initial commit of ebook 917HEADmain

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+
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+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
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+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
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+               text-align: right;}
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+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Barnaby Rudge
+
+Author: Charles Dickens
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2006 [EBook #917]
+Last updated: July 15, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARNABY RUDGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      BARNABY RUDGE
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      A TALE OF THE RIOTS OF 'EIGHTY <br /> <br /> by Charles Dickens
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0010m.jpg" alt="0010m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0010.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0011m.jpg" alt="0011m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0011.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+<blockquote>
+Etext Contributor's Note:
+
+I've left in archaic forms such as 'to-morrow' or 'to-day' as they
+occured in my copy. Also please be aware if spell-checking, that within
+dialog many 'mispelled' words exist, i.e. 'wery' for 'very', as intended
+by the author.
+
+D.L.
+</blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter 1 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter 2 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter 3 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter 4 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter 5 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter 6 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter 7 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter 8 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter 9 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter 10 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter 11 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter 12 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter 13 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> Chapter 14 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter 15 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter 16 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter 17 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter 18 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter 19 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter 20 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> Chapter 21 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> Chapter 22 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> Chapter 23 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> Chapter 24 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> Chapter 25 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0026"> Chapter 26 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0027"> Chapter 27 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> Chapter 28 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0029"> Chapter 29 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0030"> Chapter 30 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0031"> Chapter 31 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0032"> Chapter 32 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0033"> Chapter 33 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0034"> Chapter 34 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0035"> Chapter 35 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0036"> Chapter 36 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0037"> Chapter 37 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0038"> Chapter 38 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0039"> Chapter 39 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0040"> Chapter 40 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0041"> Chapter 41 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0042"> Chapter 42 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0043"> Chapter 43 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0044"> Chapter 44 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0045"> Chapter 45 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0046"> Chapter 46 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0047"> Chapter 47 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0048"> Chapter 48 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0049"> Chapter 49 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0050"> Chapter 50 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0051"> Chapter 51 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0052"> Chapter 52 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0053"> Chapter 53 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0054"> Chapter 54 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0055"> Chapter 55 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0056"> Chapter 56 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0057"> Chapter 57 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0058"> Chapter 58 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0059"> Chapter 59 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0060"> Chapter 60 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0061"> Chapter 61 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0062"> Chapter 62 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0063"> Chapter 63 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0064"> Chapter 64 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0065"> Chapter 65 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0066"> Chapter 66 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0067"> Chapter 67 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0068"> Chapter 68 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0069"> Chapter 69 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0070"> Chapter 70 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0071"> Chapter 71 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0072"> Chapter 72 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0073"> Chapter 73 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0074"> Chapter 74 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0075"> Chapter 75 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0076"> Chapter 76 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0077"> Chapter 77 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0078"> Chapter 78 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0079"> Chapter 79 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0080"> Chapter 80 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0081"> Chapter 81 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0082"> Chapter the Last </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The late Mr Waterton having, some time ago, expressed his opinion that
+      ravens are gradually becoming extinct in England, I offered the few
+      following words about my experience of these birds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of whom I
+      was, at different times, the proud possessor. The first was in the bloom
+      of his youth, when he was discovered in a modest retirement in London, by
+      a friend of mine, and given to me. He had from the first, as Sir Hugh
+      Evans says of Anne Page, 'good gifts', which he improved by study and
+      attention in a most exemplary manner. He slept in a stable&mdash;generally
+      on horseback&mdash;and so terrified a Newfoundland dog by his
+      preternatural sagacity, that he has been known, by the mere superiority of
+      his genius, to walk off unmolested with the dog's dinner, from before his
+      face. He was rapidly rising in acquirements and virtues, when, in an evil
+      hour, his stable was newly painted. He observed the workmen closely, saw
+      that they were careful of the paint, and immediately burned to possess it.
+      On their going to dinner, he ate up all they had left behind, consisting
+      of a pound or two of white lead; and this youthful indiscretion terminated
+      in death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While I was yet inconsolable for his loss, another friend of mine in
+      Yorkshire discovered an older and more gifted raven at a village
+      public-house, which he prevailed upon the landlord to part with for a
+      consideration, and sent up to me. The first act of this Sage, was, to
+      administer to the effects of his predecessor, by disinterring all the
+      cheese and halfpence he had buried in the garden&mdash;a work of immense
+      labour and research, to which he devoted all the energies of his mind.
+      When he had achieved this task, he applied himself to the acquisition of
+      stable language, in which he soon became such an adept, that he would
+      perch outside my window and drive imaginary horses with great skill, all
+      day. Perhaps even I never saw him at his best, for his former master sent
+      his duty with him, 'and if I wished the bird to come out very strong,
+      would I be so good as to show him a drunken man'&mdash;which I never did,
+      having (unfortunately) none but sober people at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I could hardly have respected him more, whatever the stimulating
+      influences of this sight might have been. He had not the least respect, I
+      am sorry to say, for me in return, or for anybody but the cook; to whom he
+      was attached&mdash;but only, I fear, as a Policeman might have been. Once,
+      I met him unexpectedly, about half-a-mile from my house, walking down the
+      middle of a public street, attended by a pretty large crowd, and
+      spontaneously exhibiting the whole of his accomplishments. His gravity
+      under those trying circumstances, I can never forget, nor the
+      extraordinary gallantry with which, refusing to be brought home, he
+      defended himself behind a pump, until overpowered by numbers. It may have
+      been that he was too bright a genius to live long, or it may have been
+      that he took some pernicious substance into his bill, and thence into his
+      maw&mdash;which is not improbable, seeing that he new-pointed the greater
+      part of the garden-wall by digging out the mortar, broke countless squares
+      of glass by scraping away the putty all round the frames, and tore up and
+      swallowed, in splinters, the greater part of a wooden staircase of six
+      steps and a landing&mdash;but after some three years he too was taken ill,
+      and died before the kitchen fire. He kept his eye to the last upon the
+      meat as it roasted, and suddenly turned over on his back with a sepulchral
+      cry of 'Cuckoo!' Since then I have been ravenless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No account of the Gordon Riots having been to my knowledge introduced into
+      any Work of Fiction, and the subject presenting very extraordinary and
+      remarkable features, I was led to project this Tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is unnecessary to say, that those shameful tumults, while they reflect
+      indelible disgrace upon the time in which they occurred, and all who had
+      act or part in them, teach a good lesson. That what we falsely call a
+      religious cry is easily raised by men who have no religion, and who in
+      their daily practice set at nought the commonest principles of right and
+      wrong; that it is begotten of intolerance and persecution; that it is
+      senseless, besotted, inveterate and unmerciful; all History teaches us.
+      But perhaps we do not know it in our hearts too well, to profit by even so
+      humble an example as the 'No Popery' riots of Seventeen Hundred and
+      Eighty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However imperfectly those disturbances are set forth in the following
+      pages, they are impartially painted by one who has no sympathy with the
+      Romish Church, though he acknowledges, as most men do, some esteemed
+      friends among the followers of its creed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the description of the principal outrages, reference has been had to
+      the best authorities of that time, such as they are; the account given in
+      this Tale, of all the main features of the Riots, is substantially
+      correct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis's allusions to the flourishing condition of his trade in those
+      days, have their foundation in Truth, and not in the Author's fancy. Any
+      file of old Newspapers, or odd volume of the Annual Register, will prove
+      this with terrible ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the case of Mary Jones, dwelt upon with so much pleasure by the same
+      character, is no effort of invention. The facts were stated, exactly as
+      they are stated here, in the House of Commons. Whether they afforded as
+      much entertainment to the merry gentlemen assembled there, as some other
+      most affecting circumstances of a similar nature mentioned by Sir Samuel
+      Romilly, is not recorded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That the case of Mary Jones may speak the more emphatically for itself, I
+      subjoin it, as related by SIR WILLIAM MEREDITH in a speech in Parliament,
+      'on Frequent Executions', made in 1777.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Under this act,' the Shop-lifting Act, 'one Mary Jones was executed,
+      whose case I shall just mention; it was at the time when press warrants
+      were issued, on the alarm about Falkland Islands. The woman's husband was
+      pressed, their goods seized for some debts of his, and she, with two small
+      children, turned into the streets a-begging. It is a circumstance not to
+      be forgotten, that she was very young (under nineteen), and most
+      remarkably handsome. She went to a linen-draper's shop, took some coarse
+      linen off the counter, and slipped it under her cloak; the shopman saw
+      her, and she laid it down: for this she was hanged. Her defence was (I
+      have the trial in my pocket), "that she had lived in credit, and wanted
+      for nothing, till a press-gang came and stole her husband from her; but
+      since then, she had no bed to lie on; nothing to give her children to eat;
+      and they were almost naked; and perhaps she might have done something
+      wrong, for she hardly knew what she did." The parish officers testified
+      the truth of this story; but it seems, there had been a good deal of
+      shop-lifting about Ludgate; an example was thought necessary; and this
+      woman was hanged for the comfort and satisfaction of shopkeepers in
+      Ludgate Street. When brought to receive sentence, she behaved in such a
+      frantic manner, as proved her mind to be in a distracted and desponding
+      state; and the child was sucking at her breast when she set out for
+      Tyburn.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0017m.jpg" alt="0017m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0017.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 1
+    </h2>
+<div class="figleft" style="width:15%">
+      <img src="images/9017m.jpg" alt="9017m " width="100%" /><br />
+      <a href="images/9017.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      the year 1775, there stood upon the borders of Epping Forest, at a
+      distance of about twelve miles from London&mdash;measuring from the
+      Standard in Cornhill,' or rather from the spot on or near to which the
+      Standard used to be in days of yore&mdash;a house of public entertainment
+      called the Maypole; which fact was demonstrated to all such travellers as
+      could neither read nor write (and at that time a vast number both of
+      travellers and stay-at-homes were in this condition) by the emblem reared
+      on the roadside over against the house, which, if not of those goodly
+      proportions that Maypoles were wont to present in olden times, was a fair
+      young ash, thirty feet in height, and straight as any arrow that ever
+      English yeoman drew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Maypole&mdash;by which term from henceforth is meant the house, and
+      not its sign&mdash;the Maypole was an old building, with more gable ends
+      than a lazy man would care to count on a sunny day; huge zig-zag chimneys,
+      out of which it seemed as though even smoke could not choose but come in
+      more than naturally fantastic shapes, imparted to it in its tortuous
+      progress; and vast stables, gloomy, ruinous, and empty. The place was said
+      to have been built in the days of King Henry the Eighth; and there was a
+      legend, not only that Queen Elizabeth had slept there one night while upon
+      a hunting excursion, to wit, in a certain oak-panelled room with a deep
+      bay window, but that next morning, while standing on a mounting block
+      before the door with one foot in the stirrup, the virgin monarch had then
+      and there boxed and cuffed an unlucky page for some neglect of duty. The
+      matter-of-fact and doubtful folks, of whom there were a few among the
+      Maypole customers, as unluckily there always are in every little
+      community, were inclined to look upon this tradition as rather apocryphal;
+      but, whenever the landlord of that ancient hostelry appealed to the
+      mounting block itself as evidence, and triumphantly pointed out that there
+      it stood in the same place to that very day, the doubters never failed to
+      be put down by a large majority, and all true believers exulted as in a
+      victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether these, and many other stories of the like nature, were true or
+      untrue, the Maypole was really an old house, a very old house, perhaps as
+      old as it claimed to be, and perhaps older, which will sometimes happen
+      with houses of an uncertain, as with ladies of a certain, age. Its windows
+      were old diamond-pane lattices, its floors were sunken and uneven, its
+      ceilings blackened by the hand of time, and heavy with massive beams. Over
+      the doorway was an ancient porch, quaintly and grotesquely carved; and
+      here on summer evenings the more favoured customers smoked and drank&mdash;ay,
+      and sang many a good song too, sometimes&mdash;reposing on two
+      grim-looking high-backed settles, which, like the twin dragons of some
+      fairy tale, guarded the entrance to the mansion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the chimneys of the disused rooms, swallows had built their nests for
+      many a long year, and from earliest spring to latest autumn whole colonies
+      of sparrows chirped and twittered in the eaves. There were more pigeons
+      about the dreary stable-yard and out-buildings than anybody but the
+      landlord could reckon up. The wheeling and circling flights of runts,
+      fantails, tumblers, and pouters, were perhaps not quite consistent with
+      the grave and sober character of the building, but the monotonous cooing,
+      which never ceased to be raised by some among them all day long, suited it
+      exactly, and seemed to lull it to rest. With its overhanging stories,
+      drowsy little panes of glass, and front bulging out and projecting over
+      the pathway, the old house looked as if it were nodding in its sleep.
+      Indeed, it needed no very great stretch of fancy to detect in it other
+      resemblances to humanity. The bricks of which it was built had originally
+      been a deep dark red, but had grown yellow and discoloured like an old
+      man's skin; the sturdy timbers had decayed like teeth; and here and there
+      the ivy, like a warm garment to comfort it in its age, wrapt its green
+      leaves closely round the time-worn walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a hale and hearty age though, still: and in the summer or autumn
+      evenings, when the glow of the setting sun fell upon the oak and chestnut
+      trees of the adjacent forest, the old house, partaking of its lustre,
+      seemed their fit companion, and to have many good years of life in him
+      yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening with which we have to do, was neither a summer nor an autumn
+      one, but the twilight of a day in March, when the wind howled dismally
+      among the bare branches of the trees, and rumbling in the wide chimneys
+      and driving the rain against the windows of the Maypole Inn, gave such of
+      its frequenters as chanced to be there at the moment an undeniable reason
+      for prolonging their stay, and caused the landlord to prophesy that the
+      night would certainly clear at eleven o'clock precisely,&mdash;which by a
+      remarkable coincidence was the hour at which he always closed his house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The name of him upon whom the spirit of prophecy thus descended was John
+      Willet, a burly, large-headed man with a fat face, which betokened
+      profound obstinacy and slowness of apprehension, combined with a very
+      strong reliance upon his own merits. It was John Willet's ordinary boast
+      in his more placid moods that if he were slow he was sure; which assertion
+      could, in one sense at least, be by no means gainsaid, seeing that he was
+      in everything unquestionably the reverse of fast, and withal one of the
+      most dogged and positive fellows in existence&mdash;always sure that what
+      he thought or said or did was right, and holding it as a thing quite
+      settled and ordained by the laws of nature and Providence, that anybody
+      who said or did or thought otherwise must be inevitably and of necessity
+      wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet walked slowly up to the window, flattened his fat nose against
+      the cold glass, and shading his eyes that his sight might not be affected
+      by the ruddy glow of the fire, looked abroad. Then he walked slowly back
+      to his old seat in the chimney-corner, and, composing himself in it with a
+      slight shiver, such as a man might give way to and so acquire an
+      additional relish for the warm blaze, said, looking round upon his guests:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It'll clear at eleven o'clock. No sooner and no later. Not before and not
+      arterwards.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How do you make out that?' said a little man in the opposite corner. 'The
+      moon is past the full, and she rises at nine.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John looked sedately and solemnly at his questioner until he had brought
+      his mind to bear upon the whole of his observation, and then made answer,
+      in a tone which seemed to imply that the moon was peculiarly his business
+      and nobody else's:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Never you mind about the moon. Don't you trouble yourself about her. You
+      let the moon alone, and I'll let you alone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No offence I hope?' said the little man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again John waited leisurely until the observation had thoroughly
+      penetrated to his brain, and then replying, 'No offence as YET,' applied a
+      light to his pipe and smoked in placid silence; now and then casting a
+      sidelong look at a man wrapped in a loose riding-coat with huge cuffs
+      ornamented with tarnished silver lace and large metal buttons, who sat
+      apart from the regular frequenters of the house, and wearing a hat flapped
+      over his face, which was still further shaded by the hand on which his
+      forehead rested, looked unsociable enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another guest, who sat, booted and spurred, at some distance
+      from the fire also, and whose thoughts&mdash;to judge from his folded arms
+      and knitted brows, and from the untasted liquor before him&mdash;were
+      occupied with other matters than the topics under discussion or the
+      persons who discussed them. This was a young man of about
+      eight-and-twenty, rather above the middle height, and though of somewhat
+      slight figure, gracefully and strongly made. He wore his own dark hair,
+      and was accoutred in a riding dress, which together with his large boots
+      (resembling in shape and fashion those worn by our Life Guardsmen at the
+      present day), showed indisputable traces of the bad condition of the
+      roads. But travel-stained though he was, he was well and even richly
+      attired, and without being overdressed looked a gallant gentleman.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0020m.jpg" alt="0020m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0020.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Lying upon the table beside him, as he had carelessly thrown them down,
+      were a heavy riding-whip and a slouched hat, the latter worn no doubt as
+      being best suited to the inclemency of the weather. There, too, were a
+      pair of pistols in a holster-case, and a short riding-cloak. Little of his
+      face was visible, except the long dark lashes which concealed his downcast
+      eyes, but an air of careless ease and natural gracefulness of demeanour
+      pervaded the figure, and seemed to comprehend even those slight
+      accessories, which were all handsome, and in good keeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards this young gentleman the eyes of Mr Willet wandered but once, and
+      then as if in mute inquiry whether he had observed his silent neighbour.
+      It was plain that John and the young gentleman had often met before.
+      Finding that his look was not returned, or indeed observed by the person
+      to whom it was addressed, John gradually concentrated the whole power of
+      his eyes into one focus, and brought it to bear upon the man in the
+      flapped hat, at whom he came to stare in course of time with an intensity
+      so remarkable, that it affected his fireside cronies, who all, as with one
+      accord, took their pipes from their lips, and stared with open mouths at
+      the stranger likewise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sturdy landlord had a large pair of dull fish-like eyes, and the
+      little man who had hazarded the remark about the moon (and who was the
+      parish-clerk and bell-ringer of Chigwell, a village hard by) had little
+      round black shiny eyes like beads; moreover this little man wore at the
+      knees of his rusty black breeches, and on his rusty black coat, and all
+      down his long flapped waistcoat, little queer buttons like nothing except
+      his eyes; but so like them, that as they twinkled and glistened in the
+      light of the fire, which shone too in his bright shoe-buckles, he seemed
+      all eyes from head to foot, and to be gazing with every one of them at the
+      unknown customer. No wonder that a man should grow restless under such an
+      inspection as this, to say nothing of the eyes belonging to short Tom Cobb
+      the general chandler and post-office keeper, and long Phil Parkes the
+      ranger, both of whom, infected by the example of their companions,
+      regarded him of the flapped hat no less attentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger became restless; perhaps from being exposed to this raking
+      fire of eyes, perhaps from the nature of his previous meditations&mdash;most
+      probably from the latter cause, for as he changed his position and looked
+      hastily round, he started to find himself the object of such keen regard,
+      and darted an angry and suspicious glance at the fireside group. It had
+      the effect of immediately diverting all eyes to the chimney, except those
+      of John Willet, who finding himself as it were, caught in the fact, and
+      not being (as has been already observed) of a very ready nature, remained
+      staring at his guest in a particularly awkward and disconcerted manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well?' said the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well. There was not much in well. It was not a long speech. 'I thought you
+      gave an order,' said the landlord, after a pause of two or three minutes
+      for consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger took off his hat, and disclosed the hard features of a man of
+      sixty or thereabouts, much weatherbeaten and worn by time, and the
+      naturally harsh expression of which was not improved by a dark
+      handkerchief which was bound tightly round his head, and, while it served
+      the purpose of a wig, shaded his forehead, and almost hid his eyebrows. If
+      it were intended to conceal or divert attention from a deep gash, now
+      healed into an ugly seam, which when it was first inflicted must have laid
+      bare his cheekbone, the object was but indifferently attained, for it
+      could scarcely fail to be noted at a glance. His complexion was of a
+      cadaverous hue, and he had a grizzly jagged beard of some three weeks'
+      date. Such was the figure (very meanly and poorly clad) that now rose from
+      the seat, and stalking across the room sat down in a corner of the
+      chimney, which the politeness or fears of the little clerk very readily
+      assigned to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A highwayman!' whispered Tom Cobb to Parkes the ranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you suppose highwaymen don't dress handsomer than that?' replied
+      Parkes. 'It's a better business than you think for, Tom, and highwaymen
+      don't need or use to be shabby, take my word for it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the subject of their speculations had done due honour to the
+      house by calling for some drink, which was promptly supplied by the
+      landlord's son Joe, a broad-shouldered strapping young fellow of twenty,
+      whom it pleased his father still to consider a little boy, and to treat
+      accordingly. Stretching out his hands to warm them by the blazing fire,
+      the man turned his head towards the company, and after running his eye
+      sharply over them, said in a voice well suited to his appearance:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What house is that which stands a mile or so from here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Public-house?' said the landlord, with his usual deliberation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Public-house, father!' exclaimed Joe, 'where's the public-house within a
+      mile or so of the Maypole? He means the great house&mdash;the Warren&mdash;naturally
+      and of course. The old red brick house, sir, that stands in its own
+      grounds&mdash;?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Aye,' said the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And that fifteen or twenty years ago stood in a park five times as broad,
+      which with other and richer property has bit by bit changed hands and
+      dwindled away&mdash;more's the pity!' pursued the young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Maybe,' was the reply. 'But my question related to the owner. What it has
+      been I don't care to know, and what it is I can see for myself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heir-apparent to the Maypole pressed his finger on his lips, and
+      glancing at the young gentleman already noticed, who had changed his
+      attitude when the house was first mentioned, replied in a lower tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The owner's name is Haredale, Mr Geoffrey Haredale, and'&mdash;again he
+      glanced in the same direction as before&mdash;'and a worthy gentleman too&mdash;hem!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paying as little regard to this admonitory cough, as to the significant
+      gesture that had preceded it, the stranger pursued his questioning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I turned out of my way coming here, and took the footpath that crosses
+      the grounds. Who was the young lady that I saw entering a carriage? His
+      daughter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, how should I know, honest man?' replied Joe, contriving in the
+      course of some arrangements about the hearth, to advance close to his
+      questioner and pluck him by the sleeve, 'I didn't see the young lady, you
+      know. Whew! There's the wind again&mdash;AND rain&mdash;well it IS a
+      night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rough weather indeed!' observed the strange man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're used to it?' said Joe, catching at anything which seemed to
+      promise a diversion of the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pretty well,' returned the other. 'About the young lady&mdash;has Mr
+      Haredale a daughter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no,' said the young fellow fretfully, 'he's a single gentleman&mdash;he's&mdash;be
+      quiet, can't you, man? Don't you see this talk is not relished yonder?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Regardless of this whispered remonstrance, and affecting not to hear it,
+      his tormentor provokingly continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Single men have had daughters before now. Perhaps she may be his
+      daughter, though he is not married.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What do you mean?' said Joe, adding in an undertone as he approached him
+      again, 'You'll come in for it presently, I know you will!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I mean no harm'&mdash;returned the traveller boldly, 'and have said none
+      that I know of. I ask a few questions&mdash;as any stranger may, and not
+      unnaturally&mdash;about the inmates of a remarkable house in a
+      neighbourhood which is new to me, and you are as aghast and disturbed as
+      if I were talking treason against King George. Perhaps you can tell me
+      why, sir, for (as I say) I am a stranger, and this is Greek to me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter observation was addressed to the obvious cause of Joe Willet's
+      discomposure, who had risen and was adjusting his riding-cloak preparatory
+      to sallying abroad. Briefly replying that he could give him no
+      information, the young man beckoned to Joe, and handing him a piece of
+      money in payment of his reckoning, hurried out attended by young Willet
+      himself, who taking up a candle followed to light him to the house-door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Joe was absent on this errand, the elder Willet and his three
+      companions continued to smoke with profound gravity, and in a deep
+      silence, each having his eyes fixed on a huge copper boiler that was
+      suspended over the fire. After some time John Willet slowly shook his
+      head, and thereupon his friends slowly shook theirs; but no man withdrew
+      his eyes from the boiler, or altered the solemn expression of his
+      countenance in the slightest degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length Joe returned&mdash;very talkative and conciliatory, as though
+      with a strong presentiment that he was going to be found fault with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Such a thing as love is!' he said, drawing a chair near the fire, and
+      looking round for sympathy. 'He has set off to walk to London,&mdash;all
+      the way to London. His nag gone lame in riding out here this blessed
+      afternoon, and comfortably littered down in our stable at this minute; and
+      he giving up a good hot supper and our best bed, because Miss Haredale has
+      gone to a masquerade up in town, and he has set his heart upon seeing her!
+      I don't think I could persuade myself to do that, beautiful as she is,&mdash;but
+      then I'm not in love (at least I don't think I am) and that's the whole
+      difference.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is in love then?' said the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Rather,' replied Joe. 'He'll never be more in love, and may very easily
+      be less.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Silence, sir!' cried his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What a chap you are, Joe!' said Long Parkes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Such a inconsiderate lad!' murmured Tom Cobb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Putting himself forward and wringing the very nose off his own father's
+      face!' exclaimed the parish-clerk, metaphorically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What HAVE I done?' reasoned poor Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Silence, sir!' returned his father, 'what do you mean by talking, when
+      you see people that are more than two or three times your age, sitting
+      still and silent and not dreaming of saying a word?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why that's the proper time for me to talk, isn't it?' said Joe
+      rebelliously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The proper time, sir!' retorted his father, 'the proper time's no time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah to be sure!' muttered Parkes, nodding gravely to the other two who
+      nodded likewise, observing under their breaths that that was the point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The proper time's no time, sir,' repeated John Willet; 'when I was your
+      age I never talked, I never wanted to talk. I listened and improved myself
+      that's what I did.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And you'd find your father rather a tough customer in argeyment, Joe, if
+      anybody was to try and tackle him,' said Parkes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For the matter o' that, Phil!' observed Mr Willet, blowing a long, thin,
+      spiral cloud of smoke out of the corner of his mouth, and staring at it
+      abstractedly as it floated away; 'For the matter o' that, Phil, argeyment
+      is a gift of Natur. If Natur has gifted a man with powers of argeyment, a
+      man has a right to make the best of 'em, and has not a right to stand on
+      false delicacy, and deny that he is so gifted; for that is a turning of
+      his back on Natur, a flouting of her, a slighting of her precious caskets,
+      and a proving of one's self to be a swine that isn't worth her scattering
+      pearls before.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The landlord pausing here for a very long time, Mr Parkes naturally
+      concluded that he had brought his discourse to an end; and therefore,
+      turning to the young man with some austerity, exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You hear what your father says, Joe? You wouldn't much like to tackle him
+      in argeyment, I'm thinking, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'IF,' said John Willet, turning his eyes from the ceiling to the face of
+      his interrupter, and uttering the monosyllable in capitals, to apprise him
+      that he had put in his oar, as the vulgar say, with unbecoming and
+      irreverent haste; 'IF, sir, Natur has fixed upon me the gift of argeyment,
+      why should I not own to it, and rather glory in the same? Yes, sir, I AM a
+      tough customer that way. You are right, sir. My toughness has been proved,
+      sir, in this room many and many a time, as I think you know; and if you
+      don't know,' added John, putting his pipe in his mouth again, 'so much the
+      better, for I an't proud and am not going to tell you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A general murmur from his three cronies, and a general shaking of heads at
+      the copper boiler, assured John Willet that they had had good experience
+      of his powers and needed no further evidence to assure them of his
+      superiority. John smoked with a little more dignity and surveyed them in
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's all very fine talking,' muttered Joe, who had been fidgeting in his
+      chair with divers uneasy gestures. 'But if you mean to tell me that I'm
+      never to open my lips&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Silence, sir!' roared his father. 'No, you never are. When your opinion's
+      wanted, you give it. When you're spoke to, you speak. When your opinion's
+      not wanted and you're not spoke to, don't you give an opinion and don't
+      you speak. The world's undergone a nice alteration since my time,
+      certainly. My belief is that there an't any boys left&mdash;that there
+      isn't such a thing as a boy&mdash;that there's nothing now between a male
+      baby and a man&mdash;and that all the boys went out with his blessed
+      Majesty King George the Second.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's a very true observation, always excepting the young princes,' said
+      the parish-clerk, who, as the representative of church and state in that
+      company, held himself bound to the nicest loyalty. 'If it's godly and
+      righteous for boys, being of the ages of boys, to behave themselves like
+      boys, then the young princes must be boys and cannot be otherwise.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you ever hear tell of mermaids, sir?' said Mr Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Certainly I have,' replied the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very good,' said Mr Willet. 'According to the constitution of mermaids,
+      so much of a mermaid as is not a woman must be a fish. According to the
+      constitution of young princes, so much of a young prince (if anything) as
+      is not actually an angel, must be godly and righteous. Therefore if it's
+      becoming and godly and righteous in the young princes (as it is at their
+      ages) that they should be boys, they are and must be boys, and cannot by
+      possibility be anything else.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This elucidation of a knotty point being received with such marks of
+      approval as to put John Willet into a good humour, he contented himself
+      with repeating to his son his command of silence, and addressing the
+      stranger, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you had asked your questions of a grown-up person&mdash;of me or any
+      of these gentlemen&mdash;you'd have had some satisfaction, and wouldn't
+      have wasted breath. Miss Haredale is Mr Geoffrey Haredale's niece.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is her father alive?' said the man, carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' rejoined the landlord, 'he is not alive, and he is not dead&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not dead!' cried the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not dead in a common sort of way,' said the landlord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cronies nodded to each other, and Mr Parkes remarked in an undertone,
+      shaking his head meanwhile as who should say, 'let no man contradict me,
+      for I won't believe him,' that John Willet was in amazing force to-night,
+      and fit to tackle a Chief Justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger suffered a short pause to elapse, and then asked abruptly,
+      'What do you mean?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'More than you think for, friend,' returned John Willet. 'Perhaps there's
+      more meaning in them words than you suspect.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Perhaps there is,' said the strange man, gruffly; 'but what the devil do
+      you speak in such mysteries for? You tell me, first, that a man is not
+      alive, nor yet dead&mdash;then, that he's not dead in a common sort of way&mdash;then,
+      that you mean a great deal more than I think for. To tell you the truth,
+      you may do that easily; for so far as I can make out, you mean nothing.
+      What DO you mean, I ask again?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That,' returned the landlord, a little brought down from his dignity by
+      the stranger's surliness, 'is a Maypole story, and has been any time these
+      four-and-twenty years. That story is Solomon Daisy's story. It belongs to
+      the house; and nobody but Solomon Daisy has ever told it under this roof,
+      or ever shall&mdash;that's more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man glanced at the parish-clerk, whose air of consciousness and
+      importance plainly betokened him to be the person referred to, and,
+      observing that he had taken his pipe from his lips, after a very long
+      whiff to keep it alight, and was evidently about to tell his story without
+      further solicitation, gathered his large coat about him, and shrinking
+      further back was almost lost in the gloom of the spacious chimney-corner,
+      except when the flame, struggling from under a great faggot, whose weight
+      almost crushed it for the time, shot upward with a strong and sudden
+      glare, and illumining his figure for a moment, seemed afterwards to cast
+      it into deeper obscurity than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this flickering light, which made the old room, with its heavy timbers
+      and panelled walls, look as if it were built of polished ebony&mdash;the
+      wind roaring and howling without, now rattling the latch and creaking the
+      hinges of the stout oaken door, and now driving at the casement as though
+      it would beat it in&mdash;by this light, and under circumstances so
+      auspicious, Solomon Daisy began his tale:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was Mr Reuben Haredale, Mr Geoffrey's elder brother&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he came to a dead stop, and made so long a pause that even John
+      Willet grew impatient and asked why he did not proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Cobb,' said Solomon Daisy, dropping his voice and appealing to the
+      post-office keeper; 'what day of the month is this?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The nineteenth.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Of March,' said the clerk, bending forward, 'the nineteenth of March;
+      that's very strange.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a low voice they all acquiesced, and Solomon went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was Mr Reuben Haredale, Mr Geoffrey's elder brother, that twenty-two
+      years ago was the owner of the Warren, which, as Joe has said&mdash;not
+      that you remember it, Joe, for a boy like you can't do that, but because
+      you have often heard me say so&mdash;was then a much larger and better
+      place, and a much more valuable property than it is now. His lady was
+      lately dead, and he was left with one child&mdash;the Miss Haredale you
+      have been inquiring about&mdash;who was then scarcely a year old.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the speaker addressed himself to the man who had shown so much
+      curiosity about this same family, and made a pause here as if expecting
+      some exclamation of surprise or encouragement, the latter made no remark,
+      nor gave any indication that he heard or was interested in what was said.
+      Solomon therefore turned to his old companions, whose noses were brightly
+      illuminated by the deep red glow from the bowls of their pipes; assured,
+      by long experience, of their attention, and resolved to show his sense of
+      such indecent behaviour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Haredale,' said Solomon, turning his back upon the strange man, 'left
+      this place when his lady died, feeling it lonely like, and went up to
+      London, where he stopped some months; but finding that place as lonely as
+      this&mdash;as I suppose and have always heard say&mdash;he suddenly came
+      back again with his little girl to the Warren, bringing with him besides,
+      that day, only two women servants, and his steward, and a gardener.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Daisy stopped to take a whiff at his pipe, which was going out, and
+      then proceeded&mdash;at first in a snuffling tone, occasioned by keen
+      enjoyment of the tobacco and strong pulling at the pipe, and afterwards
+      with increasing distinctness:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Bringing with him two women servants, and his steward, and a
+      gardener. The rest stopped behind up in London, and were to follow next
+      day. It happened that that night, an old gentleman who lived at Chigwell
+      Row, and had long been poorly, deceased, and an order came to me at half
+      after twelve o'clock at night to go and toll the passing-bell.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a movement in the little group of listeners, sufficiently
+      indicative of the strong repugnance any one of them would have felt to
+      have turned out at such a time upon such an errand. The clerk felt and
+      understood it, and pursued his theme accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It WAS a dreary thing, especially as the grave-digger was laid up in his
+      bed, from long working in a damp soil and sitting down to take his dinner
+      on cold tombstones, and I was consequently under obligation to go alone,
+      for it was too late to hope to get any other companion. However, I wasn't
+      unprepared for it; as the old gentleman had often made it a request that
+      the bell should be tolled as soon as possible after the breath was out of
+      his body, and he had been expected to go for some days. I put as good a
+      face upon it as I could, and muffling myself up (for it was mortal cold),
+      started out with a lighted lantern in one hand and the key of the church
+      in the other.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point of the narrative, the dress of the strange man rustled as if
+      he had turned himself to hear more distinctly. Slightly pointing over his
+      shoulder, Solomon elevated his eyebrows and nodded a silent inquiry to Joe
+      whether this was the case. Joe shaded his eyes with his hand and peered
+      into the corner, but could make out nothing, and so shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was just such a night as this; blowing a hurricane, raining heavily,
+      and very dark&mdash;I often think now, darker than I ever saw it before or
+      since; that may be my fancy, but the houses were all close shut and the
+      folks in doors, and perhaps there is only one other man who knows how dark
+      it really was. I got into the church, chained the door back so that it
+      should keep ajar&mdash;for, to tell the truth, I didn't like to be shut in
+      there alone&mdash;and putting my lantern on the stone seat in the little
+      corner where the bell-rope is, sat down beside it to trim the candle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I sat down to trim the candle, and when I had done so I could not
+      persuade myself to get up again, and go about my work. I don't know how it
+      was, but I thought of all the ghost stories I had ever heard, even those
+      that I had heard when I was a boy at school, and had forgotten long ago;
+      and they didn't come into my mind one after another, but all crowding at
+      once, like. I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on
+      a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I
+      knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of
+      their own graves till morning. This made me think how many people I had
+      known, were buried between the church-door and the churchyard gate, and
+      what a dreadful thing it would be to have to pass among them and know them
+      again, so earthy and unlike themselves. I had known all the niches and
+      arches in the church from a child; still, I couldn't persuade myself that
+      those were their natural shadows which I saw on the pavement, but felt
+      sure there were some ugly figures hiding among 'em and peeping out.
+      Thinking on in this way, I began to think of the old gentleman who was
+      just dead, and I could have sworn, as I looked up the dark chancel, that I
+      saw him in his usual place, wrapping his shroud about him and shivering as
+      if he felt it cold. All this time I sat listening and listening, and
+      hardly dared to breathe. At length I started up and took the bell-rope in
+      my hands. At that minute there rang&mdash;not that bell, for I had hardly
+      touched the rope&mdash;but another!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I heard the ringing of another bell, and a deep bell too, plainly. It was
+      only for an instant, and even then the wind carried the sound away, but I
+      heard it. I listened for a long time, but it rang no more. I had heard of
+      corpse candles, and at last I persuaded myself that this must be a corpse
+      bell tolling of itself at midnight for the dead. I tolled my bell&mdash;how,
+      or how long, I don't know&mdash;and ran home to bed as fast as I could
+      touch the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I was up early next morning after a restless night, and told the story to
+      my neighbours. Some were serious and some made light of it; I don't think
+      anybody believed it real. But, that morning, Mr Reuben Haredale was found
+      murdered in his bedchamber; and in his hand was a piece of the cord
+      attached to an alarm-bell outside the roof, which hung in his room and had
+      been cut asunder, no doubt by the murderer, when he seized it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That was the bell I heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A bureau was found opened, and a cash-box, which Mr Haredale had brought
+      down that day, and was supposed to contain a large sum of money, was gone.
+      The steward and gardener were both missing and both suspected for a long
+      time, but they were never found, though hunted far and wide. And far
+      enough they might have looked for poor Mr Rudge the steward, whose body&mdash;scarcely
+      to be recognised by his clothes and the watch and ring he wore&mdash;was
+      found, months afterwards, at the bottom of a piece of water in the
+      grounds, with a deep gash in the breast where he had been stabbed with a
+      knife. He was only partly dressed; and people all agreed that he had been
+      sitting up reading in his own room, where there were many traces of blood,
+      and was suddenly fallen upon and killed before his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody now knew that the gardener must be the murderer, and though he
+      has never been heard of from that day to this, he will be, mark my words.
+      The crime was committed this day two-and-twenty years&mdash;on the
+      nineteenth of March, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three. On the
+      nineteenth of March in some year&mdash;no matter when&mdash;I know it, I
+      am sure of it, for we have always, in some strange way or other, been
+      brought back to the subject on that day ever since&mdash;on the nineteenth
+      of March in some year, sooner or later, that man will be discovered.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 2
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      'A strange story!' said the man who had been the cause of the narration.&mdash;'Stranger
+      still if it comes about as you predict. Is that all?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A question so unexpected, nettled Solomon Daisy not a little. By dint of
+      relating the story very often, and ornamenting it (according to village
+      report) with a few flourishes suggested by the various hearers from time
+      to time, he had come by degrees to tell it with great effect; and 'Is that
+      all?' after the climax, was not what he was accustomed to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is that all?' he repeated, 'yes, that's all, sir. And enough too, I
+      think.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I think so too. My horse, young man! He is but a hack hired from a
+      roadside posting house, but he must carry me to London to-night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To-night!' said Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To-night,' returned the other. 'What do you stare at? This tavern would
+      seem to be a house of call for all the gaping idlers of the
+      neighbourhood!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this remark, which evidently had reference to the scrutiny he had
+      undergone, as mentioned in the foregoing chapter, the eyes of John Willet
+      and his friends were diverted with marvellous rapidity to the copper
+      boiler again. Not so with Joe, who, being a mettlesome fellow, returned
+      the stranger's angry glance with a steady look, and rejoined:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is not a very bold thing to wonder at your going on to-night. Surely
+      you have been asked such a harmless question in an inn before, and in
+      better weather than this. I thought you mightn't know the way, as you seem
+      strange to this part.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The way&mdash;' repeated the other, irritably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes. DO you know it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll&mdash;humph!&mdash;I'll find it,' replied the man, waving his hand
+      and turning on his heel. 'Landlord, take the reckoning here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Willet did as he was desired; for on that point he was seldom slow,
+      except in the particulars of giving change, and testing the goodness of
+      any piece of coin that was proffered to him, by the application of his
+      teeth or his tongue, or some other test, or in doubtful cases, by a long
+      series of tests terminating in its rejection. The guest then wrapped his
+      garments about him so as to shelter himself as effectually as he could
+      from the rough weather, and without any word or sign of farewell betook
+      himself to the stableyard. Here Joe (who had left the room on the
+      conclusion of their short dialogue) was protecting himself and the horse
+      from the rain under the shelter of an old penthouse roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's pretty much of my opinion,' said Joe, patting the horse upon the
+      neck. 'I'll wager that your stopping here to-night would please him better
+      than it would please me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He and I are of different opinions, as we have been more than once on our
+      way here,' was the short reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So I was thinking before you came out, for he has felt your spurs, poor
+      beast.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger adjusted his coat-collar about his face, and made no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You'll know me again, I see,' he said, marking the young fellow's earnest
+      gaze, when he had sprung into the saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The man's worth knowing, master, who travels a road he don't know,
+      mounted on a jaded horse, and leaves good quarters to do it on such a
+      night as this.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have sharp eyes and a sharp tongue, I find.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Both I hope by nature, but the last grows rusty sometimes for want of
+      using.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Use the first less too, and keep their sharpness for your sweethearts,
+      boy,' said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying he shook his hand from the bridle, struck him roughly on the
+      head with the butt end of his whip, and galloped away; dashing through the
+      mud and darkness with a headlong speed, which few badly mounted horsemen
+      would have cared to venture, even had they been thoroughly acquainted with
+      the country; and which, to one who knew nothing of the way he rode, was
+      attended at every step with great hazard and danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roads, even within twelve miles of London, were at that time ill
+      paved, seldom repaired, and very badly made. The way this rider traversed
+      had been ploughed up by the wheels of heavy waggons, and rendered rotten
+      by the frosts and thaws of the preceding winter, or possibly of many
+      winters. Great holes and gaps had been worn into the soil, which, being
+      now filled with water from the late rains, were not easily distinguishable
+      even by day; and a plunge into any one of them might have brought down a
+      surer-footed horse than the poor beast now urged forward to the utmost
+      extent of his powers. Sharp flints and stones rolled from under his hoofs
+      continually; the rider could scarcely see beyond the animal's head, or
+      farther on either side than his own arm would have extended. At that time,
+      too, all the roads in the neighbourhood of the metropolis were infested by
+      footpads or highwaymen, and it was a night, of all others, in which any
+      evil-disposed person of this class might have pursued his unlawful calling
+      with little fear of detection.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0026m.jpg" alt="0026m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0026.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Still, the traveller dashed forward at the same reckless pace, regardless
+      alike of the dirt and wet which flew about his head, the profound darkness
+      of the night, and the probability of encountering some desperate
+      characters abroad. At every turn and angle, even where a deviation from
+      the direct course might have been least expected, and could not possibly
+      be seen until he was close upon it, he guided the bridle with an unerring
+      hand, and kept the middle of the road. Thus he sped onward, raising
+      himself in the stirrups, leaning his body forward until it almost touched
+      the horse's neck, and flourishing his heavy whip above his head with the
+      fervour of a madman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are times when, the elements being in unusual commotion, those who
+      are bent on daring enterprises, or agitated by great thoughts, whether of
+      good or evil, feel a mysterious sympathy with the tumult of nature, and
+      are roused into corresponding violence. In the midst of thunder,
+      lightning, and storm, many tremendous deeds have been committed; men,
+      self-possessed before, have given a sudden loose to passions they could no
+      longer control. The demons of wrath and despair have striven to emulate
+      those who ride the whirlwind and direct the storm; and man, lashed into
+      madness with the roaring winds and boiling waters, has become for the time
+      as wild and merciless as the elements themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether the traveller was possessed by thoughts which the fury of the
+      night had heated and stimulated into a quicker current, or was merely
+      impelled by some strong motive to reach his journey's end, on he swept
+      more like a hunted phantom than a man, nor checked his pace until,
+      arriving at some cross roads, one of which led by a longer route to the
+      place whence he had lately started, he bore down so suddenly upon a
+      vehicle which was coming towards him, that in the effort to avoid it he
+      well-nigh pulled his horse upon his haunches, and narrowly escaped being
+      thrown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yoho!' cried the voice of a man. 'What's that? Who goes there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A friend!' replied the traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A friend!' repeated the voice. 'Who calls himself a friend and rides like
+      that, abusing Heaven's gifts in the shape of horseflesh, and endangering,
+      not only his own neck (which might be no great matter) but the necks of
+      other people?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have a lantern there, I see,' said the traveller dismounting, 'lend
+      it me for a moment. You have wounded my horse, I think, with your shaft or
+      wheel.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Wounded him!' cried the other, 'if I haven't killed him, it's no fault of
+      yours. What do you mean by galloping along the king's highway like that,
+      eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Give me the light,' returned the traveller, snatching it from his hand,
+      'and don't ask idle questions of a man who is in no mood for talking.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you had said you were in no mood for talking before, I should perhaps
+      have been in no mood for lighting,' said the voice. 'Hows'ever as it's the
+      poor horse that's damaged and not you, one of you is welcome to the light
+      at all events&mdash;but it's not the crusty one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveller returned no answer to this speech, but holding the light
+      near to his panting and reeking beast, examined him in limb and carcass.
+      Meanwhile, the other man sat very composedly in his vehicle, which was a
+      kind of chaise with a depository for a large bag of tools, and watched his
+      proceedings with a careful eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The looker-on was a round, red-faced, sturdy yeoman, with a double chin,
+      and a voice husky with good living, good sleeping, good humour, and good
+      health. He was past the prime of life, but Father Time is not always a
+      hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays
+      his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men
+      and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young
+      and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression
+      of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle
+      but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The person whom the traveller had so abruptly encountered was of this
+      kind: bluff, hale, hearty, and in a green old age: at peace with himself,
+      and evidently disposed to be so with all the world. Although muffled up in
+      divers coats and handkerchiefs&mdash;one of which, passed over his crown,
+      and tied in a convenient crease of his double chin, secured his
+      three-cornered hat and bob-wig from blowing off his head&mdash;there was
+      no disguising his plump and comfortable figure; neither did certain dirty
+      finger-marks upon his face give it any other than an odd and comical
+      expression, through which its natural good humour shone with undiminished
+      lustre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is not hurt,' said the traveller at length, raising his head and the
+      lantern together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have found that out at last, have you?' rejoined the old man. 'My
+      eyes have seen more light than yours, but I wouldn't change with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What do you mean?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mean! I could have told you he wasn't hurt, five minutes ago. Give me the
+      light, friend; ride forward at a gentler pace; and good night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In handing up the lantern, the man necessarily cast its rays full on the
+      speaker's face. Their eyes met at the instant. He suddenly dropped it and
+      crushed it with his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you never see a locksmith before, that you start as if you had come
+      upon a ghost?' cried the old man in the chaise, 'or is this,' he added
+      hastily, thrusting his hand into the tool basket and drawing out a hammer,
+      'a scheme for robbing me? I know these roads, friend. When I travel them,
+      I carry nothing but a few shillings, and not a crown's worth of them. I
+      tell you plainly, to save us both trouble, that there's nothing to be got
+      from me but a pretty stout arm considering my years, and this tool, which,
+      mayhap from long acquaintance with, I can use pretty briskly. You shall
+      not have it all your own way, I promise you, if you play at that game.
+      With these words he stood upon the defensive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am not what you take me for, Gabriel Varden,' replied the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then what and who are you?' returned the locksmith. 'You know my name, it
+      seems. Let me know yours.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have not gained the information from any confidence of yours, but from
+      the inscription on your cart which tells it to all the town,' replied the
+      traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have better eyes for that than you had for your horse, then,' said
+      Varden, descending nimbly from his chaise; 'who are you? Let me see your
+      face.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the locksmith alighted, the traveller had regained his saddle, from
+      which he now confronted the old man, who, moving as the horse moved in
+      chafing under the tightened rein, kept close beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me see your face, I say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stand off!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No masquerading tricks,' said the locksmith, 'and tales at the club
+      to-morrow, how Gabriel Varden was frightened by a surly voice and a dark
+      night. Stand&mdash;let me see your face.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding that further resistance would only involve him in a personal
+      struggle with an antagonist by no means to be despised, the traveller
+      threw back his coat, and stooping down looked steadily at the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps two men more powerfully contrasted, never opposed each other face
+      to face. The ruddy features of the locksmith so set off and heightened the
+      excessive paleness of the man on horseback, that he looked like a
+      bloodless ghost, while the moisture, which hard riding had brought out
+      upon his skin, hung there in dark and heavy drops, like dews of agony and
+      death. The countenance of the old locksmith lighted up with the smile of
+      one expecting to detect in this unpromising stranger some latent roguery
+      of eye or lip, which should reveal a familiar person in that arch
+      disguise, and spoil his jest. The face of the other, sullen and fierce,
+      but shrinking too, was that of a man who stood at bay; while his firmly
+      closed jaws, his puckered mouth, and more than all a certain stealthy
+      motion of the hand within his breast, seemed to announce a desperate
+      purpose very foreign to acting, or child's play.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus they regarded each other for some time, in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Humph!' he said when he had scanned his features; 'I don't know you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't desire to?'&mdash;returned the other, muffling himself as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't,' said Gabriel; 'to be plain with you, friend, you don't carry in
+      your countenance a letter of recommendation.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's not my wish,' said the traveller. 'My humour is to be avoided.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well,' said the locksmith bluntly, 'I think you'll have your humour.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will, at any cost,' rejoined the traveller. 'In proof of it, lay this
+      to heart&mdash;that you were never in such peril of your life as you have
+      been within these few moments; when you are within five minutes of
+      breathing your last, you will not be nearer death than you have been
+      to-night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Aye!' said the sturdy locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Aye! and a violent death.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'From whose hand?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'From mine,' replied the traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he put spurs to his horse, and rode away; at first plashing
+      heavily through the mire at a smart trot, but gradually increasing in
+      speed until the last sound of his horse's hoofs died away upon the wind;
+      when he was again hurrying on at the same furious gallop, which had been
+      his pace when the locksmith first encountered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel Varden remained standing in the road with the broken lantern in
+      his hand, listening in stupefied silence until no sound reached his ear
+      but the moaning of the wind, and the fast-falling rain; when he struck
+      himself one or two smart blows in the breast by way of rousing himself,
+      and broke into an exclamation of surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What in the name of wonder can this fellow be! a madman? a highwayman? a
+      cut-throat? If he had not scoured off so fast, we'd have seen who was in
+      most danger, he or I. I never nearer death than I have been to-night! I
+      hope I may be no nearer to it for a score of years to come&mdash;if so,
+      I'll be content to be no farther from it. My stars!&mdash;a pretty brag
+      this to a stout man&mdash;pooh, pooh!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel resumed his seat, and looked wistfully up the road by which the
+      traveller had come; murmuring in a half whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The Maypole&mdash;two miles to the Maypole. I came the other road from
+      the Warren after a long day's work at locks and bells, on purpose that I
+      should not come by the Maypole and break my promise to Martha by looking
+      in&mdash;there's resolution! It would be dangerous to go on to London
+      without a light; and it's four miles, and a good half mile besides, to the
+      Halfway-House; and between this and that is the very place where one needs
+      a light most. Two miles to the Maypole! I told Martha I wouldn't; I said I
+      wouldn't, and I didn't&mdash;there's resolution!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Repeating these two last words very often, as if to compensate for the
+      little resolution he was going to show by piquing himself on the great
+      resolution he had shown, Gabriel Varden quietly turned back, determining
+      to get a light at the Maypole, and to take nothing but a light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he got to the Maypole, however, and Joe, responding to his well-known
+      hail, came running out to the horse's head, leaving the door open behind
+      him, and disclosing a delicious perspective of warmth and brightness&mdash;when
+      the ruddy gleam of the fire, streaming through the old red curtains of the
+      common room, seemed to bring with it, as part of itself, a pleasant hum of
+      voices, and a fragrant odour of steaming grog and rare tobacco, all
+      steeped as it were in the cheerful glow&mdash;when the shadows, flitting
+      across the curtain, showed that those inside had risen from their snug
+      seats, and were making room in the snuggest corner (how well he knew that
+      corner!) for the honest locksmith, and a broad glare, suddenly streaming
+      up, bespoke the goodness of the crackling log from which a brilliant train
+      of sparks was doubtless at that moment whirling up the chimney in honour
+      of his coming&mdash;when, superadded to these enticements, there stole
+      upon him from the distant kitchen a gentle sound of frying, with a musical
+      clatter of plates and dishes, and a savoury smell that made even the
+      boisterous wind a perfume&mdash;Gabriel felt his firmness oozing rapidly
+      away. He tried to look stoically at the tavern, but his features would
+      relax into a look of fondness. He turned his head the other way, and the
+      cold black country seemed to frown him off, and drive him for a refuge
+      into its hospitable arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The merciful man, Joe,' said the locksmith, 'is merciful to his beast.
+      I'll get out for a little while.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And how natural it was to get out! And how unnatural it seemed for a sober
+      man to be plodding wearily along through miry roads, encountering the rude
+      buffets of the wind and pelting of the rain, when there was a clean floor
+      covered with crisp white sand, a well swept hearth, a blazing fire, a
+      table decorated with white cloth, bright pewter flagons, and other
+      tempting preparations for a well-cooked meal&mdash;when there were these
+      things, and company disposed to make the most of them, all ready to his
+      hand, and entreating him to enjoyment!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 3
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Such were the locksmith's thoughts when first seated in the snug corner,
+      and slowly recovering from a pleasant defect of vision&mdash;pleasant,
+      because occasioned by the wind blowing in his eyes&mdash;which made it a
+      matter of sound policy and duty to himself, that he should take refuge
+      from the weather, and tempted him, for the same reason, to aggravate a
+      slight cough, and declare he felt but poorly. Such were still his thoughts
+      more than a full hour afterwards, when, supper over, he still sat with
+      shining jovial face in the same warm nook, listening to the cricket-like
+      chirrup of little Solomon Daisy, and bearing no unimportant or slightly
+      respected part in the social gossip round the Maypole fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish he may be an honest man, that's all,' said Solomon, winding up a
+      variety of speculations relative to the stranger, concerning whom Gabriel
+      had compared notes with the company, and so raised a grave discussion; 'I
+      wish he may be an honest man.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So we all do, I suppose, don't we?' observed the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't,' said Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No!' cried Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No. He struck me with his whip, the coward, when he was mounted and I
+      afoot, and I should be better pleased that he turned out what I think
+      him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what may that be, Joe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No good, Mr Varden. You may shake your head, father, but I say no good,
+      and will say no good, and I would say no good a hundred times over, if
+      that would bring him back to have the drubbing he deserves.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hold your tongue, sir,' said John Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I won't, father. It's all along of you that he ventured to do what he
+      did. Seeing me treated like a child, and put down like a fool, HE plucks
+      up a heart and has a fling at a fellow that he thinks&mdash;and may well
+      think too&mdash;hasn't a grain of spirit. But he's mistaken, as I'll show
+      him, and as I'll show all of you before long.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Does the boy know what he's a saying of!' cried the astonished John
+      Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Father,' returned Joe, 'I know what I say and mean, well&mdash;better
+      than you do when you hear me. I can bear with you, but I cannot bear the
+      contempt that your treating me in the way you do, brings upon me from
+      others every day. Look at other young men of my age. Have they no liberty,
+      no will, no right to speak? Are they obliged to sit mumchance, and to be
+      ordered about till they are the laughing-stock of young and old? I am a
+      bye-word all over Chigwell, and I say&mdash;and it's fairer my saying so
+      now, than waiting till you are dead, and I have got your money&mdash;I
+      say, that before long I shall be driven to break such bounds, and that
+      when I do, it won't be me that you'll have to blame, but your own self,
+      and no other.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Willet was so amazed by the exasperation and boldness of his hopeful
+      son, that he sat as one bewildered, staring in a ludicrous manner at the
+      boiler, and endeavouring, but quite ineffectually, to collect his tardy
+      thoughts, and invent an answer. The guests, scarcely less disturbed, were
+      equally at a loss; and at length, with a variety of muttered,
+      half-expressed condolences, and pieces of advice, rose to depart; being at
+      the same time slightly muddled with liquor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The honest locksmith alone addressed a few words of coherent and sensible
+      advice to both parties, urging John Willet to remember that Joe was nearly
+      arrived at man's estate, and should not be ruled with too tight a hand,
+      and exhorting Joe himself to bear with his father's caprices, and rather
+      endeavour to turn them aside by temperate remonstrance than by ill-timed
+      rebellion. This advice was received as such advice usually is. On John
+      Willet it made almost as much impression as on the sign outside the door,
+      while Joe, who took it in the best part, avowed himself more obliged than
+      he could well express, but politely intimated his intention nevertheless
+      of taking his own course uninfluenced by anybody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have always been a very good friend to me, Mr Varden,' he said, as
+      they stood without, in the porch, and the locksmith was equipping himself
+      for his journey home; 'I take it very kind of you to say all this, but the
+      time's nearly come when the Maypole and I must part company.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Roving stones gather no moss, Joe,' said Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor milestones much,' replied Joe. 'I'm little better than one here, and
+      see as much of the world.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then, what would you do, Joe?' pursued the locksmith, stroking his chin
+      reflectively. 'What could you be? Where could you go, you see?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I must trust to chance, Mr Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A bad thing to trust to, Joe. I don't like it. I always tell my girl when
+      we talk about a husband for her, never to trust to chance, but to make
+      sure beforehand that she has a good man and true, and then chance will
+      neither make her nor break her. What are you fidgeting about there, Joe?
+      Nothing gone in the harness, I hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No no,' said Joe&mdash;finding, however, something very engrossing to do
+      in the way of strapping and buckling&mdash;'Miss Dolly quite well?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hearty, thankye. She looks pretty enough to be well, and good too.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She's always both, sir'&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So she is, thank God!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope,' said Joe after some hesitation, 'that you won't tell this story
+      against me&mdash;this of my having been beat like the boy they'd make of
+      me&mdash;at all events, till I have met this man again and settled the
+      account. It'll be a better story then.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why who should I tell it to?' returned Gabriel. 'They know it here, and
+      I'm not likely to come across anybody else who would care about it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's true enough,' said the young fellow with a sigh. 'I quite forgot
+      that. Yes, that's true!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he raised his face, which was very red,&mdash;no doubt from the
+      exertion of strapping and buckling as aforesaid,&mdash;and giving the
+      reins to the old man, who had by this time taken his seat, sighed again
+      and bade him good night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night!' cried Gabriel. 'Now think better of what we have just been
+      speaking of; and don't be rash, there's a good fellow! I have an interest
+      in you, and wouldn't have you cast yourself away. Good night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning his cheery farewell with cordial goodwill, Joe Willet lingered
+      until the sound of wheels ceased to vibrate in his ears, and then, shaking
+      his head mournfully, re-entered the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel Varden went his way towards London, thinking of a great many
+      things, and most of all of flaming terms in which to relate his adventure,
+      and so account satisfactorily to Mrs Varden for visiting the Maypole,
+      despite certain solemn covenants between himself and that lady. Thinking
+      begets, not only thought, but drowsiness occasionally, and the more the
+      locksmith thought, the more sleepy he became.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man may be very sober&mdash;or at least firmly set upon his legs on that
+      neutral ground which lies between the confines of perfect sobriety and
+      slight tipsiness&mdash;and yet feel a strong tendency to mingle up present
+      circumstances with others which have no manner of connection with them; to
+      confound all consideration of persons, things, times, and places; and to
+      jumble his disjointed thoughts together in a kind of mental kaleidoscope,
+      producing combinations as unexpected as they are transitory. This was
+      Gabriel Varden's state, as, nodding in his dog sleep, and leaving his
+      horse to pursue a road with which he was well acquainted, he got over the
+      ground unconsciously, and drew nearer and nearer home. He had roused
+      himself once, when the horse stopped until the turnpike gate was opened,
+      and had cried a lusty 'good night!' to the toll-keeper; but then he awoke
+      out of a dream about picking a lock in the stomach of the Great Mogul, and
+      even when he did wake, mixed up the turnpike man with his mother-in-law
+      who had been dead twenty years. It is not surprising, therefore, that he
+      soon relapsed, and jogged heavily along, quite insensible to his progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, now, he approached the great city, which lay outstretched before him
+      like a dark shadow on the ground, reddening the sluggish air with a deep
+      dull light, that told of labyrinths of public ways and shops, and swarms
+      of busy people. Approaching nearer and nearer yet, this halo began to
+      fade, and the causes which produced it slowly to develop themselves. Long
+      lines of poorly lighted streets might be faintly traced, with here and
+      there a lighter spot, where lamps were clustered round a square or market,
+      or round some great building; after a time these grew more distinct, and
+      the lamps themselves were visible; slight yellow specks, that seemed to be
+      rapidly snuffed out, one by one, as intervening obstacles hid them from
+      the sight. Then, sounds arose&mdash;the striking of church clocks, the
+      distant bark of dogs, the hum of traffic in the streets; then outlines
+      might be traced&mdash;tall steeples looming in the air, and piles of
+      unequal roofs oppressed by chimneys; then, the noise swelled into a louder
+      sound, and forms grew more distinct and numerous still, and London&mdash;visible
+      in the darkness by its own faint light, and not by that of Heaven&mdash;was
+      at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith, however, all unconscious of its near vicinity, still jogged
+      on, half sleeping and half waking, when a loud cry at no great distance
+      ahead, roused him with a start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment or two he looked about him like a man who had been
+      transported to some strange country in his sleep, but soon recognising
+      familiar objects, rubbed his eyes lazily and might have relapsed again,
+      but that the cry was repeated&mdash;not once or twice or thrice, but many
+      times, and each time, if possible, with increased vehemence. Thoroughly
+      aroused, Gabriel, who was a bold man and not easily daunted, made straight
+      to the spot, urging on his stout little horse as if for life or death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The matter indeed looked sufficiently serious, for, coming to the place
+      whence the cries had proceeded, he descried the figure of a man extended
+      in an apparently lifeless state upon the pathway, and, hovering round him,
+      another person with a torch in his hand, which he waved in the air with a
+      wild impatience, redoubling meanwhile those cries for help which had
+      brought the locksmith to the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's here to do?' said the old man, alighting. 'How's this&mdash;what&mdash;Barnaby?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bearer of the torch shook his long loose hair back from his eyes, and
+      thrusting his face eagerly into that of the locksmith, fixed upon him a
+      look which told his history at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You know me, Barnaby?' said Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded&mdash;not once or twice, but a score of times, and that with a
+      fantastic exaggeration which would have kept his head in motion for an
+      hour, but that the locksmith held up his finger, and fixing his eye
+      sternly upon him caused him to desist; then pointed to the body with an
+      inquiring look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's blood upon him,' said Barnaby with a shudder. 'It makes me sick!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How came it there?' demanded Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Steel, steel, steel!' he replied fiercely, imitating with his hand the
+      thrust of a sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is he robbed?' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby caught him by the arm, and nodded 'Yes;' then pointed towards the
+      city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh!' said the old man, bending over the body and looking round as he
+      spoke into Barnaby's pale face, strangely lighted up by something that was
+      NOT intellect. 'The robber made off that way, did he? Well, well, never
+      mind that just now. Hold your torch this way&mdash;a little farther off&mdash;so.
+      Now stand quiet, while I try to see what harm is done.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words, he applied himself to a closer examination of the
+      prostrate form, while Barnaby, holding the torch as he had been directed,
+      looked on in silence, fascinated by interest or curiosity, but repelled
+      nevertheless by some strong and secret horror which convulsed him in every
+      nerve.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0031m.jpg" alt="0031m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0031.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      As he stood, at that moment, half shrinking back and half bending forward,
+      both his face and figure were full in the strong glare of the link, and as
+      distinctly revealed as though it had been broad day. He was about
+      three-and-twenty years old, and though rather spare, of a fair height and
+      strong make. His hair, of which he had a great profusion, was red, and
+      hanging in disorder about his face and shoulders, gave to his restless
+      looks an expression quite unearthly&mdash;enhanced by the paleness of his
+      complexion, and the glassy lustre of his large protruding eyes. Startling
+      as his aspect was, the features were good, and there was something even
+      plaintive in his wan and haggard aspect. But, the absence of the soul is
+      far more terrible in a living man than in a dead one; and in this
+      unfortunate being its noblest powers were wanting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His dress was of green, clumsily trimmed here and there&mdash;apparently
+      by his own hands&mdash;with gaudy lace; brightest where the cloth was most
+      worn and soiled, and poorest where it was at the best. A pair of tawdry
+      ruffles dangled at his wrists, while his throat was nearly bare. He had
+      ornamented his hat with a cluster of peacock's feathers, but they were
+      limp and broken, and now trailed negligently down his back. Girt to his
+      side was the steel hilt of an old sword without blade or scabbard; and
+      some particoloured ends of ribands and poor glass toys completed the
+      ornamental portion of his attire. The fluttered and confused disposition
+      of all the motley scraps that formed his dress, bespoke, in a scarcely
+      less degree than his eager and unsettled manner, the disorder of his mind,
+      and by a grotesque contrast set off and heightened the more impressive
+      wildness of his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Barnaby,' said the locksmith, after a hasty but careful inspection, 'this
+      man is not dead, but he has a wound in his side, and is in a
+      fainting-fit.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know him, I know him!' cried Barnaby, clapping his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Know him?' repeated the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush!' said Barnaby, laying his fingers upon his lips. 'He went out
+      to-day a wooing. I wouldn't for a light guinea that he should never go a
+      wooing again, for, if he did, some eyes would grow dim that are now as
+      bright as&mdash;see, when I talk of eyes, the stars come out! Whose eyes
+      are they? If they are angels' eyes, why do they look down here and see
+      good men hurt, and only wink and sparkle all the night?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now Heaven help this silly fellow,' murmured the perplexed locksmith;
+      'can he know this gentleman? His mother's house is not far off; I had
+      better see if she can tell me who he is. Barnaby, my man, help me to put
+      him in the chaise, and we'll ride home together.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I can't touch him!' cried the idiot falling back, and shuddering as with
+      a strong spasm; he's bloody!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's in his nature, I know,' muttered the locksmith, 'it's cruel to ask
+      him, but I must have help. Barnaby&mdash;good Barnaby&mdash;dear Barnaby&mdash;if
+      you know this gentleman, for the sake of his life and everybody's life
+      that loves him, help me to raise him and lay him down.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Cover him then, wrap him close&mdash;don't let me see it&mdash;smell it&mdash;hear
+      the word. Don't speak the word&mdash;don't!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no, I'll not. There, you see he's covered now. Gently. Well done,
+      well done!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They placed him in the carriage with great ease, for Barnaby was strong
+      and active, but all the time they were so occupied he shivered from head
+      to foot, and evidently experienced an ecstasy of terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This accomplished, and the wounded man being covered with Varden's own
+      greatcoat which he took off for the purpose, they proceeded onward at a
+      brisk pace: Barnaby gaily counting the stars upon his fingers, and Gabriel
+      inwardly congratulating himself upon having an adventure now, which would
+      silence Mrs Varden on the subject of the Maypole, for that night, or there
+      was no faith in woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 4
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the venerable suburb&mdash;it was a suburb once&mdash;of Clerkenwell,
+      towards that part of its confines which is nearest to the Charter House,
+      and in one of those cool, shady Streets, of which a few, widely scattered
+      and dispersed, yet remain in such old parts of the metropolis,&mdash;each
+      tenement quietly vegetating like an ancient citizen who long ago retired
+      from business, and dozing on in its infirmity until in course of time it
+      tumbles down, and is replaced by some extravagant young heir, flaunting in
+      stucco and ornamental work, and all the vanities of modern days,&mdash;in
+      this quarter, and in a street of this description, the business of the
+      present chapter lies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time of which it treats, though only six-and-sixty years ago, a
+      very large part of what is London now had no existence. Even in the brains
+      of the wildest speculators, there had sprung up no long rows of streets
+      connecting Highgate with Whitechapel, no assemblages of palaces in the
+      swampy levels, nor little cities in the open fields. Although this part of
+      town was then, as now, parcelled out in streets, and plentifully peopled,
+      it wore a different aspect. There were gardens to many of the houses, and
+      trees by the pavement side; with an air of freshness breathing up and
+      down, which in these days would be sought in vain. Fields were nigh at
+      hand, through which the New River took its winding course, and where there
+      was merry haymaking in the summer time. Nature was not so far removed, or
+      hard to get at, as in these days; and although there were busy trades in
+      Clerkenwell, and working jewellers by scores, it was a purer place, with
+      farm-houses nearer to it than many modern Londoners would readily believe,
+      and lovers' walks at no great distance, which turned into squalid courts,
+      long before the lovers of this age were born, or, as the phrase goes,
+      thought of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one of these streets, the cleanest of them all, and on the shady side
+      of the way&mdash;for good housewives know that sunlight damages their
+      cherished furniture, and so choose the shade rather than its intrusive
+      glare&mdash;there stood the house with which we have to deal. It was a
+      modest building, not very straight, not large, not tall; not bold-faced,
+      with great staring windows, but a shy, blinking house, with a conical roof
+      going up into a peak over its garret window of four small panes of glass,
+      like a cocked hat on the head of an elderly gentleman with one eye. It was
+      not built of brick or lofty stone, but of wood and plaster; it was not
+      planned with a dull and wearisome regard to regularity, for no one window
+      matched the other, or seemed to have the slightest reference to anything
+      besides itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shop&mdash;for it had a shop&mdash;was, with reference to the first
+      floor, where shops usually are; and there all resemblance between it and
+      any other shop stopped short and ceased. People who went in and out didn't
+      go up a flight of steps to it, or walk easily in upon a level with the
+      street, but dived down three steep stairs, as into a cellar. Its floor was
+      paved with stone and brick, as that of any other cellar might be; and in
+      lieu of window framed and glazed it had a great black wooden flap or
+      shutter, nearly breast high from the ground, which turned back in the
+      day-time, admitting as much cold air as light, and very often more. Behind
+      this shop was a wainscoted parlour, looking first into a paved yard, and
+      beyond that again into a little terrace garden, raised some feet above it.
+      Any stranger would have supposed that this wainscoted parlour, saving for
+      the door of communication by which he had entered, was cut off and
+      detached from all the world; and indeed most strangers on their first
+      entrance were observed to grow extremely thoughtful, as weighing and
+      pondering in their minds whether the upper rooms were only approachable by
+      ladders from without; never suspecting that two of the most unassuming and
+      unlikely doors in existence, which the most ingenious mechanician on earth
+      must of necessity have supposed to be the doors of closets, opened out of
+      this room&mdash;each without the smallest preparation, or so much as a
+      quarter of an inch of passage&mdash;upon two dark winding flights of
+      stairs, the one upward, the other downward, which were the sole means of
+      communication between that chamber and the other portions of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all these oddities, there was not a neater, more scrupulously tidy,
+      or more punctiliously ordered house, in Clerkenwell, in London, in all
+      England. There were not cleaner windows, or whiter floors, or brighter
+      Stoves, or more highly shining articles of furniture in old mahogany;
+      there was not more rubbing, scrubbing, burnishing and polishing, in the
+      whole street put together. Nor was this excellence attained without some
+      cost and trouble and great expenditure of voice, as the neighbours were
+      frequently reminded when the good lady of the house overlooked and
+      assisted in its being put to rights on cleaning days&mdash;which were
+      usually from Monday morning till Saturday night, both days inclusive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaning against the door-post of this, his dwelling, the locksmith stood
+      early on the morning after he had met with the wounded man, gazing
+      disconsolately at a great wooden emblem of a key, painted in vivid yellow
+      to resemble gold, which dangled from the house-front, and swung to and fro
+      with a mournful creaking noise, as if complaining that it had nothing to
+      unlock. Sometimes, he looked over his shoulder into the shop, which was so
+      dark and dingy with numerous tokens of his trade, and so blackened by the
+      smoke of a little forge, near which his 'prentice was at work, that it
+      would have been difficult for one unused to such espials to have
+      distinguished anything but various tools of uncouth make and shape, great
+      bunches of rusty keys, fragments of iron, half-finished locks, and such
+      like things, which garnished the walls and hung in clusters from the
+      ceiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long and patient contemplation of the golden key, and many such
+      backward glances, Gabriel stepped into the road, and stole a look at the
+      upper windows. One of them chanced to be thrown open at the moment, and a
+      roguish face met his; a face lighted up by the loveliest pair of sparkling
+      eyes that ever locksmith looked upon; the face of a pretty, laughing,
+      girl; dimpled and fresh, and healthful&mdash;the very impersonation of
+      good-humour and blooming beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush!' she whispered, bending forward and pointing archly to the window
+      underneath. 'Mother is still asleep.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Still, my dear,' returned the locksmith in the same tone. 'You talk as if
+      she had been asleep all night, instead of little more than half an hour.
+      But I'm very thankful. Sleep's a blessing&mdash;no doubt about it.' The
+      last few words he muttered to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How cruel of you to keep us up so late this morning, and never tell us
+      where you were, or send us word!' said the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah Dolly, Dolly!' returned the locksmith, shaking his head, and smiling,
+      'how cruel of you to run upstairs to bed! Come down to breakfast, madcap,
+      and come down lightly, or you'll wake your mother. She must be tired, I am
+      sure&mdash;I am.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keeping these latter words to himself, and returning his daughter's nod,
+      he was passing into the workshop, with the smile she had awakened still
+      beaming on his face, when he just caught sight of his 'prentice's brown
+      paper cap ducking down to avoid observation, and shrinking from the window
+      back to its former place, which the wearer no sooner reached than he began
+      to hammer lustily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Listening again, Simon!' said Gabriel to himself. 'That's bad. What in
+      the name of wonder does he expect the girl to say, that I always catch him
+      listening when SHE speaks, and never at any other time! A bad habit, Sim,
+      a sneaking, underhanded way. Ah! you may hammer, but you won't beat that
+      out of me, if you work at it till your time's up!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, and shaking his head gravely, he re-entered the workshop, and
+      confronted the subject of these remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's enough of that just now,' said the locksmith. 'You needn't make
+      any more of that confounded clatter. Breakfast's ready.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' said Sim, looking up with amazing politeness, and a peculiar little
+      bow cut short off at the neck, 'I shall attend you immediately.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I suppose,' muttered Gabriel, 'that's out of the 'Prentice's Garland or
+      the 'Prentice's Delight, or the 'Prentice's Warbler, or the Prentice's
+      Guide to the Gallows, or some such improving textbook. Now he's going to
+      beautify himself&mdash;here's a precious locksmith!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quite unconscious that his master was looking on from the dark corner by
+      the parlour door, Sim threw off the paper cap, sprang from his seat, and
+      in two extraordinary steps, something between skating and minuet dancing,
+      bounded to a washing place at the other end of the shop, and there removed
+      from his face and hands all traces of his previous work&mdash;practising
+      the same step all the time with the utmost gravity. This done, he drew
+      from some concealed place a little scrap of looking-glass, and with its
+      assistance arranged his hair, and ascertained the exact state of a little
+      carbuncle on his nose. Having now completed his toilet, he placed the
+      fragment of mirror on a low bench, and looked over his shoulder at so much
+      of his legs as could be reflected in that small compass, with the greatest
+      possible complacency and satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sim, as he was called in the locksmith's family, or Mr Simon Tappertit, as
+      he called himself, and required all men to style him out of doors, on
+      holidays, and Sundays out,&mdash;was an old-fashioned, thin-faced,
+      sleek-haired, sharp-nosed, small-eyed little fellow, very little more than
+      five feet high, and thoroughly convinced in his own mind that he was above
+      the middle size; rather tall, in fact, than otherwise. Of his figure,
+      which was well enough formed, though somewhat of the leanest, he
+      entertained the highest admiration; and with his legs, which, in
+      knee-breeches, were perfect curiosities of littleness, he was enraptured
+      to a degree amounting to enthusiasm. He also had some majestic, shadowy
+      ideas, which had never been quite fathomed by his intimate friends,
+      concerning the power of his eye. Indeed he had been known to go so far as
+      to boast that he could utterly quell and subdue the haughtiest beauty by a
+      simple process, which he termed 'eyeing her over;' but it must be added,
+      that neither of this faculty, nor of the power he claimed to have, through
+      the same gift, of vanquishing and heaving down dumb animals, even in a
+      rabid state, had he ever furnished evidence which could be deemed quite
+      satisfactory and conclusive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be inferred from these premises, that in the small body of Mr
+      Tappertit there was locked up an ambitious and aspiring soul. As certain
+      liquors, confined in casks too cramped in their dimensions, will ferment,
+      and fret, and chafe in their imprisonment, so the spiritual essence or
+      soul of Mr Tappertit would sometimes fume within that precious cask, his
+      body, until, with great foam and froth and splutter, it would force a
+      vent, and carry all before it. It was his custom to remark, in reference
+      to any one of these occasions, that his soul had got into his head; and in
+      this novel kind of intoxication many scrapes and mishaps befell him, which
+      he had frequently concealed with no small difficulty from his worthy
+      master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sim Tappertit, among the other fancies upon which his before-mentioned
+      soul was for ever feasting and regaling itself (and which fancies, like
+      the liver of Prometheus, grew as they were fed upon), had a mighty notion
+      of his order; and had been heard by the servant-maid openly expressing his
+      regret that the 'prentices no longer carried clubs wherewith to mace the
+      citizens: that was his strong expression. He was likewise reported to have
+      said that in former times a stigma had been cast upon the body by the
+      execution of George Barnwell, to which they should not have basely
+      submitted, but should have demanded him of the legislature&mdash;temperately
+      at first; then by an appeal to arms, if necessary&mdash;to be dealt with
+      as they in their wisdom might think fit. These thoughts always led him to
+      consider what a glorious engine the 'prentices might yet become if they
+      had but a master spirit at their head; and then he would darkly, and to
+      the terror of his hearers, hint at certain reckless fellows that he knew
+      of, and at a certain Lion Heart ready to become their captain, who, once
+      afoot, would make the Lord Mayor tremble on his throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In respect of dress and personal decoration, Sim Tappertit was no less of
+      an adventurous and enterprising character. He had been seen, beyond
+      dispute, to pull off ruffles of the finest quality at the corner of the
+      street on Sunday nights, and to put them carefully in his pocket before
+      returning home; and it was quite notorious that on all great holiday
+      occasions it was his habit to exchange his plain steel knee-buckles for a
+      pair of glittering paste, under cover of a friendly post, planted most
+      conveniently in that same spot. Add to this that he was in years just
+      twenty, in his looks much older, and in conceit at least two hundred; that
+      he had no objection to be jested with, touching his admiration of his
+      master's daughter; and had even, when called upon at a certain obscure
+      tavern to pledge the lady whom he honoured with his love, toasted, with
+      many winks and leers, a fair creature whose Christian name, he said, began
+      with a D&mdash;;&mdash;and as much is known of Sim Tappertit, who has by
+      this time followed the locksmith in to breakfast, as is necessary to be
+      known in making his acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a substantial meal; for, over and above the ordinary tea equipage,
+      the board creaked beneath the weight of a jolly round of beef, a ham of
+      the first magnitude, and sundry towers of buttered Yorkshire cake, piled
+      slice upon slice in most alluring order. There was also a goodly jug of
+      well-browned clay, fashioned into the form of an old gentleman, not by any
+      means unlike the locksmith, atop of whose bald head was a fine white froth
+      answering to his wig, indicative, beyond dispute, of sparkling home-brewed
+      ale. But, better far than fair home-brewed, or Yorkshire cake, or ham, or
+      beef, or anything to eat or drink that earth or air or water can supply,
+      there sat, presiding over all, the locksmith's rosy daughter, before whose
+      dark eyes even beef grew insignificant, and malt became as nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fathers should never kiss their daughters when young men are by. It's too
+      much. There are bounds to human endurance. So thought Sim Tappertit when
+      Gabriel drew those rosy lips to his&mdash;those lips within Sim's reach
+      from day to day, and yet so far off. He had a respect for his master, but
+      he wished the Yorkshire cake might choke him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Father,' said the locksmith's daughter, when this salute was over, and
+      they took their seats at table, 'what is this I hear about last night?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All true, my dear; true as the Gospel, Doll.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Young Mr Chester robbed, and lying wounded in the road, when you came
+      up!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay&mdash;Mr Edward. And beside him, Barnaby, calling for help with all
+      his might. It was well it happened as it did; for the road's a lonely one,
+      the hour was late, and, the night being cold, and poor Barnaby even less
+      sensible than usual from surprise and fright, the young gentleman might
+      have met his death in a very short time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I dread to think of it!' cried his daughter with a shudder. 'How did you
+      know him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Know him!' returned the locksmith. 'I didn't know him&mdash;how could I?
+      I had never seen him, often as I had heard and spoken of him. I took him
+      to Mrs Rudge's; and she no sooner saw him than the truth came out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miss Emma, father&mdash;If this news should reach her, enlarged upon as
+      it is sure to be, she will go distracted.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, lookye there again, how a man suffers for being good-natured,' said
+      the locksmith. 'Miss Emma was with her uncle at the masquerade at Carlisle
+      House, where she had gone, as the people at the Warren told me, sorely
+      against her will. What does your blockhead father when he and Mrs Rudge
+      have laid their heads together, but goes there when he ought to be abed,
+      makes interest with his friend the doorkeeper, slips him on a mask and
+      domino, and mixes with the masquers.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And like himself to do so!' cried the girl, putting her fair arm round
+      his neck, and giving him a most enthusiastic kiss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Like himself!' repeated Gabriel, affecting to grumble, but evidently
+      delighted with the part he had taken, and with her praise. 'Very like
+      himself&mdash;so your mother said. However, he mingled with the crowd, and
+      prettily worried and badgered he was, I warrant you, with people
+      squeaking, "Don't you know me?" and "I've found you out," and all that
+      kind of nonsense in his ears. He might have wandered on till now, but in a
+      little room there was a young lady who had taken off her mask, on account
+      of the place being very warm, and was sitting there alone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And that was she?' said his daughter hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And that was she,' replied the locksmith; 'and I no sooner whispered to
+      her what the matter was&mdash;as softly, Doll, and with nearly as much art
+      as you could have used yourself&mdash;than she gives a kind of scream and
+      faints away.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What did you do&mdash;what happened next?' asked his daughter. 'Why, the
+      masks came flocking round, with a general noise and hubbub, and I thought
+      myself in luck to get clear off, that's all,' rejoined the locksmith.
+      'What happened when I reached home you may guess, if you didn't hear it.
+      Ah! Well, it's a poor heart that never rejoices.&mdash;Put Toby this way,
+      my dear.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This Toby was the brown jug of which previous mention has been made.
+      Applying his lips to the worthy old gentleman's benevolent forehead, the
+      locksmith, who had all this time been ravaging among the eatables, kept
+      them there so long, at the same time raising the vessel slowly in the air,
+      that at length Toby stood on his head upon his nose, when he smacked his
+      lips, and set him on the table again with fond reluctance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Sim Tappertit had taken no share in this conversation, no part of
+      it being addressed to him, he had not been wanting in such silent
+      manifestations of astonishment, as he deemed most compatible with the
+      favourable display of his eyes. Regarding the pause which now ensued, as a
+      particularly advantageous opportunity for doing great execution with them
+      upon the locksmith's daughter (who he had no doubt was looking at him in
+      mute admiration), he began to screw and twist his face, and especially
+      those features, into such extraordinary, hideous, and unparalleled
+      contortions, that Gabriel, who happened to look towards him, was stricken
+      with amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, what the devil's the matter with the lad?' cried the locksmith. 'Is
+      he choking?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who?' demanded Sim, with some disdain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who? Why, you,' returned his master. 'What do you mean by making those
+      horrible faces over your breakfast?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Faces are matters of taste, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, rather discomfited;
+      not the less so because he saw the locksmith's daughter smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sim,' rejoined Gabriel, laughing heartily. 'Don't be a fool, for I'd
+      rather see you in your senses. These young fellows,' he added, turning to
+      his daughter, 'are always committing some folly or another. There was a
+      quarrel between Joe Willet and old John last night though I can't say Joe
+      was much in fault either. He'll be missing one of these mornings, and will
+      have gone away upon some wild-goose errand, seeking his fortune.&mdash;Why,
+      what's the matter, Doll? YOU are making faces now. The girls are as bad as
+      the boys every bit!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's the tea,' said Dolly, turning alternately very red and very white,
+      which is no doubt the effect of a slight scald&mdash;'so very hot.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit looked immensely big at a quartern loaf on the table, and
+      breathed hard.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0037m.jpg" alt="0037m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0037.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'Is that all?' returned the locksmith. 'Put some more milk in it.&mdash;Yes,
+      I am sorry for Joe, because he is a likely young fellow, and gains upon
+      one every time one sees him. But he'll start off, you'll find. Indeed he
+      told me as much himself!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Indeed!' cried Dolly in a faint voice. 'In-deed!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is the tea tickling your throat still, my dear?' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, before his daughter could make him any answer, she was taken with a
+      troublesome cough, and it was such a very unpleasant cough, that, when she
+      left off, the tears were starting in her bright eyes. The good-natured
+      locksmith was still patting her on the back and applying such gentle
+      restoratives, when a message arrived from Mrs Varden, making known to all
+      whom it might concern, that she felt too much indisposed to rise after her
+      great agitation and anxiety of the previous night; and therefore desired
+      to be immediately accommodated with the little black teapot of strong
+      mixed tea, a couple of rounds of buttered toast, a middling-sized dish of
+      beef and ham cut thin, and the Protestant Manual in two volumes post
+      octavo. Like some other ladies who in remote ages flourished upon this
+      globe, Mrs Varden was most devout when most ill-tempered. Whenever she and
+      her husband were at unusual variance, then the Protestant Manual was in
+      high feather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Knowing from experience what these requests portended, the triumvirate
+      broke up; Dolly, to see the orders executed with all despatch; Gabriel, to
+      some out-of-door work in his little chaise; and Sim, to his daily duty in
+      the workshop, to which retreat he carried the big look, although the loaf
+      remained behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed the big look increased immensely, and when he had tied his apron
+      on, became quite gigantic. It was not until he had several times walked up
+      and down with folded arms, and the longest strides he could take, and had
+      kicked a great many small articles out of his way, that his lip began to
+      curl. At length, a gloomy derision came upon his features, and he smiled;
+      uttering meanwhile with supreme contempt the monosyllable 'Joe!'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0038m.jpg" alt="0038m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0038.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'I eyed her over, while he talked about the fellow,' he said, 'and that
+      was of course the reason of her being confused. Joe!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked up and down again much quicker than before, and if possible with
+      longer strides; sometimes stopping to take a glance at his legs, and
+      sometimes to jerk out, and cast from him, another 'Joe!' In the course of
+      a quarter of an hour or so he again assumed the paper cap and tried to
+      work. No. It could not be done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll do nothing to-day,' said Mr Tappertit, dashing it down again, 'but
+      grind. I'll grind up all the tools. Grinding will suit my present humour
+      well. Joe!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whirr-r-r-r. The grindstone was soon in motion; the sparks were flying off
+      in showers. This was the occupation for his heated spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whirr-r-r-r-r-r-r.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Something will come of this!' said Mr Tappertit, pausing as if in
+      triumph, and wiping his heated face upon his sleeve. 'Something will come
+      of this. I hope it mayn't be human gore!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whirr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 5
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the business of the day was over, the locksmith sallied forth,
+      alone, to visit the wounded gentleman and ascertain the progress of his
+      recovery. The house where he had left him was in a by-street in Southwark,
+      not far from London Bridge; and thither he hied with all speed, bent upon
+      returning with as little delay as might be, and getting to bed betimes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening was boisterous&mdash;scarcely better than the previous night
+      had been. It was not easy for a stout man like Gabriel to keep his legs at
+      the street corners, or to make head against the high wind, which often
+      fairly got the better of him, and drove him back some paces, or, in
+      defiance of all his energy, forced him to take shelter in an arch or
+      doorway until the fury of the gust was spent. Occasionally a hat or wig,
+      or both, came spinning and trundling past him, like a mad thing; while the
+      more serious spectacle of falling tiles and slates, or of masses of brick
+      and mortar or fragments of stone-coping rattling upon the pavement near at
+      hand, and splitting into fragments, did not increase the pleasure of the
+      journey, or make the way less dreary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A trying night for a man like me to walk in!' said the locksmith, as he
+      knocked softly at the widow's door. 'I'd rather be in old John's
+      chimney-corner, faith!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who's there?' demanded a woman's voice from within. Being answered, it
+      added a hasty word of welcome, and the door was quickly opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was about forty&mdash;perhaps two or three years older&mdash;with a
+      cheerful aspect, and a face that had once been pretty. It bore traces of
+      affliction and care, but they were of an old date, and Time had smoothed
+      them. Any one who had bestowed but a casual glance on Barnaby might have
+      known that this was his mother, from the strong resemblance between them;
+      but where in his face there was wildness and vacancy, in hers there was
+      the patient composure of long effort and quiet resignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One thing about this face was very strange and startling. You could not
+      look upon it in its most cheerful mood without feeling that it had some
+      extraordinary capacity of expressing terror. It was not on the surface. It
+      was in no one feature that it lingered. You could not take the eyes or
+      mouth, or lines upon the cheek, and say, if this or that were otherwise,
+      it would not be so. Yet there it always lurked&mdash;something for ever
+      dimly seen, but ever there, and never absent for a moment. It was the
+      faintest, palest shadow of some look, to which an instant of intense and
+      most unutterable horror only could have given birth; but indistinct and
+      feeble as it was, it did suggest what that look must have been, and fixed
+      it in the mind as if it had had existence in a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More faintly imaged, and wanting force and purpose, as it were, because of
+      his darkened intellect, there was this same stamp upon the son. Seen in a
+      picture, it must have had some legend with it, and would have haunted
+      those who looked upon the canvas. They who knew the Maypole story, and
+      could remember what the widow was, before her husband's and his master's
+      murder, understood it well. They recollected how the change had come, and
+      could call to mind that when her son was born, upon the very day the deed
+      was known, he bore upon his wrist what seemed a smear of blood but half
+      washed out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'God save you, neighbour!' said the locksmith, as he followed her, with
+      the air of an old friend, into a little parlour where a cheerful fire was
+      burning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And you,' she answered smiling. 'Your kind heart has brought you here
+      again. Nothing will keep you at home, I know of old, if there are friends
+      to serve or comfort, out of doors.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tut, tut,' returned the locksmith, rubbing his hands and warming them.
+      'You women are such talkers. What of the patient, neighbour?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is sleeping now. He was very restless towards daylight, and for some
+      hours tossed and tumbled sadly. But the fever has left him, and the doctor
+      says he will soon mend. He must not be removed until to-morrow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has had visitors to-day&mdash;humph?' said Gabriel, slyly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes. Old Mr Chester has been here ever since we sent for him, and had not
+      been gone many minutes when you knocked.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No ladies?' said Gabriel, elevating his eyebrows and looking
+      disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A letter,' replied the widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come. That's better than nothing!' replied the locksmith. 'Who was the
+      bearer?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Barnaby, of course.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Barnaby's a jewel!' said Varden; 'and comes and goes with ease where we
+      who think ourselves much wiser would make but a poor hand of it. He is not
+      out wandering, again, I hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank Heaven he is in his bed; having been up all night, as you know, and
+      on his feet all day. He was quite tired out. Ah, neighbour, if I could but
+      see him oftener so&mdash;if I could but tame down that terrible
+      restlessness&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In good time,' said the locksmith, kindly, 'in good time&mdash;don't be
+      down-hearted. To my mind he grows wiser every day.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow shook her head. And yet, though she knew the locksmith sought to
+      cheer her, and spoke from no conviction of his own, she was glad to hear
+      even this praise of her poor benighted son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He will be a 'cute man yet,' resumed the locksmith. 'Take care, when we
+      are growing old and foolish, Barnaby doesn't put us to the blush, that's
+      all. But our other friend,' he added, looking under the table and about
+      the floor&mdash;'sharpest and cunningest of all the sharp and cunning ones&mdash;where's
+      he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In Barnaby's room,' rejoined the widow, with a faint smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah! He's a knowing blade!' said Varden, shaking his head. 'I should be
+      sorry to talk secrets before him. Oh! He's a deep customer. I've no doubt
+      he can read, and write, and cast accounts if he chooses. What was that?
+      Him tapping at the door?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' returned the widow. 'It was in the street, I think. Hark! Yes. There
+      again! 'Tis some one knocking softly at the shutter. Who can it be!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been speaking in a low tone, for the invalid lay overhead, and
+      the walls and ceilings being thin and poorly built, the sound of their
+      voices might otherwise have disturbed his slumber. The party without,
+      whoever it was, could have stood close to the shutter without hearing
+      anything spoken; and, seeing the light through the chinks and finding all
+      so quiet, might have been persuaded that only one person was there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Some thief or ruffian maybe,' said the locksmith. 'Give me the light.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no,' she returned hastily. 'Such visitors have never come to this
+      poor dwelling. Do you stay here. You're within call, at the worst. I would
+      rather go myself&mdash;alone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why?' said the locksmith, unwillingly relinquishing the candle he had
+      caught up from the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because&mdash;I don't know why&mdash;because the wish is so strong upon
+      me,' she rejoined. 'There again&mdash;do not detain me, I beg of you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel looked at her, in great surprise to see one who was usually so
+      mild and quiet thus agitated, and with so little cause. She left the room
+      and closed the door behind her. She stood for a moment as if hesitating,
+      with her hand upon the lock. In this short interval the knocking came
+      again, and a voice close to the window&mdash;a voice the locksmith seemed
+      to recollect, and to have some disagreeable association with&mdash;whispered
+      'Make haste.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were uttered in that low distinct voice which finds its way so
+      readily to sleepers' ears, and wakes them in a fright. For a moment it
+      startled even the locksmith; who involuntarily drew back from the window,
+      and listened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wind rumbling in the chimney made it difficult to hear what passed,
+      but he could tell that the door was opened, that there was the tread of a
+      man upon the creaking boards, and then a moment's silence&mdash;broken by
+      a suppressed something which was not a shriek, or groan, or cry for help,
+      and yet might have been either or all three; and the words 'My God!'
+      uttered in a voice it chilled him to hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rushed out upon the instant. There, at last, was that dreadful look&mdash;the
+      very one he seemed to know so well and yet had never seen before&mdash;upon
+      her face. There she stood, frozen to the ground, gazing with starting
+      eyes, and livid cheeks, and every feature fixed and ghastly, upon the man
+      he had encountered in the dark last night. His eyes met those of the
+      locksmith. It was but a flash, an instant, a breath upon a polished glass,
+      and he was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith was upon him&mdash;had the skirts of his streaming garment
+      almost in his grasp&mdash;when his arms were tightly clutched, and the
+      widow flung herself upon the ground before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The other way&mdash;the other way,' she cried. 'He went the other way.
+      Turn&mdash;turn!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The other way! I see him now,' rejoined the locksmith, pointing&mdash;'yonder&mdash;there&mdash;there
+      is his shadow passing by that light. What&mdash;who is this? Let me go.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come back, come back!' exclaimed the woman, clasping him; 'Do not touch
+      him on your life. I charge you, come back. He carries other lives besides
+      his own. Come back!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What does this mean?' cried the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No matter what it means, don't ask, don't speak, don't think about it. He
+      is not to be followed, checked, or stopped. Come back!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man looked at her in wonder, as she writhed and clung about him;
+      and, borne down by her passion, suffered her to drag him into the house.
+      It was not until she had chained and double-locked the door, fastened
+      every bolt and bar with the heat and fury of a maniac, and drawn him back
+      into the room, that she turned upon him, once again, that stony look of
+      horror, and, sinking down into a chair, covered her face, and shuddered,
+      as though the hand of death were on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0041m.jpg" alt="0041m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0041.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 6
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Beyond all measure astonished by the strange occurrences which had passed
+      with so much violence and rapidity, the locksmith gazed upon the
+      shuddering figure in the chair like one half stupefied, and would have
+      gazed much longer, had not his tongue been loosened by compassion and
+      humanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are ill,' said Gabriel. 'Let me call some neighbour in.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not for the world,' she rejoined, motioning to him with her trembling
+      hand, and holding her face averted. 'It is enough that you have been by,
+      to see this.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay, more than enough&mdash;or less,' said Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Be it so,' she returned. 'As you like. Ask me no questions, I entreat
+      you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Neighbour,' said the locksmith, after a pause. 'Is this fair, or
+      reasonable, or just to yourself? Is it like you, who have known me so long
+      and sought my advice in all matters&mdash;like you, who from a girl have
+      had a strong mind and a staunch heart?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have need of them,' she replied. 'I am growing old, both in years and
+      care. Perhaps that, and too much trial, have made them weaker than they
+      used to be. Do not speak to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How can I see what I have seen, and hold my peace!' returned the
+      locksmith. 'Who was that man, and why has his coming made this change in
+      you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was silent, but held to the chair as though to save herself from
+      falling on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I take the licence of an old acquaintance, Mary,' said the locksmith,
+      'who has ever had a warm regard for you, and maybe has tried to prove it
+      when he could. Who is this ill-favoured man, and what has he to do with
+      you? Who is this ghost, that is only seen in the black nights and bad
+      weather? How does he know, and why does he haunt, this house, whispering
+      through chinks and crevices, as if there was that between him and you,
+      which neither durst so much as speak aloud of? Who is he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You do well to say he haunts this house,' returned the widow, faintly.
+      'His shadow has been upon it and me, in light and darkness, at noonday and
+      midnight. And now, at last, he has come in the body!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But he wouldn't have gone in the body,' returned the locksmith with some
+      irritation, 'if you had left my arms and legs at liberty. What riddle is
+      this?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is one,' she answered, rising as she spoke, 'that must remain for ever
+      as it is. I dare not say more than that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dare not!' repeated the wondering locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do not press me,' she replied. 'I am sick and faint, and every faculty of
+      life seems dead within me.&mdash;No!&mdash;Do not touch me, either.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel, who had stepped forward to render her assistance, fell back as
+      she made this hasty exclamation, and regarded her in silent wonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me go my way alone,' she said in a low voice, 'and let the hands of
+      no honest man touch mine to-night.' When she had tottered to the door, she
+      turned, and added with a stronger effort, 'This is a secret, which, of
+      necessity, I trust to you. You are a true man. As you have ever been good
+      and kind to me,&mdash;keep it. If any noise was heard above, make some
+      excuse&mdash;say anything but what you really saw, and never let a word or
+      look between us, recall this circumstance. I trust to you. Mind, I trust
+      to you. How much I trust, you never can conceive.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Casting her eyes upon him for an instant, she withdrew, and left him there
+      alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel, not knowing what to think, stood staring at the door with a
+      countenance full of surprise and dismay. The more he pondered on what had
+      passed, the less able he was to give it any favourable interpretation. To
+      find this widow woman, whose life for so many years had been supposed to
+      be one of solitude and retirement, and who, in her quiet suffering
+      character, had gained the good opinion and respect of all who knew her&mdash;to
+      find her linked mysteriously with an ill-omened man, alarmed at his
+      appearance, and yet favouring his escape, was a discovery that pained as
+      much as startled him. Her reliance on his secrecy, and his tacit
+      acquiescence, increased his distress of mind. If he had spoken boldly,
+      persisted in questioning her, detained her when she rose to leave the
+      room, made any kind of protest, instead of silently compromising himself,
+      as he felt he had done, he would have been more at ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why did I let her say it was a secret, and she trusted it to me!' said
+      Gabriel, putting his wig on one side to scratch his head with greater
+      ease, and looking ruefully at the fire. 'I have no more readiness than old
+      John himself. Why didn't I say firmly, "You have no right to such secrets,
+      and I demand of you to tell me what this means," instead of standing
+      gaping at her, like an old moon-calf as I am! But there's my weakness. I
+      can be obstinate enough with men if need be, but women may twist me round
+      their fingers at their pleasure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took his wig off outright as he made this reflection, and, warming his
+      handkerchief at the fire began to rub and polish his bald head with it,
+      until it glistened again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And yet,' said the locksmith, softening under this soothing process, and
+      stopping to smile, 'it MAY be nothing. Any drunken brawler trying to make
+      his way into the house, would have alarmed a quiet soul like her. But
+      then'&mdash;and here was the vexation&mdash;'how came it to be that man;
+      how comes he to have this influence over her; how came she to favour his
+      getting away from me; and, more than all, how came she not to say it was a
+      sudden fright, and nothing more? It's a sad thing to have, in one minute,
+      reason to mistrust a person I have known so long, and an old sweetheart
+      into the bargain; but what else can I do, with all this upon my mind!&mdash;Is
+      that Barnaby outside there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' he cried, looking in and nodding. 'Sure enough it's Barnaby&mdash;how
+      did you guess?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By your shadow,' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oho!' cried Barnaby, glancing over his shoulder, 'He's a merry fellow,
+      that shadow, and keeps close to me, though I AM silly. We have such
+      pranks, such walks, such runs, such gambols on the grass! Sometimes he'll
+      be half as tall as a church steeple, and sometimes no bigger than a dwarf.
+      Now, he goes on before, and now behind, and anon he'll be stealing on, on
+      this side, or on that, stopping whenever I stop, and thinking I can't see
+      him, though I have my eye on him sharp enough. Oh! he's a merry fellow.
+      Tell me&mdash;is he silly too? I think he is.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why?' asked Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because he never tires of mocking me, but does it all day long.&mdash;Why
+      don't you come?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Upstairs. He wants you. Stay&mdash;where's HIS shadow? Come. You're a
+      wise man; tell me that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Beside him, Barnaby; beside him, I suppose,' returned the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No!' he replied, shaking his head. 'Guess again.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gone out a walking, maybe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has changed shadows with a woman,' the idiot whispered in his ear, and
+      then fell back with a look of triumph. 'Her shadow's always with him, and
+      his with her. That's sport I think, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Barnaby,' said the locksmith, with a grave look; 'come hither, lad.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know what you want to say. I know!' he replied, keeping away from him.
+      'But I'm cunning, I'm silent. I only say so much to you&mdash;are you
+      ready?' As he spoke, he caught up the light, and waved it with a wild
+      laugh above his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Softly&mdash;gently,' said the locksmith, exerting all his influence to
+      keep him calm and quiet. 'I thought you had been asleep.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So I HAVE been asleep,' he rejoined, with widely-opened eyes. 'There have
+      been great faces coming and going&mdash;close to my face, and then a mile
+      away&mdash;low places to creep through, whether I would or no&mdash;high
+      churches to fall down from&mdash;strange creatures crowded up together
+      neck and heels, to sit upon the bed&mdash;that's sleep, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dreams, Barnaby, dreams,' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dreams!' he echoed softly, drawing closer to him. 'Those are not dreams.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What are,' replied the locksmith, 'if they are not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I dreamed,' said Barnaby, passing his arm through Varden's, and peering
+      close into his face as he answered in a whisper, 'I dreamed just now that
+      something&mdash;it was in the shape of a man&mdash;followed me&mdash;came
+      softly after me&mdash;wouldn't let me be&mdash;but was always hiding and
+      crouching, like a cat in dark corners, waiting till I should pass; when it
+      crept out and came softly after me.&mdash;Did you ever see me run?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Many a time, you know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You never saw me run as I did in this dream. Still it came creeping on to
+      worry me. Nearer, nearer, nearer&mdash;I ran faster&mdash;leaped&mdash;sprung
+      out of bed, and to the window&mdash;and there, in the street below&mdash;but
+      he is waiting for us. Are you coming?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What in the street below, Barnaby?' said Varden, imagining that he traced
+      some connection between this vision and what had actually occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby looked into his face, muttered incoherently, waved the light above
+      his head again, laughed, and drawing the locksmith's arm more tightly
+      through his own, led him up the stairs in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered a homely bedchamber, garnished in a scanty way with chairs,
+      whose spindle-shanks bespoke their age, and other furniture of very little
+      worth; but clean and neatly kept. Reclining in an easy-chair before the
+      fire, pale and weak from waste of blood, was Edward Chester, the young
+      gentleman who had been the first to quit the Maypole on the previous
+      night, and who, extending his hand to the locksmith, welcomed him as his
+      preserver and friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Say no more, sir, say no more,' said Gabriel. 'I hope I would have done
+      at least as much for any man in such a strait, and most of all for you,
+      sir. A certain young lady,' he added, with some hesitation, 'has done us
+      many a kind turn, and we naturally feel&mdash;I hope I give you no offence
+      in saying this, sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man smiled and shook his head; at the same time moving in his
+      chair as if in pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's no great matter,' he said, in answer to the locksmith's sympathising
+      look, 'a mere uneasiness arising at least as much from being cooped up
+      here, as from the slight wound I have, or from the loss of blood. Be
+      seated, Mr Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If I may make so bold, Mr Edward, as to lean upon your chair,' returned
+      the locksmith, accommodating his action to his speech, and bending over
+      him, 'I'll stand here for the convenience of speaking low. Barnaby is not
+      in his quietest humour to-night, and at such times talking never does him
+      good.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both glanced at the subject of this remark, who had taken a seat on
+      the other side of the fire, and, smiling vacantly, was making puzzles on
+      his fingers with a skein of string.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pray, tell me, sir,' said Varden, dropping his voice still lower,
+      'exactly what happened last night. I have my reason for inquiring. You
+      left the Maypole, alone?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And walked homeward alone, until I had nearly reached the place where you
+      found me, when I heard the gallop of a horse.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Behind you?' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Indeed, yes&mdash;behind me. It was a single rider, who soon overtook me,
+      and checking his horse, inquired the way to London.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You were on the alert, sir, knowing how many highwaymen there are,
+      scouring the roads in all directions?' said Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I was, but I had only a stick, having imprudently left my pistols in
+      their holster-case with the landlord's son. I directed him as he desired.
+      Before the words had passed my lips, he rode upon me furiously, as if bent
+      on trampling me down beneath his horse's hoofs. In starting aside, I
+      slipped and fell. You found me with this stab and an ugly bruise or two,
+      and without my purse&mdash;in which he found little enough for his pains.
+      And now, Mr Varden,' he added, shaking the locksmith by the hand, 'saving
+      the extent of my gratitude to you, you know as much as I.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Except,' said Gabriel, bending down yet more, and looking cautiously
+      towards their silent neighhour, 'except in respect of the robber himself.
+      What like was he, sir? Speak low, if you please. Barnaby means no harm,
+      but I have watched him oftener than you, and I know, little as you would
+      think it, that he's listening now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It required a strong confidence in the locksmith's veracity to lead any
+      one to this belief, for every sense and faculty that Barnaby possessed,
+      seemed to be fixed upon his game, to the exclusion of all other things.
+      Something in the young man's face expressed this opinion, for Gabriel
+      repeated what he had just said, more earnestly than before, and with
+      another glance towards Barnaby, again asked what like the man was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The night was so dark,' said Edward, 'the attack so sudden, and he so
+      wrapped and muffled up, that I can hardly say. It seems that&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't mention his name, sir,' returned the locksmith, following his look
+      towards Barnaby; 'I know HE saw him. I want to know what YOU saw.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All I remember is,' said Edward, 'that as he checked his horse his hat
+      was blown off. He caught it, and replaced it on his head, which I observed
+      was bound with a dark handkerchief. A stranger entered the Maypole while I
+      was there, whom I had not seen&mdash;for I had sat apart for reasons of my
+      own&mdash;and when I rose to leave the room and glanced round, he was in
+      the shadow of the chimney and hidden from my sight. But, if he and the
+      robber were two different persons, their voices were strangely and most
+      remarkably alike; for directly the man addressed me in the road, I
+      recognised his speech again.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is as I feared. The very man was here to-night,' thought the
+      locksmith, changing colour. 'What dark history is this!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Halloa!' cried a hoarse voice in his ear. 'Halloa, halloa, halloa! Bow
+      wow wow. What's the matter here! Hal-loa!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The speaker&mdash;who made the locksmith start as if he had been some
+      supernatural agent&mdash;was a large raven, who had perched upon the top
+      of the easy-chair, unseen by him and Edward, and listened with a polite
+      attention and a most extraordinary appearance of comprehending every word,
+      to all they had said up to this point; turning his head from one to the
+      other, as if his office were to judge between them, and it were of the
+      very last importance that he should not lose a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Look at him!' said Varden, divided between admiration of the bird and a
+      kind of fear of him. 'Was there ever such a knowing imp as that! Oh he's a
+      dreadful fellow!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven, with his head very much on one side, and his bright eye shining
+      like a diamond, preserved a thoughtful silence for a few seconds, and then
+      replied in a voice so hoarse and distant, that it seemed to come through
+      his thick feathers rather than out of his mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Halloa, halloa, halloa! What's the matter here! Keep up your spirits.
+      Never say die. Bow wow wow. I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil.
+      Hurrah!'&mdash;And then, as if exulting in his infernal character, he
+      began to whistle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I more than half believe he speaks the truth. Upon my word I do,' said
+      Varden. 'Do you see how he looks at me, as if he knew what I was saying?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which the bird, balancing himself on tiptoe, as it were, and moving his
+      body up and down in a sort of grave dance, rejoined, 'I'm a devil, I'm a
+      devil, I'm a devil,' and flapped his wings against his sides as if he were
+      bursting with laughter. Barnaby clapped his hands, and fairly rolled upon
+      the ground in an ecstasy of delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Strange companions, sir,' said the locksmith, shaking his head, and
+      looking from one to the other. 'The bird has all the wit.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Strange indeed!' said Edward, holding out his forefinger to the raven,
+      who, in acknowledgment of the attention, made a dive at it immediately
+      with his iron bill. 'Is he old?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A mere boy, sir,' replied the locksmith. 'A hundred and twenty, or
+      thereabouts. Call him down, Barnaby, my man.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Call him!' echoed Barnaby, sitting upright upon the floor, and staring
+      vacantly at Gabriel, as he thrust his hair back from his face. 'But who
+      can make him come! He calls me, and makes me go where he will. He goes on
+      before, and I follow. He's the master, and I'm the man. Is that the truth,
+      Grip?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven gave a short, comfortable, confidential kind of croak;&mdash;a
+      most expressive croak, which seemed to say, 'You needn't let these fellows
+      into our secrets. We understand each other. It's all right.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I make HIM come?' cried Barnaby, pointing to the bird. 'Him, who never
+      goes to sleep, or so much as winks!&mdash;Why, any time of night, you may
+      see his eyes in my dark room, shining like two sparks. And every night,
+      and all night too, he's broad awake, talking to himself, thinking what he
+      shall do to-morrow, where we shall go, and what he shall steal, and hide,
+      and bury. I make HIM come! Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On second thoughts, the bird appeared disposed to come of himself. After a
+      short survey of the ground, and a few sidelong looks at the ceiling and at
+      everybody present in turn, he fluttered to the floor, and went to Barnaby&mdash;not
+      in a hop, or walk, or run, but in a pace like that of a very particular
+      gentleman with exceedingly tight boots on, trying to walk fast over loose
+      pebbles. Then, stepping into his extended hand, and condescending to be
+      held out at arm's length, he gave vent to a succession of sounds, not
+      unlike the drawing of some eight or ten dozen of long corks, and again
+      asserted his brimstone birth and parentage with great distinctness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith shook his head&mdash;perhaps in some doubt of the creature's
+      being really nothing but a bird&mdash;perhaps in pity for Barnaby, who by
+      this time had him in his arms, and was rolling about, with him, on the
+      ground. As he raised his eyes from the poor fellow he encountered those of
+      his mother, who had entered the room, and was looking on in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was quite white in the face, even to her lips, but had wholly subdued
+      her emotion, and wore her usual quiet look. Varden fancied as he glanced
+      at her that she shrunk from his eye; and that she busied herself about the
+      wounded gentleman to avoid him the better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was time he went to bed, she said. He was to be removed to his own home
+      on the morrow, and he had already exceeded his time for sitting up, by a
+      full hour. Acting on this hint, the locksmith prepared to take his leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By the bye,' said Edward, as he shook him by the hand, and looked from
+      him to Mrs Rudge and back again, 'what noise was that below? I heard your
+      voice in the midst of it, and should have inquired before, but our other
+      conversation drove it from my memory. What was it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith looked towards her, and bit his lip. She leant against the
+      chair, and bent her eyes upon the ground. Barnaby too&mdash;he was
+      listening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'Some mad or drunken fellow, sir,' Varden at length made answer,
+      looking steadily at the widow as he spoke. 'He mistook the house, and
+      tried to force an entrance.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She breathed more freely, but stood quite motionless. As the locksmith
+      said 'Good night,' and Barnaby caught up the candle to light him down the
+      stairs, she took it from him, and charged him&mdash;with more haste and
+      earnestness than so slight an occasion appeared to warrant&mdash;not to
+      stir. The raven followed them to satisfy himself that all was right below,
+      and when they reached the street-door, stood on the bottom stair drawing
+      corks out of number.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a trembling hand she unfastened the chain and bolts, and turned the
+      key. As she had her hand upon the latch, the locksmith said in a low
+      voice,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have told a lie to-night, for your sake, Mary, and for the sake of
+      bygone times and old acquaintance, when I would scorn to do so for my own.
+      I hope I may have done no harm, or led to none. I can't help the
+      suspicions you have forced upon me, and I am loth, I tell you plainly, to
+      leave Mr Edward here. Take care he comes to no hurt. I doubt the safety of
+      this roof, and am glad he leaves it so soon. Now, let me go.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment she hid her face in her hands and wept; but resisting the
+      strong impulse which evidently moved her to reply, opened the door&mdash;no
+      wider than was sufficient for the passage of his body&mdash;and motioned
+      him away. As the locksmith stood upon the step, it was chained and locked
+      behind him, and the raven, in furtherance of these precautions, barked
+      like a lusty house-dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In league with that ill-looking figure that might have fallen from a
+      gibbet&mdash;he listening and hiding here&mdash;Barnaby first upon the
+      spot last night&mdash;can she who has always borne so fair a name be
+      guilty of such crimes in secret!' said the locksmith, musing. 'Heaven
+      forgive me if I am wrong, and send me just thoughts; but she is poor, the
+      temptation may be great, and we daily hear of things as strange.&mdash;Ay,
+      bark away, my friend. If there's any wickedness going on, that raven's in
+      it, I'll be sworn.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 7
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden was a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper&mdash;a
+      phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to
+      make everybody more or less uncomfortable. Thus it generally happened,
+      that when other people were merry, Mrs Varden was dull; and that when
+      other people were dull, Mrs Varden was disposed to be amazingly cheerful.
+      Indeed the worthy housewife was of such a capricious nature, that she not
+      only attained a higher pitch of genius than Macbeth, in respect of her
+      ability to be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and neutral in an
+      instant, but would sometimes ring the changes backwards and forwards on
+      all possible moods and flights in one short quarter of an hour;
+      performing, as it were, a kind of triple bob major on the peal of
+      instruments in the female belfry, with a skilfulness and rapidity of
+      execution that astonished all who heard her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been observed in this good lady (who did not want for personal
+      attractions, being plump and buxom to look at, though like her fair
+      daughter, somewhat short in stature) that this uncertainty of disposition
+      strengthened and increased with her temporal prosperity; and divers wise
+      men and matrons, on friendly terms with the locksmith and his family, even
+      went so far as to assert, that a tumble down some half-dozen rounds in the
+      world's ladder&mdash;such as the breaking of the bank in which her husband
+      kept his money, or some little fall of that kind&mdash;would be the making
+      of her, and could hardly fail to render her one of the most agreeable
+      companions in existence. Whether they were right or wrong in this
+      conjecture, certain it is that minds, like bodies, will often fall into a
+      pimpled ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort, and like them,
+      are often successfully cured by remedies in themselves very nauseous and
+      unpalatable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden's chief aider and abettor, and at the same time her principal
+      victim and object of wrath, was her single domestic servant, one Miss
+      Miggs; or as she was called, in conformity with those prejudices of
+      society which lop and top from poor hand-maidens all such genteel
+      excrescences&mdash;Miggs. This Miggs was a tall young lady, very much
+      addicted to pattens in private life; slender and shrewish, of a rather
+      uncomfortable figure, and though not absolutely ill-looking, of a sharp
+      and acid visage. As a general principle and abstract proposition, Miggs
+      held the male sex to be utterly contemptible and unworthy of notice; to be
+      fickle, false, base, sottish, inclined to perjury, and wholly undeserving.
+      When particularly exasperated against them (which, scandal said, was when
+      Sim Tappertit slighted her most) she was accustomed to wish with great
+      emphasis that the whole race of women could but die off, in order that the
+      men might be brought to know the real value of the blessings by which they
+      set so little store; nay, her feeling for her order ran so high, that she
+      sometimes declared, if she could only have good security for a fair, round
+      number&mdash;say ten thousand&mdash;of young virgins following her
+      example, she would, to spite mankind, hang, drown, stab, or poison
+      herself, with a joy past all expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the voice of Miggs that greeted the locksmith, when he knocked at
+      his own house, with a shrill cry of 'Who's there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Me, girl, me,' returned Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What, already, sir!' said Miggs, opening the door with a look of surprise.
+      'We were just getting on our nightcaps to sit up,&mdash;me and mistress.
+      Oh, she has been SO bad!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs said this with an air of uncommon candour and concern; but the
+      parlour-door was standing open, and as Gabriel very well knew for whose
+      ears it was designed, he regarded her with anything but an approving look
+      as he passed in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Master's come home, mim,' cried Miggs, running before him into the
+      parlour. 'You was wrong, mim, and I was right. I thought he wouldn't keep
+      us up so late, two nights running, mim. Master's always considerate so
+      far. I'm so glad, mim, on your account. I'm a little'&mdash;here Miggs
+      simpered&mdash;'a little sleepy myself; I'll own it now, mim, though I
+      said I wasn't when you asked me. It ain't of no consequence, mim, of
+      course.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You had better,' said the locksmith, who most devoutly wished that
+      Barnaby's raven was at Miggs's ankles, 'you had better get to bed at once
+      then.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thanking you kindly, sir,' returned Miggs, 'I couldn't take my rest in
+      peace, nor fix my thoughts upon my prayers, otherways than that I knew
+      mistress was comfortable in her bed this night; by rights she ought to
+      have been there, hours ago.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're talkative, mistress,' said Varden, pulling off his greatcoat, and
+      looking at her askew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Taking the hint, sir,' cried Miggs, with a flushed face, 'and thanking
+      you for it most kindly, I will make bold to say, that if I give offence by
+      having consideration for my mistress, I do not ask your pardon, but am
+      content to get myself into trouble and to be in suffering.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Mrs Varden, who, with her countenance shrouded in a large nightcap,
+      had been all this time intent upon the Protestant Manual, looked round,
+      and acknowledged Miggs's championship by commanding her to hold her
+      tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every little bone in Miggs's throat and neck developed itself with a
+      spitefulness quite alarming, as she replied, 'Yes, mim, I will.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How do you find yourself now, my dear?' said the locksmith, taking a
+      chair near his wife (who had resumed her book), and rubbing his knees hard
+      as he made the inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're very anxious to know, an't you?' returned Mrs Varden, with her
+      eyes upon the print. 'You, that have not been near me all day, and
+      wouldn't have been if I was dying!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear Martha&mdash;' said Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden turned over to the next page; then went back again to the
+      bottom line over leaf to be quite sure of the last words; and then went on
+      reading with an appearance of the deepest interest and study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear Martha,' said the locksmith, 'how can you say such things, when
+      you know you don't mean them? If you were dying! Why, if there was
+      anything serious the matter with you, Martha, shouldn't I be in constant
+      attendance upon you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes!' cried Mrs Varden, bursting into tears, 'yes, you would. I don't
+      doubt it, Varden. Certainly you would. That's as much as to tell me that
+      you would be hovering round me like a vulture, waiting till the breath was
+      out of my body, that you might go and marry somebody else.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs groaned in sympathy&mdash;a little short groan, checked in its
+      birth, and changed into a cough. It seemed to say, 'I can't help it. It's
+      wrung from me by the dreadful brutality of that monster master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But you'll break my heart one of these days,' added Mrs Varden, with more
+      resignation, 'and then we shall both be happy. My only desire is to see
+      Dolly comfortably settled, and when she is, you may settle ME as soon as
+      you like.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' cried Miggs&mdash;and coughed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Gabriel twisted his wig about in silence for a long time, and then
+      said mildly, 'Has Dolly gone to bed?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your master speaks to you,' said Mrs Varden, looking sternly over her
+      shoulder at Miss Miggs in waiting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, my dear, I spoke to you,' suggested the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you hear me, Miggs?' cried the obdurate lady, stamping her foot upon
+      the ground. 'YOU are beginning to despise me now, are you? But this is
+      example!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this cruel rebuke, Miggs, whose tears were always ready, for large or
+      small parties, on the shortest notice and the most reasonable terms, fell
+      a crying violently; holding both her hands tight upon her heart meanwhile,
+      as if nothing less would prevent its splitting into small fragments. Mrs
+      Varden, who likewise possessed that faculty in high perfection, wept too,
+      against Miggs; and with such effect that Miggs gave in after a time, and,
+      except for an occasional sob, which seemed to threaten some remote
+      intention of breaking out again, left her mistress in possession of the
+      field. Her superiority being thoroughly asserted, that lady soon desisted
+      likewise, and fell into a quiet melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The relief was so great, and the fatiguing occurrences of last night so
+      completely overpowered the locksmith, that he nodded in his chair, and
+      would doubtless have slept there all night, but for the voice of Mrs
+      Varden, which, after a pause of some five minutes, awoke him with a start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If I am ever,' said Mrs V.&mdash;not scolding, but in a sort of
+      monotonous remonstrance&mdash;'in spirits, if I am ever cheerful, if I am
+      ever more than usually disposed to be talkative and comfortable, this is
+      the way I am treated.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Such spirits as you was in too, mim, but half an hour ago!' cried Miggs.
+      'I never see such company!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because,' said Mrs Varden, 'because I never interfere or interrupt;
+      because I never question where anybody comes or goes; because my whole
+      mind and soul is bent on saving where I can save, and labouring in this
+      house;&mdash;therefore, they try me as they do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Martha,' urged the locksmith, endeavouring to look as wakeful as
+      possible, 'what is it you complain of? I really came home with every wish
+      and desire to be happy. I did, indeed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What do I complain of!' retorted his wife. 'Is it a chilling thing to
+      have one's husband sulking and falling asleep directly he comes home&mdash;to
+      have him freezing all one's warm-heartedness, and throwing cold water over
+      the fireside? Is it natural, when I know he went out upon a matter in
+      which I am as much interested as anybody can be, that I should wish to
+      know all that has happened, or that he should tell me without my begging
+      and praying him to do it? Is that natural, or is it not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am very sorry, Martha,' said the good-natured locksmith. 'I was really
+      afraid you were not disposed to talk pleasantly; I'll tell you everything;
+      I shall only be too glad, my dear.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, Varden,' returned his wife, rising with dignity. 'I dare say&mdash;thank
+      you! I'm not a child to be corrected one minute and petted the next&mdash;I'm
+      a little too old for that, Varden. Miggs, carry the light.&mdash;YOU can
+      be cheerful, Miggs, at least.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs, who, to this moment, had been in the very depths of compassionate
+      despondency, passed instantly into the liveliest state conceivable, and
+      tossing her head as she glanced towards the locksmith, bore off her
+      mistress and the light together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, who would think,' thought Varden, shrugging his shoulders and
+      drawing his chair nearer to the fire, 'that that woman could ever be
+      pleasant and agreeable? And yet she can be. Well, well, all of us have our
+      faults. I'll not be hard upon hers. We have been man and wife too long for
+      that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dozed again&mdash;not the less pleasantly, perhaps, for his hearty
+      temper. While his eyes were closed, the door leading to the upper stairs
+      was partially opened; and a head appeared, which, at sight of him, hastily
+      drew back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish,' murmured Gabriel, waking at the noise, and looking round the
+      room, 'I wish somebody would marry Miggs. But that's impossible! I wonder
+      whether there's any madman alive, who would marry Miggs!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was such a vast speculation that he fell into a doze again, and slept
+      until the fire was quite burnt out. At last he roused himself; and having
+      double-locked the street-door according to custom, and put the key in his
+      pocket, went off to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not left the room in darkness many minutes, when the head again
+      appeared, and Sim Tappertit entered, bearing in his hand a little lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What the devil business has he to stop up so late!' muttered Sim, passing
+      into the workshop, and setting it down upon the forge. 'Here's half the
+      night gone already. There's only one good that has ever come to me, out of
+      this cursed old rusty mechanical trade, and that's this piece of
+      ironmongery, upon my soul!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, he drew from the right hand, or rather right leg pocket of
+      his smalls, a clumsy large-sized key, which he inserted cautiously in the
+      lock his master had secured, and softly opened the door. That done, he
+      replaced his piece of secret workmanship in his pocket; and leaving the
+      lamp burning, and closing the door carefully and without noise, stole out
+      into the street&mdash;as little suspected by the locksmith in his sound
+      deep sleep, as by Barnaby himself in his phantom-haunted dreams.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0048m.jpg" alt="0048m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0048.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0049m.jpg" alt="0049m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0049.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 8
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Clear of the locksmith's house, Sim Tappertit laid aside his cautious
+      manner, and assuming in its stead that of a ruffling, swaggering, roving
+      blade, who would rather kill a man than otherwise, and eat him too if
+      needful, made the best of his way along the darkened streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half pausing for an instant now and then to smite his pocket and assure
+      himself of the safety of his master key, he hurried on to Barbican, and
+      turning into one of the narrowest of the narrow streets which diverged
+      from that centre, slackened his pace and wiped his heated brow, as if the
+      termination of his walk were near at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not a very choice spot for midnight expeditions, being in truth one
+      of more than questionable character, and of an appearance by no means
+      inviting. From the main street he had entered, itself little better than
+      an alley, a low-browed doorway led into a blind court, or yard, profoundly
+      dark, unpaved, and reeking with stagnant odours. Into this ill-favoured
+      pit, the locksmith's vagrant 'prentice groped his way; and stopping at a
+      house from whose defaced and rotten front the rude effigy of a bottle
+      swung to and fro like some gibbeted malefactor, struck thrice upon an iron
+      grating with his foot. After listening in vain for some response to his
+      signal, Mr Tappertit became impatient, and struck the grating thrice
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A further delay ensued, but it was not of long duration. The ground seemed
+      to open at his feet, and a ragged head appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is that the captain?' said a voice as ragged as the head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' replied Mr Tappertit haughtily, descending as he spoke, 'who should
+      it be?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's so late, we gave you up,' returned the voice, as its owner stopped
+      to shut and fasten the grating. 'You're late, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lead on,' said Mr Tappertit, with a gloomy majesty, 'and make remarks
+      when I require you. Forward!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This latter word of command was perhaps somewhat theatrical and
+      unnecessary, inasmuch as the descent was by a very narrow, steep, and
+      slippery flight of steps, and any rashness or departure from the beaten
+      track must have ended in a yawning water-butt. But Mr Tappertit being,
+      like some other great commanders, favourable to strong effects, and
+      personal display, cried 'Forward!' again, in the hoarsest voice he could
+      assume; and led the way, with folded arms and knitted brows, to the cellar
+      down below, where there was a small copper fixed in one corner, a chair or
+      two, a form and table, a glimmering fire, and a truckle-bed, covered with
+      a ragged patchwork rug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Welcome, noble captain!' cried a lanky figure, rising as from a nap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain nodded. Then, throwing off his outer coat, he stood composed
+      in all his dignity, and eyed his follower over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What news to-night?' he asked, when he had looked into his very soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing particular,' replied the other, stretching himself&mdash;and he
+      was so long already that it was quite alarming to see him do it&mdash;'how
+      come you to be so late?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No matter,' was all the captain deigned to say in answer. 'Is the room
+      prepared?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is,' replied the follower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The comrade&mdash;is he here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes. And a sprinkling of the others&mdash;you hear 'em?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Playing skittles!' said the captain moodily. 'Light-hearted revellers!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no doubt respecting the particular amusement in which these
+      heedless spirits were indulging, for even in the close and stifling
+      atmosphere of the vault, the noise sounded like distant thunder. It
+      certainly appeared, at first sight, a singular spot to choose, for that or
+      any other purpose of relaxation, if the other cellars answered to the one
+      in which this brief colloquy took place; for the floors were of sodden
+      earth, the walls and roof of damp bare brick tapestried with the tracks of
+      snails and slugs; the air was sickening, tainted, and offensive. It
+      seemed, from one strong flavour which was uppermost among the various
+      odours of the place, that it had, at no very distant period, been used as
+      a storehouse for cheeses; a circumstance which, while it accounted for the
+      greasy moisture that hung about it, was agreeably suggestive of rats. It
+      was naturally damp besides, and little trees of fungus sprung from every
+      mouldering corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The proprietor of this charming retreat, and owner of the ragged head
+      before mentioned&mdash;for he wore an old tie-wig as bare and frowzy as a
+      stunted hearth-broom&mdash;had by this time joined them; and stood a
+      little apart, rubbing his hands, wagging his hoary bristled chin, and
+      smiling in silence. His eyes were closed; but had they been wide open, it
+      would have been easy to tell, from the attentive expression of the face he
+      turned towards them&mdash;pale and unwholesome as might be expected in one
+      of his underground existence&mdash;and from a certain anxious raising and
+      quivering of the lids, that he was blind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Even Stagg hath been asleep,' said the long comrade, nodding towards this
+      person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sound, captain, sound!' cried the blind man; 'what does my noble captain
+      drink&mdash;is it brandy, rum, usquebaugh? Is it soaked gunpowder, or
+      blazing oil? Give it a name, heart of oak, and we'd get it for you, if it
+      was wine from a bishop's cellar, or melted gold from King George's mint.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'See,' said Mr Tappertit haughtily, 'that it's something strong, and comes
+      quick; and so long as you take care of that, you may bring it from the
+      devil's cellar, if you like.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Boldly said, noble captain!' rejoined the blind man. 'Spoken like the
+      'Prentices' Glory. Ha, ha! From the devil's cellar! A brave joke! The
+      captain joketh. Ha, ha, ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll tell you what, my fine feller,' said Mr Tappertit, eyeing the host
+      over as he walked to a closet, and took out a bottle and glass as
+      carelessly as if he had been in full possession of his sight, 'if you make
+      that row, you'll find that the captain's very far from joking, and so I
+      tell you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's got his eyes on me!' cried Stagg, stopping short on his way back,
+      and affecting to screen his face with the bottle. 'I feel 'em though I
+      can't see 'em. Take 'em off, noble captain. Remove 'em, for they pierce
+      like gimlets.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit smiled grimly at his comrade; and twisting out one more look&mdash;a
+      kind of ocular screw&mdash;under the influence of which the blind man
+      feigned to undergo great anguish and torture, bade him, in a softened
+      tone, approach, and hold his peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I obey you, captain,' cried Stagg, drawing close to him and filling out a
+      bumper without spilling a drop, by reason that he held his little finger
+      at the brim of the glass, and stopped at the instant the liquor touched
+      it, 'drink, noble governor. Death to all masters, life to all 'prentices,
+      and love to all fair damsels. Drink, brave general, and warm your gallant
+      heart!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit condescended to take the glass from his outstretched hand.
+      Stagg then dropped on one knee, and gently smoothed the calves of his
+      legs, with an air of humble admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That I had but eyes!' he cried, 'to behold my captain's symmetrical
+      proportions! That I had but eyes, to look upon these twin invaders of
+      domestic peace!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Get out!' said Mr Tappertit, glancing downward at his favourite limbs.
+      'Go along, will you, Stagg!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When I touch my own afterwards,' cried the host, smiting them
+      reproachfully, 'I hate 'em. Comparatively speaking, they've no more shape
+      than wooden legs, beside these models of my noble captain's.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yours!' exclaimed Mr Tappertit. 'No, I should think not. Don't talk about
+      those precious old toothpicks in the same breath with mine; that's rather
+      too much. Here. Take the glass. Benjamin. Lead on. To business!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words, he folded his arms again; and frowning with a sullen
+      majesty, passed with his companion through a little door at the upper end
+      of the cellar, and disappeared; leaving Stagg to his private meditations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vault they entered, strewn with sawdust and dimly lighted, was between
+      the outer one from which they had just come, and that in which the
+      skittle-players were diverting themselves; as was manifested by the
+      increased noise and clamour of tongues, which was suddenly stopped,
+      however, and replaced by a dead silence, at a signal from the long
+      comrade. Then, this young gentleman, going to a little cupboard, returned
+      with a thigh-bone, which in former times must have been part and parcel of
+      some individual at least as long as himself, and placed the same in the
+      hands of Mr Tappertit; who, receiving it as a sceptre and staff of
+      authority, cocked his three-cornered hat fiercely on the top of his head,
+      and mounted a large table, whereon a chair of state, cheerfully ornamented
+      with a couple of skulls, was placed ready for his reception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had no sooner assumed this position, than another young gentleman
+      appeared, bearing in his arms a huge clasped book, who made him a profound
+      obeisance, and delivering it to the long comrade, advanced to the table,
+      and turning his back upon it, stood there Atlas-wise. Then, the long
+      comrade got upon the table too; and seating himself in a lower chair than
+      Mr Tappertit's, with much state and ceremony, placed the large book on the
+      shoulders of their mute companion as deliberately as if he had been a
+      wooden desk, and prepared to make entries therein with a pen of
+      corresponding size.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0053m.jpg" alt="0053m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0053.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      When the long comrade had made these preparations, he looked towards Mr
+      Tappertit; and Mr Tappertit, flourishing the bone, knocked nine times
+      therewith upon one of the skulls. At the ninth stroke, a third young
+      gentleman emerged from the door leading to the skittle ground, and bowing
+      low, awaited his commands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Prentice!' said the mighty captain, 'who waits without?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The 'prentice made answer that a stranger was in attendance, who claimed
+      admission into that secret society of 'Prentice Knights, and a free
+      participation in their rights, privileges, and immunities. Thereupon Mr
+      Tappertit flourished the bone again, and giving the other skull a
+      prodigious rap on the nose, exclaimed 'Admit him!' At these dread words
+      the 'prentice bowed once more, and so withdrew as he had come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There soon appeared at the same door, two other 'prentices, having between
+      them a third, whose eyes were bandaged, and who was attired in a bag-wig,
+      and a broad-skirted coat, trimmed with tarnished lace; and who was girded
+      with a sword, in compliance with the laws of the Institution regulating
+      the introduction of candidates, which required them to assume this courtly
+      dress, and kept it constantly in lavender, for their convenience. One of
+      the conductors of this novice held a rusty blunderbuss pointed towards his
+      ear, and the other a very ancient sabre, with which he carved imaginary
+      offenders as he came along in a sanguinary and anatomical manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this silent group advanced, Mr Tappertit fixed his hat upon his head.
+      The novice then laid his hand upon his breast and bent before him. When he
+      had humbled himself sufficiently, the captain ordered the bandage to be
+      removed, and proceeded to eye him over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha!' said the captain, thoughtfully, when he had concluded this ordeal.
+      'Proceed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The long comrade read aloud as follows:&mdash;'Mark Gilbert. Age,
+      nineteen. Bound to Thomas Curzon, hosier, Golden Fleece, Aldgate. Loves
+      Curzon's daughter. Cannot say that Curzon's daughter loves him. Should
+      think it probable. Curzon pulled his ears last Tuesday week.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How!' cried the captain, starting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For looking at his daughter, please you,' said the novice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Write Curzon down, Denounced,' said the captain. 'Put a black cross
+      against the name of Curzon.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So please you,' said the novice, 'that's not the worst&mdash;he calls his
+      'prentice idle dog, and stops his beer unless he works to his liking. He
+      gives Dutch cheese, too, eating Cheshire, sir, himself; and Sundays out,
+      are only once a month.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This,' said Mr Tappert gravely, 'is a flagrant case. Put two black
+      crosses to the name of Curzon.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If the society,' said the novice, who was an ill-looking, one-sided,
+      shambling lad, with sunken eyes set close together in his head&mdash;'if
+      the society would burn his house down&mdash;for he's not insured&mdash;or
+      beat him as he comes home from his club at night, or help me to carry off
+      his daughter, and marry her at the Fleet, whether she gave consent or no&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit waved his grizzly truncheon as an admonition to him not to
+      interrupt, and ordered three black crosses to the name of Curzon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Which means,' he said in gracious explanation, 'vengeance, complete and
+      terrible. 'Prentice, do you love the Constitution?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which the novice (being to that end instructed by his attendant
+      sponsors) replied 'I do!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The Church, the State, and everything established&mdash;but the masters?'
+      quoth the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the novice said 'I do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having said it, he listened meekly to the captain, who in an address
+      prepared for such occasions, told him how that under that same
+      Constitution (which was kept in a strong box somewhere, but where exactly
+      he could not find out, or he would have endeavoured to procure a copy of
+      it), the 'prentices had, in times gone by, had frequent holidays of right,
+      broken people's heads by scores, defied their masters, nay, even achieved
+      some glorious murders in the streets, which privileges had gradually been
+      wrested from them, and in all which noble aspirations they were now
+      restrained; how the degrading checks imposed upon them were unquestionably
+      attributable to the innovating spirit of the times, and how they united
+      therefore to resist all change, except such change as would restore those
+      good old English customs, by which they would stand or fall. After
+      illustrating the wisdom of going backward, by reference to that sagacious
+      fish, the crab, and the not unfrequent practice of the mule and donkey, he
+      described their general objects; which were briefly vengeance on their
+      Tyrant Masters (of whose grievous and insupportable oppression no
+      'prentice could entertain a moment's doubt) and the restoration, as
+      aforesaid, of their ancient rights and holidays; for neither of which
+      objects were they now quite ripe, being barely twenty strong, but which
+      they pledged themselves to pursue with fire and sword when needful. Then
+      he described the oath which every member of that small remnant of a noble
+      body took, and which was of a dreadful and impressive kind; binding him,
+      at the bidding of his chief, to resist and obstruct the Lord Mayor,
+      sword-bearer, and chaplain; to despise the authority of the sheriffs; and
+      to hold the court of aldermen as nought; but not on any account, in case
+      the fulness of time should bring a general rising of 'prentices, to damage
+      or in any way disfigure Temple Bar, which was strictly constitutional and
+      always to be approached with reverence. Having gone over these several
+      heads with great eloquence and force, and having further informed the
+      novice that this society had its origin in his own teeming brain,
+      stimulated by a swelling sense of wrong and outrage, Mr Tappertit demanded
+      whether he had strength of heart to take the mighty pledge required, or
+      whether he would withdraw while retreat was yet in his power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this the novice made rejoinder, that he would take the vow, though it
+      should choke him; and it was accordingly administered with many impressive
+      circumstances, among which the lighting up of the two skulls with a
+      candle-end inside of each, and a great many flourishes with the bone, were
+      chiefly conspicuous; not to mention a variety of grave exercises with the
+      blunderbuss and sabre, and some dismal groaning by unseen 'prentices
+      without. All these dark and direful ceremonies being at length completed,
+      the table was put aside, the chair of state removed, the sceptre locked up
+      in its usual cupboard, the doors of communication between the three
+      cellars thrown freely open, and the 'Prentice Knights resigned themselves
+      to merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Mr Tappertit, who had a soul above the vulgar herd, and who, on
+      account of his greatness, could only afford to be merry now and then,
+      threw himself on a bench with the air of a man who was faint with dignity.
+      He looked with an indifferent eye, alike on skittles, cards, and dice,
+      thinking only of the locksmith's daughter, and the base degenerate days on
+      which he had fallen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My noble captain neither games, nor sings, nor dances,' said his host,
+      taking a seat beside him. 'Drink, gallant general!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit drained the proffered goblet to the dregs; then thrust his
+      hands into his pockets, and with a lowering visage walked among the
+      skittles, while his followers (such is the influence of superior genius)
+      restrained the ardent ball, and held his little shins in dumb respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If I had been born a corsair or a pirate, a brigand, genteel highwayman
+      or patriot&mdash;and they're the same thing,' thought Mr Tappertit, musing
+      among the nine-pins, 'I should have been all right. But to drag out a
+      ignoble existence unbeknown to mankind in general&mdash;patience! I will
+      be famous yet. A voice within me keeps on whispering Greatness. I shall
+      burst out one of these days, and when I do, what power can keep me down? I
+      feel my soul getting into my head at the idea. More drink there!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The novice,' pursued Mr Tappertit, not exactly in a voice of thunder, for
+      his tones, to say the truth were rather cracked and shrill&mdash;but very
+      impressively, notwithstanding&mdash;'where is he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here, noble captain!' cried Stagg. 'One stands beside me who I feel is a
+      stranger.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have you,' said Mr Tappertit, letting his gaze fall on the party
+      indicated, who was indeed the new knight, by this time restored to his own
+      apparel; 'Have you the impression of your street-door key in wax?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The long comrade anticipated the reply, by producing it from the shelf on
+      which it had been deposited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good,' said Mr Tappertit, scrutinising it attentively, while a breathless
+      silence reigned around; for he had constructed secret door-keys for the
+      whole society, and perhaps owed something of his influence to that mean
+      and trivial circumstance&mdash;on such slight accidents do even men of
+      mind depend!&mdash;'This is easily made. Come hither, friend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he beckoned the new knight apart, and putting the pattern in
+      his pocket, motioned to him to walk by his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And so,' he said, when they had taken a few turns up and down, you&mdash;you
+      love your master's daughter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I do,' said the 'prentice. 'Honour bright. No chaff, you know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have you,' rejoined Mr Tappertit, catching him by the wrist, and giving
+      him a look which would have been expressive of the most deadly
+      malevolence, but for an accidental hiccup that rather interfered with it;
+      'have you a&mdash;a rival?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not as I know on,' replied the 'prentice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you had now&mdash;' said Mr Tappertit&mdash;'what would you&mdash;eh?&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The 'prentice looked fierce and clenched his fists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is enough,' cried Mr Tappertit hastily, 'we understand each other. We
+      are observed. I thank you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he cast him off again; and calling the long comrade aside after
+      taking a few hasty turns by himself, bade him immediately write and post
+      against the wall, a notice, proscribing one Joseph Willet (commonly known
+      as Joe) of Chigwell; forbidding all 'Prentice Knights to succour, comfort,
+      or hold communion with him; and requiring them, on pain of
+      excommunication, to molest, hurt, wrong, annoy, and pick quarrels with the
+      said Joseph, whensoever and wheresoever they, or any of them, should
+      happen to encounter him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having relieved his mind by this energetic proceeding, he condescended to
+      approach the festive board, and warming by degrees, at length deigned to
+      preside, and even to enchant the company with a song. After this, he rose
+      to such a pitch as to consent to regale the society with a hornpipe, which
+      he actually performed to the music of a fiddle (played by an ingenious
+      member) with such surpassing agility and brilliancy of execution, that the
+      spectators could not be sufficiently enthusiastic in their admiration; and
+      their host protested, with tears in his eyes, that he had never truly felt
+      his blindness until that moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the host withdrawing&mdash;probably to weep in secret&mdash;soon
+      returned with the information that it wanted little more than an hour of
+      day, and that all the cocks in Barbican had already begun to crow, as if
+      their lives depended on it. At this intelligence, the 'Prentice Knights
+      arose in haste, and marshalling into a line, filed off one by one and
+      dispersed with all speed to their several homes, leaving their leader to
+      pass the grating last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night, noble captain,' whispered the blind man as he held it open
+      for his passage out; 'Farewell, brave general. Bye, bye, illustrious
+      commander. Good luck go with you for a&mdash;conceited, bragging,
+      empty-headed, duck-legged idiot.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With which parting words, coolly added as he listened to his receding
+      footsteps and locked the grate upon himself, he descended the steps, and
+      lighting the fire below the little copper, prepared, without any
+      assistance, for his daily occupation; which was to retail at the area-head
+      above pennyworths of broth and soup, and savoury puddings, compounded of
+      such scraps as were to be bought in the heap for the least money at Fleet
+      Market in the evening time; and for the sale of which he had need to have
+      depended chiefly on his private connection, for the court had no
+      thoroughfare, and was not that kind of place in which many people were
+      likely to take the air, or to frequent as an agreeable promenade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 9
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Chronicler's are privileged to enter where they list, to come and go
+      through keyholes, to ride upon the wind, to overcome, in their soarings up
+      and down, all obstacles of distance, time, and place. Thrice blessed be
+      this last consideration, since it enables us to follow the disdainful
+      Miggs even into the sanctity of her chamber, and to hold her in sweet
+      companionship through the dreary watches of the night!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs, having undone her mistress, as she phrased it (which means,
+      assisted to undress her), and having seen her comfortably to bed in the
+      back room on the first floor, withdrew to her own apartment, in the attic
+      story. Notwithstanding her declaration in the locksmith's presence, she
+      was in no mood for sleep; so, putting her light upon the table and
+      withdrawing the little window curtain, she gazed out pensively at the wild
+      night sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps she wondered what star was destined for her habitation when she
+      had run her little course below; perhaps speculated which of those
+      glimmering spheres might be the natal orb of Mr Tappertit; perhaps
+      marvelled how they could gaze down on that perfidious creature, man, and
+      not sicken and turn green as chemists' lamps; perhaps thought of nothing
+      in particular. Whatever she thought about, there she sat, until her
+      attention, alive to anything connected with the insinuating 'prentice, was
+      attracted by a noise in the next room to her own&mdash;his room; the room
+      in which he slept, and dreamed&mdash;it might be, sometimes dreamed of
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That he was not dreaming now, unless he was taking a walk in his sleep,
+      was clear, for every now and then there came a shuffling noise, as though
+      he were engaged in polishing the whitewashed wall; then a gentle creaking
+      of his door; then the faintest indication of his stealthy footsteps on the
+      landing-place outside. Noting this latter circumstance, Miss Miggs turned
+      pale and shuddered, as mistrusting his intentions; and more than once
+      exclaimed, below her breath, 'Oh! what a Providence it is, as I am bolted
+      in!'&mdash;which, owing doubtless to her alarm, was a confusion of ideas
+      on her part between a bolt and its use; for though there was one on the
+      door, it was not fastened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs's sense of hearing, however, having as sharp an edge as her
+      temper, and being of the same snappish and suspicious kind, very soon
+      informed her that the footsteps passed her door, and appeared to have some
+      object quite separate and disconnected from herself. At this discovery she
+      became more alarmed than ever, and was about to give utterance to those
+      cries of 'Thieves!' and 'Murder!' which she had hitherto restrained, when
+      it occurred to her to look softly out, and see that her fears had some
+      good palpable foundation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking out accordingly, and stretching her neck over the handrail, she
+      descried, to her great amazement, Mr Tappertit completely dressed,
+      stealing downstairs, one step at a time, with his shoes in one hand and a
+      lamp in the other. Following him with her eyes, and going down a little
+      way herself to get the better of an intervening angle, she beheld him
+      thrust his head in at the parlour-door, draw it back again with great
+      swiftness, and immediately begin a retreat upstairs with all possible
+      expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here's mysteries!' said the damsel, when she was safe in her own room
+      again, quite out of breath. 'Oh, gracious, here's mysteries!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prospect of finding anybody out in anything, would have kept Miss
+      Miggs awake under the influence of henbane. Presently, she heard the step
+      again, as she would have done if it had been that of a feather endowed
+      with motion and walking down on tiptoe. Then gliding out as before, she
+      again beheld the retreating figure of the 'prentice; again he looked
+      cautiously in at the parlour-door, but this time instead of retreating, he
+      passed in and disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs was back in her room, and had her head out of the window, before an
+      elderly gentleman could have winked and recovered from it. Out he came at
+      the street-door, shut it carefully behind him, tried it with his knee, and
+      swaggered off, putting something in his pocket as he went along. At this
+      spectacle Miggs cried 'Gracious!' again, and then 'Goodness gracious!' and
+      then 'Goodness gracious me!' and then, candle in hand, went downstairs as
+      he had done. Coming to the workshop, she saw the lamp burning on the
+      forge, and everything as Sim had left it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why I wish I may only have a walking funeral, and never be buried decent
+      with a mourning-coach and feathers, if the boy hasn't been and made a key
+      for his own self!' cried Miggs. 'Oh the little villain!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This conclusion was not arrived at without consideration, and much peeping
+      and peering about; nor was it unassisted by the recollection that she had
+      on several occasions come upon the 'prentice suddenly, and found him busy
+      at some mysterious occupation. Lest the fact of Miss Miggs calling him, on
+      whom she stooped to cast a favourable eye, a boy, should create surprise
+      in any breast, it may be observed that she invariably affected to regard
+      all male bipeds under thirty as mere chits and infants; which phenomenon
+      is not unusual in ladies of Miss Miggs's temper, and is indeed generally
+      found to be the associate of such indomitable and savage virtue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs deliberated within herself for some little time, looking hard
+      at the shop-door while she did so, as though her eyes and thoughts were
+      both upon it; and then, taking a sheet of paper from a drawer, twisted it
+      into a long thin spiral tube. Having filled this instrument with a
+      quantity of small coal-dust from the forge, she approached the door, and
+      dropping on one knee before it, dexterously blew into the keyhole as much
+      of these fine ashes as the lock would hold. When she had filled it to the
+      brim in a very workmanlike and skilful manner, she crept upstairs again,
+      and chuckled as she went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There!' cried Miggs, rubbing her hands, 'now let's see whether you won't
+      be glad to take some notice of me, mister. He, he, he! You'll have eyes
+      for somebody besides Miss Dolly now, I think. A fat-faced puss she is, as
+      ever I come across!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she uttered this criticism, she glanced approvingly at her small
+      mirror, as who should say, I thank my stars that can't be said of me!&mdash;as
+      it certainly could not; for Miss Miggs's style of beauty was of that kind
+      which Mr Tappertit himself had not inaptly termed, in private, 'scraggy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't go to bed this night!' said Miggs, wrapping herself in a shawl,
+      and drawing a couple of chairs near the window, flouncing down upon one,
+      and putting her feet upon the other, 'till you come home, my lad. I
+      wouldn't,' said Miggs viciously, 'no, not for five-and-forty pound!'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0057m.jpg" alt="0057m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0057.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      With that, and with an expression of face in which a great number of
+      opposite ingredients, such as mischief, cunning, malice, triumph, and
+      patient expectation, were all mixed up together in a kind of
+      physiognomical punch, Miss Miggs composed herself to wait and listen, like
+      some fair ogress who had set a trap and was watching for a nibble from a
+      plump young traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat there, with perfect composure, all night. At length, just upon
+      break of day, there was a footstep in the street, and presently she could
+      hear Mr Tappertit stop at the door. Then she could make out that he tried
+      his key&mdash;that he was blowing into it&mdash;that he knocked it on the
+      nearest post to beat the dust out&mdash;that he took it under a lamp to
+      look at it&mdash;that he poked bits of stick into the lock to clear it&mdash;that
+      he peeped into the keyhole, first with one eye, and then with the other&mdash;that
+      he tried the key again&mdash;that he couldn't turn it, and what was worse,
+      couldn't get it out&mdash;that he bent it&mdash;that then it was much less
+      disposed to come out than before&mdash;that he gave it a mighty twist and
+      a great pull, and then it came out so suddenly that he staggered backwards&mdash;that
+      he kicked the door&mdash;that he shook it&mdash;finally, that he smote his
+      forehead, and sat down on the step in despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When this crisis had arrived, Miss Miggs, affecting to be exhausted with
+      terror, and to cling to the window-sill for support, put out her nightcap,
+      and demanded in a faint voice who was there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit cried 'Hush!' and, backing to the road, exhorted her in
+      frenzied pantomime to secrecy and silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tell me one thing,' said Miggs. 'Is it thieves?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No&mdash;no&mdash;no!' cried Mr Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then,' said Miggs, more faintly than before, 'it's fire. Where is it,
+      sir? It's near this room, I know. I've a good conscience, sir, and would
+      much rather die than go down a ladder. All I wish is, respecting my love
+      to my married sister, Golden Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, second
+      bell-handle on the right-hand door-post.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miggs!' cried Mr Tappertit, 'don't you know me? Sim, you know&mdash;Sim&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! what about him!' cried Miggs, clasping her hands. 'Is he in any
+      danger? Is he in the midst of flames and blazes! Oh gracious, gracious!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why I'm here, an't I?' rejoined Mr Tappertit, knocking himself on the
+      breast. 'Don't you see me? What a fool you are, Miggs!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There!' cried Miggs, unmindful of this compliment. 'Why&mdash;so it&mdash;Goodness,
+      what is the meaning of&mdash;If you please, mim, here's&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no!' cried Mr Tappertit, standing on tiptoe, as if by that means he,
+      in the street, were any nearer being able to stop the mouth of Miggs in
+      the garret. 'Don't!&mdash;I've been out without leave, and something or
+      another's the matter with the lock. Come down, and undo the shop window,
+      that I may get in that way.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I dursn't do it, Simmun,' cried Miggs&mdash;for that was her
+      pronunciation of his Christian name. 'I dursn't do it, indeed. You know as
+      well as anybody, how particular I am. And to come down in the dead of
+      night, when the house is wrapped in slumbers and weiled in obscurity.' And
+      there she stopped and shivered, for her modesty caught cold at the very
+      thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But Miggs,' cried Mr Tappertit, getting under the lamp, that she might
+      see his eyes. 'My darling Miggs&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs screamed slightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;That I love so much, and never can help thinking of,' and it is
+      impossible to describe the use he made of his eyes when he said this&mdash;'do&mdash;for
+      my sake, do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh Simmun,' cried Miggs, 'this is worse than all. I know if I come down,
+      you'll go, and&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what, my precious?' said Mr Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And try,' said Miggs, hysterically, 'to kiss me, or some such
+      dreadfulness; I know you will!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I swear I won't,' said Mr Tappertit, with remarkable earnestness. 'Upon
+      my soul I won't. It's getting broad day, and the watchman's waking up.
+      Angelic Miggs! If you'll only come and let me in, I promise you faithfully
+      and truly I won't.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs, whose gentle heart was touched, did not wait for the oath
+      (knowing how strong the temptation was, and fearing he might forswear
+      himself), but tripped lightly down the stairs, and with her own fair hands
+      drew back the rough fastenings of the workshop window. Having helped the
+      wayward 'prentice in, she faintly articulated the words 'Simmun is safe!'
+      and yielding to her woman's nature, immediately became insensible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I knew I should quench her,' said Sim, rather embarrassed by this
+      circumstance. 'Of course I was certain it would come to this, but there
+      was nothing else to be done&mdash;if I hadn't eyed her over, she wouldn't
+      have come down. Here. Keep up a minute, Miggs. What a slippery figure she
+      is! There's no holding her, comfortably. Do keep up a minute, Miggs, will
+      you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Miggs, however, was deaf to all entreaties, Mr Tappertit leant her
+      against the wall as one might dispose of a walking-stick or umbrella,
+      until he had secured the window, when he took her in his arms again, and,
+      in short stages and with great difficulty&mdash;arising from her being
+      tall and his being short, and perhaps in some degree from that peculiar
+      physical conformation on which he had already remarked&mdash;carried her
+      upstairs, and planting her, in the same umbrella and walking-stick
+      fashion, just inside her own door, left her to her repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He may be as cool as he likes,' said Miss Miggs, recovering as soon as
+      she was left alone; 'but I'm in his confidence and he can't help himself,
+      nor couldn't if he was twenty Simmunses!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 10
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was on one of those mornings, common in early spring, when the year,
+      fickle and changeable in its youth like all other created things, is
+      undecided whether to step backward into winter or forward into summer, and
+      in its uncertainty inclines now to the one and now to the other, and now
+      to both at once&mdash;wooing summer in the sunshine, and lingering still
+      with winter in the shade&mdash;it was, in short, on one of those mornings,
+      when it is hot and cold, wet and dry, bright and lowering, sad and
+      cheerful, withering and genial, in the compass of one short hour, that old
+      John Willet, who was dropping asleep over the copper boiler, was roused by
+      the sound of a horse's feet, and glancing out at window, beheld a
+      traveller of goodly promise, checking his bridle at the Maypole door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was none of your flippant young fellows, who would call for a tankard
+      of mulled ale, and make themselves as much at home as if they had ordered
+      a hogshead of wine; none of your audacious young swaggerers, who would
+      even penetrate into the bar&mdash;that solemn sanctuary&mdash;and, smiting
+      old John upon the back, inquire if there was never a pretty girl in the
+      house, and where he hid his little chambermaids, with a hundred other
+      impertinences of that nature; none of your free-and-easy companions, who
+      would scrape their boots upon the firedogs in the common room, and be not
+      at all particular on the subject of spittoons; none of your unconscionable
+      blades, requiring impossible chops, and taking unheard-of pickles for
+      granted. He was a staid, grave, placid gentleman, something past the prime
+      of life, yet upright in his carriage, for all that, and slim as a
+      greyhound. He was well-mounted upon a sturdy chestnut cob, and had the
+      graceful seat of an experienced horseman; while his riding gear, though
+      free from such fopperies as were then in vogue, was handsome and well
+      chosen. He wore a riding-coat of a somewhat brighter green than might have
+      been expected to suit the taste of a gentleman of his years, with a short,
+      black velvet cape, and laced pocket-holes and cuffs, all of a jaunty
+      fashion; his linen, too, was of the finest kind, worked in a rich pattern
+      at the wrists and throat, and scrupulously white. Although he seemed,
+      judging from the mud he had picked up on the way, to have come from
+      London, his horse was as smooth and cool as his own iron-grey periwig and
+      pigtail. Neither man nor beast had turned a single hair; and saving for
+      his soiled skirts and spatter-dashes, this gentleman, with his blooming
+      face, white teeth, exactly-ordered dress, and perfect calmness, might have
+      come from making an elaborate and leisurely toilet, to sit for an
+      equestrian portrait at old John Willet's gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must not be supposed that John observed these several characteristics
+      by other than very slow degrees, or that he took in more than half a one
+      at a time, or that he even made up his mind upon that, without a great
+      deal of very serious consideration. Indeed, if he had been distracted in
+      the first instance by questionings and orders, it would have taken him at
+      the least a fortnight to have noted what is here set down; but it happened
+      that the gentleman, being struck with the old house, or with the plump
+      pigeons which were skimming and curtseying about it, or with the tall
+      maypole, on the top of which a weathercock, which had been out of order
+      for fifteen years, performed a perpetual walk to the music of its own
+      creaking, sat for some little time looking round in silence. Hence John,
+      standing with his hand upon the horse's bridle, and his great eyes on the
+      rider, and with nothing passing to divert his thoughts, had really got
+      some of these little circumstances into his brain by the time he was
+      called upon to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A quaint place this,' said the gentleman&mdash;and his voice was as rich
+      as his dress. 'Are you the landlord?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At your service, sir,' replied John Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You can give my horse good stabling, can you, and me an early dinner (I
+      am not particular what, so that it be cleanly served), and a decent room
+      of which there seems to be no lack in this great mansion,' said the
+      stranger, again running his eyes over the exterior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You can have, sir,' returned John with a readiness quite surprising,
+      'anything you please.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's well I am easily satisfied,' returned the other with a smile, 'or
+      that might prove a hardy pledge, my friend.' And saying so, he dismounted,
+      with the aid of the block before the door, in a twinkling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Halloa there! Hugh!' roared John. 'I ask your pardon, sir, for keeping
+      you standing in the porch; but my son has gone to town on business, and
+      the boy being, as I may say, of a kind of use to me, I'm rather put out
+      when he's away. Hugh!&mdash;a dreadful idle vagrant fellow, sir, half a
+      gipsy, as I think&mdash;always sleeping in the sun in summer, and in the
+      straw in winter time, sir&mdash;Hugh! Dear Lord, to keep a gentleman a
+      waiting here through him!&mdash;Hugh! I wish that chap was dead, I do
+      indeed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Possibly he is,' returned the other. 'I should think if he were living,
+      he would have heard you by this time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In his fits of laziness, he sleeps so desperate hard,' said the
+      distracted host, 'that if you were to fire off cannon-balls into his ears,
+      it wouldn't wake him, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guest made no remark upon this novel cure for drowsiness, and recipe
+      for making people lively, but, with his hands clasped behind him, stood in
+      the porch, very much amused to see old John, with the bridle in his hand,
+      wavering between a strong impulse to abandon the animal to his fate, and a
+      half disposition to lead him into the house, and shut him up in the
+      parlour, while he waited on his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pillory the fellow, here he is at last!' cried John, in the very height
+      and zenith of his distress. 'Did you hear me a calling, villain?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The figure he addressed made no answer, but putting his hand upon the
+      saddle, sprung into it at a bound, turned the horse's head towards the
+      stable, and was gone in an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brisk enough when he is awake,' said the guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brisk enough, sir!' replied John, looking at the place where the horse
+      had been, as if not yet understanding quite, what had become of him. 'He
+      melts, I think. He goes like a drop of froth. You look at him, and there
+      he is. You look at him again, and&mdash;there he isn't.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having, in the absence of any more words, put this sudden climax to what
+      he had faintly intended should be a long explanation of the whole life and
+      character of his man, the oracular John Willet led the gentleman up his
+      wide dismantled staircase into the Maypole's best apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was spacious enough in all conscience, occupying the whole depth of the
+      house, and having at either end a great bay window, as large as many
+      modern rooms; in which some few panes of stained glass, emblazoned with
+      fragments of armorial bearings, though cracked, and patched, and
+      shattered, yet remained; attesting, by their presence, that the former
+      owner had made the very light subservient to his state, and pressed the
+      sun itself into his list of flatterers; bidding it, when it shone into his
+      chamber, reflect the badges of his ancient family, and take new hues and
+      colours from their pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But those were old days, and now every little ray came and went as it
+      would; telling the plain, bare, searching truth. Although the best room of
+      the inn, it had the melancholy aspect of grandeur in decay, and was much
+      too vast for comfort. Rich rustling hangings, waving on the walls; and,
+      better far, the rustling of youth and beauty's dress; the light of women's
+      eyes, outshining the tapers and their own rich jewels; the sound of gentle
+      tongues, and music, and the tread of maiden feet, had once been there, and
+      filled it with delight. But they were gone, and with them all its
+      gladness. It was no longer a home; children were never born and bred
+      there; the fireside had become mercenary&mdash;a something to be bought
+      and sold&mdash;a very courtezan: let who would die, or sit beside, or
+      leave it, it was still the same&mdash;it missed nobody, cared for nobody,
+      had equal warmth and smiles for all. God help the man whose heart ever
+      changes with the world, as an old mansion when it becomes an inn!
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0061m.jpg" alt="0061m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0061.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      No effort had been made to furnish this chilly waste, but before the broad
+      chimney a colony of chairs and tables had been planted on a square of
+      carpet, flanked by a ghostly screen, enriched with figures, grinning and
+      grotesque. After lighting with his own hands the faggots which were heaped
+      upon the hearth, old John withdrew to hold grave council with his cook,
+      touching the stranger's entertainment; while the guest himself, seeing
+      small comfort in the yet unkindled wood, opened a lattice in the distant
+      window, and basked in a sickly gleam of cold March sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaving the window now and then, to rake the crackling logs together, or
+      pace the echoing room from end to end, he closed it when the fire was
+      quite burnt up, and having wheeled the easiest chair into the warmest
+      corner, summoned John Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' said John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wanted pen, ink, and paper. There was an old standish on the
+      mantelshelf containing a dusty apology for all three. Having set this
+      before him, the landlord was retiring, when he motioned him to stay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's a house not far from here,' said the guest when he had written a
+      few lines, 'which you call the Warren, I believe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this was said in the tone of one who knew the fact, and asked the
+      question as a thing of course, John contented himself with nodding his
+      head in the affirmative; at the same time taking one hand out of his
+      pockets to cough behind, and then putting it in again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I want this note'&mdash;said the guest, glancing on what he had written,
+      and folding it, 'conveyed there without loss of time, and an answer
+      brought back here. Have you a messenger at hand?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John was thoughtful for a minute or thereabouts, and then said Yes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me see him,' said the guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was disconcerting; for Joe being out, and Hugh engaged in rubbing
+      down the chestnut cob, he designed sending on the errand, Barnaby, who had
+      just then arrived in one of his rambles, and who, so that he thought
+      himself employed on a grave and serious business, would go anywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why the truth is,' said John after a long pause, 'that the person who'd
+      go quickest, is a sort of natural, as one may say, sir; and though quick
+      of foot, and as much to be trusted as the post itself, he's not good at
+      talking, being touched and flighty, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't,' said the guest, raising his eyes to John's fat face, 'you
+      don't mean&mdash;what's the fellow's name&mdash;you don't mean Barnaby?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, I do,' returned the landlord, his features turning quite expressive
+      with surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How comes he to be here?' inquired the guest, leaning back in his chair;
+      speaking in the bland, even tone, from which he never varied; and with the
+      same soft, courteous, never-changing smile upon his face. 'I saw him in
+      London last night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's, for ever, here one hour, and there the next,' returned old John,
+      after the usual pause to get the question in his mind. 'Sometimes he
+      walks, and sometimes runs. He's known along the road by everybody, and
+      sometimes comes here in a cart or chaise, and sometimes riding double. He
+      comes and goes, through wind, rain, snow, and hail, and on the darkest
+      nights. Nothing hurts HIM.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He goes often to the Warren, does he not?' said the guest carelessly. 'I
+      seem to remember his mother telling me something to that effect yesterday.
+      But I was not attending to the good woman much.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're right, sir,' John made answer, 'he does. His father, sir, was
+      murdered in that house.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So I have heard,' returned the guest, taking a gold toothpick from his
+      pocket with the same sweet smile. 'A very disagreeable circumstance for
+      the family.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very,' said John with a puzzled look, as if it occurred to him, dimly and
+      afar off, that this might by possibility be a cool way of treating the
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All the circumstances after a murder,' said the guest soliloquising,
+      'must be dreadfully unpleasant&mdash;so much bustle and disturbance&mdash;no
+      repose&mdash;a constant dwelling upon one subject&mdash;and the running in
+      and out, and up and down stairs, intolerable. I wouldn't have such a thing
+      happen to anybody I was nearly interested in, on any account. 'Twould be
+      enough to wear one's life out.&mdash;You were going to say, friend&mdash;'
+      he added, turning to John again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Only that Mrs Rudge lives on a little pension from the family, and that
+      Barnaby's as free of the house as any cat or dog about it,' answered John.
+      'Shall he do your errand, sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh yes,' replied the guest. 'Oh certainly. Let him do it by all means.
+      Please to bring him here that I may charge him to be quick. If he objects
+      to come you may tell him it's Mr Chester. He will remember my name, I dare
+      say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John was so very much astonished to find who his visitor was, that he
+      could express no astonishment at all, by looks or otherwise, but left the
+      room as if he were in the most placid and imperturbable of all possible
+      conditions. It has been reported that when he got downstairs, he looked
+      steadily at the boiler for ten minutes by the clock, and all that time
+      never once left off shaking his head; for which statement there would seem
+      to be some ground of truth and feasibility, inasmuch as that interval of
+      time did certainly elapse, before he returned with Barnaby to the guest's
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come hither, lad,' said Mr Chester. 'You know Mr Geoffrey Haredale?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby laughed, and looked at the landlord as though he would say, 'You
+      hear him?' John, who was greatly shocked at this breach of decorum,
+      clapped his finger to his nose, and shook his head in mute remonstrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He knows him, sir,' said John, frowning aside at Barnaby, 'as well as you
+      or I do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I haven't the pleasure of much acquaintance with the gentleman,' returned
+      his guest. 'YOU may have. Limit the comparison to yourself, my friend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although this was said with the same easy affability, and the same smile,
+      John felt himself put down, and laying the indignity at Barnaby's door,
+      determined to kick his raven, on the very first opportunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Give that,' said the guest, who had by this time sealed the note, and who
+      beckoned his messenger towards him as he spoke, 'into Mr Haredale's own
+      hands. Wait for an answer, and bring it back to me here. If you should
+      find that Mr Haredale is engaged just now, tell him&mdash;can he remember
+      a message, landlord?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When he chooses, sir,' replied John. 'He won't forget this one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How are you sure of that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John merely pointed to him as he stood with his head bent forward, and his
+      earnest gaze fixed closely on his questioner's face; and nodded sagely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tell him then, Barnaby, should he be engaged,' said Mr Chester, 'that I
+      shall be glad to wait his convenience here, and to see him (if he will
+      call) at any time this evening.&mdash;At the worst I can have a bed here,
+      Willet, I suppose?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old John, immensely flattered by the personal notoriety implied in this
+      familiar form of address, answered, with something like a knowing look, 'I
+      should believe you could, sir,' and was turning over in his mind various
+      forms of eulogium, with the view of selecting one appropriate to the
+      qualities of his best bed, when his ideas were put to flight by Mr Chester
+      giving Barnaby the letter, and bidding him make all speed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Speed!' said Barnaby, folding the little packet in his breast, 'Speed! If
+      you want to see hurry and mystery, come here. Here!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he put his hand, very much to John Willet's horror, on the
+      guest's fine broadcloth sleeve, and led him stealthily to the back window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Look down there,' he said softly; 'do you mark how they whisper in each
+      other's ears; then dance and leap, to make believe they are in sport? Do
+      you see how they stop for a moment, when they think there is no one
+      looking, and mutter among themselves again; and then how they roll and
+      gambol, delighted with the mischief they've been plotting? Look at 'em
+      now. See how they whirl and plunge. And now they stop again, and whisper,
+      cautiously together&mdash;little thinking, mind, how often I have lain
+      upon the grass and watched them. I say what is it that they plot and
+      hatch? Do you know?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They are only clothes,' returned the guest, 'such as we wear; hanging on
+      those lines to dry, and fluttering in the wind.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Clothes!' echoed Barnaby, looking close into his face, and falling
+      quickly back. 'Ha ha! Why, how much better to be silly, than as wise as
+      you! You don't see shadowy people there, like those that live in sleep&mdash;not
+      you. Nor eyes in the knotted panes of glass, nor swift ghosts when it
+      blows hard, nor do you hear voices in the air, nor see men stalking in the
+      sky&mdash;not you! I lead a merrier life than you, with all your
+      cleverness. You're the dull men. We're the bright ones. Ha! ha! I'll not
+      change with you, clever as you are,&mdash;not I!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he waved his hat above his head, and darted off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A strange creature, upon my word!' said the guest, pulling out a handsome
+      box, and taking a pinch of snuff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He wants imagination,' said Mr Willet, very slowly, and after a long
+      silence; 'that's what he wants. I've tried to instil it into him, many and
+      many's the time; but'&mdash;John added this in confidence&mdash;'he an't
+      made for it; that's the fact.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To record that Mr Chester smiled at John's remark would be little to the
+      purpose, for he preserved the same conciliatory and pleasant look at all
+      times. He drew his chair nearer to the fire though, as a kind of hint that
+      he would prefer to be alone, and John, having no reasonable excuse for
+      remaining, left him to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very thoughtful old John Willet was, while the dinner was preparing; and
+      if his brain were ever less clear at one time than another, it is but
+      reasonable to suppose that he addled it in no slight degree by shaking his
+      head so much that day. That Mr Chester, between whom and Mr Haredale, it
+      was notorious to all the neighbourhood, a deep and bitter animosity
+      existed, should come down there for the sole purpose, as it seemed, of
+      seeing him, and should choose the Maypole for their place of meeting, and
+      should send to him express, were stumbling blocks John could not overcome.
+      The only resource he had, was to consult the boiler, and wait impatiently
+      for Barnaby's return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Barnaby delayed beyond all precedent. The visitor's dinner was served,
+      removed, his wine was set, the fire replenished, the hearth clean swept;
+      the light waned without, it grew dusk, became quite dark, and still no
+      Barnaby appeared. Yet, though John Willet was full of wonder and
+      misgiving, his guest sat cross-legged in the easy-chair, to all appearance
+      as little ruffled in his thoughts as in his dress&mdash;the same calm,
+      easy, cool gentleman, without a care or thought beyond his golden
+      toothpick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Barnaby's late,' John ventured to observe, as he placed a pair of
+      tarnished candlesticks, some three feet high, upon the table, and snuffed
+      the lights they held.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is rather so,' replied the guest, sipping his wine. 'He will not be
+      much longer, I dare say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John coughed and raked the fire together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As your roads bear no very good character, if I may judge from my son's
+      mishap, though,' said Mr Chester, 'and as I have no fancy to be knocked on
+      the head&mdash;which is not only disconcerting at the moment, but places
+      one, besides, in a ridiculous position with respect to the people who
+      chance to pick one up&mdash;I shall stop here to-night. I think you said
+      you had a bed to spare.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Such a bed, sir,' returned John Willet; 'ay, such a bed as few, even of
+      the gentry's houses, own. A fixter here, sir. I've heard say that bedstead
+      is nigh two hundred years of age. Your noble son&mdash;a fine young
+      gentleman&mdash;slept in it last, sir, half a year ago.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Upon my life, a recommendation!' said the guest, shrugging his shoulders
+      and wheeling his chair nearer to the fire. 'See that it be well aired, Mr
+      Willet, and let a blazing fire be lighted there at once. This house is
+      something damp and chilly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John raked the faggots up again, more from habit than presence of mind, or
+      any reference to this remark, and was about to withdraw, when a bounding
+      step was heard upon the stair, and Barnaby came panting in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He'll have his foot in the stirrup in an hour's time,' he cried,
+      advancing. 'He has been riding hard all day&mdash;has just come home&mdash;but
+      will be in the saddle again as soon as he has eat and drank, to meet his
+      loving friend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Was that his message?' asked the visitor, looking up, but without the
+      smallest discomposure&mdash;or at least without the show of any.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All but the last words,' Barnaby rejoined. 'He meant those. I saw that,
+      in his face.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This for your pains,' said the other, putting money in his hand, and
+      glancing at him steadfastly.' This for your pains, sharp Barnaby.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For Grip, and me, and Hugh, to share among us,' he rejoined, putting it
+      up, and nodding, as he counted it on his fingers. 'Grip one, me two, Hugh
+      three; the dog, the goat, the cats&mdash;well, we shall spend it pretty
+      soon, I warn you. Stay.&mdash;Look. Do you wise men see nothing there,
+      now?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bent eagerly down on one knee, and gazed intently at the smoke, which
+      was rolling up the chimney in a thick black cloud. John Willet, who
+      appeared to consider himself particularly and chiefly referred to under
+      the term wise men, looked that way likewise, and with great solidity of
+      feature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, where do they go to, when they spring so fast up there,' asked
+      Barnaby; 'eh? Why do they tread so closely on each other's heels, and why
+      are they always in a hurry&mdash;which is what you blame me for, when I
+      only take pattern by these busy folk about me? More of 'em! catching to
+      each other's skirts; and as fast as they go, others come! What a merry
+      dance it is! I would that Grip and I could frisk like that!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What has he in that basket at his back?' asked the guest after a few
+      moments, during which Barnaby was still bending down to look higher up the
+      chimney, and earnestly watching the smoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In this?' he answered, jumping up, before John Willet could reply&mdash;shaking
+      it as he spoke, and stooping his head to listen. 'In this! What is there
+      here? Tell him!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A devil, a devil, a devil!' cried a hoarse voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here's money!' said Barnaby, chinking it in his hand, 'money for a treat,
+      Grip!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!' replied the raven, 'keep up your spirits. Never
+      say die. Bow, wow, wow!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet, who appeared to entertain strong doubts whether a customer in a
+      laced coat and fine linen could be supposed to have any acquaintance even
+      with the existence of such unpolite gentry as the bird claimed to belong
+      to, took Barnaby off at this juncture, with the view of preventing any
+      other improper declarations, and quitted the room with his very best bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 11
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was great news that night for the regular Maypole customers, to each
+      of whom, as he straggled in to occupy his allotted seat in the
+      chimney-corner, John, with a most impressive slowness of delivery, and in
+      an apoplectic whisper, communicated the fact that Mr Chester was alone in
+      the large room upstairs, and was waiting the arrival of Mr Geoffrey
+      Haredale, to whom he had sent a letter (doubtless of a threatening nature)
+      by the hands of Barnaby, then and there present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a little knot of smokers and solemn gossips, who had seldom any new
+      topics of discussion, this was a perfect Godsend. Here was a good,
+      dark-looking mystery progressing under that very roof&mdash;brought home
+      to the fireside, as it were, and enjoyable without the smallest pains or
+      trouble. It is extraordinary what a zest and relish it gave to the drink,
+      and how it heightened the flavour of the tobacco. Every man smoked his
+      pipe with a face of grave and serious delight, and looked at his neighbour
+      with a sort of quiet congratulation. Nay, it was felt to be such a holiday
+      and special night, that, on the motion of little Solomon Daisy, every man
+      (including John himself) put down his sixpence for a can of flip, which
+      grateful beverage was brewed with all despatch, and set down in the midst
+      of them on the brick floor; both that it might simmer and stew before the
+      fire, and that its fragrant steam, rising up among them, and mixing with
+      the wreaths of vapour from their pipes, might shroud them in a delicious
+      atmosphere of their own, and shut out all the world. The very furniture of
+      the room seemed to mellow and deepen in its tone; the ceiling and walls
+      looked blacker and more highly polished, the curtains of a ruddier red;
+      the fire burnt clear and high, and the crickets in the hearthstone chirped
+      with a more than wonted satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were present two, however, who showed but little interest in the
+      general contentment. Of these, one was Barnaby himself, who slept, or, to
+      avoid being beset with questions, feigned to sleep, in the chimney-corner;
+      the other, Hugh, who, sleeping too, lay stretched upon the bench on the
+      opposite side, in the full glare of the blazing fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light that fell upon this slumbering form, showed it in all its
+      muscular and handsome proportions. It was that of a young man, of a hale
+      athletic figure, and a giant's strength, whose sunburnt face and swarthy
+      throat, overgrown with jet black hair, might have served a painter for a
+      model. Loosely attired, in the coarsest and roughest garb, with scraps of
+      straw and hay&mdash;his usual bed&mdash;clinging here and there, and
+      mingling with his uncombed locks, he had fallen asleep in a posture as
+      careless as his dress. The negligence and disorder of the whole man, with
+      something fierce and sullen in his features, gave him a picturesque
+      appearance, that attracted the regards even of the Maypole customers who
+      knew him well, and caused Long Parkes to say that Hugh looked more like a
+      poaching rascal to-night than ever he had seen him yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's waiting here, I suppose,' said Solomon, 'to take Mr Haredale's
+      horse.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's it, sir,' replied John Willet. 'He's not often in the house, you
+      know. He's more at his ease among horses than men. I look upon him as a
+      animal himself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Following up this opinion with a shrug that seemed meant to say, 'we can't
+      expect everybody to be like us,' John put his pipe into his mouth again,
+      and smoked like one who felt his superiority over the general run of
+      mankind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That chap, sir,' said John, taking it out again after a time, and
+      pointing at him with the stem, 'though he's got all his faculties about
+      him&mdash;bottled up and corked down, if I may say so, somewheres or
+      another&mdash;'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0065m.jpg" alt="0065m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0065.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'Very good!' said Parkes, nodding his head. 'A very good expression,
+      Johnny. You'll be a tackling somebody presently. You're in twig to-night,
+      I see.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Take care,' said Mr Willet, not at all grateful for the compliment, 'that
+      I don't tackle you, sir, which I shall certainly endeavour to do, if you
+      interrupt me when I'm making observations.&mdash;That chap, I was a
+      saying, though he has all his faculties about him, somewheres or another,
+      bottled up and corked down, has no more imagination than Barnaby has. And
+      why hasn't he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three friends shook their heads at each other; saying by that action,
+      without the trouble of opening their lips, 'Do you observe what a
+      philosophical mind our friend has?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why hasn't he?' said John, gently striking the table with his open hand.
+      'Because they was never drawed out of him when he was a boy. That's why.
+      What would any of us have been, if our fathers hadn't drawed our faculties
+      out of us? What would my boy Joe have been, if I hadn't drawed his
+      faculties out of him?&mdash;Do you mind what I'm a saying of, gentlemen?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah! we mind you,' cried Parkes. 'Go on improving of us, Johnny.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Consequently, then,' said Mr Willet, 'that chap, whose mother was hung
+      when he was a little boy, along with six others, for passing bad notes&mdash;and
+      it's a blessed thing to think how many people are hung in batches every
+      six weeks for that, and such like offences, as showing how wide awake our
+      government is&mdash;that chap that was then turned loose, and had to mind
+      cows, and frighten birds away, and what not, for a few pence to live on,
+      and so got on by degrees to mind horses, and to sleep in course of time in
+      lofts and litter, instead of under haystacks and hedges, till at last he
+      come to be hostler at the Maypole for his board and lodging and a annual
+      trifle&mdash;that chap that can't read nor write, and has never had much
+      to do with anything but animals, and has never lived in any way but like
+      the animals he has lived among, IS a animal. And,' said Mr Willet,
+      arriving at his logical conclusion, 'is to be treated accordingly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Willet,' said Solomon Daisy, who had exhibited some impatience at the
+      intrusion of so unworthy a subject on their more interesting theme, 'when
+      Mr Chester come this morning, did he order the large room?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He signified, sir,' said John, 'that he wanted a large apartment. Yes.
+      Certainly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why then, I'll tell you what,' said Solomon, speaking softly and with an
+      earnest look. 'He and Mr Haredale are going to fight a duel in it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody looked at Mr Willet, after this alarming suggestion. Mr Willet
+      looked at the fire, weighing in his own mind the effect which such an
+      occurrence would be likely to have on the establishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well,' said John, 'I don't know&mdash;I am sure&mdash;I remember that
+      when I went up last, he HAD put the lights upon the mantel-shelf.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's as plain,' returned Solomon, 'as the nose on Parkes's face'&mdash;Mr
+      Parkes, who had a large nose, rubbed it, and looked as if he considered
+      this a personal allusion&mdash;'they'll fight in that room. You know by
+      the newspapers what a common thing it is for gentlemen to fight in
+      coffee-houses without seconds. One of 'em will be wounded or perhaps
+      killed in this house.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That was a challenge that Barnaby took then, eh?' said John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Inclosing a slip of paper with the measure of his sword upon it,
+      I'll bet a guinea,' answered the little man. 'We know what sort of
+      gentleman Mr Haredale is. You have told us what Barnaby said about his
+      looks, when he came back. Depend upon it, I'm right. Now, mind.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flip had had no flavour till now. The tobacco had been of mere English
+      growth, compared with its present taste. A duel in that great old rambling
+      room upstairs, and the best bed ordered already for the wounded man!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Would it be swords or pistols, now?' said John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Heaven knows. Perhaps both,' returned Solomon. 'The gentlemen wear
+      swords, and may easily have pistols in their pockets&mdash;most likely
+      have, indeed. If they fire at each other without effect, then they'll
+      draw, and go to work in earnest.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A shade passed over Mr Willet's face as he thought of broken windows and
+      disabled furniture, but bethinking himself that one of the parties would
+      probably be left alive to pay the damage, he brightened up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And then,' said Solomon, looking from face to face, 'then we shall have
+      one of those stains upon the floor that never come out. If Mr Haredale
+      wins, depend upon it, it'll be a deep one; or if he loses, it will perhaps
+      be deeper still, for he'll never give in unless he's beaten down. We know
+      him better, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Better indeed!' they whispered all together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As to its ever being got out again,' said Solomon, 'I tell you it never
+      will, or can be. Why, do you know that it has been tried, at a certain
+      house we are acquainted with?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The Warren!' cried John. 'No, sure!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, sure&mdash;yes. It's only known by very few. It has been whispered
+      about though, for all that. They planed the board away, but there it was.
+      They went deep, but it went deeper. They put new boards down, but there
+      was one great spot that came through still, and showed itself in the old
+      place. And&mdash;harkye&mdash;draw nearer&mdash;Mr Geoffrey made that room
+      his study, and sits there, always, with his foot (as I have heard) upon
+      it; and he believes, through thinking of it long and very much, that it
+      will never fade until he finds the man who did the deed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this recital ended, and they all drew closer round the fire, the tramp
+      of a horse was heard without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The very man!' cried John, starting up. 'Hugh! Hugh!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sleeper staggered to his feet, and hurried after him. John quickly
+      returned, ushering in with great attention and deference (for Mr Haredale
+      was his landlord) the long-expected visitor, who strode into the room
+      clanking his heavy boots upon the floor; and looking keenly round upon the
+      bowing group, raised his hat in acknowledgment of their profound respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have a stranger here, Willet, who sent to me,' he said, in a voice
+      which sounded naturally stern and deep. 'Where is he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In the great room upstairs, sir,' answered John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Show the way. Your staircase is dark, I know. Gentlemen, good night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he signed to the landlord to go on before; and went clanking
+      out, and up the stairs; old John, in his agitation, ingeniously lighting
+      everything but the way, and making a stumble at every second step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stop!' he said, when they reached the landing. 'I can announce myself.
+      Don't wait.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid his hand upon the door, entered, and shut it heavily. Mr Willet
+      was by no means disposed to stand there listening by himself, especially
+      as the walls were very thick; so descended, with much greater alacrity
+      than he had come up, and joined his friends below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 12
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was a brief pause in the state-room of the Maypole, as Mr Haredale
+      tried the lock to satisfy himself that he had shut the door securely, and,
+      striding up the dark chamber to where the screen inclosed a little patch
+      of light and warmth, presented himself, abruptly and in silence, before
+      the smiling guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the two had no greater sympathy in their inward thoughts than in their
+      outward bearing and appearance, the meeting did not seem likely to prove a
+      very calm or pleasant one. With no great disparity between them in point
+      of years, they were, in every other respect, as unlike and far removed
+      from each other as two men could well be. The one was soft-spoken,
+      delicately made, precise, and elegant; the other, a burly square-built
+      man, negligently dressed, rough and abrupt in manner, stern, and, in his
+      present mood, forbidding both in look and speech. The one preserved a calm
+      and placid smile; the other, a distrustful frown. The new-comer, indeed,
+      appeared bent on showing by his every tone and gesture his determined
+      opposition and hostility to the man he had come to meet. The guest who
+      received him, on the other hand, seemed to feel that the contrast between
+      them was all in his favour, and to derive a quiet exultation from it which
+      put him more at his ease than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Haredale,' said this gentleman, without the least appearance of
+      embarrassment or reserve, 'I am very glad to see you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let us dispense with compliments. They are misplaced between us,'
+      returned the other, waving his hand, 'and say plainly what we have to say.
+      You have asked me to meet you. I am here. Why do we stand face to face
+      again?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Still the same frank and sturdy character, I see!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good or bad, sir, I am,' returned the other, leaning his arm upon the
+      chimney-piece, and turning a haughty look upon the occupant of the
+      easy-chair, 'the man I used to be. I have lost no old likings or
+      dislikings; my memory has not failed me by a hair's-breadth. You ask me to
+      give you a meeting. I say, I am here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Our meeting, Haredale,' said Mr Chester, tapping his snuff-box, and
+      following with a smile the impatient gesture he had made&mdash;perhaps
+      unconsciously&mdash;towards his sword, 'is one of conference and peace, I
+      hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have come here,' returned the other, 'at your desire, holding myself
+      bound to meet you, when and where you would. I have not come to bandy
+      pleasant speeches, or hollow professions. You are a smooth man of the
+      world, sir, and at such play have me at a disadvantage. The very last man
+      on this earth with whom I would enter the lists to combat with gentle
+      compliments and masked faces, is Mr Chester, I do assure you. I am not his
+      match at such weapons, and have reason to believe that few men are.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You do me a great deal of honour Haredale,' returned the other, most
+      composedly, 'and I thank you. I will be frank with you&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I beg your pardon&mdash;will be what?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Frank&mdash;open&mdash;perfectly candid.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hab!' cried Mr Haredale, drawing his breath. 'But don't let me interrupt
+      you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So resolved am I to hold this course,' returned the other, tasting his
+      wine with great deliberation; 'that I have determined not to quarrel with
+      you, and not to be betrayed into a warm expression or a hasty word.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There again,' said Mr Haredale, 'you have me at a great advantage. Your
+      self-command&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is not to be disturbed, when it will serve my purpose, you would say'&mdash;rejoined
+      the other, interrupting him with the same complacency. 'Granted. I allow
+      it. And I have a purpose to serve now. So have you. I am sure our object
+      is the same. Let us attain it like sensible men, who have ceased to be
+      boys some time.&mdash;Do you drink?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'With my friends,' returned the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At least,' said Mr Chester, 'you will be seated?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will stand,' returned Mr Haredale impatiently, 'on this dismantled,
+      beggared hearth, and not pollute it, fallen as it is, with mockeries. Go
+      on.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are wrong, Haredale,' said the other, crossing his legs, and smiling
+      as he held his glass up in the bright glow of the fire. 'You are really
+      very wrong. The world is a lively place enough, in which we must
+      accommodate ourselves to circumstances, sail with the stream as glibly as
+      we can, be content to take froth for substance, the surface for the depth,
+      the counterfeit for the real coin. I wonder no philosopher has ever
+      established that our globe itself is hollow. It should be, if Nature is
+      consistent in her works.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'YOU think it is, perhaps?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should say,' he returned, sipping his wine, 'there could be no doubt
+      about it. Well; we, in trifling with this jingling toy, have had the
+      ill-luck to jostle and fall out. We are not what the world calls friends;
+      but we are as good and true and loving friends for all that, as nine out
+      of every ten of those on whom it bestows the title. You have a niece, and
+      I a son&mdash;a fine lad, Haredale, but foolish. They fall in love with
+      each other, and form what this same world calls an attachment; meaning a
+      something fanciful and false like the rest, which, if it took its own free
+      time, would break like any other bubble. But it may not have its own free
+      time&mdash;will not, if they are left alone&mdash;and the question is,
+      shall we two, because society calls us enemies, stand aloof, and let them
+      rush into each other's arms, when, by approaching each other sensibly, as
+      we do now, we can prevent it, and part them?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I love my niece,' said Mr Haredale, after a short silence. 'It may sound
+      strangely in your ears; but I love her.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Strangely, my good fellow!' cried Mr Chester, lazily filling his glass
+      again, and pulling out his toothpick. 'Not at all. I like Ned too&mdash;or,
+      as you say, love him&mdash;that's the word among such near relations. I'm
+      very fond of Ned. He's an amazingly good fellow, and a handsome fellow&mdash;foolish
+      and weak as yet; that's all. But the thing is, Haredale&mdash;for I'll be
+      very frank, as I told you I would at first&mdash;independently of any
+      dislike that you and I might have to being related to each other, and
+      independently of the religious differences between us&mdash;and damn it,
+      that's important&mdash;I couldn't afford a match of this description. Ned
+      and I couldn't do it. It's impossible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Curb your tongue, in God's name, if this conversation is to last,'
+      retorted Mr Haredale fiercely. 'I have said I love my niece. Do you think
+      that, loving her, I would have her fling her heart away on any man who had
+      your blood in his veins?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You see,' said the other, not at all disturbed, 'the advantage of being
+      so frank and open. Just what I was about to add, upon my honour! I am
+      amazingly attached to Ned&mdash;quite doat upon him, indeed&mdash;and even
+      if we could afford to throw ourselves away, that very objection would be
+      quite insuperable.&mdash;I wish you'd take some wine?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mark me,' said Mr Haredale, striding to the table, and laying his hand
+      upon it heavily. 'If any man believes&mdash;presumes to think&mdash;that
+      I, in word or deed, or in the wildest dream, ever entertained remotely the
+      idea of Emma Haredale's favouring the suit of any one who was akin to you&mdash;in
+      any way&mdash;I care not what&mdash;he lies. He lies, and does me grievous
+      wrong, in the mere thought.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Haredale,' returned the other, rocking himself to and fro as in assent,
+      and nodding at the fire, 'it's extremely manly, and really very generous
+      in you, to meet me in this unreserved and handsome way. Upon my word,
+      those are exactly my sentiments, only expressed with much more force and
+      power than I could use&mdash;you know my sluggish nature, and will forgive
+      me, I am sure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'While I would restrain her from all correspondence with your son, and
+      sever their intercourse here, though it should cause her death,' said Mr
+      Haredale, who had been pacing to and fro, 'I would do it kindly and
+      tenderly if I can. I have a trust to discharge, which my nature is not
+      formed to understand, and, for this reason, the bare fact of there being
+      any love between them comes upon me to-night, almost for the first time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am more delighted than I can possibly tell you,' rejoined Mr Chester
+      with the utmost blandness, 'to find my own impression so confirmed. You
+      see the advantage of our having met. We understand each other. We quite
+      agree. We have a most complete and thorough explanation, and we know what
+      course to take.&mdash;Why don't you taste your tenant's wine? It's really
+      very good.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pray who,' said Mr Haredale, 'have aided Emma, or your son? Who are their
+      go-betweens, and agents&mdash;do you know?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All the good people hereabouts&mdash;the neighbourhood in general, I
+      think,' returned the other, with his most affable smile. 'The messenger I
+      sent to you to-day, foremost among them all.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The idiot? Barnaby?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are surprised? I am glad of that, for I was rather so myself. Yes. I
+      wrung that from his mother&mdash;a very decent sort of woman&mdash;from
+      whom, indeed, I chiefly learnt how serious the matter had become, and so
+      determined to ride out here to-day, and hold a parley with you on this
+      neutral ground.&mdash;You're stouter than you used to be, Haredale, but
+      you look extremely well.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Our business, I presume, is nearly at an end,' said Mr Haredale, with an
+      expression of impatience he was at no pains to conceal. 'Trust me, Mr
+      Chester, my niece shall change from this time. I will appeal,' he added in
+      a lower tone, 'to her woman's heart, her dignity, her pride, her duty&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shall do the same by Ned,' said Mr Chester, restoring some errant
+      faggots to their places in the grate with the toe of his boot. 'If there
+      is anything real in this world, it is those amazingly fine feelings and
+      those natural obligations which must subsist between father and son. I
+      shall put it to him on every ground of moral and religious feeling. I
+      shall represent to him that we cannot possibly afford it&mdash;that I have
+      always looked forward to his marrying well, for a genteel provision for
+      myself in the autumn of life&mdash;that there are a great many clamorous
+      dogs to pay, whose claims are perfectly just and right, and who must be
+      paid out of his wife's fortune. In short, that the very highest and most
+      honourable feelings of our nature, with every consideration of filial duty
+      and affection, and all that sort of thing, imperatively demand that he
+      should run away with an heiress.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And break her heart as speedily as possible?' said Mr Haredale, drawing
+      on his glove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There Ned will act exactly as he pleases,' returned the other, sipping
+      his wine; 'that's entirely his affair. I wouldn't for the world interfere
+      with my son, Haredale, beyond a certain point. The relationship between
+      father and son, you know, is positively quite a holy kind of bond.&mdash;WON'T
+      you let me persuade you to take one glass of wine? Well! as you please, as
+      you please,' he added, helping himself again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Chester,' said Mr Haredale, after a short silence, during which he had
+      eyed his smiling face from time to time intently, 'you have the head and
+      heart of an evil spirit in all matters of deception.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your health!' said the other, with a nod. 'But I have interrupted you&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If now,' pursued Mr Haredale, 'we should find it difficult to separate
+      these young people, and break off their intercourse&mdash;if, for
+      instance, you find it difficult on your side, what course do you intend to
+      take?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing plainer, my good fellow, nothing easier,' returned the other,
+      shrugging his shoulders and stretching himself more comfortably before the
+      fire. 'I shall then exert those powers on which you flatter me so highly&mdash;though,
+      upon my word, I don't deserve your compliments to their full extent&mdash;and
+      resort to a few little trivial subterfuges for rousing jealousy and
+      resentment. You see?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In short, justifying the means by the end, we are, as a last resource for
+      tearing them asunder, to resort to treachery and&mdash;and lying,' said Mr
+      Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh dear no. Fie, fie!' returned the other, relishing a pinch of snuff
+      extremely. 'Not lying. Only a little management, a little diplomacy, a
+      little&mdash;intriguing, that's the word.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish,' said Mr Haredale, moving to and fro, and stopping, and moving on
+      again, like one who was ill at ease, 'that this could have been foreseen
+      or prevented. But as it has gone so far, and it is necessary for us to
+      act, it is of no use shrinking or regretting. Well! I shall second your
+      endeavours to the utmost of my power. There is one topic in the whole wide
+      range of human thoughts on which we both agree. We shall act in concert,
+      but apart. There will be no need, I hope, for us to meet again.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you going?' said Mr Chester, rising with a graceful indolence. 'Let
+      me light you down the stairs.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pray keep your seat,' returned the other drily, 'I know the way. So,
+      waving his hand slightly, and putting on his hat as he turned upon his
+      heel, he went clanking out as he had come, shut the door behind him, and
+      tramped down the echoing stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pah! A very coarse animal, indeed!' said Mr Chester, composing himself in
+      the easy-chair again. 'A rough brute. Quite a human badger!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Willet and his friends, who had been listening intently for the clash
+      of swords, or firing of pistols in the great room, and had indeed settled
+      the order in which they should rush in when summoned&mdash;in which
+      procession old John had carefully arranged that he should bring up the
+      rear&mdash;were very much astonished to see Mr Haredale come down without
+      a scratch, call for his horse, and ride away thoughtfully at a footpace.
+      After some consideration, it was decided that he had left the gentleman
+      above, for dead, and had adopted this stratagem to divert suspicion or
+      pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this conclusion involved the necessity of their going upstairs
+      forthwith, they were about to ascend in the order they had agreed upon,
+      when a smart ringing at the guest's bell, as if he had pulled it
+      vigorously, overthrew all their speculations, and involved them in great
+      uncertainty and doubt. At length Mr Willet agreed to go upstairs himself,
+      escorted by Hugh and Barnaby, as the strongest and stoutest fellows on the
+      premises, who were to make their appearance under pretence of clearing
+      away the glasses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under this protection, the brave and broad-faced John boldly entered the
+      room, half a foot in advance, and received an order for a boot-jack
+      without trembling. But when it was brought, and he leant his sturdy
+      shoulder to the guest, Mr Willet was observed to look very hard into his
+      boots as he pulled them off, and, by opening his eyes much wider than
+      usual, to appear to express some surprise and disappointment at not
+      finding them full of blood. He took occasion, too, to examine the
+      gentleman as closely as he could, expecting to discover sundry loopholes
+      in his person, pierced by his adversary's sword. Finding none, however,
+      and observing in course of time that his guest was as cool and unruffled,
+      both in his dress and temper, as he had been all day, old John at last
+      heaved a deep sigh, and began to think no duel had been fought that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And now, Willet,' said Mr Chester, 'if the room's well aired, I'll try
+      the merits of that famous bed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The room, sir,' returned John, taking up a candle, and nudging Barnaby
+      and Hugh to accompany them, in case the gentleman should unexpectedly drop
+      down faint or dead from some internal wound, 'the room's as warm as any
+      toast in a tankard. Barnaby, take you that other candle, and go on before.
+      Hugh! Follow up, sir, with the easy-chair.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this order&mdash;and still, in his earnest inspection, holding his
+      candle very close to the guest; now making him feel extremely warm about
+      the legs, now threatening to set his wig on fire, and constantly begging
+      his pardon with great awkwardness and embarrassment&mdash;John led the
+      party to the best bedroom, which was nearly as large as the chamber from
+      which they had come, and held, drawn out near the fire for warmth, a great
+      old spectral bedstead, hung with faded brocade, and ornamented, at the top
+      of each carved post, with a plume of feathers that had once been white,
+      but with dust and age had now grown hearse-like and funereal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night, my friends,' said Mr Chester with a sweet smile, seating
+      himself, when he had surveyed the room from end to end, in the easy-chair
+      which his attendants wheeled before the fire. 'Good night! Barnaby, my
+      good fellow, you say some prayers before you go to bed, I hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby nodded. 'He has some nonsense that he calls his prayers, sir,'
+      returned old John, officiously. 'I'm afraid there an't much good in em.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And Hugh?' said Mr Chester, turning to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not I,' he answered. 'I know his'&mdash;pointing to Barnaby&mdash;'they're
+      well enough. He sings 'em sometimes in the straw. I listen.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's quite a animal, sir,' John whispered in his ear with dignity.
+      'You'll excuse him, I'm sure. If he has any soul at all, sir, it must be
+      such a very small one, that it don't signify what he does or doesn't in
+      that way. Good night, sir!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guest rejoined 'God bless you!' with a fervour that was quite
+      affecting; and John, beckoning his guards to go before, bowed himself out
+      of the room, and left him to his rest in the Maypole's ancient bed.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0070m.jpg" alt="0070m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0070.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0071m.jpg" alt="0071m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0071.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 13
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      If Joseph Willet, the denounced and proscribed of 'prentices, had happened
+      to be at home when his father's courtly guest presented himself before the
+      Maypole door&mdash;that is, if it had not perversely chanced to be one of
+      the half-dozen days in the whole year on which he was at liberty to absent
+      himself for as many hours without question or reproach&mdash;he would have
+      contrived, by hook or crook, to dive to the very bottom of Mr Chester's
+      mystery, and to come at his purpose with as much certainty as though he
+      had been his confidential adviser. In that fortunate case, the lovers
+      would have had quick warning of the ills that threatened them, and the aid
+      of various timely and wise suggestions to boot; for all Joe's readiness of
+      thought and action, and all his sympathies and good wishes, were enlisted
+      in favour of the young people, and were staunch in devotion to their
+      cause. Whether this disposition arose out of his old prepossessions in
+      favour of the young lady, whose history had surrounded her in his mind,
+      almost from his cradle, with circumstances of unusual interest; or from
+      his attachment towards the young gentleman, into whose confidence he had,
+      through his shrewdness and alacrity, and the rendering of sundry important
+      services as a spy and messenger, almost imperceptibly glided; whether they
+      had their origin in either of these sources, or in the habit natural to
+      youth, or in the constant badgering and worrying of his venerable parent,
+      or in any hidden little love affair of his own which gave him something of
+      a fellow-feeling in the matter, it is needless to inquire&mdash;especially
+      as Joe was out of the way, and had no opportunity on that particular
+      occasion of testifying to his sentiments either on one side or the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, in fact, the twenty-fifth of March, which, as most people know to
+      their cost, is, and has been time out of mind, one of those unpleasant
+      epochs termed quarter-days. On this twenty-fifth of March, it was John
+      Willet's pride annually to settle, in hard cash, his account with a
+      certain vintner and distiller in the city of London; to give into whose
+      hands a canvas bag containing its exact amount, and not a penny more or
+      less, was the end and object of a journey for Joe, so surely as the year
+      and day came round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This journey was performed upon an old grey mare, concerning whom John had
+      an indistinct set of ideas hovering about him, to the effect that she
+      could win a plate or cup if she tried. She never had tried, and probably
+      never would now, being some fourteen or fifteen years of age, short in
+      wind, long in body, and rather the worse for wear in respect of her mane
+      and tail. Notwithstanding these slight defects, John perfectly gloried in
+      the animal; and when she was brought round to the door by Hugh, actually
+      retired into the bar, and there, in a secret grove of lemons, laughed with
+      pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's a bit of horseflesh, Hugh!' said John, when he had recovered
+      enough self-command to appear at the door again. 'There's a comely
+      creature! There's high mettle! There's bone!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was bone enough beyond all doubt; and so Hugh seemed to think, as he
+      sat sideways in the saddle, lazily doubled up with his chin nearly
+      touching his knees; and heedless of the dangling stirrups and loose
+      bridle-rein, sauntered up and down on the little green before the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mind you take good care of her, sir,' said John, appealing from this
+      insensible person to his son and heir, who now appeared, fully equipped
+      and ready. 'Don't you ride hard.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should be puzzled to do that, I think, father,' Joe replied, casting a
+      disconsolate look at the animal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'None of your impudence, sir, if you please,' retorted old John. 'What
+      would you ride, sir? A wild ass or zebra would be too tame for you,
+      wouldn't he, eh sir? You'd like to ride a roaring lion, wouldn't you, sir,
+      eh sir? Hold your tongue, sir.' When Mr Willet, in his differences with
+      his son, had exhausted all the questions that occurred to him, and Joe had
+      said nothing at all in answer, he generally wound up by bidding him hold
+      his tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what does the boy mean,' added Mr Willet, after he had stared at him
+      for a little time, in a species of stupefaction, 'by cocking his hat, to
+      such an extent! Are you going to kill the wintner, sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' said Joe, tartly; 'I'm not. Now your mind's at ease, father.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'With a milintary air, too!' said Mr Willet, surveying him from top to
+      toe; 'with a swaggering, fire-eating, biling-water drinking sort of way
+      with him! And what do you mean by pulling up the crocuses and snowdrops,
+      eh sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's only a little nosegay,' said Joe, reddening. 'There's no harm in
+      that, I hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're a boy of business, you are, sir!' said Mr Willet, disdainfully,
+      'to go supposing that wintners care for nosegays.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't suppose anything of the kind,' returned Joe. 'Let them keep their
+      red noses for bottles and tankards. These are going to Mr Varden's house.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And do you suppose HE minds such things as crocuses?' demanded John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know, and to say the truth, I don't care,' said Joe. 'Come,
+      father, give me the money, and in the name of patience let me go.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There it is, sir,' replied John; 'and take care of it; and mind you don't
+      make too much haste back, but give the mare a long rest.&mdash;Do you
+      mind?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, I mind,' returned Joe. 'She'll need it, Heaven knows.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And don't you score up too much at the Black Lion,' said John. 'Mind that
+      too.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then why don't you let me have some money of my own?' retorted Joe,
+      sorrowfully; 'why don't you, father? What do you send me into London for,
+      giving me only the right to call for my dinner at the Black Lion, which
+      you're to pay for next time you go, as if I was not to be trusted with a
+      few shillings? Why do you use me like this? It's not right of you. You
+      can't expect me to be quiet under it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let him have money!' cried John, in a drowsy reverie. 'What does he call
+      money&mdash;guineas? Hasn't he got money? Over and above the tolls, hasn't
+      he one and sixpence?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'One and sixpence!' repeated his son contemptuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, sir,' returned John, 'one and sixpence. When I was your age, I had
+      never seen so much money, in a heap. A shilling of it is in case of
+      accidents&mdash;the mare casting a shoe, or the like of that. The other
+      sixpence is to spend in the diversions of London; and the diversion I
+      recommend is going to the top of the Monument, and sitting there. There's
+      no temptation there, sir&mdash;no drink&mdash;no young women&mdash;no bad
+      characters of any sort&mdash;nothing but imagination. That's the way I
+      enjoyed myself when I was your age, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this, Joe made no answer, but beckoning Hugh, leaped into the saddle
+      and rode away; and a very stalwart, manly horseman he looked, deserving a
+      better charger than it was his fortune to bestride. John stood staring
+      after him, or rather after the grey mare (for he had no eyes for her
+      rider), until man and beast had been out of sight some twenty minutes,
+      when he began to think they were gone, and slowly re-entering the house,
+      fell into a gentle doze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate grey mare, who was the agony of Joe's life, floundered
+      along at her own will and pleasure until the Maypole was no longer
+      visible, and then, contracting her legs into what in a puppet would have
+      been looked upon as a clumsy and awkward imitation of a canter, mended her
+      pace all at once, and did it of her own accord. The acquaintance with her
+      rider's usual mode of proceeding, which suggested this improvement in
+      hers, impelled her likewise to turn up a bye-way, leading&mdash;not to
+      London, but through lanes running parallel with the road they had come,
+      and passing within a few hundred yards of the Maypole, which led finally
+      to an inclosure surrounding a large, old, red-brick mansion&mdash;the same
+      of which mention was made as the Warren in the first chapter of this
+      history. Coming to a dead stop in a little copse thereabout, she suffered
+      her rider to dismount with right goodwill, and to tie her to the trunk of
+      a tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stay there, old girl,' said Joe, 'and let us see whether there's any
+      little commission for me to-day.' So saying, he left her to browze upon
+      such stunted grass and weeds as happened to grow within the length of her
+      tether, and passing through a wicket gate, entered the grounds on foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pathway, after a very few minutes' walking, brought him close to the
+      house, towards which, and especially towards one particular window, he
+      directed many covert glances. It was a dreary, silent building, with
+      echoing courtyards, desolated turret-chambers, and whole suites of rooms
+      shut up and mouldering to ruin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrace-garden, dark with the shade of overhanging trees, had an air
+      of melancholy that was quite oppressive. Great iron gates, disused for
+      many years, and red with rust, drooping on their hinges and overgrown with
+      long rank grass, seemed as though they tried to sink into the ground, and
+      hide their fallen state among the friendly weeds. The fantastic monsters
+      on the walls, green with age and damp, and covered here and there with
+      moss, looked grim and desolate. There was a sombre aspect even on that
+      part of the mansion which was inhabited and kept in good repair, that
+      struck the beholder with a sense of sadness; of something forlorn and
+      failing, whence cheerfulness was banished. It would have been difficult to
+      imagine a bright fire blazing in the dull and darkened rooms, or to
+      picture any gaiety of heart or revelry that the frowning walls shut in. It
+      seemed a place where such things had been, but could be no more&mdash;the
+      very ghost of a house, haunting the old spot in its old outward form, and
+      that was all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much of this decayed and sombre look was attributable, no doubt, to the
+      death of its former master, and the temper of its present occupant; but
+      remembering the tale connected with the mansion, it seemed the very place
+      for such a deed, and one that might have been its predestined theatre
+      years upon years ago. Viewed with reference to this legend, the sheet of
+      water where the steward's body had been found appeared to wear a black and
+      sullen character, such as no other pool might own; the bell upon the roof
+      that had told the tale of murder to the midnight wind, became a very
+      phantom whose voice would raise the listener's hair on end; and every
+      leafless bough that nodded to another, had its stealthy whispering of the
+      crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe paced up and down the path, sometimes stopping in affected
+      contemplation of the building or the prospect, sometimes leaning against a
+      tree with an assumed air of idleness and indifference, but always keeping
+      an eye upon the window he had singled out at first. After some quarter of
+      an hour's delay, a small white hand was waved to him for an instant from
+      this casement, and the young man, with a respectful bow, departed; saying
+      under his breath as he crossed his horse again, 'No errand for me to-day!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the air of smartness, the cock of the hat to which John Willet had
+      objected, and the spring nosegay, all betokened some little errand of his
+      own, having a more interesting object than a vintner or even a locksmith.
+      So, indeed, it turned out; for when he had settled with the vintner&mdash;whose
+      place of business was down in some deep cellars hard by Thames Street, and
+      who was as purple-faced an old gentleman as if he had all his life
+      supported their arched roof on his head&mdash;when he had settled the
+      account, and taken the receipt, and declined tasting more than three
+      glasses of old sherry, to the unbounded astonishment of the purple-faced
+      vintner, who, gimlet in hand, had projected an attack upon at least a
+      score of dusty casks, and who stood transfixed, or morally gimleted as it
+      were, to his own wall&mdash;when he had done all this, and disposed
+      besides of a frugal dinner at the Black Lion in Whitechapel; spurning the
+      Monument and John's advice, he turned his steps towards the locksmith's
+      house, attracted by the eyes of blooming Dolly Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe was by no means a sheepish fellow, but, for all that, when he got to
+      the corner of the street in which the locksmith lived, he could by no
+      means make up his mind to walk straight to the house. First, he resolved
+      to stroll up another street for five minutes, then up another street for
+      five minutes more, and so on until he had lost full half an hour, when he
+      made a bold plunge and found himself with a red face and a beating heart
+      in the smoky workshop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Joe Willet, or his ghost?' said Varden, rising from the desk at which he
+      was busy with his books, and looking at him under his spectacles. 'Which
+      is it? Joe in the flesh, eh? That's hearty. And how are all the Chigwell
+      company, Joe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Much as usual, sir&mdash;they and I agree as well as ever.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well, well!' said the locksmith. 'We must be patient, Joe, and bear with
+      old folks' foibles. How's the mare, Joe? Does she do the four miles an
+      hour as easily as ever? Ha, ha, ha! Does she, Joe? Eh!&mdash;What have we
+      there, Joe&mdash;a nosegay!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A very poor one, sir&mdash;I thought Miss Dolly&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no,' said Gabriel, dropping his voice, and shaking his head, 'not
+      Dolly. Give 'em to her mother, Joe. A great deal better give 'em to her
+      mother. Would you mind giving 'em to Mrs Varden, Joe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh no, sir,' Joe replied, and endeavouring, but not with the greatest
+      possible success, to hide his disappointment. 'I shall be very glad, I'm
+      sure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's right,' said the locksmith, patting him on the back. 'It don't
+      matter who has 'em, Joe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not a bit, sir.'&mdash;Dear heart, how the words stuck in his throat!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come in,' said Gabriel. 'I have just been called to tea. She's in the
+      parlour.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She,' thought Joe. 'Which of 'em I wonder&mdash;Mrs or Miss?' The
+      locksmith settled the doubt as neatly as if it had been expressed aloud,
+      by leading him to the door, and saying, 'Martha, my dear, here's young Mr
+      Willet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, Mrs Varden, regarding the Maypole as a sort of human mantrap, or
+      decoy for husbands; viewing its proprietor, and all who aided and abetted
+      him, in the light of so many poachers among Christian men; and believing,
+      moreover, that the publicans coupled with sinners in Holy Writ were
+      veritable licensed victuallers; was far from being favourably disposed
+      towards her visitor. Wherefore she was taken faint directly; and being
+      duly presented with the crocuses and snowdrops, divined on further
+      consideration that they were the occasion of the languor which had seized
+      upon her spirits. 'I'm afraid I couldn't bear the room another minute,'
+      said the good lady, 'if they remained here. WOULD you excuse my putting
+      them out of window?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe begged she wouldn't mention it on any account, and smiled feebly as he
+      saw them deposited on the sill outside. If anybody could have known the
+      pains he had taken to make up that despised and misused bunch of flowers!&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I feel it quite a relief to get rid of them, I assure you,' said Mrs
+      Varden. 'I'm better already.' And indeed she did appear to have plucked up
+      her spirits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe expressed his gratitude to Providence for this favourable
+      dispensation, and tried to look as if he didn't wonder where Dolly was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're sad people at Chigwell, Mr Joseph,' said Mrs V.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope not, ma'am,' returned Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're the cruellest and most inconsiderate people in the world,' said
+      Mrs Varden, bridling. 'I wonder old Mr Willet, having been a married man
+      himself, doesn't know better than to conduct himself as he does. His doing
+      it for profit is no excuse. I would rather pay the money twenty times
+      over, and have Varden come home like a respectable and sober tradesman. If
+      there is one character,' said Mrs Varden with great emphasis, 'that
+      offends and disgusts me more than another, it is a sot.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come, Martha, my dear,' said the locksmith cheerily, 'let us have tea,
+      and don't let us talk about sots. There are none here, and Joe don't want
+      to hear about them, I dare say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this crisis, Miggs appeared with toast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I dare say he does not,' said Mrs Varden; 'and I dare say you do not,
+      Varden. It's a very unpleasant subject, I have no doubt, though I won't
+      say it's personal'&mdash;Miggs coughed&mdash;'whatever I may be forced to
+      think'&mdash;Miggs sneezed expressively. 'You never will know, Varden, and
+      nobody at young Mr Willet's age&mdash;you'll excuse me, sir&mdash;can be
+      expected to know, what a woman suffers when she is waiting at home under
+      such circumstances. If you don't believe me, as I know you don't, here's
+      Miggs, who is only too often a witness of it&mdash;ask her.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! she were very bad the other night, sir, indeed she were, said Miggs.
+      'If you hadn't the sweetness of an angel in you, mim, I don't think you
+      could abear it, I raly don't.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miggs,' said Mrs Varden, 'you're profane.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Begging your pardon, mim,' returned Miggs, with shrill rapidity, 'such
+      was not my intentions, and such I hope is not my character, though I am
+      but a servant.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Answering me, Miggs, and providing yourself,' retorted her mistress,
+      looking round with dignity, 'is one and the same thing. How dare you speak
+      of angels in connection with your sinful fellow-beings&mdash;mere'&mdash;said
+      Mrs Varden, glancing at herself in a neighbouring mirror, and arranging
+      the ribbon of her cap in a more becoming fashion&mdash;'mere worms and
+      grovellers as we are!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I did not intend, mim, if you please, to give offence,' said Miggs,
+      confident in the strength of her compliment, and developing strongly in
+      the throat as usual, 'and I did not expect it would be took as such. I
+      hope I know my own unworthiness, and that I hate and despise myself and
+      all my fellow-creatures as every practicable Christian should.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You'll have the goodness, if you please,' said Mrs Varden, loftily, 'to
+      step upstairs and see if Dolly has finished dressing, and to tell her that
+      the chair that was ordered for her will be here in a minute, and that if
+      she keeps it waiting, I shall send it away that instant.&mdash;I'm sorry
+      to see that you don't take your tea, Varden, and that you don't take
+      yours, Mr Joseph; though of course it would be foolish of me to expect
+      that anything that can be had at home, and in the company of females,
+      would please YOU.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This pronoun was understood in the plural sense, and included both
+      gentlemen, upon both of whom it was rather hard and undeserved, for
+      Gabriel had applied himself to the meal with a very promising appetite,
+      until it was spoilt by Mrs Varden herself, and Joe had as great a liking
+      for the female society of the locksmith's house&mdash;or for a part of it
+      at all events&mdash;as man could well entertain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he had no opportunity to say anything in his own defence, for at that
+      moment Dolly herself appeared, and struck him quite dumb with her beauty.
+      Never had Dolly looked so handsome as she did then, in all the glow and
+      grace of youth, with all her charms increased a hundredfold by a most
+      becoming dress, by a thousand little coquettish ways which nobody could
+      assume with a better grace, and all the sparkling expectation of that
+      accursed party. It is impossible to tell how Joe hated that party wherever
+      it was, and all the other people who were going to it, whoever they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And she hardly looked at him&mdash;no, hardly looked at him. And when the
+      chair was seen through the open door coming blundering into the workshop,
+      she actually clapped her hands and seemed glad to go. But Joe gave her his
+      arm&mdash;there was some comfort in that&mdash;and handed her into it. To
+      see her seat herself inside, with her laughing eyes brighter than
+      diamonds, and her hand&mdash;surely she had the prettiest hand in the
+      world&mdash;on the ledge of the open window, and her little finger
+      provokingly and pertly tilted up, as if it wondered why Joe didn't squeeze
+      or kiss it! To think how well one or two of the modest snowdrops would
+      have become that delicate bodice, and how they were lying neglected
+      outside the parlour window! To see how Miggs looked on with a face
+      expressive of knowing how all this loveliness was got up, and of being in
+      the secret of every string and pin and hook and eye, and of saying it
+      ain't half as real as you think, and I could look quite as well myself if
+      I took the pains! To hear that provoking precious little scream when the
+      chair was hoisted on its poles, and to catch that transient but
+      not-to-be-forgotten vision of the happy face within&mdash;what torments
+      and aggravations, and yet what delights were these! The very chairmen
+      seemed favoured rivals as they bore her down the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There never was such an alteration in a small room in a small time as in
+      that parlour when they went back to finish tea. So dark, so deserted, so
+      perfectly disenchanted. It seemed such sheer nonsense to be sitting tamely
+      there, when she was at a dance with more lovers than man could calculate
+      fluttering about her&mdash;with the whole party doting on and adoring her,
+      and wanting to marry her. Miggs was hovering about too; and the fact of
+      her existence, the mere circumstance of her ever having been born,
+      appeared, after Dolly, such an unaccountable practical joke. It was
+      impossible to talk. It couldn't be done. He had nothing left for it but to
+      stir his tea round, and round, and round, and ruminate on all the
+      fascinations of the locksmith's lovely daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel was dull too. It was a part of the certain uncertainty of Mrs
+      Varden's temper, that when they were in this condition, she should be gay
+      and sprightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I need have a cheerful disposition, I am sure,' said the smiling
+      housewife, 'to preserve any spirits at all; and how I do it I can scarcely
+      tell.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah, mim,' sighed Miggs, 'begging your pardon for the interruption, there
+      an't a many like you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Take away, Miggs,' said Mrs Varden, rising, 'take away, pray. I know I'm
+      a restraint here, and as I wish everybody to enjoy themselves as they best
+      can, I feel I had better go.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no, Martha,' cried the locksmith. 'Stop here. I'm sure we shall be
+      very sorry to lose you, eh Joe!' Joe started, and said 'Certainly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank you, Varden, my dear,' returned his wife; 'but I know your wishes
+      better. Tobacco and beer, or spirits, have much greater attractions than
+      any I can boast of, and therefore I shall go and sit upstairs and look out
+      of window, my love. Good night, Mr Joseph. I'm very glad to have seen you,
+      and I only wish I could have provided something more suitable to your
+      taste. Remember me very kindly if you please to old Mr Willet, and tell
+      him that whenever he comes here I have a crow to pluck with him. Good
+      night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having uttered these words with great sweetness of manner, the good lady
+      dropped a curtsey remarkable for its condescension, and serenely withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And it was for this Joe had looked forward to the twenty-fifth of March
+      for weeks and weeks, and had gathered the flowers with so much care, and
+      had cocked his hat, and made himself so smart! This was the end of all his
+      bold determination, resolved upon for the hundredth time, to speak out to
+      Dolly and tell her how he loved her! To see her for a minute&mdash;for but
+      a minute&mdash;to find her going out to a party and glad to go; to be
+      looked upon as a common pipe-smoker, beer-bibber, spirit-guzzler, and
+      tosspot! He bade farewell to his friend the locksmith, and hastened to
+      take horse at the Black Lion, thinking as he turned towards home, as many
+      another Joe has thought before and since, that here was an end to all his
+      hopes&mdash;that the thing was impossible and never could be&mdash;that
+      she didn't care for him&mdash;that he was wretched for life&mdash;and that
+      the only congenial prospect left him, was to go for a soldier or a sailor,
+      and get some obliging enemy to knock his brains out as soon as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 14
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Joe Willet rode leisurely along in his desponding mood, picturing the
+      locksmith's daughter going down long country-dances, and poussetting
+      dreadfully with bold strangers&mdash;which was almost too much to bear&mdash;when
+      he heard the tramp of a horse's feet behind him, and looking back, saw a
+      well-mounted gentleman advancing at a smart canter. As this rider passed,
+      he checked his steed, and called him of the Maypole by his name. Joe set
+      spurs to the grey mare, and was at his side directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thought it was you, sir,' he said, touching his hat. 'A fair evening,
+      sir. Glad to see you out of doors again.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gentleman smiled and nodded. 'What gay doings have been going on
+      to-day, Joe? Is she as pretty as ever? Nay, don't blush, man.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If I coloured at all, Mr Edward,' said Joe, 'which I didn't know I did,
+      it was to think I should have been such a fool as ever to have any hope of
+      her. She's as far out of my reach as&mdash;as Heaven is.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well, Joe, I hope that's not altogether beyond it,' said Edward,
+      good-humouredly. 'Eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' sighed Joe. 'It's all very fine talking, sir. Proverbs are easily
+      made in cold blood. But it can't be helped. Are you bound for our house,
+      sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes. As I am not quite strong yet, I shall stay there to-night, and ride
+      home coolly in the morning.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you're in no particular hurry,' said Joe after a short silence, 'and
+      will bear with the pace of this poor jade, I shall be glad to ride on with
+      you to the Warren, sir, and hold your horse when you dismount. It'll save
+      you having to walk from the Maypole, there and back again. I can spare the
+      time well, sir, for I am too soon.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And so am I,' returned Edward, 'though I was unconsciously riding fast
+      just now, in compliment I suppose to the pace of my thoughts, which were
+      travelling post. We will keep together, Joe, willingly, and be as good
+      company as may be. And cheer up, cheer up, think of the locksmith's
+      daughter with a stout heart, and you shall win her yet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe shook his head; but there was something so cheery in the buoyant
+      hopeful manner of this speech, that his spirits rose under its influence,
+      and communicated as it would seem some new impulse even to the grey mare,
+      who, breaking from her sober amble into a gentle trot, emulated the pace
+      of Edward Chester's horse, and appeared to flatter herself that he was
+      doing his very best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a fine dry night, and the light of a young moon, which was then
+      just rising, shed around that peace and tranquillity which gives to
+      evening time its most delicious charm. The lengthened shadows of the
+      trees, softened as if reflected in still water, threw their carpet on the
+      path the travellers pursued, and the light wind stirred yet more softly
+      than before, as though it were soothing Nature in her sleep. By little and
+      little they ceased talking, and rode on side by side in a pleasant
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The Maypole lights are brilliant to-night,' said Edward, as they rode
+      along the lane from which, while the intervening trees were bare of
+      leaves, that hostelry was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brilliant indeed, sir,' returned Joe, rising in his stirrups to get a
+      better view. 'Lights in the large room, and a fire glimmering in the best
+      bedchamber? Why, what company can this be for, I wonder!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Some benighted horseman wending towards London, and deterred from going
+      on to-night by the marvellous tales of my friend the highwayman, I
+      suppose,' said Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He must be a horseman of good quality to have such accommodations. Your
+      bed too, sir&mdash;!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No matter, Joe. Any other room will do for me. But come&mdash;there's
+      nine striking. We may push on.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They cantered forward at as brisk a pace as Joe's charger could attain,
+      and presently stopped in the little copse where he had left her in the
+      morning. Edward dismounted, gave his bridle to his companion, and walked
+      with a light step towards the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A female servant was waiting at a side gate in the garden-wall, and
+      admitted him without delay. He hurried along the terrace-walk, and darted
+      up a flight of broad steps leading into an old and gloomy hall, whose
+      walls were ornamented with rusty suits of armour, antlers, weapons of the
+      chase, and suchlike garniture. Here he paused, but not long; for as he
+      looked round, as if expecting the attendant to have followed, and
+      wondering she had not done so, a lovely girl appeared, whose dark hair
+      next moment rested on his breast. Almost at the same instant a heavy hand
+      was laid upon her arm, Edward felt himself thrust away, and Mr Haredale
+      stood between them.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0077m.jpg" alt="0077m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0077.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      He regarded the young man sternly without removing his hat; with one hand
+      clasped his niece, and with the other, in which he held his riding-whip,
+      motioned him towards the door. The young man drew himself up, and returned
+      his gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This is well done of you, sir, to corrupt my servants, and enter my house
+      unbidden and in secret, like a thief!' said Mr Haredale. 'Leave it, sir,
+      and return no more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miss Haredale's presence,' returned the young man, 'and your relationship
+      to her, give you a licence which, if you are a brave man, you will not
+      abuse. You have compelled me to this course, and the fault is yours&mdash;not
+      mine.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is neither generous, nor honourable, nor the act of a true man, sir,'
+      retorted the other, 'to tamper with the affections of a weak, trusting
+      girl, while you shrink, in your unworthiness, from her guardian and
+      protector, and dare not meet the light of day. More than this I will not
+      say to you, save that I forbid you this house, and require you to be
+      gone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is neither generous, nor honourable, nor the act of a true man to play
+      the spy,' said Edward. 'Your words imply dishonour, and I reject them with
+      the scorn they merit.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will find,' said Mr Haredale, calmly, 'your trusty go-between in
+      waiting at the gate by which you entered. I have played no spy's part,
+      sir. I chanced to see you pass the gate, and followed. You might have
+      heard me knocking for admission, had you been less swift of foot, or
+      lingered in the garden. Please to withdraw. Your presence here is
+      offensive to me and distressful to my niece.' As he said these words, he
+      passed his arm about the waist of the terrified and weeping girl, and drew
+      her closer to him; and though the habitual severity of his manner was
+      scarcely changed, there was yet apparent in the action an air of kindness
+      and sympathy for her distress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Haredale,' said Edward, 'your arm encircles her on whom I have set my
+      every hope and thought, and to purchase one minute's happiness for whom I
+      would gladly lay down my life; this house is the casket that holds the
+      precious jewel of my existence. Your niece has plighted her faith to me,
+      and I have plighted mine to her. What have I done that you should hold me
+      in this light esteem, and give me these discourteous words?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have done that, sir,' answered Mr Haredale, 'which must be undone.
+      You have tied a lover's-knot here which must be cut asunder. Take good heed
+      of what I say. Must. I cancel the bond between ye. I reject you, and all
+      of your kith and kin&mdash;all the false, hollow, heartless stock.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'High words, sir,' said Edward, scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Words of purpose and meaning, as you will find,' replied the other. 'Lay
+      them to heart.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lay you then, these,' said Edward. 'Your cold and sullen temper, which
+      chills every breast about you, which turns affection into fear, and
+      changes duty into dread, has forced us on this secret course, repugnant to
+      our nature and our wish, and far more foreign, sir, to us than you. I am
+      not a false, a hollow, or a heartless man; the character is yours, who
+      poorly venture on these injurious terms, against the truth, and under the
+      shelter whereof I reminded you just now. You shall not cancel the bond
+      between us. I will not abandon this pursuit. I rely upon your niece's
+      truth and honour, and set your influence at nought. I leave her with a
+      confidence in her pure faith, which you will never weaken, and with no
+      concern but that I do not leave her in some gentler care.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he pressed her cold hand to his lips, and once more
+      encountering and returning Mr Haredale's steady look, withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few words to Joe as he mounted his horse sufficiently explained what had
+      passed, and renewed all that young gentleman's despondency with tenfold
+      aggravation. They rode back to the Maypole without exchanging a syllable,
+      and arrived at the door with heavy hearts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old John, who had peeped from behind the red curtain as they rode up
+      shouting for Hugh, was out directly, and said with great importance as he
+      held the young man's stirrup,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's comfortable in bed&mdash;the best bed. A thorough gentleman; the
+      smilingest, affablest gentleman I ever had to do with.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who, Willet?' said Edward carelessly, as he dismounted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your worthy father, sir,' replied John. 'Your honourable, venerable
+      father.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What does he mean?' said Edward, looking with a mixture of alarm and
+      doubt, at Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What DO you mean?' said Joe. 'Don't you see Mr Edward doesn't understand,
+      father?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, didn't you know of it, sir?' said John, opening his eyes wide. 'How
+      very singular! Bless you, he's been here ever since noon to-day, and Mr
+      Haredale has been having a long talk with him, and hasn't been gone an
+      hour.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My father, Willet!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, sir, he told me so&mdash;a handsome, slim, upright gentleman, in
+      green-and-gold. In your old room up yonder, sir. No doubt you can go in,
+      sir,' said John, walking backwards into the road and looking up at the
+      window. 'He hasn't put out his candles yet, I see.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward glanced at the window also, and hastily murmuring that he had
+      changed his mind&mdash;forgotten something&mdash;and must return to
+      London, mounted his horse again and rode away; leaving the Willets, father
+      and son, looking at each other in mute astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 15
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At noon next day, John Willet's guest sat lingering over his breakfast in
+      his own home, surrounded by a variety of comforts, which left the
+      Maypole's highest flight and utmost stretch of accommodation at an
+      infinite distance behind, and suggested comparisons very much to the
+      disadvantage and disfavour of that venerable tavern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the broad old-fashioned window-seat&mdash;as capacious as many modern
+      sofas, and cushioned to serve the purpose of a luxurious settee&mdash;in
+      the broad old-fashioned window-seat of a roomy chamber, Mr Chester
+      lounged, very much at his ease, over a well-furnished breakfast-table. He
+      had exchanged his riding-coat for a handsome morning-gown, his boots for
+      slippers; had been at great pains to atone for the having been obliged to
+      make his toilet when he rose without the aid of dressing-case and tiring
+      equipage; and, having gradually forgotten through these means the
+      discomforts of an indifferent night and an early ride, was in a state of
+      perfect complacency, indolence, and satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation in which he found himself, indeed, was particularly
+      favourable to the growth of these feelings; for, not to mention the lazy
+      influence of a late and lonely breakfast, with the additional sedative of
+      a newspaper, there was an air of repose about his place of residence
+      peculiar to itself, and which hangs about it, even in these times, when it
+      is more bustling and busy than it was in days of yore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are, still, worse places than the Temple, on a sultry day, for
+      basking in the sun, or resting idly in the shade. There is yet a
+      drowsiness in its courts, and a dreamy dulness in its trees and gardens;
+      those who pace its lanes and squares may yet hear the echoes of their
+      footsteps on the sounding stones, and read upon its gates, in passing from
+      the tumult of the Strand or Fleet Street, 'Who enters here leaves noise
+      behind.' There is still the plash of falling water in fair Fountain Court,
+      and there are yet nooks and corners where dun-haunted students may look
+      down from their dusty garrets, on a vagrant ray of sunlight patching the
+      shade of the tall houses, and seldom troubled to reflect a passing
+      stranger's form. There is yet, in the Temple, something of a clerkly
+      monkish atmosphere, which public offices of law have not disturbed, and
+      even legal firms have failed to scare away. In summer time, its pumps
+      suggest to thirsty idlers, springs cooler, and more sparkling, and deeper
+      than other wells; and as they trace the spillings of full pitchers on the
+      heated ground, they snuff the freshness, and, sighing, cast sad looks
+      towards the Thames, and think of baths and boats, and saunter on,
+      despondent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in a room in Paper Buildings&mdash;a row of goodly tenements,
+      shaded in front by ancient trees, and looking, at the back, upon the
+      Temple Gardens&mdash;that this, our idler, lounged; now taking up again
+      the paper he had laid down a hundred times; now trifling with the
+      fragments of his meal; now pulling forth his golden toothpick, and
+      glancing leisurely about the room, or out at window into the trim garden
+      walks, where a few early loiterers were already pacing to and fro. Here a
+      pair of lovers met to quarrel and make up; there a dark-eyed nursery-maid
+      had better eyes for Templars than her charge; on this hand an ancient
+      spinster, with her lapdog in a string, regarded both enormities with
+      scornful sidelong looks; on that a weazen old gentleman, ogling the
+      nursery-maid, looked with like scorn upon the spinster, and wondered she
+      didn't know she was no longer young. Apart from all these, on the river's
+      margin two or three couple of business-talkers walked slowly up and down
+      in earnest conversation; and one young man sat thoughtfully on a bench,
+      alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ned is amazingly patient!' said Mr Chester, glancing at this last-named
+      person as he set down his teacup and plied the golden toothpick,
+      'immensely patient! He was sitting yonder when I began to dress, and has
+      scarcely changed his posture since. A most eccentric dog!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the figure rose, and came towards him with a rapid pace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Really, as if he had heard me,' said the father, resuming his newspaper
+      with a yawn. 'Dear Ned!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the room-door opened, and the young man entered; to whom his
+      father gently waved his hand, and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you at leisure for a little conversation, sir?' said Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Surely, Ned. I am always at leisure. You know my constitution.&mdash;Have
+      you breakfasted?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Three hours ago.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What a very early dog!' cried his father, contemplating him from behind
+      the toothpick, with a languid smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The truth is,' said Edward, bringing a chair forward, and seating himself
+      near the table, 'that I slept but ill last night, and was glad to rise.
+      The cause of my uneasiness cannot but be known to you, sir; and it is upon
+      that I wish to speak.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear boy,' returned his father, 'confide in me, I beg. But you know my
+      constitution&mdash;don't be prosy, Ned.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will be plain, and brief,' said Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't say you will, my good fellow,' returned his father, crossing his
+      legs, 'or you certainly will not. You are going to tell me'&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Plainly this, then,' said the son, with an air of great concern, 'that I
+      know where you were last night&mdash;from being on the spot, indeed&mdash;and
+      whom you saw, and what your purpose was.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't say so!' cried his father. 'I am delighted to hear it. It saves
+      us the worry, and terrible wear and tear of a long explanation, and is a
+      great relief for both. At the very house! Why didn't you come up? I should
+      have been charmed to see you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I knew that what I had to say would be better said after a night's
+      reflection, when both of us were cool,' returned the son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ''Fore Gad, Ned,' rejoined the father, 'I was cool enough last night. That
+      detestable Maypole! By some infernal contrivance of the builder, it holds
+      the wind, and keeps it fresh. You remember the sharp east wind that blew
+      so hard five weeks ago? I give you my honour it was rampant in that old
+      house last night, though out of doors there was a dead calm. But you were
+      saying'&mdash;
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0080m.jpg" alt="0080m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0080.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'I was about to say, Heaven knows how seriously and earnestly, that you
+      have made me wretched, sir. Will you hear me gravely for a moment?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear Ned,' said his father, 'I will hear you with the patience of an
+      anchorite. Oblige me with the milk.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I saw Miss Haredale last night,' Edward resumed, when he had complied
+      with this request; 'her uncle, in her presence, immediately after your
+      interview, and, as of course I know, in consequence of it, forbade me the
+      house, and, with circumstances of indignity which are of your creation I
+      am sure, commanded me to leave it on the instant.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For his manner of doing so, I give you my honour, Ned, I am not
+      accountable,' said his father. 'That you must excuse. He is a mere boor, a
+      log, a brute, with no address in life.&mdash;Positively a fly in the jug.
+      The first I have seen this year.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward rose, and paced the room. His imperturbable parent sipped his tea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Father,' said the young man, stopping at length before him, 'we must not
+      trifle in this matter. We must not deceive each other, or ourselves. Let
+      me pursue the manly open part I wish to take, and do not repel me by this
+      unkind indifference.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Whether I am indifferent or no,' returned the other, 'I leave you, my
+      dear boy, to judge. A ride of twenty-five or thirty miles, through miry
+      roads&mdash;a Maypole dinner&mdash;a tete-a-tete with Haredale, which,
+      vanity apart, was quite a Valentine and Orson business&mdash;a Maypole bed&mdash;a
+      Maypole landlord, and a Maypole retinue of idiots and centaurs;&mdash;whether
+      the voluntary endurance of these things looks like indifference, dear Ned,
+      or like the excessive anxiety, and devotion, and all that sort of thing,
+      of a parent, you shall determine for yourself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish you to consider, sir,' said Edward, 'in what a cruel situation I
+      am placed. Loving Miss Haredale as I do'&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear fellow,' interrupted his father with a compassionate smile, 'you
+      do nothing of the kind. You don't know anything about it. There's no such
+      thing, I assure you. Now, do take my word for it. You have good sense,
+      Ned,&mdash;great good sense. I wonder you should be guilty of such amazing
+      absurdities. You really surprise me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I repeat,' said his son firmly, 'that I love her. You have interposed to
+      part us, and have, to the extent I have just now told you of, succeeded.
+      May I induce you, sir, in time, to think more favourably of our
+      attachment, or is it your intention and your fixed design to hold us
+      asunder if you can?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear Ned,' returned his father, taking a pinch of snuff and pushing
+      his box towards him, 'that is my purpose most undoubtedly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The time that has elapsed,' rejoined his son, 'since I began to know her
+      worth, has flown in such a dream that until now I have hardly once paused
+      to reflect upon my true position. What is it? From my childhood I have
+      been accustomed to luxury and idleness, and have been bred as though my
+      fortune were large, and my expectations almost without a limit. The idea
+      of wealth has been familiarised to me from my cradle. I have been taught
+      to look upon those means, by which men raise themselves to riches and
+      distinction, as being beyond my heeding, and beneath my care. I have been,
+      as the phrase is, liberally educated, and am fit for nothing. I find
+      myself at last wholly dependent upon you, with no resource but in your
+      favour. In this momentous question of my life we do not, and it would seem
+      we never can, agree. I have shrunk instinctively alike from those to whom
+      you have urged me to pay court, and from the motives of interest and gain
+      which have rendered them in your eyes visible objects for my suit. If
+      there never has been thus much plain-speaking between us before, sir, the
+      fault has not been mine, indeed. If I seem to speak too plainly now, it
+      is, believe me father, in the hope that there may be a franker spirit, a
+      worthier reliance, and a kinder confidence between us in time to come.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good fellow,' said his smiling father, 'you quite affect me. Go on, my
+      dear Edward, I beg. But remember your promise. There is great earnestness,
+      vast candour, a manifest sincerity in all you say, but I fear I observe
+      the faintest indications of a tendency to prose.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am very sorry, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am very sorry, too, Ned, but you know that I cannot fix my mind for any
+      long period upon one subject. If you'll come to the point at once, I'll
+      imagine all that ought to go before, and conclude it said. Oblige me with
+      the milk again. Listening, invariably makes me feverish.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What I would say then, tends to this,' said Edward. 'I cannot bear this
+      absolute dependence, sir, even upon you. Time has been lost and
+      opportunity thrown away, but I am yet a young man, and may retrieve it.
+      Will you give me the means of devoting such abilities and energies as I
+      possess, to some worthy pursuit? Will you let me try to make for myself an
+      honourable path in life? For any term you please to name&mdash;say for
+      five years if you will&mdash;I will pledge myself to move no further in
+      the matter of our difference without your full concurrence. During that
+      period, I will endeavour earnestly and patiently, if ever man did, to open
+      some prospect for myself, and free you from the burden you fear I should
+      become if I married one whose worth and beauty are her chief endowments.
+      Will you do this, sir? At the expiration of the term we agree upon, let us
+      discuss this subject again. Till then, unless it is revived by you, let it
+      never be renewed between us.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear Ned,' returned his father, laying down the newspaper at which he
+      had been glancing carelessly, and throwing himself back in the
+      window-seat, 'I believe you know how very much I dislike what are called
+      family affairs, which are only fit for plebeian Christmas days, and have
+      no manner of business with people of our condition. But as you are
+      proceeding upon a mistake, Ned&mdash;altogether upon a mistake&mdash;I
+      will conquer my repugnance to entering on such matters, and give you a
+      perfectly plain and candid answer, if you will do me the favour to shut
+      the door.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward having obeyed him, he took an elegant little knife from his pocket,
+      and paring his nails, continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have to thank me, Ned, for being of good family; for your mother,
+      charming person as she was, and almost broken-hearted, and so forth, as
+      she left me, when she was prematurely compelled to become immortal&mdash;had
+      nothing to boast of in that respect.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Her father was at least an eminent lawyer, sir,' said Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Quite right, Ned; perfectly so. He stood high at the bar, had a great
+      name and great wealth, but having risen from nothing&mdash;I have always
+      closed my eyes to the circumstance and steadily resisted its
+      contemplation, but I fear his father dealt in pork, and that his business
+      did once involve cow-heel and sausages&mdash;he wished to marry his
+      daughter into a good family. He had his heart's desire, Ned. I was a
+      younger son's younger son, and I married her. We each had our object, and
+      gained it. She stepped at once into the politest and best circles, and I
+      stepped into a fortune which I assure you was very necessary to my comfort&mdash;quite
+      indispensable. Now, my good fellow, that fortune is among the things that
+      have been. It is gone, Ned, and has been gone&mdash;how old are you? I
+      always forget.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Seven-and-twenty, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you indeed?' cried his father, raising his eyelids in a languishing
+      surprise. 'So much! Then I should say, Ned, that as nearly as I remember,
+      its skirts vanished from human knowledge, about eighteen or nineteen years
+      ago. It was about that time when I came to live in these chambers (once
+      your grandfather's, and bequeathed by that extremely respectable person to
+      me), and commenced to live upon an inconsiderable annuity and my past
+      reputation.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are jesting with me, sir,' said Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not in the slightest degree, I assure you,' returned his father with
+      great composure. 'These family topics are so extremely dry, that I am
+      sorry to say they don't admit of any such relief. It is for that reason,
+      and because they have an appearance of business, that I dislike them so
+      very much. Well! You know the rest. A son, Ned, unless he is old enough to
+      be a companion&mdash;that is to say, unless he is some two or three and
+      twenty&mdash;is not the kind of thing to have about one. He is a restraint
+      upon his father, his father is a restraint upon him, and they make each
+      other mutually uncomfortable. Therefore, until within the last four years
+      or so&mdash;I have a poor memory for dates, and if I mistake, you will
+      correct me in your own mind&mdash;you pursued your studies at a distance,
+      and picked up a great variety of accomplishments. Occasionally we passed a
+      week or two together here, and disconcerted each other as only such near
+      relations can. At last you came home. I candidly tell you, my dear boy,
+      that if you had been awkward and overgrown, I should have exported you to
+      some distant part of the world.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish with all my soul you had, sir,' said Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No you don't, Ned,' said his father coolly; 'you are mistaken, I assure
+      you. I found you a handsome, prepossessing, elegant fellow, and I threw
+      you into the society I can still command. Having done that, my dear
+      fellow, I consider that I have provided for you in life, and rely upon
+      your doing something to provide for me in return.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I do not understand your meaning, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My meaning, Ned, is obvious&mdash;I observe another fly in the cream-jug,
+      but have the goodness not to take it out as you did the first, for their
+      walk when their legs are milky, is extremely ungraceful and disagreeable&mdash;my
+      meaning is, that you must do as I did; that you must marry well and make
+      the most of yourself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A mere fortune-hunter!' cried the son, indignantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What in the devil's name, Ned, would you be!' returned the father. 'All
+      men are fortune-hunters, are they not? The law, the church, the court, the
+      camp&mdash;see how they are all crowded with fortune-hunters, jostling
+      each other in the pursuit. The stock-exchange, the pulpit, the
+      counting-house, the royal drawing-room, the senate,&mdash;what but
+      fortune-hunters are they filled with? A fortune-hunter! Yes. You ARE one;
+      and you would be nothing else, my dear Ned, if you were the greatest
+      courtier, lawyer, legislator, prelate, or merchant, in existence. If you
+      are squeamish and moral, Ned, console yourself with the reflection that at
+      the very worst your fortune-hunting can make but one person miserable or
+      unhappy. How many people do you suppose these other kinds of huntsmen
+      crush in following their sport&mdash;hundreds at a step? Or thousands?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man leant his head upon his hand, and made no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am quite charmed,' said the father rising, and walking slowly to and
+      fro&mdash;stopping now and then to glance at himself in the mirror, or
+      survey a picture through his glass, with the air of a connoisseur, 'that
+      we have had this conversation, Ned, unpromising as it was. It establishes
+      a confidence between us which is quite delightful, and was certainly
+      necessary, though how you can ever have mistaken our positions and
+      designs, I confess I cannot understand. I conceived, until I found your
+      fancy for this girl, that all these points were tacitly agreed upon
+      between us.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I knew you were embarrassed, sir,' returned the son, raising his head for
+      a moment, and then falling into his former attitude, 'but I had no idea we
+      were the beggared wretches you describe. How could I suppose it, bred as I
+      have been; witnessing the life you have always led; and the appearance you
+      have always made?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear child,' said the father&mdash;'for you really talk so like a
+      child that I must call you one&mdash;you were bred upon a careful
+      principle; the very manner of your education, I assure you, maintained my
+      credit surprisingly. As to the life I lead, I must lead it, Ned. I must
+      have these little refinements about me. I have always been used to them,
+      and I cannot exist without them. They must surround me, you observe, and
+      therefore they are here. With regard to our circumstances, Ned, you may
+      set your mind at rest upon that score. They are desperate. Your own
+      appearance is by no means despicable, and our joint pocket-money alone
+      devours our income. That's the truth.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why have I never known this before? Why have you encouraged me, sir, to
+      an expenditure and mode of life to which we have no right or title?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good fellow,' returned his father more compassionately than ever, 'if
+      you made no appearance, how could you possibly succeed in the pursuit for
+      which I destined you? As to our mode of life, every man has a right to
+      live in the best way he can; and to make himself as comfortable as he can,
+      or he is an unnatural scoundrel. Our debts, I grant, are very great, and
+      therefore it the more behoves you, as a young man of principle and honour,
+      to pay them off as speedily as possible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The villain's part,' muttered Edward, 'that I have unconsciously played!
+      I to win the heart of Emma Haredale! I would, for her sake, I had died
+      first!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am glad you see, Ned,' returned his father, 'how perfectly self-evident
+      it is, that nothing can be done in that quarter. But apart from this, and
+      the necessity of your speedily bestowing yourself on another (as you know
+      you could to-morrow, if you chose), I wish you'd look upon it pleasantly.
+      In a religious point of view alone, how could you ever think of uniting
+      yourself to a Catholic, unless she was amazingly rich? You ought to be so
+      very Protestant, coming of such a Protestant family as you do. Let us be
+      moral, Ned, or we are nothing. Even if one could set that objection aside,
+      which is impossible, we come to another which is quite conclusive. The
+      very idea of marrying a girl whose father was killed, like meat! Good God,
+      Ned, how disagreeable! Consider the impossibility of having any respect
+      for your father-in-law under such unpleasant circumstances&mdash;think of
+      his having been "viewed" by jurors, and "sat upon" by coroners, and of his
+      very doubtful position in the family ever afterwards. It seems to me such
+      an indelicate sort of thing that I really think the girl ought to have
+      been put to death by the state to prevent its happening. But I tease you
+      perhaps. You would rather be alone? My dear Ned, most willingly. God bless
+      you. I shall be going out presently, but we shall meet to-night, or if not
+      to-night, certainly to-morrow. Take care of yourself in the mean time, for
+      both our sakes. You are a person of great consequence to me, Ned&mdash;of
+      vast consequence indeed. God bless you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words, the father, who had been arranging his cravat in the
+      glass, while he uttered them in a disconnected careless manner, withdrew,
+      humming a tune as he went. The son, who had appeared so lost in thought as
+      not to hear or understand them, remained quite still and silent. After the
+      lapse of half an hour or so, the elder Chester, gaily dressed, went out.
+      The younger still sat with his head resting on his hands, in what appeared
+      to be a kind of stupor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 16
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A series of pictures representing the streets of London in the night, even
+      at the comparatively recent date of this tale, would present to the eye
+      something so very different in character from the reality which is
+      witnessed in these times, that it would be difficult for the beholder to
+      recognise his most familiar walks in the altered aspect of little more
+      than half a century ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were, one and all, from the broadest and best to the narrowest and
+      least frequented, very dark. The oil and cotton lamps, though regularly
+      trimmed twice or thrice in the long winter nights, burnt feebly at the
+      best; and at a late hour, when they were unassisted by the lamps and
+      candles in the shops, cast but a narrow track of doubtful light upon the
+      footway, leaving the projecting doors and house-fronts in the deepest
+      gloom. Many of the courts and lanes were left in total darkness; those of
+      the meaner sort, where one glimmering light twinkled for a score of
+      houses, being favoured in no slight degree. Even in these places, the
+      inhabitants had often good reason for extinguishing their lamp as soon as
+      it was lighted; and the watch being utterly inefficient and powerless to
+      prevent them, they did so at their pleasure. Thus, in the lightest
+      thoroughfares, there was at every turn some obscure and dangerous spot
+      whither a thief might fly or shelter, and few would care to follow; and
+      the city being belted round by fields, green lanes, waste grounds, and
+      lonely roads, dividing it at that time from the suburbs that have joined
+      it since, escape, even where the pursuit was hot, was rendered easy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is no wonder that with these favouring circumstances in full and
+      constant operation, street robberies, often accompanied by cruel wounds,
+      and not unfrequently by loss of life, should have been of nightly
+      occurrence in the very heart of London, or that quiet folks should have
+      had great dread of traversing its streets after the shops were closed. It
+      was not unusual for those who wended home alone at midnight, to keep the
+      middle of the road, the better to guard against surprise from lurking
+      footpads; few would venture to repair at a late hour to Kentish Town or
+      Hampstead, or even to Kensington or Chelsea, unarmed and unattended; while
+      he who had been loudest and most valiant at the supper-table or the
+      tavern, and had but a mile or so to go, was glad to fee a link-boy to
+      escort him home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were many other characteristics&mdash;not quite so disagreeable&mdash;about
+      the thoroughfares of London then, with which they had been long familiar.
+      Some of the shops, especially those to the eastward of Temple Bar, still
+      adhered to the old practice of hanging out a sign; and the creaking and
+      swinging of these boards in their iron frames on windy nights, formed a
+      strange and mournful concert for the ears of those who lay awake in bed or
+      hurried through the streets. Long stands of hackney-chairs and groups of
+      chairmen, compared with whom the coachmen of our day are gentle and
+      polite, obstructed the way and filled the air with clamour; night-cellars,
+      indicated by a little stream of light crossing the pavement, and
+      stretching out half-way into the road, and by the stifled roar of voices
+      from below, yawned for the reception and entertainment of the most
+      abandoned of both sexes; under every shed and bulk small groups of
+      link-boys gamed away the earnings of the day; or one more weary than the
+      rest, gave way to sleep, and let the fragment of his torch fall hissing on
+      the puddled ground.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0084m.jpg" alt="0084m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0084.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Then there was the watch with staff and lantern crying the hour, and the
+      kind of weather; and those who woke up at his voice and turned them round
+      in bed, were glad to hear it rained, or snowed, or blew, or froze, for
+      very comfort's sake. The solitary passenger was startled by the chairmen's
+      cry of 'By your leave there!' as two came trotting past him with their
+      empty vehicle&mdash;carried backwards to show its being disengaged&mdash;and
+      hurried to the nearest stand. Many a private chair, too, inclosing some
+      fine lady, monstrously hooped and furbelowed, and preceded by
+      running-footmen bearing flambeaux&mdash;for which extinguishers are yet
+      suspended before the doors of a few houses of the better sort&mdash;made
+      the way gay and light as it danced along, and darker and more dismal when
+      it had passed. It was not unusual for these running gentry, who carried it
+      with a very high hand, to quarrel in the servants' hall while waiting for
+      their masters and mistresses; and, falling to blows either there or in the
+      street without, to strew the place of skirmish with hair-powder, fragments
+      of bag-wigs, and scattered nosegays. Gaming, the vice which ran so high
+      among all classes (the fashion being of course set by the upper), was
+      generally the cause of these disputes; for cards and dice were as openly
+      used, and worked as much mischief, and yielded as much excitement below
+      stairs, as above. While incidents like these, arising out of drums and
+      masquerades and parties at quadrille, were passing at the west end of the
+      town, heavy stagecoaches and scarce heavier waggons were lumbering slowly
+      towards the city, the coachmen, guard, and passengers, armed to the teeth,
+      and the coach&mdash;a day or so perhaps behind its time, but that was
+      nothing&mdash;despoiled by highwaymen; who made no scruple to attack,
+      alone and single-handed, a whole caravan of goods and men, and sometimes
+      shot a passenger or two, and were sometimes shot themselves, as the case
+      might be. On the morrow, rumours of this new act of daring on the road
+      yielded matter for a few hours' conversation through the town, and a
+      Public Progress of some fine gentleman (half-drunk) to Tyburn, dressed in
+      the newest fashion, and damning the ordinary with unspeakable gallantry
+      and grace, furnished to the populace, at once a pleasant excitement and a
+      wholesome and profound example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among all the dangerous characters who, in such a state of society,
+      prowled and skulked in the metropolis at night, there was one man from
+      whom many as uncouth and fierce as he, shrunk with an involuntary dread.
+      Who he was, or whence he came, was a question often asked, but which none
+      could answer. His name was unknown, he had never been seen until within
+      about eight days or thereabouts, and was equally a stranger to the old
+      ruffians, upon whose haunts he ventured fearlessly, as to the young. He
+      could be no spy, for he never removed his slouched hat to look about him,
+      entered into conversation with no man, heeded nothing that passed,
+      listened to no discourse, regarded nobody that came or went. But so surely
+      as the dead of night set in, so surely this man was in the midst of the
+      loose concourse in the night-cellar where outcasts of every grade
+      resorted; and there he sat till morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not only a spectre at their licentious feasts; a something in the
+      midst of their revelry and riot that chilled and haunted them; but out of
+      doors he was the same. Directly it was dark, he was abroad&mdash;never in
+      company with any one, but always alone; never lingering or loitering, but
+      always walking swiftly; and looking (so they said who had seen him) over
+      his shoulder from time to time, and as he did so quickening his pace. In
+      the fields, the lanes, the roads, in all quarters of the town&mdash;east,
+      west, north, and south&mdash;that man was seen gliding on like a shadow.
+      He was always hurrying away. Those who encountered him, saw him steal
+      past, caught sight of the backward glance, and so lost him in the
+      darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This constant restlessness, and flitting to and fro, gave rise to strange
+      stories. He was seen in such distant and remote places, at times so nearly
+      tallying with each other, that some doubted whether there were not two of
+      them, or more&mdash;some, whether he had not unearthly means of travelling
+      from spot to spot. The footpad hiding in a ditch had marked him passing
+      like a ghost along its brink; the vagrant had met him on the dark
+      high-road; the beggar had seen him pause upon the bridge to look down at
+      the water, and then sweep on again; they who dealt in bodies with the
+      surgeons could swear he slept in churchyards, and that they had beheld him
+      glide away among the tombs on their approach. And as they told these
+      stories to each other, one who had looked about him would pull his
+      neighbour by the sleeve, and there he would be among them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, one man&mdash;he was one of those whose commerce lay among the
+      graves&mdash;resolved to question this strange companion. Next night, when
+      he had eat his poor meal voraciously (he was accustomed to do that, they
+      had observed, as though he had no other in the day), this fellow sat down
+      at his elbow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A black night, master!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is a black night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Blacker than last, though that was pitchy too. Didn't I pass you near the
+      turnpike in the Oxford Road?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's like you may. I don't know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come, come, master,' cried the fellow, urged on by the looks of his
+      comrades, and slapping him on the shoulder; 'be more companionable and
+      communicative. Be more the gentleman in this good company. There are tales
+      among us that you have sold yourself to the devil, and I know not what.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We all have, have we not?' returned the stranger, looking up. 'If we were
+      fewer in number, perhaps he would give better wages.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It goes rather hard with you, indeed,' said the fellow, as the stranger
+      disclosed his haggard unwashed face, and torn clothes. 'What of that? Be
+      merry, master. A stave of a roaring song now'&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sing you, if you desire to hear one,' replied the other, shaking him
+      roughly off; 'and don't touch me if you're a prudent man; I carry arms
+      which go off easily&mdash;they have done so, before now&mdash;and make it
+      dangerous for strangers who don't know the trick of them, to lay hands
+      upon me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you threaten?' said the fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' returned the other, rising and turning upon him, and looking
+      fiercely round as if in apprehension of a general attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice, and look, and bearing&mdash;all expressive of the wildest
+      recklessness and desperation&mdash;daunted while they repelled the
+      bystanders. Although in a very different sphere of action now, they were
+      not without much of the effect they had wrought at the Maypole Inn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am what you all are, and live as you all do,' said the man sternly,
+      after a short silence. 'I am in hiding here like the rest, and if we were
+      surprised would perhaps do my part with the best of ye. If it's my humour
+      to be left to myself, let me have it. Otherwise,'&mdash;and here he swore
+      a tremendous oath&mdash;'there'll be mischief done in this place, though
+      there ARE odds of a score against me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A low murmur, having its origin perhaps in a dread of the man and the
+      mystery that surrounded him, or perhaps in a sincere opinion on the part
+      of some of those present, that it would be an inconvenient precedent to
+      meddle too curiously with a gentleman's private affairs if he saw reason
+      to conceal them, warned the fellow who had occasioned this discussion that
+      he had best pursue it no further. After a short time the strange man lay
+      down upon a bench to sleep, and when they thought of him again, they found
+      he was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next night, as soon as it was dark, he was abroad again and traversing the
+      streets; he was before the locksmith's house more than once, but the
+      family were out, and it was close shut. This night he crossed London
+      Bridge and passed into Southwark. As he glided down a bye street, a woman
+      with a little basket on her arm, turned into it at the other end. Directly
+      he observed her, he sought the shelter of an archway, and stood aside
+      until she had passed. Then he emerged cautiously from his hiding-place,
+      and followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She went into several shops to purchase various kinds of household
+      necessaries, and round every place at which she stopped he hovered like
+      her evil spirit; following her when she reappeared. It was nigh eleven
+      o'clock, and the passengers in the streets were thinning fast, when she
+      turned, doubtless to go home. The phantom still followed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned into the same bye street in which he had seen her first, which,
+      being free from shops, and narrow, was extremely dark. She quickened her
+      pace here, as though distrustful of being stopped, and robbed of such
+      trifling property as she carried with her. He crept along on the other
+      side of the road. Had she been gifted with the speed of wind, it seemed as
+      if his terrible shadow would have tracked her down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the widow&mdash;for she it was&mdash;reached her own door, and,
+      panting for breath, paused to take the key from her basket. In a flush and
+      glow, with the haste she had made, and the pleasure of being safe at home,
+      she stooped to draw it out, when, raising her head, she saw him standing
+      silently beside her: the apparition of a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His hand was on her mouth, but that was needless, for her tongue clove to
+      its roof, and her power of utterance was gone. 'I have been looking for
+      you many nights. Is the house empty? Answer me. Is any one inside?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She could only answer by a rattle in her throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Make me a sign.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She seemed to indicate that there was no one there. He took the key,
+      unlocked the door, carried her in, and secured it carefully behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 17
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was a chilly night, and the fire in the widow's parlour had burnt low.
+      Her strange companion placed her in a chair, and stooping down before the
+      half-extinguished ashes, raked them together and fanned them with his hat.
+      From time to time he glanced at her over his shoulder, as though to assure
+      himself of her remaining quiet and making no effort to depart; and that
+      done, busied himself about the fire again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not without reason that he took these pains, for his dress was dank
+      and drenched with wet, his jaws rattled with cold, and he shivered from
+      head to foot. It had rained hard during the previous night and for some
+      hours in the morning, but since noon it had been fine. Wheresoever he had
+      passed the hours of darkness, his condition sufficiently betokened that
+      many of them had been spent beneath the open sky. Besmeared with mire; his
+      saturated clothes clinging with a damp embrace about his limbs; his beard
+      unshaven, his face unwashed, his meagre cheeks worn into deep hollows,&mdash;a
+      more miserable wretch could hardly be, than this man who now cowered down
+      upon the widow's hearth, and watched the struggling flame with bloodshot
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had covered her face with her hands, fearing, as it seemed, to look
+      towards him. So they remained for some short time in silence. Glancing
+      round again, he asked at length:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is this your house?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is. Why, in the name of Heaven, do you darken it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Give me meat and drink,' he answered sullenly, 'or I dare do more than
+      that. The very marrow in my bones is cold, with wet and hunger. I must
+      have warmth and food, and I will have them here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You were the robber on the Chigwell road.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I was.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And nearly a murderer then.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The will was not wanting. There was one came upon me and raised the
+      hue-and-cry', that it would have gone hard with, but for his nimbleness. I
+      made a thrust at him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You thrust your sword at HIM!' cried the widow, looking upwards. 'You
+      hear this man! you hear and saw!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her, as, with her head thrown back, and her hands tight
+      clenched together, she uttered these words in an agony of appeal. Then,
+      starting to his feet as she had done, he advanced towards her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Beware!' she cried in a suppressed voice, whose firmness stopped him
+      midway. 'Do not so much as touch me with a finger, or you are lost; body
+      and soul, you are lost.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hear me,' he replied, menacing her with his hand. 'I, that in the form of
+      a man live the life of a hunted beast; that in the body am a spirit, a
+      ghost upon the earth, a thing from which all creatures shrink, save those
+      curst beings of another world, who will not leave me;&mdash;I am, in my
+      desperation of this night, past all fear but that of the hell in which I
+      exist from day to day. Give the alarm, cry out, refuse to shelter me. I
+      will not hurt you. But I will not be taken alive; and so surely as you
+      threaten me above your breath, I fall a dead man on this floor. The blood
+      with which I sprinkle it, be on you and yours, in the name of the Evil
+      Spirit that tempts men to their ruin!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, he took a pistol from his breast, and firmly clutched it in
+      his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Remove this man from me, good Heaven!' cried the widow. 'In thy grace and
+      mercy, give him one minute's penitence, and strike him dead!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It has no such purpose,' he said, confronting her. 'It is deaf. Give me
+      to eat and drink, lest I do that it cannot help my doing, and will not do
+      for you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will you leave me, if I do thus much? Will you leave me and return no
+      more?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will promise nothing,' he rejoined, seating himself at the table,
+      'nothing but this&mdash;I will execute my threat if you betray me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She rose at length, and going to a closet or pantry in the room, brought
+      out some fragments of cold meat and bread and put them on the table. He
+      asked for brandy, and for water. These she produced likewise; and he ate
+      and drank with the voracity of a famished hound. All the time he was so
+      engaged she kept at the uttermost distance of the chamber, and sat there
+      shuddering, but with her face towards him. She never turned her back upon
+      him once; and although when she passed him (as she was obliged to do in
+      going to and from the cupboard) she gathered the skirts of her garment
+      about her, as if even its touching his by chance were horrible to think
+      of, still, in the midst of all this dread and terror, she kept her face
+      towards his own, and watched his every movement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His repast ended&mdash;if that can be called one, which was a mere
+      ravenous satisfying of the calls of hunger&mdash;he moved his chair
+      towards the fire again, and warming himself before the blaze which had now
+      sprung brightly up, accosted her once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am an outcast, to whom a roof above his head is often an uncommon
+      luxury, and the food a beggar would reject is delicate fare. You live here
+      at your ease. Do you live alone?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I do not,' she made answer with an effort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who dwells here besides?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'One&mdash;it is no matter who. You had best begone, or he may find you
+      here. Why do you linger?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For warmth,' he replied, spreading out his hands before the fire. 'For
+      warmth. You are rich, perhaps?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very,' she said faintly. 'Very rich. No doubt I am very rich.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At least you are not penniless. You have some money. You were making
+      purchases to-night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have a little left. It is but a few shillings.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Give me your purse. You had it in your hand at the door. Give it to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stepped to the table and laid it down. He reached across, took it up,
+      and told the contents into his hand. As he was counting them, she listened
+      for a moment, and sprung towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Take what there is, take all, take more if more were there, but go before
+      it is too late. I have heard a wayward step without, I know full well. It
+      will return directly. Begone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What do you mean?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do not stop to ask. I will not answer. Much as I dread to touch you, I
+      would drag you to the door if I possessed the strength, rather than you
+      should lose an instant. Miserable wretch! fly from this place.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If there are spies without, I am safer here,' replied the man, standing
+      aghast. 'I will remain here, and will not fly till the danger is past.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is too late!' cried the widow, who had listened for the step, and not
+      to him. 'Hark to that foot upon the ground. Do you tremble to hear it! It
+      is my son, my idiot son!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she said this wildly, there came a heavy knocking at the door. He
+      looked at her, and she at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let him come in,' said the man, hoarsely. 'I fear him less than the dark,
+      houseless night. He knocks again. Let him come in!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The dread of this hour,' returned the widow, 'has been upon me all my
+      life, and I will not. Evil will fall upon him, if you stand eye to eye. My
+      blighted boy! Oh! all good angels who know the truth&mdash;hear a poor
+      mother's prayer, and spare my boy from knowledge of this man!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He rattles at the shutters!' cried the man. 'He calls you. That voice and
+      cry! It was he who grappled with me in the road. Was it he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had sunk upon her knees, and so knelt down, moving her lips, but
+      uttering no sound. As he gazed upon her, uncertain what to do or where to
+      turn, the shutters flew open. He had barely time to catch a knife from the
+      table, sheathe it in the loose sleeve of his coat, hide in the closet, and
+      do all with the lightning's speed, when Barnaby tapped at the bare glass,
+      and raised the sash exultingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, who can keep out Grip and me!' he cried, thrusting in his head, and
+      staring round the room. 'Are you there, mother? How long you keep us from
+      the fire and light.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stammered some excuse and tendered him her hand. But Barnaby sprung
+      lightly in without assistance, and putting his arms about her neck, kissed
+      her a hundred times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We have been afield, mother&mdash;leaping ditches, scrambling through
+      hedges, running down steep banks, up and away, and hurrying on. The wind
+      has been blowing, and the rushes and young plants bowing and bending to
+      it, lest it should do them harm, the cowards&mdash;and Grip&mdash;ha ha
+      ha!&mdash;brave Grip, who cares for nothing, and when the wind rolls him
+      over in the dust, turns manfully to bite it&mdash;Grip, bold Grip, has
+      quarrelled with every little bowing twig&mdash;thinking, he told me, that
+      it mocked him&mdash;and has worried it like a bulldog. Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven, in his little basket at his master's back, hearing this
+      frequent mention of his name in a tone of exultation, expressed his
+      sympathy by crowing like a cock, and afterwards running over his various
+      phrases of speech with such rapidity, and in so many varieties of
+      hoarseness, that they sounded like the murmurs of a crowd of people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He takes such care of me besides!' said Barnaby. 'Such care, mother! He
+      watches all the time I sleep, and when I shut my eyes and make-believe to
+      slumber, he practises new learning softly; but he keeps his eye on me the
+      while, and if he sees me laugh, though never so little, stops directly. He
+      won't surprise me till he's perfect.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven crowed again in a rapturous manner which plainly said, 'Those
+      are certainly some of my characteristics, and I glory in them.' In the
+      meantime, Barnaby closed the window and secured it, and coming to the
+      fireplace, prepared to sit down with his face to the closet. But his
+      mother prevented this, by hastily taking that side herself, and motioning
+      him towards the other.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0089m.jpg" alt="0089m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0089.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'How pale you are to-night!' said Barnaby, leaning on his stick. 'We have
+      been cruel, Grip, and made her anxious!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxious in good truth, and sick at heart! The listener held the door of
+      his hiding-place open with his hand, and closely watched her son. Grip&mdash;alive
+      to everything his master was unconscious of&mdash;had his head out of the
+      basket, and in return was watching him intently with his glistening eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He flaps his wings,' said Barnaby, turning almost quickly enough to catch
+      the retreating form and closing door, 'as if there were strangers here,
+      but Grip is wiser than to fancy that. Jump then!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accepting this invitation with a dignity peculiar to himself, the bird
+      hopped up on his master's shoulder, from that to his extended hand, and so
+      to the ground. Barnaby unstrapping the basket and putting it down in a
+      corner with the lid open, Grip's first care was to shut it down with all
+      possible despatch, and then to stand upon it. Believing, no doubt, that he
+      had now rendered it utterly impossible, and beyond the power of mortal
+      man, to shut him up in it any more, he drew a great many corks in triumph,
+      and uttered a corresponding number of hurrahs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mother!' said Barnaby, laying aside his hat and stick, and returning to
+      the chair from which he had risen, 'I'll tell you where we have been
+      to-day, and what we have been doing,&mdash;shall I?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took his hand in hers, and holding it, nodded the word she could not
+      speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You mustn't tell,' said Barnaby, holding up his finger, 'for it's a
+      secret, mind, and only known to me, and Grip, and Hugh. We had the dog
+      with us, but he's not like Grip, clever as he is, and doesn't guess it
+      yet, I'll wager.&mdash;Why do you look behind me so?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did I?' she answered faintly. 'I didn't know I did. Come nearer me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are frightened!' said Barnaby, changing colour. 'Mother&mdash;you
+      don't see'&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'See what?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's&mdash;there's none of this about, is there?' he answered in a
+      whisper, drawing closer to her and clasping the mark upon his wrist. 'I am
+      afraid there is, somewhere. You make my hair stand on end, and my flesh
+      creep. Why do you look like that? Is it in the room as I have seen it in
+      my dreams, dashing the ceiling and the walls with red? Tell me. Is it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He fell into a shivering fit as he put the question, and shutting out the
+      light with his hands, sat shaking in every limb until it had passed away.
+      After a time, he raised his head and looked about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is it gone?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There has been nothing here,' rejoined his mother, soothing him. 'Nothing
+      indeed, dear Barnaby. Look! You see there are but you and me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at her vacantly, and, becoming reassured by degrees, burst into a
+      wild laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But let us see,' he said, thoughtfully. 'Were we talking? Was it you and
+      me? Where have we been?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nowhere but here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Aye, but Hugh, and I,' said Barnaby,&mdash;'that's it. Maypole Hugh, and
+      I, you know, and Grip&mdash;we have been lying in the forest, and among
+      the trees by the road side, with a dark lantern after night came on, and
+      the dog in a noose ready to slip him when the man came by.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What man?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The robber; him that the stars winked at. We have waited for him after
+      dark these many nights, and we shall have him. I'd know him in a thousand.
+      Mother, see here! This is the man. Look!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He twisted his handkerchief round his head, pulled his hat upon his brow,
+      wrapped his coat about him, and stood up before her: so like the original
+      he counterfeited, that the dark figure peering out behind him might have
+      passed for his own shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha ha! We shall have him,' he cried, ridding himself of the semblance
+      as hastily as he had assumed it. 'You shall see him, mother, bound hand
+      and foot, and brought to London at a saddle-girth; and you shall hear of
+      him at Tyburn Tree if we have luck. So Hugh says. You're pale again, and
+      trembling. And why DO you look behind me so?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is nothing,' she answered. 'I am not quite well. Go you to bed, dear,
+      and leave me here.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0091m.jpg" alt="0091m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0091.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'To bed!' he answered. 'I don't like bed. I like to lie before the fire,
+      watching the prospects in the burning coals&mdash;the rivers, hills, and
+      dells, in the deep, red sunset, and the wild faces. I am hungry too, and
+      Grip has eaten nothing since broad noon. Let us to supper. Grip! To
+      supper, lad!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven flapped his wings, and, croaking his satisfaction, hopped to the
+      feet of his master, and there held his bill open, ready for snapping up
+      such lumps of meat as he should throw him. Of these he received about a
+      score in rapid succession, without the smallest discomposure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's all,' said Barnaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'More!' cried Grip. 'More!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it appearing for a certainty that no more was to be had, he retreated
+      with his store; and disgorging the morsels one by one from his pouch, hid
+      them in various corners&mdash;taking particular care, however, to avoid
+      the closet, as being doubtful of the hidden man's propensities and power
+      of resisting temptation. When he had concluded these arrangements, he took
+      a turn or two across the room with an elaborate assumption of having
+      nothing on his mind (but with one eye hard upon his treasure all the
+      time), and then, and not till then, began to drag it out, piece by piece,
+      and eat it with the utmost relish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby, for his part, having pressed his mother to eat in vain, made a
+      hearty supper too. Once during the progress of his meal, he wanted more
+      bread from the closet and rose to get it. She hurriedly interposed to
+      prevent him, and summoning her utmost fortitude, passed into the recess,
+      and brought it out herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mother,' said Barnaby, looking at her steadfastly as she sat down beside
+      him after doing so; 'is to-day my birthday?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To-day!' she answered. 'Don't you recollect it was but a week or so ago,
+      and that summer, autumn, and winter have to pass before it comes again?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I remember that it has been so till now,' said Barnaby. 'But I think
+      to-day must be my birthday too, for all that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She asked him why? 'I'll tell you why,' he said. 'I have always seen you&mdash;I
+      didn't let you know it, but I have&mdash;on the evening of that day grow
+      very sad. I have seen you cry when Grip and I were most glad; and look
+      frightened with no reason; and I have touched your hand, and felt that it
+      was cold&mdash;as it is now. Once, mother (on a birthday that was, also),
+      Grip and I thought of this after we went upstairs to bed, and when it was
+      midnight, striking one o'clock, we came down to your door to see if you
+      were well. You were on your knees. I forget what it was you said. Grip,
+      what was it we heard her say that night?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm a devil!' rejoined the raven promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no,' said Barnaby. 'But you said something in a prayer; and when you
+      rose and walked about, you looked (as you have done ever since, mother,
+      towards night on my birthday) just as you do now. I have found that out,
+      you see, though I am silly. So I say you're wrong; and this must be my
+      birthday&mdash;my birthday, Grip!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bird received this information with a crow of such duration as a cock,
+      gifted with intelligence beyond all others of his kind, might usher in the
+      longest day with. Then, as if he had well considered the sentiment, and
+      regarded it as apposite to birthdays, he cried, 'Never say die!' a great
+      many times, and flapped his wings for emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow tried to make light of Barnaby's remark, and endeavoured to
+      divert his attention to some new subject; too easy a task at all times, as
+      she knew. His supper done, Barnaby, regardless of her entreaties,
+      stretched himself on the mat before the fire; Grip perched upon his leg,
+      and divided his time between dozing in the grateful warmth, and
+      endeavouring (as it presently appeared) to recall a new accomplishment he
+      had been studying all day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long and profound silence ensued, broken only by some change of position
+      on the part of Barnaby, whose eyes were still wide open and intently fixed
+      upon the fire; or by an effort of recollection on the part of Grip, who
+      would cry in a low voice from time to time, 'Polly put the ket&mdash;' and
+      there stop short, forgetting the remainder, and go off in a doze again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long interval, Barnaby's breathing grew more deep and regular, and
+      his eyes were closed. But even then the unquiet spirit of the raven
+      interposed. 'Polly put the ket&mdash;' cried Grip, and his master was
+      broad awake again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length Barnaby slept soundly, and the bird with his bill sunk upon his
+      breast, his breast itself puffed out into a comfortable alderman-like
+      form, and his bright eye growing smaller and smaller, really seemed to be
+      subsiding into a state of repose. Now and then he muttered in a sepulchral
+      voice, 'Polly put the ket&mdash;' but very drowsily, and more like a
+      drunken man than a reflecting raven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow, scarcely venturing to breathe, rose from her seat. The man
+      glided from the closet, and extinguished the candle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;tle on,' cried Grip, suddenly struck with an idea and very much
+      excited. '&mdash;tle on. Hurrah! Polly put the ket-tle on, we'll all have
+      tea; Polly put the ket-tle on, we'll all have tea. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!
+      I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a ket-tle on, Keep up your spirits, Never
+      say die, Bow, wow, wow, I'm a devil, I'm a ket-tle, I'm a&mdash;Polly put
+      the ket-tle on, we'll all have tea.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stood rooted to the ground, as though it had been a voice from the
+      grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even this failed to awaken the sleeper. He turned over towards the
+      fire, his arm fell to the ground, and his head drooped heavily upon it.
+      The widow and her unwelcome visitor gazed at him and at each other for a
+      moment, and then she motioned him towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stay,' he whispered. 'You teach your son well.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have taught him nothing that you heard to-night. Depart instantly, or I
+      will rouse him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are free to do so. Shall I rouse him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You dare not do that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I dare do anything, I have told you. He knows me well, it seems. At least
+      I will know him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Would you kill him in his sleep?' cried the widow, throwing herself
+      between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Woman,' he returned between his teeth, as he motioned her aside, 'I would
+      see him nearer, and I will. If you want one of us to kill the other, wake
+      him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he advanced, and bending down over the prostrate form, softly
+      turned back the head and looked into the face. The light of the fire was
+      upon it, and its every lineament was revealed distinctly. He contemplated
+      it for a brief space, and hastily uprose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Observe,' he whispered in the widow's ear: 'In him, of whose existence I
+      was ignorant until to-night, I have you in my power. Be careful how you
+      use me. Be careful how you use me. I am destitute and starving, and a
+      wanderer upon the earth. I may take a sure and slow revenge.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is some dreadful meaning in your words. I do not fathom it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is a meaning in them, and I see you fathom it to its very depth.
+      You have anticipated it for years; you have told me as much. I leave you
+      to digest it. Do not forget my warning.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pointed, as he left her, to the slumbering form, and stealthily
+      withdrawing, made his way into the street. She fell on her knees beside
+      the sleeper, and remained like one stricken into stone, until the tears
+      which fear had frozen so long, came tenderly to her relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh Thou,' she cried, 'who hast taught me such deep love for this one
+      remnant of the promise of a happy life, out of whose affliction, even,
+      perhaps the comfort springs that he is ever a relying, loving child to me&mdash;never
+      growing old or cold at heart, but needing my care and duty in his manly
+      strength as in his cradle-time&mdash;help him, in his darkened walk
+      through this sad world, or he is doomed, and my poor heart is broken!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 18
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Gliding along the silent streets, and holding his course where they were
+      darkest and most gloomy, the man who had left the widow's house crossed
+      London Bridge, and arriving in the City, plunged into the backways, lanes,
+      and courts, between Cornhill and Smithfield; with no more fixedness of
+      purpose than to lose himself among their windings, and baffle pursuit, if
+      any one were dogging his steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the dead time of the night, and all was quiet. Now and then a
+      drowsy watchman's footsteps sounded on the pavement, or the lamplighter on
+      his rounds went flashing past, leaving behind a little track of smoke
+      mingled with glowing morsels of his hot red link. He hid himself even from
+      these partakers of his lonely walk, and, shrinking in some arch or doorway
+      while they passed, issued forth again when they were gone and so pursued
+      his solitary way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and
+      watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the
+      falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or
+      rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things&mdash;but not so
+      dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and
+      sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature. To pace the
+      echoing stones from hour to hour, counting the dull chimes of the clocks;
+      to watch the lights twinkling in chamber windows, to think what happy
+      forgetfulness each house shuts in; that here are children coiled together
+      in their beds, here youth, here age, here poverty, here wealth, all equal
+      in their sleep, and all at rest; to have nothing in common with the
+      slumbering world around, not even sleep, Heaven's gift to all its
+      creatures, and be akin to nothing but despair; to feel, by the wretched
+      contrast with everything on every hand, more utterly alone and cast away
+      than in a trackless desert; this is a kind of suffering, on which the
+      rivers of great cities close full many a time, and which the solitude in
+      crowds alone awakens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The miserable man paced up and down the streets&mdash;so long, so
+      wearisome, so like each other&mdash;and often cast a wistful look towards
+      the east, hoping to see the first faint streaks of day. But obdurate night
+      had yet possession of the sky, and his disturbed and restless walk found
+      no relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One house in a back street was bright with the cheerful glare of lights;
+      there was the sound of music in it too, and the tread of dancers, and
+      there were cheerful voices, and many a burst of laughter. To this place&mdash;to
+      be near something that was awake and glad&mdash;he returned again and
+      again; and more than one of those who left it when the merriment was at
+      its height, felt it a check upon their mirthful mood to see him flitting
+      to and fro like an uneasy ghost. At last the guests departed, one and all;
+      and then the house was close shut up, and became as dull and silent as the
+      rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His wanderings brought him at one time to the city jail. Instead of
+      hastening from it as a place of ill omen, and one he had cause to shun, he
+      sat down on some steps hard by, and resting his chin upon his hand, gazed
+      upon its rough and frowning walls as though even they became a refuge in
+      his jaded eyes. He paced it round and round, came back to the same spot,
+      and sat down again. He did this often, and once, with a hasty movement,
+      crossed to where some men were watching in the prison lodge, and had his
+      foot upon the steps as though determined to accost them. But looking
+      round, he saw that the day began to break, and failing in his purpose,
+      turned and fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was soon in the quarter he had lately traversed, and pacing to and fro
+      again as he had done before. He was passing down a mean street, when from
+      an alley close at hand some shouts of revelry arose, and there came
+      straggling forth a dozen madcaps, whooping and calling to each other, who,
+      parting noisily, took different ways and dispersed in smaller groups.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hoping that some low place of entertainment which would afford him a safe
+      refuge might be near at hand, he turned into this court when they were all
+      gone, and looked about for a half-opened door, or lighted window, or other
+      indication of the place whence they had come. It was so profoundly dark,
+      however, and so ill-favoured, that he concluded they had but turned up
+      there, missing their way, and were pouring out again when he observed
+      them. With this impression, and finding there was no outlet but that by
+      which he had entered, he was about to turn, when from a grating near his
+      feet a sudden stream of light appeared, and the sound of talking came. He
+      retreated into a doorway to see who these talkers were, and to listen to
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light came to the level of the pavement as he did this, and a man
+      ascended, bearing in his hand a torch. This figure unlocked and held open
+      the grating as for the passage of another, who presently appeared, in the
+      form of a young man of small stature and uncommon self-importance, dressed
+      in an obsolete and very gaudy fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night, noble captain,' said he with the torch. 'Farewell, commander.
+      Good luck, illustrious general!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In return to these compliments the other bade him hold his tongue, and
+      keep his noise to himself, and laid upon him many similar injunctions,
+      with great fluency of speech and sternness of manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Commend me, captain, to the stricken Miggs,' returned the torch-bearer in
+      a lower voice. 'My captain flies at higher game than Miggses. Ha, ha, ha!
+      My captain is an eagle, both as respects his eye and soaring wings. My
+      captain breaketh hearts as other bachelors break eggs at breakfast.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What a fool you are, Stagg!' said Mr Tappertit, stepping on the pavement
+      of the court, and brushing from his legs the dust he had contracted in his
+      passage upward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'His precious limbs!' cried Stagg, clasping one of his ankles. 'Shall a
+      Miggs aspire to these proportions! No, no, my captain. We will inveigle
+      ladies fair, and wed them in our secret cavern. We will unite ourselves
+      with blooming beauties, captain.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll tell you what, my buck,' said Mr Tappertit, releasing his leg; 'I'll
+      trouble you not to take liberties, and not to broach certain questions
+      unless certain questions are broached to you. Speak when you're spoke to
+      on particular subjects, and not otherways. Hold the torch up till I've got
+      to the end of the court, and then kennel yourself, do you hear?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hear you, noble captain.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Obey then,' said Mr Tappertit haughtily. 'Gentlemen, lead on!' With which
+      word of command (addressed to an imaginary staff or retinue) he folded his
+      arms, and walked with surpassing dignity down the court.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0095m.jpg" alt="0095m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0095.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      His obsequious follower stood holding the torch above his head, and then
+      the observer saw for the first time, from his place of concealment, that
+      he was blind. Some involuntary motion on his part caught the quick ear of
+      the blind man, before he was conscious of having moved an inch towards
+      him, for he turned suddenly and cried, 'Who's there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A man,' said the other, advancing. 'A friend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A stranger!' rejoined the blind man. 'Strangers are not my friends. What
+      do you do there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I saw your company come out, and waited here till they were gone. I want
+      a lodging.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A lodging at this time!' returned Stagg, pointing towards the dawn as
+      though he saw it. 'Do you know the day is breaking?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know it,' rejoined the other, 'to my cost. I have been traversing this
+      iron-hearted town all night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You had better traverse it again,' said the blind man, preparing to
+      descend, 'till you find some lodgings suitable to your taste. I don't let
+      any.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stay!' cried the other, holding him by the arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll beat this light about that hangdog face of yours (for hangdog it is,
+      if it answers to your voice), and rouse the neighbourhood besides, if you
+      detain me,' said the blind man. 'Let me go. Do you hear?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do YOU hear!' returned the other, chinking a few shillings together, and
+      hurriedly pressing them into his hand. 'I beg nothing of you. I will pay
+      for the shelter you give me. Death! Is it much to ask of such as you! I
+      have come from the country, and desire to rest where there are none to
+      question me. I am faint, exhausted, worn out, almost dead. Let me lie
+      down, like a dog, before your fire. I ask no more than that. If you would
+      be rid of me, I will depart to-morrow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If a gentleman has been unfortunate on the road,' muttered Stagg,
+      yielding to the other, who, pressing on him, had already gained a footing
+      on the steps&mdash;'and can pay for his accommodation&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will pay you with all I have. I am just now past the want of food, God
+      knows, and wish but to purchase shelter. What companion have you below?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'None.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then fasten your grate there, and show me the way. Quick!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man complied after a moment's hesitation, and they descended
+      together. The dialogue had passed as hurriedly as the words could be
+      spoken, and they stood in his wretched room before he had had time to
+      recover from his first surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'May I see where that door leads to, and what is beyond?' said the man,
+      glancing keenly round. 'You will not mind that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will show you myself. Follow me, or go before. Take your choice.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bade him lead the way, and, by the light of the torch which his
+      conductor held up for the purpose, inspected all three cellars narrowly.
+      Assured that the blind man had spoken truth, and that he lived there
+      alone, the visitor returned with him to the first, in which a fire was
+      burning, and flung himself with a deep groan upon the ground before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His host pursued his usual occupation without seeming to heed him any
+      further. But directly he fell asleep&mdash;and he noted his falling into a
+      slumber, as readily as the keenest-sighted man could have done&mdash;he
+      knelt down beside him, and passed his hand lightly but carefully over his
+      face and person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His sleep was checkered with starts and moans, and sometimes with a
+      muttered word or two. His hands were clenched, his brow bent, and his
+      mouth firmly set. All this, the blind man accurately marked; and as if his
+      curiosity were strongly awakened, and he had already some inkling of his
+      mystery, he sat watching him, if the expression may be used, and
+      listening, until it was broad day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 19
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Dolly Varden's pretty little head was yet bewildered by various
+      recollections of the party, and her bright eyes were yet dazzled by a
+      crowd of images, dancing before them like motes in the sunbeams, among
+      which the effigy of one partner in particular did especially figure, the
+      same being a young coachmaker (a master in his own right) who had given
+      her to understand, when he handed her into the chair at parting, that it
+      was his fixed resolve to neglect his business from that time, and die
+      slowly for the love of her&mdash;Dolly's head, and eyes, and thoughts, and
+      seven senses, were all in a state of flutter and confusion for which the
+      party was accountable, although it was now three days old, when, as she
+      was sitting listlessly at breakfast, reading all manner of fortunes (that
+      is to say, of married and flourishing fortunes) in the grounds of her
+      teacup, a step was heard in the workshop, and Mr Edward Chester was
+      descried through the glass door, standing among the rusty locks and keys,
+      like love among the roses&mdash;for which apt comparison the historian may
+      by no means take any credit to himself, the same being the invention, in a
+      sentimental mood, of the chaste and modest Miggs, who, beholding him from
+      the doorsteps she was then cleaning, did, in her maiden meditation, give
+      utterance to the simile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith, who happened at the moment to have his eyes thrown upward
+      and his head backward, in an intense communing with Toby, did not see his
+      visitor, until Mrs Varden, more watchful than the rest, had desired Sim
+      Tappertit to open the glass door and give him admission&mdash;from which
+      untoward circumstance the good lady argued (for she could deduce a
+      precious moral from the most trifling event) that to take a draught of
+      small ale in the morning was to observe a pernicious, irreligious, and
+      Pagan custom, the relish whereof should be left to swine, and Satan, or at
+      least to Popish persons, and should be shunned by the righteous as a work
+      of sin and evil. She would no doubt have pursued her admonition much
+      further, and would have founded on it a long list of precious precepts of
+      inestimable value, but that the young gentleman standing by in a somewhat
+      uncomfortable and discomfited manner while she read her spouse this
+      lecture, occasioned her to bring it to a premature conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm sure you'll excuse me, sir,' said Mrs Varden, rising and curtseying.
+      'Varden is so very thoughtless, and needs so much reminding&mdash;Sim,
+      bring a chair here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit obeyed, with a flourish implying that he did so, under
+      protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And you can go, Sim,' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit obeyed again, still under protest; and betaking himself to
+      the workshop, began seriously to fear that he might find it necessary to
+      poison his master, before his time was out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, Edward returned suitable replies to Mrs Varden's
+      courtesies, and that lady brightened up very much; so that when he
+      accepted a dish of tea from the fair hands of Dolly, she was perfectly
+      agreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am sure if there's anything we can do,&mdash;Varden, or I, or Dolly
+      either,&mdash;to serve you, sir, at any time, you have only to say it, and
+      it shall be done,' said Mrs V.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am much obliged to you, I am sure,' returned Edward. 'You encourage me
+      to say that I have come here now, to beg your good offices.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden was delighted beyond measure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It occurred to me that probably your fair daughter might be going to the
+      Warren, either to-day or to-morrow,' said Edward, glancing at Dolly; 'and
+      if so, and you will allow her to take charge of this letter, ma'am, you
+      will oblige me more than I can tell you. The truth is, that while I am
+      very anxious it should reach its destination, I have particular reasons
+      for not trusting it to any other conveyance; so that without your help, I
+      am wholly at a loss.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She was not going that way, sir, either to-day, or to-morrow, nor indeed
+      all next week,' the lady graciously rejoined, 'but we shall be very glad
+      to put ourselves out of the way on your account, and if you wish it, you
+      may depend upon its going to-day. You might suppose,' said Mrs Varden,
+      frowning at her husband, 'from Varden's sitting there so glum and silent,
+      that he objected to this arrangement; but you must not mind that, sir, if
+      you please. It's his way at home. Out of doors, he can be cheerful and
+      talkative enough.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, the fact was, that the unfortunate locksmith, blessing his stars to
+      find his helpmate in such good humour, had been sitting with a beaming
+      face, hearing this discourse with a joy past all expression. Wherefore
+      this sudden attack quite took him by surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear Martha&mdash;' he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh yes, I dare say,' interrupted Mrs Varden, with a smile of mingled
+      scorn and pleasantry. 'Very dear! We all know that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, but my good soul,' said Gabriel, 'you are quite mistaken. You are
+      indeed. I was delighted to find you so kind and ready. I waited, my dear,
+      anxiously, I assure you, to hear what you would say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You waited anxiously,' repeated Mrs V. 'Yes! Thank you, Varden. You
+      waited, as you always do, that I might bear the blame, if any came of it.
+      But I am used to it,' said the lady with a kind of solemn titter, 'and
+      that's my comfort!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I give you my word, Martha&mdash;' said Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me give you MY word, my dear,' interposed his wife with a Christian
+      smile, 'that such discussions as these between married people, are much
+      better left alone. Therefore, if you please, Varden, we'll drop the
+      subject. I have no wish to pursue it. I could. I might say a great deal.
+      But I would rather not. Pray don't say any more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't want to say any more,' rejoined the goaded locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well then, don't,' said Mrs Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor did I begin it, Martha,' added the locksmith, good-humouredly, 'I
+      must say that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You did not begin it, Varden!' exclaimed his wife, opening her eyes very
+      wide and looking round upon the company, as though she would say, You hear
+      this man! 'You did not begin it, Varden! But you shall not say I was out
+      of temper. No, you did not begin it, oh dear no, not you, my dear!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well, well,' said the locksmith. 'That's settled then.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh yes,' rejoined his wife, 'quite. If you like to say Dolly began it, my
+      dear, I shall not contradict you. I know my duty. I need know it, I am
+      sure. I am often obliged to bear it in mind, when my inclination perhaps
+      would be for the moment to forget it. Thank you, Varden.' And so, with a
+      mighty show of humility and forgiveness, she folded her hands, and looked
+      round again, with a smile which plainly said, 'If you desire to see the
+      first and foremost among female martyrs, here she is, on view!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This little incident, illustrative though it was of Mrs Varden's
+      extraordinary sweetness and amiability, had so strong a tendency to check
+      the conversation and to disconcert all parties but that excellent lady,
+      that only a few monosyllables were uttered until Edward withdrew; which he
+      presently did, thanking the lady of the house a great many times for her
+      condescension, and whispering in Dolly's ear that he would call on the
+      morrow, in case there should happen to be an answer to the note&mdash;which,
+      indeed, she knew without his telling, as Barnaby and his friend Grip had
+      dropped in on the previous night to prepare her for the visit which was
+      then terminating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel, who had attended Edward to the door, came back with his hands in
+      his pockets; and, after fidgeting about the room in a very uneasy manner,
+      and casting a great many sidelong looks at Mrs Varden (who with the
+      calmest countenance in the world was five fathoms deep in the Protestant
+      Manual), inquired of Dolly how she meant to go. Dolly supposed by the
+      stage-coach, and looked at her lady mother, who finding herself silently
+      appealed to, dived down at least another fathom into the Manual, and
+      became unconscious of all earthly things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Martha&mdash;' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hear you, Varden,' said his wife, without rising to the surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am sorry, my dear, you have such an objection to the Maypole and old
+      John, for otherways as it's a very fine morning, and Saturday's not a busy
+      day with us, we might have all three gone to Chigwell in the chaise, and
+      had quite a happy day of it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden immediately closed the Manual, and bursting into tears,
+      requested to be led upstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What is the matter now, Martha?' inquired the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Martha rejoined, 'Oh! don't speak to me,' and protested in agony
+      that if anybody had told her so, she wouldn't have believed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But, Martha,' said Gabriel, putting himself in the way as she was moving
+      off with the aid of Dolly's shoulder, 'wouldn't have believed what? Tell
+      me what's wrong now. Do tell me. Upon my soul I don't know. Do you know,
+      child? Damme!' cried the locksmith, plucking at his wig in a kind of
+      frenzy, 'nobody does know, I verily believe, but Miggs!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miggs,' said Mrs Varden faintly, and with symptoms of approaching
+      incoherence, 'is attached to me, and that is sufficient to draw down
+      hatred upon her in this house. She is a comfort to me, whatever she may be
+      to others.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She's no comfort to me,' cried Gabriel, made bold by despair. 'She's the
+      misery of my life. She's all the plagues of Egypt in one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She's considered so, I have no doubt,' said Mrs Varden. 'I was prepared
+      for that; it's natural; it's of a piece with the rest. When you taunt me
+      as you do to my face, how can I wonder that you taunt her behind her
+      back!' And here the incoherence coming on very strong, Mrs Varden wept,
+      and laughed, and sobbed, and shivered, and hiccoughed, and choked; and
+      said she knew it was very foolish but she couldn't help it; and that when
+      she was dead and gone, perhaps they would be sorry for it&mdash;which
+      really under the circumstances did not appear quite so probable as she
+      seemed to think&mdash;with a great deal more to the same effect. In a
+      word, she passed with great decency through all the ceremonies incidental
+      to such occasions; and being supported upstairs, was deposited in a highly
+      spasmodic state on her own bed, where Miss Miggs shortly afterwards flung
+      herself upon the body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The philosophy of all this was, that Mrs Varden wanted to go to Chigwell;
+      that she did not want to make any concession or explanation; that she
+      would only go on being implored and entreated so to do; and that she would
+      accept no other terms. Accordingly, after a vast amount of moaning and
+      crying upstairs, and much damping of foreheads, and vinegaring of temples,
+      and hartshorning of noses, and so forth; and after most pathetic
+      adjurations from Miggs, assisted by warm brandy-and-water not over-weak,
+      and divers other cordials, also of a stimulating quality, administered at
+      first in teaspoonfuls and afterwards in increasing doses, and of which
+      Miss Miggs herself partook as a preventive measure (for fainting is
+      infectious); after all these remedies, and many more too numerous to
+      mention, but not to take, had been applied; and many verbal consolations,
+      moral, religious, and miscellaneous, had been super-added thereto; the
+      locksmith humbled himself, and the end was gained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If it's only for the sake of peace and quietness, father,' said Dolly,
+      urging him to go upstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, Doll, Doll,' said her good-natured father. 'If you ever have a
+      husband of your own&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly glanced at the glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Well, WHEN you have,' said the locksmith, 'never faint, my
+      darling. More domestic unhappiness has come of easy fainting, Doll, than
+      from all the greater passions put together. Remember that, my dear, if you
+      would be really happy, which you never can be, if your husband isn't. And
+      a word in your ear, my precious. Never have a Miggs about you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this advice he kissed his blooming daughter on the cheek, and slowly
+      repaired to Mrs Varden's room; where that lady, lying all pale and languid
+      on her couch, was refreshing herself with a sight of her last new bonnet,
+      which Miggs, as a means of calming her scattered spirits, displayed to the
+      best advantage at her bedside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here's master, mim,' said Miggs. 'Oh, what a happiness it is when man and
+      wife come round again! Oh gracious, to think that him and her should ever
+      have a word together!' In the energy of these sentiments, which were
+      uttered as an apostrophe to the Heavens in general, Miss Miggs perched the
+      bonnet on the top of her own head, and folding her hands, turned on her
+      tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I can't help it,' cried Miggs. 'I couldn't, if I was to be drownded in
+      'em. She has such a forgiving spirit! She'll forget all that has passed,
+      and go along with you, sir&mdash;Oh, if it was to the world's end, she'd
+      go along with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden with a faint smile gently reproved her attendant for this
+      enthusiasm, and reminded her at the same time that she was far too unwell
+      to venture out that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh no, you're not, mim, indeed you're not,' said Miggs; 'I repeal to
+      master; master knows you're not, mim. The hair, and motion of the shay,
+      will do you good, mim, and you must not give way, you must not raly. She
+      must keep up, mustn't she, sir, for all out sakes? I was a telling her
+      that, just now. She must remember us, even if she forgets herself. Master
+      will persuade you, mim, I'm sure. There's Miss Dolly's a-going you know,
+      and master, and you, and all so happy and so comfortable. Oh!' cried
+      Miggs, turning on the tears again, previous to quitting the room in great
+      emotion, 'I never see such a blessed one as she is for the forgiveness of
+      her spirit, I never, never, never did. Not more did master neither; no,
+      nor no one&mdash;never!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For five minutes or thereabouts, Mrs Varden remained mildly opposed to all
+      her husband's prayers that she would oblige him by taking a day's
+      pleasure, but relenting at length, she suffered herself to be persuaded,
+      and granting him her free forgiveness (the merit whereof, she meekly said,
+      rested with the Manual and not with her), desired that Miggs might come
+      and help her dress. The handmaid attended promptly, and it is but justice
+      to their joint exertions to record that, when the good lady came
+      downstairs in course of time, completely decked out for the journey, she
+      really looked as if nothing had happened, and appeared in the very best
+      health imaginable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to Dolly, there she was again, the very pink and pattern of good looks,
+      in a smart little cherry-coloured mantle, with a hood of the same drawn
+      over her head, and upon the top of that hood, a little straw hat trimmed
+      with cherry-coloured ribbons, and worn the merest trifle on one side&mdash;just
+      enough in short to make it the wickedest and most provoking head-dress
+      that ever malicious milliner devised. And not to speak of the manner in
+      which these cherry-coloured decorations brightened her eyes, or vied with
+      her lips, or shed a new bloom on her face, she wore such a cruel little
+      muff, and such a heart-rending pair of shoes, and was so surrounded and
+      hemmed in, as it were, by aggravations of all kinds, that when Mr
+      Tappettit, holding the horse's head, saw her come out of the house alone,
+      such impulses came over him to decoy her into the chaise and drive off
+      like mad, that he would unquestionably have done it, but for certain
+      uneasy doubts besetting him as to the shortest way to Gretna Green;
+      whether it was up the street or down, or up the right-hand turning or the
+      left; and whether, supposing all the turnpikes to be carried by storm, the
+      blacksmith in the end would marry them on credit; which by reason of his
+      clerical office appeared, even to his excited imagination, so unlikely,
+      that he hesitated. And while he stood hesitating, and looking
+      post-chaises-and-six at Dolly, out came his master and his mistress, and
+      the constant Miggs, and the opportunity was gone for ever. For now the
+      chaise creaked upon its springs, and Mrs Varden was inside; and now it
+      creaked again, and more than ever, and the locksmith was inside; and now
+      it bounded once, as if its heart beat lightly, and Dolly was inside; and
+      now it was gone and its place was empty, and he and that dreary Miggs were
+      standing in the street together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hearty locksmith was in as good a humour as if nothing had occurred
+      for the last twelve months to put him out of his way, Dolly was all smiles
+      and graces, and Mrs Varden was agreeable beyond all precedent. As they
+      jogged through the streets talking of this thing and of that, who should
+      be descried upon the pavement but that very coachmaker, looking so genteel
+      that nobody would have believed he had ever had anything to do with a
+      coach but riding in it, and bowing like any nobleman. To be sure Dolly was
+      confused when she bowed again, and to be sure the cherry-coloured ribbons
+      trembled a little when she met his mournful eye, which seemed to say, 'I
+      have kept my word, I have begun, the business is going to the devil, and
+      you're the cause of it.' There he stood, rooted to the ground: as Dolly
+      said, like a statue; and as Mrs Varden said, like a pump; till they turned
+      the corner: and when her father thought it was like his impudence, and her
+      mother wondered what he meant by it, Dolly blushed again till her very
+      hood was pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on they went, not the less merrily for this, and there was the
+      locksmith in the incautious fulness of his heart 'pulling-up' at all
+      manner of places, and evincing a most intimate acquaintance with all the
+      taverns on the road, and all the landlords and all the landladies, with
+      whom, indeed, the little horse was on equally friendly terms, for he kept
+      on stopping of his own accord. Never were people so glad to see other
+      people as these landlords and landladies were to behold Mr Varden and Mrs
+      Varden and Miss Varden; and wouldn't they get out, said one; and they
+      really must walk upstairs, said another; and she would take it ill and be
+      quite certain they were proud if they wouldn't have a little taste of
+      something, said a third; and so on, that it was really quite a Progress
+      rather than a ride, and one continued scene of hospitality from beginning
+      to end. It was pleasant enough to be held in such esteem, not to mention
+      the refreshments; so Mrs Varden said nothing at the time, and was all
+      affability and delight&mdash;but such a body of evidence as she collected
+      against the unfortunate locksmith that day, to be used thereafter as
+      occasion might require, never was got together for matrimonial purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In course of time&mdash;and in course of a pretty long time too, for these
+      agreeable interruptions delayed them not a little,&mdash;they arrived upon
+      the skirts of the Forest, and riding pleasantly on among the trees, came
+      at last to the Maypole, where the locksmith's cheerful 'Yoho!' speedily
+      brought to the porch old John, and after him young Joe, both of whom were
+      so transfixed at sight of the ladies, that for a moment they were
+      perfectly unable to give them any welcome, and could do nothing but stare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only for a moment, however, that Joe forgot himself, for speedily
+      reviving he thrust his drowsy father aside&mdash;to Mr Willet's mighty and
+      inexpressible indignation&mdash;and darting out, stood ready to help them
+      to alight. It was necessary for Dolly to get out first. Joe had her in his
+      arms;&mdash;yes, though for a space of time no longer than you could count
+      one in, Joe had her in his arms. Here was a glimpse of happiness!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be difficult to describe what a flat and commonplace affair the
+      helping Mrs Varden out afterwards was, but Joe did it, and did it too with
+      the best grace in the world. Then old John, who, entertaining a dull and
+      foggy sort of idea that Mrs Varden wasn't fond of him, had been in some
+      doubt whether she might not have come for purposes of assault and battery,
+      took courage, hoped she was well, and offered to conduct her into the
+      house. This tender being amicably received, they marched in together; Joe
+      and Dolly followed, arm-in-arm, (happiness again!) and Varden brought up
+      the rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old John would have it that they must sit in the bar, and nobody
+      objecting, into the bar they went. All bars are snug places, but the
+      Maypole's was the very snuggest, cosiest, and completest bar, that ever
+      the wit of man devised. Such amazing bottles in old oaken pigeon-holes;
+      such gleaming tankards dangling from pegs at about the same inclination as
+      thirsty men would hold them to their lips; such sturdy little Dutch kegs
+      ranged in rows on shelves; so many lemons hanging in separate nets, and
+      forming the fragrant grove already mentioned in this chronicle,
+      suggestive, with goodly loaves of snowy sugar stowed away hard by, of
+      punch, idealised beyond all mortal knowledge; such closets, such presses,
+      such drawers full of pipes, such places for putting things away in hollow
+      window-seats, all crammed to the throat with eatables, drinkables, or
+      savoury condiments; lastly, and to crown all, as typical of the immense
+      resources of the establishment, and its defiances to all visitors to cut
+      and come again, such a stupendous cheese!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a poor heart that never rejoices&mdash;it must have been the
+      poorest, weakest, and most watery heart that ever beat, which would not
+      have warmed towards the Maypole bar. Mrs Varden's did directly. She could
+      no more have reproached John Willet among those household gods, the kegs
+      and bottles, lemons, pipes, and cheese, than she could have stabbed him
+      with his own bright carving-knife. The order for dinner too&mdash;it might
+      have soothed a savage. 'A bit of fish,' said John to the cook, 'and some
+      lamb chops (breaded, with plenty of ketchup), and a good salad, and a
+      roast spring chicken, with a dish of sausages and mashed potatoes, or
+      something of that sort.' Something of that sort! The resources of these
+      inns! To talk carelessly about dishes, which in themselves were a
+      first-rate holiday kind of dinner, suitable to one's wedding-day, as
+      something of that sort: meaning, if you can't get a spring chicken, any
+      other trifle in the way of poultry will do&mdash;such as a peacock,
+      perhaps! The kitchen too, with its great broad cavernous chimney; the
+      kitchen, where nothing in the way of cookery seemed impossible; where you
+      could believe in anything to eat, they chose to tell you of. Mrs Varden
+      returned from the contemplation of these wonders to the bar again, with a
+      head quite dizzy and bewildered. Her housekeeping capacity was not large
+      enough to comprehend them. She was obliged to go to sleep. Waking was
+      pain, in the midst of such immensity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly in the meanwhile, whose gay heart and head ran upon other matters,
+      passed out at the garden door, and glancing back now and then (but of
+      course not wondering whether Joe saw her), tripped away by a path across
+      the fields with which she was well acquainted, to discharge her mission at
+      the Warren; and this deponent hath been informed and verily believes, that
+      you might have seen many less pleasant objects than the cherry-coloured
+      mantle and ribbons, as they went fluttering along the green meadows in the
+      bright light of the day, like giddy things as they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 20
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The proud consciousness of her trust, and the great importance she derived
+      from it, might have advertised it to all the house if she had had to run
+      the gauntlet of its inhabitants; but as Dolly had played in every dull
+      room and passage many and many a time, when a child, and had ever since
+      been the humble friend of Miss Haredale, whose foster-sister she was, she
+      was as free of the building as the young lady herself. So, using no
+      greater precaution than holding her breath and walking on tiptoe as she
+      passed the library door, she went straight to Emma's room as a privileged
+      visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the liveliest room in the building. The chamber was sombre like the
+      rest for the matter of that, but the presence of youth and beauty would
+      make a prison cheerful (saving alas! that confinement withers them), and
+      lend some charms of their own to the gloomiest scene. Birds, flowers,
+      books, drawing, music, and a hundred such graceful tokens of feminine
+      loves and cares, filled it with more of life and human sympathy than the
+      whole house besides seemed made to hold. There was heart in the room; and
+      who that has a heart, ever fails to recognise the silent presence of
+      another!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly had one undoubtedly, and it was not a tough one either, though there
+      was a little mist of coquettishness about it, such as sometimes surrounds
+      that sun of life in its morning, and slightly dims its lustre. Thus, when
+      Emma rose to greet her, and kissing her affectionately on the cheek, told
+      her, in her quiet way, that she had been very unhappy, the tears stood in
+      Dolly's eyes, and she felt more sorry than she could tell; but next moment
+      she happened to raise them to the glass, and really there was something
+      there so exceedingly agreeable, that as she sighed, she smiled, and felt
+      surprisingly consoled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have heard about it, miss,' said Dolly, 'and it's very sad indeed, but
+      when things are at the worst they are sure to mend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But are you sure they are at the worst?' asked Emma with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, I don't see how they can very well be more unpromising than they
+      are; I really don't,' said Dolly. 'And I bring something to begin with.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not from Edward?'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0102m.jpg" alt="0102m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0102.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Dolly nodded and smiled, and feeling in her pockets (there were pockets in
+      those days) with an affectation of not being able to find what she wanted,
+      which greatly enhanced her importance, at length produced the letter. As
+      Emma hastily broke the seal and became absorbed in its contents, Dolly's
+      eyes, by one of those strange accidents for which there is no accounting,
+      wandered to the glass again. She could not help wondering whether the
+      coach-maker suffered very much, and quite pitied the poor man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a long letter&mdash;a very long letter, written close on all four
+      sides of the sheet of paper, and crossed afterwards; but it was not a
+      consolatory letter, for as Emma read it she stopped from time to time to
+      put her handkerchief to her eyes. To be sure Dolly marvelled greatly to
+      see her in so much distress, for to her thinking a love affair ought to be
+      one of the best jokes, and the slyest, merriest kind of thing in life. But
+      she set it down in her own mind that all this came from Miss Haredale's
+      being so constant, and that if she would only take on with some other
+      young gentleman&mdash;just in the most innocent way possible, to keep her
+      first lover up to the mark&mdash;she would find herself inexpressibly
+      comforted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am sure that's what I should do if it was me,' thought Dolly. 'To make
+      one's sweetheart miserable is well enough and quite right, but to be made
+      miserable one's self is a little too much!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However it wouldn't do to say so, and therefore she sat looking on in
+      silence. She needed a pretty considerable stretch of patience, for when
+      the long letter had been read once all through it was read again, and when
+      it had been read twice all through it was read again. During this tedious
+      process, Dolly beguiled the time in the most improving manner that
+      occurred to her, by curling her hair on her fingers, with the aid of the
+      looking-glass before mentioned, and giving it some killing twists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everything has an end. Even young ladies in love cannot read their letters
+      for ever. In course of time the packet was folded up, and it only remained
+      to write the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as this promised to be a work of time likewise, Emma said she would
+      put it off until after dinner, and that Dolly must dine with her. As Dolly
+      had made up her mind to do so beforehand, she required very little
+      pressing; and when they had settled this point, they went to walk in the
+      garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They strolled up and down the terrace walks, talking incessantly&mdash;at
+      least, Dolly never left off once&mdash;and making that quarter of the sad
+      and mournful house quite gay. Not that they talked loudly or laughed much,
+      but they were both so very handsome, and it was such a breezy day, and
+      their light dresses and dark curls appeared so free and joyous in their
+      abandonment, and Emma was so fair, and Dolly so rosy, and Emma so
+      delicately shaped, and Dolly so plump, and&mdash;in short, there are no
+      flowers for any garden like such flowers, let horticulturists say what
+      they may, and both house and garden seemed to know it, and to brighten up
+      sensibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this, came the dinner and the letter writing, and some more talking,
+      in the course of which Miss Haredale took occasion to charge upon Dolly
+      certain flirtish and inconstant propensities, which accusations Dolly
+      seemed to think very complimentary indeed, and to be mightily amused with.
+      Finding her quite incorrigible in this respect, Emma suffered her to
+      depart; but not before she had confided to her that important and
+      never-sufficiently-to-be-taken-care-of answer, and endowed her moreover
+      with a pretty little bracelet as a keepsake. Having clasped it on her arm,
+      and again advised her half in jest and half in earnest to amend her
+      roguish ways, for she knew she was fond of Joe at heart (which Dolly
+      stoutly denied, with a great many haughty protestations that she hoped she
+      could do better than that indeed! and so forth), she bade her farewell;
+      and after calling her back to give her more supplementary messages for
+      Edward, than anybody with tenfold the gravity of Dolly Varden could be
+      reasonably expected to remember, at length dismissed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly bade her good bye, and tripping lightly down the stairs arrived at
+      the dreaded library door, and was about to pass it again on tiptoe, when
+      it opened, and behold! there stood Mr Haredale. Now, Dolly had from her
+      childhood associated with this gentleman the idea of something grim and
+      ghostly, and being at the moment conscience-stricken besides, the sight of
+      him threw her into such a flurry that she could neither acknowledge his
+      presence nor run away, so she gave a great start, and then with downcast
+      eyes stood still and trembled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come here, girl,' said Mr Haredale, taking her by the hand. 'I want to
+      speak to you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you please, sir, I'm in a hurry,' faltered Dolly, 'and&mdash;you have
+      frightened me by coming so suddenly upon me, sir&mdash;I would rather go,
+      sir, if you'll be so good as to let me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Immediately,' said Mr Haredale, who had by this time led her into the
+      room and closed the door. You shall go directly. You have just left Emma?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, sir, just this minute.&mdash;Father's waiting for me, sir, if you'll
+      please to have the goodness&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know. I know,' said Mr Haredale. 'Answer me a question. What did you
+      bring here to-day?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Bring here, sir?' faltered Dolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will tell me the truth, I am sure. Yes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly hesitated for a little while, and somewhat emboldened by his manner,
+      said at last, 'Well then, sir. It was a letter.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'From Mr Edward Chester, of course. And you are the bearer of the answer?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly hesitated again, and not being able to decide upon any other course
+      of action, burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You alarm yourself without cause,' said Mr Haredale. 'Why are you so
+      foolish? Surely you can answer me. You know that I have but to put the
+      question to Emma and learn the truth directly. Have you the answer with
+      you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly had what is popularly called a spirit of her own, and being now
+      fairly at bay, made the best of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, sir,' she rejoined, trembling and frightened as she was. 'Yes, sir,
+      I have. You may kill me if you please, sir, but I won't give it up. I'm
+      very sorry,&mdash;but I won't. There, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I commend your firmness and your plain-speaking,' said Mr Haredale. 'Rest
+      assured that I have as little desire to take your letter as your life. You
+      are a very discreet messenger and a good girl.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not feeling quite certain, as she afterwards said, whether he might not be
+      'coming over her' with these compliments, Dolly kept as far from him as
+      she could, cried again, and resolved to defend her pocket (for the letter
+      was there) to the last extremity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have some design,' said Mr Haredale after a short silence, during which
+      a smile, as he regarded her, had struggled through the gloom and
+      melancholy that was natural to his face, 'of providing a companion for my
+      niece; for her life is a very lonely one. Would you like the office? You
+      are the oldest friend she has, and the best entitled to it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know, sir,' answered Dolly, not sure but he was bantering her; 'I
+      can't say. I don't know what they might wish at home. I couldn't give an
+      opinion, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If your friends had no objection, would you have any?' said Mr Haredale.
+      'Come. There's a plain question; and easy to answer.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'None at all that I know of sir,' replied Dolly. 'I should be very glad to
+      be near Miss Emma of course, and always am.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's well,' said Mr Haredale. 'That is all I had to say. You are
+      anxious to go. Don't let me detain you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly didn't let him, nor did she wait for him to try, for the words had
+      no sooner passed his lips than she was out of the room, out of the house,
+      and in the fields again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first thing to be done, of course, when she came to herself and
+      considered what a flurry she had been in, was to cry afresh; and the next
+      thing, when she reflected how well she had got over it, was to laugh
+      heartily. The tears once banished gave place to the smiles, and at last
+      Dolly laughed so much that she was fain to lean against a tree, and give
+      vent to her exultation. When she could laugh no longer, and was quite
+      tired, she put her head-dress to rights, dried her eyes, looked back very
+      merrily and triumphantly at the Warren chimneys, which were just visible,
+      and resumed her walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The twilight had come on, and it was quickly growing dusk, but the path
+      was so familiar to her from frequent traversing that she hardly thought of
+      this, and certainly felt no uneasiness at being left alone. Moreover,
+      there was the bracelet to admire; and when she had given it a good rub,
+      and held it out at arm's length, it sparkled and glittered so beautifully
+      on her wrist, that to look at it in every point of view and with every
+      possible turn of the arm, was quite an absorbing business. There was the
+      letter too, and it looked so mysterious and knowing, when she took it out
+      of her pocket, and it held, as she knew, so much inside, that to turn it
+      over and over, and think about it, and wonder how it began, and how it
+      ended, and what it said all through, was another matter of constant
+      occupation. Between the bracelet and the letter, there was quite enough to
+      do without thinking of anything else; and admiring each by turns, Dolly
+      went on gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she passed through a wicket-gate to where the path was narrow, and lay
+      between two hedges garnished here and there with trees, she heard a
+      rustling close at hand, which brought her to a sudden stop. She listened.
+      All was very quiet, and she went on again&mdash;not absolutely frightened,
+      but a little quicker than before perhaps, and possibly not quite so much
+      at her ease, for a check of that kind is startling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had no sooner moved on again, than she was conscious of the same
+      sound, which was like that of a person tramping stealthily among bushes
+      and brushwood. Looking towards the spot whence it appeared to come, she
+      almost fancied she could make out a crouching figure. She stopped again.
+      All was quiet as before. On she went once more&mdash;decidedly faster now&mdash;and
+      tried to sing softly to herself. It must be the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But how came the wind to blow only when she walked, and cease when she
+      stood still? She stopped involuntarily as she made the reflection, and the
+      rustling noise stopped likewise. She was really frightened now, and was
+      yet hesitating what to do, when the bushes crackled and snapped, and a man
+      came plunging through them, close before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 21
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was for the moment an inexpressible relief to Dolly, to recognise in
+      the person who forced himself into the path so abruptly, and now stood
+      directly in her way, Hugh of the Maypole, whose name she uttered in a tone
+      of delighted surprise that came from her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Was it you?' she said, 'how glad I am to see you! and how could you
+      terrify me so!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In answer to which, he said nothing at all, but stood quite still, looking
+      at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you come to meet me?' asked Dolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh nodded, and muttered something to the effect that he had been waiting
+      for her, and had expected her sooner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thought it likely they would send,' said Dolly, greatly reassured by
+      this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nobody sent me,' was his sullen answer. 'I came of my own accord.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0105m.jpg" alt="0105m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0105.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The rough bearing of this fellow, and his wild, uncouth appearance, had
+      often filled the girl with a vague apprehension even when other people
+      were by, and had occasioned her to shrink from him involuntarily. The
+      having him for an unbidden companion in so solitary a place, with the
+      darkness fast gathering about them, renewed and even increased the alarm
+      she had felt at first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If his manner had been merely dogged and passively fierce, as usual, she
+      would have had no greater dislike to his company than she always felt&mdash;perhaps,
+      indeed, would have been rather glad to have had him at hand. But there was
+      something of coarse bold admiration in his look, which terrified her very
+      much. She glanced timidly towards him, uncertain whether to go forward or
+      retreat, and he stood gazing at her like a handsome satyr; and so they
+      remained for some short time without stirring or breaking silence. At
+      length Dolly took courage, shot past him, and hurried on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why do you spend so much breath in avoiding me?' said Hugh, accommodating
+      his pace to hers, and keeping close at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish to get back as quickly as I can, and you walk too near me,
+      answered Dolly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Too near!' said Hugh, stooping over her so that she could feel his breath
+      upon her forehead. 'Why too near? You're always proud to ME, mistress.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am proud to no one. You mistake me,' answered Dolly. 'Fall back, if you
+      please, or go on.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay, mistress,' he rejoined, endeavouring to draw her arm through his,
+      'I'll walk with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She released herself and clenching her little hand, struck him with right
+      good will. At this, Maypole Hugh burst into a roar of laughter, and
+      passing his arm about her waist, held her in his strong grasp as easily as
+      if she had been a bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha ha! Well done, mistress! Strike again. You shall beat my face, and
+      tear my hair, and pluck my beard up by the roots, and welcome, for the
+      sake of your bright eyes. Strike again, mistress. Do. Ha ha ha! I like
+      it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me go,' she cried, endeavouring with both her hands to push him off.
+      'Let me go this moment.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You had as good be kinder to me, Sweetlips,' said Hugh. 'You had, indeed.
+      Come. Tell me now. Why are you always so proud? I don't quarrel with you
+      for it. I love you when you're proud. Ha ha ha! You can't hide your beauty
+      from a poor fellow; that's a comfort!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave him no answer, but as he had not yet checked her progress,
+      continued to press forward as rapidly as she could. At length, between the
+      hurry she had made, her terror, and the tightness of his embrace, her
+      strength failed her, and she could go no further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hugh,' cried the panting girl, 'good Hugh; if you will leave me I will
+      give you anything&mdash;everything I have&mdash;and never tell one word of
+      this to any living creature.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You had best not,' he answered. 'Harkye, little dove, you had best not.
+      All about here know me, and what I dare do if I have a mind. If ever you
+      are going to tell, stop when the words are on your lips, and think of the
+      mischief you'll bring, if you do, upon some innocent heads that you
+      wouldn't wish to hurt a hair of. Bring trouble on me, and I'll bring
+      trouble and something more on them in return. I care no more for them than
+      for so many dogs; not so much&mdash;why should I? I'd sooner kill a man
+      than a dog any day. I've never been sorry for a man's death in all my
+      life, and I have for a dog's.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something so thoroughly savage in the manner of these
+      expressions, and the looks and gestures by which they were accompanied,
+      that her great fear of him gave her new strength, and enabled her by a
+      sudden effort to extricate herself and run fleetly from him. But Hugh was
+      as nimble, strong, and swift of foot, as any man in broad England, and it
+      was but a fruitless expenditure of energy, for he had her in his
+      encircling arms again before she had gone a hundred yards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Softly, darling&mdash;gently&mdash;would you fly from rough Hugh, that
+      loves you as well as any drawing-room gallant?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I would,' she answered, struggling to free herself again. 'I will. Help!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A fine for crying out,' said Hugh. 'Ha ha ha! A fine, pretty one, from
+      your lips. I pay myself! Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Help! help! help!' As she shrieked with the utmost violence she could
+      exert, a shout was heard in answer, and another, and another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank Heaven!' cried the girl in an ecstasy. 'Joe, dear Joe, this way.
+      Help!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her assailant paused, and stood irresolute for a moment, but the shouts
+      drawing nearer and coming quick upon them, forced him to a speedy
+      decision. He released her, whispered with a menacing look, 'Tell HIM: and
+      see what follows!' and leaping the hedge, was gone in an instant. Dolly
+      darted off, and fairly ran into Joe Willet's open arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What is the matter? are you hurt? what was it? who was it? where is he?
