Kitabı oku: «Redgauntlet: A Tale Of The Eighteenth Century», sayfa 36

‘There was, or should have been, something more than that in our proposal, please your Majesty,’ said Sir Richard. ‘There was a condition annexed to it.’

‘I saw it not,’ said Charles, interrupting him. ‘Out of tenderness towards the noble hearts of whom I think so highly, I would neither see nor read anything which could lessen them in my love and my esteem. Conditions can have no part betwixt prince and subject.’

‘Sire,’ said Redgauntlet, kneeling on one knee, ‘I see from Sir Richard’s countenance he deems it my fault that your Majesty seems ignorant of what your subjects desired that I should communicate to your Majesty. For Heaven’s sake! for the sake of all my past services and sufferings, leave not such a stain upon my honour! The note, Number D, of which this is a copy, referred to the painful subject to which Sir Richard again directs your attention.’

‘You press upon me, gentlemen,’ said the prince, colouring highly,’ recollections, which, as I hold them most alien to your character, I would willingly have banished from my memory. I did not suppose that my loyal subjects would think so poorly of me, as to use my depressed circumstances as a reason for forcing themselves into my domestic privacies, and stipulating arrangements with their king regarding matters in which the meanest minds claim the privilege of thinking for themselves. In affairs of state and public policy, I will ever be guided as becomes a prince, by the advice of my wisest counsellors; in those which regard my private affections and my domestic arrangements, I claim the same freedom of will which I allow to all my subjects, and without which a crown were less worth wearing than a beggar’s bonnet.’

‘May it please your Majesty,’ said Sir Richard Glendale, ‘I see it must be my lot to speak unwilling truths; but believe me, I do so with as much profound respect as deep regret. It is true, we have called you to head a mighty undertaking, and that your Majesty, preferring honour to safety, and the love of your country to your own ease, has condescended to become our leader. But we also pointed out as a necessary and indispensable preparatory step to the achievement of our purpose – and, I must say, as a positive condition of our engaging in it – that an individual, supposed, – I presume not to guess how truly, – to have your Majesty’s more intimate confidence, and believed, I will not say on absolute proof but upon the most pregnant suspicion, to be capable of betraying that confidence to the Elector of Hanover, should be removed from your royal household and society.’

‘This is too insolent, Sir Richard!’ said Charles Edward. ‘Have you inveigled me into your power to bait me in this unseemly manner? And you, Redgauntlet, why did you suffer matters to come to such a point as this, without making me more distinctly aware what insults were to be practised on me?’

‘My gracious prince,’ said Redgauntlet, ‘I am so far to blame in this, that I did not think so slight an impediment as that of a woman’s society could have really interrupted an undertaking of this magnitude. I am a plain man, sire, and speak but bluntly; I could not have dreamt but what, within the first five minutes of this interview, either Sir Richard and his friends would have ceased to insist upon a condition so ungrateful to your Majesty, or that your Majesty would have sacrificed this unhappy attachment to the sound advice, or even to the over-anxious suspicions, of so many faithful subjects. I saw no entanglement in such a difficulty which on either side might not have been broken through like a cobweb.’

‘You were mistaken, sir,’ said Charles Edward, ‘entirely mistaken – as much so as you are at this moment, when you think in your heart my refusal to comply with this insolent proposition is dictated by a childish and romantic passion for an individual, I tell you, sir, I could part with that person to-morrow, without an instant’s regret – that I have had thoughts of dismissing her from my court, for reasons known to myself; but that I will never betray my rights as a sovereign and a man, by taking this step to secure the favour of any one, or to purchase that allegiance which, if you owe it to me at all, is due to me as my birthright.’

