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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Disowned, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, V7
+#65 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
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+Title: The Disowned, Volume 7.
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: March 2005  [EBook #7637]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 4, 2004]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V7 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen
+and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVIII.
+
+    We will examine if those accidents,
+    Which common fame calls injuries, happen to him
+    Deservedly or no.--The New Inn.
+
+FROM LORD ULSWATER TO LADY WESTBOROUGH.
+
+Forgive me, dearest Lady Westborough, for my violence: you know and
+will allow for the infirmities of my temper.  I have to make you and
+Lady Flora one request, which I trust you will not refuse me.
+
+Do not see or receive any communication from Mr. Linden till
+Wednesday; and on that day at the hour of twelve suffer me to meet him
+at your house.  I will then either prove him to be the basest of
+impostors, or, if I fail in this and Lady Flora honours my rival with
+one sentiment of preference, I will without a murmur submit to her
+decree and my rejection.  Dare I trust that this petition will be
+accorded to one who is, with great regard and esteem, etc.
+
+"This is fortunate," said Lady Westborough gently to her daughter,
+who, leaning her head on her mother's bosom, suffered hopes, the
+sweeter for their long sleep, to divide, if not wholly to possess, her
+heart.  "We shall have now time well and carefully to reflect over
+what will be best for your future happiness.  We owe this delay to one
+to whom you have been affianced.  Let us, therefore, now merely write
+to Mr. Linden, to inform him of Lord Ulswater's request; and to say
+that if he will meet his lordship at the time appointed, we, that is
+I, shall be happy to see him."
+
+Lady Flora sighed, but she saw the reasonableness of her mother's
+proposal, and pressing Lady Westborough's hand murmured her assent.
+
+"At all events," thought Lady Westborough, as she wrote to Clarence,
+"the affair can but terminate to advantage.  If Lord Ulswater proves
+Mr. Linden's unworthiness, the suit of the latter is of course at rest
+forever: if not, and Mr. Linden be indeed all that he asserts, my
+daughter's choice cannot be an election of reproach; Lord Ulswater
+promises peaceably to withdraw his pretensions; and though Mr. Linden
+may not possess his rank or fortune, he is certainly one with whom, if
+of ancient blood, any family would be proud of an alliance."
+
+Blending with these reflections a considerable share of curiosity and
+interest in a secret which partook so strongly of romance, Lady
+Westborough despatched her note to Clarence.  The answer returned was
+brief, respectful, and not only acquiescent in but grateful for the
+proposal.
+
+With this arrangement both Lady Westborough and Lady Flora were
+compelled, though with very different feelings, to be satisfied; and
+an agreement was established between them, to the effect that if
+Linden's name passed unblemished through the appointed ordeal Lady
+Flora was to be left to, and favoured in, her own election; while, on
+the contrary, if Lord Ulswater succeeded in the proof he had spoken
+of, his former footing in the family was to be fully re-established
+and our unfortunate adventurer forever discarded.
+
+To this Lady Flora readily consented; for with a sanguine and certain
+trust in her lover's truth and honour, which was tenfold more strong
+for her late suspicions, she would not allow herself a doubt as to the
+result; and with an impatience, mingled with a rapturous exhilaration
+of spirit, which brought back to her the freshness and radiancy of her
+youngest years, she counted the hours and moments to the destined day.
+
+While such was the state of affairs at Westborough Park, Clarence was
+again on horseback and on another excursion.  By the noon of the day
+following that which had seen his eventful meeting with Lady Flora, he
+found himself approaching the extreme boundaries of the county in
+which Mordaunt Court and the memorable town of W---- were situated.
+The characteristics of the country were now materially changed from
+those which gave to the vicinity of Algernon's domains its wild and
+uncultivated aspect.
+
+As Clarence slowly descended a hill of considerable steepness and
+length, a prospect of singular and luxurious beauty opened to his
+view.  The noblest of England's rivers was seen, through "turfs and
+shades and flowers," pursuing "its silver-winding way."  On the
+opposite banks lay, embosomed in the golden glades of autumn, the busy
+and populous town that from the height seemed still and lifeless as an
+enchanted city, over which the mid-day sun hung like a guardian
+spirit.  Behind, in sweeping diversity, stretched wood and dale, and
+fields despoiled of their rich harvest, yet still presenting a yellow
+surface to the eye; and ever and anon some bright patch of green,
+demanding the gaze as if by a lingering spell from the past spring;
+while, here and there, spire and hamlet studded the landscape, or some
+lowly cot lay, backed by the rising ground or the silent woods, white
+and solitary, and sending up its faint tribute of smoke in spires to
+the altars of Heaven.  The river was more pregnant of life than its
+banks: barge and boat were gliding gayly down the wave, and the glad
+oar of the frequent and slender vessels consecrated to pleasure was
+seen dimpling the water, made by distance smoother than glass.
+
+On the right side of Clarence's road, as he descended the hill, lay
+wide plantations of fir and oak, divided from the road by a park
+paling, the uneven sides of which were covered with brown moss, and
+which, at rare openings in the young wood, gave glimpses of a park,
+seemingly extending over great space, the theatre of many a stately
+copse and oaken grove, which might have served the Druids with fane
+and temple meet for the savage sublimity of their worship.
+
+Upon these unfrequent views, Clarence checked his horse, and gazed,
+with emotions sweet yet bitter, over the pales, along the green
+expanse which they contained.  And once, when through the trees he
+caught a slight glimpse of the white walls of the mansion they
+adorned, all the years of his childhood seemed to rise on his heart,
+thrilling to its farthest depths with a mighty and sorrowful yet sweet
+melody, and--
+
+    "Singing of boyhood back, the voices of his home."
+
+Home! yes, amidst those groves had the April of his life lavished its
+mingled smiles and tears!  There was the spot hallowed by his earliest
+joys! and the scene of sorrows still more sacred than joys! and now,
+after many years, the exiled boy came back, a prosperous and
+thoughtful man, to take but one brief glance of that home which to him
+had been less hospitable than a stranger's dwelling, and to find a
+witness among those who remembered him of his very birth and identity!
+
+He wound the ascent at last, and entering a small town at the foot of
+the hill, which was exactly facing the larger one on the opposite
+shore of the river, put up his horse at one of the inns, and then,
+with a beating heart, remounted the hill, and entering the park by one
+of its lodges found himself once more in the haunts of his childhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIX.
+
+    Oh, the steward, the steward: I might have guessed as much.
+                                         Tales of the Crusaders.
+
+The evening was already beginning to close, and Clarence was yet
+wandering in the park, and retracing, with his heart's eye, each knoll
+and tree and tuft once so familiar to his wanderings.
+
+At the time we shall again bring him personally before the reader, he
+was leaning against an iron fence that, running along the left wing of
+the house, separated the pleasure-grounds from the park, and gazing
+with folded arms and wistful eyes upon the scene on which the dusk of
+twilight was gradually gathering.
+
+The house was built originally in the reign of Charles II.; it had
+since received alteration and additions, and now presented to the eye
+a vast pile of Grecian or rather Italian architecture, heterogeneously
+blended with the massive window, the stiff coping, and the heavy roof
+which the age immediately following the Revolution introduced.  The
+extent of the building and the grandeur of the circling demesnes were
+sufficient to render the mansion imposing in effect; while, perhaps,
+the style of the architecture was calculated to conjoin a stately
+comfort with magnificence, and to atone in solidity for any deficiency
+in grace.
+
+At a little distance from the house, and placed on a much more
+commanding site, were some ancient and ivy-grown ruins, now scanty
+indeed and fast mouldering into decay, but sufficient to show the
+antiquarian the remains of what once had been a hold of no ordinary
+size and power.  These were the wrecks of the old mansion, which was
+recorded by tradition to have been reduced to this state by accidental
+fire, during the banishment of its loyal owner in the time of the
+Protectorate.  Upon his return the present house was erected.
+
+As Clarence was thus stationed he perceived an elderly man approach
+towards him.  "This is fortunate," said he to himself,--"the very
+person I have been watching for.  Well, years have passed lightly over
+old Wardour: still the same precise garb, the same sturdy and slow
+step, the same upright form."
+
+The person thus designated now drew near enough for parlance; and, in
+a tone a little authoritative, though very respectful, inquired if
+Clarence had any business to transact with him.
+
+"I beg pardon," said Clarence, slouching his hat over his face, "for
+lingering so near the house at this hour: but I have seen it many
+years ago, and indeed been a guest within its walls; and it is rather
+my interest for an old friend, than my curiosity to examine a new one,
+which you are to blame for my trespass."
+
+"Oh, sir," answered Mr. Wardour, a short and rather stout man, of
+about sixty-four, attired in a chocolate coat, gray breeches, and silk
+stockings of the same dye, which, by the waning light, took a sombrer
+and sadder hue, "oh, sir, pray make no apology.  I am only sorry the
+hour is so late that I cannot offer to show you the interior of the
+house: perhaps, if you are staying in the neighbourhood, you would
+like to see it to-morrow.  You were here, I take it, sir, in my old
+lord's time?
+
+"I was!--upon a visit to his second son: we had been boys together."
+
+"What! Master Clinton?" cried the old man, with extreme, animation;
+and then, suddenly changing his voice, added, in a subdued and
+saddened tone, "Ah, poor young gentleman, I wonder where he is now?"
+
+"Why, is he not in this country?" asked Clarence.
+
+"Yes--no--that is, I can't exactly say where he is; I wish I could:
+poor Master Clinton!  I loved him as my own son."
+
+"You surprise me," said Clarence.  "Is there anything in the fate of
+Clinton L'Estrange that calls forth your pity?  If so, you would
+gratify a much better feeling than curiosity if you would inform me of
+it.  The fact is that I came here to seek him; for I have been absent
+from the country many years, and on my return my first inquiry was for
+my old friend and schoolfellow.  None knew anything of him in London,
+and I imagined therefore that he might have settled down into a
+country gentleman.  I was fully prepared to find him marshalling the
+fox-hounds or beating the preserves; and you may consequently imagine
+my mortification on learning at my inn that he had not been residing
+here for many years; further I know not!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said the old steward, who had listened very attentively
+to Clarence's detail, "had you pressed one of the village gossips a
+little closer, you would doubtless have learned more.  But 't is a
+story I don't much love telling, although formerly I could have talked
+of Master Clinton by the hour together to any one who would have had
+the patience to listen to me."
+
+"You have really created in me a very painful desire to learn more,"
+said Clarence; "and, if I am not intruding on any family secrets, you
+would oblige me greatly by whatever information you may think proper
+to afford to an early and attached friend of the person in question."
+
+"Well, sir, well," replied Mr. Wardour, who, without imputation on his
+discretion, loved talking as well as any other old gentleman of sixty-
+four, "if you will condescend to step up to my house, I shall feel
+happy and proud to converse with a friend of my dear young master; and
+you are heartily welcome to the information I can give you."
+
+"I thank you sincerely," said Clarence; "but suffer me to propose, as
+an amendment to your offer, that you accompany me for an hour or two
+to my inn."
+
+"Nay, sir," answered the old gentleman, in a piqued tone, "I trust you
+will not disdain to honour me with your company.  Thank Heaven, I can
+afford to be hospitable now and then."
+
+Clarence, who seemed to have his own reasons for the amendment he had
+proposed, still struggled against this offer, but was at last, from
+fear of offending the honest steward, obliged to accede.
+
+Striking across a path, which led through a corner of the plantation
+to a space of ground containing a small garden, quaintly trimmed in
+the Dutch taste, and a brick house of moderate dimensions, half
+overgrown with ivy and jessamine, Clarence and his inviter paused at
+the door of the said mansion, and the latter welcomed his guest to his
+abode.
+
+"Pardon me," said Clarence, as a damsel in waiting opened the door,
+"but a very severe attack of rheumatism obliges me to keep on my hat:
+you will, I hope, indulge me in my rudeness."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure, sir.  I myself suffer terribly from
+rheumatism in the winter; though you look young, sir, very young, to
+have an old man's complaint.  Ah, the people of my day were more
+careful of themselves, and that is the reason we are such stout
+fellows in our age."
+
+And the worthy steward looked complacently down at legs which very
+substantially filled their comely investments.  "True, sir," said
+Clarence, laying his hand upon that of the steward, who was just about
+to open the door of an apartment; "but suffer me at least to request
+you not to introduce me to any of the ladies of your family.  I could
+not, were my very life at stake, think of affronting them by not
+doffing my hat.  I have the keenest sense of what is due to the sex,
+and I must seriously entreat you, for the sake of my health during the
+whole of the coming winter, to suffer our conversation not to take
+place in their presence."
+
+"Sir, I honour your politeness," said the prim little steward: "I,
+myself, like every true Briton, reverence the ladies; we will
+therefore retire to my study.  Mary, girl," turning to the attendant,
+"see that we have a nice chop for supper in half an hour; and tell
+your mistress that I have a gentleman of quality with me upon
+particular business, and must not be disturbed."
+
+With these injunctions, the steward led the way to the farther end of
+the house, and, having ushered his guest into a small parlour, adorned
+with sundry law-books, a great map of the estate, a print of the late
+owner of it, a rusty gun slung over the fireplace, two stuffed
+pheasants, and a little mahogany buffet,--having, we say, led Clarence
+to this sanctuary of retiring stewardship, he placed a seat for him
+and said,--"Between you and me, sir, be it respectfully said, I am not
+sorry that our little confabulation should pass alone.  Ladies are
+very delightful, very delightful, certainly: but they won't let one
+tell a story one's own way; they are fidgety, you know, sir,--fidgety,
+nothing more; 't is a trifle, but it is unpleasant.  Besides, my wife
+was Master Clinton's foster-mother, and she can't hear a word about
+him, without running on into a long rigmarole of what he did as a
+baby, and so forth.  I like people to be chatty, sir, but not
+garrulous; I can't bear garrulity, at least in a female.  But,
+suppose, sir, we defer our story till after supper?  A glass of wine
+or warm punch makes talk glide more easily; besides, sir, I want
+something to comfort me when I talk about Master Clinton.  Poor
+gentleman, he was so comely, so handsome!"
