endure it within
+proper limit; although it is uncivil on the part of a stranger. If you
+have any farther purpose, speak it out; I am not to be trifled with.”
+
+“Good, now,” said the stranger, laughing, “into what an unprofitable
+chafe you have put yourself! An Italian _fuoruscito_, when he desires
+a parley with you, takes aim from behind a wall, with his long gun, and
+prefaces his conference with _Posso tirare_. So does your man-of-war
+fire a gun across the bows of a Hansmogan Indiaman, just to bring her
+to; and so do I show Master Julian Peveril, that, if I were one of the
+honourable society of witnesses and informers, with whom his imagination
+has associated me for these two hours past, he is as much within my
+danger now, as what he is ever likely to be.” Then, suddenly changing
+his tone to serious, which was in general ironical, he added, “Young
+man, when the pestilence is diffused through the air of a city, it is in
+vain men would avoid the disease, by seeking solitude, and shunning the
+company of their fellow-sufferers.”
+
+“In what, then, consists their safety?” said Peveril, willing to
+ascertain, if possible, the drift of his companion’s purpose.
+
+“In following the counsels of wise physicians;” such was the stranger’s
+answer.
+
+“And as such,” said Peveril, “you offer me your advice?”
+
+“Pardon me, young man,” said the stranger haughtily, “I see no reason
+I should do so.--I am not,” he added, in his former tone, “your fee’d
+physician--I offer no advice--I only say it would be wise that you
+sought it.”
+
+“And from whom, or where, can I obtain it?” said Peveril. “I wander in
+this country like one in a dream; so much a few months have changed it.
+Men who formerly occupied themselves with their own affairs, are now
+swallowed up in matters of state policy; and those tremble under the
+apprehension of some strange and sudden convulsion of empire, who were
+formerly only occupied by the fear of going to bed supperless. And to
+sum up the matter, I meet a stranger apparently well acquainted with my
+name and concerns, who first attaches himself to me, whether I will or
+no; and then refuses me an explanation of his business, while he menaces
+me with the strangest accusations.”
+
+“Had I meant such infamy,” said the stranger, “believe me, I had not
+given you the thread of my intrigue. But be wise, and come one with
+me. There is, hard by, a small inn, where, if you can take a stranger’s
+warrant for it, we shall sleep in perfect security.”
+
+“Yet, you yourself,” said Peveril, “but now were anxious to avoid
+observation; and in that case, how can you protect me?”
+
+“Pshaw! I did but silence that tattling landlady, in the way in which
+such people are most readily hushed; and for Topham, and his brace
+of night owls, they must hawk at other and lesser game than I should
+prove.”
+
+Peveril could not help admiring the easy and confident indifference
+with which the stranger seemed to assume a superiority to all the
+circumstances of danger around him; and after hastily considering the
+matter with himself, came to the resolution to keep company with him for
+this night at least; and to learn, if possible, who he really was, and
+to what party in the estate he was attached. The boldness and freedom
+of his talk seemed almost inconsistent with his following the perilous,
+though at that time the gainful trade of an informer. No doubt, such
+persons assumed every appearance which could insinuate them into the
+confidence of their destined victims; but Julian thought he discovered
+in this man’s manner, a wild and reckless frankness, which he could not
+but connect with the idea of sincerity in the present case. He therefore
+answered, after a moment’s recollection, “I embrace your proposal, sir;
+although, by doing so, I am reposing a sudden, and perhaps an unwary,
+confidence.”
+
+“And what am I, then, reposing in you?” said the stranger. “Is not our
+confidence mutual?”
+
+“No; much the contrary. I know nothing of you whatever--you have named
+me; and, knowing me to be Julian Peveril, know you may travel with me in
+perfect security.”
+
+“The devil I do!” answered his companion. “I travel in the same security
+as with a lighted petard, which I may expect to explode every moment.
+Are you not the son of Peveril of the Peak, with whose name Prelacy
+and Popery are so closely allied, that no old woman of either sex in
+Derbyshire concludes her prayer without a petition to be freed from all
+three? And do you not come from the Popish Countess of Derby, bringing,
+for aught I know, a whole army of Manxmen in your pocket, with
+full complement of arms, ammunition, baggage, and a train of field
+artillery?”
+
+“It is not very likely I should be so poorly mounted,” said Julian,
+laughing, “if I had such a weight to carry. But lead on, sir. I see I
+must wait for your confidence, till you think proper to confer it; for
+you are already so well acquainted with my affairs, that I have nothing
+to offer you in exchange for it.”
+
+“_Allons_, then,” said his companion; “give your horse the spur, and
+raise the curb rein, lest he measure the ground with his nose instead of
+his paces. We are not now more than a furlong or two from the place of
+entertainment.”
+
+They mended their pace accordingly, and soon arrived at the small
+solitary inn which the traveller had mentioned. When its light began to
+twinkle before them, the stranger, as if recollecting something he had
+forgotten, “By the way, you must have a name to pass by; for it may be
+ill travelling under your own, as the fellow who keeps this house is
+an old Cromwellian. What will you call yourself?--My name is--for the
+present--Ganlesse.”
+
+“There is no occasion to assume a name at all,” answered Julian. “I do
+not incline to use a borrowed one, especially as I may meet with some
+one who knows my own.”
+
+“I will call you Julian, then,” said Master Ganlesse; “for Peveril will
+smell, in the nostrils of mine host, of idolatry, conspiracy, Smithfield
+faggots, fish on Fridays, the murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, and the
+fire of purgatory.”
+
+As he spoke thus, they alighted under the great broad-branched oak tree,
+that served to canopy the ale-bench, which, at an earlier hour, had
+groaned under the weight of a frequent conclave of rustic politicians.
+Ganlesse, as he dismounted, whistled in a particularly shrill note, and
+was answered from within the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+           He was a fellow in a peasant’s garb;
+           Yet one could censure you a woodcock’s carving.
+           Like any courtier at the ordinary.
+                                                --THE ORDINARY.
+
+The person who appeared at the door of the little inn to receive
+Ganlesse, as we mentioned in our last chapter, sung, as he came forward,
+this scrap of an old ballad,--
+
+ “Good even to you, Diccon;
+    And how have you sped;
+  Bring you the bonny bride
+    To banquet and bed?”
+
+To which Ganlesse answered, in the same tone and tune,--
+
+ “Content thee, kind Robin;
+    He need little care,
+  Who brings home a fat buck
+    Instead of a hare.”
+
+“You have missed your blow, then?” said the other, in reply.
+
+“I tell you I have not,” answered Ganlesse; “but you will think of
+nought but your own thriving occupation--May the plague that belongs to
+it stick to it! though it hath been the making of thee.”
+
+“A man must live, Diccon Ganlesse,” said the other.
+
+“Well, well,” said Ganlesse, “bid my friend welcome, for my sake. Hast
+thou got any supper?”
+
+“Reeking like a sacrifice--Chaubert has done his best. That fellow is a
+treasure! give him a farthing candle, and he will cook a good supper
+out of it.--Come in, sir. My friend’s friend is welcome, as we say in my
+country.”
+
+“We must have our horses looked to first,” said Peveril, who began to
+be considerably uncertain about the character of his companions--“that
+done, I am for you.”
+
+Ganlesse gave a second whistle; a groom appeared, who took charge of
+both their horses, and they themselves entered the inn.
+
+The ordinary room of a poor inn seemed to have undergone some
+alterations, to render it fit for company of a higher description. There
+were a beaufet, a couch, and one or two other pieces of furniture, of
+a style inconsistent with the appearance of the place. The tablecloth,
+which was already laid, was of the finest damask; and the spoons,
+forks, &c., were of silver. Peveril looked at this apparatus with some
+surprise; and again turning his eyes attentively upon his travelling
+companion, Ganlesse, he could not help discovering (by the aid of
+imagination, perhaps), that though insignificant in person, plain in
+features, and dressed like one in indigence, there lurked still about
+his person and manners, that indefinable ease of manner which belongs
+only to men of birth and quality, or to those who are in the constant
+habit of frequenting the best company. His companion, whom he called
+Will Smith, although tall and rather good-looking, besides being
+much better dressed, had not, nevertheless, exactly the same ease of
+demeanour; and was obliged to make up for the want, by an additional
+proportion of assurance. Who these two persons could be, Peveril could
+not attempt even to form a guess. There was nothing for it but to watch
+their manner and conversation.
+
+After speaking a moment in whispers, Smith said to his companion, “We
+must go look after our nags for ten minutes, and allow Chaubert to do
+his office.”
+
+“Will not he appear, and minister before us, then?” said Ganlesse.
+
+“What! he?--he shift a trencher--he hand a cup?--No, you forget whom
+you speak of. Such an order were enough to make him fall on his own
+sword--he is already on the borders of despair, because no craw-fish are
+to be had.”
+
+“Alack-a day!” replied Ganlesse. “Heaven forbid I should add to such
+a calamity! To stable, then, and see we how our steeds eat their
+provender, while ours is getting ready.”
+
+They adjourned to the stable accordingly, which, though a poor one, had
+been hastily supplied with whatever was necessary for the accommodation
+of four excellent horses; one of which, that from which Ganlesse was
+just dismounted, the groom we have mentioned was cleaning and dressing
+by the light of a huge wax-candle.
+
+“I am still so far Catholic,” said Ganlesse, laughing, as he saw that
+Peveril noticed this piece of extravagance. “My horse is my saint, and I
+dedicate a candle to him.”
+
+“Without asking so great a favour for mine, which I see standing behind
+yonder old hen-coop,” replied Peveril, “I will at least relieve him of
+his saddle and bridle.”
+
+“Leave him to the lad of the inn,” said Smith; “he is not worthy of any
+other person’s handling; and I promise you, if you slip a single buckle,
+you will so flavour of that stable duty, that you might as well eat
+roast-beef as ragouts, for any relish you will have of them.”
+
+“I love roast-beef as well as ragouts, at any time,” said Peveril,
+adjusting himself to a task which every young man should know how to
+perform when need is; “and my horse, though it be but a sorry jade, will
+champ better on hay and corn, than on an iron bit.”
+
+While he was unsaddling his horse, and shaking down some litter for the
+poor wearied animal, he heard Smith observe to Ganlesse,--“By my faith,
+Dick, thou hast fallen into poor Slender’s blunder; missed Anne Page,
+and brought us a great lubberly post-master’s boy.”
+
+“Hush, he will hear thee,” answered Ganlesse; “there are reasons for all
+things--it is well as it is. But, prithee, tell thy fellow to help the
+youngster.”
+
+“What!” replied Smith, “d’ye think I am mad?--Ask Tom Beacon--Tom of
+Newmarket--Tom of ten thousand, to touch such a four-legged brute as
+that?--Why, he would turn me away on the spot--discard me, i’faith. It
+was all he would do to take in hand your own, my good friend; and if you
+consider him not the better, you are like to stand groom to him yourself
+to-morrow.”
+
+“Well, Will,” answered Ganlesse, “I will say that for thee, thou hast a
+set of the most useless, scoundrelly, insolent vermin about thee, that
+ever ate up a poor gentleman’s revenues.”
+
+“Useless? I deny it,” replied Smith. “Every one of my fellows does
+something or other so exquisitely, that it were sin to make him do
+anything else--it is your jacks-of-all-trades who are masters of
+none.--But hark to Chaubert’s signal. The coxcomb is twangling it on the
+lute, to the tune of _Eveillez-vous, belle endormie_.--Come, Master What
+d’ye call (addressing Peveril),--get ye some water, and wash this filthy
+witness from your hand, as Betterton says in the play; for Chaubert’s
+cookery is like Friar Bacon’s Head--time is--time was--time will soon be
+no more.”
+
+So saying, and scarce allowing Julian time to dip his hands in a bucket,
+and dry them on a horse-cloth, he hurried him from the stable back to
+the supper-chamber.
+
+Here all was prepared for their meal, with an epicurean delicacy, which
+rather belonged to the saloon of a palace, than the cabin in which it
+was displayed. Four dishes of silver, with covers of the same metal,
+smoked on the table; and three seats were placed for the company.
+Beside the lower end of the board, was a small side-table, to answer
+the purpose of what is now called a dumb waiter; on which several flasks
+reared their tall, stately, and swan-like crests, above glasses and
+rummers. Clean covers were also placed within reach; and a small
+travelling-case of morocco, hooped with silver, displayed a number of
+bottles, containing the most approved sauces that culinary ingenuity had
+then invented.
+
+Smith, who occupied the lower seat, and seemed to act as president of
+the feast, motioned the two travellers to take their places and begin.
+“I would not stay a grace-time,” he said, “to save a whole nation from
+perdition. We could bring no chauffettes with any convenience; and even
+Chaubert is nothing, unless his dishes are tasted in the very moment
+of projection. Come, uncover, and let us see what he has done for
+us.--Hum!--ha!--ay--squab-pigeons--wildfowl--young chickens--venison
+cutlets--and a space in the centre, wet, alas! by a gentle tear from
+Chaubert’s eye, where should have been the _soupe aux écrevisses_.
+The zeal of that poor fellow is ill repaid by his paltry ten louis per
+month.”
+
+“A mere trifle,” said Ganlesse; “but, like yourself, Will, he serves a
+generous master.”
+
+The repast now commenced; and Julian, though he had seen his young
+friend the Earl of Derby, and other gallants, affect a considerable
+degree of interest and skill in the science of the kitchen, and was not
+himself either an enemy or a stranger to the pleasures of a good table,
+found that, on the present occasion, he was a mere novice. Both his
+companions, but Smith in especial, seemed to consider that they were now
+engaged in the only true business of life; and weighed all its minutiæ
+with a proportional degree of accuracy. To carve the morsel in the most
+delicate manner--and to apportion the proper seasoning with the accuracy
+of the chemist,--to be aware, exactly, of the order in which one dish
+should succeed another, and to do plentiful justice to all--was a
+minuteness of science to which Julian had hitherto been a stranger.
+Smith accordingly treated him as a mere novice in epicurism, cautioning
+him to eat his soup before the bouilli, and to forget the Manx custom
+of bolting the boiled meat before the broth, as if Cutlar MacCulloch and
+all his whingers were at the door. Peveril took the hint in good part,
+and the entertainment proceeded with animation.
+
+At length Ganlesse paused, and declared the supper exquisite. “But, my
+friend Smith,” he added, “are your wines curious? When you brought all
+that trash of plates and trumpery into Derbyshire, I hope you did not
+leave us at the mercy of the strong ale of the shire, as thick and muddy
+as the squires who drink it?”
+
+“Did I not know that _you_ were to meet me, Dick Ganlesse?” answered
+their host. “And can you suspect me of such an omission? It is true,
+you must make champagne and claret serve, for my burgundy would not bear
+travelling. But if you have a fancy for sherry, or Vin de Cahors, I
+have a notion Chaubert and Tom Beacon have brought some for their own
+drinking.”
+
+“Perhaps the gentlemen would not care to impart,” said Ganlesse.
+
+“Oh, fie!--anything in the way of civility,” replied Smith. “They are,
+in truth, the best-natured lads alive, when treated respectfully; so
+that if you would prefer----”
+
+“By no means,” said Ganlesse--“a glass of champagne will serve in a
+scarcity of better.”
+
+ “The cork shall start obsequious to my thumb.”
+
+said Smith; and as he spoke, he untwisted the wire, and the cork struck
+the roof of the cabin. Each guest took a large rummer glass of the
+sparkling beverage, which Peveril had judgment and experience enough to
+pronounce exquisite.
+
+“Give me your hand, sir,” said Smith; “it is the first word of sense you
+have spoken this evening.”
+
+“Wisdom, sir,” replied Peveril, “is like the best ware in the pedlar’s
+pack, which he never produces till he knows his customer.”
+
+“Sharp as mustard,” returned the _bon vivant_; “but be wise, most noble
+pedlar, and take another rummer of this same flask, which you see I
+have held in an oblique position for your service--not permitting it
+to retrograde to the perpendicular. Nay, take it off before the bubble
+bursts on the rim, and the zest is gone.”
+
+“You do me honour, sir,” said Peveril, taking the second glass. “I wish
+you a better office than that of my cup-bearer.”
+
+“You cannot wish Will Smith one more congenial to his nature,” said
+Ganlesse. “Others have a selfish delight in the objects of sense, Will
+thrives, and is happy by imparting them to his friends.”
+
+“Better help men to pleasures than to pains, Master Ganlesse,” answered
+Smith, somewhat angrily.
+
+“Nay, wrath thee not, Will,” said Ganlesse; “and speak no words in
+haste, lest you may have cause to repent at leisure. Do I blame thy
+social concern for the pleasures of others? Why, man, thou dost therein
+most philosophically multiply thine own. A man has but one throat, and
+can but eat, with his best efforts, some five or six times a day; but
+thou dinest with every friend that cuts a capon, and art quaffing wine
+in other men’s gullets, from morning to night--_et sic de cæteris_.”
+
+“Friend Ganlesse,” returned Smith, “I prithee beware--thou knowest I can
+cut gullets as well as tickle them.”
+
+“Ay, Will,” answered Ganlesse carelessly; “I think I have seen thee wave
+thy whinyard at the throat of a Hogan-Mogan--a Netherlandish
+weasand, which expanded only on thy natural and mortal objects of
+aversion,--Dutch cheese, rye-bread, pickled herring, onion, and Geneva.”
+
+“For pity’s sake, forbear the description!” said Smith; “thy words
+overpower the perfumes, and flavour the apartment like a dish of
+salmagundi!”
+
+“But for an epiglottis like mine,” continued Ganlesse, “down which the
+most delicate morsels are washed by such claret as thou art now pouring
+out, thou couldst not, in thy bitterest mood, wish a worse fate than to
+be necklaced somewhat tight by a pair of white arms.”
+
+“By a tenpenny cord,” answered Smith; “but not till you were dead; that
+thereafter you be presently embowelled, you being yet alive; that
+your head be then severed from your body, and your body divided into
+quarters, to be disposed of at his Majesty’s pleasure.--How like you
+that, Master Richard Ganlesse?”
+
+“E’en as you like the thoughts of dining on bran-bread and
+milk-porridge--an extremity which you trust never to be reduced to.
+But all this shall not prevent me from pledging you in a cup of sound
+claret.”
+
+As the claret circulated, the glee of the company increased; and Smith
+placing the dishes which had been made use of upon the side-table,
+stamped with his foot on the floor, and the table sinking down a trap,
+again rose, loaded with olives, sliced neat’s tongue, caviare, and other
+provocatives for the circulation of the bottle.
+
+“Why, Will,” said Ganlesse, “thou art a more complete mechanist than I
+suspected; thou hast brought thy scene-shifting inventions to Derbyshire
+in marvellously short time.”
+
+“A rope and pullies can be easily come by,” answered Will; “and with a
+saw and a plane, I can manage that business in half a day. I love the
+knack of clean and secret conveyance--thou knowest it was the foundation
+of my fortunes.”
+
+“It may be the wreck of them too, Will,” replied his friend.
+
+“True, Diccon,” answered Will; “but, _dum vivimus, vivamus_,--that is my
+motto; and therewith I present you a brimmer to the health of the fair
+lady you wot of.”
+
+“Let it come, Will,” replied his friend; and the flask circulated
+briskly from hand to hand.
+
+Julian did not think it prudent to seem a check on their festivity, as
+he hoped in its progress something might occur to enable him to judge
+of the character and purposes of his companions. But he watched them
+in vain. Their conversation was animated and lively, and often bore
+reference to the literature of the period, in which the elder seemed
+particularly well skilled. They also talked freely of the Court, and of
+that numerous class of gallants who were then described as “men of
+wit and pleasure about town;” and to which it seemed probable they
+themselves appertained.
+
+At length the universal topic of the Popish Plot was started; upon
+which Ganlesse and Smith seemed to entertain the most opposite opinions.
+Ganlesse, if he did not maintain the authority of Oates in its utmost
+extent, contended, that at least it was confirmed in a great measure
+by the murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, and the letters written by
+Coleman to the confessor of the French King.
+
+With much more noise, and less power of reasoning, Will Smith hesitated
+not to ridicule and run down the whole discovery, as one of the wildest
+and most causeless alarms which had ever been sounded in the ears of a
+credulous public. “I shall never forget,” he said, “Sir Godfrey’s
+most original funeral. Two bouncing parsons, well armed with sword and
+pistol, mounted the pulpit, to secure the third fellow who preached from
+being murdered in the face of the congregation. Three parsons in one
+pulpit--three suns in one hemisphere--no wonder men stood aghast at such
+a prodigy.”
+
+“What then, Will,” answered his companion, “you are one of those who
+think the good knight murdered himself, in order to give credit to the
+Plot?”
+
+“By my faith, not I,” said the other; “but some true blue Protestant
+might do the job for him, in order to give the thing a better colour.--I
+will be judged by our silent friend, whether that be not the most
+feasible solution of the whole.”
+
+“I pray you, pardon me, gentlemen,” said Julian; “I am but just landed
+in England, and am a stranger to the particular circumstances which have
+thrown the nation into such a ferment. It would be the highest degree
+of assurance in me to give my opinion betwixt gentlemen who argue the
+matter so ably; besides, to say truth, I confess weariness--your wine is
+more potent than I expected, or I have drunk more of it than I meant to
+do.”
+
+“Nay, if an hour’s nap will refresh you,” said the elder of the
+strangers, “make no ceremony with us. Your bed--all we can offer as
+such--is that old-fashioned Dutch-built sofa, as the last new phrase
+calls it. We shall be early stirrers tomorrow morning.”
+
+“And that we may be so,” said Smith, “I propose that we do sit up all
+this night--I hate lying rough, and detest a pallet-bed. So have at
+another flask, and the newest lampoon to help it out--
+
+ ‘Now a plague of their votes
+  Upon Papists and Plots,
+  And be d--d Doctor Oates.
+                  Tol de rol.’”
+
+“Nay, but our Puritanic host,” said Ganlesse.
+
+“I have him in my pocket, man--his eyes, ears, nose, and tongue,”
+ answered his boon companion, “are all in my possession.”
+
+“In that case, when you give him back his eyes and nose, I pray you keep
+his ears and tongue,” answered Ganlesse. “Seeing and smelling are organs
+sufficient for such a knave--to hear and tell are things he should have
+no manner of pretensions to.”
+
+“I grant you it were well done,” answered Smith; “but it were a robbing
+of the hangman and the pillory; and I am an honest fellow, who would
+give Dun[*] and the devil his due. So,
+
+ ‘All joy to great Cæsar,
+  Long life, love, and pleasure;
+  May the King live for ever,
+                  ‘Tis no matter for us, boys.’”
+
+[*] Dun was the hangman of the day at Tyburn. He was successor of
+    Gregory Brunden, who was by many believed to be the same who
+    dropped the axe upon Charles I., though others were suspected of
+    being the actual regicide.
+
+While this Bacchanalian scene proceeded, Julian had wrapt himself
+closely in his cloak, and stretched himself on the couch which they had
+shown him. He looked towards the table he had left--the tapers seemed to
+become hazy and dim as he gazed--he heard the sound of voices, but
+they ceased to convey any impression to his understanding; and in a few
+minutes, he was faster asleep than he had ever been in the whole course
+of his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                 The Gordon then his bugle blew,
+                   And said, awa, awa;
+                 The House of Rhodes is all on flame,
+                   I hauld it time to ga’.
+                                           --OLD BALLAD.
+
+When Julian awaked the next morning, all was still and vacant in the
+apartment. The rising sun, which shone through the half-closed shutters,
+showed some relics of the last night’s banquet, which his confused and
+throbbing head assured him had been carried into a debauch.
+
+Without being much of a boon companion, Julian, like other young men of
+the time, was not in the habit of shunning wine, which was then used in
+considerable quantities; and he could not help being surprised, that the
+few cups he had drunk over night had produced on his frame the effects
+of excess. He rose up, adjusted his dress, and sought in the apartment
+for water to perform his morning ablutions, but without success. Wine
+there was on the table; and beside it one stool stood, and another lay,
+as if thrown down in the heedless riot of the evening. “Surely,” he
+thought to himself, “the wine must have been very powerful, which
+rendered me insensible to the noise my companions must have made ere
+they finished their carouse.”
+
+With momentary suspicion he examined his weapons, and the packet which
+he had received from the Countess, and kept in a secret pocket of his
+upper coat, bound close about his person. All was safe; and the very
+operation reminded him of the duties which lay before him. He left the
+apartment where they had supped, and went into another, wretched enough,
+where, in a truckle-bed, were stretched two bodies, covered with a rug,
+the heads belonging to which were amicably deposited upon the same truss
+of hay. The one was the black shock-head of the groom; the other,
+graced with a long thrum nightcap, showed a grizzled pate, and a grave
+caricatured countenance, which the hook-nose and lantern-jaws proclaimed
+to belong to the Gallic minister of good cheer, whose praises he had
+heard sung forth on the preceding evening. These worthies seemed to have
+slumbered in the arms of Bacchus as well as of Morpheus, for there were
+broken flasks on the floor; and their deep snoring alone showed that
+they were alive.
+
+Bent upon resuming his journey, as duty and expedience alike dictated,
+Julian next descended the trap-stair, and essayed a door at the bottom
+of the steps. It was fastened within. He called--no answer was returned.
+It must be, he thought, the apartment of the revellers, now probably
+sleeping as soundly as their dependants still slumbered, and as he
+himself had done a few minutes before. Should he awake them?--To what
+purpose? They were men with whom accident had involved him against
+his own will; and situated as he was, he thought it wise to take the
+earliest opportunity of breaking off from society which was suspicious,
+and might be perilous. Ruminating thus, he essayed another door, which
+admitted him to a bedroom, where lay another harmonious slumberer. The
+mean utensils, pewter measures, empty cans and casks, with which this
+room was lumbered, proclaimed it that of the host, who slept surrounded
+by his professional implements of hospitality and stock-in-trade.
+
+This discovery relieved Peveril from some delicate embarrassment which
+he had formerly entertained. He put upon the table a piece of money,
+sufficient, as he judged, to pay his share of the preceding night’s
+reckoning; not caring to be indebted for his entertainment to the
+strangers, whom he was leaving without the formality of an adieu.
+
+His conscience cleared of this gentleman-like scruple, Peveril proceeded
+with a light heart, though somewhat a dizzy head, to the stable, which
+he easily recognised among a few other paltry outhouses. His horse,
+refreshed with rest, and perhaps not unmindful of his services the
+evening before, neighed as his master entered the stable; and Peveril
+accepted the sound as an omen of a prosperous journey. He paid the
+augury with a sieveful of corn; and, while his palfrey profited by
+his attention, walked into the fresh air to cool his heated blood, and
+consider what course he should pursue in order to reach the Castle of
+Martindale before sunset. His acquaintance with the country in general
+gave him confidence that he could not have greatly deviated from the
+nearest road; and with his horse in good condition, he conceived he
+might easily reach Martindale before nightfall.
+
+Having adjusted his route in his mind, he returned into the stable to
+prepare his steed for the journey, and soon led him into the ruinous
+courtyard of the inn, bridled, saddled, and ready to be mounted. But as
+Peveril’s hand was upon the mane, and his left foot in the stirrup, a
+hand touched his cloak, and the voice of Ganlesse said, “What, Master
+Peveril, is this your foreign breeding? or have you learned in France to
+take French leave of your friends?”
+
+Julian started like a guilty thing, although a moment’s reflection
+assured him that he was neither wrong nor in danger. “I cared not to
+disturb you,” he said, “although I did come as far as the door of your
+chamber. I supposed your friend and you might require, after our last
+night’s revel, rather sleep than ceremony. I left my own bed, though a
+rough one, with more reluctance than usual; and as my occasions oblige
+me to be an early traveller, I thought it best to depart without
+leave-taking. I have left a token for mine host on the table of his
+apartment.”
+
+“It was unnecessary,” said Ganlesse; “the rascal is already
+overpaid.--But are you not rather premature in your purpose of
+departing? My mind tells me that Master Julian Peveril had better
+proceed with me to London, than turn aside for any purpose whatever. You
+may see already that I am no ordinary person, but a master-spirit of the
+time. For the cuckoo I travel with, and whom I indulge in his prodigal
+follies, he also has his uses. But you are a different cast; and I not
+only would serve you, but even wish you, to be my own.”
+
+Julian gazed on this singular person when he spoke. We have already
+said his figure was mean and slight, with very ordinary and unmarked
+features, unless we were to distinguish the lightnings of a keen grey
+eye, which corresponded in its careless and prideful glance, with the
+haughty superiority which the stranger assumed in his conversation.
+It was not till after a momentary pause that Julian replied, “Can you
+wonder, sir, that in my circumstances--if they are indeed known to you
+so well as they seem--I should decline unnecessary confidence on the
+affairs of moment which have called me hither, or refuse the company of
+a stranger, who assigns no reason for desiring mine?”
+
+“Be it as you list, young man,” answered Ganlesse; “only remember
+hereafter, you had a fair offer--it is not every one to whom I would
+have made it. If we should meet hereafter, on other, and on worse terms,
+impute it to yourself and not to me.”
+
+“I understand not your threat,” answered Peveril, “If a threat be indeed
+implied. I have done no evil--I feel no apprehension--and I cannot, in
+common sense, conceive why I should suffer for refusing my confidence
+to a stranger, who seems to require that I should submit me blindfold to
+his guidance.”
+
+“Farewell, then, Sir Julian of the Peak,--that may soon be,” said the
+stranger, removing the hand which he had as yet left carelessly on the
+horse’s bridle.
+
+“How mean you by that phrase?” said Julian; “and why apply such a title
+to me?”
+
+The stranger smiled, and only answered, “Here our conference ends. The
+way is before you. You will find it longer and rougher than that by
+which I would have guided you.”
+
+So saying, Ganlesse turned his back and walked toward the house. On the
+threshold he turned about once more, and seeing that Peveril had not yet
+moved from the spot, he again smiled and beckoned to him; but Julian,
+recalled by that sign to recollection, spurred his horse and set forward
+on his journey.
+
+It was not long ere his local acquaintance with the country enabled
+him to regain the road to Martindale, from which he had diverged on
+the preceding evening for about two miles. But the roads, or rather the
+paths, of this wild country, so much satirised by their native poet,
+Cotton, were so complicated in some places, so difficult to be traced in
+others, and so unfit for hasty travelling in almost all, that in spite
+of Julian’s utmost exertions, and though he made no longer delay upon
+the journey than was necessary to bait his horse at a small hamlet
+through which he passed at noon, it was nightfall ere he reached an
+eminence, from which, an hour sooner, the battlements of Martindale
+Castle would have been visible; and where, when they were hid in night,
+their situation was indicated by a light constantly maintained in a
+lofty tower, called the Warder’s Turret; and which domestic beacon had
+acquired, through all the neighbourhood, the name of Peveril’s Polestar.
+
+This was regularly kindled at curfew toll, and supplied with as much
+wood and charcoal as maintained the light till sunrise; and at no period
+was the ceremonial omitted, saving during the space intervening between
+the death of a Lord of the Castle and his interment. When this last
+event had taken place, the nightly beacon was rekindled with some
+ceremony, and continued till fate called the successor to sleep with
+his fathers. It is not known from which circumstance the practice
+of maintaining this light originally sprung. Tradition spoke of it
+doubtfully. Some thought it was the signal of general hospitality,
+which, in ancient times, guided the wandering knight, or the weary
+pilgrim, to rest and refreshment. Others spoke of it as a “love-lighted
+watchfire,” by which the provident anxiety of a former lady of
+Martindale guided her husband homeward through the terrors of a midnight
+storm. The less favourable construction of unfriendly neighbours of
+the dissenting persuasion, ascribed the origin and continuance of this
+practice to the assuming pride of the family of Peveril, who thereby
+chose to intimate their ancient _suzerainté_ over the whole country, in
+the manner of the admiral who carries the lantern in the poop, for the
+guidance of the fleet. And in the former times, our old friend, Master
+Solsgrace, dealt from the pulpit many a hard hit against Sir Geoffrey,
+as he that had raised his horn, and set up his candlestick on high.
+Certain it is, that all the Peverils, from father to son, had been
+especially attentive to the maintenance of this custom, as something
+intimately connected with the dignity of their family; and in the hands
+of Sir Geoffrey, the observance was not likely to be omitted.
+
+Accordingly, the polar-star of Peveril had continued to beam more
+or less brightly during all the vicissitudes of the Civil War; and
+glimmered, however faintly, during the subsequent period of Sir
+Geoffrey’s depression. But he was often heard to say, and sometimes to
+swear, that while there was a perch of woodland left to the estate, the
+old beacon-grate should not lack replenishing. All this his son Julian
+well knew; and therefore it was with no ordinary feelings of surprise
+and anxiety, that, looking in the direction of the Castle, he perceived
+that the light was not visible. He halted--rubbed his eyes--shifted
+his position--and endeavoured, in vain, to persuade himself that he had
+mistaken the point from which the polar-star of his house was visible,
+or that some newly intervening obstacle, the growth of a plantation,
+perhaps, or the erection of some building, intercepted the light of the
+beacon. But a moment’s reflection assured him, that from the high
+and free situation which Martindale Castle bore in reference to the
+surrounding country, this could not have taken place; and the inference
+necessarily forced itself upon his mind, that Sir Geoffrey, his father,
+was either deceased, or that the family must have been disturbed by some
+strange calamity, under the pressure of which, their wonted custom and
+solemn usage had been neglected.
+
+Under the influence of undefinable apprehension, young Peveril now
+struck the spurs into his jaded steed, and forcing him down the broken
+and steep path, at a pace which set safety at defiance, he arrived at
+the village of Martindale-Moultrassie, eagerly desirous to ascertain the
+cause of this ominous eclipse. The street, through which his tired horse
+paced slow and reluctantly, was now deserted and empty; and scarcely a
+candle twinkled from a casement, except from the latticed window of the
+little inn, called the Peveril Arms, from which a broad light shone, and
+several voices were heard in rude festivity.
+
+Before the door of this inn, the jaded palfrey, guided by the instinct
+or experience which makes a hackney well acquainted with the outside of
+a house of entertainment, made so sudden and determined a pause, that,
+notwithstanding his haste, the rider thought it best to dismount,
+expecting to be readily supplied with a fresh horse by Roger Raine, the
+landlord, the ancient dependant of his family. He also wished to relive
+his anxiety, by inquiring concerning the state of things at the Castle,
+when he was surprised to hear, bursting from the taproom of the loyal
+old host, a well-known song of the Commonwealth time, which some
+puritanical wag had written in reprehension of the Cavaliers, and their
+dissolute courses, and in which his father came in for a lash of the
+satirist.
+
+ “Ye thought in the world there was no power to tame ye,
+  So you tippled and drabb’d till the saints overcame ye;
+  ‘Forsooth,’ and ‘Ne’er stir,’ sir, have vanquish’d ‘G-- d--n me,’
+                                      Which nobody can deny.
+
+  There was bluff old Sir Geoffrey loved brandy and mum well,
+  And to see a beer-glass turned over the thumb well;
+  But he fled like the wind, before Fairfax and Cromwell,
+                                      Which nobody can deny.”
+
+Some strange revolution, Julian was aware, must have taken place, both
+in the village and in the Castle, ere these sounds of unseemly insult
+could have been poured forth in the very inn which was decorated with
+the armorial bearings of his family; and not knowing how far it might be
+advisable to intrude on these unfriendly revellers, without the power
+of repelling or chastising their insolence, he led his horse to a
+back-door, which as he recollected, communicated with the landlord’s
+apartment, having determined to make private inquiry of him concerning
+the state of matters at the Castle. He knocked repeatedly, and as often
+called on Roger Raine with an earnest but stifled voice. At length a
+female voice replied by the usual inquiry, “Who is there?”
+
+“It is I, Dame Raine--I, Julian Peveril--tell your husband to come to me
+presently.”
+
+“Alack, and a well-a-day, Master Julian, if it be really you--you are
+to know my poor goodman has gone where he can come to no one; but,
+doubtless, we shall all go to him, as Matthew Chamberlain says.”
+
+“He is dead, then?” said Julian. “I am extremely sorry----”
+
+“Dead six months and more, Master Julian; and let me tell you, it is a
+long time for a lone woman, as Matt Chamberlain says.”
+
+“Well, do you or your chamberlain undo the door. I want a fresh horse;
+and I want to know how things are at the Castle.”
+
+“The Castle--lack-a-day!--Chamberlain--Matthew Chamberlain--I say,
+Matt!”
+
+Matt Chamberlain apparently was at no great distance, for he presently
+answered her call; and Peveril, as he stood close to the door, could
+hear them whispering to each other, and distinguish in a great measure
+what they said. And here it may be noticed, that Dame Raine, accustomed
+to submit to the authority of old Roger, who vindicated as well the
+husband’s domestic prerogative, as that of the monarch in the state,
+had, when left a buxom widow, been so far incommoded by the exercise
+of her newly acquired independence, that she had recourse, upon all
+occasions, to the advice of Matt Chamberlain; and as Matt began no
+longer to go slipshod, and in a red nightcap, but wore Spanish shoes,
+and a high-crowned beaver (at least of a Sunday), and moreover was
+called Master Matthew by his fellow-servants, the neighbours in the
+village argued a speedy change of the name of the sign-post; nay,
+perhaps, of the very sign itself, for Matthew was a bit of a Puritan,
+and no friend to Peveril of the Peak.
+
+“Now counsel me, an you be a man, Matt Chamberlain,” said Widow Raine;
+“for never stir, if here be not Master Julian’s own self, and he wants a
+horse, and what not, and all as if things were as they wont to be.”
+
+“Why, dame, an ye will walk by my counsel,” said the Chamberlain, “e’en
+shake him off--let him be jogging while his boots are green. This is no
+world for folks to scald their fingers in other folks’ broth.”
+
+“And that is well spoken, truly,” answered Dame Raine; “but then look
+you, Matt, we have eaten their bread, and, as my poor goodman used to
+say----”
+
+“Nay, nay, dame, they that walk by the counsel of the dead, shall have
+none of the living; and so you may do as you list; but if you will
+walk by mine, drop latch, and draw bolt, and bid him seek quarters
+farther--that is my counsel.”
+
+“I desire nothing of you, sirrah,” said Peveril, “save but to know how
+Sir Geoffrey and his lady do?”
+
+“Lack-a-day!--lack-a-day!” in a tone of sympathy, was the only answer
+he received from the landlady; and the conversation betwixt her and her
+chamberlain was resumed, but in a tone too low to be overheard.
+
+At length Matt Chamberlain spoke aloud, and with a tone of authority:
+“We undo no doors at this time of night, for it is against the Justices’
+orders, and might cost us our licence; and for the Castle, the road up
+to it lies before you, and I think you know it as well as we do.”
+
+“And I know you,” said Peveril, remounting his wearied horse, “for
+an ungrateful churl, whom, on the first opportunity, I will assuredly
+cudgel to a mummy.”
+
+To this menace Matthew made no reply, and Peveril presently heard him
+leave the apartment, after a few earnest words betwixt him and his
+mistress.
+
+Impatient at this delay, and at the evil omen implied in these people’s
+conversation and deportment, Peveril, after some vain spurring of his
+horse, which positively refused to move a step farther, dismounted once
+more, and was about to pursue his journey on foot, notwithstanding the
+extreme disadvantage under which the high riding-boots of the period
+laid those who attempted to walk with such encumbrances, when he was
+stopped by a gentle call from the window.
+
+Her counsellor was no sooner gone, than the good-nature and habitual
+veneration of the dame for the house of Peveril, and perhaps some fear
+for her counsellor’s bones, induced her to open the casement, and cry,
+but in a low and timid tone, “Hist! hist! Master Julian--be you gone?”
+
+“Not yet, dame,” said Julian; “though it seems my stay is unwelcome.”
+
+“Nay, but good young master, it is because men counsel so differently;
+for here was my poor old Roger Raine would have thought the chimney
+corner too cold for you; and here is Matt Chamberlain thinks the cold
+courtyard is warm enough.”
+
+“Never mind that, dame,” said Julian; “do but only tell me what has
+happened at Martindale Castle? I see the beacon is extinguished.”
+
+“Is it in troth?--ay, like enough--then good Sir Geoffrey has gone to
+heaven with my old Roger Raine!”
+
+“Sacred Heaven!” exclaimed Peveril; “when was my father taken ill?”
+
+“Never as I knows of,” said the dame; “but, about three hours since,
+arrived a party at the Castle, with buff-coats and bandoleers, and one
+of the Parliament’s folks, like in Oliver’s time. My old Roger Raine
+would have shut the gates of the inn against them, but he is in the
+churchyard, and Matt says it is against law; and so they came in and
+refreshed men and horses, and sent for Master Bridgenorth, that is at
+Moultrassie Hall even now; and so they went up to the Castle, and there
+was a fray, it is like, as the old Knight was no man to take napping, as
+poor Roger Raine used to say. Always the officers had the best on’t; and
+reason there is, since they had the law of their side, as our Matthew
+says. But since the pole-star of the Castle is out, as your honour says,
+why, doubtless, the old gentleman is dead.”
+
+“Gracious Heaven!--Dear dame, for love or gold, let me have a horse to
+make for the Castle!”
+
+“The Castle?” said the dame; “the Roundheads, as my poor Roger called
+them, will kill you as they have killed your father! Better creep into
+the woodhouse, and I will send Bett with a blanket and some supper--Or
+stay--my old Dobbin stands in the little stable beside the hencoop--e’en
+take him, and make the best of your way out of the country, for there is
+no safety here for you. Hear what songs some of them are singing at
+the tap!--so take Dobbin, and do not forget to leave your own horse
+instead.”
+
+Peveril waited to hear no farther, only, that just as he turned to go
+off to the stable, the compassionate female was heard to exclaim--“O
+Lord! what will Matthew Chamberlain say!” but instantly added, “Let him
+say what he will, I may dispose of what’s my own.”
+
+With the haste of a double-fee’d hostler did Julian exchange the
+equipments of his jaded brute with poor Dobbin, who stood quietly
+tugging at his rackful of hay, without dreaming of the business which
+was that night destined for him. Notwithstanding the darkness of the
+place, Julian succeeded marvellous quickly in preparing for his journey;
+and leaving his own horse to find its way to Dobbin’s rack by instinct,
+he leaped upon his new acquisition, and spurred him sharply against the
+hill, which rises steeply from the village to the Castle. Dobbin, little
+accustomed to such exertions, snorted, panted, and trotted as briskly as
+he could, until at length he brought his rider before the entrance-gate
+of his father’s ancient seat.
+
+The moon was now rising, but the portal was hidden from its beams, being
+situated, as we have mentioned elsewhere, in a deep recess betwixt two
+large flanking towers. Peveril dismounted, turned his horse loose, and
+advanced to the gate, which, contrary to his expectation, he found open.
+He entered the large courtyard; and could then perceive that lights yet
+twinkled in the lower part of the building, although he had not before
+observed them, owing to the height of the outward walls. The main door,
+or great hall-gate, as it was called, was, since the partially decayed
+state of the family, seldom opened, save on occasions of particular
+ceremony. A smaller postern door served the purpose of ordinary
+entrance; and to that Julian now repaired. This also was open--a
+circumstance which would of itself have alarmed him, had he not already
+had so many causes for apprehension. His heart sunk within him as he
+turned to the left, through a small outward hall, towards the great
+parlour, which the family usually occupied as a sitting apartment; and
+his alarm became still greater, when, on a nearer approach, he heard
+proceeding from thence the murmur of several voices. He threw the door
+of the apartment wide; and the sight which was thus displayed, warranted
+all the evil bodings which he had entertained.
+
+In front of him stood the old Knight, whose arms were strongly secured,
+over the elbows, by a leathern belt drawn tight round them, and made
+fast behind; two ruffianly-looking men, apparently his guards, had hold
+of his doublet. The scabbard-less sword which lay on the floor, and the
+empty sheath which hung by Sir Geoffrey’s side, showed the stout old
+Cavalier had not been reduced to this state of bondage without an
+attempt at resistance. Two or three persons, having their backs turned
+towards Julian, sat round a table, and appeared engaged in writing--the
+voices which he had heard were theirs, as they murmured to each other.
+Lady Peveril--the emblem of death, so pallid was her countenance--stood
+at the distance of a yard or two from her husband, upon whom her eyes
+were fixed with an intenseness of gaze, like that of one who looks
+her last on the object which she loves the best. She was the first to
+perceive Julian; and she exclaimed, “Merciful Heaven!--my son!--the
+misery of our house is complete!”
+
+“My son!” echoed Sir Geoffrey, starting from the sullen state of
+dejection, and swearing a deep oath--“thou art come in the right time,
+Julian. Strike me one good blow--cleave me that traitorous thief from
+the crown to the brisket! and that done, I care not what comes next.”
+
+The sight of his father’s situation made the son forget the inequality
+of the contest which he was about to provoke.
+
+“Villains,” he said, “unhand him!” and rushing on the guards with his
+drawn sword, compelled them to let go Sir Geoffrey, and stand on their
+own defence.
+
+Sir Geoffrey, thus far liberated, shouted to his lady. “Undo the belt,
+dame, and we will have three good blows for it yet--they must fight well
+that beat both father and son.”
+
+But one of those men who had started up from the writing-table when the
+fray commenced, prevented Lady Peveril from rendering her husband this
+assistance; while another easily mastered the hampered Knight, though
+not without receiving several severe kicks from his heavy boots--his
+condition permitting him no other mode of defence. A third, who saw that
+Julian, young, active, and animated with the fury of a son who fights
+for his parents, was compelling the two guards to give ground, seized
+on his collar, and attempted to master his sword. Suddenly dropping that
+weapon, and snatching one of his pistols, Julian fired it at the head
+of the person by whom he was thus assailed. He did not drop, but,
+staggering back as if he had received a severe blow, showed Peveril, as
+he sunk into a chair, the features of old Bridgenorth, blackened with
+the explosion, which had even set fire to a part of his grey hair. A cry
+of astonishment escaped from Julian; and in the alarm and horror of the
+moment, he was easily secured and disarmed by those with whom he had
+been at first engaged.
+
+“Heed it not, Julian,” said Sir Geoffrey; “heed it not, my brave
+boy--that shot has balanced all accounts!--but how--what the devil--he
+lives!--Was your pistol loaded with chaff? or has the foul fiend given
+him proof against lead?”
+
+There was some reason for Sir Geoffrey’s surprise, since, as he spoke,
+Major Bridgenorth collected himself--sat up in the chair as one
+who recovers from a stunning blow--then rose, and wiping with his
+handkerchief the marks of the explosion from his face, he approached
+Julian, and said, in the same cold unaltered tone in which he usually
+expressed himself, “Young man, you have reason to bless God, who has
+this day saved you from the commission of a great crime.”
+
+“Bless the devil, ye crop-eared knave!” exclaimed Sir Geoffrey; “for
+nothing less than the father of all fanatics saved your brains from
+being blown about like the rinsings of Beelzebub’s porridge pot!”
+
+“Sir Geoffrey,” said Major Bridgenorth, “I have already told you, that
+with you I will hold no argument; for to you I am not accountable for
+any of my actions.”
+
+“Master Bridgenorth,” said the lady, making a strong effort to speak,
+and to speak with calmness, “whatever revenge your Christian state of
+conscience may permit you to take on my husband--I--I, who have some
+right to experience compassion at your hand, for most sincerely did I
+compassionate you when the hand of Heaven was heavy on you--I implore
+you not to involve my son in our common ruin!--Let the destruction of
+the father and mother, with the ruin of our ancient house, satisfy your
+resentment for any wrong which you have ever received at my husband’s
+hand.”
+
+“Hold your peace, housewife,” said the Knight, “you speak like a fool,
+and meddle with what concerns you not.--Wrong at _my_ hand? The cowardly
+knave has ever had but even too much right. Had I cudgelled the cur
+soundly when he first bayed at me, the cowardly mongrel had been now
+crouching at my feet, instead of flying at my throat. But if I get
+through this action, as I have got through worse weather, I will pay off
+old scores, as far as tough crab-tree and cold iron will bear me out.”
+
+“Sir Geoffrey,” replied Bridgenorth, “if the birth you boast of has
+made you blind to better principles, it might have at least taught you
+civility. What do you complain of? I am a magistrate; and I execute a
+warrant, addressed to me by the first authority in that state. I am a
+creditor also of yours; and law arms me with powers to recover my own
+property from the hands of an improvident debtor.”
+
+“You a magistrate!” said the Knight; “much such a magistrate as Noll
+was a monarch. Your heart is up, I warrant, because you have the King’s
+pardon; and are replaced on the bench, forsooth, to persecute the poor
+Papist. There was never turmoil in the state, but knaves had their
+vantage by it--never pot boiled, but the scum was cast uppermost.”
+
+“For God’s sake, my dearest husband,” said Lady Peveril, “cease this
+wild talk! It can but incense Master Bridgenorth, who might otherwise
+consider, that in common charity----”
+
+“Incense him!” said Sir Geoffrey, impatiently interrupting her;
+“God’s-death, madam, you will drive me mad! Have you lived so long in
+this world, and yet expect consideration and charity from an old starved
+wolf like that? And if he had it, do you think that I, or you, madam,
+as my wife, are subjects for his charity?--Julian, my poor fellow, I
+am sorry thou hast come so unluckily, since thy petronel was not better
+loaded--but thy credit is lost for ever as a marksman.”
+
+This angry colloquy passed so rapidly on all sides, that Julian,
+scarce recovered from the extremity of astonishment with which he was
+overwhelmed at finding himself suddenly plunged into a situation of such
+extremity, had no time to consider in what way he could most effectually
+act for the succour of his parents. To speak to Bridgenorth fair seemed
+the more prudent course; but to this his pride could hardly stoop; yet
+he forced himself to say, with as much calmness as he could assume,
+
+“Master Bridgenorth, since you act as a magistrate, I desire to be
+treated according to the laws of England; and demand to know of what we
+are accused, and by whose authority we are arrested?”
+
+“Here is another howlet for ye!” exclaimed the impetuous old Knight;
+“his mother speaks to a Puritan of charity; and thou must talk of law to
+a round-headed rebel, with a wannion to you! What warrant hath he, think
+ye, beyond the Parliament’s or the devil’s?”
+
+“Who speaks of the Parliament?” said a person entering, whom Peveril
+recognised as the official person whom he had before seen at the
+horse-dealer’s, and who now bustled in with all the conscious dignity
+of plenary authority,--“Who talks of the Parliament?” he exclaimed.
+“I promise you, enough has been found in this house to convict twenty
+plotters--Here be arms, and that good store. Bring them in, Captain.”
+
+“The very same,” exclaimed the Captain, approaching, “which I mention in
+my printed Narrative of Information, lodged before the Honourable House
+of Commons; they were commissioned from old Vander Huys of Rotterdam, by
+orders of Don John of Austria, for the service of the Jesuits.”
+
+“Now, by this light,” said Sir Geoffrey, “they are the pikes,
+musketoons, and pistols, that have been hidden in the garret ever since
+Naseby fight!”
+
+“And here,” said the Captain’s yoke-fellow, Everett, “are proper
+priest’s trappings--antiphoners, and missals, and copes, I warrant
+you--ay, and proper pictures, too, for Papists to mutter and bow over.”
+
+“Now plague on thy snuffling whine,” said Sir Geoffrey; “here is a
+rascal will swear my grandmother’s old farthingale to be priest’s
+vestments, and the story book of Owlenspiegel a Popish missal!”
+
+“But how’s this, Master Bridgenorth?” said Topham, addressing the
+magistrate; “your honour has been as busy as we have; and you have
+caught another knave while we recovered these toys.”
+
+“I think, sir,” said Julian, “if you look into your warrant, which, if I
+mistake not, names the persons whom you are directed to arrest, you will
+find you have not title to apprehend me.”
+
+“Sir,” said the officer, puffing with importance, “I do not know who you
+are; but I would you were the best man in England, that I might teach
+you the respect due to the warrant of the House. Sir, there steps not
+the man within the British seas, but I will arrest him on authority of
+this bit of parchment; and I do arrest you accordingly.--What do you
+accuse him of, gentlemen?”
+
+Dangerfield swaggered forward, and peeping under Julian’s hat, “Stop my
+vital breath,” he exclaimed, “but I have seen you before, my friend, an
+I could but think where; but my memory is not worth a bean, since I have
+been obliged to use it so much of late, in the behalf of the poor state.
+But I do know the fellow; and I have seen him amongst the Papists--,
+I’ll take that on my assured damnation.”
+
+“Why, Captain Dangerfield,” said the Captain’s smoother, but more
+dangerous associate,--“verily, it is the same youth whom we saw at the
+horse-merchant’s yesterday; and we had matter against him then, only
+Master Topham did not desire us to bring it out.”
+
+“Ye may bring out what ye will against him now,” said Topham, “for he
+hath blasphemed the warrant of the House. I think ye said ye saw him
+somewhere.”
+
+“Ay, verily,” said Everett, “I have seen him amongst the seminary pupils
+at Saint Omer’s--he was who but he with the regents there.”
+
+“Nay, Master Everett, collect yourself,” said Topham; “for as I think,
+you said you saw him at a consult of the Jesuits in London.”
+
+“It was I said so, Master Topham,” said the undaunted Dangerfield; “and
+mine is the tongue that will swear it.”
+
+“Good Master Topham,” said Bridgenorth, “you may suspend farther inquiry
+at present, as it doth but fatigue and perplex the memory of the King’s
+witnesses.”
+
+“You are wrong, Master Bridgenorth--clearly wrong. It doth but keep them
+in wind--only breathes them like greyhounds before a coursing match.”
+
+“Be it so,” said Bridgenorth, with his usual indifference of manner;
+“but at present this youth must stand committed upon a warrant, which
+I will presently sign, of having assaulted me while in discharge of my
+duty as a magistrate, for the rescue of a person legally attached. Did
+you not hear the report of a pistol?”
+
+“I will swear to it,” said Everett.
+
+“And I,” said Dangerfield. “While we were making search in the cellar,
+I heard something very like a pistol-shot; but I conceived it to be the
+drawing of a long-corked bottle of sack, to see whether there were any
+Popish relics in the inside on’t.”
+
+“A pistol-shot!” exclaimed Topham; “here might have been a second
+Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey’s matter.--Oh, thou real spawn of the red old
+dragon! for he too would have resisted the House’s warrant, had we
+not taken him something at unawares.--Master Bridgenorth, you are a
+judicious magistrate, and a worthy servant of the state--I would we had
+many such sound Protestant justices. Shall I have this young fellow
+away with his parents--what think you?--or will you keep him for
+re-examination?”
+
+“Master Bridgenorth,” said Lady Peveril, in spite of her husband’s
+efforts to interrupt her, “for God’s sake, if ever you knew what it was
+to love one of the many children you have lost, or her who is now left
+to you, do not pursue your vengeance to the blood of my poor boy! I will
+forgive you all the rest--all the distress you have wrought--all the yet
+greater misery with which you threaten us; but do not be extreme with
+one who never can have offended you! Believe, that if your ears are
+shut against the cry of a despairing mother, those which are open to the
+complaint of all who sorrow, will hear my petition and your answer!”
+
+The agony of mind and of voice with which Lady Peveril uttered these
+words, seemed to thrill through all present, though most of them were
+but too much inured to such scenes. Every one was silent, when, ceasing
+to speak, she fixed on Bridgenorth her eyes, glistening with tears, with
+the eager anxiety of one whose life or death seemed to depend upon the
+answer to be returned. Even Bridgenorth’s inflexibility seemed to be
+shaken; and his voice was tremulous, as he answered, “Madam, I would to
+God I had the present means of relieving your great distress, otherwise
+than by recommending to you a reliance upon Providence; and that you
+take heed to your spirit, that it murmur not under this crook in your
+lot. For me, I am but as a rod in the hand of the strong man, which
+smites not of itself, but because it is wielded by the arm of him who
+holds the same.”
+
+“Even as I and my black rod are guided by the Commons of England,” said
+Master Topham, who seemed marvellously pleased with the illustration.
+
+Julian now thought it time to say something in his own behalf; and he
+endeavoured to temper it with as much composure as it was possible for
+him to assume. “Master Bridgenorth,” he said, “I neither dispute your
+authority, nor this gentleman’s warrant----”
+
+“You do not?” said Topham. “Oh, ho, master youngster, I thought we
+should bring you to your senses presently!”
+
+“Then, if you so will it, Master Topham,” said Bridgenorth, “thus it
+shall be. You shall set out with early day, taking you, towards London,
+the persons of Sir Geoffrey and Lady Peveril; and that they may
+travel according to their quality, you will allow them their coach,
+sufficiently guarded.”
+
+“I will travel with them myself,” said Topham; “for these rough
+Derbyshire roads are no easy riding; and my very eyes are weary with
+looking on these bleak hills. In the coach I can sleep as sound as if I
+were in the House, and Master Bodderbrains on his legs.”
+
+“It will become you so to take your ease, Master Topham,” answered
+Bridgenorth. “For this youth, I will take him under my charge, and bring
+him up myself.”
+
+“I may not be answerable for that, worthy Master Bridgenorth,” said
+Topham, “since he comes within the warrant of the House.”
+
+“Nay, but,” said Bridgenorth, “he is only under custody for an assault,
+with the purpose of a rescue; and I counsel you against meddling with
+him, unless you have stronger guard. Sir Geoffrey is now old and broken,
+but this young fellow is in the flower of his youth, and hath at his
+beck all the debauched young Cavaliers of the neighbourhood--You will
+scarce cross the country without a rescue.”
+
+Topham eyed Julian wistfully, as a spider may be supposed to look upon
+a stray wasp which has got into his web, and which he longs to secure,
+though he fears the consequences of attempting him.
+
+Julian himself replied, “I know not if this separation be well or ill
+meant on your part, Master Bridgenorth; but on mine, I am only desirous
+to share the fate of my parents; and therefore I will give my word of
+honour to attempt neither rescue nor escape, on condition you do not
+separate me from them.”
+
+“Do not say so, Julian,” said his mother; “abide with Master
+Bridgenorth--my mind tells me he cannot mean so ill by us as his rough
+conduct would now lead us to infer.”
+
+“And I,” said Sir Geoffrey, “know, that between the doors of my father’s
+house and the gates of hell, there steps not such a villain on the
+ground! And if I wish my hands ever to be unbound again, it is because
+I hope for one downright blow at a grey head, that has hatched more
+treason than the whole Long Parliament.”
+
+“Away with thee,” said the zealous officer; “is Parliament a word for
+so foul a mouth as thine?--Gentlemen,” he added, turning to Everett and
+Dangerfield, “you will bear witness to this.”
+
+“To his having reviled the House of Commons--by G--d, that I will!” said
+Dangerfield; “I will take it on my damnation.”
+
+“And verily,” said Everett, “as he spoke of Parliament generally, he
+hath contemned the House of Lords also.”
+
+“Why, ye poor insignificant wretches,” said Sir Geoffrey, “whose very
+life is a lie--and whose bread is perjury--would you pervert my innocent
+words almost as soon as they have quitted my lips? I tell you the
+country is well weary of you; and should Englishmen come to their
+senses, the jail, the pillory, the whipping-post, and the gibbet, will
+be too good preferment for such base blood-suckers.--And now, Master
+Bridgenorth, you and they may do your worst; for I will not open my
+mouth to utter a single word while I am in the company of such knaves.”
+
+“Perhaps, Sir Geoffrey,” answered Bridgenorth, “you would better
+have consulted your own safety in adopting that resolution a little
+sooner--the tongue is a little member, but it causes much strife.--You,
+Master Julian, will please to follow me, and without remonstrance or
+resistance; for you must be aware that I have the means of compelling.”
+
+Julian was, indeed, but too sensible, that he had no other course but
+that of submission to superior force; but ere he left the apartment,
+he kneeled down to receive his father’s blessing, which the old man
+bestowed not without a tear in his eye, and in the emphatic words, “God
+bless thee, my boy; and keep thee good and true to Church and King,
+whatever wind shall bring foul weather!”
+
+His mother was only able to pass her hand over his head, and to implore
+him, in a low tone of voice, not to be rash or violent in any attempt
+to render them assistance. “We are innocent,” she said, “my son--we are
+innocent--and we are in God’s hands. Be the thought our best comfort and
+protection.”
+
+Bridgenorth now signed to Julian to follow him, which he did,
+accompanied, or rather conducted, by the two guards who had first
+disarmed him. When they had passed from the apartment, and were at the
+door of the outward hall, Bridgenorth asked Julian whether he should
+consider him as under parole; in which case, he said, he would dispense
+with all other security but his own promise.
+
+Peveril, who could not help hoping somewhat from the favourable and
+unresentful manner in which he was treated by one whose life he had so
+recently attempted, replied, without hesitation, that he would give his
+parole for twenty-four hours, neither to attempt to escape by force nor
+by flight.
+
+“It is wisely said,” replied Bridgenorth; “for though you might cause
+bloodshed, be assured that your utmost efforts could do no service to
+your parents.--Horses there--horses to the courtyard!”
+
+The trampling of horses was soon heard; and in obedience to
+Bridgenorth’s signal, and in compliance with his promise, Julian mounted
+one which was presented to him, and prepared to leave the house of his
+fathers, in which his parents were now prisoners, and to go, he knew not
+whither, under the custody of one known to be the ancient enemy of his
+family. He was rather surprised at observing, that Bridgenorth and he
+were about to travel without any other attendants.
+
+When they were mounted, and as they rode slowly towards the outer gate
+of the courtyard, Bridgenorth said to him, “it is not every one who
+would thus unreservedly commit his safety by travelling at night, and
+unaided, with the hot-brained youth who so lately attempted his life.”
+
+“Master Bridgenorth,” said Julian, “I might tell you truly, that I knew
+you not at the time when I directed my weapon against you; but I must
+also add, that the cause in which I used it, might have rendered me,
+even had I known you, a slight respecter of your person. At present,
+I do know you; and have neither malice against your person, nor the
+liberty of a parent to fight for. Besides, you have my word; and when
+was a Peveril known to break it?”
+
+“Ay,” replied his companion, “a Peveril--a Peveril of the Peak!--a name
+which has long sounded like a war-trumpet in the land; but which has
+now perhaps sounded its last loud note. Look back, young man, on the
+darksome turrets of your father’s house, which uplift themselves above
+the sons of their people. Think upon your father, a captive--yourself
+in some sort a fugitive--your light quenched--your glory abased--your
+estate wrecked and impoverished. Think that Providence has subjected
+the destinies of the race of Peveril to one, whom, in their aristocratic
+pride, they held as a plebeian upstart. Think of this; and when you
+again boast of your ancestry, remember, that he who raiseth the lowly
+can also abase the high in heart.”
+
+Julian did indeed gaze for an instant, with a swelling heart, upon
+the dimly seen turrets of his paternal mansion, on which poured the
+moonlight, mixed with long shadows of the towers and trees. But while
+he sadly acknowledged the truth of Bridgenorth’s observation, he felt
+indignant at his ill-timed triumph. “If fortune had followed worth,” he
+said, “the Castle of Martindale, and the name of Peveril, had afforded
+no room for their enemy’s vainglorious boast. But those who have
+stood high on Fortune’s wheel, must abide by the consequence of its
+revolutions. This much I will at least say for my father’s house,
+that it has not stood unhonoured; nor will it fall--if it is to
+fall--unlamented. Forbear, then, if you are indeed the Christian you
+call yourself, to exult in the misfortunes of others, or to confide in
+your own prosperity. If the light of our house be now quenched, God can
+rekindle it in His own good time.”
+
+Peveril broke off in extreme surprise; for as he spake the last words,
+the bright red beams of the family beacon began again to glimmer from
+its wonted watch-tower, checkering the pale moonbeam with a ruddier
+glow. Bridgenorth also gazed on this unexpected illumination with
+surprise, and not, as it seemed, without disquietude. “Young man,”
+ he resumed, “it can scarcely be but that Heaven intends to work great
+things by your hand, so singularly has that augury followed on your
+words.”
+
+So saying, he put his horse once more in motion; and looking back, from
+time to time, as if to assure himself that the beacon of the Castle
+was actually rekindled, he led the way through the well-known paths
+and alleys, to his own house of Moultrassie, followed by Peveril, who
+although sensible that the light might be altogether accidental, could
+not but receive as a good omen an event so intimately connected with the
+traditions and usages of his family.
+
+They alighted at the hall-door, which was hastily opened by a female;
+and while the deep tone of Bridgenorth called on the groom to take their
+horses, the well-known voice of his daughter Alice was heard to exclaim
+in thanksgiving to God, who had restored her father in safety.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+        We meet, as men see phantoms in a dream,
+        Which glide, and sigh, and sign, and move their lips,
+        But make no sound; or, if they utter voice,
+        ‘Tis but a low and undistinguish’d moaning,
+        Which has nor word nor sense of utter’d sound.
+                                               --THE CHIEFTAIN.
+
+We said, at the conclusion of the last chapter, that a female form
+appeared at the door of Moultrassie Hall; and that the well-known
+accents of Alice Bridgenorth were heard to hail the return of her
+father, from what she naturally dreaded as a perilous visit to the
+Castle of Martindale.
+
+Julian, who followed his conductor with a throbbing heart into the
+lighted hall, was therefore prepared to see her whom he best loved,
+with her arms thrown around her father. The instant she had quitted his
+paternal embrace, she was aware of the unexpected guest who had returned
+in his company. A deep blush, rapidly succeeded by a deadly paleness,
+and again by a slighter suffusion, showed plainly to her lover that
+his sudden appearance was anything but indifferent to her. He bowed
+profoundly--a courtesy which she returned with equal formality, but did
+not venture to approach more nearly, feeling at once the delicacy of his
+own situation and of hers.
+
+Major Bridgenorth turned his cold, fixed, grey, melancholy glance,
+first on the one of them and then on the other. “Some,” he said gravely,
+“would, in my case, have avoided this meeting; but I have confidence in
+you both, although you are young, and beset with the snares incidental
+to your age. There are those within who should not know that ye have
+been acquainted. Wherefore, be wise, and be as strangers to each other.”
+
+Julian and Alice exchanged glances as her father turned from them, and
+lifting a lamp which stood in the entrance-hall, led the way to the
+interior apartment. There was little of consolation in this exchange of
+looks; for the sadness of Alice’s glance was mingled with fear, and that
+of Julian clouded by an anxious sense of doubt. The look also was but
+momentary; for Alice, springing to her father, took the light out of his
+hand, and stepping before him, acted as the usher of both into the large
+oaken parlour, which has been already mentioned as the apartment in
+which Bridgenorth had spent the hours of dejection which followed
+the death of his consort and family. It was now lighted up as for the
+reception of company; and five or six persons sat in it, in the plain,
+black, stiff dress, which was affected by the formal Puritans of the
+time, in evidence of their contempt of the manners of the luxurious
+Court of Charles the Second; amongst whom, excess of extravagance in
+apparel, like excess of every other kind, was highly fashionable.
+
+Julian at first glanced his eyes but slightly along the range of grave
+and severe faces which composed this society--men sincere, perhaps, in
+their pretensions to a superior purity of conduct and morals, but in
+whom that high praise was somewhat chastened by an affected austerity
+in dress and manners, allied to those Pharisees of old, who made broad
+their phylacteries, and would be seen of man to fast, and to discharge
+with rigid punctuality the observances of the law. Their dress was
+almost uniformly a black cloak and doublet, cut straight and close, and
+undecorated with lace or embroidery of any kind, black Flemish breeches
+and hose, square-toed shoes, with large roses made of serge ribbon. Two
+or three had large loose boots of calf-leather, and almost every one was
+begirt with a long rapier, which was suspended by leathern thongs, to a
+plain belt of buff, or of black leather. One or two of the elder guests,
+whose hair had been thinned by time, had their heads covered with a
+skull-cap of black silk or velvet, which, being drawn down betwixt the
+ears and the skull, and permitting no hair to escape, occasioned the
+former to project in the ungraceful manner which may be remarked in old
+pictures, and which procured for the Puritans the term of “prickeared
+Roundheads,” so unceremoniously applied to them by their contemporaries.
+
+These worthies were ranged against the wall, each in his ancient
+high-backed, long-legged chair; neither looking towards, nor apparently
+discoursing with each other; but plunged in their own reflections, or
+awaiting, like an assembly of Quakers, the quickening power of divine
+inspiration.
+
+Major Bridgenorth glided along this formal society with noiseless step,
+and a composed severity of manner, resembling their own. He paused
+before each in succession, and apparently communicated, as he passed,
+the transactions of the evening, and the circumstances under which the
+heir of Martindale Castle was now a guest at Moultrassie Hall. Each
+seemed to stir at his brief detail, like a range of statues in an
+enchanted hall, starting into something like life, as a talisman is
+applied to them successively. Most of them, as they heard the narrative
+of their host, cast upon Julian a look of curiosity, blended with
+haughty scorn and the consciousness of spiritual superiority; though,
+in one or two instances, the milder influences of compassion were
+sufficiently visible.--Peveril would have undergone this gantlet of
+eyes with more impatience, had not his own been for the time engaged in
+following the motions of Alice, who glided through the apartment;
+and only speaking very briefly, and in whispers, to one or two of the
+company who addressed her, took her place beside a treble-hooded old
+lady, the only female of the party, and addressed herself to her in such
+earnest conversation, as might dispense with her raising her head, or
+looking at any others in the company.
+
+Her father put a question, to which she was obliged to return an
+answer--“Where was Mistress Debbitch?”
+
+“She has gone out,” Alice replied, “early after sunset, to visit some
+old acquaintances in the neighbourhood, and she was not yet returned.”
+
+Major Bridgenorth made a gesture indicative of displeasure; and, not
+content with that, expressed his determined resolution that Dame Deborah
+should no longer remain a member of his family. “I will have those,” he
+said aloud, and without regarding the presence of his guests, “and those
+only, around me, who know to keep within the sober and modest bounds of
+a Christian family. Who pretends to more freedom, must go out from among
+us, as not being of us.”
+
+A deep and emphatic humming noise, which was at that time the mode in
+which the Puritans signified their applause, as well of the doctrines
+expressed by a favourite divine in the pulpit, as of those delivered in
+private society, ratified the approbation of the assessors, and seemed
+to secure the dismission of the unfortunate governante, who stood thus
+detected of having strayed out of bounds. Even Peveril, although he had
+reaped considerable advantages, in his early acquaintance with Alice,
+from the mercenary and gossiping disposition of her governess, could
+not hear of her dismissal without approbation, so much was he desirous,
+that, in the hour of difficulty which might soon approach, Alice might
+have the benefit of countenance and advice from one of her own sex of
+better manners, and less suspicious probity, than Mistress Debbitch.
+
+Almost immediately after this communication had taken place, a servant
+in mourning showed his thin, pinched, and wrinkled visage in the
+apartment, announcing, with a voice more like a passing bell than the
+herald of a banquet, that refreshments were provided in an adjoining
+apartment. Gravely leading the way, with his daughter on one side,
+and the puritanical female whom we have distinguished on the other,
+Bridgenorth himself ushered his company, who followed, with little
+attention to order or ceremony, into the eating-room, where a
+substantial supper was provided.
+
+In this manner, Peveril, although entitled according to ordinary
+ceremonial, to some degree of precedence--a matter at that time
+considered of much importance, although now little regarded--was left
+among the last of those who quitted the parlour; and might indeed have
+brought up the rear of all, had not one of the company, who was himself
+late in the retreat, bowed and resigned to Julian the rank in the
+company which had been usurped by others.
+
+This act of politeness naturally induced Julian to examine the features
+of the person who had offered him this civility; and he started to
+observe, under the pinched velvet cap, and above the short band-strings,
+the countenance of Ganlesse, as he called himself--his companion on the
+preceding evening. He looked again and again, especially when all were
+placed at the supper board, and when, consequently, he had frequent
+opportunities of observing this person fixedly without any breach of
+good manners. At first he wavered in his belief, and was much inclined
+to doubt the reality of his recollection; for the difference of dress
+was such as to effect a considerable change of appearance; and the
+countenance itself, far from exhibiting anything marked or memorable,
+was one of those ordinary visages which we see almost without remarking
+them, and which leave our memory so soon as the object is withdrawn
+from our eyes. But the impression upon his mind returned, and became
+stronger, until it induced him to watch with peculiar attention the
+manners of the individual who had thus attracted his notice.
+
+During the time of a very prolonged grace before meat, which was
+delivered by one of the company--who, from his Geneva band and
+serge doublet, presided, as Julian supposed, over some dissenting
+congregation--he noticed that this man kept the same demure and severe
+cast of countenance usually affected by the Puritans, and which rather
+caricatured the reverence unquestionably due upon such occasions. His
+eyes were turned upward, and his huge penthouse hat, with a high crown
+and broad brim, held in both hands before him, rose and fell with the
+cadences of the speaker’s voice; thus marking time, as it were, to the
+periods of the benediction. Yet when the slight bustle took place which
+attends the adjusting of chairs, &c., as men sit down to table, Julian’s
+eye encountered that of the stranger; and as their looks met, there
+glanced from those of the latter an expression of satirical humour and
+scorn, which seemed to intimate internal ridicule of the gravity of his
+present demeanour.
+
+Julian again sought to fix his eye, in order to ascertain that he had
+not mistaken the tendency of this transient expression, but the stranger
+did not allow him another opportunity. He might have been discovered by
+the tone of his voice; but the individual in question spoke little, and
+in whispers, which was indeed the fashion of the whole company, whose
+demeanour at table resembled that of mourners at a funeral feast.
+
+The entertainment itself was coarse, though plentiful; and must,
+according to Julian’s opinion, be distasteful to one so exquisitely
+skilled in good cheer, and so capable of enjoying, critically and
+scientifically, the genial preparations of his companion Smith, as
+Ganlesse had shown himself on the preceding evening. Accordingly, upon
+close observation, he remarked that the food which he took upon his
+plate remained there unconsumed; and that his actual supper consisted
+only of a crust of bread, with a glass of wine.
+
+The repast was hurried over with the haste of those who think it shame,
+if not sin, to make mere animal enjoyments the means of consuming
+time, or of receiving pleasure; and when men wiped their mouths and
+moustaches, Julian remarked that the object of his curiosity used a
+handkerchief of the finest cambric--an article rather inconsistent with
+the exterior plainness, not to say coarseness, of his appearance. He
+used also several of the more minute refinements, then only observed at
+tables of the higher rank; and Julian thought he could discern, at every
+turn, something of courtly manners and gestures, under the precise and
+rustic simplicity of the character which he had assumed.[*]
+
+[*] A Scottish gentleman _in hiding_, as it was emphatically termed,
+    for some concern in a Jacobite insurrection or plot, was
+    discovered among a number of ordinary persons, by the use of his
+    toothpick.
+
+But if this were indeed that same Ganlesse with whom Julian had met on
+the preceding evening, and who had boasted the facility with which he
+could assume any character which he pleased to represent for the time,
+what could be the purpose of this present disguise? He was, if his own
+words could be credited, a person of some importance, who dared to defy
+the danger of those officers and informers, before whom all ranks at
+that time trembled; nor was he likely, as Julian conceived, without some
+strong purpose, to subject himself to such a masquerade as the present,
+which could not be otherwise than irksome to one whose conversation
+proclaimed him of light life and free opinions. Was his appearance here
+for good or for evil? Did it respect his father’s house, or his own
+person, or the family of Bridgenorth? Was the real character of Ganlesse
+known to the master of the house, inflexible as he was in all which
+concerned morals as well as religion? If not, might not the machinations
+of a brain so subtile affect the peace and happiness of Alice
+Bridgenorth?
+
+These were questions which no reflection could enable Peveril to
+answer. His eyes glanced from Alice to the stranger; and new fears, and
+undefined suspicions, in which the safety of that beloved and lovely
+girl was implicated, mingled with the deep anxiety which already
+occupied his mind, on account of his father and his father’s house.
+
+He was in this tumult of mind, when after a thanksgiving as long as the
+grace, the company arose from table, and were instantly summoned to
+the exercise of family worship. A train of domestics, grave, sad,
+and melancholy as their superiors, glided in to assist at this act of
+devotion, and ranged themselves at the lower end of the apartment.
+Most of these men were armed with long tucks, as the straight stabbing
+swords, much used by Cromwell’s soldiery, were then called. Several had
+large pistols also; and the corselets or cuirasses of some were heard to
+clank, as they seated themselves to partake in this act of devotion. The
+ministry of him whom Julian had supposed a preacher was not used on
+this occasion. Major Bridgenorth himself read and expounded a chapter of
+Scripture, with much strength and manliness of expression, although so
+as not to escape the charge of fanaticism. The nineteenth chapter of
+Jeremiah was the portion of Scripture which he selected; in which,
+under the type of breaking a potter’s vessel, the prophet presages the
+desolation of the Jews. The lecturer was not naturally eloquent; but
+a strong, deep, and sincere conviction of the truth of what he said
+supplied him with language of energy and fire, as he drew parallel
+between the abominations of the worship of Baal, and the corruptions
+of the Church of Rome--so favourite a topic with the Puritans of that
+period; and denounced against the Catholics, and those who favoured
+them, that hissing and desolation which the prophet directed against the
+city of Jerusalem. His hearers made a yet closer application than the
+lecturer himself suggested; and many a dark proud eye intimated, by a
+glance on Julian, that on his father’s house were already, in some part,
+realised those dreadful maledictions.
+
+The lecture finished, Bridgenorth summoned them to unite with him in
+prayer; and on a slight change of arrangements amongst the company,
+which took place as they were about to kneel down, Julian found his
+place next to the single-minded and beautiful object of his affection,
+as she knelt, in her loveliness, to adore her Creator. A short time
+was permitted for mental devotion; during which Peveril could hear her
+half-breathed petition for the promised blessings of peace on earth, and
+good-will towards the children of men.
+
+The prayer which ensued was in a different tone. It was poured forth by
+the same person who had officiated as chaplain at the table; and was in
+the tone of a Boanerges, or Son of Thunder--a denouncer of crimes--an
+invoker of judgments--almost a prophet of evil and of destruction. The
+testimonies and the sins of the day were not forgotten--the mysterious
+murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey was insisted upon--and thanks and
+praise were offered, that the very night on which they were assembled,
+had not seen another offering of a Protestant magistrate, to the
+bloodthirsty fury of revengeful Catholics.
+
+Never had Julian found it more difficult, during an act of devotion, to
+maintain his mind in a frame befitting the posture and the occasion; and
+when he heard the speaker return thanks for the downfall and devastation
+of his family, he was strongly tempted to have started upon his feet,
+and charged him with offering a tribute, stained with falsehood and
+calumny, at the throne of truth itself. He resisted, however, an impulse
+which it would have been insanity to have yielded to, and his patience
+was not without its reward; for when his fair neighbour arose from her
+knees, the lengthened and prolonged prayer being at last concluded, he
+observed that her eyes were streaming with tears; and one glance with
+which she looked at him in that moment, showed more of affectionate
+interest for him in his fallen fortunes and precarious condition, than
+he had been able to obtain from her when his worldly estate seemed so
+much the more exalted of the two.
+
+Cheered and fortified with the conviction that one bosom in the
+company, and that in which he most eagerly longed to secure an interest,
+sympathised with his distress, he felt strong to endure whatever was
+to follow, and shrunk not from the stern still smile with which, one by
+one, the meeting regarded him, as, gliding to their several places of
+repose, they indulged themselves at parting with a look of triumph on
+one whom they considered as their captive enemy.
+
+Alice also passed by her lover, her eyes fixed on the ground, and
+answered his low obeisance without raising them. The room was now empty,
+but for Bridgenorth and his guest, or prisoner; for it is difficult to
+say in which capacity Peveril ought to regard himself. He took an old
+brazen lamp from the table, and, leading the way, said at the same time,
+“I must be the uncourtly chamberlain, who am to usher you to a place of
+repose, more rude, perhaps, than you have been accustomed to occupy.”
+
+Julian followed him, in silence, up an old-fashioned winding staircase,
+within a turret. At the landing-place on the top was a small apartment,
+where an ordinary pallet bed, two chairs, and a small stone table, were
+the only furniture. “Your bed,” continued Bridgenorth, as if desirous to
+prolong their interview, “is not of the softest; but innocence sleeps as
+sound upon straw as on down.”
+
+“Sorrow, Major Bridgenorth, finds little rest on either,” replied
+Julian. “Tell me, for you seem to await some question from me, what is
+to be the fate of my parents, and why you separate me from them?”
+
+Bridgenorth, for answer, indicated with his finger the mark which his
+countenance still showed from the explosion of Julian’s pistol.
+
+“That,” replied Julian, “is not the real cause of your proceedings
+against me. It cannot be, that you, who have been a soldier, and are a
+man, can be surprised or displeased by my interference in the defence
+of my father. Above all, you cannot, and I must needs say you do not,
+believe that I would have raised my hand against you personally, had
+there been a moment’s time for recognition.”
+
+“I may grant all this,” said Bridgenorth; “but what the better are you
+for my good opinion, or for the ease with which I can forgive you the
+injury which you aimed at me? You are in my custody as a magistrate,
+accused of abetting the foul, bloody, and heathenish plot, for the
+establishment of Popery, the murder of the King, and the general
+massacre of all true Protestants.”