‘I am sorry for this,’ said Redgauntlet; ‘I hope both your Majesty and Sir Richard will reconsider your resolutions, or forbear this discussion, in a conjuncture so pressing. I trust your Majesty will recollect that you are on hostile ground; that our preparations cannot have so far escaped notice as to permit us now with safety to retreat from our purpose; insomuch, that it is with the deepest anxiety of heart I foresee even danger to your own royal person, unless you can generously give your subjects the satisfaction, which Sir Richard seems to think they are obstinate in demanding.’

‘And deep indeed your anxiety ought to be,’ said the prince. ‘Is it in these circumstances of personal danger in which you expect to overcome a resolution, which is founded on a sense of what is due to me as a man or a prince? If the axe and scaffold were ready before the windows of Whitehall, I would rather tread the same path with my great-grandfather, than concede the slightest point in which my honour is concerned.’

He spoke these words with a determined accent, and looked around him on the company, all of whom (excepting Darsie, who saw, he thought, a fair period to a most perilous enterprise) seemed in deep anxiety and confusion. At length, Sir Richard spoke in a solemn and melancholy tone. ‘If the safety,’ he said, ‘of poor Richard Glendale were alone concerned in this matter, I have never valued my life enough to weigh it against the slightest point of your Majesty’s service. But I am only a messenger – a commissioner, who must execute my trust, and upon whom a thousand voices will cry, Curse and woe, if I do it not with fidelity. All of your adherents, even Redgauntlet himself, see certain ruin to this enterprise – the greatest danger to your Majesty’s person – the utter destruction of all your party and friends, if they insist not on the point, which, unfortunately, your Majesty is so unwilling to concede. I speak it with a heart full of anguish – with a tongue unable to utter my emotions – but it must be spoken – the fatal truth – that if your royal goodness cannot yield to us a boon which we hold necessary to our security and your own, your Majesty with one word disarms ten thousand men, ready to draw their swords in your behalf; or, to speak yet more plainly, you annihilate even the semblance of a royal party in Great Britain.’

‘And why do you not add,’ said the prince, scornfully, ‘that the men who have been ready to assume arms in my behalf, will atone for their treason to the Elector, by delivering me up to the fate for which so many proclamations have destined me? Carry my head to St. James’s, gentlemen; you will do a more acceptable and a more honourable action, than, having inveigled me into a situation which places me so completely in your power, to dishonour yourselves by propositions which dishonour me.

‘My God, sire!’ exclaimed Sir Richard, clasping his hands together, in impatience, ‘of what great and inexpiable crime can your Majesty’s ancestors have ‘been guilty, that they have been punished by the infliction of judicial blindness on their whole generation! – Come, my Lord – , we must to our friends.’

‘By your leave, Sir Richard,’ said the young nobleman, ‘not till we, have learned what measures can be taken for his Majesty’s personal safety.’

‘Care not for me, young man,’ said Charles Edward; ‘when I was in the society of Highland robbers and cattle-drovers, I was safer than I now hold myself among the representatives of the best blood in England. Farewell, gentlemen – I will shift for myself.’

‘This must never be,’ said Redgauntlet. ‘Let me that brought you to the point of danger, at least provide for your safe retreat.’

So saying, he hastily left the apartment, followed by his nephew. The Wanderer, averting his eyes from Lord – and Sir Richard Glendale, threw himself into a seat at the upper end of the apartment, while they, in much anxiety, stood together, at a distance from him, and conversed in whispers.

CHAPTER XXIII
NARRATIVE CONTINUED

When Redgauntlet left the room, in haste and discomposure, the first person he met on the stair, and indeed so close by the door of the apartment that Darsie thought he must have been listening there, was his attendant Nixon.

‘What the devil do you here?’ he said, abruptly and sternly.

‘I wait your orders,’ said Nixon. ‘I hope all’s right! – excuse my zeal.’

‘All is wrong, sir. Where is the seafaring fellow – Ewart – what do you call him?’

‘Nanty Ewart, sir. I will carry your commands,’ said Nixon.

‘I will deliver them myself to him,’ said Redgauntlet; call him hither.’