+
+"Did you think so?" said Clarence, turning towards the fire.
+
+"Think so!" ejaculated the steward, almost angrily; and forthwith he
+launched out into an encomium on the perfections, personal, moral, and
+mental, of Master Clinton which lasted till the gentle Mary entered to
+lay the cloth.  This reminded the old steward of the glass of wine
+which was so efficacious in making talk glide easily; and, going to
+the buffet before mentioned, he drew forth two bottles, both of port.
+Having carefully and warily decanted both, he changed the subject of
+his praise; and, assuring Clarence that the wine he was about to taste
+was at least as old as Master Clinton, having been purchased in joyous
+celebration of the young gentleman's birthday, he whiled away the
+minutes with a glowing eulogy on its generous qualities, till Mary
+entered with the supper.
+
+Clarence, with an appetite sharpened, despite his romance, by a long
+fast, did ample justice to the fare; and the old steward, warming into
+familiarity with the virtues of the far-famed port, chatted and laughed
+in a strain half simple and half shrewd.
+
+The fire being stirred up to a free blaze, the hearth swept, and all
+the tokens of supper, save and except the kingly bottle and its
+subject glasses, being removed, the steward and his guest drew closer
+to each other, and the former began his story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXX.
+
+    The actors are at hand, and by their show
+    You shall know all that you are like to know.
+                                    Midsummer-Night's Dream.
+
+"You know, probably, sir, that my late lord was twice married; by his
+first wife he had three children, only one of whom, the youngest,
+though now the present earl, survived the first period of infancy.
+When Master Francis, as we always called him, in spite of his
+accession to the title of viscount, was about six years old, my lady
+died, and a year afterwards my lord married again.  His second wife
+was uncommonly handsome: she was a Miss Talbot (a Catholic), daughter
+of Colonel Talbot, and niece to the celebrated beau, Squire Talbot of
+Scarsdale Park.  Poor lady! they say that she married my lord through
+a momentary pique against a former lover.  However that may be, she
+was a fine, high-spirited creature: very violent in temper, to be
+sure, but generous and kind when her passion was over; and however
+haughty to her equals charitable and compassionate to the poor."
+
+"She had but one son, Master Clinton.  Never, sir, shall I forget the
+rejoicings that were made at his birth: for my lord doted on his
+second wife, and had disliked his first, whom he had married for her
+fortune; and it was therefore natural that he should prefer the child
+of the present wife to Master Francis.  Ah, it is sad to think how
+love can change!  Well, sir, my lord seemed literally to be wrapped up
+in the infant: he nursed it and fondled it, and hung over it, as if he
+had been its mother rather than its father.  My lady desired that it
+might be christened by one of her family names; and my lord
+consenting, it was called Clinton.  (The wine is with you, sir!  Do
+observe that it has not changed colour in the least, notwithstanding
+its age.)"
+
+"My lord was fond of a quiet, retired life; indeed, he was a great
+scholar, and spent the chief part of his time among his books.  Dr.
+Latinas, the young gentleman's tutor, said his lordship made Greek
+verses better than Dr. Latinas could make English ones, so you may
+judge of his learning.  But my lady went constantly to town, and was
+among the gayest of the gay; nor did she often come down here without
+bringing a whole troop of guests.  Lord help us, what goings on there
+used to be at the great house!--such dancing and music, and dining and
+supping, and shooting-parties, fishing-parties, gypsy-parties: you
+would have thought all England was merrymaking there."
+
+"But my lord, though he indulged my lady in all her whims and
+extravagance, seldom took much share in them himself.  He was
+constantly occupied with his library and children, nor did he ever
+suffer either Master Francis or Master Clinton to mix with the guests.
+He kept them very close at their studies, and when the latter was six
+years old, I do assure you, sir, he could say his Propria quae maribus
+better than I can.  (You don't drink, sir.)  When Master Francis was
+sixteen, and Master Clinton eight, the former was sent abroad on his
+travels with a German tutor, and did not return to England for many
+years afterwards; meanwhile Master Clinton grew up to the age of
+fourteen, increasing in comeliness and goodness.  He was very fond of
+his studies, much more so than Master Francis had been, and was
+astonishingly forward for his years.  So my lord loved him better and
+better, and would scarcely ever suffer him to be out of his sight."
+
+"When Master Clinton was about the age I mentioned, namely, fourteen,
+a gentleman of the name of Sir Clinton Manners became a constant
+visitor at the house.  Report said that he was always about my lady in
+London at Ranelagh, and the ball-rooms and routs, and all the fine
+places; and certainly he was scarcely ever from her side in the
+pleasure parties at the Park.  But my lady said that he was a cousin
+of hers, and an old playmate in childhood, and so he was; and
+unhappily for her, something more too.  My lord, however, shut up in
+his library, did not pay any attention to my lady's intimacy with Sir
+Clinton; on the contrary, as he was a cousin and friend of hers, his
+lordship seemed always happy to see him, and was the only person in
+the neighbourhood who had no suspicion of what was going on."
+
+"Oh, sir, it is a melancholy story, and I can scarcely persuade myself
+to tell it.  (It is really delicious wine this-six-and-twenty years
+old last birthday--to say nothing of its age before I bought it.)  Ah!
+well, sir, the blow came at last like a thunderclap: my lady, finding
+disguise was in vain, went off with Sir Clinton.  Letters were
+discovered which showed that they had corresponded for years; that he
+was her lover before marriage; that she, in a momentary passion with
+him, had accepted my lord's offer; that she had always repented her
+precipitation; and that she had called her son after his name: all
+this, and much more, sir, did my lord learn, as it were, at a single
+blow."
+
+"He obtained a divorce, and Sir Clinton and my lady went abroad.  But
+from that time my lord was never the same man.  Always proud and
+gloomy, he now became intolerably violent and morose.  He shut himself
+up, saw no company of any description, rarely left the house, and
+never the park; and, from being one of the gayest places in the
+country, sir, the mansion became as dreary and deserted as if it had
+been haunted.  (It is for you to begin the second bottle, sir.)"
+
+"But the most extraordinary change in my lord was in his conduct to
+Master Clinton: from doting upon him, to a degree that would have
+spoilt any temper less sweet than my poor young master's, he took the
+most violent aversion to him.  From the circumstance of his name, and
+the long intimacy existing between my lady and her lover, his lordship
+would not believe that Master Clinton was his own child; and indeed I
+must confess there seemed good ground for his suspicions.  Besides
+this, Master Clinton took very much after his mother.  He had her
+eyes, hair, and beautiful features, so that my lord could never see
+him without being reminded of his disgrace; therefore whenever the
+poor young gentleman came into his presence, he would drive him out
+with oaths and threats which rang through the whole house.  He could
+not even bear that he should have any attendance or respect from the
+servants, for he considered him quite as an alien like, and worse than
+a stranger; and his lordship's only delight seemed to consist in
+putting upon him every possible indignity and affront.  But Master
+Clinton was a high-spirited young gentleman; and, after having in vain
+endeavoured to soothe my lord by compliance and respect, he at last
+utterly avoided his lordship's presence."
+
+"He gave up his studies in a great measure, and wandered about the
+park and woods all day and sometimes even half the night; his mother's
+conduct and his father's unkindness seemed to prey upon his health and
+mind, and at last he grew almost as much altered as my lord.  From
+being one of the merriest boys possible, full of life and spirits, he
+became thoughtful and downcast, his step lost its lightness, and his
+eye all the fire which used once quite to warm one's heart when one
+looked at it; in short, sir, the sins of the mother were visited as
+much upon the child as the husband.  (Not the least tawny, sir, you
+see, though it is so old!)"
+
+"My lord at first seemed to be glad that he now never saw his son,
+but, by degrees, I think he missed the pleasure of venting his spleen
+upon him; and so he ordered my young master not to stir out without
+his leave, and confined him closer than ever to his studies.  (Well,
+sir, if it were not for this port I could not get out another
+sentence.)  There used then to be sad scenes between them: my lord was
+a terribly passionate man, and said things sharper than a two-edged
+sword, as the psalms express it; and though Master Clinton was one of
+the mildest and best-tempered boys imaginable, yet he could not at all
+times curb his spirit; and, to my mind, when a man is perpetually
+declaring he is not your father, one may now and then be forgiven in
+forgetting that you are to behave as his son."
+
+"Things went on in this way sadly enough for about three years and a
+half, when Master Clinton was nearly eighteen.  One evening, after my
+lord had been unusually stormy, Master Clinton's spirit warmed, I
+suppose, and, from word to word, the dispute increased, till my lord,
+in a furious rage, ordered in the servants, and told them to horsewhip
+his son.  Imagine, sir, what a disgrace to that noble house!  But
+there was not one of them who would not rather have cut off his right
+hand than laid a finger upon Master Clinton, so greatly was he
+beloved; and, at last, my lord summoned his own gentleman, a German,
+six feet high, entirely devoted to his lordship, and commanded him,
+upon pain of instant dismissal, to make use in his presence of a
+horsewhip which he put into his hand."
+
+"The German did not dare refuse, so he approached Master Clinton.  The
+servants were still in the room, and perhaps they would have been bold
+enough to rescue Master Clinton, had there been any need of their
+assistance; but he was a tall youth, as bold as a hero, and, when the
+German approached, he caught him by the throat, threw him down, and
+very nearly strangled him; he then, while my lord was speechless with
+rage, left the room, and did not return all night.  (What a body it
+has, sir--ah!)"
+
+"The next morning I was in a little room adjoining my lord's study,
+looking over some papers and maps.  His lordship did not know of my
+presence, but was sitting alone at breakfast, when Master Clinton
+suddenly entered the study; the door leading to my room was ajar, and
+I heard all the conversation that ensued."
+
+"My lord asked him very angrily how he had dared absent himself all
+night; but Master Clinton, making no reply to this question, said, in
+a very calm, loud voice, which I think I hear now, 'My lord, after the
+insult you have offered to me, it is perhaps unnecessary to observe
+that nothing could induce me to remain under your roof.  I come,
+therefore, to take my last leave of you.'"
+
+"He paused, and my lord (probably like me, being taken by surprise)
+making no reply, he continued, 'You have often told me, my lord, that
+I am not your son; if this be possible, so much the more must you
+rejoice at the idea of ridding your presence of an intruder.'  'And
+how, sir, do you expect to live, except upon my bounty?' exclaimed my
+lord.  'You remember,' answered my young master, 'that a humble
+dependant of my mother's family, who had been our governess in
+childhood, left me at her death the earnings of her life.  I believe
+they amount to nearly a thousand pounds; I look to your lordship's
+honour either for the principal or the yearly interest, as may please
+you best: further I ask not from you.'  'And do you think, sir,' cried
+my lord, almost screaming with passion, 'that upon that beggarly
+pittance you shall go forth to dishonour more than it is yet
+dishonoured the name of my ancient house?  Do you think, sir, that
+that name to which you have no pretension, though the law iniquitously
+grants it you, shall be sullied either with trade or robbery? for to
+one or the other you must necessarily be driven.'  'I foresaw your
+speech, my lord, and am prepared with an answer.  Far be it from me to
+thrust myself into any family, the head of which thinks proper to
+reject me; far be it from me to honour my humble fortunes with a name
+which I am as willing as yourself to disown: I purpose, therefore, to
+adopt a new one; and, whatever may be my future fate, that name will
+screen me both from your remembrance and the world's knowledge.  Are
+you satisfied now, my lord?'"
+
+"His lordship did not answer for some minutes: at last, he said
+sneeringly, 'Go, boy, go!  I am delighted to hear you have decided so
+well.  Leave word with my steward where you wish your clothes to be
+sent to you: Heaven forbid I should rob you either of your wardrobe or
+your princely fortune.  Wardour will transmit to you the latter, even
+to the last penny, by the same conveyance as that which is honoured by
+the former.  And now good-morning, sir; yet stay, and mark my words:
+never dare to re-enter my house, or to expect an iota more of fortune
+or favour from me.  And, hark you, sir: if you dare violate your word;
+if you dare, during my life, at least, assume a name which you were
+born to sully,--my curse, my deepest, heartiest, eternal curse, be
+upon your head in this world and the next!'  'Fear not, my lord: my
+word is pledged,' said the young gentleman; and the next moment I
+heard his parting step in the hall."
+
+"Sir, my heart was full (your glass is empty!) and my head spun round
+as if I were on a precipice: but I was determined my young master
+should not go till I had caught another glimpse of his dear face; so I
+gently left the room I was in, and, hastening out of the house by a
+private entrance, met Master Clinton in the park, not very far from
+the spot where I saw you, sir, just now.  To my surprise there was no
+sign of grief or agitation upon his countenance.  I had never seen him
+look so proud, or for years so happy."
+
+"'Wardour,' said he, in a gay tone, when he saw me, 'I was going to
+your house: my father has at last resolved that I should, like my
+brother, commence my travels; and I wish to leave with you the address
+of the place to which my clothes, etc., will be sent.'
+
+"I could not contain any longer when I heard this, sir: I burst into
+tears, confessed that I had accidentally heard his conversation with
+my lord, and besought him not to depart so hastily, and with so small
+a fortune; but he shook his head and would not hear me.  'Believe me,
+my good Wardour,' said he, 'that since my unhappy mother's flight, I
+have never felt so elated or so happy as I do now: one should go
+through what I have done, to learn the rapture of independence.'  He
+then told me to have his luggage sent to him, under his initials of C.