+
+“And on what grounds, either of fact or suspicion, dare any one accuse
+me of such a crime?” said Julian. “I have hardly heard of the plot, save
+by the mouth of common rumour, which, while it speaks of nothing else,
+takes care to say nothing distinctly even on that subject.”
+
+“It may be enough for me to tell you,” replied Bridgenorth, “and perhaps
+it is a word too much--that you are a discovered intriguer--a spied
+spy--who carries tokens and messages betwixt the Popish Countess of
+Derby and the Catholic party in London. You have not conducted your
+matters with such discretion, but that this is well known, and can be
+sufficiently proved. To this charge, which you are well aware you cannot
+deny, these men, Everett and Dangerfield, are not unwilling to add, from
+the recollection of your face, other passages, which will certainly cost
+you your life when you come before a Protestant jury.”
+
+“They lie like villains,” said Peveril, “who hold me accessory to any
+plot either against the King, the nation, or the state of religion; and
+for the Countess, her loyalty has been too long, and too highly proved,
+to permit her being implicated in such injurious suspicions.”
+
+“What she has already done,” said Bridgenorth, his face darkening as
+he spoke, “against the faithful champions of pure religion, hath
+sufficiently shown of what she is capable. She hath betaken herself to
+her rock, and sits, as she thinks, in security, like the eagle reposing
+after his bloody banquet. But the arrow of the fowler may yet reach
+her--the shaft is whetted--the bow is bended--and it will be soon
+seen whether Amalek or Israel shall prevail. But for thee, Julian
+Peveril--why should I conceal it from thee?--my heart yearns for thee as
+a woman’s for her first-born. To thee I will give, at the expense of my
+own reputation--perhaps at the risk of personal suspicion--for who, in
+these days of doubt, shall be exempted from it--to thee, I say, I will
+give means of escape, which else were impossible to thee. The
+staircase of this turret descends to the gardens--the postern-gate is
+unlatched--on the right hand lie the stables, where you will find your
+own horse--take it, and make for Liverpool--I will give you credit
+with a friend under the name of Simon Simonson, one persecuted by the
+prelates; and he will expedite your passage from the kingdom.”
+
+“Major Bridgenorth,” said Julian, “I will not deceive you. Were I to
+accept your offer of freedom, it would be to attend to a higher call
+than that of mere self-preservation. My father is in danger--my mother
+in sorrow--the voices of religion and nature call me to their side. I
+am their only child--their only hope--I will aid them, or perish with
+them!”
+
+“Thou art mad,” said Bridgenorth--“aid them thou canst not--perish with
+them thou mayst, and even accelerate their ruin; for, in addition to the
+charges with which thy unhappy father is loaded, it would be no slight
+aggravation, that while he meditated arming and calling together the
+Catholics and High Churchmen of Cheshire and Derbyshire, his son should
+prove to be the confidential agent of the Countess of Derby, who aided
+her in making good her stronghold against the Protestant commissioners,
+and was despatched by her to open secret communication with the Popish
+interest in London.”
+
+“You have twice stated me as such an agent,” said Peveril, resolved that
+his silence should not be construed into an admission of the charge,
+though he felt it was in some degree well founded--“What reason have you
+for such an allegation?”
+
+“Will it suffice for a proof of my intimate acquaintance with your
+mystery,” replied Bridgenorth, “if I should repeat to you the last
+words which the Countess used to you when you left the Castle of that
+Amalekitish woman? Thus she spoke: ‘I am now a forlorn widow,’ she said,
+‘whom sorrow has made selfish.’”
+
+Peveril started, for these were the very words the Countess had used;
+but he instantly recovered himself, and replied, “Be your information of
+what nature it will, I deny, and I defy it, so far as it attaches aught
+like guilt to me. There lives not a man more innocent of a disloyal
+thought, or of a traitorous purpose. What I say for myself, I will,
+to the best of my knowledge, say and maintain on account of the noble
+Countess, to whom I am indebted for nurture.”
+
+“Perish, then, in thy obstinacy!” said Bridgenorth; and turning hastily
+from him, he left the room, and Julian heard him hasten down the narrow
+staircase, as if distrusting his own resolution.
+
+With a heavy heart, yet with that confidence in an overruling Providence
+which never forsakes a good and brave man, Peveril betook himself to his
+lowly place of repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+        The course of human life is changeful still,
+        As is the fickle wind and wandering rill;
+        Or, like the light dance which the wild-breeze weaves
+        Amidst the fated race of fallen leaves;
+        Which now its breath bears down, now tosses high,
+        Beats to the earth, or wafts to middle sky.
+        Such, and so varied, the precarious play
+        Of fate with man, frail tenant of a day!
+                                                   --ANONYMOUS.
+
+Whilst, overcome with fatigue, and worn out by anxiety, Julian Peveril
+slumbered as a prisoner in the house of his hereditary enemy, Fortune
+was preparing his release by one of those sudden frolics with which she
+loves to confound the calculations and expectancies of humanity; and
+as she fixes on strange agents for such purposes, she condescended
+to employ on the present occasion, no less a personage than Mistress
+Deborah Debbitch.
+
+Instigated, doubtless, by the pristine reminiscences of former times, no
+sooner had that most prudent and considerate dame found herself in the
+vicinity of the scenes of her earlier days, than she bethought herself
+of a visit to the ancient house-keeper of Martindale Castle, Dame
+Ellesmere by name, who, long retired from active service, resided at
+the keeper’s lodge, in the west thicket, with her nephew, Lance Outram,
+subsisting upon the savings of her better days, and on a small pension
+allowed by Sir Geoffrey to her age and faithful services.
+
+Now Dame Ellesmere and Mistress Deborah had not by any means been
+formerly on so friendly a footing, as this haste to visit her might
+be supposed to intimate. But years had taught Deborah to forget and
+forgive; or perhaps she had no special objection, under cover of a visit
+to Dame Ellesmere, to take the chance of seeing what changes time had
+made on her old admirer the keeper. Both inhabitants were in the cottage
+when, after having seen her master set forth on his expedition to the
+Castle, Mistress Debbitch, dressed in her very best gown, footed it
+through gutter, and over stile, and by pathway green, to knock at their
+door, and to lift the hatch at the hospitable invitation which bade her
+come in.
+
+Dame Ellesmere’s eyes were so often dim, that, even with the aid of
+spectacles, she failed to recognise, in the portly and mature personage
+who entered their cottage, the tight well-made lass, who, presuming
+on her good looks and flippant tongue, had so often provoked her by
+insubordination; and her former lover, the redoubted Lance, not being
+conscious that ale had given rotundity to his own figure, which was
+formerly so slight and active, and that brandy had transferred to
+his nose the colour which had once occupied his cheeks, was unable to
+discover that Deborah’s French cap, composed of sarsenet and Brussels
+lace, shaded the features which had so often procured him a rebuke from
+Dr. Dummerar, for suffering his eyes, during the time of prayers, to
+wander to the maid-servants’ bench.
+
+In brief, the blushing visitor was compelled to make herself known;
+and when known, was received by aunt and nephew with the most sincere
+cordiality.
+
+The home-brewed was produced; and, in lieu of more vulgar food, a few
+slices of venison presently hissed in the frying pan, giving strong room
+for inference that Lance Outram, in his capacity of keeper, neglected
+not his own cottage when he supplied the larder at the Castle. A modest
+sip of the excellent Derbyshire ale, and a taste of the highly-seasoned
+hash, soon placed Deborah entirely at home with her old acquaintance.
+
+Having put all necessary questions, and received all suitable answers,
+respecting the state of the neighbourhood, and such of her own friends
+as continued to reside there, the conversation began rather to flag,
+until Deborah found the art of again re-newing its interest, by
+communicating to her friends the dismal intelligence that they must soon
+look for deadly bad news from the Castle; for that her present master,
+Major Bridgenorth, had been summoned, by some great people from London,
+to assist in taking her old master, Sir Geoffrey; and that all Master
+Bridgenorth’s servants, and several other persons whom she named,
+friends and adherents of the same interest, had assembled a force to
+surprise the Castle; and that as Sir Geoffrey was now so old, and gouty
+withal, it could not be expected he should make the defence he was wont;
+and then he was known to be so stout-hearted, that it was not to be
+supposed that he would yield up without stroke of sword; and then if he
+was killed, as he was like to be, amongst them that liked never a bone
+of his body, and now had him at their mercy, why, in that case, she,
+Dame Deborah, would look upon Lady Peveril as little better than a dead
+woman; and undoubtedly there would be a general mourning through all
+that country, where they had such great kin; and silks were likely to
+rise on it, as Master Lutestring, the mercer of Chesterfield, was like
+to feel in his purse bottom. But for her part, let matters wag how they
+would, an if Master Julian Peveril was to come to his own, she could
+give as near a guess as e’er another who was likely to be Lady at
+Martindale.
+
+The text of this lecture, or, in other words, the fact that Bridgenorth
+was gone with a party to attack Sir Geoffrey Peveril in his own Castle
+of Martindale, sounded so stunningly strange in the ears of those old
+retainers of his family, that they had no power either to attend to
+Mistress Deborah’s inferences, or to interrupt the velocity of speech
+with which she poured them forth. And when at length she made a
+breathless pause, all that poor Dame Ellesmere could reply, was the
+emphatic question, “Bridgenorth brave Peveril of the Peak!--Is the woman
+mad?”
+
+“Come, come, dame,” said Deborah, “woman me no more than I woman you.
+I have not been called Mistress at the head of the table for so many
+years, to be woman’d here by you. And for the news, it is as true as
+that you are sitting there in a white hood, who will wear a black one
+ere long.”
+
+“Lance Outram,” said the old woman, “make out, if thou be’st a man, and
+listen about if aught stirs up at the Castle.”
+
+“If there should,” said Outram, “I am even too long here;” and he caught
+up his crossbow, and one or two arrows, and rushed out of the cottage.
+
+“Well-a-day!” said Mistress Deborah, “see if my news have not frightened
+away Lance Outram too, whom they used to say nothing could start. But do
+not take on so, dame; for I dare say if the Castle and the lands pass
+to my new master, Major Bridgenorth, as it is like they will--for I have
+heard that he has powerful debts over the estate--you shall have my good
+word with him, and I promise you he is no bad man; something precise
+about preaching and praying, and about the dress which one should wear,
+which, I must own, beseems not a gentleman, as, to be sure, every woman
+knows best what becomes her. But for you, dame, that wear a prayer-book
+at your girdle, with your housewife-case, and never change the fashion
+of your white hood, I dare say he will not grudge you the little matter
+you need, and are not able to win.”
+
+“Out, sordid jade!” exclaimed Dame Ellesmere, her very flesh quivering
+betwixt apprehension and anger, “and hold your peace this instant, or I
+will find those that shall flay the very hide from thee with dog-whips.
+Hast thou ate thy noble master’s bread, not only to betray his trust,
+and fly from his service, but wouldst thou come here, like an ill-omened
+bird as thou art, to triumph over his downfall?”
+
+“Nay, dame,” said Deborah, over whom the violence of the old woman had
+obtained a certain predominance; “it is not I that say it--only the
+warrant of the Parliament folks.”
+
+“I thought we had done with their warrants ever since the blessed
+twenty-ninth of May,” said the old housekeeper of Martindale Castle;
+“but this I tell thee, sweetheart, that I have seen such warrants
+crammed, at the sword’s point, down the throats of them that brought
+them; and so shall this be, if there is one true man left to drink of
+the Dove.”
+
+As she spoke, Lance Outram re-entered the cottage. “Naunt,” he said in
+dismay, “I doubt it is true what she says. The beacon tower is as black
+as my belt. No Pole-star of Peveril. What does that betoken?”
+
+“Death, ruin, and captivity,” exclaimed old Ellesmere. “Make for the
+Castle, thou knave. Thrust in thy great body. Strike for the house that
+bred thee and fed thee; and if thou art buried under the ruins, thou
+diest a man’s death.”
+
+“Nay, naunt, I shall not be slack,” answered Outram. “But here come
+folks that I warrant can tell us more on’t.”
+
+One or two of the female servants, who had fled from the Castle during
+the alarm, now rushed in with various reports of the case; but all
+agreeing that a body of armed men were in possession of the Castle,
+and that Major Bridgenorth had taken young Master Julian prisoner, and
+conveyed him down to Moultrassie Hall, with his feet tied under the
+belly of the nag--a shameful sight to be seen--and he so well born and
+so handsome.
+
+Lance scratched his head; and though feeling the duty incumbent upon him
+as a faithful servant, which was indeed specially dinned into him by the
+cries and exclamations of his aunt, he seemed not a little dubious how
+to conduct himself. “I would to God, naunt,” he said at last, “that old
+Whitaker were alive now, with his long stories about Marston Moor and
+Edge Hill, that made us all yawn our jaws off their hinges, in spite of
+broiled rashers and double beer! When a man is missed, he is moaned, as
+they say; and I would rather than a broad piece he had been here to have
+sorted this matter, for it is clean out of my way as a woodsman, that
+have no skill of war. But dang it, if old Sir Geoffrey go to the wall
+without a knock for it!--Here you, Nell”--(speaking to one of the
+fugitive maidens from the Castle)--“but, no--you have not the heart of a
+cat, and are afraid of your own shadow by moonlight--But, Cis, you are
+a stout-hearted wench, and know a buck from a bullfinch. Hark thee, Cis,
+as you would wish to be married, get up to the Castle again, and get
+thee in--thou best knowest where--for thou hast oft gotten out of
+postern to a dance or junketing, to my knowledge--Get thee back to the
+Castle, as ye hope to be married--See my lady--they cannot hinder thee
+of that--my lady has a head worth twenty of ours--If I am to gather
+force, light up the beacon for a signal; and spare not a tar barrel
+on’t. Thou mayst do it safe enough. I warrant the Roundheads busy with
+drink and plunder.--And, hark thee, say to my lady I am gone down to
+the miners’ houses at Bonadventure. The rogues were mutinying for their
+wages but yesterday; they will be all ready for good or bad. Let her
+send orders down to me; or do you come yourself, your legs are long
+enough.”
+
+“Whether they are or not, Master Lance (and you know nothing of the
+matter), they shall do your errand to-night, for love of the old knight
+and his lady.”
+
+So Cisly Sellok, a kind of Derbyshire Camilla, who had won the smock
+at the foot-race at Ashbourne, sprung forward towards the Castle with a
+speed which few could have equalled.
+
+“There goes a mettled wench,” said Lance; “and now, naunt, give me the
+old broadsword--it is above the bed-head--and my wood-knife; and I shall
+do well enough.”
+
+“And what is to become of me?” bleated the unfortunate Mistress Deborah
+Debbitch.
+
+“You must remain here with my aunt, Mistress Deb; and, for old
+acquaintance’ sake, she will take care no harm befalls you; but take
+heed how you attempt to break bounds.”
+
+So saying, and pondering in his own mind the task which he had
+undertaken, the hardy forester strode down the moonlight glade, scarcely
+hearing the blessings and cautions which Dame Ellesmere kept showering
+after him. His thoughts were not altogether warlike. “What a tight ankle
+the jade hath!--she trips it like a doe in summer over dew. Well, but
+here are the huts--Let us to this gear.--Are ye all asleep, you dammers,
+sinkers, and drift-drivers? turn out, ye subterranean badgers. Here is
+your master, Sir Geoffrey, dead, for aught ye know or care. Do not you
+see the beacon is unlit, and you sit there like so many asses?”
+
+“Why,” answered one of the miners, who now began to come out of their
+huts--
+
+ “An he be dead,
+  He will eat no more bread.”
+
+“And you are like to eat none neither,” said Lance; “for the works will
+be presently stopped, and all of you turned off.”
+
+“Well, and what of it, Master Lance? As good play for nought as work
+for nought. Here is four weeks we have scarce seen the colour of Sir
+Geoffrey’s coin; and you ask us to care whether he be dead or in life?
+For you, that goes about, trotting upon your horse, and doing for work
+what all men do for pleasure, it may be well enough; but it is another
+matter to be leaving God’s light, and burrowing all day and night in
+darkness, like a toad in a hole--that’s not to be done for nought, I
+trow; and if Sir Geoffrey is dead, his soul will suffer for’t; and if
+he’s alive, we’ll have him in the Barmoot Court.”
+
+“Hark ye, gaffer,” said Lance, “and take notice, my mates, all of you,”
+ for a considerable number of these rude and subterranean people had now
+assembled to hear the discussion--“Has Sir Geoffrey, think you, ever put
+a penny in his pouch out of this same Bonadventure mine?”
+
+“I cannot say as I think he has,” answered old Ditchley, the party who
+maintained the controversy.
+
+“Answer on your conscience, though it be but a leaden one. Do not you
+know that he hath lost a good penny?”
+
+“Why, I believe he may,” said Gaffer Ditchley. “What then!--lose to-day,
+win to-morrow--the miner must eat in the meantime.”
+
+“True; but what will you eat when Master Bridgenorth gets the land, that
+will not hear of a mine being wrought on his own ground? Will he work on
+at dead loss, think ye?” demanded trusty Lance.
+
+“Bridgenorth?--he of Moultrassie Hall, that stopped the great Felicity
+Work, on which his father laid out, some say, ten thousand pounds,
+and never got in a penny? Why, what has he to do with Sir Geoffrey’s
+property down here at Bonadventure? It was never his, I trow.”
+
+“Nay, what do I know?” answered Lance, who saw the impression he had
+made. “Law and debt will give him half Derbyshire, I think, unless you
+stand by old Sir Geoffrey.”
+
+“But if Sir Geoffrey be dead,” said Ditchley cautiously, “what good will
+our standing by do to him?”
+
+“I did not say he was dead, but only as bad as dead; in the hands of the
+Roundheads--a prisoner up yonder, at his own Castle,” said Lance;
+“and will have his head cut off, like the good Earl of Derby’s at
+Bolton-le-Moors.”
+
+“Nay, then, comrades,” said Gaffer Ditchley, “an it be as Master Lance
+says, I think we should bear a hand for stout old Sir Geoffrey, against
+a low-born mean-spirited fellow like Bridgenorth, who shut up a shaft
+had cost thousands, without getting a penny profit on’t. So hurra for
+Sir Geoffrey, and down with the Rump! But hold ye a blink--hold”--(and
+the waving of his hand stopped the commencing cheer)--“Hark ye, Master
+Lance, it must be all over, for the beacon is as black as night; and you
+know yourself that marks the Lord’s death.”
+
+“It will kindle again in an instant,” said Lance; internally adding, “I
+pray to God it may!--It will kindle in an instant--lack of fuel, and the
+confusion of the family.”
+
+“Ay, like enow, like enow,” said Ditchley; “but I winna budge till I see
+it blazing.”
+
+“Why then, there a-goes!” said Lance. “Thank thee, Cis--thank thee, my
+good wench.--Believe your own eyes, my lads, if you will not believe
+me; and now hurra for Peveril of the Peak--the King and his friends--and
+down with Rumps and Roundheads!”
+
+The sudden rekindling of the beacon had all the effect which Lance could
+have desired upon the minds of his rude and ignorant hearers, who, in
+their superstitious humour, had strongly associated the Polar-star of
+Peveril with the fortunes of the family. Once moved, according to the
+national character of their countrymen, they soon became enthusiastic;
+and Lance found himself at the head of thirty stout fellows and upwards,
+armed with their pick-axes, and ready to execute whatever task he should
+impose on them.
+
+Trusting to enter the Castle by the postern, which had served to
+accommodate himself and other domestics upon an emergency, his only
+anxiety was to keep his march silent; and he earnestly recommended to
+his followers to reserve their shouts for the moment of the attack. They
+had not advanced far on their road to the Castle, when Cisly Sellok met
+them so breathless with haste, that the poor girl was obliged to throw
+herself into Master Lance’s arms.
+
+“Stand up, my mettled wench,” said he, giving her a sly kiss at the same
+time, “and let us know what is going on up at the Castle.”
+
+“My lady bids you, as you would serve God and your master, not to
+come up to the Castle, which can but make bloodshed; for she says Sir
+Geoffrey is lawfully in hand, and that he must bide the issue; and that
+he is innocent of what he is charged with, and is going up to speak for
+himself before King and Council, and she goes up with him. And besides,
+they have found out the postern, the Roundhead rogues; for two of them
+saw me when I went out of door, and chased me; but I showed them a fair
+pair of heels.”
+
+“As ever dashed dew from the cowslip,” said Lance. “But what the foul
+fiend is to be done? for if they have secured the postern, I know not
+how the dickens we can get in.”
+
+“All is fastened with bolt and staple, and guarded with gun and pistol,
+at the Castle,” quoth Cisly; “and so sharp are they, that they nigh
+caught me coming with my lady’s message, as I told you. But my lady
+says, if you could deliver her son, Master Julian, from Bridgenorth,
+that she would hold it good service.”
+
+“What!” said Lance, “is young master at the Castle? I taught him to
+shoot his first shaft. But how to get in!”
+
+“He was at the Castle in the midst of the ruffle, but old Bridgenorth
+has carried him down prisoner to the hall,” answered Cisly. “There was
+never faith nor courtesy in an old Puritan who never had pipe and tabor
+in his house since it was built.”
+
+“Or who stopped a promising mine,” said Ditchley, “to save a few
+thousand pounds, when he might have made himself as rich as Lord of
+Chatsworth, and fed a hundred good fellows all the whilst.”
+
+“Why, then,” said Lance, “since you are all of a mind, we will go draw
+the cover for the old badger; and I promise you that the Hall is not
+like one of your real houses of quality where the walls are as thick as
+whinstone-dikes, but foolish brick-work, that your pick-axes will work
+through as if it were cheese. Huzza once more for Peveril of the Peak!
+down with Bridgenorth, and all upstart cuckoldly Roundheads!”
+
+Having indulged the throats of his followers with one buxom huzza, Lance
+commanded them to cease their clamours, and proceeded to conduct them,
+by such paths as seemed the least likely to be watched, to the courtyard
+of Moultrassie Hall. On the road they were joined by several stout
+yeoman farmers, either followers of the Peveril family, or friends to
+the High Church and Cavalier party; most of whom, alarmed by the news
+which began to fly fast through the neighbourhood, were armed with sword
+and pistol.
+
+Lance Outram halted his party, at the distance, as he himself described
+it, of a flight-shot from the house, and advanced, alone, and in
+silence, to reconnoitre; and having previously commanded Ditchley and
+his subterranean allies to come to his assistance whenever he should
+whistle, he crept cautiously forward, and soon found that those whom he
+came to surprise, true to the discipline which had gained their party
+such decided superiority during the Civil War, had posted a sentinel,
+who paced through the courtyard, piously chanting a psalm-tune, while
+his arms, crossed on his bosom, supported a gun of formidable length.
+
+“Now, a true solder,” said Lance Outram to himself, “would put a stop to
+thy snivelling ditty, by making a broad arrow quiver in your heart, and
+no great alarm given. But, dang it, I have not the right spirit for a
+soldier--I cannot fight a man till my blood’s up; and for shooting him
+from behind a wall it is cruelly like to stalking a deer. I’ll e’en face
+him, and try what to make of him.”
+
+With this doughty resolution, and taking no farther care to conceal
+himself, he entered the courtyard boldly, and was making forward to the
+front door of the hall, as a matter of course. But the old Cromwellian,
+who was on guard, had not so learned his duty. “Who goes there?--Stand,
+friend--stand; or, verily, I will shoot thee to death!” were challenges
+which followed each other quick, the last being enforced by the
+levelling and presenting the said long-barrelled gun with which he was
+armed.
+
+“Why, what a murrain!” answered Lance. “Is it your fashion to
+go a-shooting at this time o’ night? Why, this is but a time for
+bat-fowling.”
+
+“Nay, but hark thee, friend,” said the experienced sentinel, “I am none
+of those who do this work negligently. Thou canst not snare me with thy
+crafty speech, though thou wouldst make it to sound simple in mine ear.
+Of a verity I will shoot, unless thou tell thy name and business.”
+
+“Name!” said Lance; “why, what a dickens should it be but Robin
+Round--honest Robin of Redham; and for business, an you must needs know,
+I come on a message from some Parliament man, up yonder at the Castle,
+with letters for worshipful Master Bridgenorth of Moultrassie Hall; and
+this be the place, as I think; though why ye be marching up and down at
+his door, like the sign of a Red Man, with your old firelock there, I
+cannot so well guess.”
+
+“Give me the letters, my friend,” said the sentinel, to whom this
+explanation seemed very natural and probable, “and I will cause them
+forthwith to be delivered into his worship’s own hand.”
+
+Rummaging in his pockets, as if to pull out the letters which never
+existed, Master Lance approached within the sentinel’s piece, and,
+before he was aware, suddenly seized him by the collar, whistled sharp
+and shrill, and exerting his skill as a wrestler, for which he had been
+distinguished in his youth, he stretched his antagonist on his back--the
+musket for which they struggled going off in the fall.
+
+The miners rushed into the courtyard at Lance’s signal; and hopeless any
+longer of prosecuting his design in silence, Lance commanded two of them
+to secure the prisoner, and the rest to cheer loudly, and attack the
+door of the house. Instantly the courtyard of the mansion rang with
+the cry of “Peveril of the Peak for ever!” with all the abuse which the
+Royalists had invented to cast upon the Roundheads, during so many years
+of contention; and at the same time, while some assailed the door with
+their mining implements, others directed their attack against the angle,
+where a kind of porch joined to the main front of the building; and
+there, in some degree protected by the projection of the wall, and of a
+balcony which overhung the porch, wrought in more security, as well as
+with more effect, than the others; for the doors being of oak, thickly
+studded with nails, offered a more effectual resistance to violence than
+the brick-work.
+
+The noise of this hubbub on the outside, soon excited wild alarm and
+tumult within. Lights flew from window to window, and voices were heard
+demanding the cause of the attack; to which the party cries of those
+who were in the courtyard afforded a sufficient, or at least the only
+answer, which was vouchsafed. At length the window of a projecting
+staircase opened, and the voice of Bridgenorth himself demanded
+authoritatively what the tumult meant, and commanded the rioters to
+desist, upon their own proper and immediate peril.
+
+“We want our young master, you canting old thief,” was the reply; “and
+if we have him not instantly, the topmost stone of your house shall lie
+as low as the foundation.”
+
+“We shall try that presently,” said Bridgenorth; “for if there is
+another blow struck against the walls of my peaceful house, I will fire
+my carabine among you, and your blood be upon your own head. I have a
+score of friends, well armed with musket and pistol, to defend my house;
+and we have both the means and heart, with Heaven’s assistance, to repay
+any violence you can offer.”
+
+“Master Bridgenorth,” replied Lance, who, though no soldier, was
+sportsman enough to comprehend the advantage which those under cover,
+and using firearms, must necessarily have over his party, exposed to
+their aim, in a great measure, and without means of answering their
+fire,--“Master Bridgenorth, let us crave parley with you, and fair
+conditions. We desire to do you no evil, but will have back our young
+master; it is enough that you have got our old one and his lady. It is
+foul chasing to kill hart, hind, and fawn; and we will give you some
+light on the subject in an instant.”
+
+This speech was followed by a great crash amongst the lower windows of
+the house, according to a new species of attack which had been suggested
+by some of the assailants.
+
+“I would take the honest fellow’s word, and let young Peveril go,” said
+one of the garrison, who, carelessly yawning, approached on the inside
+of the post at which Bridgenorth had stationed himself.
+
+“Are you mad?” said Bridgenorth; “or do you think me poor enough in
+spirit to give up the advantages I now possess over the family of
+Peveril, for the awe of a parcel of boors, whom the first discharge will
+scatter like chaff before the whirlwind?”
+
+“Nay,” answered the speaker, who was the same individual that had struck
+Julian by his resemblance to the man who called himself Ganlesse, “I
+love a dire revenge, but we shall buy it somewhat too dear if these
+rascals set the house on fire, as they are like to do, while you are
+parleying from the window. They have thrown torches or firebrands
+into the hall; and it is all our friends can do to keep the flame from
+catching the wainscoting, which is old and dry.”
+
+“Now, may Heaven judge thee for thy lightness of spirit,” answered
+Bridgenorth; “one would think mischief was so properly thy element, that
+to thee it was indifferent whether friend or foe was the sufferer.”
+
+So saying, he ran hastily downstairs towards the hall, into which,
+through broken casements, and betwixt the iron bars, which prevented
+human entrance, the assailants had thrust lighted straw, sufficient to
+excite much smoke and some fire, and to throw the defenders of the house
+into great confusion; insomuch, that of several shots fired hastily from
+the windows, little or no damage followed to the besiegers, who, getting
+warm on the onset, answered the hostile charges with loud shouts of
+“Peveril for ever!” and had already made a practicable breach through
+the brick-wall of the tenement, through which Lance, Ditchley, and
+several of the most adventurous among their followers, made their way
+into the hall.
+
+The complete capture of the house remained, however, as far off as ever.
+The defenders mixed with much coolness and skill that solemn and deep
+spirit of enthusiasm which sets life at less than nothing, in comparison
+to real or supposed duty. From the half-open doors which led into the
+hall, they maintained a fire which began to grow fatal. One miner was
+shot dead; three or four were wounded; and Lance scarce knew whether
+he should draw his forces from the house, and leave it a prey to the
+flames, or, making a desperate attack on the posts occupied by the
+defenders, try to obtain unmolested possession of the place. At
+this moment, his course of conduct was determined by an unexpected
+occurrence, of which it is necessary to trace the cause.
+
+Julian Peveril had been, like other inhabitants of Moultrassie Hall on
+that momentous night, awakened by the report of the sentinel’s musket,
+followed by the shouts of his father’s vassals and followers; of which
+he collected enough to guess that Bridgenorth’s house was attacked with
+a view to his liberation. Very doubtful of the issue of such an attempt,
+dizzy with the slumber from which he had been so suddenly awakened,
+and confounded with the rapid succession of events to which he had been
+lately a witness, he speedily put on a part of his clothes, and hastened
+to the window of his apartment. From this he could see nothing to
+relieve his anxiety, for it looked towards a quarter different from that
+on which the attack was made. He attempted his door; it was locked
+on the outside; and his perplexity and anxiety became extreme, when
+suddenly the lock was turned, and in an underdress, hastily assumed
+in the moment of alarm, her hair streaming on her shoulders, her eyes
+gleaming betwixt fear and resolution, Alice Bridgenorth rushed into his
+apartment, and seized his hand with the fervent exclamation, “Julian,
+save my father!”
+
+The light which she bore in her hand served to show those features which
+could rarely have been viewed by any one without emotion, but which bore
+an expression irresistible to a lover.
+
+“Alice,” he said, “what means this? What is the danger? Where is your
+father?”
+
+“Do not stay to question,” she answered; “but if you would save him,
+follow me!”
+
+At the same time she led the way, with great speed, half-way down the
+turret stair case which led to his room, thence turning through a side
+door, along a long gallery, to a larger and wider stair, at the bottom
+of which stood her father, surrounded by four or five of his friends,
+scarce discernible through the smoke of the fire which began to
+take hold in the hall, as well as that which arose from the repeated
+discharge of their own firearms.
+
+Julian saw there was not a moment to be lost, if he meant to be a
+successful mediator. He rushed through Bridgenorth’s party ere they were
+aware of his approach, and throwing himself amongst the assailants
+who occupied the hall in considerable numbers, he assured them of his
+personal safety, and conjured them to depart.
+
+“Not without a few more slices at the Rump, master,” answered Lance. “I
+am principally glad to see you safe and well; but here is Joe Rimegap
+shot as dead as a buck in season, and more of us are hurt; and we’ll
+have revenge, and roast the Puritans like apples for lambswool!”
+
+“Then you shall roast me along with them,” said Julian; “for I vow to
+God, I will not leave the hall, being bound by parole of honour to abide
+with Major Bridgenorth till lawfully dismissed.”
+
+“Now out on you, an you were ten times a Peveril!” said Ditchley; “to
+give so many honest fellows loss and labour on your behalf, and to
+show them no kinder countenance.--I say, beat up the fire, and burn all
+together!”
+
+“Nay, nay; but peace, my masters, and hearken to reason,” said Julian;
+“we are all here in evil condition, and you will only make it worse by
+contention. Do you help to put out this same fire, which will else cost
+us all dear. Keep yourselves under arms. Let Master Bridgenorth and me
+settle some grounds of accommodation, and I trust all will be favourably
+made up on both sides; and if not, you shall have my consent and
+countenance to fight it out; and come on it what will, I will never
+forget this night’s good service.”
+
+He then drew Ditchley and Lance Outram aside, while the rest stood
+suspended at his appearance and words, and expressing the utmost
+thanks and gratitude for what they had already done, urged them, as the
+greatest favour which they could do towards him and his father’s house,
+to permit him to negotiate the terms of his emancipation from thraldom;
+at the same time forcing on Ditchley five or six gold pieces, that the
+brave lads of Bonadventure might drink his health; whilst to Lance he
+expressed the warmest sense of his active kindness, but protested he
+could only consider it as good service to his house, if he was allowed
+to manage the matter after his own fashion.
+
+“Why,” answered Lance, “I am well out on it, Master Julian; for it is
+matter beyond my mastery. All that I stand to is, that I will see you
+safe out of this same Moultrassie Hall; for our old Naunt Ellesmere
+will else give me but cold comfort when I come home. Truth is, I began
+unwillingly; but when I saw the poor fellow Joe shot beside me, why, I
+thought we should have some amends. But I put it all in your Honour’s
+hands.”
+
+During this colloquy both parties had been amicably employed in
+extinguishing the fire, which might otherwise have been fatal to all.
+It required a general effort to get it under; and both parties agreed
+on the necessary labour, with as much unanimity, as if the water they
+brought in leathern buckets from the well to throw upon the fire, had
+some effect in slaking their mutual hostility.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+              Necessity--thou best of peacemakers,
+              As well as surest prompter of invention--
+              Help us to composition!
+                                               --ANONYMOUS.
+
+While the fire continued, the two parties laboured in active union, like
+the jarring factions of the Jews during the siege of Jerusalem, when
+compelled to unite in resisting an assault of the besiegers. But when
+the last bucket of water had hissed on the few embers that continued
+to glimmer--when the sense of mutual hostility, hitherto suspended by
+a feeling of common danger, was in its turn rekindled--the parties,
+mingled as they had hitherto been in one common exertion, drew off from
+each other, and began to arrange themselves at opposite sides of the
+hall, and handle their weapons, as if for a renewal of the fight.
+
+Bridgenorth interrupted any farther progress of this menaced hostility.
+“Julian Peveril,” he said, “thou art free to walk thine own path, since
+thou wilt not walk with me that road which is more safe, as well as more
+honourable. But if you do by my counsel, you will get soon beyond the
+British seas.”
+
+“Ralph Bridgenorth,” said one of his friends, “this is but evil and
+feeble conduct on thine own part. Wilt thou withhold thy hand from the
+battle, to defend, from these sons of Belial, the captive of thy bow and
+of thy spear? Surely we are enow to deal with them in the security
+of the old serpent, until we essay whether the Lord will not give us
+victory therein.”
+
+A hum of stern assent followed; and had not Ganlesse now interfered, the
+combat would probably have been renewed. He took the advocate for war
+apart into one of the window recesses, and apparently satisfied his
+objections; for as he returned to his companions, he said to them, “Our
+friend hath so well argued this matter, that, verily, since he is of the
+same mind with the worthy Major Bridgenorth, I think the youth may be
+set at liberty.”
+
+As no farther objection was offered, it only remained with Julian to
+thank and reward those who had been active in his assistance. Having
+first obtained from Bridgenorth a promise of indemnity to them for the
+riot they had committed, a few kind words conveyed his sense of their
+services; and some broad pieces, thrust into the hand of Lance Outram,
+furnished the means for affording them a holiday. They would have
+remained to protect him, but, fearful of farther disorder, and relying
+entirely on the good faith of Major Bridgenorth, he dismissed them all
+except Lance, whom he detained to attend upon him for a few minutes,
+till he should depart from Moultrassie. But ere leaving the Hall, he
+could not repress his desire to speak with Bridgenorth in secret; and
+advancing towards him, he expressed such a desire.
+
+Tacitly granting what was asked of him, Bridgenorth led the way to a
+small summer saloon adjoining to the Hall, where, with his usual gravity
+and indifference of manner, he seemed to await in silence what Peveril
+had to communicate.
+
+Julian found it difficult, where so little opening was afforded him, to
+find a tone in which to open the subjects he had at heart, that should
+be at once dignified and conciliating. “Major Bridgenorth,” he said at
+length, “you have been a son, and an affectionate one--You may conceive
+my present anxiety--My father!--What has been designed for him?”
+
+“What the law will,” answered Bridgenorth. “Had he walked by the
+counsels which I procured to be given to him, he might have dwelt safely
+in the house of his ancestors. His fate is now beyond my control--far
+beyond yours. It must be with him as his country decide.”
+
+“And my mother?” said Peveril.
+
+“Will consult, as she has ever done, her own duty; and create her
+own happiness by doing so,” replied Bridgenorth. “Believe, my designs
+towards your family are better than they may seem through the mist which
+adversity has spread around your house. I may triumph as a man; but as
+a man I must also remember, in my hour, that mine enemies have had
+theirs.--Have you aught else to say?” he added, after a momentary pause.
+“You have rejected once, yea, and again, the hand I stretched out to
+you. Methinks little more remains between us.”
+
+These words, which seemed to cut short farther discussion, were calmly
+spoken; so that though they appeared to discourage farther question,
+they could not interrupt that which still trembled on Julian’s tongue.
+He made a step or two towards the door; then suddenly returned. “Your
+daughter?” he said--“Major Bridgenorth--I should ask--I _do_ ask
+forgiveness for mentioning her name--but may I not inquire after
+her?--May I not express my wishes for her future happiness?”
+
+“Your interest in her is but too flattering,” said Bridgenorth; “but you
+have already chosen your part; and you must be, in future, strangers
+to each other. I may have wished it otherwise, but the hour of grace is
+passed, during which your compliance with my advice might--I will speak
+it plainly--have led to your union. For her happiness--if such a word
+belongs to mortal pilgrimage--I shall care for it sufficiently. She
+leaves this place to-day, under the guardianship of a sure friend.”
+
+“Not of----?” exclaimed Peveril, and stopped short; for he felt he had
+no right to pronounce the name which came to his lips.
+
+“Why do you pause?” said Bridgenorth; “a sudden thought is often a
+wise, almost always an honest one. With whom did you suppose I meant to
+entrust my child, that the idea called forth so anxious an expression?”
+
+“Again I should ask your forgiveness,” said Julian, “for meddling where
+I have little right to interfere. But I saw a face here that is known to
+me--the person calls himself Ganlesse--Is it with him that you mean to
+entrust your daughter?”
+
+“Even to the person who call himself Ganlesse,” said Bridgenorth,
+without expressing either anger or surprise.
+
+“And do you know to whom you commit a charge so precious to all who know
+her, and so dear to yourself?” said Julian.
+
+“Do _you_ know, who ask me the question?” answered Bridgenorth.
+
+“I own I do not,” answered Julian; “but I have seen him in a character
+so different from that he now wears, that I feel it my duty to warn you,
+how you entrust the charge of your child to one who can alternately
+play the profligate or the hypocrite, as it suits his own interest or
+humour.”
+
+Bridgenorth smiled contemptuously. “I might be angry,” he said, “with
+the officious zeal which supposes that its green conceptions can
+instruct my grey hairs; but, good Julian, I do but only ask from you the
+liberal construction, that I, who have had much converse with mankind,
+know with whom I trust what is dearest to me. He of whom thou speakest
+hath one visage to his friends, though he may have others to the world,
+living amongst those before whom honest features should be concealed
+under a grotesque vizard; even as in the sinful sports of the day,
+called maskings and mummeries, where the wise, if he show himself at
+all, must be contented to play the apish and fantastic fool.”
+
+“I would only pray your wisdom to beware,” said Julian, “of one, who,
+as he has a vizard for others, may also have one which can disguise his
+real features from you yourself.”
+
+“This is being over careful, young man,” replied Bridgenorth, more
+shortly than he had hitherto spoken; “if you would walk by my counsel,
+you will attend to your own affairs, which, credit me, deserve all your
+care, and leave others to the management of theirs.”
+
+This was too plain to be misunderstood; and Peveril was compelled to
+take his leave of Bridgenorth, and of Moultrassie Hall, without farther
+parley or explanation. The reader may imagine how oft he looked back,
+and tried to guess, amongst the lights which continued to twinkle in
+various parts of the building, which sparkle it was that gleamed from
+the bower of Alice. When the road turned into another direction, he sunk
+into deep reverie, from which he was at length roused by the voice of
+Lance, who demanded where he intended to quarter for the night. He
+was unprepared to answer the question, but the honest keeper himself
+prompted a solution of the problem, by requesting that he would occupy
+a spare bed in the Lodge; to which Julian willingly agreed. The rest
+of the inhabitants had retired to rest when they entered; but Dame
+Ellesmere, apprised by a messenger of her nephew’s hospitable intent,
+had everything in the best readiness she could, for the son of her
+ancient patron. Peveril betook himself to rest; and, notwithstanding
+so many subjects of anxiety, slept soundly till the morning was far
+advanced.
+
+His slumbers were first broken by Lance, who had been long up, and
+already active in his service. He informed him, that his horse, arms,
+and small cloak-bag had been sent from the Castle by one of Major
+Bridgenorth’s servants, who brought a letter, discharging from the
+Major’s service the unfortunate Deborah Debbitch, and prohibiting her
+return to the Hall. The officer of the House of Commons, escorted by a
+strong guard, had left Martindale Castle that morning early, travelling
+in Sir Geoffrey’s carriage--his lady being also permitted to attend on
+him. To this he had to add, that the property at the Castle was taken
+possession of by Master Win-the-fight, the attorney, from Chesterfield,
+with other officers of law, in name of Major Bridgenorth, a large
+creditor of the unfortunate knight.
+
+Having told these Job’s tidings, Lance paused; and, after a moment’s
+hesitation, declared he was resolved to quit the country, and go up to
+London along with his young master. Julian argued the point with him;
+and insisted he had better stay to take charge of his aunt, in case she
+should be disturbed by these strangers. Lance replied, “She would
+have one with her, who would protect her well enough; for there was
+wherewithal to buy protection amongst them. But for himself, he was
+resolved to follow Master Julian to the death.”
+
+Julian heartily thanked him for his love.
+
+“Nay, it is not altogether out of love neither,” said Lance, “though I
+am as loving as another; but it is, as it were, partly out of fear,
+lest I be called over the coals for last night’s matter; for as for the
+miners, they will never trouble them, as the creatures only act after
+their kind.”
+
+“I will write in your behalf to Major Bridgenorth, who is bound to
+afford you protection, if you have such fear,” said Julian.
+
+“Nay, for that matter, it is not altogether fear, more than altogether
+love,” answered the enigmatical keeper, “although it hath a tasting of
+both in it. And, to speak plain truth, thus it is--Dame Debbitch and
+Naunt Ellesmere have resolved to set up their horses together, and have
+made up all their quarrels. And of all ghosts in the world, the worst
+is, when an old true-love comes back to haunt a poor fellow like me.
+Mistress Deborah, though distressed enow for the loss of her place, has
+been already speaking of a broken sixpence, or some such token, as if
+a man could remember such things for so many years, even if she had not
+gone over seas, like woodcock, in the meanwhile.”
+
+Julian could scarce forbear laughing. “I thought you too much of a man,
+Lance, to fear a woman marrying you whether you would or no.”
+
+“It has been many an honest man’s luck, for all that,” said Lance; “and
+a woman in the very house has so many deuced opportunities. And then
+there would be two upon one; for Naunt, though high enough when any of
+_your_ folks are concerned, hath some look to the main chance; and it
+seems Mistress Deb is as rich as a Jew.”
+
+“And you, Lance,” said Julian, “have no mind to marry for cake and
+pudding.”
+
+“No, truly, master,” answered Lance, “unless I knew of what dough they
+were baked. How the devil do I know how the jade came by so much? And
+then if she speaks of tokens and love-passages, let her be the same
+tight lass I broke the sixpence with, and I will be the same true lad to
+her. But I never heard of true love lasting ten years; and hers, if it
+lives at all, must be nearer twenty.”
+
+“Well, then, Lance,” said Julian, “since you are resolved on the thing,
+we will go to London together; where, if I cannot retain you in my
+service, and if my father recovers not these misfortunes, I will
+endeavour to promote you elsewhere.”
+
+“Nay, nay,” said Lance, “I trust to be back to bonny Martindale before
+it is long, and to keep the greenwood, as I have been wont to do; for,
+as to Dame Debbitch, when they have not me for their common butt,
+Naunt and she will soon bend bows on each other. So here comes old Dame
+Ellesmere with your breakfast. I will but give some directions about
+the deer to Rough Ralph, my helper, and saddle my forest pony, and your
+honour’s horse, which is no prime one, and we will be ready to trot.”
+
+Julian was not sorry for this addition to his establishment; for Lance
+had shown himself, on the preceding evening, a shrewd and bold fellow,
+and attached to his master. He therefore set himself to reconcile his
+aunt to parting with her nephew for some time. Her unlimited devotion
+for “the family,” readily induced the old lady to acquiesce in his
+proposal, though not without a gentle sigh over the ruins of a castle in
+the air, which was founded on the well-saved purse of Mistress Deborah
+Debbitch. “At any rate,” she thought, “it was as well that Lance should
+be out of the way of that bold, long-legged, beggarly trollop, Cis
+Sellok.” But to poor Deb herself, the expatriation of Lance, whom she
+had looked to as a sailor to a port under his lee, for which he can run,
+if weather becomes foul, was a second severe blow, following close on
+her dismissal from the profitable service of Major Bridgenorth.
+
+Julian visited the disconsolate damsel, in hopes of gaining some light
+upon Bridgenorth’s projects regarding his daughter--the character of
+this Ganlesse--and other matters, with which her residence in the
+family might have made her acquainted; but he found her by far too
+much troubled in mind to afford him the least information. The name
+of Ganlesse she did not seem to recollect--that of Alice rendered her
+hysterical--that of Bridgenorth, furious. She numbered up the various
+services she had rendered in the family--and denounced the plague
+of swartness to the linen--of leanness to the poultry--of dearth and
+dishonour to the housekeeping--and of lingering sickness and early death
+to Alice;--all which evils, she averred, had only been kept off by her
+continued, watchful, and incessant cares.--Then again turning to the
+subject of the fugitive Lance, she expressed such a total contempt of
+that mean-spirited fellow, in a tone between laughing and crying, as
+satisfied Julian it was not a topic likely to act as a sedative; and
+that, therefore, unless he made a longer stay than the urgent state of
+his affairs permitted, he was not likely to find Mistress Deborah in
+such a state of composure as might enable him to obtain from her any
+rational or useful information.
+
+Lance, who good-naturedly took upon himself the whole burden of Dame
+Debbitch’s mental alienation, or “taking on,” as such fits of _passio
+hysterica_ are usually termed in the country, had too much feeling to
+present himself before the victim of her own sensibility, and of his
+obduracy. He therefore intimated to Julian, by his assistant Ralph, that
+the horses stood saddled behind the Lodge, and that all was ready for
+their departure.
+
+Julian took the hint, and they were soon mounted, and clearing the road,
+at a rapid trot, in the direction of London; but not by the most usual
+route. Julian calculated that the carriage in which his father was
+transported would travel slowly; and it was his purpose, if possible,
+to get to London before it should arrive there, in order to have time to
+consult, with the friends of his family, what measures should be taken
+in his father’s behalf.
+
+In this manner they advanced a day’s journey towards London; at the
+conclusion of which, Julian found his resting-place in a small inn upon
+the road. No one came, at the first call, to attend upon the guests and
+their horses, although the house was well lighted up; and there was a
+prodigious chattering in the kitchen, such as can only be produced by
+a French cook when his mystery is in the very moment of projection. It
+instantly occurred to Julian--so rare was the ministry of these Gallic
+artists at that time--that the clamour he heard must necessarily be
+produced by the Sieur Chaubert, on whose _plats_ he had lately feasted,
+along with Smith and Ganlesse.
+
+One, or both of these, were therefore probably in the little inn; and
+if so, he might have some opportunity to discover their real purpose
+and character. How to avail himself of such a meeting he knew not; but
+chance favoured him more than he could have expected.
+
+“I can scarce receive you, gentlefolks,” said the landlord, who at
+length appeared at the door; “here be a sort of quality in my house
+to-night, whom less than all will not satisfy; nor all neither, for that
+matter.”
+
+“We are but plain fellows, landlord,” said Julian; “we are bound for
+Moseley-market, and can get no farther to-night. Any hole will serve us,
+no matter what.”
+
+“Why,” said the honest host, “if that be the case, I must e’en put one
+of you behind the bar, though the gentlemen have desired to be private;
+the other must take heart of grace and help me at the tap.”
+
+“The tap for me,” said Lance, without waiting his master’s decision. “It
+is an element which I could live and die in.”
+
+“The bar, then, for me,” said Peveril; and stepping back, whispered to
+Lance to exchange cloaks with him, desirous, if possible, to avoid being
+recognised.
+
+The exchange was made in an instant; and presently afterwards the
+landlord brought a light; and as he guided Julian into his hostelry,
+cautioned him to sit quiet in the place where he should stow him; and if
+he was discovered, to say that he was one of the house, and leave him
+to make it good. “You will hear what the gallants say,” he added; “but I
+think thou wilt carry away but little on it; for when it is not French,
+it is Court gibberish; and that is as hard to construe.”
+
+The bar, into which our hero was inducted on these conditions, seemed
+formed, with respect to the public room, upon the principle of a
+citadel, intended to observe and bridle a rebellious capital. Here sat
+the host on the Saturday evenings, screened from the observation of
+his guests, yet with the power of observing both their wants and their
+behaviour, and also that of overhearing their conversation--a practice
+which he was much addicted to, being one of that numerous class of
+philanthropists, to whom their neighbours’ business is of as much
+consequence, or rather more, than their own.
+
+Here he planted his new guest, with a repeated caution not to disturb
+the gentlemen by speech or motion; and a promise that he should be
+speedily accommodated with a cold buttock of beef, and a tankard of
+home-brewed. And here he left him with no other light than that which
+glimmered from the well-illuminated apartment within, through a sort of
+shuttle which accommodated the landlord with a view into it.
+
+This situation, inconvenient enough in itself, was, on the present
+occasion, precisely what Julian would have selected. He wrapped himself
+in the weather-beaten cloak of Lance Outram, which had been stained, by
+age and weather, into a thousand variations from its original Lincoln
+green; and with as little noise as he could, set himself to observe the
+two inmates, who had engrossed to themselves the whole of the apartment,
+which was usually open to the public. They sat by a table well covered
+with such costly rarities, as could only have been procured by much
+forecast, and prepared by the exquisite Mons. Chaubert; to which both
+seemed to do much justice.
+
+Julian had little difficulty in ascertaining, that one of the travellers
+was, as he had anticipated, the master of the said Chaubert, or, as he
+was called by Ganlesse, Smith; the other, who faced him, he had never
+seen before. This last was dressed like a gallant of the first order.
+His periwig, indeed, as he travelled on horseback, did not much exceed
+in size the bar-wig of a modern lawyer; but then the essence which he
+shook from it with every motion, impregnated a whole apartment, which
+was usually only perfumed by that vulgar herb, tobacco. His riding-coat
+was laced in the newest and most courtly style; and Grammont himself
+might have envied the embroidery of his waistcoat, and the peculiar cut
+of his breeches, which buttoned above the knee, permitting the shape
+of a very handsome leg to be completely seen. This, by the proprietor
+thereof, had been stretched out upon a stool, and he contemplated its
+proportions, from time to time, with infinite satisfaction.
+
+The conversation between these worthies was so interesting, that we
+propose to assign to it another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+         ----This is some creature of the elements,
+         Most like your sea-gull. He can wheel and whistle
+         His screaming song, e’en when the storm is loudest--
+         Take for his sheeted couch the restless foam
+         Of the wild wave-crest--slumber in the calm,
+         And daily with the storm. Yet ‘tis a gull,
+         An arrant gull, with all this.
+                                               --THE CHAMPION.
+
+“And here is to thee,” said the fashionable gallant whom we have
+described, “honest Tom; and a cup of welcome to thee out of Looby-land.
+Why, thou hast been so long in the country, that thou hast got a
+bumpkinly clod-compelling sort of look thyself. That greasy doublet fits
+thee as if it were thy reserved Sunday’s apparel; and the points seem as
+if they were stay-laces bought for thy true-love Marjory. I marvel thou
+canst still relish a ragout. Methinks now, to a stomach bound in such a
+jacket, eggs and bacon were a diet more conforming.”
+
+“Rally away, my good lord, while wit lasts,” answered his companion;
+“yours is not the sort of ammunition which will bear much expenditure.
+Or rather, tell me news from Court, since we have met so opportunely.”
+
+“You would have asked me these an hour ago,” said the lord, “had not
+your very soul been under Chaubert’s covered dishes. You remembered
+King’s affairs will keep cool, and _entre-mets_ must be eaten hot.”
+
+“Not so, my lord; I only kept common talk whilst that eavesdropping
+rascal of a landlord was in the room; so that, now the coast is clear
+once more, I pray you for news from Court.”
+
+“The Plot is nonsuited,” answered the courtier--“Sir George Wakeman
+acquitted--the witnesses discredited by the jury--Scroggs, who ranted on
+one side, is now ranting on t’other.”
+
+“Rat the Plot, Wakeman, witnesses, Papists, and Protestants, all
+together! Do you think I care for such trash as that?--Till the Plot
+comes up the Palace backstair, and gets possession of old Rowley’s own
+imagination, I care not a farthing who believes or disbelieves. I hang
+by him will bear me out.”
+
+“Well, then,” said the lord, “the next news is Rochester’s disgrace.”
+
+“Disgraced!--How, and for what? The morning I came off he stood as fair
+as any one.”
+
+“That’s over--the epitaph[*] has broken his neck--and now he may write
+one for his own Court favour, for it is dead and buried.”
+
+[*] The epitaph alluded to is the celebrated epigram made by Rochester
+    on Charles II. It was composed at the King’s request, who
+    nevertheless resented its poignancy.
+
+    The lines are well known:--
+
+     “Here lies our sovereign lord the King,
+        Whose word no man relies on,
+      Who never said a foolish thing,
+        And never did a wise one.”
+
+“The epitaph!” exclaimed Tom; “why, I was by when it was made; and it
+passed for an excellent good jest with him whom it was made upon.”
+
+“Ay, so it did amongst ourselves,” answered his companion; “but it got
+abroad, and had a run like a mill-race. It was in every coffee-house,
+and in half the diurnals. Grammont translated it into French too; and
+there is no laughing at so sharp a jest, when it is dinned into your
+ears on all sides. So disgraced is the author; and but for his Grace of
+Buckingham, the Court would be as dull as my Lord Chancellor’s wig.”
+
+“Or as the head it covers.--Well, my lord, the fewer at Court, there
+is the more room for those that can bustle there. But there are two
+mainstrings of Shaftesbury’s fiddle broken--the Popish Plot fallen into
+discredit--and Rochester disgraced. Changeful times--but here is to the
+little man who shall mend them.”
+
+“I apprehend you,” replied his lordship; “and meet your health with my
+love. Trust me, my lord loves you, and longs for you.--Nay, I have done
+you reason.--By your leave, the cup is with me. Here is to his buxom
+Grace of Bucks.”
+
+“As blithe a peer,” said Smith, “as ever turned night to day. Nay, it
+shall be an overflowing bumper, an you will; and I will drink it _super
+naculum_.--And how stands the great Madam?” [*]
+
+[*] The Duchess of Portsmouth, Charles II.’s favourite mistress; very
+    unpopular at the time of the Popish Plot, as well from her
+    religion as her country, being a Frenchwoman and a Catholic.
+
+“Stoutly against all change,” answered the lord--“Little Anthony[*] can
+make nought of her.”
+
+[*] Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, the politician and
+    intriguer of the period.
+
+“Then he shall bring her influence to nought. Hark in thine ear. Thou
+knowest----” (Here he whispered so low that Julian could not catch the
+sound.)
+
+“Know him?” answered the other--“Know Ned of the Island?--To be sure I
+do.”
+
+“He is the man that shall knot the great fiddle-strings that have
+snapped. Say I told you so; and thereupon I give thee his health.”
+
+“And thereupon I pledge thee,” said the young nobleman, “which on any
+other argument I were loath to do--thinking of Ned as somewhat the cut
+of a villain.”
+
+“Granted, man--granted,” said the other,--“a very thorough-paced
+rascal; but able, my lord, able and necessary; and, in this plan,
+indispensable.--Pshaw!--This champagne turns stronger as it gets older,
+I think.”
+
+“Hark, mine honest fellow,” said the courtier; “I would thou wouldst
+give me some item of all this mystery. Thou hast it, I know; for whom do
+men entrust but trusty Chiffinch?”
+
+“It is your pleasure to say so, my lord,” answered Smith (whom we shall
+hereafter call by his real name of Chiffinch) with such drunken gravity,
+for his speech had become a little altered by his copious libations in
+the course of the evening,--“few men know more, or say less, than I do;
+and it well becomes my station. _Conticuere omnes_, as the grammar hath
+it--all men should learn to hold their tongue.”
+
+“Except with a friend, Tom--except with a friend. Thou wilt never be
+such a dogbolt as to refuse a hint to a friend? Come, you get too wise
+and statesman-like for your office.--The ligatures of thy most peasantly
+jacket there are like to burst with thy secret. Come, undo a button,
+man; it is for the health of thy constitution--Let out a reef; and let
+thy chosen friend know what is meditating. Thou knowest I am as true as
+thyself to little Anthony, if he can but get uppermost.”
+
+“_If_, thou lordly infidel!” said Chiffinch--“talk’st thou to me of
+_ifs?_--There is neither _if_ nor _and_ in the matter. The great Madam
+shall be pulled a peg down--the great Plot screwed a peg or two up. Thou
+knowest Ned?--Honest Ned had a brother’s death to revenge.”
+
+“I have heard so,” said the nobleman; “and that his persevering
+resentment of that injury was one of the few points which seemed to be a
+sort of heathenish virtue in him.”
+
+“Well,” continued Chiffinch, “in manoeuvring to bring about this
+revenge, which he hath laboured at many a day, he hath discovered a
+treasure.”
+
+“What!--In the Isle of Man?” said his companion.
+
+“Assure yourself of it.--She is a creature so lovely, that she needs
+but be seen to put down every one of the favourites, from Portsmouth and
+Cleveland down to that threepenny baggage, Mistress Nelly.”
+
+“By my word, Chiffinch,” said my lord, “that is a reinforcement after
+the fashion of thine own best tactics. But bethink thee, man! To make
+such a conquest, there wants more than a cherry-cheek and a bright
+eye--there must be wit--wit, man, and manners, and a little sense
+besides, to keep influence when it is gotten.”
+
+“Pshaw! will you tell me what goes to this vocation?” said Chiffinch.
+“Here, pledge me her health in a brimmer.--Nay, you shall do it on
+knees, too.--Never such a triumphant beauty was seen--I went to church
+on purpose, for the first time these ten years--Yet I lie, it was not to
+church neither--it was to chapel.”
+
+“To chapel!--What the devil, is she a Puritan?” exclaimed the other
+courtier.
+
+“To be sure she is. Do you think I would be accessory to bringing a
+Papist into favour in these times, when, as my good Lord said in
+the House, there should not be a Popish manservant, nor a Popish
+maid-servant, not so much as dog or cat, left to bark or mew about the
+King!”[*]
+
+[*] Such was the extravagance of Shaftesbury’s eloquence.
+
+“But consider, Chiffie, the dislikelihood of her pleasing,” said the
+noble courtier.--“What! old Rowley, with his wit, and love of wit--his
+wildness, and love of wildness--he form a league with a silly,
+scrupulous, unidea’d Puritan!--Not if she were Venus.”
+
+“Thou knowest nought of the matter,” answered Chiffinch. “I tell thee,
+the fine contrast between the seeming saint and falling sinner will
+give zest to the old gentleman’s inclination. If I do not know him, who
+does?--Her health, my lord, on your bare knee, as you would live to be
+of the bedchamber.”
+
+“I pledge you most devoutly,” answered his friend. “But you have not
+told me how the acquaintance is to be made; for you cannot, I think,
+carry her to Whitehall.”
+
+“Aha, my dear lord, you would have the whole secret! but that I cannot
+afford--I can spare a friend a peep at my ends, but no one must look on
+the means by which they are achieved.”--So saying, he shook his drunken
+head most wisely.
+
+The villainous design which this discourse implied, and which his heart
+told him was designed against Alice Bridgenorth, stirred Julian so
+extremely, that he involuntarily shifted his posture, and laid his hand
+on his sword hilt.
+
+Chiffinch heard a rustling, and broke off, exclaiming, “Hark!--Zounds,
+something moved--I trust I have told the tale to no ears but thine.”
+
+“I will cut off any which have drunk in but a syllable of thy words,”
+ said the nobleman; and raising a candle, he took a hasty survey of the
+apartment. Seeing nothing that could incur his menaced resentment, he
+replaced the light and continued:--“Well, suppose the Belle Louise de
+Querouaille[*] shoots from her high station in the firmament, how will
+you rear up the downfallen Plot again--for without that same Plot, think
+of it as thou wilt, we have no change of hands--and matters remain
+as they were, with a Protestant courtezan instead of a Papist--Little
+Anthony can but little speed without that Plot of his--I believe, in my
+conscience, he begot it himself.” [+]
+
+[*] Charles’s principal mistress _en titre_. She was created Duchess
+    of Portsmouth.
+
+[+] Shaftesbury himself is supposed to have said that he knew not who
+    was the inventor of the Plot, but that he himself had all the
+    advantage of the discovery.
+
+“Whoever begot it,” said Chiffinch, “he hath adopted it; and a thriving
+babe it has been to him. Well, then, though it lies out of my way, I
+will play Saint Peter again--up with t’other key, and unlock t’other
+mystery.”
+
+“Now thou speakest like a good fellow; and I will, with my own hands,
+unwire this fresh flask, to begin a brimmer to the success of thy
+achievement.”
+
+“Well, then,” continued the communicative Chiffinch, “thou knowest that
+they have long had a nibbling at the old Countess of Derby.--So Ned
+was sent down--he owes her an old accompt, thou knowest--with private
+instructions to possess himself of the island, if he could, by help of
+some of his old friends. He hath ever kept up spies upon her; and happy
+man was he, to think his hour of vengeance was come so nigh. But he
+missed his blow; and the old girl being placed on her guard, was soon
+in a condition to make Ned smoke for it. Out of the island he came with
+little advantage for having entered it; when, by some means--for
+the devil, I think, stands ever his friend--he obtained information
+concerning a messenger, whom her old Majesty of Man had sent to London
+to make party in her behalf. Ned stuck himself to this fellow--a raw,
+half-bred lad, son of an old blundering Cavalier of the old stamp, down
+in Derbyshire--and so managed the swain, that he brought him to the
+place where I was waiting, in anxious expectation of the pretty one I
+told you of. By Saint Anthony, for I will swear by no meaner oath, I
+stared when I saw this great lout--not that the fellow is so ill-looked
+neither--I stared like--like--good now, help me to a simile.”
+
+“Like Saint Anthony’s pig, an it were sleek,” said the young lord; “your
+eyes, Chiffie, have the very blink of one. But what hath all this to do
+with the Plot? Hold, I have had wine enough.”
+
+“You shall not balk me,” said Chiffinch; and a jingling was heard, as
+if he were filling his comrade’s glass with a very unsteady hand.
+“Hey--What the devil is the matter?--I used to carry my glass
+steady--very steady.”
+
+“Well, but this stranger?”
+
+“Why, he swept at game and ragout as he would at spring beef or summer
+mutton. Never saw so unnurtured a cub--Knew no more what he ate than an
+infidel--I cursed him by my gods when I saw Chaubert’s _chef-d’ oeuvres_
+glutted down so indifferent a throat. We took the freedom to spice his
+goblet a little, and ease him of his packet of letters; and the fool
+went on his way the next morning with a budget artificially filled with
+grey paper. Ned would have kept him, in hopes to have made a witness of
+him, but the boy was not of that mettle.”
+
+“How will you prove your letters?” said the courtier.
+
+“La you there, my lord,” said Chiffinch; “one may see with half an
+eye, for all your laced doublet, that you have been of the family of
+Furnival’s, before your brother’s death sent you to Court. How prove the
+letters?--Why, we have but let the sparrow fly with a string round his
+foot.--We have him again so soon as we list.”
+
+“Why, thou art turned a very Machiavel, Chiffinch,” said his friend.
+“But how if the youth proved restive?--I have heard these Peak men have
+hot heads and hard hands.”
+
+“Trouble not yourself--that was cared for, my lord,” said
+Chiffinch--“his pistols might bark, but they could not bite.”
+
+“Most exquisite Chiffinch, thou art turned micher as well as
+padder--Canst both rob a man and kidnap him!”
+
+“Micher and padder--what terms be these?” said Chiffinch. “Methinks
+these are sounds to lug out upon. You will have me angry to the degree
+of falling foul--robber and kidnapper!”
+
+“You mistake verb for noun-substantive,” replied his lordship; “I said
+_rob_ and _kidnap_--a man may do either once and away without being
+professional.”
+
+“But not without spilling a little foolish noble blood, or some such
+red-coloured gear,” said Chiffinch, starting up.
+
+“Oh yes,” said his lordship; “all this may be without these dire
+consequences, and as you will find to-morrow, when you return to
+England; for at present you are in the land of Champagne, Chiffie; and
+that you may continue so, I drink thee this parting cup to line thy
+nightcap.”
+
+“I do not refuse your pledge,” said Chiffinch; “but I drink to thee
+in dudgeon and in hostility--It is cup of wrath, and a gage of battle.
+To-morrow, by dawn, I will have thee at point of fox, wert thou the last
+of the Savilles.--What the devil! think you I fear you because you are a
+lord?”
+
+“Not so, Chiffinch,” answered his companion. “I know thou fearest
+nothing but beans and bacon, washed down with bumpkin-like beer.--Adieu,
+sweet Chiffinch--to bed--Chiffinch--to bed.”
+
+So saying, he lifted a candle, and left the apartment. And Chiffinch,
+whom the last draught had nearly overpowered, had just strength enough
+left to do the same, muttering, as he staggered out, “Yes, he shall
+answer it.--Dawn of day? D--n me--It is come already--Yonder’s the
+dawn--No, d--n me, ‘tis the fire glancing on the cursed red lattice--It
+is the smell of the brandy in this cursed room--It could not be the
+wine--Well, old Rowley shall send me no more errands to the country
+again--Steady, steady.”
+
+So saying, he reeled out of the apartment, leaving Peveril to think over
+the extraordinary conversation he had just heard.
+
+The name of Chiffinch, the well-known minister of Charles’s pleasures,
+was nearly allied to the part which he seemed about to play in the
+present intrigue; but that Christian, whom he had always supposed
+a Puritan as strict as his brother-in-law, Bridgenorth, should be
+associated with him in a plot so infamous, seemed alike unnatural and
+monstrous. The near relationship might blind Bridgenorth, and warrant
+him in confiding his daughter to such a man’s charge; but what a wretch
+he must be, that could coolly meditate such an ignominious abuse of
+his trust! In doubt whether he could credit for a moment the tale which
+Chiffinch had revealed, he hastily examined his packet, and found that
+the sealskin case in which it had been wrapt up, now only contained an
+equal quantity of waste paper. If he had wanted farther confirmation,
+the failure of the shot which he fired at Bridgenorth, and of which the
+wadding only struck him, showed that his arms had been tampered with.
+He examined the pistol which still remained charged, and found that the
+ball had been drawn. “May I perish,” said he to himself, “amid these
+villainous intrigues, but thou shalt be more surely loaded, and
+to better purpose! The contents of these papers may undo my
+benefactress--their having been found on me, may ruin my father--that
+I have been the bearer of them, may cost, in these fiery times, my
+own life--that I care least for--they form a branch of the scheme laid
+against the honour and happiness of a creature so innocent, that it is
+almost sin to think of her within the neighbourhood of such infamous
+knaves. I will recover the letters at all risks--But how?--that is to
+be thought on.--Lance is stout and trusty; and when a bold deed is once
+resolved upon, there never yet lacked the means of executing it.”
+
+His host now entered, with an apology for his long absence; and after
+providing Peveril with some refreshments, invited him to accept, for his
+night-quarters, the accommodation of a remote hayloft, which he was to
+share with his comrade; professing, at the same time, he could hardly
+have afforded them this courtesy, but out of deference to the exquisite
+talents of Lance Outram, as assistant at the tap; where, indeed, it
+seems probable that he, as well as the admiring landlord, did that
+evening contrive to drink nearly as much liquor as they drew.
+
+But Lance was a seasoned vessel, on whom liquor made no lasting
+impression; so that when Peveril awaked that trusty follower at dawn, he
+found him cool enough to comprehend and enter into the design which he
+expressed, of recovering the letters which had been abstracted from his
+person.
+
+Having considered the whole matter with much attention, Lance shrugged,
+grinned, and scratched his head; and at length manfully expressed his
+resolution. “Well, my naunt speaks truth in her old saw----
+
+ ‘He that serves Peveril maunna be slack,
+  Neither for weather, nor yet for wrack.’
+
+And then again, my good dame was wont to say, that whenever Peveril was
+in a broil, Outram was in a stew; so I will never bear a base mind, but
+even hold a part with you as my fathers have done with yours, for four
+generations, whatever more.”
+
+“Spoken like a most gallant Outram,” said Julian; “and were we but rid
+of that puppy lord and his retinue, we two could easily deal with the
+other three.”
+
+“Two Londoners and a Frenchman?” said Lance,--“I would take them in mine
+own hand. And as for my Lord Saville, as they call him, I heard word
+last night that he and all his men of gilded gingerbread--that looked at
+an honest fellow like me, as if they were the ore and I the dross--are
+all to be off this morning to some races, or such-like junketings, about
+Tutbury. It was that brought him down here, where he met this other
+civet-cat by accident.”
+
+In truth, even as Lance spoke, a trampling was heard of horses in the
+yard; and from the hatch of their hayloft they beheld Lord Saville’s
+attendants mustered, and ready to set out as soon as he could make his
+appearance.
+
+“So ho, Master Jeremy,” said one of the fellows, to a sort of principal
+attendant, who just came out of the house, “methinks the wine has proved
+a sleeping cup to my lord this morning.”
+
+“No,” answered Jeremy, “he hath been up before light writing letters for
+London; and to punish thy irreverence, thou, Jonathan, shalt be the man
+to ride back with them.”
+
+“And so to miss the race?” said Jonathan sulkily; “I thank you for this
+good turn, good Master Jeremy; and hang me if I forget it.”
+
+Farther discussion was cut short by the appearance of the young
+nobleman, who, as he came out of the inn, said to Jeremy, “These be the
+letters. Let one of the knaves ride to London for life and death, and
+deliver them as directed; and the rest of them get to horse and follow
+me.”
+
+Jeremy gave Jonathan the packet with a malicious smile; and the
+disappointed groom turned his horse’s head sullenly towards London,
+while Lord Saville, and the rest of his retinue, rode briskly off in
+an opposite direction, pursued by the benedictions of the host and his
+family, who stood bowing and courtesying at the door, in gratitude,
+doubtless, for the receipt of an unconscionable reckoning.
+
+It was full three hours after their departure, that Chiffinch lounged
+into the room in which they had supped, in a brocade nightgown, and
+green velvet cap, turned up with the most costly Brussels lace. He
+seemed but half awake; and it was with drowsy voice that he called for
+a cup of cold small beer. His manner and appearance were those of a man
+who had wrestled hard with Bacchus on the preceding evening, and had
+scarce recovered the effects of his contest with the jolly god.
+Lance, instructed by his master to watch the motions of the courtier,
+officiously attended with the cooling beverage he called for, pleading,
+as an excuse to the landlord, his wish to see a Londoner in his
+morning-gown and cap.
+
+No sooner had Chiffinch taken his morning draught, than he inquired
+after Lord Saville.
+
+“His lordship was mounted and away by peep of dawn,” was Lance’s reply.
+
+“What the devil!” exclaimed Chiffinch; “why, this is scarce
+civil.--What! off for the races with his whole retinue?”
+
+“All but one,” replied Lance, “whom his lordship sent back to London
+with letters.”
+
+“To London with letters!” said Chiffinch. “Why, I am for London, and
+could have saved his express a labour.--But stop--hold--I begin to
+recollect--d----n, can I have blabbed?--I have--I have--I remember it
+all now--I have blabbed; and to the very weasel of the Court, who sucks
+the yelk out of every man’s secret. Furies and fire--that my afternoons
+should ruin my mornings thus!--I must turn boon companion and good
+fellow in my cups--and have my confidences and my quarrels--my friends
+and my enemies, with a plague to me, as if any one could do a man much
+good or harm but his own self. His messenger must be stopped, though--I
+will put a spoke in his wheel.--Hark ye, drawer-fellow--call my groom
+hither--call Tom Beacon.”
+
+Lance obeyed; but failed not, when he had introduced the domestic, to
+remain in the apartment, in order to hear what should pass betwixt him
+and his master.
+
+“Hark ye, Tom,” said Chiffinch, “here are five pieces for you.”
+
+“What’s to be done now, I trow?” said Tom, without even the ceremony of
+returning thanks, which he was probably well aware would not be received
+even in part payment of the debt he was incurring.
+
+“Mount your fleet nag, Tom--ride like the devil--overtake the groom whom
+Lord Saville despatched to London this morning--lame his horse--break
+his bones--fill him as drunk as the Baltic sea; or do whatever may best
+and most effectively stop his journey.--Why does the lout stand there
+without answering me? Dost understand me?”
+
+“Why, ay, Master Chiffinch,” said Tom; “and so I am thinking doth this
+honest man here, who need not have heard quite so much of your counsel,
+an it had been your will.”
+
+“I am bewitched this morning,” said Chiffinch to himself, “or else the
+champagne runs in my head still. My brain has become the very lowlands
+of Holland--a gill-cup would inundate it--Hark thee, fellow,” he added,
+addressing Lance, “keep my counsel--there is a wager betwixt Lord
+Saville and me, which of us shall first have a letter in London. Here
+is to drink my health, and bring luck on my side. Say nothing of it; but
+help Tom to his nag.--Tom, ere thou startest come for thy credentials--I
+will give thee a letter to the Duke of Bucks, that may be evidence thou
+wert first in town.”
+
+Tom Beacon ducked and exited; and Lance, after having made some show
+of helping him to horse, ran back to tell his master the joyful
+intelligence, that a lucky accident had abated Chiffinch’s party to
+their own number.
+
+Peveril immediately ordered his horses to be got ready; and, so soon
+as Tom Beacon was despatched towards London, on a rapid trot, had the
+satisfaction to observe Chiffinch, with his favourite Chaubert, mount
+to pursue the same journey, though at a more moderate rate. He permitted
+them to attain such a distance, that they might be dogged without
+suspicion; then paid his reckoning, mounted his horse, and followed,
+keeping his men carefully in view, until he should come to a place
+proper for the enterprise which he meditated.
+
+It had been Peveril’s intention, that when they came to some solitary
+part of the road, they should gradually mend their pace, until they
+overtook Chaubert--that Lance Outram should then drop behind, in order
+to assail the man of spits and stoves, while he himself, spurring
+onwards, should grapple with Chiffinch. But this scheme presupposed that
+the master and servant should travel in the usual manner--the latter
+riding a few yards behind the former. Whereas, such and so interesting
+were the subjects of discussion betwixt Chiffinch and the French cook,
+that, without heeding the rules of etiquette, they rode on together,
+amicably abreast, carrying on a conversation on the mysteries of the
+table, which the ancient Comus, or a modern gastronome, might have
+listened to with pleasure. It was therefore necessary to venture on them
+both at once.
+
+For this purpose, when they saw a long tract of road before them,
+unvaried by the least appearance of man, beast, or human habitation,
+they began to mend their pace, that they might come up to Chiffinch,
+without giving him any alarm, by a sudden and suspicious increase of
+haste. In this manner they lessened the distance which separated them
+till they were within about twenty yards, when Peveril, afraid that
+Chiffinch might recognise him at a nearer approach, and so trust to his
+horse’s heels, made Lance the signal to charge.
+
+At the sudden increase of their speed, and the noise with which it was
+necessarily attended, Chiffinch looked around, but had time to do no
+more, for Lance, who had pricked his pony (which was much more speedy
+than Julian’s horse) into full gallop, pushed, without ceremony, betwixt
+the courtier and his attendant; and ere Chaubert had time for more
+than one exclamation, he upset both horse and Frenchman,--_morbleu!_
+thrilling from his tongue as he rolled on the ground amongst the various
+articles of his occupation, which, escaping from the budget in which
+he bore them, lay tumbled upon the highway in strange disorder; while
+Lance, springing from his palfrey, commanded his foeman to be still,
+under no less a penalty than that of death, if he attempted to rise.
+
+Before Chiffinch could avenge his trusty follower’s downfall, his own
+bridle was seized by Julian, who presented a pistol with the other hand,
+and commanded him to stand or die.
+
+Chiffinch, though effeminate, was no coward. He stood still as
+commanded, and said, with firmness, “Rogue, you have taken me at
+surprise. If you are highwaymen, there is my purse. Do us no bodily
+harm, and spare the budget of spices and sauces.”
+
+“Look you, Master Chiffinch,” said Peveril, “this is no time for
+dallying. I am no highwayman, but a man of honour. Give me back that
+packet which you stole from me the other night; or, by all that is good,
+I will send a brace of balls through you, and search for it at leisure.”
+
+“What night?--What packet?” answered Chiffinch, confused; yet willing
+to protract the time for the chance of assistance, or to put Peveril off
+his guard. “I know nothing of what you mean. If you are a man of honour,
+let me draw my sword, and I will do you right, as a gentleman should do
+to another.”
+
+“Dishonourable rascal!” said Peveril, “you escape not in this manner.
+You plundered me when you had me at odds; and I am not the fool to let
+my advantage escape, now that my turn is come. Yield up the packet;
+and then, if you will, I will fight you on equal terms. But first,” he
+reiterated, “yield up the packet, or I will instantly send you where the
+tenor of your life will be hard to answer for.”
+
+The tone of Peveril’s voice, the fierceness of his eye, and the
+manner in which he held the loaded weapon, within a hand’s-breadth
+of Chiffinch’s head, convinced the last there was neither room for
+compromise, nor time for trifling. He thrust his hand into a side pocket
+of his cloak, and with visible reluctance, produced those papers and
+despatches with which Julian had been entrusted by the Countess of
+Derby.
+
+“They are five in number,” said Julian; “and you have given me only
+four. Your life depends on full restitution.”
+
+“It escaped from my hand,” said Chiffinch, producing the missing
+document--“There it is. Now, sir, your pleasure is fulfilled, unless,”
+ he added sulkily, “you design either murder or farther robbery.”
+
+“Base wretch!” said Peveril, withdrawing his pistol, yet keeping a
+watchful eye on Chiffinch’s motions, “thou art unworthy any honest man’s
+sword; and yet, if you dare draw your own, as you proposed but now, I am
+willing to give you a chance upon fair equality of terms.”
+
+“Equality!” said Chiffinch sneeringly; “yes, a proper equality--sword
+and pistol against single rapier, and two men upon one, for Chaubert is
+no fighter. No sir; I shall seek amends upon some more fitting occasion,
+and with more equal weapons.”
+
+“By backbiting, or by poison, base pander!” said Julian; “these are thy
+means of vengeance. But mark me--I know your vile purpose respecting
+a lady who is too worthy that her name should be uttered in such a
+worthless ear. Thou hast done me one injury, and thou see’st I have
+repaid it. But prosecute this farther villainy, and be assured I will
+put thee to death like a foul reptile, whose very slaver is fatal to
+humanity. Rely upon this, as if Machiavel had sworn it; for so surely
+as you keep your purpose, so surely will I prosecute my revenge.--Follow
+me, Lance, and leave him to think on what I have told him.”
+
+Lance had, after the first shock, sustained a very easy part in this
+recontre; for all he had to do, was to point the butt of his whip, in
+the manner of a gun, at the intimidated Frenchman, who, lying on his
+back, and gazing at random on the skies, had as little the power or
+purpose of resistance, as any pig which had ever come under his own
+slaughter-knife.
+
+Summoned by his master from the easy duty of guarding such an
+unresisting prisoner, Lance remounted his horse, and they both rode off,
+leaving their discomfited antagonists to console themselves for their
+misadventure as they best could. But consolation was hard to come by in
+the circumstances. The French artist had to lament the dispersion of
+his spices, and the destruction of his magazine of sauces--an enchanter
+despoiled of his magic wand and talisman, could scarce have been in
+more desperate extremity. Chiffinch had to mourn the downfall of his
+intrigue, and its premature discovery. “To this fellow, at least,”
+ he thought, “I can have bragged none--here my evil genius alone has
+betrayed me. With this infernal discovery, which may cost me so dear
+on all hands, champagne had nought to do. If there be a flask left
+unbroken, I will drink it after dinner, and try if it may not even yet
+suggest some scheme of redemption and of revenge.”