‘But should your honour leave the presence?’ said Nixon, still lingering.

‘‘Sdeath, sir, do you prate to me?’ said Redgauntlet, bending his brows. ‘I, sir, transact my own business; you, I am told, act by a ragged deputy.’

Without further answer, Nixon departed, rather disconcerted, as it seemed to Darsie.

‘That dog turns insolent and lazy,’ said Redgauntlet; but I must bear with him for a while.’

A moment after, Nixon returned with Ewart.

‘Is this the smuggling fellow?’ demanded Redgauntlet. Nixon nodded.

‘Is he sober now? he was brawling anon.’

‘Sober enough for business,’ said Nixon.

‘Well then, hark ye, Ewart; – man your boat with your best hands, and have her by the pier – get your other fellows on board the brig – if you have any cargo left, throw it overboard; it shall be all paid, five times over – and be ready for a start to Wales or the Hebrides, or perhaps for Sweden or Norway.’

Ewart answered sullenly enough, ‘Aye, aye, sir.’

‘Go with him, Nixon,’ said Redgauntlet, forcing himself to speak with some appearance of cordiality to the servant with whom he was offended; ‘see he does his duty.’

Ewart left the house sullenly, followed by Nixon. The sailor was just in that species of drunken humour which made him jealous, passionate, and troublesome, without showing any other disorder than that of irritability. As he walked towards the beach he kept muttering to himself, but in such a tone that his companion lost not a word, ‘Smuggling fellow – Aye, smuggler – and, start your cargo into the sea – and be ready to start for the Hebrides, or Sweden – or the devil, I suppose. Well, and what if I said in answer – Rebel, Jacobite – traitor; I’ll make you and your d – d confederates walk the plank – I have seen better men do it – half a score of a morning – when I was across the Line.’

‘D – d unhandsome terms those Redgauntlet used to you, brother.’ said Nixon.

‘Which do you mean?’ said Ewart, starting, and recollecting himself. ‘I have been at my old trade of thinking aloud, have I?’

‘No matter,’ answered Nixon, ‘none but a friend heard you. You cannot have forgotten how Redgauntlet disarmed you this morning.’

‘Why, I would bear no malice about that – only he is so cursedly high and saucy,’ said Ewart.

‘And then,’ said Nixon, ‘I know you for a true-hearted Protestant.’

‘That I am, by G – ,’ said Ewart. ‘No, the Spaniards could never get my religion from me.’

‘And a friend to King George, and the Hanover line of succession,’ said Nixon, still walking and speaking very slow.

‘You may swear I am, excepting in the way of business, as Turnpenny says. I like King George, but I can’t afford to pay duties.’

‘You are outlawed, I believe,’ said Nixon.

‘Am I? – faith, I believe I am,’ said Ewart. ‘I wish I were INLAWED again with all my heart. But come along, we must get all ready for our peremptory gentleman, I suppose.’

‘I will teach you a better trick,’ said Nixon. ‘There is a bloody pack of rebels yonder.’

‘Aye, we all know that,’ said the smuggler; ‘but the snowball’s melting, I think.’

‘There is some one yonder, whose head is worth – thirty thousand – pounds – of sterling money,’ said Nixon, pausing between each word, as if to enforce the magnificence of the sum.

‘And what of that?’ said Ewart, quickly.

‘Only that, instead of lying by the pier with your men on their oars, if you will just carry your boat on board just now, and take no notice of any signal from the shore, by G – d, Nanty Ewart. I will make a man of you for life!’

‘Oh ho! then the Jacobite gentry are not so safe as they think themselves?’ said Nanty.

‘In an hour or two,’ replied Nixon, ‘they will be made safer in Carlisle Castle.’

‘The devil they will!’ said Ewart; ‘and you have been the informer, I suppose?’