+L., at the Golden Fleece, the principal inn in the town of W----,
+which, you know, sir, is at the other end of the county, on the road
+to London; and then, kindly shaking me by the hand, he broke away from
+me: but he turned back before he had got three paces, and said (and
+then, for the first time, the pride of his countenance fell, and the
+tears stood in his eyes), 'Wardour, do not divulge what you have
+heard: put as good a face upon my departure as you can, and let the
+blame, if any, fall upon me, not upon your lord; after all he is to be
+pitied, not blamed, and I can never forget that he once loved me.'  He
+did not wait for my answer,--perhaps he did not like to show me how
+much he was affected,--but hurried down the park, and I soon lost
+sight of him.  My lord that very morning sent for me, demanded what
+address his son had left, and gave me a letter, enclosing, I suppose,
+a bill for my poor young master's fortune, ordering it to be sent with
+the clothes immediately."
+
+"Sir, I have never seen or heard aught of the dear gentleman since;
+you must forgive me, I cannot help tears, sir--(the wine is with
+you)."
+
+"But the mother, the mother!" said Clarence, earnestly; "what became
+of her? she died abroad, two years since, did she not?"
+
+"She did, sir," answered the honest steward, refilling his glass.
+"They say that she lived very unhappily with Sir Clinton, who did not
+marry her; till all of a sudden she disappeared, none knew whither."
+
+Clarence redoubled his attention.
+
+"At last," resumed the steward, "two years ago, a letter came from her
+to my lord; she was a nun in some convent (in Italy I think) to which
+she had, at the time of her disappearance, secretly retired.  The
+letter was written on her death-bed, and so affectingly, I suppose,
+that even my stern lord was in tears for several days after he
+received it.  But the principal passage in it was relative to her son:
+it assured my lord (for so with his own lips he told me just before he
+died, some months ago) that Master Clinton was in truth his son, and
+that it was not till she had been tempted many years after her
+marriage that she had fallen; she implored my lord to believe this 'on
+the word of one for whom earth and earth's objects were no more;'
+those were her words."
+
+"Six months ago, when my lord lay on the bed from which he never rose,
+he called me to him and said, "Wardour, you have always been the
+faithful servant of our house, and warmly attached to my second son;
+tell my poor boy, if ever you see him, that I did at last open my eyes
+to my error and acknowledge him as my child; tell him that I have
+desired his brother (who was then, sir, kneeling by my lord's side),
+as he values my blessing, to seek him out and repair the wrong I have
+done him; and add that my best comfort in death was the hope of his
+forgiveness."
+
+"Did he, did he say that?" exclaimed Clarence, who had been violently
+agitated during the latter part of this recital, and now sprang from
+his seat.  "My father, my father! would that I had borne with thee
+more! mine, mine was the fault; from thee should have come the
+forgiveness!"
+
+The old steward sat silent and aghast. At that instant his wife
+entered, with a message of chiding at the lateness of the hour upon
+her lip, but she started back when she saw Clarence's profile, as he
+stood leaning against the wall.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried she, "is it, is it,--yes, it is my young master,
+my own foster-son!"
+
+Rightly had Clarence conjectured, when he had shunned her presence.
+Years had indeed wrought a change in his figure and face;
+acquaintance, servant, friend, relation,--the remembrance of his
+features had passed from all: but she who had nursed him as an infant
+on her lap and fed him from her breast, she who had joined the
+devotion of clanship to the fondness of a mother, knew him at a
+glance.  "Yes," cried he, as he threw himself into her withered and
+aged arms, "it is I, the child you reared, come, after many years, to
+find too late, when a father is no more, that he had a right to a
+father's home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXI.
+
+                        Let us go in,
+    And charge us there upon inter'gatories.--SHAKSPEARE.
+
+"But did not any one recognize you in your change of name?" said the
+old foster-mother, looking fondly upon Clarence, as he sat the next
+morning by her side.  "How could any one forget so winsome a face who
+had once seen it?"
+
+"You don't remember," said Clarence (as we will yet continue to call
+our hero), smiling, "that your husband had forgotten it."
+
+"Ay, sir," cried the piqued steward, "but that was because you wore
+your hat slouched over your eyes: if you had taken off that, I should
+have known you directly."
+
+"However that may be," said Clarence, unwilling to dwell longer on an
+occurrence which he saw hurt the feelings of the kind Mr. Wardour, "it
+is very easy to explain how I preserved my incognito.  You recollect
+that my father never suffered me to mix with my mother's guests: so
+that I had no chance of their remembering me, especially as during the
+last three years and a half no stranger had ever entered our walls.
+Add to this that I was in the very time of life in which a few years
+work the greatest change, and on going to London I was thrown entirely
+among people who could never have seen me before.  Fortunately for me,
+I became acquainted with my mother's uncle; circumstances subsequently
+led me to disclose my birth to him, upon a promise that he would never
+call me by any other name than that which I had assumed.  He, who was
+the best, the kindest, the most generous of human beings, took a
+liking to me.  He insisted not only upon his relationship to me, as my
+grand-uncle, but upon the justice of repairing to me the wrongs his
+unhappy niece had caused me.  The delicacy of his kindness, the ties
+of blood, and an accident which had enabled me to be of some service
+to him, all prevented my resisting the weight of obligation with which
+he afterwards oppressed me.  He procured me an appointment abroad: I
+remained there four years.  When I returned, I entered, it is true,
+into very general society: but four years had, as you may perceive,
+altered me greatly; and even had there previously existed any chance
+of my being recognized, that alteration would probably have been
+sufficient to insure my secret."
+
+"But your brother,--my present lord,--did you never meet him, sir?"
+
+"Often, my good mother; but you remember that I was little more than
+six years old when he left England, and when he next saw me I was
+about two and twenty: it would have been next to a miracle, or, at
+least, would have required the eyes of love like yours, to have
+recalled me to memory after such an absence."
+
+"Well--to turn to my story--I succeeded, partly as his nearest
+relation, but principally from an affection dearer than blood, to the
+fortune of my grand-uncle, Mr. Talbot.  Fate prospered with me: I rose
+in the world's esteem and honour, and soon became prouder of my
+borrowed appellation than of all the titles of my lordly line.
+Circumstances occurring within the last week which it will be needless
+to relate, but which may have the greatest influence over my future
+life, made it necessary to do what I had once resolved I would never
+do,--prove my identity and origin.  Accordingly I came here to seek
+you."
+
+"But why did not my honoured young master disclose himself last
+night?" asked the steward.
+
+"I might say," answered Clarence, "because I anticipated great
+pleasure in a surprise; but I had another reason; it was this: I had
+heard of my poor father's death, and I was painfully anxious to learn
+if at the last he had testified any relenting towards me, and yet more
+so to ascertain the manner of my unfortunate mother's fate.  Both
+abroad and in England, I had sought tidings of her everywhere, but in
+vain; in mentioning my mother's retiring into a convent, you have
+explained the reason why my efforts were so fruitless.  With these two
+objects in view, I thought myself more likely to learn the whole truth
+as a stranger than in my proper person; for in the latter case, I
+deemed it probable that your delicacy and kindness might tempt you to
+conceal whatever was calculated to wound my feelings, and to
+exaggerate anything that might tend to flatter or to soothe them.
+Thank Heaven, I now learn that I have a right to the name my boyhood
+bore, and that my birth is not branded with the foulest of private
+crimes, and that in death my father's heart yearned to his too hasty
+but repentant son.  Enough of this: I have now only to request you, my
+friend, to accompany me, before daybreak on Wednesday morning, to a
+place several miles hence.  Your presence there will be necessary to
+substantiate the proof for which I came hither."
+
+"With all my heart, sir," cried the honest steward; "and after
+Wednesday you will, I trust, assume your rightful name."
+
+"Certainly," replied Clarence; "since I am no longer 'the Disowned.'"
+
+Leaving Clarence now for a brief while to renew his acquaintance with
+the scenes of his childhood, and to offer the tribute of his filial
+tears to the ashes of a father whose injustice had been but "the
+stinging of a heart the world had stung," we return to some old
+acquaintances in the various conduct of our drama.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXII.
+
+    Upon his couch the veiled Mokanna lay.--The Veiled Prophet.
+
+The autumn sun broke through an apartment in a villa in the
+neighbourhood of London, furnished with the most prodigal yet not
+tasteless attention to luxury and show, within which, beside a table
+strewed with newspapers, letters, and accounts, lay Richard Crauford,
+extended carelessly upon a sofa which might almost have contented the
+Sybarite who quarrelled with a rose-leaf.  At his elbow was a bottle
+half emptied and a wineglass just filled.  An expression of triumph
+and enjoyment was visible upon his handsome but usually inexpressive
+countenance.
+
+"Well," said he, taking up a newspaper, "let us read this paragraph
+again.  What a beautiful sensation it is to see one's name in print.
+'We understand that Richard Crauford, Esq., M. P. for ----, is to be
+raised to the dignity of the peerage.  There does not perhaps exist in
+the country a gentleman more universally beloved and esteemed' (mark
+that, Dicky Crauford).  'The invariable generosity with which his
+immense wealth has been employed, his high professional honour, the
+undeviating and consistent integrity of his political career' (ay, to
+be sure, it is only your honest fools who are inconsistent: no man can
+deviate who has one firm principle, self-interest), 'his manly and
+energetic attention to the welfare of religion' (he! he! he!),
+'conjoined to a fortune almost incalculable, render this condescension
+of our gracious Sovereign no less judicious than deserved!  We hear
+that the title proposed for the new peer is that of Viscount
+Innisdale, which, we believe, was formerly in the noble family of
+which Mr. Crauford is a distant branch.'
+
+"He! he! he!  Bravo! bravo!  Viscount Innisdale, noble family, distant
+branch,--the devil I am!  What an ignoramus my father was not to know
+that!  Why, rest his soul, he never knew who his grandfather was; but
+the world shall not be equally ignorant of that important point.  Let
+me see, who shall be Viscount Innisdale's great-grandfather?  Well,
+well, whoever he is, here's long life to his great-grandson!
+'Incalculable fortune!'  Ay, ay, I hope at all events it will never be
+calculated.  But now for my letters.  Bah! this wine is a thought too
+acid for the cellars of Viscount Innisdale!  What, another from Mother
+H----!  Dark eyes, small mouth, sings like an angel, eighteen!  Pish!
+I am too old for such follies now: 't is not pretty for Viscount
+Innisdale.  Humph! Lisbon, seven hundred pounds five shillings and
+seven-pence--half-penny, is it, or farthing?  I must note that down.
+Loan for King of Prussia.  Well, must negotiate that to-morrow.  Ah,
+Hockit, the wine-merchant, pipe of claret in the docks, vintage of
+17--.  Bravo! all goes smooth for Viscount Innisdale!  Pish! from my
+damnable wife!  What a pill for my lordship!  What says she?"
+
+                                               DAWLISH, DEVONSHIRE.
+You have not, my dearest Richard, answered my letters for months.  I
+do not, however, presume to complain of your silence; I know well that
+you have a great deal to occupy your time, both in business and
+pleasure.  But one little line, dear Richard,--one little line, surely
+that is not too much now and then.  I am most truly sorry to trouble
+you again about money; and you must know that I strive to be as saving
+as possible; ("Pish--curse the woman; sent her twenty pounds three
+months ago!") but I really am so distressed, and the people here are
+so pressing; and, at all events, I cannot bear the thought of your
+wife being disgraced.  Pray, forgive me, Richard, and believe how
+painful it is in me to say so much.  I know you will answer this! and,
+oh, do, do tell me how you are.
+
+Ever your affectionate wife,                    CAROLINE CRAUFORD.
+
+"Was there ever poor man so plagued?  Where's my note book?  Mem.--
+Send Car. to-morrow 20 pounds to last her the rest of the year.  Mem.
+--Send Mother H----, 100 pounds.  Mem.--Pay Hockit's bill, 830 pounds.
+Bless me, what shall I do with Viscountess Innisdale?  Now, if I were
+not married, I would be son-in-law to a duke.  Mem.--Go down to
+Dawlish, and see if she won't die soon.  Healthy situation, I fear,--
+devilish unlucky,--must be changed.  Mem.--Swamps in Essex.  Who's
+that?"
+
+A knock at the door disturbed Mr. Crauford in his meditations.  He
+started up, hurried the bottle and glass under the sofa, where the
+descending drapery completely hid them; and, taking up a newspaper,
+said in a gentle tone, "Come in."  A small thin man, bowing at every
+step, entered.
+
+"Ah! Bradley, is it you, my good fellow?" said Crauford: "glad to see
+you,--a fine morning: but what brings you from town so early?"
+
+"Why, sir," answered Mr. Bradley, very obsequiously, "something
+unpleasant has--"
+
+"Merciful Heaven!" cried Crauford, blanched into the whiteness of
+death, and starting up from the sofa with a violence which frightened
+the timid Mr. Bradley to the other end of the room, "the counting-
+house, the books,--all safe?"
+
+"Yes, sir, yes, at present, but--"
+
+"But what, man?"
+
+"Why, honoured sir," returned Mr. Bradley, bowing to the ground, "your
+partner, Mr. Jessopp, has been very inquisitive about the accounts.
+He says Mr. Da Costa, the Spanish merchant, has been insinuating very
+unpleasant hints, and that he must have a conversation with you at
+your earliest convenience; and when, sir, I ventured to remonstrate
+about the unreasonableness of attending to what Mr. Da Costa said, Mr.
+Jessopp was quite abusive, and declared that there seemed some very
+mysterious communication between you (begging your pardon, sir) and
+me, and that he did not know what business I, who had no share in the
+firm, had to interfere."
+
+"But," said Crauford, "you were civil to him; did not reply hotly, eh!
+my good Bradley?"
+
+"Lord forbid, sir; Lord forbid, that I should not know my place
+better, or that I should give an unbecoming word to the partner of my
+honoured benefactor.  But, sir, if I dare venture to say so, I think
+Mr. Jessopp is a little jealous or so of you; he seemed quite in a
+passion at the paragraph in the paper about my honoured master's
+becoming a lord."
+
+"Right, honest Bradley, right; he is jealous: we must soothe him.  Go,
+my good fellow, go to him with my compliments, and say that I will be
+with him by one.  Never fear this business will be easily settled."