+
+With this manly resolution, he prosecuted his journey to London.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+          A man so various, that he seem’d to be
+          Not one, but all mankind’s epitome;
+          Stiff in opinions--always in the wrong--
+          Was everything by starts, but nothing long;
+          Who, in the course of one revolving moon,
+          Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon;
+          Then, all for women, painting, fiddling, drinking;
+          Besides a thousand freaks that died in thinking.
+                                                       --DRYDEN.
+
+We must now transport the reader to the magnificent hotel in ----Street,
+inhabited at this time by the celebrated George Villiers, Duke of
+Buckingham, whom Dryden has doomed to a painful immortality by the
+few lines which we have prefixed to this chapter. Amid the gay and
+licentious of the laughing Court of Charles, the Duke was the most
+licentious and most gay; yet, while expending a princely fortune, a
+strong constitution, and excellent talents, in pursuit of frivolous
+pleasures, he nevertheless nourished deeper and more extensive designs;
+in which he only failed from want of that fixed purpose and regulated
+perseverance essential to all important enterprises, but particularly in
+politics.
+
+It was long past noon; and the usual hour of the Duke’s levee--if
+anything could be termed usual where all was irregular--had been long
+past. His hall was filled with lackeys and footmen, in the most splendid
+liveries; the interior apartments, with the gentlemen and pages of
+his household, arrayed as persons of the first quality, and, in that
+respect, rather exceeding than falling short of the Duke in personal
+splendour. But his antechamber, in particular, might be compared to a
+gathering of eagles to the slaughter, were not the simile too dignified
+to express that vile race, who, by a hundred devices all tending to one
+common end, live upon the wants of needy greatness, or administer to
+the pleasures of summer-teeming luxury, or stimulate the wild wishes
+of lavish and wasteful extravagance, by devising new modes and fresh
+motives of profusion. There stood the projector, with his mysterious
+brow, promising unbounded wealth to whomsoever might choose to furnish
+the small preliminary sum necessary to change egg-shells into the
+great _arcanum_. There was Captain Seagull, undertaker for a foreign
+settlement, with the map under his arm of Indian or American kingdoms,
+beautiful as the primitive Eden, waiting the bold occupants, for whom
+a generous patron should equip two brigantines and a fly-boat. Thither
+came, fast and frequent, the gamesters, in their different forms and
+calling. This, light, young, gay in appearance, the thoughtless youth of
+wit and pleasure--the pigeon rather than the rook--but at heart the
+same sly, shrewd, cold-blooded calculator, as yonder old hard-featured
+professor of the same science, whose eyes are grown dim with watching
+of the dice at midnight; and whose fingers are even now assisting his
+mental computation of chances and of odds. The fine arts, too--I would
+it were otherwise--have their professors amongst this sordid train.
+The poor poet, half ashamed, in spite of habit, of the part which he
+is about to perform, and abashed by consciousness at once of his
+base motive and his shabby black coat, lurks in yonder corner for the
+favourable moment to offer his dedication. Much better attired, the
+architect presents his splendid vision of front and wings, and designs
+a palace, the expense of which may transfer his employer to a jail. But
+uppermost of all, the favourite musician, or singer, who waits on my
+lord to receive, in solid gold, the value of the dulcet sounds which
+solaced the banquet of the preceding evening.
+
+Such, and many such like, were the morning attendants of the Duke of
+Buckingham--all genuine descendants of the daughter of the horse-leech,
+whose cry is “Give, give.”
+
+But the levee of his Grace contained other and very different
+characters; and was indeed as various as his own opinions and pursuits.
+Besides many of the young nobility and wealthy gentry of England, who
+made his Grace the glass at which they dressed themselves for the day,
+and who learned from him how to travel, with the newest and best
+grace, the general Road to Ruin; there were others of a graver
+character--discarded statesmen, political spies, opposition orators,
+servile tools of administration, men who met not elsewhere, but who
+regarded the Duke’s mansion as a sort of neutral ground; sure, that if
+he was not of their opinion to-day, this very circumstance rendered it
+most likely he should think with them to-morrow. The Puritans themselves
+did not shun intercourse with a man whose talents must have rendered
+him formidable, even if they had not been united with high rank and
+an immense fortune. Several grave personages, with black suits, short
+cloaks, and band-strings of a formal cut, were mingled, as we see their
+portraits in a gallery of paintings, among the gallants who ruffled
+in silk and embroidery. It is true, they escaped the scandal of being
+thought intimates of the Duke, by their business being supposed to refer
+to money matters. Whether these grave and professing citizens mixed
+politics with money lending, was not known; but it had been long
+observed, that the Jews, who in general confine themselves to the latter
+department, had become for some time faithful attendants at the Duke’s
+levee.
+
+It was high-tide in the antechamber, and had been so for more than an
+hour, ere the Duke’s gentleman-in-ordinary ventured into his bedchamber,
+carefully darkened, so as to make midnight at noonday, to know his
+Grace’s pleasure. His soft and serene whisper, in which he asked whether
+it were his Grace’s pleasure to rise, was briefly and sharply answered
+by the counter questions, “Who waits?--What’s o’clock?”
+
+“It is Jerningham, your Grace,” said the attendant. “It is one,
+afternoon; and your Grace appointed some of the people without at
+eleven.”
+
+“Who are they?--What do they want?”
+
+“A message from Whitehall, your Grace.”
+
+“Pshaw! it will keep cold. Those who make all others wait, will be the
+better of waiting in their turn. Were I to be guilty of ill-breeding, it
+should rather be to a king than a beggar.”
+
+“The gentlemen from the city.”
+
+“I am tired of them--tired of their all cant, and no religion--all
+Protestantism, and no charity. Tell them to go to Shaftesbury--to
+Aldersgate Street with them--that’s the best market for their wares.”
+
+“Jockey, my lord, from Newmarket.”
+
+“Let him ride to the devil--he has horse of mine, and spurs of his own.
+Any more?”
+
+“The whole antechamber is full, my lord--knights and squires, doctors
+and dicers.”
+
+“The dicers, with their doctors[*] in their pockets, I presume.”
+
+     [*] Doctor, a cant name for false dice.
+
+“Counts, captains, and clergymen.”
+
+“You are alliterative, Jerningham,” said the Duke; “and that is a proof
+you are poetical. Hand me my writing things.”
+
+Getting half out of bed--thrusting one arm into a brocade nightgown,
+deeply furred with sables, and one foot into a velvet slipper, while the
+other pressed in primitive nudity the rich carpet--his Grace, without
+thinking farther on the assembly without, began to pen a few lines of
+a satirical poem; then suddenly stopped--threw the pen into the
+chimney--exclaimed that the humour was past--and asked his attendant if
+there were any letters. Jerningham produced a huge packet.
+
+“What the devil!” said his Grace, “do you think I will read all these? I
+am like Clarence, who asked a cup of wine, and was soused into a butt of
+sack. I mean, is there anything which presses?”
+
+“This letter, your Grace,” said Jerningham, “concerning the Yorkshire
+mortgage.”
+
+“Did I not bid thee carry it to old Gatheral, my steward?”
+
+“I did, my lord,” answered the other; “but Gatheral says there are
+difficulties.”
+
+“Let the usurers foreclose, then--there is no difficulty in that; and
+out of a hundred manors I shall scarce miss one,” answered the Duke.
+“And hark ye, bring me my chocolate.”
+
+“Nay, my lord, Gatheral does not say it is impossible--only difficult.”
+
+“And what is the use of him, if he cannot make it easy? But you are all
+born to make difficulties,” replied the Duke.
+
+“Nay, if your Grace approves the terms in this schedule, and pleases to
+sign it, Gatheral will undertake for the matter,” answered Jerningham.
+
+“And could you not have said so at first, you blockhead?” said the Duke,
+signing the paper without looking at the contents--“What other letters?
+And remember, I must be plagued with no more business.”
+
+“Billets-doux, my lord--five or six of them. This left at the porter’s
+lodge by a vizard mask.”
+
+“Pshaw!” answered the Duke, tossing them over, while his attendant
+assisted in dressing him--“an acquaintance of a quarter’s standing.”
+
+“This given to one of the pages by my Lady ----‘s waiting-woman.”
+
+“Plague on it--a Jeremiade on the subject of perjury and treachery, and
+not a single new line to the old tune,” said the Duke, glancing over the
+billet. “Here is the old cant--_cruel man--broken vows--Heaven’s just
+revenge_. Why, the woman is thinking of murder--not of love. No one
+should pretend to write upon so threadbare a topic without having at
+least some novelty of expression. _The despairing Araminta_--Lie there,
+fair desperate. And this--how comes it?”
+
+“Flung into the window of the hall, by a fellow who ran off at full
+speed,” answered Jerningham.
+
+“This is a better text,” said the Duke; “and yet it is an old one
+too--three weeks old at least--The little Countess with the jealous
+lord--I should not care a farthing for her, save for that same jealous
+lord--Plague on’t, and he’s gone down to the country--_this evening--in
+silence and safety--written with a quill pulled from the wing of
+Cupid_--Your ladyship has left him pen-feathers enough to fly away
+with--better clipped his wings when you had caught him, my lady--And
+_so confident of her Buckingham’s faith_,--I hate confidence in a young
+person. She must be taught better--I will not go.”
+
+“You Grace will not be so cruel!” said Jerningham.
+
+“Thou art a compassionate fellow, Jerningham; but conceit must be
+punished.”
+
+“But if your lordship should resume your fancy for her?”
+
+“Why, then, you must swear the billet-doux miscarried,” answered the
+Duke. “And stay, a thought strikes me--it shall miscarry in great style.
+Hark ye--Is--what is the fellow’s name--the poet--is he yonder?”
+
+“There are six gentlemen, sir, who, from the reams of paper in their
+pocket, and the threadbare seams at their elbows, appear to wear the
+livery of the Muses.”
+
+“Poetical once more, Jerningham. He, I mean, who wrote the last
+lampoon,” said the Duke.
+
+“To whom your Grace said you owed five pieces and a beating!” replied
+Jerningham.
+
+“The money for his satire, and the cudgel for his praise--Good--find
+him--give him the five pieces, and thrust the Countess’s
+billet-doux--Hold--take Araminta’s and the rest of them--thrust them all
+into his portfolio--All will come out at the Wit’s Coffee-house; and if
+the promulgator be not cudgelled into all the colours of the rainbow,
+there is no spite in woman, no faith in crabtree, or pith in heart
+of oak--Araminta’s wrath alone would overburden one pair of mortal
+shoulders.”
+
+“But, my Lord Duke,” said his attendant, “this Settle[*] is so dull a
+rascal, that nothing he can write will take.”
+
+[*] Elkana Settle, the unworthy scribbler whom the envy of Rochester
+    and others tried to raise to public estimation, as a rival to
+    Dryden; a circumstance which has been the means of elevating him
+    to a very painful species of immortality.
+
+“Then as we have given him steel to head the arrow,” said the Duke, “we
+will give him wings to waft it with--wood, he has enough of his own to
+make a shaft or bolt of. Hand me my own unfinished lampoon--give it to
+him with the letters--let him make what he can of them all.”
+
+“My Lord Duke--I crave pardon--but your Grace’s style will be
+discovered; and though the ladies’ names are not at the letters, yet
+they will be traced.”
+
+“I would have it so, you blockhead. Have you lived with me so long, and
+cannot discover that the éclat of an intrigue is, with me, worth all the
+rest of it?”
+
+“But the danger, my Lord Duke?” replied Jerningham. “There are husbands,
+brothers, friends, whose revenge may be awakened.”
+
+“And beaten to sleep again,” said Buckingham haughtily. “I have Black
+Will and his cudgel for plebeian grumblers; and those of quality I can
+deal with myself. I lack breathing and exercise of late.”
+
+“But yet your Grace----”
+
+“Hold your peace, fool! I tell you that your poor dwarfish spirit cannot
+measure the scope of mine. I tell thee I would have the course of my
+life a torrent--I am weary of easy achievements, and wish for obstacles,
+that I can sweep before my irresistible course.”
+
+Another gentleman now entered the apartment. “I humbly crave your
+Grace’s pardon,” he said; “but Master Christian is so importunate for
+admission instantly, that I am obliged to take your Grace’s pleasure.”
+
+“Tell him to call three hours hence. Damn his politic pate, that would
+make all men dance after his pipe!”
+
+“I thank thee for the compliment, my Lord Duke,” said Christian,
+entering the apartment in somewhat a more courtly garb, but with the
+same unpretending and undistinguished mien, and in the same placid
+and indifferent manner with which he had accosted Julian Peveril upon
+different occasions during his journey to London. “It is precisely my
+present object to pipe to you; and you may dance to your own profit, if
+you will.”
+
+“On my word, Master Christian,” said the Duke haughtily, “the affair
+should be weighty, that removes ceremony so entirely from betwixt us. If
+it relates to the subject of our last conversation, I must request our
+interview be postponed to some farther opportunity. I am engaged in an
+affair of some weight.” Then turning his back on Christian, he went on
+with his conversation with Jerningham. “Find the person you wot of,
+and give him the papers; and hark ye, give him this gold to pay for the
+shaft of his arrow--the steel-head and peacock’s wing we have already
+provided.”
+
+“This is all well, my lord,” said Christian calmly, and taking his seat
+at the same time in an easy-chair at some distance; “but your Grace’s
+levity is no match for my equanimity. It is necessary I should speak
+with you; and I will await your Grace’s leisure in the apartment.”
+
+“_Very well_, sir,” said the Duke peevishly; “if an evil is to be
+undergone, the sooner it is over the better--I can take measures to
+prevent its being renewed. So let me hear your errand without farther
+delay.”
+
+“I will wait till your Grace’s toilette is completed,” said Christian,
+with the indifferent tone which was natural to him. “What I have to say
+must be between ourselves.”
+
+“Begone, Jerningham; and remain without till I call. Leave my doublet on
+the couch.--How now, I have worn this cloth of silver a hundred times.”
+
+“Only twice, if it please your Grace,” replied Jerningham.
+
+“As well twenty times--keep it for yourself, or give it to my valet, if
+you are too proud of your gentility.”
+
+“Your Grace has made better men than me wear your cast clothes,” said
+Jerningham submissively.
+
+“Thou art sharp, Jerningham,” said the Duke--“in one sense I have, and
+I may again. So now, that pearl-coloured will do with the ribbon and
+George. Get away with thee.--And now that he is gone, Master Christian,
+may I once more crave your pleasure?”
+
+“My Lord Duke,” said Christian, “you are a worshipper of difficulties in
+state affairs, as in love matters.”
+
+“I trust you have been no eavesdropper, Master Christian,” replied the
+Duke; “it scarce argues the respect due to me, or to my roof.”
+
+“I know not what you mean, my lord,” replied Christian.
+
+“Nay, I care not if the whole world heard what I said but now to
+Jerningham. But to the matter,” replied the Duke of Buckingham.
+
+“Your Grace is so much occupied with conquests over the fair and over
+the witty, that you have perhaps forgotten what a stake you have in the
+little Island of Man.”
+
+“Not a whit, Master Christian. I remember well enough that my
+roundheaded father-in-law, Fairfax, had the island from the Long
+Parliament; and was ass enough to quit hold of it at the Restoration,
+when, if he had closed his clutches, and held fast, like a true bird of
+prey, as he should have done, he might have kept it for him and his.
+It had been a rare thing to have had a little kingdom--made laws of
+my own--had my Chamberlain with his white staff--I would have taught
+Jerningham, in half a day, to look as wise, walk as stiffly, and speak
+as silly, as Harry Bennet.”
+
+“You might have done this, and more, if it had pleased your Grace.”
+
+“Ay, and if it had pleased my Grace, thou, Ned Christian, shouldst have
+been the Jack Ketch of my dominions.”
+
+“_I_ your Jack Ketch, my lord?” said Christian, more in a tone of
+surprise than of displeasure.
+
+“Why, ay; thou hast been perpetually intriguing against the life of
+yonder poor old woman. It were a kingdom to thee to gratify thy spleen
+with thy own hands.”
+
+“I only seek justice against the Countess,” said Christian.
+
+“And the end of justice is always a gibbet,” said the Duke.
+
+“Be it so,” answered Christian. “Well, the Countess is in the Plot.”
+
+“The devil confound the Plot, as I believe he first invented it!” said
+the Duke of Buckingham; “I have heard of nothing else for months. If one
+must go to hell, I would it were by some new road, and in gentlemen’s
+company. I should not like to travel with Oates, Bedloe, and the rest of
+that famous cloud of witnesses.”
+
+“Your Grace is then resolved to forego all the advantages which may
+arise? If the House of Derby fall under forfeiture, the grant to
+Fairfax, now worthily represented by your Duchess, revives, and you
+become the Lord and Sovereign of Man.”
+
+“In right of a woman,” said the Duke; “but, in troth, my godly dame owes
+me some advantage for having lived the first year of our marriage with
+her and old Black Tom, her grim, fighting, puritanic father. A man might
+as well have married the Devil’s daughter, and set up housekeeping with
+his father-in-law.” [*]
+
+[*] Mary, daughter of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, was wedded to the Duke of
+    Buckingham, whose versatility made him capable of rendering
+    himself for a time as agreeable to his father-in-law, though a
+    rigid Presbyterian, as to the gay Charles II.
+
+“I understand you are willing, then, to join your interest for a heave
+at the House of Derby, my Lord Duke?”
+
+“As they are unlawfully possessed of my wife’s kingdom, they certainly
+can expect no favour at my hand. But thou knowest there is an interest
+at Whitehall predominant over mine.”
+
+“That is only by your Grace’s sufferance,” said Christian.
+
+“No, no; I tell thee a hundred times, no,” said the Duke, rousing
+himself to anger at the recollection. “I tell thee that base courtezan,
+the Duchess of Portsmouth, hath impudently set herself to thwart and
+contradict me; and Charles has given me both cloudy looks and hard words
+before the Court. I would he could but guess what is the offence between
+her and me! I would he knew but that! But I will have her plumes picked,
+or my name is not Villiers. A worthless French fille-de-joie to brave me
+thus!--Christian, thou art right; there is no passion so spirit-stirring
+as revenge. I will patronise the Plot, if it be but to spite her, and
+make it impossible for the King to uphold her.”
+
+As the Duke spoke, he gradually wrought himself into a passion, and
+traversed the apartment with as much vehemence as if the only object he
+had on earth was to deprive the Duchess of her power and favour with the
+King. Christian smiled internally to see him approach the state of mind
+in which he was most easily worked upon, and judiciously kept silence,
+until the Duke called out to him, in a pet, “Well, Sir Oracle, you that
+have laid so many schemes to supplant this she-wolf of Gaul, where are
+all your contrivances now?--Where is the exquisite beauty who was to
+catch the Sovereign’s eye at the first glance?--Chiffinch, hath he
+seen her?--and what does he say, that exquisite critic in beauty and
+blank-mange, women and wine?”
+
+“He has _seen_ and approves, but has not yet heard her; and her speech
+answers to all the rest. We came here yesterday; and to-day I intend to
+introduce Chiffinch to her, the instant he arrives from the country; and
+I expect him every hour. I am but afraid of the damsel’s peevish virtue,
+for she hath been brought up after the fashion of our grandmothers--our
+mothers had better sense.”
+
+“What! so fair, so young, so quick-witted, and so difficult?” said the
+Duke. “By your leave, you shall introduce me as well as Chiffinch.”
+
+“That your Grace may cure her of her intractable modesty?” said
+Christian.
+
+“Why,” replied the Duke, “it will but teach her to stand in her own
+light. Kings do not love to court and sue; they should have their game
+run down for them.”
+
+“Under your Grace’s favour,” said Christian, “this cannot be--_Non
+omnibus dormio_--Your Grace knows the classic allusion. If this maiden
+become a Prince’s favourite, rank gilds the shame and the sin. But to
+any under Majesty, she must not vail topsail.”
+
+“Why, thou suspicious fool, I was but in jest,” said the Duke. “Do you
+think I would interfere to spoil a plan so much to my own advantage as
+that which you have laid before me?”
+
+Christian smiled and shook his head. “My lord,” he said, “I know your
+Grace as well, or better, perhaps, than you know yourself. To spoil a
+well-concerted intrigue by some cross stroke of your own, would give you
+more pleasure, than to bring it to a successful termination according to
+the plans of others. But Shaftesbury, and all concerned, have determined
+that our scheme shall at least have fair play. We reckon, therefore, on
+your help; and--forgive me when I say so--we will not permit ourselves
+to be impeded by your levity and fickleness of purpose.”
+
+“Who?--I light and fickle of purpose?” said the Duke. “You see me here
+as resolved as any of you, to dispossess the mistress, and to carry on
+the plot; these are the only two things I live for in this world. No one
+can play the man of business like me, when I please, to the very filing
+and labelling of my letters. I am regular as a scrivener.”
+
+“You have Chiffinch’s letter from the country; he told me he had written
+to you about some passages betwixt him and the young Lord Saville.”
+
+“He did so--he did so,” said the Duke, looking among his letters; “but
+I see not his letter just now--I scarcely noted the contents--I was busy
+when it came--but I have it safely.”
+
+“You should have acted on it,” answered Christian. “The fool suffered
+himself to be choused out of his secret, and prayed you to see that my
+lord’s messenger got not to the Duchess with some despatches which he
+sent up from Derbyshire, betraying our mystery.”
+
+The Duke was now alarmed, and rang the bell hastily. Jerningham
+appeared. “Where is the letter I had from Master Chiffinch some hours
+since?”
+
+“If it be not amongst those your Grace has before you, I know nothing of
+it,” said Jerningham. “I saw none such arrive.”
+
+“You lie, you rascal,” said Buckingham; “have you a right to remember
+better than I do?”
+
+“If your Grace will forgive me reminding you, you have scarce opened a
+letter this week,” said his gentleman.
+
+“Did you ever hear such a provoking rascal?” said the Duke. “He might
+be a witness in the Plot. He has knocked my character for regularity
+entirely on the head with his damned counter-evidence.”
+
+“Your Grace’s talent and capacity will at least remain unimpeached,”
+ said Christian; “and it is those that must serve yourself and your
+friends. If I might advise, you will hasten to Court, and lay some
+foundation for the impression we wish to make. If your Grace can take
+the first word, and throw out a hint to crossbite Saville, it will be
+well. But above all, keep the King’s ear employed, which no one can do
+so well as you. Leave Chiffinch to fill his heart with a proper object.
+Another thing is, there is a blockhead of an old Cavalier, who must
+needs be a bustler in the Countess of Derby’s behalf--he is fast in
+hold, with the whole tribe of witnesses at his haunches.”
+
+“Nay, then, take him, Topham.”
+
+“Topham has taken him already, my lord,” said Christian; “and there is,
+besides, a young gallant, a son of the said Knight, who was bred in the
+household of the Countess of Derby, and who has brought letters from her
+to the Provincial of the Jesuits, and others in London.”
+
+“What are their names?” said the Duke dryly.
+
+“Sir Geoffrey Peveril of Martindale Castle, in Derbyshire, and his son
+Julian.”
+
+“What! Peveril of the Peak?” said the Duke,--“a stout old Cavalier as
+ever swore an oath.--A Worcester-man, too--and, in truth, a man of all
+work, when blows were going. I will not consent to his ruin, Christian.
+These fellows must be flogged of such false scents--flogged in every
+sense, they must, and will be, when the nation comes to its eyesight
+again.”
+
+“It is of more than the last importance, in the meantime, to the
+furtherance of our plan,” said Christian, “that your Grace should stand
+for a space between them and the King’s favour. The youth hath influence
+with the maiden, which we should find scarce favourable to our views;
+besides, her father holds him as high as he can any one who is no such
+puritanic fool as himself.”
+
+“Well, most Christian Christian,” said the Duke, “I have heard your
+commands at length. I will endeavour to stop the earths under the
+throne, that neither the lord, knight, nor squire in question, shall
+find it possible to burrow there. For the fair one, I must leave
+Chiffinch and you to manage her introduction to her high destinies,
+since I am not to be trusted. Adieu, most Christian Christian.”
+
+He fixed his eyes on him, and then exclaimed, as he shut the door of the
+apartment,--“Most profligate and damnable villain! And what provokes
+me most of all, is the knave’s composed insolence. Your Grace will
+do this--and your Grace will condescend to do that--A pretty puppet
+I should be, to play the second part, or rather the third, in such a
+scheme! No, they shall all walk according to my purpose, or I will cross
+them. I will find this girl out in spite of them, and judge if their
+scheme is likely to be successful. If so, she shall be mine--mine
+entirely, before she becomes the King’s; and I will command her who is
+to guide Charles.--Jerningham” (his gentleman entered), “cause Christian
+to be dogged where-ever he goes, for the next four-and-twenty hours, and
+find out where he visits a female newly come to town.--You smile, you
+knave?”
+
+“I did but suspect a fresh rival to Araminta and the little Countess,”
+ said Jerningham.
+
+“Away to your business, knave,” said the Duke, “and let me think of
+mine.--To subdue a Puritan in Esse--a King’s favourite in Posse--the
+very muster of western beauties--that is point first. The impudence of
+this Manx mongrel to be corrected--the pride of Madame la Duchesse to be
+pulled down--and important state intrigue to be farthered, or baffled,
+as circumstances render most to my own honour and glory--I wished for
+business but now, and I have got enough of it. But Buckingham will keep
+his own steerage-way through shoal and through weather.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+            ----Mark you this, Bassanio--
+            The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose.
+                                       --MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+
+After leaving the proud mansion of the Duke of Buckingham, Christian,
+full of the deep and treacherous schemes which he meditated, hastened
+to the city, where, in a decent inn, kept by a person of his own
+persuasion, he had been unexpectedly summoned to meet with Ralph
+Bridgenorth of Moultrassie. He was not disappointed--the Major had
+arrived that morning, and anxiously expected him. The usual gloom of his
+countenance was darkened into a yet deeper shade of anxiety, which
+was scarcely relieved, even while, in answer to his inquiry after his
+daughter, Christian gave the most favourable account of her health and
+spirits, naturally and unaffectedly intermingled with such praises of
+her beauty and her disposition, as were likely to be most grateful to a
+father’s ear.
+
+But Christian had too much cunning to expatiate on this theme,
+however soothing. He stopped short exactly at the point where, as an
+affectionate relative, he might be supposed to have said enough. “The
+lady,” he said, “with whom he had placed Alice, was delighted with her
+aspect and manners, and undertook to be responsible for her health and
+happiness. He had not, he said, deserved so little confidence at the
+hand of his brother, Bridgenorth, as that the Major should, contrary
+to his purpose, and to the plan which they had adjusted together, have
+hurried up from the country, as if his own presence were necessary for
+Alice’s protection.”
+
+“Brother Christian,” said Bridgenorth in reply, “I must see my child--I
+must see this person with whom she is entrusted.”
+
+“To what purpose?” answered Christian. “Have you not often confessed
+that the over excess of the carnal affection which you have entertained
+for your daughter, hath been a snare to you?--Have you not, more than
+once, been on the point of resigning those great designs which should
+place righteousness as a counsellor beside the throne, because you
+desired to gratify your daughter’s girlish passion for this descendant
+of your old persecutor--this Julian Peveril?”
+
+“I own it,” said Bridgenorth; “and worlds would I have given, and would
+yet give, to clasp that youth to my bosom, and call him my son. The
+spirit of his mother looks from his eye, and his stately step is as that
+of his father, when he daily spoke comfort to me in my distress, and
+said, ‘The child liveth.’”
+
+“But the youth walks,” said Christian, “after his own lights, and
+mistakes the meteor of the marsh for the Polar star. Ralph Bridgenorth,
+I will speak to thee in friendly sincerity. Thou must not think to
+serve both the good cause and Baal. Obey, if thou wilt, thine own carnal
+affections, summon this Julian Peveril to thy house, and let him wed thy
+daughter--But mark the reception she will meet with from the proud old
+knight, whose spirit is now, even now, as little broken with his chains,
+as after the sword of the Saints had prevailed at Worcester. Thou wilt
+see thy daughter spurned from his feet like an outcast.”
+
+“Christian,” said Bridgenorth, interrupting him, “thou dost urge me
+hard; but thou dost it in love, my brother, and I forgive thee--Alice
+shall never be spurned.--But this friend of thine--this lady--thou
+art my child’s uncle; and after me, thou art next to her in love and
+affection--Still, thou art not her father--hast not her father’s
+fears. Art thou sure of the character of this woman to whom my child is
+entrusted?”
+
+“Am I sure of my own?--Am I sure that my name is Christian--yours
+Bridgenorth?--Is it a thing I am likely to be insecure in?--Have I not
+dwelt for many years in this city?--Do I not know this Court?--And am I
+likely to be imposed upon? For I will not think you can fear my imposing
+upon you.”
+
+“Thou art my brother,” said Bridgenorth--“the blood and bone of my
+departed Saint--and I am determined that I will trust thee in this
+matter.”
+
+“Thou dost well,” said Christian; “and who knows what reward may be in
+store for thee?--I cannot look upon Alice, but it is strongly borne in
+on my mind, that there will be work for a creature so excellent beyond
+ordinary women. Courageous Judith freed Bethulia by her valour, and
+the comely features of Esther made her a safeguard and a defence to her
+people in the land of captivity, when she found favour in the sight of
+King Ahasuerus.”
+
+“Be it with her as Heaven wills,” said Bridgenorth; “and now tell me
+what progress there is in the great work.”
+
+“The people are weary of the iniquity of this Court,” said Christian;
+“and if this man will continue to reign, it must be by calling to
+his councils men of another stamp. The alarm excited by the damnable
+practices of the Papists has called up men’s souls, and awakened their
+eyes to the dangers of their state.--He himself--for he will give up
+brother and wife to save himself--is not averse to a change of measures;
+and though we cannot at first see the Court purged as with a winnowing
+fan, yet there will be enough of the good to control the bad--enough of
+the sober party to compel the grant of that universal toleration, for
+which we have sighed so long, as a maiden for her beloved. Time and
+opportunity will lead the way to more thorough reformation; and that
+will be done without stroke of sword, which our friends failed to
+establish on a sure foundation, even when their victorious blades were
+in their hands.”
+
+“May God grant it!” said Bridgenorth; “for I fear me I should scruple
+to do aught which should once more unsheath the civil sword; but welcome
+all that comes in a peaceful and parliamentary way.”
+
+“Ay,” said Christian, “and which will bring with it the bitter amends,
+which our enemies have so long merited at our hands. How long hath our
+brother’s blood cried for vengeance from the altar!--Now shall that
+cruel Frenchwoman find that neither lapse of years, nor her powerful
+friends, nor the name of Stanley, nor the Sovereignty of Man, shall stop
+the stern course of the pursuer of blood. Her name shall be struck from
+the noble, and her heritage shall another take.”
+
+“Nay, but, brother Christian,” said Bridgenorth, “art thou not over
+eager in pursuing this thing?--It is thy duty as a Christian to forgive
+thine enemies.”
+
+“Ay, but not the enemies of Heaven--not those who shed the blood of
+the saints,” said Christian, his eyes kindling that vehement and fiery
+expression which at times gave to his uninteresting countenance the
+only character of passion which it ever exhibited. “No, Bridgenorth,”
+ he continued, “I esteem this purpose of revenge holy--I account it a
+propitiatory sacrifice for what may have been evil in my life. I have
+submitted to be spurned by the haughty--I have humbled myself to be as
+a servant; but in my breast was the proud thought, I who do this--do it
+that I may avenge my brother’s blood.”
+
+“Still, my brother,” said Bridgenorth, “although I participate thy
+purpose, and have aided thee against this Moabitish woman, I cannot but
+think thy revenge is more after the law of Moses than after the law of
+love.”
+
+“This comes well from thee, Ralph Bridgenorth,” answered Christian;
+“from thee, who has just smiled over the downfall of thine own enemy.”
+
+“If you mean Sir Geoffrey Peveril,” said Bridgenorth, “I smile not on
+his ruin. It is well he is abased; but if it lies with me, I may humble
+his pride, but will never ruin his house.”
+
+“You know your purpose best,” said Christian; “and I do justice, brother
+Bridgenorth, to the purity of your principles; but men who see with
+but worldly eyes, would discern little purpose of mercy in the strict
+magistrate and severe creditor--and such have you been to Peveril.”
+
+“And, brother Christian,” said Bridgenorth, his colour rising as he
+spoke, “neither do I doubt your purpose, nor deny the surprising address
+with which you have procured such perfect information concerning the
+purposes of yonder woman of Ammon. But it is free to me to think, that
+in your intercourse with the Court, and with courtiers, you may, in your
+carnal and worldly policy, sink the value of those spiritual gifts, for
+which you were once so much celebrated among the brethren.”
+
+“Do not apprehend it,” said Christian, recovering his temper, which
+had been a little ruffled by the previous discussion. “Let us but work
+together as heretofore; and I trust each of us shall be found doing
+the work of a faithful servant to that good old cause for which we have
+heretofore drawn the sword.”
+
+So saying, he took his hat, and bidding Bridgenorth farewell, declared
+his intention of returning in the evening.
+
+“Fare thee well!” said Bridgenorth; “to that cause wilt thou find me
+ever a true and devoted adherent. I will act by that counsel of
+thine, and will not even ask thee--though it may grieve my heart as a
+parent--with whom, or where, thou hast entrusted my child. I will try to
+cut off, and cast from me, even my right hand, and my right eye; but for
+thee, Christian, if thou dost deal otherwise than prudently and honestly
+in this matter, it is what God and man will require at thy hand.”
+
+“Fear not me,” said Christian hastily, and left the place, agitated by
+reflections of no pleasant kind.
+
+“I ought to have persuaded him to return,” he said, as he stepped out
+into the street. “Even his hovering in this neighbourhood may spoil the
+plan on which depends the rise of my fortunes--ay, and of his child’s.
+Will men say I have ruined her, when I shall have raised her to the
+dazzling height of the Duchess of Portsmouth, and perhaps made her
+a mother to a long line of princes? Chiffinch hath vouched for
+opportunity; and the voluptuary’s fortune depends upon his gratifying
+the taste of his master for variety. If she makes an impression, it must
+be a deep one; and once seated in his affections, I fear not her being
+supplanted.--What will her father say? Will he, like a prudent man, put
+his shame in his pocket, because it is well gilded? or will he think it
+fitting to make a display of moral wrath and parental frenzy? I fear the
+latter--He has ever kept too strict a course to admit his conniving at
+such licence. But what will his anger avail?--I need not be seen in the
+matter--those who are will care little for the resentment of a country
+Puritan. And after all, what I am labouring to bring about is best for
+himself, the wench, and above all, for me, Edward Christian.”
+
+With such base opiates did this unhappy wretch stifle his own
+conscience, while anticipating the disgrace of his friend’s family, and
+the ruin of a near relative, committed in confidence to his charge. The
+character of this man was of no common description; nor was it by an
+ordinary road that he had arrived at the present climax of unfeeling and
+infamous selfishness.
+
+Edward Christian, as the reader is aware, was the brother of that
+William Christian, who was the principal instrument in delivering up the
+Isle of Man to the Republic, and who became the victim of the Countess
+of Derby’s revenge on that account. Both had been educated as Puritans,
+but William was a soldier, which somewhat modified the strictness of
+his religious opinions; Edward, a civilian, seemed to entertain these
+principles in the utmost rigour. But it was only seeming. The exactness
+of deportment, which procured him great honour and influence among
+the _sober party_, as they were wont to term themselves, covered a
+voluptuous disposition, the gratification of which was sweet to him as
+stolen waters, and pleasant as bread eaten in secret. While, therefore,
+his seeming godliness brought him worldly gain, his secret pleasures
+compensated for his outward austerity; until the Restoration, and the
+Countess’s violent proceedings against his brother interrupted the
+course of both. He then fled from his native island, burning with the
+desire of revenging his brother’s death--the only passion foreign to
+his own gratification which he was ever known to cherish, and which was
+also, at least, partly selfish, since it concerned the restoration of
+his own fortunes.
+
+He found easy access to Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who, in right of
+his Duchess, claimed such of the Derby estate as had been bestowed
+by the Parliament on his celebrated father-in-law, Lord Fairfax. His
+influence at the Court of Charles, where a jest was a better plea than
+a long claim of faithful service, was so successfully exerted, as to
+contribute greatly to the depression of that loyal and ill-rewarded
+family. But Buckingham was incapable, even for his own interest, of
+pursuing the steady course which Christian suggested to him; and his
+vacillation probably saved the remnant of the large estates of the Earl
+of Derby.
+
+Meantime, Christian was too useful a follower to be dismissed. From
+Buckingham, and others of that stamp, he did not affect to conceal the
+laxity of his morals; but towards the numerous and powerful party to
+which he belonged, he was able to disguise them by a seeming gravity of
+exterior, which he never laid aside. Indeed, so wide and absolute was
+then the distinction betwixt the Court and the city, that a man might
+have for some time played two several parts, as in two different
+spheres, without its being discovered in the one that he exhibited
+himself in a different light in the other. Besides, when a man of talent
+shows himself an able and useful partisan, his party will continue to
+protect and accredit him, in spite of conduct the most contradictory to
+their own principles. Some facts are, in such cases, denied--some are
+glossed over--and party zeal is permitted to cover at least as many
+defects as ever doth charity.
+
+Edward Christian had often need of the partial indulgence of his
+friends; but he experienced it, for he was eminently useful. Buckingham,
+and other courtiers of the same class, however dissolute in their
+lives, were desirous of keeping some connection with the Dissenting
+or Puritanic party, as it was termed; thereby to strengthen themselves
+against their opponents at Court. In such intrigues, Christian was a
+notable agent; and at one time had nearly procured an absolute union
+between a class which professed the most rigid principles of religion
+and morality, and the latitudinarian courtiers, who set all principle at
+defiance.
+
+Amidst the vicissitudes of a life of intrigue, during which Buckingham’s
+ambitious schemes, and his own, repeatedly sent him across the Atlantic,
+it was Edward Christian’s boast that he never lost sight of his
+principal object,--revenge on the Countess of Derby. He maintained a
+close and intimate correspondence with his native island, so as to be
+perfectly informed of whatever took place there; and he stimulated,
+on every favourable opportunity, the cupidity of Buckingham to possess
+himself of this petty kingdom, by procuring the forfeiture of its
+present Lord. It was not difficult to keep his patron’s wild wishes
+alive on this topic, for his own mercurial imagination attached
+particular charms to the idea of becoming a sort of sovereign even
+in this little island; and he was, like Catiline, as covetous of the
+property of others, as he was profuse of his own.
+
+But it was not until the pretended discovery of the Papist Plot that the
+schemes of Christian could be brought to ripen; and then, so odious were
+the Catholics in the eyes of the credulous people of England, that, upon
+the accusation of the most infamous of mankind, common informers,
+the scourings of jails, and the refuse of the whipping-post, the most
+atrocious charges against persons of the highest rank and fairest
+character were readily received and credited.
+
+This was a period which Christian did not fail to improve. He drew close
+his intimacy with Bridgenorth, which had indeed never been interrupted,
+and readily engaged him in his schemes, which, in the eyes of his
+brother-in-law, were alike honourable and patriotic. But, while he
+flattered Bridgenorth with the achieving a complete reformation in the
+state--checking the profligacy of the Court--relieving the consciences
+of the Dissenters from the pressures of the penal laws--amending, in
+fine, the crying grievances of the time--while he showed him also,
+in prospect, revenge upon the Countess of Derby, and a humbling
+dispensation on the house of Peveril, from whom Bridgenorth had suffered
+such indignity, Christian did not neglect, in the meanwhile, to consider
+how he could best benefit himself by the confidence reposed in him by
+his unsuspicious relation.
+
+The extreme beauty of Alice Bridgenorth--the great wealth which time
+and economy had accumulated on her father--pointed her out as a most
+desirable match to repair the wasted fortunes of some of the followers
+of the Court; and he flattered himself that he could conduct such a
+negotiation so as to be in a high degree conducive to his own advantage.
+He found there would be little difficulty in prevailing on Major
+Bridgenorth to entrust him with the guardianship of his daughter. That
+unfortunate gentleman had accustomed himself, from the very period of
+her birth, to regard the presence of his child as a worldly indulgence
+too great to be allowed to him; and Christian had little trouble in
+convincing him that the strong inclination which he felt to bestow
+her on Julian Peveril, provided he could be brought over to his own
+political opinions, was a blameable compromise with his more severe
+principles. Late circumstances had taught him the incapacity and
+unfitness of Dame Debbitch for the sole charge of so dear a pledge; and
+he readily and thankfully embraced the kind offer of her maternal uncle,
+Christian, to place Alice under the protection of a lady of rank in
+London, whilst he himself was to be engaged in the scenes of bustle
+and blood, which, in common with all good Protestants, he expected
+was speedily to take place on a general rising of the Papists, unless
+prevented by the active and energetic measures of the good people
+of England. He even confessed his fears, that his partial regard for
+Alice’s happiness might enervate his efforts in behalf of his country;
+and Christian had little trouble in eliciting from him a promise, that
+he would forbear to inquire after her for some time.
+
+Thus certain of being the temporary guardian of his niece for a space
+long enough, he flattered himself, for the execution of his purpose,
+Christian endeavoured to pave the way by consulting Chiffinch, whose
+known skill in Court policy qualified him best as an adviser on this
+occasion. But this worthy person, being, in fact, a purveyor for his
+Majesty’s pleasures, and on that account high in his good graces,
+thought it fell within the line of his duty to suggest another scheme
+than that on which Christian consulted him. A woman of such exquisite
+beauty as Alice was described, he deemed more worthy to be a partaker of
+the affections of the merry Monarch, whose taste in female beauty was
+so exquisite, than to be made the wife of some worn-out prodigal of
+quality. And then, doing perfect justice to his own character, he felt
+it would not be one whit impaired, while his fortune would be, in every
+respect, greatly amended, if, after sharing the short reign of the
+Gwyns, the Davises, the Robertses, and so forth, Alice Bridgenorth
+should retire from the state of a royal favourite, into the humble
+condition of Mrs. Chiffinch.
+
+After cautiously sounding Christian, and finding that the near prospect
+of interest to himself effectually prevented his starting at this
+iniquitous scheme, Chiffinch detailed it to him fully, carefully keeping
+the final termination out of sight, and talking of the favour to be
+acquired by the fair Alice as no passing caprice, but the commencement
+of a reign as long and absolute as that of the Duchess of Portsmouth,
+of whose avarice and domineering temper Charles was now understood to
+be much tired, though the force of habit rendered him unequal to free
+himself of her yoke.
+
+Thus chalked out, the scene prepared was no longer the intrigue of a
+Court pander, and a villainous resolution for the ruin of an innocent
+girl, but became a state intrigue, for the removal of an obnoxious
+favourite, and the subsequent change of the King’s sentiments upon
+various material points, in which he was at present influenced by the
+Duchess of Portsmouth. In this light it was exhibited to the Duke of
+Buckingham, who, either to sustain his character for daring gallantry,
+or in order to gratify some capricious fancy, had at one time made love
+to the reigning favourite, and experienced a repulse which he had never
+forgiven.
+
+But one scheme was too little to occupy the active and enterprising
+spirit of the Duke. An appendix of the Popish Plot was easily so
+contrived as to involve the Countess of Derby, who, from character and
+religion, was precisely the person whom the credulous part of the public
+were inclined to suppose the likely accomplice of such a conspiracy.
+Christian and Bridgenorth undertook the perilous commission of attacking
+her even in her own little kingdom of Man, and had commissions for this
+purpose, which were only to be produced in case of their scheme taking
+effect.
+
+It miscarried, as the reader is aware, from the Countess’s alert
+preparations for defence; and neither Christian nor Bridgenorth held
+it sound policy to practise openly, even under parliamentary authority,
+against a lady so little liable to hesitate upon the measures most
+likely to secure her feudal sovereignty; wisely considering that
+even the omnipotence, as it has been somewhat too largely styled, of
+Parliament, might fail to relieve them from the personal consequences of
+a failure.
+
+On the continent of Britain, however, no opposition was to be feared;
+and so well was Christian acquainted with all the motions in the
+interior of the Countess’s little court, or household, that Peveril
+would have been arrested the instant he set foot on shore, but for the
+gale of wind which obliged the vessel, in which he was a passenger,
+to run for Liverpool. Here Christian, under the name of Ganlesse,
+unexpectedly met with him, and preserved him from the fangs of the
+well-breathed witnesses of the Plot, with the purpose of securing his
+despatches, or, if necessary, his person also, in such a manner as to
+place him at his own discretion--a narrow and perilous game, which
+he thought it better, however, to undertake, than to permit these
+subordinate agents, who were always ready to mutiny against all in
+league with them, to obtain the credit which they must have done by
+the seizure of the Countess of Derby’s despatches. It was, besides,
+essential to Buckingham’s schemes that these should not pass into the
+hands of a public officer like Topham, who, however pompous and stupid,
+was upright and well-intentioned, until they had undergone the revisal
+of a private committee, where something might have probably been
+suppressed, even supposing that nothing had been added. In short,
+Christian, in carrying on his own separate and peculiar intrigue, by the
+agency of the Great Popish Plot, as it was called, acted just like an
+engineer, who derives the principle of motion which turns his machinery,
+by means of a steam-engine, or large water-wheel, constructed to drive
+a separate and larger engine. Accordingly, he was determined that, while
+he took all the advantage he could from their supposed discoveries,
+no one should be admitted to tamper or interfere with his own plans of
+profit and revenge.
+
+Chiffinch, who, desirous of satisfying himself with his own eyes of that
+excellent beauty which had been so highly extolled, had gone down to
+Derbyshire on purpose, was infinitely delighted, when, during the course
+of a two hours’ sermon at the dissenting chapel in Liverpool, which
+afforded him ample leisure for a deliberate survey, he arrived at the
+conclusion that he had never seen a form or face more captivating. His
+eyes having confirmed what was told him, he hurried back to the little
+inn which formed their place of rendezvous, and there awaited Christian
+and his niece, with a degree of confidence in the success of their
+project which he had not before entertained; and with an apparatus of
+luxury, calculated, as he thought, to make a favourable impression on
+the mind of a rustic girl. He was somewhat surprised, when, instead
+of Alice Bridgenorth, to whom he expected that night to have been
+introduced, he found that Christian was accompanied by Julian Peveril.
+It was indeed a severe disappointment, for he had prevailed on his own
+indolence to venture this far from the Court, in order that he might
+judge, with his own paramount taste, whether Alice was really the
+prodigy which her uncle’s praises had bespoken her, and, as such, a
+victim worthy of the fate to which she was destined.
+
+A few words betwixt the worthy confederates determined them on the plan
+of stripping Peveril of the Countess’s despatches; Chiffinch absolutely
+refusing to take any share in arresting him, as a matter of which his
+Master’s approbation might be very uncertain.
+
+Christian had also his own reasons for abstaining from so decisive a
+step. It was by no means likely to be agreeable to Bridgenorth, whom
+it was necessary to keep in good humour;--it was not necessary, for the
+Countess’s despatches were of far more importance than the person of
+Julian. Lastly, it was superfluous in this respect also, that Julian
+was on the road to his father’s castle, where it was likely he would be
+seized, as a matter of course, along with the other suspicious persons
+who fell under Topham’s warrant, and the denunciations of his infamous
+companions. He, therefore, far from using any violence to Peveril,
+assumed towards him such a friendly tone, as might seem to warn him
+against receiving damage from others, and vindicate himself from having
+any share in depriving him of his charge. This last manoeuvre was
+achieved by an infusion of a strong narcotic into Julian’s wine; under
+the influence of which he slumbered so soundly, that the confederates
+were easily able to accomplish their inhospitable purpose.
+
+The events of the succeeding days are already known to the reader.
+Chiffinch set forward to return to London, with the packet, which it
+was desirable should be in Buckingham’s hands as soon as possible; while
+Christian went to Moultrassie, to receive Alice from her father, and
+convey her safely to London--his accomplice agreeing to defer his
+curiosity to see more of her until they should have arrived in that
+city.
+
+Before parting with Bridgenorth, Christian had exerted his utmost
+address to prevail on him to remain at Moultrassie; he had even
+overstepped the bounds of prudence, and, by his urgency, awakened some
+suspicions of an indefinite nature, which he found it difficult to
+allay. Bridgenorth, therefore, followed his brother-in-law to London;
+and the reader has already been made acquainted with the arts which
+Christian used to prevent his farther interference with the destinies
+of his daughter, or the unhallowed schemes of her ill-chosen guardian.
+Still Christian, as he strode along the street in profound reflection,
+saw that his undertaking was attended with a thousand perils; and the
+drops stood like beads on his brow when he thought of the presumptuous
+levity and fickle temper of Buckingham--the frivolity and intemperance
+of Chiffinch--the suspicions of the melancholy and bigoted, yet
+sagacious and honest Bridgenorth. “Had I,” he thought, “but tools
+fitted, each to their portion of the work, how easily could I heave
+asunder and disjoint the strength that opposes me! But with these frail
+and insufficient implements, I am in daily, hourly, momentary danger,
+that one lever or other gives way, and that the whole ruin recoils on
+my own head. And yet, were it not for those failings I complain of, how
+were it possible for me to have acquired that power over them all which
+constitutes them my passive tools, even when they seem most to exert
+their own free will? Yes, the bigots have some right when they affirm
+that all is for the best.”
+
+It may seem strange, that, amidst the various subjects of Christian’s
+apprehension, he was never visited by any long or permanent doubt that
+the virtue of his niece might prove the shoal on which his voyage should
+be wrecked. But he was an arrant rogue, as well as a hardened libertine;
+and, in both characters, a professed disbeliever in the virtue of the
+fair sex.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+            As for John Dryden’s Charles, I own that King
+            Was never any very mighty thing;
+            And yet he was a devilish honest fellow--
+            Enjoy’d his friend and bottle, and got mellow.
+                                               --DR. WOLOOT.
+
+London, the grand central point of intrigues of every description, had
+now attracted within its dark and shadowy region the greater number of
+the personages whom we have had occasion to mention.
+
+Julian Peveril, amongst others of the _dramatis personæ_, had arrived,
+and taken up his abode in a remote inn in the suburbs. His business, he
+conceived, was to remain incognito until he should have communicated in
+private with the friends who were most likely to lend assistance to
+his parents, as well as to his patroness, in their present situation
+of doubt and danger. Amongst these, the most powerful was the Duke of
+Ormond, whose faithful services, high rank, and acknowledged worth and
+virtue, still preserved an ascendancy in that very Court, where, in
+general, he was regarded as out of favour. Indeed, so much consciousness
+did Charles display in his demeanour towards that celebrated noble, and
+servant of his father, that Buckingham once took the freedom to ask the
+King whether the Duke of Ormond had lost his Majesty’s favour, or his
+Majesty the Duke’s? since, whenever they chanced to meet, the King
+appeared the more embarrassed of the two. But it was not Peveril’s
+good fortune to obtain the advice or countenance of this distinguished
+person. His Grace of Ormond was not at that time in London.
+
+The letter, about the delivery of which the Countess had seemed most
+anxious after that to the Duke of Ormond, was addressed to Captain
+Barstow (a Jesuit, whose real name was Fenwicke), to be found, or at
+least to be heard of, in the house of one Martin Christal in the Savoy.
+To this place hastened Peveril, upon learning the absence of the Duke of
+Ormond. He was not ignorant of the danger which he personally incurred,
+by thus becoming a medium of communication betwixt a Popish priest and a
+suspected Catholic. But when he undertook the perilous commission of his
+patroness, he had done so frankly, and with the unreserved resolution
+of serving her in the manner in which she most desired her affairs to
+be conducted. Yet he could not forbear some secret apprehension, when he
+felt himself engaged in the labyrinth of passages and galleries, which
+led to different obscure sets of apartments in the ancient building
+termed the Savoy.
+
+This antiquated and almost ruinous pile occupied a part of the site of
+the public offices in the Strand, commonly called Somerset House. The
+Savoy had been formerly a palace, and took its name from an Earl of
+Savoy, by whom it was founded. It had been the habitation of John of
+Gaunt, and various persons of distinction--had become a convent, an
+hospital, and finally, in Charles II.’s time, a waste of dilapidated
+buildings and ruinous apartments, inhabited chiefly by those who had
+some connection with, or dependence upon, the neighbouring palace of
+Somerset House, which, more fortunate than the Savoy, had still
+retained its royal title, and was the abode of a part of the Court, and
+occasionally of the King himself, who had apartments there.
+
+It was not without several inquiries, and more than one mistake, that,
+at the end of a long and dusky passage, composed of boards so wasted by
+time that they threatened to give way under his feet, Julian at
+length found the name of Martin Christal, broker and appraiser, upon a
+shattered door. He was about to knock, when some one pulled his cloak;
+and looking round, to his great astonishment, which indeed almost
+amounted to fear, he saw the little mute damsel, who had accompanied him
+for a part of the way on his voyage from the Isle of Man.
+
+“Fenella!” he exclaimed, forgetting that she could neither hear nor
+reply,--“Fenella! Can this be you?”
+
+Fenella, assuming the air of warning and authority, which she had
+heretofore endeavoured to adopt towards him, interposed betwixt Julian
+and the door at which he was about to knock--pointed with her finger
+towards it in a prohibiting manner, and at the same time bent her brows,
+and shook her head sternly.
+
+After a moment’s consideration, Julian could place but one
+interpretation upon Fenella’s appearance and conduct, and that was, by
+supposing her lady had come up to London, and had despatched this mute
+attendant, as a confidential person, to apprise him of some change of
+her intended operations, which might render the delivery of her letters
+to Barstow, _alias_ Fenwicke, superfluous, or perhaps dangerous. He made
+signs to Fenella, demanding to know whether she had any commission from
+the Countess. She nodded. “Had she any letter?” he continued, by the
+same mode of inquiry. She shook her head impatiently, and, walking
+hastily along the passage, made a signal to him to follow. He did
+so, having little doubt that he was about to be conducted into the
+Countess’s presence; but his surprise, at first excited by Fenella’s
+appearance, was increased by the rapidity and ease with which she seemed
+to track the dusky and decayed mazes of the dilapidated Savoy, equal to
+that with which he had seen her formerly lead the way through the gloomy
+vaults of Castle Rushin, in the Isle of Man.
+
+When he recollected, however, that Fenella had accompanied the Countess
+on a long visit to London, it appeared not improbable that she might
+then have acquired this local knowledge which seemed so accurate. Many
+foreigners, dependent on Queen or Queen Dowager, had apartments in the
+Savoy. Many Catholic priests also found refuge in its recesses, under
+various disguises, and in defiance of the severity of the laws against
+Popery. What was more likely than that the Countess of Derby, a Catholic
+and a Frenchwoman, should have had secret commissions amongst such
+people; and that the execution of such should be entrusted, at least
+occasionally, to Fenella?
+
+Thus reflecting, Julian continued to follow her light and active
+footsteps as she glided from the Strand to Spring-Garden, and thence
+into the Park.
+
+It was still early in the morning, and the Mall was untenanted, save by
+a few walkers, who frequented these shades for the wholesome purposes of
+air and exercise. Splendour, gaiety, and display, did not come forth, at
+that period, until noon was approaching. All readers have heard that the
+whole space where the Horse Guards are now built, made, in the time of
+Charles II., a part of St. James’s Park; and that the old building,
+now called the Treasury, was a part of the ancient Palace of Whitehall,
+which was thus immediately connected with the Park. The canal had been
+constructed, by the celebrated Le Notre, for the purpose of draining
+the Park; and it communicated with the Thames by a decoy, stocked with a
+quantity of the rarer waterfowl. It was towards this decoy that Fenella
+bent her way with unabated speed; and they were approaching a group of
+two or three gentlemen, who sauntered by its banks, when, on looking
+closely at him who appeared to be the chief of the party, Julian felt
+his heart beat uncommonly thick, as if conscious of approaching some one
+of the highest consequence.
+
+The person whom he looked upon was past the middle age of life, of
+a dark complexion, corresponding with the long, black, full-bottomed
+periwig, which he wore instead of his own hair. His dress was plain
+black velvet, with a diamond star, however, on his cloak, which hung
+carelessly over one shoulder. His features, strongly lined, even to
+harshness, had yet an expression of dignified good-humour; he was well
+and strongly built, walked upright and yet easily, and had upon the
+whole the air of a person of the highest consideration. He kept rather
+in advance of his companions, but turned and spoke to them, from time to
+time, with much affability, and probably with some liveliness, judging
+by the smiles, and sometimes the scarce restrained laughter, by which
+some of his sallies were received by his attendants. They also wore only
+morning dresses; but their looks and manner were those of men of rank,
+in presence of one in station still more elevated. They shared the
+attention of their principal in common with seven or eight little black
+curly-haired spaniels, or rather, as they are now called, cockers, which
+attended their master as closely, and perhaps with as deep sentiments of
+attachment, as the bipeds of the group; and whose gambols, which seemed
+to afford him much amusement, he sometimes checked, and sometimes
+encouraged. In addition to this pastime, a lackey, or groom, was also
+in attendance, with one or two little baskets and bags, from which the
+gentleman we have described took, from time to time, a handful of seeds,
+and amused himself with throwing them to the waterfowl.
+
+This the King’s favourite occupation, together with his remarkable
+countenance, and the deportment of the rest of the company towards him,
+satisfied Julian Peveril that he was approaching, perhaps indecorously,
+near the person of Charles Stewart, the second of that unhappy name.
+
+While he hesitated to follow his dumb guide any nearer, and felt the
+embarrassment of being unable to communicate to her his repugnance to
+further intrusion, a person in the royal retinue touched a light and
+lively air on the flageolet, at a signal from the King, who desired
+to have some tune repeated which had struck him in the theatre on the
+preceding evening. While the good-natured monarch marked time with his
+foot, and with the motion of his hand, Fenella continued to approach
+him, and threw into her manner the appearance of one who was attracted,
+as it were in spite of herself, by the sounds of the instrument.
+
+Anxious to know how this was to end, and astonished to see the dumb girl
+imitate so accurately the manner of one who actually heard the musical
+notes, Peveril also drew near, though at somewhat greater distance.
+
+The King looked good-humouredly at both, as if he admitted their musical
+enthusiasm as an excuse for their intrusion; but his eyes became riveted
+on Fenella, whose face and appearance, although rather singular than
+beautiful, had something in them wild, fantastic, and, as being so, even
+captivating, to an eye which had been gratified perhaps to satiety with
+the ordinary forms of female beauty. She did not appear to notice
+how closely she was observed; but, as if acting under an irresistible
+impulse, derived from the sounds to which she seemed to listen, she
+undid the bodkin round which her long tresses were winded, and flinging
+them suddenly over her slender person, as if using them as a natural
+veil, she began to dance, with infinite grace and agility, to the tune
+which the flageolet played.
+
+Peveril lost almost his sense of the King’s presence, when he observed
+with what wonderful grace and agility Fenella kept time to notes, which
+could only be known to her by the motions of the musician’s fingers.
+He had heard, indeed, among other prodigies, of a person in Fenella’s
+unhappy situation acquiring, by some unaccountable and mysterious
+tact, the power of acting as an instrumental musician, nay, becoming so
+accurate a performer as to be capable of leading a musical band; and he
+also heard of deaf and dumb persons dancing with sufficient accuracy, by
+observing the motions of their partner. But Fenella’s performance seemed
+more wonderful than either, since the musician was guided by his written
+notes, and the dancer by the motions of the others; whereas Fenella had
+no intimation, save what she seemed to gather, with infinite accuracy,
+by observing the motion of the artist’s fingers on his small instrument.
+
+As for the King, who was ignorant of the particular circumstances which
+rendered Fenella’s performance almost marvellous, he was contented, at
+her first commencement, to authorise what seemed to him the frolic
+of this singular-looking damsel, by a good-natured smile, but when he
+perceived the exquisite truth and justice, as well as the wonderful
+combination of grace and agility, with which she executed to this
+favourite air a dance which was perfectly new to him, Charles turned
+his mere acquiescence into something like enthusiastic applause. He bore
+time to her motions with the movement of his foot--applauded with head
+and with hand--and seemed, like herself, carried away by the enthusiasm
+of the gestic art.
+
+After a rapid yet graceful succession of _entrechats_, Fenella
+introduced a slow movement, which terminated the dance; then dropping
+a profound courtesy, she continued to stand motionless before the King,
+her arms folded on her bosom, her head stooped, and her eyes cast down,
+after the manner of an Oriental slave; while through the misty veil of
+her shadowy locks, it might be observed, that the colour which exercise
+had called to her cheeks was dying fast away, and resigning them to
+their native dusky hue.
+
+“By my honour,” exclaimed the King, “she is like a fairy who trips it
+in moonlight. There must be more of air and fire than of earth in her
+composition. It is well poor Nelly Gwyn saw her not, or she would have
+died of grief and envy. Come, gentlemen, which of you contrived this
+pretty piece of morning pastime?”
+
+The courtiers looked at each other, but none of them felt authorised to
+claim the merit of a service so agreeable.
+
+“We must ask the quick-eyed nymph herself then,” said the King; and,
+looking at Fenella, he added, “Tell us, my pretty one, to whom we owe
+the pleasure of seeing you?--I suspect the Duke of Buckingham; for this
+is exactly a _tour de son métier_.”
+
+Fenella, on observing that the King addressed her, bowed low, and shook
+her head, in signal that she did not understand what he said. “Oddsfish,
+that is true,” said the King; “she must perforce be a foreigner--her
+complexion and agility speak it. France or Italy has had the moulding of
+those elastic limbs, dark cheek, and eye of fire.” He then put to her in
+French, and again in Italian, the question, “By whom she had been sent
+hither?”
+
+At the second repetition, Fenella threw back her veiling tresses, so as
+to show the melancholy which sat on her brow; while she sadly shook her
+head, and intimated by imperfect muttering, but of the softest and most
+plaintive kind, her organic deficiency.
+
+“Is it possible Nature can have made such a fault?” said Charles. “Can
+she have left so curious a piece as thou art without the melody of
+voice, whilst she has made thee so exquisitely sensible to the beauty of
+sound?--Stay: what means this? and what young fellow are you bringing
+up there? Oh, the master of the show, I suppose.--Friend,” he added,
+addressing himself to Peveril, who, on the signal of Fenella, stepped
+forward almost instinctively, and kneeled down, “we thank thee for the
+pleasure of this morning.--My Lord Marquis, you rooked me at piquet last
+night; for which disloyal deed thou shalt now atone, by giving a couple
+of pieces to this honest youth, and five to the girl.”
+
+As the nobleman drew out his purse and came forward to perform the
+King’s generous commission, Julian felt some embarrassment ere he was
+able to explain, that he had not title to be benefited by the young
+person’s performance, and that his Majesty had mistaken his character.
+
+“And who art thou, then, my friend?” said Charles; “but, above all, and
+particularly, who is this dancing nymph, whom thou standest waiting on
+like an attendant fawn?”
+
+“The young person is a retainer of the Countess-Dowager of Derby, so
+please your Majesty,” said Peveril, in a low tone of voice; “and I
+am----”
+
+“Hold, hold,” said the King; “this is a dance to another tune, and not
+fit for a place so public. Hark thee, friend; do thou and the young
+woman follow Empson where he will conduct thee.--Empson, carry
+them--hark in thy ear.”
+
+“May it please your Majesty, I ought to say,” said Peveril, “that I am
+guiltless of any purpose of intrusion----”
+
+“Now a plague on him who can take no hint,” said the King, cutting
+short his apology. “Oddsfish, man, there are times when civility is the
+greatest impertinence in the world. Do thou follow Empson, and amuse
+thyself for a half-hour’s space with the fairy’s company, till we shall
+send for you.”
+
+Charles spoke this not without casting an anxious eye around, and in a
+tone which intimated apprehension of being overheard. Julian could only
+bow obedience, and follow Empson, who was the same person that played so
+rarely on the flageolet.
+
+When they were out of sight of the King and his party, the musician
+wished to enter into conversation with his companions, and addressed
+himself first to Fenella with a broad compliment of, “By the mass, ye
+dance rarely--ne’er a slut on the boards shows such a shank! I would be
+content to play to you till my throat were as dry as my whistle. Come,
+be a little free--old Rowley will not quit the Park till nine. I will
+carry you to Spring-Garden, and bestow sweet-cakes and a quart of
+Rhenish on both of you; and we’ll be cameradoes,--What the devil? no
+answer?--How’s this, brother?--Is this neat wench of yours deaf or
+dumb or both? I should laugh at that, and she trip it so well to the
+flageolet.”
+
+To rid himself of this fellow’s discourse, Peveril answered him in
+French, that he was a foreigner, and spoke no English; glad to escape,
+though at the expense of a fiction, from the additional embarrassment of
+a fool, who was likely to ask more questions than his own wisdom might
+have enabled him to answer.
+
+“_Étranger_--that means stranger,” muttered their guide; “more French
+dogs and jades come to lick the good English butter of our bread, or
+perhaps an Italian puppet-show. Well if it were not that they have a
+mortal enmity to the whole _gamut_, this were enough to make any honest
+fellow turn Puritan. But if I am to play to her at the Duchess’s, I’ll
+be d--d but I put her out in the tune, just to teach her to have the
+impudence to come to England, and to speak no English.”
+
+Having muttered to himself this truly British resolution, the musician
+walked briskly on towards a large house near the bottom of St. James’s
+Street, and entered the court, by a grated door from the Park, of which
+the mansion commanded an extensive prospect.
+
+Peveril finding himself in front of a handsome portico, under which
+opened a stately pair of folding-doors, was about to ascend the steps
+that led to the main entrance, when his guide seized him by the arm,
+exclaiming. “Hold, Mounseer! What! you’ll lose nothing, I see, for want
+of courage; but you must keep the back way, for all your fine doublet.
+Here it is not, knock, and it shall be opened; but may be instead, knock
+and you shall be knocked.”
+
+Suffering himself to be guided by Empson, Julian deviated from the
+principal door, to one which opened, with less ostentation, in an angle
+of the courtyard. On a modest tap from the flute-player, admittance was
+afforded him and his companions by a footman, who conducted them through
+a variety of stone passages, to a very handsome summer parlour, where a
+lady, or something resembling one, dressed in a style of extra elegance,
+was trifling with a play-book while she finished her chocolate. It would
+not be easy to describe her, but by weighing her natural good qualities
+against the affectations which counterbalanced them. She would have been
+handsome, but for rouge and _minauderie_--would have been civil, but
+for overstrained airs of patronage and condescension--would have had an
+agreeable voice, had she spoken in her natural tone--and fine eyes, had
+she not made such desperate hard use of them. She could only spoil a
+pretty ankle by too liberal display; but her shape, though she could
+not yet be thirty years old, had the embon-point which might have suited
+better with ten years more advanced. She pointed Empson to a seat with
+the air of a Duchess, and asked him, languidly, how he did this age,
+that she had not seen him? and what folks these were he had brought with
+him?
+
+“Foreigners, madam; d--d foreigners,” answered Empson; “starving
+beggars, that our old friend has picked up in the Park this morning--the
+wench dances, and the fellow plays on the Jew’s trump, I believe. On my
+life, madam, I begin to be ashamed of old Rowley; I must discard him,
+unless he keeps better company in future.”
+
+“Fie, Empson,” said the lady; “consider it is our duty to countenance
+him, and keep him afloat; and indeed I always make a principle of it.
+Hark ye, he comes not hither this morning?”
+
+“He will be here,” answered Empson, “in the walking of a minuet.”
+
+“My God!” exclaimed the lady, with unaffected alarm; and starting up
+with utter neglect of her usual and graceful languor, she tripped as
+swiftly as a milk-maid into an adjoining apartment, where they heard
+presently a few words of eager and animated discussion.
+
+“Something to be put out of the way, I suppose,” said Empson. “Well for
+madam I gave her the hint. There he goes, the happy swain.”
+
+Julian was so situated, that he could, from the same casement through
+which Empson was peeping, observe a man in a laced roquelaure, and
+carrying his rapier under his arm, glide from the door by which he had
+himself entered, and out of the court, keeping as much as possible under
+the shade of the buildings.
+
+The lady re-entered at this moment, and observing how Empson’s eyes were
+directed, said with a slight appearance of hurry, “A gentleman of the
+Duchess of Portsmouth’s with a billet; and so tiresomely pressing for
+an answer, that I was obliged to write without my diamond pen. I have
+daubed my fingers, I dare say,” she added, looking at a very pretty
+hand, and presently after dipping her fingers in a little silver vase of
+rose-water. “But that little exotic monster of yours, Empson, I hope she
+really understands no English?--On my life she coloured.--Is she such
+a rare dancer?--I must see her dance, and hear him play on the Jew’s
+harp.”
+
+“Dance!” replied Empson; “she danced well enough when _I_ played to her.
+I can make anything dance. Old Counsellor Clubfoot danced when he had
+a fit of the gout; you have seen no such _pas seul_ in the theatre. I
+would engage to make the Archbishop of Canterbury dance the hays like a
+Frenchman. There is nothing in dancing; it all lies in the music. Rowley
+does not know that now. He saw this poor wench dance; and thought so
+much on’t, when it was all along of me. I would have defied her to sit
+still. And Rowley gives her the credit of it, and five pieces to boot;
+and I have only two for my morning’s work!”
+
+“True, Master Empson,” said the lady; “but you are of the family, though
+in a lower station; and you ought to consider----”
+
+“By G--, madam,” answered Empson, “all I consider is, that I play the
+best flageolet in England; and that they can no more supply my place, if
+they were to discard me, than they could fill Thames from Fleet-Ditch.”
+
+“Well, Master Empson, I do not dispute but you are a man of talents,”
+ replied the lady; “still, I say, mind the main chance--you please the
+ear to-day--another has the advantage of you to-morrow.”
+
+“Never, mistress, while ears have the heavenly power of distinguishing
+one note from another.”
+
+“Heavenly power, say you, Master Empson?” said the lady.
+
+“Ay, madam, heavenly; for some very neat verses which we had at our
+festival say,
+
+ ‘What know we of the blest above,
+  But that they sing and that they love?’
+
+It is Master Waller wrote them, as I think; who, upon my word, ought to
+be encouraged.”
+
+“And so should you, my dear Empson,” said the dame, yawning, “were it
+only for the honour you do to your own profession. But in the meantime,
+will you ask these people to have some refreshment?--and will you take
+some yourself?--the chocolate is that which the Ambassador Portuguese
+fellow brought over to the Queen.”
+
+“If it be genuine,” said the musician.
+
+“How, sir?” said the fair one, half rising from her pile of
+cushions--“Not genuine, and in this house!--Let me understand you,
+Master Empson--I think, when I first saw you, you scarce knew chocolate
+from coffee.”
+
+“By G--, madam,” answered the flageolet-player, “you are perfectly
+right. And how can I show better how much I have profited by your
+ladyship’s excellent cheer, except by being critical?”
+
+“You stand excused, Master Empson,” said the _petite maitresse_, sinking
+gently back on the downy couch, from which a momentary irritation had
+startled her--“I think the chocolate will please you, though scarce
+equal to what we had from the Spanish resident Mendoza.--But we must
+offer these strange people something. Will you ask them if they would
+have coffee and chocolate, or cold wild-fowl, fruit, and wine? They must
+be treated, so as to show them where they are, since here they are.”
+
+“Unquestionably, madam,” said Empson; “but I have just at this
+instant forgot the French for chocolate, hot bread, coffee, game, and
+drinkables.”
+
+“It is odd,” said the lady; “and I have forgot my French and Italian at
+the same moment. But it signifies little--I will order the things to be
+brought, and they will remember the names of them themselves.”
+
+Empson laughed loudly at this jest, and pawned his soul that the
+cold sirloin which entered immediately after, was the best emblem of
+roast-beef all the world over. Plentiful refreshments were offered to
+all the party, of which both Fenella and Peveril partook.
+
+In the meanwhile, the flageolet-player drew closer to the side of the
+lady of the mansion--their intimacy was cemented, and their spirits set
+afloat, by a glass of liqueur, which gave them additional confidence
+in discussing the characters, as well of the superior attendants of
+the Court, as of the inferior rank, to which they themselves might be
+supposed to belong.
+
+The lady, indeed, during this conversation, frequently exerted her
+complete and absolute superiority over Master Empson; in which that
+musical gentleman humbly acquiesced whenever the circumstance was
+recalled to his attention, whether in the way of blunt contradiction,
+sarcastic insinuation, downright assumption of higher importance, or
+in any of the other various modes by which such superiority is usually
+asserted and maintained. But the lady’s obvious love of scandal was
+the lure which very soon brought her again down from the dignified part
+which for a moment she assumed, and placed her once more on a gossiping
+level with her companion.
+
+Their conversation was too trivial, and too much allied to petty Court
+intrigues, with which he was totally unacquainted, to be in the least
+interesting to Julian. As it continued for more than an hour, he
+soon ceased to pay the least attention to a discourse consisting of
+nicknames, patchwork, and innuendo; and employed himself in reflecting
+on his own complicated affairs, and the probable issue of his
+approaching audience with the King, which had been brought about by so
+singular an agent, and by means so unexpected. He often looked to his
+guide, Fenella; and observed that she was, for the greater part of
+the time, drowned in deep and abstracted meditation. But three or four
+times--and it was when the assumed airs and affected importance of
+the musician and their hostess rose to the most extravagant excess--he
+observed that Fenella dealt askance on them some of those bitter and
+almost blighting elfin looks, which in the Isle of Man were held to
+imply contemptuous execration. There was something in all her manner so
+extraordinary, joined to her sudden appearance, and her demeanour in
+the King’s presence, so oddly, yet so well contrived to procure him
+a private audience--which he might, by graver means, have sought
+in vain--that it almost justified the idea, though he smiled at it
+internally, that the little mute agent was aided in her machinations by
+the kindred imps, to whom, according to Manx superstition, her genealogy
+was to be traced.
+
+Another idea sometimes occurred to Julian, though he rejected the
+question, as being equally wild with those doubts which referred Fenella
+to a race different from that of mortals--“Was she really afflicted with
+those organical imperfections which had always seemed to sever her from
+humanity?--If not, what could be the motives of so young a creature
+practising so dreadful a penance for such an unremitted term of years?
+And how formidable must be the strength of mind which could condemn
+itself to so terrific a sacrifice--How deep and strong the purpose for
+which it was undertaken!”
+
+But a brief recollection of past events enabled him to dismiss this
+conjecture as altogether wild and visionary. He had but to call to
+memory the various stratagems practised by his light-hearted companion,
+the young Earl of Derby, upon this forlorn girl--the conversations held
+in her presence, in which the character of a creature so irritable and
+sensitive upon all occasions, was freely, and sometimes satirically
+discussed, without her expressing the least acquaintance with what was
+going forward, to convince him that so deep a deception could never
+have been practised for so many years, by a being of a turn of mind so
+peculiarly jealous and irascible.
+
+He renounced, therefore, the idea, and turned his thoughts to his own
+affairs, and his approaching interview with his Sovereign; in which
+meditation we propose to leave him, until we briefly review the changes
+which had taken place in the situation of Alice Bridgenorth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+            I fear the devil worst when gown and cassock,
+            Or, in the lack of them, old Calvin’s cloak,
+            Conceals his cloven hoof.
+                                               --ANONYMOUS.
+
+Julian Peveril had scarce set sail for Whitehaven, when Alice
+Bridgenorth and her governante, at the hasty command of her father,
+were embarked with equal speed and secrecy on board of a bark bound for
+Liverpool. Christian accompanied them on their voyage, as the friend
+to whose guardianship Alice was to be consigned during any future
+separation from her father, and whose amusing conversation, joined to
+his pleasing though cold manners, as well as his near relationship,
+induced Alice, in her forlorn situation, to consider her fate as
+fortunate in having such a guardian.
+
+At Liverpool, as the reader already knows, Christian took the first
+overt step in the villainy which he had contrived against the innocent
+girl, by exposing her at a meeting-house to the unhallowed gaze of
+Chiffinch, in order to convince him she was possessed of such uncommon
+beauty as might well deserve the infamous promotion to which they
+meditated to raise her.
+
+Highly satisfied with her personal appearance, Chiffinch was no less
+so with the sense and delicacy of her conversation, when he met her in
+company with her uncle afterwards in London. The simplicity, and at
+the same time the spirit of her remarks, made him regard her as his
+scientific attendant the cook might have done a newly invented sauce,
+sufficiently _piquante_ in its qualities to awaken the jaded appetite
+of a cloyed and gorged epicure. She was, he said and swore, the very
+corner-stone on which, with proper management, and with his instruction,
+a few honest fellows might build a Court fortune.
+
+That the necessary introduction might take place, the confederates
+judged fit she should be put under the charge of an experienced
+lady, whom some called Mistress Chiffinch, and others Chiffinch’s
+mistress--one of those obliging creatures who are willing to discharge
+all the duties of a wife, without the inconvenient and indissoluble
+ceremony.
+
+It was one, and not perhaps the least prejudicial consequence of the
+license of that ill-governed time, that the bounds betwixt virtue and
+vice were so far smoothed down and levelled, that the frail wife, or the
+tender friend who was no wife, did not necessarily lose their place in
+society; but, on the contrary, if they moved in the higher circles, were
+permitted and encouraged to mingle with women whose rank was certain,
+and whose reputation was untainted.
+
+A regular _liaison_, like that of Chiffinch and his fair one, inferred
+little scandal; and such was his influence, as prime minister of his
+master’s pleasures, that, as Charles himself expressed it, the lady whom
+we introduced to our readers in the last chapter, had obtained a
+brevet commission to rank as a married woman. And to do the gentle dame
+justice, no wife could have been more attentive to forward his plans, or
+more liberal in disposing of his income.
+
+She inhabited a set of apartments called Chiffinch’s--the scene of many
+an intrigue, both of love and politics; and where Charles often held
+his private parties for the evening, when, as frequently happened, the
+ill-humour of the Duchess of Portsmouth, his reigning Sultana, prevented
+his supping with her. The hold which such an arrangement gave a man
+like Chiffinch, used as he well knew how to use it, made him of too
+much consequence to be slighted even by the first persons in the state,
+unless they stood aloof from all manner of politics and Court intrigue.
+
+In the charge of Mistress Chiffinch, and of him whose name she bore,
+Edward Christian placed the daughter of his sister, and of his confiding
+friend, calmly contemplating her ruin as an event certain to follow; and
+hoping to ground upon it his own chance of a more assured fortune, than
+a life spent in intrigue had hitherto been able to procure for him.
+
+The innocent Alice, without being able to discover what was wrong either
+in the scenes of unusual luxury with which she was surrounded, or in the
+manners of her hostess, which, both from nature and policy, were kind
+and caressing--felt nevertheless an instinctive apprehension that all
+was not right--a feeling in the human mind, allied, perhaps, to that
+sense of danger which animals exhibit when placed in the vicinity of the
+natural enemies of their race, and which makes birds cower when the
+hawk is in the air, and beasts tremble when the tiger is abroad in the
+desert. There was a heaviness at her heart which she could not dispel;
+and the few hours which she had already spent at Chiffinch’s were like
+those passed in prison by one unconscious of the cause or event of his
+captivity. It was the third morning after her arrival in London, that
+the scene took place which we now recur to.
+
+The impertinence and vulgarity of Empson, which was permitted to him as
+an unrivalled performer upon his instrument, were exhausting themselves
+at the expense of all other musical professors, and Mrs. Chiffinch was
+listening with careless indifference, when some one was heard speaking
+loudly, and with animation, in the inner apartment.
+
+“Oh, gemini and gilliflower water!” exclaimed the damsel, startled out
+of her fine airs into her natural vulgarity of exclamation, and running
+to the door of communication--“if he has not come back again after
+all!--and if old Rowley----”
+
+A tap at the farther and opposite door here arrested her attention--she
+quitted the handle of that which she was about to open as speedily as
+if it had burnt her fingers, and, moving back towards her couch, asked,
+“Who is there?”
+
+“Old Rowley himself, madam,” said the King, entering the apartment with
+his usual air of easy composure.
+
+“O crimini!--your Majesty!--I thought----”
+
+“That I was out of hearing, doubtless,” said the King; “and spoke of me
+as folk speak of absent friends. Make no apology. I think I have heard
+ladies say of their lace, that a rent is better than a darn.--Nay, be
+seated.--Where is Chiffinch?”
+
+“He is down at York House, your Majesty,” said the dame, recovering,
+though with no small difficulty, the calm affectation of her usual
+demeanour. “Shall I send your Majesty’s commands?”
+
+“I will wait his return,” said the King.--“Permit me to taste your
+chocolate.”
+
+“There is some fresh frothed in the office,” said the lady; and using a
+little silver call, or whistle, a black boy, superbly dressed, like an
+Oriental page, with gold bracelets on his naked arms, and a gold collar
+around his equally bare neck, attended with the favourite beverage of
+the morning, in an apparatus of the richest china.
+
+While he sipped his cup of chocolate, the King looked round the
+apartment, and observing Fenella, Peveril, and the musician, who
+remained standing beside a large Indian screen, he continued, addressing
+Mistress Chiffinch, though with polite indifference, “I sent you the
+fiddles this morning--or rather the flute--Empson, and a fairy elf whom
+I met in the Park, who dances divinely. She has brought us the very
+newest saraband from the Court of Queen Mab, and I sent her here, that
+you may see it at leisure.”