‘Yes; I have been ill paid for my service among the Redgauntlets – have scarce got dog’s wages – and been treated worse than ever dog was used. I have the old fox and his cubs in the same trap now, Nanty; and we’ll see how a certain young lady will look then. You see I am frank with you, Nanty.’

‘And I will be as frank with you,’ said the smuggler. ‘You are a d – d old scoundrel – traitor to the man whose bread you eat! Me help to betray poor devils, that have been so often betrayed myself! Not if they were a hundred Popes, Devils, and Pretenders. I will back and tell them their danger – they are part of cargo – regularly invoiced – put under my charge by the owners – I’ll back’ —

‘You are not stark mad?’ said Nixon, who now saw he had miscalculated in supposing Nanty’s wild ideas of honour and fidelity could be shaken even by resentment, or by his Protestant partialities. ‘You shall not go back – it is all a joke.’

‘I’ll back to Redgauntlet, and see whether it is a joke he will laugh at.’

‘My life is lost if you do,’ said Nixon – ‘hear reason.’

They were in a clump or cluster of tall furze at the moment they were speaking, about half-way between the pier and the house, but not in a direct line, from which Nixon, whose object it was to gain time, had induced Ewart to diverge insensibly.

He now saw the necessity of taking a desperate resolution. ‘Hear reason,’ he said; and added, as Nanty still endeavoured to pass him, ‘Or else hear this!’ discharging a pocket-pistol into the unfortunate man’s body.

Nanty staggered, but kept his feet. ‘It has cut my back-bone asunder,’ he said; ‘you have done me the last good office, and I will not die ungrateful.’

As he uttered the last words, he collected his remaining strength, stood firm for an instant, drew his hanger, and, fetching a stroke with both hands, cut Cristal Nixon down. The blow, struck with all the energy of a desperate and dying man, exhibited a force to which Ewart’s exhausted frame might have seemed inadequate; – it cleft the hat which the wretch wore, though secured by a plate of iron within the lining, bit deep into his skull, and there left a fragment of the weapon, which was broke by the fury of the blow.

One of the seamen of the lugger, who strolled up attracted by the firing of the pistol, though being a small one the report was very trifling, found both the unfortunate men stark dead. Alarmed at what he saw, which he conceived to have been the consequence of some unsuccessful engagement betwixt his late commander and a revenue officer (for Nixon chanced not to be personally known to him) the sailor hastened back to the boat, in order to apprise his comrades of Nanty’s fate, and to advise them to take off themselves and the vessel.

Meantime Redgauntlet, having, as we have seen, dispatched Nixon for the purpose of securing a retreat for the unfortunate Charles, in case of extremity, returned to the apartment where he had left the Wanderer. He now found him alone.

‘Sir Richard Glendale,’ said the unfortunate prince, ‘with his young friend, has gone to consult their adherents now in the house. Redgauntlet, my friend, I will not blame you for the circumstances in which I find myself, though I am at once placed in danger, and rendered contemptible. But you ought to have stated to me more strongly the weight which these gentlemen attached to their insolent proposition. You should have told me that no compromise would have any effect – that they desire not a prince to govern them, but one, on the contrary, over whom they were to exercise restraint on all occasions, from the highest affairs of the state, down to the most intimate and private concerns of his own privacy, which the most ordinary men desire to keep secret and sacred from interference.’

‘God knows,’ said Redgauntlet, in much agitation, ‘I acted for the best when I pressed your Majesty to come hither – I never thought that your Majesty, at such a crisis, would have scrupled, when a kingdom was in view, to sacrifice an attachment, which’ —

‘Peace, sir!’ said Charles; ‘it is not for you to estimate my feelings upon such a subject.’

Redgauntlet coloured high, and bowed profoundly. ‘At least,’ he resumed, ‘I hoped that some middle way might be found, and it shall – and must. – Come with me, nephew. We will to these gentlemen, and I am confident I will bring back heart-stirring tidings.’