+
+And, bowing himself out of the room, Bradley withdrew.  Left alone, a
+dark cloud gathered over the brow of Mr. Crauford.
+
+"I am on a precipice," thought he; "but if my own brain does not turn
+giddy with the prospect, all yet may be safe.  Cruel necessity, that
+obliged me to admit another into the business, that foiled me of
+Mordaunt, and drove me upon this fawning rascal!  So, so: I almost
+think there is a Providence, now that Mordaunt has grown rich; but
+then his wife died; ay, ay, God saved him, but the devil killed her.
+[Dieu a puni ce fripon, le diable a noye les autres.--VOLTAIRE:
+Candide.]  He! he! he!  But, seriously, seriously, there is danger in
+the very air I breathe!  I must away to that envious Jessopp
+instantly; but first let me finish the bottle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIII.
+
+    A strange harmonious inclination
+    Of all degrees to reformation.--Hudibras.
+
+About seven miles from W----, on the main road from ----, there was in
+17-- a solitary public-house, which by the by is now a magnificent
+hotel.  Like many of its brethren in the more courtly vicinity of the
+metropolis, this amoenum hospitium peregrinae gentis then had its
+peculiar renown for certain dainties of the palate; and various in
+degree and character were the numerous parties from the neighbouring
+towns and farms, which upon every legitimate holiday were wont to
+assemble at the mansion of mine host of the Jolly Angler, in order to
+feast upon eel-pie and grow merry over the true Herefordshire cider.
+
+But upon that special day on which we are about to introduce our
+reader into the narrow confines of its common parlour, the said
+hostelry was crowded with persons of a very different description from
+the peaceable idlers who were ordinarily wont to empty mine host's
+larder, and forget the price of corn over the divine inspirations of
+pomarial nectar.  Instead of the indolent, satisfied air of the
+saturnalian merrymaker, the vagrant angler, or the gentleman farmer,
+with his comely dame who "walked in silk attire, and siller had to
+spare;" instead of the quiet yet glad countenances of such hunters of
+pleasure and eaters of eel-pie, or the more obstreperous joy of
+urchins let loose from school to taste some brief and perennial
+recreation, and mine host's delicacies at the same time; instead of
+these, the little parlour presented a various and perturbed group,
+upon whose features neither eel-pie nor Herefordshire cider had
+wrought the relaxation of a holiday or the serenity of a momentary
+content.
+
+The day to which we now refer was the one immediately preceding that
+appointed for the far-famed meeting at W----; and many of the
+patriots, false or real, who journeyed from a distance to attend that
+rendezvous, had halted at our host's of the Jolly Angler, both as
+being within a convenient space from the appointed spot, and as a
+tabernacle where promiscuous intrusion and (haply) immoderate charges
+were less likely to occur than at the bustling and somewhat
+extraordinary hotels and inns of the town of W----.
+
+The times in which this meeting was held were those of great popular
+excitement and discontent; and the purport of the meeting proposed was
+to petition Parliament against the continuance of the American war and
+the King against the continuance of his ministers.
+
+Placards of an unusually inflammatory and imprudent nature had given
+great alarm to the more sober and well-disposed persons in the
+neighbourhood of W----; and so much fear was felt or assumed upon the
+occasion that a new detachment of Lord Ulswater's regiment had been
+especially ordered into the town; and it was generally rumoured that
+the legal authorities would interfere, even by force, for the
+dispersion of the meeting in question.  These circumstances had given
+the measure a degree of general and anxious interest which it would
+not otherwise have excited; and while everybody talked of the danger
+of attending the assembly, everybody resolved to thrust himself into
+it.
+
+It was about the goodly hour of noon, and the persons assembled were
+six in number, all members of the most violent party, and generally
+considered by friend and foe as embracers of republican tenets.  One
+of these, a little, oily, corpulent personage, would have appeared far
+too sleek and well fed for a disturber of things existing, had not a
+freckled, pimpled, and fiery face, a knit brow, and a small black eye
+of intolerable fierceness belied the steady and contented appearance
+of his frame and girth.  This gentleman, by name Christopher
+Culpepper, spoke in a quick, muffled, shuffling sort of tone, like the
+pace of a Welsh pony, somewhat lame, perfectly broken-winded, but an
+exemplary ambler for all that.
+
+Next to him sat, with hands clasped over his knees, a thin, small man,
+with a countenance prematurely wrinkled and an air of great dejection.
+Poor Castleton! his had been, indeed, the bitter lot of a man, honest
+but weak, who attaches himself, heart and soul, to a public cause
+which, in his life at least, is hopeless.  Three other men were
+sitting by the open window, disputing, with the most vehement
+gestures, upon the character of Wilkes; and at the other window,
+alone, silent, and absorbed, sat a man whose appearance and features
+were singularly calculated to arrest and to concentrate attention.
+His raven hair, grizzled with the first advance of age, still
+preserved its strong, wiry curl and luxuriant thickness.  His brows,
+large, bushy, and indicative of great determination, met over eyes
+which at that moment were fixed upon vacancy with a look of thought
+and calmness very unusual to their ordinary restless and rapid
+glances.  His mouth, that great seat of character, was firmly and
+obstinately shut; and though, at the first observation, its downward
+curve and iron severity wore the appearance of unmitigated harshness,
+disdain, and resolve, yet a more attentive deducer of signs from
+features would not have been able to detect in its expression anything
+resembling selfishness or sensuality, and in that absence would have
+found sufficient to redeem the more repellent indications of mind
+which it betrayed.
+
+Presently the door was opened, and the landlord, making some apology
+to both parties for having no other apartment unoccupied, introduced a
+personage whose dress and air, as well as a kind of saddle-bag, which
+he would not intrust to any other bearer than himself, appeared to
+denote him as one rather addicted to mercantile than political
+speculations.  Certainly he did not seem much at home among the
+patriotic reformers, who, having glared upon him for a single moment,
+renewed, without remark, their several attitudes or occupations.
+
+The stranger, after a brief pause, approached the solitary reformer
+whom we last described; and making a salutation, half timorous and
+half familiar, thus accosted him,--
+
+"Your servant, Mr. Wolfe, your servant.  I think I had the pleasure of
+hearing you a long time ago at the Westminster election: very eloquent
+you were, sir, very!"
+
+Wolfe looked up for an instant at the face of the speaker, and, not
+recognizing it, turned abruptly away, threw open the window, and,
+leaning out, appeared desirous of escaping from all further intrusion
+on the part of the stranger; but that gentleman was by no means of a
+nature easily abashed.
+
+"Fine day, sir, for the time of year; very fine day, indeed.  October
+is a charming month, as my lamented friend and customer, the late Lady
+Waddilove, was accustomed to say.  Talking of that, sir, as the winter
+is now approaching, do you not think it would be prudent, Mr. Wolfe,
+to provide yourself with an umbrella?  I have an admirable one which I
+might dispose of: it is from the effects of the late Lady Waddilove.
+'Brown,' said her ladyship, a short time before her death, 'Brown, you
+are a good creature; but you ask too much for the Dresden vase.  We
+have known each other a long time; you must take fourteen pounds ten
+shillings, and you may have that umbrella in the corner into the
+bargain.'  Mr. Wolfe, the bargain was completed, and the umbrella
+became mine: it may now be yours."
+
+And so saying, Mr. Brown, depositing his saddle-bag on the ground,
+proceeded to unfold an umbrella of singular antiquity and form,--a
+very long stick, tipped with ivory, being surmounted with about a
+quarter of a yard of sea-green silk, somewhat discoloured by time and
+wear.
+
+"It is a beautiful article, sir," said Mr. Brown, admiringly surveying
+it: "is it not?"
+
+"Pshaw!" said Wolfe, impatiently, "what have I to do with your goods
+and chattels?  Go and palm the cheatings and impositions of your
+pitiful trade upon some easier gull."
+
+"Cheatings and impositions, Mr. Wolfe!" cried the slandered Brown,
+perfectly aghast; "I would have you to know, sir, that I have served
+the first families in the country, ay, and in this county too, and
+never had such words applied to me before.  Sir, there was the late
+Lady Waddilove, and the respected Mrs. Minden, and her nephew the
+ambassador, and the Duchess of Pugadale, and Mr. Mordaunt of Mordaunt
+Court, poor gentleman, though he is poor no more," and Mr. Brown
+proceeded to enumerate the long list of his customers.
+
+Now, we have stated that Wolfe, though he had never known the rank of
+Mordaunt, was acquainted with his real name, and, as the sound caught
+his ear, he muttered, "Mordaunt, Mordaunt, ay, but not my former
+acquaintance,--not him who was called Glendower.  No, no: the man
+cannot mean him."
+
+"Yes, sir, but I do mean him," cried Brown, in a rage.  "I do mean
+that Mr. Glendower, who afterwards took another name, but whose real
+appellation is Mr. Algernon Mordaunt of Mordaunt Court, in this
+county, sir."
+
+"What description of man is he?" said Wolfe; "rather tall, slender,
+with an air and mien like a king's, I was going to say, but better
+than a king's, like a freeman's?"
+
+"Ay, ay--the same," answered Mr. Brown, sullenly; "but why should I
+tell you?  'Cheating and imposition,' indeed!  I am sure my word can
+be of no avail to you; and I sha' n't stay here any longer to be
+insulted, Mr. Wolfe, which, I am sure, talking of freemen, no freeman
+ought to submit to; but as the late Lady Waddilove once very wisely
+said to me, 'Brown, never have anything to do with those republicans:
+they are the worst tyrants of all.'  Good morning, Mr. Wolfe;
+gentlemen, your servant; 'cheating and imposition,' indeed! and Mr.
+Brown banged the door as he departed.
+
+"Wolfe," said Mr. Christopher Culpepper, "who is that man?"
+
+"I know not," answered the republican, laconically, and gazing on the
+ground, apparently in thought.
+
+"He has the air of a slave," quoth the free Culpepper, and slaves
+cannot bear the company of freemen; therefore he did right to go,
+whe-w!  Had we a proper and thorough and efficient reform, human
+nature would not be thus debased by trades and callings and barters
+and exchange, for all professions are injurious to the character and
+the dignity of man, whe-w! but, as I shall prove upon the hustings to-
+morrow, it is in vain to hope for any amendment in the wretched state
+of things until the people of these realms are fully, freely, and
+fairly represented, whe-w!  Gentlemen, it is past two, and we have not
+ordered dinner, whe-w!"  (N. B.--This ejaculation denotes the kind of
+snuffle which lent peculiar energy to the dicta of Mr. Culpepper.)
+
+"Ring the bell, then, and summon the landlord," said, very
+pertinently, one of the three disputants upon the character of Wilkes.
+
+The landlord appeared; dinner was ordered.
+
+"Pray," said Wolfe, "has that man, Mr. Brown I think he called
+himself, left the inn?"
+
+"He has, sir, for he was mightily offended at something which--"
+
+"And," interrupted Wolfe, "how far hence does Mr. Mordaunt live?"
+
+"About five miles on the other side of W----," answered mine host.
+
+Wolfe rose, seized his hat, and was about to depart.
+
+"Stay, stay," cried citizen Christopher Culpepper; "you will not leave
+us till after dinner?"
+
+"I shall dine at W----," answered Wolfe, quitting the room.
+
+"Then our reckoning will be heavier," said Culpepper.  "It is not
+handsome in Wolfe to leave us, whe-w!  Really I think that our brother
+in the great cause has of late relaxed in his attentions and zeal to
+the goddess of our devotions, whe-w!"
+
+"It is human nature!" cried one of the three disputants upon the
+character of Wilkes.
+
+"It is not human nature!" cried the second disputant, folding his arms
+doggedly, in preparation for a discussion.
+
+"Contemptible human nature!" exclaimed the third disputant,
+soliloquizing with a supercilious expression of hateful disdain.
+
+"Poor human nature!" murmured Castleton, looking upward with a sigh;
+and though we have not given to that gentleman other words than these,
+we think they are almost sufficient to let our readers into his
+character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIV.
+
+                             Silvis, ubi passim
+    Palantes error certo de tramite pellit,
+    Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit; unus utrique
+    Error, sed variis illudit partibus.--HORACE.
+
+    ["Wandering in those woods where error evermore forces life's
+    stragglers from the beaten path,--this one deflects to the left,
+    his fellow chooses the exact contrary.  The fault is all the same
+    in each, but it excuses itself by a thousand different reasons."]
+
+
+As Wolfe strode away from the inn, he muttered to himself,--
+
+"Can it be that Mordaunt has suddenly grown rich?  If so, I rejoice at
+it.  True, that he was not for our cause, but he had the spirit and
+the heart which belonged to it.  Had he not been bred among the
+prejudices of birth, or had he lived in stormier times, he might have
+been the foremost champion of freedom.  As it is, I rather lament than
+condemn.  Yet I would fain see him once more.  Perhaps prosperity may
+have altered his philosophy.  But can he, indeed, be the same Mordaunt
+of whom that trading itinerant spoke?  Can he have risen to the
+pernicious eminence of a landed aristocrat?  Well, it is worth the
+journey; for if he have power in the neighbourhood, I am certain that
+he will exert it for our protection; and, at the worst, I shall escape
+from the idle words of my compatriots.  Oh! if it were possible that
+the advocates could debase the glory of the cause, how long since
+should I have flinched from the hardship and the service to which my
+life is devoted!  Self-interest; Envy, that snarls at all above it,
+without even the beast's courage to bite; Folly, that knows not the
+substance of Freedom, but loves the glitter of its name; Fear, that
+falters; Crime, that seeks in licentiousness an excuse;
+Disappointment, only craving occasion to rail; Hatred; Sourness,
+boasting of zeal, but only venting the blackness of rancour and evil
+passion,--all these make our adherents, and give our foes the handle
+and the privilege to scorn and to despise.  But man chooses the
+object, and Fate only furnishes the tools.  Happy for our posterity,
+that when the object is once gained, the frailty of the tools will be
+no more!"