+      what was he like?' with a great many encouraging expressions and
+      assurances of safety, were the first words Joe poured forth. But poor
+      little Dolly was so breathless and terrified that for some time she was
+      quite unable to answer him, and hung upon his shoulder, sobbing and crying
+      as if her heart would break.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe had not the smallest objection to have her hanging on his shoulder;
+      no, not the least, though it crushed the cherry-coloured ribbons sadly,
+      and put the smart little hat out of all shape. But he couldn't bear to see
+      her cry; it went to his very heart. He tried to console her, bent over
+      her, whispered to her&mdash;some say kissed her, but that's a fable. At
+      any rate he said all the kind and tender things he could think of and
+      Dolly let him go on and didn't interrupt him once, and it was a good ten
+      minutes before she was able to raise her head and thank him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What was it that frightened you?' said Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man whose person was unknown to her had followed her, she answered; he
+      began by begging, and went on to threats of robbery, which he was on the
+      point of carrying into execution, and would have executed, but for Joe's
+      timely aid. The hesitation and confusion with which she said this, Joe
+      attributed to the fright she had sustained, and no suspicion of the truth
+      occurred to him for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stop when the words are on your lips.' A hundred times that night, and
+      very often afterwards, when the disclosure was rising to her tongue, Dolly
+      thought of that, and repressed it. A deeply rooted dread of the man; the
+      conviction that his ferocious nature, once roused, would stop at nothing;
+      and the strong assurance that if she impeached him, the full measure of
+      his wrath and vengeance would be wreaked on Joe, who had preserved her;
+      these were considerations she had not the courage to overcome, and
+      inducements to secrecy too powerful for her to surmount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe, for his part, was a great deal too happy to inquire very curiously
+      into the matter; and Dolly being yet too tremulous to walk without
+      assistance, they went forward very slowly, and in his mind very
+      pleasantly, until the Maypole lights were near at hand, twinkling their
+      cheerful welcome, when Dolly stopped suddenly and with a half scream
+      exclaimed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The letter!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What letter?' cried Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That I was carrying&mdash;I had it in my hand. My bracelet too,' she
+      said, clasping her wrist. 'I have lost them both.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you mean just now?' said Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Either I dropped them then, or they were taken from me,' answered Dolly,
+      vainly searching her pocket and rustling her dress. 'They are gone, both
+      gone. What an unhappy girl I am!' With these words poor Dolly, who to do
+      her justice was quite as sorry for the loss of the letter as for her
+      bracelet, fell a-crying again, and bemoaned her fate most movingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe tried to comfort her with the assurance that directly he had housed
+      her in the Maypole, he would return to the spot with a lantern (for it was
+      now quite dark) and make strict search for the missing articles, which
+      there was great probability of his finding, as it was not likely that
+      anybody had passed that way since, and she was not conscious that they had
+      been forcibly taken from her. Dolly thanked him very heartily for this
+      offer, though with no great hope of his quest being successful; and so
+      with many lamentations on her side, and many hopeful words on his, and
+      much weakness on the part of Dolly and much tender supporting on the part
+      of Joe, they reached the Maypole bar at last, where the locksmith and his
+      wife and old John were yet keeping high festival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet received the intelligence of Dolly's trouble with that
+      surprising presence of mind and readiness of speech for which he was so
+      eminently distinguished above all other men. Mrs Varden expressed her
+      sympathy for her daughter's distress by scolding her roundly for being so
+      late; and the honest locksmith divided himself between condoling with and
+      kissing Dolly, and shaking hands heartily with Joe, whom he could not
+      sufficiently praise or thank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reference to this latter point, old John was far from agreeing with his
+      friend; for besides that he by no means approved of an adventurous spirit
+      in the abstract, it occurred to him that if his son and heir had been
+      seriously damaged in a scuffle, the consequences would assuredly have been
+      expensive and inconvenient, and might perhaps have proved detrimental to
+      the Maypole business. Wherefore, and because he looked with no favourable
+      eye upon young girls, but rather considered that they and the whole female
+      sex were a kind of nonsensical mistake on the part of Nature, he took
+      occasion to retire and shake his head in private at the boiler; inspired
+      by which silent oracle, he was moved to give Joe various stealthy nudges
+      with his elbow, as a parental reproof and gentle admonition to mind his
+      own business and not make a fool of himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe, however, took down the lantern and lighted it; and arming himself
+      with a stout stick, asked whether Hugh was in the stable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's lying asleep before the kitchen fire, sir,' said Mr Willet. 'What do
+      you want him for?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I want him to come with me to look after this bracelet and letter,'
+      answered Joe. 'Halloa there! Hugh!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly turned pale as death, and felt as if she must faint forthwith. After
+      a few moments, Hugh came staggering in, stretching himself and yawning
+      according to custom, and presenting every appearance of having been roused
+      from a sound nap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here, sleepy-head,' said Joe, giving him the lantern. 'Carry this, and
+      bring the dog, and that small cudgel of yours. And woe betide the fellow
+      if we come upon him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What fellow?' growled Hugh, rubbing his eyes and shaking himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What fellow?' returned Joe, who was in a state of great valour and
+      bustle; 'a fellow you ought to know of and be more alive about. It's well
+      for the like of you, lazy giant that you are, to be snoring your time away
+      in chimney-corners, when honest men's daughters can't cross even our quiet
+      meadows at nightfall without being set upon by footpads, and frightened
+      out of their precious lives.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They never rob me,' cried Hugh with a laugh. 'I have got nothing to lose.
+      But I'd as lief knock them at head as any other men. How many are there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Only one,' said Dolly faintly, for everybody looked at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what was he like, mistress?' said Hugh with a glance at young Willet,
+      so slight and momentary that the scowl it conveyed was lost on all but
+      her. 'About my height?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not&mdash;not so tall,' Dolly replied, scarce knowing what she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'His dress,' said Hugh, looking at her keenly, 'like&mdash;like any of
+      ours now? I know all the people hereabouts, and maybe could give a guess
+      at the man, if I had anything to guide me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly faltered and turned paler yet; then answered that he was wrapped in
+      a loose coat and had his face hidden by a handkerchief and that she could
+      give no other description of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You wouldn't know him if you saw him then, belike?' said Hugh with a
+      malicious grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should not,' answered Dolly, bursting into tears again. 'I don't wish
+      to see him. I can't bear to think of him. I can't talk about him any more.
+      Don't go to look for these things, Mr Joe, pray don't. I entreat you not
+      to go with that man.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not to go with me!' cried Hugh. 'I'm too rough for them all. They're all
+      afraid of me. Why, bless you mistress, I've the tenderest heart alive. I
+      love all the ladies, ma'am,' said Hugh, turning to the locksmith's wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden opined that if he did, he ought to be ashamed of himself; such
+      sentiments being more consistent (so she argued) with a benighted
+      Mussulman or wild Islander than with a stanch Protestant. Arguing from
+      this imperfect state of his morals, Mrs Varden further opined that he had
+      never studied the Manual. Hugh admitting that he never had, and moreover
+      that he couldn't read, Mrs Varden declared with much severity, that he
+      ought to be even more ashamed of himself than before, and strongly
+      recommended him to save up his pocket-money for the purchase of one, and
+      further to teach himself the contents with all convenient diligence. She
+      was still pursuing this train of discourse, when Hugh, somewhat
+      unceremoniously and irreverently, followed his young master out, and left
+      her to edify the rest of the company. This she proceeded to do, and
+      finding that Mr Willet's eyes were fixed upon her with an appearance of
+      deep attention, gradually addressed the whole of her discourse to him,
+      whom she entertained with a moral and theological lecture of considerable
+      length, in the conviction that great workings were taking place in his
+      spirit. The simple truth was, however, that Mr Willet, although his eyes
+      were wide open and he saw a woman before him whose head by long and steady
+      looking at seemed to grow bigger and bigger until it filled the whole bar,
+      was to all other intents and purposes fast asleep; and so sat leaning back
+      in his chair with his hands in his pockets until his son's return caused
+      him to wake up with a deep sigh, and a faint impression that he had been
+      dreaming about pickled pork and greens&mdash;a vision of his slumbers
+      which was no doubt referable to the circumstance of Mrs Varden's having
+      frequently pronounced the word 'Grace' with much emphasis; which word,
+      entering the portals of Mr Willet's brain as they stood ajar, and coupling
+      itself with the words 'before meat,' which were there ranging about, did
+      in time suggest a particular kind of meat together with that description
+      of vegetable which is usually its companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The search was wholly unsuccessful. Joe had groped along the path a dozen
+      times, and among the grass, and in the dry ditch, and in the hedge, but
+      all in vain. Dolly, who was quite inconsolable for her loss, wrote a note
+      to Miss Haredale giving her the same account of it that she had given at
+      the Maypole, which Joe undertook to deliver as soon as the family were
+      stirring next day. That done, they sat down to tea in the bar, where there
+      was an uncommon display of buttered toast, and&mdash;in order that they
+      might not grow faint for want of sustenance, and might have a decent
+      halting-place or halfway house between dinner and supper&mdash;a few
+      savoury trifles in the shape of great rashers of broiled ham, which being
+      well cured, done to a turn, and smoking hot, sent forth a tempting and
+      delicious fragrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden was seldom very Protestant at meals, unless it happened that
+      they were underdone, or overdone, or indeed that anything occurred to put
+      her out of humour. Her spirits rose considerably on beholding these goodly
+      preparations, and from the nothingness of good works, she passed to the
+      somethingness of ham and toast with great cheerfulness. Nay, under the
+      influence of these wholesome stimulants, she sharply reproved her daughter
+      for being low and despondent (which she considered an unacceptable frame
+      of mind), and remarked, as she held her own plate for a fresh supply, that
+      it would be well for Dolly, who pined over the loss of a toy and a sheet
+      of paper, if she would reflect upon the voluntary sacrifices of the
+      missionaries in foreign parts who lived chiefly on salads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The proceedings of such a day occasion various fluctuations in the human
+      thermometer, and especially in instruments so sensitively and delicately
+      constructed as Mrs Varden. Thus, at dinner Mrs V. stood at summer heat;
+      genial, smiling, and delightful. After dinner, in the sunshine of the
+      wine, she went up at least half-a-dozen degrees, and was perfectly
+      enchanting. As its effect subsided, she fell rapidly, went to sleep for an
+      hour or so at temperate, and woke at something below freezing. Now she was
+      at summer heat again, in the shade; and when tea was over, and old John,
+      producing a bottle of cordial from one of the oaken cases, insisted on her
+      sipping two glasses thereof in slow succession, she stood steadily at
+      ninety for one hour and a quarter. Profiting by experience, the locksmith
+      took advantage of this genial weather to smoke his pipe in the porch, and
+      in consequence of this prudent management, he was fully prepared, when the
+      glass went down again, to start homewards directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horse was accordingly put in, and the chaise brought round to the
+      door. Joe, who would on no account be dissuaded from escorting them until
+      they had passed the most dreary and solitary part of the road, led out the
+      grey mare at the same time; and having helped Dolly into her seat (more
+      happiness!) sprung gaily into the saddle. Then, after many good nights,
+      and admonitions to wrap up, and glancing of lights, and handing in of
+      cloaks and shawls, the chaise rolled away, and Joe trotted beside it&mdash;on
+      Dolly's side, no doubt, and pretty close to the wheel too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 22
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was a fine bright night, and for all her lowness of spirits Dolly kept
+      looking up at the stars in a manner so bewitching (and SHE knew it!) that
+      Joe was clean out of his senses, and plainly showed that if ever a man
+      were&mdash;not to say over head and ears, but over the Monument and the
+      top of Saint Paul's in love, that man was himself. The road was a very
+      good one; not at all a jolting road, or an uneven one; and yet Dolly held
+      the side of the chaise with one little hand, all the way. If there had
+      been an executioner behind him with an uplifted axe ready to chop off his
+      head if he touched that hand, Joe couldn't have helped doing it. From
+      putting his own hand upon it as if by chance, and taking it away again
+      after a minute or so, he got to riding along without taking it off at all;
+      as if he, the escort, were bound to do that as an important part of his
+      duty, and had come out for the purpose. The most curious circumstance
+      about this little incident was, that Dolly didn't seem to know of it. She
+      looked so innocent and unconscious when she turned her eyes on Joe, that
+      it was quite provoking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She talked though; talked about her fright, and about Joe's coming up to
+      rescue her, and about her gratitude, and about her fear that she might not
+      have thanked him enough, and about their always being friends from that
+      time forth&mdash;and about all that sort of thing. And when Joe said, not
+      friends he hoped, Dolly was quite surprised, and said not enemies she
+      hoped; and when Joe said, couldn't they be something much better than
+      either, Dolly all of a sudden found out a star which was brighter than all
+      the other stars, and begged to call his attention to the same, and was ten
+      thousand times more innocent and unconscious than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this manner they travelled along, talking very little above a whisper,
+      and wishing the road could be stretched out to some dozen times its
+      natural length&mdash;at least that was Joe's desire&mdash;when, as they
+      were getting clear of the forest and emerging on the more frequented road,
+      they heard behind them the sound of a horse's feet at a round trot, which
+      growing rapidly louder as it drew nearer, elicited a scream from Mrs
+      Varden, and the cry 'a friend!' from the rider, who now came panting up,
+      and checked his horse beside them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This man again!' cried Dolly, shuddering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hugh!' said Joe. 'What errand are you upon?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I come to ride back with you,' he answered, glancing covertly at the
+      locksmith's daughter. 'HE sent me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My father!' said poor Joe; adding under his breath, with a very unfilial
+      apostrophe, 'Will he never think me man enough to take care of myself!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Aye!' returned Hugh to the first part of the inquiry. 'The roads are not
+      safe just now, he says, and you'd better have a companion.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ride on then,' said Joe. 'I'm not going to turn yet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh complied, and they went on again. It was his whim or humour to ride
+      immediately before the chaise, and from this position he constantly turned
+      his head, and looked back. Dolly felt that he looked at her, but she
+      averted her eyes and feared to raise them once, so great was the dread
+      with which he had inspired her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This interruption, and the consequent wakefulness of Mrs Varden, who had
+      been nodding in her sleep up to this point, except for a minute or two at
+      a time, when she roused herself to scold the locksmith for audaciously
+      taking hold of her to prevent her nodding herself out of the chaise, put a
+      restraint upon the whispered conversation, and made it difficult of
+      resumption. Indeed, before they had gone another mile, Gabriel stopped at
+      his wife's desire, and that good lady protested she would not hear of
+      Joe's going a step further on any account whatever. It was in vain for Joe
+      to protest on the other hand that he was by no means tired, and would turn
+      back presently, and would see them safely past such a point, and so forth.
+      Mrs Varden was obdurate, and being so was not to be overcome by mortal
+      agency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night&mdash;if I must say it,' said Joe, sorrowfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night,' said Dolly. She would have added, 'Take care of that man,
+      and pray don't trust him,' but he had turned his horse's head, and was
+      standing close to them. She had therefore nothing for it but to suffer Joe
+      to give her hand a gentle squeeze, and when the chaise had gone on for
+      some distance, to look back and wave it, as he still lingered on the spot
+      where they had parted, with the tall dark figure of Hugh beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What she thought about, going home; and whether the coach-maker held as
+      favourable a place in her meditations as he had occupied in the morning,
+      is unknown. They reached home at last&mdash;at last, for it was a long
+      way, made none the shorter by Mrs Varden's grumbling. Miggs hearing the
+      sound of wheels was at the door immediately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here they are, Simmun! Here they are!' cried Miggs, clapping her hands,
+      and issuing forth to help her mistress to alight. 'Bring a chair, Simmun.
+      Now, an't you the better for it, mim? Don't you feel more yourself than
+      you would have done if you'd have stopped at home? Oh, gracious! how cold
+      you are! Goodness me, sir, she's a perfect heap of ice.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I can't help it, my good girl. You had better take her in to the fire,'
+      said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Master sounds unfeeling, mim,' said Miggs, in a tone of commiseration,
+      'but such is not his intentions, I'm sure. After what he has seen of you
+      this day, I never will believe but that he has a deal more affection in
+      his heart than to speak unkind. Come in and sit yourself down by the fire;
+      there's a good dear&mdash;do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden complied. The locksmith followed with his hands in his pockets,
+      and Mr Tappertit trundled off with the chaise to a neighbouring stable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Martha, my dear,' said the locksmith, when they reached the parlour, 'if
+      you'll look to Dolly yourself or let somebody else do it, perhaps it will
+      be only kind and reasonable. She has been frightened, you know, and is not
+      at all well to-night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, Dolly had thrown herself upon the sofa, quite regardless of all
+      the little finery of which she had been so proud in the morning, and with
+      her face buried in her hands was crying very much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first sight of this phenomenon (for Dolly was by no means accustomed to
+      displays of this sort, rather learning from her mother's example to avoid
+      them as much as possible) Mrs Varden expressed her belief that never was
+      any woman so beset as she; that her life was a continued scene of trial;
+      that whenever she was disposed to be well and cheerful, so sure were the
+      people around her to throw, by some means or other, a damp upon her
+      spirits; and that, as she had enjoyed herself that day, and Heaven knew it
+      was very seldom she did enjoy herself so she was now to pay the penalty.
+      To all such propositions Miggs assented freely. Poor Dolly, however, grew
+      none the better for these restoratives, but rather worse, indeed; and
+      seeing that she was really ill, both Mrs Varden and Miggs were moved to
+      compassion, and tended her in earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even then, their very kindness shaped itself into their usual course
+      of policy, and though Dolly was in a swoon, it was rendered clear to the
+      meanest capacity, that Mrs Varden was the sufferer. Thus when Dolly began
+      to get a little better, and passed into that stage in which matrons hold
+      that remonstrance and argument may be successfully applied, her mother
+      represented to her, with tears in her eyes, that if she had been flurried
+      and worried that day, she must remember it was the common lot of humanity,
+      and in especial of womankind, who through the whole of their existence
+      must expect no less, and were bound to make up their minds to meek
+      endurance and patient resignation. Mrs Varden entreated her to remember
+      that one of these days she would, in all probability, have to do violence
+      to her feelings so far as to be married; and that marriage, as she might
+      see every day of her life (and truly she did) was a state requiring great
+      fortitude and forbearance. She represented to her in lively colours, that
+      if she (Mrs V.) had not, in steering her course through this vale of
+      tears, been supported by a strong principle of duty which alone upheld and
+      prevented her from drooping, she must have been in her grave many years
+      ago; in which case she desired to know what would have become of that
+      errant spirit (meaning the locksmith), of whose eye she was the very
+      apple, and in whose path she was, as it were, a shining light and guiding
+      star?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs also put in her word to the same effect. She said that indeed
+      and indeed Miss Dolly might take pattern by her blessed mother, who, she
+      always had said, and always would say, though she were to be hanged,
+      drawn, and quartered for it next minute, was the mildest, amiablest,
+      forgivingest-spirited, longest-sufferingest female as ever she could have
+      believed; the mere narration of whose excellencies had worked such a
+      wholesome change in the mind of her own sister-in-law, that, whereas,
+      before, she and her husband lived like cat and dog, and were in the habit
+      of exchanging brass candlesticks, pot-lids, flat-irons, and other such
+      strong resentments, they were now the happiest and affectionatest couple
+      upon earth; as could be proved any day on application at Golden Lion
+      Court, number twenty-sivin, second bell-handle on the right-hand doorpost.
+      After glancing at herself as a comparatively worthless vessel, but still
+      as one of some desert, she besought her to bear in mind that her aforesaid
+      dear and only mother was of a weakly constitution and excitable
+      temperament, who had constantly to sustain afflictions in domestic life,
+      compared with which thieves and robbers were as nothing, and yet never
+      sunk down or gave way to despair or wrath, but, in prize-fighting
+      phraseology, always came up to time with a cheerful countenance, and went
+      in to win as if nothing had happened. When Miggs finished her solo, her
+      mistress struck in again, and the two together performed a duet to the
+      same purpose; the burden being, that Mrs Varden was persecuted perfection,
+      and Mr Varden, as the representative of mankind in that apartment, a
+      creature of vicious and brutal habits, utterly insensible to the blessings
+      he enjoyed. Of so refined a character, indeed, was their talent of assault
+      under the mask of sympathy, that when Dolly, recovering, embraced her
+      father tenderly, as in vindication of his goodness, Mrs Varden expressed
+      her solemn hope that this would be a lesson to him for the remainder of
+      his life, and that he would do some little justice to a woman's nature
+      ever afterwards&mdash;in which aspiration Miss Miggs, by divers sniffs and
+      coughs, more significant than the longest oration, expressed her entire
+      concurrence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the great joy of Miggs's heart was, that she not only picked up a full
+      account of what had happened, but had the exquisite delight of conveying
+      it to Mr Tappertit for his jealousy and torture. For that gentleman, on
+      account of Dolly's indisposition, had been requested to take his supper in
+      the workshop, and it was conveyed thither by Miss Miggs's own fair hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh Simmun!' said the young lady, 'such goings on to-day! Oh, gracious me,
+      Simmun!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit, who was not in the best of humours, and who disliked Miss
+      Miggs more when she laid her hand on her heart and panted for breath than
+      at any other time, as her deficiency of outline was most apparent under
+      such circumstances, eyed her over in his loftiest style, and deigned to
+      express no curiosity whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I never heard the like, nor nobody else,' pursued Miggs. 'The idea of
+      interfering with HER. What people can see in her to make it worth their
+      while to do so, that's the joke&mdash;he he he!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding there was a lady in the case, Mr Tappertit haughtily requested his
+      fair friend to be more explicit, and demanded to know what she meant by
+      'her.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, that Dolly,' said Miggs, with an extremely sharp emphasis on the
+      name. 'But, oh upon my word and honour, young Joseph Willet is a brave
+      one; and he do deserve her, that he do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Woman!' said Mr Tappertit, jumping off the counter on which he was
+      seated; 'beware!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My stars, Simmun!' cried Miggs, in affected astonishment. 'You frighten
+      me to death! What's the matter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There are strings,' said Mr Tappertit, flourishing his bread-and-cheese
+      knife in the air, 'in the human heart that had better not be wibrated.
+      That's what's the matter.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, very well&mdash;if you're in a huff,' cried Miggs, turning away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Huff or no huff,' said Mr Tappertit, detaining her by the wrist. 'What do
+      you mean, Jezebel? What were you going to say? Answer me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding this uncivil exhortation, Miggs gladly did as she was
+      required; and told him how that their young mistress, being alone in the
+      meadows after dark, had been attacked by three or four tall men, who would
+      have certainly borne her away and perhaps murdered her, but for the timely
+      arrival of Joseph Willet, who with his own single hand put them all to
+      flight, and rescued her; to the lasting admiration of his fellow-creatures
+      generally, and to the eternal love and gratitude of Dolly Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very good,' said Mr Tappertit, fetching a long breath when the tale was
+      told, and rubbing his hair up till it stood stiff and straight on end all
+      over his head. 'His days are numbered.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, Simmun!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I tell you,' said the 'prentice, 'his days are numbered. Leave me. Get
+      along with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs departed at his bidding, but less because of his bidding than
+      because she desired to chuckle in secret. When she had given vent to her
+      satisfaction, she returned to the parlour; where the locksmith, stimulated
+      by quietness and Toby, had become talkative, and was disposed to take a
+      cheerful review of the occurrences of the day. But Mrs Varden, whose
+      practical religion (as is not uncommon) was usually of the retrospective
+      order, cut him short by declaiming on the sinfulness of such junketings,
+      and holding that it was high time to go to bed. To bed therefore she
+      withdrew, with an aspect as grim and gloomy as that of the Maypole's own
+      state couch; and to bed the rest of the establishment soon afterwards
+      repaired.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0112m.jpg" alt="0112m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0112.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 23
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Twilight had given place to night some hours, and it was high noon in
+      those quarters of the town in which 'the world' condescended to dwell&mdash;the
+      world being then, as now, of very limited dimensions and easily lodged&mdash;when
+      Mr Chester reclined upon a sofa in his dressing-room in the Temple,
+      entertaining himself with a book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was dressing, as it seemed, by easy stages, and having performed half
+      the journey was taking a long rest. Completely attired as to his legs and
+      feet in the trimmest fashion of the day, he had yet the remainder of his
+      toilet to perform. The coat was stretched, like a refined scarecrow, on
+      its separate horse; the waistcoat was displayed to the best advantage; the
+      various ornamental articles of dress were severally set out in most
+      alluring order; and yet he lay dangling his legs between the sofa and the
+      ground, as intent upon his book as if there were nothing but bed before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Upon my honour,' he said, at length raising his eyes to the ceiling with
+      the air of a man who was reflecting seriously on what he had read; 'upon
+      my honour, the most masterly composition, the most delicate thoughts, the
+      finest code of morality, and the most gentlemanly sentiments in the
+      universe! Ah Ned, Ned, if you would but form your mind by such precepts,
+      we should have but one common feeling on every subject that could possibly
+      arise between us!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This apostrophe was addressed, like the rest of his remarks, to empty air:
+      for Edward was not present, and the father was quite alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My Lord Chesterfield,' he said, pressing his hand tenderly upon the book
+      as he laid it down, 'if I could but have profited by your genius soon
+      enough to have formed my son on the model you have left to all wise
+      fathers, both he and I would have been rich men. Shakespeare was
+      undoubtedly very fine in his way; Milton good, though prosy; Lord Bacon
+      deep, and decidedly knowing; but the writer who should be his country's
+      pride, is my Lord Chesterfield.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He became thoughtful again, and the toothpick was in requisition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thought I was tolerably accomplished as a man of the world,' he
+      continued, 'I flattered myself that I was pretty well versed in all those
+      little arts and graces which distinguish men of the world from boors and
+      peasants, and separate their character from those intensely vulgar
+      sentiments which are called the national character. Apart from any natural
+      prepossession in my own favour, I believed I was. Still, in every page of
+      this enlightened writer, I find some captivating hypocrisy which has never
+      occurred to me before, or some superlative piece of selfishness to which I
+      was utterly a stranger. I should quite blush for myself before this
+      stupendous creature, if remembering his precepts, one might blush at
+      anything. An amazing man! a nobleman indeed! any King or Queen may make a
+      Lord, but only the Devil himself&mdash;and the Graces&mdash;can make a
+      Chesterfield.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Men who are thoroughly false and hollow, seldom try to hide those vices
+      from themselves; and yet in the very act of avowing them, they lay claim
+      to the virtues they feign most to despise. 'For,' say they, 'this is
+      honesty, this is truth. All mankind are like us, but they have not the
+      candour to avow it.' The more they affect to deny the existence of any
+      sincerity in the world, the more they would be thought to possess it in
+      its boldest shape; and this is an unconscious compliment to Truth on the
+      part of these philosophers, which will turn the laugh against them to the
+      Day of Judgment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester, having extolled his favourite author, as above recited, took
+      up the book again in the excess of his admiration and was composing
+      himself for a further perusal of its sublime morality, when he was
+      disturbed by a noise at the outer door; occasioned as it seemed by the
+      endeavours of his servant to obstruct the entrance of some unwelcome
+      visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A late hour for an importunate creditor,' he said, raising his eyebrows
+      with as indolent an expression of wonder as if the noise were in the
+      street, and one with which he had not the smallest possible concern. 'Much
+      after their accustomed time. The usual pretence I suppose. No doubt a
+      heavy payment to make up tomorrow. Poor fellow, he loses time, and time is
+      money as the good proverb says&mdash;I never found it out though. Well.
+      What now? You know I am not at home.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A man, sir,' replied the servant, who was to the full as cool and
+      negligent in his way as his master, 'has brought home the riding-whip you
+      lost the other day. I told him you were out, but he said he was to wait
+      while I brought it in, and wouldn't go till I did.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He was quite right,' returned his master, 'and you're a blockhead,
+      possessing no judgment or discretion whatever. Tell him to come in, and
+      see that he rubs his shoes for exactly five minutes first.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man laid the whip on a chair, and withdrew. The master, who had only
+      heard his foot upon the ground and had not taken the trouble to turn round
+      and look at him, shut his book, and pursued the train of ideas his
+      entrance had disturbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If time were money,' he said, handling his snuff-box, 'I would compound
+      with my creditors, and give them&mdash;let me see&mdash;how much a day?
+      There's my nap after dinner&mdash;an hour&mdash;they're extremely welcome
+      to that, and to make the most of it. In the morning, between my breakfast
+      and the paper, I could spare them another hour; in the evening before
+      dinner say another. Three hours a day. They might pay themselves in calls,
+      with interest, in twelve months. I think I shall propose it to them. Ah,
+      my centaur, are you there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here I am,' replied Hugh, striding in, followed by a dog, as rough and
+      sullen as himself; 'and trouble enough I've had to get here. What do you
+      ask me to come for, and keep me out when I DO come?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good fellow,' returned the other, raising his head a little from the
+      cushion and carelessly surveying him from top to toe, 'I am delighted to
+      see you, and to have, in your being here, the very best proof that you are
+      not kept out. How are you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm well enough,' said Hugh impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You look a perfect marvel of health. Sit down.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'd rather stand,' said Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Please yourself my good fellow,' returned Mr Chester rising, slowly
+      pulling off the loose robe he wore, and sitting down before the
+      dressing-glass. 'Please yourself by all means.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having said this in the politest and blandest tone possible, he went on
+      dressing, and took no further notice of his guest, who stood in the same
+      spot as uncertain what to do next, eyeing him sulkily from time to time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you going to speak to me, master?' he said, after a long silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My worthy creature,' returned Mr Chester, 'you are a little ruffled and
+      out of humour. I'll wait till you're quite yourself again. I am in no
+      hurry.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This behaviour had its intended effect. It humbled and abashed the man,
+      and made him still more irresolute and uncertain. Hard words he could have
+      returned, violence he would have repaid with interest; but this cool,
+      complacent, contemptuous, self-possessed reception, caused him to feel his
+      inferiority more completely than the most elaborate arguments. Everything
+      contributed to this effect. His own rough speech, contrasted with the soft
+      persuasive accents of the other; his rude bearing, and Mr Chester's
+      polished manner; the disorder and negligence of his ragged dress, and the
+      elegant attire he saw before him; with all the unaccustomed luxuries and
+      comforts of the room, and the silence that gave him leisure to observe
+      these things, and feel how ill at ease they made him; all these
+      influences, which have too often some effect on tutored minds and become
+      of almost resistless power when brought to bear on such a mind as his,
+      quelled Hugh completely. He moved by little and little nearer to Mr
+      Chester's chair, and glancing over his shoulder at the reflection of his
+      face in the glass, as if seeking for some encouragement in its expression,
+      said at length, with a rough attempt at conciliation,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'ARE you going to speak to me, master, or am I to go away?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Speak you,' said Mr Chester, 'speak you, good fellow. I have spoken, have
+      I not? I am waiting for you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, look'ee, sir,' returned Hugh with increased embarrassment, 'am I the
+      man that you privately left your whip with before you rode away from the
+      Maypole, and told to bring it back whenever he might want to see you on a
+      certain subject?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No doubt the same, or you have a twin brother,' said Mr Chester, glancing
+      at the reflection of his anxious face; 'which is not probable, I should
+      say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then I have come, sir,' said Hugh, 'and I have brought it back, and
+      something else along with it. A letter, sir, it is, that I took from the
+      person who had charge of it.' As he spoke, he laid upon the
+      dressing-table, Dolly's lost epistle. The very letter that had cost her so
+      much trouble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you obtain this by force, my good fellow?' said Mr Chester, casting
+      his eye upon it without the least perceptible surprise or pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not quite,' said Hugh. 'Partly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who was the messenger from whom you took it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A woman. One Varden's daughter.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh indeed!' said Mr Chester gaily. 'What else did you take from her?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What else?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' said the other, in a drawling manner, for he was fixing a very
+      small patch of sticking plaster on a very small pimple near the corner of
+      his mouth. 'What else?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well a kiss,' replied Hugh, after some hesitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what else?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I think,' said Mr Chester, in the same easy tone, and smiling twice or
+      thrice to try if the patch adhered&mdash;'I think there was something
+      else. I have heard a trifle of jewellery spoken of&mdash;a mere trifle&mdash;a
+      thing of such little value, indeed, that you may have forgotten it. Do you
+      remember anything of the kind&mdash;such as a bracelet now, for instance?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh with a muttered oath thrust his hand into his breast, and drawing the
+      bracelet forth, wrapped in a scrap of hay, was about to lay it on the
+      table likewise, when his patron stopped his hand and bade him put it up
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You took that for yourself my excellent friend,' he said, 'and may keep
+      it. I am neither a thief nor a receiver. Don't show it to me. You had
+      better hide it again, and lose no time. Don't let me see where you put it
+      either,' he added, turning away his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're not a receiver!' said Hugh bluntly, despite the increasing awe in
+      which he held him. 'What do you call THAT, master?' striking the letter
+      with his heavy hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I call that quite another thing,' said Mr Chester coolly. 'I shall prove
+      it presently, as you will see. You are thirsty, I suppose?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh drew his sleeve across his lips, and gruffly answered yes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Step to that closet and bring me a bottle you will see there, and a
+      glass.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He obeyed. His patron followed him with his eyes, and when his back was
+      turned, smiled as he had never done when he stood beside the mirror. On
+      his return he filled the glass, and bade him drink. That dram despatched,
+      he poured him out another, and another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How many can you bear?' he said, filling the glass again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As many as you like to give me. Pour on. Fill high. A bumper with a bead
+      in the middle! Give me enough of this,' he added, as he tossed it down his
+      hairy throat, 'and I'll do murder if you ask me!'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0115m.jpg" alt="0115m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0115.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'As I don't mean to ask you, and you might possibly do it without being
+      invited if you went on much further,' said Mr Chester with great
+      composure, we will stop, if agreeable to you, my good friend, at the next
+      glass. You were drinking before you came here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I always am when I can get it,' cried Hugh boisterously, waving the empty
+      glass above his head, and throwing himself into a rude dancing attitude.
+      'I always am. Why not? Ha ha ha! What's so good to me as this? What ever
+      has been? What else has kept away the cold on bitter nights, and driven
+      hunger off in starving times? What else has given me the strength and
+      courage of a man, when men would have left me to die, a puny child? I
+      should never have had a man's heart but for this. I should have died in a
+      ditch. Where's he who when I was a weak and sickly wretch, with trembling
+      legs and fading sight, bade me cheer up, as this did? I never knew him;
+      not I. I drink to the drink, master. Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are an exceedingly cheerful young man,' said Mr Chester, putting on
+      his cravat with great deliberation, and slightly moving his head from side
+      to side to settle his chin in its proper place. 'Quite a boon companion.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you see this hand, master,' said Hugh, 'and this arm?' baring the
+      brawny limb to the elbow. 'It was once mere skin and bone, and would have
+      been dust in some poor churchyard by this time, but for the drink.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You may cover it,' said Mr Chester, 'it's sufficiently real in your
+      sleeve.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should never have been spirited up to take a kiss from the proud little
+      beauty, master, but for the drink,' cried Hugh. 'Ha ha ha! It was a good
+      one. As sweet as honeysuckle, I warrant you. I thank the drink for it.
+      I'll drink to the drink again, master. Fill me one more. Come. One more!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are such a promising fellow,' said his patron, putting on his
+      waistcoat with great nicety, and taking no heed of this request, 'that I
+      must caution you against having too many impulses from the drink, and
+      getting hung before your time. What's your age?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At any rate,' said Mr Chester, 'you are young enough to escape what I may
+      call a natural death for some years to come. How can you trust yourself in
+      my hands on so short an acquaintance, with a halter round your neck? What
+      a confiding nature yours must be!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh fell back a pace or two and surveyed him with a look of mingled
+      terror, indignation, and surprise. Regarding himself in the glass with the
+      same complacency as before, and speaking as smoothly as if he were
+      discussing some pleasant chit-chat of the town, his patron went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Robbery on the king's highway, my young friend, is a very dangerous and
+      ticklish occupation. It is pleasant, I have no doubt, while it lasts; but
+      like many other pleasures in this transitory world, it seldom lasts long.
+      And really if in the ingenuousness of youth, you open your heart so
+      readily on the subject, I am afraid your career will be an extremely short
+      one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How's this?' said Hugh. 'What do you talk of master? Who was it set me
+      on?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who?' said Mr Chester, wheeling sharply round, and looking full at him
+      for the first time. 'I didn't hear you. Who was it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh faltered, and muttered something which was not audible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who was it? I am curious to know,' said Mr Chester, with surpassing
+      affability. 'Some rustic beauty perhaps? But be cautious, my good friend.
+      They are not always to be trusted. Do take my advice now, and be careful
+      of yourself.' With these words he turned to the glass again, and went on
+      with his toilet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh would have answered him that he, the questioner himself had set him
+      on, but the words stuck in his throat. The consummate art with which his
+      patron had led him to this point, and managed the whole conversation,
+      perfectly baffled him. He did not doubt that if he had made the retort
+      which was on his lips when Mr Chester turned round and questioned him so
+      keenly, he would straightway have given him into custody and had him
+      dragged before a justice with the stolen property upon him; in which case
+      it was as certain he would have been hung as it was that he had been born.
+      The ascendency which it was the purpose of the man of the world to
+      establish over this savage instrument, was gained from that time. Hugh's
+      submission was complete. He dreaded him beyond description; and felt that
+      accident and artifice had spun a web about him, which at a touch from such
+      a master-hand as his, would bind him to the gallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these thoughts passing through his mind, and yet wondering at the
+      very same time how he who came there rioting in the confidence of this man
+      (as he thought), should be so soon and so thoroughly subdued, Hugh stood
+      cowering before him, regarding him uneasily from time to time, while he
+      finished dressing. When he had done so, he took up the letter, broke the
+      seal, and throwing himself back in his chair, read it leisurely through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very neatly worded upon my life! Quite a woman's letter, full of what
+      people call tenderness, and disinterestedness, and heart, and all that
+      sort of thing!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, he twisted it up, and glancing lazily round at Hugh as though
+      he would say 'You see this?' held it in the flame of the candle. When it
+      was in a full blaze, he tossed it into the grate, and there it smouldered
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was directed to my son,' he said, turning to Hugh, 'and you did quite
+      right to bring it here. I opened it on my own responsibility, and you see
+      what I have done with it. Take this, for your trouble.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh stepped forward to receive the piece of money he held out to him. As
+      he put it in his hand, he added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you should happen to find anything else of this sort, or to pick up
+      any kind of information you may think I would like to have, bring it here,
+      will you, my good fellow?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was said with a smile which implied&mdash;or Hugh thought it did&mdash;'fail
+      to do so at your peril!' He answered that he would.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And don't,' said his patron, with an air of the very kindest patronage,
+      'don't be at all downcast or uneasy respecting that little rashness we
+      have been speaking of. Your neck is as safe in my hands, my good fellow,
+      as though a baby's fingers clasped it, I assure you.&mdash;Take another
+      glass. You are quieter now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh accepted it from his hand, and looking stealthily at his smiling
+      face, drank the contents in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't you&mdash;ha, ha!&mdash;don't you drink to the drink any more?'
+      said Mr Chester, in his most winning manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To you, sir,' was the sullen answer, with something approaching to a bow.
+      'I drink to you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank you. God bless you. By the bye, what is your name, my good soul?
+      You are called Hugh, I know, of course&mdash;your other name?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have no other name.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A very strange fellow! Do you mean that you never knew one, or that you
+      don't choose to tell it? Which?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'd tell it if I could,' said Hugh, quickly. 'I can't. I have been always
+      called Hugh; nothing more. I never knew, nor saw, nor thought about a
+      father; and I was a boy of six&mdash;that's not very old&mdash;when they
+      hung my mother up at Tyburn for a couple of thousand men to stare at. They
+      might have let her live. She was poor enough.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How very sad!' exclaimed his patron, with a condescending smile. 'I have
+      no doubt she was an exceedingly fine woman.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You see that dog of mine?' said Hugh, abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Faithful, I dare say?' rejoined his patron, looking at him through his
+      glass; 'and immensely clever? Virtuous and gifted animals, whether man or
+      beast, always are so very hideous.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Such a dog as that, and one of the same breed, was the only living thing
+      except me that howled that day,' said Hugh. 'Out of the two thousand odd&mdash;there
+      was a larger crowd for its being a woman&mdash;the dog and I alone had any
+      pity. If he'd have been a man, he'd have been glad to be quit of her, for
+      she had been forced to keep him lean and half-starved; but being a dog,
+      and not having a man's sense, he was sorry.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was dull of the brute, certainly,' said Mr Chester, 'and very like a
+      brute.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh made no rejoinder, but whistling to his dog, who sprung up at the
+      sound and came jumping and sporting about him, bade his sympathising
+      friend good night.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0117m.jpg" alt="0117m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0117.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'Good night; he returned. 'Remember; you're safe with me&mdash;quite safe.
+      So long as you deserve it, my good fellow, as I hope you always will, you
+      have a friend in me, on whose silence you may rely. Now do be careful of
+      yourself, pray do, and consider what jeopardy you might have stood in.
+      Good night! bless you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words as much as such a
+      being could, and crept out of the door so submissively and subserviently&mdash;with
+      an air, in short, so different from that with which he had entered&mdash;that
+      his patron on being left alone, smiled more than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And yet,' he said, as he took a pinch of snuff, 'I do not like their
+      having hanged his mother. The fellow has a fine eye, and I am sure she was
+      handsome. But very probably she was coarse&mdash;red-nosed perhaps, and
+      had clumsy feet. Aye, it was all for the best, no doubt.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this comforting reflection, he put on his coat, took a farewell
+      glance at the glass, and summoned his man, who promptly attended, followed
+      by a chair and its two bearers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Foh!' said Mr Chester. 'The very atmosphere that centaur has breathed,
+      seems tainted with the cart and ladder. Here, Peak. Bring some scent and
+      sprinkle the floor; and take away the chair he sat upon, and air it; and
+      dash a little of that mixture upon me. I am stifled!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man obeyed; and the room and its master being both purified, nothing
+      remained for Mr Chester but to demand his hat, to fold it jauntily under
+      his arm, to take his seat in the chair and be carried off; humming a
+      fashionable tune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 24
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      How the accomplished gentleman spent the evening in the midst of a
+      dazzling and brilliant circle; how he enchanted all those with whom he
+      mingled by the grace of his deportment, the politeness of his manner, the
+      vivacity of his conversation, and the sweetness of his voice; how it was
+      observed in every corner, that Chester was a man of that happy disposition
+      that nothing ruffled him, that he was one on whom the world's cares and
+      errors sat lightly as his dress, and in whose smiling face a calm and
+      tranquil mind was constantly reflected; how honest men, who by instinct
+      knew him better, bowed down before him nevertheless, deferred to his every
+      word, and courted his favourable notice; how people, who really had good
+      in them, went with the stream, and fawned and flattered, and approved, and
+      despised themselves while they did so, and yet had not the courage to
+      resist; how, in short, he was one of those who are received and cherished
+      in society (as the phrase is) by scores who individually would shrink from
+      and be repelled by the object of their lavish regard; are things of
+      course, which will suggest themselves. Matter so commonplace needs but a
+      passing glance, and there an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The despisers of mankind&mdash;apart from the mere fools and mimics, of
+      that creed&mdash;are of two sorts. They who believe their merit neglected
+      and unappreciated, make up one class; they who receive adulation and
+      flattery, knowing their own worthlessness, compose the other. Be sure that
+      the coldest-hearted misanthropes are ever of this last order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester sat up in bed next morning, sipping his coffee, and remembering
+      with a kind of contemptuous satisfaction how he had shone last night, and
+      how he had been caressed and courted, when his servant brought in a very
+      small scrap of dirty paper, tightly sealed in two places, on the inside
+      whereof was inscribed in pretty large text these words: 'A friend.
+      Desiring of a conference. Immediate. Private. Burn it when you've read
+      it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where in the name of the Gunpowder Plot did you pick up this?' said his
+      master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was given him by a person then waiting at the door, the man replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'With a cloak and dagger?' said Mr Chester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With nothing more threatening about him, it appeared, than a leather apron
+      and a dirty face. 'Let him come in.' In he came&mdash;Mr Tappertit; with
+      his hair still on end, and a great lock in his hand, which he put down on
+      the floor in the middle of the chamber as if he were about to go through
+      some performances in which it was a necessary agent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' said Mr Tappertit with a low bow, 'I thank you for this
+      condescension, and am glad to see you. Pardon the menial office in which I
+      am engaged, sir, and extend your sympathies to one, who, humble as his
+      appearance is, has inn'ard workings far above his station.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester held the bed-curtain farther back, and looked at him with a
+      vague impression that he was some maniac, who had not only broken open the
+      door of his place of confinement, but had brought away the lock. Mr
+      Tappertit bowed again, and displayed his legs to the best advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have heard, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, laying his hand upon his breast,
+      'of G. Varden Locksmith and bell-hanger and repairs neatly executed in
+      town and country, Clerkenwell, London?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What then?' asked Mr Chester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm his 'prentice, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What THEN?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ahem!' said Mr Tappertit. 'Would you permit me to shut the door, sir, and
+      will you further, sir, give me your honour bright, that what passes
+      between us is in the strictest confidence?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester laid himself calmly down in bed again, and turning a perfectly
+      undisturbed face towards the strange apparition, which had by this time
+      closed the door, begged him to speak out, and to be as rational as he
+      could, without putting himself to any very great personal inconvenience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In the first place, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, producing a small
+      pocket-handkerchief and shaking it out of the folds, 'as I have not a card
+      about me (for the envy of masters debases us below that level) allow me to
+      offer the best substitute that circumstances will admit of. If you will
+      take that in your own hand, sir, and cast your eye on the right-hand
+      corner,' said Mr Tappertit, offering it with a graceful air, 'you will
+      meet with my credentials.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank you,' answered Mr Chester, politely accepting it, and turning to
+      some blood-red characters at one end. '"Four. Simon Tappertit. One." Is
+      that the&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Without the numbers, sir, that is my name,' replied the 'prentice. 'They
+      are merely intended as directions to the washerwoman, and have no
+      connection with myself or family. YOUR name, sir,' said Mr Tappertit,
+      looking very hard at his nightcap, 'is Chester, I suppose? You needn't
+      pull it off, sir, thank you. I observe E. C. from here. We will take the
+      rest for granted.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pray, Mr Tappertit,' said Mr Chester, 'has that complicated piece of
+      ironmongery which you have done me the favour to bring with you, any
+      immediate connection with the business we are to discuss?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It has not, sir,' rejoined the 'prentice. 'It's going to be fitted on a
+      ware'us-door in Thames Street.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Perhaps, as that is the case,' said Mr Chester, 'and as it has a stronger
+      flavour of oil than I usually refresh my bedroom with, you will oblige me
+      so far as to put it outside the door?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By all means, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, suiting the action to the word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You'll excuse my mentioning it, I hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't apologise, sir, I beg. And now, if you please, to business.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the whole of this dialogue, Mr Chester had suffered nothing but his
+      smile of unvarying serenity and politeness to appear upon his face. Sim
+      Tappertit, who had far too good an opinion of himself to suspect that
+      anybody could be playing upon him, thought within himself that this was
+      something like the respect to which he was entitled, and drew a comparison
+      from this courteous demeanour of a stranger, by no means favourable to the
+      worthy locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'From what passes in our house,' said Mr Tappertit, 'I am aware, sir, that
+      your son keeps company with a young lady against your inclinations. Sir,
+      your son has not used me well.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Tappertit,' said the other, 'you grieve me beyond description.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank you, sir,' replied the 'prentice. 'I'm glad to hear you say so.
+      He's very proud, sir, is your son; very haughty.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am afraid he IS haughty,' said Mr Chester. 'Do you know I was really
+      afraid of that before; and you confirm me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To recount the menial offices I've had to do for your son, sir,' said Mr
+      Tappertit; 'the chairs I've had to hand him, the coaches I've had to call
+      for him, the numerous degrading duties, wholly unconnected with my
+      indenters, that I've had to do for him, would fill a family Bible. Besides
+      which, sir, he is but a young man himself and I do not consider "thank'ee
+      Sim," a proper form of address on those occasions.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Tappertit, your wisdom is beyond your years. Pray go on.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thank you for your good opinion, sir,' said Sim, much gratified, 'and
+      will endeavour so to do. Now sir, on this account (and perhaps for another
+      reason or two which I needn't go into) I am on your side. And what I tell
+      you is this&mdash;that as long as our people go backwards and forwards, to
+      and fro, up and down, to that there jolly old Maypole, lettering, and
+      messaging, and fetching and carrying, you couldn't help your son keeping
+      company with that young lady by deputy,&mdash;not if he was minded night
+      and day by all the Horse Guards, and every man of 'em in the very fullest
+      uniform.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit stopped to take breath after this, and then started fresh
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, sir, I am a coming to the point. You will inquire of me, "how is
+      this to be prevented?" I'll tell you how. If an honest, civil, smiling
+      gentleman like you&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Tappertit&mdash;really&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no, I'm serious,' rejoined the 'prentice, 'I am, upon my soul. If an
+      honest, civil, smiling gentleman like you, was to talk but ten minutes to
+      our old woman&mdash;that's Mrs Varden&mdash;and flatter her up a bit,
+      you'd gain her over for ever. Then there's this point got&mdash;that her
+      daughter Dolly,'&mdash;here a flush came over Mr Tappertit's face&mdash;'wouldn't
+      be allowed to be a go-between from that time forward; and till that
+      point's got, there's nothing ever will prevent her. Mind that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Tappertit, your knowledge of human nature&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Wait a minute,' said Sim, folding his arms with a dreadful calmness. 'Now
+      I come to THE point. Sir, there is a villain at that Maypole, a monster in
+      human shape, a vagabond of the deepest dye, that unless you get rid of and
+      have kidnapped and carried off at the very least&mdash;nothing less will
+      do&mdash;will marry your son to that young woman, as certainly and as
+      surely as if he was the Archbishop of Canterbury himself. He will, sir,
+      for the hatred and malice that he bears to you; let alone the pleasure of
+      doing a bad action, which to him is its own reward. If you knew how this
+      chap, this Joseph Willet&mdash;that's his name&mdash;comes backwards and
+      forwards to our house, libelling, and denouncing, and threatening you, and
+      how I shudder when I hear him, you'd hate him worse than I do,&mdash;worse
+      than I do, sir,' said Mr Tappertit wildly, putting his hair up straighter,
+      and making a crunching noise with his teeth; 'if sich a thing is
+      possible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A little private vengeance in this, Mr Tappertit?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Private vengeance, sir, or public sentiment, or both combined&mdash;destroy
+      him,' said Mr Tappertit. 'Miggs says so too. Miggs and me both say so. We
+      can't bear the plotting and undermining that takes place. Our souls recoil
+      from it. Barnaby Rudge and Mrs Rudge are in it likewise; but the villain,
+      Joseph Willet, is the ringleader. Their plottings and schemes are known to
+      me and Miggs. If you want information of 'em, apply to us. Put Joseph
+      Willet down, sir. Destroy him. Crush him. And be happy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words, Mr Tappertit, who seemed to expect no reply, and to hold
+      it as a necessary consequence of his eloquence that his hearer should be
+      utterly stunned, dumbfoundered, and overwhelmed, folded his arms so that
+      the palm of each hand rested on the opposite shoulder, and disappeared
+      after the manner of those mysterious warners of whom he had read in cheap
+      story-books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That fellow,' said Mr Chester, relaxing his face when he was fairly gone,
+      'is good practice. I HAVE some command of my features, beyond all doubt.
+      He fully confirms what I suspected, though; and blunt tools are sometimes
+      found of use, where sharper instruments would fail. I fear I may be
+      obliged to make great havoc among these worthy people. A troublesome
+      necessity! I quite feel for them.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he fell into a quiet slumber:&mdash;subsided into such a gentle,
+      pleasant sleep, that it was quite infantine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 25
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Leaving the favoured, and well-received, and flattered of the world; him
+      of the world most worldly, who never compromised himself by an
+      ungentlemanly action, and never was guilty of a manly one; to lie
+      smilingly asleep&mdash;for even sleep, working but little change in his
+      dissembling face, became with him a piece of cold, conventional hypocrisy&mdash;we
+      follow in the steps of two slow travellers on foot, making towards
+      Chigwell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby and his mother. Grip in their company, of course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow, to whom each painful mile seemed longer than the last, toiled
+      wearily along; while Barnaby, yielding to every inconstant impulse,
+      fluttered here and there, now leaving her far behind, now lingering far
+      behind himself, now darting into some by-lane or path and leaving her to
+      pursue her way alone, until he stealthily emerged again and came upon her
+      with a wild shout of merriment, as his wayward and capricious nature
+      prompted. Now he would call to her from the topmost branch of some high
+      tree by the roadside; now using his tall staff as a leaping-pole, come
+      flying over ditch or hedge or five-barred gate; now run with surprising
+      swiftness for a mile or more on the straight road, and halting, sport upon
+      a patch of grass with Grip till she came up. These were his delights; and
+      when his patient mother heard his merry voice, or looked into his flushed
+      and healthy face, she would not have abated them by one sad word or
+      murmur, though each had been to her a source of suffering in the same
+      degree as it was to him of pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is something to look upon enjoyment, so that it be free and wild and in
+      the face of nature, though it is but the enjoyment of an idiot. It is
+      something to know that Heaven has left the capacity of gladness in such a
+      creature's breast; it is something to be assured that, however lightly men
+      may crush that faculty in their fellows, the Great Creator of mankind
+      imparts it even to his despised and slighted work. Who would not rather
+      see a poor idiot happy in the sunlight, than a wise man pining in a
+      darkened jail!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ye men of gloom and austerity, who paint the face of Infinite Benevolence
+      with an eternal frown; read in the Everlasting Book, wide open to your
+      view, the lesson it would teach. Its pictures are not in black and sombre
+      hues, but bright and glowing tints; its music&mdash;save when ye drown it&mdash;is
+      not in sighs and groans, but songs and cheerful sounds. Listen to the
+      million voices in the summer air, and find one dismal as your own.
+      Remember, if ye can, the sense of hope and pleasure which every glad
+      return of day awakens in the breast of all your kind who have not changed
+      their nature; and learn some wisdom even from the witless, when their
+      hearts are lifted up they know not why, by all the mirth and happiness it
+      brings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow's breast was full of care, was laden heavily with secret dread
+      and sorrow; but her boy's gaiety of heart gladdened her, and beguiled the
+      long journey. Sometimes he would bid her lean upon his arm, and would keep
+      beside her steadily for a short distance; but it was more his nature to be
+      rambling to and fro, and she better liked to see him free and happy, even
+      than to have him near her, because she loved him better than herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had quitted the place to which they were travelling, directly after
+      the event which had changed her whole existence; and for two-and-twenty
+      years had never had courage to revisit it. It was her native village. How
+      many recollections crowded on her mind when it appeared in sight!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two-and-twenty years. Her boy's whole life and history. The last time she
+      looked back upon those roofs among the trees, she carried him in her arms,
+      an infant. How often since that time had she sat beside him night and day,
+      watching for the dawn of mind that never came; how had she feared, and
+      doubted, and yet hoped, long after conviction forced itself upon her! The
+      little stratagems she had devised to try him, the little tokens he had
+      given in his childish way&mdash;not of dulness but of something infinitely
+      worse, so ghastly and unchildlike in its cunning&mdash;came back as
+      vividly as if but yesterday had intervened. The room in which they used to
+      be; the spot in which his cradle stood; he, old and elfin-like in face,
+      but ever dear to her, gazing at her with a wild and vacant eye, and
+      crooning some uncouth song as she sat by and rocked him; every
+      circumstance of his infancy came thronging back, and the most trivial,
+      perhaps, the most distinctly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His older childhood, too; the strange imaginings he had; his terror of
+      certain senseless things&mdash;familiar objects he endowed with life; the
+      slow and gradual breaking out of that one horror, in which, before his
+      birth, his darkened intellect began; how, in the midst of all, she had
+      found some hope and comfort in his being unlike another child, and had
+      gone on almost believing in the slow development of his mind until he grew
+      a man, and then his childhood was complete and lasting; one after another,
+      all these old thoughts sprung up within her, strong after their long
+      slumber and bitterer than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took his arm and they hurried through the village street. It was the
+      same as it was wont to be in old times, yet different too, and wore
+      another air. The change was in herself, not it; but she never thought of
+      that, and wondered at its alteration, and where it lay, and what it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people all knew Barnaby, and the children of the place came flocking
+      round him&mdash;as she remembered to have done with their fathers and
+      mothers round some silly beggarman, when a child herself. None of them
+      knew her; they passed each well-remembered house, and yard, and homestead;
+      and striking into the fields, were soon alone again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Warren was the end of their journey. Mr Haredale was walking in the
+      garden, and seeing them as they passed the iron gate, unlocked it, and
+      bade them enter that way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At length you have mustered heart to visit the old place,' he said to the
+      widow. 'I am glad you have.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For the first time, and the last, sir,' she replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The first for many years, but not the last?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The very last.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You mean,' said Mr Haredale, regarding her with some surprise, 'that
+      having made this effort, you are resolved not to persevere and are
+      determined to relapse? This is unworthy of you. I have often told you, you
+      should return here. You would be happier here than elsewhere, I know. As
+      to Barnaby, it's quite his home.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And Grip's,' said Barnaby, holding the basket open. The raven hopped
+      gravely out, and perching on his shoulder and addressing himself to Mr
+      Haredale, cried&mdash;as a hint, perhaps, that some temperate refreshment
+      would be acceptable&mdash;'Polly put the ket-tle on, we'll all have tea!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hear me, Mary,' said Mr Haredale kindly, as he motioned her to walk with
+      him towards the house. 'Your life has been an example of patience and
+      fortitude, except in this one particular which has often given me great
+      pain. It is enough to know that you were cruelly involved in the calamity
+      which deprived me of an only brother, and Emma of her father, without
+      being obliged to suppose (as I sometimes am) that you associate us with
+      the author of our joint misfortunes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Associate you with him, sir!' she cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Indeed,' said Mr Haredale, 'I think you do. I almost believe that because
+      your husband was bound by so many ties to our relation, and died in his
+      service and defence, you have come in some sort to connect us with his
+      murder.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Alas!' she answered. 'You little know my heart, sir. You little know the
+      truth!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is natural you should do so; it is very probable you may, without
+      being conscious of it,' said Mr Haredale, speaking more to himself than
+      her. 'We are a fallen house. Money, dispensed with the most lavish hand,
+      would be a poor recompense for sufferings like yours; and thinly scattered
+      by hands so pinched and tied as ours, it becomes a miserable mockery. I
+      feel it so, God knows,' he added, hastily. 'Why should I wonder if she
+      does!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You do me wrong, dear sir, indeed,' she rejoined with great earnestness;
+      'and yet when you come to hear what I desire your leave to say&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shall find my doubts confirmed?' he said, observing that she faltered
+      and became confused. 'Well!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He quickened his pace for a few steps, but fell back again to her side,
+      and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And have you come all this way at last, solely to speak to me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She answered, 'Yes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A curse,' he muttered, 'upon the wretched state of us proud beggars, from
+      whom the poor and rich are equally at a distance; the one being forced to
+      treat us with a show of cold respect; the other condescending to us in
+      their every deed and word, and keeping more aloof, the nearer they
+      approach us.&mdash;Why, if it were pain to you (as it must have been) to
+      break for this slight purpose the chain of habit forged through
+      two-and-twenty years, could you not let me know your wish, and beg me to
+      come to you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There was not time, sir,' she rejoined. 'I took my resolution but last
+      night, and taking it, felt that I must not lose a day&mdash;a day! an hour&mdash;in
+      having speech with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had by this time reached the house. Mr Haredale paused for a moment,
+      and looked at her as if surprised by the energy of her manner. Observing,
+      however, that she took no heed of him, but glanced up, shuddering, at the
+      old walls with which such horrors were connected in her mind, he led her
+      by a private stair into his library, where Emma was seated in a window,
+      reading.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young lady, seeing who approached, hastily rose and laid aside her
+      book, and with many kind words, and not without tears, gave her a warm and
+      earnest welcome. But the widow shrunk from her embrace as though she
+      feared her, and sunk down trembling on a chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is the return to this place after so long an absence,' said Emma
+      gently. 'Pray ring, dear uncle&mdash;or stay&mdash;Barnaby will run
+      himself and ask for wine&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not for the world,' she cried. 'It would have another taste&mdash;I could
+      not touch it. I want but a minute's rest. Nothing but that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Haredale stood beside her chair, regarding her with silent pity. She
+      remained for a little time quite still; then rose and turned to Mr
+      Haredale, who had sat down in his easy chair, and was contemplating her
+      with fixed attention.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0123m.jpg" alt="0123m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0123.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The tale connected with the mansion borne in mind, it seemed, as has been
+      already said, the chosen theatre for such a deed as it had known. The room
+      in which this group were now assembled&mdash;hard by the very chamber
+      where the act was done&mdash;dull, dark, and sombre; heavy with worm-eaten
+      books; deadened and shut in by faded hangings, muffling every sound;
+      shadowed mournfully by trees whose rustling boughs gave ever and anon a
+      spectral knocking at the glass; wore, beyond all others in the house, a
+      ghostly, gloomy air. Nor were the group assembled there, unfitting tenants
+      of the spot. The widow, with her marked and startling face and downcast
+      eyes; Mr Haredale stern and despondent ever; his niece beside him, like,
+      yet most unlike, the picture of her father, which gazed reproachfully down
+      upon them from the blackened wall; Barnaby, with his vacant look and
+      restless eye; were all in keeping with the place, and actors in the
+      legend. Nay, the very raven, who had hopped upon the table and with the
+      air of some old necromancer appeared to be profoundly studying a great
+      folio volume that lay open on a desk, was strictly in unison with the
+      rest, and looked like the embodied spirit of evil biding his time of
+      mischief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I scarcely know,' said the widow, breaking silence, 'how to begin. You
+      will think my mind disordered.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The whole tenor of your quiet and reproachless life since you were last
+      here,' returned Mr Haredale, mildly, 'shall bear witness for you. Why do
+      you fear to awaken such a suspicion? You do not speak to strangers. You
+      have not to claim our interest or consideration for the first time. Be
+      more yourself. Take heart. Any advice or assistance that I can give you,
+      you know is yours of right, and freely yours.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What if I came, sir,' she rejoined, 'I who have but one other friend on
+      earth, to reject your aid from this moment, and to say that henceforth I
+      launch myself upon the world, alone and unassisted, to sink or swim as
+      Heaven may decree!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You would have, if you came to me for such a purpose,' said Mr Haredale
+      calmly, 'some reason to assign for conduct so extraordinary, which&mdash;if
+      one may entertain the possibility of anything so wild and strange&mdash;would
+      have its weight, of course.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That, sir,' she answered, 'is the misery of my distress. I can give no
+      reason whatever. My own bare word is all that I can offer. It is my duty,
+      my imperative and bounden duty. If I did not discharge it, I should be a
+      base and guilty wretch. Having said that, my lips are sealed, and I can
+      say no more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As though she felt relieved at having said so much, and had nerved herself
+      to the remainder of her task, she spoke from this time with a firmer voice
+      and heightened courage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Heaven is my witness, as my own heart is&mdash;and yours, dear young
+      lady, will speak for me, I know&mdash;that I have lived, since that time
+      we all have bitter reason to remember, in unchanging devotion, and
+      gratitude to this family. Heaven is my witness that go where I may, I
+      shall preserve those feelings unimpaired. And it is my witness, too, that
+      they alone impel me to the course I must take, and from which nothing now
+      shall turn me, as I hope for mercy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'These are strange riddles,' said Mr Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In this world, sir,' she replied, 'they may, perhaps, never be explained.
+      In another, the Truth will be discovered in its own good time. And may
+      that time,' she added in a low voice, 'be far distant!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me be sure,' said Mr Haredale, 'that I understand you, for I am
+      doubtful of my own senses. Do you mean that you are resolved voluntarily
+      to deprive yourself of those means of support you have received from us so
+      long&mdash;that you are determined to resign the annuity we settled on you
+      twenty years ago&mdash;to leave house, and home, and goods, and begin life
+      anew&mdash;and this, for some secret reason or monstrous fancy which is
+      incapable of explanation, which only now exists, and has been dormant all
+      this time? In the name of God, under what delusion are you labouring?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As I am deeply thankful,' she made answer, 'for the kindness of those,
+      alive and dead, who have owned this house; and as I would not have its
+      roof fall down and crush me, or its very walls drip blood, my name being
+      spoken in their hearing; I never will again subsist upon their bounty, or
+      let it help me to subsistence. You do not know,' she added, suddenly, 'to
+      what uses it may be applied; into what hands it may pass. I do, and I
+      renounce it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Surely,' said Mr Haredale, 'its uses rest with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They did. They rest with me no longer. It may be&mdash;it IS&mdash;devoted
+      to purposes that mock the dead in their graves. It never can prosper with
+      me. It will bring some other heavy judgement on the head of my dear son,
+      whose innocence will suffer for his mother's guilt.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What words are these!' cried Mr Haredale, regarding her with wonder.
+      'Among what associates have you fallen? Into what guilt have you ever been
+      betrayed?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am guilty, and yet innocent; wrong, yet right; good in intention,
+      though constrained to shield and aid the bad. Ask me no more questions,
+      sir; but believe that I am rather to be pitied than condemned. I must
+      leave my house to-morrow, for while I stay there, it is haunted. My future
+      dwelling, if I am to live in peace, must be a secret. If my poor boy
+      should ever stray this way, do not tempt him to disclose it or have him
+      watched when he returns; for if we are hunted, we must fly again. And now
+      this load is off my mind, I beseech you&mdash;and you, dear Miss Haredale,
+      too&mdash;to trust me if you can, and think of me kindly as you have been
+      used to do. If I die and cannot tell my secret even then (for that may
+      come to pass), it will sit the lighter on my breast in that hour for this
+      day's work; and on that day, and every day until it comes, I will pray for
+      and thank you both, and trouble you no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, she would have left them, but they detained her, and with many
+      soothing words and kind entreaties, besought her to consider what she did,
+      and above all to repose more freely upon them, and say what weighed so
+      sorely on her mind. Finding her deaf to their persuasions, Mr Haredale
+      suggested, as a last resource, that she should confide in Emma, of whom,
+      as a young person and one of her own sex, she might stand in less dread
+      than of himself. From this proposal, however, she recoiled with the same
+      indescribable repugnance she had manifested when they met. The utmost that
+      could be wrung from her was, a promise that she would receive Mr Haredale
+      at her own house next evening, and in the mean time reconsider her
+      determination and their dissuasions&mdash;though any change on her part,
+      as she told them, was quite hopeless. This condition made at last, they
+      reluctantly suffered her to depart, since she would neither eat nor drink
+      within the house; and she, and Barnaby, and Grip, accordingly went out as
+      they had come, by the private stair and garden-gate; seeing and being seen
+      of no one by the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was remarkable in the raven that during the whole interview he had kept
+      his eye on his book with exactly the air of a very sly human rascal, who,
+      under the mask of pretending to read hard, was listening to everything. He
+      still appeared to have the conversation very strongly in his mind, for
+      although, when they were alone again, he issued orders for the instant
+      preparation of innumerable kettles for purposes of tea, he was thoughtful,
+      and rather seemed to do so from an abstract sense of duty, than with any
+      regard to making himself agreeable, or being what is commonly called good
+      company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were to return by the coach. As there was an interval of full two
+      hours before it started, and they needed rest and some refreshment,
+      Barnaby begged hard for a visit to the Maypole. But his mother, who had no
+      wish to be recognised by any of those who had known her long ago, and who
+      feared besides that Mr Haredale might, on second thoughts, despatch some
+      messenger to that place of entertainment in quest of her, proposed to wait
+      in the churchyard instead. As it was easy for Barnaby to buy and carry
+      thither such humble viands as they required, he cheerfully assented, and
+      in the churchyard they sat down to take their frugal dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here again, the raven was in a highly reflective state; walking up and
+      down when he had dined, with an air of elderly complacency which was
+      strongly suggestive of his having his hands under his coat-tails; and
+      appearing to read the tombstones with a very critical taste. Sometimes,
+      after a long inspection of an epitaph, he would strop his beak upon the
+      grave to which it referred, and cry in his hoarse tones, 'I'm a devil, I'm
+      a devil, I'm a devil!' but whether he addressed his observations to any
+      supposed person below, or merely threw them off as a general remark, is
+      matter of uncertainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a quiet pretty spot, but a sad one for Barnaby's mother; for Mr
+      Reuben Haredale lay there, and near the vault in which his ashes rested,
+      was a stone to the memory of her own husband, with a brief inscription
+      recording how and when he had lost his life. She sat here, thoughtful and
+      apart, until their time was out, and the distant horn told that the coach
+      was coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby, who had been sleeping on the grass, sprung up quickly at the
+      sound; and Grip, who appeared to understand it equally well, walked into
+      his basket straightway, entreating society in general (as though he
+      intended a kind of satire upon them in connection with churchyards) never
+      to say die on any terms. They were soon on the coach-top and rolling along
+      the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It went round by the Maypole, and stopped at the door. Joe was from home,
+      and Hugh came sluggishly out to hand up the parcel that it called for.
+      There was no fear of old John coming out. They could see him from the
+      coach-roof fast asleep in his cosy bar. It was a part of John's character.
+      He made a point of going to sleep at the coach's time. He despised gadding
+      about; he looked upon coaches as things that ought to be indicted; as
+      disturbers of the peace of mankind; as restless, bustling, busy,
+      horn-blowing contrivances, quite beneath the dignity of men, and only
+      suited to giddy girls that did nothing but chatter and go a-shopping. 'We
+      know nothing about coaches here, sir,' John would say, if any unlucky
+      stranger made inquiry touching the offensive vehicles; 'we don't book for
+      'em; we'd rather not; they're more trouble than they're worth, with their
+      noise and rattle. If you like to wait for 'em you can; but we don't know
+      anything about 'em; they may call and they may not&mdash;there's a carrier&mdash;he
+      was looked upon as quite good enough for us, when I was a boy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped her veil as Hugh climbed up, and while he hung behind, and
+      talked to Barnaby in whispers. But neither he nor any other person spoke
+      to her, or noticed her, or had any curiosity about her; and so, an alien,
+      she visited and left the village where she had been born, and had lived a
+      merry child, a comely girl, a happy wife&mdash;where she had known all her
+      enjoyment of life, and had entered on its hardest sorrows.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0125m.jpg" alt="0125m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0125.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 26
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      'And you're not surprised to hear this, Varden?' said Mr Haredale. 'Well!
+      You and she have always been the best friends, and you should understand
+      her if anybody does.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I ask your pardon, sir,' rejoined the locksmith. 'I didn't say I
+      understood her. I wouldn't have the presumption to say that of any woman.
+      It's not so easily done. But I am not so much surprised, sir, as you
+      expected me to be, certainly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'May I ask why not, my good friend?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have seen, sir,' returned the locksmith with evident reluctance, 'I
+      have seen in connection with her, something that has filled me with
+      distrust and uneasiness. She has made bad friends, how, or when, I don't
+      know; but that her house is a refuge for one robber and cut-throat at
+      least, I am certain. There, sir! Now it's out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Varden!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My own eyes, sir, are my witnesses, and for her sake I would be willingly
+      half-blind, if I could but have the pleasure of mistrusting 'em. I have
+      kept the secret till now, and it will go no further than yourself, I know;
+      but I tell you that with my own eyes&mdash;broad awake&mdash;I saw, in the
+      passage of her house one evening after dark, the highwayman who robbed and
+      wounded Mr Edward Chester, and on the same night threatened me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And you made no effort to detain him?' said Mr Haredale quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' returned the locksmith, 'she herself prevented me&mdash;held me,
+      with all her strength, and hung about me until he had got clear off.' And
+      having gone so far, he related circumstantially all that had passed upon
+      the night in question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This dialogue was held in a low tone in the locksmith's little parlour,
+      into which honest Gabriel had shown his visitor on his arrival. Mr
+      Haredale had called upon him to entreat his company to the widow's, that
+      he might have the assistance of his persuasion and influence; and out of
+      this circumstance the conversation had arisen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I forbore,' said Gabriel, 'from repeating one word of this to anybody, as
+      it could do her no good and might do her great harm. I thought and hoped,
+      to say the truth, that she would come to me, and talk to me about it, and
+      tell me how it was; but though I have purposely put myself in her way more
+      than once or twice, she has never touched upon the subject&mdash;except by
+      a look. And indeed,' said the good-natured locksmith, 'there was a good
+      deal in the look, more than could have been put into a great many words.
+      It said among other matters "Don't ask me anything" so imploringly, that I
+      didn't ask her anything. You'll think me an old fool, I know, sir. If it's
+      any relief to call me one, pray do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am greatly disturbed by what you tell me,' said Mr Haredale, after a
+      silence. 'What meaning do you attach to it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith shook his head, and looked doubtfully out of window at the
+      failing light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She cannot have married again,' said Mr Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not without our knowledge surely, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She may have done so, in the fear that it would lead, if known, to some
+      objection or estrangement. Suppose she married incautiously&mdash;it is
+      not improbable, for her existence has been a lonely and monotonous one for
+      many years&mdash;and the man turned out a ruffian, she would be anxious to
+      screen him, and yet would revolt from his crimes. This might be. It bears
+      strongly on the whole drift of her discourse yesterday, and would quite
+      explain her conduct. Do you suppose Barnaby is privy to these
+      circumstances?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Quite impossible to say, sir,' returned the locksmith, shaking his head
+      again: 'and next to impossible to find out from him. If what you suppose
+      is really the case, I tremble for the lad&mdash;a notable person, sir, to
+      put to bad uses&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is not possible, Varden,' said Mr Haredale, in a still lower tone of
+      voice than he had spoken yet, 'that we have been blinded and deceived by
+      this woman from the beginning? It is not possible that this connection was
+      formed in her husband's lifetime, and led to his and my brother's&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good God, sir,' cried Gabriel, interrupting him, 'don't entertain such
+      dark thoughts for a moment. Five-and-twenty years ago, where was there a
+      girl like her? A gay, handsome, laughing, bright-eyed damsel! Think what
+      she was, sir. It makes my heart ache now, even now, though I'm an old man,
+      with a woman for a daughter, to think what she was and what she is. We all
+      change, but that's with Time; Time does his work honestly, and I don't
+      mind him. A fig for Time, sir. Use him well, and he's a hearty fellow, and
+      scorns to have you at a disadvantage. But care and suffering (and those
+      have changed her) are devils, sir&mdash;secret, stealthy, undermining
+      devils&mdash;who tread down the brightest flowers in Eden, and do more
+      havoc in a month than Time does in a year. Picture to yourself for one
+      minute what Mary was before they went to work with her fresh heart and
+      face&mdash;do her that justice&mdash;and say whether such a thing is
+      possible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're a good fellow, Varden,' said Mr Haredale, 'and are quite right. I
+      have brooded on that subject so long, that every breath of suspicion
+      carries me back to it. You are quite right.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It isn't, sir,' cried the locksmith with brightened eyes, and sturdy,
+      honest voice; 'it isn't because I courted her before Rudge, and failed,
+      that I say she was too good for him. She would have been as much too good
+      for me. But she WAS too good for him; he wasn't free and frank enough for
+      her. I don't reproach his memory with it, poor fellow; I only want to put
+      her before you as she really was. For myself, I'll keep her old picture in
+      my mind; and thinking of that, and what has altered her, I'll stand her
+      friend, and try to win her back to peace. And damme, sir,' cried Gabriel,
+      'with your pardon for the word, I'd do the same if she had married fifty
+      highwaymen in a twelvemonth; and think it in the Protestant Manual too,
+      though Martha said it wasn't, tooth and nail, till doomsday!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the dark little parlour had been filled with a dense fog, which,
+      clearing away in an instant, left it all radiance and brightness, it could
+      not have been more suddenly cheered than by this outbreak on the part of
+      the hearty locksmith. In a voice nearly as full and round as his own, Mr
+      Haredale cried 'Well said!' and bade him come away without more parley.
+      The locksmith complied right willingly; and both getting into a hackney
+      coach which was waiting at the door, drove off straightway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They alighted at the street corner, and dismissing their conveyance,
+      walked to the house. To their first knock at the door there was no
+      response. A second met with the like result. But in answer to the third,
+      which was of a more vigorous kind, the parlour window-sash was gently
+      raised, and a musical voice cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Haredale, my dear fellow, I am extremely glad to see you. How very much
+      you have improved in your appearance since our last meeting! I never saw
+      you looking better. HOW do you do?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale turned his eyes towards the casement whence the voice
+      proceeded, though there was no need to do so, to recognise the speaker,
+      and Mr Chester waved his hand, and smiled a courteous welcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The door will be opened immediately,' he said. 'There is nobody but a
+      very dilapidated female to perform such offices. You will excuse her
+      infirmities? If she were in a more elevated station of society, she would
+      be gouty. Being but a hewer of wood and drawer of water, she is rheumatic.
+      My dear Haredale, these are natural class distinctions, depend upon it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale, whose face resumed its lowering and distrustful look the
+      moment he heard the voice, inclined his head stiffly, and turned his back
+      upon the speaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not opened yet,' said Mr Chester. 'Dear me! I hope the aged soul has not
+      caught her foot in some unlucky cobweb by the way. She is there at last!
+      Come in, I beg!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale entered, followed by the locksmith. Turning with a look of
+      great astonishment to the old woman who had opened the door, he inquired
+      for Mrs Rudge&mdash;for Barnaby. They were both gone, she replied, wagging
+      her ancient head, for good. There was a gentleman in the parlour, who
+      perhaps could tell them more. That was all SHE knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pray, sir,' said Mr Haredale, presenting himself before this new tenant,
+      'where is the person whom I came here to see?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear friend,' he returned, 'I have not the least idea.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your trifling is ill-timed,' retorted the other in a suppressed tone and
+      voice, 'and its subject ill-chosen. Reserve it for those who are your
+      friends, and do not expend it on me. I lay no claim to the distinction,
+      and have the self-denial to reject it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear, good sir,' said Mr Chester, 'you are heated with walking. Sit
+      down, I beg. Our friend is&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is but a plain honest man,' returned Mr Haredale, 'and quite unworthy of
+      your notice.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gabriel Varden by name, sir,' said the locksmith bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A worthy English yeoman!' said Mr Chester. 'A most worthy yeoman, of whom
+      I have frequently heard my son Ned&mdash;darling fellow&mdash;speak, and
+      have often wished to see. Varden, my good friend, I am glad to know you.
+      You wonder now,' he said, turning languidly to Mr Haredale, 'to see me
+      here. Now, I am sure you do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale glanced at him&mdash;not fondly or admiringly&mdash;smiled,
+      and held his peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The mystery is solved in a moment,' said Mr Chester; 'in a moment. Will
+      you step aside with me one instant. You remember our little compact in
+      reference to Ned, and your dear niece, Haredale? You remember the list of
+      assistants in their innocent intrigue? You remember these two people being
+      among them? My dear fellow, congratulate yourself, and me. I have bought
+      them off.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have done what?' said Mr Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Bought them off,' returned his smiling friend. 'I have found it necessary
+      to take some active steps towards setting this boy and girl attachment
+      quite at rest, and have begun by removing these two agents. You are
+      surprised? Who CAN withstand the influence of a little money! They wanted
+      it, and have been bought off. We have nothing more to fear from them. They
+      are gone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gone!' echoed Mr Haredale. 'Where?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear fellow&mdash;and you must permit me to say again, that you never
+      looked so young; so positively boyish as you do to-night&mdash;the Lord
+      knows where; I believe Columbus himself wouldn't find them. Between you
+      and me they have their hidden reasons, but upon that point I have pledged
+      myself to secrecy. She appointed to see you here to-night, I know, but
+      found it inconvenient, and couldn't wait. Here is the key of the door. I
+      am afraid you'll find it inconveniently large; but as the tenement is
+      yours, your good-nature will excuse that, Haredale, I am certain!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 27
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale stood in the widow's parlour with the door-key in his hand,
+      gazing by turns at Mr Chester and at Gabriel Varden, and occasionally
+      glancing downward at the key as in the hope that of its own accord it
+      would unlock the mystery; until Mr Chester, putting on his hat and gloves,
+      and sweetly inquiring whether they were walking in the same direction,
+      recalled him to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' he said. 'Our roads diverge&mdash;widely, as you know. For the
+      present, I shall remain here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will be hipped, Haredale; you will be miserable, melancholy, utterly
+      wretched,' returned the other. 'It's a place of the very last description
+      for a man of your temper. I know it will make you very miserable.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let it,' said Mr Haredale, sitting down; 'and thrive upon the thought.
+      Good night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Feigning to be wholly unconscious of the abrupt wave of the hand which
+      rendered this farewell tantamount to a dismissal, Mr Chester retorted with
+      a bland and heartfelt benediction, and inquired of Gabriel in what
+      direction HE was going.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yours, sir, would be too much honour for the like of me,' replied the
+      locksmith, hesitating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish you to remain here a little while, Varden,' said Mr Haredale,
+      without looking towards them. 'I have a word or two to say to you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will not intrude upon your conference another moment,' said Mr Chester
+      with inconceivable politeness. 'May it be satisfactory to you both! God
+      bless you!' So saying, and bestowing upon the locksmith a most refulgent
+      smile, he left them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A deplorably constituted creature, that rugged person,' he said, as he
+      walked along the street; 'he is an atrocity that carries its own
+      punishment along with it&mdash;a bear that gnaws himself. And here is one
+      of the inestimable advantages of having a perfect command over one's
+      inclinations. I have been tempted in these two short interviews, to draw
+      upon that fellow, fifty times. Five men in six would have yielded to the
+      impulse. By suppressing mine, I wound him deeper and more keenly than if I
+      were the best swordsman in all Europe, and he the worst. You are the wise
+      man's very last resource,' he said, tapping the hilt of his weapon; 'we
+      can but appeal to you when all else is said and done. To come to you
+      before, and thereby spare our adversaries so much, is a barbarian mode of
+      warfare, quite unworthy of any man with the remotest pretensions to
+      delicacy of feeling, or refinement.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled so very pleasantly as he communed with himself after this
+      manner, that a beggar was emboldened to follow for alms, and to dog his
+      footsteps for some distance. He was gratified by the circumstance, feeling
+      it complimentary to his power of feature, and as a reward suffered the man
+      to follow him until he called a chair, when he graciously dismissed him
+      with a fervent blessing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Which is as easy as cursing,' he wisely added, as he took his seat, 'and
+      more becoming to the face.&mdash;To Clerkenwell, my good creatures, if you
+      please!' The chairmen were rendered quite vivacious by having such a
+      courteous burden, and to Clerkenwell they went at a fair round trot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alighting at a certain point he had indicated to them upon the road, and
+      paying them something less than they expected from a fare of such gentle
+      speech, he turned into the street in which the locksmith dwelt, and
+      presently stood beneath the shadow of the Golden Key. Mr Tappertit, who
+      was hard at work by lamplight, in a corner of the workshop, remained
+      unconscious of his presence until a hand upon his shoulder made him start
+      and turn his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Industry,' said Mr Chester, 'is the soul of business, and the keystone of
+      prosperity. Mr Tappertit, I shall expect you to invite me to dinner when
+      you are Lord Mayor of London.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' returned the 'prentice, laying down his hammer, and rubbing his
+      nose on the back of a very sooty hand, 'I scorn the Lord Mayor and
+      everything that belongs to him. We must have another state of society,
+      sir, before you catch me being Lord Mayor. How de do, sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The better, Mr Tappertit, for looking into your ingenuous face once more.
+      I hope you are well.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am as well, sir,' said Sim, standing up to get nearer to his ear, and
+      whispering hoarsely, 'as any man can be under the aggrawations to which I
+      am exposed. My life's a burden to me. If it wasn't for wengeance, I'd play
+      at pitch and toss with it on the losing hazard.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is Mrs Varden at home?' said Mr Chester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' returned Sim, eyeing him over with a look of concentrated
+      expression,&mdash;'she is. Did you wish to see her?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then come this way, sir,' said Sim, wiping his face upon his apron.
+      'Follow me, sir.&mdash;Would you permit me to whisper in your ear, one
+      half a second?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By all means.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit raised himself on tiptoe, applied his lips to Mr Chester's
+      ear, drew back his head without saying anything, looked hard at him,
+      applied them to his ear again, again drew back, and finally whispered&mdash;'The
+      name is Joseph Willet. Hush! I say no more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having said that much, he beckoned the visitor with a mysterious aspect to
+      follow him to the parlour-door, where he announced him in the voice of a
+      gentleman-usher. 'Mr Chester.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And not Mr Ed'dard, mind,' said Sim, looking into the door again, and
+      adding this by way of postscript in his own person; 'it's his father.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But do not let his father,' said Mr Chester, advancing hat in hand, as he
+      observed the effect of this last explanatory announcement, 'do not let his
+      father be any check or restraint on your domestic occupations, Miss
+      Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! Now! There! An't I always a-saying it!' exclaimed Miggs, clapping her
+      hands. 'If he an't been and took Missis for her own daughter. Well, she DO
+      look like it, that she do. Only think of that, mim!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is it possible,' said Mr Chester in his softest tones, 'that this is Mrs
+      Varden! I am amazed. That is not your daughter, Mrs Varden? No, no. Your
+      sister.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My daughter, indeed, sir,' returned Mrs V., blushing with great
+      juvenility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah, Mrs Varden!' cried the visitor. 'Ah, ma'am&mdash;humanity is indeed a
+      happy lot, when we can repeat ourselves in others, and still be young as
+      they. You must allow me to salute you&mdash;the custom of the country, my
+      dear madam&mdash;your daughter too.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly showed some reluctance to perform this ceremony, but was sharply
+      reproved by Mrs Varden, who insisted on her undergoing it that minute. For
+      pride, she said with great severity, was one of the seven deadly sins, and
+      humility and lowliness of heart were virtues. Wherefore she desired that
+      Dolly would be kissed immediately, on pain of her just displeasure; at the
+      same time giving her to understand that whatever she saw her mother do,
+      she might safely do herself, without being at the trouble of any reasoning
+      or reflection on the subject&mdash;which, indeed, was offensive and
+      undutiful, and in direct contravention of the church catechism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus admonished, Dolly complied, though by no means willingly; for there
+      was a broad, bold look of admiration in Mr Chester's face, refined and
+      polished though it sought to be, which distressed her very much. As she
+      stood with downcast eyes, not liking to look up and meet his, he gazed
+      upon her with an approving air, and then turned to her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My friend Gabriel (whose acquaintance I only made this very evening)
+      should be a happy man, Mrs Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' sighed Mrs V., shaking her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' echoed Miggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is that the case?' said Mr Chester, compassionately. 'Dear me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Master has no intentions, sir,' murmured Miggs as she sidled up to him,
+      'but to be as grateful as his natur will let him, for everythink he owns
+      which it is in his powers to appreciate. But we never, sir'&mdash;said
+      Miggs, looking sideways at Mrs Varden, and interlarding her discourse with
+      a sigh&mdash;'we never know the full value of SOME wines and fig-trees
+      till we lose 'em. So much the worse, sir, for them as has the slighting of
+      'em on their consciences when they're gone to be in full blow elsewhere.'
+      And Miss Miggs cast up her eyes to signify where that might be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Mrs Varden distinctly heard, and was intended to hear, all that Miggs
+      said, and as these words appeared to convey in metaphorical terms a
+      presage or foreboding that she would at some early period droop beneath
+      her trials and take an easy flight towards the stars, she immediately
+      began to languish, and taking a volume of the Manual from a neighbouring
+      table, leant her arm upon it as though she were Hope and that her Anchor.
+      Mr Chester perceiving this, and seeing how the volume was lettered on the
+      back, took it gently from her hand, and turned the fluttering leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My favourite book, dear madam. How often, how very often in his early
+      life&mdash;before he can remember'&mdash;(this clause was strictly true)
+      'have I deduced little easy moral lessons from its pages, for my dear son
+      Ned! You know Ned?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden had that honour, and a fine affable young gentleman he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're a mother, Mrs Varden,' said Mr Chester, taking a pinch of snuff,
+      'and you know what I, as a father, feel, when he is praised. He gives me
+      some uneasiness&mdash;much uneasiness&mdash;he's of a roving nature, ma'am&mdash;from
+      flower to flower&mdash;from sweet to sweet&mdash;but his is the butterfly
+      time of life, and we must not be hard upon such trifling.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He glanced at Dolly. She was attending evidently to what he said. Just
+      what he desired!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The only thing I object to in this little trait of Ned's, is,' said Mr
+      Chester, '&mdash;and the mention of his name reminds me, by the way, that
+      I am about to beg the favour of a minute's talk with you alone&mdash;the
+      only thing I object to in it, is, that it DOES partake of insincerity.
+      Now, however I may attempt to disguise the fact from myself in my
+      affection for Ned, still I always revert to this&mdash;that if we are not
+      sincere, we are nothing. Nothing upon earth. Let us be sincere, my dear
+      madam&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;and Protestant,' murmured Mrs Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;and Protestant above all things. Let us be sincere and Protestant,
+      strictly moral, strictly just (though always with a leaning towards
+      mercy), strictly honest, and strictly true, and we gain&mdash;it is a
+      slight point, certainly, but still it is something tangible; we throw up a
+      groundwork and foundation, so to speak, of goodness, on which we may
+      afterwards erect some worthy superstructure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, to be sure, Mrs Varden thought, here is a perfect character. Here is
+      a meek, righteous, thoroughgoing Christian, who, having mastered all these
+      qualities, so difficult of attainment; who, having dropped a pinch of salt
+      on the tails of all the cardinal virtues, and caught them every one; makes
+      light of their possession, and pants for more morality. For the good woman
+      never doubted (as many good men and women never do), that this slighting
+      kind of profession, this setting so little store by great matters, this
+      seeming to say, 'I am not proud, I am what you hear, but I consider myself
+      no better than other people; let us change the subject, pray'&mdash;was
+      perfectly genuine and true. He so contrived it, and said it in that way
+      that it appeared to have been forced from him, and its effect was
+      marvellous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aware of the impression he had made&mdash;few men were quicker than he at
+      such discoveries&mdash;Mr Chester followed up the blow by propounding
+      certain virtuous maxims, somewhat vague and general in their nature,
+      doubtless, and occasionally partaking of the character of truisms, worn a
+      little out at elbow, but delivered in so charming a voice and with such
+      uncommon serenity and peace of mind, that they answered as well as the
+      best. Nor is this to be wondered at; for as hollow vessels produce a far
+      more musical sound in falling than those which are substantial, so it will
+      oftentimes be found that sentiments which have nothing in them make the
+      loudest ringing in the world, and are the most relished.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0131m.jpg" alt="0131m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0131.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester, with the volume gently extended in one hand, and with the
+      other planted lightly on his breast, talked to them in the most delicious
+      manner possible; and quite enchanted all his hearers, notwithstanding
+      their conflicting interests and thoughts. Even Dolly, who, between his
+      keen regards and her eyeing over by Mr Tappertit, was put quite out of
+      countenance, could not help owning within herself that he was the
+      sweetest-spoken gentleman she had ever seen. Even Miss Miggs, who was
+      divided between admiration of Mr Chester and a mortal jealousy of her
+      young mistress, had sufficient leisure to be propitiated. Even Mr
+      Tappertit, though occupied as we have seen in gazing at his heart's
+      delight, could not wholly divert his thoughts from the voice of the other
+      charmer. Mrs Varden, to her own private thinking, had never been so
+      improved in all her life; and when Mr Chester, rising and craving
+      permission to speak with her apart, took her by the hand and led her at
+      arm's length upstairs to the best sitting-room, she almost deemed him
+      something more than human.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dear madam,' he said, pressing her hand delicately to his lips; 'be
+      seated.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden called up quite a courtly air, and became seated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You guess my object?' said Mr Chester, drawing a chair towards her. 'You
+      divine my purpose? I am an affectionate parent, my dear Mrs Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That I am sure you are, sir,' said Mrs V.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank you,' returned Mr Chester, tapping his snuff-box lid. 'Heavy moral
+      responsibilities rest with parents, Mrs Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden slightly raised her hands, shook her head, and looked at the
+      ground as though she saw straight through the globe, out at the other end,
+      and into the immensity of space beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I may confide in you,' said Mr Chester, 'without reserve. I love my son,
+      ma'am, dearly; and loving him as I do, I would save him from working
+      certain misery. You know of his attachment to Miss Haredale. You have
+      abetted him in it, and very kind of you it was to do so. I am deeply
+      obliged to you&mdash;most deeply obliged to you&mdash;for your interest in
+      his behalf; but my dear ma'am, it is a mistaken one, I do assure you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden stammered that she was sorry&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sorry, my dear ma'am,' he interposed. 'Never be sorry for what is so very
+      amiable, so very good in intention, so perfectly like yourself. But there
+      are grave and weighty reasons, pressing family considerations, and apart
+      even from these, points of religious difference, which interpose
+      themselves, and render their union impossible; utterly im-possible. I
+      should have mentioned these circumstances to your husband; but he has&mdash;you
+      will excuse my saying this so freely&mdash;he has NOT your quickness of
+      apprehension or depth of moral sense. What an extremely airy house this
+      is, and how beautifully kept! For one like myself&mdash;a widower so long&mdash;these
+      tokens of female care and superintendence have inexpressible charms.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden began to think (she scarcely knew why) that the young Mr
+      Chester must be in the wrong and the old Mr Chester must be in the right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My son Ned,' resumed her tempter with his most winning air, 'has had, I
+      am told, your lovely daughter's aid, and your open-hearted husband's.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Much more than mine, sir,' said Mrs Varden; 'a great deal more. I
+      have often had my doubts. It's a&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A bad example,' suggested Mr Chester. 'It is. No doubt it is. Your
+      daughter is at that age when to set before her an encouragement for young
+      persons to rebel against their parents on this most important point, is
+      particularly injudicious. You are quite right. I ought to have thought of
+      that myself, but it escaped me, I confess&mdash;so far superior are your
+      sex to ours, dear madam, in point of penetration and sagacity.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden looked as wise as if she had really said something to deserve
+      this compliment&mdash;firmly believed she had, in short&mdash;and her
+      faith in her own shrewdness increased considerably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear ma'am,' said Mr Chester, 'you embolden me to be plain with you.
+      My son and I are at variance on this point. The young lady and her natural
+      guardian differ upon it, also. And the closing point is, that my son is
+      bound by his duty to me, by his honour, by every solemn tie and
+      obligation, to marry some one else.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Engaged to marry another lady!' quoth Mrs Varden, holding up her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear madam, brought up, educated, and trained, expressly for that
+      purpose. Expressly for that purpose.&mdash;Miss Haredale, I am told, is a
+      very charming creature.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am her foster-mother, and should know&mdash;the best young lady in the
+      world,' said Mrs Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have not the smallest doubt of it. I am sure she is. And you, who have
+      stood in that tender relation towards her, are bound to consult her
+      happiness. Now, can I&mdash;as I have said to Haredale, who quite agrees&mdash;can
+      I possibly stand by, and suffer her to throw herself away (although she IS
+      of a Catholic family), upon a young fellow who, as yet, has no heart at
+      all? It is no imputation upon him to say he has not, because young men who
+      have plunged deeply into the frivolities and conventionalities of society,
+      very seldom have. Their hearts never grow, my dear ma'am, till after
+      thirty. I don't believe, no, I do NOT believe, that I had any heart myself
+      when I was Ned's age.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh sir,' said Mrs Varden, 'I think you must have had. It's impossible
+      that you, who have so much now, can ever have been without any.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope,' he answered, shrugging his shoulders meekly, 'I have a little; I
+      hope, a very little&mdash;Heaven knows! But to return to Ned; I have no
+      doubt you thought, and therefore interfered benevolently in his behalf,
+      that I objected to Miss Haredale. How very natural! My dear madam, I
+      object to him&mdash;to him&mdash;emphatically to Ned himself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden was perfectly aghast at the disclosure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has, if he honourably fulfils this solemn obligation of which I have
+      told you&mdash;and he must be honourable, dear Mrs Varden, or he is no son
+      of mine&mdash;a fortune within his reach. He is of most expensive,
+      ruinously expensive habits; and if, in a moment of caprice and wilfulness,
+      he were to marry this young lady, and so deprive himself of the means of
+      gratifying the tastes to which he has been so long accustomed, he would&mdash;my
+      dear madam, he would break the gentle creature's heart. Mrs Varden, my
+      good lady, my dear soul, I put it to you&mdash;is such a sacrifice to be
+      endured? Is the female heart a thing to be trifled with in this way? Ask
+      your own, my dear madam. Ask your own, I beseech you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Truly,' thought Mrs Varden, 'this gentleman is a saint. But,' she added
+      aloud, and not unnaturally, 'if you take Miss Emma's lover away, sir, what
+      becomes of the poor thing's heart then?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The very point,' said Mr Chester, not at all abashed, 'to which I wished
+      to lead you. A marriage with my son, whom I should be compelled to disown,
+      would be followed by years of misery; they would be separated, my dear
+      madam, in a twelvemonth. To break off this attachment, which is more
+      fancied than real, as you and I know very well, will cost the dear girl
+      but a few tears, and she is happy again. Take the case of your own
+      daughter, the young lady downstairs, who is your breathing image'&mdash;Mrs
+      Varden coughed and simpered&mdash;'there is a young man (I am sorry to
+      say, a dissolute fellow, of very indifferent character) of whom I have
+      heard Ned speak&mdash;Bullet was it&mdash;Pullet&mdash;Mullet&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is a young man of the name of Joseph Willet, sir,' said Mrs Varden,
+      folding her hands loftily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's he,' cried Mr Chester. 'Suppose this Joseph Willet now, were to
+      aspire to the affections of your charming daughter, and were to engage
+      them.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It would be like his impudence,' interposed Mrs Varden, bridling, 'to
+      dare to think of such a thing!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear madam, that's the whole case. I know it would be like his
+      impudence. It is like Ned's impudence to do as he has done; but you would
+      not on that account, or because of a few tears from your beautiful
+      daughter, refrain from checking their inclinations in their birth. I meant
+      to have reasoned thus with your husband when I saw him at Mrs Rudge's this
+      evening&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My husband,' said Mrs Varden, interposing with emotion, 'would be a great
+      deal better at home than going to Mrs Rudge's so often. I don't know what
+      he does there. I don't see what occasion he has to busy himself in her
+      affairs at all, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If I don't appear to express my concurrence in those last sentiments of
+      yours,' returned Mr Chester, 'quite so strongly as you might desire, it is
+      because his being there, my dear madam, and not proving conversational,
+      led me hither, and procured me the happiness of this interview with one,
+      in whom the whole management, conduct, and prosperity of her family are
+      centred, I perceive.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he took Mrs Varden's hand again, and having pressed it to his
+      lips with the highflown gallantry of the day&mdash;a little burlesqued to
+      render it the more striking in the good lady's unaccustomed eyes&mdash;proceeded
+      in the same strain of mingled sophistry, cajolery, and flattery, to
+      entreat that her utmost influence might be exerted to restrain her husband
+      and daughter from any further promotion of Edward's suit to Miss Haredale,
+      and from aiding or abetting either party in any way. Mrs Varden was but a
+      woman, and had her share of vanity, obstinacy, and love of power. She
+      entered into a secret treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with
+      her insinuating visitor; and really did believe, as many others would have
+      done who saw and heard him, that in so doing she furthered the ends of
+      truth, justice, and morality, in a very uncommon degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Overjoyed by the success of his negotiation, and mightily amused within
+      himself, Mr Chester conducted her downstairs in the same state as before;
+      and having repeated the previous ceremony of salutation, which also as
+      before comprehended Dolly, took his leave; first completing the conquest
+      of Miss Miggs's heart, by inquiring if 'this young lady' would light him
+      to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, mim,' said Miggs, returning with the candle. 'Oh gracious me, mim,
+      there's a gentleman! Was there ever such an angel to talk as he is&mdash;and
+      such a sweet-looking man! So upright and noble, that he seems to despise
+      the very ground he walks on; and yet so mild and condescending, that he
+      seems to say "but I will take notice on it too." And to think of his
+      taking you for Miss Dolly, and Miss Dolly for your sister&mdash;Oh, my
+      goodness me, if I was master wouldn't I be jealous of him!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden reproved her handmaid for this vain-speaking; but very gently
+      and mildly&mdash;quite smilingly indeed&mdash;remarking that she was a
+      foolish, giddy, light-headed girl, whose spirits carried her beyond all
+      bounds, and who didn't mean half she said, or she would be quite angry
+      with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For my part,' said Dolly, in a thoughtful manner, 'I half believe Mr
+      Chester is something like Miggs in that respect. For all his politeness
+      and pleasant speaking, I am pretty sure he was making game of us, more
+      than once.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you venture to say such a thing again, and to speak ill of people
+      behind their backs in my presence, miss,' said Mrs Varden, 'I shall insist
+      upon your taking a candle and going to bed directly. How dare you, Dolly?
+      I'm astonished at you. The rudeness of your whole behaviour this evening
+      has been disgraceful. Did anybody ever hear,' cried the enraged matron,
+      bursting into tears, 'of a daughter telling her own mother she has been
+      made game of!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a very uncertain temper Mrs Varden's was!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 28
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Repairing to a noted coffee-house in Covent Garden when he left the
+      locksmith's, Mr Chester sat long over a late dinner, entertaining himself
+      exceedingly with the whimsical recollection of his recent proceedings, and
+      congratulating himself very much on his great cleverness. Influenced by
+      these thoughts, his face wore an expression so benign and tranquil, that
+      the waiter in immediate attendance upon him felt he could almost have died
+      in his defence, and settled in his own mind (until the receipt of the
+      bill, and a very small fee for very great trouble disabused it of the
+      idea) that such an apostolic customer was worth half-a-dozen of the
+      ordinary run of visitors, at least.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A visit to the gaming-table&mdash;not as a heated, anxious venturer, but
+      one whom it was quite a treat to see staking his two or three pieces in
+      deference to the follies of society, and smiling with equal benevolence on
+      winners and losers&mdash;made it late before he reached home. It was his
+      custom to bid his servant go to bed at his own time unless he had orders
+      to the contrary, and to leave a candle on the common stair. There was a
+      lamp on the landing by which he could always light it when he came home
+      late, and having a key of the door about him he could enter and go to bed
+      at his pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened the glass of the dull lamp, whose wick, burnt up and swollen
+      like a drunkard's nose, came flying off in little carbuncles at the
+      candle's touch, and scattering hot sparks about, rendered it matter of
+      some difficulty to kindle the lazy taper; when a noise, as of a man
+      snoring deeply some steps higher up, caused him to pause and listen. It
+      was the heavy breathing of a sleeper, close at hand. Some fellow had lain
+      down on the open staircase, and was slumbering soundly. Having lighted the
+      candle at length and opened his own door, he softly ascended, holding the
+      taper high above his head, and peering cautiously about; curious to see
+      what kind of man had chosen so comfortless a shelter for his lodging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his head upon the landing and his great limbs flung over half-a-dozen
+      stairs, as carelessly as though he were a dead man whom drunken bearers
+      had thrown down by chance, there lay Hugh, face uppermost, his long hair
+      drooping like some wild weed upon his wooden pillow, and his huge chest
+      heaving with the sounds which so unwontedly disturbed the place and hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He who came upon him so unexpectedly was about to break his rest by
+      thrusting him with his foot, when, glancing at his upturned face, he
+      arrested himself in the very action, and stooping down and shading the
+      candle with his hand, examined his features closely. Close as his first
+      inspection was, it did not suffice, for he passed the light, still
+      carefully shaded as before, across and across his face, and yet observed
+      him with a searching eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was thus engaged, the sleeper, without any starting or turning
+      round, awoke. There was a kind of fascination in meeting his steady gaze
+      so suddenly, which took from the other the presence of mind to withdraw
+      his eyes, and forced him, as it were, to meet his look. So they remained
+      staring at each other, until Mr Chester at last broke silence, and asked
+      him in a low voice, why he lay sleeping there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thought,' said Hugh, struggling into a sitting posture and gazing at
+      him intently, still, 'that you were a part of my dream. It was a curious
+      one. I hope it may never come true, master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What makes you shiver?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The&mdash;the cold, I suppose,' he growled, as he shook himself and rose.
+      'I hardly know where I am yet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you know me?' said Mr Chester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, I know you,' he answered. 'I was dreaming of you&mdash;we're not
+      where I thought we were. That's a comfort.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked round him as he spoke, and in particular looked above his head,
+      as though he half expected to be standing under some object which had had
+      existence in his dream. Then he rubbed his eyes and shook himself again,
+      and followed his conductor into his own rooms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester lighted the candles which stood upon his dressing-table, and
+      wheeling an easy-chair towards the fire, which was yet burning, stirred up
+      a cheerful blaze, sat down before it, and bade his uncouth visitor 'Come
+      here,' and draw his boots off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have been drinking again, my fine fellow,' he said, as Hugh went down
+      on one knee, and did as he was told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As I'm alive, master, I've walked the twelve long miles, and waited here
+      I don't know how long, and had no drink between my lips since dinner-time
+      at noon.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And can you do nothing better, my pleasant friend, than fall asleep, and
+      shake the very building with your snores?' said Mr Chester. 'Can't you
+      dream in your straw at home, dull dog as you are, that you need come here
+      to do it?&mdash;Reach me those slippers, and tread softly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh obeyed in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And harkee, my dear young gentleman,' said Mr Chester, as he put them on,
+      'the next time you dream, don't let it be of me, but of some dog or horse
+      with whom you are better acquainted. Fill the glass once&mdash;you'll find
+      it and the bottle in the same place&mdash;and empty it to keep yourself
+      awake.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh obeyed again even more zealously&mdash;and having done so, presented
+      himself before his patron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now,' said Mr Chester, 'what do you want with me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There was news to-day,' returned Hugh. 'Your son was at our house&mdash;came
+      down on horseback. He tried to see the young woman, but couldn't get sight
+      of her. He left some letter or some message which our Joe had charge of,
+      but he and the old one quarrelled about it when your son had gone, and the
+      old one wouldn't let it be delivered. He says (that's the old one does)
+      that none of his people shall interfere and get him into trouble. He's a
+      landlord, he says, and lives on everybody's custom.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's a jewel,' smiled Mr Chester, 'and the better for being a dull one.&mdash;Well?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Varden's daughter&mdash;that's the girl I kissed&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;and stole the bracelet from upon the king's highway,' said Mr
+      Chester, composedly. 'Yes; what of her?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She wrote a note at our house to the young woman, saying she lost the
+      letter I brought to you, and you burnt. Our Joe was to carry it, but the
+      old one kept him at home all next day, on purpose that he shouldn't. Next
+      morning he gave it to me to take; and here it is.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You didn't deliver it then, my good friend?' said Mr Chester, twirling
+      Dolly's note between his finger and thumb, and feigning to be surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I supposed you'd want to have it,' retorted Hugh. 'Burn one, burn all, I
+      thought.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My devil-may-care acquaintance,' said Mr Chester&mdash;'really if you do
+      not draw some nicer distinctions, your career will be cut short with most
+      surprising suddenness. Don't you know that the letter you brought to me,
+      was directed to my son who resides in this very place? And can you descry
+      no difference between his letters and those addressed to other people?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you don't want it,' said Hugh, disconcerted by this reproof, for he
+      had expected high praise, 'give it me back, and I'll deliver it. I don't
+      know how to please you, master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shall deliver it,' returned his patron, putting it away after a
+      moment's consideration, 'myself. Does the young lady walk out, on fine
+      mornings?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mostly&mdash;about noon is her usual time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Alone?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, alone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In the grounds before the house.&mdash;Them that the footpath crosses.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If the weather should be fine, I may throw myself in her way to-morrow,
+      perhaps,' said Mr Chester, as coolly as if she were one of his ordinary
+      acquaintance. 'Mr Hugh, if I should ride up to the Maypole door, you will
+      do me the favour only to have seen me once. You must suppress your
+      gratitude, and endeavour to forget my forbearance in the matter of the
+      bracelet. It is natural it should break out, and it does you honour; but
+      when other folks are by, you must, for your own sake and safety, be as
+      like your usual self as though you owed me no obligation whatever, and had
+      never stood within these walls. You comprehend me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh understood him perfectly. After a pause he muttered that he hoped his
+      patron would involve him in no trouble about this last letter; for he had
+      kept it back solely with the view of pleasing him. He was continuing in
+      this strain, when Mr Chester with a most beneficent and patronising air
+      cut him short by saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good fellow, you have my promise, my word, my sealed bond (for a
+      verbal pledge with me is quite as good), that I will always protect you so
+      long as you deserve it. Now, do set your mind at rest. Keep it at ease, I
+      beg of you. When a man puts himself in my power so thoroughly as you have
+      done, I really feel as though he had a kind of claim upon me. I am more
+      disposed to mercy and forbearance under such circumstances than I can tell
+      you, Hugh. Do look upon me as your protector, and rest assured, I entreat
+      you, that on the subject of that indiscretion, you may preserve, as long
+      as you and I are friends, the lightest heart that ever beat within a human
+      breast. Fill that glass once more to cheer you on your road homewards&mdash;I
+      am really quite ashamed to think how far you have to go&mdash;and then God
+      bless you for the night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They think,' said Hugh, when he had tossed the liquor down, 'that I am
+      sleeping soundly in the stable. Ha ha ha! The stable door is shut, but the
+      steed's gone, master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are a most convivial fellow,' returned his friend, 'and I love your
+      humour of all things. Good night! Take the greatest possible care of
+      yourself, for my sake!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was remarkable that during the whole interview, each had endeavoured to
+      catch stolen glances of the other's face, and had never looked full at it.
+      They interchanged one brief and hasty glance as Hugh went out, averted
+      their eyes directly, and so separated. Hugh closed the double doors behind
+      him, carefully and without noise; and Mr Chester remained in his
+      easy-chair, with his gaze intently fixed upon the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well!' he said, after meditating for a long time&mdash;and said with a
+      deep sigh and an uneasy shifting of his attitude, as though he dismissed
+      some other subject from his thoughts, and returned to that which had held
+      possession of them all the day&mdash;the plot thickens; I have thrown the
+      shell; it will explode, I think, in eight-and-forty hours, and should
+      scatter these good folks amazingly. We shall see!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to bed and fell asleep, but had not slept long when he started up
+      and thought that Hugh was at the outer door, calling in a strange voice,
+      very different from his own, to be admitted. The delusion was so strong
+      upon him, and was so full of that vague terror of the night in which such
+      visions have their being, that he rose, and taking his sheathed sword in
+      his hand, opened the door, and looked out upon the staircase, and towards
+      the spot where Hugh had lain asleep; and even spoke to him by name. But
+      all was dark and quiet, and creeping back to bed again, he fell, after an
+      hour's uneasy watching, into a second sleep, and woke no more till
+      morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 29
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of
+      gravitation, which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. The
+      bright glory of day, and the silent wonders of a starlit night, appeal to
+      their minds in vain. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon, or in
+      the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who, learning
+      to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small
+      heavenly constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal Love, and
+      Mercy, although they shine by night and day so brightly that the blind may
+      see them; and who, looking upward at the spangled sky, see nothing there
+      but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is curious to imagine these people of the world, busy in thought,
+      turning their eyes towards the countless spheres that shine above us, and
+      making them reflect the only images their minds contain. The man who lives
+      but in the breath of princes, has nothing in his sight but stars for
+      courtiers' breasts. The envious man beholds his neighbours' honours even
+      in the sky; to the money-hoarder, and the mass of worldly folk, the whole
+      great universe above glitters with sterling coin&mdash;fresh from the mint&mdash;stamped
+      with the sovereign's head&mdash;coming always between them and heaven,
+      turn where they may. So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us
+      and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everything was fresh and gay, as though the world were but that morning
+      made, when Mr Chester rode at a tranquil pace along the Forest road.
+      Though early in the season, it was warm and genial weather; the trees were
+      budding into leaf, the hedges and the grass were green, the air was
+      musical with songs of birds, and high above them all the lark poured out
+      her richest melody. In shady spots, the morning dew sparkled on each young
+      leaf and blade of grass; and where the sun was shining, some diamond drops
+      yet glistened brightly, as in unwillingness to leave so fair a world, and
+      have such brief existence. Even the light wind, whose rustling was as
+      gentle to the ear as softly-falling water, had its hope and promise; and,
+      leaving a pleasant fragrance in its track as it went fluttering by,
+      whispered of its intercourse with Summer, and of his happy coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The solitary rider went glancing on among the trees, from sunlight into
+      shade and back again, at the same even pace&mdash;looking about him,
+      certainly, from time to time, but with no greater thought of the day or
+      the scene through which he moved, than that he was fortunate (being
+      choicely dressed) to have such favourable weather. He smiled very
+      complacently at such times, but rather as if he were satisfied with
+      himself than with anything else: and so went riding on, upon his chestnut
+      cob, as pleasant to look upon as his own horse, and probably far less
+      sensitive to the many cheerful influences by which he was surrounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of time, the Maypole's massive chimneys rose upon his view:
+      but he quickened not his pace one jot, and with the same cool gravity rode
+      up to the tavern porch. John Willet, who was toasting his red face before
+      a great fire in the bar, and who, with surpassing foresight and quickness
+      of apprehension, had been thinking, as he looked at the blue sky, that if
+      that state of things lasted much longer, it might ultimately become
+      necessary to leave off fires and throw the windows open, issued forth to
+      hold his stirrup; calling lustily for Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, you're here, are you, sir?' said John, rather surprised by the
+      quickness with which he appeared. 'Take this here valuable animal into the
+      stable, and have more than particular care of him if you want to keep your
+      place. A mortal lazy fellow, sir; he needs a deal of looking after.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But you have a son,' returned Mr Chester, giving his bridle to Hugh as he
+      dismounted, and acknowledging his salute by a careless motion of his hand
+      towards his hat. 'Why don't you make HIM useful?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, the truth is, sir,' replied John with great importance, 'that my son&mdash;what,
+      you're a-listening are you, villain?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who's listening?' returned Hugh angrily. 'A treat, indeed, to hear YOU
+      speak! Would you have me take him in till he's cool?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Walk him up and down further off then, sir,' cried old John, 'and when
+      you see me and a noble gentleman entertaining ourselves with talk, keep
+      your distance. If you don't know your distance, sir,' added Mr Willet,
+      after an enormously long pause, during which he fixed his great dull eyes
+      on Hugh, and waited with exemplary patience for any little property in the
+      way of ideas that might come to him, 'we'll find a way to teach you,
+      pretty soon.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh shrugged his shoulders scornfully, and in his reckless swaggering
+      way, crossed to the other side of the little green, and there, with the
+      bridle slung loosely over his shoulder, led the horse to and fro, glancing
+      at his master every now and then from under his bushy eyebrows, with as
+      sinister an aspect as one would desire to see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester, who, without appearing to do so, had eyed him attentively
+      during this brief dispute, stepped into the porch, and turning abruptly to
+      Mr Willet, said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You keep strange servants, John.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Strange enough to look at, sir, certainly,' answered the host; 'but out
+      of doors; for horses, dogs, and the likes of that; there an't a better man
+      in England than is that Maypole Hugh yonder. He an't fit for indoors,'
+      added Mr Willet, with the confidential air of a man who felt his own
+      superior nature. 'I do that; but if that chap had only a little
+      imagination, sir&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's an active fellow now, I dare swear,' said Mr Chester, in a musing
+      tone, which seemed to suggest that he would have said the same had there
+      been nobody to hear him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Active, sir!' retorted John, with quite an expression in his face; 'that
+      chap! Hallo there! You, sir! Bring that horse here, and go and hang my wig
+      on the weathercock, to show this gentleman whether you're one of the
+      lively sort or not.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh made no answer, but throwing the bridle to his master, and snatching
+      his wig from his head, in a manner so unceremonious and hasty that the
+      action discomposed Mr Willet not a little, though performed at his own
+      special desire, climbed nimbly to the very summit of the maypole before
+      the house, and hanging the wig upon the weathercock, sent it twirling
+      round like a roasting jack. Having achieved this performance, he cast it
+      on the ground, and sliding down the pole with inconceivable rapidity,
+      alighted on his feet almost as soon as it had touched the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There, sir,' said John, relapsing into his usual stolid state, 'you won't
+      see that at many houses, besides the Maypole, where there's good
+      accommodation for man and beast&mdash;nor that neither, though that with
+      him is nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This last remark bore reference to his vaulting on horseback, as upon Mr
+      Chester's first visit, and quickly disappearing by the stable gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That with him is nothing,' repeated Mr Willet, brushing his wig with his
+      wrist, and inwardly resolving to distribute a small charge for dust and
+      damage to that article of dress, through the various items of his guest's
+      bill; 'he'll get out of a'most any winder in the house. There never was
+      such a chap for flinging himself about and never hurting his bones. It's
+      my opinion, sir, that it's pretty nearly allowing to his not having any
+      imagination; and that if imagination could be (which it can't) knocked
+      into him, he'd never be able to do it any more. But we was a-talking, sir,
+      about my son.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'True, Willet, true,' said his visitor, turning again towards the landlord
+      with his accustomed serenity of face. 'My good friend, what about him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been reported that Mr Willet, previously to making answer, winked.
+      But as he was never known to be guilty of such lightness of conduct either
+      before or afterwards, this may be looked upon as a malicious invention of
+      his enemies&mdash;founded, perhaps, upon the undisputed circumstance of
+      his taking his guest by the third breast button of his coat, counting
+      downwards from the chin, and pouring his reply into his ear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' whispered John, with dignity, 'I know my duty. We want no
+      love-making here, sir, unbeknown to parents. I respect a certain young
+      gentleman, taking him in the light of a young gentleman; I respect a
+      certain young lady, taking her in the light of a young lady; but of the
+      two as a couple, I have no knowledge, sir, none whatever. My son, sir, is
+      upon his patrole.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thought I saw him looking through the corner window but this moment,'
+      said Mr Chester, who naturally thought that being on patrole, implied
+      walking about somewhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No doubt you did, sir,' returned John. 'He is upon his patrole of honour,
+      sir, not to leave the premises. Me and some friends of mine that use the
+      Maypole of an evening, sir, considered what was best to be done with him,
+      to prevent his doing anything unpleasant in opposing your desires; and
+      we've put him on his patrole. And what's more, sir, he won't be off his
+      patrole for a pretty long time to come, I can tell you that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had communicated this bright idea, which had its origin in the
+      perusal by the village cronies of a newspaper, containing, among other
+      matters, an account of how some officer pending the sentence of some
+      court-martial had been enlarged on parole, Mr Willet drew back from his
+      guest's ear, and without any visible alteration of feature, chuckled
+      thrice audibly. This nearest approach to a laugh in which he ever indulged
+      (and that but seldom and only on extreme occasions), never even curled his
+      lip or effected the smallest change in&mdash;no, not so much as a slight
+      wagging of&mdash;his great, fat, double chin, which at these times, as at
+      all others, remained a perfect desert in the broad map of his face; one
+      changeless, dull, tremendous blank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lest it should be matter of surprise to any, that Mr Willet adopted this
+      bold course in opposition to one whom he had often entertained, and who
+      had always paid his way at the Maypole gallantly, it may be remarked that
+      it was his very penetration and sagacity in this respect, which occasioned
+      him to indulge in those unusual demonstrations of jocularity, just now
+      recorded. For Mr Willet, after carefully balancing father and son in his
+      mental scales, had arrived at the distinct conclusion that the old
+      gentleman was a better sort of a customer than the young one. Throwing his
+      landlord into the same scale, which was already turned by this
+      consideration, and heaping upon him, again, his strong desires to run
+      counter to the unfortunate Joe, and his opposition as a general principle
+      to all matters of love and matrimony, it went down to the very ground
+      straightway, and sent the light cause of the younger gentleman flying
+      upwards to the ceiling. Mr Chester was not the kind of man to be by any
+      means dim-sighted to Mr Willet's motives, but he thanked him as graciously
+      as if he had been one of the most disinterested martyrs that ever shone on
+      earth; and leaving him, with many complimentary reliances on his great
+      taste and judgment, to prepare whatever dinner he might deem most fitting
+      the occasion, bent his steps towards the Warren.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dressed with more than his usual elegance; assuming a gracefulness of
+      manner, which, though it was the result of long study, sat easily upon him
+      and became him well; composing his features into their most serene and
+      prepossessing expression; and setting in short that guard upon himself, at
+      every point, which denoted that he attached no slight importance to the
+      impression he was about to make; he entered the bounds of Miss Haredale's
+      usual walk. He had not gone far, or looked about him long, when he
+      descried coming towards him, a female figure. A glimpse of the form and
+      dress as she crossed a little wooden bridge which lay between them,
+      satisfied him that he had found her whom he desired to see. He threw
+      himself in her way, and a very few paces brought them close together.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0139m.jpg" alt="0139m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0139.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      He raised his hat from his head, and yielding the path, suffered her to
+      pass him. Then, as if the idea had but that moment occurred to him, he
+      turned hastily back and said in an agitated voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I beg pardon&mdash;do I address Miss Haredale?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stopped in some confusion at being so unexpectedly accosted by a
+      stranger; and answered 'Yes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Something told me,' he said, LOOKING a compliment to her beauty, 'that it
+      could be no other. Miss Haredale, I bear a name which is not unknown to
+      you&mdash;which it is a pride, and yet a pain to me to know, sounds
+      pleasantly in your ears. I am a man advanced in life, as you see. I am the
+      father of him whom you honour and distinguish above all other men. May I
+      for weighty reasons which fill me with distress, beg but a minute's
+      conversation with you here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who that was inexperienced in deceit, and had a frank and youthful heart,
+      could doubt the speaker's truth&mdash;could doubt it too, when the voice
+      that spoke, was like the faint echo of one she knew so well, and so much
+      loved to hear? She inclined her head, and stopping, cast her eyes upon the
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A little more apart&mdash;among these trees. It is an old man's hand,
+      Miss Haredale; an honest one, believe me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She put hers in it as he said these words, and suffered him to lead her to
+      a neighbouring seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You alarm me, sir,' she said in a low voice. 'You are not the bearer of
+      any ill news, I hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Of none that you anticipate,' he answered, sitting down beside her.
+      'Edward is well&mdash;quite well. It is of him I wish to speak, certainly;
+      but I have no misfortune to communicate.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She bowed her head again, and made as though she would have begged him to
+      proceed; but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am sensible that I speak to you at a disadvantage, dear Miss Haredale.
+      Believe me that I am not so forgetful of the feelings of my younger days
+      as not to know that you are little disposed to view me with favour. You
+      have heard me described as cold-hearted, calculating, selfish&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have never, sir,'&mdash;she interposed with an altered manner and a
+      firmer voice; 'I have never heard you spoken of in harsh or disrespectful
+      terms. You do a great wrong to Edward's nature if you believe him capable
+      of any mean or base proceeding.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pardon me, my sweet young lady, but your uncle&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor is it my uncle's nature either,' she replied, with a heightened
+      colour in her cheek. 'It is not his nature to stab in the dark, nor is it
+      mine to love such deeds.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She rose as she spoke, and would have left him; but he detained her with a
+      gentle hand, and besought her in such persuasive accents to hear him but
+      another minute, that she was easily prevailed upon to comply, and so sat
+      down again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And it is,' said Mr Chester, looking upward, and apostrophising the air;
+      'it is this frank, ingenuous, noble nature, Ned, that you can wound so
+      lightly. Shame&mdash;shame upon you, boy!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned towards him quickly, and with a scornful look and flashing
+      eyes. There were tears in Mr Chester's eyes, but he dashed them hurriedly
+      away, as though unwilling that his weakness should be known, and regarded
+      her with mingled admiration and compassion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I never until now,' he said, 'believed, that the frivolous actions of a
+      young man could move me like these of my own son. I never knew till now,
+      the worth of a woman's heart, which boys so lightly win, and lightly fling
+      away. Trust me, dear young lady, that I never until now did know your
+      worth; and though an abhorrence of deceit and falsehood has impelled me to
+      seek you out, and would have done so had you been the poorest and least
+      gifted of your sex, I should have lacked the fortitude to sustain this
+      interview could I have pictured you to my imagination as you really are.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh! If Mrs Varden could have seen the virtuous gentleman as he said these
+      words, with indignation sparkling from his eyes&mdash;if she could have
+      heard his broken, quavering voice&mdash;if she could have beheld him as he
+      stood bareheaded in the sunlight, and with unwonted energy poured forth
+      his eloquence!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a haughty face, but pale and trembling too, Emma regarded him in
+      silence. She neither spoke nor moved, but gazed upon him as though she
+      would look into his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I throw off,' said Mr Chester, 'the restraint which natural affection
+      would impose on some men, and reject all bonds but those of truth and
+      duty. Miss Haredale, you are deceived; you are deceived by your unworthy
+      lover, and my unworthy son.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still she looked at him steadily, and still said not one word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have ever opposed his professions of love for you; you will do me the
+      justice, dear Miss Haredale, to remember that. Your uncle and myself were
+      enemies in early life, and if I had sought retaliation, I might have found
+      it here. But as we grow older, we grow wiser&mdash;bitter, I would fain
+      hope&mdash;and from the first, I have opposed him in this attempt. I
+      foresaw the end, and would have spared you, if I could.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Speak plainly, sir,' she faltered. 'You deceive me, or are deceived
+      yourself. I do not believe you&mdash;I cannot&mdash;I should not.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'First,' said Mr Chester, soothingly, 'for there may be in your mind some
+      latent angry feeling to which I would not appeal, pray take this letter.
+      It reached my hands by chance, and by mistake, and should have accounted
+      to you (as I am told) for my son's not answering some other note of yours.
+      God forbid, Miss Haredale,' said the good gentleman, with great emotion,
+      'that there should be in your gentle breast one causeless ground of
+      quarrel with him. You should know, and you will see, that he was in no
+      fault here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There appeared something so very candid, so scrupulously honourable, so
+      very truthful and just in this course something which rendered the upright
+      person who resorted to it, so worthy of belief&mdash;that Emma's heart,
+      for the first time, sunk within her. She turned away and burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I would,' said Mr Chester, leaning over her, and speaking in mild and
+      quite venerable accents; 'I would, dear girl, it were my task to banish,
+      not increase, those tokens of your grief. My son, my erring son,&mdash;I
+      will not call him deliberately criminal in this, for men so young, who
+      have been inconstant twice or thrice before, act without reflection,
+      almost without a knowledge of the wrong they do,&mdash;will break his
+      plighted faith to you; has broken it even now. Shall I stop here, and
+      having given you this warning, leave it to be fulfilled; or shall I go
+      on?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will go on, sir,' she answered, 'and speak more plainly yet, in
+      justice both to him and me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear girl,' said Mr Chester, bending over her more affectionately
+      still; 'whom I would call my daughter, but the Fates forbid, Edward seeks
+      to break with you upon a false and most unwarrantable pretence. I have it
+      on his own showing; in his own hand. Forgive me, if I have had a watch
+      upon his conduct; I am his father; I had a regard for your peace and his
+      honour, and no better resource was left me. There lies on his desk at this
+      present moment, ready for transmission to you, a letter, in which he tells
+      you that our poverty&mdash;our poverty; his and mine, Miss Haredale&mdash;forbids
+      him to pursue his claim upon your hand; in which he offers, voluntarily
+      proposes, to free you from your pledge; and talks magnanimously (men do
+      so, very commonly, in such cases) of being in time more worthy of your
+      regard&mdash;and so forth. A letter, to be plain, in which he not only
+      jilts you&mdash;pardon the word; I would summon to your aid your pride and
+      dignity&mdash;not only jilts you, I fear, in favour of the object whose
+      slighting treatment first inspired his brief passion for yourself and gave
+      it birth in wounded vanity, but affects to make a merit and a virtue of
+      the act.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She glanced proudly at him once more, as by an involuntary impulse, and
+      with a swelling breast rejoined, 'If what you say be true, he takes much
+      needless trouble, sir, to compass his design. He's very tender of my peace
+      of mind. I quite thank him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The truth of what I tell you, dear young lady,' he replied, 'you will
+      test by the receipt or non-receipt of the letter of which I speak.
+      Haredale, my dear fellow, I am delighted to see you, although we meet
+      under singular circumstances, and upon a melancholy occasion. I hope you
+      are very well.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words the young lady raised her eyes, which were filled with
+      tears; and seeing that her uncle indeed stood before them, and being quite
+      unequal to the trial of hearing or of speaking one word more, hurriedly
+      withdrew, and left them. They stood looking at each other, and at her
+      retreating figure, and for a long time neither of them spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What does this mean? Explain it,' said Mr Haredale at length. 'Why are
+      you here, and why with her?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear friend,' rejoined the other, resuming his accustomed manner with
+      infinite readiness, and throwing himself upon the bench with a weary air,
+      'you told me not very long ago, at that delightful old tavern of which you
+      are the esteemed proprietor (and a most charming establishment it is for
+      persons of rural pursuits and in robust health, who are not liable to take
+      cold), that I had the head and heart of an evil spirit in all matters of
+      deception. I thought at the time; I really did think; you flattered me.
+      But now I begin to wonder at your discernment, and vanity apart, do
+      honestly believe you spoke the truth. Did you ever counterfeit extreme
+      ingenuousness and honest indignation? My dear fellow, you have no
+      conception, if you never did, how faint the effort makes one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale surveyed him with a look of cold contempt. 'You may evade an
+      explanation, I know,' he said, folding his arms. 'But I must have it. I
+      can wait.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not at all. Not at all, my good fellow. You shall not wait a moment,'
+      returned his friend, as he lazily crossed his legs. 'The simplest thing in
+      the world. It lies in a nutshell. Ned has written her a letter&mdash;a
+      boyish, honest, sentimental composition, which remains as yet in his desk,
+      because he hasn't had the heart to send it. I have taken a liberty, for
+      which my parental affection and anxiety are a sufficient excuse, and
+      possessed myself of the contents. I have described them to your niece (a
+      most enchanting person, Haredale; quite an angelic creature), with a
+      little colouring and description adapted to our purpose. It's done. You
+      may be quite easy. It's all over. Deprived of their adherents and
+      mediators; her pride and jealousy roused to the utmost; with nobody to
+      undeceive her, and you to confirm me; you will find that their intercourse
+      will close with her answer. If she receives Ned's letter by to-morrow
+      noon, you may date their parting from to-morrow night. No thanks, I beg;
+      you owe me none. I have acted for myself; and if I have forwarded our
+      compact with all the ardour even you could have desired, I have done so
+      selfishly, indeed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I curse the compact, as you call it, with my whole heart and soul,'
+      returned the other. 'It was made in an evil hour. I have bound myself to a
+      lie; I have leagued myself with you; and though I did so with a righteous
+      motive, and though it cost me such an effort as haply few men know, I hate
+      and despise myself for the deed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are very warm,' said Mr Chester with a languid smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I AM warm. I am maddened by your coldness. 'Death, Chester, if your blood
+      ran warmer in your veins, and there were no restraints upon me, such as
+      those that hold and drag me back&mdash;well; it is done; you tell me so,
+      and on such a point I may believe you. When I am most remorseful for this
+      treachery, I will think of you and your marriage, and try to justify
+      myself in such remembrances, for having torn asunder Emma and your son, at
+      any cost. Our bond is cancelled now, and we may part.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Chester kissed his hand gracefully; and with the same tranquil face he
+      had preserved throughout&mdash;even when he had seen his companion so
+      tortured and transported by his passion that his whole frame was shaken&mdash;lay
+      in his lounging posture on the seat and watched him as he walked away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My scapegoat and my drudge at school,' he said, raising his head to look
+      after him; 'my friend of later days, who could not keep his mistress when
+      he had won her, and threw me in her way to carry off the prize; I triumph
+      in the present and the past. Bark on, ill-favoured, ill-conditioned cur;
+      fortune has ever been with me&mdash;I like to hear you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spot where they had met, was in an avenue of trees. Mr Haredale not
+      passing out on either hand, had walked straight on. He chanced to turn his
+      head when at some considerable distance, and seeing that his late
+      companion had by that time risen and was looking after him, stood still as
+      though he half expected him to follow and waited for his coming up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It MAY come to that one day, but not yet,' said Mr Chester, waving his
+      hand, as though they were the best of friends, and turning away. 'Not yet,
+      Haredale. Life is pleasant enough to me; dull and full of heaviness to
+      you. No. To cross swords with such a man&mdash;to indulge his humour
+      unless upon extremity&mdash;would be weak indeed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all that, he drew his sword as he walked along, and in an absent
+      humour ran his eye from hilt to point full twenty times. But
+      thoughtfulness begets wrinkles; remembering this, he soon put it up,
+      smoothed his contracted brow, hummed a gay tune with greater gaiety of
+      manner, and was his unruffled self again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 30
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A homely proverb recognises the existence of a troublesome class of
+      persons who, having an inch conceded them, will take an ell. Not to quote
+      the illustrious examples of those heroic scourges of mankind, whose
+      amiable path in life has been from birth to death through blood, and fire,
+      and ruin, and who would seem to have existed for no better purpose than to
+      teach mankind that as the absence of pain is pleasure, so the earth,
+      purged of their presence, may be deemed a blessed place&mdash;not to quote
+      such mighty instances, it will be sufficient to refer to old John Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old John having long encroached a good standard inch, full measure, on the
+      liberty of Joe, and having snipped off a Flemish ell in the matter of the
+      parole, grew so despotic and so great, that his thirst for conquest knew
+      no bounds. The more young Joe submitted, the more absolute old John
+      became. The ell soon faded into nothing. Yards, furlongs, miles arose; and
+      on went old John in the pleasantest manner possible, trimming off an
+      exuberance in this place, shearing away some liberty of speech or action
+      in that, and conducting himself in his small way with as much high
+      mightiness and majesty, as the most glorious tyrant that ever had his
+      statue reared in the public ways, of ancient or of modern times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As great men are urged on to the abuse of power (when they need urging,
+      which is not often), by their flatterers and dependents, so old John was
+      impelled to these exercises of authority by the applause and admiration of
+      his Maypole cronies, who, in the intervals of their nightly pipes and
+      pots, would shake their heads and say that Mr Willet was a father of the
+      good old English sort; that there were no new-fangled notions or modern
+      ways in him; that he put them in mind of what their fathers were when they
+      were boys; that there was no mistake about him; that it would be well for
+      the country if there were more like him, and more was the pity that there
+      were not; with many other original remarks of that nature. Then they would
+      condescendingly give Joe to understand that it was all for his good, and
+      he would be thankful for it one day; and in particular, Mr Cobb would
+      acquaint him, that when he was his age, his father thought no more of
+      giving him a parental kick, or a box on the ears, or a cuff on the head,
+      or some little admonition of that sort, than he did of any other ordinary
+      duty of life; and he would further remark, with looks of great
+      significance, that but for this judicious bringing up, he might have never
+      been the man he was at that present speaking; which was probable enough,
+      as he was, beyond all question, the dullest dog of the party. In short,
+      between old John and old John's friends, there never was an unfortunate
+      young fellow so bullied, badgered, worried, fretted, and brow-beaten; so
+      constantly beset, or made so tired of his life, as poor Joe Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This had come to be the recognised and established state of things; but as
+      John was very anxious to flourish his supremacy before the eyes of Mr
+      Chester, he did that day exceed himself, and did so goad and chafe his son
+      and heir, that but for Joe's having made a solemn vow to keep his hands in
+      his pockets when they were not otherwise engaged, it is impossible to say
+      what he might have done with them. But the longest day has an end, and at
+      length Mr Chester came downstairs to mount his horse, which was ready at
+      the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As old John was not in the way at the moment, Joe, who was sitting in the
+      bar ruminating on his dismal fate and the manifold perfections of Dolly
+      Varden, ran out to hold the guest's stirrup and assist him to mount. Mr
+      Chester was scarcely in the saddle, and Joe was in the very act of making
+      him a graceful bow, when old John came diving out of the porch, and
+      collared him.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0143m.jpg" alt="0143m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0143.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'None of that, sir,' said John, 'none of that, sir. No breaking of
+      patroles. How dare you come out of the door, sir, without leave? You're
+      trying to get away, sir, are you, and to make a traitor of yourself again?
+      What do you mean, sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me go, father,' said Joe, imploringly, as he marked the smile upon
+      their visitor's face, and observed the pleasure his disgrace afforded him.
+      'This is too bad. Who wants to get away?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who wants to get away!' cried John, shaking him. 'Why you do, sir, you
+      do. You're the boy, sir,' added John, collaring with one hand, and aiding
+      the effect of a farewell bow to the visitor with the other, 'that wants to
+      sneak into houses, and stir up differences between noble gentlemen and
+      their sons, are you, eh? Hold your tongue, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe made no effort to reply. It was the crowning circumstance of his
+      degradation. He extricated himself from his father's grasp, darted an
+      angry look at the departing guest, and returned into the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But for her,' thought Joe, as he threw his arms upon a table in the
+      common room, and laid his head upon them, 'but for Dolly, who I couldn't
+      bear should think me the rascal they would make me out to be if I ran
+      away, this house and I should part to-night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It being evening by this time, Solomon Daisy, Tom Cobb, and Long Parkes,
+      were all in the common room too, and had from the window been witnesses of
+      what had just occurred. Mr Willet joining them soon afterwards, received
+      the compliments of the company with great composure, and lighting his
+      pipe, sat down among them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We'll see, gentlemen,' said John, after a long pause, 'who's the master
+      of this house, and who isn't. We'll see whether boys are to govern men, or
+      men are to govern boys.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And quite right too,' assented Solomon Daisy with some approving nods;
+      'quite right, Johnny. Very good, Johnny. Well said, Mr Willet. Brayvo,
+      sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John slowly brought his eyes to bear upon him, looked at him for a long
+      time, and finally made answer, to the unspeakable consternation of his
+      hearers, 'When I want encouragement from you, sir, I'll ask you for it.
+      You let me alone, sir. I can get on without you, I hope. Don't you tackle
+      me, sir, if you please.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't take it ill, Johnny; I didn't mean any harm,' pleaded the little
+      man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very good, sir,' said John, more than usually obstinate after his late
+      success. 'Never mind, sir. I can stand pretty firm of myself, sir, I
+      believe, without being shored up by you.' And having given utterance to
+      this retort, Mr Willet fixed his eyes upon the boiler, and fell into a
+      kind of tobacco-trance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spirits of the company being somewhat damped by this embarrassing line
+      of conduct on the part of their host, nothing more was said for a long
+      time; but at length Mr Cobb took upon himself to remark, as he rose to
+      knock the ashes out of his pipe, that he hoped Joe would thenceforth learn
+      to obey his father in all things; that he had found, that day, he was not
+      one of the sort of men who were to be trifled with; and that he would
+      recommend him, poetically speaking, to mind his eye for the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'd recommend you, in return,' said Joe, looking up with a flushed face,
+      'not to talk to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hold your tongue, sir,' cried Mr Willet, suddenly rousing himself, and
+      turning round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I won't, father,' cried Joe, smiting the table with his fist, so that the
+      jugs and glasses rung again; 'these things are hard enough to bear from
+      you; from anybody else I never will endure them any more. Therefore I say,
+      Mr Cobb, don't talk to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, who are you,' said Mr Cobb, sneeringly, 'that you're not to be
+      talked to, eh, Joe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Joe returned no answer, but with a very ominous shake of the
+      head, resumed his old position, which he would have peacefully preserved
+      until the house shut up at night, but that Mr Cobb, stimulated by the
+      wonder of the company at the young man's presumption, retorted with sundry
+      taunts, which proved too much for flesh and blood to bear. Crowding into
+      one moment the vexation and the wrath of years, Joe started up, overturned
+      the table, fell upon his long enemy, pummelled him with all his might and
+      main, and finished by driving him with surprising swiftness against a heap
+      of spittoons in one corner; plunging into which, head foremost, with a
+      tremendous crash, he lay at full length among the ruins, stunned and
+      motionless. Then, without waiting to receive the compliments of the
+      bystanders on the victory he had won, he retreated to his own bedchamber,
+      and considering himself in a state of siege, piled all the portable
+      furniture against the door by way of barricade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have done it now,' said Joe, as he sat down upon his bedstead and wiped
+      his heated face. 'I knew it would come at last. The Maypole and I must
+      part company. I'm a roving vagabond&mdash;she hates me for evermore&mdash;it's
+      all over!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 31
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Pondering on his unhappy lot, Joe sat and listened for a long time,
+      expecting every moment to hear their creaking footsteps on the stairs, or
+      to be greeted by his worthy father with a summons to capitulate
+      unconditionally, and deliver himself up straightway. But neither voice nor
+      footstep came; and though some distant echoes, as of closing doors and
+      people hurrying in and out of rooms, resounding from time to time through
+      the great passages, and penetrating to his remote seclusion, gave note of
+      unusual commotion downstairs, no nearer sound disturbed his place of
+      retreat, which seemed the quieter for these far-off noises, and was as
+      dull and full of gloom as any hermit's cell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It came on darker and darker. The old-fashioned furniture of the chamber,
+      which was a kind of hospital for all the invalided movables in the house,
+      grew indistinct and shadowy in its many shapes; chairs and tables, which
+      by day were as honest cripples as need be, assumed a doubtful and
+      mysterious character; and one old leprous screen of faded India leather
+      and gold binding, which had kept out many a cold breath of air in days of
+      yore and shut in many a jolly face, frowned on him with a spectral aspect,
+      and stood at full height in its allotted corner, like some gaunt ghost who
+      waited to be questioned. A portrait opposite the window&mdash;a queer, old
+      grey-eyed general, in an oval frame&mdash;seemed to wink and doze as the
+      light decayed, and at length, when the last faint glimmering speck of day
+      went out, to shut its eyes in good earnest, and fall sound asleep. There
+      was such a hush and mystery about everything, that Joe could not help
+      following its example; and so went off into a slumber likewise, and
+      dreamed of Dolly, till the clock of Chigwell church struck two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still nobody came. The distant noises in the house had ceased, and out of
+      doors all was quiet; save for the occasional barking of some deep-mouthed
+      dog, and the shaking of the branches by the night wind. He gazed
+      mournfully out of window at each well-known object as it lay sleeping in
+      the dim light of the moon; and creeping back to his former seat, thought
+      about the late uproar, until, with long thinking of, it seemed to have
+      occurred a month ago. Thus, between dozing, and thinking, and walking to
+      the window and looking out, the night wore away; the grim old screen, and
+      the kindred chairs and tables, began slowly to reveal themselves in their
+      accustomed forms; the grey-eyed general seemed to wink and yawn and rouse
+      himself; and at last he was broad awake again, and very uncomfortable and
+      cold and haggard he looked, in the dull grey light of morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun had begun to peep above the forest trees, and already flung across
+      the curling mist bright bars of gold, when Joe dropped from his window on
+      the ground below, a little bundle and his trusty stick, and prepared to
+      descend himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not a very difficult task; for there were so many projections and
+      gable ends in the way, that they formed a series of clumsy steps, with no
+      greater obstacle than a jump of some few feet at last. Joe, with his stick
+      and bundle on his shoulder, quickly stood on the firm earth, and looked up
+      at the old Maypole, it might be for the last time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He didn't apostrophise it, for he was no great scholar. He didn't curse
+      it, for he had little ill-will to give to anything on earth. He felt more
+      affectionate and kind to it than ever he had done in all his life before,
+      so said with all his heart, 'God bless you!' as a parting wish, and turned
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked along at a brisk pace, big with great thoughts of going for a
+      soldier and dying in some foreign country where it was very hot and sandy,
+      and leaving God knows what unheard-of wealth in prize-money to Dolly, who
+      would be very much affected when she came to know of it; and full of such
+      youthful visions, which were sometimes sanguine and sometimes melancholy,
+      but always had her for their main point and centre, pushed on vigorously
+      until the noise of London sounded in his ears, and the Black Lion hove in
+      sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only eight o'clock then, and very much astonished the Black Lion
+      was, to see him come walking in with dust upon his feet at that early
+      hour, with no grey mare to bear him company. But as he ordered breakfast
+      to be got ready with all speed, and on its being set before him gave
+      indisputable tokens of a hearty appetite, the Lion received him, as usual,
+      with a hospitable welcome; and treated him with those marks of
+      distinction, which, as a regular customer, and one within the freemasonry
+      of the trade, he had a right to claim.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0147m.jpg" alt="0147m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0147.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      This Lion or landlord,&mdash;for he was called both man and beast, by
+      reason of his having instructed the artist who painted his sign, to convey
+      into the features of the lordly brute whose effigy it bore, as near a
+      counterpart of his own face as his skill could compass and devise,&mdash;was
+      a gentleman almost as quick of apprehension, and of almost as subtle a
+      wit, as the mighty John himself. But the difference between them lay in
+      this: that whereas Mr Willet's extreme sagacity and acuteness were the
+      efforts of unassisted nature, the Lion stood indebted, in no small amount,
+      to beer; of which he swigged such copious draughts, that most of his
+      faculties were utterly drowned and washed away, except the one great
+      faculty of sleep, which he retained in surprising perfection. The creaking
+      Lion over the house-door was, therefore, to say the truth, rather a
+      drowsy, tame, and feeble lion; and as these social representatives of a
+      savage class are usually of a conventional character (being depicted, for
+      the most part, in impossible attitudes and of unearthly colours), he was
+      frequently supposed by the more ignorant and uninformed among the
+      neighbours, to be the veritable portrait of the host as he appeared on the
+      occasion of some great funeral ceremony or public mourning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What noisy fellow is that in the next room?' said Joe, when he had
+      disposed of his breakfast, and had washed and brushed himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A recruiting serjeant,' replied the Lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe started involuntarily. Here was the very thing he had been dreaming
+      of, all the way along.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And I wish,' said the Lion, 'he was anywhere else but here. The party
+      make noise enough, but don't call for much. There's great cry there, Mr
+      Willet, but very little wool. Your father wouldn't like 'em, I know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps not much under any circumstances. Perhaps if he could have known
+      what was passing at that moment in Joe's mind, he would have liked them
+      still less.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is he recruiting for a&mdash;for a fine regiment?' said Joe, glancing at
+      a little round mirror that hung in the bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I believe he is,' replied the host. 'It's much the same thing, whatever
+      regiment he's recruiting for. I'm told there an't a deal of difference
+      between a fine man and another one, when they're shot through and
+      through.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They're not all shot,' said Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' the Lion answered, 'not all. Those that are&mdash;supposing it's
+      done easy&mdash;are the best off in my opinion.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' retorted Joe, 'but you don't care for glory.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For what?' said the Lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Glory.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' returned the Lion, with supreme indifference. 'I don't. You're right
+      in that, Mr Willet. When Glory comes here, and calls for anything to drink
+      and changes a guinea to pay for it, I'll give it him for nothing. It's my
+      belief, sir, that the Glory's arms wouldn't do a very strong business.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These remarks were not at all comforting. Joe walked out, stopped at the
+      door of the next room, and listened. The serjeant was describing a
+      military life. It was all drinking, he said, except that there were
+      frequent intervals of eating and love-making. A battle was the finest
+      thing in the world&mdash;when your side won it&mdash;and Englishmen always
+      did that. 'Supposing you should be killed, sir?' said a timid voice in one
+      corner. 'Well, sir, supposing you should be,' said the serjeant, 'what
+      then? Your country loves you, sir; his Majesty King George the Third loves
+      you; your memory is honoured, revered, respected; everybody's fond of you,
+      and grateful to you; your name's wrote down at full length in a book in
+      the War Office. Damme, gentlemen, we must all die some time, or another,
+      eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice coughed, and said no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe walked into the room. A group of half-a-dozen fellows had gathered
+      together in the taproom, and were listening with greedy ears. One of them,
+      a carter in a smockfrock, seemed wavering and disposed to enlist. The
+      rest, who were by no means disposed, strongly urged him to do so
+      (according to the custom of mankind), backed the serjeant's arguments, and
+      grinned among themselves. 'I say nothing, boys,' said the serjeant, who
+      sat a little apart, drinking his liquor. 'For lads of spirit'&mdash;here
+      he cast an eye on Joe&mdash;'this is the time. I don't want to inveigle
+      you. The king's not come to that, I hope. Brisk young blood is what we
+      want; not milk and water. We won't take five men out of six. We want
+      top-sawyers, we do. I'm not a-going to tell tales out of school, but,
+      damme, if every gentleman's son that carries arms in our corps, through
+      being under a cloud and having little differences with his relations, was
+      counted up'&mdash;here his eye fell on Joe again, and so good-naturedly,
+      that Joe beckoned him out. He came directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're a gentleman, by G&mdash;!' was his first remark, as he slapped him
+      on the back. 'You're a gentleman in disguise. So am I. Let's swear a
+      friendship.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe didn't exactly do that, but he shook hands with him, and thanked him
+      for his good opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You want to serve,' said his new friend. 'You shall. You were made for
+      it. You're one of us by nature. What'll you take to drink?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing just now,' replied Joe, smiling faintly. 'I haven't quite made up
+      my mind.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A mettlesome fellow like you, and not made up his mind!' cried the
+      serjeant. 'Here&mdash;let me give the bell a pull, and you'll make up your
+      mind in half a minute, I know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're right so far'&mdash;answered Joe, 'for if you pull the bell here,
+      where I'm known, there'll be an end of my soldiering inclinations in no
+      time. Look in my face. You see me, do you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I do,' replied the serjeant with an oath, 'and a finer young fellow or
+      one better qualified to serve his king and country, I never set my&mdash;'
+      he used an adjective in this place&mdash;'eyes on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank you,' said Joe, 'I didn't ask you for want of a compliment, but
+      thank you all the same. Do I look like a sneaking fellow or a liar?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The serjeant rejoined with many choice asseverations that he didn't; and
+      that if his (the serjeant's) own father were to say he did, he would run
+      the old gentleman through the body cheerfully, and consider it a
+      meritorious action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe expressed his obligations, and continued, 'You can trust me then, and
+      credit what I say. I believe I shall enlist in your regiment to-night. The
+      reason I don't do so now is, because I don't want until to-night, to do
+      what I can't recall. Where shall I find you, this evening?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His friend replied with some unwillingness, and after much ineffectual
+      entreaty having for its object the immediate settlement of the business,
+      that his quarters would be at the Crooked Billet in Tower Street; where he
+      would be found waking until midnight, and sleeping until breakfast time
+      to-morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And if I do come&mdash;which it's a million to one, I shall&mdash;when
+      will you take me out of London?' demanded Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To-morrow morning, at half after eight o'clock,' replied the serjeant.
+      'You'll go abroad&mdash;a country where it's all sunshine and plunder&mdash;the
+      finest climate in the world.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To go abroad,' said Joe, shaking hands with him, 'is the very thing I
+      want. You may expect me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're the kind of lad for us,' cried the serjeant, holding Joe's hand in
+      his, in the excess of his admiration. 'You're the boy to push your
+      fortune. I don't say it because I bear you any envy, or would take away
+      from the credit of the rise you'll make, but if I had been bred and taught
+      like you, I'd have been a colonel by this time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tush, man!' said Joe, 'I'm not so young as that. Needs must when the
+      devil drives; and the devil that drives me is an empty pocket and an
+      unhappy home. For the present, good-bye.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For king and country!' cried the serjeant, flourishing his cap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For bread and meat!' cried Joe, snapping his fingers. And so they parted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had very little money in his pocket; so little indeed, that after
+      paying for his breakfast (which he was too honest and perhaps too proud to
+      score up to his father's charge) he had but a penny left. He had courage,
+      notwithstanding, to resist all the affectionate importunities of the
+      serjeant, who waylaid him at the door with many protestations of eternal
+      friendship, and did in particular request that he would do him the favour
+      to accept of only one shilling as a temporary accommodation. Rejecting his
+      offers both of cash and credit, Joe walked away with stick and bundle as
+      before, bent upon getting through the day as he best could, and going down
+      to the locksmith's in the dusk of the evening; for it should go hard, he
+      had resolved, but he would have a parting word with charming Dolly Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went out by Islington and so on to Highgate, and sat on many stones and
+      gates, but there were no voices in the bells to bid him turn. Since the
+      time of noble Whittington, fair flower of merchants, bells have come to
+      have less sympathy with humankind. They only ring for money and on state
+      occasions. Wanderers have increased in number; ships leave the Thames for
+      distant regions, carrying from stem to stern no other cargo; the bells are
+      silent; they ring out no entreaties or regrets; they are used to it and
+      have grown worldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe bought a roll, and reduced his purse to the condition (with a
+      difference) of that celebrated purse of Fortunatus, which, whatever were
+      its favoured owner's necessities, had one unvarying amount in it. In these
+      real times, when all the Fairies are dead and buried, there are still a
+      great many purses which possess that quality. The sum-total they contain
+      is expressed in arithmetic by a circle, and whether it be added to or
+      multiplied by its own amount, the result of the problem is more easily
+      stated than any known in figures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Evening drew on at last. With the desolate and solitary feeling of one who
+      had no home or shelter, and was alone utterly in the world for the first
+      time, he bent his steps towards the locksmith's house. He had delayed till
+      now, knowing that Mrs Varden sometimes went out alone, or with Miggs for
+      her sole attendant, to lectures in the evening; and devoutly hoping that
+      this might be one of her nights of moral culture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had walked up and down before the house, on the opposite side of the
+      way, two or three times, when as he returned to it again, he caught a
+      glimpse of a fluttering skirt at the door. It was Dolly's&mdash;to whom
+      else could it belong? no dress but hers had such a flow as that. He
+      plucked up his spirits, and followed it into the workshop of the Golden
+      Key.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His darkening the door caused her to look round. Oh that face! 'If it
+      hadn't been for that,' thought Joe, 'I should never have walked into poor
+      Tom Cobb. She's twenty times handsomer than ever. She might marry a Lord!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He didn't say this. He only thought it&mdash;perhaps looked it also. Dolly
+      was glad to see him, and was SO sorry her father and mother were away from
+      home. Joe begged she wouldn't mention it on any account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly hesitated to lead the way into the parlour, for there it was nearly
+      dark; at the same time she hesitated to stand talking in the workshop,
+      which was yet light and open to the street. They had got by some means,
+      too, before the little forge; and Joe having her hand in his (which he had
+      no right to have, for Dolly only gave it him to shake), it was so like
+      standing before some homely altar being married, that it was the most
+      embarrassing state of things in the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have come,' said Joe, 'to say good-bye&mdash;to say good-bye for I
+      don't know how many years; perhaps for ever. I am going abroad.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this was exactly what he should not have said. Here he was, talking
+      like a gentleman at large who was free to come and go and roam about the
+      world at pleasure, when that gallant coachmaker had vowed but the night
+      before that Miss Varden held him bound in adamantine chains; and had
+      positively stated in so many words that she was killing him by inches, and
+      that in a fortnight more or thereabouts he expected to make a decent end
+      and leave the business to his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly released her hand and said 'Indeed!' She remarked in the same breath
+      that it was a fine night, and in short, betrayed no more emotion than the
+      forge itself.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0150m.jpg" alt="0150m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0150.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'I couldn't go,' said Joe, 'without coming to see you. I hadn't the heart
+      to.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly was more sorry than she could tell, that he should have taken so
+      much trouble. It was such a long way, and he must have such a deal to do.
+      And how WAS Mr Willet&mdash;that dear old gentleman&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is this all you say!' cried Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All! Good gracious, what did the man expect! She was obliged to take her
+      apron in her hand and run her eyes along the hem from corner to corner, to
+      keep herself from laughing in his face;&mdash;not because his gaze
+      confused her&mdash;not at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe had small experience in love affairs, and had no notion how different
+      young ladies are at different times; he had expected to take Dolly up
+      again at the very point where he had left her after that delicious evening
+      ride, and was no more prepared for such an alteration than to see the sun
+      and moon change places. He had buoyed himself up all day with an
+      indistinct idea that she would certainly say 'Don't go,' or 'Don't leave
+      us,' or 'Why do you go?' or 'Why do you leave us?' or would give him some
+      little encouragement of that sort; he had even entertained the possibility
+      of her bursting into tears, of her throwing herself into his arms, of her
+      falling down in a fainting fit without previous word or sign; but any
+      approach to such a line of conduct as this, had been so far from his
+      thoughts that he could only look at her in silent wonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly in the meanwhile, turned to the corners of her apron, and measured
+      the sides, and smoothed out the wrinkles, and was as silent as he. At last
+      after a long pause, Joe said good-bye. 'Good-bye'&mdash;said Dolly&mdash;with
+      as pleasant a smile as if he were going into the next street, and were
+      coming back to supper; 'good-bye.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come,' said Joe, putting out both hands, 'Dolly, dear Dolly, don't let us
+      part like this. I love you dearly, with all my heart and soul; with as
+      much truth and earnestness as ever man loved woman in this world, I do
+      believe. I am a poor fellow, as you know&mdash;poorer now than ever, for I
+      have fled from home, not being able to bear it any longer, and must fight
+      my own way without help. You are beautiful, admired, are loved by
+      everybody, are well off and happy; and may you ever be so! Heaven forbid I
+      should ever make you otherwise; but give me a word of comfort. Say
+      something kind to me. I have no right to expect it of you, I know, but I
+      ask it because I love you, and shall treasure the slightest word from you
+      all through my life. Dolly, dearest, have you nothing to say to me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No. Nothing. Dolly was a coquette by nature, and a spoilt child. She had
+      no notion of being carried by storm in this way. The coachmaker would have
+      been dissolved in tears, and would have knelt down, and called himself
+      names, and clasped his hands, and beat his breast, and tugged wildly at
+      his cravat, and done all kinds of poetry. Joe had no business to be going
+      abroad. He had no right to be able to do it. If he was in adamantine
+      chains, he couldn't.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have said good-bye,' said Dolly, 'twice. Take your arm away directly,
+      Mr Joseph, or I'll call Miggs.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll not reproach you,' answered Joe, 'it's my fault, no doubt. I have
+      thought sometimes that you didn't quite despise me, but I was a fool to
+      think so. Every one must, who has seen the life I have led&mdash;you most
+      of all. God bless you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was gone, actually gone. Dolly waited a little while, thinking he would
+      return, peeped out at the door, looked up the street and down as well as
+      the increasing darkness would allow, came in again, waited a little
+      longer, went upstairs humming a tune, bolted herself in, laid her head
+      down on her bed, and cried as if her heart would break. And yet such
+      natures are made up of so many contradictions, that if Joe Willet had come
+      back that night, next day, next week, next month, the odds are a hundred
+      to one she would have treated him in the very same manner, and have wept
+      for it afterwards with the very same distress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had no sooner left the workshop than there cautiously peered out from
+      behind the chimney of the forge, a face which had already emerged from the
+      same concealment twice or thrice, unseen, and which, after satisfying
+      itself that it was now alone, was followed by a leg, a shoulder, and so on
+      by degrees, until the form of Mr Tappertit stood confessed, with a
+      brown-paper cap stuck negligently on one side of its head, and its arms
+      very much a-kimbo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have my ears deceived me,' said the 'prentice, 'or do I dream! am I to
+      thank thee, Fortun', or to cus thee&mdash;which?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gravely descended from his elevation, took down his piece of
+      looking-glass, planted it against the wall upon the usual bench, twisted
+      his head round, and looked closely at his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If they're a dream,' said Sim, 'let sculptures have such wisions, and
+      chisel 'em out when they wake. This is reality. Sleep has no such limbs as
+      them. Tremble, Willet, and despair. She's mine! She's mine!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these triumphant expressions, he seized a hammer and dealt a heavy
+      blow at a vice, which in his mind's eye represented the sconce or head of
+      Joseph Willet. That done, he burst into a peal of laughter which startled
+      Miss Miggs even in her distant kitchen, and dipping his head into a bowl
+      of water, had recourse to a jack-towel inside the closet door, which
+      served the double purpose of smothering his feelings and drying his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe, disconsolate and down-hearted, but full of courage too, on leaving
+      the locksmith's house made the best of his way to the Crooked Billet, and
+      there inquired for his friend the serjeant, who, expecting no man less,
+      received him with open arms. In the course of five minutes after his
+      arrival at that house of entertainment, he was enrolled among the gallant
+      defenders of his native land; and within half an hour, was regaled with a
+      steaming supper of boiled tripe and onions, prepared, as his friend
+      assured him more than once, at the express command of his most Sacred
+      Majesty the King. To this meal, which tasted very savoury after his long
+      fasting, he did ample justice; and when he had followed it up, or down,
+      with a variety of loyal and patriotic toasts, he was conducted to a straw
+      mattress in a loft over the stable, and locked in there for the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning, he found that the obliging care of his martial friend
+      had decorated his hat with sundry particoloured streamers, which made a
+      very lively appearance; and in company with that officer, and three other
+      military gentlemen newly enrolled, who were under a cloud so dense that it
+      only left three shoes, a boot, and a coat and a half visible among them,
+      repaired to the riverside. Here they were joined by a corporal and four
+      more heroes, of whom two were drunk and daring, and two sober and
+      penitent, but each of whom, like Joe, had his dusty stick and bundle. The
+      party embarked in a passage-boat bound for Gravesend, whence they were to
+      proceed on foot to Chatham; the wind was in their favour, and they soon
+      left London behind them, a mere dark mist&mdash;a giant phantom in the
+      air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 32
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Misfortunes, saith the adage, never come singly. There is little doubt
+      that troubles are exceedingly gregarious in their nature, and flying in
+      flocks, are apt to perch capriciously; crowding on the heads of some poor
+      wights until there is not an inch of room left on their unlucky crowns,
+      and taking no more notice of others who offer as good resting-places for
+      the soles of their feet, than if they had no existence. It may have
+      happened that a flight of troubles brooding over London, and looking out
+      for Joseph Willet, whom they couldn't find, darted down haphazard on the
+      first young man that caught their fancy, and settled on him instead.
+      However this may be, certain it is that on the very day of Joe's departure
+      they swarmed about the ears of Edward Chester, and did so buzz and flap
+      their wings, and persecute him, that he was most profoundly wretched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evening, and just eight o'clock, when he and his father, having
+      wine and dessert set before them, were left to themselves for the first
+      time that day. They had dined together, but a third person had been
+      present during the meal, and until they met at table they had not seen
+      each other since the previous night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward was reserved and silent. Mr Chester was more than usually gay; but
+      not caring, as it seemed, to open a conversation with one whose humour was
+      so different, he vented the lightness of his spirit in smiles and
+      sparkling looks, and made no effort to awaken his attention. So they
+      remained for some time: the father lying on a sofa with his accustomed air
+      of graceful negligence; the son seated opposite to him with downcast eyes,
+      busied, it was plain, with painful and uneasy thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear Edward,' said Mr Chester at length, with a most engaging laugh,
+      'do not extend your drowsy influence to the decanter. Suffer THAT to
+      circulate, let your spirits be never so stagnant.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward begged his pardon, passed it, and relapsed into his former state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You do wrong not to fill your glass,' said Mr Chester, holding up his own
+      before the light. 'Wine in moderation&mdash;not in excess, for that makes
+      men ugly&mdash;has a thousand pleasant influences. It brightens the eye,
+      improves the voice, imparts a new vivacity to one's thoughts and
+      conversation: you should try it, Ned.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah father!' cried his son, 'if&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good fellow,' interposed the parent hastily, as he set down his glass,
+      and raised his eyebrows with a startled and horrified expression, 'for
+      Heaven's sake don't call me by that obsolete and ancient name. Have some
+      regard for delicacy. Am I grey, or wrinkled, do I go on crutches, have I
+      lost my teeth, that you adopt such a mode of address? Good God, how very
+      coarse!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I was about to speak to you from my heart, sir,' returned Edward, 'in the
+      confidence which should subsist between us; and you check me in the
+      outset.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now DO, Ned, DO not,' said Mr Chester, raising his delicate hand
+      imploringly, 'talk in that monstrous manner. About to speak from your
+      heart. Don't you know that the heart is an ingenious part of our formation&mdash;the
+      centre of the blood-vessels and all that sort of thing&mdash;which has no
+      more to do with what you say or think, than your knees have? How can you
+      be so very vulgar and absurd? These anatomical allusions should be left to
+      gentlemen of the medical profession. They are really not agreeable in
+      society. You quite surprise me, Ned.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well! there are no such things to wound, or heal, or have regard for. I
+      know your creed, sir, and will say no more,' returned his son.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0153m.jpg" alt="0153m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0153.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'There again,' said Mr Chester, sipping his wine, 'you are wrong. I
+      distinctly say there are such things. We know there are. The hearts of
+      animals&mdash;of bullocks, sheep, and so forth&mdash;are cooked and
+      devoured, as I am told, by the lower classes, with a vast deal of relish.
+      Men are sometimes stabbed to the heart, shot to the heart; but as to
+      speaking from the heart, or to the heart, or being warm-hearted, or
+      cold-hearted, or broken-hearted, or being all heart, or having no heart&mdash;pah!
+      these things are nonsense, Ned.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No doubt, sir,' returned his son, seeing that he paused for him to speak.
+      'No doubt.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's Haredale's niece, your late flame,' said Mr Chester, as a
+      careless illustration of his meaning. 'No doubt in your mind she was all
+      heart once. Now she has none at all. Yet she is the same person, Ned,
+      exactly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She is a changed person, sir,' cried Edward, reddening; 'and changed by
+      vile means, I believe.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have had a cool dismissal, have you?' said his father. 'Poor Ned! I
+      told you last night what would happen.&mdash;May I ask you for the
+      nutcrackers?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She has been tampered with, and most treacherously deceived,' cried
+      Edward, rising from his seat. 'I never will believe that the knowledge of
+      my real position, given her by myself, has worked this change. I know she
+      is beset and tortured. But though our contract is at an end, and broken
+      past all redemption; though I charge upon her want of firmness and want of
+      truth, both to herself and me; I do not now, and never will believe, that
+      any sordid motive, or her own unbiassed will, has led her to this course&mdash;never!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You make me blush,' returned his father gaily, 'for the folly of your
+      nature, in which&mdash;but we never know ourselves&mdash;I devoutly hope
+      there is no reflection of my own. With regard to the young lady herself,
+      she has done what is very natural and proper, my dear fellow; what you
+      yourself proposed, as I learn from Haredale; and what I predicted&mdash;with
+      no great exercise of sagacity&mdash;she would do. She supposed you to be
+      rich, or at least quite rich enough; and found you poor. Marriage is a
+      civil contract; people marry to better their worldly condition and improve
+      appearances; it is an affair of house and furniture, of liveries,
+      servants, equipage, and so forth. The lady being poor and you poor also,
+      there is an end of the matter. You cannot enter upon these considerations,
+      and have no manner of business with the ceremony. I drink her health in
+      this glass, and respect and honour her for her extreme good sense. It is a
+      lesson to you. Fill yours, Ned.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is a lesson,' returned his son, 'by which I hope I may never profit,
+      and if years and experience impress it on&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't say on the heart,' interposed his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'On men whom the world and its hypocrisy have spoiled,' said Edward
+      warmly, 'Heaven keep me from its knowledge.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come, sir,' returned his father, raising himself a little on the sofa,
+      and looking straight towards him; 'we have had enough of this. Remember,
+      if you please, your interest, your duty, your moral obligations, your
+      filial affections, and all that sort of thing, which it is so very
+      delightful and charming to reflect upon; or you will repent it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shall never repent the preservation of my self-respect, sir,' said
+      Edward. 'Forgive me if I say that I will not sacrifice it at your bidding,
+      and that I will not pursue the track which you would have me take, and to
+      which the secret share you have had in this late separation tends.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His father rose a little higher still, and looking at him as though
+      curious to know if he were quite resolved and earnest, dropped gently down
+      again, and said in the calmest voice&mdash;eating his nuts meanwhile,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Edward, my father had a son, who being a fool like you, and, like you,
+      entertaining low and disobedient sentiments, he disinherited and cursed
+      one morning after breakfast. The circumstance occurs to me with a singular
+      clearness of recollection this evening. I remember eating muffins at the
+      time, with marmalade. He led a miserable life (the son, I mean) and died
+      early; it was a happy release on all accounts; he degraded the family very
+      much. It is a sad circumstance, Edward, when a father finds it necessary
+      to resort to such strong measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is,' replied Edward, 'and it is sad when a son, proffering him his
+      love and duty in their best and truest sense, finds himself repelled at
+      every turn, and forced to disobey. Dear father,' he added, more earnestly
+      though in a gentler tone, 'I have reflected many times on what occurred
+      between us when we first discussed this subject. Let there be a confidence
+      between us; not in terms, but truth. Hear what I have to say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As I anticipate what it is, and cannot fail to do so, Edward,' returned
+      his father coldly, 'I decline. I couldn't possibly. I am sure it would put
+      me out of temper, which is a state of mind I can't endure. If you intend
+      to mar my plans for your establishment in life, and the preservation of
+      that gentility and becoming pride, which our family have so long sustained&mdash;if,
+      in short, you are resolved to take your own course, you must take it, and
+      my curse with it. I am very sorry, but there's really no alternative.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The curse may pass your lips,' said Edward, 'but it will be but empty
+      breath. I do not believe that any man on earth has greater power to call
+      one down upon his fellow&mdash;least of all, upon his own child&mdash;than
+      he has to make one drop of rain or flake of snow fall from the clouds
+      above us at his impious bidding. Beware, sir, what you do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are so very irreligious, so exceedingly undutiful, so horribly
+      profane,' rejoined his father, turning his face lazily towards him, and
+      cracking another nut, 'that I positively must interrupt you here. It is
+      quite impossible we can continue to go on, upon such terms as these. If
+      you will do me the favour to ring the bell, the servant will show you to
+      the door. Return to this roof no more, I beg you. Go, sir, since you have
+      no moral sense remaining; and go to the Devil, at my express desire. Good
+      day.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward left the room without another word or look, and turned his back
+      upon the house for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The father's face was slightly flushed and heated, but his manner was
+      quite unchanged, as he rang the bell again, and addressed the servant on
+      his entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Peak&mdash;if that gentleman who has just gone out&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I beg your pardon, sir, Mr Edward?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Were there more than one, dolt, that you ask the question?&mdash;If that
+      gentleman should send here for his wardrobe, let him have it, do you hear?
+      If he should call himself at any time, I'm not at home. You'll tell him
+      so, and shut the door.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, it soon got whispered about, that Mr Chester was very unfortunate in
+      his son, who had occasioned him great grief and sorrow. And the good
+      people who heard this and told it again, marvelled the more at his
+      equanimity and even temper, and said what an amiable nature that man must
+      have, who, having undergone so much, could be so placid and so calm. And
+      when Edward's name was spoken, Society shook its head, and laid its finger
+      on its lip, and sighed, and looked very grave; and those who had sons
+      about his age, waxed wrathful and indignant, and hoped, for Virtue's sake,
+      that he was dead. And the world went on turning round, as usual, for five
+      years, concerning which this Narrative is silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 33
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      One wintry evening, early in the year of our Lord one thousand seven
+      hundred and eighty, a keen north wind arose as it grew dark, and night
+      came on with black and dismal looks. A bitter storm of sleet, sharp,
+      dense, and icy-cold, swept the wet streets, and rattled on the trembling
+      windows. Signboards, shaken past endurance in their creaking frames, fell
+      crashing on the pavement; old tottering chimneys reeled and staggered in
+      the blast; and many a steeple rocked again that night, as though the earth
+      were troubled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not a time for those who could by any means get light and warmth,
+      to brave the fury of the weather. In coffee-houses of the better sort,
+      guests crowded round the fire, forgot to be political, and told each other
+      with a secret gladness that the blast grew fiercer every minute. Each
+      humble tavern by the water-side, had its group of uncouth figures round
+      the hearth, who talked of vessels foundering at sea, and all hands lost;
+      related many a dismal tale of shipwreck and drowned men, and hoped that
+      some they knew were safe, and shook their heads in doubt. In private
+      dwellings, children clustered near the blaze; listening with timid
+      pleasure to tales of ghosts and goblins, and tall figures clad in white
+      standing by bed-sides, and people who had gone to sleep in old churches
+      and being overlooked had found themselves alone there at the dead hour of
+      the night: until they shuddered at the thought of the dark rooms upstairs,
+      yet loved to hear the wind moan too, and hoped it would continue bravely.
+      From time to time these happy indoor people stopped to listen, or one held
+      up his finger and cried 'Hark!' and then, above the rumbling in the
+      chimney, and the fast pattering on the glass, was heard a wailing, rushing
+      sound, which shook the walls as though a giant's hand were on them; then a
+      hoarse roar as if the sea had risen; then such a whirl and tumult that the
+      air seemed mad; and then, with a lengthened howl, the waves of wind swept
+      on, and left a moment's interval of rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cheerily, though there were none abroad to see it, shone the Maypole light
+      that evening. Blessings on the red&mdash;deep, ruby, glowing red&mdash;old
+      curtain of the window; blending into one rich stream of brightness, fire
+      and candle, meat, drink, and company, and gleaming like a jovial eye upon
+      the bleak waste out of doors! Within, what carpet like its crunching sand,
+      what music merry as its crackling logs, what perfume like its kitchen's
+      dainty breath, what weather genial as its hearty warmth! Blessings on the
+      old house, how sturdily it stood! How did the vexed wind chafe and roar
+      about its stalwart roof; how did it pant and strive with its wide
+      chimneys, which still poured forth from their hospitable throats, great
+      clouds of smoke, and puffed defiance in its face; how, above all, did it
+      drive and rattle at the casement, emulous to extinguish that cheerful
+      glow, which would not be put down and seemed the brighter for the
+      conflict!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The profusion too, the rich and lavish bounty, of that goodly tavern! It
+      was not enough that one fire roared and sparkled on its spacious hearth;
+      in the tiles which paved and compassed it, five hundred flickering fires
+      burnt brightly also. It was not enough that one red curtain shut the wild
+      night out, and shed its cheerful influence on the room. In every saucepan
+      lid, and candlestick, and vessel of copper, brass, or tin that hung upon
+      the walls, were countless ruddy hangings, flashing and gleaming with every
+      motion of the blaze, and offering, let the eye wander where it might,
+      interminable vistas of the same rich colour. The old oak wainscoting, the
+      beams, the chairs, the seats, reflected it in a deep, dull glimmer. There
+      were fires and red curtains in the very eyes of the drinkers, in their
+      buttons, in their liquor, in the pipes they smoked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet sat in what had been his accustomed place five years before,
+      with his eyes on the eternal boiler; and had sat there since the clock
+      struck eight, giving no other signs of life than breathing with a loud and
+      constant snore (though he was wide awake), and from time to time putting
+      his glass to his lips, or knocking the ashes out of his pipe, and filling
+      it anew. It was now half-past ten. Mr Cobb and long Phil Parkes were his
+      companions, as of old, and for two mortal hours and a half, none of the
+      company had pronounced one word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether people, by dint of sitting together in the same place and the same
+      relative positions, and doing exactly the same things for a great many
+      years, acquire a sixth sense, or some unknown power of influencing each
+      other which serves them in its stead, is a question for philosophy to
+      settle. But certain it is that old John Willet, Mr Parkes, and Mr Cobb,
+      were one and all firmly of opinion that they were very jolly companions&mdash;rather
+      choice spirits than otherwise; that they looked at each other every now
+      and then as if there were a perpetual interchange of ideas going on among
+      them; that no man considered himself or his neighbour by any means silent;
+      and that each of them nodded occasionally when he caught the eye of
+      another, as if he would say, 'You have expressed yourself extremely well,
+      sir, in relation to that sentiment, and I quite agree with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room was so very warm, the tobacco so very good, and the fire so very
+      soothing, that Mr Willet by degrees began to doze; but as he had perfectly
+      acquired, by dint of long habit, the art of smoking in his sleep, and as
+      his breathing was pretty much the same, awake or asleep, saving that in
+      the latter case he sometimes experienced a slight difficulty in
+      respiration (such as a carpenter meets with when he is planing and comes
+      to a knot), neither of his companions was aware of the circumstance, until
+      he met with one of these impediments and was obliged to try again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Johnny's dropped off,' said Mr Parkes in a whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Fast as a top,' said Mr Cobb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of them said any more until Mr Willet came to another knot&mdash;one
+      of surpassing obduracy&mdash;which bade fair to throw him into
+      convulsions, but which he got over at last without waking, by an effort
+      quite superhuman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He sleeps uncommon hard,' said Mr Cobb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Parkes, who was possibly a hard-sleeper himself, replied with some
+      disdain, 'Not a bit on it;' and directed his eyes towards a handbill
+      pasted over the chimney-piece, which was decorated at the top with a
+      woodcut representing a youth of tender years running away very fast, with
+      a bundle over his shoulder at the end of a stick, and&mdash;to carry out
+      the idea&mdash;a finger-post and a milestone beside him. Mr Cobb likewise
+      turned his eyes in the same direction, and surveyed the placard as if that
+      were the first time he had ever beheld it. Now, this was a document which
+      Mr Willet had himself indited on the disappearance of his son Joseph,
+      acquainting the nobility and gentry and the public in general with the
+      circumstances of his having left his home; describing his dress and
+      appearance; and offering a reward of five pounds to any person or persons
+      who would pack him up and return him safely to the Maypole at Chigwell, or
+      lodge him in any of his Majesty's jails until such time as his father
+      should come and claim him. In this advertisement Mr Willet had obstinately
+      persisted, despite the advice and entreaties of his friends, in describing
+      his son as a 'young boy;' and furthermore as being from eighteen inches to
+      a couple of feet shorter than he really was; two circumstances which
+      perhaps accounted, in some degree, for its never having been productive of
+      any other effect than the transmission to Chigwell at various times and at
+      a vast expense, of some five-and-forty runaways varying from six years old
+      to twelve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Cobb and Mr Parkes looked mysteriously at this composition, at each
+      other, and at old John. From the time he had pasted it up with his own
+      hands, Mr Willet had never by word or sign alluded to the subject, or
+      encouraged any one else to do so. Nobody had the least notion what his
+      thoughts or opinions were, connected with it; whether he remembered it or
+      forgot it; whether he had any idea that such an event had ever taken
+      place. Therefore, even while he slept, no one ventured to refer to it in
+      his presence; and for such sufficient reasons, these his chosen friends
+      were silent now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet had got by this time into such a complication of knots, that it
+      was perfectly clear he must wake or die. He chose the former alternative,
+      and opened his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If he don't come in five minutes,' said John, 'I shall have supper
+      without him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The antecedent of this pronoun had been mentioned for the last time at
+      eight o'clock. Messrs Parkes and Cobb being used to this style of
+      conversation, replied without difficulty that to be sure Solomon was very
+      late, and they wondered what had happened to detain him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He an't blown away, I suppose,' said Parkes. 'It's enough to carry a man
+      of his figure off his legs, and easy too. Do you hear it? It blows great
+      guns, indeed. There'll be many a crash in the Forest to-night, I reckon,
+      and many a broken branch upon the ground to-morrow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It won't break anything in the Maypole, I take it, sir,' returned old
+      John. 'Let it try. I give it leave&mdash;what's that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The wind,' cried Parkes. 'It's howling like a Christian, and has been all
+      night long.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you ever, sir,' asked John, after a minute's contemplation, 'hear the
+      wind say "Maypole"?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, what man ever did?' said Parkes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor "ahoy," perhaps?' added John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No. Nor that neither.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very good, sir,' said Mr Willet, perfectly unmoved; 'then if that was the
+      wind just now, and you'll wait a little time without speaking, you'll hear
+      it say both words very plain.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet was right. After listening for a few moments, they could clearly
+      hear, above the roar and tumult out of doors, this shout repeated; and
+      that with a shrillness and energy, which denoted that it came from some
+      person in great distress or terror. They looked at each other, turned
+      pale, and held their breath. No man stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in this emergency that Mr Willet displayed something of that
+      strength of mind and plenitude of mental resource, which rendered him the
+      admiration of all his friends and neighbours. After looking at Messrs
+      Parkes and Cobb for some time in silence, he clapped his two hands to his
+      cheeks, and sent forth a roar which made the glasses dance and rafters
+      ring&mdash;a long-sustained, discordant bellow, that rolled onward with
+      the wind, and startling every echo, made the night a hundred times more
+      boisterous&mdash;a deep, loud, dismal bray, that sounded like a human
+      gong. Then, with every vein in his head and face swollen with the great
+      exertion, and his countenance suffused with a lively purple, he drew a
+      little nearer to the fire, and turning his back upon it, said with
+      dignity:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If that's any comfort to anybody, they're welcome to it. If it an't, I'm
+      sorry for 'em. If either of you two gentlemen likes to go out and see
+      what's the matter, you can. I'm not curious, myself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he spoke the cry drew nearer and nearer, footsteps passed the
+      window, the latch of the door was raised, it opened, was violently shut
+      again, and Solomon Daisy, with a lighted lantern in his hand, and the rain
+      streaming from his disordered dress, dashed into the room.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0157m.jpg" alt="0157m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0157.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      A more complete picture of terror than the little man presented, it would
+      be difficult to imagine. The perspiration stood in beads upon his face,
+      his knees knocked together, his every limb trembled, the power of
+      articulation was quite gone; and there he stood, panting for breath,
+      gazing on them with such livid ashy looks, that they were infected with
+      his fear, though ignorant of its occasion, and, reflecting his dismayed
+      and horror-stricken visage, stared back again without venturing to
+      question him; until old John Willet, in a fit of temporary insanity, made
+      a dive at his cravat, and, seizing him by that portion of his dress, shook
+      him to and fro until his very teeth appeared to rattle in his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tell us what's the matter, sir,' said John, 'or I'll kill you. Tell us
+      what's the matter, sir, or in another second I'll have your head under the
+      biler. How dare you look like that? Is anybody a-following of you? What do
+      you mean? Say something, or I'll be the death of you, I will.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet, in his frenzy, was so near keeping his word to the very letter
+      (Solomon Daisy's eyes already beginning to roll in an alarming manner, and
+      certain guttural sounds, as of a choking man, to issue from his throat),
+      that the two bystanders, recovering in some degree, plucked him off his
+      victim by main force, and placed the little clerk of Chigwell in a chair.
+      Directing a fearful gaze all round the room, he implored them in a faint
+      voice to give him some drink; and above all to lock the house-door and
+      close and bar the shutters of the room, without a moment's loss of time.
+      The latter request did not tend to reassure his hearers, or to fill them
+      with the most comfortable sensations; they complied with it, however, with
+      the greatest expedition; and having handed him a bumper of
+      brandy-and-water, nearly boiling hot, waited to hear what he might have to
+      tell them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, Johnny,' said Solomon, shaking him by the hand. 'Oh, Parkes. Oh,
+      Tommy Cobb. Why did I leave this house to-night! On the nineteenth of
+      March&mdash;of all nights in the year, on the nineteenth of March!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They all drew closer to the fire. Parkes, who was nearest to the door,
+      started and looked over his shoulder. Mr Willet, with great indignation,
+      inquired what the devil he meant by that&mdash;and then said, 'God forgive
+      me,' and glanced over his own shoulder, and came a little nearer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When I left here to-night,' said Solomon Daisy, 'I little thought what
+      day of the month it was. I have never gone alone into the church after
+      dark on this day, for seven-and-twenty years. I have heard it said that as
+      we keep our birthdays when we are alive, so the ghosts of dead people, who
+      are not easy in their graves, keep the day they died upon.&mdash;How the
+      wind roars!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nobody spoke. All eyes were fastened on Solomon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I might have known,' he said, 'what night it was, by the foul weather.
+      There's no such night in the whole year round as this is, always. I never
+      sleep quietly in my bed on the nineteenth of March.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Go on,' said Tom Cobb, in a low voice. 'Nor I neither.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Solomon Daisy raised his glass to his lips; put it down upon the floor
+      with such a trembling hand that the spoon tinkled in it like a little
+      bell; and continued thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have I ever said that we are always brought back to this subject in some
+      strange way, when the nineteenth of this month comes round? Do you suppose
+      it was by accident, I forgot to wind up the church-clock? I never forgot
+      it at any other time, though it's such a clumsy thing that it has to be
+      wound up every day. Why should it escape my memory on this day of all
+      others?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I made as much haste down there as I could when I went from here, but I
+      had to go home first for the keys; and the wind and rain being dead
+      against me all the way, it was pretty well as much as I could do at times
+      to keep my legs. I got there at last, opened the church-door, and went in.
+      I had not met a soul all the way, and you may judge whether it was dull or
+      not. Neither of you would bear me company. If you could have known what
+      was to come, you'd have been in the right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The wind was so strong, that it was as much as I could do to shut the
+      church-door by putting my whole weight against it; and even as it was, it
+      burst wide open twice, with such strength that any of you would have
+      sworn, if you had been leaning against it, as I was, that somebody was
+      pushing on the other side. However, I got the key turned, went into the
+      belfry, and wound up the clock&mdash;which was very near run down, and
+      would have stood stock-still in half an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As I took up my lantern again to leave the church, it came upon me all at
+      once that this was the nineteenth of March. It came upon me with a kind of
+      shock, as if a hand had struck the thought upon my forehead; at the very
+      same moment, I heard a voice outside the tower&mdash;rising from among the
+      graves.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here old John precipitately interrupted the speaker, and begged that if Mr
+      Parkes (who was seated opposite to him and was staring directly over his
+      head) saw anything, he would have the goodness to mention it. Mr Parkes
+      apologised, and remarked that he was only listening; to which Mr Willet
+      angrily retorted, that his listening with that kind of expression in his
+      face was not agreeable, and that if he couldn't look like other people, he
+      had better put his pocket-handkerchief over his head. Mr Parkes with great
+      submission pledged himself to do so, if again required, and John Willet
+      turning to Solomon desired him to proceed. After waiting until a violent
+      gust of wind and rain, which seemed to shake even that sturdy house to its
+      foundation, had passed away, the little man complied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Never tell me that it was my fancy, or that it was any other sound which
+      I mistook for that I tell you of. I heard the wind whistle through the
+      arches of the church. I heard the steeple strain and creak. I heard the
+      rain as it came driving against the walls. I felt the bells shake. I saw
+      the ropes sway to and fro. And I heard that voice.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What did it say?' asked Tom Cobb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know what; I don't know that it spoke. It gave a kind of cry, as
+      any one of us might do, if something dreadful followed us in a dream, and
+      came upon us unawares; and then it died off: seeming to pass quite round
+      the church.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't see much in that,' said John, drawing a long breath, and looking
+      round him like a man who felt relieved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Perhaps not,' returned his friend, 'but that's not all.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What more do you mean to say, sir, is to come?' asked John, pausing in
+      the act of wiping his face upon his apron. 'What are you a-going to tell
+      us of next?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What I saw.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Saw!' echoed all three, bending forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When I opened the church-door to come out,' said the little man, with an
+      expression of face which bore ample testimony to the sincerity of his
+      conviction, 'when I opened the church-door to come out, which I did
+      suddenly, for I wanted to get it shut again before another gust of wind
+      came up, there crossed me&mdash;so close, that by stretching out my finger
+      I could have touched it&mdash;something in the likeness of a man. It was
+      bare-headed to the storm. It turned its face without stopping, and fixed
+      its eyes on mine. It was a ghost&mdash;a spirit.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Whose?' they all three cried together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the excess of his emotion (for he fell back trembling in his chair, and
+      waved his hand as if entreating them to question him no further), his
+      answer was lost on all but old John Willet, who happened to be seated
+      close beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who!' cried Parkes and Tom Cobb, looking eagerly by turns at Solomon
+      Daisy and at Mr Willet. 'Who was it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gentlemen,' said Mr Willet after a long pause, 'you needn't ask. The
+      likeness of a murdered man. This is the nineteenth of March.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A profound silence ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you'll take my advice,' said John, 'we had better, one and all, keep
+      this a secret. Such tales would not be liked at the Warren. Let us keep it
+      to ourselves for the present time at all events, or we may get into
+      trouble, and Solomon may lose his place. Whether it was really as he says,
+      or whether it wasn't, is no matter. Right or wrong, nobody would believe
+      him. As to the probabilities, I don't myself think,' said Mr Willet,
+      eyeing the corners of the room in a manner which showed that, like some
+      other philosophers, he was not quite easy in his theory, 'that a ghost as
+      had been a man of sense in his lifetime, would be out a-walking in such
+      weather&mdash;I only know that I wouldn't, if I was one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this heretical doctrine was strongly opposed by the other three, who
+      quoted a great many precedents to show that bad weather was the very time
+      for such appearances; and Mr Parkes (who had had a ghost in his family, by
+      the mother's side) argued the matter with so much ingenuity and force of
+      illustration, that John was only saved from having to retract his opinion
+      by the opportune appearance of supper, to which they applied themselves
+      with a dreadful relish. Even Solomon Daisy himself, by dint of the
+      elevating influences of fire, lights, brandy, and good company, so far
+      recovered as to handle his knife and fork in a highly creditable manner,
+      and to display a capacity both of eating and drinking, such as banished
+      all fear of his having sustained any lasting injury from his fright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Supper done, they crowded round the fire again, and, as is common on such
+      occasions, propounded all manner of leading questions calculated to
+      surround the story with new horrors and surprises. But Solomon Daisy,
+      notwithstanding these temptations, adhered so steadily to his original
+      account, and repeated it so often, with such slight variations, and with
+      such solemn asseverations of its truth and reality, that his hearers were
+      (with good reason) more astonished than at first. As he took John Willet's
+      view of the matter in regard to the propriety of not bruiting the tale
+      abroad, unless the spirit should appear to him again, in which case it
+      would be necessary to take immediate counsel with the clergyman, it was
+      solemnly resolved that it should be hushed up and kept quiet. And as most
+      men like to have a secret to tell which may exalt their own importance,
+      they arrived at this conclusion with perfect unanimity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it was by this time growing late, and was long past their usual hour of
+      separating, the cronies parted for the night. Solomon Daisy, with a fresh
+      candle in his lantern, repaired homewards under the escort of long Phil
+      Parkes and Mr Cobb, who were rather more nervous than himself. Mr Willet,
+      after seeing them to the door, returned to collect his thoughts with the
+      assistance of the boiler, and to listen to the storm of wind and rain,
+      which had not yet abated one jot of its fury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 34
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Before old John had looked at the boiler quite twenty minutes, he got his
+      ideas into a focus, and brought them to bear upon Solomon Daisy's story.
+      The more he thought of it, the more impressed he became with a sense of
+      his own wisdom, and a desire that Mr Haredale should be impressed with it
+      likewise. At length, to the end that he might sustain a principal and
+      important character in the affair; and might have the start of Solomon and
+      his two friends, through whose means he knew the adventure, with a variety
+      of exaggerations, would be known to at least a score of people, and most
+      likely to Mr Haredale himself, by breakfast-time to-morrow; he determined
+      to repair to the Warren before going to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's my landlord,' thought John, as he took a candle in his hand, and
+      setting it down in a corner out of the wind's way, opened a casement in
+      the rear of the house, looking towards the stables. 'We haven't met of
+      late years so often as we used to do&mdash;changes are taking place in the
+      family&mdash;it's desirable that I should stand as well with them, in
+      point of dignity, as possible&mdash;the whispering about of this here tale
+      will anger him&mdash;it's good to have confidences with a gentleman of his
+      natur', and set one's-self right besides. Halloa there! Hugh&mdash;Hugh.
+      Hal-loa!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had repeated this shout a dozen times, and startled every pigeon
+      from its slumbers, a door in one of the ruinous old buildings opened, and
+      a rough voice demanded what was amiss now, that a man couldn't even have
+      his sleep in quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What! Haven't you sleep enough, growler, that you're not to be knocked up
+      for once?' said John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' replied the voice, as the speaker yawned and shook himself. 'Not
+      half enough.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know how you CAN sleep, with the wind a bellowsing and roaring
+      about you, making the tiles fly like a pack of cards,' said John; 'but no
+      matter for that. Wrap yourself up in something or another, and come here,
+      for you must go as far as the Warren with me. And look sharp about it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh, with much low growling and muttering, went back into his lair; and
+      presently reappeared, carrying a lantern and a cudgel, and enveloped from
+      head to foot in an old, frowzy, slouching horse-cloth. Mr Willet received
+      this figure at the back-door, and ushered him into the bar, while he
+      wrapped himself in sundry greatcoats and capes, and so tied and knotted
+      his face in shawls and handkerchiefs, that how he breathed was a mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't take a man out of doors at near midnight in such weather,
+      without putting some heart into him, do you, master?' said Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes I do, sir,' returned Mr Willet. 'I put the heart (as you call it)
+      into him when he has brought me safe home again, and his standing steady
+      on his legs an't of so much consequence. So hold that light up, if you
+      please, and go on a step or two before, to show the way.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh obeyed with a very indifferent grace, and a longing glance at the
+      bottles. Old John, laying strict injunctions on his cook to keep the doors
+      locked in his absence, and to open to nobody but himself on pain of
+      dismissal, followed him into the blustering darkness out of doors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The way was wet and dismal, and the night so black, that if Mr Willet had
+      been his own pilot, he would have walked into a deep horsepond within a
+      few hundred yards of his own house, and would certainly have terminated
+      his career in that ignoble sphere of action. But Hugh, who had a sight as
+      keen as any hawk's, and, apart from that endowment, could have found his
+      way blindfold to any place within a dozen miles, dragged old John along,
+      quite deaf to his remonstrances, and took his own course without the
+      slightest reference to, or notice of, his master. So they made head
+      against the wind as they best could; Hugh crushing the wet grass beneath
+      his heavy tread, and stalking on after his ordinary savage fashion; John
+      Willet following at arm's length, picking his steps, and looking about
+      him, now for bogs and ditches, and now for such stray ghosts as might be
+      wandering abroad, with looks of as much dismay and uneasiness as his
+      immovable face was capable of expressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length they stood upon the broad gravel-walk before the Warren-house.
+      The building was profoundly dark, and none were moving near it save
+      themselves. From one solitary turret-chamber, however, there shone a ray
+      of light; and towards this speck of comfort in the cold, cheerless, silent
+      scene, Mr Willet bade his pilot lead him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The old room,' said John, looking timidly upward; 'Mr Reuben's own apartment,
+      God be with us! I wonder his brother likes to sit there, so late at night&mdash;on
+      this night too.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, where else should he sit?' asked Hugh, holding the lantern to his
+      breast, to keep the candle from the wind, while he trimmed it with his
+      fingers. 'It's snug enough, an't it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Snug!' said John indignantly. 'You have a comfortable idea of snugness,
+      you have, sir. Do you know what was done in that room, you ruffian?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, what is it the worse for that!' cried Hugh, looking into John's fat
+      face. 'Does it keep out the rain, and snow, and wind, the less for that?
+      Is it less warm or dry, because a man was killed there? Ha, ha, ha! Never
+      believe it, master. One man's no such matter as that comes to.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet fixed his dull eyes on his follower, and began&mdash;by a
+      species of inspiration&mdash;to think it just barely possible that he was
+      something of a dangerous character, and that it might be advisable to get
+      rid of him one of these days. He was too prudent to say anything, with the
+      journey home before him; and therefore turned to the iron gate before
+      which this brief dialogue had passed, and pulled the handle of the bell
+      that hung beside it. The turret in which the light appeared being at one
+      corner of the building, and only divided from the path by one of the
+      garden-walks, upon which this gate opened, Mr Haredale threw up the window
+      directly, and demanded who was there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Begging pardon, sir,' said John, 'I knew you sat up late, and made bold
+      to come round, having a word to say to you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Willet&mdash;is it not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Of the Maypole&mdash;at your service, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale closed the window, and withdrew. He presently appeared at a
+      door in the bottom of the turret, and coming across the garden-walk,
+      unlocked the gate and let them in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are a late visitor, Willet. What is the matter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing to speak of, sir,' said John; 'an idle tale, I thought you ought
+      to know of; nothing more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let your man go forward with the lantern, and give me your hand. The
+      stairs are crooked and narrow. Gently with your light, friend. You swing
+      it like a censer.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh, who had already reached the turret, held it more steadily, and
+      ascended first, turning round from time to time to shed his light downward
+      on the steps. Mr Haredale following next, eyed his lowering face with no
+      great favour; and Hugh, looking down on him, returned his glances with
+      interest, as they climbed the winding stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It terminated in a little ante-room adjoining that from which they had
+      seen the light. Mr Haredale entered first, and led the way through it into
+      the latter chamber, where he seated himself at a writing-table from which
+      he had risen when they had rung the bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come in,' he said, beckoning to old John, who remained bowing at the
+      door. 'Not you, friend,' he added hastily to Hugh, who entered also.
+      'Willet, why do you bring that fellow here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, sir,' returned John, elevating his eyebrows, and lowering his voice
+      to the tone in which the question had been asked him, 'he's a good guard,
+      you see.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't be too sure of that,' said Mr Haredale, looking towards him as he
+      spoke. 'I doubt it. He has an evil eye.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's no imagination in his eye,' returned Mr Willet, glancing over his
+      shoulder at the organ in question, 'certainly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is no good there, be assured,' said Mr Haredale. 'Wait in that
+      little room, friend, and close the door between us.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0161m.jpg" alt="0161m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0161.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Hugh shrugged his shoulders, and with a disdainful look, which showed,
+      either that he had overheard, or that he guessed the purport of their
+      whispering, did as he was told. When he was shut out, Mr Haredale turned
+      to John, and bade him go on with what he had to say, but not to speak too
+      loud, for there were quick ears yonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus cautioned, Mr Willet, in an oily whisper, recited all that he had
+      heard and said that night; laying particular stress upon his own sagacity,
+      upon his great regard for the family, and upon his solicitude for their
+      peace of mind and happiness. The story moved his auditor much more than he
+      had expected. Mr Haredale often changed his attitude, rose and paced the
+      room, returned again, desired him to repeat, as nearly as he could, the
+      very words that Solomon had used, and gave so many other signs of being
+      disturbed and ill at ease, that even Mr Willet was surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You did quite right,' he said, at the end of a long conversation, 'to bid
+      them keep this story secret. It is a foolish fancy on the part of this
+      weak-brained man, bred in his fears and superstition. But Miss Haredale,
+      though she would know it to be so, would be disturbed by it if it reached
+      her ears; it is too nearly connected with a subject very painful to us
+      all, to be heard with indifference. You were most prudent, and have laid
+      me under a great obligation. I thank you very much.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was equal to John's most sanguine expectations; but he would have
+      preferred Mr Haredale's looking at him when he spoke, as if he really did
+      thank him, to his walking up and down, speaking by fits and starts, often
+      stopping with his eyes fixed on the ground, moving hurriedly on again,
+      like one distracted, and seeming almost unconscious of what he said or
+      did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This, however, was his manner; and it was so embarrassing to John that he
+      sat quite passive for a long time, not knowing what to do. At length he
+      rose. Mr Haredale stared at him for a moment as though he had quite
+      forgotten his being present, then shook hands with him, and opened the
+      door. Hugh, who was, or feigned to be, fast asleep on the ante-chamber
+      floor, sprang up on their entrance, and throwing his cloak about him,
+      grasped his stick and lantern, and prepared to descend the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stay,' said Mr Haredale. 'Will this man drink?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Drink! He'd drink the Thames up, if it was strong enough, sir, replied
+      John Willet. 'He'll have something when he gets home. He's better without
+      it, now, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay. Half the distance is done,' said Hugh. 'What a hard master you are!
+      I shall go home the better for one glassful, halfway. Come!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As John made no reply, Mr Haredale brought out a glass of liquor, and gave
+      it to Hugh, who, as he took it in his hand, threw part of it upon the
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What do you mean by splashing your drink about a gentleman's house, sir?'
+      said John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm drinking a toast,' Hugh rejoined, holding the glass above his head,
+      and fixing his eyes on Mr Haredale's face; 'a toast to this house and its
+      master.' With that he muttered something to himself, and drank the rest,
+      and setting down the glass, preceded them without another word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John was a good deal scandalised by this observance, but seeing that Mr
+      Haredale took little heed of what Hugh said or did, and that his thoughts
+      were otherwise employed, he offered no apology, and went in silence down
+      the stairs, across the walk, and through the garden-gate. They stopped
+      upon the outer side for Hugh to hold the light while Mr Haredale locked it
+      on the inner; and then John saw with wonder (as he often afterwards
+      related), that he was very pale, and that his face had changed so much and
+      grown so haggard since their entrance, that he almost seemed another man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were in the open road again, and John Willet was walking on behind
+      his escort, as he had come, thinking very steadily of what he had just now
+      seen, when Hugh drew him suddenly aside, and almost at the same instant
+      three horsemen swept past&mdash;the nearest brushed his shoulder even then&mdash;who,
+      checking their steeds as suddenly as they could, stood still, and waited
+      for their coming up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 35
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When John Willet saw that the horsemen wheeled smartly round, and drew up
+      three abreast in the narrow road, waiting for him and his man to join
+      them, it occurred to him with unusual precipitation that they must be
+      highwaymen; and had Hugh been armed with a blunderbuss, in place of his
+      stout cudgel, he would certainly have ordered him to fire it off at a
+      venture, and would, while the word of command was obeyed, have consulted
+      his own personal safety in immediate flight. Under the circumstances of
+      disadvantage, however, in which he and his guard were placed, he deemed it
+      prudent to adopt a different style of generalship, and therefore whispered
+      his attendant to address them in the most peaceable and courteous terms.
+      By way of acting up to the spirit and letter of this instruction, Hugh
+      stepped forward, and flourishing his staff before the very eyes of the
+      rider nearest to him, demanded roughly what he and his fellows meant by so
+      nearly galloping over them, and why they scoured the king's highway at
+      that late hour of night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man whom he addressed was beginning an angry reply in the same strain,
+      when he was checked by the horseman in the centre, who, interposing with
+      an air of authority, inquired in a somewhat loud but not harsh or
+      unpleasant voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pray, is this the London road?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you follow it right, it is,' replied Hugh roughly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay, brother,' said the same person, 'you're but a churlish Englishman,
+      if Englishman you be&mdash;which I should much doubt but for your tongue.
+      Your companion, I am sure, will answer me more civilly. How say you,
+      friend?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say it IS the London road, sir,' answered John. 'And I wish,' he added
+      in a subdued voice, as he turned to Hugh, 'that you was in any other road,
+      you vagabond. Are you tired of your life, sir, that you go a-trying to
+      provoke three great neck-or-nothing chaps, that could keep on running over
+      us, back'ards and for'ards, till we was dead, and then take our bodies up
+      behind 'em, and drown us ten miles off?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How far is it to London?' inquired the same speaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, from here, sir,' answered John, persuasively, 'it's thirteen very
+      easy mile.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The adjective was thrown in, as an inducement to the travellers to ride
+      away with all speed; but instead of having the desired effect, it elicited
+      from the same person, the remark, 'Thirteen miles! That's a long
+      distance!' which was followed by a short pause of indecision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pray,' said the gentleman, 'are there any inns hereabouts?' At the word
+      'inns,' John plucked up his spirit in a surprising manner; his fears
+      rolled off like smoke; all the landlord stirred within him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There are no inns,' rejoined Mr Willet, with a strong emphasis on the
+      plural number; 'but there's a Inn&mdash;one Inn&mdash;the Maypole Inn.
+      That's a Inn indeed. You won't see the like of that Inn often.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You keep it, perhaps?' said the horseman, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I do, sir,' replied John, greatly wondering how he had found this out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And how far is the Maypole from here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'About a mile'&mdash;John was going to add that it was the easiest mile in
+      all the world, when the third rider, who had hitherto kept a little in the
+      rear, suddenly interposed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And have you one excellent bed, landlord? Hem! A bed that you can
+      recommend&mdash;a bed that you are sure is well aired&mdash;a bed that has
+      been slept in by some perfectly respectable and unexceptionable person?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We don't take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house, sir,' answered John.
+      'And as to the bed itself&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Say, as to three beds,' interposed the gentleman who had spoken before;
+      'for we shall want three if we stay, though my friend only speaks of one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no, my lord; you are too good, you are too kind; but your life is of
+      far too much importance to the nation in these portentous times, to be
+      placed upon a level with one so useless and so poor as mine. A great
+      cause, my lord, a mighty cause, depends on you. You are its leader and its
+      champion, its advanced guard and its van. It is the cause of our altars
+      and our homes, our country and our faith. Let ME sleep on a chair&mdash;the
+      carpet&mdash;anywhere. No one will repine if I take cold or fever. Let
+      John Grueby pass the night beneath the open sky&mdash;no one will repine
+      for HIM. But forty thousand men of this our island in the wave (exclusive
+      of women and children) rivet their eyes and thoughts on Lord George
+      Gordon; and every day, from the rising up of the sun to the going down of
+      the same, pray for his health and vigour. My lord,' said the speaker,
+      rising in his stirrups, 'it is a glorious cause, and must not be
+      forgotten. My lord, it is a mighty cause, and must not be endangered. My
+      lord, it is a holy cause, and must not be deserted.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It IS a holy cause,' exclaimed his lordship, lifting up his hat with
+      great solemnity. 'Amen.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'John Grueby,' said the long-winded gentleman, in a tone of mild reproof,
+      'his lordship said Amen.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I heard my lord, sir,' said the man, sitting like a statue on his horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And do not YOU say Amen, likewise?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which John Grueby made no reply at all, but sat looking straight before
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You surprise me, Grueby,' said the gentleman. 'At a crisis like the
+      present, when Queen Elizabeth, that maiden monarch, weeps within her tomb,
+      and Bloody Mary, with a brow of gloom and shadow, stalks triumphant&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, sir,' cied the man, gruffly, 'where's the use of talking of Bloody
+      Mary, under such circumstances as the present, when my lord's wet through,
+      and tired with hard riding? Let's either go on to London, sir, or put up
+      at once; or that unfort'nate Bloody Mary will have more to answer for&mdash;and
+      she's done a deal more harm in her grave than she ever did in her
+      lifetime, I believe.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time Mr Willet, who had never heard so many words spoken together
+      at one time, or delivered with such volubility and emphasis as by the
+      long-winded gentleman; and whose brain, being wholly unable to sustain or
+      compass them, had quite given itself up for lost; recovered so far as to
+      observe that there was ample accommodation at the Maypole for all the
+      party: good beds; neat wines; excellent entertainment for man and beast;
+      private rooms for large and small parties; dinners dressed upon the
+      shortest notice; choice stabling, and a lock-up coach-house; and, in
+      short, to run over such recommendatory scraps of language as were painted
+      up on various portions of the building, and which in the course of some
+      forty years he had learnt to repeat with tolerable correctness. He was
+      considering whether it was at all possible to insert any novel sentences
+      to the same purpose, when the gentleman who had spoken first, turning to
+      him of the long wind, exclaimed, 'What say you, Gashford? Shall we tarry
+      at this house he speaks of, or press forward? You shall decide.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I would submit, my lord, then,' returned the person he appealed to, in a
+      silky tone, 'that your health and spirits&mdash;so important, under
+      Providence, to our great cause, our pure and truthful cause'&mdash;here
+      his lordship pulled off his hat again, though it was raining hard&mdash;'require
+      refreshment and repose.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Go on before, landlord, and show the way,' said Lord George Gordon; 'we
+      will follow at a footpace.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you'll give me leave, my lord,' said John Grueby, in a low voice,
+      'I'll change my proper place, and ride before you. The looks of the
+      landlord's friend are not over honest, and it may be as well to be
+      cautious with him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'John Grueby is quite right,' interposed Mr Gashford, falling back
+      hastily. 'My lord, a life so precious as yours must not be put in peril.
+      Go forward, John, by all means. If you have any reason to suspect the
+      fellow, blow his brains out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John made no answer, but looking straight before him, as his custom seemed
+      to be when the secretary spoke, bade Hugh push on, and followed close
+      behind him. Then came his lordship, with Mr Willet at his bridle rein;
+      and, last of all, his lordship's secretary&mdash;for that, it seemed, was
+      Gashford's office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh strode briskly on, often looking back at the servant, whose horse was
+      close upon his heels, and glancing with a leer at his holster case of
+      pistols, by which he seemed to set great store. He was a square-built,
+      strong-made, bull-necked fellow, of the true English breed; and as Hugh
+      measured him with his eye, he measured Hugh, regarding him meanwhile with
+      a look of bluff disdain. He was much older than the Maypole man, being to
+      all appearance five-and-forty; but was one of those self-possessed,
+      hard-headed, imperturbable fellows, who, if they are ever beaten at
+      fisticuffs, or other kind of warfare, never know it, and go on coolly till
+      they win.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If I led you wrong now,' said Hugh, tauntingly, 'you'd&mdash;ha ha ha!&mdash;you'd
+      shoot me through the head, I suppose.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Grueby took no more notice of this remark than if he had been deaf
+      and Hugh dumb; but kept riding on quite comfortably, with his eyes fixed
+      on the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you ever try a fall with a man when you were young, master?' said
+      Hugh. 'Can you make any play at single-stick?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Grueby looked at him sideways with the same contented air, but
+      deigned not a word in answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Like this?' said Hugh, giving his cudgel one of those skilful
+      flourishes, in which the rustic of that time delighted. 'Whoop!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Or that,' returned John Grueby, beating down his guard with his
+      whip, and striking him on the head with its butt end. 'Yes, I played a
+      little once. You wear your hair too long; I should have cracked your crown
+      if it had been a little shorter.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a pretty smart, loud-sounding rap, as it was, and evidently
+      astonished Hugh; who, for the moment, seemed disposed to drag his new
+      acquaintance from his saddle. But his face betokening neither malice,
+      triumph, rage, nor any lingering idea that he had given him offence; his
+      eyes gazing steadily in the old direction, and his manner being as
+      careless and composed as if he had merely brushed away a fly; Hugh was so
+      puzzled, and so disposed to look upon him as a customer of almost
+      supernatural toughness, that he merely laughed, and cried 'Well done!'
+      then, sheering off a little, led the way in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the lapse of many minutes the party halted at the Maypole door.
+      Lord George and his secretary quickly dismounting, gave their horses to
+      their servant, who, under the guidance of Hugh, repaired to the stables.
+      Right glad to escape from the inclemency of the night, they followed Mr
+      Willet into the common room, and stood warming themselves and drying their
+      clothes before the cheerful fire, while he busied himself with such orders
+      and preparations as his guest's high quality required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he bustled in and out of the room, intent on these arrangements, he had
+      an opportunity of observing the two travellers, of whom, as yet, he knew
+      nothing but the voice. The lord, the great personage who did the Maypole
+      so much honour, was about the middle height, of a slender make, and sallow
+      complexion, with an aquiline nose, and long hair of a reddish brown,
+      combed perfectly straight and smooth about his ears, and slightly
+      powdered, but without the faintest vestige of a curl. He was attired,
+      under his greatcoat, in a full suit of black, quite free from any
+      ornament, and of the most precise and sober cut. The gravity of his dress,
+      together with a certain lankness of cheek and stiffness of deportment,
+      added nearly ten years to his age, but his figure was that of one not yet
+      past thirty. As he stood musing in the red glow of the fire, it was
+      striking to observe his very bright large eye, which betrayed a
+      restlessness of thought and purpose, singularly at variance with the
+      studied composure and sobriety of his mien, and with his quaint and sad
+      apparel. It had nothing harsh or cruel in its expression; neither had his
+      face, which was thin and mild, and wore an air of melancholy; but it was
+      suggestive of an indefinable uneasiness; which infected those who looked
+      upon him, and filled them with a kind of pity for the man: though why it
+      did so, they would have had some trouble to explain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford, the secretary, was taller, angularly made, high-shouldered,
+      bony, and ungraceful. His dress, in imitation of his superior, was demure
+      and staid in the extreme; his manner, formal and constrained. This
+      gentleman had an overhanging brow, great hands and feet and ears, and a
+      pair of eyes that seemed to have made an unnatural retreat into his head,
+      and to have dug themselves a cave to hide in. His manner was smooth and
+      humble, but very sly and slinking. He wore the aspect of a man who was
+      always lying in wait for something that WOULDN'T come to pass; but he
+      looked patient&mdash;very patient&mdash;and fawned like a spaniel dog.
+      Even now, while he warmed and rubbed his hands before the blaze, he had
+      the air of one who only presumed to enjoy it in his degree as a commoner;
+      and though he knew his lord was not regarding him, he looked into his face
+      from time to time, and with a meek and deferential manner, smiled as if
+      for practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the guests whom old John Willet, with a fixed and leaden eye,
+      surveyed a hundred times, and to whom he now advanced with a state
+      candlestick in each hand, beseeching them to follow him into a worthier
+      chamber. 'For my lord,' said John&mdash;it is odd enough, but certain
+      people seem to have as great a pleasure in pronouncing titles as their
+      owners have in wearing them&mdash;'this room, my lord, isn't at all the
+      sort of place for your lordship, and I have to beg your lordship's pardon
+      for keeping you here, my lord, one minute.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this address, John ushered them upstairs into the state apartment,
+      which, like many other things of state, was cold and comfortless. Their
+      own footsteps, reverberating through the spacious room, struck upon their
+      hearing with a hollow sound; and its damp and chilly atmosphere was
+      rendered doubly cheerless by contrast with the homely warmth they had
+      deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was of no use, however, to propose a return to the place they had
+      quitted, for the preparations went on so briskly that there was no time to
+      stop them. John, with the tall candlesticks in his hands, bowed them up to
+      the fireplace; Hugh, striding in with a lighted brand and pile of
+      firewood, cast it down upon the hearth, and set it in a blaze; John Grueby
+      (who had a great blue cockade in his hat, which he appeared to despise
+      mightily) brought in the portmanteau he had carried on his horse, and
+      placed it on the floor; and presently all three were busily engaged in
+      drawing out the screen, laying the cloth, inspecting the beds, lighting
+      fires in the bedrooms, expediting the supper, and making everything as
+      cosy and as snug as might be, on so short a notice. In less than an hour's
+      time, supper had been served, and ate, and cleared away; and Lord George
+      and his secretary, with slippered feet, and legs stretched out before the
+      fire, sat over some hot mulled wine together.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0166m.jpg" alt="0166m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0166.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'So ends, my lord,' said Gashford, filling his glass with great
+      complacency, 'the blessed work of a most blessed day.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And of a blessed yesterday,' said his lordship, raising his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!'&mdash;and here the secretary clasped his hands&mdash;'a blessed
+      yesterday indeed! The Protestants of Suffolk are godly men and true.
+      Though others of our countrymen have lost their way in darkness, even as
+      we, my lord, did lose our road to-night, theirs is the light and glory.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did I move them, Gashford?' said Lord George.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Move them, my lord! Move them! They cried to be led on against the
+      Papists, they vowed a dreadful vengeance on their heads, they roared like
+      men possessed&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But not by devils,' said his lord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By devils! my lord! By angels.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes&mdash;oh surely&mdash;by angels, no doubt,' said Lord George,
+      thrusting his hands into his pockets, taking them out again to bite his
+      nails, and looking uncomfortably at the fire. 'Of course by angels&mdash;eh
+      Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You do not doubt it, my lord?' said the secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No&mdash;No,' returned his lord. 'No. Why should I? I suppose it would be
+      decidedly irreligious to doubt it&mdash;wouldn't it, Gashford? Though
+      there certainly were,' he added, without waiting for an answer, 'some
+      plaguy ill-looking characters among them.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When you warmed,' said the secretary, looking sharply at the other's
+      downcast eyes, which brightened slowly as he spoke; 'when you warmed into
+      that noble outbreak; when you told them that you were never of the
+      lukewarm or the timid tribe, and bade them take heed that they were
+      prepared to follow one who would lead them on, though to the very death;
+      when you spoke of a hundred and twenty thousand men across the Scottish
+      border who would take their own redress at any time, if it were not
+      conceded; when you cried "Perish the Pope and all his base adherents; the
+      penal laws against them shall never be repealed while Englishmen have
+      hearts and hands"&mdash;and waved your own and touched your sword; and
+      when they cried "No Popery!" and you cried "No; not even if we wade in
+      blood," and they threw up their hats and cried "Hurrah! not even if we
+      wade in blood; No Popery! Lord George! Down with the Papists&mdash;Vengeance
+      on their heads:" when this was said and done, and a word from you, my
+      lord, could raise or still the tumult&mdash;ah! then I felt what greatness
+      was indeed, and thought, When was there ever power like this of Lord
+      George Gordon's!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's a great power. You're right. It is a great power!' he cried with
+      sparkling eyes. 'But&mdash;dear Gashford&mdash;did I really say all that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And how much more!' cried the secretary, looking upwards. 'Ah! how much
+      more!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And I told them what you say, about the one hundred and forty thousand
+      men in Scotland, did I!' he asked with evident delight. 'That was bold.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Our cause is boldness. Truth is always bold.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Certainly. So is religion. She's bold, Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The true religion is, my lord.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And that's ours,' he rejoined, moving uneasily in his seat, and biting
+      his nails as though he would pare them to the quick. 'There can be no
+      doubt of ours being the true one. You feel as certain of that as I do,
+      Gashford, don't you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Does my lord ask ME,' whined Gashford, drawing his chair nearer with an
+      injured air, and laying his broad flat hand upon the table; 'ME,' he
+      repeated, bending the dark hollows of his eyes upon him with an
+      unwholesome smile, 'who, stricken by the magic of his eloquence in
+      Scotland but a year ago, abjured the errors of the Romish church, and
+      clung to him as one whose timely hand had plucked me from a pit?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'True. No&mdash;No. I&mdash;I didn't mean it,' replied the other, shaking
+      him by the hand, rising from his seat, and pacing restlessly about the
+      room. 'It's a proud thing to lead the people, Gashford,' he added as he
+      made a sudden halt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By force of reason too,' returned the pliant secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, to be sure. They may cough and jeer, and groan in Parliament, and
+      call me fool and madman, but which of them can raise this human sea and
+      make it swell and roar at pleasure? Not one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not one,' repeated Gashford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Which of them can say for his honesty, what I can say for mine; which of
+      them has refused a minister's bribe of one thousand pounds a year, to
+      resign his seat in favour of another? Not one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not one,' repeated Gashford again&mdash;taking the lion's share of the
+      mulled wine between whiles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And as we are honest, true, and in a sacred cause, Gashford,' said Lord
+      George with a heightened colour and in a louder voice, as he laid his
+      fevered hand upon his shoulder, 'and are the only men who regard the mass
+      of people out of doors, or are regarded by them, we will uphold them to
+      the last; and will raise a cry against these un-English Papists which
+      shall re-echo through the country, and roll with a noise like thunder. I
+      will be worthy of the motto on my coat of arms, "Called and chosen and
+      faithful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Called,' said the secretary, 'by Heaven.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Chosen by the people.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Faithful to both.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To the block!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the excited manner in
+      which he gave these answers to the secretary's promptings; of the rapidity
+      of his utterance, or the violence of his tone and gesture; in which,
+      struggling through his Puritan's demeanour, was something wild and
+      ungovernable which broke through all restraint. For some minutes he walked
+      rapidly up and down the room, then stopping suddenly, exclaimed,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gashford&mdash;YOU moved them yesterday too. Oh yes! You did.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shone with a reflected light, my lord,' replied the humble secretary,
+      laying his hand upon his heart. 'I did my best.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You did well,' said his master, 'and are a great and worthy instrument.
+      If you will ring for John Grueby to carry the portmanteau into my room,
+      and will wait here while I undress, we will dispose of business as usual,
+      if you're not too tired.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Too tired, my lord!&mdash;But this is his consideration! Christian from
+      head to foot.' With which soliloquy, the secretary tilted the jug, and
+      looked very hard into the mulled wine, to see how much remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Willet and John Grueby appeared together. The one bearing the great
+      candlesticks, and the other the portmanteau, showed the deluded lord into
+      his chamber; and left the secretary alone, to yawn and shake himself, and
+      finally to fall asleep before the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, Mr Gashford sir,' said John Grueby in his ear, after what appeared
+      to him a moment of unconsciousness; 'my lord's abed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh. Very good, John,' was his mild reply. 'Thank you, John. Nobody need
+      sit up. I know my room.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope you're not a-going to trouble your head to-night, or my lord's
+      head neither, with anything more about Bloody Mary,' said John. 'I wish
+      the blessed old creetur had never been born.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I said you might go to bed, John,' returned the secretary. 'You didn't
+      hear me, I think.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Between Bloody Marys, and blue cockades, and glorious Queen Besses, and
+      no Poperys, and Protestant associations, and making of speeches,' pursued
+      John Grueby, looking, as usual, a long way off, and taking no notice of
+      this hint, 'my lord's half off his head. When we go out o' doors, such a
+      set of ragamuffins comes a-shouting after us, "Gordon forever!" that I'm
+      ashamed of myself and don't know where to look. When we're indoors, they
+      come a-roaring and screaming about the house like so many devils; and my
+      lord instead of ordering them to be drove away, goes out into the balcony
+      and demeans himself by making speeches to 'em, and calls 'em "Men of
+      England," and "Fellow-countrymen," as if he was fond of 'em and thanked
+      'em for coming. I can't make it out, but they're all mixed up somehow or
+      another with that unfort'nate Bloody Mary, and call her name out till
+      they're hoarse. They're all Protestants too&mdash;every man and boy among
+      'em: and Protestants are very fond of spoons, I find, and silver-plate in
+      general, whenever area-gates is left open accidentally. I wish that was
+      the worst of it, and that no more harm might be to come; but if you don't
+      stop these ugly customers in time, Mr Gashford (and I know you; you're the
+      man that blows the fire), you'll find 'em grow a little bit too strong for
+      you. One of these evenings, when the weather gets warmer and Protestants
+      are thirsty, they'll be pulling London down,&mdash;and I never heard that
+      Bloody Mary went as far as THAT.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford had vanished long ago, and these remarks had been bestowed on
+      empty air. Not at all discomposed by the discovery, John Grueby fixed his
+      hat on, wrongside foremost that he might be unconscious of the shadow of
+      the obnoxious cockade, and withdrew to bed; shaking his head in a very
+      gloomy and prophetic manner until he reached his chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 36
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Gashford, with a smiling face, but still with looks of profound deference
+      and humility, betook himself towards his master's room, smoothing his hair
+      down as he went, and humming a psalm tune. As he approached Lord George's
+      door, he cleared his throat and hummed more vigorously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a remarkable contrast between this man's occupation at the
+      moment, and the expression of his countenance, which was singularly
+      repulsive and malicious. His beetling brow almost obscured his eyes; his
+      lip was curled contemptuously; his very shoulders seemed to sneer in
+      stealthy whisperings with his great flapped ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush!' he muttered softly, as he peeped in at the chamber-door. 'He seems
+      to be asleep. Pray Heaven he is! Too much watching, too much care, too
+      much thought&mdash;ah! Lord preserve him for a martyr! He is a saint, if
+      ever saint drew breath on this bad earth.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Placing his light upon a table, he walked on tiptoe to the fire, and
+      sitting in a chair before it with his back towards the bed, went on
+      communing with himself like one who thought aloud:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The saviour of his country and his country's religion, the friend of his
+      poor countrymen, the enemy of the proud and harsh; beloved of the rejected
+      and oppressed, adored by forty thousand bold and loyal English hearts&mdash;what
+      happy slumbers his should be!' And here he sighed, and warmed his hands,
+      and shook his head as men do when their hearts are full, and heaved
+      another sigh, and warmed his hands again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, Gashford?' said Lord George, who was lying broad awake, upon his
+      side, and had been staring at him from his entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My&mdash;my lord,' said Gashford, starting and looking round as though in
+      great surprise. 'I have disturbed you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have not been sleeping.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not sleeping!' he repeated, with assumed confusion. 'What can I say for
+      having in your presence given utterance to thoughts&mdash;but they were
+      sincere&mdash;they were sincere!' exclaimed the secretary, drawing his
+      sleeve in a hasty way across his eyes; 'and why should I regret your
+      having heard them?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gashford,' said the poor lord, stretching out his hand with manifest
+      emotion. 'Do not regret it. You love me well, I know&mdash;too well. I
+      don't deserve such homage.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford made no reply, but grasped the hand and pressed it to his lips.
+      Then rising, and taking from the trunk a little desk, he placed it on a
+      table near the fire, unlocked it with a key he carried in his pocket, sat
+      down before it, took out a pen, and, before dipping it in the inkstand,
+      sucked it&mdash;to compose the fashion of his mouth perhaps, on which a
+      smile was hovering yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How do our numbers stand since last enrolling-night?' inquired Lord
+      George. 'Are we really forty thousand strong, or do we still speak in
+      round numbers when we take the Association at that amount?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Our total now exceeds that number by a score and three,' Gashford
+      replied, casting his eyes upon his papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The funds?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not VERY improving; but there is some manna in the wilderness, my lord.
+      Hem! On Friday night the widows' mites dropped in. "Forty scavengers,
+      three and fourpence. An aged pew-opener of St Martin's parish, sixpence. A
+      bell-ringer of the established church, sixpence. A Protestant infant,
+      newly born, one halfpenny. The United Link Boys, three shillings&mdash;one
+      bad. The anti-popish prisoners in Newgate, five and fourpence. A friend in
+      Bedlam, half-a-crown. Dennis the hangman, one shilling."'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That Dennis,' said his lordship, 'is an earnest man. I marked him in the
+      crowd in Welbeck Street, last Friday.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A good man,' rejoined the secretary, 'a staunch, sincere, and truly
+      zealous man.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He should be encouraged,' said Lord George. 'Make a note of Dennis. I'll
+      talk with him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford obeyed, and went on reading from his list:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '"The Friends of Reason, half-a-guinea. The Friends of Liberty,
+      half-a-guinea. The Friends of Peace, half-a-guinea. The Friends of
+      Charity, half-a-guinea. The Friends of Mercy, half-a-guinea. The
+      Associated Rememberers of Bloody Mary, half-a-guinea. The United Bulldogs,
+      half-a-guinea."'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The United Bulldogs,' said Lord George, biting his nails most horribly,
+      'are a new society, are they not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Formerly the 'Prentice Knights, my lord. The indentures of the old
+      members expiring by degrees, they changed their name, it seems, though
+      they still have 'prentices among them, as well as workmen.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What is their president's name?' inquired Lord George.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'President,' said Gashford, reading, 'Mr Simon Tappertit.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I remember him. The little man, who sometimes brings an elderly sister to
+      our meetings, and sometimes another female too, who is conscientious, I
+      have no doubt, but not well-favoured?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The very same, my lord.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tappertit is an earnest man,' said Lord George, thoughtfully. 'Eh,
+      Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'One of the foremost among them all, my lord. He snuffs the battle from
+      afar, like the war-horse. He throws his hat up in the street as if he were
+      inspired, and makes most stirring speeches from the shoulders of his
+      friends.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Make a note of Tappertit,' said Lord George Gordon. 'We may advance him
+      to a place of trust.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That,' rejoined the secretary, doing as he was told, 'is all&mdash;except
+      Mrs Varden's box (fourteenth time of opening), seven shillings and
+      sixpence in silver and copper, and half-a-guinea in gold; and Miggs (being
+      the saving of a quarter's wages), one-and-threepence.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miggs,' said Lord George. 'Is that a man?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The name is entered on the list as a woman,' replied the secretary. 'I
+      think she is the tall spare female of whom you spoke just now, my lord, as
+      not being well-favoured, who sometimes comes to hear the speeches&mdash;along
+      with Tappertit and Mrs Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mrs Varden is the elderly lady then, is she?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary nodded, and rubbed the bridge of his nose with the feather
+      of his pen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She is a zealous sister,' said Lord George. 'Her collection goes on
+      prosperously, and is pursued with fervour. Has her husband joined?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A malignant,' returned the secretary, folding up his papers. 'Unworthy
+      such a wife. He remains in outer darkness and steadily refuses.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The consequences be upon his own head!&mdash;Gashford!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My lord!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't think,' he turned restlessly in his bed as he spoke, 'these
+      people will desert me, when the hour arrives? I have spoken boldly for
+      them, ventured much, suppressed nothing. They'll not fall off, will they?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No fear of that, my lord,' said Gashford, with a meaning look, which was
+      rather the involuntary expression of his own thoughts than intended as any
+      confirmation of his words, for the other's face was turned away. 'Be sure
+      there is no fear of that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor,' he said with a more restless motion than before, 'of their&mdash;but
+      they CAN sustain no harm from leaguing for this purpose. Right is on our
+      side, though Might may be against us. You feel as sure of that as I&mdash;honestly,
+      you do?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary was beginning with 'You do not doubt,' when the other
+      interrupted him, and impatiently rejoined:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Doubt. No. Who says I doubt? If I doubted, should I cast away relatives,
+      friends, everything, for this unhappy country's sake; this unhappy
+      country,' he cried, springing up in bed, after repeating the phrase
+      'unhappy country's sake' to himself, at least a dozen times, 'forsaken of
+      God and man, delivered over to a dangerous confederacy of Popish powers;
+      the prey of corruption, idolatry, and despotism! Who says I doubt? Am I
+      called, and chosen, and faithful? Tell me. Am I, or am I not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To God, the country, and yourself,' cried Gashford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am. I will be. I say again, I will be: to the block. Who says as much!
+      Do you? Does any man alive?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary drooped his head with an expression of perfect acquiescence
+      in anything that had been said or might be; and Lord George gradually
+      sinking down upon his pillow, fell asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although there was something very ludicrous in his vehement manner, taken
+      in conjunction with his meagre aspect and ungraceful presence, it would
+      scarcely have provoked a smile in any man of kindly feeling; or even if it
+      had, he would have felt sorry and almost angry with himself next moment,
+      for yielding to the impulse. This lord was sincere in his violence and in
+      his wavering. A nature prone to false enthusiasm, and the vanity of being
+      a leader, were the worst qualities apparent in his composition. All the
+      rest was weakness&mdash;sheer weakness; and it is the unhappy lot of
+      thoroughly weak men, that their very sympathies, affections, confidences&mdash;all
+      the qualities which in better constituted minds are virtues&mdash;dwindle
+      into foibles, or turn into downright vices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford, with many a sly look towards the bed, sat chuckling at his
+      master's folly, until his deep and heavy breathing warned him that he
+      might retire. Locking his desk, and replacing it within the trunk (but not
+      before he had taken from a secret lining two printed handbills), he
+      cautiously withdrew; looking back, as he went, at the pale face of the
+      slumbering man, above whose head the dusty plumes that crowned the Maypole
+      couch, waved drearily and sadly as though it were a bier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stopping on the staircase to listen that all was quiet, and to take off
+      his shoes lest his footsteps should alarm any light sleeper who might be
+      near at hand, he descended to the ground floor, and thrust one of his
+      bills beneath the great door of the house. That done, he crept softly back
+      to his own chamber, and from the window let another fall&mdash;carefully
+      wrapt round a stone to save it from the wind&mdash;into the yard below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were addressed on the back 'To every Protestant into whose hands this
+      shall come,' and bore within what follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Men and Brethren. Whoever shall find this letter, will take it as a
+      warning to join, without delay, the friends of Lord George Gordon. There
+      are great events at hand; and the times are dangerous and troubled. Read
+      this carefully, keep it clean, and drop it somewhere else. For King and
+      Country. Union.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'More seed, more seed,' said Gashford as he closed the window. 'When will
+      the harvest come!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 37
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air of
+      mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power of attraction
+      which to the crowd is irresistible. False priests, false prophets, false
+      doctors, false patriots, false prodigies of every kind, veiling their
+      proceedings in mystery, have always addressed themselves at an immense
+      advantage to the popular credulity, and have been, perhaps, more indebted
+      to that resource in gaining and keeping for a time the upper hand of Truth
+      and Common Sense, than to any half-dozen items in the whole catalogue of
+      imposture. Curiosity is, and has been from the creation of the world, a
+      master-passion. To awaken it, to gratify it by slight degrees, and yet
+      leave something always in suspense, is to establish the surest hold that
+      can be had, in wrong, on the unthinking portion of mankind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If a man had stood on London Bridge, calling till he was hoarse, upon the
+      passers-by, to join with Lord George Gordon, although for an object which
+      no man understood, and which in that very incident had a charm of its own,&mdash;the
+      probability is, that he might have influenced a score of people in a
+      month. If all zealous Protestants had been publicly urged to join an
+      association for the avowed purpose of singing a hymn or two occasionally,
+      and hearing some indifferent speeches made, and ultimately of petitioning
+      Parliament not to pass an act for abolishing the penal laws against Roman
+      Catholic priests, the penalty of perpetual imprisonment denounced against
+      those who educated children in that persuasion, and the disqualification
+      of all members of the Romish church to inherit real property in the United
+      Kingdom by right of purchase or descent,&mdash;matters so far removed from
+      the business and bosoms of the mass, might perhaps have called together a
+      hundred people. But when vague rumours got abroad, that in this Protestant
+      association a secret power was mustering against the government for
+      undefined and mighty purposes; when the air was filled with whispers of a
+      confederacy among the Popish powers to degrade and enslave England,
+      establish an inquisition in London, and turn the pens of Smithfield market
+      into stakes and cauldrons; when terrors and alarms which no man understood
+      were perpetually broached, both in and out of Parliament, by one
+      enthusiast who did not understand himself, and bygone bugbears which had
+      lain quietly in their graves for centuries, were raised again to haunt the
+      ignorant and credulous; when all this was done, as it were, in the dark,
+      and secret invitations to join the Great Protestant Association in defence
+      of religion, life, and liberty, were dropped in the public ways, thrust
+      under the house-doors, tossed in at windows, and pressed into the hands of
+      those who trod the streets by night; when they glared from every wall, and
+      shone on every post and pillar, so that stocks and stones appeared
+      infected with the common fear, urging all men to join together blindfold
+      in resistance of they knew not what, they knew not why;&mdash;then the
+      mania spread indeed, and the body, still increasing every day, grew forty
+      thousand strong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So said, at least, in this month of March, 1780, Lord George Gordon, the
+      Association's president. Whether it was the fact or otherwise, few men
+      knew or cared to ascertain. It had never made any public demonstration;
+      had scarcely ever been heard of, save through him; had never been seen;
+      and was supposed by many to be the mere creature of his disordered brain.
+      He was accustomed to talk largely about numbers of men&mdash;stimulated,
+      as it was inferred, by certain successful disturbances, arising out of the
+      same subject, which had occurred in Scotland in the previous year; was
+      looked upon as a cracked-brained member of the lower house, who attacked
+      all parties and sided with none, and was very little regarded. It was
+      known that there was discontent abroad&mdash;there always is; he had been
+      accustomed to address the people by placard, speech, and pamphlet, upon
+      other questions; nothing had come, in England, of his past exertions, and
+      nothing was apprehended from his present. Just as he has come upon the
+      reader, he had come, from time to time, upon the public, and been
+      forgotten in a day; as suddenly as he appears in these pages, after a
+      blank of five long years, did he and his proceedings begin to force
+      themselves, about this period, upon the notice of thousands of people, who
+      had mingled in active life during the whole interval, and who, without
+      being deaf or blind to passing events, had scarcely ever thought of him
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My lord,' said Gashford in his ear, as he drew the curtains of his bed
+      betimes; 'my lord!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes&mdash;who's that? What is it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The clock has struck nine,' returned the secretary, with meekly folded
+      hands. 'You have slept well? I hope you have slept well? If my prayers are
+      heard, you are refreshed indeed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To say the truth, I have slept so soundly,' said Lord George, rubbing his
+      eyes and looking round the room, 'that I don't remember quite&mdash;what
+      place is this?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My lord!' cried Gashford, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh!' returned his superior. 'Yes. You're not a Jew then?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A Jew!' exclaimed the pious secretary, recoiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I dreamed that we were Jews, Gashford. You and I&mdash;both of us&mdash;Jews
+      with long beards.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Heaven forbid, my lord! We might as well be Papists.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I suppose we might,' returned the other, very quickly. 'Eh? You really
+      think so, Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Surely I do,' the secretary cried, with looks of great surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Humph!' he muttered. 'Yes, that seems reasonable.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope my lord&mdash;' the secretary began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hope!' he echoed, interrupting him. 'Why do you say, you hope? There's no
+      harm in thinking of such things.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not in dreams,' returned the Secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In dreams! No, nor waking either.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'"Called, and chosen, and faithful,"' said Gashford, taking up Lord
+      George's watch which lay upon a chair, and seeming to read the inscription
+      on the seal, abstractedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the slightest action possible, not obtruded on his notice, and
+      apparently the result of a moment's absence of mind, not worth remark. But
+      as the words were uttered, Lord George, who had been going on impetuously,
+      stopped short, reddened, and was silent. Apparently quite unconscious of
+      this change in his demeanour, the wily Secretary stepped a little apart,
+      under pretence of pulling up the window-blind, and returning when the
+      other had had time to recover, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The holy cause goes bravely on, my lord. I was not idle, even last night.
+      I dropped two of the handbills before I went to bed, and both are gone
+      this morning. Nobody in the house has mentioned the circumstance of
+      finding them, though I have been downstairs full half-an-hour. One or two
+      recruits will be their first fruit, I predict; and who shall say how many
+      more, with Heaven's blessing on your inspired exertions!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was a famous device in the beginning,' replied Lord George; 'an
+      excellent device, and did good service in Scotland. It was quite worthy of
+      you. You remind me not to be a sluggard, Gashford, when the vineyard is
+      menaced with destruction, and may be trodden down by Papist feet. Let the
+      horses be saddled in half-an-hour. We must be up and doing!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said this with a heightened colour, and in a tone of such enthusiasm,
+      that the secretary deemed all further prompting needless, and withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'Dreamed he was a Jew,' he said thoughtfully, as he closed the
+      bedroom door. 'He may come to that before he dies. It's like enough. Well!
+      After a time, and provided I lost nothing by it, I don't see why that
+      religion shouldn't suit me as well as any other. There are rich men among
+      the Jews; shaving is very troublesome;&mdash;yes, it would suit me well
+      enough. For the present, though, we must be Christian to the core. Our
+      prophetic motto will suit all creeds in their turn, that's a comfort.'
+      Reflecting on this source of consolation, he reached the sitting-room, and
+      rang the bell for breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George was quickly dressed (for his plain toilet was easily made),
+      and as he was no less frugal in his repasts than in his Puritan attire,
+      his share of the meal was soon dispatched. The secretary, however, more
+      devoted to the good things of this world, or more intent on sustaining his
+      strength and spirits for the sake of the Protestant cause, ate and drank
+      to the last minute, and required indeed some three or four reminders from
+      John Grueby, before he could resolve to tear himself away from Mr Willet's
+      plentiful providing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length he came downstairs, wiping his greasy mouth, and having paid
+      John Willet's bill, climbed into his saddle. Lord George, who had been
+      walking up and down before the house talking to himself with earnest
+      gestures, mounted his horse; and returning old John Willet's stately bow,
+      as well as the parting salutation of a dozen idlers whom the rumour of a
+      live lord being about to leave the Maypole had gathered round the porch,
+      they rode away, with stout John Grueby in the rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Lord George Gordon had appeared in the eyes of Mr Willet, overnight, a
+      nobleman of somewhat quaint and odd exterior, the impression was confirmed
+      this morning, and increased a hundredfold. Sitting bolt upright upon his
+      bony steed, with his long, straight hair, dangling about his face and
+      fluttering in the wind; his limbs all angular and rigid, his elbows stuck
+      out on either side ungracefully, and his whole frame jogged and shaken at
+      every motion of his horse's feet; a more grotesque or more ungainly figure
+      can hardly be conceived. In lieu of whip, he carried in his hand a great
+      gold-headed cane, as large as any footman carries in these days, and his
+      various modes of holding this unwieldy weapon&mdash;now upright before his
+      face like the sabre of a horse-soldier, now over his shoulder like a
+      musket, now between his finger and thumb, but always in some uncouth and
+      awkward fashion&mdash;contributed in no small degree to the absurdity of
+      his appearance. Stiff, lank, and solemn, dressed in an unusual manner, and
+      ostentatiously exhibiting&mdash;whether by design or accident&mdash;all
+      his peculiarities of carriage, gesture, and conduct, all the qualities,
+      natural and artificial, in which he differed from other men; he might have
+      moved the sternest looker-on to laughter, and fully provoked the smiles
+      and whispered jests which greeted his departure from the Maypole inn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quite unconscious, however, of the effect he produced, he trotted on
+      beside his secretary, talking to himself nearly all the way, until they
+      came within a mile or two of London, when now and then some passenger went
+      by who knew him by sight, and pointed him out to some one else, and
+      perhaps stood looking after him, or cried in jest or earnest as it might
+      be, 'Hurrah Geordie! No Popery!' At which he would gravely pull off his
+      hat, and bow. When they reached the town and rode along the streets, these
+      notices became more frequent; some laughed, some hissed, some turned their
+      heads and smiled, some wondered who he was, some ran along the pavement by
+      his side and cheered. When this happened in a crush of carts and chairs
+      and coaches, he would make a dead stop, and pulling off his hat, cry,
+      'Gentlemen, No Popery!' to which the gentlemen would respond with lusty
+      voices, and with three times three; and then, on he would go again with a
+      score or so of the raggedest, following at his horse's heels, and shouting
+      till their throats were parched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old ladies too&mdash;there were a great many old ladies in the
+      streets, and these all knew him. Some of them&mdash;not those of the
+      highest rank, but such as sold fruit from baskets and carried burdens&mdash;clapped
+      their shrivelled hands, and raised a weazen, piping, shrill 'Hurrah, my
+      lord.' Others waved their hands or handkerchiefs, or shook their fans or
+      parasols, or threw up windows and called in haste to those within, to come
+      and see. All these marks of popular esteem, he received with profound
+      gravity and respect; bowing very low, and so frequently that his hat was
+      more off his head than on; and looking up at the houses as he passed
+      along, with the air of one who was making a public entry, and yet was not
+      puffed up or proud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they rode (to the deep and unspeakable disgust of John Grueby) the
+      whole length of Whitechapel, Leadenhall Street, and Cheapside, and into St
+      Paul's Churchyard. Arriving close to the cathedral, he halted; spoke to
+      Gashford; and looking upward at its lofty dome, shook his head, as though
+      he said, 'The Church in Danger!' Then to be sure, the bystanders stretched
+      their throats indeed; and he went on again with mighty acclamations from
+      the mob, and lower bows than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So along the Strand, up Swallow Street, into the Oxford Road, and thence
+      to his house in Welbeck Street, near Cavendish Square, whither he was
+      attended by a few dozen idlers; of whom he took leave on the steps with
+      this brief parting, 'Gentlemen, No Popery. Good day. God bless you.' This
+      being rather a shorter address than they expected, was received with some
+      displeasure, and cries of 'A speech! a speech!' which might have been
+      complied with, but that John Grueby, making a mad charge upon them with
+      all three horses, on his way to the stables, caused them to disperse into
+      the adjoining fields, where they presently fell to pitch and toss,
+      chuck-farthing, odd or even, dog-fighting, and other Protestant
+      recreations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon Lord George came forth again, dressed in a black velvet
+      coat, and trousers and waistcoat of the Gordon plaid, all of the same
+      Quaker cut; and in this costume, which made him look a dozen times more
+      strange and singular than before, went down on foot to Westminster.
+      Gashford, meanwhile, bestirred himself in business matters; with which he
+      was still engaged when, shortly after dusk, John Grueby entered and
+      announced a visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let him come in,' said Gashford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here! come in!' growled John to somebody without; 'You're a Protestant,
+      an't you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should think so,' replied a deep, gruff voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You've the looks of it,' said John Grueby. 'I'd have known you for one,
+      anywhere.' With which remark he gave the visitor admission, retired, and
+      shut the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man who now confronted Gashford, was a squat, thickset personage, with
+      a low, retreating forehead, a coarse shock head of hair, and eyes so small
+      and near together, that his broken nose alone seemed to prevent their
+      meeting and fusing into one of the usual size. A dingy handkerchief
+      twisted like a cord about his neck, left its great veins exposed to view,
+      and they were swollen and starting, as though with gulping down strong
+      passions, malice, and ill-will. His dress was of threadbare velveteen&mdash;a
+      faded, rusty, whitened black, like the ashes of a pipe or a coal fire
+      after a day's extinction; discoloured with the soils of many a stale
+      debauch, and reeking yet with pot-house odours. In lieu of buckles at his
+      knees, he wore unequal loops of packthread; and in his grimy hands he held
+      a knotted stick, the knob of which was carved into a rough likeness of his
+      own vile face. Such was the visitor who doffed his three-cornered hat in
+      Gashford's presence, and waited, leering, for his notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah! Dennis!' cried the secretary. 'Sit down.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I see my lord down yonder&mdash;' cried the man, with a jerk of his thumb
+      towards the quarter that he spoke of, 'and he says to me, says my lord,
+      "If you've nothing to do, Dennis, go up to my house and talk with Muster
+      Gashford." Of course I'd nothing to do, you know. These an't my working
+      hours. Ha ha! I was a-taking the air when I see my lord, that's what I was
+      doing. I takes the air by night, as the howls does, Muster Gashford.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And sometimes in the day-time, eh?' said the secretary&mdash;'when you go
+      out in state, you know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha!' roared the fellow, smiting his leg; 'for a gentleman as 'ull say
+      a pleasant thing in a pleasant way, give me Muster Gashford agin' all
+      London and Westminster! My lord an't a bad 'un at that, but he's a fool to
+      you. Ah to be sure,&mdash;when I go out in state.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And have your carriage,' said the secretary; 'and your chaplain, eh? and
+      all the rest of it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You'll be the death of me,' cried Dennis, with another roar, 'you will.
+      But what's in the wind now, Muster Gashford,' he asked hoarsely, 'Eh? Are
+      we to be under orders to pull down one of them Popish chapels&mdash;or
+      what?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush!' said the secretary, suffering the faintest smile to play upon his
+      face. 'Hush! God bless me, Dennis! We associate, you know, for strictly
+      peaceable and lawful purposes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know, bless you,' returned the man, thrusting his tongue into his
+      cheek; 'I entered a' purpose, didn't I!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No doubt,' said Gashford, smiling as before. And when he said so, Dennis
+      roared again, and smote his leg still harder, and falling into fits of
+      laughter, wiped his eyes with the corner of his neckerchief, and cried,
+      'Muster Gashford agin' all England hollow!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lord George and I were talking of you last night,' said Gashford, after a
+      pause. 'He says you are a very earnest fellow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So I am,' returned the hangman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And that you truly hate the Papists.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So I do,' and he confirmed it with a good round oath. 'Lookye here,
+      Muster Gashford,' said the fellow, laying his hat and stick upon the
+      floor, and slowly beating the palm of one hand with the fingers of the
+      other; 'Ob-serve. I'm a constitutional officer that works for my living,
+      and does my work creditable. Do I, or do I not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Unquestionably.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very good. Stop a minute. My work, is sound, Protestant, constitutional,
+      English work. Is it, or is it not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No man alive can doubt it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor dead neither. Parliament says this here&mdash;says Parliament, "If
+      any man, woman, or child, does anything which goes again a certain number
+      of our acts"&mdash;how many hanging laws may there be at this present
+      time, Muster Gashford? Fifty?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't exactly know how many,' replied Gashford, leaning back in his
+      chair and yawning; 'a great number though.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well, say fifty. Parliament says, "If any man, woman, or child, does
+      anything again any one of them fifty acts, that man, woman, or child,
+      shall be worked off by Dennis." George the Third steps in when they number
+      very strong at the end of a sessions, and says, "These are too many for
+      Dennis. I'll have half for myself and Dennis shall have half for himself;"
+      and sometimes he throws me in one over that I don't expect, as he did
+      three year ago, when I got Mary Jones, a young woman of nineteen who come
+      up to Tyburn with a infant at her breast, and was worked off for taking a
+      piece of cloth off the counter of a shop in Ludgate Hill, and putting it
+      down again when the shopman see her; and who had never done any harm
+      before, and only tried to do that, in consequence of her husband having
+      been pressed three weeks previous, and she being left to beg, with two
+      young children&mdash;as was proved upon the trial. Ha ha!&mdash;Well! That
+      being the law and the practice of England, is the glory of England, an't
+      it, Muster Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Certainly,' said the secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And in times to come,' pursued the hangman, 'if our grandsons should
+      think of their grandfathers' times, and find these things altered, they'll
+      say, "Those were days indeed, and we've been going down hill ever since."
+      Won't they, Muster Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have no doubt they will,' said the secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well then, look here,' said the hangman. 'If these Papists gets into
+      power, and begins to boil and roast instead of hang, what becomes of my
+      work! If they touch my work that's a part of so many laws, what becomes of
+      the laws in general, what becomes of the religion, what becomes of the
+      country!&mdash;Did you ever go to church, Muster Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ever!' repeated the secretary with some indignation; 'of course.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well,' said the ruffian, 'I've been once&mdash;twice, counting the time I
+      was christened&mdash;and when I heard the Parliament prayed for, and
+      thought how many new hanging laws they made every sessions, I considered
+      that I was prayed for. Now mind, Muster Gashford,' said the fellow, taking
+      up his stick and shaking it with a ferocious air, 'I mustn't have my
+      Protestant work touched, nor this here Protestant state of things altered
+      in no degree, if I can help it; I mustn't have no Papists interfering with
+      me, unless they come to be worked off in course of law; I mustn't have no
+      biling, no roasting, no frying&mdash;nothing but hanging. My lord may well
+      call me an earnest fellow. In support of the great Protestant principle of
+      having plenty of that, I'll,' and here he beat his club upon the ground,
+      'burn, fight, kill&mdash;do anything you bid me, so that it's bold and
+      devilish&mdash;though the end of it was, that I got hung myself.&mdash;There,
+      Muster Gashford!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He appropriately followed up this frequent prostitution of a noble word to
+      the vilest purposes, by pouring out in a kind of ecstasy at least a score
+      of most tremendous oaths; then wiped his heated face upon his neckerchief,
+      and cried, 'No Popery! I'm a religious man, by G&mdash;!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford had leant back in his chair, regarding him with eyes so sunken,
+      and so shadowed by his heavy brows, that for aught the hangman saw of
+      them, he might have been stone blind. He remained smiling in silence for a
+      short time longer, and then said, slowly and distinctly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are indeed an earnest fellow, Dennis&mdash;a most valuable fellow&mdash;the
+      staunchest man I know of in our ranks. But you must calm yourself; you
+      must be peaceful, lawful, mild as any lamb. I am sure you will be though.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, ay, we shall see, Muster Gashford, we shall see. You won't have to
+      complain of me,' returned the other, shaking his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am sure I shall not,' said the secretary in the same mild tone, and
+      with the same emphasis. 'We shall have, we think, about next month, or
+      May, when this Papist relief bill comes before the house, to convene our
+      whole body for the first time. My lord has thoughts of our walking in
+      procession through the streets&mdash;just as an innocent display of
+      strength&mdash;and accompanying our petition down to the door of the House
+      of Commons.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The sooner the better,' said Dennis, with another oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We shall have to draw up in divisions, our numbers being so large; and, I
+      believe I may venture to say,' resumed Gashford, affecting not to hear the
+      interruption, 'though I have no direct instructions to that effect&mdash;that
+      Lord George has thought of you as an excellent leader for one of these
+      parties. I have no doubt you would be an admirable one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Try me,' said the fellow, with an ugly wink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You would be cool, I know,' pursued the secretary, still smiling, and
+      still managing his eyes so that he could watch him closely, and really not
+      be seen in turn, 'obedient to orders, and perfectly temperate. You would
+      lead your party into no danger, I am certain.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0175m.jpg" alt="0175m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0175.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'I'd lead them, Muster Gashford,'&mdash;the hangman was beginning in a
+      reckless way, when Gashford started forward, laid his finger on his lips,
+      and feigned to write, just as the door was opened by John Grueby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh!' said John, looking in; 'here's another Protestant.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Some other room, John,' cried Gashford in his blandest voice. 'I am
+      engaged just now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But John had brought this new visitor to the door, and he walked in
+      unbidden, as the words were uttered; giving to view the form and features,
+      rough attire, and reckless air, of Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 38
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The secretary put his hand before his eyes to shade them from the glare of
+      the lamp, and for some moments looked at Hugh with a frowning brow, as if
+      he remembered to have seen him lately, but could not call to mind where,
+      or on what occasion. His uncertainty was very brief, for before Hugh had
+      spoken a word, he said, as his countenance cleared up:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, ay, I recollect. It's quite right, John, you needn't wait. Don't go,
+      Dennis.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your servant, master,' said Hugh, as Grueby disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yours, friend,' returned the secretary in his smoothest manner. 'What
+      brings YOU here? We left nothing behind us, I hope?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh gave a short laugh, and thrusting his hand into his breast, produced
+      one of the handbills, soiled and dirty from lying out of doors all night,
+      which he laid upon the secretary's desk after flattening it upon his knee,
+      and smoothing out the wrinkles with his heavy palm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing but that, master. It fell into good hands, you see.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What is this!' said Gashford, turning it over with an air of perfectly
+      natural surprise. 'Where did you get it from, my good fellow; what does it
+      mean? I don't understand this at all.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little disconcerted by this reception, Hugh looked from the secretary to
+      Dennis, who had risen and was standing at the table too, observing the
+      stranger by stealth, and seeming to derive the utmost satisfaction from
+      his manners and appearance. Considering himself silently appealed to by
+      this action, Mr Dennis shook his head thrice, as if to say of Gashford,
+      'No. He don't know anything at all about it. I know he don't. I'll take my
+      oath he don't;' and hiding his profile from Hugh with one long end of his
+      frowzy neckerchief, nodded and chuckled behind this screen in extreme
+      approval of the secretary's proceedings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It tells the man that finds it, to come here, don't it?' asked Hugh. 'I'm
+      no scholar, myself, but I showed it to a friend, and he said it did.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It certainly does,' said Gashford, opening his eyes to their utmost
+      width; 'really this is the most remarkable circumstance I have ever known.
+      How did you come by this piece of paper, my good friend?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Muster Gashford,' wheezed the hangman under his breath, 'agin' all
+      Newgate!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether Hugh heard him, or saw by his manner that he was being played
+      upon, or perceived the secretary's drift of himself, he came in his blunt
+      way to the point at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here!' he said, stretching out his hand and taking it back; 'never mind
+      the bill, or what it says, or what it don't say. You don't know anything
+      about it, master,&mdash;no more do I,&mdash;no more does he,' glancing at
+      Dennis. 'None of us know what it means, or where it comes from: there's an
+      end of that. Now I want to make one against the Catholics, I'm a No-Popery
+      man, and ready to be sworn in. That's what I've come here for.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Put him down on the roll, Muster Gashford,' said Dennis approvingly.
+      'That's the way to go to work&mdash;right to the end at once, and no
+      palaver.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's the use of shooting wide of the mark, eh, old boy!' cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My sentiments all over!' rejoined the hangman. 'This is the sort of chap
+      for my division, Muster Gashford. Down with him, sir. Put him on the roll.
+      I'd stand godfather to him, if he was to be christened in a bonfire, made
+      of the ruins of the Bank of England.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these and other expressions of confidence of the like flattering
+      kind, Mr Dennis gave him a hearty slap on the back, which Hugh was not
+      slow to return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No Popery, brother!' cried the hangman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No Property, brother!' responded Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Popery, Popery,' said the secretary with his usual mildness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's all the same!' cried Dennis. 'It's all right. Down with him, Muster
+      Gashford. Down with everybody, down with everything! Hurrah for the
+      Protestant religion! That's the time of day, Muster Gashford!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary regarded them both with a very favourable expression of
+      countenance, while they gave loose to these and other demonstrations of
+      their patriotic purpose; and was about to make some remark aloud, when
+      Dennis, stepping up to him, and shading his mouth with his hand, said, in
+      a hoarse whisper, as he nudged him with his elbow:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't split upon a constitutional officer's profession, Muster Gashford.
+      There are popular prejudices, you know, and he mightn't like it. Wait till
+      he comes to be more intimate with me. He's a fine-built chap, an't he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A powerful fellow indeed!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did you ever, Muster Gashford,' whispered Dennis, with a horrible kind of
+      admiration, such as that with which a cannibal might regard his intimate
+      friend, when hungry,&mdash;'did you ever&mdash;and here he drew still
+      closer to his ear, and fenced his mouth with both his open bands&mdash;'see
+      such a throat as his? Do but cast your eye upon it. There's a neck for
+      stretching, Muster Gashford!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary assented to this proposition with the best grace he could
+      assume&mdash;it is difficult to feign a true professional relish: which is
+      eccentric sometimes&mdash;and after asking the candidate a few unimportant
+      questions, proceeded to enrol him a member of the Great Protestant
+      Association of England. If anything could have exceeded Mr Dennis's joy on
+      the happy conclusion of this ceremony, it would have been the rapture with
+      which he received the announcement that the new member could neither read
+      nor write: those two arts being (as Mr Dennis swore) the greatest possible
+      curse a civilised community could know, and militating more against the
+      professional emoluments and usefulness of the great constitutional office
+      he had the honour to hold, than any adverse circumstances that could
+      present themselves to his imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The enrolment being completed, and Hugh having been informed by Gashford,
+      in his peculiar manner, of the peaceful and strictly lawful objects
+      contemplated by the body to which he now belonged&mdash;during which
+      recital Mr Dennis nudged him very much with his elbow, and made divers
+      remarkable faces&mdash;the secretary gave them both to understand that he
+      desired to be alone. Therefore they took their leaves without delay, and
+      came out of the house together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you walking, brother?' said Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' returned Hugh. 'Where you will.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's social,' said his new friend. 'Which way shall we take? Shall we
+      go and have a look at doors that we shall make a pretty good clattering
+      at, before long&mdash;eh, brother?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh answering in the affirmative, they went slowly down to Westminster,
+      where both houses of Parliament were then sitting. Mingling in the crowd
+      of carriages, horses, servants, chairmen, link-boys, porters, and idlers
+      of all kinds, they lounged about; while Hugh's new friend pointed out to
+      him significantly the weak parts of the building, how easy it was to get
+      into the lobby, and so to the very door of the House of Commons; and how
+      plainly, when they marched down there in grand array, their roars and
+      shouts would be heard by the members inside; with a great deal more to the
+      same purpose, all of which Hugh received with manifest delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He told him, too, who some of the Lords and Commons were, by name, as they
+      came in and out; whether they were friendly to the Papists or otherwise;
+      and bade him take notice of their liveries and equipages, that he might be
+      sure of them, in case of need. Sometimes he drew him close to the windows
+      of a passing carriage, that he might see its master's face by the light of
+      the lamps; and, both in respect of people and localities, he showed so
+      much acquaintance with everything around, that it was plain he had often
+      studied there before; as indeed, when they grew a little more
+      confidential, he confessed he had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps the most striking part of all this was, the number of people&mdash;never
+      in groups of more than two or three together&mdash;who seemed to be
+      skulking about the crowd for the same purpose. To the greater part of
+      these, a slight nod or a look from Hugh's companion was sufficient
+      greeting; but, now and then, some man would come and stand beside him in
+      the throng, and, without turning his head or appearing to communicate with
+      him, would say a word or two in a low voice, which he would answer in the
+      same cautious manner. Then they would part, like strangers. Some of these
+      men often reappeared again unexpectedly in the crowd close to Hugh, and,
+      as they passed by, pressed his hand, or looked him sternly in the face;
+      but they never spoke to him, nor he to them; no, not a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was remarkable, too, that whenever they happened to stand where there
+      was any press of people, and Hugh chanced to be looking downward, he was
+      sure to see an arm stretched out&mdash;under his own perhaps, or perhaps
+      across him&mdash;which thrust some paper into the hand or pocket of a
+      bystander, and was so suddenly withdrawn that it was impossible to tell
+      from whom it came; nor could he see in any face, on glancing quickly
+      round, the least confusion or surprise. They often trod upon a paper like
+      the one he carried in his breast, but his companion whispered him not to
+      touch it or to take it up,&mdash;not even to look towards it,&mdash;so
+      there they let them lie, and passed on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had paraded the street and all the avenues of the building in
+      this manner for near two hours, they turned away, and his friend asked him
+      what he thought of what he had seen, and whether he was prepared for a
+      good hot piece of work if it should come to that. The hotter the better,'
+      said Hugh, 'I'm prepared for anything.'&mdash;'So am I,' said his friend,
+      'and so are many of us; and they shook hands upon it with a great oath,
+      and with many terrible imprecations on the Papists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they were thirsty by this time, Dennis proposed that they should repair
+      together to The Boot, where there was good company and strong liquor. Hugh
+      yielding a ready assent, they bent their steps that way with no loss of
+      time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This Boot was a lone house of public entertainment, situated in the fields
+      at the back of the Foundling Hospital; a very solitary spot at that
+      period, and quite deserted after dark. The tavern stood at some distance
+      from any high road, and was approachable only by a dark and narrow lane;
+      so that Hugh was much surprised to find several people drinking there, and
+      great merriment going on. He was still more surprised to find among them
+      almost every face that had caught his attention in the crowd; but his
+      companion having whispered him outside the door, that it was not
+      considered good manners at The Boot to appear at all curious about the
+      company, he kept his own counsel, and made no show of recognition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before putting his lips to the liquor which was brought for them, Dennis
+      drank in a loud voice the health of Lord George Gordon, President of the
+      Great Protestant Association; which toast Hugh pledged likewise, with
+      corresponding enthusiasm. A fiddler who was present, and who appeared to
+      act as the appointed minstrel of the company, forthwith struck up a Scotch
+      reel; and that in tones so invigorating, that Hugh and his friend (who had
+      both been drinking before) rose from their seats as by previous concert,
+      and, to the great admiration of the assembled guests, performed an
+      extemporaneous No-Popery Dance.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0178m.jpg" alt="0178m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0178.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 39
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The applause which the performance of Hugh and his new friend elicited
+      from the company at The Boot, had not yet subsided, and the two dancers
+      were still panting from their exertions, which had been of a rather
+      extreme and violent character, when the party was reinforced by the
+      arrival of some more guests, who, being a detachment of United Bulldogs,
+      were received with very flattering marks of distinction and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The leader of this small party&mdash;for, including himself, they were but
+      three in number&mdash;was our old acquaintance, Mr Tappertit, who seemed,
+      physically speaking, to have grown smaller with years (particularly as to
+      his legs, which were stupendously little), but who, in a moral point of
+      view, in personal dignity and self-esteem, had swelled into a giant. Nor
+      was it by any means difficult for the most unobservant person to detect
+      this state of feeling in the quondam 'prentice, for it not only proclaimed
+      itself impressively and beyond mistake in his majestic walk and kindling
+      eye, but found a striking means of revelation in his turned-up nose, which
+      scouted all things of earth with deep disdain, and sought communion with
+      its kindred skies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit, as chief or captain of the Bulldogs, was attended by his two
+      lieutenants; one, the tall comrade of his younger life; the other, a
+      'Prentice Knight in days of yore&mdash;Mark Gilbert, bound in the olden
+      time to Thomas Curzon of the Golden Fleece. These gentlemen, like himself,
+      were now emancipated from their 'prentice thraldom, and served as
+      journeymen; but they were, in humble emulation of his great example, bold
+      and daring spirits, and aspired to a distinguished state in great
+      political events. Hence their connection with the Protestant Association
+      of England, sanctioned by the name of Lord George Gordon; and hence their
+      present visit to The Boot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gentlemen!' said Mr Tappertit, taking off his hat as a great general
+      might in addressing his troops. 'Well met. My lord does me and you the
+      honour to send his compliments per self.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You've seen my lord too, have you?' said Dennis. 'I see him this
+      afternoon.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My duty called me to the Lobby when our shop shut up; and I saw him
+      there, sir,' Mr Tappertit replied, as he and his lieutenants took their
+      seats. 'How do YOU do?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lively, master, lively,' said the fellow. 'Here's a new brother,
+      regularly put down in black and white by Muster Gashford; a credit to the
+      cause; one of the stick-at-nothing sort; one arter my own heart. D'ye see
+      him? Has he got the looks of a man that'll do, do you think?' he cried, as
+      he slapped Hugh on the back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Looks or no looks,' said Hugh, with a drunken flourish of his arm, 'I'm
+      the man you want. I hate the Papists, every one of 'em. They hate me and I
+      hate them. They do me all the harm they can, and I'll do them all the harm
+      I can. Hurrah!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Was there ever,' said Dennis, looking round the room, when the echo of
+      his boisterous voice bad died away; 'was there ever such a game boy! Why,
+      I mean to say, brothers, that if Muster Gashford had gone a hundred mile
+      and got together fifty men of the common run, they wouldn't have been
+      worth this one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greater part of the company implicitly subscribed to this opinion, and
+      testified their faith in Hugh by nods and looks of great significance. Mr
+      Tappertit sat and contemplated him for a long time in silence, as if he
+      suspended his judgment; then drew a little nearer to him, and eyed him
+      over more carefully; then went close up to him, and took him apart into a
+      dark corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say,' he began, with a thoughtful brow, 'haven't I seen you before?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's like you may,' said Hugh, in his careless way. 'I don't know;
+      shouldn't wonder.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, but it's very easily settled,' returned Sim. 'Look at me. Did you
+      ever see ME before? You wouldn't be likely to forget it, you know, if you
+      ever did. Look at me. Don't be afraid; I won't do you any harm. Take a
+      good look&mdash;steady now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The encouraging way in which Mr Tappertit made this request, and coupled
+      it with an assurance that he needn't be frightened, amused Hugh mightily&mdash;so
+      much indeed, that he saw nothing at all of the small man before him,
+      through closing his eyes in a fit of hearty laughter, which shook his
+      great broad sides until they ached again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come!' said Mr Tappertit, growing a little impatient under this
+      disrespectful treatment. 'Do you know me, feller?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not I,' cried Hugh. 'Ha ha ha! Not I! But I should like to.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And yet I'd have wagered a seven-shilling piece,' said Mr Tappertit,
+      folding his arms, and confronting him with his legs wide apart and firmly
+      planted on the ground, 'that you once were hostler at the Maypole.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh opened his eyes on hearing this, and looked at him in great surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;And so you were, too,' said Mr Tappertit, pushing him away with a
+      condescending playfulness. 'When did MY eyes ever deceive&mdash;unless it
+      was a young woman! Don't you know me now?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why it an't&mdash;' Hugh faltered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'An't it?' said Mr Tappertit. 'Are you sure of that? You remember G.
+      Varden, don't you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly Hugh did, and he remembered D. Varden too; but that he didn't
+      tell him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You remember coming down there, before I was out of my time, to ask after
+      a vagabond that had bolted off, and left his disconsolate father a prey to
+      the bitterest emotions, and all the rest of it&mdash;don't you?' said Mr
+      Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Of course I do!' cried Hugh. 'And I saw you there.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Saw me there!' said Mr Tappertit. 'Yes, I should think you did see me
+      there. The place would be troubled to go on without me. Don't you remember
+      my thinking you liked the vagabond, and on that account going to quarrel
+      with you; and then finding you detested him worse than poison, going to
+      drink with you? Don't you remember that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To be sure!' cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well! and are you in the same mind now?' said Mr Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes!' roared Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You speak like a man,' said Mr Tappertit, 'and I'll shake hands with
+      you.' With these conciliatory expressions he suited the action to the
+      word; and Hugh meeting his advances readily, they performed the ceremony
+      with a show of great heartiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I find,' said Mr Tappertit, looking round on the assembled guests, 'that
+      brother What's-his-name and I are old acquaintance.&mdash;You never heard
+      anything more of that rascal, I suppose, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not a syllable,' replied Hugh. 'I never want to. I don't believe I ever
+      shall. He's dead long ago, I hope.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's to be hoped, for the sake of mankind in general and the happiness of
+      society, that he is,' said Mr Tappertit, rubbing his palm upon his legs,
+      and looking at it between whiles. 'Is your other hand at all cleaner? Much
+      the same. Well, I'll owe you another shake. We'll suppose it done, if
+      you've no objection.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh laughed again, and with such thorough abandonment to his mad humour,
+      that his limbs seemed dislocated, and his whole frame in danger of
+      tumbling to pieces; but Mr Tappertit, so far from receiving this extreme
+      merriment with any irritation, was pleased to regard it with the utmost
+      favour, and even to join in it, so far as one of his gravity and station
+      could, with any regard to that decency and decorum which men in high
+      places are expected to maintain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit did not stop here, as many public characters might have done,
+      but calling up his brace of lieutenants, introduced Hugh to them with high
+      commendation; declaring him to be a man who, at such times as those in
+      which they lived, could not be too much cherished. Further, he did him the
+      honour to remark, that he would be an acquisition of which even the United
+      Bulldogs might be proud; and finding, upon sounding him, that he was quite
+      ready and willing to enter the society (for he was not at all particular,
+      and would have leagued himself that night with anything, or anybody, for
+      any purpose whatsoever), caused the necessary preliminaries to be gone
+      into upon the spot. This tribute to his great merit delighted no man more
+      than Mr Dennis, as he himself proclaimed with several rare and surprising
+      oaths; and indeed it gave unmingled satisfaction to the whole assembly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Make anything you like of me!' cried Hugh, flourishing the can he had
+      emptied more than once. 'Put me on any duty you please. I'm your man. I'll
+      do it. Here's my captain&mdash;here's my leader. Ha ha ha! Let him give me
+      the word of command, and I'll fight the whole Parliament House
+      single-handed, or set a lighted torch to the King's Throne itself!' With
+      that, he smote Mr Tappertit on the back, with such violence that his
+      little body seemed to shrink into a mere nothing; and roared again until
+      the very foundlings near at hand were startled in their beds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, a sense of something whimsical in their companionship seemed to
+      have taken entire possession of his rude brain. The bare fact of being
+      patronised by a great man whom he could have crushed with one hand,
+      appeared in his eyes so eccentric and humorous, that a kind of ferocious
+      merriment gained the mastery over him, and quite subdued his brutal
+      nature. He roared and roared again; toasted Mr Tappertit a hundred times;
+      declared himself a Bulldog to the core; and vowed to be faithful to him to
+      the last drop of blood in his veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these compliments Mr Tappertit received as matters of course&mdash;flattering
+      enough in their way, but entirely attributable to his vast superiority.
+      His dignified self-possession only delighted Hugh the more; and in a word,
+      this giant and dwarf struck up a friendship which bade fair to be of long
+      continuance, as the one held it to be his right to command, and the other
+      considered it an exquisite pleasantry to obey. Nor was Hugh by any means a
+      passive follower, who scrupled to act without precise and definite orders;
+      for when Mr Tappertit mounted on an empty cask which stood by way of
+      rostrum in the room, and volunteered a speech upon the alarming crisis
+      then at hand, he placed himself beside the orator, and though he grinned
+      from ear to ear at every word he said, threw out such expressive hints to
+      scoffers in the management of his cudgel, that those who were at first the
+      most disposed to interrupt, became remarkably attentive, and were the
+      loudest in their approbation.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0181m.jpg" alt="0181m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0181.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      It was not all noise and jest, however, at The Boot, nor were the whole
+      party listeners to the speech. There were some men at the other end of the
+      room (which was a long, low-roofed chamber) in earnest conversation all
+      the time; and when any of this group went out, fresh people were sure to
+      come in soon afterwards and sit down in their places, as though the others
+      had relieved them on some watch or duty; which it was pretty clear they
+      did, for these changes took place by the clock, at intervals of half an
+      hour. These persons whispered very much among themselves, and kept aloof,
+      and often looked round, as jealous of their speech being overheard; some
+      two or three among them entered in books what seemed to be reports from
+      the others; when they were not thus employed one of them would turn to the
+      newspapers which were strewn upon the table, and from the St James's
+      Chronicle, the Herald, Chronicle, or Public Advertiser, would read to the
+      rest in a low voice some passage having reference to the topic in which
+      they were all so deeply interested. But the great attraction was a
+      pamphlet called The Thunderer, which espoused their own opinions, and was
+      supposed at that time to emanate directly from the Association. This was
+      always in request; and whether read aloud, to an eager knot of listeners,
+      or by some solitary man, was certain to be followed by stormy talking and
+      excited looks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of all his merriment, and admiration of his captain, Hugh was
+      made sensible by these and other tokens, of the presence of an air of
+      mystery, akin to that which had so much impressed him out of doors. It was
+      impossible to discard a sense that something serious was going on, and
+      that under the noisy revel of the public-house, there lurked unseen and
+      dangerous matter. Little affected by this, however, he was perfectly
+      satisfied with his quarters and would have remained there till morning,
+      but that his conductor rose soon after midnight, to go home; Mr Tappertit
+      following his example, left him no excuse to stay. So they all three left
+      the house together: roaring a No-Popery song until the fields resounded
+      with the dismal noise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cheer up, captain!' cried Hugh, when they had roared themselves out of
+      breath. 'Another stave!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit, nothing loath, began again; and so the three went staggering
+      on, arm-in-arm, shouting like madmen, and defying the watch with great
+      valour. Indeed this did not require any unusual bravery or boldness, as
+      the watchmen of that time, being selected for the office on account of
+      excessive age and extraordinary infirmity, had a custom of shutting
+      themselves up tight in their boxes on the first symptoms of disturbance,
+      and remaining there until they disappeared. In these proceedings, Mr
+      Dennis, who had a gruff voice and lungs of considerable power,
+      distinguished himself very much, and acquired great credit with his two
+      companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What a queer fellow you are!' said Mr Tappertit. 'You're so precious sly
+      and close. Why don't you ever tell what trade you're of?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Answer the captain instantly,' cried Hugh, beating his hat down on his
+      head; 'why don't you ever tell what trade you're of?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm of as gen-teel a calling, brother, as any man in England&mdash;as
+      light a business as any gentleman could desire.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Was you 'prenticed to it?' asked Mr Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No. Natural genius,' said Mr Dennis. 'No 'prenticing. It come by natur'.
+      Muster Gashford knows my calling. Look at that hand of mine&mdash;many and
+      many a job that hand has done, with a neatness and dexterity, never known
+      afore. When I look at that hand,' said Mr Dennis, shaking it in the air,
+      'and remember the helegant bits of work it has turned off, I feel quite
+      molloncholy to think it should ever grow old and feeble. But sich is
+      life!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heaved a deep sigh as he indulged in these reflections, and putting his
+      fingers with an absent air on Hugh's throat, and particularly under his
+      left ear, as if he were studying the anatomical development of that part
+      of his frame, shook his head in a despondent manner and actually shed
+      tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're a kind of artist, I suppose&mdash;eh!' said Mr Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' rejoined Dennis; 'yes&mdash;I may call myself a artist&mdash;a
+      fancy workman&mdash;art improves natur'&mdash;that's my motto.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what do you call this?' said Mr Tappertit taking his stick out of his
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's my portrait atop,' Dennis replied; 'd'ye think it's like?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why&mdash;it's a little too handsome,' said Mr Tappertit. 'Who did it?
+      You?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I!' repeated Dennis, gazing fondly on his image. 'I wish I had the
+      talent. That was carved by a friend of mine, as is now no more. The very
+      day afore he died, he cut that with his pocket-knife from memory! "I'll
+      die game," says my friend, "and my last moments shall be dewoted to making
+      Dennis's picter." That's it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That was a queer fancy, wasn't it?' said Mr Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It WAS a queer fancy,' rejoined the other, breathing on his fictitious
+      nose, and polishing it with the cuff of his coat, 'but he was a queer
+      subject altogether&mdash;a kind of gipsy&mdash;one of the finest, stand-up
+      men, you ever see. Ah! He told me some things that would startle you a
+      bit, did that friend of mine, on the morning when he died.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You were with him at the time, were you?' said Mr Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' he answered with a curious look, 'I was there. Oh! yes certainly, I
+      was there. He wouldn't have gone off half as comfortable without me. I had
+      been with three or four of his family under the same circumstances. They
+      were all fine fellows.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They must have been fond of you,' remarked Mr Tappertit, looking at him
+      sideways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know that they was exactly fond of me,' said Dennis, with a
+      little hesitation, 'but they all had me near 'em when they departed. I
+      come in for their wardrobes too. This very handkecher that you see round
+      my neck, belonged to him that I've been speaking of&mdash;him as did that
+      likeness.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit glanced at the article referred to, and appeared to think
+      that the deceased's ideas of dress were of a peculiar and by no means an
+      expensive kind. He made no remark upon the point, however, and suffered
+      his mysterious companion to proceed without interruption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'These smalls,' said Dennis, rubbing his legs; 'these very smalls&mdash;they
+      belonged to a friend of mine that's left off sich incumbrances for ever:
+      this coat too&mdash;I've often walked behind this coat, in the street, and
+      wondered whether it would ever come to me: this pair of shoes have danced
+      a hornpipe for another man, afore my eyes, full half-a-dozen times at
+      least: and as to my hat,' he said, taking it off, and whirling it round
+      upon his fist&mdash;'Lord! I've seen this hat go up Holborn on the box of
+      a hackney-coach&mdash;ah, many and many a day!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't mean to say their old wearers are ALL dead, I hope?' said Mr
+      Tappertit, falling a little distance from him as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Every one of 'em,' replied Dennis. 'Every man Jack!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something so very ghastly in this circumstance, and it appeared
+      to account, in such a very strange and dismal manner, for his faded dress&mdash;which,
+      in this new aspect, seemed discoloured by the earth from graves&mdash;that
+      Mr Tappertit abruptly found he was going another way, and, stopping short,
+      bade him good night with the utmost heartiness. As they happened to be
+      near the Old Bailey, and Mr Dennis knew there were turnkeys in the lodge
+      with whom he could pass the night, and discuss professional subjects of
+      common interest among them before a rousing fire, and over a social glass,
+      he separated from his companions without any great regret, and warmly
+      shaking hands with Hugh, and making an early appointment for their meeting
+      at The Boot, left them to pursue their road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's a strange sort of man,' said Mr Tappertit, watching the
+      hackney-coachman's hat as it went bobbing down the street. 'I don't know
+      what to make of him. Why can't he have his smalls made to order, or wear
+      live clothes at any rate?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's a lucky man, captain,' cried Hugh. 'I should like to have such
+      friends as his.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope he don't get 'em to make their wills, and then knock 'em on the
+      head,' said Mr Tappertit, musing. 'But come. The United B.'s expect me.
+      On!&mdash;What's the matter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I quite forgot,' said Hugh, who had started at the striking of a
+      neighbouring clock. 'I have somebody to see to-night&mdash;I must turn
+      back directly. The drinking and singing put it out of my head. It's well I
+      remembered it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit looked at him as though he were about to give utterance to
+      some very majestic sentiments in reference to this act of desertion, but
+      as it was clear, from Hugh's hasty manner, that the engagement was one of
+      a pressing nature, he graciously forbore, and gave him his permission to
+      depart immediately, which Hugh acknowledged with a roar of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night, captain!' he cried. 'I am yours to the death, remember!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Farewell!' said Mr Tappertit, waving his hand. 'Be bold and vigilant!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No Popery, captain!' roared Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'England in blood first!' cried his desperate leader. Whereat Hugh cheered
+      and laughed, and ran off like a greyhound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That man will prove a credit to my corps,' said Simon, turning
+      thoughtfully upon his heel. 'And let me see. In an altered state of
+      society&mdash;which must ensue if we break out and are victorious&mdash;when
+      the locksmith's child is mine, Miggs must be got rid of somehow, or she'll
+      poison the tea-kettle one evening when I'm out. He might marry Miggs, if
+      he was drunk enough. It shall be done. I'll make a note of it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0040" id="link2HCH0040">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 40
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Little thinking of the plan for his happy settlement in life which had
+      suggested itself to the teeming brain of his provident commander, Hugh
+      made no pause until Saint Dunstan's giants struck the hour above him, when
+      he worked the handle of a pump which stood hard by, with great vigour, and
+      thrusting his head under the spout, let the water gush upon him until a
+      little stream ran down from every uncombed hair, and he was wet to the
+      waist. Considerably refreshed by this ablution, both in mind and body, and
+      almost sobered for the time, he dried himself as he best could; then
+      crossed the road, and plied the knocker of the Middle Temple gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night-porter looked through a small grating in the portal with a surly
+      eye, and cried 'Halloa!' which greeting Hugh returned in kind, and bade
+      him open quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We don't sell beer here,' cried the man; 'what else do you want?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To come in,' Hugh replied, with a kick at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where to go?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Paper Buildings.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Whose chambers?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir John Chester's.' Each of which answers, he emphasised with another
+      kick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a little growling on the other side, the gate was opened, and he
+      passed in: undergoing a close inspection from the porter as he did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'YOU wanting Sir John, at this time of night!' said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' said Hugh. 'I! What of that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, I must go with you and see that you do, for I don't believe it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come along then.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eyeing him with suspicious looks, the man, with key and lantern, walked on
+      at his side, and attended him to Sir John Chester's door, at which Hugh
+      gave one knock, that echoed through the dark staircase like a ghostly
+      summons, and made the dull light tremble in the drowsy lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you think he wants me now?' said Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the man had time to answer, a footstep was heard within, a light
+      appeared, and Sir John, in his dressing-gown and slippers, opened the
+      door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I ask your pardon, Sir John,' said the porter, pulling off his hat.
+      'Here's a young man says he wants to speak to you. It's late for
+      strangers. I thought it best to see that all was right.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Aha!' cried Sir John, raising his eyebrows. 'It's you, messenger, is it?
+      Go in. Quite right, friend. I commend your prudence highly. Thank you. God
+      bless you. Good night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be commended, thanked, God-blessed, and bade good night by one who
+      carried 'Sir' before his name, and wrote himself M.P. to boot, was
+      something for a porter. He withdrew with much humility and reverence. Sir
+      John followed his late visitor into the dressing-room, and sitting in his
+      easy-chair before the fire, and moving it so that he could see him as he
+      stood, hat in hand, beside the door, looked at him from head to foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old face, calm and pleasant as ever; the complexion, quite juvenile in
+      its bloom and clearness; the same smile; the wonted precision and elegance
+      of dress; the white, well-ordered teeth; the delicate hands; the composed
+      and quiet manner; everything as it used to be: no mark of age or passion,
+      envy, hate, or discontent: all unruffled and serene, and quite delightful
+      to behold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wrote himself M.P.&mdash;but how? Why, thus. It was a proud family&mdash;more
+      proud, indeed, than wealthy. He had stood in danger of arrest; of
+      bailiffs, and a jail&mdash;a vulgar jail, to which the common people with
+      small incomes went. Gentlemen of ancient houses have no privilege of
+      exemption from such cruel laws&mdash;unless they are of one great house,
+      and then they have. A proud man of his stock and kindred had the means of
+      sending him there. He offered&mdash;not indeed to pay his debts, but to
+      let him sit for a close borough until his own son came of age, which, if
+      he lived, would come to pass in twenty years. It was quite as good as an
+      Insolvent Act, and infinitely more genteel. So Sir John Chester was a
+      member of Parliament.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But how Sir John? Nothing so simple, or so easy. One touch with a sword of
+      state, and the transformation was effected. John Chester, Esquire, M.P.,
+      attended court&mdash;went up with an address&mdash;headed a deputation.
+      Such elegance of manner, so many graces of deportment, such powers of
+      conversation, could never pass unnoticed. Mr was too common for such
+      merit. A man so gentlemanly should have been&mdash;but Fortune is
+      capricious&mdash;born a Duke: just as some dukes should have been born
+      labourers. He caught the fancy of the king, knelt down a grub, and rose a
+      butterfly. John Chester, Esquire, was knighted and became Sir John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thought when you left me this evening, my esteemed acquaintance,' said
+      Sir John after a pretty long silence, 'that you intended to return with
+      all despatch?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So I did, master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And so you have?' he retorted, glancing at his watch. 'Is that what you
+      would say?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of replying, Hugh changed the leg on which he leant, shuffled his
+      cap from one hand to the other, looked at the ground, the wall, the
+      ceiling, and finally at Sir John himself; before whose pleasant face he
+      lowered his eyes again, and fixed them on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And how have you been employing yourself in the meanwhile?' quoth Sir
+      John, lazily crossing his legs. 'Where have you been? what harm have you
+      been doing?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No harm at all, master,' growled Hugh, with humility. 'I have only done
+      as you ordered.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As I WHAT?' returned Sir John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well then,' said Hugh uneasily, 'as you advised, or said I ought, or said
+      I might, or said that you would do, if you was me. Don't be so hard upon
+      me, master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something like an expression of triumph in the perfect control he had
+      established over this rough instrument appeared in the knight's face for
+      an instant; but it vanished directly, as he said&mdash;paring his nails
+      while speaking:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When you say I ordered you, my good fellow, you imply that I directed you
+      to do something for me&mdash;something I wanted done&mdash;something for
+      my own ends and purposes&mdash;you see? Now I am sure I needn't enlarge
+      upon the extreme absurdity of such an idea, however unintentional; so
+      please&mdash;' and here he turned his eyes upon him&mdash;'to be more
+      guarded. Will you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I meant to give you no offence,' said Hugh. 'I don't know what to say.
+      You catch me up so very short.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will be caught up much shorter, my good friend&mdash;infinitely
+      shorter&mdash;one of these days, depend upon it,' replied his patron
+      calmly. 'By-the-bye, instead of wondering why you have been so long, my
+      wonder should be why you came at all. Why did you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You know, master,' said Hugh, 'that I couldn't read the bill I found, and
+      that supposing it to be something particular from the way it was wrapped
+      up, I brought it here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And could you ask no one else to read it, Bruin?' said Sir John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No one that I could trust with secrets, master. Since Barnaby Rudge was
+      lost sight of for good and all&mdash;and that's five years ago&mdash;I
+      haven't talked with any one but you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have done me honour, I am sure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have come to and fro, master, all through that time, when there was
+      anything to tell, because I knew that you'd be angry with me if I stayed
+      away,' said Hugh, blurting the words out, after an embarrassed silence;
+      'and because I wished to please you if I could, and not to have you go
+      against me. There. That's the true reason why I came to-night. You know
+      that, master, I am sure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are a specious fellow,' returned Sir John, fixing his eyes upon him,
+      'and carry two faces under your hood, as well as the best. Didn't you give
+      me in this room, this evening, any other reason; no dislike of anybody who
+      has slighted you lately, on all occasions, abused you, treated you with
+      rudeness; acted towards you, more as if you were a mongrel dog than a man
+      like himself?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To be sure I did!' cried Hugh, his passion rising, as the other meant it
+      should; 'and I say it all over now, again. I'd do anything to have some
+      revenge on him&mdash;anything. And when you told me that he and all the
+      Catholics would suffer from those who joined together under that handbill,
+      I said I'd make one of 'em, if their master was the devil himself. I AM
+      one of 'em. See whether I am as good as my word and turn out to be among
+      the foremost, or no. I mayn't have much head, master, but I've head enough
+      to remember those that use me ill. You shall see, and so shall he, and so
+      shall hundreds more, how my spirit backs me when the time comes. My bark
+      is nothing to my bite. Some that I know had better have a wild lion among
+      'em than me, when I am fairly loose&mdash;they had!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight looked at him with a smile of far deeper meaning than ordinary;
+      and pointing to the old cupboard, followed him with his eyes while he
+      filled and drank a glass of liquor; and smiled when his back was turned,
+      with deeper meaning yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are in a blustering mood, my friend,' he said, when Hugh confronted
+      him again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not I, master!' cried Hugh. 'I don't say half I mean. I can't. I haven't
+      got the gift. There are talkers enough among us; I'll be one of the
+      doers.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! you have joined those fellows then?' said Sir John, with an air of
+      most profound indifference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes. I went up to the house you told me of; and got put down upon the
+      muster. There was another man there, named Dennis&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dennis, eh!' cried Sir John, laughing. 'Ay, ay! a pleasant fellow, I
+      believe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A roaring dog, master&mdash;one after my own heart&mdash;hot upon the
+      matter too&mdash;red hot.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So I have heard,' replied Sir John, carelessly. 'You don't happen to know
+      his trade, do you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He wouldn't say,' cried Hugh. 'He keeps it secret.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha!' laughed Sir John. 'A strange fancy&mdash;a weakness with some
+      persons&mdash;you'll know it one day, I dare swear.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We're intimate already,' said Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Quite natural! And have been drinking together, eh?' pursued Sir John.
+      'Did you say what place you went to in company, when you left Lord
+      George's?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh had not said or thought of saying, but he told him; and this inquiry
+      being followed by a long train of questions, he related all that had
+      passed both in and out of doors, the kind of people he had seen, their
+      numbers, state of feeling, mode of conversation, apparent expectations and
+      intentions. His questioning was so artfully contrived, that he seemed even
+      in his own eyes to volunteer all this information rather than to have it
+      wrested from him; and he was brought to this state of feeling so
+      naturally, that when Mr Chester yawned at length and declared himself
+      quite wearied out, he made a rough kind of excuse for having talked so
+      much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There&mdash;get you gone,' said Sir John, holding the door open in his
+      hand. 'You have made a pretty evening's work. I told you not to do this.
+      You may get into trouble. You'll have an opportunity of revenging yourself
+      on your proud friend Haredale, though, and for that, you'd hazard
+      anything, I suppose?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I would,' retorted Hugh, stopping in his passage out and looking back;
+      'but what do I risk! What do I stand a chance of losing, master? Friends,
+      home? A fig for 'em all; I have none; they are nothing to me. Give me a
+      good scuffle; let me pay off old scores in a bold riot where there are men
+      to stand by me; and then use me as you like&mdash;it don't matter much to
+      me what the end is!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What have you done with that paper?' said Sir John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have it here, master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Drop it again as you go along; it's as well not to keep such things about
+      you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh nodded, and touching his cap with an air of as much respect as he
+      could summon up, departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John, fastening the doors behind him, went back to his dressing-room,
+      and sat down once again before the fire, at which he gazed for a long
+      time, in earnest meditation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This happens fortunately,' he said, breaking into a smile, 'and promises
+      well. Let me see. My relative and I, who are the most Protestant fellows
+      in the world, give our worst wishes to the Roman Catholic cause; and to
+      Saville, who introduces their bill, I have a personal objection besides;
+      but as each of us has himself for the first article in his creed, we
+      cannot commit ourselves by joining with a very extravagant madman, such as
+      this Gordon most undoubtedly is. Now really, to foment his disturbances in
+      secret, through the medium of such a very apt instrument as my savage
+      friend here, may further our real ends; and to express at all becoming
+      seasons, in moderate and polite terms, a disapprobation of his
+      proceedings, though we agree with him in principle, will certainly be to
+      gain a character for honesty and uprightness of purpose, which cannot fail
+      to do us infinite service, and to raise us into some importance. Good! So
+      much for public grounds. As to private considerations, I confess that if
+      these vagabonds WOULD make some riotous demonstration (which does not
+      appear impossible), and WOULD inflict some little chastisement on Haredale
+      as a not inactive man among his sect, it would be extremely agreeable to
+      my feelings, and would amuse me beyond measure. Good again! Perhaps
+      better!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he came to this point, he took a pinch of snuff; then beginning
+      slowly to undress, he resumed his meditations, by saying with a smile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I fear, I DO fear exceedingly, that my friend is following fast in the
+      footsteps of his mother. His intimacy with Mr Dennis is very ominous. But
+      I have no doubt he must have come to that end any way. If I lend him a
+      helping hand, the only difference is, that he may, upon the whole,
+      possibly drink a few gallons, or puncheons, or hogsheads, less in this
+      life than he otherwise would. It's no business of mine. It's a matter of
+      very small importance!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he took another pinch of snuff, and went to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0041" id="link2HCH0041">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 41
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      From the workshop of the Golden Key, there issued forth a tinkling sound,
+      so merry and good-humoured, that it suggested the idea of some one working
+      blithely, and made quite pleasant music. No man who hammered on at a dull
+      monotonous duty, could have brought such cheerful notes from steel and
+      iron; none but a chirping, healthy, honest-hearted fellow, who made the
+      best of everything, and felt kindly towards everybody, could have done it
+      for an instant. He might have been a coppersmith, and still been musical.
+      If he had sat in a jolting waggon, full of rods of iron, it seemed as if
+      he would have brought some harmony out of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tink, tink, tink&mdash;clear as a silver bell, and audible at every pause
+      of the streets' harsher noises, as though it said, 'I don't care; nothing
+      puts me out; I am resolved to be happy.' Women scolded, children squalled,
+      heavy carts went rumbling by, horrible cries proceeded from the lungs of
+      hawkers; still it struck in again, no higher, no lower, no louder, no
+      softer; not thrusting itself on people's notice a bit the more for having
+      been outdone by louder sounds&mdash;tink, tink, tink, tink, tink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a perfect embodiment of the still small voice, free from all cold,
+      hoarseness, huskiness, or unhealthiness of any kind; foot-passengers
+      slackened their pace, and were disposed to linger near it; neighbours who
+      had got up splenetic that morning, felt good-humour stealing on them as
+      they heard it, and by degrees became quite sprightly; mothers danced their
+      babies to its ringing; still the same magical tink, tink, tink, came gaily
+      from the workshop of the Golden Key.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who but the locksmith could have made such music! A gleam of sun shining
+      through the unsashed window, and chequering the dark workshop with a broad
+      patch of light, fell full upon him, as though attracted by his sunny
+      heart. There he stood working at his anvil, his face all radiant with
+      exercise and gladness, his sleeves turned up, his wig pushed off his
+      shining forehead&mdash;the easiest, freest, happiest man in all the world.
+      Beside him sat a sleek cat, purring and winking in the light, and falling
+      every now and then into an idle doze, as from excess of comfort. Toby
+      looked on from a tall bench hard by; one beaming smile, from his broad
+      nut-brown face down to the slack-baked buckles in his shoes. The very
+      locks that hung around had something jovial in their rust, and seemed like
+      gouty gentlemen of hearty natures, disposed to joke on their infirmities.
+      There was nothing surly or severe in the whole scene. It seemed impossible
+      that any one of the innumerable keys could fit a churlish strong-box or a
+      prison-door. Cellars of beer and wine, rooms where there were fires,
+      books, gossip, and cheering laughter&mdash;these were their proper sphere
+      of action. Places of distrust and cruelty, and restraint, they would have
+      left quadruple-locked for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tink, tink, tink. The locksmith paused at last, and wiped his brow. The
+      silence roused the cat, who, jumping softly down, crept to the door, and
+      watched with tiger eyes a bird-cage in an opposite window. Gabriel lifted
+      Toby to his mouth, and took a hearty draught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as he stood upright, with his head flung back, and his portly chest
+      thrown out, you would have seen that Gabriel's lower man was clothed in
+      military gear. Glancing at the wall beyond, there might have been espied,
+      hanging on their several pegs, a cap and feather, broadsword, sash, and
+      coat of scarlet; which any man learned in such matters would have known
+      from their make and pattern to be the uniform of a serjeant in the Royal
+      East London Volunteers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the locksmith put his mug down, empty, on the bench whence it had
+      smiled on him before, he glanced at these articles with a laughing eye,
+      and looking at them with his head a little on one side, as though he would
+      get them all into a focus, said, leaning on his hammer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Time was, now, I remember, when I was like to run mad with the desire to
+      wear a coat of that colour. If any one (except my father) had called me a
+      fool for my pains, how I should have fired and fumed! But what a fool I
+      must have been, sure-ly!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' sighed Mrs Varden, who had entered unobserved. 'A fool indeed. A man
+      at your time of life, Varden, should know better now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, what a ridiculous woman you are, Martha,' said the locksmith,
+      turning round with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Certainly,' replied Mrs V. with great demureness. 'Of course I am. I know
+      that, Varden. Thank you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I mean&mdash;' began the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' said his wife, 'I know what you mean. You speak quite plain enough
+      to be understood, Varden. It's very kind of you to adapt yourself to my
+      capacity, I am sure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tut, tut, Martha,' rejoined the locksmith; 'don't take offence at
+      nothing. I mean, how strange it is of you to run down volunteering, when
+      it's done to defend you and all the other women, and our own fireside and
+      everybody else's, in case of need.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's unchristian,' cried Mrs Varden, shaking her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Unchristian!' said the locksmith. 'Why, what the devil&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden looked at the ceiling, as in expectation that the consequence
+      of this profanity would be the immediate descent of the four-post bedstead
+      on the second floor, together with the best sitting-room on the first; but
+      no visible judgment occurring, she heaved a deep sigh, and begged her
+      husband, in a tone of resignation, to go on, and by all means to blaspheme
+      as much as possible, because he knew she liked it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith did for a moment seem disposed to gratify her, but he gave a
+      great gulp, and mildly rejoined:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I was going to say, what on earth do you call it unchristian for? Which
+      would be most unchristian, Martha&mdash;to sit quietly down and let our
+      houses be sacked by a foreign army, or to turn out like men and drive 'em
+      off? Shouldn't I be a nice sort of a Christian, if I crept into a corner
+      of my own chimney and looked on while a parcel of whiskered savages bore
+      off Dolly&mdash;or you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he said 'or you,' Mrs Varden, despite herself, relaxed into a smile.
+      There was something complimentary in the idea. 'In such a state of things
+      as that, indeed&mdash;' she simpered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As that!' repeated the locksmith. 'Well, that would be the state of
+      things directly. Even Miggs would go. Some black tambourine-player, with a
+      great turban on, would be bearing HER off, and, unless the
+      tambourine-player was proof against kicking and scratching, it's my belief
+      he'd have the worst of it. Ha ha ha! I'd forgive the tambourine-player. I
+      wouldn't have him interfered with on any account, poor fellow.' And here
+      the locksmith laughed again so heartily, that tears came into his eyes&mdash;much
+      to Mrs Varden's indignation, who thought the capture of so sound a
+      Protestant and estimable a private character as Miggs by a pagan negro, a
+      circumstance too shocking and awful for contemplation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The picture Gabriel had drawn, indeed, threatened serious consequences,
+      and would indubitably have led to them, but luckily at that moment a light
+      footstep crossed the threshold, and Dolly, running in, threw her arms
+      round her old father's neck and hugged him tight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here she is at last!' cried Gabriel. 'And how well you look, Doll, and
+      how late you are, my darling!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How well she looked? Well? Why, if he had exhausted every laudatory
+      adjective in the dictionary, it wouldn't have been praise enough. When and
+      where was there ever such a plump, roguish, comely, bright-eyed, enticing,
+      bewitching, captivating, maddening little puss in all this world, as
+      Dolly! What was the Dolly of five years ago, to the Dolly of that day! How
+      many coachmakers, saddlers, cabinet-makers, and professors of other useful
+      arts, had deserted their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and, most of
+      all, their cousins, for the love of her! How many unknown gentlemen&mdash;supposed
+      to be of mighty fortunes, if not titles&mdash;had waited round the corner
+      after dark, and tempted Miggs the incorruptible, with golden guineas, to
+      deliver offers of marriage folded up in love-letters! How many
+      disconsolate fathers and substantial tradesmen had waited on the locksmith
+      for the same purpose, with dismal tales of how their sons had lost their
+      appetites, and taken to shut themselves up in dark bedrooms, and wandering
+      in desolate suburbs with pale faces, and all because of Dolly Varden's
+      loveliness and cruelty! How many young men, in all previous times of
+      unprecedented steadiness, had turned suddenly wild and wicked for the same
+      reason, and, in an ecstasy of unrequited love, taken to wrench off
+      door-knockers, and invert the boxes of rheumatic watchmen! How had she
+      recruited the king's service, both by sea and land, through rendering
+      desperate his loving subjects between the ages of eighteen and
+      twenty-five! How many young ladies had publicly professed, with tears in
+      their eyes, that for their tastes she was much too short, too tall, too
+      bold, too cold, too stout, too thin, too fair, too dark&mdash;too
+      everything but handsome! How many old ladies, taking counsel together, had
+      thanked Heaven their daughters were not like her, and had hoped she might
+      come to no harm, and had thought she would come to no good, and had
+      wondered what people saw in her, and had arrived at the conclusion that
+      she was 'going off' in her looks, or had never come on in them, and that
+      she was a thorough imposition and a popular mistake!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet here was this same Dolly Varden, so whimsical and hard to please
+      that she was Dolly Varden still, all smiles and dimples and pleasant
+      looks, and caring no more for the fifty or sixty young fellows who at that
+      very moment were breaking their hearts to marry her, than if so many
+      oysters had been crossed in love and opened afterwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly hugged her father as has been already stated, and having hugged her
+      mother also, accompanied both into the little parlour where the cloth was
+      already laid for dinner, and where Miss Miggs&mdash;a trifle more rigid
+      and bony than of yore&mdash;received her with a sort of hysterical gasp,
+      intended for a smile. Into the hands of that young virgin, she delivered
+      her bonnet and walking dress (all of a dreadful, artful, and designing
+      kind), and then said with a laugh, which rivalled the locksmith's music,
+      'How glad I always am to be at home again!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And how glad we always are, Doll,' said her father, putting back the dark
+      hair from her sparkling eyes, 'to have you at home. Give me a kiss.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If there had been anybody of the male kind there to see her do it&mdash;but
+      there was not&mdash;it was a mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't like your being at the Warren,' said the locksmith, 'I can't bear
+      to have you out of my sight. And what is the news over yonder, Doll?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What news there is, I think you know already,' replied his daughter. 'I
+      am sure you do though.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay?' cried the locksmith. 'What's that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come, come,' said Dolly, 'you know very well. I want you to tell me why
+      Mr Haredale&mdash;oh, how gruff he is again, to be sure!&mdash;has been
+      away from home for some days past, and why he is travelling about (we know
+      he IS travelling, because of his letters) without telling his own niece
+      why or wherefore.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miss Emma doesn't want to know, I'll swear,' returned the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know that,' said Dolly; 'but I do, at any rate. Do tell me. Why
+      is he so secret, and what is this ghost story, which nobody is to tell
+      Miss Emma, and which seems to be mixed up with his going away? Now I see
+      you know by your colouring so.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What the story means, or is, or has to do with it, I know no more than
+      you, my dear,' returned the locksmith, 'except that it's some foolish fear
+      of little Solomon's&mdash;which has, indeed, no meaning in it, I suppose.
+      As to Mr Haredale's journey, he goes, as I believe&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' said Dolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As I believe,' resumed the locksmith, pinching her cheek, 'on business,
+      Doll. What it may be, is quite another matter. Read Blue Beard, and don't
+      be too curious, pet; it's no business of yours or mine, depend upon that;
+      and here's dinner, which is much more to the purpose.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly might have remonstrated against this summary dismissal of the
+      subject, notwithstanding the appearance of dinner, but at the mention of
+      Blue Beard Mrs Varden interposed, protesting she could not find it in her
+      conscience to sit tamely by, and hear her child recommended to peruse the
+      adventures of a Turk and Mussulman&mdash;far less of a fabulous Turk,
+      which she considered that potentate to be. She held that, in such stirring
+      and tremendous times as those in which they lived, it would be much more
+      to the purpose if Dolly became a regular subscriber to the Thunderer,
+      where she would have an opportunity of reading Lord George Gordon's
+      speeches word for word, which would be a greater comfort and solace to
+      her, than a hundred and fifty Blue Beards ever could impart. She appealed
+      in support of this proposition to Miss Miggs, then in waiting, who said
+      that indeed the peace of mind she had derived from the perusal of that
+      paper generally, but especially of one article of the very last week as
+      ever was, entitled 'Great Britain drenched in gore,' exceeded all belief;
+      the same composition, she added, had also wrought such a comforting effect
+      on the mind of a married sister of hers, then resident at Golden Lion
+      Court, number twenty-sivin, second bell-handle on the right-hand
+      door-post, that, being in a delicate state of health, and in fact
+      expecting an addition to her family, she had been seized with fits
+      directly after its perusal, and had raved of the Inquisition ever since;
+      to the great improvement of her husband and friends. Miss Miggs went on to
+      say that she would recommend all those whose hearts were hardened to hear
+      Lord George themselves, whom she commended first, in respect of his steady
+      Protestantism, then of his oratory, then of his eyes, then of his nose,
+      then of his legs, and lastly of his figure generally, which she looked
+      upon as fit for any statue, prince, or angel, to which sentiment Mrs
+      Varden fully subscribed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden having cut in, looked at a box upon the mantelshelf, painted in
+      imitation of a very red-brick dwelling-house, with a yellow roof; having
+      at top a real chimney, down which voluntary subscribers dropped their
+      silver, gold, or pence, into the parlour; and on the door the counterfeit
+      presentment of a brass plate, whereon was legibly inscribed 'Protestant
+      Association:'&mdash;and looking at it, said, that it was to her a source
+      of poignant misery to think that Varden never had, of all his substance,
+      dropped anything into that temple, save once in secret&mdash;as she
+      afterwards discovered&mdash;two fragments of tobacco-pipe, which she hoped
+      would not be put down to his last account. That Dolly, she was grieved to
+      say, was no less backward in her contributions, better loving, as it
+      seemed, to purchase ribbons and such gauds, than to encourage the great
+      cause, then in such heavy tribulation; and that she did entreat her (her
+      father she much feared could not be moved) not to despise, but imitate,
+      the bright example of Miss Miggs, who flung her wages, as it were, into
+      the very countenance of the Pope, and bruised his features with her
+      quarter's money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, mim,' said Miggs, 'don't relude to that. I had no intentions, mim,
+      that nobody should know. Such sacrifices as I can make, are quite a
+      widder's mite. It's all I have,' cried Miggs with a great burst of tears&mdash;for
+      with her they never came on by degrees&mdash;'but it's made up to me in
+      other ways; it's well made up.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was quite true, though not perhaps in the sense that Miggs intended.
+      As she never failed to keep her self-denial full in Mrs Varden's view, it
+      drew forth so many gifts of caps and gowns and other articles of dress,
+      that upon the whole the red-brick house was perhaps the best investment
+      for her small capital she could possibly have hit upon; returning her
+      interest, at the rate of seven or eight per cent in money, and fifty at
+      least in personal repute and credit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You needn't cry, Miggs,' said Mrs Varden, herself in tears; 'you needn't
+      be ashamed of it, though your poor mistress IS on the same side.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs howled at this remark, in a peculiarly dismal way, and said she
+      knowed that master hated her. That it was a dreadful thing to live in
+      families and have dislikes, and not give satisfactions. That to make
+      divisions was a thing she could not abear to think of, neither could her
+      feelings let her do it. That if it was master's wishes as she and him
+      should part, it was best they should part, and she hoped he might be the
+      happier for it, and always wished him well, and that he might find
+      somebody as would meet his dispositions. It would be a hard trial, she
+      said, to part from such a missis, but she could meet any suffering when
+      her conscience told her she was in the rights, and therefore she was
+      willing even to go that lengths. She did not think, she added, that she
+      could long survive the separations, but, as she was hated and looked upon
+      unpleasant, perhaps her dying as soon as possible would be the best
+      endings for all parties. With this affecting conclusion, Miss Miggs shed
+      more tears, and sobbed abundantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Can you bear this, Varden?' said his wife in a solemn voice, laying down
+      her knife and fork.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, not very well, my dear,' rejoined the locksmith, 'but I try to keep
+      my temper.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't let there be words on my account, mim,' sobbed Miggs. 'It's much
+      the best that we should part. I wouldn't stay&mdash;oh, gracious me!&mdash;and
+      make dissensions, not for a annual gold mine, and found in tea and sugar.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lest the reader should be at any loss to discover the cause of Miss
+      Miggs's deep emotion, it may be whispered apart that, happening to be
+      listening, as her custom sometimes was, when Gabriel and his wife
+      conversed together, she had heard the locksmith's joke relative to the
+      foreign black who played the tambourine, and bursting with the spiteful
+      feelings which the taunt awoke in her fair breast, exploded in the manner
+      we have witnessed. Matters having now arrived at a crisis, the locksmith,
+      as usual, and for the sake of peace and quietness, gave in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What are you crying for, girl?' he said. 'What's the matter with you?
+      What are you talking about hatred for? I don't hate you; I don't hate
+      anybody. Dry your eyes and make yourself agreeable, in Heaven's name, and
+      let us all be happy while we can.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The allied powers deeming it good generalship to consider this a
+      sufficient apology on the part of the enemy, and confession of having been
+      in the wrong, did dry their eyes and take it in good part. Miss Miggs
+      observed that she bore no malice, no not to her greatest foe, whom she
+      rather loved the more indeed, the greater persecution she sustained. Mrs
+      Varden approved of this meek and forgiving spirit in high terms, and
+      incidentally declared as a closing article of agreement, that Dolly should
+      accompany her to the Clerkenwell branch of the association, that very
+      night. This was an extraordinary instance of her great prudence and
+      policy; having had this end in view from the first, and entertaining a
+      secret misgiving that the locksmith (who was bold when Dolly was in
+      question) would object, she had backed Miss Miggs up to this point, in
+      order that she might have him at a disadvantage. The manoeuvre succeeded
+      so well that Gabriel only made a wry face, and with the warning he had
+      just had, fresh in his mind, did not dare to say one word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The difference ended, therefore, in Miggs being presented with a gown by
+      Mrs Varden and half-a-crown by Dolly, as if she had eminently
+      distinguished herself in the paths of morality and goodness. Mrs V.,
+      according to custom, expressed her hope that Varden would take a lesson
+      from what had passed and learn more generous conduct for the time to come;
+      and the dinner being now cold and nobody's appetite very much improved by
+      what had passed, they went on with it, as Mrs Varden said, 'like
+      Christians.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As there was to be a grand parade of the Royal East London Volunteers that
+      afternoon, the locksmith did no more work; but sat down comfortably with
+      his pipe in his mouth, and his arm round his pretty daughter's waist,
+      looking lovingly on Mrs V., from time to time, and exhibiting from the
+      crown of his head to the sole of his foot, one smiling surface of good
+      humour. And to be sure, when it was time to dress him in his regimentals,
+      and Dolly, hanging about him in all kinds of graceful winning ways, helped
+      to button and buckle and brush him up and get him into one of the tightest
+      coats that ever was made by mortal tailor, he was the proudest father in
+      all England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What a handy jade it is!' said the locksmith to Mrs Varden, who stood by
+      with folded hands&mdash;rather proud of her husband too&mdash;while Miggs
+      held his cap and sword at arm's length, as if mistrusting that the latter
+      might run some one through the body of its own accord; 'but never marry a
+      soldier, Doll, my dear.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0191m.jpg" alt="0191m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0191.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Dolly didn't ask why not, or say a word, indeed, but stooped her head down
+      very low to tie his sash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I never wear this dress,' said honest Gabriel, 'but I think of poor Joe
+      Willet. I loved Joe; he was always a favourite of mine. Poor Joe!&mdash;Dear
+      heart, my girl, don't tie me in so tight.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly laughed&mdash;not like herself at all&mdash;the strangest little
+      laugh that could be&mdash;and held her head down lower still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Poor Joe!' resumed the locksmith, muttering to himself; 'I always wish he
+      had come to me. I might have made it up between them, if he had. Ah! old
+      John made a great mistake in his way of acting by that lad&mdash;a great
+      mistake.&mdash;Have you nearly tied that sash, my dear?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What an ill-made sash it was! There it was, loose again and trailing on
+      the ground. Dolly was obliged to kneel down, and recommence at the
+      beginning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Never mind young Willet, Varden,' said his wife frowning; 'you might find
+      some one more deserving to talk about, I think.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs gave a great sniff to the same effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay, Martha,' cried the locksmith, 'don't let us bear too hard upon him.
+      If the lad is dead indeed, we'll deal kindly by his memory.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A runaway and a vagabond!' said Mrs Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs expressed her concurrence as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A runaway, my dear, but not a vagabond,' returned the locksmith in a
+      gentle tone. 'He behaved himself well, did Joe&mdash;always&mdash;and was
+      a handsome, manly fellow. Don't call him a vagabond, Martha.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden coughed&mdash;and so did Miggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He tried hard to gain your good opinion, Martha, I can tell you,' said
+      the locksmith smiling, and stroking his chin. 'Ah! that he did. It seems
+      but yesterday that he followed me out to the Maypole door one night, and
+      begged me not to say how like a boy they used him&mdash;say here, at home,
+      he meant, though at the time, I recollect, I didn't understand. "And how's
+      Miss Dolly, sir?" says Joe,' pursued the locksmith, musing sorrowfully,
+      'Ah! Poor Joe!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well, I declare,' cried Miggs. 'Oh! Goodness gracious me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's the matter now?' said Gabriel, turning sharply to her, 'Why, if
+      here an't Miss Dolly,' said the handmaid, stooping down to look into her
+      face, 'a-giving way to floods of tears. Oh mim! oh sir. Raly it's give me
+      such a turn,' cried the susceptible damsel, pressing her hand upon her
+      side to quell the palpitation of her heart, 'that you might knock me down
+      with a feather.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith, after glancing at Miss Miggs as if he could have wished to
+      have a feather brought straightway, looked on with a broad stare while
+      Dolly hurried away, followed by that sympathising young woman: then
+      turning to his wife, stammered out, 'Is Dolly ill? Have I done anything?
+      Is it my fault?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your fault!' cried Mrs V. reproachfully. 'There&mdash;you had better make
+      haste out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What have I done?' said poor Gabriel. 'It was agreed that Mr Edward's
+      name was never to be mentioned, and I have not spoken of him, have I?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden merely replied that she had no patience with him, and bounced
+      off after the other two. The unfortunate locksmith wound his sash about
+      him, girded on his sword, put on his cap, and walked out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am not much of a dab at my exercise,' he said under his breath, 'but I
+      shall get into fewer scrapes at that work than at this. Every man came
+      into the world for something; my department seems to be to make every
+      woman cry without meaning it. It's rather hard!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he forgot it before he reached the end of the street, and went on with
+      a shining face, nodding to the neighbours, and showering about his
+      friendly greetings like mild spring rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0042" id="link2HCH0042">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 42
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Royal East London Volunteers made a brilliant sight that day: formed
+      into lines, squares, circles, triangles, and what not, to the beating of
+      drums, and the streaming of flags; and performed a vast number of complex
+      evolutions, in all of which Serjeant Varden bore a conspicuous share.
+      Having displayed their military prowess to the utmost in these warlike
+      shows, they marched in glittering order to the Chelsea Bun House, and
+      regaled in the adjacent taverns until dark. Then at sound of drum they
+      fell in again, and returned amidst the shouting of His Majesty's lieges to
+      the place from whence they came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The homeward march being somewhat tardy,&mdash;owing to the un-soldierlike
+      behaviour of certain corporals, who, being gentlemen of sedentary pursuits
+      in private life and excitable out of doors, broke several windows with
+      their bayonets, and rendered it imperative on the commanding officer to
+      deliver them over to a strong guard, with whom they fought at intervals as
+      they came along,&mdash;it was nine o'clock when the locksmith reached
+      home. A hackney-coach was waiting near his door; and as he passed it, Mr
+      Haredale looked from the window and called him by his name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The sight of you is good for sore eyes, sir,' said the locksmith,
+      stepping up to him. 'I wish you had walked in though, rather than waited
+      here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is nobody at home, I find,' Mr Haredale answered; 'besides, I
+      desired to be as private as I could.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Humph!' muttered the locksmith, looking round at his house. 'Gone with
+      Simon Tappertit to that precious Branch, no doubt.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale invited him to come into the coach, and, if he were not tired
+      or anxious to go home, to ride with him a little way that they might have
+      some talk together. Gabriel cheerfully complied, and the coachman mounting
+      his box drove off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Varden,' said Mr Haredale, after a minute's pause, 'you will be amazed to
+      hear what errand I am on; it will seem a very strange one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have no doubt it's a reasonable one, sir, and has a meaning in it,'
+      replied the locksmith; 'or it would not be yours at all. Have you just
+      come back to town, sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But half an hour ago.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Bringing no news of Barnaby, or his mother?' said the locksmith
+      dubiously. 'Ah! you needn't shake your head, sir. It was a wild-goose
+      chase. I feared that, from the first. You exhausted all reasonable means
+      of discovery when they went away. To begin again after so long a time has
+      passed is hopeless, sir&mdash;quite hopeless.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, where are they?' he returned impatiently. 'Where can they be? Above
+      ground?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'God knows,' rejoined the locksmith, 'many that I knew above it five years
+      ago, have their beds under the grass now. And the world is a wide place.
+      It's a hopeless attempt, sir, believe me. We must leave the discovery of
+      this mystery, like all others, to time, and accident, and Heaven's
+      pleasure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Varden, my good fellow,' said Mr Haredale, 'I have a deeper meaning in my
+      present anxiety to find them out, than you can fathom. It is not a mere
+      whim; it is not the casual revival of my old wishes and desires; but an
+      earnest, solemn purpose. My thoughts and dreams all tend to it, and fix it
+      in my mind. I have no rest by day or night; I have no peace or quiet; I am
+      haunted.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice was so altered from its usual tones, and his manner bespoke so
+      much emotion, that Gabriel, in his wonder, could only sit and look towards
+      him in the darkness, and fancy the expression of his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do not ask me,' continued Mr Haredale, 'to explain myself. If I were to
+      do so, you would think me the victim of some hideous fancy. It is enough
+      that this is so, and that I cannot&mdash;no, I can not&mdash;lie quietly
+      in my bed, without doing what will seem to you incomprehensible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Since when, sir,' said the locksmith after a pause, 'has this uneasy
+      feeling been upon you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale hesitated for some moments, and then replied: 'Since the night
+      of the storm. In short, since the last nineteenth of March.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As though he feared that Varden might express surprise, or reason with
+      him, he hastily went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will think, I know, I labour under some delusion. Perhaps I do. But
+      it is not a morbid one; it is a wholesome action of the mind, reasoning on
+      actual occurrences. You know the furniture remains in Mrs Rudge's house,
+      and that it has been shut up, by my orders, since she went away, save once
+      a-week or so, when an old neighbour visits it to scare away the rats. I am
+      on my way there now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For what purpose?' asked the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To pass the night there,' he replied; 'and not to-night alone, but many
+      nights. This is a secret which I trust to you in case of any unexpected
+      emergency. You will not come, unless in case of strong necessity, to me;
+      from dusk to broad day I shall be there. Emma, your daughter, and the
+      rest, suppose me out of London, as I have been until within this hour. Do
+      not undeceive them. This is the errand I am bound upon. I know I may
+      confide it to you, and I rely upon your questioning me no more at this
+      time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, as if to change the theme, he led the astounded locksmith back
+      to the night of the Maypole highwayman, to the robbery of Edward Chester,
+      to the reappearance of the man at Mrs Rudge's house, and to all the
+      strange circumstances which afterwards occurred. He even asked him
+      carelessly about the man's height, his face, his figure, whether he was
+      like any one he had ever seen&mdash;like Hugh, for instance, or any man he
+      had known at any time&mdash;and put many questions of that sort, which the
+      locksmith, considering them as mere devices to engage his attention and
+      prevent his expressing the astonishment he felt, answered pretty much at
+      random.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, they arrived at the corner of the street in which the house
+      stood, where Mr Haredale, alighting, dismissed the coach. 'If you desire
+      to see me safely lodged,' he said, turning to the locksmith with a gloomy
+      smile, 'you can.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel, to whom all former marvels had been nothing in comparison with
+      this, followed him along the narrow pavement in silence. When they reached
+      the door, Mr Haredale softly opened it with a key he had about him, and
+      closing it when Varden entered, they were left in thorough darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They groped their way into the ground-floor room. Here Mr Haredale struck
+      a light, and kindled a pocket taper he had brought with him for the
+      purpose. It was then, when the flame was full upon him, that the locksmith
+      saw for the first time how haggard, pale, and changed he looked; how worn
+      and thin he was; how perfectly his whole appearance coincided with all
+      that he had said so strangely as they rode along. It was not an unnatural
+      impulse in Gabriel, after what he had heard, to note curiously the
+      expression of his eyes. It was perfectly collected and rational;&mdash;so
+      much so, indeed, that he felt ashamed of his momentary suspicion, and
+      drooped his own when Mr Haredale looked towards him, as if he feared they
+      would betray his thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will you walk through the house?' said Mr Haredale, with a glance towards
+      the window, the crazy shutters of which were closed and fastened. 'Speak
+      low.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a kind of awe about the place, which would have rendered it
+      difficult to speak in any other manner. Gabriel whispered 'Yes,' and
+      followed him upstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everything was just as they had seen it last. There was a sense of
+      closeness from the exclusion of fresh air, and a gloom and heaviness
+      around, as though long imprisonment had made the very silence sad. The
+      homely hangings of the beds and windows had begun to droop; the dust lay
+      thick upon their dwindling folds; and damps had made their way through
+      ceiling, wall, and floor. The boards creaked beneath their tread, as if
+      resenting the unaccustomed intrusion; nimble spiders, paralysed by the
+      taper's glare, checked the motion of their hundred legs upon the wall, or
+      dropped like lifeless things upon the ground; the death-watch ticked; and
+      the scampering feet of rats and mice rattled behind the wainscot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they looked about them on the decaying furniture, it was strange to
+      find how vividly it presented those to whom it had belonged, and with whom
+      it was once familiar. Grip seemed to perch again upon his high-backed
+      chair; Barnaby to crouch in his old favourite corner by the fire; the
+      mother to resume her usual seat, and watch him as of old. Even when they
+      could separate these objects from the phantoms of the mind which they
+      invoked, the latter only glided out of sight, but lingered near them
+      still; for then they seemed to lurk in closets and behind the doors, ready
+      to start out and suddenly accost them in well-remembered tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went downstairs, and again into the room they had just now left. Mr
+      Haredale unbuckled his sword and laid it on the table, with a pair of
+      pocket pistols; then told the locksmith he would light him to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But this is a dull place, sir,' said Gabriel lingering; 'may no one share
+      your watch?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head, and so plainly evinced his wish to be alone, that
+      Gabriel could say no more. In another moment the locksmith was standing in
+      the street, whence he could see that the light once more travelled
+      upstairs, and soon returning to the room below, shone brightly through the
+      chinks of the shutters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If ever man were sorely puzzled and perplexed, the locksmith was, that
+      night. Even when snugly seated by his own fireside, with Mrs Varden
+      opposite in a nightcap and night-jacket, and Dolly beside him (in a most
+      distracting dishabille) curling her hair, and smiling as if she had never
+      cried in all her life and never could&mdash;even then, with Toby at his
+      elbow and his pipe in his mouth, and Miggs (but that perhaps was not much)
+      falling asleep in the background, he could not quite discard his wonder
+      and uneasiness. So in his dreams&mdash;still there was Mr Haredale,
+      haggard and careworn, listening in the solitary house to every sound that
+      stirred, with the taper shining through the chinks until the day should
+      turn it pale and end his lonely watching.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0194m.jpg" alt="0194m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0194.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0043" id="link2HCH0043">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 43
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Next morning brought no satisfaction to the locksmith's thoughts, nor next
+      day, nor the next, nor many others. Often after nightfall he entered the
+      street, and turned his eyes towards the well-known house; and as surely as
+      he did so, there was the solitary light, still gleaming through the
+      crevices of the window-shutter, while all within was motionless,
+      noiseless, cheerless, as a grave. Unwilling to hazard Mr Haredale's favour
+      by disobeying his strict injunction, he never ventured to knock at the
+      door or to make his presence known in any way. But whenever strong
+      interest and curiosity attracted him to the spot&mdash;which was not
+      seldom&mdash;the light was always there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he could have known what passed within, the knowledge would have
+      yielded him no clue to this mysterious vigil. At twilight, Mr Haredale
+      shut himself up, and at daybreak he came forth. He never missed a night,
+      always came and went alone, and never varied his proceedings in the least
+      degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The manner of his watch was this. At dusk, he entered the house in the
+      same way as when the locksmith bore him company, kindled a light, went
+      through the rooms, and narrowly examined them. That done, he returned to
+      the chamber on the ground-floor, and laying his sword and pistols on the
+      table, sat by it until morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He usually had a book with him, and often tried to read, but never fixed
+      his eyes or thoughts upon it for five minutes together. The slightest
+      noise without doors, caught his ear; a step upon the pavement seemed to
+      make his heart leap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not without some refreshment during the long lonely hours;
+      generally carrying in his pocket a sandwich of bread and meat, and a small
+      flask of wine. The latter diluted with large quantities of water, he drank
+      in a heated, feverish way, as though his throat were dried; but he
+      scarcely ever broke his fast, by so much as a crumb of bread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If this voluntary sacrifice of sleep and comfort had its origin, as the
+      locksmith on consideration was disposed to think, in any superstitious
+      expectation of the fulfilment of a dream or vision connected with the
+      event on which he had brooded for so many years, and if he waited for some
+      ghostly visitor who walked abroad when men lay sleeping in their beds, he
+      showed no trace of fear or wavering. His stern features expressed
+      inflexible resolution; his brows were puckered, and his lips compressed,
+      with deep and settled purpose; and when he started at a noise and
+      listened, it was not with the start of fear but hope, and catching up his
+      sword as though the hour had come at last, he would clutch it in his
+      tight-clenched hand, and listen with sparkling eyes and eager looks, until
+      it died away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These disappointments were numerous, for they ensued on almost every
+      sound, but his constancy was not shaken. Still, every night he was at his
+      post, the same stern, sleepless, sentinel; and still night passed, and
+      morning dawned, and he must watch again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This went on for weeks; he had taken a lodging at Vauxhall in which to
+      pass the day and rest himself; and from this place, when the tide served,
+      he usually came to London Bridge from Westminster by water, in order that
+      he might avoid the busy streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, shortly before twilight, he came his accustomed road upon the
+      river's bank, intending to pass through Westminster Hall into Palace Yard,
+      and there take boat to London Bridge as usual. There was a pretty large
+      concourse of people assembled round the Houses of Parliament, looking at
+      the members as they entered and departed, and giving vent to rather noisy
+      demonstrations of approval or dislike, according to their known opinions.