+
+“Your Majesty does me by far too much honour,” said Chiffinch, her eyes
+properly cast down, and her accents minced into becoming humility.
+
+“Nay, little Chiffinch,” answered the King, in a tone of as contemptuous
+familiarity as was consistent with his good-breeding, “it was not
+altogether for thine own private ear, though quite deserving of all
+sweet sounds; but I thought Nelly had been with thee this morning.”
+
+“I can send Bajazet for her, your Majesty,” answered the lady.
+
+“Nay, I will not trouble your little heathen sultan to go so far. Still
+it strikes me that Chiffinch said you had company--some country cousin,
+or such a matter--Is there not such a person?”
+
+“There is a young person from the country,” said Mistress Chiffinch,
+striving to conceal a considerable portion of embarrassment; “but she
+is unprepared for such an honour as to be admitted into your Majesty’s
+presence, and----”
+
+“And therefore the fitter to receive it, Chiffinch. There is nothing in
+nature so beautiful as the first blush of a little rustic between joy
+and fear, and wonder and curiosity. It is the down on the peach--pity
+it decays so soon!--the fruit remains, but the first high colouring
+and exquisite flavour are gone.--Never put up thy lip for the matter,
+Chiffinch, for it is as I tell you; so pray let us have _la belle
+cousine_.”
+
+Mistress Chiffinch, more embarrassed than ever, again advanced towards
+the door of communication, which she had been in the act of opening when
+his Majesty entered. But just as she coughed pretty loudly, perhaps as
+a signal to some one within, voices were again heard in a raised tone
+of altercation----the door was flung open, and Alice rushed out of the
+inner apartment, followed to the door of it by the enterprising Duke of
+Buckingham, who stood fixed with astonishment on finding his pursuit of
+the flying fair one had hurried him into the presence of the King.
+
+Alice Bridgenorth appeared too much transported with anger to permit her
+to pay attention to the rank or character of the company into which she
+had thus suddenly entered. “I remain no longer here, madam,” she said
+to Mrs. Chiffinch, in a tone of uncontrollable resolution; “I leave
+instantly a house where I am exposed to company which I detest, and to
+solicitations which I despise.”
+
+The dismayed Mrs. Chiffinch could only implore her, in broken whispers,
+to be silent; adding, while she pointed to Charles, who stood with his
+eyes fixed rather on his audacious courtier than on the game which he
+pursued, “The King--the King!”
+
+“If I am in the King’s presence,” said Alice aloud, and in the same
+torrent of passionate feeling, while her eye sparkled through tears of
+resentment and insulted modesty, “it is the better--it is his Majesty’s
+duty to protect me; and on his protection I throw myself.”
+
+These words, which were spoken aloud, and boldly, at once recalled
+Julian to himself, who had hitherto stood, as it were, bewildered. He
+approached Alice, and, whispering in her ear that she had beside her
+one who would defend her with his life, implored her to trust to his
+guardianship in this emergency.
+
+Clinging to his arm in all the ecstasy of gratitude and joy, the spirit
+which had so lately invigorated Alice in her own defence, gave way in a
+flood of tears, when she saw herself supported by him whom perhaps she
+most wished to recognise as her protector. She permitted Peveril gently
+to draw her back towards the screen before which he had been standing;
+where, holding by his arm, but at the same time endeavouring to conceal
+herself behind him, they waited the conclusion of a scene so singular.
+
+The King seemed at first so much surprised at the unexpected apparition
+of the Duke of Buckingham, as to pay little or no attention to Alice,
+who had been the means of thus unceremoniously introducing his Grace
+into the presence at a most unsuitable moment. In that intriguing Court,
+it had not been the first time that the Duke had ventured to enter the
+lists of gallantry in rivalry of his Sovereign, which made the present
+insult the more intolerable. His purpose of lying concealed in those
+private apartments was explained by the exclamations of Alice; and
+Charles, notwithstanding the placidity of his disposition, and his
+habitual guard over his passions, resented the attempt to seduce his
+destined mistress, as an Eastern Sultan would have done the insolence
+of a vizier, who anticipated his intended purchases of captive beauty
+in the slave-market. The swarthy features of Charles reddened, and the
+strong lines on his dark visage seemed to become inflated, as he said,
+in a voice which faltered with passion, “Buckingham, you dared not have
+thus insulted your equal! To your master you may securely offer any
+affront, since his rank glues his sword to the scabbard.”
+
+The haughty Duke did not brook this taunt unanswered. “My sword,” he
+said, with emphasis, “was never in the scabbard, when your Majesty’s
+service required it should be unsheathed.”
+
+“Your Grace means, when its service was required for its master’s
+interest,” said the King; “for you could only gain the coronet of a Duke
+by fighting for the royal crown. But it is over--I have treated you as a
+friend--a companion--almost an equal--you have repaid me with insolence
+and ingratitude.”
+
+“Sire,” answered the Duke firmly, but respectfully, “I am unhappy in
+your displeasure; yet thus far fortunate, that while your words can
+confer honour, they cannot impair or take it away.--It is hard,” he
+added, lowering his voice, so as only to be heard by the King,--“It is
+hard that the squall of a peevish wench should cancel the services of so
+many years!”
+
+“It is harder,” said the King, in the same subdued tone, which both
+preserved through the rest of the conversation, “that a wench’s bright
+eyes can make a nobleman forget the decencies due to his Sovereign’s
+privacy.”
+
+“May I presume to ask your Majesty what decencies are those?” said the
+Duke.
+
+Charles bit his lip to keep himself from smiling. “Buckingham,” he said,
+“this is a foolish business; and we must not forget (as we have nearly
+done), that we have an audience to witness this scene, and should walk
+the stage with dignity. I will show you your fault in private.”
+
+“It is enough that your Majesty has been displeased, and that I have
+unhappily been the occasion,” said the Duke, kneeling; “although quite
+ignorant of any purpose beyond a few words of gallantry; and I sue thus
+low for your Majesty’s pardon.”
+
+So saying, he kneeled gracefully down. “Thou hast it, George,” said the
+placable Prince. “I believe thou wilt be sooner tired of offending than
+I of forgiving.”
+
+“Long may your Majesty live to give the offence, with which it is your
+royal pleasure at present to charge my innocence,” said the Duke.
+
+“What mean you by that, my lord?” said Charles, the angry shade
+returning to his brow for a moment.
+
+“My Liege,” replied the Duke, “you are too honourable to deny your
+custom of shooting with Cupid’s bird-bolts in other men’s warrens. You
+have ta’en the royal right of free-forestry over every man’s park. It
+is hard that you should be so much displeased at hearing a chance arrow
+whizz near your own pales.”
+
+“No more on’t,” said the King; “but let us see where the dove has
+harboured.”
+
+“The Helen has found a Paris while we were quarrelling,” replied the
+Duke.
+
+“Rather an Orpheus,” said the King; “and what is worse, one that is
+already provided with a Eurydice--She is clinging to the fiddler.”
+
+“It is mere fright,” said Buckingham, “like Rochester’s, when he crept
+into the bass-viol to hide himself from Sir Dermot O’Cleaver.”
+
+“We must make the people show their talents,” said the King, “and stop
+their mouths with money and civility, or we shall have this foolish
+encounter over half the town.”
+
+The King then approached Julian, and desired him to take his instrument,
+and cause his female companion to perform a saraband.
+
+“I had already the honour to inform your Majesty,” said Julian, “that I
+cannot contribute to your pleasure in the way you command me; and that
+this young person is----”
+
+“A retainer of the Lady Powis,” said the King, upon whose mind things
+not connected with his pleasures made a very slight impression. “Poor
+lady, she is in trouble about the lords in the Tower.”
+
+“Pardon me, sir,” said Julian, “she is a dependant of the Countess of
+Derby.”
+
+“True, true,” answered Charles; “it is indeed of Lady Derby, who hath
+also her own distresses in these times. Do you know who taught the
+young person to dance? Some of her steps mightily resemble Le Jeune’s of
+Paris.”
+
+“I presume she was taught abroad, sir,” said Julian; “for myself, I
+am charged with some weighty business by the Countess, which I would
+willingly communicate to your Majesty.”
+
+“We will send you to our Secretary of State,” said the King. “But this
+dancing envoy will oblige us once more, will she not?--Empson, now that
+I remember, it was to your pipe that she danced--Strike up, man, and put
+mettle into her feet.”
+
+Empson began to play a well-known measure; and, as he had threatened,
+made more than one false note, until the King, whose ear was very
+accurate, rebuked him with, “Sirrah, art thou drunk at this early hour,
+or must thou too be playing thy slippery tricks with me? Thou thinkest
+thou art born to beat time, but I will have time beat into thee.”
+
+The hint was sufficient, and Empson took good care so to perform his air
+as to merit his high and deserved reputation. But on Fenella it made not
+the slightest impression. She rather leant than stood against the wall
+of the apartment; her countenance as pale as death, her arms and hands
+hanging down as if stiffened, and her existence only testified by the
+sobs which agitated her bosom, and the tears which flowed from her
+half-closed eyes.
+
+“A plague on it,” said the King, “some evil spirit is abroad this
+morning; and the wenches are all bewitched, I think. Cheer up, my girl.
+What, in the devil’s name, has changed thee at once from a Nymph to a
+Niobe? If thou standest there longer thou wilt grow to the very marble
+wall--Or--oddsfish, George, have you been bird-bolting in this quarter
+also?”
+
+Ere Buckingham could answer to this charge, Julian again kneeled down
+to the King, and prayed to be heard, were it only for five minutes. “The
+young woman,” he said, “had been long in attendance of the Countess of
+Derby. She was bereaved of the faculties of speech and hearing.”
+
+“Oddsfish, man, and dances so well?” said the King. “Nay, all Gresham
+College shall never make me believe that.”
+
+“I would have thought it equally impossible, but for what I to-day
+witnessed,” said Julian; “but only permit me, sir, to deliver the
+petition of my lady the Countess.”
+
+“And who art thou thyself, man?” said the Sovereign; “for though
+everything which wears bodice and breast-knot has a right to speak to
+a King, and be answered, I know not that they have a title to audience
+through an envoy extraordinary.”
+
+“I am Julian Peveril of Derbyshire,” answered the supplicant, “the son
+of Sir Geoffrey Peveril of Martindale Castle, who----”
+
+“Body of me--the old Worcester man?” said the King. “Oddsfish, I
+remember him well--some harm has happened to him, I think--Is he not
+dead, or very sick at least?”
+
+“Ill at ease, and it please your Majesty, but not ill in health. He has
+been imprisoned on account of an alleged accession to this Plot.”
+
+“Look you there,” said the King; “I knew he was in trouble; and yet how
+to help the stout old Knight, I can hardly tell. I can scarce escape
+suspicion of the Plot myself, though the principal object of it is
+to take away my own life. Were I to stir to save a plotter, I should
+certainly be brought in as an accessory.--Buckingham, thou hast some
+interest with those who built this fine state engine, or at least who
+have driven it on--be good-natured for once, though it is scarcely thy
+wont, and interfere to shelter our old Worcester friend, Sir Godfrey.
+You have not forgot him?”
+
+“No, sir,” answered the Duke; “for I never heard the name.”
+
+“It is Sir Geoffrey his Majesty would say,” said Julian.
+
+“And if his Majesty _did_ say Sir Geoffrey, Master Peveril, I cannot see
+of what use I can be to your father,” replied the Duke coldly. “He is
+accused of a heavy crime; and a British subject so accused, can have
+no shelter either from prince or peer, but must stand to the award and
+deliverance of God and his country.”
+
+“Now, Heaven forgive thee thy hypocrisy, George,” said the King
+hastily. “I would rather hear the devil preach religion than thee teach
+patriotism. Thou knowest as well as I, that the nation is in a scarlet
+fever for fear of the poor Catholics, who are not two men to five
+hundred; and that the public mind is so harassed with new narrations of
+conspiracy, and fresh horrors every day, that people have as little real
+sense of what is just or unjust as men who talk in their sleep of what
+is sense or nonsense. I have borne, and borne with it--I have seen blood
+flow on the scaffold, fearing to thwart the nation in its fury--and I
+pray to God that I or mine be not called on to answer for it. I will no
+longer swim with the torrent, which honour and conscience call upon me
+to stem--I will act the part of a Sovereign, and save my people from
+doing injustice, even in their own despite.”
+
+Charles walked hastily up and down the room as he expressed these
+unwonted sentiments, with energy equally unwonted. After a momentary
+pause, the Duke answered him gravely, “Spoken like a Royal King, sir,
+but--pardon me--not like a King of England.”
+
+Charles paused, as the Duke spoke, beside a window which looked full on
+Whitehall, and his eye was involuntarily attracted by the fatal window
+of the Banqueting House out of which his unhappy father was conducted to
+execution. Charles was naturally, or, more purposely, constitutionally
+brave; but a life of pleasure, together with the habit of governing his
+course rather by what was expedient than by what was right, rendered him
+unapt to dare the same scene of danger or of martyrdom, which had closed
+his father’s life and reign; and the thought came over his half-formed
+resolution, like the rain upon a kindling beacon. In another man, his
+perplexity would have seemed almost ludicrous; but Charles would not
+lose, even under these circumstances, the dignity and grace, which were
+as natural to him as his indifference and good humour. “Our Council must
+decide in this matter,” he said, looking to the Duke; “and be assured,
+young man,” he added, addressing Julian, “your father shall not want an
+intercessor in his King, so far as the laws will permit my interference
+in his behalf.”
+
+Julian was about to retire, when Fenella, with a marked look, put
+into his hand a slip of paper, on which she had hastily written, “The
+packet--give him the packet.”
+
+After a moment’s hesitation, during which he reflected that Fenella was
+the organ of the Countess’s pleasure, Julian resolved to obey. “Permit
+me, then, Sire,” he said, “to place in your royal hands this packet,
+entrusted to me by the Countess of Derby. The letters have already been
+once taken from me; and I have little hope that I can now deliver them
+as they are addressed. I place them, therefore, in your royal hands,
+certain that they will evince the innocence of the writer.”
+
+The King shook his head as he took the packet reluctantly. “It is no
+safe office you have undertaken, young man. A messenger has sometimes
+his throat cut for the sake of his despatches--But give them to me; and,
+Chiffinch, give me wax and a taper.” He employed himself in folding the
+Countess’s packet in another envelope. “Buckingham,” he said, “you are
+evidence that I do not read them till the Council shall see them.”
+
+Buckingham approached, and offered his services in folding the parcel,
+but Charles rejected his assistance; and having finished his task, he
+sealed the packet with his own signet-ring. The Duke bit his lip and
+retired.
+
+“And now, young man,” said the King, “your errand is sped, so far as it
+can at present be forwarded.”
+
+Julian bowed deeply, as to take leave at these words, which he rightly
+interpreted as a signal for his departure. Alice Bridgenorth still
+clung to his arm, and motioned to withdraw along with him. The King and
+Buckingham looked at each other in conscious astonishment, and yet not
+without a desire to smile, so strange did it seem to them that a prize,
+for which, an instant before, they had been mutually contending, should
+thus glide out of their grasp, or rather be borne off by a third and
+very inferior competitor.
+
+“Mistress Chiffinch,” said the King, with a hesitation which he could
+not disguise, “I hope your fair charge is not about to leave you?”
+
+“Certainly not, your Majesty,” answered Chiffinch. “Alice, my love--you
+mistake--that opposite door leads to your apartments.”
+
+“Pardon me, madam,” answered Alice; “I have indeed mistaken my road, but
+it was when I came hither.”
+
+“The errant damosel,” said Buckingham, looking at Charles with as much
+intelligence as etiquette permitted him to throw into his eye, and
+then turning it towards Alice, as she still held by Julian’s arm,
+“is resolved not to mistake her road a second time. She has chosen a
+sufficient guide.”
+
+“And yet stories tell that such guides have led maidens astray,” said
+the King.
+
+Alice blushed deeply, but instantly recovered her composure so soon
+as she saw that her liberty was likely to depend upon the immediate
+exercise of resolution. She quitted, from a sense of insulted delicacy,
+the arm of Julian, to which she had hitherto clung; but as she spoke,
+she continued to retain a slight grasp of his cloak. “I have indeed
+mistaken my way,” she repeated still addressing Mrs. Chiffinch, “but
+it was when I crossed this threshold. The usage to which I have been
+exposed in your house has determined me to quit it instantly.”
+
+“I will not permit that, my young mistress,” answered Mrs. Chiffinch,
+“until your uncle, who placed you under my care, shall relieve me of the
+charge of you.”
+
+“I will answer for my conduct, both to my uncle, and, what is of more
+importance, to my father,” said Alice. “You must permit me to depart,
+madam; I am free-born, and you have no right to detain me.”
+
+“Pardon me, my young madam,” said Mistress Chiffinch, “I have a right,
+and I will maintain it too.”
+
+“I will know that before quitting this presence,” said Alice firmly;
+and, advancing a step or two, she dropped on her knee before the King.
+“Your Majesty,” said she, “if indeed I kneel before King Charles, is the
+father of your subjects.”
+
+“Of a good many of them,” said the Duke of Buckingham apart.
+
+“I demand protection of you, in the name of God, and of the oath your
+Majesty swore when you placed on your head the crown of this kingdom!”
+
+“You have my protection,” said the King, a little confused by an appeal
+so unexpected and so solemn. “Do but remain quiet with this lady, with
+whom your parents have placed you; neither Buckingham nor any one else
+shall intrude on you.”
+
+“His Majesty,” added Buckingham, in the same tone, and speaking from
+the restless and mischief-making spirit of contradiction, which he never
+could restrain, even when indulging it was most contrary, not only to
+propriety, but to his own interest,--“His Majesty will protect you, fair
+lady, from all intrusion save what must not be termed such.”
+
+Alice darted a keen look on the Duke, as if to read his meaning; another
+on Charles, to know whether she had guessed it rightly. There was
+a guilty confession on the King’s brow, which confirmed Alice’s
+determination to depart. “Your Majesty will forgive me,” she said; “it
+is not here that I can enjoy the advantage of your royal protection.
+I am resolved to leave this house. If I am detained, it must be by
+violence, which I trust no one dare offer to me in your Majesty’s
+presence. This gentleman, whom I have long known, will conduct me to my
+friends.”
+
+“We make but an indifferent figure in this scene, methinks,” said the
+King, addressing the Duke of Buckingham, and speaking in a whisper; “but
+she must go--I neither will, nor dare, stop her from returning to her
+father.”
+
+“And if she does,” swore the Duke internally, “I would, as Sir Andrew
+Smith saith, I might never touch fair lady’s hand.” And stepping back,
+he spoke a few words with Empson the musician, who left the apartment,
+for a few minutes, and presently returned.
+
+The King seemed irresolute concerning the part he should act under
+circumstances so peculiar. To be foiled in a gallant intrigue, was to
+subject himself to the ridicule of his gay court; to persist in it by
+any means which approached to constraint, would have been tyrannical;
+and, what perhaps he might judge as severe an imputation, it would have
+been unbecoming a gentleman. “Upon my honour, young lady,” he said,
+with an emphasis, “you have nothing to fear in this house. But it is
+improper, for your own sake, that you should leave it in this abrupt
+manner. If you will have the goodness to wait but a quarter of an hour,
+Mistress Chiffinch’s coach will be placed at your command, to transport
+you where you will. Spare yourself the ridicule, and me the pain
+of seeing you leave the house of one of my servants, as if you were
+escaping from a prison.”
+
+The King spoke in good-natured sincerity, and Alice was inclined for an
+instant to listen to his advice; but recollecting that she had to search
+for her father and uncle, or, failing them, for some suitable place of
+secure residence, it rushed on her mind that the attendants of Mistress
+Chiffinch were not likely to prove trusty guides or assistants in such
+a purpose. Firmly and respectfully she announced her purpose of
+instant departure. She needed no other escort, she said, than what this
+gentleman, Master Julian Peveril, who was well known to her father,
+would willingly afford her; nor did she need that farther than until she
+had reached her father’s residence.
+
+“Farewell, then, lady, a God’s name!” said the King; “I am sorry so much
+beauty should be wedded to so many shrewish suspicions.--For you,
+Master Peveril, I should have thought you had enough to do with your own
+affairs without interfering with the humours of the fair sex. The duty
+of conducting all strayed damsels into the right path is, as matters go
+in this good city, rather too weighty an undertaking for your youth and
+inexperience.”
+
+Julian, eager to conduct Alice from a place of which he began fully
+to appreciate the perils, answered nothing to this taunt, but bowing
+reverently, led her from the apartment. Her sudden appearance, and the
+animated scene which followed, had entirely absorbed, for the moment,
+the recollection of his father and of the Countess of Derby; and while
+the dumb attendant of the latter remained in the room, a silent, and, as
+it were, stunned spectator of all that had happened, Peveril had become,
+in the predominating interest of Alice’s critical situation, totally
+forgetful of her presence. But no sooner had he left the room, without
+noticing or attending to her, than Fenella, starting, as from a trance,
+drew herself up, and looked wildly around, like one waking from a dream,
+as if to assure herself that her companion was gone, and gone without
+paying the slightest attention to her. She folded her hands together,
+and cast her eyes upwards, with an expression of such agony as explained
+to Charles (as he thought) what painful ideas were passing in her mind.
+“This Peveril is a perfect pattern of successful perfidy, carrying off
+this Queen of the Amazons, but he has left us, I think, a disconsolate
+Ariadne in her place.--But weep not, my princess of pretty movements,”
+ he said, addressing himself to Fenella; “if we cannot call in Bacchus to
+console you, we will commit you to the care of Empson, who shall drink
+with _Liber Pater_ for a thousand pounds, and I will say done first.”
+
+As the King spoke these words, Fenella rushed past him with her wonted
+rapidity of step, and, with much less courtesy than was due to the royal
+presence, hurried downstairs, and out of the house, without attempting
+to open any communication with the Monarch. He saw her abrupt departure
+with more surprise than displeasure; and presently afterwards, bursting
+into a fit of laughter, he said to the Duke, “Oddsfish, George, this
+young spark might teach the best of us how to manage the wenches. I have
+had my own experience, but I could never yet contrive either to win or
+lose them with so little ceremony.”
+
+“Experience, sir,” replied the duke, “cannot be acquired without years.”
+
+“True, George; and you would, I suppose, insinuate,” said Charles, “that
+the gallant who acquires it, loses as much in youth as he gains in art?
+I defy your insinuation, George. You cannot overreach your master, old
+as you think him, either in love or politics. You have not the secret
+_plumer la poule sans la faire crier_, witness this morning’s work. I
+will give you odds at all games--ay, and at the Mall too, if thou darest
+accept my challenge.--Chiffinch, what for dost thou convulse thy pretty
+throat and face with sobbing and hatching tears, which seem rather
+unwilling to make their appearance!”
+
+“It is for fear,” whined Chiffinch, “that your Majesty should
+think--that you should expect----”
+
+“That I should expect gratitude from a courtier, or faith from a woman?”
+ answered the King, patting her at the same time under the chin, to make
+her raise her face--“Tush! chicken, I am not so superfluous.”
+
+“There it is now,” said Chiffinch, continuing to sob the more bitterly,
+as she felt herself unable to produce any tears; “I see your Majesty is
+determined to lay all the blame on me, when I am innocent as an unborn
+babe--I will be judged by his Grace.”
+
+“No doubt, no doubt, Chiffie,” said the King. “His Grace and you will
+be excellent judges in each other’s cause, and as good witnesses in
+each other’s favour. But to investigate the matter impartially, we must
+examine our evidence apart.--My Lord Duke, we meet at the Mall at noon,
+if your Grace dare accept my challenge.”
+
+His Grace of Buckingham bowed, and retired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+        But when the bully with assuming pace,
+        Cocks his broad hat, edged round with tarnish’d lace,
+        Yield not the way--defy his strutting pride,
+        And thrust him to the muddy kennel’s side,
+        Yet rather bear the shower and toils of mud,
+        Than in the doubtful quarrel risk thy blood.
+                                           --GAY’S TRIVIA.
+
+Julian Peveril, half-leading, half-supporting, Alice Bridgenorth, had
+reached the middle of Saint Jame’s Street ere the doubt occurred to him
+which way they should bend their course. He then asked Alice whither
+he should conduct her, and learned, to his surprise and embarrassment,
+that, far from knowing where her father was to be found, she had no
+certain knowledge that he was in London, and only hoped that he
+had arrived, from the expressions which he had used at parting. She
+mentioned her uncle Christian’s address, but it was with doubt and
+hesitation, arising from the hands in which he had already placed
+her; and her reluctance to go again under his protection was strongly
+confirmed by her youthful guide, when a few words had established to his
+conviction the identity of Ganlesse and Christian.--What then was to be
+done?
+
+“Alice,” said Julian, after a moment’s reflection, “you must seek your
+earliest and best friend--I mean my mother. She has now no castle in
+which to receive you--she has but a miserable lodging, so near the jail
+in which my father is confined, that it seems almost a cell of the same
+prison. I have not seen her since my coming hither; but thus much have
+I learned by inquiry. We will now go to her apartment; such as it is,
+I know she will share it with one so innocent and so unprotected as you
+are.”
+
+“Gracious Heaven!” said the poor girl, “am I then so totally deserted,
+that I must throw myself on the mercy of her who, of all the world,
+has most reason to spurn me from her?--Julian, can you advise me to
+this?--Is there none else who will afford me a few hours’ refuge, till I
+can hear from my father?--No other protectress but her whose ruin has,
+I fear, been accelerated by----Julian, I dare not appear before your
+mother! she must hate me for my family, and despise me for my meanness.
+To be a second time cast on her protection, when the first has been so
+evil repaid--Julian, I dare not go with you.”
+
+“She has never ceased to love you, Alice,” said her conductor, whose
+steps she continued to attend, even while declaring her resolution not
+to go with him, “she never felt anything but kindness towards you, nay,
+towards your father; for though his dealings with us have been harsh,
+she can allow much for the provocation which he has received. Believe
+me, with her you will be safe as with a mother--perhaps it may be the
+means of reconciling the divisions by which we have suffered so much.”
+
+“Might God grant it!” said Alice. “Yet how shall I face your mother? And
+will she be able to protect me against these powerful men--against my
+uncle Christian? Alas, that I must call him my worst enemy!”
+
+“She has the ascendancy which honour hath over infamy, and virtue over
+vice,” said Julian; “and to no human power but your father’s will she
+resign you, if you consent to choose her for your protectress. Come,
+then, with me, Alice; and----”
+
+Julian was interrupted by some one, who, laying an unceremonious hold of
+his cloak, pulled it with so much force as compelled him to stop and lay
+his hand on his sword. He turned at the same time, and, when he turned,
+beheld Fenella. The cheek of the mute glowed like fire; her eyes
+sparkled, and her lips were forcibly drawn together, as if she had
+difficulty to repress those wild screams which usually attended
+her agonies of passion, and which, uttered in the open street, must
+instantly have collected a crowd. As it was, her appearance was so
+singular, and her emotion so evident, that men gazed as they came on,
+and looked back after they had passed, at the singular vivacity of her
+gestures; while, holding Peveril’s cloak with one hand, she made with
+the other the most eager and imperious signs that he should leave Alice
+Bridgenorth and follow her. She touched the plume in her bonnet
+to remind him of the Earl--pointed to her heart, to imitate the
+Countess--raised her closed hand, as if to command him in their
+name--and next moment folded both, as if to supplicate him in her own;
+while pointing to Alice with an expression at once of angry and scornful
+derision, she waved her hand repeatedly and disdainfully, to intimate
+that Peveril ought to cast her off, as something undeserving his
+protection.
+
+Frightened, she knew not why, at these wild gestures, Alice clung closer
+to Julian’s arm than she had at first dared to do; and this mark of
+confidence in his protection seemed to increase the passion of Fenella.
+
+Julian was dreadfully embarrassed; his situation was sufficiently
+precarious, even before Fenella’s ungovernable passions threatened to
+ruin the only plan which he had been able to suggest. What she wanted
+with him--how far the fate of the Earl and Countess might depend on
+his following her, he could not even conjecture; but be the call how
+peremptory soever, he resolved not to comply with it until he had seen
+Alice placed in safety. In the meantime, he determined not to lose sight
+of Fenella; and disregarding her repeated, disdainful, and impetuous
+rejection of the hand which he offered her, he at length seemed so far
+to have soothed her, that she seized upon his right arm, and, as if
+despairing of his following _her_ path, appeared reconciled to attend
+him on that which he himself should choose.
+
+Thus, with a youthful female clinging to each arm, and both remarkably
+calculated to attract the public eye, though from very different
+reasons, Julian resolved to make the shortest road to the water-side,
+and there to take boat for Blackfriars, as the nearest point of landing
+to Newgate, where he concluded that Lance had already announced his
+arrival in London to Sir Geoffrey, then inhabiting that dismal region,
+and to his lady, who, so far as the jailer’s rigour permitted, shared
+and softened his imprisonment.
+
+Julian’s embarrassment in passing Charing Cross and Northumberland House
+was so great as to excite the attention of the passengers; for he had
+to compose his steps so as to moderate the unequal and rapid pace of
+Fenella to the timid and faint progress of his left-hand companion; and
+while it would have been needless to address himself to the former, who
+could not comprehend him, he dared not speak himself to Alice, for fear
+of awakening into frenzy the jealousy, or at least the impatience of
+Fenella.
+
+Many passengers looked at them with wonder, and some with smiles; but
+Julian remarked that there were two who never lost sight of them, and
+to whom his situation, and the demeanour of his companions, seemed to
+afford matter of undisguised merriment. These were young men, such as
+may be seen in the same precincts in the present day, allowing for the
+difference in the fashion of their apparel. They abounded in periwig,
+and fluttered with many hundred yards of ribbon, disposed in bow-knots
+upon their sleeves, their breeches, and their waistcoats, in the very
+extremity of the existing mode. A quantity of lace and embroidery made
+their habits rather fine than tasteful. In a word, they were dressed in
+that caricature of the fashion, which sometimes denotes a harebrained
+man of quality who has a mind to be distinguished as a fop of the first
+order, but is much more frequently in the disguise of those who desire
+to be esteemed men of rank on account of their dress, having no other
+pretension to the distinction.
+
+These two gallants passed Peveril more than once, linked arm in arm,
+then sauntered, so as to oblige him to pass them in turn, laughing and
+whispering during these manoeuvres--staring broadly at Peveril and his
+female companions--and affording them, as they came into contact, none
+of those facilities of giving place which are required on such occasions
+by the ordinary rules of the pavé.
+
+Peveril did not immediately observe their impertinence; but when it
+was too gross to escape his notice, his gall began to arise; and, in
+addition to all the other embarrassments of his situation, he had to
+combat the longing desire which he felt to cudgel handsomely the two
+coxcombs who seemed thus determined on insulting him. Patience and
+sufferance were indeed strongly imposed on him by circumstances; but at
+length it became scarcely possible to observe their dictates any longer.
+
+When, for the third time, Julian found himself obliged, with his
+companions, to pass this troublesome brace of fops, they kept walking
+close behind him, speaking so loud as to be heard, and in a tone of
+perfect indifference whether he listened to them or not.
+
+“This is bumpkin’s best luck,” said the taller of the two (who was
+indeed a man of remarkable size, alluding to the plainness of Peveril’s
+dress, which was scarce fit for the streets of London)--“Two such fine
+wenches, and under guard of a grey frock and an oaken riding-rod!”
+
+“Nay, Puritan’s luck rather, and more than enough of it,” said his
+companion. “You may read Puritan in his pace and in his patience.”
+
+“Right as a pint bumper, Tom,” said his friend--“Isschar is an ass that
+stoopeth between two burdens.”
+
+“I have a mind to ease long-eared Laurence of one of his encumbrances,”
+ said the shorter fellow. “That black-eyed sparkler looks as if she had a
+mind to run away from him.”
+
+“Ay,” answered the taller, “and the blue-eyed trembler looks as if she
+would fall behind into my loving arms.”
+
+At these words, Alice, holding still closer by Peveril’s arm than
+formerly, mended her pace almost to running, in order to escape from men
+whose language was so alarming; and Fenella walked hastily forward in
+the same manner, having perhaps caught, from the men’s gestures and
+demeanour, that apprehension which Alice had taken from their language.
+
+Fearful of the consequences of a fray in the streets, which must
+necessarily separate him from these unprotected females, Peveril
+endeavoured to compound betwixt the prudence necessary for their
+protection and his own rising resentment; and as this troublesome pair
+of attendants endeavoured again to pass them close to Hungerford
+Stairs, he said to them with constrained calmness, “Gentlemen, I owe
+you something for the attention you have bestowed on the affairs of a
+stranger. If you have any pretension to the name I have given you, you
+will tell me where you are to be found.”
+
+“And with what purpose,” said the taller of the two sneeringly, “does
+your most rustic gravity, or your most grave rusticity, require of us
+such information?”
+
+So saying, they both faced about, in such a manner as to make it
+impossible for Julian to advance any farther.
+
+“Make for the stairs, Alice,” he said; “I will be with you in an
+instant.” Then freeing himself with difficulty from the grasp of his
+companions, he cast his cloak hastily round his left arm, and said,
+sternly, to his opponents, “Will you give me your names, sirs; or will
+you be pleased to make way?”
+
+“Not till we know for whom we are to give place,” said one of them.
+
+“For one who will else teach you what you want--good manners,” said
+Peveril, and advanced as if to push between them.
+
+They separated, but one of them stretched forth his foot before Peveril,
+as if he meant to trip him. The blood of his ancestors was already
+boiling within him; he struck the man on the face with the oaken rod
+which he had just sneered at, and throwing it from him, instantly
+unsheathed his sword. Both the others drew, and pushed at once; but he
+caught the point of the one rapier in his cloak, and parried the other
+thrust with his own weapon. He must have been less lucky in the second
+close, but a cry arose among the watermen, of “Shame, shame! two upon
+one!”
+
+“They are men of the Duke of Buckingham’s,” said one fellow--“there’s no
+safe meddling with them.”
+
+“They may be the devil’s men, if they will,” said an ancient Triton,
+flourishing his stretcher; “but I say fair play, and old England for
+ever; and, I say, knock the gold-laced puppies down, unless they
+will fight turn about with grey jerkin, like honest fellows. One
+down--t’other come on.”
+
+The lower orders of London have in all times been remarkable for the
+delight which they have taken in club-law, or fist-law; and for the
+equity and impartiality with which they see it administered. The noble
+science of defence was then so generally known, that a bout at single
+rapier excited at that time as much interest and as little wonder as
+a boxing-match in our own days. The bystanders experienced in such
+affrays, presently formed a ring, within which Peveril and the taller
+and more forward of his antagonists were soon engaged in close combat
+with their swords, whilst the other, overawed by the spectators, was
+prevented from interfering.
+
+“Well done the tall fellow!”--“Well thrust, long-legs!’--“Huzza for two
+ells and a quarter!” were the sounds with which the fray was at first
+cheered; for Peveril’s opponent not only showed great activity and skill
+in fence, but had also a decided advantage, from the anxiety with which
+Julian looked out for Alice Bridgenorth; the care for whose safety
+diverted him in the beginning of the onset from that which he ought
+to have exclusively bestowed on the defence of his own life. A slight
+flesh-wound in the side at once punished, and warned him of, his
+inadvertence; when, turning his whole thoughts on the business in
+which he was engaged, and animated with anger against his impertinent
+intruder, the rencontre speedily began to assume another face,
+amidst cries of “Well done, grey jerkin!”--“Try the metal of his gold
+doublet!”--“Finely thrust!”--“Curiously parried!”--“There went another
+eyelet-hole to his broidered jerkin!”--“Fairly pinked, by G--d!” In
+applause, accompanying a successful and conclusive lunge, by which
+Peveril ran his gigantic antagonist through the body. He looked at his
+prostrate foe for a moment; then, recovering himself, called loudly to
+know what had become of the lady.
+
+“Never mind the lady, if you be wise,” said one of the watermen; “the
+constable will be here in an instant. I’ll give your honour a cast
+across the water in a moment. It may be as much as your neck’s worth.
+Shall only charge a Jacobus.”
+
+“You be d--d!” said one of his rivals in profession, “as your father was
+before you; for a Jacobus, I’ll set the gentleman into Alsatia, where
+neither bailiff nor constable dare trespass.”
+
+“The lady, you scoundrels, the lady!” exclaimed Peveril---“Where is the
+lady?”
+
+“I’ll carry your honour where you shall have enough of ladies, if that
+be your want,” said the old Triton; and as he spoke, the clamour amongst
+the watermen was renewed, each hoping to cut his own profit out of the
+emergency of Julian’s situation.
+
+“A sculler will be least suspected, your honour,” said one fellow.
+
+“A pair of oars will carry you through the water like a wild-duck,” said
+another.
+
+“But you have got never a tilt, brother,” said a third. “Now I can put
+the gentleman as snug as if he were under hatches.”
+
+In the midst of the oaths and clamour attending this aquatic controversy
+for his custom, Peveril at length made them understand that he
+would bestow a Jacobus, not on him whose boat was first oars, but on
+whomsoever should inform him of the fate of the lady.
+
+“Of which lady?” said a sharp fellow: “for, to my thought, there was a
+pair of them.”
+
+“Of both, of both,” answered Peveril; “but first, of the fair-haired
+lady?”
+
+“Ay, ay, that was she that shrieked so when gold-jacket’s companion
+handed her into No. 20.”
+
+“Who--what--who dared to hand her?” exclaimed Peveril.
+
+“Nay, master, you have heard enough of my tale without a fee,” said the
+waterman.
+
+“Sordid rascal!” said Peveril, giving him a gold piece, “speak out, or
+I’ll run my sword through you!”
+
+“For the matter of that, master,” answered the fellow, “not while I can
+handle this trunnion--but a bargain’s a bargain; and so I’ll tell you,
+for your gold piece, that the comrade of the fellow forced one of your
+wenches, her with the fair hair, will she, nill she, into Tickling Tom’s
+wherry; and they are far enough up Thames by this time, with wind and
+tide.”
+
+“Sacred Heaven, and I stand here!” exclaimed Julian.
+
+“Why, that is because your honour will not take a boat.”
+
+“You are right, my friend--a boat--a boat instantly!”
+
+“Follow me, then, squire.--Here, Tom, bear a hand--the gentleman is our
+fare.”
+
+A volley of water language was exchanged betwixt the successful
+candidate for Peveril’s custom and his disappointed brethren, which
+concluded by the ancient Triton’s bellowing out, in a tone above them
+all, “that the gentleman was in a fair way to make a voyage to the isle
+of gulls, for that sly Jack was only bantering him--No. 20 had rowed for
+York Buildings.”
+
+“To the isle of gallows,” cried another; “for here comes one who will
+mar his trip up Thames, and carry him down to Execution Dock.”
+
+In fact, as he spoke the word, a constable, with three or four of his
+assistants, armed with the old-fashioned brown bills, which were still
+used for arming those guardians of the peace, cut off our hero’s farther
+progress to the water’s edge, by arresting him in the King’s name. To
+attempt resistance would have been madness, as he was surrounded on all
+sides; so Peveril was disarmed, and carried before the nearest Justice
+of the Peace, for examination and committal.
+
+The legal sage before whom Julian was taken was a man very honest in
+his intentions, very bounded in his talents, and rather timid in his
+disposition. Before the general alarm given to England, and to the city
+of London in particular, by the notable discovery of the Popish Plot,
+Master Maulstatute had taken serene and undisturbed pride and pleasure
+in the discharge of his duties as a Justice of the Peace, with the
+exercise of all its honorary privileges and awful authority. But the
+murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey had made a strong, nay, an indelible
+impression on his mind; and he walked the Courts of Themis with fear and
+trembling after that memorable and melancholy event.
+
+Having a high idea of his official importance, and rather an exalted
+notion of his personal consequence, his honour saw nothing from that
+time but cords and daggers before his eyes, and never stepped out of
+his own house, which he fortified, and in some measure garrisoned,
+with half-a-dozen tall watchmen and constables, without seeing himself
+watched by a Papist in disguise, with a drawn sword under his cloak. It
+was even whispered, that, in the agonies of his fears, the worshipful
+Master Maulstatute mistook the kitchen-wench with a tinderbox, for a
+Jesuit with a pistol; but if any one dared to laugh at such an error, he
+would have done well to conceal his mirth, lest he fell under the heavy
+inculpation of being a banterer and stifler of the Plot--a crime almost
+as deep as that of being himself a plotter. In fact, the fears of the
+honest Justice, however ridiculously exorbitant, were kept so much in
+countenance by the outcry of the day, and the general nervous fever,
+which afflicted every good Protestant, that Master Maulstatute was
+accounted the bolder man and the better magistrate, while, under the
+terror of the air-drawn dagger which fancy placed continually before his
+eyes, he continued to dole forth Justice in the recesses of his private
+chamber, nay, occasionally to attend Quarter-Sessions, when the hall
+was guarded by a sufficient body of the militia. Such was the wight, at
+whose door, well chained and doubly bolted, the constable who had Julian
+in custody now gave his important and well-known knock.
+
+Notwithstanding this official signal, the party was not admitted until
+the clerk, who acted the part of high-warder, had reconnoitred them
+through a grated wicket; for who could say whether the Papists might
+not have made themselves master of Master Constable’s sign, and have
+prepared a pseudo watch to burst in and murder the Justice, under
+pretence of bringing in a criminal before him?--Less hopeful projects
+had figured in the Narrative of the Popish Plot.
+
+All being found right, the key was turned, the bolts were drawn, and the
+chain unhooked, so as to permit entrance to the constable, the prisoner,
+and the assistants; and the door was then a suddenly shut against the
+witnesses, who, as less trustworthy persons, were requested (through
+the wicket) to remain in the yard, until they should be called in their
+respective turns.
+
+Had Julian been inclined for mirth, as was far from being the case,
+he must have smiled at the incongruity of the clerk’s apparel, who
+had belted over his black buckram suit a buff baldric, sustaining a
+broadsword, and a pair of huge horse-pistols; and, instead of the low
+flat hat, which, coming in place of the city cap, completed the dress
+of a scrivener, had placed on his greasy locks a rusted steel-cap, which
+had seen Marston-Moor; across which projected his well-used quill, in
+the guise of a plume--the shape of the morion not admitting of its being
+stuck, as usual, behind his ear.
+
+This whimsical figure conducted the constable, his assistants, and the
+prisoner, into the low hall, where his principal dealt forth justice;
+who presented an appearance still more singular than that of his
+dependant.
+
+Sundry good Protestants, who thought so highly of themselves as to
+suppose they were worthy to be distinguished as objects of Catholic
+cruelty, had taken to defensive arms on the occasion. But it was quickly
+found that a breast-plate and back-plate of proof, fastened together
+with iron clasps, was no convenient enclosure for a man who meant to eat
+venison and custard; and that a buff-coat or shirt of mail was scarcely
+more accommodating to the exertions necessary on such active occasions.
+Besides, there were other objections, as the alarming and menacing
+aspects which such warlike habiliments gave to the Exchange, and other
+places, where merchants most do congregate; and excoriations were
+bitterly complained of by many, who, not belonging to the artillery
+company, or trained bands, had no experience in bearing defensive
+armour.
+
+To obviate these objections, and, at the same time, to secure the
+persons of all true Protestant citizens against open force or privy
+assassinations on the part of the Papists, some ingenious artist,
+belonging, we may presume, to the worshipful Mercers’ Company, had
+contrived a species of armour, of which neither the horse-armory in
+the Tower, nor Gwynnap’s Gothic Hall, no, nor Dr. Meyrick’s invaluable
+collection of ancient arms, has preserved any specimen. It was called
+silk-armour, being composed of a doublet and breeches of quilted silk,
+so closely stitched, and of such thickness, as to be proof against
+either bullet or steel; while a thick bonnet of the same materials, with
+ear-flaps attached to it, and on the whole, much resembling a nightcap,
+completed the equipment and ascertained the security of the wearer from
+the head to the knee.
+
+Master Maulstatute, among other worthy citizens, had adopted this
+singular panoply, which had the advantage of being soft, and warm, and
+flexible, as well as safe. And he now sat in his judicial elbow-chair--a
+short, rotund figure, hung round, as it were, with cushions, for such
+was the appearance of the quilted garments; and with a nose protruded
+from under the silken casque, the size of which, together with the
+unwieldiness of the whole figure, gave his worship no indifferent
+resemblance to the sign of the Hog in Armour, which was considerably
+improved by the defensive garment being of dusty orange colour, not
+altogether unlike the hue of those half-wild swine which are to be found
+in the forest of Hampshire.
+
+Secure in these invulnerable envelopments, his worship had rested
+content, although severed from his own death-doing weapons, of rapier,
+poniard, and pistols, which were placed nevertheless, at no great
+distance from his chair. One offensive implement, indeed, he thought it
+prudent to keep on the table beside his huge Coke upon Lyttleton. This
+was a sort of pocket flail, consisting of a piece of strong ash,
+about eighteen inches long, to which was attached a swinging club of
+_lignum-vitæ_, nearly twice as long as the handle, but jointed so as
+to be easily folded up. This instrument, which bore at that time the
+singular name of the Protestant flail, might be concealed under the
+coat, until circumstances demanded its public appearance. A better
+precaution against surprise than his arms, whether offensive or
+defensive, was a strong iron grating, which, crossing the room in front
+of the justice’s table, and communicating by a grated door, which was
+usually kept locked, effectually separated the accused party from his
+judge.
+
+Justice Maulstatute, such as we have described him, chose to hear the
+accusation of the witnesses before calling on Peveril for his defence.
+The detail of the affray was briefly given by the bystanders, and seemed
+deeply to touch the spirit of the examinator. He shook his silken casque
+emphatically, when he understood that, after some language betwixt the
+parties, which the witnesses did not quite understand, the young man
+in custody struck the first blow, and drew his sword before the wounded
+party had unsheathed his weapon. Again he shook his crested head yet
+more solemnly, when the result of the conflict was known; and yet again,
+when one of the witnesses declared, that, to the best of his knowledge,
+the sufferer in the fray was a gentleman belonging to the household of
+his Grace the Duke of Buckingham.
+
+“A worthy peer,” quoth the armed magistrate--“a true Protestant, and a
+friend to his country. Mercy on us, to what a height of audacity hath
+this age arisen! We see well, and could, were we as blind as a mole, out
+of what quiver this shaft hath been drawn.”
+
+He then put on his spectacles, and having desired Julian to be brought
+forward, he glared upon him awfully with those glazen eyes, from under
+the shade of his quilted turban.
+
+“So young,” he said, “and so hardened--lack-a-day!--and a Papist, I’ll
+warrant.”
+
+Peveril had time enough to recollect the necessity of his being at
+large, if he could possibly obtain his freedom, and interposed here a
+civil contradiction of his worship’s gracious supposition. “He was no
+Catholic,” he said, “but an unworthy member of the Church of England.”
+
+“Perhaps but a lukewarm Protestant, notwithstanding,” said the sage
+Justice; “there are those amongst us who ride tantivy to Rome, and have
+already made out half the journey--ahem!”
+
+Peveril disowned his being any such.
+
+“And who art thou, then?” said the Justice; “for, friend, to tell you
+plainly, I like not your visage--ahem!”
+
+These short and emphatic coughs were accompanied each by a succinct nod,
+intimating the perfect conviction of the speaker that he had made the
+best, the wisest, and the most acute observation, of which the premises
+admitted.
+
+Julian, irritated by the whole circumstances of his detention, answered
+the Justice’s interrogation in rather a lofty tone. “My name is Julian
+Peveril!”
+
+“Now, Heaven be around us!” said the terrified Justice--“the son of that
+black-hearted Papist and traitor, Sir Geoffrey Peveril, now in hands,
+and on the verge of trial!”
+
+“How, sir!” exclaimed Julian, forgetting his situation, and, stepping
+forward to the grating, with a violence which made the bars clatter, he
+so startled the appalled Justice, that, snatching his Protestant flail,
+Master Maulstatute aimed a blow at his prisoner, to repel what he
+apprehended was a premeditated attack. But whether it was owing to the
+Justice’s hurry of mind, or inexperience in managing the weapon, he not
+only missed his aim, but brought the swinging part of the machine round
+his own skull, with such a severe counter-buff, as completely to try
+the efficacy of his cushioned helmet, and, in spite of its defence,
+to convey a stunning sensation, which he rather hastily imputed to the
+consequence of a blow received from Peveril.
+
+His assistants did not directly confirm the opinion which the Justice
+had so unwarrantably adopted; but all with one voice agreed that,
+but for their own active and instantaneous interference, there was no
+knowing what mischief might have been done by a person so dangerous as
+the prisoner. The general opinion that he meant to proceed in the matter
+of his own rescue, _par voie du fait_, was indeed so deeply impressed on
+all present, that Julian saw it would be in vain to offer any defence,
+especially being but too conscious that the alarming and probably
+the fatal consequences of his rencontre with the bully, rendered his
+commitment inevitable. He contented himself with asking into what prison
+he was to be thrown; and when the formidable word Newgate was returned
+as full answer, he had at least the satisfaction to reflect, that, stern
+and dangerous as was the shelter of that roof, he should at least enjoy
+it in company with his father; and that, by some means or other, they
+might perhaps obtain the satisfaction of a melancholy meeting, under
+the circumstances of mutual calamity, which seemed impending over their
+house.
+
+Assuming the virtue of more patience than he actually possessed, Julian
+gave the magistrate (to whom all the mildness of his demeanour could
+not, however, reconcile him), the direction to the house where he
+lodged, together with a request that his servant, Lance Outram, might
+be permitted to send him his money and wearing apparel; adding, that
+all which might be in his possession, either of arms or writings,--the
+former amounting to a pair of travelling pistols, and the last to a few
+memoranda of little consequence, he willingly consented to place at the
+disposal of the magistrate. It was in that moment that he entertained,
+with sincere satisfaction, the comforting reflection, that the important
+papers of Lady Derby were already in the possession of the sovereign.
+
+The Justice promised attention to his requests; but reminded him, with
+great dignity, that his present complacent and submissive behaviour
+ought, for his own sake, to have been adopted from the beginning,
+instead of disturbing the presence of magistracy with such atrocious
+marks of the malignant, rebellious, and murderous spirit of Popery, as
+he had at first exhibited. “Yet,” he said, “as he was a goodly young
+man, and of honourable quality, he would not suffer him to be dragged
+through the streets as a felon, but had ordered a coach for his
+accommodation.”
+
+His honour, Master Maulstatute, uttered the word “coach” with the
+importance of one who, as Dr. Johnson saith of later date, is conscious
+of the dignity of putting horses to his chariot. The worshipful Master
+Maulstatute did not, however on this occasion, do Julian the honour of
+yoking to his huge family caroche the two “frampal jades” (to use the
+term of the period), which were wont to drag that ark to the meeting
+house of pure and precious Master Howlaglass, on a Thursday’s evening
+for lecture, and on a Sunday for a four-hours’ sermon. He had recourse
+to a leathern convenience, then more rare, but just introduced, with
+every prospect of the great facility which has since been afforded by
+hackney coaches, to all manner of communication, honest and dishonest,
+legal and illegal. Our friend Julian, hitherto much more accustomed to
+the saddle than to any other conveyance, soon found himself in a hackney
+carriage, with the constable and two assistants for his companions,
+armed up to the teeth--the port of destination being, as they had
+already intimated, the ancient fortress of Newgate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+        ‘Tis the black ban-dog of our jail--Pray look on him,
+        But at a wary distance--rouse him not--
+        He bays not till he worries.
+                                       --THE BLACK DOG OF NEWGATE.
+
+The coach stopped before those tremendous gates, which resemble those
+of Tartarus, save only that they rather more frequently permit safe and
+honourable egress; although at the price of the same anxiety and
+labour with which Hercules, and one or two of the demi-gods, extricated
+themselves from the Hell of the ancient mythology, and sometimes, it is
+said, by the assistance of the golden boughs.
+
+Julian stepped out of the vehicle, carefully supported on either side by
+his companions, and also by one or two turnkeys, whom the first summons
+of the deep bell at the gate had called to their assistance. That
+attention, it may be guessed, was not bestowed lest he should make a
+false step, so much as for fear of his attempting an escape, of which
+he had no intentions. A few prentices and straggling boys of the
+neighbouring market, which derived considerable advantage from increase
+of custom, in consequence of the numerous committals on account of the
+Popish Plot, and who therefore were zealous of Protestants, saluted him
+on his descent with jubilee shouts of “Whoop, Papist! whoop, Papist!
+D----n to the Pope, and all his adherents!”
+
+Under such auspices, Peveril was ushered in beneath that gloomy gateway,
+where so many bid adieu on their entrance at once to honour and to life.
+The dark and dismal arch under which he soon found himself opened upon
+a large courtyard, where a number of debtors were employed in playing
+at handball, pitch-and-toss, hustle-cap, and other games, for which
+relaxations the rigour of their creditors afforded them full leisure,
+while it debarred them the means of pursuing the honest labour by which
+they might have redeemed their affairs, and maintained their starving
+and beggared families.
+
+But with this careless and desperate group Julian was not to be
+numbered, being led, or rather forced, by his conductors, into a low
+arched door, which, carefully secured by bolts and bars, opened for
+his reception on one side of the archway, and closed, with all its
+fastenings, the moment after his hasty entrance. He was then conducted
+along two or three gloomy passages, which, where they intersected each
+other, were guarded by as many strong wickets, one of iron gates, and
+the others of stout oak, clinched with plates, and studded with nails
+of the same metal. He was not allowed to pause until he found himself
+hurried into a little round vaulted room, which several of these
+passages opened into, and which seemed, with respect to the labyrinth
+through part of which he had passed, to resemble the central point of a
+spider’s web, in which the main lines of that reptile’s curious maze are
+always found to terminate.
+
+The resemblance did not end here; for in this small vaulted apartment,
+the walls of which were hung round with musketoons, pistols, cutlasses,
+and other weapons, as well as with many sets of fetters and irons of
+different construction, all disposed in great order, and ready for
+employment, a person sat, who might not unaptly be compared to a huge
+bloated and bottled spider, placed there to secure the prey which had
+fallen into his toils.
+
+This official had originally been a very strong and square-built man,
+of large size, but was now so overgrown, from overfeeding, perhaps, and
+want of exercise, as to bear the same resemblance to his former self
+which a stall-fed ox still retains to a wild bull. The look of no man is
+so inauspicious as a fat man, upon whose features ill-nature has marked
+an habitual stamp. He seems to have reversed the old proverb of “laugh
+and be fat,” and to have thriven under the influence of the worst
+affections of the mind. Passionate we can allow a jolly mortal to be;
+but it seems unnatural to his goodly case to be sulky and brutal. Now
+this man’s features, surly and tallow-coloured; his limbs, swelled and
+disproportioned; his huge paunch and unwieldy carcass, suggested the
+idea, that, having once found his way into this central recess, he
+had there fattened, like the weasel in the fable, and fed largely and
+foully, until he had become incapable of retreating through any of the
+narrow paths that terminated at his cell; and was thus compelled to
+remain, like a toad under the cold stone, fattening amid the squalid
+airs of the dungeons by which he was surrounded, which would have
+proved pestiferous to any other than such a congenial inhabitant. Huge
+iron-clasped books lay before this ominous specimen of pinguitude--the
+records of the realm of misery, in which office he officiated as prime
+minister; and had Peveril come thither as an unconcerned visitor,
+his heart would have sunk within him at considering the mass of human
+wretchedness which must needs be registered in these fatal volumes.
+But his own distresses sat too heavy on his mind to permit any general
+reflections of this nature.
+
+The constable and this bulky official whispered together, after the
+former had delivered to the latter the warrant of Julian’s commitment.
+The word _whispered_ is not quite accurate, for their communication was
+carried on less by words than by looks and expressive signs; by which,
+in all such situations, men learn to supply the use of language, and to
+add mystery to what is in itself sufficiently terrible to the captive.
+The only words which could be heard were those of the Warden, or, as
+he was called then, the Captain of the Jail, “Another bird to the
+cage----?”
+
+“Who will whistle ‘Pretty Pope of Rome,’ with any starling in your
+Knight’s ward,” answered the constable, with a facetious air, checked,
+however, by the due respect to the supreme presence in which he stood.
+
+The Grim Feature relaxed into something like a smile as he heard the
+officer’s observation; but instantly composing himself into the stern
+solemnity which for an instant had been disturbed, he looked fiercely at
+his new guest, and pronounced with an awful and emphatic, yet rather an
+under-voice, the single and impressive word, “_Garnish!_”
+
+Julian Peveril replied with assumed composure; for he had heard of the
+customs of such places, and was resolved to comply with them, so as if
+possible to obtain the favour of seeing his father, which he shrewdly
+guessed must depend on his gratifying the avarice of the keeper. “I am
+quite ready,” he said, “to accede to the customs of the place in which
+I unhappily find myself. You have but to name your demands, and I will
+satisfy them.”
+
+So saying, he drew out his purse, thinking himself at the same time
+fortunate that he had retained about him a considerable sum of gold. The
+Captain remarked its width, depth, its extension, and depression, with
+an involuntary smile, which had scarce contorted his hanging under-lip,
+and the wiry and greasy moustache which thatched the upper, when it was
+checked by the recollection that there were regulations which set bounds
+to his rapacity, and prevented him from pouncing on his prey like a
+kite, and swooping it all off at once.
+
+This chilling reflection produced the following sullen reply to
+Peveril:--“There were sundry rates. Gentlemen must choose for
+themselves. He asked nothing but his fees. But civility,” he muttered,
+“must be paid for.”
+
+“And shall, if I can have it for payment,” said Peveril; “but the price,
+my good sir, the price?”
+
+He spoke with some degree of scorn, which he was the less anxious to
+repress, that he saw, even in this jail, his purse gave him an indirect
+but powerful influence over his jailer.
+
+The Captain seemed to feel the same; for, as he spoke, he plucked from
+his head, almost involuntarily, a sort of scalded fur-cap, which served
+it for covering. But his fingers revolting from so unusual an act of
+complaisance, began to indemnify themselves by scratching his grizzly
+shock-head, as he muttered, in a tone resembling the softened growling
+of a mastiff when he has ceased to bay the intruder who shows no fear of
+him,--“There are different rates. There is the Little Ease, for common
+fees of the crown--rather dark, and the common sewer runs below it;
+and some gentlemen object to the company, who are chiefly padders and
+michers. Then the Master’s side--the garnish came to one piece--and none
+lay stowed there but who were in for murder at the least.”
+
+“Name your highest price, sir, and take it,” was Julian’s concise reply.
+
+“Three pieces for the Knight’s ward,” answered the governor of this
+terrestrial Tartarus.
+
+“Take five, and place me with Sir Geoffrey,” was again Julian’s answer,
+throwing down the money upon the desk before him.
+
+“Sir Geoffrey?--Hum!--ay, Sir Geoffrey,” said the jailer, as if
+meditating what he ought to do. “Well, many a man has paid money to see
+Sir Geoffrey--Scarce so much as you have, though. But then you are like
+to see the last of him.--Ha, ha ha!”
+
+These broken muttered exclamations, which terminated somewhat like the
+joyous growl of a tiger over his meal, Julian could not comprehend; and
+only replied to by repeating his request to be placed in the same cell
+with Sir Geoffrey.
+
+“Ay, master,” said the jailer, “never fear; I’ll keep word with you, as
+you seem to know something of what belongs to your station and mine. And
+hark ye, Jem Clink will fetch you the darbies.”
+
+“Derby!” interrupted Julian,--“Has the Earl or Countess----”
+
+“Earl or Countess!--Ha, ha, ha!” again laughed, or rather growled, the
+warden. “What is your head running on? You are a high fellow belike!
+but all is one here. The darbies are the fetlocks--the fast-keepers,
+my boy--the bail for good behaviour, my darling; and if you are not
+the more conforming, I can add you a steel nightcap, and a curious
+bosom-friend, to keep you warm of a winter night. But don’t be
+disheartened; you have behaved genteel; and you shall not be put upon.
+And as for this here matter, ten to one it will turn out chance-medley,
+or manslaughter, at the worst on it; and then it is but a singed thumb
+instead of a twisted neck--always if there be no Papistry about it, for
+then I warrant nothing.--Take the gentleman’s worship away, Clink.”
+
+A turnkey, who was one of the party that had ushered Peveril into the
+presence of this Cerberus, now conveyed him out in silence; and, under
+his guidance, the prisoner was carried through a second labyrinth of
+passages with cells opening on each side, to that which was destined for
+his reception.
+
+On the road through this sad region, the turnkey more than once
+ejaculated, “Why, the gentleman must be stark-mad! Could have had the
+best crown cell to himself for less than half the garnish, and must pay
+double to pig in with Sir Geoffrey! Ha, ha!--Is Sir Geoffrey akin to
+you, if any one may make free to ask?”
+
+“I am his son,” answered Peveril sternly, in hopes to impose some curb
+on the fellow’s impertinence; but the man only laughed louder than
+before.
+
+“His son!--Why, that’s best of all--Why, you are a strapping youth--five
+feet ten, if you be an inch--and Sir Geoffrey’s son!--Ha, ha, ha!”
+
+“Truce with your impertinence,” said Julian. “My situation gives you no
+title to insult me!”
+
+“No more I do,” said the turnkey, smothering his mirth at the
+recollection, perhaps, that the prisoner’s purse was not exhausted.
+“I only laughed because you said you were Sir Geoffrey’s son. But no
+matter--‘tis a wise child that knows his own father. And here is Sir
+Geoffrey’s cell; so you and he may settle the fatherhood between you.”
+
+So saying, he ushered his prisoner into a cell, or rather a strong room
+of the better order, in which there were four chairs, a truckle-bed, and
+one or two other articles of furniture.
+
+Julian looked eagerly around for his father; but to his surprise the
+room appeared totally empty. He turned with anger on the turnkey, and
+charged him with misleading him; but the fellow answered, “No, no,
+master; I have kept faith with you. Your father, if you call him so, is
+only tappiced in some corner. A small hole will hide him; but I’ll rouse
+him out presently for you.--Here, hoicks!--Turn out, Sir Geoffrey!--Here
+is--Ha, ha, ha!--your son--or your wife’s son--for I think you have but
+little share in him--come to wait on you.”
+
+Peveril knew not how to resent the man’s insolence; and indeed his
+anxiety, and apprehension of some strange mistake, mingled with, and in
+some degree neutralised his anger. He looked again and again, around and
+around the room; until at length he became aware of something rolled up
+in a dark corner, which rather resembled a small bundle of crimson cloth
+than any living creature. At the vociferation of the turnkey, however,
+the object seemed to acquire life and motion, uncoiled itself in some
+degree, and, after an effort or two, gained an erect posture; still
+covered from top to toe with the crimson drapery in which it was at
+first wrapped. Julian, at the first glance, imagined from the size that
+he saw a child of five years old; but a shrill and peculiar tone of
+voice soon assured him of his mistake.
+
+“Warder,” said this unearthly sound, “what is the meaning of this
+disturbance? Have you more insults to heap on the head of one who hath
+ever been the butt of fortune’s malice? But I have a soul that can
+wrestle with all my misfortunes; it is as large as any of your bodies.”
+
+“Nay, Sir Geoffrey, if this be the way you welcome your own son!” said
+the turnkey; “but you quality folks know your own ways best.”
+
+“My son!” exclaimed the little figure. “Audacious----”
+
+“Here is some strange mistake,” said Peveril, in the same breath. “I
+sought Sir Geoffrey----”
+
+“And you have him before you, young man,” said the pigmy tenant of the
+cell, with an air of dignity; at the same time casting on the floor his
+crimson cloak, and standing before them in his full dignity of three
+feet six inches of height. “I who was the favoured servant of three
+successive Sovereigns of the Crown of England, am now the tenant of this
+dungeon, and the sport of its brutal keepers. I am Sir Geoffrey Hudson.”
+
+Julian, though he had never before seen this important personage, had
+no difficulty in recognising, from description, the celebrated dwarf of
+Henrietta Maria, who had survived the dangers of civil war and private
+quarrel--the murder of his royal master, Charles I., and the exile of
+his widow--to fall upon evil tongues and evil days, amidst the unsparing
+accusations connected with the Popish Plot. He bowed to the unhappy old
+man, and hastened to explain to him, and to the turnkey, that it was
+Sir Geoffrey Peveril, of Martindale Castle in Derbyshire whose prison he
+desired to share.
+
+“You should have said that before you parted with the gold-dust, my
+master,” answered the turnkey; “for t’other Sir Geoffrey, that is the
+big, tall, grey-haired man, was sent to the Tower last night; and the
+Captain will think he has kept his word well enow with you, by lodging
+you with this here Sir Geoffrey Hudson, who is the better show of the
+two.”
+
+“I pray you go to your master,” said Peveril; “explain the mistake; and
+say to him I beg to be sent to the Tower.”
+
+“The Tower!--Ha, ha, ha!” exclaimed the fellow. “The Tower is for lords
+and knights, and not for squires of low degree--for high treason, and
+not for ruffing on the streets with rapier and dagger; and there must go
+a secretary’s warrant to send you there.”
+
+“At least, let me not be a burden on this gentleman,” said Julian.
+“There can be no use in quartering us together, since we are not even
+acquainted. Go tell your master of the mistake.”
+
+“Why, so I should,” said Clink, still grinning, “if I were not sure that
+he knew it already. You paid to be sent to Sir Geoffrey, and he sent you
+to Sir Geoffrey. You are so put down in the register, and he will blot
+it for no man. Come, come, be comfortable, and you shall have light and
+easy irons--that’s all I can do for you.”
+
+Resistance and expostulation being out of the question, Peveril
+submitted to have a light pair of fetters secured on his ankles, which
+allowed him, nevertheless, the power of traversing the apartment.
+
+During this operation, he reflected that the jailer, who had taken the
+advantage of the equivoque betwixt the two Sir Geoffreys, must have
+acted as his assistant had hinted, and cheated him from malice prepense,
+since the warrant of committal described him as the son of Sir Geoffrey
+Peveril. It was therefore in vain, as well as degrading, to make farther
+application to such a man on the subject. Julian determined to submit to
+his fate, as what could not be averted by any effort of his own.
+
+Even the turnkey was moved in some degree by his youth, good mien,
+and the patience with which, after the first effervescence of
+disappointment, the new prisoner resigned himself to his situation. “You
+seem a brave young gentleman,” he said; “and shall at least have a good
+dinner, and as good a pallet to sleep on, as is within the walls of
+Newgate.----And, Master Sir Geoffrey, you ought to make much of him,
+since you do not like tall fellows; for I can tell you that Master
+Peveril is in for pinking long Jack Jenkins, that was the Master of
+Defence--as tall a man as in London, always excepting the King’s Porter,
+Master Evans, that carried you about in his pocket, Sir Geoffrey, as all
+the world heard tell.”
+
+“Begone, fellow!” answered the dwarf. “Fellow, I scorn you!”
+
+The turnkey sneered, withdrew, and locked the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+              Degenerate youth, and not of Tydeus’ kind,
+              Whose little body lodged a mighty mind.
+                                                    --ILIAD.
+
+Left quiet at least, if not alone, for the first time after the events
+of this troubled and varied day, Julian threw himself on an old oaken
+seat, beside the embers of a sea-coal fire, and began to muse on the
+miserable situation of anxiety and danger in which he was placed;
+where, whether he contemplated the interests of his love, his family
+affections, or his friendships, all seemed such a prospect as that of a
+sailor who looks upon breakers on every hand, from the deck of a vessel
+which no longer obeys the helm.
+
+As Peveril sat sunk in despondency, his companion in misfortune drew a
+chair to the opposite side of the chimney-corner, and began to gaze at
+him with a sort of solemn earnestness, which at length compelled him,
+though almost in spite of himself, to pay some attention to the singular
+figure who seemed so much engrossed with contemplating him.
+
+Geoffrey Hudson (we drop occasionally the title of knighthood, which
+the King had bestowed on him in a frolic, but which might introduce
+some confusion into our history), although a dwarf of the least possible
+size, had nothing positively ugly in his countenance, or actually
+distorted in his limbs. His head, hands, and feet were indeed large,
+and disproportioned to the height of his body, and his body itself much
+thicker than was consistent with symmetry, but in a degree which was
+rather ludicrous than disagreeable to look upon. His countenance, in
+particular, had he been a little taller, would have been accounted, in
+youth, handsome, and now, in age, striking and expressive; it was but
+the uncommon disproportion betwixt the head and the trunk which made the
+features seem whimsical and bizarre--an effect which was considerably
+increased by the dwarf’s moustaches, which it was his pleasure to wear
+so large, that they almost twisted back amongst, and mingled with, his
+grizzled hair.
+
+The dress of this singular wight announced that he was not entirely free
+from the unhappy taste which frequently induces those whom nature has
+marked by personal deformity, to distinguish, and at the same time to
+render themselves ridiculous, by the use of showy colours, and garments
+fantastically and extraordinarily fashioned. But poor Geoffrey Hudson’s
+laces, embroideries, and the rest of his finery, were sorely worn and
+tarnished by the time which he had spent in jail, under the vague and
+malicious accusation that he was somehow or other an accomplice in
+this all-involving, all-devouring whirlpool of a Popish conspiracy--an
+impeachment which, if pronounced by a mouth the foulest and most
+malicious, was at that time sufficiently predominant to sully the
+fairest reputation. It will presently appear, that in the poor man’s
+manner of thinking, and tone of conversation, there was something
+analogous to his absurd fashion of apparel; for, as in the latter, good
+stuff and valuable decorations were rendered ludicrous by the fantastic
+fashion in which they were made up; so, such glimmerings of good sense
+and honourable feeling as the little man often evinced, were made
+ridiculous by a restless desire to assume certain airs of importance,
+and a great jealousy of being despised, on account of the peculiarity of
+his outward form.
+
+After the fellow-prisoners had looked at each other for some time in
+silence, the dwarf, conscious of his dignity as first owner of their
+joint apartment, thought it necessary to do the honours of it to the
+new-comer. “Sir,” he said, modifying the alternate harsh and squeaking
+tones of his voice into accents as harmonious as they could attain,
+“I understand you to be the son of my worthy namesake, and ancient
+acquaintance, the stout Sir Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak. I promise you,
+I have seen your father where blows have been going more plenty than
+gold pieces; and for a tall heavy man, who lacked, as we martialists
+thought, some of the lightness and activity of our more slightly made
+Cavaliers, he performed his duty as a man might desire. I am happy to
+see you, his son; and, though by a mistake, I am glad we are to share
+this comfortless cabin together.”
+
+Julian bowed, and thanked his courtesy; and Geoffrey Hudson, having
+broken the ice, preceded to question him without further ceremony. “You
+are no courtier, I presume, young gentleman?”
+
+Julian replied in the negative.
+
+“I thought so,” continued the dwarf; “for although I have now no
+official duty at Court, the region in which my early years were spent,
+and where I once held a considerable office, yet I still, when I had my
+liberty, visited the Presence from time to time, as in duty bound for
+former service; and am wont, from old habit, to take some note of the
+courtly gallants, those choice spirits of the age, among whom I was
+once enrolled. You are, not to compliment you, a marked figure, Master
+Peveril--though something of the tallest, as was your father’s case; I
+think, I could scarce have seen you anywhere without remembering you.”
+
+Peveril thought he might, with great justice, have returned the
+compliment, but contented himself with saying, “he had scarce seen the
+British Court.”
+
+“Tis pity,” said Hudson; “a gallant can hardly be formed without
+frequenting it. But you have been perhaps in a rougher school; you have
+served, doubtless?”
+
+“My Maker, I hope,” said Julian.
+
+“Fie on it, you mistake. I meant,” said Hudson, “_á la François_,--you
+have served in the army?”
+
+“No. I have not yet had that honour,” said Julian.
+
+“What! neither courtier nor soldier, Master Peveril?” said the important
+little man: “your father is to blame. By cock and pie he is, Master
+Peveril! How shall a man be known, or distinguished, unless by his
+bearing in peace and war? I tell you, sir, that at Newberry, where I
+charged with my troop abreast with Prince Rupert, and when, as you may
+have heard, we were both beaten off by those cuckoldly hinds the Trained
+Bands of London,--we did what men could; and I think it was a matter of
+three or four minutes after most of our gentlemen had been driven off,
+that his Highness and I continued to cut at their long pikes with
+our swords; and I think might have broken in, but that I had a tall,
+long-legged brute of a horse, and my sword was somewhat short,--in fine,
+at last we were obliged to make volte-face, and then, as I was going to
+say, the fellows were so glad to get rid of us, that they set up a great
+jubilee cry of ‘There goes Prince Robin and Cock Robin!’--Ay, ay, every
+scoundrel among them knew me well. But those days are over.--And where
+were you educated, young gentleman?”
+
+Peveril named the household of the Countess of Derby.
+
+“A most honourable lady, upon my word as a gentleman,” said Hudson.--“I
+knew the noble Countess well when I was about the person of my royal
+mistress, Henrietta Maria. She was then the very muster of all that was
+noble, loyal, and lovely. She was, indeed, one of the fifteen fair ones
+of the Court, whom I permitted to call me Piccoluomini--a foolish jest
+on my somewhat diminutive figure, which always distinguished me from
+ordinary beings, even when I was young--I have now lost much stature by
+stooping; but, always the ladies had their jest at me.--Perhaps, young
+man, I had my own amends of some of them somewhere, and somehow
+or other--I _say_ nothing if I had or no; far less do I insinuate
+disrespect to the noble Countess. She was daughter of the Duc de la
+Tremouille, or, more correctly, des Thouars. But certainly to serve the
+ladies, and condescend to their humours, even when somewhat too free, or
+too fantastic, is the true decorum of gentle blood.”
+
+Depressed as his spirits were, Peveril could scarce forbear smiling when
+he looked at the pigmy creature, who told these stories with infinite
+complacency, and appeared disposed to proclaim, as his own herald, that
+he had been a very model of valour and gallantry, though love and
+arms seemed to be pursuits totally irreconcilable to his shrivelled,
+weather-beaten countenance, and wasted limbs. Julian was, however,
+so careful to avoid giving his companion pain, that he endeavoured
+to humour him, by saying, that, “unquestionably, one bred up like
+Sir Geoffrey Hudson, in court and camps, knew exactly when to suffer
+personal freedoms, and when to control them.”
+
+The little Knight, with great vivacity, though with some difficulty,
+began to drag his seat from the side of the fire opposite to that where
+Julian was seated, and at length succeeded in bringing it near him, in
+token of increasing cordiality.
+
+“You say well, Master Peveril,” said the dwarf; “and I have given proofs
+both of bearing and forbearing. Yes, sir, there was not that thing which
+my most royal mistress, Henrietta Maria, could have required of me, that
+I would not have complied with, sir; I was her sworn servant, both
+in war and in festival, in battle and pageant, sir. At her Majesty’s
+particular request, I once condescended to become--ladies, you know,
+have strange fancies--to become the tenant, for a time, of the interior
+of a pie.”
+
+“Of a pie?” said Julian, somewhat amazed.
+
+“Yes, sir, of a pie. I hope you find nothing risible in my
+complaisance?” replied his companion, something jealously.
+
+“Not I, sir,” said Peveril; “I have other matters than laughter in my
+head at present.”
+
+“So had I,” said the dwarfish champion, “when I found myself imprisoned
+in a huge platter, of no ordinary dimensions you may be assured, since I
+could lie at length in it, and when I was entombed, as it were, in walls
+of standing crust, and a huge cover of pastry, the whole constituting
+a sort of sarcophagus, of size enough to have recorded the epitaph of
+a general officer or an archbishop on the lid. Sir, notwithstanding
+the conveniences which were made to give me air, it was more like being
+buried alive than aught else which I could think of.”
+
+“I conceive it, sir,” said Julian.
+
+“Moreover, sir,” continued the dwarf, “there were few in the secret,
+which was contrived for the Queen’s divertisement; for advancing of
+which I would have crept into a filbert nut, had it been possible;
+and few, as I said, being private in the scheme, there was a risk of
+accidents. I doubted, while in my darksome abode, whether some awkward
+attendant might not have let me fall, as I have seen happen to a venison
+pasty; or whether some hungry guest might not anticipate the moment of
+my resurrection, by sticking his knife into my upper crust. And though I
+had my weapons about me, young man, as has been my custom in every case
+of peril, yet, if such a rash person had plunged deep into the bowels of
+the supposed pasty, my sword and dagger could barely have served me to
+avenge, assuredly not to prevent, either of these catastrophes.”
+
+“Certainly I do so understand it,” said Julian, who began, however, to
+feel that the company of little Hudson, talkative as he showed himself,
+was likely rather to aggravate than to alleviate the inconveniences of a
+prison.
+
+“Nay,” continued the little man, enlarging on his former topic, “I had
+other subjects of apprehension; for it pleased my Lord of Buckingham,
+his Grace’s father who now bears the title, in his plenitude of Court
+favour, to command the pasty to be carried down to the office, and
+committed anew to the oven, alleging preposterously that it was better
+to be eaten warm than cold.”
+
+“And did this, sir, not disturb your equanimity?” said Julian.
+
+“My young friend,” said Geoffrey Hudson, “I cannot deny it.--Nature
+will claim her rights from the best and boldest of us.--I thought
+of Nebuchadnezzar and his fiery furnace; and I waxed warm with
+apprehension.--But, I thank Heaven, I also thought of my sworn duty to
+my royal mistress; and was thereby obliged and enabled to resist all
+temptations to make myself prematurely known. Nevertheless, the Duke--if
+of malice, may Heaven forgive him--followed down into the office
+himself, and urged the master-cook very hard that the pasty should be
+heated, were it but for five minutes. But the master-cook, being privy
+to the very different intentions of my royal mistress, did most manfully
+resist the order; and I was again reconveyed in safety to the royal
+table.”
+
+“And in due time liberated from your confinement, I doubt not?” said
+Peveril.
+
+“Yes, sir; that happy, and I may say, glorious moment, at length
+arrived,” continued the dwarf. “The upper crust was removed--I started
+up to the sound of trumpet and clarion, like the soul of a warrior
+when the last summons shall sound--or rather (if that simile be over
+audacious), like a spell-bound champion relieved from his enchanted
+state. It was then that, with my buckler on my arm, and my trusty Bilboa
+in my hand, I executed a sort of warlike dance, in which my skill and
+agility then rendered me pre-eminent, displaying, at the same time
+my postures, both of defence and offence, in a manner so totally
+inimitable, that I was almost deafened with the applause of all around
+me, and half-drowned by the scented waters with which the ladies of the
+Court deluged me from their casting bottles. I had amends of his Grace
+of Buckingham also; for as I tripped a hasty morris hither and thither
+upon the dining-table, now offering my blade, now recovering it, I
+made a blow at his nose--a sort of estramaçon--the dexterity of which
+consists in coming mighty near to the object you seem to aim at, yet not
+attaining it. You may have seen a barber make such a flourish with his
+razor. I promise you his Grace sprung back a half-yard at least. He was
+pleased to threaten to brain me with a chicken-bone, as he disdainfully
+expressed it; but the King said, ‘George, you have but a Rowland for
+an Oliver.’ And so I tripped on, showing a bold heedlessness of
+his displeasure, which few dared to have done at that time, albeit
+countenanced to the utmost like me by the smiles of the brave and
+the fair. But, well-a-day! sir, youth, its fashions, its follies, its
+frolics, and all its pomp and pride, are as idle and transitory as the
+crackling of thorns under a pot.”
+
+“The flower that is cast into the oven were a better simile,” thought
+Peveril. “Good God, that a man should live to regret not being young
+enough to be still treated as baked meat, and served up in a pie!”
+
+His companion, whose tongue had for many days been as closely imprisoned
+as his person, seemed resolved to indemnify his loquacity, by continuing
+to indulge it on the present occasion at his companion’s expense. He
+proceeded, therefore, in a solemn tone, to moralise on the adventure
+which he had narrated.
+
+“Young men will no doubt think one to be envied,” he said, “who was
+thus enabled to be the darling and admiration of the Court”--(Julian
+internally stood self-exculpated from the suspicion)--“and yet it is
+better to possess fewer means of distinction, and remain free from the
+backbiting, the slander, and the odium, which are always the share
+of Court favour. Men who had no other cause, cast reflections upon me
+because my size varied somewhat from the common proportion; and jests
+were sometimes unthinkingly passed upon me by those I was bound to, who
+did not in that case, peradventure, sufficiently consider that the wren
+is made by the same hand which formed the bustard, and that the diamond,
+though small in size, out-values ten thousand-fold the rude granite.
+Nevertheless, they proceeded in the vein of humour; and as I could not
+in duty or gratitude retort upon nobles and princes, I was compelled
+to cast about in my mind how to vindicate my honour towards those,
+who, being in the same rank with myself, as servants and courtiers,
+nevertheless bore themselves towards me as if they were of a superior
+class in the rank of honour, as well as in the accidental circumstance
+of stature. And as a lesson to my own pride, and that of others, it
+so happened, that the pageant which I have but just narrated--which I
+justly reckon the most honourable moment of my life, excepting perhaps
+my distinguished share in the battle of Round-way-down--became the cause
+of a most tragic event, in which I acknowledge the greatest misfortune
+of my existence.”
+
+The dwarf here paused, fetched a sigh, big at once with regret, and with
+the importance becoming the subject of a tragic history; then proceeded
+as follows:--
+
+“You would have thought in your simplicity, young gentleman, that
+the pretty pageant I have mentioned could only have been quoted to my
+advantage, as a rare masking frolic, prettily devised, and not less
+deftly executed; and yet the malice of the courtiers, who maligned and
+envied me, made them strain their wit, and exhaust their ingenuity, in
+putting false and ridiculous constructions upon it. In short, my ears
+were so much offended with allusions to pies, puff-paste, ovens, and
+the like, that I was compelled to prohibit such subject of mirth, under
+penalty of my instant and severe displeasure. But it happ’d there was
+then a gallant about the Court, a man of good quality, son to a knight
+baronet, and in high esteem with the best in that sphere, also a
+familiar friend of mine own, from whom, therefore, I had no reason to
+expect any of that species of gibing which I had intimated my purpose
+to treat as offensive. Howbeit, it pleased the Honourable Mr. Crofts,
+so was this youth called and designed, one night, at the Groom Porter’s
+being full of wine and waggery, to introduce this threadbare subject,
+and to say something concerning a goose-pie, which I could not but
+consider as levelled at me. Nevertheless, I did but calmly and solidly
+pray him to choose a different subject; failing which, I let him know I
+should be sudden in my resentment. Notwithstanding, he continued in the
+same tone, and even aggravated the offence, by speaking of a tomtit, and
+other unnecessary and obnoxious comparisons; whereupon I was compelled
+to send him a cartel, and we met accordingly. Now, as I really loved the
+youth, it was my intention only to correct him by a flesh wound or
+two; and I would willingly that he had named the sword for his weapon.
+Nevertheless, he made pistols his election; and being on horseback, he
+produced by way of his own weapon, a foolish engine, which children are
+wont, in their roguery, to use for spouting water; a--a--in short, I
+forget the name.”
+
+“A squirt, doubtless,” said Peveril, who began to recollect having heard
+something of this adventure.
+
+“You are right,” said the dwarf; “you have indeed the name of the
+little engine, of which I have had experience in passing the yards at
+Westminster.--Well, sir, this token of slight regard compelled me to
+give the gentleman such language, as soon rendered it necessary for him
+to make more serious arms. We fought on horseback--breaking ground, and
+advancing by signal; and, as I never miss aim, I had the misadventure to
+kill the Honourable Master Crofts at the first shot. I would not wish my
+worst foe the pain which I felt, when I saw him reel on his saddle, and
+so fall down to the earth!--and, when I perceived that the life-blood
+was pouring fast, I could not but wish to Heaven that it had been my own
+instead of his. Thus fell youth, hopes, and bravery, a sacrifice to a
+silly and thoughtless jest; yet, alas! wherein had I choice, seeing that
+honour is, as it were, the very breath in our nostrils; and that in no
+sense can we be said to live, if we permit ourselves to be deprived of
+it?”
+
+The tone of feeling in which the dwarfish hero concluded his story, gave
+Julian a better opinion of his heart, and even of his understanding,
+than he had been able to form of one who gloried in having, upon a
+grand occasion, formed the contents of a pasty. He was indeed enabled to
+conjecture that the little champion was seduced into such exhibitions,
+by the necessity attached to his condition, by his own vanity, and by
+the flattery bestowed on him by those who sought pleasure in practical
+jokes. The fate of the unlucky Master Crofts, however, as well as
+various exploits of this diminutive person during the Civil Wars, in
+which he actually, and with great gallantry, commanded a troop of horse,
+rendered most men cautious of openly rallying him; which was indeed the
+less necessary, as, when left alone, he seldom failed voluntarily to
+show himself on the ludicrous side.
+
+At one hour after noon, the turnkey, true to his word, supplied the
+prisoners with a very tolerable dinner and a flask of well-flavoured
+though light claret; which the old man, who was something of a
+bon-vivant, regretted to observe, was nearly as diminutive as himself.
+The evening also passed away, but not without continued symptoms of
+garrulity on the part of Geoffrey Hudson.
+
+It is true these were of a graver character than he had hitherto
+exhibited, for when the flask was empty, he repeated a long Latin
+prayer. But the religious act in which he had been engaged, only gave
+his discourse a more serious turn than belonged to his former themes, of
+war, lady’s love, and courtly splendour.
+
+The little Knight harangued, at first on polemical points of divinity,
+and diverged from this thorny path, into the neighbouring and twilight
+walk of mysticism. He talked of secret warnings--of the predictions
+of sad-eyed prophets--of the visits of monitory spirits, and the
+Rosicrucian secrets of the Cabala; all which topics he treated of
+with such apparent conviction, nay, with so many appeals to personal
+experience, that one would have supposed him a member of the fraternity
+of gnomes, or fairies, whom he resembled so much in point of size.
+
+In short, he persevered for a stricken hour in such a torrent of
+unnecessary tattle, as determined Peveril, at all events, to endeavour
+to procure a separate lodging. Having repeated his evening prayers in
+Latin, as formerly (for the old gentleman was a Catholic, which was the
+sole cause of his falling under suspicion), he set off on a new score,
+as they were undressing, and continued to prattle until he had fairly
+talked both himself and his companion to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+              Of airy tongues that syllable men’s names.
+                                                   --COMUS.
+
+Julian had fallen asleep, with his brain rather filled with his own sad
+reflections, than with the mystical lore of the little Knight; and yet
+it seemed as if in his visions the latter had been more present to his
+mind than the former.
+
+He dreamed of gliding spirits, gibbering phantoms, bloody hands, which,
+dimly seen by twilight, seemed to beckon him forward like errant-knight
+on sad adventure bound. More than once he started from his sleep, so
+lively was the influence of these visions on his imagination; and he
+always awaked under the impression that some one stood by his bedside.
+The chillness of his ankles, the weight and clatter of the fetters, as
+he turned himself on his pallet, reminded him on these occasions where
+he was, and under what circumstances. The extremity to which he saw all
+that was dear to him at present reduced, struck a deeper cold on his
+heart than the iron upon his limbs; nor could he compose himself again
+to rest without a mental prayer to Heaven for protection. But when he
+had been for a third time awakened from repose by these thick-stirring
+fancies, his distress of mind vented itself in speech, and he was unable
+to suppress the almost despairing ejaculation, “God have mercy upon us!”
+
+“Amen!” answered a voice as sweet and “soft as honey dew,” which sounded
+as if the words were spoken close by his bedside.
+
+The natural inference was, that Geoffrey Hudson, his companion in
+calamity, had echoed the prayer which was so proper to the situation
+of both. But the tone of voice was so different from the harsh and
+dissonant sounds of the dwarf’s enunciation, that Peveril was impressed
+with the certainty it could not proceed from Hudson. He was struck with
+involuntary terror, for which he could give no sufficient reason; and it
+was not without an effort that he was able to utter the question, “Sir
+Geoffrey, did you speak?”
+
+No answer was returned. He repeated the question louder; and the same
+silver-toned voice, which had formerly said “_Amen_” to his prayers,
+answered to his interrogatory, “Your companion will not awake while I am
+here.”
+
+“And who are you?--What seek you?--How came you into this place?” said
+Peveril, huddling, eagerly, question upon question.
+
+“I am a wretched being, but one who loves you well.--I come for your
+good.--Concern yourself no farther.”
+
+It now rushed on Julian’s mind that he had heard of persons possessed
+of the wonderful talent of counterfeiting sounds to such accuracy, that
+they could impose on their hearers the belief, that they proceeded
+from a point of the apartment entirely opposite to that which the real
+speaker occupied. Persuaded that he had now gained the depth of the
+mystery, he replied, “This trifling, Sir Geoffrey, is unseasonable.
+Say what you have to say in your own voice and manner. These apish
+pleasantries do not become midnight in a Newgate dungeon.”
+
+“But the being who speaks with you,” answered the voice, “is fitted for
+the darkest hour, and the most melancholy haunts.”
+
+Impatient of suspense, and determined to satisfy his curiosity, Julian
+jumped at once from his pallet, hoping to secure the speaker, whose
+voice indicated he was so near. But he altogether failed in his attempt,
+and grasped nothing save thin air.
+
+For a turn or two, Peveril shuffled at random about the room, with his
+arms extended; and then at last recollected, that with the impediment of
+his shackles, and the noise which necessarily accompanied his motions,
+and announced where he was, it would be impossible for him to lay hands
+on any one who might be disposed to keep out of his reach. He therefore
+endeavoured to return to his bed; but, in groping for his way, lighted
+first on that of his fellow-prisoner. The little captive slept deep and
+heavy, as was evinced from his breathing; and upon listening a moment,
+Julian became again certain, either that his companion was the most
+artful of ventriloquists and of dissemblers, or that there was actually
+within the precincts of that guarded chamber, some third being, whose
+very presence there seemed to intimate that it belonged not to the
+ordinary line of humanity.
+
+Julian was no ready believer in the supernatural; but that age was very
+far from being so incredulous concerning ghostly occurrences as our
+own; and it was no way derogatory to his good sense, that he shared the
+prejudices of his time. His hair began to bristle, and the moisture to
+stand on his brow, as he called on his companion to awake, for Heaven’s
+sake.
+
+The dwarf answered--but he spoke without awaking.--“The day may dawn
+and be d--d. Tell the master of the horse I will not go to the hunting,
+unless I have the little black jennet.”
+
+“I tell you,” said Julian, “there is some one in the apartment. Have you
+not a tinder-box to strike a light?”
+
+“I care not how slight my horse be,” replied the slumberer, pursuing
+his own train of ideas, which, doubtless, carried him back to the green
+woods of Windsor, and the royal deer-hunts which he had witnessed there.
+“I am not overweight--I will not ride that great Holstein brute, that
+I must climb up to by a ladder, and then sit on his back like a
+pin-cushion on an elephant.”
+
+Julian at length put his hand to the sleeper’s shoulder, and shook him,
+so as to awake him from his dream; when, after two or three snorts and
+groans, the dwarf asked peevishly, what the devil ailed him?
+
+“The devil himself, for what I know,” said Peveril, “is at this very
+moment in the room here beside us.”
+
+The dwarf on this information started up, crossed himself, and began
+to hammer a flint and steel with all despatch, until he had lighted a
+little piece of candle, which he said was consecrated to Saint Bridget,
+and as powerful as the herb called _fuga dæmonum_, or the liver of the
+fish burnt by Tobit in the house of Raguel, for chasing all goblins, and
+evil or dubious spirits, from the place of its radiance; “if, indeed,”
+ as the dwarf carefully guarded his proposition, “they existed anywhere,
+save in the imagination of his fellow-prisoner.”
+
+Accordingly, the apartment was no sooner enlightened by this holy
+candle’s end, than Julian began to doubt the evidence of his own ears;
+for not only was there no one in the room save Sir Geoffrey Hudson and
+himself, but all the fastenings of the door were so secure, that it
+seemed impossible that they could have been opened and again fixed,
+without a great deal of noise, which, on the last occasion at least,
+could not possibly have escaped his ears, seeing that he must have been
+on his feet, and employed in searching the chamber, when the unknown, if
+an earthly being, was in the act of retreating from it.
+
+Julian gazed for a moment with great earnestness, and no little
+perplexity, first on the bolted door, then on the grated window; and
+began to accuse his own imagination of having played him an unpleasant
+trick. He answered little to the questions of Hudson, and returning
+to his bed, heard, in silence, a long studied oration on the merits of
+Saint Bridget, which comprehended the greater part of her long-winded
+legend, and concluded with the assurance, that, from all accounts
+preserved of her, that holy saint was the least of all possible women,
+except those of the pigmy kind.
+
+By the time the dwarf had ceased to speak, Julian’s desire of sleep had
+returned; and after a few glances around the apartment, which was still
+illuminated by the expiring beams of the holy taper, his eyes were again
+closed in forgetfulness, and his repose was not again disturbed in the
+course of that night.
+
+Morning dawns on Newgate, as well as on the freest mountain-turf which
+Welshman or wild-goat ever trode; but in so different a fashion, that
+the very beams of heaven’s precious sun, when they penetrate into the
+recesses of the prison-house, have the air of being committed to jail.
+Still, with the light of day around him, Peveril easily persuaded
+himself of the vanity of his preceding night’s visions; and smiled when
+he reflected that fancies, similar to those to which his ear was often
+exposed in the Isle of Man, had been able to arrange themselves in a
+manner so impressive, when he heard them from the mouth of so singular a
+character as Hudson, and in the solitude of a prison.
+
+Before Julian had awaked, the dwarf had already quitted his bed, and
+was seated in the chimney-corner of the apartment, where, with his
+own hands, he had arranged a morsel of fire, partly attending to the
+simmering of a small pot, which he had placed on the flame, partly
+occupied with a huge folio volume which lay on the table before him, and
+seemed well-nigh as tall and bulky as himself. He was wrapped up in
+the dusky crimson cloak already mentioned, which served him for
+a morning-gown, as well as a mantle against the cold, and which
+corresponded with a large montero-cap, that enveloped his head. The
+singularity of his features, and of the eyes, armed with spectacles,
+which were now cast on the subject of his studies, now directed towards
+his little cauldron, would have tempted Rembrandt to exhibit him on
+canvas, either in the character of an alchymist, or of a necromancer,
+engaged in some strange experiment, under the direction of one of the
+huge manuals which treat of the theory of these mystic arts.
+
+The attention of the dwarf was bent, however, upon a more domestic
+object. He was only preparing soup, of no unsavoury quality, for
+breakfast, which he invited Peveril to partake with him. “I am an old
+soldier,” he said, “and, I must add, an old prisoner; and understand how
+to shift for myself better than you can do, young man.--Confusion to
+the scoundrel Clink, he has put the spice-box out of my reach!--Will you
+hand it me from the mantelpiece?--I will teach you, as the French have
+it, _faire la cuisine;_ and then, if you please, we will divide, like
+brethren, the labours of our prison house.”
+
+Julian readily assented to the little man’s friendly proposal, without
+interposing any doubt as to his continuing an inmate of the same cell.
+Truth is, that although, upon the whole, he was inclined to regard the
+whispering voice of the preceding evening as the impression of his own
+excited fancy, he felt, nevertheless, curiosity to see how a second
+night was to pass over in the same cell; and the tone of the invisible
+intruder, which at midnight had been heard by him with terror, now
+excited, on recollection, a gentle and not unpleasing species of
+agitation--the combined effect of awe, and of awakened curiosity.
+
+Days of captivity have little to mark them as they glide away.
+That which followed the night which we have described afforded no
+circumstance of note. The dwarf imparted to his youthful companion a
+volume similar to that which formed his own studies, and which proved to
+be a tome of one of Scuderi’s now forgotten romances, of which Geoffrey
+Hudson was a great admirer, and which were then very fashionable both at
+the French and English Courts; although they contrive to unite in
+their immense folios all the improbabilities and absurdities of the old
+romances of chivalry, without that tone of imagination which pervades
+them, and all the metaphysical absurdities which Cowley and the poets of
+the age had heaped upon the passion of love, like so many load of small
+coal upon a slender fire, which it smothers instead of aiding.
+
+But Julian had no alternative, saving only to muse over the sorrows
+of Artamenes and Mandane, or on the complicated distresses of his own
+situation; and in these disagreeable divertisements, the morning crept
+through as it could.
+
+Noon first, and thereafter nightfall, were successively marked by a
+brief visit from their stern turnkey, who, with noiseless step and
+sullen demeanour, did in silence the necessary offices about the meals
+of the prisoners, exchanging with them as few words as an official in
+the Spanish Inquisition might have permitted himself upon a similar
+occasion. With the same taciturn gravity, very different from the
+laughing humour into which he had been surprised on a former occasion,
+he struck their fetters with a small hammer, to ascertain, by the sound
+thus produced, whether they had been tampered with by file or otherwise.
+He next mounted on a table, to make the same experiment on the
+window-grating.
+
+Julian’s heart throbbed; for might not one of those grates have been so
+tampered with as to give entrance to the nocturnal visitant? But they
+returned to the experienced ear of Master Clink, when he struck them in
+turn with the hammer, a clear and ringing sound, which assured him of
+their security.
+
+“It would be difficult for any one to get in through these defences,”
+ said Julian, giving vent in words to his own feelings.
+
+“Few wish that,” answered the surly groom, misconstruing what was
+passing in Peveril’s mind; “and let me tell you, master, folks will find
+it quite as difficult to get out.” He retired, and night came on.
+
+The dwarf, who took upon himself for the day the whole duties of the
+apartment, trundled about the room, making a most important clatter as
+he extinguished their fire, and put aside various matters which had been
+in use in the course of the day, talking to himself all the while in a
+tone of no little consequence, occasionally grounded on the dexterity
+with which an old soldier could turn his hand to anything. Then came the
+repetition of his accustomed prayers; but his disposition to converse
+did not, as on the former occasion, revive after his devotions. On the
+contrary, long before Julian had closed an eye, the heavy breathing from
+Sir Geoffrey Hudson’s pallet declared that the dwarf was already in the
+arms of Morpheus.
+
+Amid the total darkness of the apartment, and with a longing desire,
+and at the same time no small fear, for the recurrence of the mysterious
+address of the preceding evening, Julian lay long awake without his
+thoughts receiving any interruption save when the clock told the passing
+hour from the neighbouring steeple of St. Sepulchre. At length he sunk
+into slumber; but had not slept to his judgment above an hour, when he
+was roused by the sound which his waking ear had so long expected in
+vain.
+
+“Can you sleep?--Will you sleep?--Dare you sleep?” were the questions
+impressed on his ear, in the same clear, soft, and melodious voice,
+which had addressed him on the preceding night.
+
+“Who is it asks me the question?” answered Julian. “But be the
+questioner good or evil, I reply that I am a guiltless prisoner; and
+that innocence may wish and dare to sleep soundly.”
+
+“Ask no questions of me,” said the voice; “neither attempt to discover
+who speaks to you; and be assured that folly alone can sleep, with fraud
+around and danger before him.”
+
+“Can you, who tell me of dangers, counsel me how to combat or how to
+avoid them?” said Julian.
+
+“My power is limited,” said the voice; “yet something I can do, as the
+glow-worm can show a precipice. But you must confide in me.”
+
+“Confidence must beget confidence,” answered Julian. “I cannot repose
+trust in I know not what or whom.”
+
+“Speak not so loud,” replied the voice, sinking almost into a whisper.
+
+“Last night you said my companion would not awake,” said Julian.
+
+“To-night I warrant not that he shall sleep,” said the voice. And as it
+spoke, the hoarse, snatching, discordant tones of the dwarf were heard,
+demanding of Julian why he talked in his sleep--wherefore he did not
+rest himself, and let other people rest--and, finally, whether his
+visions of last night were returned upon him again?
+
+“Say yes,” said the voice in a whisper, so low, yet so distinct,
+that Julian almost doubted whether it was not an echo of his own
+thought.--“Say but yes--and I part to return no more!”
+
+In desperate circumstances men look to strange and unusual remedies;
+and although unable to calculate the chances of advantage which this
+singular communication opened to him, Julian did not feel inclined to
+let them at once escape from him. He answered the dwarf, that he had
+been troubled by an alarming dream.
+
+“I could have sworn it, from the sound of your voice,” said Hudson.
+“It is strange, now, that you overgrown men never possess the extreme
+firmness of nerves proper to us who are cast in a more compact mould.
+My own voice retains its masculine sounds on all occasions. Dr. Cockerel
+was of opinion, that there was the same allowance of nerve and sinew
+to men of every size, and that nature spun the stock out thinner or
+stronger, according to the extent of surface which they were to cover.
+Hence, the least creatures are oftentimes the strongest. Place a beetle
+under a tall candlestick, and the insect will move it by its efforts
+to get out; which is, in point of comparative strength, as if one of us
+should shake his Majesty’s prison of Newgate by similar struggles. Cats
+also, and weasels, are creatures of greater exertion or endurance than
+dogs or sheep. And in general, you may remark, that little men dance
+better, and are more unwearied under exertion of every kind, than those
+to whom their own weight must necessarily be burdensome. I respect you,
+Master Peveril, because I am told you have killed one of those gigantic
+fellows, who go about swaggering as if their souls were taller than
+ours, because their noses are nearer to the clouds by a cubit or two.
+But do not value yourself on this as anything very unusual. I would have
+you to know it hath been always thus; and that, in the history of all
+ages, the clean, tight, dapper little fellow, hath proved an overmatch
+for his bulky antagonist. I need only instance out of Holy Writ, the
+celebrated downfall of Goliah, and of another lubbard, who had more
+fingers to his hand, and more inches to his stature, than ought to
+belong to an honest man, and who was slain by a nephew of good King
+David; and of many others whom I do not remember; nevertheless they were
+all Philistines of gigantic stature. In the classics, also, you have
+Tydeus, and other tight, compact heroes, whose diminutive bodies were
+the abode of large minds. And indeed you may observe, in sacred as well
+as profane history, that your giants are ever heretics and blasphemers,
+robbers and oppressors, outragers of the female sex, and scoffers
+at regular authority. Such were Gog and Magog, whom our authentic
+chronicles vouch to have been slain near to Plymouth, by the good little
+Knight Corineus, who gave name to Cornwall. Ascaparte also was subdued
+by Bevis, and Colbrand by Guy, as Southampton and Warwick can testify.
+Like unto these was the giant Hoel, slain in Bretagne by King Arthur.
+And if Ryence, King of North Wales, who was done to death by the same
+worthy champion of Christendom, be not actually termed a giant, it is
+plain he was little better, since he required twenty-four kings’ beards,
+which were then worn full and long, to fur his gown; whereby computing
+each beard at eighteen inches (and you cannot allow less for a
+beard-royal), and supposing only the front of the gown trimmed
+therewith, as we use ermine; and that the back was mounted and lined,
+instead of cat-skins and squirrels’ fur, with the beards of earls and
+dukes, and other inferior dignitaries--may amount to--But I will work
+the question to-morrow.”
+
+Nothing is more soporific to any (save a philosopher or moneyed
+man) than the operation of figures; and when in bed, the effect is
+irresistible. Sir Geoffrey fell asleep in the act of calculating King
+Ryence’s height, from the supposed length of his mantle. Indeed, had
+he not stumbled on this abstruse subject of calculation, there is no
+guessing how long he might have held forth upon the superiority of
+men of little stature, which was so great a favourite with him, that,
+numerous as such narratives are, the dwarf had collected almost all
+the instances of their victories over giants, which history or romance
+afforded.
+
+No sooner had unequivocal signs of the dwarf’s sound slumbers reached
+Julian’s ears, than he began to listen eagerly for the renewal of that
+mysterious communication which was at once interesting and awful. Even
+whilst Hudson was speaking, he had, instead of bestowing his attention
+upon his eulogy on persons of low statue, kept his ears on watchful
+guard to mark if possible, the lightest sounds of any sort which might
+occur in the apartment; so that he thought it scarce possible that
+even a fly should have left it withouts its motion being overheard. If,
+therefore, his invisible monitor was indeed a creature of this
+world--an opinion which Julian’s sound sense rendered him unwilling to
+renounce--that being could not have left the apartment; and he waited
+impatiently for a renewal of their communication. He was disappointed;
+not the slightest sound reached his ear; and the nocturnal visitor, if
+still in the room, appeared determined on silence.
+
+It was in vain that Peveril coughed, hemmed, and gave other symptoms of
+being awake; at length, such became his impatience, that he resolved, at
+any risk, to speak first, in hopes of renewing the communication betwixt
+them. “Whoever thou art,” he said, in a voice loud enough to be heard
+by a waking person, but not so high as to disturb his sleeping
+companion--“Whoever, or whatever thou art, thou hast shown some interest
+in the fate of such a castaway as Julian Peveril, speak once more, I
+conjure thee; and be your communication for good or evil, believe me, I
+am equally prepared to abide the issue.”
+
+No answer of any kind was returned to this invocation; nor did the least
+sound intimate the presence of the being to whom it was so solemnly
+addressed.
+
+“I speak in vain,” said Julian; “and perhaps I am but invoking that
+which is insensible of human feeling, or which takes a malign pleasure
+in human suffering.”
+
+There was a gentle and half-broken sigh from a corner of the apartment,
+which, answering to this exclamation, seemed to contradict the
+imputation which it conveyed.
+
+Julian, naturally courageous, and familiarised by this time to his
+situation, raised himself in bed, and stretched out his arm, to repeat
+his adjuration, when the voice, as if alarmed at his action and energy,
+whispered, in a tone more hurried than that which it had hitherto used,
+“Be still--move not--or I am mute for ever!”
+
+“It is then a mortal being who is present with me,” was the natural
+inference of Julian, “and one who is probably afraid of being detected;
+I have then some power over my visitor, though I must be cautious how I
+use it.--If your intents are friendly,” he proceeded, “there was never
+a time in which I lacked friends more, or would be more grateful for
+kindness. The fate of all who are dear to me is weighed in the balance,
+and with worlds would I buy the tidings of their safety.”
+
+“I have said my power is limited,” replied the voice. “_You_ I may be
+able to preserve--the fate of your friends is beyond my control.”
+
+“Let me at least know it,” said Julian; “and, be it as it may, I will
+not shun to share it.”
+
+“For whom would you inquire?” said the soft, sweet voice, not without
+a tremulousness of accent, as if the question was put with diffident
+reluctance.
+
+“My parents,” said Julian, after a moment’s hesitation; “how fare
+they?--What will be their fate?”
+
+“They fare as the fort under which the enemy has dug a deadly mine. The
+work may have cost the labour of years, such were the impediments to the
+engineers; but Time brings opportunity upon its wings.”
+
+“And what will be the event?” said Peveril.
+
+“Can I read the future,” answered the voice, “save by comparison with
+past?--Who has been hunted on these stern and unmitigable accusations,
+but has been at last brought to bay? Did high and noble birth, honoured
+age, and approved benevolence, save the unfortunate Lord Stafford? Did
+learning, capacity of intrigue, or high Court favour, redeem Coleman,
+although the confidential servant of the heir presumptive of the Crown
+of England?--Did subtilty and genius, and exertions of a numerous sect,
+save Fenwicke, or Whitbread, or any other of the accused priests?--Were
+Groves, Pickering, or the other humble wretches who have suffered, safe
+in their obscurity? There is no condition in life, no degree of talent,
+no form of principle, which affords protection against an accusation,
+which levels conditions, confounds characters, renders men’s virtues
+their sins, and rates them as dangerous in proportion as they have
+influence, though attained in the noblest manner, and used for the
+best purposes. Call such a one but an accessory to the Plot--let him
+be mouthed in the evidence of Oates or Dugdale--and the blindest shall
+foresee the issue of their trial.”
+
+“Prophet of Evil!” said Julian, “my father has a shield invulnerable to
+protect him. He is innocent.”
+
+“Let him plead his innocence at the bar of Heaven,” said the voice; “it
+will serve him little where Scroggs presides.”
+
+“Still I fear not,” said Julian, counterfeiting more confidence than
+he really possessed; “my father’s cause will be pleaded before twelve
+Englishmen.”
+
+“Better before twelve wild beasts,” answered the Invisible, “than before
+Englishmen, influenced with party prejudice, passion, and epidemic
+terror of an imaginary danger. They are bold in guilt in proportion to
+the number amongst whom the crime is divided.”
+
+“Ill-omened speaker,” said Julian, “thine is indeed a voice fitted
+only to sound with the midnight bell, and the screeching owl. Yet
+speak again. Tell me, if thou canst”--(He would have said of Alice
+Bridgenorth, but the word would not leave his tongue)--“Tell me,” he
+said, “if the noble house of Derby----”
+
+“Let them keep their rock like the sea-fowl in the tempest; and it may
+so fall out,” answered the voice, “that their rock may be a safe refuge.
+But there is blood on their ermine; and revenge has dogged them for many
+a year, like a bloodhound that hath been distanced in the morning
+chase, but may yet grapple the quarry ere the sun shall set. At present,
+however, they are safe.--Am I now to speak farther on your own affairs,
+which involve little short of your life and honour?”
+
+“There is,” said Julian, “one, from whom I was violently parted
+yesterday; if I knew but of her safety, I were little anxious for my
+own.”
+
+“One!” returned the voice, “only _one_ from whom you were parted
+yesterday?”
+
+“But in parting from whom,” said Julian, “I felt separated from all
+happiness which the world can give me.”
+
+“You mean Alice Bridgenorth,” said the Invisible, with some bitterness
+of accent; “but her you will never see more. Your own life and hers
+depend on your forgetting each other.”
+
+“I cannot purchase my own life at that price,” replied Julian.
+
+“Then DIE in your obstinacy,” returned the Invisible; nor to all the
+entreaties which he used was he able obtain another word in the course
+of that remarkable night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+               A short hough’d man, but full of pride.
+                                           --ALLAN RAMSAY.
+
+The blood of Julian Peveril was so much fevered by the state in which
+his invisible visitor left him, that he was unable, for a length of
+time, to find repose. He swore to himself, that he would discover and
+expose the nocturnal demon which stole on his hours of rest, only to add
+gall to bitterness, and to pour poison into those wounds which already
+smarted so severely. There was nothing which his power extended to,
+that, in his rage, he did not threaten. He proposed a closer and a more
+rigorous survey of his cell, so that he might discover the mode by which
+his tormentor entered, were it as unnoticeable as an auger-hole. If his
+diligence should prove unavailing, he determined to inform the jailers,
+to whom it could not be indifferent to know, that their prison was open
+to such intrusions. He proposed to himself, to discover from their looks
+whether they were already privy to these visits; and if so, to denounce
+them to the magistrates, to the judges, to the House of Commons, was the
+least that his resentment proposed. Sleep surprised his worn-out
+frame in the midst of his projects of discovery and vengeance, and, as
+frequently happens, the light of the ensuing day proved favourable to
+calmer resolutions.
+
+He now reflected that he had no ground to consider the motives of his
+visitor as positively malevolent, although he had afforded him little
+encouragement to hope for assistance on the points he had most at heart.
+Towards himself, there had been expressed a decided feeling, both of
+sympathy and interest; if through means of these he could acquire his
+liberty, he might, when possessed of freedom, turn it to the benefit of
+those for whom he was more interested than for his own welfare. “I have
+behaved like a fool,” he said; “I ought to have temporised with this
+singular being, learned the motives of its interference, and availed
+myself of its succour, provided I could do so without any dishonourable
+conditions. It would have been always time enough to reject such when
+they should have been proposed to me.”
+
+So saying, he was forming projects for regulating his intercourse with
+the stranger more prudently, in case their communication should be
+renewed, when his meditations were interrupted by the peremptory summons
+of Sir Geoffrey Hudson, that he would, in his turn, be pleased to
+perform those domestic duties of their common habitation, which the
+dwarf had yesterday taken upon himself.
+
+There was no resisting a request so reasonable, and Peveril accordingly
+rose and betook himself to the arrangement of their prison, while Sir
+Hudson, perched upon a stool from which his legs did not by half-way
+reach the ground, sat in a posture of elegant languor, twangling upon
+an old broken-winded guitar, and singing songs in Spanish, Moorish,
+and Lingua Franca, most detestably out of tune. He failed not, at the
+conclusion of each ditty, to favour Julian with some account of what he
+had sung, either in the way of translation, or historical anecdote, or
+as the lay was connected with some peculiar part of his own eventful
+history, in the course of which the poor little man had chanced to have
+been taken by a Sallee rover, and carried captive into Morocco.
+
+This part of his life Hudson used to make the era of many strange
+adventures; and, if he could himself be believed, he had made wild work
+among the affections of the Emperor’s seraglio. But, although few were
+in a situation to cross-examine him on gallantries and intrigues of
+which the scene was so remote, the officers of the garrison of Tangier
+had a report current amongst them, that the only use to which the
+tyrannical Moors could convert a slave of such slender corporeal
+strength, was to employ him to lie a-bed all day and hatch turkey’s
+eggs. The least allusion to this rumour used to drive him well-nigh
+frantic, and the fatal termination of his duel with young Crofts, which
+began in wanton mirth, and ended in bloodshed, made men more coy than
+they had formerly been, of making the fiery little hero the subject of
+their raillery.
+
+While Peveril did the drudgery of the apartment, the dwarf remained
+much at his ease, carolling in the manner we have described; but when
+he beheld Julian attempting the task of the cook, Sir Geoffrey Hudson
+sprang from the stool on which he sat _en Signor_, at the risk of
+breaking both his guitar and his neck, exclaiming, “That he would rather
+prepare breakfast every morning betwixt this and the day of judgment,
+than commit a task of such consequence to an inexperienced bungler like
+his companion.”
+
+The young man gladly resigned his task to the splenetic little Knight,
+and only smiled at his resentment when he added, that, to be but a
+mortal of middle stature, Julian was as stupid as a giant. Leaving
+the dwarf to prepare the meal after his own pleasure, Peveril employed
+himself in measuring the room with his eyes on every side, and in
+endeavouring to discover some private entrance, such as might admit his
+midnight visitant, and perhaps could be employed in case of need for
+effecting his own escape. The floor next engaged a scrutiny equally
+minute, but more successful.
+
+Close by his own pallet, and dropped in such a manner that he must have
+seen it sooner but for the hurry with which he obeyed the summons of
+the impatient dwarf, lay a slip of paper, sealed, and directed with the
+initial letters, J.P., which seemed to ascertain that it was addressed
+to himself. He took the opportunity of opening it while the soup was in
+the very moment of projection, and the full attention of his companion
+was occupied by what he, in common with wiser and taller men, considered
+as one of the principal occupations of life; so that, without incurring
+his observation or awaking his curiosity, Julian had the opportunity to
+read as follows:--
+
+
+ “Rash and infatuated as you are, there is one who would forfeit
+  much to stand betwixt you and your fate. You are to-morrow to be
+  removed to the Tower, where your life cannot be assured for a
+  single day; for, during the few hours you have been in London, you
+  have provoked a resentment which is not easily slaked. There is
+  but one chance for you,--renounce A.B.--think no more of her. If
+  that be impossible, think of her but as one whom you can never see
+  again. If your heart can resolve to give up an attachment which it
+  should never have entertained, and which it would be madness to
+  cherish longer, make your acquiescence in this condition known by
+  putting on your hat a white band, or white feather, or knot of
+  ribbon of the same colour, whichever you may most easily come by.
+  A boat will, in that case, run, as if by accident, on board of
+  that which is to convey you to the Tower. Do you in the confusion
+  jump overboard, and swim to the Southwark side of the Thames.
+  Friends will attend there to secure your escape, and you will find
+  yourself with one who will rather lose character and life, than
+  that a hair of your head should fall to the ground; but who, if
+  you reject the warning, can only think of you as of the fool who
+  perishes in his folly. May Heaven guide you to a sound judgment of
+  your condition! So prays one who would be your friend, if you
+  pleased,
+                                                   “UNKNOWN.”
+
+
+The Tower!--it was a word of terror, even more so than a civil prison;
+for how many passages to death did that dark structure present! The
+severe executions which it had witnessed in preceding reigns, were not
+perhaps more numerous than the secret murders which had taken place
+within its walls; yet Peveril did not a moment hesitate on the part
+which he had to perform. “I will share my father’s fate,” he said; “I
+thought but of him when they brought me hither; I will think of
+nothing else when they convey me to yonder still more dreadful place
+of confinement; it is his, and it is but meet that it should be his
+son’s.--And thou, Alice Bridgenorth, the day that I renounce thee, may I
+be held alike a traitor and a dastard!--Go, false adviser, and share the
+fate of seducers and heretical teachers!”
+
+He could not help uttering this last expression aloud, as he threw the
+billet into the fire, with a vehemence which made the dwarf start with
+surprise. “What say you of burning heretics, young man?” he exclaimed;
+“by my faith, your zeal must be warmer than mine, if you talk on such a
+subject when the heretics are the prevailing number. May I measure six
+feet without my shoes, but the heretics would have the best of it if we
+came to that work. Beware of such words.”
+
+“Too late to beware of words spoken and heard,” said the turnkey, who,
+opening the door with unusual precautions to avoid noise, had stolen
+unperceived into the room; “However, Master Peveril has behaved like a
+gentlemen, and I am no tale-bearer, on condition he will consider I have
+had trouble in his matters.”
+
+Julian had no alternative but to take the fellow’s hint and administer a
+bribe, with which Master Clink was so well satisfied, that he exclaimed,
+“It went to his heart to take leave of such a kind-natured gentleman,
+and that he could have turned the key on him for twenty years with
+pleasure. But the best friends must part.”
+
+“I am to be removed, then?” said Julian.
+
+“Ay, truly, master, the warrant is come from the Council.”
+
+“To convey me to the Tower.”
+
+“Whew!” exclaimed the officer of the law--“who the devil told you that?
+But since you do know it, there is no harm to say ay. So make yourself
+ready to move immediately; and first, hold out your dew-beaters till I
+take off the darbies.”
+
+“Is that usual?” said Peveril, stretching out his feet as the fellow
+directed, while his fetters were unlocked.
+
+“Why, ay, master, these fetters belong to the keeper; they are not
+a-going to send them to the Lieutenant, I trow. No, no, the warders
+must bring their own gear with them; they get none here, I promise them.
+Nevertheless, if your honour hath a fancy to go in fetters, as thinking
+it may move compassion of your case----”
+
+“I have no intention to make my case seem worse than it is,” said
+Julian; whilst at the same time it crossed his mind that his anonymous
+correspondent must be well acquainted both with his own personal habits,
+since the letter proposed a plan of escape which could only be executed
+by a bold swimmer, and with the fashions of prison, since it was
+foreseen that he would not be ironed on his passage to the Tower. The
+turnkey’s next speech made him carry conjecture still farther.
+
+“There is nothing in life I would not do for so brave a guest,” said
+Clink; “I would nab one of my wife’s ribbons for you, if your honour had
+the fancy to mount the white flag in your beaver.”
+
+“To what good purpose?” said Julian, shortly connecting, as was natural,
+the man’s proposed civility with the advice given and the signal
+prescribed in the letter.
+
+“Nay, to no good purpose I know of,” said the turnkey; “only it is the
+fashion to seem white and harmless--a sort of token of not-guiltiness,
+as I may say, which folks desire to show the world, whether they be
+truly guilty or not; but I cannot say that guiltiness or not-guiltiness
+argufies much, saving they be words in the verdict.”
+
+“Strange,” thought Peveril, although the man seemed to speak quite
+naturally, and without any double meaning, “strange that all should
+apparently combine to realise the plan of escape, could I but give my
+consent to it! And had I not better consent? Whoever does so much for
+me must wish me well, and a well-wisher would never enforce the unjust
+conditions on which I am required to consent to my liberation.”
+
+But this misgiving of his resolution was but for a moment. He speedily
+recollected, that whoever aided him in escaping, must be necessarily
+exposed to great risk, and had a right to name the stipulation on
+which he was willing to incur it. He also recollected that falsehood is
+equally base, whether expressed in words or in dumb show; and that he
+should lie as flatly by using the signal agreed upon in evidence of his
+renouncing Alice Bridgenorth, as he would in direct terms if he made
+such renunciation without the purpose of abiding by it.
+
+“If you would oblige me,” he said to the turnkey, “let me have a piece
+of black silk or crape for the purpose you mention.”
+
+“Of crape!” said the fellow; “what should that signify? Why, the bien
+morts, who bing out to tour at you,[*] will think you a chimney-sweeper
+on Mayday.”
+
+     [*] The smart girls, who turn out to look at you.
+
+“It will show my settled sorrow,” said Julian, “as well as my determined
+resolution.”
+
+“As you will, sir,” answered the fellow; “I’ll provide you with a black
+rag of some kind or other. So, now; let us be moving.”
+
+Julian intimated his readiness to attend him, and proceeded to bid
+farewell to his late companion, the stout Geoffrey Hudson. The parting
+was not without emotion on both sides, more particularly on that of the
+poor little man, who had taken a particular liking to the companion of
+whom he was now about to be deprived. “Fare ye well,” he said, “my young
+friend,” taking Julian’s hand in both his own uplifted palms, in which
+action he somewhat resembled the attitude of a sailor pulling a rope
+overhead,--“Many in my situation would think himself wronged, as a
+soldier and servant of the king’s chamber, in seeing you removed to a
+more honourable prison than that which I am limited unto. But, I thank
+God, I grudge you not the Tower, nor the rocks of Scilly, nor even
+Carisbrooke Castle, though the latter was graced with the captivity of
+my blessed and martyred master. Go where you will, I wish you all
+the distinction of an honourable prison-house, and a safe and speedy
+deliverance in God’s own time. For myself, my race is near a close, and
+that because I fall martyr to the over-tenderness of my own heart. There
+is a circumstance, good Master Julian Peveril, which should have been
+yours, had Providence permitted our farther intimacy, but it fits not
+the present hour. Go, then, my friend, and bear witness in life and
+death, that Geoffrey Hudson scorns the insults and persecutions of
+fortune, as he would despise, and has often despised, the mischievous
+pranks of an overgrown schoolboy.”
+
+So saying, he turned away, and hid his face with his little
+handkerchief, while Julian felt towards him that tragi-comic sensation
+which makes us pity the object which excites it, not the less that we
+are somewhat inclined to laugh amid our sympathy. The jailer made him
+a signal, which Peveril obeyed, leaving the dwarf to disconsolate
+solitude.
+
+As Julian followed the keeper through the various windings of his penal
+labyrinth, the man observed, that “he was a rum fellow, that little Sir
+Geoffrey, and, for gallantry, a perfect Cock of Bantam, for as old as he
+was. There was a certain gay wench,” he said, “that had hooked him; but
+what she could make of him, save she carried him to Smithfield, and took
+money for him, as for a motion of puppets, it was,” he said, “hard to
+gather.”
+
+Encouraged by this opening, Julian asked if his attendant knew why
+his prison was changed. “To teach you to become a King’s post without
+commission,” answered the fellow.
+
+He stopped in his tattle as they approached that formidable central
+point, in which lay couched on his leathern elbow-chair the fat
+commander of the fortress, stationed apparently for ever in the midst
+of his citadel, as the huge Boa is sometimes said to lie stretched as a
+guard upon the subterranean treasures of Eastern Rajas. This overgrown
+man of authority eyed Julian wistfully and sullenly, as the miser the
+guinea which he must part with, or the hungry mastiff the food which is
+carried to another kennel. He growled to himself as he turned the leaves
+of his ominous register, in order to make the necessary entry respecting
+the removal of his prisoner. “To the Tower--to the Tower--ay, ay, all
+must to the Tower--that’s the fashion of it--free Britons to a military
+prison, as if we had neither bolts nor chains here!--I hope Parliament
+will have it up, this Towering work, that’s all.--Well, the youngster
+will take no good by the change, and that is one comfort.”
+
+Having finished at once his official act of registration, and his
+soliloquy, he made a signal to his assistants to remove Julian, who
+was led along the same stern passages which he had traversed upon his
+entrance, to the gate of the prison, whence a coach, escorted by two
+officers of justice, conveyed him to the water-side.
+
+A boat here waited him, with four warders of the Tower, to whose custody
+he was formally resigned by his late attendants. Clink, however, the
+turnkey, with whom he was more especially acquainted, did not take leave
+of him without furnishing him with the piece of black crape which he
+requested. Peveril fixed it on his hat amid the whispers of his new
+guardians. “The gentleman is in a hurry to go into mourning,” said one;
+“mayhap he had better wait till he has cause.”
+
+“Perhaps others may wear mourning for him, ere he can mourn for any
+one,” answered another of these functionaries.
+
+Yet notwithstanding the tenor of these whispers, their behaviour to
+their prisoner was more respectful than he had experienced from his
+former keepers, and might be termed a sullen civility. The ordinary
+officers of the law were in general rude, as having to do with felons
+of every description; whereas these men were only employed with persons
+accused of state crimes--men who were from birth and circumstances
+usually entitled to expect, and able to reward, decent usage.
+
+The change of keepers passed unnoticed by Julian, as did the gay and
+busy scene presented by the broad and beautiful river on which he was
+now launched. A hundred boats shot past them, bearing parties intent on
+business, or on pleasure. Julian only viewed them with the stern hope,
+that whoever had endeavoured to bribe him from his fidelity by the
+hope of freedom, might see, from the colour of the badge which he had
+assumed, how determined he was to resist the temptation presented to
+him.
+
+It was about high-water, and a stout wherry came up the river, with sail
+and oar, so directly upon that in which Julian was embarked, that it
+seemed as if likely to run her aboard. “Get your carabines ready,”
+ cried the principal warder to his assistants. “What the devil can these
+scoundrels mean?”
+
+But the crew in the other boat seemed to have perceived their error,
+for they suddenly altered their course, and struck off into the middle
+stream, while a torrent of mutual abuse was exchanged betwixt them and
+the boat whose course they had threatened to impede.
+
+“The Unknown has kept his faith,” said Julian to himself; “I too have
+kept mine.”
+
+It even seemed to him, as the boats neared each other, that he heard,
+from the other wherry, something like a stifled scream or groan; and
+when the momentary bustle was over, he asked the warder who sat next
+him, what boat that was.
+
+“Men-of-war’s-men, on a frolic, I suppose,” answered the warder. “I know
+no one else would be so impudent as run foul of the King’s boat; for I
+am sure the fellow put the helm up on purpose. But mayhap you, sir, know
+more of the matter than I do.”
+
+This insinuation effectually prevented Julian from putting farther
+questions, and he remained silent until the boat came under the dusky
+bastions of the Tower. The tide carried them up under a dark and
+lowering arch, closed at the upper end by the well-known Traitor’s
+gate,[*] formed like a wicket of huge intersecting bars of wood, through
+which might be seen a dim and imperfect view of soldiers and warders
+upon duty, and of the steep ascending causeway which leads up from the
+river into the interior of the fortress. By this gate,--and it is the
+well-known circumstance which assigned its name,--those accused of state
+crimes were usually committed to the Tower. The Thames afforded a secret
+and silent mode of conveyance for transporting thither such whose fallen
+fortunes might move the commiseration, or whose popular qualities might
+excite the sympathy, of the public; and even where no cause for especial
+secrecy existed, the peace of the city was undisturbed by the tumult
+attending the passage of the prisoner and his guards through the most
+frequented streets.
+
+     [*] See note, “Fortunes of Nigel.”
+
+Yet this custom, however recommended by state policy, must have often
+struck chill upon the heart of the criminal, who thus, stolen, as it
+were, out of society, reached the place of his confinement, without
+encountering even one glance of compassion on the road; and as, from
+under the dusky arch, he landed on those flinty steps, worn by many a
+footstep anxious as his own, against which the tide lapped fitfully with
+small successive waves, and hence looked forward to the steep ascent
+into a Gothic state prison, and backward to such part of the river as
+the low-brow’d vault suffered to become visible, he must often have felt
+that he was leaving daylight, hope, and life itself, behind him.
+
+While the warder’s challenge was made and answered, Peveril endeavoured
+to obtain information from his conductors where he was likely to be
+confined; but the answer was brief and general--“Where the Lieutenant
+should direct.”
+
+“Could he not be permitted to share the imprisonment of his father, Sir
+Geoffrey Peveril?” He forgot not, on this occasion, to add the surname
+of his house.
+
+The warder, an old man of respectable appearance, stared, as if at the
+extravagance of the demand, and said bluntly, “It is impossible.”
+
+“At least,” said Peveril, “show me where my father is confined, that I
+may look upon the walls which separate us.”
+
+“Young gentleman,” said the senior warder, shaking his grey head, “I
+am sorry for you; but asking questions will do you no service. In this
+place we know nothing of fathers and sons.”
+
+Yet chance seemed, in a few minutes afterwards, to offer Peveril that
+satisfaction which the rigour of his keepers was disposed to deny to
+him. As he was conveyed up the steep passage which leads under what is
+called the Wakefield Tower, a female voice, in a tone wherein grief and
+joy were indescribably mixed, exclaimed, “My son!--My dear son!”
+
+Even those who guarded Julian seemed softened by a tone of such acute
+feeling. They slackened their pace. They almost paused to permit him
+to look up towards the casement from which the sounds of maternal agony
+proceeded; but the aperture was so narrow, and so closely grated, that
+nothing was visible save a white female hand, which grasped one of those
+rusty barricadoes, as if for supporting the person within, while another
+streamed a white handkerchief, and then let it fall. The casement was
+instantly deserted.
+
+“Give it me,” said Julian to the officer who lifted the handkerchief;
+“it is perhaps a mother’s last gift.”
+
+The old warder lifted the napkin, and looked at it with the jealous
+minuteness of one who is accustomed to detect secret correspondence in
+the most trifling acts of intercourse.
+
+“There may be writing on it with invisible ink,” said one of his
+comrades.
+
+“It is wetted, but I think it is only with tears,” answered the senior.
+“I cannot keep it from the poor young gentleman.”
+
+“Ah, Master Coleby,” said his comrade, in a gentle tone of reproach,
+“you would have been wearing a better coat than a yeoman’s to-day, had
+it not been for your tender heart.”
+
+“It signifies little,” said old Coleby, “while my heart is true to my
+King, what I feel in discharging my duty, or what coat keeps my old
+bosom from the cold weather.”
+
+Peveril, meanwhile, folded in his breast the token of his mother’s
+affection which chance had favoured him with; and when placed in the
+small and solitary chamber which he was told to consider as his own
+during his residence in the Tower, he was soothed even to weeping by
+this trifling circumstance, which he could not help considering as
+an omen, that his unfortunate house was not entirely deserted by
+Providence.
+
+But the thoughts and occurrences of a prison are too uniform for a
+narrative, and we must now convey our readers into a more bustling
+scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+           Henceforth ‘tis done--Fortune and I are friends;
+           And I must live, for Buckingham commends.
+                                                       --POPE.
+
+The spacious mansion of the Duke of Buckingham, with the demesne
+belonging to it, originally bore the name of York House and occupied a
+large portion of the ground adjacent to the Savoy.
+
+This had been laid out by the munificence of his father, the favourite
+of Charles the First, in a most splendid manner, so as almost to rival
+Whitehall itself. But during the increasing rage for building new
+streets, and the creating of almost an additional town, in order to
+connect London and Westminster, this ground had become of very great
+value; and the second Duke of Buckingham, who was at once fond of
+scheming, and needy of money, had agreed to a plan laid before him by
+some adventurous architect, for converting the extensive grounds around
+his palace into those streets, lanes, and courts, which still perpetuate
+his name and titles; though those who live in Buckingham Street, Duke
+Street, Villiers Street, or in Of-alley (for even that connecting
+particle is locally commemorated), probably think seldom of the memory
+of the witty, eccentric, and licentious George Villiers, Duke of
+Buckingham, whose titles are preserved in the names of their residence
+and its neighbourhood.
+
+This building-plan the Duke had entered upon with all the eagerness
+which he usually attached to novelty. His gardens were destroyed--his
+pavilions levelled--his splendid stables demolished--the whole pomp of
+his suburban demesne laid waste, cumbered with ruins, and intersected
+with the foundations of new buildings and cellars, and the process of
+levelling different lines for the intended streets. But the undertaking,
+although it proved afterwards both lucrative and successful, met with
+a check at the outset, partly from want of the necessary funds, partly
+from the impatient and mercurial temper of the Duke, which soon carried
+him off in pursuit of some more new object. So that, though much was
+demolished, very little, in comparison, was reared up in the stead, and
+nothing was completed. The principal part of the ducal mansion still
+remained uninjured; but the demesne in which it stood bore a strange
+analogy to the irregular mind of its noble owner. Here stood a beautiful
+group of exotic trees and shrubs, the remnant of the garden, amid
+yawning common-sewers, and heaps of rubbish. In one place an old tower
+threatened to fall upon the spectator; and in another he ran the risk
+of being swallowed up by a modern vault. Grandeur of conception could
+be discovered in the undertaking, but was almost everywhere marred by
+poverty or negligence of execution. In short, the whole place was the
+true emblem of an understanding and talents run to waste, and become
+more dangerous than advantageous to society, by the want of steady
+principle, and the improvidence of the possessor.
+
+There were men who took a different view of the Duke’s purpose in
+permitting his mansion to be thus surrounded, and his demesne occupied
+by modern buildings which were incomplete, and ancient which were
+but half demolished. They alleged, that, engaged as he was in so many
+mysteries of love and of politics, and having the character of the
+most daring and dangerous intriguer of his time, his Grace found it
+convenient to surround himself with this ruinous arena, into which
+officers of justice could not penetrate without some difficulty and
+hazard; and which might afford, upon occasion, a safe and secret shelter
+for such tools as were fit for desperate enterprises, and a private and
+unobserved mode of access to those whom he might have any special reason
+for receiving in secret.
+
+Leaving Peveril in the Tower, we must once more convey our readers to
+the Levee of the Duke, who, on the morning of Julian’s transference
+to that fortress, thus addressed his minister-in-chief, and principal
+attendant: “I have been so pleased with your conduct in this matter,
+Jerningham, that if Old Nick were to arise in our presence, and offer
+me his best imp as a familiar in thy room, I would hold it but a poor
+compliment.”
+
+“A legion of imps,” said Jerningham, bowing, “could not have been more
+busy than I in your Grace’s service; but if your Grace will permit me to
+say so, your whole plan was well-nigh marred by your not returning home
+till last night, or rather this morning.”
+
+“And why, I pray you, sage Master Jerningham,” said his Grace, “should
+I have returned home an instant sooner than my pleasure and convenience
+served?”
+
+“Nay, my Lord Duke,” replied the attendant, “I know not; only, when you
+sent us word by Empson, in Chiffinch’s apartment, to command us to make
+sure of the girl at any rate, and at all risks, you said you would be
+here so soon as you could get freed of the King.”
+
+“Freed of the King, you rascal! What sort of phrase is that?” demanded
+the Duke.
+
+“It was Empson who used it, my lord, as coming from your Grace.”
+
+“There is much very fit for my Grace to say, that misbecomes such
+mouths as Empson’s or yours to repeat,” answered the Duke haughtily,
+but instantly resumed his tone of familiarity, for his humour was as
+capricious as his pursuits. “But I know what thou wouldst have; first,
+your wisdom would know what became of me since thou hadst my commands at
+Chiffinch’s; and next, your valour would fain sound another flourish of
+trumpets on thine own most artificial retreat, leaving thy comrade in
+the hands of the Philistines.”
+
+“May it please your Grace,” said Jerningham, “I did but retreat for the
+preservation of the baggage.”
+
+“What! do you play at crambo with me?” said the Duke. “I would have you
+to know that the common parish fool should be whipt, were he to attempt
+to pass pun or quodlibet as a genuine jest, even amongst ticket-porters
+and hackney chairmen.”
+
+“And yet I have heard your Grace indulge in the _jeu de mots_,” answered
+the attendant.
+
+“Sirrah Jerningham,” answered the patron, “discard they memory, or keep
+it under correction, else it will hamper thy rise in the world. Thou
+mayst perchance have seen me also have a fancy to play at trap-ball, or
+to kiss a serving wench, or to guzzle ale and eat toasted cheese in a
+porterly whimsy; but is it fitting thou shouldst remember such follies?
+No more on’t.--Hark you; how came the long lubberly fool, Jenkins, being
+a master of the noble science of defence, to suffer himself to be run
+through the body so simply by a rustic swain like this same Peveril?”
+
+“Please your Grace, this same Corydon is no such novice. I saw the
+onset; and, except in one hand, I never saw a sword managed with such
+life, grace, and facility.”
+
+“Ay, indeed?” said the Duke, taking his own sheathed rapier in his hand,
+“I could not have thought that. I am somewhat rusted, and have need of
+breathing. Peveril is a name of note. As well go to the Barns-elms, or
+behind Montagu House, with him as with another. His father a rumoured
+plotter, too. The public would have noted it in me as becoming a zealous
+Protestant. Needful I do something to maintain my good name in the city,
+to atone for non-attendance on prayer and preaching. But your Laertes
+is fast in the Fleet; and I suppose his blundering blockhead of an
+antagonist is dead or dying.”
+
+“Recovering, my lord, on the contrary,” replied Jerningham; “the blade
+fortunately avoided his vitals.”
+
+“D--n his vitals!” answered the Duke. “Tell him to postpone his
+recovery, or I will put him to death in earnest.”
+
+“I will caution his surgeon,” said Jerningham, “which will answer
+equally well.”
+
+“Do so; and tell him he had better be on his own deathbed as cure his
+patient till I send him notice.--That young fellow must be let loose
+again at no rate.”
+
+“There is little danger,” said the attendant. “I hear some of the
+witnesses have got their net flung over him on account of some matters
+down in the north; and that he is to be translated to the Tower for
+that, and for some letters of the Countess of Derby, as rumour goes.”
+
+“To the Tower let him go, and get out as he can,” replied the Duke; “and
+when you hear he is fast there, let the fencing fellow recover as fast
+as the surgeon and he can mutually settle it.”
+
+The Duke, having said this, took two or three turns in the apartment,
+and appeared to be in deep thought. His attendant waited the issue of
+his meditations with patience, being well aware that such moods, during
+which his mind was strongly directed in one point, were never of so
+long duration with his patron as to prove a severe burden to his own
+patience.
+
+Accordingly, after the silence of seven or eight minutes, the Duke broke
+through it, taking from the toilette a large silk purse, which seemed
+full of gold. “Jerningham,” he said, “thou art a faithful fellow, and
+it would be sin not to cherish thee. I beat the King at Mall on his bold
+defiance. The honour is enough for me; and thou, my boy, shalt have the
+winnings.”
+
+Jerningham pocketed the purse with due acknowledgements.
+
+“Jerningham,” his Grace continued, “I know you blame me for changing
+my plans too often; and on my soul I have heard you so learned on the
+subject, that I have become of your opinion, and have been vexed at
+myself for two or three hours together, for not sticking as constantly
+to one object, as doubtless I shall, when age (touching his forehead)
+shall make this same weathercock too rusty to turn with the changing
+breeze. But as yet, while I have spirit and action, let it whirl like
+the vane at the mast-head, which teaches the pilot how to steer his
+course; and when I shift mine, think I am bound to follow Fortune, and
+not to control her.”
+
+“I can understand nothing from all this, please your Grace,” replied
+Jerningham, “save that you have been pleased to change some purposed
+measures, and think that you have profited by doing so.”
+
+“You shall judge yourself,” replied the Duke. “I have seen the Duchess
+of Portsmouth.--You start. It is true, by Heaven! I have seen her, and
+from sworn enemies we have become sworn friends. The treaty between
+such high and mighty powers had some weighty articles; besides, I had
+a French negotiator to deal with; so that you will allow a few
+hours’ absence was but a necessary interval to make up our matters of
+diplomacy.”
+
+“Your Grace astonishes me,” said Jerningham. “Christian’s plan of
+supplanting the great lady is then entirely abandoned? I thought you
+had but desired to have the fair successor here, in order to carry it on
+under your own management.”
+
+“I forgot what I meant at the time,” said the Duke; “unless that I
+was resolved she should not jilt me as she did the good-natured man of
+royalty; and so I am still determined, since you put me in mind of the
+fair Dowsabelle. But I had a contrite note from the Duchess while we
+were at the Mall. I went to see her, and found her a perfect Niobe.--On
+my soul, in spite of red eyes and swelled features, and dishevelled
+hair, there are, after all, Jerningham, some women who do, as the
+poets say, look lovely in affliction. Out came the cause; and with such
+humility, such penitence, such throwing herself on my mercy (she the
+proudest devil, too, in the whole Court), that I must have had heart of
+steel to resist it all. In short, Chiffinch in a drunken fit had played
+the babbler, and let young Saville into our intrigue. Saville plays the
+rogue, and informs the Duchess by a messenger, who luckily came a
+little late into the market. She learned, too, being a very devil for
+intelligence, that there had been some jarring between the master and
+me about this new Phillis; and that I was most likely to catch the
+bird,--as any one may see who looks on us both. It must have been Empson
+who fluted all this into her Grace’s ear; and thinking she saw how
+her ladyship and I could hunt in couples, she entreats me to break
+Christian’s scheme, and keep the wench out of the King’s sight,
+especially if she were such a rare piece of perfection as fame has
+reported her.”
+
+“And your Grace has promised her your hand to uphold the influence which
+you have so often threatened to ruin?” said Jerningham.
+
+“Ay, Jerningham; my turn was as much served when she seemed to own
+herself in my power, and cry me mercy.--And observe, it is all one to me
+by which ladder I climb into the King’s cabinet. That of Portsmouth is
+ready fixed--better ascend by it than fling it down to put up another--I
+hate all unnecessary trouble.”
+
+“And Christian?” said Jerningham.
+
+“May go to the devil for a self-conceited ass. One pleasure of this
+twist of intrigue is, to revenge me of that villain, who thought himself
+so essential, that, by Heaven! he forced himself on my privacy, and
+lectured me like a schoolboy. Hang the cold-blooded hypocritical vermin!
+If he mutters, I will have his nose slit as wide as Coventry’s.[*]--Hark
+ye, is the Colonel come?”
+
+“I expect him every moment, your Grace.”
+
+[*] The ill-usage of Sir John Coventry by some of the Life Guardsmen,
+    in revenge of something said in Parliament concerning the King’s
+    theatrical amours, gave rise to what was called Coventry’s Act,
+    against cutting and maiming the person.
+
+“Send him up when he arrives,” said the Duke.----“Why do you stand
+looking at me? What would you have?”
+
+“Your Grace’s direction respecting the young lady,” said Jerningham.
+
+“Odd zooks,” said the Duke, “I had totally forgotten her.--Is she very
+tearful?--Exceedingly afflicted?”
+
+“She does not take on so violently as I have seen some do,” said
+Jerningham; “but for a strong, firm, concentrated indignation, I have
+seen none to match her.”
+
+“Well, we will permit her to cool. I will not face the affliction of a
+second fair one immediately. I am tired of snivelling, and swelled
+eyes, and blubbered cheeks for some time; and, moreover, must husband my
+powers of consolation. Begone, and send the Colonel.”
+
+“Will your Grace permit me one other question?” demanded his confidant.
+
+“Ask what thou wilt, Jerningham, and then begone.”
+
+“Your Grace has determined to give up Christian,” said the attendant.
+“May I ask what becomes of the kingdom of Man?”
+
+“Forgotten, as I have a Christian soul!” said the Duke; “as
+much forgotten as if I had never nourished that scheme of royal
+ambition.--D--n it, we must knit up the ravelled skein of that
+intrigue.--Yet it is but a miserable rock, not worth the trouble I have
+been bestowing on it; and for a kingdom--it has a sound indeed; but, in
+reality, I might as well stick a cock-chicken’s feather into my hat,
+and call it a plume. Besides, now I think upon it, it would scarce be
+honourable to sweep that petty royalty out of Derby’s possession. I won
+a thousand pieces of the young Earl when he was last here, and suffered
+him to hang about me at Court. I question if the whole revenue of his
+kingdom is worth twice as much. Easily I could win it of him, were
+he here, with less trouble than it would cost me to carry on these
+troublesome intrigues of Christian’s.”
+
+“If I may be permitted to say so, please your Grace,” answered
+Jerningham, “although your Grace is perhaps somewhat liable to change
+your mind, no man in England can afford better reasons for doing so.”
+
+“I think so myself, Jerningham,” said the Duke; “and it may be it is one
+reason for my changing. One likes to vindicate his own conduct, and to
+find out fine reasons for doing what one has a mind to.--And now, once
+again, begone. Or, hark ye--hark ye--I shall need some loose gold. You
+may leave the purse I gave you; and I will give you an order for as
+much, and two years’ interest, on old Jacob Doublefee.”
+
+“As your Grace pleases,” said Jerningham, his whole stock of
+complaisance scarcely able to conceal his mortification at exchanging
+for a distant order, of a kind which of late had not been very regularly
+honoured, the sunny contents of the purse which had actually been in
+his pocket. Secretly, but solemnly did he make a vow, that two years’
+interest alone should not be the compensation for this involuntary
+exchange in the form of his remuneration.
+
+As the discontented dependant left the apartment, he met, at the head of
+the grand staircase, Christian himself, who, exercising the freedom of
+an ancient friend of the house, was making his way, unannounced, to the
+Duke’s dressing apartment. Jerningham, conjecturing that his visit at
+this crisis would be anything but well timed, or well taken, endeavoured
+to avert his purpose by asserting that the Duke was indisposed, and in
+his bedchamber; and this he said so loud that his master might hear him,
+and, if he pleased, realise the apology which he offered in his name, by
+retreating into the bedroom as his last sanctuary, and drawing the bolt
+against intrusion.
+
+But, far from adopting a stratagem to which he had had recourse on
+former occasions, in order to avoid those who came upon him, though at
+an appointed hour, and upon business of importance, Buckingham called,
+in a loud voice, from his dressing apartment, commanding his chamberlain
+instantly to introduce his good friend Master Christian, and censuring
+him for hesitating for an instant to do so.
+
+“Now,” thought Jerningham within himself, “if Christian knew the Duke as
+well as I do, he would sooner stand the leap of a lion, like the London
+‘prentice bold, than venture on my master at this moment, who is even
+now in a humour nearly as dangerous as the animal.”
+
+He then ushered Christian into his master’s presence, taking care to
+post himself within earshot of the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+        “Speak not of niceness, when there’s chance of wreck,”
+         The captain said, as ladies writhed their neck
+        To see the dying dolphin flap the deck:
+        “If we go down, on us these gentry sup;
+        We dine upon them, if we haul them up.
+        Wise men applaud us when we eat the eaters,
+        As the devil laughs when keen folks cheat the cheaters.”
+                                                    --THE SEA VOYAGE.
+
+There was nothing in Duke’s manner towards Christian which could have
+conveyed to that latter personage, experienced as he was in the worst
+possible ways of the world, that Buckingham would, at that particular
+moment, rather have seen the devil than himself; unless it was that
+Buckingham’s reception of him, being rather extraordinarily courteous
+towards so old an acquaintance, might have excited some degree of
+suspicion.
+
+Having escaped with some difficulty from the vague region of general
+compliments, which bears the same relation to that of business that
+Milton informs us the _Limbo Patrum_ has to the sensible and material
+earth, Christian asked his Grace of Buckingham, with the same blunt
+plainness with which he usually veiled a very deep and artificial
+character, whether he had lately seen Chiffinch or his helpmate?
+
+“Neither of them lately,” answered Buckingham. “Have not you waited on
+them yourself?--I thought you would have been more anxious about the
+great scheme.”
+
+“I have called once and again,” said Christian, “but I can gain no
+access to the sight of that important couple. I begin to be afraid they
+are paltering with me.”
+
+“Which, by the welkin and its stars, you would not be slow in avenging,
+Master Christian. I know your puritanical principles on that point
+well,” said the Duke. “Revenge may be well said to be sweet, when so
+many grave and wise men are ready to exchange for it all the sugar-plums
+which pleasures offer to the poor sinful people of the world, besides
+the reversion of those which they talk of expecting in the way of _post
+obit_.”
+
+“You may jest, my lord,” said Christian, “but still----”
+
+“But still you will be revenged on Chiffinch, and his little commodious
+companion. And yet the task may be difficult--Chiffinch has so many ways
+of obliging his master--his little woman is such a convenient pretty
+sort of a screen, and has such winning little ways of her own, that, in
+faith, in your case, I would not meddle with them. What is this refusing
+their door, man? We all do it to our best friends now and then, as well
+as to duns and dull company.”
+
+“If your Grace is in a humour of rambling thus wildly in your talk,”
+ said Christian, “you know my old faculty of patience--I can wait till it
+be your pleasure to talk more seriously.”
+
+“Seriously!” said his Grace--“Wherefore not?--I only wait to know what
+your serious business may be.”
+
+“In a word, my lord, from Chiffinch’s refusal to see me, and some vain
+calls which I have made at your Grace’s mansion, I am afraid either that
+our plan has miscarried, or that there is some intention to exclude
+me from the farther conduct of the matter.” Christian pronounced these
+words with considerable emphasis.
+
+“That were folly as well as treachery,” returned the Duke, “to exclude
+from the spoil the very engineer who conducted the attack. But hark ye,
+Christian--I am sorry to tell bad news without preparation; but as you
+insist on knowing the worst, and are not ashamed to suspect your best
+friends, out it must come--Your niece left Chiffinch’s house the morning
+before yesterday.”
+
+Christian staggered, as if he had received a severe blow; and the blood
+ran to his face in such a current of passion, that the Duke concluded
+he was struck with an apoplexy. But, exerting the extraordinary command
+which he could maintain under the most trying circumstances, he said,
+with a voice, the composure of which had an unnatural contrast with the
+alteration of his countenance, “Am I to conclude, that in leaving the
+protection of the roof in which I placed her, the girl has found shelter
+under that of your Grace?”
+
+“Sir,” replied Buckingham gravely, “the supposition does my gallantry
+more credit than it deserves.”
+
+“Oh, my Lord Duke,” answered Christian, “I am not one whom you can
+impose on by this species of courtly jargon. I know of what your Grace
+is capable; and that to gratify the caprice of a moment you would not
+hesitate to disappoint even the schemes at which you yourself have
+laboured most busily.--Suppose this jest played off. Take your laugh
+at those simple precautions by which I intended to protect your Grace’s
+interest, as well as that of others. Let us know the extent of your
+frolic, and consider how far its consequences can be repaired.”
+
+“On my word, Christian,” said the Duke, laughing, “you are the most
+obliging of uncles and of guardians. Let your niece pass through as many
+adventures as Boccaccio’s bride of the King of Garba, you care not. Pure
+or soiled, she will still make the footstool of your fortune.”
+
+An Indian proverb says, that the dart of contempt will even pierce
+through the shell of the tortoise; but this is more peculiarly the
+case when conscience tells the subject of the sarcasm that it is justly
+merited. Christian, stung with Buckingham’s reproach, at once assumed
+a haughty and threatening mien, totally inconsistent with that in which
+sufferance seemed to be as much his badge as that of Shylock. “You are
+a foul-mouthed and most unworthy lord,” he said; “and as such I will
+proclaim you, unless you make reparation for the injury you have done
+me.”
+
+“And what,” said the Duke of Buckingham, “shall I proclaim _you_, that
+can give you the least title to notice from such as I am? What name
+shall I bestow on the little transaction which has given rise to such
+unexpected misunderstanding?”
+
+Christian was silent, either from rage or from mental conviction.
+
+“Come, come, Christian,” said the Duke, smiling, “we know too much of
+each other to make a quarrel safe. Hate each other we may--circumvent
+each other--it is the way of Courts--but proclaim!--a fico for the
+phrase.”
+
+“I used it not,” said Christian, “till your Grace drove me to extremity.
+You know, my lord, I have fought both at home and abroad; and you should
+not rashly think that I will endure any indignity which blood can wipe
+away.”
+
+“On the contrary,” said the Duke, with the same civil and sneering
+manner, “I can confidently assert, that the life of half a score of
+your friends would seem very light to you, Christian, if their existence
+interfered, I do not say with your character, as being a thing of much
+less consequence, but with any advantage which their existence might
+intercept. Fie upon it, man, we have known each other long. I never
+thought you a coward; and am only glad to see I could strike a few
+sparkles of heat out of your cold and constant disposition. I will now,
+if you please, tell you at once the fate of the young lady, in which I
+pray you to believe that I am truly interested.”
+
+“I hear you, my Lord Duke,” said Christian. “The curl of your upper
+lip, and your eyebrow, does not escape me. Your Grace knows the French
+proverb, ‘He laughs best who laughs last.’ But I hear you.”
+
+“Thank Heaven you do,” said Buckingham; “for your case requires haste,
+I promise you, and involves no laughing matter. Well then, hear a simple
+truth, on which (if it became me to offer any pledge for what I assert
+to be such) I could pledge life, fortune, and honour. It was the morning
+before last, when meeting with the King at Chiffinch’s unexpectedly--in
+fact I had looked in to fool an hour away, and to learn how your
+scheme advanced--I saw a singular scene. Your niece terrified little
+Chiffinch--(the hen Chiffinch, I mean)--bid the King defiance to
+his teeth, and walked out of the presence triumphantly, under the
+guardianship of a young fellow of little mark or likelihood, excepting
+a tolerable personal presence, and the advantage of a most unconquerable
+impudence. Egad, I can hardly help laughing to think how the King and I
+were both baffled; for I will not deny, that I had tried to trifle for
+a moment with the fair Indamora. But, egad, the young fellow swooped
+her off from under our noses, like my own Drawcansir clearing off the
+banquet from the two Kings of Brentford. There was a dignity in the
+gallant’s swaggering retreat which I must try to teach Mohun;[*] it will
+suit his part admirably.”
+
+     [*] Then a noted actor.
+
+“This is incomprehensible, my Lord Duke,” said Christian, who by this
+time had recovered all his usual coolness; “you cannot expect me to
+believe this. Who dared be so bold as to carry of my niece in such a
+manner, and from so august a presence? And with whom, a stranger as
+he must have been, would she, wise and cautious as I know her, have
+consented to depart in such a manner?--My lord, I cannot believe this.”
+
+“One of your priests, my most devoted Christian,” replied the Duke,
+“would only answer, Die, infidel, in thine unbelief; but I am only a
+poor worldling sinner, and I will add what mite of information I can.
+The young fellow’s name, as I am given to understand, is Julian, son of
+Sir Geoffrey, whom men call Peveril of the Peak.”
+
+“Peveril of the Devil, who hath his cavern there!” said Christian
+warmly; “for I know that gallant, and believe him capable of anything
+bold and desperate. But how could he intrude himself into the royal
+presence? Either Hell aids him, or Heaven looks nearer into mortal
+dealings than I have yet believed. If so, may God forgive us, who deemed
+he thought not on us at all!”
+
+“Amen, most Christian Christian,” replied the Duke. “I am glad to see
+thou hast yet some touch of grace that leads thee to augur so. But
+Empson, the hen Chiffinch, and half-a-dozen more, saw the swain’s
+entrance and departure. Please examine these witnesses with your own
+wisdom, if you think your time may not be better employed in tracing
+the fugitives. I believe he gained entrance as one of some dancing or
+masking party. Rowley, you know, is accessible to all who will come
+forth to make him sport. So in stole this termagant tearing gallant,
+like Samson among the Philistines, to pull down our fine scheme about
+our ears.”
+
+“I believe you, my lord,” said Christian; “I cannot but believe you; and
+I forgive you, since it is your nature, for making sport of what is ruin
+and destruction. But which way did they take?”
+
+“To Derbyshire, I should presume, to seek her father,” said the Duke.
+“She spoke of going into paternal protection, instead of yours, Master
+Christian. Something had chanced at Chiffinch’s, to give her cause to
+suspect that you had not altogether provided for his daughter in the
+manner which her father was likely to approve of.”
+
+“Now, Heaven be praised,” said Christian, “she knows not her father is
+come to London! and they must be gone down either to Martindale Castle,
+or to Moultrassie Hall; in either case they are in my power--I must
+follow them close. I will return instantly to Derbyshire--I am undone
+if she meet her father until these errors are amended. Adieu, my lord.
+I forgive the part which I fear your Grace must have had in baulking our
+enterprise--it is no time for mutual reproaches.”
+
+“You speak truth, Master Christian,” said the Duke, “and I wish you all
+success. Can I help you with men, or horses, or money?”
+
+“I thank your Grace,” said Christian, and hastily left the apartment.
+
+The Duke watched his descending footsteps on the staircase, until they
+could be heard no longer, and then exclaimed to Jerningham, who entered,
+“_Victoria! victoria! magna est veritas et prævalebit!_--Had I told
+the villain a word of a lie, he is so familiar with all the regions of
+falsehood--his whole life has been such an absolute imposture, that I
+had stood detected in an instant; but I told him truth, and that was the
+only means of deceiving him. Victoria! my dear Jerningham, I am prouder
+of cheating Christian, than I should have been of circumventing a
+minister of state.”
+
+“Your Grace holds his wisdom very high,” said the attendant.
+
+“His cunning, at least, I do, which, in Court affairs, often takes the
+weather-gage of wisdom,--as in Yarmouth Roads a herring-buss will baffle
+a frigate. He shall not return to London if I can help it, until all
+these intrigues are over.”
+
+As his Grace spoke, the Colonel, after whom he had repeatedly made
+inquiry, was announced by a gentleman of his household. “He met not
+Christian, did he?” said the Duke hastily.
+
+“No, my lord,” returned the domestic, “the Colonel came by the old
+garden staircase.”
+
+“I judged as much,” replied the Duke; “‘tis an owl that will not take
+wing in daylight, when there is a thicket left to skulk under. Here he
+comes from threading lane, vault, and ruinous alley, very near ominous a
+creature as the fowl of ill augury which he resembles.”
+
+The Colonel, to whom no other appellation seemed to be given, than that
+which belonged to his military station, now entered the apartment. He
+was tall, strongly built, and past the middle period of life, and his
+countenance, but for the heavy cloud which dwelt upon it, might have
+been pronounced a handsome one. While the Duke spoke to him, either from
+humility or some other cause, his large serious eye was cast down upon
+the ground; but he raised it when he answered, with a keen look of
+earnest observation. His dress was very plain, and more allied to that
+of the Puritans than of the Cavaliers of the time; a shadowy black hat,
+like the Spanish sombrero; a large black mantle or cloak, and a long
+rapier, gave him something the air of a Castilione, to which his gravity
+and stiffness of demeanour added considerable strength.
+
+“Well, Colonel,” said the Duke, “we have been long strangers--how have
+matters gone with you?”
+
+“As with other men of action in quiet times,” answered the colonel, “or
+as a good war-caper[*] that lies high and dry in a muddy creek, till
+seams and planks are rent and riven.”
+
+     [*] A privateer.
+
+“Well, Colonel,” said the Duke, “I have used your valour before now, and
+I may again; so that I shall speedily see that the vessel is careened,
+and undergoes a thorough repair.”
+
+“I conjecture, then,” said the Colonel, “that your Grace has some voyage
+in hand?”
+
+“No, but there is one which I want to interrupt,” replied the Duke.
+
+“Tis but another stave of the same tune.--Well, my lord, I listen,”
+ answered the stranger.
+
+“Nay,” said the Duke, “it is but a trifling matter after all.--You know
+Ned Christian?”
+
+“Ay, surely, my lord,” replied the Colonel, “we have been long known to
+each other.”
+
+“He is about to go down to Derbyshire to seek a certain niece of his,
+whom he will scarcely find there. Now, I trust to your tried friendship
+to interrupt his return to London. Go with him, or meet him, cajole him,
+or assail him, or do what thou wilt with him--only keep him from London
+for a fortnight at least, and then I care little how soon he comes.”
+
+“For by that time, I suppose,” replied the Colonel, “any one may find
+the wench that thinks her worth the looking for.”
+
+“Thou mayst think her worth the looking for thyself, Colonel,” rejoined
+the Duke; “I promise you she hath many a thousand stitched to her
+petticoat; such a wife would save thee from skeldering on the public.”
+
+“My lord, I sell my blood and my sword, but not my honour,” answered
+the man sullenly; “if I marry, my bed may be a poor, but it shall be an
+honest one.”
+
+“Then thy wife will be the only honest matter in thy possession,
+Colonel--at least since I have known you,” replied the Duke.
+
+“Why, truly, your Grace may speak your pleasure on that point. It is
+chiefly your business which I have done of late; and if it were less
+strictly honest than I could have wished, the employer was to blame as
+well as the agent. But for marrying a cast-off mistress, the man (saving
+your Grace, to whom I am bound) lives not who dares propose it to me.”
+
+The Duke laughed loudly. “Why, this is mine Ancient Pistol’s vein,” he
+replied.
+
+  ----“Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,
+  And by my side wear steel?--then Lucifer take all!”
+
+“My breeding is too plain to understand ends of playhouse verse, my
+lord,” said the Colonel suddenly. “Has your Grace no other service to
+command me?”
+
+“None--only I am told you have published a Narrative concerning the
+Plot.”
+
+“What should ail me, my lord?” said the Colonel; “I hope I am a witness
+as competent as any that has yet appeared?”
+
+“Truly, I think so to the full,” said the Duke; “and it would have been
+hard, when so much profitable mischief was going, if so excellent a
+Protestant as yourself had not come in for a share.”
+
+“I came to take your Grace’s commands, not to be the object of your
+wit,” said the Colonel.
+
+“Gallantly spoken, most resolute and most immaculate Colonel! As you
+are to be on full pay in my service for a month to come, I pray your
+acceptance of this purse, for contingents and equipments, and you shall
+have my instructions from time to time.”
+
+“They shall be punctually obeyed, my lord,” said the Colonel; “I know
+the duty of a subaltern officer. I wish your Grace a good morning.”
+
+So saying, he pocketed the purse, without either affecting hesitation,
+or expressing gratitude, but merely as a part of a transaction in the
+regular way of business, and stalked from the apartment with the same
+sullen gravity which marked his entrance. “Now, there goes a scoundrel
+after my own heart,” said the Duke; “a robber from his cradle, a
+murderer since he could hold a knife, a profound hypocrite in religion,
+and a worse and deeper hypocrite in honour,--would sell his soul to
+the devil to accomplish any villainy, and would cut the throat of his
+brother, did he dare to give the villainy he had so acted its right
+name.--Now, why stand you amazed, good Master Jerningham, and look on me
+as you would on some monster of Ind, when you had paid your shilling to
+see it, and were staring out your pennyworth with your eyes as round as
+a pair of spectacles? Wink, man, and save them, and then let thy tongue
+untie the mystery.”
+
+“On my word, my Lord Duke,” answered Jerningham, “since I am compelled
+to speak, I can only say, that the longer I live with your Grace, I am
+the more at a loss to fathom your motives of action. Others lay plans,
+either to attain profit or pleasure by their execution; but your Grace’s
+delight is to counteract your own schemes, when in the very act of
+performance; like a child--forgive me--that breaks its favourite toy, or
+a man who should set fire to the house he has half built.”
+
+“And why not, if he wanted to warm his hands at the blaze?” said the
+Duke.
+
+“Ay, my lord,” replied his dependent; “but what if, in doing so, he
+should burn his fingers?--My lord, it is one of your noblest qualities,
+that you will sometimes listen to the truth without taking offence; but
+were it otherwise, I could not, at this moment, help speaking out at
+every risk.”
+
+“Well, say on, I can bear it,” said the Duke, throwing himself into
+an easy-chair, and using his toothpick with graceful indifference and
+equanimity; “I love to hear what such potsherds as thou art, think of
+the proceeding of us who are of the pure porcelain clay of the earth.”
+
+“In the name of Heaven, my lord, let me then ask you,” said Jerningham,
+“what merit you claim, or what advantage you expect, from having
+embroiled everything in which you are concerned to a degree which equals
+the chaos of the blind old Roundhead’s poem which your Grace is so fond
+of? To begin with the King. In spite of good-humour, he will be incensed
+at your repeated rivalry.”
+
+“His Majesty defied me to it.”
+
+“You have lost all hopes of the Isle, by quarrelling with Christian.”
+
+“I have ceased to care a farthing about it,” replied the Duke.
+
+“In Christian himself, whom you have insulted, and to whose family you
+intend dishonour, you have lost a sagacious, artful, and cool-headed
+instrument and adherent,” said the monitor.
+
+“Poor Jerningham!” answered the Duke; “Christian would say as much for
+thee, I doubt not, wert thou discarded tomorrow. It is the common error
+of such tools as you and he to think themselves indispensable. As to
+his family, what was never honourable cannot be dishonoured by any
+connection with my house.”
+
+“I say nothing of Chiffinch,” said Jerningham, “offended as he will be
+when he learns why, and by whom, his scheme has been ruined, and the
+lady spirited away--He and his wife, I say nothing of them.”
+
+“You need not,” said the Duke; “for were they even fit persons to
+speak to me about, the Duchess of Portsmouth has bargained for their
+disgrace.”
+
+“Then this bloodhound of a Colonel, as he calls himself, your Grace
+cannot even lay _him_ on a quest which is to do you service, but you
+must do him such indignity at the same time, as he will not fail to
+remember, and be sure to fly at your throat should he ever have an
+opportunity of turning on you.”
+
+“I will take care he has none,” said the Duke; “and yours, Jerningham,
+is a low-lived apprehension. Beat your spaniel heartily if you would
+have him under command. Ever let your agents see you know what they are,
+and prize them accordingly. A rogue, who must needs be treated as a
+man of honour, is apt to get above his work. Enough, therefore, of your
+advice and censure, Jerningham; we differ in every particular. Were we
+both engineers, you would spend your life in watching some old woman’s
+wheel, which spins flax by the ounce; I must be in the midst of the
+most varied and counteracting machinery, regulating checks and
+counter-checks, balancing weights, proving springs and wheels, directing
+and controlling a hundred combined powers.”
+
+“And your fortune, in the meanwhile?” said Jerningham; “pardon this last
+hint, my lord.”
+
+“My fortune,” said the Duke, “is too vast to be hurt by a petty
+wound; and I have, as thou knowest, a thousand salves in store for
+the scratches and scars which it sometimes receives in greasing my
+machinery.”
+
+“Your Grace does not mean Dr. Wilderhead’s powder of projection?”
+
+“Pshaw! he is a quacksalver, and mountebank, and beggar.”
+
+“Or Solicitor Drowndland’s plan for draining the fens?”
+
+“He is a cheat,--_videlicet_, an attorney.”
+
+“Or the Laird of Lackpelf’s sale of Highland woods?”
+
+“He is a Scotsman,” said the Duke,--“_videlicet_, both cheat and
+beggar.”
+
+“These streets here, upon the site of your noble mansion-house?” said
+Jerningham.
+
+“The architect’s a bite, and the plan’s a bubble. I am sick of the sight
+of this rubbish, and I will soon replace our old alcoves, alleys, and
+flower-pots by an Italian garden and a new palace.”
+
+“That, my lord, would be to waste, not to improve your fortune,” said
+his domestic.
+
+“Clodpate, and muddy spirit that thou art, thou hast forgot the most
+hopeful scheme of all--the South Sea Fisheries--their stock is up 50
+per cent. already. Post down to the Alley, and tell old Mansses to buy
+£20,000 for me.--Forgive me, Plutus, I forgot to lay my sacrifice on thy
+shrine, and yet expected thy favours!--Fly post-haste, Jerningham--for
+thy life, for thy life, for thy life!”[*]
+
+[*] Stock-jobbing, as it is called, that is, dealing in shares of
+    monopolies, patent, and joint-stock companies of every
+    description, was at least as common in Charles II.’s time as our
+    own; and as the exercise of ingenuity in this way promised a road
+    to wealth without the necessity of industry, it was then much
+    pursued by dissolute courtiers.
+
+With hands and eyes uplifted, Jerningham left the apartment; and the
+Duke, without thinking a moment farther on old or new intrigues--on the
+friendship he had formed, or the enmity he had provoked--on the beauty
+whom he had carried off from her natural protectors, as well as from
+her lover--or on the monarch against whom he had placed himself in
+rivalship,--sat down to calculate chances with all the zeal of Demoivre,
+tired of the drudgery in half-an-hour, and refused to see the zealous
+agent whom he had employed in the city, because he was busily engaged in
+writing a new lampoon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+                Ah! changeful head, and fickle heart!
+                                       --PROGRESS OF DISCONTENT.
+
+No event is more ordinary in narratives of this nature, than the
+abduction of the female on whose fate the interest is supposed to turn;
+but that of Alice Bridgenorth was thus far particular, that she was
+spirited away by the Duke of Buckingham, more in contradiction than in
+the rivalry of passion; and that, as he made his first addresses to her
+at Chiffinch’s, rather in the spirit of rivalry to this Sovereign, than
+from any strong impression which her beauty had made on his affections,
+so he had formed the sudden plan of spiriting her away by means of his
+dependents, rather to perplex Christian, the King, Chiffinch, and all
+concerned, than because he had any particular desire for her society at
+his own mansion. Indeed, so far was this from being the case, that
+his Grace was rather surprised than delighted with the success of the
+enterprise which had made her an inmate there, although it is probable
+he might have thrown himself into an uncontrollable passion, had he
+learned its miscarriage instead of its success.
+
+Twenty-four hours had passed over since he had returned to his own roof,
+before, notwithstanding sundry hints from Jerningham, he could even
+determine on the exertion necessary to pay his fair captive a visit; and
+then it was with the internal reluctance of one who can only be stirred
+from indolence by novelty.
+
+“I wonder what made me plague myself about this wench,” said he, “and
+doom myself to encounter all the hysterical rhapsodies of a country
+Phillis, with her head stuffed with her grandmother’s lessons about
+virtue and the Bible-book, when the finest and best-bred women in town
+may be had upon more easy terms. It is a pity one cannot mount the
+victor’s car of triumph without having a victory to boast of; yet,
+faith, it is what most of our modern gallants do, though it would not
+become Buckingham.--Well, I must see her,” he concluded, “though it were
+but to rid the house of her. The Portsmouth will not hear of her
+being set at liberty near Charles, so much is she afraid of a new fair
+seducing the old sinner from his allegiance. So how the girl is to be
+disposed of--for I shall have little fancy to keep her here, and she is
+too wealthy to be sent down to Cliefden as a housekeeper--is a matter to
+be thought on.”
+
+He then called for such a dress as might set off his natural good
+mien--a compliment which he considered as due to his own merit; for as
+to anything farther, he went to pay his respects to his fair prisoner
+with almost as little zeal in the cause, as a gallant to fight a duel in
+which he has no warmer interest than the maintenance of his reputation
+as man of honour.
+
+The set of apartments consecrated to the use of those favourites who
+occasionally made Buckingham’s mansion their place of abode, and who
+were, so far as liberty was concerned, often required to observe the
+regulations of a convent, were separated from the rest of the Duke’s
+extensive mansion. He lived in the age when what was called gallantry
+warranted the most atrocious actions of deceit and violence; as may be
+best illustrated by the catastrophe of an unfortunate actress, whose
+beauty attracted the attention of the last De Vere, Earl of Oxford.
+While her virtue defied his seductions, he ruined her under colour of a
+mock marriage, and was rewarded for a success which occasioned the death
+of his victim, by the general applause of the men of wit and gallantry
+who filled the drawing-room of Charles.
+
+Buckingham had made provision in the interior of his ducal mansion for
+exploits of a similar nature; and the set of apartments which he
+now visited were alternately used to confine the reluctant, and to
+accommodate the willing.
+
+Being now destined for the former purpose, the key was delivered to the
+Duke by a hooded and spectacled old lady, who sat reading a devout book
+in the outer hall which divided these apartments (usually called the
+Nunnery) from the rest of the house. This experienced dowager acted
+as mistress of the ceremonies on such occasions, and was the trusty
+depositary of more intrigues than were known to any dozen of her
+worshipful calling besides.
+
+“As sweet a linnet,” she said, as she undid the outward door, “as ever
+sung in a cage.”
+
+“I was afraid she might have been more for moping than for singing,
+Dowlas,” said the Duke.
+
+“Till yesterday she was so, please your Grace,” answered Dowlas; “or, to
+speak sooth, till early this morning, we heard of nothing but Lachrymæ.
+But the air of your noble Grace’s house is favourable to singing-birds;
+and to-day matters have been a-much mended.”
+
+“Tis sudden, dame,” said the Duke; “and ‘tis something strange,
+considering that I have never visited her, that the pretty trembler
+should have been so soon reconciled to her fate.”
+
+“Ah, your Grace has such magic, that it communicates itself to your
+very walls; as wholesome Scripture says, Exodus, first and seventh, ‘It
+cleaveth to the walls and the doorposts.’”
+
+“You are too partial, Dame Dowlas,” said the Duke of Buckingham.
+
+“Not a word but truth,” said the dame; “and I wish I may be an outcast
+from the fold of the lambs, but I think this damsel’s very frame has
+changed since she was under your Grace’s roof. Methinks she hath a
+lighter form, a finer step, a more displayed ankle--I cannot tell, but
+I think there is a change. But, lack-a-day, your Grace knows I am as old
+as I am trusty, and that my eyes wax something uncertain.”
+
+“Especially when you wash them with a cup of canary, Dame Dowlas,”
+ answered the Duke, who was aware that temperance was not amongst the
+cardinal virtues which were most familiar to the old lady’s practice.
+
+“Was it canary, your Grace said?--Was it indeed with canary, that your
+Grace should have supposed me to have washed my eyes?” said the offended
+matron. “I am sorry that your Grace should know me no better.”
+
+“I crave your pardon, dame,” said the Duke, shaking aside, fastidiously,
+the grasp which, in the earnestness of her exculpation, Madam Dowlas had
+clutched upon his sleeve. “I crave your pardon. Your nearer approach has
+convinced me of my erroneous imputation--I should have said nantz--not
+canary.”
+
+So saying, he walked forward into the inner apartments, which were
+fitted up with an air of voluptuous magnificence.
+
+“The dame said true, however,” said the proud deviser and proprietor of
+the splendid mansion--“A country Phillis might well reconcile herself
+to such a prison as this, even without a skilful bird-fancier to touch
+a bird-call. But I wonder where she can be, this rural Phidele. Is it
+possible she can have retreated, like a despairing commandant, into her
+bedchamber, the very citadel of the place, without even an attempt to
+defend the outworks?”
+
+As he made this reflection, he passed through an antechamber and little
+eating parlour, exquisitely furnished, and hung with excellent paintings
+of the Venetian school.
+
+Beyond these lay a withdrawing-room, fitted up in a style of still more
+studied elegance. The windows were darkened with painted glass, of such
+a deep and rich colour, as made the midday beams, which found their
+way into the apartment, imitate the rich colours of sunset; and, in
+the celebrated expression of the poet, “taught light to counterfeit a
+gloom.”
+
+Buckingham’s feelings and taste had been too much, and too often, and
+too readily gratified, to permit him, in the general case, to be easily
+accessible, even to those pleasures which it had been the business of
+his life to pursue. The hackneyed voluptuary is like the jaded epicure,
+the mere listlessness of whose appetite becomes at length a sufficient
+penalty for having made it the principal object of his enjoyment and
+cultivation. Yet novelty has always some charms, and uncertainty has
+more.
+
+The doubt how he was to be received--the change of mood which his
+prisoner was said to have evinced--the curiosity to know how such a
+creature as Alice Bridgenorth had been described, was likely to bear
+herself under the circumstances in which she was so unexpectedly placed,
+had upon Buckingham the effect of exciting unusual interest. On his own
+part, he had none of those feelings of anxiety with which a man, even of
+the most vulgar mind, comes to the presence of the female whom he
+wishes to please, far less the more refined sentiments of love, respect,
+desire, and awe, with which the more refined lover approaches the
+beloved object. He had been, to use an expressive French phrase, too
+completely _blasé_ even from his earliest youth, to permit him now
+to experience the animal eagerness of the one, far less the more
+sentimental pleasure of the other. It is no small aggravation of this
+jaded and uncomfortable state of mind, that the voluptuary cannot
+renounce the pursuits with which he is satiated, but must continue, for
+his character’s sake, or from the mere force of habit, to take all the
+toil, fatigue, and danger of the chase, while he has so little real
+interest in the termination.
+
+Buckingham, therefore, felt it due to his reputation as a successful
+hero of intrigue, to pay his addresses to Alice Bridgenorth with
+dissembled eagerness; and, as he opened the door of the inner apartment,
+he paused to consider, whether the tone of gallantry, or that of
+passion, was fittest to use on the occasion. This delay enabled him to
+hear a few notes of a lute touched with exquisite skill, and accompanied
+by the still sweeter strains of a female voice, which, without executing
+any complete melody, seemed to sport itself in rivalship of the silver
+sound of the instrument.
+
+“A creature so well educated,” said the Duke, “with the sense she is
+said to possess, would, rustic as she is, laugh at the assumed rants
+of Oroondates. It is the vein of Dorimont--once, Buckingham, thine
+own--that must here do the feat, besides that the part is easier.”
+
+So thinking, he entered the room with that easy grace which
+characterised the gay courtiers among whom he flourished, and approached
+the fair tenant, whom he found seated near a table covered with books
+and music, and having on her left hand the large half-open casement,
+dim with stained glass, admitting only a doubtful light into this lordly
+retiring-room, which, hung with the richest tapestry of the Gobelines,
+and ornamented with piles if china and splendid mirrors, seemed like a
+bower built for a prince to receive his bride.
+
+The splendid dress of the inmate corresponded with the taste of the
+apartment which she occupied and partook of the Oriental costume which
+the much-admired Roxalana had the brought into fashion. A slender foot
+and ankle, which escaped from the wide trowser of richly ornamented and
+embroidered blue satin, was the only part of her person distinctly seen;
+the rest was enveloped, from head to foot, in a long veil of silver
+gauze, which, like a feathery and light mist on a beautiful landscape,
+suffered you to perceive that what it concealed was rarely lovely, yet
+induced the imagination even to enhance the charms it shaded. Such part
+of the dress as could be discovered was, like the veil and the trowsers,
+in the Oriental taste; a rich turban, and splendid caftan, were rather
+indicated than distinguished through the folds of the former. The whole
+attire argued at least coquetry on the part of the fair one, who must
+have expected, from her situation, a visitor of some pretension; and
+induced Buckingham to smile internally at Christian’s account of the
+extreme simplicity and purity of his niece.
+
+He approached the lady _en cavalier_, and addressed her with the air
+of being conscious, while he acknowledged his offences, that his
+condescending to do so formed a sufficient apology for them. “Fair
+Mistress Alice,” he said, “I am sensible how deeply I ought to sue for
+pardon for the mistaken zeal of my servants, who, seeing you deserted
+and exposed without protection during an unlucky affray, took it upon
+them to bring you under the roof of one who would expose his life rather
+than suffer you to sustain a moment’s anxiety. Was it my fault that
+those around me should have judged it necessary to interfere for your
+preservation; or that, aware of the interest I must take in you, they
+have detained you till I could myself, in personal attendance, receive
+your commands?”
+
+“That attendance has not been speedily rendered, my lord,” answered the
+lady. “I have been a prisoner for two days--neglected, and left to the
+charge of menials.”
+
+“How say you, lady?--Neglected!” exclaimed the Duke. “By Heaven, if the
+best in my household has failed in his duty, I will discard him on the
+instant!”
+
+“I complain of no lack of courtesy from your servants, my lord,” she
+replied; “but methinks it had been but complaisant in the Duke himself
+to explain to me earlier wherefore he has had the boldness to detain me
+as a state prisoner.”
+
+“And can the divine Alice doubt,” said Buckingham, “that, had time and
+space, those cruel enemies to the flight of passion, given permission,
+the instant in which you crossed your vassal’s threshold had seen its
+devoted master at your feet, who hath thought, since he saw you, of
+nothing but the charms which that fatal morning placed before him at
+Chiffinch’s?”
+
+“I understand, then, my lord,” said the lady, “that you have been
+absent, and have had no part in the restraint which has been exercised
+upon me?”
+
+“Absent on the King’s command, lady, and employed in the discharge
+of his duty,” answered Buckingham without hesitation. “What could I
+do?--The moment you left Chiffinch’s, his Majesty commanded me to the
+saddle in such haste, that I had no time to change my satin buskins
+for riding-boots.[*] If my absence has occasioned you a moment of
+inconvenience, blame the inconsiderate zeal of those who, seeing me
+depart from London, half distracted at my separation from you, were
+willing to contribute their unmannered, though well-meant exertions, to
+preserve their master from despair, by retaining the fair Alice within
+his reach. To whom, indeed, could they have restored you? He whom you
+selected as your champion is in prison, or fled--your father absent from
+town--your uncle in the north. To Chiffinch’s house you had expressed
+your well-founded aversion; and what fitter asylum remained than that of
+your devoted slave, where you must ever reign a queen?”
+
+[*] This case is not without precedent. Among the jealousies and fears
+    expressed by the Long Parliament, they insisted much upon an agent
+    for the King departing for the continent so abruptly, that he had
+    not time to change his court dress--white buskins, to wit, and
+    black silk pantaloons--for an equipment more suitable to travel
+    with.
+
+“An imprisoned one,” said the lady. “I desire not royalty.”
+
+“Alas! how wilfully you misconstrue me!” said the Duke, kneeling on one
+knee; “and what right can you have to complain of a few hours’ gentle
+restraint--you, who destine so many to hopeless captivity? Be merciful
+for once, and withdraw that envious veil; for the divinities are ever
+most cruel when they deliver their oracles from such clouded recesses.
+Suffer at least my rash hand----”
+
+“I will save your Grace that unworthy trouble,” said the lady haughtily;
+and rising up, she flung back over her shoulders the veil which shrouded
+her, saying, at the same time, “Look on me, my Lord Duke, and see if
+these be indeed the charms which have made on your Grace an impression
+so powerful.”
+
+Buckingham did look; and the effect produced on him by surprise was
+so strong, that he rose hastily from his knee, and remained for a few
+seconds as if he had been petrified. The figure that stood before him
+had neither the height nor the rich shape of Alice Bridgenorth; and,
+though perfectly well made, was so slightly formed, as to seem almost
+infantine. Her dress was three or four short vests of embroidered satin,
+disposed one over the other, of different colours, or rather different
+shades of similar colours; for strong contrast was carefully avoided.
+These opened in front, so as to show part of the throat and neck,
+partially obscured by an inner covering of the finest lace; over the
+uppermost vest was worn a sort of mantle, or coat of rich fur. A small
+but magnificent turban was carelessly placed on her head, from under
+which flowed a profusion of coal-black tresses, which Cleopatra might
+have envied. The taste and splendour of the Eastern dress corresponded
+with the complexion of the lady’s face, which was brunette, of a shade
+so dark as might almost have served an Indian.
+
+Amidst a set of features, in which rapid and keen expression made amends
+for the want of regular beauty, the essential points of eyes as bright
+as diamonds, and teeth as white as pearls, did not escape the Duke of
+Buckingham, a professed connoisseur in female charms. In a word, the
+fanciful and singular female who thus unexpectedly produced herself
+before him, had one of those faces which are never seen without making
+an impression; which, when removed, are long after remembered; and for
+which, in our idleness, we are tempted to invent a hundred histories,
+that we may please our fancy by supposing the features under the
+influence of different kinds of emotion. Every one must have in
+recollection countenances of this kind, which, from a captivating and
+stimulating originality of expression, abide longer in the memory, and
+are more seductive to the imagination, than ever regular beauty.
+
+“My Lord Duke,” said the lady, “it seems the lifting of my veil has done
+the work of magic upon your Grace. Alas, for the captive princess, whose
+nod was to command a vassal so costly as your Grace! She runs, methinks,
+no slight chance of being turned out of doors, like a second Cinderella,
+to seek her fortune among lackeys and lightermen.”
+
+“I am astonished!” said the Duke. “That villain, Jerningham--I will have
+the scoundrel’s blood!”
+
+“Nay, never abuse Jerningham for the matter,” said the Unknown; “but
+lament your own unhappy engagements. While you, my Lord Duke, were
+posting northward, in white satin buskins, to toil in the King’s
+affairs, the right and lawful princess sat weeping in sables in the
+uncheered solitude to which your absence condemned her. Two days she was
+disconsolate in vain; on the third came an African enchantress to change
+the scene for her, and the person for your Grace. Methinks, my lord,
+this adventure will tell but ill, when some faithful squire shall
+recount or record the gallant adventures of the second Duke of
+Buckingham.”
+
+“Fairly bit and bantered to boot,” said the Duke--“the monkey has a turn
+for satire, too, by all that is _piquante_.--Hark ye, fair Princess, how
+dared you adventure on such a trick as you have been accomplice to?”
+
+“Dare, my lord,” answered the stranger; “put the question to others, not
+to one who fears nothing.”
+
+“By my faith, I believe so; for thy front is bronzed by nature.--Hark
+ye, once more, mistress--What is your name and condition?”
+
+“My condition I have told you--I am a Mauritanian sorceress by
+profession, and my name is Zarah,” replied the Eastern maiden.
+
+“But methinks that face, shape, and eyes”--said the Duke--“when didst
+thou pass for a dancing fairy?--Some such imp thou wert not many days
+since.”
+
+“My sister you may have seen--my twin sister; but not me, my lord,”
+ answered Zarah.
+
+“Indeed,” said the Duke, “that duplicate of thine, if it was not thy
+very self, was possessed with a dumb spirit, as thou with a talking one.
+I am still in the mind that you are the same; and that Satan, always so
+powerful with your sex, had art enough on our former meeting, to make
+thee hold thy tongue.”
+
+“Believe what you will of it, my lord,” replied Zarah, “it cannot change
+the truth.--And now, my lord, I bid you farewell. Have you any commands
+to Mauritania?”
+
+“Tarry a little, my Princess,” said the Duke; “and remember, that you
+have voluntarily entered yourself as pledge for another; and are justly
+subjected to any penalty which it is my pleasure to exact. None must
+brave Buckingham with impunity.”
+
+“I am in no hurry to depart, if your Grace hath any commands for me.”
+
+“What! are you neither afraid of my resentment, nor of my love, fair
+Zarah?” said the Duke.
+
+“Of neither, by this glove,” answered the lady. “Your resentment must be
+a pretty passion indeed, if it could stoop to such a helpless object as
+I am; and for your love--good lack! good lack!”
+
+“And why good lack with such a tone of contempt, lady?” said the Duke,
+piqued in spite of himself. “Think you Buckingham cannot love, or has
+never been beloved in return?”
+
+“He may have thought himself beloved,” said the maiden; “but by what
+slight creatures!--things whose heads could be rendered giddy by a
+playhouse rant--whose brains were only filled with red-heeled shoes and
+satin buskins--and who run altogether mad on the argument of a George
+and a star.”
+
+“And are there no such frail fair ones in your climate, most scornful
+Princess?” said the Duke.
+
+“There are,” said the lady; “but men rate them as parrots and
+monkeys--things without either sense or soul, head or heart. The
+nearness we bear to the sun has purified, while it strengthens, our
+passions. The icicles of your frozen climate shall as soon hammer hot
+bars into ploughshares, as shall the foppery and folly of your pretended
+gallantry make an instant’s impression on a breast like mine.”
+
+“You speak like one who knows what passion is,” said the Duke. “Sit
+down, fair lady, and grieve not that I detain you. Who can consent
+to part with a tongue of so much melody, or an eye of such expressive
+eloquence!--You have known then what it is to love?”
+
+“I know--no matter if by experience, or through the report of
+others--but I do know, that to love, as I would love, would be to yield
+not an iota to avarice, not one inch to vanity, not to sacrifice the
+slightest feeling to interest or to ambition; but to give up all to
+fidelity of heart and reciprocal affection.”
+
+“And how many women, think you, are capable of feeling such
+disinterested passion?”
+
+“More, by thousands, than there are men who merit it,” answered
+Zarah. “Alas! how often do you see the female, pale, and wretched, and
+degraded, still following with patient constancy the footsteps of some
+predominating tyrant, and submitting to all his injustice with the
+endurance of a faithful and misused spaniel, which prizes a look from
+his master, though the surliest groom that ever disgraced humanity, more
+than all the pleasure which the world besides can furnish him? Think
+what such would be to one who merited and repaid her devotion.”
+
+“Perhaps the very reverse,” said the Duke; “and for your simile, I can
+see little resemblance. I cannot charge my spaniel with any perfidy; but
+for my mistresses--to confess truth, I must always be in a cursed hurry
+if I would have the credit of changing them before they leave me.”
+
+“And they serve you but rightly, my lord,” answered the lady; “for what
+are you?--Nay, frown not; for you must hear the truth for once. Nature
+has done its part, and made a fair outside, and courtly education hath
+added its share. You are noble, it is the accident of birth--handsome,
+it is the caprice of Nature--generous, because to give is more easy
+than to refuse--well-apparelled, it is to the credit of your
+tailor--well-natured in the main, because you have youth and
+health--brave, because to be otherwise were to be degraded--and witty,
+because you cannot help it.”
+
+The Duke darted a glance on one of the large mirrors. “Noble, and
+handsome, and court-like, generous, well-attired, good-humoured,
+brave, and witty!--You allow me more, madam, than I have the slightest
+pretension to, and surely enough to make my way, at some point at least,
+to female favour.”
+
+“I have neither allowed you a heart nor a head,” said Zarah
+calmly.--“Nay, never redden as if you would fly at me. I say not but
+nature may have given you both; but folly has confounded the one, and
+selfishness perverted the other. The man whom I call deserving the
+name is one whose thoughts and exertions are for others, rather than
+himself,--whose high purpose is adopted on just principles, and never
+abandoned while heaven or earth affords means of accomplishing it. He is
+one who will neither seek an indirect advantage by a specious road, nor
+take an evil path to gain a real good purpose. Such a man were one for
+whom a woman’s heart should beat constant while he breathes, and break
+when he dies.”
+
+She spoke with so much energy that the water sparkled in her eyes, and
+her cheek coloured with the vehemence of her feelings.
+
+“You speak,” said the Duke, “as if you had yourself a heart which could
+pay the full tribute to the merit which you describe so warmly.”
+
+“And have I not?” said she, laying her hand on her bosom. “Here beats
+one that would bear me out in what I have said, whether in life or in
+death.”
+
+“Were it in my power,” said the Duke, who began to get farther
+interested in his visitor than he could at first have thought
+possible--“Were it in my power to deserve such faithful attachment,
+methinks it should be my care to requite it.”
+
+“Your wealth, your titles, your reputation as a gallant--all you
+possess, were too little to merit such sincere affection.”
+
+“Come, fair lady,” said the Duke, a good deal piqued, “do not be quite
+so disdainful. Bethink you, that if your love be as pure as coined
+gold, still a poor fellow like myself may offer you an equivalent in
+silver--The quantity of my affection must make up for its quality.”
+
+“But I am not carrying my affection to market, my lord; and therefore I
+need none of the base coin you offer in change for it.”
+
+“How do I know that, my fairest?” said the Duke. “This is the realm
+of Paphos--You have invaded it, with what purpose you best know; but
+I think with none consistent with your present assumption of cruelty.
+Come, come--eyes that are so intelligent can laugh with delight, as well
+as gleam with scorn and anger. You are here a waif on Cupid’s manor, and
+I must seize on you in name of the deity.”
+
+“Do not think of touching me, my lord,” said the lady. “Approach me not,
+if you would hope to learn the purpose of my being here. Your Grace
+may suppose yourself a Solomon if you please, but I am no travelling
+princess, come from distant climes, either to flatter your pride, or
+wonder at your glory.”
+
+“A defiance, by Jupiter!” said the Duke.
+
+“You mistake the signal,” said the ‘dark ladye’; “I came not here
+without taking sufficient precautions for my retreat.”
+
+“You mouth it bravely,” said the Duke; “but never fortress so boasted
+its resources but the garrison had some thoughts of surrender. Thus I
+open the first parallel.”
+
+They had been hitherto divided from each other by a long narrow table,
+which, placed in the recess of the large casement we have mentioned,
+had formed a sort of barrier on the lady’s side, against the adventurous
+gallant. The Duke went hastily to remove it as he spoke; but, attentive
+to all his motions, his visitor instantly darted through the half-open
+window. Buckingham uttered a cry of horror and surprise, having no
+doubt, at first, that she had precipitated herself from a height of at
+least fourteen feet; for so far the window was distant from the ground.
+But when he sprung to the spot, he perceived, to his astonishment, that
+she had effected her descent with equal agility and safety.
+
+The outside of this stately mansion was decorated with a quantity of
+carving, in the mixed state, betwixt the Gothic and Grecian styles,
+which marks the age of Elizabeth and her successor; and though the
+feat seemed a surprising one, the projections of these ornaments were
+sufficient to afford footing to a creature so light and active, even in
+her hasty descent.
+
+Inflamed alike by mortification and curiosity, Buckingham at first
+entertained some thought of following her by the same dangerous route,
+and had actually got upon the sill of the window for that purpose; and
+was contemplating what might be his next safe movement, when, from
+a neighbouring thicket of shrubs, amongst which his visitor had
+disappeared, he heard her chant a verse of a comic song, then much in
+fashion, concerning a despairing lover who had recourse to a precipice--
+
+ “But when he came near,
+    Beholding how steep
+  The sides did appear,
+    And the bottom how deep;
+  Though his suit was rejected,
+    He sadly reflected,
+  That a lover forsaken
+    A new love may get;
+  But a neck that’s once broken
+    Can never be set.”
+
+The Duke could not help laughing, though much against his will, at the
+resemblance which the verses bore to his own absurd situation, and,
+stepping back into the apartment, desisted from an attempt which might
+have proved dangerous as well as ridiculous. He called his attendants,
+and contented himself with watching the little thicket, unwilling to
+think that a female, who had thrown herself in a great measure into his
+way, meant absolutely to mortify him by a retreat.
+
+That question was determined in an instant. A form, wrapped in a mantle,
+with a slouched hat and shadowy plume, issued from the bushes, and was
+lost in a moment amongst the ruins of ancient and of modern buildings,
+with which, as we have already stated, the demesne formerly termed York
+House, was now encumbered in all directions.
+
+The Duke’s servants, who had obeyed his impatient summons, were hastily
+directed to search for this tantalising siren in every direction. Their
+master, in the meantime, eager and vehement in every new pursuit, but
+especially when his vanity was piqued, encouraged their diligence by
+bribes, and threats, and commands. All was in vain. They found nothing
+of the Mauritanian Princess, as she called herself, but the turban and
+the veil; both of which she had left in the thicket, together with her
+satin slippers; which articles, doubtless, she had thrown aside as she
+exchanged them for others less remarkable.
+
+Finding all his search in vain, the Duke of Buckingham, after the
+example of spoiled children of all ages and stations, gave a loose to
+the frantic vehemence of passion; and fiercely he swore vengeance on
+his late visitor, whom he termed by a thousand opprobrious epithets, of
+which the elegant phrase “Jilt” was most frequently repeated.
+
+Even Jerningham, who knew the depths and the shallows of his master’s
+mood, and was bold to fathom them at almost every state of his passions,
+kept out of his way on the present occasion; and, cabineted with the
+pious old housekeeper, declared to her, over a bottle of ratafia, that,
+in his apprehension, if his Grace did not learn to put some control on
+his temper, chains, darkness, straw, and Bedlam, would be the final doom
+of the gifted and admired Duke of Buckingham.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+            ----Contentious fierce,
+            Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause.
+                                                    --ALBION.
+
+The quarrels between man and wife are proverbial; but let not these
+honest folks think that connections of a less permanent nature are
+free from similar jars. The frolic of the Duke of Buckingham, and the
+subsequent escape of Alice Bridgenorth, had kindled fierce dissension in
+Chiffinch’s family, when, on his arrival in town, he learned these two
+stunning events: “I tell you,” he said to his obliging helpmate, who
+seemed but little moved by all that he could say on the subject, “that
+your d--d carelessness has ruined the work of years.”
+
+“I think it is the twentieth time you have said so,” replied the dame;
+“and without such frequent assurance, I was quite ready to believe that
+a very trifling matter would overset any scheme of yours, however long
+thought of.”
+
+“How on earth could you have the folly to let the Duke into the house
+when you expected the King?” said the irritated courtier.
+
+“Lord, Chiffinch,” answered the lady, “ought not you to ask the porter
+rather than me, that sort of question?--I was putting on my cap to
+receive his Majesty.”
+
+“With the address of a madge-howlet,” said Chiffinch, “and in the
+meanwhile you gave the cat the cream to keep.”
+
+“Indeed, Chiffinch,” said the lady, “these jaunts to the country do
+render you excessively vulgar! there is a brutality about your very
+boots! nay, your muslin ruffles, being somewhat soiled, give to your
+knuckles a sort of rural rusticity, as I may call it.”
+
+“It were a good deed,” muttered Chiffinch, “to make both boots and
+knuckles bang the folly and affectation out of thee.” Then speaking
+aloud, he added, like a man who would fain break off an argument, by
+extorting from his adversary a confession that he has reason on his
+side, “I am sure, Kate, you must be sensible that our all depends on his
+Majesty’s pleasure.”
+
+“Leave that to me,” said she; “I know how to pleasure his Majesty better
+than you can teach me. Do you think his Majesty is booby enough to cry
+like a schoolboy because his sparrow has flown away? His Majesty has
+better taste. I am surprised at you, Chiffinch,” she added, drawing
+herself up, “who were once thought to know the points of a fine woman,
+that you should have made such a roaring about this country wench. Why,
+she has not even the country quality of being plump as a barn-door fowl,
+but is more like a Dunstable lark, that one must crack bones and all
+if you would make a mouthful of it. What signifies whence she came, or
+where she goes? There will be those behind that are much more worthy
+of his Majesty’s condescending attention, even when the Duchess of
+Portsmouth takes the frumps.”
+
+“You mean your neighbour, Mistress Nelly,” said her worthy helpmate;
+“but Kate, her date is out. Wit she has, let her keep herself warm with
+it in worse company, for the cant of a gang of strollers is not language
+for a prince’s chamber.” [*]
+
+[*] In Evelyn’s Memoirs is the following curious passage respecting
+    Nell Gwyn, who is hinted at in the text:--“I walked with him [King
+    Charles II.] through Saint James Park to the garden, where I both
+    saw and heard a very familiar discourse between... [_the King_]
+    and Mrs. Nelly, as they called her, an intimate comedian, she
+    looking out of her garden on a terrace at the top of the wall, and
+    [_the King_] standing on the green walk under it. I was heartily
+    sorry at this scene.”--EVELYN’S _Memoirs_, vol. i. p.413.
+
+“It is no matter what I mean, or whom I mean,” said Mrs. Chiffinch; “but
+I tell you, Tom Chiffinch, that you will find your master quite consoled
+for loss of the piece of prudish puritanism that you would need saddle
+him with; as if the good man were not plagued enough with them
+in Parliament, but you must, forsooth, bring them into his very
+bedchamber.”
+
+“Well, Kate,” said Chiffinch, “if a man were to speak all the sense of
+the seven wise masters, a woman would find nonsense enough to overwhelm
+him with; so I shall say no more, but that I would to Heaven I may find
+the King in no worse humour than you describe him. I am commanded to
+attend him down the river to the Tower to-day, where he is to make some
+survey of arms and stores. They are clever fellows who contrive to keep
+Rowley from engaging in business, for, by my word, he has a turn for
+it.”
+
+“I warrant you,” said Chiffinch the female, nodding, but rather to her
+own figure, reflected from a mirror, than to her politic husband,--“I
+warrant you we will find means of occupying him that will sufficiently
+fill up his time.”
+
+“On my honour, Kate,” said the male Chiffinch, “I find you strangely
+altered, and, to speak truth, grown most extremely opinionative. I shall
+be happy if you have good reason for your confidence.”
+
+The dame smiled superciliously, but deigned no other answer, unless this
+were one,--“I shall order a boat to go upon the Thames to-day with the
+royal party.”
+
+“Take care what you do, Kate; there are none dare presume so far but
+women of the first rank. Duchess of Bolton--of Buckingham--of----”
+
+“Who cares for a list of names? why may not I be as forward as the
+greatest B. amongst your string of them?”
+
+“Nay, faith, thou mayest match the greatest B. in Court already,”
+ answered Chiffinch; “so e’en take thy own course of it. But do not let
+Chaubert forget to get some collation ready, and a _souper au petit
+couvert_, in case it should be commanded for the evening.”
+
+“Ay, there your boasted knowledge of Court matters begins and
+ends.--Chiffinch, Chaubert, and Company;--dissolve that partnership, and
+you break Tom Chiffinch for a courtier.”
+
+“Amen, Kate,” replied Chiffinch; “and let me tell you it is as safe
+to rely on another person’s fingers as on our own wit. But I must give
+orders for the water.--If you will take the pinnace, there are the
+cloth-of-gold cushions in the chapel may serve to cover the benches for
+the day. They are never wanted where they lie, so you may make free with
+them too.”
+
+Madam Chiffinch accordingly mingled with the flotilla which attended the
+King on his voyage down the Thames, amongst whom was the Queen,
+attended by some of the principal ladies of the Court. The little plump
+Cleopatra, dressed to as much advantage as her taste could devise, and
+seated upon her embroidered cushions like Venus in her shell, neglected
+nothing that effrontery and minauderie could perform to draw upon
+herself some portion of the King’s observation; but Charles was not in
+the vein, and did not even pay her the slightest passing attention of
+any kind, until her boatmen having ventured to approach nearer to the
+Queen’s barge than etiquette permitted, received a peremptory order to
+back their oars, and fall out of the royal procession. Madam Chiffinch
+cried for spite, and transgressed Solomon’s warning, by cursing the King
+in her heart; but had no better course than to return to Westminster,
+and direct Chaubert’s preparations for the evening.
+
+In the meantime the royal barge paused at the Tower; and, accompanied
+by a laughing train of ladies and of courtiers, the gay Monarch made the
+echoes of the old prison-towers ring with the unwonted sounds of mirth
+and revelry. As they ascended from the river-side to the centre of the
+building, where the fine old keep of William the Conqueror, called the
+White Tower, predominates over the exterior defences, Heaven only knows
+how many gallant jests, good or bad, were run on the comparison of his
+Majesty’s state-prison to that of Cupid, and what killing similes were
+drawn between the ladies’ eyes and the guns of the fortress, which,
+spoken with a fashionable congée, and listened to with a smile from a
+fair lady, formed the fine conversations of the day.
+
+This gay swarm of flutterers did not, however, attend close on the
+King’s person, though they had accompanied him upon his party on the
+river. Charles, who often formed manly and sensible resolutions, though
+he was too easily diverted from them by indolence or pleasure, had
+some desire to make himself personally acquainted with the state of
+the military stores, arms, &c. of which the Tower was then, as now, the
+magazine; and, although he had brought with him the usual number of
+his courtiers, only three or four attended him on the scrutiny which he
+intended. Whilst, therefore, the rest of the train amused themselves
+as they might in other parts of the Tower, the King, accompanied by the
+Dukes of Buckingham, Ormond, and one or two others, walked through the
+well-known hall, in which is preserved the most splendid magazine of
+arms in the world, and which, though far from exhibiting its present
+extraordinary state of perfection, was even then an arsenal worthy of
+the great nation to which it belonged.
+
+The Duke of Ormond, well known for his services during the Great Civil
+War, was, as we have elsewhere noticed, at present rather on cold terms
+with his Sovereign, who nevertheless asked his advice on many occasions,
+and who required it on the present amongst others, when it was not a
+little feared that the Parliament, in their zeal for the Protestant
+religion, might desire to take the magazines of arms and ammunition
+under their own exclusive orders. While Charles sadly hinted at such a
+termination of the popular jealousies of the period, and discussed with
+Ormond the means of resisting, or evading it, Buckingham, falling a
+little behind, amused himself with ridiculing the antiquated appearance
+and embarrassed demeanour of the old warder who attended on the
+occasion, and who chanced to be the very same who escorted Julian
+Peveril to his present place of confinement. The Duke prosecuted his
+raillery with the greater activity, that he found the old man, though
+restrained by the place and presence, was rather upon the whole testy,
+and disposed to afford what sportsmen call _play_ to his persecutor.
+The various pieces of ancient armour, with which the wall was covered,
+afforded the principal source of the Duke’s wit, as he insisted upon
+knowing from the old man, who, he said, could best remember matters
+from the days of King Arthur downwards at the least, the history of the
+different warlike weapons, and anecdotes of the battles in which they
+had been wielded. The old man obviously suffered, when he was obliged,
+by repeated questions, to tell the legends (often sufficiently absurd)
+which the tradition of the place had assigned to particular relics. Far
+from flourishing his partisan, and augmenting the emphasis of his voice,
+as was and is the prevailing fashion of these warlike Ciceroni, it was
+scarcely possible to extort from him a single word concerning those
+topics on which their information is usually overflowing.
+
+“Do you know, my friend,” said the Duke to him at last, “I begin to
+change my mind respecting you. I supposed you must have served as a
+Yeoman of the Guard since bluff King Henry’s time, and expected to hear
+something from you about the Field of the Cloth of Gold,--and I thought
+of asking you the colour of Anne Bullen’s breastknot, which cost the
+Pope three kingdoms; but I am afraid you are but a novice in such
+recollections of love and chivalry. Art sure thou didst not creep into
+thy warlike office from some dark shop in Tower-Hamlets, and that
+thou hast not converted an unlawful measuring-yard into that glorious
+halberd?--I warrant thou canst not even tell you whom this piece of
+antique panoply pertained to?”
+
+The Duke pointed at random to a cuirass which hung amongst others, but
+was rather remarkable from being better cleansed.
+
+“I should know that piece of iron,” said the warder bluntly, yet with
+some change in his voice; “for I have known a man within side of it
+who would not have endured half the impertinence I have heard spoken
+to-day.”
+
+The tone of the old man, as well as the words, attracted the attention
+of Charles and the Duke of Ormond, who were only two steps before the
+speaker. They both stopped, and turned round; the former saying at the
+same time,--“how now, sirrah!--what answers are these?--What man do you
+speak of?”
+
+“Of one who is none now,” said the warder, “whatever he may have been.”
+
+“The old man surely speaks of himself,” said the Duke of Ormond, closely
+examining the countenance of the warder, which he in vain endeavoured
+to turn away. “I am sure I remember these features--Are not you my old
+friend, Major Coleby?”
+
+“I wish your Grace’s memory had been less accurate,” said the old man,
+colouring deeply, and fixing his eyes on the ground.
+
+The King was greatly shocked.--“Good God!” he said, “the gallant Major
+Coleby, who joined us with his four sons and a hundred and fifty men at
+Warrington!--And is this all we could do for an old Worcester friend?”
+
+The tears rushed thick into the old man’s eyes as he said in broken
+accents, “Never mind me, sire; I am well enough here--a worn-out soldier
+rusting among old armour. Where one old Cavalier is better, there are
+twenty worse.--I am sorry your Majesty should know anything of it, since
+it grieves you.”
+
+With that kindness, which was a redeeming point of his character,
+Charles, while the old man was speaking, took the partisan from him with
+his own hand, and put it into that of Buckingham, saying, “What Coleby’s
+hand has borne, can disgrace neither yours nor mine,--and you owe him
+this atonement. Time has been with him, that, for less provocation, he
+would have laid it about your ears.”
+
+The Duke bowed deeply, but coloured with resentment, and took an
+immediate opportunity to place the weapon carelessly against a pile of
+arms. The King did not observe a contemptuous motion, which, perhaps,
+would not have pleased him, being at the moment occupied with the
+veteran, whom he exhorted to lean upon him, as he conveyed him to a
+seat, permitting no other person to assist him. “Rest there,” he said,
+“my brave old friend; and Charles Stewart must be poor indeed, if you
+wear that dress an hour longer.--You look very pale, my good Coleby,
+to have had so much colour a few minutes since. Be not vexed at what
+Buckingham says; no one minds his folly.--You look worse and worse.
+Come, come, you are too much hurried by this meeting. Sit still--do not
+rise--do not attempt to kneel. I command you to repose yourself till I
+have made the round of these apartments.”
+
+The old Cavalier stooped his head in token of acquiescence in the
+command of his Sovereign, but he raised it not again. The tumultuous
+agitation of the moment had been too much for spirits which had been
+long in a state of depression, and health which was much decayed. When
+the King and his attendants, after half-an-hour’s absence, returned
+to the spot where they had left the veteran, they found him dead, and
+already cold, in the attitude of one who has fallen easily asleep. The
+King was dreadfully shocked; and it was with a low and faltering voice
+that he directed the body, in due time, to be honourably buried in the
+chapel of the Tower.[*] He was then silent, until he attained the steps
+in front of the arsenal, where the party in attendance upon his person
+began to assemble at his approach, along with some other persons of
+respectable appearance, whom curiosity had attracted.
+
+[*] A story of this nature is current in the legends of the Tower. The
+    affecting circumstances are, I believe, recorded in one of the
+    little manuals which are put into the hands of visitors, but are
+    not to be found in the later editions.
+
+“This is dreadful,” said the King. “We must find some means of relieving
+the distresses, and rewarding the fidelity of our suffering followers,
+or posterity will cry fie upon our memory.”
+
+“Your Majesty has had often such plans agitated in your Council,” said
+Buckingham.
+
+“True, George,” said the King. “I can safely say it is not my fault. I
+have thought of it for years.”
+
+“It cannot be too well considered,” said Buckingham; “besides, every
+year makes the task of relief easier.”
+
+“True,” said the Duke of Ormond, “by diminishing the number of
+sufferers. Here is poor old Coleby will no longer be a burden to the
+Crown.”
+
+“You are too severe, my Lord of Ormond,” said the King, “and should
+respect the feelings you trespass on. You cannot suppose that we would
+have permitted this poor man to hold such a situation, had we known of
+the circumstances?”
+
+“For God’s sake, then, sire,” said the Duke of Ormond, “turn your
+eyes, which have just rested on the corpse of one old friend, upon the
+distresses of others. Here is the valiant old Sir Geoffrey Peveril of
+the Peak, who fought through the whole war, wherever blows were
+going, and was the last man, I believe, in England, who laid down his
+arms--Here is his son, of whom I have the highest accounts, as a gallant
+of spirit, accomplishments, and courage--Here is the unfortunate House
+of Derby--for pity’s sake, interfere in behalf of these victims, whom
+the folds of this hydra-plot have entangled, in order to crush them to
+death--rebuke the fiends that are seeking to devour their lives, and
+disappoint the harpies that are gaping for their property. This very day
+seven-night the unfortunate family, father and son, are to be brought
+upon trial for crimes of which they are as guiltless, I boldly
+pronounce, as any who stand in this presence. For God’s sake, sire, let
+us hope that, should the prejudices of the people condemn them, as it
+has done others, you will at last step in between the blood-hunters and
+their prey.”
+
+The King looked, as he really was, exceedingly perplexed.
+
+Buckingham, between whom and Ormond there existed a constant and almost
+mortal quarrel, interfered to effect a diversion in Charles’s favour.
+“Your Majesty’s royal benevolence,” he said, “needs never want exercise,
+while the Duke of Ormond is near your person. He has his sleeve cut
+in the old and ample fashion, that he may always have store of ruined
+cavaliers stowed in it to produce at demand, rare old raw-boned boys,
+with Malmsey noses, bald heads, spindle shanks, and merciless histories
+of Edgehill and Naseby.”
+
+“My sleeve is, I dare say, of an antique cut,” said Ormond, looking full
+at the Duke; “but I pin neither bravoes nor ruffians upon it, my Lord of
+Buckingham, as I see fastened to coats of the new mode.”
+
+“That is a little too sharp for our presence, my lord,” said the King.
+
+“Not if I make my words good,” said Ormond.--“My Lord of Buckingham,
+will you name the man you spoke to as you left the boat?”
+
+“I spoke to no one,” said the Duke hastily--“nay, I mistake, I remember
+a fellow whispered in my ear, that one, who I thought had left London
+was still lingering in town. A person whom I had business with.”
+
+“Was yon the messenger?” said Ormond, singling out from the crowd who
+stood in the court-yard a tall dark-looking man, muffled in a large
+cloak, wearing a broad shadowy black beaver hat, with a long sword of
+the Spanish fashion--the very Colonel, in short, whom Buckingham had
+despatched in quest of Christian, with the intention of detaining him in
+the country.
+
+When Buckingham’s eyes had followed the direction of Ormond’s finger, he
+could not help blushing so deeply as to attract the King’s attention.
+
+“What new frolic is this, George?” he said. “Gentlemen, bring that
+fellow forward. On my life, a truculent-looking caitiff--Hark ye,
+friend, who are you? If an honest man, Nature has forgot to label it
+upon your countenance.--Does none here know him?
+
+ ‘With every symptom of a knave complete,
+  If he be honest, he’s a devilish cheat.’”
+
+“He is well known to many, sire,” replied Ormond; “and that he walks in
+this area with his neck safe, and his limbs unshackled, is an instance,
+amongst many, that we live under the sway of the most merciful Prince of
+Europe.”
+
+“Oddsfish! who is the man, my Lord Duke?” said the King. “Your Grace
+talks mysteries--Buckingham blushes--and the rogue himself is dumb.”
+
+“That honest gentleman, please your Majesty,” replied the Duke of
+Ormond, “whose modesty makes him mute, though it cannot make him blush,
+is the notorious Colonel Blood, as he calls himself, whose attempt to
+possess himself of your Majesty’s royal crown took place at no very
+distant date, in this very Tower of London.”
+
+“That exploit is not easily forgotten,” said the King; “but that the
+fellow lives, shows your Grace’s clemency as well as mine.”
+
+“I cannot deny that I was in his hands, sire,” said Ormond, “and had
+certainly been murdered by him, had he chosen to take my life on the
+spot, instead of destining me--I thank him for the honour--to be hanged
+at Tyburn. I had certainly been sped, if he had thought me worth knife
+or pistol, or anything short of the cord.--Look at him sire! If the
+rascal dared, he would say at this moment, like Caliban in the play,
+‘Ho, ho, I would I had done it!’”
+
+“Why, oddsfish!” answered the King, “he hath a villainous sneer, my
+lord, which seems to say as much; but, my Lord Duke, we have pardoned
+him, and so has your Grace.”
+
+“It would ill have become me,” said the Duke of Ormond, “to have been
+severe in prosecuting an attempt on my poor life, when your Majesty
+was pleased to remit his more outrageous and insolent attempt upon your
+royal crown. But I must conceive it as a piece of supreme insolence on
+the part of this bloodthirsty bully, by whomsoever he may be now backed,
+to appear in the Tower, which was the theatre of one of his villainies,
+or before me, who was well-nigh the victim of another.”
+
+“It shall be amended in future,” said the King.--“Hark ye, sirrah Blood,
+if you again presume to thrust yourself in the way you have done
+but now, I will have the hangman’s knife and your knavish ears made
+acquainted.”
+
+Blood bowed, and with a coolness of impudence which did his nerves
+great honour, he said he had only come to the Tower accidentally, to
+communicate with a particular friend on business of importance. “My Lord
+Duke of Buckingham,” he said, “knew he had no other intentions.”
+
+“Get you gone, you scoundrelly cut-throat,” said the Duke, as much
+impatient of Colonel Blood’s claim of acquaintance, as a town-rake of
+the low and blackguard companions of his midnight rambles, when they
+accost him in daylight amidst better company; “if you dare to quote my
+name again, I will have you thrown into the Thames.”
+
+Blood, thus repulsed, turned round with the most insolent composure,
+and walked away down from the parade, all men looking at him, as at some
+strange and monstrous prodigy, so much was he renowned for daring and
+desperate villainy. Some even followed him, to have a better survey of
+the notorious Colonel Blood, like the smaller tribe of birds which keep
+fluttering round an owl when he appears in the light of the sun. But as,
+in the latter case, these thoughtless flutterers are careful to keep out
+of reach of the beak and claws of the bird of Minerva, so none of those
+who followed and gazed on Blood as something ominous, cared to bandy
+looks with him, or to endure and return the lowering and deadly glances,
+which he shot from time to time on those who pressed nearest to him. He
+stalked on in this manner, like a daunted, yet sullen wolf, afraid to
+stop, yet unwilling to fly, until he reached the Traitor’s Gate, and
+getting on board a sculler which waited for him, he disappeared from
+their eyes.
+
+Charles would fain have obliterated all recollection of his appearance,
+by the observation, “It were a shame that such a reprobate scoundrel
+should be the subject of discord between two noblemen of distinction;”
+ and he recommended to the Dukes of Buckingham and Ormond to join hands,
+and forget a misunderstanding which rose on so unworthy a subject.
+
+Buckingham answered carelessly, “That the Duke of Ormond’s honoured
+white hairs were a sufficient apology for his making the first overtures
+to a reconciliation,” and he held out his hand accordingly. But Ormond
+only bowed in return, and said, “The King had no cause to expect that
+the Court would be disturbed by his personal resentments, since time
+would not yield him back twenty years, nor the grave restore his gallant
+son Ossory. As to the ruffian who had intruded himself there, he was
+obliged to him, since, by showing that his Majesty’s clemency extended
+even to the very worst of criminals, he strengthened his hopes of
+obtaining the King’s favour for such of his innocent friends as were now
+in prison, and in danger, from the odious charges brought against them
+on the score of the Popish Plot.”
+
+The King made no other answer to this insinuation, than by directing
+that the company should embark for their return to Whitehall; and thus
+took leave of the officers of the Tower who were in attendance, with one
+of those well-turned compliments to their discharge of duty, which no
+man knew better how to express; and issued at the same time strict and
+anxious orders for protection and defence of the important fortress
+confided to them, and all which it contained.
+
+Before he parted with Ormond on their arrival at Whitehall, he turned
+round to him, as one who has made up his resolution, and said, “Be
+satisfied, my Lord Duke--our friends’ case shall be looked to.”
+
+In the same evening the Attorney-General, and North, Lord Chief Justice
+of the Common Pleas, had orders with all secrecy, to meet his Majesty
+that evening on especial matters of state, at the apartments of
+Chiffinch, the centre of all affairs, whether of gallantry or business.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+            Yet, Corah, thou shalt from oblivion pass;
+            Erect thyself, thou monumental brass,
+            High as the serpent of thy metal made,
+            While nations stand secure beneath thy shade.
+                                       --ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.
+
+The morning which Charles had spent in visiting the Tower, had been very
+differently employed by those unhappy individuals, whom their bad fate,
+and the singular temper of the times, had made the innocent tenants of
+that state prison, and who had received official notice that they were
+to stand their trial in the Court of Queen’s Bench at Westminster, on
+the seventh succeeding day. The stout old Cavalier at first only railed
+at the officer for spoiling his breakfast with the news, but evinced
+great feeling when he was told that Julian was to be put under the same
+indictment.
+
+We intend to dwell only very generally on the nature of their trial,
+which corresponded, in the outline, with almost all those which took
+place during the prevalence of the Popish Plot. That is, one or two
+infamous and perjured evidences, whose profession of common informers
+had become frightfully lucrative, made oath to the prisoners having
+expressed themselves interested in the great confederacy of the
+Catholics. A number of others brought forward facts or suspicions,
+affecting the character of the parties as honest Protestants and good
+subjects; and betwixt the direct and presumptive evidence, enough was
+usually extracted for justifying, to a corrupted court and perjured
+jury, the fatal verdict of Guilty.
+
+The fury of the people had, however, now begun to pass away, exhausted
+even by its own violence. The English nation differ from all others,
+indeed even from those of the sister kingdoms, in being very easily
+sated with punishment, even when they suppose it most merited. Other
+nations are like the tamed tiger, which, when once its native appetite
+for slaughter is indulged in one instance, rushes on in promiscuous
+ravages. But the English public have always rather resembled what is
+told of the sleuth-dog, which, eager, fierce, and clamorous in pursuit
+of his prey, desists from it so soon as blood is sprinkled upon his
+path.
+
+Men’s minds were now beginning to cool--the character of the witnesses
+was more closely sifted--their testimonies did not in all cases
+tally--and a wholesome suspicion began to be entertained of men, who
+would never say they had made a full discovery of all they knew, but
+avowedly reserved some points of evidence to bear on future trials.
+
+The King also, who had lain passive during the first burst of popular
+fury, was now beginning to bestir himself, which produced a marked
+effect on the conduct of the Crown Counsel, and even the Judges. Sir
+George Wakeman had been acquitted in spite of Oates’s direct testimony;
+and public attention was strongly excited concerning the event of the
+next trial; which chanced to be that of the Peverils, father and son,
+with whom, I know not from what concatenation, little Hudson the dwarf
+was placed at the bar of the Court of King’s Bench.
+
+It was a piteous sight to behold a father and son, who had been so long
+separated, meet under circumstances so melancholy; and many tears were
+shed, when the majestic old man--for such he was, though now broken with
+years--folded his son to his bosom, with a mixture of joy, affection,
+and a bitter anticipation of the event of the impending trial. There was
+a feeling in the Court that for a moment overcame every prejudice and
+party feeling. Many spectators shed tears; and there was even a low
+moaning, as of those who weep aloud.
+
+Such as felt themselves sufficiently at ease to remark the conduct
+of poor little Geoffrey Hudson, who was scarcely observed amid the
+preponderating interest created by his companions in misfortune, could
+not but notice a strong degree of mortification on the part of that
+diminutive gentleman. He had soothed his great mind by the thoughts of
+playing the character which he was called on to sustain, in a manner
+which should be long remembered in that place; and on his entrance, had
+saluted the numerous spectators, as well as the Court, with a cavalier
+air, which he meant should express grace, high-breeding, perfect
+coolness, with a noble disregard to the issue of their proceedings. But
+his little person was so obscured and jostled aside, on the meeting of
+the father and son, who had been brought in different boats from the
+Tower, and placed at the bar at the same moment, that his distress and
+his dignity were alike thrown into the background, and attracted neither
+sympathy nor admiration.
+
+The dwarf’s wisest way to attract attention would have been to remain
+quiet, when so remarkable an exterior would certainly have received in
+its turn the share of public notice which he so eagerly coveted. But
+when did personal vanity listen to the suggestions of prudence?--Our
+impatient friend scrambled, with some difficulty, on the top of the
+bench intended for his seat; and there, “paining himself to stand
+a-tiptoe,” like Chaucer’s gallant Sir Chaunticlere, he challenged the
+notice of the audience as he stood bowing and claiming acquaintance
+of his namesake Sir Geoffrey the larger, with whose shoulders,
+notwithstanding his elevated situation, he was scarcely yet upon a
+level.
+
+The taller Knight, whose mind was occupied in a very different manner,
+took no notice of these advances upon the dwarf’s part, but sat down
+with the determination rather to die on the spot than evince any
+symptoms of weakness before Roundheads and Presbyterians; under
+which obnoxious epithets, being too old-fashioned to find out party
+designations of newer date, he comprehended all persons concerned in his
+present trouble.
+
+By Sir Geoffrey the larger’s change of position, his face was thus
+brought on a level with that of Sir Geoffrey the less, who had an
+opportunity of pulling him by the cloak. He of Martindale Castle,
+rather mechanically than consciously, turned his head towards the
+large wrinkled visage, which, struggling between an assumed air of easy
+importance, and an anxious desire to be noticed, was grimacing within a
+yard of him. But neither the singular physiognomy, the nods and smiles
+of greeting and recognition into which it was wreathed, nor the strange
+little form by which it was supported, had at that moment the power of
+exciting any recollections in the old Knight’s mind; and having stared
+for a moment at the poor little man, his bulky namesake turned away his
+head without farther notice.
+
+Julian Peveril, the dwarf’s more recent acquaintance, had, even amid
+his own anxious feelings, room for sympathy with those of his little
+fellow-sufferer. As soon as he discovered that he was at the same
+terrible bar with himself, although he could not conceive how their
+causes came to be conjoined, he acknowledged him by a hearty shake of
+the hand, which the old man returned with affected dignity and real
+gratitude. “Worthy youth,” he said, “thy presence is restorative, like
+the nepenthe of Homer even in this syncopé of our mutual fate. I am
+concerned to see that your father hath not the same alacrity of soul as
+that of ours, which are lodged within smaller compass; and that he hath
+forgotten an ancient comrade and fellow-soldier, who now stands beside
+him to perform, perhaps, their last campaign.”
+
+Julian briefly replied, that his father had much to occupy him. But the
+little man--who, to do him justice, cared no more (in his own phrase)
+for imminent danger or death, than he did for the puncture of a flea’s
+proboscis--did not so easily renounce the secret object of his ambition,
+which was to acquire the notice of the large and lofty Sir Geoffrey
+Peveril, who, being at least three inches taller than his son, was in so
+far possessed of that superior excellence, which the poor dwarf, in
+his secret soul, valued before all other distinctions, although in
+his conversation, he was constantly depreciating it. “Good comrade and
+namesake,” he proceeded, stretching out his hand, so as to again to
+reach the elder Peveril’s cloak, “I forgive your want of reminiscence,
+seeing it is long since I saw you at Naseby, fighting as if you had as
+many arms as the fabled Briareus.”
+
+The Knight of Martindale, who had again turned his head towards the
+little man, and had listened, as if endeavouring to make something out
+of his discourse, here interrupted him with a peevish, “Pshaw!”
+
+“Pshaw!” repeated Sir Geoffrey the less; “_Pshaw_ is an expression of
+slight esteem,--nay, of contempt,--in all languages; and were this a
+befitting place----”
+
+But the Judges had now taken their places, the criers called silence,
+and the stern voice of the Lord Chief Justice (the notorious Scroggs)
+demanded what the officers meant by permitting the accused to
+communicate together in open court.
+
+It may here be observed, that this celebrated personage was, upon the
+present occasion, at a great loss how to proceed. A calm, dignified,
+judicial demeanour, was at no time the characteristic of his official
+conduct. He always ranted and roared either on the one side or the
+other; and of late, he had been much unsettled which side to take, being
+totally incapable of anything resembling impartiality. At the first
+trials for the Plot, when the whole stream of popularity ran against the
+accused, no one had been so loud as Scroggs; to attempt to the character
+of Oates or Bedloe, or any other leading witnesses, he treated as a
+crime more heinous than it would have been to blaspheme the Gospel
+on which they had been sworn--it was a stifling of the Plot, or
+discrediting of the King’s witnesses--a crime not greatly, if at all,
+short of high treason against the King himself.
+
+But, of late, a new light had begun to glimmer upon the understanding
+of this interpreter of the laws. Sagacious in the signs of the times, he
+began to see that the tide was turning; and that Court favour at least,
+and probably popular opinion also, were likely, in a short time, to
+declare against the witnesses, and in favour of the accused.
+
+The opinion which Scroggs had hitherto entertained of the high respect
+in which Shaftesbury, the patron of the Plot, was held by Charles,
+had been definitely shaken by a whisper from his brother North to the
+following effect: “His Lordship has no more interest at Court than your
+footman.”
+
+This notice, from a sure hand, and received but that morning, had
+put the Judge to a sore dilemma; for, however indifferent to actual
+consistency, he was most anxious to save appearances. He could not but
+recollect how violent he had been on former occasions in favour of these
+prosecutions; and being sensible at the same time that the credit of
+the witnesses, though shaken in the opinion of the more judicious, was,
+amongst the bulk of the people out of doors, as strong as ever, he had a
+difficult part to play. His conduct, therefore, during the whole trial,
+resembled the appearance of a vessel about to go upon another tack,
+when her sails are shivering in the wind, ere they have yet caught the
+impulse which is to send her forth in a new direction. In a word, he was
+so uncertain which side it was his interest to favour, that he might be
+said on that occasion to have come nearer a state of total impartiality
+than he was ever capable of attaining, whether before or afterwards.
+This was shown by his bullying now the accused, and now the witnesses,
+like a mastiff too much irritated to lie still without baying, but
+uncertain whom he shall first bite.
+
+The indictment was then read; and Sir Geoffrey Peveril heard, with some
+composure, the first part of it, which stated him to have placed his son
+in the household of the Countess of Derby, a recusant Papist, for the
+purpose of aiding the horrible and bloodthirsty Popish Plot--with having
+had arms and ammunition concealed in his house--and with receiving
+a blank commission from the Lord Stafford, who had suffered death on
+account of the Plot. But when the charge went on to state that he had
+communicated for the same purpose with Geoffrey Hudson, sometimes called
+Sir Geoffrey Hudson, now, or formerly in the domestic service of the
+Queen Dowager, he looked at his companion as if he suddenly recalled him
+to remembrance, and broke out impatiently, “These lies are too gross
+to require a moment’s consideration. I might have had enough of
+intercourse, though in nothing but what was loyal and innocent, with my
+noble kinsman, the late Lord Stafford--I will call him so in spite of
+his misfortunes--and with my wife’s relation, the Honourable Countess
+of Derby. But what likelihood can there be that I should have
+colleagued with a decrepit buffoon, with whom I never had an instant’s
+communication, save once at an Easter feast, when I whistled a hornpipe,
+as he danced on a trencher to amuse the company?”
+
+The rage of the poor dwarf brought tears in his eyes, while, with an
+affected laugh, he said, that instead of those juvenile and festive
+passages, Sir Geoffrey Peveril might have remembered his charging along
+with him at Wiggan Lane.
+
+“On my word,” said Sir Geoffrey, after a moment’s recollection, “I will
+do you justice, Master Hudson--I believe you were there--I think I heard
+you did good service. But you will allow you might have been near one
+without his seeing you.”
+
+A sort of titter ran through the Court at the simplicity of the larger
+Sir Geoffrey’s testimony, which the dwarf endeavoured to control, by
+standing on his tiptoes, and looking fiercely around, as if to admonish
+the laughers that they indulged their mirth at their own peril. But
+perceiving that this only excited farther scorn, he composed himself
+into a semblance of careless contempt, observing, with a smile, that
+no one feared the glance of a chained lion; a magnificent simile, which
+rather increased than diminished the mirth of those who heard it.
+
+Against Julian Peveril there failed not to be charged the aggravated
+fact, that he had been bearer of letters between the Countess of Derby
+and other Papists and priests, engaged in the universal treasonable
+conspiracy of the Catholics; and the attack of the house at Moultrassie
+Hall,--with his skirmish with Chiffinch, and his assault, as it
+was termed, on the person of John Jenkins, servant to the Duke of
+Buckingham, were all narrated at length, as so many open and overt acts
+of treasonable import. To this charge Peveril contented himself with
+pleading--Not Guilty.
+
+His little companion was not satisfied with so simple a plea; for when
+he heard it read, as a part of the charge applying to him, that he had
+received from an agent of the Plot a blank commission as Colonel of a
+regiment of grenadiers, he replied, in wrath and scorn, that if Goliath
+of Gath had come to him with such a proposal, and proffered him the
+command of the whole sons of Anak in a body, he should never have had
+occasion or opportunity to repeat the temptation to another. “I would
+have slain him,” said the little man of loyalty, “even where he stood.”
+
+The charge was stated anew by the Counsel for the Crown; and forth came
+the notorious Doctor Oates, rustling in the full silken canonicals
+of priesthood, for it was a time when he affected no small dignity of
+exterior decoration and deportment.
+
+This singular man, who, aided by the obscure intrigues of the Catholics
+themselves, and the fortuitous circumstance of Godfrey’s murder, had
+been able to cram down the public throat such a mass of absurdity as his
+evidence amounts to, had no other talent for imposture than an impudence
+which set conviction and shame alike at defiance. A man of sense
+or reflection, by trying to give his plot an appearance of more
+probability, would most likely have failed, as wise men often to do
+in addressing the multitude, from not daring to calculate upon the
+prodigious extent of their credulity, especially where the figments
+presented to them involve the fearful and the terrible.
+
+Oates was by nature choleric; and the credit he had acquired made him
+insolent and conceited. Even his exterior was portentous. A fleece of
+white periwig showed a most uncouth visage, of great length, having the
+mouth, as the organ by use of which he was to rise to eminence, placed
+in the very centre of the countenance, and exhibiting to the astonished
+spectator as much chin below as there was nose and brow above the
+aperture. His pronunciation, too, was after a conceited fashion of his
+own, in which he accented the vowels in a manner altogether peculiar to
+himself.
+
+This notorious personage, such as we have described him, stood forth on
+the present trial, and delivered his astonishing testimony concerning
+the existence of a Catholic Plot for the subversion of the government
+and murder of the King, in the same general outline in which it may be
+found in every English history. But as the doctor always had in reserve
+some special piece of evidence affecting those immediately on trial, he
+was pleased, on the present occasion, deeply to inculpate the Countess
+of Derby. “He had seen,” as he said, “that honourable lady when he was
+at the Jesuits’ College at Saint Omer’s. She had sent for him to an inn,
+or _auberge_, as it was there termed--the sign of the Golden Lamb; and
+had ordered him to breakfast in the same room with her ladyship; and
+afterwards told him, that, knowing he was trusted by the Fathers of the
+Society, she was determined that he should have a share of her
+secrets also; and therewithal, that she drew from her bosom a broad
+sharp-pointed knife, such as butchers kill sheep with, and demanded of
+him what he thought of it for _the purpose_; and when he, the witness,
+said for what purpose she rapt him on the fingers with her fan, called
+him a dull fellow, and said it was designed to kill the King with.”
+
+Here Sir Geoffrey Peveril could no longer refrain his indignation and
+surprise. “Mercy of Heaven!” he said, “did ever one hear of ladies of
+quality carrying butchering knives about them, and telling every scurvy
+companion she meant to kill the King with them?--Gentleman of the Jury,
+do but think if this is reasonable--though, if the villain could prove
+by any honest evidence, that my Lady of Derby ever let such a scum as
+himself come to speech of her, I would believe all he can say.”
+
+“Sir Geoffrey,” said the Judge, “rest you quiet--You must not fly
+out--passion helps you not here--the Doctor must be suffered to
+proceed.”
+
+Doctor Oates went on to state how the lady complained of the wrongs the
+House of Derby had sustained from the King and the oppression of
+her religion, and boasted of the schemes of the Jesuits and seminary
+priests; and how they would be farthered by her noble kinsman of the
+House of Stanley. He finally averred that both the Countess and the
+Fathers of the seminary abroad, founded much upon the talents and
+courage of Sir Geoffrey Peveril and his son--the latter of whom was a
+member of her family. Of Hudson, he only recollected of having heard one
+of the Fathers say, that although but a dwarf in stature, he would prove
+a giant in the cause of the Church.
+
+When he had ended his evidence, there was a pause, until the Judge,
+as if the thought had suddenly occurred to him, demanded of Dr. Oates,
+whether he had ever mentioned the names of the Countess of Derby in
+any of the previous informations which he had lodged before the Privy
+Council, and elsewhere, upon this affair.
+
+Oates seemed rather surprised at the question, and coloured with anger,
+as he answered, in his peculiar mode of pronunciation, “Whoy, no, maay
+laard.”
+
+“And pray, Doctor,” said the Judge, “how came so great a revealer of
+mysteries as you have lately proved, to have suffered so material a
+circumstance as the accession of this powerful family to the Plot to
+have remained undiscovered?”
+
+“Maay laard,” said Oates, with much effrontery, “aye do not come here to
+have my evidence questioned as touching the Plaat.”
+
+“I do not question your evidence, Doctor,” said Scroggs, for the time
+was not arrived that he dared treat him roughly; “nor do I doubt the
+existence of the _Plaat_, since it is your pleasure to swear to it. I
+would only have you, for your own sake, and the satisfaction of all good
+Protestants, to explain why you have kept back such a weighty point of
+information from the King and country.”
+
+“Maay laard,” said Oates, “I will tell you a pretty fable.”
+
+“I hope,” answered the Judge, “it may be the first and last which you
+shall tell in this place.”
+
+“Maay laard,” continued Oates, “there was once a faux, who having to
+carry a goose over a frazen river, and being afraid the aice would not
+bear him and his booty, did caarry aaver a staane, my laard, in the
+first instance, to prove the strength of the aice.”
+
+“So your former evidence was but the stone, and now, for the first time,
+you have brought us the goose?” said Sir William Scroggs; “to tell us
+this, Doctor, is to make geese of the Court and Jury.”
+
+“I desoire your laardship’s honest construction,” said Oates, who saw
+the current changing against him, but was determined to pay the score
+with effrontery. “All men knaw at what coast and praice I have given my
+evidence, which has been always, under Gaad, the means of awakening this
+poor naation to the dangerous state in which it staunds. Many here knaw
+that I have been obliged to faartify my ladging at Whitehall against the
+bloody Papists. It was not to be thought that I should have brought
+all the story out at aance. I think your wisdome would have advised me
+otherwise.” [*]
+
+[*] It was on such terms that Dr. Oates was pleased to claim the
+    extraordinary privilege of dealing out the information which he
+    chose to communicate to a court of justice. The only sense in
+    which his story of the fox, stone, and goose could be applicable,
+    is by supposing that he was determined to ascertain the extent of
+    his countrymen’s credulity before supplying it with a full meal.
+
+“Nay, Doctor,” said the Judge, “it is not for me to direct you in this
+affair; and it is for the Jury to believe you or not; and as for myself,
+I sit here to do justice to both--the Jury have heard your answer to my
+question.”
+
+Doctor Oates retired from the witness-box reddening like a turkey-cock,
+as one totally unused to have such accounts questioned as he chose to
+lay before the courts of justice; and there was, perhaps, for the first
+time, amongst the counsel and solicitors, as well as the templars
+and students of law there present, a murmur, distinct and audible,
+unfavourable to the character of the great father of the Popish Plot.
+
+Everett and Dangerfield, with whom the reader is already acquainted,
+were then called in succession to sustain the accusation. They were
+subordinate informers--a sort of under-spur-leathers, as the cant term
+went--who followed the path of Oates, with all deference to his superior
+genius and invention, and made their own fictions chime in and harmonise
+with his, as well as their talents could devise. But as their evidence
+had at no time received the full credence into which the impudence of
+Oates had cajoled the public, so they now began to fall into discredit
+rather more hastily than their prototype, as the super-added turrets of
+an ill-constructed building are naturally the first to give way.
+
+It was in vain that Everett, with the precision of a hypocrite,
+and Dangerfield, with the audacity of a bully, narrated, with added
+circumstances of suspicion and criminality, their meeting with Julian
+Peveril in Liverpool, and again at Martindale Castle. It was in vain
+they described the arms and accoutrements which they pretended to have
+discovered in old Sir Geoffrey’s possession; and that they gave a most
+dreadful account of the escape of the younger Peveril from Moultrassie
+Hall, by means of an armed force.
+
+The Jury listened coldly, and it was visible that they were but little
+moved by the accusation; especially as the Judge, always professing his
+belief in the Plot, and his zeal for the Protestant religion, was ever
+and anon reminding them that presumptions were no proofs--that hearsay
+was no evidence--that those who made a trade of discovery were likely to
+aid their researches by invention--and that without doubting the
+guilt of the unfortunate persons at the bar, he would gladly hear some
+evidence brought against them of a different nature. “Here we are told
+of a riot, and an escape achieved by the younger Peveril, at the house
+of a grave and worthy magistrate, known, I think, to most of us. Why,
+Master Attorney, bring ye not Master Bridgenorth himself to prove the
+fact, or all his household, if it be necessary?--A rising in arms is
+an affair over public to be left on the hearsay tale of these two
+men--though Heaven forbid that I should suppose they speak one word more
+than they believe! They are the witnesses for the King--and, what is
+equally dear to us, the Protestant religion--and witnesses against a
+most foul and heathenish Plot. On the other hand, here is a worshipful
+old knight, for such I must suppose him to be, since he has bled often
+in battle for the King,--such, I must say, I suppose him to be, until he
+is proved otherwise. And here is his son, a hopeful young gentleman--we
+must see that they have right, Master Attorney.”
+
+“Unquestionably, my lord,” answered the Attorney. “God forbid else!
+But we will make out these matters against these unhappy gentlemen in
+a manner more close, if your lordship will permit us to bring in our
+evidence.”
+
+“Go on, Master Attorney,” said the Judge, throwing himself back in his
+seat. “Heaven forbid I hinder proving the King’s accusation! I only
+say, what you know as well as I, that _de non apparentibus et non
+existentibus eadem est ratio_.”
+
+“We shall then call Master Bridgenorth, as your lordship advised, who I
+think is in waiting.”
+
+“No!” answered a voice from the crowd, apparently that of a female; “he
+is too wise and too honest to be here.”
+
+The voice was distinct as that of Lady Fairfax, when she expressed
+herself to a similar effect on the trial of Charles the First; but
+the researches which were made on the present occasion to discover the
+speaker were unsuccessful.
+
+After the slight confusion occasioned by this circumstance was abated,
+the Attorney, who had been talking aside with the conductors of the
+prosecution, said, “Whoever favoured us with that information, my lord,
+had good reason for what they said. Master Bridgenorth has become, I am
+told, suddenly invisible since this morning.”
+
+“Look you there now, Master Attorney,” said the Judge--“This comes of
+not keeping the crown witnesses together and in readiness--I am sure I
+cannot help the consequences.”
+
+“Nor I either, my lord,” said the Attorney pettishly. “I could have
+proved by this worshipful gentleman, Master Justice Bridgenorth, the
+ancient friendship betwixt this party, Sir Geoffrey Peveril, and the
+Countess of Derby, of whose doings and intentions Dr. Oates has given
+such a deliberate evidence. I could have proved his having sheltered
+her in his Castle against a process of law, and rescued her, by force of
+arms, from this very Justice Bridgenorth, not without actual violence.
+Moreover, I could have proved against young Peveril the whole affray
+charged upon him by the same worshipful evidence.”
+
+Here the Judge stuck his thumbs into his girdle, which was a favourite
+attitude of his on such occasions, and exclaimed, “Pshaw, pshaw, Master
+Attorney!--Tell me not that you _could_ have proved that, or that, or
+this--Prove what you will, but let it be through the mouths of your
+evidence. Men are not to be licked out of their lives by the rough side
+of a lawyer’s tongue.”
+
+“Nor is a foul Plot to be smothered,” said the Attorney, “for all the
+haste your lordship is in. I cannot call Master Chiffinch neither, as
+he is employed on the King’s especial affairs, as I am this instant
+certiorated from the Court at Whitehall.”
+
+“Produce the papers, then, Master Attorney, of which this young man is
+said to be the bearer,” said the Judge.
+
+“They are before the Privy Council, my lord.”
+
+“Then why do you found on them here?” said the Judge--“This is something
+like trifling with the Court.”
+
+“Since your lordship gives it that name,” said the Attorney, sitting
+down in a huff, “you may manage the cause as you will.”
+
+“If you do not bring more evidence, I pray you to charge the Jury,” said
+the Judge.
+
+“I shall not take the trouble to do so,” said the Crown Counsel. “I see
+plainly how the matter is to go.”
+
+“Nay, but be better advised,” said Scroggs. “Consider, your case is
+but half proved respecting the two Peverils, and doth not pinch on
+the little man at all, saving that Doctor Oates said that he was in
+a certain case to prove a giant, which seems no very probable Popish
+miracle.”
+
+This sally occasioned a laugh in the Court, which the Attorney-General
+seemed to take in great dudgeon.
+
+“Master Attorney,” said Oates, who always interfered in the management
+of these law-suits, “this is a plain an absolute giving away of the
+cause--I must needs say it, a mere stoifling of the Plaat.”
+
+“Then the devil who bred it may blow wind into it again, if he lists,”
+ answered the Attorney-General; and, flinging down his brief, he left the
+Court, as if in a huff with all who were concerned in the affair.
+
+The Judge having obtained silence,--for a murmur arose in the Court when
+the Counsel for the prosecution threw up his brief,--began to charge the
+Jury, balancing, as he had done throughout the whole day, the different
+opinions by which he seemed alternately swayed. He protested on his
+salvation that he had no more doubt of the existence of the horrid and
+damnable conspiracy called the Popish Plot, than he had of the treachery
+of Judas Iscariot; and that he considered Oates as the instrument
+under Providence of preserving the nation from all the miseries of his
+Majesty’s assassination, and of a second Saint Bartholomew, acted in the
+streets of London. But then he stated it was the candid construction of
+the law of England, that the worse the crime, the more strong should
+be the evidence. Here was the case of accessories tried, whilst
+their principal--for such he should call the Countess of Derby--was
+unconvicted and at large; and for Doctor Oates, he had but spoke of
+matters which personally applied to that noble lady, whose words, if
+she used such in passion, touching aid which she expected in some
+treasonable matters from these Peverils, and from her kinsmen, or her
+son’s kinsmen, of the House of Stanley, may have been but a burst of
+female resentment--_dulcis Amaryllidis ira_, as the poet hath it. Who
+knoweth but Doctor Oates did mistake--he being a gentleman of a
+comely countenance and easy demeanour--this same rap with the fan as
+a chastisement for lack of courage in the Catholic cause, when,
+peradventure, it was otherwise meant, as Popish ladies will put, it is
+said, such neophytes and youthful candidates for orders, to many severe
+trials. “I speak these things jocularly,” said the Judge, “having no
+wish to stain the reputation either of the Honourable Countess or the
+Reverend Doctor; only I think the bearing between them may have related
+to something short of high treason. As for what the Attorney-General
+hath set forth of rescues and force, and I wot not what, sure I am, that
+in a civil country, when such things happen such things may be proved;
+and that you and I, gentlemen, are not to take them for granted
+gratuitously. Touching this other prisoner, this _Galfridus minimus_, he
+must needs say,” he continued, “he could not discover even a shadow of
+suspicion against him. Was it to be thought so abortive a creature would
+thrust himself into depths of policy, far less into stratagems of war?
+They had but to look at him to conclude the contrary--the creature was,
+from his age, fitter for the grave than a conspiracy--and by his size
+and appearance, for the inside of a raree-show, than the mysteries of a
+plot.”
+
+The dwarf here broke in upon the Judge by force of screaming, to assure
+him that he had been, simple as he sat there, engaged in seven plots in
+Cromwell’s time; and, as he proudly added, with some of the tallest men
+of England. The matchless look and air with which Sir Geoffrey made this
+vaunt, set all a-laughing, and increased the ridicule with which the
+whole trial began to be received; so that it was amidst shaking sides
+and watery eyes that a general verdict of Not Guilty was pronounced, and
+the prisoners dismissed from the bar.
+
+But a warmer sentiment awakened among those who saw the father and son
+throw themselves into each other’s arms, and, after a hearty embrace,
+extend their hands to their poor little companion in peril, who, like
+a dog, when present at a similar scene, had at last succeeded, by
+stretching himself up to them and whimpering at the same time, to secure
+to himself a portion of their sympathy and gratulation.
+
+Such was the singular termination of this trial. Charles himself was
+desirous to have taken considerable credit with the Duke of Ormond for
+the evasion of the law, which had been thus effected by his private
+connivance; and was both surprised and mortified at the coldness with
+which his Grace replied, that he was rejoiced at the poor gentleman’s
+safety, but would rather have had the King redeem them like a prince, by
+his royal prerogative of mercy, than that his Judge should convey them
+out of the power of the law, like a juggler with his cups and balls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+                     ----On fair ground
+                     I could beat forty of them!
+                                           --CORIOLANUS.
+
+It doubtless occurred to many that were present at the trial we have
+described, that it was managed in a singular manner, and that the
+quarrel, which had the appearance of having taken place between
+the Court and the Crown Counsel, might proceed from some private
+understanding betwixt them, the object of which was the miscarriage of
+the accusation. Yet though such underhand dealing was much suspected,
+the greater part of the audience, being well educated and intelligent,
+had already suspected the bubble of the Popish Plot, and were glad to
+see that accusations, founded on what had already cost so much blood,
+could be evaded in any way. But the crowd, who waited in the Court of
+Requests, and in the hall, and without doors, viewed in a very different
+light the combination, as they interpreted it, between the Judge and the
+Attorney-General, for the escape of the prisoners.
+
+Oates, whom less provocation than he had that day received often induced
+to behave like one frantic with passion, threw himself amongst the
+crowd, and repeated till he was hoarse, “Theay are stoifling the
+Plaat!--theay are straangling the Plaat!--My Laard Justice and Maaster
+Attarney are in league to secure the escape of the plaaters and
+Paapists!”
+
+“It is the device of the Papist whore of Portsmouth,” said one.
+
+“Of old Rowley himself,” said another.
+
+“If he could be murdered by himself, why hang those that would hinder
+it!” exclaimed a third.
+
+“He should be tried,” said a fourth, “for conspiring his own death, and
+hanged _in terrorem_.”
+
+In the meanwhile, Sir Geoffrey, his son, and their little companion,
+left the hall, intending to go to Lady Peveril’s lodgings, which had
+been removed to Fleet Street. She had been relieved from considerable
+inconvenience, as Sir Geoffrey gave Julian hastily to understand, by
+an angel, in the shape of a young friend, and she now expected them
+doubtless with impatience. Humanity, and some indistinct idea of having
+unintentionally hurt the feelings of the poor dwarf, induced the honest
+Cavalier to ask this unprotected being to go with them. “He knew Lady
+Peveril’s lodgings were but small,” he said; “but it would be strange,
+if there was not some cupboard large enough to accommodate the little
+gentleman.”
+
+The dwarf registered this well-meant remark in his mind, to be the
+subject of a proper explanation, along with the unhappy reminiscence of
+the trencher-hornpipe, whenever time should permit an argument of such
+nicety.
+
+And thus they sallied from the hall, attracting general observation,
+both from the circumstances in which they had stood so lately, and from
+their resemblance, as a wag of the Inner Temple expressed it, to the
+three degrees of comparison, Large, Lesser, Least. But they had not
+passed far along the street, when Julian perceived that more malevolent
+passions than mere curiosity began to actuate the crowd which followed,
+and, as it were, dogged their motions.
+
+“There go the Papist cut-throats, tantivy for Rome!” said one fellow.
+
+“Tantivy to Whitehall, you mean!” said another.
+
+“Ah! the bloodthirsty villains!” cried a woman: “Shame, one of them
+should be suffered to live, after poor Sir Edmondsbury’s cruel murder.”
+
+“Out upon the mealy-mouthed Jury, that turned out the bloodhounds on an
+innocent town!” cried a fourth.
+
+In short, the tumult thickened, and the word began to pass among the
+more desperate, “Lambe them, lads; lambe them!”--a cant phrase of the
+time, derived from the fate of Dr. Lambe, an astrologer and quack, who
+was knocked on the head by the rabble in Charles the First’s time.
+
+Julian began to be much alarmed at these symptoms of violence, and
+regretted that they had not gone down to the city by water. It was now
+too late to think of that mode of retreating, and he therefore requested
+his father in a whisper, to walk steadily forward towards Charing Cross,
+taking no notice of the insults which might be cast upon them, while the
+steadiness of their pace and appearance might prevent the rabble from
+resorting to actual violence. The execution of this prudent resolution
+was prevented after they had passed the palace, by the hasty disposition
+of the elder Sir Geoffrey, and the no less choleric temper of Galfridus
+Minimus, who had a soul which spurned all odds, as well of numbers as of
+size.
+
+“Now a murrain take the knaves, with their hollowing and whooping,”
+ said the large knight; “by this day, if I could but light on a weapon, I
+would cudgel reason and loyalty into some of their carcasses!”
+
+“And I also,” said the dwarf, who was toiling to keep up with the longer
+strides of his companions, and therefore spoke in a very
+phthisical tone.--“I also will cudgel the plebeian knaves beyond
+measure--he!--hem!”
+
+Among the crowd who thronged around them, impeded, and did all but
+assault them, was a mischievous shoemaker’s apprentice, who, hearing
+this unlucky vaunt of the valorous dwarf, repaid it by flapping him on
+the head with a boot which he was carrying home to the owner, so as to
+knock the little gentleman’s hat over his eyes. The dwarf, thus rendered
+unable to discover the urchin that had given him the offence, flew
+with instinctive ambition against the biggest fellow in the crowd,
+who received the onset with a kick on the stomach, which made the poor
+little champion reel back to his companions. They were now assaulted
+on all sides; but fortune complying with the wish of Sir Geoffrey the
+larger, ordained that the scuffle should happen near the booth of a
+cutler, from amongst whose wares, as they stood exposed to the public,
+Sir Geoffrey Peveril snatched a broadsword, which he brandished with the
+formidable address of one who had for many a day been in the familiar
+practice of using such a weapon. Julian, while at the same time he
+called loudly for a peace-officer, and reminded the assailants that they
+were attacking inoffensive passengers, saw nothing better for it than
+to imitate his father’s example, and seized also one of the weapons thus
+opportunely offered.
+
+When they displayed these demonstrations of defence, the rush which
+the rabble at first made towards them was so great as to throw down the
+unfortunate dwarf, who would have been trampled to death in the scuffle,
+had not his stout old namesake cleared the rascal crowd from about him
+with a few flourishes of his weapon, and seizing on the fallen champion,
+put him out of danger (except from missiles), by suddenly placing him
+on the bulk-head, that is to say, the flat wooden roof of the cutler’s
+projecting booth. From the rusty ironware, which was displayed there,
+the dwarf instantly snatched an old rapier and target, and covering
+himself with the one, stood making passes with the other, at the faces
+and eyes of the people in the street; so much delighted with his post of
+vantage, that he called loudly to his friends who were skirmishing
+with the riotous on more equal terms as to position, to lose no time
+in putting themselves under his protection. But far from being in a
+situation to need his assistance, the father and son might easily have
+extricated themselves from the rabble by their own exertions, could they
+have thought of leaving the mannikin in the forlorn situation, in which,
+to every eye but his own, he stood like a diminutive puppet, tricked out
+with sword and target as a fencing-master’s sign.
+
+Stones and sticks began now to fly very thick, and the crowd,
+notwithstanding the exertions of the Peverils to disperse them with
+as little harm as possible, seemed determined on mischief, when some
+gentlemen who had been at the trial, understanding that the prisoners
+who had been just acquitted were in danger of being murdered by the
+populace, drew their swords, and made forward to effect their rescue,
+which was completed by a small party of the King’s Life Guards, who had
+been despatched from their ordinary post of alarm, upon intelligence of
+what was passing. When this unexpected reinforcement arrived, the old
+jolly Knight at once recognised, amidst the cries of those who then
+entered upon action, some of the sounds which had animated his more
+active years.
+
+“Where be these cuckoldly Roundheads,” cried some.--“Down with the
+sneaking knaves!” cried others.--“The King and his friends, and the
+devil a one else!” exclaimed a third set, with more oaths and d--n me’s,
+than, in the present more correct age, it is necessary to commit to
+paper.
+
+The old soldier, pricking up his ears like an ancient hunter at the cry
+of the hounds, would gladly have scoured the Strand, with the charitable
+purpose, now he saw himself so well supported, of knocking the London
+knaves, who had insulted him, into twiggen bottles; but he was withheld
+by the prudence of Julian, who, though himself extremely irritated
+by the unprovoked ill-usage which they had received, saw himself in
+a situation in which it was necessary to exercise more caution than
+vengeance. He prayed and pressed his father to seek some temporary place
+of retreat from the fury of the populace, while that prudent measure was
+yet in their power. The subaltern officer, who commanded the party of
+the Life Guards, exhorted the old Cavalier eagerly to the same sage
+counsel, using, as a spice of compulsion, the name of the King; while
+Julian strongly urged that of his mother. The old Knight looked at his
+blade, crimsoned with cross-cuts and slashes which he had given to the
+most forward of the assailants, with the eye of one not half sufficed.
+
+“I would I had pinked one of the knaves at least--but I know not how it
+was, when I looked on their broad round English faces, I shunned to use
+my point, and only sliced the rogues a little.”
+
+“But the King’s pleasure,” said the officer, “is, that no tumult be
+prosecuted.”
+
+“My mother,” said Julian, “will die with fright, if the rumour of this
+scuffle reaches her ere we see her.”
+
+“Ay, ay,” said the Knight, “the King’s Majesty and my good dame--well,
+their pleasure be done, that’s all I can say--Kings and ladies must be
+obeyed. But which way to retreat, since retreat we must?”
+
+Julian would have been at some loss to advise what course to take, for
+everybody in the vicinity had shut up their shops, and chained their
+doors, upon observing the confusion become so formidable. The poor
+cutler, however, with whose goods they made so free, offered them an
+asylum on the part of his landlord, whose house served as a rest for his
+shop, and only intimated gently, he hoped the gentleman would consider
+him for the use of his weapons.
+
+Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to accept
+this man’s invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they
+were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, each too
+inveterate to be very scrupulous of the character of fair play to an
+enemy, when the dwarf, exerting his cracked voice to the uttermost, and
+shrieking like an exhausted herald, from the exalted station which he
+still occupied on the bulk-head, exhorted them to accept the offer of
+the worthy man of the mansion. “He himself,” he said, as he reposed
+himself after the glorious conquest in which he had some share, “had
+been favoured with a beatific vision, too splendid to be described to
+common and mere mortal ears, but which had commanded him, in a voice to
+which his heart had bounded as to a trumpet sound, to take refuge with
+the worthy person of the house, and cause his friends to do so.”
+
+“Vision!” said the Knight of the Peak,--“sound of a trumpet!--the little
+man is stark mad.”
+
+But the cutler, in great haste, intimated to them that their
+little friend had received an intimation from a gentlewoman of his
+acquaintance, who spoke to him from the window, while he stood on the
+bulk-head, that they would find a safe retreat in his landlord’s; and
+desiring them to attend to two or three deep though distant huzzas, made
+them aware that the rabble were up still, and would soon be upon them
+with renewed violence, and increased numbers.
+
+The father and son, therefore, hastily thanked the officer and his
+party, as well as the other gentlemen who had volunteered in their
+assistance, lifted little Sir Geoffrey Hudson from the conspicuous post
+which he had so creditably occupied during the skirmish, and followed
+the footsteps of the tenant of the booth, who conducted them down a
+blind alley and through one or two courts, in case, as he said, any one
+might have watched where they burrowed, and so into a back-door. This
+entrance admitted them to a staircase carefully hung with straw mats to
+exclude damp, from the upper step of which they entered upon a tolerably
+large withdrawing-room, hung with coarse green serge edged with gilded
+leather, which the poorer or more economical citizens at that time use
+instead of tapestry or wainscoting.
+
+Here the poor cutler received from Julian such a gratuity for the
+loan of the swords, that he generously abandoned the property to the
+gentlemen who had used them so well; “the rather,” he said, “that he
+saw, by the way they handed their weapons, that they were men of mettle,
+and tall fellows.”
+
+Here the dwarf smiled on him courteously, and bowed, thrusting at
+the same time, his hand into his pocket, which however, he withdrew
+carelessly probably because he found he had not the means of making the
+small donation which he had meditated.
+
+The cutler proceeded to say, as he bowed and was about to withdraw, that
+he saw there would be merry days yet in Old England, and that Bilboa
+blades would fetch as good a price as ever. “I remember,” he said,
+“gentlemen, though I was then but a ‘prentice, the demand for weapons
+in the years forty-one and forty-two; sword blades were more in request
+than toothpicks, and Old Ironsides, my master, took more for rascally
+Provant rapiers, than I dare ask nowadays for a Toledo. But, to be sure,
+a man’s life then rested on the blade he carried; the Cavaliers and
+Roundheads fought every day at the gates of Whitehall, as it is like,
+gentlemen, by your good example, they may do again, when I shall be
+enabled to leave my pitiful booth, and open a shop of better quality.
+I hope you will recommend me, gentlemen, to your friends. I am always
+provided with ware which a gentleman may risk his life on.”
+
+“Thank you, good friend,” said Julian, “I prithee begone. I trust we
+shall need thy ware no more for some time at least.”
+
+The cutler retired, while the dwarf hollowed after him downstairs, that
+he would call on him soon, and equip himself with a longer blade, and
+one more proper for action; although, he said, the little weapon he
+had did well enough for a walking-sword, or in a skirmish with such
+_canaille_ as they had been engaged with.
+
+The cutler returned at this summons, and agreed to pleasure the little
+man with a weapon more suitable to his magnanimity; then, as if the
+thought had suddenly occurred to him, he said, “But, gentlemen, it will
+be wild work to walk with your naked swords through the Strand, and
+it can scarce fail to raise the rabble again. If you please, while you
+repose yourselves here, I can fit the blades with sheaths.”
+
+The proposal seemed so reasonable, that Julian and his father gave
+up their weapons to the friendly cutler, an example which the dwarf
+followed, after a moment’s hesitation, not caring, as he magnificently
+expressed it, to part so soon with the trusty friend which fortune had
+but the moment before restored to his hand. The man retired with the
+weapons under his arm; and, in shutting the door behind him, they heard
+him turn the key.
+
+“Did you hear that?” said Sir Geoffrey to his son--“and we are
+disarmed!”
+
+Julian, without reply, examined the door, which was fast secured; and
+then looked at the casements, which were at a storey’s height from the
+ground, and grated besides with iron. “I cannot think,” he said, after a
+moment’s pause, “that the fellow means to trepan us; and, in any event,
+I trust we should have no difficulty in forcing the door, or otherwise
+making escape. But, before resorting to such violent measures, I think
+it is better to give the rabble leisure to disperse, by waiting this
+man’s return with our weapons within a reasonable time, when, if he
+does not appear, I trust we shall find little difficulty in extricating
+ourselves.” As he spoke thus, the hangings were pulled aside, and from
+a small door which was concealed behind them, Major Bridgenorth entered
+the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+            He came amongst them like a new raised spirit
+            To speak of dreadful judgments that impend,
+            And of the wrath to come.
+                                               --THE REFORMER.
+
+The astonishment of Julian at the unexpected apparition of Bridgenorth,
+was instantly succeeded by apprehension of his father’s violence, which
+he had every reason to believe would break forth against one, whom he
+himself could not but reverence on account of his own merits, as well
+as because he was the father of Alice. The appearance of Bridgenorth was
+not however, such as to awaken resentment. His countenance was calm,
+his step slow and composed, his eye not without the indication of some
+deep-seated anxiety, but without any expression either of anger or
+of triumph. “You are welcome,” he said, “Sir Geoffrey Peveril, to the
+shelter and hospitality of this house; as welcome as you would have been
+in other days, when we called each other neighbours and friends.”
+
+“Odzooks,” said the old Cavalier; “and had I known it was thy house,
+man, I would sooner had my heart’s blood run down the kennel, than my
+foot should have crossed your threshold--in the way of seeking safety,
+that is.”
+
+“I forgive your inveteracy,” said Major Bridgenorth, “on account of your
+prejudices.”
+
+“Keep your forgiveness,” answered the Cavalier, “until you are pardoned
+yourself. By Saint George I have sworn, if ever I got my heels out of
+yon rascally prison, whither I was sent much through your means, Master
+Bridgenorth,--that you should pay the reckoning for my bad lodging.--I
+will strike no man in his own house; but if you will cause the fellow to
+bring back my weapon, and take a turn in that blind court there below,
+along with me, you shall soon see what chance a traitor hath with a true
+man, and a kennel-blooded Puritan with Peveril of the Peak.”
+
+Bridgenorth smiled with much composure. “When I was younger and more
+warm-blooded,” he replied, “I refused your challenge, Sir Geoffrey; it
+is not likely I should now accept it, when each is within a stride of
+the grave. I have not spared, and will not spare, my blood, when my
+country wants it.”
+
+“That is when there is any chance of treason against the King,” said Sir
+Geoffrey.
+
+“Nay, my father,” said Julian, “let us hear Master Bridgenorth! We have
+been sheltered in his house; and although we now see him in London, we
+should remember that he did not appear against us this day, when perhaps
+his evidence might have given a fatal turn to our situation.”
+
+“You are right, young man,” said Bridgenorth; “and it should be
+some pledge of my sincere goodwill, that I was this day absent from
+Westminster, when a few words from my mouth had ended the long line of
+Peveril of the Peak: it needed but ten minutes to walk to Westminster
+Hall, to have ensured your condemnation. But could I have done this,
+knowing, as I now know, that to thee, Julian Peveril, I owe the
+extrication of my daughter--of my dearest Alice--the memory of her
+departed mother--from the snares which hell and profligacy had opened
+around her?”
+
+“She is, I trust safe,” said Peveril eagerly, and almost forgetting his
+father’s presence; “she is, I trust, safe, and in your own wardship?”
+
+“Not in mine,” said the dejected father; “but in that of one in whose
+protection, next to that of Heaven, I can most fully confide.”
+
+“Are you sure--are you very sure of that?” repeated Julian eagerly. “I
+found her under the charge of one to whom she had been trusted, and who
+yet----”
+
+“And who yet was the basest of women,” answered Bridgenorth; “but he who
+selected her for the charge was deceived in her character.”
+
+“Say rather you were deceived in his; remember that when we parted in
+Moultrassie, I warned you of that Ganlesse--that----”
+
+“I know your meaning,” said Bridgenorth; “nor did you err in describing
+him as a worldly-wise man. But he has atoned for his error by recovering
+Alice from the dangers into which she has plunged when separated from
+you; and besides, I have not thought meet again to entrust him with the
+charge that is dearest to me.”
+
+“I thank God your eyes are thus far opened!” said Julian.
+
+“This day will open them wide, or close them for ever,” answered
+Bridgenorth.
+
+During this dialogue, which the speakers hurried through without
+attending to the others who were present, Sir Geoffrey listened with
+surprise and eagerness, endeavouring to catch something which should
+render their conversation intelligible; but as he totally failed in
+gaining any such key to their meaning, he broke in with,--“‘Sblood and
+thunder, Julian, what unprofitable gossip is this? What hast thou to
+do with this fellow, more than to bastinado him, if you should think it
+worth while to beat so old a rogue?”
+
+“My dearest father,” said Julian, “you know not this gentleman--I am
+certain you do him injustice. My own obligations to him are many; and I
+am sure when you come to know them----”
+
+“I hope I shall die ere that moment come,” said Sir Geoffrey; and
+continued with increasing violence, “I hope in the mercy of Heaven, that
+I shall be in the grave of my ancestors, ere I learn that my son--my
+only son--the last hope of my ancient house--the last remnant of the
+name of Peveril--hath consented to receive obligations from the man on
+earth I am most bound to hate, were I not still more bound to contemn
+him!--Degenerate dog-whelp!” he repeated with great vehemence, “you
+colour without replying! Speak, and disown such disgrace; or, by the God
+of my fathers----”
+
+The dwarf suddenly stepped forward and called out, “Forbear!” with
+a voice at once so discordant and commanding, that it sounded
+supernatural. “Man of sin and pride,” he said, “forbear; and call not
+the name of a holy God to witness thine unhallowed resentments.”
+
+The rebuke so boldly and decidedly given, and the moral enthusiasm with
+which he spoke, gave the despised dwarf an ascendancy for the moment
+over the fiery spirit of his gigantic namesake. Sir Geoffrey Peveril
+eyed him for an instant askance and shyly, as he might have done a
+supernatural apparition, and then muttered, “What knowest thou of my
+cause of wrath?”
+
+“Nothing,” said the dwarf;--“nothing but this--that no cause can warrant
+the oath thou wert about to swear. Ungrateful man! thou wert to-day
+rescued from the devouring wrath of the wicked, by a marvellous
+conjunction of circumstances--Is this a day, thinkest thou, on which to
+indulge thine own hasty resentments?”
+
+“I stand rebuked,” said Sir Geoffrey, “and by a singular monitor--the
+grasshopper, as the prayer-book saith, hath become a burden to
+me.--Julian, I will speak to thee of these matters hereafter;--and for
+you, Master Bridgenorth, I desire to have no farther communication with
+you, either in peace or in anger. Our time passes fast, and I would fain
+return to my family. Cause our weapons to be restored; unbar the doors,
+and let us part without farther altercation, which can but disturb and
+aggravate our spirits.”
+
+“Sir Geoffrey Peveril,” said Bridgenorth, “I have no desire to vex your
+spirit or my own; but, for thus soon dismissing you, that may hardly be,
+it being a course inconsistent with the work which I have on hand.”
+
+“How, sir! Do you mean that we should abide here, whether with or
+against our inclinations?” said the dwarf. “Were it not that I am laid
+under charge to remain here, by one who hath the best right to
+command this poor microcosm, I would show thee that bolts and bars are
+unavailing restraints on such as I am.”
+
+“Truly,” said Sir Geoffrey, “I think, upon an emergency, the little man
+might make his escape through the keyhole.”
+
+Bridgenorth’s face was moved into something like a smile at the
+swaggering speech of the pigmy hero, and the contemptuous commentary of
+Sir Geoffrey Peveril; but such an expression never dwelt on his features
+for two seconds together, and he replied in these words:--“Gentlemen,
+each and all of you must be fain to content yourselves. Believe me, no
+hurt is intended towards you; on the contrary, your remaining here will
+be a means of securing your safety, which would be otherwise deeply
+endangered. It will be your own fault if a hair of your head is hurt.
+But the stronger force is on my side; and, whatever harm you may meet
+with should you attempt to break forth by violence, the blame must rest
+with yourselves. It you will not believe me, I will permit Master Julian
+Peveril to accompany me, where he shall see that I am provided fully
+with the means of repressing violence.”
+
+“Treason!--treason!” exclaimed the old Knight--“Treason against God and
+King Charles!--Oh, for one half-hour of the broadsword which I parted
+with like an ass!”
+
+“Hold, my father, I conjure you!” said Julian. “I will go with Master
+Bridgenorth, since he requests it. I will satisfy myself whether there
+be danger, and of what nature. It is possible I may prevail on him to
+desist from some desperate measure, if such be indeed in agitation.
+Should it be necessary, fear not that your son will behave as he ought
+to do.”
+
+“Do your pleasure, Julian,” said his father; “I will confide in thee.
+But if you betray my confidence, a father’s curse shall cleave to you.”
+
+Bridgenorth now motioned to Peveril to follow him, and they passed
+through the small door by which he entered.
+
+The passage led to a vestibule or anteroom, in which several other doors
+and passages seemed to centre. Through one of these Julian was conducted
+by Bridgenorth, walking with silence and precaution, in obedience to
+a signal made by his guide to that effect. As they advanced, he heard
+sounds, like those of the human voice, engaged in urgent and emphatic
+declamation. With slow and light steps Bridgenorth conducted him
+through a door which terminated this passage; and as he entered a
+little gallery, having a curtain in front, the sound of the preacher’s
+voice--for such it now seemed--became distinct and audible.
+
+Julian now doubted not that he was in one of those conventicles, which,
+though contrary to the existing laws, still continued to be regularly
+held in different parts of London and the suburbs. Many of these,
+as frequented by persons of moderate political principles, though
+dissenters from the Church for conscience’ sake, were connived at by
+the prudence or timidity of the government. But some of them, in
+which assembled the fiercer and more exalted sects of Independents,
+Anabaptists, Fifth-Monarchy men, and other sectaries, whose stern
+enthusiasm had contributed so greatly to effect the overthrow of the
+late King’s throne, were sought after, suppressed, and dispersed,
+whenever they could be discovered.
+
+Julian was soon satisfied that the meeting into which he was thus
+secretly introduced was one of the latter class; and, to judge by the
+violence of the preacher, of the most desperate character. He was still
+more effectually convinced of this, when, at a sign from Bridgenorth, he
+cautiously unclosed a part of the curtain which hung before the gallery,
+and thus, unseen himself, looked down on the audience, and obtained a
+view of the preacher.
+
+About two hundred persons were assembled beneath, in an area filled up
+with benches, as if for the exercise of worship; and they were all of
+the male sex, and well armed with pikes and muskets, as well as swords
+and pistols. Most of them had the appearance of veteran soldiers, now
+past the middle of life, yet retaining such an appearance of strength as
+might well supply the loss of youthful agility. They stood, or sat, in
+various attitudes of stern attention; and, resting on their spears and
+muskets, kept their eyes firmly fixed on the preacher, who ended the
+violence of his declamation by displaying from the pulpit a banner,
+on which was represented a lion, with the motto, “_Vicit Leo ex tribu
+Judæ._”
+
+The torrent of mystical yet animating eloquence of the preacher--an old
+grey-haired man, whom zeal seemed to supply with the powers of voice and
+action, of which years had deprived him--was suited to the taste of his
+audience, but could not be transferred to these pages without scandal
+and impropriety. He menaced the rulers of England with all the judgments
+denounced on those of Moab and Assyria--he called upon the saints to be
+strong, to be up and doing; and promised those miracles which, in the
+campaigns of Joshua, and his successors, the valiant Judges of Israel,
+supplied all odds against the Amorites, Midianites, and Philistines. He
+sounded trumpets, opened vials, broke seals, and denounced approaching
+judgments under all the mystical signs of the Apocalypse. The end of the
+world was announced, accompanied with all its preliminary terrors.
+
+Julian, with deep anxiety, soon heard enough to make him aware that the
+meeting was likely to terminate in open insurrection, like that of the
+Fifth-Monarchy men, under Venner, at an earlier period of Charles’s
+reign; and he was not a little concerned at the probability of
+Bridgenorth being implicated in so criminal and desperate an
+undertaking. If he had retained any doubts of the issue of the meeting,
+they must have been removed when the preacher called on his hearers to
+renounce all expectation which had hitherto been entertained of safety
+to the nation, from the execution of the ordinary laws of the land.
+This, he said, was at best but a carnal seeking after earthly aid--a
+going down to Egypt for help, which the jealousy of their Divine Leader
+would resent as a fleeing to another rock, and a different banner, from
+that which was this day displayed over them.--And here he solemnly swung
+the bannered lion over their heads, as the only sign under which they
+ought to seek for life and safety. He then proceeded to insist, that
+recourse to ordinary justice was vain as well as sinful.
+
+“The event of that day at Westminster,” he said, “might teach them that
+the man at Whitehall was even as the man his father;” and closed a long
+tirade against the vices of the Court, with assurance “that Tophet was
+ordained of old--for the King it was made hot.”
+
+As the preacher entered on a description of the approaching theocracy,
+which he dared to prophesy, Bridgenorth, who appeared for a time to have
+forgotten the presence of Julian, whilst with stern and fixed attention
+he drunk in the words of the preacher, seemed suddenly to collect
+himself, and, taking Julian by the hand, led him out of the gallery,
+of which he carefully closed the door, into an apartment at no great
+distance.
+
+When they arrived there, he anticipated the expostulations of Julian, by
+asking him, in a tone of severe triumph, whether these men he had seen
+were likely to do their work negligently, or whether it would not
+be perilous to attempt to force their way from a house, when all the
+avenues were guarded by such as he had now seen--men of war from their
+childhood upwards.
+
+“In the name of Heaven,” said Julian, without replying to Bridgenorth’s
+question, “for what desperate purpose have you assembled so many
+desperate men? I am well aware that your sentiments of religion are
+peculiar; but beware how you deceive yourself--No views of religion can
+sanction rebellion and murder; and such are the natural and necessary
+consequences of the doctrine we have just heard poured into the ears of
+fanatical and violent enthusiasts.”
+
+“My son,” said Bridgenorth calmly, “in the days of my non-age, I
+thought as you do. I deemed it sufficient to pay my tithes of cummin and
+aniseed--my poor petty moral observances of the old law; and I thought I
+was heaping up precious things, when they were in value no more than the
+husks of the swine-trough. Praised be Heaven, the scales are fallen from
+mine eyes; and after forty years’ wandering in the desert of Sinai, I
+am at length arrived in the Land of Promise--My corrupt human nature has
+left me--I have cast my slough, and can now with some conscience put
+my hand to the plough, certain that there is no weakness left in me
+where-through I may look back. The furrows,” he added, bending his
+brows, while a gloomy fire filled his large eyes, “must be drawn long
+and deep, and watered by the blood of the mighty.”
+
+There was a change in Bridgenorth’s tone and manner, when he used these
+singular expressions, which convinced Julian that his mind, which had
+wavered for so many years between his natural good sense and the insane
+enthusiasm of the time, had finally given way to the latter; and,
+sensible of the danger in which the unhappy man himself, the innocent
+and beautiful Alice, and his own father, were likely to be placed--to
+say nothing of the general risk of the community by a sudden
+insurrection, he at the same time felt that there was no chance of
+reasoning effectually with one, who would oppose spiritual conviction to
+all arguments which reason could urge against his wild schemes. To
+touch his feeling seemed a more probable resource; and Julian therefore
+conjured Bridgenorth to think how much his daughter’s honour and safety
+were concerned in his abstaining from the dangerous course which he
+meditated. “If you fall,” he said, “must she not pass under the power
+and guardianship of her uncle, whom you allow to have shown himself
+capable of the grossest mistake in the choice of her female protectress;
+and whom I believe, upon good grounds, to have made that infamous choice
+with his eyes open?”
+
+“Young man,” answered Bridgenorth, “you make me feel like the poor
+bird, around whose wing some wanton boy has fixed a line, to pull the
+struggling wretch to earth at his pleasure. Know, since thou wilt play
+this cruel part, and drag me down from higher contemplations, that she
+with whom Alice is placed, and who hath in future full power to guide
+her motions, and decide her fate, despite of Christian and every one
+else, is--I will not tell thee who she is--Enough--no one--thou least of
+all, needs to fear for her safety.”
+
+At this moment a side-door opened, and Christian himself came into the
+apartment. He started and coloured when he saw Julian Peveril; then
+turning to Bridgenorth with an assumed air of indifference, asked, “Is
+Saul among the prophets?--Is a Peveril among the saints?”
+
+“No, brother,” replied Bridgenorth, “his time is not come more than
+thine own--thou art too deep in the ambitious intrigues of manhood, and
+he in the giddy passions of youth, to hear the still calm voice--You
+will both hear it, as I trust and pray.”
+
+“Master Ganlesse, or Christian, or by whatever name you are called,”
+ said Julian, “by whatever reasons you guide yourself in this most
+perilous matter, _you_ at least are not influenced by any idea of an
+immediate divine command for commencing hostilities against the state.
+Leaving, therefore, for the present, whatever subjects of discussion may
+be between us, I implore you, as a man of shrewdness and sense, to join
+with me in dissuading Master Bridgenorth from the fatal enterprise which
+he now meditates.”
+
+“Young gentleman,” said Christian, with great composure, “when we met in
+the west, I was willing to have made a friend of you, but you rejected
+the overture. You might, however, even then have seen enough of me to
+be assured, that I am not likely to rush too rashly on any desperate
+undertaking. As to this which lies before us, my brother Bridgenorth
+brings to it the simplicity, though not the harmlessness of the dove,
+and I the subtilty of the serpent. He hath the leading of saints who are
+moved by the spirit; and I can add to their efforts a powerful body, who
+have for their instigators the world, the devil, and the flesh.”
+
+“And can you,” said Julian, looking at Bridgenorth, “accede to such an
+unworthy union?”
+
+“I unite not with them,” said Bridgenorth; “but I may not, without
+guilt, reject the aid which Providence sends to assist His servants. We
+are ourselves few, though determined--Those whose swords come to help
+the cutting down of the harvest, must be welcome--When their work is
+wrought, they will be converted or scattered.--Have you been at York
+Place, brother, with that unstable epicure? We must have his last
+resolution, and that within an hour.”
+
+Christian looked at Julian, as if his presence prevented him from
+returning an answer; upon which Bridgenorth arose, and taking the young
+man by the arm, led him out of the apartment, into that in which they
+had left his father; assuring him by the way, that determined and
+vigilant guards were placed in every different quarter by which escape
+could be effected, and that he would do well to persuade his father to
+remain a quiet prisoner for a few hours.
+
+Julian returned him no answer, and Bridgenorth presently retired,
+leaving him alone with his father and Hudson. To their questions he
+could only briefly reply, that he feared they were trepanned, since they
+were in the house with at least two hundred fanatics, completely armed,
+and apparently prepared for desperate enterprise. Their own want of arms
+precluded the possibility of open violence; and however unpleasant it
+might be to remain in such a condition, it seemed difficult, from the
+strength of the fastenings at doors and windows, to attempt any secret
+escape without instantaneous detection.
+
+The valiant dwarf alone nursed hopes, with which he in vain endeavoured
+to inspire his companions in affliction. “The fair one, whose eyes,” he
+said, “were like the twin stars of Leda”--for the little man was a great
+admirer of lofty language--“had not invited him, the most devoted, and,
+it might be, not the least favoured of her servants, into this place
+as a harbour, in order that he might therein suffer shipwreck; and he
+generously assured his friends, that in his safety they also should be
+safe.”
+
+Sir Geoffrey, little cheered by this intimation, expressed his despair
+at not being able to get the length of Whitehall, where he trusted to
+find as many jolly Cavaliers as would help him to stifle the whole
+nest of wasps in their hive; while Julian was of opinion that the best
+service he could now render Bridgenorth, would be timeously to disclose
+his plot, and, if possible, to send him at the same time warning to save
+his person.
+
+But we must leave them to meditate over their plans at leisure; no
+one of which, as they all depended on their previous escape from
+confinement, seemed in any great chance of being executed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+         And some for safety took the dreadful leap;
+         Some for the voice of Heaven seem’d calling on them;
+         Some for advancement, or for lucre’s sake--
+         I leap’d in frolic.
+                                                  --THE DREAM.
+
+After a private conversation with Bridgenorth, Christian hastened to the
+Duke of Buckingham’s hotel, taking at the same time such a route as to
+avoid meeting with any acquaintance. He was ushered into the apartment
+of the Duke, whom he found cracking and eating filberts, with a flask
+of excellent white wine at his elbow. “Christian,” said his Grace,
+“come help me to laugh--I have bit Sir Charles Sedley--flung him for a
+thousand, by the gods!”
+
+“I am glad at your luck, my Lord Duke,” replied Christian; “but I am
+come here on serious business.”
+
+“Serious?--why, I shall hardly be serious in my life again--ha, ha,
+ha!--and for luck, it was no such thing--sheer wit, and excellent
+contrivance; and but that I don’t care to affront Fortune, like the
+old Greek general, I might tell her to her face--In this thou hadst no
+share. You have heard, Ned Christian, that Mother Cresswell is dead?”
+
+“Yes, I did hear that the devil hath got his due,” answered Christian.
+
+“Well,” said the Duke, “you are ungrateful; for I know you have been
+obliged to her, as well as others. Before George, a most benevolent and
+helpful old lady; and that she might not sleep in an unblest grave,
+I betted--do you mark me--with Sedley, that I would write her funeral
+sermon; that it should be every word in praise of her life and
+conversation, that it should be all true, and yet that the diocesan
+should be unable to lay his thumb on Quodling, my little chaplain, who
+should preach it.”
+
+“I perfectly see the difficulty, my lord,” said Christian, who well knew
+that if he wished to secure attention from this volatile nobleman, he
+must first suffer, nay, encourage him, to exhaust the topic, whatever it
+might be, that had got temporary possession of his pineal gland.
+
+“Why,” said the Duke, “I had caused my little Quodling to go through his
+oration thus--‘That whatever evil reports had passed current during the
+lifetime of the worthy matron whom they had restored to dust that day,
+malice herself could not deny that she was born well, married well,
+lived well, and died well; since she was born in Shadwell, married to
+Cresswell, lived in Camberwell, and died in Bridewell.’ Here ended
+the oration, and with it Sedley’s ambitious hopes of overreaching
+Buckingham--ha, ha, ha!--And now, Master Christian, what are your
+commands for me to-day?”
+
+“First, to thank your Grace for being so attentive as to send so
+formidable a person as Colonel Blood, to wait upon your poor friend and
+servant. Faith, he took such an interest in my leaving town, that he
+wanted to compel me to do it at point of fox, so I was obliged to spill
+a little of his malapert blood. Your Grace’s swordsmen have had ill luck
+of late; and it is hard, since you always choose the best hands, and
+such scrupleless knaves too.”
+
+“Come now, Christian,” said the Duke, “do not thus exult over me;
+a great man, if I may so call myself, is never greater than amid
+miscarriage. I only played this little trick on you, Christian, to
+impress on you a wholesome idea of the interest I take in your motions.
+The scoundrel’s having dared to draw upon you, is a thing not to be
+forgiven.--What! injure my old friend Christian?”
+
+“And why not,” said Christian coolly, “if your old friend was so
+stubborn as not to go out of town, like a good boy, when your Grace
+required him to do so, for the civil purpose of entertaining his niece
+in his absence?”
+
+“How--what!--how do you mean by _my_ entertaining your niece, Master
+Christian?” said the Duke. “She was a personage far beyond my poor
+attentions, being destined, if I recollect aright, to something like
+royal favour.”
+
+“It was her fate, however, to be the guest of your Grace’s convent for
+a brace of days, or so. Marry, my lord, the father confessor was not at
+home, and--for convents have been scaled of late--returned not till the
+bird was flown.”
+
+“Christian, thou art an old reynard--I see there is no doubling with
+thee. It was thou, then, that stole away my pretty prize, but left me
+something so much prettier in my mind, that, had it not made itself
+wings to fly away with, I would have placed it in a cage of gold. Never
+be downcast, man; I forgive thee--I forgive thee.”
+
+“Your Grace is of a most merciful disposition, especially considering it
+is I who have had the wrong; and sages have said, that he who doth the
+injury is less apt to forgive than he who only sustains it.”
+
+“True, true, Christian,” said the Duke, “which, as you say, is something
+quite new, and places my clemency in a striking point of view. Well,
+then, thou forgiven man, when shall I see my Mauritanian Princess
+again?”
+
+“Wherever I am certain that a quibble, and a carwhichit, for a play or a
+sermon, will not banish her from your Grace’s memory.”
+
+“Not all the wit of South, or of Etherege,” said Buckingham hastily, “to
+say nothing of my own, shall in future make me oblivious of what I owe
+the Morisco Princess.”
+
+“Yet, to leave the fair lady out of thought for a little while--a very
+little while,” said Christian, “since I swear that in due time your
+Grace shall see her, and know in her the most extraordinary woman that
+the age has produced--to leave her, I say out of sight for a little
+while, has your Grace had late notice of your Duchess’s health?”
+
+“Health,” said the Duke. “Umph--no--nothing particular. She has been
+ill--but----”
+
+“She is no longer so,” subjoined Christian; “she died in Yorkshire
+forty-eight hours since.”
+
+“Thou must deal with the devil,” said the Duke.
+
+“It would ill become one of my name to do so,” replied Christian. “But
+in the brief interval, since your Grace hath known of an event which
+hath not yet reached the public ear, you have, I believe, made proposals
+to the King for the hand of the Lady Anne, second daughter of the Duke
+of York, and your Grace’s proposals have been rejected.”
+
+“Fiends and firebrands, villain!” said the Duke, starting up and seizing
+Christian by the collar; “who hath told thee that?”
+
+“Take your hand from my cloak, my Lord Duke, and I may answer you,” said
+Christian. “I have a scurvy touch of old puritanical humour about me. I
+abide not the imposition of hands--take off your grasp from my cloak, or
+I will find means to make you unloose it.”
+
+The Duke, who had kept his right hand on his dagger-hilt while he held
+Christian’s collar with his left, unloosed it as he spoke, but slowly,
+and as one who rather suspends than abandons the execution of some hasty
+impulse; while Christian, adjusting his cloak with perfect composure,
+said, “Soh--my cloak being at liberty, we speak on equal terms. I come
+not to insult your Grace, but to offer you vengeance for the insult you
+have received.”
+
+“Vengeance!” said the Duke--“It is the dearest proffer man can
+present to me in my present mood. I hunger for vengeance--thirst for
+vengeance--could die to ensure vengeance!---‘Sdeath!” he continued,
+walking up and down the large apartment with the most unrestrained and
+violent agitation; “I have chased this repulse out of my brain with ten
+thousand trifles, because I thought no one knew it. But it is known, and
+to thee, the very common-sewer of Court-secrets--the honour of Villiers
+is in thy keeping, Ned Christian! Speak, thou man of wiles and of
+intrigue--on whom dost thou promise the vengeance? Speak! and if thy
+answers meet my desires, I will make a bargain with thee as willingly as
+with thy master, Satan himself.”
+
+“I will not be,” said Christian, “so unreasonable in my terms as stories
+tell of the old apostate; I will offer your Grace, as he might do,
+temporal prosperity and revenge, which is his frequent recruiting money,
+but I leave it to yourself to provide, as you may be pleased, for your
+future salvation.”
+
+The Duke, gazing upon him fixedly and sadly, replied, “I would to God,
+Christian, that I could read what purpose of damnable villainy thou hast
+to propose to me in thy countenance, without the necessity of thy using
+words!”
+
+“Your Grace can but try a guess,” said Christian, calmly smiling.
+
+“No,” replied the Duke, after gazing at him again for the space of a
+minute; “thou art so deeply dyed a hypocrite, that thy mean features,
+and clear grey eye, are as likely to conceal treason, as any petty
+scheme of theft or larceny more corresponding to your degree.”
+
+“Treason, my lord!” echoed Christian; “you may have guessed more nearly
+than you were aware of. I honour your Grace’s penetration.”
+
+“Treason?” echoed the Duke. “Who dare name such a crime to me?”
+
+“If a name startles your Grace, you may call it vengeance--vengeance on
+the cabal of councillors, who have ever countermined you, in spite
+of your wit and your interest with the King.--Vengeance on Arlington,
+Ormond--on Charles himself.”
+
+“No, by Heaven,” said the Duke, resuming his disordered walk through the
+apartment--“Vengeance on these rats of the Privy Council,--come at it
+as you will. But the King!--never--never. I have provoked him a hundred
+times, where he has stirred me once. I have crossed his path in state
+intrigue--rivalled him in love--had the advantage in both,--and, d--n
+it, he has forgiven me! If treason would put me in his throne, I have no
+apology for it--it were worse than bestial ingratitude.”
+
+“Nobly spoken, my lord,” said Christian; “and consistent alike with
+the obligations under which your Grace lies to Charles Stewart, and the
+sense you have ever shown of them.--But it signifies not. If your
+Grace patronise not our enterprise, there is Shaftesbury--there is
+Monmouth----”
+
+“Scoundrel!” exclaimed the Duke, even more vehemently agitated than
+before, “think you that you shall carry on with others an enterprise
+which I have refused?--No, by every heathen and every Christian
+god!--Hark ye, Christian, I will arrest you on the spot--I will, by gods
+and devils, and carry you to unravel your plot at Whitehall.”
+
+“Where the first words I speak,” answered the imperturbable Christian,
+“will be to inform the Privy Council in what place they may find certain
+letters, wherewith your Grace has honoured your poor vassal, containing,
+as I think, particulars which his Majesty will read with more surprise
+than pleasure.”
+
+“‘Sdeath, villain!” said the Duke, once more laying his hand on his
+poniard-hilt, “thou hast me again at advantage. I know not why I forbear
+to poniard you where you stand!”
+
+“I might fall, my Lord Duke,” said Christian, slightly colouring,
+and putting his right hand into his bosom, “though not, I think,
+unavenged--for I have not put my person into this peril altogether
+without means of defence. I might fall, but, alas! your Grace’s
+correspondence is in hands, which, by that very act, would be rendered
+sufficiently active in handing them to the King and the Privy Council.
+What say you to the Moorish Princess, my Lord Duke? What if I have left
+her executrix of my will, with certain instructions how to proceed if I
+return not unharmed from York Place? Oh, my lord, though my head is
+in the wolf’s mouth, I was not goose enough to place it there without
+settling how many carabines should be fired on the wolf, so soon as my
+dying cackle was heard.--Pshaw, my Lord Duke! you deal with a man of
+sense and courage, yet you speak to him as a child and a coward.”
+
+The Duke threw himself into a chair, fixed his eyes on the ground, and
+spoke without raising them. “I am about to call Jerningham,” he said;
+“but fear nothing--it is only for a draught of wine--That stuff on
+the table may be a vehicle of filberts, and walnuts, but not for such
+communications as yours.--Bring me champagne,” he said to the attendant
+who answered to his summons.
+
+The domestic returned, and brought a flask of champagne, with two large
+silver cups. One of them he filled for Buckingham, who, contrary to the
+usual etiquette, was always served first at home, and then offered the
+other to Christian, who declined to receive it.
+
+The Duke drank off the large goblet which was presented to him, and for
+a moment covered his forehead with the palm of his hand; then instantly
+withdrew it, and said, “Christian, speak your errand plainly. We know
+each other. If my reputation be in some degree in your hands, you are
+well aware that your life is in mine. Sit down,” he said, taking a
+pistol from his bosom and laying it on the table--“Sit down, and let me
+hear your proposal.”
+
+“My lord,” said Christian, smiling, “I shall produce no such ultimate
+argument on my part, though possibly, in time of need, I may not be
+found destitute of them. But my defence is in the situation of things,
+and in the composed view which, doubtless, your Majesty will take of
+them.”
+
+“Majesty!” repeated the Duke--“My good friend Christian, you have kept
+company with the Puritans so long, that you confuse the ordinary titles
+of the Court.”
+
+“I know not how to apologise,” said Christian, “unless your Grace will
+suppose that I spoke by prophecy.”
+
+“Such as the devil delivered to Macbeth,” said the Duke--again paced the
+chamber, and again seated himself, and said, “Be plain, Christian--speak
+out at once, and manfully, what is it you intend?”
+
+“_I_,” said Christian--“What should I do?--I can do nothing in such
+a matter; but I thought it right that your Grace should know that
+the godly of this city”--(he spoke the word with a kind of ironical
+grin)--“are impatient of inactivity, and must needs be up and doing. My
+brother Bridgenorth is at the head of all old Weiver’s congregation;
+for you must know, that, after floundering from one faith to another, he
+hath now got beyond ordinances, and is become a Fifth-Monarchy man. He
+has nigh two hundred of Weiver’s people, fully equipped, and ready to
+fall on; and, with slight aid from your Grace’s people, they must carry
+Whitehall, and make prisoners of all within it.”
+
+“Rascal!” said the Duke, “and is it to a Peer of England you make this
+communication?”
+
+“Nay,” answered Christian, “I admit it would be extreme folly in your
+Grace to appear until all is over. But let me give Blood and the
+others a hint on your part. There are the four Germans also--right
+Knipperdolings and Anabaptists--will be specially useful. You are wise,
+my lord, and know the value of a corps of domestic gladiators, as well
+as did Octavius, Lepidus, and Anthony, when, by such family forces, they
+divided the world by indenture tripartite.”
+
+“Stay, stay,” said the Duke. “Even if these bloodhounds were to
+join with you--not that I would permit it without the most positive
+assurances for the King’s personal safety--but say the villains were to
+join, what hope have you of carrying the Court?”
+
+“Bully Tom Armstrong,[*] my lord, hath promised his interest with the
+Life Guards. Then there are my Lord Shaftesbury’s brisk boys in the
+city--thirty thousand on the holding up a finger.”
+
+[*] Thomas, or Sir Thomas Armstrong, a person who had distinguished
+    himself in youth by duels and drunken exploits. He was
+    particularly connected with the Duke of Monmouth, and was said to
+    be concerned in the Rye-House Plot, for which he suffered capital
+    punishment, 20th June 1684.
+
+“Let him hold up both hands, and if he count a hundred for each finger,”
+ said the Duke, “it will be more than I expect. You have not spoken to
+him?”
+
+“Surely not till your Grace’s pleasure was known. But, if he is not
+applied to, there is the Dutch train, Hans Snorehout’s congregation, in
+the Strand--there are the French Protestants in Piccadilly--there are
+the family of Levi in Lewkenor’s Lane--the Muggletonians in Thames
+Street----”
+
+“Ah, faugh!--Out upon them--out upon them!--How the knaves will stink of
+cheese and tobacco when they come upon action!--they will drown all the
+perfumes in Whitehall. Spare me the detail; and let me know, my dearest
+Ned, the sum total of thy most odoriferous forces.”
+
+“Fifteen hundred men, well armed,” said Christian, “besides the rabble
+that will rise to a certainty--they have already nearly torn to pieces
+the prisoners who were this day acquitted on account of the Plot.”
+
+“All, then, I understand.--And now, hark ye, most Christian Christian,”
+ said he, wheeling his chair full in front of that on which his agent
+was seated, “you have told me many things to-day--Shall I be equally
+communicative? Shall I show you that my accuracy of information matches
+yours? Shall I tell you, in a word, why you have at once resolved to
+push every one, from the Puritan to the free-thinker, upon a general
+attack of the Palace of Whitehall, without allowing me, a peer of the
+realm, time either to pause upon or to prepare for a step so desperate?
+Shall I tell you why you would lead or drive, seduce or compel me, into
+countenancing your measures?”
+
+“My lord, if you please to form a guess,” said Christian, “I will answer
+with all sincerity, if you have assigned the right cause.”
+
+“The Countess of Derby is this day arrived, and attends the Court this
+evening, with hopes of the kindest reception. She may be surprised amid
+the mêlée?--Ha! said I not right, Master Christian? You, who pretend to
+offer me revenge, know yourself its exquisite sweetness.”
+
+“I would not presume,” said Christian, half smiling, “to offer your
+Grace a dish without acting as your taster as well as purveyor.”
+
+“That’s honestly said,” said the Duke. “Away then, my friend. Give Blood
+this ring--he knows it, and knows how to obey him who bears it. Let
+him assemble my gladiators, as thou dost most wittily term my _coup
+jarrets_. The old scheme of the German music may be resorted to, for I
+think thou hast the instruments ready. But take notice, I know nothing
+on’t; and Rowley’s person must be safe--I will hang and burn on all
+hands if a hair of his black periwig[*] be but singed.--Then what is to
+follow--a Lord Protector of the realm--or stay--Cromwell has made
+the word somewhat slovenly and unpopular--a Lord Lieutenant of the
+Kingdom?--The patriots who take it on themselves to avenge the injustice
+done to the country, and to remove evil counsellors from before
+the King’s throne, that it may be henceforward established in
+righteousness--so I think the rubric runs--cannot fail to make a fitting
+choice.”
+
+[*] Charles, to suit his dark complexion, always wore a black peruke.
+    He used to say of the players, that if they wished to represent a
+    villain on the stage, “Oddsfish, they always clapp’d on him a
+    black periwig, whereas the greatest rogue in England [meaning,
+    probably, Dr. Oates] wears a white one.”--_See CIBBER’s Apology_.
+
+“They cannot, my Lord Duke,” said Christian, “since there is but one man
+in the three kingdoms on whom that choice can possibly fall.”
+
+“I thank you Christian,” said his Grace; “and I trust you. Away, and
+make all ready. Be assured your services shall not be forgot. We will
+have you near to us.”
+
+“My Lord Duke,” said Christian, “you bind me doubly to you. But remember
+that as your Grace is spared any obnoxious proceedings which may befall
+in the way of military execution, or otherwise, so it will be advisable
+that you hold yourself in preparation, upon a moment’s notice, to put
+yourself at the head of a band of honourable friends and allies, and
+come presently to the palace, where you will be received by the victors
+as a commander, and by the vanquished as a preserver.”
+
+“I conceive you--I conceive you. I will be in prompt readiness,” said
+the Duke.
+
+“Ay, my lord,” continued Christian; “and for Heaven’s sake, let none of
+those toys, which are the very Delilahs of your imagination, come
+across your Grace this evening, and interfere with the execution of this
+sublime scheme.”
+
+“Why, Christian, dost think me mad?” was his Grace’s emphatic reply. “It
+is you who linger, when all should be ordered for a deed so daring.
+Go then.--But hark ye, Ned; ere you go, tell me when I shall again
+see yonder thing of fire and air--yon Eastern Peri, that glides into
+apartments by the keyhole, and leaves them through the casement--yon
+black-eyed houri of the Mahometan paradise--when, I say, shall I see her
+once more?”
+
+“When your Grace has the truncheon of Lord Lieutenant of the Kingdom,”
+ said Christian, and left the apartment.
+
+Buckingham stood fixed in contemplation for a moment after he was gone.
+“Should I have done this?” he said, arguing the matter with himself; “or
+had I the choice rather of doing aught else? Should I not hasten to the
+Court, and make Charles aware of the treason which besets him? I will,
+by Heaven?--Here, Jerningham, my coach, with the despatch of light!--I
+will throw myself at his feet, and tell him of all the follies which I
+have dreamed of with this Christian.--And then he will laugh at me, and
+spurn me.--No, I have kneeled to him to-day already, and my repulse was
+nothing gentle. To be spurned once in the sun’s daily round is enough
+for Buckingham.”
+
+Having made this reflection, he seated himself, and began hastily to
+mark down the young nobles and gentlemen of quality, and others, their
+very ignoble companions, who he supposed might be likely to assume him
+for their leader in any popular disturbance. He had nearly completed it,
+when Jerningham entered, to say the coach would be ready in an instant,
+and to bring his master’s sword, hat, and cloak.
+
+“Let the coachman draw off,” said the Duke, “but be in readiness. And
+send to the gentlemen thou wilt find named in this list; say I am but
+ill at ease, and wish their company to a light collation. Let instant
+expedition be made, and care not for expense; you will find most of them
+at the Club House in Fuller’s Rents.” [*]
+
+[*] The place of meeting of the Green Ribbon Club. “Their place of
+    meeting,” says Roger North, “was in a sort of Carrefour at
+    Chancery Lance, in a centre of business and company most proper
+    for such anglers of fools. The house was double balconied in
+    front, as may yet be seen, for the clubbers to issue forth _in
+    fresco_, with hats and no perukes, pipes in their mouths, merry
+    faces, and dilated throats for vocal encouragement of the
+    canaglia below on usual and unusual occasions.”
+
+The preparations for festivity were speedily made, and the intended
+guests, most of them persons who were at leisure for any call that
+promised pleasure, though sometimes more deaf to those of duty, began
+speedily to assemble. There were many youths of the highest rank, and
+with them, as is usual in those circles, many of a different class, whom
+talents, or impudence, or wit, or a turn for gambling, had reared up
+into companions for the great and the gay. The Duke of Buckingham was a
+general patron of persons of this description; and a numerous attendance
+took place on the present occasion.
+
+The festivity was pursued with the usual appliances of wine, music, and
+games of hazard; with which, however, there mingled in that period much
+more wit, and a good deal more gross profligacy of conversation, than
+the talents of the present generation can supply, or their taste would
+permit.
+
+The Duke himself proved the complete command which he possessed over his
+versatile character, by maintaining the frolic, the laugh, and the jest,
+while his ear caught up, and with eagerness, the most distant sounds, as
+intimating the commencement of Christian’s revolutionary project. Such
+sounds were heard from time to time, and from time to time they died
+away, without any of those consequences which Buckingham expected.
+
+At length, and when it was late in the evening, Jerningham announced
+Master Chiffinch from the Court; and that worthy personage followed the
+annunciation.
+
+“Strange things have happened, my Lord Duke,” he said; “your presence at
+Court is instantly required by his Majesty.”
+
+“You alarm me,” said Buckingham, standing up. “I hope nothing has
+happened--I hope there is nothing wrong--I hope his Majesty is well?”
+
+“Perfectly well,” said Chiffinch; “and desirous to see your Grace
+without a moment’s delay.”
+
+“This is sudden,” said the Duke. “You see I have had merry fellows about
+me, and am scarce in case to appear, Chiffinch.”
+
+“Your Grace seems to be in very handsome plight,” said Chiffinch; “and
+you know his Majesty is gracious enough to make allowances.”
+
+“True,” said the Duke, not a little anxious in his mind, touching the
+cause of this unexpected summons--“True--his Majesty is most gracious--I
+will order my coach.”
+
+“Mine is below,” replied the royal messenger; “it will save time, if
+your Grace will condescend to use it.”
+
+Forced from every evasion, Buckingham took a goblet from the table, and
+requested his friends to remain at his palace so long as they could find
+the means of amusement there. He expected, he said, to return almost
+immediately; if not, he would take farewell of them with his usual
+toast, “May all of us that are not hanged in the interval, meet together
+again here on the first Monday of next month.”
+
+This standing toast of the Duke bore reference to the character of
+several of his guests; but he did not drink it on the present occasion
+without some anticipation concerning his own fate, in case Christian had
+betrayed him. He hastily made some addition to his dress, and attended
+Chiffinch in the chariot to Whitehall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+           High feasting was there there--the gilded roofs
+           Rung to the wassail-health--the dancer’s step
+           Sprung to the chord responsive--the gay gamester
+           To fate’s disposal flung his heap of gold,
+           And laugh’d alike when it increased or lessen’d:
+           Such virtue hath court-air to teach us patience
+           Which schoolmen preach in vain.
+                                       --WHY COME YE NOT TO COURT?
+
+Upon the afternoon of this eventful day, Charles held his Court in the
+Queen’s apartments, which were opened at a particular hour to invited
+guests of a certain lower degree, but accessible without restriction to
+the higher classes of nobility who had from birth, and to the courtiers
+who held by office the privilege of the _entrée_.
+
+It was one part of Charles’s character, which unquestionably rendered
+him personally popular, and postponed to a subsequent reign the
+precipitation of his family from the throne, that he banished from his
+Court many of the formal restrictions with which it was in other reigns
+surrounded. He was conscious of the good-natured grace of his manners,
+and trusted to it, often not in vain, to remove evil impressions arising
+from actions, which he was sensible could not be justified on the
+grounds of liberal or national policy.
+
+In the daytime the King was commonly seen in the public walks alone, or
+only attended by one or two persons; and his answer to the remonstrance
+of his brother, on the risk of thus exposing his person, is well
+known:--“Believe me, James,” he said, “no one will murder _me_, to make
+_you_ King.”
+
+In the same manner, Charles’s evenings, unless such as were destined
+to more secret pleasures, were frequently spent amongst all who had any
+pretence to approach a courtly circle; and thus it was upon the night
+which we are treating of. Queen Catherine, reconciled or humbled to her
+fate, had long ceased to express any feelings of jealousy, nay,
+seemed so absolutely dead to such a passion, that she received at
+her drawing-room, without scruple, and even with encouragement, the
+Duchesses of Portsmouth and Cleveland, and others, who enjoyed, though
+in a less avowed character, the credit of having been royal favourites.
+Constraint of every kind was banished from a circle so composed, and
+which was frequented at the same time, if not by the wisest, at least by
+the wittiest courtiers, who ever assembled round a monarch, and who, as
+many of them had shared the wants, and shifts, and frolics of his exile,
+had then acquired a sort of prescriptive licence, which the good-natured
+prince, when he attained his period of prosperity, could hardly have
+restrained had it suited his temper to do so. This, however, was the
+least of Charles’s thoughts. His manners were such as secured him
+from indelicate obtrusion; and he sought no other protection from
+over-familiarity, than what these and his ready wit afforded him.
+
+On the present occasion, he was peculiarly disposed to enjoy the scene
+of pleasure which had been prepared. The singular death of Major Coleby,
+which, taking place in his own presence, had proclaimed, with the voice
+of a passing bell, the ungrateful neglect of the Prince for whom he
+had sacrificed everything, had given Charles much pain. But, in his own
+opinion at least, he had completely atoned for this negligence by the
+trouble which he had taken for Sir Geoffrey Peveril and his son, whose
+liberation he looked upon not only as an excellent good deed in itself,
+but, in spite of the grave rebuke of Ormond, as achieved in a very
+pardonable manner, considering the difficulties with which he was
+surrounded. He even felt a degree of satisfaction on receiving
+intelligence from the city that there had been disturbances in the
+streets, and that some of the more violent fanatics had betaken
+themselves to their meeting-houses, upon sudden summons, to inquire, as
+their preachers phrased it, into the causes of Heaven’s wrath, and into
+the backsliding of the Court, lawyers, and jury, by whom the false
+and bloody favourers of the Popish Plot were screened and cloaked from
+deserved punishment.
+
+The King, we repeat, seemed to hear these accounts with pleasure, even
+when he was reminded of the dangerous and susceptible character of those
+with whom such suspicions originated. “Will any one now assert,” he
+said, with self-complacence, “that I am so utterly negligent of the
+interest of friends?--You see the peril in which I place myself, and
+even the risk to which I have exposed the public peace, to rescue a man
+whom I have scarce seen for twenty years, and then only in his buff-coat
+and bandoleers, with other Train-Band officers who kissed hands upon the
+Restoration. They say Kings have long hands--I think they have as much
+occasion for long memories, since they are expected to watch over and
+reward every man in England, who hath but shown his goodwill by crying
+‘God save the King!’”
+
+“Nay, the rogues are even more unreasonable still,” said Sedley; “for
+every knave of them thinks himself entitled to your Majesty’s protection
+in a good cause, whether he has cried God save the King or no.”
+
+The King smiled, and turned to another part of the stately hall, where
+everything was assembled which could, according to the taste of the age,
+make the time glide pleasantly away.
+
+In one place, a group of the young nobility, and of the ladies of
+the Court, listened to the reader’s acquaintance Empson, who was
+accompanying with his unrivalled breathings on the flute, a young siren,
+who, while her bosom palpitated with pride and with fear, warbled to the
+courtly and august presence the beautiful air beginning--
+
+ “Young I am, and yet unskill’d,
+  How to make a lover yield,” &c.
+
+She performed her task in a manner so corresponding with the strains of
+the amatory poet, and the voluptuous air with which the words had
+been invested by the celebrated Purcel, that the men crowded around in
+ecstasies, while most of the ladies thought it proper either to look
+extremely indifferent to the words she sung, or to withdraw from
+the circle as quietly as possible. To the song succeeded a concerto,
+performed by a select band of most admirable musicians, which the King,
+whose taste was indisputable, had himself selected.
+
+At other tables in the apartment, the elder courtiers worshipped
+Fortune, at the various fashionable games of ombre, quadrille, hazard,
+and the like; while heaps of gold which lay before the players,
+augmented or dwindled with every turn of a card or cast of a die. Many
+a year’s rent of fair estates was ventured upon the main or the odds;
+which, spent in the old deserted manor-house, had repaired the
+ravages of Cromwell upon its walls, and replaced the sources of good
+housekeeping and hospitality, that, exhausted in the last age by fine
+and sequestration, were now in a fair way of being annihilated by
+careless prodigality. Elsewhere, under cover of observing the gamester,
+or listening to the music, the gallantries of that all-licensed age were
+practised among the gay and fair, closely watched the whilst by the ugly
+or the old, who promised themselves at least the pleasure of observing,
+and it may be that of proclaiming, intrigues in which they could not be
+sharers.
+
+From one table to another glided the merry Monarch, exchanging now a
+glance with a Court beauty, now a jest with a Court wit, now beating
+time to the music, and anon losing or winning a few pieces of gold on
+the chance of the game to which he stood nearest;--the most amiable of
+voluptuaries--the gayest and best-natured of companions--the man that
+would, of all others, have best sustained his character, had life been a
+continued banquet, and its only end to enjoy the passing hour, and send
+it away as pleasantly as might be.
+
+But Kings are least of all exempted from the ordinary lot of humanity;
+and Seged of Ethiopia is, amongst monarchs, no solitary example of the
+vanity of reckoning on a day or an hour of undisturbed serenity. An
+attendant on the Court announced suddenly to their Majesties that a
+lady, who would only announce herself as a Peeress of England, desired
+to be admitted into the presence.
+
+The Queen said, hastily, it was _impossible_. No peeress, without
+announcing her title, was entitled to the privilege of her rank.
+
+“I could be sworn,” said a nobleman in attendance, “that it is some whim
+of the Duchess of Newcastle.”
+
+The attendant who brought the message, said that he did indeed believe
+it to be the Duchess, both from the singularity of the message, and that
+the lady spoke with somewhat a foreign accent.
+
+“In the name of madness, then,” said the King, “let us admit her.
+Her Grace is an entire raree-show in her own person--a universal
+masquerade--indeed a sort of private Bedlam-hospital, her whole ideas
+being like so many patients crazed upon the subjects of love and
+literature, who act nothing in their vagaries, save Minerva, Venus, and
+the nine Muses.”
+
+“Your Majesty’s pleasure must always supersede mine,” said the Queen. “I
+only hope I shall not be expected to entertain so fantastic a personage.
+The last time she came to Court, Isabella”--(she spoke to one of her
+Portuguese ladies of honour)--“you had not returned from our lovely
+Lisbon!--her Grace had the assurance to assume a right to bring a
+train-bearer into my apartment; and when this was not allowed, what
+then, think you, she did?--even caused her train to be made so long,
+that three mortal yards of satin and silver remained in the antechamber,
+supported by four wenches, while the other end was attached to
+her Grace’s person, as she paid her duty at the upper end of the
+presence-room. Full thirty yards of the most beautiful silk did her
+Grace’s madness employ in this manner.”
+
+“And most beautiful damsels they were who bore this portentous train,”
+ said the King--“a train never equalled save by that of the great comet
+in sixty-six. Sedley and Etherege told us wonders of them; for it is one
+advantage of this new fashion brought up by the Duchess, that a
+matron may be totally unconscious of the coquetry of her train and its
+attendants.”
+
+“Am I to understand, then, your Majesty’s pleasure is, that the lady is
+to be admitted?” said the usher.
+
+“Certainly,” said the King; “that is, if the incognita be really
+entitled to the honour.--It may be as well to inquire her title--there
+are more madwomen abroad than the Duchess of Newcastle. I will walk into
+the anteroom myself, and receive your answer.”
+
+But ere Charles had reached the lower end of the apartment in his
+progress to the anteroom, the usher surprised the assembly by announcing
+a name which had not for many a year been heard in these courtly
+halls--“the Countess of Derby!”
+
+Stately and tall, and still, at an advanced period of life, having a
+person unbroken by years, the noble lady advanced towards her Sovereign,
+with a step resembling that with which she might have met an equal.
+There was indeed nothing in her manner that indicated either haughtiness
+or assumption unbecoming that presence; but her consciousness of wrongs,
+sustained from the administration of Charles, and of the superiority of
+the injured party over those from whom, or in whose name, the injury
+had been offered, gave her look dignity, and her step firmness. She was
+dressed in widow’s weeds, of the same fashion which were worn at the
+time her husband was brought to the scaffold; and which, in the thirty
+years subsequent to that event, she had never permitted her tirewoman to
+alter.
+
+The surprise was no pleasing one to the King; and cursing in his heart
+the rashness which had allowed the lady entrance on the gay scene
+in which they were engaged, he saw at the same time the necessity of
+receiving her in a manner suitable to his own character, and her rank in
+the British Court. He approached her with an air of welcome, into which
+he threw all his natural grace, while he began, “_Chère Comtesse de
+Derby, puissante Reine de Man, notre très auguste sœur----_”
+
+“Speak English, sire, if I may presume to ask such a favour,” said the
+Countess. “I am a Peeress of this nation--mother to one English Earl,
+and widow, alas, to another! In England I have spent my brief days
+of happiness, my long years of widowhood and sorrow. France and its
+language are but to me the dreams of an uninteresting childhood. I know
+no tongue save that of my husband and my son. Permit me, as the widow
+and mother of Derby, thus to render my homage.”
+
+She would have kneeled, but the King gracefully prevented her, and,
+saluting her cheek, according to the form, led her towards the Queen,
+and himself performed the ceremony of introduction. “Your Majesty,” he
+said, “must be informed that the Countess has imposed a restriction on
+French--the language of gallantry and compliment. I trust your Majesty
+will, though a foreigner, like herself, find enough of honest English
+to assure the Countess of Derby with what pleasure we see her at Court,
+after the absence of so many years.”
+
+“I will endeavour to do so, at least,” said the Queen, on whom the
+appearance of the Countess of Derby made a more favourable impression
+than that of many strangers, whom, at the King’s request, she was in the
+habit of receiving with courtesy.
+
+Charles himself again spoke. “To any other lady of the same rank I might
+put the question, why she was so long absent from the circle? I fear I
+can only ask the Countess of Derby, what fortunate cause produces the
+pleasure of seeing her here?”
+
+“No fortunate cause, my liege, though one most strong and urgent.”
+
+The King augured nothing agreeable from this commencement; and in truth,
+from the Countess’s first entrance, he had anticipated some unpleasant
+explanation, which he therefore hastened to parry, having first composed
+his features into an expression of sympathy and interest.
+
+“If,” said he, “the cause is of a nature in which we can render
+assistance, we cannot expect your ladyship should enter upon it at the
+present time; but a memorial addressed to our secretary, or, if it is
+more satisfactory, to ourselves directly, will receive our immediate,
+and I trust I need not add, our favourable construction.”
+
+The Countess bowed with some state, and answered, “My business, sire,
+is indeed important; but so brief, that it need not for more than a
+few minutes withdraw your ear from what is more pleasing;--yet it is so
+urgent, that I am afraid to postpone it even for a moment.”
+
+“This is unusual,” said Charles. “But you, Countess of Derby, are an
+unwonted guest, and must command my time. Does the matter require my
+private ear?”
+
+“For my part,” said the Countess, “the whole Court might listen; but
+you Majesty may prefer hearing me in the presence of one or two of your
+counsellors.”
+
+“Ormond,” said the King, looking around, “attend us for an instant--and
+do you, Arlington, do the same.”
+
+The King led the way into an adjoining cabinet, and, seating himself,
+requested the Countess would also take a chair. “It needs not, sire,”
+ she replied; then pausing for a moment, as if to collect her spirits,
+she proceeded with firmness.
+
+“Your Majesty well said that no light cause had drawn me from my lonely
+habitation. I came not hither when the property of my son--that property
+which descended to him from a father who died for your Majesty’s
+rights--was conjured away from him under pretext of justice, that it
+might first feed the avarice of the rebel Fairfax, and then supply the
+prodigality of his son-in-law, Buckingham.”
+
+“These are over harsh terms, lady,” said the King. “A legal penalty was,
+as we remember, incurred by an act of irregular violence--so our courts
+and our laws term it, though personally I have no objection to call it,
+with you, an honourable revenge. But admit it were such, in prosecution
+of the laws of honour, bitter legal consequences are often necessarily
+incurred.”
+
+“I come not to argue for my son’s wasted and forfeited inheritance,
+sire,” said the Countess; “I only take credit for my patience, under
+that afflicting dispensation. I now come to redeem the honour of the
+House of Derby, more dear to me than all the treasures and lands which
+ever belonged to it.”
+
+“And by whom is the honour of the House of Derby impeached?” said the
+King; “for on my word you bring me the first news of it.”
+
+“Has there one Narrative, as these wild fictions are termed, been
+printed with regard to the Popish Plot--this pretended Plot as I will
+call it--in which the honour of our house has not been touched and
+tainted? And are there not two noble gentlemen, father and son, allies
+of the House of Stanley, about to be placed in jeopardy of their lives,
+on account of matters in which we are the parties first impeached?”
+
+The King looked around, and smiled to Arlington and Ormond. “The
+Countess’s courage, methinks, shames ours. What lips dared have called
+the immaculate Plot _pretended_, or the Narrative of the witnesses, our
+preservers from Popish knives, a wild fiction?--But, madam,” he said,
+“though I admire the generosity of your interference in behalf of
+the two Peverils, I must acquaint you, that your interference is
+unnecessary--they are this morning acquitted.”
+
+“Now may God be praised!” said the Countess, folding her hands. “I
+have scarce slept since I heard the news of their impeachment; and have
+arrived here to surrender myself to your Majesty’s justice, or to the
+prejudices of the nation, in hopes, by so doing, I might at least save
+the lives of my noble and generous friends, enveloped in suspicion only,
+or chiefly, by their connection with us.--Are they indeed acquitted?”
+
+“They are, by my honour,” said the King. “I marvel you heard it not.”
+
+“I arrived but last night, and remained in the strictest seclusion,”
+ said the Countess, “afraid to make any inquiries that might occasion
+discovery ere I saw your Majesty.”
+
+“And now that we _have_ met,” said the King, taking her hand kindly--“a
+meeting which gives me the greatest pleasure--may I recommend to you
+speedily to return to your royal island with as little _éclat_ as you
+came thither? The world, my dear Countess, has changed since we were
+young. Men fought in the Civil War with good swords and muskets; but now
+we fight with indictments and oaths, and such like legal weapons. You
+are no adept in such warfare; and though I am well aware you know how
+to hold out a castle, I doubt much if you have the art to parry off an
+impeachment. This Plot has come upon us like a land storm--there is no
+steering the vessel in the teeth of the tempest--we must run for the
+nearest haven, and happy if we can reach one.”
+
+“This is cowardice, my liege,” said the Countess--“Forgive the word!--it
+is but a woman who speaks it. Call your noble friends around you, and
+make a stand like your royal father. There is but one right and one
+wrong--one honourable and forward course; and all others which deviate
+are oblique and unworthy.”
+
+“Your language, my venerated friend,” said Ormond, who saw the necessity
+of interfering betwixt the dignity of the actual Sovereign and the
+freedom of the Countess, who was generally accustomed to receive, not
+to pay observance,--“your language is strong and decided, but it applies
+not to the times. It might occasion a renewal of the Civil War, and
+of all its miseries, but could hardly be attended with the effects you
+sanguinely anticipate.”
+
+“You are too rash, my Lady Countess,” said Arlington, “not only to rush
+upon this danger yourself, but to desire to involve his Majesty. Let
+me say plainly, that, in this jealous time, you have done but ill to
+exchange the security of Castle Rushin for the chance of a lodging in
+the Tower of London.”
+
+“And were I to kiss the block there,” said the Countess, “as did my
+husband at Bolton-on-the-Moors, I would do so willingly, rather than
+forsake a friend!--and one, too, whom, as in the case of the younger
+Peveril, I have thrust upon danger.”
+
+“But have I not assured you that both of the Peverils, elder and
+younger, are freed from peril?” said the King; “and, my dear Countess,
+what can else tempt you to thrust _yourself_ on danger, from which,
+doubtless, you expect to be relieved by my intervention? Methinks a
+lady of your judgment should not voluntarily throw herself into a river,
+merely that her friends might have the risk and merit of dragging her
+out.”
+
+The Countess reiterated her intention to claim a fair trial.--The two
+counsellors again pressed their advice that she should withdraw, though
+under the charge of absconding from justice, and remain in her own
+feudal kingdom.
+
+The King, seeing no termination to the debate, gently reminded the
+Countess that her Majesty would be jealous if he detained her ladyship
+longer, and offered her his hand to conduct her back to the company.
+This she was under the necessity of accepting, and returned accordingly
+to the apartments of state, where an event occurred immediately
+afterwards, which must be transferred to the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+              Here stand I tight and trim,
+              Quick of eye, though little of limb;
+              He who denieth the word I have spoken,
+              Betwixt him and me shall lances be broken.
+                            --LAY OF THE LITTLE JOHN DE SAINTRE.
+
+When Charles had reconducted the Countess of Derby into the
+presence-chamber, before he parted with her, he entreated her, in a
+whisper, to be governed by good counsel, and to regard her own safety;
+and then turned easily from her, as if to distribute his attentions
+equally among the other guests.
+
+These were a good deal circumscribed at the instant, by the arrival of
+a party of five or six musicians; one of whom, a German, under the
+patronage of the Duke of Buckingham, was particularly renowned for his
+performance on the violoncello, but had been detained in inactivity in
+the antechamber by the non-arrival of his instrument, which had now at
+length made its appearance.
+
+The domestic who placed it before the owner, shrouded as it was within
+its wooden case, seemed heartily glad to be rid of his load, and
+lingered for a moment, as if interested in discovering what sort of
+instrument was to be produced that could weigh so heavily. His curiosity
+was satisfied, and in a most extraordinary manner; for, while the
+musician was fumbling with the key, the case being for his greater
+convenience placed upright against the wall, the case and instrument
+itself at once flew open, and out started the dwarf, Geoffrey
+Hudson,--at sight of whose unearthly appearance, thus suddenly
+introduced, the ladies shrieked, and ran backwards; the gentlemen
+started, and the poor German, on seeing the portentous delivery of his
+fiddle-case, tumbled on the floor in an agony, supposing, it might be,
+that his instrument was metamorphosed into the strange figure which
+supplied its place. So soon, however, as he recovered, he glided out of
+the apartment, and was followed by most of his companions.
+
+“Hudson!” said the King--“My little old friend, I am not sorry to see
+you; though Buckingham, who I suppose is the purveyor of this jest, hath
+served us up but a stale one.”
+
+“Will your Majesty honour me with one moment’s attention?” said Hudson.
+
+“Assuredly, my good friend,” said the King. “Old acquaintances are
+springing up in every quarter to-night; and our leisure can hardly be
+better employed than in listening to them.--It was an idle trick of
+Buckingham,” he added, in a whisper to Ormond, “to send the poor thing
+hither, especially as he was to-day tried for the affair of the plot.