+
+Thus soliloquizing, the republican walked rapidly onwards, till a turn
+of the road brought before his eye the form of Mr. Brown, seated upon
+a little rough pony, and "whistling as he went for want of thought."
+
+Wolfe quickened his pace, and soon overtook him.
+
+"You must forgive me, my good man," said he, soothingly; "I meant not
+to impeach your honesty or your calling.  Perhaps I was hasty and
+peevish; and, in sad earnest, I have much to tease and distract me."
+
+"Well, sir, well," answered Mr. Brown, greatly mollified; "I am sure
+no Christian can be more forgiving than I am; and, since you are sorry
+for what you were pleased to say, let us think no more about it.  But
+touching the umbrella, Mr. Wolfe, have you a mind for that interesting
+and useful relic of the late Lady Waddilove?"
+
+"Not at present, I thank you," said Wolfe, mildly; "I care little for
+the inclemencies of the heavens, and you may find many to whom your
+proffered defence from them may be more acceptable.  But tell me if
+the Mr. Mordaunt you mentioned was ever residing in town, and in very
+indifferent circumstances?"
+
+"Probably he was," said the cautious Brown, who, as we before said,
+had been bribed into silence, and who now grievously repented that
+passion had betrayed him into the imprudence of candour; "but I really
+do not busy myself about other people's affairs.  'Brown,' said the
+late Lady Waddilove to me, 'Brown, you are a good creature, and never
+talk of what does not concern you.'  Those, Mr. Wolfe, were her
+ladyship's own words."
+
+"As you please," said the reformer, who did not want shrewdness, and
+saw that his point was already sufficiently gained; "as you please.
+And now, to change the subject, I suppose we shall have your
+attendance at the meeting at W---- to-morrow?"
+
+"Ay," replied the worthy Brown: "I thought it likely I should meet
+many of my old customers in the town on such a busy occasion; so I
+went a little out of my way home to London, in order to spend a night
+or two there.  Indeed, I have some valuable articles for Mr. Glumford,
+the magistrate, who will be in attendance to-morrow."
+
+"They say," observed Wolfe, "that the magistrates, against all law,
+right, and custom, will dare to interfere with and resist the meeting.
+Think you report says true?"
+
+"Nay," returned Brown, prudently, "I cannot exactly pretend to decide
+the question: all I know is that Squire Glumford said to me, at his
+own house, five days ago, as he was drawing on his boots, 'Brown,'
+said he, 'Brown, mark my words, we shall do for those rebellious
+dogs!'"
+
+"Did he say so?" muttered Wolfe, between his teeth.  "Oh, for the old
+times, or those yet to come, when our answer would have been, or shall
+be, the sword!"
+
+"And you know," pursued Mr. Brown, "that Lord Ulswater and his
+regiment are in town, and have even made great preparations against
+the meeting a week ago."
+
+"I have heard this," said Wolfe; "but I cannot think that any body of
+armed men dare interrupt or attack a convocation of peaceable
+subjects, met solely to petition Parliament against famine for
+themselves and slavery for their children."
+
+"Famine!" quoth Mr. Brown.  "Indeed it is very true, very! times are
+dreadfully bad.  I can scarcely get my own living; Parliament
+certainly ought to do something: but you must forgive me, Mr. Wolfe;
+it may be dangerous to talk with you on these matters; and, now I
+think of it, the sooner I get to W---- the better; good morning; a
+shower's coming on.  You won't have the umbrella, then?"
+
+"They dare not," said Wolfe to himself, "no, no,--they dare not attack
+us; they dare not;" and clenching his fist, he pursued, with a quicker
+step, and a more erect mien, his solitary way.
+
+When he was about the distance of three miles from W----, he was
+overtaken by a middle-aged man of a frank air and a respectable
+appearance.  "Good day, sir," said he; "we seem to be journeying the
+same way: will it be against your wishes to join company?"
+
+Wolfe assented, and the stranger resumed:--
+
+"I suppose, sir, you intend to be present at the meeting at W----
+to-morrow?  There will be an immense concourse, and the entrance of a
+new detachment of soldiers, and the various reports of the likelihood
+of their interference with the assembly, make it an object of some
+interest and anxiety to look forward to."
+
+"True, true," said Wolfe, slowly, eying his new acquaintance with a
+deliberate and scrutinizing attention.  "It will, indeed, be
+interesting to see how far an evil and hardy government will venture
+to encroach upon the rights of the people, which it ruins while it
+pretends to rule."
+
+"Of a truth," rejoined the other, "I rejoice that I am no politician.
+I believe my spirit is as free as any cooped in the narrow dungeon of
+earth's clay can well be; yet I confess that it has drawn none of its
+liberty from book, pamphlet, speech, or newspaper, of modern times."
+
+"So much the worse for you, sir," said Wolfe, sourly: "the man who has
+health and education can find no excuse for supineness or indifference
+to that form of legislation by which his country decays or prospers."
+
+"Why," said the other, gayly, "I willingly confess myself less of a
+patriot than a philosopher; and as long as I am harmless, I strive
+very little to be useful, in a public capacity; in a private one, as a
+father, a husband, and a neighbour, I trust I am not utterly without
+my value."
+
+"Pish!" cried Wolfe; "let no man who forgets his public duties prate
+of his private merits.  I tell you, man, that he who can advance by a
+single hair's-breadth the happiness or the freedom of mankind has done
+more to save his own soul than if he had paced every step of the
+narrow circle of his domestic life with the regularity of clockwork."
+
+"You may be right," quoth the stranger, carelessly; "but I look on
+things in the mass, and perhaps see only the superficies, while you, I
+perceive already, are a lover of the abstract.  For my part, Harry
+Fielding's two definitions seem to me excellent.  'Patriot,--a
+candidate for a place!'  'Politics,--the art of getting such a place!'
+Perhaps, sir, as you seem a man of education, you remember the words
+of our great novelist."
+
+"No!" answered Wolfe, a little contemptuously; "I cannot say that I
+burden my memory with the deleterious witticisms and shallow remarks
+of writers of fancy.  It has been a mighty and spreading evil to the
+world that the vain fictions of the poets or the exaggerations of
+novelists have been hitherto so welcomed and extolled.  Better had it
+been for us if the destruction of the lettered wealth at Alexandria
+had included all the lighter works which have floated, from their very
+levity, down the stream of time, an example and a corruption to the
+degraded geniuses of later days."
+
+The eyes of the stranger sparkled.  "Why, you outgoth the Goth!"
+exclaimed he, sharply.  "But you surely preach against what you have
+not studied.  Confess that you are but slightly acquainted with
+Shakspeare, and Spenser, and noble Dan Chaucer.  Ay, if you knew them
+as well as I do, you would, like me, give--
+
+    'To hem faith and full credence,
+     And in your heart have hem in reverence.'"
+
+"Pish!" again muttered Wolfe; and then rejoined aloud, "It grieves me
+to see time so wasted, and judgment so perverted, as yours appears to
+have been; but it fills me with pity and surprise, as well as grief,
+to find that, so far from shame at the effeminacy of your studies, you
+appear to glory and exult in them."
+
+"May the Lord help me, and lighten thee," said Cole; for it was he.
+"You are at least not a novelty in human wisdom, whatever you may be
+in character; for you are far from the only one proud of being
+ignorant, and pitying those who are not so."
+
+Wolfe darted one of his looks of fire at the speaker, who, nothing
+abashed, met the glance with an eye, if not as fiery, at least as
+bold.
+
+"I see," said the republican, "that we shall not agree upon the topics
+you have started.  If you still intrude your society upon me, you
+will, at least, choose some other subject of conversation."
+
+"Pardon me," said Cole, whose very studies, while they had excited, in
+their self-defence, his momentary warmth, made him habitually
+courteous and urbane, "pardon me for my hastiness of expression.  I
+own myself in fault."  And, with this apology, our ex-king slid into
+the new topics which the scenery and the weather afforded him.
+
+Wolfe, bent upon the object of his present mission, made some
+inquiries respecting Mordaunt; and though Cole only shared the
+uncertain information of the country gossips as to the past history of
+that person, yet the little he did know was sufficient to confirm the
+republican in his belief of Algernon's identity; while the ex-gypsy's
+account of his rank and reputation in the country made Wolfe doubly
+anxious to secure, if possible, his good offices and interference on
+behalf of the meeting.  But the conversation was not always restricted
+to neutral and indifferent ground, but ever and anon wandered into
+various allusions or opinions from the one, certain to beget retort or
+controversy in the other.
+
+Had we time and our reader patience, it would have been a rare and
+fine contrast to have noted more at large the differences of thought
+and opinion between the companions: each in his several way so ardent
+for liberty, and so impatient of the control and customs of society;
+each so enthusiastic for the same object, yet so coldly contemptuous
+to the enthusiasm of the other.  The one guided only by his poetical
+and erratic tastes, the other solely by dreams, seeming to the world
+no less baseless, yet, to his own mind, bearing the name of stern
+judgment and inflexible truth.  Both men of active and adventurous
+spirits, to whom forms were fetters and ceremonies odious; yet,
+deriving from that mutual similarity only pity for mutual perversion,
+they were memorable instances of the great differences congeniality
+itself will occasion, and of the never-ending varieties which minds,
+rather under the influence of imagination than judgment, will create.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXV.
+
+    Gratis anhelans, multa agendo, nihil agens.--PHAEDRUS.
+    ["Panting and labouring in vain; doing much,--effecting nothing."]
+
+Upon entering the town, the streets displayed all the bustle and
+excitement which the approaching meeting was eminently calculated to
+create in a place ordinarily quiescent and undisturbed: groups of men
+were scattered in different parts, conversing with great eagerness;
+while here and there some Demosthenes of the town, impatient of the
+coming strife, was haranguing his little knot of admiring friends, and
+preparing his oratorical organs by petty skirmishing for the grand
+battle of the morrow.  Now and then the eye roved upon the gaunt forms
+of Lord Ulswater's troopers, as they strolled idly along the streets,
+in pairs, perfectly uninterested by the great event which set all the
+more peaceable inmates of the town in a ferment, and returning, with a
+slighting and supercilious glance, the angry looks and muttered
+anathemas which, ever and anon, the hardier spirits of the petitioning
+party liberally bestowed upon them.
+
+As Wolfe and his comrade entered the main street, the former was
+accosted by some one of his compatriots, who, seizing him by the arm,
+was about to apprise the neighbouring idlers, by a sudden exclamation,
+of the welcome entrance of the eloquent and noted republican.  But
+Wolfe perceived and thwarted his design.
+
+"Hush!" said he, in a low voice; "I am only now on my way to an old
+friend, who seems a man of influence in these parts, and may be of
+avail to us on the morrow; keep silence, therefore, with regard to my
+coming till I return.  I would not have my errand interrupted."
+
+"As you will," said the brother spirit: "but whom have you here, a
+fellow-labourer?" and the reformer pointed to Cole, who, with an
+expression of shrewd humour, blended with a sort of philosophical
+compassion, stood at a little distance waiting for Wolfe, and eying
+the motley groups assembled before him.
+
+"No," answered Wolfe; "he is some vain and idle sower of unprofitable
+flowers; a thing who loves poetry, and, for aught I know, writes it:
+but that reminds me that I must rid myself of his company; yet stay;
+do you know this neighbourhood sufficiently to serve me as a guide?"
+
+"Ay," quoth the other; "I was born within three miles of the town."
+
+"Indeed!" rejoined Wolfe; "then perhaps you can tell me if there is
+any way of reaching a place called Mordaunt Court without passing
+through the more public and crowded thoroughfares."
+
+"To be sure," rejoined the brother spirit; "you have only to turn to
+the right up yon hill, and you will in an instant be out of the
+purlieus and precincts of W----, and on your shortest road to Mordaunt
+Court; but surely it is not to its owner that you are bound?"
+
+"And why not?" said Wolfe.
+
+"Because," replied the other, "he is the wealthiest, the highest, and,
+as report says, the haughtiest aristocrat of these parts."
+
+"So much the better, then," said Wolfe, "can he aid us in obtaining a
+quiet hearing to-morrow, undisturbed by those liveried varlets of
+hire, who are termed, in sooth, Britain's defence!  Much better, when
+we think of all they cost us to pamper and to clothe, should they be
+termed Britain's ruin: but farewell for the present; we shall meet to-
+night; your lodgings--?"
+
+"Yonder," said the other, pointing to a small inn opposite; and Wolfe,
+nodding his adieu, returned to Cole, whose vivacious and restless
+nature had already made him impatient of his companion's delay.
+
+"I must take my leave of you now," said Wolfe, "which I do with a
+hearty exhortation that you will change your studies, fit only for
+effeminate and enslaved minds."
+
+"And I return the exhortation," answered Cole.  "Your studies seem to
+me tenfold more crippling than mine: mine take all this earth's
+restraints from me, and yours seem only to remind you that all earth
+is restraint: mine show me whatever worlds the fondest fancy could
+desire; yours only the follies and chains of this.  In short, while
+'my mind to me a kingdom is,' yours seems to consider the whole
+universe itself nothing but a great meeting for the purpose of abusing
+ministers and demanding reform!"
+
+Not too well pleased by this answer, and at the same time indisposed
+to the delay of further reply, Wolfe contented himself with an iron
+sneer of disdain, and, turning on his heel, strode rapidly away in the
+direction his friend had indicated.
+
+Meanwhile, Cole followed him with his eye till he was out of sight,
+and then muttered to himself, "Never was there a fitter addition to
+old Barclay's 'Ship of Fools'!  I should not wonder if this man's
+patriotism leads him from despising the legislature into breaking the
+law; and, faith, the surest way to the gallows is less through vice
+than discontent: yet I would fain hope better things for him; for,
+methinks, he is neither a common declaimer nor an ordinary man."
+
+With these words the honest Cole turned away, and, strolling towards
+the Golden Fleece, soon found himself in the hospitable mansion of
+Mistress and Mister Merrylack.