‘I will do much to comply with them, Redgauntlet. I am loath, having again set my foot on British land, to quit it without a blow for my right. But this which they demand of me is a degradation, and compliance is impossible.’

Redgauntlet, followed by his nephew, the unwilling spectator of this extraordinary scene, left once more the apartment of the adventurous Wanderer, and was met on the top of the stairs by Joe Crackenthorp. ‘Where are the other gentlemen?’ he said.

‘Yonder, in the west barrack,’ answered Joe; ‘but Master Ingoldsby,’ – that was the name by which Redgauntlet was most generally known in Cumberland, – ‘I wish to say to you that I must put yonder folk together in one room.’

‘What folk?’ said Redgauntlet, impatiently.

‘Why, them prisoner stranger folk, as you bid Cristal Nixon look after. Lord love you! this is a large house enow, but we cannot have separate lock-ups for folk, as they have in Newgate or in Bedlam. Yonder’s a mad beggar, that is to be a great man when he wins a lawsuit, Lord help him! – Yonder’s a Quaker and a lawyer charged with a riot; and, ecod, I must make one key and one lock keep them, for we are chokeful, and you have sent off old Nixon that could have given one some help in this confusion. Besides, they take up every one a room, and call for naughts on earth, – excepting the old man, who calls lustily enough, – but he has not a penny to pay shot.’

‘Do as thou wilt with them,’ said Redgauntlet, who had listened impatiently to his statement; ‘so thou dost but keep them from getting out and making some alarm in the country, I care not.’

‘A Quaker and a lawyer!’ said Darsie. ‘This must be Fairford and Geddes. – Uncle, I must request of you’ —

‘Nay, nephew,’ interrupted Redgauntlet, ‘this is no time for asking questions. You shall yourself decide upon their fate in the course of an hour – no harm whatever is designed them.’

So saying, he hurried towards the place where the Jacobite gentlemen were holding their council, and Darsie followed him, in the hope that the obstacle which had arisen to the prosecution of their desperate adventure would prove insurmountable and spare him the necessity of a dangerous and violent rupture with his uncle. The discussions among them were very eager; the more daring part of the conspirators, who had little but life to lose, being desirous to proceed at all hazards; while the others, whom a sense of honour and a hesitation to disavow long-cherished principles had brought forward, were perhaps not ill satisfied to have a fair apology for declining an adventure, into which they had entered with more of reluctance than zeal.

Meanwhile Joe Crackenthorp, availing himself of the hasty permission attained from Redgauntlet, proceeded to assemble in one apartment those whose safe custody had been thought necessary; and, without much considering the propriety of the matter, he selected for the common place of confinement, the room which Lilias had, since her brother’s departure, occupied alone. It had a strong lock, and was double-hinged, which probably led to the preference assigned to it, as a place of security.

Into this, Joe, with little ceremony, and a good deal of noise, introduced the Quaker and Fairford; the first descanting on the immorality, the other on the illegality, of his proceedings; and he turned a deaf ear both to the one and the other. Next he pushed in, almost in headlong fashion, the unfortunate litigant, who, having made some resistance at the threshold, had received a violent thrust in consequence, and came rushing forward, like a ram in the act of charging, with such impetus as must have carried him to the top of the room, and struck the cocked hat which sat perched on the top of his tow wig against Miss Redgauntlet’s person, had not the honest Quaker interrupted his career by seizing him by the collar, and bringing him to a stand. ‘Friend,’ said he, with the real good-breeding which so often subsists independently of ceremony, ‘thou art no company for that young person; she is, thou seest, frightened at our being so suddenly thrust in hither; and although that be no fault of ours, yet it will become us to behave civilly towards her. Wherefore come thou with me to this window, and I will tell thee what it concerns thee to know.’

‘And what for should I no speak to the Leddy, friend?’ said Peter, who was now about half seas over. ‘I have spoke to leddies before now, man. What for should she be frightened at me? I am nae bogle, I ween. What are ye pooin’ me that gate for? Ye will rive my coat, and I will have a good action for having myself made SARTUM ATQUE TECTUM at your expenses.’