+At any rate he comes not to ask protection from us, having had the rare
+fortune to come off _Plot-free_. He is but fishing, I suppose, for some
+little present or pension.”
+
+The little man, precise in Court etiquette, yet impatient of the
+King’s delaying to attend to him, stood in the midst of the floor, most
+valorously pawing and prancing, like a Scots pony assuming the airs of
+a war-horse, waving meanwhile his little hat with the tarnished feather,
+and bowing from time to time, as if impatient to be heard.
+
+“Speak on, then, my friend,” said Charles; “if thou hast some poetical
+address penned for thee, out with it, that thou mayst have time to
+repose these flourishing little limbs of thine.”
+
+“No poetical speech have I, most mighty Sovereign,” answered the dwarf;
+“but, in plain and most loyal prose, I do accuse, before this company,
+the once noble Duke of Buckingham of high treason!”
+
+“Well spoken, and manfully--Get on, man,” said the King, who never
+doubted that this was the introduction to something burlesque or witty,
+not conceiving that the charge was made in solemn earnest.
+
+A great laugh took place among such courtiers as heard, and among many
+who did not hear, what was uttered by the dwarf; the former entertained
+by the extravagant emphasis and gesticulation of the little champion,
+and the others laughing not the less loud that they laughed for
+example’s sake, and upon trust.
+
+“What matter is there for all this mirth?” said he, very
+indignantly--“Is it fit subject for laughing, that I, Geoffrey Hudson,
+Knight, do, before King and nobles, impeach George Villiers, Duke of
+Buckingham, of high treason?”
+
+“No subject of mirth, certainly,” said Charles, composing his features;
+“but great matter of wonder.--Come, cease this mouthing, and prancing,
+and mummery.--If there be a jest, come out with it, man; and if not,
+even get thee to the beaffet, and drink a cup of wine to refresh thee
+after thy close lodging.”
+
+“I tell you, my liege,” said Hudson impatiently, yet in a whisper,
+intended only to be audible by the King, “that if you spend overmuch
+time in trifling, you will be convinced by dire experience of
+Buckingham’s treason. I tell you,--I asseverate to your Majesty,--two
+hundred armed fanatics will be here within the hour, to surprise the
+guards.”
+
+“Stand back, ladies,” said the King, “or you may hear more than you will
+care to listen to. My Lord of Buckingham’s jests are not always, you
+know, quite fitted for female ears; besides, we want a few words in
+private with our little friend. You, my Lord of Ormond--you, Arlington”
+ (and he named one or two others), “may remain with us.”
+
+The gay crowd bore back, and dispersed through the apartment--the men to
+conjecture what the end of this mummery, as they supposed it, was
+likely to prove; and what jest, as Sedley said, the bass-fiddle had been
+brought to bed of--and the ladies to admire and criticise the antique
+dress, and richly embroidered ruff and hood of the Countess of Derby, to
+whom the Queen was showing particular attention.
+
+“And now, in the name of Heaven, and amongst friends,” said the King to
+the dwarf, “what means all this?”
+
+“Treason, my lord the King!--Treason to his Majesty of England!--When I
+was chambered in yonder instrument, my lord, the High-Dutch fellows who
+bore me, carried me into a certain chapel, to see, as they said to each
+other, that all was ready. Sire, I went where bass-fiddle never went
+before, even into a conventicle of Fifth-Monarchists; and when they
+brought me away, the preacher was concluding his sermon, and was within
+a ‘Now to apply’ of setting off like the bell-wether at the head of his
+flock, to surprise your Majesty in your royal Court! I heard him through
+the sound-holes of my instrument, when the fellow set me down for a
+moment to profit by this precious doctrine.”
+
+“It would be singular,” said Lord Arlington, “were there some reality
+at the bottom of this buffoonery; for we know these wild men have been
+consulting together to-day, and five conventicles have held a solemn
+fast.”
+
+“Nay,” said the King, “if that be the case, they are certainly
+determined on some villainy.”
+
+“Might I advise,” said the Duke of Ormond, “I would summon the Duke of
+Buckingham to this presence. His connections with the fanatics are well
+known, though he affects to conceal them.”
+
+“You would not, my lord, do his Grace the injustice to treat him as a
+criminal on such a charge as this?” said the King. “However,” he added,
+after a moment’s consideration, “Buckingham is accessible to every
+sort of temptation, from the flightiness of his genius. I should not be
+surprised if he nourished hopes of an aspiring kind--I think we had some
+proof of it lately.--Hark ye, Chiffinch; go to him instantly, and bring
+him here on any fair pretext thou canst devise. I would fain save him
+from what lawyers call an overt act. The Court would be dull as a dead
+horse were Buckingham to miscarry.”
+
+“Will not your Majesty order the Horse Guards to turn out?” said young
+Selby, who was present, and an officer.
+
+“No, Selby,” said the King, “I like not horse-play. But let them be
+prepared; and let the High Bailiff collect his civil officers, and
+command the Sheriffs to summon their worshipful attendants from
+javelin-men to hangmen, and have them in readiness, in case of any
+sudden tumult--double the sentinels on the doors of the palace--and see
+no strangers get in.”
+
+“Or _out_,” said the Duke of Ormond. “Where are the foreign fellows who
+brought in the dwarf?”
+
+They were sought for, but they were not to be found. They had retreated,
+leaving their instruments--a circumstance which seemed to bear hard on
+the Duke of Buckingham, their patron.
+
+Hasty preparations were made to provide resistance to any effort of
+despair which the supposed conspirators might be driven to; and in the
+meanwhile, the King, withdrawing with Arlington, Ormond, and a few other
+counsellors, into the cabinet where the Countess of Derby had had
+her audience, resumed the examination of the little discoverer. His
+declaration, though singular, was quite coherent; the strain of romance
+intermingled with it, being in fact a part of his character, which often
+gained him the fate of being laughed at, when he would otherwise have
+been pitied, or even esteemed.
+
+He commenced with a flourish about his sufferings for the Plot, which
+the impatience of Ormond would have cut short, had not the King reminded
+his Grace, that a top, when it is not flogged, must needs go down of
+itself at the end of a definite time, while the application of the whip
+may keep it up for hours.
+
+Geoffrey Hudson was, therefore, allowed to exhaust himself on the
+subject of his prison-house, which he informed the King was not without
+a beam of light--an emanation of loveliness--a mortal angel--quick
+of step and beautiful of eye, who had more than once visited his
+confinement with words of cheering and comfort.
+
+“By my faith,” said the King, “they fare better in Newgate than I was
+aware of. Who would have thought of the little gentleman being solaced
+with female society in such a place?”
+
+“I pray your Majesty,” said the dwarf, after the manner of a solemn
+protest, “to understand nothing amiss. My devotion to this fair creature
+is rather like what we poor Catholics pay to the blessed saints, than
+mixed with any grosser quality. Indeed, she seems rather a sylphid of
+the Rosicrucian system, than aught more carnal; being slighter, lighter,
+and less than the females of common life, who have something of that
+coarseness of make which is doubtless derived from the sinful and
+gigantic race of the antediluvians.”
+
+“Well, say on, man,” quoth Charles. “Didst thou not discover this sylph
+to be a mere mortal wench after all?”
+
+“Who?--I, my liege?--Oh, fie!”
+
+“Nay, little gentleman, do not be so particularly scandalised,” said the
+King; “I promise you I suspect you of no audacity of gallantry.”
+
+“Time wears fast,” said the Duke of Ormond impatiently, and looking at
+his watch. “Chiffinch hath been gone ten minutes, and ten minutes will
+bring him back.”
+
+“True,” said Charles gravely. “Come to the point, Hudson; and tell us
+what this female has to do with your coming hither in this extraordinary
+manner.”
+
+“Everything, my lord,” said little Hudson. “I saw her twice during my
+confinement in Newgate, and, in my thought, she is the very angel who
+guards my life and welfare; for, after my acquittal, as I walked towards
+the city with two tall gentlemen, who had been in trouble along with me,
+and just while we stood to our defence against a rascally mob, and just
+as I had taken possession of an elevated situation, to have some vantage
+against the great odds of numbers, I heard a heavenly voice sound, as
+it were, from a window behind me, counselling me to take refuge in a
+certain house; to which measure I readily persuaded my gallant friends
+the Peverils, who have always shown themselves willing to be counselled
+by me.”
+
+“Showing therein their wisdom at once and modesty,” said the King. “But
+what chanced next? Be brief--be like thyself, man.”
+
+“For a time, sire,” said the dwarf, “it seemed as if I were not the
+principal object of attention. First, the younger Peveril was withdrawn
+from us by a gentleman of venerable appearance, though something
+smacking of a Puritan, having boots of neat’s leather, and wearing his
+weapon without a sword-knot. When Master Julian returned, he informed
+us, for the first time, that we were in the power of a body of armed
+fanatics who were, as the poet says, prompt for direful act. And your
+Majesty will remark, that both father and son were in some measure
+desperate, and disregardful from that moment of the assurances which I
+gave them, that the star which I was bound to worship, would, in her own
+time, shine forth in signal of our safety. May it please your Majesty,
+in answer to my hilarious exhortations to confidence, the father did
+but say _tush_, and the son _pshaw_, which showed how men’s prudence and
+manners are disturbed by affliction. Nevertheless, these two gentlemen,
+the Peverils, forming a strong opinion of the necessity there was to
+break forth, were it only to convey a knowledge of these dangerous
+passages to your Majesty, commenced an assault on the door of the
+apartment, I also assisting with the strength which Heaven hath given,
+and some threescore years have left me. We could not, as it unhappily
+proved, manage our attempt so silently, but that our guards overheard
+us, and, entering in numbers, separated us from each other, and
+compelled my companions, at point of pike and poniard, to go to some
+other and more distant apartment, thus separating our fair society. I
+was again enclosed in the now solitary chamber, and I will own that I
+felt a certain depression of soul. But when bale is at highest, as
+the poet singeth, boot is at nighest, for a door of hope was suddenly
+opened----”
+
+“In the name of God, my liege,” said the Duke of Ormond, “let this poor
+creature’s story be translated into the language of common sense by some
+of the scribblers of romances about Court, and we may be able to make
+meaning of it.”
+
+Geoffrey Hudson looked with a frowning countenance of reproof upon the
+impatient old Irish nobleman, and said, with a very dignified air, “That
+one Duke upon a poor gentleman’s hand was enough at a time, and
+that, but for his present engagement and dependency with the Duke
+of Buckingham, he would have endured no such terms from the Duke of
+Ormond.”
+
+“Abate your valour, and diminish your choler, at our request, most
+puissant Sir Geoffrey Hudson,” said the King; “and forgive the Duke of
+Ormond for my sake; but at all events go on with your story.”
+
+Geoffrey Hudson laid his hand on his bosom, and bowed in proud and
+dignified submission to his Sovereign; then waved his forgiveness
+gracefully to Ormond, accompanied with a horrible grin, which he
+designed for a smile of gracious forgiveness and conciliation. “Under
+the Duke’s favour, then,” he proceeded, “when I said a door of hope was
+opened to me, I meant a door behind the tapestry, from whence issued
+that fair vision--yet not so fair as lustrously dark, like the beauty of
+a continental night, where the cloudless azure sky shrouds us in a
+veil more lovely than that of day!--but I note your Majesty’s
+impatience;--enough. I followed my beautiful guide into an apartment,
+where there lay, strangely intermingled, warlike arms and musical
+instruments. Amongst these I saw my own late place of temporary
+obscurity--a violoncello. To my astonishment, she turned around the
+instrument, and opening it behind the pressure of a spring, showed
+that it was filled with pistols, daggers, and ammunition made up in
+bandoleers. ‘These,’ she said, ‘are this night destined to surprise the
+Court of the unwary Charles’--your Majesty must pardon my using her own
+words; ‘but if thou darest go in their stead, thou mayst be the saviour
+of king and kingdoms; if thou art afraid, keep secret, I will myself try
+the adventure.’ Now may Heaven forbid, that Geoffrey Hudson were craven
+enough, said I, to let thee run such a risk! You know not--you cannot
+know, what belongs to such ambuscades and concealments--I am accustomed
+to them--have lurked in the pocket of a giant, and have formed the
+contents of a pasty. ‘Get in then,’ she said, ‘and lose no time.’
+Nevertheless, while I prepared to obey, I will not deny that some cold
+apprehensions came over my hot valour, and I confessed to her, if it
+might be so, I would rather find my way to the palace on my own feet.
+But she would not listen to me, saying hastily, ‘I would be intercepted,
+or refused admittance, and that I must embrace the means she offered me
+of introduction into the presence, and when there, tell the King to be
+on his guard--little more is necessary; for once the scheme is known, it
+becomes desperate.’ Rashly and boldly, I bid adieu to the daylight
+which was then fading away. She withdrew the contents of the
+instrument destined for my concealment, and having put them behind the
+chimney-board, introduced me in their room. As she clasped me in, I
+implored her to warn the men who were to be entrusted with me, to take
+heed and keep the neck of the violoncello uppermost; but ere I had
+completed my request, I found I was left alone, and in darkness,
+Presently, two or three fellows entered, whom, by their language, which
+I in some sort understood, I perceived to be Germans, and under the
+influence of the Duke of Buckingham. I heard them receive from the
+leader a charge how they were to deport themselves, when they should
+assume the concealed arms--and--for I will do the Duke no wrong--I
+understood their orders were precise, not only to spare the person of
+the King, but also those of the courtiers, and to protect all who
+might be in the presence against an irruption of the fanatics. In other
+respects, they had charge to disarm the Gentlemen-pensioners in the
+guard-room, and, in fine, to obtain the command of the Court.”
+
+The King looked disconcerted and thoughtful at this communication, and
+bade Lord Arlington see that Selby quietly made search into the
+contents of the other cases which had been brought as containing musical
+instruments. He then signed to the dwarf to proceed in his story, asking
+him again and again, and very solemnly, whether he was sure that he
+heard the Duke’s name mentioned, as commanding or approving this action.
+
+The dwarf answered in the affirmative.
+
+“This,” said the King, “is carrying the frolic somewhat far.”
+
+The dwarf proceeded to state, that he was carried after his
+metamorphosis into the chapel, where he heard the preacher seemingly
+about the close of his harangue, the tenor of which he also mentioned.
+Words, he said, could not express the agony which he felt when he found
+that his bearer, in placing the instrument in a corner, was about to
+invert its position, in which case, he said, human frailty might have
+proved too great for love, for loyalty, for true obedience, nay, for the
+fear of death, which was like to ensue on discovery; and he concluded,
+that he greatly doubted he could not have stood on his head for many
+minutes without screaming aloud.
+
+“I could not have blamed you,” said the King; “placed in such a posture
+in the royal oak, I must needs have roared myself.--Is this all you have
+to tell us of this strange conspiracy?” Sir Geoffrey Hudson replied
+in the affirmative, and the King presently subjoined--“Go, my little
+friend, your services shall not be forgotten. Since thou hast crept
+into the bowels of a fiddle for our service, we are bound, in duty and
+conscience, to find you a more roomy dwelling in future.”
+
+“It was a violoncello, if your Majesty is pleased to remember,” said
+the little jealous man, “not a common fiddle; though, for your Majesty’s
+service, I would have crept even into a kit.”
+
+“Whatever of that nature could have been performed by any subject of
+ours, thou wouldst have enacted in our behalf--of that we hold ourselves
+certain. Withdraw for a little; and hark ye, for the present, beware
+what you say about this matter. Let your appearance be considered--do
+you mark me--as a frolic of the Duke of Buckingham; and not a word of
+conspiracy.”
+
+“Were it not better to put him under some restraint, sire?” said the
+Duke of Ormond, when Hudson had left the room.
+
+“It is unnecessary,” said the King. “I remember the little wretch of
+old. Fortune, to make him the model of absurdity, has closed a most
+lofty soul within that little miserable carcass. For wielding his sword
+and keeping his word, he is a perfect Don Quixote in decimo-octavo. He
+shall be taken care of.--But, oddsfish, my lords, is not this freak of
+Buckingham too villainous and ungrateful?”
+
+“He had not had the means of being so, had your Majesty,” said the Duke
+of Ormond, “been less lenient on other occasions.”
+
+“My lord, my lord,” said Charles hastily--“your lordship is Buckingham’s
+known enemy--we will take other and more impartial counsel--Arlington,
+what think you of all this?”
+
+“May it please your Majesty,” said Arlington, “I think the thing is
+absolutely impossible, unless the Duke has had some quarrel with your
+Majesty, of which we know nothing. His Grace is very flighty, doubtless,
+but this seems actual insanity.”
+
+“Why, faith,” said the King, “some words passed betwixt us this
+morning--his Duchess it seems is dead--and to lose no time, his Grace
+had cast his eyes about for means of repairing the loss, and had the
+assurance to ask our consent to woo my niece Lady Anne.”
+
+“Which your Majesty of course rejected?” said the statesman.
+
+“And not without rebuking his assurance,” added the King.
+
+“In private, sire, or before any witnesses?” said the Duke of Ormond.
+
+“Before no one,” said the King,--“excepting, indeed, little Chiffinch;
+and he, you know, is no one.”
+
+“_Hinc illæ lachrymæ_,” said Ormond. “I know his Grace well. While the
+rebuke of his aspiring petulance was a matter betwixt your Majesty and
+him, he might have let it pass by; but a check before a fellow from whom
+it was likely enough to travel through the Court, was a matter to be
+revenged.”
+
+Here Selby came hastily from the other room, to say, that his Grace of
+Buckingham had just entered the presence-chamber.
+
+The King rose. “Let a boat be in readiness, with a party of the yeomen,”
+ said he. “It may be necessary to attach him of treason, and send him to
+the Tower.”
+
+“Should not a Secretary of State’s warrant be prepared?” said Ormond.
+
+“No, my Lord Duke,” said the King sharply. “I still hope that the
+necessity may be avoided.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+             High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.
+                                           --RICHARD III.
+
+Before giving the reader an account of the meeting betwixt Buckingham
+and his injured Sovereign, we may mention a trifling circumstance or
+two which took place betwixt his Grace and Chiffinch, in the short drive
+betwixt York Place and Whitehall.
+
+In the outset, the Duke endeavoured to learn from the courtier the
+special cause of his being summoned so hastily to the Court. Chiffinch
+answered, cautiously, that he believed there were some gambols going
+forward, at which the King desired the Duke’s presence.
+
+This did not quite satisfy Buckingham, for, conscious of his own rash
+purpose, he could not but apprehend discovery. After a moment’s silence,
+“Chiffinch,” he said abruptly, “did you mention to any one what the King
+said to me this morning touching the Lady Anne?”
+
+“My Lord Duke,” said Chiffinch, hesitantly, “surely my duty to the
+King--my respect to your Grace----”
+
+“You mentioned it to no one, then?” said the Duke sternly.
+
+“To no one,” replied Chiffinch faintly, for he was intimidated by the
+Duke’s increasing severity of manner.
+
+“Ye lie, like a scoundrel!” said the Duke--“You told Christian!”
+
+“Your Grace,” said Chiffinch--“your Grace--your Grace ought to remember
+that I told you Christian’s secret; that the Countess of Derby was come
+up.”
+
+“And you think the one point of treachery may balance for the other? But
+no. I must have a better atonement. Be assured I will blow your brains
+out, ere you leave this carriage, unless you tell me the truth of this
+message from Court.”
+
+As Chiffinch hesitated what reply to make, a man, who, by the blaze of
+the torches, then always borne, as well by the lackeys who hung behind
+the carriage, as by the footmen who ran by the side, might easily see
+who sat in the coach, approached, and sung in a deep manly voice, the
+burden of an old French song on the battle of Marignan, in which is
+imitated the German French of the defeated Swiss.
+
+ “_Tout est verlore
+  La tintelore,
+  Tout est verlore_
+            Bei Got.”
+
+“I am betrayed,” said the Duke, who instantly conceived that this
+chorus, expressing “all is lost,” was sung by one of his faithful
+agents, as a hint to him that their machinations were discovered.
+
+He attempted to throw himself from the carriage, but Chiffinch held
+him with a firm, though respectful grasp. “Do not destroy yourself,
+my lord,” he said, in a tone of deep humility--“there are soldiers
+and officers of the peace around the carriage, to enforce your Grace’s
+coming to Whitehall, and to prevent your escape. To attempt it would be
+to confess guilt; and I advise you strongly against that--the King is
+your friend--be your own.”
+
+The Duke, after a moment’s consideration, said sullenly, “I believe you
+are right. Why should I fly, when I am guilty of nothing but sending
+some fireworks to entertain the Court, instead of a concert of music?”
+
+“And the dwarf, who came so unexpectedly out of the bass-viol----”
+
+“Was a masking device of my own, Chiffinch,” said the Duke, though the
+circumstance was then first known to him. “Chiffinch, you will bind me
+for ever, if you will permit me to have a minute’s conversation with
+Christian.”
+
+“With Christian, my lord?--Where could you find him?--You are aware we
+must go straight to the Court.”
+
+“True,” said the Duke, “but I think I cannot miss finding him; and you,
+Master Chiffinch, are no officer, and have no warrant either to detain
+me prisoner, or prevent my speaking to whom I please.”
+
+Chiffinch replied, “My Lord Duke, your genius is so great, and your
+escapes so numerous, that it will be from no wish of my own if I am
+forced to hurt a man so skilful and so popular.”
+
+“Nay, then, there is life in it yet,” said the Duke, and whistled;
+when, from beside the little cutler’s booth, with which the reader is
+acquainted, appeared, suddenly, Master Christian, and was in a moment at
+the side of the coach. “_Ganz ist verloren_,” said the Duke.
+
+“I know it,” said Christian; “and all our godly friends are dispersed
+upon the news. Luckily the Colonel and these German rascals gave a hint.
+All is safe--You go to Court--Hark ye, I will follow.”
+
+“You, Christian? that would be more friendly than wise.”
+
+“Why, what is there against me?” said Christian. “I am innocent as the
+child unborn--so is your Grace. There is but one creature who can bear
+witness to our guilt; but I trust to bring her on the stage in our
+favour--besides, if I were not, I should presently be sent for.”
+
+“The familiar of whom I have heard you speak, I warrant?”
+
+“Hark in your ear again.”
+
+“I understand,” said the Duke, “and will delay Master Chiffinch,--for
+he, you must know, is my conductor,--no longer.--Well, Chiffinch, let
+them drive on.--_Vogue la Galère!_” he exclaimed, as the carriage went
+onward; “I have sailed through worse perils than this yet.”
+
+“It is not for me to judge,” said Chiffinch; “your Grace is a bold
+commander; and Christian hath the cunning of the devil for a pilot;
+but----However, I remain your Grace’s poor friend, and will heartily
+rejoice in your extrication.”
+
+“Give me a proof of your friendship,” said the Duke. “Tell me what you
+know of Christian’s familiar, as he calls her.”
+
+“I believe it to be the same dancing wench who came with Empson to my
+house on the morning that Mistress Alice made her escape from us. But
+you have seen her, my lord?”
+
+“I?” said the Duke; “when did I see her?”
+
+“She was employed by Christian, I believe, to set his niece at liberty,
+when he found himself obliged to gratify his fanatical brother-in-law,
+by restoring his child; besides being prompted by a private desire, as I
+think, of bantering your Grace.”
+
+“Umph! I suspected so much. I will repay it,” said the Duke. “But first
+to get out of this dilemma.--That little Numidian witch, then, was his
+familiar; and she joined in the plot to tantalise me?--But here we
+reach Whitehall.--Now, Chiffinch, be no worse than thy word, and--now,
+Buckingham, be thyself!”
+
+But ere we follow Buckingham into the presence, where he had so
+difficult a part to sustain, it may not be amiss to follow Christian
+after his brief conversation with him. On re-entering the house, which
+he did by a circuitous passage, leading from a distant alley, and
+through several courts, Christian hastened to a low matted apartment, in
+which Bridgenorth sat alone, reading the Bible by the light of a small
+brazen lamp, with the utmost serenity of countenance.
+
+“Have you dismissed the Peverils?” said Christian hastily.
+
+“I have,” said the Major.
+
+“And upon what pledge--that they will not carry information against you
+to Whitehall?”
+
+“They gave me their promise voluntarily, when I showed them our armed
+friends were dismissed. To-morrow, I believe, it is their purpose to
+lodge informations.”
+
+“And why not to-night, I pray you?” said Christian.
+
+“Because they allow us that time for escape.”
+
+“Why, then, do you not avail yourself of it? Wherefore are you here?”
+ said Christian.
+
+“Nay, rather, why do _you_ not fly?” said Bridgenorth. “Of a surety, you
+are as deeply engaged as I.”
+
+“Brother Bridgenorth, I am the fox, who knows a hundred modes of
+deceiving the hounds; you are the deer, whose sole resource is in
+hasty flight. Therefore lose no time--begone to the country--or rather,
+Zedekiah Fish’s vessel, the _Good Hope_, lies in the river, bound for
+Massachusetts--take the wings of the morning, and begone--she can fall
+down to Gravesend with the tide.”
+
+“And leave to thee, brother Christian,” said Bridgenorth, “the charge of
+my fortune and my daughter? No, brother; my opinion of your good faith
+must be re-established ere I again trust thee.”
+
+“Go thy ways, then, for a suspicious fool,” said Christian, suppressing
+his strong desire to use language more offensive; “or rather stay where
+thou art, and take thy chance of the gallows!”
+
+“It is appointed to all men to die once,” said Bridgenorth; “my life
+hath been a living death. My fairest boughs have been stripped by the
+axe of the forester--that which survives must, if it shall blossom, be
+grafted elsewhere, and at a distance from my aged trunk. The sooner,
+then, the root feels the axe, the stroke is more welcome. I had been
+pleased, indeed, had I been called to bringing yonder licentious Court
+to a purer character, and relieving the yoke of the suffering people of
+God. That youth too--son to that precious woman, to whom I owe the
+last tie that feebly links my wearied spirit to humanity--could I have
+travailed with _him_ in the good cause!--But that, with all my other
+hopes is broken for ever; and since I am not worthy to be an instrument
+in so great a work, I have little desire to abide longer in this vale of
+sorrow.”
+
+“Farewell, then, desponding fool!” said Christian, unable, with all
+his calmness, any longer to suppress his contempt for the resigned and
+hopeless predestinarian. “That fate should have clogged me with such
+confederates!” he muttered, as he left the apartment--“this bigoted fool
+is now nearly irreclaimable--I must to Zarah; for she, or no one, must
+carry us through these straits. If I can but soothe her sullen temper,
+and excite her vanity to action,--betwixt her address, the King’s
+partiality for the Duke, Buckingham’s matchless effrontery, and my own
+hand upon the helm, we may yet weather the tempest that darkens around
+us. But what we do must be hastily done.”
+
+In another apartment he found the person he sought--the same who visited
+the Duke of Buckingham’s harem, and, having relieved Alice Bridgenorth
+from her confinement there, had occupied her place as has been already
+narrated, or rather intimated. She was now much more plainly attired
+than when she had tantalised the Duke with her presence; but her dress
+had still something of the Oriental character, which corresponded with
+the dark complexion and quick eye of the wearer. She had the kerchief at
+her eyes as Christian entered the apartment, but suddenly withdrew it,
+and, flashing on him a glance of scorn and indignation, asked him what
+he meant by intruding where his company was alike unsought for and
+undesired.
+
+“A proper question,” said Christian, “from a slave to her master!”
+
+“Rather, say, a proper question, and of all questions the most proper,
+from a mistress to her slave! Know you not, that from the hour in which
+you discovered your ineffable baseness, you have made me mistress of
+your lot? While you seemed but a demon of vengeance, you commanded
+terror, and to good purpose; but such a foul fiend as thou hast of late
+shown thyself--such a very worthless, base trickster of the devil--such
+a sordid grovelling imp of perdition, can gain nothing but scorn from a
+soul like mine.”
+
+“Gallantly mouthed,” said Christian, “and with good emphasis.”
+
+“Yes,” answered Zarah, “I can speak--sometimes--I can also be mute; and
+that no one knows better than thou.”
+
+“Thou art a spoiled child, Zarah, and dost but abuse the indulgence I
+entertain for your freakish humour,” replied Christian; “thy wits have
+been disturbed since ever you landed in England, and all for the sake
+of one who cares for thee no more than for the most worthless object who
+walks the streets, amongst whom he left you to engage in a brawl for one
+he loved better.”
+
+“It is no matter,” said Zarah, obviously repressing very bitter emotion;
+“it signifies not that he loves another better; there is none--no,
+none--that ever did, or can, love him so well.”
+
+“I pity you, Zarah!” said Christian, with some scorn.
+
+“I deserve your pity,” she replied, “were your pity worth my accepting.
+Whom have I to thank for my wretchedness but you?--You bred me up in
+thirst of vengeance, ere I knew that good and evil were anything better
+than names;--to gain your applause, and to gratify the vanity you had
+excited, I have for years undergone a penance, from which a thousand
+would have shrunk.”
+
+“A thousand, Zarah!” answered Christian; “ay, a hundred thousand, and a
+million to boot; the creature is not on earth, being mere mortal woman,
+that would have undergone the thirtieth part of thy self-denial.”
+
+“I believe it,” said Zarah, drawing up her slight but elegant figure;
+“I believe it--I have gone through a trial that few indeed could have
+sustained. I have renounced the dear intercourse of my kind; compelled
+my tongue only to utter, like that of a spy, the knowledge which my
+ear had only collected as a base eavesdropper. This I have done for
+years--for years--and all for the sake of your private applause--and
+the hope of vengeance on a woman, who, if she did ill in murdering my
+father, has been bitterly repaid by nourishing a serpent in her bosom,
+that had the tooth, but not the deafened ear, of the adder.”
+
+“Well--well--well,” reiterated Christian; “and had you not your
+reward in my approbation--in the consequences of your own unequalled
+dexterity--by which, superior to anything of thy sex that history has
+ever known, you endured what woman never before endured, insolence
+without notice, admiration without answer, and sarcasm without reply?”
+
+“Not without reply!” said Zarah fiercely. “Gave not Nature to my
+feelings a course of expression more impressive than words? and did not
+those tremble at my shrieks, who would have little minded my entreaties
+or my complaints? And my proud lady, who sauced her charities with the
+taunts she thought I heard not--she was justly paid by the passing her
+dearest and most secret concerns into the hands of her mortal enemy;
+and the vain Earl--yet he was a thing as insignificant as the plume that
+nodded in his cap;--and the maidens and ladies who taunted me--I had, or
+can easily have, my revenge upon them. But there is _one_,” she added,
+looking upward, “who never taunted me; one whose generous feelings could
+treat the poor dumb girl even as his sister; who never spoke word of her
+but was to excuse or defend--and you tell me I must not love him, and
+that it is madness to love him!--I _will_ be mad then, for I will love
+till the latest breath of my life!”
+
+“Think but an instant, silly girl--silly but in one respect, since
+in all others thou mayest brave the world of women. Think what I have
+proposed to thee, for the loss of this hopeless affection, a career so
+brilliant!--Think only that it rests with thyself to be the wife--the
+wedded wife--of the princely Buckingham! With my talents--with thy wit
+and beauty--with his passionate love of these attributes--a short space
+might rank you among England’s princesses.--Be but guided by me--he
+is now at deadly pass--needs every assistance to retrieve his
+fortunes--above all, that which we alone can render him. Put yourself
+under my conduct, and not fate itself shall prevent your wearing a
+Duchess’s coronet.”
+
+“A coronet of thistle-down, entwined with thistle-leaves,” said
+Zarah.--“I know not a slighter thing than your Buckingham! I saw him
+at your request--saw him when, as a man, he should have shown himself
+generous and noble--I stood the proof at your desire, for I laugh at
+those dangers from which the poor blushing wailers of my sex shrink
+and withdraw themselves. What did I find him?--a poor wavering
+voluptuary--his nearest attempt to passion like the fire on a wretched
+stubble-field, that may singe, indeed, or smoke, but can neither warm
+nor devour. Christian! were his coronet at my feet this moment, I would
+sooner take up a crown of gilded gingerbread, than extend my hand to
+raise it.”
+
+“You are mad, Zarah--with all your taste and talent, you are utterly
+mad! But let Buckingham pass--Do you owe _me_ nothing on this
+emergency?--Nothing to one who rescued you from the cruelty of your
+owner, the posture-master, to place you in ease and affluence?”
+
+“Christian,” she replied, “I owe you much. Had I not felt I did so, I
+would, as I have been often tempted to do, have denounced thee to the
+fierce Countess, who would have gibbeted you on her feudal walls of
+Castle Rushin, and bid your family seek redress from the eagles, that
+would long since have thatched their nest with your hair, and fed their
+young ospreys with your flesh.”
+
+“I am truly glad you have had so much forbearance for me,” answered
+Christian.
+
+“I have it, in truth and in sincerity,” replied Zarah--“Not for your
+benefits to me--such as they were, they were every one interested, and
+conferred from the most selfish considerations. I have overpaid them a
+thousand times by the devotion to your will, which I have displayed at
+the greatest personal risk. But till of late I respected your powers of
+mind--your inimitable command of passion--the force of intellect which I
+have ever seen you exercise over all others, from the bigot Bridgenorth
+to the debauched Buckingham--in that, indeed, I have recognised my
+master.”
+
+“And those powers,” said Christian, “are unlimited as ever; and with thy
+assistance, thou shalt see the strongest meshes that the laws of civil
+society ever wove to limit the natural dignity of man, broke asunder
+like a spider’s web.”
+
+She paused and answered, “While a noble motive fired thee--ay, a noble
+motive, though irregular--for I was born to gaze on the sun which the
+pale daughters of Europe shrink from--I could serve thee--I could
+have followed, while revenge or ambition had guided thee--but love of
+_wealth_, and by what means acquired!--What sympathy can I hold with
+that?--Wouldst thou not have pandered to the lust of the King, though
+the object was thine own orphan niece?--You smile?--Smile again when I
+ask you whether you meant not my own prostitution, when you charged
+me to remain in the house of that wretched Buckingham?--Smile at that
+question, and by Heaven, I stab you to the heart!” And she thrust her
+hand into her bosom, and partly showed the hilt of a small poniard.
+
+“And if I smile,” said Christian, “it is but in scorn of so odious an
+accusation. Girl, I will not tell thee the reason, but there exists
+not on earth the living thing over whose safety and honour I would
+keep watch as over thine. Buckingham’s wife, indeed, I wished thee; and
+through thy own beauty and thy wit, I doubted not to bring the match to
+pass.”
+
+“Vain flatterer,” said Zarah, yet seeming soothed even by the flattery
+which she scoffed at, “you would persuade me that it was honourable love
+which you expected the Duke was to have offered me. How durst you urge
+a gross a deception, to which time, place, and circumstance gave the
+lie?--How dare you now again mention it, when you well know, that at the
+time you mention, the Duchess was still in life?”
+
+“In life, but on her deathbed,” said Christian; “and for time, place,
+and circumstance, had your virtue, my Zarah, depended on these, how
+couldst thou have been the creature thou art? I knew thee all-sufficient
+to bid him defiance--else--for thou art dearer to me than thou
+thinkest--I had not risked thee to win the Duke of Buckingham; ay, and
+the kingdom of England to boot. So now, wilt thou be ruled and go on
+with me?”
+
+Zarah, or Fenella, for our readers must have been long aware of the
+identity of these two personages, cast down her eyes, and was silent for
+a long time. “Christian,” she said at last, in a solemn voice, “if my
+ideas of right and of wrong be wild and incoherent, I owe it, first, to
+the wild fever which my native sun communicated to my veins; next, to my
+childhood, trained amidst the shifts, tricks, and feats of jugglers and
+mountebanks; and then, to a youth of fraud and deception, through
+the course thou didst prescribe me, in which I might, indeed, hear
+everything, but communicate with no one. The last cause of my wild
+errors, if such they are, originates, O Christian, with you alone; by
+whose intrigues I was placed with yonder lady, and who taught me, that
+to revenge my father’s death, was my first great duty on earth, and
+that I was bound by nature to hate and injure her by whom I was fed and
+fostered, though as she would have fed and caressed a dog, or any other
+mute animal. I also think--for I will deal fairly with you--that you had
+not so easily detected your niece, in the child whose surprising agility
+was making yonder brutal mountebank’s fortune; nor so readily induced
+him to part with his bond-slave, had you not, for your own purposes,
+placed me under his charge, and reserved the privilege of claiming me
+when you pleased. I could not, under any other tuition, have identified
+myself with the personage of a mute, which it has been your desire that
+I should perform through life.”
+
+“You do me injustice, Zarah,” said Christian--“I found you capable
+of the avenging of your father’s death--I consecrated you to it, as I
+consecrated my own life and hopes; and you held the duty sacred, till
+these mad feeling towards a youth who loves your cousin----”
+
+“Who--loves--my--cousin,” repeated Zarah (for we will continue to call
+her by her real name) slowly, and as if the words dropped unconsciously
+from her lips. “Well--be it so!--Man of many wiles, I will follow thy
+course for a little, a very little farther; but take heed--tease me not
+with remonstrances against the treasure of my secret thoughts--I mean
+my most hopeless affection to Julian Peveril--and bring me not as an
+assistant to any snare which you may design to cast around him. You and
+your Duke shall rue the hour most bitterly, in which you provoke me. You
+may suppose you have me in your power; but remember, the snakes of my
+burning climate are never so fatal as when you grasp them.”
+
+“I care not for these Peverils,” said Christian--“I care not for their
+fate a poor straw, unless where it bears on that of the destined woman,
+whose hands are red in your father’s blood. Believe me, I can divide
+her fate and theirs. I will explain to you how. And for the Duke, he may
+pass among men of the town for wit, and among soldiers for valour, among
+courtiers for manners and for form; and why, with his high rank and
+immense fortune, you should throw away an opportunity, which, as I could
+now improve it----”
+
+“Speak not of it,” said Zarah, “if thou wouldst have our truce--remember
+it is no peace--if, I say, thou wouldst have our truce grow to be an
+hour old!”
+
+“This, then,” said Christian, with a last effort to work upon the vanity
+of this singular being, “is she who pretended such superiority to human
+passion, that she could walk indifferently and unmoved through the halls
+of the prosperous, and the prison cells of the captive, unknowing and
+unknown, sympathising neither with the pleasures of the one, nor the
+woes of the other, but advancing with sure, though silent steps, her own
+plans, in despite and regardless of either!”
+
+“My own plans!” said Zarah--“_Thy_ plans, Christian--thy plans of
+extorting from the surprised prisoners, means whereby to convict
+them--thine own plans, formed with those more powerful than thyself, to
+sound men’s secrets, and, by using them as a matter of accusation, to
+keep up the great delusion of the nation.”
+
+“Such access was indeed given you as my agent,” said Christian, “and for
+advancing a great national change. But how did you use it?--to advance
+your insane passion.”
+
+“Insane!” said Zarah--“Had he been less than insane whom I addressed, he
+and I had ere now been far from the toils which you have pitched for us
+both. I had means prepared for everything; and ere this, the shores of
+Britain had been lost to our sight for ever.”
+
+“The dwarf, too,” said Christian--“Was it worthy of you to delude that
+poor creature with flattering visions--lull him asleep with drugs! Was
+_that_ my doing?”
+
+“He was my destined tool,” said Zarah haughtily. “I remembered your
+lessons too well not to use him as such. Yet scorn him not too much.
+I tell you, that yon very miserable dwarf, whom I made my sport in the
+prison--yon wretched abortion of nature, I would select for a husband,
+ere I would marry your Buckingham;--the vain and imbecile pigmy has yet
+the warm heart and noble feelings, that a man should hold his highest
+honour.”
+
+“In God’s name, then, take your own way,” said Christian; “and, for my
+sake, let never man hereafter limit a woman in the use of her tongue,
+since he must make it amply up to her, in allowing her the privilege of
+her own will. Who would have thought it? But the colt has slipped the
+bridle, and I must needs follow, since I cannot guide her.”
+
+Our narrative returns to the Court of King Charles at Whitehall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+                                   ----But oh!
+          What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop; thou cruel,
+          Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!
+          Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
+          That knew’st the very bottom of my soul,
+          That almost mightst have coined me into gold,
+          Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use?
+                                                   --HENRY V.
+
+At no period of his life, not even when that life was in imminent
+danger, did the constitutional gaiety of Charles seem more overclouded,
+than when waiting for the return of Chiffinch with the Duke of
+Buckingham. His mind revolted at the idea, that the person to whom he
+had been so particularly indulgent, and whom he had selected as the
+friend of his lighter hours and amusements, should prove capable of
+having tampered with a plot apparently directed against his liberty
+and life. He more than once examined the dwarf anew, but could extract
+nothing more than his first narrative contained. The apparition of the
+female to him in the cell of Newgate, he described in such fanciful and
+romantic colours, that the King could not help thinking the poor man’s
+head a little turned; and, as nothing was found in the kettledrum, and
+other musical instruments brought for the use of the Duke’s band of
+foreigners, he nourished some slight hope that the whole plan might be
+either a mere jest, or that the idea of an actual conspiracy was founded
+in mistake.
+
+The persons who had been despatched to watch the motions of Mr. Weiver’s
+congregation, brought back word that they had quietly dispersed. It was
+known, at the same time, that they had met in arms, but this augured
+no particular design of aggression, at a time when all true Protestants
+conceived themselves in danger of immediate massacre; when the fathers
+of the city had repeatedly called out the Train-Bands, and alarmed the
+citizens of London, under the idea of an instant insurrection of the
+Catholics; and when, to sum the whole up, in the emphatic words of an
+alderman of the day, there was a general belief that they would all
+waken some unhappy morning with their throats cut. Who was to do these
+dire deeds, it was more difficult to suppose; but all admitted the
+possibility that they might be achieved, since one Justice of the Peace
+was already murdered. There was, therefore, no inference of hostile
+intentions against the State, to be decidedly derived from a
+congregation of Protestants _par excellence_, military from old
+associations, bringing their arms with them to a place of worship, in
+the midst of a panic so universal.
+
+Neither did the violent language of the minister, supposing that to be
+proved, absolutely infer meditated violence. The favourite parables of
+the preachers, and the metaphors and ornaments which they selected, were
+at all times of a military cast; and the taking the kingdom of heaven
+by storm, a strong and beautiful metaphor, when used generally as in
+Scripture, was detailed in their sermons in all the technical language
+of the attack and defence of a fortified place. The danger, in short,
+whatever might have been its actual degree, had disappeared as suddenly
+as a bubble upon the water, when broken by a casual touch, and had left
+as little trace behind it. It became, therefore, matter of much doubt,
+whether it had ever actually existed.
+
+While various reports were making from without, and while their tenor
+was discussed by the King, and such nobles and statesmen as he thought
+proper to consult on the occasion, a gradual sadness and anxiety
+mingled with, and finally silenced, the mirth of the evening. All became
+sensible that something unusual was going forward; and the unwonted
+distance which Charles maintained from his guests, while it
+added greatly to the dulness that began to predominate in the
+presence-chamber, gave intimation that something unusual was labouring
+in the King’s mind.
+
+Thus play was neglected--the music was silent, or played without being
+heard--gallants ceased to make compliments, and ladies to expect them;
+and a sort of apprehensive curiosity pervaded the circle. Each asked the
+others why they were grave; and no answer was returned, any more than
+could have been rendered by a herd of cattle instinctively disturbed by
+the approach of a thunderstorm.
+
+To add to the general apprehension, it began to be whispered, that one
+or two of the guests, who were desirous of leaving the palace, had been
+informed no one could be permitted to retire until the general hour
+of dismissal. And these, gliding back into the hall, communicated in
+whispers that the sentinels at the gates were doubled, and that there
+was a troop of the Horse Guards drawn up in the court--circumstances so
+unusual, as to excite the most anxious curiosity.
+
+Such was the state of the Court, when wheels were heard without, and
+the bustle which took place denoted the arrival of some person of
+consequence.
+
+“Here comes Chiffinch,” said the King, “with his prey in his clutch.”
+
+It was indeed the Duke of Buckingham; nor did he approach the royal
+presence without emotion. On entering the court, the flambeaux which
+were borne around the carriage gleamed on the scarlet coats, laced
+hats, and drawn broadswords of the Horse Guards--a sight unusual, and
+calculated to strike terror into a conscience which was none of the
+clearest.
+
+The Duke alighted from the carriage, and only said to the officer, whom
+he saw upon duty, “You are late under arms to-night, Captain Carleton.”
+
+“Such are our orders, sir,” answered Carleton, with military brevity;
+and then commanded the four dismounted sentinels at the under gate to
+make way for the Duke of Buckingham. His Grace had no sooner entered,
+than he heard behind him the command, “Move close up, sentinels--closer
+yet to the gate.” And he felt as if all chance of rescue were excluded
+by the sound.
+
+As he advanced up the grand staircase, there were other symptoms of
+alarm and precaution. The Yeomen of the Guard were mustered in unusual
+numbers, and carried carabines instead of their halberds; and
+the Gentlemen-pensioners, with their partisans, appeared also in
+proportional force. In short, all that sort of defence which the royal
+household possesses within itself, seemed, for some hasty and urgent
+reason, to have been placed under arms, and upon duty.
+
+Buckingham ascended the royal staircase with an eye attentive to these
+preparations, and a step steady and slow, as if he counted each step
+on which he trode. “Who,” he asked himself, “shall ensure Christian’s
+fidelity? Let him but stand fast, and we are secure. Otherwise----”
+
+As he shaped the alternative, he entered the presence-chamber.
+
+The King stood in the midst of the apartment, surrounded by the
+personages with whom he had been consulting. The rest of the brilliant
+assembly, scattered into groups, looked on at some distance. All were
+silent when Buckingham entered, in hopes of receiving some explanation
+of the mysteries of the evening. All bent forward, though etiquette
+forbade them to advance, to catch, if possible, something of what was
+about to pass betwixt the King and his intriguing statesman. At the same
+time, those counsellors who stood around Charles, drew back on either
+side, so as to permit the Duke to pay his respects to his Majesty in the
+usual form. He went through the ceremonial with his accustomed grace,
+but was received by Charles with much unwonted gravity.
+
+“We have waited for you some time, my Lord Duke. It is long since
+Chiffinch left us, to request your attendance here. I see you are
+elaborately dressed. Your toilette was needless on the present
+occasion.”
+
+“Needless to the splendour of your Majesty’s Court,” said the Duke, “but
+not needless on my part. This chanced to be Black Monday at York Place,
+and my club of _Pendables_ were in full glee when your Majesty’s summons
+arrived. I could not be in the company of Ogle, Maniduc, Dawson, and so
+forth, but what I must needs make some preparation, and some ablution,
+ere entering the circle here.”
+
+“I trust the purification will be complete,” said the King, without any
+tendency to the smile which always softened features, that, ungilded by
+its influence, were dark, harsh, and even severe. “We wished to ask your
+Grace concerning the import of a sort of musical mask which you designed
+us here, but which miscarried, as we are given to understand.”
+
+“It must have been a great miscarriage indeed,” said the Duke, “since
+your Majesty looks so serious on it. I thought to have done your
+Majesty pleasure (as I have seen you condescend to be pleased with such
+passages), by sending the contents of that bass-viol; but I fear
+the jest has been unacceptable--I fear the fireworks may have done
+mischief.”
+
+“Not the mischief they were designed for, perhaps,” said the King
+gravely; “you see, my lord, we are all alive, and unsinged.”
+
+“Long may your Majesty remain so,” said the Duke; “yet I see there is
+something misconstrued on my part--it must be a matter unpardonable,
+however little intended, since it hath displeased so indulgent a
+master.”
+
+“Too indulgent a master, indeed, Buckingham,” replied the King; “and the
+fruit of my indulgence has been to change loyal men into traitors.”
+
+“May it please your Majesty, I cannot understand this,” said the Duke.
+
+“Follow us, my lord,” answered Charles, “and we will endeavour to
+explain our meaning.”
+
+Attended by the same lords who stood around him, and followed by the
+Duke of Buckingham, on whom all eyes were fixed, Charles retired into
+the same cabinet which had been the scene of repeated consultations in
+the course of the evening. There, leaning with his arms crossed on the
+back of an easy-chair, Charles proceeded to interrogate the suspected
+nobleman.
+
+“Let us be plain with each other. Speak out, Buckingham. What, in one
+word, was to have been the regale intended for us this evening?”
+
+“A petty mask, my lord. I had destined a little dancing-girl to come
+out of that instrument, who, I thought, would have performed to your
+Majesty’s liking--a few Chinese fireworks there were, thinking the
+entertainment was to have taken place in the marble hall, might, I
+hoped, have been discharged with good effect, and without the slightest
+alarm, at the first appearance of my little sorceress, and were designed
+to have masked, as it were, her entrance upon the stage. I hope there
+have been no perukes singed--no ladies frightened--no hopes of noble
+descent interrupted by my ill-fancied jest.”
+
+“We have seen no such fireworks, my lord; and your female dancer, of
+whom we now hear for the first time, came forth in the form of our old
+acquaintance Geoffrey Hudson, whose dancing days are surely ended.”
+
+“Your Majesty surprises me! I beseech you, let Christian be sent
+for--Edward Christian--he will be found lodging in a large old house
+near Sharper the cutler’s, in the Strand. As I live by bread, sire,
+I trusted him with the arrangement of this matter, as indeed the
+dancing-girl was his property. If he has done aught to dishonour my
+concert, or disparage my character, he shall die under the baton.”
+
+“It is singular,” said the King, “and I have often observed it, that
+this fellow Christian bears the blame of all men’s enormities--he
+performs the part which, in a great family, is usually assigned to that
+mischief-doing personage, Nobody. When Chiffinch blunders, he always
+quotes Christian. When Sheffield writes a lampoon, I am sure to hear of
+Christian having corrected, or copied, or dispersed it--he is the _ame
+damnée_ of every one about my Court--the scapegoat, who is to carry away
+all their iniquities; and he will have a cruel load to bear into the
+wilderness. But for Buckingham’s sins, in particular, he is the regular
+and uniform sponsor; and I am convinced his Grace expects Christian
+should suffer every penalty he has incurred, in this world or the next.”
+
+“Not so,” with the deepest reverence replied the Duke. “I have no hope
+of being either hanged or damned by proxy; but it is clear some one hath
+tampered with and altered my device. If I am accused of aught, let me at
+least hear the charge, and see my accuser.”
+
+“That is but fair,” said the King. “Bring our little friend from behind
+the chimney-board. [Hudson being accordingly produced, he continued.]
+There stands the Duke of Buckingham. Repeat before him the tale you told
+us. Let him hear what were those contents of the bass-viol which were
+removed that you might enter it. Be not afraid of any one, but speak the
+truth boldly.”
+
+“May it please your Majesty,” said Hudson, “fear is a thing unknown to
+me.”
+
+“His body has no room to hold such a passion; or there is too little of
+it to be worth fearing for,” said Buckingham.--“But let him speak.”
+
+Ere Hudson had completed his tale, Buckingham interrupted him by
+exclaiming, “Is it possible that I can be suspected by your Majesty on
+the word of this pitiful variety of the baboon tribe?”
+
+“Villain-Lord, I appeal thee to the combat!” said the little man, highly
+offended at the appellation thus bestowed on him.
+
+“La you there now!” said the Duke--“The little animal is quite crazed,
+and defies a man who need ask no other weapon than a corking-pin to run
+him through the lungs, and whose single kick could hoist him from Dover
+to Calais without yacht or wherry. And what can you expect from an
+idiot, who is _engoué_ of a common rope-dancing girl, that capered on a
+pack-thread at Ghent in Flanders, unless they were to club their talents
+to set up a booth at Bartholomew Fair?--Is it not plain, that supposing
+the little animal is not malicious, as indeed his whole kind bear a
+general and most cankered malice against those who have the ordinary
+proportions of humanity--Grant, I say, that this were not a malicious
+falsehood of his, why, what does it amount to?--That he has mistaken
+squibs and Chinese crackers for arms! He says not he himself touched or
+handled them; and judging by the sight alone, I question if the infirm
+old creature, when any whim or preconception hath possession of his
+noddle, can distinguish betwixt a blunderbuss and a black-pudding.”
+
+The horrible clamour which the dwarf made so soon as he heard this
+disparagement of his military skill--the haste with which he blundered
+out a detail of this warlike experiences--and the absurd grimaces which
+he made in order to enforce his story, provoked not only the risibility
+of Charles, but even of the statesmen around him, and added absurdity to
+the motley complexion of the scene. The King terminated this dispute, by
+commanding the dwarf to withdraw.
+
+A more regular discussion of his evidence was then resumed, and Ormond
+was the first who pointed out, that it went farther than had been
+noticed, since the little man had mentioned a certain extraordinary and
+treasonable conversation held by the Duke’s dependents, by whom he had
+been conveyed to the palace.
+
+“I am sure not to lack my lord of Ormond’s good word,” said the Duke
+scornfully; “but I defy him alike, and all my other enemies, and shall
+find it easy to show that this alleged conspiracy, if any grounds for
+it at all exist, in a mere sham-plot, got up to turn the odium justly
+attached to the Papists upon the Protestants. Here is a half-hanged
+creature, who, on the very day he escapes from the gallows, which many
+believe was his most deserved destiny, comes to take away the reputation
+of a Protestant Peer--and on what?--on the treasonable conversation
+of three or four German fiddlers, heard through the sound-holes of a
+violoncello, and that, too, when the creature was incased in it, and
+mounted on a man’s shoulders! The urchin, too, in repeating their
+language, shows he understands German as little as my horse does; and if
+he did rightly hear, truly comprehend, and accurately report what they
+said, still, is my honour to be touched by the language held by such
+persons as these are, with whom I have never communicated, otherwise
+than men of my rank do with those of their calling and capacity?--Pardon
+me, sire, if I presume to say, that the profound statesmen who
+endeavoured to stifle the Popish conspiracy by the pretended Meal-tub
+Plot, will take little more credit by their figments about fiddles and
+concertos.”
+
+The assistant counsellors looked at each other; and Charles turned on
+his heel, and walked through the room with long steps.
+
+At this period the Peverils, father and son, were announced to have
+reached the palace, and were ordered into the royal presence.
+
+These gentlemen had received the royal mandate at a moment of great
+interest. After being dismissed from their confinement by the elder
+Bridgenorth, in the manner and upon the terms which the reader must
+have gathered from the conversation of the latter with Christian, they
+reached the lodgings of Lady Peveril, who awaited them with joy, mingled
+with terror and uncertainty. The news of the acquittal had reached her
+by the exertions of the faithful Lance Outram, but her mind had been
+since harassed by the long delay of their appearance, and rumours of
+disturbances which had taken place in Fleet Street and in the Strand.
+
+When the first rapturous meeting was over, Lady Peveril, with an anxious
+look towards her son, as if recommending caution, said she was now about
+to present to him the daughter of an old friend, whom he had _never_
+(there was an emphasis on the word) seen before. “This young lady,” she
+continued, “was the only child of Colonel Mitford, in North Wales, who
+had sent her to remain under her guardianship for an interval, finding
+himself unequal to attempt the task of her education.”
+
+“Ay, ay,” said Sir Geoffrey, “Dick Mitford must be old now--beyond the
+threescore and ten, I think. He was no chicken, though a cock of the
+game, when he joined the Marquis of Hertford at Namptwich with two
+hundred wild Welshmen.--Before George, Julian, I love that girl as
+if she was my own flesh and blood! Lady Peveril would never have got
+through this work without her; and Dick Mitford sent me a thousand
+pieces, too, in excellent time, when there was scarce a cross to keep
+the devil from dancing in our pockets, much more for these law-doings. I
+used it without scruple, for there is wood ready to be cut at Martindale
+when we get down there, and Dick Mitford knows I would have done the
+like for him. Strange that he should have been the only one of my
+friends to reflect I might want a few pieces.”
+
+Whilst Sir Geoffrey thus run on, the meeting betwixt Alice and Julian
+Peveril was accomplished, without any particular notice on his side,
+except to say, “Kiss her, Julian--kiss her. What the devil! is that the
+way you learned to accost a lady at the Isle of Man, as if her lips were
+a red-hot horseshoe?--And do not you be offended, my pretty one; Julian
+is naturally bashful, and has been bred by an old lady, but you will
+find him, by-and-by, as gallant as thou hast found me, my princess.--And
+now, Dame Peveril, to dinner, to dinner! the old fox must have his
+belly-timber, though the hounds have been after him the whole day.”
+
+Lance, whose joyous congratulations were next to be undergone, had the
+consideration to cut them short, in order to provide a plain but hearty
+meal from the next cook’s shop, at which Julian sat, like one enchanted,
+betwixt his mistress and his mother. He easily conceived that the last
+was the confidential friend to whom Bridgenorth had finally committed
+the charge of his daughter, and his only anxiety now was, to anticipate
+the confusion that was likely to arise when her real parentage was
+made known to his father. Wisely, however, he suffered not these
+anticipations to interfere with the delight of his present situation,
+in the course of which many slight but delightful tokens of recognition
+were exchanged, without censure, under the eye of Lady Peveril, under
+cover of the boisterous mirth of the old Baronet, who spoke for two, ate
+for four, and drank wine for half-a-dozen. His progress in the
+latter exercise might have proceeded rather too far, had he not been
+interrupted by a gentleman bearing the King’s orders, that he should
+instantly attend upon the presence at Whitehall, and bring his son along
+with him.
+
+Lady Peveril was alarmed, and Alice grew pale with sympathetic anxiety;
+but the old Knight, who never saw more than what lay straight before
+him, set it down to the King’s hasty anxiety to congratulate him on
+his escape; an interest on his Majesty’s part which he considered by no
+means extravagant, conscious that it was reciprocal on his own side.
+It came upon him, indeed, with the more joyful surprise that he had
+received a previous hint, ere he left the court of justice, that it
+would be prudent in him to go down to Martindale before presenting
+himself at Court--a restriction which he supposed as repugnant to his
+Majesty’s feelings as it was to his own.
+
+While he consulted with Lance Outram about cleaning his buff-belt and
+sword-hilt, as well as time admitted, Lady Peveril had the means to give
+Julian more distinct information, that Alice was under her protection by
+her father’s authority, and with his consent to their union, if it could
+be accomplished. She added that it was her determination to employ the
+mediation of the Countess of Derby, to overcome the obstacles which
+might be foreseen on the part of Sir Geoffrey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX
+
+                  In the King’s name,
+                  Let fall your swords and daggers!
+                                                 --CRITIC.
+
+When the father and son entered the cabinet of audience, it was easily
+visible that Sir Geoffrey had obeyed the summons as he would have
+done the trumpet’s call to horse; and his dishevelled grey locks and
+half-arranged dress, though they showed zeal and haste, such as he would
+have used when Charles I. called him to attend a council of war, seemed
+rather indecorous in a pacific drawing-room. He paused at the door of
+the cabinet, but when the King called on him to advance, came hastily
+forward, with every feeling of his earlier and later life afloat, and
+contending in his memory, threw himself on his knees before the King,
+seized his hand, and, without even an effort to speak, wept aloud.
+Charles, who generally felt deeply so long as an impressive object was
+before his eyes, indulged for a moment the old man’s rapture.--“My good
+Sir Geoffrey,” he said, “you have had some hard measure; we owe you
+amends, and will find time to pay our debt.”
+
+“No suffering--no debt,” said the old man; “I cared not what the rogues
+said of me--I knew they could never get twelve honest fellows to believe
+a word of their most damnable lies. I did long to beat them when they
+called me traitor to your Majesty--that I confess--But to have such an
+early opportunity of paying my duty to your Majesty, overpays it all.
+The villains would have persuaded me I ought not to come to Court--aha!”
+
+The Duke of Ormond perceived that the King coloured much; for in truth
+it was from the Court that the private intimation had been given to Sir
+Geoffrey to go down to the country, without appearing at Whitehall; and
+he, moreover, suspected that the jolly old Knight had not risen from
+his dinner altogether dry-lipped, after the fatigues of a day so
+agitating.--“My old friend,” he whispered, “you forget that your son is
+to be presented--permit me to have that honour.”
+
+“I crave your Grace’s pardon humbly,” said Sir Geoffrey, “but it is
+an honour I design for myself, as I apprehend no one can so utterly
+surrender and deliver him up to his Majesty’s service as the father that
+begot him is entitled to do.--Julian, come forward, and kneel.--Here
+he is, please your Majesty--Julian Peveril--a chip of the old block--as
+stout, though scarce so tall a tree, as the old trunk, when at the
+freshest. Take him to you, sir, for a faithful servant, _à pendre_,
+as the French say; if he fears fire or steel, axe or gallows, in your
+Majesty’s service, I renounce him--he is no son of mine--I disown him,
+and he may go to the Isle of Man, the Isle of Dogs, or the Isle of
+Devils, for what I care.”
+
+Charles winked to Ormond, and having, with his wonted courtesy,
+expressed his thorough conviction that Julian would imitate the loyalty
+of his ancestors, and especially of his father, added, that he
+believed his Grace of Ormond had something to communicate which was of
+consequence to his service. Sir Geoffrey made his military reverence
+at this hint, and marched off in the rear of the Duke, who proceeded
+to inquire of him concerning the events of the day. Charles, in the
+meanwhile, having in the first place, ascertained that the son was not
+in the same genial condition with the father, demanded and received from
+him a precise account of all the proceedings subsequent to the trial.
+
+Julian, with the plainness and precision which such a subject demanded,
+when treated in such a presence, narrated all that happened down to the
+entrance of Bridgenorth; and his Majesty was so much pleased with his
+manner, that he congratulated Arlington on their having gained the
+evidence of at least one man of sense to these dark and mysterious
+events. But when Bridgenorth was brought upon the scene, Julian
+hesitated to bestow a name upon him; and although he mentioned the
+chapel which he had seen filled with men in arms, and the violent
+language of the preacher, he added, with earnestness, that
+notwithstanding all this, the men departed without coming to any
+extremity, and had all left the place before his father and he were set
+at liberty.
+
+“And you retired quietly to your dinner in Fleet Street, young man,”
+ said the King severely, “without giving a magistrate notice of the
+dangerous meeting which was held in the vicinity of our palace, and who
+did not conceal their intention of proceeding to extremities?”
+
+Peveril blushed, and was silent. The King frowned, and stepped aside
+to communicate with Ormond, who reported that the father seemed to have
+known nothing of the matter.
+
+“And the son, I am sorry to say,” said the King, “seems more unwilling
+to speak the truth than I should have expected. We have all variety of
+evidence in this singular investigation--a mad witness like the dwarf, a
+drunken witness like the father, and now a dumb witness.--Young man,”
+ he continued, addressing Julian, “your behaviour is less frank than I
+expected from your father’s son. I must know who this person is with
+whom you held such familiar intercourse--you know him, I presume?”
+
+Julian acknowledged that he did, but, kneeling on one knee, entreated
+his Majesty’s forgiveness for concealing his name; “he had been freed,”
+ he said, “from his confinement, on promising to that effect.”
+
+“That was a promise made, by your own account, under compulsion,”
+ answered the King, “and I cannot authorise your keeping it; it is your
+duty to speak the truth--if you are afraid of Buckingham, the Duke shall
+withdraw.”
+
+“I have no reason to fear the Duke of Buckingham,” said Peveril; “that I
+had an affair with one of his household, was the man’s own fault and not
+mine.”
+
+“Oddsfish!” said the King, “the light begins to break in on me--I
+thought I remembered thy physiognomy. Wert thou not the very fellow whom
+I met at Chiffinch’s yonder morning?--The matter escaped me since; but
+now I recollect thou saidst then, that thou wert the son of that jolly
+old three-bottle Baronet yonder.”
+
+“It is true,” said Julian, “that I met your Majesty at Master
+Chiffinch’s, and I am afraid had the misfortune to displease you;
+but----”
+
+“No more of that, young man--no more of that--But I recollect you had
+with you that beautiful dancing siren.--Buckingham, I will hold you gold
+to silver, that she was the intended tenant of that bass-fiddle?”
+
+“Your Majesty has rightly guessed it,” said the Duke; “and I suspect
+she has put a trick upon me, by substituting the dwarf in her place; for
+Christian thinks----”
+
+“Damn Christian!” said the King hastily--“I wish they would bring
+him hither, that universal referee.”--And as the wish was uttered,
+Christian’s arrival was announced. “Let him attend,” said the King: “But
+hark--a thought strikes me.--Here, Master Peveril--yonder dancing maiden
+that introduced you to us by the singular agility of her performance, is
+she not, by your account, a dependent of the Countess of Derby?”
+
+“I have known her such for years,” answered Julian.
+
+“Then will we call the Countess hither,” said the King: “It is fit
+we should learn who this little fairy really is; and if she be now
+so absolutely at the beck of Buckingham, and this Master Christian of
+his--why I think it would be but charity to let her ladyship know so
+much, since I question if she will wish, in that case, to retain her in
+her service. Besides,” he continued, speaking apart, “this Julian, to
+whom suspicion attaches in these matters from his obstinate silence,
+is also of the Countess’s household. We will sift this matter to the
+bottom, and do justice to all.”
+
+The Countess of Derby, hastily summoned, entered the royal closet at one
+door, just as Christian and Zarah, or Fenella, were ushered in by the
+other. The old Knight of Martindale, who had ere this returned to the
+presence, was scarce controlled, even by the signs which she made, so
+much was he desirous of greeting his old friend; but as Ormond laid a
+kind restraining hand upon his arm, he was prevailed on to sit still.
+
+The Countess, after a deep reverence to the King, acknowledged the
+rest of the nobility present by a slighter reverence, smiled to Julian
+Peveril, and looked with surprise at the unexpected apparition of
+Fenella. Buckingham bit his lip, for he saw the introduction of Lady
+Derby was likely to confuse and embroil every preparation which he had
+arranged for his defence; and he stole a glance at Christian, whose eye,
+when fixed on the Countess, assumed the deadly sharpness which sparkles
+in the adder’s, while his cheek grew almost black under the influence of
+strong emotion.
+
+“Is there any one in this presence whom your ladyship recognises,” said
+the King graciously, “besides your old friends of Ormond and Arlington?”
+
+“I see, my liege, two worthy friends of my husband’s house,” replied the
+Countess; “Sir Geoffrey Peveril and his son--the latter a distinguished
+member of my son’s household.”
+
+“Any one else?” continued the King.
+
+“An unfortunate female of my family, who disappeared from the Island
+of Man at the same time when Julian Peveril left it upon business of
+importance. She was thought to have fallen from the cliff into the sea.”
+
+“Had your ladyship any reason to suspect--pardon me,” said the King,
+“for putting such a question--any improper intimacy between Master
+Peveril and this same female attendant?”
+
+“My liege,” said the Countess, colouring indignantly, “my household is
+of reputation.”
+
+“Nay, my lady, be not angry,” said the King; “I did but ask--such things
+will befall in the best regulated families.”
+
+“Not in mine, sire,” said the Countess. “Besides that, in common pride
+and in common honesty, Julian Peveril is incapable of intriguing with an
+unhappy creature, removed by her misfortune almost beyond the limits of
+humanity.”
+
+Zarah looked at her, and compressed her lips, as if to keep in the words
+that would fain break from them.
+
+“I know how it is,” said the King--“What your ladyship says may be true
+in the main, yet men’s tastes have strange vagaries. This girl is lost
+in Man as soon as the youth leaves it, and is found in Saint Jame’s
+Park, bouncing and dancing like a fairy, so soon as he appears in
+London.”
+
+“Impossible!” said the Countess; “she cannot dance.”
+
+“I believe,” said the King, “she can do more feats than your ladyship
+either suspects or would approve of.”
+
+The Countess drew up, and was indignantly silent.
+
+The King proceeded--“No sooner is Peveril in Newgate, than, by the
+account of the venerable little gentleman, this merry maiden is even
+there also for company. Now, without inquiring how she got in, I think
+charitably that she had better taste than to come there on the dwarf’s
+account.--Ah ha! I think Master Julian is touched in conscience!”
+
+Julian did indeed start as the King spoke, for it reminded him of the
+midnight visit in his cell.
+
+The King looked fixedly at him, and then proceeded--“Well, gentlemen,
+Peveril is carried to his trial, and is no sooner at liberty, than we
+find him in the house where the Duke of Buckingham was arranging what he
+calls a musical mask.--Egad, I hold it next to certain, that this wench
+put the change on his Grace, and popt the poor dwarf into the bass-viol,
+reserving her own more precious hours to be spent with Master Julian
+Peveril.--Think you not so, Sir Christian, you, the universal referee?
+Is there any truth in this conjecture?”
+
+Christian stole a glance at Zarah, and read that in her eye which
+embarrassed him. “He did not know,” he said; “he had indeed engaged this
+unrivalled performer to take the proposed part in the mask; and she
+was to have come forth in the midst of a shower of lambent fire, very
+artificially prepared with perfumes, to overcome the smell of the
+powder; but he knew not why--excepting that she was wilful and
+capricious, like all great geniuses--she had certainly spoiled the
+concert by cramming in that more bulky dwarf.”
+
+“I should like,” said the King, “to see this little maiden stand forth,
+and bear witness, in such manner as she can express herself, on
+this mysterious matter. Can any one here understand her mode of
+communication?”
+
+Christian said, he knew something of it since he had become acquainted
+with her in London. The Countess spoke not till the King asked her,
+and then owned dryly, that she had necessarily some habitual means of
+intercourse with one who had been immediately about her person for so
+many years.
+
+“I should think,” said Charles, “that this same Master Peveril has the
+more direct key to her language, after all we have heard.”
+
+The King looked first at Peveril, who blushed like a maiden at the
+inference which the King’s remark implied, and then suddenly turned his
+eyes on the supposed mute, on whose cheek a faint colour was dying away.
+A moment afterwards, at a signal from the Countess, Fenella, or Zarah,
+stepped forward, and having kissed her lady’s hand, stood with her arms
+folded on her breast, with a humble air, as different from that which
+she wore in the harem of the Duke of Buckingham, as that of a Magdalene
+from a Judith. Yet this was the least show of her talent of versatility,
+for so well did she play the part of the dumb girl, that Buckingham,
+sharp as his discernment was, remained undecided whether the creature
+which stood before him could possibly be the same with her, who had, in
+a different dress, made such an impression on his imagination, or indeed
+was the imperfect creature she now represented. She had at once all
+that could mark the imperfection of hearing, and all that could show the
+wonderful address by which nature so often makes up of the deficiency.
+There was the lip that trembles not at any sound--the seeming
+insensibility to the conversation that passed around; while, on the
+other hand, was the quick and vivid glance; that seemed anxious to
+devour the meaning of those sounds, which she could gather no otherwise
+than by the motion of the lips.
+
+Examined after her own fashion, Zarah confirmed the tale of Christian in
+all its points, and admitted that she had deranged the project laid for
+a mask, by placing the dwarf in her own stead; the cause of her doing so
+she declined to assign, and the Countess pressed her no farther.
+
+“Everything tells to exculpate my Lord of Buckingham,” said Charles,
+“from so absurd an accusation: the dwarf’s testimony is too fantastic,
+that of the two Peverils does not in the least affect the Duke; that
+of the dumb damsel completely contradicts the possibility of his guilt.
+Methinks, my lords, we should acquaint him that he stands acquitted of
+a complaint, too ridiculous to have been subjected to a more serious
+scrutiny than we have hastily made upon this occasion.”
+
+Arlington bowed in acquiescence, but Ormond spoke plainly.--“I should
+suffer, sire, in the opinion of the Duke of Buckingham, brilliant as his
+talents are known to be, should I say that I am satisfied in my own
+mind on this occasion. But I subscribe to the spirit of the times; and I
+agree it would be highly dangerous, on such accusations as we have been
+able to collect, to impeach the character of a zealous Protestant
+like his Grace--Had he been a Catholic, under such circumstances of
+suspicion, the Tower had been too good a prison for him.”
+
+Buckingham bowed to the Duke of Ormond, with a meaning which even his
+triumph could not disguise.--“_Tu me la pagherai!_” he muttered, in a
+tone of deep and abiding resentment; but the stout old Irishman, who had
+long since braved his utmost wrath, cared little for this expression of
+his displeasure.
+
+The King then, signing to the other nobles to pass into the public
+apartments, stopped Buckingham as he was about to follow them; and when
+they were alone, asked, with a significant tone, which brought all the
+blood in the Duke’s veins into his countenance, “When was it, George,
+that your useful friend Colonel Blood became a musician?--You are
+silent,” he said; “do not deny the charge, for yonder villain, once
+seen, is remembered for ever. Down, down on your knees, George,
+and acknowledge that you have abused my easy temper.--Seek for no
+apology--none will serve your turn. I saw the man myself, among your
+Germans as you call them; and you know what I must needs believe from
+such a circumstance.”
+
+“Believe that I have been guilty--most guilty, my liege and King,” said
+the Duke, conscience-stricken, and kneeling down;--“believe that I was
+misguided--that I was mad--Believe anything but that I was capable of
+harming, or being accessory to harm, your person.”
+
+“I do not believe it,” said the King; “I think of you, Villiers, as the
+companion of my dangers and my exile, and am so far from supposing you
+mean worse than you say, that I am convinced you acknowledge more than
+ever you meant to attempt.”
+
+“By all that is sacred,” said the Duke, still kneeling, “had I not
+been involved to the extent of life and fortune with the villain
+Christian----”
+
+“Nay, if you bring Christian on the stage again,” said the King,
+smiling, “it is time for me to withdraw. Come, Villiers, rise--I forgive
+thee, and only recommend one act of penance--the curse you yourself
+bestowed on the dog who bit you--marriage, and retirement to your
+country-seat.”
+
+The Duke rose abashed, and followed the King into the circle, which
+Charles entered, leaning on the shoulder of his repentant peer; to whom
+he showed so much countenance, as led the most acute observers present,
+to doubt the possibility of there existing any real cause for the
+surmises to the Duke’s prejudice.
+
+The Countess of Derby had in the meanwhile consulted with the Duke of
+Ormond, with the Peverils, and with her other friends; and, by their
+unanimous advice, though with considerable difficulty, became satisfied,
+that to have thus shown herself at Court, was sufficient to vindicate
+the honour of her house; and that it was her wisest course, after having
+done so, to retire to her insular dominions, without farther provoking
+the resentment of a powerful faction. She took farewell of the King in
+form, and demanded his permission to carry back with her the helpless
+creature who had so strangely escaped from her protection, into a
+world where her condition rendered her so subject to every species of
+misfortune.
+
+“Will your ladyship forgive me?” said Charles. “I have studied your sex
+long--I am mistaken if your little maiden is not as capable of caring
+for herself as any of us.”
+
+“Impossible!” said the Countess.
+
+“Possible, and most true,” whispered the King. “I will instantly
+convince you of the fact, though the experiment is too delicate to be
+made by any but your ladyship. Yonder she stands, looking as if she
+heard no more than the marble pillar against which she leans. Now, if
+Lady Derby will contrive either to place her hand near the region of
+the damsel’s heart, or at least on her arm, so that she can feel the
+sensation of the blood when the pulse increases, then do you, my Lord of
+Ormond, beckon Julian Peveril out of sight--I will show you in a moment
+that it can stir at sounds spoken.”
+
+The Countess, much surprised, afraid of some embarrassing pleasantry on
+the part of Charles, yet unable to repress her curiosity, placed herself
+near Fenella, as she called her little mute; and, while making signs to
+her, contrived to place her hand on her wrist.
+
+At this moment the King, passing near them, said, “This is a horrid
+deed--the villain Christian has stabbed young Peveril!”
+
+The mute evidence of the pulse, which bounded as if a cannon had been
+discharged close by the poor girl’s ear, was accompanied by such a loud
+scream of agony, as distressed, while it startled, the good-natured
+monarch himself. “I did but jest,” he said; “Julian is well, my pretty
+maiden. I only used the wand of a certain blind deity, called Cupid, to
+bring a deaf and dumb vassal of his to the exercise of her faculties.”
+
+“I am betrayed!” she said, with her eyes fixed on the ground--“I
+am betrayed!--and it is fit that she, whose life has been spent in
+practising treason on others, should be caught in her own snare. But
+where is my tutor in iniquity?--where is Christian, who taught me to
+play the part of spy on this unsuspicious lady, until I had well-nigh
+delivered her into his bloody hands?”
+
+“This,” said the King, “craves more secret examination. Let all leave
+the apartment who are not immediately connected with these proceedings,
+and let this Christian be again brought before us.--Wretched man,”
+ he continued, addressing Christian, “what wiles are these you have
+practised, and by what extraordinary means?”
+
+“She has betrayed me, then!” said Christian--“Betrayed me to bonds and
+death, merely for an idle passion, which can never be successful!--But
+know, Zarah,” he added, addressing her sternly, “when my life is
+forfeited through thy evidence, the daughter has murdered the father!”
+
+The unfortunate girl stared on him in astonishment. “You said,” at
+length she stammered forth, “that I was the daughter of your slaughtered
+brother?”
+
+“That was partly to reconcile thee to the part thou wert to play in my
+destined drama of vengeance--partly to hide what men call the infamy of
+thy birth. But _my_ daughter thou art! and from the eastern clime, in
+which thy mother was born, you derive that fierce torrent of passion
+which I laboured to train to my purposes, but which, turned into another
+channel, has become the cause of your father’s destruction.--My destiny
+is the Tower, I suppose?”
+
+He spoke these words with great composure, and scarce seemed to regard
+the agonies of his daughter, who, throwing herself at his feet, sobbed
+and wept most bitterly.
+
+“This must not be,” said the King, moved with compassion at this scene
+of misery. “If you consent, Christian, to leave this country, there is a
+vessel in the river bound for New England--Go, carry your dark intrigues
+to other lands.”
+
+“I might dispute the sentence,” said Christian boldly; “and if I submit
+to it, it is a matter of my own choice.--One half-hour had made me
+even with that proud woman, but fortune hath cast the balance against
+me.--Rise, Zarah, Fenella no more! Tell the Lady of Derby, that, if the
+daughter of Edward Christian, the niece of her murdered victim, served
+her as a menial, it was but for the purpose of vengeance--miserably,
+miserably frustrated!--Thou seest thy folly now--thou wouldst follow
+yonder ungrateful stripling--thou wouldst forsake all other thoughts to
+gain his slightest notice; and now thou art a forlorn outcast, ridiculed
+and insulted by those on whose necks you might have trod, had you
+governed yourself with more wisdom!--But come, thou art still my
+daughter--there are other skies than that which canopies Britain.”
+
+“Stop him,” said the King; “we must know by what means this maiden found
+access to those confined in our prisons.”
+
+“I refer your Majesty to your most Protestant jailer, and to the most
+Protestant Peers, who, in order to obtain perfect knowledge of the
+depth of the Popish Plot, have contrived these ingenious apertures for
+visiting them in their cells by night or day. His Grace of Buckingham
+can assist your Majesty, if you are inclined to make the inquiry.” [*]
+
+[*] It was said that very unfair means were used to compel the
+    prisoners, committed on account of the Popish Plot, to make
+    disclosures, and that several of them were privately put to the
+    torture.
+
+“Christian,” said the Duke, “thou art the most barefaced villain who
+ever breathed.”
+
+“Of a commoner, I may,” answered Christian, and led his daughter out of
+the presence.
+
+“See after him, Selby,” said the King; “lose not sight of him till the
+ship sail; if he dare return to Britain, it shall be at his peril.
+Would to God we had as good riddance of others as dangerous! And I
+would also,” he added, after a moment’s pause, “that all our political
+intrigues and feverish alarms could terminate as harmlessly as now. Here
+is a plot without a drop of blood; and all the elements of a romance,
+without its conclusion. Here we have a wandering island princess (I pray
+my Lady of Derby’s pardon), a dwarf, a Moorish sorceress, an impenitent
+rogue, and a repentant man of rank, and yet all ends without either
+hanging or marriage.”
+
+“Not altogether without the latter,” said the Countess, who had an
+opportunity, during the evening, of much private conversation with
+Julian Peveril. “There is a certain Major Bridgenorth, who, since your
+Majesty relinquishes farther inquiry into these proceedings, which he
+had otherwise intended to abide, designs, as we are informed, to leave
+England for ever. Now, this Bridgenorth, by dint of law, hath acquired
+strong possession over the domains of Peveril, which he is desirous
+to restore to the ancient owners, with much fair land besides,
+conditionally, that our young Julian will receive them as the dowry of
+his only child and heir.”
+
+“By my faith,” said the King, “she must be a foul-favoured wench,
+indeed, if Julian requires to be pressed to accept her on such fair
+conditions.”
+
+“They love each other like lovers of the last age,” said the Countess;
+“but the stout old Knight likes not the round-headed alliance.”
+
+“Our royal recommendation shall put that to rights,” said the King; “Sir
+Geoffrey Peveril has not suffered hardship so often at our command, that
+he will refuse our recommendation when it comes to make him amends for
+all his losses.”
+
+It may be supposed the King did not speak without being fully aware
+of the unlimited ascendancy which he possessed over the old Tory; for
+within four weeks afterwards, the bells of Martindale-Moultrassie were
+ringing for the union of the families, from whose estates it takes its
+compound name, and the beacon-light of the Castle blazed high over hill
+and dale, and summoned all to rejoice who were within twenty miles of
+its gleam.
+
+
+
+                               THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peveril of the Peak, by Sir Walter Scott
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