+
+While the ex-king was taking his ease at his inn, Wolfe proceeded to
+Mordaunt Court.  The result of the meeting that there ensued was a
+determination on the part of Algernon to repair immediately to W----.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVI.
+
+The commons here in Kent are up in arms.--Second Part of Henry VI.
+
+When Mordaunt arrived at W----, he found that the provincial deities
+(who were all assembled at dinner with the principal inhabitants of
+the town), in whose hands the fate of the meeting was placed, were in
+great doubt and grievous consternation.  He came in time, first to
+balance the votes, and ultimately to decide them.  His mind, prudent
+and acute, when turned to worldly affairs, saw at a glance the
+harmless though noisy nature of the meeting; and he felt that the
+worst course the government or the county could pursue would be to
+raise into importance, by violence, what otherwise would meet with
+ridicule from most and indifference from the rest.
+
+His large estates, his ancient name, his high reputation for talent,
+joined to that manner, half eloquent and half commanding, which rarely
+fails of effect when deliberation only requires a straw on either side
+to become decision,--all these rendered his interference of immediate
+avail; and it was settled that the meeting should, as similar
+assemblies had done before, proceed and conclude, undisturbed by the
+higher powers, so long as no positive act of sedition to the
+government or danger to the town was committed.
+
+Scarcely was this arrangement agreed upon, before Lord Ulswater, who
+had hitherto been absent, entered the room in which the magisterial
+conclave was assembled.  Mr. Glumford (whom our readers will possibly
+remember as the suitor to Isabel St. Leger, and who had at first
+opposed, and then reluctantly subscribed to, Mordaunt's interference)
+bustled up to him.
+
+"So, so, my lord," said he, "since I had the honour of seeing your
+lordship, quite a new sort of trump has been turned up."
+
+"I do not comprehend your metaphorical elegances of speech, Mr.
+Glumford," said Lord Ulswater.
+
+Mr. Glumford explained.  Lord Ulswater's cheek grew scarlet.  "So Mr.
+Mordaunt has effected this wise alteration," said he.
+
+"Nobody else, my lord, nobody else: and I am sure, though your
+lordship's estates are at the other end of the county, yet they are
+much larger than his; and since your lordship has a troop at your
+command, and that sort of thing, I would not, if I were your lordship,
+suffer any such opposition to your wishes."
+
+Without making a reply to this harangue, Lord Ulswater stalked
+haughtily up to Mordaunt, who was leaning against the wainscot and
+conversing with those around him.
+
+"I cannot but conceive, Mr. Mordaunt," said he, with a formal bow,
+"that I have been misinformed in the intelligence I have just
+received."
+
+"Lord Ulswater will perhaps inform me to what intelligence he
+alludes."
+
+"That Mr. Mordaunt, the representative of one of the noblest families
+in England, has given the encouragement and influence of his name and
+rank to the designs of a seditious and turbulent mob."
+
+Mordaunt smiled slightly, as he replied, "Your lordship rightly
+believes that you are misinformed.  It is precisely because I would
+not have the mob you speak of seditious or turbulent that I have made
+it my request that the meeting of to-morrow should be suffered to pass
+off undisturbed."
+
+"Then, sir," cried Lord Ulswater, striking the table with a violence
+which caused three reverend potentates of the province to start back
+in dismay, "I cannot but consider such interference on your part to
+the last degree impolitic and uncalled for: these, sir, are times of
+great danger to the State, and in which it is indispensably requisite
+to support and strengthen the authority of the law."
+
+"I waive, at present," answered Mordaunt, "all reply to language
+neither courteous nor appropriate.  I doubt not but that the
+magistrates will decide as is most in accordance with the spirit of
+that law which, in this and in all times, should be supported."
+
+"Sir," said Lord Ulswater, losing his temper more and more, as he
+observed that the bystanders, whom he had been accustomed to awe, all
+visibly inclined to the opinion of Mordaunt, "sir, if your name has
+been instrumental in producing so unfortunate a determination on the
+part of the magistrates, I shall hold you responsible to the
+government for those results which ordinary prudence may calculate
+upon."
+
+"When Lord Ulswater," said Mordaunt, sternly, "has learned what is due
+not only to the courtesies of society, but to those legitimate
+authorities of his country, who (he ventures to suppose) are to be
+influenced contrary to their sense of duty by any individual, then he
+may perhaps find leisure to make himself better acquainted with the
+nature of those laws which he now so vehemently upholds."
+
+"Mr. Mordaunt, you will consider yourself answerable to me for those
+words," said Lord Ulswater, with a tone of voice unnaturally calm; and
+the angry flush of his countenance gave place to a livid paleness.
+Then, turning on his heel, he left the room.
+
+As he repaired homeward he saw one of his soldiers engaged in a loud
+and angry contest with a man in the plain garb of a peaceful citizen;
+a third person, standing by, appeared ineffectually endeavouring to
+pacify the disputants.  A rigid disciplinarian, Lord Ulswater allowed
+not even party feeling, roused as it was, to conquer professional
+habits.  He called off the soldier, and the man with whom the latter
+had been engaged immediately came up to Lord Ulswater, with a step as
+haughty as his own.  The third person, who had attempted the
+peacemaker, followed him.
+
+"I presume, sir," said he, "that you are an officer of this man's
+regiment."
+
+"I am the commanding officer, sir," said Lord Ulswater, very little
+relishing the air and tone of the person who addressed him.
+
+"Then," answered the man (who was, indeed, no other than Wolfe, who,
+having returned to W---- with Mordaunt, had already succeeded in
+embroiling himself in a dispute), "then, sir, I look to you for his
+punishment and my redress;" and Wolfe proceeded in his own exaggerated
+language to detail a very reasonable cause of complaint.  The fact was
+that Wolfe, meeting one of his compatriots and conversing with him
+somewhat loudly, had uttered some words which attracted the spleen of
+the soldier, who was reeling home very comfortably intoxicated; and
+the soldier had most assuredly indulged in a copious abuse of the d--d
+rebel who could not walk the streets without chattering sedition.
+
+Wolfe's friend confirmed the statement.
+
+The trooper attempted to justify himself; but Lord Ulswater saw his
+intoxication in an instant, and, secretly vexed that the complaint was
+not on the other side, ordered the soldier to his quarters, with a
+brief but sure threat of punishment on the morrow.  Not willing,
+however, to part with the "d--d rebel" on terms so flattering to the
+latter, Lord Ulswater, turning to Wolfe with a severe and angry air,
+said,--
+
+"As for you, fellow, I believe the whole fault was on your side; and
+if you dare again give vent to your disaffected ravings, I shall have
+you sent to prison to tame your rank blood upon bread and water.
+Begone, and think yourself fortunate to escape now!"
+
+The fierce spirit of Wolfe was in arms on the instant; and his reply,
+in subjecting him to Lord Ulswater's threat, might at least have
+prevented his enlightening the public on the morrow, had not his
+friend, a peaceable, prudent man, seized him by the arm, and
+whispered, "What are you about?  Consider for what you are here:
+another word may rob the assembly of your presence.  A man bent on a
+public cause must not, on the eve of its trial, enlist in a private
+quarrel."
+
+"True, my friend, true," said Wolfe, swallowing his rage and eying
+Lord Ulswater's retreating figure with a menacing look; "but the time
+may yet come when I shall have license to retaliate on the upstart."
+
+"So be it," quoth the other; "he is our bitterest enemy.  You know,
+perhaps, that he is Lord Ulswater of the ---- regiment?  It has been
+at his instigation that the magistrates proposed to disturb the
+meeting.  He has been known publicly to say that all who attended the
+assembly ought to be given up to the swords of his troopers."
+
+"The butchering dastard, to dream even of attacking unarmed men: but
+enough of him; I must tarry yet in the street to hear what success our
+intercessor has obtained."  And as Wolfe passed the house in which the
+magisterial conclave sat, Mordaunt came out and accosted him.
+
+"You have sworn to me that your purpose is peaceable."  said Mordaunt.
+
+"Unquestionably," answered Wolfe.
+
+"And you will pledge yourself that no disturbance, that can either be
+effected or counteracted by yourself and friends, shall take place?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"Enough!" answered Mordaunt.  "Remember that if you commit the least
+act that can be thought dangerous I may not be able to preserve you
+from the military.  As it is, your meeting will be unopposed."
+
+Contrary to Lord Ulswater's prediction, the meeting went off as
+quietly as an elderly maiden's tea-party.  The speakers, even Wolfe,
+not only took especial pains to recommend order and peace, but
+avoided, for the most part, all inflammatory enlargement upon the
+grievances of which they complained.  And the sage foreboders of evil,
+who had locked up their silver spoons, and shaken their heads very
+wisely for the last week, had the agreeable mortification of observing
+rather an appearance of good humour upon the countenances of the
+multitude than that ferocious determination against the lives and
+limbs of the well-affected which they had so sorrowfully anticipated.
+
+As Mordaunt (who had been present during the whole time of the
+meeting) mounted his horse and quitted the ground, Lord Ulswater,
+having just left his quarters, where he had been all day in
+expectation of some violent act of the orators or the mob demanding
+his military services, caught sight of him with a sudden recollection
+of his own passionate threat.  There had been nothing in Mordaunt's
+words which would in our times have justified a challenge; but in that
+day duels were fought upon the slightest provocation.  Lord Ulswater
+therefore rode up at once to a gentleman with whom he had some
+intimate acquaintance, and briefly saying that he had been insulted
+both as an officer and gentleman by Mr. Mordaunt, requested his friend
+to call upon that gentleman and demand satisfaction.
+
+"To-morrow," said Lord Ulswater, "I have the misfortune to be
+unavoidably engaged.  The next day you can appoint place and time of
+meeting."
+
+"I must first see the gentleman to whom Mr. Mordaunt may refer me,"
+said the friend, prudently; "and perhaps your honour may be satisfied
+without any hostile meeting at all."
+
+"I think not," said Lord Ulswater, carelessly, as he rode away; "for
+Mr. Mordaunt is a gentleman, and gentlemen never apologize."
+
+Wolfe was standing unobserved near Lord Ulswater while the latter thus
+instructed his proposed second.  "Man of blood," muttered the
+republican; "with homicide thy code of honour, and massacre thine
+interpretation of law, by violence wouldst thou rule, and by violence
+mayst thou perish!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVII.
+
+    Jam te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes,
+    Et domus exilis Plutonis.--HORACE.
+
+    ["This very hour Death shall overcome thee, and the fabled Manes,
+    and the shadowy Plutonian realms receive thee."]
+
+
+The morning was dull and heavy as Lord Ulswater mounted his horse, and
+unattended took his way towards Westborough Park.  His manner was
+unusually thoughtful and absent; perhaps two affairs upon his hands,
+either of which seemed likely to end in bloodshed, were sufficient to
+bring reflection even to the mind of a cavalry officer.
+
+He had scarcely got out of the town before he was overtaken by our
+worthy friend Mr. Glumford.  As he had been a firm ally of Lord
+Ulswater in the contest respecting the meeting, so, when he joined and
+saluted that nobleman, Lord Ulswater, mindful of past services,
+returned his greeting with an air rather of condescension than
+hauteur.  To say truth, his lordship was never very fond of utter
+loneliness, and the respectful bearing of Glumford, joined to that
+mutual congeniality which sympathy in political views always
+occasions, made him more pleased with the society than shocked with
+the intrusion of the squire; so that when Glumford said, "If your
+lordship's way lies along this road for the next five or six miles,
+perhaps you will allow me the honour of accompanying you," Lord
+Ulswater graciously signified his consent to the proposal, and
+carelessly mentioning that he was going to Westborough Park, slid into
+that conversation with his new companion which the meeting and its
+actors afforded.
+
+Turn we for an instant to Clarence.  At the appointed hour he had
+arrived at Westborough Park, and, bidding his companion, the trusty
+Wardour, remain within the chaise which had conveyed them, he was
+ushered with a trembling heart, but a mien erect and self-composed,
+into Lady Westborough's presence; the marchioness was alone.
+
+"I am sensible, sir," said she, with a little embarrassment, "that it
+is not exactly becoming to my station and circumstances to suffer a
+meeting of the present nature between Lord Ulswater and yourself to be
+held within this house; but I could not resist the request of Lord
+Ulswater, conscious from his character that it could contain nothing
+detrimental to the--to the consideration and delicacy due to Lady
+Flora Ardenne."
+
+Clarence bowed.  "So far as I am concerned," said he, "I feel
+confident that Lady Westborough will not repent of her condescension."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"It is singular," said Lady Westborough, looking to the clock upon an
+opposite table, "that Lord Ulswater has not yet arrived."
+
+"It is," said Clarence, scarcely conscious of his words, and wondering
+whether Lady Flora would deign to appear.  Another pause.  Lady
+Westborough felt the awkwardness of her situation.
+
+Clarence made an effort to recover himself.
+
+"I do not see," said he, "the necessity of delaying the explanation I
+have to offer to your ladyship till my Lord Ulswater deems it suitable
+to appear.  Allow me at once to enter upon a history, told in few
+words and easily proved."
+
+"Stay," said Lady Westborough, struggling with her curiosity; "it is
+due to one who has stood in so peculiar a situation in our family to
+wait yet a little longer for his coming.  We will therefore, till the
+hour is completed, postpone the object of our meeting."
+
+Clarence again bowed and was silent.  Another and a longer pause
+ensued: it was broken by the sound of the clock striking; the hour was
+completed.
+
+"Now," began Clarence, when he was interrupted by a sudden and violent
+commotion in the hall.  Above all was heard a loud and piercing cry,
+in which Clarence recognized the voice of the old steward.  He rose
+abruptly, and stood motionless and aghast; his eyes met those of Lady
+Westborough, who, pale and agitated, lost for the moment all her
+habitual self-command.  The sound increased: Clarence rushed from the
+room into the hall; the open door of the apartment revealed to Lady
+Westborough, as to him, a sight which allowed her no further time for
+hesitation.  She hurried after Clarence into the hall, gave one look,
+uttered one shriek of horror, and fainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVIII.