Notwithstanding this threat, Mr. Geddes, whose muscles were as strong as his judgement was sound and his temper sedate, led Poor Peter under the sense of a control against which he could not struggle, to the farther corner of the apartment, where, placing him, whether he would or no, in a chair, he sat down beside him, and effectually prevented his annoying the young lady, upon whom he had seemed bent upon conferring the delights of his society.

If Peter had immediately recognized his counsel learned in the law, it is probable that not even the benevolent efforts of the Quaker could have kept him in a state of restraint; but Fairford’s back was turned towards his client, whose optics, besides being somewhat dazzled with ale and brandy, were speedily engaged in contemplating a half-crown which Joshua held between his finger and his thumb, saying, at the same time, ‘Friend, thou art indigent and improvident. This will, well employed, procure thee sustentation of nature for more than a single day; and I will bestow it on thee if thou wilt sit here and keep me company; for neither thou nor I, friend, are fit company for ladies.’

‘Speak for yourself, friend,’ said Peter, scornfully; ‘I was ay kend to be agreeable to the fair sex; and when I was in business I served the ladies wi’ anither sort of decorum than Plainstanes, the d – d awkward scoundrel! It was one of the articles of dittay between us.’

‘Well, but, friend,’ said the Quaker, who observed that the young lady still seemed to fear Peter’s intrusion, ‘I wish to hear thee speak about this great lawsuit of thine, which has been matter of such celebrity.’

‘Celebrity! Ye may swear that,’ said Peter, for the string was touched to which his crazy imagination always vibrated. ‘And I dinna wonder that folk that judge things by their outward grandeur, should think me something worth their envying. It’s very true that it is grandeur upon earth to hear ane’s name thunnered out along the long-arched roof of the Outer House, – “Poor Peter Peebles against Plainstanes ET PER CONTRA;” a’ the best lawyers in the house fleeing like eagles to the prey; some because they are in the cause, and some because they want to be thought engaged (for there are tricks in other trades by selling muslins) – to see the reporters mending their pens to take down the debate – the Lords themselves pooin’ in their chairs, like folk sitting down to a gude dinner, and crying on the clerks for parts and pendicles of the process, who, puir bodies, can do little mair than cry on their closet-keepers to help them. To see a’ this,’ continued Peter, in a tone of sustained rapture, ‘and to ken that naething will be said or dune amang a’ thae grand folk, for maybe the feck of three hours, saving what concerns you and your business – Oh, man, nae wonder that ye judge this to be earthly glory! And yet, neighbour, as I was saying, there be unco drawbacks – I whiles think of my bit house, where dinner, and supper, and breakfast, used to come without the crying for, just as if fairies had brought it – and the gude bed at e’en – and the needfu’ penny in the pouch. And then to see a’ ane’s warldly substance capering in the air in a pair of weighbauks, now up, now down, as the breath of judge or counsel inclines it for pursuer or defender, – troth, man, there are times I rue having ever begun the plea wark, though, maybe, when ye consider the renown and credit I have by it, ye will hardly believe what I am saying.’

‘Indeed, friend,’ said Joshua, with a sigh, ‘I am glad thou hast found anything in the legal contention which compensates thee for poverty and hunger; but I believe, were other human objects of ambition looked upon as closely, their advantages would be found as chimerical as those attending thy protracted litigation.’

‘But never mind, friend,’ said Peter, ‘I’ll tell you the exact state of the conjunct processes, and make you sensible that I can bring mysell round with a wet finger, now I have my finger and my thumb on this loup-the-dike loon, the lad Fairford.’