+      As he made his way among the throng, he heard once or twice the No-Popery
+      cry, which was then becoming pretty familiar to the ears of most men; but
+      holding it in very slight regard, and observing that the idlers were of
+      the lowest grade, he neither thought nor cared about it, but made his way
+      along, with perfect indifference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were many little knots and groups of persons in Westminster Hall:
+      some few looking upward at its noble ceiling, and at the rays of evening
+      light, tinted by the setting sun, which streamed in aslant through its
+      small windows, and growing dimmer by degrees, were quenched in the
+      gathering gloom below; some, noisy passengers, mechanics going home from
+      work, and otherwise, who hurried quickly through, waking the echoes with
+      their voices, and soon darkening the small door in the distance, as they
+      passed into the street beyond; some, in busy conference together on
+      political or private matters, pacing slowly up and down with eyes that
+      sought the ground, and seeming, by their attitudes, to listen earnestly
+      from head to foot. Here, a dozen squabbling urchins made a very Babel in
+      the air; there, a solitary man, half clerk, half mendicant, paced up and
+      down with hungry dejection in his look and gait; at his elbow passed an
+      errand-lad, swinging his basket round and round, and with his shrill
+      whistle riving the very timbers of the roof; while a more observant
+      schoolboy, half-way through, pocketed his ball, and eyed the distant
+      beadle as he came looming on. It was that time of evening when, if you
+      shut your eyes and open them again, the darkness of an hour appears to
+      have gathered in a second. The smooth-worn pavement, dusty with footsteps,
+      still called upon the lofty walls to reiterate the shuffle and the tread
+      of feet unceasingly, save when the closing of some heavy door resounded
+      through the building like a clap of thunder, and drowned all other noises
+      in its rolling sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale, glancing only at such of these groups as he passed nearest
+      to, and then in a manner betokening that his thoughts were elsewhere, had
+      nearly traversed the Hall, when two persons before him caught his
+      attention. One of these, a gentleman in elegant attire, carried in his
+      hand a cane, which he twirled in a jaunty manner as he loitered on; the
+      other, an obsequious, crouching, fawning figure, listened to what he said&mdash;at
+      times throwing in a humble word himself&mdash;and, with his shoulders
+      shrugged up to his ears, rubbed his hands submissively, or answered at
+      intervals by an inclination of the head, half-way between a nod of
+      acquiescence, and a bow of most profound respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the abstract there was nothing very remarkable in this pair, for
+      servility waiting on a handsome suit of clothes and a cane&mdash;not to
+      speak of gold and silver sticks, or wands of office&mdash;is common
+      enough. But there was that about the well-dressed man, yes, and about the
+      other likewise, which struck Mr Haredale with no pleasant feeling. He
+      hesitated, stopped, and would have stepped aside and turned out of his
+      path, but at the moment, the other two faced about quickly, and stumbled
+      upon him before he could avoid them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gentleman with the cane lifted his hat and had begun to tender an
+      apology, which Mr Haredale had begun as hastily to acknowledge and walk
+      away, when he stopped short and cried, 'Haredale! Gad bless me, this is
+      strange indeed!'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0196m.jpg" alt="0196m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0196.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'It is,' he returned impatiently; 'yes&mdash;a&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear friend,' cried the other, detaining him, 'why such great speed?
+      One minute, Haredale, for the sake of old acquaintance.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am in haste,' he said. 'Neither of us has sought this meeting. Let it
+      be a brief one. Good night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Fie, fie!' replied Sir John (for it was he), 'how very churlish! We were
+      speaking of you. Your name was on my lips&mdash;perhaps you heard me
+      mention it? No? I am sorry for that. I am really sorry.&mdash;You know our
+      friend here, Haredale? This is really a most remarkable meeting!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The friend, plainly very ill at ease, had made bold to press Sir John's
+      arm, and to give him other significant hints that he was desirous of
+      avoiding this introduction. As it did not suit Sir John's purpose,
+      however, that it should be evaded, he appeared quite unconscious of these
+      silent remonstrances, and inclined his hand towards him, as he spoke, to
+      call attention to him more particularly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The friend, therefore, had nothing for it, but to muster up the
+      pleasantest smile he could, and to make a conciliatory bow, as Mr Haredale
+      turned his eyes upon him. Seeing that he was recognised, he put out his
+      hand in an awkward and embarrassed manner, which was not mended by its
+      contemptuous rejection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Gashford!' said Haredale, coldly. 'It is as I have heard then. You
+      have left the darkness for the light, sir, and hate those whose opinions
+      you formerly held, with all the bitterness of a renegade. You are an
+      honour, sir, to any cause. I wish the one you espouse at present, much joy
+      of the acquisition it has made.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary rubbed his hands and bowed, as though he would disarm his
+      adversary by humbling himself before him. Sir John Chester again
+      exclaimed, with an air of great gaiety, 'Now, really, this is a most
+      remarkable meeting!' and took a pinch of snuff with his usual
+      self-possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Haredale,' said Gashford, stealthily raising his eyes, and letting
+      them drop again when they met the other's steady gaze, is too
+      conscientious, too honourable, too manly, I am sure, to attach unworthy
+      motives to an honest change of opinions, even though it implies a doubt of
+      those he holds himself. Mr Haredale is too just, too generous, too
+      clear-sighted in his moral vision, to&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, sir?' he rejoined with a sarcastic smile, finding the secretary
+      stopped. 'You were saying'&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford meekly shrugged his shoulders, and looking on the ground again,
+      was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, but let us really,' interposed Sir John at this juncture, 'let us
+      really, for a moment, contemplate the very remarkable character of this
+      meeting. Haredale, my dear friend, pardon me if I think you are not
+      sufficiently impressed with its singularity. Here we stand, by no previous
+      appointment or arrangement, three old schoolfellows, in Westminster Hall;
+      three old boarders in a remarkably dull and shady seminary at Saint
+      Omer's, where you, being Catholics and of necessity educated out of
+      England, were brought up; and where I, being a promising young Protestant
+      at that time, was sent to learn the French tongue from a native of Paris!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Add to the singularity, Sir John,' said Mr Haredale, 'that some of you
+      Protestants of promise are at this moment leagued in yonder building, to
+      prevent our having the surpassing and unheard-of privilege of teaching our
+      children to read and write&mdash;here&mdash;in this land, where thousands
+      of us enter your service every year, and to preserve the freedom of which,
+      we die in bloody battles abroad, in heaps: and that others of you, to the
+      number of some thousands as I learn, are led on to look on all men of my
+      creed as wolves and beasts of prey, by this man Gashford. Add to it
+      besides the bare fact that this man lives in society, walks the streets in
+      broad day&mdash;I was about to say, holds up his head, but that he does
+      not&mdash;and it will be strange, and very strange, I grant you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! you are hard upon our friend,' replied Sir John, with an engaging
+      smile. 'You are really very hard upon our friend!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let him go on, Sir John,' said Gashford, fumbling with his gloves. 'Let
+      him go on. I can make allowances, Sir John. I am honoured with your good
+      opinion, and I can dispense with Mr Haredale's. Mr Haredale is a sufferer
+      from the penal laws, and I can't expect his favour.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have so much of my favour, sir,' retorted Mr Haredale, with a bitter
+      glance at the third party in their conversation, 'that I am glad to see
+      you in such good company. You are the essence of your great Association,
+      in yourselves.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, there you mistake,' said Sir John, in his most benignant way. 'There&mdash;which
+      is a most remarkable circumstance for a man of your punctuality and
+      exactness, Haredale&mdash;you fall into error. I don't belong to the body;
+      I have an immense respect for its members, but I don't belong to it;
+      although I am, it is certainly true, the conscientious opponent of your
+      being relieved. I feel it my duty to be so; it is a most unfortunate
+      necessity; and cost me a bitter struggle.&mdash;Will you try this box? If
+      you don't object to a trifling infusion of a very chaste scent, you'll
+      find its flavour exquisite.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I ask your pardon, Sir John,' said Mr Haredale, declining the proffer
+      with a motion of his hand, 'for having ranked you among the humble
+      instruments who are obvious and in all men's sight. I should have done
+      more justice to your genius. Men of your capacity plot in secrecy and
+      safety, and leave exposed posts to the duller wits.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't apologise, for the world,' replied Sir John sweetly; 'old friends
+      like you and I, may be allowed some freedoms, or the deuce is in it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford, who had been very restless all this time, but had not once
+      looked up, now turned to Sir John, and ventured to mutter something to the
+      effect that he must go, or my lord would perhaps be waiting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't distress yourself, good sir,' said Mr Haredale, 'I'll take my
+      leave, and put you at your ease&mdash;' which he was about to do without
+      ceremony, when he was stayed by a buzz and murmur at the upper end of the
+      hall, and, looking in that direction, saw Lord George Gordon coming in,
+      with a crowd of people round him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a lurking look of triumph, though very differently expressed, in
+      the faces of his two companions, which made it a natural impulse on Mr
+      Haredale's part not to give way before this leader, but to stand there
+      while he passed. He drew himself up and, clasping his hands behind him,
+      looked on with a proud and scornful aspect, while Lord George slowly
+      advanced (for the press was great about him) towards the spot where they
+      were standing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had left the House of Commons but that moment, and had come straight
+      down into the Hall, bringing with him, as his custom was, intelligence of
+      what had been said that night in reference to the Papists, and what
+      petitions had been presented in their favour, and who had supported them,
+      and when the bill was to be brought in, and when it would be advisable to
+      present their own Great Protestant petition. All this he told the persons
+      about him in a loud voice, and with great abundance of ungainly gesture.
+      Those who were nearest him made comments to each other, and vented threats
+      and murmurings; those who were outside the crowd cried, 'Silence,' and
+      Stand back,' or closed in upon the rest, endeavouring to make a forcible
+      exchange of places: and so they came driving on in a very disorderly and
+      irregular way, as it is the manner of a crowd to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were very near to where the secretary, Sir John, and Mr Haredale
+      stood, Lord George turned round and, making a few remarks of a
+      sufficiently violent and incoherent kind, concluded with the usual
+      sentiment, and called for three cheers to back it. While these were in the
+      act of being given with great energy, he extricated himself from the
+      press, and stepped up to Gashford's side. Both he and Sir John being well
+      known to the populace, they fell back a little, and left the four standing
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Haredale, Lord George,' said Sir John Chester, seeing that the
+      nobleman regarded him with an inquisitive look. 'A Catholic gentleman
+      unfortunately&mdash;most unhappily a Catholic&mdash;but an esteemed
+      acquaintance of mine, and once of Mr Gashford's. My dear Haredale, this is
+      Lord George Gordon.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should have known that, had I been ignorant of his lordship's person,'
+      said Mr Haredale. 'I hope there is but one gentleman in England who,
+      addressing an ignorant and excited throng, would speak of a large body of
+      his fellow-subjects in such injurious language as I heard this moment. For
+      shame, my lord, for shame!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I cannot talk to you, sir,' replied Lord George in a loud voice, and
+      waving his hand in a disturbed and agitated manner; 'we have nothing in
+      common.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We have much in common&mdash;many things&mdash;all that the Almighty gave
+      us,' said Mr Haredale; 'and common charity, not to say common sense and
+      common decency, should teach you to refrain from these proceedings. If
+      every one of those men had arms in their hands at this moment, as they
+      have them in their heads, I would not leave this place without telling you
+      that you disgrace your station.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't hear you, sir,' he replied in the same manner as before; 'I can't
+      hear you. It is indifferent to me what you say. Don't retort, Gashford,'
+      for the secretary had made a show of wishing to do so; 'I can hold no
+      communion with the worshippers of idols.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he said this, he glanced at Sir John, who lifted his hands and
+      eyebrows, as if deploring the intemperate conduct of Mr Haredale, and
+      smiled in admiration of the crowd and of their leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'HE retort!' cried Haredale. 'Look you here, my lord. Do you know this
+      man?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George replied by laying his hand upon the shoulder of his cringing
+      secretary, and viewing him with a smile of confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This man,' said Mr Haredale, eyeing him from top to toe, 'who in his
+      boyhood was a thief, and has been from that time to this, a servile,
+      false, and truckling knave: this man, who has crawled and crept through
+      life, wounding the hands he licked, and biting those he fawned upon: this
+      sycophant, who never knew what honour, truth, or courage meant; who robbed
+      his benefactor's daughter of her virtue, and married her to break her
+      heart, and did it, with stripes and cruelty: this creature, who has whined
+      at kitchen windows for the broken food, and begged for halfpence at our
+      chapel doors: this apostle of the faith, whose tender conscience cannot
+      bear the altars where his vicious life was publicly denounced&mdash;Do you
+      know this man?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, really&mdash;you are very, very hard upon our friend!' exclaimed Sir
+      John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let Mr Haredale go on,' said Gashford, upon whose unwholesome face the
+      perspiration had broken out during this speech, in blotches of wet; 'I
+      don't mind him, Sir John; it's quite as indifferent to me what he says, as
+      it is to my lord. If he reviles my lord, as you have heard, Sir John, how
+      can I hope to escape?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is it not enough, my lord,' Mr Haredale continued, 'that I, as good a
+      gentleman as you, must hold my property, such as it is, by a trick at
+      which the state connives because of these hard laws; and that we may not
+      teach our youth in schools the common principles of right and wrong; but
+      must we be denounced and ridden by such men as this! Here is a man to head
+      your No-Popery cry! For shame. For shame!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The infatuated nobleman had glanced more than once at Sir John Chester, as
+      if to inquire whether there was any truth in these statements concerning
+      Gashford, and Sir John had as often plainly answered by a shrug or look,
+      'Oh dear me! no.' He now said, in the same loud key, and in the same
+      strange manner as before:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have nothing to say, sir, in reply, and no desire to hear anything
+      more. I beg you won't obtrude your conversation, or these personal
+      attacks, upon me. I shall not be deterred from doing my duty to my country
+      and my countrymen, by any such attempts, whether they proceed from
+      emissaries of the Pope or not, I assure you. Come, Gashford!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had walked on a few paces while speaking, and were now at the
+      Hall-door, through which they passed together. Mr Haredale, without any
+      leave-taking, turned away to the river stairs, which were close at hand,
+      and hailed the only boatman who remained there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the throng of people&mdash;the foremost of whom had heard every word
+      that Lord George Gordon said, and among all of whom the rumour had been
+      rapidly dispersed that the stranger was a Papist who was bearding him for
+      his advocacy of the popular cause&mdash;came pouring out pell-mell, and,
+      forcing the nobleman, his secretary, and Sir John Chester on before them,
+      so that they appeared to be at their head, crowded to the top of the
+      stairs where Mr Haredale waited until the boat was ready, and there stood
+      still, leaving him on a little clear space by himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were not silent, however, though inactive. At first some indistinct
+      mutterings arose among them, which were followed by a hiss or two, and
+      these swelled by degrees into a perfect storm. Then one voice said, 'Down
+      with the Papists!' and there was a pretty general cheer, but nothing more.
+      After a lull of a few moments, one man cried out, 'Stone him;' another,
+      'Duck him;' another, in a stentorian voice, 'No Popery!' This favourite
+      cry the rest re-echoed, and the mob, which might have been two hundred
+      strong, joined in a general shout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale had stood calmly on the brink of the steps, until they made
+      this demonstration, when he looked round contemptuously, and walked at a
+      slow pace down the stairs. He was pretty near the boat, when Gashford, as
+      if without intention, turned about, and directly afterwards a great stone
+      was thrown by some hand, in the crowd, which struck him on the head, and
+      made him stagger like a drunken man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood sprung freely from the wound, and trickled down his coat. He
+      turned directly, and rushing up the steps with a boldness and passion
+      which made them all fall back, demanded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who did that? Show me the man who hit me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a soul moved; except some in the rear who slunk off, and, escaping to
+      the other side of the way, looked on like indifferent spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who did that?' he repeated. 'Show me the man who did it. Dog, was it you?
+      It was your deed, if not your hand&mdash;I know you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He threw himself on Gashford as he said the words, and hurled him to the
+      ground. There was a sudden motion in the crowd, and some laid hands upon
+      him, but his sword was out, and they fell off again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My lord&mdash;Sir John,'&mdash;he cried, 'draw, one of you&mdash;you are
+      responsible for this outrage, and I look to you. Draw, if you are
+      gentlemen.' With that he struck Sir John upon the breast with the flat of
+      his weapon, and with a burning face and flashing eyes stood upon his
+      guard; alone, before them all.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0200m.jpg" alt="0200m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0200.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      For an instant, for the briefest space of time the mind can readily
+      conceive, there was a change in Sir John's smooth face, such as no man
+      ever saw there. The next moment, he stepped forward, and laid one hand on
+      Mr Haredale's arm, while with the other he endeavoured to appease the
+      crowd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear friend, my good Haredale, you are blinded with passion&mdash;it's
+      very natural, extremely natural&mdash;but you don't know friends from
+      foes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know them all, sir, I can distinguish well&mdash;' he retorted, almost
+      mad with rage. 'Sir John, Lord George&mdash;do you hear me? Are you
+      cowards?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Never mind, sir,' said a man, forcing his way between and pushing him
+      towards the stairs with friendly violence, 'never mind asking that. For
+      God's sake, get away. What CAN you do against this number? And there are
+      as many more in the next street, who'll be round directly,'&mdash;indeed
+      they began to pour in as he said the words&mdash;'you'd be giddy from that
+      cut, in the first heat of a scuffle. Now do retire, sir, or take my word
+      for it you'll be worse used than you would be if every man in the crowd
+      was a woman, and that woman Bloody Mary. Come, sir, make haste&mdash;as
+      quick as you can.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale, who began to turn faint and sick, felt how sensible this
+      advice was, and descended the steps with his unknown friend's assistance.
+      John Grueby (for John it was) helped him into the boat, and giving her a
+      shove off, which sent her thirty feet into the tide, bade the waterman
+      pull away like a Briton; and walked up again as composedly as if he had
+      just landed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was at first a slight disposition on the part of the mob to resent
+      this interference; but John looking particularly strong and cool, and
+      wearing besides Lord George's livery, they thought better of it, and
+      contented themselves with sending a shower of small missiles after the
+      boat, which plashed harmlessly in the water; for she had by this time
+      cleared the bridge, and was darting swiftly down the centre of the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this amusement, they proceeded to giving Protestant knocks at the
+      doors of private houses, breaking a few lamps, and assaulting some stray
+      constables. But, it being whispered that a detachment of Life Guards had
+      been sent for, they took to their heels with great expedition, and left
+      the street quite clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0044" id="link2HCH0044">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 44
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When the concourse separated, and, dividing into chance clusters, drew off
+      in various directions, there still remained upon the scene of the late
+      disturbance, one man. This man was Gashford, who, bruised by his late
+      fall, and hurt in a much greater degree by the indignity he had undergone,
+      and the exposure of which he had been the victim, limped up and down,
+      breathing curses and threats of vengeance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not the secretary's nature to waste his wrath in words. While he
+      vented the froth of his malevolence in those effusions, he kept a steady
+      eye on two men, who, having disappeared with the rest when the alarm was
+      spread, had since returned, and were now visible in the moonlight, at no
+      great distance, as they walked to and fro, and talked together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made no move towards them, but waited patiently on the dark side of the
+      street, until they were tired of strolling backwards and forwards and
+      walked away in company. Then he followed, but at some distance: keeping
+      them in view, without appearing to have that object, or being seen by
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went up Parliament Street, past Saint Martin's church, and away by
+      Saint Giles's to Tottenham Court Road, at the back of which, upon the
+      western side, was then a place called the Green Lanes. This was a retired
+      spot, not of the choicest kind, leading into the fields. Great heaps of
+      ashes; stagnant pools, overgrown with rank grass and duckweed; broken
+      turnstiles; and the upright posts of palings long since carried off for
+      firewood, which menaced all heedless walkers with their jagged and rusty
+      nails; were the leading features of the landscape: while here and there a
+      donkey, or a ragged horse, tethered to a stake, and cropping off a
+      wretched meal from the coarse stunted turf, were quite in keeping with the
+      scene, and would have suggested (if the houses had not done so,
+      sufficiently, of themselves) how very poor the people were who lived in
+      the crazy huts adjacent, and how foolhardy it might prove for one who
+      carried money, or wore decent clothes, to walk that way alone, unless by
+      daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poverty has its whims and shows of taste, as wealth has. Some of these
+      cabins were turreted, some had false windows painted on their rotten
+      walls; one had a mimic clock, upon a crazy tower of four feet high, which
+      screened the chimney; each in its little patch of ground had a rude seat
+      or arbour. The population dealt in bones, in rags, in broken glass, in old
+      wheels, in birds, and dogs. These, in their several ways of stowage,
+      filled the gardens; and shedding a perfume, not of the most delicious
+      nature, in the air, filled it besides with yelps, and screams, and
+      howling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Into this retreat, the secretary followed the two men whom he had held in
+      sight; and here he saw them safely lodged, in one of the meanest houses,
+      which was but a room, and that of small dimensions. He waited without,
+      until the sound of their voices, joined in a discordant song, assured him
+      they were making merry; and then approaching the door, by means of a
+      tottering plank which crossed the ditch in front, knocked at it with his
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Muster Gashfordl' said the man who opened it, taking his pipe from his
+      mouth, in evident surprise. 'Why, who'd have thought of this here honour!
+      Walk in, Muster Gashford&mdash;walk in, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford required no second invitation, and entered with a gracious air.
+      There was a fire in the rusty grate (for though the spring was pretty far
+      advanced, the nights were cold), and on a stool beside it Hugh sat
+      smoking. Dennis placed a chair, his only one, for the secretary, in front
+      of the hearth; and took his seat again upon the stool he had left when he
+      rose to give the visitor admission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's in the wind now, Muster Gashford?' he said, as he resumed his
+      pipe, and looked at him askew. 'Any orders from head-quarters? Are we
+      going to begin? What is it, Muster Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, nothing, nothing,' rejoined the secretary, with a friendly nod to
+      Hugh. 'We have broken the ice, though. We had a little spurt to-day&mdash;eh,
+      Dennis?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A very little one,' growled the hangman. 'Not half enough for me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor me neither!' cried Hugh. 'Give us something to do with life in it&mdash;with
+      life in it, master. Ha, ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, you wouldn't,' said the secretary, with his worst expression of
+      face, and in his mildest tones, 'have anything to do, with&mdash;with
+      death in it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know that,' replied Hugh. 'I'm open to orders. I don't care; not
+      I.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor I!' vociferated Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brave fellows!' said the secretary, in as pastor-like a voice as if he
+      were commending them for some uncommon act of valour and generosity. 'By
+      the bye'&mdash;and here he stopped and warmed his hands: then suddenly
+      looked up&mdash;'who threw that stone to-day?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis coughed and shook his head, as who should say, 'A mystery
+      indeed!' Hugh sat and smoked in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was well done!' said the secretary, warming his hands again. 'I should
+      like to know that man.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Would you?' said Dennis, after looking at his face to assure himself that
+      he was serious. 'Would you like to know that man, Muster Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should indeed,' replied the secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why then, Lord love you,' said the hangman, in his hoarest chuckle, as he
+      pointed with his pipe to Hugh, 'there he sits. That's the man. My stars
+      and halters, Muster Gashford,' he added in a whisper, as he drew his stool
+      close to him and jogged him with his elbow, 'what a interesting blade he
+      is! He wants as much holding in as a thorough-bred bulldog. If it hadn't
+      been for me to-day, he'd have had that 'ere Roman down, and made a riot of
+      it, in another minute.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And why not?' cried Hugh in a surly voice, as he overheard this last
+      remark. 'Where's the good of putting things off? Strike while the iron's
+      hot; that's what I say.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' retorted Dennis, shaking his head, with a kind of pity for his
+      friend's ingenuous youth; 'but suppose the iron an't hot, brother! You
+      must get people's blood up afore you strike, and have 'em in the humour.
+      There wasn't quite enough to provoke 'em to-day, I tell you. If you'd had
+      your way, you'd have spoilt the fun to come, and ruined us.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dennis is quite right,' said Gashford, smoothly. 'He is perfectly
+      correct. Dennis has great knowledge of the world.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I ought to have, Muster Gashford, seeing what a many people I've helped
+      out of it, eh?' grinned the hangman, whispering the words behind his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary laughed at this jest as much as Dennis could desire, and
+      when he had done, said, turning to Hugh:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dennis's policy was mine, as you may have observed. You saw, for
+      instance, how I fell when I was set upon. I made no resistance. I did
+      nothing to provoke an outbreak. Oh dear no!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, by the Lord Harry!' cried Dennis with a noisy laugh, 'you went down
+      very quiet, Muster Gashford&mdash;and very flat besides. I thinks to
+      myself at the time "it's all up with Muster Gashford!" I never see a man
+      lay flatter nor more still&mdash;with the life in him&mdash;than you did
+      to-day. He's a rough 'un to play with, is that 'ere Papist, and that's the
+      fact.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary's face, as Dennis roared with laughter, and turned his
+      wrinkled eyes on Hugh who did the like, might have furnished a study for
+      the devil's picture. He sat quite silent until they were serious again,
+      and then said, looking round:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We are very pleasant here; so very pleasant, Dennis, that but for my
+      lord's particular desire that I should sup with him, and the time being
+      very near at hand, I should be inclined to stay, until it would be hardly
+      safe to go homeward. I come upon a little business&mdash;yes, I do&mdash;as
+      you supposed. It's very flattering to you; being this. If we ever should
+      be obliged&mdash;and we can't tell, you know&mdash;this is a very
+      uncertain world'&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I believe you, Muster Gashford,' interposed the hangman with a grave nod.
+      'The uncertainties as I've seen in reference to this here state of
+      existence, the unexpected contingencies as have come about!&mdash;Oh my
+      eye!' Feeling the subject much too vast for expression, he puffed at his
+      pipe again, and looked the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say,' resumed the secretary, in a slow, impressive way; 'we can't tell
+      what may come to pass; and if we should be obliged, against our wills, to
+      have recourse to violence, my lord (who has suffered terribly to-day, as
+      far as words can go) consigns to you two&mdash;bearing in mind my
+      recommendation of you both, as good staunch men, beyond all doubt and
+      suspicion&mdash;the pleasant task of punishing this Haredale. You may do
+      as you please with him, or his, provided that you show no mercy, and no
+      quarter, and leave no two beams of his house standing where the builder
+      placed them. You may sack it, burn it, do with it as you like, but it must
+      come down; it must be razed to the ground; and he, and all belonging to
+      him, left as shelterless as new-born infants whom their mothers have
+      exposed. Do you understand me?' said Gashford, pausing, and pressing his
+      hands together gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Understand you, master!' cried Hugh. 'You speak plain now. Why, this is
+      hearty!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I knew you would like it,' said Gashford, shaking him by the hand; 'I
+      thought you would. Good night! Don't rise, Dennis: I would rather find my
+      way alone. I may have to make other visits here, and it's pleasant to come
+      and go without disturbing you. I can find my way perfectly well. Good
+      night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was gone, and had shut the door behind him. They looked at each other,
+      and nodded approvingly: Dennis stirred up the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This looks a little more like business!' he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, indeed!' cried Hugh; 'this suits me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I've heerd it said of Muster Gashford,' said the hangman, 'that he'd a
+      surprising memory and wonderful firmness&mdash;that he never forgot, and
+      never forgave.&mdash;Let's drink his health!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh readily complied&mdash;pouring no liquor on the floor when he drank
+      this toast&mdash;and they pledged the secretary as a man after their own
+      hearts, in a bumper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0045" id="link2HCH0045">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 45
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While the worst passions of the worst men were thus working in the dark,
+      and the mantle of religion, assumed to cover the ugliest deformities,
+      threatened to become the shroud of all that was good and peaceful in
+      society, a circumstance occurred which once more altered the position of
+      two persons from whom this history has long been separated, and to whom it
+      must now return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a small English country town, the inhabitants of which supported
+      themselves by the labour of their hands in plaiting and preparing straw
+      for those who made bonnets and other articles of dress and ornament from
+      that material,&mdash;concealed under an assumed name, and living in a
+      quiet poverty which knew no change, no pleasures, and few cares but that
+      of struggling on from day to day in one great toil for bread,&mdash;dwelt
+      Barnaby and his mother. Their poor cottage had known no stranger's foot
+      since they sought the shelter of its roof five years before; nor had they
+      in all that time held any commerce or communication with the old world
+      from which they had fled. To labour in peace, and devote her labour and
+      her life to her poor son, was all the widow sought. If happiness can be
+      said at any time to be the lot of one on whom a secret sorrow preys, she
+      was happy now. Tranquillity, resignation, and her strong love of him who
+      needed it so much, formed the small circle of her quiet joys; and while
+      that remained unbroken, she was contented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For Barnaby himself, the time which had flown by, had passed him like the
+      wind. The daily suns of years had shed no brighter gleam of reason on his
+      mind; no dawn had broken on his long, dark night. He would sit sometimes&mdash;often
+      for days together on a low seat by the fire or by the cottage door, busy
+      at work (for he had learnt the art his mother plied), and listening, God
+      help him, to the tales she would repeat, as a lure to keep him in her
+      sight. He had no recollection of these little narratives; the tale of
+      yesterday was new to him upon the morrow; but he liked them at the moment;
+      and when the humour held him, would remain patiently within doors, hearing
+      her stories like a little child, and working cheerfully from sunrise until
+      it was too dark to see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At other times,&mdash;and then their scanty earnings were barely
+      sufficient to furnish them with food, though of the coarsest sort,&mdash;he
+      would wander abroad from dawn of day until the twilight deepened into
+      night. Few in that place, even of the children, could be idle, and he had
+      no companions of his own kind. Indeed there were not many who could have
+      kept up with him in his rambles, had there been a legion. But there were a
+      score of vagabond dogs belonging to the neighbours, who served his purpose
+      quite as well. With two or three of these, or sometimes with a full
+      half-dozen barking at his heels, he would sally forth on some long
+      expedition that consumed the day; and though, on their return at
+      nightfall, the dogs would come home limping and sore-footed, and almost
+      spent with their fatigue, Barnaby was up and off again at sunrise with
+      some new attendants of the same class, with whom he would return in like
+      manner. On all these travels, Grip, in his little basket at his master's
+      back, was a constant member of the party, and when they set off in fine
+      weather and in high spirits, no dog barked louder than the raven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their pleasures on these excursions were simple enough. A crust of bread
+      and scrap of meat, with water from the brook or spring, sufficed for their
+      repast. Barnaby's enjoyments were, to walk, and run, and leap, till he was
+      tired; then to lie down in the long grass, or by the growing corn, or in
+      the shade of some tall tree, looking upward at the light clouds as they
+      floated over the blue surface of the sky, and listening to the lark as she
+      poured out her brilliant song. There were wild-flowers to pluck&mdash;the
+      bright red poppy, the gentle harebell, the cowslip, and the rose. There
+      were birds to watch; fish; ants; worms; hares or rabbits, as they darted
+      across the distant pathway in the wood and so were gone: millions of
+      living things to have an interest in, and lie in wait for, and clap hands
+      and shout in memory of, when they had disappeared. In default of these, or
+      when they wearied, there was the merry sunlight to hunt out, as it crept
+      in aslant through leaves and boughs of trees, and hid far down&mdash;deep,
+      deep, in hollow places&mdash;like a silver pool, where nodding branches
+      seemed to bathe and sport; sweet scents of summer air breathing over
+      fields of beans or clover; the perfume of wet leaves or moss; the life of
+      waving trees, and shadows always changing. When these or any of them
+      tired, or in excess of pleasing tempted him to shut his eyes, there was
+      slumber in the midst of all these soft delights, with the gentle wind
+      murmuring like music in his ears, and everything around melting into one
+      delicious dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their hut&mdash;for it was little more&mdash;stood on the outskirts of the
+      town, at a short distance from the high road, but in a secluded place,
+      where few chance passengers strayed at any season of the year. It had a
+      plot of garden-ground attached, which Barnaby, in fits and starts of
+      working, trimmed, and kept in order. Within doors and without, his mother
+      laboured for their common good; and hail, rain, snow, or sunshine, found
+      no difference in her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though so far removed from the scenes of her past life, and with so little
+      thought or hope of ever visiting them again, she seemed to have a strange
+      desire to know what happened in the busy world. Any old newspaper, or
+      scrap of intelligence from London, she caught at with avidity. The
+      excitement it produced was not of a pleasurable kind, for her manner at
+      such times expressed the keenest anxiety and dread; but it never faded in
+      the least degree. Then, and in stormy winter nights, when the wind blew
+      loud and strong, the old expression came into her face, and she would be
+      seized with a fit of trembling, like one who had an ague. But Barnaby
+      noted little of this; and putting a great constraint upon herself, she
+      usually recovered her accustomed manner before the change had caught his
+      observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grip was by no means an idle or unprofitable member of the humble
+      household. Partly by dint of Barnaby's tuition, and partly by pursuing a
+      species of self-instruction common to his tribe, and exerting his powers
+      of observation to the utmost, he had acquired a degree of sagacity which
+      rendered him famous for miles round. His conversational powers and
+      surprising performances were the universal theme: and as many persons came
+      to see the wonderful raven, and none left his exertions unrewarded&mdash;when
+      he condescended to exhibit, which was not always, for genius is capricious&mdash;his
+      earnings formed an important item in the common stock. Indeed, the bird
+      himself appeared to know his value well; for though he was perfectly free
+      and unrestrained in the presence of Barnaby and his mother, he maintained
+      in public an amazing gravity, and never stooped to any other gratuitous
+      performances than biting the ankles of vagabond boys (an exercise in which
+      he much delighted), killing a fowl or two occasionally, and swallowing the
+      dinners of various neighbouring dogs, of whom the boldest held him in
+      great awe and dread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Time had glided on in this way, and nothing had happened to disturb or
+      change their mode of life, when, one summer's night in June, they were in
+      their little garden, resting from the labours of the day. The widow's work
+      was yet upon her knee, and strewn upon the ground about her; and Barnaby
+      stood leaning on his spade, gazing at the brightness in the west, and
+      singing softly to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A brave evening, mother! If we had, chinking in our pockets, but a few
+      specks of that gold which is piled up yonder in the sky, we should be rich
+      for life.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We are better as we are,' returned the widow with a quiet smile. 'Let us
+      be contented, and we do not want and need not care to have it, though it
+      lay shining at our feet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' said Barnaby, resting with crossed arms on his spade, and looking
+      wistfully at the sunset, that's well enough, mother; but gold's a good
+      thing to have. I wish that I knew where to find it. Grip and I could do
+      much with gold, be sure of that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What would you do?' she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What! A world of things. We'd dress finely&mdash;you and I, I mean; not
+      Grip&mdash;keep horses, dogs, wear bright colours and feathers, do no more
+      work, live delicately and at our ease. Oh, we'd find uses for it, mother,
+      and uses that would do us good. I would I knew where gold was buried. How
+      hard I'd work to dig it up!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You do not know,' said his mother, rising from her seat and laying her
+      hand upon his shoulder, 'what men have done to win it, and how they have
+      found, too late, that it glitters brightest at a distance, and turns quite
+      dim and dull when handled.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, ay; so you say; so you think,' he answered, still looking eagerly in
+      the same direction. 'For all that, mother, I should like to try.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you not see,' she said, 'how red it is? Nothing bears so many stains
+      of blood, as gold. Avoid it. None have such cause to hate its name as we
+      have. Do not so much as think of it, dear love. It has brought such misery
+      and suffering on your head and mine as few have known, and God grant few
+      may have to undergo. I would rather we were dead and laid down in our
+      graves, than you should ever come to love it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment Barnaby withdrew his eyes and looked at her with wonder.
+      Then, glancing from the redness in the sky to the mark upon his wrist as
+      if he would compare the two, he seemed about to question her with
+      earnestness, when a new object caught his wandering attention, and made
+      him quite forgetful of his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a man with dusty feet and garments, who stood, bare-headed,
+      behind the hedge that divided their patch of garden from the pathway, and
+      leant meekly forward as if he sought to mingle with their conversation,
+      and waited for his time to speak. His face was turned towards the
+      brightness, too, but the light that fell upon it showed that he was blind,
+      and saw it not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A blessing on those voices!' said the wayfarer. 'I feel the beauty of the
+      night more keenly, when I hear them. They are like eyes to me. Will they
+      speak again, and cheer the heart of a poor traveller?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have you no guide?' asked the widow, after a moment's pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'None but that,' he answered, pointing with his staff towards the sun;
+      'and sometimes a milder one at night, but she is idle now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have you travelled far?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A weary way and long,' rejoined the traveller as he shook his head. 'A
+      weary, weary, way. I struck my stick just now upon the bucket of your well&mdash;be
+      pleased to let me have a draught of water, lady.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why do you call me lady?' she returned. 'I am as poor as you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your speech is soft and gentle, and I judge by that,' replied the man.
+      'The coarsest stuffs and finest silks, are&mdash;apart from the sense of
+      touch&mdash;alike to me. I cannot judge you by your dress.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come round this way,' said Barnaby, who had passed out at the garden-gate
+      and now stood close beside him. 'Put your hand in mine. You're blind and
+      always in the dark, eh? Are you frightened in the dark? Do you see great
+      crowds of faces, now? Do they grin and chatter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Alas!' returned the other, 'I see nothing. Waking or sleeping, nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby looked curiously at his eyes, and touching them with his fingers,
+      as an inquisitive child might, led him towards the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have come a long distance, 'said the widow, meeting him at the door.
+      'How have you found your way so far?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Use and necessity are good teachers, as I have heard&mdash;the best of
+      any,' said the blind man, sitting down upon the chair to which Barnaby had
+      led him, and putting his hat and stick upon the red-tiled floor. 'May
+      neither you nor your son ever learn under them. They are rough masters.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have wandered from the road, too,' said the widow, in a tone of pity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Maybe, maybe,' returned the blind man with a sigh, and yet with something
+      of a smile upon his face, 'that's likely. Handposts and milestones are
+      dumb, indeed, to me. Thank you the more for this rest, and this refreshing
+      drink!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, he raised the mug of water to his mouth. It was clear, and
+      cold, and sparkling, but not to his taste nevertheless, or his thirst was
+      not very great, for he only wetted his lips and put it down again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wore, hanging with a long strap round his neck, a kind of scrip or
+      wallet, in which to carry food. The widow set some bread and cheese before
+      him, but he thanked her, and said that through the kindness of the
+      charitable he had broken his fast once since morning, and was not hungry.
+      When he had made her this reply, he opened his wallet, and took out a few
+      pence, which was all it appeared to contain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Might I make bold to ask,' he said, turning towards where Barnaby stood
+      looking on, 'that one who has the gift of sight, would lay this out for me
+      in bread to keep me on my way? Heaven's blessing on the young feet that
+      will bestir themselves in aid of one so helpless as a sightless man!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby looked at his mother, who nodded assent; in another moment he was
+      gone upon his charitable errand. The blind man sat listening with an
+      attentive face, until long after the sound of his retreating footsteps was
+      inaudible to the widow, and then said, suddenly, and in a very altered
+      tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There are various degrees and kinds of blindness, widow. There is the
+      connubial blindness, ma'am, which perhaps you may have observed in the
+      course of your own experience, and which is a kind of wilful and
+      self-bandaging blindness. There is the blindness of party, ma'am, and
+      public men, which is the blindness of a mad bull in the midst of a
+      regiment of soldiers clothed in red. There is the blind confidence of
+      youth, which is the blindness of young kittens, whose eyes have not yet
+      opened on the world; and there is that physical blindness, ma'am, of which
+      I am, contrairy to my own desire, a most illustrious example. Added to
+      these, ma'am, is that blindness of the intellect, of which we have a
+      specimen in your interesting son, and which, having sometimes glimmerings
+      and dawnings of the light, is scarcely to be trusted as a total darkness.
+      Therefore, ma'am, I have taken the liberty to get him out of the way for a
+      short time, while you and I confer together, and this precaution arising
+      out of the delicacy of my sentiments towards yourself, you will excuse me,
+      ma'am, I know.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having delivered himself of this speech with many flourishes of manner, he
+      drew from beneath his coat a flat stone bottle, and holding the cork
+      between his teeth, qualified his mug of water with a plentiful infusion of
+      the liquor it contained. He politely drained the bumper to her health, and
+      the ladies, and setting it down empty, smacked his lips with infinite
+      relish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am a citizen of the world, ma'am,' said the blind man, corking his
+      bottle, 'and if I seem to conduct myself with freedom, it is therefore.
+      You wonder who I am, ma'am, and what has brought me here. Such experience
+      of human nature as I have, leads me to that conclusion, without the aid of
+      eyes by which to read the movements of your soul as depicted in your
+      feminine features. I will satisfy your curiosity immediately, ma'am;
+      immediately.' With that he slapped his bottle on its broad back, and
+      having put it under his garment as before, crossed his legs and folded his
+      hands, and settled himself in his chair, previous to proceeding any
+      further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The change in his manner was so unexpected, the craft and wickedness of
+      his deportment were so much aggravated by his condition&mdash;for we are
+      accustomed to see in those who have lost a human sense, something in its
+      place almost divine&mdash;and this alteration bred so many fears in her
+      whom he addressed, that she could not pronounce one word. After waiting,
+      as it seemed, for some remark or answer, and waiting in vain, the visitor
+      resumed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Madam, my name is Stagg. A friend of mine who has desired the honour of
+      meeting with you any time these five years past, has commissioned me to
+      call upon you. I should be glad to whisper that gentleman's name in your
+      ear.&mdash;Zounds, ma'am, are you deaf? Do you hear me say that I should
+      be glad to whisper my friend's name in your ear?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You need not repeat it,' said the widow, with a stifled groan; 'I see too
+      well from whom you come.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But as a man of honour, ma'am,' said the blind man, striking himself on
+      the breast, 'whose credentials must not be disputed, I take leave to say
+      that I WILL mention that gentleman's name. Ay, ay,' he added, seeming to
+      catch with his quick ear the very motion of her hand, 'but not aloud. With
+      your leave, ma'am, I desire the favour of a whisper.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She moved towards him, and stooped down. He muttered a word in her ear;
+      and, wringing her hands, she paced up and down the room like one
+      distracted. The blind man, with perfect composure, produced his bottle
+      again, mixed another glassful; put it up as before; and, drinking from
+      time to time, followed her with his face in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are slow in conversation, widow,' he said after a time, pausing in
+      his draught. 'We shall have to talk before your son.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What would you have me do?' she answered. 'What do you want?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We are poor, widow, we are poor,' he retorted, stretching out his right
+      hand, and rubbing his thumb upon its palm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Poor!' she cried. 'And what am I?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Comparisons are odious,' said the blind man. 'I don't know, I don't care.
+      I say that we are poor. My friend's circumstances are indifferent, and so
+      are mine. We must have our rights, widow, or we must be bought off. But
+      you know that, as well as I, so where is the use of talking?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She still walked wildly to and fro. At length, stopping abruptly before
+      him, she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is he near here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is. Close at hand.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then I am lost!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not lost, widow,' said the blind man, calmly; 'only found. Shall I call
+      him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not for the world,' she answered, with a shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very good,' he replied, crossing his legs again, for he had made as
+      though he would rise and walk to the door. 'As you please, widow. His
+      presence is not necessary that I know of. But both he and I must live; to
+      live, we must eat and drink; to eat and drink, we must have money:&mdash;I
+      say no more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you know how pinched and destitute I am?' she retorted. 'I do not
+      think you do, or can. If you had eyes, and could look around you on this
+      poor place, you would have pity on me. Oh! let your heart be softened by
+      your own affliction, friend, and have some sympathy with mine.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man snapped his fingers as he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Beside the question, ma'am, beside the question. I have the
+      softest heart in the world, but I can't live upon it. Many a gentleman
+      lives well upon a soft head, who would find a heart of the same quality a
+      very great drawback. Listen to me. This is a matter of business, with
+      which sympathies and sentiments have nothing to do. As a mutual friend, I
+      wish to arrange it in a satisfactory manner, if possible; and thus the
+      case stands.&mdash;If you are very poor now, it's your own choice. You
+      have friends who, in case of need, are always ready to help you. My friend
+      is in a more destitute and desolate situation than most men, and, you and
+      he being linked together in a common cause, he naturally looks to you to
+      assist him. He has boarded and lodged with me a long time (for as I said
+      just now, I am very soft-hearted), and I quite approve of his entertaining
+      this opinion. You have always had a roof over your head; he has always
+      been an outcast. You have your son to comfort and assist you; he has
+      nobody at all. The advantages must not be all one side. You are in the
+      same boat, and we must divide the ballast a little more equally.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was about to speak, but he checked her, and went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The only way of doing this, is by making up a little purse now and then
+      for my friend; and that's what I advise. He bears you no malice that I
+      know of, ma'am: so little, that although you have treated him harshly more
+      than once, and driven him, I may say, out of doors, he has that regard for
+      you that I believe even if you disappointed him now, he would consent to
+      take charge of your son, and to make a man of him.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0207m.jpg" alt="0207m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0207.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      He laid a great stress on these latter words, and paused as if to find out
+      what effect they had produced. She only answered by her tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is a likely lad,' said the blind man, thoughtfully, 'for many
+      purposes, and not ill-disposed to try his fortune in a little change and
+      bustle, if I may judge from what I heard of his talk with you to-night.&mdash;Come.
+      In a word, my friend has pressing necessity for twenty pounds. You, who
+      can give up an annuity, can get that sum for him. It's a pity you should
+      be troubled. You seem very comfortable here, and it's worth that much to
+      remain so. Twenty pounds, widow, is a moderate demand. You know where to
+      apply for it; a post will bring it you.&mdash;Twenty pounds!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was about to answer him again, but again he stopped her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't say anything hastily; you might be sorry for it. Think of it a
+      little while. Twenty pounds&mdash;of other people's money&mdash;how easy!
+      Turn it over in your mind. I'm in no hurry. Night's coming on, and if I
+      don't sleep here, I shall not go far. Twenty pounds! Consider of it,
+      ma'am, for twenty minutes; give each pound a minute; that's a fair
+      allowance. I'll enjoy the air the while, which is very mild and pleasant
+      in these parts.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0209m.jpg" alt="0209m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0209.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      With these words he groped his way to the door, carrying his chair with
+      him. Then seating himself, under a spreading honeysuckle, and stretching
+      his legs across the threshold so that no person could pass in or out
+      without his knowledge, he took from his pocket a pipe, flint, steel and
+      tinder-box, and began to smoke. It was a lovely evening, of that gentle
+      kind, and at that time of year, when the twilight is most beautiful.
+      Pausing now and then to let his smoke curl slowly off, and to sniff the
+      grateful fragrance of the flowers, he sat there at his ease&mdash;as
+      though the cottage were his proper dwelling, and he had held undisputed
+      possession of it all his life&mdash;waiting for the widow's answer and for
+      Barnaby's return.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0213m.jpg" alt="0213m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0213.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0046" id="link2HCH0046">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 46
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When Barnaby returned with the bread, the sight of the pious old pilgrim
+      smoking his pipe and making himself so thoroughly at home, appeared to
+      surprise even him; the more so, as that worthy person, instead of putting
+      up the loaf in his wallet as a scarce and precious article, tossed it
+      carelessly on the table, and producing his bottle, bade him sit down and
+      drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For I carry some comfort, you see,' he said. 'Taste that. Is it good?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The water stood in Barnaby's eyes as he coughed from the strength of the
+      draught, and answered in the affirmative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Drink some more,' said the blind man; 'don't be afraid of it. You don't
+      taste anything like that, often, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Often!' cried Barnaby. 'Never!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Too poor?' returned the blind man with a sigh. 'Ay. That's bad. Your
+      mother, poor soul, would be happier if she was richer, Barnaby.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, so I tell her&mdash;the very thing I told her just before you came
+      to-night, when all that gold was in the sky,' said Barnaby, drawing his
+      chair nearer to him, and looking eagerly in his face. 'Tell me. Is there
+      any way of being rich, that I could find out?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Any way! A hundred ways.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, ay?' he returned. 'Do you say so? What are they?&mdash;Nay, mother,
+      it's for your sake I ask; not mine;&mdash;for yours, indeed. What are
+      they?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man turned his face, on which there was a smile of triumph, to
+      where the widow stood in great distress; and answered,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, they are not to be found out by stay-at-homes, my good friend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By stay-at-homes!' cried Barnaby, plucking at his sleeve. 'But I am not
+      one. Now, there you mistake. I am often out before the sun, and travel
+      home when he has gone to rest. I am away in the woods before the day has
+      reached the shady places, and am often there when the bright moon is
+      peeping through the boughs, and looking down upon the other moon that
+      lives in the water. As I walk along, I try to find, among the grass and
+      moss, some of that small money for which she works so hard and used to
+      shed so many tears. As I lie asleep in the shade, I dream of it&mdash;dream
+      of digging it up in heaps; and spying it out, hidden under bushes; and
+      seeing it sparkle, as the dew-drops do, among the leaves. But I never find
+      it. Tell me where it is. I'd go there, if the journey were a whole year
+      long, because I know she would be happier when I came home and brought
+      some with me. Speak again. I'll listen to you if you talk all night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man passed his hand lightly over the poor fellow's face, and
+      finding that his elbows were planted on the table, that his chin rested on
+      his two hands, that he leaned eagerly forward, and that his whole manner
+      expressed the utmost interest and anxiety, paused for a minute as though
+      he desired the widow to observe this fully, and then made answer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's in the world, bold Barnaby, the merry world; not in solitary places
+      like those you pass your time in, but in crowds, and where there's noise
+      and rattle.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good! good!' cried Barnaby, rubbing his hands. 'Yes! I love that. Grip
+      loves it too. It suits us both. That's brave!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;The kind of places,' said the blind man, 'that a young fellow
+      likes, and in which a good son may do more for his mother, and himself to
+      boot, in a month, than he could here in all his life&mdash;that is, if he
+      had a friend, you know, and some one to advise with.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You hear this, mother?' cried Barnaby, turning to her with delight.
+      'Never tell me we shouldn't heed it, if it lay shining at out feet. Why do
+      we heed it so much now? Why do you toil from morning until night?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Surely,' said the blind man, 'surely. Have you no answer, widow? Is your
+      mind,' he slowly added, 'not made up yet?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me speak with you,' she answered, 'apart.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lay your hand upon my sleeve,' said Stagg, arising from the table; 'and
+      lead me where you will. Courage, bold Barnaby. We'll talk more of this:
+      I've a fancy for you. Wait there till I come back. Now, widow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She led him out at the door, and into the little garden, where they
+      stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are a fit agent,' she said, in a half breathless manner, 'and well
+      represent the man who sent you here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll tell him that you said so,' Stagg retorted. 'He has a regard for
+      you, and will respect me the more (if possible) for your praise. We must
+      have our rights, widow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Rights! Do you know,' she said, 'that a word from me&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why do you stop?' returned the blind man calmly, after a long pause. 'Do
+      I know that a word from you would place my friend in the last position of
+      the dance of life? Yes, I do. What of that? It will never be spoken,
+      widow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are sure of that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Quite&mdash;so sure, that I don't come here to discuss the question. I
+      say we must have our rights, or we must be bought off. Keep to that point,
+      or let me return to my young friend, for I have an interest in the lad,
+      and desire to put him in the way of making his fortune. Bah! you needn't
+      speak,' he added hastily; 'I know what you would say: you have hinted at
+      it once already. Have I no feeling for you, because I am blind? No, I have
+      not. Why do you expect me, being in darkness, to be better than men who
+      have their sight&mdash;why should you? Is the hand of Heaven more manifest
+      in my having no eyes, than in your having two? It's the cant of you folks
+      to be horrified if a blind man robs, or lies, or steals; oh yes, it's far
+      worse in him, who can barely live on the few halfpence that are thrown to
+      him in streets, than in you, who can see, and work, and are not dependent
+      on the mercies of the world. A curse on you! You who have five senses may
+      be wicked at your pleasure; we who have four, and want the most important,
+      are to live and be moral on our affliction. The true charity and justice
+      of rich to poor, all the world over!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a moment when he had said these words, and caught the sound of
+      money, jingling in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well?' he cried, quickly resuming his former manner. 'That should lead to
+      something. The point, widow?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'First answer me one question,' she replied. 'You say he is close at hand.
+      Has he left London?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Being close at hand, widow, it would seem he has,' returned the blind
+      man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I mean, for good? You know that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, for good. The truth is, widow, that his making a longer stay there
+      might have had disagreeable consequences. He has come away for that
+      reason.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Listen,' said the widow, telling some money out, upon a bench beside
+      them. 'Count.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Six,' said the blind man, listening attentively. 'Any more?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They are the savings,' she answered, 'of five years. Six guineas.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put out his hand for one of the coins; felt it carefully, put it
+      between his teeth, rung it on the bench; and nodded to her to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'These have been scraped together and laid by, lest sickness or death
+      should separate my son and me. They have been purchased at the price of
+      much hunger, hard labour, and want of rest. If you CAN take them&mdash;do&mdash;on
+      condition that you leave this place upon the instant, and enter no more
+      into that room, where he sits now, expecting your return.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Six guineas,' said the blind man, shaking his head, 'though of the
+      fullest weight that were ever coined, fall very far short of twenty
+      pounds, widow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For such a sum, as you know, I must write to a distant part of the
+      country. To do that, and receive an answer, I must have time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Two days?' said Stagg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'More.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Four days?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A week. Return on this day week, at the same hour, but not to the house.
+      Wait at the corner of the lane.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Of course,' said the blind man, with a crafty look, 'I shall find you
+      there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where else can I take refuge? Is it not enough that you have made a
+      beggar of me, and that I have sacrificed my whole store, so hardly earned,
+      to preserve this home?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Humph!' said the blind man, after some consideration. 'Set me with my
+      face towards the point you speak of, and in the middle of the road. Is
+      this the spot?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'On this day week at sunset. And think of him within doors.&mdash;For the
+      present, good night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She made him no answer, nor did he stop for any. He went slowly away,
+      turning his head from time to time, and stopping to listen, as if he were
+      curious to know whether he was watched by any one. The shadows of night
+      were closing fast around, and he was soon lost in the gloom. It was not,
+      however, until she had traversed the lane from end to end, and made sure
+      that he was gone, that she re-entered the cottage, and hurriedly barred
+      the door and window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mother!' said Barnaby. 'What is the matter? Where is the blind man?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is gone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gone!' he cried, starting up. 'I must have more talk with him. Which way
+      did he take?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know,' she answered, folding her arms about him. 'You must not go
+      out to-night. There are ghosts and dreams abroad.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay?' said Barnaby, in a frightened whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is not safe to stir. We must leave this place to-morrow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This place! This cottage&mdash;and the little garden, mother!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes! To-morrow morning at sunrise. We must travel to London; lose
+      ourselves in that wide place&mdash;there would be some trace of us in any
+      other town&mdash;then travel on again, and find some new abode.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little persuasion was required to reconcile Barnaby to anything that
+      promised change. In another minute, he was wild with delight; in another,
+      full of grief at the prospect of parting with his friends the dogs; in
+      another, wild again; then he was fearful of what she had said to prevent
+      his wandering abroad that night, and full of terrors and strange
+      questions. His light-heartedness in the end surmounted all his other
+      feelings, and lying down in his clothes to the end that he might be ready
+      on the morrow, he soon fell fast asleep before the poor turf fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His mother did not close her eyes, but sat beside him, watching. Every
+      breath of wind sounded in her ears like that dreaded footstep at the door,
+      or like that hand upon the latch, and made the calm summer night, a night
+      of horror. At length the welcome day appeared. When she had made the
+      little preparations which were needful for their journey, and had prayed
+      upon her knees with many tears, she roused Barnaby, who jumped up gaily at
+      her summons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His clothes were few enough, and to carry Grip was a labour of love. As
+      the sun shed his earliest beams upon the earth, they closed the door of
+      their deserted home, and turned away. The sky was blue and bright. The air
+      was fresh and filled with a thousand perfumes. Barnaby looked upward, and
+      laughed with all his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was a day he usually devoted to a long ramble, and one of the dogs&mdash;the
+      ugliest of them all&mdash;came bounding up, and jumping round him in the
+      fulness of his joy. He had to bid him go back in a surly tone, and his
+      heart smote him while he did so. The dog retreated; turned with a
+      half-incredulous, half-imploring look; came a little back; and stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the last appeal of an old companion and a faithful friend&mdash;cast
+      off. Barnaby could bear no more, and as he shook his head and waved his
+      playmate home, he burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh mother, mother, how mournful he will be when he scratches at the door,
+      and finds it always shut!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was such a sense of home in the thought, that though her own eyes
+      overflowed she would not have obliterated the recollection of it, either
+      from her own mind or from his, for the wealth of the whole wide world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0047" id="link2HCH0047">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 47
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the exhaustless catalogue of Heaven's mercies to mankind, the power we
+      have of finding some germs of comfort in the hardest trials must ever
+      occupy the foremost place; not only because it supports and upholds us
+      when we most require to be sustained, but because in this source of
+      consolation there is something, we have reason to believe, of the divine
+      spirit; something of that goodness which detects amidst our own evil
+      doings, a redeeming quality; something which, even in our fallen nature,
+      we possess in common with the angels; which had its being in the old time
+      when they trod the earth, and lingers on it yet, in pity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How often, on their journey, did the widow remember with a grateful heart,
+      that out of his deprivation Barnaby's cheerfulness and affection sprung!
+      How often did she call to mind that but for that, he might have been
+      sullen, morose, unkind, far removed from her&mdash;vicious, perhaps, and
+      cruel! How often had she cause for comfort, in his strength, and hope, and
+      in his simple nature! Those feeble powers of mind which rendered him so
+      soon forgetful of the past, save in brief gleams and flashes,&mdash;even
+      they were a comfort now. The world to him was full of happiness; in every
+      tree, and plant, and flower, in every bird, and beast, and tiny insect
+      whom a breath of summer wind laid low upon the ground, he had delight. His
+      delight was hers; and where many a wise son would have made her sorrowful,
+      this poor light-hearted idiot filled her breast with thankfulness and
+      love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their stock of money was low, but from the hoard she had told into the
+      blind man's hand, the widow had withheld one guinea. This, with the few
+      pence she possessed besides, was to two persons of their frugal habits, a
+      goodly sum in bank. Moreover they had Grip in company; and when they must
+      otherwise have changed the guinea, it was but to make him exhibit outside
+      an alehouse door, or in a village street, or in the grounds or gardens of
+      a mansion of the better sort, and scores who would have given nothing in
+      charity, were ready to bargain for more amusement from the talking bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day&mdash;for they moved slowly, and although they had many rides in
+      carts and waggons, were on the road a week&mdash;Barnaby, with Grip upon
+      his shoulder and his mother following, begged permission at a trim lodge
+      to go up to the great house, at the other end of the avenue, and show his
+      raven. The man within was inclined to give them admittance, and was indeed
+      about to do so, when a stout gentleman with a long whip in his hand, and a
+      flushed face which seemed to indicate that he had had his morning's
+      draught, rode up to the gate, and called in a loud voice and with more
+      oaths than the occasion seemed to warrant to have it opened directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who hast thou got here?' said the gentleman angrily, as the man threw the
+      gate wide open, and pulled off his hat, 'who are these? Eh? art a beggar,
+      woman?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow answered with a curtsey, that they were poor travellers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Vagrants,' said the gentleman, 'vagrants and vagabonds. Thee wish to be
+      made acquainted with the cage, dost thee&mdash;the cage, the stocks, and
+      the whipping-post? Where dost come from?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She told him in a timid manner,&mdash;for he was very loud, hoarse, and
+      red-faced,&mdash;and besought him not to be angry, for they meant no harm,
+      and would go upon their way that moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't be too sure of that,' replied the gentleman, 'we don't allow
+      vagrants to roam about this place. I know what thou want'st&mdash;-stray
+      linen drying on hedges, and stray poultry, eh? What hast got in that
+      basket, lazy hound?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Grip, Grip, Grip&mdash;Grip the clever, Grip the wicked, Grip the knowing&mdash;Grip,
+      Grip, Grip,' cried the raven, whom Barnaby had shut up on the approach of
+      this stern personage. 'I'm a devil I'm a devil I'm a devil, Never say die
+      Hurrah Bow wow wow, Polly put the kettle on we'll all have tea.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Take the vermin out, scoundrel,' said the gentleman, 'and let me see
+      him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby, thus condescendingly addressed, produced his bird, but not
+      without much fear and trembling, and set him down upon the ground; which
+      he had no sooner done than Grip drew fifty corks at least, and then began
+      to dance; at the same time eyeing the gentleman with surprising insolence
+      of manner, and screwing his head so much on one side that he appeared
+      desirous of screwing it off upon the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cork-drawing seemed to make a greater impression on the gentleman's
+      mind, than the raven's power of speech, and was indeed particularly
+      adapted to his habits and capacity. He desired to have that done again,
+      but despite his being very peremptory, and notwithstanding that Barnaby
+      coaxed to the utmost, Grip turned a deaf ear to the request, and preserved
+      a dead silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Bring him along,' said the gentleman, pointing to the house. But Grip,
+      who had watched the action, anticipated his master, by hopping on before
+      them;&mdash;constantly flapping his wings, and screaming 'cook!'
+      meanwhile, as a hint perhaps that there was company coming, and a small
+      collation would be acceptable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby and his mother walked on, on either side of the gentleman on
+      horseback, who surveyed each of them from time to time in a proud and
+      coarse manner, and occasionally thundered out some question, the tone of
+      which alarmed Barnaby so much that he could find no answer, and, as a
+      matter of course, could make him no reply. On one of these occasions, when
+      the gentleman appeared disposed to exercise his horsewhip, the widow
+      ventured to inform him in a low voice and with tears in her eyes, that her
+      son was of weak mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'An idiot, eh?' said the gentleman, looking at Barnaby as he spoke. 'And
+      how long hast thou been an idiot?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She knows,' was Barnaby's timid answer, pointing to his mother&mdash;'I&mdash;always,
+      I believe.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'From his birth,' said the widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't believe it,' cried the gentleman, 'not a bit of it. It's an
+      excuse not to work. There's nothing like flogging to cure that disorder.
+      I'd make a difference in him in ten minutes, I'll be bound.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Heaven has made none in more than twice ten years, sir,' said the widow
+      mildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then why don't you shut him up? we pay enough for county institutions,
+      damn 'em. But thou'd rather drag him about to excite charity&mdash;of
+      course. Ay, I know thee.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, this gentleman had various endearing appellations among his intimate
+      friends. By some he was called 'a country gentleman of the true school,'
+      by some 'a fine old country gentleman,' by some 'a sporting gentleman,' by
+      some 'a thorough-bred Englishman,' by some 'a genuine John Bull;' but they
+      all agreed in one respect, and that was, that it was a pity there were not
+      more like him, and that because there were not, the country was going to
+      rack and ruin every day. He was in the commission of the peace, and could
+      write his name almost legibly; but his greatest qualifications were, that
+      he was more severe with poachers, was a better shot, a harder rider, had
+      better horses, kept better dogs, could eat more solid food, drink more
+      strong wine, go to bed every night more drunk and get up every morning
+      more sober, than any man in the county. In knowledge of horseflesh he was
+      almost equal to a farrier, in stable learning he surpassed his own head
+      groom, and in gluttony not a pig on his estate was a match for him. He had
+      no seat in Parliament himself, but he was extremely patriotic, and usually
+      drove his voters up to the poll with his own hands. He was warmly attached
+      to church and state, and never appointed to the living in his gift any but
+      a three-bottle man and a first-rate fox-hunter. He mistrusted the honesty
+      of all poor people who could read and write, and had a secret jealousy of
+      his own wife (a young lady whom he had married for what his friends called
+      'the good old English reason,' that her father's property adjoined his
+      own) for possessing those accomplishments in a greater degree than
+      himself. In short, Barnaby being an idiot, and Grip a creature of mere
+      brute instinct, it would be very hard to say what this gentleman was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rode up to the door of a handsome house approached by a great flight of
+      steps, where a man was waiting to take his horse, and led the way into a
+      large hall, which, spacious as it was, was tainted with the fumes of last
+      night's stale debauch. Greatcoats, riding-whips, bridles, top-boots,
+      spurs, and such gear, were strewn about on all sides, and formed, with
+      some huge stags' antlers, and a few portraits of dogs and horses, its
+      principal embellishments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Throwing himself into a great chair (in which, by the bye, he often snored
+      away the night, when he had been, according to his admirers, a finer
+      country gentleman than usual) he bade the man to tell his mistress to come
+      down: and presently there appeared, a little flurried, as it seemed, by
+      the unwonted summons, a lady much younger than himself, who had the
+      appearance of being in delicate health, and not too happy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here! Thou'st no delight in following the hounds as an Englishwoman
+      should have,' said the gentleman. 'See to this here. That'll please thee
+      perhaps.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0217m.jpg" alt="0217m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0217.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The lady smiled, sat down at a little distance from him, and glanced at
+      Barnaby with a look of pity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's an idiot, the woman says,' observed the gentleman, shaking his head;
+      'I don't believe it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you his mother?' asked the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She answered yes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's the use of asking HER?' said the gentleman, thrusting his hands
+      into his breeches pockets. 'She'll tell thee so, of course. Most likely
+      he's hired, at so much a day. There. Get on. Make him do something.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grip having by this time recovered his urbanity, condescended, at
+      Barnaby's solicitation, to repeat his various phrases of speech, and to go
+      through the whole of his performances with the utmost success. The corks,
+      and the never say die, afforded the gentleman so much delight that he
+      demanded the repetition of this part of the entertainment, until Grip got
+      into his basket, and positively refused to say another word, good or bad.
+      The lady too, was much amused with him; and the closing point of his
+      obstinacy so delighted her husband that he burst into a roar of laughter,
+      and demanded his price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby looked as though he didn't understand his meaning. Probably he did
+      not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'His price,' said the gentleman, rattling the money in his pockets, 'what
+      dost want for him? How much?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's not to be sold,' replied Barnaby, shutting up the basket in a great
+      hurry, and throwing the strap over his shoulder. 'Mother, come away.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thou seest how much of an idiot he is, book-learner,' said the gentleman,
+      looking scornfully at his wife. 'He can make a bargain. What dost want for
+      him, old woman?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is my son's constant companion,' said the widow. 'He is not to be
+      sold, sir, indeed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not to be sold!' cried the gentleman, growing ten times redder, hoarser,
+      and louder than before. 'Not to be sold!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Indeed no,' she answered. 'We have never thought of parting with him,
+      sir, I do assure you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was evidently about to make a very passionate retort, when a few
+      murmured words from his wife happening to catch his ear, he turned sharply
+      round, and said, 'Eh? What?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We can hardly expect them to sell the bird, against their own desire,'
+      she faltered. 'If they prefer to keep him&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Prefer to keep him!' he echoed. 'These people, who go tramping about the
+      country a-pilfering and vagabondising on all hands, prefer to keep a bird,
+      when a landed proprietor and a justice asks his price! That old woman's
+      been to school. I know she has. Don't tell me no,' he roared to the widow,
+      'I say, yes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby's mother pleaded guilty to the accusation, and hoped there was no
+      harm in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No harm!' said the gentleman. 'No. No harm. No harm, ye old rebel, not a
+      bit of harm. If my clerk was here, I'd set ye in the stocks, I would, or
+      lay ye in jail for prowling up and down, on the look-out for petty
+      larcenies, ye limb of a gipsy. Here, Simon, put these pilferers out, shove
+      'em into the road, out with 'em! Ye don't want to sell the bird, ye that
+      come here to beg, don't ye? If they an't out in double-quick, set the dogs
+      upon 'em!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They waited for no further dismissal, but fled precipitately, leaving the
+      gentleman to storm away by himself (for the poor lady had already
+      retreated), and making a great many vain attempts to silence Grip, who,
+      excited by the noise, drew corks enough for a city feast as they hurried
+      down the avenue, and appeared to congratulate himself beyond measure on
+      having been the cause of the disturbance. When they had nearly reached the
+      lodge, another servant, emerging from the shrubbery, feigned to be very
+      active in ordering them off, but this man put a crown into the widow's
+      hand, and whispering that his lady sent it, thrust them gently from the
+      gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This incident only suggested to the widow's mind, when they halted at an
+      alehouse some miles further on, and heard the justice's character as given
+      by his friends, that perhaps something more than capacity of stomach and
+      tastes for the kennel and the stable, were required to form either a
+      perfect country gentleman, a thoroughbred Englishman, or a genuine John
+      Bull; and that possibly the terms were sometimes misappropriated, not to
+      say disgraced. She little thought then, that a circumstance so slight
+      would ever influence their future fortunes; but time and experience
+      enlightened her in this respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mother,' said Barnaby, as they were sitting next day in a waggon which
+      was to take them within ten miles of the capital, 'we're going to London
+      first, you said. Shall we see that blind man there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was about to answer 'Heaven forbid!' but checked herself, and told him
+      No, she thought not; why did he ask?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's a wise man,' said Barnaby, with a thoughtful countenance. 'I wish
+      that we may meet with him again. What was it that he said of crowds? That
+      gold was to be found where people crowded, and not among the trees and in
+      such quiet places? He spoke as if he loved it; London is a crowded place;
+      I think we shall meet him there.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But why do you desire to see him, love?' she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because,' said Barnaby, looking wistfully at her, 'he talked to me about
+      gold, which is a rare thing, and say what you will, a thing you would like
+      to have, I know. And because he came and went away so strangely&mdash;just
+      as white-headed old men come sometimes to my bed's foot in the night, and
+      say what I can't remember when the bright day returns. He told me he'd
+      come back. I wonder why he broke his word!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But you never thought of being rich or gay, before, dear Barnaby. You
+      have always been contented.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed and bade her say that again, then cried, 'Ay ay&mdash;oh yes,'
+      and laughed once more. Then something passed that caught his fancy, and
+      the topic wandered from his mind, and was succeeded by another just as
+      fleeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was plain from what he had said, and from his returning to the
+      point more than once that day, and on the next, that the blind man's
+      visit, and indeed his words, had taken strong possession of his mind.
+      Whether the idea of wealth had occurred to him for the first time on
+      looking at the golden clouds that evening&mdash;and images were often
+      presented to his thoughts by outward objects quite as remote and distant;
+      or whether their poor and humble way of life had suggested it, by
+      contrast, long ago; or whether the accident (as he would deem it) of the
+      blind man's pursuing the current of his own remarks, had done so at the
+      moment; or he had been impressed by the mere circumstance of the man being
+      blind, and, therefore, unlike any one with whom he had talked before; it
+      was impossible to tell. She tried every means to discover, but in vain;
+      and the probability is that Barnaby himself was equally in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It filled her with uneasiness to find him harping on this string, but all
+      that she could do, was to lead him quickly to some other subject, and to
+      dismiss it from his brain. To caution him against their visitor, to show
+      any fear or suspicion in reference to him, would only be, she feared, to
+      increase that interest with which Barnaby regarded him, and to strengthen
+      his desire to meet him once again. She hoped, by plunging into the crowd,
+      to rid herself of her terrible pursuer, and then, by journeying to a
+      distance and observing increased caution, if that were possible, to live
+      again unknown, in secrecy and peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They reached, in course of time, their halting-place within ten miles of
+      London, and lay there for the night, after bargaining to be carried on for
+      a trifle next day, in a light van which was returning empty, and was to
+      start at five o'clock in the morning. The driver was punctual, the road
+      good&mdash;save for the dust, the weather being very hot and dry&mdash;and
+      at seven in the forenoon of Friday the second of June, one thousand seven
+      hundred and eighty, they alighted at the foot of Westminster Bridge, bade
+      their conductor farewell, and stood alone, together, on the scorching
+      pavement. For the freshness which night sheds upon such busy thoroughfares
+      had already departed, and the sun was shining with uncommon lustre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0048" id="link2HCH0048">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 48
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Uncertain where to go next, and bewildered by the crowd of people who were
+      already astir, they sat down in one of the recesses on the bridge, to
+      rest. They soon became aware that the stream of life was all pouring one
+      way, and that a vast throng of persons were crossing the river from the
+      Middlesex to the Surrey shore, in unusual haste and evident excitement.
+      They were, for the most part, in knots of two or three, or sometimes
+      half-a-dozen; they spoke little together&mdash;many of them were quite
+      silent; and hurried on as if they had one absorbing object in view, which
+      was common to them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were surprised to see that nearly every man in this great concourse,
+      which still came pouring past, without slackening in the least, wore in
+      his hat a blue cockade; and that the chance passengers who were not so
+      decorated, appeared timidly anxious to escape observation or attack, and
+      gave them the wall as if they would conciliate them. This, however, was
+      natural enough, considering their inferiority in point of numbers; for the
+      proportion of those who wore blue cockades, to those who were dressed as
+      usual, was at least forty or fifty to one. There was no quarrelling,
+      however: the blue cockades went swarming on, passing each other when they
+      could, and making all the speed that was possible in such a multitude; and
+      exchanged nothing more than looks, and very often not even those, with
+      such of the passers-by as were not of their number.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, the current of people had been confined to the two pathways, and
+      but a few more eager stragglers kept the road. But after half an hour or
+      so, the passage was completely blocked up by the great press, which, being
+      now closely wedged together, and impeded by the carts and coaches it
+      encountered, moved but slowly, and was sometimes at a stand for five or
+      ten minutes together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the lapse of nearly two hours, the numbers began to diminish
+      visibly, and gradually dwindling away, by little and little, left the
+      bridge quite clear, save that, now and then, some hot and dusty man, with
+      the cockade in his hat, and his coat thrown over his shoulder, went
+      panting by, fearful of being too late, or stopped to ask which way his
+      friends had taken, and being directed, hastened on again like one
+      refreshed. In this comparative solitude, which seemed quite strange and
+      novel after the late crowd, the widow had for the first time an
+      opportunity of inquiring of an old man who came and sat beside them, what
+      was the meaning of that great assemblage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, where have you come from,' he returned, 'that you haven't heard of
+      Lord George Gordon's great association? This is the day that he presents
+      the petition against the Catholics, God bless him!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What have all these men to do with that?' she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What have they to do with it!' the old man replied. 'Why, how you talk!
+      Don't you know his lordship has declared he won't present it to the house
+      at all, unless it is attended to the door by forty thousand good and true
+      men at least? There's a crowd for you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A crowd indeed!' said Barnaby. 'Do you hear that, mother!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And they're mustering yonder, as I am told,' resumed the old man, 'nigh
+      upon a hundred thousand strong. Ah! Let Lord George alone. He knows his
+      power. There'll be a good many faces inside them three windows over
+      there,' and he pointed to where the House of Commons overlooked the river,
+      'that'll turn pale when good Lord George gets up this afternoon, and with
+      reason too! Ay, ay. Let his lordship alone. Let him alone. HE knows!' And
+      so, with much mumbling and chuckling and shaking of his forefinger, he
+      rose, with the assistance of his stick, and tottered off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mother!' said Barnaby, 'that's a brave crowd he talks of. Come!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not to join it!' cried his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, yes,' he answered, plucking at her sleeve. 'Why not? Come!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't know,' she urged, 'what mischief they may do, where they may
+      lead you, what their meaning is. Dear Barnaby, for my sake&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For your sake!' he cried, patting her hand. 'Well! It IS for your sake,
+      mother. You remember what the blind man said, about the gold. Here's a
+      brave crowd! Come! Or wait till I come back&mdash;yes, yes, wait here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She tried with all the earnestness her fears engendered, to turn him from
+      his purpose, but in vain. He was stooping down to buckle on his shoe, when
+      a hackney-coach passed them rather quickly, and a voice inside called to
+      the driver to stop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Young man,' said a voice within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who's that?' cried Barnaby, looking up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you wear this ornament?' returned the stranger, holding out a blue
+      cockade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In Heaven's name, no. Pray do not give it him!' exclaimed the widow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Speak for yourself, woman,' said the man within the coach, coldly. 'Leave
+      the young man to his choice; he's old enough to make it, and to snap your
+      apron-strings. He knows, without your telling, whether he wears the sign
+      of a loyal Englishman or not.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby, trembling with impatience, cried, 'Yes! yes, yes, I do,' as he
+      had cried a dozen times already. The man threw him a cockade, and crying,
+      'Make haste to St George's Fields,' ordered the coachman to drive on fast;
+      and left them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With hands that trembled with his eagerness to fix the bauble in his hat,
+      Barnaby was adjusting it as he best could, and hurriedly replying to the
+      tears and entreaties of his mother, when two gentlemen passed on the
+      opposite side of the way. Observing them, and seeing how Barnaby was
+      occupied, they stopped, whispered together for an instant, turned back,
+      and came over to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why are you sitting here?' said one of them, who was dressed in a plain
+      suit of black, wore long lank hair, and carried a great cane. 'Why have
+      you not gone with the rest?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am going, sir,' replied Barnaby, finishing his task, and putting his
+      hat on with an air of pride. 'I shall be there directly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Say "my lord," young man, when his lordship does you the honour of
+      speaking to you,' said the second gentleman mildly. 'If you don't know
+      Lord George Gordon when you see him, it's high time you should.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay, Gashford,' said Lord George, as Barnaby pulled off his hat again and
+      made him a low bow, 'it's no great matter on a day like this, which every
+      Englishman will remember with delight and pride. Put on your hat, friend,
+      and follow us, for you lag behind and are late. It's past ten now. Didn't
+      you know that the hour for assembling was ten o'clock?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby shook his head and looked vacantly from one to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You might have known it, friend,' said Gashford, 'it was perfectly
+      understood. How came you to be so ill informed?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He cannot tell you, sir,' the widow interposed. 'It's of no use to ask
+      him. We are but this morning come from a long distance in the country, and
+      know nothing of these matters.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The cause has taken a deep root, and has spread its branches far and
+      wide,' said Lord George to his secretary. 'This is a pleasant hearing. I
+      thank Heaven for it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Amen!' cried Gashford with a solemn face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You do not understand me, my lord,' said the widow. 'Pardon me, but you
+      cruelly mistake my meaning. We know nothing of these matters. We have no
+      desire or right to join in what you are about to do. This is my son, my
+      poor afflicted son, dearer to me than my own life. In mercy's name, my
+      lord, go your way alone, and do not tempt him into danger!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good woman,' said Gashford, 'how can you!&mdash;Dear me!&mdash;What do
+      you mean by tempting, and by danger? Do you think his lordship is a
+      roaring lion, going about and seeking whom he may devour? God bless me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no, my lord, forgive me,' implored the widow, laying both her hands
+      upon his breast, and scarcely knowing what she did, or said, in the
+      earnestness of her supplication, 'but there are reasons why you should
+      hear my earnest, mother's prayer, and leave my son with me. Oh do! He is
+      not in his right senses, he is not, indeed!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is a bad sign of the wickedness of these times,' said Lord George,
+      evading her touch, and colouring deeply, 'that those who cling to the
+      truth and support the right cause, are set down as mad. Have you the heart
+      to say this of your own son, unnatural mother!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am astonished at you!' said Gashford, with a kind of meek severity.
+      'This is a very sad picture of female depravity.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has surely no appearance,' said Lord George, glancing at Barnaby, and
+      whispering in his secretary's ear, 'of being deranged? And even if he had,
+      we must not construe any trifling peculiarity into madness. Which of us'&mdash;and
+      here he turned red again&mdash;'would be safe, if that were made the law!'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0222m.jpg" alt="0222m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0222.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'Not one,' replied the secretary; 'in that case, the greater the zeal, the
+      truth, and talent; the more direct the call from above; the clearer would
+      be the madness. With regard to this young man, my lord,' he added, with a
+      lip that slightly curled as he looked at Barnaby, who stood twirling his
+      hat, and stealthily beckoning them to come away, 'he is as sensible and
+      self-possessed as any one I ever saw.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And you desire to make one of this great body?' said Lord George,
+      addressing him; 'and intended to make one, did you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes&mdash;yes,' said Barnaby, with sparkling eyes. 'To be sure I did! I
+      told her so myself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I see,' replied Lord George, with a reproachful glance at the unhappy
+      mother. 'I thought so. Follow me and this gentleman, and you shall have
+      your wish.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby kissed his mother tenderly on the cheek, and bidding her be of
+      good cheer, for their fortunes were both made now, did as he was desired.
+      She, poor woman, followed too&mdash;with how much fear and grief it would
+      be hard to tell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed quickly through the Bridge Road, where the shops were all shut
+      up (for the passage of the great crowd and the expectation of their return
+      had alarmed the tradesmen for their goods and windows), and where, in the
+      upper stories, all the inhabitants were congregated, looking down into the
+      street below, with faces variously expressive of alarm, of interest,
+      expectancy, and indignation. Some of these applauded, and some hissed; but
+      regardless of these interruptions&mdash;for the noise of a vast
+      congregation of people at a little distance, sounded in his ears like the
+      roaring of the sea&mdash;Lord George Gordon quickened his pace, and
+      presently arrived before St George's Fields.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were really fields at that time, and of considerable extent. Here an
+      immense multitude was collected, bearing flags of various kinds and sizes,
+      but all of the same colour&mdash;blue, like the cockades&mdash;some
+      sections marching to and fro in military array, and others drawn up in
+      circles, squares, and lines. A large portion, both of the bodies which
+      paraded the ground, and of those which remained stationary, were occupied
+      in singing hymns or psalms. With whomsoever this originated, it was well
+      done; for the sound of so many thousand voices in the air must have
+      stirred the heart of any man within him, and could not fail to have a
+      wonderful effect upon enthusiasts, however mistaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scouts had been posted in advance of the great body, to give notice of
+      their leader's coming. These falling back, the word was quickly passed
+      through the whole host, and for a short interval there ensued a profound
+      and deathlike silence, during which the mass was so still and quiet, that
+      the fluttering of a banner caught the eye, and became a circumstance of
+      note. Then they burst into a tremendous shout, into another, and another;
+      and the air seemed rent and shaken, as if by the discharge of cannon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gashford!' cried Lord George, pressing his secretary's arm tight within
+      his own, and speaking with as much emotion in his voice, as in his altered
+      face, 'I am called indeed, now. I feel and know it. I am the leader of a
+      host. If they summoned me at this moment with one voice to lead them on to
+      death, I'd do it&mdash;Yes, and fall first myself!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is a proud sight,' said the secretary. 'It is a noble day for England,
+      and for the great cause throughout the world. Such homage, my lord, as I,
+      an humble but devoted man, can render&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What are you doing?' cried his master, catching him by both hands; for he
+      had made a show of kneeling at his feet. 'Do not unfit me, dear Gashford,
+      for the solemn duty of this glorious day&mdash;' the tears stood in the
+      eyes of the poor gentleman as he said the words.&mdash;'Let us go among
+      them; we have to find a place in some division for this new recruit&mdash;give
+      me your hand.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford slid his cold insidious palm into his master's grasp, and so,
+      hand in hand, and followed still by Barnaby and by his mother too, they
+      mingled with the concourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had by this time taken to their singing again, and as their leader
+      passed between their ranks, they raised their voices to their utmost. Many
+      of those who were banded together to support the religion of their
+      country, even unto death, had never heard a hymn or psalm in all their
+      lives. But these fellows having for the most part strong lungs, and being
+      naturally fond of singing, chanted any ribaldry or nonsense that occurred
+      to them, feeling pretty certain that it would not be detected in the
+      general chorus, and not caring much if it were. Many of these voluntaries
+      were sung under the very nose of Lord George Gordon, who, quite
+      unconscious of their burden, passed on with his usual stiff and solemn
+      deportment, very much edified and delighted by the pious conduct of his
+      followers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went on and on, up this line, down that, round the exterior of
+      this circle, and on every side of that hollow square; and still there were
+      lines, and squares, and circles out of number to review. The day being now
+      intensely hot, and the sun striking down his fiercest rays upon the field,
+      those who carried heavy banners began to grow faint and weary; most of the
+      number assembled were fain to pull off their neckcloths, and throw their
+      coats and waistcoats open; and some, towards the centre, quite overpowered
+      by the excessive heat, which was of course rendered more unendurable by
+      the multitude around them, lay down upon the grass, and offered all they
+      had about them for a drink of water. Still, no man left the ground, not
+      even of those who were so distressed; still Lord George, streaming from
+      every pore, went on with Gashford; and still Barnaby and his mother
+      followed close behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had arrived at the top of a long line of some eight hundred men in
+      single file, and Lord George had turned his head to look back, when a loud
+      cry of recognition&mdash;in that peculiar and half-stifled tone which a
+      voice has, when it is raised in the open air and in the midst of a great
+      concourse of persons&mdash;was heard, and a man stepped with a shout of
+      laughter from the rank, and smote Barnaby on the shoulders with his heavy
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How now!' he cried. 'Barnaby Rudge! Why, where have you been hiding for
+      these hundred years?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby had been thinking within himself that the smell of the trodden
+      grass brought back his old days at cricket, when he was a young boy and
+      played on Chigwell Green. Confused by this sudden and boisterous address,
+      he stared in a bewildered manner at the man, and could scarcely say 'What!
+      Hugh!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hugh!' echoed the other; 'ay, Hugh&mdash;Maypole Hugh! You remember my
+      dog? He's alive now, and will know you, I warrant. What, you wear the
+      colour, do you? Well done! Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You know this young man, I see,' said Lord George.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Know him, my lord! as well as I know my own right hand. My captain knows
+      him. We all know him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will you take him into your division?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It hasn't in it a better, nor a nimbler, nor a more active man, than
+      Barnaby Rudge,' said Hugh. 'Show me the man who says it has! Fall in,
+      Barnaby. He shall march, my lord, between me and Dennis; and he shall
+      carry,' he added, taking a flag from the hand of a tired man who tendered
+      it, 'the gayest silken streamer in this valiant army.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In the name of God, no!' shrieked the widow, darting forward. 'Barnaby&mdash;my
+      lord&mdash;see&mdash;he'll come back&mdash;Barnaby&mdash;Barnaby!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Women in the field!' cried Hugh, stepping between them, and holding her
+      off. 'Holloa! My captain there!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's the matter here?' cried Simon Tappertit, bustling up in a great
+      heat. 'Do you call this order?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing like it, captain,' answered Hugh, still holding her back with his
+      outstretched hand. 'It's against all orders. Ladies are carrying off our
+      gallant soldiers from their duty. The word of command, captain! They're
+      filing off the ground. Quick!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Close!' cried Simon, with the whole power of his lungs. 'Form! March!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was thrown to the ground; the whole field was in motion; Barnaby was
+      whirled away into the heart of a dense mass of men, and she saw him no
+      more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0049" id="link2HCH0049">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 49
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The mob had been divided from its first assemblage into four divisions;
+      the London, the Westminster, the Southwark, and the Scotch. Each of these
+      divisions being subdivided into various bodies, and these bodies being
+      drawn up in various forms and figures, the general arrangement was, except
+      to the few chiefs and leaders, as unintelligible as the plan of a great
+      battle to the meanest soldier in the field. It was not without its method,
+      however; for, in a very short space of time after being put in motion, the
+      crowd had resolved itself into three great parties, and were prepared, as
+      had been arranged, to cross the river by different bridges, and make for
+      the House of Commons in separate detachments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the head of that division which had Westminster Bridge for its approach
+      to the scene of action, Lord George Gordon took his post; with Gashford at
+      his right hand, and sundry ruffians, of most unpromising appearance,
+      forming a kind of staff about him. The conduct of a second party, whose
+      route lay by Blackfriars, was entrusted to a committee of management,
+      including perhaps a dozen men: while the third, which was to go by London
+      Bridge, and through the main streets, in order that their numbers and
+      their serious intentions might be the better known and appreciated by the
+      citizens, were led by Simon Tappertit (assisted by a few subalterns,
+      selected from the Brotherhood of United Bulldogs), Dennis the hangman,
+      Hugh, and some others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The word of command being given, each of these great bodies took the road
+      assigned to it, and departed on its way, in perfect order and profound
+      silence. That which went through the City greatly exceeded the others in
+      number, and was of such prodigious extent that when the rear began to
+      move, the front was nearly four miles in advance, notwithstanding that the
+      men marched three abreast and followed very close upon each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the head of this party, in the place where Hugh, in the madness of his
+      humour, had stationed him, and walking between that dangerous companion
+      and the hangman, went Barnaby; as many a man among the thousands who
+      looked on that day afterwards remembered well. Forgetful of all other
+      things in the ecstasy of the moment, his face flushed and his eyes
+      sparkling with delight, heedless of the weight of the great banner he
+      carried, and mindful only of its flashing in the sun and rustling in the
+      summer breeze, on he went, proud, happy, elated past all telling:&mdash;the
+      only light-hearted, undesigning creature, in the whole assembly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What do you think of this?' asked Hugh, as they passed through the
+      crowded streets, and looked up at the windows which were thronged with
+      spectators. 'They have all turned out to see our flags and streamers? Eh,
+      Barnaby? Why, Barnaby's the greatest man of all the pack! His flag's the
+      largest of the lot, the brightest too. There's nothing in the show, like
+      Barnaby. All eyes are turned on him. Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't make that din, brother,' growled the hangman, glancing with no very
+      approving eyes at Barnaby as he spoke: 'I hope he don't think there's
+      nothing to be done, but carrying that there piece of blue rag, like a boy
+      at a breaking up. You're ready for action I hope, eh? You, I mean,' he
+      added, nudging Barnaby roughly with his elbow. 'What are you staring at?
+      Why don't you speak?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby had been gazing at his flag, and looked vacantly from his
+      questioner to Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He don't understand your way,' said the latter. 'Here, I'll explain it to
+      him. Barnaby old boy, attend to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll attend,' said Barnaby, looking anxiously round; 'but I wish I could
+      see her somewhere.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'See who?' demanded Dennis in a gruff tone. 'You an't in love I hope,
+      brother? That an't the sort of thing for us, you know. We mustn't have no
+      love here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She would be proud indeed to see me now, eh Hugh?' said Barnaby.
+      'Wouldn't it make her glad to see me at the head of this large show? She'd
+      cry for joy, I know she would. Where CAN she be? She never sees me at my
+      best, and what do I care to be gay and fine if SHE'S not by?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, what palaver's this?' asked Mr Dennis with supreme disdain. 'We an't
+      got no sentimental members among us, I hope.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't be uneasy, brother,' cried Hugh, 'he's only talking of his mother.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Of his what?' said Mr Dennis with a strong oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'His mother.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And have I combined myself with this here section, and turned out on this
+      here memorable day, to hear men talk about their mothers!' growled Mr
+      Dennis with extreme disgust. 'The notion of a man's sweetheart's bad
+      enough, but a man's mother!'&mdash;and here his disgust was so extreme
+      that he spat upon the ground, and could say no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Barnaby's right,' cried Hugh with a grin, 'and I say it. Lookee, bold
+      lad. If she's not here to see, it's because I've provided for her, and
+      sent half-a-dozen gentlemen, every one of 'em with a blue flag (but not
+      half as fine as yours), to take her, in state, to a grand house all hung
+      round with gold and silver banners, and everything else you please, where
+      she'll wait till you come, and want for nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' said Barnaby, his face beaming with delight: 'have you indeed?
+      That's a good hearing. That's fine! Kind Hugh!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But nothing to what will come, bless you,' retorted Hugh, with a wink at
+      Dennis, who regarded his new companion in arms with great astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, indeed?' cried Barnaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing at all,' said Hugh. 'Money, cocked hats and feathers, red coats
+      and gold lace; all the fine things there are, ever were, or will be; will
+      belong to us if we are true to that noble gentleman&mdash;the best man in
+      the world&mdash;carry our flags for a few days, and keep 'em safe. That's
+      all we've got to do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is that all?' cried Barnaby with glistening eyes, as he clutched his pole
+      the tighter; 'I warrant you I keep this one safe, then. You have put it in
+      good hands. You know me, Hugh. Nobody shall wrest this flag away.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well said!' cried Hugh. 'Ha ha! Nobly said! That's the old stout Barnaby,
+      that I have climbed and leaped with, many and many a day&mdash;I knew I
+      was not mistaken in Barnaby.&mdash;Don't you see, man,' he added in a
+      whisper, as he slipped to the other side of Dennis, 'that the lad's a
+      natural, and can be got to do anything, if you take him the right way?
+      Letting alone the fun he is, he's worth a dozen men, in earnest, as you'd
+      find if you tried a fall with him. Leave him to me. You shall soon see
+      whether he's of use or not.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis received these explanatory remarks with many nods and winks, and
+      softened his behaviour towards Barnaby from that moment. Hugh, laying his
+      finger on his nose, stepped back into his former place, and they proceeded
+      in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon when the three great
+      parties met at Westminster, and, uniting into one huge mass, raised a
+      tremendous shout. This was not only done in token of their presence, but
+      as a signal to those on whom the task devolved, that it was time to take
+      possession of the lobbies of both Houses, and of the various avenues of
+      approach, and of the gallery stairs. To the last-named place, Hugh and
+      Dennis, still with their pupil between them, rushed straightway; Barnaby
+      having given his flag into the hands of one of their own party, who kept
+      them at the outer door. Their followers pressing on behind, they were
+      borne as on a great wave to the very doors of the gallery, whence it was
+      impossible to retreat, even if they had been so inclined, by reason of the
+      throng which choked up the passages. It is a familiar expression in
+      describing a great crowd, that a person might have walked upon the
+      people's heads. In this case it was actually done; for a boy who had by
+      some means got among the concourse, and was in imminent danger of
+      suffocation, climbed to the shoulders of a man beside him and walked upon
+      the people's hats and heads into the open street; traversing in his
+      passage the whole length of two staircases and a long gallery. Nor was the
+      swarm without less dense; for a basket which had been tossed into the
+      crowd, was jerked from head to head, and shoulder to shoulder, and went
+      spinning and whirling on above them, until it was lost to view, without
+      ever once falling in among them or coming near the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through this vast throng, sprinkled doubtless here and there with honest
+      zealots, but composed for the most part of the very scum and refuse of
+      London, whose growth was fostered by bad criminal laws, bad prison
+      regulations, and the worst conceivable police, such of the members of both
+      Houses of Parliament as had not taken the precaution to be already at
+      their posts, were compelled to fight and force their way. Their carriages
+      were stopped and broken; the wheels wrenched off; the glasses shivered to
+      atoms; the panels beaten in; drivers, footmen, and masters, pulled from
+      their seats and rolled in the mud. Lords, commoners, and reverend bishops,
+      with little distinction of person or party, were kicked and pinched and
+      hustled; passed from hand to hand through various stages of ill-usage; and
+      sent to their fellow-senators at last with their clothes hanging in
+      ribands about them, their bagwigs torn off, themselves speechless and
+      breathless, and their persons covered with the powder which had been
+      cuffed and beaten out of their hair. One lord was so long in the hands of
+      the populace, that the Peers as a body resolved to sally forth and rescue
+      him, and were in the act of doing so, when he happily appeared among them
+      covered with dirt and bruises, and hardly to be recognised by those who
+      knew him best. The noise and uproar were on the increase every moment. The
+      air was filled with execrations, hoots, and howlings. The mob raged and
+      roared, like a mad monster as it was, unceasingly, and each new outrage
+      served to swell its fury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within doors, matters were even yet more threatening. Lord George&mdash;preceded
+      by a man who carried the immense petition on a porter's knot through the
+      lobby to the door of the House of Commons, where it was received by two
+      officers of the house who rolled it up to the table ready for presentation&mdash;had
+      taken his seat at an early hour, before the Speaker went to prayers. His
+      followers pouring in at the same time, the lobby and all the avenues were
+      immediately filled, as we have seen. Thus the members were not only
+      attacked in their passage through the streets, but were set upon within
+      the very walls of Parliament; while the tumult, both within and without,
+      was so great, that those who attempted to speak could scarcely hear their
+      own voices: far less, consult upon the course it would be wise to take in
+      such extremity, or animate each other to dignified and firm resistance. So
+      sure as any member, just arrived, with dress disordered and dishevelled
+      hair, came struggling through the crowd in the lobby, it yelled and
+      screamed in triumph; and when the door of the House, partially and
+      cautiously opened by those within for his admission, gave them a momentary
+      glimpse of the interior, they grew more wild and savage, like beasts at
+      the sight of prey, and made a rush against the portal which strained its
+      locks and bolts in their staples, and shook the very beams.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0227m.jpg" alt="0227m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0227.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The strangers' gallery, which was immediately above the door of the House,
+      had been ordered to be closed on the first rumour of disturbance, and was
+      empty; save that now and then Lord George took his seat there, for the
+      convenience of coming to the head of the stairs which led to it, and
+      repeating to the people what had passed within. It was on these stairs
+      that Barnaby, Hugh, and Dennis were posted. There were two flights, short,
+      steep, and narrow, running parallel to each other, and leading to two
+      little doors communicating with a low passage which opened on the gallery.
+      Between them was a kind of well, or unglazed skylight, for the admission
+      of light and air into the lobby, which might be some eighteen or twenty
+      feet below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon one of these little staircases&mdash;not that at the head of which
+      Lord George appeared from time to time, but the other&mdash;Gashford stood
+      with his elbow on the bannister, and his cheek resting on his hand, with
+      his usual crafty aspect. Whenever he varied this attitude in the slightest
+      degree&mdash;so much as by the gentlest motion of his arm&mdash;the uproar
+      was certain to increase, not merely there, but in the lobby below; from
+      which place no doubt, some man who acted as fugleman to the rest, was
+      constantly looking up and watching him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Order!' cried Hugh, in a voice which made itself heard even above the
+      roar and tumult, as Lord George appeared at the top of the staircase.
+      'News! News from my lord!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The noise continued, notwithstanding his appearance, until Gashford looked
+      round. There was silence immediately&mdash;even among the people in the
+      passages without, and on the other staircases, who could neither see nor
+      hear, but to whom, notwithstanding, the signal was conveyed with
+      marvellous rapidity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gentlemen,' said Lord George, who was very pale and agitated, we must be
+      firm. They talk of delays, but we must have no delays. They talk of taking
+      your petition into consideration next Tuesday, but we must have it
+      considered now. Present appearances look bad for our success, but we must
+      succeed and will!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We must succeed and will!' echoed the crowd. And so among their shouts
+      and cheers and other cries, he bowed to them and retired, and presently
+      came back again. There was another gesture from Gashford, and a dead
+      silence directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am afraid,' he said, this time, 'that we have little reason, gentlemen,
+      to hope for any redress from the proceedings of Parliament. But we must
+      redress our own grievances, we must meet again, we must put our trust in
+      Providence, and it will bless our endeavours.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This speech being a little more temperate than the last, was not so
+      favourably received. When the noise and exasperation were at their height,
+      he came back once more, and told them that the alarm had gone forth for
+      many miles round; that when the King heard of their assembling together in
+      that great body, he had no doubt, His Majesty would send down private
+      orders to have their wishes complied with; and&mdash;with the manner of
+      his speech as childish, irresolute, and uncertain as his matter&mdash;was
+      proceeding in this strain, when two gentlemen suddenly appeared at the
+      door where he stood, and pressing past him and coming a step or two lower
+      down upon the stairs, confronted the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boldness of this action quite took them by surprise. They were not the
+      less disconcerted, when one of the gentlemen, turning to Lord George,
+      spoke thus&mdash;in a loud voice that they might hear him well, but quite
+      coolly and collectedly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You may tell these people, if you please, my lord, that I am General
+      Conway of whom they have heard; and that I oppose this petition, and all
+      their proceedings, and yours. I am a soldier, you may tell them, and I
+      will protect the freedom of this place with my sword. You see, my lord,
+      that the members of this House are all in arms to-day; you know that the
+      entrance to it is a narrow one; you cannot be ignorant that there are men
+      within these walls who are determined to defend that pass to the last, and
+      before whom many lives must fall if your adherents persevere. Have a care
+      what you do.'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0230m.jpg" alt="0230m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0230.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'And my Lord George,' said the other gentleman, addressing him in like
+      manner, 'I desire them to hear this, from me&mdash;Colonel Gordon&mdash;your
+      near relation. If a man among this crowd, whose uproar strikes us deaf,
+      crosses the threshold of the House of Commons, I swear to run my sword
+      that moment&mdash;not into his, but into your body!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, they stepped back again, keeping their faces towards the crowd;
+      took each an arm of the misguided nobleman; drew him into the passage, and
+      shut the door; which they directly locked and fastened on the inside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so quickly done, and the demeanour of both gentlemen&mdash;who
+      were not young men either&mdash;was so gallant and resolute, that the
+      crowd faltered and stared at each other with irresolute and timid looks.
+      Many tried to turn towards the door; some of the faintest-hearted cried
+      they had best go back, and called to those behind to give way; and the
+      panic and confusion were increasing rapidly, when Gashford whispered Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What now!' Hugh roared aloud, turning towards them. 'Why go back? Where
+      can you do better than here, boys! One good rush against these doors and
+      one below at the same time, will do the business. Rush on, then! As to the
+      door below, let those stand back who are afraid. Let those who are not
+      afraid, try who shall be the first to pass it. Here goes! Look out down
+      there!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without the delay of an instant, he threw himself headlong over the
+      bannisters into the lobby below. He had hardly touched the ground when
+      Barnaby was at his side. The chaplain's assistant, and some members who
+      were imploring the people to retire, immediately withdrew; and then, with
+      a great shout, both crowds threw themselves against the doors pell-mell,
+      and besieged the House in earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment, when a second onset must have brought them into collision
+      with those who stood on the defensive within, in which case great loss of
+      life and bloodshed would inevitably have ensued,&mdash;the hindmost
+      portion of the crowd gave way, and the rumour spread from mouth to mouth
+      that a messenger had been despatched by water for the military, who were
+      forming in the street. Fearful of sustaining a charge in the narrow
+      passages in which they were so closely wedged together, the throng poured
+      out as impetuously as they had flocked in. As the whole stream turned at
+      once, Barnaby and Hugh went with it: and so, fighting and struggling and
+      trampling on fallen men and being trampled on in turn themselves, they and
+      the whole mass floated by degrees into the open street, where a large
+      detachment of the Guards, both horse and foot, came hurrying up; clearing
+      the ground before them so rapidly that the people seemed to melt away as
+      they advanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The word of command to halt being given, the soldiers formed across the
+      street; the rioters, breathless and exhausted with their late exertions,
+      formed likewise, though in a very irregular and disorderly manner. The
+      commanding officer rode hastily into the open space between the two
+      bodies, accompanied by a magistrate and an officer of the House of
+      Commons, for whose accommodation a couple of troopers had hastily
+      dismounted. The Riot Act was read, but not a man stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first rank of the insurgents, Barnaby and Hugh stood side by side.
+      Somebody had thrust into Barnaby's hands when he came out into the street,
+      his precious flag; which, being now rolled up and tied round the pole,
+      looked like a giant quarter-staff as he grasped it firmly and stood upon
+      his guard. If ever man believed with his whole heart and soul that he was
+      engaged in a just cause, and that he was bound to stand by his leader to
+      the last, poor Barnaby believed it of himself and Lord George Gordon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After an ineffectual attempt to make himself heard, the magistrate gave
+      the word and the Horse Guards came riding in among the crowd. But, even
+      then, he galloped here and there, exhorting the people to disperse; and,
+      although heavy stones were thrown at the men, and some were desperately
+      cut and bruised, they had no orders but to make prisoners of such of the
+      rioters as were the most active, and to drive the people back with the
+      flat of their sabres. As the horses came in among them, the throng gave
+      way at many points, and the Guards, following up their advantage, were
+      rapidly clearing the ground, when two or three of the foremost, who were
+      in a manner cut off from the rest by the people closing round them, made
+      straight towards Barnaby and Hugh, who had no doubt been pointed out as
+      the two men who dropped into the lobby: laying about them now with some
+      effect, and inflicting on the more turbulent of their opponents, a few
+      slight flesh wounds, under the influence of which a man dropped, here and
+      there, into the arms of his fellows, amid much groaning and confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the sight of gashed and bloody faces, seen for a moment in the crowd,
+      then hidden by the press around them, Barnaby turned pale and sick. But he
+      stood his ground, and grasping his pole more firmly yet, kept his eye
+      fixed upon the nearest soldier&mdash;nodding his head meanwhile, as Hugh,
+      with a scowling visage, whispered in his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The soldier came spurring on, making his horse rear as the people pressed
+      about him, cutting at the hands of those who would have grasped his rein
+      and forced his charger back, and waving to his comrades to follow&mdash;and
+      still Barnaby, without retreating an inch, waited for his coming. Some
+      called to him to fly, and some were in the very act of closing round him,
+      to prevent his being taken, when the pole swept into the air above the
+      people's heads, and the man's saddle was empty in an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, he and Hugh turned and fled, the crowd opening to let them pass, and
+      closing up again so quickly that there was no clue to the course they had
+      taken. Panting for breath, hot, dusty, and exhausted with fatigue, they
+      reached the riverside in safety, and getting into a boat with all despatch
+      were soon out of any immediate danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they glided down the river, they plainly heard the people cheering; and
+      supposing they might have forced the soldiers to retreat, lay upon their
+      oars for a few minutes, uncertain whether to return or not. But the crowd
+      passing along Westminster Bridge, soon assured them that the populace were
+      dispersing; and Hugh rightly guessed from this, that they had cheered the
+      magistrate for offering to dismiss the military on condition of their
+      immediate departure to their several homes, and that he and Barnaby were
+      better where they were. He advised, therefore, that they should proceed to
+      Blackfriars, and, going ashore at the bridge, make the best of their way
+      to The Boot; where there was not only good entertainment and safe lodging,
+      but where they would certainly be joined by many of their late companions.
+      Barnaby assenting, they decided on this course of action, and pulled for
+      Blackfriars accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They landed at a critical time, and fortunately for themselves at the
+      right moment. For, coming into Fleet Street, they found it in an unusual
+      stir; and inquiring the cause, were told that a body of Horse Guards had
+      just galloped past, and that they were escorting some rioters whom they
+      had made prisoners, to Newgate for safety. Not at all ill-pleased to have
+      so narrowly escaped the cavalcade, they lost no more time in asking
+      questions, but hurried to The Boot with as much speed as Hugh considered
+      it prudent to make, without appearing singular or attracting an
+      inconvenient share of public notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0050" id="link2HCH0050">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 50
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They were among the first to reach the tavern, but they had not been there
+      many minutes, when several groups of men who had formed part of the crowd,
+      came straggling in. Among them were Simon Tappertit and Mr Dennis; both of
+      whom, but especially the latter, greeted Barnaby with the utmost warmth,
+      and paid him many compliments on the prowess he had shown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Which,' said Dennis, with an oath, as he rested his bludgeon in a corner
+      with his hat upon it, and took his seat at the same table with them, 'it
+      does me good to think of. There was a opportunity! But it led to nothing.
+      For my part, I don't know what would. There's no spirit among the people
+      in these here times. Bring something to eat and drink here. I'm disgusted
+      with humanity.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'On what account?' asked Mr Tappertit, who had been quenching his fiery
+      face in a half-gallon can. 'Don't you consider this a good beginning,
+      mister?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Give me security that it an't a ending,' rejoined the hangman. 'When that
+      soldier went down, we might have made London ours; but no;&mdash;we stand,
+      and gape, and look on&mdash;the justice (I wish he had had a bullet in
+      each eye, as he would have had, if we'd gone to work my way) says, "My
+      lads, if you'll give me your word to disperse, I'll order off the
+      military," our people sets up a hurrah, throws up the game with the
+      winning cards in their hands, and skulks away like a pack of tame curs as
+      they are. Ah,' said the hangman, in a tone of deep disgust, 'it makes me
+      blush for my feller creeturs. I wish I had been born a ox, I do!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You'd have been quite as agreeable a character if you had been, I think,'
+      returned Simon Tappertit, going out in a lofty manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't be too sure of that,' rejoined the hangman, calling after him; 'if
+      I was a horned animal at the present moment, with the smallest grain of
+      sense, I'd toss every man in this company, excepting them two,' meaning
+      Hugh and Barnaby, 'for his manner of conducting himself this day.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With which mournful review of their proceedings, Mr Dennis sought
+      consolation in cold boiled beef and beer; but without at all relaxing the
+      grim and dissatisfied expression of his face, the gloom of which was
+      rather deepened than dissipated by their grateful influence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The company who were thus libelled might have retaliated by strong words,
+      if not by blows, but they were dispirited and worn out. The greater part
+      of them had fasted since morning; all had suffered extremely from the
+      excessive heat; and between the day's shouting, exertion, and excitement,
+      many had quite lost their voices, and so much of their strength that they
+      could hardly stand. Then they were uncertain what to do next, fearful of
+      the consequences of what they had done already, and sensible that after
+      all they had carried no point, but had indeed left matters worse than they
+      had found them. Of those who had come to The Boot, many dropped off within
+      an hour; such of them as were really honest and sincere, never, after the
+      morning's experience, to return, or to hold any communication with their
+      late companions. Others remained but to refresh themselves, and then went
+      home desponding; others who had theretofore been regular in their
+      attendance, avoided the place altogether. The half-dozen prisoners whom
+      the Guards had taken, were magnified by report into half-a-hundred at
+      least; and their friends, being faint and sober, so slackened in their
+      energy, and so drooped beneath these dispiriting influences, that by eight
+      o'clock in the evening, Dennis, Hugh, and Barnaby, were left alone. Even
+      they were fast asleep upon the benches, when Gashford's entrance roused
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! you ARE here then?' said the Secretary. 'Dear me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, where should we be, Muster Gashford!' Dennis rejoined as he rose
+      into a sitting posture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh nowhere, nowhere,' he returned with excessive mildness. 'The streets
+      are filled with blue cockades. I rather thought you might have been among
+      them. I am glad you are not.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have orders for us, master, then?' said Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh dear, no. Not I. No orders, my good fellow. What orders should I have?
+      You are not in my service.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Muster Gashford,' remonstrated Dennis, 'we belong to the cause, don't
+      we?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The cause!' repeated the secretary, looking at him in a sort of
+      abstraction. 'There is no cause. The cause is lost.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lost!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh yes. You have heard, I suppose? The petition is rejected by a hundred
+      and ninety-two, to six. It's quite final. We might have spared ourselves
+      some trouble. That, and my lord's vexation, are the only circumstances I
+      regret. I am quite satisfied in all other respects.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he said this, he took a penknife from his pocket, and putting his hat
+      upon his knee, began to busy himself in ripping off the blue cockade which
+      he had worn all day; at the same time humming a psalm tune which had been
+      very popular in the morning, and dwelling on it with a gentle regret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His two adherents looked at each other, and at him, as if they were at a
+      loss how to pursue the subject. At length Hugh, after some elbowing and
+      winking between himself and Mr Dennis, ventured to stay his hand, and to
+      ask him why he meddled with that riband in his hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because,' said the secretary, looking up with something between a snarl
+      and a smile; 'because to sit still and wear it, or to fall asleep and wear
+      it, is a mockery. That's all, friend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What would you have us do, master!' cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing,' returned Gashford, shrugging his shoulders, 'nothing. When my
+      lord was reproached and threatened for standing by you, I, as a prudent
+      man, would have had you do nothing. When the soldiers were trampling you
+      under their horses' feet, I would have had you do nothing. When one of
+      them was struck down by a daring hand, and I saw confusion and dismay in
+      all their faces, I would have had you do nothing&mdash;just what you did,
+      in short. This is the young man who had so little prudence and so much
+      boldness. Ah! I am sorry for him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sorry, master!' cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sorry, Muster Gashford!' echoed Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In case there should be a proclamation out to-morrow, offering five
+      hundred pounds, or some such trifle, for his apprehension; and in case it
+      should include another man who dropped into the lobby from the stairs
+      above,' said Gashford, coldly; 'still, do nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Fire and fury, master!' cried Hugh, starting up. 'What have we done, that
+      you should talk to us like this!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing,' returned Gashford with a sneer. 'If you are cast into prison;
+      if the young man&mdash;' here he looked hard at Barnaby's attentive face&mdash;'is
+      dragged from us and from his friends; perhaps from people whom he loves,
+      and whom his death would kill; is thrown into jail, brought out and hanged
+      before their eyes; still, do nothing. You'll find it your best policy, I
+      have no doubt.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come on!' cried Hugh, striding towards the door. 'Dennis&mdash;Barnaby&mdash;come
+      on!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where? To do what?' said Gashford, slipping past him, and standing with
+      his back against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Anywhere! Anything!' cried Hugh. 'Stand aside, master, or the window will
+      serve our turn as well. Let us out!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha ha! You are of such&mdash;of such an impetuous nature,' said
+      Gashford, changing his manner for one of the utmost good fellowship and
+      the pleasantest raillery; 'you are such an excitable creature&mdash;but
+      you'll drink with me before you go?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, yes&mdash;certainly,' growled Dennis, drawing his sleeve across his
+      thirsty lips. 'No malice, brother. Drink with Muster Gashford!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh wiped his heated brow, and relaxed into a smile. The artful secretary
+      laughed outright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Some liquor here! Be quick, or he'll not stop, even for that. He is a man
+      of such desperate ardour!' said the smooth secretary, whom Mr Dennis
+      corroborated with sundry nods and muttered oaths&mdash;'Once roused, he is
+      a fellow of such fierce determination!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh poised his sturdy arm aloft, and clapping Barnaby on the back, bade
+      him fear nothing. They shook hands together&mdash;poor Barnaby evidently
+      possessed with the idea that he was among the most virtuous and
+      disinterested heroes in the world&mdash;and Gashford laughed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hear,' he said smoothly, as he stood among them with a great measure of
+      liquor in his hand, and filled their glasses as quickly and as often as
+      they chose, 'I hear&mdash;but I cannot say whether it be true or false&mdash;that
+      the men who are loitering in the streets to-night are half disposed to
+      pull down a Romish chapel or two, and that they only want leaders. I even
+      heard mention of those in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and in
+      Warwick Street, Golden Square; but common report, you know&mdash;You are
+      not going?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'To do nothing, master, eh?' cried Hugh. 'No jails and halter for
+      Barnaby and me. They must be frightened out of that. Leaders are wanted,
+      are they? Now boys!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A most impetuous fellow!' cried the secretary. 'Ha ha! A courageous,
+      boisterous, most vehement fellow! A man who&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no need to finish the sentence, for they had rushed out of the
+      house, and were far beyond hearing. He stopped in the middle of a laugh,
+      listened, drew on his gloves, and, clasping his hands behind him, paced
+      the deserted room for a long time, then bent his steps towards the busy
+      town, and walked into the streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were filled with people, for the rumour of that day's proceedings had
+      made a great noise. Those persons who did not care to leave home, were at
+      their doors or windows, and one topic of discourse prevailed on every
+      side. Some reported that the riots were effectually put down; others that
+      they had broken out again: some said that Lord George Gordon had been sent
+      under a strong guard to the Tower; others that an attempt had been made
+      upon the King's life, that the soldiers had been again called out, and
+      that the noise of musketry in a distant part of the town had been plainly
+      heard within an hour. As it grew darker, these stories became more direful
+      and mysterious; and often, when some frightened passenger ran past with
+      tidings that the rioters were not far off, and were coming up, the doors
+      were shut and barred, lower windows made secure, and as much consternation
+      engendered, as if the city were invaded by a foreign army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford walked stealthily about, listening to all he heard, and diffusing
+      or confirming, whenever he had an opportunity, such false intelligence as
+      suited his own purpose; and, busily occupied in this way, turned into
+      Holborn for the twentieth time, when a great many women and children came
+      flying along the street&mdash;often panting and looking back&mdash;and the
+      confused murmur of numerous voices struck upon his ear. Assured by these
+      tokens, and by the red light which began to flash upon the houses on
+      either side, that some of his friends were indeed approaching, he begged a
+      moment's shelter at a door which opened as he passed, and running with
+      some other persons to an upper window, looked out upon the crowd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had torches among them, and the chief faces were distinctly visible.
+      That they had been engaged in the destruction of some building was
+      sufficiently apparent, and that it was a Catholic place of worship was
+      evident from the spoils they bore as trophies, which were easily
+      recognisable for the vestments of priests, and rich fragments of altar
+      furniture. Covered with soot, and dirt, and dust, and lime; their garments
+      torn to rags; their hair hanging wildly about them; their hands and faces
+      jagged and bleeding with the wounds of rusty nails; Barnaby, Hugh, and
+      Dennis hurried on before them all, like hideous madmen. After them, the
+      dense throng came fighting on: some singing; some shouting in triumph;
+      some quarrelling among themselves; some menacing the spectators as they
+      passed; some with great wooden fragments, on which they spent their rage
+      as if they had been alive, rending them limb from limb, and hurling the
+      scattered morsels high into the air; some in a drunken state, unconscious
+      of the hurts they had received from falling bricks, and stones, and beams;
+      one borne upon a shutter, in the very midst, covered with a dingy cloth, a
+      senseless, ghastly heap. Thus&mdash;a vision of coarse faces, with here
+      and there a blot of flaring, smoky light; a dream of demon heads and
+      savage eyes, and sticks and iron bars uplifted in the air, and whirled
+      about; a bewildering horror, in which so much was seen, and yet so little,
+      which seemed so long, and yet so short, in which there were so many
+      phantoms, not to be forgotten all through life, and yet so many things
+      that could not be observed in one distracting glimpse&mdash;it flitted
+      onward, and was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it passed away upon its work of wrath and ruin, a piercing scream was
+      heard. A knot of persons ran towards the spot; Gashford, who just then
+      emerged into the street, among them. He was on the outskirts of the little
+      concourse, and could not see or hear what passed within; but one who had a
+      better place, informed him that a widow woman had descried her son among
+      the rioters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is that all?' said the secretary, turning his face homewards. 'Well! I
+      think this looks a little more like business!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0051" id="link2HCH0051">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 51
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Promising as these outrages were to Gashford's view, and much like
+      business as they looked, they extended that night no farther. The soldiers
+      were again called out, again they took half-a-dozen prisoners, and again
+      the crowd dispersed after a short and bloodless scuffle. Hot and drunken
+      though they were, they had not yet broken all bounds and set all law and
+      government at defiance. Something of their habitual deference to the
+      authority erected by society for its own preservation yet remained among
+      them, and had its majesty been vindicated in time, the secretary would
+      have had to digest a bitter disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By midnight, the streets were clear and quiet, and, save that there stood
+      in two parts of the town a heap of nodding walls and pile of rubbish,
+      where there had been at sunset a rich and handsome building, everything
+      wore its usual aspect. Even the Catholic gentry and tradesmen, of whom
+      there were many resident in different parts of the City and its suburbs,
+      had no fear for their lives or property, and but little indignation for
+      the wrong they had already sustained in the plunder and destruction of
+      their temples of worship. An honest confidence in the government under
+      whose protection they had lived for many years, and a well-founded
+      reliance on the good feeling and right thinking of the great mass of the
+      community, with whom, notwithstanding their religious differences, they
+      were every day in habits of confidential, affectionate, and friendly
+      intercourse, reassured them, even under the excesses that had been
+      committed; and convinced them that they who were Protestants in anything
+      but the name, were no more to be considered as abettors of these
+      disgraceful occurrences, than they themselves were chargeable with the
+      uses of the block, the rack, the gibbet, and the stake in cruel Mary's
+      reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The clock was on the stroke of one, when Gabriel Varden, with his lady and
+      Miss Miggs, sat waiting in the little parlour. This fact; the toppling
+      wicks of the dull, wasted candles; the silence that prevailed; and, above
+      all, the nightcaps of both maid and matron, were sufficient evidence that
+      they had been prepared for bed some time ago, and had some reason for
+      sitting up so far beyond their usual hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If any other corroborative testimony had been required, it would have been
+      abundantly furnished in the actions of Miss Miggs, who, having arrived at
+      that restless state and sensitive condition of the nervous system which
+      are the result of long watching, did, by a constant rubbing and tweaking
+      of her nose, a perpetual change of position (arising from the sudden
+      growth of imaginary knots and knobs in her chair), a frequent friction of
+      her eyebrows, the incessant recurrence of a small cough, a small groan, a
+      gasp, a sigh, a sniff, a spasmodic start, and by other demonstrations of
+      that nature, so file down and rasp, as it were, the patience of the
+      locksmith, that after looking at her in silence for some time, he at last
+      broke out into this apostrophe:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miggs, my good girl, go to bed&mdash;do go to bed. You're really worse
+      than the dripping of a hundred water-butts outside the window, or the
+      scratching of as many mice behind the wainscot. I can't bear it. Do go to
+      bed, Miggs. To oblige me&mdash;do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You haven't got nothing to untie, sir,' returned Miss Miggs, 'and
+      therefore your requests does not surprise me. But missis has&mdash;and
+      while you sit up, mim'&mdash;she added, turning to the locksmith's wife,
+      'I couldn't, no, not if twenty times the quantity of cold water was
+      aperiently running down my back at this moment, go to bed with a quiet
+      spirit.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having spoken these words, Miss Miggs made divers efforts to rub her
+      shoulders in an impossible place, and shivered from head to foot; thereby
+      giving the beholders to understand that the imaginary cascade was still in
+      full flow, but that a sense of duty upheld her under that and all other
+      sufferings, and nerved her to endurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden being too sleepy to speak, and Miss Miggs having, as the phrase
+      is, said her say, the locksmith had nothing for it but to sigh and be as
+      quiet as he could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to be quiet with such a basilisk before him was impossible. If he
+      looked another way, it was worse to feel that she was rubbing her cheek,
+      or twitching her ear, or winking her eye, or making all kinds of
+      extraordinary shapes with her nose, than to see her do it. If she was for
+      a moment free from any of these complaints, it was only because of her
+      foot being asleep, or of her arm having got the fidgets, or of her leg
+      being doubled up with the cramp, or of some other horrible disorder which
+      racked her whole frame. If she did enjoy a moment's ease, then with her
+      eyes shut and her mouth wide open, she would be seen to sit very stiff and
+      upright in her chair; then to nod a little way forward, and stop with a
+      jerk; then to nod a little farther forward, and stop with another jerk;
+      then to recover herself; then to come forward again&mdash;lower&mdash;lower&mdash;lower&mdash;by
+      very slow degrees, until, just as it seemed impossible that she could
+      preserve her balance for another instant, and the locksmith was about to
+      call out in an agony, to save her from dashing down upon her forehead and
+      fracturing her skull, then all of a sudden and without the smallest
+      notice, she would come upright and rigid again with her eyes open, and in
+      her countenance an expression of defiance, sleepy but yet most obstinate,
+      which plainly said, 'I've never once closed 'em since I looked at you
+      last, and I'll take my oath of it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, after the clock had struck two, there was a sound at the street
+      door, as if somebody had fallen against the knocker by accident. Miss
+      Miggs immediately jumping up and clapping her hands, cried with a drowsy
+      mingling of the sacred and profane, 'Ally Looyer, mim! there's Simmuns's
+      knock!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who's there?' said Gabriel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Me!' cried the well-known voice of Mr Tappertit. Gabriel opened the door,
+      and gave him admission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not cut a very insinuating figure, for a man of his stature suffers
+      in a crowd; and having been active in yesterday morning's work, his dress
+      was literally crushed from head to foot: his hat being beaten out of all
+      shape, and his shoes trodden down at heel like slippers. His coat
+      fluttered in strips about him, the buckles were torn away both from his
+      knees and feet, half his neckerchief was gone, and the bosom of his shirt
+      was rent to tatters. Yet notwithstanding all these personal disadvantages;
+      despite his being very weak from heat and fatigue; and so begrimed with
+      mud and dust that he might have been in a case, for anything of the real
+      texture (either of his skin or apparel) that the eye could discern; he
+      stalked haughtily into the parlour, and throwing himself into a chair, and
+      endeavouring to thrust his hands into the pockets of his small-clothes,
+      which were turned inside out and displayed upon his legs, like tassels,
+      surveyed the household with a gloomy dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Simon,' said the locksmith gravely, 'how comes it that you return home at
+      this time of night, and in this condition? Give me an assurance that you
+      have not been among the rioters, and I am satisfied.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' replied Mr Tappertit, with a contemptuous look, 'I wonder at YOUR
+      assurance in making such demands.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have been drinking,' said the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As a general principle, and in the most offensive sense of the words,
+      sir,' returned his journeyman with great self-possession, 'I consider you
+      a liar. In that last observation you have unintentionally&mdash;unintentionally,
+      sir,&mdash;struck upon the truth.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Martha,' said the locksmith, turning to his wife, and shaking his head
+      sorrowfully, while a smile at the absurd figure beside him still played
+      upon his open face, 'I trust it may turn out that this poor lad is not the
+      victim of the knaves and fools we have so often had words about, and who
+      have done so much harm to-day. If he has been at Warwick Street or Duke
+      Street to-night&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has been at neither, sir,' cried Mr Tappertit in a loud voice, which
+      he suddenly dropped into a whisper as he repeated, with eyes fixed upon
+      the locksmith, 'he has been at neither.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am glad of it, with all my heart,' said the locksmith in a serious
+      tone; 'for if he had been, and it could be proved against him, Martha,
+      your Great Association would have been to him the cart that draws men to
+      the gallows and leaves them hanging in the air. It would, as sure as we're
+      alive!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden was too much scared by Simon's altered manner and appearance,
+      and by the accounts of the rioters which had reached her ears that night,
+      to offer any retort, or to have recourse to her usual matrimonial policy.
+      Miss Miggs wrung her hands, and wept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He was not at Duke Street, or at Warwick Street, G. Varden,' said Simon,
+      sternly; 'but he WAS at Westminster. Perhaps, sir, he kicked a county
+      member, perhaps, sir, he tapped a lord&mdash;you may stare, sir, I repeat
+      it&mdash;blood flowed from noses, and perhaps he tapped a lord. Who knows?
+      This,' he added, putting his hand into his waistcoat-pocket, and taking
+      out a large tooth, at the sight of which both Miggs and Mrs Varden
+      screamed, 'this was a bishop's. Beware, G. Varden!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, I would rather,' said the locksmith hastily, 'have paid five hundred
+      pounds, than had this come to pass. You idiot, do you know what peril you
+      stand in?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know it, sir,' replied his journeyman, 'and it is my glory. I was
+      there, everybody saw me there. I was conspicuous, and prominent. I will
+      abide the consequences.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith, really disturbed and agitated, paced to and fro in silence&mdash;glancing
+      at his former 'prentice every now and then&mdash;and at length stopping
+      before him, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Get to bed, and sleep for a couple of hours that you may wake penitent,
+      and with some of your senses about you. Be sorry for what you have done,
+      and we will try to save you. If I call him by five o'clock,' said Varden,
+      turning hurriedly to his wife, and he washes himself clean and changes his
+      dress, he may get to the Tower Stairs, and away by the Gravesend
+      tide-boat, before any search is made for him. From there he can easily get
+      on to Canterbury, where your cousin will give him work till this storm has
+      blown over. I am not sure that I do right in screening him from the
+      punishment he deserves, but he has lived in this house, man and boy, for a
+      dozen years, and I should be sorry if for this one day's work he made a
+      miserable end. Lock the front-door, Miggs, and show no light towards the
+      street when you go upstairs. Quick, Simon! Get to bed!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And do you suppose, sir,' retorted Mr Tappertit, with a thickness and
+      slowness of speech which contrasted forcibly with the rapidity and
+      earnestness of his kind-hearted master&mdash;'and do you suppose, sir,
+      that I am base and mean enough to accept your servile proposition?&mdash;Miscreant!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Whatever you please, Sim, but get to bed. Every minute is of consequence.
+      The light here, Miggs!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes yes, oh do! Go to bed directly,' cried the two women together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit stood upon his feet, and pushing his chair away to show that
+      he needed no assistance, answered, swaying himself to and fro, and
+      managing his head as if it had no connection whatever with his body:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You spoke of Miggs, sir&mdash;Miggs may be smothered!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh Simmun!' ejaculated that young lady in a faint voice. 'Oh mim! Oh sir!
+      Oh goodness gracious, what a turn he has give me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This family may ALL be smothered, sir,' returned Mr Tappertit, after
+      glancing at her with a smile of ineffable disdain, 'excepting Mrs V. I
+      have come here, sir, for her sake, this night. Mrs Varden, take this piece
+      of paper. It's a protection, ma'am. You may need it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words he held out at arm's length, a dirty, crumpled scrap of
+      writing. The locksmith took it from him, opened it, and read as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All good friends to our cause, I hope will be particular, and do no
+      injury to the property of any true Protestant. I am well assured that the
+      proprietor of this house is a staunch and worthy friend to the cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      GEORGE GORDON.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's this!' said the locksmith, with an altered face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Something that'll do you good service, young feller,' replied his
+      journeyman, 'as you'll find. Keep that safe, and where you can lay your
+      hand upon it in an instant. And chalk "No Popery" on your door to-morrow
+      night, and for a week to come&mdash;that's all.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This is a genuine document,' said the locksmith, 'I know, for I have seen
+      the hand before. What threat does it imply? What devil is abroad?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A fiery devil,' retorted Sim; 'a flaming, furious devil. Don't you put
+      yourself in its way, or you're done for, my buck. Be warned in time, G.
+      Varden. Farewell!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But here the two women threw themselves in his way&mdash;especially Miss
+      Miggs, who fell upon him with such fervour that she pinned him against the
+      wall&mdash;and conjured him in moving words not to go forth till he was
+      sober; to listen to reason; to think of it; to take some rest, and then
+      determine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I tell you,' said Mr Tappertit, 'that my mind is made up. My bleeding
+      country calls me and I go! Miggs, if you don't get out of the way, I'll
+      pinch you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs, still clinging to the rebel, screamed once vociferously&mdash;but
+      whether in the distraction of her mind, or because of his having executed
+      his threat, is uncertain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Release me,' said Simon, struggling to free himself from her chaste, but
+      spider-like embrace. 'Let me go! I have made arrangements for you in an
+      altered state of society, and mean to provide for you comfortably in life&mdash;there!
+      Will that satisfy you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh Simmun!' cried Miss Miggs. 'Oh my blessed Simmun! Oh mim! what are my
+      feelings at this conflicting moment!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of a rather turbulent description, it would seem; for her nightcap had
+      been knocked off in the scuffle, and she was on her knees upon the floor,
+      making a strange revelation of blue and yellow curl-papers, straggling
+      locks of hair, tags of staylaces, and strings of it's impossible to say
+      what; panting for breath, clasping her hands, turning her eyes upwards,
+      shedding abundance of tears, and exhibiting various other symptoms of the
+      acutest mental suffering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I leave,' said Simon, turning to his master, with an utter disregard of
+      Miggs's maidenly affliction, 'a box of things upstairs. Do what you like
+      with 'em. I don't want 'em. I'm never coming back here, any more. Provide
+      yourself, sir, with a journeyman; I'm my country's journeyman;
+      henceforward that's MY line of business.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Be what you like in two hours' time, but now go up to bed,' returned the
+      locksmith, planting himself in the doorway. 'Do you hear me? Go to bed!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hear you, and defy you, Varden,' rejoined Simon Tappertit. 'This night,
+      sir, I have been in the country, planning an expedition which shall fill
+      your bell-hanging soul with wonder and dismay. The plot demands my utmost
+      energy. Let me pass!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll knock you down if you come near the door,' replied the locksmith.
+      'You had better go to bed!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Simon made no answer, but gathering himself up as straight as he could,
+      plunged head foremost at his old master, and the two went driving out into
+      the workshop together, plying their hands and feet so briskly that they
+      looked like half-a-dozen, while Miggs and Mrs Varden screamed for twelve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would have been easy for Varden to knock his old 'prentice down, and
+      bind him hand and foot; but as he was loth to hurt him in his then
+      defenceless state, he contented himself with parrying his blows when he
+      could, taking them in perfect good part when he could not, and keeping
+      between him and the door, until a favourable opportunity should present
+      itself for forcing him to retreat up-stairs, and shutting him up in his
+      own room. But, in the goodness of his heart, he calculated too much upon
+      his adversary's weakness, and forgot that drunken men who have lost the
+      power of walking steadily, can often run. Watching his time, Simon
+      Tappertit made a cunning show of falling back, staggered unexpectedly
+      forward, brushed past him, opened the door (he knew the trick of that lock
+      well), and darted down the street like a mad dog. The locksmith paused for
+      a moment in the excess of his astonishment, and then gave chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an excellent season for a run, for at that silent hour the streets
+      were deserted, the air was cool, and the flying figure before him
+      distinctly visible at a great distance, as it sped away, with a long gaunt
+      shadow following at its heels. But the short-winded locksmith had no
+      chance against a man of Sim's youth and spare figure, though the day had
+      been when he could have run him down in no time. The space between them
+      rapidly increased, and as the rays of the rising sun streamed upon Simon
+      in the act of turning a distant corner, Gabriel Varden was fain to give
+      up, and sit down on a doorstep to fetch his breath. Simon meanwhile,
+      without once stopping, fled at the same degree of swiftness to The Boot,
+      where, as he well knew, some of his company were lying, and at which
+      respectable hostelry&mdash;for he had already acquired the distinction of
+      being in great peril of the law&mdash;a friendly watch had been expecting
+      him all night, and was even now on the look-out for his coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Go thy ways, Sim, go thy ways,' said the locksmith, as soon as he could
+      speak. 'I have done my best for thee, poor lad, and would have saved thee,
+      but the rope is round thy neck, I fear.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, and shaking his head in a very sorrowful and disconsolate
+      manner, he turned back, and soon re-entered his own house, where Mrs
+      Varden and the faithful Miggs had been anxiously expecting his return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Mrs Varden (and by consequence Miss Miggs likewise) was impressed with
+      a secret misgiving that she had done wrong; that she had, to the utmost of
+      her small means, aided and abetted the growth of disturbances, the end of
+      which it was impossible to foresee; that she had led remotely to the scene
+      which had just passed; and that the locksmith's time for triumph and
+      reproach had now arrived indeed. And so strongly did Mrs Varden feel this,
+      and so crestfallen was she in consequence, that while her husband was
+      pursuing their lost journeyman, she secreted under her chair the little
+      red-brick dwelling-house with the yellow roof, lest it should furnish new
+      occasion for reference to the painful theme; and now hid the same still
+      more, with the skirts of her dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it happened that the locksmith had been thinking of this very article
+      on his way home, and that, coming into the room and not seeing it, he at
+      once demanded where it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden had no resource but to produce it, which she did with many
+      tears, and broken protestations that if she could have known&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, yes,' said Varden, 'of course&mdash;I know that. I don't mean to
+      reproach you, my dear. But recollect from this time that all good things
+      perverted to evil purposes, are worse than those which are naturally bad.
+      A thoroughly wicked woman, is wicked indeed. When religion goes wrong, she
+      is very wrong, for the same reason. Let us say no more about it, my dear.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he dropped the red-brick dwelling-house on the floor, and setting his
+      heel upon it, crushed it into pieces. The halfpence, and sixpences, and
+      other voluntary contributions, rolled about in all directions, but nobody
+      offered to touch them, or to take them up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That,' said the locksmith, 'is easily disposed of, and I would to Heaven
+      that everything growing out of the same society could be settled as
+      easily.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It happens very fortunately, Varden,' said his wife, with her
+      handkerchief to her eyes, 'that in case any more disturbances should
+      happen&mdash;which I hope not; I sincerely hope not&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope so too, my dear.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;That in case any should occur, we have the piece of paper which
+      that poor misguided young man brought.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, to be sure,' said the locksmith, turning quickly round. 'Where is
+      that piece of paper?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs Varden stood aghast as he took it from her outstretched band, tore it
+      into fragments, and threw them under the grate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not use it?' she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Use it!' cried the locksmith. No! Let them come and pull the roof about
+      our ears; let them burn us out of house and home; I'd neither have the
+      protection of their leader, nor chalk their howl upon my door, though, for
+      not doing it, they shot me on my own threshold. Use it! Let them come and
+      do their worst. The first man who crosses my doorstep on such an errand as
+      theirs, had better be a hundred miles away. Let him look to it. The others
+      may have their will. I wouldn't beg or buy them off, if, instead of every
+      pound of iron in the place, there was a hundred weight of gold. Get you to
+      bed, Martha. I shall take down the shutters and go to work.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So early!' said his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay,' replied the locksmith cheerily, 'so early. Come when they may, they
+      shall not find us skulking and hiding, as if we feared to take our portion
+      of the light of day, and left it all to them. So pleasant dreams to you,
+      my dear, and cheerful sleep!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he gave his wife a hearty kiss, and bade her delay no longer, or
+      it would be time to rise before she lay down to rest. Mrs Varden quite
+      amiably and meekly walked upstairs, followed by Miggs, who, although a
+      good deal subdued, could not refrain from sundry stimulative coughs and
+      sniffs by the way, or from holding up her hands in astonishment at the
+      daring conduct of master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0052" id="link2HCH0052">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 52
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A mob is usually a creature of very mysterious existence, particularly in
+      a large city. Where it comes from or whither it goes, few men can tell.
+      Assembling and dispersing with equal suddenness, it is as difficult to
+      follow to its various sources as the sea itself; nor does the parallel
+      stop here, for the ocean is not more fickle and uncertain, more terrible
+      when roused, more unreasonable, or more cruel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people who were boisterous at Westminster upon the Friday morning, and
+      were eagerly bent upon the work of devastation in Duke Street and Warwick
+      Street at night, were, in the mass, the same. Allowing for the chance
+      accessions of which any crowd is morally sure in a town where there must
+      always be a large number of idle and profligate persons, one and the same
+      mob was at both places. Yet they spread themselves in various directions
+      when they dispersed in the afternoon, made no appointment for
+      reassembling, had no definite purpose or design, and indeed, for anything
+      they knew, were scattered beyond the hope of future union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At The Boot, which, as has been shown, was in a manner the head-quarters
+      of the rioters, there were not, upon this Friday night, a dozen people.
+      Some slept in the stable and outhouses, some in the common room, some two
+      or three in beds. The rest were in their usual homes or haunts. Perhaps
+      not a score in all lay in the adjacent fields and lanes, and under
+      haystacks, or near the warmth of brick-kilns, who had not their accustomed
+      place of rest beneath the open sky. As to the public ways within the town,
+      they had their ordinary nightly occupants, and no others; the usual amount
+      of vice and wretchedness, but no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The experience of one evening, however, had taught the reckless leaders of
+      disturbance, that they had but to show themselves in the streets, to be
+      immediately surrounded by materials which they could only have kept
+      together when their aid was not required, at great risk, expense, and
+      trouble. Once possessed of this secret, they were as confident as if
+      twenty thousand men, devoted to their will, had been encamped about them,
+      and assumed a confidence which could not have been surpassed, though that
+      had really been the case. All day, Saturday, they remained quiet. On
+      Sunday, they rather studied how to keep their men within call, and in full
+      hope, than to follow out, by any fierce measure, their first day's
+      proceedings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hope,' said Dennis, as, with a loud yawn, he raised his body from a
+      heap of straw on which he had been sleeping, and supporting his head upon
+      his hand, appealed to Hugh on Sunday morning, 'that Muster Gashford allows
+      some rest? Perhaps he'd have us at work again already, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's not his way to let matters drop, you may be sure of that,' growled
+      Hugh in answer. 'I'm in no humour to stir yet, though. I'm as stiff as a
+      dead body, and as full of ugly scratches as if I had been fighting all day
+      yesterday with wild cats.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You've so much enthusiasm, that's it,' said Dennis, looking with great
+      admiration at the uncombed head, matted beard, and torn hands and face of
+      the wild figure before him; 'you're such a devil of a fellow. You hurt
+      yourself a hundred times more than you need, because you will be foremost
+      in everything, and will do more than the rest.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For the matter of that,' returned Hugh, shaking back his ragged hair and
+      glancing towards the door of the stable in which they lay; 'there's one
+      yonder as good as me. What did I tell you about him? Did I say he was
+      worth a dozen, when you doubted him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis rolled lazily over upon his breast, and resting his chin upon
+      his hand in imitation of the attitude in which Hugh lay, said, as he too
+      looked towards the door:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, ay, you knew him, brother, you knew him. But who'd suppose to look at
+      that chap now, that he could be the man he is! Isn't it a thousand cruel
+      pities, brother, that instead of taking his nat'ral rest and qualifying
+      himself for further exertions in this here honourable cause, he should be
+      playing at soldiers like a boy? And his cleanliness too!' said Mr Dennis,
+      who certainly had no reason to entertain a fellow feeling with anybody who
+      was particular on that score; 'what weaknesses he's guilty of; with
+      respect to his cleanliness! At five o'clock this morning, there he was at
+      the pump, though any one would think he had gone through enough, the day
+      before yesterday, to be pretty fast asleep at that time. But no&mdash;when
+      I woke for a minute or two, there he was at the pump, and if you'd seen
+      him sticking them peacock's feathers into his hat when he'd done washing&mdash;ah!
+      I'm sorry he's such a imperfect character, but the best on us is
+      incomplete in some pint of view or another.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The subject of this dialogue and of these concluding remarks, which were
+      uttered in a tone of philosophical meditation, was, as the reader will
+      have divined, no other than Barnaby, who, with his flag in hand, stood
+      sentry in the little patch of sunlight at the distant door, or walked to
+      and fro outside, singing softly to himself; and keeping time to the music
+      of some clear church bells. Whether he stood still, leaning with both
+      hands on the flagstaff, or, bearing it upon his shoulder, paced slowly up
+      and down, the careful arrangement of his poor dress, and his erect and
+      lofty bearing, showed how high a sense he had of the great importance of
+      his trust, and how happy and how proud it made him. To Hugh and his
+      companion, who lay in a dark corner of the gloomy shed, he, and the
+      sunlight, and the peaceful Sabbath sound to which he made response, seemed
+      like a bright picture framed by the door, and set off by the stable's
+      blackness. The whole formed such a contrast to themselves, as they lay
+      wallowing, like some obscene animals, in their squalor and wickedness on
+      the two heaps of straw, that for a few moments they looked on without
+      speaking, and felt almost ashamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!'said Hugh at length, carrying it off with a laugh: 'He's a rare
+      fellow is Barnaby, and can do more, with less rest, or meat, or drink,
+      than any of us. As to his soldiering, I put him on duty there.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then there was a object in it, and a proper good one too, I'll be sworn,'
+      retorted Dennis with a broad grin, and an oath of the same quality. 'What
+      was it, brother?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, you see,' said Hugh, crawling a little nearer to him, 'that our
+      noble captain yonder, came in yesterday morning rather the worse for
+      liquor, and was&mdash;like you and me&mdash;ditto last night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dennis looked to where Simon Tappertit lay coiled upon a truss of hay,
+      snoring profoundly, and nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And our noble captain,' continued Hugh with another laugh, 'our noble
+      captain and I, have planned for to-morrow a roaring expedition, with good
+      profit in it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Again the Papists?' asked Dennis, rubbing his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, against the Papists&mdash;against one of 'em at least, that some of
+      us, and I for one, owe a good heavy grudge to.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not Muster Gashford's friend that he spoke to us about in my house, eh?'
+      said Dennis, brimfull of pleasant expectation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The same man,' said Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's your sort,' cried Mr Dennis, gaily shaking hands with him, 'that's
+      the kind of game. Let's have revenges and injuries, and all that, and we
+      shall get on twice as fast. Now you talk, indeed!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha ha! The captain,' added Hugh, 'has thoughts of carrying off a woman
+      in the bustle, and&mdash;ha ha ha!&mdash;and so have I!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis received this part of the scheme with a wry face, observing that
+      as a general principle he objected to women altogether, as being unsafe
+      and slippery persons on whom there was no calculating with any certainty,
+      and who were never in the same mind for four-and-twenty hours at a
+      stretch. He might have expatiated on this suggestive theme at much greater
+      length, but that it occurred to him to ask what connection existed between
+      the proposed expedition and Barnaby's being posted at the stable-door as
+      sentry; to which Hugh cautiously replied in these words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, the people we mean to visit, were friends of his, once upon a time,
+      and I know that much of him to feel pretty sure that if he thought we were
+      going to do them any harm, he'd be no friend to our side, but would lend a
+      ready hand to the other. So I've persuaded him (for I know him of old)
+      that Lord George has picked him out to guard this place to-morrow while
+      we're away, and that it's a great honour&mdash;and so he's on duty now,
+      and as proud of it as if he was a general. Ha ha! What do you say to me
+      for a careful man as well as a devil of a one?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis exhausted himself in compliments, and then added,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But about the expedition itself&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'About that,' said Hugh, 'you shall hear all particulars from me and the
+      great captain conjointly and both together&mdash;for see, he's waking up.
+      Rouse yourself, lion-heart. Ha ha! Put a good face upon it, and drink
+      again. Another hair of the dog that bit you, captain! Call for drink!
+      There's enough of gold and silver cups and candlesticks buried underneath
+      my bed,' he added, rolling back the straw, and pointing to where the
+      ground was newly turned, 'to pay for it, if it was a score of casks full.
+      Drink, captain!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit received these jovial promptings with a very bad grace, being
+      much the worse, both in mind and body, for his two nights of debauch, and
+      but indifferently able to stand upon his legs. With Hugh's assistance,
+      however, he contrived to stagger to the pump; and having refreshed himself
+      with an abundant draught of cold water, and a copious shower of the same
+      refreshing liquid on his head and face, he ordered some rum and milk to be
+      served; and upon that innocent beverage and some biscuits and cheese made
+      a pretty hearty meal. That done, he disposed himself in an easy attitude
+      on the ground beside his two companions (who were carousing after their
+      own tastes), and proceeded to enlighten Mr Dennis in reference to
+      to-morrow's project.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That their conversation was an interesting one, was rendered manifest by
+      its length, and by the close attention of all three. That it was not of an
+      oppressively grave character, but was enlivened by various pleasantries
+      arising out of the subject, was clear from their loud and frequent roars
+      of laughter, which startled Barnaby on his post, and made him wonder at
+      their levity. But he was not summoned to join them, until they had eaten,
+      and drunk, and slept, and talked together for some hours; not, indeed,
+      until the twilight; when they informed him that they were about to make a
+      slight demonstration in the streets&mdash;just to keep the people's hands
+      in, as it was Sunday night, and the public might otherwise be disappointed&mdash;and
+      that he was free to accompany them if he would.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without the slightest preparation, saving that they carried clubs and wore
+      the blue cockade, they sallied out into the streets; and, with no more
+      settled design than that of doing as much mischief as they could, paraded
+      them at random. Their numbers rapidly increasing, they soon divided into
+      parties; and agreeing to meet by-and-by, in the fields near Welbeck
+      Street, scoured the town in various directions. The largest body, and that
+      which augmented with the greatest rapidity, was the one to which Hugh and
+      Barnaby belonged. This took its way towards Moorfields, where there was a
+      rich chapel, and in which neighbourhood several Catholic families were
+      known to reside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beginning with the private houses so occupied, they broke open the doors
+      and windows; and while they destroyed the furniture and left but the bare
+      walls, made a sharp search for tools and engines of destruction, such as
+      hammers, pokers, axes, saws, and such like instruments. Many of the
+      rioters made belts of cord, of handkerchiefs, or any material they found
+      at hand, and wore these weapons as openly as pioneers upon a field-day.
+      There was not the least disguise or concealment&mdash;indeed, on this
+      night, very little excitement or hurry. From the chapels, they tore down
+      and took away the very altars, benches, pulpits, pews, and flooring; from
+      the dwelling-houses, the very wainscoting and stairs. This Sunday
+      evening's recreation they pursued like mere workmen who had a certain task
+      to do, and did it. Fifty resolute men might have turned them at any
+      moment; a single company of soldiers could have scattered them like dust;
+      but no man interposed, no authority restrained them, and, except by the
+      terrified persons who fled from their approach, they were as little heeded
+      as if they were pursuing their lawful occupations with the utmost sobriety
+      and good conduct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the same manner, they marched to the place of rendezvous agreed upon,
+      made great fires in the fields, and reserving the most valuable of their
+      spoils, burnt the rest. Priestly garments, images of saints, rich stuffs
+      and ornaments, altar-furniture and household goods, were cast into the
+      flames, and shed a glare on the whole country round; but they danced and
+      howled, and roared about these fires till they were tired, and were never
+      for an instant checked.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0241m.jpg" alt="0241m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0241.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      As the main body filed off from this scene of action, and passed down
+      Welbeck Street, they came upon Gashford, who had been a witness of their
+      proceedings, and was walking stealthily along the pavement. Keeping up
+      with him, and yet not seeming to speak, Hugh muttered in his ear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is this better, master?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' said Gashford. 'It is not.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What would you have?' said Hugh. 'Fevers are never at their height at
+      once. They must get on by degrees.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I would have you,' said Gashford, pinching his arm with such malevolence
+      that his nails seemed to meet in the skin; 'I would have you put some
+      meaning into your work. Fools! Can you make no better bonfires than of
+      rags and scraps? Can you burn nothing whole?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A little patience, master,' said Hugh. 'Wait but a few hours, and you
+      shall see. Look for a redness in the sky, to-morrow night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he fell back into his place beside Barnaby; and when the
+      secretary looked after him, both were lost in the crowd.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0248m.jpg" alt="0248m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0248.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0053" id="link2HCH0053">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 53
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The next day was ushered in by merry peals of bells, and by the firing of
+      the Tower guns; flags were hoisted on many of the church-steeples; the
+      usual demonstrations were made in honour of the anniversary of the King's
+      birthday; and every man went about his pleasure or business as if the city
+      were in perfect order, and there were no half-smouldering embers in its
+      secret places, which, on the approach of night, would kindle up again and
+      scatter ruin and dismay abroad. The leaders of the riot, rendered still
+      more daring by the success of last night and by the booty they had
+      acquired, kept steadily together, and only thought of implicating the mass
+      of their followers so deeply that no hope of pardon or reward might tempt
+      them to betray their more notorious confederates into the hands of
+      justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, the sense of having gone too far to be forgiven, held the timid
+      together no less than the bold. Many who would readily have pointed out
+      the foremost rioters and given evidence against them, felt that escape by
+      that means was hopeless, when their every act had been observed by scores
+      of people who had taken no part in the disturbances; who had suffered in
+      their persons, peace, or property, by the outrages of the mob; who would
+      be most willing witnesses; and whom the government would, no doubt, prefer
+      to any King's evidence that might be offered. Many of this class had
+      deserted their usual occupations on the Saturday morning; some had been
+      seen by their employers active in the tumult; others knew they must be
+      suspected, and that they would be discharged if they returned; others had
+      been desperate from the beginning, and comforted themselves with the
+      homely proverb, that, being hanged at all, they might as well be hanged
+      for a sheep as a lamb. They all hoped and believed, in a greater or less
+      degree, that the government they seemed to have paralysed, would, in its
+      terror, come to terms with them in the end, and suffer them to make their
+      own conditions. The least sanguine among them reasoned with himself that,
+      at the worst, they were too many to be all punished, and that he had as
+      good a chance of escape as any other man. The great mass never reasoned or
+      thought at all, but were stimulated by their own headlong passions, by
+      poverty, by ignorance, by the love of mischief, and the hope of plunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One other circumstance is worthy of remark; and that is, that from the
+      moment of their first outbreak at Westminster, every symptom of order or
+      preconcerted arrangement among them vanished. When they divided into
+      parties and ran to different quarters of the town, it was on the
+      spontaneous suggestion of the moment. Each party swelled as it went along,
+      like rivers as they roll towards the sea; new leaders sprang up as they
+      were wanted, disappeared when the necessity was over, and reappeared at
+      the next crisis. Each tumult took shape and form from the circumstances of
+      the moment; sober workmen, going home from their day's labour, were seen
+      to cast down their baskets of tools and become rioters in an instant; mere
+      boys on errands did the like. In a word, a moral plague ran through the
+      city. The noise, and hurry, and excitement, had for hundreds and hundreds
+      an attraction they had no firmness to resist. The contagion spread like a
+      dread fever: an infectious madness, as yet not near its height, seized on
+      new victims every hour, and society began to tremble at their ravings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon when Gashford looked
+      into the lair described in the last chapter, and seeing only Barnaby and
+      Dennis there, inquired for Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was out, Barnaby told him; had gone out more than an hour ago; and had
+      not yet returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dennis!' said the smiling secretary, in his smoothest voice, as he sat
+      down cross-legged on a barrel, 'Dennis!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hangman struggled into a sitting posture directly, and with his eyes
+      wide open, looked towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How do you do, Dennis?' said Gashford, nodding. 'I hope you have suffered
+      no inconvenience from your late exertions, Dennis?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I always will say of you, Muster Gashford,' returned the hangman, staring
+      at him, 'that that 'ere quiet way of yours might almost wake a dead man.
+      It is,' he added, with a muttered oath&mdash;still staring at him in a
+      thoughtful manner&mdash;'so awful sly!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So distinct, eh Dennis?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Distinct!' he answered, scratching his head, and keeping his eyes upon
+      the secretary's face; 'I seem to hear it, Muster Gashford, in my wery
+      bones.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am very glad your sense of hearing is so sharp, and that I succeed in
+      making myself so intelligible,' said Gashford, in his unvarying, even
+      tone. 'Where is your friend?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis looked round as in expectation of beholding him asleep upon his
+      bed of straw; then remembering he had seen him go out, replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I can't say where he is, Muster Gashford, I expected him back afore now.
+      I hope it isn't time that we was busy, Muster Gashford?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay,' said the secretary, 'who should know that as well as you? How can I
+      tell you, Dennis? You are perfect master of your own actions, you know,
+      and accountable to nobody&mdash;except sometimes to the law, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dennis, who was very much baffled by the cool matter-of-course manner of
+      this reply, recovered his self-possession on his professional pursuits
+      being referred to, and pointing towards Barnaby, shook his head and
+      frowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush!' cried Barnaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah! Do hush about that, Muster Gashford,' said the hangman in a low
+      voice, 'pop'lar prejudices&mdash;you always forget&mdash;well, Barnaby, my
+      lad, what's the matter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I hear him coming,' he answered: 'Hark! Do you mark that? That's his
+      foot! Bless you, I know his step, and his dog's too. Tramp, tramp,
+      pit-pat, on they come together, and, ha ha ha!&mdash;and here they are!'
+      he cried, joyfully welcoming Hugh with both hands, and then patting him
+      fondly on the back, as if instead of being the rough companion he was, he
+      had been one of the most prepossessing of men. 'Here he is, and safe too!
+      I am glad to see him back again, old Hugh!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm a Turk if he don't give me a warmer welcome always than any man of
+      sense,' said Hugh, shaking hands with him with a kind of ferocious
+      friendship, strange enough to see. 'How are you, boy?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hearty!' cried Barnaby, waving his hat. 'Ha ha ha! And merry too, Hugh!
+      And ready to do anything for the good cause, and the right, and to help
+      the kind, mild, pale-faced gentleman&mdash;the lord they used so ill&mdash;eh,
+      Hugh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' returned his friend, dropping his hand, and looking at Gashford for
+      an instant with a changed expression before he spoke to him. 'Good day,
+      master!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And good day to you,' replied the secretary, nursing his leg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And many good days&mdash;whole years of them, I hope. You are heated.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So would you have been, master,' said Hugh, wiping his face, 'if you'd
+      been running here as fast as I have.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You know the news, then? Yes, I supposed you would have heard it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'News! what news?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't?' cried Gashford, raising his eyebrows with an exclamation of
+      surprise. 'Dear me! Come; then I AM the first to make you acquainted with
+      your distinguished position, after all. Do you see the King's Arms a-top?'
+      he smilingly asked, as he took a large paper from his pocket, unfolded it,
+      and held it out for Hugh's inspection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well!' said Hugh. 'What's that to me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Much. A great deal,' replied the secretary. 'Read it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I told you, the first time I saw you, that I couldn't read,' said Hugh,
+      impatiently. 'What in the Devil's name's inside of it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is a proclamation from the King in Council,' said Gashford, 'dated
+      to-day, and offering a reward of five hundred pounds&mdash;five hundred
+      pounds is a great deal of money, and a large temptation to some people&mdash;to
+      any one who will discover the person or persons most active in demolishing
+      those chapels on Saturday night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is that all?' cried Hugh, with an indifferent air. 'I knew of that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Truly I might have known you did,' said Gashford, smiling, and folding up
+      the document again. 'Your friend, I might have guessed&mdash;indeed I did
+      guess&mdash;was sure to tell you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My friend!' stammered Hugh, with an unsuccessful effort to appear
+      surprised. 'What friend?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tut tut&mdash;do you suppose I don't know where you have been?' retorted
+      Gashford, rubbing his hands, and beating the back of one on the palm of
+      the other, and looking at him with a cunning eye. 'How dull you think me!
+      Shall I say his name?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' said Hugh, with a hasty glance towards Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have also heard from him, no doubt,' resumed the secretary, after a
+      moment's pause, 'that the rioters who have been taken (poor fellows) are
+      committed for trial, and that some very active witnesses have had the
+      temerity to appear against them. Among others&mdash;' and here he clenched
+      his teeth, as if he would suppress by force some violent words that rose
+      upon his tongue; and spoke very slowly. 'Among others, a gentleman who saw
+      the work going on in Warwick Street; a Catholic gentleman; one Haredale.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh would have prevented his uttering the word, but it was out already.
+      Hearing the name, Barnaby turned swiftly round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Duty, duty, bold Barnaby!' cried Hugh, assuming his wildest and most
+      rapid manner, and thrusting into his hand his staff and flag which leant
+      against the wall. 'Mount guard without loss of time, for we are off upon
+      our expedition. Up, Dennis, and get ready! Take care that no one turns the
+      straw upon my bed, brave Barnaby; we know what's underneath it&mdash;eh?
+      Now, master, quick! What you have to say, say speedily, for the little
+      captain and a cluster of 'em are in the fields, and only waiting for us.
+      Sharp's the word, and strike's the action. Quick!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby was not proof against this bustle and despatch. The look of
+      mingled astonishment and anger which had appeared in his face when he
+      turned towards them, faded from it as the words passed from his memory,
+      like breath from a polished mirror; and grasping the weapon which Hugh
+      forced upon him, he proudly took his station at the door, beyond their
+      hearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You might have spoiled our plans, master,' said Hugh. 'YOU, too, of all
+      men!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who would have supposed that HE would be so quick?' urged Gashford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's as quick sometimes&mdash;I don't mean with his hands, for that you
+      know, but with his head&mdash;as you or any man,' said Hugh. 'Dennis, it's
+      time we were going; they're waiting for us; I came to tell you. Reach me
+      my stick and belt. Here! Lend a hand, master. Fling this over my shoulder,
+      and buckle it behind, will you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brisk as ever!' said the secretary, adjusting it for him as he desired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A man need be brisk to-day; there's brisk work a-foot.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is, is there?' said Gashford. He said it with such a provoking
+      assumption of ignorance, that Hugh, looking over his shoulder and angrily
+      down upon him, replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is there! You know there is! Who knows better than you, master, that the
+      first great step to be taken is to make examples of these witnesses, and
+      frighten all men from appearing against us or any of our body, any more?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There's one we know of,' returned Gashford, with an expressive smile,
+      'who is at least as well informed upon that subject as you or I.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If we mean the same gentleman, as I suppose we do,' Hugh rejoined softly,
+      'I tell you this&mdash;he's as good and quick information about everything
+      as&mdash;' here he paused and looked round, as if to make sure that the
+      person in question was not within hearing, 'as Old Nick himself. Have you
+      done that, master? How slow you are!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's quite fast now,' said Gashford, rising. 'I say&mdash;you didn't find
+      that your friend disapproved of to-day's little expedition? Ha ha ha! It
+      is fortunate it jumps so well with the witness policy; for, once planned,
+      it must have been carried out. And now you are going, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now we are going, master!' Hugh replied. 'Any parting words?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh dear, no,' said Gashford sweetly. 'None!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're sure?' cried Hugh, nudging the grinning Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Quite sure, eh, Muster Gashford?' chuckled the hangman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford paused a moment, struggling with his caution and his malice; then
+      putting himself between the two men, and laying a hand upon the arm of
+      each, said, in a cramped whisper:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do not, my good friends&mdash;I am sure you will not&mdash;forget our
+      talk one night&mdash;in your house, Dennis&mdash;about this person. No
+      mercy, no quarter, no two beams of his house to be left standing where the
+      builder placed them! Fire, the saying goes, is a good servant, but a bad
+      master. Make it <i>his</i> master; he deserves no better. But I am sure you will
+      be firm, I am sure you will be very resolute, I am sure you will remember
+      that he thirsts for your lives, and those of all your brave companions. If
+      you ever acted like staunch fellows, you will do so to-day. Won't you,
+      Dennis&mdash;won't you, Hugh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two looked at him, and at each other; then bursting into a roar of
+      laughter, brandished their staves above their heads, shook hands, and
+      hurried out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had been gone a little time, Gashford followed. They were yet in
+      sight, and hastening to that part of the adjacent fields in which their
+      fellows had already mustered; Hugh was looking back, and flourishing his
+      hat to Barnaby, who, delighted with his trust, replied in the same way,
+      and then resumed his pacing up and down before the stable-door, where his
+      feet had worn a path already. And when Gashford himself was far distant,
+      and looked back for the last time, he was still walking to and fro, with
+      the same measured tread; the most devoted and the blithest champion that
+      ever maintained a post, and felt his heart lifted up with a brave sense of
+      duty, and determination to defend it to the last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Smiling at the simplicity of the poor idiot, Gashford betook himself to
+      Welbeck Street by a different path from that which he knew the rioters
+      would take, and sitting down behind a curtain in one of the upper windows
+      of Lord George Gordon's house, waited impatiently for their coming. They
+      were so long, that although he knew it had been settled they should come
+      that way, he had a misgiving they must have changed their plans and taken
+      some other route. But at length the roar of voices was heard in the
+      neighbouring fields, and soon afterwards they came thronging past, in a
+      great body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, they were not all, nor nearly all, in one body, but were, as he
+      soon found, divided into four parties, each of which stopped before the
+      house to give three cheers, and then went on; the leaders crying out in
+      what direction they were going, and calling on the spectators to join
+      them. The first detachment, carrying, by way of banners, some relics of
+      the havoc they had made in Moorfields, proclaimed that they were on their
+      way to Chelsea, whence they would return in the same order, to make of the
+      spoil they bore, a great bonfire, near at hand. The second gave out that
+      they were bound for Wapping, to destroy a chapel; the third, that their
+      place of destination was East Smithfield, and their object the same. All
+      this was done in broad, bright, summer day. Gay carriages and chairs
+      stopped to let them pass, or turned back to avoid them; people on foot
+      stood aside in doorways, or perhaps knocked and begged permission to stand
+      at a window, or in the hall, until the rioters had passed: but nobody
+      interfered with them; and when they had gone by, everything went on as
+      usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There still remained the fourth body, and for that the secretary looked
+      with a most intense eagerness. At last it came up. It was numerous, and
+      composed of picked men; for as he gazed down among them, he recognised
+      many upturned faces which he knew well&mdash;those of Simon Tappertit,
+      Hugh, and Dennis in the front, of course. They halted and cheered, as the
+      others had done; but when they moved again, they did not, like them,
+      proclaim what design they had. Hugh merely raised his hat upon the
+      bludgeon he carried, and glancing at a spectator on the opposite side of
+      the way, was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford followed the direction of his glance instinctively, and saw,
+      standing on the pavement, and wearing the blue cockade, Sir John Chester.
+      He held his hat an inch or two above his head, to propitiate the mob; and,
+      resting gracefully on his cane, smiling pleasantly, and displaying his
+      dress and person to the very best advantage, looked on in the most
+      tranquil state imaginable. For all that, and quick and dexterous as he
+      was, Gashford had seen him recognise Hugh with the air of a patron. He had
+      no longer any eyes for the crowd, but fixed his keen regards upon Sir
+      John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood in the same place and posture until the last man in the concourse
+      had turned the corner of the street; then very deliberately took the blue
+      cockade out of his hat; put it carefully in his pocket, ready for the next
+      emergency; refreshed himself with a pinch of snuff; put up his box; and
+      was walking slowly off, when a passing carriage stopped, and a lady's hand
+      let down the glass. Sir John's hat was off again immediately. After a
+      minute's conversation at the carriage-window, in which it was apparent
+      that he was vastly entertaining on the subject of the mob, he stepped
+      lightly in, and was driven away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary smiled, but he had other thoughts to dwell upon, and soon
+      dismissed the topic. Dinner was brought him, but he sent it down untasted;
+      and, in restless pacings up and down the room, and constant glances at the
+      clock, and many futile efforts to sit down and read, or go to sleep, or
+      look out of the window, consumed four weary hours. When the dial told him
+      thus much time had crept away, he stole upstairs to the top of the house,
+      and coming out upon the roof sat down, with his face towards the east.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Heedless of the fresh air that blew upon his heated brow, of the pleasant
+      meadows from which he turned, of the piles of roofs and chimneys upon
+      which he looked, of the smoke and rising mist he vainly sought to pierce,
+      of the shrill cries of children at their evening sports, the distant hum
+      and turmoil of the town, the cheerful country breath that rustled past to
+      meet it, and to droop, and die; he watched, and watched, till it was dark
+      save for the specks of light that twinkled in the streets below and far
+      away&mdash;and, as the darkness deepened, strained his gaze and grew more
+      eager yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing but gloom in that direction, still!' he muttered restlessly.
+      'Dog! where is the redness in the sky, you promised me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0054" id="link2HCH0054">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 54
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Rumours of the prevailing disturbances had, by this time, begun to be
+      pretty generally circulated through the towns and villages round London,
+      and the tidings were everywhere received with that appetite for the
+      marvellous and love of the terrible which have probably been among the
+      natural characteristics of mankind since the creation of the world. These
+      accounts, however, appeared, to many persons at that day&mdash;as they
+      would to us at the present, but that we know them to be matter of history&mdash;so
+      monstrous and improbable, that a great number of those who were resident
+      at a distance, and who were credulous enough on other points, were really
+      unable to bring their minds to believe that such things could be; and
+      rejected the intelligence they received on all hands, as wholly fabulous
+      and absurd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet&mdash;not so much, perhaps, on account of his having argued and
+      settled the matter with himself, as by reason of his constitutional
+      obstinacy&mdash;was one of those who positively refused to entertain the
+      current topic for a moment. On this very evening, and perhaps at the very
+      time when Gashford kept his solitary watch, old John was so red in the
+      face with perpetually shaking his head in contradiction of his three
+      ancient cronies and pot companions, that he was quite a phenomenon to
+      behold, and lighted up the Maypole Porch wherein they sat together, like a
+      monstrous carbuncle in a fairy tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you think, sir,' said Mr Willet, looking hard at Solomon Daisy&mdash;for
+      it was his custom in cases of personal altercation to fasten upon the
+      smallest man in the party&mdash;'do you think, sir, that I'm a born fool?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no, Johnny,' returned Solomon, looking round upon the little circle
+      of which he formed a part: 'We all know better than that. You're no fool,
+      Johnny. No, no!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Cobb and Mr Parkes shook their heads in unison, muttering, 'No, no,
+      Johnny, not you!' But as such compliments had usually the effect of making
+      Mr Willet rather more dogged than before, he surveyed them with a look of
+      deep disdain, and returned for answer:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then what do you mean by coming here, and telling me that this evening
+      you're a-going to walk up to London together&mdash;you three&mdash;you&mdash;and
+      have the evidence of your own senses? An't,' said Mr Willet, putting his
+      pipe in his mouth with an air of solemn disgust, 'an't the evidence of MY
+      senses enough for you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But we haven't got it, Johnny,' pleaded Parkes, humbly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You haven't got it, sir?' repeated Mr Willet, eyeing him from top to toe.
+      'You haven't got it, sir? You HAVE got it, sir. Don't I tell you that His
+      blessed Majesty King George the Third would no more stand a rioting and
+      rollicking in his streets, than he'd stand being crowed over by his own
+      Parliament?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, Johnny, but that's your sense&mdash;not your senses,' said the
+      adventurous Mr Parkes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How do you know? 'retorted John with great dignity. 'You're a
+      contradicting pretty free, you are, sir. How do YOU know which it is? I'm
+      not aware I ever told you, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Parkes, finding himself in the position of having got into metaphysics
+      without exactly seeing his way out of them, stammered forth an apology and
+      retreated from the argument. There then ensued a silence of some ten
+      minutes or a quarter of an hour, at the expiration of which period Mr
+      Willet was observed to rumble and shake with laughter, and presently
+      remarked, in reference to his late adversary, 'that he hoped he had
+      tackled him enough.' Thereupon Messrs Cobb and Daisy laughed, and nodded,
+      and Parkes was looked upon as thoroughly and effectually put down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you suppose if all this was true, that Mr Haredale would be constantly
+      away from home, as he is?' said John, after another silence. 'Do you think
+      he wouldn't be afraid to leave his house with them two young women in it,
+      and only a couple of men, or so?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, but then you know,' returned Solomon Daisy, 'his house is a goodish
+      way out of London, and they do say that the rioters won't go more than two
+      miles, or three at the farthest, off the stones. Besides, you know, some
+      of the Catholic gentlefolks have actually sent trinkets and suchlike down
+      here for safety&mdash;at least, so the story goes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The story goes!' said Mr Willet testily. 'Yes, sir. The story goes that
+      you saw a ghost last March. But nobody believes it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well!' said Solomon, rising, to divert the attention of his two friends,
+      who tittered at this retort: 'believed or disbelieved, it's true; and true
+      or not, if we mean to go to London, we must be going at once. So shake
+      hands, Johnny, and good night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shall shake hands,' returned the landlord, putting his into his
+      pockets, 'with no man as goes to London on such nonsensical errands.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three cronies were therefore reduced to the necessity of shaking his
+      elbows; having performed that ceremony, and brought from the house their
+      hats, and sticks, and greatcoats, they bade him good night and departed;
+      promising to bring him on the morrow full and true accounts of the real
+      state of the city, and if it were quiet, to give him the full merit of his
+      victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Willet looked after them, as they plodded along the road in the rich
+      glow of a summer evening; and knocking the ashes out of his pipe, laughed
+      inwardly at their folly, until his sides were sore. When he had quite
+      exhausted himself&mdash;which took some time, for he laughed as slowly as
+      he thought and spoke&mdash;he sat himself comfortably with his back to the
+      house, put his legs upon the bench, then his apron over his face, and fell
+      sound asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How long he slept, matters not; but it was for no brief space, for when he
+      awoke, the rich light had faded, the sombre hues of night were falling
+      fast upon the landscape, and a few bright stars were already twinkling
+      overhead. The birds were all at roost, the daisies on the green had closed
+      their fairy hoods, the honeysuckle twining round the porch exhaled its
+      perfume in a twofold degree, as though it lost its coyness at that silent
+      time and loved to shed its fragrance on the night; the ivy scarcely
+      stirred its deep green leaves. How tranquil, and how beautiful it was!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was there no sound in the air, besides the gentle rustling of the trees
+      and the grasshopper's merry chirp? Hark! Something very faint and distant,
+      not unlike the murmuring in a sea-shell. Now it grew louder, fainter now,
+      and now it altogether died away. Presently, it came again, subsided, came
+      once more, grew louder, fainter&mdash;swelled into a roar. It was on the
+      road, and varied with its windings. All at once it burst into a distinct
+      sound&mdash;the voices, and the tramping feet of many men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is questionable whether old John Willet, even then, would have thought
+      of the rioters but for the cries of his cook and housemaid, who ran
+      screaming upstairs and locked themselves into one of the old garrets,&mdash;shrieking
+      dismally when they had done so, by way of rendering their place of refuge
+      perfectly secret and secure. These two females did afterwards depone that
+      Mr Willet in his consternation uttered but one word, and called that up
+      the stairs in a stentorian voice, six distinct times. But as this word was
+      a monosyllable, which, however inoffensive when applied to the quadruped
+      it denotes, is highly reprehensible when used in connection with females
+      of unimpeachable character, many persons were inclined to believe that the
+      young women laboured under some hallucination caused by excessive fear;
+      and that their ears deceived them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Be this as it may, John Willet, in whom the very uttermost extent of
+      dull-headed perplexity supplied the place of courage, stationed himself in
+      the porch, and waited for their coming up. Once, it dimly occurred to him
+      that there was a kind of door to the house, which had a lock and bolts;
+      and at the same time some shadowy ideas of shutters to the lower windows,
+      flitted through his brain. But he stood stock still, looking down the road
+      in the direction in which the noise was rapidly advancing, and did not so
+      much as take his hands out of his pockets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not to wait long. A dark mass, looming through a cloud of dust,
+      soon became visible; the mob quickened their pace; shouting and whooping
+      like savages, they came rushing on pell mell; and in a few seconds he was
+      bandied from hand to hand, in the heart of a crowd of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Halloa!' cried a voice he knew, as the man who spoke came cleaving
+      through the throng. 'Where is he? Give him to me. Don't hurt him. How now,
+      old Jack! Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet looked at him, and saw it was Hugh; but he said nothing, and
+      thought nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'These lads are thirsty and must drink!' cried Hugh, thrusting him back
+      towards the house. 'Bustle, Jack, bustle. Show us the best&mdash;the very
+      best&mdash;the over-proof that you keep for your own drinking, Jack!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John faintly articulated the words, 'Who's to pay?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He says "Who's to pay?"' cried Hugh, with a roar of laughter which was
+      loudly echoed by the crowd. Then turning to John, he added, 'Pay! Why,
+      nobody.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John stared round at the mass of faces&mdash;some grinning, some fierce,
+      some lighted up by torches, some indistinct, some dusky and shadowy: some
+      looking at him, some at his house, some at each other&mdash;and while he
+      was, as he thought, in the very act of doing so, found himself, without
+      any consciousness of having moved, in the bar; sitting down in an
+      arm-chair, and watching the destruction of his property, as if it were
+      some queer play or entertainment, of an astonishing and stupefying nature,
+      but having no reference to himself&mdash;that he could make out&mdash;at
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes. Here was the bar&mdash;the bar that the boldest never entered without
+      special invitation&mdash;the sanctuary, the mystery, the hallowed ground:
+      here it was, crammed with men, clubs, sticks, torches, pistols; filled
+      with a deafening noise, oaths, shouts, screams, hootings; changed all at
+      once into a bear-garden, a madhouse, an infernal temple: men darting in
+      and out, by door and window, smashing the glass, turning the taps,
+      drinking liquor out of China punchbowls, sitting astride of casks, smoking
+      private and personal pipes, cutting down the sacred grove of lemons,
+      hacking and hewing at the celebrated cheese, breaking open inviolable
+      drawers, putting things in their pockets which didn't belong to them,
+      dividing his own money before his own eyes, wantonly wasting, breaking,
+      pulling down and tearing up: nothing quiet, nothing private: men
+      everywhere&mdash;above, below, overhead, in the bedrooms, in the kitchen,
+      in the yard, in the stables&mdash;clambering in at windows when there were
+      doors wide open; dropping out of windows when the stairs were handy;
+      leaping over the bannisters into chasms of passages: new faces and figures
+      presenting themselves every instant&mdash;some yelling, some singing, some
+      fighting, some breaking glass and crockery, some laying the dust with the
+      liquor they couldn't drink, some ringing the bells till they pulled them
+      down, others beating them with pokers till they beat them into fragments:
+      more men still&mdash;more, more, more&mdash;swarming on like insects:
+      noise, smoke, light, darkness, frolic, anger, laughter, groans, plunder,
+      fear, and ruin!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nearly all the time while John looked on at this bewildering scene, Hugh
+      kept near him; and though he was the loudest, wildest, most destructive
+      villain there, he saved his old master's bones a score of times. Nay, even
+      when Mr Tappertit, excited by liquor, came up, and in assertion of his
+      prerogative politely kicked John Willet on the shins, Hugh bade him return
+      the compliment; and if old John had had sufficient presence of mind to
+      understand this whispered direction, and to profit by it, he might no
+      doubt, under Hugh's protection, have done so with impunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the band began to reassemble outside the house, and to call to
+      those within, to join them, for they were losing time. These murmurs
+      increasing, and attaining a high pitch, Hugh, and some of those who yet
+      lingered in the bar, and who plainly were the leaders of the troop, took
+      counsel together, apart, as to what was to be done with John, to keep him
+      quiet until their Chigwell work was over. Some proposed to set the house
+      on fire and leave him in it; others, that he should be reduced to a state
+      of temporary insensibility, by knocking on the head; others, that he
+      should be sworn to sit where he was until to-morrow at the same hour;
+      others again, that he should be gagged and taken off with them, under a
+      sufficient guard. All these propositions being overruled, it was
+      concluded, at last, to bind him in his chair, and the word was passed for
+      Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Look'ee here, Jack!' said Hugh, striding up to him: 'We are going to tie
+      you, hand and foot, but otherwise you won't be hurt. D'ye hear?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Willet looked at another man, as if he didn't know which was the
+      speaker, and muttered something about an ordinary every Sunday at two
+      o'clock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You won't be hurt I tell you, Jack&mdash;do you hear me?' roared Hugh,
+      impressing the assurance upon him by means of a heavy blow on the back.
+      'He's so dead scared, he's woolgathering, I think. Give him a drop of
+      something to drink here. Hand over, one of you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A glass of liquor being passed forward, Hugh poured the contents down old
+      John's throat. Mr Willet feebly smacked his lips, thrust his hand into his
+      pocket, and inquired what was to pay; adding, as he looked vacantly round,
+      that he believed there was a trifle of broken glass&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's out of his senses for the time, it's my belief,' said Hugh, after
+      shaking him, without any visible effect upon his system, until his keys
+      rattled in his pocket. 'Where's that Dennis?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The word was again passed, and presently Mr Dennis, with a long cord bound
+      about his middle, something after the manner of a friar, came hurrying in,
+      attended by a body-guard of half-a-dozen of his men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come! Be alive here!' cried Hugh, stamping his foot upon the ground.
+      'Make haste!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dennis, with a wink and a nod, unwound the cord from about his person, and
+      raising his eyes to the ceiling, looked all over it, and round the walls
+      and cornice, with a curious eye; then shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Move, man, can't you!' cried Hugh, with another impatient stamp of his
+      foot. 'Are we to wait here, till the cry has gone for ten miles round, and
+      our work's interrupted?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's all very fine talking, brother,' answered Dennis, stepping towards
+      him; 'but unless&mdash;' and here he whispered in his ear&mdash;'unless we
+      do it over the door, it can't be done at all in this here room.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What can't?' Hugh demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What can't!' retorted Dennis. 'Why, the old man can't.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, you weren't going to hang him!' cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, brother?' returned the hangman with a stare. 'What else?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh made no answer, but snatching the rope from his companion's hand,
+      proceeded to bind old John himself; but his very first move was so
+      bungling and unskilful, that Mr Dennis entreated, almost with tears in his
+      eyes, that he might be permitted to perform the duty. Hugh consenting, he
+      achieved it in a twinkling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There,' he said, looking mournfully at John Willet, who displayed no more
+      emotion in his bonds than he had shown out of them. 'That's what I call
+      pretty and workmanlike. He's quite a picter now. But, brother, just a word
+      with you&mdash;now that he's ready trussed, as one may say, wouldn't it be
+      better for all parties if we was to work him off? It would read uncommon
+      well in the newspapers, it would indeed. The public would think a great
+      deal more on us!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh, inferring what his companion meant, rather from his gestures than
+      his technical mode of expressing himself (to which, as he was ignorant of
+      his calling, he wanted the clue), rejected this proposition for the second
+      time, and gave the word 'Forward!' which was echoed by a hundred voices
+      from without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To the Warren!' shouted Dennis as he ran out, followed by the rest. 'A
+      witness's house, my lads!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A loud yell followed, and the whole throng hurried off, mad for pillage
+      and destruction. Hugh lingered behind for a few moments to stimulate
+      himself with more drink, and to set all the taps running, a few of which
+      had accidentally been spared; then, glancing round the despoiled and
+      plundered room, through whose shattered window the rioters had thrust the
+      Maypole itself,&mdash;for even that had been sawn down,&mdash;lighted a
+      torch, clapped the mute and motionless John Willet on the back, and waving
+      his light above his head, and uttering a fierce shout, hastened after his
+      companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0055" id="link2HCH0055">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 55
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      John Willet, left alone in his dismantled bar, continued to sit staring
+      about him; awake as to his eyes, certainly, but with all his powers of
+      reason and reflection in a sound and dreamless sleep. He looked round upon
+      the room which had been for years, and was within an hour ago, the pride
+      of his heart; and not a muscle of his face was moved. The night, without,
+      looked black and cold through the dreary gaps in the casement; the
+      precious liquids, now nearly leaked away, dripped with a hollow sound upon
+      the floor; the Maypole peered ruefully in through the broken window, like
+      the bowsprit of a wrecked ship; the ground might have been the bottom of
+      the sea, it was so strewn with precious fragments. Currents of air rushed
+      in, as the old doors jarred and creaked upon their hinges; the candles
+      flickered and guttered down, and made long winding-sheets; the cheery
+      deep-red curtains flapped and fluttered idly in the wind; even the stout
+      Dutch kegs, overthrown and lying empty in dark corners, seemed the mere
+      husks of good fellows whose jollity had departed, and who could kindle
+      with a friendly glow no more. John saw this desolation, and yet saw it
+      not. He was perfectly contented to sit there, staring at it, and felt no
+      more indignation or discomfort in his bonds than if they had been robes of
+      honour. So far as he was personally concerned, old Time lay snoring, and
+      the world stood still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Save for the dripping from the barrels, the rustling of such light
+      fragments of destruction as the wind affected, and the dull creaking of
+      the open doors, all was profoundly quiet: indeed, these sounds, like the
+      ticking of the death-watch in the night, only made the silence they
+      invaded deeper and more apparent. But quiet or noisy, it was all one to
+      John. If a train of heavy artillery could have come up and commenced ball
+      practice outside the window, it would have been all the same to him. He
+      was a long way beyond surprise. A ghost couldn't have overtaken him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by he heard a footstep&mdash;a hurried, and yet cautious footstep&mdash;coming
+      on towards the house. It stopped, advanced again, then seemed to go quite
+      round it. Having done that, it came beneath the window, and a head looked
+      in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was strongly relieved against the darkness outside by the glare of the
+      guttering candles. A pale, worn, withered face; the eyes&mdash;but that
+      was owing to its gaunt condition&mdash;unnaturally large and bright; the
+      hair, a grizzled black. It gave a searching glance all round the room, and
+      a deep voice said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you alone in this house?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John made no sign, though the question was repeated twice, and he heard it
+      distinctly. After a moment's pause, the man got in at the window. John was
+      not at all surprised at this, either. There had been so much getting in
+      and out of window in the course of the last hour or so, that he had quite
+      forgotten the door, and seemed to have lived among such exercises from
+      infancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man wore a large, dark, faded cloak, and a slouched hat; he walked up
+      close to John, and looked at him. John returned the compliment with
+      interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How long have you been sitting thus?' said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John considered, but nothing came of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Which way have the party gone?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some wandering speculations relative to the fashion of the stranger's
+      boots, got into Mr Willet's mind by some accident or other, but they got
+      out again in a hurry, and left him in his former state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You would do well to speak,' said the man; 'you may keep a whole skin,
+      though you have nothing else left that can be hurt. Which way have the
+      party gone?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That!' said John, finding his voice all at once, and nodding with perfect
+      good faith&mdash;he couldn't point; he was so tightly bound&mdash;in
+      exactly the opposite direction to the right one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You lie!' said the man angrily, and with a threatening gesture. 'I came
+      that way. You would betray me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was so evident that John's imperturbability was not assumed, but was
+      the result of the late proceedings under his roof, that the man stayed his
+      hand in the very act of striking him, and turned away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John looked after him without so much as a twitch in a single nerve of his
+      face. He seized a glass, and holding it under one of the little casks
+      until a few drops were collected, drank them greedily off; then throwing
+      it down upon the floor impatiently, he took the vessel in his hands and
+      drained it into his throat. Some scraps of bread and meat were scattered
+      about, and on these he fell next; eating them with voracity, and pausing
+      every now and then to listen for some fancied noise outside. When he had
+      refreshed himself in this manner with violent haste, and raised another
+      barrel to his lips, he pulled his hat upon his brow as though he were
+      about to leave the house, and turned to John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where are your servants?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet indistinctly remembered to have heard the rioters calling to
+      them to throw the key of the room in which they were, out of window, for
+      their keeping. He therefore replied, 'Locked up.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well for them if they remain quiet, and well for you if you do the like,'
+      said the man. 'Now show me the way the party went.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This time Mr Willet indicated it correctly. The man was hurrying to the
+      door, when suddenly there came towards them on the wind, the loud and
+      rapid tolling of an alarm-bell, and then a bright and vivid glare streamed
+      up, which illumined, not only the whole chamber, but all the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not the sudden change from darkness to this dreadful light, it was
+      not the sound of distant shrieks and shouts of triumph, it was not this
+      dread invasion of the serenity and peace of night, that drove the man back
+      as though a thunderbolt had struck him. It was the Bell. If the ghastliest
+      shape the human mind has ever pictured in its wildest dreams had risen up
+      before him, he could not have staggered backward from its touch, as he did
+      from the first sound of that loud iron voice. With eyes that started from
+      his head, his limbs convulsed, his face most horrible to see, he raised
+      one arm high up into the air, and holding something visionary back and
+      down, with his other hand, drove at it as though he held a knife and
+      stabbed it to the heart. He clutched his hair, and stopped his ears, and
+      travelled madly round and round; then gave a frightful cry, and with it
+      rushed away: still, still, the Bell tolled on and seemed to follow him&mdash;louder
+      and louder, hotter and hotter yet. The glare grew brighter, the roar of
+      voices deeper; the crash of heavy bodies falling, shook the air; bright
+      streams of sparks rose up into the sky; but louder than them all&mdash;rising
+      faster far, to Heaven&mdash;a million times more fierce and furious&mdash;pouring
+      forth dreadful secrets after its long silence&mdash;speaking the language
+      of the dead&mdash;the Bell&mdash;the Bell!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What hunt of spectres could surpass that dread pursuit and flight! Had
+      there been a legion of them on his track, he could have better borne it.
+      They would have had a beginning and an end, but here all space was full.
+      The one pursuing voice was everywhere: it sounded in the earth, the air;
+      shook the long grass, and howled among the trembling trees. The echoes
+      caught it up, the owls hooted as it flew upon the breeze, the nightingale
+      was silent and hid herself among the thickest boughs: it seemed to goad
+      and urge the angry fire, and lash it into madness; everything was steeped
+      in one prevailing red; the glow was everywhere; nature was drenched in
+      blood: still the remorseless crying of that awful voice&mdash;the Bell,
+      the Bell!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It ceased; but not in his ears. The knell was at his heart. No work of man
+      had ever voice like that which sounded there, and warned him that it cried
+      unceasingly to Heaven. Who could hear that bell, and not know what it
+      said! There was murder in its every note&mdash;cruel, relentless, savage
+      murder&mdash;the murder of a confiding man, by one who held his every
+      trust. Its ringing summoned phantoms from their graves. What face was
+      that, in which a friendly smile changed to a look of half incredulous
+      horror, which stiffened for a moment into one of pain, then changed again
+      into an imploring glance at Heaven, and so fell idly down with upturned
+      eyes, like the dead stags' he had often peeped at when a little child:
+      shrinking and shuddering&mdash;there was a dreadful thing to think of now!&mdash;and
+      clinging to an apron as he looked! He sank upon the ground, and grovelling
+      down as if he would dig himself a place to hide in, covered his face and
+      ears: but no, no, no,&mdash;a hundred walls and roofs of brass would not
+      shut out that bell, for in it spoke the wrathful voice of God, and from
+      that voice, the whole wide universe could not afford a refuge!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he rushed up and down, not knowing where to turn, and while he lay
+      crouching there, the work went briskly on indeed. When they left the
+      Maypole, the rioters formed into a solid body, and advanced at a quick
+      pace towards the Warren. Rumour of their approach having gone before, they
+      found the garden-doors fast closed, the windows made secure, and the house
+      profoundly dark: not a light being visible in any portion of the building.
+      After some fruitless ringing at the bells, and beating at the iron gates,
+      they drew off a few paces to reconnoitre, and confer upon the course it
+      would be best to take.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very little conference was needed, when all were bent upon one desperate
+      purpose, infuriated with liquor, and flushed with successful riot. The
+      word being given to surround the house, some climbed the gates, or dropped
+      into the shallow trench and scaled the garden wall, while others pulled
+      down the solid iron fence, and while they made a breach to enter by, made
+      deadly weapons of the bars. The house being completely encircled, a small
+      number of men were despatched to break open a tool-shed in the garden; and
+      during their absence on this errand, the remainder contented themselves
+      with knocking violently at the doors, and calling to those within, to come
+      down and open them on peril of their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No answer being returned to this repeated summons, and the detachment who
+      had been sent away, coming back with an accession of pickaxes, spades, and
+      hoes, they,&mdash;together with those who had such arms already, or
+      carried (as many did) axes, poles, and crowbars,&mdash;struggled into the
+      foremost rank, ready to beset the doors and windows. They had not at this
+      time more than a dozen lighted torches among them; but when these
+      preparations were completed, flaming links were distributed and passed
+      from hand to hand with such rapidity, that, in a minute's time, at least
+      two-thirds of the whole roaring mass bore, each man in his hand, a blazing
+      brand. Whirling these about their heads they raised a loud shout, and fell
+      to work upon the doors and windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amidst the clattering of heavy blows, the rattling of broken glass, the
+      cries and execrations of the mob, and all the din and turmoil of the
+      scene, Hugh and his friends kept together at the turret-door where Mr
+      Haredale had last admitted him and old John Willet; and spent their united
+      force on that. It was a strong old oaken door, guarded by good bolts and a
+      heavy bar, but it soon went crashing in upon the narrow stairs behind, and
+      made, as it were, a platform to facilitate their tearing up into the rooms
+      above. Almost at the same moment, a dozen other points were forced, and at
+      every one the crowd poured in like water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few armed servant-men were posted in the hall, and when the rioters
+      forced an entrance there, they fired some half-a-dozen shots. But these
+      taking no effect, and the concourse coming on like an army of devils, they
+      only thought of consulting their own safety, and retreated, echoing their
+      assailants' cries, and hoping in the confusion to be taken for rioters
+      themselves; in which stratagem they succeeded, with the exception of one
+      old man who was never heard of again, and was said to have had his brains
+      beaten out with an iron bar (one of his fellows reported that he had seen
+      the old man fall), and to have been afterwards burnt in the flames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The besiegers being now in complete possession of the house, spread
+      themselves over it from garret to cellar, and plied their demon labours
+      fiercely. While some small parties kindled bonfires underneath the
+      windows, others broke up the furniture and cast the fragments down to feed
+      the flames below; where the apertures in the wall (windows no longer) were
+      large enough, they threw out tables, chests of drawers, beds, mirrors,
+      pictures, and flung them whole into the fire; while every fresh addition
+      to the blazing masses was received with shouts, and howls, and yells,
+      which added new and dismal terrors to the conflagration. Those who had
+      axes and had spent their fury on the movables, chopped and tore down the
+      doors and window frames, broke up the flooring, hewed away the rafters,
+      and buried men who lingered in the upper rooms, in heaps of ruins. Some
+      searched the drawers, the chests, the boxes, writing-desks, and closets,
+      for jewels, plate, and money; while others, less mindful of gain and more
+      mad for destruction, cast their whole contents into the courtyard without
+      examination, and called to those below, to heap them on the blaze. Men who
+      had been into the cellars, and had staved the casks, rushed to and fro
+      stark mad, setting fire to all they saw&mdash;often to the dresses of
+      their own friends&mdash;and kindling the building in so many parts that
+      some had no time for escape, and were seen, with drooping hands and
+      blackened faces, hanging senseless on the window-sills to which they had
+      crawled, until they were sucked and drawn into the burning gulf. The more
+      the fire crackled and raged, the wilder and more cruel the men grew; as
+      though moving in that element they became fiends, and changed their
+      earthly nature for the qualities that give delight in hell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The burning pile, revealing rooms and passages red hot, through gaps made
+      in the crumbling walls; the tributary fires that licked the outer bricks
+      and stones, with their long forked tongues, and ran up to meet the glowing
+      mass within; the shining of the flames upon the villains who looked on and
+      fed them; the roaring of the angry blaze, so bright and high that it
+      seemed in its rapacity to have swallowed up the very smoke; the living
+      flakes the wind bore rapidly away and hurried on with, like a storm of
+      fiery snow; the noiseless breaking of great beams of wood, which fell like
+      feathers on the heap of ashes, and crumbled in the very act to sparks and
+      powder; the lurid tinge that overspread the sky, and the darkness, very
+      deep by contrast, which prevailed around; the exposure to the coarse,
+      common gaze, of every little nook which usages of home had made a sacred
+      place, and the destruction by rude hands of every little household
+      favourite which old associations made a dear and precious thing: all this
+      taking place&mdash;not among pitying looks and friendly murmurs of
+      compassion, but brutal shouts and exultations, which seemed to make the
+      very rats who stood by the old house too long, creatures with some claim
+      upon the pity and regard of those its roof had sheltered:&mdash;combined
+      to form a scene never to be forgotten by those who saw it and were not
+      actors in the work, so long as life endured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And who were they? The alarm-bell rang&mdash;and it was pulled by no faint
+      or hesitating hands&mdash;for a long time; but not a soul was seen. Some
+      of the insurgents said that when it ceased, they heard the shrieks of
+      women, and saw some garments fluttering in the air, as a party of men bore
+      away no unresisting burdens. No one could say that this was true or false,
+      in such an uproar; but where was Hugh? Who among them had seen him, since
+      the forcing of the doors? The cry spread through the body. Where was Hugh!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here!' he hoarsely cried, appearing from the darkness; out of breath, and
+      blackened with the smoke. 'We have done all we can; the fire is burning
+      itself out; and even the corners where it hasn't spread, are nothing but
+      heaps of ruins. Disperse, my lads, while the coast's clear; get back by
+      different ways; and meet as usual!' With that, he disappeared again,&mdash;contrary
+      to his wont, for he was always first to advance, and last to go away,&mdash;leaving
+      them to follow homewards as they would.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not an easy task to draw off such a throng. If Bedlam gates had
+      been flung wide open, there would not have issued forth such maniacs as
+      the frenzy of that night had made. There were men there, who danced and
+      trampled on the beds of flowers as though they trod down human enemies,
+      and wrenched them from the stalks, like savages who twisted human necks.
+      There were men who cast their lighted torches in the air, and suffered
+      them to fall upon their heads and faces, blistering the skin with deep
+      unseemly burns. There were men who rushed up to the fire, and paddled in
+      it with their hands as if in water; and others who were restrained by
+      force from plunging in, to gratify their deadly longing. On the skull of
+      one drunken lad&mdash;not twenty, by his looks&mdash;who lay upon the
+      ground with a bottle to his mouth, the lead from the roof came streaming
+      down in a shower of liquid fire, white hot; melting his head like wax.
+      When the scattered parties were collected, men&mdash;living yet, but
+      singed as with hot irons&mdash;were plucked out of the cellars, and
+      carried off upon the shoulders of others, who strove to wake them as they
+      went along, with ribald jokes, and left them, dead, in the passages of
+      hospitals. But of all the howling throng not one learnt mercy from, or
+      sickened at, these sights; nor was the fierce, besotted, senseless rage of
+      one man glutted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly, and in small clusters, with hoarse hurrahs and repetitions of
+      their usual cry, the assembly dropped away. The last few red-eyed
+      stragglers reeled after those who had gone before; the distant noise of
+      men calling to each other, and whistling for others whom they missed, grew
+      fainter and fainter; at length even these sounds died away, and silence
+      reigned alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silence indeed! The glare of the flames had sunk into a fitful, flashing
+      light; and the gentle stars, invisible till now, looked down upon the
+      blackening heap. A dull smoke hung upon the ruin, as though to hide it
+      from those eyes of Heaven; and the wind forbore to move it. Bare walls,
+      roof open to the sky&mdash;chambers, where the beloved dead had, many and
+      many a fair day, risen to new life and energy; where so many dear ones had
+      been sad and merry; which were connected with so many thoughts and hopes,
+      regrets and changes&mdash;all gone. Nothing left but a dull and dreary
+      blank&mdash;a smouldering heap of dust and ashes&mdash;the silence and
+      solitude of utter desolation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0056" id="link2HCH0056">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 56
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Maypole cronies, little dreaming of the change so soon to come upon
+      their favourite haunt, struck through the Forest path upon their way to
+      London; and avoiding the main road, which was hot and dusty, kept to the
+      by-paths and the fields. As they drew nearer to their destination, they
+      began to make inquiries of the people whom they passed, concerning the
+      riots, and the truth or falsehood of the stories they had heard. The
+      answers went far beyond any intelligence that had spread to quiet
+      Chigwell. One man told them that that afternoon the Guards, conveying to
+      Newgate some rioters who had been re-examined, had been set upon by the
+      mob and compelled to retreat; another, that the houses of two witnesses
+      near Clare Market were about to be pulled down when he came away; another,
+      that Sir George Saville's house in Leicester Fields was to be burned that
+      night, and that it would go hard with Sir George if he fell into the
+      people's hands, as it was he who had brought in the Catholic bill. All
+      accounts agreed that the mob were out, in stronger numbers and more
+      numerous parties than had yet appeared; that the streets were unsafe; that
+      no man's house or life was worth an hour's purchase; that the public
+      consternation was increasing every moment; and that many families had
+      already fled the city. One fellow who wore the popular colour, damned them
+      for not having cockades in their hats, and bade them set a good watch
+      to-morrow night upon their prison doors, for the locks would have a
+      straining; another asked if they were fire-proof, that they walked abroad
+      without the distinguishing mark of all good and true men;&mdash;and a
+      third who rode on horseback, and was quite alone, ordered them to throw
+      each man a shilling, in his hat, towards the support of the rioters.
+      Although they were afraid to refuse compliance with this demand, and were
+      much alarmed by these reports, they agreed, having come so far, to go
+      forward, and see the real state of things with their own eyes. So they
+      pushed on quicker, as men do who are excited by portentous news; and
+      ruminating on what they had heard, spoke little to each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now night, and as they came nearer to the city they had dismal
+      confirmation of this intelligence in three great fires, all close
+      together, which burnt fiercely and were gloomily reflected in the sky.
+      Arriving in the immediate suburbs, they found that almost every house had
+      chalked upon its door in large characters 'No Popery,' that the shops were
+      shut, and that alarm and anxiety were depicted in every face they passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noting these things with a degree of apprehension which neither of the
+      three cared to impart, in its full extent, to his companions, they came to
+      a turnpike-gate, which was shut. They were passing through the turnstile
+      on the path, when a horseman rode up from London at a hard gallop, and
+      called to the toll-keeper in a voice of great agitation, to open quickly
+      in the name of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The adjuration was so earnest and vehement, that the man, with a lantern
+      in his hand, came running out&mdash;toll-keeper though he was&mdash;and
+      was about to throw the gate open, when happening to look behind him, he
+      exclaimed, 'Good Heaven, what's that! Another fire!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this, the three turned their heads, and saw in the distance&mdash;straight
+      in the direction whence they had come&mdash;a broad sheet of flame,
+      casting a threatening light upon the clouds, which glimmered as though the
+      conflagration were behind them, and showed like a wrathful sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My mind misgives me,' said the horseman, 'or I know from what far
+      building those flames come. Don't stand aghast, my good fellow. Open the
+      gate!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir,' cried the man, laying his hand upon his horse's bridle as he let
+      him through: 'I know you now, sir; be advised by me; do not go on. I saw
+      them pass, and know what kind of men they are. You will be murdered.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So be it!' said the horseman, looking intently towards the fire, and not
+      at him who spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But sir&mdash;sir,' cried the man, grasping at his rein more tightly yet,
+      'if you do go on, wear the blue riband. Here, sir,' he added, taking one
+      from his own hat, 'it's necessity, not choice, that makes me wear it; it's
+      love of life and home, sir. Wear it for this one night, sir; only for this
+      one night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do!' cried the three friends, pressing round his horse. 'Mr Haredale&mdash;worthy
+      sir&mdash;good gentleman&mdash;pray be persuaded.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who's that?' cried Mr Haredale, stooping down to look. 'Did I hear
+      Daisy's voice?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You did, sir,' cried the little man. 'Do be persuaded, sir. This
+      gentleman says very true. Your life may hang upon it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you,' said Mr Haredale abruptly, 'afraid to come with me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I, sir?&mdash;N-n-no.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Put that riband in your hat. If we meet the rioters, swear that I took
+      you prisoner for wearing it. I will tell them so with my own lips; for as
+      I hope for mercy when I die, I will take no quarter from them, nor shall
+      they have quarter from me, if we come hand to hand to-night. Up here&mdash;behind
+      me&mdash;quick! Clasp me tight round the body, and fear nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant they were riding away, at full gallop, in a dense cloud of
+      dust, and speeding on, like hunters in a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was well the good horse knew the road he traversed, for never once&mdash;no,
+      never once in all the journey&mdash;did Mr Haredale cast his eyes upon the
+      ground, or turn them, for an instant, from the light towards which they
+      sped so madly. Once he said in a low voice, 'It is my house,' but that was
+      the only time he spoke. When they came to dark and doubtful places, he
+      never forgot to put his hand upon the little man to hold him more securely
+      in his seat, but he kept his head erect and his eyes fixed on the fire,
+      then, and always.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The road was dangerous enough, for they went the nearest way&mdash;headlong&mdash;far
+      from the highway&mdash;by lonely lanes and paths, where waggon-wheels had
+      worn deep ruts; where hedge and ditch hemmed in the narrow strip of
+      ground; and tall trees, arching overhead, made it profoundly dark. But on,
+      on, on, with neither stop nor stumble, till they reached the Maypole door,
+      and could plainly see that the fire began to fade, as if for want of fuel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Down&mdash;for one moment&mdash;for but one moment,' said Mr Haredale,
+      helping Daisy to the ground, and following himself. 'Willet&mdash;Willet&mdash;where
+      are my niece and servants&mdash;Willet!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crying to him distractedly, he rushed into the bar.&mdash;The landlord
+      bound and fastened to his chair; the place dismantled, stripped, and
+      pulled about his ears;&mdash;nobody could have taken shelter here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a strong man, accustomed to restrain himself, and suppress his
+      strong emotions; but this preparation for what was to follow&mdash;though
+      he had seen that fire burning, and knew that his house must be razed to
+      the ground&mdash;was more than he could bear. He covered his face with his
+      hands for a moment, and turned away his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Johnny, Johnny,' said Solomon&mdash;and the simple-hearted fellow cried
+      outright, and wrung his hands&mdash;'Oh dear old Johnny, here's a change!
+      That the Maypole bar should come to this, and we should live to see it!
+      The old Warren too, Johnny&mdash;Mr Haredale&mdash;oh, Johnny, what a
+      piteous sight this is!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pointing to Mr Haredale as he said these words, little Solomon Daisy put
+      his elbows on the back of Mr Willet's chair, and fairly blubbered on his
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Solomon was speaking, old John sat, mute as a stock-fish, staring at
+      him with an unearthly glare, and displaying, by every possible symptom,
+      entire and complete unconsciousness. But when Solomon was silent again,
+      John followed with his great round eyes the direction of his looks, and
+      did appear to have some dawning distant notion that somebody had come to
+      see him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You know us, don't you, Johnny?' said the little clerk, rapping himself
+      on the breast. 'Daisy, you know&mdash;Chigwell Church&mdash;bell-ringer&mdash;little
+      desk on Sundays&mdash;eh, Johnny?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet reflected for a few moments, and then muttered, as it were
+      mechanically: 'Let us sing to the praise and glory of&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, to be sure,' cried the little man, hastily; 'that's it&mdash;that's
+      me, Johnny. You're all right now, an't you? Say you're all right, Johnny.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All right?' pondered Mr Willet, as if that were a matter entirely between
+      himself and his conscience. 'All right? Ah!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They haven't been misusing you with sticks, or pokers, or any other blunt
+      instruments&mdash;have they, Johnny?' asked Solomon, with a very anxious
+      glance at Mr Willet's head. 'They didn't beat you, did they?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John knitted his brow; looked downwards, as if he were mentally engaged in
+      some arithmetical calculation; then upwards, as if the total would not
+      come at his call; then at Solomon Daisy, from his eyebrow to his
+      shoe-buckle; then very slowly round the bar. And then a great, round,
+      leaden-looking, and not at all transparent tear, came rolling out of each
+      eye, and he said, as he shook his head:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If they'd only had the goodness to murder me, I'd have thanked 'em
+      kindly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no, no, don't say that, Johnny,' whimpered his little friend. 'It's
+      very, very bad, but not quite so bad as that. No, no!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Look'ee here, sir!' cried John, turning his rueful eyes on Mr Haredale,
+      who had dropped on one knee, and was hastily beginning to untie his bonds.
+      'Look'ee here, sir! The very Maypole&mdash;the old dumb Maypole&mdash;stares
+      in at the winder, as if it said, "John Willet, John Willet, let's go and
+      pitch ourselves in the nighest pool of water as is deep enough to hold us;
+      for our day is over!"'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't, Johnny, don't,' cried his friend: no less affected with this
+      mournful effort of Mr Willet's imagination, than by the sepulchral tone in
+      which he had spoken of the Maypole. 'Please don't, Johnny!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your loss is great, and your misfortune a heavy one,' said Mr Haredale,
+      looking restlessly towards the door: 'and this is not a time to comfort
+      you. If it were, I am in no condition to do so. Before I leave you, tell
+      me one thing, and try to tell me plainly, I implore you. Have you seen, or
+      heard of Emma?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No!' said Mr Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nor any one but these bloodhounds?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They rode away, I trust in Heaven, before these dreadful scenes began,'
+      said Mr Haredale, who, between his agitation, his eagerness to mount his
+      horse again, and the dexterity with which the cords were tied, had
+      scarcely yet undone one knot. 'A knife, Daisy!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You didn't,' said John, looking about, as though he had lost his
+      pocket-handkerchief, or some such slight article&mdash;'either of you
+      gentlemen&mdash;see a&mdash;a coffin anywheres, did you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Willet!' cried Mr Haredale. Solomon dropped the knife, and instantly
+      becoming limp from head to foot, exclaimed 'Good gracious!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Because,' said John, not at all regarding them, 'a dead man called
+      a little time ago, on his way yonder. I could have told you what name was
+      on the plate, if he had brought his coffin with him, and left it behind.
+      If he didn't, it don't signify.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His landlord, who had listened to these words with breathless attention,
+      started that moment to his feet; and, without a word, drew Solomon Daisy
+      to the door, mounted his horse, took him up behind again, and flew rather
+      than galloped towards the pile of ruins, which that day's sun had shone
+      upon, a stately house. Mr Willet stared after them, listened, looked down
+      upon himself to make quite sure that he was still unbound, and, without
+      any manifestation of impatience, disappointment, or surprise, gently
+      relapsed into the condition from which he had so imperfectly recovered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale tied his horse to the trunk of a tree, and grasping his
+      companion's arm, stole softly along the footpath, and into what had been
+      the garden of his house. He stopped for an instant to look upon its
+      smoking walls, and at the stars that shone through roof and floor upon the
+      heap of crumbling ashes. Solomon glanced timidly in his face, but his lips
+      were tightly pressed together, a resolute and stern expression sat upon
+      his brow, and not a tear, a look, or gesture indicating grief, escaped
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew his sword; felt for a moment in his breast, as though he carried
+      other arms about him; then grasping Solomon by the wrist again, went with
+      a cautious step all round the house. He looked into every doorway and gap
+      in the wall; retraced his steps at every rustling of the air among the
+      leaves; and searched in every shadowed nook with outstretched hands. Thus
+      they made the circuit of the building: but they returned to the spot from
+      which they had set out, without encountering any human being, or finding
+      the least trace of any concealed straggler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a short pause, Mr Haredale shouted twice or thrice. Then cried
+      aloud, 'Is there any one in hiding here, who knows my voice! There is
+      nothing to fear now. If any of my people are near, I entreat them to
+      answer!' He called them all by name; his voice was echoed in many mournful
+      tones; then all was silent as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were standing near the foot of the turret, where the alarm-bell hung.
+      The fire had raged there, and the floors had been sawn, and hewn, and
+      beaten down, besides. It was open to the night; but a part of the
+      staircase still remained, winding upward from a great mound of dust and
+      cinders. Fragments of the jagged and broken steps offered an insecure and
+      giddy footing here and there, and then were lost again, behind protruding
+      angles of the wall, or in the deep shadows cast upon it by other portions
+      of the ruin; for by this time the moon had risen, and shone brightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they stood here, listening to the echoes as they died away, and hoping
+      in vain to hear a voice they knew, some of the ashes in this turret
+      slipped and rolled down. Startled by the least noise in that melancholy
+      place, Solomon looked up in his companion's face, and saw that he had
+      turned towards the spot, and that he watched and listened keenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He covered the little man's mouth with his hand, and looked again.
+      Instantly, with kindling eyes, he bade him on his life keep still, and
+      neither speak nor move. Then holding his breath, and stooping down, he
+      stole into the turret, with his drawn sword in his hand, and disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Terrified to be left there by himself, under such desolate circumstances,
+      and after all he had seen and heard that night, Solomon would have
+      followed, but there had been something in Mr Haredale's manner and his
+      look, the recollection of which held him spellbound. He stood rooted to
+      the spot; and scarcely venturing to breathe, looked up with mingled fear
+      and wonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the ashes slipped and rolled&mdash;very, very softly&mdash;again&mdash;and
+      then again, as though they crumbled underneath the tread of a stealthy
+      foot. And now a figure was dimly visible; climbing very softly; and often
+      stopping to look down; now it pursued its difficult way; and now it was
+      hidden from the view again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It emerged once more, into the shadowy and uncertain light&mdash;higher
+      now, but not much, for the way was steep and toilsome, and its progress
+      very slow. What phantom of the brain did he pursue; and why did he look
+      down so constantly? He knew he was alone. Surely his mind was not affected
+      by that night's loss and agony. He was not about to throw himself headlong
+      from the summit of the tottering wall. Solomon turned sick, and clasped
+      his hands. His limbs trembled beneath him, and a cold sweat broke out upon
+      his pallid face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he complied with Mr Haredale's last injunction now, it was because he
+      had not the power to speak or move. He strained his gaze, and fixed it on
+      a patch of moonlight, into which, if he continued to ascend, he must soon
+      emerge. When he appeared there, he would try to call to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the ashes slipped and crumbled; some stones rolled down, and fell
+      with a dull, heavy sound upon the ground below. He kept his eyes upon the
+      piece of moonlight. The figure was coming on, for its shadow was already
+      thrown upon the wall. Now it appeared&mdash;and now looked round at him&mdash;and
+      now&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horror-stricken clerk uttered a scream that pierced the air, and
+      cried, 'The ghost! The ghost!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Long before the echo of his cry had died away, another form rushed out
+      into the light, flung itself upon the foremost one, knelt down upon its
+      breast, and clutched its throat with both hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Villain!' cried Mr Haredale, in a terrible voice&mdash;for it was he.
+      'Dead and buried, as all men supposed through your infernal arts, but
+      reserved by Heaven for this&mdash;at last&mdash;at last I have you. You,
+      whose hands are red with my brother's blood, and that of his faithful
+      servant, shed to conceal your own atrocious guilt&mdash;You, Rudge, double
+      murderer and monster, I arrest you in the name of God, who has delivered
+      you into my hands. No. Though you had the strength of twenty men,' he
+      added, as the murderer writhed and struggled, you could not escape me or
+      loosen my grasp to-night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0057" id="link2HCH0057">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 57
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby, armed as we have seen, continued to pace up and down before the
+      stable-door; glad to be alone again, and heartily rejoicing in the
+      unaccustomed silence and tranquillity. After the whirl of noise and riot
+      in which the last two days had been passed, the pleasures of solitude and
+      peace were enhanced a thousandfold. He felt quite happy; and as he leaned
+      upon his staff and mused, a bright smile overspread his face, and none but
+      cheerful visions floated into his brain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had he no thoughts of her, whose sole delight he was, and whom he had
+      unconsciously plunged in such bitter sorrow and such deep affliction? Oh,
+      yes. She was at the heart of all his cheerful hopes and proud reflections.
+      It was she whom all this honour and distinction were to gladden; the joy
+      and profit were for her. What delight it gave her to hear of the bravery
+      of her poor boy! Ah! He would have known that, without Hugh's telling him.
+      And what a precious thing it was to know she lived so happily, and heard
+      with so much pride (he pictured to himself her look when they told her)
+      that he was in such high esteem: bold among the boldest, and trusted
+      before them all! And when these frays were over, and the good lord had
+      conquered his enemies, and they were all at peace again, and he and she
+      were rich, what happiness they would have in talking of these troubled
+      times when he was a great soldier: and when they sat alone together in the
+      tranquil twilight, and she had no longer reason to be anxious for the
+      morrow, what pleasure would he have in the reflection that this was his
+      doing&mdash;his&mdash;poor foolish Barnaby's; and in patting her on the
+      cheek, and saying with a merry laugh, 'Am I silly now, mother&mdash;am I
+      silly now?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a lighter heart and step, and eyes the brighter for the happy tear
+      that dimmed them for a moment, Barnaby resumed his walk; and singing gaily
+      to himself, kept guard upon his quiet post.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His comrade Grip, the partner of his watch, though fond of basking in the
+      sunshine, preferred to-day to walk about the stable; having a great deal
+      to do in the way of scattering the straw, hiding under it such small
+      articles as had been casually left about, and haunting Hugh's bed, to
+      which he seemed to have taken a particular attachment. Sometimes Barnaby
+      looked in and called him, and then he came hopping out; but he merely did
+      this as a concession to his master's weakness, and soon returned again to
+      his own grave pursuits: peering into the straw with his bill, and rapidly
+      covering up the place, as if, Midas-like, he were whispering secrets to
+      the earth and burying them; constantly busying himself upon the sly; and
+      affecting, whenever Barnaby came past, to look up in the clouds and have
+      nothing whatever on his mind: in short, conducting himself, in many
+      respects, in a more than usually thoughtful, deep, and mysterious manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the day crept on, Barnaby, who had no directions forbidding him to eat
+      and drink upon his post, but had been, on the contrary, supplied with a
+      bottle of beer and a basket of provisions, determined to break his fast,
+      which he had not done since morning. To this end, he sat down on the
+      ground before the door, and putting his staff across his knees in case of
+      alarm or surprise, summoned Grip to dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This call, the bird obeyed with great alacrity; crying, as he sidled up to
+      his master, 'I'm a devil, I'm a Polly, I'm a kettle, I'm a Protestant, No
+      Popery!' Having learnt this latter sentiment from the gentry among whom he
+      had lived of late, he delivered it with uncommon emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well said, Grip!' cried his master, as he fed him with the daintiest
+      bits. 'Well said, old boy!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Never say die, bow wow wow, keep up your spirits, Grip Grip Grip, Holloa!
+      We'll all have tea, I'm a Protestant kettle, No Popery!' cried the raven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gordon for ever, Grip!' cried Barnaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven, placing his head upon the ground, looked at his master
+      sideways, as though he would have said, 'Say that again!' Perfectly
+      understanding his desire, Barnaby repeated the phrase a great many times.
+      The bird listened with profound attention; sometimes repeating the popular
+      cry in a low voice, as if to compare the two, and try if it would at all
+      help him to this new accomplishment; sometimes flapping his wings, or
+      barking; and sometimes in a kind of desperation drawing a multitude of
+      corks, with extraordinary viciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby was so intent upon his favourite, that he was not at first aware
+      of the approach of two persons on horseback, who were riding at a
+      foot-pace, and coming straight towards his post. When he perceived them,
+      however, which he did when they were within some fifty yards of him, he
+      jumped hastily up, and ordering Grip within doors, stood with both hands
+      on his staff, waiting until he should know whether they were friends or
+      foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had hardly done so, when he observed that those who advanced were a
+      gentleman and his servant; almost at the same moment he recognised Lord
+      George Gordon, before whom he stood uncovered, with his eyes turned
+      towards the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good day!' said Lord George, not reining in his horse until he was close
+      beside him. 'Well!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All quiet, sir, all safe!' cried Barnaby. 'The rest are away&mdash;they
+      went by that path&mdash;that one. A grand party!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay?' said Lord George, looking thoughtfully at him. 'And you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! They left me here to watch&mdash;to mount guard&mdash;to keep
+      everything secure till they come back. I'll do it, sir, for your sake.
+      You're a good gentleman; a kind gentleman&mdash;ay, you are. There are
+      many against you, but we'll be a match for them, never fear!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's that?' said Lord George&mdash;pointing to the raven who was
+      peeping out of the stable-door&mdash;but still looking thoughtfully, and
+      in some perplexity, it seemed, at Barnaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, don't you know!' retorted Barnaby, with a wondering laugh. 'Not know
+      what HE is! A bird, to be sure. My bird&mdash;my friend&mdash;Grip.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A devil, a kettle, a Grip, a Polly, a Protestant, no Popery!' cried the
+      raven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Though, indeed,' added Barnaby, laying his hand upon the neck of Lord
+      George's horse, and speaking softly: 'you had good reason to ask me what
+      he is, for sometimes it puzzles me&mdash;and I am used to him&mdash;to
+      think he's only a bird. He's my brother, Grip is&mdash;always with me&mdash;always
+      talking&mdash;always merry&mdash;eh, Grip?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven answered by an affectionate croak, and hopping on his master's
+      arm, which he held downward for that purpose, submitted with an air of
+      perfect indifference to be fondled, and turned his restless, curious eye,
+      now upon Lord George, and now upon his man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George, biting his nails in a discomfited manner, regarded Barnaby
+      for some time in silence; then beckoning to his servant, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come hither, John.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Grueby touched his hat, and came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have you ever seen this young man before?' his master asked in a low
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Twice, my lord,' said John. 'I saw him in the crowd last night and
+      Saturday.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did&mdash;did it seem to you that his manner was at all wild or strange?'
+      Lord George demanded, faltering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mad,' said John, with emphatic brevity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And why do you think him mad, sir?' said his master, speaking in a
+      peevish tone. 'Don't use that word too freely. Why do you think him mad?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My lord,' John Grueby answered, 'look at his dress, look at his eyes,
+      look at his restless way, hear him cry "No Popery!" Mad, my lord.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So because one man dresses unlike another,' returned his angry master,
+      glancing at himself; 'and happens to differ from other men in his carriage
+      and manner, and to advocate a great cause which the corrupt and
+      irreligious desert, he is to be accounted mad, is he?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stark, staring, raving, roaring mad, my lord,' returned the unmoved John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you say this to my face?' cried his master, turning sharply upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To any man, my lord, who asks me,' answered John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Gashford, I find, was right,' said Lord George; 'I thought him
+      prejudiced, though I ought to have known a man like him better than to
+      have supposed it possible!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shall never have Mr Gashford's good word, my lord,' replied John,
+      touching his hat respectfully, 'and I don't covet it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are an ill-conditioned, most ungrateful fellow,' said Lord George: 'a
+      spy, for anything I know. Mr Gashford is perfectly correct, as I might
+      have felt convinced he was. I have done wrong to retain you in my service.
+      It is a tacit insult to him as my choice and confidential friend to do so,
+      remembering the cause you sided with, on the day he was maligned at
+      Westminster. You will leave me to-night&mdash;nay, as soon as we reach
+      home. The sooner the better.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If it comes to that, I say so too, my lord. Let Mr Gashford have his
+      will. As to my being a spy, my lord, you know me better than to believe
+      it, I am sure. I don't know much about causes. My cause is the cause of
+      one man against two hundred; and I hope it always will be.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have said quite enough,' returned Lord George, motioning him to go
+      back. 'I desire to hear no more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you'll let me have another word, my lord,' returned John Grueby, 'I'd
+      give this silly fellow a caution not to stay here by himself. The
+      proclamation is in a good many hands already, and it's well known that he
+      was concerned in the business it relates to. He had better get to a place
+      of safety if he can, poor creature.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You hear what this man says?' cried Lord George, addressing Barnaby, who
+      had looked on and wondered while this dialogue passed. 'He thinks you may
+      be afraid to remain upon your post, and are kept here perhaps against your
+      will. What do you say?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I think, young man,' said John, in explanation, 'that the soldiers may
+      turn out and take you; and that if they do, you will certainly be hung by
+      the neck till you're dead&mdash;dead&mdash;dead. And I think you had
+      better go from here, as fast as you can. That's what I think.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He's a coward, Grip, a coward!' cried Barnaby, putting the raven on the
+      ground, and shouldering his staff. 'Let them come! Gordon for ever! Let
+      them come!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' said Lord George, 'let them! Let us see who will venture to attack a
+      power like ours; the solemn league of a whole people. THIS a madman! You
+      have said well, very well. I am proud to be the leader of such men as
+      you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby's heart swelled within his bosom as he heard these words. He took
+      Lord George's hand and carried it to his lips; patted his horse's crest,
+      as if the affection and admiration he had conceived for the man extended
+      to the animal he rode; then unfurling his flag, and proudly waving it,
+      resumed his pacing up and down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George, with a kindling eye and glowing cheek, took off his hat, and
+      flourishing it above his head, bade him exultingly Farewell!&mdash;then
+      cantered off at a brisk pace; after glancing angrily round to see that his
+      servant followed. Honest John set spurs to his horse and rode after his
+      master, but not before he had again warned Barnaby to retreat, with many
+      significant gestures, which indeed he continued to make, and Barnaby to
+      resist, until the windings of the road concealed them from each other's
+      view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Left to himself again with a still higher sense of the importance of his
+      post, and stimulated to enthusiasm by the special notice and encouragement
+      of his leader, Barnaby walked to and fro in a delicious trance rather than
+      as a waking man. The sunshine which prevailed around was in his mind. He
+      had but one desire ungratified. If she could only see him now!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day wore on; its heat was gently giving place to the cool of evening;
+      a light wind sprung up, fanning his long hair, and making the banner
+      rustle pleasantly above his head. There was a freedom and freshness in the
+      sound and in the time, which chimed exactly with his mood. He was happier
+      than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was leaning on his staff looking towards the declining sun, and
+      reflecting with a smile that he stood sentinel at that moment over buried
+      gold, when two or three figures appeared in the distance, making towards
+      the house at a rapid pace, and motioning with their hands as though they
+      urged its inmates to retreat from some approaching danger. As they drew
+      nearer, they became more earnest in their gestures; and they were no
+      sooner within hearing, than the foremost among them cried that the
+      soldiers were coming up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words, Barnaby furled his flag, and tied it round the pole. His
+      heart beat high while he did so, but he had no more fear or thought of
+      retreating than the pole itself. The friendly stragglers hurried past him,
+      after giving him notice of his danger, and quickly passed into the house,
+      where the utmost confusion immediately prevailed. As those within hastily
+      closed the windows and the doors, they urged him by looks and signs to fly
+      without loss of time, and called to him many times to do so; but he only
+      shook his head indignantly in answer, and stood the firmer on his post.
+      Finding that he was not to be persuaded, they took care of themselves; and
+      leaving the place with only one old woman in it, speedily withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As yet there had been no symptom of the news having any better foundation
+      than in the fears of those who brought it, but The Boot had not been
+      deserted five minutes, when there appeared, coming across the fields, a
+      body of men who, it was easy to see, by the glitter of their arms and
+      ornaments in the sun, and by their orderly and regular mode of advancing&mdash;for
+      they came on as one man&mdash;were soldiers. In a very little time,
+      Barnaby knew that they were a strong detachment of the Foot Guards, having
+      along with them two gentlemen in private clothes, and a small party of
+      Horse; the latter brought up the rear, and were not in number more than
+      six or eight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They advanced steadily; neither quickening their pace as they came nearer,
+      nor raising any cry, nor showing the least emotion or anxiety. Though this
+      was a matter of course in the case of regular troops, even to Barnaby,
+      there was something particularly impressive and disconcerting in it to one
+      accustomed to the noise and tumult of an undisciplined mob. For all that,
+      he stood his ground not a whit the less resolutely, and looked on
+      undismayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently, they marched into the yard, and halted. The commanding-officer
+      despatched a messenger to the horsemen, one of whom came riding back. Some
+      words passed between them, and they glanced at Barnaby; who well
+      remembered the man he had unhorsed at Westminster, and saw him now before
+      his eyes. The man being speedily dismissed, saluted, and rode back to his
+      comrades, who were drawn up apart at a short distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer then gave the word to prime and load. The heavy ringing of the
+      musket-stocks upon the ground, and the sharp and rapid rattling of the
+      ramrods in their barrels, were a kind of relief to Barnaby, deadly though
+      he knew the purport of such sounds to be. When this was done, other
+      commands were given, and the soldiers instantaneously formed in single
+      file all round the house and stables; completely encircling them in every
+      part, at a distance, perhaps, of some half-dozen yards; at least that
+      seemed in Barnaby's eyes to be about the space left between himself and
+      those who confronted him. The horsemen remained drawn up by themselves as
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two gentlemen in private clothes who had kept aloof, now rode forward,
+      one on either side the officer. The proclamation having been produced and
+      read by one of them, the officer called on Barnaby to surrender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made no answer, but stepping within the door, before which he had kept
+      guard, held his pole crosswise to protect it. In the midst of a profound
+      silence, he was again called upon to yield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still he offered no reply. Indeed he had enough to do, to run his eye
+      backward and forward along the half-dozen men who immediately fronted him,
+      and settle hurriedly within himself at which of them he would strike
+      first, when they pressed on him. He caught the eye of one in the centre,
+      and resolved to hew that fellow down, though he died for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again there was a dead silence, and again the same voice called upon him
+      to deliver himself up.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0260m.jpg" alt="0260m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0260.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Next moment he was back in the stable, dealing blows about him like a
+      madman. Two of the men lay stretched at his feet: the one he had marked,
+      dropped first&mdash;he had a thought for that, even in the hot blood and
+      hurry of the struggle. Another blow&mdash;another! Down, mastered, wounded
+      in the breast by a heavy blow from the butt-end of a gun (he saw the
+      weapon in the act of falling)&mdash;breathless&mdash;and a prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An exclamation of surprise from the officer recalled him, in some degree,
+      to himself. He looked round. Grip, after working in secret all the
+      afternoon, and with redoubled vigour while everybody's attention was
+      distracted, had plucked away the straw from Hugh's bed, and turned up the
+      loose ground with his iron bill. The hole had been recklessly filled to
+      the brim, and was merely sprinkled with earth. Golden cups, spoons,
+      candlesticks, coined guineas&mdash;all the riches were revealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They brought spades and a sack; dug up everything that was hidden there;
+      and carried away more than two men could lift. They handcuffed him and
+      bound his arms, searched him, and took away all he had. Nobody questioned
+      or reproached him, or seemed to have much curiosity about him. The two men
+      he had stunned, were carried off by their companions in the same
+      business-like way in which everything else was done. Finally, he was left
+      under a guard of four soldiers with fixed bayonets, while the officer
+      directed in person the search of the house and the other buildings
+      connected with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was soon completed. The soldiers formed again in the yard; he was
+      marched out, with his guard about him; and ordered to fall in, where a
+      space was left. The others closed up all round, and so they moved away,
+      with the prisoner in the centre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they came into the streets, he felt he was a sight; and looking up as
+      they passed quickly along, could see people running to the windows a
+      little too late, and throwing up the sashes to look after him. Sometimes
+      he met a staring face beyond the heads about him, or under the arms of his
+      conductors, or peering down upon him from a waggon-top or coach-box; but
+      this was all he saw, being surrounded by so many men. The very noises of
+      the streets seemed muffled and subdued; and the air came stale and hot
+      upon him, like the sickly breath of an oven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tramp, tramp. Tramp, tramp. Heads erect, shoulders square, every man
+      stepping in exact time&mdash;all so orderly and regular&mdash;nobody
+      looking at him&mdash;nobody seeming conscious of his presence,&mdash;he
+      could hardly believe he was a Prisoner. But at the word, though only
+      thought, not spoken, he felt the handcuffs galling his wrists, the cord
+      pressing his arms to his sides: the loaded guns levelled at his head; and
+      those cold, bright, sharp, shining points turned towards him: the mere
+      looking down at which, now that he was bound and helpless, made the warm
+      current of his life run cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0058" id="link2HCH0058">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 58
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They were not long in reaching the barracks, for the officer who commanded
+      the party was desirous to avoid rousing the people by the display of
+      military force in the streets, and was humanely anxious to give as little
+      opportunity as possible for any attempt at rescue; knowing that it must
+      lead to bloodshed and loss of life, and that if the civil authorities by
+      whom he was accompanied, empowered him to order his men to fire, many
+      innocent persons would probably fall, whom curiosity or idleness had
+      attracted to the spot. He therefore led the party briskly on, avoiding
+      with a merciful prudence the more public and crowded thoroughfares, and
+      pursuing those which he deemed least likely to be infested by disorderly
+      persons. This wise proceeding not only enabled them to gain their quarters
+      without any interruption, but completely baffled a body of rioters who had
+      assembled in one of the main streets, through which it was considered
+      certain they would pass, and who remained gathered together for the
+      purpose of releasing the prisoner from their hands, long after they had
+      deposited him in a place of security, closed the barrack-gates, and set a
+      double guard at every entrance for its better protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arrived at this place, poor Barnaby was marched into a stone-floored room,
+      where there was a very powerful smell of tobacco, a strong thorough
+      draught of air, and a great wooden bedstead, large enough for a score of
+      men. Several soldiers in undress were lounging about, or eating from tin
+      cans; military accoutrements dangled on rows of pegs along the whitewashed
+      wall; and some half-dozen men lay fast asleep upon their backs, snoring in
+      concert. After remaining here just long enough to note these things, he
+      was marched out again, and conveyed across the parade-ground to another
+      portion of the building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps a man never sees so much at a glance as when he is in a situation
+      of extremity. The chances are a hundred to one, that if Barnaby had
+      lounged in at the gate to look about him, he would have lounged out again
+      with a very imperfect idea of the place, and would have remembered very
+      little about it. But as he was taken handcuffed across the gravelled area,
+      nothing escaped his notice. The dry, arid look of the dusty square, and of
+      the bare brick building; the clothes hanging at some of the windows; and
+      the men in their shirt-sleeves and braces, lolling with half their bodies
+      out of the others; the green sun-blinds at the officers' quarters, and the
+      little scanty trees in front; the drummer-boys practising in a distant
+      courtyard; the men at drill on the parade; the two soldiers carrying a
+      basket between them, who winked to each other as he went by, and slily
+      pointed to their throats; the spruce serjeant who hurried past with a cane
+      in his hand, and under his arm a clasped book with a vellum cover; the
+      fellows in the ground-floor rooms, furbishing and brushing up their
+      different articles of dress, who stopped to look at him, and whose voices
+      as they spoke together echoed loudly through the empty galleries and
+      passages;&mdash;everything, down to the stand of muskets before the
+      guard-house, and the drum with a pipe-clayed belt attached, in one corner,
+      impressed itself upon his observation, as though he had noticed them in
+      the same place a hundred times, or had been a whole day among them, in
+      place of one brief hurried minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was taken into a small paved back yard, and there they opened a great
+      door, plated with iron, and pierced some five feet above the ground with a
+      few holes to let in air and light. Into this dungeon he was walked
+      straightway; and having locked him up there, and placed a sentry over him,
+      they left him to his meditations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cell, or black hole, for it had those words painted on the door, was
+      very dark, and having recently accommodated a drunken deserter, by no
+      means clean. Barnaby felt his way to some straw at the farther end, and
+      looking towards the door, tried to accustom himself to the gloom, which,
+      coming from the bright sunshine out of doors, was not an easy task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a kind of portico or colonnade outside, and this obstructed even
+      the little light that at the best could have found its way through the
+      small apertures in the door. The footsteps of the sentinel echoed
+      monotonously as he paced its stone pavement to and fro (reminding Barnaby
+      of the watch he had so lately kept himself); and as he passed and repassed
+      the door, he made the cell for an instant so black by the interposition of
+      his body, that his going away again seemed like the appearance of a new
+      ray of light, and was quite a circumstance to look for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the prisoner had sat sometime upon the ground, gazing at the chinks,
+      and listening to the advancing and receding footsteps of his guard, the
+      man stood still upon his post. Barnaby, quite unable to think, or to
+      speculate on what would be done with him, had been lulled into a kind of
+      doze by his regular pace; but his stopping roused him; and then he became
+      aware that two men were in conversation under the colonnade, and very near
+      the door of his cell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How long they had been talking there, he could not tell, for he had fallen
+      into an unconsciousness of his real position, and when the footsteps
+      ceased, was answering aloud some question which seemed to have been put to
+      him by Hugh in the stable, though of the fancied purport, either of
+      question or reply, notwithstanding that he awoke with the latter on his
+      lips, he had no recollection whatever. The first words that reached his
+      ears, were these:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why is he brought here then, if he has to be taken away again so soon?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why where would you have him go! Damme, he's not as safe anywhere as
+      among the king's troops, is he? What WOULD you do with him? Would you hand
+      him over to a pack of cowardly civilians, that shake in their shoes till
+      they wear the soles out, with trembling at the threats of the ragamuffins
+      he belongs to?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's true enough.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'True enough!&mdash;I'll tell you what. I wish, Tom Green, that I was a
+      commissioned instead of a non-commissioned officer, and that I had the
+      command of two companies&mdash;only two companies&mdash;of my own
+      regiment. Call me out to stop these riots&mdash;give me the needful
+      authority, and half-a-dozen rounds of ball cartridge&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' said the other voice. 'That's all very well, but they won't give the
+      needful authority. If the magistrate won't give the word, what's the
+      officer to do?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not very well knowing, as it seemed, how to overcome this difficulty, the
+      other man contented himself with damning the magistrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'With all my heart,' said his friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where's the use of a magistrate?' returned the other voice. 'What's a
+      magistrate in this case, but an impertinent, unnecessary, unconstitutional
+      sort of interference? Here's a proclamation. Here's a man referred to in
+      that proclamation. Here's proof against him, and a witness on the spot.
+      Damme! Take him out and shoot him, sir. Who wants a magistrate?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When does he go before Sir John Fielding?' asked the man who had spoken
+      first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To-night at eight o'clock,' returned the other. 'Mark what follows. The
+      magistrate commits him to Newgate. Our people take him to Newgate. The
+      rioters pelt our people. Our people retire before the rioters. Stones are
+      thrown, insults are offered, not a shot's fired. Why? Because of the
+      magistrates. Damn the magistrates!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had in some degree relieved his mind by cursing the magistrates in
+      various other forms of speech, the man was silent, save for a low
+      growling, still having reference to those authorities, which from time to
+      time escaped him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby, who had wit enough to know that this conversation concerned, and
+      very nearly concerned, himself, remained perfectly quiet until they ceased
+      to speak, when he groped his way to the door, and peeping through the
+      air-holes, tried to make out what kind of men they were, to whom he had
+      been listening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The one who condemned the civil power in such strong terms, was a serjeant&mdash;engaged
+      just then, as the streaming ribands in his cap announced, on the
+      recruiting service. He stood leaning sideways against a pillar nearly
+      opposite the door, and as he growled to himself, drew figures on the
+      pavement with his cane. The other man had his back towards the dungeon,
+      and Barnaby could only see his form. To judge from that, he was a gallant,
+      manly, handsome fellow, but he had lost his left arm. It had been taken
+      off between the elbow and the shoulder, and his empty coat-sleeve hung
+      across his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was probably this circumstance which gave him an interest beyond any
+      that his companion could boast of, and attracted Barnaby's attention.
+      There was something soldierly in his bearing, and he wore a jaunty cap and
+      jacket. Perhaps he had been in the service at one time or other. If he
+      had, it could not have been very long ago, for he was but a young fellow
+      now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well, well,' he said thoughtfully; 'let the fault be where it may, it
+      makes a man sorrowful to come back to old England, and see her in this
+      condition.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I suppose the pigs will join 'em next,' said the serjeant, with an
+      imprecation on the rioters, 'now that the birds have set 'em the example.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The birds!' repeated Tom Green.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah&mdash;birds,' said the serjeant testily; 'that's English, an't it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know what you mean.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Go to the guard-house, and see. You'll find a bird there, that's got
+      their cry as pat as any of 'em, and bawls "No Popery," like a man&mdash;or
+      like a devil, as he says he is. I shouldn't wonder. The devil's loose in
+      London somewhere. Damme if I wouldn't twist his neck round, on the chance,
+      if I had MY way.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man had taken two or three steps away, as if to go and see this
+      creature, when he was arrested by the voice of Barnaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's mine,' he called out, half laughing and half weeping&mdash;'my pet,
+      my friend Grip. Ha ha ha! Don't hurt him, he has done no harm. I taught
+      him; it's my fault. Let me have him, if you please. He's the only friend I
+      have left now. He'll not dance, or talk, or whistle for you, I know; but
+      he will for me, because he knows me and loves me&mdash;though you wouldn't
+      think it&mdash;very well. You wouldn't hurt a bird, I'm sure. You're a
+      brave soldier, sir, and wouldn't harm a woman or a child&mdash;no, no, nor
+      a poor bird, I'm certain.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This latter adjuration was addressed to the serjeant, whom Barnaby judged
+      from his red coat to be high in office, and able to seal Grip's destiny by
+      a word. But that gentleman, in reply, surlily damned him for a thief and
+      rebel as he was, and with many disinterested imprecations on his own eyes,
+      liver, blood, and body, assured him that if it rested with him to decide,
+      he would put a final stopper on the bird, and his master too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You talk boldly to a caged man,' said Barnaby, in anger. 'If I was on the
+      other side of the door and there were none to part us, you'd change your
+      note&mdash;ay, you may toss your head&mdash;you would! Kill the bird&mdash;do.
+      Kill anything you can, and so revenge yourself on those who with their
+      bare hands untied could do as much to you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having vented his defiance, he flung himself into the furthest corner of
+      his prison, and muttering, 'Good bye, Grip&mdash;good bye, dear old Grip!'
+      shed tears for the first time since he had been taken captive; and hid his
+      face in the straw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had had some fancy at first, that the one-armed man would help him, or
+      would give him a kind word in answer. He hardly knew why, but he hoped and
+      thought so. The young fellow had stopped when he called out, and checking
+      himself in the very act of turning round, stood listening to every word he
+      said. Perhaps he built his feeble trust on this; perhaps on his being
+      young, and having a frank and honest manner. However that might be, he
+      built on sand. The other went away directly he had finished speaking, and
+      neither answered him, nor returned. No matter. They were all against him
+      here: he might have known as much. Good bye, old Grip, good bye!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some time, they came and unlocked the door, and called to him to
+      come out. He rose directly, and complied, for he would not have THEM think
+      he was subdued or frightened. He walked out like a man, and looked from
+      face to face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None of them returned his gaze or seemed to notice it. They marched him
+      back to the parade by the way they had brought him, and there they halted,
+      among a body of soldiers, at least twice as numerous as that which had
+      taken him prisoner in the afternoon. The officer he had seen before, bade
+      him in a few brief words take notice that if he attempted to escape, no
+      matter how favourable a chance he might suppose he had, certain of the men
+      had orders to fire upon him, that moment. They then closed round him as
+      before, and marched him off again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the same unbroken order they arrived at Bow Street, followed and beset
+      on all sides by a crowd which was continually increasing. Here he was
+      placed before a blind gentleman, and asked if he wished to say anything.
+      Not he. What had he got to tell them? After a very little talking, which
+      he was careless of and quite indifferent to, they told him he was to go to
+      Newgate, and took him away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went out into the street, so surrounded and hemmed in on every side by
+      soldiers, that he could see nothing; but he knew there was a great crowd
+      of people, by the murmur; and that they were not friendly to the soldiers,
+      was soon rendered evident by their yells and hisses. How often and how
+      eagerly he listened for the voice of Hugh! There was not a voice he knew
+      among them all. Was Hugh a prisoner too? Was there no hope!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they came nearer and nearer to the prison, the hootings of the people
+      grew more violent; stones were thrown; and every now and then, a rush was
+      made against the soldiers, which they staggered under. One of them, close
+      before him, smarting under a blow upon the temple, levelled his musket,
+      but the officer struck it upwards with his sword, and ordered him on peril
+      of his life to desist. This was the last thing he saw with any
+      distinctness, for directly afterwards he was tossed about, and beaten to
+      and fro, as though in a tempestuous sea. But go where he would, there were
+      the same guards about him. Twice or thrice he was thrown down, and so were
+      they; but even then, he could not elude their vigilance for a moment. They
+      were up again, and had closed about him, before he, with his wrists so
+      tightly bound, could scramble to his feet. Fenced in, thus, he felt
+      himself hoisted to the top of a low flight of steps, and then for a moment
+      he caught a glimpse of the fighting in the crowd, and of a few red coats
+      sprinkled together, here and there, struggling to rejoin their fellows.
+      Next moment, everything was dark and gloomy, and he was standing in the
+      prison lobby; the centre of a group of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A smith was speedily in attendance, who riveted upon him a set of heavy
+      irons. Stumbling on as well as he could, beneath the unusual burden of
+      these fetters, he was conducted to a strong stone cell, where, fastening
+      the door with locks, and bolts, and chains, they left him, well secured;
+      having first, unseen by him, thrust in Grip, who, with his head drooping
+      and his deep black plumes rough and rumpled, appeared to comprehend and to
+      partake, his master's fallen fortunes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0059" id="link2HCH0059">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 59
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It is necessary at this juncture to return to Hugh, who, having, as we
+      have seen, called to the rioters to disperse from about the Warren, and
+      meet again as usual, glided back into the darkness from which he had
+      emerged, and reappeared no more that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused in the copse which sheltered him from the observation of his mad
+      companions, and waited to ascertain whether they drew off at his bidding,
+      or still lingered and called to him to join them. Some few, he saw, were
+      indisposed to go away without him, and made towards the spot where he
+      stood concealed as though they were about to follow in his footsteps, and
+      urge him to come back; but these men, being in their turn called to by
+      their friends, and in truth not greatly caring to venture into the dark
+      parts of the grounds, where they might be easily surprised and taken, if
+      any of the neighbours or retainers of the family were watching them from
+      among the trees, soon abandoned the idea, and hastily assembling such men
+      as they found of their mind at the moment, straggled off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was satisfied that the great mass of the insurgents were imitating
+      this example, and that the ground was rapidly clearing, he plunged into
+      the thickest portion of the little wood; and, crashing the branches as he
+      went, made straight towards a distant light: guided by that, and by the
+      sullen glow of the fire behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he drew nearer and nearer to the twinkling beacon towards which he bent
+      his course, the red glare of a few torches began to reveal itself, and the
+      voices of men speaking together in a subdued tone broke the silence which,
+      save for a distant shouting now and then, already prevailed. At length he
+      cleared the wood, and, springing across a ditch, stood in a dark lane,
+      where a small body of ill-looking vagabonds, whom he had left there some
+      twenty minutes before, waited his coming with impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were gathered round an old post-chaise or chariot, driven by one of
+      themselves, who sat postilion-wise upon the near horse. The blinds were
+      drawn up, and Mr Tappertit and Dennis kept guard at the two windows. The
+      former assumed the command of the party, for he challenged Hugh as he
+      advanced towards them; and when he did so, those who were resting on the
+      ground about the carriage rose to their feet and clustered round him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well!' said Simon, in a low voice; 'is all right?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Right enough,' replied Hugh, in the same tone. 'They're dispersing now&mdash;had
+      begun before I came away.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And is the coast clear?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Clear enough before our men, I take it,' said Hugh. 'There are not many
+      who, knowing of their work over yonder, will want to meddle with 'em
+      to-night.&mdash;Who's got some drink here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody had some plunder from the cellar; half-a-dozen flasks and
+      bottles were offered directly. He selected the largest, and putting it to
+      his mouth, sent the wine gurgling down his throat. Having emptied it, he
+      threw it down, and stretched out his hand for another, which he emptied
+      likewise, at a draught. Another was given him, and this he half emptied
+      too. Reserving what remained to finish with, he asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have you got anything to eat, any of you? I'm as ravenous as a hungry
+      wolf. Which of you was in the larder&mdash;come?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I was, brother,' said Dennis, pulling off his hat, and fumbling in the
+      crown. 'There's a matter of cold venison pasty somewhere or another here,
+      if that'll do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do!' cried Hugh, seating himself on the pathway. 'Bring it out! Quick!
+      Show a light here, and gather round! Let me sup in state, my lads! Ha ha
+      ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entering into his boisterous humour, for they all had drunk deeply, and
+      were as wild as he, they crowded about him, while two of their number who
+      had torches, held them up, one on either side of him, that his banquet
+      might not be despatched in the dark. Mr Dennis, having by this time
+      succeeded in extricating from his hat a great mass of pasty, which had
+      been wedged in so tightly that it was not easily got out, put it before
+      him; and Hugh, having borrowed a notched and jagged knife from one of the
+      company, fell to work upon it vigorously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I should recommend you to swallow a little fire every day, about an hour
+      afore dinner, brother,' said Dennis, after a pause. 'It seems to agree
+      with you, and to stimulate your appetite.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh looked at him, and at the blackened faces by which he was surrounded,
+      and, stopping for a moment to flourish his knife above his head, answered
+      with a roar of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Keep order, there, will you?' said Simon Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, isn't a man allowed to regale himself, noble captain,' retorted his
+      lieutenant, parting the men who stood between them, with his knife, that
+      he might see him,&mdash;'to regale himself a little bit after such work as
+      mine? What a hard captain! What a strict captain! What a tyrannical
+      captain! Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish one of you fellers would hold a bottle to his mouth to keep him
+      quiet,' said Simon, 'unless you want the military to be down upon us.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what if they are down upon us!' retorted Hugh. 'Who cares? Who's
+      afraid? Let 'em come, I say, let 'em come. The more, the merrier. Give me
+      bold Barnaby at my side, and we two will settle the military, without
+      troubling any of you. Barnaby's the man for the military. Barnaby's
+      health!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as the majority of those present were by no means anxious for a second
+      engagement that night, being already weary and exhausted, they sided with
+      Mr Tappertit, and pressed him to make haste with his supper, for they had
+      already delayed too long. Knowing, even in the height of his frenzy, that
+      they incurred great danger by lingering so near the scene of the late
+      outrages, Hugh made an end of his meal without more remonstrance, and
+      rising, stepped up to Mr Tappertit, and smote him on the back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now then,' he cried, 'I'm ready. There are brave birds inside this cage,
+      eh? Delicate birds,&mdash;tender, loving, little doves. I caged 'em&mdash;I
+      caged 'em&mdash;one more peep!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thrust the little man aside as he spoke, and mounting on the steps,
+      which were half let down, pulled down the blind by force, and stared into
+      the chaise like an ogre into his larder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha ha! and did you scratch, and pinch, and struggle, pretty mistress?'
+      he cried, as he grasped a little hand that sought in vain to free itself
+      from his grip: 'you, so bright-eyed, and cherry-lipped, and daintily made?
+      But I love you better for it, mistress. Ay, I do. You should stab me and
+      welcome, so that it pleased you, and you had to cure me afterwards. I love
+      to see you proud and scornful. It makes you handsomer than ever; and who
+      so handsome as you at any time, my pretty one!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Come!' said Mr Tappertit, who had waited during this speech with
+      considerable impatience. 'There's enough of that. Come down.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little hand seconded this admonition by thrusting Hugh's great head
+      away with all its force, and drawing up the blind, amidst his noisy
+      laughter, and vows that he must have another look, for the last glimpse of
+      that sweet face had provoked him past all bearing. However, as the
+      suppressed impatience of the party now broke out into open murmurs, he
+      abandoned this design, and taking his seat upon the bar, contented himself
+      with tapping at the front windows of the carriage, and trying to steal a
+      glance inside; Mr Tappertit, mounting the steps and hanging on by the
+      door, issued his directions to the driver with a commanding voice and
+      attitude; the rest got up behind, or ran by the side of the carriage, as
+      they could; some, in imitation of Hugh, endeavoured to see the face he had
+      praised so highly, and were reminded of their impertinence by hints from
+      the cudgel of Mr Tappertit. Thus they pursued their journey by circuitous
+      and winding roads; preserving, except when they halted to take breath, or
+      to quarrel about the best way of reaching London, pretty good order and
+      tolerable silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, Dolly&mdash;beautiful, bewitching, captivating little
+      Dolly&mdash;her hair dishevelled, her dress torn, her dark eyelashes wet
+      with tears, her bosom heaving&mdash;her face, now pale with fear, now
+      crimsoned with indignation&mdash;her whole self a hundred times more
+      beautiful in this heightened aspect than ever she had been before&mdash;vainly
+      strove to comfort Emma Haredale, and to impart to her the consolation of
+      which she stood in so much need herself. The soldiers were sure to come;
+      they must be rescued; it would be impossible to convey them through the
+      streets of London when they set the threats of their guards at defiance,
+      and shrieked to the passengers for help. If they did this when they came
+      into the more frequented ways, she was certain&mdash;she was quite certain&mdash;they
+      must be released. So poor Dolly said, and so poor Dolly tried to think;
+      but the invariable conclusion of all such arguments was, that Dolly burst
+      into tears; cried, as she wrung her hands, what would they do or think, or
+      who would comfort them, at home, at the Golden Key; and sobbed most
+      piteously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Haredale, whose feelings were usually of a quieter kind than Dolly's,
+      and not so much upon the surface, was dreadfully alarmed, and indeed had
+      only just recovered from a swoon. She was very pale, and the hand which
+      Dolly held was quite cold; but she bade her, nevertheless, remember that,
+      under Providence, much must depend upon their own discretion; that if they
+      remained quiet and lulled the vigilance of the ruffians into whose hands
+      they had fallen, the chances of their being able to procure assistance
+      when they reached the town, were very much increased; that unless society
+      were quite unhinged, a hot pursuit must be immediately commenced; and that
+      her uncle, she might be sure, would never rest until he had found them out
+      and rescued them. But as she said these latter words, the idea that he had
+      fallen in a general massacre of the Catholics that night&mdash;no very
+      wild or improbable supposition after what they had seen and undergone&mdash;struck
+      her dumb; and, lost in the horrors they had witnessed, and those they
+      might be yet reserved for, she sat incapable of thought, or speech, or
+      outward show of grief: as rigid, and almost as white and cold, as marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, how many, many times, in that long ride, did Dolly think of her old
+      lover,&mdash;poor, fond, slighted Joe! How many, many times, did she
+      recall that night when she ran into his arms from the very man now
+      projecting his hateful gaze into the darkness where she sat, and leering
+      through the glass in monstrous admiration! And when she thought of Joe,
+      and what a brave fellow he was, and how he would have rode boldly up, and
+      dashed in among these villains now, yes, though they were double the
+      number&mdash;and here she clenched her little hand, and pressed her foot
+      upon the ground&mdash;the pride she felt for a moment in having won his
+      heart, faded in a burst of tears, and she sobbed more bitterly than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the night wore on, and they proceeded by ways which were quite unknown
+      to them&mdash;for they could recognise none of the objects of which they
+      sometimes caught a hurried glimpse&mdash;their fears increased; nor were
+      they without good foundation; it was not difficult for two beautiful young
+      women to find, in their being borne they knew not whither by a band of
+      daring villains who eyed them as some among these fellows did, reasons for
+      the worst alarm. When they at last entered London, by a suburb with which
+      they were wholly unacquainted, it was past midnight, and the streets were
+      dark and empty. Nor was this the worst, for the carriage stopping in a
+      lonely spot, Hugh suddenly opened the door, jumped in, and took his seat
+      between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain they cried for help. He put his arm about the neck of each,
+      and swore to stifle them with kisses if they were not as silent as the
+      grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I come here to keep you quiet,' he said, 'and that's the means I shall
+      take. So don't be quiet, pretty mistresses&mdash;make a noise&mdash;do&mdash;and
+      I shall like it all the better.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were proceeding at a rapid pace, and apparently with fewer attendants
+      than before, though it was so dark (the torches being extinguished) that
+      this was mere conjecture. They shrunk from his touch, each into the
+      farthest corner of the carriage; but shrink as Dolly would, his arm
+      encircled her waist, and held her fast. She neither cried nor spoke, for
+      terror and disgust deprived her of the power; but she plucked at his hand
+      as though she would die in the effort to disengage herself; and crouching
+      on the ground, with her head averted and held down, repelled him with a
+      strength she wondered at as much as he. The carriage stopped again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lift this one out,' said Hugh to the man who opened the door, as he took
+      Miss Haredale's hand, and felt how heavily it fell. 'She's fainted.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So much the better,' growled Dennis&mdash;it was that amiable gentleman.
+      'She's quiet. I always like 'em to faint, unless they're very tender and
+      composed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Can you take her by yourself?' asked Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know till I try. I ought to be able to; I've lifted up a good
+      many in my time,' said the hangman. 'Up then! She's no small weight,
+      brother; none of these here fine gals are. Up again! Now we have her.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having by this time hoisted the young lady into his arms, he staggered off
+      with his burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Look ye, pretty bird,' said Hugh, drawing Dolly towards him. 'Remember
+      what I told you&mdash;a kiss for every cry. Scream, if you love me,
+      darling. Scream once, mistress. Pretty mistress, only once, if you love
+      me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thrusting his face away with all her force, and holding down her head,
+      Dolly submitted to be carried out of the chaise, and borne after Miss
+      Haredale into a miserable cottage, where Hugh, after hugging her to his
+      breast, set her gently down upon the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Dolly! Do what she would, she only looked the better for it, and
+      tempted them the more. When her eyes flashed angrily, and her ripe lips
+      slightly parted, to give her rapid breathing vent, who could resist it?
+      When she wept and sobbed as though her heart would break, and bemoaned her
+      miseries in the sweetest voice that ever fell upon a listener's ear, who
+      could be insensible to the little winning pettishness which now and then
+      displayed itself, even in the sincerity and earnestness of her grief?
+      When, forgetful for a moment of herself, as she was now, she fell on her
+      knees beside her friend, and bent over her, and laid her cheek to hers,
+      and put her arms about her, what mortal eyes could have avoided wandering
+      to the delicate bodice, the streaming hair, the neglected dress, the
+      perfect abandonment and unconsciousness of the blooming little beauty? Who
+      could look on and see her lavish caresses and endearments, and not desire
+      to be in Emma Haredale's place; to be either her or Dolly; either the
+      hugging or the hugged? Not Hugh. Not Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I tell you what it is, young women,' said Mr Dennis, 'I an't much of a
+      lady's man myself, nor am I a party in the present business further than
+      lending a willing hand to my friends: but if I see much more of this here
+      sort of thing, I shall become a principal instead of a accessory. I tell
+      you candid.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why have you brought us here?' said Emma. 'Are we to be murdered?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Murdered!' cried Dennis, sitting down upon a stool, and regarding her
+      with great favour. 'Why, my dear, who'd murder sich chickabiddies as you?
+      If you was to ask me, now, whether you was brought here to be married,
+      there might be something in it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here he exchanged a grin with Hugh, who removed his eyes from Dolly
+      for the purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, no,' said Dennis, 'there'll be no murdering, my pets. Nothing of that
+      sort. Quite the contrairy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are an older man than your companion, sir,' said Emma, trembling.
+      'Have you no pity for us? Do you not consider that we are women?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I do indeed, my dear,' retorted Dennis. 'It would be very hard not to,
+      with two such specimens afore my eyes. Ha ha! Oh yes, I consider that. We
+      all consider that, miss.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head waggishly, leered at Hugh again, and laughed very much,
+      as if he had said a noble thing, and rather thought he was coming out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There'll be no murdering, my dear. Not a bit on it. I tell you what
+      though, brother,' said Dennis, cocking his hat for the convenience of
+      scratching his head, and looking gravely at Hugh, 'it's worthy of notice,
+      as a proof of the amazing equalness and dignity of our law, that it don't
+      make no distinction between men and women. I've heerd the judge say,
+      sometimes, to a highwayman or housebreaker as had tied the ladies neck and
+      heels&mdash;you'll excuse me making mention of it, my darlings&mdash;and
+      put 'em in a cellar, that he showed no consideration to women. Now, I say
+      that there judge didn't know his business, brother; and that if I had been
+      that there highwayman or housebreaker, I should have made answer: "What
+      are you a talking of, my lord? I showed the women as much consideration as
+      the law does, and what more would you have me do?" If you was to count up
+      in the newspapers the number of females as have been worked off in this
+      here city alone, in the last ten year,' said Mr Dennis thoughtfully,
+      'you'd be surprised at the total&mdash;quite amazed, you would. There's a
+      dignified and equal thing; a beautiful thing! But we've no security for
+      its lasting. Now that they've begun to favour these here Papists, I
+      shouldn't wonder if they went and altered even THAT, one of these days.
+      Upon my soul, I shouldn't.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The subject, perhaps from being of too exclusive and professional a
+      nature, failed to interest Hugh as much as his friend had anticipated. But
+      he had no time to pursue it, for at this crisis Mr Tappertit entered
+      precipitately; at sight of whom Dolly uttered a scream of joy, and fairly
+      threw herself into his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I knew it, I was sure of it!' cried Dolly. 'My dear father's at the door.
+      Thank God, thank God! Bless you, Sim. Heaven bless you for this!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Simon Tappertit, who had at first implicitly believed that the locksmith's
+      daughter, unable any longer to suppress her secret passion for himself,
+      was about to give it full vent in its intensity, and to declare that she
+      was his for ever, looked extremely foolish when she said these words;&mdash;the
+      more so, as they were received by Hugh and Dennis with a loud laugh, which
+      made her draw back, and regard him with a fixed and earnest look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miss Haredale,' said Sim, after a very awkward silence, 'I hope you're as
+      comfortable as circumstances will permit of. Dolly Varden, my darling&mdash;my
+      own, my lovely one&mdash;I hope YOU'RE pretty comfortable likewise.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor little Dolly! She saw how it was; hid her face in her hands; and
+      sobbed more bitterly than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You meet in me, Miss V.,' said Simon, laying his hand upon his breast,
+      'not a 'prentice, not a workman, not a slave, not the wictim of your
+      father's tyrannical behaviour, but the leader of a great people, the
+      captain of a noble band, in which these gentlemen are, as I may say,
+      corporals and serjeants. You behold in me, not a private individual, but a
+      public character; not a mender of locks, but a healer of the wounds of his
+      unhappy country. Dolly V., sweet Dolly V., for how many years have I
+      looked forward to this present meeting! For how many years has it been my
+      intention to exalt and ennoble you! I redeem it. Behold in me, your
+      husband. Yes, beautiful Dolly&mdash;charmer&mdash;enslaver&mdash;S.
+      Tappertit is all your own!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he said these words he advanced towards her. Dolly retreated till she
+      could go no farther, and then sank down upon the floor. Thinking it very
+      possible that this might be maiden modesty, Simon essayed to raise her; on
+      which Dolly, goaded to desperation, wound her hands in his hair, and
+      crying out amidst her tears that he was a dreadful little wretch, and
+      always had been, shook, and pulled, and beat him, until he was fain to
+      call for help, most lustily. Hugh had never admired her half so much as at
+      that moment.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0267m.jpg" alt="0267m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0267.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      'She's in an excited state to-night,' said Simon, as he smoothed his
+      rumpled feathers, 'and don't know when she's well off. Let her be by
+      herself till to-morrow, and that'll bring her down a little. Carry her
+      into the next house!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh had her in his arms directly. It might be that Mr Tappertit's heart
+      was really softened by her distress, or it might be that he felt it in
+      some degree indecorous that his intended bride should be struggling in the
+      grasp of another man. He commanded him, on second thoughts, to put her
+      down again, and looked moodily on as she flew to Miss Haredale's side, and
+      clinging to her dress, hid her flushed face in its folds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They shall remain here together till to-morrow,' said Simon, who had now
+      quite recovered his dignity&mdash;'till to-morrow. Come away!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' cried Hugh. 'Come away, captain. Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What are you laughing at?' demanded Simon sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing, captain, nothing,' Hugh rejoined; and as he spoke, and clapped
+      his hand upon the shoulder of the little man, he laughed again, for some
+      unknown reason, with tenfold violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit surveyed him from head to foot with lofty scorn (this only
+      made him laugh the more), and turning to the prisoners, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You'll take notice, ladies, that this place is well watched on every
+      side, and that the least noise is certain to be attended with unpleasant
+      consequences. You'll hear&mdash;both of you&mdash;more of our intentions
+      to-morrow. In the mean time, don't show yourselves at the window, or
+      appeal to any of the people you may see pass it; for if you do, it'll be
+      known directly that you come from a Catholic house, and all the exertions
+      our men can make, may not be able to save your lives.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this last caution, which was true enough, he turned to the door,
+      followed by Hugh and Dennis. They paused for a moment, going out, to look
+      at them clasped in each other's arms, and then left the cottage; fastening
+      the door, and setting a good watch upon it, and indeed all round the
+      house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say,' growled Dennis, as they walked away in company, 'that's a dainty
+      pair. Muster Gashford's one is as handsome as the other, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush!' said Hugh, hastily. 'Don't you mention names. It's a bad habit.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wouldn't like to be HIM, then (as you don't like names), when he breaks
+      it out to her; that's all,' said Dennis. 'She's one of them fine,
+      black-eyed, proud gals, as I wouldn't trust at such times with a knife too
+      near 'em. I've seen some of that sort, afore now. I recollect one that was
+      worked off, many year ago&mdash;and there was a gentleman in that case too&mdash;that
+      says to me, with her lip a trembling, but her hand as steady as ever I see
+      one: "Dennis, I'm near my end, but if I had a dagger in these fingers, and
+      he was within my reach, I'd strike him dead afore me;"&mdash;ah, she did&mdash;and
+      she'd have done it too!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strike who dead?' demanded Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How should I know, brother?' answered Dennis. 'SHE never said; not she.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh looked, for a moment, as though he would have made some further
+      inquiry into this incoherent recollection; but Simon Tappertit, who had
+      been meditating deeply, gave his thoughts a new direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hugh!' said Sim. 'You have done well to-day. You shall be rewarded. So
+      have you, Dennis.&mdash;There's no young woman YOU want to carry off, is
+      there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'N&mdash;no,' returned that gentleman, stroking his grizzly beard, which
+      was some two inches long. 'None in partickler, I think.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very good,' said Sim; 'then we'll find some other way of making it up to
+      you. As to you, old boy'&mdash;he turned to Hugh&mdash;'you shall have
+      Miggs (her that I promised you, you know) within three days. Mind. I pass
+      my word for it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh thanked him heartily; and as he did so, his laughing fit returned
+      with such violence that he was obliged to hold his side with one hand, and
+      to lean with the other on the shoulder of his small captain, without whose
+      support he would certainly have rolled upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0060" id="link2HCH0060">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 60
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The three worthies turned their faces towards The Boot, with the intention
+      of passing the night in that place of rendezvous, and of seeking the
+      repose they so much needed in the shelter of their old den; for now that
+      the mischief and destruction they had purposed were achieved, and their
+      prisoners were safely bestowed for the night, they began to be conscious
+      of exhaustion, and to feel the wasting effects of the madness which had
+      led to such deplorable results.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the lassitude and fatigue which oppressed him now, in
+      common with his two companions, and indeed with all who had taken an
+      active share in that night's work, Hugh's boisterous merriment broke out
+      afresh whenever he looked at Simon Tappertit, and vented itself&mdash;much
+      to that gentleman's indignation&mdash;in such shouts of laughter as bade
+      fair to bring the watch upon them, and involve them in a skirmish, to
+      which in their present worn-out condition they might prove by no means
+      equal. Even Mr Dennis, who was not at all particular on the score of
+      gravity or dignity, and who had a great relish for his young friend's
+      eccentric humours, took occasion to remonstrate with him on this imprudent
+      behaviour, which he held to be a species of suicide, tantamount to a man's
+      working himself off without being overtaken by the law, than which he
+      could imagine nothing more ridiculous or impertinent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not abating one jot of his noisy mirth for these remonstrances, Hugh
+      reeled along between them, having an arm of each, until they hove in sight
+      of The Boot, and were within a field or two of that convenient tavern. He
+      happened by great good luck to have roared and shouted himself into
+      silence by this time. They were proceeding onward without noise, when a
+      scout who had been creeping about the ditches all night, to warn any
+      stragglers from encroaching further on what was now such dangerous ground,
+      peeped cautiously from his hiding-place, and called to them to stop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stop! and why?' said Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Because (the scout replied) the house was filled with constables and
+      soldiers; having been surprised that afternoon. The inmates had fled or
+      been taken into custody, he could not say which. He had prevented a great
+      many people from approaching nearer, and he believed they had gone to the
+      markets and such places to pass the night. He had seen the distant fires,
+      but they were all out now. He had heard the people who passed and
+      repassed, speaking of them too, and could report that the prevailing
+      opinion was one of apprehension and dismay. He had not heard a word of
+      Barnaby&mdash;didn't even know his name&mdash;but it had been said in his
+      hearing that some man had been taken and carried off to Newgate. Whether
+      this was true or false, he could not affirm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three took counsel together, on hearing this, and debated what it
+      might be best to do. Hugh, deeming it possible that Barnaby was in the
+      hands of the soldiers, and at that moment under detention at The Boot, was
+      for advancing stealthily, and firing the house; but his companions, who
+      objected to such rash measures unless they had a crowd at their backs,
+      represented that if Barnaby were taken he had assuredly been removed to a
+      stronger prison; they would never have dreamed of keeping him all night in
+      a place so weak and open to attack. Yielding to this reasoning, and to
+      their persuasions, Hugh consented to turn back and to repair to Fleet
+      Market; for which place, it seemed, a few of their boldest associates had
+      shaped their course, on receiving the same intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Feeling their strength recruited and their spirits roused, now that there
+      was a new necessity for action, they hurried away, quite forgetful of the
+      fatigue under which they had been sinking but a few minutes before; and
+      soon arrived at their new place of destination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fleet Market, at that time, was a long irregular row of wooden sheds and
+      penthouses, occupying the centre of what is now called Farringdon Street.
+      They were jumbled together in a most unsightly fashion, in the middle of
+      the road; to the great obstruction of the thoroughfare and the annoyance
+      of passengers, who were fain to make their way, as they best could, among
+      carts, baskets, barrows, trucks, casks, bulks, and benches, and to jostle
+      with porters, hucksters, waggoners, and a motley crowd of buyers, sellers,
+      pick-pockets, vagrants, and idlers. The air was perfumed with the stench
+      of rotten leaves and faded fruit; the refuse of the butchers' stalls, and
+      offal and garbage of a hundred kinds. It was indispensable to most public
+      conveniences in those days, that they should be public nuisances likewise;
+      and Fleet Market maintained the principle to admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this place, perhaps because its sheds and baskets were a tolerable
+      substitute for beds, or perhaps because it afforded the means of a hasty
+      barricade in case of need, many of the rioters had straggled, not only
+      that night, but for two or three nights before. It was now broad day, but
+      the morning being cold, a group of them were gathered round a fire in a
+      public-house, drinking hot purl, and smoking pipes, and planning new
+      schemes for to-morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh and his two friends being known to most of these men, were received
+      with signal marks of approbation, and inducted into the most honourable
+      seats. The room-door was closed and fastened to keep intruders at a
+      distance, and then they proceeded to exchange news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The soldiers have taken possession of The Boot, I hear,' said Hugh. 'Who
+      knows anything about it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several cried that they did; but the majority of the company having been
+      engaged in the assault upon the Warren, and all present having been
+      concerned in one or other of the night's expeditions, it proved that they
+      knew no more than Hugh himself; having been merely warned by each other,
+      or by the scout, and knowing nothing of their own knowledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We left a man on guard there to-day,' said Hugh, looking round him, 'who
+      is not here. You know who it is&mdash;Barnaby, who brought the soldier
+      down, at Westminster. Has any man seen or heard of him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They shook their heads, and murmured an answer in the negative, as each
+      man looked round and appealed to his fellow; when a noise was heard
+      without, and a man was heard to say that he wanted Hugh&mdash;that he must
+      see Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He is but one man,' cried Hugh to those who kept the door; 'let him come
+      in.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, ay!' muttered the others. 'Let him come in. Let him come in.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door was accordingly unlocked and opened. A one-armed man, with his
+      head and face tied up with a bloody cloth, as though he had been severely
+      beaten, his clothes torn, and his remaining hand grasping a thick stick,
+      rushed in among them, and panting for breath, demanded which was Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here he is,' replied the person he inquired for. 'I am Hugh. What do you
+      want with me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have a message for you,' said the man. 'You know one Barnaby.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What of him? Did he send the message?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes. He's taken. He's in one of the strong cells in Newgate. He defended
+      himself as well as he could, but was overpowered by numbers. That's his
+      message.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When did you see him?' asked Hugh, hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'On his way to prison, where he was taken by a party of soldiers. They
+      took a by-road, and not the one we expected. I was one of the few who
+      tried to rescue him, and he called to me, and told me to tell Hugh where
+      he was. We made a good struggle, though it failed. Look here!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pointed to his dress and to his bandaged head, and still panting for
+      breath, glanced round the room; then faced towards Hugh again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know you by sight,' he said, 'for I was in the crowd on Friday, and on
+      Saturday, and yesterday, but I didn't know your name. You're a bold
+      fellow, I know. So is he. He fought like a lion tonight, but it was of no
+      use. I did my best, considering that I want this limb.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he glanced inquisitively round the room or seemed to do so, for his
+      face was nearly hidden by the bandage&mdash;and again facing sharply
+      towards Hugh, grasped his stick as if he half expected to be set upon, and
+      stood on the defensive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he had any such apprehension, however, he was speedily reassured by the
+      demeanour of all present. None thought of the bearer of the tidings. He
+      was lost in the news he brought. Oaths, threats, and execrations, were
+      vented on all sides. Some cried that if they bore this tamely, another day
+      would see them all in jail; some, that they should have rescued the other
+      prisoners, and this would not have happened. One man cried in a loud
+      voice, 'Who'll follow me to Newgate!' and there was a loud shout and
+      general rush towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Hugh and Dennis stood with their backs against it, and kept them back,
+      until the clamour had so far subsided that their voices could be heard,
+      when they called to them together that to go now, in broad day, would be
+      madness; and that if they waited until night and arranged a plan of
+      attack, they might release, not only their own companions, but all the
+      prisoners, and burn down the jail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not that jail alone,' cried Hugh, 'but every jail in London. They shall
+      have no place to put their prisoners in. We'll burn them all down; make
+      bonfires of them every one! Here!' he cried, catching at the hangman's
+      hand. 'Let all who're men here, join with us. Shake hands upon it. Barnaby
+      out of jail, and not a jail left standing! Who joins?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every man there. And they swore a great oath to release their friends from
+      Newgate next night; to force the doors and burn the jail; or perish in the
+      fire themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0061" id="link2HCH0061">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 61
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On that same night&mdash;events so crowd upon each other in convulsed and
+      distracted times, that more than the stirring incidents of a whole life
+      often become compressed into the compass of four-and-twenty hours&mdash;on
+      that same night, Mr Haredale, having strongly bound his prisoner, with the
+      assistance of the sexton, and forced him to mount his horse, conducted him
+      to Chigwell; bent upon procuring a conveyance to London from that place,
+      and carrying him at once before a justice. The disturbed state of the town
+      would be, he knew, a sufficient reason for demanding the murderer's
+      committal to prison before daybreak, as no man could answer for the
+      security of any of the watch-houses or ordinary places of detention; and
+      to convey a prisoner through the streets when the mob were again abroad,
+      would not only be a task of great danger and hazard, but would be to
+      challenge an attempt at rescue. Directing the sexton to lead the horse, he
+      walked close by the murderer's side, and in this order they reached the
+      village about the middle of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people were all awake and up, for they were fearful of being burnt in
+      their beds, and sought to comfort and assure each other by watching in
+      company. A few of the stoutest-hearted were armed and gathered in a body
+      on the green. To these, who knew him well, Mr Haredale addressed himself,
+      briefly narrating what had happened, and beseeching them to aid in
+      conveying the criminal to London before the dawn of day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But not a man among them dared to help him by so much as the motion of a
+      finger. The rioters, in their passage through the village, had menaced
+      with their fiercest vengeance, any person who should aid in extinguishing
+      the fire, or render the least assistance to him, or any Catholic
+      whomsoever. Their threats extended to their lives and all they possessed.
+      They were assembled for their own protection, and could not endanger
+      themselves by lending any aid to him. This they told him, not without
+      hesitation and regret, as they kept aloof in the moonlight and glanced
+      fearfully at the ghostly rider, who, with his head drooping on his breast
+      and his hat slouched down upon his brow, neither moved nor spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding it impossible to persuade them, and indeed hardly knowing how to
+      do so after what they had seen of the fury of the crowd, Mr Haredale
+      besought them that at least they would leave him free to act for himself,
+      and would suffer him to take the only chaise and pair of horses that the
+      place afforded. This was not acceded to without some difficulty, but in
+      the end they told him to do what he would, and go away from them in
+      heaven's name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaving the sexton at the horse's bridle, he drew out the chaise with his
+      own hands, and would have harnessed the horses, but that the post-boy of
+      the village&mdash;a soft-hearted, good-for-nothing, vagabond kind of
+      fellow&mdash;was moved by his earnestness and passion, and, throwing down
+      a pitchfork with which he was armed, swore that the rioters might cut him
+      into mincemeat if they liked, but he would not stand by and see an honest
+      gentleman who had done no wrong, reduced to such extremity, without doing
+      what he could to help him. Mr Haredale shook him warmly by the hand, and
+      thanked him from his heart. In five minutes' time the chaise was ready,
+      and this good scapegrace in his saddle. The murderer was put inside, the
+      blinds were drawn up, the sexton took his seat upon the bar, Mr Haredale
+      mounted his horse and rode close beside the door; and so they started in
+      the dead of night, and in profound silence, for London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The consternation was so extreme that even the horses which had escaped
+      the flames at the Warren, could find no friends to shelter them. They
+      passed them on the road, browsing on the stunted grass; and the driver
+      told them, that the poor beasts had wandered to the village first, but had
+      been driven away, lest they should bring the vengeance of the crowd on any
+      of the inhabitants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was this feeling confined to such small places, where the people were
+      timid, ignorant, and unprotected. When they came near London they met, in
+      the grey light of morning, more than one poor Catholic family who,
+      terrified by the threats and warnings of their neighbours, were quitting
+      the city on foot, and who told them they could hire no cart or horse for
+      the removal of their goods, and had been compelled to leave them behind,
+      at the mercy of the crowd. Near Mile End they passed a house, the master
+      of which, a Catholic gentleman of small means, having hired a waggon to
+      remove his furniture by midnight, had had it all brought down into the
+      street, to wait the vehicle's arrival, and save time in the packing. But
+      the man with whom he made the bargain, alarmed by the fires that night,
+      and by the sight of the rioters passing his door, had refused to keep it:
+      and the poor gentleman, with his wife and servant and their little
+      children, were sitting trembling among their goods in the open street,
+      dreading the arrival of day and not knowing where to turn or what to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the same, they heard, with the public conveyances. The panic was so
+      great that the mails and stage-coaches were afraid to carry passengers who
+      professed the obnoxious religion. If the drivers knew them, or they
+      admitted that they held that creed, they would not take them, no, though
+      they offered large sums; and yesterday, people had been afraid to
+      recognise Catholic acquaintance in the streets, lest they should be marked
+      by spies, and burnt out, as it was called, in consequence. One mild old
+      man&mdash;a priest, whose chapel was destroyed; a very feeble, patient,
+      inoffensive creature&mdash;who was trudging away, alone, designing to walk
+      some distance from town, and then try his fortune with the coaches, told
+      Mr Haredale that he feared he might not find a magistrate who would have
+      the hardihood to commit a prisoner to jail, on his complaint. But
+      notwithstanding these discouraging accounts they went on, and reached the
+      Mansion House soon after sunrise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale threw himself from his horse, but he had no need to knock at
+      the door, for it was already open, and there stood upon the step a portly
+      old man, with a very red, or rather purple face, who with an anxious
+      expression of countenance, was remonstrating with some unseen personage
+      upstairs, while the porter essayed to close the door by degrees and get
+      rid of him. With the intense impatience and excitement natural to one in
+      his condition, Mr Haredale thrust himself forward and was about to speak,
+      when the fat old gentleman interposed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good sir,' said he, 'pray let me get an answer. This is the sixth time
+      I have been here. I was here five times yesterday. My house is threatened
+      with destruction. It is to be burned down to-night, and was to have been
+      last night, but they had other business on their hands. Pray let me get an
+      answer.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good sir,' returned Mr Haredale, shaking his head, 'my house is burned
+      to the ground. But heaven forbid that yours should be. Get your answer. Be
+      brief, in mercy to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, you hear this, my lord?'&mdash;said the old gentleman, calling up
+      the stairs, to where the skirt of a dressing-gown fluttered on the
+      landing-place. 'Here is a gentleman here, whose house was actually burnt
+      down last night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dear me, dear me,' replied a testy voice, 'I am very sorry for it, but
+      what am I to do? I can't build it up again. The chief magistrate of the
+      city can't go and be a rebuilding of people's houses, my good sir. Stuff
+      and nonsense!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But the chief magistrate of the city can prevent people's houses from
+      having any need to be rebuilt, if the chief magistrate's a man, and not a
+      dummy&mdash;can't he, my lord?' cried the old gentleman in a choleric
+      manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are disrespectable, sir,' said the Lord Mayor&mdash;'leastways,
+      disrespectful I mean.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Disrespectful, my lord!' returned the old gentleman. 'I was respectful
+      five times yesterday. I can't be respectful for ever. Men can't stand on
+      being respectful when their houses are going to be burnt over their heads,
+      with them in 'em. What am I to do, my lord? AM I to have any protection!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I told you yesterday, sir,' said the Lord Mayor, 'that you might have an
+      alderman in your house, if you could get one to come.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What the devil's the good of an alderman?' returned the choleric old
+      gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;To awe the crowd, sir,' said the Lord Mayor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh Lord ha' mercy!' whimpered the old gentleman, as he wiped his forehead
+      in a state of ludicrous distress, 'to think of sending an alderman to awe
+      a crowd! Why, my lord, if they were even so many babies, fed on mother's
+      milk, what do you think they'd care for an alderman! Will YOU come?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I!' said the Lord Mayor, most emphatically: 'Certainly not.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Then what,' returned the old gentleman, 'what am I to do? Am I a citizen
+      of England? Am I to have the benefit of the laws? Am I to have any return
+      for the King's taxes?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know, I am sure,' said the Lord Mayor; 'what a pity it is you're
+      a Catholic! Why couldn't you be a Protestant, and then you wouldn't have
+      got yourself into such a mess? I'm sure I don't know what's to be done.&mdash;There
+      are great people at the bottom of these riots.&mdash;Oh dear me, what a
+      thing it is to be a public character!&mdash;You must look in again in the
+      course of the day.&mdash;Would a javelin-man do?&mdash;Or there's Philips
+      the constable,&mdash;HE'S disengaged,&mdash;he's not very old for a man at
+      his time of life, except in his legs, and if you put him up at a window
+      he'd look quite young by candle-light, and might frighten 'em very much.&mdash;Oh
+      dear!&mdash;well!&mdash;we'll see about it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stop!' cried Mr Haredale, pressing the door open as the porter strove to
+      shut it, and speaking rapidly, 'My Lord Mayor, I beg you not to go away. I
+      have a man here, who committed a murder eight-and-twenty years ago.
+      Half-a-dozen words from me, on oath, will justify you in committing him to
+      prison for re-examination. I only seek, just now, to have him consigned to
+      a place of safety. The least delay may involve his being rescued by the
+      rioters.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh dear me!' cried the Lord Mayor. 'God bless my soul&mdash;and body&mdash;oh
+      Lor!&mdash;well I!&mdash;there are great people at the bottom of these
+      riots, you know.&mdash;You really mustn't.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My lord,' said Mr Haredale, 'the murdered gentleman was my brother; I
+      succeeded to his inheritance; there were not wanting slanderous tongues at
+      that time, to whisper that the guilt of this most foul and cruel deed was
+      mine&mdash;mine, who loved him, as he knows, in Heaven, dearly. The time
+      has come, after all these years of gloom and misery, for avenging him, and
+      bringing to light a crime so artful and so devilish that it has no
+      parallel. Every second's delay on your part loosens this man's bloody
+      hands again, and leads to his escape. My lord, I charge you hear me, and
+      despatch this matter on the instant.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh dear me!' cried the chief magistrate; 'these an't business hours, you
+      know&mdash;I wonder at you&mdash;how ungentlemanly it is of you&mdash;you
+      mustn't&mdash;you really mustn't.&mdash;And I suppose you are a Catholic
+      too?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am,' said Mr Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'God bless my soul, I believe people turn Catholics a'purpose to vex and
+      worrit me,' cried the Lord Mayor. 'I wish you wouldn't come here; they'll
+      be setting the Mansion House afire next, and we shall have you to thank
+      for it. You must lock your prisoner up, sir&mdash;give him to a watchman&mdash;and&mdash;call
+      again at a proper time. Then we'll see about it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before Mr Haredale could answer, the sharp closing of a door and drawing
+      of its bolts, gave notice that the Lord Mayor had retreated to his
+      bedroom, and that further remonstrance would be unavailing. The two
+      clients retreated likewise, and the porter shut them out into the street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's the way he puts me off,' said the old gentleman, 'I can get no
+      redress and no help. What are you going to do, sir?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To try elsewhere,' answered Mr Haredale, who was by this time on
+      horseback.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I feel for you, I assure you&mdash;and well I may, for we are in a common
+      cause,' said the old gentleman. 'I may not have a house to offer you
+      to-night; let me tender it while I can. On second thoughts though,' he
+      added, putting up a pocket-book he had produced while speaking, 'I'll not
+      give you a card, for if it was found upon you, it might get you into
+      trouble. Langdale&mdash;that's my name&mdash;vintner and distiller&mdash;Holborn
+      Hill&mdash;you're heartily welcome, if you'll come.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale bowed, and rode off, close beside the chaise as before;
+      determining to repair to the house of Sir John Fielding, who had the
+      reputation of being a bold and active magistrate, and fully resolved, in
+      case the rioters should come upon them, to do execution on the murderer
+      with his own hands, rather than suffer him to be released.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They arrived at the magistrate's dwelling, however, without molestation
+      (for the mob, as we have seen, were then intent on deeper schemes), and
+      knocked at the door. As it had been pretty generally rumoured that Sir
+      John was proscribed by the rioters, a body of thief-takers had been
+      keeping watch in the house all night. To one of them Mr Haredale stated
+      his business, which appearing to the man of sufficient moment to warrant
+      his arousing the justice, procured him an immediate audience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No time was lost in committing the murderer to Newgate; then a new
+      building, recently completed at a vast expense, and considered to be of
+      enormous strength. The warrant being made out, three of the thief-takers
+      bound him afresh (he had been struggling, it seemed, in the chaise, and
+      had loosened his manacles); gagged him lest they should meet with any of
+      the mob, and he should call to them for help; and seated themselves, along
+      with him, in the carriage. These men being all well armed, made a
+      formidable escort; but they drew up the blinds again, as though the
+      carriage were empty, and directed Mr Haredale to ride forward, that he
+      might not attract attention by seeming to belong to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wisdom of this proceeding was sufficiently obvious, for as they
+      hurried through the city they passed among several groups of men, who, if
+      they had not supposed the chaise to be quite empty, would certainly have
+      stopped it. But those within keeping quite close, and the driver tarrying
+      to be asked no questions, they reached the prison without interruption,
+      and, once there, had him out, and safe within its gloomy walls, in a
+      twinkling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With eager eyes and strained attention, Mr Haredale saw him chained, and
+      locked and barred up in his cell. Nay, when he had left the jail, and
+      stood in the free street, without, he felt the iron plates upon the doors,
+      with his hands, and drew them over the stone wall, to assure himself that
+      it was real; and to exult in its being so strong, and rough, and cold. It
+      was not until he turned his back upon the jail, and glanced along the
+      empty streets, so lifeless and quiet in the bright morning, that he felt
+      the weight upon his heart; that he knew he was tortured by anxiety for
+      those he had left at home; and that home itself was but another bead in
+      the long rosary of his regrets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0062" id="link2HCH0062">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 62
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The prisoner, left to himself, sat down upon his bedstead: and resting his
+      elbows on his knees, and his chin upon his hands, remained in that
+      attitude for hours. It would be hard to say, of what nature his
+      reflections were. They had no distinctness, and, saving for some flashes
+      now and then, no reference to his condition or the train of circumstances
+      by which it had been brought about. The cracks in the pavement of his
+      cell, the chinks in the wall where stone was joined to stone, the bars in
+      the window, the iron ring upon the floor,&mdash;such things as these,
+      subsiding strangely into one another, and awakening an indescribable kind
+      of interest and amusement, engrossed his whole mind; and although at the
+      bottom of his every thought there was an uneasy sense of guilt, and dread
+      of death, he felt no more than that vague consciousness of it, which a
+      sleeper has of pain. It pursues him through his dreams, gnaws at the heart
+      of all his fancied pleasures, robs the banquet of its taste, music of its
+      sweetness, makes happiness itself unhappy, and yet is no bodily sensation,
+      but a phantom without shape, or form, or visible presence; pervading
+      everything, but having no existence; recognisable everywhere, but nowhere
+      seen, or touched, or met with face to face, until the sleep is past, and
+      waking agony returns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long time the door of his cell opened. He looked up; saw the blind
+      man enter; and relapsed into his former position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Guided by his breathing, the visitor advanced to where he sat; and
+      stopping beside him, and stretching out his hand to assure himself that he
+      was right, remained, for a good space, silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This is bad, Rudge. This is bad,' he said at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoner shuffled with his feet upon the ground in turning his body
+      from him, but made no other answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How were you taken?' he asked. 'And where? You never told me more than
+      half your secret. No matter; I know it now. How was it, and where, eh?' he
+      asked again, coming still nearer to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At Chigwell,' said the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At Chigwell! How came you there?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because I went there to avoid the man I stumbled on,' he answered.
+      'Because I was chased and driven there, by him and Fate. Because I was
+      urged to go there, by something stronger than my own will. When I found
+      him watching in the house she used to live in, night after night, I knew I
+      never could escape him&mdash;never! and when I heard the Bell&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shivered; muttered that it was very cold; paced quickly up and down the
+      narrow cell; and sitting down again, fell into his old posture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You were saying,' said the blind man, after another pause, 'that when you
+      heard the Bell&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let it be, will you?' he retorted in a hurried voice. 'It hangs there
+      yet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man turned a wistful and inquisitive face towards him, but he
+      continued to speak, without noticing him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I went to Chigwell, in search of the mob. I have been so hunted and beset
+      by this man, that I knew my only hope of safety lay in joining them. They
+      had gone on before; I followed them when it left off.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When what left off?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The Bell. They had quitted the place. I hoped that some of them might be
+      still lingering among the ruins, and was searching for them when I heard&mdash;'
+      he drew a long breath, and wiped his forehead with his sleeve&mdash;'his
+      voice.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Saying what?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No matter what. I don't know. I was then at the foot of the turret, where
+      I did the&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay,' said the blind man, nodding his head with perfect composure, 'I
+      understand.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I climbed the stair, or so much of it as was left; meaning to hide till
+      he had gone. But he heard me; and followed almost as soon as I set foot
+      upon the ashes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You might have hidden in the wall, and thrown him down, or stabbed him,'
+      said the blind man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Might I? Between that man and me, was one who led him on&mdash;I saw it,
+      though he did not&mdash;and raised above his head a bloody hand. It was in
+      the room above that HE and I stood glaring at each other on the night of
+      the murder, and before he fell he raised his hand like that, and fixed his
+      eyes on me. I knew the chase would end there.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have a strong fancy,' said the blind man, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Strengthen yours with blood, and see what it will come to.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He groaned, and rocked himself, and looking up for the first time, said,
+      in a low, hollow voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Eight-and-twenty years! Eight-and-twenty years! He has never changed in
+      all that time, never grown older, nor altered in the least degree. He has
+      been before me in the dark night, and the broad sunny day; in the
+      twilight, the moonlight, the sunlight, the light of fire, and lamp, and
+      candle; and in the deepest gloom. Always the same! In company, in
+      solitude, on land, on shipboard; sometimes leaving me alone for months,
+      and sometimes always with me. I have seen him, at sea, come gliding in the
+      dead of night along the bright reflection of the moon in the calm water;
+      and I have seen him, on quays and market-places, with his hand uplifted,
+      towering, the centre of a busy crowd, unconscious of the terrible form
+      that had its silent stand among them. Fancy! Are you real? Am I? Are these
+      iron fetters, riveted on me by the smith's hammer, or are they fancies I
+      can shatter at a blow?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man listened in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Fancy! Do I fancy that I killed him? Do I fancy that as I left the
+      chamber where he lay, I saw the face of a man peeping from a dark door,
+      who plainly showed me by his fearful looks that he suspected what I had
+      done? Do I remember that I spoke fairly to him&mdash;that I drew nearer&mdash;nearer
+      yet&mdash;with the hot knife in my sleeve? Do I fancy how HE died? Did he
+      stagger back into the angle of the wall into which I had hemmed him, and,
+      bleeding inwardly, stand, not fail, a corpse before me? Did I see him, for
+      an instant, as I see you now, erect and on his feet&mdash;but dead!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man, who knew that he had risen, motioned him to sit down again
+      upon his bedstead; but he took no notice of the gesture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was then I thought, for the first time, of fastening the murder upon
+      him. It was then I dressed him in my clothes, and dragged him down the
+      back-stairs to the piece of water. Do I remember listening to the bubbles
+      that came rising up when I had rolled him in? Do I remember wiping the
+      water from my face, and because the body splashed it there, in its
+      descent, feeling as if it MUST be blood?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did I go home when I had done? And oh, my God! how long it took to do!
+      Did I stand before my wife, and tell her? Did I see her fall upon the
+      ground; and, when I stooped to raise her, did she thrust me back with a
+      force that cast me off as if I had been a child, staining the hand with
+      which she clasped my wrist? Is THAT fancy?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Did she go down upon her knees, and call on Heaven to witness that she
+      and her unborn child renounced me from that hour; and did she, in words so
+      solemn that they turned me cold&mdash;me, fresh from the horrors my own
+      hands had made&mdash;warn me to fly while there was time; for though she
+      would be silent, being my wretched wife, she would not shelter me? Did I
+      go forth that night, abjured of God and man, and anchored deep in hell, to
+      wander at my cable's length about the earth, and surely be drawn down at
+      last?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why did you return? said the blind man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why is blood red? I could no more help it, than I could live without
+      breath. I struggled against the impulse, but I was drawn back, through
+      every difficult and adverse circumstance, as by a mighty engine. Nothing
+      could stop me. The day and hour were none of my choice. Sleeping and
+      waking, I had been among the old haunts for years&mdash;had visited my own
+      grave. Why did I come back? Because this jail was gaping for me, and he
+      stood beckoning at the door.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You were not known?' said the blind man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I was a man who had been twenty-two years dead. No. I was not known.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You should have kept your secret better.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'MY secret? MINE? It was a secret, any breath of air could whisper at its
+      will. The stars had it in their twinkling, the water in its flowing, the
+      leaves in their rustling, the seasons in their return. It lurked in
+      strangers' faces, and their voices. Everything had lips on which it always
+      trembled.&mdash;MY secret!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was revealed by your own act at any rate,' said the blind man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The act was not mine. I did it, but it was not mine. I was forced at
+      times to wander round, and round, and round that spot. If you had chained
+      me up when the fit was on me, I should have broken away, and gone there.
+      As truly as the loadstone draws iron towards it, so he, lying at the
+      bottom of his grave, could draw me near him when he would. Was that fancy?
+      Did I like to go there, or did I strive and wrestle with the power that
+      forced me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man shrugged his shoulders, and smiled incredulously. The
+      prisoner again resumed his old attitude, and for a long time both were
+      mute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I suppose then,' said his visitor, at length breaking silence, 'that you
+      are penitent and resigned; that you desire to make peace with everybody
+      (in particular, with your wife who has brought you to this); and that you
+      ask no greater favour than to be carried to Tyburn as soon as possible?
+      That being the case, I had better take my leave. I am not good enough to
+      be company for you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have I not told you,' said the other fiercely, 'that I have striven and
+      wrestled with the power that brought me here? Has my whole life, for
+      eight-and-twenty years, been one perpetual struggle and resistance, and do
+      you think I want to lie down and die? Do all men shrink from death&mdash;I
+      most of all!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's better said. That's better spoken, Rudge&mdash;but I'll not call
+      you that again&mdash;than anything you have said yet,' returned the blind
+      man, speaking more familiarly, and laying his hands upon his arm. 'Lookye,&mdash;I
+      never killed a man myself, for I have never been placed in a position that
+      made it worth my while. Farther, I am not an advocate for killing men, and
+      I don't think I should recommend it or like it&mdash;for it's very
+      hazardous&mdash;under any circumstances. But as you had the misfortune to
+      get into this trouble before I made your acquaintance, and as you have
+      been my companion, and have been of use to me for a long time now, I
+      overlook that part of the matter, and am only anxious that you shouldn't
+      die unnecessarily. Now, I do not consider that, at present, it is at all
+      necessary.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What else is left me?' returned the prisoner. 'To eat my way through
+      these walls with my teeth?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Something easier than that,' returned his friend. 'Promise me that you
+      will talk no more of these fancies of yours&mdash;idle, foolish things,
+      quite beneath a man&mdash;and I'll tell you what I mean.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tell me,' said the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your worthy lady with the tender conscience; your scrupulous, virtuous,
+      punctilious, but not blindly affectionate wife&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What of her?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is now in London.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A curse upon her, be she where she may!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's natural enough. If she had taken her annuity as usual, you would
+      not have been here, and we should have been better off. But that's apart
+      from the business. She's in London. Scared, as I suppose, and have no
+      doubt, by my representation when I waited upon her, that you were close at
+      hand (which I, of course, urged only as an inducement to compliance,
+      knowing that she was not pining to see you), she left that place, and
+      travelled up to London.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How do you know?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'From my friend the noble captain&mdash;the illustrious general&mdash;the
+      bladder, Mr Tappertit. I learnt from him the last time I saw him, which
+      was yesterday, that your son who is called Barnaby&mdash;not after his
+      father, I suppose&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Death! does that matter now!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;You are impatient,' said the blind man, calmly; 'it's a good sign,
+      and looks like life&mdash;that your son Barnaby had been lured away from
+      her by one of his companions who knew him of old, at Chigwell; and that he
+      is now among the rioters.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what is that to me? If father and son be hanged together, what
+      comfort shall I find in that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stay&mdash;stay, my friend,' returned the blind man, with a cunning look,
+      'you travel fast to journeys' ends. Suppose I track my lady out, and say
+      thus much: "You want your son, ma'am&mdash;good. I, knowing those who
+      tempt him to remain among them, can restore him to you, ma'am&mdash;good.
+      You must pay a price, ma'am, for his restoration&mdash;good again. The
+      price is small, and easy to be paid&mdash;dear ma'am, that's best of
+      all."'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What mockery is this?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Very likely, she may reply in those words. "No mockery at all," I answer:
+      "Madam, a person said to be your husband (identity is difficult of proof
+      after the lapse of many years) is in prison, his life in peril&mdash;the
+      charge against him, murder. Now, ma'am, your husband has been dead a long,
+      long time. The gentleman never can be confounded with him, if you will
+      have the goodness to say a few words, on oath, as to when he died, and
+      how; and that this person (who I am told resembles him in some degree) is
+      no more he than I am. Such testimony will set the question quite at rest.
+      Pledge yourself to me to give it, ma' am, and I will undertake to keep
+      your son (a fine lad) out of harm's way until you have done this trifling
+      service, when he shall be delivered up to you, safe and sound. On the
+      other hand, if you decline to do so, I fear he will be betrayed, and
+      handed over to the law, which will assuredly sentence him to suffer death.
+      It is, in fact, a choice between his life and death. If you refuse, he
+      swings. If you comply, the timber is not grown, nor the hemp sown, that
+      shall do him any harm."'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is a gleam of hope in this!' cried the prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A gleam!' returned his friend, 'a noon-blaze; a full and glorious
+      daylight. Hush! I hear the tread of distant feet. Rely on me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When shall I hear more?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'As soon as I do. I should hope, to-morrow. They are coming to say that
+      our time for talk is over. I hear the jingling of the keys. Not another
+      word of this just now, or they may overhear us.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he said these words, the lock was turned, and one of the prison
+      turnkeys appearing at the door, announced that it was time for visitors to
+      leave the jail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So soon!' said Stagg, meekly. 'But it can't be helped. Cheer up, friend.
+      This mistake will soon be set at rest, and then you are a man again! If
+      this charitable gentleman will lead a blind man (who has nothing in return
+      but prayers) to the prison-porch, and set him with his face towards the
+      west, he will do a worthy deed. Thank you, good sir. I thank you very
+      kindly.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, and pausing for an instant at the door to turn his grinning
+      face towards his friend, he departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the officer had seen him to the porch, he returned, and again
+      unlocking and unbarring the door of the cell, set it wide open, informing
+      its inmate that he was at liberty to walk in the adjacent yard, if he
+      thought proper, for an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoner answered with a sullen nod; and being left alone again, sat
+      brooding over what he had heard, and pondering upon the hopes the recent
+      conversation had awakened; gazing abstractedly, the while he did so, on
+      the light without, and watching the shadows thrown by one wall on another,
+      and on the stone-paved ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a dull, square yard, made cold and gloomy by high walls, and
+      seeming to chill the very sunlight. The stone, so bare, and rough, and
+      obdurate, filled even him with longing thoughts of meadow-land and trees;
+      and with a burning wish to be at liberty. As he looked, he rose, and
+      leaning against the door-post, gazed up at the bright blue sky, smiling
+      even on that dreary home of crime. He seemed, for a moment, to remember
+      lying on his back in some sweet-scented place, and gazing at it through
+      moving branches, long ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His attention was suddenly attracted by a clanking sound&mdash;he knew
+      what it was, for he had startled himself by making the same noise in
+      walking to the door. Presently a voice began to sing, and he saw the
+      shadow of a figure on the pavement. It stopped&mdash;was silent all at
+      once, as though the person for a moment had forgotten where he was, but
+      soon remembered&mdash;and so, with the same clanking noise, the shadow
+      disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked out into the court and paced it to and fro; startling the
+      echoes, as he went, with the harsh jangling of his fetters. There was a
+      door near his, which, like his, stood ajar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not taken half-a-dozen turns up and down the yard, when, standing
+      still to observe this door, he heard the clanking sound again. A face
+      looked out of the grated window&mdash;he saw it very dimly, for the cell
+      was dark and the bars were heavy&mdash;and directly afterwards, a man
+      appeared, and came towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the sense of loneliness he had, he might have been in jail a year.
+      Made eager by the hope of companionship, he quickened his pace, and
+      hastened to meet the man half way&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was this! His son!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stood face to face, staring at each other. He shrinking and cowed,
+      despite himself; Barnaby struggling with his imperfect memory, and
+      wondering where he had seen that face before. He was not uncertain long,
+      for suddenly he laid hands upon him, and striving to bear him to the
+      ground, cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah! I know! You are the robber!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said nothing in reply at first, but held down his head, and struggled
+      with him silently. Finding the younger man too strong for him, he raised
+      his face, looked close into his eyes, and said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am your father.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God knows what magic the name had for his ears; but Barnaby released his
+      hold, fell back, and looked at him aghast. Suddenly he sprung towards him,
+      put his arms about his neck, and pressed his head against his cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, yes, he was; he was sure he was. But where had he been so long, and
+      why had he left his mother by herself, or worse than by herself, with her
+      poor foolish boy? And had she really been as happy as they said? And where
+      was she? Was she near there? She was not happy now, and he in jail? Ah,
+      no.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a word was said in answer; but Grip croaked loudly, and hopped about
+      them, round and round, as if enclosing them in a magic circle, and
+      invoking all the powers of mischief.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0277m.jpg" alt="0277m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0277.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0063" id="link2HCH0063">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 63
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      During the whole of this day, every regiment in or near the metropolis was
+      on duty in one or other part of the town; and the regulars and militia, in
+      obedience to the orders which were sent to every barrack and station
+      within twenty-four hours' journey, began to pour in by all the roads. But
+      the disturbance had attained to such a formidable height, and the rioters
+      had grown, with impunity, to be so audacious, that the sight of this great
+      force, continually augmented by new arrivals, instead of operating as a
+      check, stimulated them to outrages of greater hardihood than any they had
+      yet committed; and helped to kindle a flame in London, the like of which
+      had never been beheld, even in its ancient and rebellious times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All yesterday, and on this day likewise, the commander-in-chief
+      endeavoured to arouse the magistrates to a sense of their duty, and in
+      particular the Lord Mayor, who was the faintest-hearted and most timid of
+      them all. With this object, large bodies of the soldiery were several
+      times despatched to the Mansion House to await his orders: but as he
+      could, by no threats or persuasions, be induced to give any, and as the
+      men remained in the open street, fruitlessly for any good purpose, and
+      thrivingly for a very bad one; these laudable attempts did harm rather
+      than good. For the crowd, becoming speedily acquainted with the Lord
+      Mayor's temper, did not fail to take advantage of it by boasting that even
+      the civil authorities were opposed to the Papists, and could not find it
+      in their hearts to molest those who were guilty of no other offence. These
+      vaunts they took care to make within the hearing of the soldiers; and
+      they, being naturally loth to quarrel with the people, received their
+      advances kindly enough: answering, when they were asked if they desired to
+      fire upon their countrymen, 'No, they would be damned if they did;' and
+      showing much honest simplicity and good nature. The feeling that the
+      military were No-Popery men, and were ripe for disobeying orders and
+      joining the mob, soon became very prevalent in consequence. Rumours of
+      their disaffection, and of their leaning towards the popular cause, spread
+      from mouth to mouth with astonishing rapidity; and whenever they were
+      drawn up idly in the streets or squares, there was sure to be a crowd
+      about them, cheering and shaking hands, and treating them with a great
+      show of confidence and affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time, the crowd was everywhere; all concealment and disguise were
+      laid aside, and they pervaded the whole town. If any man among them wanted
+      money, he had but to knock at the door of a dwelling-house, or walk into a
+      shop, and demand it in the rioters name; and his demand was instantly
+      complied with. The peaceable citizens being afraid to lay hands upon them,
+      singly and alone, it may be easily supposed that when gathered together in
+      bodies, they were perfectly secure from interruption. They assembled in
+      the streets, traversed them at their will and pleasure, and publicly
+      concerted their plans. Business was quite suspended; the greater part of
+      the shops were closed; most of the houses displayed a blue flag in token
+      of their adherence to the popular side; and even the Jews in Houndsditch,
+      Whitechapel, and those quarters, wrote upon their doors or
+      window-shutters, 'This House is a True Protestant.' The crowd was the law,
+      and never was the law held in greater dread, or more implicitly obeyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was about six o'clock in the evening, when a vast mob poured into
+      Lincoln's Inn Fields by every avenue, and divided&mdash;evidently in
+      pursuance of a previous design&mdash;into several parties. It must not be
+      understood that this arrangement was known to the whole crowd, but that it
+      was the work of a few leaders; who, mingling with the men as they came
+      upon the ground, and calling to them to fall into this or that parry,
+      effected it as rapidly as if it had been determined on by a council of the
+      whole number, and every man had known his place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was perfectly notorious to the assemblage that the largest body, which
+      comprehended about two-thirds of the whole, was designed for the attack on
+      Newgate. It comprehended all the rioters who had been conspicuous in any
+      of their former proceedings; all those whom they recommended as daring
+      hands and fit for the work; all those whose companions had been taken in
+      the riots; and a great number of people who were relatives or friends of
+      felons in the jail. This last class included, not only the most desperate
+      and utterly abandoned villains in London, but some who were comparatively
+      innocent. There was more than one woman there, disguised in man's attire,
+      and bent upon the rescue of a child or brother. There were the two sons of
+      a man who lay under sentence of death, and who was to be executed along
+      with three others, on the next day but one. There was a great parry of
+      boys whose fellow-pickpockets were in the prison; and at the skirts of
+      all, a score of miserable women, outcasts from the world, seeking to
+      release some other fallen creature as miserable as themselves, or moved by
+      a general sympathy perhaps&mdash;God knows&mdash;with all who were without
+      hope, and wretched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old swords, and pistols without ball or powder; sledge-hammers, knives,
+      axes, saws, and weapons pillaged from the butchers' shops; a forest of
+      iron bars and wooden clubs; long ladders for scaling the walls, each
+      carried on the shoulders of a dozen men; lighted torches; tow smeared with
+      pitch, and tar, and brimstone; staves roughly plucked from fence and
+      paling; and even crutches taken from crippled beggars in the streets;
+      composed their arms. When all was ready, Hugh and Dennis, with Simon
+      Tappertit between them, led the way. Roaring and chafing like an angry
+      sea, the crowd pressed after them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of going straight down Holborn to the jail, as all expected, their
+      leaders took the way to Clerkenwell, and pouring down a quiet street,
+      halted before a locksmith's house&mdash;the Golden Key.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Beat at the door,' cried Hugh to the men about him. 'We want one of his
+      craft to-night. Beat it in, if no one answers.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shop was shut. Both door and shutters were of a strong and sturdy
+      kind, and they knocked without effect. But the impatient crowd raising a
+      cry of 'Set fire to the house!' and torches being passed to the front, an
+      upper window was thrown open, and the stout old locksmith stood before
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What now, you villains!' he demanded. 'Where is my daughter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ask no questions of us, old man,' retorted Hugh, waving his comrades to
+      be silent, 'but come down, and bring the tools of your trade. We want
+      you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Want me!' cried the locksmith, glancing at the regimental dress he wore:
+      'Ay, and if some that I could name possessed the hearts of mice, ye should
+      have had me long ago. Mark me, my lad&mdash;and you about him do the same.
+      There are a score among ye whom I see now and know, who are dead men from
+      this hour. Begone! and rob an undertaker's while you can! You'll want some
+      coffins before long.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will you come down?' cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will you give me my daughter, ruffian?' cried the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know nothing of her,' Hugh rejoined. 'Burn the door!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stop!' cried the locksmith, in a voice that made them falter&mdash;presenting,
+      as he spoke, a gun. 'Let an old man do that. You can spare him better.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young fellow who held the light, and who was stooping down before the
+      door, rose hastily at these words, and fell back. The locksmith ran his
+      eye along the upturned faces, and kept the weapon levelled at the
+      threshold of his house. It had no other rest than his shoulder, but was as
+      steady as the house itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let the man who does it, take heed to his prayers,' he said firmly; 'I
+      warn him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Snatching a torch from one who stood near him, Hugh was stepping forward
+      with an oath, when he was arrested by a shrill and piercing shriek, and,
+      looking upward, saw a fluttering garment on the house-top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another shriek, and another, and then a shrill voice cried, 'Is
+      Simmun below!' At the same moment a lean neck was stretched over the
+      parapet, and Miss Miggs, indistinctly seen in the gathering gloom of
+      evening, screeched in a frenzied manner, 'Oh! dear gentlemen, let me hear
+      Simmuns's answer from his own lips. Speak to me, Simmun. Speak to me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Tappertit, who was not at all flattered by this compliment, looked up,
+      and bidding her hold her peace, ordered her to come down and open the
+      door, for they wanted her master, and would take no denial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh good gentlemen!' cried Miss Miggs. 'Oh my own precious, precious
+      Simmun&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hold your nonsense, will you!' retorted Mr Tappertit; 'and come down and
+      open the door.&mdash;G. Varden, drop that gun, or it will be worse for
+      you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't mind his gun,' screamed Miggs. 'Simmun and gentlemen, I poured a
+      mug of table-beer right down the barrel.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The crowd gave a loud shout, which was followed by a roar of laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It wouldn't go off, not if you was to load it up to the muzzle,' screamed
+      Miggs. 'Simmun and gentlemen, I'm locked up in the front attic, through
+      the little door on the right hand when you think you've got to the very
+      top of the stairs&mdash;and up the flight of corner steps, being careful
+      not to knock your heads against the rafters, and not to tread on one side
+      in case you should fall into the two-pair bedroom through the lath and
+      plasture, which do not bear, but the contrairy. Simmun and gentlemen, I've
+      been locked up here for safety, but my endeavours has always been, and
+      always will be, to be on the right side&mdash;the blessed side and to
+      prenounce the Pope of Babylon, and all her inward and her outward
+      workings, which is Pagin. My sentiments is of little consequences, I
+      know,' cried Miggs, with additional shrillness, 'for my positions is but a
+      servant, and as sich, of humilities, still I gives expressions to my
+      feelings, and places my reliances on them which entertains my own
+      opinions!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without taking much notice of these outpourings of Miss Miggs after she
+      had made her first announcement in relation to the gun, the crowd raised a
+      ladder against the window where the locksmith stood, and notwithstanding
+      that he closed, and fastened, and defended it manfully, soon forced an
+      entrance by shivering the glass and breaking in the frames. After dealing
+      a few stout blows about him, he found himself defenceless, in the midst of
+      a furious crowd, which overflowed the room and softened off in a confused
+      heap of faces at the door and window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were very wrathful with him (for he had wounded two men), and even
+      called out to those in front, to bring him forth and hang him on a
+      lamp-post. But Gabriel was quite undaunted, and looked from Hugh and
+      Dennis, who held him by either arm, to Simon Tappertit, who confronted
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have robbed me of my daughter,' said the locksmith, 'who is far
+      dearer to me than my life; and you may take my life, if you will. I bless
+      God that I have been enabled to keep my wife free of this scene; and that
+      He has made me a man who will not ask mercy at such hands as yours.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And a wery game old gentleman you are,' said Mr Dennis, approvingly; 'and
+      you express yourself like a man. What's the odds, brother, whether it's a
+      lamp-post to-night, or a feather-bed ten year to come, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith glanced at him disdainfully, but returned no other answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For my part,' said the hangman, who particularly favoured the lamp-post
+      suggestion, 'I honour your principles. They're mine exactly. In such
+      sentiments as them,' and here he emphasised his discourse with an oath,
+      'I'm ready to meet you or any man halfway.&mdash;Have you got a bit of
+      cord anywheres handy? Don't put yourself out of the way, if you haven't. A
+      handkecher will do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't be a fool, master,' whispered Hugh, seizing Varden roughly by the
+      shoulder; 'but do as you're bid. You'll soon hear what you're wanted for.
+      Do it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll do nothing at your request, or that of any scoundrel here,' returned
+      the locksmith. 'If you want any service from me, you may spare yourselves
+      the pains of telling me what it is. I tell you, beforehand, I'll do
+      nothing for you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis was so affected by this constancy on the part of the staunch old
+      man, that he protested&mdash;almost with tears in his eyes&mdash;that to
+      baulk his inclinations would be an act of cruelty and hard dealing to
+      which he, for one, never could reconcile his conscience. The gentleman, he
+      said, had avowed in so many words that he was ready for working off; such
+      being the case, he considered it their duty, as a civilised and
+      enlightened crowd, to work him off. It was not often, he observed, that
+      they had it in their power to accommodate themselves to the wishes of
+      those from whom they had the misfortune to differ. Having now found an
+      individual who expressed a desire which they could reasonably indulge (and
+      for himself he was free to confess that in his opinion that desire did
+      honour to his feelings), he hoped they would decide to accede to his
+      proposition before going any further. It was an experiment which,
+      skilfully and dexterously performed, would be over in five minutes, with
+      great comfort and satisfaction to all parties; and though it did not
+      become him (Mr Dennis) to speak well of himself he trusted he might be
+      allowed to say that he had practical knowledge of the subject, and, being
+      naturally of an obliging and friendly disposition, would work the
+      gentleman off with a deal of pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These remarks, which were addressed in the midst of a frightful din and
+      turmoil to those immediately about him, were received with great favour;
+      not so much, perhaps, because of the hangman's eloquence, as on account of
+      the locksmith's obstinacy. Gabriel was in imminent peril, and he knew it;
+      but he preserved a steady silence; and would have done so, if they had
+      been debating whether they should roast him at a slow fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the hangman spoke, there was some stir and confusion on the ladder; and
+      directly he was silent&mdash;so immediately upon his holding his peace,
+      that the crowd below had no time to learn what he had been saying, or to
+      shout in response&mdash;some one at the window cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has a grey head. He is an old man: Don't hurt him!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith turned, with a start, towards the place from which the words
+      had come, and looked hurriedly at the people who were hanging on the
+      ladder and clinging to each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pay no respect to my grey hair, young man,' he said, answering the voice
+      and not any one he saw. 'I don't ask it. My heart is green enough to scorn
+      and despise every man among you, band of robbers that you are!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This incautious speech by no means tended to appease the ferocity of the
+      crowd. They cried again to have him brought out; and it would have gone
+      hard with the honest locksmith, but that Hugh reminded them, in answer,
+      that they wanted his services, and must have them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So, tell him what we want,' he said to Simon Tappertit, 'and quickly. And
+      open your ears, master, if you would ever use them after to-night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel folded his arms, which were now at liberty, and eyed his old
+      'prentice in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lookye, Varden,' said Sim, 'we're bound for Newgate.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I know you are,' returned the locksmith. 'You never said a truer word
+      than that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To burn it down, I mean,' said Simon, 'and force the gates, and set the
+      prisoners at liberty. You helped to make the lock of the great door.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I did,' said the locksmith. 'You owe me no thanks for that&mdash;as
+      you'll find before long.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Maybe,' returned his journeyman, 'but you must show us how to force it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Must I!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes; for you know, and I don't. You must come along with us, and pick it
+      with your own hands.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When I do,' said the locksmith quietly, 'my hands shall drop off at the
+      wrists, and you shall wear them, Simon Tappertit, on your shoulders for
+      epaulettes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We'll see that,' cried Hugh, interposing, as the indignation of the crowd
+      again burst forth. 'You fill a basket with the tools he'll want, while I
+      bring him downstairs. Open the doors below, some of you. And light the
+      great captain, others! Is there no business afoot, my lads, that you can
+      do nothing but stand and grumble?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They looked at one another, and quickly dispersing, swarmed over the
+      house, plundering and breaking, according to their custom, and carrying
+      off such articles of value as happened to please their fancy. They had no
+      great length of time for these proceedings, for the basket of tools was
+      soon prepared and slung over a man's shoulders. The preparations being now
+      completed, and everything ready for the attack, those who were pillaging
+      and destroying in the other rooms were called down to the workshop. They
+      were about to issue forth, when the man who had been last upstairs,
+      stepped forward, and asked if the young woman in the garret (who was
+      making a terrible noise, he said, and kept on screaming without the least
+      cessation) was to be released?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For his own part, Simon Tappertit would certainly have replied in the
+      negative, but the mass of his companions, mindful of the good service she
+      had done in the matter of the gun, being of a different opinion, he had
+      nothing for it but to answer, Yes. The man, accordingly, went back again
+      to the rescue, and presently returned with Miss Miggs, limp and doubled
+      up, and very damp from much weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the young lady had given no tokens of consciousness on their way
+      downstairs, the bearer reported her either dead or dying; and being at
+      some loss what to do with her, was looking round for a convenient bench or
+      heap of ashes on which to place her senseless form, when she suddenly came
+      upon her feet by some mysterious means, thrust back her hair, stared
+      wildly at Mr Tappertit, cried, 'My Simmuns's life is not a wictim!' and
+      dropped into his arms with such promptitude that he staggered and reeled
+      some paces back, beneath his lovely burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh bother!' said Mr Tappertit. 'Here. Catch hold of her, somebody. Lock
+      her up again; she never ought to have been let out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My Simmun!' cried Miss Miggs, in tears, and faintly. 'My for ever, ever
+      blessed Simmun!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hold up, will you,' said Mr Tappertit, in a very unresponsive tone, 'I'll
+      let you fall if you don't. What are you sliding your feet off the ground
+      for?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My angel Simmuns!' murmured Miggs&mdash;'he promised&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Promised! Well, and I'll keep my promise,' answered Simon, testily. 'I
+      mean to provide for you, don't I? Stand up!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where am I to go? What is to become of me after my actions of this
+      night!' cried Miggs. 'What resting-places now remains but in the silent
+      tombses!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wish you was in the silent tombses, I do,' cried Mr Tappertit, 'and
+      boxed up tight, in a good strong one. Here,' he cried to one of the
+      bystanders, in whose ear he whispered for a moment: 'Take her off, will
+      you. You understand where?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fellow nodded; and taking her in his arms, notwithstanding her broken
+      protestations, and her struggles (which latter species of opposition,
+      involving scratches, was much more difficult of resistance), carried her
+      away. They who were in the house poured out into the street; the locksmith
+      was taken to the head of the crowd, and required to walk between his two
+      conductors; the whole body was put in rapid motion; and without any shouts
+      or noise they bore down straight on Newgate, and halted in a dense mass
+      before the prison-gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0064" id="link2HCH0064">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 64
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Breaking the silence they had hitherto preserved, they raised a great cry
+      as soon as they were ranged before the jail, and demanded to speak to the
+      governor. This visit was not wholly unexpected, for his house, which
+      fronted the street, was strongly barricaded, the wicket-gate of the prison
+      was closed up, and at no loophole or grating was any person to be seen.
+      Before they had repeated their summons many times, a man appeared upon the
+      roof of the governor's house, and asked what it was they wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some said one thing, some another, and some only groaned and hissed. It
+      being now nearly dark, and the house high, many persons in the throng were
+      not aware that any one had come to answer them, and continued their
+      clamour until the intelligence was gradually diffused through the whole
+      concourse. Ten minutes or more elapsed before any one voice could be heard
+      with tolerable distinctness; during which interval the figure remained
+      perched alone, against the summer-evening sky, looking down into the
+      troubled street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Are you,' said Hugh at length, 'Mr Akerman, the head jailer here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Of course he is, brother,' whispered Dennis. But Hugh, without minding
+      him, took his answer from the man himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' he said. 'I am.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have got some friends of ours in your custody, master.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have a good many people in my custody.' He glanced downward, as he
+      spoke, into the jail: and the feeling that he could see into the different
+      yards, and that he overlooked everything which was hidden from their view
+      by the rugged walls, so lashed and goaded the mob, that they howled like
+      wolves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Deliver up our friends,' said Hugh, 'and you may keep the rest.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's my duty to keep them all. I shall do my duty.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you don't throw the doors open, we shall break 'em down,' said Hugh;
+      'for we will have the rioters out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All I can do, good people,' Akerman replied, 'is to exhort you to
+      disperse; and to remind you that the consequences of any disturbance in
+      this place, will be very severe, and bitterly repented by most of you,
+      when it is too late.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made as though he would retire when he said these words, but he was
+      checked by the voice of the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Akerman,' cried Gabriel, 'Mr Akerman.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will hear no more from any of you,' replied the governor, turning
+      towards the speaker, and waving his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But I am not one of them,' said Gabriel. 'I am an honest man, Mr Akerman;
+      a respectable tradesman&mdash;Gabriel Varden, the locksmith. You know me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You among the crowd!' cried the governor in an altered voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brought here by force&mdash;brought here to pick the lock of the great
+      door for them,' rejoined the locksmith. 'Bear witness for me, Mr Akerman,
+      that I refuse to do it; and that I will not do it, come what may of my
+      refusal. If any violence is done to me, please to remember this.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is there no way of helping you?' said the governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'None, Mr Akerman. You'll do your duty, and I'll do mine. Once again, you
+      robbers and cut-throats,' said the locksmith, turning round upon them, 'I
+      refuse. Ah! Howl till you're hoarse. I refuse.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stay&mdash;stay!' said the jailer, hastily. 'Mr Varden, I know you for a
+      worthy man, and one who would do no unlawful act except upon compulsion&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Upon compulsion, sir,' interposed the locksmith, who felt that the tone
+      in which this was said, conveyed the speaker's impression that he had
+      ample excuse for yielding to the furious multitude who beset and hemmed
+      him in, on every side, and among whom he stood, an old man, quite alone;
+      'upon compulsion, sir, I'll do nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where is that man,' said the keeper, anxiously, 'who spoke to me just
+      now?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Here!' Hugh replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you know what the guilt of murder is, and that by keeping that honest
+      tradesman at your side you endanger his life!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We know it very well,' he answered, 'for what else did we bring him here?
+      Let's have our friends, master, and you shall have your friend. Is that
+      fair, lads?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mob replied to him with a loud Hurrah!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You see how it is, sir?' cried Varden. 'Keep 'em out, in King George's
+      name. Remember what I have said. Good night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no more parley. A shower of stones and other missiles compelled
+      the keeper of the jail to retire; and the mob, pressing on, and swarming
+      round the walls, forced Gabriel Varden close up to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain the basket of tools was laid upon the ground before him, and he
+      was urged in turn by promises, by blows, by offers of reward, and threats
+      of instant death, to do the office for which they had brought him there.
+      'No,' cried the sturdy locksmith, 'I will not!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had never loved his life so well as then, but nothing could move him.
+      The savage faces that glared upon him, look where he would; the cries of
+      those who thirsted, like wild animals, for his blood; the sight of men
+      pressing forward, and trampling down their fellows, as they strove to
+      reach him, and struck at him above the heads of other men, with axes and
+      with iron bars; all failed to daunt him. He looked from man to man, and
+      face to face, and still, with quickened breath and lessening colour, cried
+      firmly, 'I will not!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dennis dealt him a blow upon the face which felled him to the ground. He
+      sprung up again like a man in the prime of life, and with blood upon his
+      forehead, caught him by the throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You cowardly dog!' he said: 'Give me my daughter. Give me my daughter.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They struggled together. Some cried 'Kill him,' and some (but they were
+      not near enough) strove to trample him to death. Tug as he would at the
+      old man's wrists, the hangman could not force him to unclench his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is this all the return you make me, you ungrateful monster?' he
+      articulated with great difficulty, and with many oaths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Give me my daughter!' cried the locksmith, who was now as fierce as those
+      who gathered round him: 'Give me my daughter!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was down again, and up, and down once more, and buffeting with a score
+      of them, who bandied him from hand to hand, when one tall fellow, fresh
+      from a slaughter-house, whose dress and great thigh-boots smoked hot with
+      grease and blood, raised a pole-axe, and swearing a horrible oath, aimed
+      it at the old man's uncovered head. At that instant, and in the very act,
+      he fell himself, as if struck by lightning, and over his body a one-armed
+      man came darting to the locksmith's side. Another man was with him, and
+      both caught the locksmith roughly in their grasp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Leave him to us!' they cried to Hugh&mdash;struggling, as they spoke, to
+      force a passage backward through the crowd. 'Leave him to us. Why do you
+      waste your whole strength on such as he, when a couple of men can finish
+      him in as many minutes! You lose time. Remember the prisoners! remember
+      Barnaby!'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0284m.jpg" alt="0284m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0284.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The cry ran through the mob. Hammers began to rattle on the walls; and
+      every man strove to reach the prison, and be among the foremost rank.
+      Fighting their way through the press and struggle, as desperately as if
+      they were in the midst of enemies rather than their own friends, the two
+      men retreated with the locksmith between them, and dragged him through the
+      very heart of the concourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the strokes began to fall like hail upon the gate, and on the
+      strong building; for those who could not reach the door, spent their
+      fierce rage on anything&mdash;even on the great blocks of stone, which
+      shivered their weapons into fragments, and made their hands and arms to
+      tingle as if the walls were active in their stout resistance, and dealt
+      them back their blows. The clash of iron ringing upon iron, mingled with
+      the deafening tumult and sounded high above it, as the great
+      sledge-hammers rattled on the nailed and plated door: the sparks flew off
+      in showers; men worked in gangs, and at short intervals relieved each
+      other, that all their strength might be devoted to the work; but there
+      stood the portal still, as grim and dark and strong as ever, and, saving
+      for the dints upon its battered surface, quite unchanged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While some brought all their energies to bear upon this toilsome task; and
+      some, rearing ladders against the prison, tried to clamber to the summit
+      of the walls they were too short to scale; and some again engaged a body
+      of police a hundred strong, and beat them back and trod them under foot by
+      force of numbers; others besieged the house on which the jailer had
+      appeared, and driving in the door, brought out his furniture, and piled it
+      up against the prison-gate, to make a bonfire which should burn it down.
+      As soon as this device was understood, all those who had laboured
+      hitherto, cast down their tools and helped to swell the heap; which
+      reached half-way across the street, and was so high, that those who threw
+      more fuel on the top, got up by ladders. When all the keeper's goods were
+      flung upon this costly pile, to the last fragment, they smeared it with
+      the pitch, and tar, and rosin they had brought, and sprinkled it with
+      turpentine. To all the woodwork round the prison-doors they did the like,
+      leaving not a joist or beam untouched. This infernal christening
+      performed, they fired the pile with lighted matches and with blazing tow,
+      and then stood by, awaiting the result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The furniture being very dry, and rendered more combustible by wax and
+      oil, besides the arts they had used, took fire at once. The flames roared
+      high and fiercely, blackening the prison-wall, and twining up its loftly
+      front like burning serpents. At first they crowded round the blaze, and
+      vented their exultation only in their looks: but when it grew hotter and
+      fiercer&mdash;when it crackled, leaped, and roared, like a great furnace&mdash;when
+      it shone upon the opposite houses, and lighted up not only the pale and
+      wondering faces at the windows, but the inmost corners of each habitation&mdash;when
+      through the deep red heat and glow, the fire was seen sporting and toying
+      with the door, now clinging to its obdurate surface, now gliding off with
+      fierce inconstancy and soaring high into the sky, anon returning to fold
+      it in its burning grasp and lure it to its ruin&mdash;when it shone and
+      gleamed so brightly that the church clock of St Sepulchre's so often
+      pointing to the hour of death, was legible as in broad day, and the vane
+      upon its steeple-top glittered in the unwonted light like something richly
+      jewelled&mdash;when blackened stone and sombre brick grew ruddy in the
+      deep reflection, and windows shone like burnished gold, dotting the
+      longest distance in the fiery vista with their specks of brightness&mdash;when
+      wall and tower, and roof and chimney-stack, seemed drunk, and in the
+      flickering glare appeared to reel and stagger&mdash;when scores of
+      objects, never seen before, burst out upon the view, and things the most
+      familiar put on some new aspect&mdash;then the mob began to join the
+      whirl, and with loud yells, and shouts, and clamour, such as happily is
+      seldom heard, bestirred themselves to feed the fire, and keep it at its
+      height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the heat was so intense that the paint on the houses over against
+      the prison, parched and crackled up, and swelling into boils, as it were
+      from excess of torture, broke and crumbled away; although the glass fell
+      from the window-sashes, and the lead and iron on the roofs blistered the
+      incautious hand that touched them, and the sparrows in the eaves took
+      wing, and rendered giddy by the smoke, fell fluttering down upon the
+      blazing pile; still the fire was tended unceasingly by busy hands, and
+      round it, men were going always. They never slackened in their zeal, or
+      kept aloof, but pressed upon the flames so hard, that those in front had
+      much ado to save themselves from being thrust in; if one man swooned or
+      dropped, a dozen struggled for his place, and that although they knew the
+      pain, and thirst, and pressure to be unendurable. Those who fell down in
+      fainting-fits, and were not crushed or burnt, were carried to an inn-yard
+      close at hand, and dashed with water from a pump; of which buckets full
+      were passed from man to man among the crowd; but such was the strong
+      desire of all to drink, and such the fighting to be first, that, for the
+      most part, the whole contents were spilled upon the ground, without the
+      lips of one man being moistened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, and in the midst of all the roar and outcry, those who were
+      nearest to the pile, heaped up again the burning fragments that came
+      toppling down, and raked the fire about the door, which, although a sheet
+      of flame, was still a door fast locked and barred, and kept them out.
+      Great pieces of blazing wood were passed, besides, above the people's
+      heads to such as stood about the ladders, and some of these, climbing up
+      to the topmost stave, and holding on with one hand by the prison wall,
+      exerted all their skill and force to cast these fire-brands on the roof,
+      or down into the yards within. In many instances their efforts were
+      successful; which occasioned a new and appalling addition to the horrors
+      of the scene: for the prisoners within, seeing from between their bars
+      that the fire caught in many places and thrived fiercely, and being all
+      locked up in strong cells for the night, began to know that they were in
+      danger of being burnt alive. This terrible fear, spreading from cell to
+      cell and from yard to yard, vented itself in such dismal cries and
+      wailings, and in such dreadful shrieks for help, that the whole jail
+      resounded with the noise; which was loudly heard even above the shouting
+      of the mob and roaring of the flames, and was so full of agony and
+      despair, that it made the boldest tremble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was remarkable that these cries began in that quarter of the jail which
+      fronted Newgate Street, where, it was well known, the men who were to
+      suffer death on Thursday were confined. And not only were these four who
+      had so short a time to live, the first to whom the dread of being burnt
+      occurred, but they were, throughout, the most importunate of all: for they
+      could be plainly heard, notwithstanding the great thickness of the walls,
+      crying that the wind set that way, and that the flames would shortly reach
+      them; and calling to the officers of the jail to come and quench the fire
+      from a cistern which was in their yard, and full of water. Judging from
+      what the crowd outside the walls could hear from time to time, these four
+      doomed wretches never ceased to call for help; and that with as much
+      distraction, and in as great a frenzy of attachment to existence, as
+      though each had an honoured, happy life before him, instead of
+      eight-and-forty hours of miserable imprisonment, and then a violent and
+      shameful death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the anguish and suffering of the two sons of one of these men, when
+      they heard, or fancied that they heard, their father's voice, is past
+      description. After wringing their hands and rushing to and fro as if they
+      were stark mad, one mounted on the shoulders of his brother, and tried to
+      clamber up the face of the high wall, guarded at the top with spikes and
+      points of iron. And when he fell among the crowd, he was not deterred by
+      his bruises, but mounted up again, and fell again, and, when he found the
+      feat impossible, began to beat the stones and tear them with his hands, as
+      if he could that way make a breach in the strong building, and force a
+      passage in. At last, they cleft their way among the mob about the door,
+      though many men, a dozen times their match, had tried in vain to do so,
+      and were seen, in&mdash;yes, in&mdash;the fire, striving to prize it down,
+      with crowbars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor were they alone affected by the outcry from within the prison. The
+      women who were looking on, shrieked loudly, beat their hands together,
+      stopped their ears; and many fainted: the men who were not near the walls
+      and active in the siege, rather than do nothing, tore up the pavement of
+      the street, and did so with a haste and fury they could not have surpassed
+      if that had been the jail, and they were near their object. Not one living
+      creature in the throng was for an instant still. The whole great mass were
+      mad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A shout! Another! Another yet, though few knew why, or what it meant. But
+      those around the gate had seen it slowly yield, and drop from its topmost
+      hinge. It hung on that side by but one, but it was upright still, because
+      of the bar, and its having sunk, of its own weight, into the heap of ashes
+      at its foot. There was now a gap at the top of the doorway, through which
+      could be descried a gloomy passage, cavernous and dark. Pile up the fire!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It burnt fiercely. The door was red-hot, and the gap wider. They vainly
+      tried to shield their faces with their hands, and standing as if in
+      readiness for a spring, watched the place. Dark figures, some crawling on
+      their hands and knees, some carried in the arms of others, were seen to
+      pass along the roof. It was plain the jail could hold out no longer. The
+      keeper, and his officers, and their wives and children, were escaping.
+      Pile up the fire!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door sank down again: it settled deeper in the cinders&mdash;tottered&mdash;yielded&mdash;was
+      down!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they shouted again, they fell back, for a moment, and left a clear
+      space about the fire that lay between them and the jail entry. Hugh leapt
+      upon the blazing heap, and scattering a train of sparks into the air, and
+      making the dark lobby glitter with those that hung upon his dress, dashed
+      into the jail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hangman followed. And then so many rushed upon their track, that the
+      fire got trodden down and thinly strewn about the street; but there was no
+      need of it now, for, inside and out, the prison was in flames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0065" id="link2HCH0065">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 65
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      During the whole course of the terrible scene which was now at its height,
+      one man in the jail suffered a degree of fear and mental torment which had
+      no parallel in the endurance, even of those who lay under sentence of
+      death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the rioters first assembled before the building, the murderer was
+      roused from sleep&mdash;if such slumbers as his may have that blessed name&mdash;by
+      the roar of voices, and the struggling of a great crowd. He started up as
+      these sounds met his ear, and, sitting on his bedstead, listened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a short interval of silence the noise burst out again. Still
+      listening attentively, he made out, in course of time, that the jail was
+      besieged by a furious multitude. His guilty conscience instantly arrayed
+      these men against himself, and brought the fear upon him that he would be
+      singled out, and torn to pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once impressed with the terror of this conceit, everything tended to
+      confirm and strengthen it. His double crime, the circumstances under which
+      it had been committed, the length of time that had elapsed, and its
+      discovery in spite of all, made him, as it were, the visible object of the
+      Almighty's wrath. In all the crime and vice and moral gloom of the great
+      pest-house of the capital, he stood alone, marked and singled out by his
+      great guilt, a Lucifer among the devils. The other prisoners were a host,
+      hiding and sheltering each other&mdash;a crowd like that without the
+      walls. He was one man against the whole united concourse; a single,
+      solitary, lonely man, from whom the very captives in the jail fell off and
+      shrunk appalled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might be that the intelligence of his capture having been bruited
+      abroad, they had come there purposely to drag him out and kill him in the
+      street; or it might be that they were the rioters, and, in pursuance of an
+      old design, had come to sack the prison. But in either case he had no
+      belief or hope that they would spare him. Every shout they raised, and
+      every sound they made, was a blow upon his heart. As the attack went on,
+      he grew more wild and frantic in his terror: tried to pull away the bars
+      that guarded the chimney and prevented him from climbing up: called loudly
+      on the turnkeys to cluster round the cell and save him from the fury of
+      the rabble; or put him in some dungeon underground, no matter of what
+      depth, how dark it was, or loathsome, or beset with rats and creeping
+      things, so that it hid him and was hard to find.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But no one came, or answered him. Fearful, even while he cried to them, of
+      attracting attention, he was silent. By and bye, he saw, as he looked from
+      his grated window, a strange glimmering on the stone walls and pavement of
+      the yard. It was feeble at first, and came and went, as though some
+      officers with torches were passing to and fro upon the roof of the prison.
+      Soon it reddened, and lighted brands came whirling down, spattering the
+      ground with fire, and burning sullenly in corners. One rolled beneath a
+      wooden bench, and set it in a blaze; another caught a water-spout, and so
+      went climbing up the wall, leaving a long straight track of fire behind
+      it. After a time, a slow thick shower of burning fragments, from some
+      upper portion of the prison which was blazing nigh, began to fall before
+      his door. Remembering that it opened outwards, he knew that every spark
+      which fell upon the heap, and in the act lost its bright life, and died an
+      ugly speck of dust and rubbish, helped to entomb him in a living grave.
+      Still, though the jail resounded with shrieks and cries for help,&mdash;though
+      the fire bounded up as if each separate flame had had a tiger's life, and
+      roared as though, in every one, there were a hungry voice&mdash;though the
+      heat began to grow intense, and the air suffocating, and the clamour
+      without increased, and the danger of his situation even from one merciless
+      element was every moment more extreme,&mdash;still he was afraid to raise
+      his voice again, lest the crowd should break in, and should, of their own
+      ears or from the information given them by the other prisoners, get the
+      clue to his place of confinement. Thus fearful alike, of those within the
+      prison and of those without; of noise and silence; light and darkness; of
+      being released, and being left there to die; he was so tortured and
+      tormented, that nothing man has ever done to man in the horrible caprice
+      of power and cruelty, exceeds his self-inflicted punishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, now, the door was down. Now they came rushing through the jail,
+      calling to each other in the vaulted passages; clashing the iron gates
+      dividing yard from yard; beating at the doors of cells and wards;
+      wrenching off bolts and locks and bars; tearing down the door-posts to get
+      men out; endeavouring to drag them by main force through gaps and windows
+      where a child could scarcely pass; whooping and yelling without a moment's
+      rest; and running through the heat and flames as if they were cased in
+      metal. By their legs, their arms, the hair upon their heads, they dragged
+      the prisoners out. Some threw themselves upon the captives as they got
+      towards the door, and tried to file away their irons; some danced about
+      them with a frenzied joy, and rent their clothes, and were ready, as it
+      seemed, to tear them limb from limb. Now a party of a dozen men came
+      darting through the yard into which the murderer cast fearful glances from
+      his darkened window; dragging a prisoner along the ground whose dress they
+      had nearly torn from his body in their mad eagerness to set him free, and
+      who was bleeding and senseless in their hands. Now a score of prisoners
+      ran to and fro, who had lost themselves in the intricacies of the prison,
+      and were so bewildered with the noise and glare that they knew not where
+      to turn or what to do, and still cried out for help, as loudly as before.
+      Anon some famished wretch whose theft had been a loaf of bread, or scrap
+      of butcher's meat, came skulking past, barefooted&mdash;going slowly away
+      because that jail, his house, was burning; not because he had any other,
+      or had friends to meet, or old haunts to revisit, or any liberty to gain,
+      but liberty to starve and die. And then a knot of highwaymen went trooping
+      by, conducted by the friends they had among the crowd, who muffled their
+      fetters as they went along, with handkerchiefs and bands of hay, and
+      wrapped them in coats and cloaks, and gave them drink from bottles, and
+      held it to their lips, because of their handcuffs which there was no time
+      to remove. All this, and Heaven knows how much more, was done amidst a
+      noise, a hurry, and distraction, like nothing that we know of, even in our
+      dreams; which seemed for ever on the rise, and never to decrease for the
+      space of a single instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was still looking down from his window upon these things, when a band
+      of men with torches, ladders, axes, and many kinds of weapons, poured into
+      the yard, and hammering at his door, inquired if there were any prisoner
+      within. He left the window when he saw them coming, and drew back into the
+      remotest corner of the cell; but although he returned them no answer, they
+      had a fancy that some one was inside, for they presently set ladders
+      against it, and began to tear away the bars at the casement; not only
+      that, indeed, but with pickaxes to hew down the very stones in the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they had made a breach at the window, large enough for the
+      admission of a man's head, one of them thrust in a torch and looked all
+      round the room. He followed this man's gaze until it rested on himself,
+      and heard him demand why he had not answered, but made him no reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the general surprise and wonder, they were used to this; without saying
+      anything more, they enlarged the breach until it was large enough to admit
+      the body of a man, and then came dropping down upon the floor, one after
+      another, until the cell was full. They caught him up among them, handed
+      him to the window, and those who stood upon the ladders passed him down
+      upon the pavement of the yard. Then the rest came out, one after another,
+      and, bidding him fly, and lose no time, or the way would be choked up,
+      hurried away to rescue others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed not a minute's work from first to last. He staggered to his
+      feet, incredulous of what had happened, when the yard was filled again,
+      and a crowd rushed on, hurrying Barnaby among them. In another minute&mdash;not
+      so much: another minute! the same instant, with no lapse or interval
+      between!&mdash;he and his son were being passed from hand to hand, through
+      the dense crowd in the street, and were glancing backward at a burning
+      pile which some one said was Newgate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the moment of their first entrance into the prison, the crowd
+      dispersed themselves about it, and swarmed into every chink and crevice,
+      as if they had a perfect acquaintance with its innermost parts, and bore
+      in their minds an exact plan of the whole. For this immediate knowledge of
+      the place, they were, no doubt, in a great degree, indebted to the
+      hangman, who stood in the lobby, directing some to go this way, some that,
+      and some the other; and who materially assisted in bringing about the
+      wonderful rapidity with which the release of the prisoners was effected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this functionary of the law reserved one important piece of
+      intelligence, and kept it snugly to himself. When he had issued his
+      instructions relative to every other part of the building, and the mob
+      were dispersed from end to end, and busy at their work, he took a bundle
+      of keys from a kind of cupboard in the wall, and going by a kind of
+      passage near the chapel (it joined the governors house, and was then on
+      fire), betook himself to the condemned cells, which were a series of
+      small, strong, dismal rooms, opening on a low gallery, guarded, at the end
+      at which he entered, by a strong iron wicket, and at its opposite
+      extremity by two doors and a thick grate. Having double locked the wicket,
+      and assured himself that the other entrances were well secured, he sat
+      down on a bench in the gallery, and sucked the head of his stick with the
+      utmost complacency, tranquillity, and contentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would have been strange enough, a man's enjoying himself in this quiet
+      manner, while the prison was burning, and such a tumult was cleaving the
+      air, though he had been outside the walls. But here, in the very heart of
+      the building, and moreover with the prayers and cries of the four men
+      under sentence sounding in his ears, and their hands, stretched our
+      through the gratings in their cell-doors, clasped in frantic entreaty
+      before his very eyes, it was particularly remarkable. Indeed, Mr Dennis
+      appeared to think it an uncommon circumstance, and to banter himself upon
+      it; for he thrust his hat on one side as some men do when they are in a
+      waggish humour, sucked the head of his stick with a higher relish, and
+      smiled as though he would say, 'Dennis, you're a rum dog; you're a queer
+      fellow; you're capital company, Dennis, and quite a character!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat in this way for some minutes, while the four men in the cells, who
+      were certain that somebody had entered the gallery, but could not see who,
+      gave vent to such piteous entreaties as wretches in their miserable
+      condition may be supposed to have been inspired with: urging, whoever it
+      was, to set them at liberty, for the love of Heaven; and protesting, with
+      great fervour, and truly enough, perhaps, for the time, that if they
+      escaped, they would amend their ways, and would never, never, never again
+      do wrong before God or man, but would lead penitent and sober lives, and
+      sorrowfully repent the crimes they had committed. The terrible energy with
+      which they spoke, would have moved any person, no matter how good or just
+      (if any good or just person could have strayed into that sad place that
+      night), to have set them at liberty: and, while he would have left any
+      other punishment to its free course, to have saved them from this last
+      dreadful and repulsive penalty; which never turned a man inclined to evil,
+      and has hardened thousands who were half inclined to good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis, who had been bred and nurtured in the good old school, and had
+      administered the good old laws on the good old plan, always once and
+      sometimes twice every six weeks, for a long time, bore these appeals with
+      a deal of philosophy. Being at last, however, rather disturbed in his
+      pleasant reflection by their repetition, he rapped at one of the doors
+      with his stick, and cried:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hold your noise there, will you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this they all cried together that they were to be hanged on the next
+      day but one; and again implored his aid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Aid! For what!' said Mr Dennis, playfully rapping the knuckles of the
+      hand nearest him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To save us!' they cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, certainly,' said Mr Dennis, winking at the wall in the absence of any
+      friend with whom he could humour the joke. 'And so you're to be worked
+      off, are you, brothers?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Unless we are released to-night,' one of them cried, 'we are dead men!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I tell you what it is,' said the hangman, gravely; 'I'm afraid, my
+      friend, that you're not in that 'ere state of mind that's suitable to your
+      condition, then; you're not a-going to be released: don't think it&mdash;Will
+      you leave off that 'ere indecent row? I wonder you an't ashamed of
+      yourselves, I do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed up this reproof by rapping every set of knuckles one after the
+      other, and having done so, resumed his seat again with a cheerful
+      countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You've had law,' he said, crossing his legs and elevating his eyebrows:
+      'laws have been made a' purpose for you; a wery handsome prison's been
+      made a' purpose for you; a parson's kept a purpose for you; a
+      constitootional officer's appointed a' purpose for you; carts is
+      maintained a' purpose for you&mdash;and yet you're not contented!&mdash;WILL
+      you hold that noise, you sir in the furthest?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A groan was the only answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So well as I can make out,' said Mr Dennis, in a tone of mingled badinage
+      and remonstrance, 'there's not a man among you. I begin to think I'm on
+      the opposite side, and among the ladies; though for the matter of that,
+      I've seen a many ladies face it out, in a manner that did honour to the
+      sex.&mdash;You in number two, don't grind them teeth of yours. Worse
+      manners,' said the hangman, rapping at the door with his stick, 'I never
+      see in this place afore. I'm ashamed of you. You're a disgrace to the
+      Bailey.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After pausing for a moment to hear if anything could be pleaded in
+      justification, Mr Dennis resumed in a sort of coaxing tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now look'ee here, you four. I'm come here to take care of you, and see
+      that you an't burnt, instead of the other thing. It's no use your making
+      any noise, for you won't be found out by them as has broken in, and you'll
+      only be hoarse when you come to the speeches,&mdash;which is a pity. What
+      I say in respect to the speeches always is, "Give it mouth." That's my
+      maxim. Give it mouth. I've heerd,' said the hangman, pulling off his hat
+      to take his handkerchief from the crown and wipe his face, and then
+      putting it on again a little more on one side than before, 'I've heerd a
+      eloquence on them boards&mdash;you know what boards I mean&mdash;and have
+      heerd a degree of mouth given to them speeches, that they was as clear as
+      a bell, and as good as a play. There's a pattern! And always, when a thing
+      of this natur's to come off, what I stand up for, is, a proper frame of
+      mind. Let's have a proper frame of mind, and we can go through with it,
+      creditable&mdash;pleasant&mdash;sociable. Whatever you do (and I address
+      myself in particular, to you in the furthest), never snivel. I'd sooner by
+      half, though I lose by it, see a man tear his clothes a' purpose to spile
+      'em before they come to me, than find him snivelling. It's ten to one a
+      better frame of mind, every way!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the hangman addressed them to this effect, in the tone and with the
+      air of a pastor in familiar conversation with his flock, the noise had
+      been in some degree subdued; for the rioters were busy in conveying the
+      prisoners to the Sessions House, which was beyond the main walls of the
+      prison, though connected with it, and the crowd were busy too, in passing
+      them from thence along the street. But when he had got thus far in his
+      discourse, the sound of voices in the yard showed plainly that the mob had
+      returned and were coming that way; and directly afterwards a violent
+      crashing at the grate below, gave note of their attack upon the cells (as
+      they were called) at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain the hangman ran from door to door, and covered the grates,
+      one after another, with his hat, in futile efforts to stifle the cries of
+      the four men within; it was in vain he dogged their outstretched hands,
+      and beat them with his stick, or menaced them with new and lingering pains
+      in the execution of his office; the place resounded with their cries.
+      These, together with the feeling that they were now the last men in the
+      jail, so worked upon and stimulated the besiegers, that in an incredibly
+      short space of time they forced the strong grate down below, which was
+      formed of iron rods two inches square, drove in the two other doors, as if
+      they had been but deal partitions, and stood at the end of the gallery
+      with only a bar or two between them and the cells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Halloa!' cried Hugh, who was the first to look into the dusky passage:
+      'Dennis before us! Well done, old boy. Be quick, and open here, for we
+      shall be suffocated in the smoke, going out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Go out at once, then,' said Dennis. 'What do you want here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Want!' echoed Hugh. 'The four men.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Four devils!' cried the hangman. 'Don't you know they're left for death
+      on Thursday? Don't you respect the law&mdash;the constitootion&mdash;nothing?
+      Let the four men be.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is this a time for joking?' cried Hugh. 'Do you hear 'em? Pull away these
+      bars that have got fixed between the door and the ground; and let us in.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brother,' said the hangman, in a low voice, as he stooped under pretence
+      of doing what Hugh desired, but only looked up in his face, 'can't you
+      leave these here four men to me, if I've the whim! You do what you like,
+      and have what you like of everything for your share,&mdash;give me my
+      share. I want these four men left alone, I tell you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pull the bars down, or stand out of the way,' was Hugh's reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You can turn the crowd if you like, you know that well enough, brother,'
+      said the hangman, slowly. 'What! You WILL come in, will you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You won't let these men alone, and leave 'em to me? You've no respect for
+      nothing&mdash;haven't you?' said the hangman, retreating to the door by
+      which he had entered, and regarding his companion with a scowl. 'You WILL
+      come in, will you, brother!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I tell you, yes. What the devil ails you? Where are you going?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No matter where I'm going,' rejoined the hangman, looking in again at the
+      iron wicket, which he had nearly shut upon himself, and held ajar.
+      'Remember where you're coming. That's all!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, he shook his likeness at Hugh, and giving him a grin, compared
+      with which his usual smile was amiable, disappeared, and shut the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh paused no longer, but goaded alike by the cries of the convicts, and
+      by the impatience of the crowd, warned the man immediately behind him&mdash;the
+      way was only wide enough for one abreast&mdash;to stand back, and wielded
+      a sledge-hammer with such strength, that after a few blows the iron bent
+      and broke, and gave them free admittance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It the two sons of one of these men, of whom mention has been made, were
+      furious in their zeal before, they had now the wrath and vigour of lions.
+      Calling to the man within each cell, to keep as far back as he could, lest
+      the axes crashing through the door should wound him, a party went to work
+      upon each one, to beat it in by sheer strength, and force the bolts and
+      staples from their hold. But although these two lads had the weakest
+      party, and the worst armed, and did not begin until after the others,
+      having stopped to whisper to him through the grate, that door was the
+      first open, and that man was the first out. As they dragged him into the
+      gallery to knock off his irons, he fell down among them, a mere heap of
+      chains, and was carried out in that state on men's shoulders, with no sign
+      of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The release of these four wretched creatures, and conveying them,
+      astounded and bewildered, into the streets so full of life&mdash;a
+      spectacle they had never thought to see again, until they emerged from
+      solitude and silence upon that last journey, when the air should be heavy
+      with the pent-up breath of thousands, and the streets and houses should be
+      built and roofed with human faces, not with bricks and tiles and stones&mdash;was
+      the crowning horror of the scene. Their pale and haggard looks and hollow
+      eyes; their staggering feet, and hands stretched out as if to save
+      themselves from falling; their wandering and uncertain air; the way they
+      heaved and gasped for breath, as though in water, when they were first
+      plunged into the crowd; all marked them for the men. No need to say 'this
+      one was doomed to die;' for there were the words broadly stamped and
+      branded on his face. The crowd fell off, as if they had been laid out for
+      burial, and had risen in their shrouds; and many were seen to shudder, as
+      though they had been actually dead men, when they chanced to touch or
+      brush against their garments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the bidding of the mob, the houses were all illuminated that night&mdash;lighted
+      up from top to bottom as at a time of public gaiety and joy. Many years
+      afterwards, old people who lived in their youth near this part of the
+      city, remembered being in a great glare of light, within doors and
+      without, and as they looked, timid and frightened children, from the
+      windows, seeing a FACE go by. Though the whole great crowd and all its
+      other terrors had faded from their recollection, this one object remained;
+      alone, distinct, and well remembered. Even in the unpractised minds of
+      infants, one of these doomed men darting past, and but an instant seen,
+      was an image of force enough to dim the whole concourse; to find itself an
+      all-absorbing place, and hold it ever after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When this last task had been achieved, the shouts and cries grew fainter;
+      the clank of fetters, which had resounded on all sides as the prisoners
+      escaped, was heard no more; all the noises of the crowd subsided into a
+      hoarse and sullen murmur as it passed into the distance; and when the
+      human tide had rolled away, a melancholy heap of smoking ruins marked the
+      spot where it had lately chafed and roared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0066" id="link2HCH0066">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 66
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Although he had had no rest upon the previous night, and had watched with
+      little intermission for some weeks past, sleeping only in the day by
+      starts and snatches, Mr Haredale, from the dawn of morning until sunset,
+      sought his niece in every place where he deemed it possible she could have
+      taken refuge. All day long, nothing, save a draught of water, passed his
+      lips; though he prosecuted his inquiries far and wide, and never so much
+      as sat down, once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In every quarter he could think of; at Chigwell and in London; at the
+      houses of the tradespeople with whom he dealt, and of the friends he knew;
+      he pursued his search. A prey to the most harrowing anxieties and
+      apprehensions, he went from magistrate to magistrate, and finally to the
+      Secretary of State. The only comfort he received was from this minister,
+      who assured him that the Government, being now driven to the exercise of
+      the extreme prerogatives of the Crown, were determined to exert them; that
+      a proclamation would probably be out upon the morrow, giving to the
+      military, discretionary and unlimited power in the suppression of the
+      riots; that the sympathies of the King, the Administration, and both
+      Houses of Parliament, and indeed of all good men of every religious
+      persuasion, were strongly with the injured Catholics; and that justice
+      should be done them at any cost or hazard. He told him, moreover, that
+      other persons whose houses had been burnt, had for a time lost sight of
+      their children or their relatives, but had, in every case, within his
+      knowledge, succeeded in discovering them; that his complaint should be
+      remembered, and fully stated in the instructions given to the officers in
+      command, and to all the inferior myrmidons of justice; and that everything
+      that could be done to help him, should be done, with a goodwill and in
+      good faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grateful for this consolation, feeble as it was in its reference to the
+      past, and little hope as it afforded him in connection with the subject of
+      distress which lay nearest to his heart; and really thankful for the
+      interest the minister expressed, and seemed to feel, in his condition; Mr
+      Haredale withdrew. He found himself, with the night coming on, alone in
+      the streets; and destitute of any place in which to lay his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He entered an hotel near Charing Cross, and ordered some refreshment and a
+      bed. He saw that his faint and worn appearance attracted the attention of
+      the landlord and his waiters; and thinking that they might suppose him to
+      be penniless, took out his purse, and laid it on the table. It was not
+      that, the landlord said, in a faltering voice. If he were one of those who
+      had suffered by the rioters, he durst not give him entertainment. He had a
+      family of children, and had been twice warned to be careful in receiving
+      guests. He heartily prayed his forgiveness, but what could he do?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing. No man felt that more sincerely than Mr Haredale. He told the man
+      as much, and left the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Feeling that he might have anticipated this occurrence, after what he had
+      seen at Chigwell in the morning, where no man dared to touch a spade,
+      though he offered a large reward to all who would come and dig among the
+      ruins of his house, he walked along the Strand; too proud to expose
+      himself to another refusal, and of too generous a spirit to involve in
+      distress or ruin any honest tradesman who might be weak enough to give him
+      shelter. He wandered into one of the streets by the side of the river, and
+      was pacing in a thoughtful manner up and down, thinking of things that had
+      happened long ago, when he heard a servant-man at an upper window call to
+      another on the opposite side of the street, that the mob were setting fire
+      to Newgate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Newgate! where that man was! His failing strength returned, his
+      energies came back with tenfold vigour, on the instant. If it were
+      possible&mdash;if they should set the murderer free&mdash;was he, after
+      all he had undergone, to die with the suspicion of having slain his own
+      brother, dimly gathering about him&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had no consciousness of going to the jail; but there he stood, before
+      it. There was the crowd wedged and pressed together in a dense, dark,
+      moving mass; and there were the flames soaring up into the air. His head
+      turned round and round, lights flashed before his eyes, and he struggled
+      hard with two men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay, nay,' said one. 'Be more yourself, my good sir. We attract attention
+      here. Come away. What can you do among so many men?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The gentleman's always for doing something,' said the other, forcing him
+      along as he spoke. 'I like him for that. I do like him for that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had by this time got him into a court, hard by the prison. He looked
+      from one to the other, and as he tried to release himself, felt that he
+      tottered on his feet. He who had spoken first, was the old gentleman whom
+      he had seen at the Lord Mayor's. The other was John Grueby, who had stood
+      by him so manfully at Westminster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What does this mean?' he asked them faintly. 'How came we together?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'On the skirts of the crowd,' returned the distiller; 'but come with us.
+      Pray come with us. You seem to know my friend here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Surely,' said Mr Haredale, looking in a kind of stupor at John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He'll tell you then,' returned the old gentleman, 'that I am a man to be
+      trusted. He's my servant. He was lately (as you know, I have no doubt) in
+      Lord George Gordon's service; but he left it, and brought, in pure
+      goodwill to me and others, who are marked by the rioters, such
+      intelligence as he had picked up, of their designs.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'On one condition, please, sir,' said John, touching his hat. No
+      evidence against my lord&mdash;a misled man&mdash;a kind-hearted man, sir.
+      My lord never intended this.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The condition will be observed, of course,' rejoined the old distiller.
+      'It's a point of honour. But come with us, sir; pray come with us.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Grueby added no entreaties, but he adopted a different kind of
+      persuasion, by putting his arm through one of Mr Haredale's, while his
+      master took the other, and leading him away with all speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sensible, from a strange lightness in his head, and a difficulty in fixing
+      his thoughts on anything, even to the extent of bearing his companions in
+      his mind for a minute together without looking at them, that his brain was
+      affected by the agitation and suffering through which he had passed, and
+      to which he was still a prey, Mr Haredale let them lead him where they
+      would. As they went along, he was conscious of having no command over what
+      he said or thought, and that he had a fear of going mad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The distiller lived, as he had told him when they first met, on Holborn
+      Hill, where he had great storehouses and drove a large trade. They
+      approached his house by a back entrance, lest they should attract the
+      notice of the crowd, and went into an upper room which faced towards the
+      street; the windows, however, in common with those of every other room in
+      the house, were boarded up inside, in order that, out of doors, all might
+      appear quite dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They laid him on a sofa in this chamber, perfectly insensible; but John
+      immediately fetching a surgeon, who took from him a large quantity of
+      blood, he gradually came to himself. As he was, for the time, too weak to
+      walk, they had no difficulty in persuading him to remain there all night,
+      and got him to bed without loss of a minute. That done, they gave him
+      cordial and some toast, and presently a pretty strong composing-draught,
+      under the influence of which he soon fell into a lethargy, and, for a
+      time, forgot his troubles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vintner, who was a very hearty old fellow and a worthy man, had no
+      thoughts of going to bed himself, for he had received several threatening
+      warnings from the rioters, and had indeed gone out that evening to try and
+      gather from the conversation of the mob whether his house was to be the
+      next attacked. He sat all night in an easy-chair in the same room&mdash;dozing
+      a little now and then&mdash;and received from time to time the reports of
+      John Grueby and two or three other trustworthy persons in his employ, who
+      went out into the streets as scouts; and for whose entertainment an ample
+      allowance of good cheer (which the old vintner, despite his anxiety, now
+      and then attacked himself) was set forth in an adjoining chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These accounts were of a sufficiently alarming nature from the first; but
+      as the night wore on, they grew so much worse, and involved such a fearful
+      amount of riot and destruction, that in comparison with these new tidings
+      all the previous disturbances sunk to nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first intelligence that came, was of the taking of Newgate, and the
+      escape of all the prisoners, whose track, as they made up Holborn and into
+      the adjacent streets, was proclaimed to those citizens who were shut up in
+      their houses, by the rattling of their chains, which formed a dismal
+      concert, and was heard in every direction, as though so many forges were
+      at work. The flames too, shone so brightly through the vintner's
+      skylights, that the rooms and staircases below were nearly as light as in
+      broad day; while the distant shouting of the mob seemed to shake the very
+      walls and ceilings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length they were heard approaching the house, and some minutes of
+      terrible anxiety ensued. They came close up, and stopped before it; but
+      after giving three loud yells, went on. And although they returned several
+      times that night, creating new alarms each time, they did nothing there;
+      having their hands full. Shortly after they had gone away for the first
+      time, one of the scouts came running in with the news that they had
+      stopped before Lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon afterwards there came another, and another, and then the first
+      returned again, and so, by little and little, their tale was this:&mdash;That
+      the mob gathering round Lord Mansfield's house, had called on those within
+      to open the door, and receiving no reply (for Lord and Lady Mansfield were
+      at that moment escaping by the backway), forced an entrance according to
+      their usual custom. That they then began to demolish the house with great
+      fury, and setting fire to it in several parts, involved in a common ruin
+      the whole of the costly furniture, the plate and jewels, a beautiful
+      gallery of pictures, the rarest collection of manuscripts ever possessed
+      by any one private person in the world, and worse than all, because
+      nothing could replace this loss, the great Law Library, on almost every
+      page of which were notes in the Judge's own hand, of inestimable value,&mdash;being
+      the results of the study and experience of his whole life. That while they
+      were howling and exulting round the fire, a troop of soldiers, with a
+      magistrate among them, came up, and being too late (for the mischief was
+      by that time done), began to disperse the crowd. That the Riot Act being
+      read, and the crowd still resisting, the soldiers received orders to fire,
+      and levelling their muskets shot dead at the first discharge six men and a
+      woman, and wounded many persons; and loading again directly, fired another
+      volley, but over the people's heads it was supposed, as none were seen to
+      fall. That thereupon, and daunted by the shrieks and tumult, the crowd
+      began to disperse, and the soldiers went away, leaving the killed and
+      wounded on the ground: which they had no sooner done than the rioters came
+      back again, and taking up the dead bodies, and the wounded people, formed
+      into a rude procession, having the bodies in the front. That in this order
+      they paraded off with a horrible merriment; fixing weapons in the dead
+      men's hands to make them look as if alive; and preceded by a fellow
+      ringing Lord Mansfield's dinner-bell with all his might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scouts reported further, that this party meeting with some others who
+      had been at similar work elsewhere, they all united into one, and drafting
+      off a few men with the killed and wounded, marched away to Lord
+      Mansfield's country seat at Caen Wood, between Hampstead and Highgate;
+      bent upon destroying that house likewise, and lighting up a great fire
+      there, which from that height should be seen all over London. But in this,
+      they were disappointed, for a party of horse having arrived before them,
+      they retreated faster than they went, and came straight back to town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There being now a great many parties in the streets, each went to work
+      according to its humour, and a dozen houses were quickly blazing,
+      including those of Sir John Fielding and two other justices, and four in
+      Holborn&mdash;one of the greatest thoroughfares in London&mdash;which were
+      all burning at the same time, and burned until they went out of
+      themselves, for the people cut the engine hose, and would not suffer the
+      firemen to play upon the flames. At one house near Moorfields, they found
+      in one of the rooms some canary birds in cages, and these they cast into
+      the fire alive. The poor little creatures screamed, it was said, like
+      infants, when they were flung upon the blaze; and one man was so touched
+      that he tried in vain to save them, which roused the indignation of the
+      crowd, and nearly cost him his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this same house, one of the fellows who went through the rooms,
+      breaking the furniture and helping to destroy the building, found a
+      child's doll&mdash;a poor toy&mdash;which he exhibited at the window to
+      the mob below, as the image of some unholy saint which the late occupants
+      had worshipped. While he was doing this, another man with an equally
+      tender conscience (they had both been foremost in throwing down the canary
+      birds for roasting alive), took his seat on the parapet of the house, and
+      harangued the crowd from a pamphlet circulated by the Association,
+      relative to the true principles of Christianity! Meanwhile the Lord Mayor,
+      with his hands in his pockets, looked on as an idle man might look at any
+      other show, and seemed mightily satisfied to have got a good place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the accounts brought to the old vintner by his servants as he
+      sat at the side of Mr Haredale's bed, having been unable even to doze,
+      after the first part of the night; too much disturbed by his own fears; by
+      the cries of the mob, the light of the fires, and the firing of the
+      soldiers. Such, with the addition of the release of all the prisoners in
+      the New Jail at Clerkenwell, and as many robberies of passengers in the
+      streets, as the crowd had leisure to indulge in, were the scenes of which
+      Mr Haredale was happily unconscious, and which were all enacted before
+      midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0067" id="link2HCH0067">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 67
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When darkness broke away and morning began to dawn, the town wore a
+      strange aspect indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sleep had hardly been thought of all night. The general alarm was so
+      apparent in the faces of the inhabitants, and its expression was so
+      aggravated by want of rest (few persons, with any property to lose, having
+      dared go to bed since Monday), that a stranger coming into the streets
+      would have supposed some mortal pest or plague to have been raging. In
+      place of the usual cheerfulness and animation of morning, everything was
+      dead and silent. The shops remained closed, offices and warehouses were
+      shut, the coach and chair stands were deserted, no carts or waggons
+      rumbled through the slowly waking streets, the early cries were all
+      hushed; a universal gloom prevailed. Great numbers of people were out,
+      even at daybreak, but they flitted to and fro as though they shrank from
+      the sound of their own footsteps; the public ways were haunted rather than
+      frequented; and round the smoking ruins people stood apart from one
+      another and in silence, not venturing to condemn the rioters, or to be
+      supposed to do so, even in whispers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Lord President's in Piccadilly, at Lambeth Palace, at the Lord
+      Chancellor's in Great Ormond Street, in the Royal Exchange, the Bank, the
+      Guildhall, the Inns of Court, the Courts of Law, and every chamber
+      fronting the streets near Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament,
+      parties of soldiers were posted before daylight. A body of Horse Guards
+      paraded Palace Yard; an encampment was formed in the Park, where fifteen
+      hundred men and five battalions of Militia were under arms; the Tower was
+      fortified, the drawbridges were raised, the cannon loaded and pointed, and
+      two regiments of artillery busied in strengthening the fortress and
+      preparing it for defence. A numerous detachment of soldiers were stationed
+      to keep guard at the New River Head, which the people had threatened to
+      attack, and where, it was said, they meant to cut off the main-pipes, so
+      that there might be no water for the extinction of the flames. In the
+      Poultry, and on Cornhill, and at several other leading points, iron chains
+      were drawn across the street; parties of soldiers were distributed in some
+      of the old city churches while it was yet dark; and in several private
+      houses (among them, Lord Rockingham's in Grosvenor Square); which were
+      blockaded as though to sustain a siege, and had guns pointed from the
+      windows. When the sun rose, it shone into handsome apartments filled with
+      armed men; the furniture hastily heaped away in corners, and made of
+      little or no account, in the terror of the time&mdash;on arms glittering
+      in city chambers, among desks and stools, and dusty books&mdash;into
+      little smoky churchyards in odd lanes and by-ways, with soldiers lying
+      down among the tombs, or lounging under the shade of the one old tree, and
+      their pile of muskets sparkling in the light&mdash;on solitary sentries
+      pacing up and down in courtyards, silent now, but yesterday resounding
+      with the din and hum of business&mdash;everywhere on guard-rooms,
+      garrisons, and threatening preparations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the day crept on, still more unusual sights were witnessed in the
+      streets. The gates of the King's Bench and Fleet Prisons being opened at
+      the usual hour, were found to have notices affixed to them, announcing
+      that the rioters would come that night to burn them down. The wardens, too
+      well knowing the likelihood there was of this promise being fulfilled,
+      were fain to set their prisoners at liberty, and give them leave to move
+      their goods; so, all day, such of them as had any furniture were occupied
+      in conveying it, some to this place, some to that, and not a few to the
+      brokers' shops, where they gladly sold it, for any wretched price those
+      gentry chose to give. There were some broken men among these debtors who
+      had been in jail so long, and were so miserable and destitute of friends,
+      so dead to the world, and utterly forgotten and uncared for, that they
+      implored their jailers not to set them free, and to send them, if need
+      were, to some other place of custody. But they, refusing to comply, lest
+      they should incur the anger of the mob, turned them into the streets,
+      where they wandered up and down hardly remembering the ways untrodden by
+      their feet so long, and crying&mdash;such abject things those
+      rotten-hearted jails had made them&mdash;as they slunk off in their rags,
+      and dragged their slipshod feet along the pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even of the three hundred prisoners who had escaped from Newgate, there
+      were some&mdash;a few, but there were some&mdash;who sought their jailers
+      out and delivered themselves up: preferring imprisonment and punishment to
+      the horrors of such another night as the last. Many of the convicts, drawn
+      back to their old place of captivity by some indescribable attraction, or
+      by a desire to exult over it in its downfall and glut their revenge by
+      seeing it in ashes, actually went back in broad noon, and loitered about
+      the cells. Fifty were retaken at one time on this next day, within the
+      prison walls; but their fate did not deter others, for there they went in
+      spite of everything, and there they were taken in twos and threes, twice
+      or thrice a day, all through the week. Of the fifty just mentioned, some
+      were occupied in endeavouring to rekindle the fire; but in general they
+      seemed to have no object in view but to prowl and lounge about the old
+      place: being often found asleep in the ruins, or sitting talking there, or
+      even eating and drinking, as in a choice retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides the notices on the gates of the Fleet and the King's Bench, many
+      similar announcements were left, before one o'clock at noon, at the houses
+      of private individuals; and further, the mob proclaimed their intention of
+      seizing on the Bank, the Mint, the Arsenal at Woolwich, and the Royal
+      Palaces. The notices were seldom delivered by more than one man, who, if
+      it were at a shop, went in, and laid it, with a bloody threat perhaps,
+      upon the counter; or if it were at a private house, knocked at the door,
+      and thrust it in the servant's hand. Notwithstanding the presence of the
+      military in every quarter of the town, and the great force in the Park,
+      these messengers did their errands with impunity all through the day. So
+      did two boys who went down Holborn alone, armed with bars taken from the
+      railings of Lord Mansfield's house, and demanded money for the rioters. So
+      did a tall man on horseback who made a collection for the same purpose in
+      Fleet Street, and refused to take anything but gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rumour had now got into circulation, too, which diffused a greater dread
+      all through London, even than these publicly announced intentions of the
+      rioters, though all men knew that if they were successfully effected,
+      there must ensue a national bankruptcy and general ruin. It was said that
+      they meant to throw the gates of Bedlam open, and let all the madmen
+      loose. This suggested such dreadful images to the people's minds, and was
+      indeed an act so fraught with new and unimaginable horrors in the
+      contemplation, that it beset them more than any loss or cruelty of which
+      they could foresee the worst, and drove many sane men nearly mad
+      themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the day passed on: the prisoners moving their goods; people running to
+      and fro in the streets, carrying away their property; groups standing in
+      silence round the ruins; all business suspended; and the soldiers disposed
+      as has been already mentioned, remaining quite inactive. So the day passed
+      on, and dreaded night drew near again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, at seven o'clock in the evening, the Privy Council issued a
+      solemn proclamation that it was now necessary to employ the military, and
+      that the officers had most direct and effectual orders, by an immediate
+      exertion of their utmost force, to repress the disturbances; and warning
+      all good subjects of the King to keep themselves, their servants, and
+      apprentices, within doors that night. There was then delivered out to
+      every soldier on duty, thirty-six rounds of powder and ball; the drums
+      beat; and the whole force was under arms at sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The City authorities, stimulated by these vigorous measures, held a Common
+      Council; passed a vote thanking the military associations who had tendered
+      their aid to the civil authorities; accepted it; and placed them under the
+      direction of the two sheriffs. At the Queen's palace, a double guard, the
+      yeomen on duty, the groom-porters, and all other attendants, were
+      stationed in the passages and on the staircases at seven o'clock, with
+      strict instructions to be watchful on their posts all night; and all the
+      doors were locked. The gentlemen of the Temple, and the other Inns,
+      mounted guard within their gates, and strengthened them with the great
+      stones of the pavement, which they took up for the purpose. In Lincoln's
+      Inn, they gave up the hall and commons to the Northumberland Militia,
+      under the command of Lord Algernon Percy; in some few of the city wards,
+      the burgesses turned out, and without making a very fierce show, looked
+      brave enough. Some hundreds of stout gentlemen threw themselves, armed to
+      the teeth, into the halls of the different companies, double-locked and
+      bolted all the gates, and dared the rioters (among themselves) to come on
+      at their peril. These arrangements being all made simultaneously, or
+      nearly so, were completed by the time it got dark; and then the streets
+      were comparatively clear, and were guarded at all the great corners and
+      chief avenues by the troops: while parties of the officers rode up and
+      down in all directions, ordering chance stragglers home, and admonishing
+      the residents to keep within their houses, and, if any firing ensued, not
+      to approach the windows. More chains were drawn across such of the
+      thoroughfares as were of a nature to favour the approach of a great crowd,
+      and at each of these points a considerable force was stationed. All these
+      precautions having been taken, and it being now quite dark, those in
+      command awaited the result in some anxiety: and not without a hope that
+      such vigilant demonstrations might of themselves dishearten the populace,
+      and prevent any new outrages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in this reckoning they were cruelly mistaken, for in half an hour, or
+      less, as though the setting in of night had been their preconcerted
+      signal, the rioters having previously, in small parties, prevented the
+      lighting of the street lamps, rose like a great sea; and that in so many
+      places at once, and with such inconceivable fury, that those who had the
+      direction of the troops knew not, at first, where to turn or what to do.
+      One after another, new fires blazed up in every quarter of the town, as
+      though it were the intention of the insurgents to wrap the city in a
+      circle of flames, which, contracting by degrees, should burn the whole to
+      ashes; the crowd swarmed and roared in every street; and none but rioters
+      and soldiers being out of doors, it seemed to the latter as if all London
+      were arrayed against them, and they stood alone against the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In two hours, six-and-thirty fires were raging&mdash;six-and-thirty great
+      conflagrations: among them the Borough Clink in Tooley Street, the King's
+      Bench, the Fleet, and the New Bridewell. In almost every street, there was
+      a battle; and in every quarter the muskets of the troops were heard above
+      the shouts and tumult of the mob. The firing began in the Poultry, where
+      the chain was drawn across the road, where nearly a score of people were
+      killed on the first discharge. Their bodies having been hastily carried
+      into St Mildred's Church by the soldiers, the latter fired again, and
+      following fast upon the crowd, who began to give way when they saw the
+      execution that was done, formed across Cheapside, and charged them at the
+      point of the bayonet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The streets were now a dreadful spectacle. The shouts of the rabble, the
+      shrieks of women, the cries of the wounded, and the constant firing,
+      formed a deafening and an awful accompaniment to the sights which every
+      corner presented. Wherever the road was obstructed by the chains, there
+      the fighting and the loss of life were greatest; but there was hot work
+      and bloodshed in almost every leading thoroughfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Holborn Bridge, and on Holborn Hill, the confusion was greater than in
+      any other part; for the crowd that poured out of the city in two great
+      streams, one by Ludgate Hill, and one by Newgate Street, united at that
+      spot, and formed a mass so dense, that at every volley the people seemed
+      to fall in heaps. At this place a large detachment of soldiery were
+      posted, who fired, now up Fleet Market, now up Holborn, now up Snow Hill&mdash;constantly
+      raking the streets in each direction. At this place too, several large
+      fires were burning, so that all the terrors of that terrible night seemed
+      to be concentrated in one spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Full twenty times, the rioters, headed by one man who wielded an axe in
+      his right hand, and bestrode a brewer's horse of great size and strength,
+      caparisoned with fetters taken out of Newgate, which clanked and jingled
+      as he went, made an attempt to force a passage at this point, and fire the
+      vintner's house. Full twenty times they were repulsed with loss of life,
+      and still came back again; and though the fellow at their head was marked
+      and singled out by all, and was a conspicuous object as the only rioter on
+      horseback, not a man could hit him. So surely as the smoke cleared away,
+      so surely there was he; calling hoarsely to his companions, brandishing
+      his axe above his head, and dashing on as though he bore a charmed life,
+      and was proof against ball and powder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This man was Hugh; and in every part of the riot, he was seen. He headed
+      two attacks upon the Bank, helped to break open the Toll-houses on
+      Blackfriars Bridge, and cast the money into the street: fired two of the
+      prisons with his own hand: was here, and there, and everywhere&mdash;always
+      foremost&mdash;always active&mdash;striking at the soldiers, cheering on
+      the crowd, making his horse's iron music heard through all the yell and
+      uproar: but never hurt or stopped. Turn him at one place, and he made a
+      new struggle in another; force him to retreat at this point, and he
+      advanced on that, directly. Driven from Holborn for the twentieth time, he
+      rode at the head of a great crowd straight upon Saint Paul's, attacked a
+      guard of soldiers who kept watch over a body of prisoners within the iron
+      railings, forced them to retreat, rescued the men they had in custody, and
+      with this accession to his party, came back again, mad with liquor and
+      excitement, and hallooing them on like a demon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would have been no easy task for the most careful rider to sit a horse
+      in the midst of such a throng and tumult; but though this madman rolled
+      upon his back (he had no saddle) like a boat upon the sea, he never for an
+      instant lost his seat, or failed to guide him where he would. Through the
+      very thickest of the press, over dead bodies and burning fragments, now on
+      the pavement, now in the road, now riding up a flight of steps to make
+      himself the more conspicuous to his party, and now forcing a passage
+      through a mass of human beings, so closely squeezed together that it
+      seemed as if the edge of a knife would scarcely part them,&mdash;on he
+      went, as though he could surmount all obstacles by the mere exercise of
+      his will. And perhaps his not being shot was in some degree attributable
+      to this very circumstance; for his extreme audacity, and the conviction
+      that he must be one of those to whom the proclamation referred, inspired
+      the soldiers with a desire to take him alive, and diverted many an aim
+      which otherwise might have been more near the mark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vintner and Mr Haredale, unable to sit quietly listening to the noise
+      without seeing what went on, had climbed to the roof of the house, and
+      hiding behind a stack of chimneys, were looking cautiously down into the
+      street, almost hoping that after so many repulses the rioters would be
+      foiled, when a great shout proclaimed that a parry were coming round the
+      other way; and the dismal jingling of those accursed fetters warned them
+      next moment that they too were led by Hugh. The soldiers had advanced into
+      Fleet Market and were dispersing the people there; so that they came on
+      with hardly any check, and were soon before the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All's over now,' said the vintner. 'Fifty thousand pounds will be
+      scattered in a minute. We must save ourselves. We can do no more, and
+      shall have reason to be thankful if we do as much.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their first impulse was, to clamber along the roofs of the houses, and,
+      knocking at some garret window for admission, pass down that way into the
+      street, and so escape. But another fierce cry from below, and a general
+      upturning of the faces of the crowd, apprised them that they were
+      discovered, and even that Mr Haredale was recognised; for Hugh, seeing him
+      plainly in the bright glare of the fire, which in that part made it as
+      light as day, called to him by his name, and swore to have his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Leave me here,' said Mr Haredale, 'and in Heaven's name, my good friend,
+      save yourself! Come on!' he muttered, as he turned towards Hugh and faced
+      him without any further effort at concealment: 'This roof is high, and if
+      we close, we will die together!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Madness,' said the honest vintner, pulling him back, 'sheer madness. Hear
+      reason, sir. My good sir, hear reason. I could never make myself heard by
+      knocking at a window now; and even if I could, no one would be bold enough
+      to connive at my escape. Through the cellars, there's a kind of passage
+      into the back street by which we roll casks in and out. We shall have time
+      to get down there before they can force an entry. Do not delay an instant,
+      but come with me&mdash;for both our sakes&mdash;for mine&mdash;my dear
+      good sir!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, and drew Mr Haredale back, they had both a glimpse of the
+      street. It was but a glimpse, but it showed them the crowd, gathering and
+      clustering round the house: some of the armed men pressing to the front to
+      break down the doors and windows, some bringing brands from the nearest
+      fire, some with lifted faces following their course upon the roof and
+      pointing them out to their companions: all raging and roaring like the
+      flames they lighted up. They saw some men thirsting for the treasures of
+      strong liquor which they knew were stored within; they saw others, who had
+      been wounded, sinking down into the opposite doorways and dying, solitary
+      wretches, in the midst of all the vast assemblage; here a frightened woman
+      trying to escape; and there a lost child; and there a drunken ruffian,
+      unconscious of the death-wound on his head, raving and fighting to the
+      last. All these things, and even such trivial incidents as a man with his
+      hat off, or turning round, or stooping down, or shaking hands with
+      another, they marked distinctly; yet in a glance so brief, that, in the
+      act of stepping back, they lost the whole, and saw but the pale faces of
+      each other, and the red sky above them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale yielded to the entreaties of his companion&mdash;more because
+      he was resolved to defend him, than for any thought he had of his own
+      life, or any care he entertained for his own safety&mdash;and quickly
+      re-entering the house, they descended the stairs together. Loud blows were
+      thundering on the shutters, crowbars were already thrust beneath the door,
+      the glass fell from the sashes, a deep light shone through every crevice,
+      and they heard the voices of the foremost in the crowd so close to every
+      chink and keyhole, that they seemed to be hoarsely whispering their
+      threats into their very ears. They had but a moment reached the bottom of
+      the cellar-steps and shut the door behind them, when the mob broke in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vaults were profoundly dark, and having no torch or candle&mdash;for
+      they had been afraid to carry one, lest it should betray their place of
+      refuge&mdash;they were obliged to grope with their hands. But they were
+      not long without light, for they had not gone far when they heard the
+      crowd forcing the door; and, looking back among the low-arched passages,
+      could see them in the distance, hurrying to and fro with flashing links,
+      broaching the casks, staving the great vats, turning off upon the right
+      hand and the left, into the different cellars, and lying down to drink at
+      the channels of strong spirits which were already flowing on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They hurried on, not the less quickly for this; and had reached the only
+      vault which lay between them and the passage out, when suddenly, from the
+      direction in which they were going, a strong light gleamed upon their
+      faces; and before they could slip aside, or turn back, or hide themselves,
+      two men (one bearing a torch) came upon them, and cried in an astonished
+      whisper, 'Here they are!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same instant they pulled off what they wore upon their heads. Mr
+      Haredale saw before him Edward Chester, and then saw, when the vintner
+      gasped his name, Joe Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ay, the same Joe, though with an arm the less, who used to make the
+      quarterly journey on the grey mare to pay the bill to the purple-faced
+      vintner; and that very same purple-faced vintner, formerly of Thames
+      Street, now looked him in the face, and challenged him by name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Give me your hand,' said Joe softly, taking it whether the astonished
+      vintner would or no. 'Don't fear to shake it; it's a friendly one and a
+      hearty one, though it has no fellow. Why, how well you look and how bluff
+      you are! And you&mdash;God bless you, sir. Take heart, take heart. We'll
+      find them. Be of good cheer; we have not been idle.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something so honest and frank in Joe's speech, that Mr Haredale
+      put his hand in his involuntarily, though their meeting was suspicious
+      enough. But his glance at Edward Chester, and that gentleman's keeping
+      aloof, were not lost upon Joe, who said bluntly, glancing at Edward while
+      he spoke:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Times are changed, Mr Haredale, and times have come when we ought to know
+      friends from enemies, and make no confusion of names. Let me tell you that
+      but for this gentleman, you would most likely have been dead by this time,
+      or badly wounded at the best.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What do you say?' cried Mr Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say,' said Joe, 'first, that it was a bold thing to be in the crowd at
+      all disguised as one of them; though I won't say much about that, on
+      second thoughts, for that's my case too. Secondly, that it was a brave and
+      glorious action&mdash;that's what I call it&mdash;to strike that fellow
+      off his horse before their eyes!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What fellow! Whose eyes!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What fellow, sir!' cried Joe: 'a fellow who has no goodwill to you, and
+      who has the daring and devilry in him of twenty fellows. I know him of
+      old. Once in the house, HE would have found you, here or anywhere. The
+      rest owe you no particular grudge, and, unless they see you, will only
+      think of drinking themselves dead. But we lose time. Are you ready?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Quite,' said Edward. 'Put out the torch, Joe, and go on. And be silent,
+      there's a good fellow.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Silent or not silent,' murmured Joe, as he dropped the flaring link upon
+      the ground, crushed it with his foot, and gave his hand to Mr Haredale,
+      'it was a brave and glorious action;&mdash;no man can alter that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both Mr Haredale and the worthy vintner were too amazed and too much
+      hurried to ask any further questions, so followed their conductors in
+      silence. It seemed, from a short whispering which presently ensued between
+      them and the vintner relative to the best way of escape, that they had
+      entered by the back-door, with the connivance of John Grueby, who watched
+      outside with the key in his pocket, and whom they had taken into their
+      confidence. A party of the crowd coming up that way, just as they entered,
+      John had double-locked the door again, and made off for the soldiers, so
+      that means of retreat was cut off from under them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, as the front-door had been forced, and this minor crowd, being
+      anxious to get at the liquor, had no fancy for losing time in breaking
+      down another, but had gone round and got in from Holborn with the rest,
+      the narrow lane in the rear was quite free of people. So, when they had
+      crawled through the passage indicated by the vintner (which was a mere
+      shelving-trap for the admission of casks), and had managed with some
+      difficulty to unchain and raise the door at the upper end, they emerged
+      into the street without being observed or interrupted. Joe still holding
+      Mr Haredale tight, and Edward taking the same care of the vintner, they
+      hurried through the streets at a rapid pace; occasionally standing aside
+      to let some fugitives go by, or to keep out of the way of the soldiers who
+      followed them, and whose questions, when they halted to put any, were
+      speedily stopped by one whispered word from Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0068" id="link2HCH0068">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 68
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While Newgate was burning on the previous night, Barnaby and his father,
+      having been passed among the crowd from hand to hand, stood in Smithfield,
+      on the outskirts of the mob, gazing at the flames like men who had been
+      suddenly roused from sleep. Some moments elapsed before they could
+      distinctly remember where they were, or how they got there; or recollected
+      that while they were standing idle and listless spectators of the fire,
+      they had tools in their hands which had been hurriedly given them that
+      they might free themselves from their fetters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby, heavily ironed as he was, if he had obeyed his first impulse, or
+      if he had been alone, would have made his way back to the side of Hugh,
+      who to his clouded intellect now shone forth with the new lustre of being
+      his preserver and truest friend. But his father's terror of remaining in
+      the streets, communicated itself to him when he comprehended the full
+      extent of his fears, and impressed him with the same eagerness to fly to a
+      place of safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a corner of the market among the pens for cattle, Barnaby knelt down,
+      and pausing every now and then to pass his hand over his father's face, or
+      look up to him with a smile, knocked off his irons. When he had seen him
+      spring, a free man, to his feet, and had given vent to the transport of
+      delight which the sight awakened, he went to work upon his own, which soon
+      fell rattling down upon the ground, and left his limbs unfettered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gliding away together when this task was accomplished, and passing several
+      groups of men, each gathered round a stooping figure to hide him from
+      those who passed, but unable to repress the clanking sound of hammers,
+      which told that they too were busy at the same work,&mdash;the two
+      fugitives made towards Clerkenwell, and passing thence to Islington, as
+      the nearest point of egress, were quickly in the fields. After wandering
+      about for a long time, they found in a pasture near Finchley a poor shed,
+      with walls of mud, and roof of grass and brambles, built for some cowherd,
+      but now deserted. Here, they lay down for the rest of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They wandered to and fro when it was day, and once Barnaby went off alone
+      to a cluster of little cottages two or three miles away, to purchase some
+      bread and milk. But finding no better shelter, they returned to the same
+      place, and lay down again to wait for night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Heaven alone can tell, with what vague hopes of duty, and affection; with
+      what strange promptings of nature, intelligible to him as to a man of
+      radiant mind and most enlarged capacity; with what dim memories of
+      children he had played with when a child himself, who had prattled of
+      their fathers, and of loving them, and being loved; with how many
+      half-remembered, dreamy associations of his mother's grief and tears and
+      widowhood; he watched and tended this man. But that a vague and shadowy
+      crowd of such ideas came slowly on him; that they taught him to be sorry
+      when he looked upon his haggard face, that they overflowed his eyes when
+      he stooped to kiss him, that they kept him waking in a tearful gladness,
+      shading him from the sun, fanning him with leaves, soothing him when he
+      started in his sleep&mdash;ah! what a troubled sleep it was&mdash;and
+      wondering when SHE would come to join them and be happy, is the truth. He
+      sat beside him all that day; listening for her footsteps in every breath
+      of air, looking for her shadow on the gently-waving grass, twining the
+      hedge flowers for her pleasure when she came, and his when he awoke; and
+      stooping down from time to time to listen to his mutterings, and wonder
+      why he was so restless in that quiet place. The sun went down, and night
+      came on, and he was still quite tranquil; busied with these thoughts, as
+      if there were no other people in the world, and the dull cloud of smoke
+      hanging on the immense city in the distance, hid no vices, no crimes, no
+      life or death, or cause of disquiet&mdash;nothing but clear air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the hour had now come when he must go alone to find out the blind man
+      (a task that filled him with delight) and bring him to that place; taking
+      especial care that he was not watched or followed on his way back. He
+      listened to the directions he must observe, repeated them again and again,
+      and after twice or thrice returning to surprise his father with a
+      light-hearted laugh, went forth, at last, upon his errand: leaving Grip,
+      whom he had carried from the jail in his arms, to his care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fleet of foot, and anxious to return, he sped swiftly on towards the city,
+      but could not reach it before the fires began, and made the night angry
+      with their dismal lustre. When he entered the town&mdash;it might be that
+      he was changed by going there without his late companions, and on no
+      violent errand; or by the beautiful solitude in which he had passed the
+      day, or by the thoughts that had come upon him,&mdash;but it seemed
+      peopled by a legion of devils. This flight and pursuit, this cruel burning
+      and destroying, these dreadful cries and stunning noises, were THEY the
+      good lord's noble cause!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though almost stupefied by the bewildering scene, still be found the blind
+      man's house. It was shut up and tenantless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He waited for a long while, but no one came. At last he withdrew; and as
+      he knew by this time that the soldiers were firing, and many people must
+      have been killed, he went down into Holborn, where he heard the great
+      crowd was, to try if he could find Hugh, and persuade him to avoid the
+      danger, and return with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he had been stunned and shocked before, his horror was increased a
+      thousandfold when he got into this vortex of the riot, and not being an
+      actor in the terrible spectacle, had it all before his eyes. But there, in
+      the midst, towering above them all, close before the house they were
+      attacking now, was Hugh on horseback, calling to the rest!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sickened by the sights surrounding him on every side, and by the heat and
+      roar, and crash, he forced his way among the crowd (where many recognised
+      him, and with shouts pressed back to let him pass), and in time was nearly
+      up with Hugh, who was savagely threatening some one, but whom or what he
+      said, he could not, in the great confusion, understand. At that moment the
+      crowd forced their way into the house, and Hugh&mdash;it was impossible to
+      see by what means, in such a concourse&mdash;fell headlong down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby was beside him when he staggered to his feet. It was well he made
+      him hear his voice, or Hugh, with his uplifted axe, would have cleft his
+      skull in twain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Barnaby&mdash;you! Whose hand was that, that struck me down?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not mine.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Whose!&mdash;I say, whose!' he cried, reeling back, and looking wildly
+      round. 'What are you doing? Where is he? Show me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are hurt,' said Barnaby&mdash;as indeed he was, in the head, both by
+      the blow he had received, and by his horse's hoof. 'Come away with me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, he took the horse's bridle in his hand, turned him, and
+      dragged Hugh several paces. This brought them out of the crowd, which was
+      pouring from the street into the vintner's cellars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Where's&mdash;where's Dennis?' said Hugh, coming to a stop, and checking
+      Barnaby with his strong arm. 'Where has he been all day? What did he mean
+      by leaving me as he did, in the jail, last night? Tell me, you&mdash;d'ye
+      hear!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a flourish of his dangerous weapon, he fell down upon the ground like
+      a log. After a minute, though already frantic with drinking and with the
+      wound in his head, he crawled to a stream of burning spirit which was
+      pouring down the kennel, and began to drink at it as if it were a brook of
+      water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby drew him away, and forced him to rise. Though he could neither
+      stand nor walk, he involuntarily staggered to his horse, climbed upon his
+      back, and clung there. After vainly attempting to divest the animal of his
+      clanking trappings, Barnaby sprung up behind him, snatched the bridle,
+      turned into Leather Lane, which was close at hand, and urged the
+      frightened horse into a heavy trot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked back, once, before he left the street; and looked upon a sight
+      not easily to be erased, even from his remembrance, so long as he had
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vintner's house with a half-a-dozen others near at hand, was one
+      great, glowing blaze. All night, no one had essayed to quench the flames,
+      or stop their progress; but now a body of soldiers were actively engaged
+      in pulling down two old wooden houses, which were every moment in danger
+      of taking fire, and which could scarcely fail, if they were left to burn,
+      to extend the conflagration immensely. The tumbling down of nodding walls
+      and heavy blocks of wood, the hooting and the execrations of the crowd,
+      the distant firing of other military detachments, the distracted looks and
+      cries of those whose habitations were in danger, the hurrying to and fro
+      of frightened people with their goods; the reflections in every quarter of
+      the sky, of deep, red, soaring flames, as though the last day had come and
+      the whole universe were burning; the dust, and smoke, and drift of fiery
+      particles, scorching and kindling all it fell upon; the hot unwholesome
+      vapour, the blight on everything; the stars, and moon, and very sky,
+      obliterated;&mdash;made up such a sum of dreariness and ruin, that it
+      seemed as if the face of Heaven were blotted out, and night, in its rest
+      and quiet, and softened light, never could look upon the earth again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was a worse spectacle than this&mdash;worse by far than fire and
+      smoke, or even the rabble's unappeasable and maniac rage. The gutters of
+      the street, and every crack and fissure in the stones, ran with scorching
+      spirit, which being dammed up by busy hands, overflowed the road and
+      pavement, and formed a great pool, into which the people dropped down dead
+      by dozens. They lay in heaps all round this fearful pond, husbands and
+      wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, women with children in
+      their arms and babies at their breasts, and drank until they died. While
+      some stooped with their lips to the brink and never raised their heads
+      again, others sprang up from their fiery draught, and danced, half in a
+      mad triumph, and half in the agony of suffocation, until they fell, and
+      steeped their corpses in the liquor that had killed them. Nor was even
+      this the worst or most appalling kind of death that happened on this fatal
+      night. From the burning cellars, where they drank out of hats, pails,
+      buckets, tubs, and shoes, some men were drawn, alive, but all alight from
+      head to foot; who, in their unendurable anguish and suffering, making for
+      anything that had the look of water, rolled, hissing, in this hideous
+      lake, and splashed up liquid fire which lapped in all it met with as it
+      ran along the surface, and neither spared the living nor the dead. On this
+      last night of the great riots&mdash;for the last night it was&mdash;the
+      wretched victims of a senseless outcry, became themselves the dust and
+      ashes of the flames they had kindled, and strewed the public streets of
+      London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all he saw in this last glance fixed indelibly upon his mind, Barnaby
+      hurried from the city which enclosed such horrors; and holding down his
+      head that he might not even see the glare of the fires upon the quiet
+      landscape, was soon in the still country roads.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0299m.jpg" alt="0299m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0299.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      He stopped at about half-a-mile from the shed where his father lay, and
+      with some difficulty making Hugh sensible that he must dismount, sunk the
+      horse's furniture in a pool of stagnant water, and turned the animal
+      loose. That done, he supported his companion as well as he could, and led
+      him slowly forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0069" id="link2HCH0069">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 69
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was the dead of night, and very dark, when Barnaby, with his stumbling
+      comrade, approached the place where he had left his father; but he could
+      see him stealing away into the gloom, distrustful even of him, and rapidly
+      retreating. After calling to him twice or thrice that there was nothing to
+      fear, but without effect, he suffered Hugh to sink upon the ground, and
+      followed to bring him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to creep away, until Barnaby was close upon him; then turned,
+      and said in a terrible, though suppressed voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let me go. Do not lay hands upon me. You have told her; and you and she
+      together have betrayed me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby looked at him, in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have seen your mother!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' cried Barnaby, eagerly. 'Not for a long time&mdash;longer than I can
+      tell. A whole year, I think. Is she here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His father looked upon him steadfastly for a few moments, and then said&mdash;drawing
+      nearer to him as he spoke, for, seeing his face, and hearing his words, it
+      was impossible to doubt his truth:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What man is that?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hugh&mdash;Hugh. Only Hugh. You know him. HE will not harm you. Why,
+      you're afraid of Hugh! Ha ha ha! Afraid of gruff, old, noisy Hugh!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What man is he, I ask you,' he rejoined so fiercely, that Barnaby stopped
+      in his laugh, and shrinking back, surveyed him with a look of terrified
+      amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, how stern you are! You make me fear you, though you are my father.
+      Why do you speak to me so?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'I want,' he answered, putting away the hand which his son, with a
+      timid desire to propitiate him, laid upon his sleeve,&mdash;'I want an
+      answer, and you give me only jeers and questions. Who have you brought
+      with you to this hiding-place, poor fool; and where is the blind man?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know where. His house was close shut. I waited, but no person
+      came; that was no fault of mine. This is Hugh&mdash;brave Hugh, who broke
+      into that ugly jail, and set us free. Aha! You like him now, do you? You
+      like him now!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why does he lie upon the ground?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has had a fall, and has been drinking. The fields and trees go round,
+      and round, and round with him, and the ground heaves under his feet. You
+      know him? You remember? See!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had by this time returned to where he lay, and both stooped over him
+      to look into his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I recollect the man,' his father murmured. 'Why did you bring him here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because he would have been killed if I had left him over yonder. They
+      were firing guns and shedding blood. Does the sight of blood turn you
+      sick, father? I see it does, by your face. That's like me&mdash;What are
+      you looking at?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At nothing!' said the murderer softly, as he started back a pace or two,
+      and gazed with sunken jaw and staring eyes above his son's head. 'At
+      nothing!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained in the same attitude and with the same expression on his face
+      for a minute or more; then glanced slowly round as if he had lost
+      something; and went shivering back, towards the shed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Shall I bring him in, father?' asked Barnaby, who had looked on,
+      wondering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He only answered with a suppressed groan, and lying down upon the ground,
+      wrapped his cloak about his head, and shrunk into the darkest corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding that nothing would rouse Hugh now, or make him sensible for a
+      moment, Barnaby dragged him along the grass, and laid him on a little heap
+      of refuse hay and straw which had been his own bed; first having brought
+      some water from a running stream hard by, and washed his wound, and laved
+      his hands and face. Then he lay down himself, between the two, to pass the
+      night; and looking at the stars, fell fast asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Awakened early in the morning, by the sunshine and the songs of birds, and
+      hum of insects, he left them sleeping in the hut, and walked into the
+      sweet and pleasant air. But he felt that on his jaded senses, oppressed
+      and burdened with the dreadful scenes of last night, and many nights
+      before, all the beauties of opening day, which he had so often tasted, and
+      in which he had had such deep delight, fell heavily. He thought of the
+      blithe mornings when he and the dogs went bounding on together through the
+      woods and fields; and the recollection filled his eyes with tears. He had
+      no consciousness, God help him, of having done wrong, nor had he any new
+      perception of the merits of the cause in which he had been engaged, or
+      those of the men who advocated it; but he was full of cares now, and
+      regrets, and dismal recollections, and wishes (quite unknown to him
+      before) that this or that event had never happened, and that the sorrow
+      and suffering of so many people had been spared. And now he began to think
+      how happy they would be&mdash;his father, mother, he, and Hugh&mdash;if
+      they rambled away together, and lived in some lonely place, where there
+      were none of these troubles; and that perhaps the blind man, who had
+      talked so wisely about gold, and told him of the great secrets he knew,
+      could teach them how to live without being pinched by want. As this
+      occurred to him, he was the more sorry that he had not seen him last
+      night; and he was still brooding over this regret, when his father came,
+      and touched him on the shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' cried Barnaby, starting from his fit of thoughtfulness. 'Is it only
+      you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who should it be?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I almost thought,' he answered, 'it was the blind man. I must have some
+      talk with him, father.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And so must I, for without seeing him, I don't know where to fly or what
+      to do, and lingering here, is death. You must go to him again, and bring
+      him here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Must I!' cried Barnaby, delighted; 'that's brave, father. That's what I
+      want to do.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But you must bring only him, and none other. And though you wait at his
+      door a whole day and night, still you must wait, and not come back without
+      him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't you fear that,' he cried gaily. 'He shall come, he shall come.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Trim off these gewgaws,' said his father, plucking the scraps of ribbon
+      and the feathers from his hat, 'and over your own dress wear my cloak.
+      Take heed how you go, and they will be too busy in the streets to notice
+      you. Of your coming back you need take no account, for he'll manage that,
+      safely.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To be sure!' said Barnaby. 'To be sure he will! A wise man, father, and
+      one who can teach us to be rich. Oh! I know him, I know him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was speedily dressed, and as well disguised as he could be. With a
+      lighter heart he then set off upon his second journey, leaving Hugh, who
+      was still in a drunken stupor, stretched upon the ground within the shed,
+      and his father walking to and fro before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The murderer, full of anxious thoughts, looked after him, and paced up and
+      down, disquieted by every breath of air that whispered among the boughs,
+      and by every light shadow thrown by the passing clouds upon the daisied
+      ground. He was anxious for his safe return, and yet, though his own life
+      and safety hung upon it, felt a relief while he was gone. In the intense
+      selfishness which the constant presence before him of his great crimes,
+      and their consequences here and hereafter, engendered, every thought of
+      Barnaby, as his son, was swallowed up and lost. Still, his presence was a
+      torture and reproach; in his wild eyes, there were terrible images of that
+      guilty night; with his unearthly aspect, and his half-formed mind, he
+      seemed to the murderer a creature who had sprung into existence from his
+      victim's blood. He could not bear his look, his voice, his touch; and yet
+      he was forced, by his own desperate condition and his only hope of
+      cheating the gibbet, to have him by his side, and to know that he was
+      inseparable from his single chance of escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked to and fro, with little rest, all day, revolving these things in
+      his mind; and still Hugh lay, unconscious, in the shed. At length, when
+      the sun was setting, Barnaby returned, leading the blind man, and talking
+      earnestly to him as they came along together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The murderer advanced to meet them, and bidding his son go on and speak to
+      Hugh, who had just then staggered to his feet, took his place at the blind
+      man's elbow, and slowly followed, towards the shed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why did you send HIM?' said Stagg. 'Don't you know it was the way to have
+      him lost, as soon as found?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Would you have had me come myself?' returned the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Humph! Perhaps not. I was before the jail on Tuesday night, but missed
+      you in the crowd. I was out last night, too. There was good work last
+      night&mdash;gay work&mdash;profitable work'&mdash;he added, rattling the
+      money in his pockets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Have you&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'Seen your good lady? Yes.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you mean to tell me more, or not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll tell you all,' returned the blind man, with a laugh. 'Excuse me&mdash;but
+      I love to see you so impatient. There's energy in it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Does she consent to say the word that may save me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' returned the blind man emphatically, as he turned his face towards
+      him. 'No. Thus it is. She has been at death's door since she lost her
+      darling&mdash;has been insensible, and I know not what. I tracked her to a
+      hospital, and presented myself (with your leave) at her bedside. Our talk
+      was not a long one, for she was weak, and there being people near I was
+      not quite easy. But I told her all that you and I agreed upon, and pointed
+      out the young gentleman's position, in strong terms. She tried to soften
+      me, but that, of course (as I told her), was lost time. She cried and
+      moaned, you may be sure; all women do. Then, of a sudden, she found her
+      voice and strength, and said that Heaven would help her and her innocent
+      son; and that to Heaven she appealed against us&mdash;which she did; in
+      really very pretty language, I assure you. I advised her, as a friend, not
+      to count too much on assistance from any such distant quarter&mdash;recommended
+      her to think of it&mdash;told her where I lived&mdash;said I knew she
+      would send to me before noon, next day&mdash;and left her, either in a
+      faint or shamming.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had concluded this narration, during which he had made several
+      pauses, for the convenience of cracking and eating nuts, of which he
+      seemed to have a pocketful, the blind man pulled a flask from his pocket,
+      took a draught himself, and offered it to his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You won't, won't you?' he said, feeling that he pushed it from him.
+      'Well! Then the gallant gentleman who's lodging with you, will. Hallo,
+      bully!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Death!' said the other, holding him back. 'Will you tell me what I am to
+      do!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do! Nothing easier. Make a moonlight flitting in two hours' time with the
+      young gentleman (he's quite ready to go; I have been giving him good
+      advice as we came along), and get as far from London as you can. Let me
+      know where you are, and leave the rest to me. She MUST come round; she
+      can't hold out long; and as to the chances of your being retaken in the
+      meanwhile, why it wasn't one man who got out of Newgate, but three
+      hundred. Think of that, for your comfort.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We must support life. How?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How!' repeated the blind man. 'By eating and drinking. And how get meat
+      and drink, but by paying for it! Money!' he cried, slapping his pocket.
+      'Is money the word? Why, the streets have been running money. Devil send
+      that the sport's not over yet, for these are jolly times; golden, rare,
+      roaring, scrambling times. Hallo, bully! Hallo! Hallo! Drink, bully,
+      drink. Where are ye there! Hallo!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With such vociferations, and with a boisterous manner which bespoke his
+      perfect abandonment to the general licence and disorder, he groped his way
+      towards the shed, where Hugh and Barnaby were sitting on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Put it about!' he cried, handing his flask to Hugh. 'The kennels run with
+      wine and gold. Guineas and strong water flow from the very pumps. About
+      with it, don't spare it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Exhausted, unwashed, unshorn, begrimed with smoke and dust, his hair
+      clotted with blood, his voice quite gone, so that he spoke in whispers;
+      his skin parched up by fever, his whole body bruised and cut, and beaten
+      about, Hugh still took the flask, and raised it to his lips. He was in the
+      act of drinking, when the front of the shed was suddenly darkened, and
+      Dennis stood before them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No offence, no offence,' said that personage in a conciliatory tone, as
+      Hugh stopped in his draught, and eyed him, with no pleasant look, from
+      head to foot. 'No offence, brother. Barnaby here too, eh? How are you,
+      Barnaby? And two other gentlemen! Your humble servant, gentlemen. No
+      offence to YOU either, I hope. Eh, brothers?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding that he spoke in this very friendly and confident manner,
+      he seemed to have considerable hesitation about entering, and remained
+      outside the roof. He was rather better dressed than usual: wearing the
+      same suit of threadbare black, it is true, but having round his neck an
+      unwholesome-looking cravat of a yellowish white; and, on his hands, great
+      leather gloves, such as a gardener might wear in following his trade. His
+      shoes were newly greased, and ornamented with a pair of rusty iron
+      buckles; the packthread at his knees had been renewed; and where he wanted
+      buttons, he wore pins. Altogether, he had something the look of a
+      tipstaff, or a bailiff's follower, desperately faded, but who had a notion
+      of keeping up the appearance of a professional character, and making the
+      best of the worst means.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're very snug here,' said Mr Dennis, pulling out a mouldy
+      pocket-handkerchief, which looked like a decomposed halter, and wiping his
+      forehead in a nervous manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not snug enough to prevent your finding us, it seems,' Hugh answered,
+      sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why I'll tell you what, brother,' said Dennis, with a friendly smile,
+      'when you don't want me to know which way you're riding, you must wear
+      another sort of bells on your horse. Ah! I know the sound of them you wore
+      last night, and have got quick ears for 'em; that's the truth. Well, but
+      how are you, brother?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had by this time approached, and now ventured to sit down by him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'How am I?' answered Hugh. 'Where were you yesterday? Where did you go
+      when you left me in the jail? Why did you leave me? And what did you mean
+      by rolling your eyes and shaking your fist at me, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shake my fist!&mdash;at you, brother!' said Dennis, gently checking
+      Hugh's uplifted hand, which looked threatening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your stick, then; it's all one.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lord love you, brother, I meant nothing. You don't understand me by half.
+      I shouldn't wonder now,' he added, in the tone of a desponding and an
+      injured man, 'but you thought, because I wanted them chaps left in the
+      prison, that I was a going to desert the banners?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh told him, with an oath, that he had thought so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well!' said Mr Dennis, mournfully, 'if you an't enough to make a man
+      mistrust his feller-creeturs, I don't know what is. Desert the banners!
+      Me! Ned Dennis, as was so christened by his own father!&mdash;Is this axe
+      your'n, brother?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, it's mine,' said Hugh, in the same sullen manner as before; 'it might
+      have hurt you, if you had come in its way once or twice last night. Put it
+      down.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Might have hurt me!' said Mr Dennis, still keeping it in his hand, and
+      feeling the edge with an air of abstraction. 'Might have hurt me! and me
+      exerting myself all the time to the wery best advantage. Here's a world!
+      And you're not a-going to ask me to take a sup out of that 'ere bottle,
+      eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh passed it towards him. As he raised it to his lips, Barnaby jumped
+      up, and motioning them to be silent, looked eagerly out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What's the matter, Barnaby?' said Dennis, glancing at Hugh and dropping
+      the flask, but still holding the axe in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush!' he answered softly. 'What do I see glittering behind the hedge?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What!' cried the hangman, raising his voice to its highest pitch, and
+      laying hold of him and Hugh. 'Not SOLDIERS, surely!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That moment, the shed was filled with armed men; and a body of horse,
+      galloping into the field, drew up before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There!' said Dennis, who remained untouched among them when they had
+      seized their prisoners; 'it's them two young ones, gentlemen, that the
+      proclamation puts a price on. This other's an escaped felon.&mdash;I'm
+      sorry for it, brother,' he added, in a tone of resignation, addressing
+      himself to Hugh; 'but you've brought it on yourself; you forced me to do
+      it; you wouldn't respect the soundest constitootional principles, you
+      know; you went and wiolated the wery framework of society. I had sooner
+      have given away a trifle in charity than done this, I would upon my soul.&mdash;If
+      you'll keep fast hold on 'em, gentlemen, I think I can make a shift to tie
+      'em better than you can.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this operation was postponed for a few moments by a new occurrence.
+      The blind man, whose ears were quicker than most people's sight, had been
+      alarmed, before Barnaby, by a rustling in the bushes, under cover of which
+      the soldiers had advanced. He retreated instantly&mdash;had hidden
+      somewhere for a minute&mdash;and probably in his confusion mistaking the
+      point at which he had emerged, was now seen running across the open
+      meadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An officer cried directly that he had helped to plunder a house last
+      night. He was loudly called on, to surrender. He ran the harder, and in a
+      few seconds would have been out of gunshot. The word was given, and the
+      men fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a breathless pause and a profound silence, during which all eyes
+      were fixed upon him. He had been seen to start at the discharge, as if the
+      report had frightened him. But he neither stopped nor slackened his pace
+      in the least, and ran on full forty yards further. Then, without one reel
+      or stagger, or sign of faintness, or quivering of any limb, he dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of them hurried up to where he lay;&mdash;the hangman with them.
+      Everything had passed so quickly, that the smoke had not yet scattered,
+      but curled slowly off in a little cloud, which seemed like the dead man's
+      spirit moving solemnly away. There were a few drops of blood upon the
+      grass&mdash;more, when they turned him over&mdash;that was all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Look here! Look here!' said the hangman, stooping one knee beside the
+      body, and gazing up with a disconsolate face at the officer and men.
+      'Here's a pretty sight!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stand out of the way,' replied the officer. 'Serjeant! see what he had
+      about him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man turned his pockets out upon the grass, and counted, besides some
+      foreign coins and two rings, five-and-forty guineas in gold. These were
+      bundled up in a handkerchief and carried away; the body remained there for
+      the present, but six men and the serjeant were left to take it to the
+      nearest public-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now then, if you're going,' said the serjeant, clapping Dennis on the
+      back, and pointing after the officer who was walking towards the shed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Mr Dennis only replied, 'Don't talk to me!' and then repeated
+      what he had said before, namely, 'Here's a pretty sight!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's not one that you care for much, I should think,' observed the
+      serjeant coolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, who,' said Mr Dennis rising, 'should care for it, if I don't?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! I didn't know you was so tender-hearted,' said the serjeant. 'That's
+      all!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tender-hearted!' echoed Dennis. 'Tender-hearted! Look at this man. Do you
+      call THIS constitootional? Do you see him shot through and through instead
+      of being worked off like a Briton? Damme, if I know which party to side
+      with. You're as bad as the other. What's to become of the country if the
+      military power's to go a superseding the ciwilians in this way? Where's
+      this poor feller-creetur's rights as a citizen, that he didn't have ME in
+      his last moments! I was here. I was willing. I was ready. These are nice
+      times, brother, to have the dead crying out against us in this way, and
+      sleep comfortably in our beds arterwards; wery nice!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether he derived any material consolation from binding the prisoners, is
+      uncertain; most probably he did. At all events his being summoned to that
+      work, diverted him, for the time, from these painful reflections, and gave
+      his thoughts a more congenial occupation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were not all three carried off together, but in two parties; Barnaby
+      and his father, going by one road in the centre of a body of foot; and
+      Hugh, fast bound upon a horse, and strongly guarded by a troop of cavalry,
+      being taken by another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had no opportunity for the least communication, in the short interval
+      which preceded their departure; being kept strictly apart. Hugh only
+      observed that Barnaby walked with a drooping head among his guard, and,
+      without raising his eyes, that he tried to wave his fettered hand when he
+      passed. For himself, he buoyed up his courage as he rode along, with the
+      assurance that the mob would force his jail wherever it might be, and set
+      him at liberty. But when they got into London, and more especially into
+      Fleet Market, lately the stronghold of the rioters, where the military
+      were rooting out the last remnant of the crowd, he saw that this hope was
+      gone, and felt that he was riding to his death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0070" id="link2HCH0070">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 70
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis having despatched this piece of business without any personal
+      hurt or inconvenience, and having now retired into the tranquil
+      respectability of private life, resolved to solace himself with half an
+      hour or so of female society. With this amiable purpose in his mind, he
+      bent his steps towards the house where Dolly and Miss Haredale were still
+      confined, and whither Miss Miggs had also been removed by order of Mr
+      Simon Tappertit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he walked along the streets with his leather gloves clasped behind him,
+      and his face indicative of cheerful thought and pleasant calculation, Mr
+      Dennis might have been likened unto a farmer ruminating among his crops,
+      and enjoying by anticipation the bountiful gifts of Providence. Look where
+      he would, some heap of ruins afforded him rich promise of a working off;
+      the whole town appeared to have been ploughed and sown, and nurtured by
+      most genial weather; and a goodly harvest was at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having taken up arms and resorted to deeds of violence, with the great
+      main object of preserving the Old Bailey in all its purity, and the
+      gallows in all its pristine usefulness and moral grandeur, it would
+      perhaps be going too far to assert that Mr Dennis had ever distinctly
+      contemplated and foreseen this happy state of things. He rather looked
+      upon it as one of those beautiful dispensations which are inscrutably
+      brought about for the behoof and advantage of good men. He felt, as it
+      were, personally referred to, in this prosperous ripening for the gibbet;
+      and had never considered himself so much the pet and favourite child of
+      Destiny, or loved that lady so well or with such a calm and virtuous
+      reliance, in all his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to being taken up, himself, for a rioter, and punished with the rest,
+      Mr Dennis dismissed that possibility from his thoughts as an idle chimera;
+      arguing that the line of conduct he had adopted at Newgate, and the
+      service he had rendered that day, would be more than a set-off against any
+      evidence which might identify him as a member of the crowd. That any
+      charge of companionship which might be made against him by those who were
+      themselves in danger, would certainly go for nought. And that if any
+      trivial indiscretion on his part should unluckily come out, the uncommon
+      usefulness of his office, at present, and the great demand for the
+      exercise of its functions, would certainly cause it to be winked at, and
+      passed over. In a word, he had played his cards throughout, with great
+      care; had changed sides at the very nick of time; had delivered up two of
+      the most notorious rioters, and a distinguished felon to boot; and was
+      quite at his ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Saving&mdash;for there is a reservation; and even Mr Dennis was not
+      perfectly happy&mdash;saving for one circumstance; to wit, the forcible
+      detention of Dolly and Miss Haredale, in a house almost adjoining his own.
+      This was a stumbling-block; for if they were discovered and released, they
+      could, by the testimony they had it in their power to give, place him in a
+      situation of great jeopardy; and to set them at liberty, first extorting
+      from them an oath of secrecy and silence, was a thing not to be thought
+      of. It was more, perhaps, with an eye to the danger which lurked in this
+      quarter, than from his abstract love of conversation with the sex, that
+      the hangman, quickening his steps, now hastened into their society,
+      cursing the amorous natures of Hugh and Mr Tappertit with great
+      heartiness, at every step he took.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he entered the miserable room in which they were confined, Dolly and
+      Miss Haredale withdrew in silence to the remotest corner. But Miss Miggs,
+      who was particularly tender of her reputation, immediately fell upon her
+      knees and began to scream very loud, crying, 'What will become of me!'&mdash;'Where
+      is my Simmuns!'&mdash;'Have mercy, good gentlemen, on my sex's
+      weaknesses!'&mdash;with other doleful lamentations of that nature, which
+      she delivered with great propriety and decorum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Miss, miss,' whispered Dennis, beckoning to her with his forefinger,
+      'come here&mdash;I won't hurt you. Come here, my lamb, will you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing this tender epithet, Miss Miggs, who had left off screaming
+      when he opened his lips, and had listened to him attentively, began again,
+      crying: 'Oh I'm his lamb! He says I'm his lamb! Oh gracious, why wasn't I
+      born old and ugly! Why was I ever made to be the youngest of six, and all
+      of 'em dead and in their blessed graves, excepting one married sister,
+      which is settled in Golden Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, second
+      bell-handle on the&mdash;!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't I say I an't a-going to hurt you?' said Dennis, pointing to a
+      chair. 'Why miss, what's the matter?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I don't know what mayn't be the matter!' cried Miss Miggs, clasping her
+      hands distractedly. 'Anything may be the matter!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But nothing is, I tell you,' said the hangman. 'First stop that noise and
+      come and sit down here, will you, chuckey?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The coaxing tone in which he said these latter words might have failed in
+      its object, if he had not accompanied them with sundry sharp jerks of his
+      thumb over one shoulder, and with divers winks and thrustings of his
+      tongue into his cheek, from which signals the damsel gathered that he
+      sought to speak to her apart, concerning Miss Haredale and Dolly. Her
+      curiosity being very powerful, and her jealousy by no means inactive, she
+      arose, and with a great deal of shivering and starting back, and much
+      muscular action among all the small bones in her throat, gradually
+      approached him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sit down,' said the hangman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suiting the action to the word, he thrust her rather suddenly and
+      prematurely into a chair, and designing to reassure her by a little
+      harmless jocularity, such as is adapted to please and fascinate the sex,
+      converted his right forefinger into an ideal bradawl or gimlet, and made
+      as though he would screw the same into her side&mdash;whereat Miss Miggs
+      shrieked again, and evinced symptoms of faintness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lovey, my dear,' whispered Dennis, drawing his chair close to hers. 'When
+      was your young man here last, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'MY young man, good gentleman!' answered Miggs in a tone of exquisite
+      distress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah! Simmuns, you know&mdash;him?' said Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mine indeed!' cried Miggs, with a burst of bitterness&mdash;and as she
+      said it, she glanced towards Dolly. 'MINE, good gentleman!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was just what Mr Dennis wanted, and expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' he said, looking so soothingly, not to say amorously on Miggs, that
+      she sat, as she afterwards remarked, on pins and needles of the sharpest
+      Whitechapel kind, not knowing what intentions might be suggesting that
+      expression to his features: 'I was afraid of that. I saw as much myself.
+      It's her fault. She WILL entice 'em.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wouldn't,' cried Miggs, folding her hands and looking upwards with a
+      kind of devout blankness, 'I wouldn't lay myself out as she does; I
+      wouldn't be as bold as her; I wouldn't seem to say to all male creeturs
+      "Come and kiss me"'&mdash;and here a shudder quite convulsed her frame&mdash;'for
+      any earthly crowns as might be offered. Worlds,' Miggs added solemnly,
+      'should not reduce me. No. Not if I was Wenis.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well, but you ARE Wenus, you know,' said Mr Dennis, confidentially.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, I am not, good gentleman,' answered Miggs, shaking her head with an
+      air of self-denial which seemed to imply that she might be if she chose,
+      but she hoped she knew better. 'No, I am not, good gentleman. Don't charge
+      me with it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up to this time she had turned round, every now and then, to where Dolly
+      and Miss Haredale had retired and uttered a scream, or groan, or laid her
+      hand upon her heart and trembled excessively, with a view of keeping up
+      appearances, and giving them to understand that she conversed with the
+      visitor, under protest and on compulsion, and at a great personal
+      sacrifice, for their common good. But at this point, Mr Dennis looked so
+      very full of meaning, and gave such a singularly expressive twitch to his
+      face as a request to her to come still nearer to him, that she abandoned
+      these little arts, and gave him her whole and undivided attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When was Simmuns here, I say?' quoth Dennis, in her ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not since yesterday morning; and then only for a few minutes. Not all
+      day, the day before.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You know he meant all along to carry off that one!' said Dennis,
+      indicating Dolly by the slightest possible jerk of his head:&mdash;'And to
+      hand you over to somebody else.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs, who had fallen into a terrible state of grief when the first
+      part of this sentence was spoken, recovered a little at the second, and
+      seemed by the sudden check she put upon her tears, to intimate that
+      possibly this arrangement might meet her views; and that it might,
+      perhaps, remain an open question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;But unfort'nately,' pursued Dennis, who observed this: 'somebody
+      else was fond of her too, you see; and even if he wasn't, somebody else is
+      took for a rioter, and it's all over with him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs relapsed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now I want,' said Dennis, 'to clear this house, and to see you righted.
+      What if I was to get her off, out of the way, eh?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs, brightening again, rejoined, with many breaks and pauses from
+      excess of feeling, that temptations had been Simmuns's bane. That it was
+      not his faults, but hers (meaning Dolly's). That men did not see through
+      these dreadful arts as women did, and therefore was caged and trapped, as
+      Simmun had been. That she had no personal motives to serve&mdash;far from
+      it&mdash;on the contrary, her intentions was good towards all parties. But
+      forasmuch as she knowed that Simmun, if united to any designing and artful
+      minxes (she would name no names, for that was not her dispositions)&mdash;to
+      ANY designing and artful minxes&mdash;must be made miserable and unhappy
+      for life, she DID incline towards prewentions. Such, she added, was her
+      free confessions. But as this was private feelings, and might perhaps be
+      looked upon as wengeance, she begged the gentleman would say no more.
+      Whatever he said, wishing to do her duty by all mankind, even by them as
+      had ever been her bitterest enemies, she would not listen to him. With
+      that she stopped her ears, and shook her head from side to side, to
+      intimate to Mr Dennis that though he talked until he had no breath left,
+      she was as deaf as any adder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lookee here, my sugar-stick,' said Mr Dennis, 'if your view's the same as
+      mine, and you'll only be quiet and slip away at the right time, I can have
+      the house clear to-morrow, and be out of this trouble.&mdash;Stop though!
+      there's the other.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Which other, sir?' asked Miggs&mdash;still with her fingers in her ears
+      and her head shaking obstinately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, the tallest one, yonder,' said Dennis, as he stroked his chin, and
+      added, in an undertone to himself, something about not crossing Muster
+      Gashford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs replied (still being profoundly deaf) that if Miss Haredale
+      stood in the way at all, he might make himself quite easy on that score;
+      as she had gathered, from what passed between Hugh and Mr Tappertit when
+      they were last there, that she was to be removed alone (not by them, but
+      by somebody else), to-morrow night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis opened his eyes very wide at this piece of information, whistled
+      once, considered once, and finally slapped his head once and nodded once,
+      as if he had got the clue to this mysterious removal, and so dismissed it.
+      Then he imparted his design concerning Dolly to Miss Miggs, who was taken
+      more deaf than before, when he began; and so remained, all through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The notable scheme was this. Mr Dennis was immediately to seek out from
+      among the rioters, some daring young fellow (and he had one in his eye, he
+      said), who, terrified by the threats he could hold out to him, and alarmed
+      by the capture of so many who were no better and no worse than he, would
+      gladly avail himself of any help to get abroad, and out of harm's way,
+      with his plunder, even though his journey were incumbered by an unwilling
+      companion; indeed, the unwilling companion being a beautiful girl, would
+      probably be an additional inducement and temptation. Such a person found,
+      he proposed to bring him there on the ensuing night, when the tall one was
+      taken off, and Miss Miggs had purposely retired; and then that Dolly
+      should be gagged, muffled in a cloak, and carried in any handy conveyance
+      down to the river's side; where there were abundant means of getting her
+      smuggled snugly off in any small craft of doubtful character, and no
+      questions asked. With regard to the expense of this removal, he would say,
+      at a rough calculation, that two or three silver tea or coffee-pots, with
+      something additional for drink (such as a muffineer, or toast-rack), would
+      more than cover it. Articles of plate of every kind having been buried by
+      the rioters in several lonely parts of London, and particularly, as he
+      knew, in St James's Square, which, though easy of access, was little
+      frequented after dark, and had a convenient piece of water in the midst,
+      the needful funds were close at hand, and could be had upon the shortest
+      notice. With regard to Dolly, the gentleman would exercise his own
+      discretion. He would be bound to do nothing but to take her away, and keep
+      her away. All other arrangements and dispositions would rest entirely with
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Miss Miggs had had her hearing, no doubt she would have been greatly
+      shocked by the indelicacy of a young female's going away with a stranger
+      by night (for her moral feelings, as we have said, were of the tenderest
+      kind); but directly Mr Dennis ceased to speak, she reminded him that he
+      had only wasted breath. She then went on to say (still with her fingers in
+      her ears) that nothing less than a severe practical lesson would save the
+      locksmith's daughter from utter ruin; and that she felt it, as it were, a
+      moral obligation and a sacred duty to the family, to wish that some one
+      would devise one for her reformation. Miss Miggs remarked, and very
+      justly, as an abstract sentiment which happened to occur to her at the
+      moment, that she dared to say the locksmith and his wife would murmur, and
+      repine, if they were ever, by forcible abduction, or otherwise, to lose
+      their child; but that we seldom knew, in this world, what was best for us:
+      such being our sinful and imperfect natures, that very few arrived at that
+      clear understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having brought their conversation to this satisfactory end, they parted:
+      Dennis, to pursue his design, and take another walk about his farm; Miss
+      Miggs, to launch, when he left her, into such a burst of mental anguish
+      (which she gave them to understand was occasioned by certain tender things
+      he had had the presumption and audacity to say), that little Dolly's heart
+      was quite melted. Indeed, she said and did so much to soothe the outraged
+      feelings of Miss Miggs, and looked so beautiful while doing so, that if
+      that young maid had not had ample vent for her surpassing spite, in a
+      knowledge of the mischief that was brewing, she must have scratched her
+      features, on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0071" id="link2HCH0071">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 71
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      All next day, Emma Haredale, Dolly, and Miggs, remained cooped up together
+      in what had now been their prison for so many days, without seeing any
+      person, or hearing any sound but the murmured conversation, in an outer
+      room, of the men who kept watch over them. There appeared to be more of
+      these fellows than there had been hitherto; and they could no longer hear
+      the voices of women, which they had before plainly distinguished. Some new
+      excitement, too, seemed to prevail among them; for there was much stealthy
+      going in and out, and a constant questioning of those who were newly
+      arrived. They had previously been quite reckless in their behaviour; often
+      making a great uproar; quarrelling among themselves, fighting, dancing,
+      and singing. They were now very subdued and silent, conversing almost in
+      whispers, and stealing in and out with a soft and stealthy tread, very
+      different from the boisterous trampling in which their arrivals and
+      departures had hitherto been announced to the trembling captives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether this change was occasioned by the presence among them of some
+      person of authority in their ranks, or by any other cause, they were
+      unable to decide. Sometimes they thought it was in part attributable to
+      there being a sick man in the chamber, for last night there had been a
+      shuffling of feet, as though a burden were brought in, and afterwards a
+      moaning noise. But they had no means of ascertaining the truth: for any
+      question or entreaty on their parts only provoked a storm of execrations,
+      or something worse; and they were too happy to be left alone, unassailed
+      by threats or admiration, to risk even that comfort, by any voluntary
+      communication with those who held them in durance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was sufficiently evident, both to Emma and to the locksmith's poor
+      little daughter herself, that she, Dolly, was the great object of
+      attraction; and that so soon as they should have leisure to indulge in the
+      softer passion, Hugh and Mr Tappertit would certainly fall to blows for
+      her sake; in which latter case, it was not very difficult to see whose
+      prize she would become. With all her old horror of that man revived, and
+      deepened into a degree of aversion and abhorrence which no language can
+      describe; with a thousand old recollections and regrets, and causes of
+      distress, anxiety, and fear, besetting her on all sides; poor Dolly Varden&mdash;sweet,
+      blooming, buxom Dolly&mdash;began to hang her head, and fade, and droop,
+      like a beautiful flower. The colour fled from her cheeks, her courage
+      forsook her, her gentle heart failed. Unmindful of all her provoking
+      caprices, forgetful of all her conquests and inconstancy, with all her
+      winning little vanities quite gone, she nestled all the livelong day in
+      Emma Haredale's bosom; and, sometimes calling on her dear old grey-haired
+      father, sometimes on her mother, and sometimes even on her old home, pined
+      slowly away, like a poor bird in its cage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Light hearts, light hearts, that float so gaily on a smooth stream, that
+      are so sparkling and buoyant in the sunshine&mdash;down upon fruit, bloom
+      upon flowers, blush in summer air, life of the winged insect, whose whole
+      existence is a day&mdash;how soon ye sink in troubled water! Poor Dolly's
+      heart&mdash;a little, gentle, idle, fickle thing; giddy, restless,
+      fluttering; constant to nothing but bright looks, and smiles and laughter&mdash;Dolly's
+      heart was breaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Emma had known grief, and could bear it better. She had little comfort to
+      impart, but she could soothe and tend her, and she did so; and Dolly clung
+      to her like a child to its nurse. In endeavouring to inspire her with some
+      fortitude, she increased her own; and though the nights were long, and the
+      days dismal, and she felt the wasting influence of watching and fatigue,
+      and had perhaps a more defined and clear perception of their destitute
+      condition and its worst dangers, she uttered no complaint. Before the
+      ruffians, in whose power they were, she bore herself so calmly, and with
+      such an appearance, in the midst of all her terror, of a secret conviction
+      that they dared not harm her, that there was not a man among them but held
+      her in some degree of dread; and more than one believed she had a weapon
+      hidden in her dress, and was prepared to use it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was their condition when they were joined by Miss Miggs, who gave
+      them to understand that she too had been taken prisoner because of her
+      charms, and detailed such feats of resistance she had performed (her
+      virtue having given her supernatural strength), that they felt it quite a
+      happiness to have her for a champion. Nor was this the only comfort they
+      derived at first from Miggs's presence and society: for that young lady
+      displayed such resignation and long-suffering, and so much meek endurance,
+      under her trials, and breathed in all her chaste discourse a spirit of
+      such holy confidence and resignation, and devout belief that all would
+      happen for the best, that Emma felt her courage strengthened by the bright
+      example; never doubting but that everything she said was true, and that
+      she, like them, was torn from all she loved, and agonised by doubt and
+      apprehension. As to poor Dolly, she was roused, at first, by seeing one
+      who came from home; but when she heard under what circumstances she had
+      left it, and into whose hands her father had fallen, she wept more
+      bitterly than ever, and refused all comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs was at some trouble to reprove her for this state of mind, and
+      to entreat her to take example by herself, who, she said, was now
+      receiving back, with interest, tenfold the amount of her subscriptions to
+      the red-brick dwelling-house, in the articles of peace of mind and a quiet
+      conscience. And, while on serious topics, Miss Miggs considered it her
+      duty to try her hand at the conversion of Miss Haredale; for whose
+      improvement she launched into a polemical address of some length, in the
+      course whereof, she likened herself unto a chosen missionary, and that
+      young lady to a cannibal in darkness. Indeed, she returned so often to
+      these subjects, and so frequently called upon them to take a lesson from
+      her,&mdash;at the same time vaunting and, as it were, rioting in, her huge
+      unworthiness, and abundant excess of sin,&mdash;that, in the course of a
+      short time, she became, in that small chamber, rather a nuisance than a
+      comfort, and rendered them, if possible, even more unhappy than they had
+      been before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night had now come; and for the first time (for their jailers had been
+      regular in bringing food and candles), they were left in darkness. Any
+      change in their condition in such a place inspired new fears; and when
+      some hours had passed, and the gloom was still unbroken, Emma could no
+      longer repress her alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They listened attentively. There was the same murmuring in the outer room,
+      and now and then a moan which seemed to be wrung from a person in great
+      pain, who made an effort to subdue it, but could not. Even these men
+      seemed to be in darkness too; for no light shone through the chinks in the
+      door, nor were they moving, as their custom was, but quite still: the
+      silence being unbroken by so much as the creaking of a board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, Miss Miggs wondered greatly in her own mind who this sick person
+      might be; but arriving, on second thoughts, at the conclusion that he was
+      a part of the schemes on foot, and an artful device soon to be employed
+      with great success, she opined, for Miss Haredale's comfort, that it must
+      be some misguided Papist who had been wounded: and this happy supposition
+      encouraged her to say, under her breath, 'Ally Looyer!' several times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is it possible,' said Emma, with some indignation, 'that you who have
+      seen these men committing the outrages you have told us of, and who have
+      fallen into their hands, like us, can exult in their cruelties!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Personal considerations, miss,' rejoined Miggs, 'sinks into nothing,
+      afore a noble cause. Ally Looyer! Ally Looyer! Ally Looyer, good
+      gentlemen!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed from the shrill pertinacity with which Miss Miggs repeated this
+      form of acclamation, that she was calling the same through the keyhole of
+      the door; but in the profound darkness she could not be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If the time has come&mdash;Heaven knows it may come at any moment&mdash;when
+      they are bent on prosecuting the designs, whatever they may be, with which
+      they have brought us here, can you still encourage, and take part with
+      them?' demanded Emma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thank my goodness-gracious-blessed-stars I can, miss,' returned Miggs,
+      with increased energy.&mdash;'Ally Looyer, good gentlemen!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Dolly, cast down and disappointed as she was, revived at this, and
+      bade Miggs hold her tongue directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'WHICH, was you pleased to observe, Miss Varden?' said Miggs, with a
+      strong emphasis on the irrelative pronoun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly repeated her request.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ho, gracious me!' cried Miggs, with hysterical derision. 'Ho, gracious
+      me! Yes, to be sure I will. Ho yes! I am a abject slave, and a toiling,
+      moiling, constant-working, always-being-found-fault-with,
+      never-giving-satisfactions, nor-having-no-time-to-clean-oneself, potter's
+      wessel&mdash;an't I, miss! Ho yes! My situations is lowly, and my
+      capacities is limited, and my duties is to humble myself afore the base
+      degenerating daughters of their blessed mothers as is&mdash;fit to keep
+      companies with holy saints but is born to persecutions from wicked
+      relations&mdash;and to demean myself before them as is no better than
+      Infidels&mdash;an't it, miss! Ho yes! My only becoming occupations is to
+      help young flaunting pagins to brush and comb and titiwate theirselves
+      into whitening and suppulchres, and leave the young men to think that
+      there an't a bit of padding in it nor no pinching ins nor fillings out nor
+      pomatums nor deceits nor earthly wanities&mdash;an't it, miss! Yes, to be
+      sure it is&mdash;ho yes!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having delivered these ironical passages with a most wonderful volubility,
+      and with a shrillness perfectly deafening (especially when she jerked out
+      the interjections), Miss Miggs, from mere habit, and not because weeping
+      was at all appropriate to the occasion, which was one of triumph,
+      concluded by bursting into a flood of tears, and calling in an impassioned
+      manner on the name of Simmuns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What Emma Haredale and Dolly would have done, or how long Miss Miggs, now
+      that she had hoisted her true colours, would have gone on waving them
+      before their astonished senses, it is impossible to tell. Nor is it
+      necessary to speculate on these matters, for a startling interruption
+      occurred at that moment, which took their whole attention by storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a violent knocking at the door of the house, and then its sudden
+      bursting open; which was immediately succeeded by a scuffle in the room
+      without, and the clash of weapons. Transported with the hope that rescue
+      had at length arrived, Emma and Dolly shrieked aloud for help; nor were
+      their shrieks unanswered; for after a hurried interval, a man, bearing in
+      one hand a drawn sword, and in the other a taper, rushed into the chamber
+      where they were confined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some check upon their transport to find in this person an entire
+      stranger, but they appealed to him, nevertheless, and besought him, in
+      impassioned language, to restore them to their friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For what other purpose am I here?' he answered, closing the door, and
+      standing with his back against it. 'With what object have I made my way to
+      this place, through difficulty and danger, but to preserve you?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a joy for which it was impossible to find adequate expression, they
+      embraced each other, and thanked Heaven for this most timely aid. Their
+      deliverer stepped forward for a moment to put the light upon the table,
+      and immediately returning to his former position against the door, bared
+      his head, and looked on smilingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have news of my uncle, sir?' said Emma, turning hastily towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And of my father and mother?' added Dolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' he said. 'Good news.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They are alive and unhurt?' they both cried at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, and unhurt,' he rejoined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And close at hand?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I did not say close at hand,' he answered smoothly; 'they are at no great
+      distance. YOUR friends, sweet one,' he added, addressing Dolly, 'are
+      within a few hours' journey. You will be restored to them, I hope,
+      to-night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My uncle, sir&mdash;' faltered Emma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your uncle, dear Miss Haredale, happily&mdash;I say happily, because he
+      has succeeded where many of our creed have failed, and is safe&mdash;has
+      crossed the sea, and is out of Britain.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thank God for it,' said Emma, faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You say well. You have reason to be thankful: greater reason than it is
+      possible for you, who have seen but one night of these cruel outrages, to
+      imagine.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Does he desire,' said Emma, 'that I should follow him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you ask if he desires it?' cried the stranger in surprise. 'IF he
+      desires it! But you do not know the danger of remaining in England, the
+      difficulty of escape, or the price hundreds would pay to secure the means,
+      when you make that inquiry. Pardon me. I had forgotten that you could not,
+      being prisoner here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I gather, sir,' said Emma, after a moment's pause, 'from what you hint
+      at, but fear to tell me, that I have witnessed but the beginning, and the
+      least, of the violence to which we are exposed, and that it has not yet
+      slackened in its fury?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, lifted up his hands; and with
+      the same smooth smile, which was not a pleasant one to see, cast his eyes
+      upon the ground, and remained silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You may venture, sir, to speak plain,' said Emma, 'and to tell me the
+      worst. We have undergone some preparation for it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But here Dolly interposed, and entreated her not to hear the worst, but
+      the best; and besought the gentleman to tell them the best, and to keep
+      the remainder of his news until they were safe among their friends again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is told in three words,' he said, glancing at the locksmith's daughter
+      with a look of some displeasure. 'The people have risen, to a man, against
+      us; the streets are filled with soldiers, who support them and do their
+      bidding. We have no protection but from above, and no safety but in
+      flight; and that is a poor resource; for we are watched on every hand, and
+      detained here, both by force and fraud. Miss Haredale, I cannot bear&mdash;believe
+      me, that I cannot bear&mdash;by speaking of myself, or what I have done,
+      or am prepared to do, to seem to vaunt my services before you. But, having
+      powerful Protestant connections, and having my whole wealth embarked with
+      theirs in shipping and commerce, I happily possessed the means of saving
+      your uncle. I have the means of saving you; and in redemption of my sacred
+      promise, made to him, I am here; pledged not to leave you until I have
+      placed you in his arms. The treachery or penitence of one of the men about
+      you, led to the discovery of your place of confinement; and that I have
+      forced my way here, sword in hand, you see.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You bring,' said Emma, faltering, 'some note or token from my uncle?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No, he doesn't,' cried Dolly, pointing at him earnestly; 'now I am sure
+      he doesn't. Don't go with him for the world!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Hush, pretty fool&mdash;be silent,' he replied, frowning angrily upon
+      her. 'No, Miss Haredale, I have no letter, nor any token of any kind; for
+      while I sympathise with you, and such as you, on whom misfortune so heavy
+      and so undeserved has fallen, I value my life. I carry, therefore, no
+      writing which, found upon me, would lead to its certain loss. I never
+      thought of bringing any other token, nor did Mr Haredale think of
+      entrusting me with one&mdash;possibly because he had good experience of my
+      faith and honesty, and owed his life to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a reproof conveyed in these words, which to a nature like Emma
+      Haredale's, was well addressed. But Dolly, who was differently
+      constituted, was by no means touched by it, and still conjured her, in all
+      the terms of affection and attachment she could think of, not to be lured
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Time presses,' said their visitor, who, although he sought to express the
+      deepest interest, had something cold and even in his speech, that grated
+      on the ear; 'and danger surrounds us. If I have exposed myself to it, in
+      vain, let it be so; but if you and he should ever meet again, do me
+      justice. If you decide to remain (as I think you do), remember, Miss
+      Haredale, that I left you with a solemn caution, and acquitting myself of
+      all the consequences to which you expose yourself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Stay, sir!' cried Emma&mdash;one moment, I beg you. Cannot we&mdash;and
+      she drew Dolly closer to her&mdash;'cannot we go together?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The task of conveying one female in safety through such scenes as we must
+      encounter, to say nothing of attracting the attention of those who crowd
+      the streets,' he answered, 'is enough. I have said that she will be
+      restored to her friends to-night. If you accept the service I tender, Miss
+      Haredale, she shall be instantly placed in safe conduct, and that promise
+      redeemed. Do you decide to remain? People of all ranks and creeds are
+      flying from the town, which is sacked from end to end. Let me be of use in
+      some quarter. Do you stay, or go?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dolly,' said Emma, in a hurried manner, 'my dear girl, this is our last
+      hope. If we part now, it is only that we may meet again in happiness and
+      honour. I will trust to this gentleman.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No no-no!' cried Dolly, clinging to her. 'Pray, pray, do not!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You hear,' said Emma, 'that to-night&mdash;only to-night&mdash;within a
+      few hours&mdash;think of that!&mdash;you will be among those who would die
+      of grief to lose you, and who are now plunged in the deepest misery for
+      your sake. Pray for me, dear girl, as I will for you; and never forget the
+      many quiet hours we have passed together. Say one "God bless you!" Say
+      that at parting!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Dolly could say nothing; no, not when Emma kissed her cheek a hundred
+      times, and covered it with tears, could she do more than hang upon her
+      neck, and sob, and clasp, and hold her tight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We have time for no more of this,' cried the man, unclenching her hands,
+      and pushing her roughly off, as he drew Emma Haredale towards the door:
+      'Now! Quick, outside there! are you ready?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay!' cried a loud voice, which made him start. 'Quite ready! Stand back
+      here, for your lives!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in an instant he was felled like an ox in the butcher's shambles&mdash;struck
+      down as though a block of marble had fallen from the roof and crushed him&mdash;and
+      cheerful light, and beaming faces came pouring in&mdash;and Emma was
+      clasped in her uncle's embrace, and Dolly, with a shriek that pierced the
+      air, fell into the arms of her father and mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What fainting there was, what laughing, what crying, what sobbing, what
+      smiling, how much questioning, no answering, all talking together, all
+      beside themselves with joy; what kissing, congratulating, embracing,
+      shaking of hands, and falling into all these raptures, over and over and
+      over again; no language can describe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, and after a long time, the old locksmith went up and fairly
+      hugged two strangers, who had stood apart and left them to themselves; and
+      then they saw&mdash;whom? Yes, Edward Chester and Joseph Willet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'See here!' cried the locksmith. 'See here! where would any of us have
+      been without these two? Oh, Mr Edward, Mr Edward&mdash;oh, Joe, Joe, how
+      light, and yet how full, you have made my old heart to-night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was Mr Edward that knocked him down, sir,' said Joe: 'I longed to do
+      it, but I gave it up to him. Come, you brave and honest gentleman! Get
+      your senses together, for you haven't long to lie here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had his foot upon the breast of their sham deliverer, in the absence of
+      a spare arm; and gave him a gentle roll as he spoke. Gashford, for it was
+      no other, crouching yet malignant, raised his scowling face, like sin
+      subdued, and pleaded to be gently used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have access to all my lord's papers, Mr Haredale,' he said, in a
+      submissive voice: Mr Haredale keeping his back towards him, and not once
+      looking round: 'there are very important documents among them. There are a
+      great many in secret drawers, and distributed in various places, known
+      only to my lord and me. I can give some very valuable information, and
+      render important assistance to any inquiry. You will have to answer it, if
+      I receive ill usage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Pah!' cried Joe, in deep disgust. 'Get up, man; you're waited for,
+      outside. Get up, do you hear?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford slowly rose; and picking up his hat, and looking with a baffled
+      malevolence, yet with an air of despicable humility, all round the room,
+      crawled out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And now, gentlemen,' said Joe, who seemed to be the spokesman of the
+      party, for all the rest were silent; 'the sooner we get back to the Black
+      Lion, the better, perhaps.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale nodded assent, and drawing his niece's arm through his, and
+      taking one of her hands between his own, passed out straightway; followed
+      by the locksmith, Mrs Varden, and Dolly&mdash;who would scarcely have
+      presented a sufficient surface for all the hugs and caresses they bestowed
+      upon her though she had been a dozen Dollys. Edward Chester and Joe
+      followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And did Dolly never once look behind&mdash;not once? Was there not one
+      little fleeting glimpse of the dark eyelash, almost resting on her flushed
+      cheek, and of the downcast sparkling eye it shaded? Joe thought there was&mdash;and
+      he is not likely to have been mistaken; for there were not many eyes like
+      Dolly's, that's the truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The outer room through which they had to pass, was full of men; among
+      them, Mr Dennis in safe keeping; and there, had been since yesterday,
+      lying in hiding behind a wooden screen which was now thrown down, Simon
+      Tappertit, the recreant 'prentice, burnt and bruised, and with a gun-shot
+      wound in his body; and his legs&mdash;his perfect legs, the pride and
+      glory of his life, the comfort of his existence&mdash;crushed into
+      shapeless ugliness. Wondering no longer at the moans they had heard, Dolly
+      kept closer to her father, and shuddered at the sight; but neither
+      bruises, burns, nor gun-shot wound, nor all the torture of his shattered
+      limbs, sent half so keen a pang to Simon's breast, as Dolly passing out,
+      with Joe for her preserver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A coach was ready at the door, and Dolly found herself safe and whole
+      inside, between her father and mother, with Emma Haredale and her uncle,
+      quite real, sitting opposite. But there was no Joe, no Edward; and they
+      had said nothing. They had only bowed once, and kept at a distance. Dear
+      heart! what a long way it was to the Black Lion!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0072" id="link2HCH0072">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 72
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The Black Lion was so far off, and occupied such a length of time in the
+      getting at, that notwithstanding the strong presumptive evidence she had
+      about her of the late events being real and of actual occurrence, Dolly
+      could not divest herself of the belief that she must be in a dream which
+      was lasting all night. Nor was she quite certain that she saw and heard
+      with her own proper senses, even when the coach, in the fulness of time,
+      stopped at the Black Lion, and the host of that tavern approached in a
+      gush of cheerful light to help them to dismount, and give them hearty
+      welcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There too, at the coach door, one on one side, one upon the other, were
+      already Edward Chester and Joe Willet, who must have followed in another
+      coach: and this was such a strange and unaccountable proceeding, that
+      Dolly was the more inclined to favour the idea of her being fast asleep.
+      But when Mr Willet appeared&mdash;old John himself&mdash;so heavy-headed
+      and obstinate, and with such a double chin as the liveliest imagination
+      could never in its boldest flights have conjured up in all its vast
+      proportions&mdash;then she stood corrected, and unwillingly admitted to
+      herself that she was broad awake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Joe had lost an arm&mdash;he&mdash;that well-made, handsome, gallant
+      fellow! As Dolly glanced towards him, and thought of the pain he must have
+      suffered, and the far-off places in which he had been wandering, and
+      wondered who had been his nurse, and hoped that whoever it was, she had
+      been as kind and gentle and considerate as she would have been, the tears
+      came rising to her bright eyes, one by one, little by little, until she
+      could keep them back no longer, and so before them all, wept bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'We are all safe now, Dolly,' said her father, kindly. 'We shall not be
+      separated any more. Cheer up, my love, cheer up!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith's wife knew better perhaps, than he, what ailed her
+      daughter. But Mrs Varden being quite an altered woman&mdash;for the riots
+      had done that good&mdash;added her word to his, and comforted her with
+      similar representations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mayhap,' said Mr Willet, senior, looking round upon the company, 'she's
+      hungry. That's what it is, depend upon it&mdash;I am, myself.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Black Lion, who, like old John, had been waiting supper past all
+      reasonable and conscionable hours, hailed this as a philosophical
+      discovery of the profoundest and most penetrating kind; and the table
+      being already spread, they sat down to supper straightway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation was not of the liveliest nature, nor were the appetites
+      of some among them very keen. But, in both these respects, old John more
+      than atoned for any deficiency on the part of the rest, and very much
+      distinguished himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not in point of actual conversation that Mr Willet shone so
+      brilliantly, for he had none of his old cronies to 'tackle,' and was
+      rather timorous of venturing on Joe; having certain vague misgivings
+      within him, that he was ready on the shortest notice, and on receipt of
+      the slightest offence, to fell the Black Lion to the floor of his own
+      parlour, and immediately to withdraw to China or some other remote and
+      unknown region, there to dwell for evermore, or at least until he had got
+      rid of his remaining arm and both legs, and perhaps an eye or so, into the
+      bargain. It was with a peculiar kind of pantomime that Mr Willet filled up
+      every pause; and in this he was considered by the Black Lion, who had been
+      his familiar for some years, quite to surpass and go beyond himself, and
+      outrun the expectations of his most admiring friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The subject that worked in Mr Willet's mind, and occasioned these
+      demonstrations, was no other than his son's bodily disfigurement, which he
+      had never yet got himself thoroughly to believe, or comprehend. Shortly
+      after their first meeting, he had been observed to wander, in a state of
+      great perplexity, to the kitchen, and to direct his gaze towards the fire,
+      as if in search of his usual adviser in all matters of doubt and
+      difficulty. But there being no boiler at the Black Lion, and the rioters
+      having so beaten and battered his own that it was quite unfit for further
+      service, he wandered out again, in a perfect bog of uncertainty and mental
+      confusion, and in that state took the strangest means of resolving his
+      doubts: such as feeling the sleeve of his son's greatcoat as deeming it
+      possible that his arm might be there; looking at his own arms and those of
+      everybody else, as if to assure himself that two and not one was the usual
+      allowance; sitting by the hour together in a brown study, as if he were
+      endeavouring to recall Joe's image in his younger days, and to remember
+      whether he really had in those times one arm or a pair; and employing
+      himself in many other speculations of the same kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finding himself at this supper, surrounded by faces with which he had been
+      so well acquainted in old times, Mr Willet recurred to the subject with
+      uncommon vigour; apparently resolved to understand it now or never.
+      Sometimes, after every two or three mouthfuls, he laid down his knife and
+      fork, and stared at his son with all his might&mdash;particularly at his
+      maimed side; then, he looked slowly round the table until he caught some
+      person's eye, when he shook his head with great solemnity, patted his
+      shoulder, winked, or as one may say&mdash;for winking was a very slow
+      process with him&mdash;went to sleep with one eye for a minute or two; and
+      so, with another solemn shaking of his head, took up his knife and fork
+      again, and went on eating. Sometimes, he put his food into his mouth
+      abstractedly, and, with all his faculties concentrated on Joe, gazed at
+      him in a fit of stupefaction as he cut his meat with one hand, until he
+      was recalled to himself by symptoms of choking on his own part, and was by
+      that means restored to consciousness. At other times he resorted to such
+      small devices as asking him for the salt, the pepper, the vinegar, the
+      mustard&mdash;anything that was on his maimed side&mdash;and watching him
+      as he handed it. By dint of these experiments, he did at last so satisfy
+      and convince himself, that, after a longer silence than he had yet
+      maintained, he laid down his knife and fork on either side his plate,
+      drank a long draught from a tankard beside him (still keeping his eyes on
+      Joe), and leaning backward in his chair and fetching a long breath, said,
+      as he looked all round the board:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's been took off!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By George!' said the Black Lion, striking the table with his hand, 'he's
+      got it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, sir,' said Mr Willet, with the look of a man who felt that he had
+      earned a compliment, and deserved it. 'That's where it is. It's been took
+      off.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tell him where it was done,' said the Black Lion to Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At the defence of the Savannah, father.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At the defence of the Salwanners,' repeated Mr Willet, softly; again
+      looking round the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In America, where the war is,' said Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In America, where the war is,' repeated Mr Willet. 'It was took off in
+      the defence of the Salwanners in America where the war is.' Continuing to
+      repeat these words to himself in a low tone of voice (the same information
+      had been conveyed to him in the same terms, at least fifty times before),
+      Mr Willet arose from table, walked round to Joe, felt his empty sleeve all
+      the way up, from the cuff, to where the stump of his arm remained; shook
+      his hand; lighted his pipe at the fire, took a long whiff, walked to the
+      door, turned round once when he had reached it, wiped his left eye with
+      the back of his forefinger, and said, in a faltering voice: 'My son's arm&mdash;was
+      took off&mdash;at the defence of the&mdash;Salwanners&mdash;in America&mdash;where
+      the war is'&mdash;with which words he withdrew, and returned no more that
+      night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, on various pretences, they all withdrew one after another, save
+      Dolly, who was left sitting there alone. It was a great relief to be
+      alone, and she was crying to her heart's content, when she heard Joe's
+      voice at the end of the passage, bidding somebody good night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Good night! Then he was going elsewhere&mdash;to some distance, perhaps.
+      To what kind of home COULD he be going, now that it was so late!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She heard him walk along the passage, and pass the door. But there was a
+      hesitation in his footsteps. He turned back&mdash;Dolly's heart beat high&mdash;he
+      looked in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night!'&mdash;he didn't say Dolly, but there was comfort in his not
+      saying Miss Varden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good night!' sobbed Dolly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am sorry you take on so much, for what is past and gone,' said Joe
+      kindly. 'Don't. I can't bear to see you do it. Think of it no longer. You
+      are safe and happy now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly cried the more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You must have suffered very much within these few days&mdash;and yet
+      you're not changed, unless it's for the better. They said you were, but I
+      don't see it. You were&mdash;you were always very beautiful,' said Joe,
+      'but you are more beautiful than ever, now. You are indeed. There can be
+      no harm in my saying so, for you must know it. You are told so very often,
+      I am sure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a general principle, Dolly DID know it, and WAS told so, very often.
+      But the coachmaker had turned out, years ago, to be a special donkey; and
+      whether she had been afraid of making similar discoveries in others, or
+      had grown by dint of long custom to be careless of compliments generally,
+      certain it is that although she cried so much, she was better pleased to
+      be told so now, than ever she had been in all her life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I shall bless your name,' sobbed the locksmith's little daughter, 'as
+      long as I live. I shall never hear it spoken without feeling as if my
+      heart would burst. I shall remember it in my prayers, every night and
+      morning till I die!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will you?' said Joe, eagerly. 'Will you indeed? It makes me&mdash;well,
+      it makes me very glad and proud to hear you say so.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dolly still sobbed, and held her handkerchief to her eyes. Joe still
+      stood, looking at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your voice,' said Joe, 'brings up old times so pleasantly, that, for the
+      moment, I feel as if that night&mdash;there can be no harm in talking of
+      that night now&mdash;had come back, and nothing had happened in the mean
+      time. I feel as if I hadn't suffered any hardships, but had knocked down
+      poor Tom Cobb only yesterday, and had come to see you with my bundle on my
+      shoulder before running away.&mdash;You remember?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Remember! But she said nothing. She raised her eyes for an instant. It was
+      but a glance; a little, tearful, timid glance. It kept Joe silent though,
+      for a long time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well!' he said stoutly, 'it was to be otherwise, and was. I have been
+      abroad, fighting all the summer and frozen up all the winter, ever since.
+      I have come back as poor in purse as I went, and crippled for life
+      besides. But, Dolly, I would rather have lost this other arm&mdash;ay, I
+      would rather have lost my head&mdash;than have come back to find you dead,
+      or anything but what I always pictured you to myself, and what I always
+      hoped and wished to find you. Thank God for all!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh how much, and how keenly, the little coquette of five years ago, felt
+      now! She had found her heart at last. Never having known its worth till
+      now, she had never known the worth of his. How priceless it appeared!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I did hope once,' said Joe, in his homely way, 'that I might come back a
+      rich man, and marry you. But I was a boy then, and have long known better
+      than that. I am a poor, maimed, discharged soldier, and must be content to
+      rub through life as I can. I can't say, even now, that I shall be glad to
+      see you married, Dolly; but I AM glad&mdash;yes, I am, and glad to think I
+      can say so&mdash;to know that you are admired and courted, and can pick
+      and choose for a happy life. It's a comfort to me to know that you'll talk
+      to your husband about me; and I hope the time will come when I may be able
+      to like him, and to shake hands with him, and to come and see you as a
+      poor friend who knew you when you were a girl. God bless you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His hand DID tremble; but for all that, he took it away again, and left
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0073" id="link2HCH0073">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 73
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      By this Friday night&mdash;for it was on Friday in the riot week, that
+      Emma and Dolly were rescued, by the timely aid of Joe and Edward Chester&mdash;the
+      disturbances were entirely quelled, and peace and order were restored to
+      the affrighted city. True, after what had happened, it was impossible for
+      any man to say how long this better state of things might last, or how
+      suddenly new outrages, exceeding even those so lately witnessed, might
+      burst forth and fill its streets with ruin and bloodshed; for this reason,
+      those who had fled from the recent tumults still kept at a distance, and
+      many families, hitherto unable to procure the means of flight, now availed
+      themselves of the calm, and withdrew into the country. The shops, too,
+      from Tyburn to Whitechapel, were still shut; and very little business was
+      transacted in any of the places of great commercial resort. But,
+      notwithstanding, and in spite of the melancholy forebodings of that
+      numerous class of society who see with the greatest clearness into the
+      darkest perspectives, the town remained profoundly quiet. The strong
+      military force disposed in every advantageous quarter, and stationed at
+      every commanding point, held the scattered fragments of the mob in check;
+      the search after rioters was prosecuted with unrelenting vigour; and if
+      there were any among them so desperate and reckless as to be inclined,
+      after the terrible scenes they had beheld, to venture forth again, they
+      were so daunted by these resolute measures, that they quickly shrunk into
+      their hiding-places, and had no thought but for their safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a word, the crowd was utterly routed. Upwards of two hundred had been
+      shot dead in the streets. Two hundred and fifty more were lying, badly
+      wounded, in the hospitals; of whom seventy or eighty died within a short
+      time afterwards. A hundred were already in custody, and more were taken
+      every hour. How many perished in the conflagrations, or by their own
+      excesses, is unknown; but that numbers found a terrible grave in the hot
+      ashes of the flames they had kindled, or crept into vaults and cellars to
+      drink in secret or to nurse their sores, and never saw the light again, is
+      certain. When the embers of the fires had been black and cold for many
+      weeks, the labourers' spades proved this, beyond a doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seventy-two private houses and four strong jails were destroyed in the
+      four great days of these riots. The total loss of property, as estimated
+      by the sufferers, was one hundred and fifty-five thousand pounds; at the
+      lowest and least partial estimate of disinterested persons, it exceeded
+      one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds. For this immense loss,
+      compensation was soon afterwards made out of the public purse, in
+      pursuance of a vote of the House of Commons; the sum being levied on the
+      various wards in the city, on the county, and the borough of Southwark.
+      Both Lord Mansfield and Lord Saville, however, who had been great
+      sufferers, refused to accept of any compensation whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House of Commons, sitting on Tuesday with locked and guarded doors,
+      had passed a resolution to the effect that, as soon as the tumults
+      subsided, it would immediately proceed to consider the petitions presented
+      from many of his Majesty's Protestant subjects, and would take the same
+      into its serious consideration. While this question was under debate, Mr
+      Herbert, one of the members present, indignantly rose and called upon the
+      House to observe that Lord George Gordon was then sitting under the
+      gallery with the blue cockade, the signal of rebellion, in his hat. He was
+      not only obliged, by those who sat near, to take it out; but offering to
+      go into the street to pacify the mob with the somewhat indefinite
+      assurance that the House was prepared to give them 'the satisfaction they
+      sought,' was actually held down in his seat by the combined force of
+      several members. In short, the disorder and violence which reigned
+      triumphant out of doors, penetrated into the senate, and there, as
+      elsewhere, terror and alarm prevailed, and ordinary forms were for the
+      time forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Thursday, both Houses had adjourned until the following Monday
+      se'nnight, declaring it impossible to pursue their deliberations with the
+      necessary gravity and freedom, while they were surrounded by armed troops.
+      And now that the rioters were dispersed, the citizens were beset with a
+      new fear; for, finding the public thoroughfares and all their usual places
+      of resort filled with soldiers entrusted with the free use of fire and
+      sword, they began to lend a greedy ear to the rumours which were afloat of
+      martial law being declared, and to dismal stories of prisoners having been
+      seen hanging on lamp-posts in Cheapside and Fleet Street. These terrors
+      being promptly dispelled by a Proclamation declaring that all the rioters
+      in custody would be tried by a special commission in due course of law, a
+      fresh alarm was engendered by its being whispered abroad that French money
+      had been found on some of the rioters, and that the disturbances had been
+      fomented by foreign powers who sought to compass the overthrow and ruin of
+      England. This report, which was strengthened by the diffusion of anonymous
+      handbills, but which, if it had any foundation at all, probably owed its
+      origin to the circumstance of some few coins which were not English money
+      having been swept into the pockets of the insurgents with other
+      miscellaneous booty, and afterwards discovered on the prisoners or the
+      dead bodies,&mdash;caused a great sensation; and men's minds being in that
+      excited state when they are most apt to catch at any shadow of
+      apprehension, was bruited about with much industry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All remaining quiet, however, during the whole of this Friday, and on this
+      Friday night, and no new discoveries being made, confidence began to be
+      restored, and the most timid and desponding breathed again. In Southwark,
+      no fewer than three thousand of the inhabitants formed themselves into a
+      watch, and patrolled the streets every hour. Nor were the citizens slow to
+      follow so good an example: and it being the manner of peaceful men to be
+      very bold when the danger is over, they were abundantly fierce and daring;
+      not scrupling to question the stoutest passenger with great severity, and
+      carrying it with a very high hand over all errand-boys, servant-girls, and
+      'prentices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As day deepened into evening, and darkness crept into the nooks and
+      corners of the town as if it were mustering in secret and gathering
+      strength to venture into the open ways, Barnaby sat in his dungeon,
+      wondering at the silence, and listening in vain for the noise and outcry
+      which had ushered in the night of late. Beside him, with his hand in hers,
+      sat one in whose companionship he felt at peace. She was worn, and
+      altered, full of grief, and heavy-hearted; but the same to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mother,' he said, after a long silence: 'how long,&mdash;how many days
+      and nights,&mdash;shall I be kept here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not many, dear. I hope not many.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You hope! Ay, but your hoping will not undo these chains. I hope, but
+      they don't mind that. Grip hopes, but who cares for Grip?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven gave a short, dull, melancholy croak. It said 'Nobody,' as
+      plainly as a croak could speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who cares for Grip, except you and me?' said Barnaby, smoothing the
+      bird's rumpled feathers with his hand. 'He never speaks in this place; he
+      never says a word in jail; he sits and mopes all day in his dark corner,
+      dozing sometimes, and sometimes looking at the light that creeps in
+      through the bars, and shines in his bright eye as if a spark from those
+      great fires had fallen into the room and was burning yet. But who cares
+      for Grip?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The raven croaked again&mdash;Nobody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And by the way,' said Barnaby, withdrawing his hand from the bird, and
+      laying it upon his mother's arm, as he looked eagerly in her face; 'if
+      they kill me&mdash;they may: I heard it said they would&mdash;what will
+      become of Grip when I am dead?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of the word, or the current of his own thoughts, suggested to
+      Grip his old phrase 'Never say die!' But he stopped short in the middle of
+      it, drew a dismal cork, and subsided into a faint croak, as if he lacked
+      the heart to get through the shortest sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will they take HIS life as well as mine?' said Barnaby. 'I wish they
+      would. If you and I and he could die together, there would be none to feel
+      sorry, or to grieve for us. But do what they will, I don't fear them,
+      mother!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They will not harm you,' she said, her tears choking her utterance. 'They
+      never will harm you, when they know all. I am sure they never will.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! Don't be too sure of that,' cried Barnaby, with a strange pleasure in
+      the belief that she was self-deceived, and in his own sagacity. 'They have
+      marked me from the first. I heard them say so to each other when they
+      brought me to this place last night; and I believe them. Don't you cry for
+      me. They said that I was bold, and so I am, and so I will be. You may
+      think that I am silly, but I can die as well as another.&mdash;I have done
+      no harm, have I?' he added quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'None before Heaven,' she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why then,' said Barnaby, 'let them do their worst. You told me once&mdash;you&mdash;when
+      I asked you what death meant, that it was nothing to be feared, if we did
+      no harm&mdash;Aha! mother, you thought I had forgotten that!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His merry laugh and playful manner smote her to the heart. She drew him
+      closer to her, and besought him to talk to her in whispers and to be very
+      quiet, for it was getting dark, and their time was short, and she would
+      soon have to leave him for the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will come to-morrow?' said Barnaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes. And every day. And they would never part again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He joyfully replied that this was well, and what he wished, and what he
+      had felt quite certain she would tell him; and then he asked her where she
+      had been so long, and why she had not come to see him when he had been a
+      great soldier, and ran through the wild schemes he had had for their being
+      rich and living prosperously, and with some faint notion in his mind that
+      she was sad and he had made her so, tried to console and comfort her, and
+      talked of their former life and his old sports and freedom: little
+      dreaming that every word he uttered only increased her sorrow, and that
+      her tears fell faster at the freshened recollection of their lost
+      tranquillity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mother,' said Barnaby, as they heard the man approaching to close the
+      cells for the night,' when I spoke to you just now about my father you
+      cried "Hush!" and turned away your head. Why did you do so? Tell me why,
+      in a word. You thought HE was dead. You are not sorry that he is alive and
+      has come back to us. Where is he? Here?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do not ask any one where he is, or speak about him,' she made answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why not?' said Barnaby. 'Because he is a stern man, and talks roughly?
+      Well! I don't like him, or want to be with him by myself; but why not
+      speak about him?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Because I am sorry that he is alive; sorry that he has come back; and
+      sorry that he and you have ever met. Because, dear Barnaby, the endeavour
+      of my life has been to keep you two asunder.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Father and son asunder! Why?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has,' she whispered in his ear, 'he has shed blood. The time has come
+      when you must know it. He has shed the blood of one who loved him well,
+      and trusted him, and never did him wrong in word or deed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby recoiled in horror, and glancing at his stained wrist for an
+      instant, wrapped it, shuddering, in his dress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But,' she added hastily as the key turned in the lock, 'although we shun
+      him, he is your father, dearest, and I am his wretched wife. They seek his
+      life, and he will lose it. It must not be by our means; nay, if we could
+      win him back to penitence, we should be bound to love him yet. Do not seem
+      to know him, except as one who fled with you from the jail, and if they
+      question you about him, do not answer them. God be with you through the
+      night, dear boy! God be with you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She tore herself away, and in a few seconds Barnaby was alone. He stood
+      for a long time rooted to the spot, with his face hidden in his hands;
+      then flung himself, sobbing, on his miserable bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the moon came slowly up in all her gentle glory, and the stars looked
+      out, and through the small compass of the grated window, as through the
+      narrow crevice of one good deed in a murky life of guilt, the face of
+      Heaven shone bright and merciful. He raised his head; gazed upward at the
+      quiet sky, which seemed to smile upon the earth in sadness, as if the
+      night, more thoughtful than the day, looked down in sorrow on the
+      sufferings and evil deeds of men; and felt its peace sink deep into his
+      heart. He, a poor idiot, caged in his narrow cell, was as much lifted up
+      to God, while gazing on the mild light, as the freest and most favoured
+      man in all the spacious city; and in his ill-remembered prayer, and in the
+      fragment of the childish hymn, with which he sung and crooned himself
+      asleep, there breathed as true a spirit as ever studied homily expressed,
+      or old cathedral arches echoed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As his mother crossed a yard on her way out, she saw, through a grated
+      door which separated it from another court, her husband, walking round and
+      round, with his hands folded on his breast, and his head hung down. She
+      asked the man who conducted her, if she might speak a word with this
+      prisoner. Yes, but she must be quick for he was locking up for the night,
+      and there was but a minute or so to spare. Saying this, he unlocked the
+      door, and bade her go in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It grated harshly as it turned upon its hinges, but he was deaf to the
+      noise, and still walked round and round the little court, without raising
+      his head or changing his attitude in the least. She spoke to him, but her
+      voice was weak, and failed her. At length she put herself in his track,
+      and when he came near, stretched out her hand and touched him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He started backward, trembling from head to foot; but seeing who it was,
+      demanded why she came there. Before she could reply, he spoke again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Am I to live or die? Do you murder too, or spare?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My son&mdash;our son,' she answered, 'is in this prison.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What is that to me?' he cried, stamping impatiently on the stone
+      pavement. 'I know it. He can no more aid me than I can aid him. If you are
+      come to talk of him, begone!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he resumed his walk, and hurried round the court as before.
+      When he came again to where she stood, he stopped, and said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Am I to live or die? Do you repent?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh!&mdash;do YOU?' she answered. 'Will you, while time remains? Do not
+      believe that I could save you, if I dared.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Say if you would,' he answered with an oath, as he tried to disengage
+      himself and pass on. 'Say if you would.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Listen to me for one moment,' she returned; 'for but a moment. I am but
+      newly risen from a sick-bed, from which I never hoped to rise again. The
+      best among us think, at such a time, of good intentions half-performed and
+      duties left undone. If I have ever, since that fatal night, omitted to
+      pray for your repentance before death&mdash;if I omitted, even then,
+      anything which might tend to urge it on you when the horror of your crime
+      was fresh&mdash;if, in our later meeting, I yielded to the dread that was
+      upon me, and forgot to fall upon my knees and solemnly adjure you, in the
+      name of him you sent to his account with Heaven, to prepare for the
+      retribution which must come, and which is stealing on you now&mdash;I
+      humbly before you, and in the agony of supplication in which you see me,
+      beseech that you will let me make atonement.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What is the meaning of your canting words?' he answered roughly. 'Speak
+      so that I may understand you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will,' she answered, 'I desire to. Bear with me for a moment more. The
+      hand of Him who set His curse on murder, is heavy on us now. You cannot
+      doubt it. Our son, our innocent boy, on whom His anger fell before his
+      birth, is in this place in peril of his life&mdash;brought here by your
+      guilt; yes, by that alone, as Heaven sees and knows, for he has been led
+      astray in the darkness of his intellect, and that is the terrible
+      consequence of your crime.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you come, woman-like, to load me with reproaches&mdash;' he muttered,
+      again endeavouring to break away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I do not. I have a different purpose. You must hear it. If not to-night,
+      to-morrow; if not to-morrow, at another time. You MUST hear it. Husband,
+      escape is hopeless&mdash;impossible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You tell me so, do you?' he said, raising his manacled hand, and shaking
+      it. 'You!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes,' she said, with indescribable earnestness. 'But why?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To make me easy in this jail. To make the time 'twixt this and death,
+      pass pleasantly. For my good&mdash;yes, for my good, of course,' he said,
+      grinding his teeth, and smiling at her with a livid face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not to load you with reproaches,' she replied; 'not to aggravate the
+      tortures and miseries of your condition, not to give you one hard word,
+      but to restore you to peace and hope. Husband, dear husband, if you will
+      but confess this dreadful crime; if you will but implore forgiveness of
+      Heaven and of those whom you have wronged on earth; if you will dismiss
+      these vain uneasy thoughts, which never can be realised, and will rely on
+      Penitence and on the Truth, I promise you, in the great name of the
+      Creator, whose image you have defaced, that He will comfort and console
+      you. And for myself,' she cried, clasping her hands, and looking upward,
+      'I swear before Him, as He knows my heart and reads it now, that from that
+      hour I will love and cherish you as I did of old, and watch you night and
+      day in the short interval that will remain to us, and soothe you with my
+      truest love and duty, and pray with you, that one threatening judgment may
+      be arrested, and that our boy may be spared to bless God, in his poor way,
+      in the free air and light!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He fell back and gazed at her while she poured out these words, as though
+      he were for a moment awed by her manner, and knew not what to do. But
+      anger and fear soon got the mastery of him, and he spurned her from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Begone!' he cried. 'Leave me! You plot, do you! You plot to get speech
+      with me, and let them know I am the man they say I am. A curse on you and
+      on your boy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'On him the curse has already fallen,' she replied, wringing her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let it fall heavier. Let it fall on one and all. I hate you both. The
+      worst has come to me. The only comfort that I seek or I can have, will be
+      the knowledge that it comes to you. Now go!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She would have urged him gently, even then, but he menaced her with his
+      chain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say go&mdash;I say it for the last time. The gallows has me in its
+      grasp, and it is a black phantom that may urge me on to something more.
+      Begone! I curse the hour that I was born, the man I slew, and all the
+      living world!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a paroxysm of wrath, and terror, and the fear of death, he broke from
+      her, and rushed into the darkness of his cell, where he cast himself
+      jangling down upon the stone floor, and smote it with his ironed hands.
+      The man returned to lock the dungeon door, and having done so, carried her
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On that warm, balmy night in June, there were glad faces and light hearts
+      in all quarters of the town, and sleep, banished by the late horrors, was
+      doubly welcomed. On that night, families made merry in their houses, and
+      greeted each other on the common danger they had escaped; and those who
+      had been denounced, ventured into the streets; and they who had been
+      plundered, got good shelter. Even the timorous Lord Mayor, who was
+      summoned that night before the Privy Council to answer for his conduct,
+      came back contented; observing to all his friends that he had got off very
+      well with a reprimand, and repeating with huge satisfaction his memorable
+      defence before the Council, 'that such was his temerity, he thought death
+      would have been his portion.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On that night, too, more of the scattered remnants of the mob were traced
+      to their lurking-places, and taken; and in the hospitals, and deep among
+      the ruins they had made, and in the ditches, and fields, many unshrouded
+      wretches lay dead: envied by those who had been active in the
+      disturbances, and who pillowed their doomed heads in the temporary jails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in the Tower, in a dreary room whose thick stone walls shut out the
+      hum of life, and made a stillness which the records left by former
+      prisoners with those silent witnesses seemed to deepen and intensify;
+      remorseful for every act that had been done by every man among the cruel
+      crowd; feeling for the time their guilt his own, and their lives put in
+      peril by himself; and finding, amidst such reflections, little comfort in
+      fanaticism, or in his fancied call; sat the unhappy author of all&mdash;Lord
+      George Gordon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been made prisoner that evening. 'If you are sure it's me you
+      want,' he said to the officers, who waited outside with the warrant for
+      his arrest on a charge of High Treason, 'I am ready to accompany you&mdash;'
+      which he did without resistance. He was conducted first before the Privy
+      Council, and afterwards to the Horse Guards, and then was taken by way of
+      Westminster Bridge, and back over London Bridge (for the purpose of
+      avoiding the main streets), to the Tower, under the strongest guard ever
+      known to enter its gates with a single prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all his forty thousand men, not one remained to bear him company.
+      Friends, dependents, followers,&mdash;none were there. His fawning
+      secretary had played the traitor; and he whose weakness had been goaded
+      and urged on by so many for their own purposes, was desolate and alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0074" id="link2HCH0074">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 74
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Me Dennis, having been made prisoner late in the evening, was removed to a
+      neighbouring round-house for that night, and carried before a justice for
+      examination on the next day, Saturday. The charges against him being
+      numerous and weighty, and it being in particular proved, by the testimony
+      of Gabriel Varden, that he had shown a special desire to take his life, he
+      was committed for trial. Moreover he was honoured with the distinction of
+      being considered a chief among the insurgents, and received from the
+      magistrate's lips the complimentary assurance that he was in a position of
+      imminent danger, and would do well to prepare himself for the worst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To say that Mr Dennis's modesty was not somewhat startled by these
+      honours, or that he was altogether prepared for so flattering a reception,
+      would be to claim for him a greater amount of stoical philosophy than even
+      he possessed. Indeed this gentleman's stoicism was of that not uncommon
+      kind, which enables a man to bear with exemplary fortitude the afflictions
+      of his friends, but renders him, by way of counterpoise, rather selfish
+      and sensitive in respect of any that happen to befall himself. It is
+      therefore no disparagement to the great officer in question to state,
+      without disguise or concealment, that he was at first very much alarmed,
+      and that he betrayed divers emotions of fear, until his reasoning powers
+      came to his relief, and set before him a more hopeful prospect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In proportion as Mr Dennis exercised these intellectual qualities with
+      which he was gifted, in reviewing his best chances of coming off
+      handsomely and with small personal inconvenience, his spirits rose, and
+      his confidence increased. When he remembered the great estimation in which
+      his office was held, and the constant demand for his services; when he
+      bethought himself, how the Statute Book regarded him as a kind of
+      Universal Medicine applicable to men, women, and children, of every age
+      and variety of criminal constitution; and how high he stood, in his
+      official capacity, in the favour of the Crown, and both Houses of
+      Parliament, the Mint, the Bank of England, and the Judges of the land;
+      when he recollected that whatever Ministry was in or out, he remained
+      their peculiar pet and panacea, and that for his sake England stood single
+      and conspicuous among the civilised nations of the earth: when he called
+      these things to mind and dwelt upon them, he felt certain that the
+      national gratitude MUST relieve him from the consequences of his late
+      proceedings, and would certainly restore him to his old place in the happy
+      social system.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these crumbs, or as one may say, with these whole loaves of comfort
+      to regale upon, Mr Dennis took his place among the escort that awaited
+      him, and repaired to jail with a manly indifference. Arriving at Newgate,
+      where some of the ruined cells had been hastily fitted up for the safe
+      keeping of rioters, he was warmly received by the turnkeys, as an unusual
+      and interesting case, which agreeably relieved their monotonous duties. In
+      this spirit, he was fettered with great care, and conveyed into the
+      interior of the prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brother,' cried the hangman, as, following an officer, he traversed under
+      these novel circumstances the remains of passages with which he was well
+      acquainted, 'am I going to be along with anybody?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you'd have left more walls standing, you'd have been alone,' was the
+      reply. 'As it is, we're cramped for room, and you'll have company.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well,' returned Dennis, 'I don't object to company, brother. I rather
+      like company. I was formed for society, I was.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That's rather a pity, an't it?' said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No,' answered Dennis, 'I'm not aware that it is. Why should it be a pity,
+      brother?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh! I don't know,' said the man carelessly. 'I thought that was what you
+      meant. Being formed for society, and being cut off in your flower, you
+      know&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say,' interposed the other quickly, 'what are you talking of? Don't.
+      Who's a-going to be cut off in their flowers?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Oh, nobody particular. I thought you was, perhaps,' said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dennis wiped his face, which had suddenly grown very hot, and remarking
+      in a tremulous voice to his conductor that he had always been fond of his
+      joke, followed him in silence until he stopped at a door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This is my quarters, is it?' he asked facetiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This is the shop, sir,' replied his friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was walking in, but not with the best possible grace, when he suddenly
+      stopped, and started back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Halloa!' said the officer. 'You're nervous.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nervous!' whispered Dennis in great alarm. 'Well I may be. Shut the
+      door.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I will, when you're in,' returned the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But I can't go in there,' whispered Dennis. 'I can't be shut up with that
+      man. Do you want me to be throttled, brother?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer seemed to entertain no particular desire on the subject one
+      way or other, but briefly remarking that he had his orders, and intended
+      to obey them, pushed him in, turned the key, and retired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dennis stood trembling with his back against the door, and involuntarily
+      raising his arm to defend himself, stared at a man, the only other tenant
+      of the cell, who lay, stretched at his fall length, upon a stone bench,
+      and who paused in his deep breathing as if he were about to wake. But he
+      rolled over on one side, let his arm fall negligently down, drew a long
+      sigh, and murmuring indistinctly, fell fast asleep again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Relieved in some degree by this, the hangman took his eyes for an instant
+      from the slumbering figure, and glanced round the cell in search of some
+      'vantage-ground or weapon of defence. There was nothing moveable within
+      it, but a clumsy table which could not be displaced without noise, and a
+      heavy chair. Stealing on tiptoe towards this latter piece of furniture, he
+      retired with it into the remotest corner, and intrenching himself behind
+      it, watched the enemy with the utmost vigilance and caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sleeping man was Hugh; and perhaps it was not unnatural for Dennis to
+      feel in a state of very uncomfortable suspense, and to wish with his whole
+      soul that he might never wake again. Tired of standing, he crouched down
+      in his corner after some time, and rested on the cold pavement; but
+      although Hugh's breathing still proclaimed that he was sleeping soundly,
+      he could not trust him out of his sight for an instant. He was so afraid
+      of him, and of some sudden onslaught, that he was not content to see his
+      closed eyes through the chair-back, but every now and then, rose
+      stealthily to his feet, and peered at him with outstretched neck, to
+      assure himself that he really was still asleep, and was not about to
+      spring upon him when he was off his guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He slept so long and so soundly, that Mr Dennis began to think he might
+      sleep on until the turnkey visited them. He was congratulating himself
+      upon these promising appearances, and blessing his stars with much
+      fervour, when one or two unpleasant symptoms manifested themselves: such
+      as another motion of the arm, another sigh, a restless tossing of the
+      head. Then, just as it seemed that he was about to fall heavily to the
+      ground from his narrow bed, Hugh's eyes opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened that his face was turned directly towards his unexpected
+      visitor. He looked lazily at him for some half-dozen seconds without any
+      aspect of surprise or recognition; then suddenly jumped up, and with a
+      great oath pronounced his name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Keep off, brother, keep off!' cried Dennis, dodging behind the chair.
+      'Don't do me a mischief. I'm a prisoner like you. I haven't the free use
+      of my limbs. I'm quite an old man. Don't hurt me!'
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0318m.jpg" alt="0318m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0318.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      He whined out the last three words in such piteous accents, that Hugh, who
+      had dragged away the chair, and aimed a blow at him with it, checked
+      himself, and bade him get up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll get up certainly, brother,' cried Dennis, anxious to propitiate him
+      by any means in his power. 'I'll comply with any request of yours, I'm
+      sure. There&mdash;I'm up now. What can I do for you? Only say the word,
+      and I'll do it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What can you do for me!' cried Hugh, clutching him by the collar with
+      both hands, and shaking him as though he were bent on stopping his breath
+      by that means. 'What have you done for me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The best. The best that could be done,' returned the hangman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh made him no answer, but shaking him in his strong grip until his
+      teeth chattered in his head, cast him down upon the floor, and flung
+      himself on the bench again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If it wasn't for the comfort it is to me, to see you here,' he muttered,
+      'I'd have crushed your head against it; I would.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some time before Dennis had breath enough to speak, but as soon as
+      he could resume his propitiatory strain, he did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I did the best that could be done, brother,' he whined; 'I did indeed. I
+      was forced with two bayonets and I don't know how many bullets on each
+      side of me, to point you out. If you hadn't been taken, you'd have been
+      shot; and what a sight that would have been&mdash;a fine young man like
+      you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Will it be a better sight now?' asked Hugh, raising his head, with such a
+      fierce expression, that the other durst not answer him just then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A deal better,' said Dennis meekly, after a pause. 'First, there's all
+      the chances of the law, and they're five hundred strong. We may get off
+      scot-free. Unlikelier things than that have come to pass. Even if we
+      shouldn't, and the chances fail, we can but be worked off once: and when
+      it's well done, it's so neat, so skilful, so captiwating, if that don't
+      seem too strong a word, that you'd hardly believe it could be brought to
+      sich perfection. Kill one's fellow-creeturs off, with muskets!&mdash;Pah!'
+      and his nature so revolted at the bare idea, that he spat upon the dungeon
+      pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His warming on this topic, which to one unacquainted with his pursuits and
+      tastes appeared like courage; together with his artful suppression of his
+      own secret hopes, and mention of himself as being in the same condition
+      with Hugh; did more to soothe that ruffian than the most elaborate
+      arguments could have done, or the most abject submission. He rested his
+      arms upon his knees, and stooping forward, looked from beneath his shaggy
+      hair at Dennis, with something of a smile upon his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The fact is, brother,' said the hangman, in a tone of greater confidence,
+      'that you got into bad company. The man that was with you was looked after
+      more than you, and it was him I wanted. As to me, what have I got by it?
+      Here we are, in one and the same plight.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Lookee, rascal,' said Hugh, contracting his brows, 'I'm not altogether
+      such a shallow blade but I know you expected to get something by it, or
+      you wouldn't have done it. But it's done, and you're here, and it will
+      soon be all over with you and me; and I'd as soon die as live, or live as
+      die. Why should I trouble myself to have revenge on you? To eat, and
+      drink, and go to sleep, as long as I stay here, is all I care for. If
+      there was but a little more sun to bask in, than can find its way into
+      this cursed place, I'd lie in it all day, and not trouble myself to sit or
+      stand up once. That's all the care I have for myself. Why should I care
+      for YOU?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finishing this speech with a growl like the yawn of a wild beast, he
+      stretched himself upon the bench again, and closed his eyes once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After looking at him in silence for some moments, Dennis, who was greatly
+      relieved to find him in this mood, drew the chair towards his rough couch
+      and sat down near him&mdash;taking the precaution, however, to keep out of
+      the range of his brawny arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well said, brother; nothing could be better said,' he ventured to
+      observe. 'We'll eat and drink of the best, and sleep our best, and make
+      the best of it every way. Anything can be got for money. Let's spend it
+      merrily.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay,' said Hugh, coiling himself into a new position.&mdash;'Where is it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, they took mine from me at the lodge,' said Mr Dennis; 'but mine's a
+      peculiar case.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is it? They took mine too.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why then, I tell you what, brother,' Dennis began. 'You must look up your
+      friends&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My friends!' cried Hugh, starting up and resting on his hands. 'Where are
+      my friends?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Your relations then,' said Dennis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ha ha ha!' laughed Hugh, waving one arm above his head. 'He talks of
+      friends to me&mdash;talks of relations to a man whose mother died the
+      death in store for her son, and left him, a hungry brat, without a face he
+      knew in all the world! He talks of this to me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Brother,' cried the hangman, whose features underwent a sudden change,
+      'you don't mean to say&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I mean to say,' Hugh interposed, 'that they hung her up at Tyburn. What
+      was good enough for her, is good enough for me. Let them do the like by me
+      as soon as they please&mdash;the sooner the better. Say no more to me. I'm
+      going to sleep.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But I want to speak to you; I want to hear more about that,' said Dennis,
+      changing colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you're a wise man,' growled Hugh, raising his head to look at him with
+      a frown, 'you'll hold your tongue. I tell you I'm going to sleep.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dennis venturing to say something more in spite of this caution, the
+      desperate fellow struck at him with all his force, and missing him, lay
+      down again with many muttered oaths and imprecations, and turned his face
+      towards the wall. After two or three ineffectual twitches at his dress,
+      which he was hardy enough to venture upon, notwithstanding his dangerous
+      humour, Mr Dennis, who burnt, for reasons of his own, to pursue the
+      conversation, had no alternative but to sit as patiently as he could:
+      waiting his further pleasure.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0320m.jpg" alt="0320m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0320.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0075" id="link2HCH0075">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 75
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A month has elapsed,&mdash;and we stand in the bedchamber of Sir John
+      Chester. Through the half-opened window, the Temple Garden looks green and
+      pleasant; the placid river, gay with boat and barge, and dimpled with the
+      plash of many an oar, sparkles in the distance; the sky is blue and clear;
+      and the summer air steals gently in, filling the room with perfume. The
+      very town, the smoky town, is radiant. High roofs and steeple-tops, wont
+      to look black and sullen, smile a cheerful grey; every old gilded vane,
+      and ball, and cross, glitters anew in the bright morning sun; and, high
+      among them all, St Paul's towers up, showing its lofty crest in burnished
+      gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John was breakfasting in bed. His chocolate and toast stood upon a
+      little table at his elbow; books and newspapers lay ready to his hand,
+      upon the coverlet; and, sometimes pausing to glance with an air of
+      tranquil satisfaction round the well-ordered room, and sometimes to gaze
+      indolently at the summer sky, he ate, and drank, and read the news
+      luxuriously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cheerful influence of the morning seemed to have some effect, even
+      upon his equable temper. His manner was unusually gay; his smile more
+      placid and agreeable than usual; his voice more clear and pleasant. He
+      laid down the newspaper he had been reading; leaned back upon his pillow
+      with the air of one who resigned himself to a train of charming
+      recollections; and after a pause, soliloquised as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And my friend the centaur, goes the way of his mamma! I am not surprised.
+      And his mysterious friend Mr Dennis, likewise! I am not surprised. And my
+      old postman, the exceedingly free-and-easy young madman of Chigwell! I am
+      quite rejoiced. It's the very best thing that could possibly happen to
+      him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After delivering himself of these remarks, he fell again into his smiling
+      train of reflection; from which he roused himself at length to finish his
+      chocolate, which was getting cold, and ring the bell for more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new supply arriving, he took the cup from his servant's hand; and
+      saying, with a charming affability, 'I am obliged to you, Peak,' dismissed
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is a remarkable circumstance,' he mused, dallying lazily with the
+      teaspoon, 'that my friend the madman should have been within an ace of
+      escaping, on his trial; and it was a good stroke of chance (or, as the
+      world would say, a providential occurrence) that the brother of my Lord
+      Mayor should have been in court, with other country justices, into whose
+      very dense heads curiosity had penetrated. For though the brother of my
+      Lord Mayor was decidedly wrong; and established his near relationship to
+      that amusing person beyond all doubt, in stating that my friend was sane,
+      and had, to his knowledge, wandered about the country with a vagabond
+      parent, avowing revolutionary and rebellious sentiments; I am not the less
+      obliged to him for volunteering that evidence. These insane creatures make
+      such very odd and embarrassing remarks, that they really ought to be
+      hanged for the comfort of society.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The country justice had indeed turned the wavering scale against poor
+      Barnaby, and solved the doubt that trembled in his favour. Grip little
+      thought how much he had to answer for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They will be a singular party,' said Sir John, leaning his head upon his
+      hand, and sipping his chocolate; 'a very curious party. The hangman
+      himself; the centaur; and the madman. The centaur would make a very
+      handsome preparation in Surgeons' Hall, and would benefit science
+      extremely. I hope they have taken care to bespeak him.&mdash;Peak, I am
+      not at home, of course, to anybody but the hairdresser.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This reminder to his servant was called forth by a knock at the door,
+      which the man hastened to open. After a prolonged murmur of question and
+      answer, he returned; and as he cautiously closed the room-door behind him,
+      a man was heard to cough in the passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now, it is of no use, Peak,' said Sir John, raising his hand in
+      deprecation of his delivering any message; 'I am not at home. I cannot
+      possibly hear you. I told you I was not at home, and my word is sacred.
+      Will you never do as you are desired?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having nothing to oppose to this reproof, the man was about to withdraw,
+      when the visitor who had given occasion to it, probably rendered impatient
+      by delay, knocked with his knuckles at the chamber-door, and called out
+      that he had urgent business with Sir John Chester, which admitted of no
+      delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Let him in,' said Sir John. 'My good fellow,' he added, when the door was
+      opened, 'how come you to intrude yourself in this extraordinary manner
+      upon the privacy of a gentleman? How can you be so wholly destitute of
+      self-respect as to be guilty of such remarkable ill-breeding?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My business, Sir John, is not of a common kind, I do assure you,'
+      returned the person he addressed. 'If I have taken any uncommon course to
+      get admission to you, I hope I shall be pardoned on that account.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well! we shall see; we shall see,' returned Sir John, whose face cleared
+      up when he saw who it was, and whose prepossessing smile was now restored.
+      'I am sure we have met before,' he added in his winning tone, 'but really
+      I forget your name?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My name is Gabriel Varden, sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Varden, of course, Varden,' returned Sir John, tapping his forehead.
+      'Dear me, how very defective my memory becomes! Varden to be sure&mdash;Mr
+      Varden the locksmith. You have a charming wife, Mr Varden, and a most
+      beautiful daughter. They are well?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel thanked him, and said they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I rejoice to hear it,' said Sir John. 'Commend me to them when you
+      return, and say that I wished I were fortunate enough to convey, myself,
+      the salute which I entrust you to deliver. And what,' he asked very
+      sweetly, after a moment's pause, 'can I do for you? You may command me
+      freely.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thank you, Sir John,' said Gabriel, with some pride in his manner, 'but
+      I have come to ask no favour of you, though I come on business.&mdash;Private,'
+      he added, with a glance at the man who stood looking on, 'and very
+      pressing business.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I cannot say you are the more welcome for being independent, and having
+      nothing to ask of me,' returned Sir John, graciously, 'for I should have
+      been happy to render you a service; still, you are welcome on any terms.
+      Oblige me with some more chocolate, Peak, and don't wait.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man retired, and left them alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir John,' said Gabriel, 'I am a working-man, and have been so, all my
+      life. If I don't prepare you enough for what I have to tell; if I come to
+      the point too abruptly; and give you a shock, which a gentleman could have
+      spared you, or at all events lessened very much; I hope you will give me
+      credit for meaning well. I wish to be careful and considerate, and I trust
+      that in a straightforward person like me, you'll take the will for the
+      deed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Varden,' returned the other, perfectly composed under this exordium;
+      'I beg you'll take a chair. Chocolate, perhaps, you don't relish? Well! it
+      IS an acquired taste, no doubt.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir John,' said Gabriel, who had acknowledged with a bow the invitation
+      to be seated, but had not availed himself of it. 'Sir John'&mdash;he
+      dropped his voice and drew nearer to the bed&mdash;'I am just now come
+      from Newgate&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Good Gad!' cried Sir John, hastily sitting up in bed; 'from Newgate, Mr
+      Varden! How could you be so very imprudent as to come from Newgate!
+      Newgate, where there are jail-fevers, and ragged people, and bare-footed
+      men and women, and a thousand horrors! Peak, bring the camphor, quick!
+      Heaven and earth, Mr Varden, my dear, good soul, how COULD you come from
+      Newgate?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel returned no answer, but looked on in silence while Peak (who had
+      entered with the hot chocolate) ran to a drawer, and returning with a
+      bottle, sprinkled his master's dressing-gown and the bedding; and besides
+      moistening the locksmith himself, plentifully, described a circle round
+      about him on the carpet. When he had done this, he again retired; and Sir
+      John, reclining in an easy attitude upon his pillow, once more turned a
+      smiling face towards his visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will forgive me, Mr Varden, I am sure, for being at first a little
+      sensitive both on your account and my own. I confess I was startled,
+      notwithstanding your delicate exordium. Might I ask you to do me the
+      favour not to approach any nearer?&mdash;You have really come from
+      Newgate!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith inclined his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In-deed! And now, Mr Varden, all exaggeration and embellishment apart,'
+      said Sir John Chester, confidentially, as he sipped his chocolate, 'what
+      kind of place IS Newgate?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'A strange place, Sir John,' returned the locksmith, 'of a sad and doleful
+      kind. A strange place, where many strange things are heard and seen; but
+      few more strange than that I come to tell you of. The case is urgent. I am
+      sent here.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not&mdash;no, no&mdash;not from the jail?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, Sir John; from the jail.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And my good, credulous, open-hearted friend,' said Sir John, setting down
+      his cup, and laughing,&mdash;'by whom?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'By a man called Dennis&mdash;for many years the hangman, and to-morrow
+      morning the hanged,' returned the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John had expected&mdash;had been quite certain from the first&mdash;that
+      he would say he had come from Hugh, and was prepared to meet him on that
+      point. But this answer occasioned him a degree of astonishment, which, for
+      the moment, he could not, with all his command of feature, prevent his
+      face from expressing. He quickly subdued it, however, and said in the same
+      light tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And what does the gentleman require of me? My memory may be at fault
+      again, but I don't recollect that I ever had the pleasure of an
+      introduction to him, or that I ever numbered him among my personal
+      friends, I do assure you, Mr Varden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir John,' returned the locksmith, gravely, 'I will tell you, as nearly
+      as I can, in the words he used to me, what he desires that you should
+      know, and what you ought to know without a moment's loss of time.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John Chester settled himself in a position of greater repose, and
+      looked at his visitor with an expression of face which seemed to say,
+      'This is an amusing fellow! I'll hear him out.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You may have seen in the newspapers, sir,' said Gabriel, pointing to the
+      one which lay by his side, 'that I was a witness against this man upon his
+      trial some days since; and that it was not his fault I was alive, and able
+      to speak to what I knew.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'MAY have seen!' cried Sir John. 'My dear Mr Varden, you are quite a
+      public character, and live in all men's thoughts most deservedly. Nothing
+      can exceed the interest with which I read your testimony, and remembered
+      that I had the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with you.&mdash;-I hope
+      we shall have your portrait published?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This morning, sir,' said the locksmith, taking no notice of these
+      compliments, 'early this morning, a message was brought to me from
+      Newgate, at this man's request, desiring that I would go and see him, for
+      he had something particular to communicate. I needn't tell you that he is
+      no friend of mine, and that I had never seen him, until the rioters beset
+      my house.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John fanned himself gently with the newspaper, and nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I knew, however, from the general report,' resumed Gabriel, 'that the
+      order for his execution to-morrow, went down to the prison last night; and
+      looking upon him as a dying man, I complied with his request.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are quite a Christian, Mr Varden,' said Sir John; 'and in that
+      amiable capacity, you increase my desire that you should take a chair.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He said,' continued Gabriel, looking steadily at the knight, 'that he had
+      sent to me, because he had no friend or companion in the whole world
+      (being the common hangman), and because he believed, from the way in which
+      I had given my evidence, that I was an honest man, and would act truly by
+      him. He said that, being shunned by every one who knew his calling, even
+      by people of the lowest and most wretched grade, and finding, when he
+      joined the rioters, that the men he acted with had no suspicion of it
+      (which I believe is true enough, for a poor fool of an old 'prentice of
+      mine was one of them), he had kept his own counsel, up to the time of his
+      being taken and put in jail.'
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      'Very discreet of Mr Dennis,' observed Sir John with a slight yawn, though
+      still with the utmost affability, 'but&mdash;except for your admirable and
+      lucid manner of telling it, which is perfect&mdash;not very interesting to
+      me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'When,' pursued the locksmith, quite unabashed and wholly regardless of
+      these interruptions, 'when he was taken to the jail, he found that his
+      fellow-prisoner, in the same room, was a young man, Hugh by name, a leader
+      in the riots, who had been betrayed and given up by himself. From
+      something which fell from this unhappy creature in the course of the angry
+      words they had at meeting, he discovered that his mother had suffered the
+      death to which they both are now condemned.&mdash;The time is very short,
+      Sir John.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight laid down his paper fan, replaced his cup upon the table at his
+      side, and, saving for the smile that lurked about his mouth, looked at the
+      locksmith with as much steadiness as the locksmith looked at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They have been in prison now, a month. One conversation led to many more;
+      and the hangman soon found, from a comparison of time, and place, and
+      dates, that he had executed the sentence of the law upon this woman,
+      himself. She had been tempted by want&mdash;as so many people are&mdash;into
+      the easy crime of passing forged notes. She was young and handsome; and
+      the traders who employ men, women, and children in this traffic, looked
+      upon her as one who was well adapted for their business, and who would
+      probably go on without suspicion for a long time. But they were mistaken;
+      for she was stopped in the commission of her very first offence, and died
+      for it. She was of gipsy blood, Sir John&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might have been the effect of a passing cloud which obscured the sun,
+      and cast a shadow on his face; but the knight turned deadly pale. Still he
+      met the locksmith's eye, as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She was of gipsy blood, Sir John,' repeated Gabriel, 'and had a high,
+      free spirit. This, and her good looks, and her lofty manner, interested
+      some gentlemen who were easily moved by dark eyes; and efforts were made
+      to save her. They might have been successful, if she would have given them
+      any clue to her history. But she never would, or did. There was reason to
+      suspect that she would make an attempt upon her life. A watch was set upon
+      her night and day; and from that time she never spoke again&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John stretched out his hand towards his cup. The locksmith going on,
+      arrested it half-way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'Until she had but a minute to live. Then she broke silence, and
+      said, in a low firm voice which no one heard but this executioner, for all
+      other living creatures had retired and left her to her fate, "If I had a
+      dagger within these fingers and he was within my reach, I would strike him
+      dead before me, even now!" The man asked "Who?" She said, "The father of
+      her boy."'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John drew back his outstretched hand, and seeing that the locksmith
+      paused, signed to him with easy politeness and without any new appearance
+      of emotion, to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was the first word she had ever spoken, from which it could be
+      understood that she had any relative on earth. "Was the child alive?" he
+      asked. "Yes." He asked her where it was, its name, and whether she had any
+      wish respecting it. She had but one, she said. It was that the boy might
+      live and grow, in utter ignorance of his father, so that no arts might
+      teach him to be gentle and forgiving. When he became a man, she trusted to
+      the God of their tribe to bring the father and the son together, and
+      revenge her through her child. He asked her other questions, but she spoke
+      no more. Indeed, he says, she scarcely said this much, to him, but stood
+      with her face turned upwards to the sky, and never looked towards him
+      once.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John took a pinch of snuff; glanced approvingly at an elegant little
+      sketch, entitled 'Nature,' on the wall; and raising his eyes to the
+      locksmith's face again, said, with an air of courtesy and patronage, 'You
+      were observing, Mr Varden&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That she never,' returned the locksmith, who was not to be diverted by
+      any artifice from his firm manner, and his steady gaze, 'that she never
+      looked towards him once, Sir John; and so she died, and he forgot her.
+      But, some years afterwards, a man was sentenced to die the same death, who
+      was a gipsy too; a sunburnt, swarthy fellow, almost a wild man; and while
+      he lay in prison, under sentence, he, who had seen the hangman more than
+      once while he was free, cut an image of him on his stick, by way of
+      braving death, and showing those who attended on him, how little he cared
+      or thought about it. He gave this stick into his hands at Tyburn, and told
+      him then, that the woman I have spoken of had left her own people to join
+      a fine gentleman, and that, being deserted by him, and cast off by her old
+      friends, she had sworn within her own proud breast, that whatever her
+      misery might be, she would ask no help of any human being. He told him
+      that she had kept her word to the last; and that, meeting even him in the
+      streets&mdash;he had been fond of her once, it seems&mdash;she had slipped
+      from him by a trick, and he never saw her again, until, being in one of
+      the frequent crowds at Tyburn, with some of his rough companions, he had
+      been driven almost mad by seeing, in the criminal under another name,
+      whose death he had come to witness, herself. Standing in the same place in
+      which she had stood, he told the hangman this, and told him, too, her real
+      name, which only her own people and the gentleman for whose sake she had
+      left them, knew. That name he will tell again, Sir John, to none but you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To none but me!' exclaimed the knight, pausing in the act of raising his
+      cup to his lips with a perfectly steady hand, and curling up his little
+      finger for the better display of a brilliant ring with which it was
+      ornamented: 'but me!&mdash;My dear Mr Varden, how very preposterous, to
+      select me for his confidence! With you at his elbow, too, who are so
+      perfectly trustworthy!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir John, Sir John,' returned the locksmith, 'at twelve tomorrow, these
+      men die. Hear the few words I have to add, and do not hope to deceive me;
+      for though I am a plain man of humble station, and you are a gentleman of
+      rank and learning, the truth raises me to your level, and I KNOW that you
+      anticipate the disclosure with which I am about to end, and that you
+      believe this doomed man, Hugh, to be your son.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay,' said Sir John, bantering him with a gay air; 'the wild gentleman,
+      who died so suddenly, scarcely went as far as that, I think?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He did not,' returned the locksmith, 'for she had bound him by some
+      pledge, known only to these people, and which the worst among them
+      respect, not to tell your name: but, in a fantastic pattern on the stick,
+      he had carved some letters, and when the hangman asked it, he bade him,
+      especially if he should ever meet with her son in after life, remember
+      that place well.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What place?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Chester.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight finished his cup of chocolate with an appearance of infinite
+      relish, and carefully wiped his lips upon his handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Sir John,' said the locksmith, 'this is all that has been told to me; but
+      since these two men have been left for death, they have conferred together
+      closely. See them, and hear what they can add. See this Dennis, and learn
+      from him what he has not trusted to me. If you, who hold the clue to all,
+      want corroboration (which you do not), the means are easy.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And to what,' said Sir John Chester, rising on his elbow, after smoothing
+      the pillow for its reception; 'my dear, good-natured, estimable Mr Varden&mdash;with
+      whom I cannot be angry if I would&mdash;to what does all this tend?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I take you for a man, Sir John, and I suppose it tends to some pleading
+      of natural affection in your breast,' returned the locksmith. 'I suppose
+      to the straining of every nerve, and the exertion of all the influence you
+      have, or can make, in behalf of your miserable son, and the man who has
+      disclosed his existence to you. At the worst, I suppose to your seeing
+      your son, and awakening him to a sense of his crime and danger. He has no
+      such sense now. Think what his life must have been, when he said in my
+      hearing, that if I moved you to anything, it would be to hastening his
+      death, and ensuring his silence, if you had it in your power!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And have you, my good Mr Varden,' said Sir John in a tone of mild
+      reproof, 'have you really lived to your present age, and remained so very
+      simple and credulous, as to approach a gentleman of established character
+      with such credentials as these, from desperate men in their last
+      extremity, catching at any straw? Oh dear! Oh fie, fie!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith was going to interpose, but he stopped him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'On any other subject, Mr Varden, I shall be delighted&mdash;I shall be
+      charmed&mdash;to converse with you, but I owe it to my own character not
+      to pursue this topic for another moment.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Think better of it, sir, when I am gone,' returned the locksmith; 'think
+      better of it, sir. Although you have, thrice within as many weeks, turned
+      your lawful son, Mr Edward, from your door, you may have time, you may
+      have years to make your peace with HIM, Sir John: but that twelve o'clock
+      will soon be here, and soon be past for ever.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I thank you very much,' returned the knight, kissing his delicate hand to
+      the locksmith, 'for your guileless advice; and I only wish, my good soul,
+      although your simplicity is quite captivating, that you had a little more
+      worldly wisdom. I never so much regretted the arrival of my hairdresser as
+      I do at this moment. God bless you! Good morning! You'll not forget my
+      message to the ladies, Mr Varden? Peak, show Mr Varden to the door.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gabriel said no more, but gave the knight a parting look, and left him. As
+      he quitted the room, Sir John's face changed; and the smile gave place to
+      a haggard and anxious expression, like that of a weary actor jaded by the
+      performance of a difficult part. He rose from his bed with a heavy sigh,
+      and wrapped himself in his morning-gown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'So she kept her word,' he said, 'and was constant to her threat! I would
+      I had never seen that dark face of hers,&mdash;I might have read these
+      consequences in it, from the first. This affair would make a noise abroad,
+      if it rested on better evidence; but, as it is, and by not joining the
+      scattered links of the chain, I can afford to slight it.&mdash;Extremely
+      distressing to be the parent of such an uncouth creature! Still, I gave
+      him very good advice. I told him he would certainly be hanged. I could
+      have done no more if I had known of our relationship; and there are a
+      great many fathers who have never done as much for THEIR natural children.&mdash;The
+      hairdresser may come in, Peak!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hairdresser came in; and saw in Sir John Chester (whose accommodating
+      conscience was soon quieted by the numerous precedents that occurred to
+      him in support of his last observation), the same imperturbable,
+      fascinating, elegant gentleman he had seen yesterday, and many yesterdays
+      before.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%">
+      <img src="images/0322m.jpg" alt="0322m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0322.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0076" id="link2HCH0076">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 76
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As the locksmith walked slowly away from Sir John Chester's chambers, he
+      lingered under the trees which shaded the path, almost hoping that he
+      might be summoned to return. He had turned back thrice, and still loitered
+      at the corner, when the clock struck twelve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a solemn sound, and not merely for its reference to to-morrow; for
+      he knew that in that chime the murderer's knell was rung. He had seen him
+      pass along the crowded street, amidst the execration of the throng; and
+      marked his quivering lip, and trembling limbs; the ashy hue upon his face,
+      his clammy brow, the wild distraction of his eye&mdash;the fear of death
+      that swallowed up all other thoughts, and gnawed without cessation at his
+      heart and brain. He had marked the wandering look, seeking for hope, and
+      finding, turn where it would, despair. He had seen the remorseful,
+      pitiful, desolate creature, riding, with his coffin by his side, to the
+      gibbet. He knew that, to the last, he had been an unyielding, obdurate
+      man; that in the savage terror of his condition he had hardened, rather
+      than relented, to his wife and child; and that the last words which had
+      passed his white lips were curses on them as his enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale had determined to be there, and see it done. Nothing but the
+      evidence of his own senses could satisfy that gloomy thirst for
+      retribution which had been gathering upon him for so many years. The
+      locksmith knew this, and when the chimes had ceased to vibrate, hurried
+      away to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For these two men,' he said, as he went, 'I can do no more. Heaven have
+      mercy on them!&mdash;Alas! I say I can do no more for them, but whom can I
+      help? Mary Rudge will have a home, and a firm friend when she most wants
+      one; but Barnaby&mdash;poor Barnaby&mdash;willing Barnaby&mdash;what aid
+      can I render him? There are many, many men of sense, God forgive me,'
+      cried the honest locksmith, stopping in a narrow count to pass his hand
+      across his eyes, 'I could better afford to lose than Barnaby. We have
+      always been good friends, but I never knew, till now, how much I loved the
+      lad.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were not many in the great city who thought of Barnaby that day,
+      otherwise than as an actor in a show which was to take place to-morrow.
+      But if the whole population had had him in their minds, and had wished his
+      life to be spared, not one among them could have done so with a purer zeal
+      or greater singleness of heart than the good locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby was to die. There was no hope. It is not the least evil attendant
+      upon the frequent exhibition of this last dread punishment, of Death, that
+      it hardens the minds of those who deal it out, and makes them, though they
+      be amiable men in other respects, indifferent to, or unconscious of, their
+      great responsibility. The word had gone forth that Barnaby was to die. It
+      went forth, every month, for lighter crimes. It was a thing so common,
+      that very few were startled by the awful sentence, or cared to question
+      its propriety. Just then, too, when the law had been so flagrantly
+      outraged, its dignity must be asserted. The symbol of its dignity,&mdash;stamped
+      upon every page of the criminal statute-book,&mdash;was the gallows; and
+      Barnaby was to die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had tried to save him. The locksmith had carried petitions and
+      memorials to the fountain-head, with his own hands. But the well was not
+      one of mercy, and Barnaby was to die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the first his mother had never left him, save at night; and with her
+      beside him, he was as usual contented. On this last day, he was more
+      elated and more proud than he had been yet; and when she dropped the book
+      she had been reading to him aloud, and fell upon his neck, he stopped in
+      his busy task of folding a piece of crape about his hat, and wondered at
+      her anguish. Grip uttered a feeble croak, half in encouragement, it
+      seemed, and half in remonstrance, but he wanted heart to sustain it, and
+      lapsed abruptly into silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With them who stood upon the brink of the great gulf which none can see
+      beyond, Time, so soon to lose itself in vast Eternity, rolled on like a
+      mighty river, swollen and rapid as it nears the sea. It was morning but
+      now; they had sat and talked together in a dream; and here was evening.
+      The dreadful hour of separation, which even yesterday had seemed so
+      distant, was at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked out into the courtyard, clinging to each other, but not
+      speaking. Barnaby knew that the jail was a dull, sad, miserable place, and
+      looked forward to to-morrow, as to a passage from it to something bright
+      and beautiful. He had a vague impression too, that he was expected to be
+      brave&mdash;that he was a man of great consequence, and that the prison
+      people would be glad to make him weep. He trod the ground more firmly as
+      he thought of this, and bade her take heart and cry no more, and feel how
+      steady his hand was. 'They call me silly, mother. They shall see
+      to-morrow!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dennis and Hugh were in the courtyard. Hugh came forth from his cell as
+      they did, stretching himself as though he had been sleeping. Dennis sat
+      upon a bench in a corner, with his knees and chin huddled together, and
+      rocked himself to and fro like a person in severe pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mother and son remained on one side of the court, and these two men
+      upon the other. Hugh strode up and down, glancing fiercely every now and
+      then at the bright summer sky, and looking round, when he had done so, at
+      the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'No reprieve, no reprieve! Nobody comes near us. There's only the night
+      left now!' moaned Dennis faintly, as he wrung his hands. 'Do you think
+      they'll reprieve me in the night, brother? I've known reprieves come in
+      the night, afore now. I've known 'em come as late as five, six, and seven
+      o'clock in the morning. Don't you think there's a good chance yet,&mdash;don't
+      you? Say you do. Say you do, young man,' whined the miserable creature,
+      with an imploring gesture towards Barnaby, 'or I shall go mad!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Better be mad than sane, here,' said Hugh. 'GO mad.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But tell me what you think. Somebody tell me what he thinks!' cried the
+      wretched object,&mdash;so mean, and wretched, and despicable, that even
+      Pity's self might have turned away, at sight of such a being in the
+      likeness of a man&mdash;'isn't there a chance for me,&mdash;isn't there a
+      good chance for me? Isn't it likely they may be doing this to frighten me?
+      Don't you think it is? Oh!' he almost shrieked, as he wrung his hands,
+      'won't anybody give me comfort!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You ought to be the best, instead of the worst,' said Hugh, stopping
+      before him. 'Ha, ha, ha! See the hangman, when it comes home to him!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You don't know what it is,' cried Dennis, actually writhing as he spoke:
+      'I do. That I should come to be worked off! I! I! That I should come!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And why not?' said Hugh, as he thrust back his matted hair to get a
+      better view of his late associate. 'How often, before I knew your trade,
+      did I hear you talking of this as if it was a treat?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I an't unconsistent,' screamed the miserable creature; 'I'd talk so
+      again, if I was hangman. Some other man has got my old opinions at this
+      minute. That makes it worse. Somebody's longing to work me off. I know by
+      myself that somebody must be!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He'll soon have his longing,' said Hugh, resuming his walk. 'Think of
+      that, and be quiet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although one of these men displayed, in his speech and bearing, the most
+      reckless hardihood; and the other, in his every word and action, testified
+      such an extreme of abject cowardice that it was humiliating to see him; it
+      would be difficult to say which of them would most have repelled and
+      shocked an observer. Hugh's was the dogged desperation of a savage at the
+      stake; the hangman was reduced to a condition little better, if any, than
+      that of a hound with the halter round his neck. Yet, as Mr Dennis knew and
+      could have told them, these were the two commonest states of mind in
+      persons brought to their pass. Such was the wholesome growth of the seed
+      sown by the law, that this kind of harvest was usually looked for, as a
+      matter of course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one respect they all agreed. The wandering and uncontrollable train of
+      thought, suggesting sudden recollections of things distant and long
+      forgotten and remote from each other&mdash;the vague restless craving for
+      something undefined, which nothing could satisfy&mdash;the swift flight of
+      the minutes, fusing themselves into hours, as if by enchantment&mdash;the
+      rapid coming of the solemn night&mdash;the shadow of death always upon
+      them, and yet so dim and faint, that objects the meanest and most trivial
+      started from the gloom beyond, and forced themselves upon the view&mdash;the
+      impossibility of holding the mind, even if they had been so disposed, to
+      penitence and preparation, or of keeping it to any point while one hideous
+      fascination tempted it away&mdash;these things were common to them all,
+      and varied only in their outward tokens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Fetch me the book I left within&mdash;upon your bed,' she said to
+      Barnaby, as the clock struck. 'Kiss me first.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked in her face, and saw there, that the time was come. After a long
+      embrace, he tore himself away, and ran to bring it to her; bidding her not
+      stir till he came back. He soon returned, for a shriek recalled him,&mdash;but
+      she was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He ran to the yard-gate, and looked through. They were carrying her away.
+      She had said her heart would break. It was better so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Don't you think,' whimpered Dennis, creeping up to him, as he stood with
+      his feet rooted to the ground, gazing at the blank walls&mdash;'don't you
+      think there's still a chance? It's a dreadful end; it's a terrible end for
+      a man like me. Don't you think there's a chance? I don't mean for you, I
+      mean for me. Don't let HIM hear us (meaning Hugh); 'he's so desperate.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now then,' said the officer, who had been lounging in and out with his
+      hands in his pockets, and yawning as if he were in the last extremity for
+      some subject of interest: 'it's time to turn in, boys.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not yet,' cried Dennis, 'not yet. Not for an hour yet.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say,&mdash;your watch goes different from what it used to,' returned
+      the man. 'Once upon a time it was always too fast. It's got the other
+      fault now.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My friend,' cried the wretched creature, falling on his knees, 'my dear
+      friend&mdash;you always were my dear friend&mdash;there's some mistake.
+      Some letter has been mislaid, or some messenger has been stopped upon the
+      way. He may have fallen dead. I saw a man once, fall down dead in the
+      street, myself, and he had papers in his pocket. Send to inquire. Let
+      somebody go to inquire. They never will hang me. They never can.&mdash;Yes,
+      they will,' he cried, starting to his feet with a terrible scream.
+      'They'll hang me by a trick, and keep the pardon back. It's a plot against
+      me. I shall lose my life!' And uttering another yell, he fell in a fit
+      upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'See the hangman when it comes home to him!' cried Hugh again, as they
+      bore him away&mdash;'Ha ha ha! Courage, bold Barnaby, what care we? Your
+      hand! They do well to put us out of the world, for if we got loose a
+      second time, we wouldn't let them off so easy, eh? Another shake! A man
+      can die but once. If you wake in the night, sing that out lustily, and
+      fall asleep again. Ha ha ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby glanced once more through the grate into the empty yard; and then
+      watched Hugh as he strode to the steps leading to his sleeping-cell. He
+      heard him shout, and burst into a roar of laughter, and saw him flourish
+      his hat. Then he turned away himself, like one who walked in his sleep;
+      and, without any sense of fear or sorrow, lay down on his pallet,
+      listening for the clock to strike again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0077" id="link2HCH0077">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 77
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The time wore on. The noises in the streets became less frequent by
+      degrees, until silence was scarcely broken save by the bells in church
+      towers, marking the progress&mdash;softer and more stealthy while the city
+      slumbered&mdash;of that Great Watcher with the hoary head, who never
+      sleeps or rests. In the brief interval of darkness and repose which
+      feverish towns enjoy, all busy sounds were hushed; and those who awoke
+      from dreams lay listening in their beds, and longed for dawn, and wished
+      the dead of the night were past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Into the street outside the jail's main wall, workmen came straggling at
+      this solemn hour, in groups of two or three, and meeting in the centre,
+      cast their tools upon the ground and spoke in whispers. Others soon issued
+      from the jail itself, bearing on their shoulders planks and beams: these
+      materials being all brought forth, the rest bestirred themselves, and the
+      dull sound of hammers began to echo through the stillness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here and there among this knot of labourers, one, with a lantern or a
+      smoky link, stood by to light his fellows at their work; and by its
+      doubtful aid, some might be dimly seen taking up the pavement of the road,
+      while others held great upright posts, or fixed them in the holes thus
+      made for their reception. Some dragged slowly on, towards the rest, an
+      empty cart, which they brought rumbling from the prison-yard; while others
+      erected strong barriers across the street. All were busily engaged. Their
+      dusky figures moving to and fro, at that unusual hour, so active and so
+      silent, might have been taken for those of shadowy creatures toiling at
+      midnight on some ghostly unsubstantial work, which, like themselves, would
+      vanish with the first gleam of day, and leave but morning mist and vapour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While it was yet dark, a few lookers-on collected, who had plainly come
+      there for the purpose and intended to remain: even those who had to pass
+      the spot on their way to some other place, lingered, and lingered yet, as
+      though the attraction of that were irresistible. Meanwhile the noise of
+      saw and mallet went on briskly, mingled with the clattering of boards on
+      the stone pavement of the road, and sometimes with the workmen's voices as
+      they called to one another. Whenever the chimes of the neighbouring church
+      were heard&mdash;and that was every quarter of an hour&mdash;a strange
+      sensation, instantaneous and indescribable, but perfectly obvious, seemed
+      to pervade them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gradually, a faint brightness appeared in the east, and the air, which had
+      been very warm all through the night, felt cool and chilly. Though there
+      was no daylight yet, the darkness was diminished, and the stars looked
+      pale. The prison, which had been a mere black mass with little shape or
+      form, put on its usual aspect; and ever and anon a solitary watchman could
+      be seen upon its roof, stopping to look down upon the preparations in the
+      street. This man, from forming, as it were, a part of the jail, and
+      knowing or being supposed to know all that was passing within, became an
+      object of as much interest, and was as eagerly looked for, and as awfully
+      pointed out, as if he had been a spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by, the feeble light grew stronger, and the houses with their
+      signboards and inscriptions, stood plainly out, in the dull grey morning.
+      Heavy stage waggons crawled from the inn-yard opposite; and travellers
+      peeped out; and as they rolled sluggishly away, cast many a backward look
+      towards the jail. And now, the sun's first beams came glancing into the
+      street; and the night's work, which, in its various stages and in the
+      varied fancies of the lookers-on had taken a hundred shapes, wore its own
+      proper form&mdash;a scaffold, and a gibbet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the warmth of the cheerful day began to shed itself upon the scanty
+      crowd, the murmur of tongues was heard, shutters were thrown open, and
+      blinds drawn up, and those who had slept in rooms over against the prison,
+      where places to see the execution were let at high prices, rose hastily
+      from their beds. In some of the houses, people were busy taking out the
+      window-sashes for the better accommodation of spectators; in others, the
+      spectators were already seated, and beguiling the time with cards, or
+      drink, or jokes among themselves. Some had purchased seats upon the
+      house-tops, and were already crawling to their stations from parapet and
+      garret-window. Some were yet bargaining for good places, and stood in them
+      in a state of indecision: gazing at the slowly-swelling crowd, and at the
+      workmen as they rested listlessly against the scaffold&mdash;affecting to
+      listen with indifference to the proprietor's eulogy of the commanding view
+      his house afforded, and the surpassing cheapness of his terms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fairer morning never shone. From the roofs and upper stories of these
+      buildings, the spires of city churches and the great cathedral dome were
+      visible, rising up beyond the prison, into the blue sky, and clad in the
+      colour of light summer clouds, and showing in the clear atmosphere their
+      every scrap of tracery and fretwork, and every niche and loophole. All was
+      brightness and promise, excepting in the street below, into which (for it
+      yet lay in shadow) the eye looked down as into a dark trench, where, in
+      the midst of so much life, and hope, and renewal of existence, stood the
+      terrible instrument of death. It seemed as if the very sun forbore to look
+      upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was better, grim and sombre in the shade, than when, the day being
+      more advanced, it stood confessed in the full glare and glory of the sun,
+      with its black paint blistering, and its nooses dangling in the light like
+      loathsome garlands. It was better in the solitude and gloom of midnight
+      with a few forms clustering about it, than in the freshness and the stir
+      of morning: the centre of an eager crowd. It was better haunting the
+      street like a spectre, when men were in their beds, and influencing
+      perchance the city's dreams, than braving the broad day, and thrusting its
+      obscene presence upon their waking senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five o'clock had struck&mdash;six&mdash;seven&mdash;and eight. Along the
+      two main streets at either end of the cross-way, a living stream had now
+      set in, rolling towards the marts of gain and business. Carts, coaches,
+      waggons, trucks, and barrows, forced a passage through the outskirts of
+      the throng, and clattered onward in the same direction. Some of these
+      which were public conveyances and had come from a short distance in the
+      country, stopped; and the driver pointed to the gibbet with his whip,
+      though he might have spared himself the pains, for the heads of all the
+      passengers were turned that way without his help, and the coach-windows
+      were stuck full of staring eyes. In some of the carts and waggons, women
+      might be seen, glancing fearfully at the same unsightly thing; and even
+      little children were held up above the people's heads to see what kind of
+      a toy a gallows was, and learn how men were hanged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two rioters were to die before the prison, who had been concerned in the
+      attack upon it; and one directly afterwards in Bloomsbury Square. At nine
+      o'clock, a strong body of military marched into the street, and formed and
+      lined a narrow passage into Holborn, which had been indifferently kept all
+      night by constables. Through this, another cart was brought (the one
+      already mentioned had been employed in the construction of the scaffold),
+      and wheeled up to the prison-gate. These preparations made, the soldiers
+      stood at ease; the officers lounged to and fro, in the alley they had
+      made, or talked together at the scaffold's foot; and the concourse, which
+      had been rapidly augmenting for some hours, and still received additions
+      every minute, waited with an impatience which increased with every chime
+      of St Sepulchre's clock, for twelve at noon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up to this time they had been very quiet, comparatively silent, save when
+      the arrival of some new party at a window, hitherto unoccupied, gave them
+      something new to look at or to talk of. But, as the hour approached, a
+      buzz and hum arose, which, deepening every moment, soon swelled into a
+      roar, and seemed to fill the air. No words or even voices could be
+      distinguished in this clamour, nor did they speak much to each other;
+      though such as were better informed upon the topic than the rest, would
+      tell their neighbours, perhaps, that they might know the hangman when he
+      came out, by his being the shorter one: and that the man who was to suffer
+      with him was named Hugh: and that it was Barnaby Rudge who would be hanged
+      in Bloomsbury Square.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hum grew, as the time drew near, so loud, that those who were at the
+      windows could not hear the church-clock strike, though it was close at
+      hand. Nor had they any need to hear it, either, for they could see it in
+      the people's faces. So surely as another quarter chimed, there was a
+      movement in the crowd&mdash;as if something had passed over it&mdash;as if
+      the light upon them had been changed&mdash;in which the fact was readable
+      as on a brazen dial, figured by a giant's hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three quarters past eleven! The murmur now was deafening, yet every man
+      seemed mute. Look where you would among the crowd, you saw strained eyes
+      and lips compressed; it would have been difficult for the most vigilant
+      observer to point this way or that, and say that yonder man had cried out.
+      It were as easy to detect the motion of lips in a sea-shell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three quarters past eleven! Many spectators who had retired from the
+      windows, came back refreshed, as though their watch had just begun. Those
+      who had fallen asleep, roused themselves; and every person in the crowd
+      made one last effort to better his position&mdash;which caused a press
+      against the sturdy barriers that made them bend and yield like twigs. The
+      officers, who until now had kept together, fell into their several
+      positions, and gave the words of command. Swords were drawn, muskets
+      shouldered, and the bright steel winding its way among the crowd, gleamed
+      and glittered in the sun like a river. Along this shining path, two men
+      came hurrying on, leading a horse, which was speedily harnessed to the
+      cart at the prison-door. Then, a profound silence replaced the tumult that
+      had so long been gathering, and a breathless pause ensued. Every window
+      was now choked up with heads; the house-tops teemed with people&mdash;clinging
+      to chimneys, peering over gable-ends, and holding on where the sudden
+      loosening of any brick or stone would dash them down into the street. The
+      church tower, the church roof, the church yard, the prison leads, the very
+      water-spouts and lampposts&mdash;every inch of room&mdash;swarmed with
+      human life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first stroke of twelve the prison-bell began to toll. Then the roar&mdash;mingled
+      now with cries of 'Hats off!' and 'Poor fellows!' and, from some specks in
+      the great concourse, with a shriek or groan&mdash;burst forth again. It
+      was terrible to see&mdash;if any one in that distraction of excitement
+      could have seen&mdash;the world of eager eyes, all strained upon the
+      scaffold and the beam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hollow murmuring was heard within the jail as plainly as without. The
+      three were brought forth into the yard, together, as it resounded through
+      the air. They knew its import well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'D'ye hear?' cried Hugh, undaunted by the sound. 'They expect us! I heard
+      them gathering when I woke in the night, and turned over on t'other side
+      and fell asleep again. We shall see how they welcome the hangman, now that
+      it comes home to him. Ha, ha, ha!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ordinary coming up at this moment, reproved him for his indecent
+      mirth, and advised him to alter his demeanour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And why, master?' said Hugh. 'Can I do better than bear it easily? YOU
+      bear it easily enough. Oh! never tell me,' he cried, as the other would
+      have spoken, 'for all your sad look and your solemn air, you think little
+      enough of it! They say you're the best maker of lobster salads in London.
+      Ha, ha! I've heard that, you see, before now. Is it a good one, this
+      morning&mdash;is your hand in? How does the breakfast look? I hope there's
+      enough, and to spare, for all this hungry company that'll sit down to it,
+      when the sight's over.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I fear,' observed the clergyman, shaking his head, 'that you are
+      incorrigible.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You're right. I am,' rejoined Hugh sternly. 'Be no hypocrite, master! You
+      make a merry-making of this, every month; let me be merry, too. If you
+      want a frightened fellow there's one that'll suit you. Try your hand upon
+      him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pointed, as he spoke, to Dennis, who, with his legs trailing on the
+      ground, was held between two men; and who trembled so, that all his joints
+      and limbs seemed racked by spasms. Turning from this wretched spectacle,
+      he called to Barnaby, who stood apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What cheer, Barnaby? Don't be downcast, lad. Leave that to HIM.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Bless you,' cried Barnaby, stepping lightly towards him, 'I'm not
+      frightened, Hugh. I'm quite happy. I wouldn't desire to live now, if
+      they'd let me. Look at me! Am I afraid to die? Will they see ME tremble?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh gazed for a moment at his face, on which there was a strange,
+      unearthly smile; and at his eye, which sparkled brightly; and interposing
+      between him and the Ordinary, gruffly whispered to the latter:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I wouldn't say much to him, master, if I was you. He may spoil your
+      appetite for breakfast, though you ARE used to it.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was the only one of the three who had washed or trimmed himself that
+      morning. Neither of the others had done so, since their doom was
+      pronounced. He still wore the broken peacock's feathers in his hat; and
+      all his usual scraps of finery were carefully disposed about his person.
+      His kindling eye, his firm step, his proud and resolute bearing, might
+      have graced some lofty act of heroism; some voluntary sacrifice, born of a
+      noble cause and pure enthusiasm; rather than that felon's death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all these things increased his guilt. They were mere assumptions. The
+      law had declared it so, and so it must be. The good minister had been
+      greatly shocked, not a quarter of an hour before, at his parting with
+      Grip. For one in his condition, to fondle a bird!&mdash;The yard was
+      filled with people; bluff civic functionaries, officers of justice,
+      soldiers, the curious in such matters, and guests who had been bidden as
+      to a wedding. Hugh looked about him, nodded gloomily to some person in
+      authority, who indicated with his hand in what direction he was to
+      proceed; and clapping Barnaby on the shoulder, passed out with the gait of
+      a lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered a large room, so near to the scaffold that the voices of
+      those who stood about it, could be plainly heard: some beseeching the
+      javelin-men to take them out of the crowd: others crying to those behind,
+      to stand back, for they were pressed to death, and suffocating for want of
+      air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the middle of this chamber, two smiths, with hammers, stood beside an
+      anvil. Hugh walked straight up to them, and set his foot upon it with a
+      sound as though it had been struck by a heavy weapon. Then, with folded
+      arms, he stood to have his irons knocked off: scowling haughtily round, as
+      those who were present eyed him narrowly and whispered to each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It took so much time to drag Dennis in, that this ceremony was over with
+      Hugh, and nearly over with Barnaby, before he appeared. He no sooner came
+      into the place he knew so well, however, and among faces with which he was
+      so familiar, than he recovered strength and sense enough to clasp his
+      hands and make a last appeal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Gentlemen, good gentlemen,' cried the abject creature, grovelling down
+      upon his knees, and actually prostrating himself upon the stone floor:
+      'Governor, dear governor&mdash;honourable sheriffs&mdash;worthy gentlemen&mdash;have
+      mercy upon a wretched man that has served His Majesty, and the Law, and
+      Parliament, for so many years, and don't&mdash;don't let me die&mdash;because
+      of a mistake.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dennis,' said the governor of the jail, 'you know what the course is, and
+      that the order came with the rest. You know that we could do nothing, even
+      if we would.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'All I ask, sir,&mdash;all I want and beg, is time, to make it sure,'
+      cried the trembling wretch, looking wildly round for sympathy. 'The King
+      and Government can't know it's me; I'm sure they can't know it's me; or
+      they never would bring me to this dreadful slaughterhouse. They know my
+      name, but they don't know it's the same man. Stop my execution&mdash;for
+      charity's sake stop my execution, gentlemen&mdash;till they can be told
+      that I've been hangman here, nigh thirty year. Will no one go and tell
+      them?' he implored, clenching his hands and glaring round, and round, and
+      round again&mdash;'will no charitable person go and tell them!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Mr Akerman,' said a gentleman who stood by, after a moment's pause,
+      'since it may possibly produce in this unhappy man a better frame of mind,
+      even at this last minute, let me assure him that he was well known to have
+      been the hangman, when his sentence was considered.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;But perhaps they think on that account that the punishment's not
+      so great,' cried the criminal, shuffling towards this speaker on his
+      knees, and holding up his folded hands; 'whereas it's worse, it's worse a
+      hundred times, to me than any man. Let them know that, sir. Let them know
+      that. They've made it worse to me by giving me so much to do. Stop my
+      execution till they know that!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The governor beckoned with his hand, and the two men, who had supported
+      him before, approached. He uttered a piercing cry:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Wait! Wait. Only a moment&mdash;only one moment more! Give me a last
+      chance of reprieve. One of us three is to go to Bloomsbury Square. Let me
+      be the one. It may come in that time; it's sure to come. In the Lord's
+      name let me be sent to Bloomsbury Square. Don't hang me here. It's
+      murder.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took him to the anvil: but even then he could be heard above the
+      clinking of the smiths' hammers, and the hoarse raging of the crowd,
+      crying that he knew of Hugh's birth&mdash;that his father was living, and
+      was a gentleman of influence and rank&mdash;that he had family secrets in
+      his possession&mdash;that he could tell nothing unless they gave him time,
+      but must die with them on his mind; and he continued to rave in this sort
+      until his voice failed him, and he sank down a mere heap of clothes
+      between the two attendants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this moment that the clock struck the first stroke of twelve,
+      and the bell began to toll. The various officers, with the two sheriffs at
+      their head, moved towards the door. All was ready when the last chime came
+      upon the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They told Hugh this, and asked if he had anything to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To say!' he cried. 'Not I. I'm ready.&mdash;Yes,' he added, as his eye
+      fell upon Barnaby, 'I have a word to say, too. Come hither, lad.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was, for the moment, something kind, and even tender, struggling in
+      his fierce aspect, as he wrung his poor companion by the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll say this,' he cried, looking firmly round, 'that if I had ten lives
+      to lose, and the loss of each would give me ten times the agony of the
+      hardest death, I'd lay them all down&mdash;ay, I would, though you
+      gentlemen may not believe it&mdash;to save this one. This one,' he added,
+      wringing his hand again, 'that will be lost through me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not through you,' said the idiot, mildly. 'Don't say that. You were not
+      to blame. You have always been very good to me.&mdash;Hugh, we shall know
+      what makes the stars shine, NOW!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I took him from her in a reckless mood, and didn't think what harm would
+      come of it,' said Hugh, laying his hand upon his head, and speaking in a
+      lower voice. 'I ask her pardon; and his.&mdash;Look here,' he added
+      roughly, in his former tone. 'You see this lad?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They murmured 'Yes,' and seemed to wonder why he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That gentleman yonder&mdash;' pointing to the clergyman&mdash;'has often
+      in the last few days spoken to me of faith, and strong belief. You see
+      what I am&mdash;more brute than man, as I have been often told&mdash;but I
+      had faith enough to believe, and did believe as strongly as any of you
+      gentlemen can believe anything, that this one life would be spared. See
+      what he is!&mdash;Look at him!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby had moved towards the door, and stood beckoning him to follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If this was not faith, and strong belief!' cried Hugh, raising his right
+      arm aloft, and looking upward like a savage prophet whom the near approach
+      of Death had filled with inspiration, 'where are they! What else should
+      teach me&mdash;me, born as I was born, and reared as I have been reared&mdash;to
+      hope for any mercy in this hardened, cruel, unrelenting place! Upon these
+      human shambles, I, who never raised this hand in prayer till now, call
+      down the wrath of God! On that black tree, of which I am the ripened
+      fruit, I do invoke the curse of all its victims, past, and present, and to
+      come. On the head of that man, who, in his conscience, owns me for his
+      son, I leave the wish that he may never sicken on his bed of down, but die
+      a violent death as I do now, and have the night-wind for his only mourner.
+      To this I say, Amen, amen!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His arm fell downward by his side; he turned; and moved towards them with
+      a steady step, the man he had been before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'There is nothing more?' said the governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hugh motioned Barnaby not to come near him (though without looking in the
+      direction where he stood) and answered, 'There is nothing more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Move forward!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&mdash;Unless,' said Hugh, glancing hurriedly back,&mdash;'unless any
+      person here has a fancy for a dog; and not then, unless he means to use
+      him well. There's one, belongs to me, at the house I came from, and it
+      wouldn't be easy to find a better. He'll whine at first, but he'll soon
+      get over that.&mdash;You wonder that I think about a dog just now, he
+      added, with a kind of laugh. 'If any man deserved it of me half as well,
+      I'd think of HIM.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke no more, but moved onward in his place, with a careless air,
+      though listening at the same time to the Service for the Dead, with
+      something between sullen attention, and quickened curiosity. As soon as he
+      had passed the door, his miserable associate was carried out; and the
+      crowd beheld the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barnaby would have mounted the steps at the same time&mdash;indeed he
+      would have gone before them, but in both attempts he was restrained, as he
+      was to undergo the sentence elsewhere. In a few minutes the sheriffs
+      reappeared, the same procession was again formed, and they passed through
+      various rooms and passages to another door&mdash;that at which the cart
+      was waiting. He held down his head to avoid seeing what he knew his eyes
+      must otherwise encounter, and took his seat sorrowfully,&mdash;and yet
+      with something of a childish pride and pleasure,&mdash;in the vehicle. The
+      officers fell into their places at the sides, in front and in the rear;
+      the sheriffs' carriages rolled on; a guard of soldiers surrounded the
+      whole; and they moved slowly forward through the throng and pressure
+      toward Lord Mansfield's ruined house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a sad sight&mdash;all the show, and strength, and glitter,
+      assembled round one helpless creature&mdash;and sadder yet to note, as he
+      rode along, how his wandering thoughts found strange encouragement in the
+      crowded windows and the concourse in the streets; and how, even then, he
+      felt the influence of the bright sky, and looked up, smiling, into its
+      deep unfathomable blue. But there had been many such sights since the
+      riots were over&mdash;some so moving in their nature, and so repulsive
+      too, that they were far more calculated to awaken pity for the sufferers,
+      than respect for that law whose strong arm seemed in more than one case to
+      be as wantonly stretched forth now that all was safe, as it had been
+      basely paralysed in time of danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two cripples&mdash;both mere boys&mdash;one with a leg of wood, one who
+      dragged his twisted limbs along by the help of a crutch, were hanged in
+      this same Bloomsbury Square. As the cart was about to glide from under
+      them, it was observed that they stood with their faces from, not to, the
+      house they had assisted to despoil; and their misery was protracted that
+      this omission might be remedied. Another boy was hanged in Bow Street;
+      other young lads in various quarters of the town. Four wretched women,
+      too, were put to death. In a word, those who suffered as rioters were, for
+      the most part, the weakest, meanest, and most miserable among them. It was
+      a most exquisite satire upon the false religious cry which had led to so
+      much misery, that some of these people owned themselves to be Catholics,
+      and begged to be attended by their own priests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One young man was hanged in Bishopsgate Street, whose aged grey-headed
+      father waited for him at the gallows, kissed him at its foot when he
+      arrived, and sat there, on the ground, till they took him down. They would
+      have given him the body of his child; but he had no hearse, no coffin,
+      nothing to remove it in, being too poor&mdash;and walked meekly away
+      beside the cart that took it back to prison, trying, as he went, to touch
+      its lifeless hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the crowd had forgotten these matters, or cared little about them if
+      they lived in their memory: and while one great multitude fought and
+      hustled to get near the gibbet before Newgate, for a parting look, another
+      followed in the train of poor lost Barnaby, to swell the throng that
+      waited for him on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0078" id="link2HCH0078">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 78
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On this same day, and about this very hour, Mr Willet the elder sat
+      smoking his pipe in a chamber at the Black Lion. Although it was hot
+      summer weather, Mr Willet sat close to the fire. He was in a state of
+      profound cogitation, with his own thoughts, and it was his custom at such
+      times to stew himself slowly, under the impression that that process of
+      cookery was favourable to the melting out of his ideas, which, when he
+      began to simmer, sometimes oozed forth so copiously as to astonish even
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet had been several thousand times comforted by his friends and
+      acquaintance, with the assurance that for the loss he had sustained in the
+      damage done to the Maypole, he could 'come upon the county.' But as this
+      phrase happened to bear an unfortunate resemblance to the popular
+      expression of 'coming on the parish,' it suggested to Mr Willet's mind no
+      more consolatory visions than pauperism on an extensive scale, and ruin in
+      a capacious aspect. Consequently, he had never failed to receive the
+      intelligence with a rueful shake of the head, or a dreary stare, and had
+      been always observed to appear much more melancholy after a visit of
+      condolence than at any other time in the whole four-and-twenty hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It chanced, however, that sitting over the fire on this particular
+      occasion&mdash;perhaps because he was, as it were, done to a turn; perhaps
+      because he was in an unusually bright state of mind; perhaps because he
+      had considered the subject so long; perhaps because of all these favouring
+      circumstances, taken together&mdash;it chanced that, sitting over the fire
+      on this particular occasion, Mr Willet did, afar off and in the remotest
+      depths of his intellect, perceive a kind of lurking hint or faint
+      suggestion, that out of the public purse there might issue funds for the
+      restoration of the Maypole to its former high place among the taverns of
+      the earth. And this dim ray of light did so diffuse itself within him, and
+      did so kindle up and shine, that at last he had it as plainly and visibly
+      before him as the blaze by which he sat; and, fully persuaded that he was
+      the first to make the discovery, and that he had started, hunted down,
+      fallen upon, and knocked on the head, a perfectly original idea which had
+      never presented itself to any other man, alive or dead, he laid down his
+      pipe, rubbed his hands, and chuckled audibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, father!' cried Joe, entering at the moment, 'you're in spirits
+      to-day!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's nothing partickler,' said Mr Willet, chuckling again. 'It's nothing
+      at all partickler, Joseph. Tell me something about the Salwanners.' Having
+      preferred this request, Mr Willet chuckled a third time, and after these
+      unusual demonstrations of levity, he put his pipe in his mouth again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What shall I tell you, father?' asked Joe, laying his hand upon his
+      sire's shoulder, and looking down into his face. 'That I have come back,
+      poorer than a church mouse? You know that. That I have come back, maimed
+      and crippled? You know that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It was took off,' muttered Mr Willet, with his eyes upon the fire, 'at
+      the defence of the Salwanners, in America, where the war is.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Quite right,' returned Joe, smiling, and leaning with his remaining elbow
+      on the back of his father's chair; 'the very subject I came to speak to
+      you about. A man with one arm, father, is not of much use in the busy
+      world.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was one of those vast propositions which Mr Willet had never
+      considered for an instant, and required time to 'tackle.' Wherefore he
+      made no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'At all events,' said Joe, 'he can't pick and choose his means of earning
+      a livelihood, as another man may. He can't say "I will turn my hand to
+      this," or "I won't turn my hand to that," but must take what he can do,
+      and be thankful it's no worse.&mdash;What did you say?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet had been softly repeating to himself, in a musing tone, the
+      words 'defence of the Salwanners:' but he seemed embarrassed at having
+      been overheard, and answered 'Nothing.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Now look here, father.&mdash;Mr Edward has come to England from the West
+      Indies. When he was lost sight of (I ran away on the same day, father), he
+      made a voyage to one of the islands, where a school-friend of his had
+      settled; and, finding him, wasn't too proud to be employed on his estate,
+      and&mdash;and in short, got on well, and is prospering, and has come over
+      here on business of his own, and is going back again speedily. Our
+      returning nearly at the same time, and meeting in the course of the late
+      troubles, has been a good thing every way; for it has not only enabled us
+      to do old friends some service, but has opened a path in life for me which
+      I may tread without being a burden upon you. To be plain, father, he can
+      employ me; I have satisfied myself that I can be of real use to him; and I
+      am going to carry my one arm away with him, and to make the most of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mind's eye of Mr Willet, the West Indies, and indeed all foreign
+      countries, were inhabited by savage nations, who were perpetually burying
+      pipes of peace, flourishing tomahawks, and puncturing strange patterns in
+      their bodies. He no sooner heard this announcement, therefore, than he
+      leaned back in his chair, took his pipe from his lips, and stared at his
+      son with as much dismay as if he already beheld him tied to a stake, and
+      tortured for the entertainment of a lively population. In what form of
+      expression his feelings would have found a vent, it is impossible to say.
+      Nor is it necessary: for, before a syllable occurred to him, Dolly Varden
+      came running into the room, in tears, threw herself on Joe's breast
+      without a word of explanation, and clasped her white arms round his neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dolly!' cried Joe. 'Dolly!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ay, call me that; call me that always,' exclaimed the locksmith's little
+      daughter; 'never speak coldly to me, never be distant, never again reprove
+      me for the follies I have long repented, or I shall die, Joe.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I reprove you!' said Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes&mdash;for every kind and honest word you uttered, went to my heart.
+      For you, who have borne so much from me&mdash;for you, who owe your
+      sufferings and pain to my caprice&mdash;for you to be so kind&mdash;so
+      noble to me, Joe&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could say nothing to her. Not a syllable. There was an odd sort of
+      eloquence in his one arm, which had crept round her waist: but his lips
+      were mute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'If you had reminded me by a word&mdash;only by one short word,' sobbed
+      Dolly, clinging yet closer to him, 'how little I deserved that you should
+      treat me with so much forbearance; if you had exulted only for one moment
+      in your triumph, I could have borne it better.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Triumph!' repeated Joe, with a smile which seemed to say, 'I am a pretty
+      figure for that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Yes, triumph,' she cried, with her whole heart and soul in her earnest
+      voice, and gushing tears; 'for it is one. I am glad to think and know it
+      is. I wouldn't be less humbled, dear&mdash;I wouldn't be without the
+      recollection of that last time we spoke together in this place&mdash;no,
+      not if I could recall the past, and make our parting, yesterday.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did ever lover look as Joe looked now!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dear Joe,' said Dolly, 'I always loved you&mdash;in my own heart I always
+      did, although I was so vain and giddy. I hoped you would come back that
+      night. I made quite sure you would. I prayed for it on my knees. Through
+      all these long, long years, I have never once forgotten you, or left off
+      hoping that this happy time might come.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eloquence of Joe's arm surpassed the most impassioned language; and so
+      did that of his lips&mdash;yet he said nothing, either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And now, at last,' cried Dolly, trembling with the fervour of her speech,
+      'if you were sick, and shattered in your every limb; if you were ailing,
+      weak, and sorrowful; if, instead of being what you are, you were in
+      everybody's eyes but mine the wreck and ruin of a man; I would be your
+      wife, dear love, with greater pride and joy, than if you were the
+      stateliest lord in England!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'What have I done,' cried Joe, 'what have I done to meet with this
+      reward?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You have taught me,' said Dolly, raising her pretty face to his, 'to know
+      myself, and your worth; to be something better than I was; to be more
+      deserving of your true and manly nature. In years to come, dear Joe, you
+      shall find that you have done so; for I will be, not only now, when we are
+      young and full of hope, but when we have grown old and weary, your
+      patient, gentle, never-tiring wife. I will never know a wish or care
+      beyond our home and you, and I will always study how to please you with my
+      best affection and my most devoted love. I will: indeed I will!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joe could only repeat his former eloquence&mdash;but it was very much to
+      the purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They know of this, at home,' said Dolly. 'For your sake, I would leave
+      even them; but they know it, and are glad of it, and are as proud of you
+      as I am, and as full of gratitude.&mdash;You'll not come and see me as a
+      poor friend who knew me when I was a girl, will you, dear Joe?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, well! It don't matter what Joe said in answer, but he said a great
+      deal; and Dolly said a great deal too: and he folded Dolly in his one arm
+      pretty tight, considering that it was but one; and Dolly made no
+      resistance: and if ever two people were happy in this world&mdash;which is
+      not an utterly miserable one, with all its faults&mdash;we may, with some
+      appearance of certainty, conclude that they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To say that during these proceedings Mr Willet the elder underwent the
+      greatest emotions of astonishment of which our common nature is
+      susceptible&mdash;to say that he was in a perfect paralysis of surprise,
+      and that he wandered into the most stupendous and theretofore unattainable
+      heights of complicated amazement&mdash;would be to shadow forth his state
+      of mind in the feeblest and lamest terms. If a roc, an eagle, a griffin, a
+      flying elephant, a winged sea-horse, had suddenly appeared, and, taking
+      him on its back, carried him bodily into the heart of the 'Salwanners,' it
+      would have been to him as an everyday occurrence, in comparison with what
+      he now beheld. To be sitting quietly by, seeing and hearing these things;
+      to be completely overlooked, unnoticed, and disregarded, while his son and
+      a young lady were talking to each other in the most impassioned manner,
+      kissing each other, and making themselves in all respects perfectly at
+      home; was a position so tremendous, so inexplicable, so utterly beyond the
+      widest range of his capacity of comprehension, that he fell into a
+      lethargy of wonder, and could no more rouse himself than an enchanted
+      sleeper in the first year of his fairy lease, a century long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Father,' said Joe, presenting Dolly. 'You know who this is?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet looked first at her, then at his son, then back again at Dolly,
+      and then made an ineffectual effort to extract a whiff from his pipe,
+      which had gone out long ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Say a word, father, if it's only "how d'ye do,"' urged Joe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Certainly, Joseph,' answered Mr Willet. 'Oh yes! Why not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To be sure,' said Joe. 'Why not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ah!' replied his father. 'Why not?' and with this remark, which he
+      uttered in a low voice as though he were discussing some grave question
+      with himself, he used the little finger&mdash;if any of his fingers can be
+      said to have come under that denomination&mdash;of his right hand as a
+      tobacco-stopper, and was silent again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so he sat for half an hour at least, although Dolly, in the most
+      endearing of manners, hoped, a dozen times, that he was not angry with
+      her. So he sat for half an hour, quite motionless, and looking all the
+      while like nothing so much as a great Dutch Pin or Skittle. At the
+      expiration of that period, he suddenly, and without the least notice,
+      burst (to the great consternation of the young people) into a very loud
+      and very short laugh; and repeating, 'Certainly, Joseph. Oh yes! Why not?'
+      went out for a walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0079" id="link2HCH0079">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 79
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Old John did not walk near the Golden Key, for between the Golden Key and
+      the Black Lion there lay a wilderness of streets&mdash;as everybody knows
+      who is acquainted with the relative bearings of Clerkenwell and
+      Whitechapel&mdash;and he was by no means famous for pedestrian exercises.
+      But the Golden Key lies in our way, though it was out of his; so to the
+      Golden Key this chapter goes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Golden Key itself, fair emblem of the locksmith's trade, had been
+      pulled down by the rioters, and roughly trampled under foot. But, now, it
+      was hoisted up again in all the glory of a new coat of paint, and shewed
+      more bravely even than in days of yore. Indeed the whole house-front was
+      spruce and trim, and so freshened up throughout, that if there yet
+      remained at large any of the rioters who had been concerned in the attack
+      upon it, the sight of the old, goodly, prosperous dwelling, so revived,
+      must have been to them as gall and wormwood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shutters of the shop were closed, however, and the window-blinds above
+      were all pulled down, and in place of its usual cheerful appearance, the
+      house had a look of sadness and an air of mourning; which the neighbours,
+      who in old days had often seen poor Barnaby go in and out, were at no loss
+      to understand. The door stood partly open; but the locksmith's hammer was
+      unheard; the cat sat moping on the ashy forge; all was deserted, dark, and
+      silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the threshold of this door, Mr Haredale and Edward Chester met. The
+      younger man gave place; and both passing in with a familiar air, which
+      seemed to denote that they were tarrying there, or were well-accustomed to
+      go to and fro unquestioned, shut it behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entering the old back-parlour, and ascending the flight of stairs, abrupt
+      and steep, and quaintly fashioned as of old, they turned into the best
+      room; the pride of Mrs Varden's heart, and erst the scene of Miggs's
+      household labours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Varden brought the mother here last evening, he told me?' said Mr
+      Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She is above-stairs now&mdash;in the room over here,' Edward rejoined.
+      'Her grief, they say, is past all telling. I needn't add&mdash;for that
+      you know beforehand, sir&mdash;that the care, humanity, and sympathy of
+      these good people have no bounds.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I am sure of that. Heaven repay them for it, and for much more! Varden is
+      out?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He returned with your messenger, who arrived almost at the moment of his
+      coming home himself. He was out the whole night&mdash;but that of course
+      you know. He was with you the greater part of it?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He was. Without him, I should have lacked my right hand. He is an older
+      man than I; but nothing can conquer him.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The cheeriest, stoutest-hearted fellow in the world.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'He has a right to be. He has a right to he. A better creature never
+      lived. He reaps what he has sown&mdash;no more.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is not all men,' said Edward, after a moment's hesitation, 'who have
+      the happiness to do that.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'More than you imagine,' returned Mr Haredale. 'We note the harvest more
+      than the seed-time. You do so in me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In truth his pale and haggard face, and gloomy bearing, had so far
+      influenced the remark, that Edward was, for the moment, at a loss to
+      answer him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Tut, tut,' said Mr Haredale, ''twas not very difficult to read a thought
+      so natural. But you are mistaken nevertheless. I have had my share of
+      sorrows&mdash;more than the common lot, perhaps, but I have borne them
+      ill. I have broken where I should have bent; and have mused and brooded,
+      when my spirit should have mixed with all God's great creation. The men
+      who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother. I have
+      turned FROM the world, and I pay the penalty.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward would have interposed, but he went on without giving him time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is too late to evade it now. I sometimes think, that if I had to live
+      my life once more, I might amend this fault&mdash;not so much, I discover
+      when I search my mind, for the love of what is right, as for my own sake.
+      But even when I make these better resolutions, I instinctively recoil from
+      the idea of suffering again what I have undergone; and in this
+      circumstance I find the unwelcome assurance that I should still be the
+      same man, though I could cancel the past, and begin anew, with its
+      experience to guide me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay, you make too sure of that,' said Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You think so,' Mr Haredale answered, 'and I am glad you do. I know myself
+      better, and therefore distrust myself more. Let us leave this subject for
+      another&mdash;not so far removed from it as it might, at first sight, seem
+      to be. Sir, you still love my niece, and she is still attached to you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have that assurance from her own lips,' said Edward, 'and you know&mdash;I
+      am sure you know&mdash;that I would not exchange it for any blessing life
+      could yield me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are frank, honourable, and disinterested,' said Mr Haredale; 'you
+      have forced the conviction that you are so, even on my once-jaundiced
+      mind, and I believe you. Wait here till I come back.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He left the room as he spoke; but soon returned with his niece. 'On that
+      first and only time,' he said, looking from the one to the other, 'when we
+      three stood together under her father's roof, I told you to quit it, and
+      charged you never to return.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It is the only circumstance arising out of our love,' observed Edward,
+      'that I have forgotten.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You own a name,' said Mr Haredale, 'I had deep reason to remember. I was
+      moved and goaded by recollections of personal wrong and injury, I know,
+      but, even now I cannot charge myself with having, then, or ever, lost
+      sight of a heartfelt desire for her true happiness; or with having acted&mdash;however
+      much I was mistaken&mdash;with any other impulse than the one pure,
+      single, earnest wish to be to her, as far as in my inferior nature lay,
+      the father she had lost.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Dear uncle,' cried Emma, 'I have known no parent but you. I have loved
+      the memory of others, but I have loved you all my life. Never was father
+      kinder to his child than you have been to me, without the interval of one
+      harsh hour, since I can first remember.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You speak too fondly,' he answered, 'and yet I cannot wish you were less
+      partial; for I have a pleasure in hearing those words, and shall have in
+      calling them to mind when we are far asunder, which nothing else could
+      give me. Bear with me for a moment longer, Edward, for she and I have been
+      together many years; and although I believe that in resigning her to you I
+      put the seal upon her future happiness, I find it needs an effort.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pressed her tenderly to his bosom, and after a minute's pause, resumed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have done you wrong, sir, and I ask your forgiveness&mdash;in no common
+      phrase, or show of sorrow; but with earnestness and sincerity. In the same
+      spirit, I acknowledge to you both that the time has been when I connived
+      at treachery and falsehood&mdash;which if I did not perpetrate myself, I
+      still permitted&mdash;to rend you two asunder.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You judge yourself too harshly,' said Edward. 'Let these things rest.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'They rise in judgment against me when I look back, and not now for the
+      first time,' he answered. 'I cannot part from you without your full
+      forgiveness; for busy life and I have little left in common now, and I
+      have regrets enough to carry into solitude, without addition to the
+      stock.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You bear a blessing from us both,' said Emma. 'Never mingle thoughts of
+      me&mdash;of me who owe you so much love and duty&mdash;with anything but
+      undying affection and gratitude for the past, and bright hopes for the
+      future.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The future,' returned her uncle, with a melancholy smile, 'is a bright
+      word for you, and its image should be wreathed with cheerful hopes. Mine
+      is of another kind, but it will be one of peace, and free, I trust, from
+      care or passion. When you quit England I shall leave it too. There are
+      cloisters abroad; and now that the two great objects of my life are set at
+      rest, I know no better home. You droop at that, forgetting that I am
+      growing old, and that my course is nearly run. Well, we will speak of it
+      again&mdash;not once or twice, but many times; and you shall give me
+      cheerful counsel, Emma.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And you will take it?' asked his niece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'll listen to it,' he answered, with a kiss, 'and it will have its
+      weight, be certain. What have I left to say? You have, of late, been much
+      together. It is better and more fitting that the circumstances attendant
+      on the past, which wrought your separation, and sowed between you
+      suspicion and distrust, should not be entered on by me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Much, much better,' whispered Emma.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I avow my share in them,' said Mr Haredale, 'though I held it, at the
+      time, in detestation. Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the
+      broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by
+      the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means.
+      Those that cannot, are bad; and may be counted so at once, and left
+      alone.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked from her to Edward, and said in a gentler tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'In goods and fortune you are now nearly equal. I have been her faithful
+      steward, and to that remnant of a richer property which my brother left
+      her, I desire to add, in token of my love, a poor pittance, scarcely worth
+      the mention, for which I have no longer any need. I am glad you go abroad.
+      Let our ill-fated house remain the ruin it is. When you return, after a
+      few thriving years, you will command a better, and a more fortunate one.
+      We are friends?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Edward took his extended hand, and grasped it heartily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are neither slow nor cold in your response,' said Mr Haredale, doing
+      the like by him, 'and when I look upon you now, and know you, I feel that
+      I would choose you for her husband. Her father had a generous nature, and
+      you would have pleased him well. I give her to you in his name, and with
+      his blessing. If the world and I part in this act, we part on happier
+      terms than we have lived for many a day.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He placed her in his arms, and would have left the room, but that he was
+      stopped in his passage to the door by a great noise at a distance, which
+      made them start and pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a loud shouting, mingled with boisterous acclamations, that rent
+      the very air. It drew nearer and nearer every moment, and approached so
+      rapidly, that, even while they listened, it burst into a deafening
+      confusion of sounds at the street corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'This must be stopped&mdash;quieted,' said Mr Haredale, hastily. 'We
+      should have foreseen this, and provided against it. I will go out to them
+      at once.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, before he could reach the door, and before Edward could catch up his
+      hat and follow him, they were again arrested by a loud shriek from
+      above-stairs: and the locksmith's wife, bursting in, and fairly running
+      into Mr Haredale's arms, cried out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'She knows it all, dear sir!&mdash;she knows it all! We broke it out to
+      her by degrees, and she is quite prepared.' Having made this
+      communication, and furthermore thanked Heaven with great fervour and
+      heartiness, the good lady, according to the custom of matrons, on all
+      occasions of excitement, fainted away directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They ran to the window, drew up the sash, and looked into the crowded
+      street. Among a dense mob of persons, of whom not one was for an instant
+      still, the locksmith's ruddy face and burly form could be descried,
+      beating about as though he was struggling with a rough sea. Now, he was
+      carried back a score of yards, now onward nearly to the door, now back
+      again, now forced against the opposite houses, now against those adjoining
+      his own: now carried up a flight of steps, and greeted by the outstretched
+      hands of half a hundred men, while the whole tumultuous concourse
+      stretched their throats, and cheered with all their might. Though he was
+      really in a fair way to be torn to pieces in the general enthusiasm, the
+      locksmith, nothing discomposed, echoed their shouts till he was as hoarse
+      as they, and in a glow of joy and right good-humour, waved his hat until
+      the daylight shone between its brim and crown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in all the bandyings from hand to hand, and strivings to and fro, and
+      sweepings here and there, which&mdash;saving that he looked more jolly and
+      more radiant after every struggle&mdash;troubled his peace of mind no more
+      than if he had been a straw upon the water's surface, he never once
+      released his firm grasp of an arm, drawn tight through his. He sometimes
+      turned to clap this friend upon the back, or whisper in his ear a word of
+      staunch encouragement, or cheer him with a smile; but his great care was
+      to shield him from the pressure, and force a passage for him to the Golden
+      Key. Passive and timid, scared, pale, and wondering, and gazing at the
+      throng as if he were newly risen from the dead, and felt himself a ghost
+      among the living, Barnaby&mdash;not Barnaby in the spirit, but in flesh
+      and blood, with pulses, sinews, nerves, and beating heart, and strong
+      affections&mdash;clung to his stout old friend, and followed where he led.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And thus, in course of time, they reached the door, held ready for their
+      entrance by no unwilling hands. Then slipping in, and shutting out the
+      crowd by main force, Gabriel stood between Mr Haredale and Edward Chester,
+      and Barnaby, rushing up the stairs, fell upon his knees beside his
+      mother's bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Such is the blessed end, sir,' cried the panting locksmith, to Mr
+      Haredale, 'of the best day's work we ever did. The rogues! it's been hard
+      fighting to get away from 'em. I almost thought, once or twice, they'd
+      have been too much for us with their kindness!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had striven, all the previous day, to rescue Barnaby from his
+      impending fate. Failing in their attempts, in the first quarter to which
+      they addressed themselves, they renewed them in another. Failing there,
+      likewise, they began afresh at midnight; and made their way, not only to
+      the judge and jury who had tried him, but to men of influence at court, to
+      the young Prince of Wales, and even to the ante-chamber of the King
+      himself. Successful, at last, in awakening an interest in his favour, and
+      an inclination to inquire more dispassionately into his case, they had had
+      an interview with the minister, in his bed, so late as eight o'clock that
+      morning. The result of a searching inquiry (in which they, who had known
+      the poor fellow from his childhood, did other good service, besides
+      bringing it about) was, that between eleven and twelve o'clock, a free
+      pardon to Barnaby Rudge was made out and signed, and entrusted to a
+      horse-soldier for instant conveyance to the place of execution. This
+      courier reached the spot just as the cart appeared in sight; and Barnaby
+      being carried back to jail, Mr Haredale, assured that all was safe, had
+      gone straight from Bloomsbury Square to the Golden Key, leaving to Gabriel
+      the grateful task of bringing him home in triumph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I needn't say,' observed the locksmith, when he had shaken hands with all
+      the males in the house, and hugged all the females, five-and-forty times,
+      at least, 'that, except among ourselves, I didn't want to make a triumph
+      of it. But, directly we got into the street we were known, and this hubbub
+      began. Of the two,' he added, as he wiped his crimson face, 'and after
+      experience of both, I think I'd rather be taken out of my house by a crowd
+      of enemies, than escorted home by a mob of friends!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was plain enough, however, that this was mere talk on Gabriel's part,
+      and that the whole proceeding afforded him the keenest delight; for the
+      people continuing to make a great noise without, and to cheer as if their
+      voices were in the freshest order, and good for a fortnight, he sent
+      upstairs for Grip (who had come home at his master's back, and had
+      acknowledged the favours of the multitude by drawing blood from every
+      finger that came within his reach), and with the bird upon his arm
+      presented himself at the first-floor window, and waved his hat again until
+      it dangled by a shred, between his finger and thumb. This demonstration
+      having been received with appropriate shouts, and silence being in some
+      degree restored, he thanked them for their sympathy; and taking the
+      liberty to inform them that there was a sick person in the house, proposed
+      that they should give three cheers for King George, three more for Old
+      England, and three more for nothing particular, as a closing ceremony. The
+      crowd assenting, substituted Gabriel Varden for the nothing particular;
+      and giving him one over, for good measure, dispersed in high good-humour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What congratulations were exchanged among the inmates at the Golden Key,
+      when they were left alone; what an overflowing of joy and happiness there
+      was among them; how incapable it was of expression in Barnaby's own
+      person; and how he went wildly from one to another, until he became so far
+      tranquillised, as to stretch himself on the ground beside his mother's
+      couch and fall into a deep sleep; are matters that need not be told. And
+      it is well they happened to be of this class, for they would be very hard
+      to tell, were their narration ever so indispensable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before leaving this bright picture, it may be well to glance at a dark and
+      very different one which was presented to only a few eyes, that same
+      night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene was a churchyard; the time, midnight; the persons, Edward
+      Chester, a clergyman, a grave-digger, and the four bearers of a homely
+      coffin. They stood about a grave which had been newly dug, and one of the
+      bearers held up a dim lantern,&mdash;the only light there&mdash;which shed
+      its feeble ray upon the book of prayer. He placed it for a moment on the
+      coffin, when he and his companions were about to lower it down. There was
+      no inscription on the lid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mould fell solemnly upon the last house of this nameless man; and the
+      rattling dust left a dismal echo even in the accustomed ears of those who
+      had borne it to its resting-place. The grave was filled in to the top, and
+      trodden down. They all left the spot together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You never saw him, living?' asked the clergyman, of Edward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Often, years ago; not knowing him for my brother.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Never since?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Never. Yesterday, he steadily refused to see me. It was urged upon him,
+      many times, at my desire.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Still he refused? That was hardened and unnatural.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Do you think so?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I infer that you do not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You are right. We hear the world wonder, every day, at monsters of
+      ingratitude. Did it never occur to you that it often looks for monsters of
+      affection, as though they were things of course?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had reached the gate by this time, and bidding each other good night,
+      departed on their separate ways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0080" id="link2HCH0080">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 80
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon, when he had slept off his fatigue; had shaved, and washed,
+      and dressed, and freshened himself from top to toe; when he had dined,
+      comforted himself with a pipe, an extra Toby, a nap in the great
+      arm-chair, and a quiet chat with Mrs Varden on everything that had
+      happened, was happening, or about to happen, within the sphere of their
+      domestic concern; the locksmith sat himself down at the tea-table in the
+      little back-parlour: the rosiest, cosiest, merriest, heartiest,
+      best-contented old buck, in Great Britain or out of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There he sat, with his beaming eye on Mrs V., and his shining face
+      suffused with gladness, and his capacious waistcoat smiling in every
+      wrinkle, and his jovial humour peeping from under the table in the very
+      plumpness of his legs; a sight to turn the vinegar of misanthropy into
+      purest milk of human kindness. There he sat, watching his wife as she
+      decorated the room with flowers for the greater honour of Dolly and Joseph
+      Willet, who had gone out walking, and for whom the tea-kettle had been
+      singing gaily on the hob full twenty minutes, chirping as never kettle
+      chirped before; for whom the best service of real undoubted china,
+      patterned with divers round-faced mandarins holding up broad umbrellas,
+      was now displayed in all its glory; to tempt whose appetites a clear,
+      transparent, juicy ham, garnished with cool green lettuce-leaves and
+      fragrant cucumber, reposed upon a shady table, covered with a snow-white
+      cloth; for whose delight, preserves and jams, crisp cakes and other
+      pastry, short to eat, with cunning twists, and cottage loaves, and rolls
+      of bread both white and brown, were all set forth in rich profusion; in
+      whose youth Mrs V. herself had grown quite young, and stood there in a
+      gown of red and white: symmetrical in figure, buxom in bodice, ruddy in
+      cheek and lip, faultless in ankle, laughing in face and mood, in all
+      respects delicious to behold&mdash;there sat the locksmith among all and
+      every these delights, the sun that shone upon them all: the centre of the
+      system: the source of light, heat, life, and frank enjoyment in the bright
+      household world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when had Dolly ever been the Dolly of that afternoon? To see how she
+      came in, arm-in-arm with Joe; and how she made an effort not to blush or
+      seem at all confused; and how she made believe she didn't care to sit on
+      his side of the table; and how she coaxed the locksmith in a whisper not
+      to joke; and how her colour came and went in a little restless flutter of
+      happiness, which made her do everything wrong, and yet so charmingly wrong
+      that it was better than right!&mdash;why, the locksmith could have looked
+      on at this (as he mentioned to Mrs Varden when they retired for the night)
+      for four-and-twenty hours at a stretch, and never wished it done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The recollections, too, with which they made merry over that long
+      protracted tea! The glee with which the locksmith asked Joe if he
+      remembered that stormy night at the Maypole when he first asked after
+      Dolly&mdash;the laugh they all had, about that night when she was going
+      out to the party in the sedan-chair&mdash;the unmerciful manner in which
+      they rallied Mrs Varden about putting those flowers outside that very
+      window&mdash;the difficulty Mrs Varden found in joining the laugh against
+      herself, at first, and the extraordinary perception she had of the joke
+      when she overcame it&mdash;the confidential statements of Joe concerning
+      the precise day and hour when he was first conscious of being fond of
+      Dolly, and Dolly's blushing admissions, half volunteered and half
+      extorted, as to the time from which she dated the discovery that she
+      'didn't mind' Joe&mdash;here was an exhaustless fund of mirth and
+      conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, there was a great deal to be said regarding Mrs Varden's doubts, and
+      motherly alarms, and shrewd suspicions; and it appeared that from Mrs
+      Varden's penetration and extreme sagacity nothing had ever been hidden.
+      She had known it all along. She had seen it from the first. She had always
+      predicted it. She had been aware of it before the principals. She had said
+      within herself (for she remembered the exact words) 'that young Willet is
+      certainly looking after our Dolly, and I must look after HIM.'
+      Accordingly, she had looked after him, and had observed many little
+      circumstances (all of which she named) so exceedingly minute that nobody
+      else could make anything out of them even now; and had, it seemed from
+      first to last, displayed the most unbounded tact and most consummate
+      generalship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course the night when Joe WOULD ride homeward by the side of the
+      chaise, and when Mrs Varden WOULD insist upon his going back again, was
+      not forgotten&mdash;nor the night when Dolly fainted on his name being
+      mentioned&mdash;nor the times upon times when Mrs Varden, ever watchful
+      and prudent, had found her pining in her own chamber. In short, nothing
+      was forgotten; and everything by some means or other brought them back to
+      the conclusion, that that was the happiest hour in all their lives;
+      consequently, that everything must have occurred for the best, and nothing
+      could be suggested which would have made it better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were in the full glow of such discourse as this, there came a
+      startling knock at the door, opening from the street into the workshop,
+      which had been kept closed all day that the house might be more quiet.
+      Joe, as in duty bound, would hear of nobody but himself going to open it;
+      and accordingly left the room for that purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would have been odd enough, certainly, if Joe had forgotten the way to
+      this door; and even if he had, as it was a pretty large one and stood
+      straight before him, he could not easily have missed it. But Dolly,
+      perhaps because she was in the flutter of spirits before mentioned, or
+      perhaps because she thought he would not be able to open it with his one
+      arm&mdash;she could have had no other reason&mdash;hurried out after him;
+      and they stopped so long in the passage&mdash;no doubt owing to Joe's
+      entreaties that she would not expose herself to the draught of July air
+      which must infallibly come rushing in on this same door being opened&mdash;that
+      the knock was repeated, in a yet more startling manner than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Is anybody going to open that door?' cried the locksmith. 'Or shall I
+      come?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon that, Dolly went running back into the parlour, all dimples and
+      blushes; and Joe opened it with a mighty noise, and other superfluous
+      demonstrations of being in a violent hurry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Well,' said the locksmith, when he reappeared: 'what is it? eh Joe? what
+      are you laughing at?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nothing, sir. It's coming in.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Who's coming in? what's coming in?' Mrs Varden, as much at a loss as her
+      husband, could only shake her head in answer to his inquiring look: so,
+      the locksmith wheeled his chair round to command a better view of the
+      room-door, and stared at it with his eyes wide open, and a mingled
+      expression of curiosity and wonder shining in his jolly face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of some person or persons straightway appearing, divers remarkable
+      sounds were heard, first in the workshop and afterwards in the little dark
+      passage between it and the parlour, as though some unwieldy chest or heavy
+      piece of furniture were being brought in, by an amount of human strength
+      inadequate to the task. At length after much struggling and humping, and
+      bruising of the wall on both sides, the door was forced open as by a
+      battering-ram; and the locksmith, steadily regarding what appeared beyond,
+      smote his thigh, elevated his eyebrows, opened his mouth, and cried in a
+      loud voice expressive of the utmost consternation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Damme, if it an't Miggs come back!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young damsel whom he named no sooner heard these words, than deserting
+      a small boy and a very large box by which she was accompanied, and
+      advancing with such precipitation that her bonnet flew off her head, burst
+      into the room, clasped her hands (in which she held a pair of pattens, one
+      in each), raised her eyes devotedly to the ceiling, and shed a flood of
+      tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'The old story!' cried the locksmith, looking at her in inexpressible
+      desperation. 'She was born to be a damper, this young woman! nothing can
+      prevent it!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ho master, ho mim!' cried Miggs, 'can I constrain my feelings in these
+      here once agin united moments! Ho Mr Warsen, here's blessedness among
+      relations, sir! Here's forgivenesses of injuries, here's amicablenesses!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The locksmith looked from his wife to Dolly, and from Dolly to Joe, and
+      from Joe to Miggs, with his eyebrows still elevated and his mouth still
+      open. When his eyes got back to Miggs, they rested on her; fascinated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To think,' cried Miggs with hysterical joy, 'that Mr Joe, and dear Miss
+      Dolly, has raly come together after all as has been said and done
+      contrairy! To see them two a-settin' along with him and her, so pleasant
+      and in all respects so affable and mild; and me not knowing of it, and not
+      being in the ways to make no preparations for their teas. Ho what a
+      cutting thing it is, and yet what sweet sensations is awoke within me!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Either in clasping her hands again, or in an ecstasy of pious joy, Miss
+      Miggs clinked her pattens after the manner of a pair of cymbals, at this
+      juncture; and then resumed, in the softest accents:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'And did my missis think&mdash;ho goodness, did she think&mdash;as her own
+      Miggs, which supported her under so many trials, and understood her natur'
+      when them as intended well but acted rough, went so deep into her feelings&mdash;did
+      she think as her own Miggs would ever leave her? Did she think as Miggs,
+      though she was but a servant, and knowed that servitudes was no
+      inheritances, would forgit that she was the humble instruments as always
+      made it comfortable between them two when they fell out, and always told
+      master of the meekness and forgiveness of her blessed dispositions! Did
+      she think as Miggs had no attachments! Did she think that wages was her
+      only object!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To none of these interrogatories, whereof every one was more pathetically
+      delivered than the last, did Mrs Varden answer one word: but Miggs, not at
+      all abashed by this circumstance, turned to the small boy in attendance&mdash;her
+      eldest nephew&mdash;son of her own married sister&mdash;born in Golden
+      Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, and bred in the very shadow of the second
+      bell-handle on the right-hand door-post&mdash;and with a plentiful use of
+      her pocket-handkerchief, addressed herself to him: requesting that on his
+      return home he would console his parents for the loss of her, his aunt, by
+      delivering to them a faithful statement of his having left her in the
+      bosom of that family, with which, as his aforesaid parents well knew, her
+      best affections were incorporated; that he would remind them that nothing
+      less than her imperious sense of duty, and devoted attachment to her old
+      master and missis, likewise Miss Dolly and young Mr Joe, should ever have
+      induced her to decline that pressing invitation which they, his parents,
+      had, as he could testify, given her, to lodge and board with them, free of
+      all cost and charge, for evermore; lastly, that he would help her with her
+      box upstairs, and then repair straight home, bearing her blessing and her
+      strong injunctions to mingle in his prayers a supplication that he might
+      in course of time grow up a locksmith, or a Mr Joe, and have Mrs Vardens
+      and Miss Dollys for his relations and friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having brought this admonition to an end&mdash;upon which, to say the
+      truth, the young gentleman for whose benefit it was designed, bestowed
+      little or no heed, having to all appearance his faculties absorbed in the
+      contemplation of the sweetmeats,&mdash;Miss Miggs signified to the company
+      in general that they were not to be uneasy, for she would soon return;
+      and, with her nephew's aid, prepared to bear her wardrobe up the
+      staircase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My dear,' said the locksmith to his wife. 'Do you desire this?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I desire it!' she answered. 'I am astonished&mdash;I am amazed&mdash;at
+      her audacity. Let her leave the house this moment.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miggs, hearing this, let her end of the box fall heavily to the floor,
+      gave a very loud sniff, crossed her arms, screwed down the corners of her
+      mouth, and cried, in an ascending scale, 'Ho, good gracious!' three
+      distinct times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You hear what your mistress says, my love,' remarked the locksmith. 'You
+      had better go, I think. Stay; take this with you, for the sake of old
+      service.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs clutched the bank-note he took from his pocket-book and held
+      out to her; deposited it in a small, red leather purse; put the purse in
+      her pocket (displaying, as she did so, a considerable portion of some
+      under-garment, made of flannel, and more black cotton stocking than is
+      commonly seen in public); and, tossing her head, as she looked at Mrs
+      Varden, repeated&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ho, good gracious!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I think you said that once before, my dear,' observed the locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Times is changed, is they, mim!' cried Miggs, bridling; 'you can spare me
+      now, can you? You can keep 'em down without me? You're not in wants of any
+      one to scold, or throw the blame upon, no longer, an't you, mim? I'm glad
+      to find you've grown so independent. I wish you joy, I'm sure!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that she dropped a curtsey, and keeping her head erect, her ear
+      towards Mrs Varden, and her eye on the rest of the company, as she alluded
+      to them in her remarks, proceeded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm quite delighted, I'm sure, to find sich independency, feeling sorry
+      though, at the same time, mim, that you should have been forced into
+      submissions when you couldn't help yourself&mdash;he he he! It must be
+      great vexations, 'specially considering how ill you always spoke of Mr Joe&mdash;to
+      have him for a son-in-law at last; and I wonder Miss Dolly can put up with
+      him, either, after being off and on for so many years with a coachmaker.
+      But I HAVE heerd say, that the coachmaker thought twice about it&mdash;he
+      he he!&mdash;and that he told a young man as was a frind of his, that he
+      hoped he knowed better than to be drawed into that; though she and all the
+      family DID pull uncommon strong!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here she paused for a reply, and receiving none, went on as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I HAVE heerd say, mim, that the illnesses of some ladies was all
+      pretensions, and that they could faint away, stone dead, whenever they had
+      the inclinations so to do. Of course I never see sich cases with my own
+      eyes&mdash;ho no! He he he! Nor master neither&mdash;ho no! He he he! I
+      HAVE heerd the neighbours make remark as some one as they was acquainted
+      with, was a poor good-natur'd mean-spirited creetur, as went out fishing
+      for a wife one day, and caught a Tartar. Of course I never to my knowledge
+      see the poor person himself. Nor did you neither, mim&mdash;ho no. I
+      wonder who it can be&mdash;don't you, mim? No doubt you do, mim. Ho yes.
+      He he he!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Miggs paused for a reply; and none being offered, was so oppressed
+      with teeming spite and spleen, that she seemed like to burst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I'm glad Miss Dolly can laugh,' cried Miggs with a feeble titter. 'I like
+      to see folks a-laughing&mdash;so do you, mim, don't you? You was always
+      glad to see people in spirits, wasn't you, mim? And you always did your
+      best to keep 'em cheerful, didn't you, mim? Though there an't such a great
+      deal to laugh at now either; is there, mim? It an't so much of a catch,
+      after looking out so sharp ever since she was a little chit, and costing
+      such a deal in dress and show, to get a poor, common soldier, with one
+      arm, is it, mim? He he! I wouldn't have a husband with one arm, anyways. I
+      would have two arms. I would have two arms, if it was me, though instead
+      of hands they'd only got hooks at the end, like our dustman!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs was about to add, and had, indeed, begun to add, that, taking
+      them in the abstract, dustmen were far more eligible matches than
+      soldiers, though, to be sure, when people were past choosing they must
+      take the best they could get, and think themselves well off too; but her
+      vexation and chagrin being of that internally bitter sort which finds no
+      relief in words, and is aggravated to madness by want of contradiction,
+      she could hold out no longer, and burst into a storm of sobs and tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this extremity she fell on the unlucky nephew, tooth and nail, and
+      plucking a handful of hair from his head, demanded to know how long she
+      was to stand there to be insulted, and whether or no he meant to help her
+      to carry out the box again, and if he took a pleasure in hearing his
+      family reviled: with other inquiries of that nature; at which disgrace and
+      provocation, the small boy, who had been all this time gradually lashed
+      into rebellion by the sight of unattainable pastry, walked off indignant,
+      leaving his aunt and the box to follow at their leisure. Somehow or other,
+      by dint of pushing and pulling, they did attain the street at last; where
+      Miss Miggs, all blowzed with the exertion of getting there, and with her
+      sobs and tears, sat down upon her property to rest and grieve, until she
+      could ensnare some other youth to help her home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It's a thing to laugh at, Martha, not to care for,' whispered the
+      locksmith, as he followed his wife to the window, and good-humouredly
+      dried her eyes. 'What does it matter? You had seen your fault before.
+      Come! Bring up Toby again, my dear; Dolly shall sing us a song; and we'll
+      be all the merrier for this interruption!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0081" id="link2HCH0081">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 81
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Another month had passed, and the end of August had nearly come, when Mr
+      Haredale stood alone in the mail-coach office at Bristol. Although but a
+      few weeks had intervened since his conversation with Edward Chester and
+      his niece, in the locksmith's house, and he had made no change, in the
+      mean time, in his accustomed style of dress, his appearance was greatly
+      altered. He looked much older, and more care-worn. Agitation and anxiety
+      of mind scatter wrinkles and grey hairs with no unsparing hand; but deeper
+      traces follow on the silent uprooting of old habits, and severing of dear,
+      familiar ties. The affections may not be so easily wounded as the
+      passions, but their hurts are deeper, and more lasting. He was now a
+      solitary man, and the heart within him was dreary and lonesome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not the less alone for having spent so many years in seclusion and
+      retirement. This was no better preparation than a round of social
+      cheerfulness: perhaps it even increased the keenness of his sensibility.
+      He had been so dependent upon her for companionship and love; she had come
+      to be so much a part and parcel of his existence; they had had so many
+      cares and thoughts in common, which no one else had shared; that losing
+      her was beginning life anew, and being required to summon up the hope and
+      elasticity of youth, amid the doubts, distrusts, and weakened energies of
+      age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effort he had made to part from her with seeming cheerfulness and hope&mdash;and
+      they had parted only yesterday&mdash;left him the more depressed. With
+      these feelings, he was about to revisit London for the last time, and look
+      once more upon the walls of their old home, before turning his back upon
+      it, for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey was a very different one, in those days, from what the present
+      generation find it; but it came to an end, as the longest journey will,
+      and he stood again in the streets of the metropolis. He lay at the inn
+      where the coach stopped, and resolved, before he went to bed, that he
+      would make his arrival known to no one; would spend but another night in
+      London; and would spare himself the pang of parting, even with the honest
+      locksmith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such conditions of the mind as that to which he was a prey when he lay
+      down to rest, are favourable to the growth of disordered fancies, and
+      uneasy visions. He knew this, even in the horror with which he started
+      from his first sleep, and threw up the window to dispel it by the presence
+      of some object, beyond the room, which had not been, as it were, the
+      witness of his dream. But it was not a new terror of the night; it had
+      been present to him before, in many shapes; it had haunted him in bygone
+      times, and visited his pillow again and again. If it had been but an ugly
+      object, a childish spectre, haunting his sleep, its return, in its old
+      form, might have awakened a momentary sensation of fear, which, almost in
+      the act of waking, would have passed away. This disquiet, however,
+      lingered about him, and would yield to nothing. When he closed his eyes
+      again, he felt it hovering near; as he slowly sunk into a slumber, he was
+      conscious of its gathering strength and purpose, and gradually assuming
+      its recent shape; when he sprang up from his bed, the same phantom
+      vanished from his heated brain, and left him filled with a dread against
+      which reason and waking thought were powerless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was up, before he could shake it off. He rose late, but not
+      refreshed, and remained within doors all that day. He had a fancy for
+      paying his last visit to the old spot in the evening, for he had been
+      accustomed to walk there at that season, and desired to see it under the
+      aspect that was most familiar to him. At such an hour as would afford him
+      time to reach it a little before sunset, he left the inn, and turned into
+      the busy street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not gone far, and was thoughtfully making his way among the noisy
+      crowd, when he felt a hand upon his shoulder, and, turning, recognised one
+      of the waiters from the inn, who begged his pardon, but he had left his
+      sword behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why have you brought it to me?' he asked, stretching out his hand, and
+      yet not taking it from the man, but looking at him in a disturbed and
+      agitated manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was sorry to have disobliged him, and would carry it back again.
+      The gentleman had said that he was going a little way into the country,
+      and that he might not return until late. The roads were not very safe for
+      single travellers after dark; and, since the riots, gentlemen had been
+      more careful than ever, not to trust themselves unarmed in lonely places.
+      'We thought you were a stranger, sir,' he added, 'and that you might
+      believe our roads to be better than they are; but perhaps you know them
+      well, and carry fire-arms&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took the sword, and putting it up at his side, thanked the man, and
+      resumed his walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was long remembered that he did this in a manner so strange, and with
+      such a trembling hand, that the messenger stood looking after his
+      retreating figure, doubtful whether he ought not to follow, and watch him.
+      It was long remembered that he had been heard pacing his bedroom in the
+      dead of the night; that the attendants had mentioned to each other in the
+      morning, how fevered and how pale he looked; and that when this man went
+      back to the inn, he told a fellow-servant that what he had observed in
+      this short interview lay very heavy on his mind, and that he feared the
+      gentleman intended to destroy himself, and would never come back alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a half-consciousness that his manner had attracted the man's
+      attention (remembering the expression of his face when they parted), Mr
+      Haredale quickened his steps; and arriving at a stand of coaches,
+      bargained with the driver of the best to carry him so far on his road as
+      the point where the footway struck across the fields, and to await his
+      return at a house of entertainment which was within a stone's-throw of
+      that place. Arriving there in due course, he alighted and pursued his way
+      on foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He passed so near the Maypole, that he could see its smoke rising from
+      among the trees, while a flock of pigeons&mdash;some of its old
+      inhabitants, doubtless&mdash;sailed gaily home to roost, between him and
+      the unclouded sky. 'The old house will brighten up now,' he said, as he
+      looked towards it, 'and there will be a merry fireside beneath its ivied
+      roof. It is some comfort to know that everything will not be blighted
+      hereabouts. I shall be glad to have one picture of life and cheerfulness
+      to turn to, in my mind!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He resumed his walk, and bent his steps towards the Warren. It was a
+      clear, calm, silent evening, with hardly a breath of wind to stir the
+      leaves, or any sound to break the stillness of the time, but drowsy
+      sheep-bells tinkling in the distance, and, at intervals, the far-off
+      lowing of cattle, or bark of village dogs. The sky was radiant with the
+      softened glory of sunset; and on the earth, and in the air, a deep repose
+      prevailed. At such an hour, he arrived at the deserted mansion which had
+      been his home so long, and looked for the last time upon its blackened
+      walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ashes of the commonest fire are melancholy things, for in them there
+      is an image of death and ruin,&mdash;of something that has been bright,
+      and is but dull, cold, dreary dust,&mdash;with which our nature forces us
+      to sympathise. How much more sad the crumbled embers of a home: the
+      casting down of that great altar, where the worst among us sometimes
+      perform the worship of the heart; and where the best have offered up such
+      sacrifices, and done such deeds of heroism, as, chronicled, would put the
+      proudest temples of old Time, with all their vaunting annals, to the
+      blush!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He roused himself from a long train of meditation, and walked slowly round
+      the house. It was by this time almost dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had nearly made the circuit of the building, when he uttered a
+      half-suppressed exclamation, started, and stood still. Reclining, in an
+      easy attitude, with his back against a tree, and contemplating the ruin
+      with an expression of pleasure,&mdash;a pleasure so keen that it overcame
+      his habitual indolence and command of feature, and displayed itself
+      utterly free from all restraint or reserve,&mdash;before him, on his own
+      ground, and triumphing then, as he had triumphed in every misfortune and
+      disappointment of his life, stood the man whose presence, of all mankind,
+      in any place, and least of all in that, he could the least endure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although his blood so rose against this man, and his wrath so stirred
+      within him, that he could have struck him dead, he put such fierce
+      constraint upon himself that he passed him without a word or look. Yes,
+      and he would have gone on, and not turned, though to resist the Devil who
+      poured such hot temptation in his brain, required an effort scarcely to be
+      achieved, if this man had not himself summoned him to stop: and that, with
+      an assumed compassion in his voice which drove him well-nigh mad, and in
+      an instant routed all the self-command it had been anguish&mdash;acute,
+      poignant anguish&mdash;to sustain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All consideration, reflection, mercy, forbearance; everything by which a
+      goaded man can curb his rage and passion; fled from him as he turned back.
+      And yet he said, slowly and quite calmly&mdash;far more calmly than he had
+      ever spoken to him before:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why have you called to me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'To remark,' said Sir John Chester with his wonted composure, 'what an odd
+      chance it is, that we should meet here!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'It IS a strange chance.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Strange? The most remarkable and singular thing in the world. I never
+      ride in the evening; I have not done so for years. The whim seized me,
+      quite unaccountably, in the middle of last night.&mdash;How very
+      picturesque this is!'&mdash;He pointed, as he spoke, to the dismantled
+      house, and raised his glass to his eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You praise your own work very freely.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir John let fall his glass; inclined his face towards him with an air of
+      the most courteous inquiry; and slightly shook his head as though he were
+      remarking to himself, 'I fear this animal is going mad!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I say you praise your own work very freely,' repeated Mr Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Work!' echoed Sir John, looking smilingly round. 'Mine!&mdash;I beg your
+      pardon, I really beg your pardon&mdash;'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Why, you see,' said Mr Haredale, 'those walls. You see those tottering
+      gables. You see on every side where fire and smoke have raged. You see the
+      destruction that has been wanton here. Do you not?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'My good friend,' returned the knight, gently checking his impatience with
+      his hand, 'of course I do. I see everything you speak of, when you stand
+      aside, and do not interpose yourself between the view and me. I am very
+      sorry for you. If I had not had the pleasure to meet you here, I think I
+      should have written to tell you so. But you don't bear it as well as I had
+      expected&mdash;excuse me&mdash;no, you don't indeed.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pulled out his snuff-box, and addressing him with the superior air of a
+      man who, by reason of his higher nature, has a right to read a moral
+      lesson to another, continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'For you are a philosopher, you know&mdash;one of that stern and rigid
+      school who are far above the weaknesses of mankind in general. You are
+      removed, a long way, from the frailties of the crowd. You contemplate them
+      from a height, and rail at them with a most impressive bitterness. I have
+      heard you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;'And shall again,' said Mr Haredale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Thank you,' returned the other. 'Shall we walk as we talk? The damp falls
+      rather heavily. Well,&mdash;as you please. But I grieve to say that I can
+      spare you only a very few moments.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I would,' said Mr Haredale, 'you had spared me none. I would, with all my
+      soul, you had been in Paradise (if such a monstrous lie could be enacted),
+      rather than here to-night.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Nay,' returned the other&mdash;'really&mdash;you do yourself injustice.
+      You are a rough companion, but I would not go so far to avoid you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Listen to me,' said Mr Haredale. 'Listen to me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'While you rail?' inquired Sir John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'While I deliver your infamy. You urged and stimulated to do your work a
+      fit agent, but one who in his nature&mdash;in the very essence of his
+      being&mdash;is a traitor, and who has been false to you (despite the
+      sympathy you two should have together) as he has been to all others. With
+      hints, and looks, and crafty words, which told again are nothing, you set
+      on Gashford to this work&mdash;this work before us now. With these same
+      hints, and looks, and crafty words, which told again are nothing, you
+      urged him on to gratify the deadly hate he owes me&mdash;I have earned it,
+      I thank Heaven&mdash;by the abduction and dishonour of my niece. You did.
+      I see denial in your looks,' he cried, abruptly pointing in his face, and
+      stepping back, 'and denial is a lie!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had his hand upon his sword; but the knight, with a contemptuous smile,
+      replied to him as coldly as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You will take notice, sir&mdash;if you can discriminate sufficiently&mdash;that
+      I have taken the trouble to deny nothing. Your discernment is hardly fine
+      enough for the perusal of faces, not of a kind as coarse as your speech;
+      nor has it ever been, that I remember; or, in one face that I could name,
+      you would have read indifference, not to say disgust, somewhat sooner than
+      you did. I speak of a long time ago,&mdash;but you understand me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Disguise it as you will, you mean denial. Denial explicit or reserved,
+      expressed or left to be inferred, is still a lie. You say you don't deny.
+      Do you admit?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You yourself,' returned Sir John, suffering the current of his speech to
+      flow as smoothly as if it had been stemmed by no one word of interruption,
+      'publicly proclaimed the character of the gentleman in question (I think
+      it was in Westminster Hall) in terms which relieve me from the necessity
+      of making any further allusion to him. You may have been warranted; you
+      may not have been; I can't say. Assuming the gentleman to be what you
+      described, and to have made to you or any other person any statements that
+      may have happened to suggest themselves to him, for the sake of his own
+      security, or for the sake of money, or for his own amusement, or for any
+      other consideration,&mdash;I have nothing to say of him, except that his
+      extremely degrading situation appears to me to be shared with his
+      employers. You are so very plain yourself, that you will excuse a little
+      freedom in me, I am sure.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Attend to me again, Sir John but once,' cried Mr Haredale; 'in your every
+      look, and word, and gesture, you tell me this was not your act. I tell you
+      that it was, and that you tampered with the man I speak of, and with your
+      wretched son (whom God forgive!) to do this deed. You talk of degradation
+      and character. You told me once that you had purchased the absence of the
+      poor idiot and his mother, when (as I have discovered since, and then
+      suspected) you had gone to tempt them, and had found them flown. To you I
+      traced the insinuation that I alone reaped any harvest from my brother's
+      death; and all the foul attacks and whispered calumnies that followed in
+      its train. In every action of my life, from that first hope which you
+      converted into grief and desolation, you have stood, like an adverse fate,
+      between me and peace. In all, you have ever been the same cold-blooded,
+      hollow, false, unworthy villain. For the second time, and for the last, I
+      cast these charges in your teeth, and spurn you from me as I would a
+      faithless dog!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he raised his arm, and struck him on the breast so that he
+      staggered. Sir John, the instant he recovered, drew his sword, threw away
+      the scabbard and his hat, and running on his adversary made a desperate
+      lunge at his heart, which, but that his guard was quick and true, would
+      have stretched him dead upon the grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the act of striking him, the torrent of his opponent's rage had reached
+      a stop. He parried his rapid thrusts, without returning them, and called
+      to him, with a frantic kind of terror in his face, to keep back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not to-night! not to-night!' he cried. 'In God's name, not tonight!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seeing that he lowered his weapon, and that he would not thrust in turn,
+      Sir John lowered his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Not to-night!' his adversary cried. 'Be warned in time!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You told me&mdash;it must have been in a sort of inspiration&mdash;' said
+      Sir John, quite deliberately, though now he dropped his mask, and showed
+      his hatred in his face, 'that this was the last time. Be assured it is!
+      Did you believe our last meeting was forgotten? Did you believe that your
+      every word and look was not to be accounted for, and was not well
+      remembered? Do you believe that I have waited your time, or you mine? What
+      kind of man is he who entered, with all his sickening cant of honesty and
+      truth, into a bond with me to prevent a marriage he affected to dislike,
+      and when I had redeemed my part to the spirit and the letter, skulked from
+      his, and brought the match about in his own time, to rid himself of a
+      burden he had grown tired of, and cast a spurious lustre on his house?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'I have acted,' cried Mr Haredale, 'with honour and in good faith. I do so
+      now. Do not force me to renew this duel to-night!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'You said my "wretched" son, I think?' said Sir John, with a smile. 'Poor
+      fool! The dupe of such a shallow knave&mdash;trapped into marriage by such
+      an uncle and by such a niece&mdash;he well deserves your pity. But he is
+      no longer a son of mine: you are welcome to the prize your craft has made,
+      sir.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Once more,' cried his opponent, wildly stamping on the ground, 'although
+      you tear me from my better angel, I implore you not to come within the
+      reach of my sword to-night. Oh! why were you here at all! Why have we met!
+      To-morrow would have cast us far apart for ever!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'That being the case,' returned Sir John, without the least emotion, 'it
+      is very fortunate we have met to-night. Haredale, I have always despised
+      you, as you know, but I have given you credit for a species of brute
+      courage. For the honour of my judgment, which I had thought a good one, I
+      am sorry to find you a coward.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not another word was spoken on either side. They crossed swords, though it
+      was now quite dusk, and attacked each other fiercely. They were well
+      matched, and each was thoroughly skilled in the management of his weapon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few seconds they grew hotter and more furious, and pressing on
+      each other inflicted and received several slight wounds. It was directly
+      after receiving one of these in his arm, that Mr Haredale, making a keener
+      thrust as he felt the warm blood spirting out, plunged his sword through
+      his opponent's body to the hilt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their eyes met, and were on each other as he drew it out. He put his arm
+      about the dying man, who repulsed him, feebly, and dropped upon the turf.
+      Raising himself upon his hands, he gazed at him for an instant, with scorn
+      and hatred in his look; but, seeming to remember, even then, that this
+      expression would distort his features after death, he tried to smile, and,
+      faintly moving his right hand, as if to hide his bloody linen in his vest,
+      fell back dead&mdash;the phantom of last night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0082" id="link2HCH0082">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter the Last
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A parting glance at such of the actors in this little history as it has
+      not, in the course of its events, dismissed, will bring it to an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Haredale fled that night. Before pursuit could be begun, indeed before
+      Sir John was traced or missed, he had left the kingdom. Repairing straight
+      to a religious establishment, known throughout Europe for the rigour and
+      severity of its discipline, and for the merciless penitence it exacted
+      from those who sought its shelter as a refuge from the world, he took the
+      vows which thenceforth shut him out from nature and his kind, and after a
+      few remorseful years was buried in its gloomy cloisters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days elapsed before the body of Sir John was found. As soon as it was
+      recognised and carried home, the faithful valet, true to his master's
+      creed, eloped with all the cash and movables he could lay his hands on,
+      and started as a finished gentleman upon his own account. In this career
+      he met with great success, and would certainly have married an heiress in
+      the end, but for an unlucky check which led to his premature decease. He
+      sank under a contagious disorder, very prevalent at that time, and
+      vulgarly termed the jail fever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George Gordon, remaining in his prison in the Tower until Monday the
+      fifth of February in the following year, was on that day solemnly tried at
+      Westminster for High Treason. Of this crime he was, after a patient
+      investigation, declared Not Guilty; upon the ground that there was no
+      proof of his having called the multitude together with any traitorous or
+      unlawful intentions. Yet so many people were there, still, to whom those
+      riots taught no lesson of reproof or moderation, that a public
+      subscription was set on foot in Scotland to defray the cost of his
+      defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For seven years afterwards he remained, at the strong intercession of his
+      friends, comparatively quiet; saving that he, every now and then, took
+      occasion to display his zeal for the Protestant faith in some extravagant
+      proceeding which was the delight of its enemies; and saving, besides, that
+      he was formally excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, for
+      refusing to appear as a witness in the Ecclesiastical Court when cited for
+      that purpose. In the year 1788 he was stimulated by some new insanity to
+      write and publish an injurious pamphlet, reflecting on the Queen of
+      France, in very violent terms. Being indicted for the libel, and (after
+      various strange demonstrations in court) found guilty, he fled into
+      Holland in place of appearing to receive sentence: from whence, as the
+      quiet burgomasters of Amsterdam had no relish for his company, he was sent
+      home again with all speed. Arriving in the month of July at Harwich, and
+      going thence to Birmingham, he made in the latter place, in August, a
+      public profession of the Jewish religion; and figured there as a Jew until
+      he was arrested, and brought back to London to receive the sentence he had
+      evaded. By virtue of this sentence he was, in the month of December, cast
+      into Newgate for five years and ten months, and required besides to pay a
+      large fine, and to furnish heavy securities for his future good behaviour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After addressing, in the midsummer of the following year, an appeal to the
+      commiseration of the National Assembly of France, which the English
+      minister refused to sanction, he composed himself to undergo his full term
+      of punishment; and suffering his beard to grow nearly to his waist, and
+      conforming in all respects to the ceremonies of his new religion, he
+      applied himself to the study of history, and occasionally to the art of
+      painting, in which, in his younger days, he had shown some skill. Deserted
+      by his former friends, and treated in all respects like the worst criminal
+      in the jail, he lingered on, quite cheerful and resigned, until the 1st of
+      November 1793, when he died in his cell, being then only three-and-forty
+      years of age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many men with fewer sympathies for the distressed and needy, with less
+      abilities and harder hearts, have made a shining figure and left a
+      brilliant fame. He had his mourners. The prisoners bemoaned his loss, and
+      missed him; for though his means were not large, his charity was great,
+      and in bestowing alms among them he considered the necessities of all
+      alike, and knew no distinction of sect or creed. There are wise men in the
+      highways of the world who may learn something, even from this poor crazy
+      lord who died in Newgate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the last, he was truly served by bluff John Grueby. John was at his
+      side before he had been four-and-twenty hours in the Tower, and never left
+      him until he died. He had one other constant attendant, in the person of a
+      beautiful Jewish girl; who attached herself to him from feelings half
+      religious, half romantic, but whose virtuous and disinterested character
+      appears to have been beyond the censure even of the most censorious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gashford deserted him, of course. He subsisted for a time upon his traffic
+      in his master's secrets; and, this trade failing when the stock was quite
+      exhausted, procured an appointment in the honourable corps of spies and
+      eavesdroppers employed by the government. As one of these wretched
+      underlings, he did his drudgery, sometimes abroad, sometimes at home, and
+      long endured the various miseries of such a station. Ten or a dozen years
+      ago&mdash;not more&mdash;a meagre, wan old man, diseased and miserably
+      poor, was found dead in his bed at an obscure inn in the Borough, where he
+      was quite unknown. He had taken poison. There was no clue to his name; but
+      it was discovered from certain entries in a pocket-book he carried, that
+      he had been secretary to Lord George Gordon in the time of the famous
+      riots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many months after the re-establishment of peace and order, and even when
+      it had ceased to be the town-talk, that every military officer, kept at
+      free quarters by the City during the late alarms, had cost for his board
+      and lodging four pounds four per day, and every private soldier two and
+      twopence halfpenny; many months after even this engrossing topic was
+      forgotten, and the United Bulldogs were to a man all killed, imprisoned,
+      or transported, Mr Simon Tappertit, being removed from a hospital to
+      prison, and thence to his place of trial, was discharged by proclamation,
+      on two wooden legs. Shorn of his graceful limbs, and brought down from his
+      high estate to circumstances of utter destitution, and the deepest misery,
+      he made shift to stump back to his old master, and beg for some relief. By
+      the locksmith's advice and aid, he was established in business as a
+      shoeblack, and opened shop under an archway near the Horse Guards. This
+      being a central quarter, he quickly made a very large connection; and on
+      levee days, was sometimes known to have as many as twenty half-pay
+      officers waiting their turn for polishing. Indeed his trade increased to
+      that extent, that in course of time he entertained no less than two
+      apprentices, besides taking for his wife the widow of an eminent bone and
+      rag collector, formerly of Millbank. With this lady (who assisted in the
+      business) he lived in great domestic happiness, only chequered by those
+      little storms which serve to clear the atmosphere of wedlock, and brighten
+      its horizon. In some of these gusts of bad weather, Mr Tappertit would, in
+      the assertion of his prerogative, so far forget himself, as to correct his
+      lady with a brush, or boot, or shoe; while she (but only in extreme cases)
+      would retaliate by taking off his legs, and leaving him exposed to the
+      derision of those urchins who delight in mischief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miggs, baffled in all her schemes, matrimonial and otherwise, and
+      cast upon a thankless, undeserving world, turned very sharp and sour; and
+      did at length become so acid, and did so pinch and slap and tweak the hair
+      and noses of the youth of Golden Lion Court, that she was by one consent
+      expelled that sanctuary, and desired to bless some other spot of earth, in
+      preference. It chanced at that moment, that the justices of the peace for
+      Middlesex proclaimed by public placard that they stood in need of a female
+      turnkey for the County Bridewell, and appointed a day and hour for the
+      inspection of candidates. Miss Miggs attending at the time appointed, was
+      instantly chosen and selected from one hundred and twenty-four
+      competitors, and at once promoted to the office; which she held until her
+      decease, more than thirty years afterwards, remaining single all that
+      time. It was observed of this lady that while she was inflexible and grim
+      to all her female flock, she was particularly so to those who could
+      establish any claim to beauty: and it was often remarked as a proof of her
+      indomitable virtue and severe chastity, that to such as had been frail she
+      showed no mercy; always falling upon them on the slightest occasion, or on
+      no occasion at all, with the fullest measure of her wrath. Among other
+      useful inventions which she practised upon this class of offenders and
+      bequeathed to posterity, was the art of inflicting an exquisitely vicious
+      poke or dig with the wards of a key in the small of the back, near the
+      spine. She likewise originated a mode of treading by accident (in pattens)
+      on such as had small feet; also very remarkable for its ingenuity, and
+      previously quite unknown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not very long, you may be sure, before Joe Willet and Dolly Varden
+      were made husband and wife, and with a handsome sum in bank (for the
+      locksmith could afford to give his daughter a good dowry), reopened the
+      Maypole. It was not very long, you may be sure, before a red-faced little
+      boy was seen staggering about the Maypole passage, and kicking up his
+      heels on the green before the door. It was not very long, counting by
+      years, before there was a red-faced little girl, another red-faced little
+      boy, and a whole troop of girls and boys: so that, go to Chigwell when you
+      would, there would surely be seen, either in the village street, or on the
+      green, or frolicking in the farm-yard&mdash;for it was a farm now, as well
+      as a tavern&mdash;more small Joes and small Dollys than could be easily
+      counted. It was not a very long time before these appearances ensued; but
+      it WAS a VERY long time before Joe looked five years older, or Dolly
+      either, or the locksmith either, or his wife either: for cheerfulness and
+      content are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of youthful
+      looks, depend upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a long time, too, before there was such a country inn as the
+      Maypole, in all England: indeed it is a great question whether there has
+      ever been such another to this hour, or ever will be. It was a long time
+      too&mdash;for Never, as the proverb says, is a long day&mdash;before they
+      forgot to have an interest in wounded soldiers at the Maypole, or before
+      Joe omitted to refresh them, for the sake of his old campaign; or before
+      the serjeant left off looking in there, now and then; or before they
+      fatigued themselves, or each other, by talking on these occasions of
+      battles and sieges, and hard weather and hard service, and a thousand
+      things belonging to a soldier's life. As to the great silver snuff-box
+      which the King sent Joe with his own hand, because of his conduct in the
+      Riots, what guest ever went to the Maypole without putting finger and
+      thumb into that box, and taking a great pinch, though he had never taken a
+      pinch of snuff before, and almost sneezed himself into convulsions even
+      then? As to the purple-faced vintner, where is the man who lived in those
+      times and never saw HIM at the Maypole: to all appearance as much at home
+      in the best room, as if he lived there? And as to the feastings and
+      christenings, and revellings at Christmas, and celebrations of birthdays,
+      wedding-days, and all manner of days, both at the Maypole and the Golden
+      Key,&mdash;if they are not notorious, what facts are?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Willet the elder, having been by some extraordinary means possessed
+      with the idea that Joe wanted to be married, and that it would be well for
+      him, his father, to retire into private life, and enable him to live in
+      comfort, took up his abode in a small cottage at Chigwell; where they
+      widened and enlarged the fireplace for him, hung up the boiler, and
+      furthermore planted in the little garden outside the front-door, a
+      fictitious Maypole; so that he was quite at home directly. To this, his
+      new habitation, Tom Cobb, Phil Parkes, and Solomon Daisy went regularly
+      every night: and in the chimney-corner, they all four quaffed, and smoked,
+      and prosed, and dozed, as they had done of old. It being accidentally
+      discovered after a short time that Mr Willet still appeared to consider
+      himself a landlord by profession, Joe provided him with a slate, upon
+      which the old man regularly scored up vast accounts for meat, drink, and
+      tobacco. As he grew older this passion increased upon him; and it became
+      his delight to chalk against the name of each of his cronies a sum of
+      enormous magnitude, and impossible to be paid: and such was his secret joy
+      in these entries, that he would be perpetually seen going behind the door
+      to look at them, and coming forth again, suffused with the liveliest
+      satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He never recovered the surprise the Rioters had given him, and remained in
+      the same mental condition down to the last moment of his life. It was like
+      to have been brought to a speedy termination by the first sight of his
+      first grandchild, which appeared to fill him with the belief that some
+      alarming miracle had happened to Joe. Being promptly blooded, however, by
+      a skilful surgeon, he rallied; and although the doctors all agreed, on his
+      being attacked with symptoms of apoplexy six months afterwards, that he
+      ought to die, and took it very ill that he did not, he remained alive&mdash;possibly
+      on account of his constitutional slowness&mdash;for nearly seven years
+      more, when he was one morning found speechless in his bed. He lay in this
+      state, free from all tokens of uneasiness, for a whole week, when he was
+      suddenly restored to consciousness by hearing the nurse whisper in his
+      son's ear that he was going. 'I'm a-going, Joseph,' said Mr Willet,
+      turning round upon the instant, 'to the Salwanners'&mdash;and immediately
+      gave up the ghost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He left a large sum of money behind him; even more than he was supposed to
+      have been worth, although the neighbours, according to the custom of
+      mankind in calculating the wealth that other people ought to have saved,
+      had estimated his property in good round numbers. Joe inherited the whole;
+      so that he became a man of great consequence in those parts, and was
+      perfectly independent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some time elapsed before Barnaby got the better of the shock he had
+      sustained, or regained his old health and gaiety. But he recovered by
+      degrees: and although he could never separate his condemnation and escape
+      from the idea of a terrific dream, he became, in other respects, more
+      rational. Dating from the time of his recovery, he had a better memory and
+      greater steadiness of purpose; but a dark cloud overhung his whole
+      previous existence, and never cleared away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not the less happy for this, for his love of freedom and interest
+      in all that moved or grew, or had its being in the elements, remained to
+      him unimpaired. He lived with his mother on the Maypole farm, tending the
+      poultry and the cattle, working in a garden of his own, and helping
+      everywhere. He was known to every bird and beast about the place, and had
+      a name for every one. Never was there a lighter-hearted husbandman, a
+      creature more popular with young and old, a blither or more happy soul
+      than Barnaby; and though he was free to ramble where he would, he never
+      quitted Her, but was for evermore her stay and comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was remarkable that although he had that dim sense of the past, he
+      sought out Hugh's dog, and took him under his care; and that he never
+      could be tempted into London. When the Riots were many years old, and
+      Edward and his wife came back to England with a family almost as numerous
+      as Dolly's, and one day appeared at the Maypole porch, he knew them
+      instantly, and wept and leaped for joy. But neither to visit them, nor on
+      any other pretence, no matter how full of promise and enjoyment, could he
+      be persuaded to set foot in the streets: nor did he ever conquer this
+      repugnance or look upon the town again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grip soon recovered his looks, and became as glossy and sleek as ever. But
+      he was profoundly silent. Whether he had forgotten the art of Polite
+      Conversation in Newgate, or had made a vow in those troubled times to
+      forego, for a period, the display of his accomplishments, is matter of
+      uncertainty; but certain it is that for a whole year he never indulged in
+      any other sound than a grave, decorous croak. At the expiration of that
+      term, the morning being very bright and sunny, he was heard to address
+      himself to the horses in the stable, upon the subject of the Kettle, so
+      often mentioned in these pages; and before the witness who overheard him
+      could run into the house with the intelligence, and add to it upon his
+      solemn affirmation the statement that he had heard him laugh, the bird
+      himself advanced with fantastic steps to the very door of the bar, and
+      there cried, 'I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil!' with extraordinary
+      rapture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that period (although he was supposed to be much affected by the
+      death of Mr Willet senior), he constantly practised and improved himself
+      in the vulgar tongue; and, as he was a mere infant for a raven when
+      Barnaby was grey, he has very probably gone on talking to the present
+      time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens
+#25 in our series by Charles Dickens
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+Barnaby Rudge
+
+by Charles Dickens
+
+May, 1997  [Etext #917]
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens
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+
+D.L.
+
+
+
+
+
+BARNABY RUDGE - A TALE OF THE RIOTS OF 'EIGHTY
+
+by
+
+Charles Dickens
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The late Mr Waterton having, some time ago, expressed his opinion 
+that ravens are gradually becoming extinct in England, I offered 
+the few following words about my experience of these birds.
+
+The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of 
+whom I was, at different times, the proud possessor.  The first was 
+in the bloom of his youth, when he was discovered in a modest 
+retirement in London, by a friend of mine, and given to me.  He had 
+from the first, as Sir Hugh Evans says of Anne Page, 'good gifts', 
+which he improved by study and attention in a most exemplary 
+manner.  He slept in a stable--generally on horseback--and so 
+terrified a Newfoundland dog by his preternatural sagacity, that he 
+has been known, by the mere superiority of his genius, to walk off 
+unmolested with the dog's dinner, from before his face.  He was 
+rapidly rising in acquirements and virtues, when, in an evil hour, 
+his stable was newly painted.  He observed the workmen closely, 
+saw that they were careful of the paint, and immediately burned to 
+possess it.  On their going to dinner, he ate up all they had left 
+behind, consisting of a pound or two of white lead; and this 
+youthful indiscretion terminated in death.
+
+While I was yet inconsolable for his loss, another friend of mine 
+in Yorkshire discovered an older and more gifted raven at a village 
+public-house, which he prevailed upon the landlord to part with for 
+a consideration, and sent up to me.  The first act of this Sage, 
+was, to administer to the effects of his predecessor, by 
+disinterring all the cheese and halfpence he had buried in the 
+garden--a work of immense labour and research, to which he devoted 
+all the energies of his mind.  When he had achieved this task, he 
+applied himself to the acquisition of stable language, in which he 
+soon became such an adept, that he would perch outside my window 
+and drive imaginary horses with great skill, all day.  Perhaps 
+even I never saw him at his best, for his former master sent his 
+duty with him, 'and if I wished the bird to come out very strong, 
+would I be so good as to show him a drunken man'--which I never 
+did, having (unfortunately) none but sober people at hand.
+
+But I could hardly have respected him more, whatever the 
+stimulating influences of this sight might have been.  He had not 
+the least respect, I am sorry to say, for me in return, or for 
+anybody but the cook; to whom he was attached--but only, I fear, as 
+a Policeman might have been.  Once, I met him unexpectedly, about 
+half-a-mile from my house, walking down the middle of a public 
+street, attended by a pretty large crowd, and spontaneously 
+exhibiting the whole of his accomplishments.  His gravity under 
+those trying circumstances, I can never forget, nor the 
+extraordinary gallantry with which, refusing to be brought home, he 
+defended himself behind a pump, until overpowered by numbers.  It 
+may have been that he was too bright a genius to live long, or it 
+may have been that he took some pernicious substance into his bill, 
+and thence into his maw--which is not improbable, seeing that he 
+new-pointed the greater part of the garden-wall by digging out the 
+mortar, broke countless squares of glass by scraping away the putty 
+all round the frames, and tore up and swallowed, in splinters, the 
+greater part of a wooden staircase of six steps and a landing--but 
+after some three years he too was taken ill, and died before the 
+kitchen fire.  He kept his eye to the last upon the meat as it 
+roasted, and suddenly.  turned over on his back with a sepulchral 
+cry of 'Cuckoo!'  Since then I have been ravenless.
+
+No account of the Gordon Riots having been to my knowledge 
+introduced into any Work of Fiction, and the subject presenting 
+very extraordinary and remarkable features, I was led to project 
+this Tale.
+
+It is unnecessary to say, that those shameful tumults, while they 
+reflect indelible disgrace upon the time in which they occurred, 
+and all who had act or part in them, teach a good lesson.  That 
+what we falsely call a religious cry is easily raised by men who 
+have no religion, and who in their daily practice set at nought the 
+commonest principles of right and wrong; that it is begotten of 
+intolerance and persecution; that it is senseless, besotted, 
+inveterate and unmerciful; all History teaches us.  But perhaps we 
+do not know it in our hearts too well, to profit by even so humble 
+an example as the 'No Popery' riots of Seventeen Hundred and Eighty.
+
+However imperfectly those disturbances are set forth in the 
+following pages, they are impartially painted by one who has no 
+sympathy with the Romish Church, though he acknowledges, as most 
+men do, some esteemed friends among the followers of its creed.
+
+In the description of the principal outrages, reference has been 
+had to the best authorities of that time, such as they are; the 
+account given in this Tale, of all the main features of the Riots, 
+is substantially correct.
+
+Mr Dennis's allusions to the flourishing condition of his trade in 
+those days, have their foundation in Truth, and not in the 
+Author's fancy.  Any file of old Newspapers, or odd volume of the 
+Annual Register, will prove this with terrible ease.
+
+Even the case of Mary Jones, dwelt upon with so much pleasure by 
+the same character, is no effort of invention.  The facts were 
+stated, exactly as they are stated here, in the House of Commons.  
+Whether they afforded as much entertainment to the merry gentlemen 
+assembled there, as some other most affecting circumstances of a 
+similar nature mentioned by Sir Samuel Romilly, is not recorded.
+
+That the case of Mary Jones may speak the more emphatically for 
+itself, I subjoin it, as related by SIR WILLIAM MEREDITH in a 
+speech in Parliament, 'on Frequent Executions', made in 1777.
+
+'Under this act,' the Shop-lifting Act, 'one Mary Jones was 
+executed, whose case I shall just mention; it was at the time when 
+press warrants were issued, on the alarm about Falkland Islands.  
+The woman's husband was pressed, their goods seized for some debts 
+of his, and she, with two small children, turned into the streets 
+a-begging.  It is a circumstance not to be forgotten, that she was 
+very young (under nineteen), and most remarkably handsome.  She 
+went to a linen-draper's shop, took some coarse linen off the 
+counter, and slipped it under her cloak; the shopman saw her, and 
+she laid it down: for this she was hanged.  Her defence was (I have 
+the trial in my pocket), "that she had lived in credit, and wanted 
+for nothing, till a press-gang came and stole her husband from her; 
+but since then, she had no bed to lie on; nothing to give her 
+children to eat; and they were almost naked; and perhaps she might 
+have done something wrong, for she hardly knew what she did."  The 
+parish officers testified the truth of this story; but it seems, 
+there had been a good deal of shop-lifting about Ludgate; an 
+example was thought necessary; and this woman was hanged for the 
+comfort and satisfaction of shopkeepers in Ludgate Street.  When 
+brought to receive sentence, she behaved in such a frantic manner, 
+as proved her mind to he in a distracted and desponding state; and 
+the child was sucking at her breast when she set out for Tyburn.'
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+
+In the year 1775, there stood upon the borders of Epping Forest, 
+at a distance of about twelve miles from London--measuring from the 
+Standard in Cornhill,' or rather from the spot on or near to which 
+the Standard used to be in days of yore--a house of public 
+entertainment called the Maypole; which fact was demonstrated to 
+all such travellers as could neither read nor write (and at that 
+time a vast number both of travellers and stay-at-homes were in 
+this condition) by the emblem reared on the roadside over against 
+the house, which, if not of those goodly proportions that Maypoles 
+were wont to present in olden times, was a fair young ash, thirty 
+feet in height, and straight as any arrow that ever English yeoman 
+drew.
+
+The Maypole--by which term from henceforth is meant the house, and 
+not its sign--the Maypole was an old building, with more gable ends 
+than a lazy man would care to count on a sunny day; huge zig-zag 
+chimneys, out of which it seemed as though even smoke could not 
+choose but come in more than naturally fantastic shapes, imparted 
+to it in its tortuous progress; and vast stables, gloomy, ruinous, 
+and empty.  The place was said to have been built in the days of 
+King Henry the Eighth; and there was a legend, not only that Queen 
+Elizabeth had slept there one night while upon a hunting excursion, 
+to wit, in a certain oak-panelled room with a deep bay window, but 
+that next morning, while standing on a mounting block before the 
+door with one foot in the stirrup, the virgin monarch had then and 
+there boxed and cuffed an unlucky page for some neglect of duty.  
+The matter-of-fact and doubtful folks, of whom there were a few 
+among the Maypole customers, as unluckily there always are in every 
+little community, were inclined to look upon this tradition as 
+rather apocryphal; but, whenever the landlord of that ancient 
+hostelry appealed to the mounting block itself as evidence, and 
+triumphantly pointed out that there it stood in the same place to 
+that very day, the doubters never failed to be put down by a large 
+majority, and all true believers exulted as in a victory.
+
+Whether these, and many other stories of the like nature, were true 
+or untrue, the Maypole was really an old house, a very old house, 
+perhaps as old as it claimed to be, and perhaps older, which will 
+sometimes happen with houses of an uncertain, as with ladies of a 
+certain, age.  Its windows were old diamond-pane lattices, its 
+floors were sunken and uneven, its ceilings blackened by the hand 
+of time, and heavy with massive beams.  Over the doorway was an 
+ancient porch, quaintly and grotesquely carved; and here on summer 
+evenings the more favoured customers smoked and drank--ay, and 
+sang many a good song too, sometimes--reposing on two grim-looking 
+high-backed settles, which, like the twin dragons of some fairy 
+tale, guarded the entrance to the mansion.
+
+In the chimneys of the disused rooms, swallows had built their 
+nests for many a long year, and from earliest spring to latest 
+autumn whole colonies of sparrows chirped and twittered in the 
+eaves.  There were more pigeons about the dreary stable-yard and 
+out-buildings than anybody but the landlord could reckon up.  The 
+wheeling and circling flights of runts, fantails, tumblers, and 
+pouters, were perhaps not quite consistent with the grave and sober 
+character of the building, but the monotonous cooing, which never 
+ceased to be raised by some among them all day long, suited it 
+exactly, and seemed to lull it to rest.  With its overhanging 
+stories, drowsy little panes of glass, and front bulging out and 
+projecting over the pathway, the old house looked as if it were 
+nodding in its sleep.  Indeed, it needed no very great stretch of 
+fancy to detect in it other resemblances to humanity.  The bricks 
+of which it was built had originally been a deep dark red, but had 
+grown yellow and discoloured like an old man's skin; the sturdy 
+timbers had decayed like teeth; and here and there the ivy, like a 
+warm garment to comfort it in its age, wrapt its green leaves 
+closely round the time-worn walls.
+
+It was a hale and hearty age though, still: and in the summer or 
+autumn evenings, when the glow of the setting sun fell upon the oak 
+and chestnut trees of the adjacent forest, the old house, partaking 
+of its lustre, seemed their fit companion, and to have many good 
+years of life in him yet.
+
+The evening with which we have to do, was neither a summer nor an 
+autumn one, but the twilight of a day in March, when the wind 
+howled dismally among the bare branches of the trees, and rumbling 
+in the wide chimneys and driving the rain against the windows of 
+the Maypole Inn, gave such of its frequenters as chanced to be 
+there at the moment an undeniable reason for prolonging their stay, 
+and caused the landlord to prophesy that the night would certainly 
+clear at eleven o'clock precisely,--which by a remarkable 
+coincidence was the hour at which he always closed his house.
+
+The name of him upon whom the spirit of prophecy thus descended was 
+John Willet, a burly, large-headed man with a fat face, which 
+betokened profound obstinacy and slowness of apprehension, 
+combined with a very strong reliance upon his own merits.  It was 
+John Willet's ordinary boast in his more placid moods that if he 
+were slow he was sure; which assertion could, in one sense at 
+least, be by no means gainsaid, seeing that he was in everything 
+unquestionably the reverse of fast, and withal one of the most 
+dogged and positive fellows in existence--always sure that what he 
+thought or said or did was right, and holding it as a thing quite 
+settled and ordained by the laws of nature and Providence, that 
+anybody who said or did or thought otherwise must be inevitably and 
+of necessity wrong.
+
+Mr Willet walked slowly up to the window, flattened his fat nose 
+against the cold glass, and shading his eyes that his sight might 
+not be affected by the ruddy glow of the fire, looked abroad.  Then 
+he walked slowly back to his old seat in the chimney-corner, and, 
+composing himself in it with a slight shiver, such as a man might 
+give way to and so acquire an additional relish for the warm blaze, 
+said, looking round upon his guests:
+
+'It'll clear at eleven o'clock.  No sooner and no later.  Not 
+before and not arterwards.'
+
+'How do you make out that?' said a little man in the opposite 
+corner.  'The moon is past the full, and she rises at nine.'
+
+John looked sedately and solemnly at his questioner until he had 
+brought his mind to bear upon the whole of his observation, and 
+then made answer, in a tone which seemed to imply that the moon was 
+peculiarly his business and nobody else's:
+
+'Never you mind about the moon.  Don't you trouble yourself about 
+her.  You let the moon alone, and I'll let you alone.'
+
+'No offence I hope?' said the little man.
+
+Again John waited leisurely until the observation had thoroughly 
+penetrated to his brain, and then replying, 'No offence as YET,' 
+applied a light to his pipe and smoked in placid silence; now and 
+then casting a sidelong look at a man wrapped in a loose riding-
+coat with huge cuffs ornamented with tarnished silver lace and 
+large metal buttons, who sat apart from the regular frequenters of 
+the house, and wearing a hat flapped over his face, which was still 
+further shaded by the hand on which his forehead rested, looked 
+unsociable enough.
+
+There was another guest, who sat, booted and spurred, at some 
+distance from the fire also, and whose thoughts--to judge from his 
+folded arms and knitted brows, and from the untasted liquor before 
+him--were occupied with other matters than the topics under 
+discussion or the persons who discussed them.  This was a young man 
+of about eight-and-twenty, rather above the middle height, and 
+though of somewhat slight figure, gracefully and strongly made.  He 
+wore his own dark hair, and was accoutred in a riding dress, which 
+together with his large boots (resembling in shape and fashion 
+those worn by our Life Guardsmen at the present day), showed 
+indisputable traces of the bad condition of the roads.  But travel-
+stained though he was, he was well and even richly attired, and 
+without being overdressed looked a gallant gentleman.
+
+Lying upon the table beside him, as he had carelessly thrown them 
+down, were a heavy riding-whip and a slouched hat, the latter worn 
+no doubt as being best suited to the inclemency of the weather.  
+There, too, were a pair of pistols in a holster-case, and a short 
+riding-cloak.  Little of his face was visible, except the long dark 
+lashes which concealed his downcast eyes, but an air of careless 
+ease and natural gracefulness of demeanour pervaded the figure, and 
+seemed to comprehend even those slight accessories, which were all 
+handsome, and in good keeping.
+
+Towards this young gentleman the eyes of Mr Willet wandered but 
+once, and then as if in mute inquiry whether he had observed his 
+silent neighbour.  It was plain that John and the young gentleman 
+had often met before.  Finding that his look was not returned, or 
+indeed observed by the person to whom it was addressed, John 
+gradually concentrated the whole power of his eyes into one focus, 
+and brought it to bear upon the man in the flapped hat, at whom he 
+came to stare in course of time with an intensity so remarkable, 
+that it affected his fireside cronies, who all, as with one accord, 
+took their pipes from their lips, and stared with open mouths at 
+the stranger likewise.
+
+The sturdy landlord had a large pair of dull fish-like eyes, and 
+the little man who had hazarded the remark about the moon (and who 
+was the parish-clerk and bell-ringer of Chigwell, a village hard 
+by) had little round black shiny eyes like beads; moreover this 
+little man wore at the knees of his rusty black breeches, and on 
+his rusty black coat, and all down his long flapped waistcoat, 
+little queer buttons like nothing except his eyes; but so like 
+them, that as they twinkled and glistened in the light of the fire, 
+which shone too in his bright shoe-buckles, he seemed all eyes from 
+head to foot, and to be gazing with every one of them at the 
+unknown customer.  No wonder that a man should grow restless under 
+such an inspection as this, to say nothing of the eyes belonging to 
+short Tom Cobb the general chandler and post-office keeper, and 
+long Phil Parkes the ranger, both of whom, infected by the example 
+of their companions, regarded him of the flapped hat no less 
+attentively.
+
+The stranger became restless; perhaps from being exposed to this 
+raking fire of eyes, perhaps from the nature of his previous 
+meditations--most probably from the latter cause, for as he changed 
+his position and looked hastily round, he started to find himself 
+the object of such keen regard, and darted an angry and suspicious 
+glance at the fireside group.  It had the effect of immediately 
+diverting all eyes to the chimney, except those of John Willet, who 
+finding himself as it were, caught in the fact, and not being (as 
+has been already observed) of a very ready nature, remained staring 
+at his guest in a particularly awkward and disconcerted manner.
+
+'Well?' said the stranger.
+
+Well.  There was not much in well.  It was not a long speech.  'I 
+thought you gave an order,' said the landlord, after a pause of two 
+or three minutes for consideration.
+
+The stranger took off his hat, and disclosed the hard features of a 
+man of sixty or thereabouts, much weatherbeaten and worn by time, 
+and the naturally harsh expression of which was not improved by a 
+dark handkerchief which was bound tightly round his head, and, 
+while it served the purpose of a wig, shaded his forehead, and 
+almost hid his eyebrows.  If it were intended to conceal or divert 
+attention from a deep gash, now healed into an ugly seam, which 
+when it was first inflicted must have laid bare his cheekbone, the 
+object was but indifferently attained, for it could scarcely fail 
+to be noted at a glance.  His complexion was of a cadaverous hue, 
+and he had a grizzly jagged beard of some three weeks' date.  Such 
+was the figure (very meanly and poorly clad) that now rose from the 
+seat, and stalking across the room sat down in a corner of the 
+chimney, which the politeness or fears of the little clerk very 
+readily assigned to him.
+
+'A highwayman!' whispered Tom Cobb to Parkes the ranger.
+
+'Do you suppose highwaymen don't dress handsomer than that?' 
+replied Parkes.  'It's a better business than you think for, Tom, 
+and highwaymen don't need or use to be shabby, take my word for it.'
+
+Meanwhile the subject of their speculations had done due honour to 
+the house by calling for some drink, which was promptly supplied by 
+the landlord's son Joe, a broad-shouldered strapping young fellow 
+of twenty, whom it pleased his father still to consider a little 
+boy, and to treat accordingly.  Stretching out his hands to warm 
+them by the blazing fire, the man turned his head towards the 
+company, and after running his eye sharply over them, said in a 
+voice well suited to his appearance:
+
+'What house is that which stands a mile or so from here?'
+
+'Public-house?' said the landlord, with his usual deliberation.
+
+'Public-house, father!' exclaimed Joe, 'where's the public-house 
+within a mile or so of the Maypole?  He means the great house--the 
+Warren--naturally and of course.  The old red brick house, sir, 
+that stands in its own grounds--?'
+
+'Aye,' said the stranger.
+
+'And that fifteen or twenty years ago stood in a park five times as 
+broad, which with other and richer property has bit by bit changed 
+hands and dwindled away--more's the pity!' pursued the young man.
+
+'Maybe,' was the reply.  'But my question related to the owner.  
+What it has been I don't care to know, and what it is I can see for 
+myself.'
+
+The heir-apparent to the Maypole pressed his finger on his lips, 
+and glancing at the young gentleman already noticed, who had 
+changed his attitude when the house was first mentioned, replied in 
+a lower tone:
+
+'The owner's name is Haredale, Mr Geoffrey Haredale, and'--again he 
+glanced in the same direction as before--'and a worthy gentleman 
+too--hem!'
+
+Paying as little regard to this admonitory cough, as to the 
+significant gesture that had preceded it, the stranger pursued his 
+questioning.
+
+'I turned out of my way coming here, and took the footpath that 
+crosses the grounds.  Who was the young lady that I saw entering a 
+carriage?  His daughter?'
+
+'Why, how should I know, honest man?' replied Joe, contriving in 
+the course of some arrangements about the hearth, to advance close 
+to his questioner and pluck him by the sleeve, 'I didn't see the 
+young lady, you know.  Whew!  There's the wind again--AND rain--
+well it IS a night!'
+
+Rough weather indeed!' observed the strange man.
+
+'You're used to it?' said Joe, catching at anything which seemed to 
+promise a diversion of the subject.
+
+'Pretty well,' returned the other.  'About the young lady--has Mr 
+Haredale a daughter?'
+
+'No, no,' said the young fellow fretfully, 'he's a single 
+gentleman--he's--be quiet, can't you, man?  Don't you see this 
+talk is not relished yonder?'
+
+Regardless of this whispered remonstrance, and affecting not to 
+hear it, his tormentor provokingly continued:
+
+'Single men have had daughters before now.  Perhaps she may be his 
+daughter, though he is not married.'
+
+'What do you mean?' said Joe, adding in an undertone as he 
+approached him again, 'You'll come in for it presently, I know you 
+will!'
+
+'I mean no harm'--returned the traveller boldly, 'and have said 
+none that I know of.  I ask a few questions--as any stranger may, 
+and not unnaturally--about the inmates of a remarkable house in a 
+neighbourhood which is new to me, and you are as aghast and 
+disturbed as if I were talking treason against King George.  
+Perhaps you can tell me why, sir, for (as I say) I am a stranger, 
+and this is Greek to me?'
+
+The latter observation was addressed to the obvious cause of Joe 
+Willet's discomposure, who had risen and was adjusting his riding-
+cloak preparatory to sallying abroad.  Briefly replying that he 
+could give him no information, the young man beckoned to Joe, and 
+handing him a piece of money in payment of his reckoning, hurried 
+out attended by young Willet himself, who taking up a candle 
+followed to light him to the house-door.
+
+While Joe was absent on this errand, the elder Willet and his three 
+companions continued to smoke with profound gravity, and in a deep 
+silence, each having his eyes fixed on a huge copper boiler that 
+was suspended over the fire.  After some time John Willet slowly 
+shook his head, and thereupon his friends slowly shook theirs; but 
+no man withdrew his eyes from the boiler, or altered the solemn 
+expression of his countenance in the slightest degree.
+
+At length Joe returned--very talkative and conciliatory, as though 
+with a strong presentiment that he was going to be found fault 
+with.
+
+'Such a thing as love is!' he said, drawing a chair near the fire, 
+and looking round for sympathy.  'He has set off to walk to 
+London,--all the way to London.  His nag gone lame in riding out 
+here this blessed afternoon, and comfortably littered down in our 
+stable at this minute; and he giving up a good hot supper and our 
+best bed, because Miss Haredale has gone to a masquerade up in 
+town, and he has set his heart upon seeing her!  I don't think I 
+could persuade myself to do that, beautiful as she is,--but then 
+I'm not in love (at least I don't think I am) and that's the whole 
+difference.'
+
+'He is in love then?' said the stranger.
+
+'Rather,' replied Joe.  'He'll never be more in love, and may very 
+easily be less.'
+
+'Silence, sir!' cried his father.
+
+'What a chap you are, Joe!' said Long Parkes.
+
+'Such a inconsiderate lad!' murmured Tom Cobb.
+
+'Putting himself forward and wringing the very nose off his own 
+father's face!' exclaimed the parish-clerk, metaphorically.
+
+'What HAVE I done?' reasoned poor Joe.
+
+'Silence, sir!' returned his father, 'what do you mean by talking, 
+when you see people that are more than two or three times your age, 
+sitting still and silent and not dreaming of saying a word?'
+
+'Why that's the proper time for me to talk, isn't it?' said Joe 
+rebelliously.
+
+'The proper time, sir!' retorted his father, 'the proper time's no 
+time.'
+
+'Ah to be sure!' muttered Parkes, nodding gravely to the other two 
+who nodded likewise, observing under their breaths that that was 
+the point.
+
+'The proper time's no time, sir,' repeated John Willet; 'when I was 
+your age I never talked, I never wanted to talk.  I listened and 
+improved myself that's what I did.'
+
+'And you'd find your father rather a tough customer in argeyment, 
+Joe, if anybody was to try and tackle him,' said Parkes.
+
+'For the matter o' that, Phil!' observed Mr Willet, blowing a long, 
+thin, spiral cloud of smoke out of the corner of his mouth, and 
+staring at it abstractedly as it floated away; 'For the matter o' 
+that, Phil, argeyment is a gift of Natur.  If Natur has gifted a 
+man with powers of argeyment, a man has a right to make the best of 
+'em, and has not a right to stand on false delicacy, and deny that 
+he is so gifted; for that is a turning of his back on Natur, a 
+flouting of her, a slighting of her precious caskets, and a proving 
+of one's self to be a swine that isn't worth her scattering pearls 
+before.'
+
+The landlord pausing here for a very long time, Mr Parkes naturally 
+concluded that he had brought his discourse to an end; and 
+therefore, turning to the young man with some austerity, 
+exclaimed:
+
+'You hear what your father says, Joe?  You wouldn't much like to 
+tackle him in argeyment, I'm thinking, sir.'
+
+'IF,' said John Willet, turning his eyes from the ceiling to the 
+face of his interrupter, and uttering the monosyllable in capitals, 
+to apprise him that he had put in his oar, as the vulgar say, with 
+unbecoming and irreverent haste; 'IF, sir, Natur has fixed upon me 
+the gift of argeyment, why should I not own to it, and rather glory 
+in the same?  Yes, sir, I AM a tough customer that way.  You are 
+right, sir.  My toughness has been proved, sir, in this room many 
+and many a time, as I think you know; and if you don't know,' added 
+John, putting his pipe in his mouth again, 'so much the better, for 
+I an't proud and am not going to tell you.'
+
+A general murmur from his three cronies, and a general shaking of 
+heads at the copper boiler, assured John Willet that they had had 
+good experience of his powers and needed no further evidence to 
+assure them of his superiority.  John smoked with a little more 
+dignity and surveyed them in silence.
+
+'It's all very fine talking,' muttered Joe, who had been fidgeting 
+in his chair with divers uneasy gestures.  'But if you mean to tell 
+me that I'm never to open my lips--'
+
+'Silence, sir!' roared his father.  'No, you never are.  When your 
+opinion's wanted, you give it.  When you're spoke to, you speak.  
+When your opinion's not wanted and you're not spoke to, don't you 
+give an opinion and don't you speak.  The world's undergone a nice 
+alteration since my time, certainly.  My belief is that there an't 
+any boys left--that there isn't such a thing as a boy--that there's 
+nothing now between a male baby and a man--and that all the boys 
+went out with his blessed Majesty King George the Second.'
+
+'That's a very true observation, always excepting the young 
+princes,' said the parish-clerk, who, as the representative of 
+church and state in that company, held himself bound to the nicest 
+loyalty.  'If it's godly and righteous for boys, being of the ages 
+of boys, to behave themselves like boys, then the young princes 
+must be boys and cannot be otherwise.'
+
+'Did you ever hear tell of mermaids, sir?' said Mr Willet.
+
+'Certainly I have,' replied the clerk.
+
+'Very good,' said Mr Willet.  'According to the constitution of 
+mermaids, so much of a mermaid as is not a woman must be a fish.  
+According to the constitution of young princes, so much of a young 
+prince (if anything) as is not actually an angel, must be godly and 
+righteous.  Therefore if it's becoming and godly and righteous in 
+the young princes (as it is at their ages) that they should be 
+boys, they are and must be boys, and cannot by possibility be 
+anything else.'
+
+This elucidation of a knotty point being received with such marks 
+of approval as to put John Willet into a good humour, he contented 
+himself with repeating to his son his command of silence, and 
+addressing the stranger, said:
+
+'If you had asked your questions of a grown-up person--of me or any 
+of these gentlemen--you'd have had some satisfaction, and wouldn't 
+have wasted breath.  Miss Haredale is Mr Geoffrey Haredale's 
+niece.'
+
+'Is her father alive?' said the man, carelessly.
+
+'No,' rejoined the landlord, 'he is not alive, and he is not dead--'
+
+'Not dead!' cried the other.
+
+'Not dead in a common sort of way,' said the landlord.
+
+The cronies nodded to each other, and Mr Parkes remarked in an 
+undertone, shaking his head meanwhile as who should say, 'let no 
+man contradict me, for I won't believe him,' that John Willet was 
+in amazing force to-night, and fit to tackle a Chief Justice.
+
+The stranger suffered a short pause to elapse, and then asked 
+abruptly, 'What do you mean?'
+
+'More than you think for, friend,' returned John Willet.  'Perhaps 
+there's more meaning in them words than you suspect.'
+
+'Perhaps there is,' said the strange man, gruffly; 'but what the 
+devil do you speak in such mysteries for?  You tell me, first, that 
+a man is not alive, nor yet dead--then, that he's not dead in a 
+common sort of way--then, that you mean a great deal more than I 
+think for.  To tell you the truth, you may do that easily; for so 
+far as I can make out, you mean nothing.  What DO you mean, I ask 
+again?'
+
+'That,' returned the landlord, a little brought down from his 
+dignity by the stranger's surliness, 'is a Maypole story, and has 
+been any time these four-and-twenty years.  That story is Solomon 
+Daisy's story.  It belongs to the house; and nobody but Solomon 
+Daisy has ever told it under this roof, or ever shall--that's 
+more.'
+
+The man glanced at the parish-clerk, whose air of consciousness 
+and importance plainly betokened him to be the person referred to, 
+and, observing that he had taken his pipe from his lips, after a 
+very long whiff to keep it alight, and was evidently about to tell 
+his story without further solicitation, gathered his large coat 
+about him, and shrinking further back was almost lost in the gloom 
+of the spacious chimney-corner, except when the flame, struggling 
+from under a great faggot, whose weight almost crushed it for the 
+time, shot upward with a strong and sudden glare, and illumining 
+his figure for a moment, seemed afterwards to cast it into deeper 
+obscurity than before.
+
+By this flickering light, which made the old room, with its heavy 
+timbers and panelled walls, look as if it were built of polished 
+ebony--the wind roaring and howling without, now rattling the latch 
+and creaking the hinges of the stout oaken door, and now driving at 
+the casement as though it would beat it in--by this light, and 
+under circumstances so auspicious, Solomon Daisy began his tale:
+
+'It was Mr Reuben Haredale, Mr Geoffrey's elder brother--'
+
+Here he came to a dead stop, and made so long a pause that even 
+John Willet grew impatient and asked why he did not proceed.
+
+'Cobb,' said Solomon Daisy, dropping his voice and appealing to the 
+post-office keeper; 'what day of the month is this?'
+
+'The nineteenth.'
+
+'Of March,' said the clerk, bending forward, 'the nineteenth of 
+March; that's very strange.'
+
+In a low voice they all acquiesced, and Solomon went on:
+
+'It was Mr Reuben Haredale, Mr Geoffrey's elder brother, that 
+twenty-two years ago was the owner of the Warren, which, as Joe 
+has said--not that you remember it, Joe, for a boy like you can't 
+do that, but because you have often heard me say so--was then a 
+much larger and better place, and a much more valuable property 
+than it is now.  His lady was lately dead, and he was left with one 
+child--the Miss Haredale you have been inquiring about--who was 
+then scarcely a year old.'
+
+Although the speaker addressed himself to the man who had shown so 
+much curiosity about this same family, and made a pause here as if 
+expecting some exclamation of surprise or encouragement, the latter 
+made no remark, nor gave any indication that he heard or was 
+interested in what was said.  Solomon therefore turned to his old 
+companions, whose noses were brightly illuminated by the deep red 
+glow from the bowls of their pipes; assured, by long experience, of 
+their attention, and resolved to show his sense of such indecent 
+behaviour.
+
+'Mr Haredale,' said Solomon, turning his back upon the strange man, 
+'left this place when his lady died, feeling it lonely like, and 
+went up to London, where he stopped some months; but finding that 
+place as lonely as this--as I suppose and have always heard say--he 
+suddenly came back again with his little girl to the Warren, 
+bringing with him besides, that day, only two women servants, and 
+his steward, and a gardener.'
+
+Mr Daisy stopped to take a whiff at his pipe, which was going out, 
+and then proceeded--at first in a snuffling tone, occasioned by 
+keen enjoyment of the tobacco and strong pulling at the pipe, and 
+afterwards with increasing distinctness:
+
+'--Bringing with him two women servants, and his steward, and a 
+gardener.  The rest stopped behind up in London, and were to follow 
+next day.  It happened that that night, an old gentleman who lived 
+at Chigwell Row, and had long been poorly, deceased, and an order 
+came to me at half after twelve o'clock at night to go and toll the 
+passing-bell.'
+
+There was a movement in the little group of listeners, sufficiently 
+indicative of the strong repugnance any one of them would have felt 
+to have turned out at such a time upon such an errand.  The clerk 
+felt and understood it, and pursued his theme accordingly.
+
+'It WAS a dreary thing, especially as the grave-digger was laid up 
+in his bed, from long working in a damp soil and sitting down to 
+take his dinner on cold tombstones, and I was consequently under 
+obligation to go alone, for it was too late to hope to get any 
+other companion.  However, I wasn't unprepared for it; as the old 
+gentleman had often made it a request that the bell should be 
+tolled as soon as possible after the breath was out of his body, 
+and he had been expected to go for some days.  I put as good a face 
+upon it as I could, and muffling myself up (for it was mortal 
+cold), started out with a lighted lantern in one hand and the key 
+of the church in the other.'
+
+At this point of the narrative, the dress of the strange man 
+rustled as if he had turned himself to hear more distinctly.  
+Slightly pointing over his shoulder, Solomon elevated his eyebrows 
+and nodded a silent inquiry to Joe whether this was the case.  Joe 
+shaded his eyes with his hand and peered into the corner, but could 
+make out nothing, and so shook his head.
+
+'It was just such a night as this; blowing a hurricane, raining 
+heavily, and very dark--I often think now, darker than I ever saw 
+it before or since; that may be my fancy, but the houses were all 
+close shut and the folks in doors, and perhaps there is only one 
+other man who knows how dark it really was.  I got into the church, 
+chained the door back so that it should keep ajar--for, to tell the 
+truth, I didn't like to be shut in there alone--and putting my 
+lantern on the stone seat in the little corner where the bell-rope 
+is, sat down beside it to trim the candle.
+
+'I sat down to trim the candle, and when I had done so I could not 
+persuade myself to get up again, and go about my work.  I don't 
+know how it was, but I thought of all the ghost stories I had ever 
+heard, even those that I had heard when I was a boy at school, and 
+had forgotten long ago; and they didn't come into my mind one after 
+another, but all crowding at once, like.  I recollected one story 
+there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year 
+(it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead 
+people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own 
+graves till morning.  This made me think how many people I had 
+known, were buried between the church-door and the churchyard gate, 
+and what a dreadful thing it would be to have to pass among them 
+and know them again, so earthy and unlike themselves.  I had known 
+all the niches and arches in the church from a child; still, I 
+couldn't persuade myself that those were their natural shadows 
+which I saw on the pavement, but felt sure there were some ugly 
+figures hiding among 'em and peeping out.  Thinking on in this 
+way, I began to think of the old gentleman who was just dead, and I 
+could have sworn, as I looked up the dark chancel, that I saw him 
+in his usual place, wrapping his shroud about him and shivering as 
+if he felt it cold.  All this time I sat listening and listening, 
+and hardly dared to breathe.  At length I started up and took the 
+bell-rope in my hands.  At that minute there rang--not that bell, 
+for I had hardly touched the rope--but another!
+
+'I heard the ringing of another bell, and a deep bell too, plainly.  
+It was only for an instant, and even then the wind carried the 
+sound away, but I heard it.  I listened for a long time, but it 
+rang no more.  I had heard of corpse candles, and at last I 
+persuaded myself that this must be a corpse bell tolling of itself 
+at midnight for the dead.  I tolled my bell--how, or how long, I 
+don't know--and ran home to bed as fast as I could touch the 
+ground.
+
+'I was up early next morning after a restless night, and told the 
+story to my neighbours.  Some were serious and some made light of 
+it; I don't think anybody believed it real.  But, that morning, Mr 
+Reuben Haredale was found murdered in his bedchamber; and in his 
+hand was a piece of the cord attached to an alarm-bell outside the 
+roof, which hung in his room and had been cut asunder, no doubt by 
+the murderer, when he seized it.
+
+'That was the bell I heard.
+
+'A bureau was found opened, and a cash-box, which Mr Haredale had 
+brought down that day, and was supposed to contain a large sum of 
+money, was gone.  The steward and gardener were both missing and 
+both suspected for a long time, but they were never found, though 
+hunted far and wide.  And far enough they might have looked for 
+poor Mr Rudge the steward, whose body--scarcely to be recognised by 
+his clothes and the watch and ring he wore--was found, months 
+afterwards, at the bottom of a piece of water in the grounds, with 
+a deep gash in the breast where he had been stabbed with a knife.  
+He was only partly dressed; and people all agreed that he had been 
+sitting up reading in his own room, where there were many traces of 
+blood, and was suddenly fallen upon and killed before his master.
+
+Everybody now knew that the gardener must be the murderer, and 
+though he has never been heard of from that day to this, he will 
+be, mark my words.  The crime was committed this day two-and-twenty 
+years--on the nineteenth of March, one thousand seven hundred and 
+fifty-three.  On the nineteenth of March in some year--no matter 
+when--I know it, I am sure of it, for we have always, in some 
+strange way or other, been brought back to the subject on that day 
+ever since--on the nineteenth of March in some year, sooner or 
+later, that man will be discovered.'
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+
+'A strange story!' said the man who had been the cause of the 
+narration.--'Stranger still if it comes about as you predict.  Is 
+that all?'
+
+A question so unexpected, nettled Solomon Daisy not a little.  By 
+dint of relating the story very often, and ornamenting it 
+(according to village report) with a few flourishes suggested by 
+the various hearers from time to time, he had come by degrees to 
+tell it with great effect; and 'Is that all?' after the climax, was 
+not what he was accustomed to.
+
+'Is that all?' he repeated, 'yes, that's all, sir.  And enough 
+too, I think.'
+
+'I think so too.  My horse, young man!  He is but a hack hired from 
+a roadside posting house, but he must carry me to London to-
+night.'
+
+'To-night!' said Joe.
+
+'To-night,' returned the other.  'What do you stare at?  This 
+tavern would seem to be a house of call for all the gaping idlers 
+of the neighbourhood!'
+
+At this remark, which evidently had reference to the scrutiny he 
+had undergone, as mentioned in the foregoing chapter, the eyes of 
+John Willet and his friends were diverted with marvellous rapidity 
+to the copper boiler again.  Not so with Joe, who, being a 
+mettlesome fellow, returned the stranger's angry glance with a 
+steady look, and rejoined:
+
+'It is not a very bold thing to wonder at your going on to-night.  
+Surely you have been asked such a harmless question in an inn 
+before, and in better weather than this.  I thought you mightn't 
+know the way, as you seem strange to this part.'
+
+'The way--' repeated the other, irritably.
+
+'Yes.  DO you know it?'
+
+'I'll--humph!--I'll find it,' replied the nian, waving his hand and 
+turning on his heel.  'Landlord, take the reckoning here.'
+
+John Willet did as he was desired; for on that point he was seldom 
+slow, except in the particulars of giving change, and testing the 
+goodness of any piece of coin that was proffered to him, by the 
+application of his teeth or his tongue, or some other test, or in 
+doubtful cases, by a long series of tests terminating in its 
+rejection.  The guest then wrapped his garments about him so as to 
+shelter himself as effectually as he could from the rough weather, 
+and without any word or sign of farewell betook himself to the 
+stableyard.  Here Joe (who had left the room on the conclusion of 
+their short dialogue) was protecting himself and the horse from the 
+rain under the shelter of an old penthouse roof.
+
+'He's pretty much of my opinion,' said Joe, patting the horse upon 
+the neck.  'I'll wager that your stopping here to-night would 
+please him better than it would please me.'
+
+'He and I are of different opinions, as we have been more than once 
+on our way here,' was the short reply.
+
+'So I was thinking before you came out, for he has felt your spurs, 
+poor beast.'
+
+The stranger adjusted his coat-collar about his face, and made no 
+answer.
+
+'You'll know me again, I see,' he said, marking the young fellow's 
+earnest gaze, when he had sprung into the saddle.
+
+'The man's worth knowing, master, who travels a road he don't know, 
+mounted on a jaded horse, and leaves good quarters to do it on such 
+a night as this.'
+
+'You have sharp eyes and a sharp tongue, I find.'
+
+'Both I hope by nature, but the last grows rusty sometimes for 
+want of using.'
+
+'Use the first less too, and keep their sharpness for your 
+sweethearts, boy,' said the man.
+
+So saying he shook his hand from the bridle, struck him roughly on 
+the head with the butt end of his whip, and galloped away; dashing 
+through the mud and darkness with a headlong speed, which few badly 
+mounted horsemen would have cared to venture, even had they been 
+thoroughly acquainted with the country; and which, to one who knew 
+nothing of the way he rode, was attended at every step with great 
+hazard and danger.
+
+The roads, even within twelve miles of London, were at that time 
+ill paved, seldom repaired, and very badly made.  The way this 
+rider traversed had been ploughed up by the wheels of heavy 
+waggons, and rendered rotten by the frosts and thaws of the 
+preceding winter, or possibly of many winters.  Great holes and 
+gaps had been worn into the soil, which, being now filled with 
+water from the late rains, were not easily distinguishable even by 
+day; and a plunge into any one of them might have brought down a 
+surer-footed horse than the poor beast now urged forward to the 
+utmost extent of his powers.  Sharp flints and stones rolled from 
+under his hoofs continually; the rider could scarcely see beyond 
+the animal's head, or farther on either side than his own arm 
+would have extended.  At that time, too, all the roads in the 
+neighbourhood of the metropolis were infested by footpads or 
+highwaymen, and it was a night, of all others, in which any evil-
+disposed person of this class might have pursued his unlawful 
+calling with little fear of detection.
+
+Still, the traveller dashed forward at the same reckless pace, 
+regardless alike of the dirt and wet which flew about his head, the 
+profound darkness of the night, and the probability of encountering 
+some desperate characters abroad.  At every turn and angle, even 
+where a deviation from the direct course might have been least 
+expected, and could not possibly be seen until he was close upon 
+it, he guided the bridle with an unerring hand, and kept the middle 
+of the road.  Thus he sped onward, raising himself in the stirrups, 
+leaning his body forward until it almost touched the horse's neck, 
+and flourishing his heavy whip above his head with the fervour of a 
+madman.
+
+There are times when, the elements being in unusual commotion, 
+those who are bent on daring enterprises, or agitated by great 
+thoughts, whether of good or evil, feel a mysterious sympathy with 
+the tumult of nature, and are roused into corresponding violence.  
+In the midst of thunder, lightning, and storm, many tremendous 
+deeds have been committed; men, self-possessed before, have given 
+a sudden loose to passions they could no longer control.  The 
+demons of wrath and despair have striven to emulate those who ride 
+the whirlwind and direct the storm; and man, lashed into madness 
+with the roaring winds and boiling waters, has become for the time 
+as wild and merciless as the elements themselves.
+
+Whether the traveller was possessed by thoughts which the fury of 
+the night had heated and stimulated into a quicker current, or was 
+merely impelled by some strong motive to reach his journey's end, 
+on he swept more like a hunted phantom than a man, nor checked his 
+pace until, arriving at some cross roads, one of which led by a 
+longer route to the place whence he had lately started, he bore 
+down so suddenly upon a vehicle which was coming towards him, that 
+in the effort to avoid it he well-nigh pulled his horse upon his 
+haunches, and narrowly escaped being thrown.
+
+'Yoho!' cried the voice of a man.  'What's that?  Who goes there?'
+
+'A friend!' replied the traveller.
+
+'A friend!' repeated the voice.  'Who calls himself a friend and 
+rides like that, abusing Heaven's gifts in the shape of horseflesh, 
+and endangering, not only his own neck (which might be no great 
+matter) but the necks of other people?'
+
+'You have a lantern there, I see,' said the traveller dismounting, 
+'lend it me for a moment.  You have wounded my horse, I think, with 
+your shaft or wheel.'
+
+'Wounded him!' cried the other, 'if I haven't killed him, it's no 
+fault of yours.  What do you mean by galloping along the king's 
+highway like that, eh?'
+
+'Give me the light,' returned the traveller, snatching it from his 
+hand, 'and don't ask idle questions of a man who is in no mood for 
+talking.'
+
+'If you had said you were in no mood for talking before, I should 
+perhaps have been in no mood for lighting,' said the voice.  
+'Hows'ever as it's the poor horse that's damaged and not you, one 
+of you is welcome to the light at all events--but it's not the 
+crusty one.'
+
+The traveller returned no answer to this speech, but holding the 
+light near to his panting and reeking beast, examined him in limb 
+and carcass.  Meanwhile, the other man sat very composedly in his 
+vehicle, which was a kind of chaise with a depository for a large 
+bag of tools, and watched his proceedings with a careful eye.
+
+The looker-on was a round, red-faced, sturdy yeoman, with a double 
+chin, and a voice husky with good living, good sleeping, good 
+humour, and good health.  He was past the prime of life, but Father 
+Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none 
+of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have 
+used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but 
+leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour.  With 
+such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow's 
+hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in 
+the quiet calendar of a well-spent life.
+
+The person whom the traveller had so abruptly encountered was of 
+this kind: bluff, hale, hearty, and in a green old age: at peace 
+with himself, and evidently disposed to be so with all the world.  
+Although muffled up in divers coats and handkerchiefs--one of 
+which, passed over his crown, and tied in a convenient crease of 
+his double chin, secured his three-cornered hat and bob-wig from 
+blowing off his head--there was no disguising his plump and 
+comfortable figure; neither did certain dirty finger-marks upon 
+his face give it any other than an odd and comical expression, 
+through which its natural good humour shone with undiminished 
+lustre.
+
+'He is not hurt,' said the traveller at length, raising his head 
+and the lantern together.
+
+'You have found that out at last, have you?' rejoined the old man.  
+'My eyes have seen more light than yours, but I wouldn't change 
+with you.'
+
+'What do you mean?'
+
+'Mean!  I could have told you he wasn't hurt, five minutes ago.  
+Give me the light, friend; ride forward at a gentler pace; and good 
+night.'
+
+In handing up the lantern, the man necessarily cast its rays full 
+on the speaker's face.  Their eyes met at the instant.  He suddenly 
+dropped it and crushed it with his foot.
+
+'Did you never see a locksmith before, that you start as if you had 
+come upon a ghost?' cried the old man in the chaise, 'or is this,' 
+he added hastily, thrusting his hand into the tool basket and 
+drawing out a hammer, 'a scheme for robbing me?  I know these 
+roads, friend.  When I travel them, I carry nothing but a few 
+shillings, and not a crown's worth of them.  I tell you plainly, to 
+save us both trouble, that there's nothing to be got from me but a 
+pretty stout arm considering my years, and this tool, which, mayhap 
+from long acquaintance with, I can use pretty briskly.  You shall 
+not have it all your own way, I promise you, if you play at that 
+game.  With these words he stood upon the defensive.
+
+'I am not what you take me for, Gabriel Varden,' replied the other.
+
+'Then what and who are you?' returned the locksmith.  'You know my 
+name, it seems.  Let me know yours.'
+
+'I have not gained the information from any confidence of yours, 
+but from the inscription on your cart which tells it to all the 
+town,' replied the traveller.
+
+'You have better eyes for that than you had for your horse, then,' 
+said Varden, descending nimbly from his chaise; 'who are you?  Let 
+me see your face.'
+
+While the locksmith alighted, the traveller had regained his 
+saddle, from which he now confronted the old man, who, moving as 
+the horse moved in chafing under the tightened rein, kept close 
+beside him.
+
+'Let me see your face, I say.'
+
+'Stand off!'
+
+'No masquerading tricks,' said the locksmith, 'and tales at the 
+club to-morrow, how Gabriel Varden was frightened by a surly voice 
+and a dark night.  Stand--let me see your face.'
+
+Finding that further resistance would only involve him in a 
+personal struggle with an antagonist by no means to be despised, 
+the traveller threw back his coat, and stooping down looked 
+steadily at the locksmith.
+
+Perhaps two men more powerfully contrasted, never opposed each 
+other face to face.  The ruddy features of the locksmith so set off 
+and heightened the excessive paleness of the man on horseback, that 
+he looked like a bloodless ghost, while the moisture, which hard 
+riding had brought out upon his skin, hung there in dark and heavy 
+drops, like dews of agony and death.  The countenance of the old 
+locksmith lighted up with the smile of one expecting to detect in 
+this unpromising stranger some latent roguery of eye or lip, which 
+should reveal a familiar person in that arch disguise, and spoil 
+his jest.  The face of the other, sullen and fierce, but shrinking 
+too, was that of a man who stood at bay; while his firmly closed 
+jaws, his puckered mouth, and more than all a certain stealthy 
+motion of the hand within his breast, seemed to announce a 
+desperate purpose very foreign to acting, or child's play.
+
+Thus they regarded each other for some time, in silence.
+
+'Humph!' he said when he had scanned his features; 'I don't know 
+you.'
+
+'Don't desire to?'--returned the other, muffling himself as before.
+
+'I don't,' said Gabriel; 'to be plain with you, friend, you don't 
+carry in your countenance a letter of recommendation.'
+
+'It's not my wish,' said the traveller.  'My humour is to be 
+avoided.'
+
+'Well,' said the locksmith bluntly, 'I think you'll have your 
+humour.'
+
+'I will, at any cost,' rejoined the traveller.  'In proof of it, 
+lay this to heart--that you were never in such peril of your life 
+as you have been within these few moments; when you are within 
+five minutes of breathing your last, you will not be nearer death 
+than you have been to-night!'
+
+'Aye!' said the sturdy locksmith.
+
+'Aye! and a violent death.'
+
+'From whose hand?'
+
+'From mine,' replied the traveller.
+
+With that he put spurs to his horse, and rode away; at first 
+plashing heavily through the mire at a smart trot, but gradually 
+increasing in speed until the last sound of his horse's hoofs died 
+away upon the wind; when he was again hurrying on at the same 
+furious gallop, which had been his pace when the locksmith first 
+encountered him.
+
+Gabriel Varden remained standing in the road with the broken 
+lantern in his hand, listening in stupefied silence until no sound 
+reached his ear but the moaning of the wind, and the fast-falling 
+rain; when he struck himself one or two smart blows in the breast 
+by way of rousing himself, and broke into an exclamation of 
+surprise.
+
+'What in the name of wonder can this fellow be! a madman? a 
+highwayman? a cut-throat?  If he had not scoured off so fast, we'd 
+have seen who was in most danger, he or I.  I never nearer death 
+than I have been to-night!  I hope I may be no nearer to it for a 
+score of years to come--if so, I'll be content to be no farther 
+from it.  My stars!--a pretty brag this to a stout man--pooh, 
+pooh!'
+
+Gabriel resumed his seat, and looked wistfully up the road by which 
+the traveller had come; murmuring in a half whisper:
+
+'The Maypole--two miles to the Maypole.  I came the other road from 
+the Warren after a long day's work at locks and bells, on purpose 
+that I should not come by the Maypole and break my promise to 
+Martha by looking in--there's resolution!  It would be dangerous to 
+go on to London without a light; and it's four miles, and a good 
+half mile besides, to the Halfway-House; and between this and that 
+is the very place where one needs a light most.  Two miles to the 
+Maypole!  I told Martha I wouldn't; I said I wouldn't, and I 
+didn't--there's resolution!'
+
+Repeating these two last words very often, as if to compensate for 
+the little resolution he was going to show by piquing himself on 
+the great resolution he had shown, Gabriel Varden quietly turned 
+back, determining to get a light at the Maypole, and to take 
+nothing but a light.
+
+When he got to the Maypole, however, and Joe, responding to his 
+well-known hail, came running out to the horse's head, leaving the 
+door open behind him, and disclosing a delicious perspective of 
+warmth and brightness--when the ruddy gleam of the fire, streaming 
+through the old red curtains of the common room, seemed to bring 
+with it, as part of itself, a pleasant hum of voices, and a 
+fragrant odour of steaming grog and rare tobacco, all steeped as 
+it were in the cheerful glow--when the shadows, flitting across the 
+curtain, showed that those inside had risen from their snug seats, 
+and were making room in the snuggest corner (how well he knew that 
+corner!) for the honest locksmith, and a broad glare, suddenly 
+streaming up, bespoke the goodness of the crackling log from which 
+a brilliant train of sparks was doubtless at that moment whirling 
+up the chimney in honour of his coming--when, superadded to these 
+enticements, there stole upon him from the distant kitchen a gentle 
+sound of frying, with a musical clatter of plates and dishes, and a 
+savoury smell that made even the boisterous wind a perfume--Gabriel 
+felt his firmness oozing rapidly away.  He tried to look stoically 
+at the tavern, but his features would relax into a look of 
+fondness.  He turned his head the other way, and the cold black 
+country seemed to frown him off, and drive him for a refuge into 
+its hospitable arms.
+
+'The merciful man, Joe,' said the locksmith, 'is merciful to his 
+beast.  I'll get out for a little while.'
+
+And how natural it was to get out!  And how unnatural it seemed for 
+a sober man to be plodding wearily along through miry roads, 
+encountering the rude buffets of the wind and pelting of the rain, 
+when there was a clean floor covered with crisp white sand, a well 
+swept hearth, a blazing fire, a table decorated with white cloth, 
+bright pewter flagons, and other tempting preparations for a well-
+cooked meal--when there were these things, and company disposed to 
+make the most of them, all ready to his hand, and entreating him to 
+enjoyment!
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+
+Such were the locksmith's thoughts when first seated in the snug 
+corner, and slowly recovering from a pleasant defect of vision--
+pleasant, because occasioned by the wind blowing in his eyes--which 
+made it a matter of sound policy and duty to himself, that he 
+should take refuge from the weather, and tempted him, for the same 
+reason, to aggravate a slight cough, and declare he felt but 
+poorly.  Such were still his thoughts more than a full hour 
+afterwards, when, supper over, he still sat with shining jovial 
+face in the same warm nook, listening to the cricket-like chirrup 
+of little Solomon Daisy, and bearing no unimportant or slightly 
+respected part in the social gossip round the Maypole fire.
+
+'I wish he may be an honest man, that's all,' said Solomon, winding 
+up a variety of speculations relative to the stranger, concerning 
+whom Gabriel had compared notes with the company, and so raised a 
+grave discussion; 'I wish he may be an honest man.'
+
+'So we all do, I suppose, don't we?' observed the locksmith.
+
+'I don't,' said Joe.
+
+'No!' cried Gabriel.
+
+'No.  He struck me with his whip, the coward, when he was mounted 
+and I afoot, and I should be better pleased that he turned out what 
+I think him.'
+
+'And what may that be, Joe?'
+
+'No good, Mr Varden.  You may shake your head, father, but I say no 
+good, and will say no good, and I would say no good a hundred times 
+over, if that would bring him back to have the drubbing he 
+deserves.'
+
+'Hold your tongue, sir,' said John Willet.
+
+'I won't, father.  It's all along of you that he ventured to do 
+what he did.  Seeing me treated like a child, and put down like a 
+fool, HE plucks up a heart and has a fling at a fellow that he 
+thinks--and may well think too--hasn't a grain of spirit.  But he's 
+mistaken, as I'll show him, and as I'll show all of you before 
+long.'
+
+'Does the boy know what he's a saying of!' cried the astonished 
+John Willet.
+
+'Father,' returned Joe, 'I know what I say and mean, well--better 
+than you do when you hear me.  I can bear with you, but I cannot 
+bear the contempt that your treating me in the way you do, brings 
+upon me from others every day.  Look at other young men of my age.  
+Have they no liberty, no will, no right to speak?  Are they obliged 
+to sit mumchance, and to be ordered about till they are the 
+laughing-stock of young and old?  I am a bye-word all over 
+Chigwell, and I say--and it's fairer my saying so now, than waiting 
+till you are dead, and I have got your money--I say, that before 
+long I shall be driven to break such bounds, and that when I do, it 
+won't be me that you'll have to blame, but your own self, and no 
+other.'
+
+John Willet was so amazed by the exasperation and boldness of his 
+hopeful son, that he sat as one bewildered, staring in a ludicrous 
+manner at the boiler, and endeavouring, but quite ineffectually, to 
+collect his tardy thoughts, and invent an answer.  The guests, 
+scarcely less disturbed, were equally at a loss; and at length, 
+with a variety of muttered, half-expressed condolences, and pieces 
+of advice, rose to depart; being at the same time slightly muddled 
+with liquor.
+
+The honest locksmith alone addressed a few words of coherent and 
+sensible advice to both parties, urging John Willet to remember 
+that Joe was nearly arrived at man's estate, and should not be 
+ruled with too tight a hand, and exhorting Joe himself to bear with 
+his father's caprices, and rather endeavour to turn them aside by 
+temperate remonstrance than by ill-timed rebellion.  This advice 
+was received as such advice usually is.  On John Willet it made 
+almost as much impression as on the sign outside the door, while 
+Joe, who took it in the best part, avowed himself more obliged than 
+he could well express, but politely intimated his intention 
+nevertheless of taking his own course uninfluenced by anybody.
+
+'You have always been a very good friend to me, Mr Varden,' he 
+said, as they stood without, in the porch, and the locksmith was 
+equipping himself for his journey home; 'I take it very kind of 
+you to say all this, but the time's nearly come when the Maypole 
+and I must part company.'
+
+'Roving stones gather no moss, Joe,' said Gabriel.
+
+'Nor milestones much,' replied Joe.  'I'm little better than one 
+here, and see as much of the world.'
+
+'Then, what would you do, Joe?' pursued the locksmith, stroking 
+his chin reflectively.  'What could you be?  Where could you go, 
+you see?'
+
+'I must trust to chance, Mr Varden.'
+
+'A bad thing to trust to, Joe.  I don't like it.  I always tell my 
+girl when we talk about a husband for her, never to trust to 
+chance, but to make sure beforehand that she has a good man and 
+true, and then chance will neither make her nor break her.  What 
+are you fidgeting about there, Joe?  Nothing gone in the harness, I 
+hope?'
+
+'No no,' said Joe--finding, however, something very engrossing to 
+do in the way of strapping and buckling--'Miss Dolly quite well?'
+
+'Hearty, thankye.  She looks pretty enough to be well, and good 
+too.'
+
+'She's always both, sir'--
+
+'So she is, thank God!'
+
+'I hope,' said Joe after some hesitation, 'that you won't tell this 
+story against me--this of my having been beat like the boy they'd 
+make of me--at all events, till I have met this man again and 
+settled the account.  It'll be a better story then.'
+
+'Why who should I tell it to?' returned Gabriel.  'They know it 
+here, and I'm not likely to come across anybody else who would care 
+about it.'
+
+'That's true enough,' said the young fellow with a sigh.  'I quite 
+forgot that.  Yes, that's true!'
+
+So saying, he raised his face, which was very red,--no doubt from 
+the exertion of strapping and buckling as aforesaid,--and giving 
+the reins to the old man, who had by this time taken his seat, 
+sighed again and bade him good night.
+
+'Good night!' cried Gabriel.  'Now think better of what we have 
+just been speaking of; and don't be rash, there's a good fellow!  I 
+have an interest in you, and wouldn't have you cast yourself away.  
+Good night!'
+
+Returning his cheery farewell with cordial goodwill, Joe Willet 
+lingered until the sound of wheels ceased to vibrate in his ears, 
+and then, shaking his head mournfully, re-entered the house.
+
+Gabriel Varden went his way towards London, thinking of a great 
+many things, and most of all of flaming terms in which to relate 
+his adventure, and so account satisfactorily to Mrs Varden for 
+visiting the Maypole, despite certain solemn covenants between 
+himself and that lady.  Thinking begets, not only thought, but 
+drowsiness occasionally, and the more the locksmith thought, the 
+more sleepy he became.
+
+A man may be very sober--or at least firmly set upon his legs on 
+that neutral ground which lies between the confines of perfect 
+sobriety and slight tipsiness--and yet feel a strong tendency to 
+mingle up present circumstances with others which have no manner of 
+connection with them; to confound all consideration of persons, 
+things, times, and places; and to jumble his disjointed thoughts 
+together in a kind of mental kaleidoscope, producing combinations 
+as unexpected as they are transitory.  This was Gabriel Varden's 
+state, as, nodding in his dog sleep, and leaving his horse to 
+pursue a road with which he was well acquainted, he got over the 
+ground unconsciously, and drew nearer and nearer home.  He had 
+roused himself once, when the horse stopped until the turnpike gate 
+was opened, and had cried a lusty 'good night!' to the toll-
+keeper; but then he awoke out of a dream about picking a lock in 
+the stomach of the Great Mogul, and even when he did wake, mixed up 
+the turnpike man with his mother-in-law who had been dead twenty 
+years.  It is not surprising, therefore, that he soon relapsed, and 
+jogged heavily along, quite insensible to his progress.
+
+And, now, he approached the great city, which lay outstretched 
+before him like a dark shadow on the ground, reddening the sluggish 
+air with a deep dull light, that told of labyrinths of public ways 
+and shops, and swarms of busy people.  Approaching nearer and 
+nearer yet, this halo began to fade, and the causes which produced 
+it slowly to develop themselves.  Long lines of poorly lighted 
+streets might be faintly traced, with here and there a lighter 
+spot, where lamps were clustered round a square or market, or round 
+some great building; after a time these grew more distinct, and the 
+lamps themselves were visible; slight yellow specks, that seemed to 
+be rapidly snuffed out, one by one, as intervening obstacles hid 
+them from the sight.  Then, sounds arose--the striking of church 
+clocks, the distant bark of dogs, the hum of traffic in the 
+streets; then outlines might be traced--tall steeples looming in 
+the air, and piles of unequal roofs oppressed by chimneys; then, 
+the noise swelled into a louder sound, and forms grew more distinct 
+and numerous still, and London--visible in the darkness by its own 
+faint light, and not by that of Heaven--was at hand.
+
+The locksmith, however, all unconscious of its near vicinity, still 
+jogged on, half sleeping and half waking, when a loud cry at no 
+great distance ahead, roused him with a start.
+
+For a moment or two he looked about him like a man who had been 
+transported to some strange country in his sleep, but soon 
+recognising familiar objects, rubbed his eyes lazily and might have 
+relapsed again, but that the cry was repeated--not once or twice or 
+thrice, but many times, and each time, if possible, with increased 
+vehemence.  Thoroughly aroused, Gabriel, who was a bold man and not 
+easily daunted, made straight to the spot, urging on his stout 
+little horse as if for life or death.
+
+The matter indeed looked sufficiently serious, for, coming to the 
+place whence the cries had proceeded, he descried the figure of a 
+man extended in an apparently lifeless state upon the pathway, 
+and, hovering round him, another person with a torch in his hand, 
+which he waved in the air with a wild impatience, redoubling 
+meanwhile those cries for help which had brought the locksmith to 
+the spot.
+
+'What's here to do?' said the old man, alighting.  'How's this--
+what--Barnaby?'
+
+The bearer of the torch shook his long loose hair back from his 
+eyes, and thrusting his face eagerly into that of the locksmith, 
+fixed upon him a look which told his history at once.
+
+'You know me, Barnaby?' said Varden.
+
+He nodded--not once or twice, but a score of times, and that with a 
+fantastic exaggeration which would have kept his head in motion for 
+an hour, but that the locksmith held up his finger, and fixing his 
+eye sternly upon him caused him to desist; then pointed to the body 
+with an inquiring look.
+
+'There's blood upon him,' said Barnaby with a shudder.  'It makes 
+me sick!'
+
+'How came it there?' demanded Varden.
+
+'Steel, steel, steel!' he replied fiercely, imitating with his hand 
+the thrust of a sword.
+
+'Is he robbed?' said the locksmith.
+
+Barnaby caught him by the arm, and nodded 'Yes;' then pointed 
+towards the city.
+
+'Oh!' said the old man, bending over the body and looking round as 
+he spoke into Barnaby's pale face, strangely lighted up by 
+something that was NOT intellect.  'The robber made off that way, 
+did he?  Well, well, never mind that just now.  Hold your torch 
+this way--a little farther off--so.  Now stand quiet, while I try 
+to see what harm is done.'
+
+With these words, he applied himself to a closer examination of the 
+prostrate form, while Barnaby, holding the torch as he had been 
+directed, looked on in silence, fascinated by interest or 
+curiosity, but repelled nevertheless by some strong and secret 
+horror which convulsed him in every nerve.
+
+As he stood, at that moment, half shrinking back and half bending 
+forward, both his face and figure were full in the strong glare of 
+the link, and as distinctly revealed as though it had been broad 
+day.  He was about three-and-twenty years old, and though rather 
+spare, of a fair height and strong make.  His hair, of which he had 
+a great profusion, was red, and hanging in disorder about his face 
+and shoulders, gave to his restless looks an expression quite 
+unearthly--enhanced by the paleness of his complexion, and the 
+glassy lustre of his large protruding eyes.  Startling as his 
+aspect was, the features were good, and there was something even 
+plaintive in his wan and haggard aspect.  But, the absence of the 
+soul is far more terrible in a living man than in a dead one; and 
+in this unfortunate being its noblest powers were wanting.
+
+His dress was of green, clumsily trimmed here and there--apparently 
+by his own hands--with gaudy lace; brightest where the cloth was 
+most worn and soiled, and poorest where it was at the best.  A pair 
+of tawdry ruffles dangled at his wrists, while his throat was 
+nearly bare.  He had ornamented his hat with a cluster of peacock's 
+feathers, but they were limp and broken, and now trailed 
+negligently down his back.  Girt to his side was the steel hilt of 
+an old sword without blade or scabbard; and some particoloured ends 
+of ribands and poor glass toys completed the ornamental portion of 
+his attire.  The fluttered and confused disposition of all the 
+motley scraps that formed his dress, bespoke, in a scarcely less 
+degree than his eager and unsettled manner, the disorder of his 
+mind, and by a grotesque contrast set off and heightened the more 
+impressive wildness of his face.
+
+'Barnaby,' said the locksmith, after a hasty but careful 
+inspection, 'this man is not dead, but he has a wound in his side, 
+and is in a fainting-fit.'
+
+'I know him, I know him!' cried Barnaby, clapping his hands.
+
+'Know him?' repeated the locksmith.
+
+'Hush!' said Barnaby, laying his fingers upon his lips.  'He went 
+out to-day a wooing.  I wouldn't for a light guinea that he should 
+never go a wooing again, for, if he did, some eyes would grow dim 
+that are now as bright as--see, when I talk of eyes, the stars come 
+out!  Whose eyes are they?  If they are angels' eyes, why do they 
+look down here and see good men hurt, and only wink and sparkle all 
+the night?'
+
+'Now Heaven help this silly fellow,' murmured the perplexed 
+locksmith; 'can he know this gentleman?  His mother's house is not 
+far off; I had better see if she can tell me who he is.  Barnaby, 
+my man, help me to put him in the chaise, and we'll ride home 
+together.'
+
+'I can't touch him!' cried the idiot falling back, and shuddering 
+as with a strong spasm; he's bloody!'
+
+'It's in his nature, I know,' muttered the locksmith, 'it's cruel 
+to ask him, but I must have help.  Barnaby--good Barnaby--dear 
+Barnaby--if you know this gentleman, for the sake of his life and 
+everybody's life that loves him, help me to raise him and lay him 
+down.'
+
+'Cover him then, wrap him close--don't let me see it--smell it--
+hear the word.  Don't speak the word--don't!'
+
+'No, no, I'll not.  There, you see he's covered now.  Gently.  Well 
+done, well done!'
+
+They placed him in the carriage with great ease, for Barnaby was 
+strong and active, but all the time they were so occupied he 
+shivered from head to foot, and evidently experienced an ecstasy of 
+terror.
+
+This accomplished, and the wounded man being covered with Varden's 
+own greatcoat which he took off for the purpose, they proceeded 
+onward at a brisk pace: Barnaby gaily counting the stars upon his 
+fingers, and Gabriel inwardly congratulating himself upon having an 
+adventure now, which would silence Mrs Varden on the subject of the 
+Maypole, for that night, or there was no faith in woman.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+
+In the venerable suburb--it was a suburb once--of Clerkenwell, 
+towards that part of its confines which is nearest to the Charter 
+House, and in one of those cool, shady Streets, of which a few, 
+widely scattered and dispersed, yet remain in such old parts of the 
+metropolis,--each tenement quietly vegetating like an ancient 
+citizen who long ago retired from business, and dozing on in its 
+infirmity until in course of time it tumbles down, and is replaced 
+by some extravagant young heir, flaunting in stucco and ornamental 
+work, and all the vanities of modern days,--in this quarter, and in 
+a street of this description, the business of the present chapter 
+lies.
+
+At the time of which it treats, though only six-and-sixty years 
+ago, a very large part of what is London now had no existence.  
+Even in the brains of the wildest speculators, there had sprung up 
+no long rows of streets connecting Highgate with Whitechapel, no 
+assemblages of palaces in the swampy levels, nor little cities in 
+the open fields.  Although this part of town was then, as now, 
+parcelled out in streets, and plentifully peopled, it wore a 
+different aspect.  There were gardens to many of the houses, and 
+trees by the pavement side; with an air of freshness breathing up 
+and down, which in these days would be sought in vain.  Fields were 
+nigh at hand, through which the New River took its winding course, 
+and where there was merry haymaking in the summer time.  Nature was 
+not so far removed, or hard to get at, as in these days; and 
+although there were busy trades in Clerkenwell, and working 
+jewellers by scores, it was a purer place, with farm-houses nearer 
+to it than many modern Londoners would readily believe, and lovers' 
+walks at no great distance, which turned into squalid courts, long 
+before the lovers of this age were born, or, as the phrase goes, 
+thought of.
+
+In one of these streets, the cleanest of them all, and on the shady 
+side of the way--for good housewives know that sunlight damages 
+their cherished furniture, and so choose the shade rather than its 
+intrusive glare--there stood the house with which we have to deal.  
+It was a modest building, not very straight, not large, not tall; 
+not bold-faced, with great staring windows, but a shy, blinking 
+house, with a conical roof going up into a peak over its garret 
+window of four small panes of glass, like a cocked hat on the head 
+of an elderly gentleman with one eye.  It was not built of brick or 
+lofty stone, but of wood and plaster; it was not planned with a 
+dull and wearisome regard to regularity, for no one window matched 
+the other, or seemed to have the slightest reference to anything 
+besides itself.
+
+The shop--for it had a shop--was, with reference to the first 
+floor, where shops usually are; and there all resemblance between 
+it and any other shop stopped short and ceased.  People who went in 
+and out didn't go up a flight of steps to it, or walk easily in 
+upon a level with the street, but dived down three steep stairs, 
+as into a cellar.  Its floor was paved with stone and brick, as 
+that of any other cellar might be; and in lieu of window framed and 
+glazed it had a great black wooden flap or shutter, nearly breast 
+high from the ground, which turned back in the day-time, admitting 
+as much cold air as light, and very often more.  Behind this shop 
+was a wainscoted parlour, looking first into a paved yard, and 
+beyond that again into a little terrace garden, raised some feet 
+above it.  Any stranger would have supposed that this wainscoted 
+parlour, saving for the door of communication by which he had 
+entered, was cut off and detached from all the world; and indeed 
+most strangers on their first entrance were observed to grow 
+extremely thoughtful, as weighing and pondering in their minds 
+whether the upper rooms were only approachable by ladders from 
+without; never suspecting that two of the most unassuming and 
+unlikely doors in existence, which the most ingenious mechanician 
+on earth must of necessity have supposed to be the doors of 
+closets, opened out of this room--each without the smallest 
+preparation, or so much as a quarter of an inch of passage--upon 
+two dark winding flights of stairs, the one upward, the other 
+downward, which were the sole means of communication between that 
+chamber and the other portions of the house.
+
+With all these oddities, there was not a neater, more scrupulously 
+tidy, or more punctiliously ordered house, in Clerkenwell, in 
+London, in all England.  There were not cleaner windows, or whiter 
+floors, or brighter Stoves, or more highly shining articles of 
+furniture in old mahogany; there was not more rubbing, scrubbing, 
+burnishing and polishing, in the whole street put together.  Nor 
+was this excellence attained without some cost and trouble and 
+great expenditure of voice, as the neighbours were frequently 
+reminded when the good lady of the house overlooked and assisted in 
+its being put to rights on cleaning days--which were usually from 
+Monday morning till Saturday night, both days inclusive.
+
+Leaning against the door-post of this, his dwelling, the locksmith 
+stood early on the morning after he had met with the wounded man, 
+gazing disconsolately at a great wooden emblem of a key, painted in 
+vivid yellow to resemble gold, which dangled from the house-front, 
+and swung to and fro with a mournful creaking noise, as if 
+complaining that it had nothing to unlock.  Sometimes, he looked 
+over his shoulder into the shop, which was so dark and dingy with 
+numerous tokens of his trade, and so blackened by the smoke of a 
+little forge, near which his 'prentice was at work, that it would 
+have been difficult for one unused to such espials to have 
+distinguished anything but various tools of uncouth make and shape, 
+great bunches of rusty keys, fragments of iron, half-finished 
+locks, and such like things, which garnished the walls and hung in 
+clusters from the ceiling.
+
+After a long and patient contemplation of the golden key, and many 
+such backward glances, Gabriel stepped into the road, and stole a 
+look at the upper windows.  One of them chanced to be thrown open 
+at the moment, and a roguish face met his; a face lighted up by the 
+loveliest pair of sparkling eyes that ever locksmith looked upon; 
+the face of a pretty, laughing, girl; dimpled and fresh, and 
+healthful--the very impersonation of good-humour and blooming 
+beauty.
+
+'Hush!' she whispered, bending forward and pointing archly to the 
+window underneath.  'Mother is still asleep.'
+
+'Still, my dear,' returned the locksmith in the same tone.  'You 
+talk as if she had been asleep all night, instead of little more 
+than half an hour.  But I'm very thankful.  Sleep's a blessing--no 
+doubt about it.'  The last few words he muttered to himself.
+
+'How cruel of you to keep us up so late this morning, and never 
+tell us where you were, or send us word!' said the girl.
+
+'Ah Dolly, Dolly!' returned the locksmith, shaking his head, and 
+smiling, 'how cruel of you to run upstairs to bed!  Come down to 
+breakfast, madcap, and come down lightly, or you'll wake your 
+mother.  She must be tired, I am sure--I am.'
+
+Keeping these latter words to himself, and returning his 
+daughter's nod, he was passing into the workshop, with the smile 
+she had awakened still beaming on his face, when he just caught 
+sight of his 'prentice's brown paper cap ducking down to avoid 
+observation, and shrinking from the window back to its former 
+place, which the wearer no sooner reached than he began to hammer 
+lustily.
+
+'Listening again, Simon!' said Gabriel to himself.  'That's bad.  
+What in the name of wonder does he expect the girl to say, that I 
+always catch him listening when SHE speaks, and never at any other 
+time!  A bad habit, Sim, a sneaking, underhanded way.  Ah! you may 
+hammer, but you won't beat that out of me, if you work at it till 
+your time's up!'
+
+So saying, and shaking his head gravely, he re-entered the 
+workshop, and confronted the subject of these remarks.
+
+'There's enough of that just now,' said the locksmith.  'You 
+needn't make any more of that confounded clatter.  Breakfast's 
+ready.'
+
+'Sir,' said Sim, looking up with amazing politeness, and a peculiar 
+little bow cut short off at the neck, 'I shall attend you 
+immediately.'
+
+'I suppose,' muttered Gabriel, 'that's out of the 'Prentice's 
+Garland or the 'Prentice's Delight, or the 'Prentice's Warbler, or 
+the Prentice's Guide to the Gallows, or some such improving 
+textbook.  Now he's going to beautify himself--here's a precious 
+locksmith!'
+
+Quite unconscious that his master was looking on from the dark 
+corner by the parlour door, Sim threw off the paper cap, sprang 
+from his seat, and in two extraordinary steps, something between 
+skating and minuet dancing, bounded to a washing place at the other 
+end of the shop, and there removed from his face and hands all 
+traces of his previous work--practising the same step all the time 
+with the utmost gravity.  This done, he drew from some concealed 
+place a little scrap of looking-glass, and with its assistance 
+arranged his hair, and ascertained the exact state of a little 
+carbuncle on his nose.  Having now completed his toilet, he placed 
+the fragment of mirror on a low bench, and looked over his shoulder 
+at so much of his legs as could be reflected in that small compass, 
+with the greatest possible complacency and satisfaction.
+
+Sim, as he was called in the locksmith's family, or Mr Simon 
+Tappertit, as he called himself, and required all men to style him 
+out of doors, on holidays, and Sundays out,--was an old-fashioned, 
+thin-faced, sleek-haired, sharp-nosed, small-eyed little fellow, 
+very little more than five feet high, and thoroughly convinced in 
+his own mind that he was above the middle size; rather tall, in 
+fact, than otherwise.  Of his figure, which was well enough formed, 
+though somewhat of the leanest, he entertained the highest 
+admiration; and with his legs, which, in knee-breeches, were 
+perfect curiosities of littleness, he was enraptured to a degree 
+amounting to enthusiasm.  He also had some majestic, shadowy ideas, 
+which had never been quite fathomed by his intimate friends, 
+concerning the power of his eye.  Indeed he had been known to go so 
+far as to boast that he could utterly quell and subdue the 
+haughtiest beauty by a simple process, which he termed 'eyeing her 
+over;' but it must be added, that neither of this faculty, nor of 
+the power he claimed to have, through the same gift, of vanquishing 
+and heaving down dumb animals, even in a rabid state, had he ever 
+furnished evidence which could be deemed quite satisfactory and 
+conclusive.
+
+It may be inferred from these premises, that in the small body of 
+Mr Tappertit there was locked up an ambitious and aspiring soul.  
+As certain liquors, confined in casks too cramped in their 
+dimensions, will ferment, and fret, and chafe in their 
+imprisonment, so the spiritual essence or soul of Mr Tappertit 
+would sometimes fume within that precious cask, his body, until, 
+with great foam and froth and splutter, it would force a vent, and 
+carry all before it.  It was his custom to remark, in reference to 
+any one of these occasions, that his soul had got into his head; 
+and in this novel kind of intoxication many scrapes and mishaps 
+befell him, which he had frequently concealed with no small 
+difficulty from his worthy master.
+
+Sim Tappertit, among the other fancies upon which his before-
+mentioned soul was for ever feasting and regaling itself (and which 
+fancies, like the liver of Prometheus, grew as they were fed 
+upon), had a mighty notion of his order; and had been heard by the 
+servant-maid openly expressing his regret that the 'prentices no 
+longer carried clubs wherewith to mace the citizens: that was his 
+strong expression.  He was likewise reported to have said that in 
+former times a stigma had been cast upon the body by the execution 
+of George Barnwell, to which they should not have basely 
+submitted, but should have demanded him of the legislature--
+temperately at first; then by an appeal to arms, if necessary--to 
+be dealt with as they in their wisdom might think fit.  These 
+thoughts always led him to consider what a glorious engine the 
+'prentices might yet become if they had but a master spirit at 
+their head; and then he would darkly, and to the terror of his 
+hearers, hint at certain reckless fellows that he knew of, and at a 
+certain Lion Heart ready to become their captain, who, once afoot, 
+would make the Lord Mayor tremble on his throne.
+
+In respect of dress and personal decoration, Sim Tappertit was no 
+less of an adventurous and enterprising character.  He had been 
+seen, beyond dispute, to pull off ruffles of the finest quality at 
+the corner of the street on Sunday nights, and to put them 
+carefully in his pocket before returning home; and it was quite 
+notorious that on all great holiday occasions it was his habit to 
+exchange his plain steel knee-buckles for a pair of glittering 
+paste, under cover of a friendly post, planted most conveniently 
+in that same spot.  Add to this that he was in years just twenty, 
+in his looks much older, and in conceit at least two hundred; that 
+he had no objection to be jested with, touching his admiration of 
+his master's daughter; and had even, when called upon at a certain 
+obscure tavern to pledge the lady whom he honoured with his love, 
+toasted, with many winks and leers, a fair creature whose Christian 
+name, he said, began with a D--;--and as much is known of Sim 
+Tappertit, who has by this time followed the locksmith in to 
+breakfast, as is necessary to be known in making his acquaintance.
+
+It was a substantial meal; for, over and above the ordinary tea 
+equipage, the board creaked beneath the weight of a jolly round of 
+beef, a ham of the first magnitude, and sundry towers of buttered 
+Yorkshire cake, piled slice upon slice in most alluring order.  
+There was also a goodly jug of well-browned clay, fashioned into 
+the form of an old gentleman, not by any means unlike the 
+locksmith, atop of whose bald head was a fine white froth answering 
+to his wig, indicative, beyond dispute, of sparkling home-brewed 
+ale.  But, better far than fair home-brewed, or Yorkshire cake, or 
+ham, or beef, or anything to eat or drink that earth or air or 
+water can supply, there sat, presiding over all, the locksmith's 
+rosy daughter, before whose dark eyes even beef grew insignificant, 
+and malt became as nothing.
+
+Fathers should never kiss their daughters when young men are by.  
+It's too much.  There are bounds to human endurance.  So thought 
+Sim Tappertit when Gabriel drew those rosy lips to his--those lips 
+within Sim's reach from day to day, and yet so far off.  He had a 
+respect for his master, but he wished the Yorkshire cake might 
+choke him.
+
+'Father,' said the locksmith's daughter, when this salute was over, 
+and they took their seats at table, 'what is this I hear about last 
+night?'
+
+'All true, my dear; true as the Gospel, Doll.'
+
+'Young Mr Chester robbed, and lying wounded in the road, when you 
+came up!'
+
+'Ay--Mr Edward.  And beside him, Barnaby, calling for help with all 
+his might.  It was well it happened as it did; for the road's a 
+lonely one, the hour was late, and, the night being cold, and poor 
+Barnaby even less sensible than usual from surprise and fright, the 
+young gentleman might have met his death in a very short time.'
+
+'I dread to think of it!' cried his daughter with a shudder.  'How 
+did you know him?'
+
+'Know him!' returned the locksmith.  'I didn't know him--how could 
+I?  I had never seen him, often as I had heard and spoken of him.  
+I took him to Mrs Rudge's; and she no sooner saw him than the truth 
+came out.'
+
+'Miss Emma, father--If this news should reach her, enlarged upon as 
+it is sure to be, she will go distracted.'
+
+'Why, lookye there again, how a man suffers for being good-
+natured,' said the locksmith.  'Miss Emma was with her uncle at the 
+masquerade at Carlisle House, where she had gone, as the people at 
+the Warren told me, sorely against her will.  What does your 
+blockhead father when he and Mrs Rudge have laid their heads 
+together, but goes there when he ought to be abed, makes interest 
+with his friend the doorkeeper, slips him on a mask and domino, 
+and mixes with the masquers.'
+
+'And like himself to do so!' cried the girl, putting her fair arm 
+round his neck, and giving him a most enthusiastic kiss.
+
+'Like himself!' repeated Gabriel, affecting to grumble, but 
+evidently delighted with the part he had taken, and with her 
+praise.  'Very like himself--so your mother said.  However, he 
+mingled with the crowd, and prettily worried and badgered he was, I 
+warrant you, with people squeaking, "Don't you know me?" and "I've 
+found you out," and all that kind of nonsense in his ears.  He 
+might have wandered on till now, but in a little room there was a 
+young lady who had taken off her mask, on account of the place 
+being very warm, and was sitting there alone.'
+
+'And that was she?' said his daughter hastily.
+
+'And that was she,' replied the locksmith; 'and I no sooner 
+whispered to her what the matter was--as softly, Doll, and with 
+nearly as much art as you could have used yourself--than she gives 
+a kind of scream and faints away.'
+
+'What did you do--what happened next?' asked his daughter.  'Why, 
+the masks came flocking round, with a general noise and hubbub, and 
+I thought myself in luck to get clear off, that's all,' rejoined 
+the locksmith.  'What happened when I reached home you may guess, 
+if you didn't hear it.  Ah!  Well, it's a poor heart that never 
+rejoices.--Put Toby this way, my dear.'
+
+This Toby was the brown jug of which previous mention has been 
+made.  Applying his lips to the worthy old gentleman's benevolent 
+forehead, the locksmith, who had all this time been ravaging among 
+the eatables, kept them there so long, at the same time raising the 
+vessel slowly in the air, that at length Toby stood on his head 
+upon his nose, when he smacked his lips, and set him on the table 
+again with fond reluctance.
+
+Although Sim Tappertit had taken no share in this conversation, no 
+part of it being addressed to him, he had not been wanting in such 
+silent manifestations of astonishment, as he deemed most compatible 
+with the favourable display of his eyes.  Regarding the pause which 
+now ensued, as a particularly advantageous opportunity for doing 
+great execution with them upon the locksmith's daughter (who he had 
+no doubt was looking at him in mute admiration), he began to screw 
+and twist his face, and especially those features, into such 
+extraordinary, hideous, and unparalleled contortions, that Gabriel, 
+who happened to look towards him, was stricken with amazement.
+
+'Why, what the devil's the matter with the lad?' cried the 
+locksmith.  'Is he choking?'
+
+'Who?' demanded Sim, with some disdain.
+
+'Who?  Why, you,' returned his master.  'What do you mean by making 
+those horrible faces over your breakfast?'
+
+'Faces are matters of taste, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, rather 
+discomfited; not the less so because he saw the locksmith's 
+daughter smiling.
+
+'Sim,' rejoined Gabriel, laughing heartily.  'Don't be a fool, for 
+I'd rather see you in your senses.  These young fellows,' he added, 
+turning to his daughter, 'are always committing some folly or 
+another.  There was a quarrel between Joe Willet and old John last 
+night though I can't say Joe was much in fault either.  He'll be 
+missing one of these mornings, and will have gone away upon some 
+wild-goose errand, seeking his fortune.--Why, what's the matter, 
+Doll?  YOU are making faces now.  The girls are as bad as the boys 
+every bit!'
+
+'It's the tea,' said Dolly, turning alternately very red and very 
+white, which is no doubt the effect of a slight scald--'so very hot.'
+
+Mr Tappertit looked immensely big at a quartern loaf on the table, 
+and breathed hard.
+
+'Is that all?' returned the locksmith.  'Put some more milk in it.--
+Yes, I am sorry for Joe, because he is a likely young fellow, and 
+gains upon one every time one sees him.  But he'll start off, 
+you'll find.  Indeed he told me as much himself!'
+
+'Indeed!' cried Dolly in a faint voice.  'In-deed!'
+
+'Is the tea tickling your throat still, my dear?' said the 
+locksmith.
+
+But, before his daughter could make him any answer, she was taken 
+with a troublesome cough, and it was such a very unpleasant cough, 
+that, when she left off, the tears were starting in her bright 
+eyes.  The good-natured locksmith was still patting her on the back 
+and applying such gentle restoratives, when a message arrived from 
+Mrs Varden, making known to all whom it might concern, that she 
+felt too much indisposed to rise after her great agitation and 
+anxiety of the previous night; and therefore desired to be 
+immediately accommodated with the little black teapot of strong 
+mixed tea, a couple of rounds of buttered toast, a middling-sized 
+dish of beef and ham cut thin, and the Protestant Manual in two 
+volumes post octavo.  Like some other ladies who in remote ages 
+flourished upon this globe, Mrs Varden was most devout when most 
+ill-tempered.  Whenever she and her husband were at unusual 
+variance, then the Protestant Manual was in high feather.
+
+Knowing from experience what these requests portended, the 
+triumvirate broke up; Dolly, to see the orders executed with all 
+despatch; Gabriel, to some out-of-door work in his little chaise; 
+and Sim, to his daily duty in the workshop, to which retreat he 
+carried the big look, although the loaf remained behind.
+
+Indeed the big look increased immensely, and when he had tied his 
+apron on, became quite gigantic.  It was not until he had several 
+times walked up and down with folded arms, and the longest strides 
+be could take, and had kicked a great many small articles out of 
+his way, that his lip began to curl.  At length, a gloomy derision 
+came upon his features, and he smiled; uttering meanwhile with 
+supreme contempt the monosyllable 'Joe!'
+
+'I eyed her over, while he talked about the fellow,' he said, 'and 
+that was of course the reason of her being confused.  Joe!'
+
+He walked up and down again much quicker than before, and if 
+possible with longer strides; sometimes stopping to take a glance 
+at his legs, and sometimes to jerk out, and cast from him, another 
+'Joe!'  In the course of a quarter of an hour or so he again 
+assumed the paper cap and tried to work.  No.  It could not be 
+done.
+
+'I'll do nothing to-day,' said Mr Tappertit, dashing it down again, 
+'but grind.  I'll grind up all the tools.  Grinding will suit my 
+present humour well.  Joe!'
+
+Whirr-r-r-r.  The grindstone was soon in motion; the sparks were 
+flying off in showers.  This was the occupation for his heated 
+spirit.
+
+Whirr-r-r-r-r-r-r.
+
+'Something will come of this!' said Mr Tappertit, pausing as if in 
+triumph, and wiping his heated face upon his sleeve.  'Something 
+will come of this.  I hope it mayn't be human gore!'
+
+Whirr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+
+As soon as the business of the day was over, the locksmith sallied 
+forth, alone, to visit the wounded gentleman and ascertain the 
+progress of his recovery.  The house where he had left him was in a 
+by-street in Southwark, not far from London Bridge; and thither he 
+hied with all speed, bent upon returning with as little delay as 
+might be, and getting to bed betimes.
+
+The evening was boisterous--scarcely better than the previous night 
+had been.  It was not easy for a stout man like Gabriel to keep his 
+legs at the street corners, or to make head against the high wind, 
+which often fairly got the better of him, and drove him back some 
+paces, or, in defiance of all his energy, forced him to take 
+shelter in an arch or doorway until the fury of the gust was spent.  
+Occasionally a hat or wig, or both, came spinning and trundling 
+past him, like a mad thing; while the more serious spectacle of 
+falling tiles and slates, or of masses of brick and mortar or 
+fragments of stone-coping rattling upon the pavement near at hand, 
+and splitting into fragments, did not increase the pleasure of the 
+journey, or make the way less dreary.
+
+'A trying night for a man like me to walk in!' said the locksmith, 
+as he knocked softly at the widow's door.  'I'd rather be in old 
+John's chimney-corner, faith!'
+
+'Who's there?' demanded a woman's voice from within.  Being 
+answered, it added a hasty word of welcome, and the door was 
+quickly opened.
+
+She was about forty--perhaps two or three years older--with a 
+cheerful aspect, and a face that had once been pretty.  It bore 
+traces of affliction and care, but they were of an old date, and 
+Time had smoothed them.  Any one who had bestowed but a casual 
+glance on Barnaby might have known that this was his mother, from 
+the strong resemblance between them; but where in his face there 
+was wildness and vacancy, in hers there was the patient composure 
+of long effort and quiet resignation.
+
+One thing about this face was very strange and startling.  You 
+could not look upon it in its most cheerful mood without feeling 
+that it had some extraordinary capacity of expressing terror.  It 
+was not on the surface.  It was in no one feature that it lingered.  
+You could not take the eyes or mouth, or lines upon the cheek, and 
+say, if this or that were otherwise, it would not be so.  Yet there 
+it always lurked--something for ever dimly seen, but ever there, 
+and never absent for a moment.  It was the faintest, palest shadow 
+of some look, to which an instant of intense and most unutterable 
+horror only could have given birth; but indistinct and feeble as it 
+was, it did suggest what that look must have been, and fixed it in 
+the mind as if it had had existence in a dream.
+
+More faintly imaged, and wanting force and purpose, as it were, 
+because of his darkened intellect, there was this same stamp upon 
+the son.  Seen in a picture, it must have had some legend with it, 
+and would have haunted those who looked upon the canvas.  They who 
+knew the Maypole story, and could remember what the widow was, 
+before her husband's and his master's murder, understood it well.  
+They recollected how the change had come, and could call to mind 
+that when her son was born, upon the very day the deed was known, 
+he bore upon his wrist what seemed a smear of blood but half washed 
+out.
+
+'God save you, neighbour!' said the locksmith, as he followed her, 
+with the air of an old friend, into a little parlour where a 
+cheerful fire was burning.
+
+'And you,' she answered smiling.  'Your kind heart has brought you 
+here again.  Nothing will keep you at home, I know of old, if there 
+are friends to serve or comfort, out of doors.'
+
+'Tut, tut,' returned the locksmith, rubbing his hands and warming 
+them.  'You women are such talkers.  What of the patient, 
+neighbour?'
+
+'He is sleeping now.  He was very restless towards daylight, and 
+for some hours tossed and tumbled sadly.  But the fever has left 
+him, and the doctor says he will soon mend.  He must not be removed 
+until to-morrow.'
+
+'He has had visitors to-day--humph?' said Gabriel, slyly.
+
+'Yes.  Old Mr Chester has been here ever since we sent for him, and 
+had not been gone many minutes when you knocked.'
+
+'No ladies?' said Gabriel, elevating his eyebrows and looking 
+disappointed.
+
+'A letter,' replied the widow.
+
+'Come.  That's better than nothing!' replied the locksmith.  'Who 
+was the bearer?'
+
+'Barnaby, of course.'
+
+'Barnaby's a jewel!' said Varden; 'and comes and goes with ease 
+where we who think ourselves much wiser would make but a poor hand 
+of it.  He is not out wandering, again, I hope?'
+
+'Thank Heaven he is in his bed; having been up all night, as you 
+know, and on his feet all day.  He was quite tired out.  Ah, 
+neighbour, if I could but see him oftener so--if I could but tame 
+down that terrible restlessness--'
+
+'In good time,' said the locksmith, kindly, 'in good time--don't be 
+down-hearted.  To my mind he grows wiser every day.'
+
+The widow shook her head.  And yet, though she knew the locksmith 
+sought to cheer her, and spoke from no conviction of his own, she 
+was glad to hear even this praise of her poor benighted son.
+
+'He will be a 'cute man yet,' resumed the locksmith.  'Take care, 
+when we are growing old and foolish, Barnaby doesn't put us to the 
+blush, that's all.  But our other friend,' he added, looking under 
+the table and about the floor--'sharpest and cunningest of all the 
+sharp and cunning ones--where's he?'
+
+'In Barnaby's room,' rejoined the widow, with a faint smile.
+
+'Ah!  He's a knowing blade!' said Varden, shaking his head.  'I 
+should be sorry to talk secrets before him.  Oh!  He's a deep 
+customer.  I've no doubt he can read, and write, and cast accounts 
+if he chooses.  What was that?  Him tapping at the door?'
+
+'No,' returned the widow.  'It was in the street, I think.  Hark!  
+Yes.  There again!  'Tis some one knocking softly at the shutter.  
+Who can it be!'
+
+They had been speaking in a low tone, for the invalid lay overhead, 
+and the walls and ceilings being thin and poorly built, the sound 
+of their voices might otherwise have disturbed his slumber.  The 
+party without, whoever it was, could have stood close to the 
+shutter without hearing anything spoken; and, seeing the light 
+through the chinks and finding all so quiet, might have been 
+persuaded that only one person was there.
+
+'Some thief or ruffian maybe,' said the locksmith.  'Give me the 
+light.'
+
+'No, no,' she returned hastily.  'Such visitors have never come to 
+this poor dwelling.  Do you stay here.  You're within call, at the 
+worst.  I would rather go myself--alone.'
+
+'Why?' said the locksmith, unwillingly relinquishing the candle he 
+had caught up from the table.
+
+'Because--I don't know why--because the wish is so strong upon me,' 
+she rejoined.  'There again--do not detain me, I beg of you!'
+
+Gabriel looked at her, in great surprise to see one who was usually 
+so mild and quiet thus agitated, and with so little cause.  She 
+left the room and closed the door behind her.  She stood for a 
+moment as if hesitating, with her hand upon the lock.  In this 
+short interval the knocking came again, and a voice close to the 
+window--a voice the locksmith seemed to recollect, and to have some 
+disagreeable association with--whispered 'Make haste.'
+
+The words were uttered in that low distinct voice which finds its 
+way so readily to sleepers' ears, and wakes them in a fright.  For 
+a moment it startled even the locksmith; who involuntarily drew 
+back from the window, and listened.
+
+The wind rumbling in the chimney made it difficult to hear what 
+passed, but he could tell that the door was opened, that there was 
+the tread of a man upon the creaking boards, and then a moment's 
+silence--broken by a suppressed something which was not a shriek, 
+or groan, or cry for help, and yet might have been either or all 
+three; and the words 'My God!' uttered in a voice it chilled him to 
+hear.
+
+He rushed out upon the instant.  There, at last, was that dreadful 
+look--the very one he seemed to know so well and yet had never seen 
+before--upon her face.  There she stood, frozen to the ground, 
+gazing with starting eyes, and livid cheeks, and every feature 
+fixed and ghastly, upon the man he had encountered in the dark last 
+night.  His eyes met those of the locksmith.  It was but a flash, 
+an instant, a breath upon a polished glass, and he was gone.
+
+The locksmith was upon him--had the skirts of his streaming garment 
+almost in his grasp--when his arms were tightly clutched, and the 
+widow flung herself upon the ground before him.
+
+'The other way--the other way,' she cried.  'He went the other way.  
+Turn--turn!'
+
+'The other way!  I see him now,' rejoined the locksmith, pointing--
+'yonder--there--there is his shadow passing by that light.  What--
+who is this?  Let me go.'
+
+'Come back, come back!' exclaimed the woman, clasping him; 'Do not 
+touch him on your life.  I charge you, come back.  He carries other 
+lives besides his own.  Come back!'
+
+'What does this mean?' cried the locksmith.
+
+'No matter what it means, don't ask, don't speak, don't think about 
+it.  He is not to be followed, checked, or stopped.  Come back!'
+
+The old man looked at her in wonder, as she writhed and clung about 
+him; and, borne down by her passion, suffered her to drag him into 
+the house.  It was not until she had chained and double-locked the 
+door, fastened every bolt and bar with the heat and fury of a 
+maniac, and drawn him back into the room, that she turned upon him, 
+once again, that stony look of horror, and, sinking down into a 
+chair, covered her face, and shuddered, as though the hand of death 
+were on her.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+
+Beyond all measure astonished by the strange occurrences which had 
+passed with so much violence and rapidity, the locksmith gazed upon 
+the shuddering figure in the chair like one half stupefied, and 
+would have gazed much longer, had not his tongue been loosened by 
+compassion and humanity.
+
+'You are ill,' said Gabriel.  'Let me call some neighbour in.'
+
+'Not for the world,' she rejoined, motioning to him with her 
+trembling hand, and holding her face averted.  'It is enough that 
+you have been by, to see this.'
+
+'Nay, more than enough--or less,' said Gabriel.
+
+'Be it so,' she returned.  'As you like.  Ask me no questions, I 
+entreat you.'
+
+'Neighbour,' said the locksmith, after a pause.  'Is this fair, or 
+reasonable, or just to yourself?  Is it like you, who have known me 
+so long and sought my advice in all matters--like you, who from a 
+girl have had a strong mind and a staunch heart?'
+
+'I have need of them,' she replied.  'I am growing old, both in 
+years and care.  Perhaps that, and too much trial, have made them 
+weaker than they used to be.  Do not speak to me.'
+
+'How can I see what I have seen, and hold my peace!' returned the 
+locksmith.  'Who was that man, and why has his coming made this 
+change in you?'
+
+She was silent, but held to the chair as though to save herself 
+from falling on the ground.
+
+'I take the licence of an old acquaintance, Mary,' said the 
+locksmith, 'who has ever had a warm regard for you, and maybe has 
+tried to prove it when he could.  Who is this ill-favoured man, and 
+what has he to do with you?  Who is this ghost, that is only seen 
+in the black nights and bad weather?  How does he know, and why 
+does he haunt, this house, whispering through chinks and crevices, 
+as if there was that between him and you, which neither durst so 
+much as speak aloud of?  Who is he?'
+
+'You do well to say he haunts this house,' returned the widow, 
+faintly.  'His shadow has been upon it and me, in light and 
+darkness, at noonday and midnight.  And now, at last, he has come 
+in the body!'
+
+'But he wouldn't have gone in the body,' returned the locksmith 
+with some irritation, 'if you had left my arms and legs at liberty.  
+What riddle is this?'
+
+'It is one,' she answered, rising as she spoke, 'that must remain 
+for ever as it is.  I dare not say more than that.'
+
+'Dare not!' repeated the wondering locksmith.
+
+'Do not press me,' she replied.  'I am sick and faint, and every 
+faculty of life seems dead within me.--No!--Do not touch me, 
+either.'
+
+Gabriel, who had stepped forward to render her assistance, fell 
+back as she made this hasty exclamation, and regarded her in silent 
+wonder.
+
+'Let me go my way alone,' she said in a low voice, 'and let the 
+hands of no honest man touch mine to-night.'  When she had 
+tottered to the door, she turned, and added with a stronger effort, 
+'This is a secret, which, of necessity, I trust to you.  You are a 
+true man.  As you have ever been good and kind to me,--keep it.  If 
+any noise was heard above, make some excuse--say anything but what 
+you really saw, and never let a word or look between us, recall 
+this circumstance.  I trust to you.  Mind, I trust to you.  How 
+much I trust, you never can conceive.'
+
+Casting her eyes upon him for an instant, she withdrew, and left 
+him there alone.
+
+Gabriel, not knowing what to think, stood staring at the door with 
+a countenance full of surprise and dismay.  The more he pondered on 
+what had passed, the less able he was to give it any favourable 
+interpretation.  To find this widow woman, whose life for so many 
+years had been supposed to be one of solitude and retirement, and 
+who, in her quiet suffering character, had gained the good opinion 
+and respect of all who knew her--to find her linked mysteriously 
+with an ill-omened man, alarmed at his appearance, and yet 
+favouring his escape, was a discovery that pained as much as 
+startled him.  Her reliance on his secrecy, and his tacit 
+acquiescence, increased his distress of mind.  If he had spoken 
+boldly, persisted in questioning her, detained her when she rose to 
+leave the room, made any kind of protest, instead of silently 
+compromising himself, as he felt he had done, he would have been 
+more at ease.
+
+'Why did I let her say it was a secret, and she trusted it to me!' 
+said Gabriel, putting his wig on one side to scratch his head with 
+greater ease, and looking ruefully at the fire.  'I have no more 
+readiness than old John himself.  Why didn't I say firmly, "You 
+have no right to such secrets, and I demand of you to tell me what 
+this means," instead of standing gaping at her, like an old moon-
+calf as I am!  But there's my weakness.  I can be obstinate enough 
+with men if need be, but women may twist me round their fingers at 
+their pleasure.'
+
+He took his wig off outright as he made this reflection, and, 
+warming his handkerchief at the fire began to rub and polish his 
+bald head with it, until it glistened again.
+
+'And yet,' said the locksmith, softening under this soothing 
+process, and stopping to smile, 'it MAY be nothing.  Any drunken 
+brawler trying to make his way into the house, would have alarmed a 
+quiet soul like her.  But then'--and here was the vexation--'how 
+came it to be that man; how comes he to have this influence over 
+her; how came she to favour his getting away from me; and, more 
+than all, how came she not to say it was a sudden fright, and 
+nothing more?  It's a sad thing to have, in one minute, reason to 
+mistrust a person I have known so long, and an old sweetheart into 
+the bargain; but what else can I do, with all this upon my mind!--
+Is that Barnaby outside there?'
+
+'Ay!' he cried, looking in and nodding.  'Sure enough it's 
+Barnaby--how did you guess?'
+
+'By your shadow,' said the locksmith.
+
+'Oho!' cried Barnaby, glancing over his shoulder, 'He's a merry 
+fellow, that shadow, and keeps close to me, though I AM silly.  We 
+have such pranks, such walks, such runs, such gambols on the grass!  
+Sometimes he'll be half as tall as a church steeple, and sometimes 
+no bigger than a dwarf.  Now, he goes on before, and now behind, 
+and anon he'll be stealing on, on this side, or on that, stopping 
+whenever I stop, and thinking I can't see him, though I have my eye 
+on him sharp enough.  Oh! he's a merry fellow.  Tell me--is he 
+silly too?  I think he is.'
+
+'Why?' asked Gabriel.
+
+'Because be never tires of mocking me, but does it all day long.--
+Why don't you come?'
+
+'Where?'
+
+'Upstairs.  He wants you.  Stay--where's HIS shadow?  Come.  You're 
+a wise man; tell me that.'
+
+'Beside him, Barnaby; beside him, I suppose,' returned the locksmith.
+
+'No!' he replied, shaking his head.  'Guess again.'
+
+'Gone out a walking, maybe?'
+
+'He has changed shadows with a woman,' the idiot whispered in his 
+ear, and then fell back with a look of triumph.  'Her shadow's 
+always with him, and his with her.  That's sport I think, eh?'
+
+'Barnaby,' said the locksmith, with a grave look; 'come hither, 
+lad.'
+
+'I know what you want to say.  I know!' he replied, keeping away 
+from him.  'But I'm cunning, I'm silent.  I only say so much to 
+you--are you ready?'  As he spoke, he caught up the light, and 
+waved it with a wild laugh above his head.
+
+'Softly--gently,' said the locksmith, exerting all his influence to 
+keep him calm and quiet.  'I thought you had been asleep.'
+
+'So I HAVE been asleep,' he rejoined, with widely-opened eyes.  
+'There have been great faces coming and going--close to my face, 
+and then a mile away--low places to creep through, whether I would 
+or no--high churches to fall down from--strange creatures crowded 
+up together neck and heels, to sit upon the bed--that's sleep, eh?'
+
+'Dreams, Barnaby, dreams,' said the locksmith.
+
+'Dreams!' he echoed softly, drawing closer to him.  'Those are not 
+dreams.'
+
+'What are,' replied the locksmith, 'if they are not?'
+
+'I dreamed,' said Barnaby, passing his arm through Varden's, and 
+peering close into his face as he answered in a whisper, 'I dreamed 
+just now that something--it was in the shape of a man--followed me--
+came softly after me--wouldn't let me be--but was always hiding 
+and crouching, like a cat in dark corners, waiting till I should 
+pass; when it crept out and came softly after me.--Did you ever see 
+me run?'
+
+'Many a time, you know.'
+
+'You never saw me run as I did in this dream.  Still it came 
+creeping on to worry me.  Nearer, nearer, nearer--I ran faster--
+leaped--sprung out of bed, and to the window--and there, in the 
+street below--but he is waiting for us.  Are you coming?'
+
+'What in the street below, Barnaby?' said Varden, imagining that he 
+traced some connection between this vision and what had actually 
+occurred.
+
+Barnaby looked into his face, muttered incoherently, waved the 
+light above his head again, laughed, and drawing the locksmith's 
+arm more tightly through his own, led him up the stairs in silence.
+
+They entered a homely bedchamber, garnished in a scanty way with 
+chairs, whose spindle-shanks bespoke their age, and other furniture 
+of very little worth; but clean and neatly kept.  Reclining in an 
+easy-chair before the fire, pale and weak from waste of blood, was 
+Edward Chester, the young gentleman who had been the first to quit 
+the Maypole on the previous night, and who, extending his hand to 
+the locksmith, welcomed him as his preserver and friend.
+
+'Say no more, sir, say no more,' said Gabriel.  'I hope I would 
+have done at least as much for any man in such a strait, and most 
+of all for you, sir.  A certain young lady,' he added, with some 
+hesitation, 'has done us many a kind turn, and we naturally feel--I 
+hope I give you no offence in saying this, sir?'
+
+The young man smiled and shook his head; at the same time moving in 
+his chair as if in pain.
+
+'It's no great matter,' he said, in answer to the locksmith's 
+sympathising look, 'a mere uneasiness arising at least as much from 
+being cooped up here, as from the slight wound I have, or from the 
+loss of blood.  Be seated, Mr Varden.'
+
+'If I may make so bold, Mr Edward, as to lean upon your chair,' 
+returned the locksmith, accommodating his action to his speech, and 
+bending over him, 'I'll stand here for the convenience of speaking 
+low.  Barnaby is not in his quietest humour to-night, and at such 
+times talking never does him good.'
+
+They both glanced at the subject of this remark, who had taken a 
+seat on the other side of the fire, and, smiling vacantly, was 
+making puzzles on his fingers with a skein of string.
+
+'Pray, tell me, sir,' said Varden, dropping his voice still lower, 
+'exactly what happened last night.  I have my reason for inquiring.  
+You left the Maypole, alone?'
+
+'And walked homeward alone, until I had nearly reached the place 
+where you found me, when I heard the gallop of a horse.'
+
+'Behind you?' said the locksmith.
+
+'Indeed, yes--behind me.  It was a single rider, who soon overtook 
+me, and checking his horse, inquired the way to London.'
+
+'You were on the alert, sir, knowing how many highwaymen there are, 
+scouring the roads in all directions?' said Varden.
+
+'I was, but I had only a stick, having imprudently left my pistols 
+in their holster-case with the landlord's son.  I directed him as 
+he desired.  Before the words had passed my lips, he rode upon me 
+furiously, as if bent on trampling me down beneath his horse's 
+hoofs.  In starting aside, I slipped and fell.  You found me with 
+this stab and an ugly bruise or two, and without my purse--in which 
+he found little enough for his pains.  And now, Mr Varden,' he 
+added, shaking the locksmith by the hand, 'saving the extent of my 
+gratitude to you, you know as much as I.'
+
+'Except,' said Gabriel, bending down yet more, and looking 
+cautiously towards their silent neighhour, 'except in respect of 
+the robber himself.  What like was he, sir?  Speak low, if you 
+please.  Barnaby means no harm, but I have watched him oftener than 
+you, and I know, little as you would think it, that he's listening 
+now.'
+
+It required a strong confidence in the locksmith's veracity to 
+lead any one to this belief, for every sense and faculty that 
+Barnahy possessed, seemed to be fixed upon his game, to the 
+exclusion of all other things.  Something in the young man's face 
+expressed this opinion, for Gabriel repeated what he had just said, 
+more earnestly than before, and with another glance towards 
+Barnaby, again asked what like the man was.
+
+'The night was so dark,' said Edward, 'the attack so sudden, and 
+he so wrapped and muffled up, that I can hardly say.  It seems 
+that--'
+
+'Don't mention his name, sir,' returned the locksmith, following 
+his look towards Barnaby; 'I know HE saw him.  I want to know what 
+YOU saw.'
+
+'All I remember is,' said Edward, 'that as he checked his horse his 
+hat was blown off.  He caught it, and replaced it on his head, 
+which I observed was bound with a dark handkerchief.  A stranger 
+entered the Maypole while I was there, whom I had not seen--for I 
+had sat apart for reasons of my own--and when I rose to leave the 
+room and glanced round, he was in the shadow of the chimney and 
+hidden from my sight.  But, if he and the robber were two different 
+persons, their voices were strangely and most remarkably alike; for 
+directly the man addressed me in the road, I recognised his speech 
+again.'
+
+'It is as I feared.  The very man was here to-night,' thought the 
+locksmith, changing colour.  'What dark history is this!'
+
+'Halloa!' cried a hoarse voice in his ear.  'Halloa, halloa, 
+halloa!  Bow wow wow.  What's the matter here!  Hal-loa!'
+
+The speaker--who made the locksmith start as if he had been some 
+supernatural agent--was a large raven, who had perched upon the top 
+of the easy-chair, unseen by him and Edward, and listened with a 
+polite attention and a most extraordinary appearance of 
+comprehending every word, to all they had said up to this point; 
+turning his head from one to the other, as if his office were to 
+judge between them, and it were of the very last importance that he 
+should not lose a word.
+
+'Look at him!' said Varden, divided between admiration of the bird 
+and a kind of fear of him.  'Was there ever such a knowing imp as 
+that!  Oh he's a dreadful fellow!'
+
+The raven, with his head very much on one side, and his bright eye 
+shining like a diamond, preserved a thoughtful silence for a few 
+seconds, and then replied in a voice so hoarse and distant, that it 
+seemed to come through his thick feathers rather than out of his 
+mouth.
+
+'Halloa, halloa, halloa!  What's the matter here!  Keep up your 
+spirits.  Never say die.  Bow wow wow.  I'm a devil, I'm a devil, 
+I'm a devil.  Hurrah!'--And then, as if exulting in his infernal 
+character, he began to whistle.
+
+'I more than half believe he speaks the truth.  Upon my word I do,' 
+said Varden.  'Do you see how he looks at me, as if he knew what I 
+was saying?'
+
+To which the bird, balancing himself on tiptoe, as it were, and 
+moving his body up and down in a sort of grave dance, rejoined, 
+'I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil,' and flapped his wings 
+against his sides as if he were bursting with laughter.  Barnaby 
+clapped his hands, and fairly rolled upon the ground in an ecstasy 
+of delight.
+
+'Strange companions, sir,' said the locksmith, shaking his head, 
+and looking from one to the other.  'The bird has all the wit.'
+
+'Strange indeed!' said Edward, holding out his forefinger to the 
+raven, who, in acknowledgment of the attention, made a dive at it 
+immediately with his iron bill.  'Is he old?'
+
+'A mere boy, sir,' replied the locksmith.  'A hundred and twenty, 
+or thereabouts.  Call him down, Barnaby, my man.'
+
+'Call him!' echoed Barnaby, sitting upright upon the floor, and 
+staring vacantly at Gabriel, as he thrust his hair back from his 
+face.  'But who can make him come!  He calls me, and makes me go 
+where he will.  He goes on before, and I follow.  He's the master, 
+and I'm the man.  Is that the truth, Grip?'
+
+The raven gave a short, comfortable, confidential kind of croak;--a 
+most expressive croak, which seemed to say, 'You needn't let these 
+fellows into our secrets.  We understand each other.  It's all 
+right.'
+
+'I make HIM come?' cried Barnaby, pointing to the bird.  'Him, who 
+never goes to sleep, or so much as winks!--Why, any time of night, 
+you may see his eyes in my dark room, shining like two sparks.  And 
+every night, and all night too, he's broad awake, talking to 
+himself, thinking what he shall do to-morrow, where we shall go, 
+and what he shall steal, and hide, and bury.  I make HIM come!  
+Ha ha ha!'
+
+On second thoughts, the bird appeared disposed to come of himself.  
+After a short survey of the ground, and a few sidelong looks at the 
+ceiling and at everybody present in turn, he fluttered to the 
+floor, and went to Barnaby--not in a hop, or walk, or run, but in a 
+pace like that of a very particular gentleman with exceedingly 
+tight boots on, trying to walk fast over loose pebbles.  Then, 
+stepping into his extended hand, and condescending to be held out 
+at arm's length, he gave vent to a succession of sounds, not unlike 
+the drawing of some eight or ten dozen of long corks, and again 
+asserted his brimstone birth and parentage with great distinctness.
+
+The locksmith shook his head--perhaps in some doubt of the 
+creature's being really nothing but a bird--perhaps in pity for 
+Bamaby, who by this time had him in his arms, and was rolling 
+about, with him, on the ground.  As he raised his eyes from the 
+poor fellow he encountered those of his mother, who had entered the 
+room, and was looking on in silence.
+
+She was quite white in the face, even to her lips, but had wholly 
+subdued her emotion, and wore her usual quiet look.  Varden fancied 
+as he glanced at her that she shrunk from his eye; and that she 
+busied herself about the wounded gentleman to avoid him the better.
+
+It was time he went to bed, she said.  He was to be removed to his 
+own home on the morrow, and he had already exceeded his time for 
+sitting up, by a full hour.  Acting on this hint, the locksmith 
+prepared to take his leave.
+
+'By the bye,' said Edward, as he shook him by the hand, and looked 
+from him to Mrs Rudge and back again, 'what noise was that below?  
+I heard your voice in the midst of it, and should have inquired 
+before, but our other conversation drove it from my memory.  What 
+was it?'
+
+The locksmith looked towards her, and bit his lip.  She leant 
+against the chair, and bent her eyes upon the ground.  Barnaby too--
+he was listening.
+
+--'Some mad or drunken fellow, sir,' Varden at length made answer, 
+looking steadily at the widow as he spoke.  'He mistook the house, 
+and tried to force an entrance.'
+
+She breathed more freely, but stood quite motionless.  As the 
+locksmith said 'Good night,' and Barnaby caught up the candle to 
+light him down the stairs, she took it from him, and charged him--
+with more haste and earnestness than so slight an occasion appeared 
+to warrant--not to stir.  The raven followed them to satisfy 
+himself that all was right below, and when they reached the street-
+door, stood on the bottom stair drawing corks out of number.
+
+With a trembling hand she unfastened the chain and bolts, and 
+turned the key.  As she had her hand upon the latch, the locksmith 
+said in a low voice,
+
+'I have told a lie to-night, for your sake, Mary, and for the sake 
+of bygone times and old acquaintance, when I would scorn to do so 
+for my own.  I hope I may have done no harm, or led to none.  I 
+can't help the suspicions you have forced upon me, and I am loth, I 
+tell you plainly, to leave Mr Edward here.  Take care he comes to 
+no hurt.  I doubt the safety of this roof, and am glad he leaves it 
+so soon.  Now, let me go.'
+
+For a moment she hid her face in her hands and wept; but resisting 
+the strong impulse which evidently moved her to reply, opened the 
+door--no wider than was sufficient for the passage of his body--
+and motioned him away.  As the locksmith stood upon the step, it 
+was chained and locked behind him, and the raven, in furtherance of 
+these precautions, barked like a lusty house-dog.
+
+'In league with that ill-looking figure that might have fallen from 
+a gibbet--he listening and hiding here--Barnaby first upon the spot 
+last night--can she who has always borne so fair a name be guilty 
+of such crimes in secret!' said the locksmith, musing.  'Heaven 
+forgive me if I am wrong, and send me just thoughts; but she is 
+poor, the temptation may be great, and we daily hear of things as 
+strange.--Ay, bark away, my friend.  If there's any wickedness 
+going on, that raven's in it, I'll be sworn.'
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+
+Mrs Varden was a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain 
+temper--a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper 
+tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.  
+Thus it generally happened, that when other people were merry, Mrs 
+Varden was dull; and that when other people were dull, Mrs Varden 
+was disposed to be amazingly cheerful.  Indeed the worthy housewife 
+was of such a capricious nature, that she not only attained a 
+higher pitch of genius than Macbeth, in respect of her ability to 
+be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and neutral in an 
+instant, but would sometimes ring the changes backwards and 
+forwards on all possible moods and flights in one short quarter of 
+an hour; performing, as it were, a kind of triple bob major on the 
+peal of instruments in the female belfry, with a skilfulness and 
+rapidity of execution that astonished all who heard her.
+
+It had been observed in this good lady (who did not want for 
+personal attractions, being plump and buxom to look at, though like 
+her fair daughter, somewhat short in stature) that this 
+uncertainty of disposition strengthened and increased with her 
+temporal prosperity; and divers wise men and matrons, on friendly 
+terms with the locksmith and his family, even went so far as to 
+assert, that a tumble down some half-dozen rounds in the world's 
+ladder--such as the breaking of the bank in which her husband kept 
+his money, or some little fall of that kind--would be the making 
+of her, and could hardly fail to render her one of the most 
+agreeable companions in existence.  Whether they were right or 
+wrong in this conjecture, certain it is that minds, like bodies, 
+will often fall into a pimpled ill-conditioned state from mere 
+excess of comfort, and like them, are often successfully cured by 
+remedies in themselves very nauseous and unpalatable.
+
+Mrs Varden's chief aider and abettor, and at the same time her 
+principal victim and object of wrath, was her single domestic 
+servant, one Miss Miggs; or as she was called, in conformity with 
+those prejudices of society which lop and top from poor hand-
+maidens all such genteel excrescences--Miggs.  This Miggs was a 
+tall young lady, very much addicted to pattens in private life; 
+slender and shrewish, of a rather uncomfortable figure, and though 
+not absolutely ill-looking, of a sharp and acid visage.  As a 
+general principle and abstract proposition, Miggs held the male sex 
+to be utterly contemptible and unworthy of notice; to be fickle, 
+false, base, sottish, inclined to perjury, and wholly undeserving.  
+When particularly exasperated against them (which, scandal said, 
+was when Sim Tappertit slighted her most) she was accustomed to 
+wish with great emphasis that the whole race of women could but die 
+off, in order that the men might be brought to know the real value 
+of the blessings by which they set so little store; nay, her 
+feeling for her order ran so high, that she sometimes declared, if 
+she could only have good security for a fair, round number--say ten 
+thousand--of young virgins following her example, she would, to 
+spite mankind, hang, drown, stab, or poison herself, with a joy 
+past all expression.
+
+It was the voice of Miggs that greeted the locksmith, when he 
+knocked at his own house, with a shrill cry of 'Who's there?'
+
+'Me, girl, me,' returned Gabriel.
+
+What, already, sir!' said Miggs, opening the door with a look of 
+surprise.  'We were just getting on our nightcaps to sit up,--me 
+and mistress.  Oh, she has been SO bad!'
+
+Miggs said this with an air of uncommon candour and concern; but 
+the parlour-door was standing open, and as Gabriel very well knew 
+for whose ears it was designed, he regarded her with anything but 
+an approving look as he passed in.
+
+'Master's come home, mim,' cried Miggs, running before him into the 
+parlour.  'You was wrong, mim, and I was right.  I thought he 
+wouldn't keep us up so late, two nights running, mim.  Master's 
+always considerate so far.  I'm so glad, mim, on your account.  I'm 
+a little'--here Miggs simpered--'a little sleepy myself; I'll own 
+it now, mim, though I said I wasn't when you asked me.  It ain't of 
+no consequence, mim, of course.'
+
+'You had better,' said the locksmith, who most devoutly wished that 
+Barnaby's raven was at Miggs's ankles, 'you had better get to bed 
+at once then.'
+
+'Thanking you kindly, sir,' returned Miggs, 'I couldn't take my 
+rest in peace, nor fix my thoughts upon my prayers, otherways than 
+that I knew mistress was comfortable in her bed this night; by 
+rights she ought to have been there, hours ago.'
+
+'You're talkative, mistress,' said Varden, pulling off his 
+greatcoat, and looking at her askew.
+
+'Taking the hint, sir,' cried Miggs, with a flushed face, 'and 
+thanking you for it most kindly, I will make bold to say, that if I 
+give offence by having consideration for my mistress, I do not ask 
+your pardon, but am content to get myself into trouble and to be in 
+suffering.'
+
+Here Mrs Varden, who, with her countenance shrouded in a large 
+nightcap, had been all this time intent upon the Protestant Manual, 
+looked round, and acknowledged Miggs's championship by commanding 
+her to hold her tongue.
+
+Every little bone in Miggs's throat and neck developed itself with 
+a spitefulness quite alarming, as she replied, 'Yes, mim, I will.'
+
+'How do you find yourself now, my dear?' said the locksmith, 
+taking a chair near his wife (who had resumed her book), and 
+rubbing his knees hard as he made the inquiry.
+
+'You're very anxious to know, an't you?' returned Mrs Varden, with 
+her eyes upon the print.  'You, that have not been near me all day, 
+and wouldn't have been if I was dying!'
+
+'My dear Martha--' said Gabriel.
+
+Mrs Varden turned over to the next page; then went back again to 
+the bottom line over leaf to be quite sure of the last words; and 
+then went on reading with an appearance of the deepest interest and 
+study.
+
+'My dear Martha,' said the locksmith, 'how can you say such things, 
+when you know you don't mean them?  If you were dying!  Why, if 
+there was anything serious the matter with you, Martha, shouldn't I 
+be in constant attendance upon you?'
+
+'Yes!' cried Mrs Varden, bursting into tears, 'yes, you would.  I 
+don't doubt it, Varden.  Certainly you would.  That's as much as to 
+tell me that you would be hovering round me like a vulture, waiting 
+till the breath was out of my body, that you might go and marry 
+somebody else.'
+
+Miggs groaned in sympathy--a little short groan, checked in its 
+birth, and changed into a cough.  It seemed to say, 'I can't help 
+it.  It's wrung from me by the dreadful brutality of that monster 
+master.'
+
+'But you'll break my heart one of these days,' added Mrs Varden, 
+with more resignation, 'and then we shall both be happy.  My only 
+desire is to see Dolly comfortably settled, and when she is, you 
+may settle ME as soon as you like.'
+
+'Ah!' cried Miggs--and coughed again.
+
+Poor Gabriel twisted his wig about in silence for a long time, and 
+then said mildly, 'Has Dolly gone to bed?'
+
+'Your master speaks to you,' said Mrs Varden, looking sternly over 
+her shoulder at Miss Miggs in waiting.
+
+'No, my dear, I spoke to you,' suggested the locksmith.
+
+'Did you hear me, Miggs?' cried the obdurate lady, stamping her 
+foot upon the ground.  'YOU are beginning to despise me now, are 
+you?  But this is example!'
+
+At this cruel rebuke, Miggs, whose tears were always ready, for 
+large or small parties, on the shortest notice and the most 
+reasonable terms, fell a crying violently; holding both her hands 
+tight upon her heart meanwhile, as if nothing less would prevent 
+its splitting into small fragments.  Mrs Varden, who likewise 
+possessed that faculty in high perfection, wept too, against Miggs; 
+and with such effect that Miggs gave in after a time, and, except 
+for an occasional sob, which seemed to threaten some remote 
+intention of breaking out again, left her mistress in possession of 
+the field.  Her superiority being thoroughly asserted, that lady 
+soon desisted likewise, and fell into a quiet melancholy.
+
+The relief was so great, and the fatiguing occurrences of last 
+night so completely overpowered the locksmith, that he nodded in 
+his chair, and would doubtless have slept there all night, but for 
+the voice of Mrs Varden, which, after a pause of some five minutes, 
+awoke him with a start.
+
+'If I am ever,' said Mrs V.--not scolding, but in a sort of 
+monotonous remonstrance--'in spirits, if I am ever cheerful, if I 
+am ever more than usually disposed to be talkative and comfortable, 
+this is the way I am treated.'
+
+'Such spirits as you was in too, mim, but half an hour ago!' cried 
+Miggs.  'I never see such company!'
+
+'Because,' said Mrs Varden, 'because I never interfere or 
+interrupt; because I never question where anybody comes or goes; 
+because my whole mind and soul is bent on saving where I can save, 
+and labouring in this house;--therefore, they try me as they do.'
+
+'Martha,' urged the locksmith, endeavouring to look as wakeful as 
+possible, 'what is it you complain of?  I really came home with 
+every wish and desire to be happy.  I did, indeed.'
+
+'What do I complain of!' retorted his wife.  'Is it a chilling 
+thing to have one's husband sulking and falling asleep directly he 
+comes home--to have him freezing all one's warm-heartedness, and 
+throwing cold water over the fireside?  Is it natural, when I know 
+he went out upon a matter in which I am as much interested as 
+anybody can be, that I should wish to know all that has happened, 
+or that he should tell me without my begging and praying him to do 
+it?  Is that natural, or is it not?'
+
+'I am very sorry, Martha,' said the good-natured locksmith.  'I was 
+really afraid you were not disposed to talk pleasantly; I'll tell 
+you everything; I shall only be too glad, my dear.'
+
+'No, Varden,' returned his wife, rising with dignity.  'I dare say--
+thank you!  I'm not a child to be corrected one minute and petted 
+the next--I'm a little too old for that, Varden.  Miggs, carry the 
+light.--YOU can be cheerful, Miggs, at least'
+
+Miggs, who, to this moment, had been in the very depths of 
+compassionate despondency, passed instantly into the liveliest 
+state conceivable, and tossing her head as she glanced towards the 
+locksmith, bore off her mistress and the light together.
+
+'Now, who would think,' thought Varden, shrugging his shoulders and 
+drawing his chair nearer to the fire, 'that that woman could ever 
+be pleasant and agreeable?  And yet she can be.  Well, well, all of 
+us have our faults.  I'll not be hard upon hers.  We have been man 
+and wife too long for that.'
+
+He dozed again--not the less pleasantly, perhaps, for his hearty 
+temper.  While his eyes were closed, the door leading to the upper 
+stairs was partially opened; and a head appeared, which, at sight 
+of him, hastily drew back again.
+
+'I wish,' murmured Gabriel, waking at the noise, and looking round 
+the room, 'I wish somebody would marry Miggs.  But that's 
+impossible!  I wonder whether there's any madman alive, who would 
+marry Miggs!'
+
+This was such a vast speculation that he fell into a doze again, 
+and slept until the fire was quite burnt out.  At last he roused 
+himself; and having double-locked the street-door according to 
+custom, and put the key in his pocket, went off to bed.
+
+He had not left the room in darkness many minutes, when the head 
+again appeared, and Sim Tappertit entered, bearing in his hand a 
+little lamp.
+
+'What the devil business has he to stop up so late!' muttered Sim, 
+passing into the workshop, and setting it down upon the forge.  
+'Here's half the night gone already.  There's only one good that 
+has ever come to me, out of this cursed old rusty mechanical trade, 
+and that's this piece of ironmongery, upon my soul!'
+
+As he spoke, he drew from the right hand, or rather right leg 
+pocket of his smalls, a clumsy large-sized key, which he inserted 
+cautiously in the lock his master had secured, and softly opened 
+the door.  That done, he replaced his piece of secret workmanship 
+in his pocket; and leaving the lamp burning, and closing the door 
+carefully and without noise, stole out into the street--as little 
+suspected by the locksmith in his sound deep sleep, as by Barnaby 
+himself in his phantom-haunted dreams.
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+
+Clear of the locksmith's house, Sim Tappertit laid aside his 
+cautious manner, and assuming in its stead that of a ruffling, 
+swaggering, roving blade, who would rather kill a man than 
+otherwise, and eat him too if needful, made the best of his way 
+along the darkened streets.
+
+Half pausing for an instant now and then to smite his pocket and 
+assure himself of the safety of his master key, he hurried on to 
+Barbican, and turning into one of the narrowest of the narrow 
+streets which diverged from that centre, slackened his pace and 
+wiped his heated brow, as if the termination of his walk were near 
+at hand.
+
+It was not a very choice spot for midnight expeditions, being in 
+truth one of more than questionable character, and of an appearance 
+by no means inviting.  From the main street he had entered, itself 
+little better than an alley, a low-browed doorway led into a blind 
+court, or yard, profoundly dark, unpaved, and reeking with stagnant 
+odours.  Into this ill-favoured pit, the locksmith's vagrant 
+'prentice groped his way; and stopping at a house from whose 
+defaced and rotten front the rude effigy of a bottle swung to and 
+fro like some gibbeted malefactor, struck thrice upon an iron 
+grating with his foot.  After listening in vain for some response 
+to his signal, Mr Tappertit became impatient, and struck the 
+grating thrice again.
+
+A further delay ensued, but it was not of long duration.  The 
+ground seemed to open at his feet, and a ragged head appeared.
+
+'Is that the captain?' said a voice as ragged as the head.
+
+'Yes,' replied Mr Tappertit haughtily, descending as he spoke, 'who 
+should it be?'
+
+'It's so late, we gave you up,' returned the voice, as its owner 
+stopped to shut and fasten the grating.  'You're late, sir.'
+
+'Lead on,' said Mr Tappertit, with a gloomy majesty, 'and make 
+remarks when I require you.  Forward!'
+
+This latter word of command was perhaps somewhat theatrical and 
+unnecessary, inasmuch as the descent was by a very narrow, steep, 
+and slippery flight of steps, and any rashness or departure from 
+the beaten track must have ended in a yawning water-butt.  But Mr 
+Tappertit being, like some other great commanders, favourable to 
+strong effects, and personal display, cried 'Forward!' again, in 
+the hoarsest voice he could assume; and led the way, with folded 
+arms and knitted brows, to the cellar down below, where there was a 
+small copper fixed in one corner, a chair or two, a form and table, 
+a glimmering fire, and a truckle-bed, covered with a ragged 
+patchwork rug.
+
+'Welcome, noble captain!' cried a lanky figure, rising as from a 
+nap.
+
+The captain nodded.  Then, throwing off his outer coat, he stood 
+composed in all his dignity, and eyed his follower over.
+
+'What news to-night?' he asked, when he had looked into his very 
+soul.
+
+'Nothing particular,' replied the other, stretching himself--and he 
+was so long already that it was quite alarming to see him do it--
+'how come you to be so late?'
+
+'No matter,' was all the captain deigned to say in answer.  'Is the 
+room prepared?'
+
+'It is,' replied the follower.
+
+'The comrade--is he here?'
+
+'Yes.  And a sprinkling of the others--you hear 'em?'
+
+'Playing skittles!' said the captain moodily.  'Light-hearted 
+revellers!'
+
+There was no doubt respecting the particular amusement in which 
+these heedless spirits were indulging, for even in the close and 
+stifling atmosphere of the vault, the noise sounded like distant 
+thunder.  It certainly appeared, at first sight, a singular spot to 
+choose, for that or any other purpose of relaxation, if the other 
+cellars answered to the one in which this brief colloquy took 
+place; for the floors were of sodden earth, the walls and roof of 
+damp bare brick tapestried with the tracks of snails and slugs; the 
+air was sickening, tainted, and offensive.  It seemed, from one 
+strong flavour which was uppermost among the various odours of the 
+place, that it had, at no very distant period, been used as a 
+storehouse for cheeses; a circumstance which, while it accounted 
+for the greasy moisture that hung about it, was agreeably 
+suggestive of rats.  It was naturally damp besides, and little 
+trees of fungus sprung from every mouldering corner.
+
+The proprietor of this charming retreat, and owner of the ragged 
+head before mentioned--for he wore an old tie-wig as bare and 
+frowzy as a stunted hearth-broom--had by this time joined them; and 
+stood a little apart, rubbing his hands, wagging his hoary bristled 
+chin, and smiling in silence.  His eyes were closed; but had they 
+been wide open, it would have been easy to tell, from the attentive 
+expression of the face he turned towards them--pale and unwholesome 
+as might be expected in one of his underground existence--and from 
+a certain anxious raising and quivering of the lids, that he was 
+blind.
+
+'Even Stagg hath been asleep,' said the long comrade, nodding 
+towards this person.
+
+'Sound, captain, sound!' cried the blind man; 'what does my noble 
+captain drink--is it brandy, rum, usquebaugh?  Is it soaked 
+gunpowder, or blazing oil?  Give it a name, heart of oak, and we'd 
+get it for you, if it was wine from a bishop's cellar, or melted 
+gold from King George's mint.'
+
+'See,' said Mr Tappertit haughtily, 'that it's something strong, 
+and comes quick; and so long as you take care of that, you may 
+bring it from the devil's cellar, if you like.'
+
+'Boldly said, noble captain!' rejoined the blind man.  'Spoken like 
+the 'Prentices' Glory.  Ha, ha!  From the devil's cellar!  A brave 
+joke!  The captain joketh.  Ha, ha, ha!'
+
+'I'll tell you what, my fine feller,' said Mr Tappertit, eyeing the 
+host over as he walked to a closet, and took out a bottle and glass 
+as carelessly as if he had been in full possession of his sight, 
+'if you make that row, you'll find that the captain's very far from 
+joking, and so I tell you.'
+
+'He's got his eyes on me!' cried Stagg, stopping short on his way 
+back, and affecting to screen his face with the bottle.  'I feel 
+'em though I can't see 'em.  Take 'em off, noble captain.  Remove 
+'em, for they pierce like gimlets.'
+
+Mr Tappertit smiled grimly at his comrade; and twisting out one 
+more look--a kind of ocular screw--under the influence of which the 
+blind man feigned to undergo great anguish and torture, bade him, 
+in a softened tone, approach, and hold his peace.
+
+'I obey you, captain,' cried Stagg, drawing close to him and 
+filling out a bumper without spilling a drop, by reason that he 
+held his little finger at the brim of the glass, and stopped at the 
+instant the liquor touched it, 'drink, noble governor.  Death to 
+all masters, life to all 'prentices, and love to all fair damsels.  
+Drink, brave general, and warm your gallant heart!'
+
+Mr Tappertit condescended to take the glass from his outstretched 
+hand.  Stagg then dropped on one knee, and gently smoothed the 
+calves of his legs, with an air of humble admiration.
+
+'That I had but eyes!' he cried, 'to behold my captain's 
+symmetrical proportions!  That I had but eyes, to look upon these 
+twin invaders of domestic peace!'
+
+'Get out!' said Mr Tappertit, glancing downward at his favourite 
+limbs.  'Go along, will you, Stagg!'
+
+'When I touch my own afterwards,' cried the host, smiting them 
+reproachfully, 'I hate 'em.  Comparatively speaking, they've no 
+more shape than wooden legs, beside these models of my noble 
+captain's.'
+
+'Yours!' exclaimed Mr Tappertit.  'No, I should think not.  Don't 
+talk about those precious old toothpicks in the same breath with 
+mine; that's rather too much.  Here.  Take the glass.  Benjamin.  
+Lead on.  To business!'
+
+With these words, he folded his arms again; and frowning with a 
+sullen majesty, passed with his companion through a little door at 
+the upper end of the cellar, and disappeared; leaving Stagg to his 
+private meditations.
+
+The vault they entered, strewn with sawdust and dimly lighted, was 
+between the outer one from which they had just come, and that in 
+which the skittle-players were diverting themselves; as was 
+manifested by the increased noise and clamour of tongues, which was 
+suddenly stopped, however, and replaced by a dead silence, at a 
+signal from the long comrade.  Then, this young gentleman, going to 
+a little cupboard, returned with a thigh-bone, which in former 
+times must have been part and parcel of some individual at least as 
+long as himself, and placed the same in the hands of Mr Tappertit; 
+who, receiving it as a sceptre and staff of authority, cocked his 
+three-cornered hat fiercely on the top of his head, and mounted a 
+large table, whereon a chair of state, cheerfully ornamented with a 
+couple of skulls, was placed ready for his reception.
+
+He had no sooner assumed this position, than another young 
+gentleman appeared, bearing in his arms a huge clasped book, who 
+made him a profound obeisance, and delivering it to the long 
+comrade, advanced to the table, and turning his back upon it, stood 
+there Atlas-wise.  Then, the long comrade got upon the table too; 
+and seating himself in a lower chair than Mr Tappertit's, with much 
+state and ceremony, placed the large book on the shoulders of their 
+mute companion as deliberately as if he had been a wooden desk, and 
+prepared to make entries therein with a pen of corresponding size.
+
+When the long comrade had made these preparations, he looked 
+towards Mr Tappertit; and Mr Tappertit, flourishing the bone, 
+knocked nine times therewith upon one of the skulls.  At the ninth 
+stroke, a third young gentleman emerged from the door leading to 
+the skittle ground, and bowing low, awaited his commands.
+
+'Prentice!' said the mighty captain, 'who waits without?'
+
+The 'prentice made answer that a stranger was in attendance, who 
+claimed admission into that secret society of 'Prentice Knights, 
+and a free participation in their rights, privileges, and 
+immunities.  Thereupon Mr Tappertit flourished the bone again, and 
+giving the other skull a prodigious rap on the nose, exclaimed 
+'Admit him!'  At these dread words the 'prentice bowed once more, 
+and so withdrew as he had come.
+
+There soon appeared at the same door, two other 'prentices, having 
+between them a third, whose eyes were bandaged, and who was attired 
+in a bag-wig, and a broad-skirted coat, trimmed with tarnished 
+lace; and who was girded with a sword, in compliance with the laws 
+of the Institution regulating the introduction of candidates, which 
+required them to assume this courtly dress, and kept it constantly 
+in lavender, for their convenience.  One of the conductors of this 
+novice held a rusty blunderbuss pointed towards his ear, and the 
+other a very ancient sabre, with which he carved imaginary 
+offenders as he came along in a sanguinary and anatomical manner.
+
+As this silent group advanced, Mr Tappertit fixed his hat upon his 
+head.  The novice then laid his hand upon his breast and bent 
+before him.  When he had humbled himself sufficiently, the captain 
+ordered the bandage to be removed, and proceeded to eye him over.
+
+'Ha!' said the captain, thoughtfully, when he had concluded this 
+ordeal.  'Proceed.'
+
+The long comrade read aloud as follows:--'Mark Gilbert.  Age, 
+nineteen.  Bound to Thomas Curzon, hosier, Golden Fleece, Aldgate.  
+Loves Curzon's daughter.  Cannot say that Curzon's daughter loves 
+him.  Should think it probable.  Curzon pulled his ears last 
+Tuesday week.'
+
+'How!' cried the captain, starting.
+
+'For looking at his daughter, please you,' said the novice.
+
+'Write Curzon down, Denounced,' said the captain.  'Put a black 
+cross against the name of Curzon.'
+
+'So please you,' said the novice, 'that's not the worst--he calls 
+his 'prentice idle dog, and stops his beer unless he works to his 
+liking.  He gives Dutch cheese, too, eating Cheshire, sir, himself; 
+and Sundays out, are only once a month.'
+
+'This,' said Mr Tappert;t gravely, 'is a flagrant case.  Put two 
+black crosses to the name of Curzon.'
+
+'If the society,' said the novice, who was an ill-looking, one-
+sided, shambling lad, with sunken eyes set close together in his 
+head--'if the society would burn his house down--for he's not 
+insured--or beat him as he comes home from his club at night, or 
+help me to carry off his daughter, and marry her at the Fleet, 
+whether she gave consent or no--'
+
+Mr Tappertit waved his grizzly truncheon as an admonition to him 
+not to interrupt, and ordered three black crosses to the name of 
+Curzon.
+
+'Which means,' he said in gracious explanation, 'vengeance, 
+complete and terrible.  'Prentice, do you love the Constitution?'
+
+To which the novice (being to that end instructed by his attendant 
+sponsors) replied 'I do!'
+
+'The Church, the State, and everything established--but the 
+masters?' quoth the captain.
+
+Again the novice said 'I do.'
+
+Having said it, he listened meekly to the captain, who in an 
+address prepared for such occasions, told him how that under that 
+same Constitution (which was kept in a strong box somewhere, but 
+where exactly he could not find out, or he would have endeavoured 
+to procure a copy of it), the 'prentices had, in times gone by, 
+had frequent holidays of right, broken people's heads by scores, 
+defied their masters, nay, even achieved some glorious murders in 
+the streets, which privileges had gradually been wrested from them, 
+and in all which noble aspirations they were now restrained; how 
+the degrading checks imposed upon them were unquestionably 
+attributable to the innovating spirit of the times, and how they 
+united therefore to resist all change, except such change as would 
+restore those good old English customs, by which they would stand 
+or fall.  After illustrating the wisdom of going backward, by 
+reference to that sagacious fish, the crab, and the not unfrequent 
+practice of the mule and donkey, he described their general 
+objects; which were briefly vengeance on their Tyrant Masters (of 
+whose grievous and insupportable oppression no 'prentice could 
+entertain a moment's doubt) and the restoration, as aforesaid, of 
+their ancient rights and holidays; for neither of which objects 
+were they now quite ripe, being barely twenty strong, but which 
+they pledged themselves to pursue with fire and sword when needful.  
+Then he described the oath which every member of that small remnant 
+of a noble body took, and which was of a dreadful and impressive 
+kind; binding him, at the bidding of his chief, to resist and 
+obstruct the Lord Mayor, sword-bearer, and chaplain; to despise the 
+authority of the sheriffs; and to hold the court of aldermen as 
+nought; but not on any account, in case the fulness of time should 
+bring a general rising of 'prentices, to damage or in any way 
+disfigure Temple Bar, which was strictly constitutional and always 
+to be approached with reverence.  Having gone over these several 
+heads with great eloquence and force, and having further informed 
+the novice that this society had its origin in his own teeming 
+brain, stimulated by a swelling sense of wrong and outrage, Mr 
+Tappertit demanded whether he had strength of heart to take the 
+mighty pledge required, or whether he would withdraw while retreat 
+was yet in his power.
+
+To this the novice made rejoinder, that he would take the vow, 
+though it should choke him; and it was accordingly administered 
+with many impressive circumstances, among which the lighting up of 
+the two skulls with a candle-end inside of each, and a great many 
+flourishes with the bone, were chiefly conspicuous; not to mention 
+a variety of grave exercises with the blunderbuss and sabre, and 
+some dismal groaning by unseen 'prentices without.  All these dark 
+and direful ceremonies being at length completed, the table was put 
+aside, the chair of state removed, the sceptre locked up in its 
+usual cupboard, the doors of communication between the three 
+cellars thrown freely open, and the 'Prentice Knights resigned 
+themselves to merriment.
+
+But Mr Tappertit, who had a soul above the vulgar herd, and who, on 
+account of his greatness, could only afford to be merry now and 
+then, threw himself on a bench with the air of a man who was faint 
+with dignity.  He looked with an indifferent eye, alike on 
+skittles, cards, and dice, thinking only of the locksmith's 
+daughter, and the base degenerate days on which he had fallen.
+
+'My noble captain neither games, nor sings, nor dances,' said his 
+host, taking a seat beside him.  'Drink, gallant general!'
+
+Mr Tappertit drained the proffered goblet to the dregs; then thrust 
+his hands into his pockets, and with a lowering visage walked among 
+the skittles, while his followers (such is the influence of 
+superior genius) restrained the ardent ball, and held his little 
+shins in dumb respect.
+
+'If I had been born a corsair or a pirate, a brigand, genteel 
+highwayman or patriot--and they're the same thing,' thought Mr 
+Tappertit, musing among the nine-pins, 'I should have been all 
+right.  But to drag out a ignoble existence unbeknown to mankind in 
+general--patience!  I will be famous yet.  A voice within me keeps 
+on whispering Greatness.  I shall burst out one of these days, and 
+when I do, what power can keep me down?  I feel my soul getting 
+into my head at the idea.  More drink there!'
+
+'The novice,' pursued Mr Tappertit, not exactly in a voice of 
+thunder, for his tones, to say the truth were rather cracked and 
+shrill--but very impressively, notwithstanding--'where is he?'
+
+'Here, noble captain!' cried Stagg.  'One stands beside me who I 
+feel is a stranger.'
+
+'Have you,' said Mr Tappertit, letting his gaze fall on the party 
+indicated, who was indeed the new knight, by this time restored to 
+his own apparel; 'Have you the impression of your street-door key 
+in wax?'
+
+The long comrade anticipated the reply, by producing it from the 
+shelf on which it had been deposited.
+
+'Good,' said Mr Tappertit, scrutinising it attentively, while a 
+breathless silence reigned around; for he had constructed secret 
+door-keys for the whole society, and perhaps owed something of his 
+influence to that mean and trivial circumstance--on such slight 
+accidents do even men of mind depend!--'This is easily made.  Come 
+hither, friend.'
+
+With that, he beckoned the new knight apart, and putting the 
+pattern in his pocket, motioned to him to walk by his side.
+
+'And so,' he said, when they had taken a few turns up and down, 
+you--you love your master's daughter?'
+
+'I do,' said the 'prentice.  'Honour bright.  No chaff, you know.'
+
+'Have you,' rejoined Mr Tappertit, catching him by the wrist, and 
+giving him a look which would have been expressive of the most 
+deadly malevolence, but for an accidental hiccup that rather 
+interfered with it; 'have you a--a rival?'
+
+'Not as I know on,' replied the 'prentice.
+
+'If you had now--' said Mr Tappertit--'what would you--eh?--'
+
+The 'prentice looked fierce and clenched his fists.
+
+'It is enough,' cried Mr Tappertit hastily, 'we understand each 
+other.  We are observed.  I thank you.'
+
+So saying, he cast him off again; and calling the long comrade 
+aside after taking a few hasty turns by himself, bade him 
+immediately write and post against the wall, a notice, proscribing 
+one Joseph Willet (commonly known as Joe) of Chigwell; forbidding 
+all 'Prentice Knights to succour, comfort, or hold communion with 
+him; and requiring them, on pain of excommunication, to molest, 
+hurt, wrong, annoy, and pick quarrels with the said Joseph, 
+whensoever and wheresoever they, or any of them, should happen to 
+encounter him.
+
+Having relieved his mind by this energetic proceeding, he 
+condescended to approach the festive board, and warming by degrees, 
+at length deigned to preside, and even to enchant the company with 
+a song.  After this, he rose to such a pitch as to consent to 
+regale the society with a hornpipe, which be actually performed to 
+the music of a fiddle (played by an ingenious member) with such 
+surpassing agility and brilliancy of execution, that the spectators 
+could not be sufficiently enthusiastic in their admiration; and 
+their host protested, with tears in his eyes, that he had never 
+truly felt his blindness until that moment.
+
+But the host withdrawing--probably to weep in secret--soon returned 
+with the information that it wanted little more than an hour of 
+day, and that all the cocks in Barbican had already begun to crow, 
+as if their lives depended on it.  At this intelligence, the 
+'Prentice Knights arose in haste, and marshalling into a line, 
+filed off one by one and dispersed with all speed to their several 
+homes, leaving their leader to pass the grating last.
+
+'Good night, noble captain,' whispered the blind man as he held it 
+open for his passage out; 'Farewell, brave general.  Bye, bye, 
+illustrious commander.  Good luck go with you for a--conceited, 
+bragging, empty-headed, duck-legged idiot.'
+
+With which parting words, coolly added as he listened to his 
+receding footsteps and locked the grate upon himself, he descended 
+the steps, and lighting the fire below the little copper, 
+prepared, without any assistance, for his daily occupation; which 
+was to retail at the area-head above pennyworths of broth and soup, 
+and savoury puddings, compounded of such scraps as were to be 
+bought in the heap for the least money at Fleet Market in the 
+evening time; and for the sale of which he had need to have 
+depended chiefly on his private connection, for the court had no 
+thoroughfare, and was not that kind of place in which many people 
+were likely to take the air, or to frequent as an agreeable 
+promenade.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+
+Chronicler's are privileged to enter where they list, to come and 
+go through keyholes, to ride upon the wind, to overcome, in their 
+soarings up and down, all obstacles of distance, time, and place.  
+Thrice blessed be this last consideration, since it enables us to 
+follow the disdainful Miggs even into the sanctity of her chamber, 
+and to hold her in sweet companionship through the dreary watches 
+of the night!
+
+Miss Miggs, having undone her mistress, as she phrased it (which 
+means, assisted to undress her), and having seen her comfortably to 
+bed in the back room on the first floor, withdrew to her own 
+apartment, in the attic story.  Notwithstanding her declaration in 
+the locksmith's presence, she was in no mood for sleep; so, putting 
+her light upon the table and withdrawing the little window curtain, 
+she gazed out pensively at the wild night sky.
+
+Perhaps she wondered what star was destined for her habitation when 
+she had run her little course below; perhaps speculated which of 
+those glimmering spheres might be the natal orb of Mr Tappertit; 
+perhaps marvelled how they could gaze down on that perfidious 
+creature, man, and not sicken and turn green as chemists' lamps; 
+perhaps thought of nothing in particular.  Whatever she thought 
+about, there she sat, until her attention, alive to anything 
+connected with the insinuating 'prentice, was attracted by a noise 
+in the next room to her own--his room; the room in which he slept, 
+and dreamed--it might be, sometimes dreamed of her.
+
+That he was not dreaming now, unless he was taking a walk in his 
+sleep, was clear, for every now and then there came a shuffling 
+noise, as though he were engaged in polishing the whitewashed wall; 
+then a gentle creaking of his door; then the faintest indication of 
+his stealthy footsteps on the landing-place outside.  Noting this 
+latter circumstance, Miss Miggs turned pale and shuddered, as 
+mistrusting his intentions; and more than once exclaimed, below her 
+breath, 'Oh! what a Providence it is, as I am bolted in!'--which, 
+owing doubtless to her alarm, was a confusion of ideas on her part 
+between a bolt and its use; for though there was one on the door, 
+it was not fastened.
+
+Miss Miggs's sense of hearing, however, having as sharp an edge as 
+her temper, and being of the same snappish and suspicious kind, 
+very soon informed her that the footsteps passed her door, and 
+appeared to have some object quite separate and disconnected from 
+herself.  At this discovery she became more alarmed than ever, and 
+was about to give utterance to those cries of 'Thieves!' and 
+'Murder!' which she had hitherto restrained, when it occurred to 
+her to look softly out, and see that her fears had some good 
+palpable foundation.
+
+Looking out accordingly, and stretching her neck over the handrail, 
+she descried, to her great amazement, Mr Tappertit completely 
+dressed, stealing downstairs, one step at a time, with his shoes in 
+one hand and a lamp in the other.  Following him with her eyes, and 
+going down a little way herself to get the better of an intervening 
+angle, she beheld him thrust his head in at the parlour-door, draw 
+it back again with great swiftness, and immediately begin a retreat 
+upstairs with all possible expedition.
+
+'Here's mysteries!' said the damsel, when she was safe in her own 
+room again, quite out of breath.  'Oh, gracious, here's mysteries!'
+
+The prospect of finding anybody out in anything, would have kept 
+Miss Miggs awake under the influence of henbane.  Presently, she 
+heard the step again, as she would have done if it had been that of 
+a feather endowed with motion and walking down on tiptoe.  Then 
+gliding out as before, she again beheld the retreating figure of 
+the 'prentice; again he looked cautiously in at the parlour-door, 
+but this time instead of retreating, he passed in and disappeared.
+
+Miggs was back in her room, and had her head out of the window, 
+before an elderly gentleman could have winked and recovered from 
+it.  Out he came at the street-door, shut it carefully behind him, 
+tried it with his knee, and swaggered off, putting something in his 
+pocket as he went along.  At this spectacle Miggs cried 'Gracious!' 
+again, and then 'Goodness gracious!' and then 'Goodness gracious 
+me!' and then, candle in hand, went downstairs as he had done.  
+Coming to the workshop, she saw the lamp burning on the forge, and 
+everything as Sim had left it.
+
+'Why I wish I may only have a walking funeral, and never be buried 
+decent with a mourning-coach and feathers, if the boy hasn't been 
+and made a key for his own self!' cried Miggs.  'Oh the little 
+villain!'
+
+This conclusion was not arrived at without consideration, and much 
+peeping and peering about; nor was it unassisted by the 
+recollection that she had on several occasions come upon the 
+'prentice suddenly, and found him busy at some mysterious 
+occupation.  Lest the fact of Miss Miggs calling him, on whom she 
+stooped to cast a favourable eye, a boy, should create surprise in 
+any breast, it may be observed that she invariably affected to 
+regard all male bipeds under thirty as mere chits and infants; 
+which phenomenon is not unusual in ladies of Miss Miggs's temper, 
+and is indeed generally found to be the associate of such 
+indomitable and savage virtue.
+
+Miss Miggs deliberated within herself for some little time, looking 
+hard at the shop-door while she did so, as though her eyes and 
+thoughts were both upon it; and then, taking a sheet of paper from 
+a drawer, twisted it into a long thin spiral tube.  Having filled 
+this instrument with a quantity of small coal-dust from the forge, 
+she approached the door, and dropping on one knee before it, 
+dexterously blew into the keyhole as much of these fine ashes as 
+the lock would hold.  When she had filled it to the brim in a very 
+workmanlike and skilful manner, she crept upstairs again, and 
+chuckled as she went.
+
+'There!' cried Miggs, rubbing her hands, 'now let's see whether you 
+won't be glad to take some notice of me, mister.  He, he, he!  
+You'll have eyes for somebody besides Miss Dolly now, I think.  A 
+fat-faced puss she is, as ever I come across!'
+
+As she uttered this criticism, she glanced approvingly at her small 
+mirror, as who should say, I thank my stars that can't be said of 
+me!--as it certainly could not; for Miss Miggs's style of beauty 
+was of that kind which Mr Tappertit himself had not inaptly termed, 
+in private, 'scraggy.'
+
+'I don't go to bed this night!' said Miggs, wrapping herself in a 
+shawl, and drawing a couple of chairs near the window, flouncing 
+down upon one, and putting her feet upon the other, 'till you come 
+home, my lad.  I wouldn't,' said Miggs viciously, 'no, not for 
+five-and-forty pound!'
+
+With that, and with an expression of face in which a great number 
+of opposite ingredients, such as mischief, cunning, malice, 
+triumph, and patient expectation, were all mixed up together in a 
+kind of physiognomical punch, Miss Miggs composed herself to wait 
+and listen, like some fair ogress who had set a trap and was 
+watching for a nibble from a plump young traveller.
+
+She sat there, with perfect composure, all night.  At length, just 
+upon break of day, there was a footstep in the street, and 
+presently she could hear Mr Tappertit stop at the door.  Then she 
+could make out that he tried his key--that he was blowing into it--
+that he knocked it on the nearest post to beat the dust out--that 
+he took it under a lamp to look at it--that he poked bits of stick 
+into the lock to clear it--that he peeped into the keyhole, first 
+with one eye, and then with the other--that he tried the key again--
+that he couldn't turn it, and what was worse, couldn't get it out--
+that he bent it--that then it was much less disposed to come out 
+than before--that he gave it a mighty twist and a great pull, and 
+then it came out so suddenly that he staggered backwards--that he 
+kicked the door--that he shook it--finally, that he smote his 
+forehead, and sat down on the step in despair.
+
+When this crisis had arrived, Miss Miggs, affecting to be exhausted 
+with terror, and to cling to the window-sill for support, put out 
+her nightcap, and demanded in a faint voice who was there.
+
+Mr Tappertit cried 'Hush!' and, backing to the road, exhorted her 
+in frenzied pantomime to secrecy and silence.
+
+'Tell me one thing,' said Miggs.  'Is it thieves?'
+
+'No--no--no!' cried Mr Tappertit.
+
+'Then,' said Miggs, more faintly than before, 'it's fire.  Where 
+is it, sir?  It's near this room, I know.  I've a good conscience, 
+sir, and would much rather die than go down a ladder.  All I wish 
+is, respecting my love to my married sister, Golden Lion Court, 
+number twenty-sivin, second bell-handle on the right-hand door-
+post.'
+
+'Miggs!' cried Mr Tappertit, 'don't you know me?  Sim, you know--
+Sim--'
+
+'Oh!  what about him!' cried Miggs, clasping her hands.  'Is he in 
+any danger?  Is he in the midst of flames and blazes!  Oh gracious, 
+gracious!'
+
+'Why I'm here, an't I?' rejoined Mr Tappertit, knocking himself on 
+the breast.  'Don't you see me?  What a fool you are, Miggs!'
+
+'There!' cried Miggs, unmindful of this compliment.  'Why--so it--
+Goodness, what is the meaning of--If you please, mim, here's--'
+
+'No, no!' cried Mr Tappertit, standing on tiptoe, as if by that 
+means he, in the street, were any nearer being able to stop the 
+mouth of Miggs in the garret.  'Don't!--I've been out without 
+leave, and something or another's the matter with the lock.  Come 
+down, and undo the shop window, that I may get in that way.'
+
+'I dursn't do it, Simmun,' cried Miggs--for that was her 
+pronunciation of his Christian name.  'I dursn't do it, indeed.  
+You know as well as anybody, how particular I am.  And to come 
+down in the dead of night, when the house is wrapped in slumbers 
+and weiled in obscurity.'  And there she stopped and shivered, for 
+her modesty caught cold at the very thought.
+
+'But Miggs,' cried Mr Tappertit, getting under the lamp, that she 
+might see his eyes.  'My darling Miggs--'
+
+Miggs screamed slightly.
+
+'--That I love so much, and never can help thinking of,' and it is 
+impossible to describe the use he made of his eyes when he said 
+this--'do--for my sake, do.'
+
+'Oh Simmun,' cried Miggs, 'this is worse than all.  I know if I 
+come down, you'll go, and--'
+
+'And what, my precious?' said Mr Tappertit.
+
+'And try,' said Miggs, hysterically, 'to kiss me, or some such 
+dreadfulness; I know you will!'
+
+'I swear I won't,' said Mr Tappertit, with remarkable earnestness.  
+'Upon my soul I won't.  It's getting broad day, and the watchman's 
+waking up.  Angelic Miggs!  If you'll only come and let me in, I 
+promise you faithfully and truly I won't.'
+
+Miss Miggs, whose gentle heart was touched, did not wait for the 
+oath (knowing how strong the temptation was, and fearing he might 
+forswear himself), but tripped lightly down the stairs, and with 
+her own fair hands drew back the rough fastenings of the workshop 
+window.  Having helped the wayward 'prentice in, she faintly 
+articulated the words 'Simmun is safe!' and yielding to her woman's 
+nature, immediately became insensible.
+
+'I knew I should quench her,' said Sim, rather embarrassed by this 
+circumstance.  'Of course I was certain it would come to this, but 
+there was nothing else to be done--if I hadn't eyed her over, she 
+wouldn't have come down.  Here.  Keep up a minute, Miggs.  What a 
+slippery figure she is!  There's no holding her, comfortably.  Do 
+keep up a minute, Miggs, will you?'
+
+As Miggs, however, was deaf to all entreaties, Mr Tappertit leant 
+her against the wall as one might dispose of a walking-stick or 
+umbrella, until he had secured the window, when he took her in his 
+arms again, and, in short stages and with great difficulty--arising 
+from her being tall and his being short, and perhaps in some degree 
+from that peculiar physical conformation on which he had already 
+remarked--carried her upstairs, and planting her, in the same 
+umbrella and walking-stick fashion, just inside her own door, left 
+her to her repose.
+
+'He may be as cool as he likes,' said Miss Miggs, recovering as 
+soon as she was left alone; 'but I'm in his confidence and he can't 
+help himself, nor couldn't if he was twenty Simmunses!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+
+It was on one of those mornings, common in early spring, when the 
+year, fickle and changeable in its youth like all other created 
+things, is undecided whether to step backward into winter or 
+forward into summer, and in its uncertainty inclines now to the one 
+and now to the other, and now to both at once--wooing summer in the 
+sunshine, and lingering still with winter in the shade--it was, in 
+short, on one of those mornings, when it is hot and cold, wet and 
+dry, bright and lowering, sad and cheerful, withering and genial, 
+in the compass of one short hour, that old John Willet, who was 
+dropping asleep over the copper boiler, was roused by the sound of 
+a horse's feet, and glancing out at window, beheld a traveller of 
+goodly promise, checking his bridle at the Maypole door.
+
+He was none of your flippant young fellows, who would call for a 
+tankard of mulled ale, and make themselves as much at home as if 
+they had ordered a hogshead of wine; none of your audacious young 
+swaggerers, who would even penetrate into the bar--that solemn 
+sanctuary--and, smiting old John upon the back, inquire if there 
+was never a pretty girl in the house, and where he hid his little 
+chambermaids, with a hundred other impertinences of that nature; 
+none of your free-and-easy companions, who would scrape their 
+boots upon the firedogs in the common room, and be not at all 
+particular on the subject of spittoons; none of your unconscionable 
+blades, requiring impossible chops, and taking unheard-of pickles 
+for granted.  He was a staid, grave, placid gentleman, something 
+past the prime of life, yet upright in his carriage, for all that, 
+and slim as a greyhound.  He was well-mounted upon a sturdy 
+chestnut cob, and had the graceful seat of an experienced horseman; 
+while his riding gear, though free from such fopperies as were then 
+in vogue, was handsome and well chosen.  He wore a riding-coat of a 
+somewhat brighter green than might have been expected to suit the 
+taste of a gentleman of his years, with a short, black velvet cape, 
+and laced pocket-holes and cuffs, all of a jaunty fashion; his 
+linen, too, was of the finest kind, worked in a rich pattern at the 
+wrists and throat, and scrupulously white.  Although he seemed, 
+judging from the mud he had picked up on the way, to have come from 
+London, his horse was as smooth and cool as his own iron-grey 
+periwig and pigtail.  Neither man nor beast had turned a single 
+hair; and saving for his soiled skirts and spatter-dashes, this 
+gentleman, with his blooming face, white teeth, exactly-ordered 
+dress, and perfect calmness, might have come from making an 
+elaborate and leisurely toilet, to sit for an equestrian portrait 
+at old John Willet's gate.
+
+It must not be supposed that John observed these several 
+characteristics by other than very slow degrees, or that he took in 
+more than half a one at a time, or that he even made up his mind 
+upon that, without a great deal of very serious consideration.  
+Indeed, if he had been distracted in the first instance by 
+questionings and orders, it would have taken him at the least a 
+fortnight to have noted what is here set down; but it happened that 
+the gentleman, being struck with the old house, or with the plump 
+pigeons which were skimming and curtseying about it, or with the 
+tall maypole, on the top of which a weathercock, which had been out 
+of order for fifteen years, performed a perpetual walk to the music 
+of its own creaking, sat for some little time looking round in 
+silence.  Hence John, standing with his hand upon the horse's 
+bridle, and his great eyes on the rider, and with nothing passing 
+to divert his thoughts, had really got some of these little 
+circumstances into his brain by the time he was called upon to 
+speak.
+
+'A quaint place this,' said the gentleman--and his voice was as 
+rich as his dress.  'Are you the landlord?'
+
+'At your service, sir,' replied John Willet.
+
+'You can give my horse good stabling, can you, and me an early 
+dinner (I am not particular what, so that it be cleanly served), 
+and a decent room of which there seems to be no lack in this great 
+mansion,' said the stranger, again running his eyes over the 
+exterior.
+
+'You can have, sir,' returned John with a readiness quite 
+surprising, 'anything you please.'
+
+'It's well I am easily satisfied,' returned the other with a smile, 
+'or that might prove a hardy pledge, my friend.'  And saying so, he 
+dismounted, with the aid of the block before the door, in a 
+twinkling.
+
+'Halloa there!  Hugh!' roared John.  'I ask your pardon, sir, for 
+keeping you standing in the porch; but my son has gone to town on 
+business, and the boy being, as I may say, of a kind of use to me, 
+I'm rather put out when he's away.  Hugh!--a dreadful idle vagrant 
+fellow, sir, half a gipsy, as I think--always sleeping in the sun 
+in summer, and in the straw in winter time, sir--Hugh!  Dear Lord, 
+to keep a gentleman a waiting here through him!--Hugh!  I wish that 
+chap was dead, I do indeed.'
+
+'Possibly he is,' returned the other.  'I should think if he were 
+living, he would have heard you by this time.'
+
+'In his fits of laziness, he sleeps so desperate hard,' said the 
+distracted host, 'that if you were to fire off cannon-balls into 
+his ears, it wouldn't wake him, sir.'
+
+The guest made no remark upon this novel cure for drowsiness, and 
+recipe for making people lively, but, with his hands clasped behind 
+him, stood in the porch, very much amused to see old John, with the 
+bridle in his hand, wavering between a strong impulse to abandon 
+the animal to his fate, and a half disposition to lead him into the 
+house, and shut him up in the parlour, while he waited on his 
+master.
+
+'Pillory the fellow, here he is at last!' cried John, in the very 
+height and zenith of his distress.  'Did you hear me a calling, 
+villain?'
+
+The figure he addressed made no answer, but putting his hand upon 
+the saddle, sprung into it at a bound, turned the horse's head 
+towards the stable, and was gone in an instant.
+
+'Brisk enough when he is awake,' said the guest.
+
+'Brisk enough, sir!' replied John, looking at the place where the 
+horse had been, as if not yet understanding quite, what had become 
+of him.  'He melts, I think.  He goes like a drop of froth.  You 
+look at him, and there he is.  You look at him again, and--there he 
+isn't.'
+
+Having, in the absence of any more words, put this sudden climax to 
+what he had faintly intended should be a long explanation of the 
+whole life and character of his man, the oracular John Willet led 
+the gentleman up his wide dismantled staircase into the Maypole's 
+best apartment.
+
+It was spacious enough in all conscience, occupying the whole depth 
+of the house, and having at either end a great bay window, as large 
+as many modern rooms; in which some few panes of stained glass, 
+emblazoned with fragments of armorial bearings, though cracked, and 
+patched, and shattered, yet remained; attesting, by their 
+presence, that the former owner had made the very light subservient 
+to his state, and pressed the sun itself into his list of 
+flatterers; bidding it, when it shone into his chamber, reflect the 
+badges of his ancient family, and take new hues and colours from 
+their pride.
+
+But those were old days, and now every little ray came and went as 
+it would; telling the plain, bare, searching truth.  Although the 
+best room of the inn, it had the melancholy aspect of grandeur in 
+decay, and was much too vast for comfort.  Rich rustling hangings, 
+waving on the walls; and, better far, the rustling of youth and 
+beauty's dress; the light of women's eyes, outshining the tapers 
+and their own rich jewels; the sound of gentle tongues, and music, 
+and the tread of maiden feet, had once been there, and filled it 
+with delight.  But they were gone, and with them all its gladness.  
+It was no longer a home; children were never born and bred there; 
+the fireside had become mercenary--a something to be bought and 
+sold--a very courtezan: let who would die, or sit beside, or leave 
+it, it was still the same--it missed nobody, cared for nobody, had 
+equal warmth and smiles for all.  God help the man whose heart ever 
+changes with the world, as an old mansion when it becomes an inn!
+
+No effort had been made to furnish this chilly waste, but before 
+the broad chimney a colony of chairs and tables had been planted on 
+a square of carpet, flanked by a ghostly screen, enriched with 
+figures, grinning and grotesque.  After lighting with his own hands 
+the faggots which were heaped upon the hearth, old John withdrew to 
+hold grave council with his cook, touching the stranger's 
+entertainment; while the guest himself, seeing small comfort in 
+the yet unkindled wood, opened a lattice in the distant window, and 
+basked in a sickly gleam of cold March sun.
+
+Leaving the window now and then, to rake the crackling logs 
+together, or pace the echoing room from end to end, he closed it 
+when the fire was quite burnt up, and having wheeled the easiest 
+chair into the warmest corner, summoned John Willet.
+
+'Sir,' said John.
+
+He wanted pen, ink, and paper.  There was an old standish on the 
+mantelshelf containing a dusty apology for all three.  Having set 
+this before him, the landlord was retiring, when he motioned him to 
+stay.
+
+'There's a house not far from here,' said the guest when he had 
+written a few lines, 'which you call the Warren, I believe?'
+
+As this was said in the tone of one who knew the fact, and asked 
+the question as a thing of course, John contented himself with 
+nodding his head in the affirmative; at the same time taking one 
+hand out of his pockets to cough behind, and then putting it in 
+again.
+
+'I want this note'--said the guest, glancing on what he had 
+written, and folding it, 'conveyed there without loss of time, and 
+an answer brought back here.  Have you a messenger at hand?'
+
+John was thoughtful for a minute or thereabouts, and then said Yes.
+
+'Let me see him,' said the guest.
+
+This was disconcerting; for Joe being out, and Hugh engaged in 
+rubbing down the chestnut cob, he designed sending on the errand, 
+Barnaby, who had just then arrived in one of his rambles, and who, 
+so that he thought himself employed on a grave and serious 
+business, would go anywhere.
+
+'Why the truth is,' said John after a long pause, 'that the person 
+who'd go quickest, is a sort of natural, as one may say, sir; and 
+though quick of foot, and as much to be trusted as the post 
+itself, he's not good at talking, being touched and flighty, sir.'
+
+'You don't,' said the guest, raising his eyes to John's fat face, 
+'you don't mean--what's the fellow's name--you don't mean Barnaby?'
+
+'Yes, I do,' returned the landlord, his features turning quite 
+expressive with surprise.
+
+'How comes he to be here?' inquired the guest, leaning back in his 
+chair; speaking in the bland, even tone, from which he never 
+varied; and with the same soft, courteous, never-changing smile 
+upon his face.  'I saw him in London last night.'
+
+'He's, for ever, here one hour, and there the next,' returned old 
+John, after the usual pause to get the question in his mind.  
+'Sometimes he walks, and sometimes runs.  He's known along the road 
+by everybody, and sometimes comes here in a cart or chaise, and 
+sometimes riding double.  He comes and goes, through wind, rain, 
+snow, and hail, and on the darkest nights.  Nothing hurts HIM.'
+
+'He goes often to the Warren, does he not?' said the guest 
+carelessly.  'I seem to remember his mother telling me something to 
+that effect yesterday.  But I was not attending to the good woman 
+much.'
+
+'You're right, sir,' John made answer, 'he does.  His father, sir, 
+was murdered in that house.'
+
+'So I have heard,' returned the guest, taking a gold toothpick 
+from his pocket with the same sweet smile.  'A very disagreeable 
+circumstance for the family.'
+
+'Very,' said John with a puzzled look, as if it occurred to him, 
+dimly and afar off, that this might by possibility be a cool way of 
+treating the subject.
+
+'All the circumstances after a murder,' said the guest 
+soliloquising, 'must be dreadfully unpleasant--so much bustle and 
+disturbance--no repose--a constant dwelling upon one subject--and 
+the running in and out, and up and down stairs, intolerable.  I 
+wouldn't have such a thing happen to anybody I was nearly 
+interested in, on any account.  'Twould be enough to wear one's 
+life out.--You were going to say, friend--' he added, turning to 
+John again.
+
+'Only that Mrs Rudge lives on a little pension from the family, and 
+that Barnaby's as free of the house as any cat or dog about it,' 
+answered John.  'Shall he do your errand, sir?'
+
+'Oh yes,' replied the guest.  'Oh certainly.  Let him do it by all 
+means.  Please to bring him here that I may charge him to be quick.  
+If he objects to come you may tell him it's Mr Chester.  He will 
+remember my name, I dare say.'
+
+John was so very much astonished to find who his visitor was, that 
+he could express no astonishment at all, by looks or otherwise, but 
+left the room as if he were in the most placid and imperturbable of 
+all possible conditions.  It has been reported that when he got 
+downstairs, he looked steadily at the boiler for ten minutes by 
+the clock, and all that time never once left off shaking his head; 
+for which statement there would seem to be some ground of truth and 
+feasibility, inasmuch as that interval of time did certainly 
+elapse, before he returned with Barnaby to the guest's apartment.
+
+'Come hither, lad,' said Mr Chester.  'You know Mr Geoffrey 
+Haredale?'
+
+Barnaby laughed, and looked at the landlord as though he would say, 
+'You hear him?'  John, who was greatly shocked at this breach of 
+decorum, clapped his finger to his nose, and shook his head in mute 
+remonstrance.
+
+'He knows him, sir,' said John, frowning aside at Barnaby, 'as well 
+as you or I do.'
+
+'I haven't the pleasure of much acquaintance with the gentleman,' 
+returned his guest.  'YOU may have.  Limit the comparison to 
+yourself, my friend.'
+
+Although this was said with the same easy affability, and the same 
+smile, John felt himself put down, and laying the indignity at 
+Barnaby's door, determined to kick his raven, on the very first 
+opportunity.
+
+'Give that,' said the guest, who had by this time sealed the note, 
+and who beckoned his messenger towards him as he spoke, 'into Mr 
+Haredale's own hands.  Wait for an answer, and bring it back to me 
+here.  If you should find that Mr Haredale is engaged just now, 
+tell him--can he remember a message, landlord?'
+
+'When he chooses, sir,' replied John.  'He won't forget this one.'
+
+'How are you sure of that?'
+
+John merely pointed to him as he stood with his head bent forward, 
+and his earnest gaze fixed closely on his questioner's face; and 
+nodded sagely.
+
+'Tell him then, Barnaby, should he be engaged,' said Mr Chester, 
+'that I shall be glad to wait his convenience here, and to see him 
+(if he will call) at any time this evening.--At the worst I can 
+have a bed here, Willet, I suppose?'
+
+Old John, immensely flattered by the personal notoriety implied in 
+this familiar form of address, answered, with something like a 
+knowing look, 'I should believe you could, sir,' and was turning 
+over in his mind various forms of eulogium, with the view of 
+selecting one appropriate to the qualities of his best bed, when 
+his ideas were put to flight by Mr Chester giving Barnaby the 
+letter, and bidding him make all speed away.
+
+'Speed!' said Barnaby, folding the little packet in his breast, 
+'Speed!  If you want to see hurry and mystery, come here.  Here!'
+
+With that, he put his hand, very much to John Willet's horror, on 
+the guest's fine broadcloth sleeve, and led him stealthily to the 
+back window.
+
+'Look down there,' he said softly; 'do you mark how they whisper in 
+each other's ears; then dance and leap, to make believe they are in 
+sport?  Do you see how they stop for a moment, when they think 
+there is no one looking, and mutter among themselves again; and 
+then how they roll and gambol, delighted with the mischief they've 
+been plotting?  Look at 'em now.  See how they whirl and plunge.  
+And now they stop again, and whisper, cautiously together--little 
+thinking, mind, how often I have lain upon the grass and watched 
+them.  I say what is it that they plot and hatch?  Do you know?'
+
+'They are only clothes,' returned the guest, 'such as we wear; 
+hanging on those lines to dry, and fluttering in the wind.'
+
+'Clothes!' echoed Barnaby, looking close into his face, and falling 
+quickly back.  'Ha ha!  Why, how much better to be silly, than as 
+wise as you!  You don't see shadowy people there, like those that 
+live in sleep--not you.  Nor eyes in the knotted panes of glass, 
+nor swift ghosts when it blows hard, nor do you hear voices in the 
+air, nor see men stalking in the sky--not you!  I lead a merrier 
+life than you, with all your cleverness.  You're the dull men.  
+We're the bright ones.  Ha! ha!  I'll not change with you, clever 
+as you are,--not I!'
+
+With that, he waved his hat above his head, and darted off.
+
+'A strange creature, upon my word!' said the guest, pulling out a 
+handsome box, and taking a pinch of snuff.
+
+'He wants imagination,' said Mr Willet, very slowly, and after a 
+long silence; 'that's what he wants.  I've tried to instil it into 
+him, many and many's the time; but'--John added this in confidence--
+'he an't made for it; that's the fact.'
+
+To record that Mr Chester smiled at John's remark would be little 
+to the purpose, for he preserved the same conciliatory and pleasant 
+look at all times.  He drew his chair nearer to the fire though, as 
+a kind of hint that he would prefer to be alone, and John, having 
+no reasonable excuse for remaining, left him to himself.
+
+Very thoughtful old John Willet was, while the dinner was 
+preparing; and if his brain were ever less clear at one time than 
+another, it is but reasonable to suppose that he addled it in no 
+slight degree by shaking his head so much that day.  That Mr 
+Chester, between whom and Mr Haredale, it was notorious to all the 
+neighbourhood, a deep and bitter animosity existed, should come 
+down there for the sole purpose, as it seemed, of seeing him, and 
+should choose the Maypole for their place of meeting, and should 
+send to him express, were stumbling blocks John could not overcome.  
+The only resource he had, was to consult the boiler, and wait 
+impatiently for Barnaby's return.
+
+But Barnaby delayed beyond all precedent.  The visitor's dinner was 
+served, removed, his wine was set, the fire replenished, the hearth 
+clean swept; the light waned without, it grew dusk, became quite 
+dark, and still no Barnaby appeared.  Yet, though John Willet was 
+full of wonder and misgiving, his guest sat cross-legged in the 
+easy-chair, to all appearance as little ruffled in his thoughts as 
+in his dress--the same calm, easy, cool gentleman, without a care 
+or thought beyond his golden toothpick.
+
+'Barnaby's late,' John ventured to observe, as he placed a pair of 
+tarnished candlesticks, some three feet high, upon the table, and 
+snuffed the lights they held.
+
+'He is rather so,' replied the guest, sipping his wine.  'He will 
+not be much longer, I dare say.'
+
+John coughed and raked the fire together.
+
+'As your roads bear no very good character, if I may judge from my 
+son's mishap, though,' said Mr Chester, 'and as I have no fancy to 
+be knocked on the head--which is not only disconcerting at the 
+moment, but places one, besides, in a ridiculous position with 
+respect to the people who chance to pick one up--I shall stop here 
+to-night.  I think you said you had a bed to spare.'
+
+'Such a bed, sir,' returned John Willet; 'ay, such a bed as few, 
+even of the gentry's houses, own.  A fixter here, sir.  I've heard 
+say that bedstead is nigh two hundred years of age.  Your noble 
+son--a fine young gentleman--slept in it last, sir, half a year 
+ago.'
+
+'Upon my life, a recommendation!' said the guest, shrugging his 
+shoulders and wheeling his chair nearer to the fire.  'See that it 
+be well aired, Mr Willet, and let a blazing fire be lighted there 
+at once.  This house is something damp and chilly.'
+
+John raked the faggots up again, more from habit than presence of 
+mind, or any reference to this remark, and was about to withdraw, 
+when a bounding step was heard upon the stair, and Barnaby came 
+panting in.
+
+'He'll have his foot in the stirrup in an hour's time,' he cried, 
+advancing.  'He has been riding hard all day--has just come home--
+but will be in the saddle again as soon as he has eat and drank, to 
+meet his loving friend.'
+
+'Was that his message?' asked the visitor, looking up, but without 
+the smallest discomposure--or at least without the show of any.
+
+'All but the last words,' Barnaby rejoined.  'He meant those.  I 
+saw that, in his face.'
+
+'This for your pains,' said the other, putting money in his hand, 
+and glancing at him steadfastly.'   This for your pains, sharp 
+Barnaby.'
+
+'For Grip, and me, and Hugh, to share among us,' he rejoined, 
+putting it up, and nodding, as he counted it on his fingers.  'Grip 
+one, me two, Hugh three; the dog, the goat, the cats--well, we 
+shall spend it pretty soon, I warn you.  Stay.--Look.  Do you wise 
+men see nothing there, now?'
+
+He bent eagerly down on one knee, and gazed intently at the smoke, 
+which was rolling up the chimney in a thick black cloud.  John 
+Willet, who appeared to consider himself particularly and chiefly 
+referred to under the term wise men, looked that way likewise, and 
+with great solidity of feature.
+
+'Now, where do they go to, when they spring so fast up there,' 
+asked Barnaby; 'eh?  Why do they tread so closely on each other's 
+heels, and why are they always in a hurry--which is what you blame 
+me for, when I only take pattern by these busy folk about me?  More 
+of 'em! catching to each other's skirts; and as fast as they go, 
+others come!  What a merry dance it is!  I would that Grip and I 
+could frisk like that!'
+
+'What has he in that basket at his back?' asked the guest after a 
+few moments, during which Barnaby was still bending down to look 
+higher up the chimney, and earnestly watching the smoke.
+
+'In this?' he answered, jumping up, before John Willet could reply--
+shaking it as he spoke, and stooping his head to listen.  'In 
+this!  What is there here?  Tell him!'
+
+'A devil, a devil, a devil!' cried a hoarse voice.
+
+'Here's money!' said Barnaby, chinking it in his hand, 'money for a 
+treat, Grip!'
+
+'Hurrah!  Hurrah!  Hurrah!' replied the raven, 'keep up your 
+spirits.  Never say die.  Bow, wow, wow!'
+
+Mr Willet, who appeared to entertain strong doubts whether a 
+customer in a laced coat and fine linen could be supposed to have 
+any acquaintance even with the existence of such unpolite gentry as 
+the bird claimed to belong to, took Barnaby off at this juncture, 
+with the view of preventing any other improper declarations, and 
+quitted the room with his very best bow.
+
+
+
+Chapter 11
+
+
+There was great news that night for the regular Maypole customers, 
+to each of whom, as he straggled in to occupy his allotted seat in 
+the chimney-corner, John, with a most impressive slowness of 
+delivery, and in an apoplectic whisper, communicated the fact that 
+Mr Chester was alone in the large room upstairs, and was waiting 
+the arrival of Mr Geoffrey Haredale, to whom he had sent a letter 
+(doubtless of a threatening nature) by the hands of Barnaby, then 
+and there present.
+
+For a little knot of smokers and solemn gossips, who had seldom any 
+new topics of discussion, this was a perfect Godsend.  Here was a 
+good, dark-looking mystery progressing under that very roof--
+brought home to the fireside, as it were, and enjoyable without the 
+smallest pains or trouble.  It is extraordinary what a zest and 
+relish it gave to the drink, and how it heightened the flavour of 
+the tobacco.  Every man smoked his pipe with a face of grave and 
+serious delight, and looked at his neighbour with a sort of quiet 
+congratulation.  Nay, it was felt to be such a holiday and special 
+night, that, on the motion of little Solomon Daisy, every man 
+(including John himself) put down his sixpence for a can of flip, 
+which grateful beverage was brewed with all despatch, and set down 
+in the midst of them on the brick floor; both that it might simmer 
+and stew before the fire, and that its fragrant steam, rising up 
+among them, and mixing with the wreaths of vapour from their pipes, 
+might shroud them in a delicious atmosphere of their own, and shut 
+out all the world.  The very furniture of the room seemed to 
+mellow and deepen in its tone; the ceiling and walls looked 
+blacker and more highly polished, the curtains of a ruddier red; 
+the fire burnt clear and high, and the crickets in the hearthstone 
+chirped with a more than wonted satisfaction.
+
+There were present two, however, who showed but little interest in 
+the general contentment.  Of these, one was Barnaby himself, who 
+slept, or, to avoid being beset with questions, feigned to sleep, 
+in the chimney-corner; the other, Hugh, who, sleeping too, lay 
+stretched upon the bench on the opposite side, in the full glare of 
+the blazing fire.
+
+The light that fell upon this slumbering form, showed it in all its 
+muscular and handsome proportions.  It was that of a young man, of 
+a hale athletic figure, and a giant's strength, whose sunburnt face 
+and swarthy throat, overgrown with jet black hair, might have 
+served a painter for a model.  Loosely attired, in the coarsest and 
+roughest garb, with scraps of straw and hay--his usual bed--
+clinging here and there, and mingling with his uncombed locks, he 
+had fallen asleep in a posture as careless as his dress.  The 
+negligence and disorder of the whole man, with something fierce and 
+sullen in his features, gave him a picturesque appearance, that 
+attracted the regards even of the Maypole customers who knew him 
+well, and caused Long Parkes to say that Hugh looked more like a 
+poaching rascal to-night than ever he had seen him yet.
+
+'He's waiting here, I suppose,' said Solomon, 'to take Mr 
+Haredale's horse.'
+
+'That's it, sir,' replied John Willet.  'He's not often in the 
+house, you know.  He's more at his ease among horses than men.  I 
+look upon him as a animal himself.'
+
+Following up this opinion with a shrug that seemed meant to say, 
+'we can't expect everybody to be like us,' John put his pipe into 
+his mouth again, and smoked like one who felt his superiority over 
+the general run of mankind.
+
+'That chap, sir,' said John, taking it out again after a time, and 
+pointing at him with the stem, 'though he's got all his faculties 
+about him--bottled up and corked down, if I may say so, somewheres 
+or another--'
+
+'Very good!' said Parkes, nodding his head.  'A very good 
+expression, Johnny.  You'll be a tackling somebody presently.  
+You're in twig to-night, I see.'
+
+'Take care,' said Mr Willet, not at all grateful for the 
+compliment, 'that I don't tackle you, sir, which I shall certainly 
+endeavour to do, if you interrupt me when I'm making observations.--
+That chap, I was a saying, though he has all his faculties about 
+him, somewheres or another, bottled up and corked down, has no more 
+imagination than Barnaby has.  And why hasn't he?'
+
+The three friends shook their heads at each other; saying by that 
+action, without the trouble of opening their lips, 'Do you observe 
+what a philosophical mind our friend has?'
+
+'Why hasn't he?' said John, gently striking the table with his open 
+hand.  'Because they was never drawed out of him when he was a 
+boy.  That's why.  What would any of us have been, if our fathers 
+hadn't drawed our faculties out of us?  What would my boy Joe have 
+been, if I hadn't drawed his faculties out of him?--Do you mind 
+what I'm a saying of, gentlemen?'
+
+'Ah!  we mind you,' cried Parkes.  'Go on improving of us, Johnny.'
+
+'Consequently, then,' said Mr Willet, 'that chap, whose mother was 
+hung when he was a little boy, along with six others, for passing 
+bad notes--and it's a blessed thing to think how many people are 
+hung in batches every six weeks for that, and such like offences, 
+as showing how wide awake our government is--that chap that was 
+then turned loose, and had to mind cows, and frighten birds away, 
+and what not, for a few pence to live on, and so got on by degrees 
+to mind horses, and to sleep in course of time in lofts and litter, 
+instead of under haystacks and hedges, till at last he come to be 
+hostler at the Maypole for his board and lodging and a annual 
+trifle--that chap that can't read nor write, and has never had much 
+to do with anything but animals, and has never lived in any way but 
+like the animals he has lived among, IS a animal.  And,' said Mr 
+Willet, arriving at his logical conclusion, 'is to be treated 
+accordingly.'
+
+'Willet,' said Solomon Daisy, who had exhibited some impatience at 
+the intrusion of so unworthy a subject on their more interesting 
+theme, 'when Mr Chester come this morning, did he order the large 
+room?'
+
+'He signified, sir,' said John, 'that he wanted a large apartment.  
+Yes.  Certainly.'
+
+'Why then, I'll tell you what,' said Solomon, speaking softly and 
+with an earnest look.  'He and Mr Haredale are going to fight a 
+duel in it.'
+
+Everybody looked at Mr Willet, after this alarming suggestion.  Mr 
+Willet looked at the fire, weighing in his own mind the effect 
+which such an occurrence would be likely to have on the establishment.
+
+'Well,' said John, 'I don't know--I am sure--I remember that when I 
+went up last, he HAD put the lights upon the mantel-shelf.'
+
+'It's as plain,' returned Solomon, 'as the nose on Parkes's face'--
+Mr Parkes, who had a large nose, rubbed it, and looked as if he 
+considered this a personal allusion--'they'll fight in that room.  
+You know by the newspapers what a common thing it is for gentlemen 
+to fight in coffee-houses without seconds.  One of 'em will be 
+wounded or perhaps killed in this house.'
+
+'That was a challenge that Barnaby took then, eh?' said John.
+
+'--Inclosing a slip of paper with the measure of his sword upon it, 
+I'll bet a guinea,' answered the little man.  'We know what sort of 
+gentleman Mr Haredale is.  You have told us what Barnaby said about 
+his looks, when he came back.  Depend upon it, I'm right.  Now, 
+mind.'
+
+The flip had had no flavour till now.  The tobacco had been of mere 
+English growth, compared with its present taste.  A duel in that 
+great old rambling room upstairs, and the best bed ordered already 
+for the wounded man!
+
+'Would it be swords or pistols, now?' said John.
+
+'Heaven knows.  Perhaps both,' returned Solomon.  'The gentlemen 
+wear swords, and may easily have pistols in their pockets--most 
+likely have, indeed.  If they fire at each other without effect, 
+then they'll draw, and go to work in earnest.'
+
+A shade passed over Mr Willet's face as he thought of broken 
+windows and disabled furniture, but bethinking himself that one of 
+the parties would probably be left alive to pay the damage, he 
+brightened up again.
+
+'And then,' said Solomon, looking from face to face, 'then we shall 
+have one of those stains upon the floor that never come out.  If Mr 
+Haredale wins, depend upon it, it'll be a deep one; or if he loses, 
+it will perhaps be deeper still, for he'll never give in unless 
+he's beaten down.  We know him better, eh?'
+
+'Better indeed!' they whispered all together.
+
+'As to its ever being got out again,' said Solomon, 'I tell you it 
+never will, or can be.  Why, do you know that it has been tried, at 
+a certain house we are acquainted with?'
+
+'The Warren!' cried John.  'No, sure!'
+
+'Yes, sure--yes.  It's only known by very few.  It has been 
+whispered about though, for all that.  They planed the board away, 
+but there it was.  They went deep, but it went deeper.  They put 
+new boards down, but there was one great spot that came through 
+still, and showed itself in the old place.  And--harkye--draw 
+nearer--Mr Geoffrey made that room his study, and sits there, 
+always, with his foot (as I have heard) upon it; and he believes, 
+through thinking of it long and very much, that it will never fade 
+until he finds the man who did the deed.'
+
+As this recital ended, and they all drew closer round the fire, the 
+tramp of a horse was heard without.
+
+'The very man!' cried John, starting up.  'Hugh!  Hugh!'
+
+The sleeper staggered to his feet, and hurried after him.  John 
+quickly returned, ushering in with great attention and deference 
+(for Mr Haredale was his landlord) the long-expected visitor, who 
+strode into the room clanking his heavy boots upon the floor; and 
+looking keenly round upon the bowing group, raised his hat in 
+acknowledgment of their profound respect.
+
+'You have a stranger here, Willet, who sent to me,' he said, in a 
+voice which sounded naturally stern and deep.  'Where is he?'
+
+'In the great room upstairs, sir,' answered John.
+
+'Show the way.  Your staircase is dark, I know.  Gentlemen, good 
+night.'
+
+With that, he signed to the landlord to go on before; and went 
+clanking out, and up the stairs; old John, in his agitation, 
+ingeniously lighting everything but the way, and making a stumble 
+at every second step.
+
+'Stop!' he said, when they reached the landing.  'I can announce 
+myself.  Don't wait.'
+
+He laid his hand upon the door, entered, and shut it heavily.  Mr 
+Willet was by no means disposed to stand there listening by 
+himself, especially as the walls were very thick; so descended, 
+with much greater alacrity than he had come up, and joined his 
+friends below.
+
+
+
+Chapter 12
+
+
+There was a brief pause in the state-room of the Maypole, as Mr 
+Haredale tried the lock to satisfy himself that he had shut the 
+door securely, and, striding up the dark chamber to where the 
+screen inclosed a little patch of light and warmth, presented 
+himself, abruptly and in silence, before the smiling guest.
+
+If the two had no greater sympathy in their inward thoughts than in 
+their outward bearing and appearance, the meeting did not seem 
+likely to prove a very calm or pleasant one.  With no great 
+disparity between them in point of years, they were, in every other 
+respect, as unlike and far removed from each other as two men could 
+well be.  The one was soft-spoken, delicately made, precise, and 
+elegant; the other, a burly square-built man, negligently dressed, 
+rough and abrupt in manner, stern, and, in his present mood, 
+forbidding both in look and speech.  The one preserved a calm and 
+placid smile; the other, a distrustful frown.  The new-comer, 
+indeed, appeared bent on showing by his every tone and gesture his 
+determined opposition and hostility to the man he had come to meet.  
+The guest who received him, on the other hand, seemed to feel that 
+the contrast between them was all in his favour, and to derive a 
+quiet exultation from it which put him more at his ease than ever.
+
+'Haredale,' said this gentleman, without the least appearance of 
+embarrassment or reserve, 'I am very glad to see you.'
+
+'Let us dispense with compliments.  They are misplaced between us,' 
+returned the other, waving his hand, 'and say plainly what we have 
+to say.  You have asked me to meet you.  I am here.  Why do we 
+stand face to face again?'
+
+'Still the same frank and sturdy character, I see!'
+
+'Good or bad, sir, I am,' returned the other, leaning his arm upon 
+the chimney-piece, and turning a haughty look upon the occupant of 
+the easy-chair, 'the man I used to be.  I have lost no old likings 
+or dislikings; my memory has not failed me by a hair's-breadth.  
+You ask me to give you a meeting.  I say, I am here.'
+
+'Our meeting, Haredale,' said Mr Chester, tapping his snuff-box, 
+and following with a smile the impatient gesture he had made--
+perhaps unconsciously--towards his sword, 'is one of conference and 
+peace, I hope?'
+
+'I have come here,' returned the other, 'at your desire, holding 
+myself bound to meet you, when and where you would.  I have not 
+come to bandy pleasant speeches, or hollow professions.  You are a 
+smooth man of the world, sir, and at such play have me at a 
+disadvantage.  The very last man on this earth with whom I would 
+enter the lists to combat with gentle compliments and masked faces, 
+is Mr Chester, I do assure you.  I am not his match at such 
+weapons, and have reason to believe that few men are.'
+
+'You do me a great deal of honour Haredale,' returned the other, 
+most composedly, 'and I thank you.  I will be frank with you--'
+
+'I beg your pardon--will be what?'
+
+'Frank--open--perfectly candid.'
+
+'Hab!' cried Mr Haredale, drawing his breath.  'But don't let me 
+interrupt you.'
+
+'So resolved am I to hold this course,' returned the other, tasting 
+his wine with great deliberation; 'that I have determined not to 
+quarrel with you, and not to be betrayed into a warm expression or 
+a hasty word.'
+
+'There again,' said Mr Haredale, 'you have me at a great advantage.  
+Your self-command--'
+
+'Is not to be disturbed, when it will serve my purpose, you would 
+say'--rejoined the other, interrupting him with the same 
+complacency.  'Granted.  I allow it.  And I have a purpose to serve 
+now.  So have you.  I am sure our object is the same.  Let us 
+attain it like sensible men, who have ceased to be boys some time.--
+Do you drink?'
+
+'With my friends,' returned the other.
+
+'At least,' said Mr Chester, 'you will be seated?'
+
+'I will stand,' returned Mr Haredale impatiently, 'on this 
+dismantled, beggared hearth, and not pollute it, fallen as it is, 
+with mockeries.  Go on.'
+
+'You are wrong, Haredale,' said the other, crossing his legs, and 
+smiling as he held his glass up in the bright glow of the fire.  
+'You are really very wrong.  The world is a lively place enough, in 
+which we must accommodate ourselves to circumstances, sail with the 
+stream as glibly as we can, be content to take froth for substance, 
+the surface for the depth, the counterfeit for the real coin.  I 
+wonder no philosopher has ever established that our globe itself is 
+hollow.  It should be, if Nature is consistent in her works.'
+
+'YOU think it is, perhaps?'
+
+'I should say,' he returned, sipping his wine, 'there could be no 
+doubt about it.  Well; we, in trifling with this jingling toy, have 
+had the ill-luck to jostle and fall out.  We are not what the world 
+calls friends; but we are as good and true and loving friends for 
+all that, as nine out of every ten of those on whom it bestows the 
+title.  You have a niece, and I a son--a fine lad, Haredale, but 
+foolish.  They fall in love with each other, and form what this 
+same world calls an attachment; meaning a something fanciful and 
+false like the rest, which, if it took its own free time, would 
+break like any other bubble.  But it may not have its own free 
+time--will not, if they are left alone--and the question is, shall 
+we two, because society calls us enemies, stand aloof, and let them 
+rush into each other's arms, when, by approaching each other 
+sensibly, as we do now, we can prevent it, and part them?'
+
+'I love my niece,' said Mr Haredale, after a short silence.  'It 
+may sound strangely in your ears; but I love her.'
+
+'Strangely, my good fellow!' cried Mr Chester, lazily filling his 
+glass again, and pulling out his toothpick.  'Not at all.  I like 
+Ned too--or, as you say, love him--that's the word among such near 
+relations.  I'm very fond of Ned.  He's an amazingly good fellow, 
+and a handsome fellow--foolish and weak as yet; that's all.  But 
+the thing is, Haredale--for I'll be very frank, as I told you I 
+would at first--independently of any dislike that you and I might 
+have to being related to each other, and independently of the 
+religious differences between us--and damn it, that's important--I 
+couldn't afford a match of this description.  Ned and I couldn't do 
+it.  It's impossible.'
+
+'Curb your tongue, in God's name, if this conversation is to last,' 
+retorted Mr Haredale fiercely.  'I have said I love my niece.  Do 
+you think that, loving her, I would have her fling her heart away 
+on any man who had your blood in his veins?'
+
+'You see,' said the other, not at all disturbed, 'the advantage of 
+being so frank and open.  Just what I was about to add, upon my 
+honour!  I am amazingly attached to Ned--quite doat upon him, 
+indeed--and even if we could afford to throw ourselves away, that 
+very objection would be quite insuperable.--I wish you'd take some 
+wine?'
+
+'Mark me,' said Mr Haredale, striding to the table, and laying his 
+hand upon it heavily.  'If any man believes--presumes to think--
+that I, in word or deed, or in the wildest dream, ever entertained 
+remotely the idea of Emma Haredale's favouring the suit of any one 
+who was akin to you--in any way--I care not what--he lies.  He 
+lies, and does me grievous wrong, in the mere thought.'
+
+'Haredale,' returned the other, rocking himself to and fro as in 
+assent, and nodding at the fire, 'it's extremely manly, and really 
+very generous in you, to meet me in this unreserved and handsome 
+way.  Upon my word, those are exactly my sentiments, only 
+expressed with much more force and power than I could use--you know 
+my sluggish nature, and will forgive me, I am sure.'
+
+'While I would restrain her from all correspondence with your son, 
+and sever their intercourse here, though it should cause her 
+death,' said Mr Haredale, who had been pacing to and fro, 'I would 
+do it kindly and tenderly if I can.  I have a trust to discharge, 
+which my nature is not formed to understand, and, for this reason, 
+the bare fact of there being any love between them comes upon me 
+to-night, almost for the first time.'
+
+'I am more delighted than I can possibly tell you,' rejoined Mr 
+Chester with the utmost blandness, 'to find my own impression so 
+confirmed.  You see the advantage of our having met.  We understand 
+each other.  We quite agree.  We have a most complete and thorough 
+explanation, and we know what course to take.--Why don't you taste 
+your tenant's wine?  It's really very good.'
+
+'Pray who,' said Mr Haredale, 'have aided Emma, or your son?  Who 
+are their go-betweens, and agents--do you know?'
+
+'All the good people hereabouts--the neighbourhood in general, I 
+think,' returned the other, with his most affable smile.  'The 
+messenger I sent to you to-day, foremost among them all.'
+
+'The idiot?  Barnaby?'
+
+'You are surprised?  I am glad of that, for I was rather so myself.  
+Yes.  I wrung that from his mother--a very decent sort of woman--
+from whom, indeed, I chiefly learnt how serious the matter had 
+become, and so determined to ride out here to-day, and hold a 
+parley with you on this neutral ground.--You're stouter than you 
+used to be, Haredale, but you look extremely well.'
+
+'Our business, I presume, is nearly at an end,' said Mr Haredale, 
+with an expression of impatience he was at no pains to conceal.  
+'Trust me, Mr Chester, my niece shall change from this time.  I 
+will appeal,' he added in a lower tone, 'to her woman's heart, her 
+dignity, her pride, her duty--'
+
+'I shall do the same by Ned,' said Mr Chester, restoring some 
+errant faggots to their places in the grate with the toe of his 
+boot.  'If there is anything real in this world, it is those 
+amazingly fine feelings and those natural obligations which must 
+subsist between father and son.  I shall put it to him on every 
+ground of moral and religious feeling.  I shall represent to him 
+that we cannot possibly afford it--that I have always looked 
+forward to his marrying well, for a genteel provision for myself in 
+the autumn of life--that there are a great many clamorous dogs to 
+pay, whose claims are perfectly just and right, and who must be 
+paid out of his wife's fortune.  In short, that the very highest 
+and most honourable feelings of our nature, with every 
+consideration of filial duty and affection, and all that sort of 
+thing, imperatively demand that he should run away with an 
+heiress.'
+
+'And break her heart as speedily as possible?' said Mr Haredale, 
+drawing on his glove.
+
+'There Ned will act exactly as he pleases,' returned the other, 
+sipping his wine; 'that's entirely his affair.  I wouldn't for the 
+world interfere with my son, Haredale, beyond a certain point.  The 
+relationship between father and son, you know, is positively quite 
+a holy kind of bond.--WON'T you let me persuade you to take one 
+glass of wine?  Well! as you please, as you please,' he added, 
+helping himself again.
+
+'Chester,' said Mr Haredale, after a short silence, during which he 
+had eyed his smiling face from time to time intently, 'you have the 
+head and heart of an evil spirit in all matters of deception.'
+
+'Your health!' said the other, with a nod.  'But I have interrupted 
+you--'
+
+'If now,' pursued Mr Haredale, 'we should find it difficult to 
+separate these young people, and break off their intercourse--if, 
+for instance, you find it difficult on your side, what course do 
+you intend to take?'
+
+'Nothing plainer, my good fellow, nothing easier,' returned the 
+other, shrugging his shoulders and stretching himself more 
+comfortably before the fire.  'I shall then exert those powers on 
+which you flatter me so highly--though, upon my word, I don't 
+deserve your compliments to their full extent--and resort to a few 
+little trivial subterfuges for rousing jealousy and resentment.  
+You see?'
+
+'In short, justifying the means by the end, we are, as a last 
+resource for tearing them asunder, to resort to treachery and--and 
+lying,' said Mr Haredale.
+
+'Oh dear no.  Fie, fie!' returned the other, relishing a pinch of 
+snuff extremely.  'Not lying.  Only a little management, a little 
+diplomacy, a little--intriguing, that's the word.'
+
+'I wish,' said Mr Haredale, moving to and fro, and stopping, and 
+moving on again, like one who was ill at ease, 'that this could 
+have been foreseen or prevented.  But as it has gone so far, and it 
+is necessary for us to act, it is of no use shrinking or 
+regretting.  Well! I shall second your endeavours to the utmost of 
+my power.  There is one topic in the whole wide range of human 
+thoughts on which we both agree.  We shall act in concert, but 
+apart.  There will be no need, I hope, for us to meet again.'
+
+'Are you going?' said Mr Chester, rising with a graceful indolence.  
+'Let me light you down the stairs.'
+
+'Pray keep your seat,' returned the other drily, 'I know the way.  
+So, waving his hand slightly, and putting on his hat as he turned 
+upon his heel, he went clanking out as he had come, shut the door 
+behind him, and tramped down the echoing stairs.
+
+'Pah!  A very coarse animal, indeed!' said Mr Chester, composing 
+himself in the easy-chair again.  'A rough brute.  Quite a human 
+badger!'
+
+John Willet and his friends, who had been listening intently for 
+the clash of swords, or firing of pistols in the great room, and 
+had indeed settled the order in which they should rush in when 
+summoned--in which procession old John had carefully arranged that 
+he should bring up the rear--were very much astonished to see Mr 
+Haredale come down without a scratch, call for his horse, and ride 
+away thoughtfully at a footpace.  After some consideration, it was 
+decided that he had left the gentleman above, for dead, and had 
+adopted this stratagem to divert suspicion or pursuit.
+
+As this conclusion involved the necessity of their going upstairs 
+forthwith, they were about to ascend in the order they had agreed 
+upon, when a smart ringing at the guest's bell, as if he had pulled 
+it vigorously, overthrew all their speculations, and involved them 
+in great uncertainty and doubt.  At length Mr Willet agreed to go 
+upstairs himself, escorted by Hugh and Barnaby, as the strongest 
+and stoutest fellows on the premises, who were to make their 
+appearance under pretence of clearing away the glasses.
+
+Under this protection, the brave and broad-faced John boldly 
+entered the room, half a foot in advance, and received an order for 
+a boot-jack without trembling.  But when it was brought, and he 
+leant his sturdy shoulder to the guest, Mr Willet was observed to 
+look very hard into his boots as he pulled them off, and, by 
+opening his eyes much wider than usual, to appear to express some 
+surprise and disappointment at not finding them full of blood.  He 
+took occasion, too, to examine the gentleman as closely as he 
+could, expecting to discover sundry loopholes in his person, 
+pierced by his adversary's sword.  Finding none, however, and 
+observing in course of time that his guest was as cool and 
+unruffled, both in his dress and temper, as he had been all day, 
+old John at last heaved a deep sigh, and began to think no duel had 
+been fought that night.
+
+'And now, Willet,' said Mr Chester, 'if the room's well aired, I'll 
+try the merits of that famous bed.'
+
+'The room, sir,' returned John, taking up a candle, and nudging 
+Barnaby and Hugh to accompany them, in case the gentleman should 
+unexpectedly drop down faint or dead from some internal wound, 'the 
+room's as warm as any toast in a tankard.  Barnaby, take you that 
+other candle, and go on before.  Hugh!  Follow up, sir, with the 
+easy-chair.'
+
+In this order--and still, in his earnest inspection, holding his 
+candle very close to the guest; now making him feel extremely warm 
+about the legs, now threatening to set his wig on fire, and 
+constantly begging his pardon with great awkwardness and 
+embarrassment--John led the party to the best bedroom, which was 
+nearly as large as the chamber from which they had come, and held, 
+drawn out near the fire for warmth, a great old spectral bedstead, 
+hung with faded brocade, and ornamented, at the top of each carved 
+post, with a plume of feathers that had once been white, but with 
+dust and age had now grown hearse-like and funereal.
+
+'Good night, my friends,' said Mr Chester with a sweet smile, 
+seating himself, when he had surveyed the room from end to end, in 
+the easy-chair which his attendants wheeled before the fire.  'Good 
+night!  Barnaby, my good fellow, you say some prayers before you go 
+to bed, I hope?'
+
+Barnaby nodded.  'He has some nonsense that he calls his prayers, 
+sir,' returned old John, officiously.  'I'm afraid there an't much 
+good in em.'
+
+'And Hugh?' said Mr Chester, turning to him.
+
+'Not I,' he answered.  'I know his'--pointing to Barnaby--'they're 
+well enough.  He sings 'em sometimes in the straw.  I listen.'
+
+'He's quite a animal, sir,' John whispered in his ear with dignity.  
+'You'll excuse him, I'm sure.  If he has any soul at all, sir, it 
+must be such a very small one, that it don't signify what he does 
+or doesn't in that way.  Good night, sir!'
+
+The guest rejoined 'God bless you!' with a fervour that was quite 
+affecting; and John, beckoning his guards to go before, bowed 
+himself out of the room, and left him to his rest in the Maypole's 
+ancient bed.
+
+
+
+Chapter 13
+
+
+If Joseph Willet, the denounced and proscribed of 'prentices, had 
+happened to be at home when his father's courtly guest presented 
+himself before the Maypole door--that is, if it had not perversely 
+chanced to be one of the half-dozen days in the whole year on which 
+he was at liberty to absent himself for as many hours without 
+question or reproach--he would have contrived, by hook or crook, to 
+dive to the very bottom of Mr Chester's mystery, and to come at his 
+purpose with as much certainty as though he had been his 
+confidential adviser.  In that fortunate case, the lovers would 
+have had quick warning of the ills that threatened them, and the 
+aid of various timely and wise suggestions to boot; for all Joe's 
+readiness of thought and action, and all his sympathies and good 
+wishes, were enlisted in favour of the young people, and were 
+staunch in devotion to their cause.  Whether this disposition arose 
+out of his old prepossessions in favour of the young lady, whose 
+history had surrounded her in his mind, almost from his cradle, 
+with circumstances of unusual interest; or from his attachment 
+towards the young gentleman, into whose confidence he had, through 
+his shrewdness and alacrity, and the rendering of sundry important 
+services as a spy and messenger, almost imperceptibly glided; 
+whether they had their origin in either of these sources, or in the 
+habit natural to youth, or in the constant badgering and worrying 
+of his venerable parent, or in any hidden little love affair of his 
+own which gave him something of a fellow-feeling in the matter, it 
+is needless to inquire--especially as Joe was out of the way, and 
+had no opportunity on that particular occasion of testifying to his 
+sentiments either on one side or the other.
+
+It was, in fact, the twenty-fifth of March, which, as most people 
+know to their cost, is, and has been time out of mind, one of those 
+unpleasant epochs termed quarter-days.  On this twenty-fifth of 
+March, it was John Willet's pride annually to settle, in hard cash, 
+his account with a certain vintner and distiller in the city of 
+London; to give into whose hands a canvas bag containing its exact 
+amount, and not a penny more or less, was the end and object of a 
+journey for Joe, so surely as the year and day came round.
+
+This journey was performed upon an old grey mare, concerning whom 
+John had an indistinct set of ideas hovering about him, to the 
+effect that she could win a plate or cup if she tried.  She never 
+had tried, and probably never would now, being some fourteen or 
+fifteen years of age, short in wind, long in body, and rather the 
+worse for wear in respect of her mane and tail.  Notwithstanding 
+these slight defects, John perfectly gloried in the animal; and 
+when she was brought round to the door by Hugh, actually retired 
+into the bar, and there, in a secret grove of lemons, laughed with 
+pride.
+
+'There's a bit of horseflesh, Hugh!' said John, when he had 
+recovered enough self-command to appear at the door again.  
+'There's a comely creature!  There's high mettle!  There's bone!'
+
+There was bone enough beyond all doubt; and so Hugh seemed to 
+think, as he sat sideways in the saddle, lazily doubled up with his 
+chin nearly touching his knees; and heedless of the dangling 
+stirrups and loose bridle-rein, sauntered up and down on the little 
+green before the door.
+
+'Mind you take good care of her, sir,' said John, appealing from 
+this insensible person to his son and heir, who now appeared, fully 
+equipped and ready.  'Don't you ride hard.'
+
+'I should be puzzled to do that, I think, father,' Joe replied, 
+casting a disconsolate look at the animal.
+
+'None of your impudence, sir, if you please,' retorted old John.  
+'What would you ride, sir?  A wild ass or zebra would be too tame 
+for you, wouldn't he, eh sir?  You'd like to ride a roaring lion, 
+wouldn't you, sir, eh sir?  Hold your tongue, sir.'  When Mr 
+Willet, in his differences with his son, had exhausted all the 
+questions that occurred to him, and Joe had said nothing at all in 
+answer, he generally wound up by bidding him hold his tongue.
+
+'And what does the boy mean,' added Mr Willet, after he had stared 
+at him for a little time, in a species of stupefaction, 'by cocking 
+his hat, to such an extent!  Are you going to kill the wintner, sir?'
+
+'No,' said Joe, tartly; 'I'm not.  Now your mind's at ease, 
+father.'
+
+'With a milintary air, too!' said Mr Willet, surveying him from top 
+to toe; 'with a swaggering, fire-eating, biling-water drinking 
+sort of way with him!  And what do you mean by pulling up the 
+crocuses and snowdrops, eh sir?'
+
+'It's only a little nosegay,' said Joe, reddening.  'There's no 
+harm in that, I hope?'
+
+'You're a boy of business, you are, sir!' said Mr Willet, 
+disdainfully, 'to go supposing that wintners care for nosegays.'
+
+'I don't suppose anything of the kind,' returned Joe.  'Let them 
+keep their red noses for bottles and tankards.  These are going to 
+Mr Varden's house.'
+
+'And do you suppose HE minds such things as crocuses?' demanded 
+John.
+
+'I don't know, and to say the truth, I don't care,' said Joe.  
+'Come, father, give me the money, and in the name of patience let 
+me go.'
+
+'There it is, sir,' replied John; 'and take care of it; and mind 
+you don't make too much haste back, but give the mare a long rest.--
+Do you mind?'
+
+'Ay, I mind,' returned Joe.  'She'll need it, Heaven knows.'
+
+'And don't you score up too much at the Black Lion,' said John.  
+'Mind that too.'
+
+'Then why don't you let me have some money of my own?' retorted 
+Joe, sorrowfully; 'why don't you, father?  What do you send me into 
+London for, giving me only the right to call for my dinner at the 
+Black Lion, which you're to pay for next time you go, as if I was 
+not to be trusted with a few shillings?  Why do you use me like 
+this?  It's not right of you.  You can't expect me to be quiet 
+under it.'
+
+'Let him have money!' cried John, in a drowsy reverie.  'What does 
+he call money--guineas?  Hasn't he got money?  Over and above the 
+tolls, hasn't he one and sixpence?'
+
+'One and sixpence!' repeated his son contemptuously.
+
+'Yes, sir,' returned John, 'one and sixpence.  When I was your age, 
+I had never seen so much money, in a heap.  A shilling of it is in 
+case of accidents--the mare casting a shoe, or the like of that.  
+The other sixpence is to spend in the diversions of London; and the 
+diversion I recommend is going to the top of the Monument, and 
+sitting there.  There's no temptation there, sir--no drink--no 
+young women--no bad characters of any sort--nothing but imagination.  
+That's the way I enjoyed myself when I was your age, sir.'
+
+To this, Joe made no answer, but beckoning Hugh, leaped into the 
+saddle and rode away; and a very stalwart, manly horseman he 
+looked, deserving a better charger than it was his fortune to 
+bestride.  John stood staring after him, or rather after the grey 
+mare (for he had no eyes for her rider), until man and beast had 
+been out of sight some twenty minutes, when he began to think they 
+were gone, and slowly re-entering the house, fell into a gentle doze.
+
+The unfortunate grey mare, who was the agony of Joe's life, 
+floundered along at her own will and pleasure until the Maypole was 
+no longer visible, and then, contracting her legs into what in a 
+puppet would have been looked upon as a clumsy and awkward 
+imitation of a canter, mended her pace all at once, and did it of 
+her own accord.  The acquaintance with her rider's usual mode of 
+proceeding, which suggested this improvement in hers, impelled her 
+likewise to turn up a bye-way, leading--not to London, but through 
+lanes running parallel with the road they had come, and passing 
+within a few hundred yards of the Maypole, which led finally to an 
+inclosure surrounding a large, old, red-brick mansion--the same of 
+which mention was made as the Warren in the first chapter of this 
+history.  Coming to a dead stop in a little copse thereabout, she 
+suffered her rider to dismount with right goodwill, and to tie her 
+to the trunk of a tree.
+
+'Stay there, old girl,' said Joe, 'and let us see whether there's 
+any little commission for me to-day.'  So saying, he left her to 
+browze upon such stunted grass and weeds as happened to grow within 
+the length of her tether, and passing through a wicket gate, 
+entered the grounds on foot.
+
+The pathway, after a very few minutes' walking, brought him close 
+to the house, towards which, and especially towards one particular 
+window, he directed many covert glances.  It was a dreary, silent 
+building, with echoing courtyards, desolated turret-chambers, and 
+whole suites of rooms shut up and mouldering to ruin.
+
+The terrace-garden, dark with the shade of overhanging trees, had 
+an air of melancholy that was quite oppressive.  Great iron gates, 
+disused for many years, and red with rust, drooping on their hinges 
+and overgrown with long rank grass, seemed as though they tried to 
+sink into the ground, and hide their fallen state among the 
+friendly weeds.  The fantastic monsters on the walls, green with 
+age and damp, and covered here and there with moss, looked grim and 
+desolate.  There was a sombre aspect even on that part of the 
+mansion which was inhabited and kept in good repair, that struck 
+the beholder with a sense of sadness; of something forlorn and 
+failing, whence cheerfulness was banished.  It would have been 
+difficult to imagine a bright fire blazing in the dull and darkened 
+rooms, or to picture any gaiety of heart or revelry that the 
+frowning walls shut in.  It seemed a place where such things had 
+been, but could be no more--the very ghost of a house, haunting the 
+old spot in its old outward form, and that was all.
+
+Much of this decayed and sombre look was attributable, no doubt, to 
+the death of its former master, and the temper of its present 
+occupant; but remembering the tale connected with the mansion, it 
+seemed the very place for such a deed, and one that might have been 
+its predestined theatre years upon years ago.  Viewed with 
+reference to this legend, the sheet of water where the steward's 
+body had been found appeared to wear a black and sullen character, 
+such as no other pool might own; the bell upon the roof that had 
+told the tale of murder to the midnight wind, became a very phantom 
+whose voice would raise the listener's hair on end; and every 
+leafless bough that nodded to another, had its stealthy whispering 
+of the crime.
+
+Joe paced up and down the path, sometimes stopping in affected 
+contemplation of the building or the prospect, sometimes leaning 
+against a tree with an assumed air of idleness and indifference, 
+but always keeping an eye upon the window he had singled out at 
+first.  After some quarter of an hour's delay, a small white hand 
+was waved to him for an instant from this casement, and the young 
+man, with a respectful bow, departed; saying under his breath as he 
+crossed his horse again, 'No errand for me to-day!'
+
+But the air of smartness, the cock of the hat to which John Willet 
+had objected, and the spring nosegay, all betokened some little 
+errand of his own, having a more interesting object than a vintner 
+or even a locksmith.  So, indeed, it turned out; for when he had 
+settled with the vintner--whose place of business was down in some 
+deep cellars hard by Thames Street, and who was as purple-faced an 
+old gentleman as if he had all his life supported their arched roof 
+on his head--when he had settled the account, and taken the 
+receipt, and declined tasting more than three glasses of old 
+sherry, to the unbounded astonishment of the purple-faced vintner, 
+who, gimlet in hand, had projected an attack upon at least a score 
+of dusty casks, and who stood transfixed, or morally gimleted as it 
+were, to his own wall--when he had done all this, and disposed 
+besides of a frugal dinner at the Black Lion in Whitechapel; 
+spurning the Monument and John's advice, he turned his steps 
+towards the locksmith's house, attracted by the eyes of blooming 
+Dolly Varden.
+
+Joe was by no means a sheepish fellow, but, for all that, when he 
+got to the corner of the street in which the locksmith lived, he 
+could by no means make up his mind to walk straight to the house.  
+First, he resolved to stroll up another street for five minutes, 
+then up another street for five minutes more, and so on until he 
+had lost full half an hour, when he made a bold plunge and found 
+himself with a red face and a beating heart in the smoky workshop.
+
+'Joe Willet, or his ghost?' said Varden, rising from the desk at 
+which he was busy with his books, and looking at him under his 
+spectacles.  'Which is it?  Joe in the flesh, eh?  That's hearty.  
+And how are all the Chigwell company, Joe?'
+
+'Much as usual, sir--they and I agree as well as ever.'
+
+'Well, well!' said the locksmith.  'We must be patient, Joe, and 
+bear with old folks' foibles.  How's the mare, Joe?  Does she do 
+the four miles an hour as easily as ever?  Ha, ha, ha! Does she, 
+Joe?  Eh!--What have we there, Joe--a nosegay!'
+
+'A very poor one, sir--I thought Miss Dolly--'
+
+'No, no,' said Gabriel, dropping his voice, and shaking his head, 
+'not Dolly.  Give 'em to her mother, Joe.  A great deal better give 
+'em to her mother.  Would you mind giving 'em to Mrs Varden, Joe?'
+
+'Oh no, sir,' Joe replied, and endeavouring, but not with the 
+greatest possible success, to hide his disappointment.  'I shall be 
+very glad, I'm sure.'
+
+'That's right,' said the locksmith, patting him on the back.  'It 
+don't matter who has 'em, Joe?'
+
+'Not a bit, sir.'--Dear heart, how the words stuck in his throat!
+
+'Come in,' said Gabriel.  'I have just been called to tea.  She's 
+in the parlour.'
+
+'She,' thought Joe.  'Which of 'em I wonder--Mrs or Miss?'  The 
+locksmith settled the doubt as neatly as if it had been expressed 
+aloud, by leading him to the door, and saying, 'Martha, my dear, 
+here's young Mr Willet.'
+
+Now, Mrs Varden, regarding the Maypole as a sort of human mantrap, 
+or decoy for husbands; viewing its proprietor, and all who aided 
+and abetted him, in the light of so many poachers among Christian 
+men; and believing, moreover, that the publicans coupled with 
+sinners in Holy Writ were veritable licensed victuallers; was far 
+from being favourably disposed towards her visitor.  Wherefore she 
+was taken faint directly; and being duly presented with the 
+crocuses and snowdrops, divined on further consideration that they 
+were the occasion of the languor which had seized upon her spirits.  
+'I'm afraid I couldn't bear the room another minute,' said the good 
+lady, 'if they remained here.  WOULD you excuse my putting them out 
+of window?'
+
+Joe begged she wouldn't mention it on any account, and smiled 
+feebly as he saw them deposited on the sill outside.  If anybody 
+could have known the pains he had taken to make up that despised 
+and misused bunch of flowers!--
+
+'I feel it quite a relief to get rid of them, I assure you,' said 
+Mrs Varden.  'I'm better already.'  And indeed she did appear to 
+have plucked up her spirits.
+
+Joe expressed his gratitude to Providence for this favourable 
+dispensation, and tried to look as if he didn't wonder where 
+Dolly was.
+
+'You're sad people at Chigwell, Mr Joseph,' said Mrs V.
+
+'I hope not, ma'am,' returned Joe.
+
+'You're the cruellest and most inconsiderate people in the world,' 
+said Mrs Varden, bridling.  'I wonder old Mr Willet, having been a 
+married man himself, doesn't know better than to conduct himself as 
+he does.  His doing it for profit is no excuse.  I would rather 
+pay the money twenty times over, and have Varden come home like a 
+respectable and sober tradesman.  If there is one character,' said 
+Mrs Varden with great emphasis, 'that offends and disgusts me more 
+than another, it is a sot.'
+
+'Come, Martha, my dear,' said the locksmith cheerily, 'let us have 
+tea, and don't let us talk about sots.  There are none here, and 
+Joe don't want to hear about them, I dare say.'
+
+At this crisis, Miggs appeared with toast.
+
+'I dare say he does not,' said Mrs Varden; 'and I dare say you do 
+not, Varden.  It's a very unpleasant subiect, I have no doubt, 
+though I won't say it's personal'--Miggs coughed--'whatever I may 
+be forced to think'--Miggs sneezed expressively.  'You never will 
+know, Varden, and nobody at young Mr Willet's age--you'll excuse 
+me, sir--can be expected to know, what a woman suffers when she is 
+waiting at home under such circumstances.  If you don't believe me, 
+as I know you don't, here's Miggs, who is only too often a witness 
+of it--ask her.'
+
+'Oh! she were very bad the other night, sir, indeed she were, said 
+Miggs.  'If you hadn't the sweetness of an angel in you, mim, I 
+don't think you could abear it, I raly don't.'
+
+'Miggs,' said Mrs Varden, 'you're profane.'
+
+'Begging your pardon, mim,' returned Miggs, with shrill rapidity, 
+'such was not my intentions, and such I hope is not my character, 
+though I am but a servant.'
+
+'Answering me, Miggs, and providing yourself,' retorted her 
+mistress, looking round with dignity, 'is one and the same thing.  
+How dare you speak of angels in connection with your sinful 
+fellow-beings--mere'--said Mrs Varden, glancing at herself in a 
+neighbouring mirror, and arranging the ribbon of her cap in a more 
+becoming fashion--'mere worms and grovellers as we are!'
+
+'I did not intend, mim, if you please, to give offence,' said 
+Miggs, confident in the strength of her compliment, and developing 
+strongly in the throat as usual, 'and I did not expect it would be 
+took as such.  I hope I know my own unworthiness, and that I hate 
+and despise myself and all my fellow-creatures as every practicable 
+Christian should.'
+
+'You'll have the goodness, if you please,' said Mrs Varden, 
+loftily, 'to step upstairs and see if Dolly has finished dressing, 
+and to tell her that the chair that was ordered for her will be 
+here in a minute, and that if she keeps it waiting, I shall send it 
+away that instant.--I'm sorry to see that you don't take your tea, 
+Varden, and that you don't take yours, Mr Joseph; though of course 
+it would be foolish of me to expect that anything that can be had 
+at home, and in the company of females, would please YOU.'
+
+This pronoun was understood in the plural sense, and included both 
+gentlemen, upon both of whom it was rather hard and undeserved, 
+for Gabriel had applied himself to the meal with a very promising 
+appetite, until it was spoilt by Mrs Varden herself, and Joe had as 
+great a liking for the female society of the locksmith's house--or 
+for a part of it at all events--as man could well entertain.
+
+But he had no opportunity to say anything in his own defence, for 
+at that moment Dolly herself appeared, and struck him quite dumb 
+with her beauty.  Never had Dolly looked so handsome as she did 
+then, in all the glow and grace of youth, with all her charms 
+increased a hundredfold by a most becoming dress, by a thousand 
+little coquettish ways which nobody could assume with a better 
+grace, and all the sparkling expectation of that accursed party.  
+It is impossible to tell how Joe hated that party wherever it was, 
+and all the other people who were going to it, whoever they were.
+
+And she hardly looked at him--no, hardly looked at him.  And when 
+the chair was seen through the open door coming blundering into the 
+workshop, she actually clapped her hands and seemed glad to go.  
+But Joe gave her his arm--there was some comfort in that--and 
+handed her into it.  To see her seat herself inside, with her 
+laughing eyes brighter than diamonds, and her hand--surely she had 
+the prettiest hand in the world--on the ledge of the open window, 
+and her little finger provokingly and pertly tilted up, as if it 
+wondered why Joe didn't squeeze or kiss it!  To think how well one 
+or two of the modest snowdrops would have become that delicate 
+bodice, and how they were lying neglected outside the parlour 
+window!  To see how Miggs looked on with a face expressive of 
+knowing how all this loveliness was got up, and of being in the 
+secret of every string and pin and hook and eye, and of saying it 
+ain't half as real as you think, and I could look quite as well 
+myself if I took the pains!  To hear that provoking precious little 
+scream when the chair was hoisted on its poles, and to catch that 
+transient but not-to-be-forgotten vision of the happy face within--
+what torments and aggravations, and yet what delights were these!  
+The very chairmen seemed favoured rivals as they bore her down the 
+street.
+
+There never was such an alteration in a small room in a small time 
+as in that parlour when they went back to finish tea.  So dark, so 
+deserted, so perfectly disenchanted.  It seemed such sheer nonsense 
+to be sitting tamely there, when she was at a dance with more 
+lovers than man could calculate fluttering about her--with the 
+whole party doting on and adoring her, and wanting to marry her.  
+Miggs was hovering about too; and the fact of her existence, the 
+mere circumstance of her ever having been born, appeared, after 
+Dolly, such an unaccountable practical joke.  It was impossible to 
+talk.  It couldn't be done.  He had nothing left for it but to stir 
+his tea round, and round, and round, and ruminate on all the 
+fascinations of the locksmith's lovely daughter.
+
+Gabriel was dull too.  It was a part of the certain uncertainty of 
+Mrs Varden's temper, that when they were in this condition, she 
+should be gay and sprightly.
+
+'I need have a cheerful disposition, I am sure,' said the smiling 
+housewife, 'to preserve any spirits at all; and how I do it I can 
+scarcely tell.'
+
+'Ah, mim,' sighed Miggs, 'begging your pardon for the interruption, 
+there an't a many like you.'
+
+'Take away, Miggs,' said Mrs Varden, rising, 'take away, pray.  I 
+know I'm a restraint here, and as I wish everybody to enjoy 
+themselves as they best can, I feel I had better go.'
+
+'No, no, Martha,' cried the locksmith.  'Stop here.  I'm sure we 
+shall be very sorry to lose you, eh Joe!'  Joe started, and said 
+'Certainly.'
+
+'Thank you, Varden, my dear,' returned his wife; 'but I know your 
+wishes better.  Tobacco and beer, or spirits, have much greater 
+attractions than any I can boast of, and therefore I shall go and 
+sit upstairs and look out of window, my love.  Good night, Mr 
+Joseph.  I'm very glad to have seen you, and I only wish I could 
+have provided something more suitable to your taste.  Remember me 
+very kindly if you please to old Mr Willet, and tell him that 
+whenever he comes here I have a crow to pluck with him.  Good 
+night!'
+
+Having uttered these words with great sweetness of manner, the good 
+lady dropped a curtsey remarkable for its condescension, and 
+serenely withdrew.
+
+And it was for this Joe had looked forward to the twenty-fifth of 
+March for weeks and weeks, and had gathered the flowers with so 
+much care, and had cocked his hat, and made himself so smart!  This 
+was the end of all his bold determination, resolved upon for the 
+hundredth time, to speak out to Dolly and tell her how he loved 
+her!  To see her for a minute--for but a minute--to find her going 
+out to a party and glad to go; to be looked upon as a common pipe-
+smoker, beer-bibber, spirit-guzzler, and tosspot!  He bade 
+farewell to his friend the locksmith, and hastened to take horse at 
+the Black Lion, thinking as he turned towards home, as many another 
+Joe has thought before and since, that here was an end to all his 
+hopes--that the thing was impossible and never could be--that she 
+didn't care for him--that he was wretched for life--and that the 
+only congenial prospect left him, was to go for a soldier or a 
+sailor, and get some obliging enemy to knock his brains out as 
+soon as possible.
+
+
+
+Chapter 14
+
+
+Joe Willet rode leisurely along in his desponding mood, picturing 
+the locksmith's daughter going down long country-dances, and 
+poussetting dreadfully with bold strangers--which was almost too 
+much to bear--when he heard the tramp of a horse's feet behind him, 
+and looking back, saw a well-mounted gentleman advancing at a 
+smart canter.  As this rider passed, he checked his steed, and 
+called him of the Maypole by his name.  Joe set spurs to the grey 
+mare, and was at his side directly.
+
+'I thought it was you, sir,' he said, touching his hat.  'A fair 
+evening, sir.  Glad to see you out of doors again.'
+
+The gentleman smiled and nodded.  'What gay doings have been going 
+on to-day, Joe?  Is she as pretty as ever?  Nay, don't blush, man.'
+
+'If I coloured at all, Mr Edward,' said Joe, 'which I didn't know I 
+did, it was to think I should have been such a fool as ever to have 
+any hope of her.  She's as far out of my reach as--as Heaven is.'
+
+'Well, Joe, I hope that's not altogether beyond it,' said Edward, 
+good-humouredly.  'Eh?'
+
+'Ah!' sighed Joe.  'It's all very fine talking, sir.  Proverbs are 
+easily made in cold blood.  But it can't be helped.  Are you bound 
+for our house, sir?'
+
+'Yes.  As I am not quite strong yet, I shall stay there to-night, 
+and ride home coolly in the morning.'
+
+'If you're in no particular hurry,' said Joe after a short silence, 
+'and will bear with the pace of this poor jade, I shall be glad to 
+ride on with you to the Warren, sir, and hold your horse when you 
+dismount.  It'll save you having to walk from the Maypole, there 
+and back again.  I can spare the time well, sir, for I am too soon.'
+
+'And so am I,' returned Edward, 'though I was unconsciously riding 
+fast just now, in compliment I suppose to the pace of my thoughts, 
+which were travelling post.  We will keep together, Joe, willingly, 
+and be as good company as may be.  And cheer up, cheer up, think of 
+the locksmith's daughter with a stout heart, and you shall win her 
+yet.'
+
+Joe shook his head; but there was something so cheery in the 
+buoyant hopeful manner of this speech, that his spirits rose under 
+its influence, and communicated as it would seem some new impulse 
+even to the grey mare, who, breaking from her sober amble into a 
+gentle trot, emulated the pace of Edward Chester's horse, and 
+appeared to flatter herself that he was doing his very best.
+
+It was a fine dry night, and the light of a young moon, which was 
+then just rising, shed around that peace and tranquillity which 
+gives to evening time its most delicious charm.  The lengthened 
+shadows of the trees, softened as if reflected in still water, 
+threw their carpet on the path the travellers pursued, and the 
+light wind stirred yet more softly than before, as though it were 
+soothing Nature in her sleep.  By little and little they ceased 
+talking, and rode on side by side in a pleasant silence.
+
+'The Maypole lights are brilliant to-night,' said Edward, as they 
+rode along the lane from which, while the intervening trees were 
+bare of leaves, that hostelry was visible.
+
+'Brilliant indeed, sir,' returned Joe, rising in his stirrups to 
+get a better view.  'Lights in the large room, and a fire 
+glimmering in the best bedchamber?  Why, what company can this be 
+for, I wonder!'
+
+'Some benighted horseman wending towards London, and deterred from 
+going on to-night by the marvellous tales of my friend the 
+highwayman, I suppose,' said Edward.
+
+'He must be a horseman of good quality to have such accommodations.  
+Your bed too, sir--!'
+
+'No matter, Joe.  Any other room will do for me.  But come--there's 
+nine striking.  We may push on.'
+
+They cantered forward at as brisk a pace as Joe's charger could 
+attain, and presently stopped in the little copse where he had left 
+her in the morning.  Edward dismounted, gave his bridle to his 
+companion, and walked with a light step towards the house.
+
+A female servant was waiting at a side gate in the garden-wall, and 
+admitted him without delay.  He hurried along the terrace-walk, and 
+darted up a flight of broad steps leading into an old and gloomy 
+hall, whose walls were ornamented with rusty suits of armour, 
+antlers, weapons of the chase, and suchlike garniture.  Here he 
+paused, but not long; for as he looked round, as if expecting the 
+attendant to have followed, and wondering she had not done so, a 
+lovely girl appeared, whose dark hair next moment rested on his 
+breast.  Almost at the same instant a heavy hand was laid upon her 
+arm, Edward felt himself thrust away, and Mr Haredale stood between 
+them.
+
+He regarded the young man sternly without removing his hat; with 
+one hand clasped his niece, and with the other, in which he held 
+his riding-whip, motioned him towards the door.  The young man drew 
+himself up, and returned his gaze.
+
+'This is well done of you, sir, to corrupt my servants, and enter 
+my house unbidden and in secret, like a thief!' said Mr Haredale.  
+'Leave it, sir, and return no more.'
+
+'Miss Haredale's presence,' returned the young man, 'and your 
+relationship to her, give you a licence which, if you are a brave 
+man, you will not abuse.  You have compelled me to this course, 
+and the fault is yours--not mine.'
+
+'It is neither generous, nor honourable, nor the act of a true 
+man, sir,' retorted the other, 'to tamper with the affections of a 
+weak, trusting girl, while you shrink, in your unworthiness, from 
+her guardian and protector, and dare not meet the light of day.  
+More than this I will not say to you, save that I forbid you this 
+house, and require you to be gone.'
+
+'It is neither generous, nor honourable, nor the act of a true man 
+to play the spy,' said Edward.  'Your words imply dishonour, and I 
+reject them with the scorn they merit.'
+
+'You will find,' said Mr Haredale, calmly, 'your trusty go-between 
+in waiting at the gate by which you entered.  I have played no 
+spy's part, sir.  I chanced to see you pass the gate, and 
+followed.  You might have heard me knocking for admission, had you 
+been less swift of foot, or lingered in the garden.  Please to 
+withdraw.  Your presence here is offensive to me and distressful to 
+my niece.'  As he said these words, he passed his arm about the 
+waist of the terrified and weeping girl, and drew her closer to 
+him; and though the habitual severity of his manner was scarcely 
+changed, there was yet apparent in the action an air of kindness 
+and sympathy for her distress.
+
+'Mr Haredale,' said Edward, 'your arm encircles her on whom I have 
+set my every hope and thought, and to purchase one minute's 
+happiness for whom I would gladly lay down my life; this house is 
+the casket that holds the precious jewel of my existence.  Your 
+niece has plighted her faith to me, and I have plighted mine to 
+her.  What have I done that you should hold me in this light 
+esteem, and give me these discourteous words?'
+
+'You have done that, sir,' answered Mr Haredale, 'which must he 
+undone.  You have tied a lover'-knot here which must be cut 
+asunder.  Take good heed of what I say.  Must.  I cancel the bond 
+between ye.  I reject you, and all of your kith and kin--all the 
+false, hollow, heartless stock.'
+
+'High words, sir,' said Edward, scornfully.
+
+'Words of purpose and meaning, as you will find,' replied the 
+other.  'Lay them to heart.'
+
+'Lay you then, these,' said Edward.  'Your cold and sullen temper, 
+which chills every breast about you, which turns affection into 
+fear, and changes duty into dread, has forced us on this secret 
+course, repugnant to our nature and our wish, and far more foreign, 
+sir, to us than you.  I am not a false, a hollow, or a heartless 
+man; the character is yours, who poorly venture on these injurious 
+terms, against the truth, and under the shelter whereof I reminded 
+you just now.  You shall not cancel the bond between us.  I will 
+not abandon this pursuit.  I rely upon your niece's truth and 
+honour, and set your influence at nought.  I leave her with a 
+confidence in her pure faith, which you will never weaken, and with 
+no concern but that I do not leave her in some gentler care.'
+
+With that, he pressed her cold hand to his lips, and once more 
+encountering and returning Mr Haredale's steady look, withdrew.
+
+A few words to Joe as he mounted his horse sufficiently explained 
+what had passed, and renewed all that young gentleman's despondency 
+with tenfold aggravation.  They rode back to the Maypole without 
+exchanging a syllable, and arrived at the door with heavy hearts.
+
+Old John, who had peeped from behind the red curtain as they rode 
+up shouting for Hugh, was out directly, and said with great 
+importance as he held the young man's stirrup,
+
+'He's comfortable in bed--the best bed.  A thorough gentleman; the 
+smilingest, affablest gentleman I ever had to do with.'
+
+'Who, Willet?' said Edward carelessly, as he dismounted.
+
+'Your worthy father, sir,' replied John.  'Your honourable, 
+venerable father.'
+
+'What does he mean?' said Edward, looking with a mixture of alarm 
+and doubt, at Joe.
+
+'What DO you mean?' said Joe.  'Don't you see Mr Edward doesn't 
+understand, father?'
+
+'Why, didn't you know of it, sir?' said John, opening his eyes 
+wide.  'How very singular!  Bless you, he's been here ever since 
+noon to-day, and Mr Haredale has been having a long talk with him, 
+and hasn't been gone an hour.'
+
+'My father, Willet!'
+
+'Yes, sir, he told me so--a handsome, slim, upright gentleman, in 
+green-and-gold.  In your old room up yonder, sir.  No doubt you 
+can go in, sir,' said John, walking backwards into the road and 
+looking up at the window.  'He hasn't put out his candles yet, I 
+see.'
+
+Edward glanced at the window also, and hastily murmuring that he 
+had changed his mind--forgotten something--and must return to 
+London, mounted his horse again and rode away; leaving the Willets, 
+father and son, looking at each other in mute astonishment.
+
+
+
+Chapter 15
+
+
+At noon next day, John Willet's guest sat lingering over his 
+breakfast in his own home, surrounded by a variety of comforts, 
+which left the Maypole's highest flight and utmost stretch of 
+accommodation at an infinite distance behind, and suggested 
+comparisons very much to the disadvantage and disfavour of that 
+venerable tavern.
+
+In the broad old-fashioned window-seat--as capacious as many modern 
+sofas, and cushioned to serve the purpose of a luxurious settee--in 
+the broad old-fashioned window-seat of a roomy chamber, Mr Chester 
+lounged, very much at his ease, over a well-furnished breakfast-
+table.  He had exchanged his riding-coat for a handsome morning-
+gown, his boots for slippers; had been at great pains to atone for 
+the having been obliged to make his toilet when he rose without the 
+aid of dressing-case and tiring equipage; and, having gradually 
+forgotten through these means the discomforts of an indifferent 
+night and an early ride, was in a state of perfect complacency, 
+indolence, and satisfaction.
+
+The situation in which he found himself, indeed, was particularly 
+favourable to the growth of these feelings; for, not to mention the 
+lazy influence of a late and lonely breakfast, with the additional 
+sedative of a newspaper, there was an air of repose about his place 
+of residence peculiar to itself, and which hangs about it, even in 
+these times, when it is more bustling and busy than it was in days 
+of yore.
+
+There are, still, worse places than the Temple, on a sultry day, 
+for basking in the sun, or resting idly in the shade.  There is yet 
+a drowsiness in its courts, and a dreamy dulness in its trees and 
+gardens; those who pace its lanes and squares may yet hear the 
+echoes of their footsteps on the sounding stones, and read upon its 
+gates, in passing from the tumult of the Strand or Fleet Street, 
+'Who enters here leaves noise behind.'  There is still the plash of 
+falling water in fair Fountain Court, and there are yet nooks and 
+corners where dun-haunted students may look down from their dusty 
+garrets, on a vagrant ray of sunlight patching the shade of the 
+tall houses, and seldom troubled to reflect a passing stranger's 
+form.  There is yet, in the Temple, something of a clerkly monkish 
+atmosphere, which public offices of law have not disturbed, and 
+even legal firms have failed to scare away.  In summer time, its 
+pumps suggest to thirsty idlers, springs cooler, and more 
+sparkling, and deeper than other wells; and as they trace the 
+spillings of full pitchers on the heated ground, they snuff the 
+freshness, and, sighing, cast sad looks towards the Thames, and 
+think of baths and boats, and saunter on, despondent.
+
+It was in a room in Paper Buildings--a row of goodly tenements, 
+shaded in front by ancient trees, and looking, at the back, upon 
+the Temple Gardens--that this, our idler, lounged; now taking up 
+again the paper he had laid down a hundred times; now trifling with 
+the fragments of his meal; now pulling forth his golden toothpick, 
+and glancing leisurely about the room, or out at window into the 
+trim garden walks, where a few early loiterers were already pacing 
+to and fro.  Here a pair of lovers met to quarrel and make up; 
+there a dark-eyed nursery-maid had better eyes for Templars than 
+her charge; on this hand an ancient spinster, with her lapdog in a 
+string, regarded both enormities with scornful sidelong looks; on 
+that a weazen old gentleman, ogling the nursery-maid, looked with 
+like scorn upon the spinster, and wondered she didn't know she was 
+no longer young.  Apart from all these, on the river's margin two 
+or three couple of business-talkers walked slowly up and down in 
+earnest conversation; and one young man sat thoughtfully on a 
+bench, alone.
+
+'Ned is amazingly patient!' said Mr Chester, glancing at this last-
+named person as he set down his teacup and plied the golden 
+toothpick, 'immensely patient!  He was sitting yonder when I began 
+to dress, and has scarcely changed his posture since.  A most 
+eccentric dog!'
+
+As he spoke, the figure rose, and came towards him with a rapid 
+pace.
+
+'Really, as if he had heard me,' said the father, resuming his 
+newspaper with a yawn.  'Dear Ned!'
+
+Presently the room-door opened, and the young man entered; to whom 
+his father gently waved his hand, and smiled.
+
+'Are you at leisure for a little conversation, sir?' said Edward.
+
+'Surely, Ned.  I am always at leisure.  You know my constitution.--
+Have you breakfasted?'
+
+'Three hours ago.'
+
+'What a very early dog!' cried his father, contemplating him from 
+behind the toothpick, with a languid smile.
+
+'The truth is,' said Edward, bringing a chair forward, and seating 
+himself near the table, 'that I slept but ill last night, and was 
+glad to rise.  The cause of my uneasiness cannot but be known to 
+you, sir; and it is upon that I wish to speak.'
+
+'My dear boy,' returned his father, 'confide in me, I beg.  But you 
+know my constitution--don't be prosy, Ned.'
+
+'I will be plain, and brief,' said Edward.
+
+'Don't say you will, my good fellow,' returned his father, crossing 
+his legs, 'or you certainly will not.  You are going to tell me'--
+
+'Plainly this, then,' said the son, with an air of great concern, 
+'that I know where you were last night--from being on the spot, 
+indeed--and whom you saw, and what your purpose was.'
+
+'You don't say so!' cried his father.  'I am delighted to hear it.  
+It saves us the worry, and terrible wear and tear of a long 
+explanation, and is a great relief for both.  At the very house!  
+Why didn't you come up?  I should have been charmed to see you.'
+
+'I knew that what I had to say would be better said after a night's 
+reflection, when both of us were cool,' returned the son.
+
+''Fore Gad, Ned,' rejoined the father, 'I was cool enough last 
+night.  That detestable Maypole!  By some infernal contrivance of 
+the builder, it holds the wind, and keeps it fresh.  You remember 
+the sharp east wind that blew so hard five weeks ago?  I give you 
+my honour it was rampant in that old house last night, though out 
+of doors there was a dead calm.  But you were saying'--
+
+'I was about to say, Heaven knows how seriously and earnestly, that 
+you have made me wretched, sir.  Will you hear me gravely for a 
+moment?'
+
+'My dear Ned,' said his father, 'I will hear you with the patience 
+of an anchorite.  Oblige me with the milk.'
+
+'I saw Miss Haredale last night,' Edward resumed, when he had 
+complied with this request; 'her uncle, in her presence, 
+immediately after your interview, and, as of course I know, in 
+consequence of it, forbade me the house, and, with circumstances of 
+indignity which are of your creation I am sure, commanded me to 
+leave it on the instant.'
+
+'For his manner of doing so, I give you my honour, Ned, I am not 
+accountable,' said his father.  'That you must excuse.  He is a 
+mere boor, a log, a brute, with no address in life.--Positively a 
+fly in the jug.  The first I have seen this year.'
+
+Edward rose, and paced the room.  His imperturbable parent sipped 
+his tea.
+
+'Father,' said the young man, stopping at length before him, 'we 
+must not trifle in this matter.  We must not deceive each other, or 
+ourselves.  Let me pursue the manly open part I wish to take, and 
+do not repel me by this unkind indifference.'
+
+'Whether I am indifferent or no,' returned the other, 'I leave you, 
+my dear boy, to judge.  A ride of twenty-five or thirty miles, 
+through miry roads--a Maypole dinner--a tete-a-tete with Haredale, 
+which, vanity apart, was quite a Valentine and Orson business--a 
+Maypole bed--a Maypole landlord, and a Maypole retinue of idiots 
+and centaurs;--whether the voluntary endurance of these things 
+looks like indifference, dear Ned, or like the excessive anxiety, 
+and devotion, and all that sort of thing, of a parent, you shall 
+determine for yourself.'
+
+'I wish you to consider, sir,' said Edward, 'in what a cruel 
+situation I am placed.  Loving Miss Haredale as I do'--
+
+'My dear fellow,' interrupted his father with a compassionate 
+smile, 'you do nothing of the kind.  You don't know anything about 
+it.  There's no such thing, I assure you.  Now, do take my word for 
+it.  You have good sense, Ned,--great good sense.  I wonder you 
+should be guilty of such amazing absurdities.  You really surprise 
+me.'
+
+'I repeat,' said his son firmly, 'that I love her.  You have 
+interposed to part us, and have, to the extent I have just now told 
+you of, succeeded.  May I induce you, sir, in time, to think more 
+favourably of our attachment, or is it your intention and your 
+fixed design to hold us asunder if you can?'
+
+'My dear Ned,' returned his father, taking a pinch of snuff and 
+pushing his box towards him, 'that is my purpose most undoubtedly.'
+
+'The time that has elapsed,' rejoined his son, 'since I began to 
+know her worth, has flown in such a dream that until now I have 
+hardly once paused to reflect upon my true position.  What is it?  
+From my childhood I have been accustomed to luxury and idleness, 
+and have been bred as though my fortune were large, and my 
+expectations almost without a limit.  The idea of wealth has been 
+familiarised to me from my cradle.  I have been taught to look upon 
+those means, by which men raise themselves to riches and 
+distinction, as being beyond my heeding, and beneath my care.  I 
+have been, as the phrase is, liberally educated, and am fit for 
+nothing.  I find myself at last wholly dependent upon you, with no 
+resource but in your favour.  In this momentous question of my life 
+we do not, and it would seem we never can, agree.  I have shrunk 
+instinctively alike from those to whom you have urged me to pay 
+court, and from the motives of interest and gain which have 
+rendered them in your eyes visible objects for my suit.  If there 
+never has been thus much plain-speaking between us before, sir, the 
+fault has not been mine, indeed.  If I seem to speak too plainly 
+now, it is, believe me father, in the hope that there may be a 
+franker spirit, a worthier reliance, and a kinder confidence 
+between us in time to come.'
+
+'My good fellow,' said his smiling father, 'you quite affect me.  
+Go on, my dear Edward, I beg.  But remember your promise.  There is 
+great earnestness, vast candour, a manifest sincerity in all you 
+say, but I fear I observe the faintest indications of a tendency to 
+prose.'
+
+'I am very sorry, sir.'
+
+'I am very sorry, too, Ned, but you know that I cannot fix my mind 
+for any long period upon one subject.  If you'll come to the point 
+at once, I'll imagine all that ought to go before, and conclude it 
+said.  Oblige me with the milk again.  Listening, invariably makes 
+me feverish.'
+
+'What I would say then, tends to this,' said Edward.  'I cannot 
+bear this absolute dependence, sir, even upon you.  Time has been 
+lost and opportunity thrown away, but I am yet a young man, and may 
+retrieve it.  Will you give me the means of devoting such abilities 
+and energies as I possess, to some worthy pursuit?  Will you let me 
+try to make for myself an honourable path in life?  For any term 
+you please to name--say for five years if you will--I will pledge 
+myself to move no further in the matter of our difference without 
+your fall concurrence.  During that period, I will endeavour 
+earnestly and patiently, if ever man did, to open some prospect for 
+myself, and free you from the burden you fear I should become if I 
+married one whose worth and beauty are her chief endowments.  Will 
+you do this, sir?  At the expiration of the term we agree upon, let 
+us discuss this subject again.  Till then, unless it is revived by 
+you, let it never be renewed between us.'
+
+'My dear Ned,' returned his father, laying down the newspaper at 
+which he had been glancing carelessly, and throwing himself back in 
+the window-seat, 'I believe you know how very much I dislike what 
+are called family affairs, which are only fit for plebeian 
+Christmas days, and have no manner of business with people of our 
+condition.  But as you are proceeding upon a mistake, Ned--
+altogether upon a mistake--I will conquer my repugnance to entering 
+on such matters, and give you a perfectly plain and candid answer, 
+if you will do me the favour to shut the door.'
+
+Edward having obeyed him, he took an elegant little knife from his 
+pocket, and paring his nails, continued:
+
+'You have to thank me, Ned, for being of good family; for your 
+mother, charming person as she was, and almost broken-hearted, and 
+so forth, as she left me, when she was prematurely compelled to 
+become immortal--had nothing to boast of in that respect.'
+
+'Her father was at least an eminent lawyer, sir,' said Edward.
+
+'Quite right, Ned; perfectly so.  He stood high at the bar, had a 
+great name and great wealth, but having risen from nothing--I have 
+always closed my eyes to the circumstance and steadily resisted its 
+contemplation, but I fear his father dealt in pork, and that his 
+business did once involve cow-heel and sausages--he wished to marry 
+his daughter into a good family.  He had his heart's desire, Ned.  
+I was a younger son's younger son, and I married her.  We each had 
+our object, and gained it.  She stepped at once into the politest 
+and best circles, and I stepped into a fortune which I assure you 
+was very necessary to my comfort--quite indispensable.  Now, my 
+good fellow, that fortune is among the things that have been.  It 
+is gone, Ned, and has been gone--how old are you?  I always 
+forget.'
+
+'Seven-and-twenty, sir.'
+
+'Are you indeed?' cried his father, raising his eyelids in a 
+languishing surprise.  'So much!  Then I should say, Ned, that as 
+nearly as I remember, its skirts vanished from human knowledge, 
+about eighteen or nineteen years ago.  It was about that time when 
+I came to live in these chambers (once your grandfather's, and 
+bequeathed by that extremely respectable person to me), and 
+commenced to live upon an inconsiderable annuity and my past 
+reputation.'
+
+'You are jesting with me, sir,' said Edward.
+
+'Not in the slightest degree, I assure you,' returned his father 
+with great composure.  'These family topics are so extremely dry, 
+that I am sorry to say they don't admit of any such relief.  It is 
+for that reason, and because they have an appearance of business, 
+that I dislike them so very much.  Well!  You know the rest.  A 
+son, Ned, unless he is old enough to be a companion--that is to 
+say, unless he is some two or three and twenty--is not the kind of 
+thing to have about one.  He is a restraint upon his father, his 
+father is a restraint upon him, and they make each other mutually 
+uncomfortable.  Therefore, until within the last four years or so--
+I have a poor memory for dates, and if I mistake, you will correct 
+me in your own mind--you pursued your studies at a distance, and 
+picked up a great variety of accomplishments.  Occasionally we 
+passed a week or two together here, and disconcerted each other as 
+only such near relations can.  At last you came home.  I candidly 
+tell you, my dear boy, that if you had been awkward and overgrown, 
+I should have exported you to some distant part of the world.'
+
+'I wish with all my soul you had, sir,' said Edward.
+
+'No you don't, Ned,' said his father coolly; 'you are mistaken, I 
+assure you.  I found you a handsome, prepossessing, elegant 
+fellow, and I threw you into the society I can still command.  
+Having done that, my dear fellow, I consider that I have provided 
+for you in life, and rely upon your doing something to provide for 
+me in return.'
+
+'I do not understand your meaning, sir.'
+
+'My meaning, Ned, is obvious--I observe another fly in the cream-
+jug, but have the goodness not to take it out as you did the first, 
+for their walk when their legs are milky, is extremely ungraceful 
+and disagreeable--my meaning is, that you must do as I did; that 
+you must marry well and make the most of yourself.'
+
+'A mere fortune-hunter!' cried the son, indignantly.
+
+'What in the devil's name, Ned, would you be!' returned the father.  
+'All men are fortune-hunters, are they not?  The law, the church, 
+the court, the camp--see how they are all crowded with fortune-
+hunters, jostling each other in the pursuit.  The stock-exchange, 
+the pulpit, the counting-house, the royal drawing-room, the 
+senate,--what but fortune-hunters are they filled with?  A fortune-
+hunter!  Yes.  You ARE one; and you would be nothing else, my dear 
+Ned, if you were the greatest courtier, lawyer, legislator, 
+prelate, or merchant, in existence.  If you are squeamish and 
+moral, Ned, console yourself with the reflection that at the very 
+worst your fortune-hunting can make but one person miserable or 
+unhappy.  How many people do you suppose these other kinds of 
+huntsmen crush in following their sport--hundreds at a step?  Or 
+thousands?'
+
+The young man leant his head upon his hand, and made no answer.
+
+'I am quite charmed,' said the father rising, and walking slowly to 
+and fro--stopping now and then to glance at himself in the mirror, 
+or survey a picture through his glass, with the air of a 
+connoisseur, 'that we have had this conversation, Ned, unpromising 
+as it was.  It establishes a confidence between us which is quite 
+delightful, and was certainly necessary, though how you can ever 
+have mistaken our positions and designs, I confess I cannot 
+understand.  I conceived, until I found your fancy for this girl, 
+that all these points were tacitly agreed upon between us.'
+
+'I knew you were embarrassed, sir,' returned the son, raising his 
+head for a moment, and then falling into his former attitude, 'but 
+I had no idea we were the beggared wretches you describe.  How 
+could I suppose it, bred as I have been; witnessing the life you 
+have always led; and the appearance you have always made?'
+
+'My dear child,' said the father--'for you really talk so like a 
+child that I must call you one--you were bred upon a careful 
+principle; the very manner of your education, I assure you, 
+maintained my credit surprisingly.  As to the life I lead, I must 
+lead it, Ned.  I must have these little refinements about me.  I 
+have always been used to them, and I cannot exist without them.  
+They must surround me, you observe, and therefore they are here.  
+With regard to our circumstances, Ned, you may set your mind at 
+rest upon that score.  They are desperate.  Your own appearance is 
+by no means despicable, and our joint pocket-money alone devours 
+our income.  That's the truth.'
+
+'Why have I never known this before?  Why have you encouraged me, 
+sir, to an expenditure and mode of life to which we have no right 
+or title?'
+
+'My good fellow,' returned his father more compassionately than 
+ever, 'if you made no appearance, how could you possibly succeed in 
+the pursuit for which I destined you?  As to our mode of life, 
+every man has a right to live in the best way he can; and to make 
+himself as comfortable as he can, or he is an unnatural scoundrel.  
+Our debts, I grant, are very great, and therefore it the more 
+behoves you, as a young man of principle and honour, to pay them 
+off as speedily as possible.'
+
+'The villain's part,' muttered Edward, 'that I have unconsciously 
+played!  I to win the heart of Emma Haredale!  I would, for her 
+sake, I had died first!'
+
+'I am glad you see, Ned,' returned his father, 'how perfectly self-
+evident it is, that nothing can be done in that quarter.  But apart 
+from this, and the necessity of your speedily bestowing yourself 
+on another (as you know you could to-morrow, if you chose), I wish 
+you'd look upon it pleasantly.  In a religious point of view alone, 
+how could you ever think of uniting yourself to a Catholic, unless 
+she was amazingly rich?  You ought to be so very Protestant, 
+coming of such a Protestant family as you do.  Let us be moral, 
+Ned, or we are nothing.  Even if one could set that objection 
+aside, which is impossible, we come to another which is quite 
+conclusive.  The very idea of marrying a girl whose father was 
+killed, like meat!  Good God, Ned, how disagreeable!  Consider the 
+impossibility of having any respect for your father-in-law under 
+such unpleasant circumstances--think of his having been "viewed" by 
+jurors, and "sat upon" by coroners, and of his very doubtful 
+position in the family ever afterwards.  It seems to me such an 
+indelicate sort of thing that I really think the girl ought to have 
+been put to death by the state to prevent its happening.  But I 
+tease you perhaps.  You would rather be alone?  My dear Ned, most 
+willingly.  God bless you.  I shall be going out presently, but we 
+shall meet to-night, or if not to-night, certainly to-morrow.  
+Take care of yourself in the mean time, for both our sakes.  You 
+are a person of great consequence to me, Ned--of vast consequence 
+indeed.  God bless you!'
+
+With these words, the father, who had been arranging his cravat in 
+the glass, while he uttered them in a disconnected careless manner, 
+withdrew, humming a tune as he went.  The son, who had appeared so 
+lost in thought as not to hear or understand them, remained quite 
+still and silent.  After the lapse of half an hour or so, the elder 
+Chester, gaily dressed, went out.  The younger still sat with his 
+head resting on his hands, in what appeared to be a kind of stupor.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16
+
+
+A series of pictures representing the streets of London in the 
+night, even at the comparatively recent date of this tale, would 
+present to the eye something so very different in character from 
+the reality which is witnessed in these times, that it would be 
+difficult for the beholder to recognise his most familiar walks in 
+the altered aspect of little more than half a century ago.
+
+They were, one and all, from the broadest and best to the narrowest 
+and least frequented, very dark.  The oil and cotton lamps, though 
+regularly trimmed twice or thrice in the long winter nights, burnt 
+feebly at the best; and at a late hour, when they were unassisted 
+by the lamps and candles in the shops, cast but a narrow track of 
+doubtful light upon the footway, leaving the projecting doors and 
+house-fronts in the deepest gloom.  Many of the courts and lanes 
+were left in total darkness; those of the meaner sort, where one 
+glimmering light twinkled for a score of houses, being favoured in 
+no slight degree.  Even in these places, the inhabitants had often 
+good reason for extinguishing their lamp as soon as it was lighted; 
+and the watch being utterly inefficient and powerless to prevent 
+them, they did so at their pleasure.  Thus, in the lightest 
+thoroughfares, there was at every turn some obscure and dangerous 
+spot whither a thief might fly or shelter, and few would care to 
+follow; and the city being belted round by fields, green lanes, 
+waste grounds, and lonely roads, dividing it at that time from the 
+suburbs that have joined it since, escape, even where the pursuit 
+was hot, was rendered easy.
+
+It is no wonder that with these favouring circumstances in full and 
+constant operation, street robberies, often accompanied by cruel 
+wounds, and not unfrequently by loss of life, should have been of 
+nightly occurrence in the very heart of London, or that quiet folks 
+should have had great dread of traversing its streets after the 
+shops were closed.  It was not unusual for those who wended home 
+alone at midnight, to keep the middle of the road, the better to 
+guard against surprise from lurking footpads; few would venture to 
+repair at a late hour to Kentish Town or Hampstead, or even to 
+Kensington or Chelsea, unarmed and unattended; while he who had 
+been loudest and most valiant at the supper-table or the tavern, 
+and had but a mile or so to go, was glad to fee a link-boy to 
+escort him home.
+
+There were many other characteristics--not quite so disagreeable--
+about the thoroughfares of London then, with which they had been 
+long familiar.  Some of the shops, especially those to the eastward 
+of Temple Bar, still adhered to the old practice of hanging out a 
+sign; and the creaking and swinging of these boards in their iron 
+frames on windy nights, formed a strange and mournfal concert for 
+the ears of those who lay awake in bed or hurried through the 
+streets.  Long stands of hackney-chairs and groups of chairmen, 
+compared with whom the coachmen of our day are gentle and polite, 
+obstructed the way and filled the air with clamour; night-cellars, 
+indicated by a little stream of light crossing the pavement, and 
+stretching out half-way into the road, and by the stifled roar of 
+voices from below, yawned for the reception and entertainment of 
+the most abandoned of both sexes; under every shed and bulk small 
+groups of link-boys gamed away the earnings of the day; or one more 
+weary than the rest, gave way to sleep, and let the fragment of his 
+torch fall hissing on the puddled ground.
+
+Then there was the watch with staff and lantern crying the hour, 
+and the kind of weather; and those who woke up at his voice and 
+turned them round in bed, were glad to hear it rained, or snowed, 
+or blew, or froze, for very comfort's sake.  The solitary passenger 
+was startled by the chairmen's cry of 'By your leave there!' as two 
+came trotting past him with their empty vehicle--carried backwards 
+to show its being disengaged--and hurried to the nearest stand.  
+Many a private chair, too, inclosing some fine lady, monstrously 
+hooped and furbelowed, and preceded by running-footmen bearing 
+flambeaux--for which extinguishers are yet suspended before the 
+doors of a few houses of the better sort--made the way gay and 
+light as it danced along, and darker and more dismal when it had 
+passed.  It was not unusual for these running gentry, who carried 
+it with a very high hand, to quarrel in the servants' hall while 
+waiting for their masters and mistresses; and, falling to blows 
+either there or in the street without, to strew the place of 
+skirmish with hair-powder, fragments of bag-wigs, and scattered 
+nosegays.  Gaming, the vice which ran so high among all classes 
+(the fashion being of course set by the upper), was generally the 
+cause of these disputes; for cards and dice were as openly used, 
+and worked as much mischief, and yielded as much excitement below 
+stairs, as above.  While incidents like these, arising out of drums 
+and masquerades and parties at quadrille, were passing at the west 
+end of the town, heavy stagecoaches and scarce heavier waggons were 
+lumbering slowly towards the city, the coachmen, guard, and 
+passengers, armed to the teeth, and the coach--a day or so perhaps 
+behind its time, but that was nothing--despoiled by highwaymen; who 
+made no scruple to attack, alone and single-handed, a whole caravan 
+of goods and men, and sometimes shot a passenger or two, and were 
+sometimes shot themselves, as the case might be.  On the morrow, 
+rumours of this new act of daring on the road yielded matter for a 
+few hours' conversation through the town, and a Public Progress of 
+some fine gentleman (half-drunk) to Tyburn, dressed in the newest 
+fashion, and damning the ordinary with unspeakable gallantry and 
+grace, furnished to the populace, at once a pleasant excitement and 
+a wholesome and profound example.
+
+Among all the dangerous characters who, in such a state of society, 
+prowled and skulked in the metropolis at night, there was one man 
+from whom many as uncouth and fierce as he, shrunk with an 
+involuntary dread.  Who he was, or whence he came, was a question 
+often asked, but which none could answer.  His name was unknown, he 
+had never been seen until within about eight days or thereabouts, 
+and was equally a stranger to the old ruffians, upon whose haunts 
+he ventured fearlessly, as to the young.  He could be no spy, for 
+he never removed his slouched hat to look about him, entered into 
+conversation with no man, heeded nothing that passed, listened to 
+no discourse, regarded nobody that came or went.  But so surely as 
+the dead of night set in, so surely this man was in the midst of 
+the loose concourse in the night-cellar where outcasts of every 
+grade resorted; and there he sat till morning.
+
+He was not only a spectre at their licentious feasts; a something 
+in the midst of their revelry and riot that chilled and haunted 
+them; but out of doors he was the same.  Directly it was dark, he 
+was abroad--never in company with any one, but always alone; never 
+lingering or loitering, but always walking swiftly; and looking (so 
+they said who had seen him) over his shoulder from time to time, 
+and as he did so quickening his pace.  In the fields, the lanes, 
+the roads, in all quarters of the town--east, west, north, and 
+south--that man was seen gliding on like a shadow.  He was always 
+hurrying away.  Those who encountered him, saw him steal past, 
+caught sight of the backward glance, and so lost him in the 
+darkness.
+
+This constant restlessness, and flitting to and fro, gave rise to 
+strange stories.  He was seen in such distant and remote places, at 
+times so nearly tallying with each other, that some doubted whether 
+there were not two of them, or more--some, whether he had not 
+unearthly means of travelling from spot to spot.  The footpad 
+hiding in a ditch had marked him passing like a ghost along its 
+brink; the vagrant had met him on the dark high-road; the beggar 
+had seen him pause upon the bridge to look down at the water, and 
+then sweep on again; they who dealt in bodies with the surgeons 
+could swear he slept in churchyards, and that they had beheld him 
+glide away among the tombs on their approach.  And as they told 
+these stories to each other, one who had looked about him would 
+pull his neighbour by the sleeve, and there he would be among them.
+
+At last, one man--he was one of those whose commerce lay among the 
+graves--resolved to question this strange companion.  Next night, 
+when he had eat his poor meal voraciously (he was accustomed to do 
+that, they had observed, as though he had no other in the day), 
+this fellow sat down at his elbow.
+
+'A black night, master!'
+
+'It is a black night.'
+
+'Blacker than last, though that was pitchy too.  Didn't I pass you 
+near the turnpike in the Oxford Road?'
+
+'It's like you may.  I don't know.'
+
+'Come, come, master,' cried the fellow, urged on by the looks of 
+his comrades, and slapping him on the shoulder; 'be more 
+companionable and communicative.  Be more the gentleman in this 
+good company.  There are tales among us that you have sold yourself 
+to the devil, and I know not what.'
+
+'We all have, have we not?' returned the stranger, looking up.  'If 
+we were fewer in number, perhaps he would give better wages.'
+
+'It goes rather hard with you, indeed,' said the fellow, as the 
+stranger disclosed his haggard unwashed face, and torn clothes.  
+'What of that?  Be merry, master.  A stave of a roaring song now'--
+
+'Sing you, if you desire to hear one,' replied the other, shaking 
+him roughly off; 'and don't touch me if you're a prudent man; I 
+carry arms which go off easily--they have done so, before now--and 
+make it dangerous for strangers who don't know the trick of them, 
+to lay hands upon me.'
+
+'Do you threaten?' said the fellow.
+
+'Yes,' returned the other, rising and turning upon him, and looking 
+fiercely round as if in apprehension of a general attack.
+
+His voice, and look, and bearing--all expressive of the wildest 
+recklessness and desperation--daunted while they repelled the 
+bystanders.  Although in a very different sphere of action now, 
+they were not without much of the effect they had wrought at the 
+Maypole Inn.
+
+'I am what you all are, and live as you all do,' said the man 
+sternly, after a short silence.  'I am in hiding here like the 
+rest, and if we were surprised would perhaps do my part with the 
+best of ye.  If it's my humour to be left to myself, let me have 
+it.  Otherwise,'--and here he swore a tremendous oath--'there'll be 
+mischief done in this place, though there ARE odds of a score 
+against me.'
+
+A low murmur, having its origin perhaps in a dread of the man and 
+the mystery that surrounded him, or perhaps in a sincere opinion on 
+the part of some of those present, that it would be an inconvenient 
+precedent to meddle too curiously with a gentleman's private 
+affairs if he saw reason to conceal them, warned the fellow who 
+had occasioned this discussion that he had best pursue it no 
+further.  After a short time the strange man lay down upon a bench 
+to sleep, and when they thought of him again, they found he was 
+gone.
+
+Next night, as soon as it was dark, he was abroad again and 
+traversing the streets; he was before the locksmith's house more 
+than once, but the family were out, and it was close shut.  This 
+night he crossed London Bridge and passed into Southwark.  As he 
+glided down a bye street, a woman with a little basket on her arm, 
+turned into it at the other end.  Directly he observed her, he 
+sought the shelter of an archway, and stood aside until she had 
+passed.  Then he emerged cautiously from his hiding-place, and 
+followed.
+
+She went into several shops to purchase various kinds of household 
+necessaries, and round every place at which she stopped he hovered 
+like her evil spirit; following her when she reappeared.  It was 
+nigh eleven o'clock, and the passengers in the streets were 
+thinning fast, when she turned, doubtless to go home.  The phantom 
+still followed her.
+
+She turned into the same bye street in which he had seen her first, 
+which, being free from shops, and narrow, was extremely dark.  She 
+quickened her pace here, as though distrustful of being stopped, 
+and robbed of such trifling property as she carried with her.  He 
+crept along on the other side of the road.  Had she been gifted 
+with the speed of wind, it seemed as if his terrible shadow would 
+have tracked her down.
+
+At length the widow--for she it was--reached her own door, and, 
+panting for breath, paused to take the key from her basket.  In a 
+flush and glow, with the haste she had made, and the pleasure of 
+being safe at home, she stooped to draw it out, when, raising her 
+head, she saw him standing silently beside her: the apparition of 
+a dream.
+
+His hand was on her mouth, but that was needless, for her tongue 
+clove to its roof, and her power of utterance was gone.  'I have 
+been looking for you many nights.  Is the house empty?  Answer me.  
+Is any one inside?'
+
+She could only answer by a rattle in her throat.
+
+'Make me a sign.'
+
+She seemed to indicate that there was no one there.  He took the 
+key, unlocked the door, carried her in, and secured it carefully 
+behind them.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17
+
+
+It was a chilly night, and the fire in the widow's parlour had 
+burnt low.  Her strange companion placed her in a chair, and 
+stooping down before the half-extinguished ashes, raked them 
+together and fanned them with his hat.  From time to time he 
+glanced at her over his shoulder, as though to assure himself of 
+her remaining quiet and making no effort to depart; and that done, 
+busied himself about the fire again.
+
+It was not without reason that he took these pains, for his dress 
+was dank and drenched with wet, his jaws rattled with cold, and he 
+shivered from head to foot.  It had rained hard during the previous 
+night and for some hours in the morning, but since noon it had been 
+fine.  Wheresoever he had passed the hours of darkness, his 
+condition sufficiently betokened that many of them had been spent 
+beneath the open sky.  Besmeared with mire; his saturated clothes 
+clinging with a damp embrace about his limbs; his beard unshaven, 
+his face unwashed, his meagre cheeks worn into deep hollows,--a 
+more miserable wretch could hardly be, than this man who now 
+cowered down upon the widow's hearth, and watched the struggling 
+flame with bloodshot eyes.
+
+She had covered her face with her hands, fearing, as it seemed, to 
+look towards him.  So they remained for some short time in silence.  
+Glancing round again, he asked at length:
+
+'Is this your house?'
+
+'It is.  Why, in the name of Heaven, do you darken it?'
+
+'Give me meat and drink,' he answered sullenly, 'or I dare do more 
+than that.  The very marrow in my bones is cold, with wet and 
+hunger.  I must have warmth and food, and I will have them here.'
+
+'You were the robber on the Chigwell road.'
+
+'I was.'
+
+'And nearly a murderer then.'
+
+'The will was not wanting.  There was one came upon me and raised 
+the hue-and-cry', that it would have gone hard with, but for his 
+nimbleness.  I made a thrust at him.'
+
+'You thrust your sword at HIM!' cried the widow, looking upwards.  
+'You hear this man! you hear and saw!'
+
+He looked at her, as, with her head thrown back, and her hands 
+tight clenched together, she uttered these words in an agony of 
+appeal.  Then, starting to his feet as she had done, he advanced 
+towards her.
+
+'Beware!' she cried in a suppressed voice, whose firmness stopped 
+him midway.  'Do not so much as touch me with a finger, or you are 
+lost; body and soul, you are lost.'
+
+'Hear me,' he replied, menacing her with his hand.  'I, that in the 
+form of a man live the life of a hunted beast; that in the body am 
+a spirit, a ghost upon the earth, a thing from which all creatures 
+shrink, save those curst beings of another world, who will not 
+leave me;--I am, in my desperation of this night, past all fear but 
+that of the hell in which I exist from day to day.  Give the 
+alarm, cry out, refuse to shelter me.  I will not hurt you.  But I 
+will not be taken alive; and so surely as you threaten me above 
+your breath, I fall a dead man on this floor.  The blood with which 
+I sprinkle it, be on you and yours, in the name of the Evil Spirit 
+that tempts men to their ruin!'
+
+As he spoke, he took a pistol from his breast, and firmly clutched 
+it in his hand.
+
+'Remove this man from me, good Heaven!' cried the widow.  'In thy 
+grace and mercy, give him one minute's penitence, and strike him 
+dead!'
+
+'It has no such purpose,' he said, confronting her.  'It is deaf.  
+Give me to eat and drink, lest I do that it cannot help my doing, 
+and will not do for you.'
+
+'Will you leave me, if I do thus much?  Will you leave me and 
+return no more?'
+
+'I will promise nothing,' he rejoined, seating himself at the 
+table, 'nothing but this--I will execute my threat if you betray 
+me.'
+
+She rose at length, and going to a closet or pantry in the room, 
+brought out some fragments of cold meat and bread and put them on 
+the table.  He asked for brandy, and for water.  These she produced 
+likewise; and he ate and drank with the voracity of a famished 
+hound.  All the time he was so engaged she kept at the uttermost 
+distance of the chamber, and sat there shuddering, but with her 
+face towards him.  She never turned her back upon him once; and 
+although when she passed him (as she was obliged to do in going to 
+and from the cupboard) she gathered the skirts of her garment about 
+her, as if even its touching his by chance were horrible to think 
+of, still, in the midst of all this dread and terror, she kept her 
+face towards his own, and watched his every movement.
+
+His repast ended--if that can be called one, which was a mere 
+ravenous satisfying of the calls of hunger--he moved his chair 
+towards the fire again, and warming himself before the blaze which 
+had now sprung brightly up, accosted her once more.
+
+'I am an outcast, to whom a roof above his head is often an 
+uncommon luxury, and the food a beggar would reject is delicate 
+fare.  You live here at your ease.  Do you live alone?'
+
+'I do not,' she made answer with an effort.
+
+'Who dwells here besides?'
+
+'One--it is no matter who.  You had best begone, or he may find you 
+here.  Why do you linger?'
+
+'For warmth,' he replied, spreading out his hands before the fire.  
+'For warmth.  You are rich, perhaps?'
+
+'Very,' she said faintly.  'Very rich.  No doubt I am very rich.'
+
+'At least you are not penniless.  You have some money.  You were 
+making purchases to-night.'
+
+'I have a little left.  It is but a few shillings.'
+
+'Give me your purse.  You had it in your hand at the door.  Give it 
+to me.'
+
+She stepped to the table and laid it down.  He reached across, took 
+it up, and told the contents into his hand.  As he was counting 
+them, she listened for a moment, and sprung towards him.
+
+'Take what there is, take all, take more if more were there, but go 
+before it is too late.  I have heard a wayward step without, I know 
+full well.  It will return directly.  Begone.'
+
+'What do you mean?'
+
+'Do not stop to ask.  I will not answer.  Much as I dread to touch 
+you, I would drag you to the door if I possessed the strength, 
+rather than you should lose an instant.  Miserable wretch! fly from 
+this place.'
+
+'If there are spies without, I am safer here,' replied the man, 
+standing aghast.  'I will remain here, and will not fly till the 
+danger is past.'
+
+'It is too late!' cried the widow, who had listened for the step, 
+and not to him.  'Hark to that foot upon the ground.  Do you 
+tremble to hear it!  It is my son, my idiot son!'
+
+As she said this wildly, there came a heavy knocking at the door.  
+He looked at her, and she at him.
+
+'Let him come in,' said the man, hoarsely.  'I fear him less than 
+the dark, houseless night.  He knocks again.  Let him come in!'
+
+'The dread of this hour,' returned the widow, 'has been upon me all 
+my life, and I will not.  Evil will fall upon him, if you stand eye 
+to eye.  My blighted boy!  Oh! all good angels who know the truth--
+hear a poor mother's prayer, and spare my boy from knowledge of 
+this man!'
+
+'He rattles at the shutters!' cried the man.  'He calls you.  That 
+voice and cry!  It was he who grappled with me in the road.  Was it 
+he?'
+
+She had sunk upon her knees, and so knelt down, moving her lips, 
+but uttering no sound.  As he gazed upon her, uncertain what to do 
+or where to turn, the shutters flew open.  He had barely time to 
+catch a knife from the table, sheathe it in the loose sleeve of his 
+coat, hide in the closet, and do all with the lightning's speed, 
+when Barnaby tapped at the bare glass, and raised the sash 
+exultingly.
+
+'Why, who can keep out Grip and me!' he cried, thrusting in his 
+head, and staring round the room.  'Are you there, mother?  How 
+long you keep us from the fire and light.'
+
+She stammered some excuse and tendered him her hand.  But Barnaby 
+sprung lightly in without assistance, and putting his arms about 
+her neck, kissed her a hundred times.
+
+'We have been afield, mother--leaping ditches, scrambling through 
+hedges, running down steep banks, up and away, and hurrying on.  
+The wind has been blowing, and the rushes and young plants bowing 
+and bending to it, lest it should do them harm, the cowards--and 
+Grip--ha ha ha!--brave Grip, who cares for nothing, and when the 
+wind rolls him over in the dust, turns manfully to bite it--Grip, 
+bold Grip, has quarrelled with every little bowing twig--thinking, 
+he told me, that it mocked him--and has worried it like a bulldog.  
+Ha ha ha!'
+
+The raven, in his little basket at his master's back, hearing this 
+frequent mention of his name in a tone of exultation, expressed his 
+sympathy by crowing like a cock, and afterwards running over his 
+various phrases of speech with such rapidity, and in so many 
+varieties of hoarseness, that they sounded like the murmurs of a 
+crowd of people.
+
+'He takes such care of me besides!' said Barnaby.  'Such care, 
+mother!  He watches all the time I sleep, and when I shut my eyes 
+and make-believe to slumber, he practises new learning softly; but 
+he keeps his eye on me the while, and if he sees me laugh, though 
+never so little, stops directly.  He won't surprise me till he's 
+perfect.'
+
+The raven crowed again in a rapturous manner which plainly said, 
+'Those are certainly some of my characteristics, and I glory in 
+them.'  In the meantime, Barnaby closed the window and secured it, 
+and coming to the fireplace, prepared to sit down with his face
+to the closet.  But his mother prevented this, by hastily taking 
+that side herself, and motioning him towards the other.
+
+'How pale you are to-night!' said Barnaby, leaning on his stick.  
+'We have been cruel, Grip, and made her anxious!'
+
+Anxious in good truth, and sick at heart!  The listener held the 
+door of his hiding-place open with his hand, and closely watched 
+her son.  Grip--alive to everything his master was unconscious of--
+had his head out of the basket, and in return was watching him 
+intently with his glistening eye.
+
+'He flaps his wings,' said Barnaby, turning almost quickly enough 
+to catch the retreating form and closing door, 'as if there were 
+strangers here, but Grip is wiser than to fancy that.  Jump then!'
+
+Accepting this invitation with a dignity peculiar to himself, the 
+bird hopped up on his master's shoulder, from that to his extended 
+hand, and so to the ground.  Barnaby unstrapping the basket and 
+putting it down in a corner with the lid open, Grip's first care 
+was to shut it down with all possible despatch, and then to stand 
+upon it.  Believing, no doubt, that he had now rendered it utterly 
+impossible, and beyond the power of mortal man, to shut him up in 
+it any more, he drew a great many corks in triumph, and uttered a 
+corresponding number of hurrahs.
+
+'Mother!' said Barnaby, laying aside his hat and stick, and 
+returning to the chair from which he had risen, 'I'll tell you 
+where we have been to-day, and what we have been doing,--shall I?'
+
+She took his hand in hers, and holding it, nodded the word she 
+could not speak.
+
+'You mustn't tell,' said Barnaby, holding up his finger, 'for it's 
+a secret, mind, and only known to me, and Grip, and Hugh.  We had 
+the dog with us, but he's not like Grip, clever as he is, and 
+doesn't guess it yet, I'll wager.--Why do you look behind me so?'
+
+'Did I?' she answered faintly.  'I didn't know I did.  Come nearer 
+me.'
+
+'You are frightened!' said Barnaby, changing colour.  'Mother--you 
+don't see'--
+
+'See what?'
+
+'There's--there's none of this about, is there?' he answered in a 
+whisper, drawing closer to her and clasping the mark upon his 
+wrist.  'I am afraid there is, somewhere.  You make my hair stand 
+on end, and my flesh creep.  Why do you look like that?  Is it in 
+the room as I have seen it in my dreams, dashing the ceiling and 
+the walls with red?  Tell me.  Is it?'
+
+He fell into a shivering fit as he put the question, and shutting 
+out the light with his hands, sat shaking in every limb until it 
+had passed away.  After a time, he raised his head and looked about 
+him.
+
+'Is it gone?'
+
+'There has been nothing here,' rejoined his mother, soothing him.  
+'Nothing indeed, dear Barnaby.  Look!  You see there are but you 
+and me.'
+
+He gazed at her vacantly, and, becoming reassured by degrees, burst 
+into a wild laugh.
+
+'But let us see,' he said, thoughtfully.  'Were we talking?  Was it 
+you and me?  Where have we been?'
+
+'Nowhere but here.'
+
+'Aye, but Hugh, and I,' said Barnaby,--'that's it.  Maypole Hugh, 
+and I, you know, and Grip--we have been lying in the forest, and 
+among the trees by the road side, with a dark lantern after night 
+came on, and the dog in a noose ready to slip him when the man came 
+by.'
+
+'What man?'
+
+'The robber; him that the stars winked at.  We have waited for him 
+after dark these many nights, and we shall have him.  I'd know him 
+in a thousand.  Mother, see here!  This is the man.  Look!'
+
+He twisted his handkerchief round his head, pulled his hat upon his 
+brow, wrapped his coat about him, and stood up before her: so like 
+the original he counterfeited, that the dark figure peering out 
+behind him might have passed for his own shadow.
+
+'Ha ha ha!  We shall have him,' he cried, ridding himself of the 
+semblance as hastily as he had assumed it.  'You shall see him, 
+mother, bound hand and foot, and brought to London at a saddle-
+girth; and you shall hear of him at Tyburn Tree if we have luck.  
+So Hugh says.  You're pale again, and trembling.  And why DO you 
+look behind me so?'
+
+'It is nothing,' she answered.  'I am not quite well.  Go you to 
+bed, dear, and leave me here.'
+
+'To bed!' he answered.  'I don't like bed.  I like to lie before 
+the fire, watching the prospects in the burning coals--the rivers, 
+hills, and dells, in the deep, red sunset, and the wild faces.  I 
+am hungry too, and Grip has eaten nothing since broad noon.  Let us 
+to supper.  Grip!  To supper, lad!'
+
+The raven flapped his wings, and, croaking his satisfaction, hopped 
+to the feet of his master, and there held his bill open, ready for 
+snapping up such lumps of meat as he should throw him.  Of these he 
+received about a score in rapid succession, without the smallest 
+discomposure.
+
+'That's all,' said Barnaby.
+
+'More!' cried Grip.  'More!'
+
+But it appearing for a certainty that no more was to be had, he 
+retreated with his store; and disgorging the morsels one by one 
+from his pouch, hid them in various corners--taking particular 
+care, however, to avoid the closet, as being doubtful of the hidden 
+man's propensities and power of resisting temptation.  When he had 
+concluded these arrangements, he took a turn or two across the room 
+with an elaborate assumption of having nothing on his mind (but 
+with one eye hard upon his treasure all the time), and then, and 
+not till then, began to drag it out, piece by piece, and eat it 
+with the utmost relish.
+
+Barnaby, for his part, having pressed his mother to eat in vain, 
+made a hearty supper too.  Once during the progress of his meal, he 
+wanted more bread from the closet and rose to get it.  She 
+hurriedly interposed to prevent him, and summoning her utmost 
+fortitude, passed into the recess, and brought it out herself.
+
+'Mother,' said Barnaby, looking at her steadfastly as she sat down 
+beside him after doing so; 'is to-day my birthday?'
+
+'To-day!' she answered.  'Don't you recollect it was but a week or 
+so ago, and that summer, autumn, and winter have to pass before it 
+comes again?'
+
+'I remember that it has been so till now,' said Barnaby.  'But I 
+think to-day must be my birthday too, for all that.'
+
+She asked him why?  'I'll tell you why,' he said.  'I have always 
+seen you--I didn't let you know it, but I have--on the evening of 
+that day grow very sad.  I have seen you cry when Grip and I were 
+most glad; and look frightened with no reason; and I have touched 
+your hand, and felt that it was cold--as it is now.  Once, mother 
+(on a birthday that was, also), Grip and I thought of this after we 
+went upstairs to bed, and when it was midnight, striking one 
+o'clock, we came down to your door to see if you were well.  You 
+were on your knees.  I forget what it was you said.  Grip, what was 
+it we heard her say that night?'
+
+'I'm a devil!' rejoined the raven promptly.
+
+'No, no,' said Barnaby.  'But you said something in a prayer; and 
+when you rose and walked about, you looked (as you have done ever 
+since, mother, towards night on my birthday) just as you do now.  I 
+have found that out, you see, though I am silly.  So I say you're 
+wrong; and this must be my birthday--my birthday, Grip!'
+
+The bird received this information with a crow of such duration as 
+a cock, gifted with intelligence beyond all others of his kind, 
+might usher in the longest day with.  Then, as if he had well 
+considered the sentiment, and regarded it as apposite to birthdays, 
+he cried, 'Never say die!' a great many times, and flapped his 
+wings for emphasis.
+
+The widow tried to make light of Barnaby's remark, and endeavoured 
+to divert his attention to some new subject; too easy a task at all 
+times, as she knew.  His supper done, Barnaby, regardless of her 
+entreaties, stretched himself on the mat before the fire; Grip 
+perched upon his leg, and divided his time between dozing in the 
+grateful warmth, and endeavouring (as it presently appeared) to 
+recall a new accomplishment he had been studying all day.
+
+A long and profound silence ensued, broken only by some change of 
+position on the part of Barnaby, whose eyes were still wide open 
+and intently fixed upon the fire; or by an effort of recollection 
+on the part of Grip, who would cry in a low voice from time to 
+time, 'Polly put the ket--' and there stop short, forgetting the 
+remainder, and go off in a doze again.
+
+After a long interval, Barnaby's breathing grew more deep and 
+regular, and his eyes were closed.  But even then the unquiet 
+spirit of the raven interposed.  'Polly put the ket--' cried Grip, 
+and his master was broad awake again.
+
+At length Barnaby slept soundly, and the bird with his bill sunk 
+upon his breast, his breast itself puffed out into a comfortable 
+alderman-like form, and his bright eye growing smaller and smaller, 
+really seemed to be subsiding into a state of repose.  Now and then 
+he muttered in a sepulchral voice, 'Polly put the ket--' but very 
+drowsily, and more like a drunken man than a reflecting raven.
+
+The widow, scarcely venturing to breathe, rose from her seat.  The 
+man glided from the closet, and extinguished the candle.
+
+'--tle on,' cried Grip, suddenly struck with an idea and very much 
+excited.  '--tle on.  Hurrah!  Polly put the ket-tle on, we'll all 
+have tea; Polly put the ket-tle on, we'll all have tea.  Hurrah, 
+hurrah, hurrah!  I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a ket-tle on, Keep 
+up your spirits, Never say die, Bow, wow, wow, I'm a devil, I'm a 
+ket-tle, I'm a--Polly put the ket-tle on, we'll all have tea.'
+
+They stood rooted to the ground, as though it had been a voice from 
+the grave.
+
+But even this failed to awaken the sleeper.  He turned over towards 
+the fire, his arm fell to the ground, and his head drooped heavily 
+upon it.  The widow and her unwelcome visitor gazed at him and at 
+each other for a moment, and then she motioned him towards the 
+door.
+
+'Stay,' he whispered.  'You teach your son well.'
+
+'I have taught him nothing that you heard to-night.  Depart 
+instantly, or I will rouse him.'
+
+'You are free to do so.  Shall I rouse him?'
+
+'You dare not do that.'
+
+'I dare do anything, I have told you.  He knows me well, it seems.  
+At least I will know him.'
+
+'Would you kill him in his sleep?' cried the widow, throwing 
+herself between them.
+
+'Woman,' he returned between his teeth, as he motioned her aside, 
+'I would see him nearer, and I will.  If you want one of us to kill 
+the other, wake him.'
+
+With that he advanced, and bending down over the prostrate form, 
+softly turned back the head and looked into the face.  The light of 
+the fire was upon it, and its every lineament was revealed 
+distinctly.  He contemplated it for a brief space, and hastily 
+uprose.
+
+'Observe,' he whispered in the widow's ear: 'In him, of whose 
+existence I was ignorant until to-night, I have you in my power.  
+Be careful how you use me.  Be careful how you use me.  I am 
+destitute and starving, and a wanderer upon the earth.  I may take 
+a sure and slow revenge.'
+
+'There is some dreadful meaning in your words.  I do not fathom it.'
+
+'There is a meaning in them, and I see you fathom it to its very 
+depth.  You have anticipated it for years; you have told me as 
+much.  I leave you to digest it.  Do not forget my warning.'
+
+He pointed, as he left her, to the slumbering form, and stealthily 
+withdrawing, made his way into the street.  She fell on her knees 
+beside the sleeper, and remained like one stricken into stone, 
+until the tears which fear had frozen so long, came tenderly to her 
+relief.
+
+'Oh Thou,' she cried, 'who hast taught me such deep love for this 
+one remnant of the promise of a happy life, out of whose 
+affliction, even, perhaps the comfort springs that he is ever a 
+relying, loving child to me--never growing old or cold at heart, 
+but needing my care and duty in his manly strength as in his 
+cradle-time--help him, in his darkened walk through this sad world, 
+or he is doomed, and my poor heart is broken!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 18
+
+
+Gliding along the silent streets, and holding his course where they 
+were darkest and most gloomy, the man who had left the widow's 
+house crossed London Bridge, and arriving in the City, plunged into 
+the backways, lanes, and courts, between Cornhill and Smithfield; 
+with no more fixedness of purpose than to lose himself among their 
+windings, and baffle pursuit, if any one were dogging his steps.
+
+It was the dead time of the night, and all was quiet.  Now and then 
+a drowsy watchman's footsteps sounded on the pavement, or the 
+lamplighter on his rounds went flashing past, leaving behind a 
+little track of smoke mingled with glowing morsels of his hot red 
+link.  He hid himself even from these partakers of his lonely walk, 
+and, shrinking in some arch or doorway while they passed, issued 
+forth again when they were gone and so pursued his solitary way.
+
+To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind 
+moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to 
+listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee 
+of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal 
+things--but not so dismal as the wandering up and down where 
+shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless 
+rejected creature.  To pace the echoing stones from hour to hour, 
+counting the dull chimes of the clocks; to watch the lights 
+twinkling in chamber windows, to think what happy forgetfulness 
+each house shuts in; that here are children coiled together in 
+their beds, here youth, here age, here poverty, here wealth, all 
+equal in their sleep, and all at rest; to have nothing in common 
+with the slumbering world around, not even sleep, Heaven's gift to 
+all its creatures, and be akin to nothing but despair; to feel, by 
+the wretched contrast with everything on every hand, more utterly 
+alone and cast away than in a trackless desert; this is a kind of 
+suffering, on which the rivers of great cities close full many a 
+time, and which the solitude in crowds alone awakens.
+
+The miserable man paced up and down the streets--so long, so 
+wearisome, so like each other--and often cast a wistful look 
+towards the east, hoping to see the first faint streaks of day.  
+But obdurate night had yet possession of the sky, and his disturbed 
+and restless walk found no relief.
+
+One house in a back street was bright with the cheerful glare of 
+lights; there was the sound of music in it too, and the tread of 
+dancers, and there were cheerful voices, and many a burst of 
+laughter.  To this place--to be near something that was awake and 
+glad--he returned again and again; and more than one of those who 
+left it when the merriment was at its height, felt it a check upon 
+their mirthful mood to see him flitting to and fro like an uneasy 
+ghost.  At last the guests departed, one and all; and then the 
+house was close shut up, and became as dull and silent as the rest.
+
+His wanderings brought him at one time to the city jail.  Instead 
+of hastening from it as a place of ill omen, and one he had cause 
+to shun, he sat down on some steps hard by, and resting his chin 
+upon his hand, gazed upon its rough and frowning walls as though 
+even they became a refuge in his jaded eyes.  He paced it round and 
+round, came back to the same spot, and sat down again.  He did this 
+often, and once, with a hasty movement, crossed to where some men 
+were watching in the prison lodge, and had his foot upon the steps 
+as though determined to accost them.  But looking round, he saw 
+that the day began to break, and failing in his purpose, turned and 
+fled.
+
+He was soon in the quarter he had lately traversed, and pacing to 
+and fro again as he had done before.  He was passing down a mean 
+street, when from an alley close at hand some shouts of revelry 
+arose, and there came straggling forth a dozen madcaps, whooping 
+and calling to each other, who, parting noisily, took different 
+ways and dispersed in smaller groups.
+
+Hoping that some low place of entertainment which would afford him 
+a safe refuge might be near at hand, he turned into this court when 
+they were all gone, and looked about for a half-opened door, or 
+lighted window, or other indication of the place whence they had 
+come.  It was so profoundly dark, however, and so ill-favoured, 
+that he concluded they had but turned up there, missing their way, 
+and were pouring out again when he observed them.  With this 
+impression, and finding there was no outlet but that by which he 
+had entered, he was about to turn, when from a grating near his 
+feet a sudden stream of light appeared, and the sound of talking 
+came.  He retreated into a doorway to see who these talkers were, 
+and to listen to them.
+
+The light came to the level of the pavement as he did this, and a 
+man ascended, bearing in his hand a torch.  This figure unlocked 
+and held open the grating as for the passage of another, who 
+presently appeared, in the form of a young man of small stature and 
+uncommon self-importance, dressed in an obsolete and very gaudy 
+fashion.
+
+'Good night, noble captain,' said he with the torch.  'Farewell, 
+commander.  Good luck, illustrious general!'
+
+In return to these compliments the other bade him hold his tongue, 
+and keep his noise to himself, and laid upon him many similar 
+injunctions, with great fluency of speech and sternness of manner.
+
+'Commend me, captain, to the stricken Miggs,' returned the torch-
+bearer in a lower voice.  'My captain flies at higher game than 
+Miggses.  Ha, ha, ha!  My captain is an eagle, both as respects his 
+eye and soaring wings.  My captain breaketh hearts as other 
+bachelors break eggs at breakfast.'
+
+'What a fool you are, Stagg!' said Mr Tappertit, stepping on the 
+pavement of the court, and brushing from his legs the dust he had 
+contracted in his passage upward.
+
+'His precious limbs!' cried Stagg, clasping one of his ankles.  
+'Shall a Miggs aspire to these proportions!  No, no, my captain.  
+We will inveigle ladies fair, and wed them in our secret cavern.  
+We will unite ourselves with blooming beauties, captain.'
+
+'I'll tell you what, my buck,' said Mr Tappertit, releasing his 
+leg; 'I'll trouble you not to take liberties, and not to broach 
+certain questions unless certain questions are broached to you.  
+Speak when you're spoke to on particular subjects, and not 
+otherways.  Hold the torch up till I've got to the end of the 
+court, and then kennel yourself, do you hear?'
+
+'I hear you, noble captain.'
+
+'Obey then,' said Mr Tappertit haughtily.  'Gentlemen, lead on!'  
+With which word of command (addressed to an imaginary staff or 
+retinue) he folded his arms, and walked with surpassing dignity 
+down the court.
+
+His obsequious follower stood holding the torch above his head, and 
+then the observer saw for the first time, from his place of 
+concealment, that he was blind.  Some involuntary motion on his 
+part caught the quick ear of the blind man, before he was conscious 
+of having moved an inch towards him, for he turned suddenly and 
+cried, 'Who's there?'
+
+'A man,' said the other, advancing.  'A friend.'
+
+'A stranger!' rejoined the blind man.  'Strangers are not my 
+friends.  What do you do there?'
+
+'I saw your company come out, and waited here till they were gone.  
+I want a lodging.'
+
+'A lodging at this time!' returned Stagg, pointing towards the dawn 
+as though he saw it.  'Do you know the day is breaking?'
+
+'I know it,' rejoined the other, 'to my cost.  I have been 
+traversing this iron-hearted town all night.'
+
+'You had better traverse it again,' said the blind man, preparing 
+to descend, 'till you find some lodgings suitable to your taste.  I 
+don't let any.'
+
+'Stay!' cried the other, holding him by the arm.
+
+'I'll beat this light about that hangdog face of yours (for hangdog 
+it is, if it answers to your voice), and rouse the neighbourhood 
+besides, if you detain me,' said the blind man.  'Let me go.  Do 
+you hear?'
+
+'Do YOU hear!' returned the other, chinking a few shillings 
+together, and hurriedly pressing them into his hand.  'I beg 
+nothing of you.  I will pay for the shelter you give me.  Death!  
+Is it much to ask of such as you!  I have come from the country, 
+and desire to rest where there are none to question me.  I am 
+faint, exhausted, worn out, almost dead.  Let me lie down, like a 
+dog, before your fire.  I ask no more than that.  If you would be 
+rid of me, I will depart to-morrow.'
+
+'If a gentleman has been unfortunate on the road,' muttered Stagg, 
+yielding to the other, who, pressing on him, had already gained a 
+footing on the steps--'and can pay for his accommodation--'
+
+'I will pay you with all I have.  I am just now past the want of 
+food, God knows, and wish but to purchase shelter.  What companion 
+have you below?'
+
+'None.'
+
+'Then fasten your grate there, and show me the way.  Quick!'
+
+The blind man complied after a moment's hesitation, and they 
+descended together.  The dialogue had passed as hurriedly as the 
+words could be spoken, and they stood in his wretched room before 
+he had had time to recover from his first surprise.
+
+'May I see where that door leads to, and what is beyond?' said the 
+man, glancing keenly round.  'You will not mind that?'
+
+'I will show you myself.  Follow me, or go before.  Take your 
+choice.'
+
+He bade him lead the way, and, by the light of the torch which his 
+conductor held up for the purpose, inspected all three cellars 
+narrowly.  Assured that the blind man had spoken truth, and that he 
+lived there alone, the visitor returned with him to the first, in 
+which a fire was burning, and flung himself with a deep groan upon 
+the ground before it.
+
+His host pursued his usual occupation without seeming to heed him 
+any further.  But directly he fell asleep--and he noted his falling 
+into a slumber, as readily as the keenest-sighted man could have 
+done--he knelt down beside him, and passed his hand lightly but 
+carefully over his face and person.
+
+His sleep was checkered with starts and moans, and sometimes with a 
+muttered word or two.  His hands were clenched, his brow bent, and 
+his mouth firmly set.  All this, the blind man accurately marked; 
+and as if his curiosity were strongly awakened, and he had already 
+some inkling of his mystery, he sat watching him, if the expression 
+may be used, and listening, until it was broad day.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19
+
+
+Dolly Varden's pretty little head was yet bewildered by various 
+recollections of the party, and her bright eyes were yet dazzled by 
+a crowd of images, dancing before them like motes in the sunbeams, 
+among which the effigy of one partner in particular did especially 
+figure, the same being a young coachmaker (a master in his own 
+right) who had given her to understand, when he handed her into the 
+chair at parting, that it was his fixed resolve to neglect his 
+business from that time, and die slowly for the love of her--
+Dolly's head, and eyes, and thoughts, and seven senses, were all in 
+a state of flutter and confusion for which the party was 
+accountable, although it was now three days old, when, as she was 
+sitting listlessly at breakfast, reading all manner of fortunes 
+(that is to say, of married and flourishing fortunes) in the 
+grounds of her teacup, a step was heard in the workshop, and Mr 
+Edward Chester was descried through the glass door, standing among 
+the rusty locks and keys, like love among the roses--for which apt 
+comparison the historian may by no means take any credit to 
+himself, the same being the invention, in a sentimental mood, of 
+the chaste and modest Miggs, who, beholding him from the doorsteps 
+she was then cleaning, did, in her maiden meditation, give 
+utterance to the simile.
+
+The locksmith, who happened at the moment to have his eyes thrown 
+upward and his head backward, in an intense communing with Toby, 
+did not see his visitor, until Mrs Varden, more watchful than the 
+rest, had desired Sim Tappertit to open the glass door and give him 
+admission--from which untoward circumstance the good lady argued 
+(for she could deduce a precious moral from the most trifling 
+event) that to take a draught of small ale in the morning was to 
+observe a pernicious, irreligious, and Pagan custom, the relish 
+whereof should be left to swine, and Satan, or at least to Popish 
+persons, and should be shunned by the righteous as a work of sin 
+and evil.  She would no doubt have pursued her admonition much 
+further, and would have founded on it a long list of precious 
+precepts of inestimable value, but that the young gentleman 
+standing by in a somewhat uncomfortable and discomfited manner 
+while she read her spouse this lecture, occasioned her to bring it 
+to a premature conclusion.
+
+'I'm sure you'll excuse me, sir,' said Mrs Varden, rising and 
+curtseying.  'Varden is so very thoughtless, and needs so much 
+reminding--Sim, bring a chair here.'
+
+Mr Tappertit obeyed, with a flourish implying that he did so, 
+under protest.
+
+'And you can go, Sim,' said the locksmith.
+
+Mr Tappertit obeyed again, still under protest; and betaking 
+himself to the workshop, began seriously to fear that he might find 
+it necessary to poison his master, before his time was out.
+
+In the meantime, Edward returned suitable replies to Mrs Varden's 
+courtesies, and that lady brightened up very much; so that when he 
+accepted a dish of tea from the fair hands of Dolly, she was 
+perfectly agreeable.
+
+'I am sure if there's anything we can do,--Varden, or I, or Dolly 
+either,--to serve you, sir, at any time, you have only to say it, 
+and it shall be done,' said Mrs V.
+
+'I am much obliged to you, I am sure,' returned Edward.  'You 
+encourage me to say that I have come here now, to beg your good 
+offices.'
+
+Mrs Varden was delighted beyond measure.
+
+'It occurred to me that probably your fair daughter might be going 
+to the Warren, either to-day or to-morrow,' said Edward, glancing 
+at Dolly; 'and if so, and you will allow her to take charge of this 
+letter, ma'am, you will oblige me more than I can tell you.  The 
+truth is, that while I am very anxious it should reach its 
+destination, I have particular reasons for not trusting it to any 
+other conveyance; so that without your help, I am wholly at a loss.'
+
+'She was not going that way, sir, either to-day, or to-morrow, nor 
+indeed all next week,' the lady graciously rejoined, 'but we shall 
+be very glad to put ourselves out of the way on your account, and 
+if you wish it, you may depend upon its going to-day.  You might 
+suppose,' said Mrs Varden, frowning at her husband, 'from Varden's 
+sitting there so glum and silent, that he objected to this 
+arrangement; but you must not mind that, sir, if you please.  It's 
+his way at home.  Out of doors, he can be cheerful and talkative 
+enough.'
+
+Now, the fact was, that the unfortunate locksmith, blessing his 
+stars to find his helpmate in such good humour, had been sitting 
+with a beaming face, hearing this discourse with a joy past all 
+expression.  Wherefore this sudden attack quite took him by 
+surprise.
+
+'My dear Martha--' he said.
+
+'Oh yes, I dare say,' interrupted Mrs Varden, with a smile of 
+mingled scorn and pleasantry.  'Very dear!  We all know that.'
+
+'No, but my good soul,' said Gabriel, 'you are quite mistaken.  You 
+are indeed.  I was delighted to find you so kind and ready.  I 
+waited, my dear, anxiously, I assure you, to hear what you would 
+say.'
+
+'You waited anxiously,' repeated Mrs V.  'Yes!  Thank you, Varden.  
+You waited, as you always do, that I might bear the blame, if any 
+came of it.  But I am used to it,' said the lady with a kind of 
+solemn titter, 'and that's my comfort!'
+
+'I give you my word, Martha--' said Gabriel.
+
+'Let me give you MY word, my dear,' interposed his wife with a 
+Christian smile, 'that such discussions as these between married 
+people, are much better left alone.  Therefore, if you please, 
+Varden, we'll drop the subject.  I have no wish to pursue it.  I 
+could.  I might say a great deal.  But I would rather not.  Pray 
+don't say any more.'
+
+'I don't want to say any more,' rejoined the goaded locksmith.
+
+'Well then, don't,' said Mrs Varden.
+
+'Nor did I begin it, Martha,' added the locksmith, good-humouredly, 
+'I must say that.'
+
+'You did not begin it, Varden!' exclaimed his wife, opening her 
+eyes very wide and looking round upon the company, as though she 
+would say, You hear this man!  'You did not begin it, Varden!  But 
+you shall not say I was out of temper.  No, you did not begin it, 
+oh dear no, not you, my dear!'
+
+'Well, well,' said the locksmith.  'That's settled then.'
+
+'Oh yes,' rejoined his wife, 'quite.  If you like to say Dolly 
+began it, my dear, I shall not contradict you.  I know my duty.  I 
+need know it, I am sure.  I am often obliged to bear it in mind, 
+when my inclination perhaps would be for the moment to forget it.  
+Thank you, Varden.'  And so, with a mighty show of humility and 
+forgiveness, she folded her hands, and looked round again, with a 
+smile which plainly said, 'If you desire to see the first and 
+foremost among female martyrs, here she is, on view!'
+
+This little incident, illustrative though it was of Mrs Varden's 
+extraordinary sweetness and amiability, had so strong a tendency to 
+check the conversation and to disconcert all parties but that 
+excellent lady, that only a few monosyllables were uttered until 
+Edward withdrew; which he presently did, thanking the lady of the 
+house a great many times for her condescension, and whispering in 
+Dolly's ear that he would call on the morrow, in case there should 
+happen to be an answer to the note--which, indeed, she knew without 
+his telling, as Barnaby and his friend Grip had dropped in on the 
+previous night to prepare her for the visit which was then 
+terminating.
+
+Gabriel, who had attended Edward to the door, came back with his 
+hands in his pockets; and, after fidgeting about the room in a very 
+uneasy manner, and casting a great many sidelong looks at Mrs 
+Varden (who with the calmest countenance in the world was five 
+fathoms deep in the Protestant Manual), inquired of Dolly how she 
+meant to go.  Dolly supposed by the stage-coach, and looked at her 
+lady mother, who finding herself silently appealed to, dived down 
+at least another fathom into the Manual, and became unconscious of 
+all earthly things.
+
+'Martha--' said the locksmith.
+
+'I hear you, Varden,' said his wife, without rising to the surface.
+
+'I am sorry, my dear, you have such an objection to the Maypole and 
+old John, for otherways as it's a very fine morning, and Saturday's 
+not a busy day with us, we might have all three gone to Chigwell in 
+the chaise, and had quite a happy day of it.'
+
+Mrs Varden immediately closed the Manual, and bursting into tears, 
+requested to be led upstairs.
+
+'What is the matter now, Martha?' inquired the locksmith.
+
+To which Martha rejoined, 'Oh! don't speak to me,' and protested in 
+agony that if anybody had told her so, she wouldn't have believed 
+it.
+
+'But, Martha,' said Gabriel, putting himself in the way as she was 
+moving off with the aid of Dolly's shoulder, 'wouldn't have 
+believed what?  Tell me what's wrong now.  Do tell me.  Upon my 
+soul I don't know.  Do you know, child?  Damme!' cried the 
+locksmith, plucking at his wig in a kind of frenzy, 'nobody does 
+know, I verily believe, but Miggs!'
+
+'Miggs,' said Mrs Varden faintly, and with symptoms of approaching 
+incoherence, 'is attached to me, and that is sufficient to draw 
+down hatred upon her in this house.  She is a comfort to me, 
+whatever she may be to others.'
+
+'She's no comfort to me,' cried Gabriel, made bold by despair.  
+'She's the misery of my life.  She's all the plagues of Egypt in 
+one.'
+
+'She's considered so, I have no doubt,' said Mrs Varden.  'I was 
+prepared for that; it's natural; it's of a piece with the rest.  
+When you taunt me as you do to my face, how can I wonder that you 
+taunt her behind her back!'  And here the incoherence coming on 
+very strong, Mrs Varden wept, and laughed, and sobbed, and 
+shivered, and hiccoughed, and choked; and said she knew it was very 
+foolish but she couldn't help it; and that when she was dead and 
+gone, perhaps they would be sorry for it--which really under the 
+circumstances did not appear quite so probable as she seemed to 
+think--with a great deal more to the same effect.  In a word, she 
+passed with great decency through all the ceremonies incidental to 
+such occasions; and being supported upstairs, was deposited in a 
+highly spasmodic state on her own bed, where Miss Miggs shortly 
+afterwards flung herself upon the body.
+
+The philosophy of all this was, that Mrs Varden wanted to go to 
+Chigwell; that she did not want to make any concession or 
+explanation; that she would only go on being implored and entreated 
+so to do; and that she would accept no other terms.  Accordingly, 
+after a vast amount of moaning and crying upstairs, and much 
+damping of foreheads, and vinegaring of temples, and hartshorning 
+of noses, and so forth; and after most pathetic adjurations from 
+Miggs, assisted by warm brandy-and-water not over-weak, and divers 
+other cordials, also of a stimulating quality, administered at 
+first in teaspoonfuls and afterwards in increasing doses, and of 
+which Miss Miggs herself partook as a preventive measure (for 
+fainting is infectious); after all these remedies, and many more 
+too numerous to mention, but not to take, had been applied; and 
+many verbal consolations, moral, religious, and miscellaneous, had 
+been super-added thereto; the locksmith humbled himself, and the 
+end was gained.
+
+'If it's only for the sake of peace and quietness, father,' said 
+Dolly, urging him to go upstairs.
+
+'Oh, Doll, Doll,' said her good-natured father.  'If you ever have 
+a husband of your own--'
+
+Dolly glanced at the glass.
+
+'--Well, WHEN you have,' said the locksmith, 'never faint, my 
+darling.  More domestic unhappiness has come of easy fainting, 
+Doll, than from all the greater passions put together.  Remember 
+that, my dear, if you would be really happy, which you never can 
+be, if your husband isn't.  And a word in your ear, my precious.  
+Never have a Miggs about you!'
+
+With this advice he kissed his blooming daughter on the cheek, and 
+slowly repaired to Mrs Varden's room; where that lady, lying all 
+pale and languid on her couch, was refreshing herself with a sight 
+of her last new bonnet, which Miggs, as a means of calming her 
+scattered spirits, displayed to the best advantage at her bedside.
+
+'Here's master, mim,' said Miggs.  'Oh, what a happiness it is 
+when man and wife come round again!  Oh gracious, to think that him 
+and her should ever have a word together!'  In the energy of these 
+sentiments, which were uttered as an apostrophe to the Heavens in 
+general, Miss Miggs perched the bonnet on the top of her own head, 
+and folding her hands, turned on her tears.
+
+'I can't help it,' cried Miggs.  'I couldn't, if I was to be 
+drownded in 'em.  She has such a forgiving spirit!  She'll forget 
+all that has passed, and go along with you, sir--Oh, if it was to 
+the world's end, she'd go along with you.'
+
+Mrs Varden with a faint smile gently reproved her attendant for 
+this enthusiasm, and reminded her at the same time that she was far 
+too unwell to venture out that day.
+
+'Oh no, you're not, mim, indeed you're not,' said Miggs; 'I repeal 
+to master; master knows you're not, mim.  The hair, and motion of 
+the shay, will do you good, mim, and you must not give way, you 
+must not raly.  She must keep up, mustn't she, sir, for all out 
+sakes?  I was a telling her that, just now.  She must remember us, 
+even if she forgets herself.  Master will persuade you, mim, I'm 
+sure.  There's Miss Dolly's a-going you know, and master, and you, 
+and all so happy and so comfortable.  Oh!' cried Miggs, turning on 
+the tears again, previous to quitting the room in great emotion, 'I 
+never see such a blessed one as she is for the forgiveness of her 
+spirit, I never, never, never did.  Not more did master neither; 
+no, nor no one--never!'
+
+For five minutes or thereabouts, Mrs Varden remained mildly opposed 
+to all her husband's prayers that she would oblige him by taking a 
+day's pleasure, but relenting at length, she suffered herself to be 
+persuaded, and granting him her free forgiveness (the merit 
+whereof, she meekly said, rested with the Manual and not with her), 
+desired that Miggs might come and help her dress.  The handmaid 
+attended promptly, and it is but justice to their joint exertions 
+to record that, when the good lady came downstairs in course of 
+time, completely decked out for the journey, she really looked as 
+if nothing had happened, and appeared in the very best health 
+imaginable.
+
+As to Dolly, there she was again, the very pink and pattern of good 
+looks, in a smart little cherry-coloured mantle, with a hood of 
+the same drawn over her head, and upon the top of that hood, a 
+little straw hat trimmed with cherry-coloured ribbons, and worn the 
+merest trifle on one side--just enough in short to make it the 
+wickedest and most provoking head-dress that ever malicious 
+milliner devised.  And not to speak of the manner in which these 
+cherry-coloured decorations brightened her eyes, or vied with her 
+lips, or shed a new bloom on her face, she wore such a cruel little 
+muff, and such a heart-rending pair of shoes, and was so 
+surrounded and hemmed in, as it were, by aggravations of all kinds, 
+that when Mr Tappettit, holding the horse's head, saw her come out 
+of the house alone, such impulses came over him to decoy her into 
+the chaise and drive off like mad, that he would unquestionably 
+have done it, but for certain uneasy doubts besetting him as to the 
+shortest way to Gretna Green; whether it was up the street or 
+down, or up the right-hand turning or the left; and whether, 
+supposing all the turnpikes to be carried by storm, the blacksmith 
+in the end would marry them on credit; which by reason of his 
+clerical office appeared, even to his excited imagination, so 
+unlikely, that he hesitated.  And while he stood hesitating, and 
+looking post-chaises-and-six at Dolly, out came his master and his 
+mistress, and the constant Miggs, and the opportunity was gone for 
+ever.  For now the chaise creaked upon its springs, and Mrs Varden 
+was inside; and now it creaked again, and more than ever, and the 
+locksmith was inside; and now it bounded once, as if its heart beat 
+lightly, and Dolly was inside; and now it was gone and its place 
+was empty, and he and that dreary Miggs were standing in the street 
+together.
+
+The hearty locksmith was in as good a humour as if nothing had 
+occurred for the last twelve months to put him out of his way, 
+Dolly was all smiles and graces, and Mrs Varden was agreeable 
+beyond all precedent.  As they jogged through the streets talking 
+of this thing and of that, who should be descried upon the pavement 
+but that very coachmaker, looking so genteel that nobody would have 
+believed he had ever had anything to do with a coach but riding in 
+it, and bowing like any nobleman.  To be sure Dolly was confused 
+when she bowed again, and to be sure the cherry-coloured ribbons 
+trembled a little when she met his mournful eye, which seemed to 
+say, 'I have kept my word, I have begun, the business is going to 
+the devil, and you're the cause of it.'  There he stood, rooted to 
+the ground: as Dolly said, like a statue; and as Mrs Varden said, 
+like a pump; till they turned the corner: and when her father 
+thought it was like his impudence, and her mother wondered what he 
+meant by it, Dolly blushed again till her very hood was pale.
+
+But on they went, not the less merrily for this, and there was the 
+locksmith in the incautious fulness of his heart 'pulling-up' at 
+all manner of places, and evincing a most intimate acquaintance 
+with all the taverns on the road, and all the landlords and all the 
+landladies, with whom, indeed, the little horse was on equally 
+friendly terms, for he kept on stopping of his own accord.  Never 
+were people so glad to see other people as these landlords and 
+landladies were to behold Mr Varden and Mrs Varden and Miss Varden; 
+and wouldn't they get out, said one; and they really must walk 
+upstairs, said another; and she would take it ill and be quite 
+certain they were proud if they wouldn't have a little taste of 
+something, said a third; and so on, that it was really quite a 
+Progress rather than a ride, and one continued scene of hospitality 
+from beginning to end.  It was pleasant enough to be held in such 
+esteem, not to mention the refreshments; so Mrs Varden said nothing 
+at the time, and was all affability and delight--but such a body of 
+evidence as she collected against the unfortunate locksmith that 
+day, to be used thereafter as occasion might require, never was got 
+together for matrimonial purposes.
+
+In course of time--and in course of a pretty long time too, for 
+these agreeable interruptions delayed them not a little,--they 
+arrived upon the skirts of the Forest, and riding pleasantly on 
+among the trees, came at last to the Maypole, where the locksmith's 
+cheerful 'Yoho!' speedily brought to the porch old John, and after 
+him young Joe, both of whom were so transfixed at sight of the 
+ladies, that for a moment they were perfectly unable to give them 
+any welcome, and could do nothing but stare.
+
+It was only for a moment, however, that Joe forgot himself, for 
+speedily reviving he thrust his drowsy father aside--to Mr Willet's 
+mighty and inexpressible indignation--and darting out, stood ready 
+to help them to alight.  It was necessary for Dolly to get out 
+first.  Joe had her in his arms;--yes, though for a space of time 
+no longer than you could count one in, Joe had her in his arms.  
+Here was a glimpse of happiness!
+
+It would be difficult to describe what a flat and commonplace 
+affair the helping Mrs Varden out afterwards was, but Joe did it, 
+and did it too with the best grace in the world.  Then old John, 
+who, entertaining a dull and foggy sort of idea that Mrs Varden 
+wasn't fond of him, had been in some doubt whether she might not 
+have come for purposes of assault and battery, took courage, hoped 
+she was well, and offered to conduct her into the house.  This 
+tender being amicably received, they marched in together; Joe and 
+Dolly followed, arm-in-arm, (happiness again!) and Varden brought 
+up the rear.
+
+Old John would have it that they must sit in the bar, and nobody 
+objecting, into the bar they went.  All bars are snug places, but 
+the Maypole's was the very snuggest, cosiest, and completest bar, 
+that ever the wit of man devised.  Such amazing bottles in old 
+oaken pigeon-holes; such gleaming tankards dangling from pegs at 
+about the same inclination as thirsty men would hold them to their 
+lips; such sturdy little Dutch kegs ranged in rows on shelves; so 
+many lemons hanging in separate nets, and forming the fragrant 
+grove already mentioned in this chronicle, suggestive, with goodly 
+loaves of snowy sugar stowed away hard by, of punch, idealised 
+beyond all mortal knowledge; such closets, such presses, such 
+drawers full of pipes, such places for putting things away in 
+hollow window-seats, all crammed to the throat with eatables, 
+drinkables, or savoury condiments; lastly, and to crown all, as 
+typical of the immense resources of the establishment, and its 
+defiances to all visitors to cut and come again, such a stupendous 
+cheese!
+
+It is a poor heart that never rejoices--it must have been the 
+poorest, weakest, and most watery heart that ever beat, which would 
+not have warmed towards the Maypole bar.  Mrs Varden's did 
+directly.  She could no more have reproached John Willet among 
+those household gods, the kegs and bottles, lemons, pipes, and 
+cheese, than she could have stabbed him with his own bright 
+carving-knife.  The order for dinner too--it might have soothed a 
+savage.  'A bit of fish,' said John to the cook, 'and some lamb 
+chops (breaded, with plenty of ketchup), and a good salad, and a 
+roast spring chicken, with a dish of sausages and mashed potatoes, 
+or something of that sort.'  Something of that sort!  The resources 
+of these inns!  To talk carelessly about dishes, which in 
+themselves were a first-rate holiday kind of dinner, suitable to 
+one's wedding-day, as something of that sort: meaning, if you can't 
+get a spring chicken, any other trifle in the way of poultry will 
+do--such as a peacock, perhaps!  The kitchen too, with its great 
+broad cavernous chimney; the kitchen, where nothing in the way of 
+cookery seemed impossible; where you could believe in anything to 
+eat, they chose to tell you of.  Mrs Varden returned from the 
+contemplation of these wonders to the bar again, with a head quite 
+dizzy and bewildered.  Her housekeeping capacity was not large 
+enough to comprehend them.  She was obliged to go to sleep.  Waking 
+was pain, in the midst of such immensity.
+
+Dolly in the meanwhile, whose gay heart and head ran upon other 
+matters, passed out at the garden door, and glancing back now and 
+then (but of course not wondering whether Joe saw her), tripped 
+away by a path across the fields with which she was well 
+acquainted, to discharge her mission at the Warren; and this 
+deponent hath been informed and verily believes, that you might 
+have seen many less pleasant objects than the cherry-coloured 
+mantle and ribbons, as they went fluttering along the green meadows 
+in the bright light of the day, like giddy things as they were.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20
+
+
+The proud consciousness of her trust, and the great importance she 
+derived from it, might have advertised it to all the house if she 
+had had to run the gauntlet of its inhabitants; but as Dolly had 
+played in every dull room and passage many and many a time, when a 
+child, and had ever since been the humble friend of Miss Haredale, 
+whose foster-sister she was, she was as free of the building as the 
+young lady herself.  So, using no greater precaution than holding 
+her breath and walking on tiptoe as she passed the library door, 
+she went straight to Emma's room as a privileged visitor.
+
+It was the liveliest room in the building.  The chamber was sombre 
+like the rest for the matter of that, but the presence of youth and 
+beauty would make a prison cheerful (saving alas! that confinement 
+withers them), and lend some charms of their own to the gloomiest 
+scene.  Birds, flowers, books, drawing, music, and a hundred such 
+graceful tokens of feminine loves and cares, filled it with more of 
+life and human sympathy than the whole house besides seemed made to 
+hold.  There was heart in the room; and who that has a heart, ever 
+fails to recognise the silent presence of another!
+
+Dolly had one undoubtedly, and it was not a tough one either, 
+though there was a little mist of coquettishness about it, such as 
+sometimes surrounds that sun of life in its morning, and slightly 
+dims its lustre.  Thus, when Emma rose to greet her, and kissing 
+her affectionately on the cheek, told her, in her quiet way, that 
+she had been very unhappy, the tears stood in Dolly's eyes, and she 
+felt more sorry than she could tell; but next moment she happened 
+to raise them to the glass, and really there was something there so 
+exceedingly agreeable, that as she sighed, she smiled, and felt 
+surprisingly consoled.
+
+'I have heard about it, miss,' said Dolly, 'and it's very sad 
+indeed, but when things are at the worst they are sure to mend.'
+
+'But are you sure they are at the worst?' asked Emma with a smile.
+
+'Why, I don't see how they can very well be more unpromising than 
+they are; I really don't,' said Dolly.  'And I bring something to 
+begin with.'
+
+'Not from Edward?'
+
+Dolly nodded and smiled, and feeling in her pockets (there were 
+pockets in those days) with an affectation of not being able to 
+find what she wanted, which greatly enhanced her importance, at 
+length produced the letter.  As Emma hastily broke the seal and 
+became absorbed in its contents, Dolly's eyes, by one of those 
+strange accidents for which there is no accounting, wandered to the 
+glass again.  She could not help wondering whether the coach-maker 
+suffered very much, and quite pitied the poor man.
+
+It was a long letter--a very long letter, written close on all four 
+sides of the sheet of paper, and crossed afterwards; but it was not 
+a consolatory letter, for as Emma read it she stopped from time to 
+time to put her handkerchief to her eyes.  To be sure Dolly 
+marvelled greatly to see her in so much distress, for to her 
+thinking a love affair ought to be one of the best jokes, and the 
+slyest, merriest kind of thing in life.  But she set it down in her 
+own mind that all this came from Miss Haredale's being so constant, 
+and that if she would only take on with some other young gentleman--
+just in the most innocent way possible, to keep her first lover up 
+to the mark--she would find herself inexpressibly comforted.
+
+'I am sure that's what I should do if it was me,' thought Dolly.  
+'To make one's sweetheart miserable is well enough and quite right, 
+but to be made miserable one's self is a little too much!'
+
+However it wouldn't do to say so, and therefore she sat looking on 
+in silence.  She needed a pretty considerable stretch of patience, 
+for when the long letter had been read once all through it was read 
+again, and when it had been read twice all through it was read 
+again.  During this tedious process, Dolly beguiled the time in the 
+most improving manner that occurred to her, by curling her hair on 
+her fingers, with the aid of the looking-glass before mentioned, 
+and giving it some killing twists.
+
+Everything has an end.  Even young ladies in love cannot read their 
+letters for ever.  In course of time the packet was folded up, and 
+it only remained to write the answer.
+
+But as this promised to be a work of time likewise, Emma said she 
+would put it off until after dinner, and that Dolly must dine with 
+her.  As Dolly had made up her mind to do so beforehand, she 
+required very little pressing; and when they had settled this 
+point, they went to walk in the garden.
+
+They strolled up and down the terrace walks, talking incessantly--
+at least, Dolly never left off once--and making that quarter of the 
+sad and mournful house quite gay.  Not that they talked loudly or 
+laughed much, but they were both so very handsome, and it was such 
+a breezy day, and their light dresses and dark curls appeared so 
+free and joyous in their abandonment, and Emma was so fair, and 
+Dolly so rosy, and Emma so delicately shaped, and Dolly so plump, 
+and--in short, there are no flowers for any garden like such 
+flowers, let horticulturists say what they may, and both house and 
+garden seemed to know it, and to brighten up sensibly.
+
+After this, came the dinner and the letter writing, and some more 
+talking, in the course of which Miss Haredale took occasion to 
+charge upon Dolly certain flirtish and inconstant propensities, 
+which accusations Dolly seemed to think very complimentary indeed, 
+and to be mightily amused with.  Finding her quite incorrigible in 
+this respect, Emma suffered her to depart; but not before she had 
+confided to her that important and never-sufficiently-to-be-taken-
+care-of answer, and endowed her moreover with a pretty little 
+bracelet as a keepsake.  Having clasped it on her arm, and again 
+advised her half in jest and half in earnest to amend her roguish 
+ways, for she knew she was fond of Joe at heart (which Dolly 
+stoutly denied, with a great many haughty protestations that she 
+hoped she could do better than that indeed! and so forth), she bade 
+her farewell; and after calling her back to give her more 
+supplementary messages for Edward, than anybody with tenfold the 
+gravity of Dolly Varden could be reasonably expected to remember, 
+at length dismissed her.
+
+Dolly bade her good bye, and tripping lightly down the stairs 
+arrived at the dreaded library door, and was about to pass it again 
+on tiptoe, when it opened, and behold! there stood Mr Haredale.  
+Now, Dolly had from her childhood associated with this gentleman 
+the idea of something grim and ghostly, and being at the moment 
+conscience-stricken besides, the sight of him threw her into such a 
+flurry that she could neither acknowledge his presence nor run 
+away, so she gave a great start, and then with downcast eyes stood 
+still and trembled.
+
+'Come here, girl,' said Mr Haredale, taking her by the hand.  'I 
+want to speak to you.'
+
+'If you please, sir, I'm in a hurry,' faltered Dolly, 'and--you 
+have frightened me by coming so suddenly upon me, sir--I would 
+rather go, sir, if you'll be so good as to let me.'
+
+'Immediately,' said Mr Haredale, who had by this time led her into 
+the room and closed the door.  You shall go directly.  You have 
+just left Emma?'
+
+'Yes, sir, just this minute.--Father's waiting for me, sir, if 
+you'll please to have the goodness--'
+
+I know.  I know,' said Mr Haredale.  'Answer me a question.  What 
+did you bring here to-day?' 
+
+'Bring here, sir?' faltered Dolly.  
+
+'You will tell me the truth, I am sure.  Yes.'
+
+Dolly hesitated for a little while, and somewhat emboldened by his 
+manner, said at last, 'Well then, sir.  It was a letter.'
+
+'From Mr Edward Chester, of course.  And you are the bearer of the 
+answer?'
+
+Dolly hesitated again, and not being able to decide upon any other 
+course of action, burst into tears.
+
+'You alarm yourself without cause,' said Mr Haredale.  'Why are you 
+so foolish?  Surely you can answer me.  You know that I have but 
+to put the question to Emma and learn the truth directly.  Have you 
+the answer with you?'
+
+Dolly had what is popularly called a spirit of her own, and being 
+now fairly at bay, made the best of it.
+
+'Yes, sir,' she rejoined, trembling and frightened as she was.  
+'Yes, sir, I have.  You may kill me if you please, sir, but I won't 
+give it up.  I'm very sorry,--but I won't.  There, sir.'
+
+'I commend your firmness and your plain-speaking,' said Mr 
+Haredale.  'Rest assured that I have as little desire to take your 
+letter as your life.  You are a very discreet messenger and a good 
+girl.'
+
+Not feeling quite certain, as she afterwards said, whether he might 
+not be 'coming over her' with these compliments, Dolly kept as far 
+from him as she could, cried again, and resolved to defend her 
+pocket (for the letter was there) to the last extremity.
+
+'I have some design,' said Mr Haredale after a short silence, 
+during which a smile, as he regarded her, had struggled through 
+the gloom and melancholy that was natural to his face, 'of 
+providing a companion for my niece; for her life is a very lonely 
+one.  Would you like the office?  You are the oldest friend she 
+has, and the best entitled to it.'
+
+'I don't know, sir,' answered Dolly, not sure but he was bantering 
+her; 'I can't say.  I don't know what they might wish at home.  I 
+couldn't give an opinion, sir.'
+
+'If your friends had no objection, would you have any?' said Mr 
+Haredale.  'Come.  There's a plain question; and easy to answer.'
+
+'None at all that I know of sir,' replied Dolly.  'I should be very 
+glad to be near Miss Emma of course, and always am.'
+
+'That's well,' said Mr Haredale.  'That is all I had to say.  You 
+are anxious to go.  Don't let me detain you.'
+
+Dolly didn't let him, nor did she wait for him to try, for the 
+words had no sooner passed his lips than she was out of the room, 
+out of the house, and in the fields again.
+
+The first thing to be done, of course, when she came to herself and 
+considered what a flurry she had been in, was to cry afresh; and 
+the next thing, when she reflected how well she had got over it, 
+was to laugh heartily.  The tears once banished gave place to the 
+smiles, and at last Dolly laughed so much that she was fain to lean 
+against a tree, and give vent to her exultation.  When she could 
+laugh no longer, and was quite tired, she put her head-dress to 
+rights, dried her eyes, looked back very merrily and triumphantly 
+at the Warren chimneys, which were just visible, and resumed her 
+walk.
+
+The twilight had come on, and it was quickly growing dusk, but the 
+path was so familiar to her from frequent traversing that she 
+hardly thought of this, and certainly felt no uneasiness at being 
+left alone.  Moreover, there was the bracelet to admire; and when 
+she had given it a good rub, and held it out at arm's length, it 
+sparkled and glittered so beautifully on her wrist, that to look at 
+it in every point of view and with every possible turn of the arm, 
+was quite an absorbing business.  There was the letter too, and it 
+looked so mysterious and knowing, when she took it out of her 
+pocket, and it held, as she knew, so much inside, that to turn it 
+over and over, and think about it, and wonder how it began, and how 
+it ended, and what it said all through, was another matter of 
+constant occupation.  Between the bracelet and the letter, there 
+was quite enough to do without thinking of anything else; and 
+admiring each by turns, Dolly went on gaily.
+
+As she passed through a wicket-gate to where the path was narrow, 
+and lay between two hedges garnished here and there with trees, she 
+heard a rustling close at hand, which brought her to a sudden stop.  
+She listened.  All was very quiet, and she went on again--not 
+absolutely frightened, but a little quicker than before perhaps, 
+and possibly not quite so much at her ease, for a check of that 
+kind is startling.
+
+She had no sooner moved on again, than she was conscious of the 
+same sound, which was like that of a person tramping stealthily 
+among bushes and brushwood.  Looking towards the spot whence it 
+appeared to come, she almost fancied she could make out a crouching 
+figure.  She stopped again.  All was quiet as before.  On she went 
+once more--decidedly faster now--and tried to sing softly to 
+herself.  It must he the wind.
+
+But how came the wind to blow only when she walked, and cease when 
+she stood still?  She stopped involuntarily as she made the 
+reflection, and the rustling noise stopped likewise.  She was 
+really frightened now, and was yet hesitating what to do, when the 
+bushes crackled and snapped, and a man came plunging through them, 
+close before her.
+
+
+
+Chapter 21
+
+
+It was for the moment an inexpressible relief to Dolly, to 
+recognise in the person who forced himself into the path so 
+abruptly, and now stood directly in her way, Hugh of the Maypole, 
+whose name she uttered in a tone of delighted surprise that came 
+from her heart.
+
+'Was it you?' she said, 'how glad I am to see you! and how could 
+you terrify me so!'
+
+In answer to which, he said nothing at all, but stood quite still, 
+looking at her.
+
+'Did you come to meet me?' asked Dolly.
+
+Hugh nodded, and muttered something to the effect that he had been 
+waiting for her, and had expected her sooner.
+
+'I thought it likely they would send,' said Dolly, greatly 
+reassured by this.
+
+'Nobody sent me,' was his sullen answer.  'I came of my own 
+accord.'
+
+The rough bearing of this fellow, and his wild, uncouth appearance, 
+had often filled the girl with a vague apprehension even when other 
+people were by, and had occasioned her to shrink from him 
+involuntarily.  The having him for an unbidden companion in so 
+solitary a place, with the darkness fast gathering about them, 
+renewed and even increased the alarm she had felt at first.
+
+If his manner had been merely dogged and passively fierce, as 
+usual, she would have had no greater dislike to his company than 
+she always felt--perhaps, indeed, would have been rather glad to 
+have had him at hand.  But there was something of coarse bold 
+admiration in his look, which terrified her very much.  She glanced 
+timidly towards him, uncertain whether to go forward or retreat, 
+and he stood gazing at her like a handsome satyr; and so they 
+remained for some short time without stirring or breaking silence.  
+At length Dolly took courage, shot past him, and hurried on.
+
+'Why do you spend so much breath in avoiding me?' said Hugh, 
+accommodating his pace to hers, and keeping close at her side.
+
+'I wish to get back as quickly as I can, and you walk too near me, 
+answered Dolly.'
+
+'Too near!' said Hugh, stooping over her so that she could feel his 
+breath upon her forehead.  'Why too near?  You're always proud to 
+ME, mistress.'
+
+'I am proud to no one.  You mistake me,' answered Dolly.  'Fall 
+back, if you please, or go on.'
+
+'Nay, mistress,' he rejoined, endeavouring to draw her arm through 
+his, 'I'll walk with you.'
+
+She released herself and clenching her little hand, struck him with 
+right good will.  At this, Maypole Hugh burst into a roar of 
+laughter, and passing his arm about her waist, held her in his 
+strong grasp as easily as if she had been a bird.
+
+'Ha ha ha!  Well done, mistress!  Strike again.  You shall beat my 
+face, and tear my hair, and pluck my beard up by the roots, and 
+welcome, for the sake of your bright eyes.  Strike again, mistress.  
+Do.  Ha ha ha!  I like it.'
+
+'Let me go,' she cried, endeavouring with both her hands to push 
+him off.  'Let me go this moment.'
+
+'You had as good be kinder to me, Sweetlips,' said Hugh.  'You had, 
+indeed.  Come.  Tell me now.  Why are you always so proud?  I 
+don't quarrel with you for it.  I love you when you're proud.  Ha 
+ha ha!  You can't hide your beauty from a poor fellow; that's a 
+comfort!'
+
+She gave him no answer, but as he had not yet checked her progress, 
+continued to press forward as rapidly as she could.  At length, 
+between the hurry she had made, her terror, and the tightness of 
+his embrace, her strength failed her, and she could go no further.
+
+'Hugh,' cried the panting girl, 'good Hugh; if you will leave me I 
+will give you anything--everything I have--and never tell one word 
+of this to any living creature.'
+
+'You had best not,' he answered.  'Harkye, little dove, you had 
+best not.  All about here know me, and what I dare do if I have a 
+mind.  If ever you are going to tell, stop when the words are on 
+your lips, and think of the mischief you'll bring, if you do, upon 
+some innocent heads that you wouldn't wish to hurt a hair of.  
+Bring trouble on me, and I'll bring trouble and something more on 
+them in return.  I care no more for them than for so many dogs; not 
+so much--why should I?  I'd sooner kill a man than a dog any day.  
+I've never been sorry for a man's death in all my life, and I have 
+for a dog's.'
+
+There was something so thoroughly savage in the manner of these 
+expressions, and the looks and gestures by which they were 
+accompanied, that her great fear of him gave her new strength, and 
+enabled her by a sudden effort to extricate herself and run fleetly 
+from him.  But Hugh was as nimble, strong, and swift of foot, as 
+any man in broad England, and it was but a fruitless expenditure of 
+energy, for he had her in his encircling arms again before she had 
+gone a hundred yards.
+
+'Softly, darling--gently--would you fly from rough Hugh, that loves 
+you as well as any drawing-room gallant?'
+
+'I would,' she answered, struggling to free herself again.  'I 
+will.  Help!'
+
+'A fine for crying out,' said Hugh.  'Ha ha ha!  A fine, pretty 
+one, from your lips.  I pay myself!  Ha ha ha!'
+
+'Help! help! help!'  As she shrieked with the utmost violence she 
+could exert, a shout was heard in answer, and another, and another.
+
+'Thank Heaven!' cried the girl in an ecstasy.  'Joe, dear Joe, this 
+way.  Help!'
+
+Her assailant paused, and stood irresolute for a moment, but the 
+shouts drawing nearer and coming quick upon them, forced him to a 
+speedy decision.  He released her, whispered with a menacing look, 
+'Tell HIM: and see what follows!' and leaping the hedge, was gone 
+in an instant.  Dolly darted off, and fairly ran into Joe Willet's 
+open arms.
+
+'What is the matter? are you hurt? what was it? who was it? where 
+is he? what was he like?' with a great many encouraging expressions 
+and assurances of safety, were the first words Joe poured forth.  
+But poor little Dolly was so breathless and terrified that for some 
+time she was quite unable to answer him, and hung upon his 
+shoulder, sobbing and crying as if her heart would break.
+
+Joe had not the smallest objection to have her hanging on his 
+shoulder; no, not the least, though it crushed the cherry-coloured 
+ribbons sadly, and put the smart little hat out of all shape.  But 
+he couldn't bear to see her cry; it went to his very heart.  He 
+tried to console her, bent over her, whispered to her--some say 
+kissed her, but that's a fable.  At any rate he said all the kind 
+and tender things he could think of and Dolly let him go on and 
+didn't interrupt him once, and it was a good ten minutes before she 
+was able to raise her head and thank him.
+
+'What was it that frightened you?' said Joe.
+
+A man whose person was unknown to her had followed her, she 
+answered; he began by begging, and went on to threats of robbery, 
+which he was on the point of carrying into execution, and would 
+have executed, but for Joe's timely aid.  The hesitation and 
+confusion with which she said this, Joe attributed to the fright 
+she had sustained, and no suspicion of the truth occurred to him 
+for a moment.
+
+'Stop when the words are on your lips.'  A hundred times that 
+night, and very often afterwards, when the disclosure was rising 
+to her tongue, Dolly thought of that, and repressed it.  A deeply 
+rooted dread of the man; the conviction that his ferocious nature, 
+once roused, would stop at nothing; and the strong assurance that 
+if she impeached him, the full measure of his wrath and vengeance 
+would be wreaked on Joe, who had preserved her; these were 
+considerations she had not the courage to overcome, and inducements 
+to secrecy too powerful for her to surmount.
+
+Joe, for his part, was a great deal too happy to inquire very 
+curiously into the matter; and Dolly being yet too tremulous to 
+walk without assistance, they went forward very slowly, and in his 
+mind very pleasantly, until the Maypole lights were near at hand, 
+twinkling their cheerful welcome, when Dolly stopped suddenly and 
+with a half scream exclaimed,
+
+'The letter!'
+
+'What letter?' cried Joe.
+
+'That I was carrying--I had it in my hand.  My bracelet too,' she 
+said, clasping her wrist.  'I have lost them both.'
+
+'Do you mean just now?' said Joe.
+
+'Either I dropped them then, or they were taken from me,' answered 
+Dolly, vainly searching her pocket and rustling her dress.  'They 
+are gone, both gone.  What an unhappy girl I am!'  With these words 
+poor Dolly, who to do her justice was quite as sorry for the loss 
+of the letter as for her bracelet, fell a-crying again, and 
+bemoaned her fate most movingly.
+
+Joe tried to comfort her with the assurance that directly he had 
+housed her in the Maypole, he would return to the spot with a 
+lantern (for it was now quite dark) and make strict search for the 
+missing articles, which there was great probability of his finding, 
+as it was not likely that anybody had passed that way since, and 
+she was not conscious that they had been forcibly taken from her.  
+Dolly thanked him very heartily for this offer, though with no 
+great hope of his quest being successful; and so with many 
+lamentations on her side, and many hopeful words on his, and much 
+weakness on the part of Dolly and much tender supporting on the 
+part of Joe, they reached the Maypole bar at last, where the 
+locksmith and his wife and old John were yet keeping high festival.
+
+Mr Willet received the intelligence of Dolly's trouble with that 
+surprising presence of mind and readiness of speech for which he 
+was so eminently distinguished above all other men.  Mrs Varden 
+expressed her sympathy for her daughter's distress by scolding her 
+roundly for being so late; and the honest locksmith divided himself 
+between condoling with and kissing Dolly, and shaking hands 
+heartily with Joe, whom he could not sufficiently praise or thank.
+
+In reference to this latter point, old John was far from agreeing 
+with his friend; for besides that he by no means approved of an 
+adventurous spirit in the abstract, it occurred to him that if his 
+son and heir had been seriously damaged in a scuffle, the 
+consequences would assuredly have been expensive and inconvenient, 
+and might perhaps have proved detrimental to the Maypole business.  
+Wherefore, and because he looked with no favourable eye upon young 
+girls, but rather considered that they and the whole female sex 
+were a kind of nonsensical mistake on the part of Nature, he took 
+occasion to retire and shake his head in private at the boiler; 
+inspired by which silent oracle, he was moved to give Joe various 
+stealthy nudges with his elbow, as a parental reproof and gentle 
+admonition to mind his own business and not make a fool of himself.
+
+Joe, however, took down the lantern and lighted it; and arming 
+himself with a stout stick, asked whether Hugh was in the stable.
+
+'He's lying asleep before the kitchen fire, sir,' said Mr Willet.  
+'What do you want him for?'
+
+'I want him to come with me to look after this bracelet and 
+letter,' answered Joe.  'Halloa there!  Hugh!'
+
+Dolly turned pale as death, and felt as if she must faint 
+forthwith.  After a few moments, Hugh came staggering in, 
+stretching himself and yawning according to custom, and presenting 
+every appearance of having been roused from a sound nap.
+
+'Here, sleepy-head,' said Joe, giving him the lantern.  'Carry 
+this, and bring the dog, and that small cudgel of yours.  And woe 
+betide the fellow if we come upon him.'
+
+'What fellow?' growled Hugh, rubbing his eyes and shaking himself.
+
+'What fellow?' returned Joe, who was in a state of great valour and 
+bustle; 'a fellow you ought to know of and be more alive about.  
+It's well for the like of you, lazy giant that you are, to be 
+snoring your time away in chimney-corners, when honest men's 
+daughters can't cross even our quiet meadows at nightfall without 
+being set upon by footpads, and frightened out of their precious 
+lives.'
+
+'They never rob me,' cried Hugh with a laugh.  'I have got nothing 
+to lose.  But I'd as lief knock them at head as any other men.  How 
+many are there?'
+
+'Only one,' said Dolly faintly, for everybody looked at her.
+
+'And what was he like, mistress?' said Hugh with a glance at young 
+Willet, so slight and momentary that the scowl it conveyed was lost 
+on all but her.  'About my height?'
+
+'Not--not so tall,' Dolly replied, scarce knowing what she said.
+
+'His dress,' said Hugh, looking at her keenly, 'like--like any of 
+ours now?  I know all the people hereabouts, and maybe could give a 
+guess at the man, if I had anything to guide me.'
+
+Dolly faltered and turned paler yet; then answered that he was 
+wrapped in a loose coat and had his face hidden by a handkerchief 
+and that she could give no other description of him.
+
+'You wouldn't know him if you saw him then, belike?' said Hugh with 
+a malicious grin.
+
+'I should not,' answered Dolly, bursting into tears again.  'I 
+don't wish to see him.  I can't bear to think of him.  I can't talk 
+about him any more.  Don't go to look for these things, Mr Joe, 
+pray don't.  I entreat you not to go with that man.'
+
+'Not to go with me!' cried Hugh.  'I'm too rough for them all.  
+They're all afraid of me.  Why, bless you mistress, I've the 
+tenderest heart alive.  I love all the ladies, ma'am,' said Hugh, 
+turning to the locksmith's wife.
+
+Mrs Varden opined that if he did, he ought to be ashamed of 
+himself; such sentiments being more consistent (so she argued) with 
+a benighted Mussulman or wild Islander than with a stanch 
+Protestant.  Arguing from this imperfect state of his morals, Mrs 
+Varden further opined that he had never studied the Manual.  Hugh 
+admitting that he never had, and moreover that he couldn't read, 
+Mrs Varden declared with much severity, that he ought to he even 
+more ashamed of himself than before, and strongly recommended him 
+to save up his pocket-money for the purchase of one, and further to 
+teach himself the contents with all convenient diligence.  She was 
+still pursuing this train of discourse, when Hugh, somewhat 
+unceremoniously and irreverently, followed his young master out, 
+and left her to edify the rest of the company.  This she proceeded 
+to do, and finding that Mr Willet's eyes were fixed upon her with 
+an appearance of deep attention, gradually addressed the whole of 
+her discourse to him, whom she entertained with a moral and 
+theological lecture of considerable length, in the conviction that 
+great workings were taking place in his spirit.  The simple truth 
+was, however, that Mr Willet, although his eyes were wide open and 
+he saw a woman before him whose head by long and steady looking at 
+seemed to grow bigger and bigger until it filled the whole bar, was 
+to all other intents and purposes fast asleep; and so sat leaning 
+back in his chair with his hands in his pockets until his son's 
+return caused him to wake up with a deep sigh, and a faint 
+impression that he had been dreaming about pickled pork and greens--
+a vision of his slumbers which was no doubt referable to the 
+circumstance of Mrs Varden's having frequently pronounced the word 
+'Grace' with much emphasis; which word, entering the portals of Mr 
+Willet's brain as they stood ajar, and coupling itself with the 
+words 'before meat,' which were there ranging about, did in time 
+suggest a particular kind of meat together with that description of 
+vegetable which is usually its companion.
+
+The search was wholly unsuccessful.  Joe had groped along the path 
+a dozen times, and among the grass, and in the dry ditch, and in 
+the hedge, but all in vain.  Dolly, who was quite inconsolable for 
+her loss, wrote a note to Miss Haredale giving her the same account 
+of it that she had given at the Maypole, which Joe undertook to 
+deliver as soon as the family were stirring next day.  That done, 
+they sat down to tea in the bar, where there was an uncommon 
+display of buttered toast, and--in order that they might not grow 
+faint for want of sustenance, and might have a decent halting-
+place or halfway house between dinner and supper--a few savoury 
+trifles in the shape of great rashers of broiled ham, which being 
+well cured, done to a turn, and smoking hot, sent forth a tempting 
+and delicious fragrance.
+
+Mrs Varden was seldom very Protestant at meals, unless it happened 
+that they were underdone, or overdone, or indeed that anything 
+occurred to put her out of humour.  Her spirits rose considerably 
+on beholding these goodly preparations, and from the nothingness of 
+good works, she passed to the somethingness of ham and toast with 
+great cheerfulness.  Nay, under the influence of these wholesome 
+stimulants, she sharply reproved her daughter for being low and 
+despondent (which she considered an unacceptable frame of mind), 
+and remarked, as she held her own plate for a fresh supply, that it 
+would be well for Dolly, who pined over the loss of a toy and a 
+sheet of paper, if she would reflect upon the voluntary sacrifices 
+of the missionaries in foreign parts who lived chiefly on salads.
+
+The proceedings of such a day occasion various fluctuations in the 
+human thermometer, and especially in instruments so sensitively and 
+delicately constructed as Mrs Varden.  Thus, at dinner Mrs V. stood 
+at summer heat; genial, smiling, and delightful.  After dinner, in 
+the sunshine of the wine, she went up at least half-a-dozen 
+degrees, and was perfectly enchanting.  As its effect subsided, she 
+fell rapidly, went to sleep for an hour or so at temperate, and 
+woke at something below freezing.  Now she was at summer heat 
+again, in the shade; and when tea was over, and old John, producing 
+a bottle of cordial from one of the oaken cases, insisted on her 
+sipping two glasses thereof in slow succession, she stood steadily 
+at ninety for one hour and a quarter.  Profiting by experience, the 
+locksmith took advantage of this genial weather to smoke his pipe 
+in the porch, and in consequence of this prudent management, he was 
+fully prepared, when the glass went down again, to start homewards 
+directly.
+
+The horse was accordingly put in, and the chaise brought round to 
+the door.  Joe, who would on no account be dissuaded from escorting 
+them until they had passed the most dreary and solitary part of the 
+road, led out the grey mare at the same time; and having helped 
+Dolly into her seat (more happiness!) sprung gaily into the saddle.  
+Then, after many good nights, and admonitions to wrap up, and 
+glancing of lights, and handing in of cloaks and shawls, the chaise 
+rolled away, and Joe trotted beside it--on Dolly's side, no doubt, 
+and pretty close to the wheel too.
+
+
+
+Chapter 22
+
+
+It was a fine bright night, and for all her lowness of spirits 
+Dolly kept looking up at the stars in a manner so bewitching (and 
+SHE knew it!) that Joe was clean out of his senses, and plainly 
+showed that if ever a man were--not to say over head and ears, but 
+over the Monument and the top of Saint Paul's in love, that man was 
+himself.  The road was a very good one; not at all a jolting road, 
+or an uneven one; and yet Dolly held the side of the chaise with 
+one little hand, all the way.  If there had been an executioner 
+behind him with an uplifted axe ready to chop off his head if he 
+touched that hand, Joe couldn't have helped doing it.  From putting 
+his own hand upon it as if by chance, and taking it away again 
+after a minute or so, he got to riding along without taking it off 
+at all; as if he, the escort, were bound to do that as an important 
+part of his duty, and had come out for the purpose.  The most 
+curious circumstance about this little incident was, that Dolly 
+didn't seem to know of it.  She looked so innocent and unconscious 
+when she turned her eyes on Joe, that it was quite provoking.
+
+She talked though; talked about her fright, and about Joe's coming 
+up to rescue her, and about her gratitude, and about her fear that 
+she might not have thanked him enough, and about their always being 
+friends from that time forth--and about all that sort of thing.  
+And when Joe said, not friends he hoped, Dolly was quite surprised, 
+and said not enemies she hoped; and when Joe said, couldn't they be 
+something much better than either, Dolly all of a sudden found out 
+a star which was brighter than all the other stars, and begged to 
+call his attention to the same, and was ten thousand times more 
+innocent and unconscious than ever.
+
+In this manner they travelled along, talking very little above a 
+whisper, and wishing the road could be stretched out to some dozen 
+times its natural length--at least that was Joe's desire--when, as 
+they were getting clear of the forest and emerging on the more 
+frequented road, they heard behind them the sound of a horse's feet 
+at a round trot, which growing rapidly louder as it drew nearer, 
+elicited a scream from Mrs Varden, and the cry 'a friend!' from the 
+rider, who now came panting up, and checked his horse beside them.
+
+'This man again!' cried Dolly, shuddering.
+
+'Hugh!' said Joe.  'What errand are you upon?'
+
+'I come to ride back with you,' he answered, glancing covertly at 
+the locksmith's daughter.  'HE sent me.
+
+'My father!' said poor Joe; adding under his breath, with a very 
+unfilial apostrophe, 'Will he never think me man enough to take 
+care of myself!'
+
+'Aye!' returned Hugh to the first part of the inquiry.  'The roads 
+are not safe just now, he says, and you'd better have a companion.'
+
+'Ride on then,' said Joe.  'I'm not going to turn yet.'
+
+Hugh complied, and they went on again.  It was his whim or humour 
+to ride immediately before the chaise, and from this position he 
+constantly turned his head, and looked back.  Dolly felt that he 
+looked at her, but she averted her eyes and feared to raise them 
+once, so great was the dread with which he had inspired her.
+
+This interruption, and the consequent wakefulness of Mrs Varden, 
+who had been nodding in her sleep up to this point, except for a 
+minute or two at a time, when she roused herself to scold the 
+locksmith for audaciously taking hold of her to prevent her nodding 
+herself out of the chaise, put a restraint upon the whispered 
+conversation, and made it difficult of resumption.  Indeed, before 
+they had gone another mile, Gabriel stopped at his wife's desire, 
+and that good lady protested she would not hear of Joe's going a 
+step further on any account whatever.  It was in vain for Joe to 
+protest on the other hand that he was by no means tired, and would 
+turn back presently, and would see them safely past such a point, 
+and so forth.  Mrs Varden was obdurate, and being so was not to be 
+overcome by mortal agency.
+
+'Good night--if I must say it,' said Joe, sorrowfully.
+
+'Good night,' said Dolly.  She would have added, 'Take care of that 
+man, and pray don't trust him,' but he had turned his horse's head, 
+and was standing close to them.  She had therefore nothing for it 
+but to suffer Joe to give her hand a gentle squeeze, and when the 
+chaise had gone on for some distance, to look back and wave it, as 
+he still lingered on the spot where they had parted, with the tall 
+dark figure of Hugh beside him.
+
+What she thought about, going home; and whether the coach-maker 
+held as favourable a place in her meditations as he had occupied in 
+the morning, is unknown.  They reached home at last--at last, for 
+it was a long way, made none the shorter by Mrs Varden's grumbling.  
+Miggs hearing the sound of wheels was at the door immediately.
+
+'Here they are, Simmun!  Here they are!' cried Miggs, clapping her 
+hands, and issuing forth to help her mistress to alight.  'Bring a 
+chair, Simmun.  Now, an't you the better for it, mim?  Don't you 
+feel more yourself than you would have done if you'd have stopped 
+at home?  Oh, gracious! how cold you are!  Goodness me, sir, she's 
+a perfect heap of ice.'
+
+'I can't help it, my good girl.  You had better take her in to the 
+fire,' said the locksmith.
+
+'Master sounds unfeeling, mim,' said Miggs, in a tone of 
+commiseration, 'but such is not his intentions, I'm sure.  After 
+what he has seen of you this day, I never will believe but that he 
+has a deal more affection in his heart than to speak unkind.  Come 
+in and sit yourself down by the fire; there's a good dear--do.'
+
+Mrs Varden complied.  The locksmith followed with his hands in his 
+pockets, and Mr Tappertit trundled off with the chaise to a 
+neighbouring stable.
+
+'Martha, my dear,' said the locksmith, when they reached the 
+parlour, 'if you'll look to Dolly yourself or let somebody else do 
+it, perhaps it will be only kind and reasonable.  She has been 
+frightened, you know, and is not at all well to-night.'
+
+In fact, Dolly had thrown herself upon the sofa, quite regardless 
+of all the little finery of which she had been so proud in the 
+morning, and with her face buried in her hands was crying very 
+much.
+
+At first sight of this phenomenon (for Dolly was by no means 
+accustomed to displays of this sort, rather learning from her 
+mother's example to avoid them as much as possible) Mrs Varden 
+expressed her belief that never was any woman so beset as she; that 
+her life was a continued scene of trial; that whenever she was 
+disposed to be well and cheerful, so sure were the people around 
+her to throw, by some means or other, a damp upon her spirits; and 
+that, as she had enjoyed herself that day, and Heaven knew it was 
+very seldom she did enjoy herself so she was now to pay the 
+penalty.  To all such propositions Miggs assented freely.  Poor 
+Dolly, however, grew none the better for these restoratives, but 
+rather worse, indeed; and seeing that she was really ill, both Mrs 
+Varden and Miggs were moved to compassion, and tended her in 
+earnest.
+
+But even then, their very kindness shaped itself into their usual 
+course of policy, and though Dolly was in a swoon, it was rendered 
+clear to the meanest capacity, that Mrs Varden was the sufferer.  
+Thus when Dolly began to get a little better, and passed into that 
+stage in which matrons hold that remonstrance and argument may be 
+successfully applied, her mother represented to her, with tears in 
+her eyes, that if she had been flurried and worried that day, she 
+must remember it was the common lot of humanity, and in especial of 
+womankind, who through the whole of their existence must expect no 
+less, and were bound to make up their minds to meek endurance and 
+patient resignation.  Mrs Varden entreated her to remember that one 
+of these days she would, in all probability, have to do violence to 
+her feelings so far as to be married; and that marriage, as she 
+might see every day of her life (and truly she did) was a state 
+requiring great fortitude and forbearance.  She represented to her 
+in lively colours, that if she (Mrs V.) had not, in steering her 
+course through this vale of tears, been supported by a strong 
+principle of duty which alone upheld and prevented her from 
+drooping, she must have been in her grave many years ago; in which 
+case she desired to know what would have become of that errant 
+spirit (meaning the locksmith), of whose eye she was the very 
+apple, and in whose path she was, as it were, a shining light and 
+guiding star?
+
+Miss Miggs also put in her word to the same effect.  She said that 
+indeed and indeed Miss Dolly might take pattern by her blessed 
+mother, who, she always had said, and always would say, though she 
+were to be hanged, drawn, and quartered for it next minute, was 
+the mildest, amiablest, forgivingest-spirited, longest-sufferingest 
+female as ever she could have believed; the mere narration of whose 
+excellencies had worked such a wholesome change in the mind of her 
+own sister-in-law, that, whereas, before, she and her husband lived 
+like cat and dog, and were in the habit of exchanging brass 
+candlesticks, pot-lids, flat-irons, and other such strong 
+resentments, they were now the happiest and affectionatest couple 
+upon earth; as could be proved any day on application at Golden 
+Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, second bell-handle on the right-
+hand doorpost.  After glancing at herself as a comparatively 
+worthless vessel, but still as one of some desert, she besought her 
+to bear in mind that her aforesaid dear and only mother was of a 
+weakly constitution and excitable temperament, who had constantly 
+to sustain afflictions in domestic life, compared with which 
+thieves and robbers were as nothing, and yet never sunk down or 
+gave way to despair or wrath, but, in prize-fighting phraseology, 
+always came up to time with a cheerful countenance, and went in to 
+win as if nothing had happened.  When Miggs finished her solo, her 
+mistress struck in again, and the two together performed a duet to 
+the same purpose; the burden being, that Mrs Varden was persecuted 
+perfection, and Mr Varden, as the representative of mankind in that 
+apartment, a creature of vicious and brutal habits, utterly 
+insensible to the blessings he enjoyed.  Of so refined a character, 
+indeed, was their talent of assault under the mask of sympathy, 
+that when Dolly, recovering, embraced her father tenderly, as in 
+vindication of his goodness, Mrs Varden expressed her solemn hope 
+that this would be a lesson to him for the remainder of his life, 
+and that he would do some little justice to a woman's nature ever 
+afterwards--in which aspiration Miss Miggs, by divers sniffs and 
+coughs, more significant than the longest oration, expressed her 
+entire concurrence.
+
+But the great joy of Miggs's heart was, that she not only picked up 
+a full account of what had happened, but had the exquisite delight 
+of conveying it to Mr Tappertit for his jealousy and torture.  For 
+that gentleman, on account of Dolly's indisposition, had been 
+requested to take his supper in the workshop, and it was conveyed 
+thither by Miss Miggs's own fair hands.
+
+'Oh Simmun!' said the young lady, 'such goings on to-day!  Oh, 
+gracious me, Simmun!'
+
+Mr Tappertit, who was not in the best of humours, and who 
+disliked Miss Miggs more when she laid her hand on her heart and 
+panted for breath than at any other time, as her deficiency of 
+outline was most apparent under such circumstances, eyed her over 
+in his loftiest style, and deigned to express no curiosity 
+whatever.
+
+'I never heard the like, nor nobody else,' pursued Miggs.  'The 
+idea of interfering with HER.  What people can see in her to make 
+it worth their while to do so, that's the joke--he he he!'
+
+Finding there was a lady in the case, Mr Tappertit haughtily 
+requested his fair friend to be more explicit, and demanded to know 
+what she meant by 'her.'
+
+'Why, that Dolly,' said Miggs, with an extremely sharp emphasis on 
+the name.  'But, oh upon my word and honour, young Joseph Willet is 
+a brave one; and he do deserve her, that he do.'
+
+'Woman!' said Mr Tappertit, jumping off the counter on which he was 
+seated; 'beware!'
+
+'My stars, Simmun!' cried Miggs, in affected astonishment.  'You 
+frighten me to death!  What's the matter?'
+
+'There are strings,' said Mr Tappertit, flourishing his bread-and-
+cheese knife in the air, 'in the human heart that had better not be 
+wibrated.  That's what's the matter.'
+
+'Oh, very well--if you're in a huff,' cried Miggs, turning away.
+
+'Huff or no huff,' said Mr Tappertit, detaining her by the wrist.  
+'What do you mean, Jezebel?  What were you going to say?  Answer 
+me!'
+
+Notwithstanding this uncivil exhortation, Miggs gladly did as she 
+was required; and told him how that their young mistress, being 
+alone in the meadows after dark, had been attacked by three or four 
+tall men, who would have certainly borne her away and perhaps 
+murdered her, but for the timely arrival of Joseph Willet, who with 
+his own single hand put them all to flight, and rescued her; to the 
+lasting admiration of his fellow-creatures generally, and to the 
+eternal love and gratitude of Dolly Varden.
+
+'Very good,' said Mr Tappertit, fetching a long breath when the 
+tale was told, and rubbing his hair up till it stood stiff and 
+straight on end all over his head.  'His days are numbered.'
+
+'Oh, Simmun!'
+
+'I tell you,' said the 'prentice, 'his days are numbered.  Leave 
+me.  Get along with you.'
+
+Miggs departed at his bidding, but less because of his bidding than 
+because she desired to chuckle in secret.  When she had given vent 
+to her satisfaction, she returned to the parlour; where the 
+locksmith, stimulated by quietness and Toby, had become talkative, 
+and was disposed to take a cheerful review of the occurrences of 
+the day.  But Mrs Varden, whose practical religion (as is not 
+uncommon) was usually of the retrospective order, cut him short by 
+declaiming on the sinfulness of such junketings, and holding that 
+it was high time to go to bed.  To bed therefore she withdrew, with 
+an aspect as grim and gloomy as that of the Maypole's own state 
+couch; and to bed the rest of the establishment soon afterwards 
+repaired.
+
+
+
+Chapter 23
+
+
+Twilight had given place to night some hours, and it was high noon 
+in those quarters of the town in which 'the world' condescended to 
+dwell--the world being then, as now, of very limited dimensions and 
+easily lodged--when Mr Chester reclined upon a sofa in his 
+dressing-room in the Temple, entertaining himself with a book.
+
+He was dressing, as it seemed, by easy stages, and having performed 
+half the journey was taking a long rest.  Completely attired as to 
+his legs and feet in the trimmest fashion of the day, he had yet 
+the remainder of his toilet to perform.  The coat was stretched, 
+like a refined scarecrow, on its separate horse; the waistcoat was 
+displayed to the best advantage; the various ornamental articles of 
+dress were severally set out in most alluring order; and yet he lay 
+dangling his legs between the sofa and the ground, as intent upon 
+his book as if there were nothing but bed before him.
+
+'Upon my honour,' he said, at length raising his eyes to the 
+ceiling with the air of a man who was reflecting seriously on what 
+he had read; 'upon my honour, the most masterly composition, the 
+most delicate thoughts, the finest code of morality, and the most 
+gentlemanly sentiments in the universe!  Ah Ned, Ned, if you would 
+but form your mind by such precepts, we should have but one common 
+feeling on every subject that could possibly arise between us!'
+
+This apostrophe was addressed, like the rest of his remarks, to 
+empty air: for Edward was not present, and the father was quite 
+alone.
+
+'My Lord Chesterfield,' he said, pressing his hand tenderly upon 
+the book as he laid it down, 'if I could but have profited by your 
+genius soon enough to have formed my son on the model you have left 
+to all wise fathers, both he and I would have been rich men.  
+Shakespeare was undoubtedly very fine in his way; Milton good, 
+though prosy; Lord Bacon deep, and decidedly knowing; but the 
+writer who should be his country's pride, is my Lord Chesterfield.'
+
+He became thoughtful again, and the toothpick was in requisition.
+
+'I thought I was tolerably accomplished as a man of the world,' he 
+continued, 'I flattered myself that I was pretty well versed in all 
+those little arts and graces which distinguish men of the world 
+from boors and peasants, and separate their character from those 
+intensely vulgar sentiments which are called the national 
+character.  Apart from any natural prepossession in my own favour, 
+I believed I was.  Still, in every page of this enlightened writer, 
+I find some captivating hypocrisy which has never occurred to me 
+before, or some superlative piece of selfishness to which I was 
+utterly a stranger.  I should quite blush for myself before this 
+stupendous creature, if remembering his precepts, one might blush 
+at anything.  An amazing man! a nobleman indeed! any King or Queen 
+may make a Lord, but only the Devil himself--and the Graces--can 
+make a Chesterfield.'
+
+Men who are thoroughly false and hollow, seldom try to hide those 
+vices from themselves; and yet in the very act of avowing them, 
+they lay claim to the virtues they feign most to despise.  'For,' 
+say they, 'this is honesty, this is truth.  All mankind are like 
+us, but they have not the candour to avow it.'  The more they 
+affect to deny the existence of any sincerity in the world, the 
+more they would be thought to possess it in its boldest shape; and 
+this is an unconscious compliment to Truth on the part of these 
+philosophers, which will turn the laugh against them to the Day of 
+Judgment.
+
+Mr Chester, having extolled his favourite author, as above recited, 
+took up the book again in the excess of his admiration and was 
+composing himself for a further perusal of its sublime morality, 
+when he was disturbed by a noise at the outer door; occasioned as 
+it seemed by the endeavours of his servant to obstruct the entrance 
+of some unwelcome visitor.
+
+'A late hour for an importunate creditor,' he said, raising his 
+eyebrows with as indolent an expression of wonder as if the noise 
+were in the street, and one with which he had not the smallest 
+possible concern.  'Much after their accustomed time.  The usual 
+pretence I suppose.  No doubt a heavy payment to make up tomorrow.  
+Poor fellow, he loses time, and time is money as the good proverb 
+says--I never found it out though.  Well.  What now?  You know I am 
+not at home.'
+
+'A man, sir,' replied the servant, who was to the full as cool and 
+negligent in his way as his master, 'has brought home the riding-
+whip you lost the other day.  I told him you were out, but he said 
+he was to wait while I brought it in, and wouldn't go till I did.'
+
+'He was quite right,' returned his master, 'and you're a blockhead, 
+possessing no judgment or discretion whatever.  Tell him to come 
+in, and see that he rubs his shoes for exactly five minutes first.'
+
+The man laid the whip on a chair, and withdrew.  The master, who 
+had only heard his foot upon the ground and had not taken the 
+trouble to turn round and look at him, shut his book, and pursued 
+the train of ideas his entrance had disturbed.
+
+'If time were money,' he said, handling his snuff-box, 'I would 
+compound with my creditors, and give them--let me see--how much a 
+day?  There's my nap after dinner--an hour--they're extremely 
+welcome to that, and to make the most of it.  In the morning, 
+between my breakfast and the paper, I could spare them another 
+hour; in the evening before dinner say another.  Three hours a day.  
+They might pay themselves in calls, with interest, in twelve 
+months.  I think I shall propose it to them.  Ah, my centaur, are 
+you there?'
+
+'Here I am,' replied Hugh, striding in, followed by a dog, as rough 
+and sullen as himself; 'and trouble enough I've had to get here.  
+What do you ask me to come for, and keep me out when I DO come?'
+
+'My good fellow,' returned the other, raising his head a little 
+from the cushion and carelessly surveying him from top to toe, 'I 
+am delighted to see you, and to have, in your being here, the very 
+best proof that you are not kept out.  How are you?'
+
+'I'm well enough,' said Hugh impatiently.
+
+'You look a perfect marvel of health.  Sit down.'
+
+'I'd rather stand,' said Hugh.
+
+'Please yourself my good fellow,' returned Mr Chester rising, 
+slowly pulling off the loose robe he wore, and sitting down before 
+the dressing-glass.  'Please yourself by all means.'
+
+Having said this in the politest and blandest tone possible, he 
+went on dressing, and took no further notice of his guest, who 
+stood in the same spot as uncertain what to do next, eyeing him 
+sulkily from time to time.
+
+'Are you going to speak to me, master?' he said, after a long 
+silence.
+
+'My worthy creature,' returned Mr Chester, 'you are a little 
+ruffled and out of humour.  I'll wait till you're quite yourself 
+again.  I am in no hurry.'
+
+This behaviour had its intended effect.  It humbled and abashed the 
+man, and made him still more irresolute and uncertain.  Hard words 
+he could have returned, violence he would have repaid with 
+interest; but this cool, complacent, contemptuous, self-possessed 
+reception, caused him to feel his inferiority more completely than 
+the most elaborate arguments.  Everything contributed to this 
+effect.  His own rough speech, contrasted with the soft persuasive 
+accents of the other; his rude bearing, and Mr Chester's polished 
+manner; the disorder and negligence of his ragged dress, and the 
+elegant attire he saw before him; with all the unaccustomed 
+luxuries and comforts of the room, and the silence that gave him 
+leisure to observe these things, and feel how ill at ease they made 
+him; all these influences, which have too often some effect on 
+tutored minds and become of almost resistless power when brought to 
+bear on such a mind as his, quelled Hugh completely.  He moved by 
+little and little nearer to Mr Chester's chair, and glancing over 
+his shoulder at the reflection of his face in the glass, as if 
+seeking for some encouragement in its expression, said at length, 
+with a rough attempt at conciliation,
+
+'ARE you going to speak to me, master, or am I to go away?'
+
+'Speak you,' said Mr Chester, 'speak you, good fellow.  I have 
+spoken, have I not?  I am waiting for you.'
+
+'Why, look'ee, sir,' returned Hugh with increased embarrassment, 
+'am I the man that you privately left your whip with before you 
+rode away from the Maypole, and told to bring it back whenever he 
+might want to see you on a certain subject?'
+
+'No doubt the same, or you have a twin brother,' said Mr Chester, 
+glancing at the reflection of his anxious face; 'which is not 
+probable, I should say.'
+
+'Then I have come, sir,' said Hugh, 'and I have brought it back, 
+and something else along with it.  A letter, sir, it is, that I 
+took from the person who had charge of it.'  As he spoke, he laid 
+upon the dressing-table, Dolly's lost epistle.  The very letter 
+that had cost her so much trouble.
+
+'Did you obtain this by force, my good fellow?' said Mr Chester, 
+casting his eye upon it without the least perceptible surprise or 
+pleasure.
+
+'Not quite,' said Hugh.  'Partly.'
+
+'Who was the messenger from whom you took it?'
+
+'A woman.  One Varden's daughter.'
+
+'Oh indeed!' said Mr Chester gaily.  'What else did you take from 
+her?'
+
+'What else?'
+
+'Yes,' said the other, in a drawling manner, for he was fixing a 
+very small patch of sticking plaster on a very small pimple near 
+the corner of his mouth.  'What else?'
+
+'Well a kiss,' replied Hugh, after some hesitation.
+
+'And what else?'
+
+'Nothing.'
+
+'I think,' said Mr Chester, in the same easy tone, and smiling 
+twice or thrice to try if the patch adhered--'I think there was 
+something else.  I have heard a trifle of jewellery spoken of--a 
+mere trifle--a thing of such little value, indeed, that you may 
+have forgotten it.  Do you remember anything of the kind--such as a 
+bracelet now, for instance?'
+
+Hugh with a muttered oath thrust his hand into his breast, and 
+drawing the bracelet forth, wrapped in a scrap of hay, was about to 
+lay it on the table likewise, when his patron stopped his hand and 
+bade him put it up again.
+
+'You took that for yourself my excellent friend,' he said, 'and may 
+keep it.  I am neither a thief nor a receiver.  Don't show it to 
+me.  You had better hide it again, and lose no time.  Don't let me 
+see where you put it either,' he added, turning away his head.
+
+'You're not a receiver!' said Hugh bluntly, despite the increasing 
+awe in which he held him.  'What do you call THAT, master?' 
+striking the letter with his heavy hand.
+
+'I call that quite another thing,' said Mr Chester coolly.  'I 
+shall prove it presently, as you will see.  You are thirsty, I 
+suppose?'
+
+Hugh drew his sleeve across his lips, and gruffly answered yes.
+
+'Step to that closet and bring me a bottle you will see there, and 
+a glass.'
+
+He obeyed.  His patron followed him with his eyes, and when his 
+back was turned, smiled as he had never done when he stood beside 
+the mirror.  On his return he filled the glass, and bade him drink.  
+That dram despatched, he poured him out another, and another.
+
+'How many can you bear?' he said, filling the glass again.
+
+'As many as you like to give me.  Pour on.  Fill high.  A bumper 
+with a bead in the middle!  Give me enough of this,' he added, as 
+he tossed it down his hairy throat, 'and I'll do murder if you ask 
+me!'
+
+'As I don't mean to ask you, and you might possibly do it without 
+being invited if you went on much further,' said Mr Chester with 
+great composure, we will stop, if agreeable to you, my good friend, 
+at the next glass.  You were drinking before you came here.'
+
+'I always am when I can get it,' cried Hugh boisterously, waving 
+the empty glass above his head, and throwing himself into a rude 
+dancing attitude.  'I always am.  Why not?  Ha ha ha!  What's so 
+good to me as this?  What ever has been?  What else has kept away 
+the cold on bitter nights, and driven hunger off in starving times?  
+What else has given me the strength and courage of a man, when men 
+would have left me to die, a puny child?  I should never have had a 
+man's heart but for this.  I should have died in a ditch.  Where's 
+he who when I was a weak and sickly wretch, with trembling legs and 
+fading sight, bade me cheer up, as this did?  I never knew him; not 
+I.  I drink to the drink, master.  Ha ha ha!'
+
+'You are an exceedingly cheerful young man,' said Mr Chester, 
+putting on his cravat with great deliberation, and slightly moving 
+his head from side to side to settle his chin in its proper place.  
+'Quite a boon companion.'
+
+'Do you see this hand, master,' said Hugh, 'and this arm?' baring 
+the brawny limb to the elbow.  'It was once mere skin and bone, and 
+would have been dust in some poor churchyard by this time, but for 
+the drink.'
+
+'You may cover it,' said Mr Chester, 'it's sufficiently real in 
+your sleeve.'
+
+'I should never have been spirited up to take a kiss from the proud 
+little beauty, master, but for the drink,' cried Hugh.  'Ha ha ha!  
+It was a good one.  As sweet as honeysuckle, I warrant you.  I 
+thank the drink for it.  I'll drink to the drink again, master.  
+Fill me one more.  Come.  One more!'
+
+'You are such a promising fellow,' said his patron, putting on his 
+waistcoat with great nicety, and taking no heed of this request, 
+'that I must caution you against having too many impulses from the 
+drink, and getting hung before your time.  What's your age?'
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'At any rate,' said Mr Chester, 'you are young enough to escape 
+what I may call a natural death for some years to come.  How can 
+you trust yourself in my hands on so short an acquaintance, with a 
+halter round your neck?  What a confiding nature yours must be!'
+
+Hugh fell back a pace or two and surveyed him with a look of 
+mingled terror, indignation, and surprise.  Regarding himself in 
+the glass with the same complacency as before, and speaking as 
+smoothly as if he were discussing some pleasant chit-chat of the 
+town, his patron went on:
+
+'Robbery on the king's highway, my young friend, is a very 
+dangerous and ticklish occupation.  It is pleasant, I have no 
+doubt, while it lasts; but like many other pleasures in this 
+transitory world, it seldom lasts long.  And really if in the 
+ingenuousness of youth, you open your heart so readily on the 
+subject, I am afraid your career will be an extremely short one.'
+
+'How's this?' said Hugh.  'What do you talk of master?  Who was it 
+set me on?'
+
+'Who?' said Mr Chester, wheeling sharply round, and looking full 
+at him for the first time.  'I didn't hear you.  Who was it?'
+
+Hugh faltered, and muttered something which was not audible.
+
+'Who was it?  I am curious to know,' said Mr Chester, with 
+surpassing affability.  'Some rustic beauty perhaps?  But be 
+cautious, my good friend.  They are not always to be trusted.  Do 
+take my advice now, and be careful of yourself.'  With these words 
+he turned to the glass again, and went on with his toilet.
+
+Hugh would have answered him that he, the questioner himself had 
+set him on, but the words stuck in his throat.  The consummate art 
+with which his patron had led him to this point, and managed the 
+whole conversation, perfectly baffled him.  He did not doubt that 
+if he had made the retort which was on his lips when Mr Chester 
+turned round and questioned him so keenly, he would straightway 
+have given him into custody and had him dragged before a justice 
+with the stolen property upon him; in which case it was as certain 
+he would have been hung as it was that he had been born.  The 
+ascendency which it was the purpose of the man of the world to 
+establish over this savage instrument, was gained from that time.  
+Hugh's submission was complete.  He dreaded him beyond description; 
+and felt that accident and artifice had spun a web about him, which 
+at a touch from such a master-hand as his, would bind him to the 
+gallows.
+
+With these thoughts passing through his mind, and yet wondering at 
+the very same time how he who came there rioting in the confidence 
+of this man (as he thought), should be so soon and so thoroughly 
+subdued, Hugh stood cowering before him, regarding him uneasily 
+from time to time, while he finished dressing.  When he had done 
+so, he took up the letter, broke the seal, and throwing himself 
+back in his chair, read it leisurely through.
+
+'Very neatly worded upon my life!  Quite a woman's letter, full of 
+what people call tenderness, and disinterestedness, and heart, and 
+all that sort of thing!'
+
+As he spoke, he twisted it up, and glancing lazily round at Hugh as 
+though he would say 'You see this?' held it in the flame of the 
+candle.  When it was in a full blaze, he tossed it into the grate, 
+and there it smouldered away.
+
+'It was directed to my son,' he said, turning to Hugh, 'and you did 
+quite right to bring it here.  I opened it on my own 
+responsibility, and you see what I have done with it.  Take this, 
+for your trouble.'
+
+Hugh stepped forward to receive the piece of money he held out to 
+him.  As he put it in his hand, he added:
+
+'If you should happen to find anything else of this sort, or to 
+pick up any kind of information you may think I would like to have, 
+bring it here, will you, my good fellow?'
+
+This was said with a smile which implied--or Hugh thought it did--
+'fail to do so at your peril!'  He answered that he would.
+
+'And don't,' said his patron, with an air of the very kindest 
+patronage, 'don't be at all downcast or uneasy respecting that 
+little rashness we have been speaking of.  Your neck is as safe in 
+my hands, my good fellow, as though a baby's fingers clasped it, I 
+assure you.--Take another glass.  You are quieter now.'
+
+Hugh accepted it from his hand, and looking stealthily at his 
+smiling face, drank the contents in silence.
+
+'Don't you--ha, ha!--don't you drink to the drink any more?' said 
+Mr Chester, in his most winning manner.
+
+'To you, sir,' was the sullen answer, with something approaching to 
+a bow.  'I drink to you.'
+
+'Thank you.  God bless you.  By the bye, what is your name, my good 
+soul?  You are called Hugh, I know, of course--your other name?'
+
+'I have no other name.'
+
+'A very strange fellow!  Do you mean that you never knew one, or 
+that you don't choose to tell it?  Which?'
+
+'I'd tell it if I could,' said Hugh, quickly.  'I can't.  I have 
+been always called Hugh; nothing more.  I never knew, nor saw, nor 
+thought about a father; and I was a boy of six--that's not very 
+old--when they hung my mother up at Tyburn for a couple of thousand 
+men to stare at.  They might have let her live.  She was poor 
+enough.'
+
+'How very sad!' exclaimed his patron, with a condescending smile.  
+'I have no doubt she was an exceedingly fine woman.'
+
+'You see that dog of mine?' said Hugh, abruptly.
+
+'Faithful, I dare say?' rejoined his patron, looking at him through 
+his glass; 'and immensely clever?  Virtuous and gifted animals, 
+whether man or beast, always are so very hideous.'
+
+'Such a dog as that, and one of the same breed, was the only living 
+thing except me that howled that day,' said Hugh.  'Out of the two 
+thousand odd--there was a larger crowd for its being a woman--the 
+dog and I alone had any pity.  If he'd have been a man, he'd have 
+been glad to be quit of her, for she had been forced to keep him 
+lean and half-starved; but being a dog, and not having a man's 
+sense, he was sorry.'
+
+'It was dull of the brute, certainly,' said Mr Chester, 'and very 
+like a brute.'
+
+Hugh made no rejoinder, but whistling to his dog, who sprung up at 
+the sound and came jumping and sporting about him, bade his 
+sympathising friend good night.
+
+'Good night; he returned.  'Remember; you're safe with me--quite 
+safe.  So long as you deserve it, my good fellow, as I hope you 
+always will, you have a friend in me, on whose silence you may 
+rely.  Now do be careful of yourself, pray do, and consider what 
+jeopardy you might have stood in.  Good night! bless you!'
+
+Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words as much as 
+such a being could, and crept out of the door so submissively and 
+subserviently--with an air, in short, so different from that with 
+which he had entered--that his patron on being left alone, smiled 
+more than ever.
+
+'And yet,' he said, as he took a pinch of snuff, 'I do not like 
+their having hanged his mother.  The fellow has a fine eye, and I 
+am sure she was handsome.  But very probably she was coarse--red-
+nosed perhaps, and had clumsy feet.  Aye, it was all for the best, 
+no doubt.'
+
+With this comforting reflection, he put on his coat, took a 
+farewell glance at the glass, and summoned his man, who promptly 
+attended, followed by a chair and its two bearers.
+
+'Foh!' said Mr Chester.  'The very atmosphere that centaur has 
+breathed, seems tainted with the cart and ladder.  Here, Peak.  
+Bring some scent and sprinkle the floor; and take away the chair he 
+sat upon, and air it; and dash a little of that mixture upon me.  I 
+am stifled!'
+
+The man obeyed; and the room and its master being both purified, 
+nothing remained for Mr Chester but to demand his hat, to fold it 
+jauntily under his arm, to take his seat in the chair and be 
+carried off; humming a fashionable tune.
+
+
+
+Chapter 24
+
+
+How the accomplished gentleman spent the evening in the midst of a 
+dazzling and brilliant circle; how he enchanted all those with 
+whom he mingled by the grace of his deportment, the politeness of 
+his manner, the vivacity of his conversation, and the sweetness of 
+his voice; how it was observed in every corner, that Chester was a 
+man of that happy disposition that nothing ruffled him, that he was 
+one on whom the world's cares and errors sat lightly as his dress, 
+and in whose smiling face a calm and tranquil mind was constantly 
+reflected; how honest men, who by instinct knew him better, 
+bowed down before him nevertheless, deferred to his every word, and 
+courted his favourable notice; how people, who really had good in 
+them, went with the stream, and fawned and flattered, and approved, 
+and despised themselves while they did so, and yet had not the 
+courage to resist; how, in short, he was one of those who are 
+received and cherished in society (as the phrase is) by scores who 
+individually would shrink from and be repelled by the object of 
+their lavish regard; are things of course, which will suggest 
+themselves.  Matter so commonplace needs but a passing glance, and 
+there an end.
+
+The despisers of mankind--apart from the mere fools and mimics, of 
+that creed--are of two sorts.  They who believe their merit 
+neglected and unappreciated, make up one class; they who receive 
+adulation and flattery, knowing their own worthlessness, compose 
+the other.  Be sure that the coldest-hearted misanthropes are ever 
+of this last order.
+
+Mr Chester sat up in bed next morning, sipping his coffee, and 
+remembering with a kind of contemptuous satisfaction how he had 
+shone last night, and how he had been caressed and courted, when 
+his servant brought in a very small scrap of dirty paper, tightly 
+sealed in two places, on the inside whereof was inscribed in pretty 
+large text these words: 'A friend.  Desiring of a conference.  
+Immediate.  Private.  Burn it when you've read it.'
+
+'Where in the name of the Gunpowder Plot did you pick up this?' 
+said his master.
+
+It was given him by a person then waiting at the door, the man 
+replied.
+
+'With a cloak and dagger?' said Mr Chester.
+
+With nothing more threatening about him, it appeared, than a 
+leather apron and a dirty face.  'Let him come in.'  In he came--Mr 
+Tappertit; with his hair still on end, and a great lock in his 
+hand, which he put down on the floor in the middle of the chamber 
+as if he were about to go through some performances in which it was 
+a necessary agent.
+
+'Sir,' said Mr Tappertit with a low bow, 'I thank you for this 
+condescension, and am glad to see you.  Pardon the menial office in 
+which I am engaged, sir, and extend your sympathies to one, who, 
+humble as his appearance is, has inn'ard workings far above his 
+station.'
+
+Mr Chester held the bed-curtain farther back, and looked at him 
+with a vague impression that he was some maniac, who had not only 
+broken open the door of his place of confinement, but had brought 
+away the lock.  Mr Tappertit bowed again, and displayed his legs to 
+the best advantage.
+
+'You have heard, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, laying his hand upon his 
+breast, 'of G. Varden Locksmith and bell-hanger and repairs neatly 
+executed in town and country, Clerkenwell, London?'
+
+'What then?' asked Mr Chester.
+
+'I'm his 'prentice, sir.'
+
+'What THEN?'
+
+'Ahem!' said Mr Tappertit.  'Would you permit me to shut the door, 
+sir, and will you further, sir, give me your honour bright, that 
+what passes between us is in the strictest confidence?'
+
+Mr Chester laid himself calmly down in bed again, and turning a 
+perfectly undisturbed face towards the strange apparition, which 
+had by this time closed the door, begged him to speak out, and to 
+be as rational as he could, without putting himself to any very 
+great personal inconvenience.
+
+'In the first place, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, producing a small 
+pocket-handkerchief and shaking it out of the folds, 'as I have not 
+a card about me (for the envy of masters debases us below that 
+level) allow me to offer the best substitute that circumstances 
+will admit of.  If you will take that in your own hand, sir, and 
+cast your eye on the right-hand corner,' said Mr Tappertit, 
+offering it with a graceful air, 'you will meet with my 
+credentials.'
+
+'Thank you,' answered Mr Chester, politely accepting it, and 
+turning to some blood-red characters at one end.  '"Four.  Simon 
+Tappertit.  One."  Is that the--'
+
+'Without the numbers, sir, that is my name,' replied the 'prentice.  
+'They are merely intended as directions to the washerwoman, and 
+have no connection with myself or family.  YOUR name, sir,' said Mr 
+Tappertit, looking very hard at his nightcap, 'is Chester, I 
+suppose?  You needn't pull it off, sir, thank you.  I observe E. C. 
+from here.  We will take the rest for granted.'
+
+'Pray, Mr Tappertit,' said Mr Chester, 'has that complicated piece 
+of ironmongery which you have done me the favour to bring with you, 
+any immediate connection with the business we are to discuss?'
+
+'It has not, sir,' rejoined the 'prentice.  'It's going to be 
+fitted on a ware'us-door in Thames Street.'
+
+'Perhaps, as that is the case,' said Mr Chester, 'and as it has a 
+stronger flavour of oil than I usually refresh my bedroom with, you 
+will oblige me so far as to put it outside the door?'
+
+'By all means, sir,' said Mr Tappertit, suiting the action to the 
+word.
+
+'You'll excuse my mentioning it, I hope?'
+
+'Don't apologise, sir, I beg.  And now, if you please, to 
+business.'
+
+During the whole of this dialogue, Mr Chester had suffered nothing 
+but his smile of unvarying serenity and politeness to appear upon 
+his face.  Sim Tappertit, who had far too good an opinion of 
+himself to suspect that anybody could be playing upon him, thought 
+within himself that this was something like the respect to which he 
+was entitled, and drew a comparison from this courteous demeanour 
+of a stranger, by no means favourable to the worthy locksmith.
+
+'From what passes in our house,' said Mr Tappertit, 'I am aware, 
+sir, that your son keeps company with a young lady against your 
+inclinations.  Sir, your son has not used me well.'
+
+'Mr Tappertit,' said the other, 'you grieve me beyond description.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' replied the 'prentice.  'I'm glad to hear you say 
+so.  He's very proud, sir, is your son; very haughty.'
+
+'I am afraid he IS haughty,' said Mr Chester.  'Do you know I was 
+really afraid of that before; and you confirm me?'
+
+'To recount the menial offices I've had to do for your son, sir,' 
+said Mr Tappertit; 'the chairs I've had to hand him, the coaches 
+I've had to call for him, the numerous degrading duties, wholly 
+unconnected with my indenters, that I've had to do for him, would 
+fill a family Bible.  Besides which, sir, he is but a young man 
+himself and I do not consider "thank'ee Sim," a proper form of 
+address on those occasions.'
+
+'Mr Tappertit, your wisdom is beyond your years.  Pray go on.'
+
+'I thank you for your good opinion, sir,' said Sim, much gratified, 
+'and will endeavour so to do.  Now sir, on this account (and 
+perhaps for another reason or two which I needn't go into) I am on 
+your side.  And what I tell you is this--that as long as our people 
+go backwards and forwards, to and fro, up and down, to that there 
+jolly old Maypole, lettering, and messaging, and fetching and 
+carrying, you couldn't help your son keeping company with that 
+young lady by deputy,--not if he was minded night and day by all 
+the Horse Guards, and every man of 'em in the very fullest 
+uniform.'
+
+Mr Tappertit stopped to take breath after this, and then started 
+fresh again.
+
+'Now, sir, I am a coming to the point.  You will inquire of me, 
+"how is this to he prevented?"  I'll tell you how.  If an honest, 
+civil, smiling gentleman like you--'
+
+'Mr Tappertit--really--'
+
+'No, no, I'm serious,' rejoined the 'prentice, 'I am, upon my soul.  
+If an honest, civil, smiling gentleman like you, was to talk but 
+ten minutes to our old woman--that's Mrs Varden--and flatter her up 
+a bit, you'd gain her over for ever.  Then there's this point got--
+that her daughter Dolly,'--here a flush came over Mr Tappertit's 
+face--'wouldn't be allowed to be a go-between from that time 
+forward; and till that point's got, there's nothing ever will 
+prevent her.  Mind that.'
+
+'Mr Tappertit, your knowledge of human nature--'
+
+'Wait a minute,' said Sim, folding his arms with a dreadful 
+calmness.  'Now I come to THE point.  Sir, there is a villain at 
+that Maypole, a monster in human shape, a vagabond of the deepest 
+dye, that unless you get rid of and have kidnapped and carried off 
+at the very least--nothing less will do--will marry your son to 
+that young woman, as certainly and as surely as if he was the 
+Archbishop of Canterbury himself.  He will, sir, for the hatred and 
+malice that he bears to you; let alone the pleasure of doing a bad 
+action, which to him is its own reward.  If you knew how this chap, 
+this Joseph Willet--that's his name--comes backwards and forwards 
+to our house, libelling, and denouncing, and threatening you, and 
+how I shudder when I hear him, you'd hate him worse than I do,--
+worse than I do, sir,' said Mr Tappertit wildly, putting his hair 
+up straighter, and making a crunching noise with his teeth; 'if 
+sich a thing is possible.'
+
+'A little private vengeance in this, Mr Tappertit?'
+
+'Private vengeance, sir, or public sentiment, or both combined--
+destroy him,' said Mr Tappertit.  'Miggs says so too.  Miggs and me 
+both say so.  We can't bear the plotting and undermining that takes 
+place.  Our souls recoil from it.  Barnaby Rudge and Mrs Rudge are 
+in it likewise; but the villain, Joseph Willet, is the ringleader.  
+Their plottings and schemes are known to me and Miggs.  If you want 
+information of 'em, apply to us.  Put Joseph Willet down, sir.  
+Destroy him.  Crush him.  And be happy.'
+
+With these words, Mr Tappertit, who seemed to expect no reply, and 
+to hold it as a necessary consequence of his eloquence that his 
+hearer should be utterly stunned, dumbfoundered, and overwhelmed, 
+folded his arms so that the palm of each hand rested on the 
+opposite shoulder, and disappeared after the manner of those 
+mysterious warners of whom he had read in cheap story-books.
+
+'That fellow,' said Mr Chester, relaxing his face when he was 
+fairly gone, 'is good practice.  I HAVE some command of my 
+features, beyond all doubt.  He fully confirms what I suspected, 
+though; and blunt tools are sometimes found of use, where sharper 
+instruments would fail.  I fear I may be obliged to make great 
+havoc among these worthy people.  A troublesome necessity!  I 
+quite feel for them.'
+
+With that he fell into a quiet slumber:--subsided into such a 
+gentle, pleasant sleep, that it was quite infantine.
+
+
+
+Chapter 25
+
+
+Leaving the favoured, and well-received, and flattered of the 
+world; him of the world most worldly, who never compromised himself 
+by an ungentlemanly action, and never was guilty of a manly one; to 
+lie smilingly asleep--for even sleep, working but little change in 
+his dissembling face, became with him a piece of cold, conventional 
+hypocrisy--we follow in the steps of two slow travellers on foot, 
+making towards Chigwell.
+
+Barnaby and his mother.  Grip in their company, of course.
+
+The widow, to whom each painful mile seemed longer than the last, 
+toiled wearily along; while Barnaby, yielding to every inconstant 
+impulse, fluttered here and there, now leaving her far behind, now 
+lingering far behind himself, now darting into some by-lane or path 
+and leaving her to pursue her way alone, until he stealthily 
+emerged again and came upon her with a wild shout of merriment, as 
+his wayward and capricious nature prompted.  Now he would call to 
+her from the topmost branch of some high tree by the roadside; now 
+using his tall staff as a leaping-pole, come flying over ditch or 
+hedge or five-barred gate; now run with surprising swiftness for a 
+mile or more on the straight road, and halting, sport upon a patch 
+of grass with Grip till she came up.  These were his delights; and 
+when his patient mother heard his merry voice, or looked into his 
+flushed and healthy face, she would not have abated them by one sad 
+word or murmur, though each had been to her a source of suffering 
+in the same degree as it was to him of pleasure.
+
+It is something to look upon enjoyment, so that it be free and 
+wild and in the face of nature, though it is but the enjoyment of 
+an idiot.  It is something to know that Heaven has left the 
+capacity of gladness in such a creature's breast; it is something 
+to be assured that, however lightly men may crush that faculty in 
+their fellows, the Great Creator of mankind imparts it even to his 
+despised and slighted work.  Who would not rather see a poor idiot 
+happy in the sunlight, than a wise man pining in a darkened jail!
+
+Ye men of gloom and austerity, who paint the face of Infinite 
+Benevolence with an eternal frown; read in the Everlasting Book, 
+wide open to your view, the lesson it would teach.  Its pictures 
+are not in black and sombre hues, but bright and glowing tints; its 
+music--save when ye drown it--is not in sighs and groans, but songs 
+and cheerful sounds.  Listen to the million voices in the summer 
+air, and find one dismal as your own.  Remember, if ye can, the 
+sense of hope and pleasure which every glad return of day awakens 
+in the breast of all your kind who have not changed their nature; 
+and learn some wisdom even from the witless, when their hearts are 
+lifted up they know not why, by all the mirth and happiness it 
+brings.
+
+The widow's breast was full of care, was laden heavily with secret 
+dread and sorrow; but her boy's gaiety of heart gladdened her, and 
+beguiled the long journey.  Sometimes he would bid her lean upon 
+his arm, and would keep beside her steadily for a short distance; 
+but it was more his nature to be rambling to and fro, and she 
+better liked to see him free and happy, even than to have him near 
+her, because she loved him better than herself.
+
+She had quitted the place to which they were travelling, directly 
+after the event which had changed her whole existence; and for two-
+and-twenty years had never had courage to revisit it.  It was her 
+native village.  How many recollections crowded on her mind when it 
+appeared in sight!
+
+Two-and-twenty years.  Her boy's whole life and history.  The last 
+time she looked back upon those roofs among the trees, she carried 
+him in her arms, an infant.  How often since that time had she sat 
+beside him night and day, watching for the dawn of mind that never 
+came; how had she feared, and doubted, and yet hoped, long after 
+conviction forced itself upon her!  The little stratagems she had 
+devised to try him, the little tokens he had given in his childish 
+way--not of dulness but of something infinitely worse, so ghastly 
+and unchildlike in its cunning--came back as vividly as if but 
+yesterday had intervened.  The room in which they used to be; the 
+spot in which his cradle stood; he, old and elfin-like in face, but 
+ever dear to her, gazing at her with a wild and vacant eye, and 
+crooning some uncouth song as she sat by and rocked him; every 
+circumstance of his infancy came thronging back, and the most 
+trivial, perhaps, the most distinctly.
+
+His older childhood, too; the strange imaginings he had; his terror 
+of certain senseless things--familiar objects he endowed with life; 
+the slow and gradual breaking out of that one horror, in which, 
+before his birth, his darkened intellect began; how, in the midst 
+of all, she had found some hope and comfort in his being unlike 
+another child, and had gone on almost believing in the slow 
+development of his mind until he grew a man, and then his childhood 
+was complete and lasting; one after another, all these old thoughts 
+sprung up within her, strong after their long slumber and bitterer 
+than ever.
+
+She took his arm and they hurried through the village street.  It 
+was the same as it was wont to be in old times, yet different too, 
+and wore another air.  The change was in herself, not it; but she 
+never thought of that, and wondered at its alteration, and where it 
+lay, and what it was.
+
+The people all knew Barnaby, and the children of the place came 
+flocking round him--as she remembered to have done with their 
+fathers and mothers round some silly beggarman, when a child 
+herself.  None of them knew her; they passed each well-remembered 
+house, and yard, and homestead; and striking into the fields, were 
+soon alone again.
+
+The Warren was the end of their journey.  Mr Haredale was walking 
+in the garden, and seeing them as they passed the iron gate, 
+unlocked it, and bade them enter that way.
+
+'At length you have mustered heart to visit the old place,' he said 
+to the widow.  'I am glad you have.'
+
+'For the first time, and the last, sir,' she replied.
+
+'The first for many years, but not the last?'
+
+'The very last.'
+
+'You mean,' said Mr Haredale, regarding her with some surprise, 
+'that having made this effort, you are resolved not to persevere 
+and are determined to relapse?  This is unworthy of you.  I have 
+often told you, you should return here.  You would be happier here 
+than elsewhere, I know.  As to Barnaby, it's quite his home.'
+
+'And Grip's,' said Barnaby, holding the basket open.  The raven 
+hopped gravely out, and perching on his shoulder and addressing 
+himself to Mr Haredale, cried--as a hint, perhaps, that some 
+temperate refreshment would be acceptable--'Polly put the ket-tle 
+on, we'll all have tea!'
+
+'Hear me, Mary,' said Mr Haredale kindly, as he motioned her to 
+walk with him towards the house.  'Your life has been an example of 
+patience and fortitude, except in this one particular which has 
+often given me great pain.  It is enough to know that you were 
+cruelly involved in the calamity which deprived me of an only 
+brother, and Emma of her father, without being obliged to suppose 
+(as I sometimes am) that you associate us with the author of our 
+joint misfortunes.'
+
+'Associate you with him, sir!' she cried.
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr Haredale, 'I think you do.  I almost believe 
+that because your husband was bound by so many ties to our 
+relation, and died in his service and defence, you have come in 
+some sort to connect us with his murder.'
+
+'Alas!' she answered.  'You little know my heart, sir.  You little 
+know the truth!'
+
+'It is natural you should do so; it is very probable you may, 
+without being conscious of it,' said Mr Haredale, speaking more to 
+himself than her.  'We are a fallen house.  Money, dispensed with 
+the most lavish hand, would be a poor recompense for sufferings 
+like yours; and thinly scattered by hands so pinched and tied as 
+ours, it becomes a miserable mockery.  I feel it so, God knows,' he 
+added, hastily.  'Why should I wonder if she does!'
+
+'You do me wrong, dear sir, indeed,' she rejoined with great 
+earnestness; 'and yet when you come to hear what I desire your 
+leave to say--'
+
+'I shall find my doubts confirmed?' he said, observing that she 
+faltered and became confused.  'Well!'
+
+He quickened his pace for a few steps, but fell back again to her 
+side, and said:
+
+'And have you come all this way at last, solely to speak to me?'
+
+She answered, 'Yes.'
+
+'A curse,' he muttered, 'upon the wretched state of us proud 
+beggars, from whom the poor and rich are equally at a distance; the 
+one being forced to treat us with a show of cold respect; the other 
+condescending to us in their every deed and word, and keeping more 
+aloof, the nearer they approach us.--Why, if it were pain to you 
+(as it must have been) to break for this slight purpose the chain 
+of habit forged through two-and-twenty years, could you not let me 
+know your wish, and beg me to come to you?'
+
+'There was not time, sir,' she rejoined.  'I took my resolution 
+but last night, and taking it, felt that I must not lose a day--a 
+day! an hour--in having speech with you.'
+
+They had by this time reached the house.  Mr Haredale paused for a 
+moment, and looked at her as if surprised by the energy of her 
+manner.  Observing, however, that she took no heed of him, but 
+glanced up, shuddering, at the old walls with which such horrors 
+were connected in her mind, he led her by a private stair into his 
+library, where Emma was seated in a window, reading.
+
+The young lady, seeing who approached, hastily rose and laid aside 
+her book, and with many kind words, and not without tears, gave her 
+a warm and earnest welcome.  But the widow shrunk from her embrace 
+as though she feared her, and sunk down trembling on a chair.
+
+'It is the return to this place after so long an absence,' said 
+Emma gently.  'Pray ring, dear uncle--or stay--Barnaby will run 
+himself and ask for wine--'
+
+'Not for the world,' she cried.  'It would have another taste--I 
+could not touch it.  I want but a minute's rest.  Nothing but 
+that.'
+
+Miss Haredale stood beside her chair, regarding her with silent 
+pity.  She remained for a little time quite still; then rose and 
+turned to Mr Haredale, who had sat down in his easy chair, and was 
+contemplating her with fixed attention.
+
+The tale connected with the mansion borne in mind, it seemed, as 
+has been already said, the chosen theatre for such a deed as it had 
+known.  The room in which this group were now assembled--hard by 
+the very chamber where the act was done--dull, dark, and sombre; 
+heavy with worm-eaten books; deadened and shut in by faded 
+hangings, muffling every sound; shadowed mournfully by trees whose 
+rustling boughs gave ever and anon a spectral knocking at the 
+glass; wore, beyond all others in the house, a ghostly, gloomy air.  
+Nor were the group assembled there, unfitting tenants of the spot.  
+The widow, with her marked and startling face and downcast eyes; Mr 
+Haredale stern and despondent ever; his niece beside him, like, yet 
+most unlike, the picture of her father, which gazed reproachfully 
+down upon them from the blackened wall; Barnaby, with his vacant 
+look and restless eye; were all in keeping with the place, and 
+actors in the legend.  Nay, the very raven, who had hopped upon the 
+table and with the air of some old necromancer appeared to be 
+profoundly studying a great folio volume that lay open on a desk, 
+was strictly in unison with the rest, and looked like the embodied 
+spirit of evil biding his time of mischief.
+
+'I scarcely know,' said the widow, breaking silence, 'how to begin.  
+You will think my mind disordered.'
+
+'The whole tenor of your quiet and reproachless life since you were 
+last here,' returned Mr Haredale, mildly, 'shall bear witness for 
+you.  Why do you fear to awaken such a suspicion?  You do not speak 
+to strangers.  You have not to claim our interest or consideration 
+for the first time.  Be more yourself.  Take heart.  Any advice or 
+assistance that I can give you, you know is yours of right, and 
+freely yours.'
+
+'What if I came, sir,' she rejoined, 'I who have but one other 
+friend on earth, to reject your aid from this moment, and to say 
+that henceforth I launch myself upon the world, alone and 
+unassisted, to sink or swim as Heaven may decree!'
+
+'You would have, if you came to me for such a purpose,' said Mr 
+Haredale calmly, 'some reason to assign for conduct so 
+extraordinary, which--if one may entertain the possibility of 
+anything so wild and strange--would have its weight, of course.'
+
+'That, sir,' she answered, 'is the misery of my distress.  I can 
+give no reason whatever.  My own bare word is all that I can offer.  
+It is my duty, my imperative and bounden duty.  If I did not 
+discharge it, I should be a base and guilty wretch.  Having said 
+that, my lips are sealed, and I can say no more.'
+
+As though she felt relieved at having said so much, and had nerved 
+herself to the remainder of her task, she spoke from this time with 
+a firmer voice and heightened courage.
+
+'Heaven is my witness, as my own heart is--and yours, dear young 
+lady, will speak for me, I know--that I have lived, since that time 
+we all have bitter reason to remember, in unchanging devotion, and 
+gratitude to this family.  Heaven is my witness that go where I 
+may, I shall preserve those feelings unimpaired.  And it is my 
+witness, too, that they alone impel me to the course I must take, 
+and from which nothing now shall turn me, as I hope for mercy.'
+
+'These are strange riddles,' said Mr Haredale.
+
+'In this world, sir,' she replied, 'they may, perhaps, never be 
+explained.  In another, the Truth will be discovered in its own 
+good time.  And may that time,' she added in a low voice, 'be far 
+distant!'
+
+'Let me be sure,' said Mr Haredale, 'that I understand you, for I 
+am doubtful of my own senses.  Do you mean that you are resolved 
+voluntarily to deprive yourself of those means of support you have 
+received from us so long--that you are determined to resign the 
+annuity we settled on you twenty years ago--to leave house, and 
+home, and goods, and begin life anew--and this, for some secret 
+reason or monstrous fancy which is incapable of explanation, which 
+only now exists, and has been dormant all this time?  In the name 
+of God, under what delusion are you labouring?'
+
+'As I am deeply thankful,' she made answer, 'for the kindness of 
+those, alive and dead, who have owned this house; and as I would 
+not have its roof fall down and crush me, or its very walls drip 
+blood, my name being spoken in their hearing; I never will again 
+subsist upon their bounty, or let it help me to subsistence.  You 
+do not know,' she added, suddenly, 'to what uses it may be applied; 
+into what hands it may pass.  I do, and I renounce it.'
+
+'Surely,' said Mr Haredale, 'its uses rest with you.'
+
+'They did.  They rest with me no longer.  It may be--it IS--devoted 
+to purposes that mock the dead in their graves.  It never can 
+prosper with me.  It will bring some other heavy judgement on the 
+head of my dear son, whose innocence will suffer for his mother's 
+guilt.'
+
+'What words are these!' cried Mr Haredale, regarding her with 
+wonder.  'Among what associates have you fallen?  Into what guilt 
+have you ever been betrayed?'
+
+'I am guilty, and yet innocent; wrong, yet right; good in 
+intention, though constrained to shield and aid the bad.  Ask me no 
+more questions, sir; but believe that I am rather to be pitied than 
+condemned.  I must leave my house to-morrow, for while I stay 
+there, it is haunted.  My future dwelling, if I am to live in 
+peace, must be a secret.  If my poor boy should ever stray this 
+way, do not tempt him to disclose it or have him watched when he 
+returns; for if we are hunted, we must fly again.  And now this 
+load is off my mind, I beseech you--and you, dear Miss Haredale, 
+too--to trust me if you can, and think of me kindly as you have 
+been used to do.  If I die and cannot tell my secret even then (for 
+that may come to pass), it will sit the lighter on my breast in 
+that hour for this day's work; and on that day, and every day until 
+it comes, I will pray for and thank you both, and trouble you no 
+more.
+
+With that, she would have left them, but they detained her, and 
+with many soothing words and kind entreaties, besought her to 
+consider what she did, and above all to repose more freely upon 
+them, and say what weighed so sorely on her mind.  Finding her deaf 
+to their persuasions, Mr Haredale suggested, as a last resource, 
+that she should confide in Emma, of whom, as a young person and one 
+of her own sex, she might stand in less dread than of himself.  
+From this proposal, however, she recoiled with the same 
+indescribable repugnance she had manifested when they met.  The 
+utmost that could be wrung from her was, a promise that she would 
+receive Mr Haredale at her own house next evening, and in the mean 
+time reconsider her determination and their dissuasions--though any 
+change on her part, as she told them, was quite hopeless.  This 
+condition made at last, they reluctantly suffered her to depart, 
+since she would neither eat nor drink within the house; and she, 
+and Barnaby, and Grip, accordingly went out as they had come, by 
+the private stair and garden-gate; seeing and being seen of no one 
+by the way.
+
+It was remarkable in the raven that during the whole interview he 
+had kept his eye on his book with exactly the air of a very sly 
+human rascal, who, under the mask of pretending to read hard, was 
+listening to everything.  He still appeared to have the 
+conversation very strongly in his mind, for although, when they 
+were alone again, he issued orders for the instant preparation of 
+innumerable kettles for purposes of tea, he was thoughtful, and 
+rather seemed to do so from an abstract sense of duty, than with 
+any regard to making himself agreeable, or being what is commonly 
+called good company.
+
+They were to return by the coach.  As there was an interval of 
+full two hours before it started, and they needed rest and some 
+refreshment, Barnaby begged hard for a visit to the Maypole.  But 
+his mother, who had no wish to be recognised by any of those who 
+had known her long ago, and who feared besides that Mr Haredale 
+might, on second thoughts, despatch some messenger to that place of 
+entertainment in quest of her, proposed to wait in the churchyard 
+instead.  As it was easy for Barnaby to buy and carry thither such 
+humble viands as they required, he cheerfully assented, and in the 
+churchyard they sat down to take their frugal dinner.
+
+Here again, the raven was in a highly reflective state; walking up 
+and down when he had dined, with an air of elderly complacency 
+which was strongly suggestive of his having his hands under his 
+coat-tails; and appearing to read the tombstones with a very 
+critical taste.  Sometimes, after a long inspection of an epitaph, 
+he would strop his beak upon the grave to which it referred, and 
+cry in his hoarse tones, 'I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil!' 
+but whether he addressed his observations to any supposed person 
+below, or merely threw them off as a general remark, is matter of 
+uncertainty.
+
+It was a quiet pretty spot, but a sad one for Barnaby's mother; for 
+Mr Reuben Haredale lay there, and near the vault in which his ashes 
+rested, was a stone to the memory of her own husband, with a brief 
+inscription recording how and when he had lost his life.  She sat 
+here, thoughtful and apart, until their time was out, and the 
+distant horn told that the coach was coming.
+
+Barnaby, who had been sleeping on the grass, sprung up quickly at 
+the sound; and Grip, who appeared to understand it equally well, 
+walked into his basket straightway, entreating society in general 
+(as though he intended a kind of satire upon them in connection 
+with churchyards) never to say die on any terms.  They were soon on 
+the coach-top and rolling along the road.
+
+It went round by the Maypole, and stopped at the door.  Joe was 
+from home, and Hugh came sluggishly out to hand up the parcel that 
+it called for.  There was no fear of old John coming out.  They 
+could see him from the coach-roof fast asleep in his cosy bar.  It 
+was a part of John's character.  He made a point of going to sleep 
+at the coach's time.  He despised gadding about; he looked upon 
+coaches as things that ought to be indicted; as disturbers of the 
+peace of mankind; as restless, bustling, busy, horn-blowing 
+contrivances, quite beneath the dignity of men, and only suited to 
+giddy girls that did nothing but chatter and go a-shopping.  'We 
+know nothing about coaches here, sir,' John would say, if any 
+unlucky stranger made inquiry touching the offensive vehicles; 'we 
+don't book for 'em; we'd rather not; they're more trouble than 
+they're worth, with their noise and rattle.  If you like to wait 
+for 'em you can; but we don't know anything about 'em; they may 
+call and they may not--there's a carrier--he was looked upon as 
+quite good enough for us, when I was a boy.'
+
+She dropped her veil as Hugh climbed up, and while he hung behind, 
+and talked to Barnaby in whispers.  But neither he nor any other 
+person spoke to her, or noticed her, or had any curiosity about 
+her; and so, an alien, she visited and left the village where she 
+had been born, and had lived a merry child, a comely girl, a happy 
+wife--where she had known all her enjoyment of life, and had 
+entered on its hardest sorrows.
+
+
+
+Chapter 26
+
+
+'And you're not surprised to hear this, Varden?' said Mr Haredale.  
+'Well!  You and she have always been the best friends, and you 
+should understand her if anybody does.'
+
+'I ask your pardon, sir,' rejoined the locksmith.  'I didn't say I 
+understood her.  I wouldn't have the presumption to say that of any 
+woman.  It's not so easily done.  But I am not so much surprised, 
+sir, as you expected me to be, certainly.'
+
+'May I ask why not, my good friend?'
+
+'I have seen, sir,' returned the locksmith with evident reluctance, 
+'I have seen in connection with her, something that has filled me 
+with distrust and uneasiness.  She has made bad friends, how, or 
+when, I don't know; but that her house is a refuge for one robber 
+and cut-throat at least, I am certain.  There, sir!  Now it's out.'
+
+'Varden!'
+
+'My own eyes, sir, are my witnesses, and for her sake I would be 
+willingly half-blind, if I could but have the pleasure of 
+mistrusting 'em.  I have kept the secret till now, and it will go 
+no further than yourself, I know; but I tell you that with my own 
+eyes--broad awake--I saw, in the passage of her house one evening 
+after dark, the highwayman who robbed and wounded Mr Edward 
+Chester, and on the same night threatened me.'
+
+'And you made no effort to detain him?' said Mr Haredale quickly.
+
+'Sir,' returned the locksmith, 'she herself prevented me--held me, 
+with all her strength, and hung about me until he had got clear 
+off.'  And having gone so far, he related circumstantially all that 
+had passed upon the night in question.
+
+This dialogue was held in a low tone in the locksmith's little 
+parlour, into which honest Gabriel had shown his visitor on his 
+arrival.  Mr Haredale had called upon him to entreat his company to 
+the widow's, that he might have the assistance of his persuasion 
+and influence; and out of this circumstance the conversation had 
+arisen.
+
+'I forbore,' said Gabriel, 'from repeating one word of this to 
+anybody, as it could do her no good and might do her great harm.  I 
+thought and hoped, to say the truth, that she would come to me, and 
+talk to me about it, and tell me how it was; but though I have 
+purposely put myself in her way more than once or twice, she has 
+never touched upon the subject--except by a look.  And indeed,' 
+said the good-natured locksmith, 'there was a good deal in the 
+look, more than could have been put into a great many words.  It 
+said among other matters "Don't ask me anything" so imploringly, 
+that I didn't ask her anything.  You'll think me an old fool, I 
+know, sir.  If it's any relief to call me one, pray do.'
+
+'I am greatly disturbed by what you tell me,' said Mr Haredale, 
+after a silence.  'What meaning do you attach to it?'
+
+The locksmith shook his head, and looked doubtfully out of window 
+at the failing light.
+
+'She cannot have married again,' said Mr Haredale.
+
+'Not without our knowledge surely, sir.'
+
+'She may have done so, in the fear that it would lead, if known, to 
+some objection or estrangement.  Suppose she married incautiously--
+it is not improbable, for her existence has been a lonely and 
+monotonous one for many years--and the man turned out a ruffian, 
+she would be anxious to screen him, and yet would revolt from his 
+crimes.  This might be.  It bears strongly on the whole drift of 
+her discourse yesterday, and would quite explain her conduct.  Do 
+you suppose Barnaby is privy to these circumstances?'
+
+'Quite impossible to say, sir,' returned the locksmith, shaking his 
+head again: 'and next to impossible to find out from him.  If what 
+you suppose is really the case, I tremble for the lad--a notable 
+person, sir, to put to bad uses--'
+
+'It is not possible, Varden,' said Mr Haredale, in a still lower 
+tone of voice than he had spoken yet, 'that we have been blinded 
+and deceived by this woman from the beginning?  It is not possible 
+that this connection was formed in her husband's lifetime, and led 
+to his and my brother's--'
+
+'Good God, sir,' cried Gabriel, interrupting him, 'don't entertain 
+such dark thoughts for a moment.  Five-and-twenty years ago, where 
+was there a girl like her?  A gay, handsome, laughing, bright-eyed 
+damsel!  Think what she was, sir.  It makes my heart ache now, even 
+now, though I'm an old man, with a woman for a daughter, to think 
+what she was and what she is.  We all change, but that's with Time; 
+Time does his work honestly, and I don't mind him.  A fig for Time, 
+sir.  Use him well, and he's a hearty fellow, and scorns to have 
+you at a disadvantage.  But care and suffering (and those have 
+changed her) are devils, sir--secret, stealthy, undermining devils--
+who tread down the brightest flowers in Eden, and do more havoc in 
+a month than Time does in a year.  Picture to yourself for one 
+minute what Mary was before they went to work with her fresh heart 
+and face--do her that justice--and say whether such a thing is 
+possible.'
+
+'You're a good fellow, Varden,' said Mr Haredale, 'and are quite 
+right.  I have brooded on that subject so long, that every breath 
+of suspicion carries me back to it.  You are quite right.'
+
+'It isn't, sir,' cried the locksmith with brightened eyes, and 
+sturdy, honest voice; 'it isn't because I courted her before Rudge, 
+and failed, that I say she was too good for him.  She would have 
+been as much too good for me.  But she WAS too good for him; he 
+wasn't free and frank enough for her.  I don't reproach his memory 
+with it, poor fellow; I only want to put her before you as she 
+really was.  For myself, I'll keep her old picture in my mind; and 
+thinking of that, and what has altered her, I'll stand her friend, 
+and try to win her back to peace.  And damme, sir,' cried Gabriel, 
+'with your pardon for the word, I'd do the same if she had married 
+fifty highwaymen in a twelvemonth; and think it in the Protestant 
+Manual too, though Martha said it wasn't, tooth and nail, till 
+doomsday!'
+
+If the dark little parlour had been filled with a dense fog, which, 
+clearing away in an instant, left it all radiance and brightness, 
+it could not have been more suddenly cheered than by this outbreak 
+on the part of the hearty locksmith.  In a voice nearly as full and 
+round as his own, Mr Haredale cried 'Well said!' and bade him come 
+away without more parley.  The locksmith complied right willingly; 
+and both getting into a hackney coach which was waiting at the 
+door, drove off straightway.
+
+They alighted at the street corner, and dismissing their 
+conveyance, walked to the house.  To their first knock at the door 
+there was no response.  A second met with the like result.  But in 
+answer to the third, which was of a more vigorous kind, the parlour 
+window-sash was gently raised, and a musical voice cried:
+
+'Haredale, my dear fellow, I am extremely glad to see you.  How 
+very much you have improved in your appearance since our last 
+meeting!  I never saw you looking better.  HOW do you do?'
+
+Mr Haredale turned his eyes towards the casement whence the voice 
+proceeded, though there was no need to do so, to recognise the 
+speaker, and Mr Chester waved his hand, and smiled a courteous 
+welcome.
+
+'The door will be opened immediately,' he said.  'There is nobody 
+but a very dilapidated female to perform such offices.  You will 
+excuse her infirmities?  If she were in a more elevated station of 
+society, she would be gouty.  Being but a hewer of wood and drawer 
+of water, she is rheumatic.  My dear Haredale, these are natural 
+class distinctions, depend upon it.'
+
+Mr Haredale, whose face resumed its lowering and distrustful look 
+the moment he heard the voice, inclined his head stiffly, and 
+turned his back upon the speaker.
+
+'Not opened yet,' said Mr Chester.  'Dear me!  I hope the aged soul 
+has not caught her foot in some unlucky cobweb by the way.  She is 
+there at last!  Come in, I beg!'
+
+Mr Haredale entered, followed by the locksmith.  Turning with a 
+look of great astonishment to the old woman who had opened the 
+door, he inquired for Mrs Rudge--for Barnaby.  They were both gone, 
+she replied, wagging her ancient head, for good.  There was a 
+gentleman in the parlour, who perhaps could tell them more.  That 
+was all SHE knew.
+
+'Pray, sir,' said Mr Haredale, presenting himself before this new 
+tenant, 'where is the person whom I came here to see?'
+
+'My dear friend,' he returned, 'I have not the least idea.'
+
+'Your trifling is ill-timed,' retorted the other in a suppressed 
+tone and voice, 'and its subject ill-chosen.  Reserve it for those 
+who are your friends, and do not expend it on me.  I lay no claim 
+to the distinction, and have the self-denial to reject it.'
+
+'My dear, good sir,' said Mr Chester, 'you are heated with walking.  
+Sit down, I beg.  Our friend is--'
+
+'Is but a plain honest man,' returned Mr Haredale, 'and quite 
+unworthy of your notice.'
+
+'Gabriel Varden by name, sir,' said the locksmith bluntly.
+
+'A worthy English yeoman!' said Mr Chester.  'A most worthy 
+yeoman, of whom I have frequently heard my son Ned--darling fellow--
+speak, and have often wished to see.  Varden, my good friend, I am 
+glad to know you.  You wonder now,' he said, turning languidly to 
+Mr Haredale, 'to see me here.  Now, I am sure you do.'
+
+Mr Haredale glanced at him--not fondly or admiringly--smiled, and 
+held his peace.
+
+'The mystery is solved in a moment,' said Mr Chester; 'in a moment.  
+Will you step aside with me one instant.  You remember our little 
+compact in reference to Ned, and your dear niece, Haredale?  You 
+remember the list of assistants in their innocent intrigue?  You 
+remember these two people being among them?  My dear fellow, 
+congratulate yourself, and me.  I have bought them off.'
+
+'You have done what?' said Mr Haredale.
+
+'Bought them off,' returned his smiling friend.  'I have found it 
+necessary to take some active steps towards setting this boy and 
+girl attachment quite at rest, and have begun by removing these two 
+agents.  You are surprised?  Who CAN withstand the influence of a 
+little money!  They wanted it, and have been bought off.  We have 
+nothing more to fear from them.  They are gone.'
+
+'Gone!' echoed Mr Haredale.  'Where?'
+
+'My dear fellow--and you must permit me to say again, that you 
+never looked so young; so positively boyish as you do to-night--the 
+Lord knows where; I believe Columbus himself wouldn't find them.  
+Between you and me they have their hidden reasons, but upon that 
+point I have pledged myself to secrecy.  She appointed to see you 
+here to-night, I know, but found it inconvenient, and couldn't 
+wait.  Here is the key of the door.  I am afraid you'll find it 
+inconveniently large; but as the tenement is yours, your good-
+nature will excuse that, Haredale, I am certain!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 27
+
+
+Mr Haredale stood in the widow's parlour with the door-key in his 
+hand, gazing by turns at Mr Chester and at Gabriel Varden, and 
+occasionally glancing downward at the key as in the hope that of 
+its own accord it would unlock the mystery; until Mr Chester, 
+putting on his hat and gloves, and sweetly inquiring whether they 
+were walking in the same direction, recalled him to himself.
+
+'No,' he said.  'Our roads diverge--widely, as you know.  For the 
+present, I shall remain here.'
+
+'You will be hipped, Haredale; you will be miserable, melancholy, 
+utterly wretched,' returned the other.  'It's a place of the very 
+last description for a man of your temper.  I know it will make you 
+very miserable.'
+
+'Let it,' said Mr Haredale, sitting down; 'and thrive upon the 
+thought.  Good night!'
+
+Feigning to be wholly unconscious of the abrupt wave of the hand 
+which rendered this farewell tantamount to a dismissal, Mr Chester 
+retorted with a bland and heartfelt benediction, and inquired of 
+Gabriel in what direction HE was going.
+
+'Yours, sir, would be too much honour for the like of me,' replied 
+the locksmith, hesitating.
+
+'I wish you to remain here a little while, Varden,' said Mr 
+Haredale, without looking towards them.  'I have a word or two to 
+say to you.'
+
+'I will not intrude upon your conference another moment,' said Mr 
+Chester with inconceivable politeness.  'May it be satisfactory to 
+you both!  God bless you!'  So saying, and bestowing upon the 
+locksmith a most refulgent smile, he left them.
+
+'A deplorably constituted creature, that rugged person,' he said, 
+as he walked along the street; 'he is an atrocity that carries its 
+own punishment along with it--a bear that gnaws himself.  And here 
+is one of the inestimable advantages of having a perfect command 
+over one's inclinations.  I have been tempted in these two short 
+interviews, to draw upon that fellow, fifty times.  Five men in six 
+would have yielded to the impulse.  By suppressing mine, I wound 
+him deeper and more keenly than if I were the best swordsman in all 
+Europe, and he the worst.  You are the wise man's very last 
+resource,' he said, tapping the hilt of his weapon; 'we can but 
+appeal to you when all else is said and done.  To come to you 
+before, and thereby spare our adversaries so much, is a barbarian 
+mode of warfare, quite unworthy of any man with the remotest 
+pretensions to delicacy of feeling, or refinement.'
+
+He smiled so very pleasantly as he communed with himself after this 
+manner, that a beggar was emboldened to follow for alms, and to dog 
+his footsteps for some distance.  He was gratified by the 
+circumstance, feeling it complimentary to his power of feature, and 
+as a reward suffered the man to follow him until he called a chair, 
+when he graciously dismissed him with a fervent blessing.
+
+'Which is as easy as cursing,' he wisely added, as he took his 
+seat, 'and more becoming to the face.--To Clerkenwell, my good 
+creatures, if you please!'  The chairmen were rendered quite 
+vivacious by having such a courteous burden, and to Clerkenwell 
+they went at a fair round trot.
+
+Alighting at a certain point he had indicated to them upon the 
+road, and paying them something less than they expected from a fare 
+of such gentle speech, he turned into the street in which the 
+locksmith dwelt, and presently stood beneath the shadow of the 
+Golden Key.  Mr Tappertit, who was hard at work by lamplight, in a 
+corner of the workshop, remained unconscious of his presence until 
+a hand upon his shoulder made him start and turn his head.
+
+'Industry,' said Mr Chester, 'is the soul of business, and the 
+keystone of prosperity.  Mr Tappertit, I shall expect you to invite 
+me to dinner when you are Lord Mayor of London.'
+
+'Sir,' returned the 'prentice, laying down his hammer, and rubbing 
+his nose on the back of a very sooty hand, 'I scorn the Lord Mayor 
+and everything that belongs to him.  We must have another state of 
+society, sir, before you catch me being Lord Mayor.  How de do, sir?'
+
+'The better, Mr Tappertit, for looking into your ingenuous face 
+once more.  I hope you are well.'
+
+'I am as well, sir,' said Sim, standing up to get nearer to his 
+ear, and whispering hoarsely, 'as any man can be under the 
+aggrawations to which I am exposed.  My life's a burden to me.  If 
+it wasn't for wengeance, I'd play at pitch and toss with it on the 
+losing hazard.'
+
+'Is Mrs Varden at home?' said Mr Chester.
+
+'Sir,' returned Sim, eyeing him over with a look of concentrated 
+expression,--'she is.  Did you wish to see her?'
+
+Mr Chester nodded.
+
+'Then come this way, sir,' said Sim, wiping his face upon his 
+apron.  'Follow me, sir.--Would you permit me to whisper in your 
+ear, one half a second?'
+
+'By all means.'
+
+Mr Tappertit raised himself on tiptoe, applied his lips to Mr 
+Chester's ear, drew back his head without saying anything, looked 
+hard at him, applied them to his ear again, again drew back, and 
+finally whispered--'The name is Joseph Willet.  Hush!  I say no 
+more.'
+
+Having said that much, he beckoned the visitor with a mysterious 
+aspect to follow him to the parlour-door, where he announced him 
+in the voice of a gentleman-usher.  'Mr Chester.'
+
+'And not Mr Ed'dard, mind,' said Sim, looking into the door again, 
+and adding this by way of postscript in his own person; 'it's his 
+father.'
+
+'But do not let his father,' said Mr Chester, advancing hat in 
+hand, as he observed the effect of this last explanatory 
+announcement, 'do not let his father be any check or restraint on 
+your domestic occupations, Miss Varden.'
+
+'Oh!  Now!  There!  An't I always a-saying it!' exclaimed Miggs, 
+clapping her hands.  'If he an't been and took Missis for her own 
+daughter.  Well, she DO look like it, that she do.  Only think of 
+that, mim!'
+
+'Is it possible,' said Mr Chester in his softest tones, 'that this 
+is Mrs Varden!  I am amazed.  That is not your daughter, Mrs 
+Varden?  No, no.  Your sister.'
+
+'My daughter, indeed, sir,' returned Mrs V., blushing with great 
+juvenility.
+
+'Ah, Mrs Varden!' cried the visitor.  'Ah, ma'am--humanity is 
+indeed a happy lot, when we can repeat ourselves in others, and 
+still be young as they.  You must allow me to salute you--the 
+custom of the country, my dear madam--your daughter too.'
+
+Dolly showed some reluctance to perform this ceremony, but was 
+sharply reproved by Mrs Varden, who insisted on her undergoing it 
+that minute.  For pride, she said with great severity, was one of 
+the seven deadly sins, and humility and lowliness of heart were 
+virtues.  Wherefore she desired that Dolly would be kissed 
+immediately, on pain of her just displeasure; at the same time 
+giving her to understand that whatever she saw her mother do, she 
+might safely do herself, without being at the trouble of any 
+reasoning or reflection on the subject--which, indeed, was 
+offensive and undutiful, and in direct contravention of the church 
+catechism.
+
+Thus admonished, Dolly complied, though by no means willingly; for 
+there was a broad, bold look of admiration in Mr Chester's face, 
+refined and polished though it sought to be, which distressed her 
+very much.  As she stood with downcast eyes, not liking to look up 
+and meet his, he gazed upon her with an approving air, and then 
+turned to her mother.
+
+'My friend Gabriel (whose acquaintance I only made this very 
+evening) should be a happy man, Mrs Varden.'
+
+'Ah!' sighed Mrs V., shaking her head.
+
+'Ah!' echoed Miggs.
+
+'Is that the case?' said Mr Chester, compassionately.  'Dear me!'
+
+'Master has no intentions, sir,' murmured Miggs as she sidled up 
+to him, 'but to be as grateful as his natur will let him, for 
+everythink he owns which it is in his powers to appreciate.  But we 
+never, sir'--said Miggs, looking sideways at Mrs Varden, and 
+interlarding her discourse with a sigh--'we never know the full 
+value of SOME wines and fig-trees till we lose 'em.  So much the 
+worse, sir, for them as has the slighting of 'em on their 
+consciences when they're gone to be in full blow elsewhere.'  And 
+Miss Miggs cast up her eyes to signify where that might be.
+
+As Mrs Varden distinctly heard, and was intended to hear, all that 
+Miggs said, and as these words appeared to convey in metaphorical 
+terms a presage or foreboding that she would at some early period 
+droop beneath her trials and take an easy flight towards the stars, 
+she immediately began to languish, and taking a volume of the 
+Manual from a neighbouring table, leant her arm upon it as though 
+she were Hope and that her Anchor.  Mr Chester perceiving this, 
+and seeing how the volume was lettered on the back, took it gently 
+from her hand, and turned the fluttering leaves.
+
+'My favourite book, dear madam.  How often, how very often in his 
+early life--before he can remember'--(this clause was strictly 
+true) 'have I deduced little easy moral lessons from its pages, for 
+my dear son Ned!  You know Ned?'
+
+Mrs Varden had that honour, and a fine affable young gentleman he 
+was.
+
+'You're a mother, Mrs Varden,' said Mr Chester, taking a pinch of 
+snuff, 'and you know what I, as a father, feel, when he is praised.  
+He gives me some uneasiness--much uneasiness--he's of a roving 
+nature, ma'am--from flower to flower--from sweet to sweet--but his 
+is the butterfly time of life, and we must not be hard upon such 
+trifling.'
+
+He glanced at Dolly.  She was attending evidently to what he said.  
+Just what he desired!
+
+'The only thing I object to in this little trait of Ned's, is,' 
+said Mr Chester, '--and the mention of his name reminds me, by the 
+way, that I am about to beg the favour of a minute's talk with you 
+alone--the only thing I object to in it, is, that it DOES partake 
+of insincerity.  Now, however I may attempt to disguise the fact 
+from myself in my affection for Ned, still I always revert to this--
+that if we are not sincere, we are nothing.  Nothing upon earth.  
+Let us be sincere, my dear madam--'
+
+'--and Protestant,' murmured Mrs Varden.
+
+'--and Protestant above all things.  Let us be sincere and 
+Protestant, strictly moral, strictly just (though always with a 
+leaning towards mercy), strictly honest, and strictly true, and we 
+gain--it is a slight point, certainly, but still it is something 
+tangible; we throw up a groundwork and foundation, so to speak, of 
+goodness, on which we may afterwards erect some worthy 
+superstructure.'
+
+Now, to be sure, Mrs Varden thought, here is a perfect character.  
+Here is a meek, righteous, thoroughgoing Christian, who, having 
+mastered all these qualities, so difficult of attainment; who, 
+having dropped a pinch of salt on the tails of all the cardinal 
+virtues, and caught them every one; makes light of their 
+possession, and pants for more morality.  For the good woman never 
+doubted (as many good men and women never do), that this slighting 
+kind of profession, this setting so little store by great matters, 
+this seeming to say, 'I am not proud, I am what you hear, but I 
+consider myself no better than other people; let us change the 
+subject, pray'--was perfectly genuine and true.  He so contrived 
+it, and said it in that way that it appeared to have been forced 
+from him, and its effect was marvellous.
+
+Aware of the impression he had made--few men were quicker than he 
+at such discoveries--Mr Chester followed up the blow by propounding 
+certain virtuous maxims, somewhat vague and general in their 
+nature, doubtless, and occasionally partaking of the character of 
+truisms, worn a little out at elbow, but delivered in so charming a 
+voice and with such uncommon serenity and peace of mind, that they 
+answered as well as the best.  Nor is this to be wondered at; for 
+as hollow vessels produce a far more musical sound in falling than 
+those which are substantial, so it will oftentimes be found that 
+sentiments which have nothing in them make the loudest ringing in 
+the world, and are the most relished.
+
+Mr Chester, with the volume gently extended in one hand, and with 
+the other planted lightly on his breast, talked to them in the most 
+delicious manner possible; and quite enchanted all his hearers, 
+notwithstanding their conflicting interests and thoughts.  Even 
+Dolly, who, between his keen regards and her eyeing over by Mr 
+Tappertit, was put quite out of countenance, could not help owning 
+within herself that he was the sweetest-spoken gentleman she had 
+ever seen.  Even Miss Miggs, who was divided between admiration of 
+Mr Chester and a mortal jealousy of her young mistress, had 
+sufficient leisure to be propitiated.  Even Mr Tappertit, though 
+occupied as we have seen in gazing at his heart's delight, could 
+not wholly divert his thoughts from the voice of the other charmer.  
+Mrs Varden, to her own private thinking, had never been so improved 
+in all her life; and when Mr Chester, rising and craving permission 
+to speak with her apart, took her by the hand and led her at arm's 
+length upstairs to the best sitting-room, she almost deemed him 
+something more than human.
+
+'Dear madam,' he said, pressing her hand delicately to his lips; 
+'be seated.'
+
+Mrs Varden called up quite a courtly air, and became seated.
+
+'You guess my object?' said Mr Chester, drawing a chair towards 
+her.  'You divine my purpose?  I am an affectionate parent, my dear 
+Mrs Varden.'
+
+'That I am sure you are, sir,' said Mrs V.
+
+'Thank you,' returned Mr Chester, tapping his snuff-box lid.  
+'Heavy moral responsibilities rest with parents, Mrs Varden.'
+
+Mrs Varden slightly raised her hands, shook her head, and looked at 
+the ground as though she saw straight through the globe, out at the 
+other end, and into the immensity of space beyond.
+
+'I may confide in you,' said Mr Chester, 'without reserve.  I love 
+my son, ma'am, dearly; and loving him as I do, I would save him 
+from working certain misery.  You know of his attachment to Miss 
+Haredale.  You have abetted him in it, and very kind of you it was 
+to do so.  I am deeply obliged to you--most deeply obliged to you--
+for your interest in his behalf; but my dear ma'am, it is a 
+mistaken one, I do assure you.'
+
+Mrs Varden stammered that she was sorry--'
+
+'Sorry, my dear ma'am,' he interposed.  'Never be sorry for what is 
+so very amiable, so very good in intention, so perfectly like 
+yourself.  But there are grave and weighty reasons, pressing family 
+considerations, and apart even from these, points of religious 
+difference, which interpose themselves, and render their union 
+impossible; utterly im-possible.  I should have mentioned these 
+circumstances to your husband; but he has--you will excuse my 
+saying this so freely--he has NOT your quickness of apprehension or 
+depth of moral sense.  What an extremely airy house this is, and 
+how beautifully kept!  For one like myself--a widower so long--
+these tokens of female care and superintendence have inexpressible 
+charms.'
+
+Mrs Varden began to think (she scarcely knew why) that the young Mr 
+Chester must be in the wrong and the old Mr Chester must he in the 
+right.
+
+'My son Ned,' resumed her tempter with his most winning air, 'has 
+had, I am told, your lovely daughter's aid, and your open-hearted 
+husband's.'
+
+'--Much more than mine, sir,' said Mrs Varden; 'a great deal more.  
+I have often had my doubts.  It's a--'
+
+'A bad example,' suggested Mr Chester.  'It is.  No doubt it is.  
+Your daughter is at that age when to set before her an 
+encouragement for young persons to rebel against their parents on 
+this most important point, is particularly injudicious.  You are 
+quite right.  I ought to have thought of that myself, but it 
+escaped me, I confess--so far superior are your sex to ours, dear 
+madam, in point of penetration and sagacity.'
+
+Mrs Varden looked as wise as if she had really said something to 
+deserve this compliment--firmly believed she had, in short--and her 
+faith in her own shrewdness increased considerably.
+
+'My dear ma'am,' said Mr Chester, 'you embolden me to be plain 
+with you.  My son and I are at variance on this point.  The young 
+lady and her natural guardian differ upon it, also.  And the 
+closing point is, that my son is bound by his duty to me, by his 
+honour, by every solemn tie and obligation, to marry some one 
+else.'
+
+'Engaged to marry another lady!' quoth Mrs Varden, holding up her 
+hands.
+
+'My dear madam, brought up, educated, and trained, expressly for 
+that purpose.  Expressly for that purpose.--Miss Haredale, I am 
+told, is a very charming creature.'
+
+'I am her foster-mother, and should know--the best young lady in 
+the world,' said Mrs Varden.
+
+'I have not the smallest doubt of it.  I am sure she is.  And you, 
+who have stood in that tender relation towards her, are bound to 
+consult her happiness.  Now, can I--as I have said to Haredale, who 
+quite agrees--can I possibly stand by, and suffer her to throw 
+herself away (although she IS of a Catholic family), upon a young 
+fellow who, as yet, has no heart at all?  It is no imputation upon 
+him to say he has not, because young men who have plunged deeply 
+into the frivolities and conventionalities of society, very seldom 
+have.  Their hearts never grow, my dear ma'am, till after thirty.  
+I don't believe, no, I do NOT believe, that I had any heart myself 
+when I was Ned's age.'
+
+'Oh sir,' said Mrs Varden, 'I think you must have had.  It's 
+impossible that you, who have so much now, can ever have been 
+without any.'
+
+'I hope,' he answered, shrugging his shoulders meekly, 'I have a 
+little; I hope, a very little--Heaven knows!  But to return to Ned; 
+I have no doubt you thought, and therefore interfered benevolently 
+in his behalf, that I objected to Miss Haredale.  How very 
+natural!  My dear madam, I object to him--to him--emphatically to 
+Ned himself.'
+
+Mrs Varden was perfectly aghast at the disclosure.
+
+'He has, if he honourably fulfils this solemn obligation of which I 
+have told you--and he must be honourable, dear Mrs Varden, or he is 
+no son of mine--a fortune within his reach.  He is of most 
+expensive, ruinously expensive habits; and if, in a moment of 
+caprice and wilfulness, he were to marry this young lady, and so 
+deprive himself of the means of gratifying the tastes to which he 
+has been so long accustomed, he would--my dear madam, he would 
+break the gentle creature's heart.  Mrs Varden, my good lady, my 
+dear soul, I put it to you--is such a sacrifice to be endured?  Is 
+the female heart a thing to be trifled with in this way?  Ask your 
+own, my dear madam.  Ask your own, I beseech you.'
+
+'Truly,' thought Mrs Varden, 'this gentleman is a saint.  But,' she 
+added aloud, and not unnaturally, 'if you take Miss Emma's lover 
+away, sir, what becomes of the poor thing's heart then?'
+
+'The very point,' said Mr Chester, not at all abashed, 'to which I 
+wished to lead you.  A marriage with my son, whom I should be 
+compelled to disown, would be followed by years of misery; they 
+would be separated, my dear madam, in a twelvemonth.  To break off 
+this attachment, which is more fancied than real, as you and I know 
+very well, will cost the dear girl but a few tears, and she is 
+happy again.  Take the case of your own daughter, the young lady 
+downstairs, who is your breathing image'--Mrs Varden coughed and 
+simpered--'there is a young man (I am sorry to say, a dissolute 
+fellow, of very indifferent character) of whom I have heard Ned 
+speak--Bullet was it--Pullet--Mullet--'
+
+'There is a young man of the name of Joseph Willet, sir,' said Mrs 
+Varden, folding her hands loftily.
+
+'That's he,' cried Mr Chester.  'Suppose this Joseph Willet now, 
+were to aspire to the affections of your charming daughter, and 
+were to engage them.'
+
+'It would be like his impudence,' interposed Mrs Varden, bridling, 
+'to dare to think of such a thing!'
+
+'My dear madam, that's the whole case.  I know it would be like his 
+impudence.  It is like Ned's impudence to do as he has done; but 
+you would not on that account, or because of a few tears from your 
+beautiful daughter, refrain from checking their inclinations in 
+their birth.  I meant to have reasoned thus with your husband when 
+I saw him at Mrs Rudge's this evening--'
+
+'My husband,' said Mrs Varden, interposing with emotion, 'would be 
+a great deal better at home than going to Mrs Rudge's so often.  I 
+don't know what he does there.  I don't see what occasion he has to 
+busy himself in her affairs at all, sir.'
+
+'If I don't appear to express my concurrence in those last 
+sentiments of yours,' returned Mr Chester, 'quite so strongly as 
+you might desire, it is because his being there, my dear madam, and 
+not proving conversational, led me hither, and procured me the 
+happiness of this interview with one, in whom the whole management, 
+conduct, and prosperity of her family are centred, I perceive.'
+
+With that he took Mrs Varden's hand again, and having pressed it to 
+his lips with the highflown gallantry of the day--a little 
+burlesqued to render it the more striking in the good lady's 
+unaccustomed eyes--proceeded in the same strain of mingled 
+sophistry, cajolery, and flattery, to entreat that her utmost 
+influence might be exerted to restrain her husband and daughter 
+from any further promotion of Edward's suit to Miss Haredale, and 
+from aiding or abetting either party in any way.  Mrs Varden was 
+but a woman, and had her share of vanity, obstinacy, and love of 
+power.  She entered into a secret treaty of alliance, offensive and 
+defensive, with her insinuating visitor; and really did believe, as 
+many others would have done who saw and heard him, that in so doing 
+she furthered the ends of truth, justice, and morality, in a very 
+uncommon degree.
+
+Overjoyed by the success of his negotiation, and mightily amused 
+within himself, Mr Chester conducted her downstairs in the same 
+state as before; and having repeated the previous ceremony of 
+salutation, which also as before comprehended Dolly, took his 
+leave; first completing the conquest of Miss Miggs's heart, by 
+inquiring if 'this young lady' would light him to the door.
+
+'Oh, mim,' said Miggs, returning with the candle.  'Oh gracious me, 
+mim, there's a gentleman!  Was there ever such an angel to talk as 
+he is--and such a sweet-looking man!  So upright and noble, that he 
+seems to despise the very ground he walks on; and yet so mild and 
+condescending, that he seems to say "but I will take notice on it 
+too."  And to think of his taking you for Miss Dolly, and Miss 
+Dolly for your sister--Oh, my goodness me, if I was master wouldn't 
+I be jealous of him!'
+
+Mrs Varden reproved her handmaid for this vain-speaking; but very 
+gently and mildly--quite smilingly indeed--remarking that she was a 
+foolish, giddy, light-headed girl, whose spirits carried her 
+beyond all bounds, and who didn't mean half she said, or she would 
+be quite angry with her.
+
+'For my part,' said Dolly, in a thoughtful manner, 'I half believe 
+Mr Chester is something like Miggs in that respect.  For all his 
+politeness and pleasant speaking, I am pretty sure he was making 
+game of us, more than once.'
+
+'If you venture to say such a thing again, and to speak ill of 
+people behind their backs in my presence, miss,' said Mrs Varden, 
+'I shall insist upon your taking a candle and going to bed 
+directly.  How dare you, Dolly?  I'm astonished at you.  The 
+rudeness of your whole behaviour this evening has been disgraceful.  
+Did anybody ever hear,' cried the enraged matron, bursting into 
+tears, 'of a daughter telling her own mother she has been made game 
+of!'
+
+What a very uncertain temper Mrs Varden's was!
+
+
+
+Chapter 28
+
+
+Repairing to a noted coffee-house in Covent Garden when he left the 
+locksmith's, Mr Chester sat long over a late dinner, entertaining 
+himself exceedingly with the whimsical recollection of his recent 
+proceedings, and congratulating himself very much on his great 
+cleverness.  Influenced by these thoughts, his face wore an 
+expression so benign and tranquil, that the waiter in immediate 
+attendance upon him felt he could almost have died in his defence, 
+and settled in his own mind (until the receipt of the bill, and a 
+very small fee for very great trouble disabused it of the idea) 
+that such an apostolic customer was worth half-a-dozen of the 
+ordinary run of visitors, at least.
+
+A visit to the gaming-table--not as a heated, anxious venturer, but 
+one whom it was quite a treat to see staking his two or three 
+pieces in deference to the follies of society, and smiling with 
+equal benevolence on winners and losers--made it late before he 
+reached home.  It was his custom to bid his servant go to bed at 
+his own time unless he had orders to the contrary, and to leave a 
+candle on the common stair.  There was a lamp on the landing by 
+which he could always light it when he came home late, and having a 
+key of the door about him he could enter and go to bed at his 
+pleasure.
+
+He opened the glass of the dull lamp, whose wick, burnt up and 
+swollen like a drunkard's nose, came flying off in little 
+carbuncles at the candle's touch, and scattering hot sparks about, 
+rendered it matter of some difficulty to kindle the lazy taper; 
+when a noise, as of a man snoring deeply some steps higher up, 
+caused him to pause and listen.  It was the heavy breathing of a 
+sleeper, close at hand.  Some fellow had lain down on the open 
+staircase, and was slumbering soundly.  Having lighted the candle 
+at length and opened his own door, he softly ascended, holding the 
+taper high above his head, and peering cautiously about; curious to 
+see what kind of man had chosen so comfortless a shelter for his 
+lodging.
+
+With his head upon the landing and his great limbs flung over half-
+a-dozen stairs, as carelessly as though he were a dead man whom 
+drunken bearers had thrown down by chance, there lay Hugh, face 
+uppermost, his long hair drooping like some wild weed upon his 
+wooden pillow, and his huge chest heaving with the sounds which so 
+unwontedly disturbed the place and hour.
+
+He who came upon him so unexpectedly was about to break his rest by 
+thrusting him with his foot, when, glancing at his upturned face, 
+he arrested himself in the very action, and stooping down and 
+shading the candle with his hand, examined his features closely.  
+Close as his first inspection was, it did not suffice, for he 
+passed the light, still carefully shaded as before, across and 
+across his face, and yet observed him with a searching eye.
+
+While he was thus engaged, the sleeper, without any starting or 
+turning round, awoke.  There was a kind of fascination in meeting 
+his steady gaze so suddenly, which took from the other the presence 
+of mind to withdraw his eyes, and forced him, as it were, to meet 
+his look.  So they remained staring at each other, until Mr Chester 
+at last broke silence, and asked him in a low voice, why he lay 
+sleeping there.
+
+'I thought,' said Hugh, struggling into a sitting posture and 
+gazing at him intently, still, 'that you were a part of my dream.  
+It was a curious one.  I hope it may never come true, master.'
+
+'What makes you shiver?'
+
+'The--the cold, I suppose,' he growled, as he shook himself and 
+rose.  'I hardly know where I am yet.'
+
+'Do you know me?' said Mr Chester.
+
+'Ay, I know you,' he answered.  'I was dreaming of you--we're not 
+where I thought we were.  That's a comfort.'
+
+He looked round him as he spoke, and in particular looked above his 
+head, as though he half expected to be standing under some object 
+which had had existence in his dream.  Then he rubbed his eyes and 
+shook himself again, and followed his conductor into his own rooms.
+
+Mr Chester lighted the candles which stood upon his dressing-table, 
+and wheeling an easy-chair towards the fire, which was yet 
+burning, stirred up a cheerful blaze, sat down before it, and bade 
+his uncouth visitor 'Come here,' and draw his boots off.
+
+'You have been drinking again, my fine fellow,' he said, as Hugh 
+went down on one knee, and did as he was told.
+
+'As I'm alive, master, I've walked the twelve long miles, and 
+waited here I don't know how long, and had no drink between my lips 
+since dinner-time at noon.'
+
+'And can you do nothing better, my pleasant friend, than fall 
+asleep, and shake the very building with your snores?' said Mr 
+Chester.  'Can't you dream in your straw at home, dull dog as you 
+are, that you need come here to do it?--Reach me those slippers, 
+and tread softly.'
+
+Hugh obeyed in silence.
+
+'And harkee, my dear young gentleman,' said Mr Chester, as he put 
+them on, 'the next time you dream, don't let it be of me, but of 
+some dog or horse with whom you are better acquainted.  Fill the 
+glass once--you'll find it and the bottle in the same place--and 
+empty it to keep yourself awake.'
+
+Hugh obeyed again even more zealously--and having done so, 
+presented himself before his patron.
+
+'Now,' said Mr Chester, 'what do you want with me?'
+
+'There was news to-day,' returned Hugh.  'Your son was at our 
+house--came down on horseback.  He tried to see the young woman, 
+but couldn't get sight of her.  He left some letter or some message 
+which our Joe had charge of, but he and the old one quarrelled 
+about it when your son had gone, and the old one wouldn't let it be 
+delivered.  He says (that's the old one does) that none of his 
+people shall interfere and get him into trouble.  He's a landlord, 
+he says, and lives on everybody's custom.'
+
+'He's a jewel,' smiled Mr Chester, 'and the better for being a dull 
+one.--Well?'
+
+'Varden's daughter--that's the girl I kissed--'
+
+'--and stole the bracelet from upon the king's highway,' said Mr 
+Chester, composedly.  'Yes; what of her?'
+
+'She wrote a note at our house to the young woman, saying she lost 
+the letter I brought to you, and you burnt.  Our Joe was to carry 
+it, but the old one kept him at home all next day, on purpose that 
+he shouldn't.  Next morning he gave it to me to take; and here it 
+is.'
+
+'You didn't deliver it then, my good friend?' said Mr Chester, 
+twirling Dolly's note between his finger and thumb, and feigning to 
+be surprised.
+
+'I supposed you'd want to have it,' retorted Hugh.  'Burn one, burn 
+all, I thought.'
+
+'My devil-may-care acquaintance,' said Mr Chester--'really if you 
+do not draw some nicer distinctions, your career will be cut short 
+with most surprising suddenness.  Don't you know that the letter 
+you brought to me, was directed to my son who resides in this very 
+place?  And can you descry no difference between his letters and 
+those addressed to other people?'
+
+'If you don't want it,' said Hugh, disconcerted by this reproof, 
+for he had expected high praise, 'give it me back, and I'll deliver 
+it.  I don't know how to please you, master.'
+
+'I shall deliver it,' returned his patron, putting it away after a 
+moment's consideration, 'myself.  Does the young lady walk out, on 
+fine mornings?'
+
+'Mostly--about noon is her usual time.'
+
+'Alone?'
+
+'Yes, alone.'
+
+'Where?'
+
+'In the grounds before the house.--Them that the footpath crosses.'
+
+'If the weather should be fine, I may throw myself in her way to-
+morrow, perhaps,' said Mr Chester, as coolly as if she were one of 
+his ordinary acquaintance.  'Mr Hugh, if I should ride up to the 
+Maypole door, you will do me the favour only to have seen me once.  
+You must suppress your gratitude, and endeavour to forget my 
+forbearance in the matter of the bracelet.  It is natural it should 
+break out, and it does you honour; but when other folks are by, you 
+must, for your own sake and safety, be as like your usual self as 
+though you owed me no obligation whatever, and had never stood 
+within these walls.  You comprehend me?'
+
+Hugh understood him perfectly.  After a pause he muttered that he 
+hoped his patron would involve him in no trouble about this last 
+letter; for he had kept it back solely with the view of pleasing 
+him.  He was continuing in this strain, when Mr Chester with a 
+most beneficent and patronising air cut him short by saying:
+
+'My good fellow, you have my promise, my word, my sealed bond (for 
+a verbal pledge with me is quite as good), that I will always 
+protect you so long as you deserve it.  Now, do set your mind at 
+rest.  Keep it at ease, I beg of you.  When a man puts himself in 
+my power so thoroughly as you have done, I really feel as though he 
+had a kind of claim upon me.  I am more disposed to mercy and 
+forbearance under such circumstances than I can tell you, Hugh.  Do 
+look upon me as your protector, and rest assured, I entreat you, 
+that on the subject of that indiscretion, you may preserve, as long 
+as you and I are friends, the lightest heart that ever beat within 
+a human breast.  Fill that glass once more to cheer you on your 
+road homewards--I am really quite ashamed to think how far you have 
+to go--and then God bless you for the night.'
+
+'They think,' said Hugh, when he had tossed the liquor down, 'that 
+I am sleeping soundly in the stable.  Ha ha ha!  The stable door is 
+shut, but the steed's gone, master.'
+
+'You are a most convivial fellow,' returned his friend, 'and I love 
+your humour of all things.  Good night!  Take the greatest 
+possible care of yourself, for my sake!'
+
+It was remarkable that during the whole interview, each had 
+endeavoured to catch stolen glances of the other's face, and had 
+never looked full at it.  They interchanged one brief and hasty 
+glance as Hugh went out, averted their eyes directly, and so 
+separated.  Hugh closed the double doors behind him, carefully and 
+without noise; and Mr Chester remained in his easy-chair, with his 
+gaze intently fixed upon the fire.
+
+'Well!' he said, after meditating for a long time--and said with a 
+deep sigh and an uneasy shifting of his attitude, as though he 
+dismissed some other subject from his thoughts, and returned to 
+that which had held possession of them all the day--the plot 
+thickens; I have thrown the shell; it will explode, I think, in 
+eight-and-forty hours, and should scatter these good folks 
+amazingly.  We shall see!'
+
+He went to bed and fell asleep, but had not slept long when he 
+started up and thought that Hugh was at the outer door, calling in 
+a strange voice, very different from his own, to be admitted.  The 
+delusion was so strong upon him, and was so full of that vague 
+terror of the night in which such visions have their being, that he 
+rose, and taking his sheathed sword in his hand, opened the door, 
+and looked out upon the staircase, and towards the spot where Hugh 
+had lain asleep; and even spoke to him by name.  But all was dark 
+and quiet, and creeping back to bed again, he fell, after an hour's 
+uneasy watching, into a second sleep, and woke no more till 
+morning.
+
+
+
+Chapter 29
+
+
+The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law 
+of gravitation, which, like the physical one, holds them down to 
+earth.  The bright glory of day, and the silent wonders of a 
+starlit night, appeal to their minds in vain.  There are no signs 
+in the sun, or in the moon, or in the stars, for their reading.  
+They are like some wise men, who, learning to know each planet by 
+its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly 
+constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal Love, and Mercy, 
+although they shine by night and day so brightly that the blind may 
+see them; and who, looking upward at the spangled sky, see nothing 
+there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-
+learning.
+
+It is curious to imagine these people of the world, busy in 
+thought, turning their eyes towards the countless spheres that 
+shine above us, and making them reflect the only images their minds 
+contain.  The man who lives but in the breath of princes, has 
+nothing his sight but stars for courtiers' breasts.  The envious 
+man beholds his neighbours' honours even in the sky; to the money-
+hoarder, and the mass of worldly folk, the whole great universe 
+above glitters with sterling coin--fresh from the mint--stamped 
+with the sovereign's head--coming always between them and heaven, 
+turn where they may.  So do the shadows of our own desires stand 
+between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is 
+eclipsed.
+
+Everything was fresh and gay, as though the world were but that 
+morning made, when Mr Chester rode at a tranquil pace along the 
+Forest road.  Though early in the season, it was warm and genial 
+weather; the trees were budding into leaf, the hedges and the grass 
+were green, the air was musical with songs of birds, and high above 
+them all the lark poured out her richest melody.  In shady spots, 
+the morning dew sparkled on each young leaf and blade of grass; 
+and where the sun was shining, some diamond drops yet glistened 
+brightly, as in unwillingness to leave so fair a world, and have 
+such brief existence.  Even the light wind, whose rustling was as 
+gentle to the ear as softly-falling water, had its hope and 
+promise; and, leaving a pleasant fragrance in its track as it went 
+fluttering by, whispered of its intercourse with Summer, and of his 
+happy coming.
+
+The solitary rider went glancing on among the trees, from sunlight 
+into shade and back again, at the same even pace--looking about 
+him, certainly, from time to time, but with no greater thought of 
+the day or the scene through which he moved, than that he was 
+fortunate (being choicely dressed) to have such favourable weather.  
+He smiled very complacently at such times, but rather as if he were 
+satisfied with himself than with anything else: and so went riding 
+on, upon his chestnut cob, as pleasant to look upon as his own 
+horse, and probably far less sensitive to the many cheerful 
+influences by which he was surrounded.
+
+In the course of time, the Maypole's massive chimneys rose upon his 
+view: but he quickened not his pace one jot, and with the same cool 
+gravity rode up to the tavern porch.  John Willet, who was toasting 
+his red face before a great fire in the bar, and who, with 
+surpassing foresight and quickness of apprehension, had been 
+thinking, as he looked at the blue sky, that if that state of 
+things lasted much longer, it might ultimately become necessary to 
+leave off fires and throw the windows open, issued forth to hold 
+his stirrup; calling lustily for Hugh.
+
+'Oh, you're here, are you, sir?' said John, rather surprised by the 
+quickness with which he appeared.  'Take this here valuable animal 
+into the stable, and have more than particular care of him if you 
+want to keep your place.  A mortal lazy fellow, sir; he needs a 
+deal of looking after.'
+
+'But you have a son,' returned Mr Chester, giving his bridle to 
+Hugh as he dismounted, and acknowledging his salute by a careless 
+motion of his hand towards his hat.  'Why don't you make HIM 
+useful?'
+
+'Why, the truth is, sir,' replied John with great importance, 'that 
+my son--what, you're a-listening are you, villain?'
+
+'Who's listening?' returned Hugh angrily.  'A treat, indeed, to 
+hear YOU speak!  Would you have me take him in till he's cool?'
+
+'Walk him up and down further off then, sir,' cried old John, 'and 
+when you see me and a noble gentleman entertaining ourselves with 
+talk, keep your distance.  If you don't know your distance, sir,' 
+added Mr Willet, after an enormously long pause, during which he 
+fixed his great dull eyes on Hugh, and waited with exemplary 
+patience for any little property in the way of ideas that might 
+come to him, 'we'll find a way to teach you, pretty soon.'
+
+Hugh shrugged his shoulders scornfully, and in his reckless 
+swaggering way, crossed to the other side of the little green, and 
+there, with the bridle slung loosely over his shoulder, led the 
+horse to and fro, glancing at his master every now and then from 
+under his bushy eyebrows, with as sinister an aspect as one would 
+desire to see.
+
+Mr Chester, who, without appearing to do so, had eyed him 
+attentively during this brief dispute, stepped into the porch, and 
+turning abruptly to Mr Willet, said,
+
+'You keep strange servants, John.'
+
+'Strange enough to look at, sir, certainly,' answered the host; 
+'but out of doors; for horses, dogs, and the likes of that; there 
+an't a better man in England than is that Maypole Hugh yonder.  He 
+an't fit for indoors,' added Mr Willet, with the confidential air 
+of a man who felt his own superior nature.  'I do that; but if that 
+chap had only a little imagination, sir--'
+
+'He's an active fellow now, I dare swear,' said Mr Chester, in a 
+musing tone, which seemed to suggest that he would have said the 
+same had there been nobody to hear him.
+
+'Active, sir!' retorted John, with quite an expression in his face; 
+'that chap!  Hallo there!  You, sir!  Bring that horse here, and 
+go and hang my wig on the weathercock, to show this gentleman 
+whether you're one of the lively sort or not.'
+
+Hugh made no answer, but throwing the bridle to his master, and 
+snatching his wig from his head, in a manner so unceremonious and 
+hasty that the action discomposed Mr Willet not a little, though 
+performed at his own special desire, climbed nimbly to the very 
+summit of the maypole before the house, and hanging the wig upon 
+the weathercock, sent it twirling round like a roasting jack.  
+Having achieved this performance, he cast it on the ground, and 
+sliding down the pole with inconceivable rapidity, alighted on his 
+feet almost as soon as it had touched the earth.
+
+'There, sir,' said John, relapsing into his usual stolid state, 
+'you won't see that at many houses, besides the Maypole, where 
+there's good accommodation for man and beast--nor that neither, 
+though that with him is nothing.'
+
+This last remark bore reference to his vaulting on horseback, as 
+upon Mr Chester's first visit, and quickly disappearing by the 
+stable gate.
+
+'That with him is nothing,' repeated Mr Willet, brushing his wig 
+with his wrist, and inwardly resolving to distribute a small charge 
+for dust and damage to that article of dress, through the various 
+items of his guest's bill; 'he'll get out of a'most any winder in 
+the house.  There never was such a chap for flinging himself about 
+and never hurting his bones.  It's my opinion, sir, that it's 
+pretty nearly allowing to his not having any imagination; and that 
+if imagination could be (which it can't) knocked into him, he'd 
+never be able to do it any more.  But we was a-talking, sir, about 
+my son.'
+
+'True, Willet, true,' said his visitor, turning again towards the 
+landlord with his accustomed serenity of face.  'My good friend, 
+what about him?'
+
+It has been reported that Mr Willet, previously to making answer, 
+winked.  But as he was never known to be guilty of such lightness 
+of conduct either before or afterwards, this may be looked upon as 
+a malicious invention of his enemies--founded, perhaps, upon the 
+undisputed circumstance of his taking his guest by the third breast 
+button of his coat, counting downwards from the chin, and pouring 
+his reply into his ear:
+
+'Sir,' whispered John, with dignity, 'I know my duty.  We want no 
+love-making here, sir, unbeknown to parents.  I respect a certain 
+young gentleman, taking him in the light of a young gentleman; I 
+respect a certain young lady, taking her in the light of a young 
+lady; but of the two as a couple, I have no knowledge, sir, none 
+whatever.  My son, sir, is upon his patrole.'
+
+'I thought I saw him looking through the corner window but this 
+moment,' said Mr Chester, who naturally thought that being on 
+patrole, implied walking about somewhere.
+
+'No doubt you did, sir,' returned John.  'He is upon his patrole of 
+honour, sir, not to leave the premises.  Me and some friends of 
+mine that use the Maypole of an evening, sir, considered what was 
+best to be done with him, to prevent his doing anything unpleasant 
+in opposing your desires; and we've put him on his patrole.  And 
+what's more, sir, he won't be off his patrole for a pretty long 
+time to come, I can tell you that.'
+
+When he had communicated this bright idea, which had its origin in 
+the perusal by the village cronies of a newspaper, containing, 
+among other matters, an account of how some officer pending the 
+sentence of some court-martial had been enlarged on parole, Mr 
+Willet drew back from his guest's ear, and without any visible 
+alteration of feature, chuckled thrice audibly.  This nearest 
+approach to a laugh in which he ever indulged (and that but seldom 
+and only on extreme occasions), never even curled his lip or 
+effected the smallest change in--no, not so much as a slight 
+wagging of--his great, fat, double chin, which at these times, as 
+at all others, remained a perfect desert in the broad map of his 
+face; one changeless, dull, tremendous blank.
+
+Lest it should be matter of surprise to any, that Mr Willet adopted 
+this bold course in opposition to one whom he had often 
+entertained, and who had always paid his way at the Maypole 
+gallantly, it may be remarked that it was his very penetration and 
+sagacity in this respect, which occasioned him to indulge in those 
+unusual demonstrations of jocularity, just now recorded.  For Mr 
+Willet, after carefully balancing father and son in his mental 
+scales, had arrived at the distinct conclusion that the old 
+gentleman was a better sort of a customer than the young one.  
+Throwing his landlord into the same scale, which was already turned 
+by this consideration, and heaping upon him, again, his strong 
+desires to run counter to the unfortunate Joe, and his opposition 
+as a general principle to all matters of love and matrimony, it 
+went down to the very ground straightway, and sent the light cause 
+of the younger gentleman flying upwards to the ceiling.  Mr 
+Chester was not the kind of man to be by any means dim-sighted to 
+Mr Willet's motives, but he thanked him as graciously as if he had 
+been one of the most disinterested martyrs that ever shone on 
+earth; and leaving him, with many complimentary reliances on his 
+great taste and judgment, to prepare whatever dinner he might deem 
+most fitting the occasion, bent his steps towards the Warren.
+
+Dressed with more than his usual elegance; assuming a gracefulness 
+of manner, which, though it was the result of long study, sat 
+easily upon him and became him well; composing his features into 
+their most serene and prepossessing expression; and setting in 
+short that guard upon himself, at every point, which denoted that 
+he attached no slight importance to the impression he was about to 
+make; he entered the bounds of Miss Haredale's usual walk.  He had 
+not gone far, or looked about him long, when he descried coming 
+towards him, a female figure.  A glimpse of the form and dress as 
+she crossed a little wooden bridge which lay between them, 
+satisfied him that he had found her whom he desired to see.  He 
+threw himself in her way, and a very few paces brought them close 
+together.
+
+He raised his hat from his head, and yielding the path, suffered 
+her to pass him.  Then, as if the idea had but that moment 
+occurred to him, he turned hastily back and said in an agitated 
+voice:
+
+'I beg pardon--do I address Miss Haredale?'
+
+She stopped in some confusion at being so unexpectedly accosted by 
+a stranger; and answered 'Yes.'
+
+'Something told me,' he said, LOOKING a compliment to her beauty, 
+'that it could be no other.  Miss Haredale, I bear a name which is 
+not unknown to you--which it is a pride, and yet a pain to me to 
+know, sounds pleasantly in your ears.  I am a man advanced in life, 
+as you see.  I am the father of him whom you honour and distinguish 
+above all other men.  May I for weighty reasons which fill me with 
+distress, beg but a minute's conversation with you here?'
+
+Who that was inexperienced in deceit, and had a frank and youthful 
+heart, could doubt the speaker's truth--could doubt it too, when 
+the voice that spoke, was like the faint echo of one she knew so 
+well, and so much loved to hear?  She inclined her head, and 
+stopping, cast her eyes upon the ground.
+
+'A little more apart--among these trees.  It is an old man's hand, 
+Miss Haredale; an honest one, believe me.'
+
+She put hers in it as he said these words, and suffered him to lead 
+her to a neighbouring seat.
+
+'You alarm me, sir,' she said in a low voice.  'You are not the 
+bearer of any ill news, I hope?'
+
+'Of none that you anticipate,' he answered, sitting down beside 
+her.  'Edward is well--quite well.  It is of him I wish to speak, 
+certainly; but I have no misfortune to communicate.'
+
+She bowed her head again, and made as though she would have begged 
+him to proceed; but said nothing.
+
+'I am sensible that I speak to you at a disadvantage, dear Miss 
+Haredale.  Believe me that I am not so forgetful of the feelings of 
+my younger days as not to know that you are little disposed to view 
+me with favour.  You have heard me described as cold-hearted, 
+calculating, selfish--'
+
+'I have never, sir,'--she interposed with an altered manner and a 
+firmer voice; 'I have never heard you spoken of in harsh or 
+disrespectful terms.  You do a great wrong to Edward's nature if 
+you believe him capable of any mean or base proceeding.'
+
+'Pardon me, my sweet young lady, but your uncle--'
+
+'Nor is it my uncle's nature either,' she replied, with a 
+heightened colour in her cheek.  'It is not his nature to stab in 
+the dark, nor is it mine to love such deeds.'
+
+She rose as she spoke, and would have left him; but he detained her 
+with a gentle hand, and besought her in such persuasive accents to 
+hear him but another minute, that she was easily prevailed upon to 
+comply, and so sat down again.
+
+'And it is,' said Mr Chester, looking upward, and apostrophising 
+the air; 'it is this frank, ingenuous, noble nature, Ned, that you 
+can wound so lightly.  Shame--shame upon you, boy!'
+
+She turned towards him quickly, and with a scornful look and 
+flashing eyes.  There were tears in Mr Chester's eyes, but he 
+dashed them hurriedly away, as though unwilling that his weakness 
+should be known, and regarded her with mingled admiration and 
+compassion.
+
+'I never until now,' he said, 'believed, that the frivolous actions 
+of a young man could move me like these of my own son.  I never 
+knew till now, the worth of a woman's heart, which boys so lightly 
+win, and lightly fling away.  Trust me, dear young lady, that I 
+never until now did know your worth; and though an abhorrence of 
+deceit and falsehood has impelled me to seek you out, and would 
+have done so had you been the poorest and least gifted of your sex, 
+I should have lacked the fortitude to sustain this interview could 
+I have pictured you to my imagination as you really are.'
+
+Oh!  If Mrs Varden could have seen the virtuous gentleman as he 
+said these words, with indignation sparkling from his eyes--if she 
+could have heard his broken, quavering voice--if she could have 
+beheld him as he stood bareheaded in the sunlight, and with 
+unwonted energy poured forth his eloquence!
+
+With a haughty face, but pale and trembling too, Emma regarded him 
+in silence.  She neither spoke nor moved, but gazed upon him as 
+though she would look into his heart.
+
+'I throw off,' said Mr Chester, 'the restraint which natural 
+affection would impose on some men, and reject all bonds but those 
+of truth and duty.  Miss Haredale, you are deceived; you are 
+deceived by your unworthy lover, and my unworthy son.'
+
+Still she looked at him steadily, and still said not one word.
+
+'I have ever opposed his professions of love for you; you will do 
+me the justice, dear Miss Haredale, to remember that.  Your uncle 
+and myself were enemies in early life, and if I had sought 
+retaliation, I might have found it here.  But as we grow older, we 
+grow wiser--bitter, I would fain hope--and from the first, I have 
+opposed him in this attempt.  I foresaw the end, and would have 
+spared you, if I could.'
+
+'Speak plainly, sir,' she faltered.  'You deceive me, or are 
+deceived yourself.  I do not believe you--I cannot--I should not.'
+
+'First,' said Mr Chester, soothingly, 'for there may be in your 
+mind some latent angry feeling to which I would not appeal, pray 
+take this letter.  It reached my hands by chance, and by mistake, 
+and should have accounted to you (as I am told) for my son's not 
+answering some other note of yours.  God forbid, Miss Haredale,' 
+said the good gentleman, with great emotion, 'that there should be 
+in your gentle breast one causeless ground of quarrel with him.  
+You should know, and you will see, that he was in no fault here.'
+
+There appeared something so very candid, so scrupulously 
+honourable, so very truthful and just in this course something 
+which rendered the upright person who resorted to it, so worthy of 
+belief--that Emma's heart, for the first time, sunk within her.  
+She turned away and burst into tears.
+
+'I would,' said Mr Chester, leaning over her, and speaking in mild 
+and quite venerable accents; 'I would, dear girl, it were my task 
+to banish, not increase, those tokens of your grief.  My son, my 
+erring son,--I will not call him deliberately criminal in this, for 
+men so young, who have been inconstant twice or thrice before, act 
+without reflection, almost without a knowledge of the wrong they 
+do,--will break his plighted faith to you; has broken it even now.  
+Shall I stop here, and having given you this warning, leave it to 
+be fulfilled; or shall I go on?'
+
+'You will go on, sir,' she answered, 'and speak more plainly yet, 
+in justice both to him and me.'
+
+'My dear girl,' said Mr Chester, bending over her more 
+affectionately still; 'whom I would call my daughter, but the Fates 
+forbid, Edward seeks to break with you upon a false and most 
+unwarrantable pretence.  I have it on his own showing; in his own 
+hand.  Forgive me, if I have had a watch upon his conduct; I am his 
+father; I had a regard for your peace and his honour, and no better 
+resource was left me.  There lies on his desk at this present 
+moment, ready for transmission to you, a letter, in which he tells 
+you that our poverty--our poverty; his and mine, Miss Haredale--
+forbids him to pursue his claim upon your hand; in which he offers, 
+voluntarily proposes, to free you from your pledge; and talks 
+magnanimously (men do so, very commonly, in such cases) of being in 
+time more worthy of your regard--and so forth.  A letter, to be 
+plain, in which he not only jilts you--pardon the word; I would 
+summon to your aid your pride and dignity--not only jilts you, I 
+fear, in favour of the object whose slighting treatment first 
+inspired his brief passion for yourself and gave it birth in 
+wounded vanity, but affects to make a merit and a virtue of the 
+act.'
+
+She glanced proudly at him once more, as by an involuntary impulse, 
+and with a swelling breast rejoined, 'If what you say be true, he 
+takes much needless trouble, sir, to compass his design.  He's very 
+tender of my peace of mind.  I quite thank him.'
+
+'The truth of what I tell you, dear young lady,' he replied, 'you 
+will test by the receipt or non-receipt of the letter of which I 
+speak.  Haredale, my dear fellow, I am delighted to see you, 
+although we meet under singular circumstances, and upon a 
+melancholy occasion.  I hope you are very well.'
+
+At these words the young lady raised her eyes, which were filled 
+with tears; and seeing that her uncle indeed stood before them, and 
+being quite unequal to the trial of hearing or of speaking one word 
+more, hurriedly withdrew, and left them.  They stood looking at 
+each other, and at her retreating figure, and for a long time 
+neither of them spoke.
+
+'What does this mean?  Explain it,' said Mr Haredale at length.  
+'Why are you here, and why with her?'
+
+'My dear friend,' rejoined the other, resuming his accustomed 
+manner with infinite readiness, and throwing himself upon the bench 
+with a weary air, 'you told me not very long ago, at that 
+delightful old tavern of which you are the esteemed proprietor (and 
+a most charming establishment it is for persons of rural pursuits 
+and in robust health, who are not liable to take cold), that I had 
+the head and heart of an evil spirit in all matters of deception.  
+I thought at the time; I really did think; you flattered me.  But 
+now I begin to wonder at your discernment, and vanity apart, do 
+honestly believe you spoke the truth.  Did you ever counterfeit 
+extreme ingenuousness and honest indignation?  My dear fellow, you 
+have no conception, if you never did, how faint the effort makes 
+one.'
+
+Mr Haredale surveyed him with a look of cold contempt.  'You may 
+evade an explanation, I know,' he said, folding his arms.  'But I 
+must have it.  I can wait.'
+
+'Not at all.  Not at all, my good fellow.  You shall not wait a 
+moment,' returned his friend, as he lazily crossed his legs.  'The 
+simplest thing in the world.  It lies in a nutshell.  Ned has 
+written her a letter--a boyish, honest, sentimental composition, 
+which remains as yet in his desk, because he hasn't had the heart 
+to send it.  I have taken a liberty, for which my parental 
+affection and anxiety are a sufficient excuse, and possessed 
+myself of the contents.  I have described them to your niece (a 
+most enchanting person, Haredale; quite an angelic creature), with 
+a little colouring and description adapted to our purpose.  It's 
+done.  You may be quite easy.  It's all over.  Deprived of their 
+adherents and mediators; her pride and jealousy roused to the 
+utmost; with nobody to undeceive her, and you to confirm me; you 
+will find that their intercourse will close with her answer.  If 
+she receives Ned's letter by to-morrow noon, you may date their 
+parting from to-morrow night.  No thanks, I beg; you owe me none.  
+I have acted for myself; and if I have forwarded our compact with 
+all the ardour even you could have desired, I have done so 
+selfishly, indeed.'
+
+'I curse the compact, as you call it, with my whole heart and 
+soul,' returned the other.  'It was made in an evil hour.  I have 
+bound myself to a lie; I have leagued myself with you; and though I 
+did so with a righteous motive, and though it cost me such an 
+effort as haply few men know, I hate and despise myself for the 
+deed.'
+
+'You are very warm,' said Mr Chester with a languid smile.
+
+'I AM warm.  I am maddened by your coldness.  'Death, Chester, if 
+your blood ran warmer in your veins, and there were no restraints 
+upon me, such as those that hold and drag me back--well; it is 
+done; you tell me so, and on such a point I may believe you.  When 
+I am most remorseful for this treachery, I will think of you and 
+your marriage, and try to justify myself in such remembrances, for 
+having torn asunder Emma and your son, at any cost.  Our bond is 
+cancelled now, and we may part.'
+
+Mr Chester kissed his hand gracefully; and with the same tranquil 
+face he had preserved throughout--even when he had seen his 
+companion so tortured and transported by his passion that his whole 
+frame was shaken--lay in his lounging posture on the seat and 
+watched him as he walked away.
+
+'My scapegoat and my drudge at school,' he said, raising his head 
+to look after him; 'my friend of later days, who could not keep his 
+mistress when he had won her, and threw me in her way to carry off 
+the prize; I triumph in the present and the past.  Bark on, ill-
+favoured, ill-conditioned cur; fortune has ever been with me--I 
+like to hear you.'
+
+The spot where they had met, was in an avenue of trees.  Mr 
+Haredale not passing out on either hand, had walked straight on.  
+He chanced to turn his head when at some considerable distance, and 
+seeing that his late companion had by that time risen and was 
+looking after him, stood still as though he half expected him to 
+follow and waited for his coming up.
+
+'It MAY come to that one day, but not yet,' said Mr Chester, 
+waving his hand, as though they were the best of friends, and 
+turning away.  'Not yet, Haredale.  Life is pleasant enough to me; 
+dull and full of heaviness to you.  No.  To cross swords with such 
+a man--to indulge his humour unless upon extremity--would be weak 
+indeed.'
+
+For all that, he drew his sword as he walked along, and in an 
+absent humour ran his eye from hilt to point full twenty times.  
+But thoughtfulness begets wrinkles; remembering this, he soon put 
+it up, smoothed his contracted brow, hummed a gay tune with greater 
+gaiety of manner, and was his unruffled self again.
+
+
+
+Chapter 30
+
+
+A homely proverb recognises the existence of a troublesome class of 
+persons who, having an inch conceded them, will take an ell.  Not 
+to quote the illustrious examples of those heroic scourges of 
+mankind, whose amiable path in life has been from birth to death 
+through blood, and fire, and ruin, and who would seem to have 
+existed for no better purpose than to teach mankind that as the 
+absence of pain is pleasure, so the earth, purged of their 
+presence, may be deemed a blessed place--not to quote such mighty 
+instances, it will be sufficient to refer to old John Willet.
+
+Old John having long encroached a good standard inch, full measure, 
+on the liberty of Joe, and having snipped off a Flemish ell in the 
+matter of the parole, grew so despotic and so great, that his 
+thirst for conquest knew no bounds.  The more young Joe submitted, 
+the more absolute old John became.  The ell soon faded into 
+nothing.  Yards, furlongs, miles arose; and on went old John in the 
+pleasantest manner possible, trimming off an exuberance in this 
+place, shearing away some liberty of speech or action in that, and 
+conducting himself in his small way with as much high mightiness 
+and majesty, as the most glorious tyrant that ever had his statue 
+reared in the public ways, of ancient or of modern times.
+
+As great men are urged on to the abuse of power (when they need 
+urging, which is not often), by their flatterers and dependents, so 
+old John was impelled to these exercises of authority by the 
+applause and admiration of his Maypole cronies, who, in the 
+intervals of their nightly pipes and pots, would shake their heads 
+and say that Mr Willet was a father of the good old English sort; 
+that there were no new-fangled notions or modern ways in him; that 
+he put them in mind of what their fathers were when they were boys; 
+that there was no mistake about him; that it would be well for the 
+country if there were more like him, and more was the pity that 
+there were not; with many other original remarks of that nature.  
+Then they would condescendingly give Joe to understand that it was 
+all for his good, and he would be thankful for it one day; and in 
+particular, Mr Cobb would acquaint him, that when he was his age, 
+his father thought no more of giving him a parental kick, or a box 
+on the ears, or a cuff on the head, or some little admonition of 
+that sort, than he did of any other ordinary duty of life; and he 
+would further remark, with looks of great significance, that but 
+for this judicious bringing up, he might have never been the man he 
+was at that present speaking; which was probable enough, as he was, 
+beyond all question, the dullest dog of the party.  In short, 
+between old John and old John's friends, there never was an 
+unfortunate young fellow so bullied, badgered, worried, fretted, 
+and brow-beaten; so constantly beset, or made so tired of his life, 
+as poor Joe Willet.
+
+This had come to be the recognised and established state of things; 
+but as John was very anxious to flourish his supremacy before the 
+eyes of Mr Chester, he did that day exceed himself, and did so 
+goad and chafe his son and heir, that but for Joe's having made a 
+solemn vow to keep his hands in his pockets when they were not 
+otherwise engaged, it is impossible to say what he might have done 
+with them.  But the longest day has an end, and at length Mr 
+Chester came downstairs to mount his horse, which was ready at the 
+door.
+
+As old John was not in the way at the moment, Joe, who was sitting 
+in the bar ruminating on his dismal fate and the manifold 
+perfections of Dolly Varden, ran out to hold the guest's stirrup 
+and assist him to mount.  Mr Chester was scarcely in the saddle, 
+and Joe was in the very act of making him a graceful bow, when old 
+John came diving out of the porch, and collared him.
+
+'None of that, sir,' said John, 'none of that, sir.  No breaking of 
+patroles.  How dare you come out of the door, sir, without leave?  
+You're trying to get away, sir, are you, and to make a traitor of 
+yourself again?  What do you mean, sir?'
+
+'Let me go, father,' said Joe, imploringly, as he marked the smile 
+upon their visitor's face, and observed the pleasure his disgrace 
+afforded him.  'This is too bad.  Who wants to get away?'
+
+'Who wants to get away!' cried John, shaking him.  'Why you do, 
+sir, you do.  You're the boy, sir,' added John, collaring with one 
+band, and aiding the effect of a farewell bow to the visitor with 
+the other, 'that wants to sneak into houses, and stir up 
+differences between noble gentlemen and their sons, are you, eh?  
+Hold your tongue, sir.'
+
+Joe made no effort to reply.  It was the crowning circumstance of 
+his degradation.  He extricated himself from his father's grasp, 
+darted an angry look at the departing guest, and returned into the 
+house.
+
+'But for her,' thought Joe, as he threw his arms upon a table in 
+the common room, and laid his head upon them, 'but for Dolly, who I 
+couldn't bear should think me the rascal they would make me out to 
+be if I ran away, this house and I should part to-night.'
+
+It being evening by this time, Solomon Daisy, Tom Cobb, and Long 
+Parkes, were all in the common room too, and had from the window 
+been witnesses of what had just occurred.  Mr Willet joining them 
+soon afterwards, received the compliments of the company with great 
+composure, and lighting his pipe, sat down among them.
+
+'We'll see, gentlemen,' said John, after a long pause, 'who's the 
+master of this house, and who isn't.  We'll see whether boys are to 
+govern men, or men are to govern boys.'
+
+'And quite right too,' assented Solomon Daisy with some approving 
+nods; 'quite right, Johnny.  Very good, Johnny.  Well said, Mr 
+Willet.  Brayvo, sir.'
+
+John slowly brought his eyes to bear upon him, looked at him for a 
+long time, and finally made answer, to the unspeakable 
+consternation of his hearers, 'When I want encouragement from you, 
+sir, I'll ask you for it.  You let me alone, sir.  I can get on 
+without you, I hope.  Don't you tackle me, sir, if you please.'
+
+'Don't take it ill, Johnny; I didn't mean any harm,' pleaded the 
+little man.
+
+'Very good, sir,' said John, more than usually obstinate after his 
+late success.  'Never mind, sir.  I can stand pretty firm of 
+myself, sir, I believe, without being shored up by you.'  And 
+having given utterance to this retort, Mr Willet fixed his eyes 
+upon the boiler, and fell into a kind of tobacco-trance.
+
+The spirits of the company being somewhat damped by this 
+embarrassing line of conduct on the part of their host, nothing 
+more was said for a long time; but at length Mr Cobb took upon 
+himself to remark, as he rose to knock the ashes out of his pipe, 
+that he hoped Joe would thenceforth learn to obey his father in all 
+things; that he had found, that day, he was not one of the sort of 
+men who were to be trifled with; and that he would recommend him, 
+poetically speaking, to mind his eye for the future.
+
+'I'd recommend you, in return,' said Joe, looking up with a flushed 
+face, 'not to talk to me.'
+
+'Hold your tongue, sir,' cried Mr Willet, suddenly rousing himself, 
+and turning round.
+
+'I won't, father,' cried Joe, smiting the table with his fist, so 
+that the jugs and glasses rung again; 'these things are hard enough 
+to bear from you; from anybody else I never will endure them any 
+more.  Therefore I say, Mr Cobb, don't talk to me.'
+
+'Why, who are you,' said Mr Cobb, sneeringly, 'that you're not to 
+be talked to, eh, Joe?'
+
+To which Joe returned no answer, but with a very ominous shake of 
+the head, resumed his old position, which he would have peacefully 
+preserved until the house shut up at night, but that Mr Cobb, 
+stimulated by the wonder of the company at the young man's 
+presumption, retorted with sundry taunts, which proved too much for 
+flesh and blood to bear.  Crowding into one moment the vexation and 
+the wrath of years, Joe started up, overturned the table, fell upon 
+his long enemy, pummelled him with all his might and main, and 
+finished by driving him with surprising swiftness against a heap of 
+spittoons in one corner; plunging into which, head foremost, with a 
+tremendous crash, he lay at full length among the ruins, stunned 
+and motionless.  Then, without waiting to receive the compliments 
+of the bystanders on the victory be had won, he retreated to his 
+own bedchamber, and considering himself in a state of siege, piled 
+all the portable furniture against the door by way of barricade.
+
+'I have done it now,' said Joe, as he sat down upon his bedstead 
+and wiped his heated face.  'I knew it would come at last.  The 
+Maypole and I must part company.  I'm a roving vagabond--she hates 
+me for evermore--it's all over!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 31
+
+
+Pondering on his unhappy lot, Joe sat and listened for a long 
+time, expecting every moment to hear their creaking footsteps on 
+the stairs, or to be greeted by his worthy father with a summons to 
+capitulate unconditionally, and deliver himself up straightway.  
+But neither voice nor footstep came; and though some distant 
+echoes, as of closing doors and people hurrying in and out of 
+rooms, resounding from time to time through the great passages, and 
+penetrating to his remote seclusion, gave note of unusual commotion 
+downstairs, no nearer sound disturbed his place of retreat, which 
+seemed the quieter for these far-off noises, and was as dull and 
+full of gloom as any hermit's cell.
+
+It came on darker and darker.  The old-fashioned furniture of the 
+chamber, which was a kind of hospital for all the invalided 
+movables in the house, grew indistinct and shadowy in its many 
+shapes; chairs and tables, which by day were as honest cripples as 
+need be, assumed a doubtful and mysterious character; and one old 
+leprous screen of faded India leather and gold binding, which had 
+kept out many a cold breath of air in days of yore and shut in many 
+a jolly face, frowned on him with a spectral aspect, and stood at 
+full height in its allotted corner, like some gaunt ghost who 
+waited to be questioned.  A portrait opposite the window--a queer, 
+old grey-eyed general, in an oval frame--seemed to wink and doze as 
+the light decayed, and at length, when the last faint glimmering 
+speck of day went out, to shut its eyes in good earnest, and fall 
+sound asleep.  There was such a hush and mystery about everything, 
+that Joe could not help following its example; and so went off into 
+a slumber likewise, and dreamed of Dolly, till the clock of 
+Chigwell church struck two.
+
+Still nobody came.  The distant noises in the house had ceased, and 
+out of doors all was quiet; save for the occasional barking of some 
+deep-mouthed dog, and the shaking of the branches by the night 
+wind.  He gazed mournfully out of window at each well-known object 
+as it lay sleeping in the dim light of the moon; and creeping back 
+to his former seat, thought about the late uproar, until, with long 
+thinking of, it seemed to have occurred a month ago.  Thus, between 
+dozing, and thinking, and walking to the window and looking out, 
+the night wore away; the grim old screen, and the kindred chairs 
+and tables, began slowly to reveal themselves in their accustomed 
+forms; the grey-eyed general seemed to wink and yawn and rouse 
+himself; and at last he was broad awake again, and very 
+uncomfortable and cold and haggard he looked, in the dull grey 
+light of morning.
+
+The sun had begun to peep above the forest trees, and already flung 
+across the curling mist bright bars of gold, when Joe dropped from 
+his window on the ground below, a little bundle and his trusty 
+stick, and prepared to descend himself.
+
+It was not a very difficult task; for there were so many 
+projections and gable ends in the way, that they formed a series of 
+clumsy steps, with no greater obstacle than a jump of some few feet 
+at last.  Joe, with his stick and bundle on his shoulder, quickly 
+stood on the firm earth, and looked up at the old Maypole, it might 
+be for the last time.
+
+He didn't apostrophise it, for he was no great scholar.  He didn't 
+curse it, for he had little ill-will to give to anything on earth.  
+He felt more affectionate and kind to it than ever he had done in 
+all his life before, so said with all his heart, 'God bless you!' 
+as a parting wish, and turned away.
+
+He walked along at a brisk pace, big with great thoughts of going 
+for a soldier and dying in some foreign country where it was very 
+hot and sandy, and leaving God knows what unheard-of wealth in 
+prize-money to Dolly, who would be very much affected when she came 
+to know of it; and full of such youthful visions, which were 
+sometimes sanguine and sometimes melancholy, but always had her for 
+their main point and centre, pushed on vigorously until the noise 
+of London sounded in his ears, and the Black Lion hove in sight.
+
+It was only eight o'clock then, and very much astonished the Black 
+Lion was, to see him come walking in with dust upon his feet at 
+that early hour, with no grey mare to bear him company.  But as he 
+ordered breakfast to be got ready with all speed, and on its being 
+set before him gave indisputable tokens of a hearty appetite, the 
+Lion received him, as usual, with a hospitable welcome; and treated 
+him with those marks of distinction, which, as a regular customer, 
+and one within the freemasonry of the trade, he had a right to 
+claim.
+
+This Lion or landlord,--for he was called both man and beast, by 
+reason of his having instructed the artist who painted his sign, to 
+convey into the features of the lordly brute whose effigy it bore, 
+as near a counterpart of his own face as his skill could compass 
+and devise,--was a gentleman almost as quick of apprehension, and 
+of almost as subtle a wit, as the mighty John himself.  But the 
+difference between them lay in this: that whereas Mr Willet's 
+extreme sagacity and acuteness were the efforts of unassisted 
+nature, the Lion stood indebted, in no small amount, to beer; of 
+which he swigged such copious draughts, that most of his faculties 
+were utterly drowned and washed away, except the one great faculty 
+of sleep, which he retained in surprising perfection.  The creaking 
+Lion over the house-door was, therefore, to say the truth, rather a 
+drowsy, tame, and feeble lion; and as these social representatives 
+of a savage class are usually of a conventional character (being 
+depicted, for the most part, in impossible attitudes and of 
+unearthly colours), he was frequently supposed by the more ignorant 
+and uninformed among the neighbours, to be the veritable portrait 
+of the host as he appeared on the occasion of some great funeral 
+ceremony or public mourning.
+
+'What noisy fellow is that in the next room?' said Joe, when he had 
+disposed of his breakfast, and had washed and brushed himself.
+
+'A recruiting serjeant,' replied the Lion.
+
+Joe started involuntarily.  Here was the very thing he had been 
+dreaming of, all the way along.
+
+'And I wish,' said the Lion, 'he was anywhere else but here.  The 
+party make noise enough, but don't call for much.  There's great 
+cry there, Mr Willet, but very little wool.  Your father wouldn't 
+like 'em, I know.'
+
+Perhaps not much under any circumstances.  Perhaps if he could have 
+known what was passing at that moment in Joe's mind, he would have 
+liked them still less.
+
+'Is he recruiting for a--for a fine regiment?' said Joe, glancing 
+at a little round mirror that hung in the bar.
+
+'I believe he is,' replied the host.  'It's much the same thing, 
+whatever regiment he's recruiting for.  I'm told there an't a deal 
+of difference between a fine man and another one, when they're shot 
+through and through.'
+
+'They're not all shot,' said Joe.
+
+'No,' the Lion answered, 'not all.  Those that are--supposing it's 
+done easy--are the best off in my opinion.'
+
+'Ah!' retorted Joe, 'but you don't care for glory.'
+
+'For what?' said the Lion.
+
+'Glory.'
+
+'No,' returned the Lion, with supreme indifference.  'I don't.  
+You're right in that, Mr Willet.  When Glory comes here, and calls 
+for anything to drink and changes a guinea to pay for it, I'll give 
+it him for nothing.  It's my belief, sir, that the Glory's arms 
+wouldn't do a very strong business.'
+
+These remarks were not at all comforting.  Joe walked out, stopped 
+at the door of the next room, and listened.  The serjeant was 
+describing a military life.  It was all drinking, he said, except 
+that there were frequent intervals of eating and love-making.  A 
+battle was the finest thing in the world--when your side won it--
+and Englishmen always did that.  'Supposing you should be killed, 
+sir?' said a timid voice in one corner.  'Well, sir, supposing you 
+should be,' said the serjeant, 'what then?  Your country loves you, 
+sir; his Majesty King George the Third loves you; your memory is 
+honoured, revered, respected; everybody's fond of you, and grateful 
+to you; your name's wrote down at full length in a book in the War 
+Office.  Damme, gentlemen, we must all die some time, or another, 
+eh?'
+
+The voice coughed, and said no more.
+
+Joe walked into the room.  A group of half-a-dozen fellows had 
+gathered together in the taproom, and were listening with greedy 
+ears.  One of them, a carter in a smockfrock, seemed wavering and 
+disposed to enlist.  The rest, who were by no means disposed, 
+strongly urged him to do so (according to the custom of mankind), 
+backed the serjeant's arguments, and grinned among themselves.  'I 
+say nothing, boys,' said the serjeant, who sat a little apart, 
+drinking his liquor.  'For lads of spirit'--here he cast an eye on 
+Joe--'this is the time.  I don't want to inveigle you.  The king's 
+not come to that, I hope.  Brisk young blood is what we want; not 
+milk and water.  We won't take five men out of six.  We want top-
+sawyers, we do.  I'm not a-going to tell tales out of school, but, 
+damme, if every gentleman's son that carries arms in our corps, 
+through being under a cloud and having little differences with his 
+relations, was counted up'--here his eye fell on Joe again, and so 
+good-naturedly, that Joe beckoned him out.  He came directly.
+
+'You're a gentleman, by G--!' was his first remark, as he slapped 
+him on the back.  'You're a gentleman in disguise.  So am I.  Let's 
+swear a friendship.'
+
+Joe didn't exactly do that, but he shook hands with him, and 
+thanked him for his good opinion.
+
+'You want to serve,' said his new friend.  'You shall.  You were 
+made for it.  You're one of us by nature.  What'll you take to 
+drink?'
+
+'Nothing just now,' replied Joe, smiling faintly.  'I haven't quite 
+made up my mind.'
+
+'A mettlesome fellow like you, and not made up his mind!' cried 
+the serjeant.  'Here--let me give the bell a pull, and you'll make 
+up your mind in half a minute, I know.'
+
+'You're right so far'--answered Joe, 'for if you pull the bell 
+here, where I'm known, there'll be an end of my soldiering 
+inclinations in no time.  Look in my face.  You see me, do you?'
+
+'I do,' replied the serjeant with an oath, 'and a finer young 
+fellow or one better qualified to serve his king and country, I 
+never set my--' he used an adjective in this place--'eyes on.
+
+'Thank you,' said Joe, 'I didn't ask you for want of a compliment, 
+but thank you all the same.  Do I look like a sneaking fellow or a 
+liar?'
+
+The serjeant rejoined with many choice asseverations that he 
+didn't; and that if his (the serjeant's) own father were to say he 
+did, he would run the old gentleman through the body cheerfully, 
+and consider it a meritorious action.
+
+Joe expressed his obligations, and continued, 'You can trust me 
+then, and credit what I say.  I believe I shall enlist in your 
+regiment to-night.  The reason I don't do so now is, because I 
+don't want until to-night, to do what I can't recall.  Where shall 
+I find you, this evening?'
+
+His friend replied with some unwillingness, and after much 
+ineffectual entreaty having for its object the immediate settlement 
+of the business, that his quarters would be at the Crooked Billet 
+in Tower Street; where he would be found waking until midnight, and 
+sleeping until breakfast time to-morrow.
+
+'And if I do come--which it's a million to one, I shall--when will 
+you take me out of London?' demanded Joe.
+
+'To-morrow morning, at half after eight o'clock,' replied the 
+serjeant.  'You'll go abroad--a country where it's all sunshine and 
+plunder--the finest climate in the world.'
+
+'To go abroad,' said Joe, shaking hands with him, 'is the very 
+thing I want.  You may expect me.'
+
+'You're the kind of lad for us,' cried the serjeant, holding Joe's 
+hand in his, in the excess of his admiration.  'You're the boy to 
+push your fortune.  I don't say it because I bear you any envy, or 
+would take away from the credit of the rise you'll make, but if I 
+had been bred and taught like you, I'd have been a colonel by this 
+time.'
+
+'Tush, man!' said Joe, 'I'm not so young as that.  Needs must when 
+the devil drives; and the devil that drives me is an empty pocket 
+and an unhappy home.  For the present, good-bye.'
+
+'For king and country!' cried the serjeant, flourishing his cap.
+
+'For bread and meat!' cried Joe, snapping his fingers.  And so they 
+parted.
+
+He had very little money in his pocket; so little indeed, that 
+after paying for his breakfast (which he was too honest and perhaps 
+too proud to score up to his father's charge) he had but a penny 
+left.  He had courage, notwithstanding, to resist all the 
+affectionate importunities of the serjeant, who waylaid him at 
+the door with many protestations of eternal friendship, and did in 
+particular request that he would do him the favour to accept of 
+only one shilling as a temporary accommodation.  Rejecting his 
+offers both of cash and credit, Joe walked away with stick and 
+bundle as before, bent upon getting through the day as he best 
+could, and going down to the locksmith's in the dusk of the 
+evening; for it should go hard, he had resolved, but he would have 
+a parting word with charming Dolly Varden.
+
+He went out by Islington and so on to Highgate, and sat on many 
+stones and gates, but there were no voices in the bells to bid him 
+turn.  Since the time of noble Whittington, fair flower of 
+merchants, bells have come to have less sympathy with humankind.  
+They only ring for money and on state occasions.  Wanderers have 
+increased in number; ships leave the Thames for distant regions, 
+carrying from stem to stern no other cargo; the bells are silent; 
+they ring out no entreaties or regrets; they are used to it and 
+have grown worldly.
+
+Joe bought a roll, and reduced his purse to the condition (with a 
+difference) of that celebrated purse of Fortunatus, which, 
+whatever were its favoured owner's necessities, had one unvarying 
+amount in it.  In these real times, when all the Fairies are dead 
+and buried, there are still a great many purses which possess that 
+quality.  The sum-total they contain is expressed in arithmetic by 
+a circle, and whether it be added to or multiplied by its own 
+amount, the result of the problem is more easily stated than any 
+known in figures.
+
+Evening drew on at last.  With the desolate and solitary feeling of 
+one who had no home or shelter, and was alone utterly in the world 
+for the first time, he bent his steps towards the locksmith's 
+house.  He had delayed till now, knowing that Mrs Varden sometimes 
+went out alone, or with Miggs for her sole attendant, to lectures 
+in the evening; and devoutly hoping that this might be one of her 
+nights of moral culture.
+
+He had walked up and down before the house, on the opposite side of 
+the way, two or three times, when as he returned to it again, he 
+caught a glimpse of a fluttering skirt at the door.  It was 
+Dolly's--to whom else could it belong? no dress but hers had such a 
+flow as that.  He plucked up his spirits, and followed it into the 
+workshop of the Golden Key.
+
+His darkening the door caused her to look round.  Oh that face!  
+'If it hadn't been for that,' thought Joe, 'I should never have 
+walked into poor Tom Cobb.  She's twenty times handsomer than ever.  
+She might marry a Lord!'
+
+He didn't say this.  He only thought it--perhaps looked it also.  
+Dolly was glad to see him, and was SO sorry her father and mother 
+were away from home.  Joe begged she wouldn't mention it on any 
+account.
+
+Dolly hesitated to lead the way into the parlour, for there it was 
+nearly dark; at the same time she hesitated to stand talking in the 
+workshop, which was yet light and open to the street.  They had got 
+by some means, too, before the little forge; and Joe having her 
+hand in his (which he had no right to have, for Dolly only gave it 
+him to shake), it was so like standing before some homely altar 
+being married, that it was the most embarrassing state of things in 
+the world.
+
+'I have come,' said Joe, 'to say good-bye--to say good-bye for I 
+don't know how many years; perhaps for ever.  I am going abroad.'
+
+Now this was exactly what he should not have said.  Here he was, 
+talking like a gentleman at large who was free to come and go and 
+roam about the world at pleasure, when that gallant coachmaker had 
+vowed but the night before that Miss Varden held him bound in 
+adamantine chains; and had positively stated in so many words that 
+she was killing him by inches, and that in a fortnight more or 
+thereabouts he expected to make a decent end and leave the business 
+to his mother.
+
+Dolly released her hand and said 'Indeed!'  She remarked in the 
+same breath that it was a fine night, and in short, betrayed no 
+more emotion than the forge itself.
+
+'I couldn't go,' said Joe, 'without coming to see you.  I hadn't 
+the heart to.'
+
+Dolly was more sorry than she could tell, that he should have taken 
+so much trouble.  It was such a long way, and he must have such a 
+deal to do.  And how WAS Mr Willet--that dear old gentleman--
+
+'Is this all you say!' cried Joe.
+
+All!  Good gracious, what did the man expect!  She was obliged to 
+take her apron in her hand and run her eyes along the hem from 
+corner to corner, to keep herself from laughing in his face;--not 
+because his gaze confused her--not at all.
+
+Joe had small experience in love affairs, and had no notion how 
+different young ladies are at different times; he had expected to 
+take Dolly up again at the very point where he had left her after 
+that delicious evening ride, and was no more prepared for such an 
+alteration than to see the sun and moon change places.  He had 
+buoyed himself up all day with an indistinct idea that she would 
+certainly say 'Don't go,' or 'Don't leave us,' or 'Why do you go?' 
+or 'Why do you leave us?' or would give him some little 
+encouragement of that sort; he had even entertained the possibility 
+of her bursting into tears, of her throwing herself into his arms, 
+of her falling down in a fainting fit without previous word or 
+sign; but any approach to such a line of conduct as this, had been 
+so far from his thoughts that he could only look at her in silent 
+wonder.
+
+Dolly in the meanwhile, turned to the corners of her apron, and 
+measured the sides, and smoothed out the wrinkles, and was as 
+silent as he.  At last after a long pause, Joe said good-bye.  
+'Good-bye'--said Dolly--with as pleasant a smile as if he were 
+going into the next street, and were coming back to supper; 'good-
+bye.'
+
+'Come,' said Joe, putting out both hands, 'Dolly, dear Dolly, don't 
+let us part like this.  I love you dearly, with all my heart and 
+soul; with as much truth and earnestness as ever man loved woman in 
+this world, I do believe.  I am a poor fellow, as you know--poorer 
+now than ever, for I have fled from home, not being able to bear it 
+any longer, and must fight my own way without help.  You are 
+beautiful, admired, are loved by everybody, are well off and happy; 
+and may you ever be so!  Heaven forbid I should ever make you 
+otherwise; but give me a word of comfort.  Say something kind to 
+me.  I have no right to expect it of you, I know, but I ask it 
+because I love you, and shall treasure the slightest word from you 
+all through my life.  Dolly, dearest, have you nothing to say to 
+me?'
+
+No.  Nothing.  Dolly was a coquette by nature, and a spoilt child.  
+She had no notion of being carried by storm in this way.  The 
+coachmaker would have been dissolved in tears, and would have knelt 
+down, and called himself names, and clasped his hands, and beat his 
+breast, and tugged wildly at his cravat, and done all kinds of 
+poetry.  Joe had no business to be going abroad.  He had no right 
+to be able to do it.  If he was in adamantine chains, he couldn't.
+
+'I have said good-bye,' said Dolly, 'twice.  Take your arm away 
+directly, Mr Joseph, or I'll call Miggs.'
+
+'I'll not reproach you,' answered Joe, 'it's my fault, no doubt.  I 
+have thought sometimes that you didn't quite despise me, but I was 
+a fool to think so.  Every one must, who has seen the life I have 
+led--you most of all.  God bless you!'
+
+He was gone, actually gone.  Dolly waited a little while, thinking 
+he would return, peeped out at the door, looked up the street and 
+down as well as the increasing darkness would allow, came in again, 
+waited a little longer, went upstairs humming a tune, bolted 
+herself in, laid her head down on her bed, and cried as if her 
+heart would break.  And yet such natures are made up of so many 
+contradictions, that if Joe Willet had come back that night, next 
+day, next week, next month, the odds are a hundred to one she would 
+have treated him in the very same manner, and have wept for it 
+afterwards with the very same distress.
+
+She had no sooner left the workshop than there cautiously peered 
+out from behind the chimney of the forge, a face which had already 
+emerged from the same concealment twice or thrice, unseen, and 
+which, after satisfying itself that it was now alone, was followed 
+by a leg, a shoulder, and so on by degrees, until the form of Mr 
+Tappertit stood confessed, with a brown-paper cap stuck negligently 
+on one side of its head, and its arms very much a-kimbo.
+
+'Have my ears deceived me,' said the 'prentice, 'or do I dream! am 
+I to thank thee, Fortun', or to cus thee--which?'
+
+He gravely descended from his elevation, took down his piece of 
+looking-glass, planted it against the wall upon the usual bench, 
+twisted his head round, and looked closely at his legs.
+
+'If they're a dream,' said Sim, 'let sculptures have such wisions, 
+and chisel 'em out when they wake.  This is reality.  Sleep has no 
+such limbs as them.  Tremble, Willet, and despair.  She's mine!  
+She's mine!'
+
+With these triumphant expressions, he seized a hammer and dealt a 
+heavy blow at a vice, which in his mind's eye represented the 
+sconce or head of Joseph Willet.  That done, he burst into a peal 
+of laughter which startled Miss Miggs even in her distant kitchen, 
+and dipping his head into a bowl of water, had recourse to a jack-
+towel inside the closet door, which served the double purpose of 
+smothering his feelings and drying his face.
+
+Joe, disconsolate and down-hearted, but full of courage too, on 
+leaving the locksmith's house made the best of his way to the 
+Crooked Billet, and there inquired for his friend the serjeant, 
+who, expecting no man less, received him with open arms.  In the 
+course of five minutes after his arrival at that house of 
+entertainment, he was enrolled among the gallant defenders of his 
+native land; and within half an hour, was regaled with a steaming 
+supper of boiled tripe and onions, prepared, as his friend assured 
+him more than once, at the express command of his most Sacred 
+Majesty the King.  To this meal, which tasted very savoury after 
+his long fasting, he did ample justice; and when he had followed it 
+up, or down, with a variety of loyal and patriotic toasts, he was 
+conducted to a straw mattress in a loft over the stable, and 
+locked in there for the night.
+
+The next morning, he found that the obliging care of his martial 
+friend had decorated his hat with sundry particoloured streamers, 
+which made a very lively appearance; and in company with that 
+officer, and three other military gentlemen newly enrolled, who 
+were under a cloud so dense that it only left three shoes, a boot, 
+and a coat and a half visible among them, repaired to the 
+riverside.  Here they were joined by a corporal and four more 
+heroes, of whom two were drunk and daring, and two sober and 
+penitent, but each of whom, like Joe, had his dusty stick and 
+bundle.  The party embarked in a passage-boat bound for Gravesend, 
+whence they were to proceed on foot to Chatham; the wind was in 
+their favour, and they soon left London behind them, a mere dark 
+mist--a giant phantom in the air.
+
+
+
+Chapter 32
+
+
+Misfortunes, saith the adage, never come singly.  There is little 
+doubt that troubles are exceedingly gregarious in their nature, and 
+flying in flocks, are apt to perch capriciously; crowding on the 
+heads of some poor wights until there is not an inch of room left 
+on their unlucky crowns, and taking no more notice of others who 
+offer as good resting-places for the soles of their feet, than if 
+they had no existence.  It may have happened that a flight of 
+troubles brooding over London, and looking out for Joseph Willet, 
+whom they couldn't find, darted down haphazard on the first young 
+man that caught their fancy, and settled on him instead.  However 
+this may be, certain it is that on the very day of Joe's departure 
+they swarmed about the ears of Edward Chester, and did so buzz and 
+flap their wings, and persecute him, that he was most profoundly 
+wretched.
+
+It was evening, and just eight o'clock, when he and his father, 
+having wine and dessert set before them, were left to themselves 
+for the first time that day.  They had dined together, but a third 
+person had been present during the meal, and until they met at 
+table they had not seen each other since the previous night.
+
+Edward was reserved and silent.  Mr Chester was more than usually 
+gay; but not caring, as it seemed, to open a conversation with one 
+whose humour was so different, he vented the lightness of his 
+spirit in smiles and sparkling looks, and made no effort to awaken 
+his attention.  So they remained for some time: the father lying on 
+a sofa with his accustomed air of graceful negligence; the son 
+seated opposite to him with downcast eyes, busied, it was plain, 
+with painful and uneasy thoughts.
+
+'My dear Edward,' said Mr Chester at length, with a most engaging 
+laugh, 'do not extend your drowsy influence to the decanter.  
+Suffer THAT to circulate, let your spirits be never so stagnant.'
+
+Edward begged his pardon, passed it, and relapsed into his former 
+state.
+
+'You do wrong not to fill your glass,' said Mr Chester, holding up 
+his own before the light.  'Wine in moderation--not in excess, for 
+that makes men ugly--has a thousand pleasant influences.  It 
+brightens the eye, improves the voice, imparts a new vivacity to 
+one's thoughts and conversation: you should try it, Ned.'
+
+'Ah father!' cried his son, 'if--'
+
+'My good fellow,' interposed the parent hastily, as he set down his 
+glass, and raised his eyebrows with a startled and horrified 
+expression, 'for Heaven's sake don't call me by that obsolete and 
+ancient name.  Have some regard for delicacy.  Am I grey, or 
+wrinkled, do I go on crutches, have I lost my teeth, that you adopt 
+such a mode of address?  Good God, how very coarse!'
+
+'I was about to speak to you from my heart, sir,' returned Edward, 
+'in the confidence which should subsist between us; and you check 
+me in the outset.'
+
+'Now DO, Ned, DO not,' said Mr Chester, raising his delicate hand 
+imploringly, 'talk in that monstrous manner.  About to speak from 
+your heart.  Don't you know that the heart is an ingenious part of 
+our formation--the centre of the blood-vessels and all that sort of 
+thing--which has no more to do with what you say or think, than 
+your knees have?  How can you be so very vulgar and absurd?  These 
+anatomical allusions should be left to gentlemen of the medical 
+profession.  They are really not agreeable in society.  You quite 
+surprise me, Ned.'
+
+'Well! there are no such things to wound, or heal, or have regard 
+for.  I know your creed, sir, and will say no more,' returned his 
+son.
+
+'There again,' said Mr Chester, sipping his wine, 'you are wrong.  
+I distinctly say there are such things.  We know there are.  The 
+hearts of animals--of bullocks, sheep, and so forth--are cooked and 
+devoured, as I am told, by the lower classes, with a vast deal of 
+relish.  Men are sometimes stabbed to the heart, shot to the heart; 
+but as to speaking from the heart, or to the heart, or being warm-
+hearted, or cold-hearted, or broken-hearted, or being all heart, or 
+having no heart--pah! these things are nonsense, Ned.'
+
+'No doubt, sir,' returned his son, seeing that he paused for him to 
+speak.  'No doubt.'
+
+'There's Haredale's niece, your late flame,' said Mr Chester, as a 
+careless illustration of his meaning.  'No doubt in your mind she 
+was all heart once.  Now she has none at all.  Yet she is the same 
+person, Ned, exactly.'
+
+'She is a changed person, sir,' cried Edward, reddening; 'and 
+changed by vile means, I believe.'
+
+'You have had a cool dismissal, have you?' said his father.  'Poor 
+Ned!  I told you last night what would happen.--May I ask you for 
+the nutcrackers?'
+
+'She has been tampered with, and most treacherously deceived,' 
+cried Edward, rising from his seat.  'I never will believe that the 
+knowledge of my real position, given her by myself, has worked this 
+change.  I know she is beset and tortured.  But though our contract 
+is at an end, and broken past all redemption; though I charge upon 
+her want of firmness and want of truth, both to herself and me; I 
+do not now, and never will believe, that any sordid motive, or her 
+own unbiassed will, has led her to this course--never!'
+
+'You make me blush,' returned his father gaily, 'for the folly of 
+your nature, in which--but we never know ourselves--I devoutly hope 
+there is no reflection of my own.  With regard to the young lady 
+herself, she has done what is very natural and proper, my dear 
+fellow; what you yourself proposed, as I learn from Haredale; and 
+what I predicted--with no great exercise of sagacity--she would do.  
+She supposed you to be rich, or at least quite rich enough; and 
+found you poor.  Marriage is a civil contract; people marry to 
+better their worldly condition and improve appearances; it is an 
+affair of house and furniture, of liveries, servants, equipage, and 
+so forth.  The lady being poor and you poor also, there is an end 
+of the matter.  You cannot enter upon these considerations, and 
+have no manner of business with the ceremony.  I drink her health 
+in this glass, and respect and honour her for her extreme good 
+sense.  It is a lesson to you.  Fill yours, Ned.'
+
+'It is a lesson,' returned his son, 'by which I hope I may never 
+profit, and if years and experience impress it on--'
+
+'Don't say on the heart,' interposed his father.
+
+'On men whom the world and its hypocrisy have spoiled,' said Edward 
+warmly, 'Heaven keep me from its knowledge.'
+
+'Come, sir,' returned his father, raising himself a little on the 
+sofa, and looking straight towards him; 'we have had enough of 
+this.  Remember, if you please, your interest, your duty, your 
+moral obligations, your filial affections, and all that sort of 
+thing, which it is so very delightful and charming to reflect upon; 
+or you will repent it.'
+
+'I shall never repent the preservation of my self-respect, sir,' 
+said Edward.  'Forgive me if I say that I will not sacrifice it at 
+your bidding, and that I will not pursue the track which you would 
+have me take, and to which the secret share you have had in this 
+late separation tends.'
+
+His father rose a little higher still, and looking at him as though 
+curious to know if he were quite resolved and earnest, dropped 
+gently down again, and said in the calmest voice--eating his nuts 
+meanwhile,
+
+'Edward, my father had a son, who being a fool like you, and, like 
+you, entertaining low and disobedient sentiments, he disinherited 
+and cursed one morning after breakfast.  The circumstance occurs to 
+me with a singular clearness of recollection this evening.  I 
+remember eating muffins at the time, with marmalade.  He led a 
+miserable life (the son, I mean) and died early; it was a happy 
+release on all accounts; he degraded the family very much.  It is a 
+sad circumstance, Edward, when a father finds it necessary to 
+resort to such strong measures.
+
+'It is,' replied Edward, 'and it is sad when a son, proffering him 
+his love and duty in their best and truest sense, finds himself 
+repelled at every turn, and forced to disobey.  Dear father,' he 
+added, more earnestly though in a gentler tone, 'I have reflected 
+many times on what occurred between us when we first discussed this 
+subject.  Let there be a confidence between us; not in terms, but 
+truth.  Hear what I have to say.'
+
+'As I anticipate what it is, and cannot fail to do so, Edward,' 
+returned his father coldly, 'I decline.  I couldn't possibly.  I am 
+sure it would put me out of temper, which is a state of mind I 
+can't endure.  If you intend to mar my plans for your establishment 
+in life, and the preservation of that gentility and becoming pride, 
+which our family have so long sustained--if, in short, you are 
+resolved to take your own course, you must take it, and my curse 
+with it.  I am very sorry, but there's really no alternative.'
+
+'The curse may pass your lips,' said Edward, 'but it will be but 
+empty breath.  I do not believe that any man on earth has greater 
+power to call one down upon his fellow--least of all, upon his own 
+child--than he has to make one drop of rain or flake of snow fall 
+from the clouds above us at his impious bidding.  Beware, sir, what 
+you do.'
+
+'You are so very irreligious, so exceedingly undutiful, so horribly 
+profane,' rejoined his father, turning his face lazily towards 
+him, and cracking another nut, 'that I positively must interrupt 
+you here.  It is quite impossible we can continue to go on, upon 
+such terms as these.  If you will do me the favour to ring the 
+bell, the servant will show you to the door.  Return to this roof 
+no more, I beg you.  Go, sir, since you have no moral sense 
+remaining; and go to the Devil, at my express desire.  Good day.'
+
+Edward left the room without another word or look, and turned his 
+back upon the house for ever.
+
+The father's face was slightly flushed and heated, but his manner 
+was quite unchanged, as he rang the bell again, and addressed the 
+servant on his entrance.
+
+'Peak--if that gentleman who has just gone out--'
+
+'I beg your pardon, sir, Mr Edward?'
+
+'Were there more than one, dolt, that you ask the question?--If 
+that gentleman should send here for his wardrobe, let him have it, 
+do you hear?  If he should call himself at any time, I'm not at 
+home.  You'll tell him so, and shut the door.'
+
+
+So, it soon got whispered about, that Mr Chester was very 
+unfortunate in his son, who had occasioned him great grief and 
+sorrow.  And the good people who heard this and told it again, 
+marvelled the more at his equanimity and even temper, and said what 
+an amiable nature that man must have, who, having undergone so 
+much, could be so placid and so calm.  And when Edward's name was 
+spoken, Society shook its head, and laid its finger on its lip, and 
+sighed, and looked very grave; and those who had sons about his 
+age, waxed wrathful and indignant, and hoped, for Virtue's sake, 
+that he was dead.  And the world went on turning round, as usual, 
+for five years, concerning which this Narrative is silent.
+
+
+
+Chapter 33
+
+
+One wintry evening, early in the year of our Lord one thousand 
+seven hundred and eighty, a keen north wind arose as it grew dark, 
+and night came on with black and dismal looks.  A bitter storm of 
+sleet, sharp, dense, and icy-cold, swept the wet streets, and 
+rattled on the trembling windows.  Signboards, shaken past 
+endurance in their creaking frames, fell crashing on the pavement; 
+old tottering chimneys reeled and staggered in the blast; and many 
+a steeple rocked again that night, as though the earth were 
+troubled.
+
+It was not a time for those who could by any means get light and 
+warmth, to brave the fury of the weather.  In coffee-houses of the 
+better sort, guests crowded round the fire, forgot to be political, 
+and told each other with a secret gladness that the blast grew 
+fiercer every minute.  Each humble tavern by the water-side, had 
+its group of uncouth figures round the hearth, who talked of 
+vessels foundering at sea, and all hands lost; related many a 
+dismal tale of shipwreck and drowned men, and hoped that some they 
+knew were safe, and shook their heads in doubt.  In private 
+dwellings, children clustered near the blaze; listening with timid 
+pleasure to tales of ghosts and goblins, and tall figures clad in 
+white standing by bed-sides, and people who had gone to sleep in 
+old churches and being overlooked had found themselves alone there 
+at the dead hour of the night: until they shuddered at the thought 
+of the dark rooms upstairs, yet loved to hear the wind moan too, 
+and hoped it would continue bravely.  From time to time these happy 
+indoor people stopped to listen, or one held up his finger and 
+cried 'Hark!' and then, above the rumbling in the chimney, and the 
+fast pattering on the glass, was heard a wailing, rushing sound, 
+which shook the walls as though a giant's hand were on them; then a 
+hoarse roar as if the sea had risen; then such a whirl and tumult 
+that the air seemed mad; and then, with a lengthened howl, the 
+waves of wind swept on, and left a moment's interval of rest.
+
+Cheerily, though there were none abroad to see it, shone the 
+Maypole light that evening.  Blessings on the red--deep, ruby, 
+glowing red--old curtain of the window; blending into one rich 
+stream of brightness, fire and candle, meat, drink, and company, 
+and gleaming like a jovial eye upon the bleak waste out of doors!  
+Within, what carpet like its crunching sand, what music merry as 
+its crackling logs, what perfume like its kitchen's dainty breath, 
+what weather genial as its hearty warmth!  Blessings on the old 
+house, how sturdily it stood!  How did the vexed wind chafe and 
+roar about its stalwart roof; how did it pant and strive with its 
+wide chimneys, which still poured forth from their hospitable 
+throats, great clouds of smoke, and puffed defiance in its face; 
+how, above all, did it drive and rattle at the casement, emulous to 
+extinguish that cheerful glow, which would not be put down and 
+seemed the brighter for the conflict!
+
+The profusion too, the rich and lavish bounty, of that goodly 
+tavern!  It was not enough that one fire roared and sparkled on its 
+spacious hearth; in the tiles which paved and compassed it, five 
+hundred flickering fires burnt brightly also.  It was not enough 
+that one red curtain shut the wild night out, and shed its cheerful 
+influence on the room.  In every saucepan lid, and candlestick, and 
+vessel of copper, brass, or tin that hung upon the walls, were 
+countless ruddy hangings, flashing and gleaming with every motion 
+of the blaze, and offering, let the eye wander where it might, 
+interminable vistas of the same rich colour.  The old oak 
+wainscoting, the beams, the chairs, the seats, reflected it in a 
+deep, dull glimmer.  There were fires and red curtains in the very 
+eyes of the drinkers, in their buttons, in their liquor, in the 
+pipes they smoked.
+
+Mr Willet sat in what had been his accustomed place five years 
+before, with his eyes on the eternal boiler; and had sat there 
+since the clock struck eight, giving no other signs of life than 
+breathing with a loud and constant snore (though he was wide 
+awake), and from time to time putting his glass to his lips, or 
+knocking the ashes out of his pipe, and filling it anew.  It was 
+now half-past ten.  Mr Cobb and long Phil Parkes were his 
+companions, as of old, and for two mortal hours and a half, none of 
+the company had pronounced one word.
+
+Whether people, by dint of sitting together in the same place and 
+the same relative positions, and doing exactly the same things for 
+a great many years, acquire a sixth sense, or some unknown power of 
+influencing each other which serves them in its stead, is a 
+question for philosophy to settle.  But certain it is that old 
+John Willet, Mr Parkes, and Mr Cobb, were one and all firmly of 
+opinion that they were very jolly companions--rather choice spirits 
+than otherwise; that they looked at each other every now and then 
+as if there were a perpetual interchange of ideas going on among 
+them; that no man considered himself or his neighbour by any means 
+silent; and that each of them nodded occasionally when he caught 
+the eye of another, as if he would say, 'You have expressed 
+yourself extremely well, sir, in relation to that sentiment, and I 
+quite agree with you.'
+
+The room was so very warm, the tobacco so very good, and the fire 
+so very soothing, that Mr Willet by degrees began to doze; but as 
+he had perfectly acquired, by dint of long habit, the art of 
+smoking in his sleep, and as his breathing was pretty much the 
+same, awake or asleep, saving that in the latter case he sometimes 
+experienced a slight difficulty in respiration (such as a carpenter 
+meets with when he is planing and comes to a knot), neither of his 
+companions was aware of the circumstance, until he met with one of 
+these impediments and was obliged to try again.
+
+'Johnny's dropped off,' said Mr Parkes in a whisper.
+
+'Fast as a top,' said Mr Cobb.
+
+Neither of them said any more until Mr Willet came to another knot--
+one of surpassing obduracy--which bade fair to throw him into 
+convulsions, but which he got over at last without waking, by an 
+effort quite superhuman.
+
+'He sleeps uncommon hard,' said Mr Cobb.
+
+Mr Parkes, who was possibly a hard-sleeper himself, replied with 
+some disdain, 'Not a bit on it;' and directed his eyes towards a 
+handbill pasted over the chimney-piece, which was decorated at the 
+top with a woodcut representing a youth of tender years running 
+away very fast, with a bundle over his shoulder at the end of a 
+stick, and--to carry out the idea--a finger-post and a milestone 
+beside him.  Mr Cobb likewise turned his eyes in the same 
+direction, and surveyed the placard as if that were the first time 
+he had ever beheld it.  Now, this was a document which Mr Willet 
+had himself indited on the disappearance of his son Joseph, 
+acquainting the nobility and gentry and the public in general with 
+the circumstances of his having left his home; describing his dress 
+and appearance; and offering a reward of five pounds to any person 
+or persons who would pack him up and return him safely to the 
+Maypole at Chigwell, or lodge him in any of his Majesty's jails 
+until such time as his father should come and claim him.  In this 
+advertisement Mr Willet had obstinately persisted, despite the 
+advice and entreaties of his friends, in describing his son as a 
+'young boy;' and furthermore as being from eighteen inches to a 
+couple of feet shorter than he really was; two circumstances which 
+perhaps accounted, in some degree, for its never having been 
+productive of any other effect than the transmission to Chigwell 
+at various times and at a vast expense, of some five-and-forty 
+runaways varying from six years old to twelve.
+
+Mr Cobb and Mr Parkes looked mysteriously at this composition, at 
+each other, and at old John.  From the time he had pasted it up 
+with his own hands, Mr Willet had never by word or sign alluded to 
+the subject, or encouraged any one else to do so.  Nobody had the 
+least notion what his thoughts or opinions were, connected with it; 
+whether he remembered it or forgot it; whether he had any idea that 
+such an event had ever taken place.  Therefore, even while he 
+slept, no one ventured to refer to it in his presence; and for such 
+sufficient reasons, these his chosen friends were silent now.
+
+Mr Willet had got by this time into such a complication of knots, 
+that it was perfectly clear he must wake or die.  He chose the 
+former alternative, and opened his eyes.
+
+'If he don't come in five minutes,' said John, 'I shall have supper 
+without him.'
+
+The antecedent of this pronoun had been mentioned for the last time 
+at eight o'clock.  Messrs Parkes and Cobb being used to this style 
+of conversation, replied without difficulty that to be sure Solomon 
+was very late, and they wondered what had happened to detain him.
+
+'He an't blown away, I suppose,' said Parkes.  'It's enough to 
+carry a man of his figure off his legs, and easy too.  Do you hear 
+it?  It blows great guns, indeed.  There'll be many a crash in the 
+Forest to-night, I reckon, and many a broken branch upon the ground 
+to-morrow.'
+
+'It won't break anything in the Maypole, I take it, sir,' returned 
+old John.  'Let it try.  I give it leave--what's that?'
+
+'The wind,' cried Parkes.  'It's howling like a Christian, and has 
+been all night long.'
+
+'Did you ever, sir,' asked John, after a minute's contemplation, 
+'hear the wind say "Maypole"?'
+
+'Why, what man ever did?' said Parkes.
+
+'Nor "ahoy," perhaps?' added John.
+
+'No.  Nor that neither.'
+
+'Very good, sir,' said Mr Willet, perfectly unmoved; 'then if that 
+was the wind just now, and you'll wait a little time without 
+speaking, you'll hear it say both words very plain.'
+
+Mr Willet was right.  After listening for a few moments, they could 
+clearly hear, above the roar and tumult out of doors, this shout 
+repeated; and that with a shrillness and energy, which denoted that 
+it came from some person in great distress or terror.  They looked 
+at each other, turned pale, and held their breath.  No man stirred.
+
+It was in this emergency that Mr Willet displayed something of that 
+strength of mind and plenitude of mental resource, which rendered 
+him the admiration of all his friends and neighbours.  After 
+looking at Messrs Parkes and Cobb for some time in silence, he 
+clapped his two hands to his cheeks, and sent forth a roar which 
+made the glasses dance and rafters ring--a long-sustained, 
+discordant bellow, that rolled onward with the wind, and startling 
+every echo, made the night a hundred times more boisterous--a deep, 
+loud, dismal bray, that sounded like a human gong.  Then, with 
+every vein in his head and face swollen with the great exertion, 
+and his countenance suffused with a lively purple, he drew a little 
+nearer to the fire, and turning his back upon it, said with dignity:
+
+'If that's any comfort to anybody, they're welcome to it.  If it 
+an't, I'm sorry for 'em.  If either of you two gentlemen likes to 
+go out and see what's the matter, you can.  I'm not curious, 
+myself.'
+
+While he spoke the cry drew nearer and nearer, footsteps passed the 
+window, the latch of the door was raised, it opened, was violently 
+shut again, and Solomon Daisy, with a lighted lantern in his hand, 
+and the rain streaming from his disordered dress, dashed into the 
+room.
+
+A more complete picture of terror than the little man presented, it 
+would be difficult to imagine.  The perspiration stood in beads 
+upon his face, his knees knocked together, his every limb trembled, 
+the power of articulation was quite gone; and there he stood, 
+panting for breath, gazing on them with such livid ashy looks, that 
+they were infected with his fear, though ignorant of its occasion, 
+and, reflecting his dismayed and horror-stricken visage, stared 
+back again without venturing to question him; until old John 
+Willet, in a fit of temporary insanity, made a dive at his cravat, 
+and, seizing him by that portion of his dress, shook him to and fro 
+until his very teeth appeared to rattle in his head.
+
+'Tell us what's the matter, sir,' said John, 'or I'll kill you.  
+Tell us what's the matter, sir, or in another second I'll have your 
+head under the biler.  How dare you look like that?  Is anybody a-
+following of you?  What do you mean?  Say something, or I'll be the 
+death of you, I will.'
+
+Mr Willet, in his frenzy, was so near keeping his word to the very 
+letter (Solomon Daisy's eyes already beginning to roll in an 
+alarming manner, and certain guttural sounds, as of a choking man, 
+to issue from his throat), that the two bystanders, recovering in 
+some degree, plucked him off his victim by main force, and placed 
+the little clerk of Chigwell in a chair.  Directing a fearful gaze 
+all round the room, he implored them in a faint voice to give him 
+some drink; and above all to lock the house-door and close and bar 
+the shutters of the room, without a moment's loss of time.  The 
+latter request did not tend to reassure his hearers, or to fill 
+them with the most comfortable sensations; they complied with it, 
+however, with the greatest expedition; and having handed him a 
+bumper of brandy-and-water, nearly boiling hot, waited to hear what 
+he might have to tell them.
+
+'Oh, Johnny,' said Solomon, shaking him by the hand.  'Oh, Parkes.  
+Oh, Tommy Cobb.  Why did I leave this house to-night!  On the 
+nineteenth of March--of all nights in the year, on the nineteenth 
+of March!'
+
+They all drew closer to the fire.  Parkes, who was nearest to the 
+door, started and looked over his shoulder.  Mr Willet, with great 
+indignation, inquired what the devil he meant by that--and then 
+said, 'God forgive me,' and glanced over his own shoulder, and came 
+a little nearer.
+
+'When I left here to-night,' said Solomon Daisy, 'I little thought 
+what day of the month it was.  I have never gone alone into the 
+church after dark on this day, for seven-and-twenty years.  I have 
+heard it said that as we keep our birthdays when we are alive, so 
+the ghosts of dead people, who are not easy in their graves, keep 
+the day they died upon.--How the wind roars!'
+
+Nobody spoke.  All eyes were fastened on Solomon.
+
+'I might have known,' he said, 'what night it was, by the foul 
+weather.  There's no such night in the whole year round as this is, 
+always.  I never sleep quietly in my bed on the nineteenth of 
+March.'
+
+'Go on,' said Tom Cobb, in a low voice.  'Nor I neither.'
+
+Solomon Daisy raised his glass to his lips; put it down upon the 
+floor with such a trembling hand that the spoon tinkled in it like 
+a little bell; and continued thus:
+
+'Have I ever said that we are always brought back to this subject 
+in some strange way, when the nineteenth of this month comes round?  
+Do you suppose it was by accident, I forgot to wind up the church-
+clock?  I never forgot it at any other time, though it's such a 
+clumsy thing that it has to be wound up every day.  Why should it 
+escape my memory on this day of all others?
+
+'I made as much haste down there as I could when I went from here, 
+but I had to go home first for the keys; and the wind and rain 
+being dead against me all the way, it was pretty well as much as I 
+could do at times to keep my legs.  I got there at last, opened the 
+church-door, and went in.  I had not met a soul all the way, and 
+you may judge whether it was dull or not.  Neither of you would 
+bear me company.  If you could have known what was to come, you'd 
+have been in the right.
+
+'The wind was so strong, that it was as much as I could do to shut 
+the church-door by putting my whole weight against it; and even as 
+it was, it burst wide open twice, with such strength that any of 
+you would have sworn, if you had been leaning against it, as I was, 
+that somebody was pushing on the other side.  However, I got the 
+key turned, went into the belfry, and wound up the clock--which was 
+very near run down, and would have stood stock-still in half an 
+hour.
+
+'As I took up my lantern again to leave the church, it came upon me 
+all at once that this was the nineteenth of March.  It came upon me 
+with a kind of shock, as if a hand had struck the thought upon my 
+forehead; at the very same moment, I heard a voice outside the 
+tower--rising from among the graves.'
+
+Here old John precipitately interrupted the speaker, and begged 
+that if Mr Parkes (who was seated opposite to him and was staring 
+directly over his head) saw anything, he would have the goodness 
+to mention it.  Mr Parkes apologised, and remarked that he was only 
+listening; to which Mr Willet angrily retorted, that his listening 
+with that kind of expression in his face was not agreeable, and 
+that if he couldn't look like other people, he had better put his 
+pocket-handkerchief over his head.  Mr Parkes with great submission 
+pledged himself to do so, if again required, and John Willet 
+turning to Solomon desired him to proceed.  After waiting until a 
+violent gust of wind and rain, which seemed to shake even that 
+sturdy house to its foundation, had passed away, the little man 
+complied:
+
+'Never tell me that it was my fancy, or that it was any other sound 
+which I mistook for that I tell you of.  I heard the wind whistle 
+through the arches of the church.  I heard the steeple strain and 
+creak.  I heard the rain as it came driving against the walls.  I 
+felt the bells shake.  I saw the ropes sway to and fro.  And I 
+heard that voice.'
+
+'What did it say?' asked Tom Cobb.
+
+'I don't know what; I don't know that it spoke.  It gave a kind of 
+cry, as any one of us might do, if something dreadful followed us 
+in a dream, and came upon us unawares; and then it died off: 
+seeming to pass quite round the church.'
+
+'I don't see much in that,' said John, drawing a long breath, and 
+looking round him like a man who felt relieved.
+
+'Perhaps not,' returned his friend, 'but that's not all.'
+
+'What more do you mean to say, sir, is to come?' asked John, 
+pausing in the act of wiping his face upon his apron.  'What are 
+you a-going to tell us of next?'
+
+'What I saw.'
+
+'Saw!' echoed all three, bending forward.
+
+'When I opened the church-door to come out,' said the little man, 
+with an expression of face which bore ample testimony to the 
+sincerity of his conviction, 'when I opened the church-door to come 
+out, which I did suddenly, for I wanted to get it shut again before 
+another gust of wind came up, there crossed me--so close, that by 
+stretching out my finger I could have touched it--something in the 
+likeness of a man.  It was bare-headed to the storm.  It turned its 
+face without stopping, and fixed its eyes on mine.  It was a ghost--
+a spirit.'
+
+'Whose?' they all three cried together.
+
+In the excess of his emotion (for he fell back trembling in his 
+chair, and waved his hand as if entreating them to question him no 
+further), his answer was lost on all but old John Willet, who 
+happened to be seated close beside him.
+
+'Who!' cried Parkes and Tom Cobb, looking eagerly by turns at 
+Solomon Daisy and at Mr Willet.  'Who was it?'
+
+'Gentlemen,' said Mr Willet after a long pause, 'you needn't ask.  
+The likeness of a murdered man.  This is the nineteenth of March.'
+
+A profound silence ensued.
+
+'If you'll take my advice,' said John, 'we had better, one and all, 
+keep this a secret.  Such tales would not be liked at the Warren.  
+Let us keep it to ourselves for the present time at all events, or 
+we may get into trouble, and Solomon may lose his place.  Whether 
+it was really as he says, or whether it wasn't, is no matter.  
+Right or wrong, nobody would believe him.  As to the probabilities, 
+I don't myself think,' said Mr Willet, eyeing the corners of the 
+room in a manner which showed that, like some other philosophers, 
+he was not quite easy in his theory, 'that a ghost as had been a 
+man of sense in his lifetime, would be out a-walking in such 
+weather--I only know that I wouldn't, if I was one.'
+
+But this heretical doctrine was strongly opposed by the other 
+three, who quoted a great many precedents to show that bad weather 
+was the very time for such appearances; and Mr Parkes (who had had 
+a ghost in his family, by the mother's side) argued the matter with 
+so much ingenuity and force of illustration, that John was only 
+saved from having to retract his opinion by the opportune 
+appearance of supper, to which they applied themselves with a 
+dreadful relish.  Even Solomon Daisy himself, by dint of the 
+elevating influences of fire, lights, brandy, and good company, so 
+far recovered as to handle his knife and fork in a highly 
+creditable manner, and to display a capacity both of eating and 
+drinking, such as banished all fear of his having sustained any 
+lasting injury from his fright.
+
+Supper done, they crowded round the fire again, and, as is common 
+on such occasions, propounded all manner of leading questions 
+calculated to surround the story with new horrors and surprises.  
+But Solomon Daisy, notwithstanding these temptations, adhered so 
+steadily to his original account, and repeated it so often, with 
+such slight variations, and with such solemn asseverations of its 
+truth and reality, that his hearers were (with good reason) more 
+astonished than at first.  As he took John Willet's view of the 
+matter in regard to the propriety of not bruiting the tale abroad, 
+unless the spirit should appear to him again, in which case it 
+would be necessary to take immediate counsel with the clergyman, it 
+was solemnly resolved that it should be hushed up and kept quiet.  
+And as most men like to have a secret to tell which may exalt their 
+own importance, they arrived at this conclusion with perfect 
+unanimity.
+
+As it was by this time growing late, and was long past their usual 
+hour of separating, the cronies parted for the night.  Solomon 
+Daisy, with a fresh candle in his lantern, repaired homewards under 
+the escort of long Phil Parkes and Mr Cobb, who were rather more 
+nervous than himself.  Mr Willet, after seeing them to the door, 
+returned to collect his thoughts with the assistance of the boiler, 
+and to listen to the storm of wind and rain, which had not yet 
+abated one jot of its fury.
+
+
+
+Chapter 34
+
+
+Before old John had looked at the boiler quite twenty minutes, he 
+got his ideas into a focus, and brought them to bear upon Solomon 
+Daisy's story.  The more he thought of it, the more impressed he 
+became with a sense of his own wisdom, and a desire that Mr 
+Haredale should be impressed with it likewise.  At length, to the 
+end that he might sustain a principal and important character in 
+the affair; and might have the start of Solomon and his two 
+friends, through whose means he knew the adventure, with a variety 
+of exaggerations, would be known to at least a score of people, and 
+most likely to Mr Haredale himself, by breakfast-time to-morrow; he 
+determined to repair to the Warren before going to bed.
+
+'He's my landlord,' thought John, as he took a candle in his hand, 
+and setting it down in a corner out of the wind's way, opened a 
+casement in the rear of the house, looking towards the stables.  
+'We haven't met of late years so often as we used to do--changes 
+are taking place in the family--it's desirable that I should stand 
+as well with them, in point of dignity, as possible--the whispering 
+about of this here tale will anger him--it's good to have 
+confidences with a gentleman of his natur', and set one's-self 
+right besides.  Halloa there!  Hugh--Hugh.  Hal-loa!'
+
+When he had repeated this shout a dozen times, and startled every 
+pigeon from its slumbers, a door in one of the ruinous old 
+buildings opened, and a rough voice demanded what was amiss now, 
+that a man couldn't even have his sleep in quiet.
+
+'What!  Haven't you sleep enough, growler, that you're not to be 
+knocked up for once?' said John.
+
+'No,' replied the voice, as the speaker yawned and shook himself.  
+'Not half enough.'
+
+'I don't know how you CAN sleep, with the wind a bellowsing and 
+roaring about you, making the tiles fly like a pack of cards,' said 
+John; 'but no matter for that.  Wrap yourself up in something or 
+another, and come here, for you must go as far as the Warren with 
+me.  And look sharp about it.'
+
+Hugh, with much low growling and muttering, went back into his 
+lair; and presently reappeared, carrying a lantern and a cudgel, 
+and enveloped from head to foot in an old, frowzy, slouching horse-
+cloth.  Mr Willet received this figure at the back-door, and 
+ushered him into the bar, while he wrapped himself in sundry 
+greatcoats and capes, and so tied and knotted his face in shawls 
+and handkerchiefs, that how he breathed was a mystery.
+
+'You don't take a man out of doors at near midnight in such weather, 
+without putting some heart into him, do you, master?' said Hugh.
+
+'Yes I do, sir,' returned Mr Willet.  'I put the heart (as you call 
+it) into him when he has brought me safe home again, and his 
+standing steady on his legs an't of so much consequence.  So hold 
+that light up, if you please, and go on a step or two before, to 
+show the way.'
+
+Hugh obeyed with a very indifferent grace, and a longing glance at 
+the bottles.  Old John, laying strict injunctions on his cook to 
+keep the doors locked in his absence, and to open to nobody but 
+himself on pain of dismissal, followed him into the blustering 
+darkness out of doors.
+
+The way was wet and dismal, and the night so black, that if Mr 
+Willet had been his own pilot, he would have walked into a deep 
+horsepond within a few hundred yards of his own house, and would 
+certainly have terminated his career in that ignoble sphere of 
+action.  But Hugh, who had a sight as keen as any hawk's, and, 
+apart from that endowment, could have found his way blindfold to 
+any place within a dozen miles, dragged old John along, quite deaf 
+to his remonstrances, and took his own course without the slightest 
+reference to, or notice of, his master.  So they made head against 
+the wind as they best could; Hugh crushing the wet grass beneath 
+his heavy tread, and stalking on after his ordinary savage 
+fashion; John Willet following at arm's length, picking his 
+steps, and looking about him, now for bogs and ditches, and now 
+for such stray ghosts as might be wandering abroad, with looks of 
+as much dismay and uneasiness as his immovable face was capable of 
+expressing.
+
+At length they stood upon the broad gravel-walk before the Warren-
+house.  The building was profoundly dark, and none were moving near 
+it save themselves.  From one solitary turret-chamber, however, 
+there shone a ray of light; and towards this speck of comfort in 
+the cold, cheerless, silent scene, Mr Willet bade his pilot lead 
+him.
+
+'The old room,' said John, looking timidly upward; 'Mr Reuben's own 
+apartment, God be with us!  I wonder his brother likes to sit 
+there, so late at night--on this night too.'
+
+'Why, where else should he sit?' asked Hugh, holding the lantern to 
+his breast, to keep the candle from the wind, while he trimmed it 
+with his fingers.  'It's snug enough, an't it?'
+
+'Snug!' said John indignantly.  'You have a comfortable idea of 
+snugness, you have, sir.  Do you know what was done in that room, 
+you ruffian?'
+
+'Why, what is it the worse for that!' cried Hugh, looking into 
+John's fat face.  'Does it keep out the rain, and snow, and wind, 
+the less for that?  Is it less warm or dry, because a man was 
+killed there?  Ha, ha, ha!  Never believe it, master.  One man's no 
+such matter as that comes to.'
+
+Mr Willet fixed his dull eyes on his follower, and began--by a 
+species of inspiration--to think it just barely possible that he 
+was something of a dangerous character, and that it might be 
+advisable to get rid of him one of these days.  He was too prudent 
+to say anything, with the journey home before him; and therefore 
+turned to the iron gate before which this brief dialogue had 
+passed, and pulled the handle of the bell that hung beside it.  The 
+turret in which the light appeared being at one corner of the 
+building, and only divided from the path by one of the garden-
+walks, upon which this gate opened, Mr Haredale threw up the 
+window directly, and demanded who was there.
+
+'Begging pardon, sir,' said John, 'I knew you sat up late, and made 
+bold to come round, having a word to say to you.'
+
+'Willet--is it not?'
+
+'Of the Maypole--at your service, sir.'
+
+Mr Haredale closed the window, and withdrew.  He presently appeared 
+at a door in the bottom of the turret, and coming across the 
+garden-walk, unlocked the gate and let them in.
+
+'You are a late visitor, Willet.  What is the matter?'
+
+'Nothing to speak of, sir,' said John; 'an idle tale, I thought you 
+ought to know of; nothing more.'
+
+'Let your man go forward with the lantern, and give me your hand.  
+The stairs are crooked and narrow.  Gently with your light, friend.  
+You swing it like a censer.'
+
+Hugh, who had already reached the turret, held it more steadily, 
+and ascended first, turning round from time to time to shed his 
+light downward on the steps.  Mr Haredale following next, eyed his 
+lowering face with no great favour; and Hugh, looking down on him, 
+returned his glances with interest, as they climbed the winding 
+stairs.
+
+It terminated in a little ante-room adjoining that from which they 
+had seen the light.  Mr Haredale entered first, and led the way 
+through it into the latter chamber, where he seated himself at a 
+writing-table from which he had risen when they had rung the bell.
+
+'Come in,' he said, beckoning to old John, who remained bowing at 
+the door.  'Not you, friend,' he added hastily to Hugh, who entered 
+also.  'Willet, why do you bring that fellow here?'
+
+'Why, sir,' returned John, elevating his eyebrows, and lowering his 
+voice to the tone in which the question had been asked him, 'he's a 
+good guard, you see.'
+
+'Don't be too sure of that,' said Mr Haredale, looking towards him 
+as he spoke.  'I doubt it.  He has an evil eye.'
+
+'There's no imagination in his eye,' returned Mr Willet, glancing 
+over his shoulder at the organ in question, 'certainly.'
+
+'There is no good there, be assured,' said Mr Haredale.  'Wait in 
+that little room, friend, and close the door between us.'
+
+Hugh shrugged his shoulders, and with a disdainful look, which 
+showed, either that he had overheard, or that he guessed the 
+purport of their whispering, did as he was told.  When he was shut 
+out, Mr Haredale turned to John, and bade him go on with what he 
+had to say, but not to speak too loud, for there were quick ears 
+yonder.
+
+Thus cautioned, Mr Willet, in an oily whisper, recited all that he 
+had heard and said that night; laying particular stress upon his 
+own sagacity, upon his great regard for the family, and upon his 
+solicitude for their peace of mind and happiness.  The story moved 
+his auditor much more than he had expected.  Mr Haredale often 
+changed his attitude, rose and paced the room, returned again, 
+desired him to repeat, as nearly as he could, the very words that 
+Solomon had used, and gave so many other signs of being disturbed 
+and ill at ease, that even Mr Willet was surprised.
+
+'You did quite right,' he said, at the end of a long conversation, 
+'to bid them keep this story secret.  It is a foolish fancy on the 
+part of this weak-brained man, bred in his fears and superstition.  
+But Miss Haredale, though she would know it to be so, would be 
+disturbed by it if it reached her ears; it is too nearly connected 
+with a subject very painful to us all, to be heard with 
+indifference.  You were most prudent, and have laid me under a 
+great obligation.  I thank you very much.'
+
+This was equal to John's most sanguine expectations; but he would 
+have preferred Mr Haredale's looking at him when he spoke, as if he 
+really did thank him, to his walking up and down, speaking by fits 
+and starts, often stopping with his eyes fixed on the ground, 
+moving hurriedly on again, like one distracted, and seeming almost 
+unconscious of what he said or did.
+
+This, however, was his manner; and it was so embarrassing to John 
+that he sat quite passive for a long time, not knowing what to 
+do.  At length he rose.  Mr Haredale stared at him for a moment as 
+though he had quite forgotten his being present, then shook hands 
+with him, and opened the door.  Hugh, who was, or feigned to be, 
+fast asleep on the ante-chamber floor, sprang up on their entrance, 
+and throwing his cloak about him, grasped his stick and lantern, 
+and prepared to descend the stairs.
+
+'Stay,' said Mr Haredale.  'Will this man drink?'
+
+'Drink!  He'd drink the Thames up, if it was strong enough, sir, 
+replied John Willet.  'He'll have something when he gets home.  
+He's better without it, now, sir.'
+
+'Nay.  Half the distance is done,' said Hugh.  'What a hard master 
+you are!  I shall go home the better for one glassful, halfway.  
+Come!'
+
+As John made no reply, Mr Haredale brought out a glass of liquor, 
+and gave it to Hugh, who, as he took it in his hand, threw part of 
+it upon the floor.
+
+'What do you mean by splashing your drink about a gentleman's 
+house, sir?' said John.
+
+'I'm drinking a toast,' Hugh rejoined, holding the glass above his 
+head, and fixing his eyes on Mr Haredale's face; 'a toast to this 
+house and its master.'  With that he muttered something to himself, 
+and drank the rest, and setting down the glass, preceded them 
+without another word.
+
+John was a good deal scandalised by this observance, but seeing 
+that Mr Haredale took little heed of what Hugh said or did, and 
+that his thoughts were otherwise employed, he offered no apology, 
+and went in silence down the stairs, across the walk, and through 
+the garden-gate.  They stopped upon the outer side for Hugh to hold 
+the light while Mr Haredale locked it on the inner; and then John 
+saw with wonder (as he often afterwards related), that he was very 
+pale, and that his face had changed so much and grown so haggard 
+since their entrance, that he almost seemed another man.
+
+They were in the open road again, and John Willet was walking on 
+behind his escort, as he had come, thinking very steadily of what 
+be had just now seen, when Hugh drew him suddenly aside, and almost 
+at the same instant three horsemen swept past--the nearest brushed 
+his shoulder even then--who, checking their steeds as suddenly as 
+they could, stood still, and waited for their coming up.
+
+
+
+Chapter 35
+
+
+When John Willet saw that the horsemen wheeled smartly round, and 
+drew up three abreast in the narrow road, waiting for him and his 
+man to join them, it occurred to him with unusual precipitation 
+that they must be highwaymen; and had Hugh been armed with a 
+blunderbuss, in place of his stout cudgel, he would certainly have 
+ordered him to fire it off at a venture, and would, while the word 
+of command was obeyed, have consulted his own personal safety in 
+immediate flight.  Under the circumstances of disadvantage, 
+however, in which he and his guard were placed, he deemed it 
+prudent to adopt a different style of generalship, and therefore 
+whispered his attendant to address them in the most peaceable and 
+courteous terms.  By way of acting up to the spirit and letter of 
+this instruction, Hugh stepped forward, and flourishing his staff 
+before the very eyes of the rider nearest to him, demanded roughly 
+what he and his fellows meant by so nearly galloping over them, and 
+why they scoured the king's highway at that late hour of night.
+
+The man whom be addressed was beginning an angry reply in the same 
+strain, when be was checked by the horseman in the centre, who, 
+interposing with an air of authority, inquired in a somewhat loud 
+but not harsh or unpleasant voice:
+
+'Pray, is this the London road?'
+
+'If you follow it right, it is,' replied Hugh roughly.
+
+'Nay, brother,' said the same person, 'you're but a churlish 
+Englishman, if Englishman you be--which I should much doubt but for 
+your tongue.  Your companion, I am sure, will answer me more 
+civilly.  How say you, friend?'
+
+'I say it IS the London road, sir,' answered John.  'And I wish,' 
+he added in a subdued voice, as he turned to Hugh, 'that you was in 
+any other road, you vagabond.  Are you tired of your life, sir, 
+that you go a-trying to provoke three great neck-or-nothing chaps, 
+that could keep on running over us, back'ards and for'ards, till we 
+was dead, and then take our bodies up behind 'em, and drown us ten 
+miles off?'
+
+'How far is it to London?' inquired the same speaker.
+
+'Why, from here, sir,' answered John, persuasively, 'it's thirteen 
+very easy mile.'
+
+The adjective was thrown in, as an inducement to the travellers to 
+ride away with all speed; but instead of having the desired effect, 
+it elicited from the same person, the remark, 'Thirteen miles!  
+That's a long distance!' which was followed by a short pause of 
+indecision.
+
+'Pray,' said the gentleman, 'are there any inns hereabouts?'  At 
+the word 'inns,' John plucked up his spirit in a surprising manner; 
+his fears rolled off like smoke; all the landlord stirred within 
+him.
+
+'There are no inns,' rejoined Mr Willet, with a strong emphasis on 
+the plural number; 'but there's a Inn--one Inn--the Maypole Inn.  
+That's a Inn indeed.  You won't see the like of that Inn often.'
+
+'You keep it, perhaps?' said the horseman, smiling.
+
+'I do, sir,' replied John, greatly wondering how he had found this 
+out.
+
+'And how far is the Maypole from here?'
+
+'About a mile'--John was going to add that it was the easiest mile 
+in all the world, when the third rider, who had hitherto kept a 
+little in the rear, suddenly interposed:
+
+'And have you one excellent bed, landlord?  Hem!  A bed that you 
+can recommend--a bed that you are sure is well aired--a bed that 
+has been slept in by some perfectly respectable and unexceptionable 
+person?'
+
+'We don't take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house, sir,' 
+answered John.  'And as to the bed itself--'
+
+'Say, as to three beds,' interposed the gentleman who had spoken 
+before; 'for we shall want three if we stay, though my friend only 
+speaks of one.'
+
+'No, no, my lord; you are too good, you are too kind; but your life 
+is of far too much importance to the nation in these portentous 
+times, to be placed upon a level with one so useless and so poor as 
+mine.  A great cause, my lord, a mighty cause, depends on you.  You 
+are its leader and its champion, its advanced guard and its van.  
+It is the cause of our altars and our homes, our country and our 
+faith.  Let ME sleep on a chair--the carpet--anywhere.  No one will 
+repine if I take cold or fever.  Let John Grueby pass the night 
+beneath the open sky--no one will repine for HIM.  But forty 
+thousand men of this our island in the wave (exclusive of women and 
+children) rivet their eyes and thoughts on Lord George Gordon; and 
+every day, from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the 
+same, pray for his health and vigour.  My lord,' said the speaker, 
+rising in his stirrups, 'it is a glorious cause, and must not be 
+forgotten.  My lord, it is a mighty cause, and must not be 
+endangered.  My lord, it is a holy cause, and must not be 
+deserted.'
+
+'It IS a holy cause,' exclaimed his lordship, lifting up his hat 
+with great solemnity.  'Amen.'
+
+'John Grueby,' said the long-winded gentleman, in a tone of mild 
+reproof, 'his lordship said Amen.'
+
+'I heard my lord, sir,' said the man, sitting like a statue on his 
+horse.
+
+'And do not YOU say Amen, likewise?'
+
+To which John Grueby made no reply at all, but sat looking straight 
+before him.
+
+'You surprise me, Grueby,' said the gentleman.  'At a crisis like 
+the present, when Queen Elizabeth, that maiden monarch, weeps 
+within her tomb, and Bloody Mary, with a brow of gloom and shadow, 
+stalks triumphant--'
+
+'Oh, sir,' cied the man, gruffly, 'where's the use of talking of 
+Bloody Mary, under such circumstances as the present, when my 
+lord's wet through, and tired with hard riding?  Let's either go on 
+to London, sir, or put up at once; or that unfort'nate Bloody Mary 
+will have more to answer for--and she's done a deal more harm in 
+her grave than she ever did in her lifetime, I believe.'
+
+By this time Mr Willet, who had never beard so many words spoken 
+together at one time, or delivered with such volubility and 
+emphasis as by the long-winded gentleman; and whose brain, being 
+wholly unable to sustain or compass them, had quite given itself up 
+for lost; recovered so far as to observe that there was ample 
+accommodation at the Maypole for all the party: good beds; neat 
+wines; excellent entertainment for man and beast; private rooms for 
+large and small parties; dinners dressed upon the shortest notice; 
+choice stabling, and a lock-up coach-house; and, in short, to run 
+over such recommendatory scraps of language as were painted up on 
+various portions of the building, and which in the course of some 
+forty years he had learnt to repeat with tolerable correctness.  He 
+was considering whether it was at all possible to insert any novel 
+sentences to the same purpose, when the gentleman who had spoken 
+first, turning to him of the long wind, exclaimed, 'What say you, 
+Gashford?  Shall we tarry at this house he speaks of, or press 
+forward?  You shall decide.'
+
+'I would submit, my lord, then,' returned the person he appealed 
+to, in a silky tone, 'that your health and spirits--so important, 
+under Providence, to our great cause, our pure and truthful cause'--
+here his lordship pulled off his hat again, though it was raining 
+hard--'require refreshment and repose.'
+
+'Go on before, landlord, and show the way,' said Lord George 
+Gordon; 'we will follow at a footpace.'
+
+'If you'll give me leave, my lord,' said John Grueby, in a low 
+voice, 'I'll change my proper place, and ride before you.  The 
+looks of the landlord's friend are not over honest, and it may be 
+as well to be cautious with him.'
+
+'John Grueby is quite right,' interposed Mr Gashford, falling back 
+hastily.  'My lord, a life so precious as yours must not be put in 
+peril.  Go forward, John, by all means.  If you have any reason to 
+suspect the fellow, blow his brains out.'
+
+John made no answer, but looking straight before him, as his custom 
+seemed to be when the secretary spoke, bade Hugh push on, and 
+followed close behind him.  Then came his lordship, with Mr Willet 
+at his bridle rein; and, last of all, his lordship's secretary--for 
+that, it seemed, was Gashford's office.
+
+Hugh strode briskly on, often looking back at the servant, whose 
+horse was close upon his heels, and glancing with a leer at his 
+bolster case of pistols, by which he seemed to set great store.  He 
+was a square-built, strong-made, bull-necked fellow, of the true 
+English breed; and as Hugh measured him with his eye, he measured 
+Hugh, regarding him meanwhile with a look of bluff disdain.  He was 
+much older than the Maypole man, being to all appearance five-and-
+forty; but was one of those self-possessed, hard-headed, 
+imperturbable fellows, who, if they are ever beaten at fisticuffs, 
+or other kind of warfare, never know it, and go on coolly till they 
+win.
+
+'If I led you wrong now,' said Hugh, tauntingly, 'you'd--ha ha ha!--
+you'd shoot me through the head, I suppose.'
+
+John Grueby took no more notice of this remark than if he had been 
+deaf and Hugh dumb; but kept riding on quite comfortably, with his 
+eyes fixed on the horizon.
+
+'Did you ever try a fall with a man when you were young, master?' 
+said Hugh.  'Can you make any play at single-stick?'
+
+John Grueby looked at him sideways with the same contented air, but 
+deigned not a word in answer.
+
+'--Like this?' said Hugh, giving his cudgel one of those skilful 
+flourishes, in which the rustic of that time delighted.  'Whoop!'
+
+'--Or that,' returned John Grueby, beating down his guard with his 
+whip, and striking him on the head with its butt end.  'Yes, I 
+played a little once.  You wear your hair too long; I should have 
+cracked your crown if it had been a little shorter.'
+
+It was a pretty smart, loud-sounding rap, as it was, and evidently 
+astonished Hugh; who, for the moment, seemed disposed to drag his 
+new acquaintance from his saddle.  But his face betokening neither 
+malice, triumph, rage, nor any lingering idea that he had given him 
+offence; his eyes gazing steadily in the old direction, and his 
+manner being as careless and composed as if he had merely brushed 
+away a fly; Hugh was so puzzled, and so disposed to look upon him 
+as a customer of almost supernatural toughness, that he merely 
+laughed, and cried 'Well done!' then, sheering off a little, led 
+the way in silence.
+
+Before the lapse of many minutes the party halted at the Maypole 
+door.  Lord George and his secretary quickly dismounting, gave 
+their horses to their servant, who, under the guidance of Hugh, 
+repaired to the stables.  Right glad to escape from the inclemency 
+of the night, they followed Mr Willet into the common room, and 
+stood warming themselves and drying their clothes before the 
+cheerful fire, while he busied himself with such orders and 
+preparations as his guest's high quality required.
+
+As he bustled in and out of the room, intent on these 
+arrangements, he had an opportunity of observing the two 
+travellers, of whom, as yet, he knew nothing but the voice.  The 
+lord, the great personage who did the Maypole so much honour, was 
+about the middle height, of a slender make, and sallow complexion, 
+with an aquiline nose, and long hair of a reddish brown, combed 
+perfectly straight and smooth about his ears, and slightly 
+powdered, but without the faintest vestige of a curl.  He was 
+attired, under his greatcoat, in a full suit of black, quite free 
+from any ornament, and of the most precise and sober cut.  The 
+gravity of his dress, together with a certain lankness of cheek 
+and stiffness of deportment, added nearly ten years to his age, 
+but his figure was that of one not yet past thirty.  As he stood 
+musing in the red glow of the fire, it was striking to observe his 
+very bright large eye, which betrayed a restlessness of thought and 
+purpose, singularly at variance with the studied composure and 
+sobriety of his mien, and with his quaint and sad apparel.  It had 
+nothing harsh or cruel in its expression; neither had his face, 
+which was thin and mild, and wore an air of melancholy; but it was 
+suggestive of an indefinable uneasiness; which infected those who 
+looked upon him, and filled them with a kind of pity for the man: 
+though why it did so, they would have had some trouble to explain.
+
+Gashford, the secretary, was taller, angularly made, high-
+shouldered, bony, and ungraceful.  His dress, in imitation of his 
+superior, was demure and staid in the extreme; his manner, formal 
+and constrained.  This gentleman had an overhanging brow, great 
+hands and feet and ears, and a pair of eyes that seemed to have 
+made an unnatural retreat into his head, and to have dug themselves 
+a cave to hide in.  His manner was smooth and humble, but very sly 
+and slinking.  He wore the aspect of a man who was always lying in 
+wait for something that WOULDN'T come to pass; but he looked 
+patient--very patient--and fawned like a spaniel dog.  Even now, 
+while he warmed and rubbed his hands before the blaze, he had the 
+air of one who only presumed to enjoy it in his degree as a 
+commoner; and though he knew his lord was not regarding him, he 
+looked into his face from time to time, and with a meek and 
+deferential manner, smiled as if for practice.
+
+Such were the guests whom old John Willet, with a fixed and leaden 
+eye, surveyed a hundred times, and to whom he now advanced with a 
+state candlestick in each hand, beseeching them to follow him into 
+a worthier chamber.  'For my lord,' said John--it is odd enough, 
+but certain people seem to have as great a pleasure in pronouncing 
+titles as their owners have in wearing them--'this room, my lord, 
+isn't at all the sort of place for your lordship, and I have to 
+beg your lordship's pardon for keeping you here, my lord, one 
+minute.'
+
+With this address, John ushered them upstairs into the state 
+apartment, which, like many other things of state, was cold and 
+comfortless.  Their own footsteps, reverberating through the 
+spacious room, struck upon their hearing with a hollow sound; and 
+its damp and chilly atmosphere was rendered doubly cheerless by 
+contrast with the homely warmth they had deserted.
+
+It was of no use, however, to propose a return to the place they 
+had quitted, for the preparations went on so briskly that there was 
+no time to stop them.  John, with the tall candlesticks in his 
+hands, bowed them up to the fireplace; Hugh, striding in with a 
+lighted brand and pile of firewood, cast it down upon the hearth, 
+and set it in a blaze; John Grueby (who had a great blue cockade in 
+his hat, which he appeared to despise mightily) brought in the 
+portmanteau he had carried on his horse, and placed it on the 
+floor; and presently all three were busily engaged in drawing out 
+the screen, laying the cloth, inspecting the beds, lighting fires 
+in the bedrooms, expediting the supper, and making everything as 
+cosy and as snug as might be, on so short a notice.  In less than 
+an hour's time, supper had been served, and ate, and cleared away; 
+and Lord George and his secretary, with slippered feet, and legs 
+stretched out before the fire, sat over some hot mulled wine 
+together.
+
+'So ends, my lord,' said Gashford, filling his glass with great 
+complacency, 'the blessed work of a most blessed day.'
+
+'And of a blessed yesterday,' said his lordship, raising his head.
+
+'Ah!'--and here the secretary clasped his hands--'a blessed 
+yesterday indeed!  The Protestants of Suffolk are godly men and 
+true.  Though others of our countrymen have lost their way in 
+darkness, even as we, my lord, did lose our road to-night, theirs 
+is the light and glory.'
+
+'Did I move them, Gashford ?' said Lord George.
+
+'Move them, my lord!  Move them!  They cried to be led on against 
+the Papists, they vowed a dreadful vengeance on their heads, they 
+roared like men possessed--'
+
+'But not by devils,' said his lord.
+
+'By devils! my lord!  By angels.'
+
+'Yes--oh surely--by angels, no doubt,' said Lord George, thrusting 
+his hands into his pockets, taking them out again to bite his 
+nails, and looking uncomfortably at the fire.  'Of course by 
+angels--eh Gashford?'
+
+'You do not doubt it, my lord?' said the secretary.
+
+'No--No,' returned his lord.  'No.  Why should I?  I suppose it 
+would be decidedly irreligious to doubt it--wouldn't it, Gashford?  
+Though there certainly were,' he added, without waiting for an 
+answer, 'some plaguy ill-looking characters among them.'
+
+'When you warmed,' said the secretary, looking sharply at the 
+other's downcast eyes, which brightened slowly as he spoke; 'when 
+you warmed into that noble outbreak; when you told them that you 
+were never of the lukewarm or the timid tribe, and bade them take 
+heed that they were prepared to follow one who would lead them on, 
+though to the very death; when you spoke of a hundred and twenty 
+thousand men across the Scottish border who would take their own 
+redress at any time, if it were not conceded; when you cried 
+"Perish the Pope and all his base adherents; the penal laws against 
+them shall never be repealed while Englishmen have hearts and 
+hands"--and waved your own and touched your sword; and when they 
+cried "No Popery!" and you cried "No; not even if we wade in 
+blood," and they threw up their hats and cried "Hurrah! not even if 
+we wade in blood; No Popery!  Lord George!  Down with the Papists--
+Vengeance on their heads:" when this was said and done, and a word 
+from you, my lord, could raise or still the tumult--ah! then I felt 
+what greatness was indeed, and thought, When was there ever power 
+like this of Lord George Gordon's!'
+
+'It's a great power.  You're right.  It is a great power!' he cried 
+with sparkling eyes.  'But--dear Gashford--did I really say all 
+that?'
+
+'And how much more!' cried the secretary, looking upwards.  'Ah! 
+how much more!'
+
+'And I told them what you say, about the one hundred and forty 
+thousand men in Scotland, did I!' he asked with evident delight.  
+'That was bold.'
+
+'Our cause is boldness.  Truth is always bold.'
+
+'Certainly.  So is religion.  She's bold, Gashford?'
+
+'The true religion is, my lord.'
+
+'And that's ours,' he rejoined, moving uneasily in his seat, and 
+biting his nails as though he would pare them to the quick.  'There 
+can be no doubt of ours being the true one.  You feel as certain of 
+that as I do, Gashford, don't you?'
+
+'Does my lord ask ME,' whined Gashford, drawing his chair nearer 
+with an injured air, and laying his broad flat hand upon the table; 
+'ME,' he repeated, bending the dark hollows of his eyes upon him 
+with an unwholesome smile, 'who, stricken by the magic of his 
+eloquence in Scotland but a year ago, abjured the errors of the 
+Romish church, and clung to him as one whose timely hand had 
+plucked me from a pit?'
+
+'True.  No--No.  I--I didn't mean it,' replied the other, shaking 
+him by the hand, rising from his seat, and pacing restlessly about 
+the room.  'It's a proud thing to lead the people, Gashford,' he 
+added as he made a sudden halt.
+
+'By force of reason too,' returned the pliant secretary.
+
+'Ay, to be sure.  They may cough and jeer, and groan in Parliament, 
+and call me fool and madman, but which of them can raise this human 
+sea and make it swell and roar at pleasure?  Not one.'
+
+'Not one,' repeated Gashford.
+
+'Which of them can say for his honesty, what I can say for mine; 
+which of them has refused a minister's bribe of one thousand 
+pounds a year, to resign his seat in favour of another?  Not one.'
+
+'Not one,' repeated Gashford again--taking the lion's share of the 
+mulled wine between whiles.
+
+'And as we are honest, true, and in a sacred cause, Gashford,' said 
+Lord George with a heightened colour and in a louder voice, as he 
+laid his fevered hand upon his shoulder, 'and are the only men who 
+regard the mass of people out of doors, or are regarded by them, we 
+will uphold them to the last; and will raise a cry against these 
+un-English Papists which shall re-echo through the country, and 
+roll with a noise like thunder.  I will be worthy of the motto on 
+my coat of arms, "Called and chosen and faithful."
+
+'Called,' said the secretary, 'by Heaven.'
+
+'I am.'
+
+'Chosen by the people.'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Faithful to both.'
+
+'To the block!'
+
+It would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the excited 
+manner in which he gave these answers to the secretary's 
+promptings; of the rapidity of his utterance, or the violence of 
+his tone and gesture; in which, struggling through his Puritan's 
+demeanour, was something wild and ungovernable which broke through 
+all restraint.  For some minutes he walked rapidly up and down the 
+room, then stopping suddenly, exclaimed,
+
+'Gashford--YOU moved them yesterday too.  Oh yes!  You did.'
+
+'I shone with a reflected light, my lord,' replied the humble 
+secretary, laying his hand upon his heart.  'I did my best.'
+
+'You did well,' said his master, 'and are a great and worthy 
+instrument.  If you will ring for John Grueby to carry the 
+portmanteau into my room, and will wait here while I undress, we 
+will dispose of business as usual, if you're not too tired.'
+
+'Too tired, my lord!--But this is his consideration!  Christian 
+from head to foot.'  With which soliloquy, the secretary tilted the 
+jug, and looked very hard into the mulled wine, to see how much 
+remained.
+
+John Willet and John Grueby appeared together.  The one bearing the 
+great candlesticks, and the other the portmanteau, showed the 
+deluded lord into his chamber; and left the secretary alone, to 
+yawn and shake himself, and finally to fall asleep before the fire.
+
+'Now, Mr Gashford sir,' said John Grueby in his ear, after what 
+appeared to him a moment of unconsciousness; 'my lord's abed.'
+
+'Oh.  Very good, John,' was his mild reply.  'Thank you, John.  
+Nobody need sit up.  I know my room.'
+
+'I hope you're not a-going to trouble your head to-night, or my 
+lord's head neither, with anything more about Bloody Mary,' said 
+John.  'I wish the blessed old creetur had never been born.'
+
+'I said you might go to bed, John,' returned the secretary.  'You 
+didn't hear me, I think.'
+
+'Between Bloody Marys, and blue cockades, and glorious Queen 
+Besses, and no Poperys, and Protestant associations, and making of 
+speeches,' pursued John Grueby, looking, as usual, a long way off, 
+and taking no notice of this hint, 'my lord's half off his head.  
+When we go out o' doors, such a set of ragamuffins comes a-
+shouting after us, "Gordon forever!" that I'm ashamed of myself 
+and don't know where to look.  When we're indoors, they come a-
+roaring and screaming about the house like so many devils; and my 
+lord instead of ordering them to be drove away, goes out into the 
+balcony and demeans himself by making speeches to 'em, and calls 
+'em "Men of England," and "Fellow-countrymen," as if he was fond of 
+'em and thanked 'em for coming.  I can't make it out, but they're 
+all mixed up somehow or another with that unfort'nate Bloody Mary, 
+and call her name out till they're hoarse.  They're all Protestants 
+too--every man and boy among 'em: and Protestants are very fond of 
+spoons, I find, and silver-plate in general, whenever area-gates is 
+left open accidentally.  I wish that was the worst of it, and that 
+no more harm might be to come; but if you don't stop these ugly 
+customers in time, Mr Gashford (and I know you; you're the man that 
+blows the fire), you'll find 'em grow a little bit too strong for 
+you.  One of these evenings, when the weather gets warmer and 
+Protestants are thirsty, they'll be pulling London down,--and I 
+never heard that Bloody Mary went as far as THAT.'
+
+Gashford had vanished long ago, and these remarks had been bestowed 
+on empty air.  Not at all discomposed by the discovery, John Grueby 
+fixed his hat on, wrongside foremost that he might be unconscious 
+of the shadow of the obnoxious cockade, and withdrew to bed; 
+shaking his head in a very gloomy and prophetic manner until he 
+reached his chamber.
+
+
+
+Chapter 36
+
+
+Gashford, with a smiling face, but still with looks of profound 
+deference and humility, betook himself towards his master's room, 
+smoothing his hair down as he went, and humming a psalm tune.  As 
+he approached Lord George's door, he cleared his throat and hummed 
+more vigorously.
+
+There was a remarkable contrast between this man's occupation at 
+the moment, and the expression of his countenance, which was 
+singularly repulsive and malicious.  His beetling brow almost 
+obscured his eyes; his lip was curled contemptuously; his very 
+shoulders seemed to sneer in stealthy whisperings with his great 
+flapped ears.
+
+'Hush!' he muttered softly, as he peeped in at the chamber-door.  
+'He seems to be asleep.  Pray Heaven he is!  Too much watching, too 
+much care, too much thought--ah! Lord preserve him for a martyr!  
+He is a saint, if ever saint drew breath on this bad earth.'
+
+Placing his light upon a table, he walked on tiptoe to the fire, 
+and sitting in a chair before it with his back towards the bed, 
+went on communing with himself like one who thought aloud:
+
+'The saviour of his country and his country's religion, the friend 
+of his poor countrymen, the enemy of the proud and harsh; beloved 
+of the rejected and oppressed, adored by forty thousand bold and 
+loyal English hearts--what happy slumbers his should be!'  And here 
+he sighed, and warmed his hands, and shook his head as men do when 
+their hearts are full, and heaved another sigh, and warmed his 
+hands again.
+
+'Why, Gashford?' said Lord George, who was lying broad awake, upon 
+his side, and had been staring at him from his entrance.
+
+'My--my lord,' said Gashford, starting and looking round as though 
+in great surprise.  'I have disturbed you!'
+
+'I have not been sleeping.'
+
+'Not sleeping!' he repeated, with assumed confusion.  'What can I 
+say for having in your presence given utterance to thoughts--but 
+they were sincere--they were sincere!' exclaimed the secretary, 
+drawing his sleeve in a hasty way across his eyes; 'and why should 
+I regret your having heard them?'
+
+'Gashford,' said the poor lord, stretching out his hand with 
+manifest emotion.  'Do not regret it.  You love me well, I know--
+too well.  I don't deserve such homage.'
+
+Gashford made no reply, but grasped the hand and pressed it to his 
+lips.  Then rising, and taking from the trunk a little desk, he 
+placed it on a table near the fire, unlocked it with a key he 
+carried in his pocket, sat down before it, took out a pen, and, 
+before dipping it in the inkstand, sucked it--to compose the 
+fashion of his mouth perhaps, on which a smile was hovering yet.
+
+'How do our numbers stand since last enrolling-night?' inquired 
+Lord George.  'Are we really forty thousand strong, or do we still 
+speak in round numbers when we take the Association at that amount?'
+
+'Our total now exceeds that number by a score and three,' Gashford 
+replied, casting his eyes upon his papers.
+
+'The funds?'
+
+'Not VERY improving; but there is some manna in the wilderness, my 
+lord.  Hem!  On Friday night the widows' mites dropped in.  "Forty 
+scavengers, three and fourpence.  An aged pew-opener of St Martin's 
+parish, sixpence.  A bell-ringer of the established church, 
+sixpence.  A Protestant infant, newly born, one halfpenny.  The 
+United Link Boys, three shillings--one bad.  The anti-popish 
+prisoners in Newgate, five and fourpence.  A friend in Bedlam, 
+half-a-crown.  Dennis the hangman, one shilling."'
+
+'That Dennis,' said his lordship, 'is an earnest man.  I marked him 
+in the crowd in Welbeck Street, last Friday.'
+
+'A good man,' rejoined the secretary, 'a staunch, sincere, and 
+truly zealous man.'
+
+'He should be encouraged,' said Lord George.  'Make a note of 
+Dennis.  I'll talk with him.'
+
+Gashford obeyed, and went on reading from his list:
+
+'"The Friends of Reason, half-a-guinea.  The Friends of Liberty, 
+half-a-guinea.  The Friends of Peace, half-a-guinea.  The Friends 
+of Charity, half-a-guinea.  The Friends of Mercy, half-a-guinea.  
+The Associated Rememberers of Bloody Mary, half-a-guinea.  The 
+United Bulldogs, half-a-guinea."'
+
+'The United Bulldogs,' said Lord George, biting his nails most 
+horribly, 'are a new society, are they not?'
+
+'Formerly the 'Prentice Knights, my lord.  The indentures of the 
+old members expiring by degrees, they changed their name, it seems, 
+though they still have 'prentices among them, as well as workmen.'
+
+'What is their president's name?' inquired Lord George.
+
+'President,' said Gashford, reading, 'Mr Simon Tappertit.'
+
+'I remember him.  The little man, who sometimes brings an elderly 
+sister to our meetings, and sometimes another female too, who is 
+conscientious, I have no doubt, but not well-favoured?'
+
+'The very same, my lord.'
+
+'Tappertit is an earnest man,' said Lord George, thoughtfully.  
+'Eh, Gashford?'
+
+'One of the foremost among them all, my lord.  He snuffs the battle 
+from afar, like the war-horse.  He throws his hat up in the street 
+as if he were inspired, and makes most stirring speeches from the 
+shoulders of his friends.'
+
+'Make a note of Tappertit,' said Lord George Gordon.  'We may 
+advance him to a place of trust.'
+
+'That,' rejoined the secretary, doing as he was told, 'is all--
+except Mrs Varden's box (fourteenth time of opening), seven 
+shillings and sixpence in silver and copper, and half-a-guinea in 
+gold; and Miggs (being the saving of a quarter's wages), one-and-
+threepence.'
+
+'Miggs,' said Lord George.  'Is that a man?'
+
+'The name is entered on the list as a woman,' replied the 
+secretary.  'I think she is the tall spare female of whom you spoke 
+just now, my lord, as not being well-favoured, who sometimes comes 
+to hear the speeches--along with Tappertit and Mrs Varden.'
+
+'Mrs Varden is the elderly lady then, is she?'
+
+The secretary nodded, and rubbed the bridge of his nose with the 
+feather of his pen.
+
+'She is a zealous sister,' said Lord George.  'Her collection goes 
+on prosperously, and is pursued with fervour.  Has her husband 
+joined?'
+
+'A malignant,' returned the secretary, folding up his papers.  
+'Unworthy such a wife.  He remains in outer darkness and steadily 
+refuses.'
+
+'The consequences be upon his own head!--Gashford!'
+
+'My lord!'
+
+'You don't think,' he turned restlessly in his bed as he spoke, 
+'these people will desert me, when the hour arrives?  I have spoken 
+boldly for them, ventured much, suppressed nothing.  They'll not 
+fall off, will they?'
+
+'No fear of that, my lord,' said Gashford, with a meaning look, 
+which was rather the involuntary expression of his own thoughts 
+than intended as any confirmation of his words, for the other's 
+face was turned away.  'Be sure there is no fear of that.'
+
+'Nor,' he said with a more restless motion than before, 'of their--
+but they CAN sustain no harm from leaguing for this purpose.  Right 
+is on our side, though Might may be against us.  You feel as sure 
+of that as I--honestly, you do?'
+
+The secretary was beginning with 'You do not doubt,' when the other 
+interrupted him, and impatiently rejoined:
+
+'Doubt.  No.  Who says I doubt?  If I doubted, should I cast away 
+relatives, friends, everything, for this unhappy country's sake; 
+this unhappy country,' he cried, springing up in bed, after 
+repeating the phrase 'unhappy country's sake' to himself, at least 
+a dozen times, 'forsaken of God and man, delivered over to a 
+dangerous confederacy of Popish powers; the prey of corruption, 
+idolatry, and despotism!  Who says I doubt?  Am I called, and 
+chosen, and faithful?  Tell me.  Am I, or am I not?'
+
+'To God, the country, and yourself,' cried Gashford.
+
+'I am.  I will be.  I say again, I will be: to the block.  Who says 
+as much!  Do you?  Does any man alive?'
+
+The secretary drooped his head with an expression of perfect 
+acquiescence in anything that had been said or might be; and Lord 
+George gradually sinking down upon his pillow, fell asleep.
+
+Although there was something very ludicrous in his vehement manner, 
+taken in conjunction with his meagre aspect and ungraceful 
+presence, it would scarcely have provoked a smile in any man of 
+kindly feeling; or even if it had, he would have felt sorry and 
+almost angry with himself next moment, for yielding to the impulse.  
+This lord was sincere in his violence and in his wavering.  A 
+nature prone to false enthusiasm, and the vanity of being a leader, 
+were the worst qualities apparent in his composition.  All the rest 
+was weakness--sheer weakness; and it is the unhappy lot of 
+thoroughly weak men, that their very sympathies, affections, 
+confidences--all the qualities which in better constituted minds 
+are virtues--dwindle into foibles, or turn into downright vices.
+
+Gashford, with many a sly look towards the bed, sat chuckling at 
+his master's folly, until his deep and heavy breathing warned him 
+that he might retire.  Locking his desk, and replacing it within 
+the trunk (but not before he had taken from a secret lining two 
+printed handbills), he cautiously withdrew; looking back, as he 
+went, at the pale face of the slumbering man, above whose head the 
+dusty plumes that crowned the Maypole couch, waved drearily and 
+sadly as though it were a bier.
+
+Stopping on the staircase to listen that all was quiet, and to take 
+off his shoes lest his footsteps should alarm any light sleeper who 
+might be near at hand, he descended to the ground floor, and thrust 
+one of his bills beneath the great door of the house.  That done, 
+he crept softly back to his own chamber, and from the window let 
+another fall--carefully wrapt round a stone to save it from the 
+wind--into the yard below.
+
+They were addressed on the back 'To every Protestant into whose 
+hands this shall come,' and bore within what follows:
+
+'Men and Brethren.  Whoever shall find this letter, will take it as 
+a warning to join, without delay, the friends of Lord George 
+Gordon.  There are great events at hand; and the times are 
+dangerous and troubled.  Read this carefully, keep it clean, and 
+drop it somewhere else.  For King and Country.  Union.'
+
+'More seed, more seed,' said Gashford as he closed the window.  
+'When will the harvest come!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 37
+
+
+To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air 
+of mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power of 
+attraction which to the crowd is irresistible.  False priests, 
+false prophets, false doctors, false patriots, false prodigies of 
+every kind, veiling their proceedings in mystery, have always 
+addressed themselves at an immense advantage to the popular 
+credulity, and have been, perhaps, more indebted to that resource 
+in gaining and keeping for a time the upper hand of Truth and 
+Common Sense, than to any half-dozen items in the whole catalogue 
+of imposture.  Curiosity is, and has been from the creation of the 
+world, a master-passion.  To awaken it, to gratify it by slight 
+degrees, and yet leave something always in suspense, is to 
+establish the surest hold that can be had, in wrong, on the 
+unthinking portion of mankind.
+
+If a man had stood on London Bridge, calling till he was hoarse, 
+upon the passers-by, to join with Lord George Gordon, although for 
+an object which no man understood, and which in that very incident 
+had a charm of its own,--the probability is, that he might have 
+influenced a score of people in a month.  If all zealous 
+Protestants had been publicly urged to join an association for the 
+avowed purpose of singing a hymn or two occasionally, and hearing 
+some indifferent speeches made, and ultimately of petitioning 
+Parliament not to pass an act for abolishing the penal laws against 
+Roman Catholic priests, the penalty of perpetual imprisonment 
+denounced against those who educated children in that persuasion, 
+and the disqualification of all members of the Romish church to 
+inherit real property in the United Kingdom by right of purchase or 
+descent,--matters so far removed from the business and bosoms of 
+the mass, might perhaps have called together a hundred people.  But 
+when vague rumours got abroad, that in this Protestant association 
+a secret power was mustering against the government for undefined 
+and mighty purposes; when the air was filled with whispers of a 
+confederacy among the Popish powers to degrade and enslave England, 
+establish an inquisition in London, and turn the pens of Smithfield 
+market into stakes and cauldrons; when terrors and alarms which no 
+man understood were perpetually broached, both in and out of 
+Parliament, by one enthusiast who did not understand himself, and 
+bygone bugbears which had lain quietly in their graves for 
+centuries, were raised again to haunt the ignorant and credulous; 
+when all this was done, as it were, in the dark, and secret 
+invitations to join the Great Protestant Association in defence of 
+religion, life, and liberty, were dropped in the public ways, 
+thrust under the house-doors, tossed in at windows, and pressed 
+into the hands of those who trod the streets by night; when they 
+glared from every wall, and shone on every post and pillar, so that 
+stocks and stones appeared infected with the common fear, urging 
+all men to join together blindfold in resistance of they knew not 
+what, they knew not why;--then the mania spread indeed, and the 
+body, still increasing every day, grew forty thousand strong.
+
+So said, at least, in this month of March, 1780, Lord George 
+Gordon, the Association's president.  Whether it was the fact or 
+otherwise, few men knew or cared to ascertain.  It had never made 
+any public demonstration; had scarcely ever been heard of, save 
+through him; had never been seen; and was supposed by many to be 
+the mere creature of his disordered brain.  He was accustomed to 
+talk largely about numbers of men--stimulated, as it was inferred, 
+by certain successful disturbances, arising out of the same 
+subject, which had occurred in Scotland in the previous year; was 
+looked upon as a cracked-brained member of the lower house, who 
+attacked all parties and sided with none, and was very little 
+regarded.  It was known that there was discontent abroad--there 
+always is; he had been accustomed to address the people by placard, 
+speech, and pamphlet, upon other questions; nothing had come, in 
+England, of his past exertions, and nothing was apprehended from 
+his present.  Just as he has come upon the reader, he had come, 
+from time to time, upon the public, and been forgotten in a day; as 
+suddenly as he appears in these pages, after a blank of five long 
+years, did he and his proceedings begin to force themselves, about 
+this period, upon the notice of thousands of people, who had 
+mingled in active life during the whole interval, and who, without 
+being deaf or blind to passing events, had scarcely ever thought of 
+him before.
+
+'My lord,' said Gashford in his ear, as he drew the curtains of his 
+bed betimes; 'my lord!'
+
+'Yes--who's that?  What is it?'
+
+'The clock has struck nine,' returned the secretary, with meekly 
+folded hands.  'You have slept well?  I hope you have slept well?  
+If my prayers are heard, you are refreshed indeed.'
+
+'To say the truth, I have slept so soundly,' said Lord George, 
+rubbing his eyes and looking round the room, 'that I don't remember 
+quite--what place is this?'
+
+'My lord!' cried Gashford, with a smile.
+
+'Oh!' returned his superior.  'Yes.  You're not a Jew then?'
+
+'A Jew!' exclaimed the pious secretary, recoiling.
+
+'I dreamed that we were Jews, Gashford.  You and I--both of us--
+Jews with long beards.'
+
+'Heaven forbid, my lord!  We might as well be Papists.'
+
+'I suppose we might,' returned the other, very quickly.  'Eh?  You 
+really think so, Gashford?'
+
+'Surely I do,' the secretary cried, with looks of great surprise.
+
+'Humph!' he muttered.  'Yes, that seems reasonable.'
+
+'I hope my lord--' the secretary began.
+
+'Hope!' he echoed, interrupting him.  'Why do you say, you hope?  
+There's no harm in thinking of such things.'
+
+'Not in dreams,' returned the Secretary.
+
+'In dreams!  No, nor waking either.'
+
+--'"Called, and chosen, and faithful,"' said Gashford, taking up 
+Lord George's watch which lay upon a chair, and seeming to read the 
+inscription on the seal, abstractedly.
+
+It was the slightest action possible, not obtruded on his notice, 
+and apparently the result of a moment's absence of mind, not worth 
+remark.  But as the words were uttered, Lord George, who had been 
+going on impetuously, stopped short, reddened, and was silent.  
+Apparently quite unconscious of this change in his demeanour, the 
+wily Secretary stepped a little apart, under pretence of pulling up 
+the window-blind, and returning when the other had had time to 
+recover, said:
+
+'The holy cause goes bravely on, my lord.  I was not idle, even 
+last night.  I dropped two of the handbills before I went to bed, 
+and both are gone this morning.  Nobody in the house has mentioned 
+the circumstance of finding them, though I have been downstairs 
+full half-an-hour.  One or two recruits will be their first fruit, 
+I predict; and who shall say how many more, with Heaven's blessing 
+on your inspired exertions!'
+
+'It was a famous device in the beginning,' replied Lord George; 'an 
+excellent device, and did good service in Scotland.  It was quite 
+worthy of you.  You remind me not to be a sluggard, Gashford, when 
+the vineyard is menaced with destruction, and may be trodden down 
+by Papist feet.  Let the horses be saddled in half-an-hour.  We 
+must be up and doing!'
+
+He said this with a heightened colour, and in a tone of such 
+enthusiasm, that the secretary deemed all further prompting 
+needless, and withdrew.
+
+--'Dreamed he was a Jew,' he said thoughtfully, as he closed the 
+bedroom door.  'He may come to that before he dies.  It's like 
+enough.  Well!  After a time, and provided I lost nothing by it, I 
+don't see why that religion shouldn't suit me as well as any 
+other.  There are rich men among the Jews; shaving is very 
+troublesome;--yes, it would suit me well enough.  For the present, 
+though, we must be Christian to the core.  Our prophetic motto will 
+suit all creeds in their turn, that's a comfort.'  Reflecting on 
+this source of consolation, he reached the sitting-room, and rang 
+the bell for breakfast.
+
+Lord George was quickly dressed (for his plain toilet was easily 
+made), and as he was no less frugal in his repasts than in his 
+Puritan attire, his share of the meal was soon dispatched.  The 
+secretary, however, more devoted to the good things of this world, 
+or more intent on sustaining his strength and spirits for the sake 
+of the Protestant cause, ate and drank to the last minute, and 
+required indeed some three or four reminders from John Grueby, 
+before he could resolve to tear himself away from Mr Willet's 
+plentiful providing.
+
+At length he came downstairs, wiping his greasy mouth, and having 
+paid John Willet's bill, climbed into his saddle.  Lord George, who 
+had been walking up and down before the house talking to himself 
+with earnest gestures, mounted his horse; and returning old John 
+Willet's stately bow, as well as the parting salutation of a dozen 
+idlers whom the rumour of a live lord being about to leave the 
+Maypole had gathered round the porch, they rode away, with stout 
+John Grueby in the rear.
+
+If Lord George Gordon had appeared in the eyes of Mr Willet, 
+overnight, a nobleman of somewhat quaint and odd exterior, the 
+impression was confirmed this morning, and increased a hundredfold.  
+Sitting bolt upright upon his bony steed, with his long, straight 
+hair, dangling about his face and fluttering in the wind; his limbs 
+all angular and rigid, his elbows stuck out on either side 
+ungracefully, and his whole frame jogged and shaken at every motion 
+of his horse's feet; a more grotesque or more ungainly figure can 
+hardly be conceived.  In lieu of whip, he carried in his hand a 
+great gold-headed cane, as large as any footman carries in these 
+days, and his various modes of holding this unwieldy weapon--now 
+upright before his face like the sabre of a horse-soldier, now over 
+his shoulder like a musket, now between his finger and thumb, but 
+always in some uncouth and awkward fashion--contributed in no small 
+degree to the absurdity of his appearance.  Stiff, lank, and 
+solemn, dressed in an unusual manner, and ostentatiously 
+exhibiting--whether by design or accident--all his peculiarities of 
+carriage, gesture, and conduct, all the qualities, natural and 
+artificial, in which he differed from other men; he might have 
+moved the sternest looker-on to laughter, and fully provoked the 
+smiles and whispered jests which greeted his departure from the 
+Maypole inn.
+
+Quite unconscious, however, of the effect he produced, he trotted 
+on beside his secretary, talking to himself nearly all the way, 
+until they came within a mile or two of London, when now and then 
+some passenger went by who knew him by sight, and pointed him out 
+to some one else, and perhaps stood looking after him, or cried in 
+jest or earnest as it might be, 'Hurrah Geordie!  No Popery!'  At 
+which he would gravely pull off his hat, and bow.  When they 
+reached the town and rode along the streets, these notices became 
+more frequent; some laughed, some hissed, some turned their heads 
+and smiled, some wondered who he was, some ran along the pavement 
+by his side and cheered.  When this happened in a crush of carts 
+and chairs and coaches, he would make a dead stop, and pulling off 
+his hat, cry, 'Gentlemen, No Popery!' to which the gentlemen would 
+respond with lusty voices, and with three times three; and then, on 
+he would go again with a score or so of the raggedest, following at 
+his horse's heels, and shouting till their throats were parched.
+
+The old ladies too--there were a great many old ladies in the 
+streets, and these all knew him.  Some of them--not those of the 
+highest rank, but such as sold fruit from baskets and carried 
+burdens--clapped their shrivelled hands, and raised a weazen, 
+piping, shrill 'Hurrah, my lord.'  Others waved their hands or 
+handkerchiefs, or shook their fans or parasols, or threw up windows 
+and called in haste to those within, to come and see.  All these 
+marks of popular esteem, he received with profound gravity and 
+respect; bowing very low, and so frequently that his hat was more 
+off his head than on; and looking up at the houses as he passed 
+along, with the air of one who was making a public entry, and yet 
+was not puffed up or proud.
+
+So they rode (to the deep and unspeakable disgust of John Grueby) 
+the whole length of Whitechapel, Leadenhall Street, and Cheapside, 
+and into St Paul's Churchyard.  Arriving close to the cathedral, he 
+halted; spoke to Gashford; and looking upward at its lofty dome, 
+shook his head, as though he said, 'The Church in Danger!'  Then to 
+be sure, the bystanders stretched their throats indeed; and he went 
+on again with mighty acclamations from the mob, and lower bows than 
+ever.
+
+So along the Strand, up Swallow Street, into the Oxford Road, and 
+thence to his house in Welbeck Street, near Cavendish Square, 
+whither he was attended by a few dozen idlers; of whom he took 
+leave on the steps with this brief parting, 'Gentlemen, No Popery.  
+Good day.  God bless you.'  This being rather a shorter address 
+than they expected, was received with some displeasure, and cries 
+of 'A speech! a speech!' which might have been complied with, but 
+that John Grueby, making a mad charge upon them with all three 
+horses, on his way to the stables, caused them to disperse into the 
+adjoining fields, where they presently fell to pitch and toss, 
+chuck-farthing, odd or even, dog-fighting, and other Protestant 
+recreations.
+
+In the afternoon Lord George came forth again, dressed in a black 
+velvet coat, and trousers and waistcoat of the Gordon plaid, all of 
+the same Quaker cut; and in this costume, which made him look a 
+dozen times more strange and singular than before, went down on 
+foot to Westminster.  Gashford, meanwhile, bestirred himself in 
+business matters; with which he was still engaged when, shortly 
+after dusk, John Grueby entered and announced a visitor.
+
+'Let him come in,' said Gashford.
+
+'Here! come in!' growled John to somebody without; 'You're a 
+Protestant, an't you?'
+
+'I should think so,' replied a deep, gruff voice.
+
+'You've the looks of it,' said John Grueby.  'I'd have known you 
+for one, anywhere.'  With which remark he gave the visitor 
+admission, retired, and shut the door.
+
+The man who now confronted Gashford, was a squat, thickset 
+personage, with a low, retreating forehead, a coarse shock head of 
+hair, and eyes so small and near together, that his broken nose 
+alone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of the 
+usual size.  A dingy handkerchief twisted like a cord about his 
+neck, left its great veins exposed to view, and they were swollen 
+and starting, as though with gulping down strong passions, malice, 
+and ill-will.  His dress was of threadbare velveteen--a faded, 
+rusty, whitened black, like the ashes of a pipe or a coal fire 
+after a day's extinction; discoloured with the soils of many a 
+stale debauch, and reeking yet with pot-house odours.  In lieu of 
+buckles at his knees, he wore unequal loops of packthread; and in 
+his grimy hands he held a knotted stick, the knob of which was 
+carved into a rough likeness of his own vile face.  Such was the 
+visitor who doffed his three-cornered hat in Gashford's presence, 
+and waited, leering, for his notice.
+
+'Ah! Dennis!' cried the secretary.  'Sit down.'
+
+'I see my lord down yonder--' cried the man, with a jerk of his 
+thumb towards the quarter that he spoke of, 'and he says to me, 
+says my lord, "If you've nothing to do, Dennis, go up to my house 
+and talk with Muster Gashford."  Of course I'd nothing to do, you 
+know.  These an't my working hours.  Ha ha!  I was a-taking the air 
+when I see my lord, that's what I was doing.  I takes the air by 
+night, as the howls does, Muster Gashford.'
+
+And sometimes in the day-time, eh?' said the secretary--'when you 
+go out in state, you know.'
+
+'Ha ha!' roared the fellow, smiting his leg; 'for a gentleman as 
+'ull say a pleasant thing in a pleasant way, give me Muster 
+Gashford agin' all London and Westminster!  My lord an't a bad 'un 
+at that, but he's a fool to you.  Ah to be sure,--when I go out in 
+state.'
+
+'And have your carriage,' said the secretary; 'and your chaplain, 
+eh? and all the rest of it?'
+
+'You'll be the death of me,' cried Dennis, with another roar, 'you 
+will.  But what's in the wind now, Muster Gashford,' he asked 
+hoarsely, 'Eh?  Are we to be under orders to pull down one of them 
+Popish chapels--or what?'
+
+'Hush!' said the secretary, suffering the faintest smile to play 
+upon his face.  'Hush!  God bless me, Dennis!  We associate, you 
+know, for strictly peaceable and lawful purposes.'
+
+'I know, bless you,' returned the man, thrusting his tongue into 
+his cheek; 'I entered a' purpose, didn't I!'
+
+'No doubt,' said Gashford, smiling as before.  And when he said so, 
+Dennis roared again, and smote his leg still harder, and falling 
+into fits of laughter, wiped his eyes with the corner of his 
+neckerchief, and cried, 'Muster Gashford agin' all England hollow!'
+
+'Lord George and I were talking of you last night,' said Gashford, 
+after a pause.  'He says you are a very earnest fellow.'
+
+'So I am,' returned the hangman.
+
+'And that you truly hate the Papists.'
+
+'So I do,' and he confirmed it with a good round oath.  'Lookye 
+here, Muster Gashford,' said the fellow, laying his hat and stick 
+upon the floor, and slowly beating the palm of one hand with the 
+fingers of the other; 'Ob-serve.  I'm a constitutional officer that 
+works for my living, and does my work creditable.  Do I, or do I 
+not?'
+
+'Unquestionably.'
+
+'Very good.  Stop a minute.  My work, is sound, Protestant, 
+constitutional, English work.  Is it, or is it not?'
+
+'No man alive can doubt it.'
+
+'Nor dead neither.  Parliament says this here--says Parliament, "If 
+any man, woman, or child, does anything which goes again a certain 
+number of our acts"--how many hanging laws may there be at this 
+present time, Muster Gashford?  Fifty?'
+
+'I don't exactly know how many,' replied Gashford, leaning back in 
+his chair and yawning; 'a great number though.'
+
+'Well, say fifty.  Parliament says, "If any man, woman, or child, 
+does anything again any one of them fifty acts, that man, woman, or 
+child, shall be worked off by Dennis."  George the Third steps in 
+when they number very strong at the end of a sessions, and says, 
+"These are too many for Dennis.  I'll have half for myself and 
+Dennis shall have half for himself;" and sometimes he throws me in 
+one over that I don't expect, as he did three year ago, when I got 
+Mary Jones, a young woman of nineteen who come up to Tyburn with a 
+infant at her breast, and was worked off for taking a piece of 
+cloth off the counter of a shop in Ludgate Hill, and putting it 
+down again when the shopman see her; and who had never done any 
+harm before, and only tried to do that, in consequence of her 
+husband having been pressed three weeks previous, and she being 
+left to beg, with two young children--as was proved upon the trial.  
+Ha ha!--Well!  That being the law and the practice of England, is 
+the glory of England, an't it, Muster Gashford?'
+
+'Certainly,' said the secretary.
+
+'And in times to come,' pursued the hangman, 'if our grandsons 
+should think of their grandfathers' times, and find these things 
+altered, they'll say, "Those were days indeed, and we've been going 
+down hill ever since."  Won't they, Muster Gashford?'
+
+'I have no doubt they will,' said the secretary.
+
+'Well then, look here,' said the hangman.  'If these Papists gets 
+into power, and begins to boil and roast instead of hang, what 
+becomes of my work!  If they touch my work that's a part of so many 
+laws, what becomes of the laws in general, what becomes of the 
+religion, what becomes of the country!--Did you ever go to church, 
+Muster Gashford?'
+
+'Ever!' repeated the secretary with some indignation; 'of course.'
+
+'Well,' said the ruffian, 'I've been once--twice, counting the time 
+I was christened--and when I heard the Parliament prayed for, and 
+thought how many new hanging laws they made every sessions, I 
+considered that I was prayed for.  Now mind, Muster Gashford,' said 
+the fellow, taking up his stick and shaking it with a ferocious 
+air, 'I mustn't have my Protestant work touched, nor this here 
+Protestant state of things altered in no degree, if I can help it; 
+I mustn't have no Papists interfering with me, unless they come to 
+be worked off in course of law; I mustn't have no biling, no 
+roasting, no frying--nothing but hanging.  My lord may well call 
+me an earnest fellow.  In support of the great Protestant principle 
+of having plenty of that, I'll,' and here he beat his club upon the 
+ground, 'burn, fight, kill--do anything you bid me, so that it's 
+bold and devilish--though the end of it was, that I got hung 
+myself.--There, Muster Gashford!'
+
+He appropriately followed up this frequent prostitution of a noble 
+word to the vilest purposes, by pouring out in a kind of ecstasy at 
+least a score of most tremendous oaths; then wiped his heated face 
+upon his neckerchief, and cried, 'No Popery!  I'm a religious man, 
+by G--!'
+
+Gashford had leant back in his chair, regarding him with eyes so 
+sunken, and so shadowed by his heavy brows, that for aught the 
+hangman saw of them, he might have been stone blind.  He remained 
+smiling in silence for a short time longer, and then said, slowly 
+and distinctly:
+
+'You are indeed an earnest fellow, Dennis--a most valuable fellow--
+the staunchest man I know of in our ranks.  But you must calm 
+yourself; you must be peaceful, lawful, mild as any lamb.  I am 
+sure you will be though.'
+
+'Ay, ay, we shall see, Muster Gashford, we shall see.  You won't 
+have to complain of me,' returned the other, shaking his head.
+
+'I am sure I shall not,' said the secretary in the same mild tone, 
+and with the same emphasis.  'We shall have, we think, about next 
+month, or May, when this Papist relief bill comes before the house, 
+to convene our whole body for the first time.  My lord has thoughts 
+of our walking in procession through the streets--just as an 
+innocent display of strength--and accompanying our petition down to 
+the door of the House of Commons.'
+
+'The sooner the better,' said Dennis, with another oath.
+
+'We shall have to draw up in divisions, our numbers being so large; 
+and, I believe I may venture to say,' resumed Gashford, affecting 
+not to hear the interruption, 'though I have no direct instructions 
+to that effect--that Lord George has thought of you as an excellent 
+leader for one of these parties.  I have no doubt you would be an 
+admirable one.'
+
+'Try me,' said the fellow, with an ugly wink.
+
+'You would be cool, I know,' pursued the secretary, still smiling, 
+and still managing his eyes so that he could watch him closely, and 
+really not be seen in turn, 'obedient to orders, and perfectly 
+temperate.  You would lead your party into no danger, I am certain.'
+
+'I'd lead them, Muster Gashford,'--the hangman was beginning in a 
+reckless way, when Gashford started forward, laid his finger on his 
+lips, and feigned to write, just as the door was opened by John 
+Grueby.
+
+'Oh!' said John, looking in; 'here's another Protestant.'
+
+'Some other room, John,' cried Gashford in his blandest voice.  'I 
+am engaged just now.'
+
+But John had brought this new visitor to the door, and he walked in 
+unbidden, as the words were uttered; giving to view the form and 
+features, rough attire, and reckless air, of Hugh.
+
+
+
+Chapter 38
+
+
+The secretary put his hand before his eyes to shade them from the 
+glare of the lamp, and for some moments looked at Hugh with a 
+frowning brow, as if he remembered to have seen him lately, but 
+could not call to mind where, or on what occasion.  His uncertainty 
+was very brief, for before Hugh had spoken a word, he said, as his 
+countenance cleared up:
+
+'Ay, ay, I recollect.  It's quite right, John, you needn't wait.  
+Don't go, Dennis.'
+
+'Your servant, master,' said Hugh, as Grueby disappeared.
+
+'Yours, friend,' returned the secretary in his smoothest manner.  
+'What brings YOU here?  We left nothing behind us, I hope?'
+
+Hugh gave a short laugh, and thrusting his hand into his breast, 
+produced one of the handbills, soiled and dirty from lying out of 
+doors all night, which he laid upon the secretary's desk after 
+flattening it upon his knee, and smoothing out the wrinkles with 
+his heavy palm.
+
+'Nothing but that, master.  It fell into good hands, you see.'
+
+'What is this!' said Gashford, turning it over with an air of 
+perfectly natural surprise.  'Where did you get it from, my good 
+fellow; what does it mean?  I don't understand this at all.'
+
+A little disconcerted by this reception, Hugh looked from the 
+secretary to Dennis, who had risen and was standing at the table 
+too, observing the stranger by stealth, and seeming to derive the 
+utmost satisfaction from his manners and appearance.  Considering 
+himself silently appealed to by this action, Mr Dennis shook his 
+head thrice, as if to say of Gashford, 'No.  He don't know anything 
+at all about it.  I know he don't.  I'll take my oath he don't;' 
+and hiding his profile from Hugh with one long end of his frowzy 
+neckerchief, nodded and chuckled behind this screen in extreme 
+approval of the secretary's proceedings.
+
+'It tells the man that finds it, to come here, don't it?' asked 
+Hugh.  'I'm no scholar, myself, but I showed it to a friend, and he 
+said it did.'
+
+'It certainly does,' said Gashford, opening his eyes to their 
+utmost width; 'really this is the most remarkable circumstance I 
+have ever known.  How did you come by this piece of paper, my good 
+friend?'
+
+'Muster Gashford,' wheezed the hangman under his breath, 'agin' all 
+Newgate!'
+
+Whether Hugh heard him, or saw by his manner that he was being 
+played upon, or perceived the secretary's drift of himself, he came 
+in his blunt way to the point at once.
+
+'Here!' he said, stretching out his hand and taking it back; 'never 
+mind the bill, or what it says, or what it don't say.  You don't 
+know anything about it, master,--no more do I,--no more does he,' 
+glancing at Dennis.  'None of us know what it means, or where it 
+comes from: there's an end of that.  Now I want to make one against 
+the Catholics, I'm a No-Popery man, and ready to be sworn in.  
+That's what I've come here for.'
+
+'Put him down on the roll, Muster Gashford,' said Dennis 
+approvingly.  'That's the way to go to work--right to the end at 
+once, and no palaver.'
+
+'What's the use of shooting wide of the mark, eh, old boy!' cried 
+Hugh.
+
+'My sentiments all over!' rejoined the hangman.  'This is the sort 
+of chap for my division, Muster Gashford.  Down with him, sir.  Put 
+him on the roll.  I'd stand godfather to him, if he was to be 
+christened in a bonfire, made of the ruins of the Bank of England.'
+
+With these and other expressions of confidence of the like 
+flattering kind, Mr Dennis gave him a hearty slap on the back, 
+which Hugh was not slow to return.
+
+'No Popery, brother!' cried the hangman.
+
+'No Property, brother!' responded Hugh.
+
+'Popery, Popery,' said the secretary with his usual mildness.
+
+'It's all the same!' cried Dennis.  'It's all right.  Down with 
+him, Muster Gashford.  Down with everybody, down with everything!  
+Hurrah for the Protestant religion!  That's the time of day, 
+Muster Gashford!'
+
+The secretary regarded them both with a very favourable expression 
+of countenance, while they gave loose to these and other 
+demonstrations of their patriotic purpose; and was about to make 
+some remark aloud, when Dennis, stepping up to him, and shading his 
+mouth with his hand, said, in a hoarse whisper, as he nudged him 
+with his elbow:
+
+'Don't split upon a constitutional officer's profession, Muster 
+Gashford.  There are popular prejudices, you know, and he mightn't 
+like it.  Wait till he comes to be more intimate with me.  He's a 
+fine-built chap, an't he?'
+
+'A powerful fellow indeed!'
+
+'Did you ever, Muster Gashford,' whispered Dennis, with a horrible 
+kind of admiration, such as that with which a cannibal might regard 
+his intimate friend, when hungry,--'did you ever--and here he drew 
+still closer to his ear, and fenced his mouth with both his open 
+bands--'see such a throat as his?  Do but cast your eye upon it.  
+There's a neck for stretching, Muster Gashford!'
+
+The secretary assented to this proposition with the best grace he 
+could assume--it is difficult to feign a true professional relish: 
+which is eccentric sometimes--and after asking the candidate a few 
+unimportant questions, proceeded to enrol him a member of the Great 
+Protestant Association of England.  If anything could have exceeded 
+Mr Dennis's joy on the happy conclusion of this ceremony, it would 
+have been the rapture with which he received the announcement that 
+the new member could neither read nor write: those two arts being 
+(as Mr Dennis swore) the greatest possible curse a civilised 
+community could know, and militating more against the professional 
+emoluments and usefulness of the great constitutional office he had 
+the honour to hold, than any adverse circumstances that could 
+present themselves to his imagination.
+
+The enrolment being completed, and Hugh having been informed by 
+Gashford, in his peculiar manner, of the peaceful and strictly 
+lawful objects contemplated by the body to which he now belonged--
+during which recital Mr Dennis nudged him very much with his elbow, 
+and made divers remarkable faces--the secretary gave them both to 
+understand that he desired to be alone.  Therefore they took their 
+leaves without delay, and came out of the house together.
+
+'Are you walking, brother?' said Dennis.
+
+'Ay!' returned Hugh.  'Where you will.'
+
+'That's social,' said his new friend.  'Which way shall we take?  
+Shall we go and have a look at doors that we shall make a pretty 
+good clattering at, before long--eh, brother?'
+
+Hugh answering in the affirmative, they went slowly down to 
+Westminster, where both houses of Parliament were then sitting.  
+Mingling in the crowd of carriages, horses, servants, chairmen, 
+link-boys, porters, and idlers of all kinds, they lounged about; 
+while Hugh's new friend pointed out to him significantly the weak 
+parts of the building, how easy it was to get into the lobby, and 
+so to the very door of the House of Commons; and how plainly, when 
+they marched down there in grand array, their roars and shouts 
+would be heard by the members inside; with a great deal more to the 
+same purpose, all of which Hugh received with manifest delight.
+
+He told him, too, who some of the Lords and Commons were, by name, 
+as they came in and out; whether they were friendly to the Papists 
+or otherwise; and bade him take notice of their liveries and 
+equipages, that he might be sure of them, in case of need.  
+Sometimes he drew him close to the windows of a passing carriage, 
+that he might see its master's face by the light of the lamps; and, 
+both in respect of people and localities, he showed so much 
+acquaintance with everything around, that it was plain he had often 
+studied there before; as indeed, when they grew a little more 
+confidential, he confessed he had.
+
+Perhaps the most striking part of all this was, the number of 
+people--never in groups of more than two or three together--who 
+seemed to be skulking about the crowd for the same purpose.  To the 
+greater part of these, a slight nod or a look from Hugh's companion 
+was sufficient greeting; but, now and then, some man would come and 
+stand beside him in the throng, and, without turning his head or 
+appearing to communicate with him, would say a word or two in a low 
+voice, which he would answer in the same cautious manner.  Then 
+they would part, like strangers.  Some of these men often 
+reappeared again unexpectedly in the crowd close to Hugh, and, as 
+they passed by, pressed his hand, or looked him sternly in the 
+face; but they never spoke to him, nor he to them; no, not a word.
+
+It was remarkable, too, that whenever they happened to stand where 
+there was any press of people, and Hugh chanced to be looking 
+downward, he was sure to see an arm stretched out--under his own 
+perhaps, or perhaps across him--which thrust some paper into the 
+hand or pocket of a bystander, and was so suddenly withdrawn that 
+it was impossible to tell from whom it came; nor could he see in 
+any face, on glancing quickly round, the least confusion or 
+surprise.  They often trod upon a paper like the one he carried in 
+his breast, but his companion whispered him not to touch it or to 
+take it up,--not even to look towards it,--so there they let them 
+lie, and passed on.
+
+When they had paraded the street and all the avenues of the 
+building in this manner for near two hours, they turned away, and 
+his friend asked him what he thought of what he had seen, and 
+whether he was prepared for a good hot piece of work if it should 
+come to that.  The hotter the better,' said Hugh, 'I'm prepared for 
+anything.'--'So am I,' said his friend, 'and so are many of us; 
+and they shook hands upon it with a great oath, and with many 
+terrible imprecations on the Papists.
+
+As they were thirsty by this time, Dennis proposed that they should 
+repair together to The Boot, where there was good company and 
+strong liquor.  Hugh yielding a ready assent, they bent their steps 
+that way with no loss of time.
+
+This Boot was a lone house of public entertainment, situated in the 
+fields at the back of the Foundling Hospital; a very solitary spot 
+at that period, and quite deserted after dark.  The tavern stood at 
+some distance from any high road, and was approachable only by a 
+dark and narrow lane; so that Hugh was much surprised to find 
+several people drinking there, and great merriment going on.  He 
+was still more surprised to find among them almost every face that 
+had caught his attention in the crowd; but his companion having 
+whispered him outside the door, that it was not considered good 
+manners at The Boot to appear at all curious about the company, he 
+kept his own counsel, and made no show of recognition.
+
+Before putting his lips to the liquor which was brought for them, 
+Dennis drank in a loud voice the health of Lord George Gordon, 
+President of the Great Protestant Association; which toast Hugh 
+pledged likewise, with corresponding enthusiasm.  A fiddler who was 
+present, and who appeared to act as the appointed minstrel of the 
+company, forthwith struck up a Scotch reel; and that in tones so 
+invigorating, that Hugh and his friend (who had both been drinking 
+before) rose from their seats as by previous concert, and, to the 
+great admiration of the assembled guests, performed an 
+extemporaneous No-Popery Dance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 39
+
+
+The applause which the performance of Hugh and his new friend 
+elicited from the company at The Boot, had not yet subsided, and 
+the two dancers were still panting from their exertions, which had 
+been of a rather extreme and violent character, when the party was 
+reinforced by the arrival of some more guests, who, being a 
+detachment of United Bulldogs, were received with very flattering 
+marks of distinction and respect.
+
+The leader of this small party--for, including himself, they were 
+but three in number--was our old acquaintance, Mr Tappertit, who 
+seemed, physically speaking, to have grown smaller with years 
+(particularly as to his legs, which were stupendously little), but 
+who, in a moral point of view, in personal dignity and self-esteem, 
+had swelled into a giant.  Nor was it by any means difficult for 
+the most unobservant person to detect this state of feeling in the 
+quondam 'prentice, for it not only proclaimed itself impressively 
+and beyond mistake in his majestic walk and kindling eye, but found 
+a striking means of revelation in his turned-up nose, which scouted 
+all things of earth with deep disdain, and sought communion with 
+its kindred skies.
+
+Mr Tappertit, as chief or captain of the Bulldogs, was attended by 
+his two lieutenants; one, the tall comrade of his younger life; the 
+other, a 'Prentice Knight in days of yore--Mark Gilbert, bound in 
+the olden time to Thomas Curzon of the Golden Fleece.  These 
+gentlemen, like himself, were now emancipated from their 'prentice 
+thraldom, and served as journeymen; but they were, in humble 
+emulation of his great example, bold and daring spirits, and 
+aspired to a distinguished state in great political events.  Hence 
+their connection with the Protestant Association of England, 
+sanctioned by the name of Lord George Gordon; and hence their 
+present visit to The Boot.
+
+'Gentlemen!' said Mr Tappertit, taking off his hat as a great 
+general might in addressing his troops.  'Well met.  My lord does 
+me and you the honour to send his compliments per self.'
+
+'You've seen my lord too, have you?' said Dennis.  'I see him this 
+afternoon.'
+
+'My duty called me to the Lobby when our shop shut up; and I saw 
+him there, sir,' Mr Tappertit replied, as he and his lieutenants 
+took their seats.  'How do YOU do?'
+
+'Lively, master, lively,' said the fellow.  'Here's a new brother, 
+regularly put down in black and white by Muster Gashford; a credit 
+to the cause; one of the stick-at-nothing sort; one arter my own 
+heart.  D'ye see him?  Has he got the looks of a man that'll do, do 
+you think?' he cried, as he slapped Hugh on the back.
+
+'Looks or no looks,' said Hugh, with a drunken flourish of his arm, 
+'I'm the man you want.  I hate the Papists, every one of 'em.  They 
+hate me and I hate them.  They do me all the harm they can, and 
+I'll do them all the harm I can.  Hurrah!'
+
+'Was there ever,' said Dennis, looking round the room, when the 
+echo of his boisterous voice bad died away; 'was there ever such a 
+game boy!  Why, I mean to say, brothers, that if Muster Gashford 
+had gone a hundred mile and got together fifty men of the common 
+run, they wouldn't have been worth this one.'
+
+The greater part of the company implicitly subscribed to this 
+opinion, and testified their faith in Hugh by nods and looks of 
+great significance.  Mr Tappertit sat and contemplated him for a 
+long time in silence, as if he suspended his judgment; then drew a 
+little nearer to him, and eyed him over more carefully; then went 
+close up to him, and took him apart into a dark corner.
+
+'I say,' he began, with a thoughtful brow, 'haven't I seen you 
+before?'
+
+'It's like you may,' said Hugh, in his careless way.  'I don't 
+know; shouldn't wonder.'
+
+'No, but it's very easily settled,' returned Sim.  'Look at me.  
+Did you ever see ME before?  You wouldn't be likely to forget it, 
+you know, if you ever did.  Look at me.  Don't be afraid; I won't 
+do you any harm.  Take a good look--steady now.'
+
+The encouraging way in which Mr Tappertit made this request, and 
+coupled it with an assurance that he needn't be frightened, amused 
+Hugh mightily--so much indeed, that be saw nothing at all of the 
+small man before him, through closing his eyes in a fit of hearty 
+laughter, which shook his great broad sides until they ached again.
+
+'Come!' said Mr Tappertit, growing a little impatient under this 
+disrespectful treatment.  'Do you know me, feller?'
+
+'Not I,' cried Hugh.  'Ha ha ha!  Not I!  But I should like to.'
+
+'And yet I'd have wagered a seven-shilling piece," said Mr 
+Tappertit, folding his arms, and confronting him with his legs wide 
+apart and firmly planted on the ground, 'that you once were hostler 
+at the Maypole.'
+
+Hugh opened his eyes on hearing this, and looked at him in great 
+surprise.
+
+'--And so you were, too,' said Mr Tappertit, pushing him away with 
+a condescending playfulness.  'When did MY eyes ever deceive--
+unless it was a young woman!  Don't you know me now?'
+
+'Why it an't--' Hugh faltered.
+
+'An't it?' said Mr Tappertit.  'Are you sure of that?  You remember 
+G. Varden, don't you?'
+
+Certainly Hugh did, and he remembered D. Varden too; but that he 
+didn't tell him.
+
+'You remember coming down there, before I was out of my time, to 
+ask after a vagabond that had bolted off, and left his disconsolate 
+father a prey to the bitterest emotions, and all the rest of it--
+don't you?' said Mr Tappertit.
+
+'Of course I do!' cried Hugh.  'And I saw you there.'
+
+'Saw me there!' said Mr Tappertit.  'Yes, I should think you did 
+see me there.  The place would be troubled to go on without me.  
+Don't you remember my thinking you liked the vagabond, and on that 
+account going to quarrel with you; and then finding you detested 
+him worse than poison, going to drink with you?  Don't you remember 
+that?'
+
+'To be sure!' cried Hugh.
+
+'Well! and are you in the same mind now?' said Mr Tappertit.
+
+'Yes!' roared Hugh.
+
+'You speak like a man,' said Mr Tappertit, 'and I'll shake hands 
+with you.'  With these conciliatory expressions he suited the 
+action to the word; and Hugh meeting his advances readily, they 
+performed the ceremony with a show of great heartiness.
+
+'I find,' said Mr Tappertit, looking round on the assembled guests, 
+'that brother What's-his-name and I are old acquaintance.--You 
+never heard anything more of that rascal, I suppose, eh?'
+
+'Not a syllable,' replied Hugh.  'I never want to.  I don't believe 
+I ever shall.  He's dead long ago, I hope.'
+
+'It's to be hoped, for the sake of mankind in general and the 
+happiness of society, that he is,' said Mr Tappertit, rubbing his 
+palm upon his legs, and looking at it between whiles.  'Is your 
+other hand at all cleaner?  Much the same.  Well, I'll owe you 
+another shake.  We'll suppose it done, if you've no objection.'
+
+Hugh laughed again, and with such thorough abandonment to his mad 
+humour, that his limbs seemed dislocated, and his whole frame in 
+danger of tumbling to pieces; but Mr Tappertit, so far from 
+receiving this extreme merriment with any irritation, was pleased 
+to regard it with the utmost favour, and even to join in it, so far 
+as one of his gravity and station could, with any regard to that 
+decency and decorum which men in high places are expected to 
+maintain.
+
+Mr Tappertit did not stop here, as many public characters might 
+have done, but calling up his brace of lieutenants, introduced Hugh 
+to them with high commendation; declaring him to be a man who, at 
+such times as those in which they lived, could not be too much 
+cherished.  Further, he did him the honour to remark, that he would 
+be an acquisition of which even the United Bulldogs might be proud; 
+and finding, upon sounding him, that he was quite ready and willing 
+to enter the society (for he was not at all particular, and would 
+have leagued himself that night with anything, or anybody, for any 
+purpose whatsoever), caused the necessary preliminaries to be gone 
+into upon the spot.  This tribute to his great merit delighted no 
+man more than Mr Dennis, as he himself proclaimed with several rare 
+and surprising oaths; and indeed it gave unmingled satisfaction to 
+the whole assembly.
+
+'Make anything you like of me!' cried Hugh, flourishing the can he 
+had emptied more than once.  'Put me on any duty you please.  I'm 
+your man.  I'll do it.  Here's my captain--here's my leader.  Ha ha 
+ha!  Let him give me the word of command, and I'll fight the whole 
+Parliament House single-handed, or set a lighted torch to the 
+King's Throne itself!'  With that, he smote Mr Tappertit on the 
+back, with such violence that his little body seemed to shrink into 
+a mere nothing; and roared again until the very foundlings near at 
+hand were startled in their beds.
+
+In fact, a sense of something whimsical in their companionship 
+seemed to have taken entire possession of his rude brain.  The bare 
+fact of being patronised by a great man whom he could have crushed 
+with one hand, appeared in his eyes so eccentric and humorous, that 
+a kind of ferocious merriment gained the mastery over him, and 
+quite subdued his brutal nature.  He roared and roared again; 
+toasted Mr Tappertit a hundred times; declared himself a Bulldog to 
+the core; and vowed to be faithful to him to the last drop of blood 
+in his veins.
+
+All these compliments Mr Tappertit received as matters of course--
+flattering enough in their way, but entirely attributable to his 
+vast superiority.  His dignified self-possession only delighted 
+Hugh the more; and in a word, this giant and dwarf struck up a 
+friendship which bade fair to be of long continuance, as the one 
+held it to be his right to command, and the other considered it an 
+exquisite pleasantry to obey.  Nor was Hugh by any means a passive 
+follower, who scrupled to act without precise and definite orders; 
+for when Mr Tappertit mounted on an empty cask which stood by way 
+of rostrum in the room, and volunteered a speech upon the alarming 
+crisis then at hand, he placed himself beside the orator, and 
+though he grinned from ear to ear at every word he said, threw out 
+such expressive hints to scoffers in the management of his cudgel, 
+that those who were at first the most disposed to interrupt, became 
+remarkably attentive, and were the loudest in their approbation.
+
+It was not all noise and jest, however, at The Boot, nor were the 
+whole party listeners to the speech.  There were some men at the 
+other end of the room (which was a long, low-roofed chamber) in 
+earnest conversation all the time; and when any of this group went 
+out, fresh people were sure to come in soon afterwards and sit down 
+in their places, as though the others had relieved them on some 
+watch or duty; which it was pretty clear they did, for these 
+changes took place by the clock, at intervals of half an hour.  
+These persons whispered very much among themselves, and kept aloof, 
+and often looked round, as jealous of their speech being overheard; 
+some two or three among them entered in books what seemed to be 
+reports from the others; when they were not thus employed) one of 
+them would turn to the newspapers which were strewn upon the table, 
+and from the St James's Chronicle, the Herald, Chronicle, or 
+Public Advertiser, would read to the rest in a low voice some 
+passage having reference to the topic in which they were all so 
+deeply interested.  But the great attraction was a pamphlet called 
+The Thunderer, which espoused their own opinions, and was supposed 
+at that time to emanate directly from the Association.  This was 
+always in request; and whether read aloud, to an eager knot of 
+listeners, or by some solitary man, was certain to be followed by 
+stormy talking and excited looks.
+
+In the midst of all his merriment, and admiration of his captain, 
+Hugh was made sensible by these and other tokens, of the presence 
+of an air of mystery, akin to that which had so much impressed him 
+out of doors.  It was impossible to discard a sense that something 
+serious was going on, and that under the noisy revel of the public-
+house, there lurked unseen and dangerous matter.  Little affected 
+by this, however, he was perfectly satisfied with his quarters and 
+would have remained there till morning, but that his conductor rose 
+soon after midnight, to go home; Mr Tappertit following his 
+example, left him no excuse to stay.  So they all three left the 
+house together: roaring a No-Popery song until the fields 
+resounded with the dismal noise.
+
+Cheer up, captain!' cried Hugh, when they had roared themselves out 
+of breath.  'Another stave!'
+
+Mr Tappertit, nothing loath, began again; and so the three went 
+staggering on, arm-in-arm, shouting like madmen, and defying the 
+watch with great valour.  Indeed this did not require any unusual 
+bravery or boldness, as the watchmen of that time, being selected 
+for the office on account of excessive age and extraordinary 
+infirmity, had a custom of shutting themselves up tight in their 
+boxes on the first symptoms of disturbance, and remaining there 
+until they disappeared.  In these proceedings, Mr Dennis, who had a 
+gruff voice and lungs of considerable power, distinguished himself 
+very much, and acquired great credit with his two companions.
+
+'What a queer fellow you are!' said Mr Tappertit.  'You're so 
+precious sly and close.  Why don't you ever tell what trade you're 
+of?'
+
+'Answer the captain instantly,' cried Hugh, beating his hat down on 
+his head; 'why don't you ever tell what trade you're of?'
+
+'I'm of as gen-teel a calling, brother, as any man in England--as 
+light a business as any gentleman could desire.'
+
+'Was you 'prenticed to it?' asked Mr Tappertit.
+
+'No.  Natural genius,' said Mr Dennis.  'No 'prenticing.  It come 
+by natur'.  Muster Gashford knows my calling.  Look at that hand of 
+mine--many and many a job that hand has done, with a neatness and 
+dex-terity, never known afore.  When I look at that hand,' said Mr 
+Dennis, shaking it in the air, 'and remember the helegant bits of 
+work it has turned off, I feel quite molloncholy to think it should 
+ever grow old and feeble.  But sich is life!'
+
+He heaved a deep sigh as he indulged in these reflections, and 
+putting his fingers with an absent air on Hugh's throat, and 
+particularly under his left ear, as if he were studying the 
+anatomical development of that part of his frame, shook his head in 
+a despondent manner and actually shed tears.
+
+'You're a kind of artist, I suppose--eh!' said Mr Tappertit.
+
+'Yes,' rejoined Dennis; 'yes--I may call myself a artist--a fancy 
+workman--art improves natur'--that's my motto.'
+
+'And what do you call this?' said Mr Tappertit taking his stick out 
+of his hand.
+
+'That's my portrait atop,' Dennis replied; 'd'ye think it's like?'
+
+'Why--it's a little too handsome,' said Mr Tappertit.  'Who did it?  
+You?'
+
+'I!' repeated Dennis, gazing fondly on his image.  'I wish I had 
+the talent.  That was carved by a friend of mine, as is now no 
+more.  The very day afore he died, he cut that with his pocket-
+knife from memory!  "I'll die game," says my friend, "and my last 
+moments shall be dewoted to making Dennis's picter."  That's it.'
+
+'That was a queer fancy, wasn't it?' said Mr Tappertit.
+
+'It WAS a queer fancy,' rejoined the other, breathing on his 
+fictitious nose, and polishing it with the cuff of his coat, 'but 
+he was a queer subject altogether--a kind of gipsy--one of the 
+finest, stand-up men, you ever see.  Ah!  He told me some things 
+that would startle you a bit, did that friend of mine, on the 
+morning when he died.'
+
+'You were with him at the time, were you?' said Mr Tappertit.
+
+'Yes,' he answered with a curious look, 'I was there.  Oh! yes 
+certainly, I was there.  He wouldn't have gone off half as 
+comfortable without me.  I had been with three or four of his 
+family under the same circumstances.  They were all fine fellows.'
+
+'They must have been fond of you,' remarked Mr Tappertit, looking 
+at him sideways.
+
+'I don't know that they was exactly fond of me,' said Dennis, with 
+a little hesitation, 'but they all had me near 'em when they 
+departed.  I come in for their wardrobes too.  This very handkecher 
+that you see round my neck, belonged to him that I've been speaking 
+of--him as did that likeness.'
+
+Mr Tappertit glanced at the article referred to, and appeared to 
+think that the deceased's ideas of dress were of a peculiar and by 
+no means an expensive kind.  He made no remark upon the point, 
+however, and suffered his mysterious companion to proceed without 
+interruption.
+
+'These smalls,' said Dennis, rubbing his legs; 'these very smalls--
+they belonged to a friend of mine that's left off sich incumbrances 
+for ever: this coat too--I've often walked behind this coat, in the 
+street, and wondered whether it would ever come to me: this pair of 
+shoes have danced a hornpipe for another man, afore my eyes, full 
+half-a-dozen times at least: and as to my hat,' he said, taking it 
+off, and whirling it round upon his fist--'Lord! I've seen this hat 
+go up Holborn on the box of a hackney-coach--ah, many and many a 
+day!'
+
+'You don't mean to say their old wearers are ALL dead, I hope?' 
+said Mr Tappertit, falling a little distance from him as he spoke.
+
+'Every one of 'em,' replied Dennis.  'Every man Jack!'
+
+There was something so very ghastly in this circumstance, and it 
+appeared to account, in such a very strange and dismal manner, for 
+his faded dress--which, in this new aspect, seemed discoloured by 
+the earth from graves--that Mr Tappertit abruptly found he was 
+going another way, and, stopping short, bade him good night with 
+the utmost heartiness.  As they happened to be near the Old Bailey, 
+and Mr Dennis knew there were turnkeys in the lodge with whom he 
+could pass the night, and discuss professional subjects of common 
+interest among them before a rousing fire, and over a social glass, 
+he separated from his companions without any great regret, and 
+warmly shaking hands with Hugh, and making an early appointment for 
+their meeting at The Boot, left them to pursue their road.
+
+'That's a strange sort of man,' said Mr Tappertit, watching the 
+hackney-coachman's hat as it went bobbing down the street.  'I 
+don't know what to make of him.  Why can't he have his smalls made 
+to order, or wear live clothes at any rate?'
+
+'He's a lucky man, captain,' cried Hugh.  'I should like to have 
+such friends as his.'
+
+'I hope he don't get 'em to make their wills, and then knock 'em on 
+the head,' said Mr Tappertit, musing.  'But come.  The United B.'s 
+expect me.  On!--What's the matter?'
+
+'I quite forgot,' said Hugh, who had started at the striking of a 
+neighbouring clock.  'I have somebody to see to-night--I must turn 
+back directly.  The drinking and singing put it out of my head.  
+It's well I remembered it!'
+
+Mr Tappertit looked at him as though he were about to give 
+utterance to some very majestic sentiments in reference to this act 
+of desertion, but as it was clear, from Hugh's hasty manner, that 
+the engagement was one of a pressing nature, he graciously forbore, 
+and gave him his permission to depart immediately, which Hugh 
+acknowledged with a roar of laughter.
+
+'Good night, captain!' he cried.  'I am yours to the death, 
+remember!'
+
+'Farewell!' said Mr Tappertit, waving his hand.  'Be bold and 
+vigilant!'
+
+'No Popery, captain!' roared Hugh.
+
+'England in blood first!' cried his desperate leader.  Whereat Hugh 
+cheered and laughed, and ran off like a greyhound.
+
+'That man will prove a credit to my corps,' said Simon, turning 
+thoughtfully upon his heel.  'And let me see.  In an altered state 
+of society--which must ensue if we break out and are victorious--
+when the locksmith's child is mine, Miggs must be got rid of 
+somehow, or she'll poison the tea-kettle one evening when I'm out.  
+He might marry Miggs, if he was drunk enough.  It shall be done.  
+I'll make a note of it.'
+
+
+
+Chapter 40
+
+
+Little thinking of the plan for his happy settlement in life which 
+had suggested itself to the teeming brain of his provident 
+commander, Hugh made no pause until Saint Dunstan's giants struck 
+the hour above him, when he worked the handle of a pump which stood 
+hard by, with great vigour, and thrusting his head under the spout, 
+let the water gush upon him until a little stream ran down from 
+every uncombed hair, and he was wet to the waist.  Considerably 
+refreshed by this ablution, both in mind and body, and almost 
+sobered for the time, he dried himself as he best could; then 
+crossed the road, and plied the knocker of the Middle Temple gate.
+
+The night-porter looked through a small grating in the portal with 
+a surly eye, and cried 'Halloa!' which greeting Hugh returned in 
+kind, and bade him open quickly.
+
+'We don't sell beer here,' cried the man; 'what else do you want?'
+
+'To come in,' Hugh replied, with a kick at the door.
+
+'Where to go?'
+
+'Paper Buildings.'
+
+'Whose chambers?'
+
+'Sir John Chester's.'  Each of which answers, he emphasised with 
+another kick.
+
+After a little growling on the other side, the gate was opened, and 
+he passed in: undergoing a close inspection from the porter as he 
+did so.
+
+'YOU wanting Sir John, at this time of night!' said the man.
+
+'Ay!' said Hugh.  'I!  What of that?'
+
+'Why, I must go with you and see that you do, for I don't believe 
+it.'
+
+'Come along then.'
+
+Eyeing him with suspicious looks, the man, with key and lantern, 
+walked on at his side, and attended him to Sir John Chester's door, 
+at which Hugh gave one knock, that echoed through the dark 
+staircase like a ghostly summons, and made the dull light tremble 
+in the drowsy lamp.
+
+'Do you think he wants me now?' said Hugh.
+
+Before the man had time to answer, a footstep was heard within, a 
+light appeared, and Sir John, in his dressing-gown and slippers, 
+opened the door.
+
+'I ask your pardon, Sir John,' said the porter, pulling off his 
+hat.  'Here's a young man says he wants to speak to you.  It's late 
+for strangers.  I thought it best to see that all was right.'
+
+'Aha!' cried Sir John, raising his eyebrows.  'It's you, 
+messenger, is it?  Go in.  Quite right, friend.  I commend your 
+prudence highly.  Thank you.  God bless you.  Good night.'
+
+To be commended, thanked, God-blessed, and bade good night by one 
+who carried 'Sir' before his name, and wrote himself M.P. to boot, 
+was something for a porter.  He withdrew with much humility and 
+reverence.  Sir John followed his late visitor into the dressing-
+room, and sitting in his easy-chair before the fire, and moving it 
+so that he could see him as he stood, hat in hand, beside the door, 
+looked at him from head to foot.
+
+The old face, calm and pleasant as ever; the complexion, quite 
+juvenile in its bloom and clearness; the same smile; the wonted 
+precision and elegance of dress; the white, well-ordered teeth; the 
+delicate hands; the composed and quiet manner; everything as it 
+used to be: no mark of age or passion, envy, hate, or discontent: 
+all unruffled and serene, and quite delightful to behold.
+
+He wrote himself M.P.--but how?  Why, thus.  It was a proud family--
+more proud, indeed, than wealthy.  He had stood in danger of 
+arrest; of bailiffs, and a jail--a vulgar jail, to which the common 
+people with small incomes went.  Gentlemen of ancient houses have 
+no privilege of exemption from such cruel laws--unless they are of 
+one great house, and then they have.  A proud man of his stock and 
+kindred had the means of sending him there.  He offered--not indeed 
+to pay his debts, but to let him sit for a close borough until his 
+own son came of age, which, if he lived, would come to pass in 
+twenty years.  It was quite as good as an Insolvent Act, and 
+infinitely more genteel.  So Sir John Chester was a member of 
+Parliament.
+
+But how Sir John?  Nothing so simple, or so easy.  One touch with a 
+sword of state, and the transformation was effected.  John Chester, 
+Esquire, M.P., attended court--went up with an address--headed a 
+deputation.  Such elegance of manner, so many graces of deportment, 
+such powers of conversation, could never pass unnoticed.  Mr was 
+too common for such merit.  A man so gentlemanly should have been--
+but Fortune is capricious--born a Duke: just as some dukes should 
+have been born labourers.  He caught the fancy of the king, knelt 
+down a grub, and rose a butterfly.  John Chester, Esquire, was 
+knighted and became Sir John.
+
+'I thought when you left me this evening, my esteemed 
+acquaintance,' said Sir John after a pretty long silence, 'that you 
+intended to return with all despatch?'
+
+'So I did, master.'
+
+'And so you have?' he retorted, glancing at his watch.  'Is that 
+what you would say?'
+
+Instead of replying, Hugh changed the leg on which he leant, 
+shuffled his cap from one hand to the other, looked at the ground, 
+the wall, the ceiling, and finally at Sir John himself; before 
+whose pleasant face he lowered his eyes again, and fixed them on 
+the floor.
+
+'And how have you been employing yourself in the meanwhile?' quoth 
+Sir John, lazily crossing his legs.  'Where have you been? what 
+harm have you been doing?'
+
+'No harm at all, master,' growled Hugh, with humility.  'I have 
+only done as you ordered.'
+
+'As I WHAT?' returned Sir John.
+
+'Well then,' said Hugh uneasily, 'as you advised, or said I ought, 
+or said I might, or said that you would do, if you was me.  Don't 
+be so hard upon me, master.'
+
+Something like an expression of triumph in the perfect control he 
+had established over this rough instrument appeared in the knight's 
+face for an instant; but it vanished directly, as he said--paring 
+his nails while speaking:
+
+'When you say I ordered you, my good fellow, you imply that I 
+directed you to do something for me--something I wanted done--
+something for my own ends and purposes--you see?  Now I am sure I 
+needn't enlarge upon the extreme absurdity of such an idea, however 
+unintentional; so please--' and here he turned his eyes upon him--
+'to be more guarded.  Will you?'
+
+'I meant to give you no offence,' said Hugh.  'I don't know what to 
+say.  You catch me up so very short.'
+
+'You will be caught up much shorter, my good friend--infinitely 
+shorter--one of these days, depend upon it,' replied his patron 
+calmly.  'By-the-bye, instead of wondering why you have been so 
+long, my wonder should be why you came at all.  Why did you?'
+
+'You know, master,' said Hugh, 'that I couldn't read the bill I 
+found, and that supposing it to be something particular from the 
+way it was wrapped up, I brought it here.'
+
+'And could you ask no one else to read it, Bruin?' said Sir John.
+
+'No one that I could trust with secrets, master.  Since Barnaby 
+Rudge was lost sight of for good and all--and that's five years 
+ago--I haven't talked with any one but you.'
+
+'You have done me honour, I am sure.'
+
+'I have come to and fro, master, all through that time, when there 
+was anything to tell, because I knew that you'd be angry with me if 
+I stayed away,' said Hugh, blurting the words out, after an 
+embarrassed silence; 'and because I wished to please you if I 
+could, and not to have you go against me.  There.  That's the true 
+reason why I came to-night.  You know that, master, I am sure.'
+
+'You are a specious fellow,' returned Sir John, fixing his eyes 
+upon him, 'and carry two faces under your hood, as well as the 
+best.  Didn't you give me in this room, this evening, any other 
+reason; no dislike of anybody who has slighted you lately, on all 
+occasions, abused you, treated you with rudeness; acted towards 
+you, more as if you were a mongrel dog than a man like himself?'
+
+'To be sure I did!' cried Hugh, his passion rising, as the other 
+meant it should; 'and I say it all over now, again.  I'd do 
+anything to have some revenge on him--anything.  And when you told 
+me that he and all the Catholics would suffer from those who joined 
+together under that handbill, I said I'd make one of 'em, if their 
+master was the devil himself.  I AM one of 'em.  See whether I am 
+as good as my word and turn out to be among the foremost, or no.  I 
+mayn't have much head, master, but I've head enough to remember 
+those that use me ill.  You shall see, and so shall he, and so 
+shall hundreds more, how my spirit backs me when the time comes.  
+My bark is nothing to my bite.  Some that I know had better have a 
+wild lion among 'em than me, when I am fairly loose--they had!'
+
+The knight looked at him with a smile of far deeper meaning than 
+ordinary; and pointing to the old cupboard, followed him with his 
+eyes while he filled and drank a glass of liquor; and smiled when 
+his back was turned, with deeper meaning yet.
+
+'You are in a blustering mood, my friend,' he said, when Hugh 
+confronted him again.
+
+'Not I, master!' cried Hugh.  'I don't say half I mean.  I can't.  
+I haven't got the gift.  There are talkers enough among us; I'll be 
+one of the doers.'
+
+'Oh! you have joined those fellows then?' said Sir John, with an 
+air of most profound indifference.
+
+'Yes.  I went up to the house you told me of; and got put down upon 
+the muster.  There was another man there, named Dennis--'
+
+'Dennis, eh!' cried Sir John, laughing.  'Ay, ay! a pleasant 
+fellow, I believe?'
+
+'A roaring dog, master--one after my own heart--hot upon the matter 
+too--red hot.'
+
+'So I have heard,' replied Sir John, carelessly.  'You don't happen 
+to know his trade, do you?'
+
+'He wouldn't say,' cried Hugh.  'He keeps it secret.'
+
+'Ha ha!' laughed Sir John.  'A strange fancy--a weakness with some 
+persons--you'll know it one day, I dare swear.'
+
+'We're intimate already,' said Hugh.
+
+'Quite natural!  And have been drinking together, eh?' pursued Sir 
+John.  'Did you say what place you went to in company, when you 
+left Lord George's?'
+
+Hugh had not said or thought of saying, but he told him; and this 
+inquiry being followed by a long train of questions, he related all 
+that had passed both in and out of doors, the kind of people he had 
+seen, their numbers, state of feeling, mode of conversation, 
+apparent expectations and intentions.  His questioning was so 
+artfully contrived, that he seemed even in his own eyes to 
+volunteer all this information rather than to have it wrested from 
+him; and he was brought to this state of feeling so naturally, that 
+when Mr Chester yawned at length and declared himself quite wearied 
+out, he made a rough kind of excuse for having talked so much.
+
+'There--get you gone,' said Sir John, holding the door open in his 
+hand.  'You have made a pretty evening's work.  I told you not to 
+do this.  You may get into trouble.  You'll have an opportunity of 
+revenging yourself on your proud friend Haredale, though, and for 
+that, you'd hazard anything, I suppose?'
+
+'I would,' retorted Hugh, stopping in his passage out and looking 
+back; 'but what do I risk!  What do I stand a chance of losing, 
+master?  Friends, home?  A fig for 'em all; I have none; they are 
+nothing to me.  Give me a good scuffle; let me pay off old scores 
+in a bold riot where there are men to stand by me; and then use me 
+as you like--it don't matter much to me what the end is!'
+
+'What have you done with that paper?' said Sir John.
+
+'I have it here, master.'
+
+'Drop it again as you go along; it's as well not to keep such 
+things about you.'
+
+Hugh nodded, and touching his cap with an air of as much respect as 
+he could summon up, departed.
+
+Sir John, fastening the doors behind him, went back to his 
+dressing-room, and sat down once again before the fire, at which 
+he gazed for a long time, in earnest meditation.
+
+'This happens fortunately,' he said, breaking into a smile, 'and 
+promises well.  Let me see.  My relative and I, who are the most 
+Protestant fellows in the world, give our worst wishes to the Roman 
+Catholic cause; and to Saville, who introduces their bill, I have 
+a personal objection besides; but as each of us has himself for 
+the first article in his creed, we cannot commit ourselves by 
+joining with a very extravagant madman, such as this Gordon most 
+undoubtedly is.  Now really, to foment his disturbances in secret, 
+through the medium of such a very apt instrument as my savage 
+friend here, may further our real ends; and to express at all 
+becoming seasons, in moderate and polite terms, a disapprobation of 
+his proceedings, though we agree with him in principle, will 
+certainly be to gain a character for honesty and uprightness of 
+purpose, which cannot fail to do us infinite service, and to raise 
+us into some importance.  Good!  So much for public grounds.  As to 
+private considerations, I confess that if these vagabonds WOULD 
+make some riotous demonstration (which does not appear impossible), 
+and WOULD inflict some little chastisement on Haredale as a not 
+inactive man among his sect, it would be extremely agreeable to my 
+feelings, and would amuse me beyond measure.  Good again!  Perhaps 
+better!'
+
+When he came to this point, he took a pinch of snuff; then 
+beginning slowly to undress, he resumed his meditations, by saying 
+with a smile:
+
+'I fear, I DO fear exceedingly, that my friend is following fast in 
+the footsteps of his mother.  His intimacy with Mr Dennis is very 
+ominous.  But I have no doubt he must have come to that end any 
+way.  If I lend him a helping hand, the only difference is, that he 
+may, upon the whole, possibly drink a few gallons, or puncheons, or 
+hogsheads, less in this life than he otherwise would.  It's no 
+business of mine.  It's a matter of very small importance!'
+
+So he took another pinch of snuff, and went to bed.
+
+
+
+Chapter 41
+
+
+From the workshop of the Golden Key, there issued forth a tinkling 
+sound, so merry and good-humoured, that it suggested the idea of 
+some one working blithely, and made quite pleasant music.  No man 
+who hammered on at a dull monotonous duty, could have brought such 
+cheerful notes from steel and iron; none but a chirping, healthy, 
+honest-hearted fellow, who made the best of everything, and felt 
+kindly towards everybody, could have done it for an instant.  He 
+might have been a coppersmith, and still been musical.  If he had 
+sat in a jolting waggon, full of rods of iron, it seemed as if he 
+would have brought some harmony out of it.
+
+Tink, tink, tink--clear as a silver bell, and audible at every 
+pause of the streets' harsher noises, as though it said, 'I don't 
+care; nothing puts me out; I am resolved to he happy.'  Women 
+scolded, children squalled, heavy carts went rumbling by, horrible 
+cries proceeded from the lungs of hawkers; still it struck in 
+again, no higher, no lower, no louder, no softer; not thrusting 
+itself on people's notice a bit the more for having been outdone by 
+louder sounds--tink, tink, tink, tink, tink.
+
+It was a perfect embodiment of the still small voice, free from all 
+cold, hoarseness, huskiness, or unhealthiness of any kind; foot-
+passengers slackened their pace, and were disposed to linger near 
+it; neighbours who had got up splenetic that morning, felt good-
+humour stealing on them as they heard it, and by degrees became 
+quite sprightly; mothers danced their babies to its ringing; still 
+the same magical tink, tink, tink, came gaily from the workshop of 
+the Golden Key.
+
+Who but the locksmith could have made such music!  A gleam of sun 
+shining through the unsashed window, and chequering the dark 
+workshop with a broad patch of light, fell full upon him, as though 
+attracted by his sunny heart.  There he stood working at his anvil, 
+his face all radiant with exercise and gladness, his sleeves turned 
+up, his wig pushed off his shining forehead--the easiest, freest, 
+happiest man in all the world.  Beside him sat a sleek cat, purring 
+and winking in the light, and falling every now and then into an 
+idle doze, as from excess of comfort.  Toby looked on from a tall 
+bench hard by; one beaming smile, from his broad nut-brown face 
+down to the slack-baked buckles in his shoes.  The very locks that 
+hung around had something jovial in their rust, and seemed like 
+gouty gentlemen of hearty natures, disposed to joke on their 
+infirmities.  There was nothing surly or severe in the whole scene.  
+It seemed impossible that any one of the innumerable keys could fit 
+a churlish strong-box or a prison-door.  Cellars of beer and wine, 
+rooms where there were fires, books, gossip, and cheering laughter--
+these were their proper sphere of action.  Places of distrust and 
+cruelty, and restraint, they would have left quadruple-locked for 
+ever.
+
+Tink, tink, tink.  The locksmith paused at last, and wiped his 
+brow.  The silence roused the cat, who, jumping softly down, crept 
+to the door, and watched with tiger eyes a bird-cage in an opposite 
+window.  Gabriel lifted Toby to his mouth, and took a hearty 
+draught.
+
+Then, as he stood upright, with his head flung back, and his portly 
+chest thrown out, you would have seen that Gabriel's lower man was 
+clothed in military gear.  Glancing at the wall beyond, there might 
+have been espied, hanging on their several pegs, a cap and feather, 
+broadsword, sash, and coat of scarlet; which any man learned in 
+such matters would have known from their make and pattern to be the 
+uniform of a serjeant in the Royal East London Volunteers.
+
+As the locksmith put his mug down, empty, on the bench whence it 
+had smiled on him before, he glanced at these articles with a 
+laughing eye, and looking at them with his head a little on one 
+side, as though he would get them all into a focus, said, leaning 
+on his hammer:
+
+'Time was, now, I remember, when I was like to run mad with the 
+desire to wear a coat of that colour.  If any one (except my 
+father) had called me a fool for my pains, how I should have fired 
+and fumed!  But what a fool I must have been, sure-ly!'
+
+'Ah!' sighed Mrs Varden, who had entered unobserved.  'A fool 
+indeed.  A man at your time of life, Varden, should know better 
+now.'
+
+'Why, what a ridiculous woman you are, Martha,' said the locksmith, 
+turning round with a smile.
+
+'Certainly,' replied Mrs V. with great demureness.  'Of course I 
+am.  I know that, Varden.  Thank you.'
+
+'I mean--' began the locksmith.
+
+'Yes,' said his wife, 'I know what you mean.  You speak quite plain 
+enough to be understood, Varden.  It's very kind of you to adapt 
+yourself to my capacity, I am sure.'
+
+'Tut, tut, Martha,' rejoined the locksmith; 'don't take offence at 
+nothing.  I mean, how strange it is of you to run down 
+volunteering, when it's done to defend you and all the other women, 
+and our own fireside and everybody else's, in case of need.'
+
+'It's unchristian,' cried Mrs Varden, shaking her head.
+
+'Unchristian!' said the locksmith.  'Why, what the devil--'
+
+Mrs Varden looked at the ceiling, as in expectation that the 
+consequence of this profanity would be the immediate descent of the 
+four-post bedstead on the second floor, together with the best 
+sitting-room on the first; but no visible judgment occurring, she 
+heaved a deep sigh, and begged her husband, in a tone of 
+resignation, to go on, and by all means to blaspheme as much as 
+possible, because he knew she liked it.
+
+The locksmith did for a moment seem disposed to gratify her, but he 
+gave a great gulp, and mildly rejoined:
+
+'I was going to say, what on earth do you call it unchristian for?  
+Which would be most unchristian, Martha--to sit quietly down and 
+let our houses be sacked by a foreign army, or to turn out like men 
+and drive 'em off?  Shouldn't I be a nice sort of a Christian, if I 
+crept into a corner of my own chimney and looked on while a parcel 
+of whiskered savages bore off Dolly--or you?'
+
+When he said 'or you,' Mrs Varden, despite herself, relaxed into a 
+smile.  There was something complimentary in the idea.  'In such a 
+state of things as that, indeed--' she simpered.
+
+'As that!' repeated the locksmith.  'Well, that would be the state 
+of things directly.  Even Miggs would go.  Some black tambourine-
+player, with a great turban on, would be bearing HER off, and, 
+unless the tambourine-player was proof against kicking and 
+scratching, it's my belief he'd have the worst of it.  Ha ha ha!  
+I'd forgive the tambourine-player.  I wouldn't have him interfered 
+with on any account, poor fellow.'  And here the locksmith laughed 
+again so heartily, that tears came into his eyes--much to Mrs 
+Varden's indignation, who thought the capture of so sound a 
+Protestant and estimable a private character as Miggs by a pagan 
+negro, a circumstance too shocking and awful for contemplation.
+
+The picture Gabriel had drawn, indeed, threatened serious 
+consequences, and would indubitably have led to them, but luckily 
+at that moment a light footstep crossed the threshold, and Dolly, 
+running in, threw her arms round her old father's neck and hugged 
+him tight.
+
+'Here she is at last!' cried Gabriel.  'And how well you look, 
+Doll, and how late you are, my darling!'
+
+How well she looked?  Well?  Why, if he had exhausted every 
+laudatory adjective in the dictionary, it wouldn't have been praise 
+enough.  When and where was there ever such a plump, roguish, 
+comely, bright-eyed, enticing, bewitching, captivating, maddening 
+little puss in all this world, as Dolly!  What was the Dolly of 
+five years ago, to the Dolly of that day!  How many coachmakers, 
+saddlers, cabinet-makers, and professors of other useful arts, had 
+deserted their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and, most of 
+all, their cousins, for the love of her!  How many unknown 
+gentlemen--supposed to be of mighty fortunes, if not titles--had 
+waited round the corner after dark, and tempted Miggs the 
+incorruptible, with golden guineas, to deliver offers of marriage 
+folded up in love-letters!  How many disconsolate fathers and 
+substantial tradesmen had waited on the locksmith for the same 
+purpose, with dismal tales of how their sons had lost their 
+appetites, and taken to shut themselves up in dark bedrooms, and 
+wandering in desolate suburbs with pale faces, and all because of 
+Dolly Varden's loveliness and cruelty!  How many young men, in all 
+previous times of unprecedented steadiness, had turned suddenly 
+wild and wicked for the same reason, and, in an ecstasy of 
+unrequited love, taken to wrench off door-knockers, and invert the 
+boxes of rheumatic watchmen!  How had she recruited the king's 
+service, both by sea and land, through rendering desperate his 
+loving subjects between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five!  How 
+many young ladies had publicly professed, with tears in their eyes, 
+that for their tastes she was much too short, too tall, too bold, 
+too cold, too stout, too thin, too fair, too dark--too everything 
+but handsome!  How many old ladies, taking counsel together, had 
+thanked Heaven their daughters were not like her, and had hoped she 
+might come to no harm, and had thought she would come to no good, 
+and had wondered what people saw in her, and had arrived at the 
+conclusion that she was 'going off' in her looks, or had never come 
+on in them, and that she was a thorough imposition and a popular 
+mistake!
+
+And yet here was this same Dolly Varden, so whimsical and hard to 
+please that she was Dolly Varden still, all smiles and dimples and 
+pleasant looks, and caring no more for the fifty or sixty young 
+fellows who at that very moment were breaking their hearts to marry 
+her, than if so many oysters had been crossed in love and opened 
+afterwards.
+
+Dolly hugged her father as has been already stated, and having 
+hugged her mother also, accompanied both into the little parlour 
+where the cloth was already laid for dinner, and where Miss Miggs--
+a trifle more rigid and bony than of yore--received her with a sort 
+of hysterical gasp, intended for a smile.  Into the hands of that 
+young virgin, she delivered her bonnet and walking dress (all of a 
+dreadful, artful, and designing kind), and then said with a laugh, 
+which rivalled the locksmith's music, 'How glad I always am to be 
+at home again!'
+
+'And how glad we always are, Doll,' said her father, putting back 
+the dark hair from her sparkling eyes, 'to have you at home.  Give 
+me a kiss.'
+
+If there had been anybody of the male kind there to see her do it--
+but there was not--it was a mercy.
+
+'I don't like your being at the Warren,' said the locksmith, 'I 
+can't bear to have you out of my sight.  And what is the news over 
+yonder, Doll?'
+
+'What news there is, I think you know already,' replied his 
+daughter.  'I am sure you do though.'
+
+'Ay?' cried the locksmith.  'What's that?'
+
+'Come, come,' said Dolly, 'you know very well.  I want you to tell 
+me why Mr Haredale--oh, how gruff he is again, to be sure!--has 
+been away from home for some days past, and why he is travelling 
+about (we know he IS travelling, because of his letters) without 
+telling his own niece why or wherefore.'
+
+'Miss Emma doesn't want to know, I'll swear,' returned the 
+locksmith.
+
+'I don't know that,' said Dolly; 'but I do, at any rate.  Do tell 
+me.  Why is he so secret, and what is this ghost story, which 
+nobody is to tell Miss Emma, and which seems to be mixed up with 
+his going away?  Now I see you know by your colouring so.'
+
+'What the story means, or is, or has to do with it, I know no more 
+than you, my dear,' returned the locksmith, 'except that it's some 
+foolish fear of little Solomon's--which has, indeed, no meaning in 
+it, I suppose.  As to Mr Haredale's journey, he goes, as I believe--'
+
+'Yes,' said Dolly.
+
+'As I believe,' resumed the locksmith, pinching her cheek, 'on 
+business, Doll.  What it may be, is quite another matter.  Read 
+Blue Beard, and don't be too curious, pet; it's no business of 
+yours or mine, depend upon that; and here's dinner, which is much 
+more to the purpose.'
+
+Dolly might have remonstrated against this summary dismissal of the 
+subject, notwithstanding the appearance of dinner, but at the 
+mention of Blue Beard Mrs Varden interposed, protesting she could 
+not find it in her conscience to sit tamely by, and hear her child 
+recommended to peruse the adventures of a Turk and Mussulman--far 
+less of a fabulous Turk, which she considered that potentate to be.  
+She held that, in such stirring and tremendous times as those in 
+which they lived, it would be much more to the purpose if Dolly 
+became a regular subscriber to the Thunderer, where she would have 
+an opportunity of reading Lord George Gordon's speeches word for 
+word, which would be a greater comfort and solace to her, than a 
+hundred and fifty Blue Beards ever could impart.  She appealed in 
+support of this proposition to Miss Miggs, then in waiting, who 
+said that indeed the peace of mind she had derived from the perusal 
+of that paper generally, but especially of one article of the very 
+last week as ever was, entitled 'Great Britain drenched in gore,' 
+exceeded all belief; the same composition, she added, had also 
+wrought such a comforting effect on the mind of a married sister of 
+hers, then resident at Golden Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, 
+second bell-handle on the right-hand door-post, that, being in a 
+delicate state of health, and in fact expecting an addition to her 
+family, she had been seized with fits directly after its perusal, 
+and had raved of the Inquisition ever since; to the great 
+improvement of her husband and friends.  Miss Miggs went on to say 
+that she would recommend all those whose hearts were hardened to 
+hear Lord George themselves, whom she commended first, in respect 
+of his steady Protestantism, then of his oratory, then of his eyes, 
+then of his nose, then of his legs, and lastly of his figure 
+generally, which she looked upon as fit for any statue, prince, or 
+angel, to which sentiment Mrs Varden fully subscribed.
+
+Mrs Varden having cut in, looked at a box upon the mantelshelf, 
+painted in imitation of a very red-brick dwelling-house, with a 
+yellow roof; having at top a real chimney, down which voluntary 
+subscribers dropped their silver, gold, or pence, into the parlour; 
+and on the door the counterfeit presentment of a brass plate, 
+whereon was legibly inscribed 'Protestant Association:'--and 
+looking at it, said, that it was to her a source of poignant misery 
+to think that Varden never had, of all his substance, dropped 
+anything into that temple, save once in secret--as she afterwards 
+discovered--two fragments of tobacco-pipe, which she hoped would 
+not be put down to his last account.  That Dolly, she was grieved 
+to say, was no less backward in her contributions, better loving, 
+as it seemed, to purchase ribbons and such gauds, than to encourage 
+the great cause, then in such heavy tribulation; and that she did 
+entreat her (her father she much feared could not be moved) not to 
+despise, but imitate, the bright example of Miss Miggs, who flung 
+her wages, as it were, into the very countenance of the Pope, and 
+bruised his features with her quarter's money.
+
+'Oh, mim,' said Miggs, 'don't relude to that.  I had no intentions, 
+mim, that nobody should know.  Such sacrifices as I can make, are 
+quite a widder's mite.  It's all I have,' cried Miggs with a great 
+burst of tears--for with her they never came on by degrees--'but 
+it's made up to me in other ways; it's well made up.'
+
+This was quite true, though not perhaps in the sense that Miggs 
+intended.  As she never failed to keep her self-denial full in Mrs 
+Varden's view, it drew forth so many gifts of caps and gowns and 
+other articles of dress, that upon the whole the red-brick house 
+was perhaps the best investment for her small capital she could 
+possibly have hit upon; returning her interest, at the rate of 
+seven or eight per cent in money, and fifty at least in personal 
+repute and credit.
+
+'You needn't cry, Miggs,' said Mrs Varden, herself in tears; 'you 
+needn't be ashamed of it, though your poor mistress IS on the same 
+side.'
+
+Miggs howled at this remark, in a peculiarly dismal way, and said 
+she knowed that master hated her.  That it was a dreadful thing to 
+live in families and have dislikes, and not give satisfactions.  
+That to make divisions was a thing she could not abear to think of, 
+neither could her feelings let her do it.  That if it was master's 
+wishes as she and him should part, it was best they should part, 
+and she hoped he might be the happier for it, and always wished him 
+well, and that he might find somebody as would meet his 
+dispositions.  It would be a hard trial, she said, to part from 
+such a missis, but she could meet any suffering when her conscience 
+told her she was in the rights, and therefore she was willing even 
+to go that lengths.  She did not think, she added, that she could 
+long survive the separations, but, as she was hated and looked upon 
+unpleasant, perhaps her dying as soon as possible would be the best 
+endings for all parties.  With this affecting conclusion, Miss 
+Miggs shed more tears, and sobbed abundantly.
+
+'Can you bear this, Varden?' said his wife in a solemn voice, 
+laying down her knife and fork.
+
+'Why, not very well, my dear,' rejoined the locksmith, 'but I try 
+to keep my temper.'
+
+'Don't let there be words on my account, mim,' sobbed Miggs.  'It's 
+much the best that we should part.  I wouldn't stay--oh, gracious 
+me!--and make dissensions, not for a annual gold mine, and found in 
+tea and sugar.'
+
+Lest the reader should be at any loss to discover the cause of Miss 
+Miggs's deep emotion, it may be whispered apart that, happening to 
+be listening, as her custom sometimes was, when Gabriel and his 
+wife conversed together, she had heard the locksmith's joke 
+relative to the foreign black who played the tambourine, and 
+bursting with the spiteful feelings which the taunt awoke in her 
+fair breast, exploded in the manner we have witnessed.  Matters 
+having now arrived at a crisis, the locksmith, as usual, and for 
+the sake of peace and quietness, gave in.
+
+'What are you crying for, girl?' he said.  'What's the matter with 
+you?  What are you talking about hatred for?  I don't hate you; I 
+don't hate anybody.  Dry your eyes and make yourself agreeable, in 
+Heaven's name, and let us all be happy while we can.'
+
+The allied powers deeming it good generalship to consider this a 
+sufficient apology on the part of the enemy, and confession of 
+having been in the wrong, did dry their eyes and take it in good 
+part.  Miss Miggs observed that she bore no malice, no not to her 
+greatest foe, whom she rather loved the more indeed, the greater 
+persecution she sustained.  Mrs Varden approved of this meek and 
+forgiving spirit in high terms, and incidentally declared as a 
+closing article of agreement, that Dolly should accompany her to 
+the Clerkenwell branch of the association, that very night.  This 
+was an extraordinary instance of her great prudence and policy; 
+having had this end in view from the first, and entertaining a 
+secret misgiving that the locksmith (who was bold when Dolly was in 
+question) would object, she had backed Miss Miggs up to this 
+point, in order that she might have him at a disadvantage.  The 
+manoeuvre succeeded so well that Gabriel only made a wry face, and 
+with the warning he had just had, fresh in his mind, did not dare 
+to say one word.
+
+The difference ended, therefore, in Miggs being presented with a 
+gown by Mrs Varden and half-a-crown by Dolly, as if she had 
+eminently distinguished herself in the paths of morality and 
+goodness.  Mrs V., according to custom, expressed her hope that 
+Varden would take a lesson from what had passed and learn more 
+generous conduct for the time to come; and the dinner being now 
+cold and nobody's appetite very much improved by what had passed, 
+they went on with it, as Mrs Varden said, 'like Christians.'
+
+As there was to be a grand parade of the Royal East London 
+Volunteers that afternoon, the locksmith did no more work; but sat 
+down comfortably with his pipe in his mouth, and his arm round his 
+pretty daughter's waist, looking lovingly on Mrs V., from time to 
+time, and exhibiting from the crown of his head to the sole of his 
+foot, one smiling surface of good humour.  And to be sure, when it 
+was time to dress him in his regimentals, and Dolly, hanging about 
+him in all kinds of graceful winning ways, helped to button and 
+buckle and brush him up and get him into one of the tightest coats 
+that ever was made by mortal tailor, he was the proudest father in 
+all England.
+
+'What a handy jade it is!' said the locksmith to Mrs Varden, who 
+stood by with folded hands--rather proud of her husband too--while 
+Miggs held his cap and sword at arm's length, as if mistrusting 
+that the latter might run some one through the body of its own 
+accord; 'but never marry a soldier, Doll, my dear.'
+
+Dolly didn't ask why not, or say a word, indeed, but stooped her 
+head down very low to tie his sash.
+
+'I never wear this dress,' said honest Gabriel, 'but I think of 
+poor Joe Willet.  I loved Joe; he was always a favourite of mine.  
+Poor Joe!--Dear heart, my girl, don't tie me in so tight.'
+
+Dolly laughed--not like herself at all--the strangest little laugh 
+that could be--and held her head down lower still.
+
+'Poor Joe!' resumed the locksmith, muttering to himself; 'I always 
+wish he had come to me.  I might have made it up between them, if 
+he had.  Ah! old John made a great mistake in his way of acting by 
+that lad--a great mistake.--Have you nearly tied that sash, my 
+dear?'
+
+What an ill-made sash it was!  There it was, loose again and 
+trailing on the ground.  Dolly was obliged to kneel down, and 
+recommence at the beginning.
+
+'Never mind young Willet, Varden,' said his wife frowning; 'you 
+might find some one more deserving to talk about, I think.'
+
+Miss Miggs gave a great sniff to the same effect.
+
+'Nay, Martha,' cried the locksmith, 'don't let us bear too hard 
+upon him.  If the lad is dead indeed, we'll deal kindly by his 
+memory.'
+
+'A runaway and a vagabond!' said Mrs Varden.
+
+Miss Miggs expressed her concurrence as before.
+
+'A runaway, my dear, but not a vagabond,' returned the locksmith in 
+a gentle tone.  'He behaved himself well, did Joe--always--and was 
+a handsome, manly fellow.  Don't call him a vagabond, Martha.'
+
+Mrs Varden coughed--and so did Miggs.
+
+'He tried hard to gain your good opinion, Martha, I can tell you,' 
+said the locksmith smiling, and stroking his chin.  'Ah! that he 
+did.  It seems but yesterday that he followed me out to the Maypole 
+door one night, and begged me not to say how like a boy they used 
+him--say here, at home, he meant, though at the time, I recollect, 
+I didn't understand.  "And how's Miss Dolly, sir?" says Joe,' 
+pursued the locksmith, musing sorrowfully, 'Ah!  Poor Joe!'
+
+'Well, I declare,' cried Miggs.  'Oh! Goodness gracious me!'
+
+'What's the matter now?' said Gabriel, turning sharply to her, 
+'Why, if here an't Miss Dolly,' said the handmaid, stooping down to 
+look into her face, 'a-giving way to floods of tears.  Oh mim! oh 
+sir.  Raly it's give me such a turn,' cried the susceptible damsel, 
+pressing her hand upon her side to quell the palpitation of her 
+heart, 'that you might knock me down with a feather.'
+
+The locksmith, after glancing at Miss Miggs as if he could have 
+wished to have a feather brought straightway, looked on with a 
+broad stare while Dolly hurried away, followed by that sympathising 
+young woman: then turning to his wife, stammered out, 'Is Dolly 
+ill?  Have I done anything?  Is it my fault?'
+
+'Your fault!' cried Mrs V. reproachfully.  'There--you had better 
+make haste out.'
+
+'What have I done?' said poor Gabriel.  'It was agreed that Mr 
+Edward's name was never to be mentioned, and I have not spoken of 
+him, have I?'
+
+Mrs Varden merely replied that she had no patience with him, and 
+bounced off after the other two.  The unfortunate locksmith wound 
+his sash about him, girded on his sword, put on his cap, and walked 
+out.
+
+'I am not much of a dab at my exercise,' he said under his breath, 
+'but I shall get into fewer scrapes at that work than at this.  
+Every man came into the world for something; my department seems to 
+be to make every woman cry without meaning it.  It's rather hard!'
+
+But he forgot it before he reached the end of the street, and went 
+on with a shining face, nodding to the neighbours, and showering 
+about his friendly greetings like mild spring rain.
+
+
+
+Chapter 42
+
+
+The Royal East London Volunteers made a brilliant sight that day: 
+formed into lines, squares, circles, triangles, and what not, to 
+the beating of drums, and the streaming of flags; and performed a 
+vast number of complex evolutions, in all of which Serjeant Varden 
+bore a conspicuous share.  Having displayed their military prowess 
+to the utmost in these warlike shows, they marched in glittering 
+order to the Chelsea Bun House, and regaled in the adjacent taverns 
+until dark.  Then at sound of drum they fell in again, and 
+returned amidst the shouting of His Majesty's lieges to the place 
+from whence they came.
+
+The homeward march being somewhat tardy,--owing to the un-
+soldierlike behaviour of certain corporals, who, being gentlemen of 
+sedentary pursuits in private life and excitable out of doors, 
+broke several windows with their bayonets, and rendered it 
+imperative on the commanding officer to deliver them over to a 
+strong guard, with whom they fought at intervals as they came 
+along,--it was nine o'clock when the locksmith reached home.  A 
+hackney-coach was waiting near his door; and as he passed it, Mr 
+Haredale looked from the window and called him by his name.
+
+'The sight of you is good for sore eyes, sir,' said the locksmith, 
+stepping up to him.  'I wish you had walked in though, rather than 
+waited here.'
+
+'There is nobody at home, I find,' Mr Haredale answered; 'besides, 
+I desired to be as private as I could.'
+
+'Humph!' muttered the locksmith, looking round at his house.  
+'Gone with Simon Tappertit to that precious Branch, no doubt.'
+
+Mr Haredale invited him to come into the coach, and, if he were not 
+tired or anxious to go home, to ride with him a little way that 
+they might have some talk together.  Gabriel cheerfully complied, 
+and the coachman mounting his box drove off.
+
+'Varden,' said Mr Haredale, after a minute's pause, 'you will be 
+amazed to hear what errand I am on; it will seem a very strange 
+one.'
+
+'I have no doubt it's a reasonable one, sir, and has a meaning in 
+it,' replied the locksmith; 'or it would not be yours at all.  Have 
+you just come back to town, sir?'
+
+'But half an hour ago.'
+
+'Bringing no news of Barnaby, or his mother?' said the locksmith 
+dubiously.  'Ah! you needn't shake your head, sir.  It was a wild-
+goose chase.  I feared that, from the first.  You exhausted all 
+reasonable means of discovery when they went away.  To begin again 
+after so long a time has passed is hopeless, sir--quite hopeless.'
+
+'Why, where are they?' he returned impatiently.  'Where can they 
+be?  Above ground?'
+
+'God knows,' rejoined the locksmith, 'many that I knew above it 
+five years ago, have their beds under the grass now.  And the world 
+is a wide place.  It's a hopeless attempt, sir, believe me.  We 
+must leave the discovery of this mystery, like all others, to time, 
+and accident, and Heaven's pleasure.'
+
+'Varden, my good fellow,' said Mr Haredale, 'I have a deeper 
+meaning in my present anxiety to find them out, than you can 
+fathom.  It is not a mere whim; it is not the casual revival of my 
+old wishes and desires; but an earnest, solemn purpose.  My 
+thoughts and dreams all tend to it, and fix it in my mind.  I have 
+no rest by day or night; I have no peace or quiet; I am haunted.'
+
+His voice was so altered from its usual tones, and his manner 
+bespoke so much emotion, that Gabriel, in his wonder, could only 
+sit and look towards him in the darkness, and fancy the expression 
+of his face.
+
+'Do not ask me,' continued Mr Haredale, 'to explain myself.  If I 
+were to do so, you would think me the victim of some hideous fancy.  
+It is enough that this is so, and that I cannot--no, I can not--lie 
+quietly in my bed, without doing what will seem to you 
+incomprehensible.'
+
+'Since when, sir,' said the locksmith after a pause, 'has this 
+uneasy feeling been upon you?'
+
+Mr Haredale hesitated for some moments, and then replied: 'Since 
+the night of the storm.  In short, since the last nineteenth of 
+March.'
+
+As though he feared that Varden might express surprise, or reason 
+with him, he hastily went on:
+
+'You will think, I know, I labour under some delusion.  Perhaps I 
+do.  But it is not a morbid one; it is a wholesome action of the 
+mind, reasoning on actual occurrences.  You know the furniture 
+remains in Mrs Rudge's house, and that it has been shut up, by my 
+orders, since she went away, save once a-week or so, when an old 
+neighbour visits it to scare away the rats.  I am on my way there 
+now.'
+
+'For what purpose?' asked the locksmith.
+
+'To pass the night there,' he replied; 'and not to-night alone, but 
+many nights.  This is a secret which I trust to you in case of any 
+unexpected emergency.  You will not come, unless in case of strong 
+necessity, to me; from dusk to broad day I shall be there.  Emma, 
+your daughter, and the rest, suppose me out of London, as I have 
+been until within this hour.  Do not undeceive them.  This is the 
+errand I am bound upon.  I know I may confide it to you, and I rely 
+upon your questioning me no more at this time.'
+
+With that, as if to change the theme, he led the astounded 
+locksmith back to the night of the Maypole highwayman, to the 
+robbery of Edward Chester, to the reappearance of the man at Mrs 
+Rudge's house, and to all the strange circumstances which 
+afterwards occurred.  He even asked him carelessly about the man's 
+height, his face, his figure, whether he was like any one he had 
+ever seen--like Hugh, for instance, or any man he had known at any 
+time--and put many questions of that sort, which the locksmith, 
+considering them as mere devices to engage his attention and 
+prevent his expressing the astonishment he felt, answered pretty 
+much at random.
+
+At length, they arrived at the corner of the street in which the 
+house stood, where Mr Haredale, alighting, dismissed the coach.  
+'If you desire to see me safely lodged,' he said, turning to the 
+locksmith with a gloomy smile, 'you can.'
+
+Gabriel, to whom all former marvels had been nothing in comparison 
+with this, followed him along the narrow pavement in silence.  When 
+they reached the door, Mr Haredale softly opened it with a key he 
+had about him, and closing it when Varden entered, they were left 
+in thorough darkness.
+
+They groped their way into the ground-floor room.  Here Mr 
+Haredale struck a light, and kindled a pocket taper he had brought 
+with him for the purpose.  It was then, when the flame was full 
+upon him, that the locksmith saw for the first time how haggard, 
+pale, and changed he looked; how worn and thin he was; how 
+perfectly his whole appearance coincided with all that he had said 
+so strangely as they rode along.  It was not an unnatural impulse 
+in Gabriel, after what he had heard, to note curiously the 
+expression of his eyes.  It was perfectly collected and rational;--
+so much so, indeed, that he felt ashamed of his momentary 
+suspicion, and drooped his own when Mr Haredale looked towards him, 
+as if he feared they would betray his thoughts.
+
+'Will you walk through the house?' said Mr Haredale, with a glance 
+towards the window, the crazy shutters of which were closed and 
+fastened.  'Speak low.'
+
+There was a kind of awe about the place, which would have rendered 
+it difficult to speak in any other manner.  Gabriel whispered 
+'Yes,' and followed him upstairs.
+
+Everything was just as they had seen it last.  There was a sense of 
+closeness from the exclusion of fresh air, and a gloom and 
+heaviness around, as though long imprisonment had made the very 
+silence sad.  The homely hangings of the beds and windows had begun 
+to droop; the dust lay thick upon their dwindling folds; and damps 
+had made their way through ceiling, wall, and floor.  The boards 
+creaked beneath their tread, as if resenting the unaccustomed 
+intrusion; nimble spiders, paralysed by the taper's glare, checked 
+the motion of their hundred legs upon the wall, or dropped like 
+lifeless things upon the ground; the death-watch ticked; and the 
+scampering feet of rats and mice rattled behind the wainscot.
+
+As they looked about them on the decaying furniture, it was strange 
+to find how vividly it presented those to whom it had belonged, and 
+with whom it was once familiar.  Grip seemed to perch again upon 
+his high-backed chair; Barnaby to crouch in his old favourite 
+corner by the fire; the mother to resume her usual seat, and watch 
+him as of old.  Even when they could separate these objects from 
+the phantoms of the mind which they invoked, the latter only glided 
+out of sight, but lingered near them still; for then they seemed to 
+lurk in closets and behind the doors, ready to start out and 
+suddenly accost them in well-remembered tones.
+
+They went downstairs, and again into the room they had just now 
+left.  Mr Haredale unbuckled his sword and laid it on the table, 
+with a pair of pocket pistols; then told the locksmith he would 
+light him to the door.
+
+'But this is a dull place, sir,' said Gabriel lingering; 'may no 
+one share your watch?'
+
+He shook his head, and so plainly evinced his wish to be alone, 
+that Gabriel could say no more.  In another moment the locksmith 
+was standing in the street, whence he could see that the light once 
+more travelled upstairs, and soon returning to the room below, 
+shone brightly through the chinks of the shutters.
+
+If ever man were sorely puzzled and perplexed, the locksmith was, 
+that night.  Even when snugly seated by his own fireside, with Mrs 
+Varden opposite in a nightcap and night-jacket, and Dolly beside 
+him (in a most distracting dishabille) curling her hair, and 
+smiling as if she had never cried in all her life and never could--
+even then, with Toby at his elbow and his pipe in his mouth, and 
+Miggs (but that perhaps was not much) falling asleep in the 
+background, he could not quite discard his wonder and uneasiness.  
+So in his dreams--still there was Mr Haredale, haggard and 
+careworn, listening in the solitary house to every sound that 
+stirred, with the taper shining through the chinks until the day 
+should turn it pale and end his lonely watching.
+
+
+
+Chapter 43
+
+
+Next morning brought no satisfaction to the locksmith's thoughts, 
+nor next day, nor the next, nor many others.  Often after nightfall 
+he entered the street, and turned his eyes towards the well-known 
+house; and as surely as he did so, there was the solitary light, 
+still gleaming through the crevices of the window-shutter, while 
+all within was motionless, noiseless, cheerless, as a grave.  
+Unwilling to hazard Mr Haredale's favour by disobeying his strict 
+injunction, he never ventured to knock at the door or to make his 
+presence known in any way.  But whenever strong interest and 
+curiosity attracted him to the spot--which was not seldom--the 
+light was always there.
+
+If he could have known what passed within, the knowledge would have 
+yielded him no clue to this mysterious vigil.  At twilight, Mr 
+Haredale shut himself up, and at daybreak he came forth.  He never 
+missed a night, always came and went alone, and never varied his 
+proceedings in the least degree.
+
+The manner of his watch was this.  At dusk, he entered the house in 
+the same way as when the locksmith bore him company, kindled a 
+light, went through the rooms, and narrowly examined them.  That 
+done, he returned to the chamber on the ground-floor, and laying 
+his sword and pistols on the table, sat by it until morning.
+
+He usually had a book with him, and often tried to read, but never 
+fixed his eyes or thoughts upon it for five minutes together.  The 
+slightest noise without doors, caught his ear; a step upon the 
+pavement seemed to make his heart leap.
+
+He was not without some refreshment during the long lonely hours; 
+generally carrying in his pocket a sandwich of bread and meat, and 
+a small flask of wine.  The latter diluted with large quantities of 
+water, he drank in a heated, feverish way, as though his throat 
+were dried; but he scarcely ever broke his fast, by so much as a 
+crumb of bread.
+
+If this voluntary sacrifice of sleep and comfort had its origin, as 
+the locksmith on consideration was disposed to think, in any 
+superstitious expectation of the fulfilment of a dream or vision 
+connected with the event on which he had brooded for so many years, 
+and if he waited for some ghostly visitor who walked abroad when 
+men lay sleeping in their beds, he showed no trace of fear or 
+wavering.  His stern features expressed inflexible resolution; his 
+brows were puckered, and his lips compressed, with deep and settled 
+purpose; and when he started at a noise and listened, it was not 
+with the start of fear but hope, and catching up his sword as 
+though the hour had come at last, he would clutch it in his tight-
+clenched hand, and listen with sparkling eyes and eager looks, 
+until it died away.
+
+These disappointments were numerous, for they ensued on almost 
+every sound, but his constancy was not shaken.  Still, every night 
+he was at his post, the same stern, sleepless, sentinel; and still 
+night passed, and morning dawned, and he must watch again.
+
+This went on for weeks; he had taken a lodging at Vauxhall in which 
+to pass the day and rest himself; and from this place, when the 
+tide served, he usually came to London Bridge from Westminster by 
+water, in order that he might avoid the busy streets.
+
+One evening, shortly before twilight, he came his accustomed road 
+upon the river's bank, intending to pass through Westminster Hall 
+into Palace Yard, and there take boat to London Bridge as usual.  
+There was a pretty large concourse of people assembled round the 
+Houses of Parliament, looking at the members as they entered and 
+departed, and giving vent to rather noisy demonstrations of 
+approval or dislike, according to their known opinions.  As he made 
+his way among the throng, he heard once or twice the No-Popery cry, 
+which was then becoming pretty familiar to the ears of most men; 
+but holding it in very slight regard, and observing that the idlers 
+were of the lowest grade, he neither thought nor cared about it, 
+but made his way along, with perfect indifference.
+
+There were many little knots and groups of persons in Westminster 
+Hall: some few looking upward at its noble ceiling, and at the rays 
+of evening light, tinted by the setting sun, which streamed in 
+aslant through its small windows, and growing dimmer by degrees, 
+were quenched in the gathering gloom below; some, noisy passengers, 
+mechanics going home from work, and otherwise, who hurried quickly 
+through, waking the echoes with their voices, and soon darkening 
+the small door in the distance, as they passed into the street 
+beyond; some, in busy conference together on political or private 
+matters, pacing slowly up and down with eyes that sought the 
+ground, and seeming, by their attitudes, to listen earnestly from 
+head to foot.  Here, a dozen squabbling urchins made a very Babel 
+in the air; there, a solitary man, half clerk, half mendicant, 
+paced up and down with hungry dejection in his look and gait; at 
+his elbow passed an errand-lad, swinging his basket round and 
+round, and with his shrill whistle riving the very timbers of the 
+roof; while a more observant schoolboy, half-way through, pocketed 
+his ball, and eyed the distant beadle as he came looming on.  It 
+was that time of evening when, if you shut your eyes and open them 
+again, the darkness of an hour appears to have gathered in a 
+second.  The smooth-worn pavement, dusty with footsteps, still 
+called upon the lofty walls to reiterate the shuffle and the tread 
+of feet unceasingly, save when the closing of some heavy door 
+resounded through the building like a clap of thunder, and drowned 
+all other noises in its rolling sound.
+
+Mr Haredale, glancing only at such of these groups as he passed 
+nearest to, and then in a manner betokening that his thoughts were 
+elsewhere, had nearly traversed the Hall, when two persons before 
+him caught his attention.  One of these, a gentleman in elegant 
+attire, carried in his hand a cane, which he twirled in a jaunty 
+manner as he loitered on; the other, an obsequious, crouching, 
+fawning figure, listened to what he said--at times throwing in a 
+humble word himself--and, with his shoulders shrugged up to his 
+ears, rubbed his hands submissively, or answered at intervals by an 
+inclination of the head, half-way between a nod of acquiescence, 
+and a bow of most profound respect.
+
+In the abstract there was nothing very remarkable in this pair, for 
+servility waiting on a handsome suit of clothes and a cane--not to 
+speak of gold and silver sticks, or wands of office--is common 
+enough.  But there was that about the well-dressed man, yes, and 
+about the other likewise, which struck Mr Haredale with no pleasant 
+feeling.  He hesitated, stopped, and would have stepped aside and 
+turned out of his path, but at the moment, the other two faced 
+about quickly, and stumbled upon him before he could avoid them.
+
+The gentleman with the cane lifted his hat and had begun to tender 
+an apology, which Mr Haredale had begun as hastily to acknowledge 
+and walk away, when he stopped short and cried, 'Haredale!  Gad 
+bless me, this is strange indeed!'
+
+'It is,' he returned impatiently; 'yes--a--'
+
+'My dear friend,' cried the other, detaining him, 'why such great 
+speed?  One minute, Haredale, for the sake of old acquaintance.'
+
+'I am in haste,' he said.  'Neither of us has sought this meeting.  
+Let it be a brief one.  Good night!'
+
+'Fie, fie!' replied Sir John (for it was he), 'how very churlish!  
+We were speaking of you.  Your name was on my lips--perhaps you 
+heard me mention it?  No?  I am sorry for that.  I am really 
+sorry.--You know our friend here, Haredale?  This is really a most 
+remarkable meeting!'
+
+The friend, plainly very ill at ease, had made bold to press Sir 
+John's arm, and to give him other significant hints that he was 
+desirous of avoiding this introduction.  As it did not suit Sir 
+John's purpose, however, that it should be evaded, he appeared 
+quite unconscious of these silent remonstrances, and inclined his 
+hand towards him, as he spoke, to call attention to him more 
+particularly.
+
+The friend, therefore, had nothing for it, but to muster up the 
+pleasantest smile he could, and to make a conciliatory bow, as Mr 
+Haredale turned his eyes upon him.  Seeing that he was recognised, 
+he put out his hand in an awkward and embarrassed manner, which was 
+not mended by its contemptuous rejection.
+
+'Mr Gashford!' said Haredale, coldly.  'It is as I have heard then.  
+You have left the darkness for the light, sir, and hate those whose 
+opinions you formerly held, with all the bitterness of a renegade.  
+You are an honour, sir, to any cause.  I wish the one you espouse 
+at present, much joy of the acquisition it has made.'
+
+The secretary rubbed his hands and bowed, as though he would disarm 
+his adversary by humbling himself before him.  Sir John Chester 
+again exclaimed, with an air of great gaiety, 'Now, really, this is 
+a most remarkable meeting!' and took a pinch of snuff with his 
+usual self-possession.
+
+'Mr Haredale,' said Gashford, stealthily raising his eyes, and 
+letting them drop again when they met the other's steady gaze, is 
+too conscientious, too honourable, too manly, I am sure, to attach 
+unworthy motives to an honest change of opinions, even though it 
+implies a doubt of those he holds himself.  Mr Haredale is too 
+just, too generous, too clear-sighted in his moral vision, to--'
+
+'Yes, sir?' he rejoined with a sarcastic smile, finding the 
+secretary stopped.  'You were saying'--
+
+Gashford meekly shrugged his shoulders, and looking on the ground 
+again, was silent.
+
+'No, but let us really,' interposed Sir John at this juncture, 'let 
+us really, for a moment, contemplate the very remarkable character 
+of this meeting.  Haredale, my dear friend, pardon me if I think 
+you are not sufficiently impressed with its singularity.  Here we 
+stand, by no previous appointment or arrangement, three old 
+schoolfellows, in Westminster Hall; three old boarders in a 
+remarkably dull and shady seminary at Saint Omer's, where you, 
+being Catholics and of necessity educated out of England, were 
+brought up; and where I, being a promising young Protestant at that 
+time, was sent to learn the French tongue from a native of Paris!'
+
+'Add to the singularity, Sir John,' said Mr Haredale, 'that some of 
+you Protestants of promise are at this moment leagued in yonder 
+building, to prevent our having the surpassing and unheard-of 
+privilege of teaching our children to read and write--here--in this 
+land, where thousands of us enter your service every year, and to 
+preserve the freedom of which, we die in bloody battles abroad, in 
+heaps: and that others of you, to the number of some thousands as 
+I learn, are led on to look on all men of my creed as wolves and 
+beasts of prey, by this man Gashford.  Add to it besides the bare 
+fact that this man lives in society, walks the streets in broad 
+day--I was about to say, holds up his head, but that he does not--
+and it will be strange, and very strange, I grant you.'
+
+'Oh! you are hard upon our friend,' replied Sir John, with an 
+engaging smile.  'You are really very hard upon our friend!'
+
+'Let him go on, Sir John,' said Gashford, fumbling with his gloves.  
+'Let him go on.  I can make allowances, Sir John.  I am honoured 
+with your good opinion, and I can dispense with Mr Haredale's.  Mr 
+Haredale is a sufferer from the penal laws, and I can't expect his 
+favour.'
+
+'You have so much of my favour, sir,' retorted Mr Haredale, with a 
+bitter glance at the third party in their conversation, 'that I am 
+glad to see you in such good company.  You are the essence of your 
+great Association, in yourselves.'
+
+'Now, there you mistake,' said Sir John, in his most benignant way.  
+'There--which is a most remarkable circumstance for a man of your 
+punctuality and exactness, Haredale--you fall into error.  I don't 
+belong to the body; I have an immense respect for its members, but 
+I don't belong to it; although I am, it is certainly true, the 
+conscientious opponent of your being relieved.  I feel it my duty 
+to be so; it is a most unfortunate necessity; and cost me a bitter 
+struggle.--Will you try this box?  If you don't object to a 
+trifling infusion of a very chaste scent, you'll find its flavour 
+exquisite.'
+
+'I ask your pardon, Sir John,' said Mr Haredale, declining the 
+proffer with a motion of his hand, 'for having ranked you among the 
+humble instruments who are obvious and in all men's sight.  I 
+should have done more justice to your genius.  Men of your capacity 
+plot in secrecy and safety, and leave exposed posts to the duller 
+wits.'
+
+'Don't apologise, for the world,' replied Sir John sweetly; 'old 
+friends like you and I, may be allowed some freedoms, or the deuce 
+is in it.'
+
+Gashford, who had been very restless all this time, but had not 
+once looked up, now turned to Sir John, and ventured to mutter 
+something to the effect that he must go, or my lord would perhaps 
+be waiting.
+
+'Don't distress yourself, good sir,' said Mr Haredale, 'I'll take 
+my leave, and put you at your ease--' which he was about to do 
+without ceremony, when he was stayed by a buzz and murmur at the 
+upper end of the hall, and, looking in that direction, saw Lord 
+George Gordon coming in, with a crowd of people round him.
+
+There was a lurking look of triumph, though very differently 
+expressed, in the faces of his two companions, which made it a 
+natural impulse on Mr Haredale's part not to give way before this 
+leader, but to stand there while he passed.  He drew himself up 
+and, clasping his hands behind him, looked on with a proud and 
+scornful aspect, while Lord George slowly advanced (for the press 
+was great about him) towards the spot where they were standing.
+
+He had left the House of Commons but that moment, and had come 
+straight down into the Hall, bringing with him, as his custom was, 
+intelligence of what had been said that night in reference to the 
+Papists, and what petitions had been presented in their favour, and 
+who had supported them, and when the bill was to be brought in, and 
+when it would be advisable to present their own Great Protestant 
+petition.  All this he told the persons about him in a loud voice, 
+and with great abundance of ungainly gesture.  Those who were 
+nearest him made comments to each other, and vented threats and 
+murmurings; those who were outside the crowd cried, 'Silence,' and 
+Stand back,' or closed in upon the rest, endeavouring to make a 
+forcible exchange of places: and so they came driving on in a very 
+disorderly and irregular way, as it is the manner of a crowd to do.
+
+When they were very near to where the secretary, Sir John, and Mr 
+Haredale stood, Lord George turned round and, making a few remarks 
+of a sufliciently violent and incoherent kind, concluded with the 
+usual sentiment, and called for three cheers to back it.  While 
+these were in the act of being given with great energy, he 
+extricated himself from the press, and stepped up to Gashford's 
+side.  Both he and Sir John being well known to the populace, they 
+fell back a little, and left the four standing together.
+
+'Mr Haredale, Lord George,' said Sir John Chester, seeing that the 
+nobleman regarded him with an inquisitive look.  'A Catholic 
+gentleman unfortunately--most unhappily a Catholic--but an esteemed 
+acquaintance of mine, and once of Mr Gashford's.  My dear Haredale, 
+this is Lord George Gordon.'
+
+'I should have known that, had I been ignorant of his lordship's 
+person,' said Mr Haredale.  'I hope there is but one gentleman in 
+England who, addressing an ignorant and excited throng, would speak 
+of a large body of his fellow-subjects in such injurious language 
+as I heard this moment.  For shame, my lord, for shame!'
+
+'I cannot talk to you, sir,' replied Lord George in a loud voice, 
+and waving his hand in a disturbed and agitated manner; 'we have 
+nothing in common.'
+
+'We have much in common--many things--all that the Almighty gave 
+us,' said Mr Haredale; 'and common charity, not to say common sense 
+and common decency, should teach you to refrain from these 
+proceedings.  If every one of those men had arms in their hands at 
+this moment, as they have them in their heads, I would not leave 
+this place without telling you that you disgrace your station.'
+
+'I don't hear you, sir,' he replied in the same manner as before; 
+'I can't hear you.  It is indifferent to me what you say.  Don't 
+retort, Gashford,' for the secretary had made a show of wishing to 
+do so; 'I can hold no communion with the worshippers of idols.'
+
+As he said this, he glanced at Sir John, who lifted his hands and 
+eyebrows, as if deploring the intemperate conduct of Mr Haredale, 
+and smiled in admiration of the crowd and of their leader.
+
+'HE retort!' cried Haredale.  'Look you here, my lord.  Do you know 
+this man?'
+
+Lord George replied by laying his hand upon the shoulder of his 
+cringing secretary, and viewing him with a smile of confidence.
+
+'This man,' said Mr Haredale, eyeing him from top to toe, 'who in 
+his boyhood was a thief, and has been from that time to this, a 
+servile, false, and truckling knave: this man, who has crawled and 
+crept through life, wounding the hands he licked, and biting those 
+he fawned upon: this sycophant, who never knew what honour, truth, 
+or courage meant; who robbed his benefactor's daughter of her 
+virtue, and married her to break her heart, and did it, with 
+stripes and cruelty: this creature, who has whined at kitchen 
+windows for the broken food, and begged for halfpence at our chapel 
+doors: this apostle of the faith, whose tender conscience cannot 
+bear the altars where his vicious life was publicly denounced--Do 
+you know this man?'
+
+'Oh, really--you are very, very hard upon our friend!' exclaimed 
+Sir John.
+
+'Let Mr Haredale go on,' said Gashford, upon whose unwholesome face 
+the perspiration had broken out during this speech, in blotches of 
+wet; 'I don't mind him, Sir John; it's quite as indifferent to me 
+what he says, as it is to my lord.  If he reviles my lord, as you 
+have heard, Sir John, how can I hope to escape?'
+
+'Is it not enough, my lord,' Mr Haredale continued, 'that I, as 
+good a gentleman as you, must hold my property, such as it is, by a 
+trick at which the state connives because of these hard laws; and 
+that we may not teach our youth in schools the common principles of 
+right and wrong; but must we be denounced and ridden by such men as 
+this!  Here is a man to head your No-Popery cry!  For shame.  For 
+shame!'
+
+The infatuated nobleman had glanced more than once at Sir John 
+Chester, as if to inquire whether there was any truth in these 
+statements concerning Gashford, and Sir John had as often plainly 
+answered by a shrug or look, 'Oh dear me! no.'  He now said, in the 
+same loud key, and in the same strange manner as before:
+
+'I have nothing to say, sir, in reply, and no desire to hear 
+anything more.  I beg you won't obtrude your conversation, or these 
+personal attacks, upon me.  I shall not be deterred from doing my 
+duty to my country and my countrymen, by any such attempts, whether 
+they proceed from emissaries of the Pope or not, I assure you.  
+Come, Gashford!'
+
+They had walked on a few paces while speaking, and were now at the 
+Hall-door, through which they passed together.  Mr Haredale, 
+without any leave-taking, turned away to the river stairs, which 
+were close at hand, and hailed the only boatman who remained there.
+
+But the throng of people--the foremost of whom had heard every word 
+that Lord George Gordon said, and among all of whom the rumour had 
+been rapidly dispersed that the stranger was a Papist who was 
+bearding him for his advocacy of the popular cause--came pouring 
+out pell-mell, and, forcing the nobleman, his secretary, and Sir 
+John Chester on before them, so that they appeared to be at their 
+head, crowded to the top of the stairs where Mr Haredale waited 
+until the boat was ready, and there stood still, leaving him on a 
+little clear space by himself.
+
+They were not silent, however, though inactive.  At first some 
+indistinct mutterings arose among them, which were followed by a 
+hiss or two, and these swelled by degrees into a perfect storm.  
+Then one voice said, 'Down with the Papists!' and there was a 
+pretty general cheer, but nothing more.  After a lull of a few 
+moments, one man cried out, 'Stone him;' another, 'Duck him;' 
+another, in a stentorian voice, 'No Popery!'  This favourite cry 
+the rest re-echoed, and the mob, which might have been two hundred 
+strong, joined in a general shout.
+
+Mr Haredale had stood calmly on the brink of the steps, until they 
+made this demonstration, when he looked round contemptuously, and 
+walked at a slow pace down the stairs.  He was pretty near the 
+boat, when Gashford, as if without intention, turned about, and 
+directly afterwards a great stone was thrown by some hand, in the 
+crowd, which struck him on the head, and made him stagger like a 
+drunken man.
+
+The blood sprung freely from the wound, and trickled down his coat.  
+He turned directly, and rushing up the steps with a boldness and 
+passion which made them all fall back, demanded:
+
+'Who did that?  Show me the man who hit me.'
+
+Not a soul moved; except some in the rear who slunk off, and, 
+escaping to the other side of the way, looked on like indifferent 
+spectators.
+
+'Who did that?' he repeated.  'Show me the man who did it.  Dog, 
+was it you?  It was your deed, if not your hand--I know you.'
+
+He threw himself on Gashford as he said the words, and hurled him 
+to the ground.  There was a sudden motion in the crowd, and some 
+laid hands upon him, but his sword was out, and they fell off 
+again.
+
+'My lord--Sir John,'--he cried, 'draw, one of you--you are 
+responsible for this outrage, and I look to you.  Draw, if you are 
+gentlemen.'  With that he struck Sir John upon the breast with the 
+flat of his weapon, and with a burning face and flashing eyes stood 
+upon his guard; alone, before them all.
+
+For an instant, for the briefest space of time the mind can readily 
+conceive, there was a change in Sir John's smooth face, such as no 
+man ever saw there.  The next moment, he stepped forward, and laid 
+one hand on Mr Haredale's arm, while with the other he endeavoured 
+to appease the crowd.
+
+'My dear friend, my good Haredale, you are blinded with passion--
+it's very natural, extremely natural--but you don't know friends 
+from foes.'
+
+'I know them all, sir, I can distinguish well--' he retorted, 
+almost mad with rage.  'Sir John, Lord George--do you hear me?  Are 
+you cowards?'
+
+'Never mind, sir,' said a man, forcing his way between and pushing 
+him towards the stairs with friendly violence, 'never mind asking 
+that.  For God's sake, get away.  What CAN you do against this 
+number?  And there are as many more in the next street, who'll be 
+round dfrectly,'--indeed they began to pour in as he said the 
+words--'you'd be giddy from that cut, in the first heat of a 
+scuffle.  Now do retire, sir, or take my word for it you'll be 
+worse used than you would be if every man in the crowd was a woman, 
+and that woman Bloody Mary.  Come, sir, make haste--as quick as you 
+can.'
+
+Mr Haredale, who began to turn faint and sick, felt how sensible 
+this advice was, and descended the steps with his unknown friend's 
+assistance.  John Grueby (for John it was) helped him into the 
+boat, and giving her a shove off, which sent her thirty feet into 
+the tide, bade the waterman pull away like a Briton; and walked up 
+again as composedly as if he had just landed.
+
+There was at first a slight disposition on the part of the mob to 
+resent this interference; but John looking particularly strong and 
+cool, and wearing besides Lord George's livery, they thought better 
+of it, and contented themselves with sending a shower of small 
+missiles after the boat, which plashed harmlessly in the water; 
+for she had by this time cleared the bridge, and was darting 
+swiftly down the centre of the stream.
+
+From this amusement, they proceeded to giving Protestant knocks at 
+the doors of private houses, breaking a few lamps, and assaulting 
+some stray constables.  But, it being whispered that a detachment 
+of Life Guards had been sent for, they took to their heels with 
+great expedition, and left the street quite clear.
+
+
+
+Chapter 44
+
+
+When the concourse separated, and, dividing into chance clusters, 
+drew off in various directions, there still remained upon the scene 
+of the late disturbance, one man.  This man was Gashford, who, 
+bruised by his late fall, and hurt in a much greater degree by the 
+indignity he had undergone, and the exposure of which he had been 
+the victim, limped up and down, breathing curses and threats of 
+vengeance.
+
+It was not the secretary's nature to waste his wrath in words.  
+While he vented the froth of his malevolence in those effusions, he 
+kept a steady eye on two men, who, having disappeared with the rest 
+when the alarm was spread, had since returned, and were now visible 
+in the moonlight, at no great distance, as they walked to and fro, 
+and talked together.
+
+He made no move towards them, but waited patiently on the dark side 
+of the street, until they were tired of strolling backwards and 
+forwards and walked away in company.  Then he followed, but at some 
+distance: keeping them in view, without appearing to have that 
+object, or being seen by them.
+
+They went up Parliament Street, past Saint Martin's church, and 
+away by Saint Giles's to Tottenham Court Road, at the back of 
+which, upon the western side, was then a place called the Green 
+Lanes.  This was a retired spot, not of the choicest kind, leading 
+into the fields.  Great heaps of ashes; stagnant pools, overgrown 
+with rank grass and duckweed; broken turnstiles; and the upright 
+posts of palings long since carried off for firewood, which menaced 
+all heedless walkers with their jagged and rusty nails; were the 
+leading features of the landscape: while here and there a donkey, 
+or a ragged horse, tethered to a stake, and cropping off a wretched 
+meal from the coarse stunted turf, were quite in keeping with the 
+scene, and would have suggested (if the houses had not done so, 
+sufficiently, of themselves) how very poor the people were who 
+lived in the crazy huts adjacent, and how foolhardy it might prove 
+for one who carried money, or wore decent clothes, to walk that way 
+alone, unless by daylight.
+
+Poverty has its whims and shows of taste, as wealth has.  Some of 
+these cabins were turreted, some had false windows painted on their 
+rotten walls; one had a mimic clock, upon a crazy tower of four 
+feet high, which screened the chimney; each in its little patch of 
+ground had a rude seat or arbour.  The population dealt in bones, 
+in rags, in broken glass, in old wheels, in birds, and dogs.  
+These, in their several ways of stowage, filled the gardens; and 
+shedding a perfume, not of the most delicious nature, in the air, 
+filled it besides with yelps, and screams, and howling.
+
+Into this retreat, the secretary followed the two men whom he had 
+held in sight; and here he saw them safely lodged, in one of the 
+meanest houses, which was but a room, and that of small dimensions.  
+He waited without, until the sound of their voices, joined in a 
+discordant song, assured him they were making merry; and then 
+approaching the door, by means of a tottering plank which crossed 
+the ditch in front, knocked at it with his hand.
+
+'Muster Gashfordl' said the man who opened it, taking his pipe from 
+his mouth, in evident surprise.  'Why, who'd have thought of this 
+here honour!  Walk in, Muster Gashford--walk in, sir.'
+
+Gashford required no second invitation, and entered with a gracious 
+air.  There was a fire in the rusty grate (for though the spring 
+was pretty far advanced, the nights were cold), and on a stool 
+beside it Hugh sat smoking.  Dennis placed a chair, his only one, 
+for the secretary, in front of the hearth; and took his seat again 
+upon the stool he had left when he rose to give the visitor 
+admission.
+
+'What's in the wind now, Muster Gashford?' he said, as he resumed 
+his pipe, and looked at him askew.  'Any orders from head-quarters?  
+Are we going to begin?  What is it, Muster Gashford?'
+
+'Oh, nothing, nothing,' rejoined the secretary, with a friendly nod 
+to Hugh.  'We have broken the ice, though.  We had a little spurt 
+to-day--eh, Dennis?'
+
+'A very little one,' growled the hangman.  'Not half enough for me.'
+
+'Nor me neither!' cried Hugh.  'Give us something to do with life 
+in it--with life in it, master.  Ha, ha!'
+
+'Why, you wouldn't,' said the secretary, with his worst expression 
+of face, and in his mildest tones, 'have anything to do, with--with 
+death in it?'
+
+'I don't know that,' replied Hugh.  'I'm open to orders.  I don't 
+care; not I.'
+
+'Nor I!' vociferated Dennis.
+
+'Brave fellows!' said the secretary, in as pastor-like a voice as 
+if he were commending them for some uncommon act of valour and 
+generosity.  'By the bye'--and here he stopped and warmed his 
+hands: then suddenly looked up--'who threw that stone to-day?'
+
+Mr Dennis coughed and shook his head, as who should say, 'A mystery 
+indeed!'  Hugh sat and smoked in silence.
+
+'It was well done!' said the secretary, warming his hands again.  
+'I should like to know that man.'
+
+'Would you?' said Dennis, after looking at his face to assure 
+himself that he was serious.  'Would you like to know that man, 
+Muster Gashford?'
+
+'I should indeed,' replied the secretary.
+
+'Why then, Lord love you,' said the hangman, in his hoarest 
+chuckle, as he pointed with his pipe to Hugh, 'there he sits.  
+That's the man.  My stars and halters, Muster Gashford,' he added 
+in a whisper, as he drew his stool close to him and jogged him with 
+his elbow, 'what a interesting blade he is!  He wants as much 
+holding in as a thorough-bred bulldog.  If it hadn't been for me 
+to-day, he'd have had that 'ere Roman down, and made a riot of it, 
+in another minute.'
+
+'And why not?' cried Hugh in a surly voice, as he overheard this 
+last remark.  'Where's the good of putting things off?  Strike 
+while the iron's hot; that's what I say.'
+
+'Ah!' retorted Dennis, shaking his head, with a kind of pity for 
+his friend's ingenuous youth; 'but suppose the iron an't hot, 
+brother!  You must get people's blood up afore you strike, and have 
+'em in the humour.  There wasn't quite enough to provoke 'em to-
+day, I tell you.  If you'd had your way, you'd have spoilt the fun 
+to come, and ruined us.'
+
+'Dennis is quite right,' said Gashford, smoothly.  'He is 
+perfectly correct.  Dennis has great knowledge of the world.'
+
+'I ought to have, Muster Gashford, seeing what a many people I've 
+helped out of it, eh?' grinned the hangman, whispering the words 
+behind his hand.
+
+The secretary laughed at this jest as much as Dennis could desire, 
+and when he had done, said, turning to Hugh:
+
+'Dennis's policy was mine, as you may have observed.  You saw, for 
+instance, how I fell when I was set upon.  I made no resistance.  I 
+did nothing to provoke an outbreak.  Oh dear no!'
+
+'No, by the Lord Harry!' cried Dennis with a noisy laugh, 'you went 
+down very quiet, Muster Gashford--and very flat besides.  I thinks 
+to myself at the time "it's all up with Muster Gashford!"  I never 
+see a man lay flatter nor more still--with the life in him--than 
+you did to-day.  He's a rough 'un to play with, is that 'ere 
+Papist, and that's the fact.'
+
+The secretary's face, as Dennis roared with laughter, and turned 
+his wrinkled eyes on Hugh who did the like, might have furnished a 
+study for the devil's picture.  He sat quite silent until they 
+were serious again, and then said, looking round:
+
+'We are very pleasant here; so very pleasant, Dennis, that but for 
+my lord's particular desire that I should sup with him, and the 
+time being very near at hand, I should he inclined to stay, until 
+it would be hardly safe to go homeward.  I come upon a little 
+business--yes, I do--as you supposed.  It's very flattering to you; 
+being this.  If we ever should be obliged--and we can't tell, you 
+know--this is a very uncertain world'--
+
+'I believe you, Muster Gashford,' interposed the hangman with a 
+grave nod.  'The uncertainties as I've seen in reference to this 
+here state of existence, the unexpected contingencies as have come 
+about!--Oh my eye!'  Feeling the subject much too vast for 
+expression, he puffed at his pipe again, and looked the rest.
+
+'I say,' resumed the secretary, in a slow, impressive way; 'we 
+can't tell what may come to pass; and if we should be obliged, 
+against our wills, to have recourse to violence, my lord (who has 
+suffered terribly to-day, as far as words can go) consigns to you 
+two--bearing in mind my recommendation of you both, as good staunch 
+men, beyond all doubt and suspicion--the pleasant task of 
+punishing this Haredale.  You may do as you please with him, or 
+his, provided that you show no mercy, and no quarter, and leave no 
+two beams of his house standing where the builder placed them.  You 
+may sack it, burn it, do with it as you like, but it must come 
+down; it must be razed to the ground; and he, and all belonging to 
+him, left as shelterless as new-born infants whom their mothers 
+have exposed.  Do you understand me?' said Gashford, pausing, and 
+pressing his hands together gently.
+
+'Understand you, master!' cried Hugh.  'You speak plain now.  Why, 
+this is hearty!'
+
+'I knew you would like it,' said Gashford, shaking him by the hand; 
+'I thought you would.  Good night!  Don't rise, Dennis: I would 
+rather find my way alone.  I may have to make other visits here, 
+and it's pleasant to come and go without disturbing you.  I can 
+find my way perfectly well.  Good night!'
+
+He was gone, and had shut the door behind him.  They looked at each 
+other, and nodded approvingly: Dennis stirred up the fire.
+
+'This looks a little more like business!' he said.
+
+'Ay, indeed!' cried Hugh; 'this suits me!'
+
+'I've heerd it said of Muster Gashford,' said the hangman, 'that 
+he'd a surprising memory and wonderful firmness--that he never 
+forgot, and never forgave.--Let's drink his health!'
+
+Hugh readily complied--pouring no liquor on the floor when he drank 
+this toast--and they pledged the secretary as a man after their own 
+hearts, in a bumper.
+
+
+
+Chapter 45
+
+
+While the worst passions of the worst men were thus working in the 
+dark, and the mantle of religion, assumed to cover the ugliest 
+deformities, threatened to become the shroud of all that was good 
+and peaceful in society, a circumstance occurred which once more 
+altered the position of two persons from whom this history has long 
+been separated, and to whom it must now return.
+
+In a small English country town, the inhabitants of which supported 
+themselves by the labour of their hands in plaiting and preparing 
+straw for those who made bonnets and other articles of dress and 
+ornament from that material,--concealed under an assumed name, and 
+living in a quiet poverty which knew no change, no pleasures, and 
+few cares but that of struggling on from day to day in one great 
+toil for bread,--dwelt Barnaby and his mother.  Their poor cottage 
+had known no stranger's foot since they sought the shelter of its 
+roof five years before; nor had they in all that time held any 
+commerce or communication with the old world from which they had 
+fled.  To labour in peace, and devote her labour and her life to 
+her poor son, was all the widow sought.  If happiness can be said 
+at any time to be the lot of one on whom a secret sorrow preys, she 
+was happy now.  Tranquillity, resignation, and her strong love of 
+him who needed it so much, formed the small circle of her quiet 
+joys; and while that remained unbroken, she was contented.
+
+For Barnaby himself, the time which had flown by, had passed him 
+like the wind.  The daily suns of years had shed no brighter gleam 
+of reason on his mind; no dawn had broken on his long, dark night.  
+He would sit sometimes--often for days together on a low seat by 
+the fire or by the cottage door, busy at work (for he had learnt 
+the art his mother plied), and listening, God help him, to the 
+tales she would repeat, as a lure to keep him in her sight.  He had 
+no recollection of these little narratives; the tale of yesterday 
+was new to him upon the morrow; but he liked them at the moment; 
+and when the humour held him, would remain patiently within doors, 
+hearing her stories like a little child, and working cheerfully 
+from sunrise until it was too dark to see.
+
+At other times,--and then their scanty earnings were barely 
+sufficient to furnish them with food, though of the coarsest sort,--
+he would wander abroad from dawn of day until the twilight 
+deepened into night.  Few in that place, even of the children, 
+could be idle, and he had no companions of his own kind.  Indeed 
+there were not many who could have kept up with him in his rambles, 
+had there been a legion.  But there were a score of vagabond dogs 
+belonging to the neighbours, who served his purpose quite as well.  
+With two or three of these, or sometimes with a full half-dozen 
+barking at his heels, he would sally forth on some long expedition 
+that consumed the day; and though, on their return at nightfall, 
+the dogs would come home limping and sore-footed, and almost spent 
+with their fatigue, Barnaby was up and off again at sunrise with 
+some new attendants of the same class, with whom he would return in 
+like manner.  On all these travels, Grip, in his little basket at 
+his master's back, was a constant member of the party, and when 
+they set off in fine weather and in high spirits, no dog barked 
+louder than the raven.
+
+Their pleasures on these excursions were simple enough.  A crust of 
+bread and scrap of meat, with water from the brook or spring, 
+sufficed for their repast.  Barnaby's enjoyments were, to walk, and 
+run, and leap, till he was tired; then to lie down in the long 
+grass, or by the growing corn, or in the shade of some tall tree, 
+looking upward at the light clouds as they floated over the blue 
+surface of the sky, and listening to the lark as she poured out her 
+brilliant song.  There were wild-flowers to pluck--the bright red 
+poppy, the gentle harebell, the cowslip, and the rose.  There were 
+birds to watch; fish; ants; worms; hares or rabbits, as they darted 
+across the distant pathway in the wood and so were gone: millions 
+of living things to have an interest in, and lie in wait for, and 
+clap hands and shout in memory of, when they had disappeared.  In 
+default of these, or when they wearied, there was the merry 
+sunlight to hunt out, as it crept in aslant through leaves and 
+boughs of trees, and hid far down--deep, deep, in hollow places--
+like a silver pool, where nodding branches seemed to bathe and 
+sport; sweet scents of summer air breathing over fields of beans or 
+clover; the perfume of wet leaves or moss; the life of waving 
+trees, and shadows always changing.  When these or any of them 
+tired, or in excess of pleasing tempted him to shut his eyes, there 
+was slumber in the midst of all these soft delights, with the 
+gentle wind murmuring like music in his ears, and everything around 
+melting into one delicious dream.
+
+Their hut--for it was little more--stood on the outskirts of the 
+town, at a short distance from the high road, but in a secluded 
+place, where few chance passengers strayed at any season of the 
+year.  It had a plot of garden-ground attached, which Barnaby, in 
+fits and starts of working, trimmed, and kept in order.  Within 
+doors and without, his mother laboured for their common good; and 
+hail, rain, snow, or sunshine, found no difference in her.
+
+Though so far removed from the scenes of her past life, and with so 
+little thought or hope of ever visiting them again, she seemed to 
+have a strange desire to know what happened in the busy world.  Any 
+old newspaper, or scrap of intelligence from London, she caught at 
+with avidity.  The excitement it produced was not of a pleasurable 
+kind, for her manner at such times expressed the keenest anxiety 
+and dread; but it never faded in the least degree.  Then, and in 
+stormy winter nights, when the wind blew loud and strong, the old 
+expression came into her face, and she would be seized with a fit 
+of trembling, like one who had an ague.  But Barnaby noted little 
+of this; and putting a great constraint upon herself, she usually 
+recovered her accustomed manner before the change had caught his 
+observation.
+
+Grip was by no means an idle or unprofitable member of the humble 
+household.  Partly by dint of Barnaby's tuition, and partly by 
+pursuing a species of self-instruction common to his tribe, and 
+exerting his powers of observation to the utmost, he had acquired a 
+degree of sagacity which rendered him famous for miles round.  His 
+conversational powers and surprising performances were the 
+universal theme: and as many persons came to see the wonderful 
+raven, and none left his exertions unrewarded--when he condescended 
+to exhibit, which was not always, for genius is capricious--his 
+earnings formed an important item in the common stock.  Indeed, the 
+bird himself appeared to know his value well; for though he was 
+perfectly free and unrestrained in the presence of Barnaby and his 
+mother, he maintained in public an amazing gravity, and never 
+stooped to any other gratuitous performances than biting the ankles 
+of vagabond boys (an exercise in which he much delighted), killing 
+a fowl or two occasionally, and swallowing the dinners of various 
+neighbouring dogs, of whom the boldest held him in great awe and 
+dread.
+
+Time had glided on in this way, and nothing had happened to disturb 
+or change their mode of life, when, one summer's night in June, 
+they were in their little garden, resting from the labours of the 
+day.  The widow's work was yet upon her knee, and strewn upon the 
+ground about her; and Barnaby stood leaning on his spade, gazing at 
+the brightness in the west, and singing softly to himself.
+
+'A brave evening, mother!  If we had, chinking in our pockets, but 
+a few specks of that gold which is piled up yonder in the sky, we 
+should be rich for life.'
+
+'We are better as we are,' returned the widow with a quiet smile.  
+'Let us be contented, and we do not want and need not care to have 
+it, though it lay shining at our feet.'
+
+'Ay!' said Barnaby, resting with crossed arms on his spade, and 
+looking wistfully at the sunset, that's well enough, mother; but 
+gold's a good thing to have.  I wish that I knew where to find it.  
+Grip and I could do much with gold, be sure of that.'
+
+'What would you do?' she asked.
+
+'What!  A world of things.  We'd dress finely--you and I, I mean; 
+not Grip--keep horses, dogs, wear bright colours and feathers, do 
+no more work, live delicately and at our ease.  Oh, we'd find uses 
+for it, mother, and uses that would do us good.  I would I knew 
+where gold was buried.  How hard I'd work to dig it up!'
+
+'You do not know,' said his mother, rising from her seat and laying 
+her hand upon his shoulder, 'what men have done to win it, and how 
+they have found, too late, that it glitters brightest at a 
+distance, and turns quite dim and dull when handled.'
+
+'Ay, ay; so you say; so you think,' he answered, still looking 
+eagerly in the same direction.  'For all that, mother, I should 
+like to try.'
+
+'Do you not see,' she said, 'how red it is?  Nothing bears so many 
+stains of blood, as gold.  Avoid it.  None have such cause to hate 
+its name as we have.  Do not so much as think of it, dear love.  It 
+has brought such misery and suffering on your head and mine as few 
+have known, and God grant few may have to undergo.  I would rather 
+we were dead and laid down in our graves, than you should ever come 
+to love it.'
+
+For a moment Barnaby withdrew his eyes and looked at her with 
+wonder.  Then, glancing from the redness in the sky to the mark 
+upon his wrist as if he would compare the two, he seemed about to 
+question her with earnestness, when a new object caught his 
+wandering attention, and made him quite forgetful of his purpose.
+
+This was a man with dusty feet and garments, who stood, bare-
+headed, behind the hedge that divided their patch of garden from 
+the pathway, and leant meekly forward as if he sought to mingle 
+with their conversation, and waited for his time to speak.  His 
+face was turned towards the brightness, too, but the light that 
+fell upon it showed that he was blind, and saw it not.
+
+'A blessing on those voices!' said the wayfarer.  'I feel the 
+beauty of the night more keenly, when I hear them.  They are like 
+eyes to me.  Will they speak again, and cheer the heart of a poor 
+traveller?'
+
+'Have you no guide?' asked the widow, after a moment's pause.
+
+'None but that,' he answered, pointing with his staff towards the 
+sun; 'and sometimes a milder one at night, but she is idle now.'
+
+'Have you travelled far?'
+
+'A weary way and long,' rejoined the traveller as he shook his 
+head.  'A weary, weary, way.  I struck my stick just now upon the 
+bucket of your well--be pleased to let me have a draught of water, 
+lady.'
+
+'Why do you call me lady?' she returned.  'I am as poor as you.'
+
+'Your speech is soft and gentle, and I judge by that,' replied the 
+man.  'The coarsest stuffs and finest silks, are--apart from the 
+sense of touch--alike to me.  I cannot judge you by your dress.'
+
+'Come round this way,' said Barnaby, who had passed out at the 
+garden-gate and now stood close beside him.  'Put your hand in 
+mine.  You're blind and always in the dark, eh?  Are you frightened 
+in the dark?  Do you see great crowds of faces, now?  Do they grin 
+and chatter?'
+
+'Alas!' returned the other, 'I see nothing.  Waking or sleeping, 
+nothing.'
+
+Barnaby looked curiously at his eyes, and touching them with his 
+fingers, as an inquisitive child might, led him towards the house.
+
+'You have come a long distance, 'said the widow, meeting him at the 
+door.  'How have you found your way so far?'
+
+'Use and necessity are good teachers, as I have heard--the best of 
+any,' said the blind man, sitting down upon the chair to which 
+Barnaby had led him, and putting his hat and stick upon the red-
+tiled floor.  'May neither you nor your son ever learn under them.  
+They are rough masters.'
+
+'You have wandered from the road, too,' said the widow, in a tone 
+of pity.
+
+'Maybe, maybe,' returned the blind man with a sigh, and yet with 
+something of a smile upon his face, 'that's likely.  Handposts and 
+milestones are dumb, indeed, to me.  Thank you the more for this 
+rest, and this refreshing drink!'
+
+As he spoke, he raised the mug of water to his mouth.  It was 
+clear, and cold, and sparkling, but not to his taste nevertheless, 
+or his thirst was not very great, for he only wetted his lips and 
+put it down again.
+
+He wore, hanging with a long strap round his neck, a kind of scrip 
+or wallet, in which to carry food.  The widow set some bread and 
+cheese before him, but he thanked her, and said that through the 
+kindness of the charitable he had broken his fast once since 
+morning, and was not hungry.  When he had made her this reply, he 
+opened his wallet, and took out a few pence, which was all it 
+appeared to contain.
+
+'Might I make bold to ask,' he said, turning towards where Barnaby 
+stood looking on, 'that one who has the gift of sight, would lay 
+this out for me in bread to keep me on my way?  Heaven's blessing 
+on the young feet that will bestir themselves in aid of one so 
+helpless as a sightless man!'
+
+Barnaby looked at his mother, who nodded assent; in another moment 
+he was gone upon his charitable errand.  The blind man sat 
+listening with an attentive face, until long after the sound of his 
+retreating footsteps was inaudible to the widow, and then said, 
+suddenly, and in a very altered tone:
+
+'There are various degrees and kinds of blindness, widow.  There 
+is the connubial blindness, ma'am, which perhaps you may have 
+observed in the course of your own experience, and which is a kind 
+of wilful and self-bandaging blindness.  There is the blindness of 
+party, ma'am, and public men, which is the blindness of a mad bull 
+in the midst of a regiment of soldiers clothed in red.  There is 
+the blind confidence of youth, which is the blindness of young 
+kittens, whose eyes have not yet opened on the world; and there is 
+that physical blindness, ma'am, of which I am, contrairy to my own 
+desire, a most illustrious example.  Added to these, ma'am, is that 
+blindness of the intellect, of which we have a specimen in your 
+interesting son, and which, having sometimes glimmerings and 
+dawnings of the light, is scarcely to be trusted as a total 
+darkness.  Therefore, ma'am, I have taken the liberty to get him 
+out of the way for a short time, while you and I confer together, 
+and this precaution arising out of the delicacy of my sentiments 
+towards yourself, you will excuse me, ma'am, I know.'
+
+Having delivered himself of this speech with many flourishes of 
+manner, he drew from beneath his coat a flat stone bottle, and 
+holding the cork between his teeth, qualified his mug of water with 
+a plentiful infusion of the liquor it contained.  He politely 
+drained the bumper to her health, and the ladies, and setting it 
+down empty, smacked his lips with infinite relish.
+
+'I am a citizen of the world, ma'am,' said the blind man, corking 
+his bottle, 'and if I seem to conduct myself with freedom, it is 
+therefore.  You wonder who I am, ma'am, and what has brought me 
+here.  Such experience of human nature as I have, leads me to that 
+conclusion, without the aid of eyes by which to read the movements 
+of your soul as depicted in your feminine features.  I will 
+satisfy your curiosity immediately, ma'am; immediately.'  With 
+that he slapped his bottle on its broad back, and having put it 
+under his garment as before, crossed his legs and folded his hands, 
+and settled himself in his chair, previous to proceeding any 
+further.
+
+The change in his manner was so unexpected, the craft and 
+wickedness of his deportment were so much aggravated by his 
+condition--for we are accustomed to see in those who have lost a 
+human sense, something in its place almost divine--and this 
+alteration bred so many fears in her whom he addressed, that she 
+could not pronounce one word.  After waiting, as it seemed, for 
+some remark or answer, and waiting in vain, the visitor resumed:
+
+'Madam, my name is Stagg.  A friend of mine who has desired the 
+honour of meeting with you any time these five years past, has 
+commissioned me to call upon you.  I should be glad to whisper that 
+gentleman's name in your ear.--Zounds, ma'am, are you deaf?  Do you 
+hear me say that I should be glad to whisper my friend's name in 
+your ear?'
+
+'You need not repeat it,' said the widow, with a stifled groan; 'I 
+see too well from whom you come.'
+
+'But as a man of honour, ma'am,' said the blind man, striking 
+himself on the breast, 'whose credentials must not be disputed, I 
+take leave to say that I WILL mention that gentleman's name.  Ay, 
+ay,' he added, seeming to catch with his quick ear the very motion 
+of her hand, 'but not aloud.  With your leave, ma'am, I desire the 
+favour of a whisper.'
+
+She moved towards him, and stooped down.  He muttered a word in her 
+ear; and, wringing her hands, she paced up and down the room like 
+one distracted.  The blind man, with perfect composure, produced 
+his bottle again, mixed another glassful; put it up as before; and, 
+drinking from time to time, followed her with his face in silence.
+
+'You are slow in conversation, widow,' he said after a time, 
+pausing in his draught.  'We shall have to talk before your son.'
+
+'What would you have me do?' she answered.  'What do you want?'
+
+'We are poor, widow, we are poor,' he retorted, stretching out his 
+right hand, and rubbing his thumb upon its palm.
+
+'Poor!' she cried.  'And what am I?'
+
+'Comparisons are odious,' said the blind man.  'I don't know, I 
+don't care.  I say that we are poor.  My friend's circumstances are 
+indifferent, and so are mine.  We must have our rights, widow, or 
+we must be bought off.  But you know that, as well as I, so where 
+is the use of talking?'
+
+She still walked wildly to and fro.  At length, stopping abruptly 
+before him, she said:
+
+'Is he near here?'
+
+'He is.  Close at hand.'
+
+'Then I am lost!'
+
+'Not lost, widow,' said the blind man, calmly; 'only found.  Shall 
+I call him?'
+
+'Not for the world,' she answered, with a shudder.
+
+'Very good,' he replied, crossing his legs again, for he had made 
+as though he would rise and walk to the door.  'As you please, 
+widow.  His presence is not necessary that I know of.  But both he 
+and I must live; to live, we must eat and drink; to eat and drink, 
+we must have money:--I say no more.'
+
+'Do you know how pinched and destitute I am?' she retorted.  'I do 
+not think you do, or can.  If you had eyes, and could look around 
+you on this poor place, you would have pity on me.  Oh! let your 
+heart be softened by your own affliction, friend, and have some 
+sympathy with mine.'
+
+The blind man snapped his fingers as he answered:
+
+'--Beside the question, ma'am, beside the question.  I have the 
+softest heart in the world, but I can't live upon it.  Many a 
+gentleman lives well upon a soft head, who would find a heart of 
+the same quality a very great drawback.  Listen to me.  This is a 
+matter of business, with which sympathies and sentiments have 
+nothing to do.  As a mutual friend, I wish to arrange it in a 
+satisfactory manner, if possible; and thus the case stands.--If you 
+are very poor now, it's your own choice.  You have friends who, in 
+case of need, are always ready to help you.  My friend is in a more 
+destitute and desolate situation than most men, and, you and he 
+being linked together in a common cause, he naturally looks to you 
+to assist him.  He has boarded and lodged with me a long time (for 
+as I said just now, I am very soft-hearted), and I quite approve of 
+his entertaining this opinion.  You have always had a roof over 
+your head; he has always been an outcast.  You have your son to 
+comfort and assist you; he has nobody at all.  The advantages must 
+not be all one side.  You are in the same boat, and we must divide 
+the ballast a little more equally.'
+
+She was about to speak, but he checked her, and went on.
+
+'The only way of doing this, is by making up a little purse now and 
+then for my friend; and that's what I advise.  He bears you no 
+malice that I know of, ma'am: so little, that although you have 
+treated him harshly more than once, and driven him, I may say, out 
+of doors, he has that regard for you that I believe even if you 
+disappointed him now, he would consent to take charge of your son, 
+and to make a man of him.'
+
+He laid a great stress on these latter words, and paused as if to 
+find out what effect they had produced.  She only answered by her 
+tears.
+
+'He is a likely lad,' said the blind man, thoughtfully, 'for many 
+purposes, and not ill-disposed to try his fortune in a little 
+change and bustle, if I may judge from what I heard of his talk 
+with you to-night.--Come.  In a word, my friend has pressing 
+necessity for twenty pounds.  You, who can give up an annuity, can 
+get that sum for him.  It's a pity you should be troubled.  You 
+seem very comfortable here, and it's worth that much to remain so.  
+Twenty pounds, widow, is a moderate demand.  You know where to 
+apply for it; a post will bring it you.--Twenty pounds!'
+
+She was about to answer him again, but again he stopped her.
+
+'Don't say anything hastily; you might be sorry for it.  Think of 
+it a little while.  Twenty pounds--of other people's money--how 
+easy!  Turn it over in your mind.  I'm in no hurry.  Night's coming 
+on, and if I don't sleep here, I shall not go far.  Twenty pounds!  
+Consider of it, ma'am, for twenty minutes; give each pound a 
+minute; that's a fair allowance.  I'll enjoy the air the while, 
+which is very mild and pleasant in these parts.'
+
+With these words he groped his way to the door, carrying his chair 
+with him.  Then seating himself, under a spreading honeysuckle, and 
+stretching his legs across the threshold so that no person could 
+pass in or out without his knowledge, he took from his pocket a 
+pipe, flint, steel and tinder-box, and began to smoke.  It was a 
+lovely evening, of that gentle kind, and at that time of year, when 
+the twilight is most beautiful.  Pausing now and then to let his 
+smoke curl slowly off, and to sniff the grateful fragrance of the 
+flowers, he sat there at his ease--as though the cottage were his 
+proper dwelling, and he had held undisputed possession of it all 
+his life--waiting for the widow's answer and for Barnaby's return.
+
+
+
+Chapter 46
+
+
+When Barnaby returned with the bread, the sight of the pious old 
+pilgrim smoking his pipe and making himself so thoroughly at home, 
+appeared to surprise even him; the more so, as that worthy person, 
+instead of putting up the loaf in his wallet as a scarce and 
+precious article, tossed it carelessly on the table, and producing 
+his bottle, bade him sit down and drink.
+
+'For I carry some comfort, you see,' he said.  'Taste that.  Is it 
+good?'
+
+The water stood in Barnaby's eyes as he coughed from the strength 
+of the draught, and answered in the affirmative.
+
+'Drink some more,' said the blind man; 'don't be afraid of it.  
+You don't taste anything like that, often, eh?'
+
+'Often!' cried Barnaby.  'Never!'
+
+'Too poor?' returned the blind man with a sigh.  'Ay.  That's bad.  
+Your mother, poor soul, would be happier if she was richer, 
+Barnaby.'
+
+'Why, so I tell her--the very thing I told her just before you came 
+to-night, when all that gold was in the sky,' said Barnaby, drawing 
+his chair nearer to him, and looking eagerly in his face.  'Tell 
+me.  Is there any way of being rich, that I could find out?'
+
+'Any way!  A hundred ways.'
+
+'Ay, ay?' he returned.  'Do you say so?  What are they?--Nay, 
+mother, it's for your sake I ask; not mine;--for yours, indeed.  
+What are they?'
+
+The blind man turned his face, on which there was a smile of 
+triumph, to where the widow stood in great distress; and answered,
+
+'Why, they are not to be found out by stay-at-homes, my good 
+friend.'
+
+'By stay-at-homes!' cried Barnaby, plucking at his sleeve.  'But I 
+am not one.  Now, there you mistake.  I am often out before the 
+sun, and travel home when he has gone to rest.  I am away in the 
+woods before the day has reached the shady places, and am often 
+there when the bright moon is peeping through the boughs, and 
+looking down upon the other moon that lives in the water.  As I 
+walk along, I try to find, among the grass and moss, some of that 
+small money for which she works so hard and used to shed so many 
+tears.  As I lie asleep in the shade, I dream of it--dream of 
+digging it up in heaps; and spying it out, hidden under bushes; and 
+seeing it sparkle, as the dew-drops do, among the leaves.  But I 
+never find it.  Tell me where it is.  I'd go there, if the journey 
+were a whole year long, because I know she would be happier when I 
+came home and brought some with me.  Speak again.  I'll listen to 
+you if you talk all night.'
+
+The blind man passed his hand lightly over the poor fellow's face, 
+and finding that his elbows were planted on the table, that his 
+chin rested on his two hands, that he leaned eagerly forward, and 
+that his whole manner expressed the utmost interest and anxiety, 
+paused for a minute as though he desired the widow to observe this 
+fully, and then made answer:
+
+'It's in the world, bold Barnaby, the merry world; not in solitary 
+places like those you pass your time in, but in crowds, and where 
+there's noise and rattle.'
+
+'Good! good!' cried Barnaby, rubbing his hands.  'Yes! I love 
+that.  Grip loves it too.  It suits us both.  That's brave!'
+
+'--The kind of places,' said the blind man, 'that a young fellow 
+likes, and in which a good son may do more for his mother, and 
+himself to boot, in a month, than he could here in all his life--
+that is, if he had a friend, you know, and some one to advise 
+with.'
+
+'You hear this, mother?' cried Barnaby, turning to her with 
+delight.  'Never tell me we shouldn't heed it, if it lay shining 
+at out feet.  Why do we heed it so much now?  Why do you toil from 
+morning until night?'
+
+'Surely,' said the blind man, 'surely.  Have you no answer, widow?  
+Is your mind,' he slowly added, 'not made up yet?'
+
+'Let me speak with you,' she answered, 'apart.'
+
+'Lay your hand upon my sleeve,' said Stagg, arising from the table; 
+'and lead me where you will.  Courage, bold Barnaby.  We'll talk 
+more of this: I've a fancy for you.  Wait there till I come back.  
+Now, widow.'
+
+She led him out at the door, and into the little garden, where they 
+stopped.
+
+'You are a fit agent,' she said, in a half breathless manner, 'and 
+well represent the man who sent you here.'
+
+'I'll tell him that you said so,' Stagg retorted.  'He has a regard 
+for you, and will respect me the more (if possible) for your 
+praise.  We must have our rights, widow.'
+
+'Rights!  Do you know,' she said, 'that a word from me--'
+
+'Why do you stop?' returned the blind man calmly, after a long 
+pause.  'Do I know that a word from you would place my friend in 
+the last position of the dance of life?  Yes, I do.  What of that?  
+It will never be spoken, widow.'
+
+'You are sure of that?'
+
+'Quite--so sure, that I don't come here to discuss the question.  I 
+say we must have our rights, or we must be bought off.  Keep to 
+that point, or let me return to my young friend, for I have an 
+interest in the lad, and desire to put him in the way of making his 
+fortune.  Bah! you needn't speak,' he added hastily; 'I know what 
+you would say: you have hinted at it once already.  Have I no 
+feeling for you, because I am blind?  No, I have not.  Why do you 
+expect me, being in darkness, to be better than men who have their 
+sight--why should you?  Is the hand of Heaven more manifest in my 
+having no eyes, than in your having two?  It's the cant of you 
+folks to be horrified if a blind man robs, or lies, or steals; oh 
+yes, it's far worse in him, who can barely live on the few 
+halfpence that are thrown to him in streets, than in you, who can 
+see, and work, and are not dependent on the mercies of the world.  
+A curse on you!  You who have five senses may be wicked at your 
+pleasure; we who have four, and want the most important, are to 
+live and be moral on our affliction.  The true charity and justice 
+of rich to poor, all the world over!'
+
+He paused a moment when he had said these words, and caught the 
+sound of money, jingling in her hand.
+
+'Well?' he cried, quickly resuming his former manner.  'That should 
+lead to something.  The point, widow?'
+
+'First answer me one question,' she replied.  'You say he is close 
+at hand.  Has he left London?'
+
+'Being close at hand, widow, it would seem he has,' returned the 
+blind man.
+
+'I mean, for good?  You know that.'
+
+'Yes, for good.  The truth is, widow, that his making a longer stay 
+there might have had disagreeable consequences.  He has come away 
+for that reason.'
+
+'Listen,' said the widow, telling some money out, upon a bench 
+beside them.  'Count.'
+
+'Six,' said the blind man, listening attentively.  'Any more?'
+
+'They are the savings,' she answered, 'of five years.  Six 
+guineas.'
+
+He put out his hand for one of the coins; felt it carefully, put it 
+between his teeth, rung it on the bench; and nodded to her to 
+proceed.
+
+'These have been scraped together and laid by, lest sickness or 
+death should separate my son and me.  They have been purchased at 
+the price of much hunger, hard labour, and want of rest.  If you 
+CAN take them--do--on condition that you leave this place upon the 
+instant, and enter no more into that room, where he sits now, 
+expecting your return.'
+
+'Six guineas,' said the blind man, shaking his head, 'though of the 
+fullest weight that were ever coined, fall very far short of twenty 
+pounds, widow.'
+
+'For such a sum, as you know, I must write to a distant part of the 
+country.  To do that, and receive an answer, I must have time.'
+
+'Two days?' said Stagg.
+
+'More.'
+
+'Four days?'
+
+'A week.  Return on this day week, at the same hour, but not to the 
+house.  Wait at the corner of the lane.'
+
+'Of course,' said the blind man, with a crafty look, 'I shall find 
+you there?'
+
+'Where else can I take refuge?  Is it not enough that you have made 
+a beggar of me, and that I have sacrificed my whole store, so 
+hardly earned, to preserve this home?'
+
+'Humph!' said the blind man, after some consideration.  'Set me 
+with my face towards the point you speak of, and in the middle of 
+the road.  Is this the spot?'
+
+'It is.'
+
+'On this day week at sunset.  And think of him within doors.--For 
+the present, good night.'
+
+She made him no answer, nor did he stop for any.  He went slowly 
+away, turning his head from time to time, and stopping to listen, 
+as if he were curious to know whether he was watched by any one.  
+The shadows of night were closing fast around, and he was soon lost 
+in the gloom.  It was not, however, until she had traversed the 
+lane from end to end, and made sure that he was gone, that she re-
+entered the cottage, and hurriedly barred the door and window.
+
+'Mother!' said Barnaby.  'What is the matter?  Where is the blind 
+man?'
+
+'He is gone.'
+
+'Gone!' he cried, starting up.  'I must have more talk with him.  
+Which way did he take?'
+
+'I don't know,' she answered, folding her arms about him.  'You 
+must not go out to-night.  There are ghosts and dreams abroad.'
+
+'Ay?' said Barnaby, in a frightened whisper.
+
+'It is not safe to stir.  We must leave this place to-morrow.'
+
+'This place!  This cottage--and the little garden, mother!'
+
+'Yes!  To-morrow morning at sunrise.  We must travel to London; 
+lose ourselves in that wide place--there would be some trace of us 
+in any other town--then travel on again, and find some new abode.'
+
+Little persuasion was required to reconcile Barnaby to anything 
+that promised change.  In another minute, he was wild with delight; 
+in another, full of grief at the prospect of parting with his 
+friends the dogs; in another, wild again; then he was fearful of 
+what she had said to prevent his wandering abroad that night, and 
+full of terrors and strange questions.  His light-heartedness in 
+the end surmounted all his other feelings, and lying down in his 
+clothes to the end that he might be ready on the morrow, he soon 
+fell fast asleep before the poor turf fire.
+
+His mother did not close her eyes, but sat beside him, watching.  
+Every breath of wind sounded in her ears like that dreaded footstep 
+at the door, or like that hand upon the latch, and made the calm 
+summer night, a night of horror.  At length the welcome day 
+appeared.  When she had made the little preparations which were 
+needful for their journey, and had prayed upon her knees with many 
+tears, she roused Barnaby, who jumped up gaily at her summons.
+
+His clothes were few enough, and to carry Grip was a labour of 
+love.  As the sun shed his earliest beams upon the earth, they 
+closed the door of their deserted home, and turned away.  The sky 
+was blue and bright.  The air was fresh and filled with a thousand 
+perfumes.  Barnaby looked upward, and laughed with all his heart.
+
+But it was a day he usually devoted to a long ramble, and one of 
+the dogs--the ugliest of them all--came bounding up, and jumping 
+round him in the fulness of his joy.  He had to bid him go back in 
+a surly tone, and his heart smote him while he did so.  The dog 
+retreated; turned with a half-incredulous, half-imploring look; 
+came a little back; and stopped.
+
+It was the last appeal of an old companion and a faithful friend--
+cast off.  Barnaby could bear no more, and as he shook his head and 
+waved his playmate home, he burst into tears.
+
+'Oh mother, mother, how mournful he will be when he scratches at 
+the door, and finds it always shut!'
+
+There was such a sense of home in the thought, that though her own 
+eyes overflowed she would not have obliterated the recollection of 
+it, either from her own mind or from his, for the wealth of the 
+whole wide world.
+
+
+
+Chapter 47
+
+
+In the exhaustless catalogue of Heaven's mercies to mankind, the 
+power we have of finding some germs of comfort in the hardest 
+trials must ever occupy the foremost place; not only because it 
+supports and upholds us when we most require to be sustained, but 
+because in this source of consolation there is something, we have 
+reason to believe, of the divine spirit; something of that goodness 
+which detects amidst our own evil doings, a redeeming quality; 
+something which, even in our fallen nature, we possess in common 
+with the angels; which had its being in the old time when they trod 
+the earth, and lingers on it yet, in pity.
+
+How often, on their journey, did the widow remember with a grateful 
+heart, that out of his deprivation Barnaby's cheerfulness and 
+affection sprung!  How often did she call to mind that but for 
+that, he might have been sullen, morose, unkind, far removed from 
+her--vicious, perhaps, and cruel!  How often had she cause for 
+comfort, in his strength, and hope, and in his simple nature!  
+Those feeble powers of mind which rendered him so soon forgetful of 
+the past, save in brief gleams and flashes,--even they were a 
+comfort now.  The world to him was full of happiness; in every 
+tree, and plant, and flower, in every bird, and beast, and tiny 
+insect whom a breath of summer wind laid low upon the ground, he 
+had delight.  His delight was hers; and where many a wise son would 
+have made her sorrowful, this poor light-hearted idiot filled her 
+breast with thankfulness and love.
+
+Their stock of money was low, but from the hoard she had told into 
+the blind man's hand, the widow had withheld one guinea.  This, 
+with the few pence she possessed besides, was to two persons of 
+their frugal habits, a goodly sum in bank.  Moreover they had Grip 
+in company; and when they must otherwise have changed the guinea, 
+it was but to make him exhibit outside an alehouse door, or in a 
+village street, or in the grounds or gardens of a mansion of the 
+better sort, and scores who would have given nothing in charity, 
+were ready to bargain for more amusement from the talking bird.
+
+One day--for they moved slowly, and although they had many rides in 
+carts and waggons, were on the road a week--Barnaby, with Grip upon 
+his shoulder and his mother following, begged permission at a trim 
+lodge to go up to the great house, at the other end of the avenue, 
+and show his raven.  The man within was inclined to give them 
+admittance, and was indeed about to do so, when a stout gentleman 
+with a long whip in his hand, and a flushed face which seemed to 
+indicate that he had had his morning's draught, rode up to the 
+gate, and called in a loud voice and with more oaths than the 
+occasion seemed to warrant to have it opened directly.
+
+'Who hast thou got here?' said the gentleman angrily, as the man 
+threw the gate wide open, and pulled off his hat, 'who are these?  
+Eh? art a beggar, woman?'
+
+The widow answered with a curtsey, that they were poor travellers.
+
+'Vagrants,' said the gentleman, 'vagrants and vagabonds.  Thee 
+wish to be made acquainted with the cage, dost thee--the cage, the 
+stocks, and the whipping-post?  Where dost come from?'
+
+She told him in a timid manner,--for he was very loud, hoarse, and 
+red-faced,--and besought him not to be angry, for they meant no 
+harm, and would go upon their way that moment.
+
+'Don't he too sure of that,' replied the gentleman, 'we don't allow 
+vagrants to roam about this place.  I know what thou want'st---
+stray linen drying on hedges, and stray poultry, eh?  What hast 
+got in that basket, lazy hound?'
+
+'Grip, Grip, Grip--Grip the clever, Grip the wicked, Grip the 
+knowing--Grip, Grip, Grip,' cried the raven, whom Barnaby had shut 
+up on the approach of this stern personage.  'I'm a devil I'm a 
+devil I'm a devil, Never say die Hurrah Bow wow wow, Polly put the 
+kettle on we'll all have tea.'
+
+'Take the vermin out, scoundrel,' said the gentleman, 'and let me 
+see him.'
+
+Barnaby, thus condescendingly addressed, produced his bird, but not 
+without much fear and trembling, and set him down upon the ground; 
+which he had no sooner done than Grip drew fifty corks at least, 
+and then began to dance; at the same time eyeing the gentleman with 
+surprising insolence of manner, and screwing his head so much on 
+one side that he appeared desirous of screwing it off upon the spot.
+
+The cork-drawing seemed to make a greater impression on the 
+gentleman's mind, than the raven's power of speech, and was indeed 
+particularly adapted to his habits and capacity.  He desired to 
+have that done again, but despite his being very peremptory, and 
+notwithstanding that Barnaby coaxed to the utmost, Grip turned a 
+deaf ear to the request, and preserved a dead silence.
+
+'Bring him along,' said the gentleman, pointing to the house.  But 
+Grip, who had watched the action, anticipated his master, by 
+hopping on before them;--constantly flapping his wings, and 
+screaming 'cook!' meanwhile, as a hint perhaps that there was 
+company coming, and a small collation would be acceptable.
+
+Barnaby and his mother walked on, on either side of the gentleman 
+on horseback, who surveyed each of them from time to time in a 
+proud and coarse manner, and occasionally thundered out some 
+question, the tone of which alarmed Barnaby so much that he could 
+find no answer, and, as a matter of course, could make him no 
+reply.  On one of these occasions, when the gentleman appeared 
+disposed to exercise his horsewhip, the widow ventured to inform 
+him in a low voice and with tears in her eyes, that her son was of 
+weak mind.
+
+'An idiot, eh?' said the gentleman, looking at Barnaby as he spoke.  
+'And how long hast thou been an idiot?'
+
+'She knows,' was Barnaby's timid answer, pointing to his mother--
+'I--always, I believe.'
+
+'From his birth,' said the widow.
+
+'I don't believe it,' cried the gentleman, 'not a bit of it.  It's 
+an excuse not to work.  There's nothing like flogging to cure that 
+disorder.  I'd make a difference in him in ten minutes, I'll be 
+bound.'
+
+'Heaven has made none in more than twice ten years, sir,' said the 
+widow mildly.
+
+'Then why don't you shut him up? we pay enough for county 
+institutions, damn 'em.  But thou'd rather drag him about to 
+excite charity--of course.  Ay, I know thee.'
+
+Now, this gentleman had various endearing appellations among his 
+intimate friends.  By some he was called 'a country gentleman of 
+the true school,' by some 'a fine old country gentleman,' by some 
+'a sporting gentleman,' by some 'a thorough-bred Englishman,' by 
+some 'a genuine John Bull;' but they all agreed in one respect, and 
+that was, that it was a pity there were not more like him, and that 
+because there were not, the country was going to rack and ruin 
+every day.  He was in the commission of the peace, and could write 
+his name almost legibly; but his greatest qualifications were, that 
+he was more severe with poachers, was a better shot, a harder 
+rider, had better horses, kept better dogs, could eat more solid 
+food, drink more strong wine, go to bed every night more drunk and 
+get up every morning more sober, than any man in the county.  In 
+knowledge of horseflesh he was almost equal to a farrier, in stable 
+learning he surpassed his own head groom, and in gluttony not a pig 
+on his estate was a match for him.  He had no seat in Parliament 
+himself, but he was extremely patriotic, and usually drove his 
+voters up to the poll with his own hands.  He was warmly attached 
+to church and state, and never appointed to the living in his gift 
+any but a three-bottle man and a first-rate fox-hunter.  He 
+mistrusted the honesty of all poor people who could read and write, 
+and had a secret jealousy of his own wife (a young lady whom he had 
+married for what his friends called 'the good old English reason,' 
+that her father's property adjoined his own) for possessing those 
+accomplishments in a greater degree than himself.  In short, 
+Barnaby being an idiot, and Grip a creature of mere brute instinct, 
+it would be very hard to say what this gentleman was.
+
+He rode up to the door of a handsome house approached by a great 
+flight of steps, where a man was waiting to take his horse, and led 
+the way into a large hall, which, spacious as it was, was tainted 
+with the fumes of last night's stale debauch.  Greatcoats, riding-
+whips, bridles, top-boots, spurs, and such gear, were strewn about 
+on all sides, and formed, with some huge stags' antlers, and a few 
+portraits of dogs and horses, its principal embellishments.
+
+Throwing himself into a great chair (in which, by the bye, he often 
+snored away the night, when he had been, according to his admirers, 
+a finer country gentleman than usual) he bade the man to tell his 
+mistress to come down: and presently there appeared, a little 
+flurried, as it seemed, by the unwonted summons, a lady much 
+younger than himself, who had the appearance of being in delicate 
+health, and not too happy.
+
+'Here!  Thou'st no delight in following the hounds as an 
+Englishwoman should have,' said the gentleman.  'See to this 
+here.  That'll please thee perhaps.'
+
+The lady smiled, sat down at a little distance from him, and 
+glanced at Barnaby with a look of pity.
+
+'He's an idiot, the woman says,' observed the gentleman, shaking 
+his head; 'I don't believe it.'
+
+'Are you his mother?' asked the lady.
+
+She answered yes.
+
+'What's the use of asking HER?' said the gentleman, thrusting his 
+hands into his breeches pockets.  'She'll tell thee so, of course.  
+Most likely he's hired, at so much a day.  There.  Get on.  Make 
+him do something.'
+
+Grip having by this time recovered his urbanity, condescended, at 
+Barnaby's solicitation, to repeat his various phrases of speech, 
+and to go through the whole of his performances with the utmost 
+success.  The corks, and the never say die, afforded the gentleman 
+so much delight that he demanded the repetition of this part of the 
+entertainment, until Grip got into his basket, and positively 
+refused to say another word, good or bad.  The lady too, was much 
+amused with him; and the closing point of his obstinacy so 
+delighted her husband that he burst into a roar of laughter, and 
+demanded his price.
+
+Barnaby looked as though he didn't understand his meaning.  
+Probably he did not.
+
+'His price,' said the gentleman, rattling the money in his pockets, 
+'what dost want for him?  How much?'
+
+'He's not to be sold,' replied Barnaby, shutting up the basket in a 
+great hurry, and throwing the strap over his shoulder.  'Mother, 
+come away.'
+
+'Thou seest how much of an idiot he is, book-learner,' said the 
+gentleman, looking scornfully at his wife.  'He can make a bargain.  
+What dost want for him, old woman?'
+
+'He is my son's constant companion,' said the widow.  'He is not to 
+be sold, sir, indeed.'
+
+'Not to be sold!' cried the gentleman, growing ten times redder, 
+hoarser, and louder than before.  'Not to be sold!'
+
+'Indeed no,' she answered.  'We have never thought of parting with 
+him, sir, I do assure you.'
+
+He was evidently about to make a very passionate retort, when a few 
+murmured words from his wife happening to catch his ear, he turned 
+sharply round, and said, 'Eh?  What?'
+
+'We can hardly expect them to sell the bird, against their own 
+desire,' she faltered.  'If they prefer to keep him--'
+
+'Prefer to keep him!' he echoed.  'These people, who go tramping 
+about the country a-pilfering and vagabondising on all hands, 
+prefer to keep a bird, when a landed proprietor and a justice asks 
+his price!  That old woman's been to school.  I know she has.  
+Don't tell me no,' he roared to the widow, 'I say, yes.'
+
+Barnaby's mother pleaded guilty to the accusation, and hoped there 
+was no harm in it.
+
+'No harm!' said the gentleman.  'No.  No harm.  No harm, ye old 
+rebel, not a bit of harm.  If my clerk was here, I'd set ye in the 
+stocks, I would, or lay ye in jail for prowling up and down, on the 
+look-out for petty larcenies, ye limb of a gipsy.  Here, Simon, put 
+these pilferers out, shove 'em into the road, out with 'em!  Ye 
+don't want to sell the bird, ye that come here to beg, don't ye?  
+If they an't out in double-quick, set the dogs upon 'em!'
+
+They waited for no further dismissal, but fled precipitately, 
+leaving the gentleman to storm away by himself (for the poor lady 
+had already retreated), and making a great many vain attempts to 
+silence Grip, who, excited by the noise, drew corks enough for a 
+city feast as they hurried down the avenue, and appeared to 
+congratulate himself beyond measure on having been the cause of the 
+disturbance.  When they had nearly reached the lodge, another 
+servant, emerging from the shrubbery, feigned to be very active 
+in ordering them off, but this man put a crown into the widow's 
+hand, and whispering that his lady sent it, thrust them gently from 
+the gate.
+
+This incident only suggested to the widow's mind, when they halted 
+at an alehouse some miles further on, and heard the justice's 
+character as given by his friends, that perhaps something more than 
+capacity of stomach and tastes for the kennel and the stable, were 
+required to form either a perfect country gentleman, a thoroughbred 
+Englishman, or a genuine John Bull; and that possibly the terms 
+were sometimes misappropriated, not to say disgraced.  She little 
+thought then, that a circumstance so slight would ever influence 
+their future fortunes; but time and experience enlightened her in 
+this respect.
+
+'Mother,' said Barnaby, as they were sitting next day in a waggon 
+which was to take them within ten miles of the capital, 'we're 
+going to London first, you said.  Shall we see that blind man 
+there?'
+
+She was about to answer 'Heaven forbid!' but checked herself, and 
+told him No, she thought not; why did he ask?
+
+'He's a wise man,' said Barnaby, with a thoughtful countenance.  'I 
+wish that we may meet with him again.  What was it that he said of 
+crowds?  That gold was to be found where people crowded, and not 
+among the trees and in such quiet places?  He spoke as if he loved 
+it; London is a crowded place; I think we shall meet him there.'
+
+'But why do you desire to see him, love?' she asked.
+
+'Because,' said Barnaby, looking wistfully at her, 'he talked to me 
+about gold, which is a rare thing, and say what you will, a thing 
+you would like to have, I know.  And because he came and went away 
+so strangely--just as white-headed old men come sometimes to my 
+bed's foot in the night, and say what I can't remember when the 
+bright day returns.  He told me he'd come back.  I wonder why he 
+broke his word!'
+
+'But you never thought of being rich or gay, before, dear Barnaby.  
+You have always been contented.'
+
+He laughed and bade her say that again, then cried, 'Ay ay--oh 
+yes,' and laughed once more.  Then something passed that caught his 
+fancy, and the topic wandered from his mind, and was succeeded by 
+another just as fleeting.
+
+But it was plain from what he had said, and from his returning to 
+the point more than once that day, and on the next, that the blind 
+man's visit, and indeed his words, had taken strong possession of 
+his mind.  Whether the idea of wealth had occurred to him for the 
+first time on looking at the golden clouds that evening--and images 
+were often presented to his thoughts by outward objects quite as 
+remote and distant; or whether their poor and humble way of life 
+had suggested it, by contrast, long ago; or whether the accident 
+(as he would deem it) of the blind man's pursuing the current of 
+his own remarks, had done so at the moment; or he had been 
+impressed by the mere circumstance of the man being blind, and, 
+therefore, unlike any one with whom he had talked before; it was 
+impossible to tell.  She tried every means to discover, but in 
+vain; and the probability is that Barnaby himself was equally in 
+the dark.
+
+It filled her with uneasiness to find him harping on this string, 
+but all that she could do, was to lead him quickly to some other 
+subject, and to dismiss it from his brain.  To caution him against 
+their visitor, to show any fear or suspicion in reference to him, 
+would only be, she feared, to increase that interest with which 
+Barnaby regarded him, and to strengthen his desire to meet him once 
+again.  She hoped, by plunging into the crowd, to rid herself of 
+her terrible pursuer, and then, by journeying to a distance and 
+observing increased caution, if that were possible, to live again 
+unknown, in secrecy and peace.
+
+They reached, in course of time, their halting-place within ten 
+miles of London, and lay there for the night, after bargaining to 
+be carried on for a trifle next day, in a light van which was 
+returning empty, and was to start at five o'clock in the morning.  
+The driver was punctual, the road good--save for the dust, the 
+weather being very hot and dry--and at seven in the forenoon of 
+Friday the second of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty, 
+they alighted at the foot of Westminster Bridge, bade their 
+conductor farewell, and stood alone, together, on the scorching 
+pavement.  For the freshness which night sheds upon such busy 
+thoroughfares had already departed, and the sun was shining with 
+uncommon lustre.
+
+
+
+Chapter 48
+
+
+Uncertain where to go next, and bewildered by the crowd of people 
+who were already astir, they sat down in one of the recesses on the 
+bridge, to rest.  They soon became aware that the stream of life 
+was all pouring one way, and that a vast throng of persons were 
+crossing the river from the Middlesex to the Surrey shore, in 
+unusual haste and evident excitement.  They were, for the most 
+part, in knots of two or three, or sometimes half-a-dozen; they 
+spoke little together--many of them were quite silent; and hurried 
+on as if they had one absorbing object in view, which was common to 
+them all.
+
+They were surprised to see that nearly every man in this great 
+concourse, which still came pouring past, without slackening in the 
+least, wore in his hat a blue cockade; and that the chance 
+passengers who were not so decorated, appeared timidly anxious to 
+escape observation or attack, and gave them the wall as if they 
+would conciliate them.  This, however, was natural enough, 
+considering their inferiority in point of numbers; for the 
+proportion of those who wore blue cockades, to those who were 
+dressed as usual, was at least forty or fifty to one.  There was no 
+quarrelling, however: the blue cockades went swarming on, passing 
+each other when they could, and making all the speed that was 
+possible in such a multitude; and exchanged nothing more than 
+looks, and very often not even those, with such of the passers-by 
+as were not of their number.
+
+At first, the current of people had been confined to the two 
+pathways, and but a few more eager stragglers kept the road.  But 
+after half an hour or so, the passage was completely blocked up by 
+the great press, which, being now closely wedged together, and 
+impeded by the carts and coaches it encountered, moved but slowly, 
+and was sometimes at a stand for five or ten minutes together.
+
+After the lapse of nearly two hours, the numbers began to diminish 
+visibly, and gradually dwindling away, by little and little, left 
+the bridge quite clear, save that, now and then, some hot and dusty 
+man, with the cockade in his hat, and his coat thrown over his 
+shoulder, went panting by, fearful of being too late, or stopped to 
+ask which way his friends had taken, and being directed, hastened 
+on again like one refreshed.  In this comparative solitude, which 
+seemed quite strange and novel after the late crowd, the widow had 
+for the first time an opportunity of inquiring of an old man who 
+came and sat beside them, what was the meaning of that great 
+assemblage.
+
+'Why, where have you come from,' he returned, 'that you haven't 
+heard of Lord George Gordon's great association?  This is the day 
+that he presents the petition against the Catholics, God bless 
+him!'
+
+'What have all these men to do with that?' she said.
+
+'What have they to do with it!' the old man replied.  'Why, how you 
+talk!  Don't you know his lordship has declared he won't present it 
+to the house at all, unless it is attended to the door by forty 
+thousand good and true men at least?  There's a crowd for you!'
+
+'A crowd indeed!' said Barnaby.  'Do you hear that, mother!'
+
+'And they're mustering yonder, as I am told,' resumed the old man, 
+'nigh upon a hundred thousand strong.  Ah!  Let Lord George alone.  
+He knows his power.  There'll be a good many faces inside them 
+three windows over there,' and he pointed to where the House of 
+Commons overlooked the river, 'that'll turn pale when good Lord 
+George gets up this afternoon, and with reason too!  Ay, ay.  Let 
+his lordship alone.  Let him alone.  HE knows!'  And so, with much 
+mumbling and chuckling and shaking of his forefinger, he rose, with 
+the assistance of his stick, and tottered off.
+
+'Mother!' said Barnaby, 'that's a brave crowd he talks of.  Come!'
+
+'Not to join it!' cried his mother.
+
+'Yes, yes,' he answered, plucking at her sleeve.  'Why not?  Come!'
+
+'You don't know,' she urged, 'what mischief they may do, where they 
+may lead you, what their meaning is.  Dear Barnaby, for my sake--'
+
+'For your sake!' he cried, patting her hand.  'Well! It IS for your 
+sake, mother.  You remember what the blind man said, about the 
+gold.  Here's a brave crowd!  Come!  Or wait till I come back--yes, 
+yes, wait here.'
+
+She tried with all the earnestness her fears engendered, to turn 
+him from his purpose, but in vain.  He was stooping down to buckle 
+on his shoe, when a hackney-coach passed them rather quickly, and a 
+voice inside called to the driver to stop.
+
+'Young man,' said a voice within.
+
+'Who's that?' cried Barnaby, looking up.
+
+'Do you wear this ornament?' returned the stranger, holding out a 
+blue cockade.
+
+'In Heaven's name, no.  Pray do not give it him!' exclaimed the 
+widow.
+
+'Speak for yourself, woman,' said the man within the coach, coldly.  
+'Leave the young man to his choice; he's old enough to make it, and 
+to snap your apron-strings.  He knows, without your telling, 
+whether he wears the sign of a loyal Englishman or not.'
+
+Barnaby, trembling with impatience, cried, 'Yes! yes, yes, I do,' 
+as he had cried a dozen times already.  The man threw him a 
+cockade, and crying, 'Make haste to St George's Fields,' ordered 
+the coachman to drive on fast; and left them.
+
+With hands that trembled with his eagerness to fix the bauble in 
+his hat, Barnaby was adjusting it as he best could, and hurriedly 
+replying to the tears and entreaties of his mother, when two 
+gentlemen passed on the opposite side of the way.  Observing them, 
+and seeing how Barnaby was occupied, they stopped, whispered 
+together for an instant, turned back, and came over to them.
+
+'Why are you sitting here?' said one of them, who was dressed in a 
+plain suit of black, wore long lank hair, and carried a great cane.  
+'Why have you not gone with the rest?'
+
+'I am going, sir,' replied Barnaby, finishing his task, and putting 
+his hat on with an air of pride.  'I shall be there directly.'
+
+'Say "my lord," young man, when his lordship does you the honour of 
+speaking to you,' said the second gentleman mildly.  'If you don't 
+know Lord George Gordon when you see him, it's high time you 
+should.'
+
+'Nay, Gashford,' said Lord George, as Barnaby pulled off his hat 
+again and made him a low bow, 'it's no great matter on a day like 
+this, which every Englishman will remember with delight and pride.  
+Put on your hat, friend, and follow us, for you lag behind and are 
+late.  It's past ten now.  Didn't you know that the hour for 
+assembling was ten o'clock?'
+
+Barnaby shook his head and looked vacantly from one to the other.
+
+'You might have known it, friend,' said Gashford, 'it was perfectly 
+understood.  How came you to be so ill informed?'
+
+'He cannot tell you, sir,' the widow interposed.  'It's of no use 
+to ask him.  We are but this morning come from a long distance in 
+the country, and know nothing of these matters.'
+
+'The cause has taken a deep root, and has spread its branches far 
+and wide,' said Lord George to his secretary.  'This is a pleasant 
+hearing.  I thank Heaven for it!'
+
+'Amen!' cried Gashford with a solemn face.
+
+'You do not understand me, my lord,' said the widow.  'Pardon me, 
+but you cruelly mistake my meaning.  We know nothing of these 
+matters.  We have no desire or right to join in what you are about 
+to do.  This is my son, my poor afflicted son, dearer to me than my 
+own life.  In mercy's name, my lord, go your way alone, and do not 
+tempt him into danger!'
+
+'My good woman,' said Gashford, 'how can you!--Dear me!--What do 
+you mean by tempting, and by danger?  Do you think his lordship is 
+a roaring lion, going about and seeking whom he may devour?  God 
+bless me!'
+
+'No, no, my lord, forgive me,' implored the widow, laying both her 
+hands upon his breast, and scarcely knowing what she did, or said, 
+in the earnestness of her supplication, 'but there are reasons why 
+you should hear my earnest, mother's prayer, and leave my son with 
+me.  Oh do!  He is not in his right senses, he is not, indeed!'
+
+'It is a bad sign of the wickedness of these times,' said Lord 
+George, evading her touch, and colouring deeply, 'that those who 
+cling to the truth and support the right cause, are set down as 
+mad.  Have you the heart to say this of your own son, unnatural 
+mother!'
+
+'I am astonished at you!' said Gashford, with a kind of meek 
+severity.  'This is a very sad picture of female depravity.'
+
+'He has surely no appearance,' said Lord George, glancing at 
+Barnaby, and whispering in his secretary's ear, 'of being deranged?  
+And even if he had, we must not construe any trifling peculiarity 
+into madness.  Which of us'--and here he turned red again--'would 
+be safe, if that were made the law!'
+
+'Not one,' replied the secretary; 'in that case, the greater the 
+zeal, the truth, and talent; the more direct the call from above; 
+the clearer would be the madness.  With regard to this young man, 
+my lord,' he added, with a lip that slightly curled as he looked at 
+Barnaby, who stood twirling his hat, and stealthily beckoning them 
+to come away, 'he is as sensible and self-possessed as any one I 
+ever saw.'
+
+'And you desire to make one of this great body?' said Lord George, 
+addressing him; 'and intended to make one, did you?'
+
+'Yes--yes,' said Barnaby, with sparkling eyes.  'To be sure I did!  
+I told her so myself.'
+
+'I see,' replied Lord George, with a reproachful glance at the 
+unhappy mother.  'I thought so.  Follow me and this gentleman, and 
+you shall have your wish.'
+
+Barnaby kissed his mother tenderly on the cheek, and bidding her be 
+of good cheer, for their fortunes were both made now, did as he was 
+desired.  She, poor woman, followed too--with how much fear and 
+grief it would be hard to tell.
+
+They passed quickly through the Bridge Road, where the shops were 
+all shut up (for the passage of the great crowd and the expectation 
+of their return had alarmed the tradesmen for their goods and 
+windows), and where, in the upper stories, all the inhabitants were 
+congregated, looking down into the street below, with faces 
+variously expressive of alarm, of interest, expectancy, and 
+indignation.  Some of these applauded, and some hissed; but 
+regardless of these interruptions--for the noise of a vast 
+congregation of people at a little distance, sounded in his ears 
+like the roaring of the sea--Lord George Gordon quickened his pace, 
+and presently arrived before St George's Fields.
+
+They were really fields at that time, and of considerable extent.  
+Here an immense multitude was collected, bearing flags of various 
+kinds and sizes, but all of the same colour--blue, like the 
+cockades--some sections marching to and fro in military array, and 
+others drawn up in circles, squares, and lines.  A large portion, 
+both of the bodies which paraded the ground, and of those which 
+remained stationary, were occupied in singing hymns or psalms.  
+With whomsoever this originated, it was well done; for the sound of 
+so many thousand voices in the air must have stirred the heart of 
+any man within him, and could not fail to have a wonderful effect 
+upon enthusiasts, however mistaken.
+
+Scouts had been posted in advance of the great body, to give notice 
+of their leader's coming.  These falling back, the word was quickly 
+passed through the whole host, and for a short interval there 
+ensued a profound and deathlike silence, during which the mass was 
+so still and quiet, that the fluttering of a banner caught the eye, 
+and became a circumstance of note.  Then they burst into a 
+tremendous shout, into another, and another; and the air seemed 
+rent and shaken, as if by the discharge of cannon.
+
+'Gashford!' cried Lord George, pressing his secretary's arm tight 
+within his own, and speaking with as much emotion in his voice, as 
+in his altered face, 'I arn called indeed, now.  I feel and know 
+it.  I am the leader of a host.  If they summoned me at this moment 
+with one voice to lead them on to death, I'd do it--Yes, and fall 
+first myself!'
+
+'It is a proud sight,' said the secretary.  'It is a noble day for 
+England, and for the great cause throughout the world.  Such 
+homage, my lord, as I, an humble but devoted man, can render--'
+
+'What are you doing?' cried his master, catching him by both hands; 
+for he had made a show of kneeling at his feet.  'Do not unfit me, 
+dear Gashford, for the solemn duty of this glorious day--' the 
+tears stood in the eyes of the poor gentleman as he said the 
+words.--'Let us go among them; we have to find a place in some 
+division for this new recruit--give me your hand.'
+
+Gashford slid his cold insidious palm into his master's grasp, and 
+so, hand in hand, and followed still by Barnaby and by his mother 
+too, they mingled with the concourse.
+
+They had by this time taken to their singing again, and as their 
+leader passed between their ranks, they raised their voices to 
+their utmost.  Many of those who were banded together to support 
+the religion of their country, even unto death, had never heard a 
+hymn or psalm in all their lives.  But these fellows having for the 
+most part strong lungs, and being naturally fond of singing, 
+chanted any ribaldry or nonsense that occurred to them, feeling 
+pretty certain that it would not be detected in the general chorus, 
+and not caring much if it were.  Many of these voluntaries were 
+sung under the very nose of Lord George Gordon, who, quite 
+unconscious of their burden, passed on with his usual stiff and 
+solemn deportment, very much edified and delighted by the pious 
+conduct of his followers.
+
+So they went on and on, up this line, down that, round the exterior 
+of this circle, and on every side of that hollow square; and still 
+there were lines, and squares, and circles out of number to review.  
+The day being now intensely hot, and the sun striking down his 
+fiercest rays upon the field, those who carried heavy banners began 
+to grow faint and weary; most of the number assembled were fain to 
+pull off their neckcloths, and throw their coats and waistcoats 
+open; and some, towards the centre, quite overpowered by the 
+excessive heat, which was of course rendered more unendurable by 
+the multitude around them, lay down upon the grass, and offered all 
+they had about them for a drink of water.  Still, no man left the 
+ground, not even of those who were so distressed; still Lord 
+George, streaming from every pore, went on with Gashford; and still 
+Barnaby and his mother followed close behind them.
+
+They had arrived at the top of a long line of some eight hundred 
+men in single file, and Lord George had turned his head to look 
+back, when a loud cry of recognition--in that peculiar and half-
+stifled tone which a voice has, when it is raised in the open air 
+and in the midst of a great concourse of persons--was heard, and a 
+man stepped with a shout of laughter from the rank, and smote 
+Barnaby on the shoulders with his heavy hand.
+
+'How now!' he cried.  'Barnaby Rudge!  Why, where have you been 
+hiding for these hundred years?'
+
+Barnaby had been thinking within himself that the smell of the 
+trodden grass brought back his old days at cricket, when he was a 
+young boy and played on Chigwell Green.  Confused by this sudden 
+and boisterous address, he stared in a bewildered manner at the 
+man, and could scarcely say 'What! Hugh!'
+
+'Hugh!' echoed the other; 'ay, Hugh--Maypole Hugh!  You remember my 
+dog?  He's alive now, and will know you, I warrant.  What, you wear 
+the colour, do you?  Well done!  Ha ha ha!'
+
+'You know this young man, I see,' said Lord George.
+
+'Know him, my lord! as well as I know my own right hand.  My 
+captain knows him.  We all know him.'
+
+'Will you take him into your division?'
+
+'It hasn't in it a better, nor a nimbler, nor a more active man, 
+than Barnaby Rudge,' said Hugh.  'Show me the man who says it has!  
+Fall in, Barnaby.  He shall march, my lord, between me and Dennis; 
+and he shall carry,' he added, taking a flag from the hand of a 
+tired man who tendered it, 'the gayest silken streamer in this 
+valiant army.'
+
+'In the name of God, no!' shrieked the widow, darting forward.  
+'Barnaby--my lord--see--he'll come back--Barnaby--Barnaby!'
+
+'Women in the field!' cried Hugh, stepping between them, and 
+holding her off.  'Holloa!  My captain there!'
+
+'What's the matter here?' cried Simon Tappertit, bustling up in a 
+great heat.  'Do you call this order?'
+
+'Nothing like it, captain,' answered Hugh, still holding her back 
+with his outstretched hand.  'It's against all orders.  Ladies are 
+carrying off our gallant soldiers from their duty.  The word of 
+command, captain!  They're filing off the ground.  Quick!'
+
+'Close!' cried Simon, with the whole power of his lungs.  'Form!  
+March!'
+
+She was thrown to the ground; the whole field was in motion; 
+Barnaby was whirled away into the heart of a dense mass of men, and 
+she saw him no more.
+
+
+
+Chapter 49
+
+
+The mob had been divided from its first assemblage into four 
+divisions; the London, the Westminster, the Southwark, and the 
+Scotch.  Each of these divisions being subdivided into various 
+bodies, and these bodies being drawn up in various forms and 
+figures, the general arrangement was, except to the few chiefs and 
+leaders, as unintelligible as the plan of a great battle to the 
+meanest soldier in the field.  It was not without its method, 
+however; for, in a very short space of time after being put in 
+motion, the crowd had resolved itself into three great parties, and 
+were prepared, as had been arranged, to cross the river by 
+different bridges, and make for the House of Commons in separate 
+detachments.
+
+At the head of that division which had Westminster Bridge for its 
+approach to the scene of action, Lord George Gordon took his post; 
+with Gashford at his right hand, and sundry ruffians, of most 
+unpromising appearance, forming a kind of staff about him.  The 
+conduct of a second party, whose route lay by Blackfriars, was 
+entrusted to a committee of management, including perhaps a dozen 
+men: while the third, which was to go by London Bridge, and through 
+the main streets, in order that their numbers and their serious 
+intentions might be the better known and appreciated by the 
+citizens, were led by Simon Tappertit (assisted by a few 
+subalterns, selected from the Brotherhood of United Bulldogs), 
+Dennis the hangman, Hugh, and some others.
+
+The word of command being given, each of these great bodies took 
+the road assigned to it, and departed on its way, in perfect order 
+and profound silence.  That which went through the City greatly 
+exceeded the others in number, and was of such prodigious extent 
+that when the rear began to move, the front was nearly four miles 
+in advance, notwithstanding that the men marched three abreast and 
+followed very close upon each other.
+
+At the head of this party, in the place where Hugh, in the madness 
+of his humour, had stationed him, and walking between that 
+dangerous companion and the hangman, went Barnaby; as many a man 
+among the thousands who looked on that day afterwards remembered 
+well.  Forgetful of all other things in the ecstasy of the moment, 
+his face flushed and his eyes sparkling with delight, heedless of 
+the weight of the great banner he carried, and mindful only of its 
+flashing in the sun and rustling in the summer breeze, on he went, 
+proud, happy, elated past all telling:--the only light-hearted, 
+undesigning creature, in the whole assembly.
+
+'What do you think of this?' asked Hugh, as they passed through the 
+crowded streets, and looked up at the windows which were thronged 
+with spectators.  'They have all turned out to see our flags and 
+streamers?  Eh, Barnaby?  Why, Barnaby's the greatest man of all 
+the pack!  His flag's the largest of the lot, the brightest too.  
+There's nothing in the show, like Barnaby.  All eyes are turned on 
+him.  Ha ha ha!'
+
+'Don't make that din, brother,' growled the hangman, glancing with 
+no very approving eyes at Barnaby as he spoke: 'I hope he don't 
+think there's nothing to be done, but carrying that there piece of 
+blue rag, like a boy at a breaking up.  You're ready for action I 
+hope, eh?  You, I mean,' he added, nudging Barnaby roughly with 
+his elbow.  'What are you staring at?  Why don't you speak?'
+
+Barnaby had been gazing at his flag, and looked vacantly from his 
+questioner to Hugh.
+
+'He don't understand your way,' said the latter.  'Here, I'll 
+explain it to him.  Barnaby old boy, attend to me.'
+
+'I'll attend,' said Barnaby, looking anxiously round; 'but I wish 
+I could see her somewhere.'
+
+'See who?' demanded Dennis in a gruff tone.  'You an't in love I 
+hope, brother?  That an't the sort of thing for us, you know.  We 
+mustn't have no love here.'
+
+'She would be proud indeed to see me now, eh Hugh?' said Barnaby.  
+'Wouldn't it make her glad to see me at the head of this large 
+show?  She'd cry for joy, I know she would.  Where CAN she be?  She 
+never sees me at my best, and what do I care to be gay and fine if 
+SHE'S not by?'
+
+'Why, what palaver's this?' asked Mr Dennis with supreme disdain.  
+'We an't got no sentimental members among us, I hope.'
+
+'Don't be uneasy, brother,' cried Hugh, 'he's only talking of his 
+mother.'
+
+'Of his what?' said Mr Dennis with a strong oath.
+
+'His mother.'
+
+'And have I combined myself with this here section, and turned out 
+on this here memorable day, to hear men talk about their mothers!' 
+growled Mr Dennis with extreme disgust.  'The notion of a man's 
+sweetheart's bad enough, but a man's mother!'--and here his disgust 
+was so extreme that he spat upon the ground, and could say no more.
+
+'Barnaby's right,' cried Hugh with a grin, 'and I say it.  Lookee, 
+bold lad.  If she's not here to see, it's because I've provided for 
+her, and sent half-a-dozen gentlemen, every one of 'em with a 
+blue flag (but not half as fine as yours), to take her, in state, 
+to a grand house all hung round with gold and silver banners, and 
+everything else you please, where she'll wait till you come, and 
+want for nothing.'
+
+'Ay!' said Barnaby, his face beaming with delight: 'have you 
+indeed?  That's a good hearing.  That's fine!  Kind Hugh!'
+
+'But nothing to what will come, bless you,' retorted Hugh, with a 
+wink at Dennis, who regarded his new companion in arms with great 
+astonishment.
+
+'No, indeed?' cried Barnaby.
+
+'Nothing at all,' said Hugh.  'Money, cocked hats and feathers, red 
+coats and gold lace; all the fine things there are, ever were, or 
+will be; will belong to us if we are true to that noble gentleman--
+the best man in the world--carry our flags for a few days, and keep 
+'em safe.  That's all we've got to do.'
+
+'Is that all?' cried Barnaby with glistening eyes, as he clutched 
+his pole the tighter; 'I warrant you I keep this one safe, then.  
+You have put it in good hands.  You know me, Hugh.  Nobody shall 
+wrest this flag away.'
+
+'Well said!' cried Hugh.  'Ha ha!  Nobly said!  That's the old 
+stout Barnaby, that I have climbed and leaped with, many and many a 
+day--I knew I was not mistaken in Barnaby.--Don't you see, man,' he 
+added in a whisper, as he slipped to the other side of Dennis, 
+'that the lad's a natural, and can be got to do anything, if you 
+take him the right way?  Letting alone the fun he is, he's worth a 
+dozen men, in earnest, as you'd find if you tried a fall with him.  
+Leave him to me.  You shall soon see whether he's of use or not.'
+
+Mr Dennis received these explanatory remarks with many nods and 
+winks, and softened his behaviour towards Barnaby from that moment.  
+Hugh, laying his finger on his nose, stepped back into his former 
+place, and they proceeded in silence.
+
+It was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon when the 
+three great parties met at Westminster, and, uniting into one huge 
+mass, raised a tremendous shout.  This was not only done in token 
+of their presence, but as a signal to those on whom the task 
+devolved, that it was time to take possession of the lobbies of 
+both Houses, and of the various avenues of approach, and of the 
+gallery stairs.  To the last-named place, Hugh and Dennis, still 
+with their pupil between them, rushed straightway; Barnaby having 
+given his flag into the hands of one of their own party, who kept 
+them at the outer door.  Their followers pressing on behind, they 
+were borne as on a great wave to the very doors of the gallery, 
+whence it was impossible to retreat, even if they had been so 
+inclined, by reason of the throng which choked up the passages.  It 
+is a familiar expression in describing a great crowd, that a person 
+might have walked upon the people's heads.  In this case it was 
+actually done; for a boy who had by some means got among the 
+concourse, and was in imminent danger of suffocation, climbed to 
+the shoulders of a man beside him and walked upon the people's hats 
+and heads into the open street; traversing in his passage the whole 
+length of two staircases and a long gallery.  Nor was the swarm 
+without less dense; for a basket which had been tossed into the 
+crowd, was jerked from head to head, and shoulder to shoulder, and 
+went spinning and whirling on above them, until it was lost to 
+view, without ever once falling in among them or coming near the 
+ground.
+
+Through this vast throng, sprinkled doubtless here and there with 
+honest zealots, but composed for the most part of the very scum and 
+refuse of London, whose growth was fostered by bad criminal laws, 
+bad prison regulations, and the worst conceivable police, such of 
+the members of both Houses of Parliament as had not taken the 
+precaution to be already at their posts, were compelled to fight 
+and force their way.  Their carriages were stopped and broken; the 
+wheels wrenched off; the glasses shivered to atoms; the panels 
+beaten in; drivers, footmen, and masters, pulled from their seats 
+and rolled in the mud.  Lords, commoners, and reverend bishops, 
+with little distinction of person or party, were kicked and pinched 
+and hustled; passed from hand to hand through various stages of 
+ill-usage; and sent to their fellow-senators at last with their 
+clothes hanging in ribands about them, their bagwigs torn off, 
+themselves speechless and breathless, and their persons covered 
+with the powder which had been cuffed and beaten out of their hair.  
+One lord was so long in the hands of the populace, that the Peers 
+as a body resolved to sally forth and rescue him, and were in the 
+act of doing so, when he happily appeared among them covered with 
+dirt and bruises, and hardly to be recognised by those who knew him 
+best.  The noise and uproar were on the increase every moment.  The 
+air was filled with execrations, hoots, and howlings.  The mob 
+raged and roared, like a mad monster as it was, unceasingly, and 
+each new outrage served to swell its fury.
+
+Within doors, matters were even yet more threatening.  Lord George--
+preceded by a man who carried the immense petition on a porter's 
+knot through the lobby to the door of the House of Commons, where 
+it was received by two officers of the house who rolled it up to 
+the table ready for presentation--had taken his seat at an early 
+hour, before the Speaker went to prayers.  His followers pouring in 
+at the same time, the lobby and all the avenues were immediately 
+filled, as we have seen.  Thus the members were not only attacked 
+in their passage through the streets, but were set upon within the 
+very walls of Parliament; while the tumult, both within and 
+without, was so great, that those who attempted to speak could 
+scarcely hear their own voices: far less, consult upon the course 
+it would be wise to take in such extremity, or animate each other 
+to dignified and firm resistance.  So sure as any member, just 
+arrived, with dress disordered and dishevelled hair, came 
+struggling through the crowd in the lobby, it yelled and screamed 
+in triumph; and when the door of the House, partially and 
+cautiously opened by those within for his admission, gave them a 
+momentary glimpse of the interior, they grew more wild and savage, 
+like beasts at the sight of prey, and made a rush against the 
+portal which strained its locks and bolts in their staples, and 
+shook the very beams.
+
+The strangers' gallery, which was immediately above the door of the 
+House, had been ordered to be closed on the first rumour of 
+disturbance, and was empty; save that now and then Lord George took 
+his seat there, for the convenience of coming to the head of the 
+stairs which led to it, and repeating to the people what had passed 
+within.  It was on these stairs that Barnaby, Hugh, and Dennis were 
+posted.  There were two flights, short, steep, and narrow, running 
+parallel to each other, and leading to two little doors 
+communicating with a low passage which opened on the gallery.  
+Between them was a kind of well, or unglazed skylight, for the 
+admission of light and air into the lobby, which might be some 
+eighteen or twenty feet below.
+
+Upon one of these little staircases--not that at the head of which 
+Lord George appeared from time to time, but the other--Gashford 
+stood with his elbow on the bannister, and his cheek resting on his 
+hand, with his usual crafty aspect.  Whenever he varied this 
+attitude in the slightest degree--so much as by the gentlest motion 
+of his arm--the uproar was certain to increase, not merely there, 
+but in the lobby below; from which place no doubt, some man who 
+acted as fugleman to the rest, was constantly looking up and 
+watching him.
+
+'Order!' cried Hugh, in a voice which made itself heard even above 
+the roar and tumult, as Lord George appeared at the top of the 
+staircase.  'News!  News from my lord!'
+
+The noise continued, notwithstanding his appearance, until Gashford 
+looked round.  There was silence immediately--even among the people 
+in the passages without, and on the other staircases, who could 
+neither see nor hear, but to whom, notwithstanding, the signal was 
+conveyed with marvellous rapidity.
+
+'Gentlemen,' said Lord George, who was very pale and agitated, we 
+must be firm.  They talk of delays, but we must have no delays.  
+They talk of taking your petition into consideration next Tuesday, 
+but we must have it considered now.  Present appearances look bad 
+for our success, but we must succeed and will!'
+
+'We must succeed and will!' echoed the crowd.  And so among their 
+shouts and cheers and other cries, he bowed to them and retired, 
+and presently came back again.  There was another gesture from 
+Gashford, and a dead silence directly.
+
+'I am afraid,' he said, this time, 'that we have little reason, 
+gentlemen, to hope for any redress from the proceedings of 
+Parliament.  But we must redress our own grievances, we must meet 
+again, we must put our trust in Providence, and it will bless our 
+endeavours.'
+
+This speech being a little more temperate than the last, was not so 
+favourably received.  When the noise and exasperation were at their 
+height, he came back once more, and told them that the alarm had 
+gone forth for many miles round; that when the King heard of their 
+assembling together in that great body, he had no doubt, His 
+Majesty would send down private orders to have their wishes 
+complied with; and--with the manner of his speech as childish, 
+irresolute, and uncertain as his matter--was proceeding in this 
+strain, when two gentlemen suddenly appeared at the door where he 
+stood, and pressing past him and coming a step or two lower down 
+upon the stairs, confronted the people.
+
+The boldness of this action quite took them by surprise.  They were 
+not the less disconcerted, when one of the gentlemen, turning to 
+Lord George, spoke thus--in a loud voice that they might hear him 
+well, but quite coolly and collectedly:
+
+'You may tell these people, if you please, my lord, that I am 
+General Conway of whom they have heard; and that I oppose this 
+petition, and all their proceedings, and yours.  I am a soldier, 
+you may tell them, and I will protect the freedom of this place 
+with my sword.  You see, my lord, that the members of this House 
+are all in arms to-day; you know that the entrance to it is a 
+narrow one; you cannot be ignorant that there are men within these 
+walls who are determined to defend that pass to the last, and 
+before whom many lives must fall if your adherents persevere.  Have 
+a care what you do.'
+
+'And my Lord George,' said the other gentleman, addressing him in 
+like manner, 'I desire them to hear this, from me--Colonel Gordon--
+your near relation.  If a man among this crowd, whose uproar 
+strikes us deaf, crosses the threshold of the House of Commons, I 
+swear to run my sword that moment--not into his, but into your 
+body!'
+
+With that, they stepped back again, keeping their faces towards the 
+crowd; took each an arm of the misguided nobleman; drew him into 
+the passage, and shut the door; which they directly locked and 
+fastened on the inside.
+
+This was so quickly done, and the demeanour of both gentlemen--who 
+were not young men either--was so gallant and resolute, that the 
+crowd faltered and stared at each other with irresolute and timid 
+looks.  Many tried to turn towards the door; some of the faintest-
+hearted cried they had best go back, and called to those behind to 
+give way; and the panic and confusion were increasing rapidly, when 
+Gashford whispered Hugh.
+
+'What now!' Hugh roared aloud, turning towards them.  'Why go back?  
+Where can you do better than here, boys!  One good rush against 
+these doors and one below at the same time, will do the business.  
+Rush on, then!  As to the door below, let those stand back who are 
+afraid.  Let those who are not afraid, try who shall be the first 
+to pass it.  Here goes!  Look out down there!'
+
+Without the delay of an instant, he threw himself headlong over the 
+bannisters into the lobby below.  He had hardly touched the ground 
+when Barnaby was at his side.  The chaplain's assistant, and some 
+members who were imploring the people to retire, immediately 
+withdrew; and then, with a great shout, both crowds threw 
+themselves against the doors pell-mell, and besieged the House in 
+earnest.
+
+At that moment, when a second onset must have brought them into 
+collision with those who stood on the defensive within, in which 
+case great loss of life and bloodshed would inevitably have 
+ensued,--the hindmost portion of the crowd gave way, and the rumour 
+spread from mouth to mouth that a messenger had been despatched by 
+water for the military, who were forming in the street.  Fearful of 
+sustaining a charge in the narrow passages in which they were so 
+closely wedged together, the throng poured out as impetuously as 
+they had flocked in.  As the whole stream turned at once, Barnaby 
+and Hugh went with it: and so, fighting and struggling and 
+trampling on fallen men and being trampled on in turn themselves, 
+they and the whole mass floated by degrees into the open street, 
+where a large detachment of the Guards, both horse and foot, came 
+hurrying up; clearing the ground before them so rapidly that the 
+people seemed to melt away as they advanced.
+
+The word of command to halt being given, the soldiers formed across 
+the street; the rioters, breathless and exhausted with their late 
+exertions, formed likewise, though in a very irregular and 
+disorderly manner.  The commanding officer rode hastily into the 
+open space between the two bodies, accompanied by a magistrate and 
+an officer of the House of Commons, for whose accommodation a 
+couple of troopers had hastily dismounted.  The Riot Act was read, 
+but not a man stirred.
+
+In the first rank of the insurgents, Barnaby and Hugh stood side by 
+side.  Somebody had thrust into Barnaby's hands when he came out 
+into the street, his precious flag; which, being now rolled up and 
+tied round the pole, looked like a giant quarter-staff as he 
+grasped it firmly and stood upon his guard.  If ever man believed 
+with his whole heart and soul that he was engaged in a just cause, 
+and that he was bound to stand by his leader to the last, poor 
+Barnaby believed it of himself and Lord George Gordon.
+
+After an ineffectual attempt to make himself heard, the magistrate 
+gave the word and the Horse Guards came riding in among the crowd.  
+But, even then, he galloped here and there, exhorting the people to 
+disperse; and, although heavy stones were thrown at the men, and 
+some were desperately cut and bruised, they had no orders but to 
+make prisoners of such of the rioters as were the most active, and 
+to drive the people back with the flat of their sabres.  As the 
+horses came in among them, the throng gave way at many points, and 
+the Guards, following up their advantage, were rapidly clearing the 
+ground, when two or three of the foremost, who were in a manner cut 
+off from the rest by the people closing round them, made straight 
+towards Barnaby and Hugh, who had no doubt been pointed out as the 
+two men who dropped into the lobby: laying about them now with some 
+effect, and inflicting on the more turbulent of their opponents, a 
+few slight flesh wounds, under the influence of which a man 
+dropped, here and there, into the arms of his fellows, amid much 
+groaning and confusion.
+
+At the sight of gashed and bloody faces, seen for a moment in the 
+crowd, then hidden by the press around them, Barnaby turned pale 
+and sick.  But he stood his ground, and grasping his pole more 
+firmly yet, kept his eye fixed upon the nearest soldier--nodding 
+his head meanwhile, as Hugh, with a scowling visage, whispered in 
+his ear.
+
+The soldier came spurring on, making his horse rear as the people 
+pressed about him, cutting at the hands of those who would have 
+grasped his rein and forced his charger back, and waving to his 
+comrades to follow--and still Barnaby, without retreating an inch, 
+waited for his coming.  Some called to him to fly, and some were in 
+the very act of closing round him, to prevent his being taken, when 
+the pole swept into the air above the people's heads, and the man's 
+saddle was empty in an instant.
+
+Then, he and Hugh turned and fled, the crowd opening to let them 
+pass, and closing up again so quickly that there was no clue to the 
+course they had taken.  Panting for breath, hot, dusty, and 
+exhausted with fatigue, they reached the riverside in safety, and 
+getting into a boat with all despatch were soon out of any 
+immediate danger.
+
+As they glided down the river, they plainly heard the people 
+cheering; and supposing they might have forced the soldiers to 
+retreat, lay upon their oars for a few minutes, uncertain whether 
+to return or not.  But the crowd passing along Westminster Bridge, 
+soon assured them that the populace were dispersing; and Hugh 
+rightly guessed from this, that they had cheered the magistrate for 
+offering to dismiss the military on condition of their immediate 
+departure to their several homes, and that he and Barnaby were 
+better where they were.  He advised, therefore, that they should 
+proceed to Blackfriars, and, going ashore at the bridge, make the 
+best of their way to The Boot; where there was not only good 
+entertainment and safe lodging, but where they would certainly be 
+joined by many of their late companions.  Barnaby assenting, they 
+decided on this course of action, and pulled for Blackfriars 
+accordingly.
+
+They landed at a critical time, and fortunately for themselves at 
+the right moment.  For, coming into Fleet Street, they found it in 
+an unusual stir; and inquiring the cause, were told that a body of 
+Horse Guards had just galloped past, and that they were escorting 
+some rioters whom they had made prisoners, to Newgate for safety.  
+Not at all ill-pleased to have so narrowly escaped the cavalcade, 
+they lost no more time in asking questions, but hurried to The Boot 
+with as much speed as Hugh considered it prudent to make, without 
+appearing singular or attracting an inconvenient share of public 
+notice.
+
+
+Chapter 50
+
+
+They were among the first to reach the tavern, but they had not 
+been there many minutes, when several groups of men who had formed 
+part of the crowd, came straggling in.  Among them were Simon 
+Tappertit and Mr Dennis; both of whom, but especially the latter, 
+greeted Barnaby with the utmost warmth, and paid him many 
+compliments on the prowess he had shown.
+
+'Which,' said Dennis, with an oath, as he rested his bludgeon in a 
+corner with his hat upon it, and took his seat at the same table 
+with them, 'it does me good to think of.  There was a opportunity!  
+But it led to nothing.  For my part, I don't know what would.  
+There's no spirit among the people in these here times.  Bring 
+something to eat and drink here.  I'm disgusted with humanity.'
+
+'On what account?' asked Mr Tappertit, who had been quenching his 
+fiery face in a half-gallon can.  'Don't you consider this a good 
+beginning, mister?'
+
+'Give me security that it an't a ending,' rejoined the hangman.  
+'When that soldier went down, we might have made London ours; but 
+no;--we stand, and gape, and look on--the justice (I wish he had 
+had a bullet in each eye, as he would have had, if we'd gone to 
+work my way) says, "My lads, if you'll give me your word to 
+disperse, I'll order off the military," our people sets up a 
+hurrah, throws up the game with the winning cards in their hands, 
+and skulks away like a pack of tame curs as they are.  Ah,' said 
+the hangman, in a tone of deep disgust, 'it makes me blush for my 
+feller creeturs.  I wish I had been born a ox, I do!'
+
+'You'd have been quite as agreeable a character if you had been, I 
+think,' returned Simon Tappertit, going out in a lofty manner.
+
+'Don't be too sure of that,' rejoined the hangman, calling after 
+him; 'if I was a horned animal at the present moment, with the 
+smallest grain of sense, I'd toss every man in this company, 
+excepting them two,' meaning Hugh and Barnaby, 'for his manner of 
+conducting himself this day.'
+
+With which mournful review of their proceedings, Mr Dennis sought 
+consolation in cold boiled beef and beer; but without at all 
+relaxing the grim and dissatisfied expression of his face, the 
+gloom of which was rather deepened than dissipated by their 
+grateful influence.
+
+The company who were thus libelled might have retaliated by strong 
+words, if not by blows, but they were dispirited and worn out.  The 
+greater part of them had fasted since morning; all had suffered 
+extremely from the excessive heat; and between the day's shouting, 
+exertion, and excitement, many had quite lost their voices, and so 
+much of their strength that they could hardly stand.  Then they 
+were uncertain what to do next, fearful of the consequences of what 
+they had done already, and sensible that after all they had carried 
+no point, but had indeed left matters worse than they had found 
+them.  Of those who had come to The Boot, many dropped off within 
+an hour; such of them as were really honest and sincere, never, 
+after the morning's experience, to return, or to hold any 
+communication with their late companions.  Others remained but to 
+refresh themselves, and then went home desponding; others who had 
+theretofore been regular in their attendance, avoided the place 
+altogether.  The half-dozen prisoners whom the Guards had taken, 
+were magnified by report into half-a-hundred at least; and their 
+friends, being faint and sober, so slackened in their energy, and 
+so drooped beneath these dispiriting influences, that by eight 
+o'clock in the evening, Dennis, Hugh, and Barnaby, were left alone.  
+Even they were fast asleep upon the benches, when Gashford's 
+entrance roused them.
+
+'Oh! you ARE here then?' said the Secretary.  'Dear me!'
+
+'Why, where should we be, Muster Gashford!' Dennis rejoined as he 
+rose into a sitting posture.
+
+'Oh nowhere, nowhere,' he returned with excessive mildness.  'The 
+streets are filled with blue cockades.  I rather thought you might 
+have been among them.  I am glad you are not.'
+
+'You have orders for us, master, then?' said Hugh.
+
+'Oh dear, no.  Not I.  No orders, my good fellow.  What orders 
+should I have?  You are not in my service.'
+
+'Muster Gashford,' remonstrated Dennis, 'we belong to the cause, 
+don't we?'
+
+'The cause!' repeated the secretary, looking at him in a sort of 
+abstraction.  'There is no cause.  The cause is lost.'
+
+'Lost!'
+
+'Oh yes.  You have heard, I suppose?  The petition is rejected by a 
+hundred and ninety-two, to six.  It's quite final.  We might have 
+spared ourselves some trouble.  That, and my lord's vexation, are 
+the only circumstances I regret.  I am quite satisfied in all other 
+respects.'
+
+As he said this, he took a penknife from his pocket, and putting 
+his hat upon his knee, began to busy himself in ripping off the 
+blue cockade which he had worn all day; at the same time humming a 
+psalm tune which had been very popular in the morning, and dwelling 
+on it with a gentle regret.
+
+His two adherents looked at each other, and at him, as if they 
+were at a loss how to pursue the subject.  At length Hugh, after 
+some elbowing and winking between himself and Mr Dennis, ventured 
+to stay his hand, and to ask him why he meddled with that riband in 
+his hat.
+
+'Because,' said the secretary, looking up with something between a 
+snarl and a smile; 'because to sit still and wear it, or to fall 
+asleep and wear it, is a mockery.  That's all, friend.'
+
+'What would you have us do, master!' cried Hugh.
+
+'Nothing,' returned Gashford, shrugging his shoulders, 'nothing.  
+When my lord was reproached and threatened for standing by you, I, 
+as a prudent man, would have had you do nothing.  When the soldiers 
+were trampling you under their horses' feet, I would have had you 
+do nothing.  When one of them was struck down by a daring hand, and 
+I saw confusion and dismay in all their faces, I would have had you 
+do nothing--just what you did, in short.  This is the young man who 
+had so little prudence and so much boldness.  Ah! I am sorry for him.'
+
+'Sorry, master!' cried Hugh.
+
+'Sorry, Muster Gashford!' echoed Dennis.
+
+'In case there should be a proclamation out to-morrow, offering 
+five hundred pounds, or some such trifle, for his apprehension; and 
+in case it should include another man who dropped into the lobby 
+from the stairs above,' said Gashford, coldly; 'still, do nothing.'
+
+'Fire and fury, master!' cried Hugh, starting up.  'What have we 
+done, that you should talk to us like this!'
+
+'Nothing,' returned Gashford with a sneer.  'If you are cast into 
+prison; if the young man--' here he looked hard at Barnaby's 
+attentive face--'is dragged from us and from his friends; perhaps 
+from people whom he loves, and whom his death would kill; is thrown 
+into jail, brought out and hanged before their eyes; still, do 
+nothing.  You'll find it your best policy, I have no doubt.'
+
+'Come on!' cried Hugh, striding towards the door.  'Dennis--
+Barnaby--come on!'
+
+'Where?  To do what?' said Gashford, slipping past him, and 
+standing with his back against it.
+
+'Anywhere!  Anything!' cried Hugh.  'Stand aside, master, or the 
+window will serve our turn as well.  Let us out!'
+
+'Ha ha ha!  You are of such--of such an impetuous nature,' said 
+Gashford, changing his manner for one of the utmost good fellowship 
+and the pleasantest raillery; 'you are such an excitable creature--
+but you'll drink with me before you go?'
+
+'Oh, yes--certainly,' growled Dennis, drawing his sleeve across his 
+thirsty lips.  'No malice, brother.  Drink with Muster Gashford!'
+
+Hugh wiped his heated brow, and relaxed into a smile.  The artful 
+secretary laughed outright.
+
+'Some liquor here!  Be quick, or he'll not stop, even for that.  He 
+is a man of such desperate ardour!' said the smooth secretary, whom 
+Mr Dennis corroborated with sundry nods and muttered oaths--'Once 
+roused, he is a fellow of such fierce determination!'
+
+Hugh poised his sturdy arm aloft, and clapping Barnaby on the back, 
+bade him fear nothing.  They shook hands together--poor Barnaby 
+evidently possessed with the idea that he was among the most 
+virtuous and disinterested heroes in the world--and Gashford 
+laughed again.
+
+'I hear,' he said smoothly, as he stood among them with a great 
+measure of liquor in his hand, and filled their glasses as quickly 
+and as often as they chose, 'I hear--but I cannot say whether it be 
+true or false--that the men who are loitering in the streets to-
+night are half disposed to pull down a Romish chapel or two, and 
+that they only want leaders.  I even heard mention of those in Duke 
+Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and in Warwick Street, Golden 
+Square; but common report, you know--You are not going?'
+
+--'To do nothing, rnaster, eh?' cried Hugh.  'No jails and halter 
+for Barnaby and me.  They must be frightened out of that.  Leaders 
+are wanted, are they?  Now boys!'
+
+'A most impetuous fellow!' cried the secretary.  'Ha ha!  A 
+courageous, boisterous, most vehement fellow!  A man who--'
+
+There was no need to finish the sentence, for they had rushed out 
+of the house, and were far beyond hearing.  He stopped in the 
+middle of a laugh, listened, drew on his gloves, and, clasping his 
+hands behind him, paced the deserted room for a long time, then 
+bent his steps towards the busy town, and walked into the streets.
+
+They were filled with people, for the rumour of that day's 
+proceedings had made a great noise.  Those persons who did not care 
+to leave home, were at their doors or windows, and one topic of 
+discourse prevailed on every side.  Some reported that the riots 
+were effectually put down; others that they had broken out again: 
+some said that Lord George Gordon had been sent under a strong 
+guard to the Tower; others that an attempt had been made upon the 
+King's life, that the soldiers had been again called out, and that 
+the noise of musketry in a distant part of the town had been 
+plainly heard within an hour.  As it grew darker, these stories 
+became more direful and mysterious; and often, when some 
+frightened passenger ran past with tidings that the rioters were 
+not far off, and were coming up, the doors were shut and barred, 
+lower windows made secure, and as much consternation engendered, as 
+if the city were invaded by a foreign army.
+
+Gashford walked stealthily about, listening to all he heard, and 
+diffusing or confirming, whenever he had an opportunity, such false 
+intelligence as suited his own purpose; and, busily occupied in 
+this way, turned into Holborn for the twentieth time, when a great 
+many women and children came flying along the street--often panting 
+and looking back--and the confused murmur of numerous voices struck 
+upon his ear.  Assured by these tokens, and by the red light which 
+began to flash upon the houses on either side, that some of his 
+friends were indeed approaching, he begged a moment's shelter at a 
+door which opened as he passed, and running with some other 
+persons to an upper window, looked out upon the crowd.
+
+They had torches among them, and the chief faces were distinctly 
+visible.  That they had been engaged in the destruction of some 
+building was sufficiently apparent, and that it was a Catholic 
+place of worship was evident from the spoils they bore as trophies, 
+which were easily recognisable for the vestments of priests, and 
+rich fragments of altar furniture.  Covered with soot, and dirt, 
+and dust, and lime; their garments torn to rags; their hair hanging 
+wildly about them; their hands and faces jagged and bleeding with 
+the wounds of rusty nails; Barnaby, Hugh, and Dennis hurried on 
+before them all, like hideous madmen.  After them, the dense throng 
+came fighting on: some singing; some shouting in triumph; some 
+quarrelling among themselves; some menacing the spectators as they 
+passed; some with great wooden fragments, on which they spent their 
+rage as if they had been alive, rending them limb from limb, and 
+hurling the scattered morsels high into the air; some in a drunken 
+state, unconscious of the hurts they had received from falling 
+bricks, and stones, and beams; one borne upon a shutter, in the 
+very midst, covered with a dingy cloth, a senseless, ghastly heap.  
+Thus--a vision of coarse faces, with here and there a blot of 
+flaring, smoky light; a dream of demon heads and savage eyes, and 
+sticks and iron bars uplifted in the air, and whirled about; a 
+bewildering horror, in which so much was seen, and yet so little, 
+which seemed so long, and yet so short, in which there were so many 
+phantoms, not to be forgotten all through life, and yet so many 
+things that could not be observed in one distracting glimpse--it 
+flitted onward, and was gone.
+
+As it passed away upon its work of wrath and ruin, a piercing 
+scream was heard.  A knot of persons ran towards the spot; 
+Gashford, who just then emerged into the street, among them.  He 
+was on the outskirts of the little concourse, and could not see or 
+hear what passed within; but one who had a better place, informed 
+him that a widow woman had descried her son among the rioters.
+
+'Is that all?' said the secretary, turning his face homewards.  
+'Well! I think this looks a little more like business!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 51
+
+
+Promising as these outrages were to Gashford's view, and much like 
+business as they looked, they extended that night no farther.  The 
+soldiers were again called out, again they took half-a-dozen 
+prisoners, and again the crowd dispersed after a short and 
+bloodless scuffle.  Hot and drunken though they were, they had not 
+yet broken all bounds and set all law and government at defiance.  
+Something of their habitual deference to the authority erected by 
+society for its own preservation yet remained among them, and had 
+its majesty been vindicated in time, the secretary would have had 
+to digest a bitter disappointment.
+
+By midnight, the streets were clear and quiet, and, save that there 
+stood in two parts of the town a heap of nodding walls and pile of 
+rubbish, where there had been at sunset a rich and handsome 
+building, everything wore its usual aspect.  Even the Catholic 
+gentry and tradesmen, of whom there were many resident in different 
+parts of the City and its suburbs, had no fear for their lives or 
+property, and but little indignation for the wrong they had already 
+sustained in the plunder and destruction of their temples of 
+worship.  An honest confidence in the government under whose 
+protection they had lived for many years, and a well-founded 
+reliance on the good feeling and right thinking of the great mass 
+of the community, with whom, notwithstanding their religious 
+differences, they were every day in habits of confidential, 
+affectionate, and friendly intercourse, reassured them, even under 
+the excesses that had been committed; and convinced them that they 
+who were Protestants in anything but the name, were no more to be 
+considered as abettors of these disgraceful occurrences, than they 
+themselves were chargeable with the uses of the block, the rack, 
+the gibbet, and the stake in cruel Mary's reign.
+
+The clock was on the stroke of one, when Gabriel Varden, with his 
+lady and Miss Miggs, sat waiting in the little parlour.  This fact; 
+the toppling wicks of the dull, wasted candles; the silence that 
+prevailed; and, above all, the nightcaps of both maid and matron, 
+were sufficient evidence that they had been prepared for bed some 
+time ago, and had some reason for sitting up so far beyond their 
+usual hour.
+
+If any other corroborative testimony had been required, it would 
+have been abundantly furnished in the actions of Miss Miggs, who, 
+having arrived at that restless state and sensitive condition of 
+the nervous system which are the result of long watching, did, by a 
+constant rubbing and tweaking of her nose, a perpetual change of 
+position (arising from the sudden growth of imaginary knots and 
+knobs in her chair), a frequent friction of her eyebrows, the 
+incessant recurrence of a small cough, a small groan, a gasp, a 
+sigh, a sniff, a spasmodic start, and by other demonstrations of 
+that nature, so file down and rasp, as it were, the patience of the 
+locksmith, that after looking at her in silence for some time, he 
+at last broke out into this apostrophe:--
+
+'Miggs, my good girl, go to bed--do go to bed.  You're really worse 
+than the dripping of a hundred water-butts outside the window, or 
+the scratching of as many mice behind the wainscot.  I can't bear 
+it.  Do go to bed, Miggs.  To oblige me--do.'
+
+'You haven't got nothing to untie, sir,' returned Miss Miggs, 'and 
+therefore your requests does not surprise me.  But missis has--and 
+while you sit up, mim'--she added, turning to the locksmith's wife, 
+'I couldn't, no, not if twenty times the quantity of cold water was 
+aperiently running down my back at this moment, go to bed with a 
+quiet spirit.'
+
+Having spoken these words, Miss Miggs made divers efforts to rub 
+her shoulders in an impossible place, and shivered from head to 
+foot; thereby giving the beholders to understand that the imaginary 
+cascade was still in full flow, but that a sense of duty upheld her 
+under that and all other sufferings, and nerved her to endurance.
+
+Mrs Varden being too sleepy to speak, and Miss Miggs having, as the 
+phrase is, said her say, the locksmith had nothing for it but to 
+sigh and be as quiet as he could.
+
+But to be quiet with such a basilisk before him was impossible.  
+If he looked another way, it was worse to feel that she was rubbing 
+her cheek, or twitching her ear, or winking her eye, or making all 
+kinds of extraordinary shapes with her nose, than to see her do it.  
+If she was for a moment free from any of these complaints, it was 
+only because of her foot being asleep, or of her arm having got the 
+fidgets, or of her leg being doubled up with the cramp, or of some 
+other horrible disorder which racked her whole frame.  If she did 
+enjoy a moment's ease, then with her eyes shut and her mouth wide 
+open, she would be seen to sit very stiff and upright in her chair; 
+then to nod a little way forward, and stop with a jerk; then to nod 
+a little farther forward, and stop with another jerk; then to 
+recover herself; then to come forward again--lower--lower--lower--
+by very slow degrees, until, just as it seemed impossible that she 
+could preserve her balance for another instant, and the locksmith 
+was about to call out in an agony, to save her from dashing down 
+upon her forehead and fracturing her skull, then all of a sudden 
+and without the smallest notice, she would come upright and rigid 
+again with her eyes open, and in her countenance an expression of 
+defiance, sleepy but yet most obstinate, which plainly said, 'I've 
+never once closed 'em since I looked at you last, and I'll take my 
+oath of it!'
+
+At length, after the clock had struck two, there was a sound at the 
+street door, as if somebody had fallen against the knocker by 
+accident.  Miss Miggs immediately jumping up and clapping her 
+hands, cried with a drowsy mingling of the sacred and profane, 
+'Ally Looyer, mim! there's Simmuns's knock!'
+
+'Who's there?' said Gabriel.
+
+'Me!' cried the well-known voice of Mr Tappertit.  Gabriel opened 
+the door, and gave him admission.
+
+He did not cut a very insinuating figure, for a man of his stature 
+suffers in a crowd; and having been active in yesterday morning's 
+work, his dress was literally crushed from head to foot: his hat 
+being beaten out of all shape, and his shoes trodden down at heel 
+like slippers.  His coat fluttered in strips about him, the buckles 
+were torn away both from his knees and feet, half his neckerchief 
+was gone, and the bosom of his shirt was rent to tatters.  Yet 
+notwithstanding all these personal disadvantages; despite his being 
+very weak from heat and fatigue; and so begrimed with mud and dust 
+that he might have been in a case, for anything of the real texture 
+(either of his skin or apparel) that the eye could discern; he 
+stalked haughtily into the parlour, and throwing himself into a 
+chair, and endeavouring to thrust his hands into the pockets of his 
+small-clothes, which were turned inside out and displayed upon his 
+legs, like tassels, surveyed the household with a gloomy dignity.
+
+'Simon,' said the locksmith gravely, 'how comes it that you return 
+home at this time of night, and in this condition?  Give me an 
+assurance that you have not been among the rioters, and I am 
+satisfied.'
+
+'Sir,' replied Mr Tappertit, with a contemptuous look, 'I wonder at 
+YOUR assurance in making such demands.'
+
+'You have been drinking,' said the locksmith.
+
+'As a general principle, and in the most offensive sense of the 
+words, sir,' returned his journeyman with great self-possession, 
+'I consider you a liar.  In that last observation you have 
+unintentionally--unintentionally, sir,--struck upon the truth.'
+
+'Martha,' said the locksmith, turning to his wife, and shaking his 
+head sorrowfully, while a smile at the absurd figure beside him 
+still played upon his open face, 'I trust it may turn out that this 
+poor lad is not the victim of the knaves and fools we have so often 
+had words about, and who have done so much harm to-day.  If he has 
+been at Warwick Street or Duke Street to-night--'
+
+'He has been at neither, sir,' cried Mr Tappertit in a loud voice, 
+which he suddenly dropped into a whisper as he repeated, with eyes 
+fixed upon the locksmith, 'he has been at neither.'
+
+'I am glad of it, with all my heart,' said the locksmith in a 
+serious tone; 'for if he had been, and it could be proved against 
+him, Martha, your Great Association would have been to him the cart 
+that draws men to the gallows and leaves them hanging in the air.  
+It would, as sure as we're alive!'
+
+Mrs Varden was too much scared by Simon's altered manner and 
+appearance, and by the accounts of the rioters which had reached 
+her ears that night, to offer any retort, or to have recourse to 
+her usual matrimonial policy.  Miss Miggs wrung her hands, and 
+wept.
+
+'He was not at Duke Street, or at Warwick Street, G. Varden,' said 
+Simon, sternly; 'but he WAS at Westminster.  Perhaps, sir, he 
+kicked a county member, perhaps, sir, he tapped a lord--you may 
+stare, sir, I repeat it--blood flowed from noses, and perhaps he 
+tapped a lord.  Who knows?  This,' he added, putting his hand into 
+his waistcoat-pocket, and taking out a large tooth, at the sight of 
+which both Miggs and Mrs Varden screamed, 'this was a bishop's.  
+Beware, G. Varden!'
+
+'Now, I would rather,' said the locksmith hastily, 'have paid five 
+hundred pounds, than had this come to pass.  You idiot, do you know 
+what peril you stand in?'
+
+'I know it, sir,' replied his journeyman, 'and it is my glory.  I 
+was there, everybody saw me there.  I was conspicuous, and 
+prominent.  I will abide the consequences.'
+
+The locksmith, really disturbed and agitated, paced to and fro in 
+silence--glancing at his former 'prentice every now and then--and 
+at length stopping before him, said:
+
+'Get to bed, and sleep for a couple of hours that you may wake 
+penitent, and with some of your senses about you.  Be sorry for 
+what you have done, and we will try to save you.  If I call him by 
+five o'clock,' said Varden, turning hurriedly to his wife, and he 
+washes himself clean and changes his dress, he may get to the Tower 
+Stairs, and away by the Gravesend tide-boat, before any search is 
+made for him.  From there he can easily get on to Canterbury, 
+where your cousin will give him work till this storm has blown 
+over.  I am not sure that I do right in screening him from the 
+punishment he deserves, but he has lived in this house, man and 
+boy, for a dozen years, and I should be sorry if for this one day's 
+work he made a miserable end.  Lock the front-door, Miggs, and show 
+no light towards the street when you go upstairs.  Quick, Simon!  
+Get to bed!'
+
+'And do you suppose, sir,' retorted Mr Tappertit, with a thickness 
+and slowness of speech which contrasted forcibly with the rapidity 
+and earnestness of his kind-hearted master--'and do you suppose, 
+sir, that I am base and mean enough to accept your servile 
+proposition?--Miscreant!'
+
+'Whatever you please, Sim, but get to bed.  Every minute is of 
+consequence.  The light here, Miggs!'
+
+'Yes yes, oh do!  Go to bed directly,' cried the two women 
+together.
+
+Mr Tappertit stood upon his feet, and pushing his chair away to 
+show that he needed no assistance, answered, swaying himself to and 
+fro, and managing his head as if it had no connection whatever with 
+his body:
+
+'You spoke of Miggs, sir--Miggs may be smothered!'
+
+'Oh Simmun!' ejaculated that young lady in a faint voice.  'Oh mim!  
+Oh sir!  Oh goodness gracious, what a turn he has give me!'
+
+'This family may ALL be smothered, sir,' returned Mr Tappertit, 
+after glancing at her with a smile of ineffable disdain, 'excepting 
+Mrs V.  I have come here, sir, for her sake, this night.  Mrs 
+Varden, take this piece of paper.  It's a protection, ma'am.  You 
+may need it.'
+
+With these words he held out at arm's length, a dirty, crumpled 
+scrap of writing.  The locksmith took it from him, opened it, and 
+read as follows:
+
+
+'All good friends to our cause, I hope will be particular, and do 
+no injury to the property of any true Protestant.  I am well 
+assured that the proprietor of this house is a staunch and worthy 
+friend to the cause.
+
+GEORGE GORDON.'
+
+
+'What's this!' said the locksmith, with an altered face.
+
+'Something that'll do you good service, young feller,' replied his 
+journeyman, 'as you'll find.  Keep that safe, and where you can 
+lay your hand upon it in an instant.  And chalk "No Popery" on your 
+door to-morrow night, and for a week to come--that's all.'
+
+'This is a genuine document,' said the locksmith, 'I know, for I 
+have seen the hand before.  What threat does it imply?  What devil 
+is abroad?'
+
+'A fiery devil,' retorted Sim; 'a flaming, furious devil.  Don't 
+you put yourself in its way, or you're done for, my buck.  Be 
+warned in time, G. Varden.  Farewell!'
+
+But here the two women threw themselves in his way--especially Miss 
+Miggs, who fell upon him with such fervour that she pinned him 
+against the wall--and conjured him in moving words not to go forth 
+till he was sober; to listen to reason; to think of it; to take 
+some rest, and then determine.
+
+'I tell you,' said Mr Tappertit, 'that my mind is made up.  My 
+bleeding country calls me and I go!  Miggs, if you don't get out of 
+the way, I'll pinch you.'
+
+Miss Miggs, still clinging to the rebel, screamed once 
+vociferously--but whether in the distraction of her mind, or 
+because of his having executed his threat, is uncertain.
+
+'Release me,' said Simon, struggling to free himself from her 
+chaste, but spider-like embrace.  'Let me go!  I have made 
+arrangements for you in an altered state of society, and mean to 
+provide for you comfortably in life--there!  Will that satisfy 
+you?'
+
+'Oh Simmun!' cried Miss Miggs.  'Oh my blessed Simmun!  Oh mim! 
+what are my feelings at this conflicting moment!'
+
+Of a rather turbulent description, it would seem; for her nightcap 
+had been knocked off in the scuffle, and she was on her knees upon 
+the floor, making a strange revelation of blue and yellow curl-
+papers, straggling locks of hair, tags of staylaces, and strings of 
+it's impossible to say what; panting for breath, clasping her 
+hands, turning her eyes upwards, shedding abundance of tears, and 
+exhibiting various other symptoms of the acutest mental suffering.
+
+'I leave,' said Simon, turning to his master, with an utter 
+disregard of Miggs's maidenly affliction, 'a box of things 
+upstairs.  Do what you like with 'em.  I don't want 'em.  I'm never 
+coming back here, any more.  Provide yourself, sir, with a 
+journeyman; I'm my country's journeyman; henceforward that's MY 
+line of business.'
+
+'Be what you like in two hours' time, but now go up to bed,' 
+returned the locksmith, planting himself in the doorway.  'Do you 
+hear me?  Go to bed!'
+
+'I hear you, and defy you, Varden,' rejoined Simon Tappertit.  
+'This night, sir, I have been in the country, planning an 
+expedition which shall fill your bell-hanging soul with wonder and 
+dismay.  The plot demands my utmost energy.  Let me pass!'
+
+'I'll knock you down if you come near the door,' replied the 
+locksmith.  'You had better go to bed!'
+
+Simon made no answer, but gathering himself up as straight as he 
+could, plunged head foremost at his old master, and the two went 
+driving out into the workshop together, plying their hands and feet 
+so briskly that they looked like half-a-dozen, while Miggs and Mrs 
+Varden screamed for twelve.
+
+It would have been easy for Varden to knock his old 'prentice down, 
+and bind him hand and foot; but as he was loth to hurt him in his 
+then defenceless state, he contented himself with parrying his 
+blows when he could, taking them in perfect good part when he could 
+not, and keeping between him and the door, until a favourable 
+opportunity should present itself for forcing him to retreat up-
+stairs, and shutting him up in his own room.  But, in the goodness 
+of his heart, he calculated too much upon his adversary's weakness, 
+and forgot that drunken men who have lost the power of walking 
+steadily, can often run.  Watching his time, Simon Tappertit made a 
+cunning show of falling back, staggered unexpectedly forward, 
+brushed past him, opened the door (he knew the trick of that lock 
+well), and darted down the street like a mad dog.  The locksmith 
+paused for a moment in the excess of his astonishment, and then 
+gave chase.
+
+It was an excellent season for a run, for at that silent hour the 
+streets were deserted, the air was cool, and the flying figure 
+before him distinctly visible at a great distance, as it sped away, 
+with a long gaunt shadow following at its heels.  But the short-
+winded locksmith had no chance against a man of Sim's youth and 
+spare figure, though the day had been when he could have run him 
+down in no time.  The space between them rapidly increased, and as 
+the rays of the rising sun streamed upon Simon in the act of 
+turning a distant corner, Gabriel Varden was fain to give up, and 
+sit down on a doorstep to fetch his breath.  Simon meanwhile, 
+without once stopping, fled at the same degree of swiftness to The 
+Boot, where, as he well knew, some of his company were lying, and 
+at which respectable hostelry--for he had already acquired the 
+distinction of being in great peril of the law--a friendly watch 
+had been expecting him all night, and was even now on the look-out 
+for his coming.
+
+'Go thy ways, Sim, go thy ways,' said the locksmith, as soon as he 
+could speak.  'I have done my best for thee, poor lad, and would 
+have saved thee, but the rope is round thy neck, I fear.'
+
+So saying, and shaking his head in a very sorrowful and 
+disconsolate manner, he turned back, and soon re-entered his own 
+house, where Mrs Varden and the faithful Miggs had been anxiously 
+expecting his return.
+
+Now Mrs Varden (and by consequence Miss Miggs likewise) was 
+impressed with a secret misgiving that she had done wrong; that she 
+had, to the utmost of her small means, aided and abetted the growth 
+of disturbances, the end of which it was impossible to foresee; 
+that she had led remotely to the scene which had just passed; and 
+that the locksmith's time for triumph and reproach had now arrived 
+indeed.  And so strongly did Mrs Varden feel this, and so 
+crestfallen was she in consequence, that while her husband was 
+pursuing their lost journeyman, she secreted under her chair the 
+little red-brick dwelling-house with the yellow roof, lest it 
+should furnish new occasion for reference to the painful theme; and 
+now hid the same still more, with the skirts of her dress.
+
+But it happened that the locksmith had been thinking of this very 
+article on his way home, and that, coming into the room and not 
+seeing it, he at once demanded where it was.
+
+Mrs Varden had no resource but to produce it, which she did with 
+many tears, and broken protestations that if she could have known--
+
+'Yes, yes,' said Varden, 'of course--I know that.  I don't mean to 
+reproach you, my dear.  But recollect from this time that all good 
+things perverted to evil purposes, are worse than those which are 
+naturally bad.  A thoroughly wicked woman, is wicked indeed.  When 
+religion goes wrong, she is very wrong, for the same reason.  Let 
+us say no more about it, my dear.'
+
+So he dropped the red-brick dwelling-house on the floor, and 
+setting his heel upon it, crushed it into pieces.  The halfpence, 
+and sixpences, and other voluntary contributions, rolled about in 
+all directions, but nobody offered to touch them, or to take them 
+up.
+
+'That,' said the locksmith, 'is easily disposed of, and I would to 
+Heaven that everything growing out of the same society could be 
+settled as easily.'
+
+'It happens very fortunately, Varden,' said his wife, with her 
+handkerchief to her eyes, 'that in case any more disturbances 
+should happen--which I hope not; I sincerely hope not--'
+
+'I hope so too, my dear.'
+
+'--That in case any should occur, we have the piece of paper which 
+that poor misguided young man brought.'
+
+'Ay, to be sure,' said the locksmith, turning quickly round.  
+'Where is that piece of paper?'
+
+Mrs Varden stood aghast as he took it from her outstretched band, 
+tore it into fragments, and threw them under the grate.
+
+'Not use it?' she said.
+
+'Use it!' cried the locksmith.  No!  Let them come and pull the 
+roof about our ears; let them burn us out of house and home; I'd 
+neither have the protection of their leader, nor chalk their howl 
+upon my door, though, for not doing it, they shot me on my own 
+threshold.  Use it!  Let them come and do their worst.  The first 
+man who crosses my doorstep on such an errand as theirs, had better 
+be a hundred miles away.  Let him look to it.  The others may have 
+their will.  I wouldn't beg or buy them off, if, instead of every 
+pound of iron in the place, there was a hundred weight of gold.  
+Get you to bed, Martha.  I shall take down the shutters and go to 
+work.'
+
+'So early!' said his wife.
+
+'Ay,' replied the locksmith cheerily, 'so early.  Come when they 
+may, they shall not find us skulking and hiding, as if we feared to 
+take our portion of the light of day, and left it all to them.  So 
+pleasant dreams to you, my dear, and cheerful sleep!'
+
+With that he gave his wife a hearty kiss, and bade her delay no 
+longer, or it would be time to rise before she lay down to rest.  
+Mrs Varden quite amiably and meekly walked upstairs, followed by 
+Miggs, who, although a good deal subdued, could not refrain from 
+sundry stimulative coughs and sniffs by the way, or from holding up 
+her hands in astonishment at the daring conduct of master.
+
+
+
+Chapter 52
+
+
+A mob is usually a creature of very mysterious existence, 
+particularly in a large city.  Where it comes from or whither it 
+goes, few men can tell.  Assembling and dispersing with equal 
+suddenness, it is as difficult to follow to its various sources as 
+the sea itself; nor does the parallel stop here, for the ocean is 
+not more fickle and uncertain, more terrible when roused, more 
+unreasonable, or more cruel.
+
+The people who were boisterous at Westminster upon the Friday 
+morning, and were eagerly bent upon the work of devastation in Duke 
+Street and Warwick Street at night, were, in the mass, the same.  
+Allowing for the chance accessions of which any crowd is morally 
+sure in a town where there must always be a large number of idle 
+and profligate persons, one and the same mob was at both places.  
+Yet they spread themselves in various directions when they 
+dispersed in the afternoon, made no appointment for reassembling, 
+had no definite purpose or design, and indeed, for anything they 
+knew, were scattered beyond the hope of future union.
+
+At The Boot, which, as has been shown, was in a manner the head-
+quarters of the rioters, there were not, upon this Friday night, a 
+dozen people.  Some slept in the stable and outhouses, some in the 
+common room, some two or three in beds.  The rest were in their 
+usual homes or haunts.  Perhaps not a score in all lay in the 
+adjacent fields and lanes, and under haystacks, or near the warmth 
+of brick-kilns, who had not their accustomed place of rest beneath 
+the open sky.  As to the public ways within the town, they had 
+their ordinary nightly occupants, and no others; the usual amount 
+of vice and wretchedness, but no more.
+
+The experience of one evening, however, had taught the reckless 
+leaders of disturbance, that they had but to show themselves in the 
+streets, to be immediately surrounded by materials which they could 
+only have kept together when their aid was not required, at great 
+risk, expense, and trouble.  Once possessed of this secret, they 
+were as confident as if twenty thousand men, devoted to their will, 
+had been encamped about them, and assumed a confidence which could 
+not have been surpassed, though that had really been the case.  All 
+day, Saturday, they remained quiet.  On Sunday, they rather studied 
+how to keep their men within call, and in full hope, than to follow 
+out, by any fierce measure, their first day's proceedings.
+
+'I hope,' said Dennis, as, with a loud yawn, he raised his body 
+from a heap of straw on which he had been sleeping, and supporting 
+his head upon his hand, appealed to Hugh on Sunday morning, 'that 
+Muster Gashford allows some rest?  Perhaps he'd have us at work 
+again already, eh?'
+
+'It's not his way to let matters drop, you may be sure of that,' 
+growled Hugh in answer.  'I'm in no humour to stir yet, though.  
+I'm as stiff as a dead body, and as full of ugly scratches as if I 
+had been fighting all day yesterday with wild cats.'
+
+'You've so much enthusiasm, that's it,' said Dennis, looking with 
+great admiration at the uncombed head, matted beard, and torn hands 
+and face of the wild figure before him; 'you're such a devil of a 
+fellow.  You hurt yourself a hundred times more than you need, 
+because you will be foremost in everything, and will do more than 
+the rest.'
+
+'For the matter of that,' returned Hugh, shaking back his ragged 
+hair and glancing towards the door of the stable in which they lay; 
+'there's one yonder as good as me.  What did I tell you about him?  
+Did I say he was worth a dozen, when you doubted him?'
+
+Mr Dennis rolled lazily over upon his breast, and resting his chin 
+upon his hand in imitation of the attitude in which Hugh lay, said, 
+as he too looked towards the door:
+
+'Ay, ay, you knew him, brother, you knew him.  But who'd suppose to 
+look at that chap now, that he could be the man he is!  Isn't it a 
+thousand cruel pities, brother, that instead of taking his nat'ral 
+rest and qualifying himself for further exertions in this here 
+honourable cause, he should be playing at soldiers like a boy?  And 
+his cleanliness too!' said Mr Dennis, who certainly had no reason 
+to entertain a fellow feeling with anybody who was particular on 
+that score; 'what weaknesses he's guilty of; with respect to his 
+cleanliness!  At five o'clock this morning, there he was at the 
+pump, though any one would think he had gone through enough, the 
+day before yesterday, to be pretty fast asleep at that time.  But 
+no--when I woke for a minute or two, there he was at the pump, and 
+if you'd seen him sticking them peacock's feathers into his hat 
+when he'd done washing--ah! I'm sorry he's such a imperfect 
+character, but the best on us is incomplete in some pint of view or 
+another.'
+
+The subject of this dialogue and of these concluding remarks, which 
+were uttered in a tone of philosophical meditation, was, as the 
+reader will have divined, no other than Barnaby, who, with his flag 
+in hand, stood sentry in the little patch of sunlight at the 
+distant door, or walked to and fro outside, singing softly to 
+himself; and keeping time to the music of some clear church bells.  
+Whether he stood still, leaning with both hands on the flagstaff, 
+or, bearing it upon his shoulder, paced slowly up and down, the 
+careful arrangement of his poor dress, and his erect and lofty 
+bearing, showed how high a sense he had of the great importance of 
+his trust, and how happy and how proud it made him.  To Hugh and 
+his companion, who lay in a dark corner of the gloomy shed, he, and 
+the sunlight, and the peaceful Sabbath sound to which he made 
+response, seemed like a bright picture framed by the door, and set 
+off by the stable's blackness.  The whole formed such a contrast to 
+themselves, as they lay wallowing, like some obscene animals, in 
+their squalor and wickedness on the two heaps of straw, that for a 
+few moments they looked on without speaking, and felt almost 
+ashamed.
+
+'Ah!'said Hugh at length, carrying it off with a laugh: 'He's a 
+rare fellow is Barnaby, and can do more, with less rest, or meat, 
+or drink, than any of us.  As to his soldiering, I put him on duty 
+there.'
+
+'Then there was a object in it, and a proper good one too, I'll be 
+sworn,' retorted Dennis with a broad grin, and an oath of the same 
+quality.  'What was it, brother?'
+
+'Why, you see,' said Hugh, crawling a little nearer to him, 'that 
+our noble captain yonder, came in yesterday morning rather the 
+worse for liquor, and was--like you and me--ditto last night.'
+
+Dennis looked to where Simon Tappertit lay coiled upon a truss of 
+hay, snoring profoundly, and nodded.
+
+'And our noble captain,' continued Hugh with another laugh, 'our 
+noble captain and I, have planned for to-morrow a roaring 
+expedition, with good profit in it.'
+
+'Again the Papists?' asked Dennis, rubbing his hands.
+
+'Ay, against the Papists--against one of 'em at least, that some of 
+us, and I for one, owe a good heavy grudge to.'
+
+'Not Muster Gashford's friend that he spoke to us about in my 
+house, eh?' said Dennis, brimfull of pleasant expectation.
+
+'The same man,' said Hugh.
+
+'That's your sort,' cried Mr Dennis, gaily shaking hands with him, 
+'that's the kind of game.  Let's have revenges and injuries, and 
+all that, and we shall get on twice as fast.  Now you talk, 
+indeed!'
+
+'Ha ha ha!  The captain,' added Hugh, 'has thoughts of carrying off 
+a woman in the bustle, and--ha ha ha!--and so have I!'
+
+Mr Dennis received this part of the scheme with a wry face, 
+observing that as a general principle he objected to women 
+altogether, as being unsafe and slippery persons on whom there was 
+no calculating with any certainty, and who were never in the same 
+mind for four-and-twenty hours at a stretch.  He might have 
+expatiated on this suggestive theme at much greater length, but 
+that it occurred to him to ask what connection existed between the 
+proposed expedition and Barnaby's being posted at the stable-door 
+as sentry; to which Hugh cautiously replied in these words:
+
+'Why, the people we mean to visit, were friends of his, once upon a 
+time, and I know that much of him to feel pretty sure that if he 
+thought we were going to do them any harm, he'd be no friend to our 
+side, but would lend a ready hand to the other.  So I've persuaded 
+him (for I know him of old) that Lord George has picked him out to 
+guard this place to-morrow while we're away, and that it's a great 
+honour--and so he's on duty now, and as proud of it as if he was a 
+general.  Ha ha!  What do you say to me for a careful man as well 
+as a devil of a one?'
+
+Mr Dennis exhausted himself in compliments, and then added,
+
+'But about the expedition itself--'
+
+'About that,' said Hugh, 'you shall hear all particulars from me 
+and the great captain conjointly and both together--for see, he's 
+waking up.  Rouse yourself, lion-heart.  Ha ha!  Put a good face 
+upon it, and drink again.  Another hair of the dog that bit you, 
+captain!  Call for drink!  There's enough of gold and silver cups 
+and candlesticks buried underneath my bed,' he added, rolling back 
+the straw, and pointing to where the ground was newly turned, 'to 
+pay for it, if it was a score of casks full.  Drink, captain!'
+
+Mr Tappertit received these jovial promptings with a very bad 
+grace, being much the worse, both in mind and body, for his two 
+nights of debauch, and but indifferently able to stand upon his 
+legs.  With Hugh's assistance, however, he contrived to stagger to 
+the pump; and having refreshed himself with an abundant draught of 
+cold water, and a copious shower of the same refreshing liquid on 
+his head and face, he ordered some rum and milk to be served; and 
+upon that innocent beverage and some biscuits and cheese made a 
+pretty hearty meal.  That done, he disposed himself in an easy 
+attitude on the ground beside his two companions (who were 
+carousing after their own tastes), and proceeded to enlighten Mr 
+Dennis in reference to to-morrow's project.
+
+That their conversation was an interesting one, was rendered 
+manifest by its length, and by the close attention of all three.  
+That it was not of an oppressively grave character, but was 
+enlivened by various pleasantries arising out of the subject, was 
+clear from their loud and frequent roars of laughter, which 
+startled Barnaby on his post, and made him wonder at their levity.  
+But he was not summoned to join them, until they had eaten, and 
+drunk, and slept, and talked together for some hours; not, indeed, 
+until the twilight; when they informed him that they were about to 
+make a slight demonstration in the streets--just to keep the 
+people's hands in, as it was Sunday night, and the public might 
+otherwise be disappointed--and that he was free to accompany them 
+if he would.
+
+Without the slightest preparation, saving that they carried clubs 
+and wore the blue cockade, they sallied out into the streets; and, 
+with no more settled design than that of doing as much mischief as 
+they could, paraded them at random.  Their numbers rapidly 
+increasing, they soon divided into parties; and agreeing to meet 
+by-and-by, in the fields near Welbeck Street, scoured the town in 
+various directions.  The largest body, and that which augmented 
+with the greatest rapidity, was the one to which Hugh and Barnaby 
+belonged.  This took its way towards Moorfields, where there was a 
+rich chapel, and in which neighbourhood several Catholic families 
+were known to reside.
+
+Beginning with the private houses so occupied, they broke open the 
+doors and windows; and while they destroyed the furniture and left 
+but the bare walls, made a sharp search for tools and engines of 
+destruction, such as hammers, pokers, axes, saws, and such like 
+instruments.  Many of the rioters made belts of cord, of 
+handkerchiefs, or any material they found at hand, and wore these 
+weapons as openly as pioneers upon a field-day.  There was not the 
+least disguise or concealment--indeed, on this night, very little 
+excitement or hurry.  From the chapels, they tore down and took 
+away the very altars, benches, pulpits, pews, and flooring; from 
+the dwelling-houses, the very wainscoting and stairs.  This Sunday 
+evening's recreation they pursued like mere workmen who had a 
+certain task to do, and did it.  Fifty resolute men might have 
+turned them at any moment; a single company of soldiers could have 
+scattered them like dust; but no man interposed, no authority 
+restrained them, and, except by the terrified persons who fled from 
+their approach, they were as little heeded as if they were pursuing 
+their lawful occupations with the utmost sobriety and good 
+conduct.
+
+In the same manner, they marched to the place of rendezvous agreed 
+upon, made great fires in the fields, and reserving the most 
+valuable of their spoils, burnt the rest.  Priestly garments, 
+images of saints, rich stuffs and ornaments, altar-furniture and 
+household goods, were cast into the flames, and shed a glare on the 
+whole country round; but they danced and howled, and roared about 
+these fires till they were tired, and were never for an instant 
+checked.
+
+As the main body filed off from this scene of action, and passed 
+down Welbeck Street, they came upon Gashford, who had been a 
+witness of their proceedings, and was walking stealthily along the 
+pavement.  Keeping up with him, and yet not seeming to speak, Hugh 
+muttered in his ear:
+
+'Is this better, master?'
+
+'No,' said Gashford.  'It is not.'
+
+'What would you have?' said Hugh.  'Fevers are never at their 
+height at once.  They must get on by degrees.'
+
+'I would have you,' said Gashford, pinching his arm with such 
+malevolence that his nails seemed to meet in the skin; 'I would 
+have you put some meaning into your work.  Fools!  Can you make no 
+better bonfires than of rags and scraps?  Can you burn nothing 
+whole?'
+
+'A little patience, master,' said Hugh.  'Wait but a few hours, and 
+you shall see.  Look for a redness in the sky, to-morrow night.'
+
+With that, he fell back into his place beside Barnaby; and when the 
+secretary looked after him, both were lost in the crowd.
+
+
+
+Chapter 53
+
+
+The next day was ushered in by merry peals of bells, and by the 
+firing of the Tower guns; flags were hoisted on many of the church-
+steeples; the usual demonstrations were made in honour of the 
+anniversary of the King's birthday; and every man went about his 
+pleasure or business as if the city were in perfect order, and 
+there were no half-smouldering embers in its secret places, which, 
+on the approach of night, would kindle up again and scatter ruin 
+and dismay abroad.  The leaders of the riot, rendered still more 
+daring by the success of last night and by the booty they had 
+acquired, kept steadily together, and only thought of implicating 
+the mass of their followers so deeply that no hope of pardon or 
+reward might tempt them to betray their more notorious confederates 
+into the hands of justice.
+
+Indeed, the sense of having gone too far to be forgiven, held the 
+timid together no less than the bold.  Many who would readily have 
+pointed out the foremost rioters and given evidence against them, 
+felt that escape by that means was hopeless, when their every act 
+had been observed by scores of people who had taken no part in the 
+disturbances; who had suffered in their persons, peace, or 
+property, by the outrages of the mob; who would be most willing 
+witnesses; and whom the government would, no doubt, prefer to any 
+King's evidence that might be offered.  Many of this class had 
+deserted their usual occupations on the Saturday morning; some had 
+been seen by their employers active in the tumult; others knew they 
+must be suspected, and that they would be discharged if they 
+returned; others had been desperate from the beginning, and 
+comforted themselves with the homely proverb, that, being hanged at 
+all, they might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.  They all 
+hoped and believed, in a greater or less degree, that the 
+government they seemed to have paralysed, would, in its terror, 
+come to terms with them in the end, and suffer them to make their 
+own conditions.  The least sanguine among them reasoned with 
+himself that, at the worst, they were too many to be all punished, 
+and that he had as good a chance of escape as any other man.  The 
+great mass never reasoned or thought at all, but were stimulated by 
+their own headlong passions, by poverty, by ignorance, by the love 
+of mischief, and the hope of plunder.
+
+One other circumstance is worthy of remark; and that is, that from 
+the moment of their first outbreak at Westminster, every symptom of 
+order or preconcerted arrangement among them vanished.  When they 
+divided into parties and ran to different quarters of the town, it 
+was on the spontaneous suggestion of the moment.  Each party 
+swelled as it went along, like rivers as they roll towards the sea; 
+new leaders sprang up as they were wanted, disappeared when the 
+necessity was over, and reappeared at the next crisis.  Each tumult 
+took shape and form from the circumstances of the moment; sober 
+workmen, going home from their day's labour, were seen to cast down 
+their baskets of tools and become rioters in an instant; mere boys 
+on errands did the like.  In a word, a moral plague ran through the 
+city.  The noise, and hurry, and excitement, had for hundreds and 
+hundreds an attraction they had no firmness to resist.  The 
+contagion spread like a dread fever: an infectious madness, as yet 
+not near its height, seized on new victims every hour, and society 
+began to tremble at their ravings.
+
+It was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon when 
+Gashford looked into the lair described in the last chapter, and 
+seeing only Barnaby and Dennis there, inquired for Hugh.
+
+He was out, Barnaby told him; had gone out more than an hour ago; 
+and had not yet returned.
+
+'Dennis!' said the smiling secretary, in his smoothest voice, as he 
+sat down cross-legged on a barrel, 'Dennis!'
+
+The hangman struggled into a sitting posture directly, and with his 
+eyes wide open, looked towards him.
+
+'How do you do, Dennis?' said Gashford, nodding.  'I hope you have 
+suffered no inconvenience from your late exertions, Dennis?'
+
+'I always will say of you, Muster Gashford,' returned the hangman, 
+staring at him, 'that that 'ere quiet way of yours might almost 
+wake a dead man.  It is,' he added, with a muttered oath--still 
+staring at him in a thoughtful manner--'so awful sly!'
+
+'So distinct, eh Dennis?'
+
+'Distinct!' he answered, scratching his head, and keeping his eyes 
+upon the secretary's face; 'I seem to hear it, Muster Gashford, in 
+my wery bones.'
+
+'I am very glad your sense of hearing is so sharp, and that I 
+succeed in making myself so intelligible,' said Gashford, in his 
+unvarying, even tone.  'Where is your friend?'
+
+Mr Dennis looked round as in expectation of beholding him asleep 
+upon his bed of straw; then remembering he had seen him go out, 
+replied:
+
+'I can't say where he is, Muster Gashford, I expected him back 
+afore now.  I hope it isn't time that we was busy, Muster 
+Gashford?'
+
+'Nay,' said the secretary, 'who should know that as well as you?  
+How can I tell you, Dennis?  You are perfect master of your own 
+actions, you know, and accountable to nobody--except sometimes to 
+the law, eh?'
+
+Dennis, who was very much baffled by the cool matter-of-course 
+manner of this reply, recovered his self-possession on his 
+professional pursuits being referred to, and pointing towards 
+Barnaby, shook his head and frowned.
+
+'Hush!' cried Barnaby.
+
+'Ah!  Do hush about that, Muster Gashford,' said the hangman in a 
+low voice, 'pop'lar prejudices--you always forget--well, Barnaby, 
+my lad, what's the matter?'
+
+'I hear him coming,' he answered: 'Hark!  Do you mark that?  That's 
+his foot!  Bless you, I know his step, and his dog's too.  Tramp, 
+tramp, pit-pat, on they come together, and, ha ha ha!--and here 
+they are!' he cried, joyfully welcoming Hugh with both hands, and 
+then patting him fondly on the back, as if instead of being the 
+rough companion he was, he had been one of the most prepossessing 
+of men.  'Here he is, and safe too!  I am glad to see him back 
+again, old Hugh!'
+
+'I'm a Turk if he don't give me a warmer welcome always than any 
+man of sense,' said Hugh, shaking hands with him with a kind of 
+ferocious friendship, strange enough to see.  'How are you, boy?'
+
+'Hearty!' cried Barnaby, waving his hat.  'Ha ha ha!  And merrry 
+too, Hugh!  And ready to do anything for the good cause, and the 
+right, and to help the kind, mild, pale-faced gentleman--the lord 
+they used so ill--eh, Hugh?'
+
+'Ay!' returned his friend, dropping his hand, and looking at 
+Gashford for an instant with a changed expression before he spoke 
+to him.  'Good day, master!'
+
+'And good day to you,' replied the secretary, nursing his leg.
+
+'And many good days--whole years of them, I hope.  You are heated.'
+
+'So would you have been, master,' said Hugh, wiping his face, 'if 
+you'd been running here as fast as I have.'
+
+'You know the news, then?  Yes, I supposed you would have heard it.'
+
+'News! what news?'
+
+'You don't?' cried Gashford, raising his eyebrows with an 
+exclamation of surprise.  'Dear me!  Come; then I AM the first to 
+make you acquainted with your distinguished position, after all.  
+Do you see the King's Arms a-top?' he smilingly asked, as he took a 
+large paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and held it out for 
+Hugh's inspection.
+
+'Well!' said Hugh.  'What's that to me?'
+
+'Much.  A great deal,' replied the secretary.  'Read it.'
+
+'I told you, the first time I saw you, that I couldn't read,' said 
+Hugh, impatiently.  'What in the Devil's name's inside of it?'
+
+'It is a proclamation from the King in Council,' said Gashford, 
+'dated to-day, and offering a reward of five hundred pounds--five 
+hundred pounds is a great deal of money, and a large temptation to 
+some people--to any one who will discover the person or persons 
+most active in demolishing those chapels on Saturday night.'
+
+'Is that all?' cried Hugh, with an indifferent air.  'I knew of 
+that.'
+
+'Truly I might have known you did,' said Gashford, smiling, and 
+folding up the document again.  'Your friend, I might have guessed--
+indeed I did guess--was sure to tell you.'
+
+'My friend!' stammered Hugh, with an unsuccessful effort to appear 
+surprised.  'What friend?'
+
+'Tut tut--do you suppose I don't know where you have been?' 
+retorted Gashford, rubbing his hands, and beating the back of one 
+on the palm of the other, and looking at him with a cunning eye.  
+'How dull you think me!  Shall I say his name?'
+
+'No,' said Hugh, with a hasty glance towards Dennis.
+
+'You have also heard from him, no doubt,' resumed the secretary, 
+after a moment's pause, 'that the rioters who have been taken (poor 
+fellows) are committed for trial, and that some very active 
+witnesses have had the temerity to appear against them.  Among 
+others--' and here he clenched his teeth, as if he would suppress 
+by force some violent words that rose upon his tongue; and spoke 
+very slowly.  'Among others, a gentleman who saw the work going on 
+in Warwick Street; a Catholic gentleman; one Haredale.'
+
+Hugh would have prevented his uttering the word, but it was out 
+already.  Hearing the name, Barnaby turned swiftly round.
+
+'Duty, duty, bold Barnaby!' cried Hugh, assuming his wildest and 
+most rapid manner, and thrusting into his hand his staff and flag 
+which leant against the wall.  'Mount guard without loss of time, 
+for we are off upon our expedition.  Up, Dennis, and get ready!  
+Take care that no one turns the straw upon my bed, brave Barnaby; 
+we know what's underneath it--eh?  Now, master, quick!  What you 
+have to say, say speedily, for the little captain and a cluster of 
+'em are in the fields, and only waiting for us.  Sharp's the word, 
+and strike's the action.  Quick!'
+
+Barnaby was not proof against this bustle and despatch.  The look 
+of mingled astonishtnent and anger which had appeared in his face 
+when he turned towards them, faded from it as the words passed from 
+his memory, like breath from a polished mirror; and grasping the 
+weapon which Hugh forced upon him, he proudly took his station at 
+the door, beyond their hearing.
+
+'You might have spoiled our plans, master,' said Hugh.  'YOU, too, 
+of all men!'
+
+'Who would have supposed that HE would be so quick?' urged 
+Gashford.
+
+'He's as quick sometimes--I don't mean with his hands, for that you 
+know, but with his head--as you or any man,' said Hugh.  'Dennis, 
+it's time we were going; they're waiting for us; I came to tell 
+you.  Reach me my stick and belt.  Here!  Lend a hand, master.  
+Fling this over my shoulder, and buckle it behind, will you?'
+
+'Brisk as ever!' said the secretary, adjusting it for him as he 
+desired.
+
+'A man need be brisk to-day; there's brisk work a-foot.'
+
+'There is, is there?' said Gashford.  He said it with such a 
+provoking assumption of ignorance, that Hugh, looking over his 
+shoulder and angrily down upon him, replied:
+
+'Is there!  You know there is!  Who knows better than you, master, 
+that the first great step to be taken is to make examples of these 
+witnesses, and frighten all men from appearing against us or any of 
+our body, any more?'
+
+'There's one we know of,' returned Gashford, with an expressive 
+smile, 'who is at least as well informed upon that subject as you 
+or I.'
+
+'If we mean the same gentleman, as I suppose we do,' Hugh rejoined 
+softly, 'I tell you this--he's as good and quick information about 
+everything as--' here he paused and looked round, as if to make 
+sure that the person in question was not within hearing, 'as Old 
+Nick himself.  Have you done that, master?  How slow you are!'
+
+'It's quite fast now,' said Gashford, rising.  'I say--you didn't 
+find that your friend disapproved of to-day's little expedition?  
+Ha ha ha!  It is fortunate it jumps so well with the witness 
+policy; for, once planned, it must have been carried out.  And now 
+you are going, eh?'
+
+'Now we are going, master!' Hugh replied.  'Any parting words?'
+
+'Oh dear, no,' said Gashford sweetly.  'None!'
+
+'You're sure?' cried Hugh, nudging the grinning Dennis.
+
+'Quite sure, eh, Muster Gashford?' chuckled the hangman.
+
+Gashford paused a moment, struggling with his caution and his 
+malice; then putting himself between the two men, and laying a hand 
+upon the arm of each, said, in a cramped whisper:
+
+'Do not, my good friends--I am sure you will not--forget our talk 
+one night--in your house, Dennis--about this person.  No mercy, no 
+quarter, no two beams of his house to be left standing where the 
+builder placed them!  Fire, the saying goes, is a good servant, but 
+a bad master.  Makes it HIS master; he deserves no better.  But I 
+am sure you will be firm, I am sure you will be very resolute, I am 
+sure you will remember that he thirsts for your lives, and those of 
+all your brave companions.  If you ever acted like staunch 
+fellows, you will do so to-day.  Won't you, Dennis--won't you, 
+Hugh?'
+
+The two looked at him, and at each other; then bursting into a roar 
+of laughter, brandished their staves above their heads, shook 
+hands, and hurried out.
+
+When they had been gone a little time, Gashford followed.  They 
+were yet in sight, and hastening to that part of the adjacent 
+fields in which their fellows had already mustered; Hugh was 
+looking back, and flourishing his hat to Barnaby, who, delighted 
+with his trust, replied in the same way, and then resumed his 
+pacing up and down before the stable-door, where his feet had worn 
+a path already.  And when Gashford himself was far distant, and 
+looked back for the last time, he was still walking to and fro, 
+with the same measured tread; the most devoted and the blithest 
+champion that ever maintained a post, and felt his heart lifted up 
+with a brave sense of duty, and determination to defend it to the 
+last.
+
+Smiling at the simplicity of the poor idiot, Gashford betook 
+himself to Welbeck Street by a different path from that which he 
+knew the rioters would take, and sitting down behind a curtain in 
+one of the upper windows of Lord George Gordon's house, waited 
+impatiently for their coming.  They were so long, that although he 
+knew it had been settled they should come that way, he had a 
+misgiving they must have changed their plans and taken some other 
+route.  But at length the roar of voices was heard in the 
+neighbouring fields, and soon afterwards they came thronging past, 
+in a great body.
+
+However, they were not all, nor nearly all, in one body, but were, 
+as he soon found, divided into four parties, each of which stopped 
+before the house to give three cheers, and then went on; the 
+leaders crying out in what direction they were going, and calling 
+on the spectators to join them.  The first detachment, carrying, by 
+way of banners, some relics of the havoc they had made in 
+Moorfields, proclaimed that they were on their way to Chelsea, 
+whence they would return in the same order, to make of the spoil 
+they bore, a great bonfire, near at hand.  The second gave out that 
+they were bound for Wapping, to destroy a chapel; the third, that 
+their place of destination was East Smithfield, and their object 
+the same.  All this was done in broad, bright, summer day.  Gay 
+carriages and chairs stopped to let them pass, or turned back to 
+avoid them; people on foot stood aside in doorways, or perhaps 
+knocked and begged permission to stand at a window, or in the hall, 
+until the rioters had passed: but nobody interfered with them; and 
+when they had gone by, everything went on as usual.
+
+There still remained the fourth body, and for that the secretary 
+looked with a most intense eagerness.  At last it came up.  It was 
+numerous, and composed of picked men; for as he gazed down among 
+them, he recognised many upturned faces which he knew well--those 
+of Simon Tappertit, Hugh, and Dennis in the front, of course.  They 
+halted and cheered, as the others had done; but when they moved 
+again, they did not, like them, proclaim what design they had.  
+Hugh merely raised his hat upon the bludgeon he carried, and 
+glancing at a spectator on the opposite side of the way, was gone.
+
+Gashford followed the direction of his glance instinctively, and 
+saw, standing on the pavement, and wearing the blue cockade, Sir 
+John Chester.  He held his hat an inch or two above his head, to 
+propitiate the mob; and, resting gracefully on his cane, smiling 
+pleasantly, and displaying his dress and person to the very best 
+advantage, looked on in the most tranquil state imaginable.  For 
+all that, and quick and dexterous as he was, Gashford had seen him 
+recognise Hugh with the air of a patron.  He had no longer any eyes 
+for the crowd, but fixed his keen regards upon Sir John.
+
+He stood in the same place and posture until the last man in the 
+concourse had turned the corner of the street; then very 
+deliberately took the blue cockade out of his hat; put it carefully 
+in his pocket, ready for the next emergency; refreshed himself with 
+a pinch of snuff; put up his box; and was walking slowly off, when 
+a passing carriage stopped, and a lady's hand let down the glass.  
+Sir John's hat was off again immediately.  After a minute's 
+conversation at the carriage-window, in which it was apparent that 
+he was vastly entertaining on the subject of the mob, he stepped 
+lightly in, and was driven away.
+
+The secretary smiled, but he had other thoughts to dwell upon, and 
+soon dismissed the topic.  Dinner was brought him, but he sent it 
+down untasted; and, in restless pacings up and down the room, and 
+constant glances at the clock, and many futile efforts to sit down 
+and read, or go to sleep, or look out of the window, consumed four 
+weary hours.  When the dial told him thus much time had crept away, 
+he stole upstairs to the top of the house, and coming out upon the 
+roof sat down, with his face towards the east.
+
+Heedless of the fresh air that blew upon his heated brow, of the 
+pleasant meadows from which he turned, of the piles of roofs and 
+chimneys upon which he looked, of the smoke and rising mist he 
+vainly sought to pierce, of the shrill cries of children at their 
+evening sports, the distant hum and turmoil of the town, the 
+cheerful country breath that rustled past to meet it, and to droop, 
+and die; he watched, and watched, till it was dark save for the 
+specks of light that twinkled in the streets below and far away--
+and, as the darkness deepened, strained his gaze and grew more 
+eager yet.
+
+'Nothing but gloom in that direction, still!' he muttered 
+restlessly.  'Dog! where is the redness in the sky, you promised 
+me!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 54
+
+
+Rumours of the prevailing disturbances had, by this time, begun to 
+be pretty generally circulated through the towns and villages round 
+London, and the tidings were everywhere received with that appetite 
+for the marvellous and love of the terrible which have probably 
+been among the natural characteristics of mankind since the 
+creation of the world.  These accounts, however, appeared, to many 
+persons at that day--as they would to us at the present, but that 
+we know them to be matter of history--so monstrous and improbable, 
+that a great number of those who were resident at a distance, and 
+who were credulous enough on other points, were really unable to 
+bring their minds to believe that such things could be; and 
+rejected the intelligence they received on all hands, as wholly 
+fabulous and absurd.
+
+Mr Willet--not so much, perhaps, on account of his having argued 
+and settled the matter with himself, as by reason of his 
+constitutional obstinacy--was one of those who positively refused 
+to entertain the current topic for a moment.  On this very evening, 
+and perhaps at the very time when Gashford kept his solitary watch, 
+old John was so red in the face with perpetually shaking his head 
+in contradiction of his three ancient cronies and pot companions, 
+that he was quite a phenomenon to behold, and lighted up the 
+Maypole Porch wherein they sat together, like a monstrous carbuncle 
+in a fairy tale.
+
+'Do you think, sir,' said Mr Willet, looking hard at Solomon 
+Daisy--for it was his custom in cases of personal altercation to 
+fasten upon the smallest man in the party--'do you think, sir, that 
+I'm a born fool?'
+
+'No, no, Johnny,' returned Solomon, looking round upon the little 
+circle of which he formed a part: 'We all know better than that.  
+You're no fool, Johnny.  No, no!'
+
+Mr Cobb and Mr Parkes shook their heads in unison, muttering, 'No, 
+no, Johnny, not you!'  But as such compliments had usually the 
+effect of making Mr Willet rather more dogged than before, he 
+surveyed them with a look of deep disdain, and returned for answer:
+
+'Then what do you mean by coming here, and telling me that this 
+evening you're a-going to walk up to London together--you three--
+you--and have the evidence of your own senses?  An't,' said Mr 
+Willet, putting his pipe in his mouth with an air of solemn 
+disgust, 'an't the evidence of MY senses enough for you?'
+
+'But we haven't got it, Johnny,' pleaded Parkes, humbly.
+
+'You haven't got it, sir?' repeated Mr Willet, eyeing him from top 
+to toe.  'You haven't got it, sir?  You HAVE got it, sir.  Don't I 
+tell you that His blessed Majesty King George the Third would no 
+more stand a rioting and rollicking in his streets, than he'd stand 
+being crowed over by his own Parliament?'
+
+'Yes, Johnny, but that's your sense--not your senses,' said the 
+adventurous Mr Parkes.
+
+'How do you know?  'retorted John with great dignity.  'You're a 
+contradicting pretty free, you are, sir.  How do YOU know which it 
+is?  I'm not aware I ever told you, sir.'
+
+Mr Parkes, finding himself in the position of having got into 
+metaphysics without exactly seeing his way out of them, stammered 
+forth an apology and retreated from the argument.  There then 
+ensued a silence of some ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, at 
+the expiration of which period Mr Willet was observed to rumble and 
+shake with laughter, and presently remarked, in reference to his 
+late adversary, 'that he hoped he had tackled him enough.'  
+Thereupon Messrs Cobb and Daisy laughed, and nodded, and Parkes was 
+looked upon as thoroughly and effectually put down.
+
+'Do you suppose if all this was true, that Mr Haredale would be 
+constantly away from home, as he is?' said John, after another 
+silence.  'Do you think he wouldn't be afraid to leave his house 
+with them two young women in it, and only a couple of men, or so?'
+
+'Ay, but then you know,' returned Solomon Daisy, 'his house is a 
+goodish way out of London, and they do say that the rioters won't 
+go more than two miles, or three at the farthest, off the stones.  
+Besides, you know, some of the Catholic gentlefolks have actually 
+sent trinkets and suchlike down here for safety--at least, so the 
+story goes.'
+
+'The story goes!' said Mr Willet testily.  'Yes, sir.  The story 
+goes that you saw a ghost last March.  But nobody believes it.'
+
+'Well!' said Solomon, rising, to divert the attention of his two 
+friends, who tittered at this retort: 'believed or disbelieved, 
+it's true; and true or not, if we mean to go to London, we must be 
+going at once.  So shake hands, Johnny, and good night.'
+
+'I shall shake hands,' returned the landlord, putting his into his 
+pockets, 'with no man as goes to London on such nonsensical 
+errands.'
+
+The three cronies were therefore reduced to the necessity of 
+shaking his elbows; having performed that ceremony, and brought 
+from the house their hats, and sticks, and greatcoats, they bade 
+him good night and departed; promising to bring him on the morrow 
+full and true accounts of the real state of the city, and if it 
+were quiet, to give him the full merit of his victory.
+
+John Willet looked after them, as they plodded along the road in 
+the rich glow of a summer evening; and knocking the ashes out of 
+his pipe, laughed inwardly at their folly, until his sides were 
+sore.  When he had quite exhausted himself--which took some time, 
+for he laughed as slowly as he thought and spoke--he sat himself 
+comfortably with his back to the house, put his legs upon the 
+bench, then his apron over his face, and fell sound asleep.
+
+How long he slept, matters not; but it was for no brief space, for 
+when he awoke, the rich light had faded, the sombre hues of night 
+were falling fast upon the landscape, and a few bright stars were 
+already twinkling overhead.  The birds were all at roost, the 
+daisies on the green had closed their fairy hoods, the honeysuckle 
+twining round the porch exhaled its perfume in a twofold degree, as 
+though it lost its coyness at that silent time and loved to shed 
+its fragrance on the night; the ivy scarcely stirred its deep green 
+leaves.  How tranquil, and how beautiful it was!
+
+Was there no sound in the air, besides the gentle rustling of the 
+trees and the grasshopper's merry chirp?  Hark!  Something very 
+faint and distant, not unlike the murmuring in a sea-shell.  Now it 
+grew louder, fainter now, and now it altogether died away.  
+Presently, it came again, subsided, came once more, grew louder, 
+fainter--swelled into a roar.  It was on the road, and varied with 
+its windings.  All at once it burst into a distinct sound--the 
+voices, and the tramping feet of many men.
+
+It is questionable whether old John Willet, even then, would have 
+thought of the rioters but for the cries of his cook and housemaid, 
+who ran screaming upstairs and locked themselves into one of the 
+old garrets,--shrieking dismally when they had done so, by way of 
+rendering their place of refuge perfectly secret and secure.  These 
+two females did afterwards depone that Mr Willet in his 
+consternation uttered but one word, and called that up the stairs 
+in a stentorian voice, six distinct times.  But as this word was a 
+monosyllable, which, however inoffensive when applied to the 
+quadruped it denotes, is highly reprehensible when used in 
+connection with females of unimpeachable character, many persons 
+were inclined to believe that the young women laboured under some 
+hallucination caused by excessive fear; and that their ears 
+deceived them.
+
+Be this as it may, John Willet, in whom the very uttermost extent 
+of dull-headed perplexity supplied the place of courage, stationed 
+himself in the porch, and waited for their coming up.  Once, it 
+dimly occurred to him that there was a kind of door to the house, 
+which had a lock and bolts; and at the same time some shadowy ideas 
+of shutters to the lower windows, flitted through his brain.  But 
+he stood stock still, looking down the road in the direction in 
+which the noise was rapidly advancing, and did not so much as take 
+his hands out of his pockets.
+
+He had not to wait long.  A dark mass, looming through a cloud of 
+dust, soon became visible; the mob quickened their pace; shouting 
+and whooping like savages, they came rushing on pell mell; and in a 
+few seconds he was bandied from hand to hand, in the heart of a 
+crowd of men.
+
+'Halloa!' cried a voice he knew, as the man who spoke came cleaving 
+through the throng.  'Where is he?  Give him to me.  Don't hurt 
+him.  How now, old Jack!  Ha ha ha!'
+
+Mr Willet looked at him, and saw it was Hugh; but he said nothing, 
+and thought nothing.
+
+'These lads are thirsty and must drink!' cried Hugh, thrusting him 
+back towards the house.  'Bustle, Jack, bustle.  Show us the best--
+the very best--the over-proof that you keep for your own drinking, 
+Jack!'
+
+John faintly articulated the words, 'Who's to pay?'
+
+'He says "Who's to pay?"' cried Hugh, with a roar of laughter which 
+was loudly echoed by the crowd.  Then turning to John, he added, 
+'Pay! Why, nobody.'
+
+John stared round at the mass of faces--some grinning, some fierce, 
+some lighted up by torches, some indistinct, some dusky and 
+shadowy: some looking at him, some at his house, some at each 
+other--and while he was, as he thought, in the very act of doing 
+so, found himself, without any consciousness of having moved, in 
+the bar; sitting down in an arm-chair, and watching the destruction 
+of his property, as if it were some queer play or entertainment, of 
+an astonishing and stupefying nature, but having no reference to 
+himself--that he could make out--at all.
+
+Yes.  Here was the bar--the bar that the boldest never entered 
+without special invitation--the sanctuary, the mystery, the 
+hallowed ground: here it was, crammed with men, clubs, sticks, 
+torches, pistols; filled with a deafening noise, oaths, shouts, 
+screams, hootings; changed all at once into a bear-garden, a 
+madhouse, an infernal temple: men darting in and out, by door and 
+window, smashing the glass, turning the taps, drinking liquor out 
+of China punchbowls, sitting astride of casks, smoking private and 
+personal pipes, cutting down the sacred grove of lemons, hacking 
+and hewing at the celebrated cheese, breaking open inviolable 
+drawers, putting things in their pockets which didn't belong to 
+them, dividing his own money before his own eyes, wantonly wasting, 
+breaking, pulling down and tearing up: nothing quiet, nothing 
+private: men everywhere--above, below, overhead, in the bedrooms, 
+in the kitchen, in the yard, in the stables--clambering in at 
+windows when there were doors wide open; dropping out of windows 
+when the stairs were handy; leaping over the bannisters into chasms 
+of passages: new faces and figures presenting themselves every 
+instant--some yelling, some singing, some fighting, some breaking 
+glass and crockery, some laying the dust with the liquor they 
+couldn't drink, some ringing the bells till they pulled them down, 
+others beating them with pokers till they beat them into fragments: 
+more men still--more, more, more--swarming on like insects: noise, 
+smoke, light, darkness, frolic, anger, laughter, groans, plunder, 
+fear, and ruin!
+
+Nearly all the time while John looked on at this bewildering scene, 
+Hugh kept near him; and though he was the loudest, wildest, most 
+destructive villain there, he saved his old master's bones a score 
+of times.  Nay, even when Mr Tappertit, excited by liquor, came up, 
+and in assertion of his prerogative politely kicked John Willet on 
+the shins, Hugh bade him return the compliment; and if old John had 
+had sufficient presence of mind to understand this whispered 
+direction, and to profit by it, he might no doubt, under Hugh's 
+protection, have done so with impunity.
+
+At length the band began to reassemble outside the house, and to 
+call to those within, to join them, for they were losing time.  
+These murmurs increasing, and attaining a high pitch, Hugh, and 
+some of those who yet lingered in the bar, and who plainly were the 
+leaders of the troop, took counsel together, apart, as to what was 
+to be done with John, to keep him quiet until their Chigwell work 
+was over.  Some proposed to set the house on fire and leave him in 
+it; others, that he should be reduced to a state of temporary 
+insensibility, by knocking on the head; others, that he should be 
+sworn to sit where he was until to-morrow at the same hour; others 
+again, that he should be gagged and taken off with them, under a 
+sufficient guard.  All these propositions being overruled, it was 
+concluded, at last, to bind him in his chair, and the word was 
+passed for Dennis.
+
+'Look'ee here, Jack!' said Hugh, striding up to him: 'We are going 
+to tie you, hand and foot, but otherwise you won't be hurt.  D'ye 
+hear?'
+
+John Willet looked at another man, as if he didn't know which was 
+the speaker, and muttered something about an ordinary every Sunday 
+at two o'clock.
+
+'You won't be hurt I tell you, Jack--do you hear me?' roared Hugh, 
+impressing the assurance upon him by means of a heavy blow on the 
+back.  'He's so dead scared, he's woolgathering, I think.  Give him 
+a drop of something to drink here.  Hand over, one of you.'
+
+A glass of liquor being passed forward, Hugh poured the contents 
+down old John's throat.  Mr Willet feebly smacked his lips, thrust 
+his hand into his pocket, and inquired what was to pay; adding, as 
+he looked vacantly round, that he believed there was a trifle of 
+broken glass--
+
+'He's out of his senses for the time, it's my belief,' said Hugh, 
+after shaking him, without any visible effect upon his system, 
+until his keys rattled in his pocket.  'Where's that Dennis?'
+
+The word was again passed, and presently Mr Dennis, with a long 
+cord bound about his middle, something after the manner of a friar, 
+came hurrying in, attended by a body-guard of half-a-dozen of his 
+men.
+
+'Come!  Be alive here!' cried Hugh, stamping his foot upon the 
+ground.  'Make haste!'
+
+Dennis, with a wink and a nod, unwound the cord from about his 
+person, and raising his eyes to the ceiling, looked all over it, 
+and round the walls and cornice, with a curious eye; then shook his 
+head.
+
+'Move, man, can't you!' cried Hugh, with another impatient stamp of 
+his foot.  'Are we to wait here, till the cry has gone for ten 
+miles round, and our work's interrupted?'
+
+'It's all very fine talking, brother,' answered Dennis, stepping 
+towards him; 'but unless--' and here he whispered in his ear--
+'unless we do it over the door, it can't be done at all in this 
+here room.'
+
+'What can't?' Hugh demanded.
+
+'What can't!' retorted Dennis.  'Why, the old man can't.'
+
+'Why, you weren't going to hang him!' cried Hugh.
+
+'No, brother?' returned the hangman with a stare.  'What else?'
+
+Hugh made no answer, but snatching the rope from his companion's 
+hand, proceeded to bind old John himself; but his very first move 
+was so bungling and unskilful, that Mr Dennis entreated, almost 
+with tears in his eyes, that he might be permitted to perform the 
+duty.  Hugh consenting, be achieved it in a twinkling.
+
+'There,' he said, looking mournfully at John Willet, who displayed 
+no more emotion in his bonds than he had shown out of them.  
+'That's what I call pretty and workmanlike.  He's quite a picter 
+now.  But, brother, just a word with you--now that he's ready 
+trussed, as one may say, wouldn't it be better for all parties if 
+we was to work him off?  It would read uncommon well in the 
+newspapers, it would indeed.  The public would think a great deal 
+more on us!'
+
+Hugh, inferring what his companion meant, rather from his gestures 
+than his technical mode of expressing himself (to which, as he was 
+ignorant of his calling, he wanted the clue), rejected this 
+proposition for the second time, and gave the word 'Forward!' which 
+was echoed by a hundred voices from without.
+
+'To the Warren!' shouted Dennis as he ran out, followed by the 
+rest.  'A witness's house, my lads!'
+
+A loud yell followed, and the whole throng hurried off, mad for 
+pillage and destruction.  Hugh lingered behind for a few moments to 
+stimulate himself with more drink, and to set all the taps running, 
+a few of which had accidentally been spared; then, glancing round 
+the despoiled and plundered room, through whose shattered window 
+the rioters had thrust the Maypole itself,--for even that had been 
+sawn down,--lighted a torch, clapped the mute and motionless John 
+Willet on the back, and waving his light above his head, and 
+uttering a fierce shout, hastened after his companions.
+
+
+
+Chapter 55
+
+
+John Willet, left alone in his dismantled bar, continued to sit 
+staring about him; awake as to his eyes, certainly, but with all 
+his powers of reason and reflection in a sound and dreamless 
+sleep.  He looked round upon the room which had been for years, 
+and was within an hour ago, the pride of his heart; and not a 
+muscle of his face was moved.  The night, without, looked black and 
+cold through the dreary gaps in the casement; the precious liquids, 
+now nearly leaked away, dripped with a hollow sound upon the floor; 
+the Maypole peered ruefully in through the broken window, like the 
+bowsprit of a wrecked ship; the ground might have been the bottom 
+of the sea, it was so strewn with precious fragments.  Currents of 
+air rushed in, as the old doors jarred and creaked upon their 
+hinges; the candles flickered and guttered down, and made long 
+winding-sheets; the cheery deep-red curtains flapped and fluttered 
+idly in the wind; even the stout Dutch kegs, overthrown and lying 
+empty in dark corners, seemed the mere husks of good fellows whose 
+jollity had departed, and who could kindle with a friendly glow no 
+more.  John saw this desolation, and yet saw it not.  He was 
+perfectly contented to sit there, staring at it, and felt no more 
+indignation or discomfort in his bonds than if they had been robes 
+of honour.  So far as he was personally concerned, old Time lay 
+snoring, and the world stood still.
+
+Save for the dripping from the barrels, the rustling of such light 
+fragments of destruction as the wind affected, and the dull 
+creaking of the open doors, all was profoundly quiet: indeed, 
+these sounds, like the ticking of the death-watch in the night, 
+only made the silence they invaded deeper and more apparent.  But 
+quiet or noisy, it was all one to John.  If a train of heavy 
+artillery could have come up and commenced ball practice outside 
+the window, it would have been all the same to him.  He was a long 
+way beyond surprise.  A ghost couldn't have overtaken him.
+
+By and by he heard a footstep--a hurried, and yet cautious 
+footstep--coming on towards the house.  It stopped, advanced again, 
+then seemed to go quite round it.  Having done that, it came 
+beneath the window, and a head looked in.
+
+It was strongly relieved against the darkness outside by the glare 
+of the guttering candles.  A pale, worn, withered face; the eyes--
+but that was owing to its gaunt condition--unnaturally large and 
+bright; the hair, a grizzled black.  It gave a searching glance all 
+round the room, and a deep voice said:
+
+'Are you alone in this house?'
+
+John made no sign, though the question was repeated twice, and he 
+heard it distinctly.  After a moment's pause, the man got in at the 
+window.  John was not at all surprised at this, either.  There had 
+been so much getting in and out of window in the course of the last 
+hour or so, that he had quite forgotten the door, and seemed to 
+have lived among such exercises from infancy.
+
+The man wore a large, dark, faded cloak, and a slouched hat; he 
+walked up close to John, and looked at him.  John returned the 
+compliment with interest.
+
+'How long have you been sitting thus?' said the man.
+
+John considered, but nothing came of it.
+
+'Which way have the party gone?'
+
+Some wandering speculations relative to the fashion of the 
+stranger's boots, got into Mr Willet's mind by some accident or 
+other, but they got out again in a hurry, and left him in his 
+former state.
+
+'You would do well to speak,' said the man; 'you may keep a whole 
+skin, though you have nothing else left that can be hurt.  Which 
+way have the party gone?'
+
+'That!' said John, finding his voice all at once, and nodding with 
+perfect good faith--he couldn't point; he was so tightly bound--in 
+exactly the opposite direction to the right one.
+
+'You lie!' said the man angrily, and with a threatening gesture.  
+'I came that way.  You would betray me.'
+
+It was so evident that John's imperturbability was not assumed, but 
+was the result of the late proceedings under his roof, that the man 
+stayed his hand in the very act of striking him, and turned away.
+
+John looked after him without so much as a twitch in a single nerve 
+of his face.  He seized a glass, and holding it under one of the 
+little casks until a few drops were collected, drank them greedily 
+off; then throwing it down upon the floor impatiently, he took the 
+vessel in his hands and drained it into his throat.  Some scraps of 
+bread and meat were scattered about, and on these he fell next; 
+eating them with voracity, and pausing every now and then to 
+listen for some fancied noise outside.  When he had refreshed 
+himself in this manner with violent haste, and raised another 
+barrel to his lips, he pulled his hat upon his brow as though he 
+were about to leave the house, and turned to John.
+
+'Where are your servants?'
+
+Mr Willet indistinctly remembered to have heard the rioters calling 
+to them to throw the key of the room in which they were, out of 
+window, for their keeping.  He therefore replied, 'Locked up.'
+
+'Well for them if they remain quiet, and well for you if you do the 
+like,' said the man.  'Now show me the way the party went.'
+
+This time Mr Willet indicated it correctly.  The man was hurrying 
+to the door, when suddenly there came towards them on the wind, the 
+loud and rapid tolling of an alarm-bell, and then a bright and 
+vivid glare streamed up, which illumined, not only the whole 
+chamber, but all the country.
+
+It was not the sudden change from darkness to this dreadful light, 
+it was not the sound of distant shrieks and shouts of triumph, it 
+was not this dread invasion of the serenity and peace of night, 
+that drove the man back as though a thunderbolt had struck him.  It 
+was the Bell.  If the ghastliest shape the human mind has ever 
+pictured in its wildest dreams had risen up before him, he could 
+not have staggered backward from its touch, as he did from the 
+first sound of that loud iron voice.  With eyes that started from 
+his head, his limbs convulsed, his face most horrible to see, he 
+raised one arm high up into the air, and holding something 
+visionary back and down, with his other hand, drove at it as though 
+he held a knife and stabbed it to the heart.  He clutched his hair, 
+and stopped his ears, and travelled madly round and round; then 
+gave a frightful cry, and with it rushed away: still, still, the 
+Bell tolled on and seemed to follow him--louder and louder, hotter 
+and hotter yet.  The glare grew brighter, the roar of voices 
+deeper; the crash of heavy bodies falling, shook the air; bright 
+streams of sparks rose up into the sky; but louder than them all--
+rising faster far, to Heaven--a million times more fierce and 
+furious--pouring forth dreadful secrets after its long silence--
+speaking the language of the dead--the Bell--the Bell!
+
+What hunt of spectres could surpass that dread pursuit and flight!  
+Had there been a legion of them on his track, he could have better 
+borne it.  They would have had a beginning and an end, but here all 
+space was full.  The one pursuing voice was everywhere: it sounded 
+in the earth, the air; shook the long grass, and howled among the 
+trembling trees.  The echoes caught it up, the owls hooted as it 
+flew upon the breeze, the nightingale was silent and hid herself 
+among the thickest boughs: it seemed to goad and urge the angry 
+fire, and lash it into madness; everything was steeped in one 
+prevailing red; the glow was everywhere; nature was drenched in 
+blood: still the remorseless crying of that awful voice--the Bell, 
+the Bell!
+
+It ceased; but not in his ears.  The knell was at his heart.  No 
+work of man had ever voice like that which sounded there, and 
+warned him that it cried unceasingly to Heaven.  Who could hear 
+that hell, and not know what it said!  There was murder in its 
+every note--cruel, relentless, savage murder--the murder of a 
+confiding man, by one who held his every trust.  Its ringing 
+summoned phantoms from their graves.  What face was that, in which 
+a friendly smile changed to a look of half incredulous horror, 
+which stiffened for a moment into one of pain, then changed again 
+into an imploring glance at Heaven, and so fell idly down with 
+upturned eyes, like the dead stags' he had often peeped at when a 
+little child: shrinking and shuddering--there was a dreadful thing 
+to think of now!--and clinging to an apron as he looked!  He sank 
+upon the ground, and grovelling down as if he would dig himself a 
+place to hide in, covered his face and ears: but no, no, no,--a 
+hundred walls and roofs of brass would not shut out that bell, for 
+in it spoke the wrathful voice of God, and from that voice, the 
+whole wide universe could not afford a refuge!
+
+While he rushed up and down, not knowing where to turn, and while 
+he lay crouching there, the work went briskly on indeed.  When 
+they left the Maypole, the rioters formed into a solid body, and 
+advanced at a quick pace towards the Warren.  Rumour of their 
+approach having gone before, they found the garden-doors fast 
+closed, the windows made secure, and the house profoundly dark: not 
+a light being visible in any portion of the building.  After some 
+fruitless ringing at the bells, and beating at the iron gates, they 
+drew off a few paces to reconnoitre, and confer upon the course it 
+would be best to take.
+
+Very little conference was needed, when all were bent upon one 
+desperate purpose, infuriated with liquor, and flushed with 
+successful riot.  The word being given to surround the house, some 
+climbed the gates, or dropped into the shallow trench and scaled 
+the garden wall, while others pulled down the solid iron fence, and 
+while they made a breach to enter by, made deadly weapons of the 
+bars.  The house being completely encircled, a small number of men 
+were despatched to break open a tool-shed in the garden; and during 
+their absence on this errand, the remainder contented themselves 
+with knocking violently at the doors, and calling to those within, 
+to come down and open them on peril of their lives.
+
+No answer being returned to this repeated summons, and the 
+detachment who had been sent away, coming back with an accession of 
+pickaxes, spades, and hoes, they,--together with those who had such 
+arms already, or carried (as many did) axes, poles, and crowbars,--
+struggled into the foremost rank, ready to beset the doors and 
+windows.  They had not at this time more than a dozen lighted 
+torches among them; but when these preparations were completed, 
+flaming links were distributed and passed from hand to hand with 
+such rapidity, that, in a minute's time, at least two-thirds of the 
+whole roaring mass bore, each man in his hand, a blazing brand.  
+Whirling these about their heads they raised a loud shout, and fell 
+to work upon the doors and windows.
+
+Amidst the clattering of heavy blows, the rattling of broken glass, 
+the cries and execrations of the mob, and all the din and turmoil 
+of the scene, Hugh and his friends kept together at the turret-door 
+where Mr Haredale had last admitted him and old John Willet; and 
+spent their united force on that.  It was a strong old oaken door, 
+guarded by good bolts and a heavy bar, but it soon went crashing in 
+upon the narrow stairs behind, and made, as it were, a platform to 
+facilitate their tearing up into the rooms above.  Almost at the 
+same moment, a dozen other points were forced, and at every one the 
+crowd poured in like water.
+
+A few armed servant-men were posted in the hall, and when the 
+rioters forced an entrance there, they fired some half-a-dozen 
+shots.  But these taking no effect, and the concourse coming on 
+like an army of devils, they only thought of consulting their own 
+safety, and retreated, echoing their assailants' cries, and hoping 
+in the confusion to be taken for rioters themselves; in which 
+stratagem they succeeded, with the exception of one old man who was 
+never heard of again, and was said to have had his brains beaten 
+out with an iron bar (one of his fellows reported that he had seen 
+the old man fall), and to have been afterwards burnt in the flames.
+
+The besiegers being now in complete possession of the house, spread 
+themselves over it from garret to cellar, and plied their demon 
+labours fiercely.  While some small parties kindled bonfires 
+underneath the windows, others broke up the furniture and cast the 
+fragments down to feed the flames below; where the apertures in 
+the wall (windows no longer) were large enough, they threw out 
+tables, chests of drawers, beds, mirrors, pictures, and flung them 
+whole into the fire; while every fresh addition to the blazing 
+masses was received with shouts, and howls, and yells, which added 
+new and dismal terrors to the conflagration.  Those who had axes 
+and had spent their fury on the movables, chopped and tore down the 
+doors and window frames, broke up the flooring, hewed away the 
+rafters, and buried men who lingered in the upper rooms, in heaps 
+of ruins.  Some searched the drawers, the chests, the boxes, 
+writing-desks, and closets, for jewels, plate, and money; while 
+others, less mindful of gain and more mad for destruction, cast 
+their whole contents into the courtyard without examination, and 
+called to those below, to heap them on the blaze.  Men who had 
+been into the cellars, and had staved the casks, rushed to and fro 
+stark mad, setting fire to all they saw--often to the dresses of 
+their own friends--and kindling the building in so many parts that 
+some had no time for escape, and were seen, with drooping hands and 
+blackened faces, hanging senseless on the window-sills to which 
+they had crawled, until they were sucked and drawn into the 
+burning gulf.  The more the fire crackled and raged, the wilder and 
+more cruel the men grew; as though moving in that element they 
+became fiends, and changed their earthly nature for the qualities 
+that give delight in hell.
+
+The burning pile, revealing rooms and passages red hot, through 
+gaps made in the crumbling walls; the tributary fires that licked 
+the outer bricks and stones, with their long forked tongues, and 
+ran up to meet the glowing mass within; the shining of the flames 
+upon the villains who looked on and fed them; the roaring of the 
+angry blaze, so bright and high that it seemed in its rapacity to 
+have swallowed up the very smoke; the living flakes the wind bore 
+rapidly away and hurried on with, like a storm of fiery snow; the 
+noiseless breaking of great beams of wood, which fell like feathers 
+on the heap of ashes, and crumbled in the very act to sparks and 
+powder; the lurid tinge that overspread the sky, and the darkness, 
+very deep by contrast, which prevailed around; the exposure to the 
+coarse, common gaze, of every little nook which usages of home had 
+made a sacred place, and the destruction by rude hands of every 
+little household favourite which old associations made a dear and 
+precious thing: all this taking place--not among pitying looks and 
+friendly murmurs of compassion, but brutal shouts and exultations, 
+which seemed to make the very rats who stood by the old house too 
+long, creatures with some claim upon the pity and regard of those 
+its roof had sheltered:--combined to form a scene never to be 
+forgotten by those who saw it and were not actors in the work, so 
+long as life endured.
+
+And who were they?  The alarm-bell rang--and it was pulled by no 
+faint or hesitating hands--for a long time; but not a soul was 
+seen.  Some of the insurgents said that when it ceased, they heard 
+the shrieks of women, and saw some garments fluttering in the air, 
+as a party of men bore away no unresisting burdens.  No one could 
+say that this was true or false, in such an uproar; but where was 
+Hugh?  Who among them had seen him, since the forcing of the doors?  
+The cry spread through the body.  Where was Hugh!
+
+'Here!' he hoarsely cried, appearing from the darkness; out of 
+breath, and blackened with the smoke.  'We have done all we can; 
+the fire is burning itself out; and even the corners where it 
+hasn't spread, are nothing but heaps of ruins.  Disperse, my lads, 
+while the coast's clear; get back by different ways; and meet as 
+usual!'  With that, he disappeared again,--contrary to his wont, 
+for he was always first to advance, and last to go away,--leaving 
+them to follow homewards as they would.
+
+It was not an easy task to draw off such a throng.  If Bedlam gates 
+had been flung wide open, there would not have issued forth such 
+maniacs as the frenzy of that night had made.  There were men 
+there, who danced and trampled on the beds of flowers as though 
+they trod down human enemies, and wrenched them from the stalks, 
+like savages who twisted human necks.  There were men who cast 
+their lighted torches in the air, and suffered them to fall upon 
+their heads and faces, blistering the skin with deep unseemly 
+burns.  There were men who rushed up to the fire, and paddled in it 
+with their hands as if in water; and others who were restrained by 
+force from plunging in, to gratify their deadly longing.  On the 
+skull of one drunken lad--not twenty, by his looks--who lay upon 
+the ground with a bottle to his mouth, the lead from the roof came 
+streaming down in a shower of liquid fire, white hot; melting his 
+head like wax.  When the scattered parties were collected, men--
+living yet, but singed as with hot irons--were plucked out of the 
+cellars, and carried off upon the shoulders of others, who strove 
+to wake them as they went along, with ribald jokes, and left them, 
+dead, in the passages of hospitals.  But of all the howling throng 
+not one learnt mercy from, or sickened at, these sights; nor was 
+the fierce, besotted, senseless rage of one man glutted.
+
+Slowly, and in small clusters, with hoarse hurrahs and repetitions 
+of their usual cry, the assembly dropped away.  The last few red-
+eyed stragglers reeled after those who had gone before; the distant 
+noise of men calling to each other, and whistling for others whom 
+they missed, grew fainter and fainter; at length even these sounds 
+died away, and silence reigned alone.
+
+Silence indeed!  The glare of the flames had sunk into a fitful, 
+flashing light; and the gentle stars, invisible till now, looked 
+down upon the blackening heap.  A dull smoke hung upon the ruin, as 
+though to hide it from those eyes of Heaven; and the wind forbore 
+to move it.  Bare walls, roof open to the sky--chambers, where the 
+beloved dead had, many and many a fair day, risen to new life and 
+energy; where so many dear ones had been sad and merry; which were 
+connected with so many thoughts and hopes, regrets and changes--all 
+gone.  Nothing left but a dull and dreary blank--a smouldering heap 
+of dust and ashes--the silence and solitude of utter desolation.
+
+
+
+Chapter 56
+
+
+The Maypole cronies, little drearning of the change so soon to come 
+upon their favourite haunt, struck through the Forest path upon 
+their way to London; and avoiding the main road, which was hot and 
+dusty, kept to the by-paths and the fields.  As they drew nearer to 
+their destination, they began to make inquiries of the people whom 
+they passed, concerning the riots, and the truth or falsehood of 
+the stories they had heard.  The answers went far beyond any 
+intelligence that had spread to quiet Chigwell.  One man told them 
+that that afternoon the Guards, conveying to Newgate some rioters 
+who had been re-examined, had been set upon by the mob and 
+compelled to retreat; another, that the houses of two witnesses 
+near Clare Market were about to be pulled down when he came away; 
+another, that Sir George Saville's house in Leicester Fields was to 
+be burned that night, and that it would go hard with Sir George if 
+he fell into the people's hands, as it was he who had brought in 
+the Catholic bill.  All accounts agreed that the mob were out, in 
+stronger numbers and more numerous parties than had yet appeared; 
+that the streets were unsafe; that no man's house or life was worth 
+an hour's purchase; that the public consternation was increasing 
+every moment; and that many families had already fled the city.  
+One fellow who wore the popular colour, damned them for not having 
+cockades in their hats, and bade them set a good watch to-morrow 
+night upon their prison doors, for the locks would have a 
+straining; another asked if they were fire-proof, that they 
+walked abroad without the distinguishing mark of all good and true 
+men;--and a third who rode on horseback, and was quite alone, 
+ordered them to throw each man a shilling, in his hat, towards the 
+support of the rioters.  Although they were afraid to refuse 
+compliance with this demand, and were much alarmed by these 
+reports, they agreed, having come so far, to go forward, and see 
+the real state of things with their own eyes.  So they pushed on 
+quicker, as men do who are excited by portentous news; and 
+ruminating on what they had heard, spoke little to each other.
+
+It was now night, and as they came nearer to the city they had 
+dismal confirmation of this intelligence in three great fires, all 
+close together, which burnt fiercely and were gloomily reflected in 
+the sky.  Arriving in the immediate suburbs, they found that almost 
+every house had chalked upon its door in large characters 'No 
+Popery,' that the shops were shut, and that alarm and anxiety were 
+depicted in every face they passed.
+
+Noting these things with a degree of apprehension which neither of 
+the three cared to impart, in its full extent, to his companions, 
+they came to a turnpike-gate, which was shut.  They were passing 
+through the turnstile on the path, when a horseman rode up from 
+London at a hard gallop, and called to the toll-keeper in a voice 
+of great agitation, to open quickly in the name of God.
+
+The adjuration was so earnest and vehement, that the man, with a 
+lantern in his hand, came running out--toll-keeper though he was--
+and was about to throw the gate open, when happening to look behind 
+him, he exclaimed, 'Good Heaven, what's that!  Another fire!'
+
+At this, the three turned their heads, and saw in the distance--
+straight in the direction whence they had come--a broad sheet of 
+flame, casting a threatening light upon the clouds, which glimmered 
+as though the conflagration were behind them, and showed like a 
+wrathful sunset.
+
+'My mind misgives me,' said the horseman, 'or I know from what far 
+building those flames come.  Don't stand aghast, my good fellow.  
+Open the gate!'
+
+'Sir,' cried the man, laying his hand upon his horse's bridle as he 
+let him through: 'I know you now, sir; be advised by me; do not go 
+on.  I saw them pass, and know what kind of men they are.  You will 
+be murdered.'
+
+'So be it!' said the horseman, looking intently towards the fire, 
+and not at him who spoke.
+
+'But sir--sir,' cried the man, grasping at his rein more tightly 
+yet, 'if you do go on, wear the blue riband.  Here, sir,' he added, 
+taking one from his own hat, 'it's necessity, not choice, that 
+makes me wear it; it's love of life and home, sir.  Wear it for 
+this one night, sir; only for this one night.'
+
+'Do!' cried the three friends, pressing round his horse.  'Mr 
+Haredale--worthy sir--good gentleman--pray be persuaded.'
+
+'Who's that?' cried Mr Haredale, stooping down to look.  'Did I 
+hear Daisy's voice?'
+
+'You did, sir,' cried the little man.  'Do be persuaded, sir.  This 
+gentleman says very true.  Your life may hang upon it.'
+
+'Are you,' said Mr Haredale abruptly, 'afraid to come with me?'
+
+'I, sir?--N-n-no.'
+
+'Put that riband in your hat.  If we meet the rioters, swear that I 
+took you prisoner for wearing it.  I will tell them so with my own 
+lips; for as I hope for mercy when I die, I will take no quarter 
+from them, nor shall they have quarter from me, if we come hand to 
+hand to-night.  Up here--behind me--quick!  Clasp me tight round 
+the body, and fear nothing.'
+
+In an instant they were riding away, at full gallop, in a dense 
+cloud of dust, and speeding on, like hunters in a dream.
+
+It was well the good horse knew the road he traversed, for never 
+once--no, never once in all the journey--did Mr Haredale cast his 
+eyes upon the ground, or turn them, for an instant, from the light 
+towards which they sped so madly.  Once he said in a low voice, 'It 
+is my house,' but that was the only time he spoke.  When they came 
+to dark and doubtful places, he never forgot to put his hand upon 
+the little man to hold him more securely in his seat, but he kept 
+his head erect and his eyes fixed on the fire, then, and always.
+
+The road was dangerous enough, for they went the nearest way--
+headlong--far from the highway--by lonely lanes and paths, where 
+waggon-wheels had worn deep ruts; where hedge and ditch hemmed in 
+the narrow strip of ground; and tall trees, arching overhead, made 
+it profoundly dark.  But on, on, on, with neither stop nor stumble, 
+till they reached the Maypole door, and could plainly see that the 
+fire began to fade, as if for want of fuel.
+
+'Down--for one moment--for but one moment,' said Mr Haredale, 
+helping Daisy to the ground, and following himself.  'Willet--
+Willet--where are my niece and servants--Willet!'
+
+Crying to him distractedly, he rushed into the bar.--The landlord 
+bound and fastened to his chair; the place dismantled, stripped, 
+and pulled about his ears;--nobody could have taken shelter here.
+
+He was a strong man, accustomed to restrain himself, and suppress 
+his strong emotions; but this preparation for what was to follow--
+though he had seen that fire burning, and knew that his house must 
+be razed to the ground--was more than he could bear.  He covered 
+his face with his hands for a moment, and turned away his head.
+
+'Johnny, Johnny,' said Solomon--and the simple-hearted fellow 
+cried outright, and wrung his hands--'Oh dear old Johnny, here's a 
+change!  That the Maypole bar should come to this, and we should 
+live to see it!  The old Warren too, Johnny--Mr Haredale--oh, 
+Johnny, what a piteous sight this is!'
+
+Pointing to Mr Haredale as he said these words, little Solomon 
+Daisy put his elbows on the back of Mr Willet's chair, and fairly 
+blubbered on his shoulder.
+
+While Solomon was speaking, old John sat, mute as a stock-fish, 
+staring at him with an unearthly glare, and displaying, by every 
+possible symptom, entire and complete unconsciousness.  But when 
+Solomon was silent again, John followed,with his great round eyes, 
+the direction of his looks, and did appear to have some dawning 
+distant notion that somebody had come to see him.
+
+'You know us, don't you, Johnny?' said the little clerk, rapping 
+himself on the breast.  'Daisy, you know--Chigwell Church--bell-
+ringer--little desk on Sundays--eh, Johnny?'
+
+Mr Willet reflected for a few moments, and then muttered, as it 
+were mechanically: 'Let us sing to the praise and glory of--'
+
+'Yes, to be sure,' cried the little man, hastily; 'that's it--
+that's me, Johnny.  You're all right now, an't you?  Say you're all 
+right, Johnny.'
+
+'All right?' pondered Mr Willet, as if that were a matter entirely 
+between himself and his conscience.  'All right?  Ah!'
+
+'They haven't been misusing you with sticks, or pokers, or any 
+other blunt instruments--have they, Johnny?' asked Solomon, with a 
+very anxious glance at Mr Willet's head.  'They didn't beat you, 
+did they?'
+
+John knitted his brow; looked downwards, as if he were mentally 
+engaged in some arithmetical calculation; then upwards, as if the 
+total would not come at his call; then at Solomon Daisy, from his 
+eyebrow to his shoe-buckle; then very slowly round the bar.  And 
+then a great, round, leaden-looking, and not at all transparent 
+tear, came rolling out of each eye, and he said, as he shook his 
+head:
+
+'If they'd only had the goodness to murder me, I'd have thanked 'em 
+kindly.'
+
+'No, no, no, don't say that, Johnny,' whimpered his little friend.  
+'It's very, very bad, but not quite so bad as that.  No, no!'
+
+'Look'ee here, sir!' cried John, turning his rueful eyes on Mr 
+Haredale, who had dropped on one knee, and was hastily beginning to 
+untie his bonds.  'Look'ee here, sir!  The very Maypole--the old 
+dumb Maypole--stares in at the winder, as if it said, "John Willet, 
+John Willet, let's go and pitch ourselves in the nighest pool of 
+water as is deep enough to hold us; for our day is over!"'
+
+'Don't, Johnny, don't,' cried his friend: no less affected with 
+this mournful effort of Mr Willet's imagination, than by the 
+sepulchral tone in which he had spoken of the Maypole.  'Please 
+don't, Johnny!'
+
+'Your loss is great, and your misfortune a heavy one,' said Mr 
+Haredale, looking restlessly towards the door: 'and this is not a 
+time to comfort you.  If it were, I am in no condition to do so.  
+Before I leave you, tell me one thing, and try to tell me plainly, 
+I implore you.  Have you seen, or heard of Emma?'
+
+'No!' said Mr Willet.
+
+'Nor any one but these bloodhounds?'
+
+'No!'
+
+'They rode away, I trust in Heaven, before these dreadful scenes 
+began,' said Mr Haredale, who, between his agitation, his eagerness 
+to mount his horse again, and the dexterity with which the cords 
+were tied, had scarcely yet undone one knot.  'A knife, Daisy!'
+
+'You didn't,' said John, looking about, as though he had lost his 
+pocket-handkerchief, or some such slight article--'either of you 
+gentlemen--see a--a coffin anywheres, did you?'
+
+'Willet!' cried Mr Haredale.  Solomon dropped the knife, and 
+instantly becoming limp from head to foot, exclaimed 'Good 
+gracious!'
+
+'--Because,' said John, not at all regarding them, 'a dead man 
+called a little time ago, on his way yonder.  I could have told you 
+what name was on the plate, if he had brought his coffin with him, 
+and left it behind.  If he didn't, it don't signify.'
+
+His landlord, who had listened to these words with breathless 
+attention, started that moment to his feet; and, without a word, 
+drew Solomon Daisy to the door, mounted his horse, took him up 
+behind again, and flew rather than galloped towards the pile of 
+ruins, which that day's sun had shone upon, a stately house.  Mr 
+Willet stared after them, listened, looked down upon himself to 
+make quite sure that he was still unbound, and, without any 
+manifestation of impatience, disappointment, or surprise, gently 
+relapsed into the condition from which he had so imperfectly 
+recovered.
+
+Mr Haredale tied his horse to the trunk of a tree, and grasping his 
+companion's arm, stole softly along the footpath, and into what had 
+been the garden of his house.  He stopped for an instant to look 
+upon its smoking walls, and at the stars that shone through roof 
+and floor upon the heap of crumbling ashes.  Solomon glanced 
+timidly in his face, but his lips were tightly pressed together, a 
+resolute and stern expression sat upon his brow, and not a tear, a 
+look, or gesture indicating grief, escaped him.
+
+He drew his sword; felt for a moment in his breast, as though he 
+carried other arms about him; then grasping Solomon by the wrist 
+again, went with a cautious step all round the house.  He looked 
+into every doorway and gap in the wall; retraced his steps at every 
+rustling of the air among the leaves; and searched in every 
+shadowed nook with outstretched hands.  Thus they made the circuit 
+of the building: but they returned to the spot from which they had 
+set out, without encountering any human being, or finding the least 
+trace of any concealed straggler.
+
+After a short pause, Mr Haredale shouted twice or thrice.  Then 
+cried aloud, 'Is there any one in hiding here, who knows my voice!  
+There is nothing to fear now.  If any of my people are near, I 
+entreat them to answer!'  He called them all by name; his voice was 
+echoed in many mournful tones; then all was silent as before.
+
+They were standing near the foot of the turret, where the alarm-
+bell hung.  The fire had raged there, and the floors had been sawn, 
+and hewn, and beaten down, besides.  It was open to the night; but 
+a part of the staircase still remained, winding upward from a great 
+mound of dust and cinders.  Fragments of the jagged and broken 
+steps offered an insecure and giddy footing here and there, and 
+then were lost again, behind protruding angles of the wall, or in 
+the deep shadows cast upon it by other portions of the ruin; for by 
+this time the moon had risen, and shone brightly.
+
+As they stood here, listening to the echoes as they died away, and 
+hoping in vain to hear a voice they knew, some of the ashes in this 
+turret slipped and rolled down.  Startled by the least noise in 
+that melancholy place, Solomon looked up in his companion's face, 
+and saw that he had turned towards the spot, and that he watched 
+and listened keenly.
+
+He covered the little man's mouth with his hand, and looked again.  
+Instantly, with kindling eyes, he bade him on his life keep still, 
+and neither speak nor move.  Then holding his breath, and stooping 
+down, he stole into the turret, with his drawn sword in his hand, 
+and disappeared.
+
+Terrified to be left there by himself, under such desolate 
+circumstances, and after all he had seen and heard that night, 
+Solomon would have followed, but there had been something in Mr 
+Haredale's manner and his look, the recollection of which held him 
+spellbound.  He stood rooted to the spot; and scarcely venturing to 
+breathe, looked up with mingled fear and wonder.
+
+Again the ashes slipped and rolled--very, very softly--again--and 
+then again, as though they crumbled underneath the tread of a 
+stealthy foot.  And now a figure was dimly visible; climbing very 
+softly; and often stopping to look down; now it pursued its 
+difficult way; and now it was hidden from the view again.
+
+It emerged once more, into the shadowy and uncertain light--higher 
+now, but not much, for the way was steep and toilsome, and its 
+progress very slow.  What phantom of the brain did he pursue; and 
+why did he look down so constantly?  He knew he was alone.  Surely 
+his mind was not affected by that night's loss and agony.  He was 
+not about to throw himself headlong from the summit of the 
+tottering wall.  Solomon turned sick, and clasped his hands.  His 
+limbs trembled beneath him, and a cold sweat broke out upon his 
+pallid face.
+
+If he complied with Mr Haredale's last injunction now, it was 
+because he had not the power to speak or move.  He strained his 
+gaze, and fixed it on a patch of moonlight, into which, if he 
+continued to ascend, he must soon emerge.  When he appeared there, 
+he would try to call to him.
+
+Again the ashes slipped and crumbled; some stones rolled down, and 
+fell with a dull, heavy sound upon the ground below.  He kept his 
+eyes upon the piece of moonlight.  The figure was coming on, for 
+its shadow was already thrown upon the wall.  Now it appeared--and 
+now looked round at him--and now--
+
+The horror-stricken clerk uttered a scream that pierced the air, 
+and cried, 'The ghost!  The ghost!'
+
+Long before the echo of his cry had died away, another form rushed 
+out into the light, flung itself upon the foremost one, knelt down 
+upon its breast, and clutched its throat with both hands.
+
+'Villain!' cried Mr Haredale, in a terrible voice--for it was he.  
+'Dead and buried, as all men supposed through your infernal arts, 
+but reserved by Heaven for this--at last--at last I have you.  You, 
+whose hands are red with my brother's blood, and that of his 
+faithful servant, shed to conceal your own atrocious guilt--You, 
+Rudge, double murderer and monster, I arrest you in the name of 
+God, who has delivered you into my hands.  No.  Though you had the 
+strength of twenty men,' he added, as the murderer writhed and 
+struggled, you could not escape me or loosen my grasp to-night!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 57
+
+
+Barnaby, armed as we have seen, continued to pace up and down 
+before the stable-door; glad to be alone again, and heartily 
+rejoicing in the unaccustomed silence and tranquillity.  After the 
+whirl of noise and riot in which the last two days had been passed, 
+the pleasures of solitude and peace were enhanced a thousandfold.  
+He felt quite happy; and as he leaned upon his staff and mused, a 
+bright smile overspread his face, and none but cheerful visions 
+floated into his brain.
+
+Had he no thoughts of her, whose sole delight he was, and whom he 
+had unconsciously plunged in such bitter sorrow and such deep 
+affliction?  Oh, yes.  She was at the heart of all his cheerful 
+hopes and proud reflections.  It was she whom all this honour and 
+distinction were to gladden; the joy and profit were for her.  What 
+delight it gave her to hear of the bravery of her poor boy!  Ah!  
+He would have known that, without Hugh's telling him.  And what a 
+precious thing it was to know she lived so happily, and heard with 
+so much pride (he pictured to himself her look when they told her) 
+that he was in such high esteem: bold among the boldest, and 
+trusted before them all!  And when these frays were over, and the 
+good lord had conquered his enemies, and they were all at peace 
+again, and he and she were rich, what happiness they would have in 
+talking of these troubled times when he was a great soldier: and 
+when they sat alone together in the tranquil twilight, and she had 
+no longer reason to be anxious for the morrow, what pleasure would 
+he have in the reflection that this was his doing--his--poor 
+foolish Barnaby's; and in patting her on the cheek, and saying with 
+a merry laugh, 'Am I silly now, mother--am I silly now?'
+
+With a lighter heart and step, and eyes the brighter for the happy 
+tear that dimmed them for a moment, Barnaby resumed his walk; and 
+singing gaily to himself, kept guard upon his quiet post.
+
+His comrade Grip, the partner of his watch, though fond of basking 
+in the sunshine, preferred to-day to walk about the stable; having 
+a great deal to do in the way of scattering the straw, hiding under 
+it such small articles as had been casually left about, and 
+haunting Hugh's bed, to which he seemed to have taken a particular 
+attachment.  Sometimes Barnaby looked in and called him, and then 
+he came hopping out; but he merely did this as a concession to his 
+master's weakness, and soon returned again to his own grave 
+pursuits: peering into the straw with his bill, and rapidly 
+covering up the place, as if, Midas-like, he were whispering 
+secrets to the earth and burying them; constantly busying himself 
+upon the sly; and affecting, whenever Barnaby came past, to look up 
+in the clouds and have nothing whatever on his mind: in short, 
+conducting himself, in many respects, in a more than usually 
+thoughtful, deep, and mysterious manner.
+
+As the day crept on, Barnaby, who had no directions forbidding him 
+to eat and drink upon his post, but had been, on the contrary, 
+supplied with a bottle of beer and a basket of provisions, 
+determined to break his fast, which he had not done since morning.  
+To this end, he sat down on the ground before the door, and putting 
+his staff across his knees in case of alarm or surprise, summoned 
+Grip to dinner.
+
+This call, the bird obeyed with great alacrity; crying, as he 
+sidled up to his master, 'I'm a devil, I'm a Polly, I'm a kettle, 
+I'm a Protestant, No Popery!'  Having learnt this latter sentiment 
+from the gentry among whom he had lived of late, he delivered it 
+with uncommon emphasis.
+
+'Well said, Grip!' cried his master, as he fed him with the 
+daintiest bits.  'Well said, old boy!'
+
+'Never say die, bow wow wow, keep up your spirits, Grip Grip Grip, 
+Holloa!  We'll all have tea, I'm a Protestant kettle, No Popery!' 
+cried the raven.
+
+'Gordon for ever, Grip!' cried Barnaby.
+
+The raven, placing his head upon the ground, looked at his master 
+sideways, as though he would have said, 'Say that again!'  
+Perfectly understanding his desire, Barnaby repeated the phrase a 
+great many times.  The bird listened with profound attention; 
+sometimes repeating the popular cry in a low voice, as if to 
+compare the two, and try if it would at all help him to this new 
+accomplishment; sometimes flapping his wings, or barking; and 
+sometimes in a kind of desperation drawing a multitude of corks, 
+with extraordinary viciousness.
+
+Barnaby was so intent upon his favourite, that he was not at first 
+aware of the approach of two persons on horseback, who were riding 
+at a foot-pace, and coming straight towards his post.  When he 
+perceived them, however, which he did when they were within some 
+fifty yards of him, he jumped hastily up, and ordering Grip within 
+doors, stood with both hands on his staff, waiting until he should 
+know whether they were friends or foes.
+
+He had hardly done so, when he observed that those who advanced 
+were a gentleman and his servant; almost at the same moment he 
+recognised Lord George Gordon, before whom he stood uncovered, with 
+his eyes turned towards the ground.
+
+'Good day!' said Lord George, not reining in his horse until he was 
+close beside him.  'Well!'
+
+'All quiet, sir, all safe!' cried Barnaby.  'The rest are away--
+they went by that path--that one.  A grand party!'
+
+'Ay?' said Lord George, looking thoughtfully at him.  'And you?'
+
+'Oh!  They left me here to watch--to mount guard--to keep 
+everything secure till they come back.  I'll do it, sir, for your 
+sake.  You're a good gentleman; a kind gentleman--ay, you are.  
+There are many against you, but we'll be a match for them, never 
+fear!'
+
+'What's that?' said Lord George--pointing to the raven who was 
+peeping out of the stable-door--but still looking thoughtfully, and 
+in some perplexity, it seemed, at Barnaby.
+
+'Why, don't you know!' retorted Barnaby, with a wondering laugh.  
+'Not know what HE is!  A bird, to be sure.  My bird--my friend--
+Grip.'
+
+'A devil, a kettle, a Grip, a Polly, a Protestant, no Popery!' 
+cried the raven.
+
+'Though, indeed,' added Barnaby, laying his hand upon the neck of 
+Lord George's horse, and speaking softly: 'you had good reason to 
+ask me what he is, for sometimes it puzzles me--and I am used to 
+him--to think he's only a bird.  He's my brother, Grip is--always 
+with me--always talking--always merry--eh, Grip?'
+
+The raven answered by an affectionate croak, and hopping on his 
+master's arm, which he held downward for that purpose, submitted 
+with an air of perfect indifference to be fondled, and turned his 
+restless, curious eye, now upon Lord George, and now upon his man.
+
+Lord George, biting his nails in a discomfited manner, regarded 
+Barnaby for some time in silence; then beckoning to his servant, 
+said:
+
+'Come hither, John.'
+
+John Grueby touched his hat, and came.
+
+'Have you ever seen this young man before?' his master asked in a 
+low voice.
+
+'Twice, my lord,' said John.  'I saw him in the crowd last night 
+and Saturday.'
+
+'Did--did it seem to you that his manner was at all wild or 
+strange?' Lord George demanded, faltering.
+
+'Mad,' said John, with emphatic brevity.
+
+'And why do you think him mad, sir?' said his master, speaking in a 
+peevish tone.  'Don't use that word too freely.  Why do you think 
+him mad?'
+
+'My lord,' John Grueby answered, 'look at his dress, look at his 
+eyes, look at his restless way, hear him cry "No Popery!"  Mad, my 
+lord.'
+
+'So because one man dresses unlike another,' returned his angry 
+master, glancing at himself; 'and happens to differ from other men 
+in his carriage and manner, and to advocate a great cause which the 
+corrupt and irreligious desert, he is to be accounted mad, is he?'
+
+'Stark, staring, raving, roaring mad, my lord,' returned the 
+unmoved John.
+
+'Do you say this to my face?' cried his master, turning sharply 
+upon him.
+
+'To any man, my lord, who asks me,' answered John.
+
+'Mr Gashford, I find, was right,' said Lord George; 'I thought him 
+prejudiced, though I ought to have known a man like him better than 
+to have supposed it possible!'
+
+'I shall never have Mr Gashford's good word, my lord,' replied 
+John, touching his hat respectfully, 'and I don't covet it.'
+
+'You are an ill-conditioned, most ungrateful fellow,' said Lord 
+George: 'a spy, for anything I know.  Mr Gashford is perfectly 
+correct, as I might have felt convinced he was.  I have done wrong 
+to retain you in my service.  It is a tacit insult to him as my 
+choice and confidential friend to do so, remembering the cause you 
+sided with, on the day he was maligned at Westminster.  You will 
+leave me to-night--nay, as soon as we reach home.  The sooner the 
+better.'
+
+'If it comes to that, I say so too, my lord.  Let Mr Gashford have 
+his will.  As to my being a spy, my lord, you know me better than 
+to believe it, I am sure.  I don't know much about causes.  My 
+cause is the cause of one man against two hundred; and I hope it 
+always will be.'
+
+'You have said quite enough,' returned Lord George, motioning him 
+to go back.  'I desire to hear no more.'
+
+'If you'll let me have another word, my lord,' returned John 
+Grueby, 'I'd give this silly fellow a caution not to stay here by 
+himself.  The proclamation is in a good many hands already, and 
+it's well known that he was concerned in the business it relates 
+to.  He had better get to a place of safety if he can, poor 
+creature.'
+
+'You hear what this man says?' cried Lord George, addressing 
+Barnaby, who had looked on and wondered while this dialogue passed.  
+'He thinks you may be afraid to remain upon your post, and are kept 
+here perhaps against your will.  What do you say?'
+
+'I think, young man,' said John, in explanation, 'that the soldiers 
+may turn out and take you; and that if they do, you will certainly 
+be hung by the neck till you're dead--dead--dead.  And I think you 
+had better go from here, as fast as you can.  That's what I think.'
+
+'He's a coward, Grip, a coward!' cried Barnaby, putting the raven 
+on the ground, and shouldering his staff.  'Let them come!  Gordon 
+for ever!  Let them come!'
+
+'Ay!' said Lord George, 'let them!  Let us see who will venture to 
+attack a power like ours; the solemn league of a whole people.  
+THIS a madman!  You have said well, very well.  I am proud to be 
+the leader of such men as you.'
+
+Bamaby's heart swelled within his bosom as he heard these words.  
+He took Lord George's hand and carried it to his lips; patted his 
+horse's crest, as if the affection and admiration he had conceived 
+for the man extended to the animal he rode; then unfurling his 
+flag, and proudly waving it, resumed his pacing up and down.
+
+Lord George, with a kindling eye and glowing cheek, took off his 
+hat, and flourishing it above his head, bade him exultingly 
+Farewell!--then cantered off at a brisk pace; after glancing 
+angrily round to see that his servant followed.  Honest John set 
+spurs to his horse and rode after his master, but not before he had 
+again warned Barnaby to retreat, with many significant gestures, 
+which indeed he continued to make, and Barnaby to resist, until the 
+windings of the road concealed them from each other's view.
+
+Left to himself again with a still higher sense of the importance 
+of his post, and stimulated to enthusiasm by the special notice and 
+encouragement of his leader, Barnaby walked to and fro in a 
+delicious trance rather than as a waking man.  The sunshine which 
+prevailed around was in his mind.  He had but one desire 
+ungratified.  If she could only see him now!
+
+The day wore on; its heat was gently giving place to the cool of 
+evening; a light wind sprung up, fanning his long hair, and making 
+the banner rustle pleasantly above his head.  There was a freedom 
+and freshness in the sound and in the time, which chimed exactly 
+with his mood.  He was happier than ever.
+
+He was leaning on his staff looking towards the declining sun, and 
+reflecting with a smile that he stood sentinel at that moment over 
+buried gold, when two or three figures appeared in the distance, 
+making towards the house at a rapid pace, and motioning with their 
+hands as though they urged its inmates to retreat from some 
+approaching danger.  As they drew nearer, they became more earnest 
+in their gestures; and they were no sooner within hearing, than the 
+foremost among them cried that the soldiers were coming up.
+
+At these words, Barnaby furled his flag, and tied it round the 
+pole.  His heart beat high while he did so, but he had no more fear 
+or thought of retreating than the pole itself.  The friendly 
+stragglers hurried past him, after giving him notice of his danger, 
+and quickly passed into the house, where the utmost confusion 
+immediately prevailed.  As those within hastily closed the windows 
+and the doors, they urged him by looks and signs to fly without 
+loss of time, and called to him many times to do so; but he only 
+shook his head indignantly in answer, and stood the firmer on his 
+post.  Finding that he was not to be persuaded, they took care of 
+themselves; and leaving the place with only one old woman in it, 
+speedily withdrew.
+
+As yet there had been no symptom of the news having any better 
+foundation than in the fears of those who brought it, but The Boot 
+had not been deserted five minutes, when there appeared, coming 
+across the fields, a body of men who, it was easy to see, by the 
+glitter of their arms and ornaments in the sun, and by their 
+orderly and regular mode of advancing--for they came on as one 
+man--were soldiers.  In a very little time, Barnaby knew that they 
+were a strong detachment of the Foot Guards, having along with them 
+two gentlemen in private clothes, and a small party of Horse; the 
+latter brought up the rear, and were not in number more than six or 
+eight.
+
+They advanced steadily; neither quickening their pace as they came 
+nearer, nor raising any cry, nor showing the least emotion or 
+anxiety.  Though this was a matter of course in the case of regular 
+troops, even to Barnaby, there was something particularly 
+impressive and disconcerting in it to one accustomed to the noise 
+and tumult of an undisciplined mob.  For all that, he stood his 
+ground not a whit the less resolutely, and looked on undismayed.
+
+Presently, they marched into the yard, and halted.  The 
+commanding-officer despatched a messenger to the horsemen, one of 
+whom came riding back.  Some words passed between them, and they 
+glanced at Barnaby; who well remembered the man he had unhorsed at 
+Westminster, and saw him now before his eyes.  The man being 
+speedily dismissed, saluted, and rode back to his comrades, who 
+were drawn up apart at a short distance.
+
+The officer then gave the word to prime and load.  The heavy 
+ringing of the musket-stocks upon the ground, and the sharp and 
+rapid rattling of the ramrods in their barrels, were a kind of 
+relief to Batnahy, deadly though he knew the purport of such sounds 
+to be.  When this was done, other commands were given, and the 
+soldiers instantaneously formed in single file all round the house 
+and stables; completely encircling them in every part, at a 
+distance, perhaps, of some half-dozen yards; at least that seemed 
+in Barnaby's eyes to be about the space left between himself and 
+those who confronted him.  The horsemen remained drawn up by 
+themselves as before.
+
+The two gentlemen in private clothes who had kept aloof, now rode 
+forward, one on either side the officer.  The proclamation having 
+been produced and read by one of them, the officer called on 
+Barnaby to surrender.
+
+He made no answer, but stepping within the door, before which he 
+had kept guard, held his pole crosswise to protect it.  In the 
+midst of a profound silence, he was again called upon to yield.
+
+Still he offered no reply.  Indeed he had enough to do, to run his 
+eye backward and forward along the half-dozen men who immediately 
+fronted him, and settle hurriedly within himself at which of them 
+he would strike first, when they pressed on him.  He caught the eye 
+of one in the centre, and resolved to hew that fellow down, though 
+he died for it.
+
+Again there was a dead silence, and again the same voice called 
+upon him to deliver himself up.
+
+Next moment he was back in the stable, dealing blows about him like 
+a madman.  Two of the men lay stretched at his feet: the one he 
+had marked, dropped first--he had a thought for that, even in the 
+hot blood and hurry of the struggle.  Another blow--another!  Down, 
+mastered, wounded in the breast by a heavy blow from the butt-end 
+of a gun (he saw the weapon in the act of falling)--breathless--and 
+a prisoner.
+
+An exclamation of surprise from the officer recalled him, in some 
+degree, to himself.  He looked round.  Grip, after working in 
+secret all the afternoon, and with redoubled vigour while 
+everybody's attention was distracted, had plucked away the straw 
+from Hugh's bed, and turned up the loose ground with his iron bill.  
+The hole had been recklessly filled to the brim, and was merely 
+sprinkled with earth.  Golden cups, spoons, candlesticks, coined 
+guineas--all the riches were revealed.
+
+They brought spades and a sack; dug up everything that was hidden 
+there; and carried away more than two men could lift.  They 
+handcuffed him and bound his arms, searched him, and took away all 
+he had.  Nobody questioned or reproached him, or seemed to have 
+much curiosity about him.  The two men he had stunned, were carried 
+off by their companions in the same business-like way in which 
+everything else was done.  Finally, he was left under a guard of 
+four soldiers with fixed bayonets, while the officer directed in 
+person the search of the house and the other buildings connected 
+with it.
+
+This was soon completed.  The soldiers formed again in the yard; he 
+was marched out, with his guard about him; and ordered to fall in, 
+where a space was left.  The others closed up all round, and so 
+they moved away, with the prisoner in the centre.
+
+When they came into the streets, he felt he was a sight; and 
+looking up as they passed quickly along, could see people running 
+to the windows a little too late, and throwing up the sashes to 
+look after him.  Sometimes he met a staring face beyond the heads 
+about him, or under the arms of his conductors, or peering down 
+upon him from a waggon-top or coach-box; but this was all he saw, 
+being surrounded by so many men.  The very noises of the streets 
+seemed muffled and subdued; and the air came stale and hot upon 
+him, like the sickly breath of an oven.
+
+Tramp, tramp.  Tramp, tramp.  Heads erect, shoulders square, every 
+man stepping in exact time--all so orderly and regular--nobody 
+looking at him--nobody seeming conscious of his presence,--he could 
+hardly believe he was a Prisoner.  But at the word, though only 
+thought, not spoken, he felt the handcuffs galling his wrists, the 
+cord pressing his arms to his sides: the loaded guns levelled at 
+his head; and those cold, bright, sharp, shining points turned 
+towards him: the mere looking down at which, now that he was bound 
+and helpless, made the warm current of his life run cold.
+
+
+
+Chapter 58
+
+
+They were not long in reaching the barracks, for the officer who 
+commanded the party was desirous to avoid rousing the people by the 
+display of military force in the streets, and was humanely anxious 
+to give as little opportunity as possible for any attempt at 
+rescue; knowing that it must lead to bloodshed and loss of life, 
+and that if the civil authorities by whom he was accompanied, 
+empowered him to order his men to fire, many innocent persons would 
+probably fall, whom curiosity or idleness had attracted to the 
+spot.  He therefore led the party briskly on, avoiding with a 
+merciful prudence the more public and crowded thoroughfares, and 
+pursuing those which he deemed least likely to be infested by 
+disorderly persons.  This wise proceeding not only enabled them to 
+gain their quarters without any interruption, but completely 
+baffled a body of rioters who had assembled in one of the main 
+streets, through which it was considered certain they would pass, 
+and who remained gathered together for the purpose of releasing the 
+prisoner from their hands, long after they had deposited him in a 
+place of security, closed the barrack-gates, and set a double guard 
+at every entrance for its better protection.
+
+Arrived at this place, poor Barnaby was marched into a stone-
+floored room, where there was a very powerful smell of tobacco, a 
+strong thorough draught of air, and a great wooden bedstead, large 
+enough for a score of men.  Several soldiers in undress were 
+lounging about, or eating from tin cans; military accoutrements 
+dangled on rows of pegs along the whitewashed wall; and some half-
+dozen men lay fast asleep upon their backs, snoring in concert.  
+After remaining here just long enough to note these things, he was 
+marched out again, and conveyed across the parade-ground to another 
+portion of the building.
+
+Perhaps a man never sees so much at a glance as when he is in a 
+situation of extremity.  The chances are a hundred to one, that if 
+Barnaby had lounged in at the gate to look about him, he would have 
+lounged out again with a very imperfect idea of the place, and 
+would have remembered very little about it.  But as he was taken 
+handcuffed across the gravelled area, nothing escaped his notice.  
+The dry, arid look of the dusty square, and of the bare brick 
+building; the clothes hanging at some of the windows; and the men 
+in their shirt-sleeves and braces, lolling with half their bodies 
+out of the others; the green sun-blinds at the officers' quarters, 
+and the little scanty trees in front; the drummer-boys practising 
+in a distant courtyard; the men at drill on the parade; the two 
+soldiers carrying a basket between them, who winked to each other 
+as he went by, and slily pointed to their throats; the spruce 
+serjeant who hurried past with a cane in his hand, and under his 
+arm a clasped book with a vellum cover; the fellows in the ground-
+floor rooms, furbishing and brushing up their different articles of 
+dress, who stopped to look at him, and whose voices as they spoke 
+together echoed loudly through the empty galleries and passages;--
+everything, down to the stand of muskets before the guard-house, 
+and the drum with a pipe-clayed belt attached, in one corner, 
+impressed itself upon his observation, as though he had noticed 
+them in the same place a hundred times, or had been a whole day 
+among them, in place of one brief hurried minute.
+
+He was taken into a small paved back yard, and there they opened a 
+great door, plated with iron, and pierced some five feet above the 
+ground with a few holes to let in air and light.  Into this dungeon 
+he was walked straightway; and having locked him up there, and 
+placed a sentry over him, they left him to his meditations.
+
+The cell, or black hole, for it had those words painted on the 
+door, was very dark, and having recently accommodated a drunken 
+deserter, by no means clean.  Barnaby felt his way to some straw at 
+the farther end, and looking towards the door, tried to accustom 
+himself to the gloom, which, coming from the bright sunshine out of 
+doors, was not an easy task.
+
+There was a kind of portico or colonnade outside, and this 
+obstructed even the little light that at the best could have found 
+its way through the small apertures in the door.  The footsteps of 
+the sentinel echoed monotonously as he paced its stone pavement to 
+and fro (reminding Barnaby of the watch he had so lately kept 
+himself); and as he passed and repassed the door, he made the cell 
+for an instant so black by the interposition of his body, that his 
+going away again seemed like the appearance of a new ray of light, 
+and was quite a circumstance to look for.
+
+When the prisoner had sat sometime upon the ground, gazing at the 
+chinks, and listening to the advancing and receding footsteps of 
+his guard, the man stood still upon his post.  Barnaby, quite 
+unable to think, or to speculate on what would be done with him, 
+had been lulled into a kind of doze by his regular pace; but his 
+stopping roused him; and then he became aware that two men were in 
+conversation under the colonnade, and very near the door of his 
+cell.
+
+How long they had been talking there, he could not tell, for he had 
+fallen into an unconsciousness of his real position, and when the 
+footsteps ceased, was answering aloud some question which seemed to 
+have been put to him by Hugh in the stable, though of the fancied 
+purport, either of question or reply, notwithstanding that he awoke 
+with the latter on his lips, he had no recollection whatever.  The 
+first words that reached his ears, were these:
+
+'Why is he brought here then, if he has to be taken away again so 
+soon?'
+
+'Why where would you have him go!  Damme, he's not as safe anywhere 
+as among the king's troops, is he?  What WOULD you do with him?  
+Would you hand him over to a pack of cowardly civilians, that shake 
+in their shoes till they wear the soles out, with trembling at the 
+threats of the ragamuffins he belongs to?'
+
+'That's true enough.'
+
+'True enough!--I'll tell you what.  I wish, Tom Green, that I was a 
+commissioned instead of a non-commissioned officer, and that I had 
+the command of two companies--only two companies--of my own 
+regiment.  Call me out to stop these riots--give me the needful 
+authority, and half-a-dozen rounds of ball cartridge--'
+
+'Ay!' said the other voice.  'That's all very well, but they won't 
+give the needful authority.  If the magistrate won't give the 
+word, what's the officer to do?'
+
+Not very well knowing, as it seemed, how to overcome this 
+difficulty, the other man contented himself with damning the 
+magistrates.
+
+'With all my heart,' said his friend.
+
+'Where's the use of a magistrate?' returned the other voice.  
+'What's a magistrate in this case, but an impertinent, unnecessary, 
+unconstitutional sort of interference?  Here's a proclamation.  
+Here's a man referred to in that proclamation.  Here's proof 
+against him, and a witness on the spot.  Damme!  Take him out and 
+shoot him, sir.  Who wants a magistrate?'
+
+'When does he go before Sir John Fielding?' asked the man who had 
+spoken first.
+
+'To-night at eight o'clock,' returned the other.  'Mark what 
+follows.  The magistrate commits him to Newgate.  Our people take 
+him to Newgate.  The rioters pelt our people.  Our people retire 
+before the rioters.  Stones are thrown, insults are offered, not a 
+shot's fired.  Why?  Because of the magistrates.  Damn the 
+magistrates!'
+
+When he had in some degree relieved his mind by cursing the 
+magistrates in various other forms of speech, the man was silent, 
+save for a low growling, still having reference to those 
+authorities, which from time to time escaped him.
+
+Barnaby, who had wit enough to know that this conversation 
+concerned, and very nearly concerned, himself, remained perfectly 
+quiet until they ceased to speak, when he groped his way to the 
+door, and peeping through the air-holes, tried to make out what 
+kind of men they were, to whom he had been listening.
+
+The one who condemned the civil power in such strong terms, was a 
+serjeant--engaged just then, as the streaming ribands in his cap 
+announced, on the recruiting service.  He stood leaning sideways 
+against a pillar nearly opposite the door, and as he growled to 
+himself, drew figures on the pavement with his cane.  The other 
+man had his back towards the dungeon, and Barnaby could only see 
+his form.  To judge from that, he was a gallant, manly, handsome 
+fellow, but he had lost his left arm.  It had been taken off 
+between the elbow and the shoulder, and his empty coat-sleeve hung 
+across his breast.
+
+It was probably this circumstance which gave him an interest beyond 
+any that his companion could boast of, and attracted Barnaby's 
+attention.  There was something soldierly in his bearing, and he 
+wore a jaunty cap and jacket.  Perhaps he had been in the service 
+at one time or other.  If he had, it could not have been very long 
+ago, for he was but a young fellow now.
+
+'Well, well,' he said thoughtfully; 'let the fault be where it may, 
+it makes a man sorrowful to come back to old England, and see her 
+in this condition.'
+
+'I suppose the pigs will join 'em next,' said the serjeant, with an 
+imprecation on the rioters, 'now that the birds have set 'em the 
+example.'
+
+'The birds!' repeated Tom Green.
+
+'Ah--birds,' said the serjeant testily; 'that's English, an't it?'
+
+'I don't know what you mean.'
+
+'Go to the guard-house, and see.  You'll find a bird there, that's 
+got their cry as pat as any of 'em, and bawls "No Popery," like a 
+man--or like a devil, as he says he is.  I shouldn't wonder.  The 
+devil's loose in London somewhere.  Damme if I wouldn't twist his 
+neck round, on the chance, if I had MY way.'
+
+The young man had taken two or three steps away, as if to go and 
+see this creature, when he was arrested by the voice of Barnaby.
+
+'It's mine,' he called out, half laughing and half weeping--'my 
+pet, my friend Grip.  Ha ha ha!  Don't hurt him, he has done no 
+harm.  I taught him; it's my fault.  Let me have him, if you 
+please.  He's the only friend I have left now.  He'll not dance, or 
+talk, or whistle for you, I know; but he will for me, because he 
+knows me and loves me--though you wouldn't think it--very well.  
+You wouldn't hurt a bird, I'm sure.  You're a brave soldier, sir, 
+and wouldn't harm a woman or a child--no, no, nor a poor bird, I'm 
+certain.'
+
+This latter adjuration was addressed to the serjeant, whom Barnaby 
+judged from his red coat to be high in office, and able to seal 
+Grip's destiny by a word.  But that gentleman, in reply, surlily 
+damned him for a thief and rebel as he was, and with many 
+disinterested imprecations on his own eyes, liver, blood, and body, 
+assured him that if it rested with him to decide, he would put a 
+final stopper on the bird, and his master too.
+
+'You talk boldly to a caged man,' said Barnaby, in anger.  'If I 
+was on the other side of the door and there were none to part us, 
+you'd change your note--ay, you may toss your head--you would!  
+Kill the bird--do.  Kill anything you can, and so revenge yourself 
+on those who with their bare hands untied could do as much to you!'
+
+Having vented his defiance, he flung himself into the furthest 
+corner of his prison, and muttering, 'Good bye, Grip--good bye, 
+dear old Grip!' shed tears for the first time since he had been 
+taken captive; and hid his face in the straw.
+
+He had had some fancy at first, that the one-armed man would help 
+him, or would give him a kind word in answer.  He hardly knew why, 
+but he hoped and thought so.  The young fellow had stopped when he 
+called out, and checking himself in the very act of turning round, 
+stood listening to every word he said.  Perhaps he built his feeble 
+trust on this; perhaps on his being young, and having a frank and 
+honest manner.  However that might be, he built on sand.  The other 
+went away directly he had finished speaking, and neither answered 
+him, nor returned.  No matter.  They were all against him here: he 
+might have known as much.  Good bye, old Grip, good bye!
+
+After some time, they came and unlocked the door, and called to him 
+to come out.  He rose directly, and complied, for he would not have 
+THEM think he was subdued or frightened.  He walked out like a man, 
+and looked from face to face.
+
+None of them returned his gaze or seemed to notice it.  They 
+marched him back to the parade by the way they had brought him, and 
+there they halted, among a body of soldiers, at least twice as 
+numerous as that which had taken him prisoner in the afternoon.  
+The officer he had seen before, bade him in a few brief words take 
+notice that if he attempted to escape, no matter how favourable a 
+chance he might suppose he had, certain of the men had orders to 
+fire upon him, that moment.  They then closed round him as before, 
+and marched him off again.
+
+In the same unbroken order they arrived at Bow Street, followed and 
+beset on all sides by a crowd which was continually increasing.  
+Here he was placed before a blind gentleman, and asked if he wished 
+to say anything.  Not he.  What had he got to tell them?  After a 
+very little talking, which he was careless of and quite indifferent 
+to, they told him he was to go to Newgate, and took him away.
+
+He went out into the street, so surrounded and hemmed in on every 
+side by soldiers, that he could see nothing; but he knew there was 
+a great crowd of people, by the murmur; and that they were not 
+friendly to the soldiers, was soon rendered evident by their yells 
+and hisses.  How often and how eagerly he listened for the voice of 
+Hugh!  There was not a voice he knew among them all.  Was Hugh a 
+prisoner too?  Was there no hope!
+
+As they came nearer and nearer to the prison, the hootings of the 
+people grew more violent; stones were thrown; and every now and 
+then, a rush was made against the soldiers, which they staggered 
+under.  One of them, close before him, smarting under a blow upon 
+the temple, levelled his musket, but the officer struck it upwards 
+with his sword, and ordered him on peril of his life to desist.  
+This was the last thing he saw with any distinctness, for directly 
+afterwards he was tossed about, and beaten to and fro, as though in 
+a tempestuous sea.  But go where he would, there were the same 
+guards about him.  Twice or thrice he was thrown down, and so were 
+they; but even then, he could not elude their vigilance for a 
+moment.  They were up again, and had closed about him, before he, 
+with his wrists so tightly bound, could scramble to his feet.  
+Fenced in, thus, he felt himself hoisted to the top of a low flight 
+of steps, and then for a moment he caught a glimpse of the fighting 
+in the crowd, and of a few red coats sprinkled together, here and 
+there, struggling to rejoin their fellows.  Next moment, everything 
+was dark and gloomy, and he was standing in the prison lobby; the 
+centre of a group of men.
+
+A smith was speedily in attendance, who riveted upon him a set of 
+heavy irons.  Stumbling on as well as he could, beneath the unusual 
+burden of these fetters, he was conducted to a strong stone cell, 
+where, fastening the door with locks, and bolts, and chains, they 
+left him, well secured; having first, unseen by him, thrust in 
+Grip, who, with his head drooping and his deep black plumes rough 
+and rumpled, appeared to comprehend and to partake, his master's 
+fallen fortunes.
+
+
+
+Chapter 59
+
+
+It is necessary at this juncture to return to Hugh, who, having, as 
+we have seen, called to the rioters to disperse from about the 
+Warren, and meet again as usual, glided back into the darkness from 
+which he had emerged, and reappeared no more that night.
+
+He paused in the copse which sheltered him from the observation of 
+his mad companions, and waited to ascertain whether they drew off 
+at his bidding, or still lingered and called to him to join them.  
+Some few, he saw, were indisposed to go away without him, and made 
+towards the spot where he stood concealed as though they were about 
+to follow in his footsteps, and urge him to come back; but these 
+men, being in their turn called to by their friends, and in truth 
+not greatly caring to venture into the dark parts of the grounds, 
+where they might be easily surprised and taken, if any of the 
+neighbours or retainers of the family were watching them from among 
+the trees, soon abandoned the idea, and hastily assembling such men 
+as they found of their mind at the moment, straggled off.
+
+When he was satisfied that the great mass of the insurgents were 
+imitating this example, and that the ground was rapidly clearing, 
+he plunged into the thickest portion of the little wood; and, 
+crashing the branches as he went, made straight towards a distant 
+light: guided by that, and by the sullen glow of the fire behind 
+him.
+
+As he drew nearer and nearer to the twinkling beacon towards which 
+he bent his course, the red glare of a few torches began to reveal 
+itself, and the voices of men speaking together in a subdued tone 
+broke the silence which, save for a distant shouting now and then, 
+already prevailed.  At length he cleared the wood, and, springing 
+across a ditch, stood in a dark lane, where a small body of ill-
+looking vagabonds, whom he had left there some twenty minutes 
+before, waited his coming with impatience.
+
+They were gathered round an old post-chaise or chariot, driven by 
+one of themselves, who sat postilion-wise upon the near horse.  The 
+blinds were drawn up, and Mr Tappertit and Dennis kept guard at the 
+two windows.  The former assumed the command of the party, for he 
+challenged Hugh as he advanced towards them; and when he did so, 
+those who were resting on the ground about the carriage rose to 
+their feet and clustered round him.
+
+'Well!' said Simon, in a low voice; 'is all right?'
+
+'Right enough,' replied Hugh, in the same tone.  'They're 
+dispersing now--had begun before I came away.'
+
+'And is the coast clear?'
+
+'Clear enough before our men, I take it,' said Hugh.  'There are 
+not many who, knowing of their work over yonder, will want to 
+meddle with 'em to-night.--Who's got some drink here?'
+
+Everybody had some plunder from the cellar; half-a-dozen flasks and 
+bottles were offered directly.  He selected the largest, and 
+putting it to his mouth, sent the wine gurgling down his throat.  
+Having emptied it, he threw it down, and stretched out his hand for 
+another, which he emptied likewise, at a draught.  Another was 
+given him, and this he half emptied too.  Reserving what remained 
+to finish with, he asked:
+
+'Have you got anything to eat, any of you?  I'm as ravenous as a 
+hungry wolf.  Which of you was in the larder--come?'
+
+'I was, brother,' said Dennis, pulling off his hat, and fumbling in 
+the crown.  'There's a matter of cold venison pasty somewhere or 
+another here, if that'll do.'
+
+'Do!' cried Hugh, seating himself on the pathway.  'Bring it out! 
+Quick!  Show a light here, and gather round!  Let me sup in state, 
+my lads!  Ha ha ha!'
+
+Entering into his boisterous humour, for they all had drunk deeply, 
+and were as wild as he, they crowded about him, while two of their 
+number who had torches, held them up, one on either side of him, 
+that his banquet might not be despatched in the dark.  Mr Dennis, 
+having by this time succeeded in extricating from his hat a great 
+mass of pasty, which had been wedged in so tightly that it was not 
+easily got out, put it before him; and Hugh, having borrowed a 
+notched and jagged knife from one of the company, fell to work upon 
+it vigorously.
+
+'I should recommend you to swallow a little fire every day, about 
+an hour afore dinner, brother,' said Dennis, after a pause.  'It 
+seems to agree with you, and to stimulate your appetite.'
+
+Hugh looked at him, and at the blackened faces by which he was 
+surrounded, and, stopping for a moment to flourish his knife above 
+his head, answered with a roar of laughter.
+
+'Keep order, there, will you?' said Simon Tappertit.
+
+'Why, isn't a man allowed to regale himself, noble captain,' 
+retorted his lieutenant, parting the men who stood between them, 
+with his knife, that he might see him,--'to regale himself a little 
+bit after such work as mine?  What a hard captain!  What a strict 
+captain!  What a tyrannical captain!  Ha ha ha!'
+
+'I wish one of you fellers would hold a bottle to his mouth to keep 
+him quiet,' said Simon, 'unless you want the military to be down 
+upon us.'
+
+'And what if they are down upon us!' retorted Hugh.  'Who cares?  
+Who's afraid?  Let 'em come, I say, let 'em come.  The more, the 
+merrier.  Give me bold Barnaby at my side, and we two will settle 
+the military, without troubling any of you.  Barnaby's the man for 
+the military.  Barnaby's health!'
+
+But as the majority of those present were by no means anxious for 
+a second engagement that night, being already weary and exhausted, 
+they sided with Mr Tappertit, and pressed him to make haste with 
+his supper, for they had already delayed too long.  Knowing, even 
+in the height of his frenzy, that they incurred great danger by 
+lingering so near the scene of the late outrages, Hugh made an end 
+of his meal without more remonstrance, and rising, stepped up to Mr 
+Tappertit, and smote him on the back.
+
+'Now then,' he cried, 'I'm ready.  There are brave birds inside 
+this cage, eh?  Delicate birds,--tender, loving, little doves.  I 
+caged 'em--I caged 'em--one more peep!'
+
+He thrust the little man aside as he spoke, and mounting on the 
+steps, which were half let down, pulled down the blind by force, 
+and stared into the chaise like an ogre into his larder.
+
+'Ha ha ha! and did you scratch, and pinch, and struggle, pretty 
+mistress?' he cried, as he grasped a little hand that sought in 
+vain to free itself from his grip: 'you, so bright-eyed, and 
+cherry-lipped, and daintily made?  But I love you better for it, 
+mistress.  Ay, I do.  You should stab me and welcome, so that it 
+pleased you, and you had to cure me afterwards.  I love to see you 
+proud and scornful.  It makes you handsomer than ever; and who so 
+handsome as you at any time, my pretty one!'
+
+'Come!' said Mr Tappertit, who had waited during this speech with 
+considerable impatience.  'There's enough of that.  Come down.'
+
+The little hand seconded this admonition by thrusting Hugh's great 
+head away with all its force, and drawing up the blind, amidst his 
+noisy laughter, and vows that he must have another look, for the 
+last glimpse of that sweet face had provoked him past all bearing.  
+However, as the suppressed impatience of the party now broke out 
+into open murmurs, he abandoned this design, and taking his seat 
+upon the bar, contented himself with tapping at the front windows 
+of the carriage, and trying to steal a glance inside; Mr Tappertit, 
+mounting the steps and hanging on by the door, issued his 
+directions to the driver with a commanding voice and attitude; the 
+rest got up behind, or ran by the side of the carriage, as they 
+could; some, in imitation of Hugh, endeavoured to see the face he 
+had praised so highly, and were reminded of their impertinence by 
+hints from the cudgel of Mr Tappertit.  Thus they pursued their 
+journey by circuitous and winding roads; preserving, except when 
+they halted to take breath, or to quarrel about the best way of 
+reaching London, pretty good order and tolerable silence.
+
+In the mean time, Dolly--beautiful, bewitching, captivating little 
+Dolly--her hair dishevelled, her dress torn, her dark eyelashes wet 
+with tears, her bosom heaving--her face, now pale with fear, now 
+crimsoned with indignation--her whole self a hundred times more 
+beautiful in this heightened aspect than ever she had been before--
+vainly strove to comfort Emma Haredale, and to impart to her the 
+consolation of which she stood in so much need herself.  The 
+soldiers were sure to come; they must be rescued; it would be 
+impossible to convey them through the streets of London when they 
+set the threats of their guards at defiance, and shrieked to the 
+passengers for help.  If they did this when they came into the more 
+frequented ways, she was certain--she was quite certain--they must 
+be released.  So poor Dolly said, and so poor Dolly tried to think; 
+but the invariable conclusion of all such arguments was, that Dolly 
+burst into tears; cried, as she wrung her hands, what would they do 
+or think, or who would comfort them, at home, at the Golden Key; 
+and sobbed most piteously.
+
+Miss Haredale, whose feelings were usually of a quieter kind than 
+Dolly's, and not so much upon the surface, was dreadfully 
+alarmed, and indeed had only just recovered from a swoon.  She was 
+very pale, and the hand which Dolly held was quite cold; but she 
+bade her, nevertheless, remember that, under Providence, much must 
+depend upon their own discretion; that if they remained quiet and 
+lulled the vigilance of the ruffians into whose hands they had 
+fallen, the chances of their being able to procure assistance when 
+they reached the town, were very much increased; that unless 
+society were quite unhinged, a hot pursuit must be immediately 
+commenced; and that her uncle, she might be sure, would never rest 
+until he had found them out and rescued them.  But as she said 
+these latter words, the idea that he had fallen in a general 
+massacre of the Catholics that night--no very wild or improbable 
+supposition after what they had seen and undergone--struck her 
+dumb; and, lost in the horrors they had witnessed, and those they 
+might be yet reserved for, she sat incapable of thought, or speech, 
+or outward show of grief: as rigid, and almost as white and cold, 
+as marble.
+
+Oh, how many, many times, in that long ride, did Dolly think of her 
+old lover,--poor, fond, slighted Joe!  How many, many times, did 
+she recall that night when she ran into his arms from the very man 
+now projecting his hateful gaze into the darkness where she sat, 
+and leering through the glass in monstrous admiration!  And when 
+she thought of Joe, and what a brave fellow he was, and how he 
+would have rode boldly up, and dashed in among these villains now, 
+yes, though they were double the number--and here she clenched her 
+little hand, and pressed her foot upon the ground--the pride she 
+felt for a moment in having won his heart, faded in a burst of 
+tears, and she sobbed more bitterly than ever.
+
+As the night wore on, and they proceeded by ways which were quite 
+unknown to them--for they could recognise none of the objects of 
+which they sometimes caught a hurried glimpse--their fears 
+increased; nor were they without good foundation; it was not 
+difficult for two beautiful young women to find, in their being 
+borne they knew not whither by a band of daring villains who eyed 
+them as some among these fellows did, reasons for the worst alarm.  
+When they at last entered London, by a suburb with which they were 
+wholly unacquainted, it was past midnight, and the streets were 
+dark and empty.  Nor was this the worst, for the carriage stopping 
+in a lonely spot, Hugh suddenly opened the door, jumped in, and 
+took his seat between them.
+
+It was in vain they cried for help.  He put his arm about the neck 
+of each, and swore to stifle them with kisses if they were not as 
+silent as the grave.
+
+'I come here to keep you quiet,' he said, 'and that's the means I 
+shall take.  So don't be quiet, pretty mistresses--make a noise--
+do--and I shall like it all the better.'
+
+They were proceeding at a rapid pace, and apparently with fewer 
+attendants than before, though it was so dark (the torches being 
+extinguished) that this was mere conjecture.  They shrunk from his 
+touch, each into the farthest corner of the carriage; but shrink as 
+Dolly would, his arm encircled her waist, and held her fast.  She 
+neither cried nor spoke, for terror and disgust deprived her of the 
+power; but she plucked at his hand as though she would die in the 
+effort to disengage herself; and crouching on the ground, with her 
+head averted and held down, repelled him with a strength she 
+wondered at as much as he.  The carriage stopped again.
+
+'Lift this one out,' said Hugh to the man who opened the door, as 
+he took Miss Haredale's hand, and felt how heavily it fell.  'She's 
+fainted.'
+
+'So much the better,' growled Dennis--it was that amiable 
+gentleman.  'She's quiet.  I always like 'em to faint, unless 
+they're very tender and composed.'
+
+'Can you take her by yourself?' asked Hugh.
+
+'I don't know till I try.  I ought to be able to; I've lifted up a 
+good many in my time,' said the hangman.  'Up then!  She's no small 
+weight, brother; none of these here fine gals are.  Up again!  Now 
+we have her.'
+
+Having by this time hoisted the young lady into his arms, he 
+staggered off with his burden.
+
+'Look ye, pretty bird,' said Hugh, drawing Dolly towards him.  
+'Remember what I told you--a kiss for every cry.  Scream, if you 
+love me, darling.  Scream once, mistress.  Pretty mistress, only 
+once, if you love me.'
+
+Thrusting his face away with all her force, and holding down her 
+head, Dolly submitted to be carried out of the chaise, and borne 
+after Miss Haredale into a miserable cottage, where Hugh, after 
+hugging her to his breast, set her gently down upon the floor.
+
+Poor Dolly!  Do what she would, she only looked the better for it, 
+and tempted them the more.  When her eyes flashed angrily, and her 
+ripe lips slightly parted, to give her rapid breathing vent, who 
+could resist it?  When she wept and sobbed as though her heart 
+would break, and bemoaned her miseries in the sweetest voice that 
+ever fell upon a listener's ear, who could be insensible to the 
+little winning pettishness which now and then displayed itself, 
+even in the sincerity and earnestness of her grief?  When, 
+forgetful for a moment of herself, as she was now, she fell on her 
+knees beside her friend, and bent over her, and laid her cheek to 
+hers, and put her arms about her, what mortal eyes could have 
+avoided wandering to the delicate bodice, the streaming hair, the 
+neglected dress, the perfect abandonment and unconsciousness of the 
+blooming little beauty?  Who could look on and see her lavish 
+caresses and endearments, and not desire to be in Emma Haredale's 
+place; to be either her or Dolly; either the hugging or the hugged?  
+Not Hugh.  Not Dennis.
+
+'I tell you what it is, young women,' said Mr Dennis, 'I an't much 
+of a lady's man myself, nor am I a party in the present business 
+further than lending a willing hand to my friends: but if I see 
+much more of this here sort of thing, I shall become a principal 
+instead of a accessory.  I tell you candid.'
+
+'Why have you brought us here?' said Emma.  'Are we to be 
+murdered?'
+
+'Murdered!' cried Dennis, sitting down upon a stool, and regarding 
+her with great favour.  'Why, my dear, who'd murder sich 
+chickabiddies as you?  If you was to ask me, now, whether you was 
+brought here to be married, there might be something in it.'
+
+And here he exchanged a grin with Hugh, who removed his eyes from 
+Dolly for the purpose.
+
+'No, no,' said Dennis, 'there'll be no murdering, my pets.  Nothing 
+of that sort.  Quite the contrairy.'
+
+'You are an older man than your companion, sir,' said Emma, 
+trembling.  'Have you no pity for us?  Do you not consider that we 
+are women?'
+
+'I do indeed, my dear,' retorted Dennis.  'It would be very hard 
+not to, with two such specimens afore my eyes.  Ha ha!  Oh yes , I 
+consider that.  We all consider that, miss.'
+
+He shook his head waggishly, leered at Hugh again, and laughed very 
+much, as if he had said a noble thing, and rather thought he was 
+coming out.
+
+'There'll be no murdering, my dear.  Not a bit on it.  I tell you 
+what though, brother,' said Dennis, cocking his hat for the 
+convenience of scratching his head, and looking gravely at Hugh, 
+'it's worthy of notice, as a proof of the amazing equalness and 
+dignity of our law, that it don't make no distinction between men 
+and women.  I've heerd the judge say, sometimes, to a highwayman or 
+housebreaker as had tied the ladies neck and heels--you'll excuse 
+me making mention of it, my darlings--and put 'em in a cellar, that 
+he showed no consideration to women.  Now, I say that there judge 
+didn't know his business, brother; and that if I had been that 
+there highwayman or housebreaker, I should have made answer: "What 
+are you a talking of, my lord?  I showed the women as much 
+consideration as the law does, and what more would you have me do?"  
+If you was to count up in the newspapers the number of females as 
+have been worked off in this here city alone, in the last ten 
+year,' said Mr Dennis thoughtfully, 'you'd be surprised at the 
+total--quite amazed, you would.  There's a dignified and equal 
+thing; a beautiful thing!  But we've no security for its lasting.  
+Now that they've begun to favour these here Papists, I shouldn't 
+wonder if they went and altered even THAT, one of these days.  Upon 
+my soul, I shouldn't.'
+
+The subject, perhaps from being of too exclusive and professional a 
+nature, failed to interest Hugh as much as his friend had 
+anticipated.  But he had no time to pursue it, for at this crisis 
+Mr Tappertit entered precipitately; at sight of whom Dolly uttered 
+a scream of joy, and fairly threw herself into his arms.
+
+'I knew it, I was sure of it!' cried Dolly.  'My dear father's at 
+the door.  Thank God, thank God!  Bless you, Sim.  Heaven bless you 
+for this!'
+
+Simon Tappertit, who had at first implicitly believed that the 
+locksmith's daughter, unable any longer to suppress her secret 
+passion for himself, was about to give it full vent in its 
+intensity, and to declare that she was his for ever, looked 
+extremely foolish when she said these words;--the more so, as they 
+were received by Hugh and Dennis with a loud laugh, which made her 
+draw back, and regard him with a fixed and earnest look.
+
+'Miss Haredale,' said Sim, after a very awkward silence, 'I hope 
+you're as comfortable as circumstances will permit of.  Dolly 
+Varden, my darling--my own, my lovely one--I hope YOU'RE pretty 
+comfortable likewise.'
+
+Poor little Dolly!  She saw how it was; hid her face in her hands; 
+and sobbed more bitterly than ever.
+
+'You meet in me, Miss V.,' said Simon, laying his hand upon his 
+breast, 'not a 'prentice, not a workman, not a slave, not the 
+wictim of your father's tyrannical behaviour, but the leader of a 
+great people, the captain of a noble band, in which these gentlemen 
+are, as I may say, corporals and serjeants.  You behold in me, not 
+a private individual, but a public character; not a mender of 
+locks, but a healer of the wounds of his unhappy country.  Dolly 
+V., sweet Dolly V., for how many years have I looked forward to 
+this present meeting!  For how many years has it been my intention 
+to exalt and ennoble you!  I redeem it.  Behold in me, your 
+husband.  Yes, beautiful Dolly--charmer--enslaver--S. Tappertit is 
+all your own!'
+
+As he said these words he advanced towards her.  Dolly retreated 
+till she could go no farther, and then sank down upon the floor.  
+Thinking it very possible that this might be maiden modesty, Simon 
+essayed to raise her; on which Dolly, goaded to desperation, wound 
+her hands in his hair, and crying out amidst her tears that he was 
+a dreadful little wretch, and always had been, shook, and pulled, 
+and beat him, until he was fain to call for help, most lustily.  
+Hugh had never admired her half so much as at that moment.
+
+'She's in an excited state to-night,' said Simon, as he smoothed 
+his rumpled feathers, 'and don't know when she's well off.  Let her 
+be by herself till to-morrow, and that'll bring her down a little.  
+Carry her into the next house!'
+
+Hugh had her in his arms directly.  It might be that Mr Tappertit's 
+heart was really softened by her distress, or it might be that he 
+felt it in some degree indecorous that his intended bride should be 
+struggling in the grasp of another man.  He commanded him, on 
+second thoughts, to put her down again, and looked moodily on as 
+she flew to Miss Haredale's side, and clinging to her dress, hid 
+her flushed face in its folds.
+
+'They shall remain here together till to-morrow,' said Simon, who 
+had now quite recovered his dignity--'till to-morrow.  Come away!'
+
+'Ay!' cried Hugh.  'Come away, captain.  Ha ha ha!'
+
+'What are you laughing at?' demanded Simon sternly.
+
+'Nothing, captain, nothing,' Hugh rejoined; and as he spoke, and 
+clapped his hand upon the shoulder of the little man, he laughed 
+again, for some unknown reason, with tenfold violence.
+
+Mr Tappertit surveyed him from head to foot with lofty scorn (this 
+only made him laugh the more), and turning to the prisoners, said:
+
+'You'll take notice, ladies, that this place is well watched on 
+every side, and that the least noise is certain to be attended with 
+unpleasant consequences.  You'll hear--both of you--more of our 
+intentions to-morrow.  In the mean time, don't show yourselves at 
+the window, or appeal to any of the people you may see pass it; for 
+if you do, it'll be known directly that you come from a Catholic 
+house, and all the exertions our men can make, may not be able to 
+save your lives.'
+
+With this last caution, which was true enough, he turned to the 
+door, followed by Hugh and Dennis.  They paused for a moment, going 
+out, to look at them clasped in each other's arms, and then left 
+the cottage; fastening the door, and setting a good watch upon it, 
+and indeed all round the house.
+
+'I say,' growled Dennis, as they walked away in company, 'that's a 
+dainty pair.  Muster Gashford's one is as handsome as the other, 
+eh?'
+
+'Hush!' said Hugh, hastily.  'Don't you mention names.  It's a bad 
+habit.'
+
+'I wouldn't like to be HIM, then (as you don't like names), when he 
+breaks it out to her; that's all,' said Dennis.  'She's one of them 
+fine, black-eyed, proud gals, as I wouldn't trust at such times 
+with a knife too near 'em.  I've seen some of that sort, afore now.  
+I recollect one that was worked off, many year ago--and there was a 
+gentleman in that case too--that says to me, with her lip a 
+trembling, but her hand as steady as ever I see one: "Dennis, I'm 
+near my end, but if I had a dagger in these fingers, and he was 
+within my reach, I'd strike him dead afore me;"--ah, she did--and 
+she'd have done it too!'
+
+Strike who dead?' demanded Hugh.
+
+'How should I know, brother?' answered Dennis.  'SHE never said; 
+not she.'
+
+Hugh looked, for a moment, as though he would have made some 
+further inquiry into this incoherent recollection; but Simon 
+Tappertit, who had been meditating deeply, gave his thoughts a new 
+direction.
+
+'Hugh!' said Sim.  'You have done well to-day.  You shall be 
+rewarded.  So have you, Dennis.--There's no young woman YOU want to 
+carry off, is there?'
+
+'N--no,' returned that gentleman, stroking his grizzly beard, which 
+was some two inches long.  'None in partickler, I think.'
+
+'Very good,' said Sim; 'then we'll find some other way of making it 
+up to you.  As to you, old boy'--he turned to Hugh--'you shall have 
+Miggs (her that I promised you, you know) within three days.  Mind.  
+I pass my word for it.'
+
+Hugh thanked him heartily; and as he did so, his laughing fit 
+returned with such violence that he was obliged to hold his side 
+with one hand, and to lean with the other on the shoulder of his 
+small captain, without whose support he would certainly have rolled 
+upon the ground.
+
+
+
+Chapter 60
+
+
+The three worthies turned their faces towards The Boot, with the 
+intention of passing the night in that place of rendezvous, and of 
+seeking the repose they so much needed in the shelter of their old 
+den; for now that the mischief and destruction they had purposed 
+were achieved, and their prisoners were safely bestowed for the 
+night, they began to be conscious of exhaustion, and to feel the 
+wasting effects of the madness which had led to such deplorable 
+results.
+
+Notwithstanding the lassitude and fatigue which oppressed him now, 
+in common with his two companions, and indeed with all who had 
+taken an active share in that night's work, Hugh's boisterous 
+merriment broke out afresh whenever he looked at Simon Tappertit, 
+and vented itself--much to that gentleman's indignation--in such 
+shouts of laughter as bade fair to bring the watch upon them, and 
+involve them in a skirmish, to which in their present worn-out 
+condition they might prove by no means equal.  Even Mr Dennis, who 
+was not at all particular on the score of gravity or dignity, and 
+who had a great relish for his young friend's eccentric humours, 
+took occasion to remonstrate with him on this imprudent behaviour, 
+which he held to be a species of suicide, tantamount to a man's 
+working himself off without being overtaken by the law, than which 
+he could imagine nothing more ridiculous or impertinent.
+
+Not abating one jot of his noisy mirth for these remonstrances, 
+Hugh reeled along between them, having an arm of each, until they 
+hove in sight of The Boot, and were within a field or two of that 
+convenient tavern.  He happened by great good luck to have roared 
+and shouted himself into silence by this time.  They were 
+proceeding onward without noise, when a scout who had been creeping 
+about the ditches all night, to warn any stragglers from 
+encroaching further on what was now such dangerous ground, peeped 
+cautiously from his hiding-place, and called to them to stop.
+
+'Stop! and why?' said Hugh.
+
+Because (the scout replied) the house was filled with constables 
+and soldiers; having been surprised that afternoon.  The inmates 
+had fled or been taken into custody, he could not say which.  He 
+had prevented a great many people from approaching nearer, and he 
+believed they had gone to the markets and such places to pass the 
+night.  He had seen the distant fires, but they were all out now.  
+He had heard the people who passed and repassed, speaking of them 
+too, and could report that the prevailing opinion was one of 
+apprehension and dismay.  He had not heard a word of Barnaby--
+didn't even know his name--but it had been said in his hearing that 
+some man had been taken and carried off to Newgate.  Whether this 
+was true or false, he could not affirm.
+
+The three took counsel together, on hearing this, and debated what 
+it might be best to do.  Hugh, deeming it possible that Barnaby was 
+in the hands of the soldiers, and at that moment under detention at 
+The Boot, was for advancing stealthily, and firing the house; but 
+his companions, who objected to such rash measures unless they had 
+a crowd at their backs, represented that if Barnaby were taken he 
+had assuredly been removed to a stronger prison; they would never 
+have dreamed of keeping him all night in a place so weak and open 
+to attack.  Yielding to this reasoning, and to their persuasions, 
+Hugh consented to turn back and to repair to Fleet Market; for 
+which place, it seemed, a few of their boldest associates had 
+shaped their course, on receiving the same intelligence.
+
+Feeling their strength recruited and their spirits roused, now that 
+there was a new necessity for action, they hurried away, quite 
+forgetful of the fatigue under which they had been sinking but a 
+few minutes before; and soon arrived at their new place of 
+destination.
+
+Fleet Market, at that time, was a long irregular row of wooden 
+sheds and penthouses, occupying the centre of what is now called 
+Farringdon Street.  They were jumbled together in a most unsightly 
+fashion, in the middle of the road; to the great obstruction of the 
+thoroughfare and the annoyance of passengers, who were fain to make 
+their way, as they best could, among carts, baskets, barrows, 
+trucks, casks, bulks, and benches, and to jostle with porters, 
+hucksters, waggoners, and a motley crowd of buyers, sellers, pick-
+pockets, vagrants, and idlers.  The air was perfumed with the 
+stench of rotten leaves and faded fruit; the refuse of the 
+butchers' stalls, and offal and garbage of a hundred kinds.  It was 
+indispensable to most public conveniences in those days, that they 
+should be public nuisances likewise; and Fleet Market maintained 
+the principle to admiration.
+
+To this place, perhaps because its sheds and baskets were a 
+tolerable substitute for beds, or perhaps because it afforded the 
+means of a hasty barricade in case of need, many of the rioters had 
+straggled, not only that night, but for two or three nights before.  
+It was now broad day, but the morning being cold, a group of them 
+were gathered round a fire in a public-house, drinking hot purl, 
+and smoking pipes, and planning new schemes for to-morrow.
+
+Hugh and his two friends being known to most of these men, were 
+received with signal marks of approbation, and inducted into the 
+most honourable seats.  The room-door was closed and fastened to 
+keep intruders at a distance, and then they proceeded to exchange 
+news.
+
+'The soldiers have taken possession of The Boot, I hear,' said 
+Hugh.  'Who knows anything about it?'
+
+Several cried that they did; but the majority of the company 
+having been engaged in the assault upon the Warren, and all 
+present having been concerned in one or other of the night's 
+expeditions, it proved that they knew no more than Hugh himself; 
+having been merely warned by each other, or by the scout, and 
+knowing nothing of their own knowledge.
+
+'We left a man on guard there to-day,' said Hugh, looking round 
+him, 'who is not here.  You know who it is--Barnaby, who brought 
+the soldier down, at Westminster.  Has any man seen or heard of 
+him?'
+
+They shook their heads, and murmured an answer in the negative, as 
+each man looked round and appealed to his fellow; when a noise was 
+heard without, and a man was heard to say that he wanted Hugh--that 
+he must see Hugh.
+
+'He is but one man,' cried Hugh to those who kept the door; 'let 
+him come in.'
+
+'Ay, ay!' muttered the others.  'Let him come in.  Let him come 
+in.'
+
+The door was accordingly unlocked and opened.  A one-armed man, 
+with his head and face tied up with a bloody cloth, as though he 
+had been severely beaten, his clothes torn, and his remaining hand 
+grasping a thick stick, rushed in among them, and panting for 
+breath, demanded which was Hugh.
+
+'Here he is,' replied the person he inquired for.  'I am Hugh.  
+What do you want with me?'
+
+'I have a message for you,' said the man.  'You know one Barnaby.'
+
+'What of him?  Did he send the message?'
+
+'Yes.  He's taken.  He's in one of the strong cells in Newgate.  He 
+defended himself as well as he could, but was overpowered by 
+numbers.  That's his message.'
+
+'When did you see him?' asked Hugh, hastily.
+
+'On his way to prison, where he was taken by a party of soldiers.  
+They took a by-road, and not the one we expected.  I was one of 
+the few who tried to rescue him, and he called to me, and told me 
+to tell Hugh where he was.  We made a good struggle, though it 
+failed.  Look here!'
+
+He pointed to his dress and to his bandaged head, and still panting 
+for breath, glanced round the room; then faced towards Hugh again.
+
+'I know you by sight,' he said, 'for I was in the crowd on Friday, 
+and on Saturday, and yesterday, but I didn't know your name.  
+You're a bold fellow, I know.  So is he.  He fought like a lion 
+tonight, but it was of no use.  I did my best, considering that I 
+want this limb.'
+
+Again he glanced inquisitively round the room or seemed to do so, 
+for his face was nearly hidden by the bandage--and again facing 
+sharply towards Hugh, grasped his stick as if he half expected to 
+be set upon, and stood on the defensive.
+
+If he had any such apprehension, however, he was speedily reassured 
+by the demeanour of all present.  None thought of the bearer of the 
+tidings.  He was lost in the news he brought.  Oaths, threats, and 
+execrations, were vented on all sides.  Some cried that if they 
+bore this tamely, another day would see them all in jail; some, 
+that they should have rescued the other prisoners, and this would 
+not have happened.  One man cried in a loud voice, 'Who'll follow 
+me to Newgate!' and there was a loud shout and general rush towards 
+the door.
+
+But Hugh and Dennis stood with their backs against it, and kept 
+them back, until the clamour had so far subsided that their voices 
+could be heard, when they called to them together that to go now, 
+in broad day, would be madness; and that if they waited until night 
+and arranged a plan of attack, they might release, not only their 
+own companions, but all the prisoners, and burn down the jail.
+
+'Not that jail alone,' cried Hugh, 'but every jail in London.  They 
+shall have no place to put their prisoners in.  We'll burn them all 
+down; make bonfires of them every one!  Here!' he cried, catching 
+at the hangman's hand.  'Let all who're men here, join with us.  
+Shake hands upon it.  Barnaby out of jail, and not a jail left 
+standing!  Who joins?'
+
+Every man there.  And they swore a great oath to release their 
+friends from Newgate next night; to force the doors and burn the 
+jail; or perish in the fire themselves.
+
+
+
+Chapter 61
+
+
+On that same night--events so crowd upon each other in convulsed 
+and distracted times, that more than the stirring incidents of a 
+whole life often become compressed into the compass of four-and-
+twenty hours--on that same night, Mr Haredale, having strongly 
+bound his prisoner, with the assistance of the sexton, and forced 
+him to mount his horse, conducted him to Chigwell; bent upon 
+procuring a conveyance to London from that place, and carrying him 
+at once before a justice.  The disturbed state of the town would 
+be, he knew, a sufficient reason for demanding the murderer's 
+committal to prison before daybreak, as no man could answer for the 
+security of any of the watch-houses or ordinary places of 
+detention; and to convey a prisoner through the streets when the 
+mob were again abroad, would not only be a task of great danger and 
+hazard, but would be to challenge an attempt at rescue.  Directing 
+the sexton to lead the horse, he walked close by the murderer's 
+side, and in this order they reached the village about the middle 
+of the night.
+
+The people were all awake and up, for they were fearful of being 
+burnt in their beds, and sought to comfort and assure each other by 
+watching in company.  A few of the stoutest-hearted were armed and 
+gathered in a body on the green.  To these, who knew him well, Mr 
+Haredale addressed himself, briefly narrating what had happened, 
+and beseeching them to aid in conveying the criminal to London 
+before the dawn of day.
+
+But not a man among them dared to help him by so much as the motion 
+of a finger.  The rioters, in their passage through the village, 
+had menaced with their fiercest vengeance, any person who should 
+aid in extinguishing the fire, or render the least assistance to 
+him, or any Catholic whomsoever.  Their threats extended to their 
+lives and all they possessed.  They were assembled for their own 
+protection, and could not endanger themselves by lending any aid to 
+him.  This they told him, not without hesitation and regret, as 
+they kept aloof in the moonlight and glanced fearfully at the 
+ghostly rider, who, with his head drooping on his breast and his 
+hat slouched down upon his brow, neither moved nor spoke.
+
+Finding it impossible to persuade them, and indeed hardly knowing 
+how to do so after what they had seen of the fury of the crowd, Mr 
+Haredale besought them that at least they would leave him free to 
+act for himself, and would suffer him to take the only chaise and 
+pair of horses that the place afforded.  This was not acceded to 
+without some difficulty, but in the end they told him to do what he 
+would, and go away from them in heaven's name.
+
+Leaving the sexton at the horse's bridle, he drew out the chaise 
+with his own hands, and would have harnessed the horses, but that 
+the post-boy of the village--a soft-hearted, good-for-nothing, 
+vagabond kind of fellow--was moved by his earnestness and passion, 
+and, throwing down a pitchfork with which he was armed, swore that 
+the rioters might cut him into mincemeat if they liked, but he 
+would not stand by and see an honest gentleman who had done no 
+wrong, reduced to such extremity, without doing what he could to 
+help him.  Mr Haredale shook him warmly by the hand, and thanked 
+him from his heart.  In five minutes' time the chaise was ready, 
+and this good scapegrace in his saddle.  The murderer was put 
+inside, the blinds were drawn up, the sexton took his seat upon the 
+bar, Mr Haredale mounted his horse and rode close beside the door; 
+and so they started in the dead of night, and in profound silence, 
+for London.
+
+The consternation was so extreme that even the horses which had 
+escaped the flames at the Warren, could find no friends to shelter 
+them.  They passed them on the road, browsing on the stunted grass; 
+and the driver told them, that the poor beasts had wandered to the 
+village first, but had been driven away, lest they should bring 
+the vengeance of the crowd on any of the inhabitants.
+
+Nor was this feeling confined to such small places, where the 
+people were timid, ignorant, and unprotected.  When they came near 
+London they met, in the grey light of morning, more than one poor 
+Catholic family who, terrified by the threats and warnings of 
+their neighbours, were quitting the city on foot, and who told them 
+they could hire no cart or horse for the removal of their goods, 
+and had been compelled to leave them behind, at the mercy of the 
+crowd.  Near Mile End they passed a house, the master of which, a 
+Catholic gentleman of small means, having hired a waggon to remove 
+his furniture by midnight, had had it all brought down into the 
+street, to wait the vehicle's arrival, and save time in the 
+packing.  But the man with whom he made the bargain, alarmed by the 
+fires that night, and by the sight of the rioters passing his 
+door, had refused to keep it: and the poor gentleman, with his wife 
+and servant and their little children, were sitting trembling among 
+their goods in the open street, dreading the arrival of day and not 
+knowing where to turn or what to do.
+
+It was the same, they heard, with the public conveyances.  The 
+panic was so great that the mails and stage-coaches were afraid to 
+carry passengers who professed the obnoxious religion.  If the 
+drivers knew them, or they admitted that they held that creed, they 
+would not take them, no, though they offered large sums; and 
+yesterday, people had been afraid to recognise Catholic 
+acquaintance in the streets, lest they should be marked by spies, 
+and burnt out, as it was called, in consequence.  One mild old man--
+a priest, whose chapel was destroyed; a very feeble, patient, 
+inoffensive creature--who was trudging away, alone, designing to 
+walk some distance from town, and then try his fortune with the 
+coaches, told Mr Haredale that he feared he might not find a 
+magistrate who would have the hardihood to commit a prisoner to 
+jail, on his complaint.  But notwithstanding these discouraging 
+accounts they went on, and reached the Mansion House soon after 
+sunrise.
+
+Mr Haredale threw himself from his horse, but he had no need to 
+knock at the door, for it was already open, and there stood upon 
+the step a portly old man, with a very red, or rather purple face, 
+who with an anxious expression of countenance, was remonstrating 
+with some unseen personage upstairs, while the porter essayed to 
+close the door by degrees and get rid of him.  With the intense 
+impatience and excitement natural to one in his condition, Mr 
+Haredale thrust himself forward and was about to speak, when the 
+fat old gentleman interposed:
+
+'My good sir,' said he, 'pray let me get an answer.  This is the 
+sixth time I have been here.  I was here five times yesterday.  My 
+house is threatened with destruction.  It is to be burned down to-
+night, and was to have been last night, but they had other business 
+on their hands.  Pray let me get an answer.'
+
+'My good sir,' returned Mr Haredale, shaking his head, 'my house 
+is burned to the ground.  But heaven forbid that yours should be.  
+Get your answer.  Be brief, in mercy to me.'
+
+'Now, you hear this, my lord?'--said the old gentleman, calling up 
+the stairs, to where the skirt of a dressing-gown fluttered on the 
+landing-place.  'Here is a gentleman here, whose house was actually 
+burnt down last night.'
+
+'Dear me, dear me,' replied a testy voice, 'I am very sorry for 
+it, but what am I to do?  I can't build it up again.  The chief 
+magistrate of the city can't go and be a rebuilding of people's 
+houses, my good sir.  Stuff and nonsense!'
+
+'But the chief magistrate of the city can prevent people's houses 
+from having any need to be rebuilt, if the chief magistrate's a 
+man, and not a dummy--can't he, my lord?' cried the old gentleman 
+in a choleric manner.
+
+'You are disrespectable, sir,' said the Lord Mayor--'leastways, 
+disrespectful I mean.'
+
+'Disrespectful, my lord!' returned the old gentleman.  'I was 
+respectful five times yesterday.  I can't be respectful for ever.  
+Men can't stand on being respectful when their houses are going to 
+be burnt over their heads, with them in 'em.  What am I to do, my 
+lord?  AM I to have any protection!'
+
+'I told you yesterday, sir,' said the Lord Mayor, 'that you might 
+have an alderman in your house, if you could get one to come.'
+
+'What the devil's the good of an alderman?' returned the choleric 
+old gentleman.
+
+'--To awe the crowd, sir,' said the Lord Mayor.
+
+'Oh Lord ha' mercy!' whimpered the old gentleman, as he wiped his 
+forehead in a state of ludicrous distress, 'to think of sending an 
+alderman to awe a crowd!  Why, my lord, if they were even so many 
+babies, fed on mother's milk, what do you think they'd care for an 
+alderman!  Will YOU come?'
+
+'I!' said the Lord Mayor, most emphatically: 'Certainly not.'
+
+'Then what,' returned the old gentleman, 'what am I to do?  Am I a 
+citizen of England?  Am I to have the benefit of the laws?  Am I to 
+have any return for the King's taxes?'
+
+'I don't know, I am sure,' said the Lord Mayor; 'what a pity it is 
+you're a Catholic!  Why couldn't you be a Protestant, and then you 
+wouldn't have got yourself into such a mess?  I'm sure I don't know 
+what's to be done.--There are great people at the bottom of these 
+riots.--Oh dear me, what a thing it is to be a public character!--
+You must look in again in the course of the day.--Would a javelin-
+man do?--Or there's Philips the constable,--HE'S disengaged,--he's 
+not very old for a man at his time of life, except in his legs, and 
+if you put him up at a window he'd look quite young by candle-
+light, and might frighten 'em very much.--Oh dear!--well!--we'll 
+see about it.'
+
+'Stop!' cried Mr Haredale, pressing the door open as the porter 
+strove to shut it, and speaking rapidly, 'My Lord Mayor, I beg you 
+not to go away.  I have a man here, who committed a murder eight-
+and-twenty years ago.  Half-a-dozen words from me, on oath, will 
+justify you in committing him to prison for re-examination.  I only 
+seek, just now, to have him consigned to a place of safety.  The 
+least delay may involve his being rescued by the rioters.'
+
+'Oh dear me!' cried the Lord Mayor.  'God bless my soul--and body--
+oh Lor!--well I!--there are great people at the bottom of these 
+riots, you know.--You really mustn't.'
+
+'My lord,' said Mr Haredale, 'the murdered gentleman was my 
+brother; I succeeded to his inheritance; there were not wanting 
+slanderous tongues at that time, to whisper that the guilt of this 
+most foul and cruel deed was mine--mine, who loved him, as he 
+knows, in Heaven, dearly.  The time has come, after all these years 
+of gloom and misery, for avenging him, and bringing to light a 
+crime so artful and so devilish that it has no parallel.  Every 
+second's delay on your part loosens this man's bloody hands again, 
+and leads to his escape.  My lord, I charge you hear me, and 
+despatch this matter on the instant.'
+
+'Oh dear me!' cried the chief magistrate; 'these an't business 
+hours, you know--I wonder at you--how ungentlemanly it is of you--
+you mustn't--you really mustn't.--And I suppose you are a Catholic 
+too?'
+
+'I am,' said Mr Haredale.
+
+'God bless my soul, I believe people turn Catholics a'purpose to 
+vex and worrit me,' cried the Lord Mayor.  'I wish you wouldn't 
+come here; they'll be setting the Mansion House afire next, and we 
+shall have you to thank for it.  You must lock your prisoner up, 
+sir--give him to a watchman--and--call again at a proper time.  
+Then we'll see about it!'
+
+Before Mr Haredale could answer, the sharp closing of a door and 
+drawing of its bolts, gave notice that the Lord Mayor had retreated 
+to his bedroom, and that further remonstrance would be unavailing.  
+The two clients retreated likewise, and the porter shut them out 
+into the street.
+
+'That's the way he puts me off,' said the old gentleman, 'I can 
+get no redress and no help.  What are you going to do, sir?'
+
+'To try elsewhere,' answered Mr Haredale, who was by this time on 
+horseback.
+
+'I feel for you, I assure you--and well I may, for we are in a 
+common cause,' said the old gentleman.  'I may not have a house to 
+offer you to-night; let me tender it while I can.  On second 
+thoughts though,' he added, putting up a pocket-book he had 
+produced while speaking, 'I'll not give you a card, for if it was 
+found upon you, it might get you into trouble.  Langdale--that's my 
+name--vintner and distiller--Holborn Hill--you're heartily welcome, 
+if you'll come.'
+
+Mr Haredale bowed, and rode off, close beside the chaise as before; 
+determining to repair to the house of Sir John Fielding, who had 
+the reputation of being a bold and active magistrate, and fully 
+resolved, in case the rioters should come upon them, to do 
+execution on the murderer with his own hands, rather than suffer 
+him to be released.
+
+They arrived at the magistrate's dwelling, however, without 
+molestation (for the mob, as we have seen, were then intent on 
+deeper schemes), and knocked at the door.  As it had been pretty 
+generally rumoured that Sir John was proscribed by the rioters, a 
+body of thief-takers had been keeping watch in the house all night.  
+To one of them Mr Haredale stated his business, which appearing to 
+the man of sufficient moment to warrant his arousing the justice, 
+procured him an immediate audience.
+
+No time was lost in committing the murderer to Newgate; then a new 
+building, recently completed at a vast expense, and considered to 
+be of enormous strength.  The warrant being made out, three of the 
+thief-takers bound him afresh (he had been struggling, it seemed, 
+in the chaise, and had loosened his manacles); gagged him lest they 
+should meet with any of the mob, and he should call to them for 
+help; and seated themselves, along with him, in the carriage.  
+These men being all well armed, made a formidable escort; but they 
+drew up the blinds again, as though the carriage were empty, and 
+directed Mr Haredale to ride forward, that he might not attract 
+attention by seeming to belong to it.
+
+The wisdom of this proceeding was sufficiently obvious, for as they 
+hurried through the city they passed among several groups of men, 
+who, if they had not supposed the chaise to be quite empty, would 
+certainly have stopped it.  But those within keeping quite close, 
+and the driver tarrying to be asked no questions, they reached the 
+prison without interruption, and, once there, had him out, and safe 
+within its gloomy walls, in a twinkling.
+
+With eager eyes and strained attention, Mr Haredale saw him 
+chained, and locked and barred up in his cell.  Nay, when he had 
+left the jail, and stood in the free street, without, he felt the 
+iron plates upon the doors, with his hands, and drew them over the 
+stone wall, to assure himself that it was real; and to exult in its 
+being so strong, and rough, and cold.  It was not until he turned 
+his back upon the jail, and glanced along the empty streets, so 
+lifeless and quiet in the bright morning, that he felt the weight 
+upon his heart; that he knew he was tortured by anxiety for those 
+he had left at home; and that home itself was but another bead in 
+the long rosary of his regrets.
+
+
+
+Chapter 62
+
+
+The prisoner, left to himself, sat down upon his bedstead: and 
+resting his elbows on his knees, and his chin upon his hands, 
+remained in that attitude for hours.  It would be hard to say, of 
+what nature his reflections were.  They had no distinctness, and, 
+saving for some flashes now and then, no reference to his condition 
+or the train of circumstances by which it had been brought about.  
+The cracks in the pavement of his cell, the chinks in the wall 
+where stone was joined to stone, the bars in the window, the iron 
+ring upon the floor,--such things as these, subsiding strangely 
+into one another, and awakening an indescribable kind of interest 
+and amusement, engrossed his whole mind; and although at the bottom 
+of his every thought there was an uneasy sense of guilt, and dread 
+of death, he felt no more than that vague consciousness of it, 
+which a sleeper has of pain.  It pursues him through his dreams, 
+gnaws at the heart of all his fancied pleasures, robs the banquet 
+of its taste, music of its sweetness, makes happiness itself 
+unhappy, and yet is no bodily sensation, but a phantom without 
+shape, or form, or visible presence; pervading everything, but 
+having no existence; recognisable everywhere, but nowhere seen, or 
+touched, or met with face to face, until the sleep is past, and 
+waking agony returns.
+
+After a long time the door of his cell opened.  He looked up; saw 
+the blind man enter; and relapsed into his former position.
+
+Guided by his breathing, the visitor advanced to where he sat; and 
+stopping beside him, and stretching out his hand to assure himself 
+that he was right, remained, for a good space, silent.
+
+'This is bad, Rudge.  This is bad,' he said at length.
+
+The prisoner shuffled with his feet upon the ground in turning his 
+body from him, but made no other answer.
+
+'How were you taken?' he asked.  'And where?  You never told me 
+more than half your secret.  No matter; I know it now.  How was it, 
+and where, eh?' he asked again, coming still nearer to him.
+
+'At Chigwell,' said the other.
+
+'At Chigwell!  How came you there?'
+
+'Because I went there to avoid the man I stumbled on,' he answered.  
+'Because I was chased and driven there, by him and Fate.  Because I 
+was urged to go there, by something stronger than my own will.  
+When I found him watching in the house she used to live in, night 
+after night, I knew I never could escape him--never! and when I 
+heard the Bell--'
+
+He shivered; muttered that it was very cold; paced quickly up and 
+down the narrow cell; and sitting down again, fell into his old 
+posture.
+
+'You were saying,' said the blind man, after another pause, 'that 
+when you heard the Bell--'
+
+'Let it be, will you?' he retorted in a hurried voice.  'It hangs 
+there yet.'
+
+The blind man turned a wistful and inquisitive face towards him, 
+but he continued to speak, without noticing him.
+
+'I went to Chigwell, in search of the mob.  I have been so hunted 
+and beset by this man, that I knew my only hope of safety lay in 
+joining them.  They had gone on before; I followed them when it 
+left off.'
+
+'When what left off?'
+
+'The Bell.  They had quitted the place.  I hoped that some of them 
+might be still lingering among the ruins, and was searching for 
+them when I heard--' he drew a long breath, and wiped his forehead 
+with his sleeve--'his voice.'
+
+'Saying what?'
+
+'No matter what.  I don't know.  I was then at the foot of the 
+turret, where I did the--'
+
+'Ay,' said the blind man, nodding his head with perfect composure, 
+'I understand.'
+
+'I climbed the stair, or so much of it as was left; meaning to hide 
+till he had gone.  But he heard me; and followed almost as soon as 
+I set foot upon the ashes.'
+
+'You might have hidden in the wall, and thrown him down, or stabbed 
+him,' said the blind man.
+
+'Might I?  Between that man and me, was one who led him on--I saw 
+it, though he did not--and raised above his head a bloody hand.  It 
+was in the room above that HE and I stood glaring at each other on 
+the night of the murder, and before he fell he raised his hand like 
+that, and fixed his eyes on me.  I knew the chase would end there.'
+
+'You have a strong fancy,' said the blind man, with a smile.
+
+'Strengthen yours with blood, and see what it will come to.'
+
+He groaned, and rocked himself, and looking up for the first time, 
+said, in a low, hollow voice:
+
+'Eight-and-twenty years!  Eight-and-twenty years!  He has never 
+changed in all that time, never grown older, nor altered in the 
+least degree.  He has been before me in the dark night, and the 
+broad sunny day; in the twilight, the moonlight, the sunlight, the 
+light of fire, and lamp, and candle; and in the deepest gloom.  
+Always the same!  In company, in solitude, on land, on shipboard; 
+sometimes leaving me alone for months, and sometimes always with 
+me.  I have seen him, at sea, come gliding in the dead of night 
+along the bright reflection of the moon in the calm water; and I 
+have seen him, on quays and market-places, with his hand uplifted, 
+towering, the centre of a busy crowd, unconscious of the terrible 
+form that had its silent stand among them.  Fancy!  Are you real?  
+Am I?  Are these iron fetters, riveted on me by the smith's hammer, 
+or are they fancies I can shatter at a blow?'
+
+The blind man listened in silence.
+
+'Fancy!  Do I fancy that I killed him?  Do I fancy that as I left 
+the chamber where he lay, I saw the face of a man peeping from a 
+dark door, who plainly showed me by his fearful looks that he 
+suspected what I had done?  Do I remember that I spoke fairly to 
+him--that I drew nearer--nearer yet--with the hot knife in my 
+sleeve?  Do I fancy how HE died?  Did he stagger back into the 
+angle of the wall into which I had hemmed him, and, bleeding 
+inwardly, stand, not fail, a corpse before me?  Did I see him, for 
+an instant, as I see you now, erect and on his feet--but dead!'
+
+The blind man, who knew that he had risen, motioned him to sit down 
+again upon his bedstead; but he took no notice of the gesture.
+
+'It was then I thought, for the first time, of fastening the murder 
+upon him.  It was then I dressed him in my clothes, and dragged him 
+down the back-stairs to the piece of water.  Do I remember 
+listening to the bubbles that came rising up when I had rolled him 
+in?  Do I remember wiping the water from my face, and because the 
+body splashed it there, in its descent, feeling as if it MUST be 
+blood?
+
+'Did I go home when I had done?  And oh, my God! how long it took 
+to do!  Did I stand before my wife, and tell her?  Did I see her 
+fall upon the ground; and, when I stooped to raise her, did she 
+thrust me back with a force that cast me off as if I had been a 
+child, staining the hand with which she clasped my wrist?  Is THAT 
+fancy?
+
+'Did she go down upon her knees, and call on Heaven to witness that 
+she and her unborn child renounced me from that hour; and did she, 
+in words so solemn that they turned me cold--me, fresh from the 
+horrors my own hands had made--warn me to fly while there was time; 
+for though she would be silent, being my wretched wife, she would 
+not shelter me?  Did I go forth that night, abjured of God and man, 
+and anchored deep in hell, to wander at my cable's length about the 
+earth, and surely be drawn down at last?'
+
+'Why did you return?  said the blind man.
+
+'Why is blood red?  I could no more help it, than I could live 
+without breath.  I struggled against the impulse, but I was drawn 
+back, through every difficult and adverse circumstance, as by a 
+mighty engine.  Nothing could stop me.  The day and hour were none 
+of my choice.  Sleeping and waking, I had been among the old haunts 
+for years--had visited my own grave.  Why did I come back?  Because 
+this jail was gaping for me, and he stood beckoning at the door.'
+
+'You were not known?' said the blind man.
+
+'I was a man who had been twenty-two years dead.  No.  I was not 
+known.'
+
+'You should have kept your secret better.'
+
+'MY secret?  MINE?  It was a secret, any breath of air could 
+whisper at its will.  The stars had it in their twinkling, the 
+water in its flowing, the leaves in their rustling, the seasons in 
+their return.  It lurked in strangers' faces, and their voices.  
+Everything had lips on which it always trembled.--MY secret!'
+
+'It was revealed by your own act at any rate,' said the blind man.
+
+'The act was not mine.  I did it, but it was not mine.  I was 
+forced at times to wander round, and round, and round that spot.  
+If you had chained me up when the fit was on me, I should have 
+broken away, and gone there.  As truly as the loadstone draws iron 
+towards it, so he, lying at the bottom of his grave, could draw me 
+near him when he would.  Was that fancy?  Did I like to go there, 
+or did I strive and wrestle with the power that forced me?'
+
+The blind man shrugged his shoulders, and smiled incredulously.  
+The prisoner again resumed his old attitude, and for a long time 
+both were mute.
+
+'I suppose then,' said his visitor, at length breaking silence, 
+'that you are penitent and resigned; that you desire to make peace 
+with everybody (in particular, with your wife who has brought you 
+to this); and that you ask no greater favour than to be carried to 
+Tyburn as soon as possible?  That being the case, I had better take 
+my leave.  I am not good enough to be company for you.'
+
+'Have I not told you,' said the other fiercely, 'that I have 
+striven and wrestled with the power that brought me here?  Has my 
+whole life, for eight-and-twenty years, been one perpetual 
+struggle and resistance, and do you think I want to lie down and 
+die?  Do all men shrink from death--I most of all!'
+
+'That's better said.  That's better spoken, Rudge--but I'll not 
+call you that again--than anything you have said yet,' returned the 
+blind man, speaking more familiarly, and laying his hands upon his 
+arm.  'Lookye,--I never killed a man myself, for I have never been 
+placed in a position that made it worth my while.  Farther, I am 
+not an advocate for killing men, and I don't think I should 
+recommend it or like it--for it's very hazardous--under any 
+circumstances.  But as you had the misfortune to get into this 
+trouble before I made your acquaintance, and as you have been my 
+companion, and have been of use to me for a long time now, I 
+overlook that part of the matter, and am only anxious that you 
+shouldn't die unnecessarily.  Now, I do not consider that, at 
+present, it is at all necessary.'
+
+'What else is left me?' returned the prisoner.  'To eat my way 
+through these walls with my teeth?'
+
+'Something easier than that,' returned his friend.  'Promise me 
+that you will talk no more of these fancies of yours--idle, foolish 
+things, quite beneath a man--and I'll tell you what I mean.'
+
+'Tell me,' said the other.
+
+'Your worthy lady with the tender conscience; your scrupulous, 
+virtuous, punctilious, but not blindly affectionate wife--'
+
+'What of her?'
+
+'Is now in London.'
+
+'A curse upon her, be she where she may!'
+
+'That's natural enough.  If she had taken her annuity as usual, you 
+would not have been here, and we should have been better off.  But 
+that's apart from the business.  She's in London.  Scared, as I 
+suppose, and have no doubt, by my representation when I waited upon 
+her, that you were close at hand (which I, of course, urged only as 
+an inducement to compliance, knowing that she was not pining to see 
+you), she left that place, and travelled up to London.'
+
+'How do you know?'
+
+'From my friend the noble captain--the illustrious general--the 
+bladder, Mr Tappertit.  I learnt from him the last time I saw him, 
+which was yesterday, that your son who is called Barnaby--not after 
+his father, I suppose--'
+
+'Death! does that matter now!'
+
+'--You are impatient,' said the blind man, calmly; 'it's a good 
+sign, and looks like life--that your son Barnaby had been lured 
+away from her by one of his companions who knew him of old, at 
+Chigwell; and that he is now among the rioters.'
+
+'And what is that to me?  If father and son be hanged together, 
+what comfort shall I find in that?'
+
+'Stay--stay, my friend,' returned the blind man, with a cunning 
+look, 'you travel fast to journeys' ends.  Suppose I track my lady 
+out, and say thus much: "You want your son, ma'am--good.  I, 
+knowing those who tempt him to remain among them, can restore him 
+to you, ma'am--good.  You must pay a price, ma'am, for his 
+restoration--good again.  The price is small, and easy to be paid--
+dear ma'am, that's best of all."'
+
+'What mockery is this?'
+
+'Very likely, she may reply in those words.  "No mockery at all," I 
+answer: "Madam, a person said to be your husband (identity is 
+difficult of proof after the lapse of many years) is in prison, his 
+life in peril--the charge against him, murder.  Now, ma'am, your 
+husband has been dead a long, long time.  The gentleman never can 
+be confounded with him, if you will have the goodness to say a few 
+words, on oath, as to when he died, and how; and that this person 
+(who I am told resembles him in some degree) is no more he than I 
+am.  Such testimony will set the question quite at rest.  Pledge 
+yourself to me to give it, ma' am, and I will undertake to keep 
+your son (a fine lad) out of harm's way until you have done this 
+trifling service, when he shall he delivered up to you, safe and 
+sound.  On the other hand, if you decline to do so, I fear he will 
+be betrayed, and handed over to the law, which will assuredly 
+sentence him to suffer death.  It is, in fact, a choice between his 
+life and death.  If you refuse, he swings.  If you comply, the 
+timber is not grown, nor the hemp sown, that shall do him any 
+harm."'
+
+'There is a gleam of hope in this!' cried the prisoner.
+
+'A gleam!' returned his friend, 'a noon-blaze; a full and glorious 
+daylight.  Hush! I hear the tread of distant feet.  Rely on me.'
+
+'When shall I hear more?'
+
+'As soon as I do.  I should hope, to-morrow.  They are coming to 
+say that our time for talk is over.  I hear the jingling of the 
+keys.  Not another word of this just now, or they may overhear us.'
+
+As he said these words, the lock was turned, and one of the prison 
+turnkeys appearing at the door, announced that it was time for 
+visitors to leave the jail.
+
+'So soon!' said Stagg, meekly.  'But it can't be helped.  Cheer up, 
+friend.  This mistake will soon be set at rest, and then you are a 
+man again!  If this charitable gentleman will lead a blind man (who 
+has nothing in return but prayers) to the prison-porch, and set him 
+with his face towards the west, he will do a worthy deed.  Thank 
+you, good sir.  I thank you very kindly.'
+
+So saying, and pausing for an instant at the door to turn his 
+grinning face towards his friend, he departed.
+
+When the officer had seen him to the porch, he returned, and again 
+unlocking and unbarring the door of the cell, set it wide open, 
+informing its inmate that he was at liberty to walk in the adjacent 
+yard, if he thought proper, for an hour.
+
+The prisoner answered with a sullen nod; and being left alone 
+again, sat brooding over what he had heard, and pondering upon the 
+hopes the recent conversation had awakened; gazing abstractedly, 
+the while he did so, on the light without, and watching the shadows 
+thrown by one wall on another, and on the stone-paved ground.
+
+It was a dull, square yard, made cold and gloomy by high walls, and 
+seeming to chill the very sunlight.  The stone, so bare, and 
+rough, and obdurate, filled even him with longing thoughts of 
+meadow-land and trees; and with a burning wish to be at liberty.  
+As he looked, he rose, and leaning against the door-post, gazed up 
+at the bright blue sky, smiling even on that dreary home of crime.  
+He seemed, for a moment, to remember lying on his back in some 
+sweet-scented place, and gazing at it through moving branches, long 
+ago.
+
+His attention was suddenly attracted by a clanking sound--he knew 
+what it was, for he had startled himself by making the same noise 
+in walking to the door.  Presently a voice began to sing, and he 
+saw the shadow of a figure on the pavement.  It stopped--was 
+silent all at once, as though the person for a moment had forgotten 
+where he was, but soon remembered--and so, with the same clanking 
+noise, the shadow disappeared.
+
+He walked out into the court and paced it to and fro; startling the 
+echoes, as he went, with the harsh jangling of his fetters.  There 
+was a door near his, which, like his, stood ajar.
+
+He had not taken half-a-dozen turns up and down the yard, when, 
+standing still to observe this door, he heard the clanking sound 
+again.  A face looked out of the grated window--he saw it very 
+dimly, for the cell was dark and the bars were heavy--and directly 
+afterwards, a man appeared, and came towards him.
+
+For the sense of loneliness he had, he might have been in jail a 
+year.  Made eager by the hope of companionship, he quickened his 
+pace, and hastened to meet the man half way--
+
+What was this!  His son!
+
+They stood face to face, staring at each other.  He shrinking and 
+cowed, despite himself; Barnahy struggling with his imperfect 
+memory, and wondering where he had seen that face before.  He was 
+not uncertain long, for suddenly he laid hands upon him, and 
+striving to bear him to the ground, cried:
+
+'Ah! I know!  You are the robber!'
+
+He said nothing in reply at first, but held down his head, and 
+struggled with him silently.  Finding the younger man too strong 
+for him, he raised his face, looked close into his eyes, and said,
+
+'I am your father.'
+
+God knows what magic the name had for his ears; but Barnaby 
+released his hold, fell back, and looked at him aghast.  Suddenly 
+he sprung towards him, put his arms about his neck, and pressed his 
+head against his cheek.
+
+Yes, yes, he was; he was sure he was.  But where had he been so 
+long, and why had he left his mother by herself, or worse than by 
+herself, with her poor foolish boy?  And had she really been as 
+happy as they said?  And where was she?  Was she near there?  She 
+was not happy now, and he in jail?  Ah, no.
+
+Not a word was said in answer; but Grip croaked loudly, and hopped 
+about them, round and round, as if enclosing them in a magic 
+circle, and invoking all the powers of mischief.
+
+
+
+Chapter 63
+
+
+During the whole of this day, every regiment in or near the 
+metropolis was on duty in one or other part of the town; and the 
+regulars and militia, in obedience to the orders which were sent to 
+every barrack and station within twenty-four hours' journey, began 
+to pour in by all the roads.  But the disturbance had attained to 
+such a formidable height, and the rioters had grown, with impunity, 
+to be so audacious, that the sight of this great force, continually 
+augmented by new arrivals, instead of operating as a check, 
+stimulated them to outrages of greater hardihood than any they had 
+yet committed; and helped to kindle a flame in London, the like of 
+which had never been beheld, even in its ancient and rebellious 
+times.
+
+All yesterday, and on this day likewise, the commander-in-chief 
+endeavoured to arouse the magistrates to a sense of their duty, and 
+in particular the Lord Mayor, who was the faintest-hearted and most 
+timid of them all.  With this object, large bodies of the soldiery 
+were several times despatched to the Mansion House to await his 
+orders: but as he could, by no threats or persuasions, be induced 
+to give any, and as the men remained in the open street, 
+fruitlessly for any good purpose, and thrivingly for a very bad 
+one; these laudable attempts did harm rather than good.  For the 
+crowd, becoming speedily acquainted with the Lord Mayor's temper, 
+did not fail to take advantage of it by boasting that even the 
+civil authorities were opposed to the Papists, and could not find 
+it in their hearts to molest those who were guilty of no other 
+offence.  These vaunts they took care to make within the hearing of 
+the soldiers; and they, being naturally loth to quarrel with the 
+people, received their advances kindly enough: answering, when 
+they were asked if they desired to fire upon their countrymen, 'No, 
+they would be damned if they did;' and showing much honest 
+simplicity and good nature.  The feeling that the military were No-
+Popery men, and were ripe for disobeying orders and joining the 
+mob, soon became very prevalent in consequence.  Rumours of their 
+disaffection, and of their leaning towards the popular cause, 
+spread from mouth to mouth with astonishing rapidity; and whenever 
+they were drawn up idly in the streets or squares, there was sure 
+to be a crowd about them, cheering and shaking hands, and treating 
+them with a great show of confidence and affection.
+
+By this time, the crowd was everywhere; all concealment and 
+disguise were laid aside, and they pervaded the whole town.  If 
+any man among them wanted money, he had but to knock at the door of 
+a dwelling-house, or walk into a shop, and demand it in the rioters 
+name; and his demand was instantly complied with.  The peaceable 
+citizens being afraid to lay hands upon them, singly and alone, it 
+may be easily supposed that when gathered together in bodies, they 
+were perfectly secure from interruption.  They assembled in the 
+streets, traversed them at their will and pleasure, and publicly 
+concerted their plans.  Business was quite suspended; the greater 
+part of the shops were closed; most of the houses displayed a blue 
+flag in token of their adherence to the popular side; and even the 
+Jews in Houndsditch, Whitechapel, and those quarters, wrote upon 
+their doors or window-shutters, 'This House is a True Protestant.'  
+The crowd was the law, and never was the law held in greater dread, 
+or more implicitly obeyed.
+
+It was about six o'clock in the evening, when a vast mob poured 
+into Lincoln's Inn Fields by every avenue, and divided--evidently 
+in pursuance of a previous design--into several parties.  It must 
+not be understood that this arrangement was known to the whole 
+crowd, but that it was the work of a few leaders; who, mingling 
+with the men as they came upon the ground, and calling to them to 
+fall into this or that parry, effected it as rapidly as if it had 
+been determined on by a council of the whole number, and every man 
+had known his place.
+
+It was perfectly notorious to the assemblage that the largest 
+body, which comprehended about two-thirds of the whole, was 
+designed for the attack on Newgate.  It comprehended all the 
+rioters who had been conspicuous in any of their former 
+proceedings; all those whom they recommended as daring hands and 
+fit for the work; all those whose companions had been taken in the 
+riots; and a great number of people who were relatives or friends 
+of felons in the jail.  This last class included, not only the most 
+desperate and utterly abandoned villains in London, but some who 
+were comparatively innocent.  There was more than one woman there, 
+disguised in man's attire, and bent upon the rescue of a child or 
+brother.  There were the two sons of a man who lay under sentence 
+of death, and who was to be executed along with three others, on 
+the next day but one.  There was a great parry of boys whose 
+fellow-pickpockets were in the prison; and at the skirts of all, 
+a score of miserable women, outcasts from the world, seeking to 
+release some other fallen creature as miserable as themselves, or 
+moved by a general sympathy perhaps--God knows--with all who were 
+without hope, and wretched.
+
+Old swords, and pistols without ball or powder; sledge-hammers, 
+knives, axes, saws, and weapons pillaged from the butchers' shops; 
+a forest of iron bars and wooden clubs; long ladders for scaling 
+the walls, each carried on the shoulders of a dozen men; lighted 
+torches; tow smeared with pitch, and tar, and brimstone; staves 
+roughly plucked from fence and paling; and even crutches taken from 
+crippled beggars in the streets; composed their arms.  When all was 
+ready, Hugh and Dennis, with Simon Tappertit between them, led the 
+way.  Roaring and chafing like an angry sea, the crowd pressed 
+after them.
+
+Instead of going straight down Holborn to the jail, as all 
+expected, their leaders took the way to Clerkenwell, and pouring 
+down a quiet street, halted before a locksmith's house--the Golden 
+Key.
+
+'Beat at the door,' cried Hugh to the men about him.  'We want one 
+of his craft to-night.  Beat it in, if no one answers.'
+
+The shop was shut.  Both door and shutters were of a strong and 
+sturdy kind, and they knocked without effect.  But the impatient 
+crowd raising a cry of 'Set fire to the house!' and torches being 
+passed to the front, an upper window was thrown open, and the stout 
+old locksmith stood before them.
+
+'What now, you villains!' he demanded.  'Where is my daughter?'
+
+'Ask no questions of us, old man,' retorted Hugh, waving his 
+comrades to be silent, 'but come down, and bring the tools of your 
+trade.  We want you.'
+
+'Want me!' cried the locksmith, glancing at the regimental dress he 
+wore: 'Ay, and if some that I could name possessed the hearts of 
+mice, ye should have had me long ago.  Mark me, my lad--and you 
+about him do the same.  There are a score among ye whom I see now 
+and know, who are dead men from this hour.  Begone! and rob an 
+undertaker's while you can!  You'll want some coffins before long.'
+
+'Will you come down?' cried Hugh.
+
+'Will you give me my daughter, ruffian?' cried the locksmith.
+
+'I know nothing of her,' Hugh rejoined.  'Burn the door!'
+
+'Stop!' cried the locksmith, in a voice that made them falter--
+presenting, as he spoke, a gun.  'Let an old man do that.  You can 
+spare him better.'
+
+The young fellow who held the light, and who was stooping down 
+before the door, rose hastily at these words, and fell back.  The 
+locksmith ran his eye along the upturned faces, and kept the weapon 
+levelled at the threshold of his house.  It had no other rest than 
+his shoulder, but was as steady as the house itself.
+
+'Let the man who does it, take heed to his prayers,' he said 
+firmly; 'I warn him.'
+
+Snatching a torch from one who stood near him, Hugh was stepping 
+forward with an oath, when he was arrested by a shrill and piercing 
+shriek, and, looking upward, saw a fluttering garment on the house-
+top.
+
+There was another shriek, and another, and then a shrill voice 
+cried, 'Is Simmun below!' At the same moment a lean neck was 
+stretched over the parapet, and Miss Miggs, indistinctly seen in 
+the gathering gloom of evening, screeched in a frenzied manner, 
+'Oh! dear gentlemen, let me hear Simmuns's answer from his own 
+lips.  Speak to me, Simmun.  Speak to me!'
+
+Mr Tappertit, who was not at all flattered by this compliment, 
+looked up, and bidding her hold her peace, ordered her to come down 
+and open the door, for they wanted her master, and would take no 
+denial.
+
+'Oh good gentlemen!' cried Miss Miggs.  'Oh my own precious, 
+precious Simmun--'
+
+'Hold your nonsense, will you!' retorted Mr Tappertit; 'and come 
+down and open the door.--G. Varden, drop that gun, or it will be 
+worse for you.'
+
+'Don't mind his gun,' screamed Miggs.  'Simmun and gentlemen, I 
+poured a mug of table-beer right down the barrel.'
+
+The crowd gave a loud shout, which was followed by a roar of 
+laughter.
+
+'It wouldn't go off, not if you was to load it up to the muzzle,' 
+screamed Miggs.  'Simmun and gentlemen, I'm locked up in the front 
+attic, through the little door on the right hand when you think 
+you've got to the very top of the stairs--and up the flight of 
+corner steps, being careful not to knock your heads against the 
+rafters, and not to tread on one side in case you should fall into 
+the two-pair bedroom through the lath and plasture, which do not 
+bear, but the contrairy.  Simmun and gentlemen, I've been locked up 
+here for safety, but my endeavours has always been, and always will 
+be, to be on the right side--the blessed side and to prenounce the 
+Pope of Babylon, and all her inward and her outward workings, which 
+is Pagin.  My sentiments is of little consequences, I know,' cried 
+Miggs, with additional shrillness, 'for my positions is but a 
+servant, and as sich, of humilities, still I gives expressions to 
+my feelings, and places my reliances on them which entertains my 
+own opinions!'
+
+Without taking much notice of these outpourings of Miss Miggs after 
+she had made her first announcement in relation to the gun, the 
+crowd raised a ladder against the window where the locksmith stood, 
+and notwithstanding that he closed, and fastened, and defended it 
+manfully, soon forced an entrance by shivering the glass and 
+breaking in the frames.  After dealing a few stout blows about him, 
+he found himself defenceless, in the midst of a furious crowd, 
+which overflowed the room and softened off in a confused heap of 
+faces at the door and window.
+
+They were very wrathful with him (for he had wounded two men), and 
+even called out to those in front, to bring him forth and hang him 
+on a lamp-post.  But Gabriel was quite undaunted, and looked from 
+Hugh and Dennis, who held him by either arm, to Simon Tappertit, 
+who confronted him.
+
+'You have robbed me of my daughter,' said the locksmith, 'who is 
+far dearer to me than my life; and you may take my life, if you 
+will.  I bless God that I have been enabled to keep my wife free of 
+this scene; and that He has made me a man who will not ask mercy at 
+such hands as yours.'
+
+'And a wery game old gentleman you are,' said Mr Dennis, 
+approvingly; 'and you express yourself like a man.  What's the 
+odds, brother, whether it's a lamp-post to-night, or a feather-
+bed ten year to come, eh?'
+
+The locksmith glanced at him disdainfully, but returned no other 
+answer.
+
+'For my part,' said the hangman, who particularly favoured the 
+lamp-post suggestion, 'I honour your principles.  They're mine 
+exactly.  In such sentiments as them,' and here he emphasised his 
+discourse with an oath, 'I'm ready to meet you or any man halfway.--
+Have you got a bit of cord anywheres handy?  Don't put yourself 
+out of the way, if you haven't.  A handkecher will do.'
+
+'Don't be a fool, master,' whispered Hugh, seizing Varden roughly 
+by the shoulder; 'but do as you're bid.  You'll soon hear what 
+you're wanted for.  Do it!'
+
+'I'll do nothing at your request, or that of any scoundrel here,' 
+returned the locksmith.  'If you want any service from me, you may 
+spare yourselves the pains of telling me what it is.  I tell you, 
+beforehand, I'll do nothing for you.'
+
+Mr Dennis was so affected by this constancy on the part of the 
+staunch old man, that he protested--almost with tears in his eyes--
+that to baulk his inclinations would be an act of cruelty and hard 
+dealing to which he, for one, never could reconcile his conscience.  
+The gentleman, he said, had avowed in so many words that he was 
+ready for working off; such being the case, he considered it their 
+duty, as a civilised and enlightened crowd, to work him off.  It 
+was not often, he observed, that they had it in their power to 
+accommodate themselves to the wishes of those from whom they had 
+the misfortune to differ.  Having now found an individual who 
+expressed a desire which they could reasonably indulge (and for 
+himself he was free to confess that in his opinion that desire did 
+honour to his feelings), he hoped they would decide to accede to 
+his proposition before going any further.  It was an experiment 
+which, skilfully and dexterously performed, would be over in five 
+minutes, with great comfort and satisfaction to all parties; and 
+though it did not become him (Mr Dennis) to speak well of himself 
+he trusted he might be allowed to say that he had practical 
+knowledge of the subject, and, being naturally of an obliging and 
+friendly disposition, would work the gentleman off with a deal of 
+pleasure.
+
+These remarks, which were addressed in the midst of a frightful din 
+and turmoil to those immediately about him, were received with 
+great favour; not so much, perhaps, because of the hangman's 
+eloquence, as on account of the locksmith's obstinacy.  Gabriel was 
+in imminent peril, and he knew it; but he preserved a steady 
+silence; and would have done so, if they had been debating whether 
+they should roast him at a slow fire.
+
+As the hangman spoke, there was some stir and confusion on the 
+ladder; and directly he was silent--so immediately upon his holding 
+his peace, that the crowd below had no time to learn what he had 
+been saying, or to shout in response--some one at the window cried:
+
+'He has a grey head.  He is an old man: Don't hurt him!'
+
+The locksmith turned, with a start, towards the place from which 
+the words had come, and looked hurriedly at the people who were 
+hanging on the ladder and clinging to each other.
+
+'Pay no respect to my grey hair, young man,' he said, answering the 
+voice and not any one he saw.  'I don't ask it.  My heart is green 
+enough to scorn and despise every man among you, band of robbers 
+that you are!'
+
+This incautious speech by no means tended to appease the ferocity 
+of the crowd.  They cried again to have him brought out; and it 
+would have gone hard with the honest locksmith, but that Hugh 
+reminded them, in answer, that they wanted his services, and must 
+have them.
+
+'So, tell him what we want,' he said to Simon Tappertit, 'and 
+quickly.  And open your ears, master, if you would ever use them 
+after to-night.'
+
+Gabriel folded his arms, which were now at liberty, and eyed his 
+old 'prentice in silence.
+
+'Lookye, Varden,' said Sim, 'we're bound for Newgate.'
+
+'I know you are,' returned the locksmith.  'You never said a truer 
+word than that.'
+
+'To burn it down, I mean,' said Simon, 'and force the gates, and 
+set the prisoners at liberty.  You helped to make the lock of the 
+great door.'
+
+'I did,' said the locksmith.  'You owe me no thanks for that--as 
+you'll find before long.'
+
+'Maybe,' returned his journeyman, 'but you must show us how to 
+force it.'
+
+'Must I!'
+
+'Yes; for you know, and I don't.  You must come along with us, and 
+pick it with your own hands.'
+
+'When I do,' said the locksmith quietly, 'my hands shall drop off 
+at the wrists, and you shall wear them, Simon Tappertit, on your 
+shoulders for epaulettes.'
+
+'We'll see that,' cried Hugh, interposing, as the indignation of 
+the crowd again burst forth.  'You fill a basket with the tools 
+he'll want, while I bring him downstairs.  Open the doors below, 
+some of you.  And light the great captain, others!  Is there no 
+business afoot, my lads, that you can do nothing but stand and 
+grumble?'
+
+They looked at one another, and quickly dispersing, swarmed over 
+the house, plundering and breaking, according to their custom, and 
+carrying off such articles of value as happened to please their 
+fancy.  They had no great length of time for these proceedings, for 
+the basket of tools was soon prepared and slung over a man's 
+shoulders.  The preparations being now completed, and everything 
+ready for the attack, those who were pillaging and destroying in 
+the other rooms were called down to the workshop.  They were about 
+to issue forth, when the man who had been last upstairs, stepped 
+forward, and asked if the young woman in the garret (who was making 
+a terrible noise, he said, and kept on screaming without the least 
+cessation) was to be released?
+
+For his own part, Simon Tappertit would certainly have replied in 
+the negative, but the mass of his companions, mindful of the good 
+service she had done in the matter of the gun, being of a different 
+opinion, he had nothing for it but to answer, Yes.  The man, 
+accordingly, went back again to the rescue, and presently returned 
+with Miss Miggs, limp and doubled up, and very damp from much 
+weeping.
+
+As the young lady had given no tokens of consciousness on their way 
+downstairs, the bearer reported her either dead or dying; and being 
+at some loss what to do with her, was looking round for a 
+convenient bench or heap of ashes on which to place her senseless 
+form, when she suddenly came upon her feet by some mysterious 
+means, thrust back her hair, stared wildly at Mr Tappertit, cried, 
+'My Simmuns's life is not a wictim!' and dropped into his arms with 
+such promptitude that he staggered and reeled some paces back, 
+beneath his lovely burden.
+
+'Oh bother!' said Mr Tappertit.  'Here.  Catch hold of her, 
+somebody.  Lock her up again; she never ought to have been let out.'
+
+'My Simmun!' cried Miss Miggs, in tears, and faintly.  'My for 
+ever, ever blessed Simmun!'
+
+'Hold up, will you,' said Mr Tappertit, in a very unresponsive 
+tone, 'I'll let you fall if you don't.  What are you sliding your 
+feet off the ground for?'
+
+'My angel Simmuns!' murmured Miggs--'he promised--'
+
+'Promised!  Well, and I'll keep my promise,' answered Simon, 
+testily.  'I mean to provide for you, don't I?  Stand up!'
+
+'Where am I to go?  What is to become of me after my actions of 
+this night!' cried Miggs.  'What resting-places now remains but in 
+the silent tombses!'
+
+'I wish you was in the silent tombses, I do,' cried Mr Tappertit, 
+'and boxed up tight, in a good strong one.  Here,' he cried to one 
+of the bystanders, in whose ear he whispered for a moment: 'Take 
+her off, will you.  You understand where?'
+
+The fellow nodded; and taking her in his arms, notwithstanding her 
+broken protestations, and her struggles (which latter species of 
+opposition, involving scratches, was much more difficult of 
+resistance), carried her away.  They who were in the house poured 
+out into the street; the locksmith was taken to the head of the 
+crowd, and required to walk between his two conductors; the whole 
+body was put in rapid motion; and without any shouts or noise they 
+bore down straight on Newgate, and halted in a dense mass before 
+the prison-gate.
+
+
+
+Chapter 64
+
+
+Breaking the silence they had hitherto preserved, they raised a 
+great cry as soon as they were ranged before the jail, and demanded 
+to speak to the governor.  This visit was not wholly unexpected, 
+for his house, which fronted the street, was strongly barricaded, 
+the wicket-gate of the prison was closed up, and at no loophole or 
+grating was any person to be seen.  Before they had repeated their 
+summons many times, a man appeared upon the roof of the governor's 
+house, and asked what it was they wanted.
+
+Some said one thing, some another, and some only groaned and 
+hissed.  It being now nearly dark, and the house high, many persons 
+in the throng were not aware that any one had come to answer them, 
+and continued their clamour until the intelligence was gradually 
+diffused through the whole concourse.  Ten minutes or more elapsed 
+before any one voice could be heard with tolerable distinctness; 
+during which interval the figure remained perched alone, against 
+the summer-evening sky, looking down into the troubled street.
+
+'Are you,' said Hugh at length, 'Mr Akerman, the head jailer here?'
+
+'Of course he is, brother,' whispered Dennis.  But Hugh, without 
+minding him, took his answer from the man himself.
+
+'Yes,' he said.  'I am.'
+
+'You have got some friends of ours in your custody, master.'
+
+'I have a good many people in my custody.'  He glanced downward, as 
+he spoke, into the jail: and the feeling that he could see into 
+the different yards, and that he overlooked everything which was 
+hidden from their view by the rugged walls, so lashed and goaded 
+the mob, that they howled like wolves.
+
+'Deliver up our friends,' said Hugh, 'and you may keep the rest.'
+
+'It's my duty to keep them all.  I shall do my duty.'
+
+'If you don't throw the doors open, we shall break 'em down,' said 
+Hugh; 'for we will have the rioters out.'
+
+'All I can do, good people,' Akerman replied, 'is to exhort you to 
+disperse; and to remind you that the consequences of any 
+disturbance in this place, will be very severe, and bitterly 
+repented by most of you, when it is too late.'
+
+He made as though he would retire when he said these words, but he 
+was checked by the voice of the locksmith.
+
+'Mr Akerman,' cried Gabriel, 'Mr Akerman.'
+
+'I will hear no more from any of you,' replied the governor, 
+turning towards the speaker, and waving his hand.
+
+'But I am not one of them,' said Gabriel.  'I am an honest man, 
+Mr Akerman; a respectable tradesman--Gabriel Varden, the locksmith.  
+You know me?' 
+
+'You among the crowd!' cried the governor in an altered voice.
+
+'Brought here by force--brought here to pick the lock of the great 
+door for them,' rejoined the locksmith.  'Bear witness for me, Mr 
+Akerman, that I refuse to do it; and that I will not do it, come 
+what may of my refusal.  If any violence is done to me, please to 
+remember this.'
+
+'Is there no way (if helping you?' said the governor.
+
+'None, Mr Akerman.  You'll do your duty, and I'll do mine.  Once 
+again, you robbers and cut-throats,' said the locksmith, turning 
+round upon them, 'I refuse.  Ah!  Howl till you're hoarse.  I 
+refuse.'
+
+'Stay--stay!' said the jailer, hastily.  'Mr Varden, I know you for 
+a worthy man, and one who would do no unlawful act except upon 
+compulsion--'
+
+'Upon compulsion, sir,' interposed the locksmith, who felt that the 
+tone in which this was said, conveyed the speaker's impression that 
+he had ample excuse for yielding to the furious multitude who beset 
+and hemmed him in, on every side, and among whom he stood, an old 
+man, quite alone; 'upon compulsion, sir, I'll do nothing.'
+
+'Where is that man,' said the keeper, anxiously, 'who spoke to me 
+just now?'
+
+'Here!' Hugh replied.
+
+'Do you know what the guilt of murder is, and that by keeping that 
+honest tradesman at your side you endanger his life!'
+
+'We know it very well,' he answered, 'for what else did we bring 
+him here?  Let's have our friends, master, and you shall have your 
+friend.  Is that fair, lads?'
+
+The mob replied to him with a loud Hurrah!
+
+'You see how it is, sir?' cried Varden.  'Keep 'em out, in King 
+George's name.  Remember what I have said.  Good night!'
+
+There was no more parley.  A shower of stones and other missiles 
+compelled the keeper of the jail to retire; and the mob, pressing 
+on, and swarming round the walls, forced Gabriel Varden close up to 
+the door.
+
+In vain the basket of tools was laid upon the ground before him, 
+and he was urged in turn by promises, by blows, by offers of 
+reward, and threats of instant death, to do the office for which 
+they had brought him there.  'No,' cried the sturdy locksmith, 'I 
+will not!'
+
+He had never loved his life so well as then, but nothing could move 
+him.  The savage faces that glared upon him, look where he would; 
+the cries of those who thirsted, like wild animals, for his blood; 
+the sight of men pressing forward, and trampling down their 
+fellows, as they strove to reach him, and struck at him above the 
+heads of other men, with axes and with iron bars; all failed to 
+daunt him.  He looked from man to man, and face to face, and still, 
+with quickened breath and lessening colour, cried firmly, 'I will 
+not!'
+
+Dennis dealt him a blow upon the face which felled him to the 
+ground.  He sprung up again like a man in the prime of life, and 
+with blood upon his forehead, caught him by the throat.
+
+'You cowardly dog!' he said: 'Give me my daughter.  Give me my 
+daughter.'
+
+They struggled together.  Some cried 'Kill him,' and some (but they 
+were not near enough) strove to trample him to death.  Tug as he 
+would at the old man's wrists, the hangman could not force him to 
+unclench his hands.
+
+'Is this all the return you make me, you ungrateful monster?' he 
+articulated with great difficulty, and with many oaths.
+
+'Give me my daughter!' cried the locksmith, who was now as fierce 
+as those who gathered round him: 'Give me my daughter!'
+
+He was down again, and up, and down once more, and buffeting with a 
+score of them, who bandied him from hand to hand, when one tall 
+fellow, fresh from a slaughter-house, whose dress and great thigh-
+boots smoked hot with grease and blood, raised a pole-axe, and 
+swearing a horrible oath, aimed it at the old man's uncovered head.  
+At that instant, and in the very act, he fell himself, as if struck 
+by lightning, and over his body a one-armed man came darting to the 
+locksmith's side.  Another man was with him, and both caught the 
+locksmith roughly in their grasp.
+
+'Leave him to us!' they cried to Hugh--struggling, as they spoke, 
+to force a passage backward through the crowd.  'Leave him to us.  
+Why do you waste your whole strength on such as he, when a couple 
+of men can finish him in as many minutes!  You lose time.  Remember 
+the prisoners! remember Barnaby!'
+
+The cry ran through the mob.  Hammers began to rattle on the walls; 
+and every man strove to reach the prison, and be among the foremost 
+rank.  Fighting their way through the press and struggle, as 
+desperately as if they were in the midst of enemies rather than 
+their own friends, the two men retreated with the locksmith between 
+them, and dragged him through the very heart of the concourse.
+
+And now the strokes began to fall like hail upon the gate, and on 
+the strong building; for those who could not reach the door, spent 
+their fierce rage on anything--even on the great blocks of stone, 
+which shivered their weapons into fragments, and made their hands 
+and arms to tingle as if the walls were active in their stout 
+resistance, and dealt them back their blows.  The clash of iron 
+ringing upon iron, mingled with the deafening tumult and sounded 
+high above it, as the great sledge-hammers rattled on the nailed 
+and plated door: the sparks flew off in showers; men worked in 
+gangs, and at short intervals relieved each other, that all their 
+strength might be devoted to the work; but there stood the portal 
+still, as grim and dark and strong as ever, and, saving for the 
+dints upon its battered surface, quite unchanged.
+
+While some brought all their energies to bear upon this toilsome 
+task; and some, rearing ladders against the prison, tried to 
+clamber to the summit of the walls they were too short to scale; 
+and some again engaged a body of police a hundred strong, and beat 
+them back and trod them under foot by force of numbers; others 
+besieged the house on which the jailer had appeared, and driving in 
+the door, brought out his furniture, and piled it up against the 
+prison-gate, to make a bonfire which should burn it down.  As soon 
+as this device was understood, all those who had laboured hitherto, 
+cast down their tools and helped to swell the heap; which reached 
+half-way across the street, and was so high, that those who threw 
+more fuel on the top, got up by ladders.  When all the keeper's 
+goods were flung upon this costly pile, to the last fragment, they 
+smeared it with the pitch, and tar, and rosin they had brought, and 
+sprinkled it with turpentine.  To all the woodwork round the 
+prison-doors they did the like, leaving not a joist or beam 
+untouched.  This infernal christening performed, they fired the 
+pile with lighted matches and with blazing tow, and then stood by, 
+awaiting the result.
+
+The furniture being very dry, and rendered more combustible by wax 
+and oil, besides the arts they had used, took fire at once.  The 
+flames roared high and fiercely, blackening the prison-wall, and 
+twining up its loftly front like burning serpents.  At first they 
+crowded round the blaze, and vented their exultation only in their 
+looks: but when it grew hotter and fiercer--when it crackled, 
+leaped, and roared, like a great furnace--when it shone upon the 
+opposite houses, and lighted up not only the pale and wondering 
+faces at the windows, but the inmost corners of each habitation--
+when through the deep red heat and glow, the fire was seen sporting 
+and toying with the door, now clinging to its obdurate surface, now 
+gliding off with fierce inconstancy and soaring high into the sky, 
+anon returning to fold it in its burning grasp and lure it to its 
+ruin--when it shone and gleamed so brightly that the church clock 
+of St Sepulchre's so often pointing to the hour of death, was 
+legible as in broad day, and the vane upon its steeple-top 
+glittered in the unwonted light like something richly jewelled--
+when blackened stone and sombre brick grew ruddy in the deep 
+reflection, and windows shone like burnished gold, dotting the 
+longest distance in the fiery vista with their specks of 
+brightness--when wall and tower, and roof and chimney-stack, seemed 
+drunk, and in the flickering glare appeared to reel and stagger--
+when scores of objects, never seen before, burst out upon the view, 
+and things the most familiar put on some new aspect--then the mob 
+began to join the whirl, and with loud yells, and shouts, and 
+clamour, such as happily is seldom heard, bestirred themselves to 
+feed the fire, and keep it at its height.
+
+Although the heat was so intense that the paint on the houses over 
+against the prison, parched and crackled up, and swelling into 
+boils, as it were from excess of torture, broke and crumbled away; 
+although the glass fell from the window-sashes, and the lead and 
+iron on the roofs blistered the incautious hand that touched them, 
+and the sparrows in the eaves took wing, and rendered giddy by the 
+smoke, fell fluttering down upon the blazing pile; still the fire 
+was tended unceasingly by busy hands, and round it, men were going 
+always.  They never slackened in their zeal, or kept aloof, but 
+pressed upon the flames so hard, that those in front had much ado 
+to save themselves from being thrust in; if one man swooned or 
+dropped, a dozen struggled for his place, and that although they 
+knew the pain, and thirst, and pressure to be unendurable.  Those 
+who fell down in fainting-fits, and were not crushed or burnt, 
+were carried to an inn-yard close at hand, and dashed with water 
+from a pump; of which buckets full were passed from man to man 
+among the crowd; but such was the strong desire of all to drink, 
+and such the fighting to be first, that, for the most part, the 
+whole contents were spilled upon the ground, without the lips of 
+one man being moistened.
+
+Meanwhile, and in the midst of all the roar and outcry, those who 
+were nearest to the pile, heaped up again the burning fragments 
+that came toppling down, and raked the fire about the door, which, 
+although a sheet of flame, was still a door fast locked and barred, 
+and kept them out.  Great pieces of blazing wood were passed, 
+besides, above the people's heads to such as stood about the 
+ladders, and some of these, climbing up to the topmost stave, and 
+holding on with one hand by the prison wall, exerted all their 
+skill and force to cast these fire-brands on the roof, or down into 
+the yards within.  In many instances their efforts were successful; 
+which occasioned a new and appalling addition to the horrors of the 
+scene: for the prisoners within, seeing from between their bars 
+that the fire caught in many places and thrived fiercely, and being 
+all locked up in strong cells for the night, began to know that 
+they were in danger of being burnt alive.  This terrible fear, 
+spreading from cell to cell and from yard to yard, vented itself in 
+such dismal cries and wailings, and in such dreadful shrieks for 
+help, that the whole jail resounded with the noise; which was 
+loudly heard even above the shouting of the mob and roaring of the 
+flames, and was so full of agony and despair, that it made the 
+boldest tremble.
+
+It was remarkable that these cries began in that quarter of the 
+jail which fronted Newgate Street, where, it was well known, the 
+men who were to suffer death on Thursday were confined.  And not 
+only were these four who had so short a time to live, the first to 
+whom the dread of being burnt occurred, but they were, throughout, 
+the most importunate of all: for they could be plainly heard, 
+notwithstanding the great thickness of the walls, crying that the 
+wind set that way, and that the flames would shortly reach them; 
+and calling to the officers of the jail to come and quench the 
+fire from a cistern which was in their yard, and full of water.  
+Judging from what the crowd outside the walls could hear from time 
+to time, these four doomed wretches never ceased to call for help; 
+and that with as much distraction, and in as great a frenzy of 
+attachment to existence, as though each had an honoured, happy 
+life before him, instead of eight-and-forty hours of miserable 
+imprisonment, and then a violent and shameful death.
+
+But the anguish and suffering of the two sons of one of these men, 
+when they heard, or fancied that they heard, their father's voice, 
+is past description.  After wringing their hands and rushing to and 
+fro as if they were stark mad, one mounted on the shoulders of his 
+brother, and tried to clamber up the face of the high wall, guarded 
+at the top with spikes and points of iron.  And when he fell among 
+the crowd, he was not deterred by his bruises, but mounted up 
+again, and fell again, and, when he found the feat impossible, 
+began to beat the stones and tear them with his hands, as if he 
+could that way make a breach in the strong building, and force a 
+passage in.  At last, they cleft their way among the mob about the 
+door, though many men, a dozen times their match, had tried in vain 
+to do so, and were seen, in--yes, in--the fire, striving to prize 
+it down, with crowbars.
+
+Nor were they alone affected by the outcry from within the prison.  
+The women who were looking on, shrieked loudly, beat their hands 
+together, stopped their ears; and many fainted: the men who were 
+not near the walls and active in the siege, rather than do nothing, 
+tore up the pavement of the street, and did so with a haste and 
+fury they could not have surpassed if that had been the jail, and 
+they were near their object.  Not one living creature in the throng 
+was for an instant still.  The whole great mass were mad.
+
+A shout!  Another!  Another yet, though few knew why, or what it 
+meant.  But those around the gate had seen it slowly yield, and 
+drop from its topmost hinge.  It hung on that side by but one, but 
+it was upright still, because of the bar, and its having sunk, of 
+its own weight, into the heap of ashes at its foot.  There was now 
+a gap at the top of the doorway, through which could be descried a 
+gloomy passage, cavernous and dark.  Pile up the fire!
+
+It burnt fiercely.  The door was red-hot, and the gap wider.  They 
+vainly tried to shield their faces with their hands, and standing 
+as if in readiness for a spring, watched the place.  Dark figures, 
+some crawling on their hands and knees, some carried in the arms of 
+others, were seen to pass along the roof.  It was plain the jail 
+could hold out no longer.  The keeper, and his officers, and their 
+wives and children, were escaping.  Pile up the fire!
+
+The door sank down again: it settled deeper in the cinders--
+tottered--yielded--was down!
+
+As they shouted again, they fell back, for a moment, and left a 
+clear space about the fire that lay between them and the jail 
+entry.  Hugh leapt upon the blazing heap, and scattering a train of 
+sparks into the air, and making the dark lobby glitter with those 
+that hung upon his dress, dashed into the jail.
+
+The hangman followed.  And then so many rushed upon their track, 
+that the fire got trodden down and thinly strewn about the street; 
+but there was no need of it now, for, inside and out, the prison 
+was in flames.
+
+
+
+Chapter 65
+
+
+During the whole course of the terrible scene which was now at its 
+height, one man in the jail suffered a degree of fear and mental 
+torment which had no parallel in the endurance, even of those who 
+lay under sentence of death.
+
+When the rioters first assembled before the building, the murderer 
+was roused from sleep--if such slumbers as his may have that 
+blessed name--by the roar of voices, and the struggling of a great 
+crowd.  He started up as these sounds met his ear, and, sitting on 
+his bedstead, listened.
+
+After a short interval of silence the noise burst out again.  Still 
+listening attentively, he made out, in course of time, that the 
+jail was besieged by a furious multitude.  His guilty conscience 
+instantly arrayed these men against himself, and brought the fear 
+upon him that he would be singled out, and torn to pieces.
+
+Once impressed with the terror of this conceit, everything tended 
+to confirm and strengthen it.  His double crime, the circumstances 
+under which it had been committed, the length of time that had 
+elapsed, and its discovery in spite of all, made him, as it were, 
+the visible object of the Almighty's wrath.  In all the crime and 
+vice and moral gloom of the great pest-house of the capital, he 
+stood alone, marked and singled out by his great guilt, a Lucifer 
+among the devils.  The other prisoners were a host, hiding and 
+sheltering each other--a crowd like that without the walls.  He was 
+one man against the whole united concourse; a single, solitary, 
+lonely man, from whom the very captives in the jail fell off and 
+shrunk appalled.
+
+It might be that the intelligence of his capture having been 
+bruited abroad, they had come there purposely to drag him out and 
+kill him in the street; or it might be that they were the rioters, 
+and, in pursuance of an old design, had come to sack the prison.  
+But in either case he had no belief or hope that they would spare 
+him.  Every shout they raised, and every sound they made, was a 
+blow upon his heart.  As the attack went on, he grew more wild and 
+frantic in his terror: tried to pull away the bars that guarded the 
+chimney and prevented him from climbing up: called loudly on the 
+turnkeys to cluster round the cell and save him from the fury of 
+the rabble; or put him in some dungeon underground, no matter of 
+what depth, how dark it was, or loathsome, or beset with rats and 
+creeping things, so that it hid him and was hard to find.
+
+But no one came, or answered him.  Fearful, even while he cried to 
+them, of attracting attention, he was silent.  By and bye, he saw, 
+as he looked from his grated window, a strange glimmering on the 
+stone walls and pavement of the yard.  It was feeble at first, and 
+came and went, as though some officers with torches were passing to 
+and fro upon the roof of the prison.  Soon it reddened, and lighted 
+brands came whirling down, spattering the ground with fire, and 
+burning sullenly in corners.  One rolled beneath a wooden bench, 
+and set it in a blaze; another caught a water-spout, and so went 
+climbing up the wall, leaving a long straight track of fire behind 
+it.  After a time, a slow thick shower of burning fragments, from 
+some upper portion of the prison which was blazing nigh, began to 
+fall before his door.  Remembering that it opened outwards, he knew 
+that every spark which fell upon the heap, and in the act lost its 
+bright life, and died an ugly speck of dust and rubbish, helped to 
+entomb him in a living grave.  Still, though the jail resounded 
+with shrieks and cries for help,--though the fire bounded up as if 
+each separate flame had had a tiger's life, and roared as though, 
+in every one, there were a hungry voice--though the heat began to 
+grow intense, and the air suffocating, and the clamour without 
+increased, and the danger of his situation even from one merciless 
+element was every moment more extreme,--still he was afraid to 
+raise his voice again, lest the crowd should break in, and should, 
+of their own ears or from the information given them by the other 
+prisoners, get the clue to his place of confinement.  Thus fearful 
+alike, of those within the prison and of those without; of noise 
+and silence; light and darkness; of being released, and being left 
+there to die; he was so tortured and tormented, that nothing man 
+has ever done to man in the horrible caprice of power and cruelty, 
+exceeds his self-inflicted punishment.
+
+Now, now, the door was down.  Now they came rushing through the 
+jail, calling to each other in the vaulted passages; clashing the 
+iron gates dividing yard from yard; beating at the doors of cells 
+and wards; wrenching off bolts and locks and bars; tearing down the 
+door-posts to get men out; endeavouring to drag them by main force 
+through gaps and windows where a child could scarcely pass; 
+whooping and yelling without a moment's rest; and running through 
+the heat and flames as if they were cased in metal.  By their legs, 
+their arms, the hair upon their heads, they dragged the prisoners 
+out.  Some threw themselves upon the captives as they got towards 
+the door, and tried to file away their irons; some danced about 
+them with a frenzied joy, and rent their clothes, and were ready, 
+as it seemed, to tear them limb from limb.  Now a party of a dozen 
+men came darting through the yard into which the murderer cast 
+fearful glances from his darkened window; dragging a prisoner along 
+the ground whose dress they had nearly torn from his body in their 
+mad eagerness to set him free, and who was bleeding and senseless 
+in their hands.  Now a score of prisoners ran to and fro, who had 
+lost themselves in the intricacies of the prison, and were so 
+bewildered with the noise and glare that they knew not where to 
+turn or what to do, and still cried out for help, as loudly as 
+before.  Anon some famished wretch whose theft had been a loaf of 
+bread, or scrap of butcher's meat, came skulking past, barefooted--
+going slowly away because that jail, his house, was burning; not 
+because he had any other, or had friends to meet, or old haunts to 
+revisit, or any liberty to gain, but liberty to starve and die.  
+And then a knot of highwaymen went trooping by, conducted by the 
+friends they had among the crowd, who muffled their fetters as they 
+went along, with handkerchiefs and bands of hay, and wrapped them 
+in coats and cloaks, and gave them drink from bottles, and held it 
+to their lips, because of their handcuffs which there was no time 
+to remove.  All this, and Heaven knows how much more, was done 
+amidst a noise, a hurry, and distraction, like nothing that we know 
+of, even in our dreams; which seemed for ever on the rise, and 
+never to decrease for the space of a single instant.
+
+He was still looking down from his window upon these things, when a 
+band of men with torches, ladders, axes, and many kinds of weapons, 
+poured into the yard, and hammering at his door, inquired if there 
+were any prisoner within.  He left the window when he saw them 
+coming, and drew back into the remotest corner of the cell; but 
+although he returned them no answer, they had a fancy that some one 
+was inside, for they presently set ladders against it, and began to 
+tear away the bars at the casement; not only that, indeed, but with 
+pickaxes to hew down the very stones in the wall.
+
+As soon as they had made a breach at the window, large enough for 
+the admission of a man's head, one of them thrust in a torch and 
+looked all round the room.  He followed this man's gaze until it 
+rested on himself, and heard him demand why he had not answered, 
+but made him no reply.
+
+In the general surprise and wonder, they were used to this; without 
+saying anything more, they enlarged the breach until it was large 
+enough to admit the body of a man, and then came dropping down upon 
+the floor, one after another, until the cell was full.  They caught 
+him up among them, handed him to the window, and those who stood 
+upon the ladders passed him down upon the pavement of the yard.  
+Then the rest came out, one after another, and, bidding him fly, 
+and lose no time, or the way would be choked up, hurried away to 
+rescue others.
+
+It seemed not a minute's work from first to last.  He staggered to 
+his feet, incredulous of what had happened, when the yard was 
+filled again, and a crowd rushed on, hurrying Barnaby among them.  
+In another minute--not so much: another minute! the same instant, 
+with no lapse or interval between!--he and his son were being 
+passed from hand to hand, through the dense crowd in the street, 
+and were glancing backward at a burning pile which some one said 
+was Newgate.
+
+From the moment of their first entrance into the prison, the crowd 
+dispersed themselves about it, and swarmed into every chink and 
+crevice, as if they had a perfect acquaintance with its innermost 
+parts, and bore in their minds an exact plan of the whole.  For 
+this immediate knowledge of the place, they were, no doubt, in a 
+great degree, indebted to the hangman, who stood in the lobby, 
+directing some to go this way, some that, and some the other; and 
+who materially assisted in bringing about the wonderful rapidity 
+with which the release of the prisoners was effected.
+
+But this functionary of the law reserved one important piece of 
+intelligence, and kept it snugly to himself.  When he had issued 
+his instructions relative to every other part of the building, and 
+the mob were dispersed from end to end, and busy at their work, he 
+took a bundle of keys from a kind of cupboard in the wall, and 
+going by a kind of passage near the chapel (it joined the governors 
+house, and was then on fire), betook himself to the condemned 
+cells, which were a series of small, strong, dismal rooms, opening 
+on a low gallery, guarded, at the end at which he entered, by a 
+strong iron wicket, and at its opposite extremity by two doors and 
+a thick grate.  Having double locked the wicket, and assured 
+himself that the other entrances were well secured, he sat down on 
+a bench in the gallery, and sucked the head of his stick with the 
+utmost complacency, tranquillity, and contentment.
+
+It would have been strange enough, a man's enjoying himself in this 
+quiet manner, while the prison was burning, and such a tumult was 
+cleaving the air, though he had been outside the walls.  But here, 
+in the very heart of the building, and moreover with the prayers 
+and cries of the four men under sentence sounding in his ears, and 
+their hands, stretched our through the gratings in their cell-
+doors, clasped in frantic entreaty before his very eyes, it was 
+particularly remarkable.  Indeed, Mr Dennis appeared to think it an 
+uncommon circumstance, and to banter himself upon it; for he thrust 
+his hat on one side as some men do when they are in a waggish 
+humour, sucked the head of his stick with a higher relish, and 
+smiled as though he would say, 'Dennis, you're a rum dog; you're a 
+queer fellow; you're capital company, Dennis, and quite a 
+character!'
+
+He sat in this way for some minutes, while the four men in the 
+cells, who were certain that somebody had entered the gallery, but 
+could not see who, gave vent to such piteous entreaties as wretches 
+in their miserable condition may be supposed to have been inspired 
+with: urging, whoever it was, to set them at liberty, for the love 
+of Heaven; and protesting, with great fervour, and truly enough, 
+perhaps, for the time, that if they escaped, they would amend their 
+ways, and would never, never, never again do wrong before God or 
+man, but would lead penitent and sober lives, and sorrowfully 
+repent the crimes they had committed.  The terrible energy with 
+which they spoke, would have moved any person, no matter how good 
+or just (if any good or just person could have strayed into that 
+sad place that night), to have set them at liberty: and, while he 
+would have left any other punishment to its free course, to have 
+saved them from this last dreadful and repulsive penalty; which 
+never turned a man inclined to evil, and has hardened thousands who 
+were half inclined to good.
+
+Mr Dennis, who had been bred and nurtured in the good old school, 
+and had administered the good old laws on the good old plan, always 
+once and sometimes twice every six weeks, for a long time, bore 
+these appeals with a deal of philosophy.  Being at last, however, 
+rather disturbed in his pleasant reflection by their repetition, he 
+rapped at one of the doors with his stick, and cried:
+
+'Hold your noise there, will you?'
+
+At this they all cried together that they were to be hanged on the 
+next day but one; and again implored his aid.
+
+'Aid! For what!' said Mr Dennis, playfully rapping the knuckles of 
+the hand nearest him.
+
+'To save us!' they cried.
+
+'Oh, certainly,' said Mr Dennis, winking at the wall in the absence 
+of any friend with whom he could humour the joke.  'And so you're 
+to be worked off, are you, brothers?'
+
+'Unless we are released to-night,' one of them cried, 'we are dead 
+men!'
+
+'I tell you what it is,' said the hangman, gravely; 'I'm afraid, my 
+friend, that you're not in that 'ere state of mind that's suitable 
+to your condition, then; you're not a-going to be released: don't 
+think it--Will you leave off that 'ere indecent row?  I wonder you 
+an't ashamed of yourselves, I do.'
+
+He followed up this reproof by rapping every set of knuckles one 
+after the other, and having done so, resumed his seat again with a 
+cheerful countenance.
+
+'You've had law,' he said, crossing his legs and elevating his 
+eyebrows: 'laws have been made a' purpose for you; a wery handsome 
+prison's been made a' purpose for you; a parson's kept a purpose 
+for you; a constitootional officer's appointed a' purpose for you; 
+carts is maintained a' purpose for you--and yet you're not 
+contented!--WILL you hold that noise, you sir in the furthest?'
+
+A groan was the only answer.
+
+'So well as I can make out,' said Mr Dennis, in a tone of mingled 
+badinage and remonstrance, 'there's not a man among you.  I begin 
+to think I'm on the opposite side, and among the ladies; though for 
+the matter of that, I've seen a many ladies face it out, in a 
+manner that did honour to the sex.--You in number two, don't grind 
+them teeth of yours.  Worse manners,' said the hangman, rapping at 
+the door with his stick, 'I never see in this place afore.  I'm 
+ashamed of you.  You're a disgrace to the Bailey.'
+
+After pausing for a moment to hear if anything could be pleaded in 
+justification, Mr Dennis resumed in a sort of coaxing tone:
+
+'Now look'ee here, you four.  I'm come here to take care of you, 
+and see that you an't burnt, instead of the other thing.  It's no 
+use your making any noise, for you won't be found out by them as 
+has broken in, and you'll only be hoarse when you come to the 
+speeches,--which is a pity.  What I say in respect to the speeches 
+always is, "Give it mouth."  That's my maxim.  Give it mouth.  I've 
+heerd,' said the hangman, pulling off his hat to take his 
+handkerchief from the crown and wipe his face, and then putting it 
+on again a little more on one side than before, 'I've heerd a 
+eloquence on them boards--you know what boards I mean--and have 
+heerd a degree of mouth given to them speeches, that they was as 
+clear as a bell, and as good as a play.  There's a pattern!  And 
+always, when a thing of this natur's to come off, what I stand up 
+for, is, a proper frame of mind.  Let's have a proper frame of 
+mind, and we can go through with it, creditable--pleasant--
+sociable.  Whatever you do (and I address myself in particular, to 
+you in the furthest), never snivel.  I'd sooner by half, though I 
+lose by it, see a man tear his clothes a' purpose to spile 'em 
+before they come to me, than find him snivelling.  It's ten to one 
+a better frame of mind, every way!'
+
+While the hangman addressed them to this effect, in the tone and 
+with the air of a pastor in familiar conversation with his flock, 
+the noise had been in some degree subdued; for the rioters were 
+busy in conveying the prisoners to the Sessions House, which was 
+beyond the main walls of the prison, though connected with it, and 
+the crowd were busy too, in passing them from thence along the 
+street.  But when he had got thus far in his discourse, the sound 
+of voices in the yard showed plainly that the mob had returned and 
+were coming that way; and directly afterwards a violent crashing at 
+the grate below, gave note of their attack upon the cells (as they 
+were called) at last.
+
+It was in vain the hangman ran from door to door, and covered the 
+grates, one after another, with his hat, in futile efforts to 
+stifle the cries of the four men within; it was in vain he dogged 
+their outstretched hands, and beat them with his stick, or menaced 
+them with new and lingering pains in the execution of his office; 
+the place resounded with their cries.  These, together with the 
+feeling that they were now the last men in the jail, so worked upon 
+and stimulated the besiegers, that in an incredibly short space of 
+time they forced the strong grate down below, which was formed of 
+iron rods two inches square, drove in the two other doors, as if 
+they had been but deal partitions, and stood at the end of the 
+gallery with only a bar or two between them and the cells.
+
+'Halloa!' cried Hugh, who was the first to look into the dusky 
+passage: 'Dennis before us!  Well done, old boy.  Be quick, and 
+open here, for we shall be suffocated in the smoke, going out.'
+
+'Go out at once, then,' said Dennis.  'What do you want here?'
+
+'Want!' echoed Hugh.  'The four men.'
+
+'Four devils!' cried the hangman.  'Don't you know they're left for 
+death on Thursday?  Don't you respect the law--the constitootion--
+nothing?  Let the four men be.'
+
+'Is this a time for joking?' cried Hugh.  'Do you hear 'em?  Pull 
+away these bars that have got fixed between the door and the 
+ground; and let us in.'
+
+'Brother,' said the hangman, in a low voice, as he stooped under 
+pretence of doing what Hugh desired, but only looked up in his 
+face, 'can't you leave these here four men to me, if I've the whim!  
+You do what you like, and have what you like of everything for your 
+share,--give me my share.  I want these four men left alone, I tell 
+you!'
+
+'Pull the bars down, or stand out of the way,' was Hugh's reply.
+
+'You can turn the crowd if you like, you know that well enough, 
+brother,' said the hangman, slowly.  'What!  You WILL come in, will 
+you?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'You won't let these men alone, and leave 'em to me?  You've no 
+respect for nothing--haven't you?' said the hangman, retreating to 
+the door by which he had entered, and regarding his companion with 
+a scowl.  'You WILL come in, will you, brother!'
+
+'I tell you, yes.  What the devil ails you?  Where are you going?'
+
+'No matter where I'm going,' rejoined the hangman, looking in again 
+at the iron wicket, which he had nearly shut upon himself, and 
+held ajar.  'Remember where you're coming.  That's all!'
+
+With that, he shook his likeness at Hugh, and giving him a grin, 
+compared with which his usual smile was amiable, disappeared, and 
+shut the door.
+
+Hugh paused no longer, but goaded alike by the cries of the 
+convicts, and by the impatience of the crowd, warned the man 
+immediately behind him--the way was only wide enough for one 
+abreast--to stand back, and wielded a sledge-hammer with such 
+strength, that after a few blows the iron bent and broke, and gave 
+them free admittance.
+
+It the two sons of one of these men, of whom mention has been made, 
+were furious in their zeal before, they had now the wrath and 
+vigour of lions.  Calling to the man within each cell, to keep as 
+far back as he could, lest the axes crashing through the door 
+should wound him, a party went to work upon each one, to beat it in 
+by sheer strength, and force the bolts and staples from their hold.  
+But although these two lads had the weakest party, and the worst 
+armed, and did not begin until after the others, having stopped to 
+whisper to him through the grate, that door was the first open, and 
+that man was the first out.  As they dragged him into the gallery 
+to knock off his irons, he fell down among them, a mere heap of 
+chains, and was carried out in that state on men's shoulders, with 
+no sign of life.
+
+The release of these four wretched creatures, and conveying them, 
+astounded and bewildered, into the streets so full of life--a 
+spectacle they had never thought to see again, until they emerged 
+from solitude and silence upon that last journey, when the air 
+should be heavy with the pent-up breath of thousands, and the 
+streets and houses should be built and roofed with human faces, not 
+with bricks and tiles and stones--was the crowning horror of the 
+scene.  Their pale and haggard looks and hollow eyes; their 
+staggering feet, and hands stretched out as if to save themselves 
+from falling; their wandering and uncertain air; the way they 
+heaved and gasped for breath, as though in water, when they were 
+first plunged into the crowd; all marked them for the men.  No need 
+to say 'this one was doomed to die;' for there were the words 
+broadly stamped and branded on his face.  The crowd fell off, as if 
+they had been laid out for burial, and had risen in their shrouds; 
+and many were seen to shudder, as though they had been actually 
+dead men, when they chanced to touch or brush against their 
+garments.
+
+At the bidding of the mob, the houses were all illuminated that 
+night--lighted up from top to bottom as at a time of public gaiety 
+and joy.  Many years afterwards, old people who lived in their 
+youth near this part of the city, remembered being in a great glare 
+of light, within doors and without, and as they looked, timid and 
+frightened children, from the windows, seeing a FACE go by.  Though 
+the whole great crowd and all its other terrors had faded from 
+their recollection, this one object remained; alone, distinct, and 
+well remembered.  Even in the unpractised minds of infants, one of 
+these doomed men darting past, and but an instant seen, was an 
+image of force enough to dim the whole concourse; to find itself an 
+all-absorbing place, and hold it ever after.
+
+When this last task had been achieved, the shouts and cries grew 
+fainter; the clank of fetters, which had resounded on all sides as 
+the prisoners escaped, was heard no more; all the noises of the 
+crowd subsided into a hoarse and sullen murmur as it passed into 
+the distance; and when the human tide had rolled away, a melancholy 
+heap of smoking ruins marked the spot where it had lately chafed 
+and roared.
+
+
+
+Chapter 66
+
+
+Although he had had no rest upon the previous night, and had 
+watched with little intermission for some weeks past, sleeping only 
+in the day by starts and snatches, Mr Haredale, from the dawn of 
+morning until sunset, sought his niece in every place where he 
+deemed it possible she could have taken refuge.  All day long, 
+nothing, save a draught of water, passed his lips; though he 
+prosecuted his inquiries far and wide, and never so much as sat 
+down, once.
+
+In every quarter he could think of; at Chigwell and in London; at 
+the houses of the tradespeople with whom he dealt, and of the 
+friends he knew; he pursued his search.  A prey to the most 
+harrowing anxieties and apprehensions, he went from magistrate to 
+magistrate, and finally to the Secretary of State.  The only 
+comfort he received was from this minister, who assured him that 
+the Government, being now driven to the exercise of the extreme 
+prerogatives of the Crown, were determined to exert them; that a 
+proclamation would probably be out upon the morrow, giving to the 
+military, discretionary and unlimited power in the suppression of 
+the riots; that the sympathies of the King, the Administration, and 
+both Houses of Parliament, and indeed of all good men of every 
+religious persuasion, were strongly with the injured Catholics; and 
+that justice should be done them at any cost or hazard.  He told 
+him, moreover, that other persons whose houses had been burnt, had 
+for a time lost sight of their children or their relatives, but 
+had, in every case, within his knowledge, succeeded in discovering 
+them; that his complaint should be remembered, and fully stated in 
+the instructions given to the officers in command, and to all the 
+inferior myrmidons of justice; and that everything that could be 
+done to help him, should be done, with a goodwill and in good 
+faith.
+
+Grateful for this consolation, feeble as it was in its reference to 
+the past, and little hope as it afforded him in connection with the 
+subject of distress which lay nearest to his heart; and really 
+thankful for the interest the minister expressed, and seemed to 
+feel, in his condition; Mr Haredale withdrew.  He found himself, 
+with the night coming on, alone in the streets; and destitute of 
+any place in which to lay his head.
+
+He entered an hotel near Charing Cross, and ordered some 
+refreshment and a bed.  He saw that his faint and worn appearance 
+attracted the attention of the landlord and his waiters; and 
+thinking that they might suppose him to be penniless, took out his 
+purse, and laid it on the table.  It was not that, the landlord 
+said, in a faltering voice.  If he were one of those who had 
+suffered by the rioters, he durst not give him entertainment.  He 
+had a family of children, and had been twice warned to be careful 
+in receiving guests.  He heartily prayed his forgiveness, but what 
+could he do?
+
+Nothing.  No man felt that more sincerely than Mr Haredale.  He 
+told the man as much, and left the house.
+
+Feeling that he might have anticipated this occurrence, after what 
+he had seen at Chigwell in the morning, where no man dared to touch 
+a spade, though he offered a large reward to all who would come and 
+dig among the ruins of his house, he walked along the Strand; too 
+proud to expose himself to another refusal, and of too generous a 
+spirit to involve in distress or ruin any honest tradesman who 
+might be weak enough to give him shelter.  He wandered into one of 
+the streets by the side of the river, and was pacing in a 
+thoughtful manner up and down, thinking of things that had happened 
+long ago, when he heard a servant-man at an upper window call to 
+another on the opposite side of the street, that the mob were 
+setting fire to Newgate.
+
+To Newgate! where that man was!  His failing strength returned, 
+his energies came back with tenfold vigour, on the instant.  If it 
+were possible--if they should set the murderer free--was he, after 
+all he had undergone, to die with the suspicion of having slain his 
+own brother, dimly gathering about him--
+
+He had no consciousness of going to the jail; but there he stood, 
+before it.  There was the crowd wedged and pressed together in a 
+dense, dark, moving mass; and there were the flames soaring up into 
+the air.  His head turned round and round, lights flashed before 
+his eyes, and he struggled hard with two men.
+
+'Nay, nay,' said one.  'Be more yourself, my good sir.  We attract 
+attention here.  Come away.  What can you do among so many men?'
+
+'The gentleman's always for doing something,' said the other, 
+forcing him along as he spoke.  'I like him for that.  I do like 
+him for that.'
+
+They had by this time got him into a court, hard by the prison.  He 
+looked from one to the other, and as he tried to release himself, 
+felt that he tottered on his feet.  He who had spoken first, was 
+the old gentleman whom he had seen at the Lord Mayor's.  The other 
+was John Grueby, who had stood by him so manfully at Westminster.
+
+'What does this mean?' he asked them faintly.  'How came we 
+together?'
+
+'On the skirts of the crowd,' returned the distiller; 'but come 
+with us.  Pray come with us.  You seem to know my friend here?'
+
+'Surely,' said Mr Haredale, looking in a kind of stupor at John.
+
+'He'll tell you then,' returned the old gentleman, 'that I am a man 
+to be trusted.  He's my servant.  He was lately (as you know, I 
+have no doubt) in Lord George Gordon's service; but he left it, and 
+brought, in pure goodwill to me and others, who are marked by the 
+rioters, such intelligence as he had picked up, of their designs.'
+
+--'On one condition, please, sir,' said John, touching his hat.  No 
+evidence against my lord--a misled man--a kind-hearted man, sir.  
+My lord never intended this.'
+
+'The condition will be observed, of course,' rejoined the old 
+distiller.  'It's a point of honour.  But come with us, sir; pray 
+come with us.'
+
+John Grueby added no entreaties, but he adopted a different kind of 
+persuasion, by putting his arm through one of Mr Haredale's, while 
+his master took the other, and leading him away with all speed.
+
+Sensible, from a strange lightness in his head, and a difficulty in 
+fixing his thoughts on anything, even to the extent of bearing his 
+companions in his mind for a minute together without looking at 
+them, that his brain was affected by the agitation and suffering 
+through which he had passed, and to which he was still a prey, Mr 
+Haredale let them lead him where they would.  As they went along, 
+he was conscious of having no command over what he said or thought, 
+and that he had a fear of going mad.
+
+The distiller lived, as he had told him when they first met, on 
+Holborn Hill, where he had great storehouses and drove a large 
+trade.  They approached his house by a back entrance, lest they 
+should attract the notice of the crowd, and went into an upper 
+room which faced towards the street; the windows, however, in 
+common with those of every other room in the house, were boarded up 
+inside, in order that, out of doors, all might appear quite dark.
+
+They laid him on a sofa in this chamber, perfectly insensible; but 
+John immediately fetching a surgeon, who took from him a large 
+quantity of blood, he gradually came to himself.  As he was, for 
+the time, too weak to walk, they had no difficulty in persuading 
+him to remain there all night, and got him to bed without loss of a 
+minute.  That done, they gave him cordial and some toast, and 
+presently a pretty strong composing-draught, under the influence 
+of which he soon fell into a lethargy, and, for a time, forgot his 
+troubles.
+
+The vintner, who was a very hearty old fellow and a worthy man, had 
+no thoughts of going to bed himself, for he had received several 
+threatening warnings from the rioters, and had indeed gone out that 
+evening to try and gather from the conversation of the mob whether 
+his house was to be the next attacked.  He sat all night in an 
+easy-chair in the same room--dozing a little now and then--and 
+received from time to time the reports of John Grueby and two or 
+three other trustworthy persons in his employ, who went out into 
+the streets as scouts; and for whose entertainment an ample 
+allowance of good cheer (which the old vintner, despite his 
+anxiety, now and then attacked himself) was set forth in an 
+adjoining chamber.
+
+These accounts were of a sufficiently alarming nature from the 
+first; but as the night wore on, they grew so much worse, and 
+involved such a fearful amount of riot and destruction, that in 
+comparison with these new tidings all the previous disturbances 
+sunk to nothing.
+
+The first intelligence that came, was of the taking of Newgate, and 
+the escape of all the prisoners, whose track, as they made up 
+Holborn and into the adjacent streets, was proclaimed to those 
+citizens who were shut up in their houses, by the rattling of 
+their chains, which formed a dismal concert, and was heard in every 
+direction, as though so many forges were at work.  The flames too, 
+shone so brightly through the vintner's skylights, that the rooms 
+and staircases below were nearly as light as in broad day; while 
+the distant shouting of the mob seemed to shake the very walls and 
+ceilings.
+
+At length they were heard approaching the house, and some minutes 
+of terrible anxiety ensued.  They came close up, and stopped before 
+it; but after giving three loud yells, went on.  And although they 
+returned several times that night, creating new alarms each time, 
+they did nothing there; having their hands full.  Shortly after 
+they had gone away for the first time, one of the scouts came 
+running in with the news that they had stopped before Lord 
+Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square.
+
+Soon afterwards there came another, and another, and then the first 
+returned again, and so, by little and little, their tale was this:--
+That the mob gathering round Lord Mansfield's house, had called on 
+those within to open the door, and receiving no reply (for Lord and 
+Lady Mansfield were at that moment escaping by the backway), forced 
+an entrance according to their usual custom.  That they then began 
+to demolish the house with great fury, and setting fire to it in 
+several parts, involved in a common ruin the whole of the costly 
+furniture, the plate and jewels, a beautiful gallery of pictures, 
+the rarest collection of manuscripts ever possessed by any one 
+private person in the world, and worse than all, because nothing 
+could replace this loss, the great Law Library, on almost every 
+page of which were notes in the Judge's own hand, of inestimable 
+value,--being the results of the study and experience of his whole 
+life.  That while they were howling and exulting round the fire, a 
+troop of soldiers, with a magistrate among them, came up, and being 
+too late (for the mischief was by that time done), began to 
+disperse the crowd.  That the Riot Act being read, and the crowd 
+still resisting, the soldiers received orders to fire, and 
+levelling their muskets shot dead at the first discharge six men 
+and a woman, and wounded many persons; and loading again directly, 
+fired another volley, but over the people's heads it was supposed, 
+as none were seen to fall.  That thereupon, and daunted by the 
+shrieks and tumult, the crowd began to disperse, and the soldiers 
+went away, leaving the killed and wounded on the ground: which they 
+had no sooner done than the rioters came back again, and taking up 
+the dead bodies, and the wounded people, formed into a rude 
+procession, having the bodies in the front.  That in this order 
+they paraded off with a horrible merriment; fixing weapons in the 
+dead men's hands to make them look as if alive; and preceded by a 
+fellow ringing Lord Mansfield's dinner-bell with all his might.
+
+The scouts reported further, that this party meeting with some 
+others who had been at similar work elsewhere, they all united into 
+one, and drafting off a few men with the killed and wounded, 
+marched away to Lord Mansfield's country seat at Caen Wood, between 
+Hampstead and Highgate; bent upon destroying that house likewise, 
+and lighting up a great fire there, which from that height should 
+be seen all over London.  But in this, they were disappointed, for 
+a party of horse having arrived before them, they retreated faster 
+than they went, and came straight back to town.
+
+There being now a great many parties in the streets, each went to 
+work according to its humour, and a dozen houses were quickly 
+blazing, including those of Sir John Fielding and two other 
+justices, and four in Holborn--one of the greatest thoroughfares in 
+London--which were all burning at the same time, and burned until 
+they went out of themselves, for the people cut the engine hose, 
+and would not suffer the firemen to play upon the flames.  At one 
+house near Moorfields, they found in one of the rooms some canary 
+birds in cages, and these they cast into the fire alive.  The poor 
+little creatures screamed, it was said, like infants, when they 
+were flung upon the blaze; and one man was so touched that he tried 
+in vain to save them, which roused the indignation of the crowd, 
+and nearly cost him his life.
+
+At this same house, one of the fellows who went through the rooms, 
+breaking the furniture and helping to destroy the building, found a 
+child's doll--a poor toy--which he exhibited at the window to the 
+mob below, as the image of some unholy saint which the late 
+occupants had worshipped.  While he was doing this, another man 
+with an equally tender conscience (they had both been foremost in 
+throwing down the canary birds for roasting alive), took his seat 
+on the parapet of the house, and harangued the crowd from a 
+pamphlet circulated by the Association, relative to the true 
+principles of Christianity!  Meanwhile the Lord Mayor, with his 
+hands in his pockets, looked on as an idle man might look at any 
+other show, and seemed mightily satisfied to have got a good place.
+
+Such were the accounts brought to the old vintner by his servants 
+as he sat at the side of Mr Haredale's bed, having been unable even 
+to doze, after the first part of the night; too much disturbed by 
+his own fears; by the cries of the mob, the light of the fires, and 
+the firing of the soldiers.  Such, with the addition of the release 
+of all the prisoners in the New Jail at Clerkenwell, and as many 
+robberies of passengers in the streets, as the crowd had leisure to 
+indulge in, were the scenes of which Mr Haredale was happily 
+unconscious, and which were all enacted before midnight.
+
+
+
+Chapter 67
+
+
+When darkness broke away and morning began to dawn, the town wore a 
+strange aspect indeed.
+
+Sleep had hardly been thought of all night.  The general alarm was 
+so apparent in the faces of the inhabitants, and its expression was 
+so aggravated by want of rest (few persons, with any property to 
+lose, having dared go to bed since Monday), that a stranger coming 
+into the streets would have supposed some mortal pest or plague to 
+have been raging.  In place of the usual cheerfulness and animation 
+of morning, everything was dead and silent.  The shops remained 
+closed, offices and warehouses were shut, the coach and chair 
+stands were deserted, no carts or waggons rumbled through the 
+slowly waking streets, the early cries were all hushed; a universal 
+gloom prevailed.  Great numbers of people were out, even at 
+daybreak, but they flitted to and fro as though they shrank from 
+the sound of their own footsteps; the public ways were haunted 
+rather than frequented; and round the smoking ruins people stood 
+apart from one another and in silence, not venturing to condemn 
+the rioters, or to be supposed to do so, even in whispers.
+
+At the Lord President's in Piccadilly, at Lambeth Palace, at the 
+Lord Chancellor's in Great Ormond Street, in the Royal Exchange, 
+the Bank, the Guildhall, the Inns of Court, the Courts of Law, and 
+every chamber fronting the streets near Westminster Hall and the 
+Houses of Parliament, parties of soldiers were posted before 
+daylight.  A body of Horse Guards paraded Palace Yard; an 
+encampment was formed in the Park, where fifteen hundred men and 
+five battalions of Militia were under arms; the Tower was 
+fortified, the drawbridges were raised, the cannon loaded and 
+pointed, and two regiments of artillery busied in strengthening the 
+fortress and preparing it for defence.  A numerous detachment of 
+soldiers were stationed to keep guard at the New River Head, which 
+the people had threatened to attack, and where, it was said, they 
+meant to cut off the main-pipes, so that there might be no water 
+for the extinction of the flames.  In the Poultry, and on Cornhill, 
+and at several other leading points, iron chains were drawn across 
+the street; parties of soldiers were distributed in some of the old 
+city churches while it was yet dark; and in several private houses 
+(among them, Lord Rockingham's in Grosvenor Square); which were 
+blockaded as though to sustain a siege, and had guns pointed from 
+the windows.  When the sun rose, it shone into handsome apartments 
+filled with armed men; the furniture hastily heaped away in 
+corners, and made of little or no account, in the terror of the 
+time--on arms glittering in city chambers, among desks and stools, 
+and dusty books--into little smoky churchyards in odd lanes and by-
+ways, with soldiers lying down among the tombs, or lounging under 
+the shade of the one old tree, and their pile of muskets sparkling 
+in the light--on solitary sentries pacing up and down in 
+courtyards, silent now, but yesterday resounding with the din and 
+hum of business--everywhere on guard-rooms, garrisons, and 
+threatening preparations.
+
+As the day crept on, still more unusual sights were witnessed in 
+the streets.  The gates of the King's Bench and Fleet Prisons 
+being opened at the usual hour, were found to have notices affixed 
+to them, announcing that the rioters would come that night to burn 
+them down.  The wardens, too well knowing the likelihood there was 
+of this promise being fulfilled, were fain to set their prisoners 
+at liberty, and give them leave to move their goods; so, all day, 
+such of them as had any furniture were occupied in conveying it, 
+some to this place, some to that, and not a few to the brokers' 
+shops, where they gladly sold it, for any wretched price those 
+gentry chose to give.  There were some broken men among these 
+debtors who had been in jail so long, and were so miserable and 
+destitute of friends, so dead to the world, and utterly forgotten 
+and uncared for, that they implored their jailers not to set them 
+free, and to send them, if need were, to some other place of 
+custody.  But they, refusing to comply, lest they should incur the 
+anger of the mob, turned them into the streets, where they wandered 
+up and down hardly remembering the ways untrodden by their feet so 
+long, and crying--such abject things those rotten-hearted jails had 
+made them--as they slunk off in their rags, and dragged their 
+slipshod feet along the pavement.
+
+Even of the three hundred prisoners who had escaped from Newgate, 
+there were some--a few, but there were some--who sought their 
+jailers out and delivered themselves up: preferring imprisonment 
+and punishment to the horrors of such another night as the last.  
+Many of the convicts, drawn back to their old place of captivity by 
+some indescribable attraction, or by a desire to exult over it in 
+its downfall and glut their revenge by seeing it in ashes, actually 
+went back in broad noon, and loitered about the cells.  Fifty were 
+retaken at one time on this next day, within the prison walls; but 
+their fate did not deter others, for there they went in spite of 
+everything, and there they were taken in twos and threes, twice or 
+thrice a day, all through the week.  Of the fifty just mentioned, 
+some were occupied in endeavouring to rekindle the fire; but in 
+general they seemed to have no object in view but to prowl and 
+lounge about the old place: being often found asleep in the ruins, 
+or sitting talking there, or even eating and drinking, as in a 
+choice retreat.
+
+Besides the notices on the gates of the Fleet and the King's Bench, 
+many similar announcements were left, before one o'clock at noon, 
+at the houses of private individuals; and further, the mob 
+proclaimed their intention of seizing on the Bank, the Mint, the 
+Arsenal at Woolwich, and the Royal Palaces.  The notices were 
+seldom delivered by more than one man, who, if it were at a shop, 
+went in, and laid it, with a bloody threat perhaps, upon the 
+counter; or if it were at a private house, knocked at the door, and 
+thrust it in the servant's hand.  Notwithstanding the presence of 
+the military in every quarter of the town, and the great force in 
+the Park, these messengers did their errands with impunity all 
+through the day.  So did two boys who went down Holborn alone, 
+armed with bars taken from the railings of Lord Mansfield's house, 
+and demanded money for the rioters.  So did a tall man on horseback 
+who made a collection for the same purpose in Fleet Street, and 
+refused to take anything but gold.
+
+A rumour had now got into circulation, too, which diffused a 
+greater dread all through London, even than these publicly 
+announced intentions of the rioters, though all men knew that if 
+they were successfully effected, there must ensue a national 
+bankruptcy and general ruin.  It was said that they meant to throw 
+the gates of Bedlam open, and let all the madmen loose.  This 
+suggested such dreadful images to the people's minds, and was 
+indeed an act so fraught with new and unimaginable horrors in the 
+contemplation, that it beset them more than any loss or cruelty of 
+which they could foresee the worst, and drove many sane men nearly 
+mad themselves.
+
+So the day passed on: the prisoners moving their goods; people 
+running to and fro in the streets, carrying away their property; 
+groups standing in silence round the ruins; all business suspended; 
+and the soldiers disposed as has been already mentioned, remaining 
+quite inactive.  So the day passed on, and dreaded night drew near 
+again.
+
+At last, at seven o'clock in the evening, the Privy Council issued 
+a solemn proclamation that it was now necessary to employ the 
+military, and that the officers had most direct and effectual 
+orders, by an immediate exertion of their utmost force, to repress 
+the disturbances; and warning all good subjects of the King to keep 
+themselves, their servants, and apprentices, within doors that 
+night.  There was then delivered out to every soldier on duty, 
+thirty-six rounds of powder and ball; the drums beat; and the whole 
+force was under arms at sunset.
+
+The City authorities, stimulated by these vigorous measures, held a 
+Common Council; passed a vote thanking the military associations 
+who had tendered their aid to the civil authorities; accepted it; 
+and placed them under the direction of the two sheriffs.  At the 
+Queen's palace, a double guard, the yeomen on duty, the groom-
+porters, and all other attendants, were stationed in the passages 
+and on the staircases at seven o'clock, with strict instructions to 
+be watchful on their posts all night; and all the doors were 
+locked.  The gentlemen of the Temple, and the other Inns, mounted 
+guard within their gates, and strengthened them with the great 
+stones of the pavement, which they took up for the purpose.  In 
+Lincoln's Inn, they gave up the hall and commons to the 
+Northumberland Militia, under the command of Lord Algernon Percy; 
+in some few of the city wards, the burgesses turned out, and 
+without making a very fierce show, looked brave enough.  Some 
+hundreds of stout gentlemen threw themselves, armed to the teeth, 
+into the halls of the different companies, double-locked and bolted 
+all the gates, and dared the rioters (among themselves) to come on 
+at their peril.  These arrangements being all made simultaneously, 
+or nearly so, were completed by the time it got dark; and then the 
+streets were comparatively clear, and were guarded at all the great 
+corners and chief avenues by the troops: while parties of the 
+officers rode up and down in all directions, ordering chance 
+stragglers home, and admonishing the residents to keep within their 
+houses, and, if any firing ensued, not to approach the windows.  
+More chains were drawn across such of the thoroughfares as were of 
+a nature to favour the approach of a great crowd, and at each of 
+these points a considerable force was stationed.  All these 
+precautions having been taken, and it being now quite dark, those 
+in command awaited the result in some anxiety: and not without a 
+hope that such vigilant demonstrations might of themselves 
+dishearten the populace, and prevent any new outrages.
+
+But in this reckoning they were cruelly mistaken, for in half an 
+hour, or less, as though the setting in of night had been their 
+preconcerted signal, the rioters having previously, in small 
+parties, prevented the lighting of the street lamps, rose like a 
+great sea; and that in so many places at once, and with such 
+inconceivable fury, that those who had the direction of the troops 
+knew not, at first, where to turn or what to do.  One after 
+another, new fires blazed up in every quarter of the town, as 
+though it were the intention of the insurgents to wrap the city in 
+a circle of flames, which, contracting by degrees, should burn the 
+whole to ashes; the crowd swarmed and roared in every street; and 
+none but rioters and soldiers being out of doors, it seemed to the 
+latter as if all London were arrayed against them, and they stood 
+alone against the town.
+
+In two hours, six-and-thirty fires were raging--six-and-thirty 
+great conflagrations: among them the Borough Clink in Tooley 
+Street, the King's Bench, the Fleet, and the New Bridewell.  In 
+almost every street, there was a battle; and in every quarter the 
+muskets of the troops were heard above the shouts and tumult of the 
+mob.  The firing began in the Poultry, where the chain was drawn 
+across the road, where nearly a score of people were killed on the 
+first discharge.  Their bodies having been hastily carried into St 
+Mildred's Church by the soldiers, the latter fired again, and 
+following fast upon the crowd, who began to give way when they saw 
+the execution that was done, formed across Cheapside, and charged 
+them at the point of the bayonet.
+
+The streets were now a dreadful spectacle.  The shouts of the 
+rabble, the shrieks of women, the cries of the wounded, and the 
+constant firing, formed a deafening and an awful accompaniment to 
+the sights which every corner presented.  Wherever the road was 
+obstructed by the chains, there the fighting and the loss of life 
+were greatest; but there was hot work and bloodshed in almost every 
+leading thoroughfare.
+
+At Holborn Bridge, and on Holborn Hill, the confusion was greater 
+than in any other part; for the crowd that poured out of the city 
+in two great streams, one by Ludgate Hill, and one by Newgate 
+Street, united at that spot, and formed a mass so dense, that at 
+every volley the people seemed to fall in heaps.  At this place a 
+large detachment of soldiery were posted, who fired, now up Fleet 
+Market, now up Holborn, now up Snow Hill--constantly raking the 
+streets in each direction.  At this place too, several large fires 
+were burning, so that all the terrors of that terrible night seemed 
+to be concentrated in one spot.
+
+Full twenty times, the rioters, headed by one man who wielded an 
+axe in his right hand, and bestrode a brewer's horse of great size 
+and strength, caparisoned with fetters taken out of Newgate, which 
+clanked and jingled as he went, made an attempt to force a passage 
+at this point, and fire the vintner's house.  Full twenty times 
+they were repulsed with loss of life, and still came back again; 
+and though the fellow at their head was marked and singled out by 
+all, and was a conspicuous object as the only rioter on horseback, 
+not a man could hit him.  So surely as the smoke cleared away, so 
+surely there was he; calling hoarsely to his companions, 
+brandishing his axe above his head, and dashing on as though he 
+bore a charmed life, and was proof against ball and powder.
+
+This man was Hugh; and in every part of the riot, he was seen.  He 
+headed two attacks upon the Bank, helped to break open the Toll-
+houses on Blackfriars Bridge, and cast the money into the street: 
+fired two of the prisons with his own hand: was here, and there, 
+and everywhere--always foremost--always active--striking at the 
+soldiers, cheering on the crowd, making his horse's iron music 
+heard through all the yell and uproar: but never hurt or stopped.  
+Turn him at one place, and he made a new struggle in anotlter; 
+force him to retreat at this point, and he advanced on that, 
+directly.  Driven from Holborn for the twentieth time, he rode at 
+the head of a great crowd straight upon Saint Paul's, attacked a 
+guard of soldiers who kept watch over a body of prisoners within 
+the iron railings, forced them to retreat, rescued the men they had 
+in custody, and with this accession to his party, came back again, 
+mad with liquor and excitement, and hallooing them on like a 
+demon.
+
+It would have been no easy task for the most careful rider to sit a 
+horse in the midst of such a throng and tumult; but though this 
+madman rolled upon his back (he had no saddle) like a boat upon the 
+sea, he never for an instant lost his seat, or failed to guide him 
+where he would.  Through the very thickest of the press, over dead 
+bodies and burning fragments, now on the pavement, now in the road, 
+now riding up a flight of steps to make himself the more 
+conspicuous to his party, and now forcing a passage through a mass 
+of human beings, so closely squeezed together that it seemed as if 
+the edge of a knife would scarcely part them,--on he went, as 
+though he could surmount all obstacles by the mere exercise of his 
+will.  And perhaps his not being shot was in some degree 
+attributable to this very circumstance; for his extreme audacity, 
+and the conviction that he must be one of those to whom the 
+proclamation referred, inspired the soldiers with a desire to take 
+him alive, and diverted many an aim which otherwise might have been 
+more near the mark.
+
+The vintner and Mr Haredale, unable to sit quietly listening to the 
+noise without seeing what went on, had climbed to the roof of the 
+house, and hiding behind a stack of chimneys, were looking 
+cautiously down into the street, almost hoping that after so many 
+repulses the rioters would be foiled, when a great shout proclaimed 
+that a parry were coming round the other way; and the dismal 
+jingling of those accursed fetters warned them next moment that 
+they too were led by Hugh.  The soldiers had advanced into Fleet 
+Market and were dispersing the people there; so that they came on 
+with hardly any check, and were soon before the house.
+
+'All's over now,' said the vintner.  'Fifty thousand pounds will be 
+scattered in a minute.  We must save ourselves.  We can do no 
+more, and shall have reason to be thankful if we do as much.'
+
+Their first impulse was, to clamber along the roofs of the houses, 
+and, knocking at some garret window for admission, pass down that 
+way into the street, and so escape.  But another fierce cry from 
+below, and a general upturning of the faces of the crowd, apprised 
+them that they were discovered, and even that Mr Haredale was 
+recognised; for Hugh, seeing him plainly in the bright glare of 
+the fire, which in that part made it as light as day, called to him 
+by his name, and swore to have his life.
+
+'Leave me here,' said Mr Haredale, 'and in Heaven's name, my good 
+friend, save yourself!  Come on!' he muttered, as he turned towards 
+Hugh and faced him without any further effort at concealment: 'This 
+roof is high, and if we close, we will die together!'
+
+'Madness,' said the honest vintner, pulling him back, 'sheer 
+madness.  Hear reason, sir.  My good sir, hear reason.  I could 
+never make myself heard by knocking at a window now; and even if I 
+could, no one would be bold enough to connive at my escape.  
+Through the cellars, there's a kind of passage into the back street 
+by which we roll casks in and out.  We shall have time to get down 
+there before they can force an entry.  Do not delay an instant, but 
+come with me--for both our sakes--for mine--my dear good sir!'
+
+As he spoke, and drew Mr Haredale back, they had both a glimpse of 
+the street.  It was but a glimpse, but it showed them the crowd, 
+gathering and clustering round the house: some of the armed men 
+pressing to the front to break down the doors and windows, some 
+bringing brands from the nearest fire, some with lifted faces 
+following their course upon the roof and pointing them out to their 
+companions: all raging and roaring like the flames they lighted up.  
+They saw some men thirsting for the treasures of strong liquor 
+which they knew were stored within; they saw others, who had been 
+wounded, sinking down into the opposite doorways and dying, 
+solitary wretches, in the midst of all the vast assemblage; here a 
+frightened woman trying to escape; and there a lost child; and 
+there a drunken ruffian, unconscious of the death-wound on his 
+head, raving and fighting to the last.  All these things, and even 
+such trivial incidents as a man with his hat off, or turning round, 
+or stooping down, or shaking hands with another, they marked 
+distinctly; yet in a glance so brief, that, in the act of stepping 
+back, they lost the whole, and saw but the pale faces of each 
+other, and the red sky above them.
+
+Mr Haredale yielded to the entreaties of his companion--more 
+because he was resolved to defend him, than for any thought he had 
+of his own life, or any care he entertained for his own safety--and 
+quickly re-entering the house, they descended the stairs together.  
+Loud blows were thundering on the shutters, crowbars were already 
+thrust beneath the door, the glass fell from the sashes, a deep 
+light shone through every crevice, and they heard the voices of the 
+foremost in the crowd so close to every chink and keyhole, that 
+they seemed to be hoarsely whispering their threats into their very 
+ears.  They had but a moment reached the bottom of the cellar-steps 
+and shut the door behind them, when the mob broke in.
+
+The vaults were profoundly dark, and having no torch or candle--for 
+they had been afraid to carry one, lest it should betray their 
+place of refuge--they were obliged to grope with their hands.  But 
+they were not long without light, for they had not gone far when 
+they heard the crowd forcing the door; and, looking back among the 
+low-arched passages, could see them in the distance, hurrying to 
+and fro with flashing links, broaching the casks, staving the great 
+vats, turning off upon the right hand and the left, into the 
+different cellars, and lying down to drink at the channels of 
+strong spirits which were already flowing on the ground.
+
+They hurried on, not the less quickly for this; and had reached the 
+only vault which lay between them and the passage out, when 
+suddenly, from the direction in which they were going, a strong 
+light gleamed upon their faces; and before they could slip aside, 
+or turn back, or hide themselves, two men (one bearing a torch) 
+came upon them, and cried in an astonished whisper, 'Here they 
+are!'
+
+At the same instant they pulled off what they wore upon their 
+heads.  Mr Haredale saw before him Edward Chester, and then saw, 
+when the vintner gasped his name, Joe Willet.
+
+Ay, the same Joe, though with an arm the less, who used to make the 
+quarterly journey on the grey mare to pay the bill to the purple-
+faced vintner; and that very same purple-faced vintner, formerly 
+of Thames Street, now looked him in the face, and challenged him by 
+name.
+
+'Give me your hand,' said Joe softly, taking it whether the 
+astonished vintner would or no.  'Don't fear to shake it; it's a 
+friendly one and a hearty one, though it has no fellow.  Why, how 
+well you look and how bluff you are!  And you--God bless you, sir.  
+Take heart, take heart.  We'll find them.  Be of good cheer; we 
+have not been idle.'
+
+There was something so honest and frank in Joe's speech, that Mr 
+Haredale put his hand in his involuntarily, though their meeting 
+was suspicious enough.  But his glance at Edward Chester, and that 
+gentleman's keeping aloof, were not lost upon Joe, who said 
+bluntly, glancing at Edward while he spoke:
+
+'Times are changed, Mr Haredale, and times have come when we ought 
+to know friends from enemies, and make no confusion of names.  Let 
+me tell you that but for this gentleman, you would most likely 
+have been dead by this time, or badly wounded at the best.'
+
+'What do you say?' cried Mr Haredale.
+
+'I say,' said Joe, 'first, that it was a bold thing to be in the 
+crowd at all disguised as one of them; though I won't say much 
+about that, on second thoughts, for that's my case too.  Secondly, 
+that it was a brave and glorious action--that's what I call it--to 
+strike that fellow off his horse before their eyes!'
+
+'What fellow!  Whose eyes!'
+
+'What fellow, sir!' cried Joe: 'a fellow who has no goodwill to 
+you, and who has the daring and devilry in him of twenty fellows.  
+I know him of old.  Once in the house, HE would have found you, 
+here or anywhere.  The rest owe you no particular grudge, and, 
+unless they see you, will only think of drinking themselves dead.  
+But we lose time.  Are you ready?'
+
+'Quite,' said Edward.  'Put out the torch, Joe, and go on.  And be 
+silent, there's a good fellow.'
+
+'Silent or not silent,' murmured Joe, as he dropped the flaring 
+link upon the ground, crushed it with his foot, and gave his hand 
+to Mr Haredale, 'it was a brave and glorious action;--no man can 
+alter that.'
+
+Both Mr Haredale and the worthy vintner were too amazed and too 
+much hurried to ask any further questions, so followed their 
+conductors in silence.  It seemed, from a short whispering which 
+presently ensued between them and the vintner relative to the best 
+way of escape, that they had entered by the back-door, with the 
+connivance of John Grueby, who watched outside with the key in his 
+pocket, and whom they had taken into their confidence.  A party of 
+the crowd coming up that way, just as they entered, John had 
+double-locked the door again, and made off for the soldiers, so 
+that means of retreat was cut off from under them.
+
+However, as the front-door had been forced, and this minor crowd, 
+being anxious to get at the liquor, had no fancy for losing time in 
+breaking down another, but had gone round and got in from Holborn 
+with the rest, the narrow lane in the rear was quite free of 
+people.  So, when they had crawled through the passage indicated by 
+the vintner (which was a mere shelving-trap for the admission of 
+casks), and had managed with some difficulty to unchain and raise 
+the door at the upper end, they emerged into the street without 
+being observed or interrupted.  Joe still holding Mr Haredale 
+tight, and Edward taking the same care of the vintner, they hurried 
+through the streets at a rapid pace; occasionally standing aside to 
+let some fugitives go by, or to keep out of the way of the soldiers 
+who followed them, and whose questions, when they halted to put 
+any, were speedily stopped by one whispered word from Joe.
+
+
+
+Chapter 68
+
+
+While Newgate was burning on the previous night, Barnaby and his 
+father, having been passed among the crowd from hand to hand, stood 
+in Smithfield, on the outskirts of the mob, gazing at the flames 
+like men who had been suddenly roused from sleep.  Some moments 
+elapsed before they could distinctly remember where they were, or 
+how they got there; or recollected that while they were standing 
+idle and listless spectators of the fire, they had tools in their 
+hands which had been hurriedly given them that they might free 
+themselves from their fetters.
+
+Barnaby, heavily ironed as he was, if he had obeyed his first 
+impulse, or if he had been alone, would have made his way back to 
+the side of Hugh, who to his clouded intellect now shone forth with 
+the new lustre of being his preserver and truest friend.  But his 
+father's terror of remaining in the streets, communicated itself to 
+him when he comprehended the full extent of his fears, and 
+impressed him with the same eagerness to fly to a place of safety.
+
+In a corner of the market among the pens for cattle, Barnaby knelt 
+down, and pausing every now and then to pass his hand over his 
+father's face, or look up to him with a smile, knocked off his 
+irons.  When he had seen him spring, a free man, to his feet, and 
+had given vent to the transport of delight which the sight 
+awakened, he went to work upon his own, which soon fell rattling 
+down upon the ground, and left his limbs unfettered.
+
+Gliding away together when this task was accomplished, and passing 
+several groups of men, each gathered round a stooping figure to 
+hide him from those who passed, but unable to repress the clanking 
+sound of hammers, which told that they too were busy at the same 
+work,--the two fugitives made towards Clerkenwell, and passing 
+thence to Islington, as the nearest point of egress, were quickly 
+in the fields.  After wandering about for a long time, they found 
+in a pasture near Finchley a poor shed, with walls of mud, and roof 
+of grass and brambles, built for some cowherd, but now deserted.  
+Here, they lay down for the rest of the night.
+
+They wandered to and fro when it was day, and once Barnaby went off 
+alone to a cluster of little cottages two or three miles away, to 
+purchase some bread and milk.  But finding no better shelter, they 
+returned to the same place, and lay down again to wait for night.
+
+Heaven alone can tell, with what vague hopes of duty, and 
+affection; with what strange promptings of nature, intelligible to 
+him as to a man of radiant mind and most enlarged capacity; with 
+what dim memories of children he had played with when a child 
+himself, who had prattled of their fathers, and of loving them, and 
+being loved; with how many half-remembered, dreamy associations of 
+his mother's grief and tears and widowhood; he watched and tended 
+this man.  But that a vague and shadowy crowd of such ideas came 
+slowly on him; that they taught him to be sorry when he looked upon 
+his haggard face, that they overflowed his eyes when he stooped to 
+kiss him, that they kept him waking in a tearful gladness, shading 
+him from the sun, fanning him with leaves, soothing him when he 
+started in his sleep--ah! what a troubled sleep it was--and 
+wondering when SHE would come to join them and be happy, is the 
+truth.  He sat beside him all that day; listening for her footsteps 
+in every breath of air, looking for her shadow on the gently-waving 
+grass, twining the hedge flowers for her pleasure when she came, 
+and his when he awoke; and stooping down from time to time to 
+listen to his mutterings, and wonder why he was so restless in that 
+quiet place.  The sun went down, and night came on, and he was 
+still quite tranquil; busied with these thoughts, as if there were 
+no other people in the world, and the dull cloud of smoke hanging 
+on the immense city in the distance, hid no vices, no crimes, no 
+life or death, or cause of disquiet--nothing but clear air.
+
+But the hour had now come when he must go alone to find out the 
+blind man (a task that filled him with delight) and bring him to 
+that place; taking especial care that he was not watched or 
+followed on his way back.  He listened to the directions he must 
+observe, repeated them again and again, and after twice or thrice 
+returning to surprise his father with a light-hearted laugh, went 
+forth, at last, upon his errand: leaving Grip, whom he had carried 
+from the jail in his arms, to his care.
+
+Fleet of foot, and anxious to return, he sped swiftly on towards 
+the city, but could not reach it before the fires began, and made 
+the night angry with their dismal lustre.  When he entered the 
+town--it might be that he was changed by going there without his 
+late companions, and on no violent errand; or by the beautiful 
+solitude in which he had passed the day, or by the thoughts that 
+had come upon him,--but it seemed peopled by a legion of devils.  
+This flight and pursuit, this cruel burning and destroying, these 
+dreadful cries and stunning noises, were THEY the good lord's noble 
+cause!
+
+Though almost stupefied by the bewildering scene, still be found 
+the blind man's house.  It was shut up and tenantless.
+
+He waited for a long while, but no one came.  At last he withdrew; 
+and as he knew by this time that the soldiers were firing, and many 
+people must have been killed, he went down into Holborn, where he 
+heard the great crowd was, to try if he could find Hugh, and 
+persuade him to avoid the danger, and return with him.
+
+If he had been stunned and shocked before, his horror was 
+increased a thousandfold when he got into this vortex of the riot, 
+and not being an actor in the terrible spectacle, had it all before 
+his eyes.  But there, in the midst, towering above them all, close 
+before the house they were attacking now, was Hugh on horseback, 
+calling to the rest!
+
+Sickened by the sights surrounding him on every side, and by the 
+heat and roar, and crash, he forced his way among the crowd (where 
+many recognised him, and with shouts pressed back to let him pass), 
+and in time was nearly up with Hugh, who was savagely threatening 
+some one, but whom or what he said, he could not, in the great 
+confusion, understand.  At that moment the crowd forced their way 
+into the house, and Hugh--it was impossible to see by what means, 
+in such a concourse--fell headlong down.
+
+Barnaby was beside him when he staggered to his feet.  It was well 
+he made him hear his voice, or Hugh, with his uplifted axe, would 
+have cleft his skull in twain.
+
+'Barnaby--you!  Whose hand was that, that struck me down?'
+
+'Not mine.'
+
+'Whose!--I say, whose!' he cried, reeling back, and looking wildly 
+round.  'What are you doing?  Where is he?  Show me!'
+
+'You are hurt,' said Barnaby--as indeed he was, in the head, both 
+by the blow he had received, and by his horse's hoof.  'Come away 
+with me.'
+
+As he spoke, he took the horse's bridle in his hand, turned him, 
+and dragged Hugh several paces.  This brought them out of the 
+crowd, which was pouring from the street into the vintner's 
+cellars.
+
+'Where's--where's Dennis?' said Hugh, coming to a stop, and 
+checking Barnaby with his strong arm.  'Where has he been all day?  
+What did he mean by leaving me as he did, in the jail, last night?  
+Tell me, you--d'ye hear!'
+
+With a flourish of his dangerous weapon, he fell down upon the 
+ground like a log.  After a minute, though already frantic with 
+drinking and with the wound in his head, he crawled to a stream of 
+burning spirit which was pouring down the kennel, and began to 
+drink at it as if it were a brook of water.
+
+Barnaby drew him away, and forced him to rise.  Though he could 
+neither stand nor walk, he involuntarily staggered to his horse, 
+climbed upon his back, and clung there.  After vainly attempting to 
+divest the animal of his clanking trappings, Barnaby sprung up 
+behind him, snatched the bridle, turned into Leather Lane, which 
+was close at hand, and urged the frightened horse into a heavy 
+trot.
+
+He looked back, once, before he left the street; and looked upon a 
+sight not easily to be erased, even from his remembrance, so long 
+as he had life.
+
+The vintner's house with a half-a-dozen others near at hand, was 
+one great, glowing blaze.  All night, no one had essayed to quench 
+the flames, or stop their progress; but now a body of soldiers 
+were actively engaged in pulling down two old wooden houses, which 
+were every moment in danger of taking fire, and which could 
+scarcely fail, if they were left to burn, to extend the 
+conflagration immensely.  The tumbling down of nodding walls and 
+heavy blocks of wood, the hooting and the execrations of the crowd, 
+the distant firing of other military detachments, the distracted 
+looks and cries of those whose habitations were in danger, the 
+hurrying to and fro of frightened people with their goods; the 
+reflections in every quarter of the sky, of deep, red, soaring 
+flames, as though the last day had come and the whole universe were 
+burning; the dust, and smoke, and drift of fiery particles, 
+scorching and kindling all it fell upon; the hot unwholesome 
+vapour, the blight on everything; the stars, and moon, and very 
+sky, obliterated;--made up such a sum of dreariness and ruin, that 
+it seemed as if the face of Heaven were blotted out, and night, in 
+its rest and quiet, and softened light, never could look upon the 
+earth again.
+
+But there was a worse spectacle than this--worse by far than fire 
+and smoke, or even the rabble's unappeasable and maniac rage.  The 
+gutters of the street, and every crack and fissure in the stones, 
+ran with scorching spirit, which being dammed up by busy hands, 
+overflowed the road and pavement, and formed a great pool, into 
+which the people dropped down dead by dozens.  They lay in heaps 
+all round this fearful pond, husbands and wives, fathers and sons, 
+mothers and daughters, women with children in their arms and babies 
+at their breasts, and drank until they died.  While some stooped 
+with their lips to the brink and never raised their heads again, 
+others sprang up from their fiery draught, and danced, half in a 
+mad triumph, and half in the agony of suffocation, until they fell, 
+and steeped their corpses in the liquor that had killed them.  Nor 
+was even this the worst or most appalling kind of death that 
+happened on this fatal night.  From the burning cellars, where they 
+drank out of hats, pails, buckets, tubs, and shoes, some men were 
+drawn, alive, but all alight from head to foot; who, in their 
+unendurable anguish and suffering, making for anything that had the 
+look of water, rolled, hissing, in this hideous lake, and splashed 
+up liquid fire which lapped in all it met with as it ran along the 
+surface, and neither spared the living nor the dead.  On this last 
+night of the great riots--for the last night it was--the wretched 
+victims of a senseless outcry, became themselves the dust and ashes 
+of the flames they had kindled, and strewed the public streets of 
+London.
+
+With all he saw in this last glance fixed indelibly upon his mind, 
+Barnaby hurried from the city which enclosed such horrors; and 
+holding down his head that he might not even see the glare of the 
+fires upon the quiet landscape, was soon in the still country 
+roads.
+
+He stopped at about half-a-mile from the shed where his father 
+lay, and with some difficulty making Hugh sensible that he must 
+dismount, sunk the horse's furniture in a pool of stagnant water, 
+and turned the animal loose.  That done, he supported his companion 
+as well as he could, and led him slowly forward.
+
+
+
+Chapter 69
+
+
+It was the dead of night, and very dark, when Barnaby, with his 
+stumbling comrade, approached the place where he had left his 
+father; but he could see him stealing away into the gloom, 
+distrustful even of him, and rapidly retreating.  After calling to 
+him twice or thrice that there was nothing to fear, but without 
+effect, he suffered Hugh to sink upon the ground, and followed to 
+bring him back.
+
+He continued to creep away, until Barnaby was close upon him; then 
+turned, and said in a terrible, though suppressed voice:
+
+'Let me go.  Do not lay hands upon me.  You have told her; and you 
+and she together have betrayed me!'
+
+Barnaby looked at him, in silence.
+
+'You have seen your mother!'
+
+'No,' cried Barnaby, eagerly.  'Not for a long time--longer than I 
+can tell.  A whole year, I think.  Is she here?'
+
+His father looked upon him steadfastly for a few moments, and then 
+said--drawing nearer to him as he spoke, for, seeing his face, and 
+hearing his words, it was impossible to doubt his truth:
+
+'What man is that?'
+
+'Hugh--Hugh.  Only Hugh.  You know him.  HE will not harm you.  
+Why, you're afraid of Hugh!  Ha ha ha!  Afraid of gruff, old, noisy 
+Hugh!'
+
+'What man is he, I ask you,' he rejoined so fiercely, that Barnaby 
+stopped in his laugh, and shrinking back, surveyed him with a look 
+of terrified amazement.
+
+'Why, how stern you are!  You make me fear you, though you are my 
+father.  Why do you speak to me so?'
+
+--'I want,' he answered, putting away the hand which his son, with 
+a timid desire to propitiate him, laid upon his sleeve,--'I want an 
+answer, and you give me only jeers and questions.  Who have you 
+brought with you to this hiding-place, poor fool; and where is the 
+blind man?'
+
+'I don't know where.  His house was close shut.  I waited, but no 
+person came; that was no fault of mine.  This is Hugh--brave Hugh, 
+who broke into that ugly jail, and set us free.  Aha!  You like him 
+now, do you?  You like him now!'
+
+'Why does he lie upon the ground?'
+
+'He has had a fall, and has been drinking.  The fields and trees go 
+round, and round, and round with him, and the ground heaves under 
+his feet.  You know him?  You remember?  See!'
+
+They had by this time returned to where he lay, and both stooped 
+over him to look into his face.
+
+'I recollect the man,' his father murmured.  'Why did you bring him 
+here?'
+
+'Because he would have been killed if I had left him over yonder.  
+They were firing guns and shedding blood.  Does the sight of blood 
+turn you sick, father?  I see it does, by your face.  That's like 
+me--What are you looking at?'
+
+'At nothing!' said the murderer softly, as he started back a pace 
+or two, and gazed with sunken jaw and staring eyes above his son's 
+head.  'At nothing!'
+
+He remained in the same attitude and with the same expression on 
+his face for a minute or more; then glanced slowly round as if he 
+had lost something; and went shivering back, towards the shed.
+
+'Shall I bring him in, father?' asked Barnaby, who had looked on, 
+wondering.
+
+He only answered with a suppressed groan, and lying down upon the 
+ground, wrapped his cloak about his head, and shrunk into the 
+darkest corner.
+
+Finding that nothing would rouse Hugh now, or make him sensible for 
+a moment, Barnaby dragged him along the grass, and laid him on a 
+little heap of refuse hay and straw which had been his own bed; 
+first having brought some water from a running stream hard by, and 
+washed his wound, and laved his hands and face.  Then he lay down 
+himself, between the two, to pass the night; and looking at the 
+stars, fell fast asleep.
+
+Awakened early in the morning, by the sunshine and the songs of 
+birds, and hum of insects, he left them sleeping in the hut, and 
+walked into the sweet and pleasant air.  But he felt that on his 
+jaded senses, oppressed and burdened with the dreadful scenes of 
+last night, and many nights before, all the beauties of opening 
+day, which he had so often tasted, and in which he had had such 
+deep delight, fell heavily.  He thought of the blithe mornings when 
+he and the dogs went bounding on together through the woods and 
+fields; and the recollection filled his eyes with tears.  He had no 
+consciousness, God help him, of having done wrong, nor had he any 
+new perception of the merits of the cause in which he had been 
+engaged, or those of the men who advocated it; but he was full of 
+cares now, and regrets, and dismal recollections, and wishes (quite 
+unknown to him before) that this or that event had never happened, 
+and that the sorrow and suffering of so many people had been 
+spared.  And now he began to think how happy they would be--his 
+father, mother, he, and Hugh--if they rambled away together, and 
+lived in some lonely place, where there were none of these 
+troubles; and that perhaps the blind man, who had talked so wisely 
+about gold, and told him of the great secrets he knew, could teach 
+them how to live without being pinched by want.  As this occurred 
+to him, he was the more sorry that he had not seen him last night; 
+and he was still brooding over this regret, when his father came, 
+and touched him on the shoulder.
+
+'Ah!' cried Barnaby, starting from his fit of thoughtfulness.  'Is 
+it only you?'
+
+'Who should it be?'
+
+'I almost thought,' he answered, 'it was the blind man.  I must 
+have some talk with him, father.'
+
+'And so must I, for without seeing him, I don't know where to fly 
+or what to do, and lingering here, is death.  You must go to him 
+again, and bring him here.'
+
+'Must I!' cried Barnaby, delighted; 'that's brave, father.  That's 
+what I want to do.'
+
+'But you must bring only him, and none other.  And though you wait 
+at his door a whole day and night, still you must wait, and not 
+come back without him.'
+
+'Don't you fear that,' he cried gaily.  'He shall come, he shall 
+come.'
+
+'Trim off these gewgaws,' said his father, plucking the scraps of 
+ribbon and the feathers from his hat, 'and over your own dress wear 
+my cloak.  Take heed how you go, and they will be too busy in the 
+streets to notice you.  Of your coming back you need take no 
+account, for he'll manage that, safely.'
+
+'To be sure!' said Barnaby.  'To be sure he will!  A wise man, 
+father, and one who can teach us to be rich.  Oh! I know him, I 
+know him.'
+
+He was speedily dressed, and as well disguised as he could be.  
+With a lighter heart he then set off upon his second journey, 
+leaving Hugh, who was still in a drunken stupor, stretched upon the 
+ground within the shed, and his father walking to and fro before it.
+
+The murderer, full of anxious thoughts, looked after him, and paced 
+up and down, disquieted by every breath of air that whispered among 
+the boughs, and by every light shadow thrown by the passing clouds 
+upon the daisied ground.  He was anxious for his safe return, and 
+yet, though his own life and safety hung upon it, felt a relief 
+while he was gone.  In the intense selfishness which the constant 
+presence before him of his great crimes, and their consequences 
+here and hereafter, engendered, every thought of Barnaby, as his 
+son, was swallowed up and lost.  Still, his presence was a torture 
+and reproach; in his wild eyes, there were terrible images of that 
+guilty night; with his unearthly aspect, and his half-formed mind, 
+he seemed to the murderer a creature who had sprung into existence 
+from his victim's blood.  He could not bear his look, his voice, 
+his touch; and yet he was forced, by his own desperate condition 
+and his only hope of cheating the gibbet, to have him by his side, 
+and to know that he was inseparable from his single chance of escape.
+
+He walked to and fro, with little rest, all day, revolving these 
+things in his mind; and still Hugh lay, unconscious, in the shed.  
+At length, when the sun was setting, Barnaby returned, leading the 
+blind man, and talking earnestly to him as they came along together.
+
+The murderer advanced to meet them, and bidding his son go on and 
+speak to Hugh, who had just then staggered to his feet, took his 
+place at the blind man's elbow, and slowly followed, towards the 
+shed.
+
+'Why did you send HIM?' said Stagg.  'Don't you know it was the way 
+to have him lost, as soon as found?'
+
+'Would you have had me come myself?' returned the other.
+
+'Humph!  Perhaps not.  I was before the jail on Tuesday night, but 
+missed you in the crowd.  I was out last night, too.  There was 
+good work last night--gay work--profitable work'--he added, 
+rattling the money in his pockets.
+
+'Have you--'
+
+--'Seen your good lady?  Yes.'
+
+'Do you mean to tell me more, or not?'
+
+'I'll tell you all,' returned the blind man, with a laugh.  'Excuse 
+me--but I love to see you so impatient.  There's energy in it.'
+
+'Does she consent to say the word that may save me?'
+
+'No,' returned the blind man emphatically, as he turned his face 
+towards him.  'No.  Thus it is.  She has been at death's door since 
+she lost her darling--has been insensible, and I know not what.  I 
+tracked her to a hospital, and presented myself (with your leave) 
+at her bedside.  Our talk was not a long one, for she was weak, and 
+there being people near I was not quite easy.  But I told her all 
+that you and I agreed upon, and pointed out the young gentleman's 
+position, in strong terms.  She tried to soften me, but that, of 
+course (as I told her), was lost time.  She cried and moaned, you 
+may be sure; all women do.  Then, of a sudden, she found her voice 
+and strength, and said that Heaven would help her and her innocent 
+son; and that to Heaven she appealed against us--which she did; in 
+really very pretty language, I assure you.  I advised her, as a 
+friend, not to count too much on assistance from any such distant 
+quarter--recommended her to think of it--told her where I lived--
+said I knew she would send to me before noon, next day--and left 
+her, either in a faint or shamming.'
+
+When he had concluded this narration, during which he had made 
+several pauses, for the convenience of cracking and eating nuts, of 
+which he seemed to have a pocketful, the blind man pulled a flask 
+from his pocket, took a draught himself, and offered it to his 
+companion.
+
+'You won't, won't you?' he said, feeling that he pushed it from 
+him.  'Well!  Then the gallant gentleman who's lodging with you, 
+will.  Hallo, bully!'
+
+'Death!' said the other, holding him back.  'Will you tell me what 
+I am to do!'
+
+'Do!  Nothing easier.  Make a moonlight flitting in two hours' time 
+with the young gentleman (he's quite ready to go; I have been 
+giving him good advice as we came along), and get as far from 
+London as you can.  Let me know where you are, and leave the rest 
+to me.  She MUST come round; she can't hold out long; and as to the 
+chances of your being retaken in the meanwhile, why it wasn't one 
+man who got out of Newgate, but three hundred.  Think of that, for 
+your comfort.'
+
+'We must support life.  How?'
+
+'How!' repeated the blind man.  'By eating and drinking.  And how 
+get meat and drink, but by paying for it!  Money!' he cried, 
+slapping his pocket.  'Is money the word?  Why, the streets have 
+been running money.  Devil send that the sport's not over yet, for 
+these are jolly times; golden, rare, roaring, scrambling times.  
+Hallo, bully!  Hallo!  Hallo!  Drink, bully, drink.  Where are ye 
+there!  Hallo!'
+
+With such vociferations, and with a boisterous manner which bespoke 
+his perfect abandonment to the general licence and disorder, he 
+groped his way towards the shed, where Hugh and Barnaby were 
+sitting on the ground.
+
+'Put it about!' he cried, handing his flask to Hugh.  'The kennels 
+run with wine and gold.  Guineas and strong water flow from the 
+very pumps.  About with it, don't spare it!'
+
+Exhausted, unwashed, unshorn, begrimed with smoke and dust, his 
+hair clotted with blood, his voice quite gone, so that he spoke in 
+whispers; his skin parched up by fever, his whole body bruised and 
+cut, and beaten about, Hugh still took the flask, and raised it to 
+his lips.  He was in the act of drinking, when the front of the 
+shed was suddenly darkened, and Dennis stood before them.
+
+'No offence, no offence,' said that personage in a conciliatory 
+tone, as Hugh stopped in his draught, and eyed him, with no 
+pleasant look, from head to foot.  'No offence, brother.  Barnaby 
+here too, eh?  How are you, Barnaby?  And two other gentlemen!  
+Your humble servant, gentlemen.  No offence to YOU either, I hope.  
+Eh, brothers?'
+
+Notwithstanding that he spoke in this very friendly and confident 
+manner, he seemed to have considerable hesitation about entering, 
+and remained outside the roof.  He was rather better dressed than 
+usual: wearing the same suit of threadbare black, it is true, but 
+having round his neck an unwholesome-looking cravat of a yellowish 
+white; and, on his hands, great leather gloves, such as a gardener 
+might wear in following his trade.  His shoes were newly greased, 
+and ornamented with a pair of rusty iron buckles; the packthread at 
+his knees had been renewed; and where he wanted buttons, he wore 
+pins.  Altogether, he had something the look of a tipstaff, or a 
+bailiff's follower, desperately faded, but who had a notion of 
+keeping up the appearance of a professional character, and making 
+the best of the worst means.
+
+'You're very snug here,' said Mr Dennis, pulling out a mouldy 
+pocket-handkerchief, which looked like a decomposed halter, and 
+wiping his forehead in a nervous manner.
+
+'Not snug enough to prevent your finding us, it seems,' Hugh 
+answered, sulkily.
+
+'Why I'll tell you what, brother,' said Dennis, with a friendly 
+smile, 'when you don't want me to know which way you're riding, you 
+must wear another sort of bells on your horse.  Ah! I know the 
+sound of them you wore last night, and have got quick ears for 'em; 
+that's the truth.  Well, but how are you, brother?'
+
+He had by this time approached, and now ventured to sit down by him.
+
+'How am I?' answered Hugh.  'Where were you yesterday?  Where did 
+you go when you left me in the jail?  Why did you leave me?  And 
+what did you mean by rolling your eyes and shaking your fist at me, 
+eh?'
+
+'I shake my fist!--at you, brother!' said Dennis, gently checking 
+Hugh's uplifted hand, which looked threatening.
+
+'Your stick, then; it's all one.'
+
+'Lord love you, brother, I meant nothing.  You don't understand me 
+by half.  I shouldn't wonder now,' he added, in the tone of a 
+desponding and an injured man, 'but you thought, because I wanted 
+them chaps left in the prison, that I was a going to desert the 
+banners?'
+
+Hugh told him, with an oath, that he had thought so.
+
+'Well!' said Mr Dennis, mournfully, 'if you an't enough to make a 
+man mistrust his feller-creeturs, I don't know what is.  Desert the 
+banners!  Me!  Ned Dennis, as was so christened by his own 
+father!--Is this axe your'n, brother?'
+
+Yes, it's mine,' said Hugh, in the same sullen manner as before; 
+'it might have hurt you, if you had come in its way once or twice 
+last night.  Put it down.'
+
+'Might have hurt me!' said Mr Dennis, still keeping it in his hand, 
+and feeling the edge with an air of abstraction.  'Might have hurt 
+me! and me exerting myself all the time to the wery best advantage.  
+Here's a world!  And you're not a-going to ask me to take a sup out 
+of that 'ere bottle, eh?'
+
+Hugh passed it towards him.  As he raised it to his lips, Barnaby 
+jumped up, and motioning them to be silent, looked eagerly out.
+
+'What's the matter, Barnaby?' said Dennis, glancing at Hugh and 
+dropping the flask, but still holding the axe in his hand.
+
+'Hush!' he answered softly.  'What do I see glittering behind the 
+hedge?'
+
+'What!' cried the hangman, raising his voice to its highest pitch, 
+and laying hold of him and Hugh.  'Not SOLDIERS, surely!'
+
+That moment, the shed was filled with armed men; and a body of 
+horse, galloping into the field, drew up before it.
+
+'There!' said Dennis, who remained untouched among them when they 
+had seized their prisoners; 'it's them two young ones, gentlemen, 
+that the proclamation puts a price on.  This other's an escaped 
+felon.--I'm sorry for it, brother,' he added, in a tone of 
+resignation, addressing himself to Hugh; 'but you've brought it on 
+yourself; you forced me to do it; you wouldn't respect the 
+soundest constitootional principles, you know; you went and 
+wiolated the wery framework of society.  I had sooner have given 
+away a trifle in charity than done this, I would upon my soul.--If 
+you'll keep fast hold on 'em, gentlemen, I think I can make a shift 
+to tie 'em better than you can.'
+
+But this operation was postponed for a few moments by a new 
+occurrence.  The blind man, whose ears were quicker than most 
+people's sight, had been alarmed, before Barnaby, by a rustling in 
+the bushes, under cover of which the soldiers had advanced.  He 
+retreated instantly--had hidden somewhere for a minute--and 
+probably in his confusion mistaking the point at which he had 
+emerged, was now seen running across the open meadow.
+
+An officer cried directly that he had helped to plunder a house 
+last night.  He was loudly called on, to surrender.  He ran the 
+harder, and in a few seconds would have been out of gunshot.  The 
+word was given, and the men fired.
+
+There was a breathless pause and a profound silence, during which 
+all eyes were fixed upon him.  He had been seen to start at the 
+discharge, as if the report had frightened him.  But he neither 
+stopped nor slackened his pace in the least, and ran on full forty 
+yards further.  Then, without one reel or stagger, or sign of 
+faintness, or quivering of any limb, he dropped.
+
+Some of them hurried up to where he lay;--the hangman with them.  
+Everything had passed so quickly, that the smoke had not yet 
+scattered, but curled slowly off in a little cloud, which seemed 
+like the dead man's spirit moving solemnly away.  There were a few 
+drops of blood upon the grass--more, when they turned him over--
+that was all.
+
+'Look here! Look here!' said the hangman, stooping one knee beside 
+the body, and gazing up with a disconsolate face at the officer and 
+men.  'Here's a pretty sight!'
+
+'Stand out of the way,' replied the officer.  'Serjeant! see what 
+he had about him.'
+
+The man turned his pockets out upon the grass, and counted, besides 
+some foreign coins and two rings, five-and-forty guineas in gold.  
+These were bundled up in a handkerchief and carried away; the body 
+remained there for the present, but six men and the serjeant were 
+left to take it to the nearest public-house.
+
+'Now then, if you're going,' said the serjeant, clapping Dennis on 
+the back, and pointing after the officer who was walking towards 
+the shed.
+
+To which Mr Dennis only replied, 'Don't talk to me!' and then 
+repeated what he had said before, namely, 'Here's a pretty sight!'
+
+'It's not one that you care for much, I should think,' observed the 
+serjeant coolly.
+
+'Why, who,' said Mr Dennis rising, 'should care for it, if I 
+don't?'
+
+'Oh! I didn't know you was so tender-hearted,' said the serjeant.  
+'That's all!'
+
+'Tender-hearted!' echoed Dennis.  'Tender-hearted!  Look at this 
+man.  Do you call THIS constitootional?  Do you see him shot 
+through and through instead of being worked off like a Briton?  
+Damme, if I know which party to side with.  You're as bad as the 
+other.  What's to become of the country if the military power's to 
+go a superseding the ciwilians in this way?  Where's this poor 
+feller-creetur's rights as a citizen, that he didn't have ME in 
+his last moments!  I was here.  I was willing.  I was ready.  These 
+are nice times, brother, to have the dead crying out against us in 
+this way, and sleep comfortably in our beds arterwards; wery 
+nice!'
+
+Whether he derived any material consolation from binding the 
+prisoners, is uncertain; most probably he did.  At all events his 
+being summoned to that work, diverted him, for the time, from these 
+painful reflections, and gave his thoughts a more congenial 
+occupation.
+
+They were not all three carried off together, but in two parties; 
+Barnaby and his father, going by one road in the centre of a body 
+of foot; and Hugh, fast bound upon a horse, and strongly guarded by 
+a troop of cavalry, being taken by another.
+
+They had no opportunity for the least communication, in the short 
+interval which preceded their departure; being kept strictly apart.  
+Hugh only observed that Barnaby walked with a drooping head among 
+his guard, and, without raising his eyes, that he tried to wave 
+his fettered hand when he passed.  For himself, he buoyed up his 
+courage as he rode along, with the assurance that the mob would 
+force his jail wherever it might be, and set him at liberty.  But 
+when they got into London, and more especially into Fleet Market, 
+lately the stronghold of the rioters, where the military were 
+rooting out the last remnant of the crowd, he saw that this hope 
+was gone, and felt that he was riding to his death.
+
+
+
+Chapter 70
+
+
+Mr Dennis having despatched this piece of business without any 
+personal hurt or inconvenience, and having now retired into the 
+tranquil respectability of private life, resolved to solace himself 
+with half an hour or so of female society.  With this amiable 
+purpose in his mind, he bent his steps towards the house where 
+Dolly and Miss Haredale were still confined, and whither Miss Miggs 
+had also been removed by order of Mr Simon Tappertit.
+
+As he walked along the streets with his leather gloves clasped 
+behind him, and his face indicative of cheerful thought and 
+pleasant calculation, Mr Dennis might have been likened unto a 
+farmer ruminating among his crops, and enjoying by anticipation the 
+bountiful gifts of Providence.  Look where he would, some heap of 
+ruins afforded him rich promise of a working off; the whole town 
+appeared to have been ploughed and sown, and nurtured by most 
+genial weather; and a goodly harvest was at hand.
+
+Having taken up arms and resorted to deeds of violence, with the 
+great main object of preserving the Old Bailey in all its purity, 
+and the gallows in all its pristine usefulness and moral grandeur, 
+it would perhaps be going too far to assert that Mr Dennis had ever 
+distinctly contemplated and foreseen this happy state of things.  
+He rather looked upon it as one of those beautiful dispensations 
+which are inscrutably brought about for the behoof and advantage of 
+good men.  He felt, as it were, personally referred to, in this 
+prosperous ripening for the gibbet; and had never considered 
+himself so much the pet and favourite child of Destiny, or loved 
+that lady so well or with such a calm and virtuous reliance, in 
+all his life.
+
+As to being taken up, himself, for a rioter, and punished with the 
+rest, Mr Dennis dismissed that possibility from his thoughts as an 
+idle chimera; arguing that the line of conduct he had adopted at 
+Newgate, and the service he had rendered that day, would be more 
+than a set-off against any evidence which might identify him as a 
+member of the crowd.  That any charge of companionship which might 
+be made against him by those who were themselves in danger, would 
+certainly go for nought.  And that if any trivial indiscretion on 
+his part should unluckily come out, the uncommon usefulness of his 
+office, at present, and the great demand for the exercise of its 
+functions, would certainly cause it to be winked at, and passed 
+over.  In a word, he had played his cards throughout, with great 
+care; had changed sides at the very nick of time; had delivered up 
+two of the most notorious rioters, and a distinguished felon to 
+boot; and was quite at his ease.
+
+Saving--for there is a reservation; and even Mr Dennis was not 
+perfectly happy--saving for one circumstance; to wit, the forcible 
+detention of Dolly and Miss Haredale, in a house almost adjoining 
+his own.  This was a stumbling-block; for if they were discovered 
+and released, they could, by the testimony they had it in their 
+power to give, place him in a situation of great jeopardy; and to 
+set them at liberty, first extorting from them an oath of secrecy 
+and silence, was a thing not to be thought of.  It was more, 
+perhaps, with an eye to the danger which lurked in this quarter, 
+than from his abstract love of conversation with the sex, that the 
+hangman, quickening his steps, now hastened into their society, 
+cursing the amorous natures of Hugh and Mr Tappertit with great 
+heartiness, at every step he took.
+
+When be entered the miserable room in which they were confined, 
+Dolly and Miss Haredale withdrew in silence to the remotest corner.  
+But Miss Miggs, who was particularly tender of her reputation, 
+immediately fell upon her knees and began to scream very loud, 
+crying, 'What will become of me!'--'Where is my Simmuns!'--'Have 
+mercy, good gentlemen, on my sex's weaknesses!'--with other doleful 
+lamentations of that nature, which she delivered with great 
+propriety and decorum.
+
+'Miss, miss,' whispered Dennis, beckoning to her with his 
+forefinger, 'come here--I won't hurt you.  Come here, my lamb, will 
+you?'
+
+On hearing this tender epithet, Miss Miggs, who had left off 
+screaming when he opened his lips, and had listened to him 
+attentively, began again, crying: 'Oh I'm his lamb!  He says I'm 
+his lamb!  Oh gracious, why wasn't I born old and ugly!  Why was I 
+ever made to be the youngest of six, and all of 'em dead and in 
+their blessed graves, excepting one married sister, which is 
+settled in Golden Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, second bell-
+handle on the--!'
+
+'Don't I say I an't a-going to hurt you?' said Dennis, pointing to 
+a chair.  'Why miss, what's the matter?'
+
+'I don't know what mayn't be the matter!' cried Miss Miggs, 
+clasping her hands distractedly.  'Anything may be the matter!'
+
+'But nothing is, I tell you,' said the hangman.  'First stop that 
+noise and come and sit down here, will you, chuckey?'
+
+The coaxing tone in which he said these latter words might have 
+failed in its object, if he had not accompanied them with sundry 
+sharp jerks of his thumb over one shoulder, and with divers winks 
+and thrustings of his tongue into his cheek, from which signals the 
+damsel gathered that he sought to speak to her apart, concerning 
+Miss Haredale and Dolly.  Her curiosity being very powerful, and 
+her jealousy by no means inactive, she arose, and with a great deal 
+of shivering and starting back, and much muscular action among all 
+the small bones in her throat, gradually approached him.
+
+'Sit down,' said the hangman.
+
+Suiting the action to the word, he thrust her rather suddenly and 
+prematurely into a chair, and designing to reassure her by a little 
+harmless jocularity, such as is adapted to please and fascinate 
+the sex, converted his right forefinger into an ideal bradawl or 
+gimlet, and made as though he would screw the same into her side--
+whereat Miss Miggs shrieked again, and evinced symptoms of 
+faintness.
+
+'Lovey, my dear,' whispered Dennis, drawing his chair close to 
+hers.  'When was your young man here last, eh?'
+
+'MY young man, good gentleman!' answered Miggs in a tone of 
+exquisite distress.
+
+'Ah!  Simmuns, you know--him?' said Dennis.
+
+'Mine indeed!' cried Miggs, with a burst of bitterness--and as she 
+said it, she glanced towards Dolly.  'MINE, good gentleman!'
+
+This was just what Mr Dennis wanted, and expected.
+
+'Ah!' he said, looking so soothingly, not to say amorously on 
+Miggs, that she sat, as she afterwards remarked, on pins and 
+needles of the sharpest Whitechapel kind, not knowing what 
+intentions might be suggesting that expression to his features: 
+'I was afraid of that.  I saw as much myself.  It's her fault.  She 
+WILL entice 'em.'
+
+'I wouldn't,' cried Miggs, folding her hands and looking upwards 
+with a kind of devout blankness, 'I wouldn't lay myself out as she 
+does; I wouldn't be as bold as her; I wouldn't seem to say to all 
+male creeturs "Come and kiss me"'--and here a shudder quite 
+convulsed her frame--'for any earthly crowns as might be offered.  
+Worlds,' Miggs added solemnly, 'should not reduce me.  No.  Not if 
+I was Wenis.'
+
+'Well, but you ARE Wenus, you know,' said Mr Dennis, 
+confidentially.
+
+'No, I am not, good gentleman,' answered Miggs, shaking her head 
+with an air of self-denial which seemed to imply that she might be 
+if she chose, but she hoped she knew better.  'No, I am not, good 
+gentleman.  Don't charge me with it.'
+
+Up to this time she had turned round, every now and then, to where 
+Dolly and Miss Haredale had retired and uttered a scream, or groan, 
+or laid her hand upon her heart and trembled excessively, with a 
+view of keeping up appearances, and giving them to understand that 
+she conversed with the visitor, under protest and on compulsion, 
+and at a great personal sacrifice, for their common good.  But at 
+this point, Mr Dennis looked so very full of meaning, and gave such 
+a singularly expressive twitch to his face as a request to her to 
+come still nearer to him, that she abandoned these little arts, and 
+gave him her whole and undivided attention.
+
+'When was Simmuns here, I say?' quoth Dennis, in her ear.
+
+'Not since yesterday morning; and then only for a few minutes.  Not 
+all day, the day before.'
+
+'You know he meant all along to carry off that one!' said Dennis, 
+indicating Dolly by the slightest possible jerk of his head:--'And 
+to hand you over to somebody else.'
+
+Miss Miggs, who had fallen into a terrible state of grief when the 
+first part of this sentence was spoken, recovered a little at the 
+second, and seemed by the sudden check she put upon her tears, to 
+intimate that possibly this arrangement might meet her views; and 
+that it might, perhaps, remain an open question.
+
+'--But unfort'nately,' pursued Dennis, who observed this: 'somebody 
+else was fond of her too, you see; and even if he wasn't, somebody 
+else is took for a rioter, and it's all over with him.'
+
+Miss Miggs relapsed.
+
+'Now I want,' said Dennis, 'to clear this house, and to see you 
+righted.  What if I was to get her off, out of the way, eh?'
+
+Miss Miggs, brightening again, rejoined, with many breaks and 
+pauses from excess of feeling, that temptations had been Simmuns's 
+bane.  That it was not his faults, but hers (meaning Dolly's).  
+That men did not see through these dreadful arts as women did, and 
+therefore was caged and trapped, as Simmun had been.  That she had 
+no personal motives to serve--far from it--on the contrary, her 
+intentions was good towards all parties.  But forasmuch as she 
+knowed that Simmun, if united to any designing and artful minxes 
+(she would name no names, for that was not her dispositions)--to 
+ANY designing and artful minxes--must be made miserable and unhappy 
+for life, she DID incline towards prewentions.  Such, she added, 
+was her free confessions.  But as this was private feelings, and 
+might perhaps be looked upon as wengeance, she begged the gentleman 
+would say no more.  Whatever he said, wishing to do her duty by all 
+mankind, even by them as had ever been her bitterest enemies, she 
+would not listen to him.  With that she stopped her ears, and shook 
+her head from side to side, to intimate to Mr Dennis that though he 
+talked until he had no breath left, she was as deaf as any adder.
+
+'Lookee here, my sugar-stick,' said Mr Dennis, 'if your view's the 
+same as mine, and you'll only be quiet and slip away at the right 
+time, I can have the house clear to-morrow, and be out of this 
+trouble.--Stop though! there's the other.'
+
+'Which other, sir?' asked Miggs--still with her fingers in her ears 
+and her head shaking obstinately.
+
+'Why, the tallest one, yonder,' said Dennis, as he stroked his 
+chin, and added, in an undertone to himself, something about not 
+crossing Muster Gashford.
+
+Miss Miggs replied (still being profoundly deaf) that if Miss 
+Haredale stood in the way at all, he might make himself quite easy 
+on that score; as she had gathered, from what passed between Hugh 
+and Mr Tappertit when they were last there, that she was to be 
+removed alone (not by them, but by somebody else), to-morrow night.
+
+Mr Dennis opened his eyes very wide at this piece of information, 
+whistled once, considered once, and finally slapped his head once 
+and nodded once, as if he had got the clue to this mysterious 
+removal, and so dismissed it.  Then he imparted his design 
+concerning Dolly to Miss Miggs, who was taken more deaf than 
+before, when he began; and so remained, all through.
+
+The notable scheme was this.  Mr Dennis was immediately to seek out 
+from among the rioters, some daring young fellow (and he had one in 
+his eye, he said), who, terrified by the threats he could hold out 
+to him, and alarmed by the capture of so many who were no better 
+and no worse than he, would gladly avail himself of any help to get 
+abroad, and out of harm's way, with his plunder, even though his 
+journey were incumbered by an unwilling companion; indeed, the 
+unwilling companion being a beautiful girl, would probably be an 
+additional inducement and temptation.  Such a person found, he 
+proposed to bring him there on the ensuing night, when the tall one 
+was taken off, and Miss Miggs had purposely retired; and then that 
+Dolly should be gagged, muffled in a cloak, and carried in any 
+handy conveyance down to the river's side; where there were 
+abundant means of getting her smuggled snugly off in any small 
+craft of doubtful character, and no questions asked.  With regard 
+to the expense of this removal, he would say, at a rough 
+calculation, that two or three silver tea or coffee-pots, with 
+something additional for drink (such as a muffineer, or toast-
+rack), would more than cover it.  Articles of plate of every kind 
+having been buried by the rioters in several lonely parts of 
+London, and particularly, as he knew, in St James's Square, which, 
+though easy of access, was little frequented after dark, and had a 
+convenient piece of water in the midst, the needful funds were 
+close at hand, and could be had upon the shortest notice.  With 
+regard to Dolly, the gentleman would exercise his own discretion.  
+He would be bound to do nothing but to take her away, and keep her 
+away.  All other arrangements and dispositions would rest entirely 
+with himself.
+
+If Miss Miggs had had her hearing, no doubt she would have been 
+greatly shocked by the indelicacy of a young female's going away 
+with a stranger by night (for her moral feelings, as we have said, 
+were of the tenderest kind); but directly Mr Dennis ceased to 
+speak, she reminded him that he had only wasted breath.  She then 
+went on to say (still with her fingers in her ears) that nothing 
+less than a severe practical lesson would save the locksmith's 
+daughter from utter ruin; and that she felt it, as it were, a moral 
+obligation and a sacred duty to the family, to wish that some one 
+would devise one for her reformation.  Miss Miggs remarked, and 
+very justly, as an abstract sentiment which happened to occur to 
+her at the moment, that she dared to say the locksmith and his wife 
+would murmur, and repine, if they were ever, by forcible abduction, 
+or otherwise, to lose their child; but that we seldom knew, in this 
+world, what was best for us: such being our sinful and imperfect 
+natures, that very few arrived at that clear understanding.
+
+Having brought their conversation to this satisfactory end, they 
+parted: Dennis, to pursue his design, and take another walk about 
+his farm; Miss Miggs, to launch, when he left her, into such a 
+burst of mental anguish (which she gave them to understand was 
+occasioned by certain tender things he had had the presumption and 
+audacity to say), that little Dolly's heart was quite melted.  
+Indeed, she said and did so much to soothe the outraged feelings of 
+Miss Miggs, and looked so beautiful while doing so, that if that 
+young maid had not had ample vent for her surpassing spite, in a 
+knowledge of the mischief that was brewing, she must have scratched 
+her features, on the spot.
+
+
+
+Chapter 71
+
+
+All next day, Emma Haredale, Dolly, and Miggs, remained cooped up 
+together in what had now been their prison for so many days, 
+without seeing any person, or hearing any sound but the murmured 
+conversation, in an outer room, of the men who kept watch over 
+them.  There appeared to be more of these fellows than there had 
+been hitherto; and they could no longer hear the voices of women, 
+which they had before plainly distinguished.  Some new excitement, 
+too, seemed to prevail among them; for there was much stealthy 
+going in and out, and a constant questioning of those who were 
+newly arrived.  They had previously been quite reckless in their 
+behaviour; often making a great uproar; quarrelling among 
+themselves, fighting, dancing, and singing.  They were now very 
+subdued and silent, conversing almost in whispers, and stealing in 
+and out with a soft and stealthy tread, very different from the 
+boisterous trampling in which their arrivals and departures had 
+hitherto been announced to the trembling captives.
+
+Whether this change was occasioned by the presence among them of 
+some person of authority in their ranks, or by any other cause, 
+they were unable to decide.  Sometimes they thought it was in part 
+attributable to there being a sick man in the chamber, for last 
+night there had been a shuffling of feet, as though a burden were 
+brought in, and afterwards a moaning noise.  But they had no means 
+of ascertaining the truth: for any question or entreaty on their 
+parts only provoked a storm of execrations, or something worse; and 
+they were too happy to be left alone, unassailed by threats or 
+admiration, to risk even that comfort, by any voluntary 
+communication with those who held them in durance.
+
+It was sufficiently evident, both to Emma and to the locksmith's 
+poor little daughter herself, that she, Dolly, was the great 
+object of attraction; and that so soon as they should have leisure 
+to indulge in the softer passion, Hugh and Mr Tappertit would 
+certainly fall to blows for her sake; in which latter case, it was 
+not very difficult to see whose prize she would become.  With all 
+her old horror of that man revived, and deepened into a degree of 
+aversion and abhorrence which no language can describe; with a 
+thousand old recollections and regrets, and causes of distress, 
+anxiety, and fear, besetting her on all sides; poor Dolly Varden--
+sweet, blooming, buxom Dolly--began to hang her head, and fade, and 
+droop, like a beautiful flower.  The colour fled from her cheeks, 
+her courage forsook her, her gentle heart failed.  Unmindful of all 
+her provoking caprices, forgetful of all her conquests and 
+inconstancy, with all her winning little vanities quite gone, she 
+nestled all the livelong day in Emma Haredale's bosom; and, 
+sometimes calling on her dear old grey-haired father, sometimes on 
+her mother, and sometimes even on her old home, pined slowly away, 
+like a poor bird in its cage.
+
+Light hearts, light hearts, that float so gaily on a smooth stream, 
+that are so sparkling and buoyant in the sunshine--down upon fruit, 
+bloom upon flowers, blush in summer air, life of the winged insect, 
+whose whole existence is a day--how soon ye sink in troubled water!  
+Poor Dolly's heart--a little, gentle, idle, fickle thing; giddy, 
+restless, fluttering; constant to nothing but bright looks, and 
+smiles and laughter--Dolly's heart was breaking.
+
+Emma had known grief, and could bear it better.  She had little 
+comfort to impart, but she could soothe and tend her, and she did 
+so; and Dolly clung to her like a child to its nurse.  In 
+endeavouring to inspire her with some fortitude, she increased her 
+own; and though the nights were long, and the days dismal, and she 
+felt the wasting influence of watching and fatigue, and had 
+perhaps a more defined and clear perception of their destitute 
+condition and its worst dangers, she uttered no complaint.  Before 
+the ruffians, in whose power they were, she bore herself so 
+calmly, and with such an appearance, in the midst of all her 
+terror, of a secret conviction that they dared not harm her, that 
+there was not a man among them but held her in some degree of 
+dread; and more than one believed she had a weapon hidden in her 
+dress, and was prepared to use it.
+
+Such was their condition when they were joined by Miss Miggs, who 
+gave them to understand that she too had been taken prisoner 
+because of her charms, and detailed such feats of resistance she 
+had performed (her virtue having given her supernatural strength), 
+that they felt it quite a happiness to have her for a champion.  
+Nor was this the only comfort they derived at first from Miggs's 
+presence and society: for that young lady displayed such 
+resignation and long-suffering, and so much meek endurance, under 
+her trials, and breathed in all her chaste discourse a spirit of 
+such holy confidence and resignation, and devout belief that all 
+would happen for the best, that Emma felt her courage strengthened 
+by the bright example; never doubting but that everything she said 
+was true, and that she, like them, was torn from all she loved, and 
+agonised by doubt and apprehension.  As to poor Dolly, she was 
+roused, at first, by seeing one who came from home; but when she 
+heard under what circumstances she had left it, and into whose 
+hands her father had fallen, she wept more bitterly than ever, and 
+refused all comfort.
+
+Miss Miggs was at some trouble to reprove her for this state of 
+mind, and to entreat her to take example by herself, who, she 
+said, was now receiving back, with interest, tenfold the amount of 
+her subscriptions to the red-brick dwelling-house, in the articles 
+of peace of mind and a quiet conscience.  And, while on serious 
+topics, Miss Miggs considered it her duty to try her hand at the 
+conversion of Miss Haredale; for whose improvement she launched 
+into a polemical address of some length, in the course whereof, 
+she likened herself unto a chosen missionary, and that young lady 
+to a cannibal in darkness.  Indeed, she returned so often to these 
+sublects, and so frequently called upon them to take a lesson from 
+her,--at the same time vaunting and, as it were, rioting in, her 
+huge unworthiness, and abundant excess of sin,--that, in the course 
+of a short time, she became, in that small chamber, rather a 
+nuisance than a comfort, and rendered them, if possible, even more 
+unhappy than they had been before.
+
+The night had now come; and for the first time (for their jailers 
+had been regular in bringing food and candles), they were left in 
+darkness.  Any change in their condition in such a place inspired 
+new fears; and when some hours had passed, and the gloom was still 
+unbroken, Emma could no longer repress her alarm.
+
+They listened attentively.  There was the same murmuring in the 
+outer room, and now and then a moan which seemed to be wrung from a 
+person in great pain, who made an effort to subdue it, but could 
+not.  Even these men seemed to be in darkness too; for no light 
+shone through the chinks in the door, nor were they moving, as 
+their custom was, but quite still: the silence being unbroken by 
+so much as the creaking of a board.
+
+At first, Miss Miggs wondered greatly in her own mind who this sick 
+person might be; but arriving, on second thoughts, at the 
+conclusion that he was a part of the schemes on foot, and an artful 
+device soon to be employed with great success, she opined, for Miss 
+Haredale's comfort, that it must be some misguided Papist who had 
+been wounded: and this happy supposition encouraged her to say, 
+under her breath, 'Ally Looyer!' several times.
+
+'Is it possible,' said Emma, with some indignation, 'that you who 
+have seen these men committing the outrages you have told us of, 
+and who have fallen into their hands, like us, can exult in their 
+cruelties!'
+
+'Personal considerations, miss,' rejoined Miggs, 'sinks into 
+nothing, afore a noble cause.  Ally Looyer!  Ally Looyer!  Ally 
+Looyer, good gentlemen!'
+
+It seemed from the shrill pertinacity with which Miss Miggs 
+repeated this form of acclamation, that she was calling the same 
+through the keyhole of the door; but in the profound darkness she 
+could not be seen.
+
+'If the time has come--Heaven knows it may come at any moment--when 
+they are bent on prosecuting the designs, whatever they may be, 
+with which they have brought us here, can you still encourage, and 
+take part with them?' demanded Emma.
+
+'I thank my goodness-gracious-blessed-stars I can, miss,' returned 
+Miggs, with increased energy.--'Ally Looyer, good gentlemen!'
+
+Even Dolly, cast down and disappointed as she was, revived at this, 
+and bade Miggs hold her tongue directly.
+
+'WHICH, was you pleased to observe, Miss Varden?' said Miggs, with 
+a strong emphasis on the irrelative pronoun.
+
+Dolly repeated her request.
+
+'Ho, gracious me!' cried Miggs, with hysterical derision.  'Ho, 
+gracious me!  Yes, to be sure I will.  Ho yes!  I am a abject 
+slave, and a toiling, moiling, constant-working, always-being-
+found-fault-with, never-giving-satisfactions, nor-having-no-
+time-to-clean-oneself, potter's wessel--an't I, miss!  Ho yes!  My 
+situations is lowly, and my capacities is limited, and my duties is 
+to humble myself afore the base degenerating daughters of their 
+blessed mothers as is--fit to keep companies with holy saints but 
+is born to persecutions from wicked relations--and to demean myself 
+before them as is no better than Infidels--an't it, miss!  Ho yes!  
+My only becoming occupations is to help young flaunting pagins to 
+brush and comb and titiwate theirselves into whitening and 
+suppulchres, and leave the young men to think that there an't a bit 
+of padding in it nor no pinching ins nor fillings out nor pomatums 
+nor deceits nor earthly wanities--an't it, miss!  Yes, to be sure 
+it is--ho yes!'
+
+Having delivered these ironical passages with a most wonderful 
+volubility, and with a shrillness perfectly deafening (especially 
+when she jerked out the interjections), Miss Miggs, from mere 
+habit, and not because weeping was at all appropriate to the 
+occasion, which was one of triumph, concluded by bursting into a 
+flood of tears, and calling in an impassioned manner on the name of 
+Simmuns.
+
+What Emma Haredale and Dolly would have done, or how long Miss 
+Miggs, now that she had hoisted her true colours, would have gone 
+on waving them before their astonished senses, it is impossible to 
+tell.  Nor is it necessary to speculate on these matters, for a 
+startling interruption occurred at that moment, which took their 
+whole attention by storm.
+
+This was a violent knocking at the door of the house, and then its 
+sudden bursting open; which was immediately succeeded by a scuffle 
+in the room without, and the clash of weapons.  Transported with 
+the hope that rescue had at length arrived, Emma and Dolly shrieked 
+aloud for help; nor were their shrieks unanswered; for after a 
+hurried interval, a man, bearing in one hand a drawn sword, and in 
+the other a taper, rushed into the chamber where they were confined.
+
+It was some check upon their transport to find in this person an 
+entire stranger, but they appealed to him, nevertheless, and 
+besought him, in impassioned language, to restore them to their 
+friends.
+
+'For what other purpose am I here?' he answered, closing the door, 
+and standing with his back against it.  'With what object have I 
+made my way to this place, through difficulty and danger, but to 
+preserve you?'
+
+With a joy for which it was impossible to find adequate expression, 
+they embraced each other, and thanked Heaven for this most timely 
+aid.  Their deliverer stepped forward for a moment to put the light 
+upon the table, and immediately returning to his former position 
+against the door, bared his head, and looked on smilingly.
+
+'You have news of my uncle, sir?' said Emma, turning hastily 
+towards him.
+
+'And of my father and mother?' added Dolly.
+
+'Yes,' he said.  'Good news.'
+
+'They are alive and unhurt?' they both cried at once.
+
+'Yes, and unhurt,' he rejoined.
+
+'And close at hand?'
+
+'I did not say close at hand,' he answered smoothly; 'they are at 
+no great distance.  YOUR friends, sweet one,' he added, addressing 
+Dolly, 'are within a few hours' journey.  You will be restored to 
+them, I hope, to-night.'
+
+'My uncle, sir--' faltered Emma.
+
+'Your uncle, dear Miss Haredale, happily--I say happily, because he 
+has succeeded where many of our creed have failed, and is safe--has 
+crossed the sea, and is out of Britain.'
+
+'I thank God for it,' said Emma, faintly.
+
+'You say well.  You have reason to be thankful: greater reason 
+than it is possible for you, who have seen but one night of these 
+cruel outrages, to imagine.'
+
+'Does he desire,' said Emma, 'that I should follow him?'
+
+'Do you ask if he desires it?' cried the stranger in surprise.  'IF 
+he desires it!  But you do not know the danger of remaining in 
+England, the difficulty of escape, or the price hundreds would pay 
+to secure the means, when you make that inquiry.  Pardon me.  I had 
+forgotten that you could not, being prisoner here.'
+
+'I gather, sir,' said Emma, after a moment's pause, 'from what you 
+hint at, but fear to tell me, that I have witnessed but the 
+beginning, and the least, of the violence to which we are exposed, 
+and that it has not yet slackened in its fury?'
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, lifted up his hands; and 
+with the same smooth smile, which was not a pleasant one to see, 
+cast his eyes upon the ground, and remained silent.
+
+'You may venture, sir, to speak plain,' said Emma, 'and to tell me 
+the worst.  We have undergone some preparation for it.'
+
+But here Dolly interposed, and entreated her not to hear the worst, 
+but the best; and besought the gentleman to tell them the best, and 
+to keep the remainder of his news until they were safe among their 
+friends again.
+
+'It is told in three words,' he said, glancing at the locksmith's 
+daughter with a look of some displeasure.  'The people have risen, 
+to a man, against us; the streets are filled with soldiers, who 
+support them and do their bidding.  We have no protection but from 
+above, and no safety but in flight; and that is a poor resource; 
+for we are watched on every hand, and detained here, both by force 
+and fraud.  Miss Haredale, I cannot bear--believe me, that I cannot 
+bear--by speaking of myself, or what I have done, or am prepared 
+to do, to seem to vaunt my services before you.  But, having 
+powerful Protestant connections, and having my whole wealth 
+embarked with theirs in shipping and commerce, I happily possessed 
+the means of saving your uncle.  I have the means of saving you; 
+and in redemption of my sacred promise, made to him, I am here; 
+pledged not to leave you until I have placed you in his arms.  The 
+treachery or penitence of one of the men about you, led to the 
+discovery of your place of confinement; and that I have forced my 
+way here, sword in hand, you see.'
+
+'You bring,' said Emma, faltering, 'some note or token from my 
+uncle?'
+
+'No, he doesn't,' cried Dolly, pointing at him earnestly; 'now I am 
+sure he doesn't.  Don't go with him for the world!'
+
+'Hush, pretty fool--be silent,' he replied, frowning angrily upon 
+her.  'No, Miss Haredale, I have no letter, nor any token of any 
+kind; for while I sympathise with you, and such as you, on whom 
+misfortune so heavy and so undeserved has fallen, I value my life.  
+I carry, therefore, no writing which, found upon me, would lead to 
+its certain loss.  I never thought of bringing any other token, nor 
+did Mr Haredale think of entrusting me with one--possibly because 
+he had good experience of my faith and honesty, and owed his life 
+to me.'
+
+There was a reproof conveyed in these words, which to a nature like 
+Emma Haredale's, was well addressed.  But Dolly, who was 
+differently constituted, was by no means touched by it, and still 
+conjured her, in all the terms of affection and attachment she 
+could think of, not to be lured away.
+
+'Time presses,' said their visitor, who, although he sought to 
+express the deepest interest, had something cold and even in his 
+speech, that grated on the ear; 'and danger surrounds us.  If I 
+have exposed myself to it, in vain, let it be so; but if you and he 
+should ever meet again, do me justice.  If you decide to remain (as 
+I think you do), remember, Miss Haredale, that I left you with a 
+solemn caution, and acquitting myself of all the consequences to 
+which you expose yourself.'
+
+'Stay, sir!' cried Emma--one moment, I beg you.  Cannot we--and she 
+drew Dolly closer to her--'cannot we go together?'
+
+'The task of conveying one female in safety through such scenes as 
+we must encounter, to say nothing of attracting the attention of 
+those who crowd the streets,' he answered, 'is enough.  I have said 
+that she will be restored to her friends to-night.  If you accept 
+the service I tender, Miss Haredale, she shall be instantly placed 
+in safe conduct, and that promise redeemed.  Do you decide to 
+remain?  People of all ranks and creeds are flying from the town, 
+which is sacked from end to end.  Let me be of use in some 
+quarter.  Do you stay, or go?'
+
+'Dolly,' said Emma, in a hurried manner, 'my dear girl, this is our 
+last hope.  If we part now, it is only that we may meet again in 
+happiness and honour.  I will trust to this gentleman.'
+
+'No no-no!' cried Dolly, clinging to her.  'Pray, pray, do not!'
+
+'You hear,' said Emma, 'that to-night--only to-night--within a few 
+hours--think of that!--you will be among those who would die of 
+grief to lose you, and who are now plunged in the deepest misery 
+for your sake.  Pray for me, dear girl, as I will for you; and 
+never forget the many quiet hours we have passed together.  Say 
+one "God bless you!"  Say that at parting!'
+
+But Dolly could say nothing; no, not when Emma kissed her cheek a 
+hundred times, and covered it with tears, could she do more than 
+hang upon her neck, and sob, and clasp, and hold her tight.
+
+'We have time for no more of this,' cried the man, unclenching her 
+hands, and pushing her roughly off, as he drew Emma Haredale 
+towards the door: 'Now!  Quick, outside there! are you ready?'
+
+'Ay!' cried a loud voice, which made him start.  'Quite ready!  
+Stand back here, for your lives!'
+
+And in an instant he was felled like an ox in the butcher's 
+shambles--struck down as though a block of marble had fallen from 
+the roof and crushed him--and cheerful light, and beaming faces 
+came pouring in--and Emma was clasped in her uncle's embrace, and 
+Dolly, with a shriek that pierced the air, fell into the arms of 
+her father and mother.
+
+What fainting there was, what laughing, what crying, what sobbing, 
+what smiling, how much questioning, no answering, all talking 
+together, all beside themselves with joy; what kissing, 
+congratulating, embracing, shaking of hands, and falling into all 
+these raptures, over and over and over again; no language can 
+describe.
+
+At length, and after a long time, the old locksmith went up and 
+fairly hugged two strangers, who had stood apart and left them to 
+themselves; and then they saw--whom?  Yes, Edward Chester and 
+Joseph Willet.
+
+'See here!' cried the locksmith.  'See here! where would any of us 
+have been without these two?  Oh, Mr Edward, Mr Edward--oh, Joe, 
+Joe, how light, and yet how full, you have made my old heart to-
+night!'
+
+'It was Mr Edward that knocked him down, sir,' said Joe: 'I longed 
+to do it, but I gave it up to him.  Come, you brave and honest 
+gentleman!  Get your senses together, for you haven't long to lie 
+here.'
+
+He had his foot upon the breast of their sham deliverer, in the 
+absence of a spare arm; and gave him a gentle roll as he spoke.  
+Gashford, for it was no other, crouching yet malignant, raised his 
+scowling face, like sin subdued, and pleaded to be gently used.
+
+'I have access to all my lord's papers, Mr Haredale,' he said, in a 
+submissive voice: Mr Haredale keeping his back towards him, and not 
+once looking round: 'there are very important documents among them.  
+There are a great many in secret drawers, and distributed in 
+various places, known only to my lord and me.  I can give some very 
+valuable information, and render important assistance to any 
+inquiry.  You will have to answer it, if I receive ill usage.
+
+'Pah!' cried Joe, in deep disgust.  'Get up, man; you're waited 
+for, outside.  Get up, do you hear?'
+
+Gashford slowly rose; and picking up his hat, and looking with a 
+baffled malevolence, yet with an air of despicable humility, all 
+round the room, crawled out.
+
+'And now, gentlemen,' said Joe, who seemed to be the spokesman of 
+the party, for all the rest were silent; 'the sooner we get back 
+to the Black Lion, the better, perhaps.'
+
+Mr Haredale nodded assent, and drawing his niece's arm through his, 
+and taking one of her hands between his own, passed out 
+straightway; followed by the locksmith, Mrs Varden, and Dolly--who 
+would scarcely have presented a sufficient surface for all the hugs 
+and caresses they bestowed upon her though she had been a dozen 
+Dollys.  Edward Chester and Joe followed.
+
+And did Dolly never once look behind--not once?  Was there not one 
+little fleeting glimpse of the dark eyelash, almost resting on her 
+flushed cheek, and of the downcast sparkling eye it shaded?  Joe 
+thought there was--and he is not likely to have been mistaken; for 
+there were not many eyes like Dolly's, that's the truth.
+
+The outer room through which they had to pass, was full of men; 
+among them, Mr Dennis in safe keeping; and there, had been since 
+yesterday, lying in hiding behind a wooden screen which was now 
+thrown down, Simon Tappertit, the recreant 'prentice, burnt and 
+bruised, and with a gun-shot wound in his body; and his legs--his 
+perfect legs, the pride and glory of his life, the comfort of his 
+existence--crushed into shapeless ugliness.  Wondering no longer at 
+the moans they had heard, Dolly kept closer to her father, and 
+shuddered at the sight; but neither bruises, burns, nor gun-shot 
+wound, nor all the torture of his shattered limbs, sent half so 
+keen a pang to Simon's breast, as Dolly passing out, with Joe for 
+her preserver.
+
+A coach was ready at the door, and Dolly found herself safe and 
+whole inside, between her father and mother, with Emma Haredale and 
+her uncle, quite real, sitting opposite.  But there was no Joe, no 
+Edward; and they had said nothing.  They had only bowed once, and 
+kept at a distance.  Dear heart! what a long way it was to the 
+Black Lion!
+
+
+
+Chapter 72
+
+
+The Black Lion was so far off, and occupied such a length of time 
+in the getting at, that notwithstanding the strong presumptive 
+evidence she had about her of the late events being real and of 
+actual occurrence, Dolly could not divest herself of the belief 
+that she must be in a dream which was lasting all night.  Nor was 
+she quite certain that she saw and heard with her own proper 
+senses, even when the coach, in the fulness of time, stopped at the 
+Black Lion, and the host of that tavern approached in a gush of 
+cheerful light to help them to dismount, and give them hearty 
+welcome.
+
+There too, at the coach door, one on one side, one upon the other, 
+were already Edward Chester and Joe Willet, who must have followed 
+in another coach: and this was such a strange and unaccountable 
+proceeding, that Dolly was the more inclined to favour the idea of 
+her being fast asleep.  But when Mr Willet appeared--old John 
+himself--so heavy-headed and obstinate, and with such a double 
+chin as the liveliest imagination could never in its boldest 
+flights have conjured up in all its vast proportions--then she 
+stood corrected, and unwillingly admitted to herself that she was 
+broad awake.
+
+And Joe had lost an arm--he--that well-made, handsome, gallant 
+fellow!  As Dolly glanced towards him, and thought of the pain he 
+must have suffered, and the far-off places in which he had been 
+wandering, and wondered who had been his nurse, and hoped that 
+whoever it was, she had been as kind and gentle and considerate as 
+she would have been, the tears came rising to her bright eyes, one 
+by one, little by little, until she could keep them back no longer, 
+and so before them all, wept bitterly.
+
+'We are all safe now, Dolly,' said her father, kindly.  'We shall 
+not be separated any more.  Cheer up, my love, cheer up!'
+
+The locksmith's wife knew better perhaps, than he, what ailed her 
+daughter.  But Mrs Varden being quite an altered woman--for the 
+riots had done that good--added her word to his, and comforted her 
+with similar representations.
+
+'Mayhap,' said Mr Willet, senior, looking round upon the company, 
+'she's hungry.  That's what it is, depend upon it--I am, myself.'
+
+The Black Lion, who, like old John, had been waiting supper past 
+all reasonable and conscionable hours, hailed this as a 
+philosophical discovery of the profoundest and most penetrating 
+kind; and the table being already spread, they sat down to supper 
+straightway.
+
+The conversation was not of the liveliest nature, nor were the 
+appetites of some among them very keen.  But, in both these 
+respects, old John more than atoned for any deficiency on the part 
+of the rest, and very much distinguished himself.
+
+It was not in point of actual conversation that Mr Willet shone so 
+brilliantly, for he had none of his old cronies to 'tackle,' and 
+was rather timorous of venturing on Joe; having certain vague 
+misgivings within him, that he was ready on the shortest notice, 
+and on receipt of the slightest offence, to fell the Black Lion to 
+the floor of his own parlour, and immediately to withdraw to China 
+or some other remote and unknown region, there to dwell for 
+evermore, or at least until he had got rid of his remaining arm and 
+both legs, and perhaps an eye or so, into the bargain.  It was with 
+a peculiar kind of pantomime that Mr Willet filled up every pause; 
+and in this he was considered by the Black Lion, who had been his 
+familiar for some years, quite to surpass and go beyond himself, 
+and outrun the expectations of his most admiring friends.
+
+The subject that worked in Mr Willet's mind, and occasioned these 
+demonstrations, was no other than his son's bodily disfigurement, 
+which he had never yet got himself thoroughly to believe, or 
+comprehend.  Shortly after their first meeting, he had been 
+observed to wander, in a state of great perplexity, to the kitchen, 
+and to direct his gaze towards the fire, as if in search of his 
+usual adviser in all matters of doubt and difficulty.  But there 
+being no boiler at the Black Lion, and the rioters having so beaten 
+and battered his own that it was quite unfit for further service, 
+he wandered out again, in a perfect bog of uncertainty and mental 
+confusion, and in that state took the strangest means of resolving 
+his doubts: such as feeling the sleeve of his son's greatcoat as 
+deeming it possible that his arm might be there; looking at his own 
+arms and those of everybody else, as if to assure himself that two 
+and not one was the usual allowance; sitting by the hour together 
+in a brown study, as if he were endeavouring to recall Joe's image 
+in his younger days, and to remember whether he really had in those 
+times one arm or a pair; and employing himself in many other 
+speculations of the same kind.
+
+Finding himself at this supper, surrounded by faces with which he 
+had been so well acquainted in old times, Mr Willet recurred to the 
+subject with uncommon vigour; apparently resolved to understand it 
+now or never.  Sometimes, after every two or three mouthfuls, he 
+laid down his knife and fork, and stared at his son with all his 
+might--particularly at his maimed side; then, he looked slowly 
+round the table until he caught some person's eye, when he shook 
+his head with great solemnity, patted his shoulder, winked, or as 
+one may say--for winking was a very slow process with him--went to 
+sleep with one eye for a minute or two; and so, with another solemn 
+shaking of his head, took up his knife and fork again, and went on 
+eating.  Sometimes, he put his food into his mouth abstractedly, 
+and, with all his faculties concentrated on Joe, gazed at him in a 
+fit of stupefaction as he cut his meat with one hand, until he was 
+recalled to himself by symptoms of choking on his own part, and was 
+by that means restored to consciousness.  At other times he 
+resorted to such small devices as asking him for the salt, the 
+pepper, the vinegar, the mustard--anything that was on his maimed 
+side--and watching him as he handed it.  By dint of these 
+experiments, he did at last so satisfy and convince himself, that, 
+after a longer silence than he had yet maintained, he laid down his 
+knife and fork on either side his plate, drank a long draught from 
+a tankard beside him (still keeping his eyes on Joe), and leaning 
+backward in his chair and fetching a long breath, said, as he 
+looked all round the board:
+
+'It's been took off!'
+
+'By George!' said the Black Lion, striking the table with his hand, 
+'he's got it!'
+
+'Yes, sir,' said Mr Willet, with the look of a man who felt that he 
+had earned a compliment, and deserved it.  'That's where it is.  
+It's been took off.'
+
+'Tell him where it was done,' said the Black Lion to Joe.
+
+'At the defence of the Savannah, father.'
+
+'At the defence of the Salwanners,' repeated Mr Willet, softly; 
+again looking round the table.
+
+'In America, where the war is,' said Joe.
+
+'In America, where the war is,' repeated Mr Willet.  'It was took 
+off in the defence of the Salwanners in America where the war is.'  
+Continuing to repeat these words to himself in a low tone of voice 
+(the same information had been conveyed to him in the same terms, 
+at least fifty times before), Mr Willet arose from table, walked 
+round to Joe, felt his empty sleeve all the way up, from the cuff, 
+to where the stump of his arm remained; shook his hand; lighted his 
+pipe at the fire, took a long whiff, walked to the door, turned 
+round once when he had reached it, wiped his left eye with the back 
+of his forefinger, and said, in a faltering voice: 'My son's arm--
+was took off--at the defence of the--Salwanners--in America--where 
+the war is'--with which words he withdrew, and returned no more 
+that night.
+
+Indeed, on various pretences, they all withdrew one after another, 
+save Dolly, who was left sitting there alone.  It was a great 
+relief to be alone, and she was crying to her heart's content, when 
+she heard Joe's voice at the end of the passage, bidding somebody 
+good night.
+
+Good night!  Then he was going elsewhere--to some distance, 
+perhaps.  To what kind of home COULD he be going, now that it was 
+so late!
+
+She heard him walk along the passage, and pass the door.  But there 
+was a hesitation in his footsteps.  He turned back--Dolly's heart 
+beat high--he looked in.
+
+'Good night!'--he didn't say Dolly, but there was comfort in his 
+not saying Miss Varden.
+
+'Good night!' sobbed Dolly.
+
+'I am sorry you take on so much, for what is past and gone,' said 
+Joe kindly.  'Don't.  I can't bear to see you do it.  Think of it 
+no longer.  You are safe and happy now.'
+
+Dolly cried the more.
+
+'You must have suffered very much within these few days--and yet 
+you're not changed, unless it's for the better.  They said you 
+were, but I don't see it.  You were--you were always very 
+beautiful,' said Joe, 'but you are more beautiful than ever, now.  
+You are indeed.  There can be no harm in my saying so, for you must 
+know it.  You are told so very often, I am sure.'
+
+As a general principle, Dolly DID know it, and WAS told so, very 
+often.  But the coachmaker had turned out, years ago, to be a 
+special donkey; and whether she had been afraid of making similar 
+discoveries in others, or had grown by dint of long custom to be 
+careless of compliments generally, certain it is that although she 
+cried so much, she was better pleased to be told so now, than ever 
+she had been in all her life.
+
+'I shall bless your name,' sobbed the locksmith's little daughter, 
+'as long as I live.  I shall never hear it spoken without feeling 
+as if my heart would burst.  I shall remember it in my prayers, 
+every night and morning till I die!'
+
+'Will you?' said Joe, eagerly.  'Will you indeed?  It makes me--
+well, it makes me very glad and proud to hear you say so.'
+
+Dolly still sobbed, and held her handkerchief to her eyes.  Joe 
+still stood, looking at her.
+
+'Your voice,' said Joe, 'brings up old times so pleasantly, that, 
+for the moment, I feel as if that night--there can be no harm in 
+talking of that night now--had come back, and nothing had happened 
+in the mean time.  I feel as if I hadn't suffered any hardships, 
+but had knocked down poor Tom Cobb only yesterday, and had come to 
+see you with my bundle on my shoulder before running away.--You 
+remember?'
+
+Remember!  But she said nothing.  She raised her eyes for an 
+instant.  It was but a glance; a little, tearful, timid glance.  It 
+kept Joe silent though, for a long time.
+
+'Well!' he said stoutly, 'it was to be otherwise, and was.  I have 
+been abroad, fighting all the summer and frozen up all the winter, 
+ever since.  I have come back as poor in purse as I went, and 
+crippled for life besides.  But, Dolly, I would rather have lost 
+this other arm--ay, I would rather have lost my head--than have 
+come back to find you dead, or anything but what I always pictured 
+you to myself, and what I always hoped and wished to find you.  
+Thank God for all!'
+
+Oh how much, and how keenly, the little coquette of five years ago, 
+felt now!  She had found her heart at last.  Never having known its 
+worth till now, she had never known the worth of his.  How 
+priceless it appeared!
+
+'I did hope once,' said Joe, in his homely way, 'that I might come 
+back a rich man, and marry you.  But I was a boy then, and have 
+long known better than that.  I am a poor, maimed, discharged 
+soldier, and must be content to rub through life as I can.  I can't 
+say, even now, that I shall be glad to see you married, Dolly; but 
+I AM glad--yes, I am, and glad to think I can say so--to know that 
+you are admired and courted, and can pick and choose for a happy 
+life.  It's a comfort to me to know that you'll talk to your 
+husband about me; and I hope the time will come when I may be able 
+to like him, and to shake hands with him, and to come and see you 
+as a poor friend who knew you when you were a girl.  God bless 
+you!'
+
+His hand DID tremble; but for all that, he took it away again, and 
+left her.
+
+
+
+Chapter 73
+
+
+By this Friday night--for it was on Friday in the riot week, that 
+Emma and Dolly were rescued, by the timely aid of Joe and Edward 
+Chester--the disturbances were entirely quelled, and peace and 
+order were restored to the affrighted city.  True, after what had 
+happened, it was impossible for any man to say how long this better 
+state of things might last, or how suddenly new outrages, exceeding 
+even those so lately witnessed, might burst forth and fill its 
+streets with ruin and bloodshed; for this reason, those who had 
+fled from the recent tumults still kept at a distance, and many 
+families, hitherto unable to procure the means of flight, now 
+availed themselves of the calm, and withdrew into the country.  The 
+shops, too, from Tyburn to Whitechapel, were still shut; and very 
+little business was transacted in any of the places of great 
+commercial resort.  But, notwithstanding, and in spite of the 
+melancholy forebodings of that numerous class of society who see 
+with the greatest clearness into the darkest perspectives, the town 
+remained profoundly quiet.  The strong military force disposed in 
+every advantageous quarter, and stationed at every commanding 
+point, held the scattered fragments of the mob in check; the search 
+after rioters was prosecuted with unrelenting vigour; and if there 
+were any among them so desperate and reckless as to be inclined, 
+after the terrible scenes they had beheld, to venture forth again, 
+they were so daunted by these resolute measures, that they quickly 
+shrunk into their hiding-places, and had no thought but for their 
+safety.
+
+In a word, the crowd was utterly routed.  Upwards of two hundred 
+had been shot dead in the streets.  Two hundred and fifty more were 
+lying, badly wounded, in the hospitals; of whom seventy or eighty 
+died within a short time afterwards.  A hundred were already in 
+custody, and more were taken every hour.  How many perished in the 
+conflagrations, or by their own excesses, is unknown; but that 
+numbers found a terrible grave in the hot ashes of the flames they 
+had kindled, or crept into vaults and cellars to drink in secret or 
+to nurse their sores, and never saw the light again, is certain.  
+When the embers of the fires had been black and cold for many 
+weeks, the labourers' spades proved this, beyond a doubt.
+
+Seventy-two private houses and four strong jails were destroyed in 
+the four great days of these riots.  The total loss of property, as 
+estimated by the sufferers, was one hundred and fifty-five thousand 
+pounds; at the lowest and least partial estimate of disinterested 
+persons, it exceeded one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds.  
+For this immense loss, compensation was soon afterwards made out of 
+the public purse, in pursuance of a vote of the House of Commons; 
+the sum being levied on the various wards in the city, on the 
+county, and the borough of Southwark.  Both Lord Mansfield and Lord 
+Saville, however, who had been great sufferers, refused to accept 
+of any compensation whatever.
+
+The House of Commons, sitting on Tuesday with locked and guarded 
+doors, had passed a resolution to the effect that, as soon as the 
+tumults subsided, it would immediately proceed to consider the 
+petitions presented from many of his Majesty's Protestant subjects, 
+and would take the same into its serious consideration.  While this 
+question was under debate, Mr Herbert, one of the members present, 
+indignantly rose and called upon the House to observe that Lord 
+George Gordon was then sitting under the gallery with the blue 
+cockade, the signal of rebellion, in his hat.  He was not only 
+obliged, by those who sat near, to take it out; but offering to go 
+into the street to pacify the mob with the somewhat indefinite 
+assurance that the House was prepared to give them 'the 
+satisfaction they sought,' was actually held down in his seat by 
+the combined force of several members.  In short, the disorder and 
+violence which reigned triumphant out of doors, penetrated into the 
+senate, and there, as elsewhere, terror and alarm prevailed, and 
+ordinary forms were for the time forgotten.
+
+On the Thursday, both Houses had adjourned until the following 
+Monday se'nnight, declaring it impossible to pursue their 
+deliberations with the necessary gravity and freedom, while they 
+were surrounded by armed troops.  And now that the rioters were 
+dispersed, the citizens were beset with a new fear; for, finding 
+the public thoroughfares and all their usual places of resort 
+filled with soldiers entrusted with the free use of fire and sword, 
+they began to lend a greedy ear to the rumours which were afloat of 
+martial law being declared, and to dismal stories of prisoners 
+having been seen hanging on lamp-posts in Cheapside and Fleet 
+Street.  These terrors being promptly dispelled by a Proclamation 
+declaring that all the rioters in custody would be tried by a 
+special commission in due course of law, a fresh alarm was 
+engendered by its being whispered abroad that French money had been 
+found on some of the rioters, and that the disturbances had been 
+fomented by foreign powers who sought to compass the overthrow and 
+ruin of England.  This report, which was strengthened by the 
+diffusion of anonymous handbills, but which, if it had any 
+foundation at all, probably owed its origin to the circumstance of 
+some few coins which were not English money having been swept into 
+the pockets of the insurgents with other miscellaneous booty, and 
+afterwards discovered on the prisoners or the dead bodies,--caused 
+a great sensation; and men's minds being in that excited state 
+when they are most apt to catch at any shadow of apprehension, was 
+bruited about with much industry.
+
+All remaining quiet, however, during the whole of this Friday, and 
+on this Friday night, and no new discoveries being made, confidence 
+began to be restored, and the most timid and desponding breathed 
+again.  In Southwark, no fewer than three thousand of the 
+inhabitants formed themselves into a watch, and patrolled the 
+streets every hour.  Nor were the citizens slow to follow so good 
+an example: and it being the manner of peaceful men to be very bold 
+when the danger is over, they were abundantly fierce and daring; 
+not scrupling to question the stoutest passenger with great 
+severity, and carrying it with a very high hand over all errand-
+boys, servant-girls, and 'prentices.
+
+As day deepened into evening, and darkness crept into the nooks and 
+corners of the town as if it were mustering in secret and gathering 
+strength to venture into the open ways, Barnaby sat in his dungeon, 
+wondering at the silence, and listening in vain for the noise and 
+outcry which had ushered in the night of late.  Beside him, with 
+his hand in hers, sat one in whose companionship he felt at peace.  
+She was worn, and altered, full of grief, and heavy-hearted; but 
+the same to him.
+
+'Mother,' he said, after a long silence: 'how long,--how many days 
+and nights,--shall I be kept here?'
+
+'Not many, dear.  I hope not many.'
+
+'You hope!  Ay, but your hoping will not undo these chains.  I 
+hope, but they don't mind that.  Grip hopes, but who cares for 
+Grip?'
+
+The raven gave a short, dull, melancholy croak.  It said 'Nobody,' 
+as plainly as a croak could speak.
+
+'Who cares for Grip, except you and me?' said Barnaby, smoothing 
+the bird's rumpled feathers with his hand.  'He never speaks in 
+this place; he never says a word in jail; he sits and mopes all day 
+in his dark corner, dozing sometimes, and sometimes looking at the 
+light that creeps in through the bars, and shines in his bright eye 
+as if a spark from those great fires had fallen into the room and 
+was burning yet.  But who cares for Grip?'
+
+The raven croaked again--Nobody.
+
+'And by the way,' said Barnaby, withdrawing his hand from the bird, 
+and laying it upon his mother's arm, as he looked eagerly in her 
+face; 'if they kill me--they may: I heard it said they would--what 
+will become of Grip when I am dead?'
+
+The sound of the word, or the current of his own thoughts, 
+suggested to Grip his old phrase 'Never say die!'  But he stopped 
+short in the middle of it, drew a dismal cork, and subsided into a 
+faint croak, as if he lacked the heart to get through the shortest 
+sentence.
+
+'Will they take HIS life as well as mine?' said Barnaby.  'I wish 
+they would.  If you and I and he could die together, there would be 
+none to feel sorry, or to grieve for us.  But do what they will, I 
+don't fear them, mother!'
+
+'They will not harm you,' she said, her tears choking her 
+utterance.  'They never will harm you, when they know all.  I am 
+sure they never will.'
+
+'Oh!  Don't be too sure of that,' cried Barnaby, with a strange 
+pleasure in the belief that she was self-deceived, and in his own 
+sagacity.  'They have marked me from the first.  I heard them say 
+so to each other when they brought me to this place last night; and 
+I believe them.  Don't you cry for me.  They said that I was bold, 
+and so I am, and so I will be.  You may think that I am silly, but 
+I can die as well as another.--I have done no harm, have I?' he 
+added quickly.
+
+'None before Heaven,' she answered.
+
+'Why then,' said Barnaby, 'let them do their worst.  You told me 
+once--you--when I asked you what death meant, that it was nothing 
+to be feared, if we did no harm--Aha! mother, you thought I had 
+forgotten that!'
+
+His merry laugh and playful manner smote her to the heart.  She 
+drew him closer to her, and besought him to talk to her in whispers 
+and to be very quiet, for it was getting dark, and their time was 
+short, and she would soon have to leave him for the night.
+
+'You will come to-morrow?' said Barnaby.
+
+Yes.  And every day.  And they would never part again.
+
+He joyfully replied that this was well, and what he wished, and 
+what he had felt quite certain she would tell him; and then he 
+asked her where she had been so long, and why she had not come to 
+see him when he had been a great soldier, and ran through the wild 
+schemes he had had for their being rich and living prosperously, 
+and with some faint notion in his mind that she was sad and he had 
+made her so, tried to console and comfort her, and talked of their 
+former life and his old sports and freedom: little dreaming that 
+every word he uttered only increased her sorrow, and that her tears 
+fell faster at the freshened recollection of their lost 
+tranquillity.
+
+'Mother,' said Barnaby, as they heard the man approaching to close 
+the cells for the night,' when I spoke to you just now about my 
+father you cried "Hush!" and turned away your head.  Why did you do 
+so?  Tell me why, in a word.  You thought HE was dead.  You are not 
+sorry that he is alive and has come back to us.  Where is he?  
+Here?'
+
+'Do not ask any one where he is, or speak about him,' she made 
+answer.
+
+'Why not?' said Barnaby.  'Because he is a stern man, and talks 
+roughly?  Well!  I don't like him, or want to be with him by 
+myself; but why not speak about him?'
+
+'Because I am sorry that he is alive; sorry that he has come back; 
+and sorry that he and you have ever met.  Because, dear Barnaby, 
+the endeavour of my life has been to keep you two asunder.'
+
+'Father and son asunder!  Why?'
+
+'He has,' she whispered in his ear, 'he has shed blood.  The time 
+has come when you must know it.  He has shed the blood of one who 
+loved him well, and trusted him, and never did him wrong in word or 
+deed.'
+
+Barnaby recoiled in horror, and glancing at his stained wrist for 
+an instant, wrapped it, shuddering, in his dress.
+
+'But,' she added hastily as the key turned in the lock, 'although 
+we shun him, he is your father, dearest, and I am his wretched 
+wife.  They seek his life, and he will lose it.  It must not be by 
+our means; nay, if we could win him back to penitence, we should be 
+bound to love him yet.  Do not seem to know him, except as one who 
+fled with you from the jail, and if they question you about him, do 
+not answer them.  God be with you through the night, dear boy!  God 
+be with you!'
+
+She tore herself away, and in a few seconds Barnaby was alone.  He 
+stood for a long time rooted to the spot, with his face hidden in 
+his hands; then flung himself, sobbing, on his miserable bed.
+
+But the moon came slowly up in all her gentle glory, and the stars 
+looked out, and through the small compass of the grated window, as 
+through the narrow crevice of one good deed in a murky life of 
+guilt, the face of Heaven shone bright and merciful.  He raised his 
+head; gazed upward at the quiet sky, which seemed to smile upon the 
+earth in sadness, as if the night, more thoughtful than the day, 
+looked down in sorrow on the sufferings and evil deeds of men; and 
+felt its peace sink deep into his heart.  He, a poor idiot, caged 
+in his narrow cell, was as much lifted up to God, while gazing on 
+the mild light, as the freest and most favoured man in all the 
+spacious city; and in his ill-remembered prayer, and in the 
+fragment of the childish hymn, with which he sung and crooned 
+himself asleep, there breathed as true a spirit as ever studied 
+homily expressed, or old cathedral arches echoed.
+
+As his mother crossed a yard on her way out, she saw, through a 
+grated door which separated it from another court, her husband, 
+walking round and round, with his hands folded on his breast, and 
+his head hung down.  She asked the man who conducted her, if she 
+might speak a word with this prisoner.  Yes, but she must be quick 
+for he was locking up for the night, and there was but a minute or 
+so to spare.  Saying this, he unlocked the door, and bade her go 
+in.
+
+It grated harshly as it turned upon its hinges, but he was deaf to 
+the noise, and still walked round and round the little court, 
+without raising his head or changing his attitude in the least.  
+She spoke to him, but her voice was weak, and failed her.  At 
+length she put herself in his track, and when he came near, 
+stretched out her hand and touched him.
+
+He started backward, trembling from head to foot; but seeing who it 
+was, demanded why she came there.  Before she could reply, he spoke 
+again.
+
+'Am I to live or die?  Do you murder too, or spare?'
+
+'My son--our son,' she answered, 'is in this prison.'
+
+'What is that to me?' he cried, stamping impatiently on the stone 
+pavement.  'I know it.  He can no more aid me than I can aid him.  
+If you are come to talk of him, begone!'
+
+As he spoke he resumed his walk, and hurried round the court as 
+before.  When he came again to where she stood, he stopped, and 
+said,
+
+'Am I to live or die?  Do you repent?'
+
+'Oh!--do YOU?' she answered.  'Will you, while time remains?  Do 
+not believe that I could save you, if I dared.'
+
+'Say if you would,' he answered with an oath, as he tried to 
+disengage himself and pass on.  'Say if you would.'
+
+'Listen to me for one moment,' she returned; 'for but a moment.  I 
+am but newly risen from a sick-bed, from which I never hoped to 
+rise again.  The best among us think, at such a time, of good 
+intentions half-performed and duties left undone.  If I have ever, 
+since that fatal night, omitted to pray for your repentance before 
+death--if I omitted, even then, anything which might tend to urge 
+it on you when the horror of your crime was fresh--if, in our later 
+meeting, I yielded to the dread that was upon me, and forgot to 
+fall upon my knees and solemnly adjure you, in the name of him you 
+sent to his account with Heaven, to prepare for the retribution 
+which must come, and which is stealing on you now--I humbly before 
+you, and in the agony of supplication in which you see me, beseech 
+that you will let me make atonement.'
+
+'What is the meaning of your canting words?' he answered roughly.  
+'Speak so that I may understand you.'
+
+'I will,' she answered, 'I desire to.  Bear with me for a moment 
+more.  The hand of Him who set His curse on murder, is heavy on us 
+now.  You cannot doubt it.  Our son, our innocent boy, on whom His 
+anger fell before his birth, is in this place in peril of his life--
+brought here by your guilt; yes, by that alone, as Heaven sees and 
+knows, for he has been led astray in the darkness of his intellect, 
+and that is the terrible consequence of your crime.'
+
+'If you come, woman-like, to load me with reproaches--' he 
+muttered, again endeavouring to break away.
+
+'I do not.  I have a different purpose.  You must hear it.  If not 
+to-night, to-morrow; if not to-morrow, at another time.  You MUST 
+hear it.  Husband, escape is hopeless--impossible.'
+
+'You tell me so, do you?' he said, raising his manacled hand, and 
+shaking it.  'You!'
+
+'Yes,' she said, with indescribable earnestness.  'But why?'
+
+'To make me easy in this jail.  To make the time 'twixt this and 
+death, pass pleasantly.  For my good--yes, for my good, of 
+course,' he said, grinding his teeth, and smiling at her with a 
+livid face.
+
+'Not to load you with reproaches,' she replied; 'not to aggravate 
+the tortures and miseries of your condition, not to give you one 
+hard word, but to restore you to peace and hope.  Husband, dear 
+husband, if you will but confess this dreadful crime; if you will 
+but implore forgiveness of Heaven and of those whom you have 
+wronged on earth; if you will dismiss these vain uneasy thoughts, 
+which never can be realised, and will rely on Penitence and on the 
+Truth, I promise you, in the great name of the Creator, whose image 
+you have defaced, that He will comfort and console you.  And for 
+myself,' she cried, clasping her hands, and looking upward, 'I 
+swear before Him, as He knows my heart and reads it now, that from 
+that hour I will love and cherish you as I did of old, and watch 
+you night and day in the short interval that will remain to us, and 
+soothe you with my truest love and duty, and pray with you, that 
+one threatening judgment may be arrested, and that our boy may be 
+spared to bless God, in his poor way, in the free air and light!'
+
+He fell back and gazed at her while she poured out these words, as 
+though he were for a moment awed by her manner, and knew not what 
+to do.  But anger and fear soon got the mastery of him, and he 
+spurned her from him.
+
+'Begone!' he cried.  'Leave me!  You plot, do you!  You plot to 
+get speech with me, and let them know I am the man they say I am.  
+A curse on you and on your boy.'
+
+'On him the curse has already fallen,' she replied, wringing her 
+hands.
+
+'Let it fall heavier.  Let it fall on one and all.  I hate you 
+both.  The worst has come to me.  The only comfort that I seek or I 
+can have, will be the knowledge that it comes to you.  Now go!'
+
+She would have urged him gently, even then, but he menaced her with 
+his chain.
+
+'I say go--I say it for the last time.  The gallows has me in its 
+grasp, and it is a black phantom that may urge me on to something 
+more.  Begone!  I curse the hour that I was born, the man I slew, 
+and all the living world!'
+
+In a paroxysm of wrath, and terror, and the fear of death, he broke 
+from her, and rushed into the darkness of his cell, where he cast 
+himself jangling down upon the stone floor, and smote it with his 
+ironed hands.  The man returned to lock the dungeon door, and 
+having done so, carried her away.
+
+On that warm, balmy night in June, there were glad faces and light 
+hearts in all quarters of the town, and sleep, banished by the late 
+horrors, was doubly welcomed.  On that night, families made merry 
+in their houses, and greeted each other on the common danger they 
+had escaped; and those who had been denounced, ventured into the 
+streets; and they who had been plundered, got good shelter.  Even 
+the timorous Lord Mayor, who was summoned that night before the 
+Privy Council to answer for his conduct, came back contented; 
+observing to all his friends that he had got off very well with a 
+reprimand, and repeating with huge satisfaction his memorable 
+defence before the Council, 'that such was his temerity, he thought 
+death would have been his portion.'
+
+On that night, too, more of the scattered remnants of the mob were 
+traced to their lurking-places, and taken; and in the hospitals, 
+and deep among the ruins they had made, and in the ditches, and 
+fields, many unshrouded wretches lay dead: envied by those who had 
+been active in the disturbances, and who pillowed their doomed 
+heads in the temporary jails.
+
+And in the Tower, in a dreary room whose thick stone walls shut out 
+the hum of life, and made a stillness which the records left by 
+former prisoners with those silent witnesses seemed to deepen and 
+intensify; remorseful for every act that had been done by every man 
+among the cruel crowd; feeling for the time their guilt his own, 
+and their lives put in peril by himself; and finding, amidst such 
+reflections, little comfort in fanaticism, or in his fancied call; 
+sat the unhappy author of all--Lord George Gordon.
+
+He had been made prisoner that evening.  'If you are sure it's me 
+you want,' he said to the officers, who waited outside with the 
+warrant for his arrest on a charge of High Treason, 'I am ready to 
+accompany you--' which he did without resistance.  He was conducted 
+first before the Privy Council, and afterwards to the Horse 
+Guards, and then was taken by way of Westminster Bridge, and back 
+over London Bridge (for the purpose of avoiding the main streets), 
+to the Tower, under the strongest guard ever known to enter its 
+gates with a single prisoner.
+
+Of all his forty thousand men, not one remained to bear him 
+company.  Friends, dependents, followers,--none were there.  His 
+fawning secretary had played the traitor; and he whose weakness had 
+been goaded and urged on by so many for their own purposes, was 
+desolate and alone.
+
+
+
+Chapter 74
+
+
+Me Dennis, having been made prisoner late in the evening, was 
+removed to a neighbouring round-house for that night, and carried 
+before a justice for examination on the next day, Saturday.  The 
+charges against him being numerous and weighty, and it being in 
+particular proved, by the testimony of Gabriel Varden, that he had 
+shown a special desire to take his life, he was committed for 
+trial.  Moreover he was honoured with the distinction of being 
+considered a chief among the insurgents, and received from the 
+magistrate's lips the complimentary assurance that he was in a 
+position of imminent danger, and would do well to prepare himself 
+for the worst.
+
+To say that Mr Dennis's modesty was not somewhat startled by these 
+honours, or that he was altogether prepared for so flattering a 
+reception, would be to claim for him a greater amount of stoical 
+philosophy than even he possessed.  Indeed this gentleman's 
+stoicism was of that not uncommon kind, which enables a man to bear 
+with exemplary fortitude the afflictions of his friends, but 
+renders him, by way of counterpoise, rather selfish and sensitive 
+in respect of any that happen to befall himself.  It is therefore 
+no disparagement to the great officer in question to state, without 
+disguise or concealment, that he was at first very much alarmed, 
+and that he betrayed divers emotions of fear, until his reasoning 
+powers came to his relief, and set before him a more hopeful 
+prospect.
+
+In proportion as Mr Dennis exercised these intellectual qualities 
+with which he was gifted, in reviewing his best chances of coming 
+off handsomely and with small personal inconvenience, his spirits 
+rose, and his confidence increased.  When he remembered the great 
+estimation in which his office was held, and the constant demand 
+for his services; when he bethought himself, how the Statute Book 
+regarded him as a kind of Universal Medicine applicable to men, 
+women, and children, of every age and variety of criminal 
+constitution; and how high he stood, in his official capacity, in 
+the favour of the Crown, and both Houses of Parliament, the Mint, 
+the Bank of England, and the Judges of the land; when he 
+recollected that whatever Ministry was in or out, he remained their 
+peculiar pet and panacea, and that for his sake England stood 
+single and conspicuous among the civilised nations of the earth: 
+when he called these things to mind and dwelt upon them, he felt 
+certain that the national gratitude MUST relieve him from the 
+consequences of his late proceedings, and would certainly restore 
+him to his old place in the happy social system.
+
+With these crumbs, or as one may say, with these whole loaves of 
+comfort to regale upon, Mr Dennis took his place among the escort 
+that awaited him, and repaired to jail with a manly indifference.  
+Arriving at Newgate, where some of the ruined cells had been 
+hastily fitted up for the safe keeping of rioters, he was warmly 
+received by the turnkeys, as an unusual and interesting case, which 
+agreeably relieved their monotonous duties.  In this spirit, he was 
+fettered with great care, and conveyed into the interior of the 
+prison.
+
+'Brother,' cried the hangman, as, following an officer, he 
+traversed under these novel circumstances the remains of passages 
+with which he was well acquainted, 'am I going to be along with 
+anybody?'
+
+'If you'd have left more walls standing, you'd have been alone,' 
+was the reply.  'As it is, we're cramped for room, and you'll have 
+company.'
+
+'Well,' returned Dennis, 'I don't object to company, brother.  I 
+rather like company.  I was formed for society, I was.'
+
+'That's rather a pity, an't it?' said the man.
+
+'No,' answered Dennis, 'I'm not aware that it is.  Why should it be 
+a pity, brother?'
+
+'Oh! I don't know,' said the man carelessly.  'I thought that was 
+what you meant.  Being formed for society, and being cut off in 
+your flower, you know--'
+
+'I say,' interposed the other quickly, 'what are you talking of?  
+Don't.  Who's a-going to be cut off in their flowers?'
+
+'Oh, nobody particular.  I thought you was, perhaps,' said the man.
+
+Mr Dennis wiped his face, which had suddenly grown very hot, and 
+remarking in a tremulous voice to his conductor that he had always 
+been fond of his joke, followed him in silence until he stopped at 
+a door.
+
+'This is my quarters, is it?' he asked facetiously.
+
+'This is the shop, sir,' replied his friend.
+
+He was walking in, but not with the best possible grace, when he 
+suddenly stopped, and started back.
+
+'Halloa!' said the officer.  'You're nervous.'
+
+'Nervous!' whispered Dennis in great alarm.  'Well I may be.  Shut 
+the door.'
+
+'I will, when you're in,' returned the man.
+
+'But I can't go in there,' whispered Dennis.  'I can't be shut up 
+with that man.  Do you want me to be throttled, brother?'
+
+The officer seemed to entertain no particular desire on the subject 
+one way or other, but briefly remarking that he had his orders, and 
+intended to obey them, pushed him in, turned the key, and retired.
+
+Dennis stood trembling with his back against the door, and 
+involuntarily raising his arm to defend himself, stared at a man, 
+the only other tenant of the cell, who lay, stretched at his fall 
+length, upon a stone bench, and who paused in his deep breathing as 
+if he were about to wake.  But he rolled over on one side, let his 
+arm fall negligently down, drew a long sigh, and murmuring 
+indistinctly, fell fast asleep again.
+
+Relieved in some degree by this, the hangman took his eyes for an 
+instant from the slumbering figure, and glanced round the cell in 
+search of some 'vantage-ground or weapon of defence.  There was 
+nothing moveable within it, but a clumsy table which could not be 
+displaced without noise, and a heavy chair.  Stealing on tiptoe 
+towards this latter piece of furniture, he retired with it into the 
+remotest corner, and intrenching himself behind it, watched the 
+enemy with the utmost vigilance and caution.
+
+The sleeping man was Hugh; and perhaps it was not unnatural for 
+Dennis to feel in a state of very uncomfortable suspense, and to 
+wish with his whole soul that he might never wake again.  Tired of 
+standing, he crouched down in his corner after some time, and 
+rested on the cold pavement; but although Hugh's breathing still 
+proclaimed that he was sleeping soundly, he could not trust him out 
+of his sight for an instant.  He was so afraid of him, and of some 
+sudden onslaught, that he was not content to see his closed eyes 
+through the chair-back, but every now and then, rose stealthily to 
+his feet, and peered at him with outstretched neck, to assure 
+himself that he really was still asleep, and was not about to 
+spring upon him when he was off his guard.
+
+He slept so long and so soundly, that Mr Dennis began to think he 
+might sleep on until the turnkey visited them.  He was 
+congratulating himself upon these promising appearances, and 
+blessing his stars with much fervour, when one or two unpleasant 
+symptoms manifested themselves: such as another motion of the arm, 
+another sigh, a restless tossing of the head.  Then, just as it 
+seemed that he was about to fall heavily to the ground from his 
+narrow bed, Hugh's eyes opened.
+
+It happened that his face was turned directly towards his 
+unexpected visitor.  He looked lazily at him for some half-dozen 
+seconds without any aspect of surprise or recognition; then 
+suddenly jumped up, and with a great oath pronounced his name.
+
+'Keep off, brother, keep off!' cried Dennis, dodging behind the 
+chair.  'Don't do me a mischief.  I'm a prisoner like you.  I 
+haven't the free use of my limbs.  I'm quite an old man.  Don't 
+hurt me!'
+
+He whined out the last three words in such piteous accents, that 
+Hugh, who had dragged away the chair, and aimed a blow at him with 
+it, checked himself, and bade him get up.
+
+'I'll get up certainly, brother,' cried Dennis, anxious to 
+propitiate him by any means in his power.  'I'll comply with any 
+request of yours, I'm sure.  There--I'm up now.  What can I do for 
+you?  Only say the word, and I'll do it.'
+
+'What can you do for me!' cried Hugh, clutching him by the collar 
+with both hands, and shaking him as though he were bent on stopping 
+his breath by that means.  'What have you done for me?'
+
+'The best.  The best that could be done,' returned the hangman.
+
+Hugh made him no answer, but shaking him in his strong grip until 
+his teeth chattered in his head, cast him down upon the floor, and 
+flung himself on the bench again.
+
+'If it wasn't for the comfort it is to me, to see you here,' he 
+muttered, 'I'd have crushed your head against it; I would.'
+
+It was some time before Dennis had breath enough to speak, but as 
+soon as he could resume his propitiatory strain, he did so.
+
+'I did the best that could be done, brother,' he whined; 'I did 
+indeed.  I was forced with two bayonets and I don't know how many 
+bullets on each side of me, to point you out.  If you hadn't been 
+taken, you'd have been shot; and what a sight that would have been--
+a fine young man like you!'
+
+'Will it be a better sight now?' asked Hugh, raising his head, with 
+such a fierce expression, that the other durst not answer him just 
+then.
+
+'A deal better,' said Dennis meekly, after a pause.  'First, 
+there's all the chances of the law, and they're five hundred 
+strong.  We may get off scot-free.  Unlikelier things than that 
+have come to pass.  Even if we shouldn't, and the chances fail, we 
+can but be worked off once: and when it's well done, it's so neat, 
+so skilful, so captiwating, if that don't seem too strong a word, 
+that you'd hardly believe it could be brought to sich perfection.  
+Kill one's fellow-creeturs off, with muskets!--Pah!' and his 
+nature so revolted at the bare idea, that he spat upon the dungeon 
+pavement.
+
+His warming on this topic, which to one unacquainted with his 
+pursuits and tastes appeared like courage; together with his artful 
+suppression of his own secret hopes, and mention of himself as 
+being in the same condition with Hugh; did more to soothe that 
+ruffian than the most elaborate arguments could have done, or the 
+most abject submission.  He rested his arms upon his knees, and 
+stooping forward, looked from beneath his shaggy hair at Dennis, 
+with something of a smile upon his face.
+
+'The fact is, brother,' said the hangman, in a tone of greater 
+confidence, 'that you got into bad company.  The man that was with 
+you was looked after more than you, and it was him I wanted.  As to 
+me, what have I got by it?  Here we are, in one and the same plight.'
+
+'Lookee, rascal,' said Hugh, contracting his brows, 'I'm not 
+altogether such a shallow blade but I know you expected to get 
+something by it, or you wouldn't have done it.  But it's done, and 
+you're here, and it will soon be all over with you and me; and I'd 
+as soon die as live, or live as die.  Why should I trouble myself 
+to have revenge on you?  To eat, and drink, and go to sleep, as 
+long as I stay here, is all I care for.  If there was but a little 
+more sun to bask in, than can find its way into this cursed place, 
+I'd lie in it all day, and not trouble myself to sit or stand up 
+once.  That's all the care I have for myself.  Why should I care 
+for YOU?'
+
+Finishing this speech with a growl like the yawn of a wild beast, 
+he stretched himself upon the bench again, and closed his eyes once 
+more.
+
+After looking at him in silence for some moments, Dennis, who was 
+greatly relieved to find him in this mood, drew the chair towards 
+his rough couch and sat down near him--taking the precaution, 
+however, to keep out of the range of his brawny arm.
+
+'Well said, brother; nothing could be better said,' he ventured to 
+observe.  'We'll eat and drink of the best, and sleep our best, and 
+make the best of it every way.  Anything can be got for money.  
+Let's spend it merrily.'
+
+'Ay,' said Hugh, coiling himself into a new position.--'Where is it?'
+
+'Why, they took mine from me at the lodge,' said Mr Dennis; 'but 
+mine's a peculiar case.'
+
+'Is it?  They took mine too.'
+
+'Why then, I tell you what, brother,' Dennis began.  'You must look 
+up your friends--'
+
+'My friends!' cried Hugh, starting up and resting on his hands.  
+'Where are my friends?'
+
+'Your relations then,' said Dennis.
+
+'Ha ha ha!' laughed Hugh, waving one arm above his head.  'He talks 
+of friends to me--talks of relations to a man whose mother died the 
+death in store for her son, and left him, a hungry brat, without a 
+face he knew in all the world!  He talks of this to me!'
+
+'Brother,' cried the hangman, whose features underwent a sudden 
+change, 'you don't mean to say--'
+
+'I mean to say,' Hugh interposed, 'that they hung her up at Tyburn.  
+What was good enough for her, is good enough for me.  Let them do 
+the like by me as soon as they please--the sooner the better.  Say 
+no more to me.  I'm going to sleep.'
+
+'But I want to speak to you; I want to hear more about that,' said 
+Dennis, changing colour.
+
+'If you're a wise man,' growled Hugh, raising his head to look at 
+him with a frown, 'you'll hold your tongue.  I tell you I'm going 
+to sleep.'
+
+Dennis venturing to say something more in spite of this caution, 
+the desperate fellow struck at him with all his force, and missing 
+him, lay down again with many muttered oaths and imprecations, and 
+turned his face towards the wall.  After two or three ineffectual 
+twitches at his dress, which he was hardy enough to venture upon, 
+notwithstanding his dangerous humour, Mr Dennis, who burnt, for 
+reasons of his own, to pursue the conversation, had no alternative 
+but to sit as patiently as he could: waiting his further pleasure.
+
+
+
+Chapter 75
+
+
+A month has elapsed,--and we stand in the bedchamber of Sir John 
+Chester.  Through the half-opened window, the Temple Garden looks 
+green and pleasant; the placid river, gay with boat and barge, and 
+dimpled with the plash of many an oar, sparkles in the distance; 
+the sky is blue and clear; and the summer air steals gently in, 
+filling the room with perfume.  The very town, the smoky town, is 
+radiant.  High roofs and steeple-tops, wont to look black and 
+sullen, smile a cheerful grey; every old gilded vane, and ball, and 
+cross, glitters anew in the bright morning sun; and, high among 
+them all, St Paul's towers up, showing its lofty crest in burnished 
+gold.
+
+Sir John was breakfasting in bed.  His chocolate and toast stood 
+upon a little table at his elbow; books and newspapers lay ready to 
+his hand, upon the coverlet; and, sometimes pausing to glance with 
+an air of tranquil satisfaction round the well-ordered room, and 
+sometimes to gaze indolently at the summer sky, he ate, and drank, 
+and read the news luxuriously.
+
+The cheerful influence of the morning seemed to have some effect, 
+even upon his equable temper.  His manner was unusually gay; his 
+smile more placid and agreeable than usual; his voice more clear 
+and pleasant.  He laid down the newspaper he had been reading; 
+leaned back upon his pillow with the air of one who resigned 
+himself to a train of charming recollections; and after a pause, 
+soliloquised as follows:
+
+'And my friend the centaur, goes the way of his mamma!  I am not 
+surprised.  And his mysterious friend Mr Dennis, likewise!  I am 
+not surprised.  And my old postman, the exceedingly free-and-easy 
+young madman of Chigwell!  I am quite rejoiced.  It's the very best 
+thing that could possibly happen to him.'
+
+After delivering himself of these remarks, he fell again into his 
+smiling train of reflection; from which he roused himself at length 
+to finish his chocolate, which was getting cold, and ring the bell 
+for more.
+
+The new supply arriving, he took the cup from his servant's hand; 
+and saying, with a charming affability, 'I am obliged to you, 
+Peak,' dismissed him.
+
+'It is a remarkable circumstance,' he mused, dallying lazily with 
+the teaspoon, 'that my friend the madman should have been within an 
+ace of escaping, on his trial; and it was a good stroke of chance 
+(or, as the world would say, a providential occurrence) that the 
+brother of my Lord Mayor should have been in court, with other 
+country justices, into whose very dense heads curiosity had 
+penetrated.  For though the brother of my Lord Mayor was decidedly 
+wrong; and established his near relationship to that amusing person 
+beyond all doubt, in stating that my friend was sane, and had, to 
+his knowledge, wandered about the country with a vagabond parent, 
+avowing revolutionary and rebellious sentiments; I am not the less 
+obliged to him for volunteering that evidence.  These insane 
+creatures make such very odd and embarrassing remarks, that they 
+really ought to be hanged for the comfort of society.'
+
+The country justice had indeed turned the wavering scale against 
+poor Barnaby, and solved the doubt that trembled in his favour.  
+Grip little thought how much he had to answer for.
+
+'They will be a singular party,' said Sir John, leaning his head 
+upon his hand, and sipping his chocolate; 'a very curious party.  
+The hangman himself; the centaur; and the madman.  The centaur 
+would make a very handsome preparation in Surgeons' Hall, and 
+would benefit science extremely.  I hope they have taken care to 
+bespeak him.--Peak, I am not at home, of course, to anybody but the 
+hairdresser.'
+
+This reminder to his servant was called forth by a knock at the 
+door, which the man hastened to open.  After a prolonged murmur of 
+question and answer, he returned; and as he cautiously closed the 
+room-door behind him, a man was heard to cough in the passage.
+
+'Now, it is of no use, Peak,' said Sir John, raising his hand in 
+deprecation of his delivering any message; 'I am not at home.  I 
+cannot possibly hear you.  I told you I was not at home, and my 
+word is sacred.  Will you never do as you are desired?'
+
+Having nothing to oppose to this reproof, the man was about to 
+withdraw, when the visitor who had given occasion to it, probably 
+rendered impatient by delay, knocked with his knuckles at the 
+chamber-door, and called out that he had urgent business with Sir 
+John Chester, which admitted of no delay.
+
+'Let him in,' said Sir John.  'My good fellow,' he added, when the 
+door was opened, 'how come you to intrude yourself in this 
+extraordinary manner upon the privacy of a gentleman?  How can you 
+be so wholly destitute of self-respect as to be guilty of such 
+remarkable ill-breeding?'
+
+'My business, Sir John, is not of a common kind, I do assure you,' 
+returned the person he addressed.  'If I have taken any uncommon 
+course to get admission to you, I hope I shall be pardoned on that 
+account.'
+
+'Well! we shall see; we shall see,' returned Sir John, whose face 
+cleared up when he saw who it was, and whose prepossessing smile 
+was now restored.  'I am sure we have met before,' he added in his 
+winning tone, 'but really I forget your name?'
+
+'My name is Gabriel Varden, sir.'
+
+'Varden, of course, Varden,' returned Sir John, tapping his 
+forehead.  'Dear me, how very defective my memory becomes!  Varden 
+to be sure--Mr Varden the locksmith.  You have a charming wife, Mr 
+Varden, and a most beautiful daughter.  They are well?'
+
+Gabriel thanked him, and said they were.
+
+'I rejoice to hear it,' said Sir John.  'Commend me to them when 
+you return, and say that I wished I were fortunate enough to 
+convey, myself, the salute which I entrust you to deliver.  And 
+what,' he asked very sweetly, after a moment's pause, 'can I do for 
+you?  You may command me freely.'
+
+'I thank you, Sir John,' said Gabriel, with some pride in his 
+manner, 'but I have come to ask no favour of you, though I come on 
+business.--Private,' he added, with a glance at the man who stood 
+looking on, 'and very pressing business.'
+
+'I cannot say you are the more welcome for being independent, and 
+having nothing to ask of me,' returned Sir John, graciously, 'for I 
+should have been happy to render you a service; still, you are 
+welcome on any terms.  Oblige me with some more chocolate, Peak, 
+and don't wait.'
+
+The man retired, and left them alone.
+
+'Sir John,' said Gabriel, 'I am a working-man, and have been so, 
+all my life.  If I don't prepare you enough for what I have to 
+tell; if I come to the point too abruptly; and give you a shock, 
+which a gentleman could have spared you, or at all events lessened 
+very much; I hope you will give me credit for meaning well.  I wish 
+to be careful and considerate, and I trust that in a straightforward 
+person like me, you'll take the will for the deed.'
+
+'Mr Varden,' returned the other, perfectly composed under this 
+exordium; 'I beg you'll take a chair.  Chocolate, perhaps, you 
+don't relish?  Well! it IS an acquired taste, no doubt.'
+
+'Sir John,' said Gabriel, who had acknowledged with a bow the 
+invitation to be seated, but had not availed himself of it.  'Sir 
+John'--he dropped his voice and drew nearer to the bed--'I am just 
+now come from Newgate--'
+
+'Good Gad!' cried Sir John, hastily sitting up in bed; 'from 
+Newgate, Mr Varden!  How could you be so very imprudent as to come 
+from Newgate!  Newgate, where there are jail-fevers, and ragged 
+people, and bare-footed men and women, and a thousand horrors!  
+Peak, bring the camphor, quick!  Heaven and earth, Mr Varden, my 
+dear, good soul, how COULD you come from Newgate?'
+
+Gabriel returned no answer, but looked on in silence while Peak 
+(who had entered with the hot chocolate) ran to a drawer, and 
+returning with a bottle, sprinkled his master's dressing-gown and 
+the bedding; and besides moistening the locksmith himself, 
+plentifully, described a circle round about him on the carpet.  
+When he had done this, he again retired; and Sir John, reclining in 
+an easy attitude upon his pillow, once more turned a smiling face 
+towards his visitor.
+
+'You will forgive me, Mr Varden, I am sure, for being at first a 
+little sensitive both on your account and my own.  I confess I was 
+startled, notwithstanding your delicate exordium.  Might I ask you 
+to do me the favour not to approach any nearer?--You have really 
+come from Newgate!'
+
+The locksmith inclined his head.
+
+'In-deed!  And now, Mr Varden, all exaggeration and embellishment 
+apart,' said Sir John Chester, confidentially, as he sipped his 
+chocolate, 'what kind of place IS Newgate?'
+
+'A strange place, Sir John,' returned the locksmith, 'of a sad and 
+doleful kind.  A strange place, where many strange things are heard 
+and seen; but few more strange than that I come to tell you of.  
+The case is urgent.  I am sent here.'
+
+'Not--no, no--not from the jail?'
+
+'Yes, Sir John; from the jail.'
+
+'And my good, credulous, open-hearted friend,' said Sir John, 
+setting down his cup, and laughing,--'by whom?'
+
+'By a man called Dennis--for many years the hangman, and to-morrow 
+morning the hanged,' returned the locksmith.
+
+Sir John had expected--had been quite certain from the first--that 
+he would say he had come from Hugh, and was prepared to meet him on 
+that point.  But this answer occasioned him a degree of 
+astonishment, which, for the moment, he could not, with all his 
+command of feature, prevent his face from expressing.  He quickly 
+subdued it, however, and said in the same light tone:
+
+'And what does the gentleman require of me?  My memory may be at 
+fault again, but I don't recollect that I ever had the pleasure of 
+an introduction to him, or that I ever numbered him among my 
+personal friends, I do assure you, Mr Varden.'
+
+'Sir John,' returned the locksmith, gravely, 'I will tell you, as 
+nearly as I can, in the words he used to me, what he desires that 
+you should know, and what you ought to know without a moment's loss 
+of time.'
+
+Sir John Chester settled himself in a position of greater repose, 
+and looked at his visitor with an expression of face which seemed 
+to say, 'This is an amusing fellow!  I'll hear him out.'
+
+'You may have seen in the newspapers, sir,' said Gabriel, pointing 
+to the one which lay by his side, 'that I was a witness against 
+this man upon his trial some days since; and that it was not his 
+fault I was alive, and able to speak to what I knew.'
+
+'MAY have seen!' cried Sir John.  'My dear Mr Varden, you are quite 
+a public character, and live in all men's thoughts most deservedly.  
+Nothing can exceed the interest with which I read your testimony, 
+and remembered that I had the pleasure of a slight acquaintance 
+with you.---I hope we shall have your portrait published?'
+
+'This morning, sir,' said the locksmith, taking no notice of these 
+compliments, 'early this morning, a message was brought to me from 
+Newgate, at this man's request, desiring that I would go and see 
+him, for he had something particular to communicate.  I needn't 
+tell you that he is no friend of mine, and that I had never seen 
+him, until the rioters beset my house.'
+
+Sir John fanned himself gently with the newspaper, and nodded.
+
+'I knew, however, from the general report,' resumed Gabriel, 'that 
+the order for his execution to-morrow, went down to the prison 
+last night; and looking upon him as a dying man, I complied with 
+his request.'
+
+'You are quite a Christian, Mr Varden,' said Sir John; 'and in that 
+amiable capacity, you increase my desire that you should take a 
+chair.'
+
+'He said,' continued Gabriel, looking steadily at the knight, 'that 
+he had sent to me, because he had no friend or companion in the 
+whole world (being the common hangman), and because he believed, 
+from the way in which I had given my evidence, that I was an honest 
+man, and would act truly by him.  He said that, being shunned by 
+every one who knew his calling, even by people of the lowest and 
+most wretched grade, and finding, when he joined the rioters, that 
+the men he acted with had no suspicion of it (which I believe is 
+true enough, for a poor fool of an old 'prentice of mine was one of 
+them), he had kept his own counsel, up to the time of his being 
+taken and put in jail.'
+
+'Very discreet of Mr Dennis,' observed Sir John with a slight yawn, 
+though still with the utmost affability, 'but--except for your 
+admirable and lucid manner of telling it, which is perfect--not 
+very interesting to me.'
+
+'When,' pursued the locksmith, quite unabashed and wholly 
+regardless of these interruptions, 'when he was taken to the jail, 
+he found that his fellow-prisoner, in the same room, was a young 
+man, Hugh by name, a leader in the riots, who had been betrayed and 
+given up by himself.  From something which fell from this unhappy 
+creature in the course of the angry words they had at meeting, he 
+discovered that his mother had suffered the death to which they 
+both are now condemned.--The time is very short, Sir John.'
+
+The knight laid down his paper fan, replaced his cup upon the table 
+at his side, and, saving for the smile that lurked about his mouth, 
+looked at the locksmith with as much steadiness as the locksmith 
+looked at him.
+
+'They have been in prison now, a month.  One conversation led to 
+many more; and the hangman soon found, from a comparison of time, 
+and place, and dates, that he had executed the sentence of the law 
+upon this woman, himself.  She had been tempted by want--as so many 
+people are--into the easy crime of passing forged notes.  She was 
+young and handsome; and the traders who employ men, women, and 
+children in this traffic, looked upon her as one who was well 
+adapted for their business, and who would probably go on without 
+suspicion for a long time.  But they were mistaken; for she was 
+stopped in the commission of her very first offence, and died for 
+it.  She was of gipsy blood, Sir John--'
+
+It might have been the effect of a passing cloud which obscured the 
+sun, and cast a shadow on his face; but the knight turned deadly 
+pale.  Still he met the locksmith's eye, as before.
+
+'She was of gipsy blood, Sir John,' repeated Gabriel, 'and had a 
+high, free spirit.  This, and her good looks, and her lofty manner, 
+interested some gentlemen who were easily moved by dark eyes; and 
+efforts were made to save her.  They might have been successful, if 
+she would have given them any clue to her history.  But she never 
+would, or did.  There was reason to suspect that she would make an 
+attempt upon her life.  A watch was set upon her night and day; and 
+from that time she never spoke again--'
+
+Sir John stretched out his hand towards his cup.  The locksmith 
+going on, arrested it half-way.
+
+--'Until she had but a minute to live.  Then she broke silence, and 
+said, in a low firm voice which no one heard but this executioner, 
+for all other living creatures had retired and left her to her 
+fate, "If I had a dagger within these fingers and he was within my 
+reach, I would strike him dead before me, even now!"  The man asked 
+"Who?"  She said, "The father of her boy."'
+
+Sir John drew back his outstretched hand, and seeing that the 
+locksmith paused, signed to him with easy politeness and without 
+any new appearance of emotion, to proceed.
+
+'It was the first word she had ever spoken, from which it could be 
+understood that she had any relative on earth.  "Was the child 
+alive?" he asked.  "Yes."  He asked her where it was, its name, and 
+whether she had any wish respecting it.  She had but one, she said.  
+It was that the boy might live and grow, in utter ignorance of his 
+father, so that no arts might teach him to be gentle and 
+forgiving.  When he became a man, she trusted to the God of their 
+tribe to bring the father and the son together, and revenge her 
+through her child.  He asked her other questions, but she spoke no 
+more.  Indeed, he says, she scarcely said this much, to him, but 
+stood with her face turned upwards to the sky, and never looked 
+towards him once.'
+
+Sir John took a pinch of snuff; glanced approvingly at an elegant 
+little sketch, entitled 'Nature,' on the wall; and raising his eyes 
+to the locksmith's face again, said, with an air of courtesy and 
+patronage, 'You were observing, Mr Varden--'
+
+'That she never,' returned the locksmith, who was not to be 
+diverted by any artifice from his firm manner, and his steady gaze, 
+'that she never looked towards him once, Sir John; and so she died, 
+and he forgot her.  But, some years afterwards, a man was 
+sentenced to die the same death, who was a gipsy too; a sunburnt, 
+swarthy fellow, almost a wild man; and while he lay in prison, 
+under sentence, he, who had seen the hangman more than once while 
+he was free, cut an image of him on his stick, by way of braving 
+death, and showing those who attended on him, how little he cared 
+or thought about it.  He gave this stick into his hands at Tyburn, 
+and told him then, that the woman I have spoken of had left her own 
+people to join a fine gentleman, and that, being deserted by him, 
+and cast off by her old friends, she had sworn within her own proud 
+breast, that whatever her misery might be, she would ask no help of 
+any human being.  He told him that she had kept her word to the 
+last; and that, meeting even him in the streets--he had been fond 
+of her once, it seems--she had slipped from him by a trick, and he 
+never saw her again, until, being in one of the frequent crowds at 
+Tyburn, with some of his rough companions, he had been driven 
+almost mad by seeing, in the criminal under another name, whose 
+death he had come to witness, herself.  Standing in the same place 
+in which she had stood, he told the hangman this, and told him, 
+too, her real name, which only her own people and the gentleman for 
+whose sake she had left them, knew.  That name he will tell again, 
+Sir John, to none but you.'
+
+'To none but me!' exclaimed the knight, pausing in the act of 
+raising his cup to his lips with a perfectly steady hand, and 
+curling up his little finger for the better display of a brilliant 
+ring with which it was ornamented: 'but me!--My dear Mr Varden, 
+how very preposterous, to select me for his confidence!  With you 
+at his elbow, too, who are so perfectly trustworthy!'
+
+'Sir John, Sir John,' returned the locksmith, 'at twelve tomorrow, 
+these men die.  Hear the few words I have to add, and do not hope 
+to deceive me; for though I am a plain man of humble station, and 
+you are a gentleman of rank and learning, the truth raises me to 
+your level, and I KNOW that you anticipate the disclosure with 
+which I am about to end, and that you believe this doomed man, 
+Hugh, to be your son.'
+
+'Nay,' said Sir John, bantering him with a gay air; 'the wild 
+gentleman, who died so suddenly, scarcely went as far as that, I 
+think?'
+
+'He did not,' returned the locksmith, 'for she had bound him by 
+some pledge, known only to these people, and which the worst among 
+them respect, not to tell your name: but, in a fantastic pattern on 
+the stick, he had carved some letters, and when the hangman asked 
+it, he bade him, especially if he should ever meet with her son in 
+after life, remember that place well.'
+
+'What place?'
+
+'Chester.'
+
+The knight finished his cup of chocolate with an appearance of 
+infinite relish, and carefully wiped his lips upon his 
+handkerchief.
+
+'Sir John,' said the locksmith, 'this is all that has been told to 
+me; but since these two men have been left for death, they have 
+conferred together closely.  See them, and hear what they can add.  
+See this Dennis, and learn from him what he has not trusted to me.  
+If you, who hold the clue to all, want corroboration (which you do 
+not), the means are easy.'
+
+'And to what,' said Sir John Chester, rising on his elbow, after 
+smoothing the pillow for its reception; 'my dear, good-natured, 
+estimable Mr Varden--with whom I cannot be angry if I would--to 
+what does all this tend?'
+
+'I take you for a man, Sir John, and I suppose it tends to some 
+pleading of natural affection in your breast,' returned the 
+locksmith.  'I suppose to the straining of every nerve, and the 
+exertion of all the influence you have, or can make, in behalf of 
+your miserable son, and the man who has disclosed his existence to 
+you.  At the worst, I suppose to your seeing your son, and 
+awakening him to a sense of his crime and danger.  He has no such 
+sense now.  Think what his life must have been, when he said in my 
+hearing, that if I moved you to anything, it would be to hastening 
+his death, and ensuring his silence, if you had it in your power!'
+
+'And have you, my good Mr Varden,' said Sir John in a tone of mild 
+reproof, 'have you really lived to your present age, and remained 
+so very simple and credulous, as to approach a gentleman of 
+established character with such credentials as these, from 
+desperate men in their last extremity, catching at any straw?  Oh 
+dear!  Oh fie, fie!'
+
+The locksmith was going to interpose, but he stopped him:
+
+'On any other subject, Mr Varden, I shall be delighted--I shall be 
+charmed--to converse with you, but I owe it to my own character not 
+to pursue this topic for another moment.'
+
+'Think better of it, sir, when I am gone,' returned the locksmith; 
+'think better of it, sir.  Although you have, thrice within as many 
+weeks, turned your lawful son, Mr Edward, from your door, you may 
+have time, you may have years to make your peace with HIM, Sir 
+John: but that twelve o'clock will soon be here, and soon be past 
+for ever.'
+
+'I thank you very much,' returned the knight, kissing his delicate 
+hand to the locksmith, 'for your guileless advice; and I only wish, 
+my good soul, although your simplicity is quite captivating, that 
+you had a little more worldly wisdom.  I never so much regretted 
+the arrival of my hairdresser as I do at this moment.  God bless 
+you!  Good morning!  You'll not forget my message to the ladies, Mr 
+Varden?  Peak, show Mr Varden to the door.'
+
+Gabriel said no more, but gave the knight a parting look, and left 
+him.  As he quitted the room, Sir John's face changed; and the 
+smile gave place to a haggard and anxious expression, like that of 
+a weary actor jaded by the performance of a difficult part.  He 
+rose from his bed with a heavy sigh, and wrapped himself in his 
+morning-gown.
+
+'So she kept her word,' he said, 'and was constant to her threat!  
+I would I had never seen that dark face of hers,--I might have read 
+these consequences in it, from the first.  This affair would make a 
+noise abroad, if it rested on better evidence; but, as it is, and 
+by not joining the scattered links of the chain, I can afford to 
+slight it.--Extremely distressing to be the parent of such an 
+uncouth creature!  Still, I gave him very good advice.  I told him 
+he would certainly be hanged.  I could have done no more if I had 
+known of our relationship; and there are a great many fathers who 
+have never done as much for THEIR natural children.--The 
+hairdresser may come in, Peak!'
+
+The hairdresser came in; and saw in Sir John Chester (whose 
+accommodating conscience was soon quieted by the numerous 
+precedents that occurred to him in support of his last 
+observation), the same imperturbable, fascinating, elegant 
+gentleman he had seen yesterday, and many yesterdays before.
+
+
+
+Chapter 76
+
+
+As the locksmith walked slowly away from Sir John Chester's 
+chambers, he lingered under the trees which shaded the path, almost 
+hoping that he might be summoned to return.  He had turned back 
+thrice, and still loitered at the corner, when the clock struck 
+twelve.
+
+It was a solemn sound, and not merely for its reference to to-
+morrow; for he knew that in that chime the murderer's knell was 
+rung.  He had seen him pass along the crowded street, amidst the 
+execration of the throng; and marked his quivering lip, and 
+trembling limbs; the ashy hue upon his face, his clammy brow, the 
+wild distraction of his eye--the fear of death that swallowed up 
+all other thoughts, and gnawed without cessation at his heart and 
+brain.  He had marked the wandering look, seeking for hope, and 
+finding, turn where it would, despair.  He had seen the remorseful, 
+pitiful, desolate creature, riding, with his coffin by his side, to 
+the gibbet.  He knew that, to the last, he had been an unyielding, 
+obdurate man; that in the savage terror of his condition he had 
+hardened, rather than relented, to his wife and child; and that the 
+last words which had passed his white lips were curses on them as 
+his enemies.
+
+Mr Haredale had determined to be there, and see it done.  Nothing 
+but the evidence of his own senses could satisfy that gloomy thirst 
+for retribution which had been gathering upon him for so many 
+years.  The locksmith knew this, and when the chimes had ceased to 
+vibrate, hurried away to meet him.
+
+'For these two men,' he said, as he went, 'I can do no more.  
+Heaven have mercy on them!--Alas! I say I can do no more for them, 
+but whom can I help?  Mary Rudge will have a home, and a firm 
+friend when she most wants one; but Barnaby--poor Barnaby--willing 
+Barnaby--what aid can I render him?  There are many, many men of 
+sense, God forgive me,' cried the honest locksmith, stopping in a 
+narrow count to pass his hand across his eyes, 'I could better 
+afford to lose than Barnaby.  We have always been good friends, but 
+I never knew, till now, how much I loved the lad.'
+
+There were not many in the great city who thought of Barnaby that 
+day, otherwise than as an actor in a show which was to take place 
+to-morrow.  But if the whole population had had him in their minds, 
+and had wished his life to be spared, not one among them could have 
+done so with a purer zeal or greater singleness of heart than the 
+good locksmith.
+
+Barnaby was to die.  There was no hope.  It is not the least evil 
+attendant upon the frequent exhibition of this last dread 
+punishment, of Death, that it hardens the minds of those who deal 
+it out, and makes them, though they be amiable men in other 
+respects, indifferent to, or unconscious of, their great 
+responsibility.  The word had gone forth that Barnaby was to die.  
+It went forth, every month, for lighter crimes.  It was a thing so 
+common, that very few were startled by the awful sentence, or 
+cared to question its propriety.  Just then, too, when the law had 
+been so flagrantly outraged, its dignity must be asserted.  The 
+symbol of its dignity,--stamped upon every page of the criminal 
+statute-book,--was the gallows; and Barnaby was to die.
+
+They had tried to save him.  The locksmith had carried petitions 
+and memorials to the fountain-head, with his own hands.  But the 
+well was not one of mercy, and Barnaby was to die.
+
+From the first his mother had never left him, save at night; and 
+with her beside him, he was as usual contented.  On this last day, 
+he was more elated and more proud than he had been yet; and when 
+she dropped the book she had been reading to him aloud, and fell 
+upon his neck, he stopped in his busy task of folding a piece of 
+crape about his hat, and wondered at her anguish.  Grip uttered a 
+feeble croak, half in encouragement, it seemed, and half in 
+remonstrance, but he wanted heart to sustain it, and lapsed 
+abruptly into silence.
+
+With them who stood upon the brink of the great gulf which none can 
+see beyond, Time, so soon to lose itself in vast Eternity, rolled 
+on like a mighty river, swollen and rapid as it nears the sea.  It 
+was morning but now; they had sat and talked together in a dream; 
+and here was evening.  The dreadful hour of separation, which even 
+yesterday had seemed so distant, was at hand.
+
+They walked out into the courtyard, clinging to each other, but not 
+speaking.  Barnaby knew that the jail was a dull, sad, miserable 
+place, and looked forward to to-morrow, as to a passage from it to 
+something bright and beautiful.  He had a vague impression too, 
+that he was expected to be brave--that he was a man of great 
+consequence, and that the prison people would be glad to make him 
+weep.  He trod the ground more firmly as he thought of this, and 
+bade her take heart and cry no more, and feel how steady his hand 
+was.  'They call me silly, mother.  They shall see to-morrow!'
+
+Dennis and Hugh were in the courtyard.  Hugh came forth from his 
+cell as they did, stretching himself as though he had been 
+sleeping.  Dennis sat upon a bench in a corner, with his knees and 
+chin huddled together, and rocked himself to and fro like a person 
+in severe pain.
+
+The mother and son remained on one side of the court, and these two 
+men upon the other.  Hugh strode up and down, glancing fiercely 
+every now and then at the bright summer sky, and looking round, 
+when he had done so, at the walls.
+
+'No reprieve, no reprieve!  Nobody comes near us.  There's only the 
+night left now!' moaned Dennis faintly, as he wrung his hands.  'Do 
+you think they'll reprieve me in the night, brother?  I've known 
+reprieves come in the night, afore now.  I've known 'em come as 
+late as five, six, and seven o'clock in the morning.  Don't you 
+think there's a good chance yet,--don't you?  Say you do.  Say you 
+do, young man,' whined the miserable creature, with an imploring 
+gesture towards Barnaby, 'or I shall go mad!'
+
+'Better be mad than sane, here,' said Hugh.  'GO mad.'
+
+'But tell me what you think.  Somebody tell me what he thinks!' 
+cried the wretched object,--so mean, and wretched, and despicable, 
+that even Pity's self might have turned away, at sight of such a 
+being in the likeness of a man--'isn't there a chance for me,--
+isn't there a good chance for me?  Isn't it likely they may be 
+doing this to frighten me?  Don't you think it is?  Oh!' he almost 
+shrieked, as he wrung his hands, 'won't anybody give me comfort!'
+
+'You ought to be the best, instead of the worst,' said Hugh, 
+stopping before him.  'Ha, ha, ha!  See the hangman, when it comes 
+home to him!'
+
+'You don't know what it is,' cried Dennis, actually writhing as he 
+spoke: 'I do.  That I should come to be worked off!  I!  I!  That I 
+should come!'
+
+'And why not?' said Hugh, as he thrust back his matted hair to get 
+a better view of his late associate.  'How often, before I knew 
+your trade, did I hear you talking of this as if it was a treat?'
+
+'I an't unconsistent,' screamed the miserable creature; 'I'd talk 
+so again, if I was hangman.  Some other man has got my old 
+opinions at this minute.  That makes it worse.  Somebody's longing 
+to work me off.  I know by myself that somebody must be!'
+
+'He'll soon have his longing,' said Hugh, resuming his walk.  
+'Think of that, and be quiet.'
+
+Although one of these men displayed, in his speech and bearing, the 
+most reckless hardihood; and the other, in his every word and 
+action, testified such an extreme of abject cowardice that it was 
+humiliating to see him; it would be difficult to say which of them 
+would most have repelled and shocked an observer.  Hugh's was the 
+dogged desperation of a savage at the stake; the hangman was 
+reduced to a condition little better, if any, than that of a hound 
+with the halter round his neck.  Yet, as Mr Dennis knew and could 
+have told them, these were the two commonest states of mind in 
+persons brought to their pass.  Such was the wholesome growth of 
+the seed sown by the law, that this kind of harvest was usually 
+looked for, as a matter of course.
+
+In one respect they all agreed.  The wandering and uncontrollable 
+train of thought, suggesting sudden recollections of things distant 
+and long forgotten and remote from each other--the vague restless 
+craving for something undefined, which nothing could satisfy--the 
+swift flight of the minutes, fusing themselves into hours, as if by 
+enchantment--the rapid coming of the solemn night--the shadow of 
+death always upon them, and yet so dim and faint, that objects the 
+meanest and most trivial started from the gloom beyond, and forced 
+themselves upon the view--the impossibility of holding the mind, 
+even if they had been so disposed, to penitence and preparation, or 
+of keeping it to any point while one hideous fascination tempted it 
+away--these things were common to them all, and varied only in 
+their outward tokens.
+
+'Fetch me the book I left within--upon your bed,' she said to 
+Barnaby, as the clock struck.  'Kiss me first.'
+
+He looked in her face, and saw there, that the time was come.  
+After a long embrace, he tore himself away, and ran to bring it to 
+her; bidding her not stir till he came back.  He soon returned, for 
+a shriek recalled him,--but she was gone.
+
+He ran to the yard-gate, and looked through.  They were carrying 
+her away.  She had said her heart would break.  It was better so.
+
+'Don't you think,' whimpered Dennis, creeping up to him, as he 
+stood with his feet rooted to the ground, gazing at the blank 
+walls--'don't you think there's still a chance?  It's a dreadful 
+end; it's a terrible end for a man like me.  Don't you think 
+there's a chance?  I don't mean for you, I mean for me.  Don't let 
+HIM hear us (meaning Hugh); 'he's so desperate.'
+
+Now then,' said the officer, who had been lounging in and out with 
+his hands in his pockets, and yawning as if he were in the last 
+extremity for some subject of interest: 'it's time to turn in, 
+boys.'
+
+'Not yet,' cried Dennis, 'not yet.  Not for an hour yet.'
+
+'I say,--your watch goes different from what it used to,' returned 
+the man.  'Once upon a time it was always too fast.  It's got the 
+other fault now.'
+
+'My friend,' cried the wretched creature, falling on his knees, 'my 
+dear friend--you always were my dear friend--there's some mistake.  
+Some letter has been mislaid, or some messenger has been stopped 
+upon the way.  He may have fallen dead.  I saw a man once, fall 
+down dead in the street, myself, and he had papers in his pocket.  
+Send to inquire.  Let somebody go to inquire.  They never will hang 
+me.  They never can.--Yes, they will,' he cried, starting to his 
+feet with a terrible scream.  'They'll hang me by a trick, and keep 
+the pardon back.  It's a plot against me.  I shall lose my life!'  
+And uttering another yell, he fell in a fit upon the ground.
+
+'See the hangman when it comes home to him!' cried Hugh again, as 
+they bore him away--'Ha ha ha!  Courage, bold Barnaby, what care 
+we?  Your hand!  They do well to put us out of the world, for if we 
+got loose a second time, we wouldn't let them off so easy, eh?  
+Another shake!  A man can die but once.  If you wake in the night, 
+sing that out lustily, and fall asleep again.  Ha ha ha!'
+
+Barnaby glanced once more through the grate into the empty yard; 
+and then watched Hugh as he strode to the steps leading to his 
+sleeping-cell.  He heard him shout, and burst into a roar of 
+laughter, and saw him flourish his hat.  Then he turned away 
+himself, like one who walked in his sleep; and, without any sense 
+of fear or sorrow, lay down on his pallet, listening for the clock 
+to strike again.
+
+
+
+Chapter 77
+
+
+The time wore on.  The noises in the streets became less frequent 
+by degrees, until silence was scarcely broken save by the bells in 
+church towers, marking the progress--softer and more stealthy 
+while the city slumbered--of that Great Watcher with the hoary 
+head, who never sleeps or rests.  In the brief interval of darkness 
+and repose which feverish towns enjoy, all busy sounds were hushed; 
+and those who awoke from dreams lay listening in their beds, and 
+longed for dawn, and wished the dead of the night were past.
+
+Into the street outside the jail's main wall, workmen came 
+straggling at this solemn hour, in groups of two or three, and 
+meeting in the centre, cast their tools upon the ground and spoke 
+in whispers.  Others soon issued from the jail itself, bearing on 
+their shoulders planks and beams: these materials being all brought 
+forth, the rest bestirred themselves, and the dull sound of hammers 
+began to echo through the stillness.
+
+Here and there among this knot of labourers, one, with a lantern or 
+a smoky link, stood by to light his fellows at their work; and by 
+its doubtful aid, some might be dimly seen taking up the pavement 
+of the road, while others held great upright posts, or fixed them 
+in the holes thus made for their reception.  Some dragged slowly 
+on, towards the rest, an empty cart, which they brought rumbling 
+from the prison-yard; while others erected strong barriers across 
+the street.  All were busily engaged.  Their dusky figures moving 
+to and fro, at that unusual hour, so active and so silent, might 
+have been taken for those of shadowy creatures toiling at midnight 
+on some ghostly unsubstantial work, which, like themselves, would 
+vanish with the first gleam of day, and leave but morning mist and 
+vapour.
+
+While it was yet dark, a few lookers-on collected, who had plainly 
+come there for the purpose and intended to remain: even those who 
+had to pass the spot on their way to some other place, lingered, 
+and lingered yet, as though the attraction of that were 
+irresistible.  Meanwhile the noise of saw and mallet went on 
+briskly, mingled with the clattering of boards on the stone 
+pavement of the road, and sometimes with the workmen's voices as 
+they called to one another.  Whenever the chimes of the 
+neighbouring church were heard--and that was every quarter of an 
+hour--a strange sensation, instantaneous and indescribable, but 
+perfectly obvious, seemed to pervade them all.
+
+Gradually, a faint brightness appeared in the east, and the air, 
+which had been very warm all through the night, felt cool and 
+chilly.  Though there was no daylight yet, the darkness was 
+diminished, and the stars looked pale.  The prison, which had been 
+a mere black mass with little shape or form, put on its usual 
+aspect; and ever and anon a solitary watchman could be seen upon 
+its roof, stopping to look down upon the preparations in the 
+street.  This man, from forming, as it were, a part of the jail, 
+and knowing or being supposed to know all that was passing within, 
+became an object of as much interest, and was as eagerly looked 
+for, and as awfully pointed out, as if he had been a spirit.
+
+By and by, the feeble light grew stronger, and the houses with 
+their signboards and inscriptions, stood plainly out, in the dull 
+grey morning.  Heavy stage waggons crawled from the inn-yard 
+opposite; and travellers peeped out; and as they rolled sluggishly 
+away, cast many a backward look towards the jail.  And now, the 
+sun's first beams came glancing into the street; and the night's 
+work, which, in its various stages and in the varied fancies of the 
+lookers-on had taken a hundred shapes, wore its own proper form--a 
+scaffold, and a gibbet.
+
+As the warmth of the cheerful day began to shed itself upon the 
+scanty crowd, the murmur of tongues was heard, shutters were thrown 
+open, and blinds drawn up, and those who had slept in rooms over 
+against the prison, where places to see the execution were let at 
+high prices, rose hastily from their beds.  In some of the houses, 
+people were busy taking out the window-sashes for the better 
+accommodation of spectators; in others, the spectators were already 
+seated, and beguiling the time with cards, or drink, or jokes among 
+themselves.  Some had purchased seats upon the house-tops, and 
+were already crawling to their stations from parapet and garret-
+window.  Some were yet bargaining for good places, and stood in 
+them in a state of indecision: gazing at the slowly-swelling crowd, 
+and at the workmen as they rested listlessly against the scaffold--
+affecting to listen with indifference to the proprietor's eulogy of 
+the commanding view his house afforded, and the surpassing 
+cheapness of his terms.
+
+A fairer morning never shone.  From the roofs and upper stories of 
+these buildings, the spires of city churches and the great 
+cathedral dome were visible, rising up beyond the prison, into the 
+blue sky, and clad in the colour of light summer clouds, and 
+showing in the clear atmosphere their every scrap of tracery and 
+fretwork, and every niche and loophole.  All was brightness and 
+promise, excepting in the street below, into which (for it yet lay 
+in shadow) the eye looked down as into a dark trench, where, in the 
+midst of so much life, and hope, and renewal of existence, stood 
+the terrible instrument of death.  It seemed as if the very sun 
+forbore to look upon it.
+
+But it was better, grim and sombre in the shade, than when, the day 
+being more advanced, it stood confessed in the full glare and glory 
+of the sun, with its black paint blistering, and its nooses 
+dangling in the light like loathsome garlands.  It was better in 
+the solitude and gloom of midnight with a few forms clustering 
+about it, than in the freshness and the stir of morning: the centre 
+of an eager crowd.  It was better haunting the street like a 
+spectre, when men were in their beds, and influencing perchance the 
+city's dreams, than braving the broad day, and thrusting its 
+obscene presence upon their waking senses.
+
+Five o'clock had struck--six--seven--and eight.  Along the two main 
+streets at either end of the cross-way, a living stream had now 
+set in, rolling towards the marts of gain and business.  Carts, 
+coaches, waggons, trucks, and barrows, forced a passage through the 
+outskirts of the throng, and clattered onward in the same 
+direction.  Some of these which were public conveyances and had 
+come from a short distance in the country, stopped; and the driver 
+pointed to the gibbet with his whip, though he might have spared 
+himself the pains, for the heads of all the passengers were turned 
+that way without his help, and the coach-windows were stuck full of 
+staring eyes.  In some of the carts and waggons, women might be 
+seen, glancing fearfully at the same unsightly thing; and even 
+little children were held up above the people's heads to see what 
+kind of a toy a gallows was, and learn how men were hanged.
+
+Two rioters were to die before the prison, who had been concerned 
+in the attack upon it; and one directly afterwards in Bloomsbury 
+Square.  At nine o'clock, a strong body of military marched into 
+the street, and formed and lined a narrow passage into Holborn, 
+which had been indifferently kept all night by constables.  Through 
+this, another cart was brought (the one already mentioned had been 
+employed in the construction of the scaffold), and wheeled up to 
+the prison-gate.  These preparations made, the soldiers stood at 
+ease; the officers lounged to and fro, in the alley they had made, 
+or talked together at the scaffold's foot; and the concourse, 
+which had been rapidly augmenting for some hours, and still 
+received additions every minute, waited with an impatience which 
+increased with every chime of St Sepulchre's clock, for twelve at 
+noon.
+
+Up to this time they had been very quiet, comparatively silent, 
+save when the arrival of some new party at a window, hitherto 
+unoccupied, gave them something new to look at or to talk of.  But, 
+as the hour approached, a buzz and hum arose, which, deepening 
+every moment, soon swelled into a roar, and seemed to fill the air.  
+No words or even voices could be distinguished in this clamour, nor 
+did they speak much to each other; though such as were better 
+informed upon the topic than the rest, would tell their neighbours, 
+perhaps, that they might know the hangman when he came out, by his 
+being the shorter one: and that the man who was to suffer with him 
+was named Hugh: and that it was Barnaby Rudge who would be hanged 
+in Bloomsbury Square.
+
+The hum grew, as the time drew near, so loud, that those who were 
+at the windows could not hear the church-clock strike, though it 
+was close at hand.  Nor had they any need to hear it, either, for 
+they could see it in the people's faces.  So surely as another 
+quarter chimed, there was a movement in the crowd--as if something 
+had passed over it--as if the light upon them had been changed--in 
+which the fact was readable as on a brazen dial, figured by a 
+giant's hand.
+
+Three quarters past eleven!  The murmur now was deafening, yet 
+every man seemed mute.  Look where you would among the crowd, you 
+saw strained eyes and lips compressed; it would have been difficult 
+for the most vigilant observer to point this way or that, and say 
+that yonder man had cried out.  It were as easy to detect the 
+motion of lips in a sea-shell.
+
+Three quarters past eleven!  Many spectators who had retired from 
+the windows, came back refreshed, as though their watch had just 
+begun.  Those who had fallen asleep, roused themselves; and every 
+person in the crowd made one last effort to better his position--
+which caused a press against the sturdy barriers that made them 
+bend and yield like twigs.  The officers, who until now had kept 
+together, fell into their several positions, and gave the words of 
+command.  Swords were drawn, muskets shouldered, and the bright 
+steel winding its way among the crowd, gleamed and glittered in the 
+sun like a river.  Along this shining path, two men came hurrying 
+on, leading a horse, which was speedily harnessed to the cart at 
+the prison-door.  Then, a profound silence replaced the tumult that 
+had so long been gathering, and a breathless pause ensued.  Every 
+window was now choked up with heads; the house-tops teemed with 
+people--clinging to chimneys, peering over gable-ends, and holding 
+on where the sudden loosening of any brick or stone would dash them 
+down into the street.  The church tower, the church roof, the 
+church yard, the prison leads, the very water-spouts and 
+lampposts--every inch of room--swarmed with human life.
+
+At the first stroke of twelve the prison-bell began to toll.  Then 
+the roar--mingled now with cries of 'Hats off!' and 'Poor fellows!' 
+and, from some specks in the great concourse, with a shriek or 
+groan--burst forth again.  It was terrible to see--if any one in 
+that distraction of excitement could have seen--the world of eager 
+eyes, all strained upon the scaffold and the beam.
+
+The hollow murmuring was heard within the jail as plainly as 
+without.  The three were brought forth into the yard, together, as 
+it resounded through the air.  They knew its import well.
+
+'D'ye hear?' cried Hugh, undaunted by the sound.  'They expect us!  
+I heard them gathering when I woke in the night, and turned over on 
+t'other side and fell asleep again.  We shall see how they welcome 
+the hangman, now that it comes home to him.  Ha, ha, ha!'
+
+The Ordinary coming up at this moment, reproved him for his 
+indecent mirth, and advised him to alter his demeanour.
+
+'And why, master?' said Hugh.  'Can I do better than bear it 
+easily?  YOU bear it easily enough.  Oh! never tell me,' he cried, 
+as the other would have spoken, 'for all your sad look and your 
+solemn air, you think little enough of it!  They say you're the 
+best maker of lobster salads in London.  Ha, ha!  I've heard that, 
+you see, before now.  Is it a good one, this morning--is your hand 
+in?  How does the breakfast look?  I hope there's enough, and to 
+spare, for all this hungry company that'll sit down to it, when the 
+sight's over.'
+
+'I fear,' observed the clergyman, shaking his head, 'that you are 
+incorrigible.'
+
+'You're right.  I am,' rejoined Hugh sternly.  'Be no hypocrite, 
+master!  You make a merry-making of this, every month; let me be 
+merry, too.  If you want a frightened fellow there's one that'll 
+suit you.  Try your hand upon him.'
+
+He pointed, as he spoke, to Dennis, who, with his legs trailing on 
+the ground, was held between two men; and who trembled so, that all 
+his joints and limbs seemed racked by spasms.  Turning from this 
+wretched spectacle, he called to Barnaby, who stood apart.
+
+'What cheer, Barnaby?  Don't be downcast, lad.  Leave that to HIM.'
+
+'Bless you,' cried Barnaby, stepping lightly towards him, 'I'm not 
+frightened, Hugh.  I'm quite happy.  I wouldn't desire to live now, 
+if they'd let me.  Look at me!  Am I afraid to die?  Will they see 
+ME tremble?'
+
+Hugh gazed for a moment at his face, on which there was a strange, 
+unearthly smile; and at his eye, which sparkled brightly; and 
+interposing between him and the Ordinary, gruffly whispered to the 
+latter:
+
+'I wouldn't say much to him, master, if I was you.  He may spoil 
+your appetite for breakfast, though you ARE used to it.'
+
+He was the only one of the three who had washed or trimmed himself 
+that morning.  Neither of the others had done so, since their doom 
+was pronounced.  He still wore the broken peacock's feathers in his 
+hat; and all his usual scraps of finery were carefully disposed 
+about his person.  His kindling eye, his firm step, his proud and 
+resolute bearing, might have graced some lofty act of heroism; some 
+voluntary sacrifice, born of a noble cause and pure enthusiasm; 
+rather than that felon's death.
+
+But all these things increased his guilt.  They were mere 
+assumptions.  The law had declared it so, and so it must be.  The 
+good minister had been greatly shocked, not a quarter of an hour 
+before, at his parting with Grip.  For one in his condition, to 
+fondle a bird!--The yard was filled with people; bluff civic 
+functionaries, officers of justice, soldiers, the curious in such 
+matters, and guests who had been bidden as to a wedding.  Hugh 
+looked about him, nodded gloomily to some person in authority, who 
+indicated with his hand in what direction he was to proceed; and 
+clapping Barnaby on the shoulder, passed out with the gait of a 
+lion.
+
+They entered a large room, so near to the scaffold that the voices 
+of those who stood about it, could be plainly heard: some 
+beseeching the javelin-men to take them out of the crowd: others 
+crying to those behind, to stand back, for they were pressed to 
+death, and suffocating for want of air.
+
+In the middle of this chamber, two smiths, with hammers, stood 
+beside an anvil.  Hugh walked straight up to them, and set his foot 
+upon it with a sound as though it had been struck by a heavy 
+weapon.  Then, with folded arms, he stood to have his irons knocked 
+off: scowling haughtily round, as those who were present eyed him 
+narrowly and whispered to each other.
+
+It took so much time to drag Dennis in, that this ceremony was over 
+with Hugh, and nearly over with Barnaby, before he appeared.  He no 
+sooner came into the place he knew so well, however, and among 
+faces with which he was so familiar, than he recovered strength and 
+sense enough to clasp his hands and make a last appeal.
+
+'Gentlemen, good gentlemen,' cried the abject creature, grovelling 
+down upon his knees, and actually prostrating himself upon the 
+stone floor: 'Governor, dear governor--honourable sheriffs--worthy 
+gentlemen--have mercy upon a wretched man that has served His 
+Majesty, and the Law, and Parliament, for so many years, and don't--
+don't let me die--because of a mistake.'
+
+'Dennis,' said the governor of the jail, 'you know what the course 
+is, and that the order came with the rest.  You know that we could 
+do nothing, even if we would.'
+
+'All I ask, sir,--all I want and beg, is time, to make it sure,' 
+cried the trembling wretch, looking wildly round for sympathy.  
+'The King and Government can't know it's me; I'm sure they can't 
+know it's me; or they never would bring me to this dreadful 
+slaughterhouse.  They know my name, but they don't know it's the 
+same man.  Stop my execution--for charity's sake stop my execution, 
+gentlemen--till they can be told that I've been hangman here, nigh 
+thirty year.  Will no one go and tell them?' he implored, clenching 
+his hands and glaring round, and round, and round again--'will no 
+charitable person go and tell them!'
+
+'Mr Akerman,' said a gentleman who stood by, after a moment's 
+pause, 'since it may possibly produce in this unhappy man a better 
+frame of mind, even at this last minute, let me assure him that he 
+was well known to have been the hangman, when his sentence was 
+considered.'
+
+'--But perhaps they think on that account that the punishment's not 
+so great,' cried the criminal, shuffling towards this speaker on 
+his knees, and holding up his folded hands; 'whereas it's worse, 
+it's worse a hundred times, to me than any man.  Let them know 
+that, sir.  Let them know that.  They've made it worse to me by 
+giving me so much to do.  Stop my execution till they know that!'
+
+The governor beckoned with his hand, and the two men, who had 
+supported him before, approached.  He uttered a piercing cry:
+
+'Wait!  Wait.  Only a moment--only one moment more!  Give me a last 
+chance of reprieve.  One of us three is to go to Bloomsbury Square.  
+Let me be the one.  It may come in that time; it's sure to come.  
+In the Lord's name let me be sent to Bloomsbury Square.  Don't hang 
+me here.  It's murder.'
+
+They took him to the anvil: but even then he could he heard above 
+the clinking of the smiths' hammers, and the hoarse raging of the 
+crowd, crying that he knew of Hugh's birth--that his father was 
+living, and was a gentleman of influence and rank--that he had 
+family secrets in his possession--that he could tell nothing unless 
+they gave him time, but must die with them on his mind; and he 
+continued to rave in this sort until his voice failed him, and he 
+sank down a mere heap of clothes between the two attendants.
+
+It was at this moment that the clock struck the first stroke of 
+twelve, and the bell began to toll.  The various officers, with the 
+two sheriffs at their head, moved towards the door.  All was ready 
+when the last chime came upon the ear.
+
+They told Hugh this, and asked if he had anything to say.
+
+'To say!' he cried.  'Not I.  I'm ready.--Yes,' he added, as his 
+eye fell upon Barnaby, 'I have a word to say, too.  Come hither, 
+lad.'
+
+There was, for the moment, something kind, and even tender, 
+struggling in his fierce aspect, as he wrung his poor companion by 
+the hand.
+
+'I'll say this,' he cried, looking firmly round, 'that if I had ten 
+lives to lose, and the loss of each would give me ten times the 
+agony of the hardest death, I'd lay them all down--ay, I would, 
+though you gentlemen may not believe it--to save this one.  This 
+one,' he added, wringing his hand again, 'that will be lost through 
+me.'
+
+'Not through you,' said the idiot, mildly.  'Don't say that.  You 
+were not to blame.  You have always been very good to me.--Hugh, we 
+shall know what makes the stars shine, NOW!'
+
+'I took him from her in a reckless mood, and didn't think what harm 
+would come of it,' said Hugh, laying his hand upon his head, and 
+speaking in a lower voice.  'I ask her pardon; and his.--Look 
+here,' he added roughly, in his former tone.  'You see this lad?'
+
+They murmured 'Yes,' and seemed to wonder why he asked.
+
+'That gentleman yonder--' pointing to the clergyman--'has often in 
+the last few days spoken to me of faith, and strong belief.  You 
+see what I am--more brute than man, as I have been often told--but 
+I had faith enough to believe, and did believe as strongly as any 
+of you gentlemen can believe anything, that this one life would be 
+spared.  See what he is!--Look at him!'
+
+Barnaby had moved towards the door, and stood beckoning him to 
+follow.
+
+'If this was not faith, and strong belief!' cried Hugh, raising 
+his right arm aloft, and looking upward like a savage prophet whom 
+the near approach of Death had filled with inspiration, 'where are 
+they!  What else should teach me--me, born as I was born, and 
+reared as I have been reared--to hope for any mercy in this 
+hardened, cruel, unrelenting place!  Upon these human shambles, I, 
+who never raised this hand in prayer till now, call down the wrath 
+of God!  On that black tree, of which I am the ripened fruit, I do 
+invoke the curse of all its victims, past, and present, and to 
+come.  On the head of that man, who, in his conscience, owns me for 
+his son, I leave the wish that he may never sicken on his bed of 
+down, but die a violent death as I do now, and have the night-wind 
+for his only mourner.  To this I say, Amen, amen!'
+
+His arm fell downward by his side; he turned; and moved towards 
+them with a steady step, the man he had been before.
+
+'There is nothing more?' said the governor.
+
+Hugh motioned Barnaby not to come near him (though without looking 
+in the direction where he stood) and answered, 'There is nothing 
+more.'
+
+'Move forward!'
+
+'--Unless,' said Hugh, glancing hurriedly back,--'unless any 
+person here has a fancy for a dog; and not then, unless he means to 
+use him well.  There's one, belongs to me, at the house I came 
+from, and it wouldn't be easy to find a better.  He'll whine at 
+first, but he'll soon get over that.--You wonder that I think about 
+a dog just now, he added, with a kind of laugh.  'If any man 
+deserved it of me half as well, I'd think of HIM.'
+
+He spoke no more, but moved onward in his place, with a careless 
+air, though listening at the same time to the Service for the Dead, 
+with something between sullen attention, and quickened curiosity.  
+As soon as he had passed the door, his miserable associate was 
+carried out; and the crowd beheld the rest.
+
+Barnaby would have mounted the steps at the same time--indeed he 
+would have gone before them, but in both attempts he was 
+restrained, as he was to undergo the sentence elsewhere.  In a few 
+minutes the sheriffs reappeared, the same procession was again 
+formed, and they passed through various rooms and passages to 
+another door--that at which the cart was waiting.  He held down his 
+head to avoid seeing what he knew his eyes must otherwise 
+encounter, and took his seat sorrowfully,--and yet with something 
+of a childish pride and pleasure,--in the vehicle.  The officers 
+fell into their places at the sides, in front and in the rear; the 
+sheriffs' carriages rolled on; a guard of soldiers surrounded the 
+whole; and they moved slowly forward through the throng and 
+pressure toward Lord Mansfield's ruined house.
+
+It was a sad sight--all the show, and strength, and glitter, 
+assembled round one helpless creature--and sadder yet to note, as 
+he rode along, how his wandering thoughts found strange 
+encouragement in the crowded windows and the concourse in the 
+streets; and how, even then, he felt the influence of the bright 
+sky, and looked up, smiling, into its deep unfathomable blue.  But 
+there had been many such sights since the riots were over--some so 
+moving in their nature, and so repulsive too, that they were far 
+more calculated to awaken pity for the sufferers, than respect for 
+that law whose strong arm seemed in more than one case to be as 
+wantonly stretched forth now that all was safe, as it had been 
+basely paralysed in time of danger.
+
+Two cripples--both mere boys--one with a leg of wood, one who 
+dragged his twisted limbs along by the help of a crutch, were 
+hanged in this same Bloomsbury Square.  As the cart was about to 
+glide from under them, it was observed that they stood with their 
+faces from, not to, the house they had assisted to despoil; and 
+their misery was protracted that this omission might be remedied.  
+Another boy was hanged in Bow Street; other young lads in various 
+quarters of the town.  Four wretched women, too, were put to 
+death.  In a word, those who suffered as rioters were, for the most 
+part, the weakest, meanest, and most miserable among them.  It was 
+a most exquisite satire upon the false religious cry which had led 
+to so much misery, that some of these people owned themselves to be 
+Catholics, and begged to be attended by their own priests.
+
+One young man was hanged in Bishopsgate Street, whose aged grey-
+headed father waited for him at the gallows, kissed him at its foot 
+when he arrived, and sat there, on the ground, till they took him 
+down.  They would have given him the body of his child; but he had 
+no hearse, no coffin, nothing to remove it in, being too poor--and 
+walked meekly away beside the cart that took it back to prison, 
+trying, as he went, to touch its lifeless hand.
+
+But the crowd had forgotten these matters, or cared little about 
+them if they lived in their memory: and while one great multitude 
+fought and hustled to get near the gibbet before Newgate, for a 
+parting look, another followed in the train of poor lost Barnaby, 
+to swell the throng that waited for him on the spot.
+
+
+
+Chapter 78
+
+
+On this same day, and about this very hour, Mr Willet the elder sat 
+smoking his pipe in a chamber at the Black Lion.  Although it was 
+hot summer weather, Mr Willet sat close to the fire.  He was in a 
+state of profound cogitation, with his own thoughts, and it was his 
+custom at such times to stew himself slowly, under the impression 
+that that process of cookery was favourable to the melting out of 
+his ideas, which, when he began to simmer, sometimes oozed forth so 
+copiously as to astonish even himself.
+
+Mr Willet had been several thousand times comforted by his friends 
+and acquaintance, with the assurance that for the loss he had 
+sustained in the damage done to the Maypole, he could 'come upon 
+the county.'  But as this phrase happened to bear an unfortunate 
+resemblance to the popular expression of 'coming on the parish,' it 
+suggested to Mr Willet's mind no more consolatory visions than 
+pauperism on an extensive scale, and ruin in a capacious aspect.  
+Consequently, he had never failed to receive the intelligence with 
+a rueful shake of the head, or a dreary stare, and had been always 
+observed to appear much more melancholy after a visit of condolence 
+than at any other time in the whole four-and-twenty hours.
+
+It chanced, however, that sitting over the fire on this particular 
+occasion--perhaps because he was, as it were, done to a turn; 
+perhaps because he was in an unusually bright state of mind; 
+perhaps because he had considered the subject so long; perhaps 
+because of all these favouring circumstances, taken together--it 
+chanced that, sitting over the fire on this particular occasion, Mr 
+Willet did, afar off and in the remotest depths of his intellect, 
+perceive a kind of lurking hint or faint suggestion, that out of 
+the public purse there might issue funds for the restoration of the 
+Maypole to its former high place among the taverns of the earth.  
+And this dim ray of light did so diffuse itself within him, and did 
+so kindle up and shine, that at last he had it as plainly and 
+visibly before him as the blaze by which he sat; and, fully 
+persuaded that he was the first to make the discovery, and that he 
+had started, hunted down, fallen upon, and knocked on the head, a 
+perfectly original idea which had never presented itself to any 
+other man, alive or dead, he laid down his pipe, rubbed his hands, 
+and chuckled audibly.
+
+'Why, father!' cried Joe, entering at the moment, 'you're in 
+spirits to-day!'
+
+'It's nothing partickler,' said Mr Willet, chuckling again.  'It's 
+nothing at all partickler, Joseph.  Tell me something about the 
+Salwanners.'  Having preferred this request, Mr Willet chuckled a 
+third time, and after these unusual demonstrations of levity, he 
+put his pipe in his mouth again.
+
+'What shall I tell you, father?' asked Joe, laying his hand upon 
+his sire's shoulder, and looking down into his face.  'That I have 
+come back, poorer than a church mouse?  You know that.  That I have 
+come back, maimed and crippled?  You know that.'
+
+'It was took off,' muttered Mr Willet,with his eyes upon the fire, 
+'at the defence of the Salwanners, in America, where the war is.'
+
+'Quite right,' returned Joe, smiling, and leaning with his 
+remaining elbow on the back of his father's chair; 'the very 
+subject I came to speak to you about.  A man with one arm, father, 
+is not of much use in the busy world.'
+
+This was one of those vast propositions which Mr Willet had never 
+considered for an instant, and required time to 'tackle.'  
+Wherefore he made no answer.
+
+'At all events,' said Joe, 'he can't pick and choose his means of 
+earning a livelihood, as another man may.  He can't say "I will 
+turn my hand to this," or "I won't turn my hand to that," but must 
+take what he can do, and be thankful it's no worse.--What did you 
+say?'
+
+Mr Willet had been softly repeating to himself, in a musing tone, 
+the words 'defence of the Salwanners:' but he seemed embarrassed at 
+having been overheard, and answered 'Nothing.'
+
+'Now look here, father.--Mr Edward has come to England from the 
+West Indies.  When he was lost sight of (I ran away on the same 
+day, father), he made a voyage to one of the islands, where a 
+school-friend of his had settled; and, finding him, wasn't too 
+proud to be employed on his estate, and--and in short, got on well, 
+and is prospering, and has come over here on business of his own, 
+and is going back again speedily.  Our returning nearly at the 
+same time, and meeting in the course of the late troubles, has been 
+a good thing every way; for it has not only enabled us to do old 
+friends some service, but has opened a path in life for me which I 
+may tread without being a burden upon you.  To be plain, father, he 
+can employ me; I have satisfied myself that I can be of real use to 
+him; and I am going to carry my one arm away with him, and to make 
+the most of it.
+
+In the mind's eye of Mr Willet, the West Indies, and indeed all 
+foreign countries, were inhabited by savage nations, who were 
+perpetually burying pipes of peace, flourishing tomahawks, and 
+puncturing strange patterns in their bodies.  He no sooner heard 
+this announcement, therefore, than he leaned back in his chair, 
+took his pipe from his lips, and stared at his son with as much 
+dismay as if he already beheld him tied to a stake, and tortured 
+for the entertainment of a lively population.  In what form of 
+expression his feelings would have found a vent, it is impossible 
+to say.  Nor is it necessary: for, before a syllable occurred to 
+him, Dolly Varden came running into the room, in tears, threw 
+herself on Joe's breast without a word of explanation, and clasped 
+her white arms round his neck.
+
+'Dolly!' cried Joe.  'Dolly!'
+
+'Ay, call me that; call me that always,' exclaimed the locksmith's 
+little daughter; 'never speak coldly to me, never be distant, never 
+again reprove me for the follies I have long repented, or I shall 
+die, Joe.'
+
+'I reprove you!' said Joe.
+
+'Yes--for every kind and honest word you uttered, went to my heart.  
+For you, who have borne so much from me--for you, who owe your 
+sufferings and pain to my caprice--for you to be so kind--so noble 
+to me, Joe--'
+
+He could say nothing to her.  Not a syllable.  There was an odd 
+sort of eloquence in his one arm, which had crept round her waist: 
+but his lips were mute.
+
+'If you had reminded me by a word--only by one short word,' sobbed 
+Dolly, clinging yet closer to him, 'how little I deserved that you 
+should treat me with so much forbearance; if you had exulted only 
+for one moment in your triumph, I could have borne it better.'
+
+'Triumph!' repeated Joe, with a smile which seemed to say, 'I am a 
+pretty figure for that.'
+
+'Yes, triumph,' she cried, with her whole heart and soul in her 
+earnest voice, and gushing tears; 'for it is one.  I am glad to 
+think and know it is.  I wouldn't be less humbled, dear--I wouldn't 
+be without the recollection of that last time we spoke together in 
+this place--no, not if I could recall the past, and make our 
+parting, yesterday.'
+
+Did ever lover look as Joe looked now!
+
+'Dear Joe,' said Dolly, 'I always loved you--in my own heart I 
+always did, although I was so vain and giddy.  I hoped you would 
+come back that night.  I made quite sure you would.  I prayed for 
+it on my knees.  Through all these long, long years, I have never 
+once forgotten you, or left off hoping that this happy time might 
+come.'
+
+The eloquence of Joe's arm surpassed the most impassioned language; 
+and so did that of his lips--yet he said nothing, either.
+
+'And now, at last,' cried Dolly, trembling with the fervour of her 
+speech, 'if you were sick, and shattered in your every limb; if you 
+were ailing, weak, and sorrowful; if, instead of being what you 
+are, you were in everybody's eyes but mine the wreck and ruin of a 
+man; I would be your wife, dear love, with greater pride and joy, 
+than if you were the stateliest lord in England!'
+
+'What have I done,' cried Joe, 'what have I done to meet with this 
+reward?'
+
+'You have taught me,' said Dolly, raising her pretty face to his, 
+'to know myself, and your worth; to be something better than I 
+was; to be more deserving of your true and manly nature.  In years 
+to come, dear Joe, you shall find that you have done so; for I will 
+be, not only now, when we are young and full of hope, but when we 
+have grown old and weary, your patient, gentle, never-tiring 
+wife.  I will never know a wish or care beyond our home and you, 
+and I will always study how to please you with my best affection 
+and my most devoted love.  I will: indeed I will!'
+
+Joe could only repeat his former eloquence--but it was very much to 
+the purpose.
+
+'They know of this, at home,' said Dolly.  'For your sake, I would 
+leave even them; but they know it, and are glad of it, and are as 
+proud of you as I am, and as full of gratitude.--You'll not come 
+and see me as a poor friend who knew me when I was a girl, will 
+you, dear Joe?'
+
+Well, well!  It don't matter what Joe said in answer, but he said a 
+great deal; and Dolly said a great deal too: and he folded Dolly in 
+his one arm pretty tight, considering that it was but one; and 
+Dolly made no resistance: and if ever two people were happy in this 
+world--which is not an utterly miserable one, with all its faults--
+we may, with some appearance of certainty, conclude that they 
+were.
+
+To say that during these proceedings Mr Willet the elder underwent 
+the greatest emotions of astonishment of which our common nature is 
+susceptible--to say that he was in a perfect paralysis of surprise, 
+and that he wandered into the most stupendous and theretofore 
+unattainable heights of complicated amazement--would be to shadow 
+forth his state of mind in the feeblest and lamest terms.  If a 
+roc, an eagle, a griffin, a flying elephant, a winged sea-horse, 
+had suddenly appeared, and, taking him on its back, carried him 
+bodily into the heart of the 'Salwanners,' it would have been to 
+him as an everyday occurrence, in comparison with what he now 
+beheld.  To be sitting quietly by, seeing and hearing these things; 
+to be completely overlooked, unnoticed, and disregarded, while his 
+son and a young lady were talking to each other in the most 
+impassioned manner, kissing each other, and making themselves in 
+all respects perfectly at home; was a position so tremendous, so 
+inexplicable, so utterly beyond the widest range of his capacity of 
+comprehension, that he fell into a lethargy of wonder, and could no 
+more rouse himself than an enchanted sleeper in the first year of 
+his fairy lease, a century long.
+
+'Father,' said Joe, presenting Dolly.  'You know who this is?'
+
+Mr Willet looked first at her, then at his son, then back again at 
+Dolly, and then made an ineffectual effort to extract a whiff from 
+his pipe, which had gone out long ago.
+
+'Say a word, father, if it's only "how d'ye do,"' urged Joe.
+
+'Certainly, Joseph,' answered Mr Willet.  'Oh yes!  Why not?'
+
+'To be sure,' said Joe.  'Why not?'
+
+'Ah!' replied his father.  'Why not?' and with this remark, which 
+he uttered in a low voice as though he were discussing some grave 
+question with himself, he used the little finger--if any of his 
+fingers can be said to have come under that denomination--of his 
+right hand as a tobacco-stopper, and was silent again.
+
+And so he sat for half an hour at least, although Dolly, in the 
+most endearing of manners, hoped, a dozen times, that he was not 
+angry with her.  So he sat for half an hour, quite motionless, and 
+looking all the while like nothing so much as a great Dutch Pin or 
+Skittle.  At the expiration of that period, he suddenly, and 
+without the least notice, burst (to the great consternation of the 
+young people) into a very loud and very short laugh; and 
+repeating, 'Certainly, Joseph.  Oh yes!  Why not?' went out for a 
+walk.
+
+
+
+Chapter 79
+
+
+Old John did not walk near the Golden Key, for between the Golden 
+Key and the Black Lion there lay a wilderness of streets--as 
+everybody knows who is acquainted with the relative bearings of 
+Clerkenwell and Whitechapel--and he was by no means famous for 
+pedestrian exercises.  But the Golden Key lies in our way, though 
+it was out of his; so to the Golden Key this chapter goes.
+
+The Golden Key itself, fair emblem of the locksmith's trade, had 
+been pulled down by the rioters, and roughly trampled under foot.  
+But, now, it was hoisted up again in all the glory of a new coat of 
+paint, and shewed more bravely even than in days of yore.  Indeed 
+the whole house-front was spruce and trim, and so freshened up 
+throughout, that if there yet remained at large any of the rioters 
+who had been concerned in the attack upon it, the sight of the old, 
+goodly, prosperous dwelling, so revived, must have been to them as 
+gall and wormwood.
+
+The shutters of the shop were closed, however, and the window-
+blinds above were all pulled down, and in place of its usual 
+cheerful appearance, the house had a look of sadness and an air of 
+mourning; which the neighbours, who in old days had often seen poor 
+Barnaby go in and out, were at no loss to understand.  The door 
+stood partly open; but the locksmith's hammer was unheard; the cat 
+sat moping on the ashy forge; all was deserted, dark, and silent.
+
+On the threshold of this door, Mr Haredale and Edward Chester met.  
+The younger man gave place; and both passing in with a familiar 
+air, which seemed to denote that they were tarrying there, or were 
+well-accustomed to go to and fro unquestioned, shut it behind them.
+
+Entering the old back-parlour, and ascending the flight of stairs, 
+abrupt and steep, and quaintly fashioned as of old, they turned 
+into the best room; the pride of Mrs Varden's heart, and erst the 
+scene of Miggs's household labours.
+
+'Varden brought the mother here last evening, he told me?' said Mr 
+Haredale.
+
+'She is above-stairs now--in the room over here,' Edward rejoined.  
+'Her grief, they say, is past all telling.  I needn't add--for that 
+you know beforehand, sir--that the care, humanity, and sympathy of 
+these good people have no bounds.'
+
+'I am sure of that.  Heaven repay them for it, and for much more!  
+Varden is out?'
+
+'He returned with your messenger, who arrived almost at the moment 
+of his coming home himself.  He was out the whole night--but that 
+of course you know.  He was with you the greater part of it?'
+
+'He was.  Without him, I should have lacked my right hand.  He is 
+an older man than I; but nothing can conquer him.'
+
+'The cheeriest, stoutest-hearted fellow in the world.'
+
+'He has a right to be.  He has a right to he.  A better creature 
+never lived.  He reaps what he has sown--no more.'
+
+'It is not all men,' said Edward, after a moment's hesitation, 'who 
+have the happiness to do that.'
+
+'More than you imagine,' returned Mr Haredale.  'We note the 
+harvest more than the seed-time.  You do so in me.'
+
+In truth his pale and haggard face, and gloomy bearing, had so far 
+influenced the remark, that Edward was, for the moment, at a loss 
+to answer him.
+
+'Tut, tut,' said Mr Haredale, ''twas not very difficult to read a 
+thought so natural.  But you are mistaken nevertheless.  I have 
+had my share of sorrows--more than the common lot, perhaps, but I 
+have borne them ill.  I have broken where I should have bent; and 
+have mused and brooded, when my spirit should have mixed with all 
+God's great creation.  The men who learn endurance, are they who 
+call the whole world, brother.  I have turned FROM the world, and I 
+pay the penalty.'
+
+Edward would have interposed, but he went on without giving him 
+time.
+
+'It is too late to evade it now.  I sometimes think, that if I had 
+to live my life once more, I might amend this fault--not so much, I 
+discover when I search my mind, for the love of what is right, as 
+for my own sake.  But even when I make these better resolutions, I 
+instinctively recoil from the idea of suffering again what I have 
+undergone; and in this circumstance I find the unwelcome assurance 
+that I should still be the same man, though I could cancel the 
+past, and begin anew, with its experience to guide me.'
+
+'Nay, you make too sure of that,' said Edward.
+
+'You think so,' Mr Haredale answered, 'and I am glad you do.  I 
+know myself better, and therefore distrust myself more.  Let us 
+leave this subject for another--not so far removed from it as it 
+might, at first sight, seem to be.  Sir, you still love my niece, 
+and she is still attached to you.'
+
+'I have that assurance from her own lips,' said Edward, 'and you 
+know--I am sure you know--that I would not exchange it for any 
+blessing life could yield me.'
+
+'You are frank, honourable, and disinterested,' said Mr Haredale; 
+'you have forced the conviction that you are so, even on my once-
+jaundiced mind, and I believe you.  Wait here till I come back.'
+
+He left the room as he spoke; but soon returned with his niece.  
+'On that first and only time,' he said, looking from the one to the 
+other, 'when we three stood together under her father's roof, I 
+told you to quit it, and charged you never to return.'
+
+'It is the only circumstance arising out of our love,' observed 
+Edward, 'that I have forgotten.'
+
+'You own a name,' said Mr Haredale, 'I had deep reason to remember.  
+I was moved and goaded by recollections of personal wrong and 
+injury, I know, but, even now I cannot charge myself with having, 
+then, or ever, lost sight of a heartfelt desire for her true 
+happiness; or with having acted--however much I was mistaken--with 
+any other impulse than the one pure, single, earnest wish to be to 
+her, as far as in my inferior nature lay, the father she had lost.'
+
+'Dear uncle,' cried Emma, 'I have known no parent but you.  I have 
+loved the memory of others, but I have loved you all my life.  
+Never was father kinder to his child than you have been to me, 
+without the interval of one harsh hour, since I can first 
+remember.'
+
+'You speak too fondly,' he answered, 'and yet I cannot wish you 
+were less partial; for I have a pleasure in hearing those words, 
+and shall have in calling them to mind when we are far asunder, 
+which nothing else could give me.  Bear with me for a moment 
+longer, Edward, for she and I have been together many years; and 
+although I believe that in resigning her to you I put the seal upon 
+her future happiness, I find it needs an effort.'
+
+He pressed her tenderly to his bosom, and after a minute's pause, 
+resumed:
+
+'I have done you wrong, sir, and I ask your forgiveness--in no 
+common phrase, or show of sorrow; but with earnestness and 
+sincerity.  In the same spirit, I acknowledge to you both that the 
+time has been when I connived at treachery and falsehood--which if 
+I did not perpetrate myself, I still permitted--to rend you two 
+asunder.'
+
+'You judge yourself too harshly,' said Edward.  'Let these things 
+rest.'
+
+'They rise in judgment against me when I look back, and not now for 
+the first time,' he answered.  'I cannot part from you without your 
+full forgiveness; for busy life and I have little left in common 
+now, and I have regrets enough to carry into solitude, without 
+addition to the stock.'
+
+'You bear a blessing from us both,' said Emma.  'Never mingle 
+thoughts of me--of me who owe you so much love and duty--with 
+anything but undying affection and gratitude for the past, and 
+bright hopes for the future.'
+
+'The future,' returned her uncle, with a melancholy smile, 'is a 
+bright word for you, and its image should be wreathed with 
+cheerful hopes.  Mine is of another kind, but it will be one of 
+peace, and free, I trust, from care or passion.  When you quit 
+England I shall leave it too.  There are cloisters abroad; and now 
+that the two great objects of my life are set at rest, I know no 
+better home.  You droop at that, forgetting that I am growing old, 
+and that my course is nearly run.  Well, we will speak of it again--
+not once or twice, but many times; and you shall give me cheerful 
+counsel, Emma.'
+
+'And you will take it?' asked his niece.
+
+'I'll listen to it,' he answered, with a kiss, 'and it will have 
+its weight, be certain.  What have I left to say?  You have, of 
+late, been much together.  It is better and more fitting that the 
+circumstances attendant on the past, which wrought your separation, 
+and sowed between you suspicion and distrust, should not be entered 
+on by me.'
+
+'Much, much better,' whispered Emma.
+
+'I avow my share in them,' said Mr Haredale, 'though I held it, at 
+the time, in detestation.  Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, 
+from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is 
+justified by the goodness of his end.  All good ends can he worked 
+out by good means.  Those that cannot, are bad; and may be counted 
+so at once, and left alone.'
+
+He looked from her to Edward, and said in a gentler tone:
+
+'In goods and fortune you are now nearly equal.  I have been her 
+faithful steward, and to that remnant of a richer property which my 
+brother left her, I desire to add, in token of my love, a poor 
+pittance, scarcely worth the mention, for which I have no longer 
+any need.  I am glad you go abroad.  Let our ill-fated house 
+remain the ruin it is.  When you return, after a few thriving 
+years, you will command a better, and a more fortunate one.  We are 
+friends?'
+
+Edward took his extended hand, and grasped it heartily.
+
+'You are neither slow nor cold in your response,' said Mr Haredale, 
+doing the like by him, 'and when I look upon you now, and know you, 
+I feel that I would choose you for her husband.  Her father had a 
+generous nature, and you would have pleased him well.  I give her 
+to you in his name, and with his blessing.  If the world and I part 
+in this act, we part on happier terms than we have lived for many a 
+day.'
+
+He placed her in his arms, and would have left the room, but that 
+he was stopped in his passage to the door by a great noise at a 
+distance, which made them start and pause.
+
+It was a loud shouting, mingled with boisterous acclamations, that 
+rent the very air.  It drew nearer and nearer every moment, and 
+approached so rapidly, that, even while they listened, it burst 
+into a deafening confusion of sounds at the street corner.
+
+'This must be stopped--quieted,' said Mr Haredale, hastily.  'We 
+should have foreseen this, and provided against it.  I will go out 
+to them at once.'
+
+But, before he could reach the door, and before Edward could catch 
+up his hat and follow him, they were again arrested by a loud 
+shriek from above-stairs: and the locksmith's wife, bursting in, 
+and fairly running into Mr Haredale's arms, cried out:
+
+'She knows it all, dear sir!--she knows it all!  We broke it out to 
+her by degrees, and she is quite prepared.'  Having made this 
+communication, and furthermore thanked Heaven with great fervour 
+and heartiness, the good lady, according to the custom of matrons, 
+on all occasions of excitement, fainted away directly.
+
+They ran to the window, drew up the sash, and looked into the 
+crowded street.  Among a dense mob of persons, of whom not one was 
+for an instant still, the locksmith's ruddy face and burly form 
+could be descried, beating about as though he was struggling with a 
+rough sea.  Now, he was carried back a score of yards, now onward 
+nearly to the door, now back again, now forced against the opposite 
+houses, now against those adjoining his own: now carried up a 
+flight of steps, and greeted by the outstretched hands of half a 
+hundred men, while the whole tumultuous concourse stretched their 
+throats, and cheered with all their might.  Though he was really in 
+a fair way to be torn to pieces in the general enthusiasm, the 
+locksmith, nothing discomposed, echoed their shouts till he was as 
+hoarse as they, and in a glow of joy and right good-humour, waved 
+his hat until the daylight shone between its brim and crown.
+
+But in all the bandyings from hand to hand, and strivings to and 
+fro, and sweepings here and there, which--saving that he looked 
+more jolly and more radiant after every struggle--troubled his 
+peace of mind no more than if he had been a straw upon the water's 
+surface, he never once released his firm grasp of an arm, drawn 
+tight through his.  He sometimes turned to clap this friend upon 
+the back, or whisper in his ear a word of staunch encouragement, or 
+cheer him with a smile; but his great care was to shield him from 
+the pressure, and force a passage for him to the Golden Key.  
+Passive and timid, scared, pale, and wondering, and gazing at the 
+throng as if he were newly risen from the dead, and felt himself a 
+ghost among the living, Barnaby--not Barnaby in the spirit, but in 
+flesh and blood, with pulses, sinews, nerves, and beating heart, 
+and strong affections--clung to his stout old friend, and followed 
+where he led.
+
+And thus, in course of time, they reached the door, held ready for 
+their entrance by no unwilling hands.  Then slipping in, and 
+shutting out the crowd by main force, Gabriel stood between Mr 
+Haredale and Edward Chester, and Barnaby, rushing up the stairs, 
+fell upon his knees beside his mother's bed.
+
+'Such is the blessed end, sir,' cried the panting locksmith, to Mr 
+Haredale, 'of the best day's work we ever did.  The rogues! it's 
+been hard fighting to get away from 'em.  I almost thought, once or 
+twice, they'd have been too much for us with their kindness!'
+
+They had striven, all the previous day, to rescue Barnaby from his 
+impending fate.  Failing in their attempts, in the first quarter 
+to which they addressed themselves, they renewed them in another.  
+Failing there, likewise, they began afresh at midnight; and made 
+their way, not only to the judge and jury who had tried him, but to 
+men of influence at court, to the young Prince of Wales, and even 
+to the ante-chamber of the King himself.  Successful, at last, in 
+awakening an interest in his favour, and an inclination to inquire 
+more dispassionately into his case, they had had an interview with 
+the minister, in his bed, so late as eight o'clock that morning.  
+The result of a searching inquiry (in which they, who had known the 
+poor fellow from his childhood, did other good service, besides 
+bringing it about) was, that between eleven and twelve o'clock, a 
+free pardon to Barnaby Rudge was made out and signed, and entrusted 
+to a horse-soldier for instant conveyance to the place of 
+execution.  This courier reached the spot just as the cart appeared 
+in sight; and Barnaby being carried back to jail, Mr Haredale, 
+assured that all was safe, had gone straight from Bloomsbury Square 
+to the Golden Key, leaving to Gabriel the grateful task of bringing 
+him home in triumph.
+
+'I needn't say,' observed the locksmith, when he had shaken hands 
+with all the males in the house, and hugged all the females, five-
+and-forty times, at least, 'that, except among ourselves, I didn't 
+want to make a triumph of it.  But, directly we got into the street 
+we were known, and this hubbub began.  Of the two,' he added, as he 
+wiped his crimson face, 'and after experience of both, I think I'd 
+rather be taken out of my house by a crowd of enemies, than 
+escorted home by a mob of friends!'
+
+It was plain enough, however, that this was mere talk on Gabriel's 
+part, and that the whole proceeding afforded him the keenest 
+delight; for the people continuing to make a great noise without, 
+and to cheer as if their voices were in the freshest order, and 
+good for a fortnight, he sent upstairs for Grip (who had come home 
+at his master's back, and had acknowledged the favours of the 
+multitude by drawing blood from every finger that came within his 
+reach), and with the bird upon his arm presented himself at the 
+first-floor window, and waved his hat again until it dangled by a 
+shred, between his finger and thumb.  This demonstration having 
+been received with appropriate shouts, and silence being in some 
+degree restored, he thanked them for their sympathy; and taking the 
+liberty to inform them that there was a sick person in the house, 
+proposed that they should give three cheers for King George, three 
+more for Old England, and three more for nothing particular, as a 
+closing ceremony.  The crowd assenting, substituted Gabriel Varden 
+for the nothing particular; and giving him one over, for good 
+measure, dispersed in high good-humour.
+
+What congratulations were exchanged among the inmates at the Golden 
+Key, when they were left alone; what an overflowing of joy and 
+happiness there was among them; how incapable it was of expression 
+in Barnaby's own person; and how he went wildly from one to 
+another, until he became so far tranquillised, as to stretch 
+himself on the ground beside his mother's couch and fall into a 
+deep sleep; are matters that need not be told.  And it is well they 
+happened to be of this class, for they would be very hard to tell, 
+were their narration ever so indispensable.
+
+Before leaving this bright picture, it may be well to glance at a 
+dark and very different one which was presented to only a few eyes, 
+that same night.
+
+The scene was a churchyard; the time, midnight; the persons, Edward 
+Chester, a clergyman, a grave-digger, and the four bearers of a 
+homely coffin.  They stood about a grave which had been newly dug, 
+and one of the bearers held up a dim lantern,--the only light 
+there--which shed its feeble ray upon the book of prayer.  He 
+placed it for a moment on the coffin, when he and his companions 
+were about to lower it down.  There was no inscription on the lid.
+
+The mould fell solemnly upon the last house of this nameless man; 
+and the rattling dust left a dismal echo even in the accustomed 
+ears of those who had borne it to its resting-place.  The grave was 
+filled in to the top, and trodden down.  They all left the spot 
+together.
+
+'You never saw him, living?' asked the clergyman, of Edward.
+
+'Often, years ago; not knowing him for my brother.'
+
+'Never since?'
+
+'Never.  Yesterday, he steadily refused to see me.  It was urged 
+upon him, many times, at my desire.'
+
+'Still he refused?  That was hardened and unnatural.'
+
+'Do you think so?'
+
+'I infer that you do not?'
+
+'You are right.  We hear the world wonder, every day, at monsters 
+of ingratitude.  Did it never occur to you that it often looks for 
+monsters of affection, as though they were things of course?'
+
+They had reached the gate by this time, and bidding each other good 
+night, departed on their separate ways.
+
+
+
+Chapter 80
+
+
+That afternoon, when he had slept off his fatigue; had shaved, and 
+washed, and dressed, and freshened himself from top to toe; when he 
+had dined, comforted himself with a pipe, an extra Toby, a nap in 
+the great arm-chair, and a quiet chat with Mrs Varden on everything 
+that had happened, was happening, or about to happen, within the 
+sphere of their domestic concern; the locksmith sat himself down at 
+the tea-table in the little back-parlour: the rosiest, cosiest, 
+merriest, heartiest, best-contented old buck, in Great Britain or 
+out of it.
+
+There he sat, with his beaming eye on Mrs V., and his shining face 
+suffused with gladness, and his capacious waistcoat smiling in 
+every wrinkle, and his jovial humour peeping from under the table 
+in the very plumpness of his legs; a sight to turn the vinegar of 
+misanthropy into purest milk of human kindness.  There he sat, 
+watching his wife as she decorated the room with flowers for the 
+greater honour of Dolly and Joseph Willet, who had gone out 
+walking, and for whom the tea-kettle had been singing gaily on the 
+hob full twenty minutes, chirping as never kettle chirped before; 
+for whom the best service of real undoubted china, patterned with 
+divers round-faced mandarins holding up broad umbrellas, was now 
+displayed in all its glory; to tempt whose appetites a clear, 
+transparent, juicy ham, garnished with cool green lettuce-leaves 
+and fragrant cucumber, reposed upon a shady table, covered with a 
+snow-white cloth; for whose delight, preserves and jams, crisp 
+cakes and other pastry, short to eat, with cunning twists, and 
+cottage loaves, and rolls of bread both white and brown, were all 
+set forth in rich profusion; in whose youth Mrs V.  herself had 
+grown quite young, and stood there in a gown of red and white: 
+symmetrical in figure, buxom in bodice, ruddy in cheek and lip, 
+faultless in ankle, laughing in face and mood, in all respects 
+delicious to behold--there sat the locksmith among all and every 
+these delights, the sun that shone upon them all: the centre of the 
+system: the source of light, heat, life, and frank enjoyment in the 
+bright household world.
+
+And when had Dolly ever been the Dolly of that afternoon?  To see 
+how she came in, arm-in-arm with Joe; and how she made an effort 
+not to blush or seem at all confused; and how she made believe she 
+didn't care to sit on his side of the table; and how she coaxed the 
+locksmith in a whisper not to joke; and how her colour came and 
+went in a little restless flutter of happiness, which made her do 
+everything wrong, and yet so charmingly wrong that it was better 
+than right!--why, the locksmith could have looked on at this (as he 
+mentioned to Mrs Varden when they retired for the night) for four-
+and-twenty hours at a stretch, and never wished it done.
+
+The recollections, too, with which they made merry over that long 
+protracted tea!  The glee with which the locksmith asked Joe if he 
+remembered that stormy night at the Maypole when he first asked 
+after Dolly--the laugh they all had, about that night when she was 
+going out to the party in the sedan-chair--the unmerciful manner in 
+which they rallied Mrs Varden about putting those flowers outside 
+that very window--the difficulty Mrs Varden found in joining the 
+laugh against herself, at first, and the extraordinary perception 
+she had of the joke when she overcame it--the confidential 
+statements of Joe concerning the precise day and hour when he was 
+first conscious of being fond of Dolly, and Dolly's blushing 
+admissions, half volunteered and half extorted, as to the time from 
+which she dated the discovery that she 'didn't mind' Joe--here was 
+an exhaustless fund of mirth and conversation.
+
+Then, there was a great deal to be said regarding Mrs Varden's 
+doubts, and motherly alarms, and shrewd suspicions; and it appeared 
+that from Mrs Varden's penetration and extreme sagacity nothing had 
+ever been hidden.  She had known it all along.  She had seen it 
+from the first.  She had always predicted it.  She had been aware 
+of it before the principals.  She had said within herself (for she 
+remembered the exact words) 'that young Willet is certainly 
+looking after our Dolly, and I must look after HIM.'  Accordingly, 
+she had looked after him, and had observed many little 
+circumstances (all of which she named) so exceedingly minute that 
+nobody else could make anything out of them even now; and had, it 
+seemed from first to last, displayed the most unbounded tact and 
+most consummate generalship.
+
+Of course the night when Joe WOULD ride homeward by the side of the 
+chaise, and when Mrs Varden WOULD insist upon his going back again, 
+was not forgotten--nor the night when Dolly fainted on his name 
+being mentioned--nor the times upon times when Mrs Varden, ever 
+watchful and prudent, had found her pining in her own chamber.  In 
+short, nothing was forgotten; and everything by some means or other 
+brought them back to the conclusion, that that was the happiest 
+hour in all their lives; consequently, that everything must have 
+occurred for the best, and nothing could be suggested which would 
+have made it better.
+
+While they were in the full glow of such discourse as this, there 
+came a startling knock at the door, opening from the street into 
+the workshop, which had been kept closed all day that the house 
+might be more quiet.  Joe, as in duty bound, would hear of nobody 
+but himself going to open it; and accordingly left the room for 
+that purpose.
+
+It would have been odd enough, certainly, if Joe had forgotten the 
+way to this door; and even if he had, as it was a pretty large one 
+and stood straight before him, he could not easily have missed it.  
+But Dolly, perhaps because she was in the flutter of spirits before 
+mentioned, or perhaps because she thought he would not be able to 
+open it with his one arm--she could have had no other reason--
+hurried out after him; and they stopped so long in the passage--no 
+doubt owing to Joe's entreaties that she would not expose herself 
+to the draught of July air which must infallibly come rushing in on 
+this same door being opened--that the knock was repeated, in a yet 
+more startling manner than before.
+
+'Is anybody going to open that door?' cried the locksmith.  'Or 
+shall I come?'
+
+Upon that, Dolly went running back into the parlour, all dimples 
+and blushes; and Joe opened it with a mighty noise, and other 
+superfluous demonstrations of being in a violent hurry.
+
+'Well,' said the locksmith, when he reappeared: 'what is it?  eh 
+Joe? what are you laughing at?'
+
+'Nothing, sir.  It's coming in.'
+
+'Who's coming in? what's coming in?'  Mrs Varden, as much at a loss 
+as her husband, could only shake her head in answer to his 
+inquiring look: so, the locksmith wheeled his chair round to 
+command a better view of the room-door, and stared at it with his 
+eyes wide open, and a mingled expression of curiosity and wonder 
+shining in his jolly face.
+
+Instead of some person or persons straightway appearing, divers 
+remarkable sounds were heard, first in the workshop and afterwards 
+in the little dark passage between it and the parlour, as though 
+some unwieldy chest or heavy piece of furniture were being brought 
+in, by an amount of human strength inadequate to the task.  At 
+length after much struggling and humping, and bruising of the wall 
+on both sides, the door was forced open as by a battering-ram; and 
+the locksmith, steadily regarding what appeared beyond, smote his 
+thigh, elevated his eyebrows, opened his mouth, and cried in a loud 
+voice expressive of the utmost consternation:
+
+'Damme, if it an't Miggs come back!'
+
+The young damsel whom he named no sooner heard these words, than 
+deserting a small boy and a very large box by which she was 
+accompanied, and advancing with such precipitation that her bonnet 
+flew off her head, burst into the room, clasped her hands (in which 
+she held a pair of pattens, one in each), raised her eyes devotedly 
+to the ceiling, and shed a flood of tears.
+
+'The old story!' cried the locksmith, looking at her in 
+inexpressible desperation.  'She was born to be a damper, this 
+young woman! nothing can prevent it!'
+
+'Ho master, ho mim!' cried Miggs, 'can I constrain my feelings in 
+these here once agin united moments!  Ho Mr Warsen, here's 
+blessedness among relations, sir!  Here's forgivenesses of 
+injuries, here's amicablenesses!'
+
+The locksmith looked from his wife to Dolly, and from Dolly to Joe, 
+and from Joe to Miggs, with his eyebrows still elevated and his 
+mouth still open.  When his eyes got back to Miggs, they rested on 
+her; fascinated.
+
+'To think,' cried Miggs with hysterical joy, 'that Mr Joe, and dear 
+Miss Dolly, has raly come together after all as has been said and 
+done contrairy!  To see them two a-settin' along with him and her, 
+so pleasant and in all respects so affable and mild; and me not 
+knowing of it, and not being in the ways to make no preparations 
+for their teas.  Ho what a cutting thing it is, and yet what sweet 
+sensations is awoke within me!'
+
+Either in clasping her hands again, or in an ecstasy of pious joy, 
+Miss Miggs clinked her pattens after the manner of a pair of 
+cymbals, at this juncture; and then resumed, in the softest 
+accents:
+
+'And did my missis think--ho goodness, did she think--as her own 
+Miggs, which supported her under so many trials, and understood her 
+natur' when them as intended well but acted rough, went so deep 
+into her feelings--did she think as her own Miggs would ever leave 
+her?  Did she think as Miggs, though she was but a servant, and 
+knowed that servitudes was no inheritances, would forgit that she 
+was the humble instruments as always made it comfortable between 
+them two when they fell out, and always told master of the meekness 
+and forgiveness of her blessed dispositions!  Did she think as 
+Miggs had no attachments!  Did she think that wages was her only 
+object!'
+
+To none of these interrogatories, whereof every one was more 
+pathetically delivered than the last, did Mrs Varden answer one 
+word: but Miggs, not at all abashed by this circumstance, turned to 
+the small boy in attendance--her eldest nephew--son of her own 
+married sister--born in Golden Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, 
+and bred in the very shadow of the second bell-handle on the right-
+hand door-post--and with a plentiful use of her pocket-
+handkerchief, addressed herself to him: requesting that on his 
+return home he would console his parents for the loss of her, his 
+aunt, by delivering to them a faithful statement of his having left 
+her in the bosom of that family, with which, as his aforesaid 
+parents well knew, her best affections were incorporated; that he 
+would remind them that nothing less than her imperious sense of 
+duty, and devoted attachment to her old master and missis, likewise 
+Miss Dolly and young Mr Joe, should ever have induced her to 
+decline that pressing invitation which they, his parents, had, as 
+he could testify, given her, to lodge and board with them, free of 
+all cost and charge, for evermore; lastly, that he would help her 
+with her box upstairs, and then repair straight home, bearing her 
+blessing and her strong injunctions to mingle in his prayers a 
+supplication that he might in course of time grow up a locksmith, 
+or a Mr Joe, and have Mrs Vardens and Miss Dollys for his relations 
+and friends.
+
+Having brought this admonition to an end--upon which, to say the 
+truth, the young gentleman for whose benefit it was designed, 
+bestowed little or no heed, having to all appearance his faculties 
+absorbed in the contemplation of the sweetmeats,--Miss Miggs 
+signified to the company in general that they were not to be 
+uneasy, for she would soon return; and, with her nephew's aid, 
+prepared to bear her wardrobe up the staircase.
+
+'My dear,' said the locksmith to his wife.  'Do you desire this?'
+
+'I desire it!' she answered.  'I am astonished--I am amazed--at her 
+audacity.  Let her leave the house this moment.'
+
+Miggs, hearing this, let her end of the box fall heavily to the 
+floor, gave a very loud sniff, crossed her arms, screwed down the 
+corners of her mouth, and cried, in an ascending scale, 'Ho, good 
+gracious!' three distinct times.
+
+'You hear what your mistress says, my love,' remarked the 
+locksmith.  'You had better go, I think.  Stay; take this with you, 
+for the sake of old service.'
+
+Miss Miggs clutched the bank-note he took from his pocket-book and 
+held out to her; deposited it in a small, red leather purse; put 
+the purse in her pocket (displaying, as she did so, a considerable 
+portion of some under-garment, made of flannel, and more black 
+cotton stocking than is commonly seen in public); and, tossing her 
+head, as she looked at Mrs Varden, repeated--
+
+'Ho, good gracious!'
+
+'I think you said that once before, my dear,' observed the 
+locksmith.
+
+'Times is changed, is they, mim!' cried Miggs, bridling; 'you can 
+spare me now, can you?  You can keep 'em down without me?  You're 
+not in wants of any one to scold, or throw the blame upon, no 
+longer, an't you, mim?  I'm glad to find you've grown so 
+independent.  I wish you joy, I'm sure!'
+
+With that she dropped a curtsey, and keeping her head erect, her 
+ear towards Mrs Varden, and her eye on the rest of the company, as 
+she alluded to them in her remarks, proceeded:
+
+'I'm quite delighted, I'm sure, to find sich independency, feeling 
+sorry though, at the same time, mim, that you should have been 
+forced into submissions when you couldn't help yourself--he he he!  
+It must be great vexations, 'specially considering how ill you 
+always spoke of Mr Joe--to have him for a son-in-law at last; and 
+I wonder Miss Dolly can put up with him, either, after being off 
+and on for so many years with a coachmaker.  But I HAVE heerd say, 
+that the coachmaker thought twice about it--he he he!--and that he 
+told a young man as was a frind of his, that he hoped he knowed 
+better than to be drawed into that; though she and all the family 
+DID pull uncommon strong!'
+
+Here she paused for a reply, and receiving none, went on as before.
+
+'I HAVE heerd say, mim, that the illnesses of some ladies was all 
+pretensions, and that they could faint away, stone dead, whenever 
+they had the inclinations so to do.  Of course I never see sich 
+cases with my own eyes--ho no!  He he he!  Nor master neither--ho 
+no!  He he he!  I HAVE heerd the neighbours make remark as some one 
+as they was acquainted with, was a poor good-natur'd mean-spirited 
+creetur, as went out fishing for a wife one day, and caught a 
+Tartar.  Of course I never to my knowledge see the poor person 
+himself.  Nor did you neither, mim--ho no.  I wonder who it can 
+be--don't you, mim?  No doubt you do, mim.  Ho yes.  He he he!'
+
+Again Miggs paused for a reply; and none being offered, was so 
+oppressed with teeming spite and spleen, that she seemed like to 
+burst.
+
+'I'm glad Miss Dolly can laugh,' cried Miggs with a feeble titter.  
+'I like to see folks a-laughing--so do you, mim, don't you?  You 
+was always glad to see people in spirits, wasn't you, mim?  And you 
+always did your best to keep 'em cheerful, didn't you, mim?  
+Though there an't such a great deal to laugh at now either; is 
+there, mim?  It an't so much of a catch, after looking out so sharp 
+ever since she was a little chit, and costing such a deal in dress 
+and show, to get a poor, common soldier, with one arm, is it, mim?  
+He he!  I wouldn't have a husband with one arm, anyways.  I would 
+have two arms.  I would have two arms, if it was me, though instead 
+of hands they'd only got hooks at the end, like our dustman!'
+
+Miss Miggs was about to add, and had, indeed, begun to add, that, 
+taking them in the abstract, dustmen were far more eligible matches 
+than soldiers, though, to be sure, when people were past choosing 
+they must take the best they could get, and think themselves well 
+off too; but her vexation and chagrin being of that internally 
+bitter sort which finds no relief in words, and is aggravated to 
+madness by want of contradiction, she could hold out no longer, and 
+burst into a storm of sobs and tears.
+
+In this extremity she fell on the unlucky nephew, tooth and nail, 
+and plucking a handful of hair from his head, demanded to know how 
+long she was to stand there to be insulted, and whether or no he 
+meant to help her to carry out the box again, and if he took a 
+pleasure in hearing his family reviled: with other inquiries of 
+that nature; at which disgrace and provocation, the small boy, who 
+had been all this time gradually lashed into rebellion by the sight 
+of unattainable pastry, walked off indignant, leaving his aunt and 
+the box to follow at their leisure.  Somehow or other, by dint of 
+pushing and pulling, they did attain the street at last; where Miss 
+Miggs, all blowzed with the exertion of getting there, and with her 
+sobs and tears, sat down upon her property to rest and grieve, 
+until she could ensnare some other youth to help her home.
+
+'It's a thing to laugh at, Martha, not to care for,' whispered the 
+locksmith, as he followed his wife to the window, and good-
+humouredly dried her eyes.  'What does it matter?  You had seen 
+your fault before.  Come!  Bring up Toby again, my dear; Dolly 
+shall sing us a song; and we'll be all the merrier for this 
+interruption!'
+
+
+
+Chapter 81
+
+
+Another month had passed, and the end of August had nearly come, 
+when Mr Haredale stood alone in the mail-coach office at Bristol.  
+Although but a few weeks had intervened since his conversation with 
+Edward Chester and his niece, in the locksmith's house, and he had 
+made no change, in the mean time, in his accustomed style of dress, 
+his appearance was greatly altered.  He looked much older, and more 
+care-worn.  Agitation and anxiety of mind scatter wrinkles and grey 
+hairs with no unsparing hand; but deeper traces follow on the 
+silent uprooting of old habits, and severing of dear, familiar 
+ties.  The affections may not be so easily wounded as the passions, 
+but their hurts are deeper, and more lasting.  He was now a 
+solitary man, and the heart within him was dreary and lonesome.
+
+He was not the less alone for having spent so many years in 
+seclusion and retirement.  This was no better preparation than a 
+round of social cheerfulness: perhaps it even increased the 
+keenness of his sensibility.  He had been so dependent upon her for 
+companionship and love; she had come to be so much a part and 
+parcel of his existence; they had had so many cares and thoughts in 
+common, which no one else had shared; that losing her was beginning 
+life anew, and being required to summon up the hope and elasticity 
+of youth, amid the doubts, distrusts, and weakened energies of 
+age.
+
+The effort he had made to part from her with seeming cheerfulness 
+and hope--and they had parted only yesterday--left him the more 
+depressed.  With these feelings, he was about to revisit London for 
+the last time, and look once more upon the walls of their old home, 
+before turning his back upon it, for ever.
+
+The journey was a very different one, in those days, from what the 
+present generation find it; but it came to an end, as the longest 
+journey will, and he stood again in the streets of the metropolis.  
+He lay at the inn where the coach stopped, and resolved, before he 
+went to bed, that he would make his arrival known to no one; would 
+spend but another night in London; and would spare himself the pang 
+of parting, even with the honest locksmith.
+
+Such conditions of the mind as that to which he was a prey when he 
+lay down to rest, are favourable to the growth of disordered 
+fancies, and uneasy visions.  He knew this, even in the horror with 
+which he started from his first sleep, and threw up the window to 
+dispel it by the presence of some object, beyond the room, which 
+had not been, as it were, the witness of his dream.  But it was not 
+a new terror of the night; it had been present to him before, in 
+many shapes; it had haunted him in bygone times, and visited his 
+pillow again and again.  If it had been but an ugly object, a 
+childish spectre, haunting his sleep, its return, in its old form, 
+might have awakened a momentary sensation of fear, which, almost in 
+the act of waking, would have passed away.  This disquiet, 
+however, lingered about him, and would yield to nothing.  When he 
+closed his eyes again, he felt it hovering near; as he slowly sunk 
+into a slumber, he was conscious of its gathering strength and 
+purpose, and gradually assuming its recent shape; when he sprang up 
+from his bed, the same phantom vanished from his heated brain, and 
+left him filled with a dread against which reason and waking 
+thought were powerless.
+
+The sun was up, before he could shake it off.  He rose late, but 
+not refreshed, and remained within doors all that day.  He had a 
+fancy for paying his last visit to the old spot in the evening, for 
+he had been accustomed to walk there at that season, and desired to 
+see it under the aspect that was most familiar to him.  At such an 
+hour as would afford him time to reach it a little before sunset, 
+he left the inn, and turned into the busy street.
+
+He had not gone far, and was thoughtfully making his way among the 
+noisy crowd, when he felt a hand upon his shoulder, and, turning, 
+recognised one of the waiters from the inn, who begged his pardon, 
+but he had left his sword behind him.
+
+'Why have you brought it to me?' he asked, stretching out his hand, 
+and yet not taking it from the man, but looking at him in a 
+disturbed and agitated manner.
+
+The man was sorry to have disobliged him, and would carry it back 
+again.  The gentleman had said that he was going a little way into 
+the country, and that he might not return until late.  The roads 
+were not very safe for single travellers after dark; and, since the 
+riots, gentlemen had been more careful than ever, not to trust 
+themselves unarmed in lonely places.  'We thought you were a 
+stranger, sir,' he added, 'and that you might believe our roads to 
+be better than they are; but perhaps you know them well, and carry 
+fire-arms--'
+
+He took the sword, and putting it up at his side, thanked the man, 
+and resumed his walk.
+
+It was long remembered that he did this in a manner so strange, and 
+with such a trembling hand, that the messenger stood looking after 
+his retreating figure, doubtful whether he ought not to follow, and 
+watch him.  It was long remembered that he had been heard pacing 
+his bedroom in the dead of the night; that the attendants had 
+mentioned to each other in the morning, how fevered and how pale he 
+looked; and that when this man went back to the inn, he told a 
+fellow-servant that what he had observed in this short interview 
+lay very heavy on his mind, and that he feared the gentleman 
+intended to destroy himself, and would never come back alive.
+
+With a half-consciousness that his manner had attracted the man's 
+attention (remembering the expression of his face when they 
+parted), Mr Haredale quickened his steps; and arriving at a stand 
+of coaches, bargained with the driver of the best to carry him so 
+far on his road as the point where the footway struck across the 
+fields, and to await his return at a house of entertainment which 
+was within a stone's-throw of that place.  Arriving there in due 
+course, he alighted and pursued his way on foot.
+
+He passed so near the Maypole, that he could see its smoke rising 
+from among the trees, while a flock of pigeons--some of its old 
+inhabitants, doubtless--sailed gaily home to roost, between him and 
+the unclouded sky.  'The old house will brighten up now,' he said, 
+as he looked towards it, 'and there will be a merry fireside 
+beneath its ivied roof.  It is some comfort to know that everything 
+will not be blighted hereabouts.  I shall be glad to have one 
+picture of life and cheerfulness to turn to, in my mind!'
+
+He resumed his walk, and bent his steps towards the Warren.  It was 
+a clear, calm, silent evening, with hardly a breath of wind to stir 
+the leaves, or any sound to break the stillness of the time, but 
+drowsy sheep-bells tinkling in the distance, and, at intervals, 
+the far-off lowing of cattle, or bark of village dogs.  The sky 
+was radiant with the softened glory of sunset; and on the earth, 
+and in the air, a deep repose prevailed.  At such an hour, he 
+arrived at the deserted mansion which had been his home so long, 
+and looked for the last time upon its blackened walls.
+
+The ashes of the commonest fire are melancholy things, for in them 
+there is an image of death and ruin,--of something that has been 
+bright, and is but dull, cold, dreary dust,--with which our nature 
+forces us to sympathise.  How much more sad the crumbled embers of 
+a home: the casting down of that great altar, where the worst among 
+us sometimes perform the worship of the heart; and where the best 
+have offered up such sacrifices, and done such deeds of heroism, 
+as, chronicled, would put the proudest temples of old Time, with 
+all their vaunting annals, to the blush!
+
+He roused himself from a long train of meditation, and walked 
+slowly round the house.  It was by this time almost dark.
+
+He had nearly made the circuit of the building, when he uttered a 
+half-suppressed exclamation, started, and stood still.  Reclining, 
+in an easy attitude, with his back against a tree, and 
+contemplating the ruin with an expression of pleasure,--a pleasure 
+so keen that it overcame his habitual indolence and command of 
+feature, and displayed itself utterly free from all restraint or 
+reserve,--before him, on his own ground, and triumphing then, as he 
+had triumphed in every misfortune and disappointment of his life, 
+stood the man whose presence, of all mankind, in any place, and 
+least of all in that, he could the least endure.
+
+Although his blood so rose against this man, and his wrath so 
+stirred within him, that he could have struck him dead, he put such 
+fierce constraint upon himself that he passed him without a word or 
+look.  Yes, and he would have gone on, and not turned, though to 
+resist the Devil who poured such hot temptation in his brain, 
+required an effort scarcely to be achieved, if this man had not 
+himself summoned him to stop: and that, with an assumed compassion 
+in his voice which drove him well-nigh mad, and in an instant 
+routed all the self-command it had been anguish--acute, poignant 
+anguish--to sustain.
+
+All consideration, reflection, mercy, forbearance; everything by 
+which a goaded man can curb his rage and passion; fled from him as 
+he turned back.  And yet he said, slowly and quite calmly--far more 
+calmly than he had ever spoken to him before:
+
+'Why have you called to me?'
+
+'To remark,' said Sir John Chester with his wonted composure, 'what 
+an odd chance it is, that we should meet here!'
+
+'It IS a strange chance.'
+
+'Strange?  The most remarkable and singular thing in the world.  I 
+never ride in the evening; I have not done so for years.  The whim 
+seized me, quite unaccountably, in the middle of last night.--How 
+very picturesque this is!'--He pointed, as he spoke, to the 
+dismantled house, and raised his glass to his eye.
+
+'You praise your own work very freely.'
+
+Sir John let fall his glass; inclined his face towards him with an 
+air of the most courteous inquiry; and slightly shook his head as 
+though he were remarking to himself, 'I fear this animal is going 
+mad!'
+
+'I say you praise your own work very freely,' repeated Mr 
+Haredale.
+
+'Work!' echoed Sir John, looking smilingly round.  'Mine!--I beg 
+your pardon, I really beg your pardon--'
+
+'Why, you see,' said Mr Haredale, 'those walls.  You see those 
+tottering gables.  You see on every side where fire and smoke have 
+raged.  You see the destruction that has been wanton here.  Do you 
+not?'
+
+'My good friend,' returned the knight, gently checking his 
+impatience with his hand, 'of course I do.  I see everything you 
+speak of, when you stand aside, and do not interpose yourself 
+between the view and me.  I am very sorry for you.  If I had not 
+had the pleasure to meet you here, I think I should have written to 
+tell you so.  But you don't bear it as well as I had expected--
+excuse me--no, you don't indeed.'
+
+He pulled out his snuff-box, and addressing him with the superior 
+air of a man who, by reason of his higher nature, has a right to 
+read a moral lesson to another, continued:
+
+'For you are a philosopher, you know--one of that stern and rigid 
+school who are far above the weaknesses of mankind in general.  You 
+are removed, a long way, from the frailties of the crowd.  You 
+contemplate them from a height, and rail at them with a most 
+impressive bitterness.  I have heard you.'
+
+--'And shall again,' said Mr Haredale.
+
+'Thank you,' returned the other.  'Shall we walk as we talk?  The 
+damp falls rather heavily.  Well,--as you please.  But I grieve to 
+say that I can spare you only a very few moments.'
+
+'I would,' said Mr Haredale, 'you had spared me none.  I would, 
+with all my soul, you had been in Paradise (if such a monstrous 
+lie could be enacted), rather than here to-night.'
+
+'Nay,' returned the other--'really--you do yourself injustice.  You 
+are a rough companion, but I would not go so far to avoid you.'
+
+'Listen to me,' said Mr Haredale.  'Listen to me.'
+
+'While you rail?' inquired Sir John.
+
+'While I deliver your infamy.  You urged and stimulated to do your 
+work a fit agent, but one who in his nature--in the very essence of 
+his being--is a traitor, and who has been false to you (despite the 
+sympathy you two should have together) as he has been to all 
+others.  With hints, and looks, and crafty words, which told again 
+are nothing, you set on Gashford to this work--this work before us 
+now.  With these same hints, and looks, and crafty words, which 
+told again are nothing, you urged him on to gratify the deadly 
+hate he owes me--I have earned it, I thank Heaven--by the abduction 
+and dishonour of my niece.  You did.  I see denial in your looks,' 
+he cried, abruptly pointing in his face, and stepping back, 'and 
+denial is a lie!'
+
+He had his hand upon his sword; but the knight, with a contemptuous 
+smile, replied to him as coldly as before.
+
+'You will take notice, sir--if you can discriminate sufficiently--
+that I have taken the trouble to deny nothing.  Your discernment is 
+hardly fine enough for the perusal of faces, not of a kind as 
+coarse as your speech; nor has it ever been, that I remember; or, 
+in one face that I could name, you would have read indifference, 
+not to say disgust, somewhat sooner than you did.  I speak of a 
+long time ago,--but you understand me.'
+
+'Disguise it as you will, you mean denial.  Denial explicit or 
+reserved, expressed or left to be inferred, is still a lie.  You 
+say you don't deny.  Do you admit?'
+
+'You yourself,' returned Sir John, suffering the current of his 
+speech to flow as smoothly as if it had been stemmed by no one word 
+of interruption, 'publicly proclaimed the character of the 
+gentleman in question (I think it was in Westminster Hall) in terms 
+which relieve me from the necessity of making any further allusion 
+to him.  You may have been warranted; you may not have been; I 
+can't say.  Assuming the gentleman to be what you described, and 
+to have made to you or any other person any statements that may 
+have happened to suggest themselves to him, for the sake of his 
+own security, or for the sake of money, or for his own amusement, 
+or for any other consideration,--I have nothing to say of him, 
+except that his extremely degrading situation appears to me to be 
+shared with his employers.  You are so very plain yourself, that 
+you will excuse a little freedom in me, I am sure.'
+
+'Attend to me again, Sir John but once,' cried Mr Haredale; 'in 
+your every look, and word, and gesture, you tell me this was not 
+your act.  I tell you that it was, and that you tampered with the 
+man I speak of, and with your wretched son (whom God forgive!) to 
+do this deed.  You talk of degradation and character.  You told me 
+once that you had purchased the absence of the poor idiot and his 
+mother, when (as I have discovered since, and then suspected) you 
+had gone to tempt them, and had found them flown.  To you I traced 
+the insinuation that I alone reaped any harvest from my brother's 
+death; and all the foul attacks and whispered calumnies that 
+followed in its train.  In every action of my life, from that first 
+hope which you converted into grief and desolation, you have stood, 
+like an adverse fate, between me and peace.  In all, you have ever 
+been the same cold-blooded, hollow, false, unworthy villain.  For 
+the second time, and for the last, I cast these charges in your 
+teeth, and spurn you from me as I would a faithless dog!'
+
+With that he raised his arm, and struck him on the breast so that 
+he staggered.  Sir John, the instant he recovered, drew his sword, 
+threw away the scabbard and his hat, and running on his adversary 
+made a desperate lunge at his heart, which, but that his guard was 
+quick and true, would have stretched him dead upon the grass.
+
+In the act of striking him, the torrent of his opponent's rage had 
+reached a stop.  He parried his rapid thrusts, without returning 
+them, and called to him, with a frantic kind of terror in his face, 
+to keep back.
+
+'Not to-night! not to-night!' he cried.  'In God's name, not 
+tonight!'
+
+Seeing that he lowered his weapon, and that he would not thrust in 
+turn, Sir John lowered his.
+
+'Not to-night!' his adversary cried.  'Be warned in time!'
+
+'You told me--it must have been in a sort of inspiration--' said 
+Sir John, quite deliberately, though now he dropped his mask, and 
+showed his hatred in his face, 'that this was the last time.  Be 
+assured it is!  Did you believe our last meeting was forgotten?  
+Did you believe that your every word and look was not to be 
+accounted for, and was not well remembered?  Do you believe that I 
+have waited your time, or you mine?  What kind of man is he who 
+entered, with all his sickening cant of honesty and truth, into a 
+bond with me to prevent a marriage he affected to dislike, and when 
+I had redeemed my part to the spirit and the letter, skulked from 
+his, and brought the match about in his own time, to rid himself of 
+a burden he had grown tired of, and cast a spurious lustre on his 
+house?'
+
+'I have acted,' cried Mr Haredale, 'with honour and in good faith.  
+I do so now.  Do not force me to renew this duel to-night!'
+
+'You said my "wretched" son, I think?' said Sir John, with a smile.  
+'Poor fool!  The dupe of such a shallow knave--trapped into 
+marriage by such an uncle and by such a niece--he well deserves 
+your pity.  But he is no longer a son of mine: you are welcome to 
+the prize your craft has made, sir.'
+
+'Once more,' cried his opponent, wildly stamping on the ground, 
+'although you tear me from my better angel, I implore you not to 
+come within the reach of my sword to-night.  Oh! why were you here 
+at all!  Why have we met!  To-morrow would have cast us far apart 
+for ever!'
+
+'That being the case,' returned Sir John, without the least 
+emotion, 'it is very fortunate we have met to-night.  Haredale, I 
+have always despised you, as you know, but I have given you credit 
+for a species of brute courage.  For the honour of my judgment, 
+which I had thought a good one, I am sorry to find you a coward.'
+
+Not another word was spoken on either side.  They crossed swords, 
+though it was now quite dusk, and attacked each other fiercely.  
+They were well matched, and each was thoroughly skilled in the 
+management of his weapon.
+
+After a few seconds they grew hotter and more furious, and pressing 
+on each other inflicted and received several slight wounds.  It was 
+directly after receiving one of these in his arm, that Mr Haredale, 
+making a keener thrust as he felt the warm blood spirting out, 
+plunged his sword through his opponent's body to the hilt.
+
+Their eyes met, and were on each other as he drew it out.  He put 
+his arm about the dying man, who repulsed him, feebly, and dropped 
+upon the turf.  Raising himself upon his hands, he gazed at him for 
+an instant, with scorn and hatred in his look; but, seeming to 
+remember, even then, that this expression would distort his 
+features after death, he tried to smile, and, faintly moving his 
+right hand, as if to hide his bloody linen in his vest, fell back 
+dead--the phantom of last night.
+
+
+
+Chapter the Last
+
+
+A parting glance at such of the actors in this little history as 
+it has not, in the course of its events, dismissed, will bring it 
+to an end.
+
+Mr Haredale fled that night.  Before pursuit could be begun, indeed 
+before Sir John was traced or missed, he had left the kingdom.  
+Repairing straight to a religious establishment, known throughout 
+Europe for the rigour and severity of its discipline, and for the 
+merciless penitence it exacted from those who sought its shelter as 
+a refuge from the world, he took the vows which thenceforth shut 
+him out from nature and his kind, and after a few remorseful years 
+was buried in its gloomy cloisters.
+
+Two days elapsed before the body of Sir John was found.  As soon as 
+it was recognised and carried home, the faithful valet, true to his 
+master's creed, eloped with all the cash and movables he could lay 
+his hands on, and started as a finished gentleman upon his own 
+account.  In this career he met with great success, and would 
+certainly have married an heiress in the end, but for an unlucky 
+check which led to his premature decease.  He sank under a 
+contagious disorder, very prevalent at that time, and vulgarly 
+termed the jail fever.
+
+Lord George Gordon, remaining in his prison in the Tower until 
+Monday the fifth of February in the following year, was on that 
+day solemnly tried at Westminster for High Treason.  Of this crime 
+he was, after a patient investigation, declared Not Guilty; upon 
+the ground that there was no proof of his having called the 
+multitude together with any traitorous or unlawful intentions.  Yet 
+so many people were there, still, to whom those riots taught no 
+lesson of reproof or moderation, that a public subscription was set 
+on foot in Scotland to defray the cost of his defence.
+
+For seven years afterwards he remained, at the strong intercession 
+of his friends, comparatively quiet; saving that he, every now and 
+then, took occasion to display his zeal for the Protestant faith in 
+some extravagant proceeding which was the delight of its enemies; 
+and saving, besides, that he was formally excommunicated by the 
+Archbishop of Canterbury, for refusing to appear as a witness in 
+the Ecclesiastical Court when cited for that purpose.  In the year 
+1788 he was stimulated by some new insanity to write and publish 
+an injurious pamphlet, reflecting on the Queen of France, in very 
+violent terms.  Being indicted for the libel, and (after various 
+strange demonstrations in court) found guilty, he fled into Holland 
+in place of appearing to receive sentence: from whence, as the 
+quiet burgomasters of Amsterdam had no relish for his company, 
+he was sent home again with all speed.  Arriving in the month of 
+July at Harwich, and going thence to Birmingham, he made in the 
+latter place, in August, a public profession of the Jewish 
+religion; and figured there as a Jew until he was arrested, and 
+brought back to London to receive the sentence he had evaded.  By 
+virtue of this sentence he was, in the month of December, cast 
+into Newgate for five years and ten months, and required besides to 
+pay a large fine, and to furnish heavy securities for his future 
+good behaviour.
+
+After addressing, in the midsummer of the following year, an appeal 
+to the commiseration of the National Assembly of France, which the 
+English minister refused to sanction, he composed himself to 
+undergo his full term of punishment; and suffering his beard to 
+grow nearly to his waist, and conforming in all respects to the 
+ceremonies of his new religion, he applied himself to the study of 
+history, and occasionally to the art of painting, in which, in his 
+younger days, he had shown some skill.  Deserted by his former 
+friends, and treated in all respects like the worst criminal in the 
+jail, he lingered on, quite cheerful and resigned, until the 1st 
+of November 1793, when he died in his cell, being then only three-
+and-forty years of age.
+
+Many men with fewer sympathies for the distressed and needy, with 
+less abilities and harder hearts, have made a shining figure and 
+left a brilliant fame.  He had his mourners.  The prisoners 
+bemoaned his loss, and missed him; for though his means were not 
+large, his charity was great, and in bestowing alms among them he 
+considered the necessities of all alike, and knew no distinction of 
+sect or creed.  There are wise men in the highways of the world who 
+may learn something, even from this poor crazy lord who died in 
+Newgate.
+
+To the last, he was truly served by bluff John Grueby.  John was at 
+his side before he had been four-and-twenty hours in the Tower, and 
+never left him until he died.  He had one other constant attendant, 
+in the person of a beautiful Jewish girl; who attached herself to 
+him from feelings half religious, half romantic, but whose virtuous 
+and disinterested character appears to have been beyond the censure 
+even of the most censorious.
+
+Gashford deserted him, of course.  He subsisted for a time upon his 
+traffic in his master's secrets; and, this trade failing when the 
+stock was quite exhausted, procured an appointment in the 
+honourable corps of spies and eavesdroppers employed by the 
+government.  As one of these wretched underlings, he did his 
+drudgery, sometimes abroad, sometimes at home, and long endured the 
+various miseries of such a station.  Ten or a dozen years ago--not 
+more--a meagre, wan old man, diseased and miserably poor, was found 
+dead in his bed at an obscure inn in the Borough, where he was 
+quite unknown.  He had taken poison.  There was no clue to his 
+name; but it was discovered from certain entries in a pocket-book 
+he carried, that he had been secretary to Lord George Gordon in the 
+time of the famous riots.
+
+Many months after the re-establishment of peace and order, and even 
+when it had ceased to be the town-talk, that every military 
+officer, kept at free quarters by the City during the late alarms, 
+had cost for his board and lodging four pounds four per day, and 
+every private soldier two and twopence halfpenny; many months after 
+even this engrossing topic was forgotten, and the United Bulldogs 
+were to a man all killed, imprisoned, or transported, Mr Simon 
+Tappertit, being removed from a hospital to prison, and thence to 
+his place of trial, was discharged by proclamation, on two wooden 
+legs.  Shorn of his graceful limbs, and brought down from his high 
+estate to circumstances of utter destitution, and the deepest 
+misery, he made shift to stump back to his old master, and beg for 
+some relief.  By the locksmith's advice and aid, he was established 
+in business as a shoeblack, and opened shop under an archway near 
+the Horse Guards.  This being a central quarter, he quickly made a 
+very large connection; and on levee days, was sometimes known to 
+have as many as twenty half-pay officers waiting their turn for 
+polishing.  Indeed his trade increased to that extent, that in 
+course of time he entertained no less than two apprentices, besides 
+taking for his wife the widow of an eminent bone and rag collector, 
+formerly of MilIbank.  With this lady (who assisted in the 
+business) he lived in great domestic happiness, only chequered by 
+those little storms which serve to clear the atmosphere of wedlock, 
+and brighten its horizon.  In some of these gusts of bad weather, 
+Mr Tappertit would, in the assertion of his prerogative, so far 
+forget himself, as to correct his lady with a brush, or boot, or 
+shoe; while she (but only in extreme cases) would retaliate by 
+taking off his legs, and leaving him exposed to the derision of 
+those urchins who delight in mischief.
+
+Miss Miggs, baffled in all her schemes, matrimonial and otherwise, 
+and cast upon a thankless, undeserving world, turned very sharp and 
+sour; and did at length become so acid, and did so pinch and slap 
+and tweak the hair and noses of the youth of Golden Lion Court, 
+that she was by one consent expelled that sanctuary, and desired to 
+bless some other spot of earth, in preference.  It chanced at that 
+moment, that the justices of the peace for Middlesex proclaimed by 
+public placard that they stood in need of a female turnkey for the 
+County Bridewell, and appointed a day and hour for the inspection 
+of candidates.  Miss Miggs attending at the time appointed, was 
+instantly chosen and selected from one hundred and twenty-four 
+competitors, and at once promoted to the office; which she held 
+until her decease, more than thirty years afterwards, remaining 
+single all that time.  It was observed of this lady that while she 
+was inflexible and grim to all her female flock, she was 
+particularly so to those who could establish any claim to beauty: 
+and it was often remarked as a proof of her indomitable virtue and 
+severe chastity, that to such as had been frail she showed no 
+mercy; always falling upon them on the slightest occasion, or on no 
+occasion at all, with the fullest measure of her wrath.  Among 
+other useful inventions which she practised upon this class of 
+offenders and bequeathed to posterity, was the art of inflicting an 
+exquisitely vicious poke or dig with the wards of a key in the 
+small of the back, near the spine.  She likewise originated a mode 
+of treading by accident (in pattens) on such as had small feet; 
+also very remarkable for its ingenuity, and previously quite 
+unknown.
+
+It was not very long, you may be sure, before Joe Willet and Dolly 
+Varden were made husband and wife, and with a handsome sum in bank 
+(for the locksmith could afford to give his daughter a good dowry), 
+reopened the Maypole.  It was not very long, you may be sure, 
+before a red-faced little boy was seen staggering about the Maypole 
+passage, and kicking up his heels on the green before the door.  It 
+was not very long, counting by years, before there was a red-faced 
+little girl, another red-faced little boy, and a whole troop of 
+girls and boys: so that, go to Chigwell when you would, there would 
+surely be seen, either in the village street, or on the green, or 
+frolicking in the farm-yard--for it was a farm now, as well as a 
+tavern--more small Joes and small Dollys than could be easily 
+counted.  It was not a very long time before these appearances 
+ensued; but it WAS a VERY long time before Joe looked five years 
+older, or Dolly either, or the locksmith either, or his wife 
+either: for cheerfulness and content are great beautifiers, and 
+are famous preservers of youthful looks, depend upon it.
+
+It was a long time, too, before there was such a country inn as the 
+Maypole, in all England: indeed it is a great question whether 
+there has ever been such another to this hour, or ever will be.  It 
+was a long time too--for Never, as the proverb says, is a long day--
+before they forgot to have an interest in wounded soldiers at the 
+Maypole, or before Joe omitted to refresh them, for the sake of his 
+old campaign; or before the serjeant left off looking in there, now 
+and then; or before they fatigued themselves, or each other, by 
+talking on these occasions of battles and sieges, and hard weather 
+and hard service, and a thousand things belonging to a soldier's 
+life.  As to the great silver snuff-box which the King sent Joe 
+with his own hand, because of his conduct in the Riots, what guest 
+ever went to the Maypole without putting finger and thumb into that 
+box, and taking a great pinch, though he had never taken a pinch of 
+snuff before, and almost sneezed himself into convulsions even 
+then?  As to the purple-faced vintner, where is the man who lived 
+in those times and never saw HIM at the Maypole: to all appearance 
+as much at home in the best room, as if he lived there?  And as to 
+the feastings and christenings, and revellings at Christmas, and 
+celebrations of birthdays, wedding-days, and all manner of days, 
+both at the Maypole and the Golden Key,--if they are not notorious, 
+what facts are?
+
+Mr Willet the elder, having been by some extraordinary means 
+possessed with the idea that Joe wanted to be married, and that it 
+would be well for him, his father, to retire into private life, and 
+enable him to live in comfort, took up his abode in a small cottage 
+at Chigwell; where they widened and enlarged the fireplace for him, 
+hung up the boiler, and furthermore planted in the little garden 
+outside the front-door, a fictitious Maypole; so that he was quite 
+at home directly.  To this, his new habitation, Tom Cobb, Phil 
+Parkes, and Solomon Daisy went regularly every night: and in the 
+chimney-corner, they all four quaffed, and smoked, and prosed, and 
+dozed, as they had done of old.  It being accidentally discovered 
+after a short time that Mr Willet still appeared to consider 
+himself a landlord by profession, Joe provided him with a slate, 
+upon which the old man regularly scored up vast accounts for meat, 
+drink, and tobacco.  As he grew older this passion increased upon 
+him; and it became his delight to chalk against the name of each of 
+his cronies a sum of enormous magnitude, and impossible to be paid: 
+and such was his secret joy in these entries, that he would be 
+perpetually seen going behind the door to look at them, and coming 
+forth again, suffused with the liveliest satisfaction.
+
+He never recovered the surprise the Rioters had given him, and 
+remained in the same mental condition down to the last moment of 
+his life.  It was like to have been brought to a speedy 
+termination by the first sight of his first grandchild, which 
+appeared to fill him with the belief that some alarming miracle had 
+happened to Joe.  Being promptly blooded, however, by a skilful 
+surgeon, he rallied; and although the doctors all agreed, on his 
+being attacked with symptoms of apoplexy six months afterwards, 
+that he ought to die, and took it very ill that he did not, he 
+remained alive--possibly on account of his constitutional slowness--
+for nearly seven years more, when he was one morning found 
+speechless in his bed.  He lay in this state, free from all tokens 
+of uneasiness, for a whole week, when he was suddenly restored to 
+consciousness by hearing the nurse whisper in his son's ear that he 
+was going.  'I'm a-going, Joseph,' said Mr Willet, turning round 
+upon the instant, 'to the Salwanners'--and immediately gave up 
+the ghost.
+
+He left a large sum of money behind him; even more than he was 
+supposed to have been worth, although the neighbours, according to 
+the custom of mankind in calculating the wealth that other people 
+ought to have saved, had estimated his property in good round 
+numbers.  Joe inherited the whole; so that he became a man of great 
+consequence in those parts, and was perfectly independent.
+
+Some time elapsed before Barnaby got the better of the shock he had 
+sustained, or regained his old health and gaiety.  But he recovered 
+by degrees: and although he could never separate his condemnation 
+and escape from the idea of a terrific dream, he became, in other 
+respects, more rational.  Dating from the time of his recovery, he 
+had a better memory and greater steadiness of purpose; but a dark 
+cloud overhung his whole previous existence, and never cleared 
+away.
+
+He was not the less happy for this, for his love of freedom and 
+interest in all that moved or grew, or had its being in the 
+elements, remained to him unimpaired.  He lived with his mother on 
+the Maypole farm, tending the poultry and the cattle, working in a 
+garden of his own, and helping everywhere.  He was known to every 
+bird and beast about the place, and had a name for every one.  
+Never was there a lighter-hearted husbandman, a creature more 
+popular with young and old, a blither or more happy soul than 
+Barnaby; and though he was free to ramble where he would, he never 
+quitted Her, but was for evermore her stay and comfort.
+
+It was remarkable that although he had that dim sense of the past, 
+he sought out Hugh's dog, and took him under his care; and that he 
+never could be tempted into London.  When the Riots were many years 
+old, and Edward and his wife came back to England with a family 
+almost as numerous as Dolly's, and one day appeared at the Maypole 
+porch, he knew them instantly, and wept and leaped for joy.  But 
+neither to visit them, nor on any other pretence, no matter how 
+full of promise and enjoyment, could he be persuaded to set foot in 
+the streets: nor did he ever conquer this repugnance or look upon 
+the town again.
+
+Grip soon recovered his looks, and became as glossy and sleek as 
+ever.  But he was profoundly silent.  Whether he had forgotten the 
+art of Polite Conversation in Newgate, or had made a vow in those 
+troubled times to forego, for a period, the display of his 
+accomplishments, is matter of uncertainty; but certain it is that 
+for a whole year he never indulged in any other sound than a grave, 
+decorous croak.  At the expiration of that term, the morning being 
+very bright and sunny, he was heard to address himself to the 
+horses in the stable, upon the subject of the Kettle, so often 
+mentioned in these pages; and before the witness who overheard him 
+could run into the house with the intelligence, and add to it upon 
+his solemn affirmation the statement that he had heard him laugh, 
+the bird himself advanced with fantastic steps to the very door of 
+the bar, and there cried, 'I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil!' 
+with extraordinary rapture.
+
+From that period (although he was supposed to be much affected by 
+the death of Mr Willet senior), he constantly practised and 
+improved himself in the vulgar tongue; and, as he was a mere infant 
+for a raven when Barnaby was grey, he has very probably gone on 
+talking to the present time.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens
+
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