+
+Iden.--But thou wilt brave me in these saucy terms.
+Cade.--Brave thee I ay, by the best blood that ever was broached, and
+beard thee too.--SHAKSPEARE.
+
+"You see, my lord," said Mr. Glumford to Lord Ulswater, as they rode
+slowly on, "that as long as those rebellious scoundrels are indulged
+in their spoutings and meetings, and that sort of thing, that--that
+there will be no bearing them."
+
+Very judiciously remarked, sir," replied Lord Ulswater.  "I wish all
+gentlemen of birth and consideration viewed the question in the same
+calm, dispassionate, and profound light that you do.  Would to Heaven
+it were left to me to clear the country of those mutinous and
+dangerous rascals: I would make speedy and sure work of it."
+
+"I am certain you would, my lord; I am certain you would.  It is a
+thousand pities that pompous fellow Mordaunt interfered yesterday,
+with his moderation, and policy, and all that sort of thing; so
+foolish, you know, my lord,--mere theory and romance, and that sort of
+thing: we should have had it all our own way, if he had not."
+
+Lord Ulswater played with his riding-whip, but did not reply.  Mr.
+Glumford continued,--
+
+"Pray, my lord, did your lordship see what an ugly ill-dressed set of
+dogs those meetingers were; that Wolfe, above all?  Oh, he's a horrid-
+looking fellow.  By the by, he left the town this very morning; I saw
+him take leave of his friends in the street just before I set out.  He
+is going to some other meeting,--on foot too.  Only think of the folly
+of talking about the policy and prudence and humanity, and that sort
+of thing, of sparing such a pitiful poor fellow as that; can't afford
+a chaise, or a stage-coach even, my lord,--positively can't."
+
+"You see the matter exactly in its true light, Mr. Glumford," said his
+lordship, patting his fine horse, which was somewhat impatient of the
+slow pace of its companion.
+
+"A very beautiful animal of your lordship," said Mr. Glumford,
+spurring his own horse,--a heavy, dull quadruped with an obstinate
+ill-set tail, a low shoulder, and a Roman nose.  "I am very partial to
+horses myself, and love a fine horse as well as anybody."  Lord
+Ulswater cast a glance at his companion's steed, and seeing nothing in
+its qualities to justify this assertion of attachment to fine horses
+was silent: Lord Ulswater never flattered even his mistress, much less
+Mr. Glumford.
+
+"I will tell you, my lord," continued Mr. Glumford, "what a bargain
+this horse was;" and the squire proceeded, much to Lord Ulswater's
+discontent, to retail the history of his craft in making the said
+bargain.
+
+The riders were now entering a part of the road, a little more than
+two miles from Westborough Park, in which the features of the
+neighbouring country took a bolder and ruder aspect than they had
+hitherto worn.  On one side of the road, the view opened upon a
+descent of considerable depth, and the dull sun looked drearily over a
+valley in which large fallow fields, a distant and solitary spire, and
+a few stunted and withering trees formed the chief characteristics.
+On the other side of the road a narrow footpath was separated from the
+highway by occasional posts; and on this path Lord Ulswater (how the
+minute and daily occurrences of life show the grand pervading
+principles of character!) was, at the time we refer to, riding, in
+preference to the established thoroughfare for equestrian and aurigal
+travellers.  The side of this path farthest from the road was bordered
+by a steep declivity of stony and gravelly earth, which almost
+deserved the dignified appellation of a precipice; and it was with no
+small exertion of dexterous horsemanship that Lord Ulswater kept his
+spirited and susceptible steed upon the narrow and somewhat perilous
+path, in spite of its frequent starts at the rugged descent below.
+
+"I think, my lord, if I may venture to say so," said Mr. Glumford,
+having just finished the narration of his bargain, "that it would be
+better for you to take the high road just at present; for the descent
+from the footpath is steep and abrupt, and deuced crumbling! so that
+if your lordship's horse shied or took a wrong step, it might be
+attended with unpleasant consequences,--a fall, or that sort of
+thing."
+
+"You are very good, sir," said Lord Ulswater, who, like most proud
+people, conceived advice an insult; "but I imagine myself capable of
+guiding my horse, at least upon a road so excellent as this."
+
+"Certainly, my lord, certainly; I beg your pardon; but--bless me, who
+is that tall fellow in black, talking to himself yonder, my lord?  The
+turn of the road hides him from you just at present; but I see him
+well.  Ha! ha! what gestures he uses!  I dare say he is one of the
+petitioners, and--yes, my lord, by Jupiter, it is Wolfe himself!  You
+had better (excuse me, my lord) come down from the footpath: it is not
+wide enough for two people; and Wolfe, I dare say, a d--d rascal,
+would not get out of the way for the devil himself!  He's a nasty,
+black, fierce-looking fellow; I would not for something meet him in a
+dark night, or that sort of thing!"
+
+"I do not exactly understand, Mr. Glumford," returned Lord Ulswater,
+with a supercilious glance at that gentleman, "what peculiarities of
+temper you are pleased to impute to me, or from what you deduce the
+supposition that I shall move out of my way for a person like Mr.
+Woolt, or Wolfe, or whatever be his name."
+
+"I beg your pardon, my lord, I am sure," answered Glumford: "of course
+your lordship knows best, and if the rogue is impertinent, why, I'm a
+magistrate, and will commit him; though, to be sure," continued our
+righteous Daniel, in a lower key, "he has a right to walk upon the
+footpath without being ridden over, or that sort of thing."
+
+The equestrians were now very near Wolfe, who, turning hastily round,
+perceived, and immediately recognized Lord Ulswater.  "Ah-ha!"
+muttered he to himself, "here comes the insolent thirster for blood,
+grudging us seemingly even the meagre comfort of the path which his
+horse's hoofs are breaking up; yet, thank Heaven," added the
+republican, looking with a stern satisfaction at the narrowness of the
+footing, "he cannot very well pass me, and the free lion does not move
+out of his way for such pampered kine as those to which this creature
+belongs."
+
+Actuated by this thought, Wolfe almost insensibly moved entirely into
+the middle of the path, so that with the posts on one side, and the
+abrupt and undefended precipice, if we may so call it, on the other,
+it was quite impossible for any horseman to pass the republican,
+unless over his body.
+
+Lord Ulswater marked the motion, and did not want penetration to
+perceive the cause.  Glad of an opportunity to wreak some portion of
+his irritation against a member of a body so offensive to his mind,
+and which had the day before obtained a sort of triumph over his
+exertions against them, and rendered obstinate in his intention by the
+pique he had felt at Glumford's caution, Lord Ulswater, tightening his
+rein and humming with apparent indifference a popular tune, continued
+his progress till he was within a foot of the republican.  Then,
+checking his horse for a moment, he called, in a tone of quiet
+arrogance, to Wolfe to withdraw himself on one side till he had
+passed.
+
+The fierce blood of the republican, which the least breath of
+oppression sufficed to kindle, and which yet boiled with the
+remembrance of Lord Ulswater's threat to him two nights before, was on
+fire at this command.  He stopped short, and turning half round, stood
+erect in the strength and power of his singularly tall and not
+ungraceful form.  "Poor and proud fool," said he, with a voice of the
+most biting scorn, and fixing an eye eloquent of ire and menaced
+danger upon the calmly contemptuous countenance of the patrician,
+"poor and proud fool, do you think that your privileges have already
+reached so pleasant a pitch that you may ride over men like dust?
+Off, fool! the basest peasant in England, degraded as he is, would
+resist while he ridiculed your arrogance."
+
+Without deigning any reply, Lord Ulswater spurred his horse; the
+spirited animal bounded forward almost on the very person of the
+obstructer of the path; with uncommon agility Wolfe drew aside from
+the danger, seized with a powerful grasp the bridle, and abruptly
+arresting the horse backed it fearfully towards the descent.  Enraged
+beyond all presence of mind, the fated nobleman, raising his whip,
+struck violently at the republican.  The latter, as he felt the blow,
+uttered a single shout of such ferocity that it curdled the timorous
+blood of Glumford, and with a giant and iron hand he backed the horse
+several paces down the precipice.  The treacherous earth crumbled
+beneath the weight, and Lord Ulswater spurring his steed violently at
+the same instant that Wolfe so sharply and strongly curbed it, the
+affrighted animal reared violently, forced the rein from Wolfe, stood
+erect for a moment of horror to the spectator, and then, as its
+footing and balance alike failed, it fell backward, and rolled over
+and over its unfortunate and helpless rider.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Glumford, who had sat quietly upon his dozing
+horse, watching the result of the dispute, "what have you done? you
+have killed his lordship,--positively killed him,--and his horse, too,
+I dare say.  You shall be hanged for this, sir, as sure as I am a
+magistrate, and that sort of thing."
+
+Unheeding this denunciation, Wolfe had made to the spot where rider
+and horse lay blent together at the foot of the descent; and assisting
+the latter to rise, bent down to examine the real effect of his
+violence.  "Methinks," said he, as he looked upon the hueless but
+still defying features of the horseman, "methinks I have seen that
+face years before,--but where?  Perhaps my dreams have foretold me
+this."
+
+Lord Ulswater was utterly senseless; and as Wolfe raised him, he saw
+that the right side of the head was covered with blood, and that one
+arm seemed crushed and broken.  Meanwhile a carriage had appeared, was
+hailed by Glumford, stopped; and on being informed of the circumstance
+and the rank of the sufferer, the traveller, a single gentleman,
+descended, assisted to raise the unhappy nobleman, placed him in the
+carriage, and, obeying Glumford's instructions, proceeded slowly to
+Westborough Park.
+
+"But the ruffian, the rebel, the murderer?" said Mr. Glumford, both
+querulously and inquiringly, looking towards Wolfe, who, without
+having attempted to assist his victim, stood aloof, with arms folded,
+and an expression of sated ferocity upon his speaking features.
+
+"Oh! as to him," quoth the traveller, stepping into his carriage, in
+order to support the mangled man, "you, sir, and my valet can bring
+him along with you, or take him to the next town, or do, in short,
+with him just as you please, only be sure he does not escape; drive
+on, post-boy, very gently."  And poor Mr. Glumford found the muscular
+form of the stern Wolfe consigned to the sole care of himself and a
+very diminutive man in pea-green silk stockings, who, however
+excellently well he might perform the office of valet, was certainly
+by no means calculated in physical powers for the detention of a
+criminal.
+
+Wolfe saved the pair a world of trouble and anxiety.
+
+"Sir," said he, gravely, turning to Glumford, "you beheld the affray,
+and whatever its consequences will do me the common justice of
+witnessing as to the fact of the first aggressor.  It will, however,
+be satisfactory to both of us to seize the earliest opportunity of
+putting the matter upon a legal footing, and I shall therefore return
+to W----, to which town you will doubtless accompany me."
+
+"With all my heart!" cried Mr. Glumford, feeling as if a mountain of
+responsibility were taken from his breast.  "And I wish to Heaven you
+may be transported instead of hanged."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIX.
+
+    But gasping heaved the breath that Lara drew,
+    And dull the film along his dim eye grew.--BYRON.
+
+The light broke partially through the half-closed shutters of the room
+in which lay Lord Ulswater, who, awakened to sense and pain by the
+motion of the carriage, had now relapsed into insensibility.  By the
+side of the sofa on which he was laid, knelt Clarence, bathing one
+hand with tears violent and fast; on the opposite side leaned over,
+with bald front, and an expression of mingled fear and sorrow upon his
+intent countenance, the old steward; while, at a little distance, Lord
+Westborough, who had been wheeled into the room, sat mute in his
+chair, aghast with bewilderment and horror, and counting every moment
+to the arrival of the surgeon, who had been sent for.  The stranger to
+whom the carriage belonged stood by the window, detailing in a low
+voice to the chaplain of the house what particulars of the occurrence
+he was acquainted with, while the youngest scion of the family, a boy
+of about ten years, and who in the general confusion had thrust
+himself unnoticed into the room, stood close to the pair, with open
+mouth and thirsting ears and a face on which childish interest at a
+fearful tale was strongly blent with the more absorbed feeling of
+terror at the truth.
+
+Slowly Lord Ulswater opened his eyes; they rested upon Clarence.
+
+"My brother! my brother!" cried Clarence, in a voice of powerful
+anguish, "is it thus--thus that you have come hither to--"  He stopped
+in the gushing fulness of his heart.  Extricating from Clarence the
+only hand he was able to use, Lord Ulswater raised it to his brow, as
+if in the effort to clear remembrance; and then, turning to Wardour,
+seemed to ask the truth of Clarence's claim,--at least so the old man
+interpreted the meaning of his eye, and the faint and scarce
+intelligible words which broke from his lips.
+
+"It is; it is, my honoured lord," cried he, struggling with his
+emotion; "it is your brother, your lost brother, Clinton L'Estrange."
+And as he said these words, Clarence felt the damp chill hand of his
+brother press his own, and knew by that pressure and the smile--kind,
+though brief from exceeding pain--with which the ill-fated nobleman
+looked upon him, that the claim long unknown was at last acknowledged,
+and the ties long broken united, though in death.
+
+The surgeon arrived: the room was cleared of all but Clarence; the
+first examination was sufficient.  Unaware of Clarence's close
+relationship to the sufferer, the surgeon took him aside.  "A very
+painful operation," said he, "might be performed, but it would only
+torture, in vain, the last moments of the patient; no human skill can
+save or even protract his life."
+
+The doomed man, who, though in great pain, was still sensible,
+stirred.  His brother flew towards him.  "Flora," he murmured, "let me
+see her, I implore."
+
+Curbing, as much as he was able, his emotion, and conquering his
+reluctance to leave the sufferer even for a moment, Clarence flew in
+search of Lady Flora.  He found her; in rapid and hasty words, he
+signified the wish of the dying man, and hurried her, confused,
+trembling, and scarce conscious of the melancholy scene she was about
+to witness, to the side of her affianced bridegroom.