Alan Fairford was in the act of speaking to the masked lady (for Miss Redgauntlet had retained her riding vizard) endeavouring to assure her, as he perceived her anxiety, of such protection as he could afford, when his own name, pronounced in a loud tone, attracted his attention. He looked round, and seeing Peter Peebles, as hastily turned to avoid his notice, in which he succeeded, so earnest was Peter upon his colloquy with one of the most respectable auditors whose attention he had ever been able to engage. And by this little motion, momentary as it was, Alan gained an unexpected advantage; for while he looked round, Miss Lilias, I could never ascertain why, took the moment to adjust her mask, and did it so awkwardly, that when her companion again turned his head, he recognized as much of her features as authorized him to address her as his fair client, and to press his offers of protection and assistance with the boldness of a former acquaintance.

Lilias Redgauntlet withdrew the mask from her crimsoned cheek. ‘Mr. Fairford,’ she said, in a voice almost inaudible, ‘you have the character of a young gentleman of sense and generosity; but we have already met in one situation which you must think singular; and I must be exposed to misconstruction, at least, for my forwardness, were it not in a cause in which my dearest affections were concerned.’

‘Any interest in my beloved friend Darsie Latimer,’ said Fairford, stepping a little back, and putting a marked restraint upon his former advances, ‘gives me a double right to be useful to’ – He stopped short.

‘To his sister, your goodness would say,’ answered Lilias.

‘His sister, madam!’ replied Alan, in the extremity of astonishment – ‘Sister, I presume, in affection only?’

‘No, sir; my dear brother Darsie and I are connected by the bonds of actual relationship; and I am not sorry to be the first to tell this to the friend he most values.’

Fairford’s first thought was on the violent passion which Darsie had expressed towards the fair unknown. ‘Good God!’ he exclaimed, ‘how did he bear the discovery?’

‘With resignation, I hope,’ said Lilias, smiling. ‘A more accomplished sister he might easily have come by, but scarcely could have found one who could love him more than I do.’

‘I meant – I only meant to say,’ said the young counsellor, his presence of mind failing him for an instant – ‘that is, I meant to ask where Darsie Latimer is at this moment.’

‘In this very house, and under the guardianship of his uncle, whom I believe you knew as a visitor of your father, under the name of Mr. Herries of Birrenswork.’

‘Let me hasten to him,’ said Fairford; ‘I have sought him through difficulties and dangers – I must see him instantly.’

‘You forget you are a prisoner,’ said the young lady.

‘True – true; but I cannot be long detained – the cause alleged is too ridiculous.’

‘Alas!’ said Lilias, ‘our fate – my brother’s and mine, at least – must turn on the deliberations perhaps of less than an hour. For you, sir, I believe and apprehend nothing; but some restraint; my uncle is neither cruel nor unjust, though few will go further in the cause which he has adopted.’

‘Which is that of the Pretend’ —

‘For God’s sake speak lower!’ said Lilias, approaching her hand, as if to stop him. ‘The word may cost you your life. You do not know – indeed you do not – the terrors of the situation in which we at present stand, and in which I fear you also are involved by your friendship for my brother.’

‘I do not indeed know the particulars of our situation,’ said Fairford; ‘but, be the danger what it may, I shall not grudge my share of it for the sake of my friend; or,’ he added, with more timidity, ‘of my friend’s sister. Let me hope,’ he said, ‘my dear Miss Latimer, that my presence may be of some use to you; and that it may be so, let me entreat a share of your confidence, which I am conscious I have otherwise no right to ask.’

He led her, as he spoke, towards the recess of the farther window of the room, and observing to her that, unhappily, he was particularly exposed to interruption from the mad old man whose entrance had alarmed her, he disposed of Darsie Latimer’s riding-skirt, which had been left in the apartment, over the back of two chairs, forming thus a sort of screen, behind which he ensconced himself with the maiden of the green mantle; feeling at the moment, that the danger in which he was placed was almost compensated by the intelligence which permitted those feelings towards her to revive, which justice to his friend had induced him to stifle in the birth.