+
+I have been by the death-beds of many men, and I have noted that
+shortly before death, as the frame grows weaker and weaker, the
+fiercer passions yield to those feelings better harmonizing with the
+awfulness of the hour.  Thoughts soft and tender, which seem little to
+belong to the character in the health and vigour of former years,
+obtain then an empire, brief, indeed, but utter for the time they
+last; and this is the more impressive because (as in the present
+instance I shall have occasion to portray) in the moments which
+succeed and make the very latest of life, the ruling passion,
+suppressed for an interval by such gentler feelings, sometimes again
+returns to take its final triumph over that frail clay, which, through
+existence, it has swayed, agitated, and moulded like wax unto its
+will.
+
+When Lord Ulswater saw Flora approach and bend weepingly over him, a
+momentary softness stole over his face.  Taking her hand he extended
+it towards Clarence, and turning to the latter faltered out, "Let
+this--my--brother--atone--for--;" apparently unable to finish the
+sentence, he then relaxed his hold and sank upon the pillow; and so
+still, so apparently breathless did he remain for several minutes,
+that they thought the latest agony was over.
+
+As, yielding to this impression, Clarence was about to withdraw the
+scarce conscious Flora from the chamber, words, less tremulous and
+indistinct than aught which he had yet uttered, broke from Lord
+Ulswater's lips.  Clarence hastened to him; and bending over his
+countenance saw that even through the rapid changes and shades of
+death, it darkened with the peculiar characteristics of the unreleased
+soul within: the brow was knit into more than its wonted sternness and
+pride; and in the eye which glared upon the opposite wall, the light
+of the waning life broke into a momentary blaze,--that flash, so rapid
+and evanescent, before the air drinks in the last spark of the being
+it has animated, and night--the starless and eternal--falls over the
+extinguished lamp!  The hand of the right arm (which was that
+unshattered by the fall) was clenched and raised; but, when the words
+which came upon Clarence's ear had ceased, it fell heavily by his
+side, like a clod of that clay which it had then become.  In those
+words it seemed as if, in the confused delirium of passing existence,
+the brave soldier mingled some dim and bewildered recollection of
+former battles with that of his last most fatal though most ignoble
+strife.
+
+"Down, down with them!" he muttered between his teeth, though in a
+tone startlingly deep and audible; "down with them!  No quarter to the
+infidels! strike for England and Effingham.  Ha!--who strives for
+flight there!--kill him! no mercy, I say,--none!--there, there, I have
+despatched him; ha! ha!  What, still alive?--off, slave, off!  Oh,
+slain! slain in a ditch, by a base-born hind; oh, bitter! bitter!
+bitter!"  And with these words, of which the last, from their piercing
+anguish and keen despair, made a dread contrast with the fire and
+defiance of the first, the jaw fell, the flashing and fierce eye
+glazed and set, and all of the haughty and bold patrician which the
+earth retained was--dust!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXX.
+
+Il n'est jamais permis de deteriorer une ame humaine pour l'avantage
+des autres, ni de faire un scelerat pour le service des honnetes
+gens.--ROUSSEAU.
+
+["It is not permitted us to degrade one single soul for the sake of
+conferring advantage on others, nor to make a rogue for the good of
+the honest."]
+
+
+As the reader approaches the termination of this narrative, and looks
+back upon the many scenes he has passed, perhaps, in the mimic
+representation of human life, he may find no unfaithful resemblance to
+the true.
+
+As, amongst the crowd of characters jostled against each other in
+their course, some drop off at the first, the second, or the third
+stage, and leave a few only continuing to the last, while Fate chooses
+her agents and survivors among those whom the bystander, perchance,
+least noticed as the objects of her selection; and they who, haply,
+seemed to him, at first, among the most conspicuous as characters,
+sink, some abruptly, some gradually, into actors of the least
+importance in events; as the reader notes the same passion, in
+different strata, producing the most opposite qualities, and gathers
+from that notice some estimate of the vast perplexity in the code of
+morals, deemed by the shallow so plain a science; when he finds that a
+similar and single feeling will produce both the virtue we love and
+the vice we detest, the magnanimity we admire and the meanness we
+despise; as the feeble hands of the author force into contrast
+ignorance and wisdom, the affectation of philosophy and its true
+essence, coarseness and refinement, the lowest vulgarity of sentiment
+with an exaltation of feeling approaching to morbidity, the reality of
+virtue with the counterfeit, the glory of the Divinity with the
+hideousness of the Idol, sorrow and eager joy, marriage and death,
+tears and their young successors, smiles; as all, blent together,
+these varieties of life form a single yet many-coloured web, leaving
+us to doubt whether, in fortune the bright hue or the dark, in
+character the base material or the rich, predominate,--the workman of
+the web could almost reconcile himself to his glaring and great
+deficiency in art by the fond persuasion that he has, at least in his
+choice of tint and texture, caught something of the likeness of
+Nature: but he knows, to the abasement of his vanity, that these
+enumerated particulars of resemblance to life are common to all, even
+to the most unskilful of his brethren; and it is not the mere act of
+copying a true original, but the rare circumstance of force and
+accuracy in the copy, which can alone constitute a just pretension to
+merit, or flatter the artist with the hope of a moderate success.
+
+The news of Lord Ulswater's untimely death soon spread around the
+neighbourhood, and was conveyed to Mordaunt by the very gentleman whom
+that nobleman had charged with his hostile message.  Algernon repaired
+at once to W----, to gather from Wolfe some less exaggerated account
+of the affray than that which the many tongues of Rumour had brought
+to him.
+
+It was no difficult matter to see the precise share of blame to be
+attached to Wolfe; and, notwithstanding the biased account of Glumford
+and the strong spirit of party then existing in the country, no
+rational man could for a moment term the event of a sudden fray a
+premeditated murder, or the violence of the aggrieved the black
+offence of a wilful criminal.  Wolfe, therefore, soon obtained a
+release from the confinement to which he had been at first committed;
+and with a temper still more exasperated by the evident disposition of
+his auditors to have treated him, had it been possible, with the
+utmost rigour, he returned to companions well calculated by their
+converse and bent of mind to inflame the fester of his moral
+constitution.
+
+It happens generally that men very vehement in any particular opinion
+choose their friends, not for a general similarity of character, but
+in proportion to their mutual congeniality of sentiment upon that
+particular opinion; it happens, also, that those most audibly violent,
+if we may so speak, upon any opinion, moral or political, are rarely
+the wisest or the purest of their party.  Those with whom Wolfe was
+intimate were men who shared none of the nobler characteristics of the
+republican; still less did they participate in or even comprehend the
+enlightened and benevolent views for which the wise and great men of
+that sect--a sect to which all philanthropy is, perhaps too fondly,
+inclined to lean--have been so conspicuously eminent.  On the
+contrary, Wolfe's comrades, without education and consequently without
+principle, had been driven to disaffection by desperate fortunes and
+ruined reputations acting upon minds polluted by the ignorance and
+hardened among the dross of the populace.  But the worst can by
+constant intercourse corrupt the best; and the barriers of good and
+evil, often confused in Wolfe's mind by the blindness of his passions,
+seemed, as his intercourse with these lawless and ruffian associates
+thickened, to be at last utterly broken down and swept away.
+
+Unhappily too--soon after Wolfe's return to London--the popular
+irritation showed itself in mobs, perhaps rather to be termed
+disorderly than seditious.  The ministers, however, thought otherwise;
+the military were summoned, and much injury, resulting, it is to be
+hoped, from accident, not design, ensued to many of the persons
+assembled.  Some were severely wounded by the swords of the soldiers;
+others maimed and trampled upon by the horses, which shared the
+agitation or irritability of their riders; and a few, among whom were
+two women and three children, lost their lives.  Wolfe had been one of
+the crowd; and the scene, melancholy as it really was, and appearing
+to his temper unredeemed and inexcusable on the part of the soldiers,
+left on his mind a deep and burning impression of revenge.  Justice
+(as they termed it) was demanded by strong bodies of the people upon
+the soldiers; but the administration, deeming it politic rather to awe
+than to conciliate, so far from censuring the military, approved their
+exertions.
+
+From that time Wolfe appears to have resolved upon the execution of a
+design which he had long imperfectly and confusedly meditated.
+
+This was no less a crime (and to him did conscientiously seem no less
+a virtue) than to seize a favourable opportunity for assassinating the
+most prominent member of the administration, and the one who, above
+all the rest, was the most odious to the disaffected.  It must be
+urged, in extenuation of the atrocity of this design, that a man
+perpetually brooding over one scheme, which to him has become the very
+sustenance of existence, and which scheme, perpetually frustrated,
+grows desperate by disappointment, acquires a heat of morbid and
+oblique enthusiasm, which may be not unreasonably termed insanity; and
+that, at the very time Wolfe reconciled it to his conscience to commit
+the murder of his fellow creature, he would have moved out of his path
+for a worm.  Assassination, indeed, seemed to him justice; and a
+felon's execution the glory of martyrdom.  And yet, O Fanatic, thou
+didst anathematize the Duellist as the Man of blood: what is the
+Assassin?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXI.
+
+    And thou that, silent at my knee,
+      Dost lift to mine thy soft, dark, earnest eyes,
+    Filled with the love of childhood, which I see
+      Pure through its depths,--a thing without disguise.
+    Thou that hast breathed in slumber on my breast,
+    When I have checked its throbs to give thee rest,
+      Mine own, whose young thoughts fresh before me rise,
+    Is it not much that I may guide thy prayer,
+    And circle thy young soul with free and healthful air?--HEMANS.
+
+The events we have recorded, from the time of Clarence's visit to
+Mordaunt to the death of Lord Ulswater, took place within little more
+than a week.  We have now to pass in silence over several weeks; and
+as it was the commencement of autumn when we introduced Clarence and
+Mordaunt to our reader, so it is the first opening of winter in which
+we will resume the thread of our narration.
+
+Mordaunt had removed to London; and, although he had not yet taken any
+share in public business, he was only watching the opportunity to
+commence a career the brilliancy of which those who knew aught of his
+mind began already to foretell.  But he mixed little, if at all, with
+the gayer occupants of the world's prominent places.  Absorbed
+alternately in his studies and his labours of good, the halls of
+pleasure were seldom visited by his presence; and they who in the
+crowd knew nothing of him but his name, and the lofty bearing of his
+mien, recoiled from the coldness of his exterior; and, while they
+marvelled at his retirement and reserve, saw in both but the
+moroseness of the student and the gloom of the misanthropist.
+
+But the nobleness of his person; the antiquity of his birth; his
+wealth, his unblemished character, and the interest thrown over his
+name by the reputation of talent and the unpenetrated mystery of his
+life, all powerfully spoke in his favour to those of the gentler sex,
+who judge us not only from what we are to others, but from what they
+imagine we can be to them.  From such allurements, however, as from
+all else, the mourner turned only the more deeply to cherish the
+memory of the dead; and it was a touching and holy sight to mark the
+mingled excess of melancholy and fondness with which he watched over
+that treasure in whose young beauty and guileless heart his departed
+Isabel had yet left the resemblance of her features and her love.
+There seemed between them to exist even a dearer and closer tie than
+that of daughter and sire; for, in both, the objects which usually
+divide the affections of the man or the child had but a feeble charm:
+Isabel's mind had expanded beyond her years, and Algernon's had
+outgrown his time; so that neither the sports natural to her age, nor
+the ambition ordinary to his, were sufficient to wean or to distract
+the unity of their love.  When, after absence, his well-known step
+trod lightly in the hall, her ear, which had listened and longed and
+thirsted for the sound, taught her fairy feet to be the first to
+welcome his return; and when the slightest breath of sickness menaced
+her slender frame, it was his hand that smoothed her pillow, and his
+smile that cheered away her pain; and when she sank into sleep she
+knew that a father's heart watched over her through the long but
+untiring night; that a father's eye would be the first which, on
+waking, she would meet.
+
+"Oh! beautiful, and rare as beautiful," was that affection; in the
+parent no earthlier or harder sternness in authority, nor weakness in
+doting, nor caprice in love; in the child no fear debasing reverence,
+yet no familiarity diminishing respect.  But Love, whose pride is in
+serving, seemed to make at once soft and hallowed the offices mutually
+rendered; and Nature, never counteracted in her dictates, wrought,
+without a visible effort, the proper channels into which those offices
+should flow; and that Charity which not only covers sins, but lifts
+the veil from virtues, whose beauty might otherwise have lain
+concealed, linked them closer and closer, and threw over that link the
+sanctity of itself.  For it was Algernon's sweetest pleasure to make
+her young hands the ministers of good to others, and to drink at such
+times from the rich glow of her angel countenance the purified
+selfishness of his reward.  And when after the divine joy of blessing,
+which, perhaps, the youngest taste yet more vividly than their sires,
+she threw her arms around his neck and thanked him with glad tears for
+the luxury he had bestowed upon her, how could they, in that gushing
+overflow of heart, help loving each other the more, or feeling that in
+that love there was something which justified the excess?
+
+Nor have we drawn with too exaggerating a pencil, nor, though Isabel's
+mind was older than her years, extended that prematureness to her
+heart.  For, where we set the example of benevolence, and see that the
+example is in nought corrupted, the milk of human kindness will flow
+not the less readily from the youngest breast, and out of the mouths
+of babes will come the wisdom of charity and love!
+
+Ever since Mordaunt's arrival in town, he had sought out Wolfe's
+abode, for the purpose of ministering to the poverty under which he
+rightly conjectured that the republican laboured.  But the habitation
+of one, needy, distressed, seldom living long in one place, and far
+less notorious of late than he had formerly been, was not easy to
+discover; nor was it till after long and vain search that he
+ascertained the retreat of his singular acquaintance.  The day in
+which he effected this object we shall have hereafter occasion to
+specify.  Meanwhile we return to Mr. Crauford.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V7 ***
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+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #7637 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